Now They Tell Us! (ObamaCare, Ongoing...)

Philip Bredesen, Democratic Governor of Tenessee tells us that the ObamaCare subsidies make it very attractive for employers (such as the State of Tennessee) to drop their health care plans and dump their employees onto the federally subsidized exchanges.  That will be a budget-buster and a bit of a blow to those who actually believed Obama when he said people could keep your insurance if they liked it.

This is only news to lefties, of course, since righties had offered this criticism of ObamaCare before it was passed (some lefties came out of hiding after the bill was safely passed).  And since this appears in the WSJ it is written for the choir.

Still, the choir may need something to sing for another twelve days.

Comments

[Danube of Thought]

Bredesen treats subsidies as though they didn't cost anyone anything. He also seems to believe that every service provided for in these new exchanges will in fact be provided...by someone.

[PaulY]

But Bresdesen knows that TN might go broke if it did not take advantage of loopholes in ReidPelosi Care

[MarkO]

All I have to do is dream.

[Jack is Back!]

I thought it would only be "voluntary" in Old Rocky Top?

[Jay]

But you get to keep your doctor!!!!!

[Threadkiller]

Now, with the savings, Tennessee can afford fire protection without charging a subscription.

[philip]

he also believes this is the first step to single payer.after all employers drop health care. last two sentences in the article are key.

[hit and run]

Now, with the savings, Tennessee can afford fire protection without charging a subscription.

How much was the state of Tennessee charging for fire protection?

[Elliott]

Following The Arc From "Yes We Can" To "You Sit Thinking, 'You Know, Maybe. I Don't Know.' "

The arc of the Obamaverse is louche and bends towards ignorance...and foreign dignitaries.

[Threadkiller]

Sorry h&r, that should have included a “:-)”

It was a lousy reference to the ">http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2010/10/back-to-obion-county.html?cid=6a00d83451b2aa69e20134880bf2cd970c#comment-6a00d83451b2aa69e20134880bf2cd970c"> Obion County subscription fire service topic, where I got burned by my own source.

;-)

[Tully]

Governor Bredesen was sounding the warning horns long before the Obamites crammed this monstrosity through Congress. It was he who called ObamaCare "the mother of all unfunded mandates."

[Frau Modeschreck]

Aside: God bless Juan Williams channeling his inner Ann when he gave us "(Michelle's) got the Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going."
Of course, it got him fired.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

--Now, with the savings, Tennessee can afford fire protection without charging a subscription.--

Heh.

--The arc of the Obamaverse is louche and bends towards ignorance...and foreign dignitaries.--

Double heh.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Now, with the savings, Tennessee can afford fire protection without charging a subscription.

Okay, now I'm curious. Do you actually think the state of Tennessee runs the fire departments? Or did you just see a chance to be snarky and not think?

[Pops]

Obama never got to finish the sentence:

If you like your doctor, you can keep him; in your shed in the backyard because he's certainly not going to be able to afford to practice.

[hit and run]

TK:
Sorry h&r, that should have included a “:-)”

And I a heh.

Charlie:
Okay, now I'm curious. Do you actually think the state of Tennessee runs the fire departments? Or did you just see a chance to be snarky and not think?

I reject this false choice.

[Pops]

Fox News Sunday Wallace guy just pisses me off. I wanted to throw something at my TV when he went on whining about ...needing to raise taxes in order to pay for government programs and what would you cut.

First off Mr. Wallace, you need to understand there is a hug difference between TAX RATES and TAX REVENUE and in fact LOWER RATES can and has INCREASED REVENUE.

I thought the Republican should have just said, well, we are going to raised taxes on each loaf of bread by 1 million dollars. Then Wallace would say - BUT NOBODY would buy bread. My point exactly Chris, when you make engaging in capitalism too expensive through high tax rates, people tend to not engage in it as much.

Lower rates not only add revenue through more capitalist activity, but it also reduces the need for services as people get work rather then handouts.

