This and That...

[Ross]

Obama Just Played His Big 'Trump Card' On The Debt Ceiling

Early Thursday morning, Potomac Research Group analyst Greg Valliere predicted that if the debt-ceiling deadline grew closer, President Barack Obama would play his "trump card" in the debate. He would remind seniors that if Congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling, seniors wouldn't get their Social Security checks.

"GOP strategists like Karl Rove surely know that it's just a matter of time before President Obama throws a game-changer — warning senior citizens that their Social Security checks won't be mailed because of John Boehner," Valliere wrote in a note to clients.

A few hours later, Obama did just that during a speech at M. Luis Construction Company in Rockville, Md. He spent much of the speech warning that while the ongoing government shutdown was damaging, failure to raise the debt ceiling by an Oct. 17 deadline would be even worse.

"In a government shutdown, Social Security checks still go out on time. In an economic shutdown — if we don't raise the debt ceiling — they don't go out on time," Obama said. "In a government shutdown, disability benefits still arrive on time. In an economic shutdown, they don't."

Earlier on Thursday, the Treasury Department warned in a big report that breaching the debt ceiling could inflict economic calamity "more severe than any seen since the Great Depression."

"The United States has never defaulted on its obligations, and the U.S. Dollar and Treasury securities are at the center of the international financial system," the report said.

"A default would be unprecedented and has the potential to be catastrophic: credit markets could freeze, the value of the dollar could plummet, U.S. Interest rates could skyrocket, the negative spillovers could reverberate around the world, and there might be a financial crisis and recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse."

The Treasury says that the debt ceiling needs to be raised by Oct. 17 to avoid potential default on some U.S. Obligations. After that date, the Treasury would have only approximately $30 billion to meet all of its commitments. On some days, expenditures can go as high as $60 billion.

Obama says that he won't negotiate over raising the debt ceiling, calling it Congress' responsibility. House Republicans, meanwhile, have looked to extract some kind of concession out of Obama in exchange for a debt-ceiling hike.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-debt-ceiling-social-security-boehner-deadline-default-government-shutdown-2013-10#ixzz2goWw8fpq

[Warph]

 

Americans Getting Through Obamacare Website Are Howling Over
Premiums That Are Double The Private Market

Friday, October 4, 2013
Some Americans who have actually been lucky [or unlucky as it has proved] enough to access the Obamacare website are now seeing the grass is not greener on the Obamacare side. It took one man 36 hours and 21 attempts to access the website and purchase a plan. The Obamacare Facebook page is filled with complaints about the high cost of insurance premiums. Some people shopping for new insurance coverage discovered that the plans Obamacare offers cost almost twice as much and covers less than the plan they currently have.

Breitbart.com reported:
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/03/Obamacare-Facebook-Erupts-With-Citizen-Sticker-Shock

...NOT!

"I am so disappointed," wrote one woman. "These prices are outrageous and there are huge deductibles. No one can afford this!" The comment received 169 "likes."

"There is NO WAY I can afford it," said one commenter after using the Kaiser Subsidy Calculator. "Heck right now I couldn't afford an extra 10$ [sic] a month...and oh apparently I make to [sic] much at 8.55/hour to get subsidies."

Another person shared a link found on the federal government's main Obamacare page listing premium estimates for small business employers:

The information is not very complete as I don't see anything about deductible or other detailed info, but it does given an actual price as to the "Premium." It is VERY SCARY!! For example, my insurance plan right now for my spouse and I costs $545 a month with 100% coverage after my $2500 deductible. We are both 32 years old. When I looked at this site for 80% coverage it says it will be $954.78 a month!!!! So compare my old Plan: 100% coverage for $545 a month To New Plan: 80% Coverage for $945 a month. This is only only an estimate but it is VERY Scary for me to see this kind of increase in rates and reduction in benefits!

A single mother of two said she is in school and working full-time while living "75% below the poverty level." She said she was shocked to learn she did not qualify for a healthcare subsidy. "Are you F'ing kidding me?" she wrote on the government's Obamacare Facebook page. "Where the HELL am I supposed to get $3,000 more a year to pay for this 'bronze' health insurance plan!?!??? And I DO NOT EVEN WANT INSURANCE to begin with!! This is frightening," she wrote.


Washington Times has more on the Un-Affordable Care Act:

WASHINGTON, October 4, 2013 — Not only is Obamacare unpopular with the general public, but it also is losing favor among the very people it's supposed to help. The White House has difficulty getting the uninsured to buy Obamacare not merely because the government website is bad, but mostly because the product is bad. It's overpriced.
Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/ernest-istook-knowing-inside/2013/oct/4/obamacare-has-become-un-affordable-care-act/#ixzz2goi7hJnJ

[Warph]

Oooops... MSN Modifies Its Poll Which Revealed No One Wants
To Sign Up For Obumacare

MSN has a poll running on its website today:

Notice anything odd about the poll? There appears to be no option if you have no desire to sign up for Obamacare-only yes, yes but it was a bad experience, and no but I plan to.

Seems an odd poll, that.

