Obama

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News/Politics 11-30-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open Thread, so feel free to share. 🙂

Here’s a few to start off with.

1. Does prayer help boost emotional stability and self-control?

From TheDailyMail  “Does prayer help us resist temptation? Talking to God boosts self-control and emotional stability, claims study

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2. Of course he did. 🙄

From CNN  “President Obama paid a visit Friday to a group of activists who have been fasting for weeks in the hopes of pressuring Congress to pass new immigration laws.

The President and his wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, visited the group on the National Mall to lend support for the cause. The “Fast for Families” protesters have given up all sustenance except water during their protest, which they hope will force lawmakers to take up immigration reform measures pending on Capitol Hill.”

“The President has pushed for an overhaul to the nation’s immigration system, most recently during a speech in San Francisco on Monday. He praised the fasting protesters during those remarks, saying the group was “sacrificing themselves in an effort to get Congress to act.”

“I want them to know we hear you.  We’re with you. The whole country hears you,” Obama said during his remarks in California.”

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3. Faith-based negotiations.

From TheWeeklyStandard  “Here is perhaps the biggest contradiction of the nuclear talks: The Obama administration wants to believe that the supreme leader just might forsake his historic mission—the quest for nuclear weapons begun under Khomeini and carried forth at great cost by Khamenei and every single Iranian president—because the United States, “the epicenter of evil,” has rallied the West against the Islamic Republic. The reasons administration officials give for why this extraordinary tergiversation will take place vary, but most spin around the idea that the supreme leader and his Revolutionary Guards—who oversee the nuclear program, terrorist operations, and domestic riot-control—really aren’t sufficiently committed to developing a nuclear weapon that the forces of moderation can’t seduce them from this dangerous course. The alleged forces of moderation are, in order of importance, newly elected president Hassan Rouhani, foreign minister Mohammad Zarif, and the Iranian people, at least those who voted for Rouhani. “

“Those who make these arguments, inside the U.S. government and out, rarely cite any primary material. Yet there is much to ponder in the lengthy speeches of Khamenei and senior guard commanders who scorch America and the West with nearly every breath; in the nuclear memoirs of Rouhani, which reveals a proud revolutionary determined to keep and advance the nuclear program despite European pressure (and, a decade ago, a widespread fear of George W. Bush); and in the recently published memoirs of Zarif, which limn a deeply conservative man wedded to the Islamic Revolution. In an odd twist on Iran’s controlled democracy, administration officials can tell you that since Rouhani received a mandate for change, and since he has promised to get rid of the hated sanctions, then ipso facto he must be prepared to do the thing necessary to achieve that end: Rouhani, they conclude, intends to roll back Iran’s nuclear aspirations. “

“Rouhani, they believe, must be more or less a moderate—a talented, politically savvy insider, not an egghead reformer like the former president Mohammad Khatami, whom Khamenei and his minions sliced and diced. He is, after all, not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the uncouth, pietistic populist. He has a Ph.D. from a Scottish university (think Duns Scotus, David Hume, Adam Smith, Robert Burns, and Gordon Brown). 

This is such a nonsensical take on Iran’s deeply religious and ruthless power politics, and Rouhani’s personal voyage through the Islamic Revolution, that it’s hard to know where to start deconstructing the fiction and illogic. Suffice it to say that Khamenei has spent considerable energy the last four years destroying the threat of democracy inside his country. He has so elevated the Revolutionary Guards that their power rivals his own. He has given no indication that he now quakes before the very people he’s squashed. Neither, by the way, does Rouhani, who raised not a finger in protest when Khamenei gutted the pro-democracy Green Movement in 2009 and playfully eviscerated Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the former clerical powerhouse, the true father of the regime’s nuclear-weapons program, and Rouhani’s primary mentor. “

I have no faith in either party.

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News/Politics 11-29-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. What a desperate bunch. Nothing like a Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the long holiday weekend news dump huh? And notice the delay is until after the elections. Can’t have millions more being cut by employers right before now can we? Weasels.

From Politico  “The Obama administration today announced a one year delay of online enrollment for small  businesses looking to purchase health coverage through federal Obamacare  exchanges, another high-profile setback for HealthCare.gov.

It’s the second delay for online small business enrollment, which the administration had said would begin this month.”

“The delay of the small business exchanges comes as little surprise, as the  administration had said earlier this week it would offer alternative ways for  small businesses to enroll. Still, it undercuts the White House message that  it’s beginning to turn around the disastrous rollout of the health care law.”

“The announcement just before Thanksgiving is the latest in a series of delays  and miscalculations for the president’s signature domestic legislation. On July  2 — also just before a holiday —it delayed the employer mandate for a year.  Small businesses with fewer than 50 workers are exempt from the requirement to  cover them, and the exchanges are supposed to give more options to those that  choose to offer coverage.”

It’s all so cowardly.

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2. Wow, that’s pricey. 😯

Pretty cool though too. I’d go to see it.

From CNN  “The world’s most valuable book sold Tuesday for $14.16 million at Sotheby’s in New York, according to the auction house.

The rare Bay Psalm Book is the first book ever written and printed in what is now the United States. Its sale set a record for a book sold at auction, Sotheby’s said.

Philanthropist David Rubenstein purchased one of 11 surviving copies.

He “plans to share it with the American public by loaning it to libraries across the country, before putting it on long-term loan at one of them,” according to Sotheby’s.”

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3. Normally I stay away from stories like this, but I’m making an exception. The reason being that it exposes the lie about not “recruiting.” Let’s face it, these minors were preyed upon at what was supposed to be a safe place for them. The fact that the President has honored one of these individuals also makes it newsworthy.

And yes, a big ol’ Content Warning!!!

From LifeSiteNews  “An openly homosexual teenager, who was given a position as an “adviser” to Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and honored by President Barack Obama at a White House “gay pride” dinner, has been indicted on more than a dozen counts of sexual misconduct with a minor under the age of 15.

