Did you know that Obamacare is everything that’s wrong with the Government? And if you cannot defund or repeal Obamacare, then nothing else matters and the government might as well shut down?
Well that is the stance that Republicans have taken recently since their leader Ted Cruz forced a House vote stating just that – defund Obamacare or shut down the government.
And Rick Santorum, the former Republican presidential candidate who ran his campaign on a “morality” and Christianity platfirm joined the Cruz Chorus, demanding that 30 million Americans lose their health care, or else…
In an interview on CNN’s New Day, the host asked Santorum if he supported Cruz’s efforts to defund Obamacare and his government shutdown ultimatum. Needless to say, Santorum agreed, saying that people in Washington are too accustomed to working together to solve problems.
“I would be with Ted Cruz,” Santorum explained. “What happens in Washington, D.C. is that everybody just muddles together and tries to work things out, and when you have a president and a Senate controlled by one party that means, generally speaking, if you want more-limited government, it’s going to be a bad deal.”
And he implied that Cruz’s my way or the highway approach is the way to go. Make the comfortable people uncomfortable.
“I guess, I can say I’ve been accused of putting my party in a bad spot repeatedly when I was in the Senate, and sometimes you have to do that. You have to make people uncomfortable because people do get too comfortable in sort of cutting the deal.”
“I no longer have the luxury of being a dove when it comes to my financial security. I have to become a hawk and protect my nest egg – my future – with everything I’ve got.”
I’d been waiting for the last 8 to 10 years for the repercussions, but up until now I’d been practically unaffected by the whole matter.
I’ve never owned a home, I’ve always rented.
Never owned a car and I don’t drive.
I’m single, with no children, so no worries there.
I’ve been at, what one would call a good job, for the last 18 years and have a fair amount of indispensability.
I pay my taxes and receive average returns each year.
I’ve had no major hospital visits for the last 18 years and I’m rarely sick (knock-on-wood), with most of my doctor visits slotted for yearly physical exams and dental check-ups.
And then it happened.
THE RECESSION suddenly got up close and personal.
On Monday the HR department at my company sent out an all-staff email stating, among other things, that due to the increased cost of the 401(k) pension plan by 25%, the company will no longer be able to contribute matching funds towards its employee’s deductions. This, no doubt is happening across the country:
“The proposed agreement would suspend the employer match on the 401(k) plan for all participating institutions for the next two years, and use the funds that would normally pay for the match to pay for the increase in the pension cost. This does not affect the match of July 2013. That was paid in its entirety, but the matches for July 2014 and 2015 would not be made under this tentative agreement. The match for July 2016 is not yet determined and would be subject to the same or a similar multi-party process to reach agreement about two years from now. Under the tentative agreement employee contributions to the 401k during the two years would continue to be made on a pre-tax basis up to the IRS limits.”
Suddenly I saw my beautiful but modest dream home nestled alongside the red clay mountains in Sedona, Arizona, going up in smoke!
The 1/4 acre backyard with the modest swimming pool (in which I personally install an original mosaic design); my brick enclosed BBQ pit; my little garden spot in the back of the yard where I try to grow a few tomatoes; the recreation center I hope to open and give art therapy classes in; my junkets to Africa, Japan, Egypt and England — still on my ‘bucket list’; my as-of-yet-to-be-born faithful companions, Lil Roddy and Piccachu, a pair of cute, sable French Bulldogs who I treat like the children I never had; my favorite gentlemen caller and I skinny-dipping in the pool under the stars in my cozy backyard, as we sip on our favorite wine while listening to an endless stream of jazz ballads from all the legends – Dexter, Coltrane, Miles, Mingus – playing in the background as we…well, you get the picture. All fading fast.
The memo says the break in coverage will continue up to 2016, when matters will then be renegotiated, but I and my fellow employees are severely skeptical on this turning out favorably anytime soon.
So this was my wakeup call. I no longer have the luxury of being a dove when it comes to my financial security. I have to become a hawk and protect my nest egg – my future – with everything I’ve got. My pension is still intact but I still have to boost my retirement-plan contributions if I want to make up for the loss of the employer match and keep my retirement dreams alive.
Some financial advisors recommend continued investment in your company’s 401(k) plan if there are good investment choices and low fees there. If you’re in your twenties, you’ll want to put the majority of your investment into a high-risk high growth fund. You’ll make money by leaving your money in these funds for the long haul even though they may go down at times. Move to more conservative investments as you get closer to your retirement.
Also consider contributing to a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA (named for its legislative sponsor, William V. Roth Jr., a Republican senator from Delaware) allows you to contribute and save after-tax money as opposed to the traditional 401(k) contributions made with pretax dollars. As long as you own the Roth IRA for at least five years, you can take tax-free distributions beginning at age 59.
