Month: May 2014
News/Politics 5-13-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread, with a few from me.
1. The House has overridden the Obama admin’s decision that refused to call the Ft. Hood shooting a terrorist attack, and to deny benefits to victims and their families. Thank you Republicans. This was deserved, and the right thing to do.
From KCNTV “Victims and families of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting could soon receive Purple Hearts, benefits and closure thanks to language entered in the House’s National Defense Authorization Act late Wednesday night. During the House Armed Services Committee’s markup of the FY15 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Congressman Michael Conaway offered the amendment on behalf of Congressman John Carter and Congressman Roger Williams. The Committee adopted the amendment unanimously by voice vote showing strong bipartisan support.“Last night was a tremendous victory for the victims and families of the 2009 Fort Hood terror attack,” said Congressman John Carter, Representative of Fort Hood. “By adopting this amendment we will provide the benefits, the recognition, and hopefully some closure to the victims and their families, all of whom have experienced unimaginable pain and hardship. This language will finally allow these soldiers to begin to move on with their lives, and I thank Congressman Mike Conaway, Congressman Mac Thornberry and the members of the House Armed Services Committee for their overwhelming support of this effort.”
The amendment Congressman Conaway offered would adjust the Purple Heart criteria so that our service members and civilians, who experience an attack inspired by international terrorism, receive the appropriate award and recognition. The amendment awards the Purple Heart to service members who are victims of an attack that was inspired or motivated by a U.S. State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization. The provision would be retroactively effective as of September 11, 2001.”
““Nearly five years have passed since the horrible tragedy at Fort Hood took the lives of 13 innocent Americans,” said Congressman Williams. “It is beyond comprehension why the current Administration has labeled this gruesome terrorist attack “workplace violence,” leaving the victims and their families without the benefits, treatment and honor they earned and deserve. This provision in the NDAA would restore the full range of deserved benefits for the victims. Though justice cannot bring back those we lost, justice can be served for the killed and injured troops whose brave actions prevented further bloodshed. I want to thank Congressman Carter for his dedication to the Fort Hood community, and Congressman Mike Conaway and Congressman Mac Thornberry for leading this effort in the Armed Services Committee. We will not stop fighting for those who fight for us every day.”
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2. They never think it thru. There’s always unintended consequences.
From KTBS3 “Some military veterans are being forced to leave their nursing home. It’s an unintended consequence of President Obama’s executive order in February to raise the minimum wage for new federal contract workers from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour.
Sandy Franks, public affairs officer at Shreveport’s Overton Brooks V. A. Medical Center, explains that nursing homes that have contracts for subsidized care from the Veterans Administration become federal contractors. If they refuse to raise their wages, their contracts will not be renewed.”
“In a statement, Gamble COO Matt Machen said, in part, “The additional labor expenses are simply unaffordable. As such, many long term care providers have indicated that they will no longer seek or renew V.A. contracts.”
Franks at the V.A. agrees that this has the potential to be a national problem as more V.A. contracts with nursing homes expire.”
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3. Don’t worry, I’m sure the liberals in charge at Google would never do anything biased or underhanded with this kind of power…. 🙄
From TheWashingtonPost “Google long ago went from being a mere directory of the Internet to a shaper of online reality, helping determine what we see and how. But what power does Google have over the “real” world – and especially the volatile one of closely contested elections?
Psychologist Robert Epstein has been researching this question and says he is alarmed at what he has discovered. His most recent experiment, whose findings were released Monday, found that search engines have the potential to profoundly influence voters without them noticing the impact. Epstein has coined a term for this power: Search Engine Manipulation Effect, with the acronym SEME.
Epstein, former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today and a vocal critic of Google, has not produced evidence that this or any other search engine has intentionally deployed this power. But the new experiment builds on his earlier work by measuring SEME in the concrete setting of India’s national election, whose voting concludes Monday.
With a group of more than 1,800 study participants – all undecided voters in India — the research team was able to shift votes by an average of 12.5 percent to favored candidates by deliberating altering their rankings in search results, Epstein said. There were also increases in the likelihood of voting and in measurements of trust for the preferred candidates, and there were decreases in the willingness to support rivals. Fewer than 1 of every 100 participants, meanwhile, detected the manipulation in the results.”
Nope, nothin’ to worry about….. 🙄
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Our Daily Thread 5-12-14
Good Morning!
Today’s header photo is from Donna.
On this day in 1780 Charleston, South Carolina fell to British forces.
In 1885, in the Battle of Batoche, French Canadians rebelled against the Canadian government.
In 1932 the infant body of Charles and Anna Lindbergh’s son was found just a few miles from the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, NJ.
And in 1943 the Axis forces in North Africa surrendered during World War II.
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Quote of the Day
“You can observe a lot by just watching.”
Yogi Berra
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Today is composer Gabriel-Urbain Faure’s birthday.
And it’s Steve Winwood’s too.
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 5-12-14
Anyone have a request or praise they’d like to share?
