The Hemingway Report

Monday, May 8, 2017

Barry accepts JFK Courage Award

Courage Award? I guess they forgot about that red line in the sand. Oh…and Biden is the best VP this country ever had!

When the Oscars roll around he should get one for impersonating a president.

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Former President Barack Obama, in his first public comments about the ongoing debate over his signature health care plan, implored members of Congress on Sunday to demonstrate political courage even if it goes against their party's positions.

Obama briefly returned to the spotlight as he accepted the annual John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at JFK's presidential library in Boston. The award is named for a 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Kennedy that profiled eight U.S. senators who risked their careers by taking principled though unpopular positions.

In his approximately 30-minute speech after accepting the award, Obama steered clear of partisan attacks and never mentioned his successor, President Donald Trump, who has often criticized the previous administration and has worked to undo many of Obama's initiatives, including the Affordable Care Act.

The former president recalled members of Congress who voted to pass the ACA during his presidency, only to lose their seat in later elections.

"They had a chance to insure millions," he said. "But this vote could also cost them their seats, perhaps end their political careers."

Obama made no direct reference to Thursday's House vote to dismantle much of the health care law, but declared that while it did not take courage to help the rich and powerful, it does require courage to help the sick and vulnerable.

"It is my fervent hope and the hope of millions ... such courage is still possible, that today's members of Congress regardless of party are willing to look at the facts and speak the truth, even when it contradicts party positions," said Obama, whose appeal seemed to focus on wavering Republicans.

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, one of the few Republicans to attend the dinner, told reporters the Senate would write its own version of the legislation and he did not expect the House bill to survive intact.

The former president focused much of his address on the legacy of President Kennedy, as the library prepared to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth later this month. Obama noted the Kennedys had long advocated for health care reform, and in particular, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died of brain cancer before passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Among the guests who made their way down the red carpet into the library for the event were representatives of the Kennedy family, members of Congress, former Obama staffers and celebrities including former late-night talk show host David Letterman. Former Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State John Kerry also were in attendance.

Early in his speech, Obama personally thanked a number of people in the crowd including 'the best Vice President this country has ever known Mr Joe Biden' (above)

Not to mention the brightest!

U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Obama earned the award by meeting many challenges that faced him during his presidency.

"It's about understanding the challenges we face as a country and as a planet and mustering the political will to do what is right even if what is right at that moment isn't necessarily popular," said Kennedy, a harsh critic of the GOP health overhaul plan.

Caroline Kennedy, JFK's daughter who served as Ambassador to Japan, and Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy's grandson, presented the award.

Schlossberg, 24, and planning to attend Harvard Law School, said Obama inspired him the way an earlier generation was inspired by his grandfather.

"Without Barack Obama, I might still be sitting on my couch, eating Doritos and watching sports," he said.

While the former president has steered away from any involvement in U.S. affairs during his early months out of office, he forayed into the French political debate last week by posting a message of endorsement for centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, who defeated his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in Sunday's election.

On Monday, Obama travels to Italy to give a keynote address on climate change and food security at Tuesday's Seeds and Chips Global Food Innovation Summit in Milan.

Sunday, May 7, 2017

San Diego police killed boy, 15, in school parking lot

Here we go again.

What a surprise! Another black imbecile points a gun at the cops (real or not) and winds up dead.

Naturally, if white people did the same thing they would still be sucking air.

Bet his name has already been submitted by BLM for canonization. Still, the last paragraph in this article kills me.

[A crisis-response team will be on campus Monday to support students, staff, and parents, Dill said. Counseling also will be available at all district schools for anyone who needs a place to talk about the shooting or "to mourn and process this tragedy," he said.]

Allow me to "process this tragedy" for you...it's called out-and-out stupidity. I guess I'm supposed to feel bad because it was 'only' a BB gun. How would the cops know that?

Speaking of stupidity remember this saint?

This is the photo the media released. An angelic "Trayvon-like" Tamir Rice. A former Cleveland, Ohio native.

This is what the cops saw (A man waving a gun) when Rice's neighbors called it in.

(Little different image...you think)

Original photo of Rice's gun.

Surprise me. Which one did he carry?

It's the one on the top a toy gun. It's easy for liberals to make a snap decision when their ass is not on the line. The fact is from 30 feet away could a cop be able to distinguish the difference? I can't. They both look like a Colt 1911.

Instead of learning from this incident they just continue to join the ranks of the fatality stupid. This could be the reason. Rather than teach kids in the inner-cities...Don't Point A Gun At A Cop Real Or Not.

They did this:

Gazebo where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed to go on display at memorial museum

BTW...The Grand Jury declined to indict the police officers but the Cleveland taxpayers had to cough up $6 million for Rice's family.

Think about that for a moment.

