Team Obama Plans To Push 2014 O-Care Enrollment To November

By William Teach November 22, 2013 – 7:59 am

Strange how this ends up being after the 2014 mid-terms election date, wouldn’t you say?

(Bloomberg) The Obama administration plans to push back by a month the second-year start of enrollment in its health program to give insurers more time to adjust to growing pains in the U.S. law, a move that may stave off higher premiums before the 2014 congressional elections.

The enrollment period, previously scheduled to begin Oct. 15, 2014, will now start Nov. 15, said an official with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who asked not to be identified because the decision isn’t public. The change is important to insurers that need more time to evaluate the first year of the government-run marketplaces.

Moving the filing deadline back a month gives insurers more time to assess the mix of consumers who enroll in plans in the first year they’re offered through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The young, healthy people needed to balance the cost of care for older consumers aren’t likely to sign up in large numbers until March, said Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who helped design the law.

What would this do?

The one-month delay revealed yesterday is just long enough so “consumers will not see their 2015 premiums until after the midterm elections, instead of immediately before,” said Mike Tuffin, a former insurance industry lobbyist who is now managing director of consulting firm APCO Worldwide’s Washington office. “One doesn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to divine the motive here.”

Either way, this could be a boon for Republicans. Democrats are probably counting on it possibly being easier to blow off Republican campaign rhetoric about the cynicism of pushing off the enrollment period off for a month till after election day versus lots of news stories of people seeing their premiums rise further. Especially those who are being dumped by their companies or being turned into part time workers so the company doesn’t have to provide insurance. This is similar to the way they pushed off the employer mandate (illegally) till 2015.

National Journal’s Sam Baker notes that all this is a bomb waiting to happen before the mid-terms. The question is, can Republicans take advantage of this?

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Posted in Democrats, Elections, Healthcare | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Android Apps: What Rocks?

By William Teach November 21, 2013 – 9:43 pm

I had a friend email me asking what applications I use on my Android, since she just switched over from iPhone to Droid. This is a modified version of what I sent her, figured might as well not waste a long email, eh? Plus, something different.

I have two Droid’s, phone is an HTC One S running 4.1.1. I also have an Elocity tablet I bought a few years ago running 2.something. I don’t need the tablet to do super wild stuff, does what I need. Here’s what I have on my phone (no links, you can hit the Android market for all of them), and every one of them is free. I’m cheap like that. Some apps I link together in folders, some I have stand alone, depends on usage

Anything in bold is a highly recommend/gotta have

Weather: I have a bunch. Can you believe I had 12 on my old iPhone, not including local news apps?

  • Best radar: My-Cast Lite. I really love the way the radar works, versus the horrible type on WeatherBug, Weather Channel, and others
  • 1Weather has my favorite widget, and tends to be closer to WRAL temps, official for Raleigh.
  • Intellicast has some very detailed info, including historical trends
  • Weather Bug can link into very local stations
  • If you love storms, weather TAP zoom provides awesome t-storm radar and data, showing direction, station data, hail, etc.
  • HurricaneSoftware, for tracking hurricanes

News: CBS, Fox, News and Observer, NewsHog, NY Times, Politico, WRAL, Washington Post, Daily Caller, NJ.com, USA Today, News Republic (just added), and the Hill. I have those and more on my tablet.

Cool stuff:

  • IMDb is great for TV and movie info for previous shows/flics
  • Flixster has the best info for current and coming soon movies and DVDs, plus links in to Vudu/Ultra Violet. Not that I ever use it, but, hey, I get those digital copies when I buy DVDs, dagnabit!
  • Photobucket
  • Photo Editor. I’ll link this one, since so many have the same name. Excellent, easy to use, fully powered photo editor
  • Twitchy
  • The Chive
  • Youtube
  • Key Ring – good for all those discount savings cards
  • feedly

Music

  • double Twist -mostly used for playing movies (I have Predators on my memory card)
  • Rocket Player – this one I really like. I’ve been through many different players, and this one has shuffle (I love shuffling all my music) and an equalizer. Really recommend.
  • Play Music, but that came with, never use
  • Cover Art Downloader – self explanatory
  • iHeart Radio
  • Radio.com (good genres, plus I can get 660 The Fan out of NYC to listen to my NJ Devils)
  • Slacker
  • There are others that came with

For email I use K-9 Mail, haven’t found a better program. I have 3 accounts I use, easy to see, can delete from server. One awesome feature is quiet time. I set it so incoming mail makes no sound between 11pm and 8am.

Sports: Score Mobile (favorite), CBS sports, Hockey Center, Yahoo Sports, NHL Gamecenter, a couple of fantasy sports programs

Obviously have the Kindle app, wear it out. Also, Moon+ Reader for non-kindle books.

