Saturday - June 11, 2016
Once Upon A Time
Before Government Intervention:
In 1962, the average octanes of gasolines in the U.S. now stood at 93 for regular, 99 for premium and 102 for the few super-premiums still left on the market. Those numbers would increase only slightly in the next few years to around 94 octane for regular, and 100 for premium by 1967.
After government intervention:
There are three types of gasoline grades generally available in the United States. Regular gas has an octane rating of 87. Plus or midgrade gasoline has an octane of 89 and premium has a 92 octane rating.
Although I must say, when I do get behind one of these restored 60’s cars in traffic, many lovingly brought back to better than mint condition, they stink. The stench of raw gasoline leaking out the exhausts and from every other point on their engines is enough to knock you dead. I really do like the cleaner air, but did it have to come at such a cost?
Posted by Drew458
on 06/11/2016 at 09:16 PM
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy • Fun-Stuff • Government •
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Permalink • Friday - June 10, 2016
There isn’t a woodpile tall enough
But don’t worry, YOU’RE PAYING FOR IT. So prepare to pay more. Three times as much.
The federal subsidy known as the “Obamaphone” or “Obamanet” program could be losing nearly $500 million to fraud annually, according to a top Republican on the Federal Communications Commission.
Commissioner Ajit Pai made the accusation Wednesday in letter to the Universal Service Administrative Company, referring to the FCC’s Universal Service Fund, which provides a monthly $9.95 subsidy for telecom service to low-income consumers.
The subsidy is limited to one per “independent economic household,” or IEH, but telecom companies have the ability to override that restriction if applicants check a box stating they represent a separate household, even if they have the same address.
...
Pai wrote that data obtained by the FCC last month revealed carriers had enrolled nearly 4.3 million subscribers using the IEH override process between October 2014-April 2016, or 35.5 percent of total subscribers for the period. “It is alarming that over one-third of subscribers — costing taxpayers almost half a billion dollars a year — were registered through an IEH override.
...
The program was originally established to help low-income consumers in rural areas obtain access to 911 services. It was expanded to include cellular devices in more recent years, and expanded in March to include Internet service.
Right. Free cell phones for all my peoples. And now, free internet. And not some lame slappy internet. Broadband baby, the good shit.
Not that this is anything new, nor is it even the full story or even the real number of the cheaters. This is just the number of NEW cheaters, more than a third of all new signees. Old cheaters are still in the system ...
Last year [2011], a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for obvious reasons, with participation rising steeply since 2008, when the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills. But observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight, in which phones go to people who don’t qualify, and hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone.
...
an FCC audit of the program last year showed that many participants in the program were taking more than their fair share. According to Businessweek:269,000 wireless Lifeline subscribers were receiving free phones and monthly service from two or more carriers.
Right. All of those accounts got squashed. But that was 4 years ago. How many million more accounts are there? 12.5 million in February 2012, about 12 million new ones from late 2014 to now, figure in at least 8 million new accounts from 2012 to 2014? That’s 33 million phones. More than one person in ten has free telephone service, courtesy of the government, aka your wallet? What the flippity fluck? Who the frick is paying for all this ??????????
Oh, you are. I am. And it’s about to get worse. All the little gibbs grabbers just got a service increase. Nice fat internet. With wi-fi I’m sure. So free porn and online games! Now let’s give them top end big screen name brand “phablets” so they don’t feel “out Jonesed” by the Joneses who actually work for a living and spend $800 hard earned dollars on a shit-hot smart phone (pretty stupid if you ask me, but I’m a Luddite, and it’s their money so it ain’t my business).
BOHICA, BOHICA ...
FCC commissioner: Expect a broadband Internet tax
The federal government cannot afford the subsidies being poured into telecommunication services, unless it’s planning to impose a new tax on broadband Internet Service, a member of the Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday.
“It’s telling that the agency is already spending money in anticipation of getting a greater amount of revenue from the Universal Service Fund,” FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told a Senate panel.
“We boosted the E-Rate budget by $1.5 billion per year last year. By all accounts, next month we’re going to expand the Lifeline program to broadband without any meaningful budget or cap. That money is already being spent, and it has to come from somewhere. I would respectfully submit to you that ultimately, it’s going to be in the form of a broadband tax,” Pai added.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/10/2016 at 10:30 AM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Government • Racism and race relations •
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Permalink • Wednesday - April 27, 2016
File under WHAT THE HELL?: 9/11 Memorial Guards interrupt Choir students signing the National Anthem
I only wish I had nothing today. Because I think Nothing would be a better situation than this. Choirs are proverbial for purity, honesty, and intelligence. When we talk of the scum of the day, what do we say? “He’s no choir boy.” So who has the nerve to hassle an actual choir?
