Wait'll He Discovers Obama's Plan For Immigration "Reform"

David Bonior, former Dem Congressman from Michigan, takes to the NY Times to decry Obama's push for expanded free trade authority. Why? Because free trade costs America jobs and increases income inequality:

Obama’s Free-Trade Conundrum

By DAVID E. BONIOR

WASHINGTON — IN his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Obama focused on reversing the growth of economic inequality in the United States and restoring the American dream. At the same time, he also announced his support for fast track authority that would limit Congress’s role in determining the content of trade agreements.

...

But Mr. Obama’s desire for fast-track authority on the T.P.P. and other agreements clashes with another priority in his speech: reducing income inequality.

This month is the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which significantly eliminated tariffs and other trade barriers across the continent and has been used as a model for the T.P.P. Anyone looking for evidence on what this new agreement will do to income inequality in America needs to consider Nafta’s 20-year record.

While many analysts focus on the number of jobs lost from Nafta and similar pacts — and some estimates say upward of a million — the most significant effect has been a fundamental change in the composition of jobs available to the 63 percent of American workers without a college degree.

 

He then offers a number of arguments that apply with equal force to the Democratic plan on immigration:

 

The Labor Department’s Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which documents this trend, reads like a funeral program for the middle class. More than 845,000 workers have been certified under this one narrow and hard-to-qualify-for program as having lost their jobs because of offshoring of factories to, and growing imports from, Mexico and Canada since Nafta.

The result is downward pressure on middle-class wages as manufacturing workers are forced to compete with imports made by poorly paid workers abroad. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly two out of every three displaced manufacturing workers who were rehired in 2012 saw wage reductions, most losing more than 20 percent.

The shift in employment from high-paying manufacturing jobs to low-paying service jobs has contributed to overall wage stagnation. The average American wage has grown less than 1 percent annually in real terms since Nafta, even as productivity grew three times faster.

But the decline in the wages of workers who lost a job to Nafta is only part of the story. They joined the glut of workers competing for low-skill jobs that cannot be done offshore in industries like hospitality and food service, forcing down real wages in these sectors as well.

Even Paul Krugman has touched this progressive third rail and admitted that waving in unskilled workers from abroad depresses the wages of the native unskilled. It does improve the lives of the non-natives, and that ought to count for something in the moral calculus, but similar issues arise when discussing NAFTA.

But in DemWorld it is "free trade"=bad, "more unskilled workers"=good. A baffling contradiction! Of course, the unskilled workers finding jobs abroad can't vote Democratic here.

Comments

[[email protected]]

Canadian workers poorly paid?

In re: Nafta, I thought that the shift of auto plants to the south was a consequence?

[[email protected]]

to the US South...not Mexico.

>>>But in DemWorld it is "free trade"=bad, "more unskilled workers"=good. Of course, the unskilled workers finding jobs abroad can't vote Democratic here.<<<

think Flathead had some big think piece recently that could be summarized by that sentence.

[Dave (in MA)]

http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/30/dhs-seizes-21-6-million-in-fake-nfl-merchandise-arrests-50-involved/

Not sure that's what I'd consider "Homeland Security".

[[email protected]]

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/wealthy-top-one-percent-economy-finance-102833.html

We f'ed up, we trusted you.

[Dave (in MA)]

OT: Fellow MA JOMers,

http://www.metro.us/boston/news/2014/01/30/new-transpo-borrowing-bill-would-rename-south-station-the-mike-dukakis-transportation-center-at-south-station/

Part of your 3¢/g tax increase.

Related: http://www.tankthegastax.org/ (They came up with the "tank" thing long before it was decided to name the choo-choo station after Pee Wee.)

[Threadkiller]

The point is, there are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments and are moving this country forward. They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams. That's what drew our forebears here. It's how the daughter of a factory worker is CEO of America's largest automaker -- (applause) -- how the son of a barkeep is speaker of the House -- (cheers, applause) -- how the son of a single mom can be president of the greatest nation on Earth. (Cheers, applause.)

http://m.washingtonpost.com/politics/full-text-of-obamas-2014-state-of-the-union-address/2014/01/28/e0c93358-887f-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html

[Threadkiller]

Is your ear ok, rich?

