From WaPo:


Yeah, the country is really looking for people that just want to be elected.

Private insurers also derive income from sources beyond premium intake and the morass that is Medicare contributes more than it's fair share to the private insurers overhead in terms of mandates, rework, upgrades etc to those private insurers that provide Medicare, Medicaid and Medicare replacement policies.

Country is getting older and Medicare already does those things, in fact 28-30% rate decrease was set to take effect 01/01/13 to the Physician reimbursement schedule and it was blocked as part of the new years eve session.

I deal with CMS on a regular basis and I guarantee they could avoid a good chunk of benefit cuts and increased taxes with responsible restructuring.

I think both sides do this. The Dems use the scare tactics just as bad as the GOP. It's about the votes, nothing more, nothing less.

Nobody could see this coming.

The free market stuff is a scam. Neither side really wants it.

I'm shocked, I thought Rubio would play to his base and attempt to kill the immigration bill, instead he's going to apparently be one of the most public faces FOR the bill


Marco Rubio goes all-in on immigration bill - Manu Raju - POLITICO.com

The past few months of explosive Bitcoin value and then the crash of the past couple of days is a very good example of why the gold standard is a bad idea.

Apparently, this is the bumper sticker that GOP congressman Steve Stockman is promoting for his reelection campaign.

"If Babies had guns, they wouldn't be aborted"


*sighs*

Funny. The other day my sister (a libertarian) posted something on Facebook about how she should have bought some Bitcoins.

No response to my post on her wall about the crash :)

A sign of how wrapped around the axle we are.

Beware: Survey Questions About Fictional Issues Still Get Answers

October 9, 2007
Dow 14164
Gold 700

Today
Dow 14865
Gold 1477


One has doubled in the past 7 years and the other gained a little less than 1% a year. I guess gold needs to crash completely and then regain back to where it was and we can all sing its praises.

Doubling the value of currency in 6 years would be disastrous. It isn't just the crash.

edit: I should explain more.

If people have a reasonable expectation that the currency tomorrow will buy more than it does today nobody will buy anything non-essential.

Aren't bitcoins just kind of a speculative commodities vehicle for nerds? The were up 1700% or something in a year or two against real currencies, then they lose half their value overnight. Seems like you could do OK if you just jumped in and out at the right times. I wonder who's pulling the strings.

Believe me Washington DC is not doubling the value of the currency. In fact I would love for you to show me a period of time where they do anything but devalue it.

There are some serious problems with our current system. However, I think controlled/uncontrolled deflation is the price we pay rather than a panic cycle like we had in the 19th century.

How does a gold backed currency deal with September 16th, 2008? I'd argue that without being able to essentially print money, we would have gone straight into another great depression rather than a long, slow recession. Time will tell which would be better but over $3T would have gone out of the market that day and we would have had a genuine panic.

EDIT: And I don't think one bases a decision on one rare event. But I am, to this day, of the genuine belief that if RPF doesn't get bailed out right then and there, we are, at best, facing another Great Depression and, at worst, in danger of modern society collapsing. And I believe that, without hyperbole. If you yank $3T out of a $60T world economy in a matter of hours, the effect of that will be staggering as it causes a run on everything else and I couldn't tell you where the floor would be.

SI

If we're on a gold standard Washington doesn't have a ton of control of the value of currency.

1980
Dow 759
Gold 615

Today
Dow 14865
Gold 1477

Tell me where you'd rather have your money invested over the last 33 years. And that doesn't even include all the dividends you would have taken home too. And if we're adjusting for inflation, your investment into gold back in 1980 would have lost you a couple hundred dollars an ounce. That's why cherry picking two data points is stupid.

And LOL at wanting to tie your currency to a metal that fluctuates as much as gold in this modern era. Days like today would be fun. Hey everyone, all the money you have is now worth 4% less than it did yesterday!

But every other country does. Screw building up a military if you're China, just buy up as much gold as you can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reasoning

The price of gold fluctuates wildly as a result of the United States removing itself from the gold standard. It is a bit of a stretch to say a gold standard won't work due to fluctuations that were controlled (by definition) by the gold standard. I think even anti-gold standard guys like JPhillips will agree with me on this one.