Then he claimed we needed to raise taxes to pay for Social Security - but Social security already has a separate funding stream, it is an insurance program. Wallace didn't mention that his politician buddies stole the money out of the insurance fund while he stood by and watched, now he wants to come back to us for more money rather then throw the crooks in jail. Bernie Madoff is no different then Barney Frank.

Their stealing bot the social security fund and the Medicare fund and laughing in our faces. Its time to cut the size, scope and power of the feds.

The Republicans need to be smart though. When the Chris Wallaces say 'are you going to cut education?", the Republicans should say, absolutely not - because Chris, the Department of Education doesn't educate anyone. What we are going to cut are bureacrats, what we are going to reduce is a bloated government that has become a check weiting machine.

We are going to go back to allowing the states to run themselves and get the feds out of everybodies lives.

[Pops]

If the Republicans were smart, the first thing they would do is open the doctors office in the Capitol to Medicaid patients.

Let the Speaker, Barney Frank, and the rest sit in the waiting room with the normal schlubs.

[Danube of Thought]

"Do you actually think the state of Tennessee runs the fire departments? Or did you just see a chance to be snarky and not think?"

Why would anyone think those are the only two choices?

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

If the Republicans were smart,...they would hire you Pops.

and please, if Threadkiller or anyone else has a chance to be snarky,... TAKE IT! It is all that keeps me sane!!

[Pagar]

" Bernie Madoff is no different then Barney Frank."

A comparison of the two simply confirms that its always easier for the law to go after the little guy.

[Old Lurker]

Pops, I treat Wallace just as I do Anduril. I just switch to the History channel till it passes.

[Pops]

If the Republicans were smart, they would be running Obamas graph on National commericals...especially in the lying Harry Reid race:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_pOOiPE9atqM/SixHfmuFekI/AAAAAAAAAEU/ZsWCKkBj5zM/s1600-h/unemployment.jpg

This is Obamas OWN experts telling us that at worst Bush horrific policies would have resulted in 9 percent unemployment for a couple of quarters and unemployment would now be dropping down to 7-8 percent. THAT IS IF OBAMA AND THE LEFT HAD DONE NOTHING.

This entire story line about heading into a depression, etc. is a big lie and his own experts prove it.

http://michaelscomments.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/stimulus-vs-unemployment-october-dots.gif

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

This is on Drudge - "Republicans want NPR federal funding examined..."

I didn't click on the story, but I tell ya, I do not want NPR federal funding examined. I want it cut off. It should have been cut off long ago...even without this Williams brouha. Government shouldn't be in this at all.
They can't secure our borders, & they are screwing around giving our money to TV & radio stations. It's not their business.

[Jay]

in order to pay for government programs
During FY 2009, the federal government collected approximately $2.1 trillion in tax revenue..

If that isn't enough to fund it, then someone's compass is a bit off.

That is a staggering sum of money. And I'm sick of these people pretending more is needed.

[Threadkiller]

--"Okay, now I'm curious. Do you actually think the state of Tennessee runs the fire departments? Or did you just see a chance to be snarky and not think?"--

These choices are killing me. I guess my answer is: "I am a monkey in a tree."

Heh, :-)

[matt]

oh, and Obamacare is going save us billions and billions and billions.....

And don't forget the Nebraska and Louisiana Purchases! Oh, and the major Obama supporter special double secret optouts! And the death panels! And the rationed care! And all the poor people who are going to get their Medicare slashed....

Nope, don't worry about a thing, America.... you have been rooked by the best.....

[anduril]

Peggy Noonan is definitely on to something with her latest article: Tea Party to the Rescue: How the GOP was saved from Bush and the establishment--and from f*cking Cheney, too!

Two central facts give shape to the historic 2010 election. The first is not understood by Republicans, and the second not admitted by Democrats.

The first: the tea party is not a "threat" to the Republican Party, the tea party saved the Republican Party. In a broad sense, the tea party rescued it from being the fat, unhappy, querulous creature it had become, a party that didn't remember anymore why it existed, or what its historical purpose was. The tea party, with its energy and earnestness, restored the GOP to itself.

