More "But there is no such thing as voter fraud!"

Last week Al Sharpton embraced convicted vote fraudster Melowese Richardson at a “voting rights” rally in Cincinnati. The United States Department of Justice under Eric Holder has done nothing to Melowese Richardson 410 days after she admitted on camera that she committed multiple federal felonies by voting six times for President Obama’s reelection.

Voting is both a right and a privilege. If you don't "feel" like going through the effort to vote on election day, you don't care enough to vote. The voting window should be reduced and absentee voting should be more tightly controlled / restricted. It is a disgrace that Iraq can run a cleaner vote that we can in America.

You Can't Tell the Players without a Score Card

Why would the Washington Post embarrass itself by republishing a thoroughly discredited attempt to link the Koch brothers to the Keystone Pipeline? Because that is a Democratic Party talking point, and the Post is a Democratic Party newspaper. But the truth is a little worse than that. 

Who is Post reporter Juliet Eilperin? Among other things, she is married to Andrew Light, who writes on climate policy for the Center for American Progress. The Center for American Progress is an Obama administration front group headed by John Podesta, who is a “special advisor” to the Obama administration. CAP’s web site, Think Progress, has carried out a years-long vendetta against the Koch brothers that has focused largely on the environment. Ms. Eilperin’s conflict in writing about environmental issues has already been a subject of controversy at the Post. The paper’s ombudsman should examine this latest example of Ms. Eilperin throwing facts to the winds in her eagerness to promote her (and her husband’s) far-left agenda.

And there it is...

File Under the "what the hell were they thinking" Department

Abortion nonprofit rewards donors with horrific ‘token of thanks’...

Talk about mistaken "optics", this is just plain twisted. For now, the original web page is still up at this link so that you can see that this is real. I think I understand what they are trying to say but their choice of visual is so off that I can not believe someone within their organization didn't try to stop this. Regardless of how you personally feel on this subject, I know their "intent" is / was to keep this procedure safe but their choice of "gift" appears to be glorifying this practice and making light of the procedure.

I think that this is an occasionally medically necessary procedure that has been elevated to the feminist's version of the Holy Grail. At its foundation, this is the destroying of another human life. Making this "choice" is a terrible burden on a woman and these sorts of "antics" make light of what SHOULD be a wrenching decision. A woman should not be approaching this decision with the same sort of flippant attitude that goes into selecting a lipstick color. Far too many of these procedures occur in this country. Fortunately, overall the yearly incidents are down but sorry, "fewer than last year" is just not good enough. The right answer is "only as many as was necessary and no more".

Some would say that I have no standing as am not a woman. If that is the case then there would be no standing for the ASPCA either. Having the right to do something does not make doing that thing right.

Video: Lay Down by Melanie (Safka)

Really great song and a fantastic voice!

Melanie does this version with the Edwin Hawkins Singers

But there is no such thing as voter fraud!

Pia Farrenkopf, shown in a high school photo, on Wednesday was found mummified inside her garage of her Pontiac, Mich., home. She’s believed to have died in 2008 — but voting records show she cast a ballot in 2010.

I wonder what the odds are that it was a straight "D" party line vote...

Obamacare...

Stunning new details concerning the disastrous launch of Obamacare in Massachusetts — released by state health officials only after persistent inquiries by the Herald — reveal what experts say are even more alarming calamities in the early development of the failed website than previously reported.

The new findings come as the Connector is seeking to project an image of greater transparency and openness as it scrambles to enroll Bay Staters in health insurance. That made the unearthing of the report all the more troubling to Gonser.

Branco Cartoon – Running Interference

#greenfail

Report: DC’s green-approved buildings using more energy

But, but, but WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! ANYTHING! The world is DYING and you JUST DON'T CARE!

Who cares if it is the wrong thing, or the inefficient thing, or the too costly thing. It is all about a) being able to SAY you did SOMETHING and b) if you can stick it to those evil corporations in the process, you get bonus points.

The only reason the world can support a bunch of whinny, b*tchy, environmentally conscientious, (and let us not forget) power hungry, busybody nut jobs is because of the society that is made possible by capitalism and Democracy.

These busybodies "feel" that everyone should be working to save the planet, that everyone should be earning a "living wage" (whatever the hell that is), that everyone should have "affordable housing" or "affordable healthcare" and all sorts of other things that are described in these vague, malleable terms that give them the maneuvering room to never have to call their crusade "done".

