Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Lots of good stuff today

Chicago Tribune Editorial: Stop digging. Start over. This political salvage mission by the White House is roiling Americans' health coverage.
Well, they endorsed him, the useful idiots. ~Bob. Excerpt: 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.

Excerpt: 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.

Four States Reject Obamacare "Fix"
Excerpt: Arkansas, Vermont, Washington and Rhode Island have rejected the changes.

Good column: ObamaCare's Chicago Moment. By Abraham H. Miller
Excerpt: But if Obama learned anything while being a community organizer in Chicago and picketing banks to implement the community reinvestment act that was the linchpin for the financial disaster of 2008, it was that the public might not understand all the complex nuances of politics; they do understand when political screw ups touch their everyday existence.

Congressmen Will Receive Obamacare Subsidy Even Though They Don’t Qualify Under The Law
http://lastresistance.com/3712/congressmen-will-receive-obamacare-subsidy-even-though-dont-qualify-law/
Excerpt: Under the OPM deal arranged in August, the average member of Congress who makes $174,000 a year will be able to keep his approximately $10,000 health insurance subsidy, like he used to get under his old plan, before Obamacare. Congressional staffers who buy through the exchange will also get to keep the subsidies they were receiving.

How ObamaCare Rips Off the Young
Excerpt: When ObamaCare is under attack, its defenders retreat to several well-worn claims. Among them is a provision that compels insurance companies to allow parents to keep their "children" ages 21 to 26 on their family policies. Yet this part of the Affordable Care Act was not engineered in response to any noticeable interest group. Instead, political considerations are responsible for the provision -- which is an unnecessary and a deceptive ripoff of the "young healthies," says Carl Schramm, president and chief executive officer of the Kauffman Foundation. One consideration is that young adults facing chronic unemployment commonly return to their parents' home. The Obama administration sought to avoid a potential political storm by providing a benefit normally connected to holding a job for one of its most reliable support groups. Another consideration is that ObamaCare's financing won't work unless "young healthies" (or their parents) pay through the nose for coverage under parental plans or via the individual mandate. The 18 to 26 age group is the lowest user of care, the least costly to cover and the most profitable of all health-insurance coverage. Yet the group faces extraordinarily high ObamaCare rates. A Manhattan Institute analysis of Health and Human Services numbers notes that a 27-year-old male will pay 99 percent higher premiums under ObamaCare than he would under previously prevailing market rates.

Excerpt: But then, after Obama mentioned her story, Sanford started having problems. Sanford said she received another letter informing her the Washington state health exchange had miscalculated her eligibility for a tax credit. In other words, her monthly insurance bill had shot up from $198 a month (she had initially said $169 a month to the White House but she switched plans) to $280 a month for the same "gold" plan offered by the state exchange. Sanford said she was frustrated with the state's error. But she decided to purchase the new plan and thought everything was fine. It wasn't fine. (Psalm 146/3: Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. ~Bob)

Last month's Obamacare success story is this month's disaster
This woman was recognized by Mr. Obama himself as a great success story of Obamacare, back in October. But this month she is transformed into a total loser. Fascinating. --Del

Obamacare closes tax deduction for Americans affected by losing existing health plans
Excerpt: Millions of Americans facing higher out-of-pocket costs border=0 v:shapes="_x0000_i1025">  after losing their existing health insurance will also be damaged by what is effectively a tax hike imposed under Obamacare. Before President Obama’s health reform law went into effect, Americans could deduct out-of-pocket medical costs if they amounted to at least 7.5 percent of the individual’s annual income…. But now under Obamacare, Americans can only deduct out-of-pocket medical costs if they amount to 10 percent of the individual’s income .

