News/Politics 12-9-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. The Holder DoJ is using financial lawsuit settlements to pay off community organizers. Another end run around the no funding of ACORN law.

From HotAir  “It seems Attorney General Eric Holder has created a multi-million dollar backdoor kickback for activist groups in the $13 billion JP Morgan Chase subprime loan deal recently settled, WND reports.”

“But wait… you can’t just take the penalty money and hand it out to your friends, can you? According to the breakdown from Investors.com, apparently you can.

Just when we thought its post-crisis probe of banks couldn’t get more corrupt, the Obama administration has cut radical Democrat groups in on the record $13 billion JPMorgan Chase subprime loan deal.

On Page 5 of “Annex 2″ of the recently released consent order, you’ll find this little gem: The Justice Department mandates that JPMorgan fork over any unclaimed or unpaid consumer damages to a nonprofit group that finances Acorn clones and other shakedown groups.”

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2. Now who’s cherry-picking data to justify an unpopular war? Can’t blame Bush for this one.

From YahooNews  “Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has dropped yet another bombshell allegation: President Obama wasn’t honest with the American people when he blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a sarin-gas attack in that killed hundreds of civilians.

But in a long story published Sunday for the London Review of Books, Hersh — best known for his exposés on the cover-ups of the My Lai Massacre and of Abu Ghraib – said the administration “cherry-picked intelligence,” citing conversations with intelligence and military officials.”

“A former senior intelligence official told me that the Obama administration had altered the available information – in terms of its timing and sequence – to enable the president and his advisers to make intelligence retrieved days after the attack look as if it had been picked up and analysed in real time, as the attack was happening. The distortion, he said, reminded him of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, when the Johnson administration reversed the sequence of National Security Agency intercepts to justify one of the early bombings of North Vietnam. The same official said there was immense frustration inside the military and intelligence bureaucracy: ‘The guys are throwing their hands in the air and saying, “How can we help this guy” – Obama – “when he and his cronies in the White House make up the intelligence as they go along?”

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3. Is the President stacking the DHS Immigration Enforcement Office with pro-amnesty lawyers so they won’t enforce US laws?

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4. A disturbing opinion piece from a Lt. Col. on gun rights in America. The Obama admin is purging leaders who don’t play along, especially Christian ones. This is the type he’d like them replaced with. One who advocates disarming the citizenry and tossing the Supreme Courts opinion on the matter because he disagrees. Dictators love military leaders like him.

From Esquire  “We crossed the line some time ago, it has just taken me a while to get around to the topic. Sadly, that topic is now so brutally evident that I feel shame. Shame that I have not spoken out about before now — shame for my country, shame that we have come to this point. People, it is time to talk about guns.”

“Guns are tools. I use these tools in my job. But like all tools one must be trained and educated in their use. Weapons are there for the “well regulated militia.” Their use, therefore, must be in defense of the nation. Shooting and killing somebody because they were not “upset enough” over the loss of a college football team should not be possible in our great nation. Which is why I am adding the following “Gun Plank” to the Bateman-Pierce platform. Here are some suggestions:”

“2. We will pry your gun from your cold, dead, fingers. That is because I am willing to wait until you die, hopefully of natural causes. Guns, except for the three approved categories, cannot be inherited. When you die your weapons must be turned into the local police department, which will then destroy them. (Weapons of historical significance will be de-milled, but may be preserved.)”

“4. We will submit a new tax on ammunition. In the first two years it will be 400 percent of the current retail cost of that type of ammunition. (Exemptions for the ammo used by the approved weapons.) Thereafter it will increase by 20 percent per year.”

He’d also limit approved weapons to muskets, shotguns, and bolt actions with 5 round max capacity.

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5. Uncle Omar and the “culture of lies.”

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6. What’s that ticking noise?…

From TheNYPost  “The good news, if you want to call it that, is that roughly 1.6 million Americans have enrolled in ObamaCare so far.

The not-so-good news is that 1.46 million of them actually signed up for Medicaid. If that trend continues, it could bankrupt both federal and state governments.

Medicaid is already America’s third-largest government program, trailing only Social Security and Medicare, as a proportion of the federal budget. Almost 8 cents out of every dollar that the federal government spends goes to Medicaid. That’s more than $265 billion per year.

