Friday, May 31, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
On Memorial Day, never ever forget ..............
That there isn't anything wrong with America that liberal ideology, properly applied
by government experts, can't make worse.
Gamblers paradise.......
Is there a sports book that will take the over/under on the number of shootings in Chicago this weekend?
The community organizer needs to get back to doing what he does best straighten out the belly of the beast.
The community organizer needs to get back to doing what he does best straighten out the belly of the beast.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
You can't make this stuff up folks............
Bernanke to Congress: I will continue inflating stocks until the Congress is pressured to act by falling stocks.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
It's getting old.........older than dirt
Obama didn't know.
Holder didn't know.
The IRS didn't know.
Congress didn't know.
This is not a game, it is a scrimmage; merely the defense playing the offense.
After they play, they all go back to the same locker room. Who loses?
You. Your kids. Me. My kids. America.
Holder didn't know.
The IRS didn't know.
Congress didn't know.
This is not a game, it is a scrimmage; merely the defense playing the offense.
After they play, they all go back to the same locker room. Who loses?
You. Your kids. Me. My kids. America.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Simple Math..........
Not only will the Fed's balance sheet hit "a very large" $4 trillion by 2014, it
will hit a "very larger" $5 trillion by 2015.
Gold anyone?
Is anyone awake?
Gold anyone?
Is anyone awake?
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Immigration folly
The IRS, AP and Benghazi scandals are fairly inconsequential matters
that have deflected the public's attention from what will continue the drastic
transformation of our country, the immigration bill.
Why are we the only country on the planet who rewards criminals for their
crimes?
Thursday, May 16, 2013
An NDN wannabe........anything to claim minority status asks.......
Elizabeth Warren has written a letter to Ben Bernanke, Eric Holder and Mary Jo White. My
favorite line is: “If large financial institutions can break the law
and accumulate millions in profits and, if they get caught, settle by paying out
of those profits, they do not have much incentive to follow the law.”
Is this for real? Can a liberal actually ask a hard-hitting question?
Forget about getting a straight answer from that trio.
Is this for real? Can a liberal actually ask a hard-hitting question?
Forget about getting a straight answer from that trio.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Jim Rogers, just sayin'..........
“Well, I was already pretty focused, I knew I wanted to buy my freedom at a young age because I grew up without much money and I did not like it. So, I wanted to buy my freedom, so I spent most of my time doing what I loved, which was the stock market, the investments markets, I should say. And when you do what you love and spend a lot of time and energy at it, sometimes you are successful.” – in a recent interview, when asked about getting rich at a young age.
Lies and Liars
"That happened so long ago" - Jay Carney.
"What difference does it make" - Hillary Clinton
"What difference does it make" - Hillary Clinton
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Mothers Day, 2013
Our Mothers Day present!
Your boys appreciate all you do!
Mrs. Dean Parisians Porsche Panamera Platinum Edition!
Mothers Day, 2013
You went on ahead many years ago but I wish we could be together today. To eat, to laugh, to reminisce. Thank you Mom for all you did for our family. You never quit and our time to say goodbye came too early.
Friday, May 10, 2013
I'm from the government and I'm here to help..............
In a stunning disclosure, the supposedly impartial Internal Revenue Service has
admitted and apologized for flagging and subjecting to extra reviews,
conservative political groups - those that included the words "tea party" or
"patriot" - during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their
tax-exempt status. No such privilege was apparently afforded to groups
identifying themselves as "liberal." It does make one wonder, just how far the
IRS goes to make the lives of conservatives a living hell: will all 2012 tax
audits be those who on their facebook profile admit to liking Ron Paul?
Dodd-Frank implementation
Ben likes to mention Dodd-Frank
This bill is disgustingly rank
A big pile of shit
Elites won't admit
It will not effect the Big Banks
This bill is disgustingly rank
A big pile of shit
Elites won't admit
It will not effect the Big Banks
Thursday, May 09, 2013
Truly disgusting health care...............
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California law that created an agency to oversee national health care reforms granted it sweeping authority to conceal spending on the contractors that will perform most of its functions, creating a barrier from public disclosure that stands out nationwide.
