Hazing Israel; Stealing your 401K; Takeover of health "care" AND student loans; Militia arrests on rise

1) Government takeover of healthcare and student loans heads to Obama (headline mine) WASHINGTON – Congressional Democrats sent the final piece of landmark health care legislation to President Barack Obama on Friday before heading home to face a skeptical — and sometimes threatening — public. …The last legislative chapter in the wrenching debate came Thursday night when the Democratic-controlled House passed, for the second time, a package of fixes to the bill that Obama had signed two days earlier. …The second of the two bills also presented Obama with another victory, stripping banks and other private lenders of their ability to originate student loans in favor of a system of direct government lending. Obama was expected to sign the measure early next week. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100326/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul ...Democrats also deflected GOP amendments rolling back the health law's Medicare cuts; killing extra Medicaid funds for Tennessee and other state-specific spending; barring tax increases for families earning under $250,000; and requiring the president and other administration officials to purchase health care from exchanges the statute creates (emphasis mine). Translation: they get to exempt themselves from the law they are requiring the rest of us to follow. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100325/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul 1a) This Will Not Stand: Newt On the Passage of Obamacare This will not stand. No one should be confused about the outcome of Sunday's vote This is not the end of the fight it is the beginning of the fight. The American people spoke decisively against a big government, high tax, Washington knows best, pro trial lawyer centralized bureaucratic health system In every recent poll the vast majority of Americans opposed this monstrosity. Speaker Pelosi knew the country was against the bill. That is why she kept her members trapped in Washington and forced a vote on Sunday. She knew if she let the members go home their constituents would convince them to vote no. The Obama-Pelosi-Reid machine combined the radicalism of Alinsky, the corruption of Springfield and the machine power politics of Chicago. Sunday was a pressured, bought, intimidated vote worthy of Hugo Chavez but unworthy of the United States of America. It is hard to imagine how much pressure they brought to bear on congressman Stupak to get him to accept a cynical, phony clearly illegal and unconstitutional executive order on abortion. The ruthlessness and inhumanity of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid machine was most clearly on display in their public humiliation of Stupak. The real principles of the machine were articulated by Democratic Congressman Alcee Hastings who was impeached and removed from the bench as a federal judge, before being elected to the House when he said ""There ain't no rules here, we're trying to accomplish something. . . .All this talk about rules. . . .When the deal goes down . . . we make 'em up as we go along." It is hard for the American people to believe their leaders on the left are this bad. They are (emphasis mine). See: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=36142 1b) Fidel Castro: Passage of Obama’s Health Care Plan Is “A Miracle” As President Barack Obama embarks on a high profile campaign to bolster public opinion of his health care plan, there is one man who is already convinced that Obamacare is the right move for America – Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary leader and first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party. According to an Associated Press report, Castro hailed Obamacare as “a miracle” and “an important battle and a success of (Obama’s) government.” Castro went on to favorably compare President Obama’s health care plan to the one Cuba enacted a half century ago. Ironically, it was reported last year that Cuban President Raul Castro said his country’s spending on health care was “simply unsustainable.” In the Land of the Free, Americans remain unconvinced that Obama’s health care reforms are right for the United States. A CBS News poll released Wednesday shows that 62% of Americans want Republicans to continue challenging the health care bill that President Obama signed into law this week. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/03/25/fidel-castro-passage-of-obamas-health-care-plan-is-a-miracle 1c) Glenn Beck: Dems admit ObamaCare = Socialism BAUCUS: Wages have not kept up with the increased income of the highest income Americans. This legislation will have the effect of addressing that maldistribution income in America, because health care is now a right for all Americans and because health care is now affordable for all Americans. GLENN: I thought this was about health care. I thought this was about health care. I thought that's what I was crazy, I was a madman, I was wrong. I was a danger to society because I told you this wasn't about health care! This was about redistribution of wealth. This in the words of the President, reparations don't go far enough. Quoting, reparations don't go far enough. What he said in that same article in USA Today during the election, what the headline was, he's not for reparations. That was the headline. President Barack Obama not for reparations. You got to the last paragraph and he said it didn't go far enough, you needed health care and universal education. What did you get this week? Health care and universal education. We're all socialists now. See: http://media.