[[email protected]]

perforated ear drum and sinus infection. lucky me I had to push around some equipment last night and think I made it worse (basically doing something the doc told me not to do). and shove some ear plugs in because of some really loud noise.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Take care of your ears rich-- you only get one set for free.

[narciso]

Does the doctor know what he thinks caused the perforation,

[Truthbetold]

Clarice

Your latest article on Plamegate concedes that P2P was right and FBI Director Robert Mueller was also involved in what you describe as a "Conspiracy to Conceal"

Clarice Feldman believes Dick Armitage is a liar, except….
http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2013/11/18/clarice-feldman-believes-dick-armitage-is-a-liar-except/

So now, by your own account, the State Dept., DoJ and FBI were all involved in the conspiracy.

Anything you would like to say about your most recent theory Clarice?

[Ignatz]

--waving in unskilled workers from abroad depresses the wages of the native unskilled. It does improve the lives of the non-natives, and that ought to count for something--

How's about the government do its job of looking our for its citizens first and worry about enriching the 6.7 billion rest of the world later?

[Marlene]

OT...fed prosecutors are asking for the death penalty for Tsarnev. I'll be listening to Howie Carr for any commentary.

[lyle]

...fed prosecutors are asking for the death penalty for Tsarnev.

If that doesn't bring a wave of marriage offers from the Cambridge area loonies, I don't know what will.

[centralcal]

Just read a report on Twitter that Sandra Fluke is seriously considering running for Waxman's seat.

Too funny!

[MarkO]

Is Waxman aptly named or what?

[Beasts of England]

Speaking of Latinate plurals, Ig, today in the Washington Post, Eric Wempe used meae culpae.

[anonamom]

Sooooooooo OT now--but I wrote this morning, when it was only a bit off topic, and then we lost internet---
It was 15 minutes of my life!

RE: healthcare/insurance/costs/benefits

Disclaimer: I am woefully undereducated in economic theory, but have been unable to avoid reading about this for the past 25 years in every medical journal I pick up, and having been in the field for thirty five years (I was a child when I was accepted into medical school--truly), so I have seen what increasing government regulation, which leads to insurer regulation which always follows the government lead, has done. As well as the deterioration of that bottom quintile in oh so many ways over that time.

1. Over thirty per cent of health care costs are driven by fears of malpractice suits. Not the cost of malpractice insurance; the constant worry that some lawyer will be ruining your life for years with a frivolous suit over a bad outcome. So, you order the head CT or MRI for the patient who comes in to your ER with a two month old headache, that began right after she learned her boyfriend was sleeping with her sister, whether or not it's covered, because Federal law allows everybody who walks through the door of an ER with a claimed emergency to be treated.

That right there is damned expensive. And causes hospitals to charge $25.00 for that aspirin to pay for that kind of ridiculousness.

Studies from Oregon show that giving certain people Medicaid coverage INCREASED their use of ERs, not decreased it, as one would think. As happened in Massachusetts under Romneycare. (Oh, why did he not own that, point out its failures, and say "Be happy we just did this just for one state, not the entire country.""
I wrote and told them to do that...)

So, if you want to control costs, it must start with major malpractice reform. Either special courts, making plaintiffs pay for all costs if they lose, caps. Which Vermont realized, and made the number one item in their current attempt to go single payer.
Only it's already been defeated---but they are going ahead anyway, which means it will be an expensive fail.
Don't move to Vermont.

Next driver of costs--the 70% of costs that are essentially related to lifestyle decisions--smoking, drinking (to excess, which is defined as more than the doctor drinks ;-) ), not getting off the couch, and as most of you seem to grasp, eating excessive processed carbs.
If you live in Michigan and you happened to have the mindset that the world owes you Cadillac health care fostered by having the grand good fortune of living in the most prosperous economy in the world ever---having functioning factories on rail lines post WWII yielded the highest per capita wages for eighth graduates ever, and we've already had the discussion about how health insurance became a tax-favored form of compensation, you never paid a cent for a doctor's visit or for a drug, until about three years ago, if you belonged to the UAW. Probably the same for their white collar employees as well.
Guess what state has the highest rate of overweight and obese citizens???

MUST HAVE SKIN IN THE GAME. I mean, why bother to even learn about taking care of yourself. let alone do it, if you can take pills, shots and have stents put in to deal with the consequences?