Oh. That’s right.The people getting paid to guard the 9/11 memorial.
The Waynesville Middle School choir from Waynesville, N.C. was visiting New York City for a three-day trip last Wednesday when they stopped at the 9/11 memorial and decided to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” out of respect for the dead.
They never got to finish.
Before the song was over, two National September 11 Memorial & Museum guards walked over and told the students they had to stop singing.
Some of these guards didn’t even remove their hats out of respect, as you can clearly see in the video.
So, why might you ask? So glad you did that! Let’s have a look see.
According to the 9/11 memorial’s website, groups wanting to perform must first obtain a permit.
What’s that you say? A Permit? Let’s find out more about this. And indeed, yours truly managed to dig another juicy fact up.... though it is from See-BS. But I think you’ll forgive me when I point out what this means…
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/school-choir-stopped-from-singing-national-anthem-at-911-memorial/
Groups wishing to perform at the Sept. 11 memorial are supposed to apply for a $35 permit. The North Carolina group did not.
So, in short this was about monies. That you must apply for a permit to have a performance on public/gubment managed land. Ok, I have my misgivings with the extent the permit system has gotten to but this is a fairly reasonable limitation. HOWEVER....
Let’s look at that wording again. Really, Really, REALLY look at it.
Groups wishing to perform at the Sept. 11 memorial are supposed to apply for a $35 permit.
Is there ANY INDICATION WHATSOEVER- has ANYBODY ALLEGED AT ALL- that the Choir *WISHED TO PREFORM* at the memorial beforehand? NO, I THINK NOT. What they Came Wishing To DO was to visit the memorial and pay respects to the three thousand~ murdered innocents that this memorial pays tribute to.
“We just wanted to show respect to the people who lost their lives,” another student added.
In short, the time during which they could in any way have been construed as “wishing to preform” must have been after they got into the Memorial itself, with a astonishingly small window of opportunity to file for a permit, pay the money, or solicit profit, publicity, new students, or in short ANYTHING THAT WOULD USUALLY MOTIVATE PEOPLE TO PREFORM. Which is what the law was mostly meant to REGULATE, mind: use of public spaces for premeditated agendas, ESPECIALLY for profit ones (which is a reason why you don’t see as many advertisements filmed at the White House even when a certain Neo-Bolshevik is not in it). And of course to make sure that the government gets its’ fair share (such as it is) for it.
But Wait. There’s more.
According to the 9/11 memorial’s website, groups wanting to perform must first obtain a permit. The Waynesville students didn’t have one, but did get verbal permission from a security guard that day, music teacher Martha Weathers Brown said.
Maybe she’s lying, but the See-BS page also echoes this.
Chorus teacher Martha Brown told Fox that one security guard at the memorial plaza had given the students permission to sing, but another guard told them to stop.
So in short: this started about monies. That you cannot preform certain acts of reverence (like a memorial tune, which just googling “Dirge” will show is one of the oldest forms of human musical expression known) on your own time, for nonprofit without bowing down and kissing the ring of BigGov for the privilege before paying up. Even if doing so would require a rather obscene expenditure for the occasion and- in this case- precognitive abilities. Because some half-wit overwrought bureaucrat somewhere decided that something like THIS could be reasonably viewed as a Performance.
And on the other hand: this is about Gov mugs not being able to get their right hand and left hand on the same page, because if we assume the teacher is honest (which granted may be a question) this NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED- the very thing that got the memorial staff wringing their panties out- unless ONE OF THEIR OWN hadn’t told them it was A-Ok. Only for a few others to go in and contradict it.
If there was one story to epitomize one reason to distrust government abilities and people- not the big, spectacular, horrifyingly damaging ones like Benghazi or Clinton’s email server, but the mundane, every day things- this would be one of them. It ENCAPSULATES just how greedy and incompetent this unfeeling blob that we pour trillions of dollars, many people, and immense trust in can be when given openings to get too big for its’ britches. I just wish it didn’t have to happen like this.
Which brings me to the final snippet.
Brown added that she understands why they were told to stop and used it as a teaching moment about respecting authority, showing students that these rules are in place to protect a sacred space from people who might want to be disrespectful.
