Rodman

Any other time or place this creep would have been put against a wall and shot. They use to call them traitors, but now the kids call them basketball stars.

Chamber of Commerce vows to fight ObamaCare employer mandate in 2014

The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vowed Wednesday to fight ObamaCare's so-called employer mandate and other "onerous" provisions in the year ahead, even as the pro-business group acknowledged the bill as a whole cannot be repealed in the current climate.
The agenda was outlined by Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue, in his annual Washington address. Though the law's requirement on mid-sized and large businesses to provide health coverage to workers was delayed by a year, Donohue said the Chamber still plans to lobby against that mandate in 2014.
“In 2014, we will work to repeal onerous health care taxes; repeal, delay, or change the employer mandate; and give companies and their employees more flexibility in the choice of health insurance plans,” Donohue said. He also cited immigration reform, entitlement reform and more domestic energy production as other major objectives.
“We’re not going to get rid of [the Affordable Care Act] so we’re going to have to find ways to make it work,” Donohue said afterward. “It’s a massive tax bill. It’s a massive rules-and-regulations system. And lots of people are worried about how they are going to get their health care.”
In his speech, Donohue said the health insurance cancellations that “swamped” the individual market last year are expected to hit the small business market even harder this year. And many firms are not hiring and are cutting workers’ hours because of the law’s mandates, he said -- despite claims by the Obama administration to the contrary.
Donohue deflected a question after the speech about how long of a delay he wants for the employer mandate, which requires businesses with 50 or more full-time employees to offer insurance, saying only that he was speaking in “broad terms.”
“We’ll delay what we have to delay,” he said. “Whatever we have to keep, we’ll keep.”
As further indication that the chamber doesn’t support the ObamaCare repeal effort by the Tea Party and others in the most conservative wing of the Republican Party, Donohue suggested those trying to extract spending cuts or other deals when negotiating over raising the federal debt ceiling “are not helping us.”
He also made clear the Chamber will support candidates in the 2014 elections who “want to work within the legislative process.”
Despite the Chamber’s apparent resignation to ObamaCare being here to stay, he said the group would “head to court to sue” if necessary to achieve its objectives on health care and other issues.
Donohue said the Chamber repeatedly warned Congress and the administration about ObamaCare’s many flaws and argued problems with the president’s signature law go beyond the rollout of the websites on which Americans buy insurance policies from private companies.
“The administration is obviously committed to keeping the law in place, so the Chamber has been working pragmatically to fix those parts of ObamaCare that can be fixed,” he said. “Computers can be fixed.”

Obama's Supreme Court foe: Nuns who care for the elderly poor

For an administration seeking to win a skeptical public over to ObamaCare, the Justice Department could not have picked a more sympathetic foe for a Supreme Court fight than The Little Sisters of the Poor.
The administration is fighting back against a lawsuit filed by the non-profit, which does not meet ObamaCare's classification of a "religious employer"  because it hires and tends to people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds.
Supporters say The Little Sisters of the Poor epitomize service by caring for the elderly poor and those deemed "worthless" by society. In the United States, it runs 30 homes where hundreds of its employees provide nursing and end of life care.
"You know there's a lot of good Catholic organizations out there - the soup kitchens and the like," says Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League, "But let's face it, when it comes right down to it in terms of one-on-one personal care, the work that the Little Sisters of the Poor are doing has no parallel."
Because it does not meet ObamaCare's definition of a "religious employer," lawyers for the Little Sisters of the Poor say the organization is not exempt from the contraceptive mandate in the health care law. That means it must provide the abortion pill to its employees - something that is strictly against its religious doctrine.
It is suing the administration to change that.
In an opposing brief to the Supreme Court, the Justice Department claims the Little Sisters are, in effect, exempt from the contraception mandate. The DOJ says the non-profit has the right to hire a third party to administer coverage and that by signing a simple two-page waiver, the Little Sisters can forego the mandate.
The brief says the Little Sisters are "under no legal obligation to provide the coverage after applicants certify that they object to providing it."
But lawyers for the Little Sisters doubt that. They cite other court papers in which the government has said it is considering other options to enforce the contraception mandate against churches and religious organizations.
Daniel Blomberg, an attorney for the Beckett Fund, which represents the Little Sisters  told Fox News, "The document on its face says when you receive this third party insurer, you have a legal duty to provide these drugs. Now, all the government is saying is, we can't enforce that legal duty. That'd be like the government saying, yeah, the speed limit is 55, but we don't have any police officers who can catch this particular type of vehicle right now."
If the Little Sisters don't sign the waiver, the organization could potentially be fined $4.5 million a year - about a third of its budget.
Last week Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted a temporary injunction preventing the government from enforcing the contraception mandate against the Little Sisters, while it is contested in lower courts. She can extend the injunction herself, or refer it to the whole court for arguments and then a decision would be likely in June.

