Want the facts on Illegal immigration – the real numbers and details. Have a gander at the pdf listed below.
American Thinker Blog: The facts on illegal immigration
Clarice Feldman
As the rhetoric on illegal aliens residing in the U.S. heats up, it would be nice to have some reliable facts with which to work. The Congressional Research Service has put them together for us--the numbers, areas of residence, time of arrival, participation in the work force--all in one tightly written pdf file.
Whistling past the death panel
April 29, 2010 Posted by Paul at 10:29 PM
President Obama has selected Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Berwick is a Harvard professor, a pediatrician, and the CEO of a nonprofit that, according to its website, has a staff of over 100 people. These seem like dubious qualifications to head a massive organization with a budget greater than that of the Department of Defense.
As Jeffrey Anderson explains, however, Dr. Berwick is a perfect pick for Obama. For like Obama, Berwick believes that our health-care system should be run through Washington, and that the bureaucracy should exercise a strong degree of control over questions of life and death.
Costly IRS Mandate Slipped into Health Bill | Cato @ Liberty
Posted by Chris Edwards
Most people know about the individual mandate in the new health care bill, but the bill contained another mandate that could be far more costly.
A few wording changes to the tax code’s section 6041 regarding 1099 reporting were slipped into the 2000-page health legislation. The changes will force millions of businesses to issue hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of additional IRS Form 1099s every year. It appears to be a costly, anti-business nightmare.
What it looks like when a government owned company talks to it’s shareholders the way it talks to voters.
Still Government Motors - Forbes.com
Shikha Dalmia, 04.23.10, 03:40 PM EDTGM is paying back Uncle Sam to shake him down for more money.
GM CEO Ed Whitacre announced in a Wall Street Journalcolumn Wednesday that his company has paid back its government bailout
loan "in full, with interest, years ahead of schedule." He is even running TV ads on all major networks to that effect--a needless expense given that a credulous media is only too happy to parrot his claims for free. Detroit Free Press' Mike Thompson, for example, advises bailout proponents to start "warming up their vocal chords" to jeer their opponents with chants of "I told you so."
But before belting out their victory aria, GM-boosters ought to hear the whole story--not just the fairytale version about Government Motors' grand comeback that Mr. Whitacre is feeding them.
What Lies Beneath
By The Prowler on 4.26.10 @ 6:09AM
OFFICE POLITICS
The economic report released last week by Health and Human Services, which indicated that President Barack Obama's health care "reform" law would actually increase the cost of health care and impose higher costs on consumers, had been submitted to the office of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius more than a week before the Congressional votes on the bill, according to career HHS sources, who added that Sebelius's staff refused to review the document before the vote was taken.
04/27/10 filed
by Joyce Russell
An unusually crowded field of candidates is vying for the Republican nomination in Iowa�s third congressional district. Seven men are competing to take on incumbent Leonard Boswell in the general election. That�s causing headaches when it comes to holding candidate forums. (3:25)
Isn’t it interesting that members of the Obama administration feel so secure telling their racist and anti-Semitic jokes? And the amount of laughter in the background. Hope and Change, hope and change.
Jones Cracks Greedy Jew Joke During Speech (Video)
Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, April 26, 2010, 4:52 AM
Obama’s National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones Ret. cracked a greedy Jew joke during a key note speech at a Washington Institute For Near East Policy last week. The administration reportedly deleted all references to the joke afterwards, but fortunately CSPAN cameras were there and apparently caught it.
So did Yid With Lid:
The joke was scrubbed from the official transcript. Yid with Lid reported:
Was the Joke Anti-Semitic? Well, the White House must have thought so. The White House transcript sent to reporters after the event conveniently began a couple of minutes into the speech. The video of the event posted on the Washington Institute Web site started right after the Joke, you can even hear the end of the laughter. Its interesting that the same President that see racism in the legitimate actions of the Cambridge Police and the State of Arizona, hides the anti-Semitic prose of its National Security Adviser.
Hummmmm – seems like I heard the Republicans saying exactly what this new study says.
Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, April 23, 2010, 10:33 PM
The federal government released a new report on the cost of Obamacare and the results are troubling. The report comes from actuaries from Medicare and Medicaid. Medical costs will skyrocket rising $389 billion 10 years. 14 million will lose employer-based coverage. Millions will be left without insurance. And millions more will be may be dumped into the already overwhelmed Medicaid system. 4 million American families will be hit with tax penalties under this new law.
FOXNews.com - Report: Health Overhaul Will Increase Nation's Tab
Associated Press
A report by economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department said the new health care law will expand insurance but won't reduce runaway costs
AP
Mar. 30: President Barack Obama shakes hands after signing the
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act in Alexandria, Va.
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law will increase the nation's health care tab instead of bringing costs down, government economic forecasters concluded Thursday in a sobering assessment of the sweeping legislation.
A report by economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department said the health care remake will achieve Obama's aim of expanding health insurance -- adding 34 million Americans to the coverage rolls.
But the analysis also found that the law falls short of the president's twin goal of controlling runaway costs, raising projected spending by about 1 percent over 10 years. That increase could get bigger, however, since the report also warned that Medicare cuts in the law may be unrealistic and unsustainable, forcing lawmakers to roll them back.
GM repays loan to US…actually, not really | Radio Vice Online
April 22, 2010 at 3:41 pm by SoundOffSister
It was with great fanfare yesterday that General Motors announced that it was repaying some $4.7 billion of $6.7 billion in loans it received from the federal government. And, with even bigger fanfare, it was announced that this partial repayment was being made some five years earlier than expected.
