Shocker. "Widespread Fraud Reported in Social Security Administration's Disability Program"

"Now look folks. Let me make this clear. An historic increase in disability claims is a good thing for America. It allows the unemployment rate to be artificially low as people give up on looking for non-existent work and get on the disability bandwagon to support their families. It puts millions on the government dole-- to give them a financial incentive to vote for more nanny-state friendly candidates. And it allows the politically connected to embezzle federal funds for their own betterment And then to re-invest significant amounts tpward campaign contributions. It's win-win-win!"

OMG! Who could have seen this coming? Widespread fraud in a disability program?!

From the Fox News article by Doug McKelway:

A two-year investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has found widespread fraud in the Social Security Administration's Disability Program.

The fraud is so rampant, and disability cases have so proliferated in recent years, that the Social Security's Disability Trust Fund may run out of money in only 18 months, says Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., whose office undertook the investigation. 

Coburn’s report on widespread fraud, released Monday, focuses in large part on a veritable "disability claim factory" allegedly run by attorney Eric C. Conn out of his small office in Stanville, Kentucky, a region of the country where 10 to 15 percent of the population receives disability payments. 

The report documents how Conn allegedly worked together with Administrative Law Judge David Daugherty and a team of favored doctors with checkered pasts, including suspended licenses in other states, who rubber stamped approval of disability claims. In most cases, the claims had been prepared in advance with nearly identical language by staffers in Conn's law office. 

The report found that over the past six years, Conn allegedly paid five doctors almost $2 million to provide favorable disability opinions for his claimants. 

In 2010, the last year for which records are available, Daugherty approved 1375 disability cases prepared by Conn's office and denied only 4 of them - an approval rate that other administrative law judges have described as nearly impossible. 

[...]  

The alleged fraud highlights an endemic problem in Social Security disability benefit awards. The Coburn report says a random examination of 300 case files by Congressional staff found more than a quarter of the case files “failed to properly address insufficient, contradictory, or incomplete evidence,” suggesting a high rate of fraud or abuse. 

Disability payments have skyrocketed across the U.S. in recent years. At the end of August 2013, more than 14 million Americans were receiving disability benefits The Social Security Administration has blamed aging baby boomers and the lingering effects of the recession as two causes, but another appears to be the SSA's attempt to reduce the back-log of disability cases.

Obama's America, much like Chicago and other political-machine cities and/or states, is rife with corruption in which the various politically connected fleece millions-- if not billions of dollars at this point--- from social welfare programs and the like. It's a time honored tradition.

But then again, this kind of talk is all racist or something... I mean I did use the term "Chicago" which is apparently a code word for racism or something.

Are You Kidding Me? Amber Alerts Shut Off, Let's Move Still Up and Running

"So a few kids go missing for a few extra days? What's the worst that can happen? Oh, and Harry Reid doesn't care about kids with cancer... He's the villain."

Priorities.

From Elizabeth Sheld at Breitbart:

The official Amber Alert page is www.amberalert.gov. 

The Amber Alert is a national program that alerts the public when a child has been abducted. The Department of Justice broadcasts specific information about missing children so the public can be on the look out for the child and/or the abductor.
If you type www.amberalert.gov in your browser, you will find that the website redirects to an error message stating that the government shutdown has stopped the program. I am not linking it here because it redirects to an error message.

If you try and visit letsmove.gov, Michelle Obama's healthy child/exercise initiative, no such redirect takes place.

 

Well, remember Michelle Obama believes that overweight children are a threat to national security... And let's not forget that the White House has said "let's make life as difficult as possible for people". We, and our children, are just pawns for Obama to exert leverage on the GOP. And he'll justify it all by saying that we're ultimately better off for being ridden.

John McAfee on ObamaCare Exchanges "This is a Hacker's Wet Dream"

"Now look, if folks get ripped off of their money by ObamaCare frauds, it isn't my fault. And besides they didn't really earn that money for themselves anyway."

The idiocy of ObamaCare continues.

From The Daily Caller article by Jeff Poor:

On Fox Business Network’s “Cavuto” on Wednesday, computer programmer and founder of McAfee, Inc. John McAfee said the online component of Obamacare “is a hacker’s wet dream” that will cause “the loss of income for the millions of Americans who are going to lose their identities.” 

For starters, McAfee said the way it is set up makes it possible for fake websites be set up to fool people to think they’re signing up for Obamacare. 