ObamaCare subsidy for Congress

Sen. Ron Johnson told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly Monday he decided to sue the Obama administration over the subsidy for lawmakers in the president’s health care law because it is unfair to give members of Congress special treatment.
Johnson, R-Wis., said the subsidy creates a double standard that favors members of Congress and their staff over other Americans, and should be eliminated.
“It’s a matter of basic fairness,” Johnson said. “It’s also a matter of standing up, ensuring that we actually enforce the rule of law because, let’s face it, this president across the board is pretty well just ignoring his ignoring his constitutional duty,  his oath of office to faithfully execute the law.”
Johnson said Congress has tried the legislative route to getting rid of the subsidy, such as amendments in the House and the Senate, but they failed. Johnson said since lawmakers exhausted all their legislative options, they must turn to the courts.
Johnson also said he hopes getting rid of the subsidy will show Democrats the reality of ObamaCare.
“The only way they are going to start changing this law, the only way they are going to start repairing and limiting the damage is if they feel the full, harsh realities of the law and that’s another thing this lawsuit would actually accomplish,” he said.

global warming?

Capitol Hill vote on unemployment benefits delayed

A preliminary Senate vote to extend unemployment benefits was postponed Monday night after the extreme cold across much of the country prevented some senators from traveling back to Washington.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- who vowed to make the vote his “first item of business”upon returning to Capitol Hill from winter break -- rescheduled the vote for Tuesday.
The bipartisan bill to extend long-term benefits to 1.3 million unemployed Americans will cost $26 billion and needs 60 votes in the Senate on its way to a final vote.
However, Reid will need at least four Republicans to votes yes in the 100-member upper chamber, which has 45 Republicans, 53 Democrats and two Independents, who typically vote with Democrats.
Eighteen senators missed the vote earlier Monday night that confirmed Janet Yellen as chairman of the Federal Reserve, which appeared to make the jobless benefits vote too close for Reid, whose decision to postpone received unanimous consent.
Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, among the Senate Republicans considered likely to support the bill, said Monday that she got a call in the morning from President Obama looking for her support and that she would vote yes in the first round.
But whether she would cast a final vote in favor of the extension was unclear.
Collins told Fox News she would like to restructure the unemployment program, particularly linking the extension to job training for workers in dwindling industries and that she expressed her disappointment to Obama that Reid was not allowing amendments.
Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, another Senate Republican who was considered a possible yes vote,  suggested Monday afternoon he is against the extension because the spending is not being offset by cuts.
Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he will vote against the bill, as expected.
“Unfortunately, this bill is being jammed through, has not been considered in committee and will not be able to be amended on the floor,” he said. “Spending [billions] in three months without trying to find ways to pay for it or improve the underlying policy is irresponsible and takes us in the wrong direction.”
The money for Americans unemployed for at least six months was cut from a budget deal passed in late December, but not before Republicans made clear they would not restore the money unless Democrats agreed to the so-called offsets.
Reid and Obama have led the Democrats in calling for passage of the legislation that is sponsored by Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller and Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Jack Reed.
“Instead of celebrating the beginning of a new year on January 1, more than a million Americans …were left wondering how they would feed their families,” Reid said Monday on the Senate floor before delaying the vote. “I hope a few reasonable and empathetic Republicans will join my colleague from Nevada and help us advance this bill today.”
The extension faces an even more uncertain future in the Republican-led House, where leaders say the cost must be offset.
"I would like to find a way to get a compromise to extend unemployment insurance, at least for a brief period of time, but at the same time, the Democrats should make compromises," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told CBS on Sunday.
Critics of the plan also argue the benefits have been in place longer and paid out more than in past recessions.
Obama earlier called the cuts “just plain cruel,” and is scheduled to give a White House speech Tuesday, surrounded by unemployed Americans, to push for the benefits.
Restoring the money appears critical to Democratic lawmakers who need to energize core voters in the midterm elections, which typically have low voter turnout. It also is part of their large, emerging pl

Romney accepts MSNBC host's apology

     
 Bailey comment:  "Seems like someone up there in the ranks has a little class"!

A day after MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry issued a tearful on-air apology to Mitt Romney for joking about his adopted black grandson, the former Massachusetts governor accepted it as "clearly heartfelt."

“I recognize that people make mistakes," Romney said on "Fox News Sunday." “And the folks at MSNBC made a big mistake. They’ve apologized for it. And that’s all you can ask for.”

On her show last week, Harris-Perry showed the Romney family Christmas card: a photo of the family and his grandchildren — including Kieran, an African-American child adopted by one of Romney's sons. Harris-Perry and her guests then joked that it was the 2012 Republican nominee's "token" attempt at diversity.

On Saturday, Harris-Perry apologized. "Showing the photo in that context, that segment, was poor judgment," she said. "Adults who enter into public life, implicitly consent to having less privacy, but their families, especially their children, should not be treated callously or thoughtlessly. My intention was not malicious, but I broke the ground rule that families are off-limits. For that I am sorry."

“People like me are fair targets," Romney said on Sunday. "If you get in the political game, you can expect incoming. But children, that’s beyond the line. And I think they understand that."