Caleb Laieski, now 18, was 17 at the time of the alleged abuse. His alleged victim, a close friend he met on TrevorSpace (a social media site for children and young adults aged 13-24 who have an interest in homosexuality), was only 14 at the time. The younger boy said the sex was consensual, but that he felt “pressured” to participate. However, Arizona law says no one younger than 15 is capable of giving consent.”

“In an unusual twist, Laieski is also considered a victim in the case, since at least some of the charges stem from a three-way sexual encounter the boys had with 43-year-old Chris Wilson, an openly homosexual Phoenix police officer who was arrested more than a year ago and is now in jail awaiting trial for his role in the abuse of both children. Although Laieski was a minor at the time, his participation in sex acts with the younger boy violate state law, which says it is a crime for older minors to have sexual contact with children under the age of 15.”

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4. The hits just keep comin’ for Common Core.

From EAGNews  ” On the heels of a controversial children’s book about Barack Obama – which stated “white voters would never vote for a black president” and that “Barack’s former pastor” said “God would damn the United States for mistreating its black citizens” – comes a new lesson that casts America’s 44th president in a messianic light. Literally. And – surprise – it’s Common Core-aligned.

The lesson plan and accompanying visual presentation were authored by Sherece Bennett, and is for sale on TeachersPayTeachers.com. It’s all based on a book titled, “Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope,” by Nikki Grimes.”

“Another excerpt from the book reads: “Before dawn each morning, Barry rose – his mother’s voice driving him from dream land. ‘Time for learning English grammar and the Golden Rule. Be honest, be kind, be fair,’ she taught him.”

The story continues: “One morning, he slipped on the name he’d been born with. The name of his father, Barack. For the first time in his life, he wore it proudly – like a coat of many colors.”

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5. While they may place him high on a pedestal, some see him in a different light. 🙂

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News/Politics 11-27-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Like a laser people! Again…

From TheHill  “The White House, for at least the fifth time this year, is seeking to pivot to the economy, this time in a bid to change the subject from the disastrous rollout of ObamaCare.

It’s a common play for the White House, which frequently seeks to refocus attention on its jobs and infrastructure agenda when facing political crises.

The move is so familiar that NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd has dubbed it the “déjà pivot.”

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2. Senator Sessions has taken the Obama admin to task for their lack of border enforcement and disregard for US laws. He also blasted “big business” for attempting to put their monetary interests ahead of what’s best for the country.

From TheDailyCaller  “Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions wants wealthy CEOs to butt out  of immigration policy.

“America is not an oligarchy… A Republic must answer to the people,” Sessions  said today, in a direct response to President Barack Obama’s latest effort to  get wealthy California CEOs to increase their support for his unpopular push for  increased immigration.

“Congressional leaders must forcefully reject the notion, evidently accepted  by the president, that a small cadre of CEOs can tailor the nation’s entire  immigration policy to suit their narrow interests,” Sessions declared in a  populist statement that contradicts the media’s image of Republican coziness  with CEOs.”

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3. Meanwhile our border agents who aren’t allowed to do their jobs are attacked by those who seem to think they are entitled to break our laws and just walk right in. I wonder where they got that idea? 🙄 

From NBCSanDiego  “A crowd of more than 100 people pelted Border Patrol agents  with rocks and bottles as they tried to cross into the U.S. illegally,  according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The incident happened Sunday in the Tijuana River channel,  near the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

According to CBP, a Border Patrol agent ordered the Mexican  nationals to stop, but they continued walking into the U.S.”

““They had their phones out so this group was out to spark an incident. That’s  what they wanted to do, “ Border Patrol Union representative Gabriel Pacheco  said.”

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4. The wife of the American pastor held hostage in Iran is asking why the Obama admin didn’t push for her husband’s release while “negotiating” with them.

From FoxNews  “The wife of imprisoned American pastor Saeed Abedini says she and her family are devastated after learning that the Obama administration did not try to secure the release of her husband as part of the newly signed deal on Iran’s nuclear program. 

 Saeed Abedini, an American citizen, has been imprisoned in Iran for more than a year for practicing Christianity. The talks over Iran’s nuclear program were seen by his family and those representing them as one of the most promising avenues yet for securing his release. 

But the White House confirmed over the weekend that Abedini’s status was not on the table during those talks. “

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5. Oh yeah, about that so-called “deal”……

From FarsNews  “The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday called invalid a press release by the White House alleged to be the text of the nuclear agreement struck by Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) in Geneva on Sunday.

“What has been released by the website of the White House as a fact sheet is a one-sided interpretation of the agreed text in Geneva and some of the explanations and words in the sheet contradict the text of the Joint Plan of Action (the title of the Iran-powers deal), and this fact sheet has unfortunately been translated and released in the name of the Geneva agreement by certain media, which is not true,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said on Tuesday.

She said that the four-page text under the name of the Joint Plan of Action (which has been released by the Iranian foreign ministry) was the result of the agreement reached during the Geneva talks and all of its sentences and words were chosen based on the considerations of all parties to the talks. In fact one of the reasons why negotiations between Iran and the G5+1 took so long pertained to the accuracy which was needed for choosing the words for the text of the agreement, Afkham said, explaining that the Iranian delegation was much rigid and laid much emphasis on the need for this accuracy.”

Amateur hour continues. 🙄

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6. It looks like someone is finally going to suffer some consequences for the Benghazi scandal that cost 4 American lives. 

Oh wait… Never mind, it’s a CBS reporter and not anyone at the White House or State Dept..

From NBCNews  “CBS correspondent Lara Logan has been ordered to take a leave of absence after an internal review found her discredited “60 Minutes” segment on the Benghazi consulate attack was poorly vetted, the network said in a memo to staff.

The network also asked Logan’s producer, Max McClellan, to take a leave of absence. CBS did not specify a length for the leaves.