In a practical sense, the tea party saved the Republican Party in this cycle by not going third-party. It could have. The broadly based, locally autonomous movement seems to have made a rolling decision, group by group, to take part in Republican primaries and back Republican hopefuls. (According to the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, four million more Republicans voted in primaries this year than Democrats, the GOP's highest such turnout since 1970. I wonder who those people were?)

Because of this, because they did not go third-party, Nov. 2 is not going to be a disaster for the Republicans, but a triumph.

The tea party did something the Republican establishment was incapable of doing: It got the party out from under George W. Bush. The tea party rejected his administration's spending, overreach and immigration proposals, among other items, and has become only too willing to say so. In doing this, the tea party allowed the Republican establishment itself to get out from under Mr. Bush: "We had to, boss, it was a political necessity!" They released the GOP establishment from its shame cringe.

And they not only freed the Washington establishment, they woke it up. That establishment, composed largely of 50- to 75-year-olds who came to Washington during the Reagan era in a great rush of idealism, in many cases stayed on, as they say, not to do good but to do well. They populated a conservative infrastructure that barely existed when Reagan was coming up: the think tanks and PR groups, the media outlets and governmental organizations. They did not do what conservatives are supposed to do, which is finish their patriotic work and go home, taking the knowledge and sophistication derived from Washington and applying it to local problems. (This accounts in part for the esteem in which former Bush budget chief and current Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is held. He went home.)

The GOP establishment stayed, and one way or another lived off government, breathed in its ways and came to know—learned all too well!—the limits of what is possible and passable. Part of the social and cultural reality behind the tea party-GOP establishment split has been the sheer fact that tea partiers live in non-D.C. America. The establishment came from America, but hasn't lived there in a long time.

I know and respect some of the establishmentarians, but after dinner, on the third glass of wine, when they get misty-eyed about Reagan and the old days, they are not, I think, weeping for him and what he did but for themselves and who they were. Back when they were new and believed in something.

Finally, the tea party stiffened the GOP's spine by forcing it to recognize what it had not actually noticed, that we are a nation in crisis.

[Flounder]

"I thought the Republican should have just said, well, we are going to raised taxes on each loaf of bread by 1 million dollars. Then Wallace would say - BUT NOBODY would buy bread."

Strawman.

False choices are legion.

What choice is there but to buy food (bread, whatever).

If the fortune 100 have, through collusion and extortion, given us no choice but to pay the fixed-prices for goods, there are few options. You herald 'choice' as there they actually exist. Competition is a joke.

"Would you like paper, or plastic"

There's your choice.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Fox News Sunday Wallace guy just pisses me off. I wanted to throw something at my TV when he went on whining about ...needing to raise taxes in order to pay for government programs and what would you cut.

Pops, you need to watch more and listen better. Chris Wallace invariably asks his guests of whichever stripe the questions their opponents ask.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Why would anyone think those are the only two choices?

Tell you what. Go back and re-read what I said, and what I responded to, and think about it. You're a smart guy, I'm sure you'll catch on.

[Rob Crawford]

Stuff it, "Flounder".

[Flounder]

Ever noticed how some folks push the envelope on behavior and conduct, spoiling the freedom of civil people to pursue their lives when rules or laws are enacted to curtail spoilers?

The Free Market is a great concept until the Greedheads and White-Collar criminals get their grimy hands on an unwary and naive public.

'Let the buyer beware' is an exercise in futility when Corporations can operate under cover of night without fear of exposure. how can the Public discern products and services that do not abuse their good faith if such information doesn't reach the Common Consciousness?

The current state of the 'Free Market' certainly is not free of usury and manipulation.

Nothing is truly 'free'.

[Danube of Thought]

"Go back and re-read what I said."

I read it, and I quoted it. Apart from being exquisitely assholic, it struck me as a silly question posed with the intent to be insulting.

[Joey Tee]

"Would you like paper, or plastic"
There's your choice.

Dumb or Dumber? That was your choice. We know which one you selected, Flounder.

[Danube of Thought]

"If the fortune 100 have, through collusion and extortion..."

