tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86553198979931510772024-03-04T23:23:27.602-08:00Restore AmericaBobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.comBlogger517125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-55808186847497582602013-12-30T08:35:00.000-08:002013-12-30T08:35:22.557-08:00In a nutshell - why Obama and his cronies cannot fix the problems they have created for all American people...even the informed, patriotic citizens who knew better than to support the most radical, left-wing, anti-American president our country has ever had to endure...New Today on Fox News Opinion: security analyst <strong>K.T. McFarland
</strong><a href="http://email.foxnews.com/t?r=6&c=23813&l=173&ctl=46778:2CFDD10E0CBFE6451913A187765473E5&" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window">considers</a> why 2013 was a horrible year for <strong>President
Obama</strong>. “The problems of 2013 – like ObamaCare, unemployment, Iran’s
nuclear program, Al Qaeda’s expansion – won’t go away just because the calendar
year changes. They will only be solved when the president and his advisers make
some course corrections. But, I predict they won’t. Frankly, they probably
can’t. The problem with people who live in a world of speeches and books and
theories is they don’t know how to fix things in the real world when they go
wrong. They feign ignorance, blame others, and make another eloquent speech.
That's bad for the president and really bad for the country.”]BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-88530046575194425772013-12-27T20:19:00.000-08:002013-12-27T20:19:16.767-08:00Wall Street advisor recommends guns, ammo for protection in collapse<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rick Moran<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It's always smart to prepare for the
worst - especially when "the worst" could be very very bad indeed.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One Wall Street advisor is
recommending investors put together a "bug-out bag" that includes
food, gun, and ammo in case the financial system melts down and a full blown
social collapse occurs.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/be-prepared-wall-street-advisor-recommends-guns-ammo-for-protection-in-collapse/article/2541205">Washington Examiner:</a></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A top financial advisor, worried
that <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/section/obamacare" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Obamacare</span></a>, the <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/section/nsa" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">NSA spying scandal</span></a> and
spiraling national debt is increasing the chances for a fiscal and social
disaster, is recommending that Americans prepare a "bug-out bag" that
includes food, a gun and ammo to help them stay alive.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">David John Marotta, a Wall Street
expert and financial advisor and <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidmarotta/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Forbes</span></a> contributor,
said in a note to investors, "Firearms are the last item on the list, but
they are on the list. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are some terrible people in this world. And you are
safer when your trusted neighbors have firearms."</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His memo is part of a series
addressing the potential for a "<a href="http://www.emarotta.com/is-a-financial-apocalypse-coming/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">financial apocalypse</span></a>."
His view, however, is that the problems plaguing the country won't result in
armageddon. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"There is the possibility of a precipitous decline, although a
long and drawn out malaise is much more likely," said the Charlottesville,
Va.-based president of Marotta Wealth Management.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Marotta said that many clients fear
an end-of-the-world scenario. He doesn't agree with that outcome, but does with
much of what has people worried.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"I, along with many other
economists, agree with many of the concerns expressed in these dire warnings.
The growing <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/section/budgets-and-deficits" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">debt and
deficit</span></a> spending is a tax on those holding dollars. The devaluation
in the U.S. dollar risks the dollar's status as the reserve currency of the
world. Obamacare was the worst legislation in the past 75 years. Socialism is
on the rise and the NSA really is abrogating vast portions of the Constitution.
I don't disagree with their concerns," he wrote.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In his <a href="http://www.emarotta.com/should-i-be-storing-food-water-and-firearms/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">latest note</span></a>,
he said that Americans should have a survival kit to take in case of a
financial or natural disaster. It should be filled with items that will help
them stay alive for the first 72-hours of a crisis, including firearms.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are some economists who
believe a collapse is inevitable. They make a convincing case, but fail in one,
important measure; when theory meets reality, the theory usually collapses. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Governments have gotten away with
kicking the debt and deficit can down the road, hoping something will turn up
to reverse the process. So far, nothing has. But that doesn't mean it can't be
reversed, or that the consequences won't be as bad as many are predicting.
There are so many unforeseen factors at work that predictability goes out the
window when reality intrudes. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What is driving governments in times
of crisis is fear of the unknown. The TARP bailout was presented as the only
alternative to depression. Same for the auto bailout. Were they right? We'll
never know for sure, but I suspect that if the banks had not been "too big
to fail," we would have gotten something far less than 1929 and perhaps a
little worse than what happened in 2008. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When you think about it, how much
worse could it have been? We're 5 years on still suffering from high
unemployment and sluggish growth. It's hard to imagine a depression causing
much more hardship than Obama's policies have already done.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A financial collapse would be very
bad, but would actually lead to neighbor turning on neighbor, and roving gangs
of thugs looking to steal food and fuel? No one knows, which makes a "bug
out bag" a good investment. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>Page Printed from:
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at December 27, 2013 - 10:15:58 PM CST </span>BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-3285573792674473432013-12-10T06:36:00.001-08:002013-12-10T06:36:28.390-08:00Like they say, a picture's worth a thousand words...maybe even more in this case...MERRY CHRISTMAS!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTuLkEQHZX_0YJPCuKwFQ0NwpMiX_GolgJcA3CjojD63yoEV2ms1xlyC46469Y5k1wgf9a2pNoKZwD9wT0Da5j6VSC-MprR19cwBNTkj97sb64FsZt5zHUfXnKzeO43N6KscoKJgOmFcTb/s1600/Xmas+Tree+versus+Holiday+Tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTuLkEQHZX_0YJPCuKwFQ0NwpMiX_GolgJcA3CjojD63yoEV2ms1xlyC46469Y5k1wgf9a2pNoKZwD9wT0Da5j6VSC-MprR19cwBNTkj97sb64FsZt5zHUfXnKzeO43N6KscoKJgOmFcTb/s400/Xmas+Tree+versus+Holiday+Tree.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-38877239248131313622013-12-01T05:01:00.001-08:002013-12-01T05:01:40.245-08:00Our illustrious, bored, leader..."...the ultimate example of an 'empty suit'.”<header class="entry-header">
<h1 class="entry-title">
Thankful That Liberalism is Crashing</h1>
<!-- meta-date -->
<div class="meta-date">
Posted 11.28.13 by <a href="http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/" rel="author external" title="Visit Alan Caruba’s website">Alan
Caruba</a>, Guest Contributor<br />
TPNN<br />
<br />
Once seen as the Messiah of Liberalism, Obama is
crashing faster than the Obamacare website.<br />
<br />
On Thanksgiving 2013, it may seem that the nation has little to be thankful
for, but if you pull back from the headlines and other news, it is clear that
Obama’s presidency is seriously damaged and will remain so until and after he is
gone. That’s worth celebrating.<br />
<br />
I must confess I am luxuriating in the knowledge of Obama’s present misery. I
am enjoying it as someone who predicted he would fail—and fail spectacularly—and
yet I know, despite his present unhappiness, he has no idea why it is
happening.<br />
<br />
The German word for taking pleasure in another’s failure or ill fortune is
“schadenfreude.” Since this is generally regarded as unseemly, one usually keeps
it to himself, but there is no need for that in Obama’s case. A small legion of
conservative pundits has been warning about the consequences of Obamacare since
Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010.<br />
<br />
The bill is so badly flawed that, even with three years to prepare for its
rollout, the administration made a mess of that. Those who know more about it
than I predict that it will simply implode for lack of people—mostly the young
and healthy—who will not participate in the exchanges. The horror stories will
begin to mount as we learn of those who lost their insurance coverage, were
unable to pay huge, increased premiums, and die as a result. <br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">In October, Daniel Henniger, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal,
described it this way: “Let us try to understand what is happening now with the
Obama presidency. On display to everyone watching this week is not merely the
failure of a federal website or a software program or Ms. Sebelius’s management
skills. </span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">This is the failure of the very idea of progressive government. Not
liberal government. Progressive government.”</span><span style="text-align: justify;">That’s an important difference. Henniger is talking about communism because
“progressive” is the term that has been adopted to disguise communism. In the
1950s, when I was growing up, communism was called communism because people knew
the Soviet Union was communist and that it was the enemy, It is still the enemy,
most particularly of freedom and, beyond that, of free market capitalism that
facilitates better lives for those who live in nations that exercise it.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">The problem for America has been the way it has moved to the left since the
dawn of the last century, adopting all manner of “entitlement” programs, but
both Social Security and Medicare will be insolvent soon unless they are
reformed to reflect the changing demographics of a growing, aging population.
The move to the left increased the size and scope of the federal government in
ways the Founders would never have imagined or wanted.</span><span style="text-align: justify;">Our present miseries are rooted in the failure of communism aka progressive
government. In perfect synch with the failure of his “signature” legislation is
its living embodiment, the failed presidency of Barack Obama. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">He is an example
of those people who, despite their limited skills, continue to be hired for jobs
higher up on the ladder until their failures are catastrophic.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">This is now commonly called “the Peter Principle”, formulated by Laurence J.
Peter and Raymond Hull in a 1969 book of the same name. They postulated that the
members of an organization where promotion is based on achievement, success, and
merit will eventually be promoted to positions beyond their abilities; what they
identified as “their level of incompetence.”</span><span style="text-align: justify;">It’s worth noting that Obama’s college records have been sealed, so we only
know that he attended Occidental College from the fall of 1979 through the
spring of 1981. He then transferred to Columbia University. He graduated in
1983, spent about a year in Chicago as a “community organizer” before attending
Harvard Law School. There is no need to examine his “career” after that except
to note that he surrounded himself with radical friends and made his way up the
Chicago political ladder until becoming a junior Senator from Illinois. </span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">He
served from January 2005 until he was elected President in 2008. None of this
demonstrates much preparation to be President and none of this suggests a level
of competence for the job.</span><span style="text-align: justify;">In 2012, a Washington Times editorial noted that “Since Mr. Obama took
office, the opinion of the United States generally has declined in every country
surveyed by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, according to a report released in
June.” Especially in Middle Eastern nations, his favorability ratings were below
what they were when he took office. The Times concluded that “There’s a reason
Mr. Obama has not been a strong leader internationally. He never set out to be
one because he never believed in the exceptional mission of the United States…</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">He
would rather bow to foreign leaders than stand up for America.”</span><span style="text-align: justify;">In sum, Obama has displayed a talent for campaigning for office, but has
proven to lack all the attributes necessary to act effectively in office. This
wouldn’t be a problem if he had remained an obscure junior Senator from
Illinois, but has failed to solve the problems that come with any
presidency.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">Fouad Adjami, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, recently
noted that “Valerie Jarrett, the president’s most trusted, probably most
powerful, aide, once said in admiration that Mr. Obama has been bored his whole
life. The implication was that he is above things, a man alone, and anointed.
Perhaps this moment—a presidency coming apart, the incompetent social
engineering of an entire healthcare system—will now claim Mr. Obama’s
attention.”</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">It has taken notice of the debacle. He began by lying about it and has
progressed to lying about his lies. With three years to go, we are witnessing
and being victimized by the election of a man who, in the parlance of
Washington, D.C., has been “failing up” his whole life. He is the ultimate
example of an “empty suit.”</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">Democrats up for election and re-election in 2014 will not want to be seen on
the same stage with Obama. </span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">Those in Congress are already voting for any kind of
band-aide to “fix” Obamacare, but no one is fooled by that. It can’t be fixed.
It can only be repealed.</span><span style="text-align: justify;">I am surprised that it took this long for the voters to realize the mistake
they made, but America has a Constitution that enables them to overcome such
errors and the economy is robust enough to resist much of the damage he has
inflicted on it. We’ve had presidents in the past that were not up to the job.