The degree of secrecy afforded Covered California appears unique among states attempting to establish their own health insurance exchanges under President Barack Obama's signature health law.
An Associated Press review of the 16 other states that have opted for state-run marketplaces shows the California agency was given powers that are the most restrictive in what information is required to be made public.
In Massachusetts, the state that served as the model for Obama's health overhaul, its Health Connector program is specifically covered by open-records laws, rather than providing exemptions from them, as is the case for contracting in California.
In Idaho, where its exchange was established as a private, nonprofit corporation, and in New Mexico, agencies specifically must comply with open-records laws. The Maryland Legislature subjected its exchange to the state's public information act, but protected some types of commercial and financial information.
In California's case, the exclusions may run afoul of the state constitution, one legal expert said. Exchange spokesman Dana Howard said the agency complies with the law but declined to discuss in detail how it determines what is public and what is not.
"I'm not going to go down item by item, about how it is and what kinds of meetings and what was talked about," he said.
It's routine in government to keep bids secret until contracts are awarded, so one vendor does not get an unfair advantage over others. After a bid is awarded, contracts generally become fully public.
In setting up the California exchange, lawmakers gave it the authority to keep all contracts private for a year and the amounts paid secret indefinitely. "Except for the portion of a contract that contains the rates of payment, contracts entered into pursuant to this title shall be open to inspection one year after their effective dates," reads the code specifying what exchange records are exempt from public disclosure.
According to agency documents, Covered California plans to spend nearly $458 million on outside vendors by the end of 2014, covering lawyers, consultants, public relations advisers and other functions.
Other exchange records that are allowed to be kept secret include those that reveal recommendations, research, strategy of the board or its staff, or those that provide instructions, advice or training to employees. Minutes of the board meetings also are exempt from disclosure.
The indefinite ban on releasing rates of pay to companies and individuals receiving contracts also goes beyond exemptions for other state health programs, such as Healthy Families, which withholds rates of pay from disclosure for up to four years, but not permanently.
If the Legislature wants to limit access, the state constitution requires that it produce findings that demonstrate the need for shielding information from the public. In the bill that authorized the exchange, the Legislature devoted two sentences to address that issue. It argued the cloaked spending was "necessary" to protect "powers and obligations to negotiate on behalf of the public."
Those provisions are vulnerable to being declared unconstitutional, said Terry Francke, head of Californians Aware, a group that promotes government transparency. He said the Legislature simply made a statement in the law, with no details or evidence to support it.
He said, in essence, lawmakers are saying they need it because they need it. The Legislature should have answered the questions, "Why couldn't the exchange do its job without this secrecy? What's the worst that could happen?" Francke said.
In response to an AP public records request, the agency released information on a dozen competitively bid contracts issued since early 2011. They included $14 million for an 19-month contract with Ogilvy Public Relations for marketing and other services; $400,000 for Pricewaterhouse Coopers for a four-month deal developing a small business program; and $327 million for a five-year deal with consulting giant Accenture to develop a web portal and enrollment system for those who will seek coverage.
Those contracts also are accessible on the agency's website, along with about two dozen requests for services the agency has published. But it's not clear how many contracts the agency has executed, for how much or with whom. Staff counsel Gabriel Ravel said in an email that the agency "exercised its discretion to waive this exemption" for the contracts it released to AP. However, "all other existing contracts are confidential and privileged," he wrote.
The closeted spending was quietly authorized in a bundle of amendments added to the bill just days before it was passed by the Senate and Assembly during a blitz of activity in August 2010, when California was sprinting to become the first state to embrace the most extensive health care changes since Medicare.
Legislative staffers who worked on the technical language in the bill discussed the possibility of limiting the scope of the records exemption but settled on making it comprehensive after concluding it was not practical to try to determine what should be left out.
No public hearing was held on the provision because legislative leaders did not consider it substantive enough to send the bill back to committee for an airing, according to the office of Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles.
Statements issued to the AP by his office said the bill met the constitutional test and "contains the relevant findings," while striking a practical balance between the need for confidential rate negotiations with medical plans and a board that meets in public and is covered by open-meetings law.
