Scattershots – 1dec13 (updated 2dec13)

George Rebane

Obama, astute politician with global aspirations or functional idiot (who are his handlers)?  In these last months he has my pendulum swinging again, literally from day to day.  Obamacare’s healthcare.gov predictably blew through its 1dec13 deadline as an ongoing dysfunctional front end for the next phase of socialized medicine.  His legion of lackeys are on the airwaves today talking about “dramatic progress” while admitting that the site is still not “performing optimally”.  Hell, it isn’t performing at all according to 20th century WWW standards, let alone those of the 21st century.

In commercial terms, the site is not even providing minimal functionality.  The front end UI (user interface) design is sophomoric, totally unreliable, and its back end that sends data to the insurance providers does not work.  That yet needs to be designed and built.  But few people listening to the administration’s hacks can add the required 2 and 2 to understand that the more they brag about their ‘progress’ in fixing the site during the last two months, the more they indict themselves for perpetrating months (years?) of fraud on the American public (please look up the definition of fraud).

The best case that could be made for the administration is that they have been and continue to be massively incompetent in everything beyond bamboozling their preponderantly ignorant constituents.  Today a she-hack on Fox News was telling us that everything is working fine because 70% of Obamacare recipients will eventually get subsidies.  And they don’t want to touch the devastating stat that for every one that has successfully applied for Obamacare through the exchanges, fifty have lost their health insurance.

But the next Big Lie queued up that has yet to impact is “If you like your doctor, you get to keep your doctor.”  The truth is that physicians are leaving the ranks of Medicare and Medicaid providers in droves as these programs become the real fiscal disaster recipients of those forced into Obamacare.  And that is more so as next year hundreds of thousands of small businesses start dropping their employees from health plans that worked beautifully for tens of millions of workers.  Obamacare will do anything except lower the national cost of healthcare in addition to reducing the level and access to health services.  Deficits will soar.  But enough about Obamacare for now, this program has tons more disasters to play out in the coming months and years.

The President’s foreign policy accomplishments lie in tatters.  Former CIA and NSA chief Gen M. Hayden makes a good case that Obama’s minions have now abrogated the UN resolutions stating that Iran may not continue to refine fissile materials.  Kerry’s missteps have made it certain that after the next phase of negotiations Iran will become a “nuclear threshold state” because its development is already “far too close to (producing) a nuclear weapon.”

Obama’s weakness and blunders in Iraq, now Afghanistan, Syria, in addition to Iran have convinced the world’s bad actors to step out and start testing the new boundaries of America’s deteriorating resolve to protect its interests.  China’s sudden and unexpected extension of its ‘air defense identification zone’ boundary to include the Japanese Senkaku Islands is both “dangerous and dumb” according to Gen Hayden.  You can bet that Russia, North Korea, and other authoritarians will step up their probings all over the world as the US cuts back on its military budgets and ability to project power.  Abetted by poor economies, the world will now become a much more dangerous place.

And if that is not enough, former NSA contractor Snowden, now in Russia, is threatening to release the remaining tranche of stolen documents.  Those in the know uniformly agree that that release will be “catastrophic for our security as a nation.”  Snowden has made it known that if anything untoward happens to him, those documents will become public.  For anyone familiar with systems and web programming, it is not that hard to code up a ‘dead man’s switch’ that requires regular encrypted deactivation.  If a deactivation is missed, the program executes and transmits the catastrophic tranche of documents to several servers located all over the world.

There is a very good chance that the US will make a sub rosa deal with Snowden in which he winds up with an identity change and a comfortable life out of the public eye, but under the secure watch of our intel organs in a kind of a Mexican stand-off.  If the documents are released, he will be quietly and quickly killed, else he gets to live as the intelligence and political harm of that document tranche decays over time.  And there are other scenarios.

[2dec13 update]  Well, this morning the ‘mission accomplished’ banners are fluttering in the hot air dispensed by Team Obama and its media minions.  National Propaganda Radio led the parade with a piece on the “dramatic progress” made on healthcare.gov.  The problems with Obamacare, as seen by NPR's national correspondent Cokie Roberts, turned out to be all due to Republicans who have now poisoned the atmosphere to such an extent that “they don’t even want to have their picture taken with the President.”  No kidding.  But she failed to mention the real news that it’s the Dems who don’t want to be seen with their fearless (feckless?) leader.