“It’s seriously bad,” McAfee said. “Somebody made a grave error, not in designing the program but in simply implementing the web aspect of it. I mean, for example, anybody can put up a web page and claim to be a broker for this system. There is no central place where I can go and say, ‘OK, here are all the legitimate brokers, the examiners for all of the states and pick and choose one.’”  

“Instead, any hacker can put a website up, make it look extremely competitive, and because of the nature of the system — and this is health care, after all — they can ask you the most intimate questions, and you’re freely going to answer them,” he continued. “What’s my Social Security number? My birth date? What are my health issues?” 

Watch:


According to McAfee, there’s not a quick fix — and as long as it set up this way, it could be a playground for computer hackers.  

“Here’s the problem: It’s not something software can solve,” McAfee continued. “I mean, what idiot put this system out there and did not create a central depository? There should be one website, run by the government, you go to that website and then you can click on all of the agencies. This is insane. So, I will predict that the loss of income for the millions of Americans who are going to lose their identities — I mean, you can imagine some retired lady in Utah, who has $75,000 dollars in the bank, saving her whole life, having it wiped out in one day because she signed up for Obamacare. And believe me, this is going to happen millions of times. This is a hacker’s wet dream. I mean I cannot believe that they did this.” [emphasis mine]

Believe it.

ObamaCare's a badly conceived, badly passed rammed down our throats, badly run nightmare. Would we expect more? Leftism doesn't have the best track record-- even when you overlook the genocides. Why do we think American Leftists are going to do any better?

Oh, right. The Light-bringer's "Hope." I forgot.

Shocker from the House Commitee: Obama Administration has Selectively Shut Down Most Popular Tourist Memorials

Closed until you all capitulate to Light-bringer's will

Well, the House Committee on Natural Resources has stated the obvious. Gee, it's almost as if Obama is just a petty Leftist Chicago pol... Oh, wait.

From Breitbart:

According to the House Committee on Natural Resources, the Obama administration has taken the unusual step of shutting down only the most popular tourist memorials in the nation’s capital, including the World War II Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and the National Mall. Other, lesser-visited sites, have been left open. “[T]he Obama Administration is applying this policy inconsistently and choosing which memorials to block off and which to keep open. While these popular monuments remain barricaded, other U.S. Park properties such as the Constitutional Gardens and Japanese Americans Memorial remain completely open,” the Committee said in a press release. 

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings stated, “It appears as though only the highly visible monuments and areas are being closed to the public – further proof that the Obama Administration is only playing politics and purposely choosing to make this shut down as painful as possible. Their actions are shameful and wrong.”

No. Really? Do you think?!

The Lying Liars Lie Some More about California ObamaCare Exchange

And the Light-bringer gave unto California ObamaCare and 5 million sung his praises... oh.... well 645,000 people looked over the website. They were... stoked.

Is there any standard related to the professional American Left that isn't in tatters? Is there anything that is considered beneath them?

Not much.

From The L.A. Times (via Drudge):

California's health insurance exchange vastly overstated the number of online hits it received Tuesday during the rollout of Obamacare. 

State officials said the Covered California website got 645,000 hits during the first day of enrollment, far fewer than the 5 million it reported Tuesday. 

The state exchange had cited the 5 million figure as a sign of strong consumer interest and a major reason people had so much difficulty using its $313-million online enrollment system. 

Dana Howard, a spokesman for Covered California, said the error was the result of internal miscommunication. 

"Someone misspoke and thought it was indeed 5 million hits. That was incorrect," he said.

Well, at least they had a valid excuse. Also it was probably a few rogue people in Cincinnati...

 Howard said the revised Web traffic still represents a huge response. He said the number of unique online visitors Tuesday was 514,000 and the state received 19,000 calls. 

Meantime, Californians were still running into computer problems and long hold times during the second day of enrollment under the federal healthcare law. 

Those glitches have prompted Covered California to shut down its online enrollment system twice.

Yup, people are lining up for ObamaCare. They all can't wait until it kicks in fully in 2014... conveniently after the elections.

Obama's Ideal America...

... summed up in one picture:

Pic from Twitchy.com

Don't worry. It's for our own good.

Under Obama, US Debt Help Up by Public Up 90%

"Look folks, Social Security isn't paying off like it used to...and how else can we find the money to fund Democratic political pay off and 'green' energy failures?"

More of Obama's economic genius...