So---need HSAs for "routine" health care, with the ability for people to keep the residuals each year, to let the market begin to play its role here, and get people to take the daily responsibility for their health they should.

Support these with tax credits if need be. Because not getting TB or preventing a flu pandemic or diptheria IS a defense issue, from my point of view.

That brings us to "catastrophic" care--the stuff insurance should cover. Let it be portable, unrelated to employment--so either no tax break for employers, or the same tax break for all. Whichever works, do it.

I can go on, but you can see that the ACA has NOTHING to do with reforming health care, or controlling costs, or supporting advances, in any way, shape or form.

It is about destroying it by taking over 15=% of our economy, to be distributed by those in power.

[lyle]

Sandra Fluke is seriously considering running for Waxman's seat

Makes sense. She's into free birth control and his face is the surest, most reliable form of it.

[henry]

anonamom, clear, concise, and better grasp of econ than Krugman (low bar, but Nobel anyway).

[GMax]

With Waxman gone, I think the title of ugliest legislator falls indisputably to Barbara Mikulski. Any arguments?

[Keep thinking, and communicating with the poobahs.]

Good stuff, anonamom. I knew a fella whose doctor once told him: 'The fact that I smoke has nothing to do with my duty to tell you not to smoke.'

[Ignatz]

--Just read a report on Twitter that Sandra Fluke is seriously considering running for Waxman's seat.--

She's gotta be some kind of sick nympho if she has some interest in chasing his arse.
Please God, someone give her some contraceptives if she ever catches him.

[Ignatz]

--With Waxman gone, I think the title of ugliest legislator falls indisputably to Barbara Mikulski.--

I always thought they were the two ends of one animal.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Mikulski-- ugliest winner... by miles.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Immigration-- Krikorian has a comprehensive analysis on the NRO Corner. Agree or disagree with his judgment, I think it's worth reading to understand the realities of immigration 'reform'.

[Ignatz]

--Speaking of Latinate plurals, Ig, today in the Washington Post, Eric Wempe used meae culpae.--

Forgot to mention I think I'm as bad as you in this area, Beasts. Another pet peeve is the improper pronunciation of the Greek, and presumably Latin, "ae".

My long suffering wife had a very effective method of pulling my forearm hair when I became too much of an irritating pedant.

[centralcal]

Uh, sorry, but have you all forgotten about Rosa DeLauro? Mikulski is ugly, but Rosa is more flamboyantly ugly, so I think she wins.

[lyle]

Which makes me curious, Ig. How IS that pronounced? Like, ulnae.

[boricuafudd]

anonamon, well said. Lifestyle choices or lack of are the main problem. But the Prog position is that you should live as you like and do what you want without fearing or even considering the consequences of those decisions.

Its not fair that the rich and famous can live that way and not everyone else. If they get fat they can get lipo or bariatric surgery. If their hearts are clogged they can get stents, etc. Is not fair that they can have unlimited sex without concern about getting pregnant or STD's.

[clarice]

In a rare moment of disagreement, cc, I call a tie.

[lyle]

I'm going with DeLauro. McCaskill isn't too far behind, though.

[narciso]

seriously, winning the future;

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-michelle-obama-to-do-touchdown-dance-on-puppy-bowl-show-20140128,0,3449207.story

[narciso]

Waxman has the classic Nosferatu, whereas DeLauro,
traditional Ferengi,

[lyle]

Oh, Jesus, narc. If that isn't the final sign of the apocalypse, what is? Is nothing sacred? Not even...the Puppy Bowl.?

[narciso]

Btw, Rick, re Amanda Knox, how do you say 'star chamber' in Italian,

[narciso]

this will precede the coming of Gozer, lyle.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

DeLauro?-- I've always categorized her as 'other'.

[Beasts of England]

Let's declare DeLauro the winner, centralcal. And hope that Ig doesn't feel the need to post a reminder photo. ;)

[Ignatz]

Did someone say Rosa DeLauro?

OK, yes that was way meaner than anything rich said about Chris Christie. Sorry...a little.

[[email protected]]

narciso a sinus infection getting into my ear.

[Jim Eagle]

narciso,

Similar to espanol: Camera di stella.