I’m sorry, but WHAT?
How can you respect authority that Can’t even make up its’ own mind?
How is a permit based cash grab demand based on a Highly Tortured reading of the term “preform” going to protect this hallowed ground?
Let me emphasize that this land is not private property. This is a NATIONAL MEMORIAL. It belongs to WE THE PEOPLE. And if there is a reason for it to exist AT ALL it is to honor the memories and allow for mourning of the murdered dead (ya know, kinda like this!) And here we have tweedledee and tweedledum interrupting a CHOIR doing that and trying to state that their authority (which is again given in trust to them by WE THE PEOPLE) gives them the right to interpret bureaucratic minutiae like this.
I am not an anarchist. I am not even sure I agree with the saying that “The government that governs best governs least.” I do believe that governmental authority DOES play a highly important role in maintaining and preserving our freedoms and other things.
BUT I ALSO KNOW THAT THERE ARE FIELDS WHERE THE AUTHORITIES DO NOT AUTHORIZE IN, BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO.
To quote the thing that empowers these authorities....
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
So now the Memorial staff are saying they’re oh so very sorry, the guy reacted incorrectly, you’re welcome to come back..blah blah blah. Maybe they even mean it. But I think in many ways that it is less important than the fact that this happened at all. That some small cogs in the Federal juggernaut honestly thought that This of all things was worth worrying about or treading on their coffers. And the fact that even the teacher is telling them this is a lesson about “respecting authority.”
If we cannot go to lawfully mourn and remember our dead at the location dedicated Specifically to it- if we are forced to put what is essentially Deeply Inoffensive expression under scrutiny for fear that it will offend some bit of overwritten and invasive statutory or regulatory law- then I do believe we will have lost just a little bit of our freedom, and the terrorists who committed this massacre will have won a victory. A little victory, not the war, not something that gives them the Bag-tinted dystopia they want all over the world. But something that makes that victory Just A Little Bit Closer. And honestly if an invasive state keeps sticking its’ nose in and forcing us to heed it on this invasive level, sooner or later people might think that the change over to caliphate will be a matter of convenience.
What can I even say about this? I’ve written enough… so I’ll just ask that you please, Please read the Fox link. It has the video in all its’ nature. And consider letting our dear *employees* in the government know exactly what we think of this.
Posted by Turtler
on 04/27/2016 at 04:04 AM
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Education • Government • Corruption and Greed • Homeland-Security • Jack Booted Thugs • Justice - LACK OF • Nanny State • Outrageous • Stoopid-People • War On Terror •
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Permalink • Wednesday - November 04, 2015
MERKEL’S F*** YOU FATHERLAND MESSAGE …. at war with her own country
I most sincerely hope this leads to an increase in the right. And the farther right the better in this case. Most likely never happen. Just be small groups of ill organized patriots who will have no influence on their government.
Ain’t that always the way?
But if this stokes far right membership plus action provided it’s violent enough to discourage others from coming, then I am all for it.
Take a look at this bit of Berlin madness with compliments of the newest “Fuhrer” , Frau Merkel.
Oh, BTW. This little village has no school, no police station and ,,, no shops.
But Berlin was originally sending in 1,000 invader scum. When residents complained, the govt. relented and sent 750 at last report. Big of them.
Villagers worry if the sewage system will be overwhelmed.
Now that’s a thought.
‘We simply can’t take in this many. How can we cope with these numbers?’ 200 more migrants arrive in tiny German village - quadrupling population in just two days
· Four more coachloads full of migrants arrive in Sumte, eastern Germany
· First wave of refugees got to village where just 102 people live on Monday
· Influx of 750 people will swell population in village by 700 per cent
· More expected in coming days as tensions rise with angry locals feeling ‘overwhelmed’By Nick Fagge In Sumte, Germany For Mailonline
Four more bus loads carrying 200 more refugees arrived in the tiny German village of Sumte last night – quadrupling the population.
Young men, women and children were driven into the sprawling new migrant housing complex in Sumte, a hamlet in eastern Germany close to the river Elbe, under cover as darkness.The new arrivals brings the refugee population to 300 - almost three times the original population of 102.
A further 200 refugees are expected in the coming days. And 250 have been allocated to the centre, created out of a series of empty government offices.Sumte’s former mayor Reinhold Schlemmer told MailOnline: ‘Some 200 more refugees arrived last night. They came in four buses. The first bus arrived about 7pm and the last one about 9pm.