Suddenly, It's OK to Talk About Repealing ObamaCare
Excerpt: Not too long ago, Republicans pushing to kill ObamaCare were called extremists, obsessives and traitors. Now even liberals are discussing the possibility of repeal. We've reached an important turning point. Back in May, nobody batted an eye when Bill Maher blasted the GOP's efforts to repeal ObamaCare. "At some point," he said, "obstruction becomes, I don't know, treason?" What a difference a few million canceled health plans and a crash-prone website make. (I would not have thought this possible, but now it at least can be mentioned. We can only hope this idea goes on a roll. --Del)

Now Romney's Ahead! Botched ACA Rollout Hammers Obama; Job Disapproval Reaches a Career High
Excerpt: And perhaps adding insult to injury, registered voters divide numerically in Mitt Romney’s favor, 49-45 percent, if they had a mulligan for the 2012 presidential election. While the difference between the two is within the poll’s error margin, Obama’s support is 6 points below his actual showing a year ago. (Now they tell us. Dear America: This is what we were warning you about, but you wouldn't listen. -- Jim Geraghty)

Another ObamaCare Cost: Feds gave $4.4B to states for exchange websites
Excerpt: The Obama administration gave states roughly $4.4 billion in taxpayer dollars to set up their own ObamaCare websites, according to a new analysis, in the latest revelation about the faucet of federal spending switched on by the 2010 passage of the health care law. ("Some of the states even took federal money, then decided to let the federal site handle enrollment." So it was just another Obama slush fund. --Ace of Spades blog.)

CMS Official: We Still Haven't Built '30 to 40 Percent' of Obamacare's Web Apparatus, Including Payment Systems
Excerpt: HENRY CHAO: I think it's, uh, just an approximation, we're probably sitting somewhere between 60 and 70 percent because we still have to build... GARDNER: Wait, 60 or 70 percent that needs to be built, still? CHAO: Because we still have to build the payment systems to make payments to insurers in January.

Taking 'Obama' out of health care. By Reid J. Epstein, Politico
Excerpt: President Barack Obama and loyal Democrats once embraced the term Obamacare to sell the American people on health care reform. Not anymore. With the president’s approval ratings at record lows, a broken website and Obama under fire for his pledge that people could keep their plans, the “Affordable Care Act” has returned.

The Lawlessness of the ‘Fix’: Insurance companies would be insane to offer plans that failed to comply with the ACA. By Andrew C. McCarthy
Excerpt: Barack Obama could not have been more unequivocal. The telecommunications companies had to be punished for violating the letter of federal law. He didn’t want to hear about how President Bush told them it was okay. One laughs now remembering how Obama’s base, the anti-anti-terrorist Left and its lawyer legions, used to call Bush the “imperial president” and thunder for his impeachment. Bush couldn’t hold a candle to our incumbent Caligula. He had no idea, for example, that presidents can just “waive” inconvenient parts of congressional statutes, like FISA.

NY not planning to reoffer canceled health plans
Excerpt: New York is not planning to reoffer canceled health-insurance policies that don't meet the requirements of the federal Affordable Care Act. (They can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. ~Bob)

A Practicing Physician’s Prescription For A Healthcare Fix. By Dr. Elaina George 
Excerpt: For all of the desperate attempts at distraction, demonization and outright lies about Obamacare the truth remains – having health insurance does notequal getting quality healthcare.
 It is true that there are problems with the health insurance industry. If anyone had bothered to ask independent private physicians why they no longer take Medicare/Medicaid, or why many are opting out of insurance and moving towards a cash only practice in increasing numbers, they would tell you that they stopped because the game is rigged. 

Flashback--2007 Hillarycare Ad: 'Lets You Keep Your Coverage If You Like It'
Excerpt: But Hillary Clinton’s 2008 plan, laid out in an advertisement that aired in early presidential primary states in 2007, promised Americans they could “keep your coverage if you like it.” The ad also claimed the plan would provide “affordable choices if you don’t” and “covers every American”—echoing the claims of Obamacare.

Breaking: Supreme Court refuses to block Texas abortion restrictions

Just had a CHILLING thought. What if the MUTE button was never created? I'd have 2 manually turn DOWN the volume when O comes on TV!

Good Column: The War Against Achievement. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: A friend recently sent me a link to an inspiring video about an upbeat young black man who was born without arms. It showed him going to work -- unlike the record number of people living on government payments for "disabilities" that are far less serious, if not fictitious. ... What would happen if Americans in general, or blacks in particular, started celebrating people like this armless young man, instead of trying to make heroes out of hoodlums? 

