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.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Obama Will Ask for Election Replay Due to Sandy?


COMMENTARY |On October 28th, while meteorologists were warning everyone about the impending storm Sandy, I tweeted what I thought was a facetious remark:

“Wanna’ bet Obama extends voting if he doesn’t get enough (early) votes?

Right now, after the terrible storm, I’m flabbergasted to hear media pundits speculating about the possibility, as does Indiana’s WSBT-TV.   So far the conversation about a delayed election hasn’t moved beyond the chattering classes. 

Mainstream news outlets like ABC and USA Today cite historical and legal precedent that infers there would be no electoral delays. 

However, the November 6 election is balanced on a knife edge, and you have to think campaign managers, especially on the Democratic side, are searching for reasons not to talk about the economy or Benghazi or the “fiscal cliff.”

Don’t think for a minute that raising the issue would be extensively ridiculed.    We live in an era of reality TV, an era where TV news organizations openly flaunt their partisanship and routinely blend news into a potpourri of questionable “facts” and biased opinion. 

Who hasn’t heard some version of the question asked by PolicyMic:  Can Hurricane Sandy Help Obama Win Election 2012?”   It’s only a short leap to an apoplectic New Jersey voter shrieking into a CNN camera:

“How could I vote when my iPhone battery is still dead?”

Stormwise, the political tectonics are shifting toward the president.  President Obama has ready photo ops as he tours inundated New Jersey with Governor Chris Christie.

Even Fox News, not noted for liberal editorial opinion, found it necessary to harmonize with liberal media in underscoring Christie’s praise of President Obama’s response to Hurricane Sandy. 

The hard facts of the matter are that the storm will cut down on voting in two states President Obama is presumed to have in the bag.  In New York State, President Obama leads Romney by 26 points, according to Real Clear Politics.  The vote in blue state New Jersey also heavily favors the president.

Yet, a diminished voting turnout due to Hurricane Sandy would be a convenient political red herring for the hard core Democratic base.   But only if President Obama loses the election in 2012 and Romney becomes America’s new president.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, October 22, 2012

Benghazi Will Speak for Itself in Tonight’s Debate - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Benghazi Will Speak for Itself in Tonight’s Debate - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

After weeks of listening to Obama administration officials blame an anti-Islamic video, Americans find out there were no protests, little security, and no escape for the victims of the attacks. Perhaps the most damning of yesterday's accounts came from Time Magazine's Steven Sotloff, who interviewed the guards present when swarms of Islamic fighters blasted through the compound.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Foreign Policy Reduced to Bumper Sticker Wars - Yahoo! News

Foreign Policy Reduced to Bumper Sticker Wars - Yahoo! News

The next president will be able to claim a foreign policy "mess we inherited," a fact that hasn't gone unnoticed by experts in the foreign policy world. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Stanford University senior fellow Fouad Adjami scathingly criticizes President Obama as a man with an "affectation of worldliness" beneath which lies "a calculating politician with a superficial knowledge."

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Hollywood Launches Enviro-Missile Against Natural Gas Drilling - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Hollywood Launches Enviro-Missile Against Natural Gas Drilling - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

The ideal intellectual target of the anti-fracking campaigns is the wealthy urbanite or celebrity who worries neither about transportation nor home heating bills. Think Yoko Ono or actor Matt Damon, roughly equal in wealth and privilege, and determined to convince "the masses" of the evils of energy beneath the surface.

Last week, we sold our house in a down market, moving from Pennsylvania to New York. There were not enough silver linings to make up for the asset loss but one of them was a tremendous savings in home heating costs.

Our Pennsylvania house was heated with oil, and even with our energy-efficient boiler, our winter energy costs were four times higher than the average monthly cost for natural gas heating of our New York house. Our annual energy use cost average on our new house was provided by National Grid, which serves this New York area.
According to the environmental evangelicals of Hollywood, I'm supposed to militate against my own self-interest to further the media interests of Hollywood types who expiate their energy guilt in money-making political activist films.
Damon portrays a gas company environmental criminal in a new anti-fracking film called "Promised Land," set for a January release, according to IMDb. Damon's environmentally sinful character solicits drilling rights in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale and later experiences a spiritual transformation into an angel of "green" pietism.

Factbox: ‘itsoknoproblembro’ Toolkit Could Be Big Problem for Iranian Hackers - Yahoo! News

Factbox: ‘itsoknoproblembro’ Toolkit Could Be Big Problem for Iranian Hackers - Yahoo! News

Today, the Wall Street journal reported new Iranian attacks on Capital One Financial Corporation and BB&T Corporation. The latest hack attacks on American banking followed last month's intrusions into PNC, Wells-Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America, reported in Mail Online. This silent war­­­ could turn into a shooting war if Iran's government is proven to be behind continuing and damaging attacks. Yet, "plausible deniability" is characteristic of computer warfare. Where does a government draw the line between malicious mischief and open warfare? Consider some relevant facts:
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has frequently warned of a "cyber Pearl Harbor." Stars and Stripes also detailed a litany of known intrusions into "chemical, water and electrical plants, as well as public transportation control software."
Prolexic Technologies identified the latest attacks as stemming from the sophisticated "itsoknoproblembro" toolkit. The ironically named hacking method could indeed pose special problems for version 1.0 security systems, according to Softpedia's Eduard Kovacs.