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/38531/ 1d) Democrats Create False Storyline to Distract from What They've Done RUSH: We're going to get to this totally contrived Republicans causing all kinds of threats to Democrats story. I'll tell you, it's a total diversion. The Democrats are so losing the information war on the health care bill that they're trying to do anything to distract everybody's attention from it, and it's as I said yesterday, this is all part of a plan to criminalize dissent. Let me just ask you a question. When is the last time you can recall a bunch of conservatives having a riot? When is the last time you can recall a bunch of conservatives disrupting a congressional hearing? When is the last time you can recall a bunch of conservatives coming out with books and movies on how to assassinate a president? The simple fact of the matter is that this kind of behavior that these people are running around scared to death of and accusing people of, they are the authors of this kind of behavior. These are the people that wrote the book on how to do this. Our side doesn't do this kind of stuff. This is all made up, 95% of it's made up and it's being done to divert everybody's attention. …Okay. Let's get right into this violence business. Every media organ that the White House controls is now on the same page, the same template, and that is Sarah Palin is inciting violence with some of her words, that I am inciting violence, that we are promoting violence, that it wouldn't be happening if it weren't for people like me and Sarah Palin and a whole network of New Media people. They want to talk about violence? All right, you mean violence like the Black Panthers, the New Black Panthers in Philadelphia at polling places? You want to talk about violence like the SEIU, which beat up a young black man with cancer in a wheelchair at a political rally last summer? You remember all those stories about Republican offices, Bush-Cheney offices being vandalized during the campaign? Did we get three days of stories about those? You probably don't even remember those stories. I've got 'em, we'll get to them here in just a second. You probably don't remember them. It's amazing to me how quickly -- and don't forget Sarah Palin hung in effigy, George W. Bush hung in effigy, assassination books and movies about George Bush. …I think they should release all the information, all of the tapes, whatever they have. See, no one supports threats or violence. But it's the left that does that. It's the left that does that in their protests and their marches. But if there are threats, let's see them. Let's see them all. Let's hear them all. I don't want to hear that you just feel threatened. For crying out loud, people feel a gazillion things each and every day. I'll tell you what it is. These people know that what they have done is universally unpopular. They are trying to distract everybody's attention and create sympathy for them by making up stories and lying about threats, death threats, when these people are the architects of how these kinds of threats and protest marches and violence work. I mean, we don't have anybody on our side that tried to blow up the Pentagon. And certainly we don't have anybody on our side who had a friend who tried to blow up the Pentagon who's now president of the United States. We don't have anybody on our side wiping out cops. Eric Cantor's Virginia office was shot at last night. Eric Cantor is a Republican. See: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_032510/content/01125106.guest.html 1e) AT&T Will Take $1B Non-Cash Charge for Health Care NEW YORK (AP) -- AT&T Inc. will take a $1 billion non-cash accounting charge in the first quarter because of the health care overhaul and may cut benefits it offers to current and retired workers. The charge is the largest disclosed so far. Earlier this week, AK Steel Corp., Caterpillar Inc., Deere & Co. and Valero Energy announced similar accounting charges, saying the health care law that President Barack Obama signed Tuesday will raise their expenses. On Friday, 3M Co. said it will also take a charge of $85 million to $90 million. All five are smaller than AT&T, and their combined charges are less than half of the $1 billion that AT&T is planning. The $1 billion is a third of AT&T's most recent quarterly earnings. In the fourth quarter of 2009, the company earned $3 billion on revenue of $30.9 billion. AT&T said Friday that the charge reflects changes to how Medicare subsidies are taxed. Companies say the health care overhaul will require them to start paying taxes next year on a subsidy they receive for retiree drug coverage. …Also on Friday, Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said they are asking the CEOs of Caterpillar, Verizon, Deere and others to testify at an April 21 House subcommittee hearing on claims that the health care law could hurt their ability to provide health insurance to workers. See: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/03/26/business/AP-US-TEC-ATT-Health-Care.html?