Good column: Obama’s Noble Lies: Stop worrying whether the president’s statements conform to ossified standards of truth. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: What is the common denominator of the Obama administration’s serial scandals — the Justice Department’s spying on AP, the IRS targeting of conservative groups, the NSA surveillance, the lies about Benghazi and the ACA — and much of the White House damage-control rhetoric? In a word: the advancement of postmodern notions of justice at the expense of traditional truth. By the 1980s, in law schools, university social-science departments, and the humanities in general, the old relativist idea of Plato’s noble lies was given a new French facelift.

Scary: Lavabit Founder Ladar Levison Plots The Route. By Stella Paul
Excerpt: The California Endowment, a private foundation spending millions on ads aimed at enrolling young adults and Hispanics in Obamacare, now also has granted $500,000 to educate TV writers and producers on Obamacare, and suggest ways to weave its many splendors into fictional prime-time shows. "We know from research that when people watch entertainment television, even if they know it's fiction, they tend to believe that the factual stuff is actually factual," said grant recipient Martin Kaplan of the University of Southern California's Norman Lear Center.

Reuters: Pentagon's Doctored Ledgers Conceal Billions in 'Epic Waste'
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/pentagon-waste-theft-fraud/2013/11/18/id/537248?promo_code=14FD4-1
Excerpt: Linda Woodford spent the last 15 years of her career inserting phony numbers in the U.S. Department of Defense's accounts. Every month until she retired in 2011, she says, the day came when the Navy would start dumping numbers on the Cleveland, Ohio, office of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the Pentagon's main accounting agency. 

Treasury Forced to Issue $1T in New Debt in First 6 Weeks of FY14
We are going down. If you haven't read: "The West and the Tyranny of Public Debt"

Women in combat zone alongside men: wrong on so many levels. By Michele Hickford
Excerpt: I shoot. I can do 50 man-style push-ups in one set. But I’m 4’10’ and weigh 95 pounds. There’s no way in hell I could fireman-carry a wounded 180-pound male soldier off the battlefield. I absolutely do not believe standards should be “relaxed” to allow pipsqueaks like me to qualify in the name of equality and fairness. If I can’t do everything the average male soldier can do in combat, I shouldn’t be in combat. Simple as that.

Source: 4 female Marines will graduate enlisted infantry training this week
Excerpt: Four women will graduate this week from the Marine Corps’ enlisted infantry training course, Marine Corps Times has learned. ... Throughout the training, female students were held to the same standards as men, Marine officials said.

Caught On Video: Off-Duty Cop Nearly Beaten To Death In Front Of His Wife – How Spectators React Is Almost Equally Disturbing
Excerpt: An off-duty New York Police Department officer was severely beaten over the weekend while his wife watched helplessly. What’s more, spectators taunted and laughed — and no one seems to come to the man’s immediate aid as his attacker continued to beat him while he lay unconscious. Sgt. Mohammed Deen, an 18-year veteran with the NYPD, was attacked by Hayden Holder in Queens South Richmond Hill neighborhood Sunday, according to WABC-TV.

Morocco: A 16-Year-old Muslim Girl Hangs Herself After Being Told to Marry Her Rapist

Pakistan: Daughter Sexually Assaulted By Father Is Honor Killed By Her Brother


Virginia state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds stabbed in home; adult son, Gus Deeds, fatally shot
Excerpt: Virginia state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D-Bath) was stabbed multiple times early Tuesday in an assault at his house in Bath County, west of Charlottesville, Virginia State Police said. The senator’s 24-year-old son, Gus Deeds, was found fatally shot inside the home. ... Geller said authorities are not looking for anyone else who might have been involved in the assault, an indication that the altercation involved only the senator and his son.

Excerpt: The benefits of free international trade are often diffuse and hard to see, while the benefits of shielding specific groups from foreign competition are often immediate and visible. This illusion fuels the common perception that free trade is detrimental to the American economy. It also tips the scales in favor of special interests seeking protection from foreign competition. As a result, the federal government currently imposes thousands of tariffs, quotas, and other barriers to trade. However well intended, restrictions on foreign trade harm the very people they aim to protect: American consumers and producers. Trade restrictions limit the choices of what Americans can buy; they also drive up the prices of everything from clothing and groceries to the materials manufacturers use to make everyday products. Moreover, it is lower-income Americans who generally bear a disproportionate share of these costs. (Unfortunately, Progressives despite their empty pieties, don't care about low income Americans. They care about getting votes, thus power and money, from economically ignorant voters., ~Bob)

