Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Quite possibly the saddest photo I've ever seen. And the most damning.
Now, for those who aren't aware, this memorial is in an open-air park, it was paid for with private funds, and it is unattended. According to its website, it is open to the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
That is, until the Obama administration doesn't get its way. That's when this kind of disgraceful idiocy occurs:
Again, out of pure spite, Barack Obama ordered the open-air memorial barricaded to prevent access. He also ordered the arrest of veterans entering the grounds.
How do I know Obama's actions were motivated by pure spite? Courtesy of John McCormack, here's the barricade around the World War I Memorial:
So we know as a matter of fact, not speculation, that the barricades were intended to spit in the faces of veterans visiting the Memorial for perhaps the first and last time in their lives.
Earlier today, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get to the bottom of this outrageous act on the part of an administration that is completely out of control. Governor Sarah Palin also called for civil disobedience.
This is why I liken Obama to a petulant six-year old throwing a temper tantrum when he doesn't get his own way.
Which reminds me that, a while back, I wrote about this kind of behavior in some detail in an article entitled: "FOREVER SIX: The Traits of a Narcissist".
Perhaps the truckers and bikers visiting D.C. over the next week and a half will drop by the Memorial to show their respect.
Photo credit: ExPatMonkey.
Monday, September 30, 2013
The Ugly Face of Tyranny: Feinstein and Other "Progressives" are Coming For Your Right To Speak Freely Online
Senator Diane Feinstein has taken up the fight for truth and liberty, just as she has done for health care and the widespread disarmament of American citizens.
This month Congess has been debating a new media shield law, which according to its authors, aims to protect journalists and bloggers from being forced to testify about their work should their sources or information come into question.
But Diane Feinstein has refused to support the bill, noting that the law would essentially grant this shield privilege to anyone who chooses to share their opinion on the internet (including those pajama sporting bloggers and news aggregators working out of their basements).
But because freedom of speech, as interpreted by Feinstein, is nothing more than a privilege granted to us by her and her ilk in Congress, she has taken steps to ensure that only those journalists sanctioned by the government will be protected by the new shield laws.
The final hurdle for the Judiciary Committee was defining who is a journalist in the digital era.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) insisted on limiting the legal protection to “real reporters” and not, she said, a 17-year-old with his own website.
“I can’t support it if everyone who has a blog has a special privilege … or if Edward Snowden were to sit down and write this stuff, he would have a privilege. I’m not going to go there,” she said.
Feinstein introduced an amendment that defines a “covered journalist” as someone who gathers and reports news for “an entity or service that disseminates news and information.”
The definition includes freelancers, part-timers and student journalists, and it permits a judge to go further and extend the protections to any “legitimate news-gathering activities.”
Sunday, September 29, 2013
HELPFUL FLOWCHART: How do I get health care under Obamacare's individual mandate fee tax penalty program?
Crystal clear.
So crystal clear, in fact, that Congress exempted itself from its own draconian, disastrous law.
Friday, September 27, 2013
HERE IS THE COMPLETE LIST: All of the Republicans (and Democrats) Who Just Voted to Fund Obamacare
| YEAs (FUNDING OBAMACARE) ---79 | ||
| Alexander (R-TN) Ayotte (R-NH) Baldwin (D-WI) Barrasso (R-WY) Baucus (D-MT) Begich (D-AK) Bennet (D-CO) Blumenthal (D-CT) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Burr (R-NC) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Chambliss (R-GA) Chiesa (R-NJ) Coats (R-IN) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Coons (D-DE) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Donnelly (D-IN) | Durbin (D-IL) Feinstein (D-CA) Franken (D-MN) Gillibrand (D-NY) Graham (R-SC) Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Heinrich (D-NM) Heitkamp (D-ND) Hirono (D-HI) Hoeven (R-ND) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Johnson (D-SD) Johnson (R-WI) Kaine (D-VA) King (I-ME) Kirk (R-IL) Klobuchar (D-MN) Landrieu (D-LA) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Manchin (D-WV) Markey (D-MA) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) McConnell (R-KY) | Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) Mikulski (D-MD) Murkowski (R-AK) Murphy (D-CT) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Sanders (I-VT) Schatz (D-HI) Schumer (D-NY) Shaheen (D-NH) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Thune (R-SD) Udall (D-CO) Udall (D-NM) Warner (D-VA) Warren (D-MA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wicker (R-MS) Wyden (D-OR) |
| NAYs (DE-FUNDING OBAMACARE)---19 | ||
| Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Enzi (R-WY) Fischer (R-NE) Grassley (R-IA) Heller (R-NV) Inhofe (R-OK) | Lee (R-UT) Moran (R-KS) Paul (R-KY) Portman (R-OH) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rubio (R-FL) | Scott (R-SC) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA) |
Thursday, September 26, 2013
MUST-READ NEIL CAVUTO: The President's Fascistic Assault on Fox News for Reporting the Truth Must Stop
This just in. This has just got to stop.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If you've talked to someone who said, I don't know, I was watching Fox News and they said it was horrible.
