Doug Ross @ Journal: October 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

THEY LIED TO CONGRESS, AGAIN: After Three Days, HHS Knew Less Than 250 People Nationwide Had Signed Up for Obamacare

Of course the Obama administration lied to Congress. Of course they had the true number of folks who had signed up for Obamacare through the disastrously flawed Healthcare.gov website.

Marilyn Tavenner, head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, testified Tuesday before the House Ways and Means Committee... raising more questions about the administration's transparency on the project, she declined to cite enrollment numbers. She did not claim, as Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently did, that officials simply do not have those numbers -- rather, she said a "decision" was made to release them in mid-November.

They lied to Congress to hide their catastrophic failures.

One of the few real reporters left in legacy media is Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News. And her report is absolutely devastating, describing an administration whose first, second and third instincts are to lie.

For 31 days now, the Obama administration has been telling us that Americans by the millions are visiting the new health insurance website, despite all its problems... But no one in the administration has been willing to tell us how many policies have been purchased, and this may be the reason...

The website launched on a Tuesday... at a meeting Wednesday morning, the war room notes say "six enrollments have occurred so far."

By Wednesday afternoon, enrollments were up to "approximately 100." By the end of Wednesday, the notes reflect "248 enrollments" nationwide.

The lies and cover-ups keep coming.

Where are the Select Investigative Committees, Speaker Boehner?

Where are the Select Investigative Committees, Chairman Issa?

Benghazi, the IRS and Obamacare all deserve their own.

We, the American people, demand them!

Hat tip: BadBlue News and David Freddoso

HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: They prey on the living...

Or at least, those who used to earn a living.

It's a holiday bonus from Hopenchange Cartoons!

As one of the commenters observes, "Harry Reid looks pretty much the same."

Hat tip: RF.

BANANA REPUBLIC: White House Intimidates Health Insurers to Prevent Them From Publicly Criticizing Obamacare

Does it really count as a violation of Godwin's Law when the subject really is acting like a fascist?

CNN reports that the White House is intimidating insurance companies not to publicly criticize Obamacare:

"What is going on is, behind the scenes attempt by the White House to at least keep insurerers from publicly criticizing what is happening on this Affordable Care Act rollout. Basically, if you speak out, if you are quoted, you're going to get a call from the White House, pressure to be quiet," reports CNN.

"Several sources tell me and my colleague Chris Frates that insurance executives are being told to keep quiet. [The head of] a consulting firm for big insurance and an out spoken critic of Obamacare says he is getting calls from these executives who want him to speak out, Anderson, for them about the problems because they feel defenseless against the White House PR team. ... the White House is exerting massive pressure on the industry, including the trade associations, to keep quiet. Sources telling us they fear White House retribution."

The accompanying illustration was not truly part of CNN's report, just me being a wise-guy.

That said, the insurance companies that employ hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of folks like you and me are effectively in witness protection.

Perhaps CNN could interview some insurance executives with their faces obscured and their voices disguised.

Because their own government is targeting them.

Seriously: did you ever think we would see this in America?

Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama’s Boston Speech on Health Care, Deconstructed

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QOTD: "What does it take to warn Americans about unchecked pension growth, socialized medicine, vast increases in entitlements, higher taxes, and steady expansion of government? In other words, what is it about Detroit, Italy, or Greece that we do not understand?

In the last five years, the Obama administration has raised taxes on the top income rates, implemented Obamacare, added millions to the disability and food stamp roles, grown the size of the federal work force, run up the national debt, and vastly expanded the money supply, along with insuring near zero interest rates. Are there any historical examples where these redistributive efforts have brought long-term tranquility and prosperity?" --Victor Davis Hanson

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

SHOCKA: EPA Flaunts Rules, Seeks Feedback On Its Radical Policies Exclusively in Left-Leaning Areas

Guest post by Sean Hackbarth

In a letter to the EPA, the Institute for 21^st Century Energy and 13 state and local business organizations call out the agency for not living up to its own policies on the location of listening sessions on greenhouse gas emissions rules for existing power plants:

EPA has chosen to locate most of these hearings in states and regions that use very little coal, while neglecting states most dependent on coal for affordable and reliable electricity generation. For example, EPA is not planning listening sessions in any of the 10 states most reliant on coal for electricity generation, instead choosing states such as California (1% of electricity from coal), New York (4%), and Washington (4%).
There are no scheduled hearings in any of the ten states that generate the highest percentage of electricity from coal—states such as West Virginia (95% of electricity from coal), for Indiana (84%), North Dakota (78%), or Ohio (71%).

