One-third of Obamacare Federal Exchange Enrollees Have Not Paid According to House

"I bestow upon all of you (except for the wealthy and politically connected who I allow to opt out) expensive, bureaucrat-directed health care that shall work mightily to save dollars at the cost of Americans' health. You're welcome."

Another shocking development that most people predicted...

From Jacobson at Legal Insurrection:

A press release from the House Energy and Commerce Committee (emphasis added):

Data provided to the committee by every insurance provider in the health care law’s Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM) shows that, as of April 15, 2014, only 67 percent of individuals and families that had selected a health plan in the federally facilitated marketplace had paid their first month’s premium and therefore completed the enrollment process. Nationwide, only 25 percent of paid enrollees are ages 18 to 34…. 

…bThe committee has compiled the data that provides a snapshot of the true enrollment picture as of April 15, 2014, after the official end of the open enrollment period. Due to the administration’s repeated and unilateral extensions and changes, as well as the fact that many insurers have reported that individuals will still have time to pay their first month’s premium, the committee plans to ask the insurers in the federally facilitated marketplace to provide an enrollment update by May 20, 2014. 

On April 17, 2014, President Obama declared the success of his law, claiming that 8 million Americans had signed up for health insurance, but data from the insurance providers reveals that the president’s figure is largely misleading. As of April 15, 2014, insurers informed the committee that only 2.45 million had paid their first month’s premium for coverage obtained through the federally facilitated marketplace. While the administration has relied on questionable nationwide figures to boast the law’s success, the state-by-state breakdown compiled by the committee underscores the serious problems facing some states. 

For months, the committee and members of the press have urged the administration to provide rudimentary details about enrollment under the law, including information regarding the makeup of the risk pool and who had actually paid for their health care plans. Administration officials repeatedly insisted they were incapable of collating that data and that the insurance providers are the only ones with those details. The committee followed the administration’s suggestion and went directly to the insurance providers.

So let's see here, ObamaCare forced like 5.5 to 6 million people off of their insurance, made them purchase coverage that was more expensive and often useless to them (pre-natal and birth control for senior citizens, for instance) under penalty of law, and only about 5.3 million have actually signed-up and paid. So we're at a net loss of insured. And the feds have paid paid billions of taxpayer dollars to screw-up people's insurance coverage, taken money out of their pockets as they are forced to pay for more expensive policies, and all for no appreciable gain in the numbers of insured. Congratulations!

But I thought Kathleen Sebelius retired because ObamaCare won or something...

We have yet to see the effects of ObamaCare on the majority of American who get their health insurance through their jobs, and those inevitable, cost-saving measures of denying effective treatments (tonsillectomies and such) haven't yet really kicked in. I can't wait to see the popularity of Democrats and Obama when all of that does take effect.

Poverty Rate Has Climbed then Remained Steady Under Obama

"Look, I can conjure light with my hands, but I cannot solve all of the poor's problems because of greed, Republicans, Israel, racism, Bush, and some obscure YouTube video. Otherwise folks everywhere would be living the good life."

But no one much cares. Obama and the Democrats now make their appeals to the middle-class, because they believe the poor are in their back pocket-- especially with the voting irregularities in poor districts. So give them bread (SNAP) and circuses, and forget them. Now the Dems can concentrate on bringing the middle-class under their heel-- I mean in the federal government's fold-- with ObamaCare and EPA regulations which will cause the costs of electricity to go through the roof, thus increasing production and transportation costs for goods you find at the store.

Oh, and what's a gallon of gas going for today? That used to be an issue when Bush was president, but I guess now we just have to be stifle oil refineries' output to fight global warming.

From the NRO piece by Mona Charen:

The great advantage of being a liberal/progressive in America is that you are always judged on your intentions (or stated intentions) and not on results. While the pundits are swooning for Piketty and Warren, may we have even a moment’s pause to consider how well Obama’s brand of progressivism has done for the poor and middle class? 

Poverty has increased under Mr. Obama’s watch. It ticked up during the recession, which is to be expected and was obviously not a result of Obama’s policies. But after the recession ended, and after the first much-vaunted “recovery summer” (2010) and then the second (2011), poverty continued to climb. The poverty rate has now been stuck at 15 percent for three consecutive years. This is a 50-year high. Enrollment in the food-stamp program (SNAP) has increased by 39 percent. 

So there are more Americans living in poverty under President Obama than under his predecessor. If he were a Republican, this reality would be widely acknowledged. It’s better to be a Democrat.  

Now, how is the class to whom the president so frequently panders doing? Jeffrey Anderson of The Weekly Standard looked at Census Bureau data and found that typical American household income has not only dropped during Obama’s tenure, it has declined more since the end of the Great Recession than it did during the downturn. Real inflation-adjusted income for the median household fell 1.8 percent during the recession. It fell 4.4 percent during the recovery.

Obamanomics' redistribution in action! But holding Obama accountable to the consequences of his policies is unfair and racist... or something. Besides Obama is a complete success. Just ask Obama cheerleader Matt Yglesias.

 Democrats know only one song, and it goes: Let’s make more people dependent upon government. They’re crooning it vapidly now in anticipation of an Elizabeth Warren candidacy or a Piketty tax in which the treasures of the George Soroses and Warren Buffetts of the world (oh, sorry, my mistake; they’re actually drooling over the fortunes of the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson) will be widely distributed. 

But redistribution doesn’t bring prosperity. Look around you. Obama has raised taxes on the rich several times (some taxes are buried in Obamacare). We spend seven of every ten federal dollars on sending checks to the poor and the middle class. Under Obama, the disability rolls have exploded, removing people from the world of work. Labor-force participation rates have declined steeply, and while the administration has blamed Baby Boom retirements, the percentage of adults age 25–54 in the workforce has declined as well. More than twice as many people have joined the ranks of the disabled under SSDI as have gotten jobs since 2009. According to the 2012 Social Security trustees report, SSDI may be out of funds as early as 2015. 

