Media Reacts: A Christmas Present Or Two Or Ten Edition

Why I'm a conservative #101

As you read this, ask yourself the question who does this hurt more

1) a pediatrician
2) a retiree on fixed income
3) Katy Perry
4) Lawrence Fishburne
5) a civil engineer

In the midst of an unparalleled energy boom, U.S. electricity prices have skyrocketed to new highs. 

This paradox is a result not of the free market, but of runaway government "green" regulation.

Unnoticed by virtually everyone except the sharp-eyed folks at CNSNews.com, new federal data show that electricity prices have never been higher.

In November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Electricity Price Index hit 202.284, an all-time record and nearly 20% higher than just six years ago.

I keep wondering when the media will challenge the myth that liberal policies work for the poor.

Life in "Progress" City - Detroit edition

At least a new industry has arisen from the ash of Detroit's debacle.......tourism?

Sightseeing of abandoned buildings, factories, schools, and churches is becoming a growing industry in the now dilapidated city of Detroit.

Some people come from far away to visit Los Angeles and tour the houses of the rich and famous. Architectural student Oliver Kearney came from England to tour the ruins of Detroit. "No other American city has seen decline on this scale," Kearney claims.

With 78,000 remaining vacant structures that investors are cool on renovating, and with a city too bankrupt to shell out the $8000 per structure needed to demolish them, the landscape has become a fertile ground for curious exploration. Kearney explains that in Europe, when buildings become derelict, they tear them down. “In Detroit, you can relate, you can see traces of what's happened, you can really feel the history of a city," he says.

Since the city declared bankruptcy in July, there has been an appreciable increase in visitors inquiring about the ruins. Photographers from all over have come to take pictures capturing the downfall of the once burgeoning motor city.  A couple of French photographers produced a book called The Ruins of Detroit.

Jesse Welter, a former aircraft mechanic living in the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, made frequent visits to the city with his camera in hand. At first, Welter sold his photographs of the decaying buildings at an artists' market. When he noticed the intense interest visitors had in seeing pictures of the the declining cityscape, Welter started a tour bus business. Charging $45 per person, he guides tourists through the city, showing them the devastation and blight of the old landmark structures like the Packard Automotive Plant, the train station, and the East Grand Boulevard Methodist Church.

More...........

Why I don't trust global warming "science"

If you don't think branch gorevidians aka global warming alarmist aren't subject to data manipulation, read this..............

An Iowa State University professor resigned after admitting he falsely claimed rabbit blood could be turned into a vaccine for the AIDS virus.

Dr. Dong-Pyou Han spiked a clinical test sample with healthy human blood to make it appear that the rabbit serum produced disease-fighting antibodies, officials said.

The bogus findings helped Han’s team obtain $19 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health, said James Bradac, who oversees the institutes’ AIDS research.

19 million buys a lot of tweed jackets.

President Ronald Reagan Christmas address (12/23/81)

RACIST Al Sharpton's Racial, Homophobic Rants

Will Walmart shoppers support "Every Day High Wages?" (+playlist)

Obama and Cantor at Health Care Summit

Why do we need to do anything on immigration?

So Obama's uncle has been in the US illegally for the past 50 years. Gets a DUI and still can't be deported.

Allegedly, he's unable to hold a job since company's are not allowed to hire illegals.

Allegedly, he's not eligible for any social services because of his illegal status.

And yet here he is 50 years later still in the country doing whatever he's doing to support himself.

Maybe someone can clue me in on why it's so urgent to pass an immigration bill when it doesn't seem to stop immigrants from maintaining a American lifestyle to begin with.

Really?

You know your sales job is horrible when the competition uses it against you.

Who's the got the cult following?

John Podesta.............

"They need to focus on executive action given that they are facing a second term against a cult worthy of Jonestown in charge of one of the houses of Congress,”

Barbara Walters

“He made so many promises. We thought that he was going to be – I shouldn’t say this at Christmastime, but – the next messiah."

Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe on the High Cost of College (Full Interview)

Nice and white

Here's a photo of me at a local tea party meeting..........

Oooops. Sorry That's not a tea party meeting at all, it's the Huffington Post political staff. With all the people of color, I should have known.

Life in "Progress" Territory - Puerto Rico edition

So "progressives" have killed Detroit public pensions but that's just the beginning.............

In September, Puerto Rico's Government Development Bank announced it would cut bond sales after investors pushed the yield on Puerto Rico bonds above 10 percent. The island's general obligation bonds have been hovering at just above near-junk status. That worries economic experts who note that many Americans’ retirement funds include Puerto Rico bonds.

“It’s not just the residents of Puerto Rico” who are affected, said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, based in Washington D.C. “It’s Americans across the country who are at risk as well.”

The situation on the island is so critical that residents are fleeing in the largest numbers in decades, ushering a quiet exodus. Tens of thousands have left for mainland U.S. between 2010 and 2012, according to The Washington Post.

More........

Colo. Baker Willing to Go to Jail for Not Baking Cake for Same-Sex Wedding

What I want to know is why anyone would patronize a business that doesn't support their lifestyle?

If you perceive this person as some sort of bigot. Why would you want him to continue to prosper?

I just can't imagine Cam and Mitchell wanting to do business with this guy

Ann Kuster Dodges Benghazi Question

Coffeecare

Will: Obama is Discovering How Slow Big Government Is

Glenn Greenwald Slams Lapdog Obama Media "In Servitude to Government"

Howard University Students Talk About Obamacare

Kimmel: If NSA can track phones, why can't government run a health care...

"There Is A War On Journalism": Jeremy Scahill on NSA Leaks & New Invest...

(HD) Wage protest by fast food workers

Why, exactly, am I conservative?

After a number of issues popped up on the news recently. I started to wonder why I'm a conservative. After all, most liberal positions on the issues have no bearing on me and my family at all. In fact, we benefit from many of them.

Fortunately or unfortunately, nearly every liberal policy ultimately hurts the very people they're designed to help. Frankly, these people deserve the consequences for their own stupidity. Hey, the school of hard knocks is where most of my eduction came from.

Nonetheless, if you want to look at why income distribution continues to widen (aka why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer) in this country, consider the following............


Crime

I'm a balls to the wall conservative on crime. But really. Why? When liberals let criminals go, they're not moving back to my nice Redville enclave. Most are going back to the cities where they can victimize people who don't have the ability to move to a safe neighborhood.

Why should I care if another person in the 'hood gets shot by some clown who should be behind bars?

Taxes

Why should I care if taxes go up? As I've said repeatedly on this blog. Consider that rich people pay no taxes. Ultimately, the only people who pay taxes are the people who can't pass along the costs to someone else.

When my software costs go up, so do my fees. The same is true of taxes. I still make money. The only person who takes in the shorts, is the guy who can't pass the tab to the guy behind him because there isn't anyone behind him.

