Your one-stop-shop for political news and opinion. Please
forward to friends who need to be informed. This blog is created by many
readers who send me items for inclusion, which I would have likely missed or
skipped. As always, we owe them thanks and appreciation. I post articles
because I think they are of interest and will stimulate thought and discussion.
Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or
any—opinion in the posted article, or that I was able to verify the information
presented, which is the responsibility of the author. I try not to post things
that are false, or too far a stretch, regardless of the view point, but I don’t
always succeed. As always on the Net, or in the legacy media, you must read critically
and with skepticism. ~Bob
Hitler's health
insurance is cancelled
Yet another funny take off. ~Bob
Excerpt: First marriages are taking place later in life.
And, increasingly, couples are opting out of marriage entirely. Living together
prior to marriage — or as a substitute for marriage — is about 15 times more
common today than it was 50 years ago. About half of all women of childbearing
age have lived with a romantic partner prior to marriage. This figure
approaches three-quarters of women in their 20s. Social conservatives may
dismiss this as a case of waning morality — morally-challenged couples shacking
up rather than entering into holy matrimony. Yet the reasons could be partially
economic. The decline of marriage may be partly due
to so-called marriage penalties in the federal tax code, and in government
welfare programs. You can add another penalty to the list: the ObamaCare exchange marriage penalty.
Slow Regulatory
Approval in Canada
Hinders Cancer Survival
Excerpt: More than 5,000 patients could have been negatively
affected by delayed federal regulatory and provincial reimbursement approval
for five new oncology drugs approved in Canada between 2003 and 2011 for
the treatment of advanced solid tumors. If each of these patients had received
the drugs and achieved the median survival benefit identified in each drug's
pivotal randomized clinical trial, a total extension in survival over standard
therapy of 1,696 patient-years would have resulted. The monetary value of this
extension in life was estimated to be between $339.2 million and $559.6
million. Each drug received approval from Health Canada
between 205 and 591 days after the U.S. Federal Drug Administration approval,
and the time required to review each drug was 1.5 to 4.5 times longer in Canada than in the United States . (The more government
is involved in healthcare, the worse it gets. ~Bob)
For beleaguered IRS,
a crucial test still awaits after troubled rollout of health-care law
Excerpt: Whether the new law can be enforced will be up to
the Internal
Revenue Service, an already beleaguered agency charged under the act with
carrying out nearly four dozen new tasks in what represents the biggest
increase in its responsibilities in decades. None is more crucial than
enforcing the requirement that all citizens secure health insurance or pay a
penalty. (The IRS is the military wing of the Democrat party. ~Bob)
Yes, It Can . . .
Be Repealed: If Obamacare produces as many losers as winners,
its future will be in doubt. By John Fund
Excerpt: “These people don’t understand what the government
is trying to do for them,” said then-chairman of the House Ways and Means
Committee Dan Rostenkowski in August 1989, after senior citizens angry
over a federal health-care law booed him and chased him down a Chicago street.
That law was repealed a few months later by a Democratic Congress and a
Republican president who had supported it just the year before. Everything old
is new again. We are starting to hear in D.C. that today’s unpopular
health-care law might be in real trouble, spelled with a capital T,
as The Music Man would put it.
Hispanic Group: We
Don’t Trust White House Deadlines On Spanish-Language Obamacare
Site Anymore
Excerpt: When users visit CuidadoDeSalud.gov, the Spanish
version of the Obamacare exchange website, they can’t start an application,
browse providers, or buy insurance. The site, effectively a placeholder,
doesn’t work — and nobody seems to know when it will.Now one of the largest
Latino advocacy organizations in America is voicing frustration with the White
House for the failure, with one official there telling BuzzFeed she no longer
trusts the administration’s promises to deliver the site by their own
deadlines.
Healthcare.gov and
the Gulf Between Planning and Reality
Excerpt: It’s certainly true that Federal IT is chronically
challenged by its own processes. But the biggest problem with Healthcare.gov
was not timeline or budget. The biggest problem was that the site did not work,
and the administration decided to launch it anyway. This is not just a hiring
problem, or a procurement problem. This is a management problem, and a cultural
problem.
