Friday, September 20, 2013

There Is No Compromise on ObamaCare

APRepublicans oppose ObamaCare.  That's no secret.  But there seems to be some conflicting ideas among Republicans about how that opposition should be played out on Capitol Hill.
For example, the House GOP establishment had, until this week, wanted to hold votes on two bills: one that could potentially defund ObamaCare, and a separate bill that would keep the government funded after this month.  This was the expected path, the path of GOP reason and "compromise" according to the media and Democrats. 
It's hardly a spirited opposition, though, as it does absolutely nothing to impede the Democrat endgame.  The Senate could simply ignore the bill to defund ObamaCare, pass the bill to provide stopgap spending to keep the government running, and send the latter to the White House for signing.
Conservatives less interested in pre-emptive capitulation to Democrats, however, have suggested there be a vote on a single bill which would both defund ObamaCare and provide the stopgap spending to keep the government funded.  Want to keep the government running?  So do we.  Just defund the bill, granting all Americans the courtesy of a waiver from ObamaCare -- you know, like the one Congress worked so diligently to grant itself. 
And surprisingly, House majority leader John Boehner has finally endorsed the latter strategy, saying that "[t]he law's a train wreck.  It's time to protect working families from this unworkable law."

Via: American Thinker


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The Babysitters’ Union

If Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has his way, your babysitter soon could join a union and cost you a lot more.
The San Francisco Democrat has authored several domestic-worker unionization bills that have been vetoed by California governors. Now he’s back with Assembly Bill 241, which just passed both houses of the Legislature and is awaiting a signature or veto from Gov. Jerry Brown.
The bill would significantly impact home health care providers’ ability to provide affordable care to elderly clients or clients with disabilities.
Flexibility in schedules for such workers is imperative, based on the unique needs of the client. But the law would make it difficult to provide care to those needing around-the-clock assistance.
The other problem is the home-care industry will be forced to absorb the additional increased labor costs caused by this bill. The increased costs could make live-in care unaffordable for many families, landing more elderly Californians in state-run long-term medical care hospitals.

It always starts with a resolution

In 2010, the Legislature passed a Resolution for a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, which spawned a study by UCLA on the issue.
“This resolution highlights the work done by domestic workers in the state and the labor violations faced by these workers,” the UCLA study said. “The resolution calls for the fair treatment of these workers, noting that domestic workers have a right to be treated with respect and dignity.”
The California Domestic Worker Coalition was formed in 2009 to replicate New York’s Domestic Worker Bill of Rights.
The coalition included Mujeres Unidas Y Activas, POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights), La Colectiva de Mujeres of La Raza Centro Legal, Filipino Advocates for Justice, Grayton Day Labor Program, the Pilipino Worker Center, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, and Instituto de EducaciĆ³n Popular del Sur de California.
In 2009, the coalition brought together 100 domestic workers to create a list of demands for workplace protections available to other workers, such as overtime pay, Cal/OSHA safety standards and workers’ compensation.
This isn’t just a grassroots effort to help domestic workers. It’s being pushed by big labor groups such as Urban Habitat, the International Labour Organization and the National Domestic Worker Alliance.

GOP-Controlled House Votes To Defund ‘Obamacare,’ Keep Government Funded

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to members of the press during a news conference on Sept. 12, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — The Republican-controlled House of Representatives have passed a bill that would defund President Barack Obama’s health care law and which funds the federal government through Dec. 15.
The House voted 230-189 in favor to defund “Obamacare” in order to avert a government shutdown. This sets up a confrontation with the Democratic-led Senate that promises to strip the “defund Obamacare” provision from the bill next week.
The White House has stated that Obama would veto the measure in case it reached his desk.
“They actually did it: The House just passed a resolution that risks a government shutdown to defund Obamacare. (hashtag) EnoughAlready,” the president’s Twitter account, run by Organizing for Action, posted.
House Speaker John Boehner called the vote a “victory for common sense.”
“This is hurting our constituents, it’s hurting the American people,” Boehner said.
Before the vote, Nancy Pelosi called the House “a mess.”
“I come to the floor, in many ways, as a mother,” the House minority leader stated. “This place is a mess. Let’s get our House in order.”