This ignores EPA's policy on public hearings:

When the subject of a public hearing, meeting or other information exchange process relates to conditions or facilities in a specific geographic area, EPA should hold the public hearing or meeting in that general geographic area.

So far, EPA isn’t living up to this standard.

The business organizations ask EPA to reach out to--not ignore--states that are most dependent on coal.

Greenhouse gas emission rules, expected to be released by EPA next year, will greatly affect coal producers and electricity users. It’s critical that all affected parties be able to give their input to the agency.

Read more at FreeEnterprise.com.

The Power Outage [Papa B]

Guest post by Papa B

We had a power outage last week and my PC, TV, iPad were shut down, and it was raining, so I couldn't golf or watch baseball.

Therefore, I talked to my wife for a few hours.

She seems like a nice person.

Awesome News: North Carolina Public School Teachers Sending Pro-Union Propaganda Home With Kids

As Scott Walker's experience in Wisconsin taught us, public sector union bosses are the lowest of the low.

In North Carolina, the radical Marxist agitators have stooped to using schoolchildren to disseminate pro-union propaganda.

A line was crossed tonight in Holly Springs, NC by the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). A flyer for a planned Teacher “Walk In” was distributed to kids at Holly Ridge Elementary school in their ‘take-home folders’ today. This “Walk In” has been talked about in the media a bit but nothing hit as close to home as this did. This flyer had no business being ferried home by our children...

...The flyer has a website on it: www.Organize2020.com... This is a site affiliated with the NCAE. It is almost purely politics, shows shots of teachers protesting at Moral Monday...

Now go read the mission statement, which ends with this paragraph detailing the point of Organize 2020 — to bring unions into our schools...

The mission statement page concludes with the following timeless plea for more taxpayer cash:

We need hope. We need a union.
Never mind that public sector unions have effectively bankrupted the teachers' retirement systems in Illinois and California.

Never mind that Detroit more resembles Mogadishu than an American city, thanks in large part to forced unionization.

Never mind all that.

North Carolina's teachers want a union and if the taxpayers don't like it, well, **** you.

If you don't like your kids being used as pawns to promote more failing public schools, well, **** you.

In short: just when you think the Left has hit rock bottom, they break out a jackhammer and start digging a new septic tank.

Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.

Apparently Terry McAuliffe thinks Virginians are too stupid to trust with guns, 32-oz. sodas or salt shakers

Ken Cuccinelli has significantly closed the gap with the radical left-wing extremist and Clinton hatchet-man Terry McAuliffe.

I’ve been struggling to find good news in the Virginia Governor’s race and there is finally a bit. Cuccinelli has closed the gap with McAuliffe and is only 4 points behind now, even with the third party candidate at 9%.
Hallelujah.
Ken is a good friend and I’ve been both dearly worried about him and deeply disappointed in a bunch of Republicans who’ve decided to throw him under the bus... But it appears as the reality of a possible Terry McAuliffe victory sets in, they are all returning home.
Ken Cuccinelli is a fine man and will make an outstanding Governor of Virginia. Republicans need to rally to Ken. Many people in the [Establishment] GOP want Cuccinelli to lose so they can blame his loss on social conservatism or populism or anti-corporatism or a host of other things.

Now that the loathsome wannabe dictator Michael Bloomberg has entered the race, sending over a million dollars to McAuliffe, the realities of what would effectively be a Bloomberg governorship in Virginia are hitting home.

Presumably Virginians want to control their own salt intake, buy guns if they want them, and even (*gasp*) drink 32-oz. sodas.

Let’s do what we can to help [Ken Cuccinelli] win. He is within striking distance, there is still time, and he could use any spare cash you might have on hand to close out this last week of the race.

