Lefty OBAMA,helping FBI coverup,starting CIA secret torture sites,hurting labor..oh yeah real lefty

[Len Colby]

Gee another post based on a report from PressTV and in this case the author’s primary source is himself! According to CNN and other sources US troops will remain to provide training, advice, intelligence and logistical support etc. but not serve in front line positions. I guess Gaal and Rozoff would like to see the Taliban regain control.

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ??

10 Facts About US Withdrawal from Afghanistan

This is an ongoing project that is continuously updated. We also want to solicit your input to help us determine how we can expand this resource. If you have any particular questions about US withdrawal from Afghanistan, or if you would like any additional points addressed, send us an email at info [at] justforeignpolicy [dot] com.

Fact 1: It is not the case that all US troops will be removed from Afghanistan at the end of 2014.

In June 2011, President Obama announced his plan to begin the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. But the president did not say that all US troops would leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014. What he did say was 10,000 troops would be removed by the end of the summer 2011, with 23,000 additional troops leaving at the end of the summer of 2012. After that, according to the President:

our troops will continue coming home at a steady pace as Afghan security forces move into the lead. Our mission will change from combat to support. By 2014, this process of transition will be complete, and the Afghan people will be responsible for their own security.

Notice that the President did not say that our mission in Afghanistan will end by 2014, only that it will cease to be a "combat" mission and become a "support" mission. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has since confirmed that President Obama never said US troops would be completely withdrawn by the end of 2014.

What you should be asking yourself is, "what is a support mission?", "how many troops will be required for it?", and "how long will it last?" We will get to these questions shortly. First, it's important to highlight one thing:

Fact 2: There is currently no end date for the war in Afghanistan.

Nowhere in the President's June 2011 speech did he mention a deadline for the full withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, and no date for full withdrawal has been specified since then. In fact, the Strategic Partnership Agreement, which was struck between the United States and Afghanistan in June 2012, provides for a US military presence after 2014, although the magnitude of the presence was not specified.

On November 15, 2012, it was reported that Afghanistan and the United States had begun negotiations for a bilateral security agreement, which will govern the US military presence in Afghanistan post-2014, including how many troops are left in Afghanistan, and for how long.

Fact 3: There is no set plan for removing the remaining 68,000 troops left in Afghanisan.

Not only are there currently twice as many US troops in Afghanistan today as there were when President Obama took office, but the administration has yet to outline a specific plan for removing the 68,000 troops that remain, except that most of them will be removed by the end of 2014. A decision about a scheduled for the removal of these troops will not be made until after a decision is made about the number of residual troops the US will leave in Afghanistan post-2014. However, it has been reported that General John Allen wants to keep over 60,000 US troops until the fall of 2013.

Three options were being considered in March 2012:

• The drawdown plan said to be favored by Vice President Joe Biden would drawdown troops rapidly, to perhaps 20,000, by the end of 2013.
  
• A more gradual drawdown plan calls for removing 10,000 troops by the end of December 2012, leaving 58,000 troops. An additional 10,000 to 20,000 would be removed by June 2013, leaving between 48,000 and 38,000 troops in Afghanistan, still more than were in the country when President Obama took office.
  
• Military commanders are said to favor delaying further cuts until the end of 2013, including Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who was the second-in-command of US forces in Afghanistan until June 2012 and is now the Director of the Joint Staff.
  

Fact 4: Reports indicate that the Pentagon wants to keep between 6,000 and 20,000 US troops in Afghanistan until at least 2024.

On November 12, 2012, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters that the Obama administration would come to a decision within the next few weeks about the magnitude of the US post-2014 military presence in Afghanistan. Panetta would not comment on the troop levels being considered. Since then, it has been reported that General John Allen, head of the ISAF, has submitted three plans for an enduring US presence in Afghanistan:

• With 6,000 troops, the focus of the US mission would be on counterterrorism missions, and logistical and training support for Afghan forces would be limited;
  
• With 10,000 troops, the US could expand training and logistical support from the 6,000 troop plan;
  
• With 20,000 troops, US convential forces could be used to patrol certain areas.
  

All of these options include troop commitments smaller than the 25,000 troops the Pentagon is said to have favored since Obama's drawdown announcement.

