Mideast Media Sampler 11/12/2013 - John Kerry's MSM Cheerleaders...
Henry Chao, the Deputy Chief Information Officer and Deputy Director of the Office of Information Services at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), testified during a November 1 transcribed interview with Committee investigators that he was surprised he was never made aware of a September 3, 2013, memo outlining serious security vulnerabilities present in the Federal Facilitated Marketplaces (the “exchange”). Chao, CMS’s top operational official for the Federal exchange testified he found it “disturbing” that he had been excluded from a memo about significant problems with security. The September 3, 2013, memo that Chao testified he had previously never seen was authored by CMS Chief Information Officer Tony Trenkle. The memo noted six security problems, two of which were described as “open high findings.” Chao initially expressed disbelief when first shown the memo during his transcribed interview. In reviewing the memo, Chao agreed that one finding, “presented a significant risk to the system,” and did not know if it had been corrected.The statement is followed by several excerpts from the interview, which reveals that “lines of communication about security issues prior to launch may not have been working properly.”
Far from honoring the commitment, in which Iran said “it has decided voluntarily to suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities,” Rouhani told the interviewer that all Iran did was merely suspend “ten centrifuges” in the Natanz enrichment facility. “And not a total suspension. Just reduced the yield.”
Unimpressed, interviewer Abedini asserted that work had been suspended at the UCF — the Uranium Enrichment Facility at Isfahan. Quite the contrary, Rouhani countered, detailing the completion of various phases of work at Isfahan under his watch in 2004 and 2005. He went on to state proudly that the Iranian heavy water reactor at Arak was also developed under his watch, in 2004. ...
The fight over how to define the new health law’s success is coming down to one question: Who counts as an Obamacare enrollee? Health insurance plans only count subscribers as enrolled in a health plan once they’ve submited [sic] a payment. That is when the carrier sends out a member card and begins paying doctor bills. When the Obama administration releases health law enrollment figures later this week, though, it will use a more expansive definition. It will count people who have purchased a plan as well as those who have a plan sitting in their online shopping cart but have not yet paid. “In the data that will be released this week, ‘enrollment’ will measure people who have filled out an application and selected a qualified health plan in the marketplace,” said an administration official, who requested anonymity to frankly describe the methodology.Does this mean I have to pay for all the stuff in my "cart"? To top it off, James O'Keefe mounted an undercover operation which caught a "navigator" trainee suggesting a fraudulent application be submitted:
THE Anthem Blue Cross representative who answered my call told me that there was a silver lining in the cancellation of my individual P.P.O. policy and the $5,400 annual increase that I would have to pay for the Affordable Care Act-compliant option: now if I have Stage 4 cancer or need a sex-change operation, I’d be covered regardless of pre-existing conditions. Never mind that the new provider network would eliminate coverage for my and my son’s long-term doctors and hospitals. The Anthem rep cheerily explained that despite the company’s — I paraphrase — draconian rates and limited network, my benefits, which also include maternity coverage (handy for a 46-year-old), would “be actually much richer.”I, of course, would be actually much poorer. And it was this aspect of the bum deal that, to my surprise, turned out to be a very unpopular thing to gripe about.
As food and water became scarce in areas hit by supertyphoon Haiyan, the Philippines government dramatically raised the death toll to 1,744, greatly exceeding earlier counts from one of the most powerful storms ever to strike the country. Even that was seen as a low number, with the toll expected to rise significantly. Thousands remained missing and reports from stricken areas outline mass graves holding hundreds, with bodies also strewn in the streets. In the city of Tacloban, four days after Haiyan devastated it, the road to the airport was jammed with people trying to get out. The road into town was also snarled with motorbikes and cars trying to fight their way in, even as humanitarian workers warned food and water was rapidly running out.The scenes of devastation are unbelievable, and while relief is arriving in some areas, it’s complicated by choked roads and other logistical troubles. As is often the case in the immediate aftermath of such disasters, reports of death tolls vary greatly, as many are still missing and workers are trying to retrieve bodies. But officials fear that the death toll could rise significantly, while many outlets are reporting that more than 600,000 have been displaced. From the Chicago Tribune:
Gonzaga University will not expel two students for using a gun to defend themselves in an off-campus and Gonzaga owned apartment. They will be placed on probation for the rest of their time at the university. Students Erik Fagan and Dan McIntosh were originally threatened with expulsion after they flashed a gun at a man with outstanding felony warrants who came to their door asking for money. That man was later arrested. Fagan and McIntosh were told by campus security that they violated school policy by having a firearm on Gonzaga University property. Gonzaga said the building is part of university property even though it is off campus. The Gonzaga President sent an open email to students on Saturday acknowledging calls to reevaluate the school’s rules on guns.
