Sibyl Mikell, laid off after 34 years on the job at the Mississippi River docks
In a scenario that could only (by the media) be pinned on an evil republican like Mitt Romney, what would you call it when the Obama administration outsources jobs that cause 42 blind workers in New Orleans to lose theirs?
A government program called AbilityOne, is a program that awards government contracts to nonprofits that employ the disabled to produce basic products for the military. A noble program for sure. Especially so when President Obama keeps saying how he won’t rest until everyone who wants a job can get a job. And how outsourcing jobs is un-patriotic. How ironic it is to learn that the administration cares about the economies in Asia over our own, and will take jobs away from workers here to give to people there?
This operation is an integral part of AbilityOne, a program that awards government contracts to nonprofits that employ blind and disabled people to produce basic products for the military. But Ms. Mikell and 42 coworkers were recently and abruptly laid off from their jobs at Lighthouse for the Blind in New Orleans because of a little-known change in federal procurement rules that encourages military forces in Afghanistan to buy from manufacturers and brokers in Central Asia.
“The fact is, the people feeling the impact are the most underemployed people in our country,” said Renee Vidrine, president of Lighthouse for the Blind, who said the changes break both the intent and the letter of the law.
Aside from what President Obama might call a “boneheaded decision,” the lesson here for everyone leading up to the mid-term election is this, what government gives you, government can take away.
Meanwhile, where is the outrage? Where is the so-called media watchdog?
While Democrats hold true to their normal campaign strategy, that Republicans . . .
are bad and want to hurt you
don’t like Blacks and Hispanics
don’t want to give you stuff
want you to lose your “health care”
are religious zealots, bigots, xenophobes, and homophobes
and, want to look inside your vagina
I’m still waiting for the Republican party to come up with a platform that republicans can get behind. One that will attract those disaffected by the party, instead of one designed to attract democrats. So far, all I’m seeing is Republicans spending as much, if not more, energy fighting other republicans than the other party.
With less than a month to go before the mid-term elections, here’s a platform that would have broad appeal, and shallow enough to get the low-information voter. Staying home on election day, or voting for the same party and expecting a different result, isn’t a strategy. Vote Republican, because the Democrat’s plan doesn’t work. If you think things can’t get any worse, vote for a Democrat and find out. Vote for a Republican, what else have you got to lose?
The impression this image and statement gave me was rather profound. One of those truths of life. But of course, not everyone agrees. America exceptionalism isn’t just a phrase, it is unique to America.
That’s why I want to share a reaction of a FB “friend” who (I think) lives in India. Gita Sabet Azm thinks capitalism is the world’s worst.
i believed Communism was the most dirty system but now i believe capitalism is the most corrupt and dirty system.there is one big problem in our world ,people who live under communism system admitted their system is bad and has a lot of problems ,but American without any knowledge believe capitalism is the best and insisting in their idea .i am really sorry for them
To which I responded
There are “problems” with any system that is run by people. Systems run by law generally do better by, and for, the people, compared to systems run by dictators or despots. The basis of capitalism is freedom, liberty, and private property rights. They don’t have to be insisted upon or forced upon anyone. They are things that people want, especially when they don’t have them. If you ask me, the solution to poverty around the world is capitalism. When everyone has a stake in their own future and in their own production, and their own property, everyone benefits. Control and ownership by the state is not required. If you were to consider how the United States became a superpower, by any measure, in less than 200 years, you would have to conclude that freedom, liberty, private property rights, and a government created by the people to guarantee those rights and limit what the government can do, instead of a government that limits what the people can do, are central to the success of both the country and its people as a whole.
Of course that’s just my opinion. I’d like to know from Gita what her conclusion is to the rise of the American experience if it isn’t about freedom, liberty, private property rights, and limited government? And if you see it differently than I, please let us all know in a comment below.
Running out of topics to brag about and ways to spin them just before the mid-term elections, President Obama is up to his usual community organizer tactics. This time, telling us that his economy is better now than when he took office. Maybe in his own mind, but nowhere else.
The record national debt aside, President Obama ignores the trillions of dollars in government spending and conflates that with economic growth. Government spending is not the U.S. economy. It’s government spending. The U.S. economy is private sector business transactions.
Reality is the economy is not healthy. In fact, the economy is at half-mast. How could that be when the Dept. of Labor reports a decrease in unemployment to 5.9%, you ask? It is because the Dept. of Labor did not count 698,000 unemployed Americans as being unemployed. And for as much as President Obama cares, they may as well be dead. He can’t run on killing 698,000 Americans. He can run on an unemployment rate of 5.9%.
