Boots on the Ground

WEBER: Obamacare cuts home healthcare for millions of seniors

President Obama’s mendacious political promise, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” continues to cast a long and disturbing shadow of doubt and confusion over millions of Americans who have lost coverage as a result of Obamacare. As 2014 unfolds, the most vulnerable senior citizens — those who receive home health care services — are about to learn they are out of luck. Obamacare opens a trap door under them, leaving this elderly population in freefall — with many citizens losing access to home health care.
Add another compelling reason to reverse Obamacare. Whether by accident or intention, the “Affordable Care Act” empirically strips America’s oldest and poorest cohort, all part of the World War II generation, of this basic coverage. Here is how.
On Jan. 1, Medicare’s home health care services, formerly serving 3.5 million elderly beneficiaries across the country, were cut under Obamacare. The cut deleted exactly 14 percent, or an estimated $22 billion, from these lowest-income Americans over four years. News of the forthcoming cut only trickled out the Friday before Thanksgiving, yet another stunning attempt by the Obama White House to reduce Medicare benefits without attracting notice.
Guess what? We noticed. This cut does irreparable damage to recipients of Medicare’s home health care services, those who are aged, homebound and sicker than the average Medicare population. Indeed, nearly two-thirds of Medicare home health care users live at or below the federal poverty level, meaning they are the most economically compromised of America’s precious senior citizens.

IRS Scandal Continues: An IRS Employee Urged People to Reelect Obama

The latest news from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) about illegal political activities at the IRS will certainly not help the administration’s (and Representative Elijah Cummings’) current narrative that there is not a “smidgen of corruption” at the IRS.
OSC is an independent agency that investigates violations of the civil service rules that govern federal employees and the federal statute that protects whistleblowers, as well as violations by federal employees of the Hatch Act, which restricts the political activity of civil servants. One of those rules is an absolute prohibition on partisan political speech and activity in the federal workplace.
On April 9, OSC announced that it was seeking “significant disciplinary action” against an IRS customer-service representative who fielded taxpayer questions on the IRS customer-service helpline. Apparently, the IRS employee “urged taxpayers to reelect President Obama in 2012 by repeatedly reciting a chant based on the spelling of his last name.” OSC did not indicate what the “chant” was, and a spokesman for OCS told me he could not reveal the chant because of privacy rules, since it spelled out the employee’s name.
Another tax specialist in the Kentucky office of the IRS was given a 14-day suspension for telling a taxpayer she was “for” the Democrats because “Republicans already [sic] trying to cap my pension and…they’re going to take women back 40 years.” The tax specialist added that her mother told her that “if you vote for a Republican, the rich are going to get richer and the poor are going to get poorer.”

Alberta company charged with illegally exporting goods to Iran

CALGARY-  A Red Deer company has been charged with illegally shipping O-rings to Iran after an investigation by RCMP and the Canada Border Service Agency.
The Viton O-rings were seized at the Calgary International Airport in May, 2011, from a cargo shipment headed to Iran.
The rings are prohibited under the Special Economic Measures Act because they can be used in nuclear applications.
This is the first time charges have ever been laid under the act in Canada.

The company charged is Lee Specialties of Red Deer. Representatives of the company were scheduled to appear in court in Calgary on Monday.
“CBSA officers are not only the first line of defense for goods coming into Canada, but they are also the final eye to ensure goods leaving the country are being lawfully exported,” said Lauren Delgaty, regional director for the CBSA’s prairie region. “This seizure prevented these items, which can be used in nuclear applications, from landing in the wrong hands.”
Viton is a brand of synthetic rubber commonly used in O-rings. It has a high resistance to both heat and chemical exposure.
The O-rings are commonly used in the oilfield and nuclear industries.
Lee Specialties manufactures pressure control and wireline equipment.

Carter guesses that Israel stockpiled over 300 nuclear bombs

The worst former U.S. president advises Obama should not attack Iran even if Teheran successfully deceives the world and does develop a nuclear bomb.

The United States should not attack Iran, even if Iran develops nuclear weapons, former U.S. President  said.

