Tuesday, October 8, 2013

FCC Orders Cable Co. to Switch Lineup, Cites Channel Flipping Phenomenon

In a recent example of Obama government run amok, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)—with five presidentially appointed commissioners—has ordered a private cable company to put a paid news channel in a particular spot on the lineup.

It seems bizarre that a federal agency is wasting resources meddling into such matters, but this is government on heavy duty steroids. Since Obama moved into the White House, the bloated government has taken over the nation’s healthcare system (ordering private citizens to purchase a product or service they may not want), banned school bake sales to control our kids’ diet and intruded into many other aspects of private life.

Heck, the administration even violated the nation’s cherished free press by secretly obtaining the work and personal phone records of reporters and editors at one of the nation’s largest news organizations. This is the sort of thing you see in communist regimes and dictatorships (like China and Cuba), a deplorable act few imagined would ever take place in the United States. Even liberals who otherwise praise Obama called the spying an “unacceptable abuse of power.”

It’s as if there is no stopping the madness of this unprecedented government intrusion into private life. So, why not tell cable companies where to place channels? Seems benign compared to some of the other stuff Big Brother has done since Obama became the nation’s commander-in-chief. The FCC, which governs mass media communication via television, radio, cable, satellite and wire, didn’t like where one major cable company placed a certain financial news outlet so it ordered the private business to move the channel.

Because of the government shutdown the FCC’s website is unavailable so the order can’t be accessed, but a news reportoutlines how it all went down. Cable companies often group channels with similar themes so that they are located in adjacent spots in the lineup. In this case the cable company, Comcast, isolated Bloomberg News in a neighborhood far away from other news outlets and the company claimed it was hurting business. Bloomberg hired a bunch of lobbyists to pressure the FCC, claiming discrimination because Comcast owns the business news channel CNBC, a popular competitor that has a great spot on the lineup.


[VIDEO] Jindal: We Should Nominate a Governor in 2016

Washington lawmakers Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio wouldn’t be Louisiana’s Jindal first choices for the Republican nomination in 2016. Instead, the governor wants to see one of his own get the nod.

“I do think the next president, I do believe, should come from the ranks of the governors,” Jindal said on CNN on Monday afternoon. “I do think governors, unlike the folks in D.C., are actually implementing solutions.”

He pointed to President Obama as an example of somebody who needed ”on-the-job training” and implied that somebody with gubernatorial or executive experience would not. As for his own 2016 plans? Jindal said he hadn’t decided, and is focusing on next year’s midterm elections.

Via: NRO
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Insurers Now “Scared to Death” of Obamacare

AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWSKIBRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Bloomberg has a must-read story this morning highlighting yet more faults with Obamacare’s exchanges. Specifically, the faults in the exchanges’ computer software aren’t just hitting consumers trying to shop for plans—they’re hitting insurers as well:
Insurers are getting faulty and incomplete data from the new U.S.-run health exchange, which may mean some Americans won’t be covered even after they sign up for an insurance plan.…The companies are receiving electronic files that can’t open or have so much missing information on new enrollees they’re unusable, the consultants said.
Some insurers have been forced to fix entries by hand, said Bob Laszewski, an insurance-industry consultant based in Arlington, Virginia.
“If we don’t see substantial improvement by the end of this week, then I would throw up the yellow flag,” said Dan Schuyler, a consultant advising states and insurers on the exchanges. “If we don’t see it in the next two to three weeks, it’s time for red flags. The concern is some people could get to Jan. 1, and not have coverage.”
Last week, the Administration claimed that heavy volume was the prime cause of the exchanges’ delays. But today’s Bloomberg report, as with other news reports over the weekend, all suggest bigger issues with the federal data hub and other elements of the IT infrastructure needed to support enrollment.

Shutdown outrage: Military death benefits denied to families of fallen troops

The flag-draped casket of a soldier killed in Afghanistan is returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where President Obama issued this salute. (AP photo)At least five families of U.S. military members killed during in Afghanistan over the weekend were given a double-whammy by federal officials: Not only have your loved ones died, but due to the government shutdown, you won’t receive a death benefit.

The benefit is $100,000 and is wired to family members of the killed military member within 36 hours of the death. The so-called “death gratuity” is aimed at paying for funeral costs and to help with those living expenses normally covered by the soldier’s paycheck.



They serve as a transition pay benefit until the military’s survivor benefits begin.

The $100,000 also helps military families fly to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, while the coffins carrying their loved ones are being unloaded

The Pentagon revealed the elimination of funeral pay, along with other impacts of the shutdown, in a press release.
“The department does not currently have the authority to pay death gratuities for the survivors of service members killed in action – typically a cash payment of $100,000 paid within three days of the death of a service member,” the release read.

Via: Washington Times


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Boston school bus drivers strike, so kids get lifts from cops

Hundreds of Boston public school bus drivers surprisingly walked off the job Tuesday morning in a labor dispute, catching many families and even the mayor off guard.
CBS Boston reports that approximately 15,000 students were stranded when 300 of the bus drivers' union 700 members refused to work.
Boston Public Schools called the move "an illegal work action" to protest safety and performance improvements.
Only 30 of the city's 650 school buses were actually on the road Tuesday morning.
The school system sent out automated phone calls to all families , but it came too late, according to most parents.
All schools remained open, but students who checked in late or who were absent were excused for the day.
The drivers work for the city's bus contractor Veolia Transportation, which has had no comment yet about the strike.
Drivers gathering at school bus headquarters in Dorchester told WBZ-TV's David Robichaud they're upset with Veolia and its' strict safety conditions, which they claim don't allow them any bathroom breaks during their shifts.

Darrell Issa: IRS Officials Sent Private Data Over Personal Email Accounts

Darrell Issa attending House Oversight and Government Reform Committee / APSenior Internal Revenue Service officials—including one at the heart of the IRS “targeting” scandal—violated agency policies and possibly federal records laws by using private email to send confidential taxpayer information, the GOP-led House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said in a letter.
In a Sept. 30 letter to IRS Acting Commissioner Daniel Werfel obtained by the Free Beacon, Oversight Chairman Darrel Issa (R., Calif.) said an investigation revealed a “troubling pattern” of at least four top IRS officials using their private email addresses to relay confidential tax information.
“This not only raises the prospect of violations of the Federal Records Act but it also raises data security concerns and violates internal IRS policies,” Issa wrote to Werfel.
The committee discovered the emails while investigating the ongoing IRS scandal that began earlier this year when an official admitted that the agency targeted conservative groups during the 2012 election.
Lois Lerner, who headed the IRS’ tax-exempt division at the heart of the scandal, is one of the officials named in Issa’s letter.
Issa said the committee’s investigation produced more than 1,600 pages of emails and documents housed in Lerner’s nonofficial email account related to IRS business, including nearly 30 pages of confidential taxpayer information. Included in the material was a summary of an application for tax-exempt status the IRS instructed Lerner’s legal counsel to redact.
Via: WFB

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6 Groups Targeted to Make the Shutdown Look Worse

featured-imgA partial government shutdown just wasn't going to hit people the way the Obama administration needed it to, so officials resorted to some unprecedented acts to make Americans feel the pain, as Conservative Intel's David Freddoso notes:
Most people — even the poor in state-run safety net programs — don’t have that many interactions with the federal government agencies affected right now by the shutdown.
So it’s a challenge to make people notice that your agency is vital to the survival of the Republic. The feds have to apply a lot of force and behave in unsubtle ways to make you angry with Congress.
1. Veterans

No group has been more visible during the shutdown than veterans. Memorials were closed, and House Democrats voted against bills that would restore funding to veterans programs.
A short list of some of the monuments closed (note that veterans moved barricades to see their monuments anyway):
» World War II Memorial
» Normandy cemetery
» Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall
» Iwo Jima Memorial
Just 4 percent of employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs have been furloughed, according to Government Executive magazine, making it even more odd that the department’s funding wasn’t restored.

[VIDEO] MSNBC’s Alter Endorses Obama Team's Slam of Boehner: He ‘Can’t Even Deliver a Pizza’

MSNBC contributor Jonathan Alter on Saturday continued the liberal media pattern of siding with the Obama administration on the current government shutdown. Appearing on Weekends with Alex Witt, Alter claimed that House Speaker John Boehner is not acting in a “patriotic fashion” and “can’t even deliver a pizza,” as Team Obama says.

Fill-in host Mara Schiavocampo had asked Alter about the unidentified Obama official who told The Wall Street Journal that the White House was “winning” the shutdown, but Alter got off track and started ripping into Speaker Boehner. He huffed, “[E]verything he's doing is to protect his own skin. I wish I could say that he was acting in a patriotic fashion, but he's just not.” [See video below.]

Alter then directly sided with the Obama administration’s characterization of Boehner: “The White House likes to say John Boehner can't even deliver a pizza, and there is some truth to that, that he just cannot deliver those Republican votes because he has these radicals in his party.”

It gets tiresome to hear media members slam proponents of small government as “radical” over and over while never using that word to describe Democrats or liberals. The mainstream media don’t seem to find it “radical” to require every American to purchase one particular product under penalty of law. Instead, they only see opponents of such a move as radical or unpatriotic.