BTW, What are the odds that DHS applies their new powers (See Dave's 2:10) to blog comment sock puppets? Am I going a bridge too far?

[[email protected]]

clever Iggy clever. now to find some ugly jokes...

http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/30/the-rules-are-the-rules-government-shuts-down-11-year-olds-cupcake-business/

When reporters approached Amy Yeager, a health department spokeswoman, about the county’s decision to shut down Chloe’s business, she said that she was doing it for the sake of the public.

[narciso]

those were very damaging images to my psyche so on short notice, the costar of the Fleming docudrama,

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/lara-pulver/images/26625859/title/lara-pulver-photo

sorry to hear that rich.

OT, is Amanda Knox really that attractive specially in a small town in Italy,

[lyle]

I'm just surprised that the moppet cupcake vendor wasn't subjected to a full body cavity search. Or maybe the spokeswoman elided that fact...for the children.

[rse]

ATL update-schools closed again tomorrow to "do an evaluation on our facilities and equipment."

In other words, there is still a parked school bus at the bottom of the hill. Apparently true all over and a ridiculous number of cars still in streets.

[narciso]

I saw that, why didn't they move the vehicles, at least some of them,

[Rocco]

OT...fed prosecutors are asking for the death penalty for Tsarnev. I'll be listening to Howie Carr for any commentary.

Now won't a trial implicate the CIA? Well, that conspiracy nut, Sibel Edmonds claims the CIA ran the Tsarnaev boys.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/sibel-edmonds-cia-ran-tsarnaev-brothers.html

[matt]

Free trade has me buying 1-2 lb. flats of Chilean blueberries for $7.99 in the middle of winter when we wouldn't get them otherwise.

That's one that stands out.

Frankly, I would never, ever give Korea free trade status. Their market is so rigged it is incredible. Make them pay extra to sell here as far as I'm concerned. At least the Chinese have allowed a huge number of American companies to operate more or less freely there. Not so much at all in S. Korea.

[rse]

narciso-I have no idea. Interstates are clear. You can walk to this point from the med ctr station, yet the car's still just sit.

I was just telling Red that when her dad took me to train station this morning he had left car in street so driveway ice could not be a problem. I had a cup of hot tea. We are driving there and he informs me that the steam from tea is refreezing in the 11 degree air. Or at least fogging windshield.

The only good news about the cancelled trip is discovering that lots of people were driving to the various sites. There does seem to be an increasing hunger to explain what is wrong. Especially if a joke can be woven into the story.

[narciso]

Even more then Japan in the 80's, matt.

[narciso]

clever, clever strategy. Wile Coyote concurrs'

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/01/30/rnc-thats-it-were-boycotting-msnbc-until-its-president-apologizes/

[Old Lurker]

LUN is for Hit.

Ain't technology grand?

[Jim Eagle]

rse,

Want to bet those cars belong to long commutes? Probably got home by hook or crook and now don't feel much like trudging back to Atlanta to retrieve them. That or they were all previously stolen")

matt,

Argentina and Chile last year had very cold weather to start their spring/summer and our Publix didn't have blueberries for a month as a result. But $7.50 for a flat is a steal. I pay that for a pint in Florida.

[Jeff Dobbs]

That's awesome, OL. You won't catch me ice fishing, though.

They should have drones drop t-shirts at baseball games. Surely less dangerous than the rocket launchers they use now.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

Anonamom,

Nice job. I've wanted to work on malpractice reform for years having seen that stuff from 3 perspectives: As a claims adjuster, as a risk manager and as a lawyer. I will say doctors, lawyers and insurers all do a terrible job on some aspects of that stuff. Docs are told to never say "I'm sorry" which is so ridiculous because being sorry is not the same as committing malpractice. Reality is, people hesitate to sue people they like. Insurers wait far too long to settle a case. They should have an adequate handle on many cases within 6 months enough to know where it is going. And lots of lawyers have no idea what constitutes malpractice and what doesn't and care less.

It's a ridiculous industry.

[clarice]

Chilean fruit in midwinter is a glorious treat to those of us who grew up in the Midwest in the 40's and 50's when oranges and apples and bananas were the only winter fruits.Ditto Israeli vine on tomatoes--Remember those pink clods your mom said were "hothouse tomatoes"?