About 25 percent of the poor in America are working. Only about 2.9 percent work full time. Government largesse can keep people from destitution, but it cannot provide a ladder out of poverty. Only jobs can do that. [emphasis mine]

But hey, let's remember that only racists call for jobs to be created for the poor. And also remember job creation is all just a capitalist plot to get a cheap labor force. The only true freedom from capitalist serfdom is to be dependent on the government's largesse. Everyone knows that...

White House Emails Show Coordinated Lies to Protect Obama from Benghazi Fallout

Image from Instapundit

"That's cute, but let's all remember that I believe in a 'living Constitution,' which best translates to 'laws are for little people.'"

Because hunting for scapegoats is the hallmark of the Obama Administration.

From The Washington Free Beacon article by Adam Kredo:

Previously unreleased internal Obama administration emails show that a coordinated effort was made in the days following the Benghazi terror attacks to portray the incident as “rooted in [an] Internet video, and not [in] a broader failure or policy.” 

Emails sent by senior White House adviser Ben Rhodes to other top administration officials reveal an effort to insulate President Barack Obama from the attacks that killed four Americans. 

Rhodes sent this email to top White House officials such as David Plouffe and Jay Carney just a day before National Security Adviser Susan Rice made her infamous Sunday news show appearances to discuss the attack. 

The “goal,” according to these emails, was “to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy.” 

Rice came under fierce criticism following her appearances on television after she adhered to these talking points and blamed the attack on a little-watched Internet video.
The newly released internal White House e-mails show that Rice’s orders came from top Obama administration communications officials. 

“[W]e’ve made our views on this video crystal clear. The United States government had nothing to do with it,” Rhodes wrote in the email, which was released on Tuesday by the advocacy group Judicial Watch. 

“We reject its message and its contents,” he wrote. “We find it disgusting and reprehensible. But there is absolutely no justification at all for responding to this movie with violence. And we are working to make sure that people around the globe hear that message.” 

Rhodes also suggested that Rice tout Obama’s reputation as “steady and statesmanlike.”
“I think that people have come to trust that President Obama provides leadership that is steady and statesmanlike,” he wrote. “There are always going to be challenges that emerge around the world, and time and again, he has shown that we can meet them.” 

Also contained in the 41 pages of documents obtained by Judicial Watch is a Sep. 12, 2012 email from Payton Knopf, the former deputy spokesman at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. 

In this communication, Knopf informs Rice that senior officials had already dubbed the Benghazi attack as “complex” and planned in advance. Despite this information, Rice still insisted that attacks were “spontaneous.” 

The newly released cache of emails also appear to confirm that the CIA altered its original talking points on the attacks in the following days.

By the way, Obama Administration official Ben Rhodes' brother  heads CBS News. And we all remember Sharyl Attkisson's well publicized split from CBS over their handling of her efforts to investigate the Benghazi affair.

And let's not forget that right Obama declared that those  responsible for the YouTube movie would pay, filmmaker Nakoula was very publicly arrested.

Congrats Obama! Between the political scapegoating, rampant and often inaccurate drone attacks, divisive language in written speeches, foreign policy bungling, struggling economy, out of control spending, use of government agencies like the IRS and EPA to target and intimidate political opposition, racial demagoguery, the betrayal of American allies such as Israel, the illegal selective enforcement of federal laws, a clearly racially charged Department of Justice, and the use of the Forest Service to intimidate American citizens visiting monuments and National Parks for political purposes, I just don't know what to criticize. It's vicious politics/incompetence overload!

But remember, any criticism of Obama is because of racism...

Washington Post-ABC News Poll: Democrats at Risk, Obama Ratings Drops

"According to this poll, it appears that a whole bunch of folks want to be audited this year."

Yeah, I know. A real shocker.

From The Washington Post  (via Drudge):

Democrats face serious obstacles as they look to the November elections, with President Obama’s approval rating at a new low and a majority of voters saying they prefer a Congress in Republican hands to check the president’s agenda, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. 

Obama’s approval rating fell to 41 percent, down from 46 percent through the first three months of the year and the lowest of his presidency in Post-ABC News polls. Just 42 percent approve of his handling of the economy, 37 percent approve of how he is handling the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and 34 percent approve of his handling of the situation involving Ukraine and Russia.  

Obama’s low rating could be a significant drag on Democratic candidates this fall — past elections suggest that when approval ratings are as low as Obama’s, the president’s party is almost certain to suffer at the ballot box in November.

I would guess that his approval ratings come from people who believe that they won't be effected all that much by his policies. I can't wait to see Obama's ratings when people who get their insurance through their workplace fall under ObamaCare's regulations. There's a reason that Obama has been illegally delaying the implementation of much of ObamaCare until after the 2014 elections.

Egyptian Court Sentences Muslim Brotherhood Chief and 682 Others to Death

I'm sure Obama will explain how this is not 21st Century behavior, and how it's in both Egypt's and America's best interests to reinstate the Muslim Brotherhood to power.

From the AFP via Drudge:

An Egyptian court sentenced 682 alleged Islamists and Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie to death on Monday, a lawyer and prosecutor said, after two brief sessions the defence partly boycotted.

  

The same court in the southern province of Minya also reversed 492 of 529 death sentences it passed in March, commuting most of those to life in prison. 

The court, presided over by judge Said Youssef Sabry, had sparked an international outcry with its initial sentencing last month amid an extensive crackdown on supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. 

The crackdown has extended to secular-leaning dissidents who supported Morsi's overthrow but have since turned on the army-installed regime.  

[...]  

Under Egyptian law, death sentences are referred to the country's top Islamic scholar for an advisory opinion before being ratified. A court may choose to commute the sentences, which can later be challenged at an appeals court. 

Of the 683 sentenced on Monday, only 73 are in custody, prosecutor Abdel Rahim Abdel Malek said. The others have a right to a retrial if they turn themselves in. 

Monday's hearing lasted just 10 minutes, said Khaled Elkomy, a defence lawyer who was in court. 

The verdict was the first against Badie, spiritual head of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, in the several trials he faces on various charges along with Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders.