Indeed, already Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid account for 48% of federal spending. Within the next few years, those three programs will eat up more than half of federal expenditures.”

And who’s on the hook for it?…. Yep, taxpayers. 🙄

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7. Ruh-roh.

From TheLATimes  “Raising concerns about consumer privacy, California’s health exchange has given insurance agents the names and contact information for tens of thousands of people who went online to check out coverage but didn’t ask to be contacted.

The Covered California exchange said it started handing out this consumer information this week as part of a pilot program to help people enroll ahead of a Dec. 23 deadline to have health insurance in place by Jan. 1.

State officials said they are only trying to help potential customers find insurance and sign up in time. But some insurance brokers and consumers who were contacted said they were astonished by the state’s move.

“I’m shocked and dumbfounded,” said Sam Smith, an Encino insurance broker and president of the California Assn. of Health Underwriters, an industry group.”

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8. A little poetic justice.

From Politico  “Capitol Hill staffers are hitting multiple obstacles in trying to enroll in the Obamacare exchange just days before the federal government’s deadline for getting coverage.

They and lawmakers have until Monday to sign up on DC Health Link, the District’s insurance exchange, if they want to maintain the government’s generous employer contribution to their health insurance.”

“But as crunch time approaches, Democratic and Republican staffers are getting error messages, denials, notices that they’re enrolled in multiple plans and incomplete confirmation — as well as a website that went down briefly Thursday.”

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News/Politics 11-15-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. As I’m sure you’ve heard, the President has proposed some changes to ObamaCare in order to quiet down the commoners. He’s decided to let you keep your sucky plan for one more year. 🙂

Democrats still aren’t happy, neither are the American people.

From Politico Senate Democrats are still considering legislation to repair President Barack  Obama’s broken Obamacare promise, despite the White House plans for an  administrative fix.

Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) still want to see votes  on their separate, alternative proposals aimed at helping Americans who lost  insurance plans. Several of the other Democrats who are up for reelection in  2014 want to vote on a legislative fix, too.”

“Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), one of the most vulnerable Democrats up next year,  called Obama’s plan a “step in the right direction,” but said, “a one-year fix  is not enough, and we need to do more.”

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2. Even Howard Dean is wondering if the President has the legal authority to make this “fix.”

From TheWeeklyStandard  ““I wonder if he has the legal authority to do this, since this was a congressional bill that set this up,” said Dean of Obama’s proposed fix. 

The former Vermont governor suggested that since the Obamacare website isn’t working, the president’s signature legislation might fail.”

When you’ve lost Howard Dean, you’ve got problems.

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3. And O’Keefe strikes yet again. More ObamaCare navigator fraud. Yeah.

From CapitolCityProject  “James O’ Keefe’s Project Veritas has released a second video showing even more Obamacare Navigators in Texas suggesting fraud and deceit to undercover reporters — despite some in the mainstream media calling the first exposé an “isolated incident.”

“Today, Project Veritas released a second investigation exposing more Obamacare navigators counseling applicants to lie and cheat the health care system by erroneously reporting income status, health history, and more,” Project Veritas wrote.

They continue, “Critics said the first video was an isolated incident so we decided to visit with even more navigators funded by your American tax dollars. What we found was disturbing and showed a clear pattern of fraud through the Obamacare navigator program.”

Within the new video, Obamacare Navigators in Texas yet again counsel the reporters to lie in order to avoid higher premiums.”

The video shows it’s hardly an isolated incident.

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4. Huh….. That’s funny. Democrats, the President, and Attorney General insist that Voter ID is racist and a Republican effort to suppress voter turnout. Yet the real results are actually quite the opposite…….

From TheDailyCaller  “The first Texas elections under a contentious new photo ID law drew  interesting conclusions for an off-year election that normally draws a low  amount of voters.

There were nine proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution, and the number  of votes tallied was nearly double what it was in 2011. Democrats and civil  rights groups have long argued that voter ID requirements suppress turnout,  particularly in poor and minority communities.”

“In Hidalgo County, which is 90 percent Hispanic, just over 4,000 voted in  the constitutional amendment election in 2011. In 2013, an average of over 16,000 voted according to the Texas secretary of state’s office.