Price-fixing is a felony under federal law. Give us your evidence.

[Flounder]

"Give us your evidence."

There's the rub. Campaign donations run at inverse ratio to public information.

Are you really that naive?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Oooh.

I like it! We have someone who can quote latin and not realise it!

I really love the TAANSTAFL finish.

How that one like that can hear with ass cheeks pinching the ears is beyond me.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Apples, oranges, and tofu.

Excellent comparators.

Which pipe are you lookin' in, wizard?

Cleo switched to caffeine, it seems, or the DU tag-team has expanded the roster.

[Captain Hate]

Peggy Noonan is definitely on to something with her latest article: Tea Party to the Rescue: How the GOP was saved from Bush and the establishment--and from f*cking Cheney, too!

Except she didn't mention Cheney; Nooner still has a lot of explaining to do on how she was conned by Hope and Change before she can lecture anybody even when she lurches into the truth.

[Stephanie]

Tomahawk time?

LUN

Scalp hunting seems to be the order of the day and it's a goodun.

[otter]

Well it's not an unalloyed day, when the brain slug falls out, by cause of starvation, but she's still about three timezones behind
the curve

[Melinda Romanoff]

Oooh.

Here's some local debate action that's running counter to the polls.

Bonus points: Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, spontaneously, "disrespects" the League of Women Voters' moderator.

This is NOT, I repeat, NOT supposed to happen in Grayslake, IL.

I have hopes for my state...

[Jim,MtnViewCA,USA]

Several comments begin with "If Republicans were smart...".
I think we don't need to go any farther along those lines.

OTOH, I have talked to numerous people who got their latest healthcare signups with HIGHLY increased costs to the employee...just days before the election.
How smart is THAT timing?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Cap'n-

She needs to say that to keep the the cocktail napkin collections' expansion rolling.

God forbid she go straight home from the home office she's calling it in from.

[Janet...off the couch & sportin Tea Party chic]

Mel, that link is wonderful!!

[Captain Hate]

God forbid she go straight home from the home office she's calling it in from.

LOL; that explains it all

[McCloud]

I suspect Guvner Phil would like to pawn off the flop called "TennCare" in his own state (that has been rife with cost overruns and corruption). Maybe he figures the exchanges won't eventually lead to a single payer system nationwide, say "America Care", which will itself be rife with cost overruns and corruption along with diluted coverage for all. But Phil's pretty much an optimist.

[Melinda Romanoff]

One last missive before I turn in.

Juan Williams reponds, articulately, to NPR and adds some behind the scenes history that exposes the utter, vitriolic bias and hypocrisy that subsists the extreme left.

It takes a while to load because there is a lot of traffic to the site.

It's well worth the three minute read.

Because it shows the wheels are coming off the far left's wagon.

[cathyf]

Price-fixing is a felony under federal law.

Actually, price-fixing is impossible unless enforced by either law (the police powers of the state) or by organized crime. Cheating on a monopoly is an incredibly lucrative gift FROM the price-fixers TO the cheaters. The only way to keep the cheaters at bay is fear of prison or waking up with a horse's head in your bed.

[Melinda Romanoff]

And there are 95% supportive comments following the post.

All 1727 of them, about 40 a minute, at last gauge.

That's open and honest debate and respect for your foe.

I'm feeling pretty good about my fellow man right now.

And it needs theme music in front of the double funeral tomorrow.

So, G'night all.

[Melinda Romanoff]

cathy-

You never were on the floor, were you?

You missed the Fed games in the bond pit that exploded that ideal.

You get two or more people in a closed room selling something to someone else, a fix, in some form, will occur, when the "smart" guys get their crack at it.

Saw it, got the T-shirt.

[Frau Modeschreck]

Sweet dreams, Mel.

[Danube of Thought]

"Campaign donations run at inverse ratio to public information."

Let me be as kind as possible: this is a site for informed adults. You're in way over your head here.

