Supreme Court rules insurers can collect $12 billion under health care law

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that insurance companies can collect $12 billion from the federal government to cover their losses in the early years of the health care law championed by President Barack Obama.

Insurers are entitled to the money under a provision of the “Obamacare” health law that promised the companies a financial cushion for losses they might incur by selling coverage to people in the marketplaces created by the health care law, the justices said by an 8-1 vote.

The program only lasted three years, but Congress inserted a provision in the Health and Human Services Department’s spending bills from 2015 to 2017 to limit payments under the “risk corridors” program. Both the Obama and Trump administrations had argued that the provision means the government has no obligation to pay.

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her opinion for the court that the congressional action was not sufficient to repeal the government’s commitment to pay. “These holdings reflect a principle as old as the

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/supreme-court-rules-insurers-can-collect-12-billion-under-health-care-law

6 Times Ex-AG Eric Holder’s Conduct Was an Embarrassment

Obama's wingman lol
It sounds like they went bar hopping to pickup chicks
Just " Two wild and crazy guys'

The audacious Obama “wingman” condemned Attorney General Bill Barr’s conduct during the hearing Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary and accused him of protecting the President. That was very ironic and extraordinarily hypocritical. As one who was and is an embarrassment, he should stop throwing stones at others.

Eric Holder

✔@EricHolder

The conduct of AG Barr over the last few weeks and in the hearing today has been shown to be unacceptable. I thought he was an institutionalist, committed to both the rule of law and his role as the lawyer for the American people. I was very wrong. He is protecting the President.

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SIX REASONS HOLDER’S CONDUCT IS EMBARRASSING, HUMILIATING IN FACT

Two Wild & Crazy Guys

Obama's Slush Fund Quietly Funneled Billions of Taxpayer Dollars to Liberal Groups

Half of America in poverty? The facts say It's true

Lol aand we wonder why nothing can get fixed

Recent reports suggest that almost 50% of Americans are in poverty or at a "low income" level. The claim is based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that includes health care, transportation, and other essential living expenses in the poverty calculation.

Most people in poverty wish they had a house and $30,000 dollars.

The concept of "low income" is controversial. It has been defined as earnings between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, a claim which, if true, would place every American family making $50,000 or less at a near-poverty level.

Conservative organizations believe the whole 'poverty' issue is overblown. The Cato Institute blames LBJ and Obama for reversing a declining poverty rate. Forbes blames the calculations. The Heritage Foundation argues, "The average poor person, as defined by the government, has a living standard far higher than the public imagines...In the kitchen, the household had a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave." The case for a growing "consumption equality" is alternately defended and denied.

With emotions running high on both sides,

Democrats change platform to add God, Jerusalem

Unbelievable
It will be a long time before this disaster is forgotten

Needled by Mitt Romney and other Republicans, Democrats hurriedly rewrote their convention platform Wednesday to add a mention of God and declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel after President Barack Obama intervened to order the changes.

The embarrassing reversal was compounded by chaos and uncertainty on the convention floor, requiring three votes before a ruling that the amendments had been approved. Many in the audience booed the decision.

Correspondence and collusion between the New York Times and the CIA

And just like that an understanding is born,
Journalism was our only resource of being able to "check the power"
The conglomeration of network communications (think the likes of Rupert Murdock here) has ensured the fact that we shall never have that ability to "power check" again, without a fight every step of the way, in trying to do so.

Mark Mazzetti's emails with the CIA expose the degradation of journalism that has lost the imperative to be a check to power

The rightwing transparency group, Judicial Watch, released Tuesday a new batch of documents showing how eagerly the Obama administration shoveled information to Hollywood film-makers about the Bin Laden raid. Obama officials did so to enable the production of a politically beneficial pre-election film about that "heroic" killing, even as administration lawyers insisted to federal courts and media outlets that no disclosure was permissible because the raid was classified.

Thanks to prior disclosures from Judicial Watch of documents it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, this is old news. That's what the Obama administration chronically does: it manipulates secrecy powers to prevent accountability in a court of law, while leaking at will about the same programs in order to glorify the president.