Read on, hit the headline

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Not Too Late To Turn Back Now

President Obama's latest trope is hilarious, borrowed from a 70s pop song about a guy who has lost his love and can't return to her.  Obama has borrowed the phrase without regard for copyright, and holds it out as if it were an original stroke of brilliance, then he tried to spin his election as some sort of inevitability.  Under Obama's misguided "leadership," we've gone so far over the borderline that we cannot "turn back now" as we approach:

  • the fiscal cliff
  • conflagration in the Middle East
  • massive debt and the ensuing threat of further credit rating decline
  • a gutted military
  • a national welfare state
  • abrogations of the U.S. Constitution
  • lies, deceptions, coverups
The list goes on.  But the fact is we DO have time to turn back now, and the moment is propitious.    It's important to seize the day.  Romney's counter-slogan should be Carpe Diem, in the way he snatched the first debate, exposing Obama as the bumbling little wretch he is without a teleprompter & and compliant media.

We have only a month to go before we get the chance to oust the Great Deceivers who lied about the terrorist attacks and the murders of our embassy personnel, who covered up donor scandals, fast & furious revelations, and who know what else, and in their latest incantation doctored the unemployment figures retroactively to benefit Obama & the DNC. 

The time to act is now.  Romney is an incredibly brilliant man of integrity, a man of the center-right who can lead this country out of its economic miasma and back to its core values.  Let's do it.  We're on the verge, staring down into the abyss, and with courage we will prevail.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

School Vouchers Would Resolve Chicago’s Teacher Strike Issues - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com


Great timing on the Chicago teacher's strike!




With many parents longing for the first weeks of school so as to enjoy a few uninterrupted hours, the Chicago Teacher's Union knew precisely when to strike the blow that would put the most pressure on Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the school administration to cave in.





School Vouchers Would Resolve Chicago’s Teacher Strike Issues - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Israel Evacuates West Bank Outpost - WSJ.com

Israel Evacuates West Bank Outpost - WSJ.com

The link above is to an article in the Wall Street Journal.  I didn't write that (ha-ha) and I didn't write the following challenge to the removal of Orthodox Israelis from the town of Migron.  Not only did I learn a new word (Fakensteins), but the writer also forced me to remember Ariel Sharon, a man much vilified by the left but admired by all those who consider that today's "Fakenstinians" were not around in 1967, nor very much in evidence 2500 years ago in Judea and Samaria.  Anyway, here's what one guy thought: 

1. It has never been proven that the land on which Migron was built is owned by an Fakenstinians. No one has proven or even offered to prove that the land is owned by anyone. The so called legal experts in the Israeli government base their opinion of the Supreme Court decision that any land not owned by individual Israelis or by the State is considered to be owned by Fakenstinians.

2. Migron was authorized by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and built with the approval of the Israeli government

3. Although most nations consider Israeli town built in Judea and Samaria to be illegal, there are many well written legal opinions that conclude just the opposite including a recent report by the Levy Commission that grants Israel the right all of the land it won in the defensive war of 1967. This is land captured from Jordan who illegally occupied the land after the 1947 war until 1967. An excellent book entitled “The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law” by Howard Grief a noted international law expert, gives ample reason why Judea and Samaria belong to the State of Israel.

4. Although Israel agreed under pressure from the Obama Administration to a ten month moratorium on building in Judea and Samaria to facilitate a return to peace talks, Fakenstinian President Mahmoud Abbas, refused to negotiate during that time.



This forced evacuation of Jewish people from our own land is a disgrace, and points out how spineless our current Prime Minster is. He worries more about the opinion of the rest of the world than he does about the people who voted his government into office.



The Prime Minister recently blocked legislation that would have annexed all of Judea and Samaria to the State of Israel rather than leaving under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Defense. He chose to table the bill with threats that any of his party members who supported it would lose their ministerial appointments. Had the legislation passed, which it surely would have done, had it come to a vote, then evacuations of towns like Migron would never happen.



The Prime Minster has also decided to ignore the aforementioned Levy Report, which gives legal credence to Israel's right to the land it won in the 1967 Six Day War.



In spite of the failures of this government the people of Israel, and particularly the people who have the gumption and tenacity to live in Judea and Samaria will prevail in Jewish people occupying our land. This will happen only because the birth rate of the people who live in Judea and Samaria is several times greater than those who would give away our land in a nanosecond.



Never forget that G-d made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that this land belongs to the Jewish people, and in spite of the fact that we were banished from our land for almost 2,000 years, we, the Jewish people are occupying our land, and we will continue to do so. The G-d that I believe in is good on His promises, and no matter what our Prime Minister and the other nations of the world think or do, we will prevail, and we will move toward the coming of Mosiach (Messiah), and humanity finally realizing that G-d is the only power that runs the world.




Free Rider

 

2012-07-20 13.00.11