In fact, MSN was running a more expansive poll at least as late as Tuesday, with a fourth option, "No and I won't until I absolutely have to". That option, which had the lionshare of the votes, at 80% when the screenshot was taken, has since been eliminated from the poll. Screenshot courtesy of 2AAdvocate:

Wonder if this poll will stay up or be changed?

[Warph]

It Begins.  Man Sets Himself on Fire at National Mall
Friday, October 4, 2013, 8:34 PM
It's that bad.
A man set himself on fire today at the National Mall today

A chopper airlifts a man from the National Mall who lit himself on fire

NBC-DC reported:
Park Police officials tell NBC Washington a man may have set himself on fire at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Friday afternoon.

The incident was reported around 4:30 p.m. at the corner of Jefferson Drive and 7th Street SW, near the Air and Space Museum.

Witnesses told NBC Washington's Mark Segraves they saw a man pouring gasoline on himself, then possibly setting himself on fire. Several joggers nearby ripped their shirts off in an attempt to subdue the flames.

The man was airlifted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where he is in critical condition.

The incident comes a day after Capitol Police shot and killed an unarmed woman following a high-speed chase that started outside the White House, where she had tried to ram a gate with her car.

In Tunisia a street vendor set himself on fire in 2010 due to the economy starting the Arab Spring protests.

[Warph]

FAIL. Obumacare Website Shut Down
After First Disastrous Week

Friday, October 4, 2013, 7:23 PM

It's just a glitch.  The federal government shut down the Obamacare website after only one week of operations.  The website will be down for at least the weekend.

(If the stories I've heard today are true, then those who did manage to get through and enter all their personal data have just become potential victims of identity theft since the site is easily hacked.  Haven't had time to research this, but I think it's funny and hope it's true.  If you're willing to sign up Obumacare, you deserve having your identity stolen.)

Bloomberg reported:
Bedeviled by technology glitches that frustrated millions of consumers, the Obama administration is taking down its health overhaul website for repairs this weekend.

Enrollment functions of the healthcare.gov site will be unavailable during off-peak hours, the Health and Human Services Department said Friday. The department did not release a schedule for hours of operation, but an HHS spokeswoman said the site would be taken down at 1 a.m. EDT each night for a few hours.

Wolf Blitzer Calls Shutting Down Obamacare Website For Weekend For Repair "A Huge Embarrassment"
Blitzer sarcastically notes the administration has "only had three years" to get ready and get it right for the roll-out.

[Warph]

 

Obuma Instructs All Federal Workers To
'Make Life As Difficult For Americans As They Can'

October 04, 2013

CHICAGO MOB BOSS Barack "Stick It To 'Um" Obuma

Our [POS]  President has no morals.  With great ease, Obama and his Democratic minions are issuing orders to their public worker soldiers to make the lives of every American as torturously difficult as possible...to score cheap political points against the GOP "faction." 

A Park Service ranger spoke out against what he called "disgusting" tactics.

"It's a cheap way to deal with the situation," an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. "We've been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It's disgusting."


The Washington Times reports:
The games politicians play: Barack Obama is having a lot of fun using the government shutdown to squeeze the public in imaginative ways. The point of the shutdown game is to see who can squeeze hardest, make the most pious speech and listen for the applause. It's a variation on the grade-school ritual of "you show me yours, and I'll show you mine."

President Obama is not a bad poker player, but the man with all the chips always starts with the advantage (and he gets all the aces). He has closed Washington down as tight as he dares, emphasizing the trivial and the petty in making life as inconvenient as he can for the greatest number. It's all in a noble cause, of course. Access to most of the memorials is limited, and often in curious ways. The Lincoln Memorial is easy to reach, with the streets around it remaining open. But the Martin Luther King Memorial is made difficult to reach, relegating it, you might say, to the back of the bus. Not very nice.

The Park Service appears to be closing streets on mere whim and caprice. The rangers even closed the parking lot at Mount Vernon, where the plantation home of George Washington is a favorite tourist destination. That was after they barred the new World War II Memorial on the Mall to veterans of World War II. But the government does not own Mount Vernon; it is privately owned by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association. The ladies bought it years ago to preserve it as a national memorial. The feds closed access to the parking lots this week, even though the lots are jointly owned with the Mount Vernon ladies. The rangers are from the government, and they're only here to help.

"It's a cheap way to deal with the situation," an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. "We've been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It's disgusting."

The Republicans, fighting with smaller-bore weaponry, keep trying to get some things reopened with carefully targeted legislation. The Senate, under the thumbs of Sen. Harry Reid and the White House, refuses to budge from the trivial and the petty. It says here that Harry Reid's critics, and they are legion, should give the guy a break. No man in Washington is under the pressure he is, and it doesn't seem quite cricket to do that to an old man, even one who deserves it.

Harry is at the breaking point, weary from exhausting his thesaurus for synonyms for "arsonist" and "terrorist" and "pillager." Everyone could see the cracks in his exchange with Dana Bash, a reporter for CNN, who asked why, if he is concerned about children with cancer who are unable to enter clinical trials for new drugs because Mr. Obama shut down the National Institutes of Health, why stifle Republican attempts to grant a little relief?

