Friday, December 6, 2013

Barker's Pre-Vacation Newsbites: Fri., Sat., & Sun., Dec. 6, 7, & 8, 2013


Well, gang... here goes! The last few days of newsbiting before "The Wife" and I head off to India for Kim's Indian wedding!

I plan to blog from over there if I can, so keep on checking in here at Usually Right!

Over the next couple days I'll try and post a few newsbites here.

No doubt they'll be at least one more "stand alone" post prior to Sunday's trip to the airport! (And maybe more!)

Anyway... just in case... we'll be back on the 28th - this December 28th that is!

2 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/1-in-4-obamacare-enrollments-affected-by-technical-bug-first-month/article/2540329

After refusing for weeks to detail the extent of back-end problems with healthcare.gov, the Obama administration on Friday said a technical bug affected approximately 25% of enrollments on the federal exchanges in October and November.

* ONE QUARTER...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

Those "technical" bugs, separate from the troubles consumers had experienced accessing information on the website during the first two months, are posing a significant new problem for those who signed up and are expecting insurance coverage come Jan. 1.

One in four of those applications either did not get transferred to insurers, were transferred in duplicate form, or had major errors in information shared.

* CHANT IT WITH ME, FOLKS... O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!

Insurers are supposed to receive the 834 Forms from healthcare.gov. The forms, meant to be read by computers, provide insurers with information on enrollees and what plan they have chosen. Without the information, insurers have no way of knowing who has signed up on the ObamaCare exchanges and what coverage they need.

* YOU'RE READING THIS SHIT - RIGHT, FOLKS?!

A spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Friday suggested that the only way those who enrolled in October and November can be sure they will be covered in January is by paying their insurance bill and contacting their insurer to confirm their standing. “I would certainly encourage any consumer that has a question of their insurance choice to contact the insurance company of their choice to get additional information,” CMS spokeswoman Julie Bataille told reporters Friday.

* AGAIN... YOU'RE READING THIS SHIT, RIGHT?!

Bataille said CMS, along with the outside firm QSSI, is working furiously to fix the back-end problems, and has succeeded in reducing the number of erroneous 834 Form communications to insurers to 10% of all applications.

* ONE IN TEN. UH-HUH. FOLKS... THINK OF THE LAST TIME YOU THREW A PARTY. HECK... THINK OF THIS YEAR'S THANKSGIVING GATHERING. ONE OUT OF TEN APPLICANTS IS A HELL OF A LOT OF APPLICANTS!

That error rate could still be affecting a significant amount of applications, especially considering that healthcare.gov is operating much more smoothly this week and has seen its traffic spike. “To be clear, we do not have precise numbers [of those affected] at this time,” she said.

* SO FIRE BATAILLE AND HIRE A COMPUTER PROGRAMER IN HER PLACE! (SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... ENOUGH WITH ALL THESE GOVERNMENT "SPOKESMEN" AND "SPOKESWOMEN.")

William R. Barker said...

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/192241-patriot-act-author-obamas-intel-czar-should-be-prosecuted

Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the original author of the Patriot Act, says Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should be prosecuted for lying to Congress.

"Lying to Congress is a federal offense, and Clapper ought to be fired and prosecuted for it," the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview with The Hill.

He said the Justice Department should prosecute Clapper for giving false testimony during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in March.

During that hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Clapper whether the National Security Agency (NSA) collects data on millions of Americans. Clapper insisted that the NSA does not — or at least does "not wittingly" — collect information on Americans in bulk. After documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA collects records on virtually all U.S. phone calls, Clapper apologized for the misleading comment.

* AFTER GETTING CAUGHT HE APOLOGIZED. THAT'S WHAT IT'S COME TO.

The intelligence director said he tried to give the "least untruthful" answer he could without revealing classified information.

* FOLKS. WE'VE COVERED THIS. THE FACTS ARE THAT AMERIKA UNDER OBAMA IS BASICALLY A DICTATORSHIP WHERE THE RULE OF LAW IS WHAT OBAMA SAYS IT IS.

Sensenbrenner said that explanation doesn’t hold water and argued the courts and Congress depend on accurate testimony to do their jobs. "The only way laws are effective is if they're enforced," Sensenbrenner said. "If it's a criminal offense — and I believe Mr. Clapper has committed a criminal offense — then the Justice Department ought to do its job."

* BUT THEY WON'T. THIS IS OBAMA'S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT - NOT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Shawn Turner, a spokesman for Clapper, declined to comment.

* WHY DOES CLAPPER NEED A SPOKESMAN...???

Sensenbrenner, a former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is pushing the USA Freedom Act, which would limit the NSA's power, tighten oversight and end the bulk collection of phone records.

He was the original author of the Patriot Act in 2001, which the NSA has cited when filing secret court requests to conduct surveillance.

* THE PATRIOT ACT ISN'T ACTUALLY A BILL IN THE SENSE MOST BILLS ARE. READ IT FOR YOURSELF AND YOU'LL SEE WHAT I MEAN. WHAT IT TRIED TO DO WAS RE-WRITE CERTAIN EXISTING LAW, ERASING HERE AND ADDING THERE, AND THE POINT WAS TO REMOVE SOME OF THE FIREWALLS BETWEEN COMMON SENSE INTERAGENCY COOPERATION. (AGAIN... READ THE PATRIOT ACT. YOU'LL FIND IT'S NOT LIKE READING THE CONSTITUTION OR THE BILL OF RIGHTS. IT'S A MESS. A REAL MESS.

But Sensenbrenner claims that the NSA is overstepping the law and violating the Constitution.

* AND THIS IS TRUE... BUT NOTE... SENSENBRENNER IS SAYING THIS... BOEHNER ISN'T SAYING THIS... CANTOR ISN'T SAYING THIS... MCCONNELL ISN'T SAYING THIS...

(*SHRUG*)

* IN AMERIKA 2013 THERE REALLY IS NO TRUE "OPPOSITION PARTY." THERE'S ONLY THE TEA PARTY.