However, just days after General Allen's recommendations made news, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Obama requested three additional proposals in which troop levels did not exceed 10,000. The plans sumbitted by the Pentagon included:

• A 3,000 troop option, which Pentagon officials strongly warned against;
  
• A 6,000 troop option, assumed to be the same as the 6,000 troop option described above;
  
• A 9,000 troop option, assumed to be similiar to the 10,000 troop option above.
  

Out of these three options, the Pentagon is said to favor the 9,000 troop option, while the White House is said to favor the 6,000 troop option.

Keep in mind that there were only 34,000 troops there when Obama took office. If 20,000 troops are kept in Afghanistan after 2014, that means that the net withdrawal would be a mere 14,000 troops. Furthermore, before 2007, troop levels were at roughly 20,000 or less. So leaving 20,000 troops in Afghanistan would be to merely return to 2006 troop levels. Leaving 9,000 or 10,000 troops would be a return to 2003 troop levels.

If the Pentagon gets its way, the US will be at war in Afghanistan for at least 12 additional years--that's one more year than we've been at war to this point. That means that we wouldn't even be at the half-way mark today, let alone nearing the end!

Fact 5: The "support" mission will not necessarily be small, nor will it be free of combat missions.

A "support" mission sure sounds more reassuring than a combat mission, right? Sounds like only a few troops will remain behind to support the Afghan security forces?

Any close reading of the US public position on its post-2014 mission in Afghanistan immediately dispells such consoling thoughts. Just look at the plans General John Allen has proposed for the US enduring presence, listed above. Each of the Pentagon's proposals include a counterinsurgency element. In fact, the 6,000 troop plan, which the White House is said to favor, prioritizes direct counterinsurgency missions over logistical support and training for the Afghan security forces, even though it is supposedly for the latter reason that US officials claim an enduring presence is necessary. Meanwhile, the plan involving the largest amount of troops adds a patrol capacity, which is clearly a combat, not a support, capacity. It is likely that a combat capacity is emphasized in the Pentagon's plans due to a recognition that the Afghan security forces, even after a decade of training, are far from ready to take over security for the country.

Further, the US "support" mission in Iraq serves as an example and a warning for the continued US military presence in Afghanistan. The combat mission in Iraq supposedly ended in August 2010, at which point troop levels were brought down to 50,000. In October 2011, over a year later, there were still about 45,000 troops left in Iraq. Furthermore, these supposedly non-combat troops would engage in combat missions and were described as having a "combat capacity" by administration officials, including former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in which they engage in "targeted counterterrorism operations" and work and fight alongside Iraqi security forces. In light of this, "support" seems to be nothing more than a euphemism for extended combat.

Per a previous agreement between the US and Iraqi governments, all US troops were supposed to leave Iraq at the end of 2011. That didn't stop the Obama administration from trying to pressure the Iraqi government to extend the deadline, allowing the US to leave up to 10,000 troops indefinitely. Fortunately, this plan has been abandoned, and all but about 150 US troops attached to the US Embassy left on time. But a similar fight over keeping to a deadline for withdrawal may erupt in the future over Afghanistan--whenever a deadline is, in fact, established.

Fact 6: Obama's "surge" is not over.

In September 2012, it was widely reported that Obama's "troop surge" in Afghanistan was over, leaving 68,000 troops in the country. But when President Obama took office, there were only roughly 34,000 US troops in Afghanistan. In two "surges", Obama added to this figure over 66,000 additional troops. By reducing the US troop presence by 33,000, his drawdown plan has removed only half the number of troops that he sent to Afghanistan, not all.

Fact 7: There are less than 100 al Qaeda left in Afghanistan--but there are over 600,000 Afghan and international forces there to fight them.

In June 2010, Leon Panetta said that there were less than 100 members of al Qaeda left in Afghanistan. According to the latest Brookings Institute Afghanistan Index, there are about 108,000 international troops in Afghanistan under NATO and Operation Enduring Freedom; 344,108 Afghan Security Forces; 90,000 private Defense Department contractors; and 2,000 private contractors training the Afghan Army. Additionally, there are 150,000 Pakistani troops on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. That's a grand total of 694,108 versus 100. Seems a bit overkill.

Fact 8: The lack of a timetable for withdrawal is a key obstacle in peace negotiations with the Taliban.

Taliban spokesmen have made it quite clear that peace requires a willingness by the US to leave; but the US military has done just the opposite through its negotiations with the Afghan government to keep tens of thousands of US troops in Afghanistan indefinitely.

Fact 9: There is elite support for an expedited withdrawal.

