Obama Administration Tramples On First Amendment: Issues Gag Order To Insurance Companies

I got laid off from my job last Wednesday and have been busy doing things like getting doctor appointments for my family before my medical benefits run out at the end of the month as well as trying to find a new job with benefits so that I don't have to come up with a way of paying off a $1200/month COBRA payment on limited income.

Anyway, I know I've missed a few pretty big news stories since then, but I will try to get them in here as soon as possible.

Right now, I'd like to look at the latest action by the Obama administration. As I recall, Obama said he wanted a good debate about health care reform. If so, then why is he trying to silence those who want to get good infomation out to the people that will be most affected by it?

From the Washington Post:

The federal government has ordered health insurers to stop telling Medicare beneficiaries that proposed health reform legislation could hurt seniors and jeopardize their benefits. The government might take enforcement action against insurers that have tried to mobilize opposition to the legislation by sending their enrollees "misleading and confusing" messages, a senior official of the Department of Health and Human Services said in a memo Monday.

The "messages" in question very correctly note that under HR3200, Medicare benefits to seniors will be reduced. Obama and the Democrats have already publically admitted this in their attempt to show that socialized medicine will not add to the defecit.

So, why the gag order? Why worry about the insuarance companies repeating exactly what Obama and the Democrats have already said?

Proposed health reform legislation would sharply reduce funding for Medicare Advantage plans, and the insurance industry has been battling to prevent that from happening. The bill unveiled last week by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, would directly cut payments to Medicare Advantage plans by an estimated $123 billion over 10 years, and it would indirectly reduce funding for those plans by another $15.6 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

And Obama does not want people to know about this? This leads to an even bigger question. Why stifle the debate? Why suppress the very same information that Obama and the Dems have publically acknowledged?

Unless the ultimate goal is to control the debate by controlling the information, nothing else makes sense.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Insurers Criticize Administration 'Gag Order'
David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post
September 22, 2009

VIDEO: ACORN Offices In San Bernadino, California

At this point, there is no way ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) can claim that promoting tax-fraud, human trafficking and child prostitution is simply the work of a few rogue staffers. It has been uncovered in so many different places that it is clearly an established pattern of criminality.

Now we have video from the West Coast:



There should be absolutely no doubt left in anyone's mind that we must have a full investigation into the activities of ACORN, the ACORN accounting books and any group or entity that had dealings with ACORN.

Letter From John Boehner To Barack Obama Asking To Break All Federal Ties To ACORN

The complete letter follows. I doubt Barack Obama will even acknowledge it. To acknowledge this letter is to admit to the scandal. He will simply stay in lock-step with ACORN even if it leads him off of a political cliff.

Yes, I think Obama is that narrow-minded.

The letter:

Dear Mr. President: We write to you today in the wake of new reports of potentially criminal activity involving associates of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to respectfully request that you use your authority to publicly disclose and terminate all federal funding to ACORN and its affiliates. It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law. Immediate action is necessary to ensure that no additional tax dollars are directed to ACORN. Simply put, ACORN should not receive another penny of American taxpayers’ money. Congressional pressure, coupled with the impact of recent media reports, prompted the U.S. Census Bureau on September 11 to end its partnership with ACORN. We support this decision by the Census Bureau, and believe it is vital that all other federal agencies with ties to ACORN follow the Census Bureau’s example by severing all ties to ACORN and its affiliates, whether those ties consist of partnerships or the awarding of federal funds, including federal funds distributed through state and local governments from federal block grants. This is a matter of common sense and respect for taxpayer dollars. Last year, millions of Americans were outraged to learn their tax dollars were being used to subsidize an organization linked to multiple instances of voter registration fraud and other illicit activity. An analysis of federal data by the Office of the Republican Leader determined that ACORN has received more than $53 million in direct funding from the federal government since 1994, and has likely received substantially more indirectly through states and localities that receive federal block grants. The Census Bureau has made the commendable decision to sever ties with ACORN, and it is now critical that all remaining federal entities with ties to ACORN do the same. We ask that you use your authority to ensure that all federal funding of ACORN is publicly disclosed and terminated immediately. To facilitate this effort, the Republican staff of the Oversight Committee has compiled a complete list of the corporations that form the ACORN Council, and we would be pleased to share it with you and members of your administration. We thank you for your attention to this request.

Obama and the Democrats ignore this at their own politcal peril. ACORN is now a huge rock that hangs around their collective neck.

