Obamacare

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News/Politics 10-28-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

First up, 60 Minutes/CBS had a new piece on Benghazi last night. Basically everything CBS and Fox News has reported has been confirmed.

No wonder they’ve tried to cover it up.

And now you know why releasing Gitmo terrorist detainees isn’t a good idea as well.

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Next up today, complaints about Hurricane Sandy and associated relief efforts. Gov. Christie is blaming the feds. And Congress.

From Verizon/AP  “Gov. Chris Christie says he understands victims’ frustrations a year after Superstorm Sandy but maintains that his administration isn’t to blame for delays in aid reaching victims.

In an interview with The Associated Press as the anniversary of the Oct. 29 megastorm approached, Christie blamed Congress, which took three months to approve a $50.7 billion relief package for the region, and a thicket of red tape put in place to prevent the type of fraud that occurred after Hurricane Katrina.”

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A name you’ll recognized has come up in the relief discussion too. One that’s already associated with a large scale govt failure.

From DailyCaller  “CGI Federal Inc., the mastermind behind healthcare.gov, is assisting the U.S.  Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the distribution of $1.7  billion in relief for Hurricane Sandy.

In a memo obtained by FreedomWorks titled, “Minutes of the 295th  meeting of the members of the Housing Trust Fund Corporation held on May 9,  2013, at 8:30 a.m.,” CGI Federal is tasked with implementing the Disaster  Housing Assistance Program. Additionally, they are asked to aid in the  implementation of the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery  Program, an assistance program that had recently obtained $1.7 billion.”

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And that’s not all, they’re associated with other govt offices, and even more govt money. And more failure. The NSA and PRISM ring a bell? Foreign govts too.

From WeaselZippers  “A great deal of media focus has been devoted to the epic failure of Healthcare.gov, the Obamacare website. Less has been said about the company who was engaged by HHS with responsibility for the design of the website and the roll out.

The company was CGI, a Canadian company. CGI has a long and checked past of failures and overruns on projects from Canada to Hawaii.”

“CGI, the Canadian company whose U.S. subsidiary built the failed Obamacare website, was once contracted to build a federal gun registry for the Canadian government, Breitbart News has learned.”

“CGI has a subsidiary called Silver Oak Solutions (SOS) which operates the PRISM platform. If that rings a bell, it’s because the NSA uses the PRISM platform to help spy on people.”

Getting worried yet?

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And we now also know that one of their top executives was a classmate of Michelle Obama, and that the company president is an Obama supporter. No bid contracts and cronyism don’t mix well for taxpayers.

From TheDailyCaller  “First  Lady Michelle  Obama’s Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company that earned the  contract to build the failed Obamacare website.

Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of ’85, is  senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no-bid contract to build the $678 million  Obamacare enrollment website at Healthcare.gov. CGI Federal is the U.S. arm of a  Canadian company.”

“Toni Townes ’85 is a onetime policy analyst with the General Accounting Office and previously served in the Peace Corps in Gabon,  West Africa. Her decision to return to work, as an African-American woman, after  six years of raising kids was applauded by a Princeton alumni  publication in 1998

George  Schindler, the president for U.S. and Canada of the Canadian-based CGI  Group, CGI Federal’s parent company, became an Obama 2012  campaign donor after his company gained the Obamacare website contract.”

Nice huh? 🙄

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Meanwhile the middle class continues to experience sticker shock from ObamaCare.

From TheLATimes  “Thousands of Californians are discovering what Obamacare will cost them — and many don’t like what they see.

These middle-class consumers are staring at hefty increases on their insurance bills as the overhaul remakes the healthcare market. Their rates are rising in large part to help offset the higher costs of covering sicker, poorer people who have been shut out of the system for years.

Although recent criticism of the healthcare law has focused on website glitches and early enrollment snags, experts say sharp price increases for individual policies have the greatest potential to erode public support for President Obama‘s signature legislation.”

“”This is when the actual sticker shock comes into play for people,” said Gerald Kominski, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. “There are winners and losers under the Affordable Care Act.”

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My wife has been telling me this for years. It’s why we don’t go to the doctors for colds, respiratory infections, and minor illnesses. Antibiotic use is out of hand, and it not working like it used too 😯

From TheDailyMail  “‘For a long time, there have been newspaper  stories and covers of magazines that talked about “The end of antibiotics,  question mark?”‘ said Dr Arjun Srinivasan. ‘Well, now I would say you can change  the title to “The end of antibiotics, period.”’

The associate director of the CDC sat down  with Frontline over the summer for a lengthy  interview about the growing problem of antibacterial resistance.

Srinivasan, who is also featured in a  Frontline report called ‘Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria,’ which aired  Tuesday, said that both humans and livestock have been overmedicated to such a degree that bacteria are now resistant to antibiotics.

‘We’re in the post-antibiotic era,’ he said.  ‘There are patients for whom we have no therapy, and we are literally in a position of having a patient in a bed who has an infection, something that five years ago even we could have treated, but now we can’t.’”

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News/Politics 10-26-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open Thread, here’s a few from me.

The US Army has finally decided to stop some of the nonsense.

From FoxNews  “The Secretary of the Army has ordered military leaders to halt all briefings on extremist organizations that labeled Evangelical Christian groups as domestic hate groups. The shutdown comes just four days after I reported exclusively about a briefing at Mississippi’s Camp Shelby that labeled the American Family Association as a domestic hate group.”

“Men and women of faith – who have served the Army faithfully for centuries – have been likened to those who regularly threaten the peace and security of the United States,” said Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance. “It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of improper characterization.”

““The groups identified in the instruction were not ‘extremist’ organizations as that term is defined in Army Regulation,” McHugh wrote in his memorandum.”

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Holder has some more ‘splainin’ to do.

From TheHill  “Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) accused Attorney General Eric Holder of forcing  African American students in Louisiana into failing schools for the sake of  diversity. 

“The fact that Attorney General Holder would block any child from obtaining a  good education is bad enough,” Toomey said Thursday. “The fact that he is doing  so based solely on the children’s race is inexcusable.”

Toomey along with more than 20 of his Senate Republican colleagues sent  Holder a letter Thursday requesting more information on why the Justice Department filed a  petition to keep 570 students from “escaping failing public schools, solely on  the basis of the children’s skin color.”