“As Executive Producer, I am responsible for what gets on the air,” CBS’ Jeff Fager said in the memo. “I pride myself in catching almost everything, but this deception got through and it shouldn’t have.”

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7. More no-bid ObamaCare contracts for friends of the Obama’s.  

From CapitolCityProject  “With the roll out of Obamacare being as disastrous as possible for the Obama administration, one group was given a $1 million grant to help lead a rebranding effort with hopes of salvaging the law in the eyes of the American people.

Families USA (FUSA) — an organization that describes itself as a “national nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans” — was given a $1.1 million grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on October 4, 2013, to gather “success stories” of Americans dealing with Obamacare and distribute them to the media who often refer to them as an “independent” group. This is part of a greater upcoming effort to bolster the perception of the lowly health care law.

“The purpose is to bridge the information gap for people who can significantly benefit from the Affordable Care Act,” Ron Pollack, the Co-founder and Executive Director of Families USA, told TIME on October 25, 2013.

However, the organization is a far cry from “non-partisan” and is extremely close to the Obama Administration and Enroll America – the group leading the efforts to sign people up for Obamacare.”

Propaganda sure is expensive.

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8. These photo-ops to help the President sure are the “Kiss of Death” for participants healthcare plans.

Welcome to reality ladies.

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by

News/Politics 11-26-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Let’s hope this sends the message loud and clear that covering stuff like this up will not be tolerated.

From CNN  “A grand jury investigating the 2012 rape of a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio, has indicted four school employees, including the school superintendent, who faces felony charges, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced Monday.

Steubenville City Schools Superintendent Michael McVey faces three felony counts: one charge of tampering with evidence and two counts of obstructing justice. He also is charged with making a false statement and obstructing official business, both misdemeanors, DeWine said.

Also indicted was elementary school principal Lynnett Gorman and wrestling coach Seth Fluharty, both of whom are charged with misdemeanor failure to report child abuse. Volunteer assistant Steubenville football coach Matt Belardine was charged with four misdemeanors: allowing underage drinking, obstructing official business, making a false statement and contributing to the unruliness or delinquency of a child.

This brings to six the number of people the grand jury has indicted after two students were convicted of rape, DeWine said. A school technology director and his daughter were indicted in October.”

And Anonymous deserves some credit here for shaming authorities into doing the right thing.

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2. This one doesn’t surprise me.

From TownHall  “The magnitude of this Obama administration’s “progressive” radicalism becomes more evident with each passing day. In recent months, there has been a drastic spike in acts of both anti-Christian and anti-conservative discrimination and intimidation on military bases across the country. This mounting harassment is not being carried out at the hands of regular enlisted folk but, rather, at the hands of high-ranking officials who, in their official capacity, are targeting Christian and conservative organizations and individuals in an effort to silence them.

It has long been suspected that the Obama administration is using propaganda circulated by the roundly discredited Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, a left-wing extremist group that, in recent years, has adopted two primary goals: 1) raising truckloads of money and 2) smearing as “domestic hate groups” dozens of mainstream Christian ministries like the Family Research Council, or FRC, and the American Family Association, or AFA.

This suspicion has now been verified.

The problem on military bases has gotten so bad, in fact, that the U.S. Congress is demanding answers from the Pentagon. Recently, the AFA-affiliated OneNewsNow.com newsgroup reported that “Congressman Alan Nunnelee (R-Mississippi) is 1 of 38 members of Congress signing off on a letter to the Secretary of the Army – especially about an incident last month at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, in which the Tupelo-based American Family Association was labeled in Army training material as a ‘hate group.’ The Army initially claimed it was an isolated incident.”

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3. This one? Wow. Just wow.

From TheDailyCaller  “In a frank and stunning letter to parents, eight school principals from  around the state of New York have expressed deep concerns about the validity and  usefulness of new Common Core-aligned tests foisted on all public-school  children in grades three through eight.”

“We know that many children cried during or after testing, and others vomited  or lost control of their bowels or bladders. Others simply gave up. One teacher  reported that a student kept banging his head on the desk, and wrote, ‘This is  too hard,’ and ‘I can’t do this,’ throughout his test booklet.

The principals also observe that students are spending considerably more time  taking standardized tests this year. New York third-graders, for example, are  now spending 163 percent more time filling in bubbles thanks to Common Core.

In addition, the principals say the tests are too long and contain too many  experimental questions which don’t count toward a student’s score. “We know that  many students were unable to complete the tests in the allotted time,” they say.  They point out that it’s hard to know if students don’t know the answers to all  the scored questions, or if they just aren’t getting to them in time.”

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4. Some of the victims of Syria’s war are finding care in Israel. The Islamic rebels will not be pleased.

From BBCNews  “She had to be taken to a point inside Syria from where she could be seen by Israeli soldiers patrolling the fence that marks the old ceasefire line between the two countries that dates back decades. A military ambulance then took her to hospital – she made it on time.”

“The humanitarian chain that got the woman from her home village under heavy shellfire to the boundary fence and then to hospital links guides in Syria to Israeli Army paramedics on the frontier, to the doctors and nurses in Tzfat.”

“She was the 177th person to make the journey to the emergency room in what has become one of the most extraordinary subplots of Syria’s agonising civil war.

“And yet, since the first patients arrived around nine months ago, the informal system of patient transfer has become so well-established that some patients have even arrived with letters of referral written by doctors in Syria for their Israeli counterparts.”

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5. This one is quite lengthy and made it’s way around Facebook yesterday, so you may have read it. You don’t need to be an animal rights activist to think that this is wrong.  

