More Obamacare Stupidity: Insurances Exchanges Can't Charge More for Smokers

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fried Dough

The board charged with implementing federal health care reforms in the District has voted to prohibit insurance companies from charging higher premiums to cigarette smokers, adding the city to a handful of states rejecting such surcharges because of the effect they have on poor families who are more likely to smoke.

The D.C. Health Benefit Exchange executive board voted Monday to join Rhode Island, Vermont and Massachusetts in eliminating smoking premiums in their health care exchanges.

Dr. Mohammad N. Akhter, chairman of the city’s health exchange board, said the costs of the surcharge could be prohibitive for poor families. The Affordable Care Act allows states to impose up to a 50 percent surcharge for people who have used tobacco at least four times a week over the last six months.

A June 2012 study by the Institute for Health Policy Solutions estimated that the largest effect would be on older couples whose earnings were at 150 percent of the federal poverty line. If subjected to the maximum surcharge, a couple older than 60 years old who both smoke would face a premium equaling 48 percent of their total income and 143 percent of their income above the poverty level.

“That’s basically unaffordable,” Dr. Akhter said.

An estimated 20.8 percent of D.C. adults smoke regularly, compared to a national median of 21.2 percent, according to 2011 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But smoking rates among black residents in the District were much higher, at 30.8 percent.

Read more from this story HERE.

Navy Deploying New Attack Laser to Persian Gulf (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: NY Times

The Navy is going to sea for the first time with a laser attack weapon that has been shown in tests to disable patrol boats and blind or destroy surveillance drones.

A prototype shipboard laser will be deployed on a converted amphibious transport and docking ship in the Persian Gulf, where Iranian fast-attack boats have harassed American warships and where the government in Tehran is building remotely piloted aircraft carrying surveillance pods and, someday potentially, rockets.

The laser will not be operational until next year, but the announcement on Monday by Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, the chief of naval operations, seemed meant as a warning to Iran not to step up activity in the gulf in the next few months if tensions increase because of sanctions and the impasse in negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program. The Navy released video and still images of the laser weapon burning through a drone during a test firing.

The laser is designed to carry out a graduated scale of missions, from burning through a fast-attack boat or a drone to producing a nonlethal burst to “dazzle” an adversary’s sensors and render them useless without causing any other physical damage. The Pentagon has a long history of grossly inflating claims for its experimental weapons, but a nonpartisan study for Congress said the weapon offered the Navy historic opportunities.

Watch video here:

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama's Proposed Cuts: Not Even Close to REAL Entitlement Reform

/0 Comments/in , /by

In his latest attempt to cajole Republicans into raising taxes, Obama has called for a budget plan that makes some cuts to Medicare providers and subjects Social Security payments to the chained CPI. John Boehner was correct to reject this ploy of holding entitlement savings hostage for tax increases. However, he has come close to negotiating such a deal in the past, and there are some GOP officials who are saying they would still agree to such a trade. Lindsey Graham has already expressed encouragement over the proposal.

We must remember that even to the extent we would be willing to trade tax increases for something transformational, Obama’s proposal is not entitlement reform, and it certainly doesn’t represent something transformational. It is a proposal of austerity cuts to the status quo.

The problem with entitlements is not limited to the budgetary cost to the federal government, although that is certainly a major concern. The problem with our entitlements – in the case of Medicare and Medicaid – is the lack of choices, free market forces, and the inflationary cost of healthcare to the individual. The problem with Social Security is the lack of private property rights, dreadful rate of return, lack of individual liberty, and hopeless dependency on government. Limiting benefits to the chained CPI might be fine for the government option, but it should not replace policies that offer more choices. Means-testing benefits might save money, but we must not forget that Social Security is already means-tested, as its benefit formula is tendentious towards low-income earners relative to what they contribute to the program.

Read more from this story HERE.

Students Force ex-Bush Official 'War Criminal' to Withdraw as Commencement Speaker

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Leftist students at Swarthmore College, dissatisfied with their commencement speaker’s connection to the Bush administration, persuaded him to withdraw as speaker.

Robert Zoellick served as deputy secretary of state under President Bush in 2005, and is known for strongly backing the Iraq War. These views put him at odds with Swarthmore’s Quaker roots, said some students.

At a meeting last week, one student called Zoellick a “war criminal” who did not share “Swarthmore values.”

The student, identified as “Will L.” in a comment on an online article about the controversy, drew attention to the fact that Zoellick would be receiving an honorary degree: “I, and many others, are opposed to Zoellick’s honorary degree for a number of reasons. His tenure at the World Bank and as U.S. Trade Representative are among them. So is his time in the private sector, when he worked at Goldman Sachs and Fannie Mae — two institutions that would later become infamous for their role in the 2008 financial collapse. So is his role in helping build an ideological foundation for the Iraq War. His whole career has been built on one morally dubious enterprise after another.”

In response, Zoellick decided not speak at commencement, and said that he would refuse the honorary degree.

Read more from this story HERE.

Newtown Killer Refused to Say If He Was Male or Female: 'I Choose Not to Answer'

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

By Terence P. Jeffrey. Adam Lanza, who murdered 20 first graders and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. on Dec. 14, refused to identify himself by a gender when registering at college, according to documents obtained by CBS News.

“I choose not to answer,” Lanza said when asked his gender on a form for Western Connecticut State University.

President Barack Obama and others have pointed to Lanza’s act of mass murder as an argument for more strictly controlling access to firearms in the United States.