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CBS is reporting that more Medicaid plans paid for by taxpayers are being received from the new exchange than private plans paid for by the individuals. Shocking right? 🙄

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Now who’s pushin’ Granny off the cliff? 🙄

From TheNYPost  “ObamaCare is making seniors sick.

Elderly New Yorkers are in a panic after getting notices that insurance companies are booting their doctors from the Medicare Advantage program as a result of the shifting medical landscape under ObamaCare.

That leaves patients with unenviable choices: keep the same insurance plan and find another doctor, pay out of pocket or look for another plan where their physician is a member.”

You can’t cut 700 billion and expect this wouldn’t happen. And we’re dumping even more people into the system while cutting funds and doctors. What could possibly go wrong?

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And the last one for today is an interesting one, with an easy solution. Don’t do it. And if you do anyway because you enjoy playing around in social experiments and giving away body fluids, then expect that there might be consequences.

Or will this be like weddings, cakes, and photos and you can’t refuse to perform it without being sued?

From NBCNews  “A Kansas district court heard arguments Friday in the case of a man who is being sued for thousands of dollars in child support by the state after donating his sperm to a same-sex couple he found through a Craigslist ad.

William Marotta, a mechanic, and his wife Kimberly are fighting the state’s contention that the man should be required to pay child support, arguing that a Kansas law requiring a licensed doctor to perform artificial insemination is antiquated.”

“Bauer and Schreiner have separated since the artificial insemination, and have struggled financially because of an injury that left Schreiner unable to work. Marotta has said that he has seen the girl twice in her lifetime – once soon after her birth, and another time by coincidence at the Kansas State Fair. But he has never identified himself as her father, he said.”

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News/Politics 10-24-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Looks like the White House will finally admit a delay in the individual mandate is necessary.

From MarketWatch  “The Obama administration will delay enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance mandate, extending how long Americans may go uninsured before facing a penalty under the law, MarketWatch has learned.

The health care law requires most people to have health insurance by Jan. 1, 2014 or face a penalty, but the Administration may postpone when those penalties will go into effect. The law allows for “short coverage gaps” of up to three months before imposing the penalty, which is $95 or 1% of an individual’s income (whichever is greater) next year. Under the current rules, someone would have to be covered by March 31, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed, which is the final day that people will be able to purchase health insurance on the public exchanges, or marketplaces, created by the ACA.”

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Maybe a four year delay is in order?

From Forbes  “For people who have been following the story closely, it’s been clear for months that Obamacare’s exchanges were not ready to go live on October 1, and that their implementation needed to be delayed. The Obama administration insisted otherwise, claiming that everything was hunky-dory, and that reports to the contrary were simply the work of partisan saboteurs. But earlier this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted the truth. “We didn’t have enough testing…for a very complicated project,” she conceded to the Wall Street Journal. The exchanges needed five years of construction and one year of testing, and instead had only “two years [of construction] and almost no testing.” That leaves us with an obvious question: Why, then, did Sebelius insist on rolling out the exchanges four years ahead of time?”

“The answer may be that she was under direct instructions from the White House. According to a letter sent to White House officials by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, CGI Federal—one of the key contractors involved in the project—said that officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the government agency tasked with running the exchanges, “constantly mentioned the ‘White House’ when discussing matters with CGI. For example, CGI officials told Committee staff that the ability to shop for health insurance without registering for an account—a central design feature of the health insurance exchange—was removed ‘in late August or early September.’”

It’s time to drag her in front of Congress, with a subpoena if necessary.

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Who are the ObamaCare Navigators, and how much are we paying for them?

From WeaselZippers  “1. Millions and millions of dollars It is important to understand that all the navigators listed are not just helping steer people through the Obamacare maze out of the goodness of their hearts. Each group/person listed has been awarded a grant (translate: tax payer dollars) to “navigate” people through the process.

For example, the Community Action Network of Nebraska (CAN) which has a few chapters amongst the listings, was awarded a grant for $562, 457.

There are 454 listings other than CAN.”

“There are also multiple “community action” groups, many of which sound like ACORN reborn. Amongst those, there is Seedco. Seedco has a “seedy” past. Seedco was under investigation by both NY State and the Federal government for fraud for falsely reporting jobs they supposedly had obtained for workers pursuant to a grant. The U.S. Attorney brought a civil fraud charge against them and they paid $1.725 million in a settlement in December 2012. Despite this, President Obama gave them a multi-million dollar contract for Obamacare. Or should I say, we paid the settlement at least in some measure, since they received more tax dollars for training for Obamacare. “As a result of these and other operational changes, we strongly believe that Seedco has the experience, integrity and commitment to carry out this work,” a Seedco statement said when queried about their involvement in Obamacare.”

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The Army keeps saying this isn’t official policy and these are “rogue” instructors doing this, and yet it keeps happening.

From FoxNews  “Soldiers attending a pre-deployment briefing at Fort Hood say they were told that evangelical Christians and members of the Tea Party were a threat to the nation and that any soldier donating to those groups would be subjected to punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

A soldier who attended the Oct. 17th briefing told me the counter-intelligence agent in charge of the meeting spent nearly a half hour discussing how evangelical Christians and groups like the American Family Association were “tearing the country apart.”

““The American public should be outraged that the U.S. Army is teaching our troops that evangelical Christians and Tea Party members are enemies of America, and that they can be punished for supporting or participating in those groups,” said Berry, a former Marine Corps JAG officer.”

“And while a large portion of the briefing dealt with the threat evangelicals and the Tea Party pose to the nation, barely a word was said about Islamic extremism, the soldier said.”

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Maybe that has something to do with this.

From TheBlaze  “Nine senior commanding generals have been fired by the Obama administration this year, leading to speculation by active and retired members of the military that a purge of its commanders is underway.

Retired generals and current senior commanders that have spoken with TheBlaze say the administration is not only purging the military of commanders they don’t agree with, but is striking fear in the hearts of those still serving.

The timing comes as the five branches of the U.S. armed forces are reducing staff due to budget cuts, and as U.S. troops are expected to withdraw from Afghanistan next year.

“I think they’re using the opportunity of the shrinkage of the military to get rid of people that don’t agree with them or not tow the party line. Remember, as (former White House chief of staff) Rahm Emanuel said, never waste a crisis,” a senior retired general told TheBlaze on the condition of anonymity because he still provide services to the government and fears possible retribution.”

