Saturday, November 30, 2013

A Different Take on Francis' Exhortation

Fifth Column has a much different and quite persuasive take on Francis' 'capitalism' essay.

...It is not the inequality of wealth that concerns him, it is the inequality of dignity.

The Fathers and Doctors of the Church all agreed that physical poverty wasn't the biggest problem, rather, it was spiritual poverty, the poverty of not knowing the Gospel. Insofar as someone doesn't know the Gospel, they don't know their own worth or their own dignity. They don't know how deeply central they are in the eyes of God.

So, when Francis speaks of the lack of employment being the biggest problem, he isn't thinking that a job at McDonald's for every teenager is the solution. Rather, he sees the solution as being a society which recognizes the dignity of the McDonald's worker to be equal to the dignity of the CEO. When the dignity of work is recognized, then inequality will have been conquered. This is not just recognized by paycheck, but by giving honor to everyone employed in work, especially vocational work
.


He also comments on the "Islam" section, making it clear that Francis was not rolling over for the Muslims at all.

Pure Ugly "Recovery"

The Recession remains present.

Text explanation for Statist/Lefty/Democrats at this link.

ObozoCare's Next SNAFU!!

You knew there'd be another one, right? 

Parts of the Obamacare enrollment system used to pay insurers are being pushed back from January in the latest technology delay for the president’s U.S. health-care overhaul. 

The administration is setting up a temporary process to send companies the federal subsidies used to help millions of Americans buy coverage because the online system won’t be ready as planned...

Huh?

...The government’s original plans called for the federal system to automatically determine consumer subsidies and issue payments to insurers. Instead, the companies will submit estimates that will be “trued up” by the government at a later date, according to a CMS memo provided to Bloomberg News. The work-around for insurers will be in place until the automatic payment system is ready, though CMS has no specific date for the fix, Albright said. 

The estimated billings are expected to be close to the actual payments to insurers...

So now the insurance companies have Obozo telling them that 'the check is in the mail' like he told everyone else that 'you can keep your plan.'

Right!

Friday, November 29, 2013

Sequester Need Here!!

Too bad that the Republicans are going to go supine on budget matters (again) because I think the FTC needs a 10% budget haircut.

...Every month, it seems, brings a new story of this presidency leveling the intimidating powers of the federal government against some law-abiding citizen. Now comes a terrifying tale of how the Federal Trade Commission, a governmental Goliath, crushes an average David—because it can.

The victim-du-jour?  A toothless 501(c)(3) trade association for piano teachers.  Yup.  You read it right. Bet you never thought those piano teachers were really a bunch of colluding price-fixing thugs, eh?

They're not.  But it cost them, anyway.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

"Science"

As if Hockey-Stick Warming wasn't enough, now we have another fraud.

“A now-retracted British study that linked autism to childhood vaccines was an “elaborate fraud” that has done long-lasting damage to public health, a leading medical publication reported Wednesday.

“An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study’s author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study — and that there was “no doubt” Wakefield was responsible.--Milloy quoting CNN

Climate change fraud costs trillions of taxpayer dollars.  Vaccination fraud?  That costs lives.

But I think the death penalty is appropriate for both crimes.


Pope Francis' Troops

There's been a bit of pushback after Pope Francis' remarks on capitalism.

But he's not exactly the Lone Ranger.  The TEA Party, for example, is not all that hot on typical American "capitalism", either.

Powerful business interests want to turn the tide against Tea Party-like upstarts within the Republican Party and return the GOP back to its traditional roots: 

Doling out special favors to powerful business interests....

...This is surely a dystopian future these radical fiscal conservatives paint, one in which lucrative transportation bills for which we have no money receive additional scrutiny. One in which private businesses have to finance their own imports and exports at market rates without the benefit of your money. One in which Congress refuses to surrender United States sovereignty to unnamed foreign courts.  And one in which businesses are denied immediate access to abundant sources of dirt-cheap labor....

Rush is not always right, ya'know.

Then there's Pethokoukis:

 “Conservatives — whether churchgoers or not — are not utopians,” writes AEI’s Jim Pethokoukis. “They understand market economies will never turn the world temporal into Paradise (while at the same time realizing that command-and-control economies have frequently produced a kind of hell on earth). Conservatives value the ‘safety net’ to help those whom the pope calls the ‘excluded.’ But conservatives also want to reform the safety net so more resources are devoted to raising the living standards of the truly needy rather than subsidizing the rich, moving the jobless toward work and self sufficiency, and increasing social mobility and equality of opportunity.”

So yes, there is always room for thinking about capitalism's dark side.  It would be nice if some folks actually thought, rather than simply opened their traps on national radio.

It Is NOT True....

...that these are the Packers' cheerleaders.

You may speculate as to what their positions on the team actually are, however.

HT:  AOSHQ

Is Capers' Time Up?

Perhaps Mr. Capers' schemes are a bit shopworn, eh?

Turkeys Ain't That Dumb

HT:  Zippers

Here's a Hint for Tom Barrett

Since Tom Barrett's city seems to have crime problems AND a cash-drain caused by union hacks writing "disability" rules, "disability" policies, and health-insurance coverage mandates, here's a heartwarming story which may provide Tom with a clue.

Last year, the city of Camden decided to can its unionized police force in favor  of ununionized county cops who hit the streets this April. The decision came about because the police union would not budge on the highly lucrative contract they had, even by police standards.

... The reorganization increased the amount of police on the streets and incorporated cutting edge technology such as ShotSpotter rooftop monitors. The initiative has already gotten results, according to city leaders.

Over the summer months this year, the murder rate fell by 22 percent and crime overall was down 15 percent, according to data provided by Camden County officials
.  --quoting Fox News

Of course, there's always the Detroit Option, right?.


Fed Bozo-Think to Crucify Depositors

Currently, the Fed pays banks 1/4 of 1% interest on money deposited with the Fed.  Those moneys are called "excess reserves."

That's money that the Fed has printed up and jammed into the banks under the disguise of "Quantitative Easing", or "QE."

