Saturday, July 13, 2013

Ted Cruz Introduces a 2-Page Bill to Completely Obliterate the Obamacare Train Wreck

Ted Cruz, as a freshman Senator from Texas, is doing more to fight for liberty than John Boehner and Eric Cantor (who happen to be in the majority) combined.

On Thursday, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced legislation in the Senate that would completely defund the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. He wasn’t alone in proposing the legislation either. The bill has 19 co-sponsors, all Republicans, including RINOs.

Amazingly simple, the Defund Obamacare Act of 2013 is only 2 pages.


...All 45 Republican Senators called for a permanent delay of Obamacare earlier this week in a letter to Barack Obama.

Cruz added, “The Administration’s selective enforcement of Obamacare’s implementation is no indication that the law is going away. To the contrary, it demonstrates the President’s unyielding determination to force the unworkable law on the American people.”

...Senator Cruz then put in perspective just how the IRS can no longer be trusted not only in the job they have been assigned with, but also the implementation of Obamacare. “Moreover, in light of the admitted misconduct of the IRS – targeting those whose political views differed from the President’s – we cannot trust the IRS to implement Obamacare. The American people cannot trust the IRS to create and enforce the largest federal database in history, containing the intimate details of our personal healthcare matters. And we cannot just wait for this law to implode under its own weight. The clock is ticking, and the time to act is now – Obamacare full implementation is set for January 1, 2014, but the enrollment for new entitlements starts on October 1, 2013.”

Democrat or Republican, call your Senators now and demand that they support the Defund Obamacare Act of 2013.


Larwyn's Linx: If Violence Follows Zimmerman Verdict, are Eric Holder and Barack Obama to Blame?

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

If Violence Follows Zimmerman Verdict, is Administration to Blame?: Tatler
What’s In Eric Holder’s Wallet? His Real Race Card: Adams
Guys won’t have sex anymore if abortion laws pass. Or something: NakedDC

Napolitano DHS ‘Defined by Consistent Disrespect for Rule of Law’: Stiles
The Perfect Place to Advertise Obamacare: Port-o-Crappers: Doug Powers
Rahm Emanuel: What Chicago Needs is More Gun Control: BizPac

TX Senate Passes Pro-Life Bill as Pro-Aborts Rage Inside Capitol: Blaze
My Sincere Apologies to the Kid Killing Caucus: Erickson
Obama Continues to Rabble Rouse After Texas Abortion Bill Passes: Tatler

Economy

Amnesty's price: $12,433 for every legalized immigrant household: Exam
Napolitano exactly the wrong choice to lead UC system: Greenhut
Another IRS Scandal Waiting to Happen: Kimberley Strassel

Scandal Central

Obama’s Alinskyite Administration: John Fund
Obama DOJ Employee Demanded Action Against George Zimmerman: RWN
Enough Already! Holder Must Go: Ledeen

Media

Beckel: It’s time for Obama to comment on Zimmerman trial: Tom Tillison
Oregon’s epic #obamacare agitprop #fail.: Moe Lane
DHS’ Napolitano Leaves Legacy of Corruption, Lies, Lawsuits, and Waste: Bob Adelmann

NBC and CBS Ignore Dem Hypocrisy on Anti-Filibuster Nuclear Option: Kyle Drennen, MRC
NYT Reporter John Schwartz Mocks NB’s Sheppard About Son’s Wedding: Matthew Sheffield
Bogus "Tea party Leader" Everett “Dirksen” Wilkinson proves race hustlers come in all colors: BizPac

Satanic Media Ties McDonnell Millstone Around Ken Cuccinelli’s Republican Neck: R.S. McCain
New York Times Buries the Lead — Deliberately — on Egypt Story: R.S. McCain
Propaganda Through The Ages Has Been The Enemy Of Reason: IBD

World

Senators inept while questioning Nuland on Benghazi: Shoebat
Dangerous Times: When America Supports Evil: James Lewis
Britain: "Rape Jihad" Against Children: Soeren Kern