They were replaced. The nation moved on. It will do so again.</span><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="text-align: justify;">© Alan Caruba, 2013</span><br />
<br /></div>
<!--/meta-date--></header>BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-43763303445334193792013-11-27T21:43:00.001-08:002013-11-27T21:43:14.256-08:00Whoever would have thought that a president would come along so soon to eclipse Carter as the worst president in a century...<h1 id="content_0_headlineimage_0_h1Headline">
Presidential Poll: Reagan Best,
Obama Worst in Last 100 Years</h1>
<div>
<span class="story-author" id="content_0_maincontent_0_spanAuthor">by <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Columnists/AWR-Hawkins" id="content_0_maincontent_0_hplAuthor">AWR
Hawkins</a> </span><span class="story-time">27 Nov 2013, 7:13 AM PDT</span></div>
<div>
<span class="story-time"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="story-time"><h2>
Rankings released by YouGov/Economist show that Ronald Reagan is viewed as
the greatest president of the last 100 years, while Obama is viewed as the
"biggest failure."</h2>
<div>
The <a href="http://today.yougov.com/news/2013/11/22/poll-results-presidents/">poll</a>
asked respondents "to rate each president [since Theodore Roosevelt] in six
categories: great, near great, average, below average, failure, and don't
know."<br />
<br />
Results showed that Reagan bested Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and John F.
Kennedy (JFK) in a tight race for the top spot. 32 percent of the respondents
categorized Reagan as "great," while 31 percent labeled FDR "great" and 30
percent chose JFK.<br />
<br />
When it came to ranking presidents viewed to be a "failure," Jimmy Carter and
Richard Nixon fared better than Obama.<br />
<br />
Of those polled, 22 percent of respondents rated Carter a "failure," while 30
percent gave that same ranking to Nixon. But <span style="color: red;">Obama took first place at the
bottom of the list, with 37 percent of respondents choosing him as the biggest
"failure" of all. </span></div>
</span></div>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-7707764238166710702013-11-27T06:45:00.001-08:002013-11-27T06:45:51.104-08:00Well Mr. President, if Fox News is responsible for the failure of Obamacare, maybe that's because Fox presents the facts and presents them to a larger audience than MSNB and CNN combined!<header class="header" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1385563293796_448">
<h1 class="headline" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1385563293796_449">
Fox News Destroys
Competitors In November Ratings</h1>
</header>
<div class="credit-bar clearfix" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1385563293796_943">
<div class="credit-bar-inner" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1385563293796_951">
<div class="credit" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1385563293796_950">
<a data-rapid_p="1" data-ylk="sec:content;slk:provider;itc:0;tar:www.businessinsider.com;ltxt:BusinessInsider;" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/"><img alt="Business Insider" class="provider-img" src="http://media.zenfs.com/284/2011/06/08/biz-insider-65x27_102440.gif" /></a>
<div class="credit-text" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1385563293796_949">
<cite class="byline vcard top-line" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1385563293796_948">By
<span class="fn">Brett LoGiurato, November 26, 2013</span></cite></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<strong></strong>Fox News triumphed in the cable news ratings battle in
November, grabbing more total day and primetime viewers than its two rival
competitors — CNN and MSNBC — combined.<br />
<br />
It marks the 143rd consecutive month that Fox News has come out on top, and
it ranked second in all of cable for the month of November — behind only ESPN.
It featured the top 14 programs in all of cable news.<br />
<br />
In primetime, Fox was down 21% in total viewers and 41% in the key 25-54 age
demographic from last November — when the presidential election boosted numbers.
That marked the lowest decline — both CNN and MSNBC were down more than 50% in
both categories in primetime.<br />
<br />
Some highlights for the network: "Special Report with Bret Baier" and "The
Five" had their highest-rated months of the year; Megyn Kelly's new show, "The
Kelly File," was up 30% in total viewers vs. 2013 to date, and "MediaBuzz,"
Howard Kurtz's new show, is up 73% in the key demo from Week 1 to Week 12 of the
show.<br />
<br />
MSNBC finished in second while CNN finished in third, as it posted its lowest
numbers in both total viewers and the key demo since August 2012. "New Day" had
its worst month since its launch in June, down 46% and 29%, respectively, from
"Early Start" last November. One bright spot was Anderson Cooper's show, which
was up 25% — and 26% in the demo.<br />
<br />
Here are the ratings for November, via Nielsen:<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>TOTAL DAY </strong><br />
<ul id="yui_3_9_1_1_1385563293796_939">
<li>FNC: 1,201,000 total viewers – <em>down 18%; </em> (248,000 in 25-54
– <em>down 30%</em> )</li>
<li>CNN: 335,000 total viewers – <em>down 48%;</em> (100,000 in 25-54
– <em>down 59%)</em></li>
<li>MSNBC: 401,000 total viewers – <em>down 45%;</em> (124,000 in 25-54
– <em>down 52%</em> )</li>
<li>HLN: 213,000 total viewers – <em>down 7%;</em> (81,000 in 25-54 – <em>down
14%)</em></li>
</ul>
<strong>PRIMETIME 8-11PM/ET </strong><br />
<ul class="ul1" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1385563293796_942">
<li class="li1">FNC: 2,011,000 total viewers – <em>down 21%</em> (338,000 in 25-54
– <em>down 41%</em>)</li>
<li class="li1">CNN: 481,000 total viewers – <em>down 54%;</em> (153,000 in 25-54
– <em>down 62%</em>)</li>
<li class="li1">MSNBC: 645,000 total viewers – <em>down 50%;</em> (190,000 in
25-54 – <em>down 57%)</em></li>
<li class="li1">HLN: 278,000 total viewers – <em>down 2%;</em> (90,000 in 25-54
– <em>down 17%</em>)</li>
</ul>
<br />http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fox-news-destroys-competitors-november-005000875.html<br />
<br />BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-80990790000308480982013-11-26T18:54:00.000-08:002013-11-26T18:54:26.985-08:00An erudite article that so accurately identifies, articulates, and projects the demise of Obama the Fraud. Spoiler alert for Liberals...there are lots of big words, historical references and obtuse concepts...<section class="sector one column col10wide" sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 61" sizset="false"><header class="module articleHeadgroup" sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 61" sizset="false"><div class="zonedModule" data-module-id="[object Object]" data-module-name="resp.module.article.ArticleColumnist" sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 96" sizset="false">
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<div class="header" sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 96" sizset="false">
<h2 class="region-cat" sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 96" sizset="false">
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/search?article-doc-type=%7BCommentary+(U.S.)%7D&HEADER_TEXT=commentary+(u.s.)">Opinion</a>
</h2>
<h1 itemprop="headline">
Fouad Ajami: When the Obama Magic Died</h1>
<h3>
There were no economic or cultural bonds among his
coalition. He was all things to all people. Charisma ruled.</h3>
<div>
<div class="zonedModule" data-module-id="[object Object]" data-module-name="resp.module.article.BylineAuthorConnect">
<div class="connect byline-dsk">
<span class="intro">By</span>
<div class="social-dd no-social">
<span class="c-name" itemprop="author" jquery183025814000519623486="47" rel="author">Fouad Ajami<span class="bk-box"></span></span> </div>
</div>
</div>
<!-- data-module-name="resp.module.article.BylineAuthorConnect" -->
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<div class="module datestamp-dsk">
Nov. 14, 2013 6:59 p.m. ET</div>
<div class="module datestamp-dsk">
The Wall Street Journal</div>
<div class="module datestamp-dsk">
<br /></div>
<div class="module datestamp-dsk">
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<div sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 133" sizset="false" style="font-size: 15px;">
The current troubles of the <a href="http://topics.wsj.com/person/O/Obama/4328">Obama</a> presidency can be
read back into its beginnings. Rule by personal charisma has met its proper
fate. The spell has been broken, and the magician stands exposed. We need no
pollsters to tell us of the loss of faith in Mr. Obama's policies—and, more
significantly, in the man himself. Charisma is like that. Crowds come together
and they project their needs onto an imagined redeemer. The redeemer leaves the
crowd to its imagination: For as long as the charismatic moment lasts—a year, an
era—the redeemer is above and beyond judgment. He glides through crises, he
knits together groups of varied, often clashing, interests. Always there is that
magical moment, and its beauty, as a reference point.</div>
<div sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 133" sizset="false" style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="module rich-media-inset inset-box inset-group ">
<div class="inset-tree">
<div class="inset-content">
<div class="inset-content inset-video">
<div class="insettipUnit insetZoomTarget">
<div class="targetCaption-video">
Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Fouad Ajami on why
the President's charisma can't keep his coalition together. Photos: AP
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
Mr. Obama gave voice to this sentiment in a speech on
Nov. 6 in Dallas: "Sometimes I worry because everybody had such a fun experience
in '08, at least that's how it seemed in retrospect. And, 'yes we can,' and the
slogans and the posters, et cetera, sometimes I worry that people forget change
in this country has always been hard." It's a pity we can't stay in that moment,
says the redeemer: The fault lies in the country itself—everywhere, that is,
except in the magician's performance.</div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
Forgive the personal reference, but from the very
beginning of Mr. Obama's astonishing rise, I felt that I was witnessing
something old and familiar. My advantage owed nothing to any mastery of American
political history. I was guided by my immersion in the political history of the
Arab world and of a life studying Third World societies. </div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
In 2008, seeing the Obama crowds in Portland, Denver
and St. Louis spurred memories of the spectacles that had attended the rise and
fall of Arab political pretenders. I had lived through the era of the Egyptian
leader Gamal Abdul Nasser. He had emerged from a military cabal to become a
demigod, immune to judgment. His followers clung to him even as he led the Arabs
to a catastrophic military defeat in the Six Day War of 1967. </div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
He issued a kind
of apology for his performance. But his reign was never about policies and
performance. It was about political magic.</div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
In trying to grapple with, and write about, the Obama
phenomenon, I found guidance in a book of breathtaking erudition, "Crowds and
Power" (1962) by the Nobel laureate Elias Canetti. Born in Bulgaria in 1905 and
educated in Vienna and Britain, Canetti was unmatched in his understanding of
the passions, and the delusions, of crowds. The crowd is a "mysterious and
universal phenomenon," he writes. It forms where there was nothing before. There
comes a moment when "all who belong to the crowd get rid of their difference and
feel equal." Density gives the illusion of equality, a blessed moment when "no
one is greater or better than another." </div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
But the crowd also has a presentiment of
its own disintegration, a time when those who belong to the crowd "creep back
under their private burdens."</div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
Five years on, we can still recall how the Obama
coalition was formed. There were the African-Americans justifiably proud of one
of their own. There were upper-class white professionals who were drawn to the
candidate's "cool." There were Latinos swayed by the promise of immigration
reform. The white working class in the Rust Belt was the last bloc to embrace
Mr. Obama—he wasn't one of them, but they put their reservations aside during an
economic storm and voted for the redistributive state and its protections. There
were no economic or cultural bonds among this coalition. There was the new
leader, all things to all people.</div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 134" sizset="false" style="font-size: 15px;">
A
nemesis awaited the promise of this new presidency: Mr. Obama would turn out to
be among the most polarizing of American leaders. No, it wasn't his race, as <a href="http://topics.wsj.com/person/R/Harry-Reid/5832">Harry Reid</a> would
contend, that stirred up the opposition to him. It was his exalted views of
himself, and his mission. The sharp lines were sharp between those who raised
his banners and those who objected to his policies. </div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
America holds presidential elections, we know. But
Mr. Obama took his victory as a plebiscite on his reading of the American social
contract. A president who constantly reminded his critics that he had won at the
ballot box was bound to deepen the opposition of his critics. </div>
<div sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 135" sizset="false" style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 135" sizset="false" style="font-size: 15px;">
A
leader who set out to remake the health-care system in the country, a sixth of
the national economy, on a razor-thin majority with no support whatsoever from
the opposition party, misunderstood the nature of democratic politics. An
election victory is the beginning of things, not the culmination. With Air Force
One and the other prerogatives of office come the need for compromise, and for
the disputations of democracy. A president who sought consensus would have never
left his agenda on Capitol Hill in the hands of Harry Reid and <a href="http://topics.wsj.com/person/P/Nancy-Pelosi/5361">Nancy Pelosi</a>.</div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
Mr. Obama has shown scant regard for precedent in
American history. To him, and to the coterie around him, his presidency was a
radical discontinuity in American politics. There is no evidence in the record
that Mr. Obama read, with discernment and appreciation, of the ordeal and
struggles of his predecessors. At best there was a willful reading of that
history. Early on, he was Abraham Lincoln resurrected (the new president, who
hailed from Illinois, took the oath of office on the Lincoln Bible). He had been
sworn in during an economic crisis, and thus he was FDR restored to the White
House. He was stylish with two young children, so the Kennedy precedent was on
offer. </div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
In the oddest of twists, Mr. Obama claimed that his
foreign policy was in the mold of Dwight Eisenhower's . But Eisenhower knew war
and peace, and the foreign world held him in high regard. </div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
During his first campaign, Mr. Obama had paid tribute
to Ronald Reagan as a "transformational" president and hinted that he aspired to
a presidency of that kind. But the Reagan presidency was about America, and
never about Ronald Reagan. Reagan was never a scold or a narcissist. He stood in
awe of America, and of its capacity for renewal. There was forgiveness in
Reagan, right alongside the belief in the things that mattered about
America—free people charting their own path. </div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
If Barack Obama seems like a man alone, with nervous
Democrats up for re-election next year running for cover, and away from him,
this was the world he made. No advisers of stature can question his policies;
the price of access in the Obama court is quiescence before the leader's will.
