Monday, November 18, 2013

Great Stuff From The Weekend

Guest Post: What makes Obamacare so messy

Great Column: Thus Spake Obama: The incompetence of our neo-monarchy. By Mark Steyn
Excerpt: On Thursday, he passed a new law at a press conference. George III never did that. But, having ordered America’s insurance companies to comply with Obamacare, the president announced that he is now ordering them not to comply with Obamacare. The legislative branch (as it’s still quaintly known) passed a law purporting to grandfather your existing health plan. The regulatory bureaucracy then interpreted the law so as to un-grandfather your health plan. So His Most Excellent Majesty has commanded that your health plan be de-un-grandfathered. That seems likely to work. The insurance industry had three years to prepare for the introduction of Obamacare. Now the King has given them six weeks to de-introduce Obamacare.

If schadenfreude had calories, I'd weigh 300 pounds
Excerpt: As Obamacare continues its spectacular public impersonation of the LZ Hindenburg, dropping flaming wreckage across the politico-economic landscape, I am still just utterly gobsmacked at the dazed bafflement on the face of the true believers in government. "How could this be going so spectacularly wrong?" goes the hand-wringing lament. How could it not? Seriously! You think a bunch of people can sit down and... Lux Fiat! ...re-write the rules for how 15% of the economy works in one fell swoop, in what amounts to a giant bong-fueled bull session, and have nothing go wrong? You might as well try to change the spark plugs on your car while the engine's running.

Obama’s health-law fix sends insurers, officials scrambling
Excerpt: State regulators across the country said they were blindsided by President Obama’s decision to change a key health-law provision and spent Friday scrambling to make sense of it. Some said they were unsure whether their state laws would allow them to do what the president suggested. A day after Obama tried to quell anxiety over millions of canceled insurance policies, only a handful of state regulators said they would adopt the president’s fix. Many others said they needed more time to decide what to do because of the complex logistics and far-reaching impact on consumers.

Excerpt: You may remember that when Health Savings Accounts were introduced there was almost universal outrage among liberals about the horrendous burden cost-sharing places on all but “the healthy and wealthy.” A press release issued by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) within a week of the Ways and Means committee approving an HSA bill in 2003 said – "This legislation would lead many employers to move away from providing low-deductible comprehensive insurance, noted Edwin Park, a senior health policy analyst at the Center and the report’s lead author. Policies with deductibles of $1,000 or more, higher co-payments for medical services, and coverage for a narrower array of health services could well become the norm for employer-sponsored coverage, with employers expecting their workers to pay uncovered costs out of their tax-favored Health Savings Security Accounts, Park stated." ... So it comes as something as a shock that today these exact same people are raving about how wonderful the coverage is in ObamaCare’s insurance exchanges. Organizing for Action, Barack Obama’s official grassroots operation emblazons on its website ― “Better Coverage, Lower Costs!”

Obama’s ‘5 Percent’ Con Job: It’s a 100 percent lie, according to the White House’s own figures. By Andrew C. McCarthy
Excerpt: The president well knew that, in implementing the “grandfathering” provision, his administration wrote regulations so narrow that tens of millions of existing plans would be eliminated. Congressional Democrats knew this, too: When Republicans endeavored in 2010 to enact legislation that would have broadened the regulation into a meaningful safe harbor, Democrats closed ranks and voted down the proposal – including Democrats such as Senator Mary Landrieu, who now pretends to be a crusader in the cause of letting Americans keep their insurance.

Obamacare vs. the Dutiful: Hard-working Americans might wonder, “Why bother?” By Charles C. W. Cooke
Excerpt: Among those whom the president has explicitly deemed to be losing out “through no fault of their own” are illegal immigrants who were brought here as children, federal workers who were furloughed during the recent government shutdown, and “homeowners facing foreclosure.” Oddly enough, however, he has yet to mention the millions of responsible and admirable Americans who for years purchased health insurance on the individual market and who are now being thrown off their plans — through no fault of their own, of course, but by him and his central political achievement.