The Fed, now completely lost in its own jungle of QE 1-XX,XXX and "securitized" bundles of crap mortgages, and still unable to "create demand" for loans, plans to reduce the interest paid to banks. 

(Note the Fallacy of Fed-Think:  Bernanke seems to 'think' that creating money from thin air will also create demand for that money.  He's an academic; what did you expect?)

The banks, who like their free lunch, are threatening to "fix" the Fed by charging fees for money on deposit with them.  IOW, they'll snatch $1.00 for every $1,000.00 you have deposited.


Fit to Serve? Really??

Something that the MSM didn't report.

One of only two political appointees at the IRS, a generous Democrat donor, at the IRS is relying on purported memory failure to evade testifying on embarrassing and potentially incriminating activities related to the targeting of Tea Party groups.

... IRS chief counsel William Wilkins. Wilkins is one of just two political appointees at the IRS, a generous donor to Democratic candidates and causes, and once represented Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ....

..."In your testimony, you stated 'I don't recall' a staggering 80 times in full or partial response to the Committee's questions," committee chairman Darrell Issa and Ohio representative Jim Jordan wrote....

 Think a guy with full-blown Alzheimer's problems should be Chief Counsel at IRS?

Or is he just another DemoSlime lawyer?

Scary Headline

Bloomberg runs this headline today:

Former Fed Chief Greenspan Sees No Bubble in Dow 16,000

Given his track record, it's time to sell, sell, sell.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Some (Unions) Are More Equal Than You

pResident Girlypants was frightened by the AFL-CIO's President.  He ought to be; Trumka is pretty good at offing people who get in his way.

So.

...Union-managed multi-employer health insurance plans are getting a special exemption from an Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — tax. To make up for the lost revenue, taxes are going up on other plans....

That will cost everyone else another $2.00/year/plan.

Eat s*&^ and die if you don't like that.

Red China Stirrings, Girly-Man Obozo the Cause

People who pay attention are aware that Red China has been flexing its muscles recently.  They've declared that some geographically critical areas in the South China Sea are "theirs."  Internally, the Reds have allowed anti-Japanese sentiment to boil over in a few cases, too.  By no co-incidence, the countries affected by these moves are US allies.

But that isn't the end of PRChina's cat-steps aggression.

....while the Fed was gaining much attention by saying nothing, the Chinese made a blockbuster statement that was summarily ignored. Last week, a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China said that buying foreign exchange reserves was now no longer in China's national interest. The implication that China may no longer be accumulating U.S. government debt would amount to the "mother of all tapers" and could create a clear and present danger to the American economy....

So writes Peter Schiff, who pays attention to such things.  Why is this significant?

...Over the past decade or so, the People's Bank of China has been one of the largest buyers of U.S. Treasuries (after various U.S. government entities that are essentially nationalizing U.S. debt). China currently sits on $1 trillion or more in U.S. bond obligations.

So, just as many expect that the #1 buyer of Treasuries (the Fed) will soon begin paring back its purchases, the top foreign holder may cease buying, thereby opening a second front in the taper campaign. This should cause any level-headed observer to conclude that the market for such bonds will fall dramatically, causing severe upward pressure on interest rates....

It's not hard to figure out why the ChiComs are pulling the tail of the US.  We have a girly-man President who has appointed a girly-man as SecState, and who has systematically removed Real Men from command positions in the Armed Forces.  Obozo has worked to demolish both the US economy and our alliances overseas (see Israel, Britain, Germany, and Japan.)

The next couple of years will be very rough, indeed.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Managing Election Results

OK.  You can have your Voter ID.  The Dictatorship will simply change some mandates.

The Obama administration plans to push back by a month the second-year start of enrollment in its health program to give insurers more time to adjust to growing pains in the U.S. law, a move that may stave off higher premiums before the 2014 congressional elections. 

The enrollment period, previously scheduled to begin Oct. 15, 2014, will now start Nov. 15...

Not to worry.  Paul Ryan will continue to fund all this stuff.

Tammy's Fine Progressive Vote

Yup.  As a good little girl/Progressive, Tammy voted to stifle debates.

Validates the appellation "Madistan."

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Get Ready to Weep, Travesty Ahead!!

This is a really awful situation.

In a shock to the system, the older staff in my office (folks over 59) have now found out their personal health insurance costs (even with the government contribution) have gone up 3-4 times what they were paying before,” Minh Ta, chief of staff to Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), wrote to fellow Democratic chiefs of staff in an email message obtained by POLITICO. “Simply unacceptable.” 

In the email, Ta noted that older congressional staffs may leave their jobs because of the change to their health insurance.--quoted at AOSHQ

Life'a bitch.

And then you die.

Blue States Reject Obozo

Well, well.  Seems as though the true-blue Collectivist States think ObozoCare is just fine as written.

New York joins Washington, Rhode Island, Vermont, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Indiana in rejecting the President’s proposal.  Zippers quoting CNN

That's OK!  States are supposed to be 'laboratories.'  Some will, some won't.  If nothing else, it can be said that those States understand the Constitution as written.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The Milwaukee Archdiocesan Math "Core"

We know that the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has signed on to this .....thing.

Why?

...While Common Core promoters assert their standards are “internationally benchmarked,” independent members of the expert panel in charge of validating the standards refute the claim. Panel member Dr. Sandra Stotsky of the University of Arkansas reported, “No material was ever provided to the Validation Committee or to the public on the specific college readiness expectations of other leading nations in mathematics” or other subjects. 

In fact, Stanford University professor James Milgram, the only mathematician on the validation panel, concluded that the Common Core math scheme would place American students two years behind their peers in other high-achieving countries. In protest, Milgram refused to sign off on the standards. He’s not alone.
Professor Jonathan Goodman of New York University found that the Common Core math standards imposed “significantly lower expectations with respect to algebra and geometry than the published standards of other countries.”