From TheHollywoodReporter  “A year later, during the filming of another blockbuster, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, 27 animals reportedly perished, including sheep and goats that died from dehydration and exhaustion or from drowning in water-filled gullies, during a hiatus in filming at an unmonitored New Zealand farm where they were being housed and trained. A trainer, John Smythe, tells THR that AHA’s management, which assigned a representative to the production, resisted investigating when he brought the issue to its attention in August 2012. First, according to an email Smythe shared with THR, an AHA official told him the lack of physical evidence would make it difficult to investigate. When he replied that he had buried the animals himself and knew their location, the official then told him that because the deaths had taken place during the hiatus, the AHA had no jurisdiction. The AHA eventually bestowed a carefully worded credit that noted it “monitored all of the significant animal action. No animals were harmed during such action.”

A THR investigation has found that, unbeknownst to the public, these incidents on Hollywood’s most prominent productions are but two of the troubling cases of animal injury and death that directly call into question the 136-year-old Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit’s assertion that “No Animals Were Harmed” on productions it monitors. Alarmingly, it turns out that audiences reassured by the organization’s famous disclaimer should not necessarily assume it is true. In fact, the AHA has awarded its “No Animals Were Harmed” credit to films and TV shows on which animals were injured during production. It justifies this on the grounds that the animals weren’t intentionally harmed or the incidents occurred while cameras weren’t rolling.”

“The full scope of animal injuries and deaths in entertainment productions cannot be known. But in multiple cases examined by THR, the AHA has not lived up to its professed role as stalwart defenders of animals — who, unlike their human counterparts, didn’t themselves sign up for such work. While the four horse deaths on HBO’s Luck made headlines last year, there are many extraordinary incidents that never bubble up to make news.”

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News/Politics 11-23-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. A new attempt to delay the coming pain of ObamaCare. At least until after the 2014 elections. Then the hammer drops. 🙄 Great plan.

From Bloomberg  “Obama also is pushing back the second-year start of enrollment to Nov. 15, 2014, from Oct. 15. That move is intended to give insurers until May 31 to analyze claims from the first year of plans sold under the law , an extension that may potentially stave off premium increases before the 2014 congressional elections.

Technology failings in the new government-run insurance exchanges are undermining efforts to attract the broad array of customers needed to keep plans affordable in the long run. Avoiding a large increase in prices next year is “absolutely critical” if Obama wants to preserve his signature legislative achievement, said Ana Gupte, a Leerink Swann & Co. analyst.

“The death of this law would be for health insurance companies to price policies for 2015 in a way that premiums skyrocket,” Gupte said in an interview. “At that point, it’s a death spiral and it’s over. So he needs to do something.”

““If premiums go through the roof in the first year of Obamacare, no one will know about it until after the election,” Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in an e-mail. “This is clearly a cynical political move.”

A blatant attempt to provide cover for vulnerable Democrats.

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2. We now learn that if this all goes down in flames, insurers will receive a taxpayer bailout.

From YahooNews  “The insurance industry may be next in line to receive a hefty government bailout. That’s what could happen if sign ups for Obamacare fall short of expectations triggering an obscure provision in the Affordable Care Act that makes up any serious losses. 

The potential price tag: millions of taxpayer dollars or more over a 3-year period.”

“So-called “risk corridors” were  included in the 2010 health law to compensate insurance companies for major coverage losses in the event that far more older and sick people signed up for health plans than younger, healthy people and drove up their costs after they had set the premiums.  If actual claims exceed projections by more than 3 percent under Obamacare, the government will compensate the industry for those losses.”

Yay. 🙄

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3. Senate Republicans have an option for fighting back against Reid’s power grab. The question is will they use it? With RINO’s like Graham, McCain, and McConnell already giving in to Dems on the matter, and being too busy attacking the Tea Party wing of the party, I doubt it.

From RedState  “Throughout the past few years, aside for a few judicial nominees, Republicans have been willing to grant Democrats a super-majority on major liberal initiatives.  They helped Reid pass amnesty.  They gave him the votes for the massive farm/food stamp bill.  They were all in the tank for the deceptively-named Violence Against Women Act.  They recently gave him the 60 votes for ENDA.  And most importantly, they stood shoulder to shoulder with Reid against House Republicans during the most important time when conservatives were united behind defunding Obamacare.

So why would Harry Reid fear reprisal from Republicans?  What would stop him from pulling the nuclear option?”

“There is one simple thing Republicans can do to retaliate.  They can start by ending the Democrat super-majority on legislative issues.  They can easily pledge to filibuster every piece of legislation and deny all requests for unanimous consent until the rules change is overturned.

How would Harry Reid respond to a complete shutdown of the Senate?  Would he abolish the filibuster even for legislation?  Let him try.  But for now, he has nothing to fear from just eliminating the filibuster on judges because he knows Republicans will not retaliate.  Reid knows that there is not a single issue where McCain, Corker, Graham, and Alexander will now withhold support simply because they were stiffed with the nuclear option.”

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4. We’ve all heard the stories of leftist indoctrination masquerading as education involved with Common Core. Here is yet another example.

From IllinoisReview  “Fourth graders in Dupo Illinois are reading a biography of Barack Obama that’s raising eyebrows among St. Clair County parents. The book, which supplements the school’s Common Core curriculum, blames television for the negative behaviors the first African-American president picked up as a teen:”

“The book – brought to the attention this week of those on the “Moms Against Duncan – MAD” Facebook page, goes on to say white Americans were hesitant to vote for a black president, and that Obama pushed the race issue to bring the nation together.

“But some people said Americans weren’t ready for that much change. Sure Barack was a nice fellow, they said. But white voters would never vote for a black president. Other angry voices were raised. Barack’s former pastor called the country a failure. God would @#%$ the United States for mistreating its black citizens, he said.”

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5. And it looks like mid-week could be messy, just in time for holiday travel.

From NBCNews  “Forecasters are warning Thanksgiving travelers to beware, as a sweeping winter storm system could bring icy roads, flight delays and more headaches to the holiday next week.