"If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?" the reporter asked.

"Why would we want to do that?" Mr. Reid snapped back. "I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force Base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own. This is — to have someone of your intelligence to suggest such a thing maybe means you're irresponsible and reckless."

Over the next two days, Mr. Reid tried to take back, change, adjust and recalibrate his remarks. It's all John Boehner's fault. The senator cares not just about the National Institutes of Health, but the Centers for Disease Control, too. The senator likes babies. In fact, he's quite a stud. And he thinks Dana Bash is "a fine reporter."

"Listen, I gave a speech on the [Senate] floor, talking about babies, 30 babies. I have 16 of my own grandchildren, and five children." So suffer the little children, and they will inherit the kingdom of heaven; they just can't come unto the Senate while Harry stands in the door. (If what happens in Las Vegas is supposed to stay in Las Vegas, how did Harry get out?)


"Dirty"Harry Reid's black heart has, also, been revealed this week.  On the list of government closures is the NIH and its cancer research.  Something the Republicans are trying to reopen.  But, when Harry Reid was asked by a CNN reporter, "If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?", he responded, "Why would we want to do that?"

[Warph]

Sick! New Iranian Law Allows Fathers To Marry
Their 13 Year Old Adopted Daughters

Friday, October 4, 2013, 2:07 PM

Danger to children: The new law will allow for girls as young as 13 to get married and those younger than that age only require the permission of their fathers to do so.

(Nothing like combining incest with pedophilia to make sure it's really sick.  Iran just passed a new law allowing fathers to marry their 13 year old adopted daughters.  And "moderate" President Hassan Rouhani sanctioned it)

According to The Daily Mail:
A new law in Iran that allows men to marry their adopted daughters at the age of 13 has caused major concern that the country's new president is not as progressive as originally thought.

President Hassan Rouhani has been hailed as a new moderate voice in the controversial Middle Eastern government but the approval of the new law shows that the extreme beliefs in the intolerant country have not evaporated.

The law was approved by the Iranian members of parliament and maintains that girls can marry with the permission of their father at the age of 13 and young boys at the age of 15.

The timing of the law being passed through the first legal hurdle, as reported by The Guardian, comes just days after Rouhani's landmark phone call with President Obama- the first between the two countries leaders in 34 years- and an interview with CNN where he admitted the existence of the Holocaust- something that has long been denied by the religious extremists in Iran.

The law in question pertains to the legal marriage age, but the concern about incest is an additional factor for human rights advocates.

[Warph]

Social Security Administration Instructs Employees To Scare
The Crap Out Of Granny About Not Getting Her Check If
Debt Ceiling Isn't Raised

(Fear mongering, an Obama administration speciality)

Via Daily Caller:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/04/social-security-administration-instructs-employees-to-warn-recipients-about-debt-ceiling/

Social Security Administration employees are being instructed to tell people who ask that if the debt ceiling is not raised, their social security benefits could be in danger.

In an email sent Friday, obtained by The Daily Caller, employees are instructed:

"If a member of the public asks whether their Social Security payment will be affected if the federal debt ceiling is not raised, you may give the following response:
'Unlike a federal shutdown which has no impact on the payment of Social Security benefits, failure to raise the debt ceiling puts Social Security benefits at risk.'

"Direct all program–related and technical questions to your supervisor."

According to the Treasury, the U.S. will reach its borrowing limit on October 17, and if the debt ceiling is not raised before then, the country will default on its debt.

[Warph]

NY Newspaper Sues for Names of Gun Permit Holders

Via Washington Post:

A suburban New York newspaper has sued Putnam County to compel it to release its pistol permit records.

The Journal News says it sued Thursday after the county denied two Freedom of Information requests and a subsequent appeal.

The newspaper first requested information from Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties following the Newtown, Conn., shooting massacre. It made another request after the state passed a gun control law allowing permit holders to apply to keep their names and addresses private.

Putnam County officials declined to comment on the lawsuit because they had not yet been served with the papers. But County Executive MaryEllen Odell told the newspaper she's confident the county will prevail.

[Warph]

Georgia Women Threatened At Gunpoint For Protesting Against Obama ButtHead

(Dissent against Dear a**hole Leader will not be tolerated, Girls)

Via WSB Radio:
A group of Gwinnett County protestors who were assaulted during a recent demonstration against President Barack Obama say they plan to return to the overpass at Steve Reynolds Boulevard this weekend.

The women, who are part of the nationwide movement Overpasses for Obama's Impeachment, were holding signs last Saturday when they say a man pulled up beside them and pointed a gun at one and splashed another with an unknown liquid.

"I felt it on my foot... it burned, so I thought it was a household chemical," Marge Moore tells WSB's Sandra Parrish.

She says just moments earlier, a couple in a car had driven by and threatened to kill them.

As the man drove off, the women contacted Gwinnett County police.  A witness to the incident can be heard on a 911 call describing the suspect as an older black man, who was balding and wearing glasses, and driving a burgundy Mercury Grand Marquis.  He also provided police with the tag number.

"He just showed the ladies the gun like 'move out of here, I've got a gun'," the witness can be heard telling the dispatcher.