The Hoax of Global Warming, AKA, Climate Change and Death of Coal Mining

Not content with various country killing plans, Obama seeks now to apply more new rules through his infamous Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that greatly concerns those who say his new “change” will be even less loved than the nightmarish “Hope and Change” of 2008. 

These next new changes could possibly result in deaths to our citizens and excessively high costs in their applications; in fact, one of Obama’s own former appointees who has deep concerns that these new coal regulations could kill, was published in the following FoxNews.com story on September 19, 2013.

“New clean-energy rules pushed through by the Obama administration are raising concerns that they could cripple the coal industry—and may require power plants to use technology so risky that even the president’s former top energy official once warned it could ‘kill.’

“The EPA, by Friday, is expected to release a new proposal to set the first-ever carbon dioxide limits for new power plants.

“To meet those emissions caps, power plants would likely have to use what is known as ‘carbon-capture technology,’ which involves burying the carbon underground.

“The technology, which is still under development, remains expensive and not commercially available. But there are lingering safety risks.


Obama: U.S. Competitors Have 'More Effective' Health Care Systems

export council(CNSNews.com) - President Obama said on Thursday that until the Affordable Care Act passed, other nations had more "effective" health care systems than the United States did.
He also said Obamacare is having a positive impact on American businesses' bottom lines, which will help boost American exports.
In the three years since Obamacare passed, health care costs have grown at the slowest pace on record, the president told a meeting of his Export Council.
"And I think this is critically important to recognize, because one of the huge competitive disadvantages that our businesses have had is that we -- American businesses oftentimes are shouldering health care costs that their competitors are not, because they've had a more efficient, more effective system."

House sends government spending bill to the Senate without Obamacare funding

The House on Friday approved a bill to temporarily fund the government that would strip funding for the 2010 federal health care law known as Obamacare, a move that will set up a showdown with the Senate next week that could result in a government shutdown.
The bill, which Democrats in the Senate plan to reject in its current form, would set spending levels at $986.3 billion through Dec. 15. Congress must pass a bill to set federal funding levels, known as a continuing resolution (CR) by Oct. 1, or the government will partially close. House Republicans see the mandatory deadline as a final opportunity to cripple the 3-year-old health care law.
While conservatives in the House see the passage of the bill as a victory, the celebration will be short-lived. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid intends to strip out the part of the bill that defunds the health care law when the upper chamber takes up the measure next week. In a statement Thursday, President Barack Obama vowed to veto any CR that does not include funding for the law.
The move by House Republicans comes amid a fierce internal party battle over how to tackle the Affordable Care, a law that was found constitutional by the Supreme Court in 2012. For months, Republican leaders resisted calls from conservative members in the House and Senate to use the CR as a vehicle to defund the law, but they relented this week by announcing that the bill sent to the Senate would not include funding for the law. They preferred, instead, to seek a delay of the law's individual mandate to purchase health insurance by tying it to a vote to raise the federal government's borrowing limit.
In the Senate, four Republicans, Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, have led an aggressive effort to defund the health care law. They have enraged other Republicans by saying publicly that those who vote for government spending measures that include funding for Obamacare effectively support the Democratic health care law.

House to vote on plan to defund ObamaCare as shutdown looms

The House on Friday will vote to replace ObamaCare with a plan that expands tax breaks for Americans who buy their own insurance, setting the stage for a showdown with Senate Democrats that could push the government toward a partial shutdown at the end of the month.

More than 140 congressional Republicans signed on to the bill to keep the government running at existing funding levels and delay the health care law. Democrats have vowed to oppose that bill, warning the strategy risks a government shutdown, with funding set to expire by Oct. 1.

Under the proposal, Americans who purchase coverage through state-run exchanges can claim a $7,500 deduction against their income and payroll taxes, regardless of the cost of the insurance. Families could deduct $20,000. The plan also increases government funding for high-risk pools.

One day after conceding that the Democratic-controlled Senate probably would prevail in stripping the health law provision, Sen. Ted Cruz still vowed to do "everything and anything possible to defund ObamaCare." That includes a possible filibuster of legislation to prevent a partial government shutdown, the Texas Republican said.

Cruz, one of the most vocal supporters of the “de-fund ObamaCare” push, startled his House colleagues when he released a written statement Wednesday afternoon that appeared to acknowledge the bill will probably fail in the Senate.

