Monthly Archives: October 2014

Uncategorized

USA Today: More Obamacare Policy Cancelations Coming Again

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USA Today:

Last fall, millions of Americans breathed a sigh of relief when Obamacare didn’t cancel their health care plans. Now they’re holding their breath once again.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans will soon receive cancellation letters affecting their 2015 health care plans — and that number may quickly rise into the millions. This wave of cancellations will fall into two categories. The first group hit will be in the individual market, the same group that suffered through at least 6.3 million cancellation letters last year. They will almost certainly be joined by millions of people in the small-employer market, which has 40 million plans and will be under Obamacare’s control starting next year.

That’s right: President Obama’s now-infamous promise, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it” — Politifact’s 2013 “Lie of the Year” — is still being broken, potentially worse than before.

Most of the individual market cancellations will be for plans that were supposed to be canceled last year, when Obamacare first went into effect. After the fallout from last year’s fiasco became too politically toxic, President Obama unilaterally changed the law so that some non-compliant policies could continue for at least another year. That 12-month period is now up.

Virginia will be hit the hardest — up to 250,000 Virginians will receive a cancellation notice by the end of November. Another 30,000 New Mexicans will have their plans discontinued in 2015. In Kentucky, another 14,000 individuals will receive notices in the coming weeks. Elsewhere, Colorado, Alaska, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Maine are expecting thousands of cancellations — after almost half a million notices went out last year. Other states, some of which either don’t count or don’t publicly release details on discontinued plans, will likely add to the tally.

But that’s still only the tip of the cancellation iceberg. A far greater threat looms for the 40 million Americans who receive health insurance through small business employers, also known as small-group plans.

Anticipating the crippling costs of Obamacare, many small businesses opted for early renewals at the end of 2013. This enabled them to continue their existing policies into 2014, avoiding Obamacare’s onerous mandates for another 12 months. All small-group renewals this year, however, must comply with all of Obamacare’s regulations and mandates for next year.

In Colorado, small-group plans covering 143,000 people are being cancelled this year. In New Hampshire, as many as 70,000 small-group policyholders are being forced into new plans. It’s a double whammy for these unfortunate Granite State residents: Their new policies only cover 60% of the state’s acute-care hospitals, limiting access to care.

Northeastern small-group policies will be hit especially hard. In New Jersey, 650,000 people with small-group coverage had their policies disrupted this year, according to the state association of health plans. And Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield — covering Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware — estimate Obamacare is affecting nearly every one of the 5.3 million people covered under its individual and small-group policies.

Just like last year, the administration knew these cancellations were coming all along. As far back as June 2010, the Obama administration estimated, 66% of small employer plans will face cancellation.

Despite all this, the president and Obamacare’s supporters still can’t seem to understand why more Americans say the law is hurting rather than helping. . Here’s a hint: Obamacare is taking away people’s health care policies and replacing them with plans that often cost more and cover less.

The irony is that President Obama and the politicians who voted for Obamacare are now declaring that the law is working as intended. They’re right — and the millions of Americans anxiously checking their mailboxes for cancellation notices are learning it the hard way.

Tim Phillips is the president of Americans for Prosperity.

 

Education, School Indoctrination

Amherst Mass School District Goals: Social Transformation, Social Justice, Transforming Society…

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..not reading, writing, science, math, literature, and the other subjects they are abysmal at teaching. The school district’s new curriculum shifts balance ‘away from the individual and towards the social whole’.

The buzz words you see below are the popular euphemisms for communist/Marxist propaganda and indoctrination.

EAG:

AMHERST, Mass. – While many school districts slyly implement far-left social justice reforms behind closed doors, others are flying the red flag proudly.

Red socialists students MaoThe Amherst-Pelham Regional School District, which recently subjected middle school students to a social justice assembly that left children sobbing and traumatized, penned a 63 page document in 2008 detailing their intent to socially transform America, via your children.

The document, titled Social Justice Commitment, clearly outlines Amherst-Pelham’s fervent dedication to an all-encompassing and radically progressive social justice curriculum.

The district’s “philosophy and rationale” for the commitment states:

A cultural shift in our school system is indicated… which targets the collective and visible implementation of “a curriculum for social responsibility in which the balance shifts away from the individual and towards the social whole.”

According to a 2011 document providing a “history of equity work” in the district, this “philosophy and rationale” comes from “the Curriculum and Instruction goals of the BAMSS Standards of Practice and the district’s call for equitable instructional action ‘in every classroom, every day.’”

The BAMSS (Becoming a Multicultural School System) Initiative, adopted by the district in 1993, contains a paragraph titled  “Our Vision of Multicultural Education,” which states:

Understanding that “schools are essential to laying the foundation for the transformation of society and the elimination of oppression and injustice,” the Amherst Pelham Regional Schools affirm their commitment to becoming a multicultural school system, defined both as “a philosophical concept built on the ideals of freedom, justice, equality, equity, and human dignity as acknowledged in various documents (such as the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)” and “a process of comprehensive school reform and basic education for all students [which] challenges and rejects racism and other forms of discrimination in schools and society and accepts and affirms the pluralism (ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious, economic, and gender, among others) that students, their communities, and teachers reflect.”

To accomplish this task of training other people’s children in matters of morality, race, religion, and gender, the district has adopted a framework consisting of six key points, that it says, are a must in implementing its social justice commitment.

The framework, as cited by the district, is borrowed from a document whose author describes it as one that “draws on philosophic conservatism” but contains “some of the core values … associated with socialism.”

Specifically, according to Amhert-Pelham’s Social Justice Commitment, which they say is a “work in progress:”

The district’s implementation of a social justice commitment for students and staff must (cited in Pitts, originated with Giddens 1994 and edited for use here):

• repair damaged solidarities and reconcile autonomy and interdependence
• recognize the importance of the discussion of ethics, “life politics”
• encourage individuals and groups to make things happen, “generative politics”
• create a participatory democracy where issues are discussed respectfully and transparently
• develop conditions that empower participants as opposed to merely dispensing
• confront the role violence plays at all levels of human interactions

With regard to the third point listed in the framework – “generative politics” – the district suggests that the curriculum encourage students of all ages to engage in community activities, that might include “political campaigning, community service or improvement,” and further asserts that the school “should not only provide channels for such activities but build them into the K-12 design.”

The Social Justice Commitment provides several resources as “a starting point” for implementation. The resources consist of the writings of various “experts” in psychology and child development, who provide specifics on various stages of moral development in children as well as “goals for social justice values at different ages.”

Included in these resources are the works of humanist psychologists, Abraham Maslow and Jean Piaget, and Marxist psychologist Lev Vygotsky, all of whom have been credited with contributing to constructivist education reforms.

Other resources are recommended for creating a social justice curriculum, including The Earth Charter, a document that calls for global governance in the name of ‘sustainable development’ and Bill Ayers’ Teaching for Social Justice.