Barton: OCare Website
Hidden Source Code Says Users "Have No Reasonable Expectation of
Privacy"
Dems worry leaders in
denial on Obamacare
Excerpt: Democratic leaders claim the bungled launch of
Obamacare is just the latest news sensation — a media-stirred tempest that
looks in the heat of the moment like it could upend the midterm election, but
ends up fizzling well before voters head to the polls.
Some party strategists say they’re in denial.
Top US hospital
laying off staff due to Obamacare
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/25/top-4-u-s-hospital-laying-off-staff-due-to-obamacare/#ixzz2lg7mEhrn
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/25/top-4-u-s-hospital-laying-off-staff-due-to-obamacare/#ixzz2lg7mEhrn
Excerpt: “The cuts for 2014, about half of those are
related to the Affordable Care Act…We anticipate a reduction in
workforce,” Cleveland Clinic executive director of communications Eileen
Sheil said in an interview with The DC. The Cleveland Clinic is reducing its
2014 budget by $330 million.
Worth Reading :
Healthcare.gov
Crashes Less Frequently, to the Relief of Identity Thieves. By Jim Geraghty
Excerpt: “It’s really hard to go back and fix the security
around it because security wasn’t built into it,” said David Kennedy, chief
executive of TrustedSec. “We’re talking multiple months to over a year to at
least address some of the critical-to-high exposures on the website itself.”
Board strife as Colorado exchange far
behind projected enrollment
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24593942/board-strife-colorado-exchange-far-behind-projected-enrollment
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24593942/board-strife-colorado-exchange-far-behind-projected-enrollment
Excerpt: Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act through Colorado 's health
insurance exchange is barely half the state's worst-case projection, prompting
demands from exchange board members for better stewardship of public money. The
shortfall could compromise the exchange's "ability to deliver on promises
made to Colorado
citizens" and threatens the funding stream for the exchange itself,
according to board e-mails obtained by The Denver Post in an open records
request.
Obama's looming deadline to win back his own party
Excerpt: The Obama administration
has one week left before its self-imposed deadline to get Healthcare.gov
working for the vast majority of users, and a failure to hit that goal could trigger
yet another round of Democratic panic over the health care law.
Tweet from Jay Caruso @JayCaruso
"We didn't read it yet passed it anyway. We lied about
it. We shut down the govt over it. Now it doesn't work & its all their
fault!"
Uh oh: Many younger
consumers won’t get subsidies in ObamaCare exchanges
Excerpt: If CNN’s analysis is correct, then the website is
the least of the White House’s worries on ObamaCare. The
administration, specifically Kathleen Sebelius, insisted that anyone earning
less than 400% of poverty level would qualify for subsidies on the exchanges,
but that may not actually be true.
Good Stuff: Ace of Spades' Talking Points for Talking
With Your Obnoxious Progressive Family Members About Obamacare This
Thanksgiving
Tweet from 'Eli-sha' B. Crews @ElishaNEWS
A Health scare is when your neighbor loses their HC
coverage. A Nightmare is when you lose yours.
Excerpt: And a CNN/ORC
International survey released Monday morning also indicates
that 53% of Americans now believe that Obama is not honest and trustworthy, the
first time that a clear majority in CNN polling has felt that way. ... Fifty-six
percent say he is not a person they admire, and an equal number say he does not
agree with them on important issues. Fifty-six percent also say he does not
inspire confidence, and 53% don't view him as a strong and decisive leader. (Too late they see. ~Bob)
Guest Post:
Destroying The United States
Military
Excerpt: It's easy to see what Iran gets out of this: a reprieve
from crippling economic sanctions worth some $6 billion to $7 billion in cash. It's
more difficult to figure that Iran
views this as the first step toward giving up its nuclear ambitions. Iran
will stall some of its development efforts, but it will not significantly step
back from the timetable it faces to build a nuclear weapon.
Kerry: Nuke deal
doesn’t give Iran right to enrich; Iran: World recognized our right
to enrich. By Doug Powers
Excerpt: The ink isn’t even dry on the temporary Iran nuclear
deal and it already has that distinct “passed it to find out what’s in it”
scent.
