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(Courtesy of Delaware Liberal’s Hot & On Top Reporting)
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that 5,600 Delaware residents will benefit from $1.8 million in rebates from insurance companies this summer, because of the Affordable Care Act’s 80/20 rule. These rebates will average $351 for the 5,300 Delaware families covered by a policy.
Obamacare is working! Obamacare is saving people money. They were at the mercy of insurance companies before. Now, they have $1.8 million in their pocket.
It is not because of Republicans!.. They are the ones taking money out of your pocket, handing it to the insurance companies, and saying “don’t forget about that campaign contribution in October.”
No one can trust Republicans unless you are making more then 10 million a year. No one.
So when they say the first thing they want to do in January is repeal Obamacare, and now you can see why.
That want insurance campaign contributions… and that is all. They don’t give a fuck about you.
Only Democrats can right the wrongs… Do what you know you must. Swear on a stack of Bibles, never, never, never, never vote for a squirmy, sluggish, beetle-infested, putrid, maggotty, caterpillerish, centipedific, millipederishes, multi-lensed eyeballed, appendage ringed mouthed, stinger-embedded, infectious bacterial infested, food coveting, ooze secreting, spontaneously defecating insect who swears allegiance to the Republican Party….
Spray them with insecticide instead…..
(Wow, what a great demo idea for the Republican National Convention……)
Sometimes after reading truth like this, you just want to walk into a room of thronging with roaches, pretend they’re Republicans and squish them each and every one ………
It sits between two giants… Iran and India. One is Shiite, the other Hindu… both hostile.
Currently this region is the current global hot seat. Some due because of Navy Seal Team 6, the rest due to Iran’s nukes.
However, as often happens when people get angry over a disturbance and hostile words begin to flow, if a member of the correct authority shows up, order is quickly re-established and no violence breaks out. On the other hand, if there is no authority intervening, words pile on words to create hostile feelings, and sooner or later, a physical threat provokes a defensive reaction and boom, a fight breaks out….
The US is the authority that can choose to make the difference.
A couple of things to note. Iran is rattling sabers rather loosely which means they are more worried over consequences within their country, than outside their country… If reading the Shiite tea leaves correctly, there is strong internal pressure within Iran to go tough against the outside.
The pressure is so strong, that Iran leadership seems to be flailing, … signing off on anything that could make it look like leadership was standing up for themselves and not being whooped on by the global community.
There is little Iran can do…
Here is what they’ve tried.
Three bombings. India, Georgia, and Thailand, aimed at Israel diplomats.
Boasting over a very difficult to believe breakthrough of their new technology. Such boasting is rather similar to those of Kim Jong-il….
Pre-empting the EU’s future cutoff, Iran cut off oil sales to 6 countries there.
But these threats seemed calculated for Iran’s domestic consumption. All three bombings were totally bungled, (perhaps by design). The countries cut off of oil, already had a ban in place of not buying any new Iranian oil since last month, and no oil is to be accepted by the EU after July 1st…. And the videos showing Mr. Ahmadinejad loading his new super de- duper nuclear fuel rods without radiation protection, strain belief…. (yeah right they were real)….
Elections are being held March 2nd and there are some serious domestic problems in Iran that warrant the distraction these foreign adventures cause.
In it’s own backyard, regional influence is running away from Iran. Perhaps it’s support for Syria has something to do with that. When the Assad regime fails, Iran will lose it’s supply line to the Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
No longer afraid of Iran, Saudi Arabia announced it would fill Iran’s vacuum with their oil. Even after Tehran called the Saudi move a hostile act, Saudi did not back down, but stuck to its guns in defiance of Iran.
Iran cannot do business with or obtain credit from any reputable international bank, nor can it easily insure its ships or find energy investors…
In the last six weeks, the Iranian rial has declined dramatically against the dollar, adding to the economic woes Iran is now confronting. This stems from America’s penalties on Iran’s Central Bank and on those dealing with it…..
Grain is sitting on ships that won’t unload their cargoes in Iranian ports because suppliers haven’t been paid.
Iranian oil is being stored on tankers as Iran’s buyers demand discounts to purchase it..
Those buying Iran’s oil, are not paying dollars. India is buying oil with rupees and barter, which means Iran might be receiving Indian goods it does not want or need….
