unit731

"What was he supposed to do? Not comment?" He could have said something other than his standard line. Meanwhile, back at the campaign: Obama’s College Classmate: ‘The Obama Scandal Is at Columbia’ I am President Obama’s classmate at Columbia University, Class of ’83. Oh, for the Lord's sake. Do a check with snopes. This is more obtuse garbage. And, by the way, connected to . . . wait for it . . . Fox News. I went to a large university. And you would be hard pressed to find anyone who knew me. AND I never missed one class. But there ain't a sole out there that could probably remember me. Even if provided my name and picture. More of Rupurt Murdoch's minions grasping at empty straws.

Boys home from Iraq. Repubs hated that and wanted US to STAY !! No boys on Libya soil. Nada. Done. No boys in Syria. Phased withdrawel from Ganistan. So I have to ask the question: Do magnets affect folks wearing tin foil hats?

"$50,000 a Plate? Romney’s Israel Fundraiser Too Steep for Me July 29th, 2012 by Joshua Lapidus Mitt Romney, presumptive Republican nominee for President, is in Israel now to hold high-level meetings with his “friend,†Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to host a fundraiser for high-rollers. I thought about going myself, but $50,000 a plate was a tad too steep for my taste. (Of course, I could also get a few of my friends together and raise $100,000.) Romney’s trip couldn’t be timed better, politically speaking. He’s taking advantage of the fact he’s running against a president who hasn’t visited Israel yet while in office. Bibi (I mean, if they’re really best buds, Mittens totally calls the PM Bibi, right?) has declared Romney a friend to the state of Israel – and now he’s trying to cash in on that with a media-blitz trip to Israel that’ll sear the image of Romney at the Western Wall into the minds of every American voter. Going up against an incumbent is difficult – so challengers have to do everything they can to appear more statesman-like." LINK "Mormons Still Baptizing Dead Jews Despite Agreements to End Practice" LINK YOU, yes YOU too may be batized (again for some) by the Church of Latter Day Saints after your demise !

"JACKSON, Mississippi -- Gov. Phil Bryant wants to end Mississippi's statewide system of seniority-based teacher raises. Instead, the Republican governor wants each of the state's 151 school districts to design their own system to pay teachers according to student performance." LINK It's the teachers fault that those kids can't learn. And those pesky teachers unions that don't allow kids to learn. Absolutely nothing to do with lack of nutrition, lack of pre-school, or any mandatory kindergarten.

"LONDON–Mitt Romney raised at least $2 million in a fundraiser here that brought to light awkward connections between the candidate’s high-profile supporters and an interest rate-rigging scandal." LINK Someone needs to pay attention to those prescription drug commercials on the tele! Two Million Dollars ! Fund raising. Money. Money. Money. Damn those socialist communist capitalists. Why would those socialist communist capitalists want to buy off Romney?

Every single Brit was disuaded and bemused by the comments of candidate Romney. PM Cameron: "Without specifically being asked about Romney's comments, he volunteered that England was holding the Olympic Games "in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world…. Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere." (The British press seized on that comment as a reference to Salt Lake City, where Romney headed the Olympics in 2002.)" LINK

• Mitt Romney made all kinds of news for saying and doing the wrong things in the first full day of his trip to London. The trip was meant to make him look presidential. In the apt summation of John Podhoretz, it made him look like Mr. Bean. The Romney show continues tomorrow, when he attends the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. Should be fun! LINK

Interesting tidbit of history. The best McCain could do was Palin.

What is in his previous years tax returns? That alone will swade a few of the independents. Few like a public figure tax 'cheat'. And then the Swiss bank accounts and the money down there in the Cayman Islands.

Presidential canditate Romny booed during speech at NAACP today. Boo came when candidate Romney stated he would do away with current health care.

No one pays penalty if they already have heath insurance. You can dance around this fact. But it is fact.

Certainly this is part of the picture. Fedex has exclusive contract to carry all air mail now. Many factors played into the demise of passenger rail. GM owned a bus factory/brand at the time. In my area the abandoned rail tracks were given to the government. They are now snowmobile trails. Tracks all dug up and gone.

The law of unintended consequences. General Eisenhower viewed the German Autobahn during WWII. He liked it. As president we got the passage of the Interstate Highway Act. This act was passed under the guise of national defense. Nice idea. But. No provisions were made for the railroads. All but a few of railroads died. Passenger rail died completely. All of the major cities and many towns and hamlets had railroad stations. City after city, town after town . . . let these beautiful archtecual buildings crumble or be torn down. Amtrak passenger has to be subsidized by the Federal government. And the yahoos who hate government want to do away with that.

OK. The IRS does have a dedicated enforcement department. Just as does the US Postal Service. They are called Postal Inspectors. And they all have guns. So does the DEA agents. And FBI. And the Secret Service. I don't think post was inferring, or implying, or otherwise stating that every GS-5 IRS employee would be carring one of the 60 stated shot guns. Nor the IRS employees doing rountine business or residential visits would be carrying any firearem big or small.