But what is news in this disclosure are the newly released emails between Mark Mazzetti, the New York Times's national security and intelligence reporter, and CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf. The CIA had evidently heard that Maureen Dowd was planning to write a column on the CIA's role in pumping the film-makers with information about the Bin Laden raid in order to

Obama visit: Outsourcing, visa fee on menu

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_obama-visit-outsourcing-visa-fee-on-menu_1462444

Warning: reading the second to the last paragraph, will make you violently ill, due to the cost(taxpayers) of a clause.


India will be on a mission to persuade Barack Obama to change his anti-outsourcing stand during the US president’s visit to India starting this weekend. The hike in visa fees will, as a consequence, be discussed.

Regional terrorism will also be on the talks table. The Obama administration had increased visa fees for outsourcing-oriented US firms on the plea that they were bringing in thousands of Indians to replace local workers.

The US government’s decision to increase fees by at least $2,000 on certain types of H1B visas mainly used by Indian IT professionals has been an issue of concern for India

The US is not happy with a clause in the nuclear civil liability law that makes suppliers and operators liable for paying up for accidents.

According to Rao, representatives of the department of atomic energy and the nuclear power corporation of India will meet US nuclear energy companies to address their.

34 warships sent from US for Obama visit

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/34-warships-sent-from-us-for-obama-visit-64459?cp

I'm thinking it would have been a little bit cheaper for Obama to just pickup the phone.
I mean "WE" are a little short on cash lately and that credit card bill is already a whopper.
But "the Man" is on an important mission.
To make sure the ass of evil is covered.
Make sure you read this one, "Obama visit: Outsourcing, visa fee on menu"
It'll make you puke.




Communications set-up and nuclear button and majority of the White House staff will be in India accompanying the President on this three-day visit that will cover Mumbai and Delhi.

He will also be protected by a fleet of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, which will patrol the sea lanes off the Mumbai coast during his two-day stay there beginning Saturday

Obama is expected to fly by a helicopter -- Marine One -- from the city airport to the Indian Navy's helibase INS Shikra at Colaba in south Mumbai.

Two jets, armed with advanced communication and security systems, and a fleet of over 40 cars will be part of Obama's convoy.

Around 800 rooms have been booked for the President and his entourage in Taj Hotel and Hyatt.

The President will have a security ring of American elite Secret Service, which are tasked to guard the President, along with National Security Guards (NSG) and personnel from central paramilitary forces and local police in Mumbai and Delhi.

Obama visit: All eyes on Taj as O-Day nears

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_obama-visit-all-eyes-on-taj-as-o-day-nears_1462418

Well it looks like it's not just the American taxpayer that's going to get screwed by Obama's flight of fancy.

Security arrangements at Taj just don’t seem to be coming to an end. While security inside the hotel makes one feel that even air couldn’t possibly pass inside without permission, its outer walls too has been gifted many eyes to ensure flawless surveillance. There are 16 CCTV cameras installed all around Taj and the number may go up if need arises.

The cameras are not limited just to Taj’s exteriors and the Gateway premises.

Also, the police have already requested restaurants and hotels near Taj Mahal Palace to install CCTV cameras and metal detectors.

Don't believe the hype

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Obama-Consumers-lose-if-apf-1043447495.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=

Neither party is looking out for you.
Congress exempts, on both a state, and a federal level, any type of regulation for trading derivative because the people trading them might not like it and leave, and that would take away a competitive edge.
So the big car wreck happen because boys will be boys and don't always know their own limitations or at least that's what they told us was the reason for the 2008 crash anyway. ( I have serious doubts, about the "intent" of those "boys").
So congress hims & haws around and coughs up a package that has a special condition for the good ole "boys", to be able to by pass the rules.
Because what ever Wall Street wants Wall Street get, courtesy of our Congress, no matter what the consequences are, to Main Street.


President Barack Obama says consumers would lose if Republicans regain power in Congress and try to roll back his hard-won Wall Street overhaul.

He says the GOP's promised repeal of the law would mean the return of a financial system whose near-collapse led to the worst recession since the Depression.

