1) CNN Poll: 61% Oppose Senate Health Care Bill
The Democrats' health care legislation is now polling worse than President Bush's failed effort to reform Social Security did in 2005.
As I noted below, a new CNN poll asked, "As you may know, the U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would make major changes in the country's health care system. Based on what you have read or heard about that bill, do you
generally favor it or generally oppose it?"
It found that that 61 percent of Americans oppose the Senate health care bill, compared to 36 percent who support it.
See: http://spectator.org/blog/2009/12/10/health-care-bill-polling-worse
1a) Marriage Penalty Hidden in Health Care Reform
A closer look at premium payments in both the House and Senate health care bills shows higher premiums that might discourage couples tying the knot.
For instance, in the House version, an unmarried couple each making $30,000 a year would pay $1,320 combined each year for private health insurance. If that couple chose to marry, their premium would jump to $12,000 a year, a difference of $10,680.
Allen Quist, a former Minnesota State legislator and current candidate for Congress, discovered the penalty while looking at numbers from the Committees on Ways and Means, Energy & Commerce, and Education & Labor.
"This extraordinary penalty people will pay, should they marry, extends all the way from a two-person combined income of $58,280 to $86,640, a spread of $28,360," he wrote in a blog post. "A large number of people fall within this spread. As premiums for private insurance escalate, as expected, the marriage penalty will become substantially larger."
The Senate bill includes a similar penalty.
"The Senate bill stipulates that two unmarried people, 52 years of age, with private insurance and a combined income of $60,000, $30,000 each, will pay a combined cost of $2,483 for medical insurance," Quist wrote. "Should they marry, however, they will pay a combined cost of $11,666 for insurance — a penalty of $9,183 for getting married."
The numbers are based on the government's definition of "poverty level." Those above poverty level will pay higher premiums, and the excess would be redistributed to those in lower income levels.
A marriage penalty. Brilliant! That will be great for society.
See: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405035/posts
1b) Health care loophole would allow coverage limits
WASHINGTON – A loophole in the Senate health care bill would let insurers place annual dollar limits on medical care for people struggling with costly illnesses such as cancer, prompting a rebuke from patient advocates.
The legislation that originally passed the Senate health committee last summer would have banned such limits, but a tweak to that provision weakened it in the bill now moving toward a Senate vote.
No, there’s no rationing. None at all.
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091211/ap_on_go_co/us_health_overhaul_senate_loophole
1c) High Premiums in Senate Democrats’ Health Plan
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats have provided few details about their latest health care proposal, but this much seems clear: Anyone who wants to buy the same health benefits as members of Congress, or to buy coverage through Medicare, should be prepared to fork over a large chunk of cash.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, a family of four earning $54,000 in 2016, when the health legislation is fully in effect, would be eligible for a subsidy of $10,100 to help defray the cost of insurance under the health legislation being debated by the Senate. By then, one of the most popular federal plans, a nationwide Blue Cross and Blue Shield policy, is projected to cost more than $20,000.
That could leave the family earning $54,000, slightly more than the current median household income, with monthly premium costs of more than $825.
See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/health/policy/11insure.html?_r=1
2) Feinberg Issues New Salary Caps for TARP Firms
New compensation rules issued Friday will cap 2009 pay at $500,000 cash for about 450 employees at four companies that have received government bailout funds.
The new guidelines affect the 26th- through 100th-highest-paid employees at the affected firms, which include Citibank, GM, AIG and GMAC. Chrysler and its financing arm were not included because none of their employees make more than $500,000, pay czar Kenneth Feinberg told reporters this morning at a briefing.
So, following the logic that if you receive government money, the government can determine your salary, then if you have received a government student loan, I suppose then the government can determine where you get a job, or how much you make, too. Who would have thought that we could get to the point in the UNITED STATES that a “pay czar” would determine how much you could make.
See: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2009/12/feinberg-issues-new-pay-caps-for-tarp-firms.html
3) For feds, more get 6-figure salaries
Average pay $30,000 over private sector
The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.
Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.
Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.
The highest-paid federal employees are doing best of all on salary increases. Defense Department civilian employees earning $150,000 or more increased from 1,868 in December 2007 to 10,100 in June 2009, the most recent figure available.
…"There's no way to justify this to the American people. It's ridiculous," says Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a first-term lawmaker who is on the House's federal workforce subcommittee.
…The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector.
See: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20091211/1afedpay11_st.art.htm?loc=interstitialskip
4) **Exclusive** Leaked Justice Department Memo: Terrorists To Be Moved to Camp Gitmo Illinois
The Land of Lincoln may still be licking its wounds–and certain real estate transactions–over Chicago’s losing the Olympics to Rio, but the Obama Administration has delivered up a small consolation prize: the state’s very own federal prison for terrorists. Big Government has received what is claimed to be a leaked DOJ memo that was allegedly sent yesterday from Eric Holder’s Department of Justice to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
See: http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/11/exclusive-leaked-justice-department-memo-terrorists-to-be-moved-to-camp-gitmo-illinois/
5) Clinton-Appointed Judge Imposes Injunction on Congressional Ban on ACORN Funding
“On the same day that ACORN’s violation of Delaware state lobbying laws was revealed, a liberal, Clinton-appointed activist Judge has ruled to usurp the prerogatives and authority of the United States Congress. This left-wing activist Judge is setting a dangerous precedent that left-wing political organizations plagued by criminal accusations have a constitutional entitlement to taxpayer dollars. The Obama Administration should immediately move to appeal this injunction.”