Over reaching regulation

Do I want children drinking polluted water and breathing polluted air? Probably not since I'm drinking out of the same water supply and breathing the same air.

But I remember the good old days when we use to burn LEADED fuel in cars. Now we can't even produce it in Missouri because the emission might end up in Albany.

If you want a zero polluted environment, you'll have to ban all manufacturing in this country and the good paying jobs that goes with that. Actually, that's not even true since horse shit and human waste would line the streets and rivers like it did in 1910 creating much more hideous public health issues than pollutants kick out today.

So if you want poor people to rise out of poverty, you're going to have to deal with some element of pollution. But why should I care if auto, tires and computers are built out of the country? I've got mine already.


Schools

I'm for people having a choice about where their kids can go to school. But why should I care if poor people don't have the ability to choose the schools that work for their children?

I don't have any kids and if I did, I could afford to send them to private schools or move to a community with good schools.

That gives me and my kids a big advantage over kids forced to go to government sponsored cesspools.

Social Security/Pension Reform

I'm a proponent of reforming Social Security, Medicare and Public Pensions. Again, why? Afterall, I'm 50 years old. Chances are pretty good that these programs will be available to me for most, if not all, of my senior years.

Why should I care if these programs suck the economic life out of the young people who will have to pay for my benefit?

Obamacare

Why should I be opposed to Obamacare, the most egregious transfer of wealth from the young to the old in this country's history?

20 year old males pay higher auto insurance rates because they pose a higher driving risk. But 28 year old, perfectly healthy, males pay more........... because?

Thank you very much Mr./Ms 28 year old. I may pay for your birth control but you get to pay for my knee replacement.

It's a swap I'll take time and time again.

Student Loans

I'm against the student loan program. Why? Because all the student loan program has done is give a blank check to schools to keep ripping off kids who believe that a college education has become the end all, be all, to economic prosperity.

Why do I care if the programs are giant redistribution programs taking money from lower middle class and middle class kids and giving it to college professors and bureaucrats?

Let's just say that I've got my education and never had to sleep one night in my parent's basement after graduation. What's different today?

Minimum wage

I'm against the minimum wage hike. Why? First, because anything that creates barriers for new workers to get into the employment pipeline hurts them, not me.

Secondly, artificially increasing prices on the cost of production creates inflation. Who gets hurt more from inflation? Hint. It's not Donald Trump.

Easy Money

All Big Ben and the Bernake's have done the past couple of decades is create easy money and easy lending policies that created our giant ass home price bubble and subsequent burst.

Has it ever dawned on anyone that in the past three years, the stock market has kicked ass all the while worker's wages have deflated? You can thank big Ben and the Obama Treasury that have helped my 401k but done nothing for middle class job prospects.

In addition, we are totally insulated from another real estate bust since our mortgage is about seven years from being paid off and we're not moving anytime soon.

And even if we did, we've got the flexibility to absorb a downturn in the market. Something most young families didn't have when the foreclosure genie came a calling.


Social programs

You know who gets the most benefit from the food stamp, subsidized housing and other government programs? Try Archer Daniels Midland, landlords, convenience store owners et al.

It's a basic supply and demand exercise. Give people more money, they drive up the prices for basic needs. It's like a giant company store.

I have a client who is flat out getting rich from Section 8 housing. He buys distressed properties for about $10,000, spend about $10k in renovations rents them out for the tidy some of $850/month thanks to the government. He gets his money back in two years.

And then he pays me a lot of money to handle all the tax returns for those properties.

Is this a great country or what?

The bottom line is that as part of being a conservative is that we have to save liberals from themselves. It's really not that much different than a parent/child relationship. You don't let a kid sit and watch TV all day, eat donuts, not go to school because your life experience tells you that long term, it's not good for the kids and you'll pay the price for having them sleep in your basement when they should be out in the world starting their own families and starting the cycle over again.

So why am I a conservative? Because I don't want the country who provided me with so much to turn into Detroit who provides no one with anything.

Why do you need more than 7 rounds?

During the Thanksgiving weekend, this crazy Republican uncle got into the gun control discussion.

While no one expressed any concerns about gun bans, my one sister did wonder why anyone would need a magazine holding more than 6-7 rounds in a gun.

That very night, the city of Columbus provided us with the reason..............

A robbery suspect has died from a gunshot wound he suffered at the hands of one of his alleged victims.

Columbus Police say 23-year-old Jonathan Milton, two other men and a teenage girl tried to rob two people at a west side apartment on Cascade Court Wednesday.

10TV spoke with the robbery victims.  55-year-old Elec Reed says he ran outside for help when the suspects came in.

67-year-old Edward Finnell says that is when one of the robbers pulled a gun on him, and he reacted.

“I didn't want to shoot nobody, but i didn't want to get shot.  Just like something sprang and I was right back in Vietnam again- kill or be killed,” Finnell said.

You have one gun, four intruders. If you only have five in the chamber, you better have one hell of an aim............


More..........

A suspect shot during a home invasion on Thursday has since died, according to police. Jonathon L. Milton and accomplice Carmeore L. Johnson were both shot by a homeowner during a break-in at a Cascade Court home in West Columbus at approximately 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Milton was pronounced dead on Saturday. Both suspects were initially transported to Columbus hospitals in critical condition. Johnson is now listed in stable condition. Police have arrested two additional suspects in relation to this robbery who now face aggravated robbery charges. One suspect also faces a murder charge.

Read More at: http://www.myfox28columbus.com/shared/news/features/top-stories/stories/wsyx_suspect-shot-during-w-columbus-home-invasion-expected-die-27598.shtml

A suspect shot during a home invasion on Thursday has since died, according to police. Jonathon L. Milton and accomplice Carmeore L. Johnson were both shot by a homeowner during a break-in at a Cascade Court home in West Columbus at approximately 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Milton was pronounced dead on Saturday. Both suspects were initially transported to Columbus hospitals in critical condition. Johnson is now listed in stable condition. Police have arrested two additional suspects in relation to this robbery who now face aggravated robbery charges. One suspect also faces a murder charge.

Read More at: http://www.myfox28columbus.com/shared/news/features/top-stories/stories/wsyx_suspect-shot-during-w-columbus-home-invasion-expected-die-27598.shtml

Why are criminals targeting students?

The University of Cincinnati wants Hamilton County judges to crack down on “predatory targeting” of UC students on or near the main campus.

“You have the ability to send a clear, forceful and reverberating message to criminals and the broader community that predatory targeting of UC students will have severe consequences,” UC President Santa Ono and Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell wrote to the county’s Common Pleas Court judges Nov. 19. “We respectfully ask that you do so whenever possible.”

The letter, which judges describe as unprecedented from one of the city’s colleges, underscores just how critical the perception of an unsafe area around campus has become at UC.