Via: Fox News


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[CARTOON] Debt Ceiling Tic-Tac-Toe

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Via: California Political Review

Chicago: 13 shot in park: 'My younger brother was on the floor'


Grandmother and great aunt of the 3-year-old girl Deonta' Howard, who was shot at South Side park talk about the shooting.

Semehca Nunn tried hard to talk about her 3-year-old grandson, one of 13 people shot as neighbors played basketball in Cornell Square Park in the Back of the Yards Thursday night.
"They need to stop, they need to stop," Nunn said, the last word coming out as almost a shriek as she closed her eyes and collapsed crying.
A pick-up game was being played on the park's basketball court in the 1800 block of West 51st Street around 10:15 a.m. when at least one gunman walked up and started firing, apparently with a high-powered gun.
Thirteen people who were on the court or were watching the game were hit, many of them in the arms or legs.
The boy was standing on the court and was shot near the ear, the bullet exiting through his cheek, according to police and relatives. His family said the boy is expected to recover but will need plastic surgery.

Three of those wounded, including the boy, were in serious to critical condition this morning. The others ranged from serious to good condition, including a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl.
Police believe the shooting stemmed from an ongoing dispute between the Black P. Stones and Gangster Disciples, a law enforcement source said. It was not known if any of the victims were intended targets.
Police said they were questioning several people, but would not say whether any of them were suspects.

MASTERFUL: Rep. Trey Gowdy GRILLS Adm. Mullen on Why He Didn’t Interview Hillary Clinton Over Benghazi

Groups wage grassroots battle ahead of ObamaCare launch

On a recent Friday evening, David Fladeboe showed up to a high school football game in Waukesha, Wis. But he had no interest in the two teams playing. 

With a tablet in hand, he was there to get signatures on an anti-ObamaCare petition. 

"This bill is obviously not ready for prime-time. We wanna see what we can do to get it delayed and ultimately repealed," Fladeboe said. 

Fladeboe is one of many foot soldiers for the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity. He was on the front lines of the ground game during the presidential campaign, and now he's back doing almost the same thing. The difference is that he is campaigning to defeat legislation as it is being implemented. 

Back in Washington, the politically risky push by Tea Party-aligned Republicans to de-fund ObamaCare is being met with derision by Democrats and some in their own party. But the ground game behind the push to derail the law itself has been building for months. 

Conservatives will say this is an information campaign, but there is a target: The Internet-based health care exchanges which go into effect Oct. 1. 

These are intended to be the markets where uninsured can shop around for coverage. Opponents of the Affordable Care Act think if they can discourage people -- young and healthy people, in particular -- from enrolling in the exchanges, there will not be enough money in the pool to pay for the sick and the elderly. ObamaCare would then, the theory goes, deflate upon implementation. 




Dozens Of TSA Employees Fired, Suspended For Illegal Gambling Ring At Pittsburgh Int’l Airport

(Photo Credit: KDKA)PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Dozens of local Transportation Security Administration workers have been fired or suspended after they were caught in an illegal gambling ring at Pittsburgh International Airport.
TSA sources tell the KDKA Investigators that the officers were fired or suspended Thursday morning.
Of the 311 local TSA workers, five were fired, and 47 were suspended.
TSA sources say they just finished a two-month investigation into the office betting. The investigation found that TSA officers at the airport had an office betting pool, and officers were betting on everything from Nascar, to the NCAA, even football.
Homeland Security says all of the workers accused of sports gambling at the airport were in uniform at the time, but says public safety and security was never at risk.
The investigation determined that no criminal laws were broken, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office has turned down the case for criminal prosecution.

Wasserman Schultz On Obamacare: Once People Receive Benefits "They're Not Going To Want To Let It Go"

CHRIS HAYES: Is there some point where there is victory here? Ae we doomed to be fighting about Obamacare until I am an old man?

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL): I don't think so. In fact, that is exactly why the tea party Republicans are hell-bent on doing everything they can to try to stop Obamacare from going online on October 1st. Because even as Ted Cruz said the other day, this is the real transparent deal here, Chris, is that they know that once people realize the benefits of Obamacare, once they can no longer be dropped or denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, once they are able to fully benefit from the coverage that will be provided, they're not going to want to let it go. 

They're going to realize that the bogeyman that the Republicans and the tea party have put up was just that. it was as fictional as the bogeyman of our childhood. 

