Monday, October 28, 2013

Holy Shit: Obama Admin. Knew Millions Could not Keep their Health Insurance

What a lying sack.

From NBC News:
President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience “sticker shock.”

None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date -- the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example -- the policy would not be grandfathered.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

How to determine the critical line in employee monitoring


There are various reasons why employers will want to monitor the activities of their employees. This may include the need to drive higher productivity, prevention of petty crimes like theft, adherence to high quality control, evidence of harassment and discrimination if there’s a claim and many more. The monitoring can be done in several ways such as tracking incoming and outgoing phone calls, email correspondence and video recordings. The problem arises when the employees feel that their rights to privacy are being violated and this may in turn lead to a dispute. Employees have a right to reasonable expectations of privacy and can file for a claim if they feel that they are not getting it.

So what to consider in monitoring your employees, where to draw the line?

Video surveillance is justified when the employer is trying to prevent theft whether it is on the company’s inventory or of employee properties. But this can only be done on certain areas on the business premise. Limitations are clearly set on the areas where reasonable expectation of privacy is needed such as bathrooms, lounge, break rooms, and rooms where employees change clothes.

Quality is very important for businesses and one way to ensure adherence is to monitor the phone calls whether incoming or outgoing. This includes cell phone tracking with such apps like mSpy for all mobile phones issued by the company to employees. Employers are allowed to monitor calls but it has to be only on the business related ones and should not be done on personal calls. Employees sometimes neglect to consider that there is monitoring going on when they make calls for personal use. The way to resolve this is to assign certain phones only for personal use so that the staff will not have to use the business only phones.

Discrimination still exists even in the most professional settings. But proving this is sometimes tricky when there is no trail to check if there is indeed a reasonable claim. Employers want to monitor email correspondence to help them track if ever there is a claim of discrimination. Whenever someone sends an email to one or even a distribution list that contains disparaging remarks or discriminatory ones about a certain person, it is to the advantage of everyone to have monitoring in place. Although legally, employers are entitled to monitor their staff’s email, it is still advisable to inform all the employees about the monitoring so as to avoid any possible issues about it.

Businesses should have a clear and official policy about monitoring of employee activities and this should be signed and acknowledged by each person that is hired. This should include all types of monitoring that will be done and how such as monitoring of incoming and outgoing phone calls, cell phone tracking, email monitoring and video surveillance. This is to avoid any claims in the future that their privacy was invaded and if there are lawsuits filed by employees, then the employer can clearly show that there is a document advising of diminished expectation of privacy.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Bus Bombing in Volgograd (Stalingrad) Kills 6

In an explosion at the site of perhaps the bloodiest battle of history, six were killed by a female suicide bomber.

One man whose daughter survived the explosion told Moscow Echo radio: "It was a powerful explosion - a huge blast. There were lots of students on the bus."

Another man, who was driving behind the bus, told Rossiya-24 television: "There was a blast - a bang - all the glass flew out of the windows. The cloud of smoke quickly dissipated and then I saw people start to fall out and run out to escape the bus. It was a horrible sight."

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

AP Calls New Jersey Senate Race for Cory Booker


The Associated Press has called the New Jersey Senate election for Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who is currently holding a 90,000 vote lead with 57% of precincts reporting.

Booker - 418,000
Lonegan - 327,000

Video from Last Night's NJ Debate

Monday, October 14, 2013

Thursday, October 10, 2013

NY Times: Obama and G.O.P. Fail to Agree on Debt Limit Plan

Dun dun duuuuuuun.

From the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — President Obama and House Republicans failed to reach agreement on a six-week extension of the nation’s borrowing authority during a meeting Thursday at the White House, but both sides agreed to keep talking and the Republican offer was seen as a first step toward ending the budget standoff.

Twenty Republicans, led by Speaker John A. Boehner, went to the White House at Mr. Obama’s invitation after a day of fine-tuning their offer to increase the Treasury Department’s authority to borrow money to pay existing obligations through Nov. 22. In exchange, they sought the president’s commitment to negotiate a deal for long-term deficit reduction and a tax overhaul.

“The president didn’t say yes, didn’t say no,” said Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin. “We’re continuing to negotiate this evening.”

He added: “We put an offer on the table. We had a long, frank conversation about it. We agreed to continue talking and continue negotiating.”

