Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Best wishes go out to everyone for the coming year. Thank you for taking the time to pass my way, and to those who have shared your thoughts. I appreciate the new and old “virtual” friends who feel very much more than that. For those who have not seen any snow, some nice pictures in the video.

The worst of MSNBC Highlights for 2013 -Ugly stuff

Considering all of the contrived flap that went down to re-direct us from any Obama issue of consequence, namely Obamacare, the faux Duck Dynasty has now slowly faded away, and we can now get back to issues of consequence.

Having said that, and it being a rather slow news day, I picked up the “best” of MSNBC. Actually it is laughable. Fox news of course is constantly taken to the woodshed. A and E has their moment in the sun but MSNBC news? Enjoy!

MSNBC never fails to entertain. 2013 was no different for The Place for Politics

Navy Seals court martialed for giving Terrorist leader a bloody lip

We know what the Obama regime has been doing to our military leaders. Obama gets rid of more Generals.

One by one, eliminating any of them who apparently don’t sing from the same song book. The latest attack on these brave Navy Seals tell us all we need to know. Now demoralizing our finest fighting men.

Navy SEALs, Matthew McCabe,  and Jonathan Keefe caught one of the Al-Qaeda killers who brutally murdered 4 American contractors in 2004. The Navy SEALs reward? Court martial…

On the one hand, four Blackwater contractors were murdered and beheaded as they pulled security in a convoy that was attempting to deliver food.

On the other hand, Al-Isawi had a small cut on his lip that a doctor would later testify appeared to have been self-inflicted.

Via NY Post:

The night of Sept. 1, 2009, Echo Platoon of Navy SEAL Team 10 headed out into the Fallujah night. Their goal: concluding a five-year search for the al Qaeda killer who had been responsible for the shocking 2004 murders of four American military contractors — one of them an ex-SEAL — whose bodies were then burned, dragged through the streets and hanged from a bridge.

This night the SEALs departed with these words from their commanding officer: “Gents, stay sharp, and expect a firefight.”

In the event, no shots were fired, but the SEALs faced another kind of ambush: a humiliating, baffling, infuriating struggle with the military-justice system that would end with an unsatisfying victory.

Because the man those SEALs captured — Ahmad Hashim Abd Al-Isawi, aka “the Butcher of Fallujah,” a man who lived for mayhem — somehow sustained a bloody lip on the night of his capture.

Keep reading…

H/T: Weasel Zippers

The spin begins: ‘You may not be better off after knee surgery’

Why this post today? Because this is the beginning of the propaganda machine starting to tell us to “just take the pain pill.” Based on 146 patients, the “death panel” or rationing board will use this to deny this surgery. Orthopedics is high on the list of reimbursement cuts planned by Obama.

(CNN) — Patients who underwent simulated knee surgery fared just as well as those who got the real deal, according to a new study that’s raising eyebrows about the most common orthopedic procedure performed in the United States.

Recall?

Jane asks the President if her 100 year old mother (now 105) would have gotten a pacemaker under his plan. Well now that’s a tough one … that costs a lot and maybe we will have to say, just take a pill. Priceless.

The findings, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, add to a string of papers suggesting that arthroscopic partial meniscectomy fails to help many patients. The operation typically is performed to relieve knee pain, whether from wear or from an injury.

But other doctors say it’s still too soon to draw sweeping conclusions.

The study, which was conducted in Finland, followed 146 patients between the ages of 35 and 65 with symptoms of degenerative wear and tear of the meniscus, a disk-shaped piece of cartilage that acts as a shock absorber between the shinbone and thighbone. They had no detectable arthritis, suggesting that any pain was due to a problem with the meniscus.

More and video over at CNN

ABC “Exclusive” – DHS dumped bus loads of Terrorists in U.S.

The headline reads “Exclusive: US May Have Let ‘Dozens’ of Terrorists Into Country As Refugees” this by no less than ABC news. How about doing a program on the Visa nonsense going on, allowing thousands of potential terrorists to come our way? Yes indeed, an exclusive. Of course, many of us bloggers have been warning of this for years. But hey, the MSM is starting to catch on. Good interview video link at the bottom of post.

Several dozen suspected terrorist bombmakers, including some believed to have targeted American troops, may have mistakenly been allowed to move to the United States as war refugees, according to FBI agents investigating the remnants of roadside bombs recovered from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Recall this earlier post?

Iran links in Homeland Security’s troubled immigration program

December 15, 2013 — bunkerville

A program that gives coveted immigrant green cards to wealthy foreign  investors was so susceptible to fraud and abuse that it was used by an Iranian  network that sought to send banned high technology home and spread terrorism  abroad, federal investigators said.

The memo called the EB-5 program a weak point in the nation’s immigration  security because visa holders can become green card holders and eventually  citizens — without going through the background checks that most prospective  immigrants face. The program is designed to attract foreigners who pledge to  invest in the U.S. economy.

But let me not digress!

The discovery in 2009 of two al Qaeda-Iraq terrorists living as refugees in Bowling Green, Kentucky — who later admitted in court that they’d attacked U.S. soldiers in Iraq — prompted the bureau to assign hundreds of specialists to an around-the-clock effort aimed at checking its archive of 100,000 improvised explosive devices collected in the war zones, known as IEDs, for other suspected terrorists’ fingerprints.

“We are currently supporting dozens of current counter-terrorism investigations like that,” FBI Agent Gregory Carl, director of the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC), said in an ABC News interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC News’ “World News with Diane Sawyer” and “Nightline”.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there were many more than that,” said House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul. “And these are trained terrorists in the art of bombmaking that are inside the United States; and quite frankly, from a homeland security perspective, that really concerns me.”

