White House tweaks law for health-plan purchases
Change will allow million to buy bare-bones policies next year
The Obama administration said Thursday it would allow millions of Americans whose insurance policies had been canceled to purchase bare-bones plans next year, in another 11th-hour tweak to the law likely to cause consternation among health insurers.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a group of six senators in a letter that people whose policies had been canceled because of new requirements under the Affordable Care Act would be allowed to purchase “catastrophic” plans. Those plans previously had been restricted under the new law to people under the age of 30 or those who qualified for a set of specific hardship exemptions.
Catastrophic plans generally have lower premiums than other plans but offer more limited benefits. They typically cover three primary-care visits a year and some preventive benefits, but beyond that they only cover large medical costs after a high deductible. Carriers offering them for the coming year already have cleared the plans with state regulators and set prices in the expectation that few people over the age of 30 would be purchasing them.
Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, Angus King of Maine, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota had urged Sebelius to allow the changes to the rules in a letter dated Wednesday.
The system is broken.
ReplyDeleteIn principle, Obama does not have the authority to change laws. In practice, since Congress rolls over for him, he does.
DeleteRufus will not be outraged.
ReplyDeleteMore affordable healthcare options, for more people?
DeleteNope, not outraged.
This is a long video. Give it ten minutes...
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete
DeleteAlfred Nossig was a Polish Jewish sculptor.
Following the Nazi German invasion of Poland, Nossig co-operated with the Abwehr.
While living in the Warsaw Ghetto, Al would provide regular reports to the Nazis.
This done during the deportation of Jewish residents to concentration camps.
Alfred Nossig was a Fifth Columnist.
bob
What I am getting has poor sound quality (or I have become noticibly more deaf overnight) A better quality video will be sought.
DeleteThe subject is one that needs a national spokesman, carrying the message from now to the election. It may be too late to rein in the bureaucracy, but the attempt should be made. Once more, America finds itself depending on the elan of a deeply conflicted Republican party, so we must not expect too much.
This is not just about Obama. It has been going on for some time.
ReplyDeleteA good argument could be made that the shift began just prior to the presidency of Wilson.
DeleteOut of a nation of 325,000,000, less than 200 people have watched this video. Distinguish your self.
ReplyDeleteI am 192 out of 325,000,000.
ReplyDeleteUmm, the internet is Global. How about "192 out of Seven Billion?"
DeletePaleolibertarianism and Hans-Herman Hoppe
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wnd.com/2013/12/apartheid-south-africa-reality-vs-libertarian-fantasy/
Iliana Mercer
Why South Africa is f**ked.
I will watch the video but it is going to be tomorrow.
Delete“You don’t rewrite it, censor it, or edit it,
to suit some warped view you have of the past and your own present.”
― V.T. Davy
AnonymousFri Dec 20, 04:31:00 AM EST
Delete...excellent article...
Ultimately, the rights to life, liberty and private property will forever be imperiled in a country whose constitution has a clause devoted to “Limitation of Rights,” and where redistributive “justice” is a constitutional article of faith. (P. 101)...
The unvarnished truth about democratic South Africa is that it is “now preponderantly overrun by elements, both within and without government, which make a safe and thriving civil society impossible to sustain.” (P. 4)
Although absolutely essential, free-market capitalism is insufficient to the task of tackling this tide of sinecured criminals.
I am half way through the video. It is indeed worth watching.
ReplyDelete
Delete“Bigotry is an odd thing.
To be bigoted you have to be absolutely sure you are right
and nothing makes that surety and righteousness like continence.
Continence is the foe of heresy.”
WASHINGTON Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will lead
ReplyDeletethe U.S. delegation to the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics next
year in Sochi, Russia.
The White House says tennis champion Billie Jean King and U.S. Ambassador
to Russia Michael McFaul will join the opening ceremony delegation. So
will figure skater Brian Boitano and presidential adviser Rob Nabors.
Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns will lead the closing ceremony
delegation. He will be joined by McFaul, Olympic medal-winners Bonnie
Blair, a speed skater; Caitlin Cahow, an ice hockey player; and Eric
Heiden, a speed skater.
King and Cahow are both openly gay athletes. Gay rights groups have urged
the Obama administration to use the delegation selection to make a point
about Russia's treatment of gays and lesbians.
"The U.S. Delegation to the Olympic Games represents the diversity that is
the United States.
Because everyone in the US is loud and proud.
Oh my Lord what next? They're got Quirk's hando fako lingo in the psycho ward. He is likely say ANYTHING in there. This is really bad news for Quirk-O. What if he says Quirk-O intentionally put him up to it to embarrass THE PRESIDENT? What if the administrative state makes it a priority to capture po' old Quirk? Thankfully for the time being he is with Hamdoon and I, in our safe house. We are discussing planting poor ol' Quirk-O on the Umatilla Indian Reservation with Jack for a year or so, until the next election. Not even the administrative state gives much of a damn about the Injuns, the freest folk in the USA. Or we are thinking of drumming up some overseas mission for Quirk alone. We have nothing on our plate right now, and Hamdoon and I are going to Vegas.
ReplyDeleteQuirk has been complaining that his kidneys ache, and that too is getting tiresome. We've been doing too much enabling on the vodka, but it calms his nerves temporarily. He sits and watches "The Young and the Restless" and dreams of his younger days, not that he looks a day over 45.
DeleteBad news for Jew haters here and worldwide -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/12/18/israel_s_demographic_time_bomb_is_a_dud_israel_arab_two_state_solution?
Foreign Policy
Israel's Demographic Time Bomb Is A Dud
Someone here always used to blab on gleefully that Israel was finished due to being out reproduced by the arabs.......what a disappointment this must be to that person.
And when you destroy American civilization that'll really show us.
Delete3rd Qtr. GDP increased at a Real Rate of 4.1%, annually.
ReplyDeleteLargely inventory-driven, but still . . . . . . .
California, alone, seems to be signing up 20,000 / day to Obamacare.
Delete<a href="http://acasignups.net/'>ACA Signups.net</a>
signups
DeleteRufus IIFri Dec 20, 08:44:00 AM EST
DeleteLargely inventory-driven, but still . . .
...a little slight of hand... :-)
DeleteThe man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic.
He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.”
And here is an excellent on topic article from the dreaded American Thinker concerning how badly The Won has misbehaved through his terms in office -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americanthinker.com/2013/12/can_we_talk_about_impeachment.html
Can We Talk About Impeachment?
Yes, we can, but alas, can do not much more than talk at his time.
President Obama: Worst President in USA history.
One loud screaming offensive misbehavior all the way through.
Delete
Delete“In you, Farmer Fudd, is the ability that will move you from nonentity and mediocrity ...
to an entity of meteority.
Take responsibility now!”
― Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
Here you go folks -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ_MGWio-vc
Pentatonix - Little Drummer Boy
A wonderful celebration in song of the Birth of the Hero/Heroine of my beloved Monomyth.
May we all find our way to be that new born King/Queen ourselves....
Delete“I regard monotheism as the greatest disaster ever to befall the human race.
I see no good in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam -
- good people, yes,
but any religion based on a single, well, frenzied and virulent god,
is not as useful to the human race as, say, Confucianism,
which is not a religion but an ethical and educational system.”
― Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal, a noted pedophile....
Delete"I know Buckley had a file on him that Gore feared," Steers said in The New York Times. "It would make sense if that material was about him having underage sex," he added. "Gore spent a lot of time in Bangkok, after all. Gore also had a very weird take on the abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests. He would say the young guys involved were hustlers who were sending signals."
DeleteBut he was published, and thus gained immortality.
As opposed to Anonymous ...
unnamed, unknown , nameless, incognito, unidentified, unknown, unsourced, secret
bob
Hitler was published.