At the core of Amhert-Pelham’s Social Justice Commitment, as with all social justice reforms, is a consistent focus on the oppression of minorities by whites and the American “system of advantage.”

To ensure that all ‘isms’ and ‘phobias’ perpetrated by these “systems of advantage” are thoroughly understood and covered within the curriculum, the district provides in its commitment a glossary of definitions of various terms, such as classism, heterosexism, oppression, power, prejudice, privileges, and racism.

The definitions provided are a glaring indication that this district is led by people who foster their own biases and prejudices.

For example, “privileges” is defined as:

Advantages, rewards or benefits given to those in the dominant group (whites, males, Christians, heterosexuals, etc.) without their asking for them. Privileges are bestowed unintentionally, unconsciously and automatically. Often these privileges are invisible to the receiver. 

“Racism” is defined as:

A system of advantage based on race.

Involves cultural messages and institutional policies and practices as well as beliefs and actions of individuals.

In the U.S. there is clear advantage to whites and disadvantage to People of Color as noted in social indicators.

According to Amherst-Pelham Schools, social justice transformation requires infusing “content curriculum with uniform and practiced socially just behaviors.” Students and educators engage in “ongoing dialogues” that will “systematically include: “Who am I? How am I connected to others and what are my responsibilities? What is my place in the world? Where am I headed? Who benefits? Who is marginalized? Whose interests are being served? How could things be done differently?”

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education contracts the Center for Collaborative Education to provide support in professional development, teacher residencies, effective use of data, educator evaluation, and other services.

The Center for Collaborative Education (CCE) is the Boston-based affiliate of the Coalition of Essential Schools, the progressive reform supported by President Obama and communist Bill Ayers through their work on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in the 1990’s.

The Obama administration recently awarded CCE a 5 year, $4.8 million dollar grant through the US Department of Education’s School Leadership Program.

The Coalition of Essential Schools also directly partners with the Amherst-Pelham Regional School District.

Vote Fraud

Vote Machines Change Republican Votes to Democrat in Chicago

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Via Fox News and Watchdog.org:

CHICAGO — Early voting in Illinois got off to a rocky start Monday, as votes being cast for Republican candidates were transformed into votes for Democrats.

Republican state representative candidate Jim Moynihan went to vote Monday at the Schaumburg Public Library.

“I tried to cast a vote for myself and instead it cast the vote for my opponent,” Moynihan said. “You could imagine my surprise as the same thing happened with a number of races when I tried to vote for a Republican and the machine registered a vote for a Democrat.”

The conservative website Illinois Review reported that “While using a touch screen voting machine in Schaumburg, Moynihan voted for several races on the ballot, only to find that whenever he voted for a Republican candidate, the machine registered the vote for a Democrat in the same race. He notified the election judge at his polling place and demonstrated that it continued to cast a vote for the opposing candidate’s party. Moynihan was eventually allowed to vote for Republican candidates, including his own race.

Moynihan offered this gracious lesson to his followers on Twitter: “Be careful when you vote in Illinois. Make sure you take the time to check your votes before submitting.”

Cook County Board of Elections Deputy Communications Director Jim Scalzitti, told Illinois Watchdog, the machine was taken out of service and tested.

“This was a calibration error of the touch-screen on the machine,” Scalzitti said. “When Mr. Moynihan used the touch-screen, it improperly assigned his votes due to improper calibration.”

Jobs, Lies, Obama, True Talking Points

Obama Sec. of Labor: Bringing in more immigrants will raise your wages! (Whopping Lie)

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There are lies, damn lies, statistics and holy cow man gimme a break lies. This one falls into the latter.

The idea that bringing in record numbers of skilled and unskilled labor when one adult of working age in four is out of work and/or is only working part time because of the economy and Obamacare…. it is beyond ridiculous.

Via  Breitbart News:

This week at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., President Barack Obama’s Labor Secretary Tom Perez claimed immigration reform which would flood millions of foreign workers into the United States workforce to compete for employment with citizens would in fact put an, “upward pressure on wages.”

Perez said, “Adding jobs, putting upward pressure on wages, helping to stabilize the Social Security trust fund.”

See the video HERE.

 

Taxes, True Talking Points

20 Ways the Government Wasted Your Tax Money

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And they say they are under funded…

CNS News:

Every year, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn and his staff compile an exhaustive volume of wasteful government spending from that year. The 2014 tome is chock full of government waste ranging from the redundant to the downright absurd.

Swedish massages for rabbits: $387,000

The National Institutes of Health paid this six figure sum to the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine in order to discern whether Swedish massages would be helpful in recovering from an illness.

“A group of rabbits received daily rub downs from a ‘mechanical device that simulates the long, flowing strokes used in Swedish massages.’”

Teaching Mountain Lions to Ride a Treadmill: $856,000

The National Science Foundation shelled out nearly a million taxpayer dollars to determine if captive mountain lions could be trained to ride a treadmill. The University of California-Santa Cruz researcher even boasted about receiving the grant saying, “People just didn’t believe you could get a mountain lion on a treadmill, and it took me three years to find a facility that was willing to try.” If anyone was wondering, it took the lions all of eight months to learn.

Studying how many times “hangry” people stab a voodoo doll: $331,000

After teaching mountain lions about treadmills, the National Science Foundation also funded a study to come up with the self evident conclusion that hungry people tend to be more angry and aggressive. They tested this theory by allowing spouses to poke pins into voodoo dolls as their “hanger” grew.

“Over the course of twenty-one consecutive evenings, 107 couples were given a chance to stick up to 51 pins into a voodoo doll representing their spouse. The pin-pushing happened in secret, away from the other partner. Participants then recorded the number of pins they poked into the dolls. Those tests revealed what may already be obvious to many couples: a spouse with low blood sugar was an angrier one, and stuck more pins in the doll.”

Studying the gambling habits of monkeys: $171,000

Another NSF grant funded the study of gambling monkeys. Under the guise of studying the “hot-hand bias” in human gamblers, the University of Rochester devised a computer game, taught monkeys to play it, and studied how they responded to winning and losing. A doctoral candidate who worked on the study seemed pleased to learn, “Luckily, monkeys love to gamble.” Taxpayers, on the other hand, will not be pleased to find out this study is set to continue through May of 2018.

Producing the children’s musical: Zombie in Love: $10,000

The National Endowment for the Arts funded the production of a musical to die for. Aimed at children four and up, the musical tells the story of Mortimer the teenage zombie and his quest to find love and happiness. The NEA officials justified this use of tax money by saying that Mortimer “exemplifies anyone who has felt like an outsider.”

Funding a “Stoner Symphony”: $15,000

The location of this performance shouldn’t shock anyone. What is sure to shock taxpayers is the amount of their money that was provided to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra to host “Classically Cannabis: The High Note Series.” Not only was the program pot-related, the people were encouraged to inhale (and chow down) while watching.