Nature Sound is a nice sound soother, use it when traveling. Also, Relax and Sleep, interesting sounds, but the loops are not seamless like with Nature Sound.

WordPress, of course.

Tools:

  • Inkpad is a nice simple notepad, which syncs up to my tablet
  • Evernote is a great note taking platform for more detailed info, which also syncs across to my tablet
  • ALYac: anti-virus and spyware/malware. Must have this or some other
  • 3D Compass+
  • Magnifying glass: good for these getting old eyes. I can see fine close up without glasses or contacts, I have distance problems. But with them in, eyes won’t focus. This really helps
  • Master Lock Vault – great for storing sensitive documents and passwords. Syncs across, plus can access on computer.
  • Dropbox – good for storing docs and photos, makes it easy to access across Droids and PCs
  • Drive – connects to Google Drive – I have some different types of docs, mostly work related and not sensitive, on this
  • Current Caller ID – here’s one you really should have, accesses the White Pages (no, that’s not raaaaacist) for when you get called, will usually tell you who if they aren’t in your phonebook. Also, can tell you things like news, weather, Facebook activity if you want
  • Callist is a new app, which is a simple program for accessing favorites, much easier than the built in dialer, plus you can set reminders to call someone.
  • Android System Clean
  • Clean Master (set to automatically clean)
  • ES File Explorer – no rooting necessary
  • Easy App Backup
  • Go TaskManager
  • Oi Shopping List

Road Bike for … biking! Swing by Swing for playing golf.

Browsers: Boat Browser, Miren Browser, and Firefox. BB uses less power, FF is synced with my laptop. Dolphin is also good, but I don’t used it, had it for a specific purpose, when Disqus 2 came out. Other browsers now work with them.

Obviously some games, and some other things that no one else will care about.

Travel

  • INRIX traffic is a must, for tracking traffic
  • Google Maps, which comes with
  • Yelp for food and stuff
  • Carrr Matey is good for finding your car
  • Waze is a good open source navigation program
  • Also have Scout

If you have a DLNA enable TV or DVD player, you should get a DLNA app. This is home networking. You can do this with your PC, most likely. It uses WiFi to connect. You can send pictures, vids, and music to the TV/DVD. In my case, the BluRay player. I have aVia and DLNA Player Free on my phone, different ones on my tablet (2player, BubbleUPnP, and MediaHouse). Partly because that’s what works best on the devices, partly to separate their streams as they show up on BR player. What I really wanted to do was be able to play music on my phone in shuffle mode, with the ability to switch it easily from the phone, and have it play through BR to TV/stereo. Alas, no. Won’t mirror. But cool to send photos to TV.

PS: Youtube has automatic built in DLNA, if your BR or TV has the Youtube app.

Finally, something cool, which is big customization of way phone acts. I use Go Launcher EX which gives a totally different experience. Really, really can change the way things look and act, and Go has lots of ad ons. You know the bottom bar (app drawer) which has things like phone and text? Customizable. Looks cool when you access screen with all the apps. You really have to see it in the app store. You can use different themes, which change the way the apps themselves look. I use the Baltica theme. Transitions from screen to screen, their own widgets…sheesh, so much stuff hard to know it all. It also helps reduce redraw on the screen, which was a big prob with my Samsung Galaxy S. Also, really makes my tablet pop, because it was kind of a pain with the basic.

I have some other stuff on my tablet, like Crackle (Sony free movies), Dictionary, but mostly mirrors the phone, at least in terms of stuff I would use. Do not need table to have all the same. I’ve also tried lots of apps that either didn’t work for me, found better, or just didn’t really need.

Anything cool you’d recommend?

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Washington Post Pretty Surprised That Insurers Are Restricting Doctors To Keep Costs Down

By William Teach November 21, 2013 – 5:51 pm

Seriously, you guys, who would have predicted this?

(Washington Post) As Americans have begun shopping for health plans on the insurance exchanges, they are discovering that insurers are restricting their choice of doctors and hospitals in order to keep costs low, and that many of the plans exclude top-rated hospitals.

The Obama administration made it a priority to keep down the cost of insurance on the exchanges, the online marketplaces that are central to the Affordable Care Act. But one way that insurers have been able to offer lower rates is by creating networks that are far smaller than what most Americans are accustomed to.

The result, some argue, is a two-tiered system of health care: Many of the people who buy health plans on the exchanges have fewer hospitals and doctors to choose from than those with coverage through their employers.

Obviously, the WP attempts to paint the insurers as the bad guys, when they are just doing what needs to be done according to the rules of Obamacare and compete on the health insurance exchanges.

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Kids These Days Are Are Spoiled…

By William Teach November 21, 2013 – 1:57 pm

Read: Kids These Days Are Are Spoiled… »

Posted in Like, Gnarly, Dude | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 21, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible old fossil fueled vehicle which causes Bad Weather, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Ice Age Now, noting when the snowiest winters on record occurred.