In any case, “progress” and “improvement” since 1 October are now touted as stand-ins for the most recently promised accomplishment.  Always in short supply from this administration is the simple truth that “the system isn’t working and the website is not fixed.”  More sober reporting on the status of Obamacare can be found here and here.

Comments

[Bill Tozer]

Snowden: Hero or traitor? He won't be the first nor the last of our NSA personnel that have mysteriously and quietly disappeared from the face of the earth. Some for simply bringing up concerns to the supervisors.

If I were Snowden, I would high tail it down to the Equator (Ecuador). Baby, its getting cold outside. Maybe we could call him the Spy Who Came Out of the Cold #2.

http://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/r14/USA/2013/1130/Mean-Old-Man-Winter-steps-down-from-the-North-early-Will-he-stick-around-video

[Paul Emery]

Snowden is an American hero. He is a modern Paul Revere alerting us about the movements of the enemy, which in this case is rogue elements of our own government. Like Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning he should be enshrined as hero's of true American values along with the family of Pat Tillman.

[Bill Tozer]

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1456486_10151758248740911_1213421162_n.jpg

[Bill Tozer]

Concerning BarackObama's foreign policy: Iran calls Obama a liar and they don't even have a BarrackObamacare web site. Enriched uranium is here to stay, no matter what Barry says. Hey, that almost rhymes.

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/11/27/iran-calls-obama-a-liar/

[Bill Tozer]

Quotes of the Thanksgiving Day Weekend:

The only thing worse for the WH than a broken Obamacare site? A perfectly functioning Obamacare site.

This holiday weekend is a great time for a conversation over leftovers

[Gregory]

The rollout fiasco may have been as some wags have stated... the fundamental flaws of the Obamacare system were being totally obscured by the superficial flaws of the website. We shall see. The #1 metric it has to meet are enough healthy Young Invincibles who can't do math to actually sign up for *and* pay for insurance off the exchange. As far as I can tell, from the Sunday talking heads, the only metric is from the California exchange and the claim is the young are signing on in their proportion of the population, but there is no information as to the number of young buying insurance, as opposed to signing up for the expanded MedicAid/MediCal welfare benefits.

[Bill Tozer]

Mr. Gregory. The data is not in yet. The Administration is touting 100,000 have put BarackObamacare in their shopping cart, yet no one has the figures of how many have actually bought a policy and no one knows how many checks have been sent to the insurance providers as of today.

The real back end of the web is working fine because it does not even exist yet. The part where the government sends the insurance companies checks for the subsidy reimbursements is not built. Hopefully it is still on somebody's drawing board.

That is why the BarrackObama Administration is sweetening the pot for the insurance companies greatly. Got to keep 'em quiet and playing nice so they don't bail and have it unravel. The way it is set up, BarackObamacare covers all their losses.

Back to the CA Exchange and young people. CA must be the light on the hill because too many pro BarackObamacare mouth pieces are touting CA's success.

Here is a potential problem with the typical CA 26 year olds. There are two camps of the 26ish people. The ones that work for a company that provides employer sponsored insurance and the uninsured. There is really no middle ground. When 2015 rolls around, we will have a clearer picture. Depends on how many 26 year olds will lose their employer sponsored insurance and how many of them will opt to buy insurance for themselves and foot the bill. With student loans, a new family, rent, car insurance and all, many 26 year old will opt for the "No Thank you" option (IMHO) if dumped by their employers. They can't afford another monthly nut to crack until their prime earning years.

Time will tell. The only thing that is important to BarackObama right now is keeping the insurance companies on board and not having his own party torpedo the process until 2015. Only then does BarackObamacare have a fighting chance to survive what Congress passed as so-called Patient Protection or Affordable Care.

Its not a friggin web site problem anymore. Its solely a matter of keeping all the Dems from running away and keeping all the insurance companies on the reservation until 2015 when it might be working as planned.

[Ben Emery]

Sounds like Rebane's Ruminations wants solution based comments.

Ask and I will provide.

Reinstate Glass Steagall separating Commercial and Investment Banking.

Snowden and Manning are both American heroes that brought the truth to the American people. Power to the people, fist in the air.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2013/07/31/elizabeth-warren-and-john-mccain-make-the-case-for-a-new-glass-steagall

Congress passed the Glass Steagall Act in 1933 to separate risky investment banking from ordinary commercial banking. And for half a century, the banking system was stable and our middle class grew stronger.

But in the 1980s, the federal regulators started reinterpreting the laws to break down the divide between regular banking and Wall Street risk-taking, and in 1999, Congress repealed Glass Steagall altogether. Wall Street had spent 66 years and millions of dollars lobbying for repeal, and, eventually, the big banks won.