Mr. President, Fox News isn't what's making Americans sick about your healthcare law.
Your healthcare law is.
Welcome, everybody, I'm Neil Cavuto.
And excuse this departure from form. But I think this is just poor form.
So, it's time we set some things straight. Mr. President, we at Fox News are not the problem.
I hate to break it to you, sir. You are. Your words are. Your promises are.
We didn't sell this healthcare law.
Sir, you did. Remember this?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.
Mr. President, tell that to tens of thousands of retirees at IBM and Time Warner and dozens of others, who've been dumped from their coverage and told to find their own coverage.
Fox News didn't break that news to them, Mr. President.
Their companies did.
Fox News didn't push more of those firms to hire part-time workers.
Your healthcare law did.
Fox News didn't incentivize fast food restaurants to scale back their benefits.
Your healthcare law did.
Fox News didn't make doctors want to opt out.
Your healthcare law did.
Fox News didn't make insurance premiums sky rocket.
Your healthcare law did.
Just like Fox News didn't grant hundreds of exemptions to companies that needed them.
You did.
And Fox News didn't delay one key provision after another, including online enrollment for those small business exchanges.
You did.
Just like it wasn't Fox News that said we had to pass this to see what was in this.
You did.
Or was that Nancy Pelosi? Sometimes I'm confused.
But of this I am not.
Fox News didn't re-do basic math.
Sir, you did.
Fox News didn't say you can cover 30 million more Americans and not see a hit in premiums.
You did.
Fox News didn't say you could throw in those with pre-existing conditions and not have to pay for it.
You did.
Fox News didn't all but say you could get something for nothing.
You did.
Fox News didn't come back years later and say, oh yea, we did raise some taxes.
You did.
Here's where you are right about Fox News, however, Mr. President.
We can do math. And did.
You cannot. And did not.
We said it, and proved it.
You didn't. And we're all suffering for it.
Take it from the numbers guy at Fox.
Numbers don't lie.
The number of Americans working part-time and nervous.
The number of retirees days away from being dumped on exchanges and anxious.
The number of company bosses with any news to pass along on those exchanges, but still clueless.
The number of doctors who want out.
The number of congressmen now opting out.
No, Mr. President, none of those numbers lie.
But with all due respect sir, I can only conclude you do know; I know, I know you hate us at Fox.
But please take a look in a mirror, and fast.
You think we're the skunk at your picnic.
But that doesn't mean we're the ones that stink.
Because that smell isn't coming from the folks reporting on your law.
Mr. President, that smell is your law.
Hat tip: TPNN.
Obama Labor Department Refutes Jay Carney: Average Entry-Level Work Week Hits All-Time Low
On the other hand, the Obama administration's own Labor Department has released statistics that illustrate the unfolding economic catastrophe. Jed Graham explains:
Workers in low-wage industries clocked the shortest average workweek on record in July, new Labor Department data show.
The 29 million non-managerial workers in private-sector industries which pay up to about $14.50 per hour, on average, put in a 27.4-hour week, a level previously matched only at the depths of the recession in 2009.
As the recovery began that summer, average weekly hours staged a recovery that erased most of the recession's decline. But the workweek recovery began to reverse in early 2012, and the drop-off has accelerated in 2013 — just as the onset of ObamaCare's employer mandate created new incentives for employers to restrict workers to fewer than 30 hours per week.
...in industries for which ObamaCare's coverage mandates could mean substantial new costs — those in which wages are low and the ranks of the uninsured tend to be high - something is seriously depressing the workweek.
...the average workweek for such firms has fallen to a record low of 27.3 hours from 28.6 hours in March 2010, when ObamaCare became law.
But according to White House spokesman Jay Carney, all of these statistics are just "anecdotes".
