Month: May 2014
News/Politics 5-2-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread.
1. Oh boy.
Dr. James Dobson made some remarks at yesterday’s National Day of Prayer Breakfast that are causing quite a stir.
“I believe in the rule of law, and it has been my practice since I was in college to respect and honor those in authority over us. It is my desire to do so now. However, this assault on the sanctity of human life takes me where I cannot go. I WILL NOT pay the surcharge for abortion services. The amount of the surcharge is irrelevant. To pay one cent for the killing of babies is egregious to me, and I will do all I can to correct a government that lies to me about its intentions and then tries to coerce my acquiescence with extortion. It would be a violation of my most deeply held convictions to disobey what I consider to be the principles in Scripture. The Creator will not hold us guiltless if we turn a deaf ear to the cries of His innocent babies. So come and get me if you must, Mr. President. I will not bow before your wicked regulation.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/dobson-obama-is-abortion-president/#QeqM8WmA7qOGqkP7.99
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/dobson-obama-is-abortion-president/#QeqM8WmA7qOGqkP7.99
James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and Family Talk Radio, a harsh critic of President Obama and an opponent in court, on Thursday described him as the “abortion president” during an address at the National Day of Prayer.
Dobson, whose organization recently won a court fight against Obama over a mandate in Obamacare that would have required his ministry to pay for abortion pills, has not been shy about challenging the president on his abortion agenda.
At one point during the fight over the imposition of the abortion mandate, he said to the president: “Come and get me. I will not yield to your wicked regulations.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/dobson-obama-is-abortion-president/#QeqM8WmA7qOGqkP7.99
James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and Family Talk Radio, a harsh critic of President Obama and an opponent in court, on Thursday described him as the “abortion president” during an address at the National Day of Prayer.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/dobson-obama-is-abortion-president/#QeqM8WmA7qOGqkP7.99
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/dobson-obama-is-abortion-president/#QeqM8WmA7qOGqkP7.99
James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and Family Talk Radio, a harsh critic of President Obama and an opponent in court, on Thursday described him as the “abortion president” during an address at the National Day of Prayer.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/dobson-obama-is-abortion-president/#QeqM8WmA7qOGqkP7.99
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/dobson-obama-is-abortion-president/#QeqM8WmA7qOGqkP7.99
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2. Despite the standing ovation, some people left over the remarks. (I’ve removed the HuffPost piece that was up. I found another, with more details, and it’s better written.)
🙂
From TheDailyBreeze “Harbor Area Rep. Janice Hahn stormed out of Thursday’s National Day of Prayer gathering on Capitol Hill, saying she was outraged by what she later characterized as a “hateful political rant” by one of the speakers.
Evangelical Christian radio host James Dobson delivered strong words to President Barack Obama, who was not in attendance, over his administration’s position on abortion, calling Obama the “abortion president.”
“During his remarks, Dobson read a letter he sent to his supporters and political leaders stating that the “assault on the sanctity of human life takes me where I cannot go,” adding that as a matter of religious conviction and conscience that he would refuse to pay the fine.
Many in the audience gave Dobson a standing ovation.”
In case you’re wondering, Hahn is pro-choice. That’s probably why the truth offends her.
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3. This makes sense, which is why it’ll never happen.
From TheWashingtonTimes “Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah, concerned about the armed agents that surrounded Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s property, is mulling a measure to cut funding for any “paramilitary units” that work for the Bureau of Land Management, the Internal Revenue Service and other federal regulatory agencies.
“There are lots of people who are really concerned when the BLM shows up with its own SWAT team,” he said, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. “They’re regulatory agencies. They’re not paramilitary units, and I think that concerns a lot of us.”
“Mr. Stewart said it’s high time the government end its practice of arming its own special units for various agencies, like the BLM and the IRS.”
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4. The US is offering help in Nigeria to track down 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram.
From NBCNews “Following outrage over the shocking abduction of over 200 schoolgirls by terrorists in east Africa, the U.S. State Department on Thursday said they were working with Nigeria to help look for them.
“We have been engaged with the Nigerian government in discussions on what we might do to help support their efforts to find and free these young women,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters Thursday. “We will continue to have those discussions and help in any way we can.”
On April 14, militants with the Islamic fundamentalist group “Boko Haram” – which translates to “Western education is sinful – attacked the Government Girls Secondary School in the northern Nigerian town of Chibok and kidnapped more than 200 girls. Now weeks later, reports have surfaced that the terrorists are selling the girls off as child brides for as little as $12.
Harf did not give specifics on what kind of help Washington might provide, but said: “We know Boko Haram is active in the area and we have worked very closely with the Nigerian government to build their capacity to fight this threat.”
Let’s hope they can bring those responsible to justice for their acts as well.
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Our Daily Thread 5-1-14
Good Morning!
I’m hoping those April showers are gone for a while. They sure went out with a bang.
And since I’m looking forward to May flowers, here’s some more……
On this day in 1748 the ruins of Pompeii were found.
In 1826 Samuel Mory patented the internal combustion engine.
In 1863 the first wartime conscription law goes into effect in the U.S.
In 1865, at the Battle of Five Forks in Petersburg, VA, Gen. Robert E. Lee began his final offensive.
And in 2004 President George W. Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The bill made it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman.
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Quote of the Day
“If they try to rush me, I always say, I’ve only got one other speed and it’s slower.”