In this case/example it is a bunch of green building initiatives that are directed at saving energy and reducing our "carbon footprint". Of course it increases the costs of construction and there are the extra permits and fees and assessments and evaluations and all sorts of other things that are not free. What does it matter that the results of all of this "effort" is a more expensive and less efficient building? At lest we care! We did SOMETHING! Our conscience is clear and we can sleep at night. What does it matter that the result is worst that if we had done nothing at all and everyone had continued with the status quo?

If the world could be powered by smug, there would be no energy worries.

Do you think there is much concern for the environment when you are worried about keeping your family from starving? Do you think there is much concern for what is dumped into the rivers when you don't even have electricity? If you have to spend all of your time and energy staying alive, you have no time for feel good, "do something, do anything" activities. These things are only possible because a certain critical mass of the population does not have to be involved in a daily life or death struggle. That this situation is the case is a good thing. that this situation is used by those that think they know better than everyone else and "believe" that they should be telling everyone else what to do is the shame of it all.

They are no more than flees on society's back and could they but be shaken off, we would all be the better for it.

BridgeGate!

I just saw (yet another) news story on the NJ BridgeGate scandal. Oh the horrors! So, this is the most important story for the Saturday morning, national news to cover? What about Benghazi? We still have not found out who gave the stand-down order, even after all this time. We still don't know where the President was that night. We still don't know [officially] why a video was blamed for the attack even though documents (that were finally) released show that the administration KNEW that it was a terrorist attack and not a "spontaneous demonstration because of an offensive video" as they repeatedly said.

We still don't know a lot of things about this administration and what they are doing with: Obamacare, Fast n Furious, Benghazi, the NSA, the IRS scandal, etc., etc., etc. but all of the major news networks will leave no rock unturned to get to the bottom of a staffer of the NJ Governor (who has already been fired) working to get a little political payback against a local Mayor.

Sad...

Harry Reid: All Obamacare horror stories are lies!

That is right, according to Harry Reid, ALL Obamacare horror stories are lies! All those stories about people that got their insurance cancelled, lies. All those stories about increases in premiums, lies. All those stories about loosing your doctor and your treatments, lies. Hey America, you are all just a bunch of HATERS and LIARS according to Harry Reid.

He just can't imagine, in his safe bubble of entitled politician privileges that regular folks actual have an issue with being denied care, denied their doctors and being denied a policy due to the law that we just had "to pass in order to see what was in it". What was it the President said? "If you like your plan you can keep your plan, period!" and "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, period!". When that turned out to just not be so, instead of an "oops, sorry", we got "it was a junk plan anyway, not a real plan". Well it was real enough for those folks that had them and were paying on them. Now that the exchanges are a disaster and the new plans are crap, as the reality of Obamacare comes to light, Harry says you are all just lying liars.

P.S. In case you all didn't know, according to Harry, all of these EVIL lies are being financed by those EVIL Koch brothers! Lets ignore all of the millions and millions of dollars that Soros spends on left wing policies and politics, no, let us instead focus on the drips of money that come from the Koch brothers. Harry, you are either too ignorant to have your job or a lying crook. Which is it?

Can, you know, can you tell the truth and be fair?

This is an older video but still funny and still on point.

[Wrap up of segment on getting out of jury duty.]
Diane Sawyer: "You know, I wanted to sit on a jury once and I was taken off the jury. And the judge said to me, 'Can, you know, can you tell the truth and be fair?' And I said, 'That's what journalists do.' And everybody in the courtroom laughed. It was the most hurtful moment I think I've ever had.

Short answer: Sometimes the truth hurts.

I find it quite funny that she does not understand why everyone laughed! They really are that clueless...

Video: Oooh Child by The Five Stairsteps

Great song...

Branco Cartoon – What Difference Does it Make?

by A.F. Branco

Today is "White House Equal Pay Day"

Today is the day, in 2014 that women staff of the White House have to work to earn as much as male staff did in 2013. So much for the Democrat "War on Women" mime that it is all the evil GOP oppressing women.

Though the president is quick to trot out the easily disproved "fact" that women only earn $0.70 for every $1 that a man earns, the White House is the exception that makes the rule. Women there actually DO earn less than men ($0.88 for every $1 a man earns).

It is easy to poke fun at the White House for this but in all seriousness, there could be legitimate reasons for this discrepancy. The male staffers could be more experienced. They could actually work longer hours or have greater responsibilities. They could be better negotiators. The point is, if there is a valid reason for this difference at the White House, why can there not be valid reasons at other places where there is a straight dollar for dollar difference? Why is the White House given a pass but no other business?

If the Founders of Feminism Could See it Now...

Take this feminism test at this link. It is 5 samples of feminism at work today, one of which is a made up story. See if you can tell which one. It won't take long, I will wait...

