Cover Oregon: Possible Criminal Fraud

By William Teach February 4, 2014 – 9:19 am

You remember Cover Oregon, right? It’s the Obamacare website that has essentially singed up zero people. All the enrollments have come via old school paper applications. The website is really still not working (not that the federal website is fully working correctly, either). Now we learn (via The Blaze)

(KATU) You already know the process that led to the failed rollout of the Cover Oregon website was bad.

But was it criminally bad?

Former Republican state Rep. Patrick Sheehan told the KATU Investigators he has gone to the FBI with allegations that Cover Oregon project managers initiated the design of dummy web pages to convince the federal government the project was further along than it actually was.

If Sheehan’s allegations are true, those managers could face time in jail for fraud.

Essentially, it looks as if those in charge of building the website were playing games in order to keep the federal funds flowing, even getting the funds (US taxpayer funds) increased from $48 million to $59 million.

To keep the money flowing, the website would have to hit specific benchmarks between 2011 and 2013. The state needed to show the feds it had picked a company to provide software and technical assistance; it had to demonstrate that the website was safe from hackers; and, most importantly, it had to show that people could actually sign up for insurance on the website. (snip)

(Carolyn) Lawson (the IT pro in charge of the project to build the website), however, chose to use an “iterative” approach. This time, imagine an extremely blurry picture of a whole car. With each iteration, the picture grows a little more clear.

What that meant for the Cover Oregon website was that it was able to paint a picture of a flashy website – imagine a concept car that looks flashy in the showroom but doesn’t actually run.

Make sure to read the full article, which shows all the smoke and mirrors used to make the website look super awesome, even demonstrating it for CMS, which thought her design was awesome.

“That could have been the smoke and mirrors that they were showing everyone which was not a live demo,” Sheehan said. “It would just be wire frames or a mock up.

“If they were able to connect the dots and if it’s true, someone’s going to prison. It would be fraud. It would be the State of Oregon, actually, willfully, misrepresenting something for federal funding.”

Here’s a thought: Los Federales were spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on the State exchange websites to get them up and running, including the utter failure of Cover Oregon. Did no one think to actually audit these sites? To have people come in and really look at things? Look at the code? They did a poor job with the federal website, so we shouldn’t be shocked in the least about what happened with Cover Oregon.

BTW, KATU wants to know what the Governor, John Kitzhaber knew about the failed website and when. He deflected and failed, and, by his own words, wasn’t involved at all, much like Obama and Kathleen Sebelius.

Read: Cover Oregon: Possible Criminal Fraud »

Posted in Government, Healthcare | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Obama To O’Reilly: I’m Waiting For John Kerry’s Approval On Keystone XL

By William Teach February 4, 2014 – 8:44 am

He’s simply running the clock out, as well as highlighting his pitiful leadership skills

(Fox News) President Obama told Bill O’Reilly Monday on “The O’Reilly Factor” that he was waiting to get an official recommendation from Secretary of State John Kerry before proceeding with the Keystone Pipeline.

Obama also took issue with the number of jobs the pipeline would create after supporters said it would create tens of thousands.

“Keystone Pipeline, a new study comes in, environmental impact negligible, 42, 000 jobs. You’re going to OK it, I assume,” O’Reilly asked.

Obama responded, “Well, first of all, it’s not 42,000. That’s not correct. It’s a couple of thousand to build the pipeline.”

Even if it ends up being “a couple thousand jobs”, it’s a couple thousand jobs. Permanent jobs. Probably more than have been created, in terms of permanent jobs, than for all of Obama’s green energy projects. It would also provide a large amount of temporary jobs as the pipeline is built (Keystone states that the number is 9,000, and 7,000 support jobs). The “shovel ready” jobs in Obama’s Stimulus where primarily temporary jobs. Did we hear him complaining about that?

He said the next steps in the pipeline approval process would be to get “agencies to comment on what the State Department did, public’s allowed to comment, Kerry’s going to, then, give me a recommendation.”

