This blog is mainly about the spectacular train wreck at The Sacramento Bee and its parent company, the McClatchy Company. But I also post about current events, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, politics, anything else that grabs my attention. Take a look around this blog, hope you enjoy it.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Saturday November 21 -- Got news or an update?
If you have news or an update, leave it in comments. . . .
23 comments:
Anonymous
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All that health care reform money -for nothing (The American Thinker)
Seinfeld fans should love Harry Reid's health scare plan. Reid wants to spend almost a trillion of your tax dollars over the next decade for ... nothing.
According to reports, Reid's plan would leave 24 million people uninsured in 2019. That is approximately the same number of people that some studies show who are currently uninsured because they can't afford health insurance.
One dirty, big secret that Dr. Reid, Nurse Nancy, and Orderly Obama don't want you to know is that a significant number of uninsured Americans can afford health insurance; they just choose not to purchase it. Many are the 'young invincibles' who don't give health care a first, much less a second, thought. Others are those wealthy and healthy enough that they can self-insure.
SENATE Majority Leader Harry Reid is touting the Senate's latest health-care bill as costing $849 billion over 10 years.
But this uses the same accounting trick as past versions: 99 percent of the costs don't kick in until the fifth year of that "10-year" period.
The true 10-year costs are well over twice what Reid's advertising: $1.8 trillion.
The Democrats cite the bills' projected costs from 2010-19. Yet, as the Congressional Budget Office reports, the bill would cost just $9 billion total from 2010 through 2013 -- versus $147 billion in 2016 alone. In the first 40 percent of what the Democrats are calling the bill's "first 10 years," only 1 percent of its costs would yet have hit.
As the CBO analysis indicates, the bill's real 10-year costs would start in 2014. And in its true first decade (2014 to 2023), the CBO projects the bill's costs to be $1.8 trillion -- double the price Reid is advertising.
And that's even though the CBO optimistically assumes the government-run "public option" wouldn't cost a cent.
Americans Want to Live Longer? How Gauche, Sniffs the New York Times (NewsBusters)
Friday’s front-page “news analysis” by New York Times health care reporter Kevin Sack, “Culture Clash in Medicine,” dealt with two recent recommendations from quasi-government panels on limiting testing for breast cancer and cervical cancer.
The recommendations have caused some outcry as a possible prelude to Obama-care rationing, concerns Sack dismissed as “anger and confusion” and some “political posturing.”
That stance is predictable: Previous front-page Times stories have nudged readers toward rationing with tales of “costly” new heart valves for the "frail" old, "wasteful" medicines and "expensive" new medical procedures that are only worth "a few months" of extra life.
The Times, which editorially supports universal health care coverage, seems to be trying to soften people up into accepting future limits on end-of-life care in the name of reducing national health care costs.
Sack managed to make the desire of Americans to live longer sound gauche, while suggesting that those who fear the recommendations are a harbinger of rationing are confused or just grandstanding against Obama:
“This week, the science of medicine bumped up against the foundations of American medical consumerism: that more is better, that saving a life is worth any sacrifice, that health care is a birthright.”
Krauthammer on Landrieu $100 Million Louisiana Purchase Buyoff: It’s a New Kind of Business as Usual (Newsbusters)
Remember earlier this year when the new era of hope and change was ushered into Washington, D.C. and President Barack Obama made the statement on day one his policies would “represent a clean break from business as usual"?
Not so fast says Charles Krauthammer, columnist for The Washington Post and Fox News regular.
Krauthammer on the Nov. 20broadcast of Fox News “Special Report with Bret Baier” explained that a certain provision put into to the Senate version of health care legislation to favor undecided Democratic senators, specifically Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., represents a different brand of politics from what Obama advertised (emphasis added).
“You asked what [Sen.] Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas will ask for,” Krauthammer said. “Well, after watching Louisiana get $100 million in what have some have called ‘The Louisiana Purchase,’ she ought to ask for $500 million at least.
And that’s because Obama said he would end business as usual in Washington. If you look at the sections, it is 2006 in which the Louisiana money, it looks as if it is provision for all states which have had a proclamation of a disaster area in the last seven years, and then the fine print inside eliminates all the others except Louisiana.
So it’s a new kind of business as usual. I think that Steve [Hayes] is right. There is almost no way imaginable that the vote will fail tomorrow. If it is, it is the ultimate humiliation. It’s the rejection of the debate even before it starts.”
Olivia Newton John Slams New Mammogram Guidelines as 'Troublesome' (Fox News)
In the wake of the new federal recommendations that only women aged 50-74 need routine mammograms and that self examination shouldn't be taught, breast cancer survivor Olivia Newton-John has spoken out that such advice is an absolute “mistake.”
“Having found my lump myself and being persistent in having it looked at I am very for regular self examination and to follow through with regular mammograms and check-ups as part of the triage of taking care of yourself.
The fact that they aren't even advocating even self-exam is really upsetting to me and really troublesome,” Newton John told Tarts on Wednesday.
“I think it's a mistake, so many cancers are not genetic. Mine wasn't and I'm sad to say a lot of my friends have had breast cancer and their's weren't either.
Many have found it themselves or through a mammogram and many were not yet in their 40’s or 50’s. So for me it doesn't seem common sense to be going backwards which is what it seems to be doing.”