HAYES: You think this push right now, this fall, that the reason that the fight has doubled down right now, as we head up against both a continuing resolution deadline, that happens to be the same deadline as the day that the health exchanges go into effect. You think that's not a coincidence you think this is a last-gasp attempt to kill the thing before it starts delivering the tangible benefits that have been promised. 

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Absolutely. The tea partyers are desperate to prevent people from realizing the full scope of the benefits to their lives that Obamacare will provide. The women who will, you know, be able to get their annual checkups and preventative care, which is already occurring. The -- no more of annual or lifetime caps. The young adults that can stay on their parents' insurance until their 26. The side-by-side coverage that they're going to be able to compare in the marketplace exchanges when they go online on October 31st. The 30 million people that over the next few years will get coverage they don't have now. 

That is what the Republicans are desperate to prevent from coming fully online because they know that there's no turning back after that, and they know they will have lost. And that's why they're willing to harm the economy in order to stop it from happening.


Via: Real Clear Politics

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House passes bill cutting $40 billion from food stamp program

WASHINGTON — The House voted to cut nearly $40 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, over a period 10 years on Thursday.
House Republican’s Nutrition Reform and Work Opportunity Act of 2013 passed largely along party lines on a vote of 217 to 210.
The billion dollar cuts to the program — which has ballooned in participation and doubled in cost since 2008 to nearly $80 billion annually — are achieved through reforms such as reducing waivers for work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents, tightening eligibility requirements like categorical eligibility (a policy allowing states to determine SNAP eligibility through participation in other welfare programs) and closing loopholes.
The nutrition title represents the second portion of the farm bill, which was split into two separate bills when a comprehensive farm bill failed to pass the House over the summer (in large part due to disputed over the cuts to the program). The cuts to SNAP this time, however, were twice as aggressive.
In July, the House passed the first portion of the traditional farm bill, a stripped down bill dealing just with farm programs.
“In the real world, we measure success by results,” Indiana Republican Rep. Marlin Stutzman said on the House floor arguing in favor of the bill. “It’s time for Washington to measure success by how many families are lifted out of poverty and helped back on their feet, not by how much Washington bureaucrats spend year after year.”
Democrats argued that House Republicans are trying to take food out of needy American’s mouth, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi calling the bill “dangerous” and Maryland Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards calling it “mean” on the floor.
“This bill goes against decades of bipartisan support for fighting hunger and would be disastrous for millions of Americans,” Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro said in a statement before the vote, calling the cuts “immoral.”
Via: Daily Caller

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Tingles Foaming At The Mouth: “Looney Tunes” Republicans Want To Destroy The Economy While Carrying “Semiautomatic” Guns…

The man rambles & no one understands what he is trying to say!! Including the LIBS!
Looks like someone forgot to give Tingles his horse tranquilizers.
MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with this: Do you ever get the feeling that the loony tunes are taking over? Why would any normal person want to detonate the American economy? Least of all, why would those calling themselves the patriots want to do it? If they love America, why are they out there bringing it down by having the U.S. government default on its debt? Look, I used to be a newspaper boy, we were encouraged to buy, those days, U.S. savings bonds. It was the good, patriotic thing to do. Besides, it was a guaranteed deal. Those patriotic-looking savings bonds were as good and solid as the U.S. government itself. It’s that U.S. government the loony tunes are now pushing down, knocking the recovery off its feet with them, leveling our 401ks, killing hopes for a decent retirement. And while they’re at it, they want to carry pistols, rifles, semiautomatics, whatever they can carry, whatever firepower man has created in there when they go in to buy their frappuccinos. Who are these people who want to cash out of the U.S. government, cash in — cash in as a going institution, meanwhile arming up themselves to be one man/one woman constabularies? Is this the right-wing future? The dream land of the loony tunes? Government that has gone into default, a Main Street they can prowl loaded for bear.
Via: Weasel Zippers

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Sen. Murphy: Congress (D-CT) Morally Justified In Forcing Americans to Violate Their Religious Beliefs

