Things You Didn’t Know But Soon Will — OCare And Uniformed Health Officers

Something that didn’t get much comment in the ObamaCare debate is Section 5210 of the odious, authoritarian bill — a pdf of which can be found here. It starts on page 496 and greatly expands the role of the U.S. Public Health Services Commissioned Corps.

Section 5210 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act establishes a  “ready reserve corps” for the Commissioned Corps with the purpose of the reserve being to “fulfill the need to have additional Commissioned Corps personnel available on short notice (similar to the uniformed service’s reserve program) to assist regular Commissioned Corps personnel to meet both routine public health and emergency response missions.”

The reserve will be subject to involuntary call up and be subject to response to “public health emergencies, both foreign and domestic . . .”

The reserve will also “be available for service assignment in isolated, hardship, and medically underserved communities. . .to improve access to health services.”

Do these health services include providing abortions?

A “medically underserved” community, btw, would be the population of an urban or rural area designated by the Secretary (of Health and Human Services) as an area with a shortage of personal health services or a population group designated by the Secretary as having a shortage of such services.

ObamaCare authorizes $5 million per fiscal year through 2014 for the training of the Commissioned Corps and $12.5 million per fiscal year through 2014 for the training of the Ready Reserve Corps.

The bill doesn’t spell out what kind of training this reserve will receive but it is a radical departure from how  health services had been provided in emergencies.

Dem Fails In Strange Attempt To Stop A Congressional Election

The man expected to be the Democrat nominee to replace Joe Sestak to represent Pennsylvania’s 7th District in Congress tried a bush-league trick to force the Republican nominee from the race which could have been seen as doomed to fail by a first-year law student.

Actually, it could have been seen as doomed to fail by anyone who caught five minutes of a rerun of an old Ally McBeal but that didn’t keep state Rep. Bryan Lentz (D-161) a.k.a. The Man Who Would Be Joe from giving it a whirl.

The Republican — former U.S. Attorney and Delaware County DA Pat Meehan — caught some signatures on his nominating petition that he thought  forged and turned them over to the proper authorities.

Lentz basically said “hey, if those are forged then everything is forged” and filed a challenge to disqualify 2,624 or so of the 3,623 signatures obtained by Meehan knocking  beneath the 1,000 required to be on the ballot.

On Thursday, Commonwealth Court Judge Rochelle S. Friedman ruled as expected that Lentz’s challenge had no merit. Lentz had spent tens of thousands of dollars in his strange attempt to stop an election in the 7th District.

He could have spent that money advertising his positions instead but for some strange reason he chose to fight over trivia and technicalities.

Orie Prosecutions And The Dirty Reputation Of Pa.’s Courts

Joan Orie Melvin Orie Prosecutions And The Dirty Reputation Of Pa.'s Courts
Joan Orie Melvin

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ron Castille is expressing concern that the prosecutions of the sisters of Pennsylvania Supreme Court Judge Joan Orie Melvin might further tarnish the reputation of Pennsylvania’s judicial system. It’s sort of  like saying the buzzing of another fly is going to somehow make less pleasant the stink of a rotting skunk.

The irony is that the only hope of bringing some kind of respect to that corrupt institution lies with people like Justice Melvin, who was elected to the bench last November against the wishes to the powers-that-be of places like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Luzerne County,

The Orie sisters–  state Sen. Jane (R-40) and Janine, who was an aide to Justice Melvin until she was suspended when the charges were filed — are accused of doing things like using Sen. Orie’s office copier for Justice Melvin’s election campaign.

The man filing the charges against Jane and Janine is Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala. Zappala is the son of former Supreme Court Chief  Justice Stephen A. Zappala Sr. who became an employee of  the Pennsylvania Casino Association after he left the bench.

Sen. Orie — ironically? — is a big critic of casino gambling.

Justice Castille in his concern about the Pennsylvania judicial system’s reputation cited the Luzerne County youth court scandal in which hundreds of youngsters were sent to Western PA Child Care, which is a juvenile detention facility, for often minor offenses such as fighting on the school bus. In return, county judges allegedly received kickbacks from the center’s operators.

In another bit of irony, Western PA  Child Care is owned by Greg Zappala who is D.A. Zappala’s brother. The business address for Western PA Child Care was the home of former Chief Justice Zappala.

