Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Thursday, September 26, 2013
So you wanted change huh ? Well strap yourself in, it's gonna be a long ride !
Obamacare provision will allow 'forced' home inspections by gov't agents
Citing the Heath and Human Services website, a report posted Wednesday at the Freedom Outpost says that under Obamacare, government agents can engage in "home health visits" for those in certain “high-risk” categories.
Those categories include:
• Families where mom is not yet 21;
• Families where someone is a tobacco user;
• Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities, and
• Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States.
According to HHS, the visits fall under what is called the "Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program" allegedly designed to “help parents and children,” and could impact millions of Americans.
Constitutional attorney and author Kent Masterson Brown said that despite what HHS says, the program is not “voluntary."
"The eligible entity receiving the grant for performing the home visits is to identify the individuals to be visited and intervene so as to meet the improvement benchmarks," he said. "A homeschooling family, for instance, may be subject to 'intervention' in 'school readiness' and 'social-emotional developmental indicators.' A farm family may be subject to 'intervention' in order to 'prevent child injuries.' The sky is the limit."
Joshua Cook said that while the administration would claim the program only applies to those on Medicaid, the new law, by its own definition, has no such limitation.
"Intervention," he added, quoting Brown, "may be with any family for any reason. It may also result in the child or children being required to go to certain schools or taking certain medications and vaccines and even having more limited – or no – interaction with parents. The federal government will now set the standards for raising children and will enforce them by home visits.”
According to Cook, the program will require collection of a massive amount of private information including all sources of income and the amount gathered from each source.
One of the areas of emphasis mentioned by HHS is the "development of comprehensive early childhood systems that span the prenatal-through-age-eight continuum."
Last session, Cook added, South Carolina State Rep. Bill Chumley introduced a measure that would make the forced home visitations illegal in his state. The measure passed in the House but died in the Senate.
In 2011, he noted, HHS said $224 million would be allocated to support these home visiting programs.
Citing the Heath and Human Services website, a report posted Wednesday at the Freedom Outpost says that under Obamacare, government agents can engage in "home health visits" for those in certain “high-risk” categories.
Those categories include:
• Families where mom is not yet 21;
• Families where someone is a tobacco user;
• Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities, and
• Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States.
According to HHS, the visits fall under what is called the "Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program" allegedly designed to “help parents and children,” and could impact millions of Americans.
Constitutional attorney and author Kent Masterson Brown said that despite what HHS says, the program is not “voluntary."
"The eligible entity receiving the grant for performing the home visits is to identify the individuals to be visited and intervene so as to meet the improvement benchmarks," he said. "A homeschooling family, for instance, may be subject to 'intervention' in 'school readiness' and 'social-emotional developmental indicators.' A farm family may be subject to 'intervention' in order to 'prevent child injuries.' The sky is the limit."
Joshua Cook said that while the administration would claim the program only applies to those on Medicaid, the new law, by its own definition, has no such limitation.
"Intervention," he added, quoting Brown, "may be with any family for any reason. It may also result in the child or children being required to go to certain schools or taking certain medications and vaccines and even having more limited – or no – interaction with parents. The federal government will now set the standards for raising children and will enforce them by home visits.”
According to Cook, the program will require collection of a massive amount of private information including all sources of income and the amount gathered from each source.
One of the areas of emphasis mentioned by HHS is the "development of comprehensive early childhood systems that span the prenatal-through-age-eight continuum."
Last session, Cook added, South Carolina State Rep. Bill Chumley introduced a measure that would make the forced home visitations illegal in his state. The measure passed in the House but died in the Senate.
In 2011, he noted, HHS said $224 million would be allocated to support these home visiting programs.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Army Capt. Will Swenson - Extraordinary footage shows selfless war hero in action
Battlefield footage taken in eastern Afghanistan four years ago depicts the heart and heroism of former Army Capt. Will Swenson, who will soon receive the nation’s highest wartime award, the Medal of Honor.
The video was taken during the horrific Battle of Ganjgal on Sept. 8, 2009, when U.S. troops were ambushed by Taliban forces. Then-Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer’s valor that day earned him a Medal of Honor two years ago, according to Military Times.
The raw footage, taken by an Army National Guard sergeant and given to CBS News, shows Swenson repeatedly risking his life until the last of his men, both living and dead, are taken care of.
Especially touching is the moment when, after bringing in Sgt. First Class Kenneth Westbrook aboard a medevac helicopter, Swenson kisses him on the forehead before rushing off to retrieve the next of his men.
Swenson is scheduled to receive the Medal of Honor from President Obama on Oct. 15.
This next clip is the actual raw battlefield footage, taken by California National Guard Sgt. Kevin Durst.
The video was taken during the horrific Battle of Ganjgal on Sept. 8, 2009, when U.S. troops were ambushed by Taliban forces. Then-Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer’s valor that day earned him a Medal of Honor two years ago, according to Military Times.
The raw footage, taken by an Army National Guard sergeant and given to CBS News, shows Swenson repeatedly risking his life until the last of his men, both living and dead, are taken care of.