From the CNS article by Terrence P. Jeffrey:

The U.S. Treasury released its last Daily Treasury Statement for fiscal 2013 yesterday afternoon, revealing that during the presidency of Barack Obama the U.S. government debt held by the public has increased 90 percent.  

At the close of business on Jan. 20, 2009, the day Obama was inaugurated, the U.S. government debt held by the public was $6,307,311,000,000, according to the Daily Treasury Statement for that day.  

At the close of business on Sept. 30, 2013—the last day of fiscal 2013—the Daily Treasury Statement said the U.S. government debt held by the public was $11,976,279,000,000.  

The $11,976,279,000,000 in U.S. government debt held by the public on Sept. 30, 2013 was $5,668,968,000,000 more than the $6,307,311,000,000 in debt held by the public on Obama’s first inauguration day.  

That is an increase of 89.879 percent—or approximately 90 percent.  

The U.S. Treasury divides the U.S. government's debt into two general categories: debt held by the public and intragovernmental debt. Debt held by the public consists primarily of U.S. Treasury securities—including bills, notes and bonds—that the Treasury sells on the open market to everybody from individual families and investors to government entities in the People’s Republic of China.  

Intragovernmental debt is money the Treasury has borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund and other government sources to pay for current government expenses.  

Under Obama, intragovernmental debt has increased only about 10 percent, starting at $4,319,566,000,000 on Jan. 20, 2009 and increasing to $4,761,904,000,000 by the close of business on Sept. 30, 2013.  

During Obama’s presidency, intragovernmental debt has declined as a percentage of the overall debt and debt held by the public has increased as a percentage of the overall debt. This happened as surpluses in Social Security taxes (over Social Security benefits paid) have dwindled and the Treasury has been forced to borrow proportionately more money from the public rather than from Social Security to pay the government's current expenses.  

On Jan. 20, 2009, when Obama was inaugurated, 40.6 percent of the federal government's total debt was intragovernmental debt and 59.4 percent was debt held by the public. On Sept. 30, 2013, 28.4 percent of the debt was intragovernmental and 71.6 percent was debt held by the public. [emphasis mine]

Oh, well... Nothing to see here. Move on. Move on.

ADP Jobs Report Shows "Unexpected" Weak Gains... Again

The Light-bringer shall lead you to golden fields of weeds, feed you on food stamps and heal you with rationed health care guaranteed to reduce the average lifespan of Americans-- until we start redefining the term lifespan and such. But jobs... well, that's for greedy parasites who didn't build that and stuff...

Why are all these dismal job reports "unexpected?" I am so tired of hearing that word. It's like we're one of the moles in the whack-a-mole game and we keep "unexpectedly" get hit with a mallet.

The Breitbart piece by Mike Flynn:

Payroll firm ADP reported Wednesday that the economy gained just 166k jobs in September, far below economists' expectations of a 180k gain. ADP also revised down its estimate of August job gains from over 170k to just 159k.  

Because of the government shutdown, the Labor Department will not report its estimate of non-farm payrolls on Friday. As a result, the ADP report will be the only gauge of the labor market available in the near-term. The ADP report only surveys private sector employment, so its numbers often diverge from the Labor Department report. The overall trends, however, tend to be consistent.  

The ADP report suggests a further cooling in hiring. The top-line number was well below expectations and the downward revision in August job gains indicate an economy stuck in a holding pattern. The economy needs to gain around 200k jobs a month to keep pace with population growth.  

As ObamaCare takes root in the nation's economy, the monthly jobs data will become increasingly important as it may indicate signs of the impact of the health care law on the economy. The largest jobs growth last month were in firms that employed fewer than 50 employees, the threshold that triggers ObamaCare. If that trend continues, it will be a sign that ObamaCare is reshaping the nation's labor market.

Obama's economic theories do not work. He is a community organizer, i.e. someone who points the blame at people's problems on politically correct or convenient targets. He is not a businessman, nor he has he created job one-- neither prior to his presidency nor after it. Remember there has been a net loss of jobs since Obama took over. This guy's an incompetent... totally out of his depth. And we have three more years of this blithering fool.

Poll: Less Than 1 in 5 Believe ObamaCare Will Help Families

"You folks don't understand the thousands of pages of this law! You folks don't know what's best for you! We know what's best! And I'll shut down the government to prove it! Well, me and Harry Reid..."

These numbers about ObamaCare have been consistently bad. But the Democrats cling ot it since they basically sold their souls to pass a doomed law that will be a disaster before it collapses.