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Members of the San Diego Police Department collect evidence at the scene of a fatal police officer involved shooting of a 15-year-old boy in one of the parking lots in front of Torrey Pines High School, early Saturday morning. The boy reportedly called the police and when they arrived pointed what appears to be a gun at them. (Howard Lipin/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP)

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Police shot and killed a 15-year-old student Saturday after he pointed a BB gun at them in a high school parking lot, authorities said.

The Torrey Pines High School student called 911 shortly before 3:30 a.m. to ask officers to check on the welfare of an unarmed boy in front of the school, according to a police statement.

He didn't name the boy, but investigators later determined he was referring to himself, police said.

When two officers arrived, they spotted a youth in the front parking lot. But as they got out of their patrol cars, he pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at an officer, police said.

The officers drew their guns and ordered him to drop the weapon. But instead, he began to walk toward an officer, ignoring more demands to drop the weapon, police said.

Both officers fired, hitting him several times. They performed first aid and summoned paramedics, but the teen was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.

The gun was found to be a BB air pistol.

Police didn't release the teen's name because of his age.

"Our hearts go out to the student, his family, and his friends," said a statement from Eric Dill, superintendent of the San Diego Union High School District.

A crisis-response team will be on campus Monday to support students, staff, and parents, Dill said. Counseling also will be available at all district schools for anyone who needs a place to talk about the shooting or "to mourn and process this tragedy," he said.

Classic Pelosi

She's enough to make you cringe.

Video 343

And then some.

Saturday, May 6, 2017

The House Passed Its Health Care Bill. Now the CBO Will Weigh In.

Now that the House has passed its big health care bill, it will find out what that bill could actually do.

The Congressional Budget Office, Washington’s nonpartisan scorekeeper, (debatable) did not have time to evaluate the effects of the American Health Care Act before Thursday’s vote since the bill was being amended until just before passage. But the budget office will not ignore the health law, and next week it is expected to release detailed estimates of how many people will be covered by the bill, and at what cost to the government.

During the debate over the Affordable Care Act in 2009, the budget office played a central role. Many Democratic lawmakers would not vote for the bill without knowing how many more people it would cover or that it would not increase the deficit. This time House Republicans, who have assailed the budget office’s calculations as inaccurate, were far less concerned about waiting for a score.

Okay, stop here. This is the reason why:

The CBO's Lousy Track Record on Coverage Projections

By Jeffrey H. Anderson

Congressional Budget Office Director Keith Hall

(Everything he knows he learned from Nancy Pelosi)

Congressional members and staffers generally act like their fellow Americans sit around waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to release scoring of major legislative proposals, much like they await the release of March Madness brackets. The truth is that most Americans hardly care what the CBO says. Moreover, they are right not to care: The CBO is often wildly off.

This has certainly been true on Obamacare. Seven years ago this month, the Democrats rammed President Obama’s namesake through the House of Representatives without a single Republican vote and with only three Democratic votes to spare. At the time, the CBO said that in 2017, 23 million people would be enrolled in insurance that they acquired through Obamacare's government-run exchanges. Well, 2017 is here, and the actual tally is 9.2 million. So the CBO missed its projection by some 14 million people and a whopping 48 percent. That's not even close enough for government work.

The CBO tends to assume that if the federal government isn't compelling someone to do something, it won't happen. So if employers aren't mandated to offer insurance, they won't. If Americans aren't mandated to buy insurance, they won't. To be sure, the CBO does grant that some private employers and some private citizens actually exercise free will. Nevertheless, the CBO plainly believes in, and is a part of, Big Government.

Evidence of this is found in the fact that the CBO generally omits a huge category in its Obamacare scoring: its effect on federal spending. It lists Obamacare's "gross cost of coverage provisions," but that counts tax breaks and federal spending as being one and the same. Maybe that's just as well, since the CBO falsely scores Obamacare's direct outlays to insurance companies as "tax credits," and hence (when the person getting the insurance is someone who actually pays income tax) as "tax cuts"—hiding some $104 billion in federal spending in the process. The fact that the CBO generally doesn't offer a clear tally for federal spending speaks volumes.

As congressional members and staffers from both parties wait with bated breath for the CBO to score the newly released House Republican health-care bill (part of which is here and part of which is here), they would do well to remind themselves that (A) the CBO's score will most likely be wildly off, (B) most Americans don't much care what the CBO thinks, and (C) those who debate and pass legislation should focus on whether it would be good policy that can be communicated to the American people on its own grounds, not on the grounds of the CBO's generally dubious scoring.

Anderson, author of "An Alternative to Obamacare," is a Hudson Institute senior fellow.

Correction: The tally of 9.2 million people enrolled in insurance acquired through the Obamacare exchanges only includes the 39 states that use the healthcare.govplatform. Adding in the other 11 states (plus Washington, D.C.) would raise that tally to approximately 12 million people. So the CBO was off by about 48 percent in its projections, rather than 60 percent. As attrition occurs throughout the year, however, dropping the enrollment tally below 12 million, the amount by which the CBO was off will rise accordingly.