‘That brings the number of refugees to about 300. We are expecting a total of 500 by the end of the week.
Tension among the 102 original residents, who fear their community will be overwhelmed, and the local services swamped by the new arrivals have been rising.The town’s Neo-Nazi councillor, Holger Niemann, warned crime will rocket with the influx of migrants to a tiny German village where the population will be outnumbered by seven to one by the arrival of 750 refugees in the coming days.
They had fought against plans for 1,000-capacity refugee centre in their village. The authorities overruled their objections but agreed to scale the camp back to 750. The first 100 refugees, including Syrians, arrived on Monday night.
The sleepy village has become the symbol of Germany’s struggle to cope with the overwhelming influx of migrants streaming into the country every day by the thousand.
CONTINUES WITH PHOTOS HERE
Over the weekend, German patriots were forced to violence at the continued invasion of their country.
In one city of Saxony, they threw somewhat useless fireworks at invaders to prevent them from moving into lodgings.
In other towns, it’s reported that some unwelcome foreign invaders were beaten and attacked with bats. Good.
Overall though .... One can not expect too much from an unarmed citizenry. Can one?
Posted by peiper
on 11/04/2015 at 11:20 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration •
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Permalink • Monday - November 02, 2015
fill ‘er up
and they can’t even tell if the thing is working or not.
The Department of Defense spent $43 million to build a gas station in Afghanistan that should have cost roughly $500,000, the lead oversight team monitoring U.S. spending in Afghanistan has found. The discovery came as part of a broader investigation into allegations of criminal activity within the DOD’s premiere program to kick-start the Afghan economy.
“It’s fright-night at the Pentagon,” John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), told FoxNews.com, calling the spending “outrageous to the taxpayer.”
...
At issue is spending by the Task Force for Stability and Business Operations, known as TFBSO or the Task Force, which ended in March 2015. But most alarming, according to Sopko, is the DOD’s failure to answer questions about the $800 million program and its claim the Task Force’s employees no longer work for the DOD.“I have never in my lifetime seen the Department of Defense or any government agency clam up and claim they don’t know anything about a program,” said Sopko, a former federal prosecutor appointed by President Obama in 2012 to watch over spending in Afghanistan.
“Who’s in charge? Why won’t they talk?” he said. “We have received more allegations about this program than we have received about any other program in Afghanistan.”
...
The U.S. Geological Survey found in 2006 that northern Afghanistan is rich in natural gas reserves, and the Task Force sought to make the compressed natural gas commercially viable by constructing the facility—and more broadly, helping to reduce the war-torn country’s dependence on costly imported gas.The Task Force struck a contract with Central Asian Engineering, which received just under $3 million from the U.S. government to construct the Sheberghan gas station. Sopko noted the cost of building a similar gas station in neighboring Pakistan is no more than $500,000.
But the final tab in Sheberghan would turn out to be astronomically higher.
The Task Force spent $42,718,739 between 2011 and 2014 to “fund the construction and to supervise the initial operation of the CNG station,” the U.S. military told SIGAR—with “approximately $12.3 million in direct costs and $30 million in overhead costs.”
...
SIGAR said it is unable to determine whether the CNG station in Sheberghan is currently operational. But government documents obtained by the oversight team show that Qashqari Oil and Gas Services—the business that took over the station in 2014—did not renew its business license six months later, in November 2014.
...
A senior defense official, ... said he did not know whether the gas station was currently functional.
That reminds me, I have to get the propane tanks for the grill filled. A 20lb refill costs $20, and I have 2 empty tanks, so I’m going to put on an old rug as a coat and wear a turban, and bill the Pentagon $73,400.
Posted by Drew458
on 11/02/2015 at 11:33 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Corruption and Greed •
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Permalink • Sunday - October 25, 2015
Under Obama, Even The Cowboys Are Corrupt
OIC declines to investigate obvious corruption link
BLM illegally sold thousands of wild horses for slaughter
The Bureau of Land Management, the agency tasked with protecting wild horses and cattle and their grazing lands, sold 1,794 federally-protected wild horses to a Colorado rancher who sent them to slaughter, a new report confirmed.