Under Common Core, as the American Principles Project and Pioneer Institute point out, algebra I instruction is pushed to 9th grade, instead of 8th grade, as commonly taught. Division is postponed from 5th to 6th grade. Prime factorization, common denominators, conversions of fractions and decimals, and algebraic manipulation are de-emphasized or eschewed. Traditional Euclidean geometry is replaced with an experimental approach that had not been previously pilot-tested in the U.S.

Ze’ev Wurman, a prominent software architect, electrical engineer and longtime math advisory expert in California and Washington, D.C., points out that Common Core delays proficiency with addition and subtraction until 4th grade and proficiency with basic multiplication until 5th grade, and skimps on logarithms, mathematical induction, parametric equations and trigonometry at the high school level.  --AOSHQ quoting Malkin

Perhaps the Archdiocesan Education-types would like to return to the 'Catholic ghetto' days?

Paul Ryan: ObozoCare Here to Stay

Think that the Pubbies want to repeal ObozoCare?

Think again.

...To avoid another shutdown, Ryan said either he and Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) would strike a budget deal or Congress would pass a stopgap keeping existing spending levels.
 
“Either of those two scenarios will prevail and we will not have a government shutdown,” he said at the Wall Street Journal annual CEO Council. “We will keep the government funding at the current level if need be.”
 
Ryan said that he does not believe there will be any brinkmanship over the debt ceiling in February either.  He said Republicans now understand that a shutdown won’t stop ObamaCare because it is a mandatory program, not a discretionary agency budget line item. ...

The cave-in by Party Bigwigs was signalled by Tommy Thompson (a failed RINO) who has staked out the Left-most end of the (R) brand with his "it can be fixed" prattle.  Ryan is saying what Boehner and Cantor want him to say, of course.

You'll like ObozoCare.

Or you'll lump it.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

"Common Core" v. Catholic Scholarship in Milwaukee

It's curious, indeed, that the Milwaukee Archdiocese has adopted "Common Core" yappaflappa, and is perfectly happy with stifling opposition speech.

Even more curious when you consider this from a Colorado charter school:

...WHEREAS, Ridgeview Classical Schools have successfully pursued and proven the value of rigorous academic standards in a program that combines academic and character education, as well as an appreciation of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful that is possible only through a classical, liberal arts curriculum that treats the individual student as an end in himself and as the inheritor and future steward of a rich legacy dominated by the ideas and values of our Western heritage;

WHEREAS, the Common Core State Standards, while potentially exceeding previous state standards in certain respects, do not accurately assess the rich curriculum that has been conveyed to Ridgeview’s students, nor does it value any of the intangibles that make up much of a liberal arts curriculum;...

Hmmmm. 

Are the Archdiocesan schools tossing 'the true, good, and beautiful' elements down the crapper?  Or are their students going to "fail" PARCC?

Just curious, ya'know.

PRC or USA?

Who cares about what Sanford Bernstein thinks?

...“If credit allocation in China improves, the ultimate credit cycle and economy downturn will be mitigated,” Werner wrote in an Oct. 21 note to investors. “However, if China continues to rely on debt to fund its economic growth, the country’s ultimate credit cycle will be more severe.”...--AOSHQ quoting Bloomberg

Of course, 'continuing to rely on debt to fund economic growth' is only a problem in PRChina, right?

Noplace else, like (say) the US of A. 

Nope.

Mighty Krugman tells us otherwise, you see.

Did I Mention They Were Paid Off?

Gee.  A couple of days ago some bozo Anony thought I was wrong.

*cough*

TThompson RINOs Again!!

Evidently TThompson doesn't remember what happens to old RINOs--because he certainly likes being one.

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, appearing Tuesday morning on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” said Obamacare is fundamentally flawed but he believes it can be fixed and may need “a huge infusion of federal tax dollars.”

Well.  If MONEY is all that it takes, ask TT about bonding until Hell freezes over.  He's good at that.  I'm sure his grandchildren won't mind paying the piper.  Right, Tommy??

“If you don’t have the healthy young people involved, this Obamacare cannot function,” Thompson said. “It’s going to require a huge infusion of federal tax dollars or huge cuts.”

When one of the “Squawk Box” hosts asked whether that would require scrapping the law, Thompson said he didn’t think so. Thompson compared the rollout of Obamacare to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Didn't know he was around when SocSec got rolled out.

Tommy traded his Gummint creds for a very, very large fistful of dollars.  When he sends them all to the Gummint, he'll have credibility.

Meantime, he's just another fossil and failed pol.

...Thompson said addressing problems with the law ultimately would hold down health care costs and drive down the curve of rising costs....

Despite ALL the evidence to the contrary, eh?

Monday, November 18, 2013

Looks Like DPI/WI Needs a Budget Cut

Offhand, I think that a 40% cut to the DPI budget makes a lot of sense.

An EAGnews/WILL report published last month – "DPI’s War on Wisconsin’s School Choice Program" – hit home for the Racine parent, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation against his child’s school by state Department of Public Instruction officials.
 
"We almost lost our voucher after school already started because we finally got married, and my wife’s last name on our taxes and on our application didn’t match," the father of two said. "They said the name didn’t match the taxes, and they were basically trying to cancel the voucher.
 
"It was the Department of (Public Instruction) that brought it to the school, and they had to come back to us to straighten it out."
 
A lot less DPI means a lot less of their mean-girl games, no?

That "Unemployment" Number? Fuggeddaboutit

Seems like the Census department unemployment numbers have been massaged.

Considerably.

Just before the last Presidential election.

Co-incidence, of course.

Not in Congress? Suck Eggs!

Although it's not news, it's worth remembering that Members of Congress and their staff members will get a $10K gift from the taxpayers (annually) toward payment of their ObozoCare premiums.

That assumes that ObozoCare is still on the books in 12 months.

a middle-aged member of Congress who earns an annual salary of $174,000 from the taxpayers, and who has a wife and children, will get a $10,000 subsidy from the taxpayers (over and above his $174,000 salary) to buy a health insurance plan that a regular citizen making almost $80,000 less than the congressman will not get. - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-boland/174k-year-congressmen-will-get-special-obamacare-subsidy#sthash.1NZdAkf7.dpuf

Saturday, November 16, 2013

"The Insurers" Were Paid Off

Read between the lines, folks.

