CLASS Dismissed

But, but, but, how can this be, Obamacare was such a well thought out and carefully crafted 2700 page piece of legislation?

Obama drops long-term health care program

Citing cost concerns, the Obama administration said Friday it has halted a long-term care insurance program that was part of the massive health care law passed in 2010.

Called the CLASS Act (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports), the program was canceled by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius after a 19-month effort to find a way to make it financially viable.

In a letter to Congress, Sebelius wrote, “Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time.”

See also:
Long-Term Care Gets the Ax
U.S. Won’t Start Long-Term Care Insurance
Obama administration drops part of healthcare law
White House kills CLASS
Obama Pulls Plug on New Long-Term Care Insurance Program in Health Care Law
U.S. Drops Controversial Long-Term Care Program
Sebelius On The CLASS Act: ‘I Do Not See A Viable Path Forward’
Administration Drops Long-Term Care Provision Of Overhaul
Kathleen Sebelius declares end to CLASS Act
Nixing of health law’s ‘unsustainable’ CLASS Act prompts GOP inquiry
What the CLASS Act says about health-care reform

And remember, the CLASS Act was supposed to generate revenue that would offset the cost of other parts of Obamacare. So, even if you believed the absurd fiction that Obamacare paid for itself and wasn’t another massively underfunded government social entitlement, that will add trillions to the national debt, that fairy tale is obviously no longer within the realm of reality. Eliminating the CLASS Act is like kicking out a leg of the three legged Obamacare stool. The thread is being pulled and the Obamacare sweater is starting to unravel.

/between the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on the individual mandate and the 2012 elections,, hopefully Obamacare will become just an unpleasant memory within the next few years

Showdown At The Supreme Court Corral

The sooner this Obamacare abomination is declared unconstitutional, the better for the country, the economy, and the American people. It’s a huge, bloated beached whale that will add trillions to the national debt and increase the cost and lower the quality of health care, forcing people to pay more to wait longer for less.

Supreme Court could rule on health care law in months

The Obama administration set the stage Monday for the Supreme Court to rule early next year on the constitutionality of the president’s health care law by declining to press for a full appeal in a lower court.

The Justice Department announced it will forego an appeal to the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Such an appeal to the 10-member court could have taken months and delayed a final decision from the high court until at least 2013.

In August, a 2-1 panel of the 11th Circuit became the first appellate court to declare unconstitutional the new requirement that all Americans have health insurance.

Now, the administration can appeal directly to the Supreme Court and ask the justices to schedule the case to be heard and decided during the term that begins next week and ends in June. If the court follows that schedule, the justices will hand down a ruling on Obama’s signature legislation just as the election campaign moves into high gear.

See also:
‘Obamacare’ Closer to Supreme Court Review After Administration Declines to Appeal Latest Ruling
Unconstitutional Obamacare? Supreme Court battle is on in 2012
It’s On: Health Care Reform is Going to SCOTUS
Health reform lawsuit appears headed for Supreme Court
Administration Lets Case Go Forward Against Health Reform Law
Obama Won’t Seek Hearing on Health Law, Setting Stage for High Court Case
Health Law Path to High Court Clears
Health Case Closer to High Court
No Appeal for Health Care Law in Atlanta
Obamacare Headed for Supreme Court
Obama Administration: No Challenge to Health Care Ruling

Over the centuries, the Commerce Clause has been bent and warped to justify all manner of Federal government intervention in people’s lives, but Obamacare is a bridge too far. You simply cannot force U.S. citizens to affirmatively purchase a product against their will. And, if the Federal government can force people to buy health insurance, what product can’t they make them buy?

/Obamacare is blatantly unconstitutional and if the Supreme Court agrees and strikes it down, in the middle of the run up to next year’s Presidential election, it will blow Obama’s already dwindling reelection chances clear out of the water

Comedy Gold Power

Did she really say this [expletive deleted] with a straight face?

Clinton: US using “smart power” for Libya, Syria

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defended the U.S. response to crises in Libya and Syria on Tuesday, saying the Obama administration is projecting “smart power” by refusing to act alone or with brute force to stop autocratic repression in the two countries.

. . .

Clinton said Libya was a study in the use of “strategic patience,” whereby the United States resisted the impulse for immediate intervention and instead helped to build support for the country’s nascent opposition, which the U.S. now recognizes as Libya’s legitimate government. She said the unprecedented NATO-Arab alliance protecting civilians on the ground was a key result of the tactics of smart power.