In a recent interview with MSNBC, Carter not only declared his absolute opposition to any attack on Iran, he also said that Israel had a stock of nuclear weapons of its own.

“Israel has, what, 300 or more, nobody knows exactly how many,” Carter said. “And I know that every Iranian realizes that if they should try to use a nuclear weapon, Iran would be wiped off the face of the earth, which I think is so ridiculous, a self-destructive decision, that they would not do it.”

Carter expressed doubt about Israel’s ability to attack Iran.

“I never have felt that Israel had a capability militarily to go 1,200 miles or more and bomb Iran effectively and then return back to Israel,” he said.

“The only country on earth that has that capability would be the United States, and I don’t believe it’s appropriate for the United States to bomb Iran over this issue.”

Carter, who ushered in the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, addressed the current diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians and criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel be recognized as a Jewish state.

“I don’t think that any Arab country can agree to that. And this is something, as you know, that’s been resurrected [by] Netanyahu. This never was an issue when I was in office and trying to negotiate peace,” he said.

Carter praised U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, saying he believed Kerry had “done a heroic job” trying to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

However, it appeared that Carter had his doubts about President Barack Obama’s relatively small role in the peace process, saying that Kerry needed “more overt help overt from the White House.”

“I don’t think we’ll have ever a peace agreement there unless the president of the United States is the leading character in mediating between the two,” Carter said.

Obama Proposed 442 Tax Hikes Since Taking Office

President Barack Obama has proposed 442 tax hikes since taking office in 2009, according to an Americans for Tax Reform analysis.
Those 442 proposed taxes do not include 20 tax increases that became law when Obama signed the Affordable Care Act. It also does not include the tobacco tax hike Obama signed in 2009.
“History tells us what Obama was able to do. This list reminds us of what Obama wanted to do,” said ATR president Grover Norquist.
Obama proposed the taxes in his budgets for fiscal years 2010 through 2015.
ATR notes that the lowest proposed tax increases were included in the budgt released during an election year.

Hillary Clinton ‘All But Erased” from Benghazi

Hillary Clinton has been “all but erased” from reports and documents of what happened in Benghazi, with multiple inquiries into her role in the incident hitting dead ends, according to the Washington Times.

Over the past 18 months, there have been at least seven public congressional hearings and three fact-finding reports on the terrorist attack. If not invisible, Mrs. Clinton is certainly portrayed as being only in the background during Benghazi, unaware of key events. [...]
On key questions, there is a dead end. For example, the nation’s two most senior military officials said they never spoke with Mrs. Clinton during the eight-hour crisis in Benghazi, Libya.
The State Department refused to cooperate for a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence investigation, Republicans say, and her name is not in the final report.
Mrs. Clinton testified that she was never informed about how susceptible the Benghazi diplomatic mission was to attack or about requests for more security officers. On the infamous Benghazi talking points, that process was carried out below her level, she said.

CBO Issues Dire Debt Warning of 'Fiscal Crisis' 

New figures by the Congressional Budget Office released on Monday reveal that over the next 10 years the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio will double to 78%.

Over the last four decades America's average debt-to-GDP ratio was 39%. At the end of 2007, federal debt was just 35% of GDP. 
The CBO report says gross federal debt will soar from $17.7 trillion to $27 trillion over the next ten years. 
CBO warned of the dire consequences the nation's debt will have if gone unchecked. 
"Such high and rising debt would have serious negative consequences," says the report. "Federal spending on interest payments would increase considerably when interest rates rose to more typical levels. Moreover, because federal borrowing would eventually raise the cost of investment by businesses and other entities, the capital stock would be smaller, and productivity and wages lower, than if federal borrowing was more limited." 
The report added: "Finally, high debt increases the risk of a fiscal crisis in which investors would lose so much confidence in the government's ability to manage its budge that the government would be unable to borrow at affordable rates."

