Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Education Secretary Rips "White, Suburban Moms" for Opposing Marxist-Aligned Common Core Curriculum

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Common Core: Rather than defend a program accused of indoctrinating students via national standards and whose implementation is as bad as ObamaCare, Education Secretary Arne Duncan plays the race card.

Perhaps nothing personifies the arrogant nanny state paternalism of the Obama administration more than this statement by Duncan on Friday: "It's fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn't quite as good as they thought they were, and that's pretty scary."

Secretary Duncan made his comments about the Common Care State Standards (CCSS) before a group of school superintendents in Richmond, Va., to a meeting of the Council of Chief State Schools Officers organization (CCSSO). This is one of the two organizations that own the public license to the Common Core State Standards.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative was devised by a group of the nation's governors and backed by the Obama administration in 2009 with the goal of setting a uniform standard for grades K-12 nationwide. Some 45 states, in many cases enticed by federal grants, have signed on.

It has since morphed into what many consider an attempt to nationalize education and control what future generations think and know.

Once again, as with ObamaCare, the Obama administration has told Americans they are too stupid to know what's good for them — and their children.

EXPLOSIVE CHART: There Have Been 40 Insurance Cancellations for Every Obamacare Sign-up

I describe this chart as explosive because I recommend wearing ear, eye and head protection if you show it to a liberal drone. Be wary of flying brain shrapnel. Send them the link, then tuck and roll.


And here are two more shots.


And a chaser.



Hat tip: Twitchy.

IT'S THE NEW MATH: Healthcare.gov Website Only 30% Done But Will Work for 80% of Users in 11 Days

Please pay close attention to the percentages.

NRO reports that as much as 70 percent of the entire Obamacare website will have to be rewritten.

A chief official responsible for building the federal health-insurance exchange revealed that as much as 70 percent of the system still needs to be built.

Henry Chao, the deputy chief information officer for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told a House subcommittee that the administration still needs to construct the payment systems and other “back office” functions, which constitute 60 to 70 percent of the system.

The White House has said that HealthCare.gov will be functioning for a “vast majority of people” by its self-imposed November 30 deadline... [they] will consider the website a “success” if 80 percent of users are able to enroll by the end of the month.

In other words, the Obama administration has spent the last three years building a website that is only 30 percent complete, but by November 30th it will work correctly for 80 percent of the users.

Those percentages add up... if your last name is Pelosi or Jarrett.

But don't worry, it's a bargain at any price: the site has only cost the American taxpayer around $630 million. So far.

I swear to you that the first person to write an Office Space-style screenplay focusing on the Obamacare website debacle is going to make a hundred million dollars.


Hat tip: Weasel Zippers.

Larwyn's Linx: The Most Shocking Obamacare Revelation

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

Nation

The Most Shocking Obamacare Revelation: Walter Russell Mead
DOJ: Obamacare will cost 80 million the coverage they like: Sister Toldjah
Obamacare's Deception: You May Not Know the Half of It: David Limbaugh

Obamacare sign-ups vs. cancellation notices in one simple chart: Doug Powers
Their Credibility Is Shot: Jeffrey Carter, P&F
DC to Obamacare Dissenters: Keep Quiet or Get Fired: Walter Russell Mead

A brown-skinned suburban mom responds to bigot Arne Duncan: Michelle Malkin
The Left's War Against Achievement: Thomas Sowell
Political Roundup: Lies: Market Ticker

More Fraud and Deceit: Obama Replaces Old Lie With New Lie: Nice Deb
Obscure senate candidate goes viral: Obama’s ‘constitutional crisis’: ConIntel
Michelle Obama Fundraises: 'You Can Write a Big Ol' Fat Check': Daniel Halper

Economy

Falsified Employment Numbers: SDA
Unions Lose: Workers Vote Against Jobs as Boeing will Move Operations: AIM
The Obama Wedding Tax: RS

Federal Government Spent $4.4 Billion On State Insurance Exchanges: Ace
Liar-In-Chief Tells Brownshirts: “100 Million” Signed Up for Obamacare: WZ
Obamanomics: America's Cities on the Edge: John W. Schoen, CNBC

Scandal Central

Census Dept. Made Up Employment Data In Run-Up to 2012 Elections: Ace
The October 2012 Pre-Election Jobs Report Was Faked: ZH
"UNCOVERED: new photos of #Benghazi attack.": JW

Climate & Energy

Democrats, EPA crack down on wood-burning at home: RWN
Warmist Robert J. Samuelson: We Can't Predict the Future, But Let’s Get A Carbon Tax In Place!: RWN
NHTSA Investigating Third Tesla Fire in Six Weeks: Fender Bender

Media

Martin Bashir wants someone to defecate in his mouth.: Pocket Full of Liberty
Truth Revolt Pressure Forces Bashir To Apologize: Jeff Dunetz
Nancy on “Meet the Press” - A Tale Told By An Idiot: MOTUS

They Still Blame Bush: R.S. McCain
Oprah Calls for Genocide of Obama Opponents: Moonbattery
Remember That ‘Long-Standing Commitment’ In Lake Charles Mary Had?: HayRide

Jessica Sanford, one of Barack Obama’s Obamacare ‘success stories,’ will have no insurance.: Moe Lane
Obama’s conference call on Obamacare goes about as well as HealthCare.gov rollout: Twitchy
Health Care Holidays: Western Rifles