The newest fix to public education known as Common Core is arriving with incomplete plans in schools and at a rapid pace that leaves some students behind. While the controversial educational standards have been blessed by hundreds of educators and adopted by 45 states, including New York, cracks are opening in the Common Core foundation that are raising concerns for teachers, parents and school administrators. “The reality is implementation at the state level is just a disaster,” said Tom Phillips, of Hector, and Watkins Glen school district superintendent. While Phillips said he agrees public education needs reform, his major beef with Common Core is the complex program is being rolled out too quickly.The problems ranged from the one-size fits all curriculum, to chasing the funding money. In a situation eerily similar to subsidies for state health care exchanges that may dry up, there are concerns about Common Core funding drying up:
Note: You may reprint this cartoon provided you link back to this source. To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, click here. Branco’s page is Cartoonist A.F.Branco ...
The proposal under consideration in Geneva was to have been the first stage of a multipart agreement. It called for Iran to freeze its nuclear program for up to six months to allow negotiations on a long-term agreement without the worry that Iran was racing ahead to build a bomb. In exchange, the West was to have provided some easing of the international sanctions that have battered Iran’s economy. After years of off-again, on-again talks, the deal would have been the first to brake Iran’s nuclear program.Despite the diplomats’ insistence on progress, the failure to clinch an agreement raised questions about the future of the nuclear talks, given the fierce criticism that the mere prospect of a deal whipped up in Israel and among Republicans and some Democrats in Congress.Unfortunately, this frames the scuttling of the talks in terms of those looking for a compromise versus pro-Israel ideologues. Subsequent reporting in the article is more specific about some, but not all, of the real issues involved.
Time Magazine recently ran a cover with a silhouette of Chris Christie with the headline, The Elephant in the Room. It was, of course, a play on Christie's weight without coming right out and saying it. There's also an elephant in Elizabeth Warren's room, but you can't weigh...
From commenter Henry Hawkins: Attached are photos of bumper stickers seen Tuesday, 11/05/13 on a van in Nashville, NC. Keep up the very fine work! ...
Two Gonzaga students are facing possible expulsion from the University after they pulled a weapon in self defense as a six time felon attempted to get into their on campus apartment. According to the student handbook, students may not possess handguns on campus or university owned property. On Friday a university discipline board decided to move forward with sanctions, including possible expulsion, for using the weapons. The students will learn in the near future about their future with the school. It all happened late in the night on October 24th when roommates Erik Fagan and Dan McIntosh were hanging out in their university owned apartment. At 10:15 Fagan answered the door and was greeted by John Taylor. Taylor is a felon with an extensive criminal history and when he arrived Fagan said Taylor showed him what appeared to be an ankle bracelet as he tried to intimidate him. Fagan said Taylor then demanded money and was frustrated when he was turned down.
NGO Monitor keeps watch on anti-Israeli non-governmental organizations, and provides valuable research contesting many of the outlandish claims made by these mostly left-wing groups financed by European governments. The NGOs, some of which are staffed by Israeli leftists, subject Israel to a microscope no society could...
I thought what was revealing in that answer, when I asked him that direct question about this, was this a political lie that you started to believe it, was he talked about well, you know, it turns out we had trouble in crafting the law.John Nolte at Breitbart finds that "bordering on pathological," in light of the almost overwhelming evidence that Obama knew very well that what he said would turn out to be untrue:
Obama's brazen and reckless lying is bad enough. But if Todd is correct (and I think he is) that Obama doesn't believe or understand that he lied, that means it can and will happen again.It's not difficult to predict that it will happen again, because this is hardly the first time it has happened. But in order to understand what's going on here, it helps to understand that Obama is a man of the left, and that he is demonstrating the tried-and-true leftist practice known as doublethink, as described by George Orwell in his masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell wrote that “doublethink” requires:
To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies...to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again: and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself. That was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed.