Psalm 103
¹Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;
18 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
19 The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.
20 Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
21 Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
22 Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.
News/Politics 5-12-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Better late than never I suppose.
From TownHall“IRS officials have agreed to turn over all emails belonging to former head of tax exempt groups Lois Lerner as the Congressional probe into improper targeting of conservative groups by the agency gets deeper. Earlier this week Republicans and Democrats in the House voted to hold Lerner in contempt after her repeated refusal to testify in front of Congress. Lerner has given closed door testimony to the Department of Justice, but plead the Fifth twice in front of the House Oversight Committee.”
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2. Even if it’s bad news for the Obama admin, the usual suspects will do what they always do. Provide cover, in a unified voice.
From NationalJournal “When Jay Carney was grilled at length by Jonathan Karl of ABC News over an email outlining administration talking points in the wake of the 2012 Benghazi attack, it was not, by the reckoning of many observers, the White House press secretary’s finest hour. Carney was alternately defensive and dismissive, arguably fueling a bonfire he was trying to tamp down.
But Carney needn’t have worried. He had plenty of backup.
He had The New Republic‘s Brian Beutler dismissing Benghazi as “nonsense.” He had Slate‘s David Weigel, along with The Washington Post’s Plum Line blog, debunking any claim that the new email was a “smoking gun.” Media Matters for America labeled Benghazi a “hoax.” Salon wrote that the GOP had a “demented Benghazi disease.” Daily Kos featured the headline: “Here’s Why the GOP Is Fired Up About Benghazi—and Here’s Why They’re Wrong.” The Huffington Post offered “Three Reasons Why Reviving Benghazi Is Stupid—for the GOP.”
It’s been a familiar pattern since President Obama took office in 2009: When critics attack, the White House can count on a posse of progressive writers to ride to its rescue. Pick an issue, from the Affordable Care Act to Ukraine to the economy to controversies involving the Internal Revenue Service and Benghazi, and you’ll find the same voices again and again, on the Web and on Twitter, giving the president cover while savaging the opposition. And typically doing it with sharper tongues and tighter arguments than the White House itself.“
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3. As I said before, I suspect this is a system wide problem, and the orders to do this came from high up.
From NBCNews “A whistleblower who worked at two Texas VA facilities claims he was “coached” on how to “cook the books” to conceal long wait times for patients, adding to concerns that the alleged falsification of records first alleged at a Phoenix VA hospital might be widespread.
“We were changing numbers, we were changing dates,” Brian Turner, an Army medic turned VA scheduling clerk, told NBC News. “We were cooking the books.”
Staffers at VA facilities in two states have now made public allegations that they were aware of or participated in the manipulation of records, and an internal email from a facility in a third seems to show that staffers were told how to “game the system” to hide wait times.
Turner said he was inspired to come forward and contact the VA’s Inspector General by the allegations of the initial VA whistleblower, Dr. Samuel Foote, who claimed that the Phoenix facility where he worked until recently had a secret paper wait list in addition to its official electronic wait list so it could hide the length of time some patients had to go without care. He said that as many as 40 patients may have died because of delays.”
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4. More epic failures for ObamaCare.
From Politico “Nearly half a billion dollars in federal money has been spent developing four state Obamacare exchanges that are now in shambles — and the final price tag for salvaging them may go sharply higher.
Each of the states — Massachusetts, Oregon, Nevada and Maryland — embraced Obamacare, and each underperformed. All have come under scathing criticism and now face months of uncertainty as they rush to rebuild their systems or transition to the federal exchange.
The federal government is caught between writing still more exorbitant checks to give them a second chance at creating viable exchanges of their own or, for a lesser although not inexpensive sum, adding still more states to HealthCare.gov. The federal system is already serving 36 states, far more than originally anticipated.”
“The $474 million spent by these four states includes the cost that officials have publicly detailed to date. It climbs further if states like Minnesota and Hawaii, which have suffered similarly dysfunctional exchanges, are added.”
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Happy Mother’s Day! 5-11-14
Good Morning!
Just wanted to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms out there. 🙂
Thank you Moms, for all you do! 🙂
Our Daily Thread 5-10-14
Good Morning!
Today’s header photo is from Janice.
On this day in 1869 Central Pacific and Union Pacific Rail Roads meet in Promontory, UT. A golden spike was driven in at the celebration of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S.
In 1872 Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for the U.S. presidency.
In 1908 the first Mother’s Day observance took place during a church service in Grafton, West Virginia.
In 1933 the Nazis staged massive public book burnings in Germany.
And in 1969 the National and American Football Leagues announced their plans to merge for the 1970-71 season.
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Quote of the Day
“Only God Himself fully appreciates the influence of a Christian mother in the molding of character in her children.”
Billy Graham
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Today is Mother Maybelle Carter’s birthday.
Today is also Bono’s, so my favorite U2 song. From U2VEVO
And here’s another of Mother Carter with her Autoharp.
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Wandering Views 