World

Obama Administration’s Internal War Over Egypt Isn’t Really About Egypt: Bryan Preston
American Jewish Leaders: Obama Lied To Us About Iran: WZ
60 Minutes Corrects Benghazi, Not on Israel: CAMERA

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

How Silicon Valley turned on President Obama: Dana Liebelson, The Week
In the wake of NSA spying, Yahoo promises encryption everywhere: Jared Newman, IT News
Healthcare.gov site advertising SQL injection attacks: Neil Stevens

Cornucopia

Yeah, Rob Ford Might Be Slightly Out of Control Now: Ace
Obama Says Americans Can Keep Their Damn Insurance: Andy Borowitz, New Yorker
DHS Still Hasn't Fired Black Supremacist Who Called for Mass Murder of Whites: Alex Seitz-Wald

Image: Twitchy
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: An Article V Convention of States

QOTD: "What is a staff for? Surely a competent staff would have set up an effective monitoring and reporting system so that accurate and timely information about website problems would reach the White House. Surely at the first signs of trouble, an effective trouble-shooting response from the White House would delve into the issues, develop some action plans, and also inform the President and senior staff about any threat to the scheduled rollout. But apparently none of this happened, and at least from what we see so far in public, the President is OK with that. No heads are rolling. No one is being taken to the White House woodshed. There are reports that the President has vented, but “no drama Obama” is apparently still turning the other cheek. The President is content to keep working with the team he’s got...

...There is nothing that any president needs more than a team of competent people around him who can keep him and his key initiatives on track. President Obama is in his fifth year in office, and he isn’t getting the level of performance from his staff you’d need to be an effective principal of a middle school. At this point, that failure doesn’t just reflect badly on the staff; it reflects on the man who selected them. More and more people in the United States and beyond are asking the obvious and painful question: Why can’t the President of the United States find and keep a minimally competent staff?" --Walter Russell Mead

Monday, November 18, 2013

GUEST POST: The Illegal Actions of our Autocratic President

Guest post by Richard Larsen

Our country was founded as a constitutional republic; a federation of autonomous states tied together by a Constitution that stated explicitly what the powers of the federal government were. We have now been unofficially, yet fundamentally transformed into an autocratic “ineptocracy.” And we needn’t look any further for evidence than this week’s presidential attempts to “fix” the increasingly unaffordable Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Having been caught in his perpetual lie, “if you like your insurance you can keep it,” the president this week promised to “fix” it, by allowing people to keep their insurance plans for another year, if they wanted. Not only is that genie out of the bottle and operationally impossible to put back in, but more significantly, it represented another evidence that this president feels his power is not constrained or limited by the Constitution, or by the rule of law.

Article II, Sec. 3 of the Constitution commands the president to faithfully execute the law. The president, and even more broadly, the executive branch, does not make law. That’s the role of the legislative branch, or Congress. Once laws are on the books, the president cannot change them; they are to be executed, enacted, and implemented by the president and the executive branch.

Yet, just as he did in July when he delayed the ACA employer mandate by a year, this week he, without authority, said he would “allow” people to keep their policies for another year if they liked them. The president has no such authority! Those are laws passed legally – although regrettably – by Congress and signed into law. The president has no authority to arbitrarily choose what laws to enforce, which to not, or change laws arbitrarily and illegally by his own discretion. His oath is to faithfully execute them!

President Obama Really, Really Excited That More People Than Ever Will Die in Car Crashes

Guest post by Drew Johnson

On the White House’s official Twitter page, President Obama bragged that under his administration, “We set new fuel standards that will double the distance our cars and trucks go on a gallon of gas.”

Ignore for a moment that the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency slapped the burdensome regulations on car makers 15 months ago, so the Tweet is obviously a pathetic diversionary tactic to shift the public’s attention away from the recent Obamacare debacle that has further tarnished Obama’s presidency.

Let’s focus instead on the reality that stricter fuel standards kill thousands of people a year.

Since the simplest way to improve a vehicle’s mileage is to reduce its weight, fuel efficiency standards turn cars into “small, underpowered death traps,” according to the National Center for Policy Analysis.

While Obama’s ridiculous miles per gallon regulations won’t fully take effect for another dozen years, previous fuel standard policies are responsible for many of the deaths we see today.

In 1999, USA Today calculated that the reduction in the size and weight of passenger vehicles necessitated by fuel efficiency standards had resulted in more than 46,000 deaths. There have been thousands more Americans killed unnecessarily in the years since that report.

Highway deaths have been spiking recently. There was a 5.3% increase in deaths on America’s roads last year alone. That’s not surprising since, in 2011, another significant increase in minimum miles per gallon for passenger cars was put in place. As drivers upgrade to newer car models, they are unwittingly putting themselves in lighter, more dangerous cars.

Judging by the White House’s tweet, it’s apparent that the President is proud to force Americans into even smaller, lighter cars. He seems disturbingly at ease with the thousands of American deaths his decision will cause.



Read more at Center For Individual Freedom

WHY, OF COURSE IT DOES: Obamacare Intended to Obliterate the Family Unit Once and For All

Writing at the invaluable Tatler, Bryan Preston describes the devastating effect that Obamacare will have on the family unit, but ascribes it more to ignorance than malice.

Is this an accident or was it by design? Jonathan V. Last reports on yet another hidden gem in Obamacare.

A married couple can get Obamacare subsidies if their income is less than 400 percent above the poverty line. But because the federal poverty level for married couples is less than double the level for individuals, a couple that lives together without getting married can make more money than a married couple, yet still get Obamacare subsidies.

