Bloodthirsty Liberal

No more schools,
No more books…

That’s pretty much it:

The Chicago Board of Education voted Wednesday to close 50 schools and programs, an ambitious plan that has sparked protests and lawsuits and could help define — for better or worse — Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s term in office.

City officials say the closings are necessary because of falling school enrollment and as part of their efforts to improve the city’s struggling education system.

“The only consideration for us today is to do exactly what is right for the children,” schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said before the board’s vote.

Critics have blasted Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff, and Byrd-Bennett, saying the closings disproportionately affect minority neighborhoods and will endanger children who may have to cross gang boundaries to get to a new school.

They protested during the board’s meeting Wednesday and sent busloads of parents, teachers and students to Springfield to lobby lawmakers to approve a moratorium on the closings. Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis called it “a day of mourning” for the children of Chicago.

…

Chicago is among several major U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, Washington and Detroit to use mass school closures to reduce costs and offset declining enrollment. Detroit has closed more than 130 schools since 2005, including more than 40 in 2010 alone.

The school closings are the second major issue pitting Emanuel against the Chicago Teachers Union. The group’s 26,000 members went on strike early in the school year, partly over the school district’s demand for longer school days, idling students for a week.

Emanuel and Byrd-Bennett say the district’s financial and educational struggles call for drastic action. They say the nation’s third-largest school district is facing a deficit of about $1 billion and that too many Chicago Public Schools buildings are half-empty because of a population drop in some city neighborhoods. They’ve also pledged students will be moved to schools that are performing better academically.

CPS says it has 403,000 students in a system that has seats for more than 500,000.

The city says enrollment has fallen; the teachers say “the closings disproportionately affect minority neighborhoods”. Are the two irreconcilable?

We know for certain that black women abort their unborn children well above the average for all women. Doesn’t it follow that there would be fewer black children to fill those seats in schools? And aren’t the black children who are born at a greater risk of dying of violent crime—see the lovely Hadiya Pendleton—almost always from other black babies who grew up?

I don’t know Rahm Emanuel, but I don’t like whom he associates with. Racism, however, is a strong charge that doesn’t hold up on analysis.

As do several Muslims!

Following are excerpts from footage of a function held in the Iraqi embassy in Amman, in which Ba’thist loyalists clashed with embassy staff members over the issue of Saddam’s legacy. The footage was posted on the Internet on May 20, 2013.

Ba’thist loyalists: Long live the glorious Ba’th Party!

Our souls and our blood we will sacrifice for you, oh Saddam.

Our souls and our blood we will sacrifice for you…

The audio dies out at this point, and the footage shows the participants hurling chairs at one another.

To-ga! To-ga! To-ga!

The media, still clinging to their religion:

[CHUCK TODD:] What’s funny is, I think, Candidate Obama, if George Bush and Dick Cheney were doing this, imagine what Candidate Obama would say. Candidate Obama would be unloading. There’d be a lot of Democrats that would be unloading on the administration if they were trying to do this, if they were trying to crack down on things. You can’t look at this and see it as anything other than an attempt to basically scare anybody from ever leaking anything every again. So, they want to criminalize journalism, and that’s what it’s coming down to. If you end up essentially criminalizing journalism when it comes to reporting on the federal government, particularly on national security, and the only place they think they technically can do that is on the issue of national security, what it’s going to do is the impact that we’ve heard the council say this over the weekend: It is going to make whistleblowers and people that might leak and regular sources. You know, I’ve had different conversations with people over the last week who are sitting there not quite comfortable having certain conversations on the phone. I mean, it just completely — and maybe that’s the intent. I can’t think of any other intent of why they’re going about this in such a broad, harassing sort of way.

President Obama IS “Candidate Obama”, Chuck! The same Candidate Obama who used dirty tricks to win elections, the same Candidate Obama who rose through the filthy ranks of Chicago politics.

Need I remind you?

Obama and Rod Blagojevich

Obama and Tony Rezko

Obama and Bill Ayers… book.

You think he wouldn’t subject your lot to the same treatment if you stood in his way? Are you insane?

Try not to let this destroy your faith in the Immigration and Homeland Security agencies:

Illegal immigrants seeking a reprieve under an election-year program implemented by the Obama administration are being approved at a rate of over 99 percent — a situation that has the immigration officer union raising concerns about fraud and security risks.

