What’s interesting in the news today?
First up today, some interesting words from Rand Paul. I’ll be honest, my first thought was I wonder what Dad thinks?
From CNSNews “Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the mainstream media try to ignore it but there is a “worldwide war on Christianity” being waged by a “fanatical element of Islam,” and that U.S. policy towards Syria has resulted in America now sending weapons to “Islamic rebels who are allied with al-Qaida.”
“From Boston to Zanzibar, there’s a worldwide war on Christianity,” said Senator Paul at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 12. “Christians are being attacked around the world, but you won’t hear much about it on the evening news because the answer’s not convenient. It doesn’t fit the narrative we have been told about radical Islam.
“The president tries to gloss over who’s attacking and killing Christians,” said Paul. “The media describes the killings as ‘sectarian.’ But the truth is, a worldwide war on Christians is being waged by a fanatical element of Islam.”
Meanwhile, the war on Christians in the military continues here at home.
Also From CNSNews “After the Obama administration, for the second Sunday in a row, continued to prohibit approximately 50 Catholic priests from saying Mass and administering other sacraments at U.S. military facilities around the world, Father Ray Leonard, who serves as the Catholic chaplain at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia, filed suit Monday against the Department of Defense, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the Department of the Navy, and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.
DOD is prohibiting Father Leonard and the other Catholic priests from administering the sacraments and providing other services to their congregations even though two weeks ago Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed, a law that instructed DOD to maintain on the job and keep paying contract employees who were supporting the troops.
DOD took this action because Hagel determined–after consulting with Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department–that civilian Catholic priests, working under contract as chaplains, did not, among other things, “contribute to the morale” and “well-being” of service personnel.”
Shocked? Me neither. After all, they’re more likely to support the people in the first link than they are Christians anywhere.
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In other news from the continuing shut down saga….
From TheWashingtonPost “The Republican-controlled House canceled a vote Tuesday night on a plan to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling after support from conservatives for the deal crumbled, leaving Washington without a clear path forward for avoiding a first-ever default on the nation’s debt.
Later Tuesday night, Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell moved to pick up the pieces of the shattered House effort, with aides to both senators expressing optimism a deal could be soon at hand.
“Senator Reid and Senator McConnell have re-engaged in negotiations and are optimistic that an agreement is within reach,” said Adam Jentleson, spokesman for Reid (D-Nev.).
“Given tonight’s events, the leaders have decided to work toward a solution that would reopen the government and prevent default. They are optimistic an agreement can be reached,” said Don Stewart, spokesman to McConnell (R-Ky.).”
I’d be more optimistic if McCain and Senate Republicans didn’t appear to be stuck in “Surrender Monkey” mode.
And the plot thickens as well. This should add a sense of urgency to the whole affair.
From CNBC “Fitch Ratings put the US government’s “AAA” credit rating on ‘rating watch negative’ Tuesday, saying that the standstill on the U.S. debt ceiling negotiations risks undermining the effectiveness of the country’s government and political institutions.
U.S. stock index futures fell.
“Although Fitch continues to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default,” the rating agency wrote in a statement.”
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Next up, only 6,964,000 to go. If you do the math, at this rate, no way they hit 7 million by their deadline, even if you go with the Mail’s 51 thousand instead of the 36 thousand here. And where will the money to fund it and keep it afloat come from without actual policyholders to pay for it?
From NationalReview “Millward Brown Digital, a consultancy firm, released an analysis today estimating that only 36,000 people had signed up for insurance through the federal Obamacare exchange website.
According to Millward Brown Digital, there were 9.47 million unique visitors to healthcare.gov from the site’s launch on October 1 through October 5. Of those visitors, 1.3 million left the website for their state-run exchange and 3.72 million attempted to create an account on the site. Only 1.01 million successfully did so.”
“The analysis says that “Healthcare.gov was clearly unprepared to handle the huge spike in traffic witnessed on October 1st when it was visited by .9% (or 1 in 114) of everyone online in the U.S. This is roughly equivalent to the daily traffic on Target.com.”
Yeah…….. 🙄
Here’s more from the study, also not encouraging. 1 year delay? Sounds like 3 or 4 is more like it.
From TheWashingtonPost “The number of visitors to the federal government’s HealthCare.gov Web site plummeted 88 percent between Oct. 1 and Oct. 13, according to a new analysis of America’s online use, while less than half of 1 percent of the site’s visitors successfully enrolled for health insurance the first week.”
“Based on a sample of two million users — or 1 percent of all online users in the U.S. — which Millward Brown Digital has permission to track, it suggests that the rush of traffic administration officials cited as the cause of the site’s problems trailed off within a matter of days.”