UC insists that burglaries and simple assaults are declining. It has spent more than $200,000 on off-duty patrols, cameras and lights in the blocks surrounding campus

“Even so, our students continue to be victimized as a troubling rate that is simply unacceptable,” Ono and Blackwell wrote.

Now you might ask, why would criminals targeting students. Well, they've got lots of toys, Ipads, Ipods, all kinds of Istuff.

You know what they don't have? Guns. Because the University has banned weapons from the campus. So when these kids step off of campus grounds, it's like chum for sharks.

Seriously, it's a basic cost/benefit principle. You'd think a college president would know better.

More.........

Ineptocracy

Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc’-ra-cy), n. A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

Hat Tip Maggie Thurber

It's Time to Apologize, Claire

Chuck Todd: White House's 'Private Sector Velocity' Claim Is Indictment ...

Minimum wage criticism is a joke

I guess some union types are going to be striking to protest low wages at fast food joints.

Let provide some information on the minimum wage.

I have a client who owns a number of fast food restaurants. I just finished the payroll on one of those restaurants. I won't name the franchise specifically. Let's just say that their spokesman is a guy named Jared.

In that restaurant, of the nine employees four are paid minimum wage. It was five last week. But one of the employees, I'll call him Ryan (a teenager), showed he had some meddle and got bumped to $8.00/hr.

Now that's not a lot of money. IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE.

See, that minimum wage got Ryan in the door. Ryan proved himself and got a bump in pay less than 30 days after he started.

My guess is, Ryan does some crazy shit. He probably comes to work, ready to work; meaning he's clean, on time and has a good attitude. Things that used to be a given, now they're called a skill.

He probably showed some interest in learning and moving up, to make more money.

My guess is that within the next thirty days, Ryan will either get another raise, or he will quit for a better opportunity. It's the way the economic ladder works.

Unfortunately, when you make the first rung of that ladder even higher for those first jobs, you limit opportunities for people to get on the first rung and start to move up.

Again, those opportunities won't limit people with "connections" as Kanye West would say. It hurts the people who don't.

If you are a college graduate and can't get your arms around that, you probably failed econ 101, if you took it at all. In which case you probably don't have the skills to work anywhere.

How about a little gratitude

I used to think that the most important quality most liberals lacked was any self awareness; an inability to identify that most of their criticisms of the right where projections of their own issues.

Then I started to recognize that most liberals lack a significant quantity of humility; the belief that they know more about what I need than I do.

But now I'm starting to think that liberals really lack the quality of gratitude.

Take this Ronan Farrow clown.....................

Now you might think that ole Ronan here might be Thankful for that Ivy league Education those
murderous ancestors established there in the northeast.

Or that Park Avenue Penthouse his ancestors traded a few beads for.

Or all those rich ass daddies, Frank and Woody that paid for all of this.

Do you think Ronan is willing to trade all his riches to those poor people his ancestors stole from.

I'm not holding my breath.

Good enough for thee but not for me

Mother Jones, a constant critic of Walmart low pay, isn't exactly enriching it's lowest paid employees...........

Many liberal publications fail to pay their interns living wages, despite decrying employees’ pay at companies like Wal-Mart and McDonalds, Vice’s Charles Davis highlighted Monday.

While failing to pay a “living wage,” at least one liberal publication, Davis reported, advised its interns or “fellows” to get on food stamps. That publication? Mother Jones, ironically named after labor leader Mary Harris Jones.

“During our first meeting with HR at Mother Jones, we were advised to sign up for food stamps,” one former intern told Davis.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/02/liberal-publication-pushes-back-on-food-stamp-claims/#ixzz2mQ85gBXG

looking out for the least of us.........liberal edition

I don't often link to Ann Coulter. I try not to recognize people who say provocative things just for attention.

None the less, this piece at Townhall really hits it out of the park.... Central Park.......

The rich in New York are always the last to experience a spike in crime. They might not even notice when the murder, rape and robbery rates go through the roof under de Blasio -- for the very reasons Barsky names: They can afford expensive neighborhoods, paid parking and concerts at Lincoln Center.

It's the poor and middle-class New Yorkers, unprotected by doormen, chauffeurs and ticket-takers, who will be the first victims of de Blasio's innovative new ideas on policing.

The non-1 percent live in neighborhoods that aren't the province of multimillionaires, with doormen standing guard every 15 yards. They park their cars on the street, eat lunch in public parks and attend free concerts -- all of which are also open to criminals. New-wave Brooklyn is about to become crime-wave Brooklyn.

For a newspaper that claims not to be worried about rising crime rates under de Blasio, the Times sure dedicates a lot of ink to assuring us that it's not going to happen – and if it does, it won’t be de Blasio’s fault. In anticipation of a return to the glory days of David Dinkins, let me be the first to say, I told you so. 

As I always say, I'm not a conservative for my own self interest, but for the least of us who have few tools to deal with liberal degradation.

Major Garrett blows up Jay Carney for dodging question

MSNBC's Democrat Pundit Still Unable To Sign Up For ObamaCare Via Phone ...

Life in "Progress" City - Cleveland edition

An oldie but goodie

Melchior: 'Very Easy for Fraud to Happen' in Obamaphone Program

CBS: ObamaCare Hiking Costs For Employers, Forcing Them To Drop Coverage...

Life in "Progress" City - Detroit edition

Welcome to the motor city.........

They stand guard at his home 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

At first, and even second glance,  you don’t know if they’re real or not. 

A man on Detroit’s west side is so serious about home security, he’s using CPR dummies to help him.

The dummies are dressed as gang members.

 They stand and sit by his front door in an enclosed porch and you can’t miss them.

"I saw someone on the east side doing this and now I’m doing it.  The police stop, look, knock and tell me what a good idea this is,” the man told Local 4.

He won’t reveal his name and only agreed to share his security secrets if  we don’t share what street he lives on.

His home is the last home on his block that is still well cared for. The home is surrounded by vacant, burned out homes that attract criminals.

More......

EPIC FAILURE! Common Core School Covers-Up Failing Test Scores

Obama on "nuclear option"

Thank you Harry

Never underestimate the ability of a democrat to believe that long term thinking extends to the dinner hour.

So Harry Reid decides to drop the "nuclear option" on Senate confirmations.

I like it.

First, The Constitution requires "advice and consent of the Senate" on presidential appointments. It doesn't say that there should be a super majority to approve a confirmation. To me presidents, good and bad, should be able to staff their positions as they see fit.

Second, democrats are much more abt to filibuster a republican nominee than visa versa. Robert Bork would be a Supreme Court Justice today had this rule be in effect.

Third, after the waft of stench from Obamacare wipes out democrats in the next two federal elections, republicans will have a clean slate to put their nominees in place.

So thank you Harry

Welcome to the club

They say that a liberal is a conservative who hasn't been mugged yet.

So welcome to the club Grace Meng............