DeleteSo what?
Gore Vidal will go down in history as a sexual predator.
DeletePublished and KNOWN for all eternity.
DeleteBut what you FAIL to understand, Farmer Fudd ...
Is the discussion is not really about Gore Vidal, the discussion is about ...
. . . . Monotheism . . . . .
By using the Ad Hominem, why you acknowledge the righteousness of Gore Vidal's argument.
Whenever the defenders of the indefensible ran out of rational arguments, personal attacks are rarely far. Personal or ad hominem attacks are fallacious arguments directly directed at a named individual which serve as substitutes for that individual’s arguments. In football terminology, they play the player instead of the ball.
heh, heh, heh
bob
AnonymousFri Dec 20, 10:18:00 AM EST
DeleteBut he was published, and thus gained immortality.
Publishing has nothing to do with "immortality". A handful of folk recall MYRA BRECKINRIDGE. On the other hand, billions have, do, and will use the Bible, an immortal book if ever there were.
They will do so in the hope of bringing themselves into compliance with its tenets of ethical monotheism.
ah, but there are those, like I, that seek to live outside of ethics.
DeleteI hide on bottom acres of others, after leading of life of being a hired killer, and sit and pass judgement on others.
Socrates, an ebullient pederast, published nothing. Yet, he remains highly regarded, secure on his pedestal among the pantheon of geniuses.
Deletedesert rat Fri Dec 20, 11:14:00 AM EST
Deleteafter leading of life of being a hired killer
Nothing in what I will write here is intended to be humiliating, confrontational, or sarcastic.
The road you travel is that of Cain. There is no forgiveness or pardon. Your bloody hands will never be cleansed. For the remainder of your life you will be haunted.
As you travel your road, you will meet others along the way. If you choose, you may judge them, denying that all men have feet of clay. By exercising judgment you will derive a moment's relief from your own guilt, but never for long and never with a sense of relief from the pain you suffer, informed by the ethics you have chosen for yourself.
There is a second choice, one illuminated by a tiny flicker of hope. It is a slender reed, to be sure, but that is the reality. If you use the pain of your experience to help others lighten the load of their own burdens of despair, there may be hope for peace at the end of your road. There will be no end to fellow travelers stumbling and struggling with their burdens, old men and young. Help them when you can, without judgment or prejudice, remembering always that your sins have stripped you of the right to condemn others.
It is possible that there are acts for which mercy may not be an option; but recall: Cain was not executed for the murder of his brother. Instead, he was sentenced to travel as a vagabond, with the screams of Abel always in his ears. How he chose to make his way, I do not know. But I am convinced that he could decide to make his journey one of good or ill, hoping that hope would be a generous guide back to the Garden.
The wars of the past decade have yielded a large harvest of broken men, body and soul. Your experience gives you the credentials to treat their anguish as no other medicine or person can. They wait for someone to say, “I do understand; you are not alone.”
.
ReplyDeleteI listened to a good portion of the video last night but was disappointed. It talked of things some here have talked about for years but did so at 30,000 feet. I fear most that are unfamiliar with these issues will find it boring. I blame the format, too many speakers, too little time for each one. Admittedly, I quit before the question-answer period which might have added some meat to the conversation.
The best part, IMO, was the moderator.
.
to pick up where we left off Rufus - you wrote:
ReplyDelete"Rufus IIThu Dec 19, 07:24:00 PM EST
The Gross Domestic Income (GDI) is the total income received by all sectors of an economy within a State. It includes the sum of all wages, profits, and taxes, minus subsidies. Since all income is derived from production (including the production of services), the gross domestic income of a country should exactly equal its gross domestic product (GDP). The GDP is a very commonly cited statistic measuring the economic activity of countries, and the GDI is quite uncommon.