All has changed over the decades in US. Now most,if not all is for profit medical care. And big business at that. When I was a youngin we had a family doctor who practiced out of his house. The local hospital was a non-profit hospital. The local hospital was created in the late 1990's to serve the community. As a non-profit. This worked perfectly well for 100 years. Now there is no family doctors working out of their house. It is all 'clinic's. And the clinics are owned by a consortium of doctors OR by the hospitals. The local non-profit hospital is now owned by a large for profit corporation. I never followed the newspapers as to how or why the non-profit bacame a for profit. In the olden days if hospitalized you got maybe two bills. One from the hospital and one from the doctor. That was it. Now, every department inside the hospital is a private for profit corporation. The emergency room is run by one company. The laboratory is run by another company. And there are now two labs and run by two different companies. One for the hospital and one just for the emergency room. The food service is run by another company. The doctors are run by another company. The hospital pharmacy is run by another company. Even the linen and staff clothing is owned and cleaned by a private for profit company. The hospital has a laundry room with washers and dryers in basement (not used now). Now, a private company each day counts each piece of dirty linen and clothing and sends it off site for washing. Then the clean clothing and linen comes back and is counted again. And the counting part is another private company. The washing company is different from the counting company. It just boggles the mind how many companies and corporations are making money and a lot of money off health care in the US. And if you have a hospital stay you get a bill from every one of these companies. Even the billing is now a private for profit company. It is total madness. It is total madness.

Excellent perspective. Thanks.

Bush and the Republicans had plenty of time to craft an acceptable bill and legislation. About 8 years or so. Then didn't. Too many companies and people are making too much money without any national health care plan public or private. Too much money made.

Onto another subject. The new health care law is a tax. Oh, goog God. It was supposed to be a penalty. Or possibly a fee. And we all know that the amounts of money collected are quite different if the funds are called a fee or a penalty. But calling the collected funds a tax? There is a world of difference between a fee, a penalty, and a tax.

Thanks. But the correct name of newspaers in Tombstone are: The Tombstone News. LINK Or the Tombsotne Epitaph. LINK Both are good newspapers. Other than the shoot out at the OK Coral, Tombstone is known for its journalistic scruples.

Washington takeover of our health care. FACT: PolitiFact dubbed the characterization of health care as a government takeover the 2010 Lie of the Year. REP. PAUL BROUN (R-GA): The whole of Obamacare is geared to force everybody out of private insurance into public insurance policy. FACT: PolitiFact points out that the law is "at its heart, a system that relies on private companies and the free market." REP. PAUL BROUN (R-GA): Obamacare. Obamacare, Madame Speaker, is going to kill jobs in America. FACT: Multiple sources have reported that the health care law doesn't destroy jobs; it actually creates them. REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA): Their proposal blows a hole in the deficit, ours actually saves money. FACT: According to the Congressional Budget Office, the health care law would reduce the deficit and the Republicans' plan to repeal the law would add $230 billion to the deficit. GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R-MS): We can try to make sure that appropriated money cannot be used to further this — not to hire those 16,000 IRS agents that we found out after the fact were going to be needed to enforce this law that the Democrats like to think that everybody's gonna love. If everybody's gonna love it, why do you need 16-17,000 new IRS agents to enforce it? FACT: FactCheck.org called the IRS claim "wildly inaccurate." REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI): When you take away the smoke and the mirrors, this thing has a $701 billion deficit. FACT: The Congressional Budget Office said the health care law reduces the deficit and does not use "smoke and mirrors" to do so. SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): This health care law that Harry Reid loves, that the President is going to try to take credit for tomorrow, they took 500 billion dollars from our seniors on Medicare. FACT: The supposed cuts in Medicare are really reductions in the growth of future spending over 10 years. SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): It's bad for patients and they know it, it's bad for providers, the nurses and the doctors that take care of patients, and they know it. FACT: The health care law includes many provisions that benefit patients, as well as providers. REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN): We discovered that secretly, unbeknownst to members of Congress, over 105 billion dollars was hidden in the Obamacare legislation to fund the implementation of Obamacare. This is something that wasn't known. This money was broken up, hidden in various parts of the bills. FACT: Several sources debunked the claim that there was money "hidden" in the health care law. Check out our fact sheets to learn about the benefits the Affordable Care Act provides to small businesses, seniors,consumers, women and young adults. LINK

Tax credits and rebates.

Ya, right. And I am really a 'handsome man' !! Heck, every gal I have met in LOS tells me so. It must be true !

