Obamacare Forces Michigan Hospital To Cut Jobs

David Zechman, President and CEO of McLaren Northern Michigan hospital, says that Obamacare is to blame for the hospital’s newly announced layoffs and cuts.

Obamacare has increased patients’ deductibles, making it difficult for them to continue visiting their doctors.

McLaren Northern Michigan hospital’s budget was severely affected by lower federal reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare services.

“We still have the same costs of taking care of patients, but it’s hard to keep doing the same things you’re doing if you paid less for the same amount of costs and services you provide- it’s just basic economics,” Zechman told WPBN.

He says it is hard to predict if there will be any more cuts or reductions in the future, but he would not be surprised if nearby hospitals were also forced to lay off their employees.

Via: WFB

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Four of five FCC study authors gave to Obama

A significant problem with the now-suspended Federal Communications Commission plan to have government contractors question journalists about editorial decisions and practices was that it was a partisan exercise. The plan originated among Democrats on the FCC; the commission's two Republican members didn't even learn about it until it was well under way.

There was also a one-sidedness in the research behind the project. The FCC enlisted scholars from two big journalism schools, the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Communication and Democracy, to determine the "critical information needs" about which journalists would be questioned. The study, delivered in July 2012, listed five authors: Ernest J. Wilson III, Carola Weil, and Katya Ognyanova from USC, Lewis Friedland from Wisconsin, and Philip Napoli from Fordham University. (Weil is now with American University.) Four of the five, it turns out, contributed to President Obama's campaigns.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Wilson gave $3,300 to the Obama presidential campaign in 2007 and 2008. Napoli contributed $500 to Obama in 2008. Weil gave $250 in 2012. And Friedland gave $200 in 2008. There are no contributions listed from Ognyanova, who as a post-doctoral fellow led a team of graduate student researchers on the project.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with professors contributing to President Obama, and there's nothing wrong with Democrats exercising control over the FCC when there's a Democrat in the White House. But controversial projects are usually less controversial when they have some bipartisan support; it's often a good idea to have a little diversity of opinion in the mix when decisions are made. But in this case, the newsroom survey appears to have been a one-sided exercise every step of the way.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Obama Froze Biden Out After Gay-Marriage Gaffe

AND THE DOWNSIDE TO THIS IS ??????

Vice President Joe Biden's role in the administration was virtually frozen after he angered President Barack Obama in 2012 by announcing his support of gay marriage while the president was still on record opposing it.

In a profile of the 71-year-old in Politico Magazine, the presumed 2016 presidential hopeful talked about how he had been given "every s*** job in the world" from the start of the Obama presidency, but detailed how relations with the president came to a virtual standstill after the gaffe-prone politician pre-empted Obama's announcement that he had "evolved" on the issue.

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"When the president asked me what portfolio did I want, I said, 'Base it on what you want of me to help you govern,'" Biden said he told Obama.

"'But I want to be the last guy in the room on every major decision … You're the president, I'm not, but if it's my experience you're lookin' for, I want to be the last guy to make the case."

But everything changed in 2012, after Biden announced his approval of gay marriage before the president took a public stand, the Politico report says.

Biden's announcement forced Obama to make his own public statement about gay marriage earlier than he would have liked.

Despite attempts to apologize to Obama that he did not intend to upstage the president on the issue, the president's inner circle suspected otherwise and became increasingly hostile toward him.

Biden started to be excluded from strategic planning meetings, while his schedule of public events was curtailed and in some cases canceled. Aides went so far as to interfere with Biden's staffing decisions, blocking two of his selections for chief of staff, according to the magazine.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Biden's top possible rival for the presidential race, appeared to step into the breach. Clinton, for example, appeared alongside Obama during the president's first television interview of his second term. The Biden team was also disgruntled that the White House didn't strongly refute the rumors that Clinton would be selected to replace Biden. 

Via: Newsmax
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Sack This! An Impossible Task for NFL Refs to Also Serve as Word Police

The N-Word.

The F-word (not the four-letter version, but the six-letter derogatory gay term).

Two words that have no place in public discourse.

And potentially two words with serious consequences if used during games in the National Football League. As you may have heard, the NFL is considering instituting a rule where players would be penalized 15 yards for uttering the aforementioned words on the field.

It’s noble what the NFL is attempting to do here.

It’s also absolutely unenforceable.

Picture this scenario: It’s a Sunday night game between the 49ers and Seahawks in Seattle. As you may have heard, CenturyLink Field is undoubtedly the loudest stadium in the league (which is impressive considering it is an outdoor stadium). So noisy, so difficult to play in for opponents, they retired #12 in honor of the fans (the 12th man). That said, it’s no coincidence the reigning champs are 15-1 at home over the past two seasons.

So it’s a tie game in the 4th quarter. Defensive Player X from San Francisco is running across the field to attempt to tackle running back Player Y of Seattle. But before he gets there, he is chopped-blocked at the knees by Player Z, a pulling lineman for the Seahawks. San Fran Player X feels the block was a cheap shot with intent to hurt him, and calls him the N-word for attempting to do so.

But this all unfolds away from the ball, and the referees are focused on what’s happening around Player Y, the Seattle RB. A ref thinks he hears someone yell the N-word, but isn’t sure due to a deafening crowd that once reached a decibel level of 136 (148 can make an ear rupture). But with more than a few players miked up for NFL Films and NBC, the official needs to do something or be reprimanded by his bosses for missing something that may be on tape.

So…he throws a flag on Player A from San Francisco and assesses a 15-yard penalty for illegal use of language. One problem: Player A wasn’t even involved (Player Z was the guilty party)…he just happened to be close by at the time. But again, with 22 players moving at once and 72,000 fans louder than a jet plane, enforcement is not remotely close to being an exact science.

