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Thursday, April 18, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Obama Aide: ObamaCare Debut Will Be 'Messy'
As the debut of Obamacare nears in less than 10 months, officials responsible for implementing the complicated law are starting to warn that it will be a mess.
"We know it's going to be messy," said Jeffrey Crowley, a former top Obama aide on the team that spearheaded development of the Affordable Care Act. "There are going to be things that come up that are unanticipated," he added.
Discussing Obamacare Monday at a Center for American Progress seminar on the law's impact on HIV/AIDS and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, the president's former director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and senior advisor on disability policy added, "if we do everything we can possibly think of, it's still going to be a messy transition, but we'll end up in a better place."
Added Kali Lindsey, director of legislative and public affairs at the National Minority AIDS Council, "one of the realities of the Affordable Care Act is that everything is not going to be perfect when it's implemented on day one."
One element of confusion will be providing healthcare to immigrants. Undocumented workers were not covered by Obamacare, but federal officials are rushing to win approval of immigration reform that will expand coverage to illegals.
Monday, March 18, 2013
White House Warns Easter Egg Roll May Be Canceled
The next casualty of sequestration could be the Easter Bunny – at least according to a White House e-mail that recently landed in Capitol Hill inboxes.
The White House warned Congress that budget cuts could nix the annual Easter Egg Roll for kids, which is planned for April 1.
“[B]y using these tickets, guests are acknowledging that this event is subject to cancellation due to funding uncertainty surrounding the Executive Office of the President and other federal agencies,” the White House cautioned, according to two Capitol Hill sources who provided the language. “If cancelled, the event will not be rescheduled.”
The move reels back statements by White House press secretary Jay Carney last week that the egg roll would go forward, although he said that could change.
Via: Fox NationRead More
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Holder Begs Court To Prevent Public From Seeing Obama’s “Executive Privilege” Records Relating to “Fast And Furious”
Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice have asked a federal court to indefinitely delay a lawsuit brought by watchdog group Judicial Watch. The lawsuit seeks the enforcement of open records requests relating to Operation Fast and Furious, as required by law.
Judicial Watch had filed, on June 22, 2012, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious and “specifically [a]ll records subject to the claim of executive privilege invoked by President Barack Obama on or about June 20, 2012.”
The administration has refused to comply with Judicial Watch’s FOIA request, and in mid-September the group filed a lawsuit challenging Holder’s denial. That lawsuit remains ongoing but within the past week President Barack Obama’s administration filed what’s called a “motion to stay” the suit. Such a motion is something that if granted would delay the lawsuit indefinitely.
The Darkest Design of Barack Obama
Also, in the face of having trillions of dollars in debt called by China, and the economic catastrophe that would ensue, it is entirely possible that Obama might request and be granted some manner of dispensation from Congress to legitimize this pact.
This week, I presented substantiation to the aforementioned reports, much to the fear and consternation of most people who became apprised of this phenomenon. Referencing sources that have proven reliable in the past, I cited such things as Chinese military operatives engaging in clandestine “research” within U.S. borders, and assessments of land and resources having been conducted by China in recent years, all with the administration’s approval.
All of this falls well within the parameters of Barack Obama’s long-standing desire to bring America down, as it were, punishing the American people for centuries of enjoying the spoils of imperialism, colonialism, and oppression, as well as finally bringing this nation under the heel of communism.
In the Energy Debate between Palin and Obama...Obama Lost
You know we can't just drill our way to lower gas prices. If we're going to take control of our energy future, and can start avoiding these annual gas price spikes that happen every year when the economy starts getting better, world demand starts increasing, turmoil in the Middle East or some other parts of the world, if we're going to stop being at the mercy of these world events, then we need a sustained, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy - oil, gas, wind, solar, and nuclear, and biofuels, and more.
President Obama made these remarks in February of 2012 at the University of Miami. The President was criticizing the longstanding argument of political rival Sarah Palin, who urges the nation to "drill, baby, drill."
Palin expounded on these sentiments in 2010:
Although the Left chooses to mock the mantra of "drill, baby, drill," and they ignorantly argue against the facts pertaining to the need for America to responsibly develop her domestic supply of natural resources, surely they can't argue the national security implications of relying on foreign countries to extract supplies that America desperately needs for industry, jobs, and security. Some of the countries we're now reliant upon and will soon be beholden to can easily use energy and mineral supplies as a weapon against us.
In 2011, in an interview with the CBS affiliate WTKR in Hampton Roads, Virginia, the president contradicted his own remarks suggesting that oil prices cannot be lowered by arguing:
Via: American Thinker
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Obama Executive Order Triples Number Of Agencies Required To Track Guns…
President Obama is tripling the number of Cabinet agencies with gun control law enforcement responsibilities in his new bid to track guns, adding six agencies to the three typically included--Justice, Homeland Security and Defense.