(CNSNews.com) - Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said that it would be morally justifiable for Congress to pass a continuing resolution that forces Americans to buy health care plans covering abortion-inducing drugs even if doing so violates their religious beliefs.
CNSNews.com asked Murphy about funding the controversial provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, following a press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
CNSNEWS: "As implemented the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, is forcing Christian individuals and business owners to purchase health plans that cover abortion-inducing drugs. Now as a result, people are going to be able to use those federal subsidies to buy plans that pay for abortions. Do you believe, Senator, you're going to be morally justified in voting, through the next continuing resolution, to give the administration more money to do those things?"
SEN. MURPHY: “Yes.”
According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, over 200 plaintiffs are challenging the implementation of Obamacare in court on the grounds that it violates Americans' First Amendment rights by requiring them to purchase health care plans that cover sterilization, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs even if they are morally opposed.
Via: CNS News

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President: Obamacare will boost exports

Photo - President Barack Obama, center, greets Jim McNerney, right, CEO of Boeing, and Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox, before speaking to member of his Export Council during their meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013, in Washington. on the far right is Valerie Jarrett, White House senior adviser. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)President Obama told a group of corporate leaders on Thursday that his healthcare overhaul would create more exports for U.S. companies, continuing his economic push in the face of the broader Washington budget debate.
Addressing his Export Council, Obama didn’t directly mention a standoff with Republicans over avoiding a government shutdown and increasing the debt limit — before reporters left the room — but touted his administration’s economic progress.
Amid GOP efforts to defund Obamacare, the president defended his signature legislative achievement.
“The cost of healthcare is now growing at the slowest rate in 50 years,” Obama said Thursday. “If the current trends hold … we’re going to see a continuing slowing of healthcare costs. That’s going to boost our exports.”
The White House is seeking to frame the overlapping debt-ceiling and government-funding debates in economic terms, arguing that the GOP will hurt American families still recovering from the Great Recession.
“It turns out actually a lot of what we've done is starting to bear real fruit,” the president insisted about his healthcare overhaul.
Republicans on Thursday pressed ahead with their campaign to gut the law.
“It is a train wreck; it has to go,” Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Thursday morning.
Obama’s remarks to his Export Council are the latest in a series of economic events this week.
He addressed the Business Roundtable on Wednesday and will travel to a Kansas City Ford plant Friday to tout his administration’s bailout of the auto industry.
Addressing the group of business leaders Thursday, Obama said their work had helped spur a rebounding economy.
“This is not a bunch of show horses here,” he joked. “These are work horses."

Journalism professor says he hopes for murder of NRA members' children

A journalism professor at the University of Kansas (KU) turned to Twitter on Monday to suggest he would like to see the murder of children of National Rifle Association (NRA) members at the hands of a deranged gunman.
A journalism professor has defended tweets he sent out which called for the death of NRA employees children.
“#NavyYardShooting The blood is on the hands of the #NRA,” tweeted David Guth, who is an associate professor of Journalism at the university’s William Allen White School of Journalism.
“Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters, he continued. “Shame on you. May God damn you.”
Speaking with Campus Reform on Wednesday, Guth confirmed it was he who sent the controversial tweet.
“Hell no, hell no, I do not regret that Tweet,” he said. “I don't take it back one bit.”
Guth also doubled down on the statement when other Twitter users pressed him, suggesting it was was shameful to call for the death of children.
“God’s justice takes many forms,” he tweeted in response. 
And on Monday the associate journalism professor echoed those sentiments on his personal blog, called Snapping Turtle.
“I don't wish what happened today on anyone,” he wrote. “But if it does happen again — and it likely will — may it happen to those misguided miscreants who suggest that today's death toll at the Navy Yard would have been lower if the employees there were allowed to pack heat.”
Also in his interview with Campus Reform, he said that he wished “a pox on our Congress and a pox on the NRA” for not instituting gun control policies to prevent mass shootings.
“It absolutely appalls me that after Newtown, we could not have come to some kind of sane agreement on something as simple as the number of bullets in a magazine or the availability of assault weapons,” he said.

