(ABC News) Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel acknowledged Friday for the first time that some officials in the White House disagreed with his slow pace in releasing Guantanamo detainees. He explained he was cautious because he took “very seriously” his responsibility to certify the release of detainees to ensure they did not return to the battlefield.
So that's why Hagel 'resigned'!
-NO AUTHOR-
Sun, 01 Feb 2015 03:04:55 GMT
I’m one of those 6 million. Screw Obama and his illegal mandate!
(New York Times) Obama administration officials and other supporters of the Affordable Care Act say they worry that the tax-filing season will generate new anger as uninsured consumers learn that they must pay tax penalties and as many people struggle with complex forms needed to justify tax credits they received in 2014 to pay for health insurance.
The White House has already granted some exemptions and is considering more to avoid a political firestorm.
Mark J. Mazur, the assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, said up to six million taxpayers would have to “pay a fee this year because they made a choice not to obtain health care coverage that they could have afforded.”
Obamacare's tax troubles mount
-NO AUTHOR-
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 23:11:53 GMT
What the hell is wrong with people?
(International Business Times) Police in Hanoi saved thousands of cats from potentially becoming barbecue after seizing a truck in Northern Vietnam carrying more than 3 tons of live cats smuggled in from China. While the cats will have to be culled in accordance with local laws, officers on Thursday indicated reservations about saving the cats bound for restaurants, only to have to kill them anyway.
“After receiving a tip, we searched the truck and discovered the cats inside,” Cao Van Loc, deputy chief of police in Hanoi’s Dong Da district, told German press agency dpa on Wednesday. “The owner, also the driver, said he bought the cats at the border area of Quang Ninh province,” Loc said, adding that all of the cats were from China.
Seized: Cats smuggled from China for consumption
-NO AUTHOR-
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 23:12:53 GMT
Impeach the SOB and then get rid of ALL of his failed dealings…
The new Republican Congress is unlikely to repeal the Affordable Care Act even after the GOP’s overwhelming victory in the 2014 midterms, with both medical and political experts agreeing that Americans must learn to live with Obamacare for a few years.
Many Republicans won their elections by criticizing the president’s expansive health-care scheme. But in reality, Obama would block any congressional attempt to rein it in, analysts say.
Dr. Lee Hieb, author of the explosive “Surviving the Medical Meltdown: Your Guide to Living Through the Disaster of Obamacare,” warned in an exclusive interview with WND that the consequences of the new law are already beginning to hit the American heartland.
“Just judging from my experiences in Iowa, we’re already seeing increasing shortages of critical drugs like Valium, which is needed to prevent seizures,” she said. “We’re running out of drugs to prevent tetanus infections in Arizona, and I’m even receiving reports about shortages of propofol, which is basically what is used to induce anesthesia during surgeries. And while things may be OK in the major metropolitan areas for a while, here in Iowa, the shortages and supply chain failures are already starting.”
Hieb’s personal experience is supported by reports from around the country of hospitals nationwide encountering shortages of critical drugs.
According to the American Society of Anesthesiologists, or ASA, in the past five years “the United States has experienced shortages of an array of vital anesthetic drugs such as propofol, succinylcholine, even epinephrine.”
An ASA survey from 2012 shows more than 97 percent of anesthesiologists have experienced a shortage of at least one anesthetic drug.
And the reports have become more common, she said.
“When you make life difficult for providers, you negatively affect the entire process down the entire line. The Affordable Care Act imposes further regulatory and compliance burdens on both doctors and those who create medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. We’ve had these kinds of burdens for a long time, but Obamacare simply makes everything worse. It takes everything that’s been detracting from medical care and expands it.”
She said a requirement that details of every appointment be entered into “electric medical records” is sabotaging medical care.
Instead of doctors spending time with patients, they spend most of their time and effort in data entry. The records are then used by the government and insurance companies to ensure that patients are receiving what bureaucrats regard as the appropriate kinds of care. Doctors must follow this system to be paid.
The system especially hurts specialists, she said.
“Many specialists simply leave the profession either because they can no longer afford to practice or simply out of disgust,” she said.
Government and insurance company bureaucrats are not familiar with the patients and have no basis to determine what kind of treatment is required. The result is that doctors have more overhead and liability even as they are prevented from providing effective treatment.
Hieb said, “This electronic records requirement was the final nail in the coffin for me and pushed me to leave private practice.”
Obamacare strengthens such requirements and makes the government more involved in determining how medical care is to be provided. Other medical experts concur with Hieb that the Affordable Care Act is transforming the role of doctors from providers of medical care into “data entry clerks.”