Excerpt: Addressing concerns over the language in the
agreement between the six world powers and Iran regarding Tehran’s ability to
continue work on its nuclear program, Rouhani said, “Let anyone make his own
reading, but this right is clearly stated in the text of the agreement that
Iran can continue its enrichment, and I
announce to our people that our enrichment activities will continue as before.”
Trumpeting deal,
Iranians say agreement stymies ‘Zionist plot’
Excerpt: Ultimately, Iran ’s
foreign minister says, accord will remove all sanctions and allow Iran
to pursue nuclear power free of international pressure
Israeli Leaders
Denounce Geneva
Accord
Excerpt: Having failed to
stop Sunday’s signing of a nuclear deal between
Iran and six Western powers despite a relentless campaign of criticism, Israeli
leaders say their mission now is to ensure that, as several put it, this first
step is not the last step.
Israeli PM Netanyahu:
Iran
nuclear deal 'historic mistake'
Excerpt: "What was concluded in Geneva last night is not a historic
agreement, it's a historic mistake," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu told reporters. "It's not made the world a safer place. Like the
agreement with North Korea
in 2005, this agreement has made the world a much more dangerous place." ... "If in five years, a nuclear
suitcase explodes in New York or Madrid ," said
Naftali Bennett, the Israeli minister of trade and industry, "it will be
because of the agreement that was signed this morning."
Saudi Prince: Obama
In Over His Head With Iran
Excerpt: Saudi Arabia 's
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says President Obama is "outmatched" by Iran
and is only willing to accept the current nuclear agreement because he is
politically desperate. (Both Israel
and Saudi Arabia oppose the
nuke deal with Iran .
Like they'd know more about the Middle East than a community organizer from Chicago . ~Bob)
Top Democrats,
Republicans blast Obama's nuclear deal with Iran
Excerpt: Top lawmakers on both side of the aisle on Sunday
voiced skepticism about the newly struck agreement with Iran , and vowed
to keep up the pressure with sanctions.
Senior members in both chambers said that, at first glance, Iran got the better end of the deal with western
powers, China and Russia – effectively exchanging looser sanctions
for very little progress in impeding Tehran ’s
nuclear capabilities.
Congressional leaders
cautious but accepting of Iran
nuclear deal for now
Excerpt: Sen. Charles Schumer, D- N.Y. ,
said he was "disappointed" by the interim agreement "because it
does not seem proportional. Iran
simply freezes its nuclear capabilities while we reduce the sanctions.... This
disproportionality...makes it more likely that Democrats and Republicans will
join together and pass additional sanctions when we return in December."
Excerpt: The Munich
deal rested on the ridiculous notion that Hitler could be satiated. The new
pact builds on the equally ludicrous idea that Iran would give up the means to
build a nuclear weapon that will serve as the tip of its foreign-policy spear. The
saddest part of this negotiated fiasco is that everyone agrees why Iran came to
the bargaining table. The sanctions worked; the mullahs had run out of
cash, and Tehran
determined that the easiest way to get the funds flowing was to get the West to
back off.
Rouhani: Nuclear Deal
Marks Failure of Enemies’ Attempts to Promote Iranophobia
Excerpt: Rouhani referred to the negotiations held with the
Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) in New York
and Geneva after his election as the new Iranian president in June, and said,
“The result of the negotiations is that the G5+1 or, in other words, the world
powers have now recognized Iran’s nuclear rights.”"During the talks, the
world came to understand that respecting the Iranian nation would bear results,
and sanctions would not work," he added.
Excerpt: “Israel is the
sinister, unclean, rabid dog of the region…. The Zionist regime is a regime
whose pillars are extremely shaky and is doomed to collapse.” Iran ’s Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei said that on Wednesday to a huge assembly of his Basij
militiamen. The Times of Israel noted that
“Footage of the event showed the crowd shouting ‘Death to America ’ and ‘Death to Israel .’”
Excerpt: Israel
and Saudi Arabia
have both issued statements making it clear that they will not accept an
Iranian bomb. And unlike Obama, they actually mean it. What they will do about
it is another question, but now they, and everyone on the firing line, knows
that Obama will do nothing and that sets them free to act.