The imperial presidency is in full bloom. </div>
<div sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 136" sizset="false" style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 136" sizset="false" style="font-size: 15px;">
There are no stars in the Obama cabinet today, men and women of
independent stature and outlook. It was after a walk on the White House grounds
with his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, that Mr. Obama called off the attacks
on the Syrian regime that he had threatened. If he had taken that walk with <a href="http://topics.wsj.com/person/K/Henry-Kissinger/5998">Henry Kissinger</a>
or George Shultz, one of those skilled statesmen might have explained to him the
consequences of so abject a retreat. But Mr. Obama needs no sage advice, he
rules through political handlers. </div>
<div sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 136" sizset="false" style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div sizcache09687947586932197="2 13 136" sizset="false" style="font-size: 15px;">
Valerie Jarrett, the president's most trusted,
probably most powerful, aide, once said in admiration that Mr. Obama has been
bored his whole life. The implication was that he is above things, a man alone,
and anointed. Perhaps this moment—a presidency coming apart, the incompetent
social engineering of an entire health-care system—will now claim Mr. Obama's
attention.</div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
— Mr. Ajami, a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover
Institution, is the author, most recently, of "The Syrian Rebellion" (Hoover
Press, 2012).</div>
<div style="font-size: 15px;">
<br /></div>
</article></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</hgroup></div>
</header></section>BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-60722789624276018132013-11-25T18:58:00.000-08:002013-11-25T18:58:07.912-08:00No Mr. President, its not Fox News that is destroying the country's trust in you...<header class="entry-header">
<h1 class="entry-title">
Neil Cavuto Crushes Obama Over Latest Attack Against FOX
News</h1>
<!-- meta-date -->
<div class="meta-date">
Posted 09.26.13 by Matthew Burke, TPNN News Editor<br />
<br />
Neil Cavuto responded today, in a powerful opening statement, to Obama’s
latest attack against the First Amendment and freedom of the press. Obama, fresh
from using the NSA to spy on the Associated Press and James Rosen, a FOX News
reporter, is back to attacking one of his favorite targets, FOX News, the only
major network who doesn’t completely work for the Obama regime. Watch below
(followed by text) to see Cavuto’s response:<br />
<br />
<div id="nrelate_flyout_placeholder">
<blockquote>
<strong>OBAMA</strong>: If you’ve talked to somebody who said, ‘Well, I
don’t know. I was watching FOX News and they said this is horrible…”</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<strong>NEIL CAVUTO</strong>: Mr. President, we at FOX News are not the
problem. I hate to break it to you, sir. you are. Your words are, your promises
are. We didn’t sell this healthcare law, sir. You did. Remember this? </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<strong>OBAMA</strong>: If you like your doctor, you will be able to
keep your doctor, period. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<strong>NEIL CAVUTO</strong>: Not so. Mr. President, tell that to tens
of thousands of retirees at IBM and Time Warner and dozens of others, who have
been dumped from their coverage and told to find their own coverage. Now, FOX
News didn’t break that news to them, Mr. President, their companies
did. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
FOX News didn’t push more of those firms to hire part-time workers, your
healthcare law did. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
FOX News didn’t incentivize fast-food restaurants to scale back their
benefits, your healthcare law did.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
FOX News didn’t make doctors want to opt out, your health care did.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
FOX News didn’t make insurance premiums skyrocket, your health care law
did that.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Just like FOX News did not grant hundreds of exemptions to companies that
needed them, you did.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
And FOX News didn’t delay one key provision after another, including
(just today) online enrollment for those small business exchanges. You did that,
sir.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Just like it wasn’t FOX News that said, “We had to pass this to see what
was in this.” You did. Or, was that Nancy Pelosi? Sometimes, I’m confused. but
of this I am not.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
FOX News didn’t redo basic math. sir, you did.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
FOX News didn’t say you can cover 30 million more Americans and not see a
hit in premiums, you did.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
FOX News didn’t say you could throw in those with pre-existing conditions
and not have to pay for it, you did.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
FOX News didn’t all but say you can get something for nothing. You
did.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
FOX News didn’t come back years later and say, “Oh yeah, we did raise
some taxes.” You did, just the other night.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Here’s where you are right about FOX News, however, Mr. President. We
were on this very early. We can do math, and did. You cannot and did not. We
said it and proved it. You didn’t and we’re suffering for it.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Take it from the numbers guy here at FOX. Numbers don’t lie. The number
of Americans working part-time and nervous, the number of retirees days away
from being dumped on exchanges, and anxious. The number of company bosses with
news to pass along on those exchanges, still clueless. The number of doctors who
want out. The number of congressmen opting out.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
No, Mr. President, none of those numbers lie, but with all due respect,
sir, I can only conclude, you do. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
I know, I know, I know, you hate us at FOX, but please, please, look in a
mirror and fast. You think we’re the skunk at your picnic, but that does not
mean we are the ones that stink, because that smell account isn’t coming from
the folks reporting on your law. Mr. President, that smell is your
law. </blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<!--/meta-date--></header>BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-67976537593784188082013-11-24T08:01:00.001-08:002013-11-24T08:01:18.038-08:00LIES OF OBAMACARE, DOCUMENTED<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;">Posted on</span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;"> </span><b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;">November 1, 2013</span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;"> </span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;">by</span><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;"> </span><b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/author/john" title=""><span style="color: #888888;">John Hinderaker</span></a></span></b><span style="color: #888888; font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;"> in <span style="color: #888888;"><a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/category/obamacare">Obamacare</a></span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #888888; font-family: Ubuntu; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Over
the last day or two, the major breaking story has really been a throwback: in
2010, the Obama administration promulgated rules governing what plans that
pre-existed Obamacare would be “grandfathered” under that statute, and allowed
to continue. In the context of announcing its rules, the administration
predicted that because of their restrictiveness, many millions of Americans
would lose their existing insurance coverage, whether they liked it or not.
Further, it has been widely reported (as by CNN, <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/31/senate-democrats-supported-rule-that-lead-to-insurance-cancellations/"><span style="color: #5873c1; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">here</span></a>) that
Republicans tried to reverse the administration’s “grandfather” rules so that
those who liked their insurance would be allowed to keep it, but Senate
Democrats voted them down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Given
the lies with which Obamacare was promoted–”If you like your health care plan,
you can keep it”–this is of course a blockbuster story. So I spent some time
today tracking down the original sources to verify it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Obamacare statute provided that plans pre-existing the law would be allowed to
continue, but left the details to future administrative action. That came on
June 17, 2010, when the Obama administration–specifically, the Departments of
the Treasury, Labor and Health and Human Services–promulgated “Interim Final
Rules for Group Health Plans and Health Insurance Coverage Relating to Status
as a Grandfathered Health Plan Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act.” You can read the rules <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2010-06-17/pdf/FR-2010-06-17.pdf"><span style="color: #5873c1; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">here</span></a>; scroll down to
Part II. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
basic idea underlying the rules is that if the pre-existing plans remained
unchanged, they could continue. If, however, there was any significant change
in coverages, co-pays, and so on, then the plan would become subject to all of
the requirements of Obamacare (even grandfathered plans are subject to a number
of Obamacare requirements). The problem is that the health insurance market is
constantly changing, and it is typical for plans to change, to some degree,
from year to year. So the administration looked at historical data to estimate
how many employer-sponsored and individual plans would likely lose their
grandfather status once Obamacare was implemented. The administration’s
methodology can certainly be questioned, but the results were as has been
reported. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Obama administration projected low-end, mid-range and high-end estimates for
how many plans would be terminated, in total and broken down between large and
smaller employers. The bottom line is that the administration expected 51% of
all employer plans to be terminated as a result of Obamacare. That is the
mid-range estimate; the high-end estimate was 69%. So as of 2010, the Obama
administration planned that most Americans with employer-sponsored health care
plans would lose them, whether they liked those plans or not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As
for individual, as opposed to group plans, the Obama administration said that
data were insufficient to predict how many would lose grandfather status, but
in any given year the percentage of such policies losing such status would
“exceed[] the 40 percent to 67 percent range.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Those
numbers starkly contradict Obama’s “if you like your insurance, you can keep
it” assurances. But it is worth noting that the percentage of pre-Obamacare
plans that would terminate within the first few years after the law was enacted
isn’t the main point. The administration never intended to allow <b>any</b>
American to keep a non-Obamacare insurance policy for any length of time. In
the Federal Register, the administration candidly acknowledged:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
collective decisions of plan sponsors and issuers over time can be viewed as a
one-way sorting process in which these parties decide whether, and when, to
relinquish status as a grandfathered health plan.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
administration was prepared to be patient as the “one-way sorting process” ran
its course, and all Americans lost the plans they had, whether they liked them
or not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That
brings us to September 29, 2010, when Senate Republicans brought to the floor a
resolution that would have disapproved of, and reversed, the administrative
rules that the Obama administration promulgated on June 17. Wyoming’s Mike Enzi
sponsored the resolution; the debate that followed is <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?r111:./temp/~r111LdTp8z"><span style="color: #5873c1; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">here</span></a>. Enzi
introduced his resolution:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mr.
President, the resolution we are debating today is about keeping a promise. The
authors of the new health care law promised the American people that if they
liked their current health insurance, they could keep it. On at least 47
separate occasions, President Obama promised: “If you like what you have, you
can keep it.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unfortunately,
the Obama administration has broken that promise. Earlier this year, the
administration published a regulation that will fundamentally change the health
insurance plans of millions of Americans. The reality of this new regulation
is, if you like what you have, you can’t keep it. The new regulation
implemented the grandfathered health plan section of the new health care law.
It specified how existing health plans could avoid the most onerous new rules
and redtape included in the 2,700 pages of the new health care law. …<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Unfortunately,
the regulation writers at the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and
Human Services broke all those promises. The regulation is crystal clear. Most
businesses–the administration estimates between 39 and 69 percent–will not be
able to keep the coverage they have.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Under
the new regulation, once a business loses grandfathered status, they will have
to comply with all of the new mandates in the law. This means these businesses
will have to change their current plans and purchase more expensive ones that
meet all of the new Federal minimum requirements. For the 80 percent of small
businesses that will lose their grandfathered status because of this
regulation, the net result is clear: They will pay more for their health
insurance.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Does
this give you a sense of <i>deja vu</i>, or what? The baleful consequences of
Obamacare that we are now seeing–there are many more to come–were known and
foreseen in 2010. The Democrats voted down the Republicans’ effort to preserve
the health care plans that Americans already like on a party-line vote. The
Democrats knew that Obama had been lying through his teeth, and they voted
unanimously to sustain his lies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Did
the Democrats have a theory? Sure. They argued that if a health care plan
changes significantly, then it isn’t the plan you originally bought. And it is
common in a variety of contexts for something that is grandfathered to lose
that status if it is changed significantly. But there are several problems with
the Democrats’ theory: First, it was entirely different from the assurances
Obama gave the American people. You may like your insurance perfectly well
after a modest change; you may like it better. But that is irrelevant: if the
Obama administration thinks your coverage has changed materially, you lose it.
