News/Politics

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News/Politics 8-1-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, as always.

First up, hey, it’s only a million… What’s to worry about?

From TheWashingtonTimes  “The Homeland Security Department has lost track of more than 1 million people  who it knows arrived in the U.S. but who it cannot prove left the country,  according to an audit Tuesday that also found the department probably won’t meet  its own goals for deploying an entry-exit system.

The findings were revealed as Congress debates an immigration bill, and the Government  Accountability Office’s report could throw up another hurdle because  lawmakers in the House and Senate have said that  any final deal must include a workable system to track entries and exits and cut  down on so-called visa overstays.”

I’m sure none of them are terrorists, or anyone else we should be concerned about. 🙄

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Next we have a “Phony Scandal” update.

From NationalReview  “Embattled Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner and an attorney in the Federal Election Commission’s general counsel’s office appear to have twice colluded to influence the record before the FEC’s vote in the case of a conservative non-profit organization, according to e-mails unearthed by the House Ways and Means Committee and obtained exclusively by National Review Online. The correspondence suggests the discrimination of conservative groups extended beyond the IRS and into the FEC, where an attorney from the agency’s enforcement division in at least one case sought and received tax information about the status of a conservative group, the American Future Fund, before recommending that the commission prosecute it for violations of campaign-finance law. Lerner, the former head of the IRS’s exempt-organizations division, worked at the FEC from 1986 to 1995, and was known for aggressive investigation of conservative groups during her tenure there, too.”

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We have a George Zimmerman update too. One that’s sure to make race-baiters, guilty feeling white liberals, and media personalities lose their minds. 🙂 Bonus!

From TMZ  “George Zimmerman is still armed and theoretically dangerous …  he was stopped by cops for speeding and revealed he had a gun in his glove  compartment.

Zimmerman was speeding in Forney, Texas on Sunday, just  after noon, when he was stopped by police.  Zimmerman told cops he was  headed “nowhere in particular,” and informed them he had a firearm in his glove  compartment.

Zimmerman was given a warning, after cops determined he was  free of warrants.  He was sent on his way with a polite goodbye, “Have a  safe trip.””

No ticket, and he got to keep his gun. Holder will not be pleased. 🙂 Double Bonus! 🙂

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Here’s another feel good story out of the great state of Texas.

From TheNewAmerican  “The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) appears to be losing its intimidating touch as it goes about its business of trying to stop people from praying and expressing their faith in public. The atheist group’s latest attack has come against the city council of League City, Texas, which has included prayer by local clergy in its regular government meetings since the early 1960s.

In a July 15 letter to Mayor Tim Paulissen and the League City Council, the FFRF went through its customary paces in attempting to browbeat the city fathers into submission. Appealing to the First Amendment’s supposed “separation of state and church,” the godless group’s staff attorney, Elizabeth Cavell, called the city’s tradition of allowing both local residents and government officials to open the meetings in prayer of “dubious legality,” insisting that such prayers are “unnecessary, inappropriate, and divisive.”

Cavell advised that while government officials “are free to pray privately or to worship on their own time in their own way,” they “do not need to worship on taxpayers’ time.” Cavell complained that inviting council members and locals to offer invocations at the government meetings “is coercive and beyond the authority of any government.””

“As it happened, Mayor Paulissen and the city council appeared to be disinclined to follow the FFRF’s self-serving advice. Paulissen told the Houston Chronicle that he and the other city fathers had no plans to drop the 52-year tradition of opening council meetings with an invocation.”

Finally someone stands up to the atheist bullies. Good. 🙂

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Next up, some ObamaCare news….

First, from YahooNews  “President Barack Obama’s decision to delay implementation of part of his healthcare reform law will cost $12 billion and leave a million fewer Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance in 2014, congressional researchers said Tuesday.”

Liberal activists are claiming thousands will die….. unless they get their dream of single-payer. 🙄

From CNSNews  ““Thousands of people will die every year” and “costs will continue to go out of control” under Obamacare, says Public Citizen President Robert Weissman.

The only solution is to nationalize health care through a single-payer system, Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Public Citizen argued outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday.”

And then, The Dishonor System – A user’s guide to committing fraud on the Obama­care exchanges.

From TheWeeklyStandard  “Let me stipulate that I do not condone fraud in any form. Moreover, I assume all Weekly Standard readers are law-abiding citizens who would neither commit fraud themselves nor encourage others to do so. My purpose is to inform such readers just how tempting fraud on the Obamacare health insurance exchanges will be in light of the recently announced delays in employer reporting and employer mandates.

There are three types of fraud worth considering, each reflecting different motivations and degrees of risk tolerance among the hypothetical individuals considered.”

And then they break it down for ya’.

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And this is the last I have for you today. We’ve always known Hollywood was full of narcissists and selfish people. But now it seems their need for hang-over remedies and beauty treatments is adversely affecting the lives of pre-mature children as well.

From WTOP.com  ” It sounds like a Third World problem: Hospitals are rationing,  bartering and hoarding critical nutrients that premature infants need to survive.  But it’s a problem that’s  happening in the  Washington area and in other major cities across the country.”

“This is a national emergency, this is a public  health crisis and the government isn’t doing anything about it,” Robbins says.”

“”So essentially, premature babies are suffering because they can’t get access to  the same nutrients that some celebrities are using to pretty-up before a photo  shoot,” says Robbins, who adds that people are also using the drugs for a hangover  cure. 

Why are celebrities getting the drugs, and not the infants in critical  condition?”

More on it here.

From TheWashingtonian 

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by

News/Politics 7-31-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

First up today, the fuzziest, wuzziest math you ever saw. 🙂

From ZeroHedge  “Don’t like how high debt-to-GDP figures are? Revise ’em. Unhappy at the post-‘recovery’ growth rates? Revise ’em. Disappointed at the pace of economic improvement in the last decade or two compared to the rest of the world? Revise ’em. This week “we are essentially rewriting economic history” as the BEA is set to revise GDP data from as far back as 1929. The ‘adjustments’ to account for intangibles (that best known of micro- accounting fudge factors) and as we noted previously in great detail, will increase GDP by around $500 billion. Of course, these changes are defended aggressively (just as the hedonic adjustments to inflation calculations ‘make perfect sense’) as GDP will now reflect spending on research, development, and copyrights as investment – and reflect pension deficits for the first time (think of all that potential future GDP from massive pension deficits now). With Q2 GDP growth estimates set for a dismal 1.1%, expectations are for the short-term economic data to be revised upwards (and with any luck the great recession never happened at all).”