California Department of Justice agents sweep Fresno, Clovis for illegal guns. By Jim Guy
Excerpt: The sign in the window warned burglars that the homeowner owned a handgun and would use it in self-defense. The state agents knocking on the door were there to confiscate the weapon. The agents are part of the California Department of Justice's Armed Prohibited Persons System (APPS), a program that takes firearms from people barred from owning them. The law says that group can include ex-felons and people deemed to be mentally unstable. Often arriving in SUVs and dressed in black tactical uniforms, the teams regularly sweep through California cities with a list of names and addresses.

Obama's Soft Stance on Iran Might Force Israel to Strike. By Yaakov Lappin
Excerpt: But they already sparked a fierce public rift between the government of Israel and the Obama administration, the likes of which have not been seen in U.S.-Israeli relations in many years. Fueling the disagreement are deep concerns in Jerusalem – and other capitals in the Middle East, as well as in Paris – that the Obama administration is willing to settle for a shortsighted, poor interim deal that will cause existing, crippling sanctions to crumble. That would enable Iran to stay on the brink of nuclear weapons production, and enable President Obama to defer the crisis to the next administration. (Only thing left is for Obama to channel Jesse Jackson and call Tel Aviv "Hymietown." ~Bob)

It would be a great mistake to capitulate before Iran when they have all the reasons right now to respond to the pressure.

Quotes
"When you disarm [the people] you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred against you." "When the people are entrusted with the care of any privilege or liberty, being less disposed to encroach upon it, they will of necessity take better care of it; and being unable to take it away themselves, will prevent others from doing so." "A republic should take great care not to entrust with an important administration one who has been gravely offended." - Niccoló Machiavelli, The Prince. 1537.

Putting NSA spying in perspective. By James A. Lyons

Obama delivers Gettysburg Address on YouTube, leaves out ‘under God’
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/19/obama-delivers-gettysburg-address-on-youtube-leaves-out-under-god/#ixzz2l6n3Vv19
Excerpt: Historians do believe that Lincoln honed the address in later drafts after he delivered it, but there is little disagreement about whether Lincoln uttered the words “under God” when he spoke at Gettysburg. “Every stenographic report, good, bad and indifferent, says ‘that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom,’” wrote historian William E. Barton. “There was no common source from which all the reporters could have obtained those words but from Lincoln’s own lips at the time of delivery.”

Suicide bombings kill 23 near Iran embassy in Beirut
Excerpt: Two suicide bombings rocked Iran's embassy compound in Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least 23 people including an Iranian cultural attaché and hurling bodies and burning wreckage across a debris-strewn street. (Muslims slaughtering Muslims for Allah. Thus has to always been, so shall it always be in the Religion of Death. ~bob)

Somali African Union Beledweyne base hit by bomb attack
Excerpt: At least 19 people have been killed in a suicide attack on an African Union base in the Somali town of Beledweyne near Ethiopia's border, officials say.

Barack Obama, Derelict. By Ed Lasky
Excerpt: Let's take Barack Obama at his word -- a stretch certainly for anyone who would lie about his own mother's death to score partisan points will lie about...well, anything. But let's put the most positive spin on what President Obama has been conveying to his fellow Americans. One can try to be optimistic even in these perilous times -- it is one of the great traits of being American.

Martin Bashir: Gee, I'm Awfully Sorry I Said Someone Should Defecate In Sarah Palin's Mouth
Excerpt: Leftist politics, I maintain, are not a politics at all, but a psychological response to one's shortcomings and feelings of failure. Leftist politics are, simply put, a way of getting even with a world that's done one wrong -- and most people carrying about such grievances against a world that's done one wrong are psychologically broken. These fairytale "politics" give them an avenue to vent their rages and turmoils about their failures and inadequacies in a way that is deemed, incorrectly, to be socially acceptable and even high-minded. (Imagine the uproar if a conservative TV pundit said this about Michelle Obama or Nancy Pelosi? ~Bob)

Good Column: The JFK Conspiracy Theory Is the Conspiracy. By Daniel Greenfield 
Excerpt: JFK was not killed by some miasma of right-wing hatred, by a confederacy of Cuban exiles, CIA agents and Sicilian mafia bosses. The directions in which the JFK conspiracy theories point reveal what they are trying to hide. John F. Kennedy was not murdered by a miasma of hatred on the right, but on the left. Before liberals became leftists, leftists had a propensity for killing liberals.

