Month: January 2014
News/Politics 1-24-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
1. It. Just. Gets. Worse.
From FoxNews “While the administration publicly expresses full confidence in its health care law, privately it fears one part of the system is so flawed it could bankrupt insurance companies and cripple ObamaCare itself.
“Week after week, month after month,” says John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis, “the Obama administration kept telling us everything’s working fine, there’s no problem and then they turn on a dime and fire their contractor.”
To justify a no-bid contract with Accenture after firing CGI as the lead contractor, the administration released documents from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services that offered a rare glimpse of its worst fears, saying the problems with the website puts “the entire health insurance industry at risk” … “potentially leading to their default and disrupting continued services and coverage to consumers.”
Then it went even further, saying if the problems were not fixed by mid-March, “they will result in financial harm to the government.”
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2. It’s the Chicago way.
From Reuters “Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner angrily warned the chairman of Standard & Poor’s parent that the rating agency would be held accountable for its 2011 decision to strip the United States of its coveted “triple-A” rating, a new court filing shows.
Harold McGraw, the chairman of McGraw-Hill Financial Inc , made the statement in a declaration filed by S&P on Monday, as it defends against the government’s $5 billion fraud lawsuit over its rating practices prior to the 2008 financial crisis.
McGraw said he returned a call from Geithner on Aug. 8, 2011, three days after S&P cut the U.S. credit rating to “AA-plus,” and that Geithner told him “you are accountable” for an alleged “huge error” in S&P’s work.
“He said that ‘you have done an enormous disservice to yourselves and to your country,'” and that S&P’s conduct would be “looked at very carefully,” McGraw said. “Such behavior could not occur, he said, without a response from the government.”
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3. If intimidation is how they respond to a downgrade, I’d be nervous if I was these guys.
From TheHill “Moody’s announced Thursday it was downgrading its outlook for health insurers from stable to negative based on uncertainty related to ObamaCare.
The credit rating agency cited an unstable environment because of the healthcare law’s difficult rollout, and projected that insurers would earn 2 percent less than forecast in 2014.
“While we’ve had industry risks from regulatory changes on our radar for a while, the ongoing unstable and evolving environment is a key factor for our outlook change,” Moody’s Senior Vice President Stephen Zaharuk said in a statement. “The past few months have seen new regulations and announcements that impose operational changes well after product and pricing decisions were finalized.”
The Moody’s report also cites the slow enrollment of young people into ObamaCare as a reason for the downgrade.”
🙄
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4. The IRS intimidation of conservative groups continues. And it looks like they’ve targeted one of the few conservative groups in Hollywood.
From TheNYTimes “In a famously left-leaning Hollywood, where Democratic fund-raisers fill the social calendar, Friends of Abe stands out as a conservative group that bucks the prevailing political winds. A collection of perhaps 1,500 right-leaning players in the entertainment industry, Friends of Abe keeps a low profile and fiercely protects its membership list, to avoid what it presumes would result in a sort of 21st-century blacklist, albeit on the other side of the partisan spectrum.
Now the Internal Revenue Service is reviewing the group’s activities in connection with its application for tax-exempt status. Last week, federal tax authorities presented the group with a 10-point request for detailed information about its meetings with politicians like Paul D. Ryan, Thaddeus McCotter and Herman Cain, among other matters, according to people briefed on the inquiry.”
“Those people said that the application had been under review for roughly two years, and had at one point included a demand — which was not met — for enhanced access to the group’s security-protected website, which would have revealed member names. Tax experts said that an organization’s membership list is information that would not typically be required. The I.R.S. already had access to the site’s basic levels, a request it considers routine for applications for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.”
“People for the American Way, Mr. Lear’s group, stands as something of a liberal counterpart to Friends of Abe, though the organization is far larger, with an affiliate that spends millions of dollars a year on issue advocacy in Washington and beyond. But the entertainment industry has been crisscrossed by progressive groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, which maintains a tax-exempt educational adjunct under the 501(c)(3) provision, and includes the producer Laurie David and the actor Leonardo DiCaprio among its trustees. Another, the American Foundation for Equal Rights, is a nonprofit that supports marriage rights for gay people and counts the producer Bruce Cohen and the writer Dustin Lance Black among its founders.”
And none of those have been targeted. Neither has Obama’s OFA.
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5. This also stinks of intimidation, but we’ll have to wait and see. If he is guilty, then he’ll pay the price.
From Variety “Dinesh D’Souza, director of the 2012 documentary “2016: Obama’s America,” was arrested and indicted for campaign finance fraud on Thursday, Reuters reports.
The conservative filmmaker and best-selling author allegedly contributed $20,000 in 2012 in the name of others to Republican Wendy Long’s U.S. Senate campaign. Long ran for Hillary Clinton’s vacated Senate seat, but lost to Kirsten Gillibrand.