The program in question is called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allows some illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to seek tentative legal status. It was the administration’s answer to the “Dream Act,” a bill Congress drafted but did not approve.

The union representing thousands of employees in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes these applications, complained this week that workers were being compelled to “rubber stamp” all kinds of applications.

…

Union President Kenneth Palinkas said agency leaders have “intentionally” set up a process that “bypasses” traditional screening methods – like in-person interviews with the applicants.

“These practices… guarantee that applications will be rubber-stamped for approval, a practice that virtually guarantees widespread fraud and places public safety at risk,” Palinkas said in a statement.

Numbers provided by USCIS show that, of the applications that have received a final judgment, 99.2 percent were approved. Nearly 292,000 have been approved as of April.

You can approve 99.2% of the illegal immigrants some of the time, and some of the illegal immigrants 99.2% of the time, but only President Obama can approve all of the illegal immigrants 99.2% of the time.

Not even Saddam Hussein won 99.2% of the vote!

Palinkas told Fox News Latino that, in general, the agency is not denying applications “because we don’t have time.”

“We’re just skimming files, and this is somebody’s life, and you can’t go through the file. There may be something in there you need to see,” he said. “We’re a granting machine.”

No doubt Obama will consider this “granting machine” as evidence of a resurgence in the manufacturing sector of the economy.

Notice his hands? And his weapons?

Terror attack.

One man was killed and two others wounded in a reported machete attack in London on Wednesday, as one UK official said the attack could be terror-related.
Police were called to an assault in which a man was being attacked in the street by two individuals armed with a variety of weapons, possibly including a firearm and a “machete-style knife.” Police said two attackers were shot by authorities and taken to separate London hospitals to be treated for their injuries.

British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the killing as “truly shocking,” and said there are “strong indications” that the attack was terror-related. He asked Home Secretary Theresa May to call an urgent meeting of the government’s emergency committee.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said it was urgently investigating reports that a serving soldier was involved in the incident.

Victim beheaded And the Muslim community is “shocked”.

- Aggie

UPDATE (From BTL)

Somehow, this seems so very apropos:

Following are excerpts from an interview with British Islamist Anjem Choudary, which aired on Press TV, via the Internet, on April 11, 2013.

Anjem Choudary: Let me be absolutely clear: As Muslims, we reject democracy, we reject secularism, and freedom, and human rights. We reject all of the things that you espouse as being ideals.

Other TV guest: You reject human rights? I believe you.

Anjem Choudary: There is nothing called a republic in Islam. When we talk about the shari’a, we are talking about only the shari’a. We are talking about rejecting the U.N., the IMF, and the World Bank.

And living, breathing Britons, apparently.

I doubt you’ll see Lois Lerner plead the Fifth on your evening news, but why should you be denied?

I feel as bad for her as I do for Susan Rice, having to peddle her BS story. Which is to say, only a little. They both knew—or should have known—what they were doing and saying. They should have known better than to take a bullet for President Obama.

Enjoy!

PS: She delivered one of the greatest defenses of the Fifth Amendment I’ve ever heard. Good for her! Now if only someone would defend the Second Amendment so passionately!

Shooting witnesses dead:

One of two men allegedly being questioned in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings was shot and killed by an FBI agent in Florida on Tuesday, sources told WESH-TV.

According to NBC News, a special agent was interviewing the suspect regarding his connections to bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and other extremists. The suspect, who was not immediately identified by officials, was originally cooperative, died when he was shot after attacking the agent, NBC News confirmed. …

“(The FBI) took me and my friend, the suspect that got killed. They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they’re going to bring him back. They never brought him back,” Taramiv said.

“He felt inside he was going to get shot,” Taramiv said about Todashev. “I told him, ‘Everything is going to be fine, don’t worry about it.’ He said, ‘I have a really bad feeling.’”

…

The man claims he and Todashev were interviewed by the FBI for nearly three hours on Tuesday. The friend said he left the interview, and when he came back to the apartment he found that there had been a shooting. Todashev was killed, WESH reported.

…

Taramov says Todashev met with FBI agents last night and it was supposed to be their last meeting because he was planning to fly back to Chechnya last night. He says the plane ticket was purchased before the Boston bombings but federal agents strongly advised him not to go home.

