Obamacare’s Useful Idiots
Guess who. And guess about what.
Tag: freedom
The Obama administration has decided to actually follow the law and not give its Democratic union buddies a waiver on Obamacare.
Finding out what’s in it: The Obama administration has decided to actually follow the law and not give its Democratic union buddies a waiver on Obamacare.
It shows us how far we have fallen that we are surprised that the Obama administration is going to follow the law, as written and passed by Congress, rather than arbitrarily rewrite that law illegally into order to help its political allies. Nowadays we are increasingly expecting this administration to treat the law as a plaything that it can ignore willy-nilly, without any opposition from anyone.
This story also illustrates the danger of blindly supporting the actions of one political party. Union leaders have for decades allied themselves with the Democratic Party, without ever really questioning the wisdom of anything those Democrats were doing. Obamacare was only one example of this foolishness. Now they are going to suffer badly for their blind partisanship.
It would have been much smarter for those unions to have done what conservatives and tea party advocates demanded back in 2009 and 2010: Read the damn law before you pass it!
“It certainly appears that the IRS was weaponized for the political purpose of one party.”
The increasing harassment of their members by Homeland Security has caused the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) to begin a political campaign against the agency.
Gotta have your KGB: The increasing harassment of their members by Homeland Security has caused the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) to begin a political campaign against the agency.
The link above takes you what looks like a fundraising letter sent about by the AOPA to its membership. The significance is that they are centering their campaign around the harassment by Homeland Security, which suggests that this harassment has become a very big issue within this community.
Indiana University is laying off 50 maintenance workers to avoid Obamacare costs.
Finding out what’s in it: Indiana University is laying off 50 maintenance workers to avoid Obamacare costs.
The employees will now work for an independent company, which I am sure will either make sure its total staffing is under 50 or those employees work less than 30 hours per week in order to also avoid Obamacare.
The numbers here aren’t gigantic, but the story is notable in that these employees and the university that had employed them almost certainly supported Obamacare and Obama blindly this last five years. The sad thing is I doubt they will finally face reality and link their troubles with his policies.
And then there’s this: Trader Joe’s to drop health insurance for part-time workers because of Obamacare.
The two Colorado Democrats who were key instigators of that state’s new gun control laws were both decisively voted out of office yesterday in recall elections.
Pushback: The two Colorado Democrats who were key instigators of that state’s new gun control laws were both decisively voted out of office yesterday in recall elections.
The election, which came five months after the United States Senate defeated several gun restrictions, handed another loss to gun-control supporters. It also gave moderate lawmakers across the country a warning about the political risks of voting for tougher gun laws.
The recall elections ousted two Democratic state senators, John Morse and Angela Giron, and replaced them with Republicans. Both defeats were painful for Democrats – Mr. Morse’s because he had been Senate president, and Ms. Giron’s because she represented a heavily Democratic, working-class slice of southern Colorado.
The article says almost nothing about Angela Giron’s defeat, which I find intriguing. She was not expected to lose, considering her district was so Democratic, but her margin of defeat was actually larger than Morse’s. See also this article for a very good election analysis which suggests that any effort by Democrats to impose oppressive gun control laws is going to backfire for them very badly.
Help Kickstart World War III
An evening pause: I think this video captures the thoughtfulness and objectivity of the Obama voter and today’s progressive left better than anything else I have seen or read.
A tea party leader in Oklahoma has been charged with a felony because he sent an email to an state senator demanding he do his job or face the political consequences.
Modern America: A tea party leader in Oklahoma has been charged with a felony because he sent an email to an state senator demanding he do his job or face the political consequences.
The college teacher who went on an anti-Republican tirade in class and even threatened a student who disagreed has been suspended for the rest of the semester.
The college teacher who went on an anti-Republican tirade in class and even threatened a student who disagreed has been suspended for the rest of the semester.
“The [US Justice Department] just stuffed a rag in Barrett Brown’s mouth, as well as his lawyers.”
“The [US Justice Department] just stuffed a rag in Barrett Brown’s mouth, as well as his lawyers.”
The case might be complicated, and Brown might have even broken a reasonable privacy law, justifying his imprisonment. Nonetheless, it disturbs me greatly that the government’s response is to silence the man. Something about this stinks.
A family whose dog was shot by police is now suing for half a million dollars.
A family whose dog was shot by police is now suing for half a million dollars.
Militant gays force an Oregon bakery out of business.
The thugs win: Militant gays force an Oregon bakery out of business.