Period. Second, it isn’t true that plans lose their grandfathered status only
if they are changed in a major way. For example, if there is <i>any</i>
increase in the co-insurance rate, no matter how small, the plan terminates. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even
more significant is the fact that under the administration’s regulations, the
plan may stay exactly the same, but if one insurance carrier replaces another,
the plan loses its grandfathered status and terminates. The effect of this
provision is to eliminate competition and make it less attractive, over time,
to maintain pre-existing plans. The Republicans read several letters from
business groups into the record, at least one of which pointed out the
importance of this provision.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Finally,
it should be noted that John McCain, now the <i>bete noire</i> of some
activists, weighed in powerfully against the administration’s Obamacare rules.
Among other things, he pointed out that they do not apply to unions. They can
negotiate changes in the pre-Obamacare plans that cover their members without
having them terminate. This is one of the weird features of gangster
government: the administration passes terrible laws, and then excuses its
friends from complying with them. Let’s turn the floor over to McCain:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mr.
ENZI: According to the administration, in small businesses, 80 percent of the
people–unless this [Republican resolution] is passed–will lose the insurance
they have and like, and in all businesses 69 percent will. Those are not my
numbers; those are the administration’s numbers.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mr.
McCAIN: But isn’t it also true that is the case for small business and people
and entrepreneurs all over America except the unions? Isn’t that true? Isn’t
this a carve-out again, part of this sleaze that went into putting this bill
together, part of the “Cornhusker kickback,” the “Louisiana purchase,” the
buying of PhRMA–all that went into this–the “negotiations” that were going to
take place on C-SPAN that the President said during the Presidential campaign
that went from one sweetheart deal cut to another. Part of one of those
sweetheart deals was the unions are exempt; is that correct?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mr.
ENZI. That is correct.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So it’s the usual toxic stew of lies,
corruption and incompetence that we have come to expect from Barack Obama. But
one last point should not go unmentioned: where has the press been in all of
this? As of 2010, it was blindingly obvious–was baldly stated by the Obama
administration itself–that under Obamacare, far from being permitted to keep
your health care coverage if you like it, most Americans’ policies would
speedily be terminated, and all would soon cease to exist. Given the dozens of misrepresentations
by Barack Obama and other members of his administration, and given the entirely
dishonest basis on which Obamacare was rammed through the Democratic Congress
without a single Republican vote, and given that Republicans’ warnings were indisputably
coming true–was there not a news story here? How can it be that three more
years went by before our one-party media thought to mention what happened back
in 2010? One can only imagine how the 2012 election might have been different
if the electorate had understood that Obamacare was sold on a scaffold of lies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .25in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-indent: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-79955298072646655042013-11-22T08:54:00.000-08:002013-11-22T08:54:27.053-08:00Governor Huckabee does a great job of summarizing the progressive's misguided illusion that government can do anything as well as the free markets...<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">Three Stooges Government </span></h2>
The hallmark of the modern progressive movement is the combination of ignorance and arrogance. The smug, unshakeable belief that they know how to run every industry better than the people who run it now. Obamacare was their first big chance to prove that they really could do it. Instead, it's become the health insurance equivalent of hiring the Three Stooges to cater your Thanksgiving dinner. I think a lot of progressives don't get this yet. They still think a few bandages will bring the cooked goose back to life. But those who are a little smarter realize that they've given voters a stunning reminder of how untrustworthy, expensive, intrusive and incompetent big government can be. As Obamacare crashes and burns, so does their dream of a brave, new leftwing America<br />
<br />BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-50358873482985933572013-11-20T12:01:00.001-08:002013-11-20T12:01:13.259-08:00Charles Krauthammer explains why socialism has never worked, does not work now, and can never work in the future..<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="color: #a64d79; font-size: large;">“If you are obsessed with equality, as they are in
Europe, what you end up with is chronic unemployment. Because the real engine
of growth is low regulation, low taxation and you allow the golden goose, meaning
the private economy, to go ahead and to flourish. And when you over regulate
and you overtax it, especially if you are doing it in the name of reducing
inequality, you are going to get the opposite effect.” – Charles Krauthammer on
“The O’Reilly Factor”</span></div>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-81238227701573279322013-11-20T06:20:00.001-08:002013-11-20T06:20:44.355-08:00Observation....<span style="color: #274e13; font-size: x-large;">Have you ever noticed that, whenever Obama's lips are moving, he's lying? And yet, there are STILL some people who do not think he is dishonest. Fewer than yesterday and more than tomorrow, but still some. How odd is that?</span>BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-36750482101215800022013-11-19T20:42:00.001-08:002013-11-19T20:42:23.092-08:00The most accurate description of liberal thinking I've ever read...<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="600"><img alt="National Review" border="0" height="26" hspace="0" src="http://news.nationalreview.com/images/724/National%20Review%20Template_NationalReview_Lg.jpg" width="320" /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="color: #0956a4; font-size: 40px;">
<strong style="font-size: 18px;"><br />November 19, 2013</strong><br /><span style="color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;"><em>.
. . with Jim Geraghty</em></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leftist politics, I maintain, are not a politics
at all, but a psychological response to one's shortcomings and feelings of
failure. Leftist politics are, simply put, a way of getting even with a world
that's done one wrong -- and most people carrying about such grievances against
a world that's done one wrong are psychologically broken.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These fairytale "politics" give them an avenue to
vent their rages and turmoils about their failures and inadequacies in a way
that is deemed, incorrectly, to be socially acceptable and even high-minded.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If a man were raving on the street in this fashion
-- about his hopes that someone would literally <em>[do a bad thing – Jim]
</em>in a perceived "enemy's" mouth (a perceived "enemy," who, crucially, he's
never actually met) -- most of us would shake our heads in secondary shame. Some
of the more empathetic of us would call social services and attempt to have the
madman brought in for psychological treatment.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the left -- Martin Bashir, Chris Matthews,
Daily Kos, all of the hateful, raging, vibrating-with-resentment left -- does
this sort of thing in the guise of "political commentary" and no one makes the
connection between this broken-souled primal screaming and mental
unwellness.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's their cover. They just call their inner
rages "politics" and their antisocial behaviors "activism," and then they
pretend to be normal, well-adjusted people. </span></div>
</blockquote>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-18068643408963123522013-11-19T14:40:00.000-08:002013-11-19T14:40:14.476-08:00Would'ves, could'ves should'ves...next time vet your candidates and don't fall for catchy tag lines, don't listen to mindless celebrities, don't vote with emotions...learn, read, educate yourself so this does not happen again!!<h1 style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: SourceSansProSemibold, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 46px; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
Wow: 70 Percent Vote America has "Gotten Pretty Seriously Off On the Wrong Track"</h1>
<a href="http://townhall.com/tipsheet/sarahjeanseman/" style="background-color: white; color: #001346; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 20px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Sarah Jean Seman</span></a><span class="divider" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"> | </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">Nov 19, 2013</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Americans do not support the trajectory of this country under the Obama Administration. Seventy percent believe America has gotten seriously off track, according to a Washington Post - ABC News poll.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The poll specifically asked: “Do you think things in this country (are generally going in the right direction) or do you feel things (have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track)?”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/11/19/National-Politics/Polling/question_12481.xml?uuid=gSynSFDXEeOe5iWACG2CVA#" style="color: #0088cc;">results</a> are pretty overwhelming:</div>
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President Obama’s promises of ‘Hope and Change’ have derailed as well. Since the beginning of October, correlating closely with the launch of Healthcare.gov, more Americans <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/gallup-daily-obama-job-approval.aspx" style="color: #0088cc;">disapprove</a> than approve of his job performance. Currently, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2013/11/19/National-Politics/Polling/question_12477.xml?uuid=dFWkolDXEeOe5iWACG2CVA" style="color: #0088cc;">56 percent</a>of voters disapprove of Obama’s work, Tuesday’s Washington Post - ABC News showed.</div>
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As Paul Ryan said in <a href="http://townhall.com/tipsheet/sarahjeanseman/2013/11/17/paul-ryan-rips-obamacare-n1748230" style="color: #0088cc;">Iowa Saturday</a>:</div>
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“We’ve got big government in practice and what we are realizing is that the results are nothing close to the rhetoric that was used to sell them. What we’re realizing is that this not all that it was cracked up to be.”<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
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The realization hits hard and close to home. The socialist health care system continues to <a href="http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2013/11/11/report-52-million-americans-could-lose-current-coverage-under-obamacare-n1744103" style="color: #0088cc;">boot people off</a> their preferred plans and <a href="http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christinerousselle/2013/11/19/obamacare-success-story-is-actually-unable-to-afford-insurance-n1749339" style="color: #0088cc;">penalize</a> individuals who cannot pay for the government’s “affordable” health care.</div>
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As Americans celebrate the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, they should also recall the type of democracy he fought for.</div>
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BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-49186559491290946262013-11-17T15:00:00.000-08:002013-11-17T15:00:19.611-08:00How could any voter in America...even liberal Californians...elect such a mindless, rambling, self-righteous idiot as Pelosi? Please pass this post to any liberal friend you have and ask them how they could ever be in the same political mindset as this poor excuse for an American.<br />
<div class="article-author">
<h1>
Gulp: Nancy Pelosi Clueless About ObamaCare</h1>
<a href="http://townhall.com/tipsheet/carolplattliebau/">Carol Platt Liebau</a><span class="divider"> | </span>Nov 17, 2013</div>
<br />
<br />
Video link:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">http://townhall.com/tipsheet/carolplattliebau/2013/11/17/gulp-nancy-pelosi-clueless-about-obamacare-n1748317</span><br />
<br />
Be sure to look at Pelosi's face after being shown the first clip of her earlier, false
assurances (at about the 1:00 mark)? <em>Priceless</em>. <br />
<br />
Of course, if David Gregory were actually on top of it, he'd notice that she's arguing
that nothing in the law requires that Americans' insurance policies be dropped .