Elite groups ranging from the Afghanistan Study Group, which was endorsed by a large number of national security and Middle East experts, to the New York Times have come out in support of an accelerated US military withdrawal from--and oppose an extended military stay in--Afghanistan.

Congress has also expressed support for a quicker withdrawal. On November 30, 2011, the US Senate adopted a measure by voice vote in favor of an accelerated US military withdrawl from Afghanistan. In May 2012, 90 Members of Congress joined Rep. Barbara Lee in calling upon President Obama to expedite the withdrawal. And in November 2012, the Senate voted 62-33 in favor of a measure that calls upon President Obama to continue withdrawing US troops at a steady pace, to end all regular US combat missions in Afghanistan no later than December 31, 2014, and to "take all possible steps" to end such operations earlier.

Fact 10: There is popular support for ending the war now.

Although polls of American public opinion on US withdrawal from Afghanistan tend to conflate the withdrawal of all "combat" troops with the withdrawal of all troops, majorities are still shown to oppose an indefinite US military presence in Afghanistan. A March 2012 Gallop poll reported 50% of Americans in favor of withdrawing all US troops before 2014, with an additional 24% favoring a full withdrawal by the end of 2014. An October 2012 Pew poll found an even greater majority in favor of a quick withdrawal: 60% of Americans said they wanted US troops removed from Afghanistan as soon as possible, while only 35% support leaving US troops there "until the situation stabalizes."

What is perhaps most interesting about some of these polls is that they seem to reflect a general confusion over President Obama's plan for withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Pew poll, for example, reported that 73% of Democrats supported a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan instead of waiting. Yet, 66% of Democrats say that President Obama is handling the removal of US troops "about right."

Also interestingly, the Pew poll reported 25% of Republicans said that President Obama is removing troops too slowly.

###################

###################

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/22/conflicting_reports_on_afghanistan_troop_withdrawal/

German official says up to 10,000 U.S. troops will remain through 2014, when Obama had said all troops would leave

By Associated Press (a KOOK/LOON SOURCE)

Edited April 20, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[Len Colby]

So to make a long story short it seems the administration is planning on leaving 5 - 10,000 US troops after 2014 in backline positions to provide training, advice, intelligence and logistical support etc. but not serve in front line positions. By contrast "some of the largest contingents [of US troops overseas] are...the 52,440 in Germany (see list), the 35,688 in Japan (USFJ), the 28,500 in Republic of Korea (USFK), the 9,660 in Italy, and the 9,015 in the United Kingdom respectively." I guess Gaal would like to see the Taliban regain control.

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ??

Obama pardons two Thanksgiving turkeys, while leaving thousands of American prisoners to rot

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Obama_pardons_two_Thanksgiving_turkeys%2C_while_leaving_thousands_of_American_prisoners_to_rot/30733/0/8/8/Y/M.html

========================================================================

But at least Popcorn and Caramel are off the hook. Gobble, gobble.

President Obama pardons “Popcorn” the turkey. (Source: Carolyn Kaster, AP)

Yesterday, in a lighthearted White House photo-op, President Barack Obama granted executive pardons to two turkeys: “Popcorn” and “Caramel.”

“Popcorn, you have a full reprieve from cranberry sauce and stuffing. We wish you well,” said Obama.

Noting that Popcorn was one of 80 birds that competed for a pardon from the royal dinner table, Obama chuckled, “It was, quite literally, the Hunger Games.”

While this little contest and mock ceremony must endear him to his supporters, it serves as a painful reminder of an important duty that President Obama has been shamefully neglecting. As President of the United States, he is the only person in the world who is capable of granting pardons to the multitudes of Americans unjustly imprisoned and branded criminals by the ravenous federal legal system.

As of this date, Barack Obama has only granted 39 pardons in 5 years, and one commuted sentence. All of the pardons were granted to people sentenced to less than 10 years in prison, according to Wikipedia. And most, if not all, of the pardons were granted to people who already served their sentences and have been released.

This number is disgraceful. A responsible president could find 1,000 federal prisoners to pardon per year without breaking a sweat. A president dedicated to justice could pardon tens thousands of current prisoners and far more who have served their time and are living with the burden of federal convictions. Yes, that would be a drastic departure from the status quo and would require the president to publicly admit that there are a lot of federal laws that are absolutely unjust.

