News/Politics

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News/Politics 3-5-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread.

1. The Russians are promising some economic sanctions of their own.

From YahooNews  “Russia could reduce to zero its economic dependency on the United States if Washington agreed sanctions against Moscow over Ukraine, a Kremlin aide said on Tuesday, warning that the American financial system faced a “crash” if this happened.

“We would find a way not just to reduce our dependency on the United States to zero but to emerge from those sanctions with great benefits for ourselves,” said Kremlin economic aide Sergei Glazyev.

He told the RIA Novosti news agency Russia could stop using dollars for international transactions and create its own payment system using its “wonderful trade and economic relations with our partners in the East and South.”

They also hold a couple hundred billion of American bonds too.

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2. The Imperial President strikes again. And like the last 14 times he’s done this, it’s still illegal by the language of the bill he signed. It’s to provide cover to vulnerable Dems. It won’t work.

From TheHill  “The Obama administration is set to announce another major delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act, easing election pressure on Democrats.

As early as this week, according to two sources, the White House will announce a new directive allowing insurers to continue offering health plans that do not meet ObamaCare’s minimum coverage requirements.

Prolonging the “keep your plan” fix will avoid another wave of health policy cancellations otherwise expected this fall.

 The cancellations would have created a firestorm for Democratic candidates in the last, crucial weeks before Election Day.”

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3. The President has finally released his budget, which is a joke, and DOA. A nearly 4 trillion dollar budget, with 650 billion in new taxes.

From Politico  “President Barack Obama’s $3.901 trillion budget would raise taxes on the rich, expand tax credits for the poor and middle class — though as of now, it merely serves as a White House wish list.

Although very little of it is expected to become law — or even be seriously considered via legislation on Capitol Hill — the president’s budget still serves as a benchmark for congressional Democrats.

It seeks $651 billion in new revenue from the rich, would formalize in the tax code a rule named for billionaire investor — and Obama supporter — Warren Buffett, cuts the size and pay of the military, and expands or creates a series of social programs the president has long touted.

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4. The Labor Force Participation Rate has fallen to a new low.

From CNSNews  “The average annual labor force participation rate hit a 35-year-low of 63.2 percent in the United States in 2013, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The last time the average annual labor force participation rate was that low was in in 1978, when it was also 63.2 percent. Jimmy Carter was president then.”

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5. I don’t know….

I could see why she might be afraid, but it seems an awful convenient excuse.

From TheDailyCaller  “Lois Lerner fears for her life if she testifies openly before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday, according to her attorney.

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa announced Sunday that Lerner will testify at Wednesday’s hearing, but Lerner’s attorney Bill Taylor said that Lerner will seek to continue invoking her Fifth Amendment rights and will also seek a one-week delay of her testimony.

Oversight members are reportedly open to granting Lerner a one-week delay if she petitions for one in person at Wednesday’s hearing. The delay would allow Lerner’s lawyers to continue negotiating for immunity, which they have been doing since at least September.”

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News/Politics 3-4-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, with a few from me to start off.

1. Why Russia no longer fears the US.

From Politico  “The West is blinking in disbelief – Vladimir Putin just invaded Ukraine. German diplomats, French Eurocrats and American pundits are all stunned. Why has Russia chosen to gamble its trillion-dollar ties with the West?

 Western leaders are stunned because they haven’t realized Russia’s owners no longer respect Europeans the way they once did after the Cold War. Russia thinks the West is no longer a crusading alliance. Russia thinks the West is now all about the money.

Putin’s henchmen know this personally. Russia’s rulers have been buying up Europe for years. They have mansions and luxury flats from London’s West End to France’s Cote d’Azure. Their children are safe at British boarding and Swiss finishing schools. And their money is squirrelled away in Austrian banks and British tax havens.

Putin’s inner circle no longer fear the European establishment. They once imagined them all in MI6. Now they know better. They have seen firsthand how obsequious Western aristocrats and corporate tycoons suddenly turn when their billions come into play. They now view them as hypocrites—the same European elites who help them hide their fortunes.”

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2. 8 steps Obama must take to punish Russia.

From Politico  “Russia’s illegal military incursion in the Crimea region in Ukraine is a grave violation of a nation’s sovereignty and cannot go unpunished.

 First, President Obama should speak unequivocally and call this what it is: a military invasion. The Obama administration must publicly acknowledge that its “reset” with Russia is dead. The president must now accept that the only way to deal with tyrants like Vladimir Putin is with a clear understanding that they can’t be trusted and that only decisive action will deter their provocative moves.