As for the unnamed White House official’s comment, Alter naturally downplayed it, calling it “a very small bump in the road.”  He also took another shot at Boehner: “It let John Boehner cry some crocodile tears where he said, ‘this is not a game.’” 
Via: Newsbusters

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Bachmann: Obama ‘Arming Terrorists’ Means We’re in ‘God’s End Times’

While many House Republicans were dealing with the ongoing government shutdown this weekend, Rep. Michele Bachmann was giving an interview to Christina radio show Understanding the Times, in which she told host Jan Markell how she knows that the biblical “end times” are near.
Bachmann said it’s “hard to believe” but on the day of the Washington Navy Yard shooting,President Obama “waived a ban on arming terrorists in order to allow weapons to go to the Syrian opposition.” The congresswoman appeared to be referencing the Obama Administration’s decision to send anti-chemical weapons gear to vetted Syrian opposition forces, not known terrorists. “Your listeners, US taxpayers, are now paying to give arms to terrorists including Al Qaeda,” she said.
The reason Americans haven’t heard about this, Bachmann said, is because it happened right in the middle of the Navy Yard shooting and the Kenya Mall attack. “This happened and as of today the United States is willingly, knowingly, intentionally sending arms to terrorists,” she said. “Now what this says to me, I’m a believer in Jesus Christ, as I look at the End Times scripture, this says to me that the leaf is on the fig tree and we are to understand the signs of the times, which is your ministry, we are to understand where we are in God’s end times history.”
Bachmann clarified that she wasn’t making these comments to cause Americans “fear” and “rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice.”
Listen to audio below, via Understanding the Times:

'Shutdown' Day 7: Government Buys $47,174 Mechanical Bull

Mechanical Bull
Perfect Metaphor for Government - FULL OF BULL

(CNSNews.com) - The government shutdown may be keeping furloughed federal workers at home, but on Monday the U.S. Army contracted to buy a mechanical bull.
The $47,174 contract was awarded on Oct. 7 to Mechanical Bull Sales Inc. of State College, Penn.
According to the General Services Administration (GSA) listing, the National Guard of Utah made the request for a “bull which needs to be durable and low maintenance.”
The bull that was sold to the Utah National Guard should meet any state safety requirements. The Mechanical Bull Sales website says, “Our mechanical bulls are approved for use in all 50 states and Canada. This includes: Pennsylvania, New Jersey and California which have stringent safety requirements for amusement rides.”
Lt. Col. Hank McIntire of the Utah National Guard tells CNSNews.com that the mechanical bull is regularly used as a tool by recruiters at fairs and other events.
“It draws attention to their message,” McIntire said.
Via: CNS News

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Would Canceling Obamacare Be a Blow to Democracy?

voting machine, maryland, wikicommons

A republic, not a democracy


Three of our esteemed commentators insist that, if the U.S. House of Representatives somehow repeals major parts of Obamacare, doing so would undermine “democracy.”
Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and famous author, titles his column, “Our Democracy Is at Stake”:
This time is different. What is at stake in this government shutdown forced by a radical Tea Party minority is nothing less than the principle upon which our democracy is based: majority rule. President Obama must not give in to this hostage taking — not just because Obamacare is at stake, but because the future of how we govern ourselves is at stake.
He is echoed on CNN by two professors of government in an article titled, “GOP shutdown’s extremism worst in U.S. history.” It’s by Ellen Fitzpatrick, a professor of modern American history at the University of New Hampshire; and Theda Skocpol, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University, and director of the Scholars Strategy NetworkThey echo Friedman:
The federal government shutdown is a virtually unprecedented move by a political minority committed to rolling back one of the most significant legislative achievements in recent American history. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 was passed by two houses of Congress after 14 months of debate. Opponents then challenged the law’s constitutionality and lost that battle in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Less than five months later, American voters re-elected by a 5 million-vote majority margin a president who stood foursquare behind the Affordable Care Act. In so doing, the electorate rejected a GOP presidential candidate who promised its repeal.
Apparently the democratic processes by which Americans make choices and govern themselves are not acceptable to extremists in the House of Representatives who seek to halt government or have their way. They would have Americans see their actions as a patriotic and high-minded defense of liberty. As the shutdown loomed, several GOP congressmen and analysts took to the airwaves to trivialize the significance of the House vote.