[otter]

Speaking of which, look who is speaking out on the race, in the LUN

[Danube of Thought]

"Actually, price-fixing is impossible unless enforced by either law (the police powers of the state) or by organized crime."

Not really. It's true that large cartels, e.g. OPEC, inevitably erode as a result of the irresistible urge to cheat, and the sums to be made by cheating under the table. But there are countless instances of collusive pricing in the US that have been successfully prosecuted; the court records and law books are chock full of them. I defended a few of them, and there were hundreds more of them around the country when I was doing that kind of work.

And even the price-fixing cartels that do collapse do a hell of a lot of economic damage before they're finished.

[daddy]

"three timezones behind
the curve"

Speaking of being 3 time zones behind the curve, bah, French protestors.

Paris was calm and beautiful last night from my vantage point. Very easy to get into the Airport as it appeared there were far fewer arriving and departing flights than normal. Highway was also much less cluttered with traffic than normal and the usual hour ride to the Bercy hotel only took about 35 minutes. I suspect that's due to the petrol station shortages. Did spot some very long lines of cars queueing at gas stations, but other than that no big action or protest or smoking automobiles at all that I could see while driving in or walking around.

TV News has many shots of students with banners marching, but the really ugly stuff of cars burning and vandalism etc, and cops being semi-assaulted behind their plastic shields by stone throwers, all seemed to me to be actions perpetrated in Southern France, and not by old folks or Paris students or frustrated pensioners, but instead by the usual suspects---"Disenfranchised French Youth". And at the risk of being fired by NPR and having The View gals up and walk out on me, from the video coverage I'm seeing the serious vandals do not appear to me to be ethnically akin to Gerard Depardieu and Brigit Bardot. Instead I think if you were to pull an Inspector Renault (Claude Raines) and "round up the usual suspects in Casablanca", that quaint North African Islamic town in Morocco, you'd be close to the mark of identifying the perps. (Oh no---there goes Whoopie and Joy! Girls, come back.., please, but don't be in too big a hurry about it.)

Anyhow, enough of anecdotal knee-jerk racist Islamophobia.

And BTW, if you absolutely, positively do feel the need ">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/8078612/Aircraft-crashes-after-crocodile-on-board-escapes-and-sparks-panic.html"> to ship an alligator over night, could I politely recommend you consider Ground Transport as the way to go?

[daddy]

If only we could get ">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8077455/Smell-O-Vision-TV-developed-by-Japanese-scientists.html"> this technology to work here at the JOM blog next time you guys go off on one of your "recipe sharing" benders.

[JM Hanes]

daddy:

I loved this bit from an article in der Spiegel which purported to be about "Obama's Lost Magic" but quickly devolved into the usual anti-populist carping. Somebody clearly turned in his copy before France lost its magic too:

The older, conservative German demonstrators who have recently been taking to the streets to protest against the controversial "Stuttgart 21" railway station project are the product of demographic change and their own fears. But the German protesters look absolutely harmless compared to America's hate-mongers, gun freaks and Tea Party demagogues who first compare Obama to Hitler and then minutes later to Stalin.

LOL.

[DrJ]

DigiScents tried that in the late 1990s/early 200s. They went broke. Not that it isn't a good idea. LUN for an archived link to their idea.

[Clarice]

It is amazing how little Europeans understand of the US.

[matt]

daddy;

That was actually a scene from Hollywood's latest derivative drivel, a new Samuel L vehicle called "Gators on a Plane".

He was supposed to parachute onto the wing, thereby stabilizing said aircraft and then kung fu gators #1 and #2 into matching Samuel L brand luggage. Gators #3 and #4 were to be barbecue'd in the turboprop exhaust, while there was a recurring role for a SAG connected python who had been screwed on residuals on the last flic.

Unfortunately, it all went awry when someone opened overhead compartment #1 instead of the specially rigged stunt compartment #2, and instead of the special effects rubber gator, a Nile Crocodile appeared without his union card. The producers panicked that the Guild would shut the whole production down, thus kiboshing the whole affair.

[daddy]

JMH,

Am teamed with a very smart guy this trip married to a German girl.