Folks, if you have the wherewithal, please consider helping Cuccinelli turn back the hard left crackpot and Hillary crony McAuliffe. Email your friends in Virginia. Let's send another Ted Cruz or Mike Lee to the U.S. Senate.

Obamacare in Three, Eh, Make That FOUR Pictures

During today's testimony regarding her botched Obamacare rollout, CNN did itself proper with coverage of HHS Chief Kathleen Sebelius's outrageous lies. You might call this "real-time repudiation." Or "split-screen smackdown":

Secretary Sebelius: Yes, sir, because we were anxious to get the website up and running and functional, which we clearly have failed to do to date, although I would suggest the website has never crashed. It is functional, but at a very slow speed and very low reliability and has continued to function. Having said that, they pared down some of the features, feeling that it would be better to load them in later. One was the shop and browse feature. Another was the Spanish version of the website and the Medicaid transfers. All three of those issues were pared down in September to not load the system.

While Sebelius was insisting -- under oath, mind you -- that the website had "never crashed", CNN used a split-screen to show the Healthcare.gov website in real-time.

And... surprise! It had just crashed again, for the umpteenth time, displaying an error message "The System Is Down At the Moment ... Please try again later."

Which prompted Twitchy commenter Red Pill to post the following trifecta explaining the true impact of Obamacare.

The true destructive impact of Obamacare -- even though 80 percent of Americans are covered by their employers and are not yet subject to the individual mandate (won't that be fun next year?) -- has become apparent to most Americans.

That's not me saying it. That's NBC saying it.

Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: How the Obama Administration Made Sure You Couldn’t Keep Your Plan

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

Nation

How the Obama Administration Made Sure You Couldn’t Keep Your Plan: Ace
Big Government once again turns on its Little Partners: John Hayward
CBS: Insurers backing out of the ObamaCare exchange markets: Hot Air

CNN: WH Intimidating Insurers From Discussing O'Care Problems: AmPower
The Thuggery of Obamacare Czarina Kathleen Sebelius: Michelle Malkin
Read The Chilling Note Sent to Scott Walker's Wife: Blaze

The three interlocking gears of the Obamacare Fail: Moe Lane
I Lost My Health Insurance Because Of Obamacare: John Hawkins
Obama Lied, Your Insurance Died: HayRide

Economy

Senate confirms another union lawyer as NLRB prosecutor: LUR
Illinois Teachers Pension Fund is 40% Funded, Drops Deeper Into Hole: Mish
The Ten US Cities With Less Than Ten Days Of Cash On Hand: ZH

Nearly Half of New York Doctors Bailing on Obamacare: JWF
Feds Told GM To Drop Pontiac Or No Bailout, Ex-GM Exec Says: C&S
Food stamps will be cut by $5 billion this week--with more to come: WaPo

Scandal Central

Backdoor Gun Control Advances: Trevor Loudon
Harry Reid Supports Giving Illegal Aliens Tax Credits for Kids Not Even Living in US: Mish
Top 40 Troubling Listings from the Obamacare Navigator/Assister Security Nightmare: PJM

Media

CNN Anchor: Obama Administration Threatens Journalists Who Make Obama Look Bad: LibertyNews
Three Admin Officials Swing Back Furiously at NBC Over Obamacare Debacle: Tom Blumer
If You Like Your Plan…Well, You Know.: MOTUS

Just shut the hell up, Ramesh and Rich: DPU
Interview: Heather Mac Donald on California in Decline: Ed Driscoll
Mitch McConnell in his Own Words: Daniel Horowitz

World

What is it about Detroit, Italy, or Greece that we do not understand?: Victor Davis Hanson
Nadir Of Deceit: Freedom's Torch
Illegal Immigration is a Crime: American Patrol

Sci-Tech

Tiny AI Startup Says It's Solved Captcha: Cameron Scott, SingularityHub
CNN reports Obama admin failed to ensure contractors could test Healthcare.gov: Neil Stevens
My so-called robo-life: Robopresence makes debut at tech conference: John Brandon

Cornucopia

Need A Halloween Costume? Here’s a Simple Pelosi Chupacabra Cut-Out!: Sooper
Which Is Scarier?: DPU
Poll: Who are the Four Horsewomen of the Barackalypse?: TAB

Image: The cellphone that stopped a bullet
Sponsor: YO, VIRGINIA: McAuliffe and Bloomberg Are Coming For Your Guns! SUPPORT KEN CUCCINELLI.