Right-wing, racist, Tea Party nut Howard Dean On Obamacare Website: "I'm Not Convinced It's Going To Be Fixed"
Excerpt: And I'm not convinced it's going to be fixed -- you know, I've seen a lot of tech rollouts. We don't do those well in this country. My rule for them is -- and no matter what -- electronic medical records or the tax department, it takes twice as long, costs twice as much and often you have to do it twice.

Worth Reading: Obama’s “No Drama” Credo Led to the ACA Website Disaster. By Gloria Borger, Time
Excerpt: And yet, as the dry-runs continued to produce red flags—over and over—the president remained in his steely cocoon. If this were the presidency of George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan, the obvious theories would abound: the chief executive is disengaged. Or incurious. Or worse. But since Obama is none of the above, what gives? This much is clear, after speaking with both past and present senior administration officials: no one was really in charge, so no one knew for sure how bad the overall picture was. What’s more, and—perhaps most telling—no one wanted to even hint to the president that this techno-savvy administration possibly had a website stuck in, say, 1995. “People don’t like to tell him bad news,” says an ex-White House staffer. “Part of it is the no-drama culture.”


Good Column: The Left Side of History. By Daniel Greenfield 
Excerpt: In the summer of this year, Obama told Democratic members of Congress who were concerned that the ObamaCare rollout was going to be a mess, that there was no reason to worry. “We are on the right side of these issues and the right side of history in terms of providing health care to Americans.” Now the right side of history is starting to look like the left side of history.
At least one of the Democrats, Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, decided that she had been on the wrong side of history and voted for the “You Can Keep Your Plan” Act.

President Obama Actually Meant, 'If You Like Your Insurance Plan, Too Bad.' By Sally Pipes

Obamacare: So, what could go wrong next? by David Nather, Politico
Excerpt: The stumble-filled debut of President Barack Obama’s health care law is drawing new attention to the other risks that have been on the radar screen of health care wonks for months. Think health insurance plans sinking under the weight of sick customers, newly insured people being stunned that they still have to spend on health care, and possibly another wave of canceled policies — right before the 2014 elections.

Dem. Senator: ‘We All Knew’ Obama Was Lying
On Sunday, appearing on ABC’s This Week with fill-in host Martha Raddatz, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) admitted that Democrats knew full well that Americans would be booted from their health insurance plans as an effect of Obamacare implementation. When asked whether Democrats were misled by President Obama about whether Americans would be able to keep their plans in the individual insurance market, Gillibrand answered: “He should’ve just been specific. No, we all knew.” 

From a blog reader
Mr. Obama has alleged he was not told the O'Care Web site did not work and that he is terribly upset. Why hasn't he fired any of the people who let him down? In what fantasy world does a CEO let his name become attached to a major project, doesn't know it isn't going to work and then doesn't even replace the subordinates who let him down? --TH

Excerpt: When his pet businesses did not like elements of the Affordable Care Act, Obama simply exempted them. When employers objected that their mandate would unduly hamper job creation, the president simply ignored the settled law and exempted them. Now, when millions have lost their coverage, the president is said to be ready to again reinterpret settled law and no longer demand that private insurance plans conform to the ACA statute, at least for a year.

Excerpt: Referring to a section of the gargantuan Obamacare law which discusses “the president’s own commissioned and non-commissioned officer corps,” Gohmert drew attention to the notion that under the pretext of a “national emergency,” such individuals could be used to impose some form of medical martial law….Combined with the continued DHS arms build up along with the federal agency’s hiring of armed guards with “Top Secret” security clearances, Gohmert characterized the issue as “very disturbing”

Here is an article from last year, before the election. What is important is what the doctor says about how it will affect the way he can practice medicine. All of that is just as true now as when he said it. Two of my own physicians have said pretty much the very same things about how their practices will be affected. And saving money by cutting the payments for Medicare by 27% will make doctors a lot less enthusiastic about having Medicare patients. One of my doctors said that every doctor is going to have to calculate the maximum fraction of Medicare patients he can afford to have in his practice before it makes his cash flow go negative. This is going to make things rough for the Boomers as more of them hit 65 and go into Medicare and try to find doctors to accept them. Things are just really starting to go downhill. The next six months are going to be more and more "educational" for Americans. --Del