Between 2009 and 2012, rancher Tom Davis purchased the horses through the agency’s Wild Horse and Burro Program (WH&B) and wrongfully sent them to slaughter, according to the report from the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General. According to the allegations and news reports, Mr. Davis also had farming and trucking connections with former Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. [Salazar was Secretary of the Interior at this time, which oversees BLM]
The wrongful sale also cost taxpayers $140,000 to deliver truckloads of horses to Mr. Davis. He paid $10 a piece for the horses, or less than $18,000 total, and made as much as $154,000 in profits by selling them for slaughter, according to the report.
BLM employees never attempted to verify the information that Mr. Davis provided regarding his intentions for the horses he bought, despite the unusually large number of horses being sold to him, investigators wrote. The agency also did not stop selling horses to Mr. Davis after receiving reports that he was sending the horses to slaughter.
The OIG declined to investigate Mr. Davis‘ ties to Mr. Salazar.
The investigation was referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado as well as the State of Colorado Conejos County District Attorney’s Office, which declined civil and criminal prosecution, according to the report.
“It took more than three years for the OIG to confirm what we’ve always known – that the BLM sold 1,795 federally-protected wild horses to a known kill buyer who sold them to slaughter,” said Suzanne Roy, Director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC). “Unfortunately, there will be no justice for these mustangs, who suffered a brutal death in Mexican slaughter plants. No one at the BLM is being held accountable for this betrayal, and Tom Davis is not being prosecuted for violating his contractual obligation to not sell the horses for slaughter.”
Snort. $154,000. She-it. Hillary steals that much every day.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/25/2015 at 10:21 AM
Filed Under: • Animals • Government • Corruption and Greed • Obama, The One •
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Permalink • Thursday - August 20, 2015
Fuck Yeah, The Donald
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump debated the use of the term “anchor baby” with a reporter at a press conference in New Hampshire on Wednesday.
Trump was asked, “You said that you have a big heart, and that you’re not mean-spirited. Are you aware that the term ‘anchor baby,’ that’s an offensive term? People find that hurtful.”
Trump responded, “You mean it’s not politically correct, and yet everybody uses it?” He then suggested the reporter give him a different term to use, to which the reporter suggested “The American-born [children] of undocumented immigrants.” Trump said in response, “I’ll use the word ‘anchor baby.’”
Slap the ever-lovin’ leftist shit outta him Donald. Ten times harder, twice as long.
Speaking of longer and harder ...
Related: Mark Levin audio: Congress Can End Birthright Citizenship Without Amending The Constitution 14 minutes.
Well duh, of course they can. Legal precedent be damned, SCOTUS made a bad call. Go read the Congressional Minutes from when the 14th Amendment was debated and passed. In no uncertain terms whatsoever it was the clear and unmistakable intent that this amendment not create anchor babies.
Krauthammer is wrong. O’Reilly is wrong. Read the darned document.
Amendment XIV
Section 1.All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
This is the same kind of willful blindness with the “well regulated militia” part of the Second Amendment. “Subject to the jurisdiction thereof” means not a citizen of any other country. So those former slaves, all of who had been born here at that point, became citizen’s. And the newly arrived infant daughter of the Ambassador from Pilate-Pongo didn’t. Because her parents were citizens of Pilate-Pongo, and thus by the magical powers of attribute inheritance, so was she, the instant she was born. Because people understood in those days that children belonged to their parents first and foremost. Period. Full stop. End of story. Bye bye.
Pretending that foreigners are under US jurisdiction because they have to obey our laws when they’re here is the arguing of an uneducated child. It’s like people saying “Yeah, but the Theory of Evolution is just a theory” because they have no friggin’ idea what “theory” means when used in a scientific context. It does NOT mean “loose hypothesis” or “rough idea based on my feelings”. It means “we’ve been trying to break this thing for 150 years now and we still can’t do it, so it’s the nearest thing we have to Revealed Truth for now.
Posted by Drew458
on 08/20/2015 at 02:30 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Illegal-Aliens and Immigration •
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Permalink • Saturday - July 11, 2015
a shared responsibility payment
I couldn’t let the Condell video go unposted, it follows this bit of news, which is short and totally unrelated.
I find myself caught up in Mr. Obamas new health care law. Who knew?
I don’t live in the states. I don’t even know if I’ll ever get back there. As it looks now, my bones will rest in a foreign land.
But caught up I sure did.
I received a notice in today’s mail from Uncle Sam notifying me that I owe $190 because I have not made the effort to insure my wife and I.
Specifically is says; “The law allows us to assess this payment against you for not securing minimum essential health insurance for you and your dependents.