_r=2&dbk 2) Morning Bell: Dodd Bill Creates Permanent TARP and You Can Quote That The Senate Banking bill proposes to create a new $50 billion fund to be used in “emergencies” to close or restructure failing financial institutions or those perceived as being in danger of default. This fund is certain to be used for bailing out any politically significant financial institution and is nothing less than a permanent TARP program. …Despite rhetoric about using bankruptcy for most failures, the draft makes it clear that this is to be handled through a bureaucracy subject to political pressures, since the bill also does not include language adapting the bankruptcy process to the special needs of complex international financial institutions. In other words, not only does the Dodd bill not prevent future taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailouts, it virtually guarantees them forever. Just as the original $700 billion TARP fund quickly devolved into President Obama’s personal slush fund, the Dodd bill empowers the Treasury Secretary to take over and liquidate any financial firm at any time, and no one can stop him (emphasis mine). See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/03/26/morning-bell-dodd-bill-creates-permanent-tarp-and-you-can-quote-that 3) Obama announces 15 recess appointments (including at least one radical, circumventing the constitutional right of the Senate,comment mine), scolds GOP WASHINGTON – Fed up with waiting, President Barack Obama announced Saturday he would bypass a vacationing Senate and name 15 people to key administration jobs, wielding for the first time the blunt political tool known as the recess appointment. The move immediately deepened the divide between the Democratic president and Republicans in the Senate following a long, bruising fight over health care. Obama revealed his decision by blistering Republicans, accusing them of holding up nominees for months solely to try to score a political advantage on him. …The 15 appointees to boards and agencies include the contentious choice of union lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board. Republicans had blocked his nomination on grounds he would bring a radical pro-union agenda to the job, and they called on Obama not to appoint Becker over the recess. …Democrats had failed to overcome Republican delaying tactics on Becker's nomination, and all 41 GOP senators wrote to Obama on Thursday urging him not to appoint Becker over the break — to no avail. Becker is a top lawyer at the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO. …Already in a struggle with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over a financial overhaul, Obama now has another one over Becker. "The business community should be on red alert for radical changes that could significantly impair the ability of America's job creators to compete," the chamber said in a statement. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100328/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_recess_appointments 4) Obama ally targets 401(k) dollars Trillions in IRA funds could be forced into U.S. Treasury debt A key labor union ally of the Obama administration has mounted an effort to create government-mandated worker retirement accounts as an entitlement program, with the possibility that a portion of all private retirement funds could be forced into U.S. Treasury debt. Branding the program "Retirement USA," the Service Employee International Union, or SEIU, has joined with the AFL-CIO, the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based economic left-leaning think tank that receives substantial labor funding and two other left-leaning interest groups, the Pension Rights Center and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security. Retirement USA promotes the concept that all workers in the U.S. have a right to a government account that would fund a secure retirement in addition to Social Security and private workplace programs such as the 401(k). See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=132061 5) What Will Stop Them Now? It didn’t matter that the healthcare plan Obama proposed was wildly unpopular with the American people. By 55 percent to 35 percent they opposed it. It didn’t matter that Democrats lost the Senate seat once held by the “Lion of the Senate,” Ted Kennedy, to Republican Scott Brown because he promised to vote against it. It didn’t matter that serious economists writing for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Washington Post predicted it would make our nation’s debt skyrocket. It didn’t matter that an election is looming in November, promising on the heels of outrage that many Democrats will lose their seats in Congress. It didn’t matter that leadership had to bribe, threaten, for the world to see, recalcitrant House members right down to the wire before the vote. It didn’t matter that they broke the rules and skipped a conference committee to advance the Senate bill or that they publicly signaled their intent to use an inappropriate rule called “reconciliation” to pass this massive, democracy-altering piece of legislation against the will of the people; nor that they nearly refused to vote altogether on the Senate Bill, almost “deeming” it to have passed according to the “Slaughter Rule.” And if all this didn’t matter, then what will stop them now? …A big story lost in the shuffle recently was Obama’s refusal to allow drilling in the