Taking into account those 698,000 Americans and all the millions of other Americans that the Dept. of Labor stopped counting, the real unemployment rate (knows as the U-6) is exactly double what the administration is touting as their great success, 11.8%. And long term unemployment comprises one-third of all those unemployed. Try running and campaigning on that Mr. President.
Today, the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics released their weekly jobs data. They report that 248,000 jobs were created in the month of September. Disconnected from that number is the number of new jobless claims from the DOL which were 287,000 for the week ending September 27. According to the Dept. of Labor, the seasonally adjusted 4-week moving average ending September 27 was 294,750. That amounts to 1,179,000 jobs lost in the 4-weeks ending Sept. 27. Here’s a picture of Obama’s economic success. 248,000 jobs created (most of them a second job), and 1.18 million jobs lost. For those educated in a government school, or the hopelessly devoted Obama acolyte, that’s a net job loss of 931,000 jobs.
So NO, the economy is not doing well. Armed with the truth, watch how the president will tell you with a straight face how well it (he) is doing.
After long anticipation, the wait is finally over. The new indoor shooting range on Rt 29 will celebrate their Grand Opening with a four-day event starting Thursday October 2 and continuing through Sunday.
Located in the former Leisure Time RV property, the range is a ground-up brand new facility. 10 lanes, air conditioned, with state of the art sound-proofing. There are video cameras on each lane and a large monitor in the lobby where you can watch the shooters and their targets, which have their own cameras.
Rumor also has it that on Friday there will be sandwiches provided by Philly’s Cheesesteaks & Hoagies. So come and check it out. There is always a certified range officer there to ensure safe range operations and help shooters with whatever questions they may have. I know, they helped me improve my shooting accuracy and technique, novice that I am, so I know they can help you too.
Come Visit Our Fully Stocked Gun Pro Shop For New & Used Firearms, Accessories, and Ammunition!
How do you get “increase efficiency and cost savings?” According to our community organizer president, you do it by increasing labor cost on contractors. You heard it right. You save costs, by raising them. By Executive Order 13568. But only to contractors doing business with the federal government. According to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, the executive order, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015, will benefit “hundreds of thousands of workers.” A little over two of them. The president says 2,000,000 but, you have to consider the source.
What this amounts to is political fluff, throwing a bone to the low-information crowd, giving the appearance that he’s helping the “working people.” There’s no point in trying to improve the economy now. There never was. There’s an election coming.
It is no longer even arguable that this administration is hell-bent on not securing our border while telling us that it’s never been more secure. One day after posting this On Immigration, Show Me The Metrics, there were four terrorists caught on the Texas border, two each from two different locations. That was on Septermber 10th. One day before the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack.
It was that attack that begat the Department of Homeland Security cabinet position. The purpose of that multi-billion dollar bureaucracy was to streamline communication on threats or potential threats, and to protect the country. So one would think that the capture of four terrorists would elevate to the level and interest of DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson to jump on the details and tell his boss, the president. No way.
His response at a House Homeland Security meeting yesterday was . . .
Chaffetz: “Since you took office, Secretary Johnson, on December 23, are you aware of any apprehensions of suspected or known terrorists who were trying to come to our country illegally?”
Johnson: “Umm. That’s an important question. Uh, attempting to come to this country?”
Chaffetz: “Who came across our border illegally. Did you ever apprehend anybody who was a known terrorist, a suspected terrorist, somebody who had ties to a terrorist organization?”
Johnson: “Sitting here right now, um, no specific case comes to mind; that doesn’t mean there is none. Um, uh, perhaps, perhaps Director Comey can think of one. Siting here right now none comes to mind but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. Nor does that mean there’s no investigation of one either.”
Chaffetz: “I have reason to believe that on September 10th there were actually four individuals trying to cross through the Texas border, who were apprehended at two different stations that do have ties to known terrorist organizations in the Middle East. Are you aware of that?
Johnson: “Uh, I’ve heard reports to that effect. Uh, I don’t know the accuracy of the reports, or uh, how much creedence to give them. But I’ve heard reports to that effect.
As if that incompetence isn’t enough, an internal (as in we’re not supposed to know the truth) DHS report shows these disturbing metrics.
During the 351 days of fiscal year 2014, there were 466,000 apprehensions of illegals, also 157,012 illegals that “got away,” and 142,630 individuals that were reported “turn backs”. The compilation of apprehensions represented people from 143 different countries. Additionally, the sensors that are placed in locations primarily in the southwest, recorded a jump of over 1,000,000 hits from fiscal year 2013 until now.
Think that’s bad? It’s worse. Much worse.
According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report mentioned by Congressman Chaffetz, there is only a 6% operational control of our border. Which means, the numbers quoted above are likely only a very small representation of the real traffic of illegals from all across the world, including the Middle East, which are easily gaining access to our country.