I believe that the real leaders in the original feminist movement would be appalled at where their movement is today. What started out as a struggle for fair and equal treatment and to be given the opportunity to try for a thing, not an unequal leg up or hand-out but the honest and fair opportunity to earn "it" ("it" being what ever a woman wanted to try that was at one time not available to her because she was a woman) has morphed into this thing that is demonstrated by the examples at the above link is disgusting.

This week, at the winter Olympic games, women are competing in ice hockey, at the ski jump and other sports that just a few years ago they were barred from. Things like those, allowing women the opportunity to try to anything, to earn their right to be anything, is what Feminism was about. Today it is more and more a group of perpetually aggrieved, delicate little hot house flowers that read slights into every action and event for the purpose of gnashing their teeth and crying "poor me".

I am not sure which is worst, the fact that these women get any attention at all for these rants or that this "philosophy" is actively promoted in higher education and that students go into debt to be subjected to this warped thinking.

Shameful and disgusting.

eMail Joke: Disown me, please

A man was telling his buddy "You won't believe what happened last night. My daughter walked into the living room and said, "Dad, cancel my allowance immediately, forget my college tuition loan, rent my room out, throw all my clothes out the window, take my TV and my laptop. Please take any of my jewelry to the Salvation Army or Cash Converters. Then, sell my car, take my front door key away from me and throw me out of the house. Then, disown me and never talk to me again. Don't forget to write me out of your will and leave my share to any charity you choose."

"Holy Smokes," replied the friend, "she actually said that?"

"Well, she didn't put it quite like that. She actually said, 'Dad, meet my new boyfriend-- Mohammed. We're going to work together on Hillary's election campaign!'"

Your federal government at work.

Justice Department lawyer Bradley Heard was in court today trying to stop Kansas from ensuring that only citizens register to vote.

So, not only do Democrats want felons, the dead and illegals to vote (and vote often) by fighting any/all voter ID laws but they also want to make it so it does not matter. To allow foreigners to be able to register to vote as well. If they are on the rolls, you can't stop them from voting...

Sweet Irony

Really, did Woman's Day magazine really give Bill Clinton their "Red Dress" award?

Had it been the "blue dress" award, they could have had Monica present it!

Where is the justice?

Eight Police Officers Fire 103 Times At Two Unarmed Women Delivering Newspapers . . . Commission Rejects Calls For Any Officer To Be Fired Or Even Suspended

Let’s recap what these officers did and will now only be required to take a little more training. Police were searching for Dorner. Two women happened by the police delivering newspapers in a blue Toyota Tacoma pickup truck. (Dorner was driving a charcoal Nissan Titan pickup truck). Without clear identification and without any appearance of a weapon, the police fired 103 times at the truck. 

A Commission has now completed its investigation of the officers and found that the officers were not a serious fault in trying to kill two innocent unarmed women and unleashing a wall of lead on a vehicle.

So, it is perfectly legal for the police to fire repeatedly at completely innocent and unarmed citizens for no justifiable reason.

I am not sure which is worst. That all eight officers don't even get a slap on the wrist or the fact that they fired 103 times and managed to hit one person, once.

These are the "highly trained professionals" that are to be trusted with guns over me? Really? Oh, and look, the commission found that they did nothing wrong. 103 bullets at innocent people and they did nothing wrong. As others have noted, if a citizen pulls a gun on a cop, even when the cop does not announce themselves, WATCH OUT but they can shoot at citizens with impunity.

So what that they were in an intense situation, that is their job! They voluntarily put themselves into harms way for the privilege of wearing that badge. They are trained to deal with intense situations. This is inexcusable. They should not only be fired but likely brought up on charges for attempted murder.

What a country...

Firms must swear Obamcare not a factor in firings

Is the latest delay of ObamaCare regulations politically motivated? Consider what administration officials announcing the new exemption for medium-sized employers had to say about firms that might fire workers to get under the threshold and avoid hugely expensive new requirements of the law. Obama officials made clear in a press briefing that firms would not be allowed to lay off workers to get into the preferred class of those businesses with 50 to 99 employees. How will the feds know what employers were thinking when hiring and firing? Simple. Firms will be required to certify to the IRS – under penalty of perjury – that ObamaCare was not a motivating factor in their staffing decisions. To avoid ObamaCare costs you must swear that you are not trying to avoid ObamaCare costs. You can duck the law, but only if you promise not to say so.