Second, President Obama should dispatch Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to Kiev to show U.S. support for Ukraine’s transitional government, and urge our allies in the European Union and NATO to send representatives there as well. The United States should convene an emergency meeting of NATO to develop a strong united response from the trans-Atlantic alliance. And we should send high-level delegations to our allies in Central and Eastern Europe to reinforce the fact that we are standing by them. As part of this work with our allies, we should develop a series of economic and security assurance measures to help the transitional government in Kiev remain stable and carry out a democratic transition.”

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3. The WaPo editorial board is pointing out the fact that President Obama’s foreign policy is based on fantasy.

From TheWashingtonPost  “FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which “the tide of war is receding” and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces. Other leaders, in this vision, would behave rationally and in the interest of their people and the world. Invasions, brute force, great-power games and shifting alliances — these were things of the past. Secretary of State John F. Kerry displayed this mindset on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday when he said, of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, “It’s a 19th century act in the 21st century.”

That’s a nice thought, and we all know what he means. A country’s standing is no longer measured in throw-weight or battalions. The world is too interconnected to break into blocs. A small country that plugs into cyberspace can deliver more prosperity to its people (think Singapore or Estonia) than a giant with natural resources and standing armies.

Unfortunately, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not received the memo on 21st-century behavior. Neither has China’s president, Xi Jinping, who is engaging in gunboat diplomacy against Japan and the weaker nations of Southeast Asia. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is waging a very 20th-century war against his own people, sending helicopters to drop exploding barrels full of screws, nails and other shrapnel onto apartment buildings where families cower in basements. These men will not be deterred by the disapproval of their peers, the weight of world opinion or even disinvestment by Silicon Valley companies. They are concerned primarily with maintaining their holds on power.”

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4. Next, some video reminders, and healthy dose of “I told you so.”

Apparently Putin didn’t get the memo.

From HotAir  “Now seems like a reasonable moment to recall these zingers, which Democrats and the media thought were terribly clever in 2012. Mitt Romney’s clear-eyed assessment of Vladimir Putin’s Russia is looking more spot-on accurate than ever, yet it was greeted at the time with widespread ridicule.”

“Who’s laughing now?”

There’s also more video of the DNC propaganda network explaining how wrong Romney was. Except he wasn’t, they were.

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5. Finally……. About time someone points out the obvious. This is just another of the President’s foreign policy fantasies.

From TheJerusalemPost  “Prime MinisterBinyamin Netanyahu met with US President Barack Obama in theOval Office on Monday, pushing back against pressure from the White House to swiftly cut a deal with the Palestinians as the president warned time was running out for peace.

“Israel has been doing its part, and I regret to say that the Palestinians haven’t,” Netanyahu said to Obama, in front of the press. “The people of Israel know that it’s the case.”

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6. Birds of a feather and all.

From TheDailyCaller  “Progressive billionaire George Soros and the Obama administration help fund the Chicago nonprofit that set up Obamacare enrollment programs for prison inmates.

Chicago-based Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC) helped establish Obamacare enrollment programs for prisoners at Chicago’s Cook County Jail. Cook County is one of at least six states and counties enrolling prisoners to help shift inmate medical costs to federal taxpayers.

“A lot of states will come to this, because state corrections budgets are huge and county jail budgets are huge,” said TASC spokesperson Maureen McDonnell.”

All this does is shift the burden from the local/state level to the federal level. But don’t hold your breathe looking for a tax rebate on the local level. They need the extra cash to fund their pension/legacy costs.

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7. Is yelling the new spanking?

From Today  “You love them like crazy, but they can also drive you crazy, so no matter how well-behaved your children are, there comes a time when you need to get tough.

For lots of parents, that means yelling – something many feel awful about afterwards.”

“She’s also an opponent of spanking. In fact, some experts speculate that many families – apparently taking to heart research that indicates spanking can make kids more aggressive, angry and lead to problems later in life — are instead turning to yelling as a way to control their children.

 “Yelling is the new spanking. It’s sort of the go-to strategy for parents… I think (this) definitely is a generation of yellers,” said Amy McCready, founder of Positive Parenting Solutions and a TODAY Moms contributor. Many families tell her it’s the number one issue they want to change.“

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News/Politics 3-3-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. The Bear seems to be waking from hibernation.

From TheWallStJournal  “The American and Russian presidents spoke on the phone for 90 minutes on Saturday after Russia’s parliament voted unanimously to deploy troops in Ukraine, defying warnings from Western leaders not to intervene.

In his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin , U.S. President Barack Obama expressed “his deep concern over Russia’s clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Mr. Obama urged Russia to de-escalate tensions by withdrawing its forces back to bases in Crimea and to refrain from any interference elsewhere in Ukraine.”

Or what?

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2. Chess and marbles.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers Sunday said the naivete of President Obama‘s national security advisers about Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s motivations is allowing Russia to outmaneuver the U.S. in Ukraine and other hot spots around the globe.