Obama does realize he is The President, right? There have already been numerous reports, agencies have commented, public comments, and such. And there are already a huge amount of pipelines running across the country. But Keystone XL has become a rallying cry for the “climate change” nuts, who are a big part of Obama’s wacko base. So, it appears as if Obama will look to run out the clock on this. And there may come a time when Canada, which has been extremely patient, just takes their ball and goes home, well, takes it to China.

This could set up an interesting situation if the GOP retakes the Senate, and Congress passes legislation allowing the pipeline to be built.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Obama To O’Reilly: I’m Waiting For John Kerry’s Approval On Keystone XL »

Posted in Barry Obama, Energy | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Has The Over-selling Of “Climate Change” Hurt Science?

By William Teach February 3, 2014 – 6:20 pm

Well, that supposes that “climate change” is actually about science

(Forbes)  Will the overselling of climate change lead to a new scientific dark age? That’s the question being posed in the latest issue of an Australian literary journal, Quadrant, by Garth Paltridge, one of the world’s most respected atmospheric scientists.

Paltridge was a Chief Research Scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).  The latter is Australia’s equivalent of the National Science Foundation, our massive Federal Laboratory network, and all the governmental agency science branches rolled into one.

Paltridge lays out the well-known uncertainties in climate forecasting. These include our inability to properly simulate clouds that are anything like what we see in the real world, the embarrassing lack of average surface warming now in its 17th year, and the fumbling (and contradictory) attempts to explain it away.

You can see that paper and more links here.

Climate scientists have been profoundly defensive about the known problems. Paltridge elegantly explains that this has to be the case, and describes the likely horrific consequences when the day of reckoning finally arrives.

That day is coming closer, because, as Paltridge notes, people are catching on:

“…the average man in the street, a sensible chap who by now can smell the signs of an oversold environmental campaign from miles away, is beginning to suspect that it is politics rather than science which is driving the issue.”

It is politics. If Warmists truly believed, they might change their own behavior to match their rhetoric, as I’ve written ad nauseum. Instead, they make excuse after excuse why they won’t and don’t, but why you should, preferably forced by Government.

“A new and rewarding research lifestyle emerged which involved the giving of advice to all types and levels of government, the broadcasting of unchallengeable opinion to the general public, and easy justification for attendance at international conferences—this last in some luxury by normal scientific experience, and at a frequency previously unheard of.”

Most refuse to debate, and use words and phrases designed to shut down debate. Yet they love all those government funds and cushy conferences held around the world.

“In the light of all this, we have at least to consider the possibility that the scientific establishment behind the global warming issue has been drawn into the trap of seriously overstating the climate problem—or, what is much the same thing, of seriously understating the uncertainties associated with the climate problem—in its effort to promote the cause. It is a particularly nasty trap in the context of science, because it risks destroying, perhaps for centuries to come, the unique and hard-won reputation for honesty which is the basis of society’s respect for scientific endeavour.” [emphasis added]

I’m not so sure I agree, because people are quickly grasping that the “climate change” movement has nothing to do with science, and everything to do with far left politics. But, certainly, Warmists using science to push their politics can hurt for a short time.

Read: Has The Over-selling Of “Climate Change” Hurt Science? »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming, Science | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

NJ Dem: No Proof That Christie Knew Of Lane Closures

By William Teach February 3, 2014 – 3:03 pm

Funny, after weeks of hyperventilation reporting and investigating (the same type not done for Obama scandals excepting a few reporters), no one has found a thing

A New Jersey Democrat who’s leading a probe of a bridge traffic scandal that has engulfed Gov. Chris Christie said Sunday that he’s seen no evidence to support claims that the governor had been aware of the politically motivated traffic jams as they happened.

If such evidence does exist, a state panel investigating the closures has not yet seen it, Assemblyman John Wisniewski said Sunday.

Maybe there is, maybe not. Christie isn’t exactly an awesome person, he’s a politician. If he did it and it can be proved, he should resign. I’m not thrilled over the possibility of him being the GOP 2016 nominee. But, there’s that thing called “proof”.

Interestingly, he and his team are actually complying with subpoenas, no fuss, no stonewalling. Almost like he’s innocent.

