Usually vandals paint over the candidate's name. This time Loudoun Democrats targeted a black candidate's face for a literal whitewash.
Loudoun County Democrats cover a black candidate's face with white paint
Usually vandals paint over the candidate's name. This time Loudoun Democrats targeted a black candidate's face for a literal whitewash.
How Cuccinelli blew his advantage in the #VaGov race
Thoughts?
By Norman Leahy and Paul Goldman
Last month, we wrote that Ken Cuccinelli II’s campaign to become Virginia’s next governor needed to raise its game or face certain defeat. Has it done so? Unequivocally, no.
Cuccinelli’s strategists and consultants have doggedly followed a baffling strategy.
Even the best campaigns can lose. But an inept campaign guarantees a loss for an underdog, and Cuccinelli (R) has been the underdog since July. The attorney general’s defenders will undoubtedly refute our analysis, claiming instead that bad luck and strong headwinds have hobbled the GOP effort in Virginia. In our view, his problems went much deeper.
Read the article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-ken-cuccinelli-blew-his-advantage-in-the-virginia-governors-race/2013/10/25/16d1a9ce-3a80-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_story.html
Last month, we wrote that Ken Cuccinelli II’s campaign to become Virginia’s next governor needed to raise its game or face certain defeat. Has it done so? Unequivocally, no.
Cuccinelli’s strategists and consultants have doggedly followed a baffling strategy.
Even the best campaigns can lose. But an inept campaign guarantees a loss for an underdog, and Cuccinelli (R) has been the underdog since July. The attorney general’s defenders will undoubtedly refute our analysis, claiming instead that bad luck and strong headwinds have hobbled the GOP effort in Virginia. In our view, his problems went much deeper.
Read the article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-ken-cuccinelli-blew-his-advantage-in-the-virginia-governors-race/2013/10/25/16d1a9ce-3a80-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_story.html
Five Phony Public Health Scares
Five Phony Public Health Scares
Health activists, nutrition nannies, medical paternalists, and just plain old quacks regularly conjure up menaces that are supposedly damaging the health of Americans. Their scares range from the decades-long campaign against fluoridation to worries that saccharin causes cancer to the ongoing hysteria over crop biotechnology. The campaigners' usual "solution" is to demand that regulators ban the offending substance or practice. Here are five especially egregious examples of activist misinformation.
Health activists, nutrition nannies, medical paternalists, and just plain old quacks regularly conjure up menaces that are supposedly damaging the health of Americans. Their scares range from the decades-long campaign against fluoridation to worries that saccharin causes cancer to the ongoing hysteria over crop biotechnology. The campaigners' usual "solution" is to demand that regulators ban the offending substance or practice. Here are five especially egregious examples of activist misinformation.
UK Government raids 3D-printed 'gun factory'
UK Government Announces Raid on 3D-Printed Gun Factory, Uses Parts of the Printer as Evidence
Police in the UK city of Manchester have seized a 3D printer and what they have alleged to be 3D-printed gun parts, during a raid on alleged criminal gangs. However, as an eagle-eyed reader has noted, the parts shown off by police are actually spare parts for a 3D printer....
Police in the UK city of Manchester have seized a 3D printer and what they have alleged to be 3D-printed gun parts, during a raid on alleged criminal gangs. However, as an eagle-eyed reader has noted, the parts shown off by police are actually spare parts for a 3D printer....
First #Bitcoin ATM to Go Live Next Week in Vancouver
First Bitcoin ATM to Go Live Next Week in Vancouver
Built by a Nevada company called Robocoin, the machine will trade bitcoins for cash and vice versa. Bitcoin is the world’s most popular digital currency, and it exists only on the internet, but it can be traded for traditional dollars and euros. Though bitcoin began as niche technology embraced mostly by internet geeks, it is gradually spreading not only to everyday people, but into the everyday world.
Built by a Nevada company called Robocoin, the machine will trade bitcoins for cash and vice versa. Bitcoin is the world’s most popular digital currency, and it exists only on the internet, but it can be traded for traditional dollars and euros. Though bitcoin began as niche technology embraced mostly by internet geeks, it is gradually spreading not only to everyday people, but into the everyday world.
Obamacare's Great Medicaid Expansion Swindle
Obamacare's Great Medicaid Expansion Swindle
This is bad news. Medicaid, the nation’s health care program for low-income citizens and those with certain disabilities, is expensive. States are not required to participate in the program, but all do, though eligibility requirements differ from state to state. In 2011, states devoted nearly 24 percent (PDF) of total spending to Medicaid—the single largest state expense—despite the fact that there’s little evidence that it actually improves the health outcomes of its beneficiaries.
You got that? One of the major tenets of Obamacare is to expand an existing program that is both hugely expensive and massively ineffective.
This is bad news. Medicaid, the nation’s health care program for low-income citizens and those with certain disabilities, is expensive. States are not required to participate in the program, but all do, though eligibility requirements differ from state to state. In 2011, states devoted nearly 24 percent (PDF) of total spending to Medicaid—the single largest state expense—despite the fact that there’s little evidence that it actually improves the health outcomes of its beneficiaries.
You got that? One of the major tenets of Obamacare is to expand an existing program that is both hugely expensive and massively ineffective.
You Can Keep Your Health Insurance Under Obamacare? Not So Much.
You Can Keep Your Health Insurance Under Obamacare? Not So Much.
President Obama (in)famously said, "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan" under the Affordable Care Act. As it turns out, not so much. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, it turns out, are receiving letters telling them that their existing coverage just isn't good enough to satisfy the strict rquirements of the Obamacare law, and that they'll have to sign up for new policies. Those new policies come with new stipulations, and new price tags. Which is to say, it doesn't matter if you like your health care plan, since you probably can't keep it.