Nearly half of Senate votes to surrender sovereignty to progressivist global government: Protein Wisdom
Exposed: Final Conversation Between Morsi and Sisi: Ibrahim
Hezbollah’s suicide bombing tactics come back to haunt it: Times of Israel

Sci-Tech

Discovering Names Of Secret NSA Surveillance Programs Via LinkedIn: TechDirt
Should I ditch Android for Nokia's Lumia 1020?: CNet
So apparently, Edward Snowden uses security-focused email service Lavabit: Boing Boing

Cornucopia

Salt of the Earth; or “Lie to Me” – A Continuing Series: MOTUS
All hyperbole is totally useless: Seth Godin
Just a reminder that this actually happened: Reddit

Sponsored by: Support Judicial Watch: Keeping America's Political Hacks Honest

QOTD: "This judge is an idiot. I spent five years investigating high profile capital cases defending people from the death penalty, and worked for the Federal judiciary as an independent investigator on other cases. No judge ever inquires as to whether a defendant will testify until the entire defense case is presented. If the defense rests and does not call the defendant then the judge knows there will be no testimony. If the defense calls the defendant then that’s when the judge finds out. They have to get through the entire case first. To see if it is valid after prosecution cross-examines their witnesses and experts as to whether a defendant SHOULD testify, which is decided in private not in public, and NOT on the record. By doing this, the judge has undermined a portion of Zimmerman’s credibility. He looks like he is waffling and this is normal judge/defendant questioning, which it is NOT." --Rivette

Friday, July 12, 2013

AWESOME: San Francisco TV Station KTVU Does Itself Proud...

...with some amazing, original reporting on the tragic KAL airliner crash:

On today’s Noon newscast on KTVU, the station claimed it had “just learned the names of the 4 pilots on board” Asiana flight 214 which crashed last Saturday. But the station was given bad information that made it all the way into the newscast. If you read the names it becomes immediately clear this is a joke, which went unnoticed by the newsroom, producers and the anchor.

You’ll recall earlier this week, KTVU touted its coverage as being not only first, but “100% accurate.”

“Being first on air and on every platform in all aspects of our coverage was a great accomplishment, but being 100% accurate, effectively using our great sources and social media without putting a single piece of erroneous information on our air, is what we are most proud of as a newsroom,” said News Director Lee Rosenthal at the time...

Heh.


SPOILER ALERT: Why I kept cracking up during the last 30 minutes of the movie "World War Z"

Dude, once Brad Pitt discovered that there was an "antidote" that made humans invisible to the zombie hordes, I kept imagining an ad like this:


Seriously: is Brad Pitt really having this much trouble getting roles?

Maybe Scientology can help. Just sayin'.


CBO shocked to discover that Obamacare has turned out to be a financial train-wreck, too

Guest post by Investors Business Daily.


In September 2009, President Obama promised the country that "I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits — either now or in the future."

But it turns out Obama did sign such a plan — in fact, ObamaCare could add upwards of 180 billion dimes to the deficit in its first 10 years, an IBD analysis of various official budget reports found.

According to the Congressional Budget Office's initial forecast made in March 2010, ObamaCare was supposed to cut the deficit a total of $124 billion in its first decade. Democrats seized on this to show Obama had lived up to his promise.

Almost as soon as Obama signed the law, however, his administration started making changes that added costs and cut revenues. The most recent was the one-year delay in the employer mandate.

The result is instead of a $124 billion deficit cut from 2010 to 2019, ObamaCare will likely add about $18 billion in red ink over those same years. And that assumes nothing else changes in the years ahead.

Costly Delays

When the administration announced the employer mandate delay, it said its decision resulted from business complaints about complex reporting requirements.

What it didn't say is it would cost as much as $10 billion in lost revenues, which is how much the CBO expected in fines from companies that didn't provide health benefits to workers that first year.