He added: “I think it’s a heartfelt apology. And for that reason, we hold no ill will whatsoever.”

Also Sunday, Romney, who managed the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, said he's confident the upcoming games in Socchi will be safe from a terrorist attack.

"I'm convinced, the case of a nation like Russia, they have the resources to do their very best to protect people from that kind of attack," Romney said.

I’m madder than hell and I’m not going to take it anymore

• Posted by Dan Short on January 4, 2014 at 9:00am
• View Blog

I’m yelling at the top of my lungs, I’m madder than hell and I’m not going to take it anymore. We all should know this little refrain. Yet how many of us are so damn fed up we are throwing open our windows, shouting into the street, and telling the world, this is insanity—we as a nation do not deserve this!
How anyone in their right mind, not some hallucination of smoking marijuana and retarding their minds ability to think, cannot and is not beyond screaming about the attack occurring on this nation is beyond me. Today, thanks to not only the leadership of the dumbest man to ever walk upright on this planet, but a congress that has no more idea of this nation’s design that----? There is no one anywhere else on the face of this planet that doesn’t understand this nation more than the absolute ideocracy of the actions and proposals of this nation’s political parties. I mean ‘both’ political parties, the communist dyed in the wool Democrats, and the damn ignorant communist light of the Republicans.
When I think of this nation’s wonder, I wonder what in the hell are the people, the citizens of this nation thinking. How can any society, of people who profess to be civilized, who make the façade they are homo sapiens—with the ability to think and reason—elect the cause of our demise, the political parties that are politically motivated for their own self-interest than this nation’s wonder.
Every American, who is part of our society—you work providing goods and services—trading you wealth…your life…in exchange for earnings, exchanging your life for currency wealth of transfer can sit idly by while the government is stealing all they can is inconceivable. The government in every way possible uses the corruption of economics to steal from each and every individual every single second, of every hour, of every day and year of your life. While the government is indebting, your progeny into debt they will never be able to pay!  Reducing our society to slaves of the government, and the citizens, the people of this nation do not react is beyond the reasoning of rational man.   
This nation isn’t ignorant, or are we? The man who developed the communist design of destroying this nation—John Maynard Keynes—told us how it works. ‘The design is simple, for the process engages all the hidden force of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million can diagnose!’  What tripe, anyone, any man or woman who has watched the absolute debauchery, the destruction of the value of wealth by this administration and this congress that cannot identify how it destroys is in cognitive of reality? Who in the hell is so ignorant to not realize that the prices of groceries hasn’t been going up exponentially since this absolute disgrace has been elected. Your electric bill, has it gone down? I won’t even mention the absolute fiasco of the medical servicing destruction occurring, for if you don’t know that you can qualify as a Coloradan—worrying about legalizing marijuana so you can destroy your ability to think—than the reality of living in this world.
It ain’t even begun. The bureaucratic communist attack of central planning on the books designed for initiation this year will make the last 5 years of tragedy seem like an interlude of serene calm.
Well I’m not going to take it! I’m going to do everything in my power—shout at the top of my lungs, refuse to acquiesce, lie down like the spineless Republican Party and imitate a door mat. I’m standing with Dwayne Stovall.
You see, Dwayne Stovall as Texans do, has followed the path first identified by Colonel Travis at the Alamo. Travis’s request was simple, while identical with the same position that Swayne Stovall is taking today, ‘if you stand with me, you stand for Texas, and you stand for this nation cross this line and join me.’
We don’t have to meet in San Antonio and man the walls, but what we must do is just as important. We must become the agents for this nation’s preservation. We must be the campaigners to wake up the ignorant, the naïve, and the complacent to the danger this nation is in. We also must open our wallets; contribute our wealth, of our exchange of life for currency, to fight the powers of the political parties. For the political parties only put up their puppets for the political parties self-interest, the hell with Texans, the hell with this nation. As long as their greed, their crony capitalism, their debaucher of the monetary value of this nation satisfies their wants—and their wants only.
You have a choice; you can stand idly by and watch the government through taxation steal the wealth in your wallet. Alternatively, you can become pro-active and cross that line, stand with Stovall, and do every damn thing you can to insure the ‘Preservation of This…WONDROUS…Nation.’
Cross that line, learn “HOW TO KEEP THE GOVERNMETN FROM STEALING FROM YOU!’ Remember that after March 4^th, if we don’t succeed, this nation will once again have a senator from Texas not for Texans, but for the Political Party of acquiescence, the door mats of the current communist intrusion destroying this nation.
http://texansforstovall.com/12_steps_to_beat_government_theft.pdf  
My names Dan Short,
I not only approve this message, I wrote it.
I’ve not gained any position of our society by government dictate advancing inequality. I’ve not been allowed into Harvard where I smoked marijuana, and studied Marx. However, I’ve learned that the last thing this nation requires is any damn fundamental transformation.
I also know, that I stand with any American who stands for the ‘Preservation of this Nation.’ For if you don’t you are as much of an enemy to me—as any other enemy this nation has, foreign or domestic.