The Atlantic reports that in practice, this means that a married couple in New York making more than a combined $62,040 gets no subsidies from Obamacare. But two people who live together without getting married? They can make up to a combined $91,920 and still get subsidies from the government.

On one hand, this may be accidental because, let’s face it, no one read Obamacare before passing it, so who know’s what’s in there?


Oh, Bryan, you naive, misguided youth.

Destroying the nuclear family is, like socialized medicine, one of the central tenets of Marxism.

In fact, chapter 2 of The Communist Manifesto describes the destruction of the family in no uncertain terms:

On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family, based? On capital, on private gain. In its completely developed form, this family exists only among the bourgeoisie... The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complement vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital.

Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty ...

...The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parents and child, becomes all the more disgusting, the more, by the action of Modern Industry, all the family ties among the proletarians are torn asunder, and their children transformed into simple articles of commerce and instruments of labour...

The preamble to the above paragraphs begins with the phrase "Abolition [Aufhebung] of the family!"

Dr. Preston, these people are hard-core, radical sixties retreads. They mean business.

And at the risk of being labeled a "Visigoth" by Rick Moran again, the sooner we recognize their true intentions the better.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

FIRE IN THE HOLE! Feds Investigate Third Exploding Tesla Sedan in the Last Six Weeks

Yeah, that Elon Musk is a genius! Who else could have invented exploding, coal-powered cars and gotten you and I to help subsidize him?

The third battery fire involving a Tesla Model S in six weeks has drawn the attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

According to multiple reports, the federal agency investigated the charred body of a Model S in Smyrna, Tenn., just outside Nashville, last week. The vehicle caught fire after a collision with a trailer hitch on Interstate 24. The driver was unharmed.

Similar incidents occurred in Kent, Wash., on Oct. 1 and Merida, Mexico, on Oct. 18... The $69,000 to $100,000 all-electric sedan earned top crash-test ratings from NHTSA and top reviews from Trend and Consumer Reports magazines.

... "Three fires is a big number out of 19,000 [sold]," said Clarence Ditlow, head of the Center for Auto Safety, according to reports. "They have to open an investigation."

Tesla co-founder Elon Musk, speaking at a recent conference, said all three blazes were caused by crashes, not battery problems. "There's no reason for a recall," he said. "If you read the headlines, it sounds like Teslas have a greater propensity to catch fires than other cars. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth."

And who is Tesla founder Elon Musk? He appears to be a very clever fellow who's built much of his fortune on the backs of the American taxpayer.

The First Street Journal summarizes the nefarious Musk-Obama alliance in stark and troubling terms.

...The federal government is, in effect, taking the tax dollars of low-and-middle-income taxpayers to subsidize luxury automobiles for wealthier people. How is that right?

Of course, Mr Musk knew that all along: his business model has been to make his profits on the margins provided by government subsidies, and has a net worth of between $6.7 billion and $7.7 billion, probably what you’d expect from a large Obama donor...

...If the government were not giving tax incentives to Mr Musk’s customers and direct subsidies to his companies, if his companies were forced to compete in the marketplace on the same basis as other automobile and energy companies, Mr Musk would (probably) not be giving such large sums — and “bundling” more donors — to candidates, and his companies would (probably) have failed.

I'll say it again: when the complete history of the Obama administration is written, the corruption, cronyism and outright theft will make the Teapot Dome Scandal look like a stolen box of Girl Scout Cookies.


Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.

Larwyn's Linx: 4 Years Ago, the GOP Exposed the Obamacare Lies

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

Nation

4 Years Ago, GOP Exposed the Obamacare Lies: Byron York
Obamacare for Illegal Aliens: GJWHG
Indiana Senate leader working toward U.S. constitutional convention: Dan Carden

D.C. Insurance Chief Fired After Questioning Obamacare Fix: Scott Shackford
Tightening Down: Liberty's Torch
Governor for President? Walker Volunteers.: Jonathan S. Tobin

Democrat Utopia of Chicago: 15 Shot Overnight: Second City Cop
Oregon Governor dispatches cop to harass citizen journalist: Bearing Arms
Newcomer McAllister Wins Special Election in Louisiana: Roll Call

The week the Obama presidency began crumbling: John Kass
Hillary Clinton can run, but she can’t hide, from Obamacare debacle: LI
Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH) sneers at the American people!: Moe Lane

Economy

Take It to the Bank: Jim Quinn, The Burning Platform
Janet Yellen: Punishing savers helps the greater good: WyBlog
A Message To Janet Yellen: Welcome to the Crack House: SurvivalBlog

Scandal Central

Monday Morning DC Catch-Up: Nice Deb
CIA Head Brennan Lied, Benghazi Survivors Were Asked To Sign Non-Disclosure Agreements: WZ
Obama Spends Sunday Working To Fix Obamacare. Just Kidding, He's Golfing: WZ

Did Obama write the regulation to cancel your insurance after Obamacare was passed?: Adrienne
AG Holder asks for appeal in Fast and Furious case holding him in contempt: Fox
Microsoft’s Gates and Ballmer Bankroll Crooked Signature Gatherers for Gun Control: TTAG

Climate & Energy

Tennessee Valley Authority closing 8 coal fired power plants: Jazz Shaw, Hot Air
Thousands of trucks block French roads in ecotax demo: PhysOrg
Dave Winer sees climate denier karma in Midwest tornadoes; Anti-Gorebots school: Twitchy