In addition, experts believe the delay will push more people into the subsidized exchanges, which could add as much as $5.3 billion in taxpayer costs, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has also been putting off steep cuts to the Medicare Advantage program, which were supposed to help cover ObamaCare costs.

Medicare Advantage lets seniors choose from an array of private health plans, with premiums largely paid by Medicare. About 28% have enrolled in one of these plans.

Obama has been critical of Medicare Advantage, saying it provided "unwarranted subsidies" that "pad their profits but don't improve the care of seniors." And ObamaCare planned to squeeze $136 billion out of it between 2010 and 2019.
But just as these cuts were set to bite, the administration started handing out $8.35 billion in "quality improvement" bonuses to Advantage companies, under the guise of a "demonstration project."

The bonuses eliminated most of the scheduled cuts in 2012, according to the Government Accountability Office, which also challenged the claim that it was a legitimate demonstration project. That led to charges that Obama was just postponing the cuts to avoid upsetting seniors in an election year.

Earlier this year, his administration again reversed course on Medicare Advantage cuts, turning a planned 2.3% reduction in payments for 2014 into a 3.3% increase. Regulators claimed the payment boost resulted from a new methodology, but the change came after a flurry of protests from industry and lawmakers.

CLASS Dismissed

And in October 2011, Obama jettisoned an ObamaCare program, called CLASS, that was supposed to provide subsidized long-term care insurance for seniors.

Because CLASS collected premiums for years before paying any benefits, it appeared to cut ObamaCare's costs by $72 billion in the first 10 years.

But the program was so badly designed it would have gone bankrupt soon after that, and so the administration dumped it.
That decision, however, vaporized more than half of ObamaCare's promised deficit cuts.

After accounting for all these changes, along with overall changes in the CBO's cost projections, the law is now on track to add to the federal deficit in the first 10 years, albeit by a relatively small amount.

Supporters argue that even with these changes ObamaCare is still cutting deficits because it's lowering health spending and improving efficiency, and these savings will grow over time as deeper Medicare cuts and bigger tax bills kick in.

But a January report from the Government Accountability Office found that claims of long-term ObamaCare deficit cuts are based on dubious cost-saving assumptions that several independent agencies "expressed concerns about."

After factoring those out, the GAO found ObamaCare will add $6.2 trillion to deficits over the next 75 years.


Via: Investors Business Daily.

Massive Billboard Rips Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Graham, along with John McCain and Marco Rubio, were the primary co-conspirators with malevolent Statists like Chuck Schumer and Robert ("Hey, little girl!") Menendez in crafting the latest Amnesty bill. And some of his constituents are more than a little peeved.

A brand-new Georgia billboard proclaiming South Carolina’s alleged affinity for illegal aliens is raising eyebrows this week.

The sign, posted in Canton, Ga., declares: “South Carolina welcomes the undocumented. Sen. Lindsey Graham says his state has a labor shortage and wants more immigrants. For job tips, call his office at (864) 646-4090. Located in Pendleton, S.C. Only 2 hours from Atlanta!”


Sen. Graham, R-S.C., sits on a bipartisan committee that just passed a sweeping immigration-reform bill.

“These people must have been off the planet for the last five years,” said D.A. King, an immigration activist... “We don’t need more workers. We need more jobs.”

Isn't it amazing that 20 million people who stole into this country illegally are honored and catered to while the hundreds of millions citizens who pay the bills are ignored and tormented?


Hat tips: BadBlue News and BB.

But... But... But... CITIZENS UNITED!*!?!?#!!!***~@!~!~!!!

Jonah Goldberg writing in the -- "is it insane... or so sane you just blew your mind?" -- G-File newsletter, points us to this helpful table at OpenSecrets.

I think this is pretty fascinating. You know all that stuff about the Koch brothers pouring money into our politics? You know all that hoo-ha about Citizens United opening the floodgates for rivers of corporate money that will drown the poor and disenfranchised? Well, here's a list of the top all-time donors from 1989 to 2012. In the top 20, 14 lean Democratic, two lean Republican. The Republicans appear in slots 18 and 19, by the way. Oh, and Koch Industries? That behemoth trampling democracy? It's the 62nd biggest donor. The horror!

Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2012

LEGEND:   Republican    Democrat    On the fence



= Between 40% and 59% to both parties
= Leans Dem/Repub (60%-69%)
= Strongly Dem/Repub (70%-89%)
= Solidly Dem/Repub (over 90%)
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% as money can be given to third party
candidates or outside spending groups and PACs not affiliated with either party.
RankOrganizationTotal '89-'12Dem %Repub %Tilt
1ActBlue$88,679,13899%0%    
2AFSCME$57,614,51483%1%  
3AT&T Inc$56,607,79541%57%
4National Education Assn$52,581,91563%4%
5National Assn of Realtors$50,702,59744%46%
6Goldman Sachs$44,084,50053%43%
7Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers$43,786,20792%2%    
8American Assn for Justice$41,922,95185%7%  
9United Auto Workers$41,807,58971%0%  
10Service Employees International Union$37,344,20284%2%  
11American Federation of Teachers$36,839,72788%0%  
12Laborers Union$36,834,41685%6%  
13Carpenters & Joiners Union$36,784,20978%10%  
14Communications Workers of America$35,798,42387%0%  
15Teamsters Union$34,668,24191%5%    
16United Food & Commercial Workers Union$33,567,23286%0%  
17Citigroup Inc$31,916,86848%50%
18United Parcel Service$31,745,44035%64%
19National Auto Dealers Assn$31,537,59931%68%
20Machinists & Aerospace Workers Union$31,061,99798%1%    
21American Bankers Assn$30,631,34236%63%
22American Medical Assn$29,966,62640%59%
23AFL-CIO$29,608,74466%3%
24JPMorgan Chase & Co$29,365,37247%51%
25Altria Group$28,794,62326%72%  
26Microsoft Corp$28,629,30954%44%
27National Beer Wholesalers Assn$28,234,49535%64%
28EMILY's List$28,099,95898%0%    
29Blue Cross/Blue Shield$27,699,00536%63%
30National Assn of Home Builders$27,187,28035%64%
31General Electric$26,913,23848%51%
32Lockheed Martin$26,085,67743%56%
33National Assn of Letter Carriers$26,003,87484%9%  
34Bank of America$25,889,55341%57%
35Morgan Stanley$25,425,06343%56%
36Verizon Communications$25,189,75940%59%
37FedEx Corp$25,185,58838%61%
38Newsweb Corp$24,379,87141%0%
39Deloitte LLP$24,308,91035%64%
40Time Warner$24,108,92672%25%  
41Credit Union National Assn$23,497,81547%51%
42Plumbers & Pipefitters Union$23,331,55985%4%  
43Ernst & Young$22,941,31742%57%
44American Hospital Assn$22,813,33352%47%
45International Assn of Fire Fighters$22,406,84079%17%  
46Sheet Metal Workers Union$22,168,17896%2%    
47PricewaterhouseCoopers$22,126,34535%63%
48Operating Engineers Union$21,841,87582%13%  
49American Dental Assn$21,545,94444%54%
50UBS AG$20,852,29240%58%
51Boeing Co$20,847,01546%52%
52National Rifle Assn$20,242,68417%82%  
53Northrop Grumman$19,878,63542%57%
54AFLAC Inc$19,440,57443%56%
55Union Pacific Corp$19,400,84826%72%  
56Comcast Corp$19,349,41757%42%
57Air Line Pilots Assn$19,282,54783%16%  
58Pfizer Inc$19,159,62734%65%
59Natl Assn/Insurance & Financial Advisors$19,037,52441%58%
60Honeywell International$18,331,77244%54%
61American Postal Workers Union$17,703,15886%3%  
62Koch Industries $17,443,5738%90%    
63Credit Suisse Group$17,225,54642%57%

I, for one, blame Bush.

See the full list at: OpenSecrets.org.