Gee, you'd think this would be bigger news since the Obama Administration supported both the overthrow of Mubarak and Morsi's takeover. I guess when Obama backs the wrong horse, it's not news in the U.S.

Russia to Defend Missile Bases with Armed Robots

Why is it that when I first read that headline, I immediately saw the ED-209s?

From NewScientist (h/t Instapundit):

THE West has always been a little squeamish about the idea of arming robots. Despite decades of development, no systems have ever been deployed and a vocal human rights campaign means it's unlikely to happen in the near future. The Russians, on the other hand, appear to be rather less concerned. 

Last month, Dmitry Andreyev of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces announced that mobile robots would be standing guard over five ballistic missile installations. These robots can detect and destroy targets, without human involvement. Russia, it seems, is taking the lead in a new robotic arms race. 

The robot sentry, aka the "mobile robotic complex", was developed by Izhevsk Radio Plant, a company based 1200 kilometres east of Moscow. It weighs around 900 kilograms and has cameras, a laser rangefinder and radar sensors. For fire power it has a 12.7-millimetre heavy machine gun, with optional smaller weapons. It is quick too, hitting speeds of 45 kilometres per hour on a petrol engine. It can operate for 10 hours, or switch to sleep mode for a week. 

The makers put the sentry robot through its paces at an arms fair in Russia last year. Andreyev describes the robots as being able to engage targets in automatic as well as semi-automatic control mode. US policy, on the other hand, says a person has to authorise when weapons are fired. Drones don't fire missiles on their own, but act as remote launch platforms for human operators. Neither the makers of the Russian robot nor the Strategic Missile Forces responded to New Scientist's request for an interview at the time of going to press.

One commenter at Instapundit wrote: "With russian [sic] software to run it I would hate to be a soldier in any uniform anywhere near it." No kidding.

Well, I'm sure proper precautions will be taken, and that nothing can possibly go wrong.

Russians Won't Take Defense Secretary Hagel's Phone Calls

Obama stands with Ukraine-- or at least a plastic figure strikes a pose...

Probably because they see the Obama Administration as weak and irrelevant-- just how Obama has worked mightily to present himself and the U.S. for five plus years now.

From The Washington Times:

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has been unable to get Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on the phone amid escalating tension near the country’s shared border with Ukraine. 

Mr. Shoigu announced Thursday that Russia planned to engage in a new series of military exercises near the Ukraine border. The military move, he said, is in response to ongoing NATO training exercises in Poland and the death of at least two pro-Russia insurgents in eastern Ukraine. 

Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Friday that Mr. Hagel has been trying to communicate with Russian officials but has yet to hear back from Mr. Shoigu or anyone else. Pentagon officials have reached out to Russia on Mr. Hagel’s behalf within the past 24 hours, according to Col. Warren.

Oh Mr. Shoigu, please accept the U.S.'s call so Hagel can whine about how Obama and the rest don't think what's happening is appropriate 21st Century behavior. Maybe he could add how Obama thinks that Russia is a fearful, regional power. That'll work. Is the State Department going to send more selfies to convince Russia to not invade the rest of Ukraine. And please note how serious talk about Russians pulling out of the Crimea has completely vanished.

At least the U.S. has put troops into Poland-- the Russians have been eyeing and training to invade Poland for years now.

Cover Oregon to Give Up-- Oregon to Likely Use National ObamaCare Exchange

The faithful have failed... after filling their pockets, of course.

Calling it quits after wasting how much money again? It's weird how some companies and individuals made bank off of this travesty. It all must be the Koch brothers or Dick Cheney's fault...


From the AP via Breitbart:

Oregon, once expected to be a national leader in the federal health care overhaul, on Thursday moved to become the first state to dump its troubled online health exchange and use the federal marketplace instead. 

A top Cover Oregon official, Alex Pettit, said fixing the existing system would be too costly at an estimated $78 million, would take too long to implement, and would be too risky. The state's site still isn't fully functional seven months after a failed launch. 

Pettit said switching to the federal system would cost $4 million to $6 million. 

An advisory committee made the recommendation to drop the glitch-filled site for private policies, but suggested that Oregon continue using its current technology for Medicaid enrollments. 

The Cover Oregon board will vote on the recommendation Friday. 

Oregon's exchange is seen as the worst of the more than a dozen states that developed their own online health insurance marketplaces. The state is the only one where the general public still can't use the website to sign up for coverage in one sitting — despite an early start building the site and millions of dollars from the federal government.  

[...]  

Oregon has received a total of $305 million in federal grants to fund its operations from 2011 through the end of this year. As of March, the state has spent nearly $248 million of that money, Cover Oregon interim executive director Clyde Hamstreet said. 

Most of that money went toward the botched portal: $134 million in federal funding was paid to Oracle Corp. for building the exchange, and an additional $7 million was spent on paper processing efforts. Currently, Oregonians must use a time-consuming, hybrid paper-online process to sign up for insurance.

$305 million plus for an utter failure. Way to go guys!

Dan Riehl has a more complete list of Cover Oregon's failures here.

I hope we can all expect this kind of machine-like precision when to comes to the quality of the health insurance, and in their responses to various complications that inevitably arise from medical coverage!

UPDATE: Oregon is a part of the $1 billion dollars of taxpayer money wasted on bad state health insurance exchanges.

The five worst health care exchanges:
Hawaii – $205,342,270
Oregon – $305,206,587
Maryland – $171,013,111
Massachusetts – $179,036,455
Vermont – $172,641,081
Total – $1,033,239,504

Numbers from cms.gov (via Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit linked above)

Way to go Dems!

Japanese MP Claims Obama Cheats and Obama's Coming Divorce "An Open Secret"

"Mr. Hamada will not reap the benefits of low-quality, high-cost ObamaCare coverage-- even if he begs. Oh, and he's not American, but that doesn't normally stop us."

Do you get the feeling that Obama is not exactly revered by the Japanese? But why is he not? After all Obama has laid down a pretty record of betraying Americas allies... I mean, what gives?