[CARTOON] Budget Negotiations

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Via: California Political Review

Obama’s hometown government proposes dumping 400 part-timers from health plan

Part-time government employees working for Cook County, Illinois — President Obama’s home county — may soon lose their employer-funded health insurance and instead have to move onto Obamacare’s healthcare exchanges.
That move would once again directly contradict President Obama’s promise that Americans who like their health plans could keep them.
In a press release from the Office of Cook County Board President, Democrat Toni Preckwinkle announced that she has proposed that all part time local government employees be removed from the county’s health plan or pay the entirety of it from their own funds starting July 1, 2014.
“The proposal would require employees and officials who receive less than full-time County pay to pick up the full share of their health benefits,” Preckwinkle said in the statement. “Those who choose not to will have the option of obtaining healthcare through a health insurance marketplace, accessing healthcare through otheremployment, or accessing the healthcare plan of a spouse, partner or family member. The change would take place July 1, 2014 to allow individuals time to review their choices. The County estimates that the plan will affect roughly 400 individuals, including Cook County circuit court and associate judges, part-time crossing guards and commissioners for the Chicago Board of Elections.”
Preckwinkle’s office said that the proposal would save the county $2.2 million in 2014 and $4 million annually after that. Preckwinkle said the move was done for the sake of equity, fairness, and fiscal discipline.
“We want to ensure that County employees and officials have access to health benefits, but the approach has to be fair and it needs to make sense financially,” President Preckwinkle said. “We’re taking reasonable steps to improve how we manage the County’s benefits.”
Naomi Lopez-Bauman, a healthcare policy analyst with the Illinois Policy Institute, told TheDC that she isn’t surprised by the announcement because Obamacare has led to increased costs for businesses, municipal governments, and colleges all over the country.

Sebelius: Individuals Can Get A One Year Obamacare Delay -- By Paying The Penalty

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius defended Obamacare in a very contentious interview with Daily Show host Jon Stewart on Monday night.

Stewart pressed Sebelius on why businesses get a one-year delay on Obamacare but individuals do not. After several attempts for an answer, Sebelius eventually said individuals could delay Obamacare for a year -- by paying the penalty.
JON STEWART: So this is what some would consider the first mall that's been created [for purchasing health care insurance].

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS: You bet. The first -- new rules for companies.

STEWART: So why is it that individuals, though, couldn't say that they didn't want to do it just for a year, like business?

SEBELIUS: Well, they can.

STEWART: Oh, they --

SEBELIUS: They'd pay a fine. They'd pay a fine at the end of the year, but they don't have to -- I mean, they can say I didn't want to do it. The theory is they can't pick and choose if they're going to get hit by a bus or diagnosed with a illness. For a lot of young folks, there is one fall on the basketball court, one auto accident from a lifetime of hospital bills they can't pay.
Via: Real Clear Politics

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Signs say National Mall closed, but immigration reform rally is a go

Photo - A giant stage with lights and an "Immigration Reform Now" banner was set up in the center of the National Mall along with three large portable screens, despite signs and barricades proclaiming the area closed due to the government shutdown. (Photo: Charlie Spiering/For the Washington Examiner)Even though isolated barricades with "closed" signs remained on the National Mall on Tuesday, the setup for the immigration reform rally said otherwise.
A giant stage with lights and an "Immigration Reform Now" banner was set up in the center of the mall, along with three large portable screens.
On one side of the mall, more than 100 porta potties were set up for protesters who will attend the rally today.
As several groups of musicians performed sound checks, a lone National Park Service employee arrived to survey the scene, but referred me to the Park Service communications office and left when I asked her why she was called into work today.
As the Washington Examiner reported Monday, rally organizers said that they would be allowed by the NPS to carry out their protest under their First Amendment rights.

SCOTUS To Hear Case Of Parents Caring For Their Disabled Children At Home Being Ordered To Pay Fees To Unions


PARENTS SAY "NO" TO QUINN'S UNIONIZATION

Illinois Review just learned that the home health care workers' vote was tallied and those families caring for disabled family members sent the Governor a loud rejection of his plot to unionize private families. The vote was as follows:
  • SEIU rec'd 293 votes
  • AFSCME rec'd 220 votes
  • NO UNION rec'd 1018 votes
That means the families have wholly rejected Governor Quinn's Executive Order 09-15. For those who are convinced grassroots organizing and networking are irrelevant in public policy, please take note of what these families did on their own, with little, if any help, from the mainstream media. On Thursday, October 2, Americans for Prosperity-Illinois held an open conference call to give listeners a heads up on this story.  The families themselves, including mother extraordinaire Pam Harris, were persistent and unwielding in their effort to get the word out among those affected and the Illinois public as a whole.

Take this victory for these families as a taste of what liberty-loving folks can do if they get organized.  SEIU/ACORN and Governor Quinn were put on notice.  Illinois taxpayers are fed up with their antics.  If you agree that this is the shot over the bow to the bullies, sign AFP's "Say No to ACORN" petition.  Let's push back even further.

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