“This is exactly the kind of world that I want to see, where it’s not just the United States and everybody is standing on the sidelines while we bear the costs,” she said.

In Syria, Clinton said Washington had adopted a similar stance. The administration has imposed sanctions to protest a ruthless crackdown on reformers but has thus far resisted calls to make an explicit demand for President Bashar Assad to step down, something it did with Qaddafi.

Clinton said it would be a mistake for the administration to demand Assad’s ouster on its own because it wouldn’t be effective given Washington’s long-strained ties with Damascus and limited U.S. influence and trade with Syria.

See also:
U.S. taking “smart power” approach to Libya, Syria
Clinton: Libya, Syria show ‘smart power’ at work
Clinton: Libya, Syria show ‘smart power’ at work
Clinton: Libya, Syria show ‘smart power’ at work
Clinton: Libya, Syria show ‘smart power’ at work
‘Smart power’ at work, says Hillary Clinton
Clinton defends U.S. response on Syria
Clinton Passes Up Chance to Call on Assad to Step Down as Obama Remains Silent
A Conversation with Secretaries Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta

Let’s recap: for months now, we’ve been bombing the [expletive deleted] out of Libya, a country that isn’t a direct threat to U.S. national security, killing civilians, destroying infrastructure, and backing a “rebel” movement containing elements of al Qaeda. That’s “smart power” and “strategic patience”, check. Meanwhile, Bashar Assad in Syria, a dictator in a country with plenty of American blood on its hands and a huge threat to U.S. national security, is killing civilians on a daily basis, with a death toll totaling in the thousands, and we’re doing nothing, because our relationship with Syria is “strained”. That’s also “smart power”, as well as “protecting civilians”, check.

What manner of counterproductive, nonsensical bull[expletive deleted] foreign policy is that? Smart Power my ass!

/are you seriously telling me that we have to put up with these moronic clowns for another year and a half?

Taking Questionable Sides In A Foreign Civil War

It’s official, we’re no longer hiding behind the fictitious fig leaf of “responsibility to protect” civilians (R2P), we’re now showing our true colors. We’re in Libya for regime change. I’m not quite sure when the United Nations approved that?

US, allies formally recognize Libya rebels

The United States granted Libyan rebel leaders full diplomatic recognition as the governing authority of Libya yesterday, after five months of fighting to oust longtime ruler Moammar Khadafy.

The decision at a meeting here of more than 30 Western and Arab nations is the first step in giving the rebels access to Libya’s frozen US assets, worth more than $30 billion.

“I am announcing today that, until an interim authority is in place, the United States will recognize the TNC as the legitimate governing authority for Libya,’’ Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, referring to the rebels’ Transitional National Council, prompting other ministers to break out in applause.

Who, exactly, are we now in bed with?

Rights group: Libyan rebels looted and beat civilians

Libyan rebels have looted and burned homes and abused civilians, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that, in “four towns captured by rebels in the Nafusa Mountains over the past month, rebel fighters and supporters have damaged property, burned some homes, looted from hospitals, homes, and shops, and beaten some individuals alleged to have supported government forces.”

See also:
U.S. recognition of the Libyan rebel government leaves many questions unanswered
US Formally Recognizes Libyan Rebels
United States recognizes Libyan rebels as legitimate government
U.S. recognizes Libyan rebels as ruling authority
Libyan Rebels Get U.S. Recognition, Await Cash
Libyan rebels win recognition and promise of financial support
Libyan Rebels Get U.S. Recognition Yet Must Wait for Cash
Mary E. Stonaker: What formal recognition given to Libyan rebels means for the oil markets
Rights Group: Libyan Rebels Loot Seized Towns
Rights group accuses Libyan rebels of abuse
Libya rebels loot seized towns, says rights group
Human Rights Watch criticizes Libyan rebels
Rights group exposes Libyan rebel abuses

Lets recap: The United States has now formally aligned itself with accused war criminals we hardly know, in a foreign civil war that we have absolutely no business being militarily involved with in the first place, and our mission creep to regime change isn’t even authorized or approved under international law. Is that about it?

/well played Obama administration, what are we now, a rogue nation?

Why Aren’t We Stomping Syria’s Guts Out?