“One of the three concerts, called Summer Monsoon, advertised on its website this way, ‘Smoke up and fill your belly with Manna’s spiced pork, Sesame Seed Teriyaki Chicken, & Filipino Empanadas.’”

Subsidizing Alpaca Poop: $50,000

In addition to this project making the cut for Sen. Coburn, this little gem was also covered by CNSNews.com last month. The U.S. Department of Agriculture shelled out a hefty sum to help develop and market Alpaca “Poop Packs” for use as fertilizer. This is government waste, literally.

Synchronized Swimming for Sea Monkeys: $307,524

This project garnered the support of three government agencies (National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, and U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation). In an effort to study the swirl created when sea monkeys move throughout the water, researchers developed a “laser guided,” “choreographed” team of synchronized swimming sea monkeys.

Produce a “Hallucinatory” Roosevelt/Elvis show: $10,000

In what could quite possibly be the weirdest project on this list, the NEA helped fund the production of a show about the hallucinatory journey of a girl pretending to be Elvis and gallivanting around with America’s 26th president.

“In one scene, Ann hallucinates that she is Elvis, and that she and Teddy are romping around their hotel room in their underwear, with Teddy eventually riding around on Elvis’s back as though he were a bucking bronco.”

Funding Climate Change Alarmist Video Game: $5.2 million

As polls show climate change is dead last on the Americans’ list of priorities, the NSF felt the need to help “spur climate change activism.” They paid Columbia University to develop a video game entitled “Future Coast,” where rising seas cause mass chaos and weather calamities of epic proportions. The story is set to a bunch of voicemails from the future describing the anarchy.

“One caller claims “neo-luddites” are out to kill anyone with scientific knowledge,496 and another paints a cryptic image of a zombie apocalypse saying that ‘when you see them, you will know what to do.’”

Teaching Kids to Laugh: $47,000

The National Endowment for the Humanities funded classes at UCLA and Butler University to teach college students about laughter. In seminar’s like “Why is it funny” student will presumably learn “how laughter plays with our perceptions” and “whether comedy is a ‘guy thing’.”

““As a final project, students will develop either a stand-up routine or a, “comedy piece using the tools of digital storytelling.”

Developing a real-life Iron Man Suit: $80 million

It seems the DoD is attempting to capitalize on the popularity of the Iron Man movies in order to develop its very own real-life replica. Dubbed TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit), the Pentagon will spend the next four years trying to build a suit made “of military super-armor to withstand bullets and carry hundreds of pounds, all powered by [a] futuristic energy source.” But, there’s one slight problem, it doesn’t work:

“And while a promotional video for the TALOS program shows bullets ricocheting off a cartoon soldier dressed in the suit, field tests have so far found soldiers struggling to run, dive, and shoot when using the real thing.”

Tweeting at Terrorists: $3 million

The State Department is aiming to fight terrorists in ISIS and al-Qaeda online as well as on the battlefield. Its new program is intended to “counter the sophisticated propaganda machines of terrorist groups around the globe.” However, their Twitter campaign, “Think Again, Turn Away” has been almost universally panned as not only ineffective but also counter-productive.

“A recent commentator in Time Magazine put it more bluntly, saying, ‘this outreach by the U.S. government is not only ineffective, but also provides jihadists with a stage to voice their arguments…’”

Predicting the End of Humanity: $30,000

As opposed to finding new ways to explore the solar system, NASA is instead spending its budget on a study to predict how the world will end. Researchers from the University of Maryland and Minnesota came back with an intriguing and politically advantageous answer: Income inequality. They warned that an “unequal distribution of wealth” has “led to civilizational collapse.”

Funding Kids Dressing Like Fruits and Vegetables: $5 million

Another wasteful project also caught by CNSNews.com. The University of Tennessee used $5 million of taxpayer money allowing student to dress up like fruits and veggies in an attempt to promote healthy eating habits. “Students created the term ‘fruved’ to describe ‘the process of eating FRUits and VEgetables.’”

“The students are divided into five teams – amusingly labeled Spinach, Carrot, Banana, Grapes, and Tomato – which are led by costumed mascots.”

Help Parents Counter Kids’ Refusals to Eat Fruits and Veggies: $804,254

In an attempt to aid parents across America whose kids have refused to eat their greens, the NIH has funded a Smartphone game called “Kiddio: Food Fight.” The game is supposed to help parents counter sophisticated childhood rebuttals like “Yuk!”

“Parents will select a vegetable to offer Kiddio and then select a tactic for influencing Kiddio to eat the veggie.”

Lost electronic devices from NASA: $1.1 million

It seems thousands of agency provided electronics are lost in space. NASA hasn’t kept track of the thousands of Smartphones, tablets, and AirCards they’ve provided their employees. At the same time, “Over 2,000 devices – 14 percent of the total owned by the agency– went unused for at least 7 months from 2013-2014.” On the agency’s list of lost items, they’ve listed “laptops, video tapes, and moon rocks.”

Studying if Wikipedia is Sexist: $202,000

The NSF sent nearly a quarter of a million dollars to NYU and Yale researchers to study if any gender bias existed on the website Wikipedia. Because Wikipedia can be edited by almost anyone, the study followed “accusations of sexism in content and among contributors at Wikipedia.” One example of sexism uncovered by researchers was quite the bombshell:

Wikipedia contributors were biased because they had characterized some female novelists as “American Female Novelists” on Wikipedia, rather than “American Novelists.”

Asking heavy drinkers not to drink through text message: $194,090

Researchers plan to use this swath of taxpayer money to conduct a study wherein they text “heavy drinkers,” warn them not to drink, and monitor whether they do in fact get drunk.

“For example, some study subjects will get a daily 3 P.M. text message reminding them of the consequences of heavy drinking.”

Government Funded Ice Cream: $1.2 million

The USDA is paying dairy farmers to produce ice cream and many other dairy confections:

“In Wisconsin and New York, a farmer cooperative and creamery received a grant to expand production and marketing of organic Greek yogurt. A Missouri farm will be using a grant it received also to produce yogurt, but from sheep’s milk. A farm in Pennsylvania received a grant as well to expand its yogurt business but will use some of the money to build its Mexican chocolate business.”

 

Uncategorized

NAACP, Democrats, & Teacher Unions Team Up to Kill Charter Schools for Inner City Minorities (video)

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It is like the teacher unions have said time and time again, the union is not there to help the kids, they are there to support union power.

The NAACP, when it was ran by Republicans who founded it, actually supported black people and was engaged in communities. Since it has been taken over by Democrats and Marxists it has been all about money, getting Democrats elected at any cost and propagandizing for Marxist ideology.

The NAACP, Unions and The Democratic Party has always been against getting children out of unsafe, failing inner city schools. They like that union revenue. Dana Loesch and Martha McCallum have details on the latest chicanery.