Doh!

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5. This one should be fun to watch.

From Breitbart  “Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) has introduced an Articles of Impeachment resolution against Attorney General Eric Holder for his role in Operation Fast and Furious and other scandals of President Barack Obama’s administration.

Seven congressman have signed onto the resolution thus far in addition to Olson. They are Reps. Larry Bucshon (R-IN), Blake Farenthold (R-TX), Phil Roe (R-TN), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Roger Williams (R-TX), Ted Yoho (R-FL), and Randy Weber (R-TX).

The Articles of Impeachment has four different sections. The first calls for Holder’s official removal because of his failure to comply with congressional subpoenas relating to Operation Fast and Furious. Holder has been voted on a bipartisan basis into both criminal and civil contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with the Fast and Furious subpoenas from House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).”

Another of the Articles is for his refusal to enforce DOMA.

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6. Some scathing words for the Obama admin from a former secret service agent tuned congressional candidate who has a released a book on the whole affair.

From TheNYPost  “Dan Bongino, the Secret Service agent who turned on President Obama and is running for Congress, says he believes the “toxic” administration is “using government as a weapon exclusively to intimidate enemies.”

““That wasn’t necessarily the case with the Clintons, and I was pretty much enmeshed in Hillary’s Senate campaign. Although I disagreed with a lot of their political positions . . . I can’t tell you that they thought government was a weapon exclusively to intimidate their enemies. But this administration constantly seems to use government [as a weapon] because they are inexperienced with it — it’s like giving a kid a Bowie knife and saying, ‘Have fun.’ They gave this administration which has no experience the reins of government and they have just gone wild.””

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News/Politics 8-14-13

What’s interesting out there today?

Open thread, so feel free to share with the group. 🙂

First up, this guy just keep shooting more and more holes in the Obama admins “workplace violence” story.

From TheNYTimes  “One year after he waged a deadly shooting rampage at the Fort Hood Army base here in November 2009, Major Nidal Malik Hasan told a panel of military mental health experts that he wished he had been killed during the attack because it would have meant God had chosen him for martyrdom.”

(And yet the coward selected targets he knew were unarmed)

“Major Hasan, 42, an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent whose long-delayed court-martial began last week in a Fort Hood courtroom,  said in the documents and in previous statements in and out of court that he carried out the attack to wage jihad for what he has called the illegal and immoral wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the documents, he described in blunt and unapologetic terms how he killed soldiers as he stepped into a medical processing building on Nov. 5, 2009. He said he wore earplugs to muffle the sound of his semiautomatic weapon, and shot into areas that had the “greatest density of soldiers.” In the end, 13 people were dead.       

“I don’t think what I did was wrong because it was for the greater cause of helping my Muslim brothers,” he told the military panel.”

Call it what it is. Islamic terrorism. And give the victims their benefits.

You can come up with your own theory as to why the Obama admin continues to ignore the obvious. I already have one, and again, it’s because of the influence muslim groups hold with this administration.

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Pro-Morsi demonstrators are now protesting in DC as well.

From TheInvestigativeProject  “A rally Saturday in Washington supporting deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, the second in a month sponsored by a group calling itself Egyptian-Americans for Democracy and Human Rights (EADHR), along with its press conference on Friday, makes it harder for some leading American Islamists to deny their connection with the Muslim Brotherhood.”

“The pro-Morsi demonstrators who packed Freedom Plaza just a block from the White House repeated many of the same chants that have been common in Muslim Brotherhood protests in Egypt since Morsi’s fall.”

“The demonstrators and protest organizers hope to get the Obama administration to follow Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in calling Morsi’s ouster a “coup.” Thus far, Secretary of State John Kerry and the Obama administration have declined to do so, saying that the military intervened to keep Egypt from devolving into chaos.”

He’ll cave. Just watch.

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And remember folks, Al-Qeada is defeated and on the run. Or they just changed their name or something.