Yeah its great that a country like China can't buy up our debt under the current system.

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-cen...uments/mfh.txt

Luxembourg is suspiciously high on that list. Wonder what they're up to.......

They can buy debt under a gold standard too. What's your point here?

Fluctuations weren't controlled by the gold standard. We saw huge swings during it, much larger and more frequent than what we see today. Gold is far more stable without the gold standard (when factoring inflation and real interest rates into the equation).

I understand why but don't like how Obama is doing this. Seems gimmicky and there other worthy social causes/platforms that deserve just as much attention.

Mother of Newtown victim delivers emotional weekly address in Obama’s stead

Great.. Will he give equal access to the other side?

Does the NRA need help buying radio slots?

The GOP has a weekly address, too.

Gold down 10% from Panerds post the other day. Lets back our entire currency with it!

Not quite 10% but point taken.

Gold plunges as China data hit commodities - Apr. 15, 2013

I watched Rubio on the Sun talk shows. I don't think he convinced anyone that this was not amnesty. I like a lot about the bill, there are other parts that I am undecided on. I don't think it'll do a lot of stem the tide of illegal immigration ... Reagan's version didn't work.

But I respect him for being out there.

Triggers vital for path to citizenship, Rubio says – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

Coincidently just bought and watched Zero Dark Thirty.

No doubt in my mind some torture was used to gain intelligence. Were there some abuses, sure (and I don't mean the adolescent Abu Ghraib version).

I've read supposedly torture doesn't work well. The movie seem to indicate triangulating information from different tortured suspects led to the lead to OBL.

All in all, if I was GWB, I would be hardpressed not to use torture in special and limited situations ... so not going to fault him (or Obama) on it.

Bush-era torture use 'indisputable,' Guantanamo must close, task force finds - U.S. News

LOL.

A. I believe it was your argument that taking the pulse of anything over a small select period will yield inaccurate information. So go ahead and pick a 10% drop and ignore the growth the last ten years your big government perspective is pretty obvious anyways.

B. I still don't think you understand what a gold standard is. The gold to dollar value would not change at all. (And you can't really compare the 15 trillion dollar hole we have to a time where you could only spend the money you have, so why exactly is this the fault of an object like gold and not the politicians who are spending the money?)

C. What do you think all of he central banks have large holdings of to back the currency? I will give you a hint it's gold and shiny.

Despite support from ~80% of the public and 54% of the Senate, expanded background checks fails to get the "supermajority" needed to pass a bill.

The continued use of the 'filibuster' that isn't really a filibuster is making a mockery of Congress. I don't really care either way on whether it passes. It's just ridiculous that it continues on without question. I'm guessing there's no way for constituents to change it either, as it's a matter of procedure within the governing body.

Just started listening to Master of the Senate on CD. This seems really familiar.

SI

I just started reading it. Definitely sounds familiar.

Maybe the Dems need an LBJ to get something done in the Senate :)

I think you are kidding yourself if you think that bill has 80% support of the public.

It would probably have higher if the rednecks didn't think the bill was an attempt to track and take thurrrr guns.

No, but seriously even Fox News poll had support at 80% or so. I mean, it's silly. If we require it for stores, why do we exempt gun shows and flea markets? Because it's an undue burden? I go to flea markets and see people selling stuff using their smartphones to run cards, why can't we check to make sure people who aren't supposed to be buying guns aren't. I mean, the mantra I keep hearing is that responsible gun owners follow the laws, so why is everyone so opposed to closing this loophole?

I'm still in the history portion. Going through the section on 1919 right now. Unfortunately, since I got it on interlibrary loan, I only get it for 2 weeks so I will probably only make it through the first hundred or so pages.

SI

I own weapons and I'm good with background checks. I don't understand the resistance other than "if you give in here, where does it stop" logic.

Background checks are painless nowadays (or at least in B&M stores I go to).

Shouldn't this be a UN job to plan for refugees and humanitarian aid? The second paragraph on intervention must the primary driver. I don't like how we are getting involved here.