"Without sound oversight and commonsense protections for consumers, the whole economy is put in jeopardy," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.

http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=willa_gibson


This paper discusses the efficiency of proposed Congressional legislation to regulate the Over-the-Counter (OTC) derivatives market in light of the provision in the legislation that effectively exempts customized OTC derivatives contracts from clearing requirements and exchange trading. The exemption allows OTC derivatives dealers trading customized contracts to continue trading in the same opaque markets in which they engaged in rent seeking behavior that almost led to the collapse of the financial markets. The manuscript discusses why Congress has proposed these exemptions, why the exemption creates economic inefficiencies

Systemic Risk Posed by OTC Derivates Trading
OTC derivatives trades were largely exempt from state and federal regulation in 2000 by Congress’ enactment of the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000.11 Congress exempted OTC derivatives from regulation because it was concerned that regulation of the market would cause OTC derivatives business to migrate to foreign markets with less regulation causing the U.S. to lose their competitive position. 12 Yet, many have pointed to Congress’ decision in 2000 to exempt such transactions from regulation as a significant factor contributing to the Great Recession of 2008

Federal Employee Health Benefits: Dogs, Yes; Gay Partners, No

http://www.allgov.com/Unusual_News/ViewNews/Federal_Employee_Health_Benefits__Dogs_Yes_Gay_Partners_No_101018

I'm thinking Barney Frank doesn't know about this, or he'd be really pissed.

Homosexual, bisexual and transgender employees of the federal government can’t even treat their partners like a dog. That’s because under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, a worker has the option of buying health coverage for their canine companion, but not for a domestic partner, thanks to the Defense of Marriage Act that banned gay marriage in 1996.

President Barack Obama has said he supports repealing the anti-gay marriage law, but hasn’t pushed Congress to do so. As a matter of fact, his Department of Justice continues to defend it in court.

Pentagon Will Help Homeland Security Department Fight Domestic Cyberattacks

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/us/21cyber.html?src=mv

So is it REALLY the military, or is it a subcontractor.
Because from what I understand the military no longer does it's own technical work, because it's to expensive to train because of the rapidly changing technology.
This stinks to high heaven and I hope someone is looking into it.
Posse Comentadas says this is a big time no no

The Obama administration has adopted new procedures for using the Defense Department’s vast array of cyberwarfare capabilities in case of an attack on vital computer networks inside the United States, delicately navigating historic rules that restrict military action on American soil.

Computer Security (Cybersecurity)The system would mirror that used when the military is called on in natural disasters like hurricanes or wildfires. A presidential order dispatches the military forces, working under the control of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Under the new rules, the president would approve the use of the military’s expertise in computer-network warfare, and the Department of Homeland Security would direct the work.

The rules were detailed in a memorandum of agreement signed in late September by Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, but they were not released until last week.

Robert J. Butler, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for cyber policy, said the memorandum was intended to cut through legal debates about the authority for operating domestically, and to focus on how best to respond to the threat of attack on critical computer networks.

Mr. Butler said teams of lawyers would watch for potential violations of civil liberties

Residents of Tightwad offer Barack Obama lessons on balancing a budget

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/us-politics/8076649/Residents-of-Tightwad-offer-Barack-Obama-lessons-on-balancing-a-budget.html

Perhaps Obama will cancel his trip to India (head scarf thing) and instead make an educational trip of America, and the first place he could kick it off should be in Tightwad, to get the gist of how real people have to live.

The people of Tightwad, fed up with rampant government spending and a ballooning national debt, are offering Washington politicians a few lessons on how to balance a budget.

His friend Suzette Corpier, 47, a cook and an undecided voter, said: "I'd like to see President Obama walk through Tightwad and see how things are. I'd like to sit him down at my table. I have to calculate each portion according to what I can afford

Karl Denninger: The choice is yours

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=169697

November 1st for the day of choice is already making the rounds on the net.
Karl's right and nothing he is saying can be disputed.
America is dying before our eyes
And our government seems to be doing everything in it's power to make sure we actually do
Solidarity is a must
Our children deserve better, than whats going to be left for them

Charges And Specifications: An Open Question


It's time to cut the crap.