“Putin is playing chess and we’re playing marbles,” Rogers, R-Mich., said on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.”

“As you move down the list in Syria and the Ukraine and other areas,” he said, “they’ve been running circles around us.”

Quick! Somebody hit the Reset Button again. 🙄

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3. Mission accomplished.

From TheTelegraph   “Ukraine: Putin’s Crimea aim is to make the West look weak”

“This is tragic for Ukraine, for the near-abroad and for Nato not because it is   taking us by surprise but because we have expected it for so long and seen   it before and yet remain incapable of acting. This is the salami-tactics   that Yes, Prime Minister joked about decades ago. Slice by slice, Russia is   invading Ukraine and weakening the alliance that has kept the peace in   Europe for almost 70 years. 

It is a textbook KGB-led operation: the agent provocateur, followed by a   self-organised militia, then Russian military protection to defend ‘their’    people. The tactic was used to good effect throughout the Soviet period in   Communist coups. It’s what brought down the government of Afghanistan and   caused 30 years of war. And again it is unlikely to be resisted.”

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4. Meanwhile Ukraine officials are calling up reservists.

From TheJerusalemPost   “Ukraine mobilized on Sunday for war and called up its reserves, after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to invade in the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

Ukraine’s security council ordered the general staff to immediately put all armed forces on highest alert, the council’s secretary Andriy Parubiy announced. The Defense Ministry was ordered to conduct the call-up, potentially of all men up to 40 in a country that still has universal male conscription.

Russian forces who have already bloodlessly seized Crimea – an isolated Black Sea peninsula where most of the population are ethnic Russian and Moscow has a naval base – tried to disarm the small Ukrainian contingents there on Sunday. Some Ukrainian commanders refused to give up weapons and bases were surrounded.”

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5. Here’s some good news.

From FoxNews  “Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, a central figure in the IRS scandal, will appear before Congress on Wednesday after refusing to testify last year on the matter, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., claimed Sunday — though Lerner’s attorney and Issa may still be at odds over the timing.

Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told “Fox News Sunday” that Lerner’s lawyers have indicated she will testify before his committee, after saying last week that she would not.

“It’s going to be a good, fact-finding hearing,” he said.”

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6. Yesterday Donna posted a link to a piece titled “If Daniel Three Were Written Today …”

Here’s a similar kinda piece, from Allen West. “The Book of Judges: Scary biblical parallels for America today”

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News/Politics 3-1-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open Thread Weekend, so enjoy yourselves.

Here’s one I found interesting, with a Hat/Tip to Janice for bringing it to my attention.

From Alliance Defending Freedom “Obamacare’s Abortion Pill Mandate is on trial at the U.S. Supreme Court on March 25, 2014. Two family-owned companies, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties, are challenging the Abortion Pill Mandate that would force them to pay for life-ending drugs, or face crippling fines. The outcome will have a dramatic impact on your religious freedom in America.

With so much at stake, Alliance Defending Freedom is committing to pray during the 9 weeks leading up to the court date. We invite you to join us each week, lifting up the people and issues related to the trial. “

Learn More (New Link)

“Americans are finding out every day that there is a lot not to like about Obamacare, but  the most offensive aspect of Obamacare is its assault on religious freedom.”

“All Americans – including job  creators – should be free to live according to their faith and to honor God in their  work. But Obamacare’s architects have decided that employers can only be  concerned about their bottom line and must leave their faith at the door whenever  they open for business.”

We’re seeing this same type of assault on religious freedoms where the issue of homosexuality is concerned. Dissent is not tolerated.

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News/Politics 2-28-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, with a few from me to start things off.

1. Talk about overreach.

From TheGuardian  “Britain’s surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal.

GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not.

In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.

Yahoo reacted furiously to the webcam interception when approached by the Guardian. The company denied any prior knowledge of the program, accusing the agencies of “a whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy“.”

2. And on a related note….

From PersonalLiberty.com  “The Internet has provided a forum for average people throughout the world to disseminate, share and debate information unattenuated by gatekeepers in the mainstream media and their politically connected friends. New media outlets like Personal Liberty Digest™ have, for years, been warning readers that the well-connected and ruling elite, displeased by this newfound proletariat freedom, have been prolific in attempts to undermine and marginalize information provided by any media outlet unwilling to obey the same unspoken rules that govern the content choices of major media outlets.

Now, thanks to the efforts of National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden and journalist Glenn Greenwald, readers no longer have to take the word of “paranoid” bloggers who relate tales of paid government trolls lurking in comment sections and other concentrated top-down efforts to muddy the information provided by alternative media.”

“The documents deal largely with the goals of GCHQ’s previously secret Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), an apparatus whose mission Greenwald describes thusly: “Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable.””