The “Grease” beauty said she also can't help but feel the government is sacrificing a woman's health for financial reasons.
Report: 20-somethings can go 2 years between Paps (AP)
WASHINGTON – Most women in their 20s can have a Pap smear every two years instead of annually, say new guidelines that conclude that's enough to catch slow-growing cervical cancer.
First they came for the mammograms, but because I didn’t need a mammogram…
Well, as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says, this is undoubtedly just a coincidence.
There couldn’t possibly be a concerted effort on the part of the federal government to cut some corners to save some healthcare dollars. They would never do that.
Still, won’t an erosion of the trust in our public health officials be another consequence of the nationalizing of the US healthcare system?
Once the government has an incentive to cut costs, who is going to believe their pronouncements on things like mammograms and pap smears?
The public health officials will lose all of their authority. How can we be sure that they are telling us what is best or whether it is just what is the most cost effective?
By the way, didn’t Mr. Obama’s mother, Stanley, did from cervical/uterine cancer? Albeit at age 52.
This Saturday’s Senate vote on National health care for America looks likely to turn into a long, drawn-out bloodbath as all 40 of the Republicans in the chamber have vowed to filibuster the bill.
Even moderate Republican Olympia Snowe has said she will participate in the fillibuster against Obamacare.
Democrats need to only get 60 votes to proceed to debate, where they only need a majority to pass the bill. This will allow Democrat Senators vulnerable in their re-election 2010 bids a John-Kerry-esque “I voted for the bill before I voted against it” line of politicking, where they can vote for the bill first and then against it to pass the legislation into law.
South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint notes that a vote by Democrats to proceed to debate is a vote on the substance of the health care bill itself.
Senate Democrat leader Harry Reid remained “confident” the 2,074-page, US $2.5 trillion health care overhaul will pass.
“The finish line is in sight,” Reid told reporters.
"Obama's Asian Trip: Shame for Accepting Chinese Military Build-up" (Translation from Japan)
"--President Obama finished up an Asian Visit which included him meeting with (General Secretary of the Communist Party and PRC President) Hu Jin Tao to discuss various strategies.
--It is no problem with two giant nations getting together and discussing issues. But the way such cozying up went, it is very unsettling in terms of order in both the Asian Region and in the World for this to proceed to the level that it has, even to the point of having called this a "G-2" Meeting.
--Our big concern is that right in the middle of the huge military building up embarked upon by the PRC, President Obama neither called on restraint in this regard, nor for a clear accounting of what they are precisely building up.
--It is clear from Obama's actions, as well as his speech here in Tokyo, that he has no intent to contain Communist China.
--They can say all they want, for example that this was the US asking for Chinese cooperation in such problem areas as Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in tackling the problems of piracy on the high seas, when everyone knows the way it will be received in China is that it is a tacit green light for them to continue their military arms and power build-up.
--We say that as a result of this, danger will now increase with respect to Chinese territorial assertions, that escalation may well now be brought on by China in turn affecting Southeast Asia and India.
--It is clear that the US intends to push away from the US-Japan military alliance--which has brought peace and stability to the Asian Region--and pursue this course with China. This is serious. This US-China "G-2" movement must not be allowed by Japan (which needs to strengthen US-Japanese alliance) to gain ascendancy."
Adding insult to infamy (Obama trying to block Iran payments for 1983 Beirut barracks bombing) boston.com
On Veterans Day, Christine Devlin stood in the cold in Westwood for the unveiling of a new memorial to local soldiers lost overseas, including her son Michael, one of the 241 servicemen killed in the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983.
Devlin is among 30 Massachusetts relatives of victims of the Beirut attack who have been fighting for more than a decade to get compensation for what many consider the first major terrorist attack against the United States.
After a federal judge ruled in 2007that Iran was liable for $2.65 billion in damages to be shared by 150 families seeking restitution, they believed they were on the cusp of victory.
But now, the Obama administration is going to court to try to block payments from Iranian assets that the families’ lawyers want seized, contending that it would jeopardize sensitive negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program and establish a potentially damaging precedent.
In a little-noticed filing in federal court, the Justice Department is arguing that giving the money to the victims “can have significant, detrimental impact on our foreign relations, as well as the reciprocal treatment of the United States and its extensive overseas property holdings.’’
The Obama administration’s position is a blow to those like Devlin, who is still waiting for some measure of justice for her son, who was 21 when Hezbollah terrorists rammed a suicide truck bomb into the peacekeepers’ headquarters.
“It is offensive that our government - the government that [the Marines] were fighting for, who sent them there - are against us collecting from Iran,’’ Devlin said in an interview this week. “I felt justice was going to be served, but so far it hasn’t.’’
Corruptocrat AG Eric Holder’s conflicted DOJ (Michelle Malkin/Washington Times)
The Obama Justice Department is having problems prosecuting terrorist cases because top department attorneys have conflicts of interest.
According to documents obtained exclusively by The Washington Times, Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, No. 3 official in the Justice Department, had to recuse himself on at least 13 active detainee cases and at least 26 cases listed as either closed or mooted.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, made waves Nov. 18 when he demanded that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. provide a list of all the suspected-terrorist detainee cases from which current Justice Department political appointees have had to recuse themselves. The extent of the conflicts at the department is still unclear.