Read: NJ Dem: No Proof That Christie Knew Of Lane Closures »

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If All You See…

By William Teach February 3, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is a monument to capitalism and wasting Earth’s resources, putting vast amounts of carbon pollution in the atmosphere, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Lonely Conservative, with a post on Bill O’Reilly’s interview with Mr. Obama.

Congratulations, Seahawks! BTW, why do Northwest liberals like to riot and burn things when they win a championship?

Read: If All You See… »

Posted in If All You See | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

Whiny Warmists Plan Protests Across US Against Keystone XL

By William Teach February 3, 2014 – 11:24 am

Which is hilarious, since much of the nation is going to be cold, and about a quarter of the nation will see snow today

(UPI) A consortium of U.S. environmental groups said a chorus of voices will let President Obama know the Keystone XL oil pipeline “fails his climate test.”

The Sierra Club, anti-Keystone group Bold Nebraska, the Natural Resources Defense Council and more than a dozen other environmental groups scheduled “protest vigils” across the country Monday to oppose the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

“This is an all-hands-on-deck moment to send the message to President Obama that Keystone XL fails his climate test and he must reject it,” the consortium said.

They’ll even be protesting in South Florida, forgetting that the pipeline will come nowhere near the state. Whiners in Washington State will hold a candlelight vigil (yeah, I’m shaking my head about that one, too). They’ll even be a sit-in in Halifax, as in Nova Scotia.

One has to wonder how all these Warmists will get to the sit-ins, protests, vigils, etc. Fossil fueled travel, anyone?

They have stated that they will take more “direct action” if the pipeline is approved. Because liberals are peaceful or something.

Read: Whiny Warmists Plan Protests Across US Against Keystone XL »

Posted in Climahypocrites, Global Warming | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Bummer: Immigration Judges Only Have Seven Minutes To Make A Decision

By William Teach February 3, 2014 – 8:47 am

That’s probably about 5 more than is really needed. “Are you in the United States illegally? Yes? Goodbye”. But the Washington Post is Really Concerned about this “miscarriage of justice”, that illegals aren’t getting their fair time in court, that it takes, per the headline on the front page, about the same time as taking a shower to decide

His courtroom rarely came to order, and by now the judge had decided it was a waste of time to try. Interpreters explained legalese in three languages. Adults squeezed into crowded seats while children crouched in the center aisle. A court official stood near the doorway and worried about the building’s fire code. “Por favor,” he said in halting Spanish, as another family tried to enter. “No mas.”

Judge Lawrence Burman sat quietly in front of the chaos, adjusting his reading glasses and sifting through a stack of files on his bench. He had 26 cases listed on his morning docket in Arlington Immigration Court — 26 decisions to make before lunchtime about the complicated future of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

“The rocket docket” is what lawyers had begun calling this schedule, warning clients that their future could be decided in the time it took to walk to the restroom and back.

In Burman’s courtroom, the urgent number on this January morning was smaller but just as daunting. He had an average of seven minutes per case.

Just a random thought: if we’d stop coddling illegals, if we stop them at the border, if we’d disincentivize them from coming here illegally or overstaying their visas (like make it really painful, criminally and civilly, for companies to hire them, schools to host them, etc.), stop giving them money and social services, the work load might be a whole lot less. Instead, the Political and Chattering Class do all they can to incent them to come illegally or overstay their visas.

Undocumented immigrants try to prove they deserve to remain in America by bringing their versions of America with them to court: wives carrying family photo albums; babies wrapped in American flag blankets; pastors, bosses, neighbors and community soccer teams, all of whom fill the courthouse and sometimes kneel in the hallways to chant or to pray.

“Somos Americanos,” one group said. We are Americans.

Regardless of illegality, there are some we would love to be Americans. We are a generous nation. Showing up for court being unable to speak English probably isn’t the best way to demonstrate one wants to be part of the American experience.

Of course, the WP trots out sob stories, like a family separated from the husband, who’s in jail for getting caught while driving drunk on Thanksgiving, then being kept in jail since. They have a son born in the USA. The parents are illegals, though. Yes, this is tough. But, the parents made a choice to do this. They can take the child with them. The child is welcome to come back as a natural born citizen. Choices have consequences.