To understand who should be pardoned, we must look at who is imprisoned.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were 1,571,013 prisoners in state and federal prisons in 2012. This tally does not account for prisoners locked in city, county, and juvenile jails; a statistic that is not nationally tracked and would hike the total number several-fold if included. Despite this, the United States of America remains the number one jailer in the world, far eclipsing any other developed nation.

It has not always been this way. Federal prison populations have skyrocketed almost 790 percent in only 3 decades. The Feds have raised their number of prisoners from about 25,000 inmates in 1980 to 219,000 in 2012.

(Source: The Sentencing Project)

In short, the “land of the free” has become an incarceration nation. It does not take much objectivity to admit that the USA is suffering from a major problem.

This problem stems from an abundance of laws criminalizing non-violent, victimless behavior. Adding on oppressive “mandatory minimum” sentencing requirements and the result is the biggest, most well-stocked prison system on earth. Around half of the prisoners in the federal system are locked up because of the War on Drugs. Increases in sentences contributed to half of the prison population growth between 1998 and 2010, according to a study by the Urban Institute.

There are plenty of human faces to go with these statistics. Plenty of real stories of oppressive prison sentences caused by activities that should not even be illegal.

Weldon Angelos, of Utah, was sentenced to 55 years in federal prison for selling marijuana, even prompting the judge to call the sentence ”unjust, cruel, and irrational.”

Grandmother Shirley Womble is serving 25 years in federal prison for bookkeeping at an auto dealership that was implicated in the sale of marijuana.

Kenneth Harvey strapped a vial of cocaine to his leg on an airplane, and now is serving life in federal prison without the possibility of parole.

First-time offender Danielle Metz is serving a triple-life sentence in federal prison for her involvement with her husband’s drug dealing.

Barbara Scrivner is serving 30 years in federal prison for making a one-time drug delivery in a desperate attempt to make ends meet for her family while her husband was in prison.

Serving life without parole in federal prison, “Deadhead” Timothy Tyler rots in prison for selling drugs at a Grateful Dead concert.

Chris Williams is serving 5 years in federal prison for operating a cannabis greenhouse that was legal and licensed in his home state of Montana.

In a federal prison in Kentucky, former U.S. marine William Dekle has served over twenty years of a double-life sentence related to a non-violent marijuana offense.

And this hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface. An encyclopedia of injustice could be written on non-violent offenders of victimless “crimes” that have had their lives destroyed by the federal government.

Bear in mind that the average prison sentence handed to people convicted of murder and non-negligent manslaughter is nearly 20.7 years [1]. Rapists get even less. The average sentence handed to a convicted rapist is 9.8 years. For crimes of sexual assault, the average sentence is 6.0 years, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics [2].

Yet all these people who have committed no violent acts, and harmed no one, are accounting for half of U.S. prisoners and often being dealt harsher sentences than violent rapists and murderers.

And lets not forget to mention the 35 year sentence thrown at PFC Bradley Manning, who had the nerve to blow the whistle on U.S. military. Or wanted fugitive Edward Snowden, who exposed the tyranny of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) dragnet domestic spying program to the American public and could face a harsh sentence if caught.

While Obama makes jokes about granting pardons to animals, thousands of people’s lives are depending on him for clemency. Of all the wasteful things toward which the the president has devoted gross amounts of resources, his pathetic effort towards righting the countless injustices in the federal injustice system is very telling.

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ??

Obama supporters will go hysterical over this well sourced list of 462 examples of his lying, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, etc.

http://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/obama-252/

..........

Some of the things on this list are major events that should scare the daylights out of any true liberal who cares about civil liberties.

Edited December 9, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ??

Obama pushes program to turn public schools over to corporations

By Steve Light and A. Woodson

23 December 2013 WSW

President Barak Obama made a well-publicized helicopter landing in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn October 25 to visit Pathways in Technology Early College High School, known as P-TECH. It is a public school where IBM has been placed in charge, and Obama used the appearance to promote a new expansion of government efforts to privatize public education. He was accompanied by Bill de Blasio, who has subsequently been elected as mayor, and United Federation of Teachers (UFT) president Michael Mulgrew.

Opened in 2011, P-TECH is an enhancement of career and technical education (CTE). Formerly known as vocational education, courses such as carpentry, air conditioning, electrical engineering and cooking had been greatly cut back under the rationale that they resulted in tracking that left disadvantaged children unprepared for college. CTE, it is claimed, overcomes this issue by combining modern skills, such as computer sciences, with academics, including college credit-bearing courses.