 Orie Prosecutions And The Dirty Reputation Of Pa.’s Courts

Left To Play Pretend To Try To Blemish Tea Party

Left To Play Pretend To Try To Blemish Tea Party — If you should see some misspelled sign praising Hitler at the next Tea Party event or hear some obnoxious racial epitaph it appears the source will far more likely  be a college professor and socialist sympathizer than an actual Tea Party supporter.

Opponents of free speech and honest dissent are claiming on a website called CrashTheTeaParty.Org to have infiltrated Tea Party meetings and plan to “act on behalf of the Tea Party in ways which exaggerate their leastappealing qualities (misspelled protest signs, wild claims in TVinterviews, etc.) to further distance them from mainstream America anddamage the public’s opinion of them.  We will also use the insideinformation that we have gained in order to disrupt and derail theirplans.”

Left To Play Pretend To Try To Blemish Tea Party

 

Strong School Choice Advocates In Both Pa. Gov Primaries

Maybe there are Democrats with some sense. One of the four seeking that party’s nod for governor in the May 18 primary is being strongly backed by school choice advocates. This means he actually cares about children and is willing to oppose those whose goal is to collect a fat paycheck and bennies for pretending to which, of course, is the usual Democrat constituency.

The candidate is state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams who represents the 8th District which covers southwest Philadelphia and southeast Delaware County.

Williams has been given $1.5 million by Jeff Greenberg, Arthur Dantchik and Jeff Yass who are the founders of the Bala Cynwyd investment firm Susquehanna International Group, and who are major school choice advocates. The money was funneled to Williams via political action committees supporting school choice and charter schools.

A strong school choice proponent is running on the Republican side as well. Underdog candidate state Rep Sam Rohrer, who represents the 128th District in Berks County, authored the EducationalImprovement Tax Credit Program, which may be the most successful school choice program in the country and is something he would like to expand.

Casino-Connected Dem DA Indicts Supreme’s Senator Sis And Other Sis

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala, today, filed criminal charges against state Sen. Republican Whip Jane Orie (R-40) and Janine Orie, an aide to state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, who is their sister. 

Jane is accused of letting her staff do non-legislative work during business hours for political campaigns for herself and Joan between 2001 and 2009.  Joan was elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last November.

Assistance included  creating campaign materials for Joan on the senator’s district office equipment,including scanners, computers and photocopiers.

Janine is accused of masterminding the operation along with Jane’s chief of staff Jamie Pavlot, who appears to be cooperating with Zappala.

The actual charges are theft of services, tampering with or fabricating physical evidence,criminal conspiracy and violations of the state office and employee ethics act.

Feds Foil Fast Eddie’s Plot To Toll I-80

The U.S. Department of Transportation, yesterday, kiboshed Gov. Rendell’s plan to turn I-80 into a toll road saying that the law only allows
tolls on an interstate highway to be used for maintenance of that highway.

Rendell said he wanted to use the money for SEPTA projects and maintenance of other roads although forgive me if I suspect that he saw it as a fungible stash to be used for pension fund bailouts, raises for state workers and rewarding connected types with jobs.

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer is whining on the front page about the fed action and describing all the wonderful things that will now not happen such as new smart-card fare system for SEPTA and the reconstruction of the City
Hall station.

Poor babies.

You think maybe they could have pointed out that travel time up north won’t be unnecessarily extended and the cost of delivery of things like food to supermarkets wouldn’t be artificially inflated.

Or you think that maybe they might have pointed out that some money for things it thinks are so wonderful could be found by simply ending prevailing wage requirements for municipal projects or  the right to strike for all government workers like those at SEPTA.

Report Claims Pa Supremes Senator Sis Faces Indictment

KDKA is reporting that an indictment will be forthcoming for Pennsylvania State Sen. Jane Orie (R-40), who is that body’s majority whip and the sister of state  Supreme Court Judge Joan Orie Melvin.

Sen. Orie is the subject of an investigation by Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr., a Democrat, that she used staff members to campaign for her sister.

Gold Conspiracies, Hit And Run Crashes 

Gold Conspiracies, Hit And Run Crashes 

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission was told at March 25 hearing that the price of gold was being artificially and illegally  suppressed by JPMorganChase.

The claim was made by Bill Murphy, chairman of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, who has long said the price of gold was being held down to sustain a financial bