Reinke Faces Life

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/12/30/OPM-274-Million-Paid-to-Dead-Federal-Retirees-Over-Past-3-Years

OPM: NEARLY $85 MILLION PAID TO DEAD FEDERAL RETIREES IN 2013

by EDWIN MORA  30 Dec 2013, 9:46 AM PDT

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However, an audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released on Dec. 27 found that the SSA may not always know who is dead.

“SSA’s methods for processing death reports may result in inaccurate, incomplete, or untimely information for users of its death data,” noted the GAO. “Consequently, this could lead to improper payments if benefit-paying agencies rely on this data… Because SSA does not verify death reports from sources it considers most accurate, the agency risks having erroneous information in its death data, such as including living individuals or not including deceased individual.”

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Argh!

It’s not like it’s THEIR money.

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Dear Mr. Reinke,

Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of one of our nation’s strongest and most successful environmental laws: the Endangered Species Act. Passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed by President Richard Nixon, the Act was the first comprehensive law to address the global extinction crisis.

The Endangered Species Act took a zero-tolerance approach to achieving its goals: no new extinctions, no exceptions. As a result, 99 percent of listed species have been saved from extinction and are on the path to recovery. Some iconic American species, such as the bald eagle, the American alligator, and the Pacific gray whale, have recovered from the brink of extinction and are now thriving in their natural habitats. Beyond the preservation of individual species, the Endangered Species Act helps to keep the interdependent web of live strong.

Today, conservation efforts under the Endangered Species Act are a model for preserving biodiversity around the world. Unfortunately, some in Congress have suggested that weakening provisions of the Act would somehow yield greater benefits for the species it was designed to protect. As a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Endangered Species Act, I am committed to protecting our nation’s strongest and most successful environmental law.

Keeping America Safe, On and Off the Battlefield

Congress has taken another step in the ongoing and urgent effort to prevent suicide among members of our armed forces. A new defense bill that passed earlier this month included a provision I wrote to increase suicide prevention and outreach services for key segments of our Guard and Reserve.

These are specific pools of reservists who, when not assigned to active duty units, live and work among us in our communities in their civilian occupations. As such, they lack the ready access to mental health resources available to their active duty counterparts. My provision enables the Adjutant General of any state to request from the Pentagon address data for reservists in his or her state for the purpose of conducting suicide prevention and outreach activities.

The provision is an outgrowth of the Sergeant Coleman S. Bean Individual Ready Reserve Suicide Prevention Act, which I introduced in 2010 following the death by suicide of Sgt. Bean, an East Brunswick reservist about whom I have written previously.

The defense bill also included a provision I wrote to authorize a top-to-bottom review of programs in the Department of Defense to recruit and retain scientists, technology experts, mathematicians, and engineers. This amendment is a direct outgrowth of my work on the National Commission on Research and Development in the U.S. Intelligence Community, which published our final report this summer. It is imperative that American find, train, and retain world-class talent in these fields. The security of our nation quite literally depends on it.

Working For You

Recently, I was contacted by a Plainsboro veteran who is working hard to put himself through graduate school. Due to his past military service, he is eligible to receive federal tuition support – but although he had submitted a claim to the VA months earlier, his school still hadn’t received any payment. I reached out to the VA to resolve the problem, and the tuition payment was quickly made.

Have you encountered a similar problem with the VA, Social Security, Medicare, a passport center, or any other federal agency? If so, please call me at 1-87-RUSH-HOLT or by sending an e-mail. I’ll do all I can to address your problem.

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

P.S. Just a reminder: I always want to hear from you, but to ensure a prompt response, please don’t reply to this e-mail. Instead, please visit holt.house.gov/contact or call 1-87-RUSH-HOLT (1-877-874-4658).

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Sorry but how about the dead eagles at the California wind turbines?

Guess that “The Dear Leader” can do whatever he wants.

And I wonder if the Northwest Loggers who lost their jobs to save the spotted tree owl, which is being wiped out by other owls, would agree.

Snail darter, etc. etc.

Sorry, but the Gooferment doesn’t do anything — morally, effectively, or efficiently!

And, just because it was “bipartisan” doesn’t mean anything other than everyone got paid off!