The P-TECH model further moves students toward “college readiness” beginning in the ninth grade by being a six-year program, partnering with the City University to provide graduating students with an associate degree for 2-years’ college credit.

At P-TECH, IBM writes the curriculum and hires staff. Bloomberg is opening five more high schools focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) skills in partnerships with the Con Edison and National Grid energy companies, Microsoft, business technology firm SAP, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and New York Presbyterian and Montefiore hospitals.

Graduates are promised “priority” but not guaranteed entry-level jobs at IBM. IBM claims P-TECH schools will help fill job openings for which there were not enough qualified applicants. It is claimed that students will be better prepared to find jobs requiring STEM skills needed for modern industries. Behind that lies the axiom of the educational reform movement: that the US must have a workforce able to compete in the global economy.

The reality is that global technology corporations like IBM close down plants and scour the earth for the cheapest labor, with the consequence of driving down wages in the US.

The National Journal noted that “Like a lot of tech-related firms, IBM recognized a few years ago that it had a habit of hiring people with bachelor’s degrees for openings that only require associate degrees, according to Robin Willner, vice president of IBM’s Global Community initiatives.”

Greg Lindsay in Next City pointed out how since 2005 IBM’s workforce has decreased by 32 percent to 91,000, while in 2009 it hired nearly 10 times as many workers in India and the Asia/Pacific region as in the US. The majority were skilled tech jobs. While IBM is making record profits as the ninth largest US company, it is dumping 110,000 retirees from the company health care programs onto Medicare and the Obamacare health exchanges.

P-TECH is part of the so-called educational reform movement that has been transforming education nationwide, often with initial funding to budget-needy states and school districts from billionaires, such as Bill Gates, and competitively awarded funding from the Obama administration. Obama and partners like Bloomberg have overseen the destruction of at least 300,000 teachers’ jobs, the shutdown of 4,000 schools (164 in New York City), and the doubling of the number of students enrolled in privately run charter schools (183 in New York City).

In November, Obama announced $100 million in funding for a “Youth Career Connect” program. Like his Race To The Top funding, grants will be awarded to a limited number of schools by competition, for programs preparing students for high-growth industries, such as in high-tech and health. There is no guarantee of federal funding beyond the initial amounts.

With states severely cutting budgets, the School Superintendents Association has said it is “opposed to the administration’s continued reliance on competitive funding as the primary way to provide additional funding to a limited number of the nation’s schools.”

Obama’s former chief of staff, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who closed 50 schools in June, announced that he would open up five schools to be partnered with IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Verizon and Motorola. New York’s Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo has set aside $4 million toward setting up 16 other P-TECH type schools across New York State, partnering with businesses that include Cisco, GE, Lockheed-Martin, Bombadier, Avon, and Wegmans as well as IBM. Early college STEM model high school programs exist as well in the states of North Carolina, Massachusetts, Washington, and Idaho.

More than two dozen CTE schools have been opened in New York City since 2003, seven in 2013 alone. Telecommunications giant AT&T is donating $1.6 million to expand software engineering curriculum for students in 12 New York City public high schools. Code.org, founded by Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, and Max Levichen of PayPal, donated $1 million for computer science instruction in New York City, and $2 million to Chicago, where the plan is to make computer science a required course in high school.

The Department of Education (DOE) also plans to open an “iZone Academy” in the offices of small start-up businesses in the tech sector, with $100,000 in start-up funds from the Gates-funded non-profit Next Generation. The school is billed as having “the potential to disrupt the systemic structures of age-based cohorts, scheduling, space, grading policies and more.”

In joining the visit to P-TECH, Mayor-elect de Blasio in effect gave his blessings to one of Bloomberg’s ongoing efforts to promote what is euphemistically called “public-private” partnerships. Bloomberg has been selling off public assets, such as land under city schools and libraries to real estate developers in return for new private buildings that would in some cases also house a school or library. And even as privately run charter schools are given increasing space in public school buildings, schools are depending ever more on private funding for programs such as art and music after years of budget cuts.

The visit by Obama and de Blasio delivered the message that the education “reform” attacks and corporatization of education would continue regardless of the change in mayors.

The national and New York teachers’ unions have made sure to be included in the CTE campaign, hosting a conference of business and union leaders along with workforce and education policy experts, and government officials in New York two weeks before Obama’s visit. A visit to P-TECH and other CTE schools was included.