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Next up, the Unemployment Rate is down, the number of Americans not in the workforce is up, and fuzzy math rules the day.

From CNSNews  “The number of Americans who are 16 years or older and  who have decided not to participate in the nation’s labor force has  climbed to a record 90,609,000  in September, according to data released  today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The BLS counts a person as participating in the labor force if they  are 16 years or older and either have a job or have actively sought a  job in the last four weeks. A person is not participating in the labor  force if they are 16 or older and have not sought a job in the last four  weeks.

In from July to August, according to BLS, Americans not participating  in the labor force climbed from 89,957,000 to 90,473,000, pushing past  90,000,000 for the first time, with a one month increase of 516,000.”

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And because of the above, you get this as one of the results as well.

Also From CNSNews  “In the fourth quarter of 2011, 49.2 percent of Americans received benefits from one or more government programs, according to data released Tuesday by the Census  Bureau.

In total, the Census Bureau estimated, 151,014,000 Americans out of a  population then estimated to be 306,804,000 received benefits from one  or more government programs during the last three months of 2011. Those 151,014,000 beneficiaries equaled 49.2 percent of the population.

This included 82,457,000 people–or 26.9 percent of the population–who lived in households in which one or more people received Medicaid benefits.”

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And the cost for all this continues to rise. But remember, we don’t have a spending problem. 🙄

From TheWeeklyStandard  “New research from the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee shows that over the last 5 years, the U.S. has spent about $3.7 trillion on welfare.”

“We have just concluded the 5th fiscal year since President Obama took office. During those five years, the federal government has spent a total $3.7 trillion on approximately 80 different means-tested poverty and welfare programs. The common feature of means-tested assistance programs is that they are graduated based on a person’s income and, in contrast to programs like Social Security or Medicare, they are a free benefit and not paid into by the recipient,” says the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee.

“The enormous sum spent on means-tested assistance is nearly five times greater than the combined amount spent on NASA, education, and all federal transportation projects over that time. ($3.7 trillion is not even the entire amount spent on federal poverty support, as states contribute more than $200 billion each year to this federal nexus—primarily in the form of free low-income health care.)”

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And this should scare everyone, but especially the youngsters who will be left holding the bag.

From ZeroHedge  “Did you know that the U.S. national debt has increased by more than a trillion dollars in just over 12 months?  On September 30th, 2012 the U.S. national debt was sitting at $16,066,241,407,385.89.  Today, it is up to $17,075,590,107,963.57.  These numbers come directly from official U.S. government websites and can easily be verified.  For a long time the national debt was stuck at just less than 16.7 trillion dollars because of the debt ceiling fight, but now that the debt ceiling crisis has been delayed for a few months the national debt is soaring once again.  In fact, just one day after the deal in Congress was reached, the U.S. national debt rose by an astounding 328 billion dollars.  In the blink of an eye we shattered the 17 trillion dollar mark with no end in sight.  We are stealing about $100,000,000 from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day. This goes on 24 hours a day, month after month, year after year without any interruption.

Over the past five years, the U.S. government has been on the greatest debt binge in history.  Unfortunately, most Americans don’t realize just how bad things have gotten because the true budget deficit numbers are not reported on the news. The following is where the U.S. national debt has been on September 30th during the five years previous to this one…

09/30/2012: $16,066,241,407,385.89

09/30/2011: $14,790,340,328,557.15

09/30/2010: $13,561,623,030,891.79

09/30/2009: $ 11,909,829,003,511.75

09/30/2008: $10,024,724,896,912.49″

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News/Politics 10-23-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open Thread.

Say it with me now….

If you like your insurance, you can keep it…… or not.

From KaiserHealthNews  (Who supported this plan by the way and is now canceling policies because of it too) “Health plans are sending hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters to people who buy their own coverage, frustrating some consumers who want to keep what they have and forcing others to buy more costly policies.”

“An estimated 14 million people purchase their own coverage because they don’t get it through their jobs. Calls to insurers in several states showed that many have sent notices.

Florida Blue, for example, is terminating about 300,000 policies, about 80 percent of its individual policies in the state. Kaiser Permanente in California has sent notices to 160,000 people – about half of its individual business in the state.  Insurer Highmark in Pittsburgh is dropping about 20 percent of its individual market customers, while Independence Blue Cross, the major insurer in Philadelphia, is dropping about 45 percent.“

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This would be nice, but after the way the Supreme Court ruled, I’m doubtful that this judge will do the right thing either.

From TheDailyMail  “Bombshell: Federal judge suddenly green-lights lawsuit that could stop  Obamacare in its tracks

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Well at least Congress is finally gonna be briefed on the rollout fiasco. Well…. some of them will. Some pigs really are more equal than others, even in Congress.

From TheWaPo  “Mike Hash, who directs the Office of Health reform at the Department of Health and Human Services, will brief House Democrats Wednesday about implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

The closed-door session, which will start at 8:50 a.m., marks the first time the administration will have briefed members of Congress on the online enrollment system since its troubled rollout on Oct. 1.”

“House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office is crying foul that House Republicans aren’t included in the briefing. It is asking that the same briefing be provided to the GOP.

“Far too much information about Obamacare’s rollout is being concealed from the public,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said. “All members – as well as the American people – deserve answers for this debacle. That’s why we have asked the administration to provide the same briefing to House Republicans. This snub is all the more offensive after Secretary Sebelius declined to testify at a House hearing this week. It’s time for the Obama administration to honor its promises of transparency and face some accountability.”

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It appears that the people hurt and killed in the Boston Marathon bombing weren’t the bomber’s only victims.

From MSNNews  “Slain Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was named as a participant in an earlier triple homicide by a man who was subsequently shot to death while being questioned by authorities, according to a filing made by federal prosecutors in the case against his brother, surviving bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.”

“According to the filing made Monday, Ibragim Todashev told investigators Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in a triple slaying in Waltham on Sept. 11, 2011.

In that case, three men were found in an apartment with their necks slit and their bodies reportedly covered with marijuana. One of the victims was a boxer and friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.”

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What if there was a govt shutdown, and no one missed them, or even cared they were gone?

From CNSNews  “A large majority of Americans say they did not miss the federal  government when it was partially shutdown during the first half of  October, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released today.”

“78 percent said that they were not inconvenienced by the partial  shutdown of the government. Of the 22 percent who said they were  inconvenienced, 11 percent said it was a major inconvenience and 11  percent said it was a minor inconvenience,”

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by

News/Politics 10-22-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, as always. Here’s a few to start off with.

