THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Is Obama Already A Lame Duck?: Although Dems desperately want to make Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-SC) outburst during President Barack Hussein Obama’s Great Oration the story - Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) even equates the breach of protocol to the Sept 11 terror attacks – the real story is that Blue Dog Dems are still on the fence about healthcare “reform,” reports The Boston Globe. Obama was forced to “summon” 16 moderate Dems to the White House for another sales pitch.
The Washington Times reports that Wednesday night’s speech “did little to immediately convert factions in the Democratic party to unify behind a health care overhaul plan Thursday, and his call for an end to ‘bickering’ was met by Republican carping that he failed to reset’ the debate”:
Liberal House lawmakers said they still want to see the president embrace a government-sponsored public insurance option as part of any bill, and centrist Democrats said they remain worried about the price tag. …
[T]he liberal Progressive Caucus, strong proponents of a public option, sought a meeting with the White House to push their case for the controversial proposal, which helped fuel the August town-hall battles and drive down support for the overall effort.
For their part, the bipartisan Gang of Six on the Senate Budget Committee are focusing their efforts on addressing the hot-button issues of abortion, illegal immigrants, and medical malpractice reform in their proposal.
Meanwhile, a new Rasmussun telephone survey of voters conducted immediately after the president’s speech shows that Obama gained a smidge of support amongst Dems, but failed to move Repubs and unaffiliated voters:
46% favor the plan and 51% are opposed. The survey was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The previous two-day sample, conducted Tuesday and Wednesday nights, found that 44% favored the plan while 53% were opposed. …
Eighty percent (80%) of Democrats now support the health care plan, up from 72% in the previous survey results. Support among Republicans declined two points while support among those not affiliated with either major party rose by a single percentage point.
As usual, Obama is all sizzle (the atmospherics of a joint session of Congress) and no steak (lofty rhetoric to say nothing new or important) and this will ultimately prove his undoing. Already, Dems are bracing for losses in the 2010 mid-term elections that rival those of Repubs in 2006, reports The Washington Times:
"A lot of recent polling on individual Senate races has suggested Democrats might be in trouble next year, and these numbers show that to be more broadly true," said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, which this month found that just 36 percent of Democrats are happy with the job their party is doing in Congress. …
"Things can change over the next year, but it wouldn't be surprising for House Democrats to lose 40 to 50 seats," said Tony Fratto, former deputy press secretary for Mr. Bush. …
That Democrats are beginning to talk openly about dropping seats in the midterms is a far cry from 10 months ago, when the party swept into the White House and built huge majorities in Congress, including a filibuster-proof edge in the Senate. Since that day, however, wary independents have been watching every move Mr. Obama makes, and many are beginning to have buyer's remorse.
In a variation on James Carville’s famous aphorism, the American people are telling
† All Stressed Out: A report by the Congressional Oversight Panel, which is overseeing the bailout programs, concludes that the federal government is unlikely to recover a significant portion of the billions of dollars poured into General Motors and Chrysler, reports The Washington Post:
The report said that a $5.4 billion portion of the $10.5 billion owed by Chrysler is "highly unlikely" to be repaid, while full recovery of the $50 billion sunk into GM would require the company's stock to reach unprecedented heights. …
The report also recommended that the Treasury Department act with more transparency and provide a legal analysis justifying the use of financial rescue funds for the automakers. The report was prepared by the Congressional Oversight Panel, which is overseeing the federal bailout programs.
In all, the government has invested $74 billion in the nation's auto industry, including $12.5 billion into auto financing giant GMAC and $3.5 billion into auto suppliers.
† Employers Hiring Forged Documented Aliens Are Lawbreakers In Other Ways, Too: Federal contractors are now required to use E-Verify to check immigration and citizenship status of workers hired or assigned to service new federal contracts lasting four or more months and worth at least $100K, reports The Associated Press:
Contractors have 30 days from the date a contract is awarded to enroll in E-Verify, and 90 days to start submitting information on new hires and certain current workers. Contractors have the option of checking their entire work force, once they notify the government of their intent to do so. They also will be responsible for requiring subcontractors to use E-Verify.
As the rule takes effect and more workers' information goes through the system, there is likely to be a spike in the number of workers who are not confirmed as permitted to work in the
Employers already use a paper application, known as I-9, to check workers' legal status. E-Verify is a Web-based system that cross-checks names and other information against Homeland Security Department and Social Security Administration databases.
E-Verify is intended to help find people who are in the country illegally, and those who are legally present but not authorized to work, such as students.
† One Man’s Meat Is Another Man’s Poison (second item): As disposable income shrinks, fewer people are throwing their money away at casinos, reports The New York Times:
Casinos and lotteries in most states are reporting a downturn in revenue for the first time, resulting in a drop in the money collected by state and local governments, according to new state data.