I've joined forces with Senators John McCain, Maria Cantwell, and Angus King to introduce the 21st Century Glass Steagall Act of 2013 to reinstate and modernize core banking protections.

Our new 21st Century Glass Steagall Act once again separates traditional banks from riskier financial services. And since banking has become much more complicated since the first bill was written in 1933, we’ve updated the law to include new activities and leave no room for regulatory interpretations that water down the rules.

The bill will give a five year transition period for financial institutions to split their business practices into distinct entities – shrinking their size, taking an important step toward ending “Too Big to Fail” once and for all, and minimizing the risk of future bailouts.

[Bill Tozer]

Mission Accomplished?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/02/business/white-house-praises-gains-on-health-site.html?_r=1&

BarackObama would serve himself much better if he stopped laying out these self imposed deadlines and red lines in the sand.....like saying BarackObamacare will roll out in 3 and a half years back in 2010.

[Bill Tozer]

Ah, feeling a wee bit lazy this morning. Cut and paste is easier!

BOMBS AWAY!! - The White House has laid out its preliminary plans to offer more money to insurers to "help offset the loss of premium revenue and profit" under the president's health law. The regulatory filing, flagged by NYT’s Robert Pear, blames the bailout on President Obama’s sudden reversal of his long-planned regulations forcing insurers to cancel millions of policies. Obama nixed his rules after a public backlash over his misleading promise to voters in 2012 about keeping their insurance policies and doctors. But the bailout, allowed under a little-known provision of the law, may also be in answer to industry outrage over the technical and administrative failures of the president and his team. With huge sticker shock awaiting holders of cancelled policies, many may opt out even after they make it through the crash-prone Web site. Any relief to insurance companies would come on top of $1 trillion in subsidies they are slated to receive over the next ten years.

[Ready on the right - Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., saw this one coming. He has a bill on offer in the Senate closing the door on "insurance bailouts."]

ONE THIRD OF OBAMACARE ENROLLMENT RECORDS FLAWED - WaPo reports that nearly one-third of the ObamaCare applications sent to prospective insurers have errors. The errors include “failure to notify insurers about new customers, duplicate enrollments or cancellation notices for the same person, incorrect information about family members, and mistakes involving federal subsidies.” The errors have been piling up and since the entitlement’s Oct. 1 launch and pose the possibility of a looming disaster as new policies are supposed to kick in next month.

[Ben Emery]

Health Care For All California

http://healthcareforall.org/what-are-the-financial-benefits

By supporting the best possible care at fair and negotiated prices, a single-payer system financially benefits individuals, employers, taxpayers, and the economy as a whole.....

[Joe Koyote]

" National Propaganda Radio led the parade "-- Anyone who calls NPR "National Propaganda Radio" is displaying their total lack of understanding of our media system and how it has evolved over the last 30 years. While NPR was originally conceived as an alternative to the advertising/profit driven media and the resultant bias built in to such a system, a simple look at how NPR is funded and who sits on the board will quickly dispel any socialist notions that the right likes to use to counter contrary information. A more accurate moniker would be "National Petroleum Radio." Like the so-called "liberal bias" in media, it's all a bunch of BS created to discredit sources, ideas, and information the billionaires don't want the American people to know about.

[Ryan Mount]

The media is biased by revenue provided by advertisers and the corporate thugs that run these outlets. That includes NPR, just follow the money. You see lots of Bayer Aspirin ads following a "report" about heart disease and lots of insurance ads during disaster reports.

NPR/PBS is as ideological as Fox News is. They play to the choir just like any other media outlet. Us vain moderns get our news that suits our current ideological comfort zone. And the MSM trick is to narrowly define the scope of the "debate" and present it as comprehensive in 5 minutes. Anything the violates this media comfort zone is deemed "from Neptune" as Nightline's Jeff Greenfield once referred to Noam Chomsky reluctance to submit to the convention of a 2 minute sound bite:

Jeff Hanson (Madison, WI Community Radio): What about just in the selection of guests to analyze things. Why is Noam Chomsky never on Nightline?

Greenfield: I couldn't begin to tell you.

Hanson: He's one of the leading intellectuals in the entire world.

