Monday, August 12, 2013

ROBERT HALL 08/12/2013 CONSERVATIVE DIGEST

Ramadan Scorecard for 2013

Attacks Around Baghdad Kill 69: Cafes and Markets Targeted as Holy Month Ends
Blood for Allah. Muslims slaughtering Muslims. ~Bob

The U.S. Health Care System Can Be Fixed Without ObamaCare
Excerpt: The U.S. health care system suffers from three structural flaws. First, it artificially inflates health insurance premiums for the healthy in an attempt to lower premiums for the sick. This encourages healthy individuals to reduce their insurance coverage or even exit the market entirely, driving up costs for everyone. Mandates to purchase insurance and penalties for lack of insurance can serve as cosmetic solutions, but they cannot erase this fundamental problem. Second, by relying heavily on open-ended fee-for-service public insurance, the present system rewards costlier high-volume care rather than higher-quality care. Third, the poor are funneled into a Medicaid system with reimbursement levels well below those of private payers. This relegates the most vulnerable groups in America to a separate and unequal health care system with more limited access and worse outcomes, say Tomas J. Philipson, a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and his coauthors. Philipson and his coauthors propose an approach to health insurance reform that promotes high quality, fiscally sustainable health care for all. Their solution is a departure from both the current system and the Affordable Care Act reforms that begin in 2014. The approach reorganizes U.S. health insurance around four principles:


County employees can earn twice as much as residents they serve
Excerpt: Nine out of 10 of the highest-paying county governments in the U.S. are in California -- the other is a wealthy New York suburb with an exceptionally high cost of living -- according to a Washington Examiner analysis of county employee compensation data.

Obama Administration Spends $500 Million on Green Energy Jobs that Don't Exist
Excerpt: A recent Government Accountability Office report revealed that the Obama Administration spent $501 million of taxpayer money on ‘green energy training programs’ for jobs that do not exist in the green energy sector.

Why the Cuccinelli vs. McAuliffe Race Matters to You, Even If You Don't Live in Virginia. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt
If you're one of those folks who believes that Mitt Romney was a RINO squish, and that Republicans always lose when they nominate RINO squishes, then you really, really, really need Ken Cuccinelli to win this year. If Ken Cuccinelli – Mr. Conservative Record – loses against a flawed competitor like Terry McAuliffe, in a purple state like Virginia . . . and simultaneously, Governor Hug-Obama-After-a-Hurricane-and-Move-Left wins in a landslide up in New Jersey . . . the message to the rest of the Republican party will be pretty clear. What you fervently believe – conservatives win, moderate squishes lose – will be refuted in the eyes of many Republicans. (Not on line, but you can subscribe to Morning Jolt. ~Bob)

First dog Bo is airlifted to Obama holiday home: When President Barack Obama goes on holiday to the seaside things can get complicated.
Excerpt: Bo, the president's Portuguese Water Dog, arrived separately on one of two MV-22 Ospreys, a hybrid aircraft which takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane.

The Osprey Has Landed. Mark Steyn
Excerpt: Among the many stories the prestigious American monodailies presently being unloaded at fire-sale prices don’t have room to cover is this heartwarming report from the London Telegraph — the First Dog and his entourage flying in to Martha’s Vineyard on his own plane:

Obama sends Osprey for Bo. Not for #Benghazi4.

Tweet from John Hayward @Doc-0
Remember when Obama said corporate jet owners were greedy fat-cat Enemies of the People? Now Obama's dog gets his own plane.

Let Bo ride on the press plan with the rest of Obama's pets.

Excerpt: Booker, the front-runner in New Jersey’s Senate race, received five checks from the Trenk DiPasquale law firm from 2007 until 2011. During that time, the firm raked in more than $2 million in fees from local agencies over which Booker has influence.

Leviathan Eats Its Tail: Municipal governments cut employees’ hours to avoid the Obamacare employer mandate. By Jillian Kay Melchior
Excerpt: So state and local governments, as well as school districts, are cutting back on hours for their employees to get around the added costs imposed by Obamacare.
As the Detroit News editorial page reported, 200 part-time and seasonal employees in Dearborn, Mich., will have their hours scaled back to 28 hours a week or less. The city’s mayor attributed the decision directly to the employer mandate. (Bet hey voted 90% for Obama. Elections have consequences. ~Bob.)

KUHNER: Who betrayed Navy SEAL Team 6?
Excerpt: Several days after the bin Laden operation, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. — in a pathetic attempt to spike the football and gloat — publicly revealed their central role in the raid. His revelations put a giant target on the backs of every Navy SEAL Team 6 member.