And

Administration officials dispute that this is happening on any large scale. Further, Treasury officials said Monday that businesses will be told to "certify" that they are not shedding full-time workers simply to avoid the mandate. Officials said employers will be told to sign a "self-attestation" on their tax forms affirming this, under penalty of perjury.

So, either a business must keep on full time workers that no longer make economic sense, due to Obamacare or they have to lie and say that these workers were not fired or had their hours reduced as a result of Obamacare.

The government is saying "nudge, nudge, wink, wink, we know you cut staff due to Obamacare but as long as you say that is not the reason, all is good". This way, businesses can't publicly claim that these workers lost their jobs due to the ACA.

So, what is the actual "penalty" for a business that cuts staff due to the ACA and does NOT sign "ze papers"? Gulag for you?

Treasury, IRS, HHS Conspired To Create An Unauthorized, Half-Trillion Dollar Entitlement.

Heads should roll. And I’m not even sure I mean just figuratively, if this is true. It seems as if this sort of thing should be prosecuted as a crime.

Last week, two congressional committees issued a little-noticed report detailing how Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service, and Health and Human Services officials conspired to create a massive new entitlement not authorized anywhere in federal law.

Yes, but you know they won't. No one will get fired and for the most part the media will ignore...

New "oldest star" discovered and it is in our backyard!

It Is in the Milky Way and Is 400 Million Years Older Than the Previously Identified 'Oldest' Star.

An actual moment of clarity and truth!

This is from an older article but that does not diminish its truthfulness...

Frankly, I don’t know what it is about California, but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I’m not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine, even comes close. When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, we’re number one. There’s no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on “Macbeth”.

The three of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of speech. You don’t know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words.

I think all citizens deserve the government they have but it really isn't fair that California feels that they have the right to impose these three on the rest of the country.

School officials are no fans of gun ban signs

The image can be frightening, Byrne said, “but if it keeps the world safer, that’s OK. The No. 1 thing we do for kids in general is keep their school safe. We don’t want schools to become like airports but we should make some reasonable efforts. If it’s reasonable to tell people this is a safe, no-gun zone, then we’ll do it.”

Sorry, what is really frightening is that:

1. An adult is afraid of a safety sticker that is designed to indicate a gun free zone.


2. That a adult feels safer in a specifically marked gun free zone and thinks that a sticker that he is afraid of will actually cause someone that is intent on causing mayhem to view the sticker and go "Oh, this is a gun free zone. I best take my mayhem elsewhere!".


3. Since they brought it up, Sandy Hook was also a "safe, no-gun zone" and everyone knows how that worked out.

What stops people with guns that are intent on causing harm is generally other people with guns. I wonder what these folks will say when their "magic" stickers fail to keep bad people away. Likely, they will continue to blame the guns.

A different take on "Coexist"...

What more need be said?

The truth about the liberal "coexist" message...

What if the rest of the universe was afraid of us?

never have so many had so much and complained that they had so little while being so dependent on government — and yet they are so whiney and angry over their lack of independence

Each week I leave at sunbreak, and slowly enter a world of Pajama boys in BMWs and Lexuses, with $500 shades and rolling stops at intersections as they frown and speed off to the next deal. Somehow these techies assume voting for Barack Obama means that they are liberal. They are not. By proclaiming that they are progressive, they feel good about themselves and do not have to worry about why their janitorial staffs are not unionized, or why no one but they can buy a house, or why they oppose affordable housing construction along the 280 corridor, or why they fear the public schools as if they were the bubonic plague. Their businesses don’t create many jobs in the area; they don’t live among the Other; they seek to get out of paying income tax as they praise higher taxes; and they use money to ensure their own apartheid. And so they are “liberal.”

Read the rest...

Branco Cartoon – Media Whiteout

iOptik contact lenses and glasses projects images onto your eyes

DID SOMEONE LEAVE A DOUCHE UNDER THE CHRISTMAS TREE?

Now that is just plain funny, I don't care who you are...

President Selfie

via Legal Insurrection...

Epic levels of fail

Even by the extremely low standards set by Government, this has to be seen as a new watermark of fail: Oregon signs up just 44 people for Obamacare despite spending $300 million. So, roughly $7 million per signup.

Obamacare weekend wrap-up

“We reduced Japan to a pile of radioactive smoking rubble in 1,346 days. It’s now Day 1,355 and, despite promises to do likewise to the healthcare system, they’re still working on it. The FDR administration built almost a hundred working aircraft carriers faster than the Obama administration has managed to build one working website.”


As others have noted, Obamacare can't even do paper any more: “Federal health officials have been advising ObamaCare counselors this week to stop using paper applications to enroll people — out of fear that the applications wouldn’t be processed in time.” We are in actual technical regression with this monstrosity!