President Obama (in)famously said, "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan" under the Affordable Care Act. As it turns out, not so much. Hundreds of thousands of Americans, it turns out, are receiving letters telling them that their existing coverage just isn't good enough to satisfy the strict rquirements of the Obamacare law, and that they'll have to sign up for new policies. Those new policies come with new stipulations, and new price tags. Which is to say, it doesn't matter if you like your health care plan, since you probably can't keep it.
Supreme Court agrees to hear gun case on 'straw purchases'
“I am grateful that the Supreme Court will review this important case. I felt this case was so important, that I joined with Gun Owners of America and other pro-Second Amendment groups to file an amicus curiae brief urging the Court to grant review,” said Stockman.
“ATF’s policy on so-called ‘straw purchases’ is illegal. No one should be convicted and made into a felon for buying and transferring a gun legally. Congress never passed a law prohibiting such purchases, and the ATF has no authority to create new crimes to plug what it perceives to be holes in the law. This case gives the Court the opportunity to rein in a lawless ATF which has repeatedly exhibited hostility to law-abiding gunowners.”
“It is incomprehensible that ATF and the Justice Department wasted federal government resources prosecuting legal gun buyers for nothing more than simple technicalities on government forms while at the same time they helped in sending thousands of firearms to Mexican cartels. This rogue agency must be reined in,” said Stockman
Mr. Abramski is a former police officer. His elderly uncle wanted to obtain a firearm for self-defense. Mr. Abramski made the purchase at a local gun dealer in Virginia who offered discounts to former police officers. Mr. Abramski passed a federal background check at the gun store in Virginia and then brought the handgun to another gun store in Pennsylvania, where the gun was transferred to his uncle, who also passed a federal background check.
Neither Abramski nor his uncle was prohibited from possessing the firearm. Before making his purchase Abramski asked three federally-licensed dealers how he should go about obtaining a firearm for his uncle. All three agreed the sale was legal.
Nevertheless, because Abramski bought the gun from a federally-licensed dealer, he had to fill out an form stating that he was the “actual buyer” of the firearm. The ATF claimed that Abramski’s uncle was the “actual buyer” and Abramski had made a false statement in filling out the form. Abramski was eventually convicted of a felony.
Federal law does not prohibit one eligible person from buying a gun for another eligible person. It is perfectly legal to buy a gun for an eligible gunowner. The law only prohibits transfers to ineligible people. Neither Abramski nor his uncle was ineligible.
The government charged Abramski with making a false statement on the ATF Form 4473, a form that ATF requires. Had Abramski purchased the firearm from his uncle by private sale not involving an FFL, or made a gift of the gun, he could not have been charged.
Briefs in this case will be due in December 2013 and early next year, and a decision is not expected until the middle of next year.
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White House ducks CNN’s attempts at “Keeping Them Honest” on #ObamaCare
CNN
Laments: “The administration won’t tell us how many people have signed
up, and have changed their story in the process. At first the
administration said it didn’t know… Then we were told to ask someone
else… A few days later, wait a month.”
On Monday, Anderson Cooper’s hallmark “Keeping them Honest” segment featured “Obamacare Sign-Up Snafus.” But answers were hard to come by. A CNN correspondent explained “the failed rollout was not a surprise to anyone involved with it.” In an effort to “keep them honest,” CNN “requested an interview today with the White House to ask one question, ‘If the administration knew there would be so many glitches, why did the administration plan ahead with the roll out?’”
Unfortunately they “were told nobody was available to answer that and we are still waiting to find out when the point person for all of this, Kathleen Sebelius, will be able to talk to us. We’re still waiting.”
The Energy and Commerce Committee has many of the same questions as CNN, and committee leaders recently sent several letters to both the administration and the lead IT contractors involved with implementation requesting enrollment figures and answers regarding the “glitches” that have defined the past two weeks.
“Despite our warnings that the law was not ready for prime time, the administration repeatedly brushed us off, proclaiming everything was ‘on track,’” said Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI). “The first two weeks of enrollment have been a nightmare, and we now know despite over three years to prepare, the administration was in over its head. After hundreds of millions of dollars spent on a shoddy website and numerous broken promises, the American people deserve answers, and we are going to get to the bottom of this mess in the coming weeks.”
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EPA skirts law to grab regulatory power
Chairmen Smith and Stewart demand transparent process, full scientific review of new rule
Under the rule, EPA could expand its regulatory authority to include even the most isolated wetlands, streams and ditches. In their letter, the Chairmen criticize the EPA for pushing through a rule with vast economic implications before the agency’s independent reviewers at its Science Advisory Board (SAB) have had an opportunity review the underlying science, as required by law.
“A sweeping reinterpretation of EPA jurisdiction would give the agency unprecedented control over private property across the nation,” the Chairmen wrote. “Any attempt to issue a proposed rule before completing an independent examination by the agency’s own science advisors would be to put the cart before the horse.”
The Chairmen state, “In light of recent concerns raised by the small business community, the agency’s current approach to CWA jurisdiction appears to represent a rushed, politicized regulatory process lacking the proper consultation with scientific peer reviewers and the American people. If EPA has not already provided SAB with the proposed rule, the House Science Committee urges the agency to do so immediately. Under the law, the advice of scientific experts is a pre-requisite, not an afterthought.”
The letter advises the agency that the Science Committee intends to provide additional questions to the SAB panel related to the new rule in order to ensure that regulations are fashioned with a sound scientific foundation.
The full letter can be found here.
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