From TheWaPo  “A rebranded version of Iraq’s al-Qaeda affiliate is surging onto the front lines of the war in neighboring Syria, expanding into territory seized by other rebel groups and carving out the kind of sanctuaries that the U.S. military spent more than a decade fighting to prevent in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the four months since the Iraqi al-Qaeda group changed its name to reflect its growing ambitions, it has forcefully asserted its presence in some of the towns and villages captured from Syrian government forces. It has been bolstered by an influx of thousands of foreign fighters from the region and beyond.

The group, now known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, is by no means the largest of the loosely aligned rebel organizations battling to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and it is concentrated mostly in the northern and eastern provinces of the country. But with its radical ideology and tactics such as kidnappings and beheadings, the group has stamped its identity on the communities in which it is present, including, crucially, ­areas surrounding the main border crossings with Turkey.”

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Once again Eric Holder is caught playing fast and loose with the facts.

From HotAir  “Bloomberg News caught the Department of Justice in a particularly noteworthy Friday-night news dump over the weekend.  The Obama administration, stung by accusations from the Left that it hadn’t gone after fraudulent mortgages and the lenders that helped fuel the bubble, claimed that a year-long initiative run by the Mortgage Fraud Working Group in the DoJ had charged 530 people who had victimized 73,000 people.  When Bloomberg’s reporters began digging into the claim, the DoJ stonewalled — and then finally admitted it cooked the books themselves:

The Justice Department made a long-overdue disclosure late Friday: Last year when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder boasted about the successes that a high-profile task force racked up pursuing mortgage fraud, the numbers he trumpeted were grossly overstated.

We’re not talking small differences here. Originally the Justice Department said 530 people were charged criminally as part of a year-long initiative by the multi-agency Mortgage Fraud Working Group. It now says the actual figure was 107 — or 80 percent less. Holder originally said the defendants had victimized more than 73,000 American homeowners. That number was revised to 17,185, while estimates of homeowner losses associated with the frauds dropped to $95 million from $1 billion.

Hey, they only inflated those claims by 80% and 9o% — or looking at it from the other direction, 500% and 900%.  Shouldn’t they get a chance to round up to the nearest 1000%?  If you’re wondering what prompted this sudden outbreak of honesty, Bloomberg explains that two of its reporters had figured out the fraud:

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Here’s an update from one of yesterdays stories. We may now know the culprits. Now all we need to know is who put them up to it.

From TheDailyCaller A new rush through the U.S. border has been triggered by an outspoken  progressive group that is exploiting new asylum regulations to demand American  citizenship for 1.7 million illegals previously deported to Mexico, according to  Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

Border officials have told advocates and TV stations that hundreds of people  are using the group’s innovative legal tactic to get approval from the border  patrol for a temporary legal stay in the country.

The National Immigrant Youth Alliance triggered the rush by sending a group  of illegals back to Mexico. The illegals then successfully used the asylum claim  to win a temporary stay in the United States. The members, dubbed the  “Dream 9,” walked up to the U.S. border and asked for asylum, based on the claim  that they’re afraid of Mexico’s drug-cartels.

The group’s tactic works because new regulations allow immigrants to ask that  a judge, rather than a border patrol officer, decide their asylum claim. Instead  of jailing the prospective immigrants until their courtroom date, border  officials are releasing many into the United States.”

Where many will disappear and ignore their court date.

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And just further proof that the sequester meme from Obama and Dems was way overstated.

From GovExec.com  “When sequestration was about to kick in, the Obama administration began a nearly across-the-board campaign to discuss the devastating impact the automatic cuts would have on agency operations.

At the center of these warnings stood employee furloughs: mandatory unpaid leave to help each department meet the lower budget caps that took effect March 1. Furloughs, combined with hiring freezes, would disrupt the proper functioning of government, agency chiefs said, as fewer employees working fewer hours could not accomplish the same amount as a fully staffed workforce.

While many federal agencies have in fact moved forward with furloughs, and there remain countless examples of sequestration interfering with government operations, most major departments have reduced furlough days, or eliminated them altogether.

The earliest examples came from departments that told Congress they would have to furlough employees, but ended up backtracking. The Education and Justice departments fall into this category. The Agriculture, Transportation and Homeland Security departments all received authority to transfer funds between agency accounts, and were therefore able to cancel planned furloughs. The Commerce Department projected furloughs at its National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, only to cancel them in May.”

Defense too.