This first one is a couple of weeks old, but we will start off with it because it’s where the story begins.

From TampaBay.com  “This had been his idea. He’d heard something about God helping people who help themselves. So here he was, on a Sunday in September, surrounded by strangers, taking his future into his sweaty hands.”

“Davion always longed for a family. His caseworker took him to picnics, put his portrait in the Heart Gallery. But he had thrown chairs, blown his grades, pushed people away.

When he learned his birth mother was dead, everything changed. He had to let go of the hope that she would come get him. Abandon his anger. Now he didn’t have anyone else to blame.

“He decided he wanted to control his behavior and show everyone who he could be,” Going said. So someone would want him.

“I’ll take anyone,” Davion said. “Old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple. I don’t care. And I would be really appreciative. The best I could be.”

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Well I’m happy to say it looks like this young man will get his wish. 🙂

From Yahoo/GMA  “A Florida orphan whose church plea for a family to “love me until I die” has received about 10,000 requests from people asking to adopt him and will “without a doubt” be getting a family, his caseworker said today in an appearance with him on ABC’s “The View.”

Davion Only, 15, took the opportunity of being on national TV today to thank the group homes and foster homes that have “taken good care of me.” He also apologized for being a “butthead” to some of them when he was younger.

Only has been in foster care his whole life, but has never had a family. On a recent Sunday, he stood in front of St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, Fla., and made a public plea for a family.”

“”Without a doubt, Davion will have a family,” his caseworker Connie Going said on “The View” today.”

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I wish the young man the best. After reading his story though, I read another story on adoption which shows this young teenager is smarter than some adults. It seems some would deny Davion his wish simply for the prospective parent’s political views. How truly sad. They need to grow up and consider the children instead. They should take these words from Davion to heart.

“I’ll take anyone,” Davion said. “Old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple. I don’t care. And I would be really appreciative. The best I could be.”

From Rare.us  “Last week, I wrote about a strange phenomenon we experienced firsthand after adopting our daughter from Ethiopia: Liberals think adoption is great, unless white, Christian, Republicans are the ones doing it. It was odd and sad to have strangers questioning and criticizing our family composition. The same crowd who emphasizes that there are all kinds of families — gay, lesbian, straight, divorced — suddenly got the vapors when they saw my black child on my hip at a GOP convention.

Apparently, according to the comments on my blog, many people believe conservatives have no business adopting a black child.  The New York Times has occasionally jumped in the fray, questioning whether black kids might be better off without parents at all if their only option is of the white variety.”

“I got many comments from liberals accusing me of exaggeration, claiming I’d created a straw-man argument, and that my “persecution complex was showing.”  Then, as if on cue, Ann Romney tweeted out a photo of their newest grandchild, adopted by their son Ben and his wife Andelyne:

“The response from the liberal Twitterverse was swift, predictable and damning. Here is a selection of the responses:”

And then it gets as bad as you would expect.

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Next up a reminder that voter fraud is a myth.

From TheHill  “A former chief of staff to Rep. Joe Garcia  (D-Fla.) is heading to jail for his role in organizing an online absentee  ballot-request scheme in the 2012 elections. 

Jeffrey  Garcia, 41, who isn’t related to the congressman, will spend about three months  in jail as part of a plea deal reached with the Miami-Dade state attorney’s  office, the Miami  Herald newspaper reported Sunday.”

“Prosecutors found Jeffrey Garcia had requested hundreds of ballots without  voters’ permission, the Herald said. None of them, however, were mailed, forged  or cast.  

Florida law prohibits anyone but voters or their immediate family members from  requesting ballots online.”

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Since the ObamaCare website is so riddled with errors and problems, the President decided to tell folks about the 800 number to call where you could get help with problems.  

And that doesn’t work either…….. 🙄

From NationalReview  “President Obama emerged on Monday to assure Americans that the “kinks” surrounding the federal and state health-care exchanges are improving and urged consumers to call the exchange hotline if they continue to encounter problems online. Shortly after he made the suggestion, Twitter lit up with reporters and others who attempted to do so but failed to get through to a navigator as promised. After dialing the number, some callers got a busy signal, others received an automated message, and yet others were referred back to Healthcare.gov.”

You couldn’t make this stuff up even if you were trying to write a tragic comedy. I shouldn’t be laughing when it’s such a serious thing, and yet I can’t help myself.

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News/Politics 10-21-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

The Obama admin continues to refuse to enforce the laws they dislike.

From WeaselZippers  “Chris Crane, president of the ICE Council, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ union, said that the President has effectively told ICE agents that they can no longer enforce the law, even as that applies to illegal aliens who have committed other crimes. He noted that while there has been investigation of the scandals of the IRS and Benghazi, “there has been no investigation into the President’s lawless activities with regard to immigration enforcement”.

“You can be in the country illegally, you can have an extensive criminal history, you can have multiple criminal convictions for serious offenses, and there is nothing that we can do to touch you,” Crane said. He pointed out that the numbers from the administration seeming to indicate “record deportations” were in fact falsely inflated. The numbers included mostly illegal aliens caught at the border, into the numbers of those deported from the interior, thereby juicing the numbers. Nothing the President says matches what he has been done, says Crane.

The ICE union has repeatedly asked for a meeting at the White House. But despite meeting with all manner of other groups on the issue, including illegal alien groups, the President has still refused to meet with the ICE union.

‘We are completely ignored,” Crane said, ‘The President will not respond to us…He gave some speeches where he called ICE agents “terrorists”. He said we went into neighborhoods and terrorized children, babies, nursing mothers, purposely tore apart families. So this President, I think, brings with him a real dislike, at the very least, for ICE agents and officers, and the mission we perform. I think there’s a real misunderstanding about what we do, and for that reason he has absolutely refused to let us be a part of any conversation.”

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The UN says the President is probably violating international law with his drone program. That’s impossible, don’t they know he’s a Peace Prize winner. 🙄

From TheGuardian  “Drone strikes by US may violate international law, says UN

Report says CIA attacks led to civilian deaths and casualties and says US protocols are ‘hurdle to transparency'”

“A United Nations investigation has so far identified 33 drone strikes around the world that have resulted in civilian casualties and may have violated international humanitarian law.”

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The Catholic church has filed a new lawsuit against the Obama admin.