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The election of 2016 has begun. So right off the bat, the press picks their candidate, and the like-minded will heap praise and awards on the new chosen one. Same script as last time.

From NationalReview  “I wasn’t surprised to learn that sometime before the 2016 election, NBC will be releasing a four-hour miniseries about Hillary Clinton starring Academy Award nominee Diane Lane. What did surprise me was that the series will cover none of her life before the Monica Lewinsky scandal, which took place five years into her husband’s second term as president and when Hillary was already 51 years old. It’s as if her first half-century will be airbrushed away, along with the many scandals that dogged her in those decades.”

Reports have 4 other networks planning their own pro-Clinton story lines. Meanwhile the praise from other areas is just as questionable.

From RedAlertPolitics  “Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is once again being honored with an award for her public service.

Clinton will receive the American Patriot Award from the National Defense University Foundation at a gala dinner on Nov. 14. The award is given to “leaders who have strengthened America’s strategic interests and advanced global security,” according to a press release.

Benghazi, Libya, and Egypt disprove their assertions about her foreign policy genius. How exactly did she do anything there that strengthened America’s strategic interests, or advanced global security? In Egypt the side they picked has already been overthrown. How is that a success story?

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And speaking of Benghazi…… The witnesses who have been hidden from Congress and the public will now tell their stories.

From CBSNews  “In recent weeks, members of the House and Senate and their staffers have held two classified hearings on the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya; conducted more than 25 hours of formal, transcribed interviews with witnesses; and spoken informally with several dozen additional witnesses, including some who are being called “whistleblowers.”

Among those who have recently spoken to Congress is Marine Corps Col. George Bristol who was in the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) chain of command on Sept. 11. Earlier this month, CBS News reported that the Pentagon declined Republican congressional requests to produce Bristol for interviews. At the time, the Pentagon said Bristol had retired and that they “cannot compel retired members to testify before Congress.”

But that’s not all. Remember the claims from the President and Mrs. Clinton that those responsible would be held accountable? Yeah, about that….

From TheWeeklyStandard  “More than ten months after the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, Ansar al Sharia is even more entrenched in Libyan society. Members of Ansar al Sharia in Benghazi were reportedly part of the al Qaeda-linked jihadist coalition that killed four Americans, including a U.S. ambassador. But today, Ansar al Sharia is far from being on the run. The organization is expanding and is even tasked with providing security inside Benghazi. “

A success story worthy of praise and awards? No, it’s not.

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GUILTY! and not.

From FoxNews  “The U.S. Army soldier charged with providing troves of government documents to WikiLeaks was found  not guilty Tuesday of aiding the enemy, the top charge in his 21-count  indictment that could have carried a life sentence, however, he was convicted of  several lesser charges that can carry a 128-year prison sentence.”

“Prosecutors had to prove Army Pfc. Bradley Manning had “a general evil intent” and knew  the classified material would be seen by the terrorist group Al Qaeda. Legal  experts said an aiding-the- enemy conviction could set a precedent because  Manning did not directly give the classified material to Al Qaeda.”

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Sharpton, Obama, Holder, and other like-minded people have decided to go after states with, and those trying to enact, Voter ID. Gee, I wonder if Sharpton’s pals at NBC will play along too? 🙄

From Mediaite  “This week, MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton joined a number of civil rights leaders in the White House to discuss the future enforcement of the Voting Rights Act with President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. Sharpton revealed that the Department of Justice and the White House intend to vigorously enforce the VRA, particularly against states instituting questionable voter ID laws. He added that Texas and North Carolina were two specific states in the DOJ’s crosshairs.

“It was one meeting – it was unprecedented – the attorney general and the president in the Roosevelt Room of the White House,” Sharpton began. “I talked to the attorney general for an hour and the president for 40 minutes.”

Unprecedented alright. Just not for the reasons he thinks.

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Still no White House tours, but the partying continues anyway.

From WhiteHouseDossier  “The White House continues to bar average Americans from touring “The People House” but nevertheless lavishes spending on all sorts of special invitees – from diners at last week’s Iftar dinner breaking the Muslim fast to sports teams and foreign diplomats.”

“Soon after the outcry over the cancellation of tours due to the sequester, the White House promised to see what could be done to allow some visits to resume. But nothing was done and no one can visit – unless President Obama finds you useful or amusing.”

“June’s events included a raucous celebration of LGBT Pride Month, a special movie screening in the White House theater, and visits by the WNBA Champion Indiana Fever and Super Bowl winning Baltimore Ravens and Division III Women’s Basketball Champion DePauw University Tigers.”

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And the President would like you to know that the best way to help the economy is…….

From CNSNews  “President Barack Obama – citing the job losses since he took office — said “the economy would be much better off,” unemployment would be 6.5 percent and the national deficit would be in decline if there were more federal, state and local government workers.

“If those layoffs had not happened, if public sector employees grew like they did in the past two recessions, the unemployment rate would be 6.5 instead of 7.5,” Obama said. “Our economy would be much better off, and the deficit would still be going down because we would be getting more tax revenue.”

Sure. That’ll do it. Right Detroit?

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by

News/Politics 7-30-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

An interesting read on ObamaCare, from, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, Howard “the Scream” Dean. 😯

No, seriously. 🙂 He’s still a fan overall, but he points out some of the obvious flaws.

From TheWallStJournal  “That said, the law still has its flaws, and American lawmakers and citizens have both an opportunity and responsibility to fix them.

One major problem is the so-called Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB is essentially a health-care rationing body. By setting doctor reimbursement rates for Medicare and determining which procedures and drugs will be covered and at what price, the IPAB will be able to stop certain treatments its members do not favor by simply setting rates to levels where no doctor or hospital will perform them.

There does have to be control of costs in our health-care system. However, rate setting—the essential mechanism of the IPAB—has a 40-year track record of failure. What ends up happening in these schemes (which many states including my home state of Vermont have implemented with virtually no long-term effect on costs) is that patients and physicians get aggravated because bureaucrats in either the private or public sector are making medical decisions without knowing the patients. Most important, once again, these kinds of schemes do not control costs. The medical system simply becomes more bureaucratic.”

Almost sounds like a “Death Panel” or something. But that’s just Sarah Palin crazy talk right? 🙂

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Next, one that stinks for those affected, yet bittersweet justice at the same time. Maybe the members should pay closer attention to where their leaders are sending their dollars, political clout, and endorsements. They supported the politicians responsible for these laws, as well as their elections. Did they really think they’d be totally exempt like Congress and the White House?