Uncategorized, Vote Fraud

New York Post: 850 voters in NYC are 164 years old

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If voter ID is about vote suppression, it is about keeping the dead from voting.

New York Post:

A single Bronx voter listed in official records as being 164 years old led Board of Elections officials to review their files — where they turned up another 849 New Yorkers who were supposedly alive when Abe Lincoln was president.

The stunning discovery came after The Post reported last week that the birth date of Luz Pabellon, a spry 73-year-old who has been living and voting in The Bronx since the 1970s, was recorded as Jan. 1, 1850.

This week, a search of the records in all five boroughs found 849 more voters with the same wacky birth date.

Board officials chalked up the implausible age snafu to previous practices that allowed residents not to provide their exact birthdays when registering to vote.

Some of the new voters — mostly women — simply wrote that they were “21+” — above the legal voting age.

There was a reason to be vague. Voter registration records are open to the public, so anyone with the inclination can discover the real age of anyone in the files.

“It’s a leftover vestige from a bygone era,” explained Board of Elections executive director Mike Ryan.

“They were all listed as age 164. This was no accident. It’s a little quirk in the system. It’s not widespread,” he added, noting there are more than 4 million registered voters.

The board switched to computerized databases in 1999 and 2006.

 

 

Uncategorized

Chuck Woolery: Hollywood liberals don’t redistribute their millions to stage hands & extras working for free (video)

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There are many people in Hollywood who actually work for free in an attempt to make that contact and get a foot in the door. That includes actors, stage hands, artists and tech people.

While Maserati Marxists like Ben Affleck make millions on a film, many of those who make the movie possible are on the set all day and busing tables at night just so they can eat – yet YOU make too much, YOU have too much, YOU need to be taxed more… you know, for the downtrodden, all while government officials get wealthy in the process.

Chuck Woolery:

Uncategorized

Jon Oliver Blasts Obama Administration for Failing to Help Military Translators Facing A Death Mark (video)

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Jon Oliver describes the nightmare visa application process the Obama Administration and State Department has made it for translators who put their lives and their family’s lives at great risk by helping American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Long story short, the administration seems content to let them get their throats cut:

Uncategorized

Obama’s pick for Ebola Czar a population control freak… (video)

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First of all, the fact that President Obama picked such an infamous political fixer such as Ron Klain speaks volumes of how the administration views this problem; namely as a political one, not a medical one.

UPDATE: Congressman Trey Gowdy questions qualification of Ebola Czar. This video is priceless:

Klain was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae of mortgage collapse fame. The corruption at Fannie Mae caused the worst economic collapse since the great depression. Klain was also the Chief of Staff for Al Gore. He was the “mastermind” behind Al Gore’s attempt to overturn the Constitution and throw the 2000 election into the courts, which is prohibited in the Constitution:

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress

As you can see, the state legislature has total authority when it comes to electors in a presidential election. The courts have no authority here and the Founders did that for a reason. If it was done any differently everyone who lost would sue. The courts as a result would become even more blindly partisan than they are now. Courts would routinely overturn elections for partisan reasons if the system wasn’t designed that way.

Klain was also a part of the successful effort to throw out military ballots in Florida, which has become a staple of Democrat election strategy since.

Editor’s Note:Obama Administration Sues To Stop Military From Voting (video) – Epidemic of Democrat Controlled Cities Failing to Mail Military Ballots…

Klain was a player in the Solyndra Scandal (See more on the Obama Administration steering money into green junk bond companies owned by political donors HERE).

Perhaps most disturbing of all, Klain is one of those population control freaks:


“I think the top leadership challenge issue in our world today is how to deal with the continuing, growing population in the world and all the resource demands it places on the world and burgeoning populations in Africa and Asia that lack the resources to have a healthy, happy life,” Klain said.

Notice how he zeroes in on Africa and Asia for his appeal for population control and not white people?

Lies, Propaganda

Obama to Democrats Facing Election: Do what you need to do, say what you need to say to win (video)

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Tell ’em what you need to tell ’em, cash it in and all is forgiven on election day. Famed Democrat strategist Bob Beckel says that such a tactic is perfectly fine. It’s called lying.

This is what is happening with Democrats. Alison Grimes has been following this advice and  has been caught lying about her positions right and left.


If you wanted to see the key quote from Obama, here it is:

Propaganda, Thugs

Video: Alinsky Trained Agitator Shuts Down CNN News Crew (video)

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This is a textbook example of Saul Alinsky style agitation via trained “community organizers”. See how he speaks about “the narrative”. Notice how the agitator hits on various talking points, some having to do with Ferguson and some not, and repeats them. This man is a trained agitator and most likely with Chicago Black Panthers who follow Jesse Jackson around.

It is also important to keep in mind that the Chicago Black Panthers have a long relationship with the church President Obama attended for years. Also remember that in multiple times when Black Panthers showed up to polling stations armed the Obama Justice Department saw to it that all charges were dropped.

October 20, 2014 – Ferguson protesters shut down CNN live broadcast & chase away reporter and camera:

Here is how it looked on CNN:

Firearms

Guess What Ferguson Police Found on Missouri Anti-gun Democrat

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Gun control is about “guns for me and not for thee”, never forget that.

Via The Blaze:

Missouri state Senator Jamilah Nasheed, a Democrat who was sponsored several “anti-gun” bills in her state, was arrested Monday night during a protest outside of the Ferguson Police Department. However, it’s what police officers found on her that is raising eyebrows.

Nasheed was carrying a loaded 9mm handgun and extra rounds of ammunition, according to Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson. She also refused to take a breathalyzer test after officers determined she “smelled strongly of intoxicants,” sources told KMOV-TV.

Read more HERE.

 

Culture War, Gangsta Govt, True Talking Points

Government to Church: Celebrate Same-Sex Wedding or Go to Jail

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And this is how political violence starts.

The Daily Signal:

For years, those in favor of same-sex marriage have argued that all Americans should be free to live as they choose. And yet in countless cases, the government has coerced those who simply wish to be free to live in accordance with their belief that marriage is the union of a man and a woman.

Just this weekend, a case has arisen in Idaho, where city officials have told ordained ministers they have to celebrate same-sex weddings or face fines and jail time.

The Idaho case involves Donald and Evelyn Knapp, both ordained ministers, who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel. Officials from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, told the couple that because the city has a non-discrimination statute that includes sexual orientation and gender identity, and because the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Idaho’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, the couple would have to officiate at same-sex weddings in their own chapel.

The non-discrimination statute applies to all “public accommodations,” and the city views the chapel as a public accommodation.

On Friday, a same-sex couple asked to be married by the Knapps, and the Knapps politely declined. The Knapps now face a 180-day jail term and $1,000 fine for each day they decline to celebrate the same-sex wedding.

A week of honoring their faith and declining to perform the ceremony could cost the couple three and a half years in jail and $7,000 in fines.