From the second citation below:…a Clinton appointed judge has ruled in favor of ACORN in their suit to stop Congress from defunding them and in essence saying that once an organization gets payments from the federal government then Congress can no longer decide to stop those payments unless a court rules they are guilty of some law breaking.
See: http://sdrostra.com/?p=1591
And: http://www.floppingaces.net/2009/12/11/activist-judge-congress-cannot-stop-payments-to-acorn/
6) Furious Reaction To Sick Editorial Calling For Global One Child Dictatorship
An article featured in Canada’s Financial Post newspaper calling for China’s draconian one child policy, where woman are kidnapped off the streets, drugged, and forced to undergo compulsory abortions, to be imposed worldwide has been met with widespread hostile reaction, yet such measures are being debated at the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen.
In her editorial published on Tuesday, columnist Diane Francis wrote that, “A planetary law, such as China’s one-child policy, is the only way to reverse the disastrous global birthrate.”
I think it‘s about time for Diane to start dyin‘. If she wants to save the world, let it begin with her.
Just days later, the Chinese government delegation at the Copenhagen climate change conference argued that the Communist dictatorship’s one child policy should “serve as a model for integrating population programs into the framework of climate change adaptation.”
As we have exhaustively documented, the overpopulation myth is often cited by control freak phony environmentalists as a justification for the implementation of drastic policies, yet it has no basis in reality whatsoever (emphasis mine).
Due to falling fertility rates globally, humans will soon stop replacing themselves and population numbers will naturally fall (emphasis mine).
See: http://www.prisonplanet.com/furious-reaction-to-sick-editorial-calling-for-global-one-child-dictatorship.html
And: http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=2314438
7) Food prices to skyrocket as supplies plunge
Low inventories, lack of farmers brings on 'perfect storm'
In a recent report on the state of the economy, the New York Times said food stamps are being used by a record number – one in eight – Americans and one in four children.
At the same time, food banks run by churches are being overrun with requests for help.
And if that isn't troubling enough, other data point to a much darker future.
According to the National Inflation Association, food costs are about to skyrocket. Officials cite agricultural commodities which have remained at historically low levels despite a worldwide shortage of farmers and record low food inventories. They equate this to a "perfect storm" that could bring about a dramatic rise in food prices.
See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=118656
8) Obama administration 'assures Jewish evacuation'
PA official says U.S. won't counter proposal giving Temple Mount to Palestinians
JERUSALEM – Members of the Obama administration recently assured the Palestinian Authority that most Jewish communities in the strategic West Bank will be evacuated, a top PA official told WND yesterday.
The official also said Obama will soon offer the Palestinians a public pledge that a Palestinian state will encompass most of the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem with the exception of what is known as the three main settlement blocs – Ariel, Gush Etzion and Maale Adumim. The pledge will likely be oral and not in the form of a letter, said the PA official.
Further, both the PA official and a source in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office told WND the Obama administration refused to counter a European Union draft document that supports the division of Jerusalem, with the Temple Mount going to the Palestinians.
See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=118495
9) Ahmadinejad Reportedly Claims U.S. is Blocking Return of Mankind's Savior
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims the United States is attempting to thwart the return of mankind's savior, according to reports from Al Arabiya, a television news station based in Dubai.
Ahmadinejad reportedly claims he has documented evidence that the U.S. is blocking the return of Mahdi, the Imam believed by Muslims to be the savior.
“We have documented proof that they believe that a descendant of the prophet of Islam will raise in these parts and he will dry the roots of all injustice in the world,” Ahmadinejad said during a speech on Monday, according to Al Arabiya.
"They have devised all these plans to prevent the coming of the Hidden Imam because they know that the Iranian nation is the one that will prepare the grounds for his coming and will be the supporters of his rule," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
If Islam’s Mahdi is the Antichrist of the Bible, and there is considerable evidence that that is the case, then way to go U.S.
See: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,579640,00.html
10) Mysterious lights in Norway: Russian missile test
Citizens of Norway got quite a shock this week when a giant spiral with a green-blue beam of light shooting from its center appeared up in the sky. This Wednesday, the strange light, or series of lights, lit up the skies above Norway. Russian officials originally denied that they had anything to do with it and later claimed responsibility stating that it was a failed missile test. According to Russian defense officials, this is what took place:
The missile's rocket motor spun out of control shortly after it was launched, this likely created the heavenly spiral pattern of white light. The missile was launched from a submarine located in the White Sea. The phenomenon was witnessed by people all over Norway and caused emergency call center's phone boards to light up. The lights were reported around 8 a.m. local time or 2 a.m. EST.
Why Russia initially denied involvement in the incident is unclear, but it could be that it was the 6th failure of the last 13 launches of the Bulava ballistic missile.
See: http://www.examiner.com/x-958-Tampa-Space-Program-News-Examiner~y2009m12d11-Mysterious-lights-in-Norway-Russian-missile-test
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