From The Daily Mail:

A prominent Japanese politician has raised hackles as Barack Obama visits Tokyo by claiming it's an 'open secret' that he and the first lady are headed for divorce, and that the president has been using Secret Service agents to cover for him as he pursues extramarital affairs. 

Kazuyuki Hamada, who sits in the upper house of Japan's parliament, earned his PhD a half-mile from the White House at George Washington University, and emerged as a shrill commentator on America's economy and foreign policy. 

In 2009 he also joined the ranks of the so-called 'birthers,' arguing in a book titled 'Who is Obama?' that the president likely wasn't born in the United States

Of course only uneducated hicks dare to criticize Obama. So take that Mr. PhD-thinking-you're-so-smart Hamada. And when China starts seizing more freighters because of the 1930s, don't come crying to Light-bringer.

ObamaCare's Narrow Networks Reduces the Availability of Health Care for Many Americans

"Hey, do you folks remember when I said 'if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor'? Yeah, that was a good one. Now it's if you can find a doctor you can keep that doctor-- maybe."

Another not-a-surprise difficulty for those us who actually read the law.

From Wynton Hall at Breitbart:

California Obamacare enrollees are struggling to find doctors who accept their newly purchased health insurance plans. 

UCSF Dr. Kevin Grumbach calls the phenomenon "medical homelessness."  

CBS San Francisco says that many of the health care clinics for low-income individuals that helped people enroll in Obamacare are now seeing those same people "coming back to the clinic begging for help." 

"They're coming back to us now and saying, 'I can't find a doctor,'" Rotacare clinic  

staffer Mirella Nguyen told CBS San Francisco. "What good is coverage if you can't use it?"  

The problem stems from Obamacare's "narrow networks" – extreme restrictions on access to doctors and hospitals in an effort to cut costs.  

California single mother of two Thinn Ong experienced the pain of Obamacare's narrow networks when she realized that her $200-a-month Obamacare plan is not accepted by many of the doctors in her area.  

[...]  

Breitbart News contributor Scot Vorse experienced the reality of Obamacare's narrow networks when he discovered that the closest dentist who accepted the required dental plan he was forced to purchase for his children was over 100 miles away.  

Californians are not the only ones coming to terms with the reality of Obamacare's narrow networks. In Staten Island, New York, Margaret Figueroa, who suffers from a neurological disease that has required four brain surgeries, says her Obamacare plan denied vital medications and dropped all her doctors. Figueroa's congressman, Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), said he's already received similar complaints from at least a dozen of his constituents.  

Concerns that Obamacare's narrow networks would spawn a medical homelessness crisis have been building for months. The Washington Post warned in January that "Obamacare's narrow networks are going to make people furious."

ObamaCare was designed to centralize health insurance, creating a D.C. bureaucracy whose main job is to keep costs down. ObamaCare was never truly intended to make health care more readily available, nor to make insurance coverage better.

The Democrat shill Melissa Harris-Perry over at MSNBC has pretty much said as much.

Partial transcript of Harris-Perry via Newsbusters:

You know — Democrats. You know, the same party that passed and defended and implemented the most sweeping social policy in decades, who can say that millions of people now have affordable health insurance that they didn’t have before. And they’re not even owning it. No confidence, no swagger. No, “Yeah, you can’t keep your crappy plans. Just deal with that!”

From “it’s going to be the best thing ever” to “just deal with it”? Perfect.

It it any wonder Pelosi famously said that we'll have to pass the bill to find out what's in it? Believe the Democrats did not want you to read what was in this economically Fascist law.

Make the Democrats pay at the polls, and hold the GOP to their promises to disassemble this disastrous law named after our Lightbringing organizer-in-chief.

Monday Funnies: Not the Best Performance of "Go Tell It On the Mountain" AND NOW with Bonus Videos!!

I came across this yesterday, but I thought it might be a little insulting to post it on Easter.

Anyway here's Henrietta and Myrna. Enjoy:

UPDATE: I just found this video of a public access psychic being absolutely bombarded by prank calls. It's NSFW due to strong language.

Enjoy:

Wow, this psychic, "The Flaccid Ego Psychic" apparently, is a fella that just keeps on giving. At least the camera set up did a slightly better job of centering him.

Check out this video (Also NSFW due to language):

New Study: 1/3 of Vegetative Patients may be Conscious

Something to keep in mind as health officials rush you to sign away a loved ones life...

From The Washington Free Beacon:

A new study published in the Lancet shows that as many as one-third of vegetative patients are misdiagnosed. 

Researchers used brain-imaging techniques and found minimal consciousness in 13 of 42 patients it studied. 

The study revealed that those patients with minimal consciousness have emotions and may feel pain. 

This could have major legal and medical consequences, Maclean’s reports.

After finding that 13 of 42 vegetative patients showed brain activity indicating minimal consciousness, they re-examined them a year later. By then, nine of the 13 had improved, and progressed into a minimally conscious state or higher. 

[...] Kate Bainbridge, who was one of the first vegetative patients examined by Owen, was given a scan that showed her brain lighting up in response to images of her family. Her health later improved. “I can’t say how lucky I was to have the scan,” she said in an email to Maclean’s last year. “[It] really scares me to think what would have happened if I hadn’t had it.”

Scary indeed.

The Telegraph: Russian Separatists Registering Jews in Ukraine

From The Telegraph article by Tim Stanley:

A shocking story coming out of Ukraine: pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country are accused of asking Jewish citizens to register their identity or face deportation. 

According to Haaretz, a notice to that effect was pasted up near a synagogue in Donetsk – a city being claimed by ethnic Russians. The notice ordered all Jews over the age of 16 to register with the self-proclaimed government and to pay a registration fee. It asks them to provide: 

ID and passport … to register your Jewish religion, religious documents of family members, as well as documents establishing the rights to all real estate property that belongs to you, including vehicles.

Failure to comply will result in deportation and confiscation of property. The notice claims that this action is necessitated by Jewish support for the “nationalist junta” in Kiev. The chairman of the temporary Russian government of Donetsk (characterised by hostility to the West and hankering for Sovietism) acknowledged that the notice exists but denies responsibility. 