To quote Glenn Reynolds this roll-out, this law and this administration is "an onion of fail".

Reason TV: If you like your plan you can keep it - rap

Another ObamaCare security breach reported in Vermont

It’s increasingly clear that Healthcare.gov won’t meet the promised November 30 deadline for relaunch with near-total operating capacity. But if the online system ever does improve enough to allow a surge of applicants to get past the front end of the system, they’ll be walking into a data security nightmare, made all the worse by the incontrovertible fact that none of the hasty last-minute fixes could possibly have been tested for either hacker protection, or the kind of self-generated data integrity breach administrations don’t want to discuss, until freedom of information laws force them to.

This same Government that did so well with Benghazi, Fast & Furious, running the VA and managing the TSA. What makes anyone think that they would be doing so much better with this?

Obamacare and related thoughts

The Indiana school districts claim that they'll have to reduce working hours or lay off workers in order to shoulder the increased costs - or financial penalties - the employer mandate would impose upon them.

Sorry but it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people. Teachers overwhelmingly voted for Obama and they overwhelmingly supported Obamacare (ACA). They wanted this, they own this!

In a related article, this part is spot on:

The idea that an insurer like Regence can, or will, spin on a dime and revive our ol’ $587 Woody within the next six weeks is absurd.

True, Obama's "dictate" that insurance companies can continue to offer their older, non-qualifying plans for another year was (as is most things Obama) pure BS. He knows that there is NO way the insurance companies can re-tool their plans and get state commissioner approval to offer the older plans in time. Not to mention that those already cancelled are still cancelled. Done is done.

All I can say is, you voted for it, you own it and you sure are starting to get it! With his closing paragraph, this rube guarantees that he will not only get it, but he will get it hard and continue to get it repeatedly as this particular old dog refuses to learn a new trick.

We’re willing to suck it up and pay our fair share for health insurance. We want the exchanges to work.

What is so funny about this piece is that he still thinks himself so smart, enlightened and righteous but he is none of those things. This was a designed disaster. It may be running ahead of schedule but it is and has been on the projected path. He is a rube of the highest order as even after being shown the truth, he continues to willingly and gladly drink the Kool-Aid.

In a related note, is it just me or do you also want to just scream at everyone that dares utter the meaningless phrase "fair share". What the HELL is your "fair share"? It is liberal fairy dust. It is unicorns. It is whatever the person uttering it thinks it means at that time and place. The is the apex of empty gestures. It is a sliding scale of demand for more. It comes from the same suitcase as "living wage", "give back" and "social justice". These are the things that liberals utter when they can't bring themselves to tell you what they really think either because they aren't thinking or they know what they are thinking will get them laughed out of the conversation so they dress it up with these "oh so PC" catch phrases hoping to slide past logic.

President "asterisk"

Census ‘faked’ 2012 election jobs report. That along with the IRS intimidation of the opposition, the asterisk on Obama’s re-election gets bigger. . . .

Obamcare item(s)

I love this quote:

If you can’t take some joy, some modicum of relief and mirth, in the unprecedentedly spectacular beclowning of the president, his administration, its enablers, and, to no small degree, liberalism itself, then you need to ask yourself why you’re following politics in the first place. Because, frankly, this has been one of the most enjoyable political moments of my lifetime. I wake up in the morning and rush to find my just-delivered newspaper with a joyful expectation of worsening news so intense, I feel like Morgan Freeman should be narrating my trek to the front lawn. Indeed, not since Dan Rather handcuffed himself to a fraudulent typewriter, hurled it into the abyss, and saw his career plummet like Ted Kennedy was behind the wheel have I enjoyed a story more.

And this part is a keeper:

During the government shutdown, Barack Obama held fast, heroically refusing to give an inch to the hostage-taking, barbaric orcs of the Tea Party who insisted on delaying Obamacare. It was a triumph for the master strategist in the White House, who finally maneuvered the Republicans into revealing their extremism. But we didn’t know something back then: Obama desperately needed a delay of Healthcare.gov. In his arrogance, though, he couldn’t bring himself to admit it. The other possibility is that he is such an incompetent manager, who has cultivated such a culture of yes-men, that he was completely in the dark about the problems. That’s the reigning storyline right now from the White House. Obama was betrayed. “If I had known,” he told his staff, “we could have delayed the website.”

This is how you know we’re in the political sweet spot: when the only plausible excuses for the administration are equally disastrous indictments.

Nice graphic with the article too!