Glenn Ford
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Today is Kate Smith’s birthday. So here’s a fun one with Dean and Lucy. 🙂
Today is also Johnny Colt’s birthday. So a cover from the Black Crowes.
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 5-1-14
Anyone have a request? A praise maybe?
And it’s Thursday, so don’t forget PNG and those ministering there. 🙂
And it’s the National Day of Prayer, so please remember to pray for our country today as well.
Psalm 93
¹The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.
2 Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.
3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves.
4 The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.
5 Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever.
News/Politics 5-1-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open thread, with a few from me.
1. Summer of Recovery? Not this year.
From Forbes “The U.S. economy grew in the first quarter — but very, very, very slowly. Most economy watchers blame frigid winter weather for dampening forward progress but not everyone is convinced weather tells the whole story.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis’ advance estimate of first quarter 2014 real gross domestic product shows output produced in the U.S. grew at a glacial 0.1% rate. This is growth relative to fourth quarter 2013, when real GDP increased 2.6%. Economists were anticipating growth around 1.1%.”
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2. And here’s some more economic numbers that show the continuing slump and lack of recovery.
From ZeroHedge “No, the economy is most definitely not “recovering”. Despite what you may hear from the politicians and from the mainstream media (shrugging off today’s terrible GDP print), the truth is that the U.S. economy is in far worse shape than it was prior to the last recession. In fact, we are still pretty much where we were at when the last recession finally ended. When the financial crisis of 2008 struck, it took us down to a much lower level economically. Thankfully, things have at least stabilized at this much lower level. For example, the percentage of working age Americans that are employed has stayed remarkably flat for the past four years. We should be grateful that things have not continued to get even worse. It is almost as if someone has hit the “pause button” on the U.S. economy. But things are definitely not getting better, and there are a whole host of signs that this bubble of false stability will soon come to an end and that our economic decline will accelerate once again. The following are 17 facts to show to anyone that believes that the U.S. economy is just fine…
#1 The homeownership rate in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in 19 years.
#2 Consumer spending for durable goods has dropped by 3.23 percent since November. This is a clear sign that an economic slowdown is ahead.
#3 Major retailers are closing stores at the fastest pace that we have seen since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
#4 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of all families in the United States do not have a single member that is employed. That means that one out of every five families in the entire country is completely unemployed.
#5 There are 1.3 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy than when the last recession began in December 2007. Meanwhile, our population has continued to grow steadily since that time.”
And yet the Obama admin would like us to believe that the unemployment number has been dropping. Fuzzy math can’t hide the truth for much longer.
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3. A Doctor’s Declaration of Independence.
From TheWallStJournal “So when do we say d%$@ the mandates and requirements from bureaucrats who are not in the healing profession? When do we stand up and say we are not going to take it any more?
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services dictates that we must use an electronic health record (EHR) or be penalized with lower reimbursements in the future. There are “meaningful use” criteria whereby the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services tells us as physicians what we need to include in the electronic health record or we will not be subsidized the cost of converting to the electronic system and we will be penalized by lower reimbursements. Across the country, doctors waste precious time filling in unnecessary electronic-record fields just to satisfy a regulatory measure. I personally spend two hours a day dictating and documenting electronic health records just so I can be paid and not face a government audit. Is that the best use of time for a highly trained surgical specialist?
This is not a unique complaint. A study commissioned by the American Medical Association last year and conducted by the RAND Corp. found that “Poor EHR usability, time-consuming data entry, interference with face-to-face patient care, inefficient and less fulfilling work content, inability to exchange health information between EHR products, and degradation of clinical documentation were prominent sources of professional dissatisfaction.”
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4. Why am I not surprised?
From TheDailyCaller “Outgoing Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius is now refusing to testify before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, a Senate aide told The Daily Caller Tuesday.
Sebelius had originally been set to testify before the subcommittee about the department’s 2015 $70 billion budget request on April 2.
According to another aide, however, several weeks after confirming the hearing date, she requested a date switch with the National Institutes of Health budget hearing on May 7. The committee accommodated her request.
Now, after announcing her resignation on April 11, she is refusing to testify according to the two aides, even though she is still the sitting secretary — remaining at the post until her successor, OMB Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell is confirmed.“
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5. I feel like we were supposed to at least get cake or something…..
From TheWashingtonExaminer “The travel costs for vacations taken by the first family and the Bidens have reached over $40 million with the Air Force’s revelation that two golf outings by President Obama this year cost $2.9 million, according to the taxpayer watchdog group Judicial Watch.
The group said that the Air Force provided documents and records that put the price of the first family’s trip to Key Largo, Fla., in March at $885,683 just for flying Air Force One. The travel costs to golf in Palm Springs, Calif., in February, where the president also met with King Abdullah II of Jordan, was $2,066,594, said the Air Force documents, according to Judicial Watch.”
“So far, Judicial Watch said that it has tabulated vacation travel costs, mostly just Air Force jet time, at over $40 million. Far more money is spent on accommodations, communications, rooms and cars for staff, security and U.S. Secret Service protection, Navy and Coast Guard ships offshore and the prepositioning of cars and helicopters, but those costs are not usually revealed.”
Given the amount of staff, and resources needed for them, the real numbers gotta be 10 times that. What a waste.
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Wandering Views 