We've been talking the entire trip about exactly this perverted view of America and Americans that many German's hold. He said just a few months back he had been for a 2 week visit to the In-Laws in country, but no more, as he just can't stand the continually mindless slamming of the American Right, based on nothing but German PC talking points. But what he does say of interest, is that always before, when the In-Laws were always slamming someone within Germany, it was previously the East Germans. But that as of a few months back, now their target is the Islamic population in the country. He said before that they were always using the word "Multi Kulti" to describe the wonderfulness of Deutsch assimilation, but that now they no longer sing that word out any more at all, and are well onboard with Merkel saying the entire experiment in Multi Kulti has been an epic failure.

So I'll show him your link above and he'll probably laugh and say it was written by his new relatives. And looks like the commenters all think the writer of that story is totally clueless about America, which he obviously is. Thanks for the link.

[Danube of Thought]

It's even more amazing how little they understand what they have done to themselves. Certainly the rioting Greeks and French haven't a clue: all they know is that they are entitled to have guaranteed government jobs, lengthy paid vacations, early retirement and free medical care. The question of how these things are to be funded does not occur to them, because they have been taught all their lives that they are simply entitled to them.

The UK and Germany are about to come to grips with the same problems. We are not far behind.

[daddy]

Matt,

That's a croc!

[daddy]

Am way behind on the threads, but when is Gloria Alred going to sue NPR for wrongful termination of Juan Williams? That I'd love to see.

[daddy]

An interesting development:

Alaska">http://www.adn.com/2010/10/21/1513138/democrats-threaten-to-sue-over.html">Alaska Democrats are threatening to sue the state, alleging election officials are trying to influence the outcome of the U.S. Senate race by illegally providing voters a list of write-in candidates.

Story says that the director of the state Division of Elections says he thinks its the States obligation to send out lists of write in candidates to all the polling places. Dem's say they're doing more than that. Will keep you posted.

[bgates]

Juan Williams reponds, articulately, to NPR

And Juan Williams repeats his lie about Tim McVeigh being Christian.

[daddy]

Another interesting development:

Emmet Sullivan, the DC Federal Judge in the Ted Stevens fiasco, is now the judge hearing the case of ">http://www.adn.com/2010/10/20/1510862/polar-bear-battle-moves-to-federal.html"> should the Polar Bear in Alaska be officially declared an Endangered Species?

This one's got everything; Melting Ice Caps, Eskimo's, Global Warming, GreenPeace, Oil Industry bigshots, Fish And Game Bureaucrats, Salazar lying through his teeth, Center for Biological Diversity,...you name it. I doubt we'll get a resolution until Dru Barrymore solves the problem by testifying in front of Congress about her expertise playing an Arctic Wildlife Scientist in her 'soon to be a major motion picture', http://i40.tinypic.com/34q49ok.jpg "> "Everybody Loves Whales."

[peter]

Just got the slimes delivered. I wanted to end home delivery years ago, but the Mrs. insisted we keep subscribing, so we settled on the weekender as a compromise, and we do need occasional use of fishwrap and bird cage liner. Today's lead story is about that evil Chamber of Commerce. Then there is Krugman's theory that Britain's laying off of half of a million bureaucrats is because fiscal austerity is a fashionable fad and because David Cameron shifted from "hope" to "fear."
Then of course there is the advertising, including an ad for Harry's Shoes of the People's Republic of the Upper West Side (broadway and 83rd) who are now selling a shoe known as the "Hanoi." What could go better with a Che t shirt than a shoe model known as a Hanoi?
Personally, I am going to wear the Siberian Gulag, a demi-boot, as it is a bit chilly today.

[Cecil Turner]

And since this appears in the WSJ it is written for the choir.

You'd think, but remember that 2005 UCLA media study:

While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper's news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times.

I find myself noticing quite a few instances of liberal bias on Fox as well, especially in some of their straight news election coverage short bits. I suspect it's a result of amalgamation of a bunch of journalism-trained products. It's rather jarring when it comes in between the right-of-center analysis.