Section 1.e of his executive order released Wednesday adds State, Treasury, Interior, Agriculture, Energy, and Veterans Affairs. It reads: "For purposes of this memorandum, 'Federal law enforcement agencies' means the Departments of State, the Treasury, Defense, Justice, the Interior, Agriculture, Energy, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security, and such other agencies and offices that regularly recover firearms in the course of their criminal investigations as the President may designate."
Most federal agencies have a police or security arm, but typically law enforcement doesn't included those other six agencies. Justice, in fact, defines law enforcement this way on its web page:
"A federal law enforcement agency is an organizational unit, or subunit, of the federal government with the principle functions of prevention, detection, and investigation of crime and the apprehension of alleged offenders. Examples of federal law enforcement agencies include the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Secret Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). BJS has surveyed federal law enforcement agencies seven times since 1993. The 2008 Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers (FLEO) included agencies that employed full-time officers with federal arrest authority who were also authorized (but not necessarily required) to carry firearms while on duty. The officer counts exclude officers in the U.S. Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Transportation Security Administration's Federal Air Marshals. Findings are based on the 2008 Census of Federal Law Enforcement Officers."
U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Wisconsin Union Law
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a controversial Wisconsin law that restricts the power of public-sector unions, the passage of which sparked an unsuccessful effort to recall the state's Republican Governor, Scott Walker.By a 2-1 vote, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago found that the 2011 law is constitutional, rejecting claims that it violated the equal protection and First Amendment rights of union members.
It reversed part of a March 2012 ruling by U.S. District Judge William Conley in Madison, Wisconsin.
Seven of Wisconsin's largest public-sector unions, including the Wisconsin Education Association Council, had sued to overturn the law, known as Act 10.
"Wisconsin educators are extremely disappointed with the appeals court ruling," the group's president Mary Bell said in a statement. She called the law "a ploy to eliminate workers' rights to have a voice through their union - political payback for citizens who didn't endorse the governor."
WEAC is reviewing the decision to determine its next steps, Bell said.
Via: Chicago Tribune
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Inaugural Sponsors Spent $160 Million Lobbying Government
It's a fool's game to take anything Obama says at face value. There is always a catch. For his second inaugural, he publicly congratulates himself for banning lobbyists from sponsoring the events. Of course, no such prohibition exists on the companies who hire the lobbyists. The companies who are trying to influence the government are welcome to participate, even if their hired guns are not. The corporations who are the biggest donors to the inauguration have spent $160 million lobbying government since Obama first took office.
From a report by The Center for Public Integrity:
Chief among corporate inaugural donors: AT&T Inc., Microsoft Corp., energy giant Southern Co., biotechnology firm Genentech and health plan manager Centene Corp. Together, more than 300 registered lobbyists worked on the five companies’ behalf to influence legislation and government policy, according to their latest federal filings covering January through September.
Corporations hire lobbyists to get access to officials so they can advocate for their positions. It is the access that is the main reason to hire a lobbyist. To a large extent, lobbyists are simply the middlemen. Obama's ban on lobbyist donations simply cuts out the middleman, allows corporations better, more direct, access to officials and allows him to reap dollars from those most trying to influence his Administration.
For his first inauguration, in 2009, Obama banned contributions from corporations and limited individual donations to less than $50,000. Those limits have been wiped away for this year's event.
Always a catch.
Rejected: As Gun Control Looms, Obama Approval Plummets
Just a week before the New Year, Obama enjoyed his highest approval ratings of 2012. According to Gallup, 58% of Americans approved of the job Obama was doing. Survey results released today by Gallup, though, show Obama's approval rating has plummeted to just 49%. It is a dramatic drop, especially coming over a holiday period when people traditionally pay little attention to politics. Four years ago, at his first inauguration, a full 69% of Americans approved of Obama.
The drop in Obama's approval from 4 years ago is understandable, given the sluggish economy and the hope American's had as his presidency began. The considerable drop from just a few weeks ago is more puzzling. According to the media, he was the "winner" of the fiscal cliff negotiations, getting most of the tax hikes he campaigned on and avoiding spending cuts.
NBC/WSJ poll: NRA more popular than entertainment industry
Forty-one percent of adults see the NRA -- the nation's top gun lobby -- in a positive light, while 34 percent view it in a negative light.
By comparison, just 24 percent have positive feelings about the entertainment industry, and 39 percent have negative ones.
The NRA's fav/unfav score is virtually unchanged from its 41 percent-to-29 percent rating in the Jan. 2011 NBC/WSJ poll, nearly two years before the Newtown shootings.