What does this tell us? Whoever is responsible for the notice, it indicates that the situation in Ukraine is descending into violent anarchy exploited by extremists. Ever since the crisis began, the Russians have claimed that the Ukrainian nationalist movement is riddled with neo-Nazi anti-Semites – and they certainly do have a presence.  

But if this notice comes from the pro-Russian side then it’s evidence that they, too, contain elements of anti-Semitism. And, if the situation is allowed to descend ever further into chaos, Jews could end up becoming targets of violence. Which is obviously a terrifying thought.

Just when you didn't think the Ukrainian troubles couldn't get any better...

Well, I'm sure Ron Paul can explain how the Jews and Israel actually started the problems in Ukraine--  doubtlessly starting their nefarious planning not long after perpetrating 9/11.

Lazy but Happier Blogger Update with One More Mark Gormley "Little Wings" Video

I've been rather lazy for the past four or five days. It's amazing how much better I feel when I ignore Obama's attempts to create big, centralized government. But I know I shouldn't be so complacent, and I'll be back in soon-- probably tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's another Mark Gormley classic "Little Wings." Once again, look for the classic move "The Mark Gormley Weight Shift."

Enjoy, and I'll be back soon:

Mark Gormley: "Without You"

Be sure to check out Mark's signature moves-- "The Head Turn," "Walking in Place," and "The Mark Gormley Weight Shift."

Enjoy:

Is it just me, or do you get the feeling that the girl in the video probably wouldn't be dating Mark Gormley in reality? Call me jaded.

Friday Funnies: Greta Van Susteren Interviews Democratic Hopeful Mike Dickinson

Truly one for the books. (h/t Patterico at Patterico's Pontifications)

Probably the worst interview a candidate could ever hope for.

So what are we to take away from this interview, Mr. Dickinson? That you're a liar and a partisan, but at least you admit that you're a liar and a partisan. Oh, and if one disagrees with Obama and Democrats then you're going to work take away their right to free speech-- because, you know, you just arbitrarily decided that they're not genuine.

Great...

WSJ: Why Would Democrats Circle the Wagons Around IRS after Feigned Outrage at the IRS Scandal?

"Look, my administration and its minions merely pick on racists and sellouts. Okay? They have it coming. Because voting is the best revenge. And, by the way, that's why voter ID laws are racist. This all makes sense if you think 'correctly'"

A good question.

From The Wall Street Journal piece by Kimberly A. Strassel:

Democrats quickly dropped any feigned outrage over IRS targeting and circled the wagons around the agency. Why? The targeting was outrageous, the public was fuming, and nobody likes the IRS. Joining with Republicans would have only been right and popular.   

That is, unless Democrats are worried. As the Camp [House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp] timeline and details show, the IRS responded to liberal calls to go after conservative groups. Democrats weren't just sending letters. Little noticed in the immediate aftermath of the IRS scandal was a letter sent May 23, 2013, by Carl Levin and (Republican) John McCain to the new acting director of the IRS disguised as an expression of outrage over IRS targeting. Artfully hidden within it was Mr. Levin's acknowledgment that his subcommittee on investigations had for a full year been corresponding and meeting with IRS staff (including Ms. Lerner) to ask "why it was not enforcing the 501(c)(4) statute."  

What was said in the course of that year? How much specific information was demanded on conservative groups, and how many demands dispensed on how to handle them? Good questions.  

In 2012, both the IRS and Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings were targeting the group True the Vote. We now have email showing contact between a Cummings staffer and the IRS over that organization. How much more contact was there? It's one thing to write a public letter calling on a regulator to act. It's another to haul the regulator in front of your committee, or have your staff correspond with or pressure said regulator, with regard to ongoing actions. That's a no-no.  

The final merit of Mr. Camp's letter is that he's called out Justice and Democrats. Mr. Camp was careful in laying out the ways Ms. Lerner may have broken the law, with powerful details. Democrats can't refute the facts, so instead they are howling about all manner of trivia—the release of names, the "secret" vote to release taxpayer information. But it remains that they are putting themselves on record in support of IRS officials who target groups, circumvent rules, and potentially break the law. That ought to go down well with voters.

But Obama assured us it was just some rogues in Cincinnati and then later that there wasn't an smidgen of evidence about all this.

Could the Obama-in-chief have lied to the American people?! Say it ain't so.

Obama Administration Scapegoating Israel as Mid-East Talks Collapse

"Look, if Israel would just cease to exist then the Middle East would be much better off. Then we could concentrate on sending selfies to Russia and borrowing more money from China."

This seems to be standard practice for Obama and his ilk. I guess it was too much of a stretch to blame Bush.

From The Washington Free Beacon article by Adam Kredo:

The Obama administration has been waging a secret media war in capitals across two continents blaming Israel for the recent collapse of peace talks with the Palestinians, according to former Israeli diplomats and Washington, D.C. insiders familiar with the peace process. 

Multiple sources told the Washington Free Beacon that top Obama administration officials have worked for the past several days to manufacture a crisis over the reissuing of housing permits in a Jerusalem neighborhood widely acknowledged as Israeli territory. 

Senior State Department officials based in Israel have sought to lay the groundwork for Israel to take the blame for talks collapsing by peddling a narrative to the Israeli press claiming that the Palestinians were outraged over Israeli settlements, the Free Beacon has learned. 

These administration officials have planted several stories in Israeli and U.S. newspapers blaming Israel for the collapse of peace talks and have additionally provided reporters with anonymous quotes slamming the Israeli government. 

The primary source of these multiple reports has been identified as Middle East envoy Martin Indyk and his staff, according to these insiders, who said that the secret media campaign against Israel paved the way for Secretary of State John Kerry to go before Congress on Tuesday and publicly blame Israel for tanking the talks.  

[...]  

Indyk, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Clinton administration, as well as in several other roles, was appointed by Obama to act as the U.S. special envoy for peace negotiations. 