Media

Obama Is the Subject of the Sentence: R.S. McCain
Rules for Radical Republicans: Ed Driscoll
After Bashir’s Disgusting Palin Rant, Video Surfaces Of Him Making Slavery Analogy: WZ

The Fourth Obamacare Shock Wave Is About To Reach Us: Jim Powell
To Charles Krauthammer: Obama Has Never Been a Mystery: Jack Kerwick
Students At Historically Black College Slam Obama Over ObamaCare: Kevin Jackson

World

Obama accedes to Israel's possible annihilation.: Ben Stein
Netanyahu Praises France’s “Courageous Stance” On Iran, Says Nothing About Obama: WZ
Egypt's military regime sets up memorial to its own massacres: Telegraph

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Visual Cryptography: DataGenetics
Commentary: A lean startup approach to making booze: Nathan Kaiser, GeekWire
The corporate Web site is dead, long live the new corporate Web site: Michele Mehl, GeekWire

Cornucopia

Vote In The Right Wing News 2016 Presidential Candidate Survey: RWN
Obama isn’t a loner.: Ann Barnhardt
The John Kerry-Lee Harvey Oswald Connection: Daily Mail

Image: VILLAINS NO MORE: TED CRUZ AND MIKE LEE PROVEN RIGHT ON OBAMACARE
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Vote In The Right Wing News 2016 Presidential Candidate Survey

QOTD: "...last week the Obama presidency began crumbling. Some may be disappointed, and may see him in heroic terms, withering like a character in an ancient tragedy.

A few of us saw a backbencher from the Illinois state legislature, a guy who took orders, then rode to the White House on a personality cult, finally exposed.

Obamacare, his health care plan rammed down America's throat without a bipartisan consensus, not only became a political embarrassment, it became a political disaster.

The Obamacare website continued to implode, Americans lost their health insurance even though he repeatedly promised them they wouldn't. Period.

The word "liar" was suddenly attached to his name, because of the cynical, untruthful promise he repeatedly made, and once Obamacare began collapsing, his fellow Democrats began to run in panic." --John Kass

Sunday, November 17, 2013

CRUZ: Watch Out America, 5 Million Canceled Policies Are Just the Beginning of Obamacare's Damage

The Obamacare rollout debacle has left many political losers in its wake but just a handful of winners. The losers are obvious: every Democrat politician and the entire establishment media complex look like, for lack of a better phrase, lying wankers.

Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) look like heroes, having warned repeatedly of the impending disaster and doing everything in their power to stop the onslaught of canceled policies. Had the RINO old guard, led by the feckless John McCain and Mitch McConnell, actually backed up their conservative betters, the American people might be having a very different kind of conversation today.

Earlier this week Cruz explained that Obamacare's worst damage is yet to come:

The thing about Obamacare, the five million who lost their health care right now, is just the beginning of this that. The next shoes that are going to be dropping, one of the next shoes that's going to be dropping is you're going to see more and more people realizing they can't keep their doctor. Texas Oncology, one the very best cancer centers in Texas has just announced it's not going to participate in Obamacare.

I've gotta tell you, I've got people who are close friends who are cancer survivors who are discovering now they can't go to their cancer doctor because Obamacare has denied them their doctor. That's the next shoe that's going to fall. After that, you're going to see premiums.

You know, the 100,000 people who have signed up, it's a sign of how this system isn't working. But the consequence of that is this spring, when the next set of premiums come out -- we've seen sticker shock already as premiums have gone up -- but the next waves of premiums is likely to go up dramatically.

And then the shoe to drop that I think is most damaging, potentially, is the 90-plus million people who have employer-provided health care. I cannot tell you how many HR directors at big companies have said they're just getting ready to dump their employees off of their health care and onto these exchanges.

The tradeoff that Obamacare was all about -- that the president was not honest with the American people about -- it was a trade off that was focused on providing insurance to part of the group of Americans that didn't have insurance. And that is a noble goal. But that trade off to provide insurance for tens of millions of people -- and CBO estimates that even if fully implemented, there will be 20 to 30 million Americans without insurance. But to provide insurance to those tens of millions of Americans -- the tradeoff Obamacare made -- is that we're going to screw up the insurance of the remaining couple 100 million people. I think that's a terrible trade off.

House Republicans have previously held more than 46 phony votes to repeal Obamacare.

Now is the time to pass a real repeal bill. Repeatedly, if necessary.

As the damage grows and the midterm elections near, the pressure will increase on endangered Democrats to eradicate Obamacare. In fact, when it came to Rep. Fred Upton's bogus "Keep Your Plan" bill, 39 Democrats defected and voted with the GOP.

Keep the pressure on.

The House must keep voting to repeal this outrageous, unconstitutional law. Keep the pressure on the Democrats. Squeeze them in the nutcracker. Squeeze them until they crack.


Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News.

Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY): Yeah, "We All Knew" Obama Was Lying About Keeping Your Health Insurance

Guest post by TruthRevolt

New York Senator Kristen Gillibrand admitted Sunday to knowing the promises President Obama made about his signature health care plan were false. On ABC’s This Week, fill-in host Martha Raditz asked Gillibrand, considering the now nearly universally acceptance of the fact that the President said things about the law that weren’t true, whether she felt misled by the President:

He should’ve just been more specific. Because the point is, if you’re being offered a terrible health care plan, that the minute you get sick you’re going to have to go into bankruptcy, those plans should never be offered.