[Truthbetold]

Clarice

What are your thoughts on Scooter securing a pardon for Mark Rich?

[cathyf]

That brings us to "catastrophic" care--the stuff insurance should cover. Let it be portable, unrelated to employment--so either no tax break for employers, or the same tax break for all. Whichever works, do it.

The fundamental problem is that insurance itself can not be individual -- there is that step when you calculate the risk where you divide by the square root of N-1 -- if you are a "group" of one then the risk is infinite.

What employment-based health care does is to form groups which are based upon something other than health status. It allows different employers to form different groups and to be the customers of different insurance companies, and drop one insurance company and go with another insurance company if they think the new insurance company has better prices/service.

If insurance is individual and not employment based, if your mother had arthritis and your father had diabetes then the Acme Insurance Company doesn't want you for a customer. If insurance is for a whole company then in order for Acme to fire you as a customer they have to drop the whole company as customers.

If insurance isn't about risk, then there is no risk premium, and no way to make money -- the only way that a transaction takes place is if the product is worth more to the buyer than to the seller.

[Jim Eagle]

TBT,

Do you recognize these?

[Ignatz]

--If insurance is individual and not employment based, if your mother had arthritis and your father had diabetes then the Acme Insurance Company doesn't want you for a customer.--

Is that a theory or a fact?
There are millions of individuals with individual policies almost all of whose parents suffered from various maladies.
Even pre existing conditions for the insured are grandfathered in after 18 months or so even before Barrycare and that was already part of the premiums we were paying.

Moreover what prevents groups of individuals or health insurance companies from forming their own groups rather than employment based ones?

I find the arguments regarding the necessity of employer based healthcare tenuous and unconvincing.

[From Clinton, no less.]

Tbt drones near the root of Fitz's mania.

[Beasts of England]

Moreover what prevents groups of individuals or health insurance companies from forming their own groups rather than employment based ones?

Has a type of health insurance cooperate (for lack of a better term) for unassociated individuals been tried before? I seem to remember something along those lines...

[narciso]

Well Fitz was very particular, he went after Conrad Black, who along with Murdock, is the most pro American publisher around, they went after Libby who has an op ed in today's Journal, because they needed the air of Nixon, and Armitage was willing to betray the one who saved his bacon,
a dozen years before, no good deed, as Starr found out with Moldea, whose project he shepherded past
the libel courts,

[anonamom]

Re: insurance groups. Yes, definitely need a pool to make it work.

You form/chose your own pools---your church, your fraternal or professional organization, AARP, whatever.
It does not have to be related to your employer, and I'd argue, should not be, with most people's current lack of long term single employer.

And we do need to deal with supporting long-term bad outcomes
too.

[Old Lurker]

Is not my individual policy with BCBS just that? I bought it without being a member of a group, though I know BCBS bundles all of us together. They also sell regular group policies to, well, groups.

[Jim Eagle]

Should JOMers apply to BCBS, Aetna or United as a group? Since none of us smoke, drink, stay up late, stress out, do anything dangerous like flying, logging or skiing, we should get a pretty damn good rate.

What do you all think?

[pagar]

Off to the side of JOM we have the Memeorandum
articles. Today they have the Salt Lake City story about the lunch room staff taking away the lunches from students who have no money in their account and throwing the food away.

On another thread I had posted the national debt problem that Rep Waxman has contributed to since he has been in Congress.

"trillions in debt "

US debt when Waxman was elected to the US House.

$475,059,815,731.55

http://www.polidiotic.com/?page_id=361

US Debt today!

17,340,977,500,900.00

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Democrat Waxman didn't cause it all by himself. He had help.

Congress has contributed to almost 17 trillion dollars of debt that your children and grandchildren are going to have to pay someday. Almost all the 17 trillion of US debt occurred on Rep Waxman's watch.

Rep Dingel has been in the US house 20 yrs longer than Rep Waxman. Rep Conyers 10 years longer.
Millions of our Children and grandchildren are not going to have our opportunities because of the debt that has been racked up by US Congress members, IMO.

[GMax]

Health insurance has some unobvious difference from life and liability insurance? Cuz all other forms of insurance are sold to individuals and somehow the risk is spread to all policyholders without the need for a corporate group.