“And Aneesh Chopra, who served as the White House’s first-ever chief technology officer during President Obama’s first term, said the analysis actually captured the public’s sustained interest in signing up for health insurance on the federal exchange. He noted that while the total number of visitors to the site is interesting, it matters much more that one million Americans created an online account.
“Account creation is always the holy grail. That’s the moment that matters,” Chopra said in an interview. “In one week, a million people began a process that will result in affordable coverage. That means a lot of people are going to ultimately get the product.”
Not surprised the former Obama admin employee tries to put a good spin on things. But the reality is he’s wrong. His “Holy Grail” is useless. It means nothing. What it needs are paying customers. Signing up is easy, forking over the cash for an actual policy is quite another matter. That isn’t happening in large enough numbers yet.
And Forbes says people will be shocked when they find out the cost. They say the system is designed to get all your info first, then you get to see the prices. They say that’s the case because the numbers will scare folks away.
From Forbes “A growing consensus of IT experts, outside and inside the government, have figured out a principal reason why the website for Obamacare’s federally-sponsored insurance exchange is crashing. Healthcare.gov forces you to create an account and enter detailed personal information before you can start shopping. This, in turn, creates a massive traffic bottleneck, as the government verifies your information and decides whether or not you’re eligible for subsidies. HHS bureaucrats knew this would make the website run more slowly. But they were more afraid that letting people see the underlying cost of Obamacare’s insurance plans would scare people away.
HHS didn’t want users to see Obamacare’s true costs
“Healthcare.gov was initially going to include an option to browse before registering,” report Christopher Weaver and Louise Radnofsky in the Wall Street Journal. “But that tool was delayed, people familiar with the situation said.” Why was it delayed? “An HHS spokeswoman said the agency wanted to ensure that users were aware of their eligibility for subsidies that could help pay for coverage, before they started seeing the prices of policies.”
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And last one for today, was the difficulty with the SNAP program over the weekend really a computer glitch? Or a dry run to gauge reaction for this?
From WeaselZippers “The United States Dept Of Agriculture is the governmental body tasked with overseeing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or “SNAP.”
According to a memo dated Oct 11 2013 and circulated among SNAP program administrators for all states that participate, the USDA recommends they begin withholding benefits from citizens beginning in November.
Is the US Dept of Agriculture trying to create panic among program participants as we saw previously?“
Is this the next move in the make it hurt campaign the Obama admin is engaging in?
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Wandering Views 
I find it interesting that Holder and Hagel say that civilian chaplains do not contribute to the morale of the Catholic men and women at Kings Bay. When George Washington was a colonel in the army, he requested civilian chaplains to minister to his troops. During the war between the states, both union and confederate generals requested civilian chaplains to minister to their troops. Apparently either Holder or Hagel are either products of outcome based education or they only want chaplains who will preach what they deem necessary for morale of the service members.
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Drives,
The problem is very few in this admin have ever served in the military. They have no idea what they’re talking about. Holder is a leftist, I expect it from him. But that clown Hagel should know better. But you know their PC war on Christians trumps common sense and decency.
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The problem is that they have to deal with a military that does very little to advance their domestic agenda.
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Dr.Thomas Sowell, from an e-mail that was sent to me. Sowell is correct, as he usually is. However, if the debt limit is not raised, Obama will delay or not send out SS and retirement checks and blame it on the Republicans. Regardless of the truth of the matter, the MSM will report his allegation that it had to be that way because the government cannot borrow money.
Our entire government structure is built upon lies.
Perhaps the biggest of the big lies is that the government will not be
able to pay what it owes on the national debt, creating a danger of
default. Tax money keeps coming into the Treasury during the shutdown,
and it vastly exceeds the interest that has to be paid on the national
debt.
Even if the debt ceiling is not lifted, that only means that
government is not allowed to run up new debt. But that does not mean
that it is unable to pay the interest on existing debt.
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I like that article, Chas, but I wonder exactly what Sowell means when he says,
Even if the debt ceiling is not lifted, that only means that government is not allowed to run up new debt.
My understanding is that that’s not exactly how the debt ceiling law works. I wonder if he’s speaking in shorthand. I haven’t seen anyone call him out on that, and he’s not exactly a slouch on simple matters of economics, so I’m not sure of his sense there.
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Solar, Here is the first part of Sowell’s article. I thought of posting the entire article. But I don’t know where it came from for attribution and it is very long. I would like to link to it but when I tried that before, it went to my e-mail in box.