From The Hill (h/t Instapundit):

A small percentage of people in the United States say they think President Obama’s healthcare law will help their families.  

In a CNN/ORC International poll released Tuesday, less than one in five people say Obamacare will make them and their families better off. About 40 percent say it will make them worse off, or will have no effect at all.  

The poll was released the same day a key element of the Affordable Care Act took effect, and the same day the federal government shut down.  

Signed into law in 2010, and ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court in 2012, ObamaCare now allows Americans to enroll in insurance exchanges. 

Most of the law’s components, however, don’t actually take effect until 2014.

This is really important. As bad as the effects of ObamaCare is now, it was designed to really kick in after the 2014 elections. There is a still a ton more to come-- and all the "goodies" that were front-loaded into the law have already gone into effect. What? You noticed no goodies? Yeah. That's how bad this law is. The goodies had basically zero effect on the average person. Brace yourselves for 2014.

ObamaCare Website Deletes "Free Health Care" Reference

"Look peasants folks, nothing in life is free. At best we get to collect money from graft and political pay-off."

Not surprising. It's the bait and switch...

From The Weekly Standard: (via Drudge)

Even as President Obama and his administration are making a last minute push to encourage enrollment in Obamacare, a quiet change was made on the Healthcare.gov website regarding those who will still not be able to afford coverage after the program kicks in. From at least June 26, 2013 to as recently as September 15, under the topic, "Where can I get free or low-cost care in my community?" the following statement appeared: "If you can't afford any health plan, you can get free or low-cost health and dental care at a nearby community health center." Here is how the page in question appeared:

However, sometime between September 16 and September 23, the reference to "free" care was dropped. The title of the topic was changed as well, and now reads: "Where can I get low-cost care in my community?" Here is how the page currently appears:
 

[...]  

Since President Obama has been emphasizing of late how inexpensive Obamacare will be for many Americans, advertising the availability of "free" health care might have been viewed as a deterrent to purchasing even the least expensive option from the government-run exchanges. Since the "bronze" and "silver" level plans that the president has recently been touting as equaling "the cost of your cable bill" and "less than your cell phone bill" will still entail significant out-of-pocket costs for medical care, "free" might still look more attractive to many on the lower end of the income scale. It may be that community health centers will still offer free care to some, but visitors to Healthcare.gov will no longer be made aware of the option.

As reality forces a modicum of honesty from this idiotic law, other words stricken will be "affordable" and "care." Soon we will be left with government mandated health insurance. And the Democrats gave it to us-- or more accurately-- jammed it down our throats over our protests, in the dead of night, with a procedural legislative trick. Own it!

Government Wants to Reduce Cancer Rates by Redefining the Term "Cancer"

"There's nothing wrong with you... I swear it. Besides you're not technically really a human being unless you're a Democrat. The science is settled."

It's a typical Leftist ploy-- using language games to either make a concern look worse or better depending on the whim of those in charge.

From the Forbes article by Paul Hsieh (h/t Instapundit):

The federal government wants to reduce the number of Americans diagnosed each year with cancer. But not by better preventive care or healthier living. Instead, the government wants to redefinethe term “cancer” so that fewer conditions qualify as a true cancer. What does this mean for ordinary Americans — and should we be concerned? 

[...]  

But while there are legitimate scientific and medical questions about the proper definition and classification of any disease (including cancer), we must be careful that that any redefinition won’t be used for inappropriate political purposes. Given the increasing government control over US health care, how the government defines medical terms can have serious economic and policy implications. 

For example, the definition of a “live birth” has become important in discussions over health care policy. Many on the political Left cite the supposedly high infant mortality rate in the US relative to Europe as one of the failures of the US health system.
But Dr. Bernadine Healy (former director of the National Institutes of Health and of the American Red Cross) has noted:

The United States counts all births as live if they show any sign of life, regardless of prematurity or size. This includes what many other countries report as stillbirths. In Austria and Germany, fetal weight must be at least 500 grams (1 pound) to count as a live birth; in other parts of Europe, such as Switzerland, the fetus must be at least 30 centimeters (12 inches) long. In Belgium and France, births at less than 26 weeks of pregnancy are registered as lifeless. And some countries don’t reliably register babies who die within the first 24 hours of birth. 

Thus, the United States is sure to report higher infant mortality rates. For this very reason, the Organization for Cooperation and Development, which collects the European numbers, warns of head-to-head comparisons by country.

