DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Saturday, October 05, 2013
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Retires
The Air Force Lieutenant Colonel whose sexual assault case sparked national outrage is retiring. Former Aviano Air Base Inspector General James Wilkerson is leaving, possibly at a lower rank, Air Force Times reports. A military court had found Wilkerson guilty of sexual assault, but his commander overturned the verdict. That led to calls that military leaders be stripped of their power to change convictions of service members. The Air Force had given Wilkerson a show-cause notice asking him to retire or make his case for staying in the military.
FEMA Recalls Furloughed Workers
FEMA is recalling furloughed workers as the United States faces the first real threat of the hurricane season. Tropical Storm Karen is poised to hit the northern Gulf Coast over the weekend. It's unclear how many FEMA employees are being brought back, but the White House says President Barack Obama has told his team to make sure there are enough staff and resources to respond to the storm. Meteorologists say when Karen hits, it will fall somewhere between a hurricane and a tropical storm bringing heavy rain.
Bad Blood: Four Feuding Leaders
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid privately told fellow Democratic senators this week what he really thought of Speaker John Boehner.
“He’s a coward,” Reid angrily said, referring to Boehner’s private push for federal health care contributions for lawmakers and their staff. Boehner later backed legislation to end those subsidies in order to win points with House GOP conservatives. “He’s a coward!” Reid exclaimed.
Reid’s outburst — confirmed by several sources attending a Senate Democratic policy luncheon on Tuesday — is the latest example of how the relationship between the nation’s top political leaders is now brimming with acrimony, distrust and pettiness at a perilous time for the country’s economy. The government shutdown — the first in 17 years — is in its fourth day with no end in sight. With the Treasury Department saying it might not be able to borrow money as of Oct. 17, the U.S. and global financial markets are already starting to fret about what would happen if the country defaults on its $16.7 trillion debt.
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“He’s a coward,” Reid angrily said, referring to Boehner’s private push for federal health care contributions for lawmakers and their staff. Boehner later backed legislation to end those subsidies in order to win points with House GOP conservatives. “He’s a coward!” Reid exclaimed.
Reid’s outburst — confirmed by several sources attending a Senate Democratic policy luncheon on Tuesday — is the latest example of how the relationship between the nation’s top political leaders is now brimming with acrimony, distrust and pettiness at a perilous time for the country’s economy. The government shutdown — the first in 17 years — is in its fourth day with no end in sight. With the Treasury Department saying it might not be able to borrow money as of Oct. 17, the U.S. and global financial markets are already starting to fret about what would happen if the country defaults on its $16.7 trillion debt.
More
Fail Leviathan
It’s not a bug, it’s an undocumented feature.
As the woefully misnamed Affordable Care Act and its new online exchanges were rolled out this week, a weary nation received a reminder about the efficiency and effectiveness of government-run enterprise. The damned things just didn’t work. From Connecticut to California, Americans went online and check out such richly subsidized deals as were available under the new law — and one gets the distinct impression that a goodly share of those doing so were reporters and political activists — and they were greeted with the federal version of the Twitter “fail whale” — call it the Fail Leviathan.
But the Democrats had their talking points down. Everybody from the secretary of health and human services to the president himself cited Apple’s rollout of iOS 7, and the inevitable software updates that will follow, as a model of federal action. It wasn’t incompetence, they assured us, or inability, or lack of aptitude, just a few “glitches.” And soon, the story goes, we’ll have some updates, we’ll work out those glitches, and all things Obamacare will move with the intuitive ease of an iPad.
And a weary nation might wonder: Who plays Richard Williamson in this drama?
More
As the woefully misnamed Affordable Care Act and its new online exchanges were rolled out this week, a weary nation received a reminder about the efficiency and effectiveness of government-run enterprise. The damned things just didn’t work. From Connecticut to California, Americans went online and check out such richly subsidized deals as were available under the new law — and one gets the distinct impression that a goodly share of those doing so were reporters and political activists — and they were greeted with the federal version of the Twitter “fail whale” — call it the Fail Leviathan.
But the Democrats had their talking points down. Everybody from the secretary of health and human services to the president himself cited Apple’s rollout of iOS 7, and the inevitable software updates that will follow, as a model of federal action. It wasn’t incompetence, they assured us, or inability, or lack of aptitude, just a few “glitches.” And soon, the story goes, we’ll have some updates, we’ll work out those glitches, and all things Obamacare will move with the intuitive ease of an iPad.
And a weary nation might wonder: Who plays Richard Williamson in this drama?
More
Joe Biden Backs Park Ranger Who Stopped Vets At WWII Memorial
Vice President Joe Biden is proud of the National Park Service ranger who stood up to Rep. Randy Neugebauer at the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
On Thursday, video surfaced online of Neugebauer, a Texas Republican, angrily lecturing the ranger for setting up barricades to the memorial.