From TheNYTimes  “As Detroit enters the federal bankruptcy process, the city is proposing a controversial plan for paring some of the $5.7 billion it owes in retiree health costs: pushing many of those too young to qualify for Medicare out of city-run coverage and into the new insurance markets that will soon be operating under the Obama health care law.

Officials say the plan would be part of a broader effort to save Detroit tens of millions of dollars in health costs each year, a major element in a restructuring package that must be approved by a bankruptcy judge. It is being watched closely by municipal leaders around the nation, many of whom complain of mounting, unsustainable prices for the health care promised to retired city workers.”

“There’s fear and panic about what this means,” said Michael Underwood, 62, who retired from the Chicago Police Department after 30 years and has diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. Mr. Underwood, who says he began working for the city when employees did not pay into future Medicare coverage, is part of a group suing Chicago over its plan to phase many retirees out of city coverage during the next three and a half years. “I was promised health care for myself and my wife for life,” he said.”

Look for ObamaCare’s popularity to continue to tank with the public.

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Meanwhile the President says the retirees are lucky to have ObamaCare. Silly peasants.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “Detroit’s reported plan to drop health care coverage for retirees and force them into Obamacare exchanges highlights “the benefits of the Affordable Care Act,” according to President Obama’s spokesman.”

😯 Wow. Talk about tone-deaf. 🙄

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Who’s up for some fuzzy math? This is even fuzzier than last time.

From CNSNews  “According to the Daily Treasury Statement for July 26, which the Treasury released this afternoon, the federal debt has been stuck at exactly $16,699,396,000,000.00 for 70 straight days.”

“Even though the government’s official accounting of the debt has not budged for 70 days, the Treasury has continued to sell bills, notes and bonds at a value that exceeds the value of the bills, notes and bonds it was redeeming.”

“How  could the value of extant U.S. Treasury securities increase by  $53.267  billion during a 70-day period when the federal government’s debt subject to the legal limit has remained constant at $16,699,396,000,000.00—just $25 million below the legal limit?”

That would require the fuzziest of maths. Probably the same guys who do the CBO estimates, and BLS employment numbers.

Math, like Art, can now be interpreted.

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CAIR makes demands on the Brotherhood’s behalf…..

From TheDailyCaller  “The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), America’s largest and most  powerful Muslim advocacy group, called Saturday for the Obama administration to  condemn military attacks against the Freedom and Justice Party, the  controversial religious party removed from power in a recent coup that the Obama  administration is insisting “was not a coup.”

The administration reportedly fears that declaring a coup d’etat in Egypt  would force the U.S. to suspend all of its assistance programs in the country,  which also help block weapons smuggling to Hamas  terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Despite the Obama administration’s inaction, Egyptian military forces have  instituted a shoot-to-kill policy to suppress protesters urging the return of  Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi to power. Morsi, who fled Cairo during  the military non-coup earlier this month, has been defiant in exile — and Egypt  hangs in the balance. 65 or 66 pro-Morsi protesters were killed Saturday by military forces near  a sit-in at a Cairo mosque.”

The Obama White House obliges.

From Reuters  “The White House condemned the Egyptian military’s bloody weekend crackdown on demonstrators on Monday but took no immediate steps to suspend U.S. military assistance to Egypt.”

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And for the last one, Reason #63,459 to not send your kids to public schools.

From EAGNews  “The group’s latest effort to indoctrinate the nation’s youth is a 286-page book aimed at teachers, titled “Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers.” The book is a mix of math lesson plans and essays from activist educators who explain how they’ve used their classrooms to advance a progressive political philosophy.”

“The first is that the U.S. is a hopelessly racist country that routinely oppresses “people of color.”

This message is conveyed through lessons and essays about racial profiling, environmental racism, unfair mortgage lending practices of Big Banks, the “overabundance of liquor stores” in minority communities, and slave-owning U.S. presidents.

The book’s other major theme is that capitalism’s unequal distribution of wealth is the root cause of the world’s suffering. Students learn to despise free market economics in lessons about third-world sweatshops, “living wage” laws, the earnings of fast food workers and restaurant CEOs, and the “hidden” costs of meat production.”

As the link shows, the radicals rule.

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by

News/Politics 7-29-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

First up, Al-Qaeda is on the run and in disarray or something, according to the President.

From TheDailyBeast  “Two spectacular al Qaeda prison breaks in Iraq, freeing over 500 of its members in two separate prisons simultaneously this week, demonstrate the group is back with a vengeance. Al Qaeda’s Iraq branch is also the moving force behind the jihadist success in Syria. The resurgence of al Qaeda in Iraq has sobering implications for what is likely to follow the drawdown of NATO forces in Afghanistan for the al Qaeda mother ship in Pakistan.

The double jailbreaks at Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons were massive attacks. Suicide bombers, teams of attackers using mortars and small arms, and two dozen car bombs were used. The firefight killed over a hundred Iraqi guards. The attackers also had inside help within the Iraqi security forces. The attacks were the culmination of what al Qaeda in Iraq’s leadership had promised a year ago when it launched the “Breaking the Walls” offensive to free its prisoners from Iraqi jails.”

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The Obama admins policy of using the military as a social experiment continues. Welcome to affirmative action in combat. Told you they would have to lower standards.

From TheDailyCaller  “Senior military personnel are considering giving women different military  training than men, The Washington Times reports.

The effort was proposed by Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Niki Tsongas at a  recent House Armed Services Committee hearing because so far, she says training  systems do not “maximize the success of women.”

Though the armed services have promised that combat standards will be the  same regardless of gender, senior officers are considering initially separate  training systems.”

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Next, states working against Obama and his agenda.

From Politico  “Infuriated by what they see as the long arm of Washington reaching into their  business, states are increasingly telling the feds: Keep out!

Bills that would negate a variety of federal laws have popped up this year in  the vast majority of states — with the amount of anti-federal legislation  sharply on the rise during the Obama administration, according to experts.”

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This one? Huh, coulda fooled me.

From CNSNews  “In an e-mail to supporters, First Lady Michelle Obama says she grew up in a family that didn’t need help from the government, and that her husband is working to make Americans free from dependence on government once again.”