Union warns House Democrats of retaliation for opposing Keystone XL

One of the nation's leading building trades unions is stepping up pressure on House Democrats who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline, calling on union members in 27 congressional districts to punish their representative in the midterm election.
A letter distributed by the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) to the 27 districts calls for union members to make sure their representative "feels the power and the fury of LIUNA this November," The Hill reported.
"Your member of Congress is trying to destroy job opportunities for our LIUNA brothers and sisters," read the letter signed by Terry O'Sullivan, the general president of LIUNA, and obtained by The Hill on Friday. 
"For every action, there is a reaction, and our reaction to this frontal assault on our way of life needs to be loud and clear. If you do not stand with us, we sure as hell will not stand with you," O'Sullivan wrote, citing the jobs Keystone would create.
The House members being targeted by the union include Reps. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J.; Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.; Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz.; and Tim Ryan, D-Ohio. All of the representatives signed a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry in March urging him to reject the pipeline.
The letter to union members asks them to remember that "unemployed construction workers desperately need the work" generated by Keystone XL, calling it a "lifeline" for thousands of members, according to The Hill. 
LIUNA said it supports reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but not at the cost of jobs, according to the report. 
"The livelihoods of LIUNA members are too important for our union to continue ignoring the actions of supposed ‘friends’ who stand in the way of jobs that enable our proud members to provide for themselves and their families," read a letter to Rep. Jan Schakowksy, D-Ill.
The Republican-controlled House has voted several times to approve the $5.4 billion pipeline, which has support from a majority of senators.

Wisconsin Republicans To Vote On Secession

Wisconsin Republicans will vote next month on whether they support allowing the state to secede from the United States of America.
Last month, one of the Republican caucuses in the state passed a resolution asserting the state's right to secede.
According to Daniel Bice at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, many top officials had hoped that resolution would be killed at the party's Resolutions Committee meeting on April 5. Instead, the committee adopted it, meaning it will now get an up-or-down vote at the Wisconsin GOP convention, which is taking place in Milwaukee May 2-4.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) distanced himself from the resolution last week, telling reporters, "I don't think that one aligns with where most Republican officials are in the state of Wisconsin -- certainly not with me."
Last week, Joe Fadness, executive director of the state Republican Party, also told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the state party does not support secession.
Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress noted the strange turn the conservative movement has taken with these calls for secession, with "no shortage of irony to the Party of Lincoln now morphing into the Party of Secession."
A 2012 HuffPost/YouGov poll found that the majority of Americans don't want their state to cut ties with the rest of the country.

Obama’s Treasonous Hand In Rancher Standoff

A lot of versions are currently circulating the web as to why the government remained so adamant on confiscating “trespasser cows,” in an effort to save a tortoise.  As we all know, the government isn’t too good with coming up with excuses (reference Benghazi/Islamic video instance),  but according to a shocking new report, the standoff with rancher Cliven Bundy may have gone all the way to the White House.
Like all things, it appears as if the issue boiled down to money as Obama, and his gang of hoodlums – including “Dirty Harry” Reid – stand to lose quite a bit if they can’t get Bundy’s cows off government land.  Now, we already know that corruption runs deep when it comes to just about any politician, but this corruption specifically teeters on the brink of treason.


Although many are unaware, the government has been scooping up land at an unprecedented rate.  Of course, they will tell you something along the lines of preservation, whether land or species, need to be ensured and since we irresponsible citizens just can’t guarantee any such result, the government takes it upon themselves to do so

Former Arizona Sheriff Reveals Chilling Strategy to Put Women ‘Up at the Front’ During Bundy Ranch Standoff

Former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack revealed on Monday that he and other organizers who traveled to Clark County, Nev., to support Cliven Bundy during his land dispute with the feds planned to put women on the front lines in case the “rogue federal officers” started shooting.
Mack made the chilling revelation on Fox News’ “The Real Story” Monday, two days after the tense standoff between Bundy and the federal government came to a peaceful end.
“We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front,” he said. “If they are going to start shooting, it’s going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers.