Excerpt: Iran
will get as much as $7 billion in relief from economic sanctions over six
months under the first-step agreement reached today in Geneva , the Obama administration said.
It's 1938 all over
again. By Melanie Phillips
Excerpt: The man who actually calls the shots —
the only man who matters — is Iran 's Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Khamenei. Earlier this week, Khamenei said the Jews of Israel 'cannot be called
humans, they are like animals, some of them' and that Israel was 'the
rabid dog of the region'. What do you do with rabid dogs? That's right: you put
them down. That's what Khamanei intends to do to the Jews of Israel.
World Doubts Obama
Will Enforce Red Line on Iran .
By Josh Rogin
Excerpt: “My worry is not over the next six months,” said
Dov Zakheim, former undersecretary of Defense in the Bush administration. “The
problem to me is that the president has once again laid out another red line
and his track record with red lines is ambiguous. The red line this time is the
six months.” (Obama erased the red line in Syria
and replaced it with a green light for Iran . --Rush.)
Tweet from Mike McNally@notoserfdom
Can't decide who's America 's worst Secretary of State:
the one who owes his career to his wife or the one who owes her career to her
husband.
Tweet from Sarah Palin @SarahPalinUSA
Was the Christian pastor's release part of this weekend's
"historic" deal struck with Iran ? If not, why not?
Tweet from jon gabriel @exjon
Liberals celebrate ending sanctions on a nation that lynches
gays, stones women & wants to exterminate Jews, But they boycott
Chick-fil-A.
Feds gave billions to
energy firm with no business model
Excerpt: A chronically failing
nuclear energy company using a technique one-twentieth as efficient as its competitors' has
wrangled billions of dollars in cash, materials and research from the
Department of Energy in deals that dwarf the Solyndra loan scandal. The United
States Enrichment Corp. has facilities in Kentucky
and Ohio ,
home states of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John
Boehner, respectively. The company has received support from those lawmakers,
as well as from professed small-government stalwart Sen. Rand Paul, who also
hails from Kentucky .
All three men are Republicans, but USEC has also enjoyed backing from prominent
Democrats, including President Obama.
Subsidizing
SolarCity: A California
solar-panel company could be another Solyndra in the making. By Andrew Stiles
Excerpt: San Mateo–based SolarCity Corporation,
whose financial backers include prominent Obama supporters such as Al Gore and
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, has received millions of dollars in
federal tax credits since 2008, despite posting a net loss of more than $300
million over that same period.
China creates new air
defense zone in East China Sea amid dispute with Japan
Excerpt: China
said Saturday that noncommercial aircraft entering a broad zone over the East
China Sea must first identify themselves to Beijing , at the risk of facing “defensive
emergency measures” by Chinese armed forces. China ’s
establishment of a so-called air defense
identification zone, announced by its Ministry of National Defense,
adds a new dimension to the simmering territorial dispute with Japan and
raises the odds of armed conflict.
Excerpt: In the year 2013, here’s what
goes by the name of racism in the United States . Earlier this month,
at UCLA, Professor Emeritus Val Rust was subjected to a classroom sit-in by
black graduate students who charged that his correction of their grammar and
spelling mistakes on dissertation proposals was a case of racially motivated
“micro-aggression.” Rust made it clear that he wasn’t motivated by racism but
by a belief that correcting such errors was part of his job. But what did that
matter, alongside his students’ feelings?
Map Shows The NSA's
Massive Worldwide Malware Operations
http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/11/map-shows-nsas-massive-worldwide-malware-operations/355453/#ixzz2lctKPLjW
http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/11/map-shows-nsas-massive-worldwide-malware-operations/355453/#ixzz2lctKPLjW
Excerpt: A new map details how many companies across the
world have been infected by malware by the National Security Agency's team of
hackers, and where the companies are located. Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reports the NSA uses malware to infect,
infiltrate and steal information from over 50,000 computer networks
around the globe. This new, previously unreported scope of the NSA's
hacking operation comes from another PowerPoint slide showing a detailed map of
every infection leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden.