“He cancelled the tickets because, the FBI had been like, I don’t know, they’ve been pushing him, you know what I’m saying. They’ve been pushing him they say don’t leave; don’t leave so he decided to stay. But we had a feeling, worst case scenario something like that was going to happen. You know what I mean,” said Taramov.

…

A source with knowledge of what happened tells our colleagues that the FBI agent was conducting an interview related to the bombings investigation when the individual being questioning became violent. Other law enforcement personnel were there as well. During the confrontation, the source tells the NPR correspondents, “the individual was killed.”

The witness was alone with several FBI agents (law enforcement personnel) and they felt threatened? Maybe…

I have learned not to believe friends of suspected Muslim terrorists (or even friends of friends), but I have also learned never to believe anything from Eric Holder’s Justice Department. Where’s John Ashcroft when we really need him?

Meanwhile:

Among the many unanswered questions about the two Tsarnaev brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombing is why, days after the attack, they were heading to the suburb of Watertown and its manicured lawns and tulips when police picked up their trail and began a chase.

Investigators want to know what drew the accused bombers to the cluster of side streets in the blue-collar suburb, far from any major thoroughfare, especially if the brothers were on the run after their images had been shown on television by the FBI and after they had allegedly murdered MIT Police Officer Sean Collier.

“It’s clear the suspects have connections to Watertown,” said Joseph Curatone, the mayor in the neighboring city of Somerville told ABC News. “And it’s abundantly clear that investigators are exploring every aspect of those connections as they should.”

…

In 2010, Watertown was the scene of FBI raids after agents learned that Faisal Shahzad, convicted of trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, came to the suburb to pick up $5,000 cash from a Pakistani citizen living there, according to federal court records.

The Pakistani, Aftab Ali, was identified by authorities as part of a militant group, Tehrik-e-Taliban, and was deported.

Authorities said they know of no link between the Times Square bomber and the two accused Marathon bombers, other than the coincidental connections to Watertown.

Fancy that!

And why was this news denied for so long?

As police searched for him, and as he lay bleeding in his boat hideout, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote “F*** America” on the side panel of the boat, police in Massachusetts told ABC News.

Officers said they also discovered the phrase “Praise Allah” on the boat’s side panels and several anti-American screeds, including references to Iraq, Afghanistan and “the infidels.”

A Massachusetts official showed ABC News what he said was a cell phone picture of the phrase “Praise Allah,” written in black ink, with a bullet hole above it, believed to have been written by Dzhokhar as he hid inside the boat in Watertown, Mass.

Also seen in the picture was the faintly written word “brother,” which the official said was part of a reference by the younger Tsarnaev “that was something about his brother is lucky to be with Allah first.”

…

Spokespeople for the Massachusetts State Police and the Watertown police had denied the existence of the writings when first asked about them by ABC News two weeks ago.

Today, both departments referred reporters to the FBI. A federal law enforcement official confirmed reports first broadcast by CBS News that writings had been discovered inside the boat.

The discovery of writings intensified tensions between the FBI and local police when FBI agents believed some Boston officers and state police had taken cell phone pictures of the writing.

Agents demanded the phones of all officers at the scene the night of the capture of Dzhokhar be confiscated to avoid the photos becoming public before being used as evidence at trial, according to two law enforcement officials.

A FBI spokesperson said agents cannot confiscate phones without a warrant and officials said none of the police approached would agree to turn over their phones to the FBI.

Lastly:

The seven recent college graduates from Middle Eastern and Asian countries questioned for visiting a restricted area of the Quabbin Reservoir after midnight on Tuesday have been cleared of anything beyond trespassing, State Police spokesman David Procopio said in a Thursday afternoon statement.

Procopio said, “The Massachusetts State Police and the FBI have determined that the subjects have no connection to any other criminal activity or groups. The investigation has determined that the only crime the group committed was trespassing, and there is no evidence that there was a threat to the water supply.”

…

The seven individuals will be summonsed for a “show-cause” hearing on trespassing, and their names will not be released unless the court decides charges should be issued against them, said Procopio.

See my previous point about not believing anything from this administration. Also, see my post title: What the [bleep] is the FBI doing? And not doing?

Dis blessed plot, Dis earth, Dis realm, Dis England…

Disabled:

My daughter was ill at the weekend. Just a heavy cold; but when your child has profound and multiple learning disabilities, even a minor illness can send her life-threatening condition spiralling out of control, so we needed to get some antibiotics. As so often, it was a dispiriting experience.