Gee, I wonder why the big three networks haven't picked up on this major human interest story? The poorest, most put-upon workers in America are being crushed by Obamacare. Not. News. Repeat: Not. News.
Hat tip: College Fix.
Secretary of State John Kerry Just Signed United Nations Arms Treaty That Could Dismantle the Second Amendment
Second Amendment: The Senate is unlikely to ratify a United Nations arms treaty signed by John Kerry, but gun control zealots will use it as justification for "common sense" infringements on our constitutional right.
The secretary of state signed the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty on Wednesday despite repeated indications that it would be dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate. One warning was a letter from Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., that said the treaty would be rejected just like "other U.N.-sponsored treaties which threaten our country's sovereignty."
Inhofe reminded Kerry that the pact would "collect dust alongside the Law of the Sea Treaty, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Kyoto Protocol, to name a few, which have all been rejected by the U.S. Senate and the American people."
Earlier this year, Inhofe introduced an amendment to a budget proposal that would prevent the U.S. from entering into the U.N. arms treaty in order to uphold the Second Amendment. His amendment passed 53-46.
So why sign a treaty that the Senate won't ratify into law and which some argue won't affect domestic gun rights anyway?
Because it will give the president cover to do on gun control what he does so well on other issues — ignore Congress, the Constitution and we the people so he can govern by regulation and executive order.
JUST "ANECDOTES": As thousands of firms slash workers and hours, White House continues lying to American people
“The aggregate truth … does not bear out claims that the Affordable Care Act is causing employers to drop employees from insurance,” he told skeptical reporters at the daily White House briefing Thursday.
When one reporter asked him to comment on the news that the Securitas security firm has told 55,000 of its employees to find their own insurance on the taxpayer-subsidized markets, Carney replied, “That’s an anecdote.”
...Throughout the briefing, he fended off questions about the economic impact of Obama’s primary legislative accomplishment.
He dismissed a stream of bad-news announcements as unrepresentative of reality.
“You have anecdotes. … There is no systematic evidence. … That has not been happening across the country in any systematic way,” he insisted.
Carney is a bald-faced liar. Survey after survey after survey by human resources consulting firms prove -- beyond a shadow of a doubt -- that Obamacare is crushing employment.
According to an April survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, 41% of 603 small business owners said they have delayed hiring because of the federal healthcare law. One in five already cut hours, while 20% have reduced payroll.
Mercer, a human resources consulting company, said its own survey found that 12% of all U.S. employers reported plans to reduce workers' hours as a direct result of the Affordable Care Act. The impact was more pronounced in the retail and hospitality industries, with 20% of employers saying they will cut part-time hours.
Coming from the same administration that used the slogan "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan" for a solid year, Jay Carney's lies are not unexpected. Though how such an egregious enemy of the American people can live with himself is a question for historians to contemplate.
These are people's lives that the master planners in Washington are playing with and ruining. They are playing dice with people's lives. And no matter how much damage they do, their ideology prevents them from ever admitting they're wrong.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
CNBC offers a reality check for drones, progressives and other miscreants: "prepare for a new American revolution"
...I believe that one of the most important reasons the Fed is determined to keep interest rates low is one that is rarely talked about, and which comprises a dark economic foreboding that should frighten us all.
Let me start with a question: How would you feel if you knew that almost all of the money you pay in personal income tax went to pay just one bill, the interest on the debt? Chances are, you and millions of Americans would find that completely unacceptable and indeed they should.
But that is where we may be heading.
Thanks to the Fed, the interest rate paid on our national debt is at an historic low of 2.4 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Given the U.S.'s huge accumulated deficit, this low interest rate is important to keep debt servicing costs down.
But isn't it fair to ask what the interest cost of our debt would be if interest rates returned to a more normal level? What's a normal level? How about the average interest rate the Treasury paid on U.S. debt over the last 20 years?
That rate is 5.7 percent, not extravagantly high at all by historic standards... [But if] we were to pay an average interest rate on our debt of 5.7 percent, rather than the 2.4 percent we pay today, in 2020 our debt service cost will be about $930 billion.
Now compare that to the amount the Internal Revenue Service collects from us in personal income taxes... In 2012, that amount was $1.1 trillion, meaning that if interest rates went back to a more normal level of, say, 5.7 percent, 85 percent of all personal income taxes collected would go to servicing the debt. No wonder the Fed is worried.