The background:
On January 17, a mother and daughter arrived at Sweet Cakes By Melissa, an Oregon bakery owned by the Kleins. When the pair explained they wanted a wedding cake for a lesbian wedding, the shop owners politely refused informing the would-be customers that their religious beliefs don’t condone gay weddings and that, because of this, they did not want the women’s business. Before the week was up the bakery was beset by attacks in person, on the phone, and in email. The gay mafia from across the country had sprung into action to threaten the lives of the religious couple. [emphasis mine]
The threats and loss of business have now forced them to shut their bakery. And the reason: Their religious beliefs forbid them from catering to a gay wedding, an act which would be the equivalent of endorsing that event. Note also that they had not been refusing to serve gays, only refusing to cater a gay wedding.
A businessman fights a federal regulatory effort that destroyed his business. The government responses by trying to destroy him.
A businessman fights a federal regulatory effort that destroyed his business. The government responds by trying to destroy him.
Read the article. It will send chills down your spine. The business was legal, did no harm, and was very successful. The government shut it down, killed it. Now they are going after the creator because he had tried to stop them.
“The timing couldn’t be worse.”
The next IPCC report: “The timing couldn’t be worse.”
The author describes how the new report, due out in just a couple of months, is probably already obsolete because of a slew of new papers documenting the long 10 to 15 year pause in global warming that was not predicted by any of the climate models used by the IPCC.
This quote I think sums things up nicely, however:
Due to a ‘combination of errors’, the models have overestimated warming by 100% over the past 20 years and by 400% over the past 15 years.
The IRS harassment of conservatives continues.
Working for the Democratic Party: The IRS harassment of conservatives continues.
An IRS letter sent to [a tea party] group last week and obtained by The Washington Times contains a laundry list of requests related to virtually all the group’s activities, including its involvement in the 2012 election cycle and its get-out-the-vote efforts, fundraising activities, all radio and TV advertising, and other information. The IRS also is asking for detailed financial records, including “the amounts and percentages of your total expenses that were for fundraising activities in the tax year 2011, 2012 and 2013.” [emphasis mine]
Key quote: “We got away with discriminating against you and we’re not stopping.”
Five large population groups are losing their healthcare insurance because of Obamacare.
Finding out what’s in it: Five large population groups are losing their healthcare insurance because of Obamacare.
The five groups are spouses, part-time workers, retirees, individuals, and unions. I wonder how many of these — especially the unions — will continue to blindly support Democrats, even after this disaster.
Aetna pulls out of New York because of Obamacare.
If you like your insurance you won’t keep your insurance: Aetna pulls out of New York because of Obamacare.
That’s the fifth state that Aetna has fled in its effort to survive the Democratic Party’s effort to reform our healthcare system.
The Israeli spring.
In comparison to the ruined economies of the Arab Spring — tourism shattered, exports nonexistent, and billions of dollars in infrastructure lost through unending violence — Israel is an atoll of prosperity and stability. Factor in its recent huge gas and oil finds in the eastern Mediterranean, and it may soon become another Kuwait or Qatar, but with a real economy beyond its booming petroleum exports.
Israel had nothing to do with either the Arab Spring or its failure. The irony is that surviving embarrassed Arab regimes now share the same concerns of the Israelis.
Read it all. It gives you a different but (I think) more accurate perspective on the chaos in the Middle East.
A disabled security guard was fired for asking a Muslim woman to remove her veil.
An upside down world: A disabled security guard was fired for asking a Muslim woman to remove her veil.
The dispute occurred in May when Krause asked a Muslim woman to remove her face scarf thinking he was enforcing the mall’s no-mask policy. Instead of just reprimanding him after informing him that the woman’s veil was a vestige of her religion, Krause was fired after the woman filed a lawsuit of her own.
Without doubt there are real security concerns when someone arrives wearing a full face mask. Muslims might claim this is part of their religion, but it has been used too often by Islamic terrorists to do terrible harm. Moreover, there is real dispute within the religion whether such veils are required.
Finally, from a western perspective requiring women to be masked seems oppressive, even if they choose to do it.
Identifying the real racists.
A very honest, thoughtful and blunt look at the source of today’s racial hate.
Note that I comment very little on these despicable criminal acts that are all the rage these days in the media because that’s what they are, criminal acts first and foremost. To emphasize the racial component of either the victims or the criminals, which is what too many journalists and pundits on both the right and the left are doing, would be to play into the hands of the bigots. I won’t play that scorecard game.
What matters is the crime itself, and the use of the law to find a just sentence.