Another way to supplement your overall retirement package may be an investment in an annuity of which there are two general kinds. The first is the annuity with period certain, which is an annuity that specifies a certain period for the payments. The second and most common kind of annuity for retirement savings is the life annuity. How this works is that you agree to pay some lump sum to a company and they promise to pay you a certain rate of return on that money each year for the rest of your life.
However there are certain risks associated with annuities. For instance, what happens if the organization you bought the annuity from goes under? Most likely, you’re out of luck. To put it simply, advisors again say never buy an annuity without the backing of a very reputable organization, especially if you’re putting a great deal of your savings into it.
There’s also the possibility that you buy a lifetime annuity and you pass away earlier than you expected to. The balance of that investment is gone, since it can’t be passed down as an inheritance. For this reason it may be preferable to buy an annuity associated with a charitable group you believe in, both for the tax advantages and for the support to that organization. Then at least if you die before you could cash in at your planned retirement age, the money would go to a worthy cause.
Afterall, you can’t take it with you (thank God!).
NAIROBI — One of the Islamist militants wore a white turban, witnesses said, while others wore black head scarves. Most were in civilian clothes, but a few wore camouflage fatigues. Some carried sophisticated machine guns, and others wielded the AK-47 rifles widely used by African insurgents. Most of the extremists who seized the upscale Nairobi mall were young and barked orders in English.
By Monday evening, Kenyan security forces said they controlled much of the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall, although several militants from al-Shabab, a group allied with al-Qaeda, appeared dug in, determined to fight to the death.
What is al-Shabab, and is it a high priority in the U.S. war on terror? Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies explains to On Background’s Nia-Malika Henderson.
After three days of fighting, Kenyan security forces remain in a standoff with gunmen who still control a corner of the shopping center.
With the standoff apparently drawing to a close after three days, there was a growing focus on the identity of the militants and how they could pull off a sophisticated assault that killed at least 62 people and kept security forces at bay for three days. Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said Monday that “two or three Americans” and “one Brit” were among the perpetrators of the attack.
She said in an interview with “PBS Newshour” that the Americans were 18 to 19 years old, of Somali or Arab origin and lived “in Minnesota and one other place” in the United States. The British jihadist was a woman who has “done this many times before,” Mohamed said.
U.S. officials said Monday that they were pressing to determine whether any of the assailants were American.
In an interview set to air on Tuesday, former president George W. Bush took the high road and defended the president’s golf outings as a necessity to release the stresses of the job.
“I see our president criticized for playing golf. I don’t. I think he ought to play golf,” Bush said. “I know what it’s like to be in the bubble. I know the pressures of the job, and to be able to get outside and play golf with some of your pals is important for the president. It does give you an outlet.
President Obama is often criticized by Republicans for his trips to the golf course. It is good to see the former President stand up for Mr. Obama, in spite of the nonsense coming from his own party.
Sarah Palin is angry and she wants everyone including her employer Fox News, to know it.
An avid supporter of Ted Cruz and his pointless efforts to defund Obamacare –legislation that passed both the House and Senate, signed into law by the President and found to be legal by the Supreme Court – Palin took to Twitter to demand that Fox News give up the names of their anonymous Republucan sources, who are criticizing Cruz.
On his Fox News Sunday show, host Chris Wallace made the point that after booking Cruz on his show, he received complaints from a list of Republicans, all against Cruz and his defunding campaign.
Said Wallace;
“This has been one of the strangest weeks I’ve ever had in Washington, and I say that because as soon as we listed Ted Cruz as our featured guest this week, I got unsolicited research and questions not from Democrats, but from top Republicans — to hammer Cruz.
Palin apparently didn’t believe Wallace was telling the truth, and demanded that he release his list.
Like everyone is doing these days, Wallace ignored Palin’s demand.
In a classic case of the tail wagging the dog, Ted Cruz has convinced the Republican party that defunding Obamacare is their only ticket to relevancy and thus, the White House in 2916. And they have apparently bought into his assumption that the Demicratic controlled Senate and the president will void their own law.
These things will never happen of course, but leadership is lacking in the Republican party. And anyone who steps up to the plate with an idea – no matter how farfetched that idea is as in the case of Ted Cruz – that person will be followed.
At last night’s Emmy’s, Edie Falco gave a moving tribute to deceased Co-star and the face of the show, James Gandolfini.
“You all knew James Gandolfini the actor. I was lucky enough to know Jim the man. For 10 years as his close colleague and his pretend life-partner, and for many more years as his friend. And it’s Jim, the man, the very dear man, that I will miss most of all.”
A 66-year-old farmer and “self-proclaimed politician” from the town of Gigante, Huila in Colombia apparently—and “enthusiastically”—took too much Viagra in an attempt to “please his new girlfriend.” According to a local paper, he then suffered an erection for several days before going to a local hospital when the perma-boner began to cause pain.
By the time he was seen by medical professionals, they noted his penis was inflamed, fractured, and showing signs of gangrene. Local doctors were “alarmed by the complexity of the issue” and transferred him to a hospital in Neiva. Neiva doctors, in order to stop the gangrene from spreading to other parts of his body, determined the only option was to amputate the penis. He is now recovering and “doing well.”
