Disproportionate Benefit to Blacks

The Affordable Care Act expands Medicaid coverage to all adults below 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Under the law, the federal government will cover 100 percent of the cost for the first three years—from 2014 to 2016. The federal contribution then gradually declines to 90 percent, where it will remain.

However, the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the decision to expand must be left up to the states. While the Obama administration assumed that states would still jump at the federal funding, this turned out not to be the case.

[...]

Currently, 25 states and the District of Columbia have opted into Medicaid expansion, while 19 have opted out. That leaves six that have not yet decided.

  National Journal

I was just watching an NPR segment with Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, pastor at the church in Atlanta where Dr. Martin Luther King was stationed. He was arrested recently along with 38 other people from a group called Moral Mondays for protests to have Medicaid expanded in Georgia. He says Georgia’s government is claiming that Georgia can’t afford to expand Medicaid, when the federal government is underwriting the cost 100% for two years and then 90%. He gave the figures on the number of jobs that would be created and the amount of revenue expected.

It does seem as though the arguments against Medicaid expansion are mostly political – Republicans determined not to accept anything involved with the Obama administration – and perhaps punitive, with the same arguments our righteous citizens have about welfare “handouts” to the undeserving poor (read "blacks").

And the absolute proof of dog-whistle politics in Georgia is that another bill awaiting the governor's signature is one that would make it a crime for state employees to assist anyone in signing up for the Affordable Care Act.  Seriously, Georgia.  WTF? 

Happy Beginning of the End Day

The U.S. invasion of Iraq was initiated eleven years ago today.  The fallout hasn't even peaked.

I Can Believe That

When the Guardian and the Washington Post broke the Prism story in June, thanks to documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, nearly all the companies listed as participating in the program – Yahoo, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and AOL – claimed they did not know about a surveillance practice described as giving NSA vast access to their customers’ data. Some, like Apple, said they had “never heard” the term Prism.

[...]

[On Wednesday,] Rajesh De, the NSA general counsel, said all communications content and associated metadata harvested by the NSA under a 2008 surveillance law occurred with the knowledge of the companies – both for the internet collection program known as Prism and for the so-called “upstream” collection of communications moving across the internet.

  The Guardian

Yes, I can believe that. I am also aware that under threat of government penalty, some of them may not have felt they had much option. On the other hand, there have been a couple of companies holding themselves to a higher standard and shut down business rather than expose their customers to the secret spy programs. (eg. Lavabit)

De explained: “Prism was an internal government term that as the result of leaks became the public term,” De said. “Collection under this program was a compulsory legal process, that any recipient company would receive.”

After the hearing, De said that the same knowledge, and associated legal processes, also apply when the NSA harvests communications data not from companies directly but in transit across the internet, under Section 702 authority.

And yet, Mark Zuckerberg is "confused" and "frustrated" by the NSA's activity. Let's try to imagine what he really said to President Obama.  (Yes, apparently the child founder of Facebook has enough sway - read, "money" - that he can phone up the O and have his call taken.)  "Look, Barry, this is making me look bad.  Facebook could stand to lose its place on the global scene.  We need to talk."

Esquire Magazine re Edward Snowden

Click here to read it: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/news/edward-snowden-leader?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1456_49512763

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Big Trouble for the Democrats

Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.

The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid an intense election year, when control of the Senate is up for grabs. The sticker shock would likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper ObamaCare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015.

  The Hill

Let me guess….the GOP is better attuned to the needs of the “health” industry.

What a way to thank Mr. Obama for letting you make the rules. His own fault. Silly hen who invited the foxes to set the chickenhouse health agenda.

In Iowa, which hosts the first presidential caucus in the nation and has a competitive Senate race this year, rates are expected to rise 100 percent on the exchange and by double digits on the larger, employer-based market, according to a recent article in the Business Record.

And don’t expect those employers to just absorb that cost. That’s going to cut into the employees’ income and benefits.

The [claims] come less than a week after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to downplay concerns about rising premiums in the healthcare sector. She told lawmakers rates would increase in 2015 but grow more slowly than in the past.

“The increases are far less significant than what they were prior to the Affordable Care Act,” the secretary said in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.

Her comment baffled insurance officials, who said it runs counter to the industry’s consensus about next year.

“It’s pretty shortsighted because I think everybody knows that the way the exchange has rolled out … is going to lead to higher costs,” said one senior insurance executive who requested anonymity.

The insurance official, who hails from a populous swing state, said his company expects to triple its rates next year on the ObamaCare exchange.

[...]

Some insurers initially underpriced their policies to begin with, expecting to raise rates in the second year.

[...]

Several major companies have been bullish on the healthcare law as a growth opportunity.

What stroke of genius would it have taken for people to realize when this thing was drawn up that the insurance companies were looking at a windfall?

Areas of the country with older, sicker or smaller populations are likely to be hit hardest, while others might not see substantial increases at all.

Precisely the ones who needed decent and affordable insurance coverage in the first place.

Republicans frequently highlight President Obama’s promise on the campaign trail to enact a healthcare law that would “cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.” “They’re going to have to backpedal on that,” said [Bill Hoagland, a former executive at Cigna and current senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center.]