Greenfield: I have no idea. I mean, I can make some guesses. He may be one of the leading intellectuals who can't talk on television. You know, that's a standard that's very important to us. If you've got a 22 minute show, and a guy takes five minutes to warm up -- now I don't know whether Chomsky does or not -- he's out. One of the reasons why Nightline has the "usual suspects" [a reference to the media-monitoring group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's study* of the program's guest-list, "All the Usual Suspects: McNeil-Lehrer and Nightline"] is that one of the things you have to do when you book a show is know that the person can make the point within the framework of television. And if people don't like that, they should understand that it's about as sensible to book somebody who will take eight minutes to give an answer as it is to book somebody who doesn't speak English. But in the normal give and flow, that's another culture-bound thing: we've got to have English-speaking people. We also need concision.

source:
http://www.understandingpower.com/Chapter9.htm#f7

* http://fair.org/press-release/all-the-usual-suspects-macneillehrer-and-nightline/

[George Rebane]

JoeK 1048pm - Wow! Have listened to NPR on a daily basis for over 30 years and heard not a hint 'National Petroleum Radio', but a constant and growing drumbeat for liberal cum socialist causes and achievements. You are probably confused by not being aware of all the ways big corporations pay for getting the government to mangle markets in their favor. Appropriate funding of leftwing causes is a well-trodden path to continued government support of corporations and monied interests that have grown too big to fail.

[Bill Tozer]

91 million folks is just a rounding error in Washington.

http://downtrend.com/jrc410/sebelius-drops-new-bombshell-employer-plans-will-also-drop-workers-from-coverage/?utm_source=Outbrain

[Bill Tozer]

Dr. Rebane: "In these last months he has my pendulum swinging again, literally from day to day."

Holy Smokes, good Doc, you are right again, per usual. I felt BarackObamacare was the one thing that BarackObama could not possibly pin on the Republicans. The Dems passed BarackObamacare without one single Republican vote and even then had to use some shady Democrat initiated parliamentary moves to get it to squeak by. The Dems owned the House, Senate, and the People's House where BarackObama lives rent free. BarackObama put his own hand picked people in the Administration to run the show.

But, nnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooo. Now is the Republicans fault that no one wants to have their pic taken with BarackObama of BarackObamacare fame. Well, maybe that bugged eyed amphibian from Florida, the ever lovely and gracious Debbi Whatshername Shultz will pose with the Prez. Shultz? Hmmm. I see nothing, I hear nothing, Colonel Clink. Perhaps Cookie Roberts is warming up her calm dreaming of the chance for a pic with His Honorable Discharge.
Its them nasty and very coarse Republicans destroying BarrackObamacare and trying to tarnish the reputation of our first post racial President. Bad Republicans, bad. Get back under the table and wait for crumbs to fall, Bad dogs, bad. Down boy, down! Boy, them bad Republicans are sure getting uppity lately. Its all their fault.

It is obvious to all that the web site is all George Bush's fault.

[Joe Koyote]

George 1:05 -- You don't see it because you have bought into the "liberal bias" notion hook, line, and sinker. Because NPR was once (now about 11%, if that) a government funded entity, your ideological distrust of all things government (except the military) combines with the liberal bias aspect to cloud your vision. NPR and PBC are put out as liberal only in as much as they present a viewpoint slightly to the left of conservatism. In the real realm of politics they are fake liberals put in place as a paper tiger to counter the billionaires to the far right. In reality, over the long term, the so-called public media has been very effective at maneuvering the pendulum of public opinion to the right. Just look at the current party platforms and compare that to Nixon.

[George Rebane]

JoeK 535pm - I suppose if you're right, then some time ago I lost my ability to independently assess the political stripe of content and copy. Instead, as you say, I must depend on more astute minds like yours to clarify my vision. I will keep that in mind, thanks.

[fish]

You don't see it because you have bought into the "liberal bias" notion hook, line, and sinker.

I'm sure George that JoKe is trying to drop a "false consciousness" tag on you!

Groovy Joe!

[Joe Koyote]

George--"Instead, as you say, I must depend on more astute minds like yours to clarify my vision." it is more of a matter of not seeing the forest for the trees. I did not say you needed me to clarify your vision. All you have to do is look. Just compare Nixon era policies to current ones. Do you think the current Congress would pass the EPA or title IX or the consumer protection act? I don't. That suggests that we now live in a more conservative political atmosphere than 1970, don't you think?

Fish --Do you ever have anything intelligent to say?

[fish]

Fish --Do you ever have anything intelligent to say?

I don't know...do you?