"I'm proud of you," Biden said, according to his office's Twitter account, revealing that the vice president had called the ranger to thank her for her service.
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On Thursday, video surfaced online of Neugebauer, a Texas Republican, angrily lecturing the ranger for setting up barricades to the memorial.
"I'm proud of you," Biden said, according to his office's Twitter account, revealing that the vice president had called the ranger to thank her for her service.
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House Approves Retroactive Pay For Furloughed Government Workers
Seeking to dent President Obama’s refusal to chip away at the government shutdown piece-by-piece, House Republicans passed a bill Saturday to guarantee all federal employees get paid after the government shutdown — including those who have been sent home and aren’t on the job.
The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Virginia Reps. James P. Moran, a Democrat, and Frank Wolf, a Republican, cleared without opposition on a 407-0 vote, marking a major bipartisan breakthrough. The bill, which now heads to the Senate, would ensure that tens of thousands furloughed government workers receive full back pay after lawmakers strike a deal to reopen the federal government.
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The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Virginia Reps. James P. Moran, a Democrat, and Frank Wolf, a Republican, cleared without opposition on a 407-0 vote, marking a major bipartisan breakthrough. The bill, which now heads to the Senate, would ensure that tens of thousands furloughed government workers receive full back pay after lawmakers strike a deal to reopen the federal government.
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Canadian Firm Hired To Build Troubled Obamacare Exchanges
A Canadian tech firm that has provided service to that country's single-payer health care system is behind the glitch-ridden United States national health care exchange site healthcare.gov.
GCI Federal is a subsidiary of Montreal-based CGI Group. With offices in Fairfax, Va., the subsidiary has been a darling of the Obama administration, which since 2009 has bestowed it with $1.4 billion in federal contracts, according to USAspending.gov.
The "CGI" in the parent company's name stands for "Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique" in French, which roughly translates to "Information Systems and Management Consultants." However, the firm offers another translation: "Consultants to Government and Industry."
The company is deeply embedded in Canada’s single-payer system. GCI has provided IT services to the Canadian Ministries of Health in Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Saskatchewan, as well as to the national health provider, Health Canada, according to GCI Group’s Canadian website.
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GCI Federal is a subsidiary of Montreal-based CGI Group. With offices in Fairfax, Va., the subsidiary has been a darling of the Obama administration, which since 2009 has bestowed it with $1.4 billion in federal contracts, according to USAspending.gov.
The "CGI" in the parent company's name stands for "Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique" in French, which roughly translates to "Information Systems and Management Consultants." However, the firm offers another translation: "Consultants to Government and Industry."
The company is deeply embedded in Canada’s single-payer system. GCI has provided IT services to the Canadian Ministries of Health in Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Saskatchewan, as well as to the national health provider, Health Canada, according to GCI Group’s Canadian website.
More
THE NUCLEAR OPTION: BEST. SHUTDOWN. EVER!
Fear not the shutdown, Republicans in Congress!
You are the supposedly conservative alternative in politics, and we are currently $16 trillion in the hole. The least you can do is stop spending so much money everyday to keep the vile beast going. Also, as the supposedly conservative alternative, you should be thrilled that all the "non-essential" bureaucrats have been sent home while our military remains at post.
For most of us innocent taxpayers, this suits us just fine. The only people who should be scared are the big government enthusiasts when the vast majority of Americans realize they didn't even notice the monstrous federal government had shut down; it shows the public they really don't need all of this nonsense that hurls us deeper and deeper into a abyss of debt with every passing week.
Yet being slippery politicians, Republican leaders in Congress cannot help but worry about the political fallout. They clutch their pearls and wrench their undergarments and fret over how badly Republicans lost the "blame game" the last time the federal government shut down in 1996.
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You are the supposedly conservative alternative in politics, and we are currently $16 trillion in the hole. The least you can do is stop spending so much money everyday to keep the vile beast going. Also, as the supposedly conservative alternative, you should be thrilled that all the "non-essential" bureaucrats have been sent home while our military remains at post.
For most of us innocent taxpayers, this suits us just fine. The only people who should be scared are the big government enthusiasts when the vast majority of Americans realize they didn't even notice the monstrous federal government had shut down; it shows the public they really don't need all of this nonsense that hurls us deeper and deeper into a abyss of debt with every passing week.
Yet being slippery politicians, Republican leaders in Congress cannot help but worry about the political fallout. They clutch their pearls and wrench their undergarments and fret over how badly Republicans lost the "blame game" the last time the federal government shut down in 1996.
More
NY TIMES: SOUTHERN STATES RACIST FOR REJECTING MEDICAID EXPANSION
The New York Times, in one more effort to paint the Southern states as hotbeds of racism, estimates that two-thirds of poor blacks and single mothers will be denied health insurance under Obamacare because the Southern states refuse to expand their Medicaid programs.