Obama couldn’t wait to bomb Libya using the flimsy excuse of “protecting civilians”. Well, Bashar al-Assad has killed at least as many civilians as Moammar Gadhafi ever did and today Assad backed mobs attacked the U.S. embassy in Damascus, arguably an act of war. Why aren’t we bombing Syria and demanding that Assad leave the country? What’s Obama waiting for, another Iranian hostage situation?

Demonstrators storm U.S. embassy in Damascus

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has lost the legitimacy to rule after pro-government demonstrators stormed the U.S. Embassy in Damascus on Monday in what U.S. officials described as an orchestrated attack.

Regime supporters hurled rocks, smashed windows and tore down the American flag at the embassy, triggering the strongest U.S. condemnation yet of the Syrian government. Clinton suggested that the United States is contemplating the prospect of a post-Assad future in Syria nearly four months into a brutal government crackdown on pro-democracy activists inspired by the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.

See also:
U.S. accuses Syria of unleashing mob attacks on U.S., French embassies
Syrian protesters attack U.S., French embassies
Syrian protesters attack U.S. Embassy in Damascus
Syrian protesters attack US, French embassies
US Embassy In Syria Attacked
Assad’s Embassy Raid
Deeply disappointed by the attack on American soil?
Clinton condemns US and French embassy attacks in Syria
U.S. Official: Syria’s Failure To Protect U.S. Embassy Is ‘Outrageous’
Assad Has ‘Lost Legitimacy,’ Clinton Says After Embassy Attacked
U.S. says Assad “not indispensable” to Syria

Is this what passes for consistent foreign policy in the Obama administration? The leaders of both Libya and Syria have killed thousands of civilians. Syria is infinitely more of a threat to U.S. national security than Libya is. Yet we’re bombing the [expletive deleted] out of Libya and trying to kill Gadhafi or drive him out of Libya at the same time we’re politely, diplomatically “condemning” Syria and giving Assad a total free pass. WTF?

/if we have a legitimate reason to be doing what we’re doing in Libya, we have even more of a legitimate reason to be doing even more of it in Syria and, by corollary, if we’re going to do nothing concrete about Syria’s brutal crackdown on civilians, we have absolutely no business whatsoever bombing Libya and we should get the hell out immediately, we’ve already done enough human and infrastructure damage there without any tangible results

Obama Plays Hide The Terrorist

Congress specifically prohibited Obama and Holder from moving terrorists from Guantanamo to U.S. soil, so the clown pair thumbed their big red bulb noses at Congress and did an end around, skipped Gitmo, and just flew the terrorist directly to New York, so they can tie up Manhattan traffic and waste millions of taxpayer dollars for extra security on a shaky, at best, pet project civilian trial.

Obama faces criticism from all sides for terrorism suspect’s offshore interrogation, civilian trial

After holding a Somali terrorism suspect for two months on a U.S. warship, the Obama administration secretly flew him to New York for trial in a civilian court, leaving both rights groups and Congress infuriated.

The clandestine imprisonment at sea echoed Bush-era – and widely condemned – efforts to deny detainees constitutional protections while interrogating them offshore. Meanwhile, opting to surreptitiously bring the Somali to a U.S. federal court not far from where New York’s twin towers once stood gives the President a chance to circumvent Congress, which has thwarted efforts to put high-profile al-Qaeda suspects on trial in civilian courts.

Ahmed Warsame, said to be in his mid-20s, is hardly a major figure. He is described as a go-between for Somalia’s militant Al-Shabab group and the shadowy al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, located mainly in Yemen.

According to U.S. officials, he willingly operated with interrogators on board a U.S. warship. Once they were finished with him, after two months, a “clean” team from the FBI read him his rights to keep silent and have a lawyer, but the officials said he waived those rights and kept talking.

See also:
Obama under GOP fire for bringing terror suspect to U.S.
New Terror War Tactic? Alleged Al Qaeda-Linked Operative Secretly Held 2 Months on US Navy Vessel
McConnell Blasts Administration for Handling of Somali Terrorism Suspect
Republican Lawmakers Angry Over Handling of Somali Terrorism Suspect
Rights of Somali suspect may pose issue: U.S. judge
Somali Is Charged With Aiding Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula
First secret terror detainee under Obama was held for two months
Terrorism Case Reignites National Security Debate
Somali Terror Suspect Met With Awlaki in Yemen Before Capture, Official Says
Drift: How This Ship Became a Floating Gitmo
Ahmed Warsame and Law of War Detention

Ahmed Warsame was held for two months and interrogated without a lawyer or being read his Miranda rights and Obama and Holder thinks that’s okay because Warsame was eventually read his rights and then a “clean” FBI interrogation team was brought in for more questioning? How, exactly, is that going to work in Federal, civilian court? Warsame’s court appointed, free defense lawyers are going to have a field day at a picnic. And what about all the extra security that’ll be necessary?