Good Column: The ignorant omniscience of President Obama. By Mary Katharine Ham
Excerpt: He knows everything. And yet he seems to know nothing. He’s passionate about the details of domestic policy but wasn’t privy to the details of his own legacy law. He’s an academic with a command of every issue at once but seemingly only finds out what his administration is doing in news reports. He’s so brilliant every normal endeavor he’s tried has bored him, but he couldn’t bother to entertain himself with more than one monthly meeting on the make-or-break program of his presidency. He’s the captain of the Culture of Competency who has overseen the most incompetent rollout of an entitlement program in history. (The lady does a nice job on his recent TV announcements about the mess that is Obamacare. Personally, I did a very simple analysis of the man over four years ago. All you have to understand is that he has a tremendous combination of two flaws, which are arrogance and ignorance. He IS what in business we call the most dangerous guy around. Someone who has absolutely no idea how much he does not know that he desperately needs to know to do his job, but who is utterly certain that he knows everything he ever needs to know. What's fascinating is that 5 years into it, with all kinds of messes on his watch that would tell almost any person that they don't know what they need to know, his attitudes have not changed one bit. He is still as cocksure as ever, when something really hits the fan, all he has to do is call in the TV cameras, offer some excuses, and make a pronouncement about how things are fixed or will be shortly. Then all the media heads smile and tell America that things are looking up, his disciples feel that wonderful calm of knowing all is well after all, and the rest of us want to beat our heads against the walls and scream. How many times do you have to catch someone in blatant lies before you stop giving them any credence at all? But some realities don't go away. They have stonewalled the Fast and Furious gun insanity so long that it's out of most people's minds, and are doing the same for the IRS scandal. They are riding the wave of Climate Change propaganda and acceptance by so many, despite the arguments against it, and especially against the policies they want to adopt because of it. Only the devotion of some people to the memory of the four murdered Americans in Benghazi keeps that alive at all. There are the massive effects of Obamacare, starting with the people who are in very serious health dangers because of the cancellation of their plans, and then progressing to the many millions of Americans whose plans are cancelled and the choices they have no almost always involve much higher costs with somewhat less coverage. These situations will not change, and in fact only get worse with time as everyone gets their bad news, and it turns out that possibly enough people will not enroll to make the financial situation really untenable. So by next Spring we are going to have millions upon millions of Americans very upset, with a lot more money going out to insurance that contains less coverage and a higher deductible. That pain will not lessen with time. So then will come next November...... and that will be interesting. Meanwhile, enjoy the article. --Del)

Health care deductibles a shock to Michigan consumers
Excerpt: Six weeks after the troubled rollout of the Michigan Health Insurance Marketplace, the Obama administration may be facing a new challenge: consumer anger at high deductibles in plans that were supposed to be the most affordable. In southeast Michigan, deductibles in most of the 14 bronze plans listed on the marketplace — those with lower premiums — top $5,000 for a single person and $10,000-$12,000 for a family. Insurance won’t kick in until those out-of-pocket costs are met. (So they have to pay $12k out of pocket. They get free birth control and abortion is covered. ~Bob.)

Can Democrats avoid a circular firing squad on Obamacare? The early signs aren’t promising. By Chris Cillizza And Sean Sullivan
Excerpt: Democrats have met the political enemy heading into the 2014 midterms — and it is them. All of that movement came within hours of a Thursday news conference by President Obama that was clearly aimed at calming the building political storm, particularly within his own party. Obama and his team had clearly hoped that allowing people to keep their insurance plans through 2014 if they so chose would keep Democratic defections on the “Keep Your Health Plan Act” in the House to a minimum and end — or at least sap political energy from — efforts by Democratic senators to amend the law. It did neither.

Hitler finds out Obamacare will not let him keep his doctor
And another great satire. ~Bob

SNL Parody Has Obama Guzzling Anti-Depressants

Good Column: When the Obama Magic Died. By Fouad Ajami
Excerpt: The current troubles of the Obama presidency can be read back into its beginnings. Rule by personal charisma has met its proper fate. The spell has been broken, and the magician stands exposed. We need no pollsters to tell us of the loss of faith in Mr. Obama's policies—and, more significantly, in the man himself. Charisma is like that. Crowds come together and they project their needs onto an imagined redeemer. The redeemer leaves the crowd to its imagination: For as long as the charismatic moment lasts—a year, an era—the redeemer is above and beyond judgment. He glides through crises, he knits together groups of varied, often clashing, interests. Always there is that magical moment, and its beauty, as a reference point.