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3. Give it to her, and then let’s hear what she has to say. After all, there’s nothing to lose here, she’s already retired, with her pension, and won’t be charged. At least this way you get her under oath and maybe find out who orchestrated it. 

From USAToday  “Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner will testify about the IRS handling of Tea Party cases only in exchange for an immunity agreement, her lawyer told a congressional committee Wednesday.

Until then, Lerner will not answer questions unless  ordered to do so by a federal judge, her attorney said.

The response from attorney William Taylor came the day after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ordered Lerner to reappear at a hearing next week.  When Lerner appeared before the committee last May, she asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.”

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4. Not shocking. It’s how things are done in this administration.

From TheFreeBeacon  “Several Environmental Protection Agency employees obstructed an investigation into the mismanagement that allowed a senior EPA official to bilk taxpayers for nearly $900,000, the EPA Inspector General said in a letter to Sen. David Vitter (R., La.) released Wednesday.

EPA employees threatened Inspector General investigators, refused to cooperate, and handed out non-disclosure agreements to other employees to keep them from being interviewed, EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins Jr. wrote in response to a request for information by Vitter on the case.

“Over the past 12 months, there have been several EPA officials who have taken action to prevent [the Office of Investigations] OI from conducting investigations or have attempted to obstruct investigations through intimidation,” Elkins wrote.”

““We are starting to see proof of what we had already suspected: John Beale’s time and attendance fraud was the tip of the iceberg at the EPA,” Vitter said in a statement to the Free Beacon. “The whole agency seems to be in complete disarray, which is exactly why we need to have a full [Environment and Public Works] Committee hearing on the fraud surrounding this case and other prevalent problems.””

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5. Boko Haram continues it’s bloody rampage. This brings the victim count to around 240 in the last 10 days alone.

From Google/AFP  “Suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed at least 37 people in three separate attacks in northeast Nigeria, including at a theological college, a local government official and residents said on Thursday.

The coordinated attacks in Adamawa state late on Wednesday came just a day after Islamist militant fighters were blamed for killing 43 people, most of them students, as they slept at a boarding school in Yobe state.”

“He had earlier put the death toll in Shuwa, part of Madagali local government area, at 17. But he later told AFP that eight more bodies were recovered in the village, including three from a Christian college, confirming the account of a resident about the three burnt corpse found in the seminary.

“The death toll in the Shuwa attack now stands at 25 after eight more bodies were recovered, including three discovered under the burnt debris of the theological school,” Ularamu said.

In Shuwa, several buildings were burnt, including a Christian theological college and a section of a secondary school.”

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6. Planned Parenthood has achieved a new low in what passes for sex education.

With a CONTENT WARNING!!!! for adult subject matter.

From CNSNews  “has produced and posted online a video specifically aimed at teenagers that promotes bondage and sadomasochism (BDSM) and proposes “rules” to follow when engaging in these activities.

“People sometimes think that those who practice BDSM are emotionally  scarred or were once abused—not true, it’s a total myth,” the host of the  video, Laci Green, informs its intended audience of teens. “

“”BDSM relies upon and creates trust,” she says.”

“We are dedicated to protecting the sexual health of teens by providing  accurate information, opportunities to explore and  establish beliefs  and attitudes, and the skills to communicate their  needs,” says PPNNE’s “For Teens” page.”

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News/Politics 2-27-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. This is progress? It’s the same mentality that allows them to ignore laws they disagree with. Pretend it doesn’t exist and say problem solved. Talk about dereliction of duty.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “Thousands of orders for diagnostic medical tests have been purged en masse by the Department of Veterans Affairs to make it appear its decade-long backlog is being eliminated, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner.

About 40,000 appointments were “administratively closed” in Los Angeles, and another 13,000 were cancelled in Dallas in 2012.

That means the patients did not receive the tests or treatment that had been ordered, but rather the orders for the follow-up procedures were simply deleted from the agency’s records.

It is not known how widespread the practice is, or how many veterans hospitals have mass-purged appointment orders to clear their backlogs.”

2. This one goes along with the story above. Yet another example of this tactic of clearing backlogs instead of providing care.

From WISTV  “Three Wm. Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center executives left their jobs after six deaths occurred that could’ve been prevented.

Dr. Robert Petzel, under secretary for health for the VA, admitted to Congressional representatives that there was a criminal investigation completed by the Inspector General’s Office at Dorn VA concerning the backlog of gastrointestinal cases from 2012. No criminal intent was found.

“There’s no way to hold them accountable when people die because of their failures,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas.” Petzel explained that the responsible individuals left their jobs before disciplinary action could be taken.”

Others are apparently purging their records in order to avoid being held accountable. No one is held accountable in this administration. The buck stops nowhere.

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3. Here’s that mentality at work again. Just pretend you can do whatever you’d like.