Read: If All You See… »

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Poor Countries Have Snit Fit, Walk Out Of COP19 Over Wanting More Money

By William Teach November 21, 2013 – 11:12 am

Gee, it’s like all these “developing nations” just want cash

(Guardian) Representatives of most of the world’s poor countries have walked out of increasingly fractious climate negotiations after the EU, Australia, the US and other developed countries insisted that the question of who should pay compensation for extreme climate events be discussed only after 2015.

The orchestrated move by the G77 and China bloc of 132 countries came during talks about “loss and damage” – how countries should respond to climate impacts that are difficult or impossible to adapt to, such as typhoon Haiyan. (snip)

Developing countries have demanded that a new UN institution be set up to oversee compensation but rich countries have been dismissive, blocking calls for a full debate in the climate talks.

Essentially, all these 3rd World Shitholes developing nations just want more free cash and loans that will never be repaid, and are using “climate change” to attempt to get it.

Meanwhile, the EU is planning on spending 20% of its budget on “climate change”, having solved all the other problems, such as weak economies, high unemployment, rampant violence by Muslim immigrants, etc.

Read: Poor Countries Have Snit Fit, Walk Out Of COP19 Over Wanting More Money »

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Bummer: Climate Change To End Practice Of Turkey For Thanksgiving

By William Teach November 21, 2013 – 7:04 am

Why, yes, it is that time of the year when the Climatologists trot out their scary Thanksgiving stories. Prior to most major holidays, and some minor ones, Warmists tend to take one of three tracks: climate change will ruin the holiday, the holiday makes climate change worse, or they use the holiday to spread awareness. In this case

Thanksgiving In The Future: No Turkeys, Lots Of Pensioners, And Robot Cooks

Welcome to Thanksgiving In The Future, a festive look at how we’ll be experiencing Turkey Day 50 years from now. We’ll have to rechristen it Chicken Day, because climate change will have wiped out the planet’s turkeys by then. And instead of car jams and snow flurries, you’ll whiz through a ”hyperloop” tunnel and make it to the (unseasonably warm) celebrations in good time. Plus, you won’t need to Snapchat your friends shots of stuffing and cranberry sauce, because one wink will prompt your Google Glasses to broadcast a panoramic live feed out to everyone you’ve listed as “Close Friend.”

Welcome to the last Thursday in November of 2063.

Now, you’ve never seen a turkey, because all farm animals have pretty much gone extinct. But you’ve seen that episode of that vintage show Friends where Monica wears one on her head, and don’t get what all the nostalgia is about. Who would want to preserve an animal that looks like this?

The rest of the article is actually rather amusing, discussing the way the few young people left (because no one is having kids) will behave, writing on paper instead of tablets, playing virtual games instead of being outside, having virtual alcohol, and more. But Warmists just can’t help themselves with the doom scenarios from Hotcoldwetdry. Oh, here’s a few going with the third track

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, the Center for Biological Diversity’s Frostpaw the Polar Bear will hold a week-long vigil outside the White House to urge President Obama to “pardon the polar bear” by saving it from climate change and the Keystone XL pipeline. The event starts Thursday, Nov. 21 at 11 a.m. Visitors are invited to join Frostpaw and have their picture taken.

Read: Bummer: Climate Change To End Practice Of Turkey For Thanksgiving »

Posted in AGW Idiocy, AGW Scaremongering, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

Politico Is Super Surprised That No One Told Them About The Intended Consequences Of Obamacare

By William Teach November 21, 2013 – 6:47 am

Or is it the “Affordable” Care Act? I forget which one is the proper usage, which seems to be based on how much Obama’s signature legislation is hurting him

Obamacare tradeoffs: Now they tell us …

President Barack Obama is suffering the worst season of his presidency because people are mad that critical parts of the Affordable Care Act are not working the way they are supposed to work.

The larger longer-term threat to his signature legislative achievement—and to his presidency generally—is different. It is the growing backlash over Obamacare working precisely the way it is supposed to work. (snip)

But the problem with Obamacare’s stumbling start is that it shined a harsh light on intended consequences — more costs and more government regulation — that were always embedded in the ACA, yet were deliberately downplayed by Obama and Democrats on the way to passage. Backers hoped the costs of the ACA and its roster of losers would remain obscured after launch in a rush of good feeling about the laws benefits and its roster of winners.

Writers John F. Harris and David Nather then describe some of those conditions in detail, moving on to

It is not as if these trade-offs — the kind required by any big social program — were not understood by experts at the time Obamacare was being debated in 2009 and 2010. But they certainly weren’t part of the pitch Obama and the Democrats made to the rest of America — the people who shouldn’t have had to read between the lines to know what was going to happen.