In the United States, the Bureau of Economic Analysis produces figures for both the GDP and GDI. Although these should be equal, since they are calculated in different ways, in practice, the listed figures are different. This difference is known as the statistical discrepancy.[1]"
So? GDI is GDP but arrived at through a different method. Let me remind you that you originally wrote:
"So, back to the subject; If you had a total debt service of $208.00/mo, to go along with your $100,000.00/yr. Income, would you feel as if you were in a "Debt Crisis?"
If not, why would you assume that an entity, such as the U.S. Government ..."
Gross Domestic Product or GDI in your new formulation is a blunt instrument designed to measure all the activity of the nation as a whole. It represents the economy, the environment, that the ENTITY the US Government operates in. It does not represent the revenue of the US Government but rather the potential that entity has in raising revenue. In your example of the household it would be equivalent, say, to the economy of the State, or City, the individual earning 100k is in. If you are earning a 100k in, say, New York City you've got greater potential to earn more but, concurrently less room to save on expenses then if, say, that individual lived in Belmont Mississippi.
In short the income of the US government is not equal to the GDI. Rather, the GDI or the GDP represents the size of the economy the US government is operating in and thus, theoretically, its room to maneuver regarding its debt. That is why economists like to talk about the ratio of debt and deficit to GDP. Even then, especially in the US with such a large GDP, the US government is constrained in how much revenue it can raise. The politics don't allow it. Take, on a more local level for example, the moaning about poor schools yet most every education mill rate increase is voted down. In Italy where debt to GDP is around 127 per cent a technocratic president was injected in to rule but once the election rolled around he was turfed.
So, back to your example. GDP is not an equivalent measure to the Income of a family. Rather the receipts of the US government should be considered the equivalent with the GDP being the background which gives the US gov room to raise revenue, or not.
In any case, even if we accept the equivalency the debt is a problem due to the fact it has been incurred as an operating deficit in an environment of continuing deficit. To reverse this trend is difficult requiring, in my view, both cuts to spending and increases in revenue. A growing economy is still necessary for this to occur without much tumult. No growth and the current deficit and the problem resembles a crisis.
Meanwhile, Sweden is committing suicide -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/bruce-bawer/swedens-march-into-oblivion/
Sweden's March Into Oblivion
Idiots! Fools! Dumbasses! Morons!
Delete“Another lesson to file away about Sweden:
insulting other people in a childish manner was the national pastime.”
― Molly Ringle
ReplyDeleteUS plans “Gazafication” of the West Bank
Apartheid Wall and Cages
Jonathan Cook argues that in the current US-sponsored talks with Israel, “the Palestinian leadership is being cajoled into an agreement that would destroy any hopes of a viable Palestinian state”.
http://www.redressonline.com/2013/12/us-plans-gazafication-of-the-west-bank/
bob
Whackyopath is back at it again, early to rise.
ReplyDeleteHe is like that man that stands on the Clearwater Bridge, waving incoherently at the cars, saying the same thing day after day after day.
Since I've been up all night, time to hit the hay here.
*****
Great Little Drummer Boy eh?
Maybe the young generation isn't finished yet.......
:)
Really good I thought.
DeleteA raped girl is bad for the family: it shows that they can’t protect their women;
that they have little social standing; and that they’re not respectable.
It’s worse for the victim because once a woman, or a girl—or a boy—is known as the target of a rape she becomes so despised, so shamed, so worthless that she turns into public property.
No one is raped only once.
― Louise Brown,
The Dancing Girls of Lahore:
Selling Love and Saving Dreams in Pakistan's Pleasure District
This woman truly knows the truth of it
bob
DeleteEvery one here says the same thing, day after day, Farmer fudd.
Can you not grasp the metaphor?
You are dumber than a gnat on a rat's ass.
bob
Delete“If he is weak enough to grow smaller to fit himself to his covering,
then it becomes a process of gradual suicide by shrinkage of the soul.”
Obamacare signups are exploding. Up 300,000 overnight, to 1.3 Million Private (non-Medicaid) plans.