States must protect the rights of Americans and the associations they form—both nonprofit and for-profit—to speak and act in the public square in accordance with their beliefs. It is particularly egregious that the city would coerce ordained ministers to celebrate a religious ceremony in their chapel. The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a motion arguing that this action “violates [the Knapps’s] First and 14th Amendment rights to freedom of speech, the free exercise of religion, substantive due process, and equal protection.”

Citizens must work to prevent or repeal laws that create special privileges based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We must also insist on laws that protect religious freedom and the rights of conscience.

Protecting religious liberty and the rights of conscience is the embodiment of a principled pluralism that fosters a more diverse civil sphere. Indeed, tolerance is essential to promoting peaceful coexistence even amid disagreement.

Budget, Communications Theory, Lies, Propaganda, True Talking Points, Uncategorized

Robert Reich cold busted in naked political deception (video)

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This is not the first time Robert Reich has engaged in this kind of chicanery, courtesy of the oh so gimme a break liars at Moveon.org.

[Editor’s Note: Yes we said liars. So many political operatives lie so brazenly that the time for calling the simple truth what it is has come.]

Nice video, but… now, the rest of the story courtesy of The Right Scoop who described this pretty well:

In short, reconciliation is a Senate rule that allows passage of a budget bill with a simple majority, bypassing the normal process that requires 60 votes.

It’s also been dubbed the ‘nuclear option’ in the past.

So lets fast-rewind back to 2010 for a sec and read a quote by the same Mr. Reich who wrote an article in the Huffington Post:

“My free advice to the president: If you want to get health care enacted you must use reconciliation and quickly…

Explain to the American people you understand their impatience. The Constitution does not require 60 votes in the Senate to pass legislation. A majority will do. That’s called democracy.”

Of course we know that the Senate did use reconciliation on Obamacare, even though it wasn’t a budget bill. They violated the rule of reconciliation in order to pass Obamacare with a simple majority (or ram it down our throats) and Robert Reich was a major advocate of this.

But now, when Democrats are about to lose the Senate, he warns against Republicans using reconciliation – even properly – to pass their right-wing destructive agenda. What’s good for the goose is not good for the gander if you’re a hypocritical Democrat.

For more past hypocrisy of Democrats on reconciliation, read here.

 

Communications Theory, Obama, Propaganda

Chuck Woolery: Obama, the great illusionist (video)

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In this video Chuck nails one of the biggest problems in politics today, creating the illusion that you are doing something and all is well. It is just another form of kicking the can down the road.

Case in point, remember when Obama sent in the bombers to take away ISIS’s oil revenue? Well, so much for that:

Islamic State Militants Are Raking In $800 Million A Year From Black Market Oil Sales

http://www.businessinsider.com/islamic-state-is-raking-in-800-million-from-black-market-oil-sales-2014-10

Health Law

NYT: $6,000 Obamacare deductibles makes seeing a doctor unaffordable

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The we told you so’s just keep coming. Obama won a second term so now the NYT prints what we told you years ago. If it weren’t for term limits we doubt this article would have been in the New York Times.

Via the New York Times:

Patricia Wanderlich, who suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, had to forgo a brain scan this year because of the Obamacare high deductible.
Patricia Wanderlich, who suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, had to forgo a brain scan this year because of the Obamacare high deductible. (Credit Rob Hart NYT)

Patricia Wanderlich got insurance through the Affordable Care Act this year, and with good reason: She suffered a brain hemorrhage in 2011, spending weeks in a hospital intensive care unit, and has a second, smaller aneurysm that needs monitoring.

But her new plan has a $6,000 annual deductible, meaning that Ms. Wanderlich, who works part time at a landscaping company outside Chicago, has to pay for most of her medical services up to that amount. She is skipping this year’s brain scan and hoping for the best.

“To spend thousands of dollars just making sure it hasn’t grown?” said Ms. Wanderlich, 61. “I don’t have that money.”

About 7.3 million Americans are enrolled in private coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and more than 80 percent qualified for federal subsidies to help with the cost of their monthly premiums. But many are still on the hook for deductibles that can top $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for families — the trade-off, insurers say, for keeping premiums for the marketplace plans relatively low. The result is that some people — no firm data exists on how many — say they hesitate to use their new insurance because of the high out-of-pocket costs.

Insurers must cover certain preventive services, like immunizations, cholesterol checks and screening for breast and colon cancer, at no cost to the consumer if the provider is in their network. But for other services and items, like prescription drugs, marketplace customers often have to meet their deductible before insurance starts to help.

While high-deductible plans cover most of the costs of severe illnesses and lengthy hospital stays, protecting against catastrophic debt, those plans may compel people to forgo routine care that could prevent bigger, longer-term health issues, according to experts and research.

“They will cause some people to not get care they should get,” Katherine Hempstead, who directs research on health insurance coverage at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said of high-deductible marketplace plans. “Unfortunately, the people who are attracted to the lower premiums tend to be the ones who are going to have the most trouble coming up with all the cost-sharing if in fact they want to use their health insurance.”

Deductibles for the most popular health plans sold through the new marketplaces are higher than those commonly found in employer-sponsored health plans, according to Margaret A. Nowak, the research director of Breakaway Policy Strategies, a health care consulting company. A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the average deductible for individual coverage in employer-sponsored plans was $1,217 this year.

In comparison, the average deductible for a bronze plan on the exchange — the least expensive coverage — was $5,081 for an individual and $10,386 for a family, according to HealthPocket, a consulting firm. Silver plans, which were the most popular option this year, had average deductibles of $2,907 for an individual and $6,078 for a family.

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Congressman Darrell Issa Slams FBI Director Comey’s Efforts to Ban Encryption

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Darrell Issa to FBI Director Comey and the Administration on criticisms of legitimate businesses using encryption:

You reap what you sow. Americans have watched their government mislead the public about data collection and resist necessary oversight. The FBI and Justice Department must be more accountable — tough sell for them to now ask the American people for more surveillance power.

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Why Good Employees Quit

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This article is a complete home run. We would add Mary’s first reason by stating that in a lower paying job where there is zero hope for a raise no matter how hard you work, that leaves ho hope and no incentive to work well. We have all seen too many employers who pay minimum wage and are constantly pounding the desk to work harder but make it clear that no matter how good you get only a minimum wage increase in the law will get you another dime.

Via Mary Davis:

Sure, there are many reasons why people quit, such as: employee mis-match, work/life balance, co-worker conflicts, relocation, family matters, lack of good communication, micro-managers, etc. I could go on and on but here are my top four reasons why good employees leave the workplace:

1. Poor reward system. It’s not always about having a big paycheck (although it doesn’t hurt either!). Rewarding an employee can be shown in many ways, such as corporate recognition both internally and externally (company website or press release), an additional paid mini-vacation, an opportunity to take the lead on a new project, a promotion, a donation in their name to a charity they support or the most popular form of reward, a bump in pay or an unexpected bonus. While these represent some of the ways an employer can reward workers, they don’t work without one key element; communication. What money represents to one employee may be of no concern to another. The key here is to find out what your employee’s value most and work from there.

2. Management. You know the saying: “People don’t leave companies, they leave their managers”. There is truth to this! Here’s my reasoning. When there is work to be done, its management’s duty to enforce, engage, and often times implement reward systems to keep employees satisfied and loyal. Sure, the supervisor, middle manager or team leader may implement recognition on a small scale for workers who have reached goals or helped the team in some way, but that doesn’t replace the recognition and reward employees need from upper management to stay committed.

Not everyone is skilled enough to manage processes or lead people. Just because someone is good at what they do does not mean they will be a great manager, and that’s perfectly OK! When people who are not fit to lead are put into positions of leadership it can create a catastrophic circumstance in the workplace leading to high turnover and low employee morale. So please, stop slapping “Manager” on every good worker’s name and put people in those positions only if they have the characteristics necessary to influence workers to execute the company vision and those willing to work together to get the job done.

3. Hiring/Promotions. When good workers see people who do not contribute as much as they do or they see schmoozers who do little but socialize a lot land positions they don’t deserve, it’s much like a slap in the face. Especially when those workers are busting their butts, not taking vacation, rallying the team and exceeding expectations the last thing they want to see is some Joe Schmo just waltz in and take a senior position, one they are clearly not qualified to do. You have to expect good employees will leave if you decide to hire your best friends’ cousin who has no idea what the heck they are doing, and then you have the audacity to put them in a leadership position over experienced workers. Come on! Hiring and promoting for favoritism is a major way to alienate good workers.

4. Too much work! The moment employers see employees who have good work ethic or are great in performing or rallying a team of people they begin to slap on more projects, more responsibility to those who they believe can handle it. And maybe good workers can handle more work but it becomes a problem when they begin to feel that they can’t escape from work because of the amount of responsibility and attention they receive from management. Being an excellent worker can be a blessing and a curse. It’s great for a boss to recognize employees are good, but the reward for that shouldn’t always be to pour on the workload. Since good employees tend to have a higher workload, it’s important to ensure they don’t feel overwhelmed causing them to burn out.

Ultimately the culture of an organization determines the scope of employee retention efforts which requires strategic decision making and planning. But to get good employees to stay, it’s simple; ask them what it will take. If you see someone doing great work, recognize it and reward it but don’t’ forget to find out how you can empower them to continuously deliver.

Mary V. Davids is Principal Consultant at D&M Consulting Services, LLC, a consultancy specializing in employee engagement, leadership coaching, career development and personal branding. Follow Mary’s blog or follow her on twitter @MVDavids.

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$20/hr Minimum Wage Endorsing Socialist Group Posts $13/hr Job Listing

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Do as I say, not as I do…

Via Ben Swann:

Seattle’s Freedom Socialist Party, which has endorsed a $20-per-hour minimum wage, recently posted a job listing for a web content manager position that only pays $13 per hour.

The website of Seattle’s Freedom Socialist Party lists its most recent presidential candidate Stephen Durham’s political positions, which include the party’s effort to “raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour.” The group also avidly supported a successful push for a $15-per-hour minimum wage in Seattle, which passed this year. However, as Zenon Evans at Reason pointed out, that same political party just got caught posting a $13-per-hour job listing seeking a web content manager with web development skills.

Opponents of increases to the minimum wage often cite unintended consequences like price inflation, the elimination of jobs for unskilled workers, and small businesses‘ inability to pay higher wages as reasons for opposing such measures. As a small non-profit, the Freedom Socialist Party would certainly be wise to limit its labor expenses to the extent possible considering the fact that it is competing with organizations like the Republican and Democratic parties that have exponentially bigger budgets.

However, the Freedom Socialist Party promised that its push for a $15-per-hour Seattle minimum wage would “leave no one behind.”

Continue reading HERE.

 

 

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Lead US Ebola Medical Center Laid Off Staff Due To Obamacare, Suffers Staff Constraints

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Via the Daily Caller:

The Nebraska hospital at the center of U.S. medical efforts to fight Ebola recently laid off staff due to budget cuts caused by Obamacare, and its Ebola-fighting resources are now limited due to staff constraints.

The Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha recently treated journalist Ashoka Mukpo after the NBC News freelancer contracted Ebola. The center is one of the only hospitals in the country that can adequately treat Ebola patients in its biocontainment units. The center is used as an example by officials who favor the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s plan of having a dedicated Ebola hospital in every state.

But the center’s Ebola-fighting capacity is limited due in part to staff constraints.

“That’s pretty much the level of staffing that we have as well,” said the center’s biocontainment unit nursing director Shelly Schwedhelm, referring to the center’s capability to hold only two or three Ebola patients at once.

The Nebraska Medical Center announced 38 layoffs, including those of top officials, in October 2012 with more possible layoffs to come. The center directly blamed the layoffs on decreased revenue from Obamacare’s reduction of Medicare reimbursement rates.

“The lay-offs at Nebraska Medical Center. Is this a sign of things to come under Obamacare?” asked Nebraska radio station 1110 KFAB in December 2012.

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Jenny Beth Martin: A Mandate To Govern

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Jenny Beth Martin via The Hill:

Ronald Reagan ran for reelection in 1984 with a conservative vision of free-market economic growth and tough foreign policy to confront the Soviet Union. His opponent, Walter Mondale, ran a conventional liberal campaign, going so far as to actually promise to raise taxes if elected. Result? Reagan won 49 states.

In 1994, popular outrage at the overreach of the Clinton administration led to Republicans nationalizing the midterm election with the Contract With America, a clear counterpoint to the Big Government campaigns of many Democrats.  Result? The GOP captured 54 seats in the House of Representatives and, for the first time in more than a century, defeated the sitting Speaker of the House in his race for reelection.

Sixteen years later, the nation was mired in the Great Recession; hundreds of billions of tax dollars were being spent on corporate bailouts, people were losing their homes, and Obamacare was a reality.  These events gave rise to the Tea Party movement and demands for more fiscally responsible policies.  Result? After the votes of November 2, 2010, were counted, Republicans picked up an astonishing 63 House seats.

These historic landslides were not the result of timidity. They were earned by principled conservatives who gave the nation a clear and unambiguous vision that encompassed personal freedom, economic freedom and a debt-free future; a vision that drew a stark contrast with the liberal status quo of the moment. Today, we are living in another of those moments.

Republicans are ideally positioned to provide this alternative vision; the question is whether they will.  If public opinion polling is to be believed, the GOP is on the brink of capturing a majority in the Senate while expanding its numbers in the House.  Not surprisingly, the conventional wisdom among the Republican consulting class is to lay low, keep quiet and let the GOP wave roll in next month.  It’s a safe strategy but they can do so much better.