Following up on an obvious non-answer, Raditz asked again about being misled. This time, Gillibrand offered a startling revelation:

He should’ve just been specific. No we all knew. The whole point of the plan is to cover things people need, like preventive care, birth control, pregnancy. How many women, the minute they get pregnant, might risk their coverage. How many women paid more because of their gender, because they might get pregnant. Those are the reforms.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

STATE-CONTROLLED EDUCATION: Common Core Teaches Children Marxist Axioms About Government

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Schools: Opposition is rising to new national education standards pushed on public schools. They have turned schools into re-education camps for liberalism, with political statements masquerading as English lessons.

If one had to include one speech by President Ronald Reagan as recommended reading in a national standardized curriculum it might be the one in which he stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

One might pick Reagan's first inaugural address when he said, "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Or even his 1964 "A Time for Choosing" on behalf of Barry Goldwater that launched him to political prominence.

The speech chosen by Common Core for its English Standards, which recommends "exemplar texts" for reading, including addresses by a host of worthy historical figures — such as Patrick Henry, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Luther King — was Reagan's May 1988 speech to students at Moscow University.

It is a fine speech and in it he speaks of the fruits of liberty in the West and of the promise of the "Moscow Spring" but its softer tone does not speak of the "evil empire" that would soon come crashing down.

There is no stirring rhetoric on the evils of tyranny, or of the dangers of big government.

Could it be that recommending a Reagan speech that defines government as the problem rather than the solution might conflict with the subliminal messages in a worksheet that asks students to rewrite sentences to make them "less wordy." Sentences like, "The commands of government officials must be obeyed by all."

The worksheets, published by New Jersey-based Pearson Education, ask fifth-graders to edit such sentences as "(The president) makes sure the laws of the country are fair," and "The wants of an individual are less important than the well-being of the nation."

That last sentence sounds suspiciously like the old Marxist axiom "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."

Larwyn's Linx: Ted Cruz was right? Chicago Tribune calls for all-out repeal of Obamacare

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

Nation

Ted Cruz was right? Chicago Tribune calls for all-out repeal of Obamacare: P&F
The Lawlessness of the ‘Fix’: Andrew C. McCarthy
UnitedHealth Purges Doctors Amid Massive ObamaCare Funding Cuts: AmPower

11 Senators up in '14 who lied about keeping your healthcare: Politisite
POTUS: Now You can Keep Your 'Substandard Insurance': Clarice Feldman
Boehner should not honor Obama’s lawlessness: Chicago Boyz

Obamacare Backlash No Surprise: Thomas Purcell
The Rule of Law?: Victor Davis Hanson
Friday's House Vote a Bad Sign for Obamacare: Keith Koffler

The Tea Party is Alive and Well: Todd Cefaratti, TPNN
Rangel slams Obama: apology 'doesn’t help me worth a damn at polls’: BPR
Stu Rothenberg: MI Senate race no longer a lock for Democrats: Moe Lane

Economy

Fed Chair Janet Yellen is another radical progressive: Outcast
Got Cronies?: MOTUS
Teacher’s Union President Says Common Core is Child Abuse: Rusty Weiss

Scandal Central

Louie Gohmert: Exposes DHS Buildup for Civil Unrest: Angle
Benghazi Survivors Given NDAs at CIA Memorial Service for Woods, Doherty: Stephen F. Hayes
Obama Either Knew that Healthcare.gov Wouldn’t Work or He's Employing Incompetent Liars: Bryan Preston

Climate & Energy

LIAR-IN-CHIEF: Obama Takes Credit for US Oil Boom That He Had Nothing to Do With: GWP
EPA to trim ethanol requirements after realizing threat to fuel supply: CDN
Climate Scientist Murders World's Oldest Creature: Diogenes

Media

Whoa! Chicago Tribune Calls for Full-Blown ObamaCare Repeal!: AmPower
Media Begin to Call for Repeal of Deeply Flawed Obamacare ‘Debacle’: Sara Noble
The High Cost of Press Corruption: MoneyRunner

World's Dumbest Blogger: So How Many Died At Watergate?: JOM
Students at Bowie State not happy about Obamacare…: Scoop
In Which @ABFalecbaldwin Finally Gets the Kind of Attention He Deserves: R.S.McCain

When Obamacare Mugs a Liberal: Ed Driscoll
Obama: Blasphemous Parodies of Marriages Exemplify American Values: MB
Gun control advocate threatens to ‘shoot and kill’ recall activists: BPR

World

Hezbollah Wants Iran Deal Almost as Much as Obama: Ari Lieberman
U.S. F-22 stealth fighter pilot taunted Iranian F-4 Phantom combat planes over the Persian Gulf: Aviationist
News report charges U.S. with conducting illegal operations from German soil: Matthew Schofield

Venezuela: The start of the really bad news: Fausta
Venezuela: Price controls, profit caps: Fausta
Interpreter Comments on UN Bias Against Israel in Hot Mic Gaffe: Joshua Levitt, Algemeiner

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News

3D printing 'will change the world': Helen Rowe
NSA foe Greenwald whips his new media venture into shape: Edward Moyer, CNet
1 Minute CPR Video Could Help Save Lives: Study: ScienceWorld

Cornucopia

Pill-popping Obama in SNL’s hilarious ‘second-term strength’ anti-depressant ad: BPR
Man erects giant statue of middle finger next door to ex-wife: BPR
The Hunter: C&S

Image: Shorpy: Battleship: 1940
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: An Article V Convention of States

QOTD: "Aside from the question of whether it is legal or right for the president to decide arbitrarily which elements of legislation to faithfully execute, it is also a sort of new way of ad hoc governing: The president grandly introduces a new piece of unworkable legislation, does not know or care much about the consequences of implementing it, demagogues the bill, demonizes the opposition, gets it passed, uses the passage for political purposes, and then waits to see what happens in the real world.