...Mr. Obama met with chief executives from more than a dozen of the nation’s largest companies in the Roosevelt Room for more than an hour in a session that insurers said was wide-ranging. Other issues discussed included a suggestion being floated by some in the insurance industry that they be allowed to enroll people directly, rather than through HealthCare.gov, the government’s troubled website. But the insurers said the president had agreed that fixing the site’s remaining problems was a critical priority. 

The insurers, many of whom expressed anger that the president had not consulted them before Thursday’s announcement, said they had come away from the meeting willing to work with the White House on the cancellation issue and still protect the financial viability of the new insurance marketplaces. 

They did not discuss in detail how the president’s goal might be achieved

Translation:  going into the meeting they knew that King Barack's New Decree would bankrupt some (or all) of them.

Going out of the meeting, they are "willing to work with" King Barack but "did not discuss in detail how" it might work.

This is not hard.  They were told that King Barack will provide taxpayer dollars (actually, funny money--there are no "dollars" there) to make up for the losses.


Friday, November 15, 2013

Wiggy Warns

Wigderson noticed that the odious Stadium Tax will now expire in 2018.  That's EIGHT years late.  Of course, that will change to 2020, or 2050, or whatever, as time goes on.

He also mentions that the New Bucks' Palace crowd is bulking up by adding allies who would love to get money by tax-extortion.

Yes, the name "Petak" still echoes around the Capitol Dome--for good reason.  It's sorta like George W Bush.  (He doesn't mention that TThompson engineered the Adelman appointment.  Huh.)

Well, folks, bring it on.  Try for another tax.  Make our day.

RoJo Is Right--On This Point

He's right, you know.

"The real long-term solution is to repeal Obamacare. Dumping this top-down, Washington-style monstrosity is the only way to save our health care system from permanent damage....

Umnnhhh, yah.

Too bad you headed for the hills when it counted, Ron.

Where's YOUR 'Repeal It' bill?

Thursday, November 14, 2013

The Stupid Party Rises Again!!

Frankly, nothing written by Upton deserves respect; this is no different.

...Certainly Upton and House Republican Leaders do not think it is a trap, but it is one the Democrats have flipped skillfully on the GOP.

First, understand that Upton is messaging legislation. It allows everyone in Congress to say they support people being able to keep their healthcare plans, but it lacks measures to force insurance companies to let people keep their plans. It is a paper tiger.

But Republicans are starting to pick up worried Democrat votes for the Upton legislation who feel they must stand for something with 2014 on the horizon.

So Upton will pass. It will be “bipartisan.”...

Nice, but there's this problem:

...The House would send the Senate the Upton measure. The Senate Democrats will respond, “But Upton has not teeth. Landrieu has teeth.” The Senate will substitute Landrieu’s legislation for Upton’s, send it back to the House, and watch the GOP try to explain why they say their for letting people keep their health insurance plans, but will not actually force insurance companies to let people keep those plans.

Yet again, the GOP will be cast as the tool of insurance companies and Mary Landrieu as the savior of plans people already have. Republicans will cave....

Well, yes.  But even more important is the likelihood that we'll have "bi-partisan" agreement on bailing out insurers.

Guess who pays for that?

A Line Deserving Applause

This has to be one of the best lines we've seen on the UnicornFarts healthcare "plan":

...The president may now claim that he knew nothing, but he must have wondered why Henry Chao, Healthcare.gov’s chief project manager, set the bar of success at sea level last March: “Let’s just make sure it’s not a Third World experience.” At this point, it could only be more of a Third World experience if Healthcare.gov required enrollees to pay with chickens.

Oh.  You don't have chickens?  

HT:  ColdFury

Words Matter, Ain'a?

Just to demonstrate how much words really matter (something the Left really, really, understands) we have this story.

...Assistant District Attorney General Tammy J. Rettig noted with alarm that "it has become commonplace during trials for attorneys for defendants, and especially Mr. [Drew] Justice [the defendant's lawyer], to refer to State's attorneys as 'the Government' repeatedly during trial." Rettig worried that "such a reference is used in a derogatory way and is meant to make the State's attorneys seem oppressive and to inflame the jury."...

Hmmmmm. She has a point.  "The Government" has negative connotations, to say the least.  And that has a rational foundation when one looks at EPA, DHS, DoEducation, or DoEnergy.  Also see Holder, Eric.

Well, the defense attorney had a counter-proposition.

...the Defendant no longer wants to be called "the Defendant." This rather archaic term of art, obviously has a fairly negative connotation. It unfairly demeans, and dehumanizes Mr. Donald Powell. The word "defendant" should be banned. At trial, Mr. Powell hereby demands be addressed only by his full name, preceded by the title "Mister." Alternatively, he may be called simply "the Citizen Accused."...

...defense counsel does not wish to be referred to as a "lawyer," or a "defense attorney." Those terms are substantially more prejudicial than probative....Rather, counsel for the Citizen Accused should be referred to primarily as the "Defender of the Innocent." This title seems particularly appropriate, because every Citizen Accused is presumed innocent....

...Along these same lines, even the term "defense" does not sound very likeable. The whole idea of being defensive, comes across to most people as suspicious. So to prevent the jury from being unfairly misled by this ancient English terminology, the opposition to the Plaintiff hereby names itself "the Resistance."

Mark this post, folks.  You'll need those terms in the next few years.

All Your Ditches: OURS!!

Meanwhile, the EPA is up to its usual tricks

....the Obama administration is stealthily moving toward unprecedented control over private property under a massive expansion of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act authority.
The proposed rule, obtained by the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee in advance of EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s testimony at a Thursday oversight hearing, widely broadens the definition of waterways over which the federal government has jurisdiction to as little as a water ditch in a backyard.
 
The Clean Water Act redefinition of “waters of the United States” would include all ponds, lakes, wetlands and natural or manmade streams that have any effect on downstream navigable waters — whether on public lands or private property....
 