Mr. Perrelli’s recusals presumably stem from the work that either he or his former firm, Jenner & Block LLP, did on behalf of detainees while Mr. Perrelli served on the firm’s management committee and on its appellate and Supreme Court practice groups. And Mr. Perrelli is just one official; a number of other Justice Department officials apparently did private-sector work on detainee cases.
This is an important topic. Even if each official who did prior work on detainee cases has indeed properly recused himself from those cases while at the Justice Department, there could be such a large number of affected officials that the department’s prevailing ethos could be tilted strongly in the detainees’ favor. Mr. Grassley’s inquiry is pressing because it could ferret out any instance in which a department official should have been recused but wasn’t…
….ile the rest of the list of recusals has yet to be provided to the senator, The Washington Times secured the Perrelli recusal list, which previously had been distributed widely within the Justice Department. Herewith, consider this list of names of detainees whose cases are listed as “active” on the Perrelli recusal list:
Saad Al Qahtani. Mohammed Zahrani. Achraf Salim (”Sultan”) Abdessalam. Abdul Rahman Abdul Abu Ghityh Sulayman. Musaab Omar Al Madhwani. Jawad Jabbar Sadkhan (Al Sahlani). Majid Khan.
(Osama)Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.(Barack Hussein Obama)Goal is bankrupting U.S (CNN)
November 1, 2004 "We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said in the transcript.
White House calls Obama's Asian tour a success (L.A. Times)
Trying to counter perceptions that the trip failed to bring about solid results, advisor David Axelrod says, 'Things don't change overnight.'
Reporting from Seoul - Even before President Obama boarded his home-bound flight for Washington, capping a grueling weeklong Asian tour, the White House was scrambling to combat perceptions that the trip failed to produce concrete results.
Your congressman's padded retirement plan (Washington Examiner)
After serving 18 years in Congress, former Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, a Democrat, will continue his service in a different federal institution -- prison. He was sentenced recently to serve 13 years for bribery.
But his fellow prisoners will have to forgive Jefferson if he grins and whistles as he stamps out license plates.
That's because he is still eligible for a guaranteed $50,000 pension in his first year of retirement, which will increase each year thereafter
CNN.com Doesn't Explicitly Mention Party of Senator Burris (D) Newsbusters (Typical CNN Leftist “journalism”)
An unsigned CNN.com article on Friday noted that the Senate Ethics Committee had reproved Senator Roland Burris “for actions and statements reflecting unfavorably upon the Senate,” but did not directly mention the Illinois senator’s affiliation with the Democratic Party.
The article did mention that Burris was “the only African-American U.S. senator.”
Bring KSM to NYC means the fix is in: he won’t get death penalty but America will be found guilty (The Collins Report)
Here are a few facts we can’t overlook.
*A retired Army lawyer speaking at a TEA Party rally this past week explained the dangers this trail poses to national security. He predicted a “civilian” trial will lead to the exposure of some of America’s most important military secrets and methods of keeping us safe since 9-11.
During the trial of John Walker Lindh he was in charge of a team of military lawyers whose only job was defeating ACLU filings designed to expose America’s secrets.
He confidently predicted this would happen again during this trial, but sadly concluded the military’s lawyers wouldn’t prevail because they’ll be fighting the ACLU Holder and Obama.
*The federal death sentence was reinstated in 1988. According to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project since then there have been NO juries less likely to hand down a death sentence than those in New York City. So far New York’s federal prosecutors have asked their juries to vote for the ultimate penalty for defendants facing capital punishment 19 times. In all but one single instance ( 6%) they voted for life sentences instead. The nationwide average for federal juries voting to impose the death penalty has been 33%.
* Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his gang have already offered to plead guilty provided they are sentenced to death. So why do we need a trial?
*If Holder and Obama really wanted death sentences they’d try this case in the Northern District of Alabama at Birmingham. Only a handful of states currently have more inmates on their death rows.
*As Deputy Attorney General, Eric Holder first did nothing about “prosecuting” the terrorists who attacked the USS Cole killing 17 Sailors on 12 October 2000, then sat quietly as Obama ordered the charges against the bombers be dropped.
Multiple sources are reporting that several employees at washingtonpost.com are losing their jobs as part of the merger of the site with the main Washington Post newsroom.
Several of dot-com's editorial staffers as well as some non-editorial workers are among those who've gotten the ax, according to the sources.
City Desk is not printing names just yet. We've contacted several allegedly dismissed employees but have not yet received direct confirmation from them.
When asked if the Web site has laid off employees, Washington Post spokesperson Kris Coratti responded with this statement: "As part of the work we’re doing to turn around the business that supports our journalism, there were a small number of individual positions eliminated as a result of efficiencies we have found through our new structure and through new technology, and those have taken place both in print and online."
A top Post official cautioned against using the term "layoff" to describe reductions at washingtonpost.com, insisting that any dismissals are "targeted" at duplication of work between the Web site and the newsroom.
Washingtonpost.com is part of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, the Post Co.'s online publishing subsidiary.
Newspapers want enemies, not friends (Buzzmachine)
On today’s On Point, Michael Wolff, Steve Brill, and I talked about Murdoch and Google and the show’s blog quoted me thusly:
But News Corp isn’t the only one making the mistake here. I think the mistake that Google has made in this – and I’m an admirer of Google, I wrote a book to that effect – but I think that Google thought that they could become friends with the newspaper industry.