Feds try to eliminate housing for the deaf -- at complex built for hearing-impaired
Excerpt: A 2005 federal study found that the U.S. had virtually no affordable housing for the deaf. So the federal government helped build Apache ASL Trails, a 75-unit apartment building in Tempe, Ariz., designed specifically for the deaf. Ninety-percent of the units are currently occupied by deaf and deaf-blind seniors. But now, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development says Apache ASL Trails violates civil rights law -- because it shows a preference for the hearing-impaired. (And those nutty conservatives think government can't be trusted to do everything. Have they noticed that senior housing discriminates against the young? ~Bob)

Bill Clinton Towers Over Barack Obama in New Poll
Excerpt: Obama does better with Democrats but Clinton still bests him. Almost half -- 49 percent -- of Democrats say Clinton was a better president while 37 percent think Obama is doing better in the White House.

Negative Effects of Minimum Wage Increase
Excerpt: After comparing historical changes in unemployment rates among workers of varied educational attainments to changes in the minimum wage, Davies estimates that the new increase in New Jersey's minimum wage will cause the following to happen: Increase unemployment among workers without a high school education (by approximately 2 percentage points); Increase unemployment among workers without high school diplomas in general (by approximately 1 percentage point); And have no effect on unemployment among college-educated workers. Davies found no evidence that suggests that an increase in the minimum wage will improve income equality in New Jersey.

Why Walking to Work Can be More Polluting Than Driving to Work. By Richard B. McKenzie
Excerpt: Which is more polluting—driving a mile to work or walking that mile? The easy answer is, of course, driving. Cars have tailpipes; people don't. Far more energy is needed to push a 3,000-pound car along the road than is needed to move a 150- to 250-pound body along a sidewalk. Walking seems like the green thing to do. But appearances can be deceiving, making easy answers dead wrong. That's the case here when the calories expended in walking are replaced.

What That Sneaky Fee on Your Phone Bill Means. By John Leo
Excerpt: When you pay your monthly phone bill, you’re not only paying for your own service, you’re paying for someone’s free cellphone service, too. This week the FCC proposed millions of dollars in fines against providers of free government-paid cell phone service, probably the first time many Americans have heard of the program, let alone the fraud, duplicate payments, waste and other violations the fines are supposed to address.

Socialism in Action: Doctors Say Venezuela's Health Care In Collapse. By Frank Bajak 
Excerpt: Driving the crisis in health care are the same forces that have left Venezuelans scrambling to find toilet paper, milk and automobile parts. Economists blame government mismanagement and currency controls set by the late President Hugo Chavez for inflation pushing 50 percent annually. The government controls the dollars needed to buy medical supplies and has simply not made enough available. (The joys of a single payer system. ~Bob)

THOUSANDS of elderly people dying due to hip replacement postcode lottery
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-hip-replacement-thousands-elderly-2799924
Excerpt: Thousands of elderly people are dying due to a “postcode lottery” of care after they break a hip, claim specialists. The death rate from the problem is up to 13 per cent in some hospitals – more than six times the two per cent rate in the best ones, a study shows. (The joys of a single payer system. ~Bob)

Police probe into Co-op bank chief Reverend Paul Flowers caught buying crystal meth and cocaine
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2509042/Police-probe-Co-op-bank-chief-caught-buying-crystal-meth-cocaine.html
Excerpt: Police last night launched an investigation into Labour’s favourite banker after he was caught buying crystal meth and crack cocaine. ... Flowers was £132,000-a-year chairman of the ‘ethical’ bank, which has lent £34million to Labour over two decades.

Holder: l'll stay attorney general 'well into 2014'
Excerpt: Holder told The Washington Post that he plans to stay in his job "well into 2014." “I've made the determination — I'm not sure I've ever said this publicly — but I'm going to certainly stay in this job well into 2014," he said. "If you had asked me that six months ago, I'm not sure I would have given you that answer.