Why Paul Ryan continues to fund EPA is a mystery.  Perhaps he can justify it.  More likely, not.

Insurers "To Collapse" Under ObozoCare? Nope

You've seen the Dire Warnings.  Since the Unicorn-Fart webpage is more fart than unicorn, only the very sick will manage to apply, enroll, and get coverage.  And the healthy yout'?  They won't bother.  Then the po' po' po' insurance companies will go broke.

Right?

Wrong, turkey.  Those insurers will take it out of YOUR hide.

The backstop is an approach known as the "three R's."..."All three of those significantly shield the plans from adverse selection," says Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington & Lee University and a fan of the Affordable Care Act...

...The most straightforward...is the temporary reinsurance program. It's a big pot of money from which the Health and Human Services Department will simply reimburse insurers for the cost of covering especially sick consumers....

...Risk corridors: This program is designed to protect the overall marketplace if more high-cost patients than expected sign up. If an insurer's real costs are higher than it planned, the government pays it part of the excess. If its costs are lower than it planned, the insurer pays the government.

...Companies with an especially healthy risk pool make a cash payment to companies that ended up with an especially unhealthy one

Should ObozoCare be preserved, you can bet that the "reinsurance" program will grow--not mathematically, but exponentially.  

Come to think of it, you've already placed that bet.  You're the one who will be paying the "r" of re-insurance.

 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Another Bush? Puhleeeeze....

This is funny.

...there is growing chatter in elite New York financial circles that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is giving more serious consideration to getting in the race, especially if it appears at any point that Christie is not drawing big national appeal beyond the northeast. Several plugged in GOP sources said Bush has moved from almost certainly staying out to a 30 percent chance of getting in. The “70/30” odds pop up in so many conversations they almost seem like circulated talking points....HotAir quoting Politico

Why "funny"?

1)  "Elite NY financial circles" are obviously pushing the Bushing.  Yah, that'll play well in Missouri.

2)  Christie will not play well 'outside the northeast,' period.  He's a typical mouthy Jersey boy, with the added attraction of being a spoiled brat.

So.  The Big Money Boyzzz are looking at another Bush because.....what.....HE will 'play well outside the Northeast?'

Delusions.

Missing in Action (Again): Sensenbrenner

Seems like "NSA Jim"--the man who authored the Spy-On-You Act (and who claims that it's being "mis-used"--was too busy filing his re-election papers to bother with other stuff.

This week several House members filed a brief for PLF’s “Origination Clause” challenge to Obamacare.

That challenge is based on the Constitution (the one Sensenbrenner carries in his pocket) which requires that all revenue and tax matters must originate in the House.

Since ObozoCare is deemed a "tax", these Members of Congress argue that since the legislation did NOT originate in the House (and it did not), it is un-Constitutional.

...In addition to Representative Franks, House members who have joined the brief as amici in support of PLF’s Obamacare challenge include: Michele Bachmann (MN); Joe Barton (TX); Kerry L. Bentivolio (MI); Marsha Blackburn (TN); Jim Bridenstine (OK); Mo Brooks (AL); K. Michael Conaway (TX); Steve Chabot (OH); Jeff Duncan (SC); John J. Duncan, Jr. (TN); John Fleming (LA); Bob Gibbs (OH); Louie Gohmert (TX); Andy Harris (MD); Tim Huelskamp (KS); Walter B. Jones, Jr. (NC); Steve King (IA); Doug Lamborn (CO); Doug LaMalfa (CA); Bob Latta (OH); Thomas Massie (KY); Mark Meadows (NC); Randy Neugebauer (TX); Steve Pearce (NM); Robert Pittenger (NC); Trey Radel (FL); David P. Roe (TN); Todd Rokita (IN); Matt Salmon (AZ); Mark Sanford (SC); David Schweikert (AZ); Marlin A. Stutzman (IN); Lee Terry (NE); Tim Walberg (MI); Randy K. Weber, Sr. (TX), Brad R. Wenstrup (OH); Lynn A. Westmoreland (GA); Rob Wittman (VA); and Ted S. Yoho (FL)....

Don't see Sensenbrenner's name there?  Good for you!  It is NOT there.

Nor is Ryan's, Ribble's, or the Log-Roller's.

HT:  Gateway

"Chicago" Bears? Maybe Not for Long!

Nah.  Not because da Bearssss are moving out.  But because Chicago may go out of business.

...The city’s out-of-control pension liabilities and “accelerating budget pressures associated with those liabilities” has resulted in another credit downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service.

The national credit rating agency downgraded the city’s nearly $8 billion in general obligation bonds to A3 from Aa3. This is a triple-notch downgrade.

Chicago is now just four notches above junk-bond status – any further downgrades mean the city is likely to face problems borrowing money
....--quoted at Mish's Place

Realistically, if Chicago gets the four-notch downgrade, the Federal Gummint will force Wisconsin taxpayers to bail it out, no matter which of the TweedleDum/TweedleDee parties is in control in the District of Criminals.

Ruling Class, ya'know.  Smarter than us country-class bumpkins.  See ObozoCare, e.g.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Corn-a-Holing the Entire Country

Cute.  The Green Weenies also oppose Corn-a-Holing.

Too bad.  It's the votes, bought by the politicians, that count.  (See, e.g., Grassley/Iowa).


(Long-form news story from AP at the link.)

Monday, November 11, 2013

This Ain't Your Father's Milwaukee

Whoa.

Factoid from David Clarke:

Forbes magazine recently released its survey of the most violent cities in America, and it shouldn’t be surprising that Milwaukee cracked the top ten of most dangerous cities.  No amount of data manipulation can change this grim fact.

That's not what the "tax a new Bucks arena into existence" gang wants to hear, is it?

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Lies and Murder

It's a well-worn maxim that lies and murder are bedfellows.

It's also well-know that Obama is a liar of epic proportions, and sure enough, he's damn good at murder too.

For [Fast & Furious] to work as I see (and saw) it: Hundreds of innocent Mexican citizens had to dieall so Obama’s “Justice Department” could then go after mom and pop gun stores, re-write regulations, make strict anti-gun laws, and further an agenda.