The decline comes as states are rapidly expanding gambling in hopes of stemming severe budget shortfalls, and it indicates that gambling is not insulated from broader economic forces like recessions, as has been argued in the past. ...
In hopes of enticing more gamblers,
Leaving aside the fact that encouraging drinking and smoking is counterproductive at a time when taxpayers are up in arms at the thought of being forced to subsidize health care coverage for millions of uninsured people, the gaming industry can’t decide whether there are too few gamblers to support the plethora of casinos and gambling options available, or whether business will pick up again once the economy improves. Maybe they should toss a coin.
† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, Why Middle Class Americans Can’t Afford Health Insurance: Part II): In an effort to build support for what he hoped would be the signature accomplishment of his term in office, President Barack Hussein Obama has recast healthcare “reform” as health insurance “reform.” The tactic work, reports The Washington Post, because “[t]ales of cancellations have fueled outrage among regulators, analysts, doctors and, not least, plaintiffs' lawyers, who describe insurers as too eager to shed patients to widen profits”:
Rescission - the technical term for canceling coverage on grounds that the company was misled - is often considered among the most offensive practices in an insurance industry that already suffers from a distinct lack of popularity among the American public. …
Those sentiments have become central to the health-care debate, as President Obama tries to tap into dissatisfaction with the insurance industry to build support for reform efforts. Each of the bills pending in Congress would prevent insurers from rejecting clients because of preexisting conditions.
No one claims to know how often policies are canceled - in large part, congressional investigators say, because insurance companies are regulated by a patchwork of state laws and policies. But the practice is common enough to spur lawsuits and state regulatory action. …
"These cases are very, very good in front of a jury," said Bill Shernoff, whose
Insurance company officials argue that rescission enables them to control fraud, which adds an estimated $100 billion annually to their costs.
† Updates To Previous Posts (sixth item, A Court Of Law, Not Of Justice): The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a federal grand jury handed down a 48-count indictment against former Luzerne County judges Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., reports The Legal Intelligencer:
The indictment charges Conahan and Ciavarella with fraud, money laundering, extortion, bribery and federal tax violations while alleging they received "millions of dollars in illegal payments," according to Dennis C. Pfannenschmidt, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Each charge is related to the judges' ties to two juvenile detention facilities: PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care.
The indictment also seeks forfeiture of more than $2.8 million - an amount the government alleges were proceeds from the judges' criminal activity. That amount is slightly higher than the $2.6 million the judges originally admitted to accepting in their conditional plea agreements.
No more Mr. nice guy from the general public, who must demand that E-Verify becomes a stable, in-perpetuity federal immigration enforcement tool for everybody? No half-measure, but full implementation across the country. For new workers and those who have been payroll forever. Why has it taken so long to coordinate this computer illegal immigrant recognition software? The answer is evidently politicians who have been manipulated by campaign money, special favors from lobbyists. They are like a Monarchy buying and selling favors for distracting the unknowing public from strong enforcement, from the border line and enforcement in the working locations throughout our nation. Significant pieces of law have been reduced to weakened, insufficient laws that do nothing for the American people. The stimulus package was compromised, with no terminology to reduce illegal workers from applying for jobs in construction and other industries.
To me this is premeditated and likewise with public access to health care, because there was no restrictions to identify illegal immigrants in the package. Until yesterday the Democratic committee members realize they had been discovered and added amendments blocking illegal persons from applying, by running their names through Social Security. It's common knowledge that illegal immigrants receive free treatment in emergency hospitals, which have for decades have been exploited for any minor ailments. The main conspirators within the Democratic leadership are Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada and Nancy Pelosi House Speaker. Both represent states of mass illegal immigration. Reid for his abandonment of the American worker may soon be ousted from office? He was the main contender in the near disintegration of E-Verify. On one hand Democrats saliva over millions of extra votes if another Blanket Amnesty is enacted, while the alternate party status quo are wanting to keep an unceasing supply of illegal labor.
Running scared Pelosi and Napolitano have changed sides and displaying a different attitude towards the millions of jobless Americans, whose work has been appropriated by foreign labor. In many cases large companies have clearly knowingly hired cheap labor, in placement of citizens and legal residents. In ICE raids its positive proof that mega- businesses built their labor force on foreign nationals? Yet the majority of companies isolated themselves from major penalties and only the lesser management was punished. E-verify would have remained non-existent if it was not for the adamant pressure of bloggers comments and articles on the internet that enlivened public attention.
Believe me when I say the bombardment of American voices over the switchboards in a harassed Washington, made a extraordinary difference? THEY ACTUALLY LISTENED and the Special interest organizations couldn't even delay the courts, in ordering the en-masse contractors and sub-contractors from obeying federal law. Years of neglect by previous administrati
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