Reagan did not win 49 of 50 states by laying low.  Republicans did not register historic congressional gains in 1994 and 2010 by keeping quiet.  These landslides were won because conservatives proudly announced their ideas for a better, stronger America.  They did not merely win by virtue of not losing; they earned a mandate by boldly offering an alternative vision.

Continue reading HERE.

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Barney Frank: President Obama Lied About Obamacare

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Daily Signal:

It’s one thing for President Obama to win an award for “Lie of the Year” for promising Americans “if you like your [health insurance] plan, you can keep it.” It must sting a bit more when a political ally like Barney Frank, the former congressman, flat out says the president “just lied to people.”

In an interview with Huffington Post, the veteran Massachusetts Democrat said he was “appalled” at the “bad” rollout of Obamacare last October.

“I don’t understand how the president could have sat there and not been checking on that on a weekly basis,” Frank said, then added:

But, frankly, he should never have said as much as he did, that if you like your current health care plan, you can keep it. That wasn’t true. And you shouldn’t lie to people. And they just lied to people.

Before passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, the president repeatedly promised Americans that they would be able to keep their current insurance plans and doctors if they so chose.

But the Obamacare rollout brought cancellation notices from insurance companies to more than 10 million Americans, who learned their plans didn’t meet minimal requirements outlined in the new law.

According to several reports, the Obama administration was aware millions would lose their plans. The president’s broken “if you like your plan, you can keep it” promise earned him the dubious honor of “Lie of the Year” from the fact-checking journalism project PolitiFact.

Although Frank supports the law and voted to pass Obamacare in 2010, he said Obama should have told Americans that the plans required under the health care law would be better than their old ones:

He should have said, ‘Look, in some cases the health care plans that you’ve got are really inadequate, and in your own interests, we’re going to change them.’ But that’s not what he said.

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FactCheck.org Blows It On Iraq WMD.

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The problem with sites like Politifact and FactCheck.org is that they, a little too often, omit certain facts to harm conservatives. They also often misreport economics news as journalists tend to make poor economists.

A mistake that is far more common than political bias throughout the journalism profession is the failure to cross check sources. It is all too easy to fabricate a story relying on press reports from others instead of taking the time to look through source material. Laziness is one of the biggest problems in journalism today. Those who take on the mantle of “Fact Checker” are obligated to step up and do the homework.

In light of the news from the New York Times and Wikileaks showing the evidence that Saddam’s Iraq did have a WMD stockpile and the cleanup from 2004-2011 has resulted in American casualties, we thought it wise to go back and look at some of the elite media reports which said “No WMD”, “Bush lied people died”, etc. .

FactCheck.org:

Q: Were there really weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when the U.S. invaded in 2003?

A: No. The Iraq Survey Group determined that Iraq had abandoned its quest to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and that it had already destroyed all of its existing stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.

Actually, the Iraq Survey Group Report (ISG) says exactly the opposite and all someone had to do was read the Key Findings right at the beginning of the report to see it.

FactCheck.org propagated a lie by doing one or both of the following:

A – Like several other elite media outlets such as CNN and the Washington Post, FactCheck cherry picked certain lines in the ISG report about parts of certain WMD programs Saddam had not made concerted efforts to restart, and then presented those snippets as if they represented all of Saddam’s WMD capability and intent ti make it look like the ISG verified the Democrat’s talking points. [Note: It is important to remember that CNN admitted to deliberately propagandizing for Saddam in exchange for access.]

B – FactCheck trusted CNN and the Washington Post’s identical deception about the contents of the report, which FactCheck linked to in their published “fact check”, and instead of cross checking for verification they just reworded the spin of others.

Here is what the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) had to say in its Key Findings straight from the report itself. What you see below is on the first page of their final report by ISG Lead Inspector Charles Duelfer:

https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/general-reports-1/iraq_wmd_2004/Comp_Report_Key_Findings.pdf

Saddam Husayn so dominated the Iraqi Regime that its strategic intent was his alone. He wanted to end sanctions while preserving the capability to reconstitute his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) when sanctions were lifted.

• Saddam totally dominated the Regime’s strategic decision making. He initiated most of the strategic thinking upon which decisions were made, whether in matters of war and peace (such as invading Kuwait), maintaining WMD as a national strategic goal, or on how Iraq was to position itself in the international community. Loyal dissent was discouraged and constructive variations to the implementation of his wishes on strategic issues were rare. Saddam was the Regime in a strategic sense and his intent became Iraq’s strategic policy.

• Saddam’s primary goal from 1991 to 2003 was to have UN sanctions lifted, while maintaining the security of the Regime. He sought to balance the need to cooperate with UN inspections—to gain support for lifting sanctions—with his intention to preserve Iraq’s intellectual capital for WMD with a minimum of foreign intrusiveness and loss of face. Indeed, this remained the goal to the end of the Regime, as the starting of any WMD program, conspicuous or otherwise, risked undoing the progress achieved in eroding sanctions and jeopardizing a political end to the embargo and international monitoring.

• The introduction of the Oil-For-Food program (OFF) in late 1996 was a key turning point for the Regime. OFF rescued Baghdad’s economy from a terminal decline created by sanctions. The Regime quickly came to see that OFF could be corrupted to acquire foreign exchange both to further undermine sanctions and to provide the means to enhance dual-use infrastructure and potential WMD-related development.

• By 2000-2001, Saddam had managed to mitigate many of the effects of sanctions and undermine their international support. Iraq was within striking distance of a de facto end to the sanctions regime, both in terms of oil exports and the trade embargo, by the end of 1999.

Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq’s WMD capability—which was essentially destroyed in 1991—after sanctions were removed and Iraq’s economy stabilized, but probably with a different mix of capabilities to that which previously existed. Saddam aspired to develop a nuclear capability—in an incremental fashion, irrespective of international pressure and the resulting economic risks—but he intended to focus on ballistic missile and tactical chemical warfare (CW) capabilities.

• Iran was the pre-eminent motivator of this policy. All senior level Iraqi officials considered Iran to be Iraq’s principal enemy in the region. The wish to balance Israel and acquire status and influence in the Arab world were also considerations, but secondary.

• Iraq Survey Group (ISG) judges that events in the 1980s and early 1990s shaped Saddam’s belief in the value of WMD. In Saddam’s view, WMD helped to save the Regime multiple times. He believed that during the Iran-Iraq war chemical weapons had halted Iranian ground offensives and that ballistic missile attacks on Tehran had broken its political will. Similarly, during Desert Storm, Saddam believed WMD had deterred Coalition Forces from pressing their attack beyond the goal of freeing Kuwait. WMD had even played a role in crushing the Shi’a revolt in the south following the 1991 cease-fire.

Can it get any more opposite than that?