First, the 111 operator asked what language our daughter spoke and whether she could come to the phone, despite being told she was non-verbal. Then the nurse asked about her symptoms but never bothered to discuss her underlying condition, although she is under palliative care. And finally the doctor who came to the house looked uncertain how to deal with a disabled person, never talking to her once.

Tiny things – yet all too typical in the health service.

Yes, unless one’s illness is “off the rack”, they don’t know how to deal with it.

[A]ll too many people with disabilities end up being killed by the health service – the very institution supposedly dedicated to saving their lives.

The latest case is distressing and disturbing: Tina Papalabropoulos, a young woman scarcely older than my own child dying after a series of blunders by two NHS organisations – a hospital and out-of-hours GP service – in Essex. Quite rightly, her mother, Christine, is angry. “When your child becomes ill and you need professional help from doctors, you and your child are looked at and you can see their mind working, ‘Is there any point in trying to save this child’s life?’ You can see that they think, ‘This child has an existence and not a life’,” she said.

The loss of this young life was a needless tragedy. But it is far from an isolated one. Each week 24 disabled people are killed by such prejudiced presumptions; indeed, there was a case at my local hospital recently. These shocking figures are based on a government-commissioned inquiry into one region of the country, which found people with disabilities 37% more likely to be killed by incompetence or inadequate care – and their lives end on average 16 years earlier than they should. The more serious the disabilities, the higher the risk.

Forgive me if I fail to join the national worship of the NHS.

I could have titled this post, “ObamaCare Passes, Disabled Hardest Hit”, but that might be premature. For now. Just remember where you heard it.

L’chaim!

Israeli wineries in the Golan region and in Samaria (Shomron) are among the winners of the 2013 DECANTER competition for wines. A record 14,362 wines from 52 countries were entered in the event.

Two Israeli wineries won coveted Regional Trophies. The Adir Winery in the Galilee and the Yarden Golan Heights Winery in the Golan both took a Regional prize.

Another winery that did well for itself was the Har Bracha boutique winery in Samaria (Shomron). The relatively young winery came away with a silver medal for its 2011 Petite Sirah and a bronze medal for its 2009 Highlander Cabernet Sauvignon Gold.

In recent years wine production has become increasingly popular in Judea and Samaria. Farmers in the region have discovered that its altitude, climate and soil are all well suited for producing excellent vineyards.

There are now seven wineries in Samaria: the Tura winery in Rachelim, the Har Bracha winery, the Porat Yosef winery in Yitzhar, the Gat Shomron winery in Karnei Shomron, the Givat Arnon boutique winery in Itamar, a winery on Tekuma hill in Yitzhar, and a winery in Shaarei Tikva that focuses on export.

The Har Bracha winery was established ten years ago by Shira and Nir Lavie. The couple created their own winery after discovering the high demand among wineries for the grapes they were producing. The winery now produces roughly 30,000 bottles a year.

My local wine shop has a wine from Yarden. It was quite good, as I recall. I’m getting more. That French bilge is overrated anyway.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Labor unions are breaking with President Obama on ObamaCare.
Months after the president’s reelection, a variety of unions are publicly balking at how the administration plans to implement the landmark law. They warn that unless there are changes, the results could be catastrophic.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) — a 1.3 million-member labor group that twice endorsed Obama for president — is very worried about how the reform law will affect its members’ healthcare plans.

Last month, the president of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers released a statement calling “for repeal or complete reform of the Affordable Care Act.”
UNITE HERE, a prominent hotel workers’ union, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are also pushing for changes.

In a new op-ed published in The Hill, UFCW President Joe Hansen homed in on the president’s speech at the 2009 AFL-CIO convention. Obama at the time said union members could keep their insurance under the law, but Hansen writes “that the president’s statement to labor in 2009 is simply not true for millions of workers.”

Republicans have long attacked Obama’s promise that “nothing in this plan will require you to change your coverage or your doctor.” But the fact that unions are now noting it as well is a clear sign that supporters of the law are growing anxious about the law’s implementation.

These guys are suckers. They bought Hope ‘n Change, Yes We Can, Yes We Did.. and Now They’re Screwed.

- Aggie

The IRS, never anyone’s favorite jackbooted thugs, isn’t exactly riding a wave of popularity these days.