In addition to stories/opinion pieces like this, "old" news continues to leak out. Items like:

"what neither Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius nor WebMD mentioned at the time was that the company, which millions of Americans regularly read for health news, also stood to earn millions of dollars from a federal contract to teach doctors about Obamacare."

With a revelation like that, how much can you really trust WebMD?

In related news, the White House says that 26,794 Americans selected insurance through the Obamacare web site in its first month.

What the heck does "selected" mean? If they "bought" insurance or "paid" for insurance, they would surely say that. Instead they use the word "selected". Well I selected a car I want, a Maserati but as I can't afford it, I don't think the local dealer will be able to count my "selection" in their quarterly sales report. Only the government can say or do things that citizens and businesses would be locked up for.

Obamacare, the gift that keeps on giving...

Per PJMedia (read the whole thing):

• Non-citizens are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program). This is not a new development. However, the documentation and verification process for such enrollments was significantly eased by regulations in the Affordable Care Act.
• Getting fraudulent applications for Medicaid or CHIP approved is now easier, and thus more likely.
• Applicants attempting to register for Medicaid as non-citizens by using Healthcare.gov will have their identification checked in real-time by the SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database. But if SAVE verification fails, the applicant is not prevented from enrolling in Medicaid/CHIP.
• In fact, the opposite occurs: the applicant is likely enrolled in Medicaid immediately.
• The applicant is then given a 90-day period to clear up the identification problem.
• This “enroll first, confirm later” regulation, combined with the ACA’s easing of verification requirements, allows anyone, from a computer anywhere in the world, to successfully auto-enroll for 90 days of Medicaid by entering fraudulent information about being a certain category of legal alien living in the United States.
• There is no guarantee that state governments will take action to cancel these enrollments at the end of each application’s 90-day period if identification is never provided. The cancellation of unverified enrollments is left to each state’s available manpower and political will.
• At the end of the 90-day period, if states do indeed ask the applicant to produce identification or to have the enrollment canceled, the applicant is allowed to ask for an extension of the 90-day period. The applicant can get the period extended for significantly longer.
• Obamacare does not allow any information entered into Healthcare.gov to be used for legal action against illegal immigrants. Like “catch and release,” an applicant could attempt to fraudulently enroll repeatedly.

So Obamacare has been designed to allow ANYONE (citizen or not) to apply for insurance and likely register to vote. They have at least 90 days to verify that they are citizen or legal immigrants but if not, oh well, no big deal.

To add insult to injury, the latest Obamacare ad campaign takes condescension and insults to an entirely new level, though as the target demographic (young adults) overwhelmingly voted for Obama, the agency releasing the ads may "know their market" all too well...

There is the "Brosurance" ad:

Then the "Hosurance" ad:

And finally the "Young, Single, Pregnant" ad:

One needs to ensure that these young folks understand how important insurance is in terms they will understand. How not having insurance can affect your budget (cutting into beer money), your recreational activities (slutting around is easier with "free" birth control) and if that should fail, dealing with the resulting wanted or unwanted pregnancy.

The funny thing about all of this is that this generation is the one getting royally screwed by Obamacare. They are the relatively healthy folks that would normally only have a catastrophic coverage plan as they don't go to the doctor much, get sick much or have minor (doctor visiting) injuries much. They ALL now have to have plans that contain maternity, pre-natal, birth control, etc., etc., etc. Now they have to have a full coverage plan with higher than expected premiums to help pay for everyone else's insurance.

You all like trolling for strange? Well Obama has definitely given it to you good and hard with "sloppy seconds" by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Hope you enjoyed it and just be gone by morning...

Obamacare realities

Well it looks like the "new reality" is starting to sink in and even those that chose to be willfully blind are starting to notice.

• Former MSNBC Host’s Health Plan Cancelled, New Plan Costs 3.5 Times More

But don't worry because the exchanges are working so very well!

• In NC "only 1,000 people had filled out applications as of October 15th. In fact, only one person was able to successfully use Healthcare.gov to enroll in the new exchange." but "even that single person has not paid, which means the enrollment is not complete"

I am sure that they will run this program so much better than their "free cell phone" program. The size of Obamacare makes the cell phone program look like a lemonade stand and look how well they have been managing that program!

• The government spent $2.2 billion on the program last year alone, and a review of the top five providers by the FCC for the Wall Street Journal showed that 41 percent, or six million of their free-phone subscribers, couldn’t demonstrate eligibility or failed to respond to requests for certification.

So, with this as typical Government competence in running large programs, I am sure we don't have anything to worry about. The "glitches" will be worked out any day now and then it will be all smooth sailing!