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Sanctions? Bring 'Em On

The State Duma has passed a motion suggesting that the US and EU extend the freshly introduced sanctions to all Russian MPs rather than a limited group of officials, defying western pressure just hours before Russia and Crimea signed a federation treaty.

The motion was supported by a unanimous vote on Tuesday morning. It was prepared the day before by all four parliamentary parties after representatives of the United States and the European Union said they were slapping sanctions, such as visa bans and asset freezes, on a number of Russian officials who are seen as “key ideologists and architects” of the policy towards Ukraine.

  RT

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Drip, Drip, Drip

The National Security Agency has built a surveillance system capable of recording “100 percent” of a foreign country’s telephone calls, enabling the agency to rewind and review conversations as long as a month after they take place, according to people with direct knowledge of the effort and documents supplied by former contractor Edward Snowden.

[...]

The voice interception program, called MYSTIC, began in 2009. Its RETRO tool, short for “retrospective retrieval,” and related projects reached full capacity against the first target nation in 2011.

[...]

In the initial deployment, collection systems are recording “every single” conversation nationwide, storing billions of them in a 30-day rolling buffer that clears the oldest calls as new ones arrive, according to a classified summary.

  

In which case, I will offer the suggestion that the parameters of the program can be modified to make that buffer any length they want. They chose 30 days, probably to avoid complete overload, but with any future modifications or decisions, they could make it any length. In addition to which, they can copy and store any of what they get for any length of time.

Analysts listen to only a fraction of 1 percent of the calls, but the absolute numbers are high. Each month, they send millions of voice clippings, or “cuts,” for processing and long-term storage.

[...]

At the request of U.S. officials, The Washington Post is withholding details that could be used to identify the country where the system is being employed or other countries where its use was envisioned.

[...]

The RETRO tool was built three years ago as a “unique one-off capability,” but last year’s secret intelligence budget named five more countries for which the MYSTIC program provides “comprehensive metadata access and content,” with a sixth expected to be in place by last October.

Yes, I bet they don’t want that getting out. On the other hand, not knowing leaves many countries to wonder if it’s them. Eventually, of course, it will be everyone.

No other NSA program disclosed to date has swallowed a nation’s telephone network whole. Outside experts have sometimes described that prospect as disquieting but remote.

Who was that naïve?

Speaking generally, [Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council] said “new or emerging threats” are “often hidden within the large and complex system of modern global communications, and the United States must consequently collect signals intelligence in bulk in certain circumstances in order to identify these threats.”

Jesus. The mentality.

Ubiquitous voice surveillance, even overseas, pulls in a great deal of content from Americans who telephone, visit and work in the target country. It may also be seen as inconsistent with Obama’s Jan. 17 pledge “that the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security,” regardless of nationality, “and that we take their privacy concerns into account.”

Yeah, it “may be seen” that way. If you open your eyes.

Seriously, this is their logo:

I wonder whatever happened to the grownups.

I think this works better:

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oh, and...

Edward Snowden on Tuesday said the biggest revelations have yet to come out of the estimated 1.7 million documents he acquired from the National Security Agency.

  Mashable

Where's the Red Line?

President Obama: "I have signed a new executive order that expands the scope of our sanctions. As an initial step, I’m authorizing sanctions on Russian officials, entities operating in the arms sector in Russia and individuals who provide material support to senior officials of the Russian government. And if Russia continues to interfere in Ukraine, we stand ready to impose further sanctions."

  Democracy Now

What? Gonna add Putin to the list?

Seriously, why isn't he on that list, Barry?

Speaking of Libya

Protect that oil.

U.S. Navy SEALs have boarded and taken control of an oil tanker that sailed out of a Libyan port earlier this month with armed men at the helm, the Pentagon said.

Libyan anti-government fighters, who are calling for a greater share of oil wealth and autonomy, had managed to load crude oil onto the 37,000 ton-tanker, embarrassing the weak central government and prompting parliament to vote Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan out of office last week.

No one was hurt in the SEALs’ boarding operation, which was approved by U.S. President Barack Obama, requested by the Libyan and Cypriot governments and conducted late Sunday in international waters southeast of Cyprus, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

[...]

Oil production has seen a major decline amid mounting chaos to 230,000 barrels per day (bpd), from 1.4 million bpd in July.

  alJazeera

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: March 21

Happy St. Pat's

Several brewers, including Guinness, said they were refusing to sponsor St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York and Boston, while mayors of the cities canceled their participation in the events, after gay people weren’t allowed to march under LGBT banners.

Irish brewer Guinness, a key sponsor of the New York City parade, announced on Sunday afternoon it was withdrawing its participation.

“Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all. We were hopeful that the policy of exclusion would be reversed for this year's parade,” a statement by brewer’s parent company, Diageo, reads. “We will continue to work with community leaders to ensure that future parades have an inclusionary policy.”

A few days earlier, two more brewers dropped their sponsorship of St. Patrick’s parades over the gay rights issue: Heineken in New York and Sam Adams in Boston.

Parade organizers have not just faced economic pressure, political tension has also run high, as Boston's Irish-American mayor, Marty Walsh, decided not to visit the city's St. Patrick's Day parade, having failed to persuade organizers to allow gay and lesbian activists to march openly.

Last week New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would not take part in the parade on Monday, also citing the ban on open participation by LGBT community members.

  RT

Nicely played.