Jordan must really be worried to allow this. If Assad survives this, Jordan should be worried about Syria and henchmen.

Front Office Football Central

I don't think you understand what short term volatility like that does. It makes it incredibly difficult to determine what the value of debt is when your currency shows it's worth 10% less one week. That has nothing to do with big or small government. Although it's funny since the "small government" gold standard supporters forget that it required government to make it illegal to own gold in this country and confiscated what they had.


I know the value doesn't change. But if more gold is produced and put on the open market, it is inflationary. If less gold is produced, it is deflationary. Since other countries mine gold in large numbers, they are capable of manipulating our economy.

I know what the gold standard is and basic economics. That's why I know it's stupid in 2013. It places massive restrictions on how much your economy can grow. All at the same time competing with other countries who don't have those restrictions. It would lead to massive deflation at times and massive depressions (just as it did when it was in place).

It's one of the dumbest ideas put out there and almost no economists think it is beneficial. It's just some dumb thing put out by small government folks who don't understand basic economics. It is funny watching these people scream about inflation during a time when commodities are taking a shit.

Not alot of news on the budget with the tragedies last week but some good deficit news ...

Deficits are falling. For now - Apr. 22, 2013

This is disappointing to see. The military is trying to cut additional costs, but members of Congress won't let them for fear that they'll be tagged as closing bases, etc. in their next election.

Congress forcing military to keep unwanted assets, programs despite spending cuts, report says | Fox News

Nothing new here. You remember the old "Base Closure Committee" because the spineless fucks couldn't do this before?

It's pathetic and disgusting.

The Missouri state senate voted to defund the driver's license office.

Missouri Senate votes to defund driver’s license bureau - KansasCity.com

I'm surprised there hasn't been more "message sending" cuts. Missouri can afford $3.5 million for an essential government service. I know they're one of those states that botches their state budget annually, but come on.

I heard the AP twitter was hacked and a message saying the WH was bombed was sent out. That caused the stock market to briefly crash. Did that really happen?

Yep. Dow plunged 140 points almost immediately.

AP hack proves Twitter has a serious cybersecurity problem - Apr. 23, 2013

I will say that if the "two factor authentication method" mentioned in the article is like what you have to go through when logging into xbox.com, that'd end my use of Twitter for all except the extremely occasional thing. And my experience is that their suggestion of ending simultaneous log-ins would have an extremely chilling effect on business use of it as well. It's not at all uncommon for multiple people in multiple locations to have posting privileges on corporate Twitter accounts, especially in small to medium sized companies.

What ding-dongs.

"I've never argued against any technology being used when you an imminent threat, an active crime going on. If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and 50 dollars in cash, I don't care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him." - Rand Paul

Apparently he's already forgotten about that whole filibuster thing where he said this:

“I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court.”

Hypocrite :rolleyes:

Such a meaningless politician seems to really rile up the liberals. :) There is no doubt that he aint his dad but here is the whole quote (which was in the context of the Boston incident)...

"“Here’s the distinction — I have never argued against any technology being used against having an imminent threat an act of crime going on,” Paul said. “If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and $50 in cash, I don’t care if a Drone kills him or a policeman kills him, but it’s different if they want to come fly over your hot tub, or your yard just because they want to do surveillance on everyone, and they want to watch your activities.”

I still don't agree with it but weird that the liberal blogs seem to cut the end of the statement off especially when his sentence had not even ended. Hopefully its because they agree with it (which used to be the biggest selling point of the Democratic party to me) but they probably mock that statement as well. Terrorism the reason of course.

He was right the first time. No American citizen should be killed without a fair trial. He's a lot more of a politician than his father.

Of course I'm anti-death penalty, but you know what I mean.

You're right. It certainly seemed like a trap question... "So you wouldn't use drones against the terrorists in Boston" but you are right his dad wouldn't have taken the bait. It really does test my integrity because outside of Lee and Amash he is about as close as its going to get to Libertarian in a major office but its compromises like this that still give me great worry. On the other hand Ron Paul would have given them their soundbite for the next election "OMG What about TERROR!!!!????!!!!!"