Congresswoman Grace Meng, a freshman Democrat representing the New York City borough of Queens, was hit in the head and robbed in Washington but was not seriously injured and is back to work.

Meng said Wednesday that she suffered a bruise on her chin and scratches on her arm and knee in the attack Tuesday night near Eastern Market in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. She underwent a CAT scan at George Washington University Hospital.

Meng said she had dinner with a friend at a restaurant and was walking to her apartment when she was hit in the back of the head. She fell and hit her chin. The robber took her purse and fled on foot, she said.

"They came from behind. I didn't see anyone," she said.

More....

Fox4 in Dallas "Will Enroll America Respond?"

Life in "Progress" City - Philadelphia edition

“Knockout” attacks have been reported in several states around the country and now investigators believe three people have been attacked in our area.

Police in Lower Merion are investigating two attacks in the area, and Philadelphia detectives are investigating an attack in Northeast Philadelphia.

It’s a violent crime that in other parts of the country has proven fatal.

Videos from cities around the country show people being punched and beaten at random.

The attackers are calling their crimes a game, the goal being to knock out the victim with one punch.

More.....

How about doing your job for a change

Let's start at the beginning formation of this country.............

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Provide for the common defense? It says it right there in the Preamble of the Constitution. Basically, one of the federal government's primary roles for this country is not, health care, roads, schools, food stamps, etc. it's to defend this country from threats foreign and domestic. In fact, it's right there in each elected senator and representatives oath of office.

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. [So help me God.]

So it seems to me that if you cannot secure our borders against potential invaders, you are negligent in your duties. Nothing else matters if you cannot do this.

It's why I'm against amnesty without first securing the border. If you cannot secure the border why bother doing anything when the problem will just continue.

But if you think I'm just a xenophobe against Hispanics, go for it. I'm just a believer that the government's primary job is to know who's coming in to this country and why.

And it's doing a horrible job.............................

Suspect in Kentucky Discovered to Have Insurgent Past

An intelligence tip initially led the FBI to Waad Ramadan Alwan, 32, in 2009. The Iraqi had claimed to be a refugee who faced persecution back home -- a story that shattered when the FBI found his fingerprints on a cordless phone base that U.S. soldiers dug up in a gravel pile south of Bayji, Iraq on Sept. 1, 2005. The phone base had been wired to unexploded bombs buried in a nearby road.

An ABC News investigation of the flawed U.S. refugee screening system, which was overhauled two years ago, showed that Alwan was mistakenly allowed into the U.S. and resettled in the leafy southern town of Bowling Green, Kentucky, a city of 60,000 which is home to Western Kentucky University and near the Army's Fort Knox and Fort Campbell. Alwan and another Iraqi refugee, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, 26, were resettled in Bowling Green even though both had been detained during the war by Iraqi authorities, according to federal prosecutors.

 More............

Rick Santelli Rages Against Media Over Manipulated Unemployment Data All...

Ooops......ObamaCare So-Called Success Story Says She Can't Afford ObamaCare

Clapton / Knopfler - Can't Find My Way Home

The face of communism

The EPA..........

Philadelphia has 119 fire hydrants that cost about $2,000 each waiting in a warehouse to be installed, yet they sit high and dry because federal regulators say their fittings might taint drinking water with lead.

The City of Brotherly Love and communities across the U.S. face the specter of hundreds of millions of dollars in useless hydrants after a surprise ruling last month by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that requires fireplugs put in after Jan. 4 meet stricter standards for lead content, said Tom Curtis of the American Water Works Association in Denver. That means cities must scrap or retrofit inventory or buy hydrants and parts that some vendors aren’t even making yet.

Manufacturers and Curtis’s group, which represents utilities that serve about 80 percent of Americans, are urging the agency to reconsider or at least allow more time to comply. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., one of the largest hydrant makers, is seeing some customers delay or cancel orders.

“This delivers a huge cost and probably no health protection,” said Curtis, the water group’s deputy executive director. “It needs to be rethought.”

More.....

But if you think the EPA is doing everything necessary to keep the environment clean just google the word ethanol........

But the ethanol era has proven far more damaging to the environment than politicians promised and much worse than the government admits today.

As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found.

Five million acres of land set aside for conservation -- more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined -- have vanished on Obama's watch.

Landowners filled in wetlands. They plowed into pristine prairies, releasing carbon dioxide that had been locked in the soil.

Sprayers pumped out billions of pounds of fertilizer, some of which seeped into drinking water, contaminated rivers and worsened the huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where marine life can't survive.

The consequences are so severe that environmentalists and many scientists have now rejected corn-based ethanol as bad environmental policy. But the Obama administration stands by it, highlighting its benefits to the farming industry rather than any negative impact.

More..........

More from President Master of the Obvious

"What we're also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy"

Maybe you should have thought about that before you signed the damn law. Of course, this is the quote from a man who's never done shit in his life.


Funny, here are the other insurance policies I own.
1) Auto insurance
2) Home owner insurance
3) Life insurance
4) Disability insurance.
5) Professional liability insurance

They seemed to be fairly simple to purchase for me.

I call my agent, give them the particular deductibles, amount of coverage figures. They inform/sell me additional coverages for things like uninsured motorist, loan repayment, earthquake, sink hole, etc coverages. I say yeah or nay and we're done.

Why is health insurance so damn complicated? Maybe because the government is more involved? 

Why I should be in the White House Press Pool

"If you like your insurance, you can keep it. Period."

Of course the talking points have been coming out that this only impacts the individual mandate, likely only 5 million people out of 300 million impacted.

When is someone in the press pool going to ask the question,

"since you've delayed the employer mandate until next year, will you be willing to tell business owners who like their insurance policies that they will be able to keep them?"

I think I said that

Someone from Politico is catching on to something I pointed out three weeks ago.

It’s the cardinal rule of marketing management: Under-promise and over-deliver. If the sign at “Pirates of the Caribbean” says the wait is 45 minutes, and your kids are floating along on the ride in half that time, Disneyland really is the Happiest Place on Earth.

So it’s little wonder that the glaring contrast between the White House’s perpetually optimistic talk about its health care plan — “Try it! You’ll like it!” — and the messy realities of its rollout has sent President Barack Obama’s job approval ratings to all-time lows, and for the first time left the public with a negative view of his honesty in some surveys.

 

From the start, the plan was more complex and unpredictable than Obama liked to acknowledge, reliant as it was on the profit-driven market forces of the private insurance industry, individually regulated in all 50 states. And his strategy for selling it was always based on an unspoken assumption that the public could not tolerate such unpleasant truths.

To be fair, the all-out partisan war to pass the bill, and then to defend it in the courts and Congress, was hardly the time for the president to warn, “This might not work right away, folks.”