One former Israeli diplomat familiar with Indyk’s tactics said that he is a crass political player who has a history of planting negative stories about Israel in order to undermine the Netanyahu government and bolster his hand in the talks.  

[...]
Another Washington-based source familiar with the talks said that Kerry’s peace team has a track record of trashing Israel anonymously. 

“It’s one of the worst-kept secrets in Jerusalem that Kerry’s team leaks anti-Netanyahu quotes and claims to the Israeli press—not that is should be a mystery why Israeli reporters based in Israel keep producing anti-Bibi quotes from ‘American officials,’” the source said.  

[...]  

“When talks fell apart and the State Department needed a scapegoat, of course they chose Israel, except they picked the dumbest explanation imaginable,” said the source who serves as a senior official at a pro-Israel organization. 

The Obama administration seized on an announcement by the Israelis that 700 apartments would be built in Gilo, a Jerusalem suburb widely recognized as Israeli territory. 

The housing news was actually a reissue of an earlier pronouncement permitting these new apartments to be built, meaning that the substance of the decree had not changed for months and had not been a roadblock to the peace talks.

Planting stories to lay out the blame on an ally? Kerry and Obama would never, never do that. Especially not to Israel...

Rep. Elijah Cummings Linked to IRS Scandal

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D)

Surprised? You shouldn't be. Obama and the Democrats were adamant about maintaining control of the presidency, and obsessed with keeping political power out of the hands of the rising conservative factions in America. Breaking laws meant for little people is all in a days work for these people.

Besides what's the point of political power if you can't lord it over your lessers. Isn't that right Rep. Cummings?

From the Washington Examiner's article by Susan Ferrechio:

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has accused the panel's top Democrat of prompting the Internal Revenue Service in 2012 to target a conservative organization applying for non-profit status. 

Issa said records obtained last week from the IRS show communications from the office of ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., about True the Vote, a Texas-based, non-profit conservative group that aims to prevent voter fraud.  

The communications at one point involved Lois Lerner, the ex-IRS official whom Issa's panel is poised to hold in contempt of Congress on Thursday for refusing to provide testimony about her involvement in targeting conservative groups. 

“The IRS and the Oversight Minority made numerous requests for virtually identical information from True the Vote, raising concerns that the IRS improperly shared protected taxpayer information with Rep. Cummings’ staff,” a statement from the Oversight panel reads. 

According to Issa, Cummings and his staff sought “copies of all training materials used for volunteers, affiliates, or other entities,” from True the Vote. 

Five days after the Cummings inquiry, the IRS sent True the Vote an email requesting “a copy of [True the Vote’s] volunteer registration form,” “… the process you use to assign volunteers,” “how you keep your volunteers in teams,” and “how your volunteers are deployed … following the training they receive by you.” 

Issa said Cummings and his office asked for more information in January 2013 about True the Vote, this time getting Lerner involved. 

At one point, an email revealed, Lerner asked her deputy, “Did we find anything?” 

When the deputy said she had not received any new information, Lerner responded, “thanks – check tomorrow please.” 

Issa said Cummings had previously denied asking the IRS about True the Vote. 

At a February subcommittee hearing, when Issa asked whether his office may have put True the Vote “on the radar screen” of the IRS, Cummings said the accusation was “absolutely incorrect and untrue.”

How can there be any question that the partisan IRS was targeting conservative groups?

From Jim Hoft at The Gateway Pundit:

The IRS Conservative Targeting Scandal involved:

• Hundreds of conservative groups were targeted
• At least 5 pro-Israel groups
• Constitutional groups
• Groups that criticized Obama administration
• At least two pro-life groups
• An 83 year-old Nazi concentration camp survivor
• A 180 year-old Baptist paper
• A Texas voting-rights group
• A Hollywood conservative group was targeted and harassed
• Conservative activists and businesses
• At least one conservative Hispanic group
• IRS continued to target groups even after the scandal was exposed
• And… 100% of the 501(c)(4) Groups Audited by IRS Were Conservative

The only real question is who was responsible. I'm sure it all has nothing to do with Obama and IRS official Sarah Hall Ingram's 155 visits to the White House.

Mark Levin: "The President is actually spending more time fundraising in Texas than honoring those who were murdered at Fort Hood"

"The President is actually spending more time fundraising in Texas than honoring those who were murdered at Fort Hood at the memorial ceremonial… I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen, I believe this man is a disgrace.”

Well, that's because those who were killed at Foot Hood weren't his people. Obama is no fan of the military, but he absolutely despises the men and women who make up our military.

Is it any wonder that the Obama Administration has repeatedly worked to limit the spread of and discriminate against Christians in the military? Remember the U.S. army started listing Catholics and Evangelical Christians as extremist after Obama was in office.

Shocker: IRS Offices Firmly Side with Obama and Democrats

"The IRS dares to dream, dares to see the coming age of light. It will be a a glorious era of enlightenment... where federal bureaucrats shall reign over the huddled masses of pathetic non-government workers."

The IRS has become Obama's political attack dogs. Doubtlessly, their partisan attacks and leaks of Republicans' tax records and donor lists influenced the presidential race and very possibly changed the outcome.Would you expect anything else?

From The Washington Times article by Stephan Dinan (via Drudge):

Even as the IRS faces growing heat over Lois G. Lerner and the tea party targeting scandal, a government watchdog said Wednesday it’s pursuing cases against three other tax agency employees and offices suspected of illegal political activity in support of President Obama and fellow Democrats. 

In one case the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates federal employees who conduct politics on government time, said it was “commonplace” in a Dallas IRS office for employees to have pro-Obama screensavers on their computers, and to have campaign-style buttons and stickers at their office.  

In another case, a worker at the tax agency’s customer help line urged taxpayers “to re-elect President Obama in 2012 by repeatedly reciting a chant based on the spelling of his last name,” the Office of Special Counsel said in a statement. 

OSC said it is seeking “significant disciplinary action” against that employee. 

Another IRS employee in Kentucky has agreed to serve a 14-day suspension for blasting Republicans in a conversation with a taxpayer.  