Federal law in 2012 limited election campaign contributions to $5,000 per person per candidate. Breaking this law is punishable to two years in prison.
“As we have long said, this Office and the FBI take a zero tolerance approach to corruption of the electoral process,” Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, said in a statement.”
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6. And it seems Gov. Cuomo is taking a page from the Obama playbook.
From FoxNews “Conservative activist James O’Keefe is accusing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration of targeting his group with document requests and a subpoena, claiming the Democratic governor’s recent comments critical of conservatives “aren’t simply words.”
“”Governor Cuomo’s shocking words this past week aren’t simply words,” O’Keefe said in a statement. “Governor Cuomo and the New York Department of Labor are on a witch hunt, demanding all documents and financials since our founding. … His goal, of course, is to harass us and limit our effectiveness by tying us up in court. Just like President Obama used the IRS to target and suppress conservatives, Governor Cuomo is using his Department of Labor to do the same exact thing.”
“The group claims its finances are “meticulously maintained to the penny” and calls the inquiries “meritless.” A statement said Project Veritas would be relocating to New Jersey.
Further, the group claimed that it complied with an earlier document request and showed up for a scheduled meeting on Dec. 13, but state labor officers “never showed up.”
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7. The White House is rejecting a review board’s findings that calls their NSA data sweep illegal.
Also From FoxNews “The White House on Thursday disputed the findings of an independent review board that said the National Security Agency’s mass data collection program is illegal and should be ended, indicating the administration would not be taking that advice.
“We simply disagree with the board’s analysis on the legality of the program,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said.
He was responding to a scathing report from The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), which said the program ran afoul of the law on several fronts.
“The … bulk telephone records program lacks a viable legal foundation,” the board’s report said, adding that it raises “serious threats to privacy and civil liberties” and has “only limited value.” The report, further, said the NSA should “purge” the files. “
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8. We’re all racist, and there’s nothing we can do about it. 😯
From TheFederalist “One of the most troubling aspects of modern racial discourse is how it often, if not usually, rests upon an unequivocal and unassailable assumption, namely that “society” makes everyone, or nearly everyone, racist. The presumption is not that most of us are racist in the way that a Klansman, or a diehard segregationist, is racist; such bigotry would be easily provable by examining the actions and the stated intentions of a person or a group of people. Nor is the debate given to the idea that people simply believe in genuine racial bigotry but is holding it back for one reason or another. Today’s discussions on race are more often than not informed by the notion that racism is a deep-seated, internal, subconscious set of values within the lion’s share of the populace, fashioned by “culture” or “society,” undetectable in superficial appearances but still omnipresent: this racism is insidious, surreptitious, unconscious and, most importantly, ineradicable without a great deal of dramatic, penetrating, soul-searching mental and emotional labor.”
“The most frequent encounter one has with the “everyone is racist” or “most people are racist” tenet is the one that argues that our “culture” or our “society” has conditioned us to be racist; to use one of the more widespread examples, for instance, it is held that popular perceptions and depictions of black men have created in all of us the tendency to suspect all black men to be criminals, and in many cases, the theory goes, we are not even aware of this tendency, lodged so firmly and deeply in our minds as it is. It is true that the proponents of this theory cannot clearly prove that you contain this invidious judgment within your psyche, but then again, and most importantly, you cannot disprove it. Ideally, the burden of proof would be upon the accuser, as is the case in any competent judicial system; but in instances like these the burden of proof is not even on the accused, because there is no proof to be had—there is only an accusation with which one cannot argue, because one is not even aware of one’s deepest thoughts.”
Welcome to the kangaroo court of the politically correct. Either way, you’re guilty.
Our Daily Thread 1-23-14
Good Morning!
On this day in 1556 an earthquake in Shanxi Province, China, was thought to have killed about 830,000 people.
In 1845 the U.S. Congress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
In 1849 English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree. It was from the Medical Institution of Geneva, NY.
In 1907 Charles Curtis, of Kansas, began serving in the United States Senate. He was the first American Indian to become a U.S. Senator. He resigned in March of 1929 to become President Herbert Hoover’s Vice President.
In 1950 the Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
In 1964 ratification of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was completed.
And in 1973 President Nixon announced that an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War.
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Quote of the Day
“In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us as men and Christians to reflect that whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments … all confidence must be withheld from the means we use and reposed only on that God who rules in the armies of heaven and without whose blessing the best human councils are but foolishness and all created power vanity. It is the happiness of his church that when the powers of earth and hell combine against it … then the throne of grace is of the easiest access and its appeal thither is graciously invited by that Father of mercies who has assured it that when His children ask bread He will not give them a stone. … That it be, and hereby is, recommended to the good people of this colony … as a day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer … to confess the sins … to implore the forgiveness of all our transgressions … and especially that the union of the American colonies in defense of their rights, for which, hitherto, we desire to thank Almighty God, may be preserved and confirmed. … and that America may soon behold a gracious interposition of Heaven.”