ReplyDeletesignups
The Gross Domestic Income (GDI) is the total income received by all sectors of an economy within a State. It includes the sum of all wages, profits, and taxes, minus subsidies. Since all income is derived from production (including the production of services), the gross domestic income of a country should exactly equal its gross domestic product (GDP).
DeleteSo, let's deduct federal taxes from "the sum of all wages, profits, and taxes minus subsidies."
DeleteThat leaves you with $14.1 Trillion.
That would make the percentage of debt service to the revised number approx. 3%.
Call it a "crisis," if you like. I'd call it a pretty good business plan.
Yeah, the income of the country as a whole not the entity called the US government which is the debt holder. See above.
DeleteThe administration decided to permit millions of potential users to purchase heretofore unacceptable policies. Since there are now no rules to the game, the score is meaningless.
Delete
DeleteThe entity that is the US Government REPRESENTS the PEOPLE of the country as a whole.
Each person being a stakeholder and their property being part of the country.
The Government has the right and obligation to regulate the property within the country, as it is the government holds ultimate title to the property, in the name of the people it represents.
In Israel only 7% of real property is even privately held.
In Idaho the private stake is 34%
But even when so little property is privately held, it is still the government that guarantees title.
The Government has claim to ALL the wealth and the Lives of the people it represents.
bob
In reference to the Fünfte Kolonne von Teamleitern
Delete"‘When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.'
‘The question is,' said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things."
‘The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master—that's all.'"
bob
Delete“Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property,
is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor,
or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.”
― Adam Smith
The gov may have a CLAIM to all the income of all Americans but in no way is that claim equivalent to the power and ability and everyday use an individual has in deploying his personal income.
Delete
DeleteIn Idaho the reality is that with the Federal and State Governments holding title to 65% of the land,
it inflates the value of the 'private' property of those of us that have some of it.
bob
DeleteWhile it is true enough that the space between private rights and public authority can
and often has disappeared. It is that space that one finds the true measure of a society.
;-)
Countries by total tax revenue as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP)
DeleteSweden - 45.8
France - 44.6
Italy - 42.6
Germany - 40.6
Canada - 32.2
United States (all levels) - 26.9
Korea, South - 26.8
Mexico -17
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP
Who has found the right measure of space?
bob
DeleteIsrael - 36.8
This is amusing:
ReplyDelete"Is there going to be a single person in 2014 that's going to pay the penalty? A single uninsured American that is going to end up paying the penalty in 2014 at this point?," asked MSNBC host Chuck Todd.
"Chuck, I can't talk to you about how many people are going to be subject to the penalty," said White House deputy senior advisor David Simas, sidestepping the question. "I can say that in Massachusetts, you saw a rapid decrease in the number of uninsured because when they had choices, people signed up. And that's what we're seeing today."
There is simply no one in government that understands how many laws there are.
ReplyDeleteAlmost anyone can be charged with a crime.
The head of the NSA testified that no one in the NSA knowingly or willfully broke US law.
Any citizen cannot use that same excuse or defense in a US Court.
A fourth branch of the government, call it the “Agency” is cranking out laws by the tens of thousands.
Congress and the President routinely ignore the laws or change them as they see fit.
Delete“The essence of fascism is to make laws forbidding everything
and then enforce them selectively against your enemies.”
― John Lescroart
You, on the other hand, watch your step!
ReplyDeleteOn the video, to Q’s comment: I agree the moderator was great and the video could stand some editing, but IMO is an accurate description of what we really are and where we are.
ReplyDeleteDecember 20, 2013
ReplyDeleteAn Uncertain Future Ahead for Fracking in Pennsylvania
By Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The highest court in Pennsylvania, heart of the country’s natural gas drilling boom, on Thursday struck down significant portions of a law that limited the power of local governments to determine where the industry can operate — rules the industry sought from Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and lawmakers.
In a 4-2 decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the industry-friendly rules set out by the 2012 law violated the state constitution, although the majority did not entirely agree on why they were unconstitutional.