"That seems to me to be a pretty remarkably stable figure," says GOP pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart.
But it's a substantial improvement from the 1990s, when the NRA's negative ratings outweighed its positive ones in the NBC/WSJ survey.
The current poll also shows a sharp divide between attitudes among gun owners and non-gun owners.
Among those who own a gun, 62 percent view the NRA favorably. But that percentage drops to just 25 percent among those who don't.
The full poll -- which was conducted Jan. 12-15 of 1,000 adults (including 300 cell phone-only respondents), and which has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points -- will be released at 6:30 pm ET.
ALGERIA: 32 MILITANTS KILLED, WITH 23 HOSTAGES
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) -- In a bloody finale, Algerian special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert on Saturday to end a standoff with Islamist extremists that left at least 23 hostages dead and killed all 32 militants involved, the Algerian government said.
With few details emerging from the remote site in eastern Algeria, it was unclear whether anyone was rescued in the final operation, but the number of hostages killed on Saturday - seven - was how many the militants had said that morning they still had. The government described the toll as provisional and some foreigners remained unaccounted for.
The siege at Ain Amenas transfixed the world after radical Islamists linked to al-Qaida stormed the complex, which contained hundreds of plant workers from all over the world, then held them hostage surrounded by the Algerian military and its attack helicopters for four tense days that were punctuated with gun battles and dramatic tales of escape.
Algeria's response to the crisis was typical of its history in confronting terrorists, favoring military action over negotiation, which caused an international outcry from countries worried about their citizens. Algerian military forces twice assaulted the two areas where the hostages were being held with minimal apparent mediation - first on Thursday, then on Saturday.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
New year brings hundreds of new laws
It's true. Someday, everything is going to be illegal.
Take California, for instance. Californians will celebrate the new year by welcoming 876 new laws that need bureaucrats to monitor and enforce.
And we wonder why government grows?
Homeowners behind on their mortgage payments and negotiating with their banks to find a way to work things out won't have to worry about getting a surprise foreclosure notice.Women will have expanded access to birth control, as registered nurses will be able to dispense contraceptives such as the pill.Apartment dwellers concerned about the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning will be able to breathe easier.Employers will not be allowed to require workers or job applicants to divulge their social media accounts or provide passwords to them.Those are among the legal changes in California that will kick in Tuesday as a result of some of the 876 laws signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2012. By historic standards it was a somewhat low number but was the most new laws put on the books in the state since 2006.
Just as an aside, are nurses able to judge drug interactions well enough to allow them to dispense contraceptives? It is amazing that there has been a political decision to allow nurses to do this. There is no medical advantage and, in fact, may prove to be tragic if a nurse mistakenly writes a prescription for the pill for a patient who, for whatever reason, shouldn't get it.
Dem Rep Moves to Block Obama's Congressional Pay Increase
A Democratic member of Congress is moving to block President Barack Obama's congressional pay increase. The move, led by John Barrow of Georgia, is to prevent the pay increase that Obama issued through an executive order from going into effect.
"At a time when American families face real hardship, it would be irresponsible to allow Congressional pay to increase," says Barrow in a statement. "Too many families face uncertainty in the New Year for Congress to get a bonus. Folks expect us to be looking out for them, not ourselves, and we should be working to lower taxes, cut spending, and get our nation's debt under control. Congress should get to work, and I urge the House leadership to do anything and everything possible to stop this pay increase for Members of Congress right away."
Barrow's office explains: "The Executive Order called for a pay increase for Members of Congress and other elected officials of 0.5 percent after March 27, 2013. During tonight's votes, Congressman Barrow will urge his colleagues to sign his letter to House Leadership urging them to bring legislation to the floor to block the pay increase."
Here's the letter Barrow is circulating to send to House leadership:
Dear Speaker Boehner, Leader Cantor, Leader Pelosi, Whip Hoyer,We oppose the pay increase for Members of Congress granted by Executive Order on December 27, 2012. The Executive Order would raise our salaries by $900 per year, beginning March 27, 2013.We believe that it is inappropriate for Members of Congress to receive a pay increase of any size while American families and taxpayers continue to face tough economic times.We urge you to bring legislation to the floor to stop this pay adjustment as soon as possible.
Via: Weekly Standard
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FISCAL CLIFF DEAL: $1 IN SPENDING CUTS FOR EVERY $41 IN TAX INCREASES
When Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush increased taxes in return for spending cuts—cuts that never ultimately came—they did so at ratios of 3:1 and 2:1.
“In 1982, President Reagan was promised $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes,” Americans for Tax Reform says of those two incidents. “The tax hikes went through, but the spending cuts did not materialize. President Reagan later said that signing onto this deal was the biggest mistake of his presidency.