And the newspaper industry isn’t looking for friends. They’re looking for enemies they can blame for the problems that are actually their own from the last fifteen years of inaction in the face of this dying light. And so it’s impossible for Google to become friends with the newspaper industry.
Breitbart to AG Holder: Investigate ACORN or We’ll Release More Tapes Just Before 2010 Election (biggovernment.com)
Earlier tonight Andrew Breitbart, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles discussed the final chapter of the ACORN L.A. saga [1] on “Hannity,” but more interestingly, Breitbart disclosed where the story goes from here. Transcript (below) starts from 3:50 into the clip:
Breitbart: There’s a lot of hypocrisy and the dust has settled for ACORN and at the end of the day they’ve recognized that Eric Holder, the Attorney General, has not initiated an investigation into ACORN after we now have seven tapes.
There were five initially that came out, ACORN was defunded by the Senate, was defunded by the House, lost it’s link to the Census; while all that damage occurred, Congress didn’t come in to investigate them, obviously not the Attorney General’s office, and they’ve now realized let’s get back into business because they realized that the dust settled and they were not being investigated, it was Hannah, James, and me who were being investigated, that’s why we’ve been forced to offer this latest tape.
Hannity: Are you saying, Andrew, that there are more tapes?
A failed presidency is now unavoidable (The American Thinker)
For the past couple of months I have worried about the risks of a failed presidency. No one should want this, regardless of party affiliation.
It is harmful and dangerous to our economy and country. However, it appears obvious to me that the royal regime known as Obama has ended.
Seth Leibsohn writing in the National Review summarized it this way:
"This is reminiscent of the Jimmy Carter years - the last time the U.S. was seen as weak - unable to move and coax other countries, unable to reassure dependent allies, unable to have the respect of the world and, of course, unable to move the mullocracy of Iran."
Even the liberal media are beginning to question the effectiveness of the President.
The media, in full Camelot mode, are slow to react and often lag what the populace started to recognize months ago. Quotes like these, however, suggest they are not far behind.
Global Warming Bombshell (In which the Global Warming hoax is expposed) Power Line
The biggest news story of the day is one that has barely begun to break and will continue to reverberate for months or years to come.
Someone hacked into a computer at the University of East Anglia's Hadley Climatic Research Centre, one of the main centers of anthropogenic global warming research.
The hacker downloaded 62 megabytes of data from the server, consisting of around 1,000 emails and a variety of other documents.
He uploaded them to an FTP server, where they were available to the public, apparently, for only a few hours. The event is described (Hadley CRU hacked with release of hundreds of docs and emails)
Before the documents disappeared from that location, several people had downloaded them and posted them in other locations.
I downloaded all of the material earlier today and have begun to review it. The emails are stunning.
They are authored by many of the leading figures in the global warming movement: Michael Mann, James Hansen, Phil Jones, Keith Briffa, Stephen Schneider, and others. They are remarkably candid; these individuals talk to each other with the knowledge that they are among friends.
Al Gore Proposes Using Supercomputer Projections to Scare People on Global Warming
ManBearPig!
A funny thing happened on the road to global warming. Mother Nature is simply not cooperating.
Germany's Der Spiegel noted this "problem" for global warming alarmists yesterday:
Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years.
Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.
...The Earth's average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year.
No matter how Obama lies and says he's fixed his "Health Care Reform" abomination, it shouldn't be accepted under any circumstances. Because Obama is a radical left-wing racist it is a fact that the new health care system will be essentially staffed through extreme affirmative action both in the system itself and in the medical schools. That means that we will be "cared for" by low-IQ, third-world savages. Health care will be a huge social engineering and income redistribution program that will put quality health care as its last priority. The government would be incompetent to provide quality health care even if that was their purpose (which it is not). Two of the most important goals of "Health Care Reform" is confiscating guns and empowering the unions. Two horrible developments. They also want to lever more money out of the minority of citizens that are now actually productive so they can postpone totally bankrupting the country.
And since our traitorous government, most specifically the thuggish IRS, will be the ones deciding who has proper insurance outside the system and who doesn't, most of us will be forced to enroll in Obama's horror show. There is no way that that lying tyrant will be content to allow private health insurance to exist at all. And it will not lower costs. The United States government is officially bankrupt and no amount of lying will change that. That means the taxpayer will suffer tremendously in much higher taxes, inflation, transfers to those who can't pay and any number of other economic distortions added to the ones government has already caused (the diversity housing bubble for instance and the total destruction of our currency and the industrial sector.) The health care obamination combined with cap and trade will complete the economic destruction of the United States. Of course that is one of Obama's primary goals.
23 comments:
All that health care reform money -for nothing (The American Thinker)
Seinfeld fans should love Harry Reid's health scare plan. Reid wants to spend almost a trillion of your tax dollars over the next decade for ... nothing.
According to reports, Reid's plan would leave 24 million people uninsured in 2019. That is approximately the same number of people that some studies show who are currently uninsured because they can't afford health insurance.
One dirty, big secret that Dr. Reid, Nurse Nancy, and Orderly Obama don't want you to know is that a significant number of uninsured Americans can afford health insurance; they just choose not to purchase it. Many are the 'young invincibles' who don't give health care a first, much less a second, thought. Others are those wealthy and healthy enough that they can self-insure.