Too good to be true? Well, it is.
Hope and change.
Wynn considers moving company headquarters to Macau - News - ReviewJournal.com
By HOWARD STUTZ
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNALWynn Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn told cable business network CNBC he was considering moving the company's corporate headquarters from Las Vegas to Macau.
Wynn is in Macau for today's opening of the $600 million Encore at Wynn Macau, a 414-room, all-suite expansion to Wynn Macau, the company's Chinese casino.
Wynn granted a series of media interviews in Macau as a run-up to Encore's opening. He didn't provide any details on the possible headquarters shift, saying only that he is considering the idea.
In a subsequent interview with Bloomberg News, Wynn was critical of the economic policies of President Barack Obama.
"The governmental policies in the United States of America are a damper, a wet blanket," Wynn said in a separate interview aired today on Bloomberg Television. "They retard investment, they retard job formation, they retard the creation of a better life for the citizens in spite of the rhetoric of the president."
Wynn said he was concentrating his efforts on Macau and would skip potential opportunities in Las Vegas.
"I don't think the Las Vegas market at the moment beckons a large investment," Wynn said. "The economic outlook in the United States, the policies of this administration, which do not favor job formation, do not encourage investment at all."
Senate Bill Sets a Plan to Regulate Premiums - NYTimes.com
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: April 20, 2010
WASHINGTON — Fearing that health insurance premiums may shoot up in the next few years, Senate Democrats laid a foundation on Tuesday for federal regulation of rates, four weeks after President Obama signed a law intended to rein in soaring health costs.
After a hearing on the issue, the chairman of the Senate health committee, Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, said he intended to move this year on legislation that would “provide an important check on unjustified premiums.”
American Thinker: The President Who Won't Grow Up
Everything I need to know about Barack Obama I learned as a Cub Scout den leader.
Last week I watched an American president and a Russian leader sign a START treaty. I almost checked the calendar, wondering if I'd been transported back to 1980. In news stories of the summit I found a link to an article Barack Obama had written in 1983 while at Columbia University titled "Breaking the War Mentality." Back then, Obama was firmly in the nuclear freeze camp. It's true that many of us held views as college students that seem quaint and naïve after two or three decades. But compare the (nearly incomprehensible) writing of the 22-year-old Obama to the news reports last week. Incredibly, Obama's worldview has not changed. The Soviet Union is kaput, he is the leader of the free world, and he's still thinking the same way. He's the president who won't grow up.
I am always surprised when libs meet the “wall” that is reality. Obama has never had a policy about a nuclear Iran. What he did have was infinite confidence in his ability to talk Iran off the ledge. Of course, it never occurred to him that they were dedicated to national suicide. The world will pay the price for this man’s hubris and ignorance.
Gates Says U.S. Lacks Policy to Curb Iran’s Nuclear Drive - NYTimes.com
By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER
Published: April 17, 2010
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document.
I think the danger revolves more around deciding who to fund and who not to fund. All doctors will now be dependent on the government for loans, as are engineers, scientists, MBA candidates – everyone. What better way to control who advances in society and who does not.
by Carl Horowitz
America’s colleges and universities might not qualify as bailout material, but the nation should get ready for what amounts to a federal takeover of higher education financing. Legislation signed March 30 by President Barack Obama practically seals the deal. And despite the administration’s claims to the contrary, taxpayers may find the transition exceedingly expensive.
One more report warning of the problem with state sponsored pensions. This seems to be another debt bomb that everyone is consiously ignoring. Tick – Tock, Tick – Tock!
Please, read the whole thing.
Civic Report 61 | UNDERFUNDED TEACHER PENSION PLANS: It’s Worse Than You Think
Josh Barro, Walter B. Wriston Fellow, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Stuart Buck, Distinguished Doctoral Fellow, Department of Education Reform, University of ArkansasThis report was co-sponsored by the Foundation for Educational Choice
SUMMARY
Teacher pension funding gaps are three times greater than what states report, states a new Manhattan Institute/Foundation for Educational Choice study. Authors Josh Barro and Stuart Buck reveal the major disparity between what states report and the true value of unfunded liabilities for teacher pensions. These liabilities for all 50 states now total almost $1 trillion—an unfunded burden that states must pay over time at taxpayer expense.
To all the other fiscal travails facing this country’s states and largest cities, now add their pension obligations, which are far greater than they may realize or are willing to admit. This paper focuses on the crisis in funding teachers’ pensions, because education is often the largest program area in state budgets, making it an obvious target for cuts.
Although it is generally acknowledged that education is the foundation of every modern society’s future prosperity, schools unfortunately will have to compete with retirees for scarce dollars. This competition is uneven, because retirees have a legal claim on promised pension benefits that supersedes schools’ budgetary needs. Consequently, Americans can look forward to higher taxes and cuts in services, resulting in fewer teachers, bigger classes, and facilities that are allowed to deteriorate. In several states, these developments have already arrived.
The crux of the problem is the gap between assets and liabilities affecting the fifty-nine pension funds that cover most public school teachers in America. Some of these are general state-employee pension funds, while others cover only teachers.
Obama 'amused' by Tea Party rallies - TheHill.com
By Sam Youngman - 04/15/10 08:18 PM ET
President Barack Obama struck a hyperpartisan note Thursday, telling Democrats that he was "amused" by the Tax Day Tea Party rallies.