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul, who with Gates has promoted a mandated system of providing student’s private data to businesses, described education as “a $500 billion market in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed.”

The whole trend in public education at all levels, in the face of budget cuts and the testing regime, is to subordinate everything to private profit and corporate interests. The pursuit of these ends goes hand in hand with the slashing of every vestige of humanist, creative education, as in art, music, physical education, history and philosophy and diminishing training in critical thinking regarding the nature of society.

(GEE, who would benefit from that ??? just cant think of it..........,GAAL)

Edited December 25, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

^{LEFTY OBAMA ?? !!!!!!!!!!! (no)
New Revelation that AG Eric Holder Is Protecting JPMorgan Chase NYC From Criminal Investigation}

^{http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/18387-new-revelation-that-attorney-general-eric-holder-is-protecting-jpmorgan-chase-nyc-from-criminal-investigation}

Edited December 26, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ?? (WAS THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT MADE TO HELP THE COMMON MAN OR THE ELITES ??????????????) ......REM (Now, Andy did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby
Are we losing touch?

If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool ..Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++\\

Obamacare Could Be Worth More Than $90 Billion to the Insurance Industry

By Jonathan Wu, ValuePenguin

January 8, 2014 | Comments (30)

The Affordable Care Act will push the over 45 million uninsured in the United States to find health care coverage. The largest portion of this group will find coverage through the health insurance marketplaces set up by the state and federal exchanges. Consumers purchasing through the exchanges will receive coverage through private insurance companies, with many receiving federal tax credits to help pay for policies. While the consumer may not be paying the full price of the policy, the insurance companies will still receive the full premium. With millions mandated to receive coverage, how much are the currently uninsured worth to the health insurance industry?

To answer this question we looked at what the uninsured would pay in monthly premiums for coverage with private insurers. (See our methodology below) Based on our estimates the uninsured are worth a potential $92+ billion in annual premiums to the insurance companies. The Affordable Care Act requires that 80% of the value of the premiums be used to service health care costs, leaving a little over $18.4 billion to be spread across employees, marketing, overhead and profits. Insurance companies we've looked at could expect anywhere from 2-4% of all premiums to come in the form of profits. This would amount to $1.8-$3.6 billion dollars annually.

Total Uninsured (2011) 45 million Uninsured Over 138% FPL 26.3 milion Total Annual Premiums $92 billion Profit Margin (2-4%) $1.8-3.6 billion

It will take a number of years for all of the uninsured to get coverage, with the CBO estimating that it may not occur until 2015. Accounting for annual increases in insurance premiums the annual total would easily exceed $100 billion by then.

Our Methodology

To estimate the potential value of the uninsured we needed to determine how many were uninsured and what their premiums would be for insurance. While the consumer may be paying only a fraction of the actual premiums due to tax credits, the insurance companies would still receive the full value of the premiums.

Prices for plans vary dramatically between states and even between counties within states. In order to account for this we approached our analysis at a county by county level.

For the cost of plans, we used the premium for the second lowest cost silver plan (SLCSP) available in each county. We chose this plan for the following reasons:

• The SLCSP is the plan used in the determination of the available subsidies. The cap on what your family spends on health insurance is applied to this plan with any excess paid in the form of tax credits.
• For those with incomes of less than 250% of FPL only silver plans are adjusted to have improved cost sharing, making silver plans a better deal for those that qualify.

Using data from the 2011 census, that underlies our county-by-county map we could get an idea of how many people were uninsured. For the our calculations we only included people who had household incomes over 138% of the Federal Poverty Level. Those with incomes below that line do not qualify for subsidies and were much less likely to be able to afford on-exchange private insurance.

The number of uninsured in each county was then broken down by age and a total potential premium was calculated using an age adjusted price for the SLSCP. The resulting total value of each county can be found in our map.

Obamacare seems complex, but it doesn’t have to be. In only minutes, you can learn the critical facts you need to know in a special free report called Everything You Need to Know About Obamacare. This FREE guide contains the key information and money-making advice that every American must know. Please click here to access your free copy.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

LEFTY OBAMA ?? yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah.......

