Monday, March 31, 2014

Software Bug Takes Down Health Care Site

◼ Americans face a Monday deadline for enrolling in health insurance after last-minute efforts over the weekend produced long lines, extra security and hours of waiting across the country.

Over the weekend, the site blocked some applicants, but didn't show major technological problems as consumers rushed before the end of the 2014 open-enrollment period for obtaining insurance under (Obamacare).

But the system's human capacity maxed out, with too few "navigators" and other enrollment workers to steer consumers through the complex application process. As a result, many people were told to try again after Monday under recently announced federal and state extensions aimed at those who get stuck while applying....

Federal officials said HealthCare.gov had two million visitors over the weekend. On Friday, the site had blocked people trying to log in for about two hours starting at 4 p.m. Eastern, and they were told to wait until the site had fewer users, said a person familiar with the site's operations. On Sunday, the site was holding up well, the person said, handling some 50,000 simultaneous users, up from a previous peak of 40,000.

◼ On eve of Obamacare deadline, law remains a - CBS

◼ Healthcare.gov signup system down on deadline day - CNBS
The deadline is midnight Monday to sign up for private health insurance in the new online markets created by President Barack Obama's health-care law. So far, about 4 of every 5 people enrolling have qualified for tax credits to reduce the cost of their premiums.
DRUDGE:
Website crashes...
Police Arrest 2 Volunteers Signing People Up For Obamacare; Charged With 'Soliciting Unlawful Business'...
NYT: Unclear how aggressive govt will be enforcing insurance requirement, collecting op-out tax...
Couple upset after receiving pre-marked voter registration card from health exchange...

Drudge Reports: Internal 'Homeland' Document Revealed

◼ link here

◼ 872,504 ordered removed by immigration authorities have not left... - Daily Caller

The Obama administration is threatening public safety by deliberately hampering immigration law and releasing aliens with criminal records, according to a new review of internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.

A Center for Immigration study to be released Monday and obtained in advance by The Daily Caller, found that last year ICE reported nearly 722,000 encounters with illegal or criminal immigrants. But ICE officers filed immigration charges against less than 195,000 aliens.

“According to ICE personnel, the vast gap between the number of encounters reported and the number of aliens put on the path to removal exists because officers are not permitted to file charges against aliens who do not fall into the administration’s narrowly defined criteria for enforcement, regardless of the criminal charges or the circumstances in which the alien was identified,” the report, authored by CIS director of policy studies Jessica Vaughan, reads.

◼ ICE released 68,000 convicted criminal aliens last year... - Breitbart

President Obama’s Department of Homeland Security caught then released 68,000 aliens who had previously been convicted of a crime, a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies shows.

The report, provided to Breitbart News ahead of its late Sunday evening release, reviews internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) metrics to conclude that the Obama administration released 35 percent—or 68,000—convicted criminal aliens back into the U.S. general population when they could have been deported. “The criminal alien releases typically occur without formal notice to local law enforcement agencies and victims,” CIS’s Jessica Vaughan, the report’s author, added.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

All 4 DA candidates attend Republican of the Year Dinner

◼ Seeing Matt Heath who is a Republican running for State Assembly was expected. Seeing all 4 DA candidates, 3 of who are Democrats (Allan, Maggie and Arnie) was a pleasant surprise. Elan is non partisan. - John Chiv/Words Worth
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Speaking of the DA Candidates:

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◼ ALLAN DOLLISON ◼ ABOUT ◼ DONATE

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◼ ÉLAN FIRPO ◼ ABOUT ◼ SUPPORTERS ◼ DONATE

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◼ MAGGIE FLEMING ◼ ENDORSEMENTS ◼ NEWS ◼ DONATE

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◼ ARNIE KLEIN ◼ ABOUT ◼ DONATE ◼ FACEBOOK
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◼ Lost Coast Outpost lets you grill the candidates at LoCoElections The candidates answer questions posed by the readers, from the death penalty to GMOs. if you haven't visited the Lost Coast Outpost site, we highly recommend it.
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NOTE: HRWF is not supporting or endorsing any candidates in this or any of the current races. None of the DA candidates are Republicans, nor does that matter, since it is a NON-PARTISAN RACE. We encourage our members to stay informed about this all important race.

You can find more information about the DAs race at Rose's blog: ◼ WatchPaul

The FBI dumps a ‘hate group’

◼ The Southern Poverty Law Center is no longer ‘a resource’ - Washington Times

Something called the Southern Poverty Law Center sounds like a harmless do-good organization of idealistic young lawyers out to make life better for poor folks in the South, most of them likely black. Who wouldn’t want to make life better for poor folks?
But looks can be deceiving. The poverty law center, known by its initials SPLC, is actually a money-making scheme — some have called it a “scam” — of an Alabama lawyer who set out years ago to get rich on the backs of the poor and the duped....