But it is nevertheless Obama’s own months of upbeat predictions that have now left a chastened president grappling to restore his credibility, as he did on Thursday by announcing he would allow insurers to extend by a year the substandard plans they recently cancelled to comply with the new law’s demands for fuller coverage.

And it remains to be seen whether that attempted fix (which is voluntary) will satisfy the millions of Americans at risk of losing their current coverage — or stave off demands from restive Democrats in Congress for a legislative remedy. “I am confident that by — by the time we look back on this next year, that people are going to say this is working well, and it’s helping a lot of people,” Obama predicted.

Maybe so. But if not, Obama’s latest claim will be just one more unmet expectation to be thrown back in the face of a leader who likes to tell his own worried aides when things are going badly, “I got this.” Except when he doesn’t.

More.....

Vetting the president

I've made the point on this blog that liberals do their candidates no favors but refusing to properly vet their candidates and/or their programs.

Seriously, let's face it, had the media properly vetted Obama, they probably would have ended up with the Billary as president.

And as much as I could stand the Clinton's it would have been a 1000% improvement over a president whop had never run anything in his life; let alone the entire free world.

And if the media had vetted Obamacare, they would have put enough pressure on the administration to ensure that this thing would have been rolled out correctly.

Instead we are bordering on a health care system that is FUBAR.

Byron York with the analysis..........

The journalist Jonathan Cohn, an ardent supporter of Obamacare, recently wrote in The New Republic that problems with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act should be "an opportunity to have a serious conversation about the law's tradeoffs — the one that should have happened a while ago."

Cohn is right that there was no serious conversation about those tradeoffs back when Congress was considering the law's passage in 2009 and 2010. But why was that? It was because President Obama and his Democratic allies could not speak seriously — and honestly — about those tradeoffs and still pass their bill.

So instead, Obama assured Americans they could keep health care policies they liked. And it wasn't just Obama. "One of our core principles is that if you like the health care you have, you can keep it," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in August 2009. "If you like what you have, you can keep it," said then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in October of the same year.

Now they're looking at losing power for an entire generation.

More.....

Obamacare Navigator Fraud Rampant, Not "Isolated Incident"

Good luck with that

So the president is going to give permission to "bad apple" insurance companies to sell those "substandard" policies.



So tomorrow, you'll be able to call your insurance company and get that lowly policy.

NOT SO FAST!

Read my post from a couple of days ago. This isn't like restocking snicker bars on a store shelf.

Hopefully, the media will get that.

Atlas Shrugged... and left town

You can add Tina Turner to this list of people who are taking their ball and going home...........

Apparently for some U.S. citizens it's true—you can't go home again!

The Treasury Department published the names of 560 Americans who renounced their citizenship or are long-term residents who gave back their green cards during the third quarter of 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to tax lawyer Andrew Mitchel who tracks the data, these expatriations reached a record high of 2,369 for the year. The prior highest number of published expatriates was in 2011, said Mitchel.

How's this for a parting gift? Taxpayers who renounce their citizenship or turn in their green card can be subject to an exit tax. People who renounced last year might have avoided higher taxes on income and estates—including those on long-term capital gains—which took effect in 2013.

"The reality is that the U.S. tax system gives dual citizens a good reason to walk away from their U.S. citizenship or permanent-resident status," said Jeffrey Neiman, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "It's a painful process but easier than staying in compliance with the law."

More....

What food stamps can buy for you

2 - 2 liter bottles of Coca Cola
2 bags of pretzels
2 pkgs of Chewy Sweet Tarts
2 Five hour energy's
2 packs of Marlboro Black

In other words, the Breakfast of Champions.

For the record, the woman in front of me did pay cash for the Marlboro's but consider that she might have used that cash to buy that delicious start to the day and not had the cash available to purchase the smokes.

But watching this woman had me thinking about all those Obamunists who are complaining that they are subsidizing other people's health care.

Consider this.

For all those people who smoke, chew tobacco, are obese, own guns, you get to pay for their healthcare despite the horrible choices that results in their "preexisting" condition.

Isn't it great!

Delaying obamacare isn't possible

One of the things I've been telling friends family & clients is that it really isn't possible to delay the Obamacare mandates.

Why?

Let's use the automobile business as an example. Let's assume that you're releasing a new model effective January 1. Unfortunately, the transmission supplier says they can't deliver transmissions until one month before you're to begin delivery of the new model.

You really can't go back to last year's model and retool all of your factories to kick out new cars; it's too impractical.

For sure, insurance is not the auto business. First, insurance companies don't have the complexities of production runs. At the same time, an auto company has the benefit of delaying release of a product because no one needs that product. Insurance isn't something you can bring 200,000 people on line when 20,000 will have some medical issue beginning January, 2014.

They just can't go back to their customers and say "Hey, remember those policies you used to have? We're going to bring those back". There's way too many complicated actuarial processes, lined up service providers, support staff training, etc. for an insurance company to bring back all those policies in one month when they effectively killed all that off with the Obamacare regulations a year ago.

It cannot be done. It would be like starting a whole new health insurance provider and new policies in one month.

While I find it funny that the Obamunists may finally get their comeuppance, I do believe that we are looking at a first class medical crisis.

Megan McCardle has the time line of the insurance dominoes falling here. You should read the entire thing. It's right out of a Stephen King hospital movie.

Millions of people are facing those cancellation letters. Ideally, we could just say, never mind -- let these people simply stay on their current policies. But here's maybe the biggest irony in this whole mess. The Obama administration may not be ready for Obamacare but the insurance industry is. The health insurance companies spent the last many months rolling their old policies off the books and replacing them with the 2014 Obamacare compliant products -- Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum….

I suppose it might be possible to get insurance commissioners to waive their requirements but even if they did how could the insurance industry reprogram systems in less than a month that took months to program in the first place, contact the millions impacted, explain their new options (they could still try to get one of the new policies with a subsidy), and get their approval?

More...

Life in "Progress" City - Chicago edition

Fitch Ratings has downgraded the credit worthiness of Chicago's bond debt because of its public pension problems.

Fitch dropped the rating from AA- to A- on $8 billion in general obligation bonds, backed by property taxes.

It also dropped the rating on $497 million in sales tax bonds — paid for by both the city's local sales tax and its share of the state sales tax. And the rating was downgraded on $200 million in commercial paper notes, financed by a general obligation pledge from any available city fund.

Friday's downgrade stems from "the lack of meaningful solutions" to the city's pension situation. City and fire pension programs have no more than 30 percent of the money needed to cover obligations.

The downgrade makes it more expensive to borrow money.

Johnathan Martin meets his "bully"

Yesterday, I turned on the Ravens/Bengals game just in time to watch Michael Oher (of Blind Side Fame) drive a Bengal defensive tackle five yards down the field and pancake him into the turf.

I couldn't help but think how humiliating it might have been to dominated so thoroughly. Then, what really came to mind was that football is the ultimate game of bullying. Moving a guy who's trying to move you is the ultimate form of humiliation or "bullying" to coin today's vernacular.