. . so is she throwing the Obama administration under the bus for interpreting
the grandfather clause so narrowly? Ah, well, at least he's actually willing
<em>now</em> to ask the tough questions that should have been asked before the
law was passed.<br />
<br />
Here's what I cannot decide about Nancy Pelosi: Is she faking cluelessness in
order to dodge the tough questions, or is she truly that clueless? It's scary
either way.BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-20310573652703147652013-11-17T05:04:00.001-08:002013-11-17T05:04:44.166-08:00We may indeed REALLY Restore America to greatness again...and we may do it soon thanks to the disastrous policies of the Communist - er, I mean Democrat party...and five years of the worst President this country has ever known...<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; letter-spacing: 1.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;">November 17, 2013 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">8 Reasons The Republican Party Has A Bright Future<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">11/16/2013 12:01:00 AM - John Hawkins<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Losing to
Barack Obama in 2012 shook the confidence of many Republicans and it's easy to
understand why. After all, if you lose to the worst President in history, what
does that say about you? Combine that with the frustrations so many
conservatives have with the GOP and it's easy to write off the Republican
Party. However, it's often darkest before the dawn and many people are missing
the fact that the GOP is well positioned to thrive over the next couple of
decades. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1) We have the most potent grassroots movement in politics:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The GOP has the Tea Party Movement, while the Democrats HAD the Occupy
Movement. The Tea Party Movement is about small government, cutting spending,
and sticking to the Constitution. The Occupy Movement was about demanding free
stuff and avoiding taking baths for weeks at a time. The greatest moment for
the Tea Party was the GOP's incredible success in the 2010 elections. The
greatest moment for the Occupy Movement was when the occupiers were protesting
Wall Street and a bunch of traders dumped hundreds of McDonald's job
applications on them out of a window. The Tea Party Movement is still alive and
kicking. The Occupy crowd eventually gave it up when the rich liberals stopped
sending the protesters free food and they ran out of open space to poop in the
city parks. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2) 2010 was the GOP's best year since 1948: </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It's funny to hear, "The Republican Party can't win anymore,"
when the GOP had its best year since 1948 less than three years ago. In the
2010 election, the GOP added 6 Senate seats, 63 House seats, and 680 seats in
state legislatures around the country. Does that sound like a party that can't
win any more? Does that sound like a party that's dying? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">3) We should control the House at least until the next census:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not only does the GOP control the House, because of gerrymandering,
we're likely to remain firmly in control until the next census. That will give
us the capability to slam the brakes on government no matter what happens with
the Senate and White House. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">4) The party is thriving on the state level:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The GOP is doing fantastic on the state level. We control 29
governorships and in the state legislatures, we control the upper chamber in 30
states and the lower chamber in another 28 states. That gives us a deep bench
and proves the GOP can be not just competitive, but dominant as long as we play
our cards right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">5) Our numbers with minorities are only going to go up:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">White Americans tend to vote Republican while black and Hispanic
Americans tend to vote Democrat. Because demographically there are going to be
more black and Hispanic Americans in the coming years, some people think that
means the GOP is in deep trouble. Of course, that sort of thinking assumes the
GOP will continue to get the same percentage of the black and Hispanic vote
that it has always gotten. In actuality, since the GOP has done no outreach of
significance in past years, we have every reason to think that our current
numbers with minorities are a floor, not a ceiling. The GOP made its first real
attempt to showcase minority Republicans during the last GOP convention and <a href="http://www.rightwingnews.com/interviews/a-right-wing-news-interview-with-rnc-chairman-reince-priebus/" target="_top"><b><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the RNC has
just begun to pour serious money and manpower into minority outreach</span></b></a>.
It won't happen overnight, but our numbers with minorities are going to go up
significantly in coming years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">6) Short Term: Obamacare means a strong 2014:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All the GOP needs to do to have a great 2014 is hammer away
relentlessly at Obamacare and highlight scandals like Fast and Furious, the IRS
persecution of the Tea Party, and Benghazi next summer while taking care not to
aggravate the base. If we do just those three things, we're practically
guaranteed to pile on even more seats in the House and we'll have a better than
even chance of taking back the Senate. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">7) Barack Obama gives us a medium term opening:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Barack Obama really is the single worst President in American history.
The economy has been bad the entire time he's been in the White House; there
are 10 million more Americans out of work than when he came into office. He's
incredibly divisive, his foreign policy is in chaos, and his signature
achievement is the Hindenburg of government policies. Conservatives have seen
how bad he was from day one, but many other Americans are just starting to
figure it out. After finally concluding that Democrats can't govern, the
American people are going to be much more willing to give the GOP a chance to
prove Republicans have what it takes over the next few election cycles. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">8) Long term, the ground is very unfavorable to the Democrats:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As Grover Norquist likes to say, the Democrats are made up of competing
parasitic interest groups. So, when Democrats get into office, they immediately
start doling out taxpayer money to their allies to keep them in line. Margaret
Thatcher identified the coming problem with that strategy long ago when she
said, </span><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"The
trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's
money."</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Unfortunately for all of us, we have a little too
much socialism in this country and we are indeed running out of other people's
money. This is bad for the country in general, but it's catastrophic for the
Democrats whose entire electoral model is centered around recklessly spending
money. The unions, which gulp down an inordinately large slice of the taxpayer
pie, are already starting to pay the price. Their membership is down to its
lowest level since the thirties and even liberal Meccas like Detroit are
slashing their pensions down to nothing because they're out of money and have
no other choice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If we want out
children to have the same opportunities and bright future that previous
generations of Americans have grown up with, then this country needs a
conservative Republican Party to dominate our political process over the next
couple of decades. We're going to have the opportunity to save our country and
the only question left is whether we're up to the challenge. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-1873158075812852672013-11-17T04:50:00.001-08:002013-11-17T04:50:51.016-08:00I dream of a Republican (better yet a Conservative Republican) controlled House and Senate after 2014...<h1 id="article-title" itemprop="name">
Democrats flee from ObamaCare disaster but
voters will find them in 2014</h1>
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<div itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person">
By <span itemprop="name"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/archive/author/scott-brown/index.html" itemprop="url">Scott Brown</a></span></div>
<time datetime="2013-11-15T08:20-05:00" itemprop="datePublished" pubdate="">Published November 15, 2013</time>
<div itemprop="sourceOrganization" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
FoxNews.com</div>
<div itemprop="sourceOrganization" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
<br /></div>
<div itemprop="sourceOrganization" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
Nearly four years ago, voters sent a very powerful message to President Obama
and Democrats in Washington by electing a little-known Republican state senator
to the so-called “Kennedy seat.” The message then was simple: “we don’t want
ObamaCare.”<br /><br />Then, like now, Democrats in Washington ignored the will of
the people, twisting themselves into pretzels to ram this bill through Congress
using backroom political maneuvering.<br /><br />Back then, voters opposed this bill
because they didn’t want the federal government taking over something as private
and personal as health care coverage. On top of that, ObamaCare levied 18 new
job-killing taxes and gutted Medicare for seniors by more than half a trillion
dollars.<br />
<div class="aside-block" jquery16403534623488367408="22">
<blockquote>
Democrats who voted for this bill may be running for the hills, but
they can’t hide forever.</blockquote>
</div>
Today, after the catastrophic rollout of the last month, the
anti-ObamaCare message has only intensified. It’s more than just a
non-functional web site – which is an embarrassment in and of itself, but only
the tip of the iceberg.<br /><br />Now, we are learning that contrary to the
promises made by President Obama and his supporters in Congress, Americans who
like their current health care plans actually can’t keep it. In fact, millions
of Americans across the country have received cancellation letters in the mail
telling them their current health plans will soon cease to
exist.<br /><br />Supporters of ObamaCare blatantly misled their constituents with
this broken promise. The American people are fed up with this fiasco, and voters
are ready to make their voices heard.<br /><br />But it’s not just President Obama
who needs to be held to account. It is also every single Democratic senator and
congressman that voted for the health care bill. Without their support, it
wouldn’t have happened.<br /><br />These Democratic legislators are all on the hook.
Any attempt to offer legislation to delay implementation or extend the sign-up
period is nothing more than a transparent political stunt from an incumbent
senator or congressman literally running for their political life.<br /><br />If
they didn’t want this health care plan, they shouldn’t have voted for it and
made it the law of the land.<br /><br />Everyone shares the goal of ensuring that
all our people have access to affordable and high quality health care. <br />
<br />
Republicans have a much different view on how we get there. <br />
<br />
We believe health care reform should be left to the individual states so that
they can come up with a plan best tailored for their citizens and their needs.
What works in New Hampshire or Massachusetts may not work in New Mexico or
Nevada, and vice versa.<br /><br />Instead of a government takeover from D.C., we
should let the states experiment and be the “test tubes of democracy” that our
Founding Fathers envisioned when they established our country.<br />
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and our nation now faces the prospect of a
nonfunctional health care bill that will destabilize the entire market and lead
to higher premiums across the board.<br /><br />Democrats who voted for this bill
may be running for the hills, but they can’t hide forever.<br />
In next year’s midterm elections, voters across the country are ready once
again to send an unmistakable message: if you ignore the will of your
constituents, before long, you’ll find yourself looking for a new line of
work.<br /><br />That’s the beauty of our democracy, and is exactly what the
Founding Fathers envisioned.<br />
<i>
</i>
<i><i><br /></i></i>
<i><i>Scott Brown is a Fox News contributor. He served as Republican Senator
from Massachusetts from 2010-13. While in the Senate he served as a ranking
member on Armed Services, Government Regulations/Homeland Security and as a
member of the Veteran's and Small Business Committees. Follow him on Twitter
</i><a href="http://www.twitter.com/scottbrownma"><i>@scottbrownma</i></a><i> or
find him on Facebook at </i><a href="http://facebook.com/scottbrownma"><i>scottbrownma</i></a><i>.</i></i><br />
<i><i><br /></i></i></div>
</div>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-31947419397764948802013-11-15T15:13:00.000-08:002013-11-15T15:13:12.809-08:00You know something? There are just so many lame excuses being bandied about by the Liberals who are all doing what they do best - place blame for their calamities in the laps of the most unsuspecting non-conspirators...<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">But,
after reading through all of the stories that have emerged after our clueless
president once again tells us he knew so very little about the impending
tragedy that bears his name (at least one of his names), I selected two.
One from a recurring name to the roster of unflappable dim bulbs that has
ever been afforded a podium. Sheila Jackson-Lee can truly spew such
incredible nonsense, it really is often times just downright unbelievable. But here it is to gauge for yourself. The other liberal lug nut is none other than
the architect of Obamacare – Ezekiel
Emanuel (you know, the brother of well-known communist Rahm who is
currently taking Chicago further down the drain along with Detroit).<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">These
two stories so well exemplify the adopted game plan of Saul Alinsky – demonize,
blame, and profess ignorance….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="article-author">
<h1>
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Claims Cancellation Notices "Not the Truth"</h1>
<h2>
Christine Rousselle</h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">11/15/2013 4:05:00 PM - Christine Rousselle</span></span><br />
<h1>
<div style="margin: 0px auto;">
<div class="print-article">
<div class="article-header" style="border-bottom: medium none;">
<div class="head">
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Oh, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Despite the fact that <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-29/health-policies-canceled-in-latest-hurdle-for-obamacare.html">thousands</a>
and potentially <a href="http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2013/10/31/health-insurance-losses-to-get-worse-with-employer-mandate-looming-n1733796">millions</a>
of Americans have had their plans canceled due to noncompliance with minimum
standards of the Affordable Care Act, that's just no big deal to Rep. Lee. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Speaking to <em><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/364065/democrat-rep-insurance-cancellation-letters-should-have-just-said-things-are-getting">National
Review Online</a></em> (emphasis added): </span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, told <em>National Review
Online</em> today that instead of sending out cancellation letters, insurance
companies should have told their customers that their coverage was about to get
better. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">She said she wrote an amendment before the president’s announcement that
would require insurance companies to “tell the truth.” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">“The cancellation notice was not the truth,” she says. “It
should have been: ’We intend to or expect to modify your
insurance.’” </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Really, Rep. Lee? Really? How else could you possibly describe a letter from
an insurance company that blatantly states that their plan will <a href="http://mycancellation.com/">no longer be offered</a> due to Obamacare? It
is, in the literal sense of the word, a cancellation letter. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">And that's the truth. </span></span></div>
</div>
</h1>
</div>
<div class="article-author">
<br /></div>
<div class="article-author">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; overflow: hidden;">
<h1>
'Fun Guy' Ezekiel Emanuel Blames GOP and Fox News for Obamacare
Disaster</h1>
<br /><div style="border: medium none; overflow: hidden;">
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">During her second interview with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel
in less than 3 weeks, Megyn Kelly of Fox News called the snippy <span class="IL_AD" iceid="6" id="IL_AD4">Obamacare</span> agitator a "fun guy." </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well, maybe it was fun for her viewers to see the
architect of Obamacare try to defend the indefensible.
