What’s interesting in the news today?
Open thread, as always.
First up, hey, it’s only a million… What’s to worry about?
From TheWashingtonTimes “The Homeland Security Department has lost track of more than 1 million people who it knows arrived in the U.S. but who it cannot prove left the country, according to an audit Tuesday that also found the department probably won’t meet its own goals for deploying an entry-exit system.
The findings were revealed as Congress debates an immigration bill, and the Government Accountability Office’s report could throw up another hurdle because lawmakers in the House and Senate have said that any final deal must include a workable system to track entries and exits and cut down on so-called visa overstays.”
I’m sure none of them are terrorists, or anyone else we should be concerned about. 🙄
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Next we have a “Phony Scandal” update.
From NationalReview “Embattled Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner and an attorney in the Federal Election Commission’s general counsel’s office appear to have twice colluded to influence the record before the FEC’s vote in the case of a conservative non-profit organization, according to e-mails unearthed by the House Ways and Means Committee and obtained exclusively by National Review Online. The correspondence suggests the discrimination of conservative groups extended beyond the IRS and into the FEC, where an attorney from the agency’s enforcement division in at least one case sought and received tax information about the status of a conservative group, the American Future Fund, before recommending that the commission prosecute it for violations of campaign-finance law. Lerner, the former head of the IRS’s exempt-organizations division, worked at the FEC from 1986 to 1995, and was known for aggressive investigation of conservative groups during her tenure there, too.”
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We have a George Zimmerman update too. One that’s sure to make race-baiters, guilty feeling white liberals, and media personalities lose their minds. 🙂 Bonus!
From TMZ “George Zimmerman is still armed and theoretically dangerous … he was stopped by cops for speeding and revealed he had a gun in his glove compartment.
Zimmerman was speeding in Forney, Texas on Sunday, just after noon, when he was stopped by police. Zimmerman told cops he was headed “nowhere in particular,” and informed them he had a firearm in his glove compartment.
Zimmerman was given a warning, after cops determined he was free of warrants. He was sent on his way with a polite goodbye, “Have a safe trip.””
No ticket, and he got to keep his gun. Holder will not be pleased. 🙂 Double Bonus! 🙂
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Here’s another feel good story out of the great state of Texas.
From TheNewAmerican “The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) appears to be losing its intimidating touch as it goes about its business of trying to stop people from praying and expressing their faith in public. The atheist group’s latest attack has come against the city council of League City, Texas, which has included prayer by local clergy in its regular government meetings since the early 1960s.
In a July 15 letter to Mayor Tim Paulissen and the League City Council, the FFRF went through its customary paces in attempting to browbeat the city fathers into submission. Appealing to the First Amendment’s supposed “separation of state and church,” the godless group’s staff attorney, Elizabeth Cavell, called the city’s tradition of allowing both local residents and government officials to open the meetings in prayer of “dubious legality,” insisting that such prayers are “unnecessary, inappropriate, and divisive.”
Cavell advised that while government officials “are free to pray privately or to worship on their own time in their own way,” they “do not need to worship on taxpayers’ time.” Cavell complained that inviting council members and locals to offer invocations at the government meetings “is coercive and beyond the authority of any government.””
“As it happened, Mayor Paulissen and the city council appeared to be disinclined to follow the FFRF’s self-serving advice. Paulissen told the Houston Chronicle that he and the other city fathers had no plans to drop the 52-year tradition of opening council meetings with an invocation.”
Finally someone stands up to the atheist bullies. Good. 🙂
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Next up, some ObamaCare news….
First, from YahooNews “President Barack Obama’s decision to delay implementation of part of his healthcare reform law will cost $12 billion and leave a million fewer Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance in 2014, congressional researchers said Tuesday.”
Liberal activists are claiming thousands will die….. unless they get their dream of single-payer. 🙄
From CNSNews ““Thousands of people will die every year” and “costs will continue to go out of control” under Obamacare, says Public Citizen President Robert Weissman.
The only solution is to nationalize health care through a single-payer system, Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Public Citizen argued outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday.”
And then, The Dishonor System – A user’s guide to committing fraud on the Obamacare exchanges.
From TheWeeklyStandard “Let me stipulate that I do not condone fraud in any form. Moreover, I assume all Weekly Standard readers are law-abiding citizens who would neither commit fraud themselves nor encourage others to do so. My purpose is to inform such readers just how tempting fraud on the Obamacare health insurance exchanges will be in light of the recently announced delays in employer reporting and employer mandates.
There are three types of fraud worth considering, each reflecting different motivations and degrees of risk tolerance among the hypothetical individuals considered.”
And then they break it down for ya’.
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And this is the last I have for you today. We’ve always known Hollywood was full of narcissists and selfish people. But now it seems their need for hang-over remedies and beauty treatments is adversely affecting the lives of pre-mature children as well.
From WTOP.com ” It sounds like a Third World problem: Hospitals are rationing, bartering and hoarding critical nutrients that premature infants need to survive. But it’s a problem that’s happening in the Washington area and in other major cities across the country.”
“This is a national emergency, this is a public health crisis and the government isn’t doing anything about it,” Robbins says.”
“”So essentially, premature babies are suffering because they can’t get access to the same nutrients that some celebrities are using to pretty-up before a photo shoot,” says Robbins, who adds that people are also using the drugs for a hangover cure.
Why are celebrities getting the drugs, and not the infants in critical condition?”
More on it here.
From TheWashingtonian
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Wandering Views 
Traveling internationally it is interesting that they don’t seem to check your passport as you leave the US. Australia checks you coming and going and so does PNG, but they never look at my passport other than for airport check in, in the US.
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Exiting Canada works the same way as the US. In fact I’ve never had to show my passport to leave a country only to enter. Australia as an island continent/country has always been better at border control ….. it also needs to in regards to foreign species. I suspect PNG’s immigration controls were adopted from Australia as Australia administered PNG as a “trust territory”
Just curious how TMZ knows this information about Zimmerman …. I imagine that the police aren’t supposed to pass on personal information.
Also curious why the Texas city council started the tradition of opening with prayer. What did they do before? Why add it to the agenda? For the same reason “In God We Trust” was added to the money as well as “so help me God” was added to the pledge, perhaps? To prove their anti-communist credibility.
The additional cost is due to the delay of the employer mandate while the application of the individual mandate isn’t delayed. Obviously employer donations to the democratic party is having an effect.
Single payer doesn’t require nationalizing anything. It simply means a health care facility will bill a single entity for particular services. My family doctor, X-ray/MRI/blood test clinic, and physiotherapist are all for profit businesses. They simply sen the bill to the government not me. Probably far easier to implement than employer mandate and less administrative cost.
Nutrients for children — I agree its narcissistic and selfish but isn’t this the free market at work. The market only cares about supply, demand and setting the price. As for who enters the market and the use of the product is neither here or there. Unless of course you think the market should conform or be limited by a sense of morality.
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It seems Zimmerman sightings are becoming as common as Elvis sightings use to be. I predict he will start showing up in 7-11’s all over the country.
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The next phase of politics will be all/only about how much to spend on Obamacare, what will be covered, how much medical personnel will be paid, etc.
If you think “No Child Left Behind”, “Race to the Top” is boring, …
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Admittedly, health care is a central focus on any campaign in the US. “health care reform” has been on the lips of every candidate since Reagan (or in my memory).
But Bob is correct; certain portions of the campaign may tun into something that resembles listening to an insurance agent reading policies and options.
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