You can access the orginal letter on-line here:

House GOP Urges President Obama To Defund And Break Federal Ties To ACORN
GOP Leader Press Office
September 15, 2009

Congress Voting To Defund ACORN

Man! When Glenn Beck and a team of two undercover journalists prove to be more effective than all of the big Media outlets combined, you know that the story had to be a big one!

Here are two more stories concerning ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) that isn't getting much notice from NBC, ABC, CBS or CNN.

Senate Votes To Deny Funds To ACORN
Andrew Taylor
Associated Press via Breitbart
September 14, 2009

That motion, the Johanns Amendment to HR2355, passed 83-7 with the 7 "nay" votes all coming from Dems.

House GOP To Call For Total Cutoff Of Federal Funds To ACORN
Byron York
Washington Examiner
September 15, 2009

Two things to note here. One: Congress thinks that this is a big enough story to vote on removing funding to ACORN. Two: It is the GOP calling for a House vote to defund ACORN, not the Dems.

(BTW, I'll bet that the incompetent Charlie Gibson didn't know about these stories either!)

Whatever happened to Nancy Pelosi's promise to get rid of the Culture of Corruption in Washington? From what I saw in those videos, ACORN is certainly a good place to begin the cleaning process!

But defunding a vile and corrupt organization isn't enough. There needs to be a thorough investigation of ACORN and any other organization that worked with ACORN so that we can see exactly how far the corruption extends.

ABC's Charlie Gibson 'Didn't Know' About The ACORN Videos?

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin on this one.

ACORN Watch: Charlie Gibson And The Ostrich Media
Michelle Malkin
September 15, 2009

From which we glean the following:

Charlie Gibson told WLS-AM Chicago talk show hosts Don Wade and Roma this morning that the reason he hasn’t covered the ACORN scandal is that he didn’t know about it. Reader Patrick M. e-mails: While listening to Don Wade and Roma this morning on WLS AM Chicago, they had Charlie Gibson on as their usual Tuesday morning guest. Don asked Charlie, why, after the senate last night voted to halt funding to ACORN and after three of those video tapes of ACORN employees helping the pimp and prostitute set up shop, there was no mention of it anywhere on the network news. Charlie gave out a most uncomfortable laugh and said that that was the first he heard of it! Don and Roma pointed out that ABC’s Jake Tapper reported on the Census Bureau’s decision to drop ACORN from its data collection partnerships on Friday as a result of BigGovernment.com’s video stings.

Now, how is it possible that a Joe Average American like me, with nothing more than my computer terminal hooked up to the Internet, was able to gather all of the following information over the past week:

VIDEO: ACORN Aids And Abets Child Sex Trade

A Second set Of Videos Exposing ACORN

New Videos Showing 3rd ACORN Office Offering Advice On Prostitution Ring

Glenn Beck: 2, Obama Administration: 0

And yet, Charlie Gibson, with the vast resources of ABC at his disposal was somehow so insulated that he "didn't know?"

This is why Gibson can only be accurately described as a DNC newsreader rather than any kind of real journalist. In the immortal words of the Nickelodeon Television series iCarly, Gibson is a "nub."

If anyone from ABC wishes to take issue with my analysis, please feel free to respond.

Racially Motivated Blacks Assault White Student

So, who here still thinks that blacks cannot be racist?

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A Belleville (Illinois) West High School student was beaten aboard a bus on the way to school Monday, and a police spokesman said the beating could be racially motivated. The 17-year-old victim was white and the teen assailants were black. Police released a video of the beating, which shows the victim being punched repeatedly while other students on the bus gather to watch, some cheering. It doesn't appear that the victim did anything to provoke an attack and tried only to defend himself. Police said it all unfolded in a five-minute span. The victim was trying to find a seat and was told by two students he could not sit next to them, police said. When he did sit down, one teen tried to push him out of his seat then began grabbing the victim's neck and punching him in the face. The victim eventually returned to his seat, but another student began taunting him a few minutes later. The victim was then struck in the face. ... "In my estimation, it's racially motivated," said Capt. Don Sax of the Belleville Police Department. He said one reason he had formed this opinion was that many of the students, most of whom were black, yelled their support for the beating. "There was absolutely no justification for the beating either time," Sax said.

Of course, Big Media will not report this because it was a white victim with black attackers rather than a black victim with white attackers. But this is one of the reasons why we have an Internet and a blogosphere.

