[smoothy]

Arthur Anderson consulting has strong ties to the political left... specifically an Uber liberal think tank. THey are just another crony as its still a no bid contract handed out without any vetting.

[paraclete]

what do you expect? transparency? look you invite bids they bid and you appoint them anyway, saves time

[smoothy]

Except the whole bidding part never took place... they gave it to someone else they owed a political favor to.

[paraclete]

So, cronieism takes many forms, when you can say the republicans are free of it, then you can criticise the process. Look I know there should be rules regarding the provision of services to government and there should be a tender process, but sometimes there has to be action, the time for form is past. so the original contact should have been subject to a tender process, but an emergency fix, well............

[tomder55]

You may remember Arthur Anderson from the Enron days .

[paraclete]

Yes we remember Arthur Anderson and I recall there was something racial there too

[smoothy]

We were accused of that in Iraq... when there really wasn't any other company in the USA large enough to do the work... there are THOUSANDS of software companies just in the east coast that would have loved a chance to bid on that contract if it hadn't been handed to a Canadian company to begin with PURELY because they were friends with the wannabe Queen. And all of them would have done a better jo at a fraction of the cost.....which by the way they should be sued to recover the wasted money.

[paraclete]

smoothy just maybe those companies hadn't made the right contributions. You and I both know the piper must be paid. look I don't think the Obama's are particularly savvy and all the savvy they had went out the window after the last election. They are beyond the pale now and as far as recovering money is concerned that is a commercial legal matter, if they don't do it you can pursue it when you gain power

maybe you know what went down or maybe you are like the rest of us and draw inferences from the media. opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one

[smoothy]

They had savvy? I never saw any even BEFORE his first election... I saw an arrogant blohard... time has proven I was right all along. Anyone that ever fell for his crap was seriously gullible...and I do NOT see myself as being above being suckered....because I have been. Just not by that amature.

[talaniman]

You fell for Bush, so I can agree with your position.

[smoothy]

My work for the last 28 years has had me be exposed frequently to things before the media saw it... and many times a lot of stuff they never were exposed to, a lot of it I wasn't even supposed to be seeing. My job however hinged on keeping my yap shut about what I saw and where... and it offered me many, many opportunities to see how they twist and invent "facts" to fit their agenda. So often I haven't taken any medias reporting on things as absolute fact for many many years.

[paraclete]

No there are no absolute facts anymore just opinion and perspective, journalism has suffered and it isn't often we get fearless reporting.

I think we have all learned much from the events of the last few years and in particular, politicians are to be trusted even less than we thought, and must not be allowed to operate without oversight. We have been given great insight from the activities of Assange and Snowden and some governments have had to take a close look at the activities of their agencies. I see a need for greater oversight

[talaniman]

Snowden may be a spy for all we know. But select oversight makes sense. Letting foreign intelligence friend/foe/competitor know what you are doing and how and when makes no sense though. I mean if EVERYBODY has spies EVERWHERE does it make sense that you don't?

[paraclete]

No one is suggesting intelligence shouldn't be gathered but bugging the phone, etc, of foreign leaders is going too far. There needs to be a reason like eminent threat for doing it. Targets need to be clearly identified and judicial clearance obtained. Gathering intelligence on everyone is a step too far, the Gestapo has been re-established in the person of the NSA

[smoothy]

Actually other foreign leaders are the first people EVERY countries spy agencies try to bug first... for the obvious reasons.

Anyone that claims differently either doesn't know what they are talking about... or are liars.


As far as Snowden goes.....He knew what he was getting into....he violated the law and the terms of his security clearnaces.....and I hope he pays for it.

If he didn't like what he was seeing he should have simply quit and went to work someplace else. As far as I'm concerned he deserves prison rape. I have zero sympathy for him.

[talaniman]

The NSA is the one you know about. You saying no one else in the world is tapping world leaders? Or is it just the US that shouldn't do it. Bet Merkel has her own spies. Putin does too!