And, no mention of Obamacare?

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FROM MY OLDER FRIEND

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Psychology 101 – (Simple truth)

If you start with a cage containing five monkeys and inside the cage, hang a banana on a string from the top and then you place a set of stairs under the banana, before long a monkey will go to the stairs and climb toward the banana.

As soon as he touches the stairs, you spray all the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while another monkey makes an attempt with same result … all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water.

Pretty soon when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put the cold water away.
Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.

The new monkey sees the banana and attempts to climb the stairs.

To his shock, all of the other monkeys beat the crap out of him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys, replacing it with a new one.

The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment…… with enthusiasm, because he is now part of the “team”.

Then, replace a third original monkey with a new one, followed by the fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Now, the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs. Neither do they know why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

Finally, having replaced all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys will have ever been sprayed with cold water.

Nevertheless, not one of the monkeys will try to climb the stairway for the banana.

Why, you ask? Because in their minds…that is the way it has always been!

This, my friends, is how Congress operates… and this is why, from time to time:

ALL of the monkeys need to be REPLACED AT THE SAME TIME.

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I think he’s on to something. 

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CNET December 10, 2013
CNET COMMUNITY
How do you feel about in-flight cell phone calls?

Dear CNET members,

{Extraneous Deleted}

In October the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave the green light to allow the use of electronic devices from takeoff to landing, which allows you to play games, read books, listen to music and videos, and so on. But what it doesn’t allow is voice calls or mobile broadband services. However, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is considering also lifting this ban — which would mean that at above 10,000 feet, the person next to you could break out his cell phone and start chatting with his buddies about what a great partying week he had.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not too keen on hearing everyone’s conversations throughout my flight. And the great news is a chairman of the House Transportation Committee agrees with me (OK, he’s not exactly agreeing with me, but I share his opinion). As he says, flights are noisy enough without having to listen to a plane full of passengers shouting to be heard on their phones. He has introduced a bill that would prohibit passengers from making in-flight cell phone calls on commercial aviation flights.

So what do you think of all this? Do you support a bill to prohibit cell phone calls in planes? Why or why not? Do you even think the government should be involved in this at all or should it be left to the airlines to decide? If the ban was lifted, what do you imagine would happen? More air rage and scuffles among passengers? Or maybe nothing — people will be respectful and everyone will be able to take advantage of it. Check out this CNET article titled “New House bill seeks to ban in-flight cell phone calls” and share your thoughts!

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Why can’t the airlines decide? I’d much rather have free wifi.

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http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303562904579224251626379422?mod=Opinion_newsreel_2

POTOMAC WATCH
Strassel: Piano Sonata in FTC Minor
Music teachers, beware. The feds are onto you. Better not try to raise the price of your lessons.
By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Nov. 28, 2013 4:51 p.m. ET

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While this abuse of power has received no national attention, it has riled the music community. Brian Majeski, the editor of the journal Music Trades, lambasted the FTC in a December editorial, noting that “a consumer watchdog that sees piano teachers as a threat either has too much time on its hands, or badly misplaced priorities.”

That might be too kind. Whether it is the IRS targeting conservatives, the Justice Department hounding Gibson Guitar, or the EPA conducting an armed raid on an Alaskan mine—this administration has a tendency toward abuse of power. That’s how antitrust laws created to tackle megamonopolies end up being used to hound and hammer a nonprofit devoted to piano teachers.

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Anyone still think that this isn’t Gooferment?

Argh!

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/11/26/evidence-shows-obama-administration-predicted-tens-millions-would-lose-plans/

HEALTH CARE
Almost 80 million with employer health care plans could have coverage canceled, experts predict
By Jim Angle
Published November 26, 2013FoxNews.com

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Almost 80 million people with employer health plans could find their coverage canceled because they are not compliant with ObamaCare, several experts predicted.

Their losses would be in addition to the millions who found their individual coverage cancelled for the same reason.

Stan Veuger of the American Enterprise Institute said that in addition to the individual cancellations, “at least half the people on employer plans would by 2014 start losing plans as well.” There are approximately 157 million employer health care policy holders.

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I wonder if this will make a dent in the thinking of “The Sheeple”?

Probably not!

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