Hey, before posting erroneous statistics and data, how about actually verifying such? Eh? "FULL QUESTION Dear FactCheck: Can you verify this statement in the article at US News and World Report that the IRS "will need an battalion of 1,054 new auditors and staffers and new facilities at a cost to taxpayers of more than $359 million in fiscal 2012 just to watch over the initial implementation of President Obama’s healthcare reforms." FULL ANSWER The IRS is actually asking for more new workers than reported in an article by U.S. News and World Report — a story that has generated a lot of Internet buzz after being picked up by news outlets, such as Fox News and The Daily Caller. The IRS budget request for fiscal year 2012 shows that the agency is seeking at least 1,269 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) at a cost of $473 million to help implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But many of them are needed to deliver new tax credits, not to dun taxpayers. The agency is seeking to add 291 "revenue agents" — most of them (193) to "ensure accurate delivery of tax credits." The agency’s technology staff would see the biggest increase with the addition of 537 IT program analysts and specialists. Still, Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming mischaracterized the IRS budget request in an interview on Fox News, falsely suggesting that all of the new hires will be auditing taxpayers." LINK

Obamacare – Separating Facts From Myths Confusing doesn’t even begin to describe it. Throughout the very long debate over health care reform, a great deal of misinformation (spurred by presumption or misunderstanding) was circulating. Additionally, many changes and alterations to the proposed law were made along the way. At this point, some of the arguments your friends, neighbors or co-workers continue to debate don’t even factor into the legislation signed by President Obama. So what’s the truth behind the Affordable Health Care for America Act? Q: Will I be forced to change insurance? A: No. That’s a MYTH. If you’re satisfied with your current plan, you can keep it. Q: Will illegal immigrants now be covered by our money? A: No. That’s a MYTH. In fact, undocumented immigrants are expressly excluded from coverage. Only legal immigrants who pay their share will be covered. Q: Will I go to jail or be harassed by the IRS if I don’t have health coverage? A: No. That’s a MYTH. In 2014 Americans (except Native Americans, Inmates or those with religious objections) will be required to have health insurance or pay an annual penalty. True. However, the law prevents the IRS from using levies, liens or seizing property. Additionally, the IRS cannot impose criminal penalties (such as time in jail). Q: I heard there was going to be a 10% tax increase across the board. Is that true? A: No. That is a MYTH. While there will be tax implications, most of the biggest changes apply to medical manufacturers, insurers and pharmaceutical companies. In fact, some Americans may see no changes at all. Tax changes that could affect average individuals include … •A 10% sales tax on indoor tanning (yes, really) •A 0.9% increase on the Medicare tax rate •A 3.8% tax on investment income for individuals earning more than $200,000 and households earning more than $250,000 •Taxes on high-end or “Cadillac†health care plans (this excise tax would not begin until 2018 and only apply to insurers of plans that exceed $10,200 annually for individual coverage, or $27,500 annually for family coverage) Q: Will the government now pay for abortions? A: No. That’s a MYTH. The law already in place which prevents using federal money to fund abortions (except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to a woman’s life) is not being altered. Q: Will I have to pay for other people’s abortions? A: No. That’s a MYTH. Those opposed to abortion will not be forced to assist in funding them. You can simply select a plan that does not offer them. This applies not only to people who may have objections to abortions on moral grounds, but also to those who simply have no reason to pay an extra premium for that type of coverage (such as women past their child bearing years or single men). Q: Does the “Public Option†mean the government will run health care? A: No. That’s a MYTH … and a non-factor at this point. In fact, the “public option†did not make it into the final legislation that President Obama signed. THERE IS NO PUBLIC OPTION. Even before it was dropped from the bill, it was misunderstood to be government-run health care – wherein the government would make your health care decisions. Rather, it would have been government-provided insurance option to compete with private insurance. Q: Will my Medicare benefits be cut in order to extend care to others? A: No. That, too, is a MYTH. Brooks Jackson, director of FactCheck.org, says that although the reform package includes $500 billion in “cutsâ€, it does NOT include traditional Medicare benefit reductions. Q: Does this mean that “death panels†are now a reality? A: No. And they never were. This myth was based on misunderstanding of a provision in the original bill that required payment, by Medicare, for health care practitioner-led end-of-life counseling. This is not part of the law. LINK •Less than $9,500 income = $0 •$9,500 - $37,000 income = $695 •$50,000 income = $1,000 •$75,000 income = $1,600 •$100,000 income = $2,250 •$125,000 income = $2,900 •$150,000 income = $3,500 •$175,000 income = $4,100 •$200,000 income = $4,700 •Over $200,000 = The cost of a "bronze" health-insurance plan No one pays the penalty if they have health insurance.

And . . . If the editor of the WSJ told one of his reporters to write a story stating that 90% of the male punters visiting LOS were preverts and other news media picked up that story and printed it over and over . . . . then the rest of the world might believe it. Not based on any data or facts. But some facts thrown in many would actually believe this as real. Are 90% of the male punters visiting LOS preverts? Heck, I "read" it in the WSJ. It must be true, right? I think most can grasp the point of this fictional WSJ article and comprehend that all that is printed may not be the actual truth.