All this with elections due in 16 days……
The Iranian problem is creating distance between the West and India. India has refuse to follow the West’s sanctions on Iran’s oil. That is understandable. When you exist in a land where your closest neighbors hate your friend, sometimes what is in your own best interest, is to put a little distance between you and your friend…. That is all India is doing. I mean even we would do that if we found ourselves in that same position…
And between these two I’s, lies Pakistan. A nation rebuffed that it’s ally didn’t confer and trust them and entered and captured Osama Bin Laden on their own. It appears Pakistan has gotten over that.
It is in the process of opening itself to India, creating another reason India would not want to appear too open to the West’s suggestion. Today three agreements on customs cooperation, mutual recognition and redressal of trade grievances were signed between India and Pakistan.
Pakistan is expected to add India to its most-favored status list, as India drops Pakistan from its own Negative List. In a huge trade agreement, Pakastani products will be open to market of 1.2 billion people. Both of India’s central banks have plans to open bank branches in Pakistan, and energy agreements that supply electricity to Pakistan and petroleum to India, are on the boards to be filled out and signed….
In the middle of all this, Afghanistan’s leader Karzai is visiting Pakistan to shore up relations. Sidelined by the US in its talks with the Taliban in Qatar, Karzai will attempt to shore up support in case a coalition government with the Taliban is forthcoming.
Soon a meeting will take place between Karzai, Pakistan, and the Iranian President, just two weeks before his election in which it is expected to create a joint communique demanding that the Taliban come to the negotiation table, so that region can get over conflict for a while, and get down to the business of rebuilding through trade among its neighbors.
Right click to open full image… Pictograph Courtesy of Viral..
So, can someone tell me again, why we shouldn’t tax the rich, and instead, balance the budget on the backs of everyone else?…….
I seem to be missing that little detail where that all makes sense……
Courtesy of BBC
Roughly 8:30 our time, a rocket carrying a satellite lifted off from a launch pad in India…. Bringing India into the space crowd where it now joins China, Russia, France (Europe), and the United States as the priveleged few to have developed programs sophisticated enough to leave earth’s orbit…
Somehow I came across a blog about Ryan Seacrest’ s interview with Britney Spears. The line that bothered me was how she was quiet and her “handlers” answered all the questions for her…..
As I was thinking “that’s sad” I had a nudge within my memory bank that said this has happened before…..It took some time to burn through the slow fog over memories past but eventually I remembered reading that before her end, Marylin Monroe had acted the same way…..
Towards her end there were attempts by Marylin to retake control over her own life, but eventually she was out-foxed and re-boxed by her “trusted” handlers. There were similar rages, (no shaved head) that were tsk’d tsk’d as signs of a coming “breakdown”…Sedate her was the answer…..And find a quiet sanitarium……
Then one day she was gone…………and many a young man, who understood her frailty, would pine if only he had been there for her…………..
There is still time for Brittney…So what’s the big deal you might wonder? If one basks in the sun too long, it goes to ones head….Celebrities are so spoiled these days…….No one cares for the average victim, the runaways in the same situation……
Thats a good point, But I guess it can be said that if Britney Spears goes, then part of us goes as well…..Similar to the typical Ming vase, lasting for centuries, that often gets shattered on Hollywood’s floor, the loss of any piece of art that inspires someone, is a loss indeed.
And Britney inspired many…So many prayed she would get back on track at the MVA awards………she didnt…….For ten years she has been the inspiration for so many girls. She’s occupied the thoughts of a few guys as well….
We can say this episode is not important and move on. But in doing so we set another tragedy in motion….A better alternative would be to offer love and support, and forgive past discretions based on our appreciation of her young artistry…..A young artist has a hard time. Mozart, Van Gogh, Jim Morrison come to mind. For at that young age, once the peak has past it is a long downward slide…..Britney evolved the new art form of song and dance into the mainstream ….Put a mike on anyone and they say “I look like Britney Spears.” Now she should stick to just singing. just as the Stones should probably stick to studio sessions.