Why The Feds Chickened Out On A Nevada Ranch

Let me obliterate a bit of confusion here: the Obama administration attempted to go to war with a rancher in Nevada. Let me amplify a little bit of truth: They tucked tail and have returned home. And let me add a bit of clarity: they had no choice!
As the nation began to become familiar with the plight of the family of Cliven Bundy, many of us harkened back to another standoff in which the Federal government attempted to bully its outcome: Waco, Texas and the Branch Davidian massacre.
It is telling that in the Nevada case the feds pulled out so quickly, given all they had indicated they were willing to do to resolve the matter to their satisfaction. They had set up a perimeter around the Bundy's family land, ranch, and home. They had brought in extra artillery, dogs, and snipers. They were beginning the process of stealing more than 300 head of cattle that did not belong to them.
They did so--or so we were told--for the reason of protecting the desert tortoise. But then it was revealed that the Bureau of Land Management had shot far more desert tortoises than the Bundy cattle had even possibly destroyed. We were told they did it because the Bundys had broken federal laws by not paying what amounted to retroactive grazing fees to the federal government. But the Governor of the state of Nevada told us that Bundy had paid every ounce of state tax, met the state requirements, and their family had been improving the property more than 100 years previous.
Finally we were allowed to know the connection between a communist Chinese wind/solar power plant and its connection to that senator named Harry Reid. Evidently a plan had been hatched to use the Bundy property for a solar farm and instead of paying the Bundys, someone, somewhere in the administration believed it was easier to just take what they wanted.
That approach is at least consistent with the readily documented abuse of eminent domain where the government for any number of reasons--few of them valid--have taken to taking what doesn't belong to them. Americans then watch as it gets handed over to some multi-national corporation for the "cause" of the "greater good."
There were a few specific reasons why the feds chickened out in the Nevada desert though.
1. Technology - As the Bundy family members were abused, cameras captured it. Not television network cameras, but dozens of cell phone video devices that gave witness to a Bundy aunt being shoved to the ground, and a Bundy son being tazed. All of this while threatening protestors with dogs, brandished weapons and vehicles was captured, uploaded and made viral to the watching world.

Sources Inside The BLM and Las Vegas Metro Say Feds Are Planning A Raid On Bundy Home

Bunkerville, NEVADA, April 14, 2014– As reported yesterday, hundreds of federal agents are still at the Bundy Ranch and the area continues its status as a no-fly zone. Despite major media reports that the Nevada Bureau of Land Management is retreating, the remaining activity that still surrounds the ranch illustrates a different scenario.
Not only is the BLM not actually backing off of Cliven Bundy, Sheriff Richard Mack of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association has revealed stunning information: on Ben Swann’s radio program, Mack said that he has received intelligence from multiple, credible sources inside the BLM and the Las Vegas Metro that there is “no question” that the federal government is planning a raid on the Bundy home and the homes of their children who live on the property.
According to Mack, the so-called retreat was nothing more than theatrics. “It was a ploy to get people to back off, to get people out of the way. They weren’t expecting us to get this amount of people here. They were surprised by the numbers and so they wanted a way to get us out of here. This was a ploy to get us out of here and then they’re going after the Bundys.”  Mack said that when he was at the Bundy ranch on Saturday there were an estimated 600 to 800 protesters present when federal agents were releasing the cattle.

“If they do that kind of raid, I don’t believe there’s any way that could happen without bloodshed,” Mack told Swann.

Mack spoke about the tactic that protesters used by putting women at the front of the line facing the federal agents to make them think carefully before opening fire.

“I would’ve gone next. I would’ve been the next one to be killed. I’m not afraid to die here. I’m willing to die here,” said Mack.

Mack said that he had been told by Bundy that the federal government is actively shutting down the ranching industry, specifically in Clark County. He also revealed that there used to be 53 ranches in Clark County. All of those ranchers have been put out of business, except for Bundy who is still trying to hold on. “Every American should be outraged by it,”  said Mack. The ranch has been in Bundy’s family since 1877.
Mack decried Nevada governor Brian Sandoval for declaring this situation unconstutional while doing nothing to stop it. “He could have called in the state’s national guard, could have called in the sheriff’s office, could have called in highway patrol, and he’s done nothing except assail what’s going on. That’s easy, that’s cowardly.”