It is getting to the point that the most frightening words you can ever hear are: We are from the Government and are here to help.

Post Obamacare America

Welcome to the new post-Obamacare America where the constitution and individual liberty is just a quaint relic of the past.

Virginia Democrat Calls For Forcing Doctors To Accept Medicare And Medicaid Patients

In this new America, we all are property of the Government and it (the Government) is free to allocate us (resources) as they see fit. This includes requiring doctors to see patients. You can't have people reacting to government incentives, can you? Screw with the healthcare system, reduce the patient / doctor relationship, set disbursement rates below the cost of care and remove doctor choices. This all results in doctors exercising their rights as citizens and business owners to choose who to service.

Democrat delegate candidate Kathleen Murphy said that since many doctors are not accepting medicaid and medicare patients, she advocates making it a legal requirement for those people to be accepted.

She did not recognize that the payments are inadequate to cover the doctors' costs. She also did not recognize there is a shortage of over 45,000 physicians now and that it is forecast to be 90,000 in a few years.

Democrats appear to want to make physicians slaves of the state, but Democrats don't admit they would just drive more doctors out of practice into retirement and other occupations.

The land of unicorns and rainbows (Obamacare) continues its slow motion crash into the granite wall known as reality with more and more stories like this: a patient with stage-4 gall bladder cancer had great doctors and health insurance until his plan was cancelled and now worries about how long he will live.

He is not the only one: The 84-year-old widow, whose husband worked at now-defunct Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, saw her payment for out-of-pocket expenses go from $3,400 to $6,700; the co-pay cost for a hospital stay went from zero to $200 a day. “I think it’s terrible. They shouldn’t be canceling what I have,” she said. “They are raising my prices and taking away privileges.”

“It is highly alarming that Obama repeatedly claimed that everyone could keep their doctor and their insurance plan and that now appears to have been – how to put this? ... A lie,” said Iowa State University political science professor Steffen Schmidt. “People by the millions are and will have their current policies cancelled, period.”

Despite all of the evidence that Obama did not speak the truth: White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett tweeted on Monday night: “FACT: Nothing in #Obamacare forces people out of their health plans. No change is required unless insurance companies change existing plans.”

Really Valerie? Tell that to all of these people that have had their current policies cancelled. You and the likes of James Carville might consider their existing insurance plans "fake plans" or "not really insurance" because they don't support things like maternity coverage or birth control but it was working just fine for these people.

When Obama made all of those great healthcare speeches, he said "If you like your plan you can keep your plan." and "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor". and "Nothing on the ACA is going to change what you have now." At no time did he ever say, unless (as it happens every year) your plan changes IN ANY WAY no matter HOW SMALL. Rates are always adjusted year to year. Plan details are always being tweaked. Most people did not expect business and usual to result in their current plans no longer being eligible for grandfathering. No one that is except for the Democrats that wrote and jammed this mess through Congress and onto the President's desk. They knew this. The Republicans knew this and tried to stop it but all of the Democrats 100% voted to keep these restrictions in the law forcing YOU to loose your current plan.

Some would argue that this entire Obamacare fiasco is going according to plan. President Obama is on record saying he is in favor of single payer and Obamacare looks like the perfect tool with which to destroy the American medical system. This is such a mess that people will demand a solution and team Obama will say they need to move to single payer to "fix this mess". They will blame "this mess" on Republicans, the Tea Party, insurance companies, doctors, and anyone and anything else they can think of but will always advocate doing more instead of doing less. More government, more intervention, more rules and more regulations. That is all they know, that is all they can see and most importantly, that is all they want.

Obama and the Democrats OWN Obamacare lock stock and barrel

Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out.

The citizens overwhelmingly did not support Obamacare. The Republicans did not support Obamacare. The President and the Democrats not only completely, 100% own this mess but lied about it just about every step of the way. From Nancy's "We have to pass it to see what is in it." to Obama's "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan." and crap this this. It is ALL on them. Don't let anyone forget or spin their way out of this.

Obamacare enrollment numbers are finally being "found"

"the government said there were 4.7 million unique visits in the first 24 hours...six enrollments have occurred"

By the next day enrollments were up to "approximately 100"

No wonder they "don't have any figures".

How much did they spend on this site again? How long have they been pushing this site again? If this were the private sector, not only would the company have fired those responsible but the Government would be holding 24/7 hearings and demanding accountability, refunds and heads.

Don't forget, Sebelius said to Congress that she did not have any figures. If CBS News could get them, how come she couldn't? Did she lie to Congress? To quote another Obama appointee "What difference does it make"?