John Hancock
“The Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775”, William Lincoln, editor, (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1838), pp. 144-145, proclamation of John Hancock from Concord, April 15, 1775, four days before the British marched on Lexington and Concord which resulted in the “shot heard round the world”.”
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Today is the birthday of Rick Heil of SonicFlood. From TheTrueSeven who has like a thousand Christian music videos. It’s a good channel. You should check it out. 🙂
And it’s Jason Davies’, of Between Thieves too.
And it’s Mike Hogan’s as well. So the Dave Crowder Band finishes up. 🙂
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 1-23-14
Who would like to share a request or praise with us today?
Psalm 4
¹Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
2 O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.
3 But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him.
4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.
6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.
News/Politics 1-23-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Despite the bad weather many turned out for yesterdays March for Life. Numerous plane and bus delays, as well as cancellations did lower the numbers.
From LifeSiteNews, photos at the link. “Tens of thousands of pro-life activists endured frigid temperatures and a snow storm Wednesday as they gathered at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to mark the 41st anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that has prepared the way for an estimated 56 million abortions.”
“Taking the stage to welcome the marchers shortly after noon, March for Life organizers insisted pro-lifers wouldn’t be daunted by the frigid weather in D.C. “We may be freezing, but we’re freezing for the best cause in the world,” said Patrick Kelly, chairman of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. “No sacrifice is too great for this cause,” said Jeanne Monahan, the group’s newly minted president.
Speakers at the rally included Dr. James Dobson, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), and Washington State Democratic Legislator Roger Freeman.”
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2. Democrats took the anniversary of Roe v. Wade as an opportunity for reaffirming their commitment to abortion. The DNC trotted out the tired, old “war on women” meme in a tweet aimed at the Republicans above who dared to stand up for life.
“On the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the GOP actually postponed it’s winter meeting to rally against women’s rights.”
The President did exactly what you would expect. He reminded folks that without abortion, some women wouldn’t be able to fulfill their dreams.
Also from LifeSiteNews “President Obama reaffirmed his support for the “right to reproductive freedom” in a statement celebrating the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a ruling which has paved the way for over 56 million abortions.”
““Today, as we reflect on the 41st anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, we recommit ourselves to the decision’s guiding principle: that every woman should be able to make her own choices about her body and her health,” the president said.
“We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to protecting a woman’s access to safe, affordable health care and her constitutional right to privacy, including the right to reproductive freedom,” he continued. “And we resolve to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, support maternal and child health, and continue to build safe and healthy communities for all our children. Because this is a country where everyone deserves the same freedom and opportunities to fulfill their dreams.”
Except for the unborn, right Mr. President?
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3. This, like the March, is encouraging. A Knights of Columbus/Marist poll shows 84% of Americans support significant restriction on abortion.
From KOFC.org “A new survey of Americans finds strong support for abortion restrictions – including among those who identify as “strongly pro-choice.” Eighty-four percent of Americans would limit abortion to, at most, the first three months of pregnancy, with 58 percent of strongly pro-choice Americans supporting such limits.
The Knights of Columbus/Marist Poll also found that almost three-quarters of Americans (74 percent) favor a ban on abortions after 20 weeks except to save the life of the mother, a majority of Americans (53 percent) believe life begins at conception, and more than 6 in 10 (62 percent) think abortion is morally wrong.
More than 8 in 10 Americans (84 percent) do not see the abortion debate as an all or nothing proposition, saying that laws can protect both the well-being of a woman and the life of the unborn.”
80% support parental notification, 79% support a 24 hour waiting period, and 76% oppose allowing abortions to be performed by non-doctors as well.
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4. Here’s another interesting poll. And this ain’t no right-wing pollster. 🙂
From Quinnipiac.edu “American voters give President Obama a negative 40 – 54 percent approval rating, compared to 41 – 53 percent January 8, and 38 – 57 percent December 10, indications that his plunge has leveled off.
But voters give Obama his lowest grades for their top priorities:
Negative 39 – 56 percent for his handling of the economy;
Negative 36 – 59 percent for his handling of healthcare;
Positive 48 – 41 percent for handling terrorism;
Negative 40 – 49 percent for foreign policy;
Negative 39 – 47 percent for handling Iran.”
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5. And they won’t be the only ones.
From CNBC “Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini told CNBC on Wednesday that Obamacare has failed to attract the uninsured, and he offered a scenario in which the insurance company could be forced to pull out of program.
The company will be submitting Obamacare rates for 2015 on May 15.
“Are they going to be double-digit [increases] or are we going to get beat up because they’re double-digit or are we just going to have to pull out of the program?” Bertolini asked in a “Squawk Box” interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Those questions can’t be answered until we see the population we have today. And we really don’t have a good view on that.”