Instead of a person I think she sees herself as an icon, a possession, as was Marylin Monroe. A board of directors, demanding something new, more return for the dollar….and she feels she has already given…much more than many who have gone before her…
I recommend a trip to India. Not as did Paris, to meet up with drunken elephants, but to do what the Beatles did, and to a certain extent, doing so kept them from going off the deep end,…..the same one as is facing this popular icon now. For as silly as it sounds, the new perspective given by the Maharishi, kept the Fab Four producing for a long, long time…….
Currently it seems as if Britney has no floor to stand on…..If she does not want to follow Marylin, she needs to lose her “flunkies” and “get a life.
Courtesy of Department of Defense
What? There’s an election this Saturday? Where’s the press, where’s the mud-flinging, where’s the 30 or longer comment sessions, where’s the Hare’s Corner postal staff? Where’s WDEL, where’s the News Journal? What 3 days left? How many of you without looking, know who is running?
Hats off to David Anderson….At least one of us was not asleep at the wheel…..I have to shake my head and say no wonder politics in Delaware is so messed up when a special election can come and go and Delaware’s watchdogs do not even lift an eyelid.
Yeah, I knew it was coming and had in the back of my mind to look into it, but……..3 days from now? Hopefully I’ll do better next time…..Of course there are myriads of excuses…….Lots….
For one, KHN will become a new acronym commonly seen on these pages. That is because the number of keystrokes required to type out “Karen Hartley-Nagle” damages the nerve tissue in both of one’s hands. She, by coincidence, threw her hat onto MIke Castle’s head (it was a 3 pointer shot by the way) by announcing her candidacy yesterday, which was echoed by DWA, Dana, Soapbox Matt, and acknowledged by Del Lib. (Is it just me or do all those posts say the same thing?) At least Nancy’s was somewhat different.
Equally important this week, especially yesterday, was Delaware’s blogosphere’s innermost feelings on …….pizza….Particularly Grotto’s and the knowledge they were taking on a little pizza shop in Beaverbrook, because the name “Grottina” was too close to “Grotto’s”. I guess to “Big” Don (Grotto’s head), the size of the cave, does matter. Anyone willing to read up on an empty stomach, beware…….Not only did it take up most of an afternoon of discussion on WDEL, but you can read about it here, and here…….If you don’t love pizza, take the advice of Grottina proprietor Jean Luc and: “Forget about it!”
Other weekend news was the letter sent to Kowalko and all, by Delmarva Power in response to what was truthfully said about their recalcitrance to engage into options of working with Blue Water Wind…..Nancy has a copy of “the letter” and John’s response. Everyone needs to read that exchange, for the same reason that before stepping on a Copperhead, one should listen for the “hiss…”. John does not need to really concern himself about the accusations Delmarva is implying….All the evidence on the PSC’s website directly supports it, for all to read…..Yeah, Delmarva is doing everything possible not to negotiate with Blue Water Wind….even to the point of spending all summer negotiating and in the last hour, putting an asterisk next to every position previously agreed upon and stating that those clauses with asterisks were not agreed to by Delmarva.(page 5)….How low is that. Yes ladies and gentlemen, that was the tactic used by those who supply our power………So John’s letter should not be the real news, The real news should be why Delmarva Power is still allowed to remain a part of the negotiations between Blue Water Wind and the State….Delmarva had their chance….As this letter to John shows, when it comes to including them into negotiations, the State of Delaware should say…..”forget about it.”
Other news: the case of the missing funds, and as we found out yesterday, the missing “fink“. (Now that was low) But missing money is just that. Missing. And attention needs to be paid as to whether someone was being paid to look the other way as the foxes took it upon themselves to march into the henhouse….That is the L–ink where all of this comes together. Can anyone say “Grand Jury with Subpoena Power?”
So what else happened this past weekend? FSP is recycling pieces from July. That is a correct synopsis of that blog this weekend; they really don’t have much to say….Compared to blogs on the other side who cannot keep up with the news as it flies out of Washington….The times they are a changing.….Perhaps one can compare the malaise affecting Americans today to that hopelessness and despondency that Reagan often alluded to when discussing the presidency before him. Only today it is much worse…..Don’t take my word for it…it is right here on FSP.
This comment just sort of jumped out at me: “Frank, I had a feeling Fred Flintstone didn’t have a flying car.” Great discussions are to be had on the other side of the aisle.