"You will be able to keep your healthcare plan PERIOD".

That is what he said: "You will be able to keep your healthcare plan PERIOD". Not "You can keep your [what we say is a] healthcare plan". Not "You can keep your healthcare plan [if it is are REAL - in our eyes - healthcare plan] period".

That my friends is a lie. No two ways about it. A lie. He new it was a lie at least by the time he signed the bill and most definitely by last week when he was still saying it.

Another Obamacare success story!

Cupcake Store Among Wrong Businesses Listed on State Obamacare Signup Site

This is just another recent example of the incompetence of this administration and the totality of the people involved in the Obamacare program and roll-out. These will also be the people that will have control over YOUR data. Your health records, your tax/payroll records, all of it. If they can't get the little things right, what makes you think they will do better with the big things?

These are the same people (the Government) that has been so successful with:

• The IRS (targeting conservative groups while green-lighting liberal ones)
• BATF (fast and furious anyone?)
• State Department (remember Benghazi - "a video did it")
• The VA (understaffed and over budget)
• Homeland Security
• TSA
• NSA
• etc., etc., etc.

Has this government really done ANYTHING recently to earn your trust? Obama himself said many times over many, many months "If you like your health insurance, you can keep it." Well 16 million people [so far] have learned what the shelf life of that statement was AND even Obama knew it was a lie. He may not have known it the first time he said it but he surely knew by the 40th. He surely knew last month when he was still saying it!

Welcome to the new America where the disaster that is the Obamacare web site and roll-out is merely a "glitch". Where the president can lie. Where the Attorney General can lie. Where the speaker of the House can lie. Where no one, not the media, not the opposing party, no one will call them on it.

And the fleas continue to bite at the dog...

End of an era: Last U.S. lead smelter to close in December

Doe Run made significant efforts to reduce lead emissions from the smelter, but in 2008 the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued new National Ambient Air Quality Standards for lead that were 10 times tighter than the previous standard. Given the new lead air quality standard, Doe Run made the decision to close the Herculaneum smelter.

What is clear is that after the Herculaneum smelter closes its doors in December, entirely domestic manufacture of conventional ammunition, from raw ore to finished cartridge, will be impossible.

This will drive up ammunition prices, there is no way it can't. US manufacturers will have to rely on lead from recycling and imports which will be more expensive than domestically smelted lead. Other businesses that rely on lead will be affected too. Car battery prices will increase.

The industry has tried to switch from lead to alternate materials but most of these do not have enough of the properties and characteristics of lead to be a viable long term substitution. Government agencies at all levels rely on the biolistic properties of lead projectiles as part of their CSI programs. The substitutes do not match and will need to be studied and their behaviors coded.

There will be ripples...

Durbin Amendment Costs Consumers $22 Billion

All in all, consumers took it on the chin for $22 billion and possibly more. That $22 billion is the present discounted value of the losses to consumers, starting in October 2011 when the caps went into effect, and off into the future.

...

The fact that the Durbin Amendment resulted in a wealth transfer to retailers from consumers and banks is not surprising. The regulations shifted more than $7 billion of money from the annual income of banks to the annual income of merchants. There is no reason to believe that merchants would give this windfall back to consumers or that the banks could absorb the full loss in their profits. A wealth of economic studies shows that does not happen in the real world. But, the bill to consumers over time will add up to at least $22 billion, and potentially more.

It is hard for me to believe that Congress could not see this coming. You take away profit from a business and they have to replace it somehow. In this case, banks lost revenue due to interchange caps and as a result profits. Those profits needed to be replaced and so banking fees to consumers increased and other free services were cut to reduce costs.

One of the scariest things a person can say is "I am from the Government and I am here to help!"

AWK Musings

I like AWK and have used it for years. I feel that it is an elegant language that does what it was designed to do quite well. I don't use it very much at all anymore due to how what I do has changed over the years. It is still in my toolbox and every now and then I like to pull it out, dust it off and use it even if I really don't have a need.

While thinking about this on my way to work this morning, I wondered if there was a web hosted version of AWK (figured there had to be as everything is on the internet) and lo and behold there is! It is an implementation of AWK in JavaScript and is available here. Have not used it much so can not say what (if any) the limitations are but it has worked for the simple things I have thrown at it.

There is also an AWK PDF manual available here (as well as many other places).

Additionally there is also an online "run anything" web site here that supports a great many languages including ADA, AWK, C#, COBOL, Fortran, etc. It has a nice editor and it has worked on the C and AWK that I have submitted. Very nice!

Get the door Chad...