Especially touching is the moment when, after bringing in Sgt. First Class Kenneth Westbrook aboard a medevac helicopter, Swenson kisses him on the forehead before rushing off to retrieve the next of his men.
Swenson is scheduled to receive the Medal of Honor from President Obama on Oct. 15.
This next clip is the actual raw battlefield footage, taken by California National Guard Sgt. Kevin Durst.
Cuba 2012 Documentary
Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Cuba to find a communist country in the middle of a capitalist revolution. Two years ago Cuba announced the most sweeping and radical economic reforms the country has seen in decades. From ending state rationing to cutting one million public-sector jobs, one of the last communist bastions in the world has begun rolling back the state on an unprecedented scale. Simon Reeve meets ordinary Cubans whose lives are being transformed, from the owners of fledgling businesses to the newly rich estate agents selling properties worth up to 750,000 pounds.
In this hour-long documentary for the BBC's award-winning This World strand, Simon gets under the skin of a colourful and vibrant country famous for its hospitality and humour and asks if this new economic openness could lead to political liberalisation in a totalitarian country with a poor human rights record. Will Cuba be able to maintain the positive aspects of its long isolation under socialism - low crime, top-notch education and one of the best health systems in the world - while embracing what certainly looks like capitalism? Is this the last chance to see Cuba before it becomes just like any other country?
In this hour-long documentary for the BBC's award-winning This World strand, Simon gets under the skin of a colourful and vibrant country famous for its hospitality and humour and asks if this new economic openness could lead to political liberalisation in a totalitarian country with a poor human rights record. Will Cuba be able to maintain the positive aspects of its long isolation under socialism - low crime, top-notch education and one of the best health systems in the world - while embracing what certainly looks like capitalism? Is this the last chance to see Cuba before it becomes just like any other country?
Psychiatric Patient Brutally Beaten by Police
Porfirio Santos-Lopez, 46, is a father of three. At 6:00 p.m., Monday, September 2, he was involved in an altercation with another man. According to the LA Times, surveillance video showed Santos-Lopez hitting another man in the head. Police were called and approached him. That’s when the surveillance video begins to show police driving Porfirio between two squad cars, then knocking him to the ground, tasing him repeatedly as he was beaten by police. Having successfully subdued Porfirio, the police then yelled at him to roll onto his stomach. Witnesses say that Santos-Lopez inquired why they wanted him to do so. At this point, you can witness what happened in the video below as he was beaten by police. WARNING! GRAPHIC!
Viewing the video, you get the sense that the woman taping it is frightened as she saw Santos-Lopez beaten by police. At times, she begins to weep and shakes throughout. She cringes whenever the officers hit the man with their batons, which they do on both his legs with all their might, his torso, collapsing one of his lungs, and breaking one of his arms – all after having him on his back. Sure, the officers say they told Santos-Lopez to roll onto his stomach, which he refused to do, but there were more than half-a-dozen blue suits simply standing around watching him being beaten by police, allowing the bone crunching beating and repeated use of a Taser.
According to Larry Smith, a use-of-force expert and retired Fontana police sergeant and former training specialist: …he must not have been that violent, because otherwise the other officers would have jumped in. They could have always just dog-piled him and then you’re not hitting him with a baton. Smith also wanted to know why the officers didn’t just move in to handcuff the alleged criminal after they had used a Taser on him. As with any police brutality investigation, other experts disagreed with Smith, stating that all the facts of the altercation were not available on the 4 and a half minute video. Greg Meyer, another use-of-force expert, and a former LAPD captain said that the baton use shown seemed to follow protocol. Baton or metal pipe beatings are not unprecedented by any means.
You may remember Meyer as an expert witness in the Rodney King case. He later wrote a scathing review of police procedures during that time in America’s history where he stated that “billy-club confrontations” were a tactic of first resort with police, and in subsequent cases, stated that other procedures, like pepper spray, should be used first so as not to incense bystanders seeing a person beaten by police.
One may remember that, as brutal as Rodney King’s beating was, expert use-of-force witnesses on either side of the case maintained that a suspect being beaten by police was standard practice and within proper police protocol. Regardless of expert analysis of the police tactics used, watching the video causes one to wonder if protocol shouldn’t be changed. Having someone beaten by police with batons may be a good tactic if he is a violent individual and attacking the officer making the arrest. But this isn’t the case here.
Santos-Lopez was on his back with his legs up as thousands of volts of electricity coursed through his body with police officers surrounding him. As Larry Smith stated, there is no reason these officers could not have flipped him over, forcibly hand-cuffed him, and carried him to a squad car. He didn’t have to be beaten by police to comply. He would have been on his way to a hospital to get the psychiatric help he needed, with minimal cuts and bruises.
Obamacare Don't Fund It!
Join Mike Lee and Ted Cruz in the fight to stop Obamacare. Help us spread the word with these TV advertisements.
Broken Promises + Democrat Denial
t's time to give the economy a break from ObamaCare by permanently delaying the law for ALL Americans.
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