Another set of cooked books(NY Post)
SENATE Majority Leader Harry Reid is touting the Senate's latest health-care bill as costing $849 billion over 10 years.
But this uses the same accounting trick as past versions: 99 percent of the costs don't kick in until the fifth year of that "10-year" period.
The true 10-year costs are well over twice what Reid's advertising: $1.8 trillion.
The Democrats cite the bills' projected costs from 2010-19. Yet, as the Congressional Budget Office reports, the bill would cost just $9 billion total from 2010 through 2013 -- versus $147 billion in 2016 alone. In the first 40 percent of what the Democrats are calling the bill's "first 10 years," only 1 percent of its costs would yet have hit.
As the CBO analysis indicates, the bill's real 10-year costs would start in 2014. And in its true first decade (2014 to 2023), the CBO projects the bill's costs to be $1.8 trillion -- double the price Reid is advertising.
And that's even though the CBO optimistically assumes the government-run "public option" wouldn't cost a cent.
Americans Want to Live Longer? How Gauche, Sniffs the New York Times (NewsBusters)
Friday’s front-page “news analysis” by New York Times health care reporter Kevin Sack, “Culture Clash in Medicine,” dealt with two recent recommendations from quasi-government panels on limiting testing for breast cancer and cervical cancer.
The recommendations have caused some outcry as a possible prelude to Obama-care rationing, concerns Sack dismissed as “anger and confusion” and some “political posturing.”
That stance is predictable: Previous front-page Times stories have nudged readers toward rationing with tales of “costly” new heart valves for the "frail" old, "wasteful" medicines and "expensive" new medical procedures that are only worth "a few months" of extra life.
The Times, which editorially supports universal health care coverage, seems to be trying to soften people up into accepting future limits on end-of-life care in the name of reducing national health care costs.
Sack managed to make the desire of Americans to live longer sound gauche, while suggesting that those who fear the recommendations are a harbinger of rationing are confused or just grandstanding against Obama:
“This week, the science of medicine bumped up against the foundations of American medical consumerism: that more is better, that saving a life is worth any sacrifice, that health care is a birthright.”
Full List of Tax Hikes In Senate Democrat Health Bill
Americans for Tax Reform
Individual Mandate Tax (Page 324/Sec. 1501/$8 bil)
Employer Mandate Tax (Page 348/Sec. 1513/$28 bil)
Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans (Page 1979/Sec. 9001/$149.1 bil)
Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2 (Page 1996/Sec. 9002/Min$)
Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 1997/Sec. 9003/$5 bil)
HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike (Page 1998/Sec. 9004/$1.3 bil)
FSA Cap (Page 1999/Sec. 9005/$14.6 bil)
Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 1999/Sec. 9006/$17.1 bil)
Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals (page 2001/Sec. 9007/Min$)
Tax on Innovator Drug Companies (Page 2010/Sec. 9008/ $22.2 bil)
Tax of Medical Device Manufacturers (Page 2020/Sec. 9009/$19.3 bil)
Tax on Health Insurers (Page 2026/Sec. 9010/$60.4 bil)
Eliminate tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with
Medicare Part D (Page 2034/Sec. 9012/$5.4 bil)
Raise “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deduction from 7.5% to 10%of AGI (Page 2034/Sec. 9013/$15.2 bil)
$500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives (Page 2035/Sec. 9014/$0.6 bil)
Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax (Page 2040/Sec. 9015/$53.8 bil)
Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike (Page 2044/Sec. 9016/$0.4 bil)
Tax on Cosmetic Medical Procedures (Page 2045/Sec. 9017/$5.8 bil)
Krauthammer on Landrieu $100 Million Louisiana Purchase Buyoff: It’s a New Kind of Business as Usual (Newsbusters)
Remember earlier this year when the new era of hope and change was ushered into Washington, D.C. and President Barack Obama made the statement on day one his policies would “represent a clean break from business as usual"?
Not so fast says Charles Krauthammer, columnist for The Washington Post and Fox News regular.
Krauthammer on the Nov. 20broadcast of Fox News “Special Report with Bret Baier” explained that a certain provision put into to the Senate version of health care legislation to favor undecided Democratic senators, specifically Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., represents a different brand of politics from what Obama advertised (emphasis added).
“You asked what [Sen.] Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas will ask for,” Krauthammer said. “Well, after watching Louisiana get $100 million in what have some have called ‘The Louisiana Purchase,’ she ought to ask for $500 million at least.
And that’s because Obama said he would end business as usual in Washington. If you look at the sections, it is 2006 in which the Louisiana money, it looks as if it is provision for all states which have had a proclamation of a disaster area in the last seven years, and then the fine print inside eliminates all the others except Louisiana.
So it’s a new kind of business as usual. I think that Steve [Hayes] is right. There is almost no way imaginable that the vote will fail tomorrow. If it is, it is the ultimate humiliation. It’s the rejection of the debate even before it starts.”
Olivia Newton John Slams New Mammogram Guidelines as 'Troublesome' (Fox News)
In the wake of the new federal recommendations that only women aged 50-74 need routine mammograms and that self examination shouldn't be taught, breast cancer survivor Olivia Newton-John has spoken out that such advice is an absolute “mistake.”
“Having found my lump myself and being persistent in having it looked at I am very for regular self examination and to follow through with regular mammograms and check-ups as part of the triage of taking care of yourself.