From TheWashingtonTimes  “The Obama administration regularly cuts a break for businesses that hire illegal immigrants, reducing their fines by an average of 40 percent from what they should be, according to an audit released Tuesday that suggests the government could be doing more to go after unscrupulous employers.

According to the audit, conducted by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cut one business’s fine from $4.9 million to slightly more than $1 million — a 78 percent drop.

Investigators said the reduction is legal, but it may be undercutting the administration’s goal of getting tough on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

“The knowledge that fines can be significantly reduced may diminish the effectiveness of fines as a deterrent to hiring unauthorized workers,” the inspector general said.”

That is their intent.

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4. Yet another example, and another ObamaCare lie exposed.

From TheLATimes  “A new report shows that as many as 125,000 young California immigrants may qualify for an expansion of Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program.

The Affordable Care Act bars insurance subsidies and enrollment in the Medicaid expansion for undocumented immigrants, but a wrinkle in California rules does offer coverage for those with “deferred action status.”

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was created by President Obama in 2012 to grant immigrants who came to the country illegally as children — sometimes called Dreamers — legal status and work authorization for two-year periods.

Laurel Lucia, a policy analyst at the UC Berkeley Labor Center and author of the report released Tuesday, said California is one of the few states that lets youth with deferred action status enroll in Medicaid. “But the word still hasn’t been spread,” she said.”

Oh but it will. Quickly.

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5. And yet another ObamaCare lie. Remember, we were all supposed to see an average savings of $2500.00 per family, as promised by the President. About another 11 million people are about to find out that promise had an expiration date. Hey, somebody’s gotta pay for the folks in the story above. Looks like middle class workers drew the short straw. Again.

From FoxNews  “Republicans renewed their fight against ObamaCare on Monday in response to a new report in which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services concludes that 11 million small business employees may see their premiums rise under the law. 

The report, released Friday, says the higher rates are partly due to the health law’s requirement that premiums can no longer be based on a person’s age. That has sent premiums higher for younger workers, and lower for older ones.

The report found that 65 percent of small businesses would see a spike in insurance premiums and about 35 percent of small businesses would see lower rates for plans covering six million people, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The estimate is far from certain, partly because many small businesses renewed their policies in 2013. Renewing before the end of the year allowed them to avoid higher premiums that went into effect Jan. 1, when coverage was required to conform to the law.”

Just wait until the sticker shock from this happens. They illegally delayed it until after the elections, but it’s coming.

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6. Here’s a good start point for reigning in this administration.

From CNSNews  “During a press conference on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to announce a signature campaign to impeach U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Rev. Bill Owens said President Barack Obama has “hurt the American people.”

“We’re on a downward road,” Owens, who is founder and president of the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP), said at the event at the National Press Club. “And this president has done more to hurt the American people than any president, as I see it, in my lifetime and in history.”

“Owens cited Holder’s “repeated lawlessness” of disregarding state laws and the Constitution. “What we have in Attorney General Holder is a man so political in his zeal to redefine marriage that he is willing to run roughshod over the rulings of the Supreme Court, binging federal law, and the United States Constitution along with the constitutions of a majority of states,” Owens said in a statement distributed at the press conference.”

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7. Before reading this one remember, as always, that vote fraud is a myth. 🙄

From NationalReview  “Vice President Biden claimed voter ID laws were evidence of “hatred” and “zealotry” during a Black History Month event yesterday in Washington.

Ignoring the fact that voter ID laws were declared constitutional in a 2006 Supreme Court decision written by John Paul Stevens, the Court’s then most liberal justice, Biden is continuing the fact-free assault on anti-voter fraud measures.

When such laws aren’t “hateful” they are “unnecessary.” The Brennan Center for Justice says “voter fraud is essentially irrational” so it almost never happens. Voter fraud is so rare “you’re more likely to get hit by lightning than find a case of prosecutorial voter fraud,” insists Judith Browne-Dianis, co-director of the liberal Advancement Project.

Well, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation disagrees. Not a state known for its hateful politics, Iowa’s DCI wrapped up its investigation this month and has referred more than 80 cases of voter fraud to county attorneys for possible prosecution. Since the investigation was initiated by GOP Secretary of State Matt Schultz a year and a half ago, five people have pleaded guilty to voter fraud and 15 others are facing charges.”

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8. Polly wanna cracker?

A little comedy for the last one. This is why he has like 26 viewers. It’s not news, it’s parroting the same talking points.

🙂

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News/Politics 2-26-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, as always.

1. This one comes with a Hat/Tip to Karen O. Yesterday she posted a link about the story of the Pelletier family. It’s the story of a young lady taken from her family by a doctor with obvious conflicts, aided by a hospital, child welfare officials, and now the courts. To say it’s an example of govt. overstepping it’s authority is an understatement. The initial story was bad. The newer details are even worse. These details are only known because her father violated the judge’s gag rule in order to get the story heard. I don’t blame him,  a desperate father can, and will do what he feels necessary to reunite his family.