And that’s if it worked as intended.  Of all his scandals that one alone shows such a callous disregard for human life, premeditation, and a naked grab for reshaping our country and denying Constitutional rights.

And the press, those lovers of PC ideology, diversity, and multi-culturalism, did not care about all those beloved border hopping brown people they love to trot out when the political need arises.

They were complicit in the cover up of the murder of people that they use apparently only as stage props when it fits an agenda, but not when those people’s actual lives are on the line.


So who's next?  Is your NSA file "interesting" to such utter slime as Axelrod?

HT:  Cold Fury 

Truthful Teleology Matters

Two different essays, same foundation:  truthful teleology matters.

In the first, Joshua Schulz shows us the un-truthfulness of teleology-from-economics.

The New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a Christian-owned photography business couldn’t refuse to photograph a homosexual wedding. In his concurring statement, Justice Richard Bosson gives a new twist to Mill’s classic liberal distinction of between what is “private” and “public” based on harm, and instead distinguishes between what one may believe in one’s “private” life and what one must do in the market. In the “smaller, more focused world of the marketplace,” he writes, merchants must “compromise” with those who believe other than they do.

This is a wild distortion of the Christian/Aquinian understanding, or as Schulz remarks, the judge's opinion is like  'using a thesaurus without using a dictionary.'

...The traditional and limited Christian duty to secure the welfare of others regardless of their natural “accidents” has become an open-ended duty to secure the satisfaction of others’ desires, regardless of one’s own religious and moral beliefs, even when the desires one is being asked to satisfy are immoral....

Citing Aristotle and Aquinas, Schulz shows that we are obligated to assist others in the preservation of their lives. But 'preservation of life' is not the same as 'fulfillment of desires,' as was the case in New Mexico.

....we find the Court arguing that homosexual couples have a right to the someone’s camera in the same way the pauper has a right to the baker’s bread. The glaringly obvious difference between the cases is that the pauper needs the bread to survive and is obligated to pursue legitimate means of survival, whereas homosexuals desire but don’t need that someone photograph their wedding (it is possible to get married without a camera)....

(That also happens to be the error of Justice Kennedy's infamous remarks on 'creating one's own reality' in the Texas sodomy decision.)

...The Court’s decision combines the traditional Christian belief that merchants in a commercial society should not unjustly deprive someone of some goods and services with a rejection of the idea that human life is for something, a rejection popularized by positivist economics and Rawlsian liberalism.

The Court’s decision is a perfect example of Alasdair MacIntyre’s “disquieting suggestion” in After Virtue that modern moral discourse consists of “fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived,” and no one is the wiser.
...

...The upshot of the Court’s argument, Justice Bosson concludes, is that the State can enforce “tolerance” and the violation of one’s religious beliefs as the “price of citizenship.” Bosson has only shown yet again that liberal tolerance requires complicity, whereas Christian tolerance only ever required forbearance. The peace he seeks is the peace of tyranny, and not the peace of love or justice.

Speaking of tyranny, the second essay discusses the Obama pathology of lying.  This one is prefaced by the trenchant observation of Abp. Wenski:

"In our nation's culture wars, the two sides are fighting about the understanding of man and his relationship to truth and reality. One side — and today, "gay marriage" is its poster child — holds that anyone can essentially create his or her own reality. This side holds for a radical autonomy by which truth is determined not by the nature of things, but by one's own individual will. The other side holds men and women are not self-creators, but creatures. Truth is not constructed, but received and thus must reflect the reality of things. Or, as the Book of Genesis says: "Male and female, He (God) created them." (Genesis 1:27)." 

That is followed by Klavan's observation:

 ...both Obama and many of our journalists were trained in the post-modern academy where they were taught that there is no such thing as moral truth but only culturally inculcated narratives. In such a world, the moral narrative that can be drummed into the head of the populace is the truth that wins. Convincing people that a good has been achieved is the same as achieving it."...

Which is to say that truth does not necessarily play a part in 'achievement of a good.'

That stems from Obama's serial lying.  Klavan cites Roger Simon:

...Barack Obama is another matter. His lies are not mainly for self-defense (although Benghazi has elements of that). They are lies of ideological volition. He lies to get his way. And he does it so well, with so much seeming earnestness — as in his umpteen (and continuing!) pronouncements that no one would lose their health insurance or personal physician from Obamacare, when, it’s now clear, he knew all the while this was utterly false — that his behavior appears almost sociopathic.

In other words, to Obama these are not really lies, because he has no values, religious or otherwise, that make them so. This is more than just the prototypical Marxist ends justifying the means...


He never had a moral basis for honesty. Lying, from the Choom Gang through Reverend Wright and beyond, was his lifestyle. And he had the consolation that he was lying for a better good. No one ever told him otherwise. If that goes on for long enough, you lose contact with truth. It becomes almost a non-existent phenomenon, an irrelevancy."


There is a difference between "what IS" and "what we would LIKE it to be."  "What IS" will not change, no matter the lies we tell ourselves or others.

And this country had better figure out "what IS" quickly.

Saturday, November 09, 2013

ObozoCare: Assisting ID Thieves Everywhere!!

Really nice feature of ObozoCare--if you're an ID thief.

Lisa Martinson called customer service after she forgot her password. That’s when she was told three different people were given the password to her account, her address and her Social Security number. Then she was told it would take up to five days to get her personal information offline.

So.  You cannot keep your health insurance, nor doctor, nor hospital, NOR your identity!

Pelosi was right.  She had no idea what was in the plan until it was operational.


Friday, November 08, 2013

IRS: Stupid AND Thuggish

The Ms. Lerner (criminal-with-pension-and-benefits) crowd at IRS could have spent their budgets on better things than the TEA Party, no?

The Internal Revenue Service sent 655 tax refunds to a single address in Kaunas, Lithuania — failing to recognize that the refunds were likely part of an identity theft scheme. Another 343 tax refunds went to a single address in Shanghai, China.