Player A—a veteran who has built a good reputation in the league and is respected by his teammates and opponents alike—is all the rage the next morning on ESPN and even cable news. In our race-obsessed media, the questions are as predictable as the Jets offense: Is Player A a racist? Should he be fined or suspended for saying such a thing? According to Al Sharpton, that should absolutely be the case.

Via: Mediaite.com

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Federal Court Upholds School Ban on American Flag T-Shirts

Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a California high school’s prohibition on American flag t-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. The case is Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School District, and while it might get the law right, it certainly highlights a worrying trend in American schools: the inability or unwillingness to protect students whose speech is unpopular.

On Cinco de Mayo, May 5, 2010, three students wore American flag t-shirts to Live Oak High School. Live Oak, according to the Ninth Circuit, had a history of gang and racial violence. The students who wore the American flag t-shirts were threatened with physical violence. Rather than discipline the students who made the threats, the school decided to tell the American flag t-shirt-wearing students that they could either turn their shirts inside-out, or go home. Two of the students went home, and the students collectively sued the school district in federal district court, claiming that the school violated their First Amendment rights.

Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of the students’ claim, on the grounds that school officials “anticipated violence or substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities, and their response was tailored to the circumstances.”

In the landmark 1969 case of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the First Amendment right of students to peacefully protest the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school. In a famous passage, the Court opined that neither students nor teachers “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Via: The Foundry

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4TH QUARTER GDP SLASHED 25%

The Commerce Department announced Friday that its revised estimate of GDP growth in the 4th Quarter was revised down to 2.4% annual growth. Initial estimates had put GDP growth at 3.2%. Economists had expected a downward revision to 2.5%, making Friday's report a disappointment. It is a dramatic drop from the 3rd Quarter estimate of 4.1% growth. 

For the full year, the economy grew by a weak 1.9% in 2013. This is down sharply from the 2.8% growth registered in 2012. The downward revisions in the 4th Quarter numbers reflected smaller than estimated increases in personal consumption and private inventory build-ups. 

The markets and many economists continue to expect an acceleration in economic growth in 2014. Recent data, however, counters this sentiment. The economy did seem to pick up steam in the 3rd Quarter last year, but the year ended with a clear deceleration in the economy. 

One surprise in Friday's report was an increase in inflation higher than initial estimated. Prices increased 1.5% in the 4th Quarter, 25% higher than originally reported. Excluding food and energy, prices rose 1.8% in the quarter, compared to a 1.5% increase in the 3rd Quarter. 

Via: Bretibart

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Fed Chairman Yellen backs CBO study on minimum wage job loss

Janet Yellen, the newly-installed head of the Federal Reserve System, isexercising her political independence (she cannot be fired during her five year term as Chairman of the Fed’s Board of Governors) and telling the truth about the new minimum wage proposed by President Obama.  Joseph Lawler reports in the Examiner:

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen lent credence Thursday to a Congressional Budget Office study of the minimum wage that White House economists had criticized for its finding that an increase favored by President Obama would cost 500,000 jobs.

In an unusual criticism of the nonpartisan budget scorekeeper, Jason Furman, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, had responded to the CBO report by directly challenging its estimates of job losses, claiming that they "do not reflect the overall consensus view of economists."

Yellen, who held the same position Furman does under President Bill Clinton, disagreed with that assessment at a SenateBanking Committee hearing.

"CBO is as qualified as anyone to evaluate that literature," Yellen said in response to a question from Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev. "I wouldn’t want to argue with their assessment.”

This is refreshing indeed. Furman’s statement was shocking in its dishonesty. He was pandering to the president at whose pleasure he serves. The Democrats are ginning up a campaign issue and want to pretend that raising the price of something does not cause demand to shrink. That is dishonest.

Via: American Thinker

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Global Ministries of Disinformation confirmed

Cyber-Warriors for Obama Project

It was a year ago this month that I reported information revealed by my source within the Department of Homeland Security about the existence of “cyber warriors” working for the regime of Barack Hussein Obama. The initial report was published on 6 February 2013 titled DHS Insider: Obama’s cyber warriors & preparing for collapse and detailed, according to this source, government operatives working on behalf of Obama.

According to this source, paid operatives began targeting websites, blogs, forums and social media accounts at exactly 7:00 a.m. on January 23, [2013] under an operation called “the Cyber-Warriors for Obama Project.” That report, which was met with a firestorm of skepticism despite the level of detail provided, noted the activation of government shills infiltrating and attacking “problem” web sites and forums, particularly Christian, conservative, “birther” and other similar sites. In one particularly disturbing characterization ostensibly included for motivational purposes, Obama was referred to as the “Pharaoh of the internet.”

Now, over a year later, documents leaked by Edward Snowden and reported by Glenn Greenwald provide hard evidence that “Western governments” are indeed engaged in such activity. In his report dated 24 February 2014, Mr. Greenwald discloses the role ofGCHQ, or Government Communication Headquarters based in the UK, from top secret, classified government documents. These documents describe the methods employed by Western intelligence agencies to “manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction.”¬† In his revealing report based on the Snowden disclosures, Mr. Greenwald explains that the targets of such marginalization are not at the nation-state level, but those who post material online that is contrary to the political interests and agendas of government.

While the revelations focus on the tactics of the UK based GCHQ, it is important to understand that intelligence between the UK and the U.S. is commonly shared to circumvent the laws that restrict U.S. intelligence agencies such as the CIA from operating domestically. The recently released authenticated documentation leaked by Snowden outlines very disturbing and controversial techniques to disseminate deception online, exactly as detailed in my report from a year ago.

Via: Canada Free Press

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