This is a fascinating speech from today's rally at the World War II veterans' memorial. It's fascinating because it's a riveting, candid insight into the forces that are behind the government shut-down and the debt-ceiling blackmail of the country and the world. They do not believe this president is a legitimate president. It is beyond their understanding that he was re-elected handily, or that he commands, even during this assault on our system of government, far more support than the Tea Party. Let's not be mealy-mouthed. This speaker, Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch, accuses the president of treason in this speech, of deliberately pursuing policies to kill members of the armed services, because he is an Islamist, and allegedly "bows to Allah". What he is saying is the president is a deliberate mole of foreign agents determined to destroy the American way of life. And there is no pushback from the crowd and no pushback from GOP leaders.

Volume 155
Volume 154

Ranchers in South Dakota lost tens of thousands of cattle from a freak storm. Thanks to the shutdown, no one is paying attention

How about a missle test ?  
LINK

And of course, the unknown.
LINK

I had no idea the astronauts could take and post pics to their Twitter accounts from space.  They take some damn interesting pics.  LINK  LINK

O.K. we know, and acknowledge, that a national program, comprised of millions of people, and myriad moving parts, is a huge, difficult undertaking. But, it's not something brand new, like sending a land rover to mars. It's difficult only because of its size, and, number of contingencies. What I mean is that no new ground was broken, no unique scientific theories that had to be tested, and, no new, revolutionary concepts that needed to be explored.

Walmart, and Subway have thousands of stores, hundreds of thousands of employees, and countless products to be managed. Facebook has a billion followers, Social Security & Medicare have millions of subscribers, so, the ground has been broken, and the templates have been developed and perfected.

So, why is the ACA program, and its website, any different than those being introduced, and implemented, by businesses every day of the week?  

What am I missing in my thinking here? The government, with unlimited financial resources, and an incredible pool of technological expertise at its disposal could have, simply, brought in a Microsoft, MIT-IT team, or a military logistics unit, handed them a "Goal Document," and, in no time, would have received a functioning, customer friendly, program.

Finally, and, not to be too cute with clichés, we built the Empire State Building in record time, using slide rulers instead of computers; we sent a man to the moon, and back, in record time when failure, or, miscalculation would have meant death; and we defeated a crazed, military behemoth in WW2 by placing in charge a man who had never seen a day of combat.

I guess my point is, we really do have something to worry about. When it comes to degree of difficulty, implementing an insurance program is arguably way down on the list. The American people have every right to be concerned, and, to question the basic, inexcusable incompetence of this roll out. A program this important, a program this President considered his landmark, transformational achievement, a program that threatened to pull this country apart, was handed to a group of obviously inept dunder-heads to implement.

And, no, I will not accept the criminally lame excuse, "every new program has some bugs in it." We're not talking about you, or me, fiddling around with a model airplane. We're talking about the most powerful man in the world, with all the resources of the most powerful country in the world at his fingertips, and, we're talking about the program this President considers to be his Legacy.

We've talked about this subject over, and over, again here on TL. We've asked the question, "Who is this man, what are his goals, what are his beliefs?" We've debated whether he truly wanted to help people, or, whether he simply wanted to get something, anything, done? After all, what better legacy could there be than to claim, "I did Health Care." (When others have tried, and, failed for 80 years)

The Comoros, three flyspecks off Mozambique in the Indian Ocean, is as banana as republics get. After 20 coups and two murdered presidents since 1975, it is now peaceably mired in corruption. But at least it has a government.

"You can walk anywhere late at night with cameras around your neck, and no one will bother you," a friend there told me. Comorans are Muslim, respectful of strangers in their midst. "Just don't tell them you're American."

Far more people hate us today than before 9/11, bitter at wars we can't justify, torture we won't admit, and contemptuous treatment of "aliens" who stir our suspicions. Others simply watch our follies and laugh their a** off.

Our health-care "debate" - blackmail, really -- baffles non-Americans. Even Comoros recognizes health as a basic human right. Its pathetic 450-bed hospital is known as the death house, but European aid is helping. The country is desperately poor. What's our excuse?

Intelligent people everywhere ask me the same question: How can so many rich Americans be mean-spirited and self-serving enough to let poor people suffer needlessly because medicine isn't, as the law phrases it, affordable?

Samuel Jackson put it simply enough: Let's wake the f**k up! In places like Comoros and Madagascar, citizens have to put up with whomever maneuvers into power. We don't.