Dana has a new look…Is everyone going red? Is this the new trend nationwide? Matt’s Soapbox has morphed as well, no doubt due to his cross posting on Down With Absolutes.
Kilroy has the take on Education. Being involved with the Republican party of course he has some baggage to contend with in dealing with Delaware’s http://www.protackforgovernor.com/. On the other hand, the rest of us are in search of quality and really do not care about Strine’s aggrivations…So for Kilroy to grudgingly publish Protack’s policies of education, shows that something is up this time…We have real issues coming to the forefront. Although there may arise some concerns for “lack of local control” of education, perhaps considering our current state of education, we should consider this option as perhaps the removal of local impediments to the betterment of education. I at at least took notice with the consolidation of school districts. It’s a new, bold idea; sort of the type we will need if we move forward into the future. All that Delaware has previously received, was a pap smear and french fries.
Speaking of Protack, DWA has his health care plan here.
Once again we have real solutions, and not some fancy words that sound good until one explores what they really mean……Perhaps it just takes a candidate who really has to try harder to come up with the proper perspective in dealing with these heady issues..
Elsewhere?
Mike’s Musings mulls about the passage of time. He speaks of the changes surrounding his home town this time. Both Nancy and Judd have points to add on the wisdom of setting moratoriums upon unplanned development. Pile on the rules and regulation.
From Shirley’s exploration of what it means to be a Libertarian, we get this nugget, among a few: If the only way you can tell a left winger from a right winger is by which one of their hands is in which one of your pockets, you might be a Libertarian. It is worth the laugh to read the whole thing. But equally important to a main topic of local discussion, is whether anonymous postings have a place on the internet. Most recently, the continuous conversation was carried here.
And what use to be Delaware’s Voice of Libertarianism and is now one of three, The Digital Federalist keeps up with Ron Paul and Hugo Chevez. Quite a coupling.
Other issues involving comments, are the realization that we were lied to about Iran, the same as we were about Iraq. (I am shocked, shocked that their is lying going on around Dick Cheney’s administration!) Obviously this important news had to wait until a heart attack to sneak out into the public realm…….And to think there are still some people left on this planet who still make fun of Gore………Try looking in the mirror……..But don’t be too harsh on yourselves, for even the Washington Post has lost it’s credibility. So it is not…. “just a Republican thing”. Tommywonk puts their smear Obama campaign into proper perspective.
Nancy carries the local angle on who….who….who from Delaware, was ready to launch nukes into the heartland of Iran…”Rah Rah Leiberman! Sis Boom Bah.” (not to drop a hint of course.)
Nancy and Kilroy both clue us in on the up and coming town meetings to cover the open government within Delaware’s legislative halls…..To all who read this, this is perhaps one meeting that all should attend, for the very reason it is now time for citizens of this state to take back their government……At least consider voting for these few who put principle above their own power……..
Nancy found some dirt on Huckabee, which I didn’t think was possible. He still reminds me of a blue Hanna-Barbara Cartoon character.
And since one of the principle reasons I do all of this is to start trouble, I would be remiss if I left out these three posts,all of which comment than none of these three guys, made a comment upon them in their blog? But then, I understand that neither is talking to each other….WTF…..That’s the whole reason there IS an internet, fellas, ….that and Al Gore…….
I think Duffy has what they need ………. some fine Benny Lava… Is it just me or is that John Carney before he shaved doing the lead role?
Oh yeah, there is an election this Saturday.
Isn’t Goldman Sachs in need of some quick cash.
Yesterday at opening someone sold short on most of their assets, panicking the market. I have never seen anything like it. The NYSE average dropping like seconds on a clock. Then at the 10% loss level (officially termed a correction) they began buying back.
By 4:30 the market rallied to within 15 points of where it started. They made a quick 10% in one day.
If you won yesterday, you played well. If you lost, you were played well………….
These games happened in 1929 quite frequently, leading up to the crash of October 24.
If you didn’t heed my earlier post and shift all your assets over to fixed rate, you still have time. Not much, however according to this.
Wall Street Journal buried this deep within their pages: Banks Delay Sale Of Chrysler Debt As Market Stalls
In plain English it means that banks have decided not to fund the Chrysler deal. The deal will still go through, mind you, but the risk will be absorbed solely by those underwriting the deal, and the 12 billion will not be spread to investors as has been done in the past. “The market has dried up.”
