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corniss chopper
climber
breaking the speed of gravity
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May 17, 2011 - 01:22am PT
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You Liberals are certainly squirming. How irritating is it to have Obama turn into the Drill Baby Drill President overnight?
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apogee
climber
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May 17, 2011 - 01:25am PT
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Overnight? cchopper, you are still blind on GOP koolaid.
Let's get back to your party's future...ready to vote for Romney?
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corniss chopper
climber
breaking the speed of gravity
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May 17, 2011 - 01:39am PT
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Guess who Obama will issue a pardon for next?
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apogee
climber
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May 17, 2011 - 01:45am PT
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cchopper, why do you think that Huckabee has bailed? Or that the GOP candidates have been sooooo late in committing?
It's because they know goddam well that their allegiance with the extreme teabagging Right has painted the entire GOP into a deep, dark corner from which there is no return.
Your party is fecked, cchopper. Get ready for 4 more years of a black president, followed by a woman.
Armageddon!
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apogee
climber
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May 17, 2011 - 02:01am PT
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'Deep trouble'? I suppose that's all relative, DT. Your teabagging party is fecked to the gills... the frontrunners are a Mormon from Massachussets, and a Speaker who has flip-flopped on his wives and the key issue of the day, healthcare reform.
The GOP will be gutted and bled like a Taliban goat.
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corniss chopper
climber
breaking the speed of gravity
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May 17, 2011 - 02:03am PT
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Republicans take the Senate with a filibuster proof majority 2012
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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May 17, 2011 - 02:04am PT
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Funny you should mention sacrificial goats - aren't the Republicans trying to find one?
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apogee
climber
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May 17, 2011 - 02:10am PT
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I know, cchopper, it's hard to come to grips with the fact that The Donald won't be coming to your rescue- honestly, I'm quite saddened at the reality that he won't be in the race, either.
But, seriously...I ask you....(and DT, or any of the rest of you Repubs)...who is going to be your savior in 2012???
Granted, all the choices suck- I'm not particularly psyched on my choices, either (though in comparison to the GOP thusfar, the choice is blindingly clear).
No matter how many stooooopid cartoons you post, you are going to have to choose a GOP candidate...who's it going to be, loser?
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apogee
climber
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May 17, 2011 - 02:28am PT
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cchopper, can you tell us all where this picture was taken?
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apogee
climber
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May 17, 2011 - 02:58am PT
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How about you, Skip?
Which of the GOP losers are you going to choose to lose to Obama in 2012?
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apogee
climber
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May 17, 2011 - 03:04am PT
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No Palin.
No Trump.
No Huckabee.
Who's left, then? (Or 'right'?)
A mormon from Mass.?
A philandering ex-House Speaker who supports 'Individual Mandate'?
The GOP should cut it's losses and concede 2012 here and now.
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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May 17, 2011 - 03:33am PT
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One of the things that those who support the conservative viewpoint consistantly ignore, is that US society creates a network that ALLOWS the rich to make their killings.
Enforcement of copywrite and patent law.
Enforcement of professional licenses.
Enforcement of property rights.
All paid for by the *gov't*
Most court action is over business issues.
Generally, there is no corruption. (there are exceptions, but they are that)
Court systems for debts.
Those who create wealth are buttressed by a huge system that stands behind them and supports them. Even if they don't often use it, the mere existence prevents many problems they'd encounter in many other countries.
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nature
climber
Railay, Thailand
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May 17, 2011 - 05:08am PT
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So... The Donald pulled out. Huckabee isn't running. bwaaahahahaaaaaa.....
maybe the fattrad/palin ticket will be reality.
The Newt?
repeat after me....
FOUR MORE YEARS!
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bookworm
Social climber
Falls Church, VA
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May 17, 2011 - 09:13am PT
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oh, the irony:
“The reason the unemployment rate is still as high as it is, in part, is because there have been huge layoffs of government workers at the federal level, at the state level, at the local level,” he said. “Teachers, police officers, firefighters, social workers– they have really taken it in the chin over the last several months. And so, what we’re trying to do is to see if we can stabilize the budget.”
explanation: these government jobs were precisely the jobs barry claimed were "saved or created" by his porkulus bill
if my students paid any attention to politics, i could have daily lessons on irony...maybe i'll write a book: "obama: four years of daily irony lessons"
by the way, here are the stats:
June 2007: 22,176,000.
January 2009: 22,471,000.
January 2010: 22,376,000.
April 2011: 22,594,000 (preliminary).
Using seasonal adjustments, it’s only slightly different:
June 2007: 22,218,000.
January 2009: 22,582,000.
January 2010: 22,488,000.
April 2011: 22,166,000 (preliminary).
we have 12.3 million unemployed; gov workers amount to only 2.4%, which amounts to fewer people than the average WEEKLY jobless claims
one concession, i don't blame barry for all of these "mistatements" but, rather, his crack team of researchers
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bookworm
Social climber
Falls Church, VA
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May 17, 2011 - 10:16am PT
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obamacare: the gift that keeps on giving...to those with connections
"Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers."
most waivers have gone to labor union chapters, large corporations, financial firms and local governments...so who's getting the waivers in san francisco?
Boboquivari’s, where they can charge you $60 for a steak but apparently can't pay obamacare's prices for employee health care
Café Mason, where entrees are $60, which apparently doesn't make enough profit to pay obamacare's prices for employee health care
Tru Spa, called the "best salon in san francisco", but apparently it isn't good enough to afford obamacare's prices for employee health care
in nancy's defense, she openly bragged, er...admitted, "we won't know what's in this bill until we pass it"
now that you know, are you happy? hopenchange
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nature
climber
Railay, Thailand
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May 17, 2011 - 10:27am PT
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c'mon bookworm.... repeat after me....
FOUR MORE YEARS!
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Norton
Social climber
the Wastelands
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May 17, 2011 - 10:35am PT
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what a dumb fuk, same as all the others
continually factually challenged
Nanny State big government employee
registers a "hate" vote on the very day the Pope closes in on Sainthood
Oh, the IRONY of ignorant hypocrisy.
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nature
climber
Railay, Thailand
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May 17, 2011 - 10:48am PT
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O'Reilly got p0wned!
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bookworm
Social climber
Falls Church, VA
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May 17, 2011 - 11:26am PT
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obamacare: how to make the perfect law for those in power: In at least 700 separate instances, the legislation says that the secretary of health and human services “shall have discretion” to make rules implementing the law’s often vague requirements.
May 17, 2011 12:00 A.M.
Waivers as Weapons
Under Obamacare, we have a government of men, not of laws.
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plea that Congress would have to pass the 906-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to “find out what’s in it” has become an instant classic in the annals of dysfunctional government. But in the months since the bill’s passage, as the Department of Health and Human Services has parceled out waivers, something else has become clear: We may never know what’s in it.
It’s not because the legislation is so long or so complicated — though it is staggeringly prolix and stupefying in complexity. If it were only that, time would reveal the intricacies and experts would parse the meaning. No, the reason we may never really know what’s in it is because it lodges such tremendous discretion and power in the Department of Health and Human Services that we can never really be sure how government decision makers will interpret it. In at least 700 separate instances, the legislation says that the secretary of health and human services “shall have discretion” to make rules implementing the law’s often vague requirements.
On May 13, the Obama administration announced the approval of 204 new waivers from compliance with the PPACA. That brings to 1,372 the number of waivers HHS has granted in the 14 months since the law’s passage. The waivers are temporary, designed to prevent wholesale bankruptcies of insurance and other companies before most of the law’s provisions take full effect in 2014. “We are committed to making the waiver process transparent to the public,” an HHS spokesman offered reassuringly. But while the identities of those who have received waivers have been disclosed, the administration has so far declined to reveal the names of those whose waiver requests were denied. Nor has HHS explained its criteria.
There are rumblings of suspicion that HHS has shown favoritism — labor unions have received some 26 percent of waivers while constituting only 12 percent of workers. As Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, remarked, “What does it say about the feasibility of the health-care law when the administration needs to exempt over 1,000 health plans from its own law?”
A few wags have suggested that the HHS grant the rest of the country a waiver and be done with it. But the implications of what Prof. Richard Epstein has called “government by waiver” aren’t funny. As Congress has ceded more and more power to regulatory agencies, the opportunities for abuse of power multiply. Writing in National Affairs, Epstein notes that among the companies and entities that successfully sought waivers from Obamacare’s provisions were Pepsico, Foot Locker, the Pew Charitable Trusts, many local chapters of the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers union, and numerous public-employee unions.
But, asks Epstein, “what about employers who do not have the resources to navigate the waiver process? What about those lacking the political connections to make their concerns heard in Washington? And what happens when the one-year waivers run out? Will they be renewed? Under what conditions? And what rights will insurers have to waive then in order to avoid going out of business?”
The world of Obamacare is no place for the little guy.
The danger of waiver power is that it will be used differentially, giving one private entity a competitive advantage over another. The company denied a waiver can bring suit — but litigation is expensive and slow. Additionally, companies may fear government retaliation: “It is no accident that it is often public-interest groups or patient groups that take on the FDA, for instance. It is simply too risky for a pharmaceutical company with multiple applications before the agency to challenge one action if it is vulnerable to a government-induced slowdown on another.” Nor have the courts been particularly solicitous of those who challenge the regulatory state. Epstein observes with regret that “most judges evince great faith in the administrative state, so that the abuse of discretion that lies at the heart of the waiver problem is, to them, a matter best sorted out by administrative expertise — a perpetually overestimated pool of wisdom.”
Because there are so few avenues of recourse when we live under a government by waiver, we are forced, as Epstein warns, to trust in the good judgment of bureaucrats and elected officials. “The fate of our rights and liberties is left to the wisdom and discretion of individuals; we are therefore governed by men, not by laws.”
In Marbury v. Madison, Justice Marshall wrote: “The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right.” It will also cease to deserve that “high appellation” if we submit to the unreviewable discretion of agencies.
— Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist. © 2011 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
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nature
climber
Railay, Thailand
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May 17, 2011 - 11:47am PT
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c'mon worm! repeat after me....
FOUR MORE YEARS!!!! YIPPEEE!!!!!111169
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