House conservatives call for new vote to repeal ObamaCare - The Hill's Healthwatch

FTFA:

What a waste of time. How about they actually ya know...do something constructive.

Fucking Washington.

Congress easily approved the bill to end airport delays. While it said the democrats went along with it, they wanted all cuts to be lifted. Are they that stupid in believing no cuts should be made or do they agree with pelosi in believing nothing more can be cut? That continues to boggles the mind. I believe $85 billion cuts were a joke; not only in that being an insignificant amount (it should 5 times that), but they cut things solely to make a political point.

That part is largely untrue. Congress passed spending bills that mandate certain spending and then Congress passed an across the board cut. Under those circumstances agencies are legally bound to apply the cut equally rather than pick and chose. Congress could have given blanket authority to allow agencies to prioritize spending, but neither party wanted to set a precedent where agencies would get to decide what gets funded rather than Congress.

That is not true. prior to the sequester kicking in, the speaker offerred to let the executive branch have broader control. Obama refused, thinking he would score big trying to blame the opposing party of horrible cuts. That did not work, so he is trying to play politics with services he thinks will score him points. It is all a giant game to see who can win public perception.

Regardless, the function of spending falls under the Legislative Branch, not Executive, and it isn't clear if Congress is allowed by the Constitution to pass that authority to the President.

So why did the White House cut out tours for the public instead of staff or some of their more extravagant perks? Across the board cuts are a good place to start but they could've looked harder at internal expenditures instead of choosing some of the ones that would have a greater impact on the public. It should be more about serving the people more efficiently instead of serving the system and their domains.

Boehner offered, but when they actually discussed legislation both parties refused to support it. Congress, rightfully IMO, doesn't want to give spending authority to the executive branch.

I think the tours bit was political, that's why I said largely untrue, but the air traffic controller furloughs and the coming problems with the national parks are just a function of across the board budget cuts implemented well after the annual budget.

While White House staff is reported to have approved the tour cuts, they were actually originally by proposed by - and are savings counted toward - the budget cuts of the Secret Service, not WH admin. Annually, they would account for about 5% (approx $4m of $84m) of the cuts needed by the Secret Service.

If the choice is spending salary for the tours vs salary toward their protective services mission or their criminal investigation duties, I'm completely fine with the tours getting the ax frankly.

(And that appears to be the choice, as the explanation has been that those hours will still be worked & paid but they will prevent overtime costs in other areas ... which likely makes the savings even bigger than reported.)

I had forgotten that the WH falls under the SS.

The Democrats finally had some anti-sequester leverage with the flight delays. Some tangible thing to help demonstrate the helpful role that government plays in our lives.

So, they made sure to get rid of that leverage as soon as possible.

The modern GOP is a couple of orders of magnitude better at the political game than the modern Dems. President Obama is a decent politician, so that tends to mask the disparity a bit. I had kind of forgotten just how outclassed the Dems are at politics.

It's more than they are bad at the game, they have no spine for a fight. Few ideas and no courage isn't a good combination.

That implies they want to win the game

SI

We are back to that chemical weapons red line. I don't think Obama wants to escalate and probably regrets the threat.

U.S.: Intelligence points to small-scale use of sarin in Syria - CNN.com

And this is probably why.

Islamist Rebels’ Gains in Syria Create Dilemma for U.S. - NYTimes.com

We cannot go diving into yet another situation. It is beyond the wrong time for it.

I'm not a big fan of some the previous press correspondent's dinners when the President and press joke about wars and serious issues but this one was pretty funny from President Obama...

"I'm also hard at work on plans for the Obama Library, and some have suggested that we put it in my birthplace, but I'd rather keep it in the United States," he said.

Saw bits and pieces of it on CNN.

I think the ribbing to Gallup and Morris was great. I saw the birth place one also.

I did not like him on his joke on the Bush Library. I know it wasn't directed at Bush and made fun of himself, but the Bush Library event was just last week and I feel should have been left out of it.

Um - they don't leave anything out of these typically. That's sorta the way it is.