Does Obama White House Want To Dictate Who Lives Where In America?
Excerpt: If any question remained about the Obama White House's appetite for running everyone's life from Washington, it should be settled now. This administration even wants to dictate neighborhood makeup. (When I first saw this I figured it was some kind of satire, because no way the government was going to start telling people where to live. Alas, I was wrong, this is actually part of what the Administration is working on. Hopefully this will get laughed off the stage, no one will take it seriously, and the idea will just quietly fade away. The day they start telling us where to live is the day the Tea Party movement goes to 100X its size, and Congress will have a meltdown from the call, letters, e-mails, and all those people out there screaming in the street. This is just too stupid to go anywhere, but it does say a lot about certain people that they could even think of trying this. --Del)

Why I am a Republican

Delay Of Obamacare's Employer Mandate Exacerbates An Already Bad Situation. By Sally pipes
Excerpt: But in the weeks since, it’s become increasingly clear that the delay will provide little practical relief for businesses. Obamacare will still force them to pay more for health coverage. The delay simply gives them one more year to react — by cutting benefits, trimming hours, or reducing staff.

Excerpt: Want documentary proof that the Muslim Brotherhood created the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for the purpose of duping people into supporting Muslim supremacists? This document recovered from the Brotherhood — “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America” — was entered into evidence by the FBI during the Holy Land Foundation trial. (Novel coming true: The Hand of the Prophet: A Novel of Islamic America, 2053. http://www.amazon.com/Hand-Prophet-Novel-Islamic-America/dp/1478160535/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341609341&sr=1-1&keywords=Hand+of+the+prophet+R.A.H.)

Mich. Doctor Accused of Mistreating Cancer Patients
Excerpt: A Michigan doctor is accused of committing health care fraud after he allegedly mistreated cancer patients and bilked the government of millions in false Medicare claims, a federal complaint said. Dr. Farid Fata, 48, of Oakland Township, Mich., reportedly gave "unnecessary chemotherapy to patients in remission" and deliberately misdiagnosed patients in order to defraud the federally-funded health care program of approximately $35 million over a two-year period, according to the complaint. (Bilking the taxpayers - the perfect Obamacare doctor. – LLW)

It’s Not That He’s Liberal, And It’s Certainly Not That He’s Black. It’s That Obama Just Really Sucks At Being President. By Michael Graham
Excerpt: Which brings up the question: What has President Obama gotten right? I’m not trying to pick a fight. I’m really looking for an answer. (Worth passing on to your liberal friends, but you may never hear from them again, or alternately you may hear more nasty terms from them than you ever have before. --Del)

Obama Tells Veterans Sequester Puts Their Benefits in Jeopardy
Excerpt: Insane. How about quit sending money to the Muslim Brotherhood? There are billions of things we could cut, yet liberals want to make sure that the cuts hurt. (How about stopping with the million dollar vacations? How long are we going to let this "Pretender-In-Chief get away with this? --JB)

FBI: Al-Shabaab Released Video To Recruit Minn. Men For Jihad

Church Pastor's Niece, 10, Gunned Down Leaving Sunday School Class, Dozens Injured as Attacks Against Egypt's Christians Continue

20 Questions The Media Would Be Asking Barack Obama If He Were A Republican. By John Hawkins 
Excerpt: If the mainstream media were a college class, Republicans would be taking advanced calculus taught by a short tempered professor from South Korea with bad English, while Democrats would be taking remedial reading pass/fail. In other words, as long as liberals don't do anything to embarrass the Democrat Party, they get treated with kid gloves while all Republicans should assume reporters would just as soon punch them in the throat as ask them a question.

Darkhorse Marines from 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, three years later. By Gretel C. Kovach

Excerpt: Juan Dominguez and his bride Alexis exchanged vows on a warm evening this spring at a Temecula winery. The couple met a year after a bomb buried in the hard ground of Sangin, Afghanistan, blew away his legs and an arm. (The price of guerilla war in particular, with IEDs as the enemy's weapon of choice, is very heavy in terms both of the crippling of strong young men physically, and the buildup of stress as they learn to live with the kind of warfare being practiced. For those who've done multiple tours and lost many friends, as well as those who have lost major parts of their bodies, the remaining stress can become a terrible enemy of the mind. The long term effects mentally can be as or more disabling as the the physical effects. We owe these men more than our society can ever really repay. At the least, they deserve great honor and our continuing prayers for their lives to become stable and satisfying. They have earned it a hundred times over. –Del. I went to the wake for a 3/5 Marines here in Illinois at the time they took the worst hits. He was KIA on 11/10/10. ~Bob.)

What Terrorists Want. By Daniel Greenfield 
Excerpt: Liberals are great lovers of nuance. Ask an ordinary New Yorker who saw the planes hit the towers what the terrorists want and he will say, “To kill us all.” But to the left that is an excessive simplification that leaves out such key elements as American foreign policy, the role of automation in a global economy and the price of tea in China.

Home Office backs down over 'go home' vans after legal complaint: Government agrees to consult with local communities before embarking on such campaigns again
Excerpt: The Home Office has backed down in a legal battle over its vans warning illegal immigrants to go home….According to the claimants, the government has accepted it would in future need to have "due regard" to its duties under the Equalities Act, including the need to eliminate discrimination and harassment based on race and religion, as well as to foster good relations between people from different racial and religious groups. The vans have been criticised by campaigners for causing a "climate of fear", with Vince Cable, the business secretary, condemning them as "stupid and offensive". (Global push to remove established culture for…..it ain’t just happening here. –Barb)

Toward a Post-Racial Society -- or Maybe Not: Maybe it's time to acknowledge that we're all too stupid to talk on the subject of race. By Frank J. Fleming 
Excerpt: If anything, it seems that the election (and re-election) of the first black president has actually aggravated racial issues in America. If you want my opinion on why -- and you probably don't -- it's because we specifically elected a black president instead of a president who happens to be black -- i.e., his election was more because of racism than a triumph over it.