As was pointed out in an article that neatly summarized the last three and a half years of Tickers into one article published on the 14th, L. Randall Wray, Professor of Economics, said:

What President Obama must understand is that fraud is endemic at every level of the home finance food chain. We were long told that securitized mortgages cannot be modified because of the complexity involved—modification of most mortgages would require consent of the holders of the securities that each have a piece of the mortgage. But actually it is impossible to tell how many—if any—of these securities holders have a legitimate claim on any of the mortgages. Simply imposing a moratorium will not be enough—it will just give the banks time to manufacture false documents, encouraging even more fraud. Meanwhile, half of all homeowners with mortgages are already underwater or are within spitting distance of being underwater. Many of these are drowning because the epidemic of fraud perpetrated by financial institutions destroyed our economy and caused housing prices to collapse.That's right.

Here is my list of charges and specifications related to this. I will leave you all - including especially the politicians - with something to think about for a bit as well.

In no particular order:

The Mortgage Morass

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=NytimesKrugman

And where there is no clear property rights it's the governments job to create them.

But is it really the governments right to create property rights when contract law already exits?
Does contract law mean nothing in the United States?
The banks have no problem forcing you to hold your legal commitment to them.
They won't bargain with you if you need a better deal, they throw you out when you violate the terms of the agreement.
Does contract enforcement only count if your rich?
I don't think so.
The bank has violated the contract with the MBS investors, as well as the proper procedure for the documentation of it's legalities.
This time they have to clean up their own mess.
If it breaks them so be it.
It's called owning up to their own corporate responsibility.
They don't just get to run the world and change the laws retroactively that they choose to violate.

The accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom dispelled the myth of effective corporate governance. These days, the idea that our banks were well capitalized and supervised sounds like a sick joke. And now the mortgage mess is making nonsense of claims that we have effective contract enforcement — in fact, the question is whether our economy is governed by any kind of rule of law.

Now an awful truth is becoming apparent: In many cases, the documentation doesn’t exist. In the frenzy of the bubble, much home lending was undertaken by fly-by-night companies trying to generate as much volume as possible. These loans were sold off to mortgage “trusts,” which, in turn, sliced and diced them into mortgage-backed securities. The trusts were legally required to obtain and hold the mortgage notes that specified the borrowers’ obligations. But it’s now apparent that such niceties were frequently neglected. And this means that many of the foreclosures now taking place are, in fact, illegal.

This is very, very bad. For one thing, it’s a near certainty that significant numbers of borrowers are being defrauded — charged fees they don’t actually owe, declared in default when, by the terms of their loan agreements, they aren’t.

Beyond that, if trusts can’t produce proof that they actually own the mortgages against which they have been selling claims, the sponsors of these trusts will face lawsuits from investors who bought these claims — claims that are now, in many cases, worth only a small fraction of their face value.

And who are these sponsors? Major financial institutions — the same institutions supposedly rescued by government programs last year. So the mortgage mess threatens to produce another financial crisis.

The excesses of the bubble years have created a legal morass, in which property rights are ill defined because nobody has proper documentation. And where no clear property rights exist, it’s the government’s job to create them.

4closureFraud Exclusive – President Obama Falls Victim to Chase Robo-Signer

http://4closurefraud.org/2010/10/10/4closurefraud-exclusive-president-obama-falls-victim-to-chase-robo-signer/

I think David Axelrod may live to regret those words,
especially after the public finds out that Obama was the victim of Robo-signer.
Check it out kids, there is definitely no mistaking it.


“The Obama administration opposes a moratorium on home foreclosures, but wants problems involving improper paperwork resolved as quickly as possible, senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday.”I’m not sure about a national moratorium,”

Now the shit hits the fan

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101007/pl_nm/us_usa_housing_whitehouse

So Obama sent it back down, smart man.
He left the Congress looking like the Corporate ass kissing scum they are.
He ruled for the people.
If little Timmy drops TARP II, he plans on buying up all those homes that now can't be foreclosed on, on your dime.
This is a bank problem not a taxpayer problem.
Write Obama and tell him NO TARP II!
America can't afford it!
Inflation means higher groceries, electricity and gas.
We can't afford to take away any more of our own buying power from the dollar. If they put more debt on it, it just buys that much less.
Look how much your groceries have gone up in the last 2 months and there going to go up more to see if you can sustain buying it a higher price.
They all decided this at once, just to see if you'll pay more and keep paying more.
That's bullshit, it's a test drive before TARP II (bank bailout). To see if "WE" will put up with it.
Don't buy anything unless you have to.
It's called reversing the charges and letting the banks pay for it for once