“”When I was growing up, a family like mine — living on my hard-working father’s salary at the city water plant — could build a solid life without much debt and without relying on any form of public assistance. Today, for too many families, that American promise is no longer within reach. “Barack is working to fix that and he needs solid Democrats in Congress to help him.” “

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Everything would be fine if we’d all just get on board with this “redistribution” stuff.  He also issues a warning that race relations will continue to deteriorate in this country if we don’t. 🙄  Isn’t it great having a post-racial President?

From WhiteHouseDossier  “President Obama said that if economic prescriptions of the type he supports to increase economic growth and reduce “income inequality” are not adopted, then race relations in the United State may deteriorate further.

“If we don’t do anything, then growth will be slower than it should be. Unemployment will not go down as fast as it should. Income inequality will continue to rise,” Obama said in an interview published Sunday by the New York Times. “Racial tensions won’t get better; they may get worse, because people will feel as if they’ve got to compete with some other group to get scraps from a shrinking pot. If the economy is growing, everybody feels invested, ” he said.”

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Remember, this is a “Phony Scandal” according to the President.

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Before reading this last one, the Obama admin would like to remind you that this was just workplace violence, and that any ties to Islam and the ongoing war are purely coincidental.  🙄 

From CNSNews  “”My complicity was on behalf of a government that openly acknowledges that it would hate for the law of Almighty Allah to be the supreme law of the land,” Hasan said in the lengthy statement released to Fox News (http://fxn.ws/1cafkA2 ) on Saturday. He then says in reference to a war on Islam, “I participated in it.”

Hasan, 42, is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the November 2009 attack at the Texas Army post. His trial is scheduled to start Aug. 6. He faces the death penalty if convicted.”

“”I would like to begin by repenting to Almighty Allah and apologize to the Mujahideen, the believers, and the innocent. … I ask for their forgiveness for participating in the illegal and immoral aggression against Muslims, their religion and their lands,” he told Fox News in the statement.”

Nothin’ to see kids…..   Move along now……

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by

News/Politics 7-27-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

First up, more media editing of tape involving the Zimmerman case. ABC joins NBC in pushing a false meme. Hopefully they join NBC in the lawsuit against them area too.

From SLATE  “Did George Zimmerman get away with murder? That’s what one of his jurors says, according to headlines in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and dozens of other newspapers. Trayvon Martin’s mother and the Martin family’s attorney are trumpeting this “new information” as proof that “George Zimmerman literally got away with murder.”

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Next, not surprising given this administration’s policies.

From TheDailyCaller  “Federal Bureau of Investigation officials ignored warnings about the radical origins and nature of the mosque frequented by the Tsarnaev brothers for years before this April’s deadly Boston Marathon bombings.”

“But the FBI was warned nearly four years  prior to the bombings that the ISB was a nest of Islamic radicalism.”

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The IRS union has said they don’t want ObamaCare. Sure, but they want to expand to enforce it for the commoners huh?

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “IRS employees have a prominent role in Obamacare, but their union wants no part of the law.

National Treasury Employees Union officials are urging members to write their congressional representatives in opposition to receiving coverage through President Obama’s health care law.

The union leaders are providing members with a form letter to send to the congressmen that says “I am very concerned about legislation that has been introduced by Congressman Dave Camp to push federal employees out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and into the insurance exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act.”

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In other ObamaCare news, another company opens it’s doors to the navigators (ACORN) and ObamaCare. Personally just further confirmation to us that we were lucky our plan dumped CVS Caremark.

From Politico “CVS Caremark is joining the effort to encourage Americans to sign up for  Obamacare insurance programs, company executives announced Thursday.

CVS officials told POLITICO that they’re planning to use pharmacies at their  7,400 North American stores as a gateway for the uninsured to learn about new  coverage options — especially subsidized insurance coverage available to  low-income people on state-based insurance exchanges.”

“Foulkes said CVS pharmacies would invite trained “navigators” into their stores  to help eligible people sign up for exchanges.”

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And ACORN getting ahold of every American’s personal info isn’t the only worry. Others may too.

From RedAlertPolitics  “As the Obama administration frantically tries to enlist the help of organizations to promote the Affordable Care Act, Planned Parenthood could be one of several groups with access to citizens’ sensitive information in the Federal Data Hub.

According to The Illinois Typepad Review, if the organization is granted funding through the Department of Health and Human Services’ $54 million in navigator grants, the nonprofit will have access to Obamacare’s Federal Data Hub. The database contains citizens’ information collected from the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, and includes Social Security numbers.”

That’s called cronyism folks. The worst kind. You fund us and help push it, we pay you back with federal dollars for pushing it, and for performing abortions.

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And in an ironic twist, the ObamaCare California call centers about to go on-line have decided half their employees will be part-time intermittent. That means no health insurance, and like the Census, they’ll pace work assignments so nobody makes enough to collect UC benefits when the assignments are done.

From NationalReview  “One branch of that call center will be located in California’s Contra Costa County, where, reportedly, 7,000 people applied for the 204 jobs. According to the Contra Costa Times, however, “about half the jobs are part-time, with no health benefits — a stinging disappointment to workers and local politicians who believed the positions would be full-time.” The county supervisor, Karen Mitchoff, called the hiring process “a comedy of errors” and said she “never dreamed [the jobs] would be part-time.”

But hey, don’t worry, at least they’ll get a bigger subsidy to buy insurance they still won’t be able to afford. That’s something right? And since they won’t make much, they can probably get food stamps too. You just have to look at the bright side with this stuff. 🙄

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Everything the man says comes with an expiration date. The promise of Change has officially past it’s sell by date.

From TheHuffingtonPost  “Amid the Obama administration’s crackdown against whistleblowers, Change.gov, the 2008 website of the Obama transition team laying out the candidate’s promises, has disappeared from the internet.

The Sunlight Foundation notes that it last could be viewed on June 8, which was two days after the first revelations from Edward Snowden (who had then not yet revealed himself) about the NSA’s phone surveillance program. One of the promises Obama made on the website was on “whistleblower protections:””

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Next we have attack cats preying on the French. 😯

From TheTelegraph/UK  “About six cats pounced on the unnamed dog owner as she walked her poodle in the city of Belfort, in the popular Franche-Comte region, on the Swiss border, dragging her to the ground and mauling her.

She was bitten repeatedly and left with a torn artery which could have proved fatal, while the dog was also badly hurt.”

“The woman was rushed to hospital where she received treatment for her wounds, and a number of injections including one against rabies. The poodle was treated at a nearby veterinary clinic.”

