<\/p>\n
News of the Week for June 16th<\/sup>, 2013<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Snooping Concerns Emerge Over Congressional Blackberries Serviced By Verizon <\/a> Hundreds in government had advance word of Medicare action at heart of trading-spike probe<\/a> Officials at Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. accused of covering up sexual misconduct<\/a> Lois Lerner Still Has Access to IRS Computers; Has Logged in While “On Leave”<\/a> State Department has hired agents with criminal records, memo reveals<\/a> Rep Stockman requests subpoena of NSA’s White House, IRS phone logs<\/a> Pro-gun Republican wins vacated Democrat seat in Connecticut <\/a> 14-year-old at the center of “NRA T-Shirt Controversy” now facing possibility of 1 year in jail<\/a> The World Is Swimming in Shale<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ohio Dept. Of Insurance: Obamacare To Increase Individual-Market Health Premiums By 88 Percent<\/a> Obamacare: Is a $2,000 deductible ‘affordable?’<\/a> Inside the GP clinic that WILL see you out of hours: It’s \u00a370 an appointment and open all weekend. No wonder Britons flock to a Polish practice taking on the NHS <\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Obama’s Snooping Excludes Mosques, Missed Boston Bombers <\/a> U.S. Agencies Said to Swap Data With Thousands of Firms<\/a> NSA admits listening to U.S. phone calls without warrants<\/a> <\/p>\n Seattle City Council approves crime-check hiring bill <\/a> Not-for-Profit Propaganda <\/a> Feds’ war on Western ranchers’ water rights takes a body blow<\/a> Our Partisan Bureaucracy \u2014 Lawyers Love President Obama<\/a><\/p>\n ThinkProgress and the English Language<\/a><\/p>\n See How Boehner Responded After Being Asked About Procedure That GOP Members Could Use to Revolt Against Immigration Bill<\/a> CBS News confirms multiple breaches of Sharyl Attkisson\u2019s computer<\/a> 100 Years of Change<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Emergency manager: Detroit won’t pay $2.5B it owes<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Ghost of Chavez: Venezuela Getting Sicker<\/a> Police crush barricades in Istanbul square, fire tear gas and water cannons at protesters<\/a> Data-collection program got green light from MacKay in 2011 <\/a> June 14, 1941 <\/a> Afghan Parliament Upholds Child Marriages, Sex Slavery, And Criminal Charges For Rape Victims<\/a> Bacon Sandwiches Now Considered Racist In Britain <\/a> Iceland’s EU bid is over, commission told<\/a> Hassan Rouhani wins Iran presidential election<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Are Hispanic conservatives mythical beings?<\/a> Losing America <\/a> How to lose 2016 in one easy amnesty bill<\/a> A Brief History of Media Bias<\/a> An Analysis of the Ideological Capture of an Institution, Expressed Through Interpretive Dance<\/a> The Politics of Feeling<\/a> Rick Santorum and the Type A voters<\/a> America\u2019s Vast Margin of Error <\/a>\n
<\/a>Obama Scandals<\/h1>\n
\nAmid the revelations that the National Security Agency has been secretly monitoring the records of millions of phone calls across the country via telephone service provider Verizon, Congress is concerned that the NSA’s actions may have also captured phone calls of lawmakers and their staffers. It should be noted that Verizon is one of the main service providers to government issued Blackberries members and their staff use to communicate with one another.<\/p>\n
\nHundreds of federal employees were given advance word of a Medicare decision worth billions of dollars to private insurers in the weeks before the official announcement, a period when trading in the shares of those firms spiked.<\/p>\n
\nA State Department whistleblower has accused high-ranking staff of a massive coverup \u2014 including keeping a lid on findings that members of then-Secretary Hillary Clinton\u2019s security detail and the Belgian ambassador solicited prostitutes.<\/p>\n
\nThis is precisely what we want and need: A person at the center of a federal inquiry with possible criminal dimensions f***ing about with the computer system of the agency at which she worked.<\/p>\n
\nThe State Department has hired an alarming number of law-enforcement agents with criminal or checkered backgrounds because of a flawed hiring process, a stunning memo obtained by The Post reveals.<\/p>\n
\nUntil now, I thought Democrats were being overly defensive as they circled the wagons around the White House, assuring everyone who would listen that the president obviously wasn’t involved. Who in Congress had overtly pointed the finger at the president?<\/p>\n<\/a>Gun Rights<\/h1>\n
\nA political theme being advanced by \u201cprogressives,\u201d that pro-gun support is going to cost politicians their seats, got a harsh reality check Tuesday when Republican Samuel Belsito captured the Connecticut State Legislature\u2019s 53rd House District. The special election, held to replace Democrat representative Bryan Hurlburt, who resigned to take a job with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, marks the first time a Republican has won the district in 40 years, The Journal Inquirer reported.<\/p>\n
\nSuspended and arrested after refusing to change his NRA shirt. Today, 14-year-old Jared Marcum appeared before a judge and was officially charged with obstructing an officer.<\/p>\n<\/a>Hide the Decline<\/h1>\n
Environment &
\n“Green Energy”<\/h2>\n
\nNearly a third of the world\u2019s technically recoverable natural gas and 10 percent of its oil can be found in shale formations, according to a new report by the Energy Information Administration. Thanks to fracking and horizontal drilling, there\u2019s a bounty of oil and gas available to countries around the world .<\/p>\n<\/a>Obamacare<\/h1>\n
Government in Healthcare<\/h2>\n