As a result, your balance is $190.00. The balance shown is due immediately. Deadline before interest charge is July 20.”
Why do letters and news like this always have to happen on a week end?
And don’t ya just love the new language these days? It’d called “Shared Responsibility Payment”.
Posted by peiper
on 07/11/2015 at 08:40 AM
Filed Under: • Government •
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Permalink • Tuesday - June 16, 2015
Try looking under the couch cushions
Crivens, that’s $900 for every person in the country. Poof. Lost. Who’s running this show, Jon Corzine??
Hey, it’s our job to hand the money out, not to keep track of who we’re giving it to!
The federal government cannot verify nearly $3 billion in subsidies distributed through Obamacare, putting significant taxpayer funding “at risk,” according to a new audit report.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released an audit Tuesday finding that the agency did not have an internal system to ensure that subsidies went to the right enrollees, or in the correct amounts.
“[The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] CMS’s internal controls did not effectively ensure the accuracy of nearly $2.8 billion in aggregate financial assistance payments made to insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act during the first four months that these payments were made,” the OIG said.
“CMS’s system of internal controls could not ensure that CMS made correct financial assistance payments,” they said.
Oh fer goodness’ sake. Purposefully inept much?
The OIG reviewed subsidies paid to insurance companies between January and April 2014. The audit found that CMS did not have a process to “prevent or detect any possible substantial errors” in subsidy payments.
The OIG said the agency did not have a system to “ensure that financial assistance payments were made on behalf of confirmed enrollees and in the correct amounts.”
In addition, CMS relied too heavily on data from health insurance companies and had no system for state-based exchanges to “submit enrollee eligibility data for financial assistance payments.”
The government does “not plan to perform a timely reconciliation” of the $2.8 billion in subsidies.
Which means it’s lost, and it’s going to stay lost. Forever.
Somebody better check the books at the Clinton Foundation again.
Isn’t this just too amazing? On the very cusp of the Supreme Court about to render their decision which could decide that every one of these subsidies was illegal/improper in the first place, and suddenly the government can’t find where any of the money went. Does this stink much to you?
Posted by Drew458
on 06/16/2015 at 04:04 PM
Filed Under: • Crime • Government •
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Permalink • Monday - June 01, 2015
Are You Listening Because They Are
YAYY!!! FREEDOM!! WOO HOO!!!
NSA Surveillance powers lapse with no deal in Senate
The National Security Agency lost its authority at midnight to collect Americans’ phone records in bulk, after GOP Sen. Rand Paul stood in the way of extending the fiercely contested program in an extraordinary Sunday Senate session.
... 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
But that program and several other post-Sept. 11 counter-terror measures look likely to be revived in a matter of days. With no other options, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in an about-face, reluctantly embraced a House-passed bill that would extend the anti-terror provisions, while also remaking the bulk phone collections program.
BOO HISS !!! Two Faced RINO Stinkers !!
... 3 ... 2 ... 1
Although the lapse in the programs may be brief, intelligence officials warned that it could jeopardize Americans’ safety and amount to a win for extremists.
Yeah, like those Tea Party extremists. Media running dogs on this one, as usual. “We” the people “need” to have our every word monitored and analyzed “for our own good” and “for safety”.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/01/2015 at 02:00 AM
Filed Under: • Government •
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Permalink • Wednesday - May 13, 2015
Obamacare Exchange Down The Toilet
Despite over $205 million in federal taxpayer funding, Hawaii’s Obamacare exchange website will soon shut down. Since its implementation, the exchange has somehow failed to become financially viable because of lower than expected Obamacare enrollment figures. With the state legislature rejecting a $28 million bailout, the website will now be unable to operate past this year.
According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the Hawaii Health Connector will stop taking new enrollees on Friday and plans to begin migrating to the federally run Healthcare.gov. Outreach services will end by May 31, all technology will be transferred to the state by September 30, and its workforce will be eliminated by February 28.
While the exchange has struggled since its creation, it is not for lack of funding. Since 2011 Hawaii has received a total of $205,342,270 in federal grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In total, HHS provided nearly $4.5 billion to Hawaii and other state exchanges, with little federal oversight and virtually no strings attached.
Despite this generous funding, the exchange has underperformed from day one. In its first year, Hawaii enrolled only 8,592 individuals – meaning it spent almost $23,899 on its website for each individual enrolled. Currently over 37,000 individuals are enrolled in Hawaii’s exchange - well below the estimated 70,000 enrollees that is required to make the website financially viable. Unfortunately, taxpayers will have to hand out an additional $30 million so that Hawaii can migrate to the federal system.