Branches of Military Battle over Shrinking War Chest. By Julian E. Barnes
Excerpt: Fights between branches of the U.S. military have erupted over responsibility for everything from drones to clocks as America's armed forces battle to keep their share of a shrinking defense budget. (I get a kick out of the Army wanting to base their choppers on Navy ships. The Marine Corps is going to jump all over that, for sure. But the whole idea of cutting the military back is scary to me, we've already done serious damage to all the military with the damned PC mentality taking over so much. And driving out what are probably some of the best young officers, to leave the politicians in place and gaining rank. Having all the 3- and 4-star generals be politicians instead of actual soldiers is a great way to drop the effectiveness of the military sharply, and guarantees a terrible price in blood if/when we are back in real combat again. Heaven help us. --Del)

The Fix’s 5 immutable rules of politics. By Chris Cillizza
Hall’s Laws of Politics: 1. The voters always want less taxes and more spending. 2. Citizens want honest politicians until they want something fixed. 3. Constituency drives out consistency (i.e., liberals defend military spending and conservatives social spending in their own districts).

Girl, 4, among 8 shot overnight
Three partygoers shot in Cicero
2 dead, 8 wounded in overnight shootings
8 shot in four hours overnight across Chicago
Think the TV this morning said two or three dead, many shot over the weekend. It kind of washes over you when you live in Chicago. The stories don’t mention the race of the victims or of the shooters—it never does unless the victims are black and the shooters white, which is rare. No word if any of the victims or shooters could have been Obama’s son, or if they were wearing hoodies to remember Trayvon. ~Bob

Army veteran kicked off North Wildwood boardwalk by police because of service dog
Excerpt: An Army veteran was kicked off the North Wildwood boardwalk and issued a summons Thursday because he was walking with his service dog, according to local police and a Florida news report. (I love the Jersey shore, but prefer Sea Isle or Ocean City to Wildwood. ~Bob.)

MO State Fair bans rodeo clown who mocked Obama

Hippies - Crying Over Dead Trees
Warning, hippies. Reality is coming. And it’s pissed! ~Bob.


Mark Levin's The Liberty Amendments. By Thoams Lifson
Excerpt: I must confess that I had some trepidation when starting to read it, for as the editor of American Thinker I turn down most submissions that propose amending the Constitution as a solution for what ails us. The reason is simple: amending the Constitution is deliberately difficult to accomplish, so changing it is a solution easy to propose and difficult to dispose. But Mark, whose body of work as a political thinker includes not just the significant tomes Men in Black, Liberty and Tyranny, and Ameritopia but also three hours a day of extemporaneous political talk on one the nation's most popular syndicated talk shows, is in a different category.

Obama, yesterday, on Putin's "slouch": Putin looks "like the bored kid at the back of the classroom." That's not boredom. That's contempt.

Slap Hillary Game Upsets Liberals Who Were Silent About The Slap Palin Game

WATCH: Proud Parent Posts Video of Child Praying to Barack Obama
I couldn’t watch. ~Bob

Excerpt: Ray Widstrand thought he had nothing to fear from moving into a black neighborhood on the East Side of St. Paul. This young white guy and aspiring filmmaker thought he had nothing to fear when he decided to take a Sunday night stroll through his adopted part of town. (When Progressives meet reality. ~Bob.)

Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo). Mark Steyn's Song of the Week
Excerpt: But despite shifting fashions it's endured longer than most pop novelties. Long before Godfrey Bloom, the British Defence Minister and indiscreet diarist Alan Clark, you may recall, used Bongo-Bongo Land as a synonym for a certain type of incorrigible African dictatorship, and undoubtedly got it from the song. But in 1947 African dictators were thin on the ground, so "Civilization" (to give the song its formal title) operated on a more innocent premise – the natives' inability to see what was so great about life in the heart of the metropolis:

Know Thine Enemy. By Mark Steyn
Excerpt: [Major Hasan] is not, in fact, a soldier. He is a shrink. The soldiers in this story are the victims, some 45 of them.

Matt Damon Slams Obama: "He Broke Up With Me"
Excerpt: "Jimmy Carter came out and said we don't live in a democracy. That's a little intense when an ex-president says that," Damon said, adding that Obama "got some explaining to do, particularly for a constitutional law professor."

Allen West asks why 'the usual race-baiters' are silent on bus beating. By Alex Pappas
Excerpt: West is referencing the July 9 attack — caught on videotape – of three 15-year-olds beating a student while riding a school bus. The attack was reportedly in response to the student telling on one of the attackers for trying to sell drugs. “Who leaked the information provided in confidence by the victim about the black teens selling drugs?”

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