/whatever angle you look at this public spectacle from, it’s going to be a circus at a zoo and you, the taxpayer, are going to pay for every last extra penny of Obama and Holder’s clown show

From Mubarak To The Muslim Brotherhood

The Muslim Brotherhood motto:

Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.

Sure, let’s talk to them, great idea, what could possibly go wrong? At least with Mubarak, we had someone committed to peace in the region and peace with Israel.

U.S. to expand contacts with Muslim Brotherhood

The U.S. government has decided to expand contacts with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, officials said Thursday, a shift that reflects the Islamist group’s growing role since the pro-democracy uprising in the key Arab country.

“We believe, given the changing political landscape in Egypt, that it is in the interests of the United States to engage with all parties that are peaceful and committed to nonviolence, that intend to compete for the parliament and the presidency,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Budapest. “And we welcome, therefore, dialogue with those Muslim Brotherhood members who wish to talk with us.”

See also:
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood welcomes US talks
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood welcomes US talks
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood welcomes U.S. talks
Wiesenthal Center angry over US, Brotherhood talks
Wiesenthal Center slams US position on Muslim Brotherhood
Key US lawmaker condemns Muslim Brotherhood talks
Muslim Brotherhood to U.S.: Stop Backing Israel and We’ll Talk
Will Hamas be the next extremist group to be engaged by the U.S.?
The U.S. may be heading toward talks with Hamas

So now the United States is going to enter into formal diplomatic relations with Israel’s sworn enemies, how cool is that? Whoever in the Obama administration thinks this is a good idea is high on drugs or clearly on the wrong side of Middle East peace.

/one thing they surely are not is a friend of Israel

Have We Attacked China Yet?

No sooner was it publicly revealed that the United States would now treat damaging cyberattacks by other nations as an act of war, threatening retaliation with conventional weapons, the new, bold, some say foolish, policy, was immediately put to the test.

China Google hackers’ goal: Spying on U.S. Govt.

It’s the second time Google has blamed a major computer hacking scheme on China, reports CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews.

This time Google says unknown hackers from Jinan, China, a city with a military command center, stole the personal Gmail passwords of hundreds of senior U.S .government officials.

Google said the hackers’ “goal” was to eavesdrop on the officials — “to monitor the content of the users’ emails.”

That suggestion — of spying — rang alarm bells in the Administration.

“These allegations are very serious,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “We take them seriously. We’re looking into them.”

See also:
Clinton: Google’s China Hacking Claims ‘Very Serious’
Hillary Clinton says FBI will probe Gmail hacker attack
US Investigating Google Claim of China Hacking
FBI Investigating Google Claim that China Hacked Them
Google breach gives way to diplomatic, high-tech tensions
China Denies Accessing High Profile Gmail Accounts
Google’s groundless accuses hurt global trust on Internet
The Google-China Saga Continues
Admin: Gmail phishers stalked victims for months
Gmail Hack Targeted White House
Cyber war: Google, China in fresh spat over email hacking
Google, what exactly is the China connection for the phishing scare?
Is Google an agent of the US Government? It certainly gives that impression

So far, the U.S. has uncovered a successful espionage phishing expedition, against top level U.S. Government officials, tracked back to a specific Chinese city. Why aren’t we bombing China, isn’t this a perfect situation to show how our new military policy will treat hacking intrusions like this as acts of war? Unfortunately for us, China denies the attack and, as I pointed out yesterday, it’s extremely difficult to be absolutely sure as to the origins of cyberattacks like this, so we do nothing and our brand new policy looks foolish and radiates national weakness.

/instead of making toothless threats to send missile strikes in response to hack attacks, why don’t we just send the Chinese back a nice Stuxnet worm or take down Baidu with a complimentary DoS attack

The “Stimulus” That Keeps On Sucking

It’s bad enough that we borrowed a trillion dollars from China to waste on a “stimulus” program that actually destroyed 595,000 jobs, but it turns out that we lavished $24 billion of the massively useless pork potpourri on tax criminals! How cool was that?