It’s not like the interface wasn’t standardized or anything ... they just can’t code a gateway for shizz ...
The plan, obtained by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, states the Connector will cease new enrollments Friday, discontinue outreach services May 31 and transfer its technology to the state by Sept. 30. The Connector’s workforce will be completely eliminated by Feb. 28. The exchange has 32 employees, 29 temporary staff and 12 full-time contractors.
“Staff reductions will commence immediately, with the executive director ( Jeff Kissel) exiting once the bulk of operational activities end,” the report said. “If the state cannot facilitate an orderly transition, the Connector’s operations will abruptly end, as the Connector does not have the resources to continue operations.”
The state was notified in March that Hawaii was out of compliance with the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, because the Connector wasn’t financially sustainable at the start of this year and wasn’t integrated with the Medicaid system, which determines eligibility for subsidies and tax credits obtained through the exchange. The federal government subsequently restricted grant money to support the Connector and moved to take over its IT functions to allow residents to enroll in coverage through the federal marketplace, healthcare.gov.
Ya, I kinda hate to say it, but once this crap was signed and sealed, there really should have been a big software design symposium. Design the federal back-end, the federal front-end, and the state front-ends all at the same time. Then hand out the front-ends to the states, so they can modify their copy by changing the name of the state and the wallpaper. And the state providers database. But that’s about it. It really should be an out-of-the-box solution, built, bulletproofed, and tested to bazinga and back again before release.
What a total rip-off this whole thing has been.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/13/2015 at 09:11 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Health-Medicine • Obama, The One •
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Permalink • Tuesday - April 14, 2015
The Burger Book
If you liked the taste of Utah Senator Mike Lee’s The Forgotten Constitution I wrote about the other week, here is the “big kids” version of that book. So to speak. Philip Hamburger hammers out, in 648 pages of fine detail, every last step our federal government has taken towards tyranny in the past bunch of decades.
Allow me to quote a couple of wonderful heavy duty paragraphs from the City Journal blog‘s review by (nom de plume?) Myron Magnet:
For over 400 pages of a 511-page, doorstopper-weight text, Hamburger counts the ways in which the slithery Medusa’s head of executive-branch agencies—from the Interstate Commerce Commission and the National Labor Relations Board to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, all spitting out the venom of administrative law—constitutes a flagrant affront to the Constitution. For starters, the Constitution lodges all legislative power in Congress, which therefore cannot delegate its lawmaking function. So it’s forbidden for Congress to pass a law creating an executive-branch agency that writes rules legally binding on citizens—for example, to set up an agency charged with making a clean environment and then to let it make rules with the force of law to accomplish that end as it sees fit. “The power of the legislative,” as the Founding Fathers’ tutelary political philosopher, John Locke, wrote, is “only to make laws and not to make legislators.” And if Congress can’t delegate the legislative power that the Constitution gives it, it certainly cannot delegate power that the Constitution doesn’t give it—namely, the power to hand out selective exemptions from its laws, which is what agencies do when they grant waivers.
Second, Constitution architect James Madison, following political theorist Baron de Montesquieu, saw the separation of powers as an essential bulwark of American liberty. But administrative agencies, which make rules, carry them out, and adjudge and punish infractions of them, blend together legislative, executive, and judicial powers in one giant anti-constitutional Cuisinart. Moreover, judicial power is as undelegatable as legislative power, since the Constitution lodges all of it in the judicial branch. So third, while administrative judges may look “just like real judges,” says Hamburger, they are no such thing—and not only because the Constitution makes it impossible for them to be so but also because, unlike real judges, their sole duty, rather than using their independent and expert judgment to carry out the law of the land, is to carry out the policy of their agency, as set and overseen by their department chief or the relevant cabinet secretary who in turn oversees him. As Justice William Howard Taft pronounced, an administrative tribunal is “miscalled a court.”
It’s a tome. No question about it. And one which could use a more active editor in Magnet’s opinion, to snip off redundancies and repetitions that could cut the book nearly in half. Let’s face it, there’s “making your point” and then there’s “driving your readers nuts”. Be that as it may, when I can find a spare $50 I’m going to get a copy. It’s that important to me, even though I noticed in the comments that Hamburger is rather long on criticism but short on solutions. The first step of problem solving is always recognizing that a problem exists, and finding out just how severe it really is.