I'd like to see a study of who reads the WSJ, but I suspect it's more of a spread than one would think, if only for the sports coverage (hah: and you thought I was gonna say "financials").

[rse]

Mel, Rick, & others-

On page 193 in his ACORN chapter, Kurtz, after laying out ACORN's role in the financial meltdown of 2008, says this:

"It is very unlikely, I think, that ACORN could have anticipated the path by which its banking campaign helped to destabilize America's financial system".

I think he is wrong. Rathke and Stern may not have bot others like Soros and Rodgers and other hedge fund managers who knew that all these weaknesses had been put in place and how the secondary trading markets worked would have known.

They would also known either where a fuse was or how to create one.

Would love your thoughts.

Suspect ACORN and the Midwest Academy are really regretting sending their papers into historic archives.

[hit and run]

Jim,MtnViewCA,USA:
I have talked to numerous people who got their latest healthcare signups with HIGHLY increased costs to the employee...just days before the election.

Our open enrollment opens on Monday. Got the big glossy slick flyer in the mail from HR this week. In the bullet points about what is changing . . . "prices will be going up next year" is repeated several times. After a couple of the bullet points was an asterisk. At the bottom the asterisk said, "As a result of [ObamaCare]."

No word yet on how much.

Can't wait to log in and find out!

Monday is almost like Christmas.

[Janet]

OT - From the prayer chain at my church.

"One of our Operation Kindness leaders, Joanne Forch, has passed on a prayer request from her brother-in-law who has served twice in Iraq. He seeks diligent prayers for one of his former units. Please pray for "Darkhorse" 3rd Battalion 5th Marines and their families. They are fighting it out in Afghanistan and they have lost 9 Marines in four days. Repost PLEASE, get a prayer chain going.
...The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, and as we enter our tenth year of fighting in Afghanistan, it's easy to become complacent and have our attention and fervor for the troops distracted. We are all weary of war, but this is not a time to lose fervor and become complacent - "

Thanks...

[pagar]

Please help get the word out about the Pajamas Media plea if you know any military overseas. Want to hear from military voters.

If you really want to get your blood boiling!
In a story at the Washington Examiner, Rep Moran D-Va says: Serving in the Military isn't public service

"“What [Republicans] do is find candidates, usually stealth candidates, that haven’t been in office, haven’t served or performed in any kind of public service. My opponent is typical, frankly.”
However, Moran’s opponent happens to be Col. Patrick Murray (US Army-Ret.), who served 24 years in uniform, was deployed to four different combat zones, including Baghdad, as part of the 2007 troop surge under Gen. David Petraeus, and was even shot at by foreign combatants. If that isn’t public service, I don’t know what is."

[Melinda Romanoff]

rse-

I think they were planning to bring down the banking system through bad loans, that seems a no-brainer. To them it was just another "front" in the Cloward-Piven plan.

How it would transpire, I don't think they had a clue.

[Janet]

Moran is the worst...violent, anti-semitic, in cahoots with Murtha leaching pork out of DoD bills. He was on board for the phony "trials" set up with the anti-war kooks. He blames America for Haiti's disfunction. Alcoholism, domestic abuse,.....he's just the worst. A street thug in a suit.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Barry Ritholtz has the actual letter that Pimco, Blackrock, and FRBNY, dropped on B of A.

Please take note of Countrywide's (BoA) actions in paragraph 3.

The greed still abounds.

Thieves stealing from thieves, now.

[rse]

Mel-

In one of my earlier specialties I used to do a lot of work converting mutual S & L's to public companies, both sides on alternating deals. By 1987 as U counsel, we would do the due diligence and then have to tell the exec's that there was too much exposure to bad deals to go public.

Reading what was put deliberately into the 1989 bailout bill was sickening.

Phil Gramm had it right- "The special interest housing organizations that would profit from these provisions loudly promote them, but the people who will pay have been told next to nothing".

And pay. and pay. . . .

[rse]

The book points out that these ACORN supported provisions only passed by a margin of 2 votes and received special help from Joseph Kennedy, Barney Frank, and Nancy Pelosi.

