Submitted by danps on Sun, 05/19/2013 - 6:22am
Submitted by libbyliberal on Sat, 05/18/2013 - 4:38pm
Ralph Nader believes it is time to put U.S. global corporations on the DEFENSIVE! He declares that would be “the first step for the resurgence of the people so that corporations become our servants and do not remain our masters.”
In “Patriotic Yardsticks for Unpatriotic Giant Corporations” he calls out US Global Corporations for BETRAYING America -- betraying the American citizen taxpayers that have enabled them to become so incredibly successful. Nader spells it out: Read below the fold...
Submitted by danps on Sat, 05/18/2013 - 4:22pm
Submitted by danps on Sat, 05/18/2013 - 4:21pm
We've had three big stories this week, each showing how the right plays the scandal game better than the left. Of the three, one is a non-scandal (Benghazi), one is a minor scandal with the potential to turn into more (IRS),1 and one is an honest-to-God scandal right now (AP). Republicans don't bother with such fine distinctions though, and that's why they are better at playing it than Democrats: when they get something they can run with, they do. Read below the fold...
Submitted by DCblogger on Sat, 05/18/2013 - 3:15pm
I guess image of Marine holding umbrella for CofC just too much for cons. Black guy w/ power to make white guy do that hits racist bullseye. Read below the fold...
Submitted by lambert on Sat, 05/18/2013 - 1:58pm
Submitted by lambert on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 9:53pm
No image! Still on the borage, or squash, or whatever the heck they are, I was happy to see some sudden little pale green tendrils in the same general area from, I hope, some self-seeded plants from the wildflower mix l planted last year, and very successfully, too. Actually, let me add a picture, since that will show how this bed should be in a month or two, if what was growing there last year comes back:
Read below the fold...
Submitted by lambert on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 8:22pm
Submitted by DCblogger on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 4:57pm
Submitted by lambert on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 2:10pm
From (I love the source) Art in America:
Cooper Occupation Exceeds One-Week Mark
In the latest development in an ongoing conflict, students at New York's Cooper Union have occupied the office of school president Jamshed Bharucha for a full week. They have vowed to continue their protest until Bharucha steps down. "It's very evident that he does not believe in the mission of the school," second-year art student Angus Buchanan-Smith told A.i.A. during a visit this week to the East Village college.
So they have a demand. Read below the fold...
Submitted by lambert on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 12:17pm
Citizen's Council for Health Freedom, reader-funded attendance at an ObamaCare conference in DC
"States haven't made a lot of progress yet in connecting to the data hub; systems don't 'talk' to each other. Hope that systems will be in place perhaps by 2015." -- Susan Dentzer, RWJF
"Will they be ready? No one knows the answer to that. There's a political and a technical consideration...If a state chooses not to cooperate, then it's very difficult for the feds to put up a very successful, exchange in a state." -- Brett Graham, Leavitt Partners.
"It's a three year implementation being done in 10 months. By its nature, it's unrealistic." -- Keven Counihan, Access Health CT
"The truth is, it's not going to be fully functioning on 10-1" -- Christine Ferguson, RI (Exchange)
"And October 1 is very very soon." -- Cynthia Crose, Arkansas Insurance Dept.
"I don't know what happens this fall if it's not ready. -- Sandy Praeger, NAIC
Oh, I know what happens: Obama makes a massive public relations push, says "it's ready," the career "progressives" chime in, and our famously free press rolls over (and what do any of them care, becaue they're already covered! Read below the fold...
Submitted by libbyliberal on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 8:22am
One of Obama’s damage control frontiers this week is the “cover up” after the tragic and deadly attack on the Benghazi consulate last September.
It is being roundly pooh-poohed as not scandal-label-worthy by Obama Team Dems. The one MSNBC anchor I am willing to watch, Chris Hayes, tonight led the pooh-poohers much to my frustration. He called it a “nothingburger”! Read below the fold...
Submitted by transcriber on Fri, 05/17/2013 - 4:54am
I love Marcy Wheeler interviews because she's so quick I can't keep up with her posts on emptywheel and in interviews you get an overview narrative – also a chance to hear somebody else say, "So – I don’t really get it." Here she is on Tuesday on the Scott Horton Show going over her several DOJ-AP posts (see present list at bottom). Topic later switches to her May 10th post, Real ID Biometrics in Immigration Bill, which effectively would create de facto national ID card and database, "an invitation for witch hunts." Read below the fold...
Submitted by Rainbow Girl on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 11:16pm
Just a friend helping a friend. With the October deadline looming it's important that ObamaCare be perceived has having a large consumer base.
More evidence that ObamaCare is the ultimate Trojan Horse to privatize every last shred of public health care systems into the Insurance Companies' machinery of poverty, sickness and death. Read below the fold...
Submitted by lambert on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 3:29pm
Even before we get to the glitzy stuff, like using social media to crosscheck income eligibility. Atlantic Wire:
In its 5-4 ruling last year, the Supreme Court upheld the law's mandate that Americans have health insurance, saying that Congress can enforce the mandate under its taxing authority and through the IRS.
As a result, the agency has to administer 47 tax provisions under Obamacare. They include the right to levy a penalty against businesses and individuals who don't provide or acquire insurance. Noting that the IRS will collect the penalties, the decision labeled them a tax.
The IRS also has to determine how to distribute annual subsidies to 18 million people who make less than $45,000 a year and thus qualify for subsidies in buying health coverage, as well as how to deliver tax credits to small businesses that buy coverage for workers.
In addition, the agency will collect taxes on medical devices and a Medicare surtax on people making more than $200,000 a year, as well as conducting compliance audits of tax-exempt hospitals.
The financial burden for all this IRS enforcement is expected to total $881 million for fiscal years 2010 through 2013, according to the Treasury Department.
But former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress last year that he would need another $13.1 billion for the job in 2014. It's uncertain as to whether the funds will be forthcoming from Congress, which has cut the IRS's budget in each of the past two years.
$13.1 billion doesn't seem like a lot of money these days. But I imagine to the IRS it's a pretty big deal (and what Federal agency ever turned down more money?) Read below the fold...
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