In an interview by the medical industry publication Medscape, arheumatologist said: “Bureaucrats are telling us how to practice our profession, and they don’t have a clue about seeing patients on a daily basis. All the factors that made U.S. medicine the best in the world are now being destroyed.”
Little reason for hope from Congress
According to Hieb, “Obamacare is emptying out the heartland as far as medical care goes.”
The effects of the law are creating a political reaction as newly elected Republicans such as Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., report “a tide rising” against the Affordable Care Act from “all these angry people” forced to deal with the law.
But leading conservatives and political experts do not see much hope of a repeal or even a substantial rollback in the short term.
Renowned Republican strategist Richard Viguerie, author of the new book “Takeover: The 100-Year War for the Soul of the GOP and How Conservatives Can Finally Win It,” predicts that the new Republican Congress will disappoint conservatives by not repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Viguerie judges that many Republicans “don’t have the conviction or the political courage, and a total repeal is not something high on their priority list.”
“Though I think we can chip away at it and weaken it, I’m not optimistic that GOP leaders are really honest when they say repeal and replace,” he said. “They are not prepared to fight Obama in the way that is needed.”
Similarly, Eagle Forum Founder and President Phyllis Schlafly says, “Many Republicans ran against Obamacare, and repealing it is clearly the sentiment from the grassroots.”
However, Schlafly believes the “Boehner Congress has not been willing to put up much of a fight.”
Viguerie thinks Republicans can eventually win the war over Obamacare after a long struggle.
“We need to defeat more RINO (Republican In Name Only) Republicans in the House particularly and keep up the pressure. And we have to make sure we nominate a Republican for president that shares our views, not an establishment Republican like a Jeb Bush, a Chris Christie or a Mitt Romney. We have to get a president that commits to repeal and replace Obamacare.”
Viguerie notes that many Republicans come to Washington with the best of intentions but are eventually co-opted. However, “one of the things we have now is a network that can keep the pressure on and support those Republicans who decide to buck the leadership. We didn’t have that 10 years ago.”
Still, such hopes hinge on a unified Republican government, which is at least two years away, and on conservative victories in the Republican presidential primaries and a sweeping election win in the 2016 general election. In any case, Americans will have to live with Obamacare for some time.
Furthermore, conservatives still have to confront the political reality that Republicans receive much of their money from corporate lobbyists.
Viguerie goes so far as to say “Conservatives need to understand that their No. 1 opponent is not Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid or even Barack Obama.’
“It’s the Chamber of Commerce. Even the best of these young conservatives get 75 percent of their funding from K Street and corporate lobbyists,” he said.
When it comes to the Affordable Care Act, some of the biggest stakeholders donating to the Republican Party are insurance companies that enthusiastically support the new legislation.
For that reason, Hieb is pessimistic even in the long term. She says wryly that a repeal would be proof that “the age of miracles is not yet over.” But she believes most voters won’t understand the implications of the Affordable Care Act until they personally experience the coming shortages and restricted care.
Doctor: America seeing 'shortages of critical drugs'
-NO AUTHOR-
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 22:04:49 GMT
(REALCLEARPOLITICS) — Former CBS investigative correspondent testifies at the confirmation hearing for Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch:
SHARYL ATTKISSON: In 2013, Reporters Without Borders downgraded America’s standing in the global free press rankings, rating the Obama administration as worse than Bush’s. It matters not that when caught the government promises to dial back or that [FOX News'] James Rosen gets an apology. The message has already been received. If you cross this administration with perfectly accurate reporting they don’t like, you will be attacked and punished. You and your sources may be subjected to the kind of surveillance devised for enemies of the state.
Those who cross Obama treated 'like enemies of state'
-NO AUTHOR-
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 18:29:55 GMT
(PEOPLE) — His changing look has been a much-buzzed-about topic for months, and now PEOPLE has confirmed that Bruce Jenner has been quietly making a very personal change. The former Olympian will soon be living life as female.
“Bruce is transitioning to a woman,” says a source close to the family. “He is finally happy and his family is accepting of what he’s doing. He’s in such a great space. That’s why it’s the perfect time to do something like this.”
And according to a different Jenner insider, the 65-year-old reality star is filming his momentous journey, to be shared with viewers on a docu-series this year. “It will air when he is ready to be open about his transition,” the source tells PEOPLE. “But he’s acting more and more confident and seems very happy.”