When more than 50 percent of the country is outraged, he scraps what he finds politically useful to scrap (“enforcement discretion”). Apparently, Obama believes that after such trial and error he will work the bugs out of the ACA and end up with what he can call a success — too bad for those who lose coverage or pay more in the meantime and for the legalists who worry that what he is doing is against the law." --Victor Davis Hanson

Saturday, November 16, 2013

OPRAH WINFREY: Millions Who Lost Health Insurance Are All Racists For Being Furious With Liar-In-Chief

Consider the hypocrisy of this self-made billionaire -- who leveraged the most wonderful, beneficent, tolerant society in the world to become incredibly wealthy -- trashing her own country. The overstuffed, over-made-up kook known as "Oprah Winfrey" -- if that is her real name -- is truly beneath contempt.

[BBC reporter Will] Gompertz asked Winfrey if she thought the problem of racism was solved.

“Of course, the problem is not solved,” the actress said. “As long as there are people who still, there’s a whole generation – I say this, you know, I said this, you know, for apartheid South Africa, I said this for my own, you know, community in the South – there are still generations of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism, and they just have to die.”

If President Obama weren’t an African-American, Gompertz asked, would he be treated differently?

Winfrey mentioned the time when U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., called Obama a liar while the president was delivering a speech to Congress.

“Just the level of disrespect,” she said. “When the senator yelled out, ‘You’re a liar.’ Remember that? Yeah, I think that there is a level of disrespect for the office that occurs, and that occurs in some cases, and maybe even many cases, because he’s African-American.”

Level of disrespect?

I'll tell you a level of disrespect, you hateful shrew:

How about disrespecting the millions of Americans who just lost their health care after being promised dozens of times by the Liar-In-Chief that they could "keep their plans"?

How about disrespecting the families of those killed in Benghazi? A president who lied right to their faces about the cause of the attack and didn't lift a finger to save those killed during the nine-hour running gun battle.

How about disrespecting the families of the hundreds killed by Operation Fast and Furious? A president who gave or sold thousands of military-grade weapons to Mexican drug cartels as part of a truly evil plot to demonize gun-owners.

How about disrespecting all of those conservatives, Christian, and pro-Israel groups targeted by Obama? A president who used the IRS to win the 2012 election and then lied about it.

You're a hack, a clueless know-nothing, a Leftist kook who claims entirely legitimate criticism of the Liar-In-Chief's outrageous activities is based on "racism".

Go drink a nice, tall glass of shut-up juice and get the hell off of my television.


OH, SUPER: The NSA Has Weaponized the Internet

It seems that Edward Snowden has revealed another interesting and dangerous capability of the NSA. It can attack virtually any computer system in the world by monitoring requests and forging replies.

A basic example: say you visit an Al Qaeda website. Monitoring major Internet backbones would allow the NSA to detect that visit. It begins with the browser requesting information and the server responding. Once the attacker (in this case, the NSA) sees that request go by, it forges a reply that includes an exploit kit.

In other words, virtually anyone using the Internet could be targeted by the NSA.

Nicholas Weaver, writing at Wired, describes some of the more interesting forms of attack.

The NSA has a collection of FOXACID servers, designed to exploit visitors. Conceptually similar to Metasploit’s WebServer browser autopwn mode, these FOXACID servers probe any visiting browser for weaknesses to exploit.

All it takes is a single request from a victim passing a wiretap for exploitation to occur. Once the QUANTUM wiretap identifies the victim, it simply packet injects a 302 redirect to a FOXACID server. Now the victim’s browser starts talking to the FOXACID server, which quickly takes over the victim’s computer. The NSA calls this QUANTUMINSERT.

The NSA and GCHQ used this technique not only to target Tor users who read Inspire (reported to be an Al-Qaeda propaganda magazine in the English language) but also to gain a foothold within the Belgium telecommunication firm Belgacom, as a prelude to wiretapping Belgium phones...

HTTP cache poisoning. Web browsers often cache critical scripts, such as the ubiquitous Google Analytics script ‘ga.js’. The packet injector can see a request for one of these scripts and instead respond with a malicious version, which will now run on numerous web pages. Since such scripts rarely change, the victim will continue to use the attacker’s script until either the server changes the original script or the browser clears its cache.

Zero-Exploit Exploitation. The FinFly “remote monitoring” hacking tool sold to governments includes exploit-free exploitation, where it modifies software downloads and updates to contain a copy of the FinFisher Spyware. Although Gamma International’s tool operates as a full man-in-the-middle, packet injection can reproduce the effect. The injector simply waits for the victim to attempt a file download, and replies with a 302 redirect to a new server. This new server fetches the original file, modifies it, and passes it on to the victim. When the victim runs the executable, they are now exploited — without the need for any actual exploits.