[GMax]

The WaPo wants to let the faithful down gently. Here:

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) announced Thursday that he won't seek reelection to Congress this November.

The lesson? Democrats aren't really counting on re-taking the House in 2014.

Waxman is the fourth top Democrat on a House committee who has either called it quits or opted to run for another office, and a fifth -- House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) -- said this week that he's still weighing his options.

In other words, about 20 percent of the people who stand to become chairmen if Democrats re-take the House are choosing not to stick around (there are 20 standing committees in the House) -- and possibly 25 percent, if Peterson calls it quits.

Debbie Does America is no longer loudly proclaiming they are going to run on Obamacare and retake the House either. I wonder why?

[GMax]

And if I have to give up drinking, keep your damn group health care plan!

[Threadkiller]

Congressman Tom McClintock voted No on HR 2642 today and issued the following statement:

 HR 2642 – Farm Bill: NO.  This bill spends nearly a trillion dollars over the next decade (roughly $8,000 per family) to continue massive subsidies to agribusiness and to support an out-of-control food stamp program.  Yes, it does away with the direct payments program that pays farmers NOT to grow crops.  But it replaces direct payments with a crop insurance subsidy that puts taxpayers on the risky end of a massive derivative scheme.  Proponents say it cuts the program by 1.6 percent (after ballooning 32 percent over the past five years), but if current high commodity prices return to historic averages, taxpayers will pay much more. That’s why most taxpayer groups oppose it. 

In a cynical attempt to pressure Western representatives, the House Leadership inserted a one-year extension of the PILT program, which compensates Western rural counties for local tax revenues they’ve lost because of excessive federal land acquisitions.  I strongly support PILT but cannot support the overall bill into which it has been placed.  

[narciso]

they really want to get us, to drink heavily;

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/01/30/here-it-is-house-gop-releases-its-standards-for-immigration-reform/

[Ignatz]

McClintock for President.

[Jim Eagle]

Holder is moving up my sleaze scale to compete closely with Schumer. One more hearing with Cruz, Lee and/or Paul and he could pass that grease ball with ease.

[Stephanie VIP shhhhh its fight club]

Life insurance is rated based on risk pools that the insurance company itself pools customers into. Generally they are preferred, standard, risk a, risk b, risk c, risk d, and declined. Each pool has a premium approved by the state that the company lumps you into based on the underwriting if your application. Each pool is also more expensive than the last with risk pool d approx 200z - 250 the premium of risk pool a.

The problem with this applying to health insurance is that the dems have sold the public on the idea that this US "unfair" as some conditions are hereditary and some congenital. Thus the whingeing that one-sided fits all is what should apply to health insurance with healthy people overpaying and sick ones underlying ad if that is somehow "fair"

[polly]

JiB, I am assuming you are talking "tongue in cheek" re your insurance observations. United IS AARP--so don't anyone go there!

[Beasts of England]

Since none of us smoke, drink, stay up late, stress out, do anything dangerous like flying, logging or skiing, we should get a pretty damn good rate.

Is promiscuity considered a preexisting condition? Oh, wait! No such thing under Obamacare. Thanks, JEF!

[Stephanie VIP shhhhh its fight club]

Ignore my typos.

This rating system I will add is also applied in liability, property, and auto coverage similarly. Too many claims will drive you into a higher risk pool for those coverages as will living in a high crime area, a tornado prone area, flood area, or hurricane area and applies to both auto and property for those risks.

There are grumblings that crime should not be a factor which if that happens expect theft to be removed from your auto and property coverage. It's unfair that minorities live in higher crime areas doncha know. RACIST

think of the push against these risk models as the banking equivalent of red lining which Oinkel Barack and the dems and Acorn used to collapse the housing market. Expect the same result when they move on big bad insurance companies too.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

OT from Dinesh D'Souza -

"Tonight, LIVE from Dartmouth: 7:30 PM ET. I am debating Weather Underground founder Bill Ayers. You can watch the livestream free by clicking here.

The topic of the debate is "What's So Great About America?" You can be assured that it will be a debate full of unexpected twists since Ayers's view of American influence in the world is so vastly different from ours."

http://live.dineshdsouza.com/

[John Belushi]

Sibel Edmonds' good buddy Phil Giraldi is part of a cabal called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Seymour Hersh claimed in an article called "The Stovepipe" that these disgruntled former CIA employees forged the Niger documents to bring Bush down.