\nDemocrats continue to try to dismiss the evidence that Obamacare will dramatically increase the cost of insurance for people who buy it on their own. But on Thursday, the Ohio Department of Insurance announced that, based on the rates submitted by insurers to date, the average individual-market health insurance premium in 2014 will come in around $420, \u201crepresenting an increase of 88 percent\u201d relative to 2013. \u201cWe have warned of these increases,\u201d said Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor in a statement. \u201cConsumers will have fewer choices and pay much higher premiums for their health insurance starting in 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nUntil now, much of the debate swirling around Obamacare has focused on the cost of premiums in the state-based health insurance exchanges.<\/p>\n
\nMy Medyk clinic in West London is opened seven days a week
\nSet up in 2008 by two Polish doctors, it has 6,000 Britons among the 30,000 patients on its books
\nSame-day GP appointments last half an hour and cost \u00a370<\/p>\n<\/a>War & Terror<\/h1>\n
\nHomeland Insecurity: The White House assures that tracking our every phone call and keystroke is to stop terrorists, and yet it won’t snoop in mosques, where the terrorists are.<\/p>\n
\nThousands of technology, finance and manufacturing companies are working closely with U.S. national security agencies, providing sensitive information and in return receiving benefits that include access to classified intelligence, four people familiar with the process said.<\/p>\n
\nNational Security Agency discloses in secret Capitol Hill briefing that thousands of analysts can listen to domestic phone calls. That authorization appears to extend to e-mail and text messages too.<\/p>\n<\/a>National<\/h1>\n
\nThe Seattle City Council today unanimously approved a bill that would prohibit employers from asking about an applicant\u2019s criminal history until after an initial screening. Employers could reject an applicant because of a criminal record, but only if there is a legitimate business reason to do so.<\/p>\n
\nWhat is the California Endowment?<\/p>\n
\nJudge refers BLM, USFS officers for potential criminal prosecution, shames DOJ lawyers<\/p>\n
\nHouse Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday he doesn\u2019t \u201cintend\u201d to push an immigration bill that violates Republican \u201cprinciples.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nCBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson revealed in May that her computer had been compromised. When asked about the situation, CBS News responded with a statement that it was conducting an investigation.<\/p>\n<\/a>Economy
\n& Taxes<\/h1>\n
\nDetroit’s emergency manager says the city is defaulting on about $2.5 billion of debt.<\/p>\n<\/a>International<\/h1>\n
\nVenezuela may soon be forced to add hyperinflation to its list of socialist disasters. The FT reports that price rises last month hit an all time high while the economy careens into recession<\/p>\n
\nHundreds of riot police overran improvised barricades at Istanbul\u2019s Taksim Square on Tuesday, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons in running battles with protesters who have been occupying the area for more than a week.<\/p>\n
\nDefence Minister Peter MacKay approved a secret electronic eavesdropping program that scours global telephone records and Internet data trails \u2013 including those of Canadians \u2013 for patterns of suspicious activity.<\/p>\n
\nThe first systematic mass deportations of Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians from their Soviet-occupied homelands took place in mid-June 1941, many of them on June 14, the date now most associated with this particular atrocity.<\/p>\n
\nPassing the measure would have been contrary to Islamic principles.<\/p>\n
\nContractor loses out on his ‘dream’ \u00a31,000-a-week IT role after unwittingly saying he would treat his Muslim recruiter to a bacon sandwich<\/p>\n
\nIceland’s bid to join the EU is over, the country’s foreign minister told the European Commission on Thursday<\/p>\n
\nReformist-backed cleric Hassan Rouhani has won Iran’s presidential election, securing just over 50% of the vote and so avoiding the need for a run-off.<\/p>\n<\/a>Opinion<\/h1>\n
\nThe upcoming immigration bill fight has GOP insiders jumping through a lot of hoops these days, and it\u2019s putting new life into the long standing debate over if and how Republicans can make more inroads with Hispanic voters. The two questions easily fit into one box, since it seems to be a given that any opposition to immigration reform will hurt Republicans in that area, and the Gang of 8 is exacerbating the situation.<\/p>\n
\nHow much more will Americans take? The \u201cfundamental transformation\u201d of America proceeds apace. The erosion of our freedoms and traditions, once incremental and barely perceptible, accelerates daily.<\/p>\n
\nTo say that there is disgust growing in the ranks is an understatement.<\/p>\n
\nWho said that newspapers are supposed to report the news in an objective and fact-based way?<\/p>\n
\nVia Lee Stranahan, it’s a fun little A\/V essay on how movements are made.<\/p>\n
\nWhy does the phrase \u201cthe pursuit of happiness\u201d appear in our Declaration of Independence? Most people don\u2019t know enough about history or political philosophy even to understand why this is an important question. Instructed with the simple-minded sentimentalism of an elementary school pageant, people cling to the phrase \u2014 along with whatever other bits and pieces of their education managed to stick in their minds \u2014 with the fierce emotion of a toddler clinging to his mother. Urging such a person to examine the facts critically is likely to produce antagonism, as if you were somehow unpatriotic for insisting that actual history is preferable to flattering mythology.<\/p>\n
\nSpeaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington on Friday, Rick Santorum offered criticism of the campaign that bested him in the 2012 GOP primary, but wound up losing the general election<\/p>\n
\nBecause the U.S. has so much going for it, it\u2019s taking everything from education to freedoms for granted.<\/p>\n