High Oil Prices Taxing American Families—But There’s A
Solution. By Ken Blackwell
Excerpt: Just like the payroll tax increase, increased fuel
costs in the form of high gasoline prices are eating up paychecks while
providing no additional economic benefit or utility. In 2012, the average
household spent a record $2,912 on gasoline. Compared to the 2002 average of
$1,235, that is an extra $1,677 that families have been forced to spend on
transportation costs. That’s money that could otherwise be saved or used to
grow the economy, such as by starting a new business.
63 Percent Chance Weather Predictors Are Skeptics on Global
Warming. By John Ransom
Excerpt: The report found that only 37% of meteorologists
who did not make a living by publishing papers supporting the theory that
global warming is caused by human activity actually think that man-made global
warming is real. That is meteorologists who make a living predicting weather
events are the ones least likely to believe the theories created by new found
“climate science.”
“Give Truth a Chance” Message Key to 2014 Republican Sweep.
By Fred J. Eckert
Excerpt: Any hope Democrats have for keeping control of the
Senate and avoiding further decline in the House rests entirely on being able
to sucker Republicans into joining with them in a bi-partisan effort to
postpone Obamacare as presently constituted until after the 2014 elections to
help voters forget all the lies, all the sleaze, all the mind-boggling
ineptitude -- or else get Republicans to act as if the truly big difference now
is merely over which side is better at tricking voters into believing it has
the better “fix” for the broken “If you like, you can keep” scam.
Angola bans Islam,
will demolish all mosques
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/25/angola-bans-islam-will-demolish-all-mosques/#ixzz2lg6aebxm
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/25/angola-bans-islam-will-demolish-all-mosques/#ixzz2lg6aebxm
Excerpt: A number of newspapers in the region are reporting
that the Republic of Angola has outlawed Islam, apparently in an effort to
thwart the spread of Muslim radicalism in the country….“The process of
legalization of Islam has not been approved by the Ministry of Justice and
Human Rights,” Cruz e Silva said. …Other faiths which don’t meet
government approval will face the same restrictions.
Store Clerk To
Robbers: My Gun Is Bigger Than Yours
Marine veteran, 61,
seriously hurt after he tried to catch woman who threw herself off Oakland Raiders stadium
after game
Excerpt: A marine veteran, 61, put his life at risk on
Sunday night after he tried to catch a woman who threw herself off the third
deck of the Oakland Coliseum, critically injuring them both.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott
Walker, the anti-Christie. By Marc A. Thiessen
Excerpt: During the 2012 recall
fight in Wisconsin , a group of
protesters dressed as zombies disrupted Gov. Scott Walker’s
speech at a ceremony for kids participating in the Special Olympics. Walker just ignored the
protesters. Afterwards, talk radio host
Charlie Sykes told Walker he should have “gone Chris Christie
on them.” But Walker
wanted to keep the focus on the Special Olympics athletes, saying “it was their
day.”
Excerpt: 50 shades of government-controlled filth is not
exactly what parents send their children to school for, is it? Thanks to Common
Core proponents, an erotic novel landed in the hands of 10th graders who had to
read the book out loud in their Arizona
classroom. When you read the excerpt, you will understand why parents are
fuming.
Bill backlog growing
again and so are payment delays
http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x450320106/Bill-backlog-growing-again-and-so-are-payment-delays
http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x450320106/Bill-backlog-growing-again-and-so-are-payment-delays
Excerpt: But now, according to Comptroller Judy Baar
Topinka’s office, the cycle is beginning to shift in the other direction and
payment delays are once again getting longer. The backlog of bills waiting to
be paid in the comptroller’s office has grown by $3 billion since the spring,
when the state was flush with tax revenue.
Guess what Obama was
doing while blasting GOP for campaigning instead of working?
Excerpt: While campaigning Sunday on behalf of
Democratic candidates for the 2014 midterm elections instead of doing his job,
President Barack Obama blasted House Republicans for
campaigning for Republican candidates for the 2014 midterm elections instead of
doing their job.
Global cooling: When
the climate changed astonishingly fast
Excerpt: After a half millennium of very benign
temperatures, the Northern Hemisphere began gradually to cool after about 1550.