Oh, and the sob story includes the father have been involved in two separate property hit and runs. Because he had no license or insurance, and was worried about being deported. BTW, why has his wife not been arrested, since she is an illegal, too?

Ed20748 in the comments wraps it all up:

Being an immigration judge seems easy enough or at least it should be. Does the individual have the legal right to stay here? If yes he stays, if no he’s deported. What’s so difficult about that?

It should be.

Read: Bummer: Immigration Judges Only Have Seven Minutes To Make A Decision »

Posted in Illegal Immigration | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Obamacare “Innovation Center” Testing Method Is A Mess

By William Teach February 3, 2014 – 8:16 am

I know what you’re thinking: how could an idea born from the Affordable Care Act be a problem?

(NY Times) The idea seemed transformative. The Affordable Care Act would fund a new research outfit evocatively named the Innovation Center to discover how to most effectively deliver health care, with $10 billion to spend over a decade.

But now that the center has gotten started, many researchers and economists are disturbed that it is not using randomized clinical trials, the rigorous method that is widely considered the gold standard in medical and social science research. Such trials have long been required to prove the efficacy of medicines, and similarly designed studies have guided efforts to reform welfare-to-work, education and criminal justice programs.

But they have rarely been used to guide health care policy — and experts say the center is now squandering a crucial opportunity to develop the evidence needed to retool the nation’s troubled health care system in a period of rapid and fundamental change.

The idea, though, is to retool the supposedly trouble health care system (love how people who receive excellent care call it that) towards a government driven and government controlled system. As such, they feel no need to follow the tried and true randomized clinical trials method.

Instead, the Innovation Center has so far mostly undertaken demonstration projects; about 40 of them are now underway. Those projects test an idea, like a new payment system that might encourage better medical care — with all of a study’s participants, and then rely on mathematical modeling to judge the results.

How’s that working out?

Dr. Patrick Conway, the director of the center, defended its reliance on demonstration projects, saying they allowed researchers to evaluate programs in the real world and regularly adapt them. “Does it look like it is working?” he asked. “If it does not look like it is working, we can stop.”

He said that the center has had trouble getting such studies to yield solid results because those in the control groups — who do not get the innovation being tested — tend to drop out.

So, the director of the center defends the projects, then admits that they have trouble getting results, because those in the control groups drop out. Sound rather like Obamacare in a microcosm.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Obamacare “Innovation Center” Testing Method Is A Mess »

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Rules For Watching The Super Bowl

By William Teach February 2, 2014 – 5:05 pm

This goes, really for watching almost all sports, but especially a championship game

  1. Ladies, imagine all you want to do is soak in a tub, with scented candles, soft music, the lights down low. No one is to bother you unless it is a category 5 issue. Yeah, that’s the way we feel about watching sports, especially championship games
  2. Guys who aren’t sports fans, well, well, I’m not sure about your “bathtub place”, but imagine it. And zip it.
  3. Now is not the time to “discuss X”. No talk about your Aunt Betty’s nephews cousins school play. Nothing about chores. Whatever it is, It Can Wait.
  4. Wait till commercial to ask what just happened in the game
  5. Now is not the time to ask about the rules
  6. Do NOT ask out opinion on something: you might actually get it!
  7. No matter what that thought is, see rules 1-3

Glamour Magazine also offers up 9 rules for watching with guys, including

  • DON’T WEAR A PINK JERSEY
  • RESPECT THE SPORT – “Do not criticize. If the rules don’t make sense at first, don’t give the ‘that’s dumb’ response.”
  • SHOW OR FEIGN INTEREST – you expect us to do this while you look at handbags and shoes. This is a 2 way street

And more from Eric Robinson

  • Please do not stand in front of the television if you want something.
  • If you want something, the best time to ask for it is after a nice victory from our favorite team.
  • Please don’t expect us to eat or do anything healthy on Sunday.
  • Don’t EVER say the words “You love your stupid football game more than me.”

Do you have any rules?

Read: Rules For Watching The Super Bowl »

Posted in Sports | 2 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach February 2, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is a wonderful tree sucking evil carbon pollution out of the atmosphere, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Junk Science, which notes just how much “warming” could be added by Keystone XL.

Read: If All You See… »

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