I'm sure that when that particular play started, that Bengals DL would have like nothing more than to do the same to Oher and stand over him like Mohammed Ali stood over top of Sonny Liston.... the ultimate humiliation.

How many times in high school and college did Johnathan Martin pancake a well undersized defensive lineman and either talked trash or mocked him. My guess is quite a few.

Now he gets to the NFL where the guys are just as big and tougher to dominate. Your teammates ride, harass and haze you as training for the Big Show. If you can't stand up to the guys on your side how are you ever going to take on guys like Reggie White?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not an apologist for Richie Incognito. The fact that that guy has managed to not be suspended for steroid use is a testament to the NFL's horrible drug testing policy. The guy is a walking bottle of Anabol. He would never be on a team I ran.

None the less, the NFL isn't for the faint of heart. I once met a guy who signed on the the Seattle Seahawks as a free agent wide receiver. He told me that the first pass he caught, Kenny Easley hit him, drove him into the turf and buried him helmet right into the based of his spine.

When he got up, Easley told him the next time he would be in two pieces.

He told me that he handed the ball to a coach and said "screw this, I've got a degree".

That's life in the NFL. It's a game where bully meets bully.

Unfortunately, for Johnathan Martin, he was so used to bullying everyone else in his career, he never new what it was like to be on the other end.

A wager opportunity for a liberal

If you are a lefty, you gotta love two things.

1) New York elects a socialist/marxist/communist as their mayor.

2) Making a conservative, like me, eat his words and enrich you by taking $1,000 out of my pocket.

So let's combine the two and make it happen.

I'll let you pick any objective (ie measurable) quality of life index. It could be school performance, unemployment, tax rates, crime rates, income distribution, etc. You pick the measurement.

At the end of Bill DeBlasio's four year term, if that measurment is better, I'll deliver 10 crisp $100.00 bills to you, to a place and time of your choice.

If you lose, you bring the same to me.

Now is the chance you've been waiting for, making some conservative pay for a couple of months of your new Obamacare policy.

Of course, I do have some history on my side. I remember Ed Koch, David Dinkins and bums sleeping in Times Square.

None the less, show me you have some guts and let's get it on.

Dear Millenial

This is an absolute must read for everyone..............

You Millenials voted for Obama by a margin of 28 percent, which will make it a lot easier for me to accept the benefits you will be paying for. We warned you that liberalism was a scam designed to take the fruits of your labor and transfer it to us, the older, established generation. Oh, and also to the couch-dwelling, Democrat-voting losers who live off of food stamps and order junk from QVC with their Obamaphones.
You didn’t listen to us. Maybe you’ll listen to pain.
I have been told that being hard on you Millennials will turn you against conservatism, that I should offer you a positive, hopeful message that avoids the touchy problem of your manifest stupidity.

No. There’s no sugar-coating it – your votes for Democrats have ensured that you are the first generation in American history that will fail to exceed what their parents attained. Embracing liberalism was a stupid thing to do, done for the stupidest of reasons, and I will now let you subsidize my affluent lifestyle without a shred of guilt. 

Force your kids and grandkids to read this whole thing.

The best education I received in my life was from the school of hard knocks. Millenials are about to get a Masters Degree from there.
 

Why I'll never vote for another school levy

Liberalism = Projection

Don't take my word for it.

Here's a liberal's word.....................

I realize now that my prejudices against conservatives were, in many ways, just as uncompromising as the prejudices I’d often projected onto them. They were just people. Not issues. Not votes. People whose daughters go to school with my daughters, whose dogs run away and come back and run away again, whose hands found my shoulders and who didn’t judge, the night I wept over a friend who had taken her own life.

 More....

Gordon loses his PCP

Obamacare hits home.

The Lovely Mrs. Gekko has been on my back to get a physical. Which at 50 I know that means a colonoscopy, prostate checks and the like.

I've been putting it off all summer but Friday I decided to call and set up my appointment only to find out that my doc moved on to the VA a year ago (BTW thank you for letting me know).

I liked my doc because he was my age so any inflictions I might have he could relate to. But I knew the last time I saw him, he wasn't going to be up for all this new crap.

He wanted to practice medicine, he wasn't a business man. For kicks, I'm sure he'd rather be checking out X-rays than receivable agings.

What's interesting is that his remaining partners are not taking on new clients but they referred me to a Dr Bahti. I'm not a racist but I am a linguist. I insist on being able to understand what my doc is telling me.

So now I have to go through the manual to see who is approved under my wife's plan, see that they are taking new patients and get in for an appointment.

Our industrious president would call this an opportunity to shop. I'm calling it out as a pain in the ass.

Who did she vote for? #818

Meet Paula Howard. Why is Paula in the news?

A Florida woman was arrested by authorities Thursday for allegedly acting as a madam for her three teen daughters — two of whom are minors.

Paula Howard was caught in a sting operation offering either one of her girls — ages 16, 16 and 18 — to have sex with a detective in exchange for money, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

So in the last election, did Paula support Obama or Romney?

 

More.......

oooops

I guess he thought the tooth fairy picked up the plan

Another disillusioned liberal...................

My old plan was as bare-bones as they came, so I assumed that even though the new plan would cost more, my coverage would improve under Obamacare, at least marginally.

It did not.

Under my old plan, my maximum out-of-pocket expense was $4,900. Under the new plan, I’m on the hook for up to $6,350. Copays for my doctor visits will double. For urgent-care visits, they will quadruple. Though slightly cheaper plans exist if I decide to shop around on the exchange, I will lose my dental coverage should I switch.

Needless to say, I am not pleased.  

Most young, middle-class Americans I know are happy that millions of previously uninsured people will receive free or heavily subsidized insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

We just didn’t realize that, unless we had health insurance at work, we’d be the ones paying for it.

Dude, I feel your pain............ Actually I don't because because I didn't vote for these assholes. Oh and thank you Matthew for paying for my colonoscopy.

More.....

Who did she vote for? #10101

Did this voter support Romney or Obama in the last election?

Life in "Progress" State - Illinois edition

So you plan to retire with a nice cushy state of Illinois public pension?

In the words of Lee Corso........ "not so fast!"

This is scarier than waking up with The Billary...........

All Five Systems Bankrupt

TRS, SERS,SURS, JRS, and GARS are all insolvent. None of them can possibly meet their pension obligations. With 10-year treasuries yielding a scant 2.5%, plan assumptions of 8% are preposterously high on a sustained basis.

Yet, TRS went another $3.5 billion in the hole in spite of a 12.8% annual return.

What the hell is TRS going to do in the face of a stock market plunge, a bond market plunge, or both?