Some economists will also suggest that interest rates may go much higher than 5.7 percent largely as a result of the massive QE exercise of printing money at an unprecedented rate. We just don't know what the effect of all this will be but many economists warn that it can only result in inflation down the road.
As of today, interest rates are rising, and if this is a turning point, it is a major one... Rates in the U.S. peaked in 1980 (remember the 14 percent Treasury bonds?) so if we are at the point of reversing a 33-year downward trend, who wants to predict how this will affect the economy?
One thing is clear: Based on CBO projections, if interest rates just rise to their 20-year average, we will have an untenable, unacceptable interest rate bill whose beneficiaries are China, Japan, and others who own our bonds.
And if Americans find out that the lion's share of their income tax payments are going to service the debt, prepare for a new American revolution.
CNBC.
I'll be damned.
Hat tip: BadBlue Financial News.
SHOCK REPORT: Obamacare punishes both marriage and work with thousands of dollars in a year in penalties
...let’s start with the 60-year-old married couple with no children...
...If they have identical earnings totaling $65,000, which will usually net down to $50,000 or below after all income and payroll taxes, their Obamacare exchange Silver Plan premium next year with the same earnings will be $16,382, or about one-third of what used to be their take-home pay. (And they call it the “Affordable Care Act”?)
What can this couple do? Well, they could decide to earn a few thousand dollars less, which will negate the five-figure premium hit. Encouraging ordinarily willing workers to put in less effort isn’t good in any economy, but especially not this one. But if either spouse’s earnings are unpredictable or hard to precisely track, they could still “mess up” and get socked with a premium they can’t afford.
...Let’s look at the situation of a 40-year-old couple with two children. The spouses’ annual earnings are $70,000 and $23,000, respectively:
The couple’s annual unsubsidized premium while married is $11,547 (OFA’s vaunted “tax credits” disappear at $92,401 for married couples with two children). But if they divorce and shack up while giving custody of both children to the lower-earning spouse, their combined annual premiums, at $4,317, will be over $7,200 lower. That’s over $600 a month. As was the case in the previous example, the savings from divorce will gradually increase every year. Parents will be torn between doing what Western civilization has considered morally right for millennia and their children’s financial well-being as never before.
There may be contrary examples, but in all of my research..., I was unable to find a single instance where staying married led to a lower net healthcare premium compared to divorcing and living together. Clearly, many couples who are considering marriage, especially after several years of seeing formerly married couples regress to cohabiting, will look at Obamacare’s “wedding tax” and say, “Never mind.” The effect on society will be incalculable, and certainly not for the good.
I would assume that Roll Call's ludicrous hack Taegan Goddard approves.
I would assume that Roll Call's ludicrous hack Taegan Goddard thinks central planners make better decisions than individuals working in their own self-interest.
I would assume that Roll Call's ludicrous hack Taegan Goddard enjoys the pitiful cries of unions, insurers, hospitals, health systems, doctors, and small businesses who are shedding jobs, kicking people into part-time jobs, and dumping employees into ill-defined state exchanges.
I would assume that Roll Call's ludicrous hack Taegan Goddard wants the IRS enforcing the 20,000 pages of law and regulation that make up Obamacare with thousands of new pages added each month.
I would assume that Roll Call's ludicrous hack Taegan Goddard wants the federal government controlling a massive, super-secure database of every American's most confidential health data.
All of those assumptions must be true, because Roll Call's ludicrous hack Taegan Goddard is President Obama's Leni Riefenstahl.
And just what the hell is a Taegan?
The more we find out what is in this law (now that we passed it, Nancy), the more we can conclude that Obamacare is the work of the devil. It is antithetical not only to America's history and traditions, but also to Western civilization itself.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
SURPRISE! Another Obamacare "glitch" to leave "500,000 children without coverage... cost[ing] some families thousands of dollars"
A "family glitch" in the 2010 health care law threatens to cost some families thousands of dollars in health insurance costs and leave up to 500,000 children without coverage, insurance and health care analysts say.
That's unless Congress fixes the problem, which seems unlikely given the House's latest move Friday to strip funding from the Affordable Care Act.
Congress defined "affordable" as 9.5% or less of an employee's household income, mostly to make sure people did not leave their workplace plans for subsidized coverage through the exchanges. But the "error" was that it only applies to the employee — and not his or her family. So, if an employer offers a woman affordable insurance, but doesn't provide it for her family, they cannot get subsidized help through the state health exchanges.