“They’re going to take women back 40 years,” the IRS employee said in a conversation that was recorded. The employee also said that “if you vote for a Republican, the rich are going to get richer and the poor are going to get poorer.”

[...]  

The federal Hatch Act prohibits most government employees from conducting politics on government time. OSC is charged with looking into those violations.   

The accusations come as the IRS is still facing tough questions from House Republicans over its targeting of conservative groups seeking nonprofit status.

I'm sure it's just some individuals that just happen to work there and not a systemic/cultural problem caused by public sector unions. I mean suggesting that would just be crazy talk. Right, Wisconsin and Scott Walker?

U.S. Sees Sharp Rise in Health Insurance Premiums

"All this debt and guranteed failure, I bequeath to you. You're welcome."

Which is not really surprising, but whatever...

From The Daily Caller article by Sarah Hurtubise:

Americans have recently been hit with some of the largest premium increases in years, according to a Morgan Stanley survey of insurance brokers. 

The investment bank’s April survey of 148 brokers found that this quarter, the average premium increase for customers renewing an insurance plan is 12 percent in the small group market and 11 percent in the individual market, according to Forbes’ Scott Gottlieb. 

The hikes — the largest in the past three years, according to Morgan Stanley’s quarterly reports — are “largely due to changes under the [Affordable Care Act],” analysts concluded. Rates have been growing increasingly fast throughout all of 2013, after a period of drops in 2012. 

While insurers were hiking premiums since 2012 by smaller amounts, the lead-up to the Obamacare’s launch has seen the average rate  at which premiums are growing fourfold.
The small group market saw a jump from a growth rate of close to 3 percent during Morgan Stanley’s September 2013 survey to just above 6 percent three months later in December — the month before a surge of Obamacare regulations hit insurance companies. 

Over the next three months, the rate doubled again to the current average small growth premium growth rate of 12 percent. 

Individual policies saw a much starker jump after the Obamacare exchanges launched, in anticipation of the health care law going live in 2014. Morgan Stanley’s September 2013 survey, like the previous three quarters, found a fairly constant growth rate around 2 percent — but in December, the rate had shot up to above 9 percent.

Oh, and the cost of keeping ObamaCare up and running is billions of dollars a year, and the federal government gets unfettered access to your medical records, and Washington D.C. will get to determine your choice of treatments (for cost-effectiveness, of course), and the IRS (yes, Lois Lerner's IRS) will be "even-handededly" enforcing ObamaCare, and you can expect a decline in the quality of you health care and your lifespan.

Sounds great, right?

Oh, and the really major hikes in health insurance costs aren't expected to happen until 2016, so this is just a warm-up.

Thanks Democrats and Obama!

US Navy Converting Seawater into Fuel?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, but this could be a really big thing...

From the AFP at Yahoo News (h/t Tom Blumer @ Bizzy Blog):

The US Navy believes it has finally worked out the solution to a problem that has intrigued scientists for decades: how to take seawater and use it as fuel 

The development of a liquid hydrocarbon fuel is being hailed as "a game-changer" because it would signficantly [sic] shorten the supply chain, a weak link that makes any force easier to attack. 

The US has a fleet of 15 military oil tankers, and only aircraft carriers and some submarines are equipped with nuclear propulsion. 

All other vessels must frequently abandon their mission for a few hours to navigate in parallel with the tanker, a delicate operation, especially in bad weather. 

The ultimate goal is to eventually get away from the dependence on oil altogether, which would also mean the navy is no longer hostage to potential shortages of oil or fluctuations in its cost. 

Vice Admiral Philip Cullom declared: "It's a huge milestone for us." 

"We are in very challenging times where we really do have to think in pretty innovative ways to look at how we create energy, how we value energy and how we consume it. 

"We need to challenge the results of the assumptions that are the result of the last six decades of constant access to cheap, unlimited amounts of fuel," added Cullom.  

[...]  

US experts have found out how to extract carbon dioxide and hydrogen gas from seawater. 

Then, using a catalytic converter, they transformed them into a fuel by a gas-to-liquids process. They hope the fuel will not only be able to power ships, but also planes.  

That means instead of relying on tankers, ships will be able to produce fuel at sea. 

- 'Game-changing' technology - 

The predicted cost of jet fuel using the technology is in the range of three to six dollars per gallon, say experts at the US Naval Research Laboratory, who have already flown a model airplane with fuel produced from seawater. 

Dr Heather Willauer, an research chemist who has spent nearly a decade on the project, can hardly hide her enthusiasm. 

"For the first time we've been able to develop a technology to get CO2 and hydrogen from seawater simultaneously, that's a big breakthrough," she said, adding that the fuel "doesn't look or smell very different."  

Now that they have demonstrated it can work, the next step is to produce it in industrial quantities. But before that, in partnership with several universities, the experts want to improve the amount of CO2 and hydrogen they can capture. 

"We've demonstrated the feasibility, we want to improve the process efficiency," explained Willauer.  

[...]

A crucial benefit, says Collum, is that the fuel can be used in the same engines already fitted in ships and aircraft. 

"If you don't want to re-engineer every ship, every type of engine, every aircraft, that's why we need what we call drop-in replacement fuels that look, smell and essentially are the same as any kind of petroleum-based fuels.  

Drawbacks? Only one, it seems: researchers warn it will be at least a decade before US ships are able to produce their own fuel on board.

 So is there a civilian market for this?

The Coming of Unaffordable Health Insurance Due to ObamaCare

The Light-bringer will save you from the burdens of personal choice on health matters-- and all for the bargain price of trillions of dollars!

I was just writing about how ObamaCare was going shoot up the costs of coverage and make affordable health care a thing of the past. Luckily enough, I came across this editorial from The Washington Examiner which mentions the coming rate hikes. Check out the whole piece at the link below.

From an editorial in The Washington Examiner:

On the campaign trail on June 5, 2008, after effectively securing the Democratic nomination, Obama declared, “In an Obama administration, we'll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year.” 