GARS, the General Assembly Retirement System is only 17.4% funded. Is it any wonder that state legislators are pressing for more tax hikes?
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/10/illinois-teachers-retirement-fund-is-40.html#VPhtSHoRC5a73koI.99

First, TRS only has $0.40 in the bank for every dollar it should have today to make necessary pension payouts in the future. That means the high investment returns in 2013 were earned on less than half of the assets that TRS should have

TRS acknowledged this in a recent press release:

"Despite these strong returns, TRS cannot invest its way out of the funding hole we are in,” Ingram added. “This increase in the System’s unfunded liability, even with good investment results, is another wake-up call to state officials and our members that TRS long-term finances continue to head in the wrong direction."
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/10/illinois-teachers-retirement-fund-is-40.html#VPhtSHoRC5a73koI.99

First, TRS only has $0.40 in the bank for every dollar it should have today to make necessary pension payouts in the future. That means the high investment returns in 2013 were earned on less than half of the assets that TRS should have

TRS acknowledged this in a recent press release:

"Despite these strong returns, TRS cannot invest its way out of the funding hole we are in,” Ingram added. “This increase in the System’s unfunded liability, even with good investment results, is another wake-up call to state officials and our members that TRS long-term finances continue to head in the wrong direction."
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/10/illinois-teachers-retirement-fund-is-40.html#VPhtSHoRC5a73koI.99

In spite of a 12.8% annual return, with an 8% return assumption, the Illinois Teachers Retirement System (TRS) fell another $3.5 billion in the hole. TRS pension underfunding grew to $55.73 billion as of June 30, 2013.
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/10/illinois-teachers-retirement-fund-is-40.html#VPhtSHoRC5a73koI.99

Where's Linda Douglas today

A new definition of Capitalism

bullying

Ouch.... Richard Cohen's not going to want to listen to his voicemails

Because the Obamunists will clearly be on attack with this column......

Where is Casey Stengel when we need him? In 1962, as the manager of the brand new and determinedly hapless New York Mets — 40 wins, 120 losses — he looked up and down his bench one dismal day and wondered, “Can’t anybody here play this game?” That phrase kept coming at me recently as I watched the impressively inept performance of the Obama administration in both foreign and domestic policy. On a given day, this administration makes the ’62 Mets look good. 

This is a surprise — at least to me. If Barack Obama has an image, it is of the infinitely cool, cerebral leader. The man can give a rousing speech, but he is, at heart, a planner and a plodder. Both of his presidential campaigns were exercises in micromanagement — digital all the way. Obama was the better candidate, but he had, by far, the better organization. 

Yet this same man has lately so mishandled both domestic and foreign policy that he is in mortal peril of altering his image. This unsettling and uncharacteristic incompetence became shockingly clear when Obama failed to come to grips with the Syrian civil war. I did not agree with the president’s do-nothing policy, but at least it was both a policy and intellectually coherent. What followed, though, was both intellectually incoherent and pathetically inconsistent — a “red line” that came out of nowhere and then mysteriously evaporated and a missile strike that was threatened and then abandoned. It was a policy so wavering that if Obama were driving, he would be forced to take a breathalyzer. 

The debacle of the Affordable Care Act’s Web site raised similar questions about confidence. This was supposed to be Obama’s Big Deal. The president has other accomplishments — navigating out of the Great Recession was no minor feat — but restoring the status quo does not get your face on Mount Rushmore. It takes achievement, a program — something new and wonderful. The Affordable Care Act was supposed to be it.

I guess we're all racists now.


 More......

You have a choice, but it has to be the right choice

Sally Kohn, like most liberals in the crosshairs today, are espousing the following meme on the healthcare debacle. Sure we lied to you about keeping your existing healthcare because you now get extra special insurance above and beyond what you liked before.........

Conservatives are expressing shock and outrage that the Obama administration knew that many people in the individual insurance market would not be able to keep their plans once the Affordable Care Act took effect. Such shock is not surprising; overblown outrage is the stock and trade of conservative politics these days.

But here's what conservatives won't tell you, lest it undermine their theatrics: Many insurance plans are shutting down because they don't meet the higher bar of quality benefits required under Obamacare, and of those people who lose access to their plans, many will pay less and all will have better and more comprehensive options.

So of course, you may have liked your previous insurance but you now how mental health coverage you didn't have before. Pediatric dentistry, prenatal care, and birth control are also new coverages your too stupid to know you have. Even though you're a 50 year old without kids.

 George Will kick this in the nuts right here............

Morning Joe montage shows White House denying knowledge of various scandals

Obama League Management

Years ago, I worked for a large auditing firm. As part of any audit engagement, the CPA firm will issue a management letter to the company's management and audit committee.

On one particular audit, we were going to be issuing a particularly negative management letter to the company. Troublesome, because they pay your fee and if they don't like it, you won't be inivited back to do the next audit.

None the less, as we were working on the audit, I made a comment to one of the controllers that "everything was OK". My supervisor pulled me aside, and told me "Look, when you talk to these people, they need to get the message that nothing is OK. They're going to get a bad letter from us and the last thing we want is push back from the company telling us that they were blindsided. In the future, whenever you talk to these people, pick out something that is a problem. If you can't think of one, tell them the coffee sucks."

Basically, what he was telling me is to set people up for bad news. Start building the foundation for it so people aren't so surprised. You'll get less shit in the end.

It's also a spin off of the "under promise, over deliver" business mantra that you learn in, usually, your second day on a job........... any job.


So how is it that the Obamaunists so screwed up this healthcare roll out?  Did they just expect that people would get these insurance cancellations and say "oh gee Wally"?

Did they expect that the media would continue to carry their lagoon of water for them and just fail to report all this? Sort of, if a tree makes a sound and no one's around to report it, it didn't happen?

I'd call it Bush league. But idiots (ie liberals) would think I was referring to the last president.

Which brings me to what the president knows and when did he learn it? Literally. Maybe the media needs to ask the question of the inventory of knowledge this guy actually has. He's the Sargent Schultz of presidents.

Seriously, this guy has no idea what's happening in his own government unless it's reported on an ESPN crawler under a football game?


Heathcare.gov debacle - didn't know
Benghazi - Didn't know
NSA Spying - Didn't know
IRS targeting - Didn't know
Fast and Furious - Didn't know

The list goes on and on.

WTF does this guy do during the day? It's clearly not getting briefings from his underlings.

Now if you or I were running a company, any company, say, Lowes and we failed to tell the board that the earnings report would be 98% below estimates and the Board had to learn about it through the Wall Street Journal, how long would we keep our job?

I'm still wondering when the media is going to get the smelling salts and start really reporting the lack of management skills this administration has.

Bring us Bush League.

Megyn Kelly Snaps at Dem Guest Over Obamacare: Don't Go to Your 'Happy P...

Reporter Audrey Hudson: Feds Took Private Notes in Clear Sign of Intimid...

