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Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 16, 2013 3 Comments

In a memo it distributed this week, the FBI warned that a breach of US government systems was "a widespread problem that should be addressed," according to a Reuters report. Activist hackers linked to the collective known as Anonymous have secretly accessed U.S. government computers in...

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Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 16, 2013 15 Comments

A mere month after its debut, Alec Baldwin’s “Up Late with Alec Baldwin” show on MSNBC has already been temporarily suspended after the actor’s latest public tirades, notably one in particular. From the Hollywood Reporter: MSNBC has suspended Alec Baldwin's new talk show for two weeks after...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 16, 2013 4 Comments

Wouldn't want to exclude veterans of foreign armies from Veterans Day honors, now would we? Harvard Law internationalizes Veterans Day (Update – Harvard responds) At least something is booming: Student Loan Debt has Increased 463% Under Obama Just try it, go ahead, make my day: Chicago State Tries to Close...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 15, 2013 8 Comments
Hawaii did not submit its Obamacare enrollment numbers in time for the release on Wednesday. Hawaii just released its numbers, Pacific Business News reports, Hawaii Health Connector says only 257 have enrolled so far:
Only 257 individuals in Hawaii have enrolled in health-insurance plans through the Hawaii Health Connector as of Friday, a spokesman confirmed to Pacific Business News. That figure comes two days after the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services released an updated enrollment report that found only 106,185 Americans have selected health insurance plans through the online health insurance exchanges out of 846,184 completed applications. Hawaii was one of three states that did not submit enrollment numbers in time for that report. But the state did share in that report that there have been more than 1,750 completed applications, more than 2,370 individuals applying for coverage and 1,156 eligible to enroll.... The Hawaii Health Connector held a meeting with its board of directors Friday afternoon that was aired live on the Hawaii Health Connector’s YouTube channel. Some concerns and suggestions mentioned at the beginning of the meeting included a complex, long application process averaging 40 minutes, as well as needed improvements to the website to improve navigation and make it more user-friendly.
The Honolulu Star further reports (emphasis added):

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Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 15, 2013 6 Comments

Investigation into the troubled launch of healthcare.gov has continued the last few days, so we’ve rounded up another sampling of recent updates you may have missed for your Friday night reading. Just months before the launch of healthcare.gov, quality assurance issues frustrated a top IT official...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 15, 2013 16 Comments
We previously covered the plight of two Gonzaga University students who were threatened with expulsion for brandishing a licensed handgun in an off-campus, university-owned residence when a convicted felon tried to break into their apartment. Eventually they were placed on probation. Legal Insurrection reader Mike, who is from Washington State, forwarded me a Letter to the Editor of the Gonzaga Bulletin written by Fr. Patrick Hartin. Fr. Hartin is Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga, and an ordained priest of the Diocese of Spokane, Washington.  Prior to 1994 he was affiliated with the Diocese of Johannesburg, South Africa:
“Since grade school, I have been struck with concern about solidarity with the poor and less fortunate,” he said. “I was 10 when apartheid took over Anglican and Catholic schools so the education system would keep blacks subservient. Our bishop refused to hand over the Catholic schools and ran them on collections from parishes until 1994.
[caption id="attachment_70905" align="alignnone" width="350"](Father Patrick Hartin) (Father Patrick Hartin)[/caption] In the Letter to the Editor, Fr. Hartin supported the student's inherent right to defend themselves and harshly criticized the Gonzaga administration's treatment of the students (emphasis added):
After reading the Bulletin Friday morning, I’m convinced that I’m living in Alice’s Wonderland! Instead, it’s no “Wonderland” – more like Dante’s “Hell”! ....

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 15, 2013 13 Comments

Not sure I agree with the linkage of Obama's broken promise that you can keep your insurance plan and his promise that Iran will not get nukes. One he knew was false at the time he made the promise, the other was, um, ...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 15, 2013 30 Comments
I haven't followed the Upton Bill very carefully. It seems that it is similar to Obama's "fix" except that it also allows insurance companies to sell non-Obamacare compliant policies, not just keep them in force (assuming that even is possible, which it probably is not). The Upton Bill is viewed as a mortal threat by Obamacare defenders (aka Democrats), via The Hill:
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), is coming up for a vote on Friday.... Under the administrative fix, insurance companies are permitted to continue offering existing plans to current enrollees — regardless of when they signed up for coverage, or if that coverage was recently altered. But unlike the Upton bill, insurance companies can’t offer the bare-bones plans to new enrollees.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 15, 2013 2 Comments
Pew Research is out with another installment on its study of News Use across Social Media Platforms, some of which may be helpful to activists in the political grassroots movement. Facebook leads the way as a social media platform for news consumers.  64% of US adults are on Facebook, with 47% of those using the site to obtain news - this translates to 30% of the US population using Facebook as a source of news. Though in a previous Pew Research report (noted below), most indicated they do not necessarily go to Facebook seeking out news, rather, they get the news while they're there for other reasons. In contrast, only 16% of US adults use Twitter, with just over half of those using it for news, which translates to 8% of the population using Twitter as a source for news.  And while reddit's users are very active news consumers, a very tiny fraction of the US population is even using reddit at all. From the Pew Research report:
The proportions who get news, combined with the total reach of a site, show how many U.S. adults are learning about events and issues through each social networking site. Facebook is by far the largest social networking site among U.S. adults, and with half of its users getting news there, is also the largest among U.S. adults when it comes to getting news. As discussed in an earlier report, roughly two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adults use the site, and half of those users get news there—amounting to 30% of the general population. YouTube has the next greatest reach in terms of general usage, at 51% of U.S. adults. Thus, even though only a fifth of its users get news there, that amounts to 10% of the adult population, which puts it on par with Twitter. Twitter reaches just 16% of U.S. adults, but half (8% of U.S. adults) use it for news. reddit is a news destination for nearly two-thirds of its users (62%). But since just 3% of the U.S. population uses reddit, that translates to 2% of the population that gets news there.
social-media-news-users twitter-news