From CNSNews  ” The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., is arguing in a new lawsuit that the Obama administration is engaged in a “conscious political strategy to marginalize and delegitimize” Catholic “religious views on contraception by holding them up for ridicule on the national stage.”

At issue in the lawsuit is whether the administration can force the archdiocese to secure a third-party administrator for its self-insurance plan who will provide sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs at no cost to church employees at some of the archdiocese’s separately incorporated subunits.”

“Lawyers representing the archdiocese filed a memorandum with U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Sept. 24, pointing to actions and statements made by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to demonstrate that the administration is deliberately targeting the Catholic Church for its religious views.”

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Young folks who supported the President’s re-election are gonna get rewarded for their loyalty. Just like the unions were.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “Young people in 45 states will see their health insurance premiums increase under Obamacare because the law relies on the money they pay into the system to offset the cost of caring for older enrollees, according to a new study.

Virginia leads the pack, as individuals aged 27 and under will see their health insurance premiums jump by 252.5 percent — $416.55 — according to the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis.

Virginians under the age of 50 will see their premiums jump by an even greater percentage, rising from $228 to $991.03.”

You’ve earned it kids! 🙄

Now remember this next election.

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And last one from me today. Sen. Ted Cruz has been hammered in the press for standing on principle and actually doing what the voters that elected him wanted. The press and Dems despise the man, but his constituents have quite a different opinion.

From YahooNews  “Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, returned home to a rousing welcome in Texas on Saturday after his attempt to derail Obamacare with a shutdown of the federal government led to sharp criticism of his tactics as reckless and futile.

“After two months in Washington, it’s great to be back in America,” Cruz joked in speaking to a crowd of about 750 people in a packed downtown San Antonio hotel ballroom.

Cruz was greeted with an eight-minute standing ovation in an appearance organized by the Texas Federation of Republican Women. People in attendance, many of them wearing red to show their support for keeping Texas a conservative-leaning state, lined up to greet him.”

Harry Reid and John McCain were hardest hit by the news. 🙂

LOVE IT!

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News/Politics 10-19-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, what’s on your mind?

The “official” national debt sat at the same number (20 Million under) for 150 days leading up to the extension of the debt ceiling. Everyone knew it was a fraud and a lie. Now we know how big of a lie it was. About a 328 Billion dollar lie. How is this not fraud?

From TheWashingtonTimes  “U.S. debt jumped a record $328 billion on Thursday, the first day the  federal  government was able to  borrow money under the deal President  Obama and Congress sealed this week.

The debt now equals  $17.075 trillion, according to figures the Treasury  Department posted online on Friday.”

“The $328 billion increase shattered the previous high of $238 billion set two  years ago.”

“In this case, the Treasury  Department borrowed $400 billion from  other funds beginning in May, awaiting a final deal from Congress and  Mr. Obama.”

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It. Just. Gets. Worse.

From WSJ/MarketWatch  “Insurers say the federal health-care marketplace is generating flawed data that
is straining their ability to handle even the trickle of enrollees who have gotten through so far, in a sign that technological problems extend further than the website traffic and software issues already identified.”

“Emerging errors include duplicate enrollments, spouses reported as children, missing data fields and suspect eligibility determinations, say executives at more than a dozen health plans. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska said it had to hire temporary workers to contact new customers directly to resolve inaccuracies in submissions. Medical Mutual of Ohio said one customer had successfully signed up for three of its plans.”

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Tech experts say it needs a complete overhaul.

From USAToday  “The federal health care exchange was built using 10-year-old technology that may require constant fixes and updates for the next six months and the eventual overhaul of the entire system, technology experts told USA TODAY.

The site could be perfect, but if the systems from which it draws data are not up to speed, it doesn’t matter, said John Engates, chief technology officer at Rackspace, a cloud computer service provider.

“It is a core problem in the sense of it’s fundamental to this thing actually working, but it’s not necessarily a problem that the people who wrote HealthCare.gov can get to,” Engates said. “Even if they had a perfect system, it still won’t work.”

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And as I predicted, after all, it wasn’t hard to figure out, more than half of the first sign-ups are low-income and pre-existing conditions. Those that will be heavily subsidized, or dumped into Medicaid.

From MyNorthWest.com  “Enrollments in health care plans through Washington state’s new health care exchange continue to increase, but it turns out a majority of the enrollees so far won’t be paying for their plans.

“The Medicaid newly eligible population accounts for a little more than half of the 25,000 that we’ve seen,” Michael Marchand, with the new Washington Health Care Exchange, tells KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross.”

“”We’ve figured out that probably more than 90 percent of those who are of the 1 million who are currently uninsured, they’re going to receive financial help in one way or another, whether it’s free or through tax credits.”

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News/Politics 10-18-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

I have a bunch this morning, so they’ll be Fast and Furious. Like the first one, which will be one of the longest today.

I have to give Sharyl Attkisson and CBS credit, They just keep at it.

From CBSNews  “CBS News has learned of a shocking link between a deadly drug cartel shootout with Mexican police last week and a controversial case in the U.S. The link is one of the grenades used in the violent fight, which killed three policemen and four cartel members and was captured on video by residents in the area.

According to a Justice Department “Significant Incident Report” filed Tuesday and obtained by CBS News, evidence connects one of the grenades to Jean Baptiste Kingery, an alleged firearms trafficker U.S. officials allowed to operate for years without arresting despite significant evidence that he was moving massive amounts of grenade parts and ammunition to Mexico’s ruthless drug cartels.”

“The gun battle took place last week in Guadalajara. Authorities say five members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel used at least nine firearms and ten hand grenades against Mexican police. If one of the grenades was supplied with the help of Kingery, as believed, it adds to the toll of lives taken with weapons trafficked by suspects U.S. officials watched but did not stop.

The Kingery case was overseen by the same Arizona U.S. Attorney and ATF office that let suspects traffic thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels in the operation dubbed Fast and Furious. The strategy was to try to get to the cartel kingpins, but it was halted after CBS News reported that Fast and Furious weapons were used by cartel thugs in the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry on December 15, 2010. Weapons trafficked by other ATF suspects under surveillance were used two months later in the cartel murder of Immigration and Customs Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico on February 15, 2011.”

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This one, well let’s just say it’s too funny. 🙂

From Politico  “A finding in a study on the relationship between science literacy and  political ideology surprised the Yale professor behind it: Tea party members  know more science than non-tea partiers.