"At the time of the drafting of the bill in 2010, this was a non-controversial, technical provision modeled on the same exemption long provided to successful government health insurance programs, including the state's Healthy Families Program," one statement said.
Perez's account that there was agreement on the confidentiality rules in the Senate Health Committee was disputed by former Sen. Sam Aanestad, a Republican on the panel who said he opposed those blanket privacy rules as well as the broader bill creating the exchange.
"This is such an untested field, there has to be strict illumination and oversight from day one," said the retired oral surgeon. Empowering bureaucrats to make unilateral decisions on access to contracting records "bodes for disaster."
___
Associated Press writers Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Barry Massey in Santa Fe, N.M., John Miller in Boise, Idaho, and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md., contributed to this report.
Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California law that created an agency to oversee national health care reforms granted it sweeping authority to conceal spending on the contractors that will perform most of its functions, creating a barrier from public disclosure that stands out nationwide.
The degree of secrecy afforded Covered California appears unique among states attempting to establish their own health insurance exchanges under President Barack Obama's signature health law.
An Associated Press review of the 16 other states that have opted for state-run marketplaces shows the California agency was given powers that are the most restrictive in what information is required to be made public.
In Massachusetts, the state that served as the model for Obama's health overhaul, its Health Connector program is specifically covered by open-records laws, rather than providing exemptions from them, as is the case for contracting in California.
In Idaho, where its exchange was established as a private, nonprofit corporation, and in New Mexico, agencies specifically must comply with open-records laws. The Maryland Legislature subjected its exchange to the state's public information act, but protected some types of commercial and financial information.
In California's case, the exclusions may run afoul of the state constitution, one legal expert said. Exchange spokesman Dana Howard said the agency complies with the law but declined to discuss in detail how it determines what is public and what is not.
"I'm not going to go down item by item, about how it is and what kinds of meetings and what was talked about," he said.
It's routine in government to keep bids secret until contracts are awarded, so one vendor does not get an unfair advantage over others. After a bid is awarded, contracts generally become fully public.
In setting up the California exchange, lawmakers gave it the authority to keep all contracts private for a year and the amounts paid secret indefinitely. "Except for the portion of a contract that contains the rates of payment, contracts entered into pursuant to this title shall be open to inspection one year after their effective dates," reads the code specifying what exchange records are exempt from public disclosure.
According to agency documents, Covered California plans to spend nearly $458 million on outside vendors by the end of 2014, covering lawyers, consultants, public relations advisers and other functions.
Other exchange records that are allowed to be kept secret include those that reveal recommendations, research, strategy of the board or its staff, or those that provide instructions, advice or training to employees. Minutes of the board meetings also are exempt from disclosure.
The indefinite ban on releasing rates of pay to companies and individuals receiving contracts also goes beyond exemptions for other state health programs, such as Healthy Families, which withholds rates of pay from disclosure for up to four years, but not permanently.
If the Legislature wants to limit access, the state constitution requires that it produce findings that demonstrate the need for shielding information from the public. In the bill that authorized the exchange, the Legislature devoted two sentences to address that issue. It argued the cloaked spending was "necessary" to protect "powers and obligations to negotiate on behalf of the public."
Those provisions are vulnerable to being declared unconstitutional, said Terry Francke, head of Californians Aware, a group that promotes government transparency. He said the Legislature simply made a statement in the law, with no details or evidence to support it.
He said, in essence, lawmakers are saying they need it because they need it. The Legislature should have answered the questions, "Why couldn't the exchange do its job without this secrecy? What's the worst that could happen?" Francke said.
In response to an AP public records request, the agency released information on a dozen competitively bid contracts issued since early 2011. They included $14 million for an 19-month contract with Ogilvy Public Relations for marketing and other services; $400,000 for Pricewaterhouse Coopers for a four-month deal developing a small business program; and $327 million for a five-year deal with consulting giant Accenture to develop a web portal and enrollment system for those who will seek coverage.
Those contracts also are accessible on the agency's website, along with about two dozen requests for services the agency has published. But it's not clear how many contracts the agency has executed, for how much or with whom. Staff counsel Gabriel Ravel said in an email that the agency "exercised its discretion to waive this exemption" for the contracts it released to AP. However, "all other existing contracts are confidential and privileged," he wrote.