More Nanny State Political Correctness Costing Tax Payers Millions

Aren't these pretty?  Forever Stamps,   Not so fast.  They are going to be destroyed, yep the entire run.  Why you ask?  Well it should be obvious and an outrage to you.  After all, take a look at the skateboarder.  Where are the knee pads?  The wrist braces?  No helmet?  How can that be?  It is dangerous.  Dangerous I say.  It cannot stand.  A cannonball?  How can that be allowed?  Apparently nowadays you need a helmet to do a head stand.  No helmet you might get hurt.  Oh no.  We can't let that happen now can we?  

Seriously, I didn't ride a bike with a helmet when I was little.  I loved, and I mean loved, gymnastics.  To this day, even at my old age, I am one of the most flexible people I know.  I can put both my feet behind my head.  I don't wear any protective gear.  So far I have never injured myself so badly that I needed medical attention.  We skateboarded without helmets and knee pads.  We survived.  It wasn't the end of the world.   We even had cars without (gasp) airbags and child safety seats.  How did we survive?  IT'S A MIRACLE!!!!  We should all be dead by today's standards.  

Honestly, an entire run of stamps will be destroyed because someone on the Presidential Council has decided this may give kids the wrong impression about being active.  Huh?  Do kids even use stamps anymore?  What is it exactly that they are mailing out?  I mean would you have noticed the lack of knee pads had I not pointed it out?  

Well at least the post office is not running in the red.  Oh wait!!!  Oh it is just a millions.  Who cares?  
just-move-stamps-1024x978

AP: Boehner to Ask House GOP for Short-Term Debt Ceiling Increase

Boehner to Ask House GOP for Short-Term Debt Ceiling Increase.

As of now, there are no further details available. We will have more as this develops.

Update: More from the Washington Post:
House Republican leaders said Thursday they will offer a temporary increase in the federal debt ceiling in exchange for negotiations with President Obama on longer-term “pressing problems,” but they stopped short of agreeing to end a government shutdown now in its 10th day.

In a news briefing following a closed-door meeting of House Republicans to present a plan to raise the debt limit for six weeks, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said, “What we want to do is offer the president today the ability to move a temporary increase in the debt ceiling.” He described the offer, to be presented to Obama in a White House meeting with House Republicans on Thursday afternoon, as a “good-faith effort on our part to move halfway to what he’s demanded in order to have these conversations begin.”

Boehner did not immediately provide specifics of the plan. But the speaker made clear that House Republicans are not agreeing to Obama’s demand that they pass legislation to fund the government with no partisan strings attached, thereby ending the first government shutdown in 17 years.

He shall have dominion from sea to sea;  they
that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before
him; all nations shall serve him; his name shall
endure forever, his name shall be continued as
long as the sun; all nations shall call him blessed.
Blessed be the Lord God.     .....David,   1000 B.C.

Jesus shall reign where e'er the sun,
doth its sucessive journeys run;
his kingdom spread from shore to shore -
till moons shall wax and wane no more.
                                      ..... Isaac Watts,   1719

This wondrous chain of promises, stretching
across thousands of years, holds out a hope which
has no root but in the Bible....

National happiness, or in the Bible word, blessedness,
depends upon six things: justice, freedom, virtue,
knowlege, distribution of wealth, and peace.

Justice is the first office and object of government,
and the first condition of national welfare.

Freedom is implied in justice, and is the only real
guardian of right and nurse of true virtue.

Virtue is no less essential to real national happiness
and greatness.  Fraud, intemperance, impurity,
covetous greed, wild love of pleasure, sloth and
cowardice, suck the vitals and sap the root of
national life.

Knowlege is the parent of all progress.  Not mere
labor, but wisely directed labor, is the source of
of wealth.  The mind that invents and forsees must
guide the hand which toils.

Right distribution of wealth is the most urgent
national problem of our own day in our own and
all civilized nations.  No nation is blessed in which
immense wealth stagnates in a few hands, and the
toiling millions are wretched and joyless.

Peace is the fence and crown of all the other
elements of national welfare.  War is a short name
for all calamities, cruellest of misfortunes, even if
necessary and just;  if unjust and avoidable -- the
greatest of all crimes.     