This "high infant mortality rate" was key argument recited endlessly by ObamaCare proponents a few years ago. It was rather telling to me, as the European models of health care are either directly run or heavily effected by the government. The redefinition of "live birth" was instituted to keep the countries' infant mortality rates artificially low. The U.S will inevitably follow through with similar sleight of hand tricks through language. It's in the playbook.

Similarly, the American Medical Association recently voted to declare obesity a “disease.” But as Cato Institute health care analyst Michael Tanner noted, “the AMA’s move is actually a way for its members to receive more federal dollars, by getting obesity treatments covered under government health plans.”  

[...]  

Dr. Milton Wolf, a practicing radiologist who cares for patients with DCIS warns against this Orwellian possibility:

Health care rationing takes many insidious forms but perhaps the most immoral is for the government to wage a public relations campaign designed specifically to dissuade patients and doctors from seeking available cures for cancer. They scheme to rename cancer, not to cure it, but to deny it exists. These government rationers have calculated that rather than actually treat patients with cancer, it’s cheaper to simply keep them as calm as Hindu cows right up to the very end.

“Cancer” is a powerful word. Hence, whoever controls the definition of that word wields tremendous power over patients. Ordinary Americans should stay vigilant to ensure this power isn’t wrongly used against them.

Dr. Wolf  is, of course, a racist who wants all of us to die... or something.

One of the great problems in allowing the government-- especially one proven to be untrustworthy by a number of recent high-profile scandals-- to run health care and judiciously dole treatments with an idea toward cost-saving, is that the truth becomes completely lost. Any sort of trust that is supposed to exist between patient and doctor is lost as doctors are required to redefine, to the point of untruth, diagnoses, treatment options, and future prognosis due to the federal legal requirements. It's Orwellian and wrong. And it's guaranteed by ObamaCare.

Poll: Majority Believe IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups, Few Think IRS will Be Punished

"They did my bidding and they shall be exonerated by the Light-bringer that I am!"

Yeah, that's pretty much what you would expect. In the Age of Obama political cronies doing the illegal bidding of their master are rarely punished-- unless pay outs to retire early or being put on paid vacations until the scandal blows over count as punishment.

From the Sunshine State News piece by Allison Nielsen (h/t Instapundit):

The Internal Revenue Service's decision to target tea party and other conservative groups created a lot of controversy earlier this year, but while most American voters believe the IRS broke the law, very few think government employees will be charged with any crime.

A new Rasmussen Reports poll found 53 percent of likely U.S. voters believe the IRS broke the law when it targeted tea party and other conservative groups, while only 24 percent disagree.

But only 17 percent believe it is even somewhat likely that criminal charges will be brought against any government employees for IRS's targeting of these groups. Seventy-four percent consider criminal charges unlikely. This number includes 27 percent who say charges are not at all likely.

Just this week, the senior IRS official whose office probed the conservative groups resigned and is allegedly seeking immunity before she testifies before the congressional committee investigating the issue.

The IRS originally said the decision was made by low-level officials in its Cincinnati office, but has since backed away from that claim.

Cynicism is the new normal under Obama. And why not? The revolutionary aspects of Leftist dogma is based around cynicism of the old regime and faith in the Leftist creeds. It's easy to create cynicism, but hard to create faith-- especially in a failed political theory that has frequently resulted in genocide.

Federal Stimulus Funds Go to "Free" Trees in Posh Denver Neighborhoods

"Trees for the wealthy! What about this wouldn't create jobs for thousands?"

It was shovel ready, right?

From Fox News:

About $600,000 in federal stimulus funds were used to plant trees in some of Denver's priciest neighborhoods at no cost to homeowners, according to a KCNC-TV report.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act program had no income guidelines, so trees were planted in upscale areas of the city at about $150 apiece, the station reported.
City forester Rob Davis said the now-defunct program was developed to help boost the economy by creating tree-planting jobs and to provide homeowners with long-term savings in energy costs.  

“It’s open to anybody,” Davis told the station. “It’s basically if you live in Denver, you want to reduce your energy costs, you want to have a tree that can raise your property value, go to the web page to sign up.” 

John Backlund, who lives in a home worth more than $700,000, told the station he agreed to take a tree after he was approached by a government worker going door-to-door trying to give them away. 