“We got some intriguing new information and a strange new picture of Lanza today,” anchor Scott Pelley said on the April 1 edition of CBS Evening News.

“His college records were delivered to us after we requested them under the Connecticut open records law,” said Pelley. “Lanza enrolled in courses at Western Connecticut State University. When asked his gender he wrote, ‘I choose not to answer.’ When asked to describe himself, he wrote again ‘I choose not to answer.’ Read more from this story HERE.

Biden Says Gender Part of Gun Background Check; Newtown Shooter Refused to Offer Gender on College Form

By Fred Lucas. Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday highlighted gender among other characteristics a gun purchaser must fill out on a background check form after reports that the Newtown, Conn. school shooter refused to identify his gender on a college form.

“You walk into Dick’s Sporting Goods or any other place, and they hand you a form,” Biden said Tuesday at a White House event with law enforcement officials from around the country endorsing the Obama administration’s gun control measures. “They say you’ve got to fill this in: It’s your name, where you live, where you were born, your gender and your race, and if you want to make it even quicker to get this done, your Social Security number, which you do not have to give.”

CNS News first reported on April 1 that Adam Lanza, the Newtown gunman that murdered 20 first graders and six adults in December, refused to identify his gender on his college registration form at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, Conn.

Biden advocated strongly for the Senate to pass gun control measures being considered this week, specifically universal background checks. Lanza did not buy the gun used in the shooting, but got it from his mother. Thus, closing loopholes on background checks would not have affected whether he obtained a gun.

During his speech Tuesday, Biden said the NRA is engaged in misinformation. “They say we – the federal government – want to put every private firearms transaction right under the thumb of the federal government and keep all those names in a massive federal registry,” Biden said. “Kind of scary, man. Black helicopter crowd really is upset.” Read more from this story HERE.

Fox Reporter Won’t Name Sources in Aurora Shooting Story; Faces Jail

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: The New American

Fox News reporter Jana Winter is so committed to keeping secret the identity of her sources of information in the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shootings that she is willing to face jail time rather than expose the unnamed persons. Though both a Colorado judge and a New York judge have ordered her to turn over her notes related to the killings — that likely contain the names of her law-enforcement sources — Winter has so far refused.

On July 20, 2012, James Holmes opened fire on unsuspecting patrons in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 and injuring 70. Fox News sent Jana Winter to cover the aftermath. Just five days later, Winter broke her exclusive story that Holmes had forwarded a notebook to a University of Colorado psychiatrist “filled with details about how he was going to kill people.” Her story was based on information she had received from law-enforcement sources who were not to discuss the case because of a gag order issued by County Judge William Sylvester.

Forbes reported,

As one might expect, the defense attorneys were not happy with the revelation, claiming that the failure of the unnamed sources to honor the gag order — and Winter’s reporting of what she had learned — violated Holmes’ right to receive a fair trial.

The defense team began an investigation into the violation of the gag order, and called a number of law-enforcement officers to the stand, all of whom denied having leaked the information. It was at that point that the defense team persuaded Colorado Judge Sylvester to issue an order forcing Winter to turn over her notes on the story. But because Winter lives in New York, she could not be forced to comply with the order.

Manhattan Judge Larry Stephen then stepped in to offer his assistance and signed off on a subpoena requiring Winter to turn over all her materials associated with the Holmes case, as per the Colorado judge’s order.

Read more from this story HERE.

Safe from Sequester: $704,198 for Gardening at NATO Ambassador’s Home

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: NATO website

Just over a week after sequestration took effect, the State Department allotted more than $700,000 for gardening at a U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Brussels, Belgium.

On March 11, State awarded a contract to provide gardening services at an “official residence” of the U.S. Mission in Belgium.

A State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNSNews.com that the contract is for Truman Hall, a historic property that serves at the residence of the Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The current U.S. ambassador to NATO is Ivo H. Daalder, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in May 2009.

The total award comes to $704,198.30, including $134,744 for the base year and four one-year option periods thereafter.

A State Department spokesperson said that Truman Hall regularly hosts visitors from the 28 NATO nations and other Alliance partner countries around the world and is a valuable platform for America’s diplomacy.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gosnell Worker: Baby “Jumped” When I Snipped Her Neck in Abortion

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: LifeNews

A second Delaware woman who worked at Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s abortion clinic testified today that it was “standard procedure” to snip the necks of any babies that were delivered by patients before the abortion procedure due to labor-inducing drugs.

And Lynda Williams, 44, of Wilmington, said Gosnell taught her how to flip the body of the baby over and snip its neck with a pair of scissors and recalled one time when she followed these orders and saw the child move.

“It jumped, the arm,” she said, showing the jury by raising her arm.

Earlier she testified, “I only do what I’m told to do … what I was told to do was snip their neck.”

Much like former employee Sherry West who testified Monday, Williams initially said she could not remember key details and had to be reminded by prosecutors showing her copies of her earlier statements to investigators. When Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore initially pressed Williams to describe what she saw when she cut the neck of the child, Williams responded with a blank stare and silence.

Read more from this story HERE.

101st Battalion Commander’s Outrageous E-mail to Subordinates Regarding US Hate Groups

/145 Comments/in , /by

This is a copy of an actual email written by an active duty battalion commander to his subordinates regarding US “hate groups.” You won’t believe who he identified as enemies of the state. Read more about this email HERE.

Read more about this email from the 101st Battalion Commander HERE.