Bruce Jenner said to be 'transitioning into a woman'
-NO AUTHOR-
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 18:13:11 GMT
Well, that didn’t take long. This summer after Barack Obama inexplicably (and illegally) freed five of the Taliban’s most deadly terrorists in exchange for army deserter Bowe Bergdahl, I asked a burning question – a question that remains unanswered: “What will it take for our spineless U.S. Congress to impeach this tyrant? This is way beyond partisan politics. This is about justice. This is about the safety of the American people. Barack Hussein Obama is America’s biggest threat to national security. He is ‘an enemy within.’”
By striking this Faustian bargain with the devil, not only did Obama unilaterally trash the U.S. government’s long-standing policy never to negotiate with terrorists, he brazenly violated a 2013 national defense bill that unambiguously requires he give Congress 30-days notice before releasing any Guantanamo Bay prisoners, much less five of its most deadly.
Article III, Section 3, Clause 1, of the U.S. Constitution defines the crime of treason – dare I say the “high crime” of treason – as “levying War against [the United States], or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”
Whether Obama is intentionally trying to overthrow his own government is open for debate. But that he is, “adhering to [America's] Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort,” is without question.
“There is no doubt that Americans will die as a direct result of Obama’s demonstrably illegal actions here,” I wrote back in June. “With most of these monsters in their 40s, they’ve got decades to kill as many Americans as they can get their blood-soaked hands on.”
The National Enquirer, of all publications, interviewed me on my analysis, publishing a feature article that largely echoed my sentiments and concluded, “Meanwhile, D.C. insiders say that the only way the Bergdahl fiasco will ‘disappear’ is if the U.S. gets involved in an ongoing crisis elsewhere, which will allow President Obama to ‘redeem himself’ in not only the eyes of his critics but the world.”
While the Obama administration has, no doubt, manufactured many a crisis elsewhere, no such redemption has been forthcoming. Neither has the Bergdahl scandal disappeared. Instead, that which even hard-left Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., feared has, in a few short months, and quite predictably so, become reality. We now learn from a reluctant Obama media that at least one of the “Taliban Five” – one of these faithful followers of Muhammad – intends to kill more American citizens.
“The U.S. military and intelligence community now suspect that one of the five Taliban detainees released from Guantanamo Bay in return for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in May of last year has attempted to return to militant activity. …
“It comes at a politically sensitive time as the administration has quickened the pace of prisoner release in an effort to encourage the closure of Guantanamo, and the Army must decide in the coming weeks whether and how to punish Bergdahl for leaving his post. [It's called wartime desertion, CNN. Until recently it got you lined up and shot.]”
According to a September congressional report, “about 17 percent of detainees transferred out of Guantanamo Bay are confirmed by the U.S. to have returned to militant activity. About 12 percent are in the suspected category,” noted CNN.
And so as Barack Obama recklessly sows the seeds of a foolish, politically driven campaign promise, we begin to reap the poisonous fruit of his incompetence. As intelligence concludes that nearly one-third (probably more) of these rabid jihadi dogs will return to their rabid jihadi ways, Obama yet races to loose them from their chains. (Hey, I hear ISIS has several openings in HR [Head Removal]. Perhaps our Muslim-sympathizer-in-chief can whip-up a quick batch of reference letters.)
I wish it could be said that this man is simply an incompetent fool, but I fear it’s much more complicated than all that. At best, Barack Hussein Obama is a full-blown dhimmi (one who surrenders to Muslim dominance). At worst, he shares with Muslims the sworn enemies of both the Quran and “progressivism,” namely Israel and Christianity.
Regrettably, I believe the latter to be true. I believe that this president’s well-established propensity to give aid and comfort to our Islamic enemies stems from an attitude best described, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Long gone are the days when calling an American president a tyrant and accusing him of treason amounted to political hyperbole. Just a few short decades ago this anti-American Marxist would not only have been accused of treason, he would have been tried for it.
But alas, inaction and injustice are the lawless hallmarks of today’s political milieu.
We’ve become “fundamentally transformed,” all right.
Remember the now infamous Rose Garden presser? The shameful images are forever etched in the annals of American history: Obama, standing side-by-side with, and even embracing, Robert Bergdahl, the father of an American traitor and apparent Muslim convert himself.
When he took to the podium, among the first words from the elder Bergdahl’s mouth were, in Arabic, “Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim,” which means, “In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate.” This, according to a number of Islamic scholars and CIA experts, was a “Muslim victory call” intended to “claim the White House for Islam.”
Hmm: to claim the White House for Islam.
So it would seem.
Meanwhile, Rose Garden honoree Bowe Bergdahl, a man the Obama administration says “served the United States with honor and distinction,” faces likely court-martial for desertion.
While Barack Obama faces another round of golf.
Treason: Obama aids the enemy
Matt Barber
Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:54:04 GMT