Obama, addressing a Democratic National Committee (DNC) fundraiser in Miami, did little to endear himself to the Tea Party groups protesting around the country, saying "they should be saying thank you" because of the tax cuts he has signed into law.
Hope and Change, Hope and Change. This is exactly why you let a company go through bankruptcy – to allow obligations like this to be mitigated.
GM's Pension: A Ticking Time Bomb for Taxpayers? - Yahoo! News
By JOSEPH R. SZCZESNY Joseph R. Szczesny – 1 hr 49 mins ago
General Motors Corp. may no longer be the world's biggest
automaker, but it still operates the country's largest pension fund. The threat to its pension plans has always been an issue, butit took on a new urgency when GM disclosed April 7 that its plans were underfunded by more than $27 billion, with more than half of that being owed to U.S. workers and retirees. Across town, a post- bankrupt Chrysler faces its own pension shortfall. Moreover, a report last week from the Government Accounting Office (GAO) says the pension crisis in the auto industry could create an unprecedented crisis for the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., a government-sponsored organization to backstop company pensions.
By Gautham Nagesh - The Daily Caller | Published: 04/14/10 at 3:13 AM | Updated: 04/14/10 at 9:48 AM
A notice outside the Scottsdale Skin & Cancer Center in Arizona.
While it may be years before most Americans feel the impact of
President Obama’s health-care bill, a few patients in Scottsdale, Ariz., got a small taste of life under Obamacare last week when they arrived at their Dermatologist’s office only to see a sign with the following taped to the front door:
“If you voted for Obamacare, be aware these doors will close before it goes into effect.” The note is signed Joseph M. Scherzer M.D. and includes the following addendum: “****Unless Congress or the Courts repeal the BILL.”
Scherzer, who attended Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, has been a practicing Dermatologist in Scottsdale, Ariz., since 1976. Reached yesterday at his office, Dr. Scherzer, 63, said he plans to stop practicing before 2014 when the bill’s full impact will be felt because he refuses to deal with the headache of increased government involvement in health care.
Just curious how the government could deploy US troops, on US soil, without the express request of the governor of a state? Isn’t that what the state troopers or the national guard supposed to do?
Special army unit ready to be deployed on American soil just before Nov. elections (Update)
April 13, 5:16 PM
Conservative Examiner
In October of this year, one month prior to the November midterm elections, a special army unit known as 'Consequence Management Response Force' will be ready for deployment on American soil if so ordered by the President.
(AP Photo/David Longstreath).
The special force, which is the new name being given to the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry, has been training at Fort Stewart, Georgia and is composed of 80,000 troops.
According to the Army Times,
They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.The key phrase is 'may be called upon to help with civil unrest.'
Washington Memo - Baffled by Health Plan? So Are Some Lawmakers - NYTimes.com
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: April 12, 2010
WASHINGTON — It is often said that the new health care law will affect almost every American in some way. And, perhaps fittingly if unintentionally, no one may be more affected than members of Congress themselves.
In a new report, the Congressional Research Service says the law may have significant unintended consequences for the “personal health insurance coverage” of senators, representatives and their staff members.
For example, it says, the law may “remove members of Congress and Congressional staff” from their current coverage, in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, before any alternatives are available.
The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?
Why would the leader of the FREE world bow to the leader of the world’s largest communist nation??? It’s because he feels “less that”, because he feels weak, because he feels embarrassed to represent America, it’s because he is ignorant of history, it’s because he believes Mao was right – power comes from the barrel of a gun (remember his advisor Anita Dunn?? Here’s a reminder.)
Perhaps there’s in Hu’s cabinet?President Barack Obama - Yahoo! News Photos
Mon Apr 12, 6:49 PM ET
President Barack Obama greets Chinese President Hu Jintao during the official arrivals for the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, Monday April 12, 2010.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
U.S. Faces Shortage of Doctors - WSJ.com
By SUZANNE SATALINE And SHIRLEY S. WANG
Getty Images
First-year resident Dr. Rachel Seay, third from left, circumcises a newborn in George Washington University Hospital's delivery wing on March 12.
The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already scrambling to train more doctors.
Experts warn there won't be enough doctors to treat the millions of people newly insured under the law. At current graduation and training rates, the nation could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges
French Leader Sarkozy Slams Obama, Warns He Might Be Insane | EUTimes.net
A new report circulating in the Kremlin today authored by France’s
Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) and recently “obtained” by the FSB shockingly quotes French President Nicolas Sarkozy [photo top right with Obama] as stating that President Barack Obama is “a dangerous[ly] aliéné”, which translates into his, Obama, being a “mad lunatic”, or in the American vernacular, “insane”.
Russia eyes U.S. air base in Kyrgyz turmoil | Reuters
Guy Faulconbridge and Robin Paxton - Analysis
MOSCOW
Fri Apr 9, 2010 1:29pm EDT
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian-backed coup or not, the uprising in Kyrgyzstan means the United States may have to bargain hard to keep its last military base in Central Asia.
Turmoil in Kyrgyzstan has thrust the fate of the Manas air base -- which is crucial for fighting the Afghan war -- to the forefront of rivalry between the United States and Russia.
Russia has long dreamed of evicting the United States from Central Asia and a Russian official said on Thursday that Moscow would urge the interim Kyrgyz government to shut the U.S. base.
Suspicions of the Kremlin's hand in the unrest were raised when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin became the first world leader to recognize the authority of the self-proclaimed government, just hours after it took power.