Said experts told us exactly what was going to happen with Obamacare, what the intended, and unintended, outcomes would be. Especially the opponents of O-care. Don’t liberals constantly tell us that they are the Smartest People Ever? Yet so many really do seem surprised as to what O-care causes to happen. One would think reporters would have taken the time to find out about the law, you know, doing their jobs as reporters, instead of listening in a zombie like rapture to the words of Obama and Democrats

It’s not that Obama tried to make health care reform sound like a completely free lunch. He talked about the need for young and healthy people to buy health insurance, and for most businesses to cover their workers. What he didn’t say, though, was that healthy people might have to pay more to cover sick people — or that people who already had individual health insurance would have to upgrade, even if they liked their skimpy coverage.

Except, that’s exactly how Obama pushed it, that it would be a free lunch. His supporters sure thought so. He talked about all the wonderful stuff people would get for lower costs. And he lied about so many aspects, to the point it could be criminal fraud. But, you know, Republicans

Republicans in Congress have been quick to say that they warned of the dangers of the law. But the truth is that they sounded the alarms about so many threats, including dubious assertions about death panels and the slippery slope to a Canadian-style single-payer health care system, that they never put any sustained focus on the very specific tradeoffs people are seeing now.

Yet, the majority of US citizens were against the ACA even before it passed. And now Liberals are agitating for single payer. And the “death panels” that didn’t exist was quietly taken out of the bill by Harry Reid, before quietly being reinserted (Independent Payment Advisory Board). Might Harris and Nather have done some deep research on the law before passage? They could have read it, for one thing.

It’s a long article, which really seems surprised that many, many people will get hosed, healthy people paying through the nose for sick people, costs skyrocketing, care reduced, etc. It would have been nice had Politico considered the ramifications back in 2010.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Politico Is Super Surprised That No One Told Them About The Intended Consequences Of Obamacare »

Posted in Barry Obama, Democrats, Healthcare, Journalistic Malpractice | 3 Comments | Trackback URL

Surprise! Obama Supporting Students Suffer O-care Sticker Shock

By William Teach November 20, 2013 – 5:11 pm

I have zero sympathy for these folks, who voted for this disaster

(Fox News) While millions of Americans are watching their individual polices get canceled due to ObamaCare regulations, the new health care rules are also having a major impact on college campuses.

For decades, universities and colleges have offered students bare-bones policies. But because of the Affordable Care Act, those policies no longer cut it – and universities are forced to decide whether to offer significantly higher-cost plans or cancel coverage altogether.

So these little Obama zombies saw their plans either cancelled or changed to much more expensive ones.

“You’ve haven’t done anything Obama and I am disappointed in you,” one student said. Another told Campus Reform, “We don’t have that money. We can barely afford books.”

This is rippling across the entire college domain. So, the kiddies can now either go and get plans through the exchange, much more expensive ones (say, might that be intentional, to get the young healthies to pay through the nose?) or hit up mummy and daddy.

To be fair, this hits only a small number of college students. But, then, if you keep adding small numbers to small numbers to small numbers, pretty soon the overall number becomes huge.

Read: Surprise! Obama Supporting Students Suffer O-care Sticker Shock »

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Delusional: Obama Partly Blames Republicans For Failure Of Obamacare

By William Teach November 20, 2013 – 1:44 pm

Of course

(Washington Post) President Obama on Tuesday sought to redirect some of the political blame for the botched rollout of the federal health insurance exchange to Republicans, characterizing GOP lawmakers as rooting for the law’s failure.

Addressing a gathering of business executives, Obama acknowledged that the health-care rollout “has been rough, to say the least,” and he lamented the government’s archaic information-technology procurement system.

Obama said that fixes to the HealthCare.gov Web portal are underway and that the exchange will function for a majority of people by the end of November. But the president said staunch opposition from congressional Republicans is inhibiting the law’s implementation.

“One of the problems we’ve had is one side of Capitol Hill is invested in failure,” Obama said at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council meeting in Washington. “We obviously are going to have to remarket and rebrand, and that will be challenging in this political environment.”

Not one Republican voted for this mess. Republicans did not control Congress when this horrible law was passed. Democrats still control the Senate. Republicans do no control the Executive Branch in the least, which was charged with getting this travesty up and running. But, because Republicans root for O-care’s failure, obviously they must be at fault. Hey, I root for Dallas, Eagles, and Redskins to lose. Does that put me at fault when Romo and the Cowboys have another epic December swoon?

Republicans can’t stop Obamacare until they win the White House and Senate. Period. But, of course, this was all about No Drama Obama Blamestorming and blame-shifting. He hasn’t fired one person for the disaster of a rollout.

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