The Times adds that more than half of low-wage workers without insurance won’t get any, either.
Well down in the Times piece is this nugget: more than half of states in the United States have rejected Medicaid expansion, including Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin, which are hardly Southern.
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The Times adds that more than half of low-wage workers without insurance won’t get any, either.
Well down in the Times piece is this nugget: more than half of states in the United States have rejected Medicaid expansion, including Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin, which are hardly Southern.
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The Cheap Tricks Of The Game
The games politicians play: Barack Obama is having a lot of fun using the government shutdown to squeeze the public in imaginative ways. The point of the shutdown game is to see who can squeeze hardest, make the most pious speech and listen for the applause. It’s a variation on the grade-school ritual of “you show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.”
President Obama is not a bad poker player, but the man with all the chips always starts with the advantage (and he gets all the aces). He has closed Washington down as tight as he dares, emphasizing the trivial and the petty in making life as inconvenient as he can for the greatest number. It’s all in a noble cause, of course. Access to most of the memorials is limited, and often in curious ways. The Lincoln Memorial is easy to reach, with the streets around it remaining open. But the Martin Luther King Memorial is made difficult to reach, relegating it, you might say, to the back of the bus. Not very nice.
The Park Service appears to be closing streets on mere whim and caprice. The rangers even closed the parking lot at Mount Vernon, where the plantation home of George Washington is a favorite tourist destination. That was after they barred the new World War II Memorial on the Mall to veterans of World War II. But the government does not own Mount Vernon; it is privately owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. The ladies bought it years ago to preserve it as a national memorial. The feds closed access to the parking lots this week, even though the lots are jointly owned with the Mount Vernon ladies. The rangers are from the government, and they’re only here to help.
More
President Obama is not a bad poker player, but the man with all the chips always starts with the advantage (and he gets all the aces). He has closed Washington down as tight as he dares, emphasizing the trivial and the petty in making life as inconvenient as he can for the greatest number. It’s all in a noble cause, of course. Access to most of the memorials is limited, and often in curious ways. The Lincoln Memorial is easy to reach, with the streets around it remaining open. But the Martin Luther King Memorial is made difficult to reach, relegating it, you might say, to the back of the bus. Not very nice.
The Park Service appears to be closing streets on mere whim and caprice. The rangers even closed the parking lot at Mount Vernon, where the plantation home of George Washington is a favorite tourist destination. That was after they barred the new World War II Memorial on the Mall to veterans of World War II. But the government does not own Mount Vernon; it is privately owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. The ladies bought it years ago to preserve it as a national memorial. The feds closed access to the parking lots this week, even though the lots are jointly owned with the Mount Vernon ladies. The rangers are from the government, and they’re only here to help.
More
JERRY BROWN: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT DRIVER'S LICENSES 'ONLY THE FIRST STEP'
It's been a whirlwind month for Gov. Jerry Brown—four weeks in which the California chief executive's desk saw an anti-paparazzi bill and a bill to allow non-physicians to perform abortions, and he himself lofty praise in Rolling Stone.
The latest bill to pass his desk, granting illegal immigrants the ability to apply for driver's licenses in the state, is "only the first step" of a national movement, the governor told a crowd yesterday.
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The latest bill to pass his desk, granting illegal immigrants the ability to apply for driver's licenses in the state, is "only the first step" of a national movement, the governor told a crowd yesterday.
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They’ll Say The Cops Did A Great Job; They Always Do
Having had been in a number of “emergency” situations on Capitol Hill during my decade there, I feel safe saying I never felt so unsafe as when the pumped-up, tattooed, shorts-wearing, military assault rifle-toting Capitol Hill cops were trying to keep us safe. Like the time we were told a dangerous criminal with a gun was roaming the halls of Cannon Office Bldg and we were ordered to…wait for it: all leave our safe, locked offices and gather together in the main lobby of the building, fully exposed to the supposed assailant!
Of course we were the kind of office that questioned authority, so we kept our door locked, shut off the lights, and pretended the room was empty when the cops came pounding on the door. It made no sense. It turned out the cops manning the metal detectors were too busy chatting up the cute female staffers to notice that someone had walked through with a “gun” — which, being the day before Halloween, turned out to be a toy, some staffer’s stupid idea of a costume prop.
The evacuation plan in the first few years after 9/11 was practiced with some regularity, keeping us away from our jobs for hours at a time. Whenever the House was out of session, we could look forward to another evacuation drill, where the cops had the chance to yell at us to “KEEP ON THAT SIDE OF THE STREET!!!” as they fingered their assault rifles.