The fact that they aren't even advocating even self-exam is really upsetting to me and really troublesome,” Newton John told Tarts on Wednesday.
“I think it's a mistake, so many cancers are not genetic. Mine wasn't and I'm sad to say a lot of my friends have had breast cancer and their's weren't either.
Many have found it themselves or through a mammogram and many were not yet in their 40’s or 50’s.
So for me it doesn't seem common sense to be going backwards which is what it seems to be doing.”
The “Grease” beauty said she also can't help but feel the government is sacrificing a woman's health for financial reasons.
Report: 20-somethings can go 2 years between Paps (AP)
WASHINGTON – Most women in their 20s can have a Pap smear every two years instead of annually, say new guidelines that conclude that's enough to catch slow-growing cervical cancer.
First they came for the mammograms, but because I didn’t need a mammogram…
Well, as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says, this is undoubtedly just a coincidence.
There couldn’t possibly be a concerted effort on the part of the federal government to cut some corners to save some healthcare dollars. They would never do that.
Still, won’t an erosion of the trust in our public health officials be another consequence of the nationalizing of the US healthcare system?
Once the government has an incentive to cut costs, who is going to believe their pronouncements on things like mammograms and pap smears?
The public health officials will lose all of their authority. How can we be sure that they are telling us what is best or whether it is just what is the most cost effective?
By the way, didn’t Mr. Obama’s mother, Stanley, did from cervical/uterine cancer? Albeit at age 52.
All 40 GOP Senators To Filibuster Obamacare
This Saturday’s Senate vote on National health care for America looks likely to turn into a long, drawn-out bloodbath as all 40 of the Republicans in the chamber have vowed to filibuster the bill.
Even moderate Republican Olympia Snowe has said she will participate in the fillibuster against Obamacare.
Democrats need to only get 60 votes to proceed to debate, where they only need a majority to pass the bill. This will allow Democrat Senators vulnerable in their re-election 2010 bids a John-Kerry-esque “I voted for the bill before I voted against it” line of politicking, where they can vote for the bill first and then against it to pass the legislation into law.
South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint notes that a vote by Democrats to proceed to debate is a vote on the substance of the health care bill itself.
Senate Democrat leader Harry Reid remained “confident” the 2,074-page, US $2.5 trillion health care overhaul will pass.
“The finish line is in sight,” Reid told reporters.
"Obama's Asian Trip: Shame for Accepting Chinese Military Build-up" (Translation from Japan)
"--President Obama finished up an Asian Visit which included him meeting with (General Secretary of the Communist Party and PRC President) Hu Jin Tao to discuss various strategies.
--It is no problem with two giant nations getting together and discussing issues. But the way such cozying up went, it is very unsettling in terms of order in both the Asian Region and in the World for this to proceed to the level that it has, even to the point of having called this a "G-2" Meeting.
--Our big concern is that right in the middle of the huge military building up embarked upon by the PRC, President Obama neither called on restraint in this regard, nor for a clear accounting of what they are precisely building up.
--It is clear from Obama's actions, as well as his speech here in Tokyo, that he has no intent to contain Communist China.
--They can say all they want, for example that this was the US asking for Chinese cooperation in such problem areas as Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in tackling the problems of piracy on the high seas, when everyone knows the way it will be received in China is that it is a tacit green light for them to continue their military arms and power build-up.
--We say that as a result of this, danger will now increase with respect to Chinese territorial assertions, that escalation may well now be brought on by China in turn affecting Southeast Asia and India.
--It is clear that the US intends to push away from the US-Japan military alliance--which has brought peace and stability to the Asian Region--and pursue this course with China. This is serious. This US-China "G-2" movement must not be allowed by Japan (which needs to strengthen US-Japanese alliance) to gain ascendancy."
Adding insult to infamy (Obama trying to block Iran payments for 1983 Beirut barracks bombing)
boston.com
On Veterans Day, Christine Devlin stood in the cold in Westwood for the unveiling of a new memorial to local soldiers lost overseas, including her son Michael, one of the 241 servicemen killed in the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983.
Devlin is among 30 Massachusetts relatives of victims of the Beirut attack who have been fighting for more than a decade to get compensation for what many consider the first major terrorist attack against the United States.
After a federal judge ruled in 2007that Iran was liable for $2.65 billion in damages to be shared by 150 families seeking restitution, they believed they were on the cusp of victory.
But now, the Obama administration is going to court to try to block payments from Iranian assets that the families’ lawyers want seized, contending that it would jeopardize sensitive negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program and establish a potentially damaging precedent.
In a little-noticed filing in federal court, the Justice Department is arguing that giving the money to the victims “can have significant, detrimental impact on our foreign relations, as well as the reciprocal treatment of the United States and its extensive overseas property holdings.’’
The Obama administration’s position is a blow to those like Devlin, who is still waiting for some measure of justice for her son, who was 21 when Hezbollah terrorists rammed a suicide truck bomb into the peacekeepers’ headquarters.
“It is offensive that our government - the government that [the Marines] were fighting for, who sent them there - are against us collecting from Iran,’’ Devlin said in an interview this week. “I felt justice was going to be served, but so far it hasn’t.’’