So it makes it right to joke about something you solemnly attended and praised not less than a week ago?

Have you not watched these before? They joke about EVERYTHING.

So yes. The answer is yes.

The one with Colbert during the Bush Administration was pretty brutal. :) you should see the video of Laura Bush cursing him out as he shakes her hand.

Yeah, I don't think Colbert will ever be invited back as that was particularly brutal.

SI

Wow.

Another 40-50 percent didn't feel it wise to speak candidly to a pollster, not being sure who they might be working for.

Pentagon May Court Martial Soldiers Who Share Christian Faith

I'm wait and see on this, but there's very little room in reading this in a positive way.

Coming from Breitbart I think you can assume it's way overblown.

Surveys have shown a pretty significant number of truthers among Democrats.

Democrats and Trutherism

I think these kinds of polls are more about trash-talking an administration you don't like. I don't think they expose literal beliefs about anything significant. I refuse to believe that 1 in 4 Dems literally think secret explosives in the towers brought them down. These questions are always worded in a such a way that can be a little misleading - "an armed revolution might be necessary" - people who are saying yes to that aren't necessarily saying they're taking up arms, or that a revolution will happen, they just need to think armed revolution "might be necessary" in order for this country to be the way they want it to be. When in truth, they're probably right. I think armed revolution is probably necessary to say, stop the acceptance of gay marriage. That doesn't mean that it's going to happen.

An escalation? Wonder if Israel gave Obama a heads up first ... probably not.

Sources: U.S. believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria - CNN.com

Aw, geez. Israel just likes to make things tough

SI

Not in favor of this being prevented any more than sharing political views should be restricted ... however I think that article is heavily biased in the extreme .... firstly I doubt its just the 'christian' faith affected by this and I doubt someone sharing their beliefs casually would be affected - some context is required, is this aimed at preventing excessive persuasion / peer pressure being applied or using a tannoy to broadcast beliefs etc.

Looks like a storm in a teacup to me - but obviously very good and easily applied fodder for scare mongering ...

There's plenty of way to read it in a positive way. There have been pockets of aggressively proselytizing groups within the armed forces, putting pressure on others, in a quasi-official manner. It's not illegal to be a christian, it's illegal to try to force others to attend christian services.

It's been a long running problem:

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/ande...ons-in-us.html

Here's a more accurate story, from the Army Times:

Religion clash hits DoD | Army Times | armytimes.com

More Israeli attacks in Syria. Suspect this escalation is not what Obama wants.

Syria: Attack on military site was a 'declaration of war' by Israel - CNN.com

Good luck making that propaganda stick, lol. "Seems legit."

Don't think this should be a surprise to anyone. It was pretty clear from the start that leadership was minimizing what they knew about the situation.

Benghazi whistle-blower Hicks: Internal review 'let people off the hook' – The Lead with Jake Tapper - CNN.com Blogs

Now what? Bomb both sides?

Works for me ;)

This is a conflict where there's not any good guys in sight as far as I can tell, just bad actors vs bad actors (which is a reason I'm on board with us staying the hell out of it as long as it remains within Syrian borders)

Every now and then we agree.

Have to agree with this, though I wonder how long it will stay contained inside Syria - I mean when a civil war has reached the point where both sides are using nerve gas, there's not much left to really stop it from escalating.

I think this kinda gets political catch-all stuff, so ...

Mark Sanford wins Jim DeMint's old congressional seat, beats Colbert's sister by winning every county in the district en route to a 54-46 victory.

No surprise from the standpoint of having an (R) elected in the district for like three decades running, surprising from the standpoint of just how horribly bad a candidate could be & still win.

"Hiking the Appalachian trail" is still a favorite euphemism of mine.

SI

Deficit down 33% compared to last year, but it's revenues, not austerity that's driving the reduction. Considering the large amount of squawking going on about the level of "Hardships" caused by sequestration (with such a small amount of cuts, relatively speaking) it's fairly obvious that the driver of the recovery is going to have to be revenues increasing, not spending decreasing.

Deficit down 32% so far this year - May. 7, 2013