“Too good of a deal to say no to. I was happy to get the free tree,” Backlund said.
While some trees were planted in middle- and lower-income neighborhoods, the federal government rejected a proposal by the city to keep the trees out of neighborhoods with high-end homes. 

“The program was turned down by the government as their interest was in funding programs that created jobs and helped citizens reduce overall energy costs,” city Parks and Recreation spokesman Jeff Green told KCNC-TV.com. 

Green said the department recognizes that many trees ended up in high-income neighborhoods and plans to attempt to remedy the imbalance.

Yup, more money shall be needed to remedy the income / tree imbalances.

I just don't understand why the stimulus failed so miserably. I mean how many hundeds of jobs were created by these trees?

Both Russia and China Hold Large Scale War Games; The Cold War Part 2?

Okay, this looks a little bad as China and Russia begin to subtly saber rattle-- but President James Bond Obama is busy defending us from racists, the GOP, and anyone who doesn't think the feds shouldn't ration health care to the masses. I mean, he can't look outside the U.S. for enemies when there's plenty that need his vengeance right here.

Nothing to worry about. Russia isn't a rival to the U.S. or anything. And besides Obama had Hillary give them a "overcharge" "reset button" so it's all okay.

From The Free Beacon" article by Bill Gertz:

Pentagon intelligence agencies are closely watching Russian and Chinese war games now taking place in Europe and Asia involving tens of thousands of troops. 

Meanwhile, NATO military forces are set to conduct large-scale maneuvers in November that will be designed to counter growing concerns of a westward Russian military encroachment, according to U.S. officials. 

“The Russians are moving forces closer to Europe, and that is troubling,” said a military official. 

Russia’s Zapad-13 military exercises in Belarus are scheduled to end Thursday. They included practice attacks on a western state, said one official familiar with reports of the maneuvers. 

Some 13,000 Russian and Belarusian troops took part with over 60 aircraft and helicopters and up to 250 vehicles. 

The forces practiced “rapid reaction” drills. 

Russian officials recently denied Polish press reports that the Zapad-13 would include a notional nuclear attack on Warsaw. However, Russian officials have said the war games will involve practicing precision air and missile strikes.

The Russians have been practicing to invade Poland for about ten years that I can recall. It's one of the reasons why a strong U.S. ally is vital to Poland, and not the apologetic and schizophrenic frenemy that marks Obama's international policies and rhetoric.

In response to Polish press reports on the simulated nuclear strike on Poland’s capital, state-run Interfax news agency in April denied the reports. “Claims that West 2013 will allegedly practice a preventive nuclear strike on Warsaw are nothing but imagination of Polish journalists,” a high-ranking officer was quoted as saying.  

[...]  

U.S. military officials said the war games are part of a larger Russian effort to use military power to bolster its position in the former Soviet republics with a larger military presence. 

Russia also has a ballistic missile warning radar at Baranovichi, Belarus, and a Navy communications facility used to communicate with Russian submarines. Moscow also supplied Belarus with advanced S-300 missile defenses and Tor-M2 surface-to-air missiles.  

[...]  

Meanwhile in China, Chinese military forces are engaged in large-scale exercises involving some 40,000 troops. 

The People’s Liberation Army announced its “Mission Action 2013” began Tuesday.
Troops from the Nanjing and Guangzhou military regions and air forces were set to take part. 

The PLA troops will conduct maneuvers over large areas using military ground vehicles, trains, ships, and aircraft to test forces for “real war” conditions. 

The exercises will include coordination between military and civilian assets, including civilian jets and trains to transport forces, according to state-run Chinese press reports.
Chinese aircraft taking part in the war games include jet fighters, bombers, and other aircraft. 

 Yeah, nothing to worry about...

ObamaCare has Financial Incentives to Divorce

CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE

Ah, the evils of the "wedding tax" has come to bloom.

What a load of crap this idiocy is!

It's frighteningly complicated, but Tom Blumer does a pretty good job of explaining it. Check out his full article at PJ Media here.

A small excerpt:

The couple’s [a hypothetical 40 yr. old couple w/ two children] annual unsubsidized premium while married is $11,547 (OFA’s vaunted “tax credits” disappear at $92,401 for married couples with two children). But if they divorce and shack up while giving custody of both children to the lower-earning spouse, their combined annual premiums, at $4,317, will be over $7,200 lower. That’s over $600 a month. As was the case in the previous example, the savings from divorce will gradually increase every year. Parents will be torn between doing what Western civilization has considered morally right for millennia and their children’s financial well-being as never before.  