SEE also

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Obama Affordable Care Act Hurts Twice As Many As It Helps

Wed, Jan 08 2014 00:00:00 E A15_ISSUES
By BETSY MCCAUGHEY, Investor's Business Daily
Posted 01/07/2014 07:02 PM ET

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-on-the-right/010714-685543-obamacare-hurts-twice-as-many-as-it-

helps.htm

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

LEFTY OBAMA ?? (WAS THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT MADE TO HELP THE COMMON MAN OR THE ELITES ??????????????) ......REM (Now, Andy did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby
Are we losing touch?

If you believed they put a man on the moon
Man on the moon
If you believe there's nothing up his sleeve
Then nothing is cool ..Andy Kaufman in the wrestling match yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah)

Edited January 10, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ??

Jan 17 11:22

U.S. to airlift Rwandan forces into Central African Republic

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/16/us-centralafrican-france-pentagon-rwanda-idUSBREA0F05Y20140116

The U.S. military will soon begin flying Rwandan troops into the Central African Republic, possibly starting on Thursday, in its second such operation in support the African Union's efforts to stem bloodshed there, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the airlift operation could last just over a month and would involve two U.S. military C-17 aircraft.

The airlift mission would be very similar to the one the United States carried out flying forces from Burundi into the Central African Republic late last year, the official said.

Rwanda's foreign minister has been quoted telling local radio that the country would send around 800 troops.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Please understand, this is NOT a "humanitarian mission: it is about the country's embarrassment of wealth in natural resources, yet to be exploited, and about which countries will have access to them, and which countries will not.

Commentary WRH:

The country has rich but largely unexploited natural resources in the form of diamonds, gold, uranium, and other minerals. Diamonds constitute the most important export of the CAR, frequently accounting for 40-55% of export revenues, but an estimated 30-50% of the diamonds produced each year leave the country clandestinely. There may be petroleum deposits along the country's northern border with Chad (Two billion barrels of oil are present in private estimates). Diamonds are the only of these mineral resources currently being developed; reported sales of largely uncut diamonds make up close to 60% of the CAR's export earnings. Industry contributes less than 20% of the country's GDP, with artesian diamond mining, breweries, and sawmills making up the bulk of the sector. Services currently account for 25% of GDP, largely because of the oversized government bureaucracy and high transportation costs arising from the country's landlocked position.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

_{LEFTY OBAMA ??}

_{Who Most Benefits From MyRAs: Savers Or The US Treasury?}

_{Personal_Finance / Pensions & Retirement Jan 31, 2014 - 10:39 PM GMT}

_{By: Dan_Amerman}

_{http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article44212.html}

[Steven Gaal]

_{LEFTY OBAMA ?? (WAS THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT MADE TO HELP THE COMMON MAN OR THE ELITES ?????????)}

_{===============================}

Seattle Children’s Hospital Sues Obamacare For Denying Kids Coverage

FEB 20 2014

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/seattle-childrens-hospital-sues-obamacare-for-denying-kids-coverage_022014

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Fourth Georgia hospital closes due to Obamacare payment cuts:

_{http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/18/fourth-georgia-hospital-closes-due-to-obamacare-payment-cuts/#!}

Edited February 27, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

_{LEFTY OBAMA ??}

Obama Asks Court To Make NSA Database Even Bigger

_{http://www.blacklistednews.com/Obama_Asks_Court_To_Make_NSA_Database_Even_Bigger/33202/0/0/0/Y/M.html}

Edited February 27, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

_{LEFTY OBAMA ??}

March 1, 2014

Obama DOJ's New Abuse of State-Secrets Privilege Revealed

http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Obama-DOJ-s-New-Abuse-of-S-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Eric-Holder_No-Fly-List_State-Secrets-140301-924.html

Edited March 1, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

_{LEFTY OBAMA ??}

_{Published on Thursday, March 6, 2014 by Think Forward Blog}

_{Obama Administration Told to Stop Expanding 'Corporate Rghts' in Trade Agreements}

_{by Karen Hansen-Kuhn}

_{http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/06-2}

_{(UNION GROUPS COMPLAIN OBAMA TO CLOSE TO CORPORATIONS,GAAL)}

Edited March 7, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

LEFTY OBAMA ?? (WAS THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT MADE TO HELP THE COMMON MAN OR THE ELITES ??????????????)

Union Report Claims ObamaCare Worsens Income Inequality

http://xrepublic.tv/node/7886

Obama's Solution To Affording Obamacare: "Cut Household Spending"

http://xrepublic.tv/node/7903

Edited March 13, 2014 by Steven Gaal