So: Here’s the first part of his article.
Even when it comes to something as basic, and apparently as simple and straightforward, as the question of who shut down the federal
government, there are diametrically opposite answers, depending on
whether you talk to Democrats or to Republicans.
There is really nothing complicated about the facts. The
Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted all the money
required to keep all government activities going — except for
ObamaCare.
This is not a matter of opinion. You can check the Congressional Record.
As for the House of Representatives’ right to grant or withhold money,
that is not a matter of opinion either. You can check the Constitution
of the United States. All spending bills must originate in the House
of Representatives, which means that Congressmen there have a right to decide whether or not they want to spend money on a particular
government activity.
Whether ObamaCare is good, bad or indifferent is a matter of opinion.
But it is a matter of fact that members of the House of
Representatives have a right to make spending decisions based on their
opinion.
ObamaCare is indeed “the law of the land,” as its supporters keep
saying, and the Supreme Court has upheld its Constitutionality.
But the whole point of having a division of powers within the federal
government is that each branch can decide independently what it wants
to do or not do, regardless of what the other branches do, when
exercising the powers specifically granted to that branch by the
Constitution.
The hundreds of thousands of government workers who have been laid off are not idle because the House of Representatives did not vote enough money to pay their salaries or the other expenses of their agencies — unless they are in an agency that would administer ObamaCare.
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The credit limit doesn’t mean that the government doesn’t have money. Money is coming in all the time. They can pay all their obligations from available money. There is no reason to default on anything.
I think the credit limit thing is like a family whose credit card is maxed out. It does not mean that they can’t buy food or pay the mortgage. It means they can’t buy clothes, or theater tickets on the credit card. It enforces thrift. It may be uncomfortable, but it isn’t tragic.
However, judging from the way Obama and Reid handled the budget WRT the shutdown, I suspect they will find several ways to inflict pain.
That’s the kind of people they are.
Alinski says that if you can’t find a crisis, create one.
We’ve had one crisis after another since Obama has been here.
And it’s always the Republicans’ fault.
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Here’s how Wikipedia defines the U.S. Debt Ceiling:
The United States debt ceiling or debt limit is a legislative mechanism to limit the amount of national debt that can be issued by the Treasury. The debt ceiling is an aggregate figure which applies to the gross debt, which includes debt in the hands of the public and in Intragovernment accounts. Because expenditures are authorized by separate legislation, the debt ceiling does not directly limit budget deficits. In effect, it can only restrain Treasury from paying for expenditures after the limit has been reached, but which have already been approved (in the budget) and appropriated.
If that’s correct, it doesn’t seem to match Sowell’s implication of what the debt ceiling means where he says,
Even if the debt ceiling is not lifted, that only means that government is not allowed to run up new debt.
Sowell is a brilliant guy with an extensive economics background, so I’m sure he knows exactly what the debt ceiling is, so I don’t know exactly what he’s getting at when he phrases it that way–although I may be missing something.
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If Sowell were writing an article about Paul Krugman, or vice versa, I’d take their characterizations of each other with more a grain of salt, as they would both be more prone to framing arguments to fit their agendas, but I wouldn’t question whether either of them knows something as fundamental as what the debt ceiling is, so I wonder how Sowell means his summary there.
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AJ. Holder is more than just a leftist. He is a dyed in the wool communist and Hagel is just Holder’s useful idiot.
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“Raising the debt limit to solve the nation’s financial problems is like raising acceptable blood alcohol levels to solve alcoholism. It’s ridiculous.”
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Raising the debt limit is more like increasing the credit card limit on a bankrupt family.
A family can exceed its debt limits for months.
A city or state can exceed its debt limits for years.
A large, prosperous country can exceed it’s debt limits for decades.
But not forever.
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This is for Tychicus. I have decided the US is like the Texas Longhorn football team. Compared to its past glory, it doesn’t look too good. However, compared to all other countries (or teams in the Big 12), it doesn’t look too bad.
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rickyweaver,
It has been easy to pick which football team to root for, west over east, closest over farthest, Protestant over Catholic until Notre Dame vs Texas. I wanted them to both lose.
Then my little sister got a swimming scholarship to College Station.
Now, any other school in Texas over any other Big 12 team.
Gig’em Aggies!
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RW: I like that – I think I’ll use it over Thanksgiving when I’m down in Austin.
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http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20131015/NEWS01/131015033/Army-corrects-Camp-Shelby-labeling-American-Family-Association-hate-group?nclick_check=1
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Bob, My son was our family’s first Aggie. Now, a bunch of us have converted.
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