There may be contrary examples, but in all of my research into the inner workings of Obamacare as embodied in Kaiser’s model, I was unable to find a single instance where staying married led to a lower net healthcare premium compared to divorcing and living together. Clearly, many couples who are considering marriage, especially after several years of seeing formerly married couples regress to cohabiting, will look at Obamacare’s “wedding tax” and say, “Never mind.” The effect on society will be incalculable, and certainly not for the good. 

As designed, Obamacare threatens to turn cohabiting while functionally living as if married into a national sport.

Well, ObamaCare's just looking better and better, isn't it?

Gallup: Americans' Belief That Gov't Is Too Powerful at Record Level

CLICK GRAPH TO ENLARGE

No. Really?! Do you think?

From Gallup:

Six in 10 Americans (60%) believe the federal government has too much power, one percentage point above the previous high recorded in September 2010. At least half of Americans since 2005 have said the government has too much power. Thirty-two percent now say the government has the right amount of power. Few say it has too little power.  

[...]  

This new high encompasses Republicans (81%), who are now more likely than at any time since 2002 to say the government has too much power, and Democrats (38%), who now are more likely to say this than at any time since President Barack Obama took office in 2009. 

Republicans, Democrats, and independents have each grown more likely to say government is too powerful this year. However, Republicans' and Democrats' views have generally become more polarized since Obama took office. In 2002, the two parties were about equally likely to view the federal government as too powerful, at 36% and 35%, respectively, with independents, at 45%, most likely to say this.

Wait until the government starts forcing people to go to overworked and disinterested doctors through ObamaCare... I'm sure the number will change then-- probably going lower since ObamaCare is so popular.

IRS Continues Evading Congress-- Has Produced Only 10% of the Documents Demanded by Congress

"Why don't folks just leave this alone! I won, and now I you shall face me only on bended knee!"

Still not surprised. The IRS really doesn't want to show how deep the involvement was with the White House, nor how much it likely effected the election.

From the CNS News article by Terence Jeffrey:

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee--which is probing the Internal Revenue Service’s discriminatory treatment of Tea Party and conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status--says the IRS has thus far handed over to the committee only about 10 percent of the documents the IRS itself has said are responsive to the committee’s demands for documents.  

The committee subpoenaed the Treasury Department for relevant documents from the department and the IRS more than seven weeks ago at the beginning of August. 

“To date, the IRS has produced to the committee only about 10 percent of all responsive materials that it has identified,” the committee’s majority staff said in a memo to committee members last Tuesday.  

Committee staff confirmed to CNSNews.com today that the IRS has not produced a significant number of additional documents since that memo was circulated on Sept. 17, and that as of the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 23, the IRS’s total production of documents to the committee remained only about 10 percent of those the IRS has said are responsive 

“In his letter of August 2, 2013, Acting Commissioner Werfel represented to the committee that the IRS has identified 660,000 responsive documents,” said the Oversight Committee majority staff memo. “The committee has received only 63,000 pages.”  

[...]  

As reported by the Washington Times, Lois Lerner--who refused to answer questions on 5th Amendment grounds when she appeared in the Oversight Committee on May 22--retired from the IRS today.  

Chairman Issa later issued a statement saying the committee still wants to take her testimony. 

“Lois Lerner’s exit from the IRS does not alter the Oversight Committee’s interest in understanding why applicants for tax exempt status were targeted and inappropriately treated because of their political beliefs,” Chairman Issa said in a statement this afternoon. “We still don’t know why Lois Lerner, as a senior IRS official, had such a personal interest in directing scrutiny and why she denied improper conduct to Congress. Her departure does not answer these questions or diminish the Committee’s interest in hearing her testimony.” 

In June, the Oversight Committee approved a resolution stating that Lerner had waived her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination when she appeared before the committee because she voluntarily made an opening s statement to the committee before refusing to answer its questions.

This scandal is huge. And still the IRS and other federal agencies are dragging their feet. They're likely waiting for the 2014 elections hoping for a Democrat landslide. Good luck with that.

Egypt Bans Muslim Brotherhood

It's a blow to Obama's pro-Muslim Brotherhood policies.

From the AP:

An Egyptian court on Monday ordered the Muslim Brotherhood to be banned and its assets confiscated in a dramatic escalation of a crackdown by the military-backed government against supporters of the ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.  