Corruptocrat AG Eric Holder’s conflicted DOJ (Michelle Malkin/Washington Times)
The Obama Justice Department is having problems prosecuting terrorist cases because top department attorneys have conflicts of interest.
According to documents obtained exclusively by The Washington Times, Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, No. 3 official in the Justice Department, had to recuse himself on at least 13 active detainee cases and at least 26 cases listed as either closed or mooted.
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, made waves Nov. 18 when he demanded that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. provide a list of all the suspected-terrorist detainee cases from which current Justice Department political appointees have had to recuse themselves. The extent of the conflicts at the department is still unclear.
Mr. Perrelli’s recusals presumably stem from the work that either he or his former firm, Jenner & Block LLP, did on behalf of detainees while Mr. Perrelli served on the firm’s management committee and on its appellate and Supreme Court practice groups. And Mr. Perrelli is just one official; a number of other Justice Department officials apparently did private-sector work on detainee cases.
This is an important topic. Even if each official who did prior work on detainee cases has indeed properly recused himself from those cases while at the Justice Department, there could be such a large number of affected officials that the department’s prevailing ethos could be tilted strongly in the detainees’ favor. Mr. Grassley’s inquiry is pressing because it could ferret out any instance in which a department official should have been recused but wasn’t…
….ile the rest of the list of recusals has yet to be provided to the senator, The Washington Times secured the Perrelli recusal list, which previously had been distributed widely within the Justice Department. Herewith, consider this list of names of detainees whose cases are listed as “active” on the Perrelli recusal list:
Saad Al Qahtani. Mohammed Zahrani. Achraf Salim (”Sultan”) Abdessalam. Abdul Rahman Abdul Abu Ghityh Sulayman. Musaab Omar Al Madhwani. Jawad Jabbar Sadkhan (Al Sahlani). Majid Khan.
(Osama)Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.(Barack Hussein Obama)Goal is bankrupting U.S (CNN)
November 1, 2004 "We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said in the transcript.
White House calls Obama's Asian tour a success (L.A. Times)
Trying to counter perceptions that the trip failed to bring about solid results, advisor David Axelrod says, 'Things don't change overnight.'
Reporting from Seoul - Even before President Obama boarded his home-bound flight for Washington, capping a grueling weeklong Asian tour, the White House was scrambling to combat perceptions that the trip failed to produce concrete results.
Your congressman's padded retirement plan (Washington Examiner)
After serving 18 years in Congress, former Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, a Democrat, will continue his service in a different federal institution -- prison. He was sentenced recently to serve 13 years for bribery.
But his fellow prisoners will have to forgive Jefferson if he grins and whistles as he stamps out license plates.
That's because he is still eligible for a guaranteed $50,000 pension in his first year of retirement, which will increase each year thereafter
CNN.com Doesn't Explicitly Mention Party of Senator Burris (D) Newsbusters (Typical CNN Leftist “journalism”)
An unsigned CNN.com article on Friday noted that the Senate Ethics Committee had reproved Senator Roland Burris “for actions and statements reflecting unfavorably upon the Senate,” but did not directly mention the Illinois senator’s affiliation with the Democratic Party.
The article did mention that Burris was “the only African-American U.S. senator.”
Bring KSM to NYC means the fix is in: he won’t get death penalty but America will be found guilty (The Collins Report)
Here are a few facts we can’t overlook.
*A retired Army lawyer speaking at a TEA Party rally this past week explained the dangers this trail poses to national security. He predicted a “civilian” trial will lead to the exposure of some of America’s most important military secrets and methods of keeping us safe since 9-11.
During the trial of John Walker Lindh he was in charge of a team of military lawyers whose only job was defeating ACLU filings designed to expose America’s secrets.
He confidently predicted this would happen again during this trial, but sadly concluded the military’s lawyers wouldn’t prevail because they’ll be fighting the ACLU Holder and Obama.
*The federal death sentence was reinstated in 1988. According to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project since then there have been NO juries less likely to hand down a death sentence than those in New York City. So far New York’s federal prosecutors have asked their juries to vote for the ultimate penalty for defendants facing capital punishment 19 times. In all but one single instance ( 6%) they voted for life sentences instead. The nationwide average for federal juries voting to impose the death penalty has been 33%.
* Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his gang have already offered to plead guilty provided they are sentenced to death. So why do we need a trial?
*If Holder and Obama really wanted death sentences they’d try this case in the Northern District of Alabama at Birmingham. Only a handful of states currently have more inmates on their death rows.
*As Deputy Attorney General, Eric Holder first did nothing about “prosecuting” the terrorists who attacked the USS Cole killing 17 Sailors on 12 October 2000, then sat quietly as Obama ordered the charges against the bombers be dropped.
Reported Dismissals at Washington Post Web Site
Multiple sources are reporting that several employees at washingtonpost.com are losing their jobs as part of the merger of the site with the main Washington Post newsroom.
Several of dot-com's editorial staffers as well as some non-editorial workers are among those who've gotten the ax, according to the sources.
City Desk is not printing names just yet. We've contacted several allegedly dismissed employees but have not yet received direct confirmation from them.
When asked if the Web site has laid off employees, Washington Post spokesperson Kris Coratti responded with this statement: "As part of the work we’re doing to turn around the business that supports our journalism, there were a small number of individual positions eliminated as a result of efficiencies we have found through our new structure and through new technology, and those have taken place both in print and online."