Seven municipalities had challenged the law that grew out of the state’s need to modernize 20-year-old drilling laws to account for a Marcellus Shale drilling boom made possible by innovations in technology, most notably horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The process, also called fracking, has drawn widespread criticism from environmentalists and many residents living near drilling operations.
“Few could seriously dispute how remarkable a revolution is worked by this legislation upon the existing zoning regimen in Pennsylvania, including residential zones,” wrote Chief Justice Ron Castille. He said the law’s rules represented an unprecedented “displacement of prior planning, and derivative expectations, regarding land use, zoning, and enjoyment of property.”
The high court’s decision comes at a time when the energy industry is increasingly able to capture oil and gas from previously unreachable formations and, as a result, is bumping up against suburban and urban expectations of land use in states including Texas, Colorado and Ohio, where a similar legal challenge is underway.
The 2012 law restricted local municipalities’ ability to control where companies may place rigs, waste pits, pipelines and compressor and processing stations, although the new zoning rules never went into effect because of court order after the towns sued. A narrowly divided lower court struck them down in 2012, but Corbett appealed, saying lawmakers have clear authority to override local zoning.
Among the objectionable provisions cited by the lawsuit were requirements that drilling, waste pits and pipelines be allowed in every zoning district, including residential, as long as certain buffers were observed.
“It’s a tremendous victory for local governments, for local democracy, for public health and for the environment,” said Jordan Yeager, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers. “It’s a huge, huge victory for the people of Pennsylvania.”
The municipalities argued the zoning restrictions ran counter to objectives of protecting the environment, health and safety of people who live there, and three of the six justices agreed. A fourth justice ruled that the law violated the municipalities’ constitutional rights to due process to carry out community planning.
Environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers hailed the ruling, while Corbett, Republican lawmakers and industry groups responded with disappointment.
{...}
ReplyDelete{...}
“We must not allow today’s ruling to send a negative message to job creators and families who depend on the energy industry,” Corbett said in a statement, and pledged to continue to work to help the energy industry thrive.
The sprawling law also toughened environmental regulations and slapped a drilling fee on the industry, and top Republican lawmakers said they were unsure whether the decision will ultimately invalidate new protections around waterways and the fees that have generated hundreds of millions of dollars.
A lawyer for Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said Thursday the high court decision is a setback that will reopen the door to legal fights between municipalities and the drilling industry that the Legislature had sought to settle.
The drilling industry flocked to Pennsylvania in 2008 to tap into the Marcellus Shale, the nation’s largest-known natural gas formation. Companies quickly sought the changes as a top priority, complaining of a complicated patchwork of municipal rules and efforts by some municipalities to use zoning rules to effectively ban drilling.
Corbett and Republican lawmakers backed the industry, approved them over the objections of Democrats, who called them “corporate eminent domain.”
Castille said supporters of the law did not fully acknowledge its practical effects in light of the coal and timber industries’ checkered record.
“The commonwealth’s efforts to minimize the import of this litigation by suggesting it is simply a dispute over public policy voiced by a disappointed minority requires a blindness to the reality here and to Pennsylvania history,” Castille wrote.
He said the geographic diversity of the state means “protection of environmental values … is a quintessential local issue that must be tailored to local conditions.”
Justice J. Michael Eakin said he would have upheld the law and had concerns about the power the majority gave to the state’s thousands of local entities at the expense of the Legislature.
“Giving standing to some 2,500 sets of local officials to sue the sovereign based on alleged violations of individual constitutional rights is misguided, and will have precedential repercussions — I fear we will soon face a tide of mischief that will flow from such an ill-advised notion,” Eakin said.
Chief Justice Ron Castille is an interesting guy. I knew Ron years ago. We used to hang out at the same bars. He was an Assistant DA in Philadelphia. I think he was originally from New Orleans, but ended up at The Philadelphia Naval Hospital after being blown up in Viet Nam where he was a marine captain. He lost a leg and spent quite a long time in Philadelphia, got his law degree, and joined the Phila DA office.