JFK: Lifetime NRA Member, Second Amendment Defender. By Awr Hawkins
Excerpt: With the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's (JFK) assassination drawing near, various aspects of his life and presidency are being recounted. Among these, two aspects that are not getting the attention they deserve are his lifetime membership in the NRA and his defense of the Second Amendment. 

Syrian Rebel Leader Dies After Government Attack
Excerpt: A Syrian rebel leader who brought together one of the most effective and organized factions fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s civil war has died of wounds suffered Thursday in a government attack on a meeting of rebel leaders outside Aleppo, his followers said on Monday. His death was seen as a serious blow to the rebels amid a gathering government offensive as diplomats pursue efforts to convene international peace talks.

Israel secretly detained al-Qaeda suspect Baraq
Excerpt: Israel has secretly held a suspected al-Qaeda biological weapons expert since 2010, it has been revealed. A military court placed Samir Abdul Latif al-Baraq in "administrative detention", which allows indefinite detention without charge or trial, after he was arrested in July 2010.

The French-Israeli-Saudi Front Against Iran? By Joseph Klein 
Excerpt: Thus, the Jewish state of Israel and the Islamic state of Saudi Arabia, certainly not friends in normal times, find themselves planning to join forces if necessary to stop Iran from crossing the nuclear arms finish line. According to a November 17, 2013 article in the British newspaper Sunday Times, Saudi Arabia has agreed to “give the go-ahead for Israeli planes to use its airspace in the event of an attack on Iran.” The Saudis are also reported to be willing to assist the Israelis by making drones, rescue helicopters, and tanker planes available for the Israelis’ use.

Al-Qaeda’s Jihad Supported by Muslim Brotherhood. By Raymond Ibrahim 
Excerpt: Many are aware that the current al-Qaeda leader, the Egyptian Ayman Zawahiri is a former Brotherhood member (read here); yet few know that the original al-Qaeda leader, the Saudi (and “Wahhabi”) Osama bin Laden was also a Brotherhood member. While Zawahiri made as much clear in a recent video, more interestingly, he indicated that the Brotherhood also supported bin Laden’s jihad.

Kennedy Family Rules. By Lloyd Billingsley 
Excerpt: Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, is the sister of Rushton Skakel, father of Michael Skakel. In 2002 Michael Skakel was sentenced to 20 years to life for murdering his neighbor Martha Moxley with a golf club in Greenwich, Connecticut, on October 30, 1975. Judge Thomas Bishop recently awarded Skakel, now 53, a new trial on the grounds that his attorney Michel Sherman was negligent. That comes as good news to Skakel’s cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Excerpt: The first chapter of the Community Organizer's Handbook outlines the first step in addressing a problem....form a committee, fund it, spend two years walking around the problem, then when no solutions have been found, form a subcommittee. Barack Hussein Obama (will we someday look back and recoil at hearing that name?) has taken that approach to a whole new level when he became President. Obama seems to have lifted entire sections of Hitler's "Mein Kamph" and Karl Marx' "The Communist Manifesto" in order to establish a huge group of Czars to circumvent Congress and dictate governance from the Executive Branch.

Who's Mirroring Jim Crow? from The Patriot Post
Louisiana's school voucher program is being pursued by Eric Holder's Justice Department on grounds that it "frustrates and impedes the desegregation process." The Wall Street Journal's Jason L. Riley responds: "Around 90 percent of the recipients are black, and 86 percent of them otherwise would be assigned to public schools that received a D or F grade from the state. In its lawsuit, the Obama administration argued that allowing children to leave these awful schools could make the public school system less white in composition and thus hamper school desegregation efforts. In other words, the Justice Department's position is that the racial balance of a school is more important than whether anyone is learning. Forcing poor blacks to attend the state's worst schools strikes me as something out of the Jim Crow South."

‘Free as the Wind’: The True Cost of Wind Energy. By Steve Maley
Excerpt: Green activists preach about renewable energy sources, using words like ‘holistic’ and ‘sustainable’. Wind energy is one of their favorites; nothing is as free as the wind, n’est-ce pas?
If we truly consider the holistic environmental impact of wind turbines on the environment and the economy, it’s not a pretty picture. Nor is it sustainable.