It is not open to question that even if the bulk of a
nation, its rulers, legislators, and individual citizens
became real Christians, loving God truly and their
neighbor unselfishly, hating vice, dealing justly,
loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, --
that nation would soon be the envy of all nations.
Let every nation undergo such a transformation, and
war would be impossible, slavery and tyranny would
be things of the past.

Human nature has not in itself the tendency to produce
such a state of things.  Christ alone gives life.
                                      ....... Joseph Excell,   1900



                             

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Picture of Man Mowing the Lawn at Lincoln Memorial

Moody's: Obama Lying About US Default

An absolutely crystal clear and, in some ways, stunning rebuke of the lie that President Obama has been perpetuating over the last week.

From the Washington Post:
One of the nation’s top credit-rating agencies says that the U.S. Treasury Department is likely to continue paying interest on the government’s debt even if Congress fails to lift the limit on borrowing next week, preserving the nation’s sterling AAA credit rating.

In a memo being circulated on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Moody’s Investors Service offers “answers to frequently asked questions” about the government shutdown, now in its second week, and the federal debt limit. President Obama has said that, unless Congress acts to raise the $16.7 trillion limit by next Thursday, the nation will be at risk of default.

Not so, Moody’s says in the memo dated Oct. 7.

” We believe the government would continue to pay interest and principal on its debt even in the event that the debt limit is not raised, leaving its creditworthiness intact,” the memo says. “The debt limit restricts government expenditures to the amount of its incoming revenues; it does not prohibit the government from servicing its debt. There is no direct connection between the debt limit (actually the exhaustion of the Treasury’s extraordinary measures to raise funds) and a default.

The memo offers a starkly different view of the consequences of congressional inaction on the debt limit than is held by the White House, many policymakers and other financial analysts. During a press conference at the White House Tuesday, Obama said missing the Oct. 17 deadline would invite “economic chaos.”

Kathleen Sebelius Interview on Jon Stewart's Daily Show

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Whoa: US to Cut off Aid to Egypt

Monday, October 07, 2013

Colorado Secession Vote November 11th

Good luck but it appears to be a Sisyphus-type situation out there. Vote's coming up:

The push for a 51st state faces almost insurmountable hurdles. Even if counties from Cheyenne to Elbert to Sedgwick do decide to shear away from Colorado, the state must then vote to allow them to leave. After that, Congress would have to agree to admit a new state — something it has not done for a breakaway since West Virginia, in 1863.

CNN Links Deadly DC Car Chase Last Week with Government Shutdown... With No Evidence

Hope over to CNN if you want to, and you get click on a myriad of links purporting to tell you all about the news. From videos to articles to opinion pieces, the Cable News Network tries to pass itself off as a reputable news source.

Click on TV & Video, however, and you may find some odd things linked together. In particular, under the "GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN" section.

There, you see some things that you might expect: reports on the government negotiating (or not negotiating), specific politicians' beliefs, and... the DC car chase from last week?
That's right. The Main Stream Media is trying its hardest to make the shutdown look as painful as possible. What's worse than the shutdown causing a woman to try to crash her car into the White House?

Of course that's not the reason she did that and there's no proof whatsoever that the shutdown had anything to do with her breakdown. But CNN sees political points that the Democrats might be able to gain, and they are quite happy to jump at the opportunity.

And its not just one video.  It's three.  Firmly leaving he impression that, without a doubt, the government shutting down caused a poor woman to do something drastic.

Main Stream Media "journalism" at its finest.

Old Hat: North Korea Threatens Pre-Emptive Nuclear War

Pretty good for a country that cannot feed its own population. Now they're threatening South Korea with destruction.

The North Korean spokesperson added: "If our enemies try to threaten us in the slightest, the country will launch ruthless pre-emptive strikes of annihilation."

Meanwhile a statement from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK), carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), claimed that "the military plot aims to derail the ongoing peace process and dialogue on the Korean Peninsula and can fuel tensions that can lead to a nuclear conflict."

Saturday, October 05, 2013

Navy SEALs Raid Somali Town, Kill al-Shabab Terrorists

Suck it.

From the AP via ABC:
A U.S. military official tells The Associated Press that Navy SEALs have raided a Somali coastal town looking for a specific al-Qaida suspect in connection with the Nairobi shopping mall attack, but did not get their target.

A former U.S. military official also confirms the raid by the SEALs, but no other details have been provided. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the raid by name. The Pentagon declined comment.

