Thursday, November 29, 2012

Factbox: Social Security Disability Claims Pay Out $180 Billion Annually - Yahoo! News

Factbox: Social Security Disability Claims Pay Out $180 Billion Annually - Yahoo! News


Huffington Post blogger Joanne Bamberger took issue today with the term "fiscal cliff," seeming to attribute the term to a right-wing conspiracy. A better phrase than "fiscal cliff" might be "fiscal sword," as politicians do what they always do in times of budget crunch-slash at the obvious. Raising the entitlement age for social security benefits and Medicare is basic and easy to understand. But the giant bureaucracies that administer government largesse are a hard target. One example is the Social Security Disability program, a cumbersome and time-consuming tangle of rules and regulations. That Social Security Disability reform is elusive is evident in arguments presented in a 2009 New York Times article titled "The Disability Mess."

How much is paid out each year in Social Security Disability claims?
Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael Astrue testified about that in May to a Senate Finance Committee. SSA paid out $128 billion in insured disability claims and $52.4 billion in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability claims. An average wait time for a hearing, as of April, was 354 days. This is an improvement, says Astrue, over an all-time high of 532 days in August 2008.

Susan Rice is the Bait and Switch Nominee - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Susan Rice is the Bait and Switch Nominee - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

But what's really going on in the administration's vehement public defense of Rice? Other than out of hubris, why would a president walk into a hornet's nest and a congress not yet satisfied with accounts of the brutal events in Benghazi? Is the president merely flexing his muscles and spoiling for a fight predicated on the strength of his Nov. 6 victory?
More likely is that Rice serves as the hood ornament of the Obama administration's foreign policy.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Obama Tries to Restore Rice's Credibility - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Obama Tries to Restore Rice's Credibility - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

"If they want to go after someone, they should go after me," the president retorted angrily to an inquiry from Fox News reporter Ed Henry.

This was not the "cool" president some of his press admirers often praise. This was the president who can tell Israel "I've got your back" and leave everyone wondering if he really does.

The president missed the point with the tough guy talk. Benghazi wasn't a Chicago street fight, and the president's unsophisticated emotional response came out of left field. Nor was it "bringing a gun to a knife fight" as the president is wont to say.

 It was more like attempting heart surgery with a spatula.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Oliver Stone Provides Another Left-Wing View of History - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Oliver Stone Provides Another Left-Wing View of History - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

The 2012 election is proof of the popularity of government giving in the national psyche. A large majority of people now leaning Far Left would not describe themselves as such but they do believe that government is the solution, the entity that can make everyone equal, that can effectively dispense social justice, revenge the rapacious appetites of capitalism, make peace with America's enemies, restore a world tribal community powered by sun and wind, and kept bemused by an endless chain of grandiloquent demagogues

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

War of Words Shaping up Between Gov. Cuomo and Power Utilities

A war of words is shaping up between New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Long Island Power Authority.  As usual, civilians are often its first victims.  New York residents are shocked by the slow pace of power restoration from Hurricane Sandy and they are lashing out against Governor Cuomo.   Many residents feel that their pleas for relief have been stalled in bureaucratic limbo.  The heavily populated New York metro area is an interlocking network of separate authorities.   The situation  is complicated by a unique set of facts:

The Long Island Power Authority is not a private company.  It is a public governing board of trustees whose members are appointed by Governor Cuomo of New York and by the New York legislature.

Widely respected sports talk-show host Mike Francesca summed up popular criticism of Governor Cuomo for an ineffective response to Long Island power outages.  Politics on the Hudson captured the sentiment expressed by many fellow Long Islanders recently.  “I blame Cuomo and I blame the guys in charge of the state that allowed this system,” says Francesca.

While LIPA supplies management, administration, and direction for Long Island gas and electric utilities, National Grid supplies the energy.

LIPA executive staff have backgrounds as corporate managers, lawyers,   financial executives, and electrical engineers like Chief Operating Office Michael Hervey.

Michael Hervey was among a host of power company CEOs receiving a letter from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo threatening to revoke operating certificates and fire management personnel, according to a press release from Cuomo’s office.

The agency in charge of revoking public utility operating certificates is the New York State Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities and approves utility operations. 

As of November 11, a New York State Public Service Commission press release stated that power has been restored to 97 percent of New York homes and businesses.  The 97 percent figure excludes “36,200 customers, the majority of which cannot safely receive power yet.”