Sure, I can hear you saying “But Congress has to delegate! There’s no way they could do all the work the dozens, hundreds of federal agencies turn out.” And that’s the whole point: those other federal agencies SHOULD NOT EXIST. Even Mike Lee’s partial solution - his RAIS plan that would require actual congressional debate and signing of all regulations passed by these subsidiary agencies - is nearly untenable. Almost a Herculean task by itself. And thus the point is hammered again, and again, and again ... because such agencies are all illegal. Every one of them, because of this:
It is NOT a truism. Precedent be damned, the cowardly Supreme Court of 1931 buckled under FDR’s kingly threat and delivered a bad decision in United States v. Sprague. Far from being superfluous icing on the cake, the 10th Amendment, along with the commerce clause - also corrupted by FDR’s totalitarianism - are the key bulwarks against runaway federal power. Without them, the fundamental concept of limited federal government is a joke. And a poor one at that.
It’s time to push back. Long since past time. RAIS might work a little, but a better first step would be an amendment that limits the size of the Supreme Court to 9 justices. That would protect them against another tyrant trying to pack them. And why shouldn’t such a limit exist? We have a rule that says one president, one vice president, two senators per state, and a rough algorithm for determining the number of representatives in the House based on a State’s population. It should have been in there from the get-go. Five is too few. Seven could work. Eleven or more is too many. So make it seven to nine, with a rider that says as long as they have at least six they can continue working, with the caveat that all decisions made while understaffed can be revisited once the bench is full again.
Time to push the RESET button.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/14/2015 at 08:21 PM
Filed Under: • FREEDOM • Government •
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Permalink • holy fugnuggle
Check out this government doublespeak ... straight from the Form 1040 Instructions for Line 61 ...
Remember how the ObamaCare Individual Mandate was pushed because it wasn’t a tax, it’s a fine?, but then approved by the Supreme Court, once they (ie Roberts) turned the law inside out so that it wasn’t a fine, it was a tax? Right, you’d better have insurance, or you’re going to pay. But what is it called that you are going to pay? Mwaaahahahahahaa; time to let the masters twist the terms to find one that’s both, and yet neither ...
Line 61
Health Care: Individual ResponsibilityBeginning in 2014, individuals must have health care coverage, qualify for a health coverage exemption, or make a shared responsibility payment with their tax return.
If you had qualifying health care coverage (called minimum essential cover-age) for every month of 2014 for yourself, your spouse (if filing jointly), and anyone you could or did claim as a dependent, check the box on this line and leave the entry space blank.
Otherwise, do not check the box on this line. See the instructions for Form 8965.If you can be claimed as a dependent, do not check the box on this line. Leave the entry space blank. You do not need to attach Form 8965 or see its instructions.
Wow, count me in. I sure don’t want to be a slacker and not carry my part of the burden. Let me make my payment to the Tax Man, whether it’s a fine or a tax. Who cares? It’s a shared responsibility.
Weasels.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/14/2015 at 05:09 PM
Filed Under: • Government • Health-Medicine •
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Permalink • Monday - April 06, 2015
Enforced Equality
Your genius government at work.
Think outside the box? Not allowed. Think inside the box? Not allowed. Think like a box? Racist!!! Follow the rules, and only push the blue button when the chime sounds. Not the bell, only the chime. And don’t ever push the red button.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) approved disability benefits for hundreds of Puerto Ricans because they do not speak English, despite the fact that Puerto Rico is a predominantly Spanish-speaking territory.
...
“We found the Agency did not make exceptions regarding the English-language grid rules for claimants who reside in Puerto Rico, even though Spanish is the predominant language spoken in the local economy,” the OIG said.
...
However, the OIG was able to identify 218 cases between 2011 and 2013 where Puerto Ricans were awarded disability due to “an inability to communicate in English.” Furthermore, 4 percent of disability hearings in Puerto Rico involved looking at the individual’s ability to speak, read, write, and understand English.
Though 95 percent of Puerto Ricans speak Spanish at home, according to the rules a Spanish-speaking nurse in Puerto Rico would be considered “unskilled,” the OIG said.
The SSA told the OIG that the rules are applied one-size-fits-all.
“SSA managers at various disability decision levels stated Social Security is a national program, and the grids must be applied to the national economy, regardless of local conditions,” the audit said.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/06/2015 at 10:56 PM
Filed Under: • Government •
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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