It's not insurance, it's a co-op

Why Obamacare will ultimately fail. Because it's really not an insurance business model. It's more of a Co-op.

Here's a great piece explaining it here............

Experts say that young, healthy people must enroll in ObamaCare’s health exchanges to cover the cost of insuring sicker, older people. It’s a simple math equation: Charge everyone roughly the same rate for access to basically the same product. The people who use it less will subsidize the people who use it more.

The problem with this plan is that it hoses young, relatively poor people like me right when we least need high bills for services they’re not using. And it helps older, relatively rich people who should be able to afford the care they need. If America’s downtrodden and struggling young people are smart, they’ll opt out. Then it’ll be up to the federal government to fine them enough to make up for the shortfall.

First, let’s look at the math. As Nick Gillespie and Veronique de Rugy have pointed out for Reason magazine, the concept of today’s older generation as impoverished is simply wrong. 

In fact, today’s seniors are far wealthier than today’s young adults.

Looking at rates of homeownership, 83% of elderly households own a home. Meanwhile, 36% of millennials are still living under their parents’ roof. Those over 65 years of age have much lower poverty rates than most other demographic groups. Households headed by people 65 or older have 22 times the wealth of households headed by people under 35.

For a while, whenever I would see a buddy of mine (an executive of a Fortune 500 company), I would buy him a beer and thank him for subsidizing my healthcare.

But I totally had it screwed up, I should be going to night clubs and thanking all those young thirty year old baristas for subsidizing my healthcare.

More.......

Brit Hume Challenges Juan Williams: 'Whose Idea of Better Coverage, the ...

You know as much flack as poor Juan got on this, I think I need to step in for the poor guy.

You see, I went to the Kaiser Foundation site to see what my insurance premium would be under Obamacare and I found that the premium would be $4000/year (333.33/month). Now that it a steep increase from what my premium was prior to going on my wife's coverage ($129/month).

But see, prior to Obamacare, I had no abortion or birth control coverage. For sure, as a 50 year old guy, I'm not thinking I'll need it anytime in the future. But who knows? If I somehow end up with an unplanned pregnancy, I'm sure the bills will be astronomical.

So is that extra coverage worth a $200 a month increase with a $1000 increased deductible?

According to guys like Juan, it must be because the government says so.

Conservatism - Saving liberals from themselves

So liberals are always looking out for the little guys.

How much of that equation went into the total mismanagment of Detroit's fiscal mess?

Now retirees, who have few options later in life can expect...........


A key claim made by attorneys representing the city's unions, retirees and pension funds is that Orr and his team were intent on filing for bankruptcy and did not make best efforts to negotiate with them prior to the bankruptcy filing. They also claim that plans to cut pensions would violate the Michigan Constitution.

On Friday, city financial consultant Kenneth Buckfire said he did not have to recommend to Orr that pensions for the city's retirees be cut as a way to help Detroit navigate through debts and liabilities that total $18.5 billion.

Buckfire said it was clear that the city did not have the funds to pay the unsecured pension payouts without cutting them.

"It was a function of the mathematics," said Buckfire, who said he did not think it was necessary for him or anyone else to recommend pension cuts to Orr.

"Are you saying it was so self-evident that no one had to say it?" asked Claude Montgomery, attorney for a committee of retirees that was created by Rhodes.

"Yes," Buckfire answered.

Buckfire, a Detroit native and investment banker with restructuring experience, later told the court the city plans to pay unsecured creditors, including the city's pensioners, 16 cents on the dollar. There are about 23,500 city retirees.

More..........

Where's Halliburton when you need them?

Maybe they can finish the projects the Obamunists seem to have a hard time closing..................

CGI Federal Inc., the mastermind behind healthcare.gov, is assisting the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the distribution of $1.7 billion in relief for Hurricane Sandy.

In a memo obtained by FreedomWorks titled, “Minutes of the 295th meeting of the members of the Housing Trust Fund Corporation held on May 9, 2013, at 8:30 a.m.,” CGI Federal is tasked with implementing the Disaster Housing Assistance Program. Additionally, they are asked to aid in the implementation of the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program, an assistance program that had recently obtained $1.7 billion.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/26/company-behind-obamacare-website-in-charge-of-nearly-2-billion-in-sandy-relief/#ixzz2iyRUma9L

What's going on at CBS?

Until three weeks ago, I probably hadn't watched a 60 minutes in 10 years. But they've actually had a couple of good segments.

Tonight was a segment on Benghazi, I told the Lovely Mrs. Gekko that CBS must be trying to attract a republican or two to their viewership.

It was a good segment until I realized a couple of things. One, their wasn't anything unearthed that Brett Baier, of Fox News hadn't reported on over six months ago. Two, there was absolutely no attempt to get a reaction from the administration or the State Dept. on the lack of security.

We didn't even get one of those "We attempted to get a statement from the State dept. but they declined" comments.

In fact, there was no mention of the people responsible for the security in Benghazi at all in the piece.

Was this segment CBS's attempt to say "hey, remember, we covered this a long time ago"?

Probably.

CBS: ObamaCare System Threatened From High Medicaid Enrollment In Many S...

If you like your plan, you'll be able to keep your plan

A one sided love affair

Probably the largest disconnect I see with liberal media is their constant love for lefty pols when history proves time and time again, the love isn't mutual.

Let's face it. When the communist come marching in the first heads to be lopped off are your friendly journalists.

So it really comes as no surprise to me that the assaults on journalists by the Obamaunists look more and more like storm trooper attacks...........

A veteran Washington D.C. investigative journalist says the Department of Homeland Security confiscated a stack of her confidential files during a raid of her home in August — leading her to fear that a number of her sources inside the federal government have now been exposed.

In an interview with The Daily Caller, journalist Audrey Hudson revealed that the Department of Homeland Security and Maryland State Police were involved in a predawn raid of her Shady Side, Md. home on Aug. 6. Hudson is a former Washington Times reporter and current freelance reporter.

A search warrant obtained by TheDC indicates that the August raid allowed law enforcement to search for firearms inside her home.

The document notes that her husband, Paul Flanagan, was found guilty in 1986 to resisting arrest in Prince George’s County. The warrant called for police to search the residence they share and seize all weapons and ammunition because he is prohibited under the law from possessing firearms.

But without Hudson’s knowledge, the agents also confiscated a batch of documents that contained information about sources inside the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, she said.

Outraged over the seizure, Hudson is now speaking out. She said no subpoena for the notes was presented during the raid and argues the confiscation was outside of the search warrant’s parameter.

“They took my notes without my knowledge and without legal authority to do so,” Hudson said this week. “The search warrant they presented said nothing about walking out of here with a single sheet of paper.”

So my message to all the journalists out there. This is what you campaigned for.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/25/exclusive-feds-confiscate-investigative-reporters-confidential-files-during-raid/#ixzz2ikb9xIbZ