Yale law professor Dan Kahan posted on his blog this week that he analyzed the responses  of more than 2,000 American adults recruited for another study and found that,  on average, people who leaned liberal were more science literate than those who  leaned conservative.”

“However, those who identified as part of the tea party movement were actually  better versed in science than those who didn’t, Kahan found. The findings met  the conventional threshold of statistical significance, the professor said.”

Hehehe…  🙂

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We all knew this was coming. And maybe that’s why govt employees weren’t getting much sympathy during the shutdown. Back pay, and a raise to boot.

From TheWashingtonPost  “The budget measure that ended the partial government shutdown allows for a 1 percent raise for federal employees in January in addition to providing back pay for those furloughed, according to two Democratic Maryland senators.”

““I’m proud we were able to fulfill our promise to make them whole again with back pay and finally break through the pay freeze with a modest adjustment for next year,” said Cardin, a member of the Senate Finance Committee.”

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And now, The Debacle continues.

Doh!

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Gee, maybe this had something to do with it. 🙄

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “Federal officials did not permit testing of the Obamacare healthcare.gov website or issue final system requirements until four to six days before its Oct. 1 launch, according to an individual with direct knowledge of the project.

The individual, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the troubled Obamacare website project as suffering from top-level management disarray, changing systems requirements and recurring delays.”

Really could use that face-palm smiley here.

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But while the problems mounted, the cash flow to contractors increased. Typical Dem response, who cares if it’s a failure, just throw more money at it. 🙄

From TheFreeBeacon  “As U.S. officials warned that the technology behind Obamacare might not be ready to launch on October 1, the administration was pouring tens of millions of dollars more than it had planned into the federal website meant to enroll Americans in the biggest new social program since the 1960s.

A Reuters review of government documents shows that the contract to build the federal Healthcare.gov online insurance website – key to President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform – tripled in potential total value to nearly $292 million as new money was assigned to the work beginning in April this year.”

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This one I suggest everyone read.  This is who is responsible for this website mess, and what could potentially be a lot more taxpayer-funded govt debacles. It’s like Haliburton, but with a lot more tentacles.

From TheWaPo  “CGI Federal is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadian firm CGI Group, which was founded in Quebec City in 1976 by a pair or 26-year-olds named Serge Godin and Andre Imbeau. (CGI stands for “Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique” in French, which roughly translates to “Information Systems and Management Consultants”). Growing through scores of acquisitions, and providing outsourced IT services to massive companies such as Bell Canada and Quebec’s provincial pension plan, CGI’s business model depends on embedding itself deeply within an institution.

“The ultimate aim is to establish relations so intimate with the client that decoupling becomes almost impossible,” read one profile of the company.”

“That said, they’ve learned quickly, and see the U.S. federal government as their area of biggest growth. CGI Federal’s health-care practice has grown 90 percent year over year, largely due to the Healthcare.gov project. And for a contractor, ballooning projects are a good thing. “In the Federal Government business, we continue to see more extensions and ceiling increases on our existing work, while we further leverage our position on contract vehicles,” said CEO Michael Roach on their latest earnings call. Those “contract vehicles” now amount to $200 billion, which Roach later referred to as a “hunting license.””

“The healthcare.gov debacle has taken its toll on the working environment at CGI Federal’s 10-story complex in Fairfax, Va., according to a staffer working on a related project who asked not to be named. “There’s been a lot of agitation and anger, because CGI really prides itself on having family flexibility,” he said, noting the firm’s liberal telework policy. Instead, the Obamacare contract has sucked more and more staff off other projects, and people have been working around the clock to first get the site ready for Oct. 1, and then fix it when things started to go wrong. “There’s a lot of frustration,” the staffer said. “People are getting sick, fainting in conference calls.”

Oh boy.

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I expect the longer this mess goes on, the better chance there is that you see Dems pulling stunts like this one, in an attempt distance themselves from their roles.

From BuzzFeed  “Visit the website of Michigan-based design firm Teal Media today and you’d never know designers there helped create HealthCare.gov, the troubled online portal for Obamacare.

Just a few days ago, the site looked very different. Teal Media’s homepage featured its work on Obamacare prominently, placing a link to the firm’s work on one of the most well-known websites in America front and center. Now that link, as well as the page devoted to Teal’s work on HealthCare.gov, have been removed.”

“Teal Media doesn’t seem interested in talking about its work on HealthCare.gov. A woman who answered the phone at the company’s headquarters immediately referred BuzzFeed to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) at the Department of Health And Human Services (HHS) before a single question was asked. CMS is listed as Teal’s client on the firm’s now-erased HealthCare.gov page.”

And again, insert face palm smiley here. They had so many calls about removing it that they actually put it back up. Might as well, the screen shots already documented what you did. The cat is out of the bag. 🙄

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Oh, and the ObamaCare website is possibly violating software licensing copyrights. Nice. Again, the face palm smiley would be perfect here.

From TheWeeklyStandard  “Healthcare.gov, the federal government’s Obamacare website, has been under heavy criticism from friend and foe alike during its first two weeks of open enrollment.  Repeated errors and delays have prevented many users from even establishing an account, and outside web designers have roundly panned the structure and coding of the site as amateurish and sloppy.  The latest indication of the haphazard way in which Healthcare.gov was developed is the uncredited use of a copyrighted web script for a data function used by the site, a violation of the licensing agreement for the software.

The script in question is called DataTables, a very long and complex piece of website software used for formatting and presenting data.  DataTables was developed by a British company called SpryMedia which licenses the open-source software freely to anyone who complies with the licensing agreement.  A note at the bottom of the DataTables.net website says: “DataTables designed and created by SpryMedia © 2008-2013.”  

🙄 It’s a comedy of errors, but it isn’t really all that funny.

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Here’s something to keep in mind if you have to enter your personal info into the ObamaCare website. This is the kind of fine upstanding folks who will have access to your info.

From NationalReview  “A community organization established by Wade Rathke, founder of ACORN, will be participating in a “navigator” drive aiding people attempting to sign up for health-care coverage under the Affordable Care Act, according to a Fox News report. The organization, United Labor Unions Council Local 100, is based in New Orleans and was created by Rathke after ACORN went bankrupt amidst widespread scandal.”

“Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action, a non-partisan watchdog group, said, “At a time when our government has ceased functioning due to an appropriations gap, it is ironic that America’s tax dollars are being doled out to an entity whose poor stewardship of our funds was well-established by Congress.” Congress voted to defund ACORN in 2009 after secret videos revealed ACORN employees coaching people on how to conduct illegal activities.”

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And here’s the type of people he employs.

From FrontPageMag  “The fact that Wade Rathke, a disreputable, radical left-wing community organizer, is allowed anywhere near the enrollment process ought to give all Americans pause. The only reason Rathke hasn’t been federally investigated for racketeering is because his allies control the federal law enforcement apparatus. President Obama pretends he has no connection to ACORN and Attorney General Eric Holder doesn’t care what laws have been broken because he approves of ACORN’s goals.”

“Yes, that’s President Obama’s former employer, ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

ACORN is the nonprofit group that knowingly hired felons convicted of identity theft to work on voter registration drives, giving them custody of sensitive voter information.”

Yeah. 🙄

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News/Politics 10-17-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Well it’s over. Until the next time. 🙄

And there will be a next time, this guarantees it. Or as Michael Bloomberg says, they just kicked the can down the road. They did nothing about the actual problems here.

From Politicker  “Washington lawmakers finally reached a deal to re-open the government just hours before the debt ceiling deadline, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn’t celebrating yet.

“All of what they’re talking about is simply kicking the can down the road,” Mr. Bloomberg told Politicker this afternoon.

The mayor was responding to a request for his take not long before Republican lawmakers had officially conceded their fight. But Mr. Bloomberg, sounding confident a short-term deal would be reached, predicted another standoff soon.

“It is true it would be after the Christmas holiday shopping season, I suppose, but we’re gonna have the same problem come January. We’ve got to stop all of this stuff and come up with a rational system,” he argued at the press conference, which was called to announce the activation of a giant new back-up water tunnel, which was officially switched on at 5 p.m. this evening.”

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Well we now know why McConnell sold out.

From WFPL/Louisville  “A proposal to end the government shutdown and avoid default orchestrated by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Harry Reid includes a $2 billion earmark for a Kentucky project.

Language in a draft of the McConnell-Reid deal (see page 13, section 123) provided to WFPL News shows a provision that increases funding for the massive Olmsted Dam Lock in Paducah, Ky., from $775 million to nearly $2.9 billion.”

“Asked about the additional funding in the proposal, McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer directed all questions to lawmakers who worked on the bill directly.

“Senators (Diane) Feinstein and (Lamar) Alexander, the chair and ranking member of the energy and water subcommittee, worked on the issue and can help you,” he says.”

I wouldn’t want to talk about it either Mitch. I’d be too embarrassed.

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Some might think calling Senate RINO’s sellouts is a bit much. I think it’s accurate. They sold out the American taxpayer with this deal.

From Politico  “But some Republicans were relieved to see the saga come to a close.

“It’s obvious that we are now seeing the end of this agonizing odyssey that  this body has been put through, but far more importantly, the American people  have been put through. It’s one of the more shameful chapters that I have seen  in the years that I have spent here in the Senate,” said Sen. John McCain  (R-Ariz.).

The Senate plan includes a proposal offered by McConnell in the 2011 debt  ceiling crisis that allows Congress to disapprove of the debt ceiling increase,  which means lawmakers will formally vote on whether to reject a debt ceiling  increase until Feb. 7. Obama can veto that legislation if it passes. If Congress  fails as expected to gather a two-thirds majority to override the veto, the debt  ceiling would be raised.”

They just agreed to change the rules so that the next time this comes up, it will take 2/3 of Congress to stop the President from raising it. There’s no way Dems would do that, so they just gave him the power to do it on his own. And you know he will.

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Why ObamaCare is a Mess.

From TheChicagoTribune  “We encouraged a one-year delay in the law. We recognize that’s not going to happen. Obamacare is here. It’s time, though, for the Obama administration to level with Americans about what’s happening here. It’s time to stop blaming Republicans and start talking about what needs to change.

The administration can do one thing — apparently on its own — to spare many Americans. It can delay the requirement that everyone buy insurance by March 31 or pay a penalty. Federal officials already have granted a one-year reprieve to the mandate that most employers provide insurance to their workers or pay a penalty. The administration cut a sweet deal for Congress and its staffers, who will continue to get generous federal subsidies. It has allowed any number of carve-outs for special pleaders.

A delay in the individual mandate would not be a special favor to American consumers. It’s a matter of fairness.”

“The deeper problems of cost and coverage in Obamacare are going to require an admission by the administration that this government management of the health care market is extraordinarily complicated and will be very costly for many people. The law has to change.”

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Well the website isn’t working, but the propaganda machine is up and running at full speed. 🙄 

From NewsBusters  “If you’re sick and tired of TV news broadcasts spewing pro-Obamacare  propaganda, get ready to be inundated with even more progressive health care  proselytizing in the dramas and comedies that follow those news shows.

For this you have the left-wing California Endowment to thank. The radical  philanthropy is in the news because it is funding Obamacare public outreach  efforts.

As Newsmax reports,  the Obama administration is “turning its focus on prime time television series,  using the influential platform and the power of celebrity to spread the word  about its healthcare initiative.”

With the White House’s blessing, the University of Southern California’s  Annenberg Norman Lear Center, which has something called a “Hollywood, Health & Society program,” has accepted a $500,000 grant from the left-wing  California Endowment to help TV producers condition the masses into supporting  Obama’s Soviet-style health care program.”

And due to the changed regulations, this is allowed. Which is exactly why they changed them. Just flat-out propaganda.

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News/Politics 10-16-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

First up today, some interesting words from Rand Paul. I’ll be honest, my first thought was I wonder what Dad thinks?

From CNSNews  “Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the mainstream media  try to ignore it but there is a “worldwide war on Christianity” being  waged by a “fanatical element of Islam,” and that U.S. policy towards  Syria has resulted in America now sending weapons to “Islamic rebels who  are allied with al-Qaida.”

“From Boston to Zanzibar, there’s a worldwide war on Christianity,”  said Senator Paul at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C. on Oct.  12.  “Christians are being attacked around the world, but you won’t  hear much about it on the evening news because the answer’s not  convenient. It doesn’t fit the narrative we have been told about radical  Islam.