Mobile Phone Applications. Numerous Android and iOS applications fetch data through simple HTTP. In particular, the “Vulna” Android advertisement library was an easy target, simply waiting for a request from the library and responding with an attack that can effectively completely control the victim’s phone. Although Google removed applications using this particular library, other advertisement libraries and applications can present similar vulnerabilities.

DNS-Derived Man-in-the-Middle. Some attacks, such as intercepting HTTPS traffic with a forged certificate, require a full man in the middle rather than a simple eavesdropper. Since every communication starts with a DNS request, and it is only a rare DNS resolver that cryptographically validates the reply with DNSSEC, a packet injector can simply see the DNS request and inject its own reply. This represents a capability upgrade, turning a man-on-the-side into a man-in-the-middle.

One possible use is to intercept HTTPS connections if the attacker has a certificate that the victim will accept, by simply redirecting the victim to the attacker’s server. Now the attacker’s server can complete the HTTPS connection. Another potential use involves intercepting and modifying email. The attacker simply packet-injects replies for the MX (Mailserver) entries corresponding to the target’s email. Now the target’s email will first pass through the attacker’s email server. This server could do more than just read the target’s incoming mail, it could also modify it to contain exploits.

Amplifying Reach. Large countries don’t need to worry about seeing an individual victim: odds are that a victim’s traffic will pass one wiretap in a short period of time. But smaller countries that wish to utilize the QUANTUMINSERT technique need to force victims traffic past their wiretaps. It’s simply a matter of buying the traffic: Simply ensure that local companies (such as the national airline) both advertise heavily and utilize in-country servers for hosting their ads. Then when a desired target views the advertisement, use packet injection to redirect them to the exploit server; just observe which IP a potential victim arrived from before deciding whether to attack. It’s like a watering hole attack where the attacker doesn’t need to corrupt the watering hole.


Is someone providing oversight over the NSA's operation?

Is the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper going to be penalized for lying to Congress?

Is the NSA using the capability to attack the computers of U.S. citizens without warrants?

If we still lived in a Constitutional Republic -- and our leaders had any virtue whatsoever -- we'd have answers to these critical questions.


Hat tip: ZeroHedge.

OH, MY: It would appear administration officials Henry Chao and Marilyn Tavenner lied under oath to Congress

Mr. Peabody, set the Wayback Machine to July 17, 2013, please. Let's review testimony before the House Oversight Committee by Obama administration officials regarding the October 1st launch of Healthcare.gov.

With the NSA’s phone call monitoring and Edward Snowden on many minds, it’s not exactly a comfortable time for the government to roll out a massive computer project dealing with personal data like income, Social Security numbers and ethnicity.

But Henry Chao, a lead technology information officer from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said officials have completed about 80 percent of the safeguards to protect privacy when the agency rolls out what it calls “The Hub.” ... “It is important to understand that the hub is not a database; it does not retain or store information,” said Marilyn Tavenner, the CMS administrator, during a heated congressional hearing Wednesday.

She and Chao said the agency will complete the required tests and meet privacy regulations by Oct. 1, when health exchanges are scheduled to open. Their comments came in testimony to the House subcommittee on energy policy, health care and entitlements, which is part of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee...

Tuck the date of 17 July 2013 away. Now let's review some email traffic flying around Chao's office less than two weeks prior to that pair's testimony.

In emails from July, released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Obama administration officials write of unskilled developers and a series of missed deadlines. One email said the "entire build is in jeopardy." But when the administration's top people in charge of the implementation testified before the committee in the months leading up to the site launch, they said just the opposite — that they were ready...

• The only developer who was working on the payment pages for enrollment quit CGI without programming the 10 key user interface pieces of the transaction part. "Needless to say it is in jeopardy," wrote CMS' Jeffrey Grant.


• The part of the system that does monthly payment calculation of insurance plans did not get priority by the contractor, who called it "not an October 1 item." (The health care insurance website launched Oct. 1.)

• "Seriously substandard staffing," is how Grant described its contractor's people power. The key contractor, CGI, missed deadlines due to "insufficient" programmer resources. A month from testing certain parts of the system, no development work had even started.

When informed by Grant of the complete unraveling of the project, Chao was in denial.


There's government-quality management for you: instead of trying to get to the bottom of Grant's dire status report, Chao instead sought to "refute" it.

In other words, Chao and Tavenner were well aware that all of the site's testing -- not just the penetration and other security tests -- all of the site's tests were in dire jeopardy.

Contempt of Congress, anyone?

As I asked about Benghazi, and Fast and Furious, and IRS-gate: where the hell is the Select Investigative Committee? That's the only way we'll get to the bottom of these unprecedented assaults on the Constitution by the most lawless administration in modern American history.


Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News Service.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama's "Fix" Totally Illegal, But You Knew That

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

Nation

Obama's "Fix" Totally Illegal, But You Knew That: Ace
The Endless Debacle of ObamaCare: R.S. McCain
In defense of Barack Obama’s absolute, total and utter ignorance: Unyielding

Quotes of the Day: Allahpundit
Benghazi Not Enough? Obama Should Resign over O'care: Roger L. Simon
Obamacare so toxic Hagen and Biden don't even mention it: Toldjah

House Democratic Leaders: We Will Not Apologize for Obamacare: WS
Ted Cruz explains what’s coming next with Obamacare…: Scoop
The worst job in Barack Obama’s Washington: Glenn Thrush

Economy

October Employment Report; Disneyland-Style Fantasy?: Joe Guzzardi
The sub-standard bare bones low quality lousy crappy health plans: Adrienne
Obama's "fix" for canceled policies could raise costs, experts warn: Fox