Chaffetz: “Previously the GAO had indicated that there was only a 6% operational control of the border. What percentage, what is the operational control of the border at this time?”
Johnson: “Um, I don’t have that number off-hand. I do agree with you that the challenge of those coming from countries other than Mexico, particularly into the Rio Grand Valley sector is one I’m very concerned about. It’s something I’ve been concerned about since taking office in January. I’ve seen it myself at our detention center in Brownsville when I visited there in January. There were something like 80 nationalities of illegal migrants present there.
Not only is the administration not taking their job seriously, in the last 13 years, they’ve made no attempt to secure the border.
The explanation is horribly simple. The protection and security of the country is secondary to the protection and security of the Democratic party.
Remember how quick the Obama administration was to tout the Obamacare enrollment numbers, that they wanted to? Of course, they still don’t know (or are not saying) how many new insureds there are as opposed to those who bought into the plan because they could not keep the policy they liked.
Now the house of cards is beginning to fall. Out of the eight million enrollees, 2.5 million are in limbo due to incomplete immigration and/or income status verification.
The Obama administration on Monday said 115,000 people in 36 states could lose their private health insurance under Obamacare after Sept. 30, because of unresolved data problems involving their citizenship or immigration status.
Another 363,000 people could see their insurance costs change, due to problems involving income data that is used to determine whether enrollees qualify for federal subsidies to help pay premiums on health plans obtained through the federal insurance marketplace, according to the administration.
Long story short, the fraud that was perpetrated both by the administration and those lying about their income and immigration status is bubbling to the top. Let’s not forget whose problem this is. It is ALL Democrats that voted for it. ZERO Republicans. Americans deserve better. We deserve an honest, open, and transparent government, and this bunch is not delivering. Not only are they not delivering, they have ruined the best (albeit not beyond improvement) health care delivery system and health insurance industry in the world, just for the sake of their ideology of having a single-payer (socialized) health care system.
What’s astonishing (not really) is the media’s take on this. The WSJ video in the link below, says “immigrants” have “missed the deadline” to verify their status. There is no deadline that an illegal alien can make. Ever.
Waiting with baited breath to hear from the CDC, the answer to these two questions. Is this strain of the subject virus found in any of the Central American countries? If you don’t know, then is there an effort being made to do the testing down there to find out if that strain exists down there?
Since we’re dealing with the Obama administration, I’m really not expecting a truthful response, if I even get a response. Regardless, there ought to be some biologists, or whatever they are called, that can go to Guatamala, Equador, Mexico, and the rest of the countries that are illegally flooding our borders, and do the science to see if this strain exists there.
The Connecticut Department of Public Health reported that there have been 97 confirmed cases of EV- D68 across the U.S. since mid-August, FOX CT reported.
“We’re starting to see a few just in the last day or so, where I’m really suspicious that’s what’s happening,” Dr. Nicholas Bennett of the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, told FOX CT. “I guess the concern about the virus is how quickly and how severely the kids have been affected with their breathing.”
The NYS Department of Health also revealed in the statement that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC has been closely working with health departments in several states “to investigate suspected clusters of respiratory illness.”
One thing is certain. There seems to be zero reporting about any connection of this “new” disease with the new illegals that Barack (the Coyote) Obama is shipping all over this country.
UPDATE 9/19/2014: I did receive a reply from the CDC today.
What it says to me is that an inquiry to the Pan American Health Organization is in order. The international program set up to find and report infectious diseases is voluntary. And according to the CDC, no country in Central America has the technology to test for EV- D68. Only labs in the United States do. Which would explain why there are no reported cases in Central America. It does not mean that there are none.
What I do not know at this time is whether any Central American countries have requested the services of the PAHO “to perform enterovirus typing.”
The pull quote from their email is this . . .
[I]t is most likely that the virus could be circulating there but in low numbers, undetected.
Below is the reply from the CDC.
Hi Ross,
Thank you for your inquiry. From the scientific publications published to date, we are not aware of any EV-D68 detection in countries from Central America. However, it is most likely that the virus could be circulating there but in low numbers, undetected. The Pan American Health Organization has enlisted the help of our laboratory here at CDC to perform enterovirus typing for any country in South or Central America that requests it. In addition, CDC currently has developed the Global Disease Detection Program to help other countries identify and detect new illnesses.
You can find more information about CDC’s Global Detection Program and our site in Guatemala here:
Great find Cosmic Girl. If news reporting (or lack thereof) of EV-D68 is any indication, apparently not. But with the open borders agenda of this administration, and the passing of illegals (children included) from one coyote to another, this administration knows this, and is mute about it. Especially before the mid-terms. Because sacrificing America’s health is second string to Democrats retaining political power and control. No price is too great for that.