Excerpt: They did not find anything. On Wednesday, a man went on his own to the police station, maybe overcome by remorse, and admitted committing the mischief: it was the imam himself.

Halt deportation and pass KIDS Act as steps to immigration reform
Excerpt: The prospect of delivering a comprehensive immigration bill to President Obama’s desk this year is coming to a halt. With the political will waning, broad reform will have to wait until 2014 or beyond. … Executive action to stop deportations and the KIDS Act or DREAM-like bill can still pass as first steps to comprehensive immigration reform.

Scientists in Alaska Warn About Spread of Fukushima Radiation
Excerpt: For years the mainstream media looked the other way as Fukushima has been irradiating the planet, but there have been clear indications that this nuclear disaster is already having an effect, even on the other end of the world. This week it was reported that scientists in Alaska are raising concerns about the possibility of Fukushima radiation contaminating the local food supply….The data they will need is not only past data but current data, and if no one is sampling anything then we won’t really know it, will we?

Potentially Fatal ‘Knockout’ Game Targeting Strangers May Be Spreading
Excerpt: A terrifying new ‘game’ that’s already caused deaths in SyracuseSt. Louis and New Jersey is sweeping the nation, and it preys upon unsuspecting people walking the streets, anywhere. A recent report from New York-based CBS 2 shed light on the growing trend, displaying unsettling footage of teens participating in this game – which goes by the name ‘Knockout’ – and involves randomly targeting passersby, with the ultimate goal being to knock them out with one punch as they walk by. One victim shown in the footage was 46-year-old Ralph Santiago of HobokenN.J., who was found dead with his neck broken and head lodged between iron fence posts, according to NJ.com. (”It’s just havin’ enuf stuff to knock ‘em out. It’s just what peeples do. It’s peeples havin’ fun.” What 10 Commandments? Examples shown are black on white crime. --Barb)

US hired Afghan contractor with ties to terror groups, inspector general says
Excerpt: The U.S. Department of Defense reportedly hired an Afghan company with terrorist ties to do work on a NATO facility last year, according to the top official overseeing reconstruction efforts in the war-torn nation. The Army Times reports Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko cited the contract with Zurmat Material Testing Laboratory in a Nov. 8 letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel as part of a larger pattern resulting in $150 million of Pentagon payments to various concerns with insurgent ties. (Per article, firm supplied “bomb-making materials” to terrorists in area. --Barb)

Excerpt: Following bombshell documents released by Storyleak and Infowars last Tuesday uncovering Seattle’s expansive $2.6 million Homeland Security funded mesh network surveillance grid, new documents hidden deep inside the 2012 proposal request (# DIT-2996) give even greater detail into the government’s ability to track and database virtually any person

I SAY WE REPEAL HER: Texas A&M Law Prof Says It’s Time to Repeal Second Amendment
Excerpt: A full-time professor on the faculty of the newly-minted Texas A&M University School of Law called for the repeal and replacement of the Second Amendment on Friday.

Obama Refuses to Speak to Netanyahu: In latest twist in public US-Israel relations fallout, Obama has been forwarding all of Netanyahu's calls to John Kerry.
Excerpt: US President Barack Obama has refused to answer phone calls from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "more than once," according to Kuwaiti news source Al-Jarida. In a deliberate snub, Netanyahu's calls have instead been forwarded to US Secretary of State John Kerry. An American source told Al-Jarida that Jewish American politicians have been keen to fix the situation, which has steadily been deteriorating over the past month, and are attempting to set up a meeting between the two world leaders at the White House. 

The Afghan Taliban took credit for yesterday's suicide attack in the capital of Kabul that targeted the site of an upcoming meeting of Afghan leaders who will vote on the Bilateral Security Agreement. ... "A martyr attack hit the heavily-guarded military convoy of the puppets [Afghan security personnel] in Kabul city, the capital of the country later on Saturday, killing as many as 32 puppets and wounding several others," the Taliban statement said.