Thousands more potentially fraudulent refunds — totaling millions of dollars — went to places in Bulgaria, Ireland and Canada in 2011.

In all, a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration today found 1.5 million potentially fraudulent tax returns that went undetected by the IRS, costing taxpayers $3.2 billion.

IRS says that they fixed all the problems.

Wanna bet another $Billion or so?

Not a TEA Party Shooter, So Who Cares?

NINE killed, six wounded, in a Detroit mass-shooting.

Memory-hole matter for the press.

Yup. 

The (D) Way: Be a Jackass

Yup.  It's their way of doing things.

A Democratic state senator on Thursday promised "all out hell" if the Wisconsin Senate debates a pair of anti-abortion bills next week.

Sen. Jon Erpenbach, of Middleton, made the comment after the Senate Health Committee voted 3-2 along party lines on a pair of Republican-sponsored abortion bills that have already passed in the Assembly.

Erpenbach may well be acquainted with Hell, or at least some of its minions, so he may be running his mouth from personal knowledge.

...One bill would ban abortions that are solely based on whether the fetus is male or female, also known as sex selection. Democrats say the measure is unnecessary because few, if any, abortions are done for that reason.

The other bill, which drew the most ire from Democrats, would prohibit public workers' health insurance plans from covering abortions and exempt religious organizations from providing insurance coverage for contraceptives. The employee could get contraceptives if they are prescribed for a reason other than preventing a pregnancy...

Nor should the State dictate what "benefits" must be paid for by its subjects in all cases. 

The first bill stops the State from forcing its taxpayers to pay for child murder.  If State employees want to murder their children, they can do it on their own dime.

The second bill is a matter of public policy, well within the bounds of legislative purview.  And of course, employees of private businesses have choices; they can always go somewhere else.

Speaking of 'going someplace else,' I hear that both the Clock Tower and Hell are still open.  Maybe Erpenbach should check in.



With a License Here, and a License There,.....

The story is a familiar one.  Man has a better idea, makes it work, gets harassed for paperwork.

Bet you didn't know that slaughtering piggies calls for one license and distributing those piggie products calls for another license entirely.

Here's the pull-quote:

...“That’s why for me, I’m just a cook. I’m not trying to (be) a farmer and a cook. Too many rules. There’s already enough rules for me to follow.”...

Yup.  That 'enterpreneurial/enterprising' thing?  Fuggedaboudit.




Thursday, November 07, 2013

"Green"? Or Fire Maker?

This will be interesting.

...Daimler banned from its luxury cars the air-conditioning refrigerant made by Honeywell and its partner DuPont which has a far lower potential to warm the climate than an older chemical still used by Daimler’s Mercedes brand despite an EU-wide phase out that began in January.

The EU’s scientific research arm JRC is expected to analyse the report by the German federal motor transport authority KBA in the next few weeks and advise whether the coolant is indeed flammable enough to cause material risks, as Daimler says.

Shall we go "green" and incinerate a few car passengers (as the Tesla does), or shall we tell the EU, Honeywell, and DuPont to put their stuff where the sun never shines?

There's VERY big money at stake here, folks.  Read the link.

Gun Control in the District of Criminals

Gun Control must be working fine:  only 100 rounds/week (in about 1/3rd of D.C.)

Teach Your Children Well!

Here's an alternative to "No Child Left Behind"/Common Core crapola.

Much more practical.

Waiting for (R) Action: Cop "Disabiity" Pay

The (R) majorities in the Wisconsin Legislature have not taken any action on this scam.  No surprise.  They like the votes and love the campaign effects of endorsements from "law and order" types, ethics and justice be damned.

"Duty disability" has been abused for at least the last 10 years.  This is not just a City of Milwaukee problem; the payments are not subject to Wisconsin income tax, meaning that ALL citizens here are forced to take up the slack from these slackers.

Is there a Pubbie leggie with balls?


Humor Break, TEA Party Edition

Of course, this is humor from a communist nation.

Or a nation run by an effete snob from Chicago.

The "five rules of survival in Socialism" are instructional. 

"1. Do not think. 

2. If you must think, do not speak. 

3. If you think and speak, refrain from writing. 

4. If you must think, speak and write, then do not sign charters. 

5. In case you think, speak up, write and sign, then do not be surprised by what happens to you."

Ask Lois Lerner--a fully-pensioned and benefitted criminal--how that works.

HT:  AOSHQ

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

It Shoud Be Called "PolitiFart"

....because the gas it emits actually stains the sheets.

To recap: In six separate columns between 2008 and 2012, Politifact weighed in on President Obama's claim. Not once did Politifact accurately call it false.

Politifact's harshest judgment was that Obama's claim was "half true."

But that's not the best part.  Here's the real sheet-stainer:

At PolitiFact, we found 10 things Obamacare supporters say that aren’t entirely true.

Obama said that if you liked your health care you can keep it, and the cancellation notices that have gone out to people in the individual market directly contradict his statement. But Obama wasn’t entirely off-base, either. It was a way of letting people know that his plan wasn’t a single-payer, Canadian-style proposal....

So at PolitiFart, they are so suave, debonair, and nuanced, that they actually can read the mind of the Commie-in-Chief.

We rate that Sheets-on-Fire Staining.

Lessons From History

There are a few lessons to be learned from this narrative.

On November 5, 1895, Rochester attorney George Selden wins U.S. Patent No. 549,160 for an "improved road engine" powered by a "liquid-hydrocarbon engine of the compression type." With that, as far as the government was concerned, George Selden had invented the car--though he had never built a single one.

Selden's design was fairly vague, and was actually based on a two-cylinder internal-combustion engine that someone else had invented: Selden had simply copied the one he'd seen on display at the 1872 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.

Lesson One:  There are liars and thieves in every profession.  Trust, but verify.

...Soon, some automakers realized that the Selden patent didn't have to be a threat to their business. On the contrary, it could be quite profitable and limit competition in a highly competitive industry. About 30 car companies, including Winton, got together with Selden and the EVC to form the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM). The ALAM sued anyone who built a gas-powered car without Selden's permission--in other words, anyone who had not paid to join the Selden cartel. It also drummed up business for its own members by threatening to sue anyone who bought a car from an unlicensed company....