That can make a huge difference; the Kaiser Family Foundation said an average plan for an individual is about $5,600, but it goes up to $15,700 for families. Most employers help out with those costs, but not all.
..."The family glitch is definitely a drafting error that Congress made that needs to be fixed," said Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. "But that seems unlikely."
Gee, I wonder how Roll Call's Taegan Goddard is going to cover this latest disaster?
Networks Censor Disgraced IRS Hack Lerner's "Retirement" With Full, $50,000-a-Year Pension for Life
RESTON, VA – According to an analysis from the Media Research Center, Lois Lerner – the disgraced official at the center of the IRS’s devastating Tea Party targeting scandal – retired yesterday without a whimper from ABC, CBS, or NBC on either their morning or evening news programs. Neither her announcement, nor her reported $50,000+ taxpayer-funded pension, received one single second of coverage. Lerner had been on paid leave since May.
Instead:
- CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley highlighted the popularity of the new iPhone.
- NBC News with Brian Williams hyped the big winners on Sunday night’s Emmy Awards.
- ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer notified its viewers that Mick Jagger was about to become a great grandfather.
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell reacts:
“Disgraced IRS hack Lois Lerner is getting a taxpayer-funded golden parachute, and the Tea Party-hating liberal media are making sure their hero has a nice soft landing. The news of her retirement and her pension reportedly worth more than $50,000 was censored by ABC, CBS, and NBC.
“In spite of constantly mounting evidence to the contrary – including some of Lerner’s own emails – the media are still dismissing this major scandal as a case of bureaucratic buffoonery. This is a coordinated, politically-motivated attack by a powerful government agency on American citizens, plain and simple.
“Lerner is at the dead center of the worst scandal since Watergate, and the very people she targeted for IRS harassment are now on the hook for her pension. Few people in America today deserve more scrutiny from the press than she does. Her alleged actions, motives, and lies have rocked the American people’s faith in government, and she must be held accountable.”
Hat tip: BadBlue News. Related: How much do you need for retirement?
Monday, September 23, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
EPA's New Restrictions on Coal Plants to Kill Nearly a Million Jobs
Leave it to the Environmental Protection Agency to come up with regulatory standards so restrictive that the technology to meet them has yet to be commercially tested.
As expected, the EPA on Friday unveiled its revised proposal to cap greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. And as expected, coal-fired power plants will fail to meet the limits without some very expensive technology to capture and store carbon emissions.
“There’s the rub. No commercial, coal-fired plant worldwide has yet to use this technology,” notes a story in USA Today.As the piece points out, there are least two such carbon storage power plants under construction — one in Canada’s Saskatchewan Province, and the other in Mississippi’s Kemper County, scheduled to open in May.
But the coal-fired power industry need only look to Mississippi for a cautionary tale. The $4.7-billion project has been saddled with at least $1 billion in cost overruns, “a stew of legal battles, a revolt by ratepayers and a credit downgrade for the local utility,” according to Bloomberg News story published Thursday.
And, as the story points out, consumers ultimately will foot the bill for the expensive technology in the 582-megawatt plant, the first of its kind to be built on a commercial scale.
“By some measures, it may be one of the most expensive power plants ever built for the watts of energy it will generate,” Bloomberg notes. “The utility got approval to recoup $2.88 billion in costs from ratepayers. In addition, the Department of Energy pledged $270 million, and the company qualified for a federal tax credit of $133 million. The costs of the new lignite mine and carbon dioxide pipelines are additional.”
Coal industry officials earlier this week told Watchdog.org the restrictive limits on CO2 could kill coal, and with it, many of the 800,000 good-paying jobs it supports.
PHONY SCANDALS DON'T PRODUCE BODY-BAGS: Democrats Walk Out on Benghazi Victims' Families
Benghazi-gate: Democrats couldn't share the grief of a mom who was lied to in front of her son's casket or a grieving father who wonders why the general who could have mounted a rescue was relieved of his post.
It was a shameful spectacle all around, starting with bizarre testimony by the authors of the State Department's Accountability Review Board (ARB) report and including real tears in a scandal branded as "phony" by the Obama administration and the repetition of lies agreed upon.
The scene was Thursday's hearing on the Benghazi terrorist attack before Rep. Darrell Issa's House Oversight Committee. ARB co-chair Thomas Pickering shamelessly repeated the excuse that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was not interviewed by the board because members knew where the responsibility rested — as if an attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission and the murder of an ambassador, the first in three decades, was outside the scope of her interest or authority.
