What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Why does this not surprise me?
From TheHuffingtonPost ” A dying former civil rights lawyer convicted in a terrorism case but released early from prison has arrived in New York City.”
“The 74-year-old Stewart was released from Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, on Tuesday. A judge ordered her release after prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Prisons recommended she be set free because she has less than 18 months to live. She suffers from recurrent Stage 4 breast cancer.
Stewart was convicted of helping a blind Egyptian sheik communicate with his followers from prison.”
What HuffPo neglects to mention is it’s the blind sheik responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing. They also neglected to mention how unrepentant she is for her crimes. But hey, she’s a hero to many on the left, so again, it’s not surprising.
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2. The Obama admin has responded to their court loss to a bunch of nuns. And they’ve suffered another defeat, this time to a bunch of priests.
From HotAir “It didn’t take long for the Obama administration to respond publicly to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s temporary injunction against HHS for enforcement of the contraceptive-coverage mandate. Expressing confidence in their position, the White House insisted that their “compromise” for religious organizations satisfied any risk to conscience objections.”
“The White House will need to argue in court that they know better how to be faithful to the tenets of Christianity than a bunch of nuns. And, for that matter, a bunch of priests, too:
In a huge victory for Priests for Life, a pro-life organization, a federal appeals court has issued a ruling saying it doesn’t have to pay massive fines to the federal government for not obeying the HHS mandate, which forces religious groups and companies to pay for birth control or abortion-causing drugs for their employees.
An emergency injunction granted late this afternoon in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit means that Priests for Life will not have to obey the contraception mandate contained in the Affordable Care Act as its appeal is being heard. It also means that, tomorrow, Priests for Life will not have to cancel health insurance for its employees.”
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3. So once again ObamaCare delivers the opposite of what they promised.
From TheNYTimes “Supporters of President Obama’s health care law had predicted that expanding insurance coverage for the poor would reduce costly emergency room visits because people would go to primary care doctors instead. But a rigorous new experiment in Oregon has raised questions about that assumption, finding that newly insured people actually went to the emergency room a good deal more often.
The study, published in the journal Science, compared thousands of low-income people in the Portland area who were randomly selected in a 2008 lottery to get Medicaid coverage with people who entered the lottery but remained uninsured. Those who gained coverage made 40 percent more visits to the emergency room than their uninsured counterparts during their first 18 months with insurance.
The pattern was so strong that it held true across most demographic groups, times of day and types of visits, including those for conditions that were treatable in primary care settings.
The findings cast doubt on the hope that expanded insurance coverage will help rein in emergency room costs just as more than two million people are gaining coverage under the Affordable Care Act. And they go against one of the central arguments of the law’s supporters, that extending insurance to large numbers of Americans would reduce emergency room use, and eventually save money.”
Yeah…..
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4. And some folks are discovering that just because you signed up, doesn’t mean you’re insured, and even if you are insured, you’ve got a huge deductible to satisfy first.
From TheDailyMail “Hospital staff in Northern Virginia are turning away sick people on a frigid Thursday morning because they can’t determine whether their Obamacare insurance plans are in effect.
Patients in a close-in DC suburb who think they’ve signed up for new insurance plans are struggling to show their December enrollments are in force, and health care administrators aren’t taking their word for it.”
‘They had no idea if my insurance was active or not!’ a coughing Maria Galvez told MailOnline outside the Inova Healthplex facility in the town of Springfield.”
“It’s unlikely that a valid insurance card would have changed Galvez’ fortunes, however. Her Carefirst plan, identified on the Obamacare website as BlueChoice Plus Bronze, carries a $5,500 per-person deductible for 2014 – an amount she would have to pay out-of-pocket before her coverage would apply to medical expenses.”
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5. The Marines have delayed the new fitness standards for women after nearly half failed to meet the new standards.
From MSNNews “More than half of female Marines in boot camp can’t do three pullups, the minimum standard that was supposed to take effect with the new year, prompting the Marine Corps to delay the requirement, part of the process of equalizing physical standards to integrate women into combat jobs.
The delay rekindled sharp debate in the military on the question of whether women have the physical strength for some military jobs, as service branches move toward opening thousands of combat roles to them in 2016.”
“Starting with the new year, all female Marines were supposed to be able to do at least three pullups on their annual physical fitness test and eight for a perfect score. The requirement was tested in 2013 on female recruits at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C., but only 45 percent of women met the minimum, Krebs said.
The Marines had hoped to institute the pullups on the belief that pullups require the muscular strength necessary to perform common military tasks such as scaling a wall, climbing up a rope or lifting and carrying heavy munitions.”
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Wandering Views 
When the Marines become a joke, understand that the entire US military is a paper tiger and another branch of a perverted welfare state. Our next war is going to open many eyes.
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It’s sad that lives will be put in danger in order for some clowns who never served to fulfill their PC dreams of a gender neutral military. But hey, what do they care, it’s not their butts on the line.
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They talked about that Stewart lawyer on Foxnews last night. It isn’t because she was a lawyer for the terrorist; the Constitution guarantees that. It is that she passed information to terrorists. She should still be in prison. The commentators say that Eric Holder is the source of this directive.
Didn’t say which hospital in N. Va. is turning away patients. I would be surprised that Fairfax hospital is doing so.
One of the things I’m thankful for is that I lived in the epoch when the USA was a great nation. You will have that as part of your history.