There is absolutely nothing I can do about it.
It is, to me, an obvious sham.
A political dance that has nothing to do with the well-being of the American people and everything to do with politics and jockeying for power.

It is a big story and an non-story at the same time.
We watch Ryan, McConnell, Boehner and sometimes even the president appear and then disappear. Biden, I suppose is somewhere. God knows what he does for a living.

Remember Syria?
We were about to march to war. The Red, White and Blue, the Empire across the ocean, and poor old Hollande of France. Three losers hoping for a splash of glory a la Bush/Blair and that what's his name Jose Maria Aznar strutting their stuff.

And the fate of the world depended on it. International law depended on it.

But something funny happened.
Nobody bought it.
Not the Brits. Not the French. And, not us.
And then the story disappeared.

The people somehow managed to make their feelings known. There was no election. No coordinated letter writing campaigns. But the government could sense that there was a real No Mas in the air. And it backed down.

Somehow, we have to find a way to make our feelings known about the way that our government is treating us. Taking our money and giving us nothing. Making billions on an updated protection racket.

Volume 156
Volume 155

Details of the legislation taking shape in the House are coming out, via Rep. Nunes:

Significantly, the bill would fund the government for only two months, until 15 December, Reuters quotes Nunes as saying. An earlier deal under discussion in the Senate would have funded the government until 15 January, which is just before a second, deeper round of budget cuts related to the sequester kick in. A 15 December shutdown deadline would also set up a budget fight in the middle of the holiday season, when retail spending and the economic confidence that drives it is crucial.

The House bill reportedly uses the same date for the new debt ceiling, 7 February. But the bill makes the date a "hard cut-off," apparently meaning the bill eliminates those "emergency measures" the Treasury uses to avoid default (read more here).

Finally, the House bill reportedly would give us the Full Vitter, and go the extra step of requiring the president and top administration officials to obtain health insurance through the Obamacare exchanges by evicting them from their current insurance programs.

As for the delay or deletion of the tax on medical devices that partially funds Obamacare: that's not in the bill, reportedly, for now.

And, from the same link, here's an overall summary of where we are:

* The House appeared to be moving to pass a government funding bill on yet another party-line vote. Rep. Devin Nunes said the bill would receive bipartisan support in the Senate. The contents of the developing legislation are unclear.

• A once-emergent Senate deal to avert default and end the shutdown was "up in the air," as Senate leaders decided to wait to see if the House can originate the legislation. But the last three days of bipartisan Senate talks produced, at least, benchmark dates the House appeared to be using.

• Democratic senators were angry at what they saw as a House attempt to "torpedo" - Harry Reid's word - a perfectly viable, bipartisan Senate agreement. The Senate Democratic luncheon Tuesday was reportedly the scene of great agitation.

• The Dow Jones stock index neared the close down about 100 points or .65%. Kind of queasy, not a huge selloff.

Bloomberg, Oct. 13...

When Barbara Retkowski went to a Cape Coral, Florida, health clinic in August to treat a blood condition, she figured the center would bill her insurance company. Instead, it demanded payment upfront.

Earlier in the year, another clinic insisted she pay her entire remaining insurance deductible for the year -- more than $1,000 -- before the doctor would even see her.

"I was surprised and frustrated," Retkowski, a 59-year-old retiree, said in an interview. "I had to pull money out of my savings."

The practice of upfront payment for non-emergency care has been spreading in the U.S. as deductibles rise. Now, the advent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is likely to accelerate that trend.
[...snip...]
"It used to be taboo to look like you were looking for money at a time when you were supposed to be focused on patient care," David Williams, president of Boston-based consulting firm Health Business Group, said. "It's not taboo anymore."
[...snip...]
"We get our money faster," Rubin said in an interview. "As patients pay higher deductibles, we're talking about potentially thousands of dollars. People get excited to buy a TV, but health care is a service they don't like to pay for."
[...snip...]
Consumer advocacy groups say the upfront payments limit access to medical care.

A. The problems with the Obamacare launch are teensy weensy minor "glitches".  Any corporate exec with similar results would be praised for effort if not accomplishment.  Witness the Apple Maps guy.

B. Three plus years and a half a Billion budget is a very tight schedule on shoe strung funding.

C. Her boss values loyalty over competence.

The Kansas City Chiefs fans broke the world record for an outdoor sports stadium in their 24-7 win over Oakland on Sunday when they reached 137.5 decibels in the closing minutes.