Army veteran banned from Old Navy store over teen employee in Marine uniform
Excerpt: Army veteran Aaron Bennett says he was banned from an Old Navy store in Jacksonville, Florida, after he pointed out a teen employee improperly wearing a Marine Corps uniform dress jacket complete with rank insignia, ribbons and a weapons badge, News4Jax.com reported Wednesday. ,,, "Banning a VET for calling attention to inappropriate attire is unacceptable. I won't be shopping with them anymore. Nor Gap, Banana Republic, & Piperlime. You know they're owned by the SAME corporation," added Tacinta Connor. (You can write Old Navy at: custserv@oldnavy.com. ~Bob)

Excerpt: Now a report, released by the estate of late Rep. Bill Young, says that the Benghazi attackers were not only running an organized military assault, but they had inside information about the compound and knew the exact location of the ambassador's safe room.

An Incurious Or Willfully Ignorant President. By Derek Hunter 
Excerpt: When President Obama stepped in front of the cameras Thursday to magically waive a wand and arbitrarily change his signature accomplishment, he couldn’t help but lie to the American people…again. But lying about the accomplishments of his administration isn’t a compulsion; it’s a requirement.

A Sailor’s Dying Wish
Excerpt: After signing my Pop, EM2 Bud Cloud (circa Pearl Harbor) up for hospice care, the consolation prize I’d given him (for agreeing it was OK to die) was a trip to “visit the Navy in San Diego.” I emailed my friend and former Marine sergeant, Mrs. Mandy McCammon, who’s currently serving as a Navy Public Affairs Officer, at midnight on 28 May. I asked Mandy if she had enough pull on any of the bases in San Diego to get me access for the day so I could give Bud, who served on USS Dewey (DD-349), a windshield tour.

2 LDS sister missionaries attacked in Kosovo
Excerpt: Fox 13 News has learned two sister missionaries were beaten by Albanians, who are also tied to plotting a terrorist attack. The LDS Church said the two young women are out of harm’s way and doing OK.

Obama can’t get your guns, so he’s going to take away your ammunition
The Homeland Security Department wants to buy more than 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition in the next four or five years. It says it needs them — roughly the equivalent of five bullets for every person in the United States — for law enforcement agents in training and on duty. Enough bullets for a 20 year war.

CDC's Secret Security Force, Not Very Secret, But Definitely Scary
Excerpt: But it is something the media does not cover much, likely because of the concern it would cause if the citizenry knew that- yes the CDC believes it has the authority to put a gun to your head and force you to take that shot of experimental H7N9 vaccine. And, oh by the way, they just did order 600 million syringes to give every person in the USA two shots. (CDC already forcing healthcare workers throughout country to take flu shots (some with option to wear masks if MD-certified allergy or religious--signed by minister--reason); otherwise, terminated to get near 100% vaccinated goal to avoid facility fines of over 6-digit-figures. Same methods used on school systems to establish nationalization of “education” programs a la Common Core, using carrot/stick funds/withholding of funds. Money talks. Using capitalism to defeat capitalism. Same methods being used on farmers to “order” what should be produced, replacing balancing mechanism of free market system (i.e. corn overuse for ethanol). COMMAND ECONOMY, ordering what the State wants. --Barb)

Excerpt: The Wall Street Journal reported last Wednesday that another 3,000 Americans have turned in their American passports and renounced their American citizenship. The Journal further reports that this is a 30 percent increase over last year and represents a growing trend since 2009. The Journal wished to concentrate on the "wealth factor", the rich deserting the ever increasing taxes on the wealthy. However, Numbers USA and other organizations cite the exodus of the middle class as well. Departing citizens cited oppressive government and the growing government intrusion into their personal lives. The Middle Class seemed particularly abused by higher local, state and federal taxes on the working man to pay for a growing dependent class and a corrupt hierarchy of government employees feeding unceasingly at the public trough.

Two Small Children Among Four Christians Slain in Plateau State, Nigeria; 'Muslim Herdsmen' Likely Killers
Excerpt: Gunmen who killed four family members in their home in Plateau state this month, including 2-year-old and 4-year-old boys, were likely Muslim herdsmen, church leaders said. 