[paraclete]

Tal even we are guilty of tapping other leaders on their home ground, I'm saying it shouldn't be done because of the problems it causes when discovered. Relationships that have taken years to build are destroyed, even if it wasn't the same administration, reality says it was the same agency, the same ministry, the same policy and it is even worse when you do it to your allies

[smearcase]

If Long Term Care costs paid by Medicaid can be collected from the patient's estate, shouldn't Medicaid health coverage be the same? However, one or more states have already passed legislation continuing collection only from nursing home patients, and exempting those receiving Medicaid healthcare. And maybe that is appropriate and I just don't understand the distinction.

[A 54-year-old former lawyer from New York City, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she will be looking for a job soon, said that despite the prospect of free insurance, she did not enroll in Medicaid because she owns an $850,000 apartment she hopes to bequeath to a family member.

“I don't want my assets to be raided after my death,” she said. “The idea that someone can come after my house after I die — I just can't do it.”
Advocates are pressing the Obama administration to specify that new Medicaid recipients nationally should not be subject to asset recovery.]

Little-known aspect of Medicaid now causing people to avoid coverage - The Washington Post

[smearcase]

The other shoe is about to drop. When Obama explained what he really meant when he said folks could keep their insurance if they liked it, he said he was talking about employer based plans, not the only 5% who had private plans. Now, even that explanation made to explain the original blunder is not holding water as employers are sending their employees to the exchanges. So, those folks can't keep their plan if they liked it either. The incorrect information (I don't know if it was lying or just plain incompetence) doesn't bother me as much as the stupidity of the administration not anticipating that employers would take this way out. Especially with temporary workers, even if (big if, I think) the employer mandate starts in 2015, there will be no penalty for these companies due to the limited hours these employees work. The companies are just legally minimizing their expenses, and doing what the ACA allows.
Marc Thiessen: The lie that hangs over the State of the Union - The Washington Post

[speechlesstx]

I believe it's all a lie. Meanwhile, retiring VA Rep Jim Moran had some comments on Obamacare.

Man, Representative Jim Moran (D., Virginia) is offering some blunt truths Democrats don’t want to hear, now that he’s announced his retirement.

What’s striking is that Moran isn’t offering the usual, “well, we don’t have enough young people signing up for insurance, but we still have time.” He’s saying, “I don’t think we’re going to get enough.” He’s not clinging to hope anymore.

Congressman Jim Moran (D-Va.) is voicing concern that the entirety Affordable Care Act could unravel because not enough young people are signing up . . .

“I’m afraid that the millennials, if you will, are less likely to sign up. I think they feel more independent, I think they feel a little more invulnerable than prior generations,” Moran says. “But I don’t think we’re going to get enough young people signing up to make this bill work as it was intended to financially.”

If Moran’s prediction is correct, the whole law could unravel. He says there just isn’t enough incentive for healthy young people to sign up for insurance.

“And, frankly, there’s some legitimacy to their concern because the government spends about $7 for the elderly for every $1 it spends on the young,” Moran says.

Moran supported covering everyone under Medicare, which would have been expensive but have avoided this problem. Now Moran is running short on solutions.

“I just don’t know how we’re going to do it frankly,” he says. “If we had a solution I’d be telling the president right now.”

But again it's not like we didn't warn of such problems, but it's no surprise Dems are blaming Republicans for not wanting to keep Obamacare or help fix their disaster.

The article closes with,

Democrats say another part of the problem is that Republicans remain bent on repealing the law and aren’t working with them to reform some of the glaring flaws in it.

First, why is it outrageous for Republicans to attempt to repeal a law that even its supporters are now saying isn’t working, as Moran says, or that has “glaring flaws”?


Secondly, what Democratic bill to reform some of the “glaring flaws” are Republicans blocking?


Thirdly, what “reform” would get millennials to sign up for a product that they already must purchase, or else pay a special tax of 1 percent of their income?

Good questions.