You can see a video of the attack on-line here:

Video Of Blacks Beating A White Student

And you can access the complete story on-line here:

Tape Shows Beating On Bus Of Belleville West Student
Leah Thorsen
St. Louis Post-Dispatch via St. Louis Today
September 15, 2009

Americans' Trust Of Media At 20 Year Low

Does that really come as any surprise? Here is what Pew Research found in their latest poll about Media outlets:

The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans’ views of media bias and independence now match previous lows. Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate. In the initial survey in this series about the news media’s performance in 1985, 55% said news stories were accurate while 34% said they were inaccurate. That percentage had fallen sharply by the late 1990s and has remained low over the last decade. Similarly, only about a quarter (26%) now say that news organizations are careful that their reporting is not politically biased, compared with 60% who say news organizations are politically biased. And the percentages saying that news organizations are independent of powerful people and organizations (20%) or are willing to admit their mistakes (21%) now also match all-time lows.

A good part of that is because now that we have an Internet and thus access to almost real-time information, people can see exactly how manipulative Big Media outlets really are when they report the news.

You can access the complete story on-line here:

Press Accuracy Rating Hits Two Decade Low
Pew Research Center
September 13, 2009

Crowd Size From The 9/12 March On Washington DC

Check this picture out:



It was taken by a Trafficland camera this past Saturday during the 9/12 protest. Yes, that is the U.S. Capitol several blocks into the background.

Now, given the size of the crowd in that picture, look at how the Washington D.C. Park Service estimates the size of a crowd:



I'll leave it to you to estimate the crowd size. I already have a good idea of what it is.

But while you are thinking about it, here are some more pictures from the 9/12 Tea Party protest:















Politicians ignore us at their own peril.

New Videos Show A 3rd ACORN Office Offering Advice On Prostitution Ring

Is this the "Hope and Change" the Democrats were voting for? I hope not. For all our children's sakes, I really hope not.

Consider this:

This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen. -Bertha Lewis, Chief Organizer, ACORN

But, what really happened in New York? The videos below answer that question.

Given that Obama was all gushy about heaping praise on and offering seats at the table for ACORN, we should absolutely judge him by the company he keeps:





Check out the 1st and 2nd videos here:

VIDEO: ACORN Aids And Abets Child Sex Trade
84rules
September 10, 2009

A Second Set Of Videos Exposing ACORN
84rules
September 11, 2009

ACORN needs to be investigated from the top down even if it implicates people in the Obama administration.

WHERE THE HELL IS NBC, ABC, CBS AND CNN ON THIS? WHY DON'T THEY REPORT ON THIS HUGE NATIONAL SCANDAL?

Glenn Beck: 2, Obama Administration: 0

First, the big news: the United States Census Bureau has severed all ties with the voter-fraud group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) in the wake of revelations that ACORN was actively trying to help a "pimp" and "prostitute" import underage girls in order to start a brothel in Baltimore. The "pimp" and "prostitute" were actually undercover journalists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles who secretly videotaped the encounters at ACORN offices in Baltimore and Washington D.C.

Apparently, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. ACORN has long been known to be engaged in many suspicious and shady deals and activities. Voter fraud has resulted in many arrests and convictions of ACORN personnel. An embezzlement scheme was uncovered right here in D.C. and now that ACORN has shown its willingness to engage in underage prostitution, the Census Bureau has cried, "Enough!" This is significant since as late as last year the Census Bureau had been defending ACORN.

From the Associated Press:

The Census Bureau on Friday severed its ties with ACORN, a community organization that has been hit with Republican accusations of voter-registration fraud. "We do not come to this decision lightly," Census director Robert Groves wrote in a letter to ACORN, which was obtained by The Associated Press. In splitting with ACORN, Groves sought to tamp down GOP concerns and negative publicity that the partnership will taint the 2010 head count. "It is clear that ACORN's affiliation with the 2010 census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 census efforts," Groves wrote. ... Up to now, the Census Bureau had defended ACORN's involvement, explaining it was one of 80,000 unpaid volunteer groups that the bureau hoped would be able to raise local awareness. But in his letter, Groves said it no longer had confidence that ACORN was effectively managing its partnership.

So, how does this relate to Glenn Beck? Easy. Glenn was the only television jounalist to cover the Van Jones scandal and to give coverage to the ACORN underage prostitution scandal. Jones eventually resigned his post as the "green jobs" czar and now the Census Bureau has been forced to cut ties with ACORN.

There was absolutely no coverage of these events on ABC, NBC, or CBS. CNN gave the ACORN scandal token coverage but tried to spin it as right-wing whackos attempting a hit job.

What this means is that Glenn Beck by himself has proven to be a more effective voice than all of the other news networks combined.

If I were one of the big three networks or CNN, I'd be embarassed.

You can access the complete story on-line here:

Census Bureau Severs Ties With ACORN In 2010 Count
Hope Yen
Associated Press via Breitbart
September 11, 2009