They estimate that 8,000 more are born in France everyday.  😦

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And a good news story in the treatment of dementia.

From Bloomberg  “Patients taking drugs known as ACE inhibitors that are used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure had lower rates of deterioration caused by certain types of dementia, according to researchers who reviewed Canadian hospital records.”

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by

News/Politics 7-26-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

We’ve got a bunch today.

First up, from TheWashingtonPost  “By a margin of 56 to 27 percent, more Americans say they’d prefer to impose limits on abortions after the first 20 weeks of pregnancy rather than the 24-week mark established under current law, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.”

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Next up, Holder begins his attempt to get around the recent Voting Rights decision from the Supreme Court. Why does he always speak to border-line racist groups about alleged racism from others?

From RedAlertPolitics  “In response to the Supreme Court’s recent decision that states are innocent of institutional racism until proven guilty, Attorney General Eric Holder is arguing that Texas’ “history of pervasive voting-related discrimination against racial minorities” should make its voting laws subject to the Department of Justice’s oversight indefinitely.

While speaking before the National Urban League in Philadelphia on Thursday, Holder said his agency would ask a federal judge to require Texas to submit all its voting laws to the DOJ for review before they can be legally enacted because the state has a supposed history of discrimination and racism.”

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Meanwhile the Obama admin plays dumb in order to keep the money flowing to Egypt. Coup? What coup? 🙄

From TheHuffingtonPost  “The Obama administration told lawmakers Thursday that it won’t declare Egypt’s government overthrow a coup, U.S. officials and lawmakers said, allowing the United States to continue providing $1.5 billion in annual military and economic aid to the Arab world’s most populous country.”

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Next we have another victim of ObamaCare.

From RedAlertPolitics  “For almost 20 years Bob Westbrook has been a Cici’s Pizza franchise owner, selling “fresh taste at a great price.” But thanks to Obamacare’s not-so-great-employer mandate, Westbrook is forced to sell his buffet-style restaurants instead of pizza.

Even though Westbrook says his Texas stores were the top three performing CiCi’s Pizza franchises, he wasn’t making enough dough… er, money to provide health insurance to all 96 of his full-time employees, much less afford the penalty — which would cost him $78,000 more than what he says he made at his restaurants in 2011.”

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Here’s a new development in the NSA snooping.

From Cnet  “The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users’ stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.”

“If the government is able to determine a person’s password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user. Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.”

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Meanwhile, we now know what it costs to buy an Ambassadorship. About a half a million.

From Bloomberg  “At least 26 of Obama’s current and nominated ambassadors were major Democratic campaign contributors, giving a total of at least $13.6 million to him, the Democratic Party, and congressional candidates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“When he talked about toughening up lobbying rules, the sense was that this is a president really committed to international engagement,” said Dan Kurtzer, a 29-year veteran of the foreign service and former ambassador to Egypt and Israel under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. “Instead, we so devalue diplomacy that we assume anyone can walk off the street and do it.”

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And last, we have The Black Death. 😯

From NBCLosAngelos  “A squirrel infected with plague bacteria prompted the closure of popular campgrounds in the Angeles National Forest on Wednesday, according to Los Angeles County health officials.”

That’s not cool.

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by

News/Politics 7-25-13

What news stories should we talk about today?

First up, a couple of stories on the economy.

From TheWashingtonPost  “But anyone who thinks that the short-run battle is over should take a look at a new report by Daniel Alpert over at the Century Foundation. Alpert notes that while the headline unemployment number is well below its recession-era peak, that’s almost 100 percent due to declines in the labor force participation rate — that is, the share of the population that’s either employed or actively looking for work. Don’t believe him? Take a look at this chart:”

“Now, look at the blue dotted line. That’s the labor force participation rate. See how it nearly perfectly tracks the movements of the unemployment rate? That’s a pretty good sign that people leaving the labor force, rather than getting jobs, is what’s driving the latter down.

To drive the point home, Alpert calculates what the unemployment rate would be absent any decline in labor-force participation. Spoiler: it’d be right where it was during the worst of the recession.”

Next up, it’s always about what they leave out.

From CNSNews  “Here’s what Mr. Carney didn’t say:Since February of 2009, the first full month of Obama’s presidency, 9.5 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force.  Nearly 90 million Americans are not working today!

That means that 1.3 Americans have dropped out of the labor force for every one job the administration claims to have created.

“There are 15 million more Americans on food stamps today than when Obama assumed office.”

What shocks me is the number of people who buy the damaged goods that the White House is trying to sell.

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Next up…. it was accidental I’m sure.  🙄

From TheWashingtonTimes  “Delaware state officials have told Congress that they likely destroyed the computer records that would show when and how  often they accessed Christine  O’Donnell’s personal tax records and acknowledged that a newspaper article  was used as the sole justification for snooping into the former GOP  Senate candidate’s tax history.

The revelations to Sen. Chuck  Grassley’s office came Tuesday as the Treasury  Department’s inspector general for tax administration, the government’s  chief watchdog for the Internal  Revenue Service, formally reopened its investigation into the matter by  re-interviewing Ms. O’Donnell.”

““So far, it appears the department destroys the access records after a short  amount of time,” Mr. Grassley said.  “That’s puzzling. Unless the IRS has a back-up, and I hope the IRS does, there’s no way to know  how and when Delaware state employees accessed Christine  O’Donnell’s federal tax records.””

Convenient no?

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This one? Sure it’s unconstitutional, but when has that ever mattered to liberals?

From OneNewsNow  “According to Pastor Charles Flowers of Faith Outreach International, the city leaders want to add two categories to the policy: sexual orientation and gender identity. “

The ordinance also says that if you have at any point demonstrated a bias – without defining what a bias is or who will determine whether or not one has been exercised – that you cannot get a city contract,” he tells OneNewsNow. “Neither can any of your subcontractors [who have demonstrated a bias] sign on to the contract.”

Moreover, according to a draft of the revised policy, no one who has spoken out against homosexuality or the transgender lifestyle can run for city council or be appointed to a board. Flowers says the Arizona-based legal firm Alliance Defending Freedom has taken a look at the ordinance.”

Christians need not apply I guess.

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Next up, activist or judge? When you know the answer, you’ll see why they want to rush this thru during recess.

From LifeSiteNews  “Why the rush? Ed Whalen of NRO’s Bench Memos suspects that Pillard (who’s been described to him as “less moderate” than the most activist liberal in appellate court history) wouldn’t survive intense scrutiny. The hurry, Whalen warns, “seems designed to prevent a careful review of their records. Obama himself has taken forever to make nominations to the D.C. Circuit, and that court remains underworked, so it is difficult to see the justification for the sudden rush.”