“He said that so far, Obamacare has just shifted people who were insured in the individual market to the public exchanges where they could get a better deal on a subsidy for coverage. “We see only 11 percent of the population is actually people that were firmly uninsured that are now insured. So [it] didn’t really eat into the uninsured population.”
Why would it? After all, nothing else has been as advertised. Why would this be any different?
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Our Daily Thread 1-22-14
Good Morning!
On this day in 1666 Shah Jahan, a descendant of Genghis Khan and Timur, died at the age of 74. He was the Mongul emperor of India that built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz-i-Mahal.
In 1879 James Shields began a term as a U.S. Senator from Missouri. He had previously served Illinois and Minnesota. He was the first Senator to serve three states.
In 1905 insurgent workers were fired on in St Petersburg, Russia, resulting in “Bloody Sunday.” 500 people were killed.
In 1950 Alger Hiss, a former adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt, was convicted of perjury for denying contacts with a Soviet agent. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
And in 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws that had been restricting abortions. The case (Roe vs. Wade) legalized abortion.
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Quote of the Day
“Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.”
Lord Byron
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Today is Steve Perry’s birthday.
It’s Teddy Gentry’s too. From AlabamaVevo
It’s also the day composer Hans Erich Apostel was born.
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Anyone have a QoD for us?
Prayer Requests 1-22-14
Anyone have a request or praise to share today?
And it’s Wednesday, so please remember the folks in The Gambia.
Psalm 3
¹Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.
2 Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.
3 But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
4 I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
5 I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.
7 Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.
8 Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.
News/Politics 1-22-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
1. ObamaCare?… Affordable Care Act?…….
Nope, doesn’t ring a bell…..
From NationalReview “At this point, the real action of 2014 will be in the red state Senate races in Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, West Virginia, South Dakota, and Montana. Unsurprisingly, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee isn’t so eager to talk about Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act — at least on their home page.
The only reference to “health” on the DSCC home page right now is a John Walsh tweet that “#MT can’t afford ppl like @SteveDaines who don’t believe in a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions” and a generic “war on women” blog post that claims “We must do everything in our power to protect women’s rights and women’s health.”
The words “Affordable Care Act” and “Obamacare” do not currently appear on the home page of the DSCC web site, nor do the words “exchange” or “insurance” or any other reference to the president’s signature domestic legislation, impacting families, workers, and businesses right now.”
As if we’d let them get off that easy. 🙄
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2. This is what Democrats consider success. This is also why having your state running one of these debacles is a bad idea. Thankfully I live in a state that refused.
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3. Four minutes. That’s how long it took to hack HealthCare.gov.
From TheDailyCaller “David Kennedy, the hacking expert that shook the country this week with his congressional testimony about the security failures of HealthCare.gov, explained Sunday how he was able to penetrate the site.
“There’s a technique called, what we call ‘passive reconnaissance,’” Kennedy explained to “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, “which allows us to query and look at how the website operates and performs.”
“And these type of attacks that I’m mentioning here, and the 70,000 [personal records Kennedy found] that you’re referencing, is very easy to do,” Kennedy continued. “It’s a rudimentary type attack that doesn’t actually attack the website itself. It extracts information from it without actually having to go into the system.”
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4. The walk back.
From TheWeeklyStandard “New York governor Andrew Cuomo came under fire for criticizing pro-life and pro-Second Amendment citizens of his state — and saying “that is not who New Yorkers are.”
“Now his office is backtracking and insisting that the governor said “‘it is fine’ to be anti-gun control, and anti-choice – as he respects both positions.
The video at the link demonstrates otherwise, in his own words.
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5. Here’s a fun one.
From Time “See how your preferences in dogs, Internet browsers, and 10 other items predict your partisan leanings.”
I’m 87% conservative.
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Our Daily Thread 1-21-14
Good Morning!
On this day in 1789 W.H. Brown’s “Power of Sympathy” was published. It was the first American novel to be published. The novel is also known as the “Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth”.
In 1846 the first issue of the “Daily News,” edited by Charles Dickens, was published.
In 1924 Soviet leader Vladimir Llyich Lenin died. Joseph Stalin began a purge of his rivals for the leadership of the Soviet Union.
In 1954 the Nautilus was launched in Groton, CT. It was the first atomic-powered submarine.
And in 1998 a former White House intern said on tape that she had an affair with President Clinton.
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Quote of the Day
“I no doubt deserved my enemies, but I don’t believe I deserved my friends.”
Walt Whitman
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Today is Placido Domingo’s birthday. So here his is with the Berlin Philharmonic, from OperaFan55
It’s also Mac Davis’. From ThatsMusic
And this one is from Jamie and Geoff, who are the daughter and son-in-law of our friends. I’ve posted Jamie and a friend before, but she and her husband sound very good together too.
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Wandering Views 