QOTD: "Even the most reliably hacky Obamacare supporters have at least conceded that people are losing their old plans because of Obamacare. They spin it with the notion that these new plans are way better, so why would you have liked that dumb old plan anyway (which fit within your family’s budget and served you well)? But the act of spinning requires at least some reckoning with the truth.

What level of denial and/or mendacity is necessary [for Valerie Jarrett to deny] this? What confidence that the media will be there to cover your lies? This is the mindset of the people surrounding President Obama, and because no one’s ever held accountable for screwing up, this is the mindset of those who are “fixing” Obamacare’s problems.

In this case, I think Jarrett’s confidence in media to toe her line is misplaced. The dam seems to be breaking, at long last, on this falsehood. But who could blame her for thinking it’d hold up? This is the level of compliance she’s used to. --Mary Katherine Ham

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

OUCH: NBC Buries Own Reporter To Hide Obamacare Lies

Guest post by Media Research Center

RESTON, VA – In a bombshell report for NBC News.com, NBC News senior investigative correspondent Lisa Myers found buried in the 2010 Obamacare regulations language predicting, “A reasonable range for the percentage of individual policies that would terminate is forty percent to sixty-seven percent.” Myers’ reporting shows that Barack Obama knowingly lied to the American people for more than three years when he regularly insisted that those who like their current health insurance would be able to keep it under Obamacare.

Yet, according to an analysis from the Media Research Center, this massive, deliberate breach of trust was worthy of only 21 seconds of coverage on NBC Nightly News, buried at the end of the show’s fourth story, with no follow up on Today. ABC and CBS completely censored Lisa Myers’ discovery with not one single second of coverage on either their morning or evening programs.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell reacts:

“Barack Obama lied to the American people – repeatedly and with a straight face – every time he insisted that those who like their current healthcare could keep it under Obamacare. And he’ll keep lying to the American people because the liberal media refuse to hold him accountable.

“NBC News, whose own reporter found the language in Obamacare proving Obama knowingly lied to the people for over three years, gave this bombshell revelation a pathetic 21 seconds of coverage on Nightly News. There was no follow-up on Today. In other words, NBC News buried their own reporter to protect Obama.

“This sends a clear message to the American people. As far as the liberal broadcast networks are concerned, when Barack Obama lies, it’s not news. What would Richard Nixon have given for a press corps this corrupt?”

Read more at the Media Research Center.

CONGRATULATIONS, DEMOCRATS! Nearly Half of New York Doctors Bailing on Obamacare

Ain't central planning awesome?

New York doctors are treating ObamaCare like the plague, a new survey reveals.

A poll conducted by the New York State Medical Society finds that 44 percent of MDs said they are not participating in the nation’s new health-care plan.

...Only 23 percent of the 409 physicians queried said they’re taking patients who signed up through health exchanges.

“This is so poorly designed that a lot of doctors are afraid to participate,” said Dr. Sam Unterricht, president of the 29,000-member organization. “There’s a lot of resistance. Doctors don’t know what they’re going to get paid.”

...“Obama Care wants to start right away, but who see all these new patients???? Not me,” e-mailed one doc.

Another said, “I plan to retire if this disaster is implemented. This is a train wreck.”

“I refuse to participate in the exchange plans! I am completely opposed to this new law,” said a third respondent.

One doctor recycled the mantra used to attack addictions: “The solution is simple: Just say no.”

Oh, and all you residents of New York City?

Congratulations. You appear poised to elect the radical Communist Bill de Blasio as mayor.

What could possibly go wrong?

Hat tip: BadBlue News.

OUTRAGE: Nearly 200 Officers Purged From U.S. Military to Ensure Ideological Purity

Guest post by Investor's Business daily

Defense: What the president calls "my military" is being cleansed of any officer suspected of disloyalty to or disagreement with the administration on matters of policy or force structure, leaving the compliant and fearful.