Yet Pickering and Mike Mullen, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, authors of this "independent" investigation, admitted they regularly briefed Clinton and her advisers on their probe, an admission made more telling when the parents of two of the Benghazi dead said they never received the information they were promised on how and why their sons died.
Incredibly, they also explained why they didn't swear in witnesses for the ARB: "We had no reason to believe we would not get truthful testimony." Really? They had no reason to doubt the truthfulness of people who for weeks claimed a terrorist attack was really a spontaneous demonstration triggered by an old Internet video?
But the grim reality of this "phony" scandal really hit home with the testimony of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, which apparently threatened more revealed truth than most Democrats on the Oversight panel could handle. With the exception of ranking member Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Jackie Speier, D-Calif., 12 other Democrats on the Committee shamefully left the room and refused to listen to the testimony of Smith, mother of Sean Smith, an information management officer killed in the 9/11 Benghazi attack, or Woods, father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who was also killed.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Democrat Apparatchik Dana Milbank Doing His Level Best to Continue the Benghazi Cover-Up
The Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi (CCB) started off with a powerful message: “We are here and planning on staying until we get the answers we’re seeking.” But, some in the media just don’t get it. Dana Milbank of The Washington Post delivered one of his Dennis the Menace, snarky rants about the view of “Benghazi, as seen from the grassy knoll.” Yes, Dana Milbank is calling this group of patriotic Americans who have given so much for this country a bunch of lunatic conspiracy theorists.
To Milbank, Benghazi is, to quote the administration talking point, a phony scandal: “It’s a pity that those seeking answers on Benghazi can’t focus on what really matters: Could anything have been done to prevent the deaths of the four men lost in Benghazi that night? And what can be done to make sure such a thing never happens again?”While those are certainly important questions, and need to be addressed, that’s not enough. That sounds like it would make for a nice conference hosted by the Center for American Progress, Media Matters, and the primetime line-up of MSNBC. But how about holding people accountable for their actions and inactions that could have saved four lives, and for lying to the American people in an attempt to sweep it under the rug?
Sure, who cares that Hillary Clinton’s State Department ignored the requests to beef up security, and refused to withdraw our personnel, as the Brits and the Red Cross had done? Wouldn’t that send the wrong message?
Wouldn’t it have said that Libya was a mess, run by jihadists and al-Qaeda affiliates after the great liberation of 2011? After all, al-Qaeda flags were flying in Benghazi just days after the “liberation” of Libya. We wouldn’t want to mess up the President’s narrative in the middle of a presidential election by asking the tough questions, now would we?
PROPAGANDA: Obamacare did not repeal the First Amendment
Perhaps the most odious application of Obamacare is one that’s gotten very little attention—until now. It’s the requirement that says all businesses are to notify their employees by Oct. 1 of the existence of Obamacare insurance exchanges.
Moreover, the Obama administration is now using this less-discussed but critical employer mandate to compel business owners to extol the virtues of socialized medicine and wealth redistribution. The word “notify” has been rewritten to mean “promote.” Even employers opposed to Obamacare are being told to peddle the new entitlements they find detestable.
I’ve previously complained that the Hawley Troxell law firm in Boise, which represents Idaho’s Obamacare insurance exchange, wrote this summer that “employers are prohibited from pressuring employees to not seek coverage through an exchange.” Well, employers aren’t prohibited, the law firm later acknowledged; they’re just encouraged not to.
The federal Department of Labor has created its own “model” forms intended to help employers with the mandated notification.
The federal government’s doe-eyed forms say that the exchange — henceforth referred to as a “marketplace” — “is designed to help you find insurance that meets your needs and fits your budget. The Marketplace offers ‘one-stop shopping’ to find and compare private health insurance options.”
This is government-sanctioned propaganda, on a scale that might impress Joseph Goebbels.
The forms also encourage Americans to sign up so they can see if they’re eligible for “a new kind of tax credit that lowers your monthly premium right away.”
Friday, September 20, 2013
REASON ALONE TO ERADICATE OBAMACARE: IRS was targeting conservative groups as recently as two weeks ago
This news emerged from Wednesday’s House hearing on the IRS abuse scandal. Not only did the agency target conservative groups, it continued surveillance of them until acting Commissioner Danny Werfel shut it down just two weeks ago.