“We’ve been lucky the last few years, but unfortunately this is a rather poorly timed storm,” said Jonathan Erdman, senior meteorologist at the Weather Channel.

Erdman said the Northeast would likely see “massive flight delays” on Wednesday in all major airports, because of rain, snow and low-lying clouds that wreak havoc with flight plans.”

“The storm is “about as expansive a winter storm as it get,” according to Erdman, with its effects being felt from California to Maine.”

Great. 😦

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News/Politics 11-22-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, Reid has exercised the “nuclear option” and changed the Senate rules on filibustering. They seek to pack the courts and govt bureaucracies with liberal activists. The President and VP have come out in strong support. Hypocrites, every single one.

Yesterday the President said “So I support the step a majority of senators today took to change the way that Washington is doing business, more specifically, the way the Senate does business.”

But here’s what he had to say when his party was the minority and the Republicans were considering it.

“In 2008, Mr. Reid himself swore that as long as he was leader, he would never turn to the nuclear option, saying it would be a “black chapter in the history of the Senate.”

Here’s what Biden had to say in 2005.

Yeah. Hypocrites.

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2. Democrats better come up with a plan quick. This could get real ugly for them.

From FoxNews  “A new and independent analysis of ObamaCare warns of a ticking time bomb, predicting a second wave of 50 million to 100 million insurance policy cancellations next fall — right before the mid-term elections. 

 The next round of cancellations and premium hikes is expected to hit employees, particularly of small businesses. While the administration has tried to downplay the cancellation notices hitting policyholders on the individual market by noting they represent a relatively small fraction of the population, the swath of people who will be affected by the shakeup in employer-sponsored coverage will be much broader. 

An analysis by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, shows the administration anticipates half to two-thirds of small businesses would have policies canceled or be compelled to send workers onto the ObamaCare exchanges. They predict up to 100 million small and large business policies could be canceled next year. “

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3. And it looks like the Catholic Church has scored another legal victory against the Obama admin’s contraceptive mandate. 🙂

From Pittsburgh/CBSLocal  “A federal judge in western Pennsylvania says Catholic groups don’t immediately have to comply with mandates in the federal health care overhaul law.

The Diocese is challenging its participation in the health care program because it would be required to provide its employees with contraceptives.

There were strong words earlier this month from Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese leader Bishop David Zubik as he testified in federal court on the issue.”

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4. NBC being the Obama cheerleaders that they are, have blacked out coverage of the ObamaCare disaster.

From NewsBusters  “NBC News has completely censored any mention of the unfolding ObamaCare disaster  for the last 72 hours. Not one word about the millions of Americans losing their  health insurance nor the severe political damage that has been done to President  Obama and the Democratic Party.

In that same time period, both CBS and  ABC reported on major developments regarding the new law, including revelations  that much of ObamaCare’s infrastructure was still unfinished and that the  administration knew of serious problems with the HealthCare.gov website as early as  March.

The last time ObamaCare was even mentioned on the air waves of NBC News was  during Monday morning’s Today show, when White House correspondent  Peter Alexander touted a “to-do list” of damage control for the President and former  Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs was given a platform to spin for his former  boss.”

Straight propaganda, no chaser.

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5. A new study is out which proves yet again that govt. funded pre-k programs are a waste of money and resources. President Obama supports it, but let’s face it, he likes it because it’s money that can be pushed to the teachers unions. Outcome doesn’t matter, financing his supporters, who return the money to Dem coffers is what matters to him. The italicized remarks are his.

From HotAir  “Naturally, on the heels of these scientifically rigorous findings, the president announced his desire for a massive expansion of Head Start and state pre-K programs. Universal pre-K— Who could object to that?

“You know, study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than three in ten 4-year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives. So, tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every single child in America.“

Making high-quality preschool available to every single child in America. So, what would we get for that money? And, more importantly, what do students get? A new study of Tennessee’s Voluntary Pre-K program suggests, once again, the answer is not much.”

“The relatively large effects of TN‐VPK on the Woodcock Johnson achievement measures found at the end of the pre‐k year were greatly diminished and no longer statistically significant at the end of the kindergarten year. The only exception was a marginally significant negative effect on Passage Comprehension such that non-participants had higher scores at the end of the kindergarten year than TN‐VPK participants.”

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6. I know it’s early, but it’s we have our first sighting…..

GRINCH ALERT!!!!

From AllianceDefendingFreedom  “On behalf of concerned parents, Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter Tuesday to a South Carolina public charter school whose band director prohibited students from performing the music to “Joy to the World” and “O Come All Ye Faithful.” A student also provided the letter to the school at a board meeting Tuesday night.

School officials claim they received some type of communication from either the American Civil Liberties Union or another group that prompted the ban after students had already begun rehearsing the pieces for a concert.

“Schools shouldn’t have to think twice about whether they can allow their bands to play the music to time-honored Christmas carols like these,” said Litigation Staff Counsel Rory Gray. “School districts can and should allow religious Christmas carols to be part of their school productions.”

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News/Politics 11-21-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. How can this be legal? They say you’re under no obligation to do so, yet they’re wearing passive sensors which already answered one of their questions. Be sure to watch the video at the link for more details.

From NBCNewsDFW  “Some drivers along a busy Fort Worth street on Friday were stopped at a police roadblock and directed into a parking lot, where they were asked by federal contractors for samples of their breath, saliva and even blood.

It was part of a government research study aimed at determining the number of drunken or drug-impaired drivers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is spending $7.9 million on the survey over three years, said participation was “100 percent voluntary” and anonymous.”

“But a Fort Worth attorney who is an expert in civil liberties law questioned whether such stops are constitutional. “You can’t just be pulled over randomly or for no reason,” said attorney Frank Colosi.

He also noted the fine print on a form given to drivers informs them their breath was tested by “passive alcohol sensor readings before the consent process has been completed.”