An official from Guinness World Records told The Associated Press that Chiefs fans broke the record of 136.6 set by Seahawks fans during a game against San Francisco earlier this year.

This, from the Chicago Tribune (via pnhp.com), echoes what Teresa has been finding out about the plans on the Washington State exchange:

To promote the Oct. 1 debut of the exchanges, the online marketplaces where consumers can shop and buy insurance, Obama administration and Illinois officials touted the lower-than-expected monthly premiums that would make insurance more affordable for millions of Americans. But a Tribune analysis shows that 21 of the 22 lowest-priced plans offered on the Illinois health insurance exchange for Cook County have annual deductibles of more than $4,000 for an individual and $8,000 for family coverage.

Those deductibles, which represent the out-of-pocket money consumers must spend on health care before most insurance benefits kick in, are higher than what many consumers expected or may be able to stomach, benefit experts said.

By comparison, people who buy health insurance through their employer have an average individual deductible of just more than $1,100, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

[snip]

To develop the new plans that meet the federal coverage levels, insurers in Illinois took two distinct routes.

Land of Lincoln Health, a new nonprofit insurer, opted to design most of its bronze and silver plans with lower annual deductibles in exchange for higher monthly premiums. All of its plans also offer a broad range of providers, though certain discounts are available for using a selection of them.

[snip]

Meanwhile, the state's dominant insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, was able to offer plans with lower monthly premiums by crafting narrower networks of doctors, specialists and hospitals.

The least expensive "Blue Choice" plans offered by Blue Cross, which carry the lowest monthly premiums in Cook County, contract with 4,100 primary care providers in the Chicago metro area. That compares with about 15,775 providers in its largest preferred provider network, according to company data. The "Blue Choice" network also includes 57 acute-care hospitals versus 213 in the larger network.

People who choose to go to an out-of-network hospital or physician will foot the entire bill, in most cases, and those expenses typically are not applied toward annual deductibles.

Now, if all you ever need are an annual physical, routine health screenings and flu shots, you'll be fine with a low-premium, high-deductible plan, because all that stuff is covered at 100%.  Will you be able to get it from the doctor you want, at the facility you prefer?  Maybe not.

Yes, you can get insurance even with a pre-existing condition, but you can still be charged up to 3 times what the youngest, healthiest members are charged - and since premiums have been ramping up for the last three years, that floor is a lot steeper than it used to be.  Been getting treated for your cancer at Hospital A, by oncology Dr. B?  Better make sure they're in your plan, because going out-of-network could break the bank.

My son-in-law has himself and my grandson covered under a Parent/child policy from CareFirst - my daughter is covered under the state's high-risk plan.  They had thought maybe now that her state plan is being discontinued, they'd just add her to the other plan and have Family coverage - seems reasonable, right?

But, wait - he gets a letter from CareFirst, telling him that his current plan isn't ACA compliant, and that rather than make it comply, CareFirst is going to discontinue it, leaving him free to (1) re-apply for coverage through CareFirst or (2) apply via the exchange.  It seems to be CareFirst's MO to abandon plans with broad network coverage and replace them with narrow network plans that will offer fewer choices, and potentially not be as affordable as people have been led to believe they would be.

Why can we pay them off tomorrow and the payments we would have been making to them, in turn repays us?  Still at the same interest rate but with the interest going towards the deficit. It shouldn't devalue the dollar if we are paying the same rates as before...or maybe it will.

With all our debts paid off there wouldn't be the never ending squabbles about raising the debt ceiling and it would improve our credit rating.

Less than two minutes into the Supreme Court's new review on Tuesday of the use of race in college admissions, it was clear that Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has problems with a legal theory that can limit a state's power to take away the race option.  And, for the next hour, Kennedy was unusually active, mainly in exploring the potential flaws in that theory.

As the Court heard the case of Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action (docket 12-682), it appeared that Kennedy holds what is likely to be the decisive vote.  With Justice Elena Kagan not taking part, there are at most three votes to strike down Michigan's ban on affirmative action in the admissions process, and very likely four votes to uphold it.

That leaves Kennedy, and if he joins in opposition to the state's voter-approved "Proposal 2," the Court could split four to four and the measure would be struck down, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit had ruled.  But the Court no doubt will strive to avoid that outcome, and Kennedy seems to have the power to see that it doesn't happen.