Here’s the link from WFSB  “A judge in Massachusetts ordered a daughter from West Hartford to be placed in foster care, denying a reunion with her family.

However, hospital officials insisted the 15-year-old’s problems were mental.

They said she was suffering from a condition called Somatoform Disorder. Doctors said that’s a mental illness where someone can actually experience physical pain.

Justina Pelletier’s family said she was experiencing physical pain, but the hospital brought in the Department of Children and Families. The state of Massachusetts took custody and said the teen’s parents were committing child abuse by not getting her mental health treatment.”

2. Now here is where her father shares more details,

From TheBlaze  “Jessica, 25, is the second-oldest of the Pelletiers’ daughters and has mitochondrial disease herself. The disease can manifest itself in various ways, but at its root, results from a defect in the mitochondria, an organelle inside cells that produces energy. Jessica’s diagnosis was established medically through analysis of the cells of her muscle tissue.

In Justina’s case, a doctor evaluated her symptoms, considered her family history — mitochondrial disease can be inherited — and gave her a clinical diagnosis of the disorder. Under the care of physicians at Tufts Medical Center, Justina was treated for mitochondrial disease. But when she got the flu and her parents were told she should be transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital, things changed.”

“The physicians at Boston Children’s Hospital disagreed with her diagnosis of mitochondrial disorder and wanted to take a different approach to her treatment. At first, Lou Pelletier said, “we were game to try a new approach.” But when the hospital laid out their plan to take Justina off all of her mitochondrial and pain medication, her parents balked.

That was Feb. 13, 2013. The next day — Valentine’s Day 2013 — Justina’s parents went to Boston Children’s Hospital with a couple of advocates intending to have her discharged and brought to Tufts. Instead, they were met with security guards and served a 51A, a report of alleged physical or emotional abuse.”

It gets worse from there. It’s unbelievable what they’ve put this family through. Please take the time to read the whole thing.

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3. The lawlessness from the top law enforcement official in America continues. Never mind the law, just refuse to defend it and it’s like it doesn’t really exist.

From TheNYTimes  “Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday injected the Obama administration into the emotional and politicized debate over the future of state same-sex marriage bans, declaring in an interview that state attorneys general are not obligated to defend laws that they believe are discriminatory.

Mr. Holder was careful not to encourage his state counterparts to disavow their own laws, but said that officials who have carefully studied bans on gay marriage could refuse to defend them.

Six state attorneys general — all Democrats — have refused to defend bans on same-sex marriage, prompting criticism from Republicans who say they have a duty to stand behind their state laws, even if they do not agree with them. 

It is highly unusual for the United States attorney general to advise his state counterparts on how and when to refuse to defend state laws. But Mr. Holder said when laws touch on core constitutional issues like equal protection, an attorney general should apply the highest level of scrutiny before reaching a decision on whether to defend it. He said the decision should never be political or based on policy objections.

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4. Yep, media bias is definitely a myth. 🙄

Christie gets a 24/7 onslaught for a couple of lane closures, but a real scandal goes down with barely a mention from the same media sources. Why? Because these folks are Democrats, the official party of the MSM.

From PubliusForum  “While the media gorges itself on the story of Chris Christie shutting down a bridge one day last year, a real political scandal is brewing in New Jersey filled with corruption, millions in fraud and waste, and a Democrat appointed official pleading the Fifth and the media? Well, the media is ignoring it all.

Even as Newark, New Jersey was laying off policemen and was pleading for more tax money and state bailouts, it has now been discovered that a heavily employed city contractor was stealing millions from the city with crony deals and bribery and it’s all tied to people appointed by Cory Booker–the man many Democrats think might be the “next” Barack Obama. There is even no-work jobs to buddies and other such criminal waste.”

“Linda Watkins-Brashear, the agency’s director and a political ally of former Newark mayor, now Sen. Cory Booker, wrote unreported checks to herself to the tune of $200,000, was awarded $700,000 in two severance packages, gave more than $1 million in contracts to her friends and ex-husband, and lost $500,000 in dubious stock ventures, the report states.

The director of the agency, Linda Watkins-Brashear, is now pleading her protections under the Fifth Amendment and reusing to say anything to investigators. But she did say through her attorney that she didn’t do anything that Senator Booker–who was Newark’s mayor at the time–didn’t know about.”

You tell me, which is the real scandal here?

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5. From CBSNews  “Gunmen from Islamist group Boko Haram stormed a boarding school in northeast Nigeria overnight and killed 29 pupils, many of whom died in flames as the school was burned to the ground, police and the military said on Tuesday.