In Somalia, officials say international military forces carried out a pre-dawn strike Saturday against foreign fighters in the town of Barawe. Official say the strike was aimed at "high-profile" targets.

The strike comes two weeks after al-Shabab militants attacked Nairobi's Westgate Mall. The four-day terrorist assault killed at least 67 people.

WaPo: ObamaCare Website Sucks

But, but the President said that it was just like Apple and he, apparently, is Steve Jobs!

From the Washington Post:
"We’re building a complicated piece of technology," Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said on the first day of Obamacare, "and hopefully you’ll give us the same slack you give Apple."

The Apple analogy has been oft-used by the Obama administration -- including by President Obama himself.

"A couple of weeks ago, Apple rolled out a new mobile operating system, and within days, they found a glitch, so they fixed it," Obama said. "I don’t remember anybody suggesting Apple should stop selling iPhones or iPads or threatening to shut down the company if they didn’t."

But the Obama administration doesn't have a basically working product that would be improved by a software update. They have a Web site that almost nobody has been able to successfully use. If Apple launched a major new product that functioned as badly as Obamacare's online insurance marketplace, the tech world would be calling for Tim Cook's head.

Thursday, October 03, 2013

Gov't to Shut Down Websites "Even if It Costs More Than Keeping Them Up" to Make Shutdown More Painful

In a move that once again shows that the consequences of the government "shutdown" are being intentionally heightened by the Obama Administration, the government is shutting down websites, even though the cost to shut them down is greater to keep them up.

In other words, even though the President is arguing that the government will do everything to use money wisely during the shutdown, his underlings are intentionally wasting money to hurt the average person.
President Obama
This should come as no surprise to even the most casual political observer, but to have such clear confirmation is, in a way, quite sad. Particularly because it, once again, confirms that the President does not have the best interest of the United States in mind, but rather is looking to inflict damage to score political points.

The Cato Institute reported on the government's callous calculation, quoting a source as saying:
The determination of which services continue during an appropriations lapse is not affected by whether the costs of shutdown exceed the costs of maintaining services.
They go on to report that the guidance from the White House demands: "agencies... pull down “inessential” public-facing content even when this requires spending more money than leaving it up would."

Just as bad, the Cato Institute further reports that some sites have not been taken down, but that, at extra cost, pop-ups have been added to tell people that the site is down... But sites like FTC.gov are still being hosted... and those pop-ups are simply there to pretend that it isn't... and it cost extra money to make them.

And then you have the FTC saying their domain is down:
FTC.gov website, saying the FTC domain is down
And then providing a link to... the FTC.gov domain that is up:

And they say conservatives are out to hurt Americans?

Photo of US Capitol Building Shooting 10/3/2013

Capitol Building Shooter Information 10/3/2013

Conflicting reports. One says in custody. One says dead:


US Capitol Building Shooting, 10/3/13

From the AP via Breitbart:
Police say the U.S. Capitol has been put on a security lockdown amid reports of possible shots fired outside the building.

People standing outside the Supreme Court across the street from Congress were hurried into the court building by authorities.

U.S. Capitol police said they had received reports of gunshots and one police officer has been injured.

BREAKING NEWS!!! Shots fired at US Capitol in Washington, DC



  • One officer is down 
  • Reports, the shooter has been taken out 
  • 3 US Senators "heard gunshots" 
  • Scattered Twitter reports citing local radio of a "black van," or a "black man" 

DEVELOPING...

Shooting at US Capitol Building, 10/3/13

UPDATE: Live news coverage here.

From the AP via Breitbart:
Police say the U.S. Capitol has been put on a security lockdown amid reports of possible shots fired outside the building.

People standing outside the Supreme Court across the street from Congress were hurried into the court building by authorities.

U.S. Capitol police said they had received reports of gunshots and one police officer has been injured.

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

What the Fuck, Alex Jones?

Harry Reid Hates Kids With Cancer

Reid: "Why Would We Want To" Help One Kid With Cancer?

Tom Clancy Dead

From the NY Daily News:
Tom Clancy, the best-selling author whose espionage thrillers set the bar for military , died Tuesday night, the New York Times reported.

He was 66.

The writer’s publisher told the newspaper that Clancy passed away in a Baltimore hospital near his Maryland home.

Video: Harry Reid Threatened to Cut off Military Paychecks