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2. Next up, more disturbing news. Looks like our refugee relocation efforts have resulted in terrorists who attacked US Troops being allowed into the US. 🙄

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3. Told ya so. Some “fix” huh? 🙄

From NewsObserver.com  “Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina said Tuesday that it will raise rates as much as 24 percent on 2013 individual health insurance plans that are being extended next year.

The increase is double the price inflation for the same health plans just a year ago, but many Blue Cross customers who have grumbled about rising costs in past years are cheering the news this time.

The health plans in question were slated for elimination under the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s health care law, but Blue Cross said last week it would offer the plans next year. President Barack Obama urged insurers to extend the individual plans for one year amid a public outcry over forced cancellations and steep price increases for replacement plans.”

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4. The privileged few escape their share of the misery brought about by ObamaCare. The same clowns who dumped it on the rest of us.

From TheNYTimes   “Members of Congress like to boast that they will have the same health care enrollment experience as constituents struggling with the balky federal website, because the law they wrote forced lawmakers to get coverage from the new insurance exchanges.

That is true. As long as their constituents have access to “in-person support sessions” like the ones being conducted at the Capitol and congressional office buildings by the local exchange and four major insurers. Or can log on to a special Blue Cross and Blue Shield website for members of Congress and use a special toll-free telephone number — a “dedicated congressional health insurance plan assistance line.”       

And then there is the fact that lawmakers have a larger menu of “gold plan” insurance choices than most of their constituents have back home.       

While millions of Americans have been left to fend for themselves and go through the frustrating experience of trying to navigate the federal exchange, members of Congress and their aides have all sorts of assistance to help them sort through their options and enroll.”

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These last 2 are because laughter is good for ya’. 😉

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5. This one is toooo funny! 🙂

From TheHill  “President Obama’s relationship with congressional Democrats has worsened to an unprecedented low, Democratic aides say.”

“Sources who attended a meeting of House chiefs of staff on Monday say the room was seething with anger over the immense damage being done to the Democratic Party and talk was of scrapping rollout events for the Affordable Care Act.”

““Is he even more unpopular than George W. Bush? I think that’s already happened,” said one Democratic chief of staff.”  😯

““They’re freaking out, as they should be,” said one senior Senate Democratic aide, adding that the rollout continues to be “a lasting mess.””

Bush

😆

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And this one? Let’s call it “My how things have changed.” 🙂

The irony in the statement at the :20 mark is priceless.

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News/Politics 11-20-13

What’s interesting out there today?

1. First up today, we know the Obama admin’s BLS numbers have been fuzzy as all get-up. Now we find they’ve put some fur on the Census numbers too. This is especially troubling considering the Census Bureau is all about staying apolitical and not allowing outside influences.

From TheNYPost  “In the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, from August to September, the unemployment rate fell sharply — raising eyebrows from Wall Street to Washington.

The decline — from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September — might not have been all it seemed. The numbers, according to a reliable source, were manipulated.”

“Just two years before the presidential election, the Census Bureau had caught an employee fabricating data that went into the unemployment report, which is one of the most closely watched measures of the economy.”

“The Census employee caught faking the results is Julius Buckmon, according to confidential Census documents obtained by The Post. Buckmon told me in an interview this past weekend that he was told to make up information by higher-ups at Census.”

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2. Yesterday I mentioned folks not being able to pay for their new insurance plans from the govt. website. Turns out, that part’s not built yet. And won’t be until January, after the first payment is due. 🙄

You can watch the video testimony at the link.

From HotAir  “Skip to 3:15 for the key bit. We’re 50 days removed from launch and Chao’s spent hours upon hours testifying about the website before Congress over the last few weeks. And somehow only now are we hearing about this.”

“Two things as you watch. First, note that Chao’s talking about the entire online exchange apparatus here, not the front end of Healthcare.gov where people sign up. The front end is in place and being repaired, he says. It’s the back end that … hasn’t completely been built yet. Second, it sounds initially like he says 60-70 percent of that back end is missing, but then he appears to correct that in the last minute or so. I’ll be conservative and assume it’s the later number that’s accurate. Regardless: How does the enrollment process work if the payment system hasn’t been finished yet? Remember, even if you’re one of the chosen few who managed to complete the sign-up process, your coverage doesn’t take effect on January 1 unless you make your first premium payment by December 15. You could make that payment directly to the insurer, bypassing the federal website entirely, but some segment of people won’t do that, whether because of absent-mindedness or their understandable assumption that payment should be made through the same site they used to enroll — i.e. Healthcare.gov.

It’s not just enrollees and insurers who are having trouble with payment either:”

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3. The President’s “fix” is going to cost insurers, which translates into higher costs for policyholders.

From Politico  “President Barack Obama had some bad news for the insurance company CEOs who met him at the White House: His “fix” might cost them.

Obama asked the CEOs to reinstate millions of Americans’ health insurance plans that were canceled because they fell short of coverage requirements under the law, according to two executives who attended the session Friday.

The president offered the execs some sweeteners, but admitted they won’t necessarily add up to enough to cover the full brunt of added costs that the changes to the insurance market could create.”

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4. Then we have the new lie, which is being used to provide cover for the old lie.

From NationalReview  “Obama’s ‘5 Percent’ Con Job        

It’s a 100 percent lie, according to the White House’s own figures”

“But that’s not the half of it. Obama’s claim that unwelcome cancellations are confined to the individual-insurance market is another brazen lie. In the weekend column, I link to the excellent work of Powerline’s John Hinderaker, who has demonstrated that, for over three years, the Obama administration’s internal estimates have shown that most Americans who are covered by “employer plans” will also lose their coverage under Obamacare. Mind you, 156 million Americans get health coverage through their jobs.