I’ve said here a zillion times. I fear for my grandkids and great-grands. But they are largely oblivious of the conditions. Life is good, and they’re enjoying it.
If I were in their situation, I likely would do that too. Not much they can do, just try to make it in their world.
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I’ve never been able to do one pull up.
#3 makes perfect sense to me–they probably don’t have doctors, got sick and didn’t know where else to go.
Frankly, that’s why stand alone simple clinics like what I understand are run at some Walmarts make sense. Someone comes in presenting an ear infection, gets screened and can be sent along to another clinic or doctor if it’s something more than that.
That is why I’ve thought along the problem was not insurance but the ability to find decent AFFORDABLE health care. 😦
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#1 — I can’t say she’s a hero to the left — I’ve barely heard of her, but she does have a history of defending people nobody else would. As for the charges, she misjudged what was acceptable for a lawyer in the post 9/11 world and it would take two attempts to make the charges stick. I would agree she made an error in judgment but to say she provide material support to the enemy is a bit of a stretch. And the means to acquire evidence — violating lawyer-client privilege doesn’t not bode well for other lawyers with unpleasant clients. Originally sentenced to 28 months, she was then re-sentenced to 10 years. The gov’t appears quite vindictive here as it was already apparent 28 months was the equivalent to a life sentence due to breast cancer.
#3 — Not surprising. Once you give access to the system people will use it. Initially they will use the same entry as before; the emergency ward. They need to find a family doctor and family doctors need to have something in place for after hours care. In Ontario, emergency room care was a huge expense and was often backlogged for hours. The solution was simple, family doctors would work in groups to provide after hours care. I phone my family doctor, voice mail gives me an answering service who then pages an on-call doctor,, he then calls me (usually wtihin 10 minutes) and sets up an appt for that day. There’s also an 1-800 number to access a nurse on call. Access is only the first step. There’s more work to be done.
#4 — there’s something wrong with that story. First I’ve always been under the impression hospitals couldn’t turn people away from an emergency room despite lack of insurance. And since she was to pay the deductible first, insurance shouldn’t be the issue at all. They could’ve treated her and charged her expecting a cash or credit payment. Its not that the hospital turned her away, she choose not to pay. This is no different than prior to the AC, its just her expectation was different.
#5 –During WWII, the Soviets used women in combat roles and from what I understand they were as good if not better than most men.
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Chas — The Stewart case is bipartisan. The gov’t had her re-sentenced in 2010 so Holder pursued the case with the same vigor. Perhaps he just has a soft touch for a dying woman,
btw, I see she attended Hope College — a Reformed Church of America college — I would have had an interesting conversation with her.
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HRW,
1. from the link…
“Lynne Stewart’s attorney says she landed Wednesday afternoon at LaGuardia Airport, where she was greeted by supporters and relatives.”
Also number 1.
The whole attorney/client issue wasn’t really relevant. Perhaps a refresher on some of the details is in order. She was a supporter and messenger for known terrorists.
http://www.examiner.com/article/terrorist-lawyer-lynne-stewart-finally-ordered-to-prison-four-years-after-her-conviction
“Despite the conviction for such a serious crime, Stewart had been allowed to remain free for the last four years, while her appeal was pending. During that time, she made speeches and numerous public appearances in which she often thumbed her nose at the country she betrayed, while describing terrorists as “liberationists.“
On February 10, 2005, Lynne Stewart was found guilty of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and defrauding the federal government. Stewart was contacting al-Gamma’a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group) on behalf of Abdel-Rahman. In addition to master-minding the 1993 plot to bomb the World Trade Center which killed six people and left more than 1,000 injured, the blind sheik was convicted of planning to destroy other New York City targets including the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the United Nations building, and the George Washington bridge. The Islamic Group dubbed the multiple target attack plan “The Day of Terror.”
Stewart was caught passing messages between her client Omar Abdel-Rahman and the Egyptian terrorist group of which he is the leader. Rahman also known as the “blind sheik,” was the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and was also found to be behind a plot to attack other New York City landmarks. Lynne Stewart knowingly aided a convicted terrorist and avowed enemy of the United States during a time of war and deserves to be executed for her crimes.”
And none of this is a surprise. Holder and Stewart are birds of a feather, both represented known terrorists. Holder’s law firm represented 17 Gitmo residents before being confirmed as AG. A fact not mentioned until after his confirmation.
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HRW,
4. They must provide life saving treatment when necessary. Once they consider you stable, or not in danger, you’re gone. Same goes for people who enter with minor illnesses. They can turn you away. Most don’t, but some for-profit hospitals will if you can’t pay. And if you have a huge deductible, they can request payment up front for non-life saving procedures.
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I’m not going to argue the specifics of the case. Stewart herself admits she passed messages … the dispute was the content of the messages and how supportive were they of the terrorist group. It appears even in the legal system knew the shaky ground they were on when they dismissed the initial charge and replaced it with the far easier charge of conspiracy.
In any event, I don’t see how Holder can be seen to be her friend when the Obama administration continued where Bush admin left off and had the sentence changed from 28 months to 10 years in 2010. Hardly the actions of a supporter.
4. So essentially she left the hospital because she couldn’t pay. Even if she had proof of insurance, the high deductible meant the hospital would’ve asked for money. This isn’t any different than what would have happened prior to the ACA hence you can’t blame the ACA.
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