gulf at the same time Russia eagerly negotiates with Cuba to drill there for themselves. It isn’t enough for us to be forced to go “green” through attempts to control car manufacturing; we must be denied the right to drill for our own oil off our own coast to further strangle our supply of what he considers to be the wrong kind of energy. Meanwhile, our rivals gobble up the world’s supply, including our part. Does anyone doubt Cap and Trade will soon once again be on the voting horizon? …The 20 percentage points that divide Americans now on the issue of healthcare can, without a doubt, be attributed to alternative media—talk radio, FOX News, conservative on-line publications, blogs, conservative pundits on many channels… etc. How else would Americans know they had reason to be concerned? Yes, alternative conservative media is a force to be reckoned with. And until they are destroyed, the left may not prevail. Whether by the community panels in the FCC’s “localism” proposal—the Fairness Doctrine by another name—or other regulations and rules to be determined, look for the assault on alternative media to commence again shortly. See: https://townhall.com/columnists/SandyRios/2010/03/24/what_will_stop_them_now 6) Social Security to See Payout Exceed Pay-In This Year The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession have hurt jobs, home prices and now Social Security. This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office. …The problem, he said, is that payments have risen more than expected during the downturn, because jobs disappeared and people applied for benefits sooner than they had planned. At the same time, the program’s revenue has fallen sharply, because there are fewer paychecks to tax. …The trustees did foresee, in late 2008, that the recession would be severe enough to deplete Social Security’s funds more quickly than previously projected. They moved the year of reckoning forward, to 2037 from 2041. Mr. Goss declined to reveal the contents of the forthcoming annual report, but said people should not expect the date to lurch forward again. …In a year like this, the paper gains from the interest earned on the securities will more than cover the difference between what it takes in and pays out. Mr. Goss, the actuary, emphasized that even the $29 billion shortfall projected for this year was small, relative to the roughly $700 billion that would flow in and out of the system. The system, he added, has a balance of about $2.5 trillion that will take decades to deplete. Mr. Goss said that large cushion could start to grow again if the economy recovers briskly. …Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office’s projection shows the ravages of the recession easing in the next few years, with small surpluses reappearing briefly in 2014 and 2015. After that, demographic forces are expected to overtake the fund, as more and more baby boomers leave the work force, stop paying into the program and start collecting their benefits. At that point, outlays will exceed revenue every year, no matter how well the economy performs. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/business/economy/25social.html 7) Parental Rights and Civil Wrongs: School-based Clinics and Abortion A Seattle area mother is distraught because a school-based clinic at her daughter’s high school arranged for the girl to have an abortion, even providing a taxicab to the clinic, without notice to her parents. A spokesman for the King County Health Department summarized the situation simply when he commented, “At any age in the state of Washington, an individual can consent to a termination of pregnancy.” …Parents are asked to sign consent forms for their children to use the clinics, but these are not always itemized and consent on specific matters like abortion is determined by state law not particular clinic policies. Moreover, teenagers who attend the clinics and are Medicaid-eligible are covered by a provision of federal law that says the teen must consent before information about their accessing contraceptives can be shared with the parent or guardian. Liberals in Congress blocked Bush Administration attempts to reduce fraud and strengthen parental prerogatives by barring the use of Medicaid funds for school-based services, including the cost of medical referrals. Interestingly, the mammoth health care reform bill just signed into law by President Obama includes authorization for a major expansion of federal financing of school-based clinics. The National Assembly of School-Based Health Centers hailed the bill’s signing because of the $50 million it provides over five years for a new federal grant program and the “emergency appropriation” of $200 million it makes for the clinics over the next two years. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/03/25/parental-rights-and-civil-wrongs-school-based-clinics-and-abortion 8) Official: Gun charges after FBI raids in Midwest ADRIAN, Mich. – The FBI said Sunday that agents conducted weekend raids in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio and arrested at least three people, and a militia leader in Michigan said the target of at least one of the raids was a Christian militia group. Federal warrants were sealed, but a federal law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said some of those arrested face gun charges and officials are pursuing other suspects. FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said there had been activity in two southeast Michigan counties near the Ohio state line. She wouldn't say whether they were tied to the raids in the other states. FBI spokesman Scott Wilson in Cleveland said agents arrested two people Saturday after raids in two towns in Ohio. A third arrest was made in northeast Illinois on Sunday, a day after a raid took place just over the border in northwest Indiana. George Ponce, 18, who works at a pizzeria next door to a home raided in Hammond, Ind., said he and a few co-workers stepped outside for a break Saturday night and saw a swarm of law enforcement. "I heard a yell, 'Get back inside!' and saw a squad member pointing a rifle at us," Ponce said. "They told us the bomb squad was going in, sweeping the house looking for bombs." He said another agent was in the bushes near the house, and law enforcement vehicles were "all over." He estimated that agents took more than two dozen guns from the house. …"We believe that one day, as prophecy says, there will be an Anti-Christ," the group's Web site said. "Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment. …In Michigan, police swarmed a rural, wooded property around 7 p.m. Saturday outside Adrian, about 70 miles southwest of Detroit, said Evelyn Reitz, who lives about a half-mile away. She said several police cars, with lights flashing, were still there Sunday evening and 15 to 20 officers were stationed in the area. Neighbor Jane Cattell said she came home from the movies Saturday night and a helicopter was circling above, its spotlight illuminating her house. She and her sister, Sarah Holtz, wouldn't say who lived in the home but said they knew them from riding their horses past their house. "They're your average, nice neighbors," Holtz said. There were rumors about ties to a militia, but Holtz she knew nothing of that from her interaction with them. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100328/ap_on_re_us/us_fbi_raids 9) Binyamin Netanyahu humiliated after Barack Obama 'dumped him for dinner' For a head of government to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip viewed in Jerusalem as a humiliation. After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and “let me know if there is anything new”, a US congressman, who spoke to the Prime Minister, said. “It was awful,” the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting “a hazing in stages”, poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House telephone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received “the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea”. See: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7076431.ece 10) This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report': Throwing Israel under the bus …Since it took power in 2009, the Obama Administration has been stonewalling Israel over its requests for critical advanced weapons systems and munitions. These requests were approved in 2008 by the Bush Administration, but President Obama has forbidden their delivery to Israel. In fact, he recently diverted a shipment of bunker-buster bombs. They're sitting in a warehouse on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. No one is admitting it, but the shipment was diverted right around the time that Israel outrageously insulted Vice President Joe Biden and, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Obama and the entire United States. You remember, Israel insulted our national pride by announcing the approval of step four in a seven step process toward building a 1,600 unit apartment complex in a longtime Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem. That's the sort of insult that could make a great nation like ours collapse in a tearful heap of broken hearts! But I smell a rat. As I reported last week, the whole incident seems 'manufactured.' It seems even more so today. Looking at the treatment Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu received at the hands of the President during his visit to Washington this week, it's obvious to me that the Administration is once again engaged in its trademark Chicago-style politics and arm-twisting. But who knows what they're after? One thing I know for sure, though, this Administration has absolutely no concern for our ally's best interests. In fact, I think President Obama is getting ready to throw Israel under the bus. And there's no way that can end well for the United States. See: http://www.hallindsey.com/the-hal-lindsey-report-3262010/ 11) NKorea accuses US, SKorea of disturbing border SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea warned the U.S. and South Korea of "unpredictable incidents" Monday after it says the allied nations have been disturbing security at a buffer zone bisecting the peninsula. Monday's warning came after a South Korean military ship sank Saturday due to an unexplained explosion onboard. The ship was near the disputed sea border with North Korea, though South Korean and U.S. officials say they have seen nothing that suggests any North Korean involvement. The statement by the North's military accused South Korea of staging anti-North Korea "psychological warfare" in the demilitarized zone and allowing journalists to visit there. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100329/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_tension