Obama will not sign foreclosure bill: White House


WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will not sign legislation that could have made it more difficult for homeowners to challenge unjustified foreclosure actions, the White House said on Thursday.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said Obama was sending the bill back to the House of Representatives for further discussion of how it would affect the foreclosure crisis, which has become a political lightning rod amid media reports that banks acted improperly to evict struggling borrowers.

Bank foreclosure cover seen in bill at Obama's desk

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6955YX20101006?pageNumber=2

No, this actually will not affect the court rulings about MERS, but what it will do is allow alot of people who fraud and perjury to get away with it.
If the president passes this bill his impeachment will be called for by the "people" of the United States. They do understand fully what his signature on this bill would mean, that he himself as well as Congress are
aiding and abetting the banks in committing federal crimes against the "people" of this nation.
What's the most disgusting part of it is that the head of the Judiciary committee is the one who submitted it for a vote. Either he is damned stupid or one arrogant son of a bitch.

The House had passed the bill in April. The House actually had passed identical bills twice before, but both times they died when the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to act.

Some House and Senate staffers said the Senate committee had let the bills languish because of concerns that they would interfere with individual state's rights to regulate notarizations.

Senate staffers familiar with the judiciary committee's actions said the latest one passed by the House seemed destined for the same fate. But shortly before the Senate's recess, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy pressed to have the bill rushed through the special procedure, after Leahy "constituents" called him and pressed for passage.

The staffers said they didn't know who these constituents were or if anyone representing the mortgage industry or other interests had pressed for the bill to go through.

These staffers said that, in an unusual display of bipartisanship, Senator Jeff Sessions, the committee's senior Republican, also helped to engineer the Senate's unanimous consent for the bill.

Neither Leahy's nor Session's offices responded to requests for comment Wednesday.

In background interviews, several Senate staffers denied that it would have any adverse effect on the legal rights of homeowners

New York to change street signs for $27 million

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8035062/New-York-to-change-street-signs-for-27-million.html

The change you can believe in, and the costs that must be incurred by your State to do it.
I can't even find the sense in the reasoning given for it.
It's just another waste of money that the states don't already have.


New York’s capital-lettered street signs are to be replaced with new lower-cased versions, at a cost to the public of $27 million (£17 million).


City hall bosses are changing all 250,900 signs across New York, to comply with new guidelines introduced by Barack Obama’s government.

The Federal Highway Administration says the change should help prevent road accidents because lower-cased letters with wider spacing are easier to read, meaning drivers can keep their eyes on the road.


However, the costly change — which was opposed by New York and four other states

Introducing the new regulations, Ray LaHood, Mr Obama’s Transportation Secretary, said: “These new and updated standards will help make our nation’s roads and bridges safer for drivers, construction workers and pedestrians alike

Buffett to taxpayers: Get over your anger

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100924/MONEY/709249917

Well Warren, I suppose "WE" would get over it, if companies like yours (Wells Fargo) weren't benefiting from all those necessary measures that the government is plying, and that the "Taxpayer" is responsible for paying back.
You see it as a recession Warren, just a little setback for the timing of your game plans, but the average American views it as a depression, with little or no hope at all of climbing back out of.
Warren why don't you help alay America's fears and give all your worldly gain to help pay off the National Debt?
Maybe then the country could start to "Get over it"

Taxpayer anger against President Barack Obama and Congress is counterproductive because policy makers took measures including deficit spending to stimulate the economy, billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC.

“Sentiment has turned very sour in the last three or four or five months,” the chairman and CEO of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said in an interview broadcast Thursday.

“I hope we get over it pretty soon, because it’s not productive,’’ Buffett said. “We will come back regardless of how people feel about Washington, but it is not helpful to have people as unhappy as they are about what’s going on in Washington.”