“Some of the students bodies were burned to ashes,” Police Commissioner Sanusi Rufai said of the attack on the Federal Government college of Buni Yadi, a secondary school in Yobe state, near the state’s capital city of Damaturu.

Female students were spared in the attack, said spokesman Abdullahi Bego. The attackers went to the female dormitories and told the young women to go home, get married and abandon the Western education they said is anathema to Islam, he said. He was relating to The Associated Press what survivors and community leaders told Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam when he visited the now-deserted and destroyed Federal Government College at Buni Yadi, a secondary school 45 miles south of the state capital, Damaturu..

 Soldiers guarding a checkpoint near the government school were mysteriously withdrawn hours before the attack, said Abdullahi Bego, the spokesman for the governor of Yobe state.

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News/Politics 2-25-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. 4 Pinocchios. Again.

From TheWaPo  ““We’ve got close to 7 million Americans who have access to health care for the first time because of Medicaid expansion.”– President Obama”

The Fact Checker has written several times about the fuzziness of the Medicaid numbers issued by the Obama administration. But it is like playing whack-a-mole. Every time we rap someone for getting it wrong, the same problem pops up someplace else.”

“What does this mean in terms of evaluating the president’s statement? He seems to be falling into the same trap as other Democrats, and some reporters, by assuming that everyone in the Medicaid list is getting health insurance for the first time because of the Affordable Care Act. But that number is nowhere close to 7 million. It could be as low as 1.1 million (Avalere) or as high as 2.6 million (Gaba.) If one wanted to be generous, one could include people coming out of the woodwork, even though they would have been covered under the old law, but no one is really sure what that figure is.

In any case, no matter how you slice it, it does not add up to 7 million. It is dismaying that given all of the attention to this issue, the president apparently does not realize that the administration’s data are woefully inadequate for boastful assertions of this type.”

He knows, but he says it anyway. And it keeps popping back up because they all use the same White House talking points.

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2. Meanwhile Democrats continue to jump ship as a result of their ObamaCare votes.

From TheDailyCaller  “Seven of the Democratic lawmakers surrounding President Obama when he signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010 are either now out of Congress or on their way out.

As depicted in this Daily Caller graphic, seven smiling Democrats have gone down or out in the last four years.”

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3. In other ObamaCare news, Notre Dame has lost a court battle over the contraceptive mandate.

From FoxNews  “A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the University of Notre Dame in a case over parts of the federal health care law that forces it to provide health insurance for students and employees that covers contraceptives.

The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld a federal judge’s earlier ruling that denied the Roman Catholic school’s request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent it from having to comply with the birth control requirement as the university’s lawsuit moves forward.

The lawsuit challenges a compromise in the Affordable Health Care Act offered by the Obama administration that attempted to create a buffer for religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service groups that oppose birth control. The law requires insurers or the health plan’s outside administrator to pay for birth control coverage and creates a way to reimburse them.”

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4. Margret Sanger’s dream come true.

From TheBlacksphere  “Sanger was a nurse and a birth control advocate in the early 20th century. But more importantly, she formed the organization, American Birth Control League, which would eventually become Planned Parenthood.

And like the modern day organization, cloaking its true agenda in palatable verbiage such as “family planning” and “choice,” Margaret’s goal was far more evil than the respectable facade she presented.”

“Such narratives lend to the Margaret Sanger reverence by new guard feminists, those women who prioritize self and convenience over the preciousness of life. Several generations of women have been raised to view sacrifice as demeaning, and new life as a potential threat to a self-centered career.

The real Margaret Sanger espoused sinister motives for advancing birth control and abortion: she fully endorsed eugenics for the betterment of race and society.”

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5. Here’s another story that demonstrates how the media omit relevant details to protect abortion.

From NewsBusters  “Australian TV Star Commits Suicide After Depression Triggered by Her Abortion; U.S. Media Accounts Omit Abortion”

“Abortion proponents push for easy access to abortion, deemphasizing its after-affects to the point they absolutely refuse to acknowledge post-abortion depression, which further incapacitates those actually living through it.

This is such a tragedy. Charlotte Dawson, RIP, was born in New Zealand but achieved fame in Australia as a model and a judge on Australia’s Next Top Model.”

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6. And remember… as always,

Media bias is a myth. 🙄

From CapitolCityProject  “Conservatives often argue that the mainstream media is unabashedly liberal, and a look at campaign contributions given by employees of mainstream media companies shows this seems to be the case on an individual level.

Using data from the Center for Responsive Politics, Capitol City Project has found that these donations, indeed, go heavily to Democratic politicians. For example, CNN’s ratio of individual political contributions from employees to politicians shows that of the total contributions, $29,460 is given to Democrats as opposed to $12,500 to Republicans from 1998 to 2014. That is a ratio of 70 percent to Democrats and 30 percent to Republicans.”