Scandal Central

Confirmed: HHS knew all along #obamacare was failing.: Moe Lane
Impeachment of Holder Now Official: CHQ
Jon Corzine, former New Jersey Democratic Governor, on Hook for Millions: AIM

Climate & Energy

Man With Largest Footprint In The World* Touts His Clean Energy Agenda: William Teach
The Climate is Changing (It’s Fall!): Susan Brown

Media

It Begins: Major Newspapers in Reid’s and Obama’s Home States Call for Obamacare Repeal: Bryan Preston
If You Like Your Monster, You Can Keep It: Rick Wilson
Oh, My: Rubio Wants to Repeal Obamacare's Pre-Planned Bailouts for Insurance Companies: Ace

One month after the shutdown ended, Lee and Cruz are sitting pretty: Christopher Bedford
Idiot Liberal Sees Feel-Good Story, Decides We Need Moral Improvement: R.S. McCain
Paul "Kluster" Krugman Discovers Suburbia: Power Line

Oprah Winfrey, Still A Racist: Victory Girls
Can a reporter please ask Obama why…: Doug Powers
OFA Brownshirts want parents to spend Christmas talking to their kids about O-care: Twitchy

World

Arab Spring! Egypt, Russia move closer to first joint military pact in 40 years: WorldTrib
Down the Rabbit Hole, Again: Gates of Vienna
Navy Cross recipient dissed by fellow cops: This Ain't Hell

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News

US Army robots will outnumber human soldiers 10 to 1 by 2023: Jesus Diaz
Can you make lethal weapons using common items sold in airports after security screening?: TerminalCornucopia
The curious case of IDC, Gartner & Strategy Analytics' PC, phone & tablet data on Apple: Daniel Eran Dilger

Cornucopia

Batkid to the Rescue!: WZ
The Obamacare Fix is in: Feets Don’t Fail Me Now!: MOTUS
Here’s What Happens When You Ask People To Draw A Map Of The USA From Memory: Adam Ellis

Image: Ted Cruz explains what’s coming next with Obamacare…
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: It's time - Convention of States

QOTD: "The reason for the benign Sovereign’s exercise of the Royal Prerogative is that millions of his subjects — or “folks,” as he prefers to call us, no fewer than 27 times during his press conference — have had their lives upended by Obamacare. Your traditional hard-core statist, surveying the mountain of human wreckage he has wrought, usually says, “Well, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.” But Obama is the first to order that his omelet be unscrambled and the eggs put back in their original shells. Is this even doable? No. That’s the point. When it doesn’t work, he’ll be able to give another press conference blaming the insurance companies, or the state commissioners, or George W. Bush . . .

The most telling line, the one that encapsulates the gulf between the boundless fantasies of the faculty-lounge utopian and the messiness of reality, was this: “What we’re also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy.” Gee, thanks for sharing, genius. Maybe you should have thought of that before you governmentalized one-sixth of the economy. By “we,” the president means “I.” Out here in the ruder provinces of his decrepit realm, we “folks” are well aware of how complicated insurance is. What isn’t complicated in the Sultanate of Sclerosis? But, as with so many other things, Obama always gives the vague impression that routine features of humdrum human existence are entirely alien to him. Marie Antoinette, informed that the peasantry could no longer afford bread, is alleged to have responded, “Let them eat cake.” There is no evidence these words ever passed her lips, but certainly no one ever accused her of saying, “If you like your cake, you can keep your cake,” and then having to walk it back with “What we’re also discovering is that cake is complicated to buy.” That contribution to the annals of monarchical unworldliness had to await the reign of Queen Barry Antoinette, whose powdered wig seems to have slipped over his eyes." --Mark Steyn

Friday, November 15, 2013

HEADLINE O' THE DAY: ClusterCare

The implosion is real, and it's spectacular:


Mark Steyn has the details.


POTUS was right about one thing: Obamacare really did bend the health care cost-curve...

...just the wrong way.


Note this graph doesn't yet include the big changes that will take place on January 1st.  But what we are already seeing I think qualifies as another promise broken by President Obama.  During his press conference yesterday, President Obama again attacked insurance companies, blaming them for any future problems with Obamacare.
And -- and so what we want to do is to be able to say to these folks, you know what, the Affordable Care Act is not going to be the reason why insurers have to cancel your plan. Now, what folks may find is the insurance companies may still come back and say, we want to charge you 20 percent more than we did last year, or we're not going to cover prescription drugs now. But that will -- that's in the nature of the market that existed earlier. . . .
The data is available from the "CPI-U News Release Companion File" at the Bureau of Labor Statistics website.

Oh, and then there's this: Revealed: Obamacare plans will cost MORE 'in many cases' even with government subsidies, officials admit for the first time.


Hat tip: BadBlue Guns.

Won't you please help us find FLOTUS?

We're growing concerned and the helpful uber-progressives at The People's Cube have created their own poster.

One would think that after using her substantial influence in selecting Obamacare's website developer, she should be alongside her husband, sharing in the well deserved praise from an admiring public.

Perhaps her characteristic modesty explains why we don't see much of her these days.

Other possible explanations by the kollective would be greatly appreciated.


Krasnodar
Vagabond of the Outer Parts
& Concierge Lobotomist

If you have any information that can help, please let the kind folks at The Cube know.


Hat tip: Jenette.