We recognize President Obama is the commander-in-chief and that throughout history presidents from Lincoln to Truman have seen fit to remove military commanders they view as inadequate or insubordinate. Turnover in the military ranks is normal, and in these times of sequestration and budget cuts the numbers are expected to tick up as force levels shrink and missions change.

Yet what has happened to our officer corps since President Obama took office is viewed in many quarters as unprecedented, baffling and even harmful to our national security posture. We have commented on some of the higher profile cases, such as Gen. Carter Ham. He was relieved as head of U.S. Africa Command after only a year and a half because he disagreed with orders not to mount a rescue mission in response to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi.

Rear Adm. Chuck Gaouette, commander of the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group, was relieved in October 2012 for disobeying orders when he sent his group on Sept. 11 to "assist and provide intelligence for" military forces ordered into action by Gen. Ham.

Other removals include the sacking of two nuclear commanders in a single week — Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, head of the 20th Air Force, responsible for the three wings that maintain control of the 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles, and Vice Adm. Tim Giardina, the No. 2 officer at U.S. Strategic Command.

From Breitbart.com's Facebook page comes a list of at least 197 officers that have been relieved of duty by President Obama for a laundry list of reasons and sometimes with no reason given. Stated grounds range from "leaving blast doors on nukes open" to "loss of confidence in command ability" to "mishandling of funds" to "inappropriate relationships" to "gambling with counterfeit chips" to "inappropriate behavior" to "low morale in troops commanded."

Nine senior commanding generals have been fired by the Obama administration this year, leading to speculation by active and retired members of the military that a purge of its commanders is under way.

Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, an outspoken critic of the Obama administration, notes how the White House fails to take action or investigate its own officials but finds it easy to fire military commanders "who have given their lives for their country." Vallely thinks he knows why this purge is happening.

Read more »

REVEALED: President Obama intentionally, wantonly and systematically destroyed millions of health care plans.

Ace dissects yesterday's NBC News' Investigative Report that confirmed what every regular American already knew. That is, the Obama administration knew from the outset that millions of Americans would lose their health care plans while they were publicly telling them the exact opposite.

The more interesting part of the analysis relates to the regulations that actually triggered the catastrophic destruction of 10 to 12 million individual health policies. As NBC reported (emphasis added):

The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date -- the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example -- the policy would not be grandfathered.

As Ace notes, HHS operates at the behest of Obama.

They didn't have to tighten the regulations to make it impossible for Americans to keep their health care plans.

They, in fact, could have loosened the guidelines to ensure that the president's oft-repeated mantra ("If you like your health care plan you can keep your plan... period!") remained true.

The President refused to do so.

Why?

Because f*** you.

The real scandal isn't just that the president lied repeatedly to the American people. The real scandal is that the President, in fact, gave direct orders to HHS to destroy the health care policies of millions of Americans.

These regulations, being a creature of the Executive branch, can be rewritten by the executive branch at any time. We don't need a law for this (though one would be useful, to force Obama to do the right thing).

Obama has it within his power to call up the HHS reg-writers and instruct them to honor the promise he made time and again for two years. And he doesn't want people to know this, because he is determined to break that promise.

That promise was always a lie, and not a meaningless lie at the periphery, but a central lie propping up the political campaign for ObamaCare...

Had he told Americans that they would be losing their current health care in order to be dumped into what is effectively a high-risk pool, so that they could subsidize high-risk clients, the public would have rejected the law even more strongly than he did.

So he lied. And lied. And lied. And lied some more.

And even at this late date, he could still choose to honor his promise.

But he won't, because he can't -- he always intended to take people's insurance away from them. Always.

Ace concludes with the notion that the president "should be forced to explain why" he intentionally sabotaged millions of health care policies.

Hell, we can't even find out what President Obama did for eight hours as American diplomats were fighting for their lives in Benghazi.

Yeah, I know, he went to sleep after refusing to authorize a rescue.

But the odds that a reporter will ask him about this? Just a skosh less than Vern Troyer winning the Heisman.

Hat tip: BadBlue News.