Slow cooling plunged into deep freeze in about 1620. Over the next
half-century, the peoples of the Northern Hemisphere suffered climate
catastrophe after climate catastrophe:
The invisible island
where New York buries its poor and
unidentified: Nearly one million people are buried in mass graves off of the Bronx . But the city prefers you know nothing about it.
Excerpt: Four days a week, prisoners from Riker's Island lay plain pine boxes into two mass graves. In the
adult grave, coffins are stacked three high. It will be filled with between 150
and 165 bodies (depending on the number of extra-wide coffins), plus separate
coffins for body parts, and covered with 36 inches of dirt. The other grave,
for fetuses and stillborn babies, will be loaded with 1,000 miniature coffins
buried five deep. Both trenches are already open, dug by a yellow Caterpillar
backhoe.
Gen. Paul Vallely: America Has Come To A Crossroads
http://noisyroom.net/blog/2013/11/25/gen-paul-vallely-america-has-come-to-a-crossroads/
Excerpt:America
is imploding and we are at a critical crossroads. It is now obvious; from the
ObamaCare debacle, to the myriad scandals, to our ever burgeoning debt, to the
neutering of our world power status, to the rise of our enemies, and the demise
of our allies’ trust in America ;
implosion is imminent. (What I've been saying for a couple of years. The Coming Collapse of the American Republic . http://tiny.cc/g02s4.
~Bob)
http://noisyroom.net/blog/2013/11/25/gen-paul-vallely-america-has-come-to-a-crossroads/
Excerpt:
Tweet from Ken
Yaecker @kyaecker
Executive Orders: Reagan - 5 in 8 years, Bush 3 in 4 years,
Clinton 15 in 8 years, George W. 62 in 8 years OBAMA - 923 in 3 1/2 years!
Excerpt: Libyan Army Special Forces have been clashing in
the last few hours with Ansar Al-Sharia in Benghazi . Despite a curfew, protesters, angry
at the destruction that the Islamic terrorist group has brought to their city,
at great personal risk to their own safety, stormed the Ansar al-Sharia base and
set fire to it. (Obama's lead-from-behind, unauthorized war continues to bear
its bitter fruit. ~Bob)
Tweet from Pioneer @KennethHarbin
If blacks are scared that "Stand Your Ground" laws
don't help them - then they should get a gun (legally) and join the NRA (He's
black. ~Bob)
Judge with tie to
John Doe probe signed Scott Walker recall petition
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/judge-with-tie-to-john-doe-probe-signed-scott-walker-recall-petition-b99150332z1-233359931.html
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/judge-with-tie-to-john-doe-probe-signed-scott-walker-recall-petition-b99150332z1-233359931.html
Excerpt: A judge with at least minor involvement in a secret
investigation of campaign fundraising and spending during Wisconsin 's recent recall elections signed
the recall petition against Gov. Scott Walker two years ago.
The girls for whom rape
is a part of daily life
Excerpt: Girls who associate with gangs are victims of
sexual violence on a massive scale.
These are the chilling words of Deputy Children’s
Commissioner for England Sue Berelowitz before a report published tomorrow
after a two-year investigation into the sexual exploitation of children in
gangs. “We are talking about rape, including gang rape, of girls as young as 11
but mostly in their mid-teens, rape that is part of the warp and weft of daily
gang life,” she added.
Chinese buying
bankrupt Fisker at taxpayer loss, gov says it could have been worse
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/25/chinese-buying-bankrupt-fisker-at-taxpayer-loss-gov-says-it-could-have-been-worse/#ixzz2lhfquMnm
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/25/chinese-buying-bankrupt-fisker-at-taxpayer-loss-gov-says-it-could-have-been-worse/#ixzz2lhfquMnm
Excerpt: The green automaker Fisker Automotive filed
for bankruptcy last week as the Obama administration sold off the financially
troubled firm’s loan guarantee for a $139 million loss.
This may not be the end for Fisker, though, as the
bankruptcy filing was done with plans to be acquired by the same Chinese group
that also bought the company’s loan from the Obama administration.
CNN Blasts “Obama
Propaganda Machine”
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