Yes: Do Americans Prefer Deception? By Walter Williams 
Excerpt: Congress tells us that one-half (6.2 percent) of the Social Security tax is paid by employees and that the other half is paid by employers, for a total of 12.4 percent. Similarly, we are told that a Medicare tax of 1.45 percent is levied on employees and that another 1.45 percent is levied on employers. The truth of the matter is that the burden of both taxes is borne by employees. In other words, we pay both the employee and the so-called employer share. You say, “Williams, that’s nonsense! Just look at what it says on my pay stub.” OK, let’s look at it.

Obama building 'compliant officer class.' By F. Michael Maloof
Excerpt: The extraordinarily large number of senior military officials being relieved of duty under the Obama administration – nine generals and flag officers this year alone and close to 200 senior officers over the last five years – is part of the creation of a “compliant officer class,” according to a U.S. Army intelligence official. (The more I hear of this, the less sleep I get. --Del. I approach WND with caution. Their hair is always on fire, they indulge in a lot of speculation and put the worst spin possible for the left on things. Which doesn't mean they are always wrong. ~Bob)

Gitmo good life: U.S. spends millions on landscaping, art classes for terror detainees
Excerpt: Thanks to a multimillion-dollar federal contract, Guantanamo Bay prisoners can enroll in seminars to learn all about basic landscaping and pruning, calligraphy and Microsoft PowerPoint while the U.S. figures out what to do with them. Prisoners also can get in touch with their artistic sides.

The News in Zingers. By Argus Hamilton
Excerpt: The White House reports that Secret Service agents were caught sending out graphic texts to women online while on duty at the White House. Everyone is stunned. This is the first evidence we've seen that somebody at the White House knows how to use a computer.

French hostage escapes Nigerian jihadist captors at prayer time
Excerpt: This may be why jihadist kidnappers so often try to convert their captives to Islam. If Collump had been a Muslim, he would have been praying at the same time, and would not have noticed the unlocked door. But why didn't Allah notice and prevent the escape of the Infidel hostage? He is indeed the "best of schemers" (Qur'an 3:54). 

WELFARE ABUSE: 32 years old Austin, TX welfare recipient says working is stupid.
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 " For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living." But I suspect this could be fake. ~Bob

Horrifying New "Knockout Game" Trend Responsible for 7 Deaths
Excerpt: A horrifying and deadly new trend called the “Knockout Game” is sweeping the country. The “players,” who are usually teens, target a stranger on the street and try to knock the person out with one punch! So far, at least seven deaths have been linked to the game.

Boy, 9, found hanged 'was bullied for being white'
Excerpt: A boy of nine who was found hanged is believed to have killed himself after he was ‘bullied for being white’ by an Asian gang at school. ("Asian" is British media PC speak for Muslim. ~Bob)

Kanye West: Obama used me
Nothing personal, Kayne. He uses everybody. ~Bob

Bay Area Democrats tiring of Obama, resulting in slashed ticket prices for upcoming DNC fundraiser
This week only! Lies and broken promises half off! ~Bob. Excerpt: The Democratic National Committee is so desperate to get donors to attend its shindigs that it’s slashed ticket prices for a high-dollar fundraiser in San Francisco next week in half. The committee announced the reduced ticket prices in a donor email Monday as a result of the lackluster ticket sales for the fundraiser thus far. 

Brave Woman: Challenging supremacist ideology in Islam. By Tehmina Kazi
Excerpt: Firstly, it is clear to me that the supremacist ideology peddled by these international terrorists is the thin end of a spectacularly ugly wedge. I see less serious manifestations of this ideology all the time as the Director of British Muslims for Secular Democracy, as well as excuses being made for it. 


Republican, so will be a national story and his party will be mentioned in every article. Obama used coke too, they say, but no story there. ~Bob

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