Which is why the timing of this hearing is so comical:

You almost have to admire Carl Levin’s timing. Amid a furor over politicized IRS tax enforcement, the Michigan Democrat on Tuesday tried to change the subject to a hardy Washington perennial—corporate tax loopholes. Too bad his designated business pinata, Apple, demonstrates instead the insanity of the tax code that Mr. Levin has done so much to write.

Mr. Levin unveiled the results of his months-long investigation into Apple’s corporate taxes and accused the American business success of employing “alchemy” and “gimmickry” to lower its tax bill. What Mr. Levin did not do was present any evidence of anything illegal or even inappropriate. He did prove that Apple has smart accountants and tax lawyers.

Mr. Levin is outraged that Apple subsidiaries in Ireland pay little or no corporate income tax on profits generated from Apple’s international sales. Ireland has a laudably low corporate tax rate of 12.5% to attract jobs and capital, but it turns out that for certain corporations controlled by entities outside Ireland, the deal gets better.

The Apple units are based in Ireland, so U.S. law does not consider them to be U.S. corporations subject to U.S. corporate tax. But since they are managed and controlled by Apple in the U.S., Irish law doesn’t consider them Irish companies and thus they are also not subject to the 12.5% Irish corporate tax. This isn’t alchemy; it’s accountancy.

Quite. To paraphrase another Democrat statist, you have to pass the tax bills to find out what’s in them.

This saying seems apt: “If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table.”

Levin said that because of the lost revenue, “children across the country won’t get early education form Head Start. Needy seniors will go without meals. Fighter jets sit idle on tarmacs because our military lacks the funding to keep pilots trained.”

Thank you, Apple, for not wasting your profits funding Head Start—which has been demonstrated to be useless!

The kangaroo court did provide one benefit to society: here is one of the greatest displays of oratory in the history of Congress.

I am offended by the tone and tenor of this hearing. I am offended by a $4 trillion government bullying, berating and badgering one of America’s greatest success stories.

Tell me one of these politicians up here that doesn’t minimize their taxes. Tell me a chief financial officer that you would hire if he didn’t try to minimize your taxes legally. Tell me what Apple has done that is illegal.

I am offended by a government that uses the IRS to bully groups such as the Tea Party but I am also offended by a government that convenes a hearing to bully one of American’s success stories.

I am offended by the spectacle of dragging in here executives from an American company that is not doing anything illegal. If anyone should be on trial here, it should be Congress.

I frankly think the Committee should apologize to Apple. I frankly think Congress should be on trial here for creating a bizarre and byzantine tax code that runs into the tens of thousands of pages, for creating a tax code that simply doesn’t compete with the rest of the world.

This committee will admit: Apple has not broken any laws. Yet, they are forced into a show trial at the whims of politicians, when in fact; Congress should be on trial for chasing the profits of great American companies overseas. You haul before this committee one of America’s greatest success stories and you want applause?

I say, instead of Apple executives, you should have brought in a giant mirror, so we could look at the reflection of Congress because this problem is solely and completely created by the awful tax code.

If you want to assign blame, the Committee needs to look in the mirror and see who created this mess, see who created the tax code that drives American companies overseas.

Our corporate tax is more than double Canada’s. I never thought I would be complimenting Canada’s tax code – our tax code is double Canada’s. Our corporate tax is over ten points higher than Europe. Instead of saying theirs is too low, why don’t we set about to work that ours is too high.

…

I would say what we really need to do is to apologize to Apple, compliment them for the job creation they are doing, and get about doing our job.

Look in the mirror and let’s make the tax code better, fairer, and more competitive world-wide. Money goes where it is welcome and currently our tax code makes money not welcome in our country.

I’m not officially endorsing Rand Paul for president, but surely that’s the kind of language Republicans should be speaking.

Try not to let this story destroy your faith in socialized medicine:

Employers are increasingly recognizing they may be able to avoid certain penalties under the federal health law by offering very limited plans that can lack key benefits such as hospital coverage.

Benefits advisers and insurance brokers—bucking a commonly held expectation that the law would broadly enrich benefits—are pitching these low-benefit plans around the country. They cover minimal requirements such as preventive services, but often little more. Some of the plans wouldn’t cover surgery, X-rays or prenatal care at all. Others will be paired with limited packages to cover additional services, for instance, $100 a day for a hospital visit.