Unfortunately for Americans, the Senate won’t have to dig too deep to uncover some of Pillard’s shockers. Among some of her greatest hits, the former Deputy Assistant Attorney General argues that abortion is necessary to help “free women from historically routine conscription into maternity.” As if her militant feminism wasn’t apparent enough, she takes the opportunity in some of her writings to slam anyone who opposes the abortion-contraception mandate as “reinforce[ing] broader patterns of discrimination against women as a class of presumptive breeders.”

A mother of two, Nina wrote a 2011 paper, “Against the New Maternalism,” which argues that by celebrating motherhood, society is creating a “self-fulfilling cycle of discrimination.” Those ideas bleed into Pillard’s extreme pro-abortion views, which suggest that technology is somehow manipulating Americans to consider the personhood of the unborn. In one of her most jaw-dropping statements, the President’s nominee even criticizes the ultrasound. She believes it manufactures “deceptive images of fetus-as-autonomous-being that the anti-choice movement has popularized since the advent of amniocentesis.””

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And this last one is not at all shocking. Of course the media would love this guy.

From FoxNews  “Reza Aslan, author of the new book, “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth” has been  interviewed on a host of media outlets in the last week. Riding a publicity  wave, the book has surged to #2 on Amazon’s list.

Media reports have introduced Aslan as a “religion scholar” but have failed  to mention that he is a devout Muslim.

His book is not a historian’s report on Jesus. It is an educated Muslim’s  opinion about Jesus — yet the book is being peddled as objective history  on national TV and radio.”

““Zealot” is a fast-paced demolition of the core beliefs that Christianity has  taught about Jesus for 2,000 years. Its conclusions are long-held Islamic  claims—namely, that Jesus was a zealous prophet type who didn’t claim to be God,  that Christians have misunderstood him, and that the Christian Gospels are not  the actual words or life of Jesus but “myth.””

I’m sure they’d be just as happy to plug a book written by a Christian that was critical of Mohammed. And you just know they’d get plenty of airtime right? 🙄

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by

News/Politics 7-24-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

As always, open thread. 🙂

Too late, you own it.

From TheWashingtonPost  “The landmark health-reform law passed in 2010 has never been very popular and always highly partisan, but a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that a group of once loyal Democrats has been steadily turning against Obamacare: Democrats who are ideologically moderate  or conservative.”

Meanwhile the majority of the public remains against it as well. And the public also believes healthcare will get worse because of it.

From Rasmussen  “Voters continue to give high marks to the health care they now receive but are more pessimistic than ever about the short-term future of the health care system in this country.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 24% of Likely U.S. Voters now expect the U.S. health care system to get better over the next couple of years. Sixty-one percent (61%) think that system will get worse. That’s up four points from a month ago and up 13 points since February.”

Repeal it, or shut ‘er down. Either works. 🙂

From TheHill  “ObamaCare is at the center of a rapidly escalating fight that threatens to  shut the government down this fall.

Senate Republicans, including two members of the leadership, are coalescing  around a proposal to block any government funding resolution that includes money  for the implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.”

And an update to a previous story.

From NationalReview  “President Obama has had a poor record of job creation, but at least one small economic sector is doing well: community organizing.

The Department of Health and Human Services is about to hire an army of “patient navigators” to inform Americans about the subsidized insurance promised by Obamacare and assist them in enrolling. These organizers will be guided by the new Federal Data Hub, which will give them access to reams of personal information compiled by federal agencies ranging from the IRS to the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration. “The federal government is planning to quietly enact what could be the largest consolidation of personal data in the history of the republic,” Paul Howard of the Manhattan Institute and Stephen T. Parente, a University of Minnesota finance professor, wrote in USA Today. No wonder that there are concerns about everything from identity theft to the ability of navigators to use the system to register Obamacare participants to vote.”

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Next we have a leftist caught with a racist sign at a George Zimmerman rally. She was pretending to be with them in order to make them look bad. Of course this is easy to accomplish when you have like-minded leftist in the media willing to run with a false story.

From GatewayPundit  “A photo from the Houston pro-Zimmerman counter-rally of the NBPP anti-Zimmerman rally picked up by the AP shows a woman holding a sign that read, “Racist & Proud.”

“Austin resident Renee Vaughan echoed the sign’s ugly sentiments by yelling, “We’re racist. We’re proud. We’re better because we’re white,” at the Martin group as they passed, according to the Chronicle.

The act to smear the Zimmerman supporters as racists with a leftist plant worked as the photo and comment was picked up and spread worldwide.“

She’s also a community organizer. What were the chances huh? 🙄

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And since we’re on the subject of leftist hacks pretending to be something they’re not, here’s one pretending she’s a journalist.

From CNSNews  “Noting the worldwide excitement surrounding Kate Middleton’s pregnancy, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry compared the hoopla surrounding the British royal birth to Texas abortion politics, and then offered her own definition of viability:

“When does life begin? I submit the answer depends an awful lot on the feeling of the parents. A powerful feeling – but not science,” Harris-Perry said on her show Sunday. “The problem is that many of our policymakers want to base sweeping laws on those feelings.”

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Here’s a not shocking story.

From HotAir  “The analysis from Media Research Center comes as no shock to those of us keeping track of both stories as they unfolded, of course, but it’s noteworthy nonetheless. The broadcast networks created a new heroine in tennis shoes in Wendy Davis while barely mentioning Kermit Gosnell over a much longer period:

Davis, a previously unheard of Texas state senator, staged a filibuster last month in a successful bid to derail a late-term abortion bill. Cheered by rowdy pro-abortion activists, Davis spoke for 11 hours against a bill outlawing abortions after 20 months of pregnancy and mandating that abortion clinics meet the same sanitary and safety standards as any other Texas medical facility.”

“In the 19 days since her June 25 filibuster, ABC, CBS and NBC have devoted 40 minutes, 48 seconds of their morning and evening news programs to stories including Davis. That’s more than three times the 13 minutes 30 seconds they gave Gosnell during the entire 58 days of the murder trial.”

Well the media loves to push stories that promote their pro-abortion views. Stories that show the true horror of those views, not so much.

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Next up, some friendly fire for Anthony Weiner over his latest and continuing stupidity.