As a reminder, the air base at Manas International Airport plays a major role in our efforts in Afghanistan as detailed in this Business Week article from April 9th:
Last month about 50,000 troops passed through Manas on their way in and out of Afghanistan. It’s the only U.S. base in Central Asia, outside of those in Afghanistan.
Debt denial | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
By James Rickards | Published: 04/07/10 at 12:00 AM | Updated: 04/09/10 at 8:42 AM
The sovereign debt crisis has crossed a threshold. It’s no longer
about economics. It’s about math and a complex system whose dynamics tell us there is little time to avoid catastrophe and almost no exit. Going forward, elections and policies will matter less as the debt plague takes hold and dictates hard outcomes.
Details, details, details.
American Thinker Blog: Graph of the Day for April 10, 2010
Randall Hoven
"It's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package after they presided over a doubling of the national debt
." President Obama.
Rep. Bart Stupak to retire, putting seat in play - Mike Allen and Josh Kraushaar - POLITICO.com
By MIKE ALLEN & JOSH KRAUSHAAR | 4/9/10 9:22 AM EDT
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who had a central role in the health reform fight as the leader of anti-abortion Democrats, plans to announce Friday that he will not run for reelection, a Democratic official said. Without Stupak on the ballot, the seat becomes an immediate pickup opportunity for Republicans.
"Now with health care done, he’s retiring," a friend said. "He has thought about retiring for the last three cycles, but was always talked into staying: to elect John Kerry to help end the war, to elect a Democratic majority to get health care done."
President Barack Obama called Stupak on Wednesday and asked him not to retire. Stupak, 58, also resisted entreaties from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the dean of the Wolverine State delegation.
Stimulus Facts: An Update - Veronique de Rugy - The Corner on National Review Online
Stimulus Facts: An Update [Veronique de Rugy]
It’s been almost a week since I was presented with some interesting feedback about my Mercatus working paper on the stimulus. As you may recall, the original findings in my study showed that there wasn’t any correlation between stimulus spending and where unemployment was the highest or where unemployment had deteriorated the fastest since the beginning of the recession. Also, the study showed that the party affiliation of the congressional district’s representative (whether the district was represented by a Republican or Democrat) did seem to matter in how the stimulus money was spent. The regression analysis doesn’t tell me how much it mattered, but only that it did.
Pelosi Celebrates Healthcare In SF - KCBS
“It’s like the back of the refrigerator. You see all these wires and the rest,” said Pelosi. “All you need to know is, you open the door. The light goes on. You open this door, you go through a whole different path, in terms of access to quality, affordable healthcare for all Americans.”
Massachuetts has the equivalent of Obamacare as state law. All citizens are required to purchase health insurance. It was supposed to lower rates. It didn’t. The state is in the process of going to the next level in controlling rate increases – they are simply forbidding increases. What could possibly go wrong??
Insurers, state up the ante in health rates dispute - Daily Business Update - The Boston Globe
April 6, 2010 07:08 PM E-mail| |Comments (5)| Text size – +
By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff
The stand-off between Massachusetts regulators and health insurance companies intensified today as most insurers stopped offering new coverage to small businesses and individuals while state officials demanded that the insurers post updated rates online and resume selling such policies by the end of the week.
People seeking to buy health insurance for the first time, or existing customers looking to change policies, found themselves out of luck, at least temporarily, in the aftermath of last week's decision by the state Division of Insurance to reject 235 of 274 premium increases proposed by insurers for what is known as the small group market. The segment covers about 800,000 residents.
Golly, I sure didn’t see this coming. So, where is all the free care Obama promised?? Kinda reminds me of this interview with women from Michigan in line for Obama money from his stash.
Health care overhaul spawns mass confusion for public | McClatchy
By Margaret Talev | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Two weeks after President Barack Obama signed the big health care overhaul into law, Americans are struggling to understand how — and when — the sweeping measure will affect them.
Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors' offices, human resources departments and business groups.
"They're saying, 'Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?' " said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states.
Wow – in the NY Times – a plea to just say “no” to a doctor’s healthcare recommendation. But I thought that there would be no panels that would limit healthcare? No panels that would review doctor’s suggestions for treatment or tests and then say “no”? What if the person is old? What if the treatment is needed to extend their life for a month – or six and the panel says “no”?? Would this be the infamous “death panel”?
Just how will the Big “O” explain that saying “no” fulfills his promise of better, more comprehensive healthcare?
Economic Scene - To Cut Health Costs, U.S. Needs to Learn to Say No - NYTimes.com
Published: April 6, 2010
How can we learn to say no?
The federal government is now starting to build the institutions that will try to reduce the soaring growth of health care costs. There will be a group to compare the effectiveness of different treatments, a so-called Medicare innovation center and a Medicare oversight board that can set payment rates.
But all these groups will face the same basic problem. Deep down, Americans tend to believe that more care is better care. We recoil from efforts to restrict care.
Teachers balk, leave state union | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register
By STACI HUPP • shupp@dmreg.com • April 5, 2010
Teachers in a Marion County school district have become the first in Iowa to split from the state's largest teachers union.
Political differences fueled the move by teachers at the Twin Cedars school district in Bussey.
Some teachers say they opposed the Iowa State Education Association's push for the failed "fair share" bill, which would have let public employee unions charge service fees to nonunion workers.
Others didn't like that part of their annual dues is sent to the National Education Association, a powerful supporter of the Democratic Party.
Every family that balances a checkbook at the end of a week knew this was coming. We are in the very best of hands.