The hospital then issued a warning to locals, advising them to abstain from using erection-enhancing drugs to “avoid incidents like this.”
New reports say that 64-bit support is coming to Android in the near future – maybe as soon as Android 4.4 KitKat – or at least that’s what a recent Intel presentation seems to imply.
The image above is taken from a presentation given by Intel at its Developer Forum last week, where the company talked about its computing plans for the future, touching on various operating systems including Windows and Android.
As you can see in the picture, 64-bit support is mentioned as an upcoming “enhancement” for Android devices that will have Intel chips under the hood.
While Intel didn’t specifically confirm that 64-bit support is coming to Android 4.4 KitKat, it would make sense to see that happen considering the recent interest in mobile processors with such powers.
Apple was first to announce a mobile device that will have a chip with 64-bit support – the iPhone 5S with an Apple A7 inside – but it won’t be the only company to offer such products.
Samsung has also confirmed that its mobile devices will support 64-bit processing in the future, and now Intel is apparently saying that its mobile chips are ready to do the same.
In fact, Intel’s current Bay Trail Atom chips “are certified as ‘Intel 64’ chips,” which means they’re ready to offer 64-bit support.
Not to mention that we already know ARM’s next-gen of mobile chips will come with 64-bit support.
Interestingly, during IDF 2013 Intel was joined on stage by Google, as Sundar Pichai himself made an appearance to talk about Chrome and Android. From the looks of it, the chipmaker is more and more interested to increase its presence in the Android ecosystem.
That said, don’t get too excited about 64-bit processing just yet, no matter how interesting it may sound – and we’ll have to wait a while to see whether Android 4.4 KitKat will indeed offer such functionality. But it seems more than clear that 64-bit chips will be found in more and more mobile devices in the coming years, so it’s logical to speculate that Google will be ready to support them with future versions of its operating systems.
Google is rumored to unveil the next Nexus smartphone alongside Android 4.4 KitKat on October 14.
I’m sure the Romneys were unaware of this fact. The new addition to their family happens to be black, and has a name that means black in Gaelic.
I’m not going to beat them up for the oversight. I’m sure it was unintended .
The child, adopted by his son Ben and wife Andelynne, is black. The circumstances of his adoption are unknown.
Critics have been quick to note that the boy’s name, Kieran, means “black” in Gaelic.
“Kieran” is common name in Ireland, and though it does mean “black” or “dark,” it usually denotes a link to Fergus, King of Ulster, a figure in Irish legend.
The name descends from “Ciar,” one of Fergus’s sons, who is said to have given birth to the Ciarraige, a medieval Irish people who gave their name to County Kerry.
The Twitter account of Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels was suspended Saturday after they used the site to claim responsibility for an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall that left 39 dead and 150 wounded.
A message from Twitter on the English-language @HSM_Press account read that the account was suspended, the third time this year that the group has been expelled from the site.
According to Twitter users are blocked “for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities”.
The Shebab’s previous account, @HSMPress, was suspended in January after the group posted photographs of a French commando they killed and threatened to execute Kenyan hostages. They opened another account, @HSMPress1, but were again suspended earlier this month after threatening Somalia’s internationally-backed president.
The group issued a string of messages on Twitter Saturday, claiming its fighters were behind an attack on Nairobi’s upmarket Westgate shopping mall.
“The Mujahideen entered #Westgate Mall today at around noon and are still inside the mall, fighting the #Kenyan Kuffar (infidels) inside their own turf,” the Islamist militants had said on Twitter.
“What Kenyans are witnessing at #Westgate is retributive justice for crimes committed by their military,” the group said.
When terrorists attacked at a mall with guns in Nairobi today today, The Times’s Tyler Hicks, a staff photographer, happened to be next door. Here’s what he saw….
In what is being described as the first known event of its kind, a transgendered teen was named as her high school’s homecoming queen on Friday.
“I am so proud to win this not just for me, but everyone out there,” 16-year-old Cassidy Campbell said after receiving her crown during the halftime of Marina High’s homecoming football game Friday night in Huntington Beach, CA.
The Los Angeles Times published a slideshow of photos from the homecoming event, which you can view here.
Cassidy rose to national prominence when it was reported that she was entering the contest.
“Just to be true to themselves and to let people know around them and to not keep it bottled up inside,” Campbell said about what her win should mean for fellow members of the transgendered community.
Local affiliate KTLA 5 first reported that Campbell had been selected by her classmates at Marina High on Friday to be this year’s homecoming queen.
Marina High Principal Paul Marrow praised his students for Campbell’s victory, saying, “Were proud of the message from home of the Vikings has been one of equity, acceptance, tolerance and respect.”
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By agreeing to this, we can analyze browsing behavior and unique IDs on this site. Declining or revoking consent may affect certain features.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.