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 14, 2013 21 Comments

I'll have more in the morning about the non-fix fix. I've been out of pocket all afternoon and evening. So for now, just sit back and enjoy some move Obamacare navigator fraud via James O'Keefe's Project Veritas: Project Veritas caught Obamacare Navigators counseling applicants to lie on...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on November 14, 2013 2 Comments

In a blog post Thursday, Google said that requests from governments for user information have doubled over three years, as the search giant posted its latest transparency report which also includes added figures on other types of requests specifically from the US government. In a year...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 14, 2013 23 Comments
While everyone has been focused on the Obamacare and Iranian-nuke debacles, the Kurdish region of Syria declared itself autonomous, which combined with the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq and the large Kurdish region in Turkey, may mark a significant step towards the establishment of a Kurdish state. Since the Kurds are not in conflict with Jews (and generally are quite friendly towards Israel), Kurdish national aspirations don't get much attention at the U.N. or elsewhere. No one much cares that Kurds, a truly distinctive cultural identity who number several times the "Palestinians," do not have a nation of their own. As reported by Al Arabiya:
Following a series of military gains, Syrian Kurds in the northeast of the country announced on Tuesday the formation of a transitional autonomous government. The latest declaration comes amid a general strengthening of Kurdish rights in neighboring Turkey, and increasing moves towards independence by Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. Long oppressed under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father before him, Kurds view the civil war as an opportunity to gain the kind of autonomy enjoyed by their ethnic kin in neighboring Iraq. The announcement was made after talks in the mostly-Kurdish town of Qamishli, and comes after Kurdish leaders announced plans to create the temporary government in July.
Intra-Kurdish rivalries pose a major danger to the autonomy holding. Turkey, which repeatedly has taken military action against Kurdish separatists (resulting in world silence, unlike when Israel defends itself against outside attack), is not pleased:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 14, 2013 80 Comments
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together again
Barack Obama just announced a "fix" for the private individual health insurance market broken by Obamacare. After an estimated 5 million and growing policies were cancelled due to Obamacare, Obama said "never mind" and told insurance companies to just keep selling the cancelled policies. "Insurers can extend plans" into 2014. (Transcipt here.) This does nothing to fix the problem, which is a war on plans people like but the Obama administration dislikes. Democrats -- alone and over vigorous objections from Republicans -- broke the individual health care insurance market. It can't just be put back together again under Obamacare. https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/401015479198052352 Not only that, but Obamas is doing this unilaterally as an administrative matter, without changing the law. So much for Democrats objections to prior proposals from Republicans that Obamacare was "settled law."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on November 14, 2013 13 Comments
Immigration reform could pass easily if Democrats did not insist on holding the entire enterprise hostage to their demand for amnesty and  citizenship even for adults who knowingly and deliberately broke our immigration laws to get here.  (Does that make Democrats hostage takers and immigration reform arsonists?) Rationalizing the system by which people legally enter the U.S. so as to accomodate a variety of national objectives, including agricultural and high-tech workforce needs, is the equivalent of a 25-yard field goal. Not a gimme, but pretty close. Enforcement mechanisms are the potential gusts of wind that could throw the ball off course, but those could be overcome. The problem is that Democrats don't want reform, they want amnesty and more Democrat voters. Fundamentally transforming the electorate, not immigration reform, is the Democratic objective. John Boehner just said no to mixing reform and amnesty in one massive bill which mixes good reforms with bad amnesty provisions. The Washington Times reports:
House Speaker John A. Boehner on Wednesday flatly ruled out even entering into negotiations with the Senate on that chamber’s immigration bill, signaling that the issue is dead for this year — and setting up major hurdles for any action before the midterm elections. Emerging from a meeting with fellow Republicans, Mr. Boehner said he won’t be bound by President Obama’s timeline on action this year, and firmly rejected the Senate’s approach, which would legalize most illegal immigrants and rewrite the legal immigration system.
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