Kevin Price
Published 04/05/2010 - 8:28 a.m. CST
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Email:
kprice61@aol.com
About two weeks ago the Obama Administration was blushing as it boasted about the "favorable" numbers its administration received from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The fact that the CBO is appointed by members of the President's own party (the majority in Congress are Democrats) made some skeptical. However, the experts outside of the CBO and the White House looked at the numbers and said, "wait a minute!" The numbers are scary and the budget is pointing at a direction that will make the US appear to be little more than a typical debtor nation. This is not something "down the road," but just a few years away.
YID With LID: Et Tu Gallup? Second Polling Org. Shows Tea Party as Bi-Partisan, Bi-Racial Movement
For the second time in two days a national poll has destroyed the image of the Tea Party movement created by the Democratic party and the mainstream media. Yesterday's poll conducted by the Winston Group, reported that the 43% of the people in the Tea Party movement are not Republicans and their major concern is jobs and the economy. This is a far cry from the nonsense progressives and the mainstream media (is that redundant?) are telling the U.S., that the Tea Parties are comprised of the extreme right racist wing of the Republican Party, organizing to find a way to destroy the presidency of the first African-American to hold the office.
I find it amazing that the entire country is shouting at him we are overtaxes. This gentle woman, is the most direct way possible simply tells her president she is taxed enough already – and the takes 17 minutes to tell her why she isn’t. His deafness is stunning.
44 - Obama's 17-minute, 2,500-word response to woman's claim of being 'over-taxed'
by Anne E. Kornblut
CHARLOTTE - Even by President Obama's loquacious standards, an answer he gave here on health care Friday was a doozy.
Toward the end of a question-and-answer session with workers at an advanced battery technology manufacturer, a woman named Doris stood to ask the president whether it was a "wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care" package.
"We are over-taxed as it is," Doris said bluntly.
Obama started out feisty. "Well, let's talk about that, because this is an area where there's been just a whole lot of misinformation, and I'm going to have to work hard over the next several months to clean up a lot of the misapprehensions that people have," the president said.
True knowledge, when making federal policy, is actually important.
Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Progressives can't get past the Knowledge Problem | Washington Examiner
By: Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Contributor
April 4, 2010"If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?" -- President Reagan, Jan. 20, 1981.
Economist Friedrich Hayek explained in 1945 why centrally controlled "command economies" were doomed to waste, inefficiency, and collapse: Insufficient knowledge. He won a Nobel Prize. But it turns out he was righter than he knew.
In his "The Use of Knowledge In Society," Hayek explained that information about supply and demand, scarcity and abundance, wants and needs exists in no single place in any economy. The economy is simply too large and complicated for such information to be gathered together.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 10:13 PM
Jim Hoft
The highest tenured faculty member at Chicago Law spoke out on Barack Obama saying, “Professors hated him because he was lazy, unqualified, never attended any of the faculty meetings.”
Doug Ross reported this and more:I spent some time with the highest tenured faculty member at Chicago Law a few months back, and he did not have many nice things to say about “Barry.” Obama applied for a position as an adjunct and wasn’t even considered. A few weeks later the law school got a phone call from the Board of Trustees telling them to find him an office, put him on the payroll, and give him a class to teach. The Board told him he didn’t have to be a member of the faculty, but they needed to give him a temporary position. He was never a professor and was hardly an adjunct.
A Mount Dora doctor posted a sign telling Obama health care supporters to go elsewhere.
MOUNT DORA — A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere."
"I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."
The devil is always in the details.
So the wave of corporate writedowns—led by AT&T's $1 billion—isn't caused by ObamaCare after all. The White House claims CEOs are reducing the value of their companies and returns for shareholders merely out of political pique.
A White House staffer told the American Spectator that "These are Republican CEOs who are trying to embarrass the President and Democrats in general. Where do you hear about this stuff? The Wall Street Journal editorial page and conservative Web sites. No one else picked up on this but you guys. It's BS." (We called the White House for elaboration but got no response.)
VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Please don't call it 'state socialism' - Opinion - ReviewJournal.com
VIN SUPRYNOWICZ
MORE COLUMNSThe modern Prussian police state was built by Bismarck and others in the 19th century on a Spartan model, giving the central government vastly greater control over the individual than had ever been considered possible before.
Bismarck's program centered squarely on insurance programs designed to increase support for the ever larger and more powerful government. The program included health insurance, workman's compensation, disability insurance and old-age retirement pensions, all innovations at the time.
When the people of our best ally in the Mideast views our president as having a “Messiah Complex” – well – that just can’t be good news.
Candidly Speaking: Confronting Obama’s Messiah complex
By ISI LEIBLER
30/03/2010 23:09Intoxicated by his health care victory, it seems the president has decided to take on Netanyahu with his outrageous demands.
Seemingly intoxicated by Congress’s endorsement of his health care legislation, President Barack Obama appears to have been overcome by a Messiah complex. His actions relating to the Middle East during recent weeks oblige us to face realities about our “unshakable” alliance with the United States.
I suppose it is unkind to point out the irony about a Global Warmist freezing to death – but what the hell.
ecoEnquirer: Global Warming Activist, Journalist, Perish in Antarctica
Global warming activist James Schneider and a journalist were found frozen to death only 90 miles from their destination, South Pole Station, seen here during the warm season.(Punta Arenas, Chile) Famed global warming activist James Schneider and a journalist friend were both found frozen to death on Saturday, about 90 miles from South Pole Station, by the pilot of a ski plane practicing emergency evacuation procedures.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing", recounted the pilot, Jimmy Dolittle. "There were two snowmobiles with cargo sleds, a tent, and a bright orange rope that had been laid out on the ice, forming the words, 'HELP-COLD'".