Ron Johnson May Sue Over Obamacare Ruling for Congressional Staff

SenateBudget 03 031313 445x295 Ron Johnson May Sue Over Obamacare Ruling for Congressional Staff Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Thursday he is laying groundwork for a court challenge to an Office of Personnel Management decision that will permit congressional staffers to continue receiving employer contributions for their health care.
The OPM’s August ruling was intended to remedy a drafting error in the 2010 health care law that would require all Congressional staffers to pay for the full cost of their insurance without employer contributions.
Johnson, who last week filed a formal comment to OPM urging the agency reconsider its rule, said he and his staff did so in order to create a legal case against the administration.
“I really do believe that it was the pretty clear intent of the people who voted for Obamacare that members of Congress and their staffs should not be able to maintain their … insurance through the Federal Employee Health Benefits plan, and they also made it pretty clear through multiple votes that they didn’t think the federal government ought to make contributions into the exchanges where they had to get it,” Johnson said.
“I can’t tell you how OPM’s really going to conduct themselves … but you know, I did put in a comment into OPM, and the purpose behind that is I don’t think they’re going to follow… my advice, but I just wanted to make sure I certainly did everything I could do … through the normal channels so that I could then do a court challenge,” Johnson continued. “That helped me create standing.”
Currently, the Senate is stalled over an amendment from Republican David Vitter of Louisiana that would reverse the OPM rule. Vitter is trying to get the amendment voted on in conjunction with an energy efficiency bill.
When Johnson announced on Sept. 10 that he and several of his staffers had filed a comment to OPM, he said in a statement: “My intent is to make sure President Obama is not allowed to exceed his legal authority in implementing this law, and that members of Congress and their staffs are not shielded from the harmful effects of this law that every other American will experience.”

Limbaugh: Obamacare is ‘The Law of the Land’ Just Like Slavery Was

As the major implementation date for the Affordable Care Act approaches, conservatives are doing everything they can to prevent the law from coming to fruition. Naturally, this includes Rush Limbaugh, who used a new tack to argue against Obamacare on his radio show Thursday, along the way comparing it to slavery.
Limbaugh’s argument hinged on a term that’s popular with Democrats who want to see Obamacare become a reality: “It’s the law of the land.” The host wondered “what else at one time was the ‘law of the land?’: Slavery!”
“Slavery used to be the law of the land,” Limbaugh informed his audience, noting that the Supreme Court even once upheld it. From there, he listed other things that used to be the “law of the land” but are not relics of the past:
  • “Defense of Marriage Act.”
  • “The speed limit used to be 55, now it’s 70.”
  • “Immigration law.”
  • “Guns, Second Amendment.”
  • “Laws against marijuana.”
Limbaugh wanted to know why Democrats are allowed to get rid of “bad laws” they don’t like but Republicans aren’t. “Is that the only way they can defend this?” Limbaugh asked. “Is that the best they’ve got? ‘It’s the law of the land’?”
Listen to audio below, via Rush Limbaugh:

Another ObamaCare Casualty: Harvard Pilgrim lays off 65 workers, almost all of them in Massachusetts

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, the Wellesley-based health insurer, confirmed Thursday that it laid off 65 workers, reducing its three-state workforce by about 6.5 percent to 1,265.

Sixty-two of the job cuts were in Massachusetts, said Joan Fallon, a spokeswoman for the insurance company.. In addition, Harvard Pilgrim will eliminate 35 open positions, but will add 12 new ones, according to Fallon. The insurer plans to expand into a fourth state, Connecticut, next year.

In a statement, Harvard Pilgrim said the cutback was “part of a strategic plan to align... organizational structure with the changing health care environment.” It said the insurance carrier will provide severance and support services for employees who were laid off.

In addition to Massachusetts, the insurer has operations in Maine and New Hampshire.




POLL: VIRGINIA GOVERNOR'S RACE DEAD HEAT

Roanoke poll released Thursday backs up what we have seen from other recent pollsters looking at the hotly contested and highly publicized contested governor's race in Virginia. In a poll taken between Sept. 9 and Sept 15, the race is now statistically tied at 35% - 33%, with Democrat Terry McAuliffe holding an insignificant two-point lead over Republican Ken Cuccinelli.

With leaners, the race is even tighter, with McAuliffe holding just a single point lead,  37% - 36%.
Quinnipiac poll taken over the same 6 days, shows McAuliffe with a mere three point lead, 44% - 41%.
Just last week, some in the mainstream media were declaring the race all but over. McAuliffe appeared to have an insurmountable lead. The race has been up and down, though. Back in April it was Cuccinelli who led in four polls in row.
With just six weeks until election day, the race is tightening with a large percentage of the population still undecided.

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