Enter the lawyers.  According to Thomson Reuters, a class action lawsuit has been filed in Nassau County today against LIPA and National Grid by Melville, NY attorney Kenneth Mollins.  The lawsuit seeks civil damages, and criminal prosecution if those charges should apply.

LIPA serves 1.1 million customers on Long Island, New York.  The bulk of customers without power as of Nov. 10 are concentrated on the southern or lower portions of Long Island, according to a LIPA map.

87 percent of LIPA’s 1.1 million customers lost power in the aftermath of Sandy, compared to approximately 25 percent of customers for Consolidated Edison, according to the Wall Street Journal.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Benghazi is a Story of Public Deception Framed in a Sex Scandal - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Benghazi is a Story of Public Deception Framed in a Sex Scandal - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Things were falling apart in Libya, as Ambassador Stevens and the CIA were reporting, and drastic measures were needed. The situation called for vast public lying. Did the political cover story emanate from the White House or did the false narrative originate at the Central Intelligence Agency?

Monday, November 12, 2012

Petraeus’ Resignation Offers Everything but the Facts - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Petraeus’ Resignation Offers Everything but the Facts - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Mistrust of the Obama administration response to the Benghazi attacks is sure to be racheted up by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein's statement to NBC reporters. NBC reporters Andrea Mitchell and Robert Windrem write that Feinstein said Petraeus "will not need to testify at Benghazi hearings she is chairing next week

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Generation Generator Meets Hurricane Sandy - Yahoo! News

Generation Generator Meets Hurricane Sandy - Yahoo! News

Electrical energy produced by generators, if not properly connected, can "backfeed" to outside electrical lines and electrocute power company utility workers trying to restore power to homes, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

I Called it for Mitt -- What was I Thinking? - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

I Called it for Mitt -- What was I Thinking? - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Victorious Democrats voted for a rock star president who hugs it out with celebrity icons of hipster counterculture. In a recent news conference reported by ABC, voluble New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gushed about his three-way ménage with President Obama and Bruce Springsteen.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Evidence Mounts Against Obama Administration: #Benghazi Nights


The darkness that surrounds the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi threatens to envelope us all, and the U.S. constitution with it.  Our freedom depends on an independent free press, yet much of media has harnessed itself to President Obama’s press office.  These toadies prefer to write and report about New Jersey Governor’s Chris Christie kumbaya moment with Obama for a photo op.  But Benghazi is an acid that will eat through the flimsy reporting of the liberal phalanxes of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN.  Should Obama and his fifth column be re-elected, Benghazi will destroy his presidency and leave the United States vulnerable to additional outside incursions by people who wish the worst for America and its freedoms. 
Meanwhile, the evidence of Obama’s deceit, cover up, stonewalling and disrespect of America’s citizens continues to mount up:
The CIA had a fat file on the AQ affiliate called Ansar al-Shariah and its operations outside of Benghazi. 
The liberal New York Times, which occasionally does real reporting, has reported on the terrorist camps in the mountains outside of Benghazi.  They are not there to roast marshmallows or hot dogs.
 The Red Cross had to close its offices in Benghazi due to attempted assassinations and bombings such as the one that occurred at the embassy in June 2012.
The Benghazi consulate, including Ambassador Stevens, made repeated requests for additional security.  In response, Hillary Clinton’s state department withdrew or denied the requested security and moved security assets away from Benghazi. 
This criminal negligence is matched only by the negligence of the people who let brave men die on the roof of the embassy as terrorists swarmed down below.  
The worst part of the Benghazi fiasco is that it presages the years to come, encouraging further attacks and allowing the fanatical Islamo-fascists to claim that America can be weakened and conquered.    But a weak and effete president who accommodates and succors those who hate America is not all of America. 
 
We are America.  We need to address this now.   We need to vote the Obamanuts out of office.    Short of that, we are in for a rough patch.   But AQ and its affiliates have made a huge mistake in  the Benghazi 9-11 and the 9-11 that preceded it.  AQ knows that Obama blows smoke with his empty perorations, that he's anxious to create the illusion of peace even at the cost of freedom.
Half of America may be sleeping now, but history tells the story of what happens when it wakes up.  By the grace of God, I hope it is awake today.
 
 
 
 
 

Friday, November 2, 2012

Government Storm Help Should Start at the Gas Station - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Government Storm Help Should Start at the Gas Station - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

If government must take care of the others, a good place to start might be at the gas stations.  But then again, at least we are relieved of hearing those utterly moronic GM television ads for the Chevy Volt, a car that will soon go the way of the Edsel and the Corvair.