[4JackisBack!2 (On His iPhone)]

I hope Dnesh asks Ayers how he got off his felony charges:)

[Extraneus]

Wow, college football player likes a man's anus.

I'm with Janet. Who gives a flying f*** what type of sex a college football player or anyone else likes?

Sheesh.

[Extraneus]

Mitt Romney Is the 2016 Republican Front-Runner

Sheesh again.

[Extraneus]

Here, Mitt.

REPORT: Boston Tops List for Doctor Wait Times with 72 Days...

[Ignatz]

6:48 = DOOM!

[Extraneus]

School seizes lunches from students and throws them away

On Monday, a district child nutrition manager was sent to the school to investigate a large number of students who had zero or negative balances in their school lunch accounts.

The school district says that on the same day, the district manager and the local school kitchen manager started making calls to inform parents of the negative balances.

On Tuesday, the calls to parents continued. When lunch time came, students who still had negative balances were told they could not have a full meal but were given a piece of fruit and a milk for lunch. The district says it does this so children who don’t have money for lunch can at least have some food and not go without.

The article doesn't explain what a "zero or negative balance" is.

[MarkO]

Preexisting conditions?

One of my favorite lines comes from a Peter DeVries novel, where a character excuses his bad behavior by describing his particeps criminis as "a preexisting infidelity."

[narciso]

Well let's test that proposition;

http://weaselzippers.us/170186-dem-rep-danny-davis-i-would-jump-off-the-tallest-building-in-chicago-to-support-hillary-clinton/

[MarkO]

Now that we know Romney was afraid to debate Obama, we should nominate him to find out if he is afraid of Hillary.

[Rocco]

I hope Dinesh asks Ayers if his wife planted the bomb that killed Police Sergeant Brian V. McDonnell

[Extraneus]

(Btw, I realize that lots of people here read Drudge, from whom all of my recent links were cribbed, but we traditionally don't apologize for how we roll.)

[MarkO]

This is not your father's internecine bloodletting:

A BuzzFeed story today quoted Republicans attacking fellow Republicans as racist. For example, an unnamed Southern Republican member of Congress implied that the racial anxiety of the conservative base was behind some of his or her colleagues’ opposition to the president’s immigration agenda: “Part of it, I think — and I hate to say this, because these are my people — but I hate to say it, but it’s racial.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/369981/divisions-have-begun-immigration-fred-bauer

[henry]

Yeah, he hate's getting in front of TV cameras. If that didn't work he'd have come out of the closet.

[narciso]

Well it could be Lindsey, or a few others who would go that far,

the Knox travesham which the Horde doted on, really seems like something out of the Python
'hungarian phrasebook ' sketchl

[Extraneus]

Where's Truther?

In France, a "Day of Rage" Protest On the Eve of the Holocaust Remembrance Day Features Ugly, Loud Anti-Semitism

[Captain Hate]

Now that we know Romney was afraid to debate Obama, we should nominate him to find out if he is afraid of Hillary.

Of all the dumbass things Top Men have done, this is about the only thing they haven't tried.

[boricuafudd]

Darn it Ext, just about to link to our enlightened betters across the pond and you beat me to it.

[Danube on iPad]

"the only way that a transaction takes place is if the product is worth more to the buyer than to the seller."

In a free market, both parties to a transaction are better off when it is concluded than they were before. Otherwise it would not occur.

[Extraneus]

California spends $1.37M on ObamaCare web stream featuring Richard Simmons

Facing a $78 million budget shortfall, California’s ObamaCare exchange has spent $1.37 million to fund an outreach video featuring exercise guru Richard Simmons gyrating on the floor and hugging a contortionist who is kneeling with his buttocks in the air.

The “Tell a Friend — Get Covered” campaign by Covered California features other celebrities Olivia Wilde, comic Billy Eirchner, Fran Drescher and Tatyana Ali. The centerpiece of the effort was an eight-hour live web stream that ran on Jan. 16.

None of the celebrities were paid for their work, Covered California said.

Uh... Then how did a web video cost them $1.37M?