The closeted spending was quietly authorized in a bundle of amendments added to the bill just days before it was passed by the Senate and Assembly during a blitz of activity in August 2010, when California was sprinting to become the first state to embrace the most extensive health care changes since Medicare.
Legislative staffers who worked on the technical language in the bill discussed the possibility of limiting the scope of the records exemption but settled on making it comprehensive after concluding it was not practical to try to determine what should be left out.
No public hearing was held on the provision because legislative leaders did not consider it substantive enough to send the bill back to committee for an airing, according to the office of Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles.
Statements issued to the AP by his office said the bill met the constitutional test and "contains the relevant findings," while striking a practical balance between the need for confidential rate negotiations with medical plans and a board that meets in public and is covered by open-meetings law.
"At the time of the drafting of the bill in 2010, this was a non-controversial, technical provision modeled on the same exemption long provided to successful government health insurance programs, including the state's Healthy Families Program," one statement said.
Perez's account that there was agreement on the confidentiality rules in the Senate Health Committee was disputed by former Sen. Sam Aanestad, a Republican on the panel who said he opposed those blanket privacy rules as well as the broader bill creating the exchange.
"This is such an untested field, there has to be strict illumination and oversight from day one," said the retired oral surgeon. Empowering bureaucrats to make unilateral decisions on access to contracting records "bodes for disaster."
___
Associated Press writers Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Barry Massey in Santa Fe, N.M., John Miller in Boise, Idaho, and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md., contributed to this report.
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
Monday, May 06, 2013
Saturday, May 04, 2013
Wrong, dead wrong
Apparently Bill Gross, Dean Parisian, Jim Rogers, Maurice Altshuler, Peter Schiff, David Greenberg and the crew at Zero Hedge are dead wrong.
Printing presses don't matter. This time it is different. Don't fight the Fed.
This will not end well.
Printing presses don't matter. This time it is different. Don't fight the Fed.
This will not end well.
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
Mel Watt may make Franklin Raines look like a chump,,,,,,,,,,
when it is all said and done.......and it isn't over by a long shot.......the carnage to the American taxpayer will continue..........and like Jim Rogers always asked, "why Franklin Raines isn't in jail" is anyone's guess.
Mr. Watt's lobbying dollars coming almost exclusively from Wall Street, Lawyers/Law Firms, and Labor Unions, the $7+ trillion in US mortgages, and sole source of mortgage creation in the US, is in "very good", if just a little conflicted and quite socialist, hands. Mortgage forgiveness-demanding, crony capitalist comrades of the world, unite! (while charging $1000/hour)
Mel Watt's biggest career contributors by industry:
Mel Watt's biggest career contributors by company:
Source: OpenSecrets
Mr. Watt's lobbying dollars coming almost exclusively from Wall Street, Lawyers/Law Firms, and Labor Unions, the $7+ trillion in US mortgages, and sole source of mortgage creation in the US, is in "very good", if just a little conflicted and quite socialist, hands. Mortgage forgiveness-demanding, crony capitalist comrades of the world, unite! (while charging $1000/hour)
Mel Watt's biggest career contributors by industry:
Mel Watt's biggest career contributors by company:
Source: OpenSecrets
Listen up America.........
If the United States government started only spending the money that it
brings in, we would descend into an economic depression tomorrow.
The only way that we can continue to live out the economic fantasy that we see all around us is by financially abusing our children and our grandchildren.
The U.S. economy has become a miserable junkie that is completely and totally addicted to reckless money printing and gigantic mountains of debt.
If we stop printing money and going into unprecedented amounts of debt we are finished.
If we continue printing money and going into unprecedented amounts of debt we are finished.
The only way that we can continue to live out the economic fantasy that we see all around us is by financially abusing our children and our grandchildren.
The U.S. economy has become a miserable junkie that is completely and totally addicted to reckless money printing and gigantic mountains of debt.
If we stop printing money and going into unprecedented amounts of debt we are finished.
If we continue printing money and going into unprecedented amounts of debt we are finished.