The best Emanuel could come up with was something about a "self-fulfilling
prophesy" brought on by the GOP and Fox News.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">The death panel advocate clearly wasn't going to
answer Kelly's questions about whether the President knew or anticipated that
millions would lose their insurance because of the healthcare law, so he lashed
out at the usual scapegoats. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">From the <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/2836736930001/ezekiel-emanuel-obamacare-enrollments-are-disappointing/">video</a>:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"></span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">EMANUEL: There were differences about how they wanted
to run it, and they decided to run it with people in CMS [Centers for <span class="IL_AD" iceid="5" id="IL_AD3">Medicare</span> and <span class="IL_AD" iceid="3" id="IL_AD1">Medicaid</span> Services] having the charge for doing it. Remember,
this was not an environment which was hospitable to setting up the exchanges.
You and your colleagues were constantly criticizing, trying to underfund it and
trying to make sure it didn't work.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">KELLY: A lot of that criticism proved
true.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">EMANUEL: It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. We're going
to try to do everything we can to make it fail and then when it fails, we're
going to say, "Oh why did it fail?"</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">KELLY: What? I don't think Fox News had anything to do
with the rollout of HealthCare.gov. As far as I know, we didn't touch that Web
site.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">EMANUEL: You were constantly attacking the law and you
were trying to make it underfunded.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">KELLY: I'll give you that one, too. It was all our
fault.</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">Emanuel also admitted the low enrollment numbers were
and are "disappointing," but said we still have four and a half months to go
before open enrollment ends. Then he offered a milquetoast
metaphor:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"></span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is like watching a tea kettle and saying "Is it
boiling yet? Is it boiling yet?...it's not very helpful.
"</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: times new roman, times;"><span style="font-size: large;">Therefore, according to Emanuel, the <span class="IL_AD" iceid="4" id="IL_AD2">Affordable Care Act</span> is fine, but impatient
Americans are the problem. They just need to sit down, shut up, stop sabotaging
the process and be patient. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/11/fun_guy_ezekiel_emanuel_blames_gop_and_fox_news_for_obamacare_disaster.html#ixzz2kl5Z1zG8" style="color: #003399;">http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/11/fun_guy_ezekiel_emanuel_blames_gop_and_fox_news_for_obamacare_disaster.html#ixzz2kl5Z1zG8</a>
<br />Follow us: <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=dlia0Qbjyr4BNDacwqm_6l&u=AmericanThinker" target="_blank">@AmericanThinker on Twitter</a> | <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=dlia0Qbjyr4BNDacwqm_6l&u=AmericanThinker" target="_blank">AmericanThinker on Facebook</a></span></div>
</div>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-70509305584583676272013-11-14T20:20:00.001-08:002013-11-14T20:20:15.874-08:00"Ignorant Omniscience"...so well put Mary Katherine <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">The ignorant
omniscience of President Obama<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">posted at 10:01 pm on November 14,
2013 by Mary Katharine Ham<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He knows everything. And yet he seems to know nothing. He’s passionate
about the details of domestic policy but wasn’t privy to the details of his own
legacy law. He’s an academic with a command of every issue at once but
seemingly only finds out what his administration is doing in news reports. He’s
so brilliant every normal endeavor he’s tried has bored him, but he couldn’t
bother to entertain himself with more than one monthly meeting on the
make-or-break program of his presidency. He’s the captain of the Culture of
Competency who has overseen the most incompetent rollout of an entitlement
program in history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in;">was struck by a moment in President Obama’s press conference today
where this paradox was on full display. The president floated, throughout the press
conference, from profession of utter ignorance to confident declaration and
directive. Allahpundit noted that Obama distanced himself from the website’s
problems by saying he was never informed of its problems. </span><a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2013/11/14/obama-by-the-way-the-obamacare-websites-not-really-my-fault-either/" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="color: blue;">He knew nothing.</span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PRESIDENT OBAMA: OK. On the website, I was not informed directly that
the website would not be working as — the way it was supposed to. Has I been informed,
I wouldn’t be going out saying, boy, this is going to be great. You know, I’m
accused of a lot of things, but I don’t think I’m stupid enough to go around
saying, this is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity, a week
before the website opens, if I thought that it wasn’t going to work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, clearly, we and I did not have enough awareness about the problems
in the website. Even a week into it, the thinking was that these were some
glitches that would be fixed with patches, as opposed to some broader systemic
problems that took much longer to fix and we’re still working on them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Neat how his ignorance is proof of his smarts. “I don’t think I’m stupid
enough…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But he later explained how cumbersome and problematic federal IT
procurement is, and that he knew that before the website build started, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-president-obamas-nov-14-statement-on-health-care/2013/11/14/6233e352-4d48-11e3-ac54-aa84301ced81_story_4.html"><span style="color: blue;">yet inexplicably did not act on this knowledge:</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What is true is that, as I said before, our IT systems, how we purchase
technology in the federal government is cumbersome, complicated and outdated.
And so this isn’t a situation where — on my campaign, I could simply say, who
are the best folks out there, let’s get them around a table, let’s figure out
what we’re doing and we’re just going to continue to improve it and refine it
and work on our goals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you’re doing it at the federal government level, you know, you’re
going through, you know, 40 pages of specs and this and that and the other and
there’s all kinds of law involved. And it makes it more difficult — it’s part
of the reason why chronically federal IT programs are overbudget, behind
schedule.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And one of the — you know, when I do some Monday morning quarterbacking
on myself, one of the things that I do recognize is since I know that the
federal government has not been good at this stuff in the past, two years ago
as we were thinking about this, you know, we might have done more to make sure
that we were breaking the mold on how we were going to be setting this up. But
that doesn’t help us now. We got to move forward.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ya think?! More time dealing with a problem you claim you knew about and
less time spent smearing people who pointed out this problem would have been
productive. So, in this instance, Obama knew the federal government’s bad track
record with IT but did nothing to correct the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, what does the president act on? Why, an utter lack of knowledge, of
course:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One thing that we’ve discovered, though, that I think is — is worth
noting, a lot of focus has been on the website and the technology, and that’s
partly because that’s how we initially identified it; you know, these are
glitches. What we’re discovering is that part of the problem has been
technology, hardware and software, and that’s being upgraded. But even if we
get the — the hardware and software working exactly the way it’s supposed to
with relatively minor glitches, <b>what we’re also discovering is that
insurance is complicated to buy.</b> And another mistake that we made, I think,
was underestimating the difficulties of people purchasing insurance online and
shopping for a lot of options with a lot of costs and lot of different benefits
and plans and — and somehow expecting that that would be very smooth, and then
they’ve also got to try to apply for tax credits on the website.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Apparently entirely ignorant of the process of buying insurance, the
president decided to demand an overhaul of the entire insurance industry,
building the purchasing mechanism himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So, when you know something pertinent about federal technology failures
that could increase the chances of success for your pet project, do nothing.
When you know absolutely nothing about the subject of your ambitious pet
project to remake 1/6 of the economy, try to <i>do everything</i>. And, when
you do nothing with the knowledge you do have to prevent the Charlie Foxtrot
created by your insistence on acting, <i>ahem</i>, audaciously with knowledge
you don’t have, insist that your lack of knowledge is proof of your
intelligence. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hey, I’m smart enough that if I knew this was going to be such a
lumbering catastrophe, I wouldn’t have said those dumb things about how it
would be great! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He knows everything. And yet he knows nothing. The reason for this is
the animating feature of Obama’s leadership style, if you can call it that, is
not presuming to know all the facts and micromanaging every project ala Jimmy
Carter. Nor is it acknowledging he doesn’t know all the facts and surrounding
himself with experts he trusts ala George W. Bush. And, no, it’s not combining
an intellectual strength and a mind for policy detail with a populist flair ala
Bill Clinton. The animating feature of Obama’s leadership style is <i>simply
making pronouncements</i>. Making them about things he knows, things he knows
not, and waiting for everyone and everything to fall in line. And, when things
don’t magically come together, he pronounces his disappointment and anger.
Wash, rinse, repeat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We’re going to get this done, all right?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sure. If you say so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-70049645345787647952013-11-13T09:39:00.001-08:002013-11-13T09:39:14.043-08:00Maybe we are reversing the "Stupification of America" trend that has been going on for the past 4 1/2 years!<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 22pt;"><a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Quinnipiac-Obama-not-honest/2013/11/12/id/536271"><b><span style="color: black;">Poll: Most Say Obama 'Not Trustworthy'</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white;">President Barack Obama's
approval rating is at its lowest level since he entered the White House in
2009, with a majority saying for the first time in a Quinnipiac University poll
that the president is not honest and trustworthy.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.quinnipiac.edu/institutes-and-centers/polling-institute/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=1975"><b><span style="color: #010101; font-size: 13.5pt;">survey of 2,545 voters</span></b></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span style="background: white;">conducted
Nov. 6-11 found that only 39 percent of respondents approved of Obama's job
performance, compared with 54 percent who didn't. The poll has a margin of
error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Among women voters,
one of Obama's biggest support groups, only 40 percent said they approved of
his performance in the White House, versus 51 percent who said they did not.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">For the first time in the
Quinnipiac survey, 52 percent of voters said they thought Obama was not honest
and trustworthy. That compared with 44 percent who said he was.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The president's
previous lowest marks on honesty were on May 30, when 49 percent of voters
surveyed said he was honest and 47 percent said he was not.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">"Like all new
presidents, President Barack Obama had a honeymoon with American voters, with
approval ratings in the high 50s," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of
the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">"As the
marriage wore on, he kept his job-approval scores in the respectable, though
not overwhelming, 40s. Today, for the first time, it appears that 40 percent
floor is cracking," Malloy said.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">"Any Democrat
with an 11-point approval deficit among women is in trouble. And any elected
official with an 8-point trust deficit is in serious trouble."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The latest
Quinnipiac poll results come as problems continue to plague the rollout of
Obamacare, with the<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></span></span><a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-apologizes-obamacare-health/2013/11/07/id/535499#ixzz2kTDZ7FlE"><b><span style="color: #010101; font-size: 13.5pt;">president saying last week
that he was "sorry"</span></b><span style="color: #010101; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></a><span style="background: white;">millions of Americans would be losing their health insurance
under the beleaguered program.<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Many critics called
Obama's apology too little, too late — especially in light of the president's
repeated promises that Americans could keep their health plans and doctors
under Obamacare if they wanted to.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">"President
Obama's misstatement, 'If you like your health plan, you can keep it,' left a
bad taste with a lot of people," Malloy said. "Nearly half of the
voters, 46 percent, think he knowingly deceived them."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">House Speaker John
Boehner was among the many Republicans who attacked the president's admission
last week.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The apology, the
Ohio Republican said, was "certainly in order, but what Americans want to
hear is that the president is going to keep his promise."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">House Republicans
are expected to vote this week on legislation that would allow Americans to
keep the healthcare plans they liked.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Voters also blamed
Obama in part for the 16-day shutdown of the federal government last month,
which furloughed as many as 800,000 workers and cost taxpayers $2 billion.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">The overall
Quinnipiac survey results released on Tuesday compared with a 49 percent
disapproval rating on Oct. 1. In that survey, Obama's approval rating was 54
percent.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">His previous lowest
score in the survey was 55 percent to 41 percent disapproval in a poll
conducted on Oct. 6, 2011.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Voters in every
income and age group disapproved of how Obama is doing on the job, with the
biggest disapproval rating, 59 percent to 36 percent, coming from voters over
65, the Quinnipiac survey found.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Respondents also
told Quinnipiac — 53 percent to 43 percent — that the Obama administration was
incompetent in running the government.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">They also said, 51
percent to 43 percent, that the president was not paying attention to the
workings of his administration.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Obama received a 52 percent to 42 percent
approval rating, however, for handling terrorism, compared with negative scores
for handling these other foreign and domestic issues, Quinnipiac found:</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">38 percent to 53 percent on foreign
policy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">35 percent to 53 percent on
immigration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">32 percent to 62 percent on the
federal budget.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">36 percent to 60 percent on
healthcare.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">38 percent to 59 percent on the
economy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Read Latest Breaking
News from Newsmax.com <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Quinnipiac-Obama-not-honest/2013/11/12/id/536271#ixzz2kY3F0CWE"><b><span style="color: #003399; font-family: "Georgia","serif";">http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Quinnipiac-Obama-not-honest/2013/11/12/id/536271#ixzz2kY3F0CWE</span></b></a><br />
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed?<a href="http://www.newsmax.com/surveys/Obama-Policies/Should-Congress-Repeal--Obama-s-Health-Plan-and-Ot/id/13/kw/default?PROMO_CODE=10EFE-1%22target=%22_blank%22"><b><span style="color: #003399; font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> Vote Here Now!</span></b></a></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-71386270429661191482013-11-13T04:54:00.000-08:002013-11-13T04:54:29.189-08:00Talk about stating the obvious...<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Horowitz at Heritage Foundation: “The communist party IS the Democrat Party!”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 16.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On Tuesday, former Marxist-turned-conservative icon David Horowitz spoke
at the Heritage Foundation to mark the launch of what will be a ten-volume
compendium of his writings on leftism, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Book-American-Left/dp/1594036942"><span style="color: #0088bb; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The Black Book
of the American Left</span></a></i>. In his wide-ranging speech, Horowitz
described his transition from left to right, and discussed the shortcomings of
a conservative movement unwilling to deal with the ugly realities of what the
American left represents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Horowitz began by
distinguishing the David Horowitz Freedom Center from other think tanks,
instead characterizing it as a “battle tank.” He labeled himself “monomaniacal”
in his focus on the left and its relation to communism. “There are hedgehogs
and foxes. The foxes know many things. And the hedgehogs know one thing. I am a
hedgehog,” he joked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“My parents called
themselves progressives,” Horowitz explained with regard to his communist
parents. “The agenda was a Soviet America...the slogan of the communist party
in those days was peace, jobs, democracy. Sound familiar?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That was the theme
of Horowitz’s speech as he continued: how the communists had taken over the
Democratic Party. “The communist party is the Democratic Party,” Horowitz
stated. “In <i>The Great Gatsby</i>, [F. Scott] Fitzgerald describes the rich
as people who break things and leave them for others to clean up. That is a
wonderful description of the left.” Horowitz, who began as a radical Marxist,
said that the modern left had learned stealth from their failures in the 1960s:
“The left have learned from the 1960s...we in the 1960s didn't want to pretend
to be Jeffersonian democrats...That's why we failed in the 1960s. That's why
they've succeeded now.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But the right,
Horowitz pointed out, has failed to acknowledge that reality. On Obamacare, for
example, Horowitz railed against the language used by the left: “single-payer.”