Lesson Two:  "License agreements" are often merely restraint-of-trade with liberally applied legal lipstick.

...But Selden's group, composed mostly of Eastern carmakers that built ritzy cars for rich buyers, made a mistake: It excluded the Midwestern manufacturers who built lower-priced cars for ordinary people. In particular, it excluded Henry Ford. On October 22, 1903, the ALAM sued Ford for patent infringement, but the case took until 1909, seven months after the Model T was introduced, to go to trial. Most Americans, delighted to have the opportunity to buy an affordable car, were on Ford's side, but the judge was not: The court ruled that any gas-powered vehicle unlicensed by the ALAM violated the Selden patent and was illegal....

Lesson Three:  Judges are often wrong.

...But on January 11, 1911, the appeals court ruled in Ford's favor: the Selden patent, it said, only applied to replicas of the exact engine that Selden had seen in 1872....

Lesson Four:  Pigs get slaughtered because they make mistakes.

Lesson Five:  Selden should have purchased more Congressmen and a President so they would create a Motor Vehicle Regulatory Agency.  He'd still be a crook, but a very fat one.  And all those Congresscritters could have invested in his company through their "blind" trusts and they'd be fat, too.


Monday, November 04, 2013

Why B. Hussein Doesn't Delay 404Care

The story-line from a few of the pundits has been that Obozo is disconnected and/or incompetent.

They're whistling past the graveyard.  This little Fauntleroy with the Communist upbringing is not 'disconnected', nor 'incompetent'.  There is no "charitable" reading of his agenda, nor of his methods.  (Yes, he had a lot of help from others who share his proclivities or who are useful idiots.)

He could "delay" ObozoCare by executive fiat to forestall more stories of lost insurance, astronomical deductibles, and horrible premiums.  It would not be legal for him to do so, but he doesn't need our steeenkin' laws.

No.  The reason he doesn't take any action, nor direct Reid to take any action, is simple:  this disaster was planned from Day One.

...In December of 2009, Mark Steyn adroitly warned, "Democrat operators ... know that what matters is to get something, anything across the river, and then burn the bridge behind you" and that single-payer, government-run health care is "the fast track to a permanent left-of-center political culture."


As recently as August 12 of this year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid openly confirmed Steyn's prediction that ObamaCare is but a stepping stone toward achieving the ultimate goal of the progressive left: a single-payer system.

Whether 93 million losing insurance or only 9 million is irrelevant to Obozo.  And dead bodies will actually help him, so a few hundred stories about 404Care-related deaths will be just fine, thankyouverymuch!  Stalin and Mao were not concerned with several million deaths; nor is Obozo.

It's time that we all recognize this President for what he really is:  a cynical lying machine who will use any means whatsoever to achieve totalitarianism.  And so long as the "opposition" pretends that he's just stupid, or unable to read the newspapers, the "opposition" is playing checkers while Obozo is playing war. 


Prince Christie

Excerpt from an excerpt of the book "Doubling Down":

More recently, [Christie] insisted on private jets, lavish spreads of food, space for a massive entourage.

This is the guy that The Establishment wants?

Sunday, November 03, 2013

Whatever Happened to Anne?

Protein Wisdom is not on Anne Coulter's Christmas card list any more.

...They are actively seeking to run “pro-business” corporatist candidates against TEA Party incumbents — even as Ann Coulter, who when she wasn’t humping Mitt Romney was humping the hamhocks of Chris Christie, suggests that our desire to primary those Republicans who actively fight against our wishes is insane and near treasonous.  Revealing herself for who she really is:  just another Connecticut GOP party flak who got rich telling conservatives what they once wanted to hear.....

Which reminds me that Little Anne was supposed to show up in Milwaukee, but there was a "scheduling conflict" and.......poof........no Anne.

Reading between the lines, her appearance didn't draw more than 100 paid admissions because Little Anne blew her creds with her Christie/Romney affections.

Krauthammer's True Colors: Confused

Krauthammer is a bright, but confused fellow.  McCarthy demonstrates:

This week, Dr. Krauthammer, Washington’s most influential expositor of mainstream GOP thought....gave as clear an account of the modern Republican conception of “conservatism” as you will find. Fittingly, he did it on the program of progressive commentator and comedian Jon Stewart. Today’s smartest Republicans, self-aware enough to know their core views deviate significantly from those of conservatives in the tradition of Buckley, Goldwater, and Reagan, are more likely to say what they think to Jon Stewart....

Sykes has often stated that he is 'not a Republican, but a Conservative.'  Hell, that formulation is not exactly new, either; Buckley certainly had little use for the (R) establishment in his later years, and Reagan fought a bloody war with those bozos to capture the nomination.

So yah, Krauthammer is wrong.  By no coincidence, Krauthammer lives in the DC area.

One more thing:  Krauthammer's disease makes the parallel case for term limits.  Think about that, Cong. Sensenbrenner.

Saturday, November 02, 2013

ObozoConomy, ObozoCare

The rise of the oceans is over.

So is the rise of individual earnings.

/........the real median earnings of Americans dropped in the third quarter of 2013.

.....and it has dropped 3.5% since '09, the end of the recession and the beginning of ObozoConomy.

Sweet!

'Nuff Said

HT:  MoonBattery

Friday, November 01, 2013

Un-Frenchlike, But It Works

Found at Mish's place.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Tuesday indefinitely suspended the introduction of a green tax on trucks following riots at the weekend in the Brittany region.
 The move comes three days after a protest by hundreds of food producers, artisans and distributors in the western Brittany region ended in the worst riots in the area in years.

One person was seriously injured in clashes between police and a group of around 1,000 demonstrators, who blocked a national road with convoys of vehicles and tonnes of produce on Saturday in protest over the tax.


Actual fighting hasn't been a part of the French blood since around 1800 or so.  Its comeback is welcome.