So it's not just what he did with FNMA and Freddie Mac.

Go Bielat!

[hit and run]

http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/akbar_ahmed/2010/10/a_muslim_response_to_juan_williams.html?hpid=topnews>This explains it:

In this case, because the interview took place in the presence of Bill O'Reilly, I suspect that perhaps Juan Williams was so overpowered by O'Reilly's presence that it led him to make these remarks almost unconsciously.

That's from WaPo's "On Faith" blog,in a post titled "A Muslim response to Juan Williams",written by Akbar Ahmed: The Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University in Washington. Former High Commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain.

The level of brilliance is stunning.

[otter]

He is the one who coined Islamophobia, even though his nation's ISI along with Saudi General Intelligence, is responsible for most
of it

Btw, who got the list, hint

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

It just occurred to me that in 2011 there will be no Kennedy in either the House or the Senate.

If nothing else, I will celebrate that.

[hit and run]

Btw, who got the list, hint

I've been waiting for this day for a long,long time.

[TheVIMH: 365 days,you might say?]
You might!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NARCISO!

[Melinda Romanoff]

Happy Birthday Narciso!

[Captain Hate]

It just occurred to me that in 2011 there will be no Kennedy in either the House or the Senate.

Thank God for small favors; maybe Patches (and others) will be in rehab.

[Captain Hate]

And happy birthday, narc.

[Extraneus]

HB, Narciso!

[Janet the tea-vangelist!]

Happy Birthday Narciso!! God bless you!!

[Rick Ballard]

rse,

When have the commies not had a 'plan'? As Mel says, it's rather obvious that seizure of the investment banks was one goal. The great thieves of Wall Street sold them rope by the mile and threw in a forest of trees with which to build gibbets as well, for they too had a 'plan'. Bernanke also has a 'plan' and his plan is working about as well as the commies or the Wall Street thieves.

At the moment it appears as if the Muddle would as soon see a commie hanged as a Wall Street bankster, so the commies' plans appear to be about as successful as history would suggests they would be. Alternatively, there will be few tears shed should many, many more banksters meet the fate which they have so earnestly sought.

With a bit of luck we may get to see the commies run out of town on a rail and the collapse of the great houses of ineptitude on Wall Street. Perhaps 'cautious' will replace 'brilliant' as the adjective most valued when used in describing a banker entrusted with the care of OPM.

I can still dream.

[Rick Ballard]

Happy Birthday, Narciso. Thank you for all the effort you make and all the links you provide.

[Joy of the day and many moy.]

Compleanos complicate my calendar.
===============

[PD]

H.B., narciso, reader of the entire Internet.

[PD]

"Duh" headline of the day (from my local paper):

U.S. Clout in Iraq Dwindles

Did anyone suppose that leaving would have some other effect?

[Pagar]

Happy Birthday, Narciso. Couldn't say it any better than Rick B did at 09:23. I always check your links.

[otter]

Thanks all, not the entire internet, just the best parts of it. On Rick's point, the new
Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Niles, is one
of those barefoot bankster from Morgan Stanley, you know just folk, but he was a fundraiser for Hillary

[daddy]

Happy Birthday Bishop:)

In other news, this might make Mark Steyn's many JOM girlfriends mad.

Mark was to give a speech on Free Speech at the (LCC) London Convention Center in London, Ontario, but now he has been refused permission to talk.

"The reason offered by the LCC [in a Tuesday morning phone call] was that they had received pressure from local Islamic groups, and they didn't want to alienate their Muslim clients." ">http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Centre+refuses+host+Steyn+lecture+free+speech/3709430/story.html"> Centre refuses to host Steyn lecture on free speech.

[otter]

Oops I meant Nides, in the LUN

[centralcal]

Narciso: May you have a very happy birthday and many more to come!

[NK]

OH MY GAAAWD--

you mean Barry O was a lying sack o' stuff about ObamaCare? Nooo; he just didn't know what was in the Bill.

Cheers!