The director of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, which defends poor defendants in death-penalty cases, once told Mr. Dees he was “a fraud and a con man” because of “your failure to respond to the most desperate needs of the poor and powerless despite your millions upon millions, your fundraising techniques, and the fact that you spend so much, accomplish so little, and promote yourself so shamelessly.”

...This week it emerged that the FBI, which has included SPLC data as “a resource,” has finally severed its link with the organization and dumped SPLC from the bureau’s Hate Crime Web page.

The FBI offered no explanation of why now, but the dumping follows appeals of 15 family groups to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. and FBI Director James B. Comey to sever the connection. We think that was a good day’s work.

Common Core emerges as potent election issue for fed-up parents

◼ Parents across the country may hold the key to this year's mid-term elections as they vent their anger over the implementation of a controversial education achievement measure called the Common Core State Standards Initiative. - FOX

...many parents see the initiative as a bid by the federal government to take over the education system. They are also angry over the "data mining" of students' personal information, and say the stepped-up standards are not age-appropriate and are leading to anxiety and depression in their children.

Analysts warn the parental opposition could spill over into the November elections.

"You really have a populist reaction, and that's true on the left and the right," says Tom Loveless, a senior fellow with the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C.

He predicts candidates opposing politicians from the establishment - or "at least trying to paint them as establishment candidates" - will take up the parental concerns.

"Those populist candidates are running against the Common Core, and they are going to say Washington is interfering with children's schooling and that teachers, parents and principals at the local level are better equipped to decide on what kids learn," he said.

Concurring is education expert Joy Pullmann.

"Common Core opposition is so completely grassroots, and support is so astroturf, " says the education research fellow for The Heartland Institute, a think tank headquartered in Chicago that promotes individual liberty and free enterprise.


◼ This second grader’s revenge against Common Core math will make your day - Daily Caller

The litany of frighteningly stupid Common Core math worksheets never ends. Perhaps now, though, kids are starting to fight back in satisfyingly creative ways.

An alert reader sent The Daily Caller this image of her seven-year-old son’s perfectly reasonable homework answer. The boy attends a public elementary school in San Jose, Calif. He is in the second grade....

The constantly burgeoning inventory of sad and hideous Common Core math problems is very long.


Just this month, for example, a frustrated dad posted his kid’s absurd Common Core-aligned math homework on Instagram. ◼ (RELATED: ‘Why are they making math harder?’ More absurd Common Core math problems)


In February, a group of Common Core-aligned math — math — lessons oozed out of the woodwork which require teachers to ask students if the 2000 presidential election was fair and which refer to Lincoln’s religion as either “liberal” or nothing. ◼ (RELATED: Common Core MATH lesson plans attack Reagan, list Lincoln’s religion as ‘liberal’)◼ link



In January, The Daily Caller also brought you a surreal, subtly cruel Common Core math worksheet. ◼ (RELATED: This Common Core math worksheet offers a glimpse into Kafkaesque third-grade hell)


January also brought a set of incomprehensible directions for nine-year-olds. ◼ (RELATED: Here’s another impossibly stupid Common Core math worksheet)



In December, Twitchy found the most egregiously awful math problem the Common Core had produced yet until that point. ◼ (RELATED: Is this Common Core math question the worst math question in human history?)

In November, Twitchy collected several more incomprehensible, unintentionally hilarious Core-aligned worksheets and tests. ◼ (RELATED: EPIC FAIL: Parents reveal insane Common Core worksheets)

Over the summer, The Daily Caller exposed a video showing a curriculum coordinator in suburban Chicago perkily explaining that Common Core allows students to be totally right if they say 3 x 4 = 11 as long as they spout something about the necessarily faulty reasoning they used to get to that wrong answer. ◼ (RELATED: Obama math: under new Common Core, 3 x 4 = 11 [VIDEO])

BOMBSHELL: Afghanistan-Iraq Vets Prefer George W. Bush over Obama by Two to One Ratio

◼ The Washington Post released a lengthy article this weekend based on a survey of 819 veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. - Gateway Pundit

Buried deep in the article by Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran, who spent two years in Iraq as the Post’s bureau chief, is this bombshell:
“When it comes to their most-senior commander, the vets decisively prefer George W. Bush to Obama. Only a third approve of the way Obama is handling his job, and 42 percent of them think he has been a good commander in chief despite his decisions to bring troops home from Iraq, wind down the war in Afghanistan and increase resources for veterans. By contrast, nearly two-thirds of them think Bush, who launched both wars, was a good commander in chief.

“Their views of the two presidents appear to be shaped less by political affiliation than by concern over the Obama administration’s plans to reduce the size of the military, trim benefits for future service members and curtail the purchase of some costly new weapons systems. Nearly half of vets regard themselves as political independents. Among those who identify with a party, the Republican-Democratic split is only 27 percent to 17 percent.”
Discussion at Gateway Pundit