Instead, he said, “it is communism,” pointing out that it was state ownership
of the means of production. He added, “The left hate the Constitution because
Madison designed it to thwart them.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Horowitz then
analyzed what he claimed were the four features of the leftist mentality.
First, he said, the left and right are on opposite sides of the “fundamental
divide of the modern age”: the left believes that human beings are inherently
good and infinitely malleable, and so can be shaped by proper state guidance.
Conservatives, by contrast, believe that human beings are responsible for
social problems, and concentrating power in the hands of humans is dangerous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Second, Horowitz
said, the left are characterized by the belief that “history is a forward
march.” Obama, Horowitz claimed, is a deep believer in this concept, all the
way down to his carpet in the Oval Office, which assures those who enter that
the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. “Leftism is a
crypto-religion,” he explained. “They see themselves as a savior. People who
believe that redemption will take place in this life and I will be a part of
it, that's Hitler. That's Mao...That's the American left.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Third, Horowitz
said that the left was characterized by “alienation from this country... What
weakens America is actually good.” Horowitz cited the Obama administration’s
eager withdrawal from Iraq as evidence of that proposition: “Obama betrayed
every American who gave their life for the people of Iraq.” He also slammed the
Obama administration with regard to Benghazi: “Benghazi is the most shameful
act in the history of the American presidency.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Finally, said
Horowitz, the American left “lie. And it's not like politicians spinning...you
cannot be a leftist without lying about the most basic strategic facts about
who you are.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin: 7.5pt 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #111111; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Horowitz summed up
pessimistically: “We are within reach of a totalitarian state in this
country…These are very very dark days for this country.” But, Horowitz held out
hope: “there's been an earthquake on the conservative side since I switched
sides...the tea party is the earthquake. The best thing that Republicans can do
is stop the fratricide.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p>http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/11/12/Horowitz-blasts-left-Heritage</o:p></div>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-47516774668955877172013-11-03T06:54:00.000-08:002013-11-03T06:54:14.739-08:00Ever wonder how such a scandalous, corrupt, deceitful disingenuous president could have avoided impeachment when any other traditional president - particularly a Republican one - would have been skewered and hung out to dry by now?Well, Victor Hanson does a pretty good job explaining how in the article below...<br />
<br />
<div class="print-wrap">
<div class="pagetools">
<a class="pagetools" href="http://www.nationalreview.com/">NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE</a> <a class="pagetools non_caps" href="http://www.nationalreview.com/">www.nationalreview.com</a> </div>
<div class="article_date">
<span class="article_timestamp">October 29, 2013 3:00
AM</span> </div>
<div class="article_title">
<br /></div>
<div class="article_title">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Is Obama Still President? </span></b></div>
<div class="article_title">
<br /></div>
<span class="article_subtitle">His cadences soar on, through scandal after fiasco after
disaster.</span></div>
<div class="print-wrap">
<br />
<div class="blog_author">
By Victor Davis Hanson </div>
<div class="print_text">
<!--smart_paging_filter-->
<span style="font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="drop"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: 1em; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="drop">W</span>e are currently learning whether the United States really
needs a president. Barack Obama has become a mere figurehead, who gives speeches
few listen to any more, issues threats that scare fewer, and makes promises that
almost no one believes he will keep. Yet America continues on, despite the fact
that the foreign and domestic policies of Barack Obama are unraveling, in a
manner unusual even for star-crossed presidential second terms.</span><br />
<br />
Abroad, American policy in the Middle East is leaderless and in shambles
after the Arab Spring — we’ve had the Syrian fiasco and bloodbath, leading from
behind in Libya all the way to Benghazi, and the non-coup, non-junta in Egypt.
This administration has managed to unite existential Shiite and Sunni enemies in
a shared dislike of the United States. While Iran follows the Putin script from
Syria, Israel seems ready to preempt its nuclear program, and Obama still
mumbles empty “game changers” and “red line” threats of years past.<br />
<br />
We have gone from reset with Russia to Putin as the playmaker of the Middle
East. The Persian Gulf sheikhdoms are now mostly anti-American. The leaders of
Germany and the people of France resent having their private communications
tapped by Barack Obama — the constitutional lawyer and champion of universal
human rights. Angela Merkel long ago grasped that President Obama would rather
fly across the Atlantic to lobby for a Chicago Olympic Games — or tap her phone
— than sit through a 20th-anniversary commemoration of the fall of the Berlin
Wall.<br />
<br />
Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are beginning to see that the U.S. is more a
neutral than a friend, as Obama negotiates with Putin about reducing the nuclear
umbrella that protects America’s key non-nuclear allies. Perhaps they will soon
make the necessary adjustments. China, Brazil, and India care little that Barack
Obama still insists he is not George W. Bush, or that he seems to be trying to
do to America what they seek to undo in their own countries.<br />
<br />
The world’s leaders do not any longer seem much impressed by the president’s
cat-like walk down the steps of Air Force One, or the soaring cadences that
rechannel hope-and=change themes onto the world scene.<br />
<br />
They acknowledge that
their own publics may like the American president, and especially his
equivocation about the traditional role of American power in the world. But
otherwise, for the next three years, the world is in a holding pattern,
wondering whether there is a president of the United States to reckon with or a
mere teleprompted functionary. Certainly, the Obama Nobel Peace Prize is now the
stuff of comedy.<br />
<br />
At home, the signature Affordable Care Act is proving its sternest critics
prescient. The mess can best be summed up by Republicans’ being demonized for
trying to delay or defund Obamacare — after the president himself chose not to
implement elements of his own law — followed immediately by congressional
Democrats’ seeking to parrot the Republicans. So are the Democrats followers of
Ted Cruz or Barack Obama? Is Obama himself following Ted Cruz?<br />
<br />
The problem is not just that all the president’s serial assurances about
Obamacare proved untrue — premiums and deductibles will go up, many will lose
their coverage and their doctors, new taxes will be needed, care will be
curtailed, signups are nearly impossible, and businesses will be less, not more,
competitive — but that no one should ever have believed they could possibly be
true unless in our daily lives we usually get more and better stuff at lower
cost.<br />
<br />
More gun control is dead. Comprehensive immigration legislation depends on
Republicans’ trusting a president who for two weeks smeared his House opponents
as hostage-takers and house-breakers.<br />
<br />
Moreover, just as no one really read the
complete text of the Obamacare legislation, so too no one quite knows what is in
the immigration bill. There are few assurances that the border will be first
secured under an administration with a record of nullifying “settled law” — or
that those who have been convicted of crimes or have been long-time recipients
of state or federal assistance will not be eligible for eventual citizenship. If
the employer mandate was jettisoned, why would not border security be dropped
once a comprehensive immigration bill passed? Or for that matter, if it is not
passed, will the president just issue a blanket amnesty anyway?<br />
<br />
In the age of Obama, we just ran up a $700 billion annual deficit and called
it restraint, as if success were to be defined as not adding another $1 trillion
each year to the national debt. The strange thing is that after the end of the
Iraq War and the winding down in Afghanistan, forced sequestration, new taxes on
high earners, and a supposedly recovering and revenue-producing economy, we are
still running up near-record deficits.<br />
<br />
Stranger still, Obama is bragging that
the deficit has been cut by billions — as if the 400-pound heart patient can be
content that he lost 50 pounds in record time and so trimmed down to a
manageable 350 pounds.<br />
<br />
The Federal Reserve is pretty well stuck with near-zero interest rates. Even
a slight rise would make servicing the huge debt nearly unmanageable. Yet
continued record low interest, along with Obamacare, is strangling the economy.
Millions of older Americans are learning that a mid-level government employee
draws more in pension compensation than a private retiree receives in interest
on 40 years’ worth of life savings.<br />
<br />
“Millions of green jobs,” “cash for clunkers,” and “stimulus” are all now
recognized as cruel jokes. Oddly, the more scandals come to light, the more
immune the virtual president becomes. After the politicization of the IRS, the
snooping on AP reporters, the Benghazi mess, the NSA eavesdropping, Fast and
Furious, the multibillion-dollar overpayment in income-tax credits by the IRS,
the Lisa Jackson fake e-mail identities, and the Pigford payments, the public
has become numb — as if it to say, “Of course the Obama administration is not
truthful. So what else is new?”<br />
<br />
Three considerations are keeping the U.S. afloat without an active president.
First, many working Americans have tuned the president out and simply go on
about their business despite rather than because of this administration. If gas
and oil leases have been curtailed on federal lands, there is record production
on private land. Farmers are producing huge harvests and receiving historically
high prices. Wall Street welcomes in capital that can find no return elsewhere.