Hope and Change, Hope and Change. Who needs death panels when you can simply reduce the number doctors and nurses. It all works out so well.
New York Hospitals to Cut 2,600 More Jobs - WSJ.com
New York City System Aims to Cut 2,600 More Jobs as State Funding Drops
By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL and SUZANNE SATALINE
NEW YORK—The nation's largest public hospital system plans to slash its work force—including doctors and nurses—by about 10% over two years as government aid drops and the number of uninsured patients jumps.
With its budget deficit set to top $1 billion, New York City's Health and Hospitals Corp. plans to eliminate 2,600 jobs in the fiscal year that begins July 1. That comes on top of 1,300 positions to be eliminated this year.
So, should we now place a limit on the number of miles a person bikes?? Things that make you say Hummmmm!
Pajamas Media » Do Bicycles Actually Have a Lower CO2 ‘Footprint’ Than Cars?
The transportation secretary wants you to ride a bike to work to stop the "warming." Does he realize that humans, while exercising, are CO2 factories?
March 28, 2010 - by Ronnie Schreiber
Page 1 of 2 Next -> View as Single Page
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wants us to ride bikes to work instead of our cars.
One of the reasons he gives is environmental — what could be greener than riding a bike? Walking perhaps, and actually LaHood wants us to wear out the shoe leather too, but for most people walking to work isn’t an option. Riding a bicycle, which can easily hit 20 mph or more, is a viable alternative to driving for many folks.
Hope and Change!
The most telling sentence:
Spread across the American population of 310,000,000 souls, Caterpillar's model indicates that America's wealth declined by $1,229.00 per citizen this week.
American Thinker Blog: Obamacare: Running the numbers
John Peeples
The real cost of health care reform, as recognized by the nation's business community, is just beginning to take shape. Bloomberg Business Week (picked up by Drudge) reports that SEC filings by such companies as AT&T
Caterpillar: Health care bill would cost it $100M - Chicago Breaking Business
Published on March 19, 2010 7:10 AM | Submit a comment
A worker at Caterpillar's plant in Mossville, Ill. (José Moré/Chicago Tribune)
Dow Jones Newswires | Caterpillar Inc. said the health-care overhaul legislation being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives would increase the company's health-care costs by more than $100 million in the first year alone.
In a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, Caterpillar urged lawmakers to vote against the plan "because of the substantial cost burdens it would place on our shareholders, employees and retirees."
Deere & Company, Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer, said in a statement this morning that the recently passed health care legislation will cost the company $150 million after tax this year.
The company said the impact would be felt primarily in the second quarter, between April 1 and July 1.
Social Security in the Red | Cato @ Liberty
Posted by Doug Bandow
Social Security is officially in the red. The New York Times reports that the system will pay out more than it takes in this year. Explains the Times:
On Sunday night several members of the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition held a prayer vigil at Russ Carnahan’s office for the millions of babies that will be slaughtered under the democrat’s pro-abortion health care bill. We also prayed for the handicapped and the elderly who will be turned away as they face the death panels created by this bill. And, as we stood outside his office in the rain, we prayed for our country and for the democrats in Washington DC who were stealing away our freedom at that very moment.
So I was working with one of my customers today, a small care facility in the Midwest with around 150 employees. She had undergone an upgrade to a fair amount of their facility’s computers including their primary server and they were suffering through the usual bumps with such an upgrade.
While I was loading software I asked Mary – the HR Director – what she thought about the new healthcare bill. Honestly, I expected her to go right to Medicare reimbursement and loss of income. My mistake – she went right to her employees health insurance needs.
Remember, health insurance can’t be sold across state lines. This particular state has just a handful of insurance companies that service the state. When they were searching for a provider they found a single company that was willing to provide insurance to their employees. They have already been notified by their provider that they may not be willing to cover their facility's employees, they are studying the bill further.
Obviously, this raises a problem so Mary has been checking into alternatives. They currently spend between $1,000 - $1,500 per employee per month, an annual fee of approximately $15,000 per employee or $2,250,000 annually. However, if they simply discontinue their health insurance plan, their annual cost per employee drops to a fine of approximately $3,000 per employee or a total annual cost of $450,000. This represents a savings of $1,800,000 each and every year. Care to guess what way they are leaning?
Hope and change you can believe in!
House votes to exempt TRICARE from health reform bill (3/21/10) -- GovExec.com
By Katherine McIntire Peters kpeters@govexec.com March 21, 2010House lawmakers over the weekend voted to protect TRICARE and Defense non-appropriated fund health care beneficiaries from unintended consequences of national health reform.
The exemption (H.R. 4887) applies to the health care coverage provided by the Defense Department to military service members, retirees and their families. It clarifies the tax code to stipulate that coverage provided by Defense is treated as minimal essential coverage, ensuring that service members and their families will not need to purchase additional coverage to meet new health insurance requirements.
Federal Health Spending | Cato @ Liberty
Yep, no kidding, according to President Obama, companies will save 3,000% on the cost of insurance for each employee. That would pencil out to each insurance company PAYING a company around $120,000 per insured employee.
Liar Obama: Your Insurance Premiums Will Decrease by 3,000% Under Obamacare (Video)
Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 6:14 AM
Jim Hoft
Amazing. And, they actually take this liar seriously…
Obama told a group of guppies yesterday that with Obamacare their premiums will decrease by 3,000%.