This does not bode well for Newark. Why? Because the cost of money, or the interest rate for the twelve billion, has just risen. That means that all costs, supplies, labor, and facilities, must be tightened even tighter in order that corporate is able to pay for the increased financing.
Plain talk: their mortgage, which was already 200 million a year, just hit the ARM plan and may go as high or higher than 300 million!!
That money was sorely needed to invest in environmentally friendly and marketable vehicles. They do not have that option and will have no recourse but to buckle down, hold on, and hope to survive a financial ride as scary as the Ka.
One can only hope that Kia or Hyundai is interested in opening shop in Delaware…..It will be a new experience for the local UAW to be sure, but Toyota seems to treat Americans more fairly than does our own……..At least foreign autos are sensitive to America’s needs and do not foot drag when it comes to creating cars that American’s WANT to buy…….
Anyone who clicked on the above links saw a difference in profitability among all those manufactures. Delaware needs to send someone to South Korea today. Secure jobs are often found within secure companies.
So what does this mean to everyone else? A lot. Here is how it breaks down.
Cheap money is no longer available. It is what has been driving up the stock market. Next time someone tells you it was republican tax policy, bitch slap them. (smile) If borrowed money is cheap then one can afford to spend more in the acquisition of a corporation, because on the bottom line, the cost is the same. Similar to the housing boom which has now ended, the monthly mortgage is the same on a house costing 250,000 at a 3% rate as an 80,000 house at 9%. Just as house prices soared, so did the price of corporations, pushing the market upward……….
Well, ladies and gentlemen. That push has stopped, as of yesterday…….The Fed may react someway and save us from a crash similar to the last time money was not available…..1929.
The political implications are obvious. This could not have happened under a competent Al Gore administration. But I will leave that for someone else to expound. Right now my broker is shut down, off-line, and not answering calls………
I just hope I can shift everything over to “fixed” before everyone else catches on…………………….
Thanks to Chatterjee and CorpWatch for this reporting. This is one more grain of evidence that this war was fought not for the benefit of America, but for the benefit of Cheney’s stock futures which expire in 2009, well after his current term has ended. Harsh as that statement may sound on its surface, if one uses this frame of reference as a polarizer, then the “idiotic decisions” that have led this country to its current situation inside of Iraq, actually make financial and rational sense.
What idiotic decisions? Those very decisions that seem to prolong the war, instead of resolving it.
The trail starts with a map found in Cheney’s drawer showing Iraq carved up into parcels of real estate. It runs through the Energy Task Force, through his private “Iraqi reading room” in Langley Field; it continues through deliberately misleading America in the case to invade Iraq, through micromanaging the personnel decisions within Garner’s team at the onset of the Iraqi reconstruction, through the shifting of funding from successful Iraqi programs to unsuccessful ones, through his insistence of “no-bid” contracts, and now through these new revelations.
What was revealed six days ago was that the meters measuring the Iraqi crude now being pumped into tankers at the mouth of the Euphrates, do not work. And have not worked since the invasion in 03. The responsible party is none other than Halliburton. This supposedly quick fix, is still pending. Basically no one, no one, can monitor how much crude is leaving Iraq.
According to this contributor at the Stars and Stripes, a back of the envelope calculation, that every centimeter lowering of a tanker equals 6000 barrels of crude, is how business is done. A miscalculation by a couple of inches, can mean the difference of 30,000 barrels or oil or at today’s price of 75 dollars a barrel, 2 ¼ million unreported dollars.
If you don’t already have stock in Halliburton, you need to invest today. In fact, being a betting person, I would say the odds are good that Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Mike Castle, and every other congressperson who votes in line with Cheney on this issue, has some Halliburton hidden somewhere in their portfolio. For they are certainly not voting for the American people.
For if truth is to be known, as long as there is chaos in Iraq, Halliburton will continue to reap enormous profits. Ironically, it is only when we actually do succeed, and the Iraqi’s can proclaim their own self rule, will the bonanza end for all of those holding stock options in Halliburton. Ending the war early, will no doubt cost Republicans dearly, literally.
kavips 