ReplyDeleteHe got involved in politics, became the District Attorney and ran for major against Frank Rizzo. Rizzo dragged out some old charges that Castille would get loaded in a bar and wave his gun around.
No comment.
Anyway, he ended up on the PA Supreme Court as Chief Justice.
To the issue:
Castille is right about the checkered past of the timber and coal industry in PA. They devastated many parts of the state and I would not expect any better from the frackers.
.
DeleteThe ruling is welcome.
However, the part about the majority did not entirely agree on why they were unconstitutional is troubling. We have already seen the current court supports the government's right to eminent domain. The last ruling I recall was their ruling in favor of that town out east that took all that private property in order to build a commercial district. (Then after the houses were torn down we had a downturn and the property sat idle for years. Don't know what ever happened to it.)
Anyway, since we are talking big oil and big money, I wouldn't be surprised to see this one make it all the way up to SCOTUS. At that time the plaintiff's better have figured out why it is unconstitutional.
.
.
DeleteIn speaking specifically of the timber industry's "checkered" record, I saw an argument last night regarding legalizing marijuana. One of the proponents brought up the government's ban on hemp production. He claimed that hemp is a viable raw material to use for making paper and that it could easily be produced in the amounts needed for paper production. His argument was that if the law banning hemp production had never been passed, we could have saved ourselves the loss of old growth forests and the stripping of millions of acres of trees.
I never heard the argument before but found it kind of interesting. I'll have to do some checking on it when I get some time.
.
ReplyDeleteThat government is best which governs the least,
because its people discipline themselves.
Henry David Thoreau
DeleteJuricana
GOVERNMENT CLOSEST TO THE PEOPLE
The idea that
"the government closest to the people is the one that governs best"
has long been a staple of conservative Republicans in the U.S.
It was a favorite notion of Barry Goldwater and more recently of Rick Perry.
Government closes to the people is presumably municipal government.
So far as the average person is concerned the exact opposite may be true.
Municipal government is probably the most intrusive level of government.
It is municipal government which rolls out much of the red tape that ties up the lives of ordinary people –– particularly those people who are unskilled at cutting their way through bureaucratic regulation.
http://juricana-juricana.blogspot.com/2011/09/government-closest-to-people.html
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/20/21975158-nsa-program-stopped-no-terror-attacks-says-white-house-panel-member?lite
ReplyDeleteheh :)
NSA Program Stopped No Terror Attacks Says White House Panel Member
Now that is ripe. Every conversation on earth is tracked and analyzed and it did no good.
Surely they can catch or stop one little terrorist wannabe somewhere, sometime......
They are worse than bob's Idaho Vandals football team, who at least won one game.
Their record though may be good news for us all.......if they are so inept how could they be a threat to any of us?
Who Says Obama Hasn’t United the Country?
ReplyDeleteIt’s at least the 14th unilateral change to Obamacare that’s been made without consulting Congress.
“It shows that the Obamacare insurance products aren’t selling so, at the last minute, the administration is holding a fire sale on a failed launch,” says Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute, a health-care advocacy group. “Just think how you must feel if you were one of the people who spent the last two months fighting their way through HealthCare.gov to buy a policy that will be thousands of dollars more expensive than this catastrophic insurance!”
.
DeleteI assume old Grace-Marie is merely complaining about the lost time and the inconvenience. You can always quit an insurance policy if you like.
.
.
DeleteAt least, so far you can.
Who knows what the Emperor will rule tomorrow?
.
DeleteThe Fünfte Kolonne von Teamleitern, and ...
The Wall Street Journal failed to disclose that the Galen Institute reportedly receives funding from the pharmaceutical and medical industries, which obviously have an agenda.
http://mediamatters.org/research/2009/05/20/wsj-doesnt-disclose-galen-institutes-reported-i/150363
bob
O'Bozo presser coming up !