[Todd Juvinall]

So I can understand this JoeK statement a bit better. The media has not been liberally biased in my 63 years, it is just our imagination? And that today's media is conservative because you say the government would not pass some Nixon era laws? Okay. George, this Kyote fellow needs a sedative. Too funny.

[George Rebane]

JoeK 913am - OK, good test points to identify our different views. The current Congress could not pass the cited legislation, however the Congress that passed Obamacare could pass al that and more in a heartbeat, now that they know how well single party control works. I hope that after 2014 we don't have a chance to find out.

[George Rebane]

And then there's cultural hypocrisy with a capital H.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvzAt9Yx7s8

[TheMikeyMcD]

@obamacare is the single biggest threat to my families finances in 2014. It it the single biggest financial stress on our family budget and my business budget.

All for something I don't want or need. I have no choice.

It is nothing more than the biggest redistribution of wealth (#classwarfare) in decades and the largest power grab by US godverment, since 1913.

[Ryan Mount]

George Rebane | 04 December 2013 at 11:17 PM:

And then there's cultural hypocrisy with a capital H.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvzAt9Yx7s8

Marty Daniel, of Daniel Defense commented:

"We believe the average, that the majority of the Super Bowl fans have the same values that we have at Daniel Defense. That is, we believe in protecting our families, we believe in our 2nd Amendment, which is our right to protect ourselves. We believe in the 1st Amendment, which is really the issue here. We're trying to exercise our 1st Amendment rights to give our opinion on the 2nd Amendment and not being allowed to do so."

Wow, so much for private property, eh? I suppose Mr. Daniel would like the government to force the NFL to air this? What an tremendous idiot.

OOOOO! I know, we could make the argument the NFL and it's affiliate networks are using the "public airwaves" and should be required to air all ads as a PSA?

[George Rebane]

RyanM 843am - Don't know of anyone on the Right who would force a private enterprise to broadcast any kind of message on air time (frangible private property) that they bought and paid for. But given the NFL's heavy cultural bent in directions other than the 2nd Amend, rejecting that message is more than a bit hypocritical, yet completely legal. Our Constitution is silent on hypocrisy, as it should be.

[Ryan Mount]

I was commenting on his idiotic 1st Amendment comments. And my comments on forcing the NFL were done with tongue firmly in cheek.

Because if he truly believes, and I hope he was jesting as well but I doubt it since he made his comments on national TV, then the scope of our civic dumbth is broader than I imagined.

For it's one thing to wrap oneself in the Constitution, which I prefer over relativistic alternatives, however it's another thing to do so and miss the fundamental point over the 1st Amendment and then do so for his own profit. Talk about a charlatan.

[Walt]

Doc.. Help!!! My electronic brick has locked me out of the Typepad comment box. I got it to "reset" once, but that was it. I'm running on Explorer 11. Any guesses on a fix?
( I had to barrow the Grand kid's laptop for this post.)

I bet it breaks a few hearts (ya. Right) that I have been muzzled for a while...LOL

[George Rebane]

Walt 224pm - Haven't a clue; don't even know what a TypePad 'locked out' means. Rest assured that I have not messed with your access to RR. Any PC or IE mavens out there who can help Walt?

[Bill Tozer]

Can't help you there Mr. Walt cause I am just a dummie myself.

Being Liberal means never having to say you're sorry. Guess some just aren't that into BarackObamacare:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/young-invincibles-on-obamacare--‘we-re-not-impressed--232152086.html

[Bill Tozer]

Walt, are you sure you are not on Healthcare.gov instead of RR??

[Walt]

Sorry to be vague with the problem. Getting a little frustrated. Oh well,,.. Never suspected that I had been
86ed. I knew that wasn't the problem.
I do know it's in my internet settings somewhere. But that's as far as I get.
Gotta cut it short,, ya' think I took the kid's life support system away..

[Paul Emery]

Rick Santorum is truly a piece of work. It's hard to grasp that he came in second in the
repubs Pres primary last year. This is the most astounding statement I have ever heard from a major political figure. Comparing Obamacare to Apartheid. Unbelievable...

" As condolences and reflections followed the passing of Nelson Mandela, Rick Santorum linked the injustices the former South African president fought and Obamacare.

“He was fighting against some great injustice, and I would make the argument that we have a great injustice going on right now in this country with an ever-increasing size of government that is taking over and controlling people’s lives — and Obamacare is front and center in that,” Santorum said Thursday on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/rick-santorum-obamacare-nelson-mandela-100776.html#ixzz2mjb5mhTN

[George Rebane]

PaulE 158pm - I concur 100% with Rick Santorum's statement as quoted.