In reality, his law piled on a heap of new regulations on insurance policies that drove up the cost of insurance, especially on younger and healthier Americans. A Nov. 2013 Obamacare study from the Manhattan Institute looked at premiums in 49 states and found that on average, the base price of premiums went up 41 percent as a result of Obamacare. 

In the coming months, insurers will have to submit premiums for 2015, and they're already warning consumers to brace themselves. "I do think that it's likely premium rate shocks are coming,” Chet Burrell, chief executive officer of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, told Reuters. “I think they begin to make themselves at least partially known in 2015 and fully known in 2016.”  

During his health care pitch to the American people, Obama also vowed to make the system more affordable to businesses. But Obamacare imposes a raft of new requirements and regulatory red tape on businesses. 

A recent study from the American Health Policy Institute analyzed the internal costs of Obamacare among more than 100 large employers (defined as having more than 10,000 workers). It found that over the next decade, these large employers would pay between $4,800 and $5,900 more per employee than they otherwise would have without Obamacare. In total, the study estimated, the cost of Obamacare to all large employers would be somewhere around $151 billion to $186 billion. [emphasis mine]

All that money so that big-gov fans in D.C. can tell you what insurance you must buy, for how much, and what will be the most cost-effective (also known as often ineffective) treatments inflicted upon you-- after all, decisions that important and expensive shouldn't be left in the hands of patients and doctors.

What a bargain!

About 1800 Children in New Jersey Have Health Plans Cancelled Due to ObamaCare

"Eggs have to be broken to make a good soup. Folks all know this. Besides those kids were most likely racist and against gay marriage."

Because it was all, you know, for the kids and stuff...

From the Breitbart article by Wynton Hall:

Roughly 1,800 New Jersey children had their insurance plans cancelled last week due to Obamacare.  

[...]  

Obamacare's new mandated requirements killed New Jersey's low-cost children's insurance coverage plan, FamilyCare Advantage. The plan, offered by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, was designed for children whose parents make too much money to qualify for Medicaid and offered medical, dental, and vision coverage for just $144 a month. The program, which was the first of its kind in the nation, was implemented six years ago and considered a model for others states seeking economical ways to provide quality coverage for kids from working class families.  

Yet, since FamilyCare Advantage lacked things like mental health services, Obamacare deemed the children's 1,800 plans illegal and the program shuttered last week.  

"This is enormously disappointing, said NJ state Sen. Joseph Vitale (D) who co-sponsored the bill that created the program. "It was $5 for doctor visits, $1 for pharmacy and no deductible or cost sharing."  

The Obamacare plan offered by the same insurance provider has a $1,500 minimum deductible. [Yeah, and how much more will they have to pay per month?] Vitale told NJ.com that most families whose children were covered will be ineligible for taxpayer-funded federal Obamacare subsidies because "they earned too much money."  

The 1,800 New Jersey children join the five million other Americans who also had their plans canceled by Obamacare. A new study by the RAND Corporation reportedly finds that nearly one million people whose plans were canceled by Obamacare still remain uninsured, a figure Democrats previously claimed was less than 10,000.

Well, this what happens when you let D.C. politicians and bureaucrats determine what is best for your health needs. Bureaucracies simply do not care about you, and when the government is providing the health insurance, it massively complicates and hampers any courts ability to rule fairly on lawsuits brought against these government insurers. Health care becomes a political on the order of determining voting districts. Treating people this way is despicable, but inevitable under ObamaCare.

If you've read this horrendous, Los-Angeles-telephone-book-sized law, than this kind of is certainly not a surprise. The law is chock-full of the worst sort of the Left's liberty killing, micro-management, so there's going to be plenty more of atrocious incidences in the near future.

When? Hard to say, but basically when Obama stops illegally delaying ObamaCare's institution. So, probably after the 2014 elections.

But in the meantime all of these kids' mental health needs will be sort of covered after that $1500 deductible, so it's totally worth it.

U.S. Warns China Not to Annex (More) Asian Territories and Islands



Don't worry. According to Obama and Kerry, using these troops is not proper for the 21st-- and it's a sign of weakness too.

Or else what? My bet is that Kerry will tell them that they're not acting properly for the 21st Century. *gag*

From Reuters:

China should not doubt the U.S. commitment to defend its Asian allies and the prospect of economic retaliation should also discourage Beijing from using force to pursue territorial claims in Asia in the way Russia has in Crimea, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday. 

Daniel Russel, President Barack Obama's diplomatic point man for East Asia, said it was difficult to determine what China's intentions might be, but Russia's annexation of Crimea had heightened concerns among U.S. allies in the region about the possibility of China using force to pursue its claims. 

"The net effect is to put more pressure on China to demonstrate that it remains committed to the peaceful resolution of the problems," Russel, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  

Russel said the retaliatory sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States, the European Union and others should have a "chilling effect on anyone in China who might contemplate the Crimea annexation as a model." [Bwah ha ha! Stop it! You're killing me!]  

This was especially so given the extent of China's economic interdependence with the United States and its Asia neighbors, Russel said.  

[...]  

Russel termed the deployment of large numbers of Chinese vessels in its dispute with the Philippines in the South China Sea "problematic" and said that Beijing had taken "what to us appears to be intimidating steps." 

"It is incumbent of all of the claimants to foreswear intimidation, coercion and other non-diplomatic or extra-legal means," he said. 

In Asia, China also has competing territorial claims with Japan and South Korea, as well as with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan in potentially energy-rich waters.

Oh yeah, and also various islands (including Pagasa Island) located between Japan, China, and the Philippines.

China has somewhat recently turned to hard-Left regime, and as the country slumps economically, as the living conditions for China's citizens continues to deteriorate, China has focused more and more on the expansion of its territory. Nothing drums up support at home like a great, patriotic conflict against usurpers and aggressors.

Beyond that, Marxism is never self-sufficient so it has to expand, find a patron to pay its bills, or collapse. There is no patron large enough to cover China's expenses, so it has to either expand or reform. And there's really to incentive for the Chinese leadership to reform.

I really don't think that the State Department staff sending out selfies of themselves is going to worry China all that much.