And, they actually clapped and screamed when he fed them this manure:
Via Free Republic
I’m convinced, if he told them to walk off a cliff they’d do it.
They have no ability to think.
A bit of perspective on global warming over the past 4000 years.
Global Temperature Trends Since 2500 B.C.
Until recently, global temperatures were more than a degree Fahrenheit warmer when compared to the overall 20th Century mean. From August of 2007 through February of 2008, the Earth’s mean reading dropped to near the 200-year average temperature of 57 degrees. Since that time, the mean reading has been fluctuating.
The devil is always in the details.
Insurers’ Profits Aren’t the Problem [Jeffrey H. Anderson]
For an administration that says it’s committed to using empirical evidence to determine “what works,” and a president who says he’s “not an ideologue,” Obamacare’s
Investors.com - Class Warfare's Next Target: 401(k) Savings
By NEWT GINGRICH AND PETER FERRARAPosted 02/17/2010 06:52 PM ET
You did the responsible thing. You saved in your IRA or 401(k) to support your retirement, when you could have spent that money on another vacation, or an upscale car, or fancier clothes and jewelry. But now Washington is developing plans for your retirement savings.
U.S. state pension funds have $1 trillion shortfall: Pew | Reuters
WASHINGTON
Thu Feb 18, 2010 12:15am EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. states face a total shortfall of at least $1 trillion in their funds for employees' pensions and retirement benefits, and their financial problems are quickly mounting, according to a report released by the Pew Center on the States on Thursday.
The next time someone brings up the argument that they have full confidence in the local government to provide immediate assistance through a simple call to 911 – keep this story in mind.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
By Sadie Gurman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In his first call to 911, Curtis Mitchell sounded calm, explaining to dispatchers that his "entire stomach [was] in pain."
By the time his longtime girlfriend made a 10th call nearly 30 hours later, she was frantic. He wasn't breathing. He was cold to the touch.
The devil is always in the details and the science.
The AGW Smoking Gun
By Gary ThompsonA key component of the scientific argument for anthropogenic global warming
I find I am actually speechless at this story.
Berkeley High May Cut Out Science Labs | News | East Bay Express
The proposal would trade labs seen as benefiting white students for resources to help struggling students.
By Eric Klein
Earth Day, Then and Now
The planet's future has never looked better. Here's why.
Ronald Bailey from the May 2000 issue
Thirty Years ago, 20 million Americans participated in the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Fifth Avenue in New York City was closed to automobiles as 100,000 people joined in concerts, lectures, and street theater.
So you put a CO2 monitoring station down wind from an active volcano. You “discover” that CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are sharply increasing. You determine that the only reasonable answer is man’s increasing carbon footprint. You apply for federal funds to investigate the coming catastrophe. You become famous for discovering this tradgey in progress – and your funding increases.
Things that make you say hummmmmmm!
Greenhouse Gas Observatories Downwind from Erupting Volcanoes
By Andrew WaldenProblems in the collection of atmospheric CO2 data parallel other absurdities in the global warming fraud. The Climategate scandal is exposing the massive and systematic fraud behind the fabrication of the worldwide temperature record necessary to make the case for global warming. But what about the record of atmospheric CO2?
The amount of fraud in climate science, particularly that being used to support the theory of man made global warming, is stunning. This article seems to describe the cornerstone.
Dead Ringer
By Ross Kaminsky on 12.4.09 @ 6:07AM
"Climategate" is first time that the magnitude of bad behavior by climate alarmist scientists was so large and so easily understood by non-scientists that even the liberal mass media can't completely ignore it (though they're doing their best.)
But the release of e-mail and data from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia in Britain showing global warming alarmist "scientists" manipulating and deleting data is far from the first time these same people have been found to be acting in distinctly non-scientific ways.
Bring the troops home – NOW! And stop capturing these animals – kill them!!!!
Navy SEALs Face Assault Charges for Capturing Most-Wanted Terrorist
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
By Rowan Scarborough
AP
March 31, 2004: Iraqis chant anti-American slogans as the charred and mutilated bodies of U.S. contractors hang from a bridge over the Euphrates River in Fallujah, Iraq.
Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com.
Al Gore: Meteorologist?? I don’t need no stinking meteorologist!!!
With Hurricanes At Thirty Year Low, Gore Turns To Photoshop
The King of cap and trade simply airbrushes them in to his new book to create a more scary earth.
Hope and Change, yep, that’s the ticket.
Chasing Corporations Out Of The U.S.
By ROBERT J. HERBOLD AND SCOTT S. POWELLPosted 11/16/2009 06:16 PM ET
Unemployment is foremost on everyone's mind today. Yet jobs can continue to leave the U.S. because of the threat of new taxes, the convergence of technology, the ease of digital collaboration and ready access to abundant foreign engineering talent.
Multinational corporate executives may have to move R&D, product development, management and manufacturing overseas when there is no longer a comparative advantage to staying in the United States. A shocking thought for sure, but it's the new reality.
Reading the news lately I got a bit nostalgic for 1969 – it seemed that surely I have been transported back in time. It was a bit more than a year after Tet (does anyone remember what “Tet” was??) and I had just received orders for Vietnam. I was on a small island off the west coast of Taiwan and had volunteered for Vietnam a few months earlier. My orders were my Christmas present for my mother. She was devastated, I was elated and excited. I’m not sure she ever understood my decision or forgave me for her year of fear and worry.