ReplyDeleteO'Bozo presser coming up !
ReplyDeleteHe ought to come out with a Pinocchio nose on his face.
At least he'd get a laugh.
Not a presser. It's the year end address.
DeleteOtherwise know as the up your rear end address
It's a good think he has such dark skin - he is immune from blushing with all the lies.
It has turned into a presser, but a very controlled one. Looks like he has a list of reporters to call on.
DeleteThat guy can really ramble on, saying not much of anything, but he looks reasonable enough......
Documents from the archive of whistleblower and former NSA worker Edward Snowden show that Britain's GCHQ signals intelligence agency has targeted European, German and Israeli politicians for surveillance.
ReplyDeleteBut spying on Israel is expected and allowed...
DeleteDo Jews Believe in an Afterlife?
DeleteBy Tzvi Freeman
Answer:
There isn't anything after life, because life never ends. It just goes higher and higher. The soul is liberated from the body and returns closer to her source than ever before.
The Torah assumes this in its language many times -- describing Abraham's death, for example, as going to rest with his fathers and similar phrases. The Talmud discusses the experiences of several people who made the trip there and back. Classic Jewish works such as Maavor Yabok describe the process of entering the higher world of life as a reflection of the soul's experiences while within the body: If the soul has become entrenched in material pleasures, she experiences the pain of ripping herself away from them so that she can experience the infinitely higher pleasure of basking in G-dly light. If she is soiled and injured by acts that sundered her from her true self while below, then she must be cleansed and healed.
The Jews have it right, then.
DeleteThink of that in the context of the universe being a hologram.
DeleteSimulations back up theory that Universe is a hologram
Oh No, the USA spied on Israel
DeleteThat's like your spying on your Wife and discovering she's having an Affair with YOUR mistress that your having an Affair with, and your Daughter is having a Menage Trois with her Step Mother and your Mistress. Not to out done your wife is cheating on your Mistress with the Wife Next Door that is also doing your Daughter.
Quirk,
ReplyDeleteThis is the latest public information on the helmet used by F-35 pilots. It appears that Israel is having no problems with its end of production.
F-35s to carry Israeli developed helmet display
The US Department of Defense announced it will abort the development of a helmet mounted display system (HDMS) for its F-35 stealth aircraft in favor of the model developed by the Israeli company Elbit and the American Rockwell Collins
When you lose Utah, you might as well pack it in.
ReplyDeleteSalt Lake Tribune - A federal judge in Utah Friday struck down
the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, saying the law violates the
U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process.
A Federal judge isn't Utah.
DeleteHowever some there may be secretly celebrating, seeing this as a first step towards the return of polygamy.
Snowing like crazy crazy out this way.
Tell me about it.
Deletehttp://www.cleanposts.com/images/4/44/Teresita-snow.jpg
Professor Turley, one of the video panelists, constructed the suit.
DeleteAnd those big footprints ain't Fely, Bob.
DeleteBrrrrrrrrr......that ain't summertime, when the livin' is easy......Miss T.
DeleteMerry Christmas and Happy New Year to you.
It's already melted off the roads, if not the roofs and lawns, nothing to panic over. But Seattle drivers panic if they see one flake.
DeleteDevout Muslim woman graduates top of her medical school class – in Israel of course
ReplyDelete“Guess who graduated first in this year’s medical school class at the Technion, Israel’s version of M.I.T.? The answer will surprise you. It’s a stereotype-buster: a charming, feminist, smart, open-minded and observant Islamic woman.”
Muslims cooked up al-Gebra once, and gave us their numerals, and their astronomers observed stars like al-Gol and Foum-al-Haut.
DeleteMuslim science was destroyed by the same murderous fanaticism at work today. Science, like liberty, must be free of politically motivated constraints. When thinking, working, and writing outside the orthodoxy of ignorance leads to persecution and death, poverty of mind and spirit must soon follow.
Delete