"In 1990, President George H.W. Bush agreed to $2 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes. The tax hikes went through, and we are still paying them today. Not a single penny of the promised spending cuts actually happened.”
Via: Breitbart
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The 2013 Anxiety Meter
I won’t blame Romney for the loss. Running against an incumbent President has rarely yielded victory. He had all the right qualifications, but he always struck me as just “too nice” and, as we know, Republicans were reluctant to tear into Obama’s appalling record on the economy and other issues. Like Romney, they are “too nice” despite being up against political thugs.
I think 2013 is going to be a very unlucky year for the United States and it has a lot to do with the fact that Barack Hussein Obama is now free to finish off his destruction of America because he does not have to run again for office.
Anyone who has seen Obama in action over the past four years has reason to fear 2013 and beyond. Any man who wants to be President has to have a lot of confidence in himself and a very thick skin. Obama, however, turns every occasion, including the recent funeral service of Sen. Denial Inouye, into an opportunity to talk about himself. A National Standard article noted that during the recent funeral for Hawaii senator Daniel Inouye, Obama “in the short 1,600 word speech…used the word “my” 21 times, “me” 12 times, and “I” 30 times.”
Saturday, December 29, 2012
The planned re-election of Obama, revolutionary style
n most households, a ringing phoneat that time of night causes concern for everyone who hears it. In my household, it seems to surprise only my surly, 140 pound light-sleeping German Shepherd. He let out an objective grunt as I stepped over him to take the call in another room. It was “Rosebud,” the code name given my insider source.
About Rosebud
Just a little bit here about my source and his “super-secret code name.” I’ve known this government insider since 1979, when he first became a municipal patrol officer. He took a job in a bigger city and had a very successful run as a cop. Before retirement and after the events of 9/11, he was tapped by the feds, where he worked in various capacities under the umbrella of DHS. He worked his way up, and suddenly found himself in what he terms the inner sanctum of the “TEC” building. TEC, he explains, is an acronym for what he calls “The Estrogen Challenged,” which houses the upper echelon of the Department of Homeland Security. I’ll leave it at that.
112th Congress Most Unproductive Since 1940s?
WASHINGTON -- As 2012 comes to a close, the 112th Congress is set to go down in American history as the most unproductive session since the 1940s.
According to a Huffington Post review of all the bills that hit President Barack Obama's desk this session, Obama has signed 219 bills passed by the 112th Congress into law. With less than a week to go in the year, there are currently another 20 bills pending presidential action. In comparison, the last Congress passed 383 bills, while the one before it passed 460.
The 104th Congress (1995-1996) currently holds the ignominious distinction of being the least productive session of Congress, according to the U.S. House Clerk's Office, which has records going back to 1947. Just 333 bills became law during that two-year period, meaning the 112th Congress needs to send nearly 100 more bills to Obama's desk in the next few days if it wants to avoid going down in history -- an unlikely prospect, considering that both chambers are squarely focused on averting the "fiscal cliff" before the new year.
The 112th Congress has done far less than the 80th Congress (1947-1948), which President Harry Truman infamously dubbed the "Do-Nothing Congress." Those lawmakers passed 906 bills that became law.
While Obama has signed several pieces of large, consequential legislation in the past two years -- such as sanctions on Iran and the National Defense Authorization Act, allowing the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects without charge -- many of the bills passed by Congress have been small and noncontroversial.
At least 40 bills, including ones awaiting Obama's signature, concerned the renaming of post offices or other public buildings. Another six dealt with commemorative coins.
Meanwhile, significant pieces of legislation that have traditionally received bipartisan support -- such
HURRICANE SANDY AID BILL INCLUDES $150 MILLION FOR ALASKAN FISHERIES
On Friday, the U.S. Senate passed a $60.4 billion bill that contains expenditures for areas that were unaffected by the storm, including $2 million roof repairs for Smithsonian Institution museums, $150 million for Alaskan fisheries disasters, and $58 million in taxpayer dollars to plant trees on private property in areas where Sandy never touched down. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) attempted to remove the $150 million fisheries “pork” spending from the bill, but his amendment was defeated. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) tried to strike down the tree subsidies but his amendment failed as well.
“It’s disgraceful to load a bill like this that has good motives, that has good intentions that is going to help people, with pork,” said Mr. Meyer on Fox Business. “Why are you putting your own projects in it? It’s disgraceful. It’s typical of Washington.”
Particularly troubling, says Mr. Meyer, is the fact that 85% of the bill’s allocations do not kick in until after 2014. “That’s not immediate relief,” says Meyer.
The bill passed the Senate on a 61-33 vote. Twelve Republicans supported the bill.
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