TJ Joseph, Christian teacher accused of blasphemy (and mutilated) is fully acquitted
Excerpt: Kerala Court hands down acquittal on appeal. In 2010, Islamic extremists accused the teacher of having offended Muhammad. While denying any responsibility, a group of strangers cut off his hand and part of his right arm. After being suspended and then fired by the school authorities, today the teacher was offered his job again.

CIA personnel asked to sign additional non-disclosure form after Benghazi attack
excerpt: At least five CIA personnel, including government contractors, were asked to sign a second non-disclosure agreement after the Benghazi terrorist attack, Fox News has learned. ... But they felt the request for a second non-disclosure agreement after the terrorist attack was odd and not standard practice because their original NDA's were still in effect, and only some in the group were undergoing contract modifications that might require a new NDA.

Sen. Coburn: Obama’s DHS Nominee Plagiarized 23 Times
Excerpt: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ranking member Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has found that President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,Jeh Johnson, plagiarized 23 times in his written questionnaire provided to the committee before his confirmation hearing. The Associated Press reported on Thursday that Coburn “said he was concerned that Johnson's written answers to customary prehearing questions used the same language in 23 instances as several other Obama administration nominees"

Excerpt: During her confirmation hearing Thursday, Janet Yellen, President Obama’s nominee to become chairman of the Federal Reserve, said she will pursue policies that hurt people who try to build up wealth, claiming that impoverishing savers serves the collective good of society….Yellen avoided hard questioning from a Senate Banking Committee staffed mostly by believers in the Keynesian economics to which she subscribes.

Excerpt: A Tennessee high school senior is receiving widespread attention for an eloquent speech he made against Common Core at a school board meeting. Ethan Young, a senior at Farragut High School in Knox CountyTenn., made an impassioned argument for dropping the new national education guidelines, which he called “a glowing conflict of interest … that illustrate a mistrust of teachers.” “Somewhere our Founding Fathers are turning in their graves,” he said.

EPA scales back ethanol mandate to avert ‘blendwall’
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/15/epa-scales-back-ethanol-mandate/#ixzz2klvNLGFq
Excerpt: While we are pleased that EPA has taken steps to avoid the blendwall in 2014, we remain concerned that the proposed rule leaves open the possibility that the biofuel mandates will exceed the maximum amount of ethanol that can be safely added to our gasoline supply,” said Charles Drevna, president of the American Fuels & Petrochemical Manufacturers. ... Furthermore, the ever increasing ethanol mandate has been blamed for driving up food and fuel prices, as about 40 percent of the country’s corn supply is diverted to ethanol production. (Check out the article mentioning increased nitrogen fertilizer use/pollution and “blue baby syndrome.” Scary, but such “side effects” are reaped from a command economy, where those dictating rules do not truly understand cause/effect or supply/demand or care about the damage/stress they produce on the land, the people or the animals, food supply or cars/trucks.

Quiz: How Millennial Are You?

Excerpt: A woman who was nine months pregnant was attacked and rob by two teenagers wearing burqas last Tuesday in North Seattle. Now, police are asking for help finding the attackers.

Charges in alleged attack of Muslim cabdriver Mohamed Salim are dropped
Excerpt: After reviewing cellphone records and other evidence in the alleged attack, which some Muslim groups termed a hate crime, prosecutors said they did not believe Mohamed A. Salim’s account.

9 Mind-Blowing Facts About Obama’s Unemployment Crisis
Excerpt: There are 102 million Americans of working age who don’t have a job. This number represents 58.3% of working age Americans, the highest percentage since 2000. This means that for fifty straight months, there has been sub 59% participation in the job market.

Important: D.C. awash in contracts, lobbying wealth

Obama's one Percenters. ~Bob Excerpt: The avalanche of cash that made Washington rich in the last decade has transformed the culture of a once staid capital and created a new wave of well-heeled insiders. The winners in the new Washington are not just the former senators, party consiglieri and four-star generals who have always profited from their connections. Now they are also the former bureaucrats, accountants and staff officers for whom unimagined riches are suddenly possible. They are the entrepreneurs attracted to the capital by its aura of prosperity and its super-educated workforce. They are the lawyers, lobbyists and executives who work for companies that barely had a presence in Washington before the boom.

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