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Of course we were the kind of office that questioned authority, so we kept our door locked, shut off the lights, and pretended the room was empty when the cops came pounding on the door. It made no sense. It turned out the cops manning the metal detectors were too busy chatting up the cute female staffers to notice that someone had walked through with a “gun” — which, being the day before Halloween, turned out to be a toy, some staffer’s stupid idea of a costume prop.
The evacuation plan in the first few years after 9/11 was practiced with some regularity, keeping us away from our jobs for hours at a time. Whenever the House was out of session, we could look forward to another evacuation drill, where the cops had the chance to yell at us to “KEEP ON THAT SIDE OF THE STREET!!!” as they fingered their assault rifles.
More
Obama Forcing Shut Down Of Parks The Feds Don't Even Fund
Looking to cause as much pain as possible to the American people during this shut down, President Obama sent National Park Service (NPS) police officers to shut down hundreds of parks and historic sites that the federal government doesn't even fund.
We are all familiar with the barricades erected at the open-air WWII Memorial in Washington DC. Images of aged WWII veterans being prevented by armed NPS officials from entering the memorial were all across the media.
More
We are all familiar with the barricades erected at the open-air WWII Memorial in Washington DC. Images of aged WWII veterans being prevented by armed NPS officials from entering the memorial were all across the media.
More
Government Shutdown 2013: 'Completely Avoidable' Shutdown Scuttles Obama's Asia Trip
House Speaker John Boehner shot back with an assertion that "this isn't some damn game."
The White House had earlier called the partial government shutdown "completely avoidable" and complained that the disruption in federal agencies and governmental services was interfering with the president's efforts to promote trade and U.S. influence in emerging world markets.
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Mayor's Neighborhood Roundtable - Oct. 15
City of Salisbury, Public Works Director, Mike Moulds will speak about the river, about the Watershed Improvement Plan, and about making Public Works more responsive to businesses. Please join him on October 15, 2013 at 1pm in room 306 at the GOB, 125 N. Division Street.
BREAKING NEWS: Navy SEALs Raid Al Shabaab Camp
Navy SEALs raid Al Shabaab camp in Somalia; terror group leaders believed to be among those killed, but Pentagon unable to confirm whether head of Al Shabaab is among the dead.
Team Hillary Clinton Blames GOP For Park Closings
Hillary Clinton's shadow campaign for president has joined the administration in selling Obamacare -- and blasting Republicans for trying to kill it in the budget showdown that has closed the government.
Ready for Hillary, a group staffed and supported by former aides to Clinton and President Obama, just dispatched an email urging supporters to sign up at www.healthcare.gov. The email includes an Image of the site which, when clicked, reroutes to the Obamacare signup page.
The note also takes a slap at the GOP efforts to stop the Affordable Care Act, blaming them for the government shutdown and the closing of national parks.
More
Ready for Hillary, a group staffed and supported by former aides to Clinton and President Obama, just dispatched an email urging supporters to sign up at www.healthcare.gov. The email includes an Image of the site which, when clicked, reroutes to the Obamacare signup page.
The note also takes a slap at the GOP efforts to stop the Affordable Care Act, blaming them for the government shutdown and the closing of national parks.
More
On "Presstitutes"
As we’ve said on numerous occasions, politicians aren’t the only ones to blame for the rampant excess, corruption and dysfunction in American government at all levels.
Politicians and their corporate cronies/ welfare constituencies are simply taking whatever they can get (which is whatever they can get their hands on). The real enemy? A mainstream media establishment which has gone from complacent to accommodating to downright co-conspiratorial.
Summing it up perfectly is this excerpt from a post on the website Liberty Blitzkrieg …
“It has become abundantly clear in recent years that the mainstream media can not be identified as anything other that a collective of mediocre, corporate/government ass-kissing presstitutes,” the website notes. “Different media outlets cater to different special interests, but the end result is all the same. MSNBC for example is essentially a straight up PR outlet for the Democratic Party, while Fox News represents the neo-con arm of the Republican Party and the military-industrial complex generally.”
Wait … what’s a “presstitute?” Glad you asked …
More
Politicians and their corporate cronies/ welfare constituencies are simply taking whatever they can get (which is whatever they can get their hands on). The real enemy? A mainstream media establishment which has gone from complacent to accommodating to downright co-conspiratorial.
Summing it up perfectly is this excerpt from a post on the website Liberty Blitzkrieg …
“It has become abundantly clear in recent years that the mainstream media can not be identified as anything other that a collective of mediocre, corporate/government ass-kissing presstitutes,” the website notes. “Different media outlets cater to different special interests, but the end result is all the same. MSNBC for example is essentially a straight up PR outlet for the Democratic Party, while Fox News represents the neo-con arm of the Republican Party and the military-industrial complex generally.”
Wait … what’s a “presstitute?” Glad you asked …
More
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