From TheNYTimes  “At some point, the full story of Anthony Weiner and his sexual relationships and texting habits will finally be told. In the meantime, the serially evasive Mr. Weiner should take his marital troubles and personal compulsions out of the public eye, away from cameras, off the Web and out of the race for mayor of New York City.”

“That’s ridiculous and speaks to a familiar but repellent pattern of misleading and evasion. It’s up to Mr. Weiner if he wants to keep running, to count on voters to forgive and forget and hand him the keys to City Hall. But he has already disqualified himself.”

Sure it’s a Blind Squirrel moment for the NYT, but I’ll still give them credit for stating the obvious.

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by

News/Politics 7-23-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

First up…

From RealClearPolitics  “A week after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the fatal shooting of black  teenager Trayvon Martin, the backlash continues, with nationwide protests and  calls to boycott Florida. President Obama spoke some undeniable truths when he  noted that the African-American community’s reaction must be seen in the context  of a long, terrible history of racism. But there is another context too: that of  an ideology-based, media-driven false narrative that has distorted a tragedy  into a racist outrage.

This narrative has transformed Zimmerman, a man of racially mixed  heritage that included white, Hispanic and black roots (a grandmother who  helped raise him had an Afro-Peruvian father), into an honorary white male  steeped in white privilege. It has cast him as a virulent racist even though he  once had a black business partner, mentored African-American kids, lived in a  neighborhood about 20 percent black, and participated in complaints about a white police lieutenant’s son getting away with beating a homeless black man.”

Next up, I asked before, I’ll ask again. Assisting, or orchestrating?

From TheDailyCaller  “At CRS headquarters, we (meaning I) regularly had to warn or take corrective  action against career employees for acting as advocates instead of mediators,”  Ondray Harris, the former director of the DOJ’s Community Relations Service  (CRS), told The Daily Caller. CRS was the unit deployed to Sanford in 2012 to  oversee anti-Zimmerman protests.

“Some CRS employees come to the Agency with anti-law enforcement or anti-  what they would call the ‘white establishment’ [attitudes]” added Harris, an  African American who joined CRS during the administration of George W. Bush in  2007 and left in 2010.”

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And Obama supported “Stand Your Ground” laws, even co-sponsored it in Illinois. His flip-flop is recent. Again.

From TheIllinoisReview  “This past week President Obama publicly urged the reexamination of state self-defense laws (see remarks below). However, nine years ago then-State Sen. Barack Obama actually co-sponsored a bill that strengthened Illinois’ 1961 “stand your ground” law.

The Obama-sponsored bill (SB 2386) enlarged the state’s 1961 law by shielding the person who was attacked from being sued in civil court by perpetrators or their estates when a “stand your ground” defense is used in protecting his or her person, dwelling or other property.

The bill unanimously passed the Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate on March 25, 2004 with only one comment, and passed the Democrat-controlled Illinois House in May 2004 with only two votes in opposition. Then-Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) signed it into law.”

And the case for standing your ground on “Stand Your Ground”.

From HotAir  “If you need a weekend reading assignment on an important topic, I will definitely suggest  Charles C. W. Cooke’s essential read, Stand Your Ground on Stand Your Ground Laws at National Review. This is a subject which I’d thought was pretty much settled law, but has recently been brought back into the spotlight by Eric Holder, as well as his boss. Some of the opinions being expressed by our nation’s top cops fly directly in the face of the principles underlying current law in many areas. In fact, as Cooke points out, this concept is one which has found a comfortable home in many more places than you might think. For proof, he cites Eugene Volokh.

The substantial majority view among the states, by a 31-19 margin, is no duty to retreat. Florida is thus part of this substantial majority on this point. And most of these states took this view even before the recent spate of “stand your ground” statutes, including the Florida statute.”

Clueless about the law, or willfully ignoring it? Either way, that seems to be their M.O.

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This next one is just a coincidence I’m sure. 🙄

From TheDailyCaller  “Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and two other IRS officials met with  a top official at the White House one day before the agency issued new  guidelines on how to scrutinize tea party and conservative groups applying for  tax-exempt status.

Shulman — joined by his chief of staff and political aide Jonathan Davis and  IRS spokesman Frank Keith —  met with then-Office of Management and Budget  (OMB) Director Jeffrey Zients at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the  White House complex on April 24, 2012.”

“The very next day, April 25, the IRS’s chief counsel’s office — led by William  Wilkins, who  met with Obama at the White House that same week – sent  Washington-based IRS officials “additional comments on the draft guidance” for  approving or denying tea party tax-exempt applications, according to a report on  the IRS scandal compiled by Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George.”

Top down.

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More waste, fraud, and abuse in the nations many food programs.

From WatchDog.org  “Since Illinois has seen an explosion in the number of people receiving food stamps, even a slight error costs taxpayers millions.

In this instance, a mistake rate of less than 2 percent means $50 million is misspent.

That’s the hard truth behind the press release lauding Illinois for having a 98.3 percent accuracy rate for its Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.

Illinois’ error rate, from either overspending on food stamps or not spending enough, is 1.74 percent, according to Januari Smith, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Human Services.“

So the Feds have rewarded the state for their errors because hey, 50 mil in errors isn’t that bad. And what’s 50 million when you have 3 billion to play with?

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Next up, more ObamaCare problems.

From HotAir  “Earlier this summer, three of California’s largest insurance companies announced that they were disinclined to participate in the state’s ObamaCare health insurance exchange system, and it didn’t take long for both Aetna and United Health to decide to stop offering plans through the individual insurance market altogether and instead opt to focus their activities on offering insurance through employers only.

Now, Anthem Blue Cross — California’s largest insurer for small businesses — is announcing that they have no intention of getting involved in the exchanges that ObamaCare plans to set up for the use of small business, and would much rather stick to going it alone. Via the LA Times.”

Let me guess, it’s ‘cuz they’re evil, profit chasing meanies right? 🙄

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And it begins……

From FoxSports  “The first star to fall in baseball’s latest drug investigation is one of its biggest: Ryan Braun.

The 2011 National League MVP was suspended without pay for the rest of the season and the postseason Monday, the start of sanctions involving players reportedly tied to a Florida clinic accused of distributing performance-enhancing drugs.“

Hopefully A-Rod is next.

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And last today, the rise of the religious left?

From Salon  “While politicians like Rick Perry and pundits like Bill O’Reilly may clog up a lot of media airtime, the proportion of religious conservatives in the United States is shrinking with each successive generation, and close to 20 percent of Americans today are religious progressives, according to a new survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution.”