Federal officials say this type of plan, in concept, would appear to qualify as acceptable minimum coverage under the law, and let most employers avoid an across-the-workforce $2,000-per-worker penalty for firms that offer nothing. Employers could still face other penalties they anticipate would be far less costly.

Who needs prenatal care? Not me! Hahahahahaha!!!! Hey, I bet “Dr.” Gosnell would work cheap! Snort!!

And $100 a day should more than cover hospital expenses—in East Jesus, West Virginia! Hohohohoho!!!

The idea that such plans would be allowable under the law has emerged only recently. Some benefits advisers still feel they could face regulatory uncertainty. The law requires employers with 50 or more workers to offer coverage to their workers or pay a penalty. Many employers and benefits experts have understood the rules to require robust insurance, covering a list of “essential” benefits such as mental-health services and a high percentage of workers’ overall costs. Many employers, particularly in low-wage industries, worry about whether they—or their workers—can afford it.

But a close reading of the rules makes it clear that those mandates affect only plans sponsored by insurers that are sold to small businesses and individuals, federal officials confirm. That affects only about 30 million of the more than 160 million people with private insurance, including 19 million people covered by employers, according to a Citigroup Inc. report. Larger employers, generally with more than 50 workers, need cover only preventive services, without a lifetime or annual dollar-value limit, in order to avoid the across-the-workforce penalty.

I have to admit I get a little lost in the numbers. Either 19 million of us are facing an ObamaCare future without surgery (he tried to sell us on the blue pill and the red pill!), or 130 million without x-rays. But at this point, it’s just a statistic—as Joseph Stalin might have said.

Now, I bet you’re wondering: what else could go wrong?

That’s why we love our readers and our readers love us: you ask, we provide:

A subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform held a hearing today on the government’s Obamacare “outreach” program. Obamacare authorizes the government to provide information to the uninsured, and to assist them in obtaining insurance, through the use of “navigators.”

…

The context is this: Obamacare is predicated on inducing young, healthy people, for whom purchasing insurance may not be the best cost-benefit option, to enter the insurance market and subsidize older, not-so-healthy people. Moreover, the Obamacare penalty (I mean, tax) for not purchasing insurance may be insufficient inducement, given that the cost of a policy may well exceed the amount of the “tax.”

In this setting, outreach becomes a tricky proposition. Will those who are conducting it (the “navigators”), for the avowed purpose of maximizing participation, present a fair and balanced picture to the uninsured? Cohen testified that they will answer all questions honestly, but will not volunteer the fact that the Obamacare penalty exceeds the cost of purchasing insurance.

Quite apart from the question of whether buying insurance is in the interest of the individual subject to outreach, it is important that navigators be honest, well-versed in insurance issues, and familiar with the tax implications of Obamacare (a citizen can find himself in big trouble if his relevant status changes in a given year and he fails to report the change to the IRS).

But Cohen admitted that under the regulations his agency is developing, navigators will receive only 20 to 30 hours of training through an online course. Furthermore, CMS apparently (1) will not require that navigators have a high school diploma, (2) will not require background checks of navigators, (3) will not automatically exclude felons, (4) will not automatically exclude individuals with prior involvement in identity theft, and (5) will not require that navigators have insurance to cover giving incorrect information about tax consequences. Nor, as a general matter, will navigators be subject to the standards applicable to census takers.

Yet navigators will have access to sensitive personal information about the citizens they assist. Although they are not charged with collecting information, they will help individuals fill out forms that contain personal information, such as social security numbers. Thus, they can obtain this information and, if they choose, use it or pass it along to others.

Individual navigators will be selected by organizations designated by CMS. Cohen testified that, naturally enough, CMS will look for organizations with experience working in the particular community in question, and for organizations that reflect the demographic characteristics of the community.

To me, that sounds a lot like “community organizers.” Accordingly, congressional Republicans are right to be concerned that some navigators will be use that status for purposes of partisan mischief.

I really don’t know what to say. Except to observe how apropos it is that such a “train wreck” as ObamaCare will rely on “navigators”.

And to add this: while I believe in a two-party (even multi-party) system, today’s Democratic Party should be disbanded. It stands for nothing but its own gain; and in doing so, it burdens us with IRS abuses, immigration “reform”, and ObamaCare. Three strikes and you’re out. Seventy-eight strikes and you’re out for good.