The ruling opens the door for a wider crackdown on the vast network of the Brotherhood, which includes social organizations that have been key for building the group's grassroots support and helping its election victories. The verdict banned the group itself - including the official association it registered earlier this year - as well as "any institution branching out of it or ... receiving financial support from it," according to the court ruling, made public on Egypt's state official news agency MENA.  

[...]  

The Brotherhood was outlawed for most of its 85 years in existence. After the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak, it emerged to work openly, opening a formal headquarters and forming a political party for the first time, and rose to power in a string of post-Mubarak elections. Still, its legal status remained hazy. In March, it registered as a non-governmental organization, but its entire network was not brought under the association's aegis.  

[...]  

The military removed Morsi after mass protests by millions demanding he step down, accusing him of power abuse and allowing the Brotherhood and other Islamists to monopolize rule. 

Since Morsi's ouster, security forces have arrested some 2,000 of the group's members, including many of its senior figures and a large swath of its middle ranks. Morsi, held in secret military detention, faces trial on charges of inciting the killing of protesters during his year in office. The Brotherhood's top leader and his deputies are also on trial, and figures are expected to be referred to courts soon, and already assets of many senior figures' assets have been ordered frozen. Officials and sympathetic media accuse the group of fomenting a wave of violence in retaliation for the coup.

Obama's been skirting the Egypt situation. Not surprising since much of Egypt is currently identifying him as the devil.

Democrats Leave Before Testimony of Benghazi Victims' Parents

The Democrats' empty seats

Nice, huh? But this pretty much fulfills my expectation of Democrats in the Age of Obama.

 

From the Breitbart article by Tony Lee:

 

On Thursday, all but two Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee walked out before the parents of two of the victims killed in the Benghazi attacks testified.  

Patricia Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, and Charles Woods, the father of Ty Woods, spoke after the committee questioned the heads of the Benghazi Accountability Review Board (ARB) and the Independent Panel of Best Practices. 

But among Democrats, only Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the ranking member on the committee, and Jackie Speier (D-CA) stayed to hear Woods and Smith.  

[...] 

Democrats who reportedly left the hearing include: Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY); Danny Davis (D-IL); Gerald Connolly (D-VA); Jim Cooper (D-TN); John Tierney (D-MA); Mark Pocan (D-WI); Matt Cartwright (D-PA); Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM); Peter Welch (D-VT); Stephen Lynch (D-MA); Steven Horsford (D-NV); Tammy Duckworth (D-IL); Tony Cardenas (D-CA); William Lacy Clay (D-MO); and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).

And they show all of us how they truly hold the American people in the highest esteem.

IRS Has Not Destroyed Conservative Donor List, Despite Promise

"We must have the list of the unbelievers!"

Why am I not surprised?

From the National Review Online piece by Eliana Johnson (h/t Instapundit):

The House Ways and Means Committee says that, despite the IRS’s promises to destroy the donor lists it demanded from tea-party and other conservative groups, it has discovered those lists in the case files it has reviewed in the course of its investigation into the targeting scandal. A Ways and Means Committee source tells National Review Online that, of the 27 groups asked for a list of donors, the committee identified 24 as conservative. Former acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller told the committee in May that a majority of the groups from whom donor lists were requested were not tea-party groups; a commitee [sic] spokeswoman surmised that Miller was using a narrow definition of “tea party” that did not apply more broadly to conservative groups. 

Requests for donor lists, which applicants for 501(c)(4) status are not required to disclose, raised concern because if a group’s application for tax exemption is approved, the application, including the donor list, becomes public. Groups have raised concerns that making their donors public will deter potential donors. The IRS previously told the committee that it would destroy the lists, which Miller conceded were “not necessary.”  

“When we saw that it happened, we asked that, you know, if they hadn’t sent them in, we reached out and said, don’t send them in,” Miller told the committee in May. ”If they had sent them in we said, you know, we’re not gonna use these, and we didn’t. You will not find them used in any of these cases.” 

Acting IRS commissioner Danny Werfel is scheduled to testify at a Ways and Means Committee hearing on Wednesday afternoon, where lawmakers are expected to ask him about the issue.

Would you really expect them to? The Left wants to bring pressure against their political opponents as possible and found that harassing businesses, sometimes to the point of closing, is an effective pressure to use. What better way to be re-elected when incompetence is exposed at every turn? It's the Chicago way brought to national level politics in the Age of Obama.