[Todd Juvinall]

I too think the loss of freedom is similar. Mandela was an ANC, a communist, but under apartheid the Caucasians would not allow him to speak freely. I hold Mandela in high esteem and he went all around the planet promoting freedom after his release. ObamaCare is the massive takeover of our personal bodies by government which is amazing we could accept that here. But, Mandela would have probably agreed with Santorum had he had the chance to speak on it.

If someone has a Mandela quote or analysis of ObamaCare, please give us the link.

[Paul Emery]

George, you're position equating Obamacare with Apartheid is astounding. Talk about fear mongering! I'll have more on this tomorrow.

If it were up to Cheney and Reagan Mandela would not have been released.

"In the U.S. Congress, lawmakers were ready to show their opposition to the South African regime with the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, a bill that called for tough sanctions and travel restrictions on the nation and its leaders, and for the repeal of apartheid laws and release of political prisoners like Mandela, then leader of the African National Congress (ANC).

The measure passed with bipartisan support, despite strong and largely Republican opposition. President Ronald Reagan was among those most opposed to the bill, and when he finally vetoed the measure over its support of the ANC, which he maintained was a "terrorist organization," it took another vote by Congress to override it. Among the Republicans who repeatedly voted against the measure was future Vice President Dick Cheney, then a Republican congressman from Wyoming.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/dick-cheney-nelson-mandela-terrorist_n_4394071.html

[George Rebane]

PaulE 408pm - I don't know what you're going on about. I just said that I agreed with Santorum's “He was fighting against some great injustice, and I would make the argument that we have a great injustice going on right now in this country with an ever-increasing size of government that is taking over and controlling people’s lives — and Obamacare is front and center in that”

I think you may have fallen into the usual liberal loophole of debating wherein you posit a whole bunch of crap, attribute it to your opponent, and then get all out of breath slaying the dragons of your own creation.

[fish]

George, you're position equating Obamacare with Apartheid is astounding.

Excellent point Paul...almost nearly as absurd as linking women driving in Saudi Arabia to abortion rights in the US.

[Bill Tozer]

Wow. We were going on about BarackObamacare and the 1st Amendment, then suddenly out of Left Field... we hop on the Nelson Mandela Freedom Train complete with the usual dissing of Ronald Reagen..

Oh my. Free Nelson Mandela. Let my people go. I remember when the lefties said Reagen was just too old to become President of the United States of America. Later, I pointed out the Nelson Mandela was over 80 (83 I thunk) and that made him way to old to ever become President of the Great Nation of South America. South Africa has always been the only African country below the Sahara that was worth a shat.
I had a cousin back in the day that was a radical Episcopalian Priest of whatever they call themselves. I will never call my cousin Father, no way, no how. Anyway, he walked into a black church in South Africa and promptly got deported. That be a no-no back in the day. Couldn't mix with the darkies. That was before the old man Mandela got freed.

I can understand Lefties and others getting all nervous lately. Makes it hard to focus. Just look at what the Democrats are up to now (since we are off topic). Them Dems are trying to screw little old ladies and the elderly. Shame, shame

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-05/pension-threats-in-illinois-detroit-rattle-government-workers.html

[Bill Tozer]

Scattershots: Rick Santorum ties BarackObamacare with Apartheid?? Me thinks Rick did not go far enough. He should have tied Apartheid with the renegade power lusting control freaks in Washington.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/06/regulation-nation-govt-regs-estimated-to-cost-18t/?intcmp=latestnews

Now back to BarackObama of BarackObamacare:

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/danieldoherty/2013/12/05/gallup-graph-shows-hispanics-abandoning-the-president-in-droves-n1758278

[Todd Juvinall]

PaulE mist not be able to see the similarities between apartheid and ObamCare I guess. The Ocare was shoved down our throats by one party dictators called the democrat party. It is taking 1/6 of the total economy along with our personal bodies and turning that over to the guvmint. Now even dumb old me can see the sameness here. The bad Caucasians of South Africa were booted from power so the blacks of the country could become free and distance themselves from government. Why PaulE would deny Americans the same thing is beyond me.

[Bill Tozer]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-12-06/mandela-free-market-legacy-imperiled-by-south-african-inequality

[Bill Tozer]

Hey, this might be on topic: BarackObamacare, the media, commercial speech versus private free speech, and the kitchen sink.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2013/12/08/not-news-calif-press-doctors-not-joining-covered-california-exchange