John cites the Federal Register, dated June 17, 2010, beginning at page 34,552 (Vol. 75, No. 116). It includes a chart that outlines the Obama administration’s projections. The chart indicates that somewhere between 39 and 69 percent of employer plans would lose their “grandfather” protection by 2013. In fact, for small-business employers, the high-end estimate is a staggering 80 percent (and even on the low end, it’s just a shade under half — 49 percent).”

Meet the new lie, worse than the old lie.

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5. It turns out college age women aren’t impressed with being portrayed as promiscuous tramps who can’t control themselves in ObamaCare ads using sex to sell their product. Via MRC-TV.

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6. Pass the popcorn, it looks like Democrats are about to enter the open revolt stage.

From TheHill  “The administration is risking rebellion from some Democrats in Congress if it fails to deliver on its promise to fix HealthCare.gov by the Nov. 30 deadline set by President Obama.”

“If the president’s team fails to deliver, Democrats will embrace legislation extending the law’s enrollment period or forcing insurance companies to continue offering plans that do not meet ObamaCare’s standards, according to Democratic aides.”

“A second Democratic aide said the party’s incumbents in the chamber facing reelection next year will begin to panic if the Department of Health and Human Services misses another important deadline set by the president.

“If the website is not up, the administration and 2014ers are going to start freaking out even more,” said the aide.”

If the rats are jumping ship, it’s sinking fast. 🙂

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7. Once again, the Hyde Amendment is just one more law this administration ignores. And don’t insult our intelligence by saying this won’t fund abortion. It will, and they know it.

From LifeSiteNews  “A Planned Parenthood facility in Texas has reopened its doors, thanks to federal taxpayer dollars it has received from the Obama administration.”

“The facility – which is named after the Rev. Bruce Galloway – gives women referrals for surgical abortions, offers chemical abortions by administering the “morning-after pill,” and performs “LGBT services.”

“The Mission office closed after Texas Governor Rick Perry passed a law forbidding abortion providers from receiving state planning funds. After the Obama administration threatened to withhold all federal money, Governor Perry established an entirely state-funded family planning system whose network is free of abortion providers.

But tn March, the Obama administration did an end-run around that law by directly providing $13 million to the Women’s Health and Family Planning Association of Texas (WHFPT), a coalition including Planned Parenthood.”

So they held a party to celebrate the ability to continue killing the unborn. Disgusting.

As is the President for ignoring federal law and celebrating with them, all on the taxpayer dime.

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8. And last one today…… FINALLY! 🙂

From YahooNews  “British comedy veterans Monty Python are set to reunite for a new show in their first major collaboration in 30 years, member Terry Jones revealed on Tuesday.

“I’m quite excited about it. I hope it makes us a lot of money. I hope to be able to pay off my mortgage!”

The BBC reported that the new collaboration — the first major project since the 1983 film “Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life” — would come in the form of a theatre show.”

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News/Politics 11-19-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. First up, stop digging.

From TheChicagoTribune  “On some level, then, the president plainly agrees with critics of Obamacare, this page included, that the law needs to be rewritten: He and his administration keep rewriting its major components — remember the mandate that sizable employers offer coverage in 2014? — as practicalities and politics demand.

But in this country we don’t change bad laws by presidential fiat. We change them by having Congress rewrite them or by starting from scratch. Obama doesn’t want to reopen this law for fear that Republicans and some Democrats will substantially rewrite it. But that’s what has to happen.

We understand why the president and leaders of his party want to rescue whatever they can of Obamacare. On their watch, official Washington has blown the launch of a new entitlement program … under the schedule they alone set in early 2010.

What we don’t understand is their reluctance to give that failure more than lip service. Many of the Americans who heard their president say Thursday that “we fumbled the rollout of this health care law” would have been pleased to hear him add: So we’re admitting it. This law is a bust. We’re starting over.“

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2. Rand Paul is reminding folks who is responsible for folks getting cancellations. And no, it’s not those evil insurance companies. There’s also a 30 minute video of the whole conversation with Paul at the link.

From WeaselZippers  “RAND PAUL: I’m still learning about it. It’s 20,000 pages of regulations. The Bill was 2,000 pages and I didn’t realize this until this week, the whole idea of you losing or getting your insurance cancelled wasn’t in the original Obamacare. It was a regulation written by President Obama, three months later.

So we had a vote, this is before I got up there. The Republicans had a vote to try to cancel that regulation so you couldn’t be cancelled, to grandfather everybody in. You know what the vote was? Straight party line. Every Democrat voted to keep the rule that cancels your insurance.“

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3. Info that should have raised red flags, but didn’t. Cronyism and no-bid contracts got in the way of common sense.

From TheWaPo  “The lead contractor on the dysfunctional Web site for the Affordable Care Act is filled with executives from a company that mishandled at least 20 other government IT projects, including a flawed effort to automate retirement benefits for millions of federal workers, documents and interviews show.

CGI Federal, the main Web site developer, entered the U.S. government market a decade ago when its parent company purchased American Management Systems, a Fairfax County contractor that was coming off a series of troubled projects. CGI moved into AMS’s custom-made building off Interstate 66, changed the sign outside and kept the core of employees, who now populate the upper ranks of CGI Federal.

They include CGI Federal’s current and past presidents, the company’s chief technology officer, its vice president for federal health care and its health IT leader, according to company and other records. More than 100 former AMS employees are now senior executives or consultants working for CGI in the Washington area.”

Among that list are Obama donors and the first lady’s college friend.

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4. If you can’t pay for your new insurance plan, do you really even have one? Of course not.

From TheWeeklyStandard  “An editorial in last week’s USA Today repeats the common belief about the deadline: “The deadline for signing up for insurance that begins Jan. 1 is Dec. 15.”  However, “signing up” for insurance is not enough.  As the Healthcare.gov website states [emphasis added]:

If you enroll in a private health insurance plan any time between October 1, 2013 and December 15, 2013 and make your first premium payment, your new health coverage starts January 1, 2014.”