A top Post official cautioned against using the term "layoff" to describe reductions at washingtonpost.com, insisting that any dismissals are "targeted" at duplication of work between the Web site and the newsroom.
Washingtonpost.com is part of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, the Post Co.'s online publishing subsidiary.
Newspapers want enemies, not friends (Buzzmachine)
On today’s On Point, Michael Wolff, Steve Brill, and I talked about Murdoch and Google and the show’s blog quoted me thusly:
But News Corp isn’t the only one making the mistake here. I think the mistake that Google has made in this – and I’m an admirer of Google, I wrote a book to that effect – but I think that Google thought that they could become friends with the newspaper industry.
And the newspaper industry isn’t looking for friends. They’re looking for enemies they can blame for the problems that are actually their own from the last fifteen years of inaction in the face of this dying light. And so it’s impossible for Google to become friends with the newspaper industry.
Breitbart to AG Holder: Investigate ACORN or We’ll Release More Tapes Just Before 2010 Election (biggovernment.com)
Earlier tonight Andrew Breitbart, James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles discussed the final chapter of the ACORN L.A. saga [1] on “Hannity,” but more interestingly, Breitbart disclosed where the story goes from here. Transcript (below) starts from 3:50 into the clip:
Breitbart: There’s a lot of hypocrisy and the dust has settled for ACORN and at the end of the day they’ve recognized that Eric Holder, the Attorney General, has not initiated an investigation into ACORN after we now have seven tapes.
There were five initially that came out, ACORN was defunded by the Senate, was defunded by the House, lost it’s link to the Census; while all that damage occurred, Congress didn’t come in to investigate them, obviously not the Attorney General’s office, and they’ve now realized let’s get back into business because they realized that the dust settled and they were not being investigated, it was Hannah, James, and me who were being investigated, that’s why we’ve been forced to offer this latest tape.
Hannity: Are you saying, Andrew, that there are more tapes?
Breitbart: Oh my goodness there are!
A failed presidency is now unavoidable (The American Thinker)
For the past couple of months I have worried about the risks of a failed presidency. No one should want this, regardless of party affiliation.
It is harmful and dangerous to our economy and country. However, it appears obvious to me that the royal regime known as Obama has ended.
Seth Leibsohn writing in the National Review summarized it this way:
"This is reminiscent of the Jimmy Carter years - the last time the U.S. was seen as weak - unable to move and coax other countries, unable to reassure dependent allies, unable to have the respect of the world and, of course, unable to move the mullocracy of Iran."
Even the liberal media are beginning to question the effectiveness of the President.
The media, in full Camelot mode, are slow to react and often lag what the populace started to recognize months ago. Quotes like these, however, suggest they are not far behind.
Global Warming Bombshell (In which the Global Warming hoax is expposed) Power Line
The biggest news story of the day is one that has barely begun to break and will continue to reverberate for months or years to come.
Someone hacked into a computer at the University of East Anglia's Hadley Climatic Research Centre, one of the main centers of anthropogenic global warming research.
The hacker downloaded 62 megabytes of data from the server, consisting of around 1,000 emails and a variety of other documents.
He uploaded them to an FTP server, where they were available to the public, apparently, for only a few hours. The event is described (Hadley CRU hacked with release of hundreds of docs and emails)
Before the documents disappeared from that location, several people had downloaded them and posted them in other locations.
I downloaded all of the material earlier today and have begun to review it. The emails are stunning.
They are authored by many of the leading figures in the global warming movement: Michael Mann, James Hansen, Phil Jones, Keith Briffa, Stephen Schneider, and others. They are remarkably candid; these individuals talk to each other with the knowledge that they are among friends.
Al Gore Proposes Using Supercomputer Projections to Scare People on Global Warming
ManBearPig!
A funny thing happened on the road to global warming. Mother Nature is simply not cooperating.
Germany's Der Spiegel noted this "problem" for global warming alarmists yesterday:
Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years.
Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.
...The Earth's average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year.
No matter how Obama lies and says he's fixed his "Health Care Reform" abomination, it shouldn't be accepted under any circumstances. Because Obama is a radical left-wing racist it is a fact that the new health care system will be essentially staffed through extreme affirmative action both in the system itself and in the medical schools. That means that we will be "cared for" by low-IQ, third-world savages. Health care will be a huge social engineering and income redistribution program that will put quality health care as its last priority. The government would be incompetent to provide quality health care even if that was their purpose (which it is not). Two of the most important goals of "Health Care Reform" is confiscating guns and empowering the unions. Two horrible developments. They also want to lever more money out of the minority of citizens that are now actually productive so they can postpone totally bankrupting the country.
And since our traitorous government, most specifically the thuggish IRS, will be the ones deciding who has proper insurance outside the system and who doesn't, most of us will be forced to enroll in Obama's horror show. There is no way that that lying tyrant will be content to allow private health insurance to exist at all. And it will not lower costs. The United States government is officially bankrupt and no amount of lying will change that. That means the taxpayer will suffer tremendously in much higher taxes, inflation, transfers to those who can't pay and any number of other economic distortions added to the ones government has already caused (the diversity housing bubble for instance and the total destruction of our currency and the industrial sector.) The health care obamination combined with cap and trade will complete the economic destruction of the United States. Of course that is one of Obama's primary goals.
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