“The president tries to gloss over who’s attacking and killing  Christians,” said Paul.  “The media describes the killings as  ‘sectarian.’ But the truth is, a worldwide war on Christians is being  waged by a fanatical element of Islam.”

Meanwhile, the war on Christians in the military continues here at home.

Also From CNSNews  “After the Obama administration, for the second Sunday in a row, continued to prohibit approximately 50 Catholic  priests from saying Mass and administering other sacraments at U.S. military facilities around the world, Father Ray Leonard, who serves as the  Catholic chaplain at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia, filed suit Monday against the Department of Defense, Defense Secretary Chuck  Hagel, the Department of the Navy, and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.

DOD is prohibiting Father Leonard and the other Catholic priests from administering the sacraments and providing other services to their congregations even though two weeks ago Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed, a law that instructed DOD to maintain on the job and keep paying contract employees who were supporting the  troops.

DOD took this action because Hagel determined–after consulting with Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department–that civilian Catholic priests, working under contract as chaplains, did not, among other  things, “contribute to the morale” and “well-being” of service  personnel.”

Shocked? Me neither. After all, they’re more likely to support the people in the first link than they are Christians anywhere.

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In other news from the continuing shut down saga….

From TheWashingtonPost  “The Republican-controlled House canceled a vote Tuesday night on a plan to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling after support from conservatives for the deal crumbled, leaving Washington without a clear path forward for avoiding a first-ever default on the nation’s debt.

Later Tuesday night, Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell moved to pick up the pieces of the shattered House effort, with aides to both senators expressing optimism a deal could be soon at hand.

“Senator Reid and Senator McConnell have re-engaged in negotiations and are optimistic that an agreement is within reach,” said Adam Jentleson, spokesman for Reid (D-Nev.).

“Given tonight’s events, the leaders have decided to work toward a solution that would reopen the government and prevent default. They are optimistic an agreement can be reached,” said Don Stewart, spokesman to McConnell (R-Ky.).”

I’d be more optimistic if McCain and Senate Republicans didn’t appear to be stuck in “Surrender Monkey” mode.

And the plot thickens as well. This should add a sense of urgency to the whole affair.

From CNBC  “Fitch Ratings put the US government’s “AAA” credit rating on ‘rating watch negative’ Tuesday, saying that the standstill on the U.S. debt ceiling negotiations risks undermining the effectiveness of the country’s government and political institutions.

U.S. stock index futures fell.

“Although Fitch continues to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a U.S. default,” the rating agency wrote in a statement.”

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Next up, only 6,964,000 to go. If you do the math, at this rate, no way they hit 7 million by their deadline, even if you go with the Mail’s 51 thousand instead of the 36 thousand here. And where will the money to fund it and keep it afloat come from without actual policyholders to pay for it?

From NationalReview  “Millward Brown Digital, a consultancy firm, released an analysis today estimating that only 36,000 people had signed up for insurance through the federal Obamacare exchange website.

According to Millward Brown Digital, there were 9.47 million unique visitors to healthcare.gov from the site’s launch on October 1 through October 5. Of those visitors, 1.3 million left the website for their state-run exchange and 3.72 million attempted to create an account on the site. Only 1.01 million successfully did so.”

“The analysis says that “Healthcare.gov was clearly unprepared to handle the huge spike in traffic witnessed on October 1st when it was visited by .9% (or 1 in 114) of everyone online in the U.S. This is roughly equivalent to the daily traffic on Target.com.”

Yeah…….. 🙄

Here’s more from the study, also not encouraging. 1 year delay? Sounds like 3 or 4 is more like it.

From TheWashingtonPost  “The number of visitors to the federal government’s HealthCare.gov Web site plummeted 88 percent between Oct. 1 and Oct. 13, according to a new analysis of America’s online use, while less than half of 1 percent of the site’s visitors successfully enrolled for health insurance the first week.”

“Based on a sample of two million users — or 1 percent of all online users in the U.S. — which Millward Brown Digital has permission to track, it suggests that the rush of traffic administration officials cited as the cause of the site’s problems trailed off within a matter of days.”

“And Aneesh Chopra, who served as the White House’s first-ever chief technology officer during President Obama’s first term, said the analysis actually captured the public’s sustained interest in signing up for health insurance on the federal exchange. He noted that while the total number of visitors to the site is interesting, it matters much more that one million Americans created an online account.

“Account creation is always the holy grail. That’s the moment that matters,” Chopra said in an interview. “In one week, a million people began a process that will result in affordable coverage. That means a lot of people are going to ultimately get the product.”

Not surprised the former Obama admin employee tries to put a good spin on things. But the reality is he’s wrong. His “Holy Grail” is useless. It means nothing. What it needs are paying customers. Signing up is easy, forking over the cash for an actual policy is quite another matter. That isn’t happening in large enough numbers yet.

And Forbes says people will be shocked when they find out the cost. They say the system is designed to get all your info first, then you get to see the prices. They say that’s the case because the numbers will scare folks away.

From Forbes  “A growing consensus of IT experts, outside and inside the government, have figured out a principal reason why the website for Obamacare’s federally-sponsored insurance exchange is crashing. Healthcare.gov forces you to create an account and enter detailed personal information before you can start shopping. This, in turn, creates a massive traffic bottleneck, as the government verifies your information and decides whether or not you’re eligible for subsidies. HHS bureaucrats knew this would make the website run more slowly. But they were more afraid that letting people see the underlying cost of Obamacare’s insurance plans would scare people away.

HHS didn’t want users to see Obamacare’s true costs

“Healthcare.gov was initially going to include an option to browse before registering,” report Christopher Weaver and Louise Radnofsky in the Wall Street Journal. “But that tool was delayed, people familiar with the situation said.” Why was it delayed? “An HHS spokeswoman said the agency wanted to ensure that users were aware of their eligibility for subsidies that could help pay for coverage, before they started seeing the prices of policies.”

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And last one for today, was the difficulty with the SNAP program over the weekend really a computer glitch? Or a dry run to gauge reaction for this?

From WeaselZippers  “The United States Dept Of Agriculture is the governmental body tasked with overseeing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or “SNAP.”

According to a memo dated Oct 11 2013 and circulated among SNAP program administrators for all states that participate, the USDA recommends they begin withholding benefits from citizens beginning in November.

Is the US Dept of Agriculture trying to create panic among program participants as we saw previously?“

Is this the next move in the make it hurt campaign the Obama admin is engaging in?

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