“However, paying the premium is not necessarily a simple matter.  An online chat with a Healthcare.gov representative revealed that the site is not recommending using the exchange to make the initial premium payment. The representative was not even completely sure the option was being offered.”

“The federal government-run exchange is not the only one to experience problems with premium payments.  The Maryland Health Connection, that state’s version of the Obamacare exchange, announced a week ago Friday that it was suspending the bill-pay feature indefinitely:”

Really need that face-palm smiley.

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5. Looks like some liberals are taking the IRS method of dealing with conservatives to heart. Nothing like govt funded intimidation of your political enemies huh?

From TheCapitolCityProject  “In Wisconsin, dozens of conservative groups and allies of Gov. Scott Walker are undergoing political intimidation from the left at the hands of a special prosecutor.

Subpoenas have been issued demanding correspondence and donor information of right-leaning organizations and individuals and raids have been conducted resulting in law enforcement officers taking computers and files in a secret investigation, according to reports.”

“It continues, “Copies of two subpoenas we’ve seen demand ‘all memoranda, email . . . correspondence, and communications’ both internally and between the subpoena target and some 29 conservative groups, including Wisconsin and national nonprofits, political vendors and party committees. The groups include the League of American Voters, Wisconsin Family Action, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, Americans for Prosperity—Wisconsin, American Crossroads, the Republican Governors Association, Friends of Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin.”

The WSJ says the latest actions are taking place under Wisconsin’s John Doe law, which makes it difficult for the groups involved to defend themselves publicly. The law, “Bars a subpoena’s targets from disclosing its contents to anyone but his attorneys. John Doe probes work much like a grand jury, allowing prosecutors to issue subpoenas and conduct searches, while the gag orders leave the targets facing the resources of the state with no way to publicly defend themselves.”

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6. The saga continues. What a mess.

From NBCNews  “George Zimmerman was arrested and charged  with threatening his girlfriend with a gun Monday after Florida authorities responded to a disturbance call at the woman’s home.

Zimmerman has been charged with felony aggravated assault, misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor criminal mischief, Seminole County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Dennis Lemma said during a press conference Monday in Sanford, Fla., hours after Zimmerman was arrested in nearby Apopka, roughly 15 miles northwest of Orlando.

Zimmerman’s girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, told deputies that she and Zimmerman were having a “verbal dispute,” and she alleged that he broke a table and pointed a long-barreled shotgun at her, Lemma said.”

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7. Why does this not surprise me?

From TheLATimes  “College students who cheated on a simple task were more likely to want government jobs, researchers from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania found in a study of hundreds of students in Bangalore, India.

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News/Politics 11-18-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Severe weather has once again taken a heavy toll on the nation’s mid section.

From TheChicagoTribune  “A string of tornadoes and severe storms left a trail of damage and flooding through the Midwest Sunday, leveling parts of a town near Peoria, knocking down buildings in Grundy County and prompting Bears fans to scatter for cover as the game at Soldier Field was postponed.

In Washington, in Tazewell County, one person was reported killed, two were killed in Massac County and in Nashville east of St. Louis, two elderly siblings were reported killed . Dozens of others were reported injured including at least six who were seriously injured as the tornado spawned warnings through much of Illinois and northern Indiana.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

More here from APNews  “Dozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms swept across the Midwest on Sunday, causing extensive damage in several central Illinois communities, killing at least three people and prompting officials at Chicago’s Soldier Field to evacuate the stands and delay the Bears game.

“The whole neighborhood’s gone. The wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house,” said Michael Perdun, speaking by cellphone from the hard-hit town of Washington, where he said his neighborhood was wiped out in a matter of seconds.”

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2. The hits just keep on comin’.

From Yahoo/Reuters  “UnitedHealth Group dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks, leaving many elderly patients unsure whether they need to switch plans to continue seeing their doctors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The insurer said in October that underfunding of Medicare Advantage plans for the elderly could not be fully offset by the company’s other healthcare business. The company also reported spending more healthcare premiums on medical claims in the third quarter, due mainly to government cuts to payments for Medicare Advantage services.

The Journal report said that doctors in at least 10 states were notified of being laid off the plans, some citing “significant changes and pressures in the healthcare environment.” According to the notices, the terminations can be appealed within 30 days.”

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3. Is President Obama’s “fix” even legal? Doesn’t look like it.

From NationalReview  “No, the purpose is to highlight how insouciantly lawless and transparently political the president’s latest Obamacare “fix” is. I refer, of course, to Obama’s magnanimous proclamation that he now deigns to permit insurers to issue policies made illegal by the Obamacare statute — at least until the Democrats can get through the 2014 elections. This was frivolous to the point of malfeasance.

Let’s start with the basics. The president has no power to rewrite statutes — he is bereft of dictatorial power to legitimize what Congress has made a violation of law. This reflects our abiding conceit that we have “a government of laws and not of men,” ascribed by John Adams to the 17th-century political theorist James Harrington. As Justice Antonin Scalia recounts, Adams provided the best elaboration of this principle when he enshrined it in the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution:

The legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: The judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws, and not of men.”

Now what?

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4. Who’s up for an ObamaCare marriage penalty? Well here it comes anyway.

From TheWeeklyStandard  “Every time you think that we’ve finally touched bottom on Obamacare, some new problem emerges. So what began merely as a dysfunctional website became a broken and mis-designed system. When it turned out that lots of people were paying more for their plans, it then turned out that others were having their plans canceled—and that some people were even losing their doctors. And now we’re finding that, along with everything else, Obamacare contains a marriage penalty, too.“

“The Atlantic reports that in practice, this means that a married couple in New York making more than a combined $62,040 gets no subsidies from Obamacare. But two people who live together without getting married? They can make up to a combined $91,920 and still get subsidies from the government.”

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5. Here’s more on the new revelations in the Benghazi scandal.

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