“Religious progressives are significantly younger and more diverse than their conservative counterparts. The mean age of the religious progressive population is 44 – just under the mean age in the general population of 47 – while the mean age of religious conservatives is 53. Twenty-three percent of Millennials (ages 18-33) are religious progressives, while 17 percent are religious conservatives. Among Millennials, there are also nearly as many nonreligious (22 percent) as religious progressives.”

“They also tend to value different things in their faith:”

Yep. They value things like abortion and the “social gospel” instead of The Gospel.

No thanks, I’m good where I’m at.

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by

News/Politics 7-22-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

UPDATE!

From ABCNews  “George Zimmerman, who has been in hiding since he was acquitted of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, emerged to help rescue someone who was trapped in an overturned truck, police said today.

Sanford Police Department Capt. Jim McAuliffe told ABC News that Zimmerman “pulled an individual from a truck that had rolled over” at the intersection of a Florida highway last week.”

No word yet on the race of the victim, or if he was profiling the driver. But the DoJ is investigating. 🙄

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First up, 2 guys who wanted to be President.

The first, finally someone points out the obvious, and a few inconvenient truths about the effects of liberal policies on inner cities.

From RealClearPolitics  “NEWT GINGRICH: This fits perfectly with what I was going to say earlier. You have a congressman — and I respect Bobby Rush. You have a congressman who represents the most violent city in America. You have a congressman who represents the city in which over 500 people were killed last year, 74 percent of them African-American. You have a congressman who represents the city which is 80 percent of the killings, according to police, are by gangs. Gangs have increased — let me finish. Gangs have increased by 40 percent since this president was elected. There is no federal program to stop it. No one wants to have an honest conversation about it. And so you have a congressman whose own district is bleeding, who puts on a hoodie as a symbolic act, but he doesn’t do anything about the gangs in his own district.”

Next up, the always useful (to Democrats) Senator from Arizona.

From TheHill  “Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday urged states to review their “stand your  ground” laws amid a widening debate over the Trayvon Martin verdict and racial  profiling.”

🙄

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Next up, think the NSA is invasive in snooping? Wait ’til you get a look at this. And remember folks, the people who will have access to your private info are the community organizing ACORN types that the Obama admin has hired for the job.

From Rare.com  “As the Obamacare train-wreck begins to gather steam, there is increasing concern in Congress over something called the Federal Data Services Hub. The Data Hub is a comprehensive database of personal information being established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement the federally facilitated health insurance exchanges. The purpose of the Data Hub, according to a June 2013 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, is to provide “electronic, near real-time access to federal data” and “access to state and third party data sources needed to verify consumer-eligibility information.” In these days of secret domestic surveillance by the intelligence community, rogue IRS officials and state tax agencies using private information for political purposes, and police electronically logging every license plate that passes by, the idea of the centralized Data Hub is making lawmakers and citizens nervous.

They certainly should be; the potential for abuse is enormous. The massive, centralized database will include comprehensive personal information such as income and financial data, family size, citizenship and immigration status, incarceration status, social security numbers, and private health information. It will compile dossiers based on information obtained from the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, state Medicaid databases, and for some reason the Peace Corps. The Data Hub will provide web-based, one-stop shopping for prying into people’s personal affairs.”

“However, the hacker threat is the least of the Data Hub worries. The hub will be used on a daily basis by so-called Navigators, which according to the GAO are “community and consumer-focused nonprofit groups, to which exchanges award grants to provide fair and impartial public education” and “refer consumers as appropriate for further assistance.” Thousands of such people will have unfettered access to the Data Hub, but there are only sketchy guidelines on how they will be hired, trained and monitored.”

Yeah. Great. 🙄

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In other overreaches by this administration……..

From TheNYTimes  ” A federal judge on Friday sharply and repeatedly challenged the Obama administration’s claim that courts have no power over targeted drone killings of American citizens overseas.”

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Another food program scam to go with last week’s school lunch story.

From TheNYPost  “Food stamps are paying for trans-Atlantic takeout — with New Yorkers using taxpayer-funded benefits to ship food to relatives in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Welfare recipients are buying groceries with their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards and packing them in giant barrels for the trip overseas, The Post found.

The practice is so common that hundreds of 45- to 55-gallon cardboard and plastic barrels line the walls of supermarkets in almost every Caribbean corner of the city.”

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More stupidity from the atheists.

From TheColumbusDispatch  “The Freedom from Religion Foundation wants the proposed Statehouse Holocaust memorial changed by removing what it sees as the Jewish religious symbolism of the Star of David.

In a June 14 letter to Richard H. Finan, chairman of the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, two foundation officials said they have no objections to a Holocaust memorial at the Statehouse. However, architect Daniel Libeskind’s design includes a cut-out version of a 6-pointed star, usually interepreted as the Star of David, a symbol associated with Judiasm. Arguably, that would be a violation of the separation of church and state set out in the U.S. Constitution, the foundation said.”

Why ignore the obvious? Since the star was used by Nazi’s to identify Jews, does it not have relevant historical value here?

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Next up, 2 stories involving police work. And privacy where both are concerned as well.

First, from TheWallStJournal   “The police tactics at issue in the Stewart case are no anomaly. Since the 1960s, in response to a range of perceived threats, law-enforcement agencies across the U.S., at every level of government, have been blurring the line between police officer and soldier. Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment—from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers—American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop—armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.”

“A number of federal agencies also now have their own SWAT teams, including the Fish & Wildlife Service, NASA and the Department of the Interior. In 2011, the Department of Education’s SWAT team bungled a raid on a woman who was initially reported to be under investigation for not paying her student loans, though the agency later said she was suspected of defrauding the federal student loan program.”

And lastly, this one, from TheNYTimes  “The case put Mr. Murray at the center of a growing debate over a little-known but increasingly important piece of equipment buried deep inside a car: the event data recorder, more commonly known as the black box.       

About 96 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States have the boxes, and in September 2014, if the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has its way, all will have them.       

The boxes have long been used by car companies to assess the performance of their vehicles. But data stored in the devices is increasingly being used to identify safety problems in cars and as evidence in traffic accidents and criminal cases. And the trove of data inside the boxes has raised privacy concerns, including questions about who owns the information, and what it can be used for, even as critics have raised questions about its reliability.”

Given the way the govt currently abuses technology to stomp on people’s rights, I’m skeptical of it’s use.

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