Republicans investigating the IRS targeting scandal said Wednesday that the agency continued to conduct secret surveillance on tea party groups even after approving them for tax-exempt status.
Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel said... he has halted all audits of tax-exempt organizations based on political activity as he tries to get a handle on the embattled agency... he [also said he] is troubled by emails sent by Lois G. Lerner, the woman at the center of the targeting scandal, that raise questions about her behavior. He said he has asked internal investigators to follow up on those emails...
...In one of those emails Ms. Lerner wrote that dealing with tea party applications was “very dangerous,” and in another she seemed to indicate that she was looking for ways to deny the charitable organization label to groups without having to accuse them of political activity.
Lerner remains unwilling to testify, and on paid leave from her post at the IRS.
The investigation has also turned up evidence that the IRS targeted Tea Party groups because agents knew that President Obama wanted them to.
Just a reminder: Nixon's Obama-like abuse of the IRS was "a high crime and misdemeanor".
Hat tip: BadBlue News
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Democrats: Military never told to "stand down" during Benghazi attacks, they were just ordered to "hold in place"
House Democrats concluded Thursday the U.S. military wasn't ordered to "stand down" during last year's attack on a diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, rejecting Republican claims the Obama administration held back military assets while Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed... Democrats called accusations of a stand-down order during the attack "unfounded."
Let me reiterate: Democrats insist the U.S. military wasn't ordered to "stand down" as a U.S. consulate was attacked by terrorists and America's best and bravest were bleeding, fighting and dying.
Back in Realityville, the actual testimony went like this:
Testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Admiral Mike Mullen said that the direction given to Special Operations Command Africa commander Lt. Col Gibson was to "hold in place" on the night of the attacks.
Gibson is the boss of Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya who had testified that a "stand down" order was given to Special Forces who wanted to help Americans who were under assault in Libya.
So if you're Bradley Klapper of ABC News, ordering Special Ops to "hold in place" isn't the same as ordering them to "stand down."
Right.
These people are the lowest of the low.
Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.
OUCH: Well THIS is Inconvenient Timing for the Sacramento Bee's Pro-Obamacare Op-Ed
In a hysterically ill-timed op-ed, today's Bee featured a whiny, half-witted attack on the GOP for honoring the will of the people.
House Republican leaders have shown how far they are willing to go to cave to the tea party faction. They signaled on Wednesday that they are willing to shut down the federal government if they don’t get their pipe dream to defund Obamacare...
Well, if it's a pipe dream, geniuses, then why waste your breath whining about it?
They simply are unwilling to acknowledge that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which they call Obamacare, is the law of the land.
The law of the land? Wait: is that the same law of the land that Barack Obama continually rewrites, issuing waivers, exemptions and exceptions to his favored constituencies and donors?
Well, if Obama can change it, why can't the Republicans? Don't you believe in equal rights?
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., showed how parochial and ideological the tea party faction has become. Massie told The Washington Post: “All that really matters is what my district wants. And my district is overwhelmingly in favor of my position.” ... clearly, making insurance affordable for Americans across the nation is not a priority.
In a stunning coincidence, California Health Line Magazine reports that problems with the state's Obamacare exchanges will crush the poor, especially African-American and Hispanic families.
...provider networks offered through exchange plans could result in policyholders facing:
• Longer wait times for care;
• Fewer specialists; and
• The loss of a long-time doctor.
For example, ... policyholders who purchase a Health Net exchange plan will have access to less than one-third of the insurer's network of providers for employer-based plans. In addition, Blue Shield of California's exchange plans will include only 50% of the insurer's usual provider network.
Some exchange plans also will exclude certain large hospitals... Health care provider groups are concerned that the limited networks will make it more difficult for patients to access care, especially in Latino and African American communities that historically have been underserved...
...Donald Crane -- CEO of the California Association of Physician Groups -- said the organization is "nervous about these narrow networks," adding, "It was all about price. But at what cost in terms of quality and access?"
The California Medical Association said that the state has underestimated the problems facing policyholders and that the group doubts the state's claim that 80% of California physicians will be included in exchange plans.
The only rational explanation I can come up with is that the Sacramento Bee wants crappy health care for minorities.
The entire Obamacare exchange system is fatally flawed. It's a masterpiece of central planning, which is to say it is a Soviet-style disaster. The faster it gets destroyed, the better.
Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.




















