The Wall Street Journal:

Health insurers say they plan to raise premiums for some Americans as a direct result of the health overhaul in coming weeks, complicating Democrats’ efforts to trumpet their signature achievement before the midterm elections.

Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators.

These and other insurers say Congress’s landmark refashioning of U.S. health coverage, which passed in March after a brutal fight, is causing them to pass on more costs to consumers than Democrats predicted.

Full story….

The Justice Department has brought yet another legal challenge against Arizona, accusing the Maricopa County Community College District in Phoenix of illegally asking foreign nationals to show their Permanent Resident Cards, or “green cards,” before being offered jobs in the 10-college system.

The lawsuit alleges that the school district engaged in a “pattern or practice of discrimination by imposing unnecessary and discriminatory hurdles to employment for work authorized non-citizens,” and seeks a penalty of $1,100 for each of 247 non-U.S. citizens identified during a yearlong investigation.

Full story….

The Pentagon is eyeing cuts in a war office thought to be untouchable: the organization that devises ways to foil the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Officials say the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) has done good work in developing jammers and detection equipment to neutralize the enemy’s use of roadside bombs.

But observers inside and outside the Pentagon say JIEDDO has become unwieldy, with too many private contractors and duplicate programs. Congressional reports have called for stricter Pentagon oversight of JIEDDO’s far-flung programs.

“JIEDDO has managed to spend billions over the last three years without any significant improvement in defenses against bombs,” said a Pentagon official who requested anonymity in order to speak freely about policy.

Full story….

George Everett “Bud” Day (born February 24, 1925) is a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and Command Pilot who served during the Vietnam War. He is often cited as being the most decorated U.S. Service member since General Douglas MacArthur, having received some seventy decorations, a majority for actions in combat. Day is a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

I got shot down over N Vietnam in 1967, a Sqdn. Commander. After I returned in 1973… I published 2 books that dealt a lot with “real torture” in Hanoi. Our make-believe president is branding our country as a bunch of torturers when he has no idea what torture is.

As for me, I was put thru a mock execution because I would not respond. Pistol whipped on the head… same event. Couple of days later… hung by my feet all day. I escaped and a couple of weeks later, I got shot and recaptured. Shot was OK… what happened afterwards was not.

They marched me to Vinh… put me in the rope trick, trick… almost pulled my arms out of the sockets. Beat me on the head with a little wooden rod until my eyes were swelled shut, and my unshot, unbroken hand a pulp.

Next day hung me by the arms… rebroke my right wrist… wiped out the nerves in my arms that control the hands… rolled my fingers up into a ball. Only left the slightest movement of my L forefinger. So I started answering with some incredible lies.

Sent me to Hanoi strapped to a barrel of gas in the back of a truck.

Hanoi… on my knees… rope trick again. Beaten by a big fool.

Into leg irons on a bed in Heartbreak Hotel.

Much kneeling — hands up at Zoo.

Really bad beating for refusing to condemn Lyndon Johnson.

Several more kneeling events. I could see my knee bone thru kneeling holes.

There was an escape from the annex to the Zoo. I was the senior officer of a large building… because of escape… they started a mass torture of all commanders.

I think it was July 7, 1969 they started beating me with a car fanbelt. In the first 2 days I took over 300 strokes… then stopped counting because I never thought I would live thru it.

They continued day-night torture to get me to confess to a non-existent part in the escape. This went on for at least 3 days. On my knees… Fan belting cut open my scrotum with fan belt stroke. Opened up both knee holes again. My fanny looked like hamburger… I could not lie on my back.

They tortured me into admitting that I was in on the escape and that my 2 room-mates knew about it.

The next day I denied the lie.

They commenced torturing me again with 3- 6- or 9 strokes of the fan belt every day from about July 11 or 12th to 14 October 1969. I continued to refuse to lie about my roommates again.

Now, the point of this is that our make-believe president has declared to the world that we (U.S.) are a bunch of torturers. Thus it will be OK to torture us next time when they catch us because that is what the U.S. does.

Our make-believe president is a know nothing fool who thinks that pouring a little water on some one’s face, or hanging a pair of women’s pants over an Arabs head is TORTURE. He is a meathead.

I just talked to MOH holder Leo Thorsness, who was also in my squadron, in jail, as was John McCain, and we agree that McCain does not speak for the POW group when he claims that Al Gharib was torture, or that “water boarding” is torture.