Stimulus recipients found to be tax cheats

One construction company that won multiple awards of money under President Obama’s 2009 stimulus program was delinquent on its federal tax bill to the tune of $700,000, even as a company executive was blowing hundreds of thousands of dollars at casinos.

Yet another company failed to pay taxes, entered into a payment plan with the Internal Revenue Service, and then repeatedly defaulted on that agreement – and still won stimulus contracts worth more than $1 million, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.

All told, government investigators found that during the period they examined, one out of every six stimulus contract or grant dollars went to a known tax cheat, according to Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican who, along with several colleagues, requested the GAO review.

The review found that at least 3,700 stimulus recipients owed a total of more than $757 million in taxes, but were awarded $24 billion in stimulus money.

Read the report:

Thousands of Recovery Act Contract and Grant Recipients
Owe Hundreds of Millions in Federal Taxes

See also:
Report: Stimulus recipients owe $750 million in taxes
Companies that got stimulus money owe millions in back taxes
Stimulus contractors owe millions in back taxes
Stimulus Recipients Owe Back Taxes
Report: Stimulus Recipients Owe Hundreds Of Millions In Taxes
Stimulus money recipients owe billions in US taxes-GAO
GAO Report: 3,700 Stimulus Fund Recipients Owe Millions in Taxes
GAO Voices Concerns (Again) About Contracts, Grants Awarded to Delinquent Taxpayers
Senators: Tax delinquency issue larger than stimulus
Report: Tax dodgers pocketed $24B+

Now, you need to ask yourself, if the Obama administration was this incompetent that they gave $24 billion to known tax cheats, just how inept were they in frittering away the rest of the trillion dollars? If they couldn’t even catch the obvious gaming of the “stimulus” program, how much more undetected abuse and fraud is out there? I bet it totals in the hundreds of billions. And you, your children and grandchildren will get stuck paying for Obama’s “stimulus” folly, because we borrowed the trillion he wasted.

/Obama, putting the boon in boondoggle

Running On Empty

Actually, we’re running beyond empty now. The United States can’t legally borrow any more money until Congress acts to raise the debt ceiling.

US government hits debt ceiling, lighting 11-week fuse

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner informed Congress on Monday that the United States has reached its legal debt limit, setting off a ticking time bomb that could explode in less than three months if lawmakers can’t bridge differences and allow more government borrowing.

In hitting the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling – the limit on how much the government can borrow – the Obama administration on Monday began temporarily halting payments to the retirement and federal pension accounts of federal workers and started borrowing from those funds, to be restored later.

Geithner sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., warning that the government can move money around for about 11 weeks but if a new debt ceiling isn’t agreed to by Aug. 2, the U.S. government could effectively default on its obligations to its creditors. He warned of “catastrophic economic consequences for citizens” unless Congress raises the debt ceiling.

An increase of about $2 trillion is expected, enough to get the issue past the 2012 elections before Congress would have to lift it again.

Republicans who control the House of Representatives vow to link raising the debt ceiling to cuts in government spending of at least equal measure. In a combative statement Monday, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, upped the ante.

“As I have said numerous times, there will be no debt limit increase without serious budget reforms and significant spending cuts, cuts that are greater than any increase in the debt limit.” Boehner has called previously for $2 trillion in spending cuts as part of any deal to raise the debt ceiling.

See also:
US hits $14 trillion debt limit
US Hits Debt Ceiling, But Treasury Market Rules Out Default For Now
Deja Vu, But No Disaster: U.S. Government Hits Debt Ceiling
U.S. Hits Debt Limit, Sky Doesn’t Fall
U.S. hit debt limit today
Treasury Tapping Federal Retirement Accounts to Stave Off Default
Turbo Tim Raids Pension Plans
With Debt Limit Maxed Out, Lawmakers Hold Firm On Remedy
Rep. Jordan: U.S. won’t default if debt ceiling isn’t raised
U.S. National Debt Clock

Well, we hit the debt ceiling and, despite all the Democrat Chicken Little hysteria, the Sun didn’t explode, the seas didn’t boil, and the markets didn’t plunge thousands of points. Go figure.

/all I can say is that the Republicans had better stand firm and hold their ground this time and hold out for concrete, verifiable spending cuts that at least equal the amount of any debt limit increase