You asked for it, America.

A foster mother with 10 years' experience was struck off after a Muslim girl in her care converted to Christianity

The woman has been banned by her local council for failing to prevent the teenager from getting baptised, even though the girl was 16 and made up her own mind to change religion.

The carer, a churchgoer in her 50s who has fostered more than 80 children, has now been forced to move out of her home.

The ruling has increased concerns that Christians are becoming victims of discrimination in Britain, following the case of Caroline Petrie, the nurse suspended for offering to pray for a patient.

Officials advised the teenager to reconsider her decision and stop attending Christian meetings, and in November struck the carer off their register, claiming she breached her duty of care as a foster parent.

Who the hell do they think they are? State officials telling a girl not to attend religious meetings? This is the state of religious “tolerance” in Brittain.

You asked for it, ~~America~~ Universe.

Apr 06th

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How Geithner's PPIP plan will turn the entire US financial system into Enron 2.0 (bigger and better!)

dhk:

mattlehrer:

Let’s say you are a bidder for Bank A. You know your banking asset is worth $50, and you also know the asset Bank B has is worth $50. You call your buddy up, the trader at B, and make a deal. Happens all the time. You go to bid, and you bid $80 for B’s asset. Then you wait. If B doesn’t come through, you are screwed out a lot of money. And hey, isn’t this wrong? Well, you are pretty sure one of those Rubin-protégé government whiz-kids has given someone who knows someone you know a wink-wink about this. You take a drink, steady the nerves. Then, the bid comes back for your asset - $80 from B. You have each bid up each others assets and traded them. And now the government is screwed.

Yup. Bad news. Bank A pays $6.50 for its new asset because of the leverage , and it loses all of that. It also loses the $50 from not having the asset anymore. However it gains $80, net profit - same as Bank B. The government has paid $73.50 for a $50 asset, twice. … We tend to call this collusion if you and I did it.

via Zero Hedge

You asked for it, America.

Apr 04th

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randyhaddock:

Krauthammer on Obama’s ‘American Arrogance’ Comment: “In order to gain the adoration of the crowd he denigrated his country in a way that I think is disgraceful.”

You asked for it, America.

Mar 31st

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“In February, Obama signed into law a large tax hike on cigarette consumers. The federal tax on cigarette consumers is jumping from 39 cents per pack to $1.01 per pack — a huge 159 percent increase. If you smoke two packs per day, President Obama has raised your taxes by a $453 annually. Next on the Obama low-income tax hike agenda: global warming taxes of about $80 billion per year, as revealed in the Obama budget, which equals an annual tax boost of $700 for every household in the United States.”

—

Obama’s First Tax Hike Hits the Poor
(via sds)

You asked for it, America.

Mar 26th

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“

This itself is a hugely important political development. In essence, the bailout accelerated the decline of regional community lenders by boosting the political power of their giant national competitors.

Which, when you think about it, is insane: What had brought us to the brink of collapse in the first place was this relentless instinct for building ever-larger megacompanies, passing deregulatory measures to gradually feed all the little fish in the sea to an ever-shrinking pool of Bigger Fish. To fix this problem, the government should have slowly liquidated these monster, too-big-to-fail firms and broken them down to smaller, more manageable companies. Instead, federal regulators closed ranks and used an almost completely secret bailout process to double down on the same faulty, merger-happy thinking that got us here in the first place, creating a constellation of megafirms under government control that are even bigger, more unwieldy and more crammed to the gills with systemic risk.

”

—

Matt Taibbi, The Big Takeover (via muppetpants)

You asked for it, America.

Mar 26th

#

davidkendall:

hilker:

Geithner To Propose Vast Expansion Of U.S. Oversight Of Financial System

but first, a five dollar footlong from subway.

Very nice! (The joke, not the proposal….the proposal is crazy, and unnecessary — it echoes voices from way back when…..voices that brought us, for instance, the Tennessee Valley Authority, which was supposed to be the federal governments efforts to oversee distribution of power in the Tennessee Valley area, and an answer to local electric companies’ practices of over-charging for power….only the TVA became a huge beaurocratic sinkhole for taxpayers money that, while doing some good work initially, wound up wasting far more money than it saved, and long outlived its usefulness……but once you get a political beaurocracy started, you can’t kill it with wooden stakes and silver bullets……….but that’s a debate for another
day…..

You asked for it, America.

Mar 25th

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NY Bureaucrats Force Low-Cost Doc to Raise Fees

wooliebear:

hilker:

carpe diem blog:
“1. “NY State Bureaucrats Fight Doctor’s $79 Flat Fee for Uninsured” (3/4/2009)
The state is trying to shut down a New York City doctor’s ambitious plan to treat uninsured patients for around $1,000 a year. Dr. John Muney (pictured above) offers his patients everything from mammograms to mole removal at his AMG Medical Group clinics, which operate in all five boroughs. His patients agree to pay $79 a month for a year in return for unlimited office visits with a $10 co-pay.

“I’m trying to help uninsured people here,” he said.

But his plan landed him in the crosshairs of the state Insurance Department, which ordered him to drop his fixed-rate plan - which it claims is equivalent to an insurance policy. Muney insists it is not insurance because it doesn’t cover anything that he can’t do in his offices, like complicated surgery. He points out his offices do not operate 24/7 so they can’t function like emergency rooms. The state believes his plan runs afoul of the law because it promises to cover unplanned procedures - like treating a sudden ear infection - under a fixed rate. That’s something only a licensed insurance company can do.
“I’m not doing an insurance business,” he said. “I’m just providing my services at my place during certain hours.” “If they leave me alone, I can serve thousands of patients,” he said.

2. “Insurance Industry Wins, Low-Cost Doctor Raises Fees” (3/12/2009)

A New York City doctor whose low-cost health care plan angered state officials has agreed to increase his fees. The state Insurance Department told Dr. John Muney last month to end the $79-a-month medical service at his AMG Medical Group clinics in all five boroughs. Department spokesman Andy Mais says Muney was violating state law by basically operating as an insurance operator without a license. The monthly fee buys unlimited office visits, including certain tests and in-office surgeries.

Muney will charge $33 per visit for all but preventive care, which Mais says brings him in compliance. Muney’s spokesman says he’ll challenge the restrictions through legislation. Muney, a former surgeon, started offering the $79-a-month plan in 2008.”

[h/t devin]

You asked for it, America.

Mar 25th

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billda:

via bowlingalleylawyer:muppetpants:sarahchristine

You asked for it, America.

Mar 25th

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FACT CHECK: Obama having it both ways on economy?

hilker:

A look at some of his statements and how they square with the facts.

You asked for it, America.

Mar 24th

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What Channel?

jeffmiller:

squashed:

Obama is currently giving a press conference where he’s explaining the financial crisis intelligently.

What channel are you watching? I must be watching the wrong press conference. In the one I’m watching, the President is claiming that the current emergency requires that Congress give him expanded executive power. I’m either watching Bush in 2001 or Obama in 2009. (Or Clinton after Oklahoma City).

I’m tired of Obama justifying his trillion dollar deficits by arguing that he inherited a trillion dollar deficit from the Bush administration. Prior Bush deficits were considerably smaller (but still too big), and we only had a trillion dollar deficit last year because of bailouts that Obama supported and many Republicans opposed. Obama and the Democrats own last year’s deficit just as much as Bush does.

You asked for it, America.