“NBC has one of the largest discrepancies of political donations between the parties. Contributions to Democrats total $85,853. On the other hand, Republicans received $4,050. That is 93 percent to Democrats. If you add in NBC Sports, individuals gave $2,500 to Democrats and none to Republicans.”

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7. Just like with the ObamaCare website. They know people’s personal info is at risk, but they don’t care.

From TheDailyCaller  “The Obama administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) knew that a breach of veterans’ personal information was “practically unavoidable” months before it happened in January, according to an internal VA risk assessment that also said the department’s security programs are “non-compliant” with three federal laws.

House Veterans Affairs chairman Rep. Jeff Miller recently wrote a letter demanding VA secretary Eric Shinseki take steps to address software glitches like the kind that plagued the department’s eBenefits portal, which in January exposed the “medical and financial information” of more than 5,000 veterans to anyone able to log on to the portal.”

“This breach came as no surprise to VA.”

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8. Former Pres. Bush has a new project for vets, joining Jacob Wood of Team Rubicon.

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News/Politics 2-24-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, with a few to start things off.

1. That didn’t take long. 🙂

From Breitbart  “Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst issued a letter to Secretary of State Nandita Berry today urging her office to immediately turn over all complaints of Battleground Texas’ violations of election law to Attorney General Greg Abbott. The scandal was revealed after Breitbart Texas released the latest James O’Keefe undercover video on what appeared to be a Battleground Texas illegal voter data-mining operation to help elect Wendy Davis.”

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2. Good. Answers for these families is long overdue.

From TheHill  “A congressional panel on Thursday will hold a hearing on a mysterious helicopter crash in Afghanistan that killed members of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team 6 unit.

Many questions about the Aug. 6, 2011 attack, which killed 30 Americans, will be asked during the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on National Security.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who heads the panel, told The Hill that the hearing is aimed at getting answers from the Pentagon and “honoring those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.””

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3. Why am I not shocked? 🙄

From CNSNews  “The FCC may have suspended its invasion into American newsrooms, but the controversial “Critical Information Needs” study also has George Soros’ fingerprints all over it.

While disturbing, this should come as no surprise since Soros’ gave more than $52 million to media organizations from 2000-2010.

Two schools were working with FCC on the project, according to Byron York of The Washington Examiner. The University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Communication and Democracy, were tasked by the FCC with coming up with criteria for what information is “critical” for Americans to have. The FCC study would have covered newspapers, websites, radio and television, according to The Washington Post.

On top of the 1st Amendment problems with this proposal, the schools involved have strong ties to liberal billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and have gotten more than $1.8 million from since 2000.”

All the usual suspects.

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4. If the Democrats really wanna stop “income inequality”, perhaps they should stop causing it. 😯

From TruthRevolt  “The Brookings Institution used 2012 Census data to determine the most income unequal cities in America — and their study found that from LA to Atlanta, cities with liberal governments are also the ones with the largest divide between the poor and the rich. Alan Barube, the report’s author, found that cities with vast income differences will have issues with education, job creation and middle class families leaving. He also points out that with President Obama and other Democrats pushing the agenda of an increased minimum wage and President Obama directly addressing income inequality, these statistics could have a political impact.

Los Angeles is one of the top 10 cities in America for income inequality, with the top 5% earning 12 times more than the bottom 20% of residents. New York City (which has largely been governed by liberals, with the exception of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani), Oakland (known for its high crime rates), Washington (which has had issues with bad public education and strict gun laws), and Chicago (run by the Daleys and then Rahm Emanuel) ranked alongside LA. 

The data shows that the income disparity is even greater in San Francisco, Atlanta, Boston and Miami. Miami, FL has had a mix of Republican and Democratic mayors — but San Francisco, Atlanta and Boston have historically had Democrats at the helm.”

More here from TheSpokesman-Review

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5. This would be funny, if it were satire. But it’s not….

From TheNYPost  “These kids should learn write from wrong.

Earlier this month, The Post exposed a scheme at Manhattan’s Murry Bergtraum HS for Business Careers in which failing students could get full credit without attending class, but instead watch video lessons and take tests online. One social-studies teacher had a roster of 475 students in all grades and subjects.

Red-faced administrators encouraged a student letter-writing campaign to attack The Post and defend its “blended learning” program. Eighteen kids e-mailed to argue that their alma mater got a bad rap. Almost every letter was filled with spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.”

“A junior wrote: “What do you get of giving false accusations im one of the students that has blended learning I had a course of English and I passed and and it helped a lot you’re a reported your support to get truth information other than starting rumors . . .”

As another student pointed out, these kids are the future of NY City and the country. Oh boy.

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