All Fact Check had to do was actually open up the report and start reading. Or here is a crazy idea, they could have watched ISG Lead Inspector Charles Duelfer’s televised under oath testimony:

And while most elite media such as CNN and Washington Post chose to lie about the contents of the report some news outlets were quite honest in their reporting. A fine example of which was published in the New York Sun:

Saddam Gamed U.N. Oil Scheme in Bid for Arms

WASHINGTON – Saddam Hussein personally approved the distribution of oil vouchers to raise funds for the purchase of weapons material, the final report of the American team of weapons inspectors in Iraq will say this week.

According to internal talking points drafted by the National Security Council and obtained by The New York Sun, chief weapons inspector Charles Duelfer has concluded that the Iraqi dictator used a U.N. sanctions program that was aimed at curbing his desire for weapons of mass destruction to buy off countries and individuals to help Iraq weaken the sanctions.

“The report shows U.N. sanctions eroding and increasingly ineffective. Saddam Hussein intended to reconstitute the weapons of mass destruction programs once they were eliminated. The Iraqi ministry of oil with the personal approval of Saddam Hussein used a secret oil voucher distribution system to attempt to influence other nations and individuals to support Iraq’s goals,” the talking points say.

At the same time, Mr. Duelfer concludes that Iraq had significantly dismantled its nuclear program and was not producing chemical weapons at the time the American-led coalition launched the campaign in March 2003 to oust him from power. The report, however, says that Saddam preserved the intellectual capital of his old nuclear program and was only six months away from producing mustard gas.

Mr. Duelfer’s report essentially confirms America’s charge that Saddam was not in compliance with the U.N. resolutions requiring that he disarm, according to the talking points. “At the start of operation Iraqi Freedom, Saddam Hussein had the capacity to produce sulfur mustard within six months and the capability to produce nerve agents in significant quantities within two years,” the talking points say. It also says that his development of long-range missiles, banned under the 17 sanctions resolutions passed against Iraq between 1991 and 2003, continued unabated.

Even though CNN chose to lie about the contents of the ISG Final Report in its prime time reporting, a simple internet search would have revealed to FactCheck that CNN actually printed the text of the Iraq Survey Group Preliminary Report by David Kay which was also most revealing:

We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002. The discovery of these deliberate concealment efforts have come about both through the admissions of Iraqi scientists and officials concerning information they deliberately withheld and through physical evidence of equipment and activities that ISG has discovered that should have been declared to the UN.

With regard to Iraq’s nuclear program, the testimony we have obtained from Iraqi scientists and senior government officials should clear up any doubts about whether Saddam still wanted to obtain nuclear weapons. They have told ISG that Saddam Hussein remained firmly committed to acquiring nuclear weapons.

A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment subject to UN monitoring and suitable for continuing CBW research.

New research on BW-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin were not declared to the UN.

Documents and equipment, hidden in scientists’ homes, that would have been useful in resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation (EMIS).

Was FactCheck simply lazy, failing to check original sources while gleefully jumping on the bandwagon by simply reporting the lies of CNN and Washington Post? Or did they skim the report with a word-search tool looking for keywords and phrases that could be used to go along with the Democratic Party’s false talking points?

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NYT Confirms American Casualties From WMD in Iraq 2004-2011; 5,000 Warheads Found

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UPDATE – NYT: More Than 600 Reported Chemical Exposure in Iraq, Pentagon Acknowledges

So much for no WMD’s…

New York Times:

From 2004 to 2011, American and American-trained Iraqi troops repeatedly encountered, and on at least six occasions were wounded by, chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein’s rule.

In all, American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs, according to interviews with dozens of participants, Iraqi and American officials, and heavily redacted intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

NYT Iraq Chemical Weapons Incidents 2004 2011
NYT Iraq Chemical Weapons Incidents 2004 2011

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Millions of French flee to escape government policy, taxes, unemployment

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Socialism usually has two effects on wealth, destroying it and distributing what is left from the people to the government and their cronies.

Via the UK Independent:

The land of 400 cheeses, the birthplace of Molière and Coco Chanel, is facing an unprecedented exodus. Up to 2.5 million French people now live abroad, and more are bidding “au revoir” each year.

A French parliamentary commission of inquiry is due to publish its report on emigration on Tuesday, but Le Figaro reported yesterday that because of a political dispute among its members over the reasons for the exodus, a “counter-report” by the opposition right-wing is to be released as an annex.

Centre-right deputies are convinced that the people who are the “lifeblood” of France are leaving because of “the impression that it’s impossible to succeed”, said Luc Chatel, secretary general of the UMP, who chaired the commission.

There is “an anti-work mentality, absurd fiscal pressure, a lack of promotion prospects, and the burden of debt hanging over future generations,” he told Le Figaro. However, the report’s author Yann Galut, a Socialist deputy, said the UMP was unhappy because it had been unable to prove that a “massive exile” had taken place since the election of President François Hollande in 2012.

What is certain is the steady rise in the number of emigrants across all sections of society, from young people looking for jobs to entrepreneurs to pensioners.

According to a French Foreign Ministry report published at the end of last month, the top five destinations are the UK, Switzerland, the US, Belgium and Germany. The French consulate in London has estimated that up to 400,000 French nationals live in the capital, a number equal to the population of France’s sixth largest city.

The Foreign Ministry recorded 1.6 million expats at the end of last year. But that figure only includes people who had registered at French consulates abroad. “So the real figure is twice as high,” says Hélène Charveriat, the delegate-general of the Union of French Citizens Abroad.

She told The Independent that while the figure of 2.5 million expatriates is “not enormous”, what is more troubling is the increase of about 2 per cent each year.

“Young people feel stuck, and they want interesting jobs. Businessmen say the labour code is complex and they’re taxed even before they start working. Pensioners can also pay less tax abroad,” she says.

France’s unemployment rate is hovering around 10 per cent. As for high-earners, almost 600 people subject to a wealth tax on assets of more than €800,000 (£630,000) left France in 2012, 20 per cent more than the previous year. Manuel Valls, the Prime Minister, announced in London this week that the top income tax rate of 75 per cent would be abolished next January after a number of business tycoons and celebrities moved out.

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Why ISIS is a bigger threat than Al-Qaeda in Six Sentences

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David French via NRO:

Let’s make this simple, shall we?

1. Al-Qaeda carried out the deadliest attack on American soil in American history and the most devastating foreign attack against an American city since the British occupied and burned Washington during the War of 1812.

2. ISIS is more brutal than al-Qaeda.

3. ISIS has more financial resources than al-Qaeda.

4. ISIS controls more territory — and possesses more firepower – than al-Qaeda.

5. ISIS has seized uranium in sufficient quantities to make a radiological weapon, a dirty bomb.

6. The leader of ISIS declared to his former American captors, “See you in New York,” and ISIS militants have pledged to raise the black flag of jihad over the White House.

In other words, ISIS is more capable in every way than the terrorists that hit America so hard on 9/11. Pinprick strikes weren’t enough to stop a much weaker Osama bin Laden. They will not be enough to stop a much stronger Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

 

“If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” – Malcolm X