However, unbeknownst to me, at home the tide had turned against the Vietnam War. I was to become a “baby killer”, a destroyer of villages and the hopes of the Vietnamese. Who knew? By the time I returned to “the world” in April of 1971 our nation had begun to abandon the victory of Tet, decrease our troop strength to the point that previously secured areas quickly became more dangerous and funding for our Vietnamese allies began to dry up in our Congress. Four short years later, as the North Vietnamese abandoned the Paris Peace Accords and launched full scale invasion, our Congress pulled all funding – assuring the death of 3 million innocents and the subjugation of the Vietnamese people that continues to this day. I am still ashamed of America’s choice.
Which brings me to todays’ headlines and our current situation in Afghanistan. The current headline in favor sounds something like “Obama continues to dither”. Buried beneath the defense of his actions resides a simple truth – he is totally incapable of making a decision. That was clear prior to his election by a simple review of this state and federal voting record. His single most favorite vote was “present”. A year after election he has yet to find his footing. As a retired officer with 21 years of service, perhaps I could offer a few ideas.
Have a clear-eyed mission.
Muster all necessary resources – money, equipment and soldiers.
Accept nothing but victory.
President Obama is either unwilling or unable to do these three things. Our path forward in Afghanistan is then clear – surrender and leave – quickly! As I type these words, we as a community, have one of our Troop 47 Eagle Scouts doing convoy duty in Baghdad. Two others are attending BOLC (one awaiting Ranger school and the other preparing for deployment in the Spring) and yet another in ROTC at U of I. Not to mention the other community members, family and friends we have all seen pack their rucksacks and get on the bus. They deserve a clear mission, total support and the opportunity for victory. They are not getting this from this administration. To me, that means it’s time for them to come home – quickly.
There will be consequences to this withdrawal of course.
The Taliban will be resurgent and will surely retake the country. For those who do not remember their rampage against civil society and the women of the country, a search of YouTube still displays their public executions, beheadings and beatings of women and girls. Ah, the return to the good old days.
The training camps will return as well, allowing ample space for planning the next attack on the U.S. – which will follow our exit as surely as it did when we ran with our tail between our legs from Somalia after President Clinton sacrificed the 18 Rangers made famous by “Blackhawk Down”.
Finally, our abandoning the fight will strengthen our enemies, embolden their attacks and virtually ensure a new and devastating attack on our homeland.
On the plus side, our troops will be safe within our borders and they will have some time to refit and heal before the next attack.
By the time I returned to the U.S. soldiers that were killed in Vietnam were called “wasted”. President Obama does not have the courage, heart or willingness to commit to victory in Afghanistan, it’s time to come home – NOW – to insure not a single soldier’s life is “wasted”!
Climate bill's 'emergency provision' gives Obama strong-man powers UPDATED! | Washington Examiner
By: EXAMINER EDITORIAL HOT ZONE ALERT
-
November 10, 2009(AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)
Both the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade energy approved earlier this year and the version just okayed by Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s Democrats (Republicans boycotted the vote) contains an obscure but nasty bureaucratic provision that requires President Obama to act like Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez.
Here’s how: The bills require a federal declaration of a “climate emergency” if world greenhouse gas levels reach 450 parts per million. Guess what? The Pacific Northwest National Lab says it is a virtual certainty that level will be reached within a few months. The bill then requires the president to “direct all Federal agencies to use existing statutory authority to take appropriate actions...to address shortfalls" in achieving needed greenhouse gas reductions.
Perfect, just perfect!
Twenty years later: Why the Berlin Wall fell:Swaminomics:S A Aiyar's blog-The Times Of India
Twenty years later: Why the Berlin Wall fell S A Aiyar Sunday October 25, 2009
We are approaching the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism. This comprehensively refuted the Communist claim to represent the people. Yet, the claim continues, sometimes dazzling a new generation of youngsters with no inkling of why the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.
My favorite paragraph:
Communists and socialists everywhere, including in India, were dismayed. They could not understand why East Germans blessed with income equality, free social welfare and full employment should flee to the highly unequal West, which bristled with unemployment and social perils. An answer came in a letter to a newspaper editor.
‘‘My daughter’s hamster (a pet white mouse) has food, water, shelter and even medical care, and a cage full of fun curly tubes. The hamster responds by constantly trying to chew his way to freedom. I think we all understand what freedom is, and it is not a gilded cage.’’
Is anyone in Congress paying attention?? Anyone?
Betsy McCaughey: What the Pelosi Health Care Bill Really Says - WSJ.com
What the Pelosi Health-Care Bill Really Says
Here are some important passages in the 2,000 page legislation.
By BETSY MCCAUGHEY
The health bill that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is bringing to a vote (H.R. 3962) is 1,990 pages. Here are some of the details you need to know.
I love Rush. Two reasons: 1) he goes straight at you. There is no hidden agenda. He knows what he believes and he states it clearly and plainly. 2) He backs up what he says with clear and concise points. This has got to be driving the Obama left nuts today!
For your viewing pleasure.
Let me get this straight: Russia complains about a missile defense system that the US is about to build in Poland to protect Europe from nuclear missile attacks because it poses a "threat" to them. Obama bows and stops the installation - on the anniversary of the invasion of Poland by Russia.
Russia returns the favor by launching a simulated nuclear attack on Poland during their most recent war games.
Am I missing something??
Russia 'simulates' nuclear attack on Poland
Russia has provoked outrage in Poland by simulating an air and sea attack on the country during military exercises.