Our president and those fools around him who keep bad mouthing our great country are a disgrace to the United States. Please pass this info on to Sean Hannity. He is free to use it to point out the stupidity of the claims that water boarding, which has no after effect, is torture. If it got the Arab to cough up the story about how he planned the attack on the twin towers in NYC. Hurrah for the guy who poured the water.

• A Shrink Asks: What’s Wrong with Obama?
• Robin of Berkeley: A Psychotherapist’s Analysis of Obama
• Robin of Berkeley: “Brain-Dead in Berkeley”
• “Terminally ill sentenced to premature death in UK’s NHS”
• Rights versus Wants

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Save your house by not paying your mortgage. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But for more than a million homeowners, this might be the right answer. Those homeowners, for whatever reason, have defaulted on their first mortgage but continue to pay their second mortgage on time. This has created a crazy situation in which the lender holding the second lien is reporting a performing loan while the lender holding the first lien is reporting a delinquent loan. The majority of these second liens are held in the loan portfolios of just four banks – Bank of America, Citibank, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. These same four banks service most of the first mortgages owned by bondholders or other banks. When Joe Homeowner defaults on his first mortgage but continues to pay his second mortgage and then seeks relief from the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) or his first lender, he often is unable to obtain relief because the holder of the second lien refuses to take a loss on the lien. This upsets the whole priority of claimants in the event of default. The second lien holder is supposed to get wiped out before the first lien holder suffers a dollar of damage, but that isn’t happening in this bizarre world.

Full story….

Jay Tea: “So, What’s The Problem?”

I’ve always said that if something is a “right,” then there shouldn’t be any reason to justify why one is exercising it. Simply saying “because I felt like it” should be the only explanation one should ever be obligated to offer.

For about 40 years, the left — especially the feminists — have insisted that abortion is a “right.” And as such, any restrictions are simply intolerable.

Even the most reasonable restrictions are attacked. Girls too young to get a tattoo or accept an aspirin from a school nurse without parental consent are entitled to abortions without said parents even being notified. Abortions at any time during the pregnancy, right up until moments before birth, are completely justified. And expressing even the slightest trepidations on the issue of “abortion on demand, regardless of the circumstances” is enough to have the feminists denounce you as wanting all women reduced to chattel.

Well, two stories in the past week have me intensely curious about the opinions of the feminist movement.

Full story….

The Washington Times:

Who says bipartisan cooperation in Washington is dead? The Democrats have decided to borrow a nifty Republican strategy for the autumn congressional elections. They’re going to run against Barack Obama. Why not? It’s working for the Republicans.

If that’s not panic in the streets, it’s a reasonable facsimile thereof. Nancy Pelosi, watching her employment prospects for continuing as speaker of the House slipping steadily away, is crying for somebody to do something, anything. For starters, she’s demanding that Democratic incumbents in safe districts (if any) more or less suspend their own campaigns and send their money to colleagues who look doomed to having to go home to find real jobs.

“We need to know your commitments,” Mzz Pelosi wrote to her colleagues last week, demanding they call her within 72 hours to tell her how they can help save her job. “The day after the election we do not want to have any regrets.” Mzz Pelosi’s desperate pessimism looks to be soundly based. Every public-opinion poll seems to be worse than the one before it. Rasmussen, the most reliable of the polls of recent election cycles, finds that as of Sunday 48 percent of likely voters would vote for the Republican candidate in their districts, and 36 percent would vote for the Democrat. This 12-point spread continues the largest Republican “generic ballot” lead ever. Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, says “voters are ready to deliver the same message in 2010 that they delivered in 2006 and 2008 as they prepare to vote against the party in power for the third straight election [cycle]. These results suggest a fundamental rejection of both political parties.”

Full story….

DIVORCE AGREEMENT

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950′s, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let’s just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

Our two groups can equitably divide up this country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).

We’ll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street… You can have your beloved homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO’s and rednecks. We’ll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood.

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters.

When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we’ll help provide them security.

We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

We’ll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Volkswagon you can find.

We’ll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem. I’m sure you’ll be happy to substitute Imagine, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.

We’ll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot. Since it often so offends you, we’ll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I’ll bet you which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,

John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Barbara Streisand & Jane Fonda with you.