American universities’ science departments and professional schools still rate
among the world’s best. There is as yet no French or Chinese Silicon Valley. In
other words, after five years of stagnation, half the public more or less
ignores the Obama administration and plods on.<br />
<br />
Second, the other half of Americans gladly accept that Obama is an iconic
rather than a serious president. Given his emblematic status as the nation’s
first African-American president and his efforts to craft a vast coalition of
those with supposed grievances against the majority, he will always have a
strong base of supporters. With huge increases in federal redistributive support
programs, and about half the population not paying federal income taxes, Obama
is seen as the protector of the noble deserving, who should receive more from a
government to which the ignoble undeserving must give far more. And if it is a
question of adding another million or so people to the food-stamp or disability
rolls, or ensuring that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon or that China does
not bully Japan, the former wins every time.<br />
<br />
Finally, the media accept that Obama represents a rare confluence of forces
that promotes a progressive agenda. His youth, his charisma, his background, his
exotic nomenclature, and his “cool” all have allowed a traditionally unpopular
leftist ideology to enter the mainstream. Why endanger all that with a focus on
Benghazi or the disaster of Obamacare? We have had, in the course of our
history, plenty of Grants, McKinleys, Hardings, Nixons, and Clintons, but never
quite an administration of scandal so exempt from media scrutiny.<br />
<br />
As far as his image goes, it does not really matter to what degree Obama
actually “fundamentally transforms America.” For the media, that he seeks to do
so, and that he drives conservatives crazy trying, is seen as enough reason to
surrender their autonomy and become ancillary to the effort. The media believe
that once he is out of office, they can regain their credibility by going after
the next president with renewed vigor as recompense.<br />
<br />
In other words, the presidency has become a virtual office. Almost half the
people and most of the media do not mind, and those who do just plod onward.<br />
<span class="bioline"><em><br /></em></span>
<span class="bioline"><em>—</em> NRO<em> contributor</em> <em>Victor Davis
Hanson is a senior fellow at the <a href="https://nrxchg.nrny2k.local/owa/redir.aspx?C=8d322a9d4fa44799946d3a25865435ca&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.hoover.org%2f" target="_blank">Hoover Institution</a>. His latest book is </em><u><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=%20160819163X">The
Savior Generals</a></u><em>, published this spring by Bloomsbury
Books.</em></span><a class="pagetools" href="http://www.nationalreview.com/">NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE</a> </div>
</div>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-56626916268645725652013-11-01T08:28:00.000-07:002013-11-01T08:28:03.573-07:00Always look for the hidden nugget when Mrs. Obama launches any public service initiative…and that nugget is “What’s in it for her”…chances are real good you’ll find some cash flowing her way<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 17.4pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<span style="color: #72123b; font-family: Georgia, serif;">My personal dream is for Obama to eventually be impeached for any of his broken laws, corruption, underhanded dealings and his all around loathsomeness as our country's leader. But I do take solace knowing that his administration, his presidency, his failed policies, the damage he has done, and continues to do, to our wonderful country will not be treated well by historians. I hope my grandchildren will someday read about the most awful president our country has ever elected (Twice!) thanks to low information voters; racists whose vote was cast only because of skin color; the masses of uneducated, lazy people with no self-respect; and of course the corrupt liberals, socialists, progressives who are all on the dole with Obama's Chicago Style presidency. But, I would prefer impeachment.</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #72123b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 17.4pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<b><span style="color: #72123b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #72123b; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2013/11/01/first-crony-michelle-obamas-big-business-bonanza/">First Crony
Michelle Obama’s Big Business Bonanza</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #72123b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By
Michelle Malkin • November 1, 2013 09:05 AM<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<a href="http://www.creators.com/"><b><span style="color: #72123b; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Creators Syndicate<br />
</span></b></a>Copyright 2013<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 19.2pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 19.2pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While her husband’s signature health care law
goes up in flames, first lady Michelle Obama is reveling in the success of her
East Wing pet project, the “Let’s Move” initiative. But ignore the do-gooder
dressing. Mrs. Obama doesn’t care about your children. What we have here is a
textbook case of Washington influence peddling, which the Obamas so vigorously
condemned a long time ago and far away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 19.2pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 19.2pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On Wednesday, Mrs. Obama announced an
agreement by the Sesame Workshop and the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) to
join her nonprofit Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) in a two-year
agreement to help promote fresh fruit and vegetable consumption to kids. Among
the corporate interests Mrs. Obama has wooed to her cause: Wal-Mart, Nike,
Reebok, Nickelodeon, Walt Disney and the administration’s former Public Enemy
No. 1, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 19.2pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 19.2pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Politico.com notes that trade groups including
the American Beverage Association, the International Bottled Water Association,
the Food Marketing Institute, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the
National Restaurant Association are all working with the first lady behind
closed doors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 19.2pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Her related initiative “Drink Up” is supported
by the American Beverage Association, water filter companies BRITA and SOMA,
and bottled water brands Aquafina, BEVERLY HILLS 9OH2O, DASANI, EVIAN Natural Spring
Water, Hint, Voss, WAT-AAH!, Nestle Waters North America’s Arrowhead, Deer
Park, Ice Mountain, Nestle Pure Life, Ozarka, Poland Spring and Zephyrhills.
Joining her for the rollout of that initiative: Hollywood actress Eva Longoria,
who gets paid to promote sugary soda pop Pepsi when she’s not standing by
Michelle Obama telling the rest of us to drink more healthy water.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 19.2pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mrs. Obama’s nonprofit reportedly has assets
of $4.5 million. It doesn’t have to disclose its donors. So much for the “most
transparent administration ever.” Even left-wing watchdogs are irked. “This is
a classic case of the game of influence peddling by lobbying associations,”
Craig Holman, who works for the liberal watchdog group Public Citizen, told
Politico.com. “Lobbyists and corporations with business pending before the
federal government invest in such charitable causes as a means to buy access
and favor from the White House.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 19.2pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 2008, candidate Obama preached: “We need a
president who will look out for the interests of hardworking families, not just
their big campaign donors and corporate allies.” In 2013, first lady Michelle
Obama is busy signing up as many corporate allies as she can.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="color: red;">As I have reported previously, Mrs. Obama has
profited handsomely from the very same processed food industry she now
demonizes. In June 2005, a few months after her husband was elected to the U.S.
Senate, Mrs. Obama was named to the corporate Board of Directors of TreeHouse
Foods, Inc.</span><span style="color: #3b3b3b;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 19.2pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Despite zero experience, the food-processing
company put her on its audit and nominating and corporate governance
committees. For her on-the-job training and the privilege of putting her name
and face on their literature, the company forked over $45,000 in 2005 and
$51,200 in 2006 to Mrs. Obama — as well as 7,500 TreeHouse stock options worth
more than $72,000 for each year. TreeHouse, a leading supplier to Wal-Mart,
sells cheese sauces, Cremora non-dairy creamer, instant soup, puddings and
powdered soft drink mixes, and pickles for McDonald’s. Eat as she says, not as
she deals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 19.2pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: #3b3b3b; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mrs. Obama has moved on from TreeHouse to much
fatter “partnerships.” The alliances between big business and big government,
marketed as a public service “for the children,” have been a bonanza for the
first crony. They scratch her back, her clout and popularity increase, and
she’ll have a cornucopia of board of director slots to choose from after her
hubby’s term is up. Make no mistake: Michelle’s fruits and vegetables are
served on a heaping platter of progressive hypocrisy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-90367002444561662822013-10-30T08:56:00.000-07:002013-11-01T08:30:31.688-07:00Obama continues his Culture of Corruption as Detailed by Michelle Malkin....<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Thuggery of Obamacare Czarina Kathleen Sebelius</b></span><br />
by Michelle
Malkin<br />
<a href="http://www.creators.com/" peppycount="10">Creators
Syndicate</a><br />
Copyright 2013<br />
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is allergic to
the truth. She is the ruthless enforcer of Obamacare’s Jenga tower of lies upon
lies upon lies. Now that this fatally flawed government edifice is collapsing,
you can expect Sebelius to do what she has done her entire career: blame, bully
and pile on more lies.<br />
<br />
Three years ago, when insurers and other companies had the audacity to expose
Obamacare’s damage to their customers and workers, Sebelius brought out her
brass knuckles. Remember? As I reported at the time, the White House coordinated
a demonization campaign against Anthem Blue Cross in California for raising
rates because of the new mandate’s costs. Obama singled out the company in a “60
Minutes” interview, and Sebelius sent a nasty-gram demanding that Anthem
“justify” its rate hikes to the federal government.<br />
<br />
A private company trying to survive in the marketplace was forced to
“explain” itself to federal bureaucrats and career politicians who have never
run a business (successful or otherwise) in their lives. Sebelius went even
further. She called on Anthem to provide public disclosure of how the rate
increases would be spent — a mandate that no other private companies must
follow.<br />
<br />
In an even more heavy-handed effort to suppress criticism, Sebelius wrote
America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the national association of health
insurers, “calling on their members to stop using scare tactics and
misinformation to falsely blame premium increases for 2011 on the patient
protections in the Affordable Care Act.” The threatening cease-and-desist letter
commanded: “I urge you to inform your members that there will be zero tolerance
for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases. … Simply stated,
we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased
profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic
protections.”<br />
<br />
The speech-stifling gag order declared war on every opponent of Obamacare who
dared to question the administration’s phony claims of cost-savings or expanded
access. When McDonald’s notified the feds that it might have to cancel health
insurance plans for 30,000 workers because of Obamacare’s effective prohibition
on low-cost plans, Sebelius slammed The Wall Street Journal for reporting the
story. She then rushed to issue McDonald’s an Obamacare waiver, the first of
thousands to quell criticism and bleeding.<br />
Health care policy analyst Merrill Matthews points out that Sebelius cracked
her whip against health insurer Humana even before the law had passed. When the
insurer warned seniors that an Obamacare proposal to cut reimbursements could
harm their Medicare Advantage benefits and coverage, Sebelius demanded that the
company “suspend potentially misleading mailings to beneficiaries about health
care and insurance reform.”<br />
<br />
The warning, of course, proved true. In September 2010, Harvard Pilgrim
Health Care canceled MA policies covering 22,000 seniors precisely because of
Obamacare rules on reimbursements and MA-style plans.<br />
<br />
Sebelius’ power-mad partner on Capitol Hill, Henry Waxman, targeted companies
including Deere, Caterpillar, Verizon and ATT in a brass-knuckled effort to
silence companies speaking out about the cost implications and financial burdens
of Obamacare. After the firms reported write-downs related to the Obamacare
mandate (disclosures that are required by law), Waxman scheduled an inquisition
hearing to berate them publicly. After the Democrats’ own congressional staff
pointed out that the companies “acted properly and in accordance with accounting
standards” in submitting filings that were required by law, Waxman called off
the hounds.<br />
<br />
<br />
It was a temporary reprieve. Caught with their pants down on the Obamacare
website abomination and unable to stifle the cries of millions of Americans who
are unable to keep the plans and doctors they like, Sebelius and her corrupt
company are now blaming insurers, contractors and customers for the Obama
administration’s ideological mess. In short: They lied, but for your own good.
Culture of Corruption 101.BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8655319897993151077.post-10816251564940780742013-10-30T06:19:00.001-07:002013-10-30T06:19:33.453-07:00It took CNN five years to figure this out! Obama threatens reporters? Really? Oh no, not this president...<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">CNN Anchor: Obama Threatens Reporters Who Say
“Anything Bad” About Him<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<h3>
<a href="http://www.mrconservative.com/author/kristintate/" title="Posts by Ms. Conservative">Ms. Conservative</a></h3>
<div class="article-timestamp">
October 29, 2013 12:18pm PST</div>
<div class="article-timestamp">
<br /></div>
According to CNN’s Carol Costello, the Obama Administration tries to get
reporters fired for embarrassing the president.<br />
<br />
No, this is not a joke.<br />
<br />
On CNN last night, Costello said if you make Obama look bad, you can lose
your job as a reporter.<br />
She said, “And Will really does have a point. Because I felt it first hand
when I was, you know, reporting on the presidential race. I mean President
Obama’s people can be quite nasty. They don’t like you to say anything bad
about their boss, and they’re not afraid to use whatever means they have at
hand to stop you from doing that, including threatening your job.”<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
BobHhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13043748156041420938noreply@blogger.com0