As a result of the Kentucky case, the State Department stopped processing Iraq refugees for six months in 2011, federal officials told ABC News – even for many who had heroically helped U.S. forces as interpreters and intelligence assets. One Iraqi who had aided American troops was assassinated before his refugee application could be processed, because of the immigration delays, two U.S. officials said. In 2011, fewer than 10,000 Iraqis were resettled as refugees in the U.S., half the number from the year before, State Department statistics show.

More and video over at ABC News

Need a refresher?

Homeland Security Dept. Cannot ‘Precisely’ Track the Number of Foreigners Working in U.S. on H-1B Visas January 20, 2011

No Jobs for Americans, But Plenty of Foreign Worker Visas

November 8, 2010

State Department Using ‘Diversity Visas’ to Encourage Immigration to U.S. from Terror-Ridden Yemen January 5, 2010

Here is a link to see all of the 50,000 other winners of the lottery this year:  http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_4574.html

.

Merry Christmas!

A very merry and blessed Christmas to all!

 

“For to us a child is born,
to us a Son is given,
and the government will be on His shoulders.
And He will be called
Wonderful, Counselor,
The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6

 

Aunt Chippy Christmas gift wrapping !

Here is a break from politics that is guaranteed to tickle the ole fuuny bone. Anyone who has wrapped gifts can appreciate Aunt Chippy’s problems.

Some rough language.

Billions in Home Healthcare cut from Medicare

I wish I could tell you this was the only major cut to Medicare. But no. The reimbursements to Doctors and Hospitals were cut significantly. The news was out there, but no one cared. We knew that Medicare was being raided for the purpose of Obamacare. But there was no outrage. No response from our Congress. Now the regime will make the cuts – thousands – inch by inch, and destroy this program. Few Doctors will take on new Medicare patients. That is the long and the short of it. Home Healthcare was one of the most important “wellness” programs. It kept seniors from winding up in Nursing homes. By the way, those reimbursements have been slashed as well.

Via AMAC:

As if ObamaCare’s botched website, coverage cancellations, and higher costs were not bad enough, the Obama Administration has quietly dealt yet another blow – this time striking millions of the nation’s most vulnerable seniors.  Specifically, the Obama Administration has decided to deeply cut funding for the Medicare program’s home health benefit as a way to help pay for ObamaCare.

The Administration made this announcement very quietly, waiting to do so until the very end of the last Friday before Thanksgiving, perhaps thinking that most people would not be looking.

To be sure, the timing of the Administration’s quiet announcement did keep it out of sight – for a while.  That ended on December 12th, however, when the Washington Examiner broke the story in an article headlined “ObamaCare forcing 14 percent cut in Medicare’s home health program.”  FOX News and the Daily Caller have also picked up this story, so full attention is now being paid to this unprecedented cut – and the harm it will do to frail seniors across America.

As the Examiner’s Richard Pollock wrote, “An estimated 3.5 million poor and ill homebound senior citizens will wake up on New Year’s Day to discover ObamaCare has slashed funding for their home health care program.”  He’s right: on January 1st, the Obama Administration will sharply cut Medicare funding for home healthcare services.

Totaling a whopping 14 percent between 2014 and 2017, this cut is the maximum allowable under the ObamaCare law.  The Administration had the discretion to cut less, or even to make no cuts at all.  But they decided to impose the deepest cut made possible by the Affordable Care Act (shouldn’t we be calling this the “Horrible Care Act”?) legislation.  And in doing so, they will shift billions of dollars from Medicare to ObamaCare.

Keep reading…

H/T: Weasel Zippers

EPA to ban lead bullets – will end sportsman shooting

Earlier I posted Last U.S. lead ammo company shut down by EPA November 4, 2013 . Now the update. One small detail the news report fails to mention. From EPA wanted to ban ammo,  December 2012

Remember this is a no-win situation for us, because bullets made of materials other than lead are often considered armor piercing by law. Copper is your basic material, and copper is expensive, and has much poorer performance properties than lead.

From The Wahington Examiner:

Here’s an astounding bit of government overreach:

NSSF [National Shooting Sports Foundation] is springing into action, as the public comment period opens on EPA considering a regulation that will ban all traditional lead ammunition. This would basically end the shooting sports as we know it. Remember this is a no-win situation for us, because bullets made of materials other than lead are often considered armor piercing by law. Copper is your basic material, and copper is expensive, and has much poorer performance properties than lead.

You can read the petition in favor of banning ammunition here, and if you can leave a public comment on it here.

(Comments closed, approved.)

Now to the latest news from Right Scoop

Whether by state or federal regulation, or by market forces, lead bullets will be all but phased out within a few years in favor of so-called green bullets, experts say. While many believe that this will help the environment by keeping lead from contaminating groundwater, others say switching to copper-based bullets will cost hunters and sportsmen more and have little effect on the environment.

“Whatever the EPA’s motivation when creating the new lead air quality standard, increasingly restrictive regulation of lead is likely to affect the production and cost of traditional ammunition,” the National Rifle Association said in a statement.

Jim Yardley a retired financial controller and blogger for americanthinker.com, estimated it would cost $18,431,000 to replace the lead with copper.

“Nearly $20 million, not to improve the effectiveness of the ammunition used by our troops, but to protect the environment,” Yardley wrote.

Read more at Right Scoop

Obama: I Only Met With ObamaCare Team “Every Other Week Or Every Three Weeks”

Well, Obama is right on the job with his prize Obamacare. But then again, maybe he didn’t meet as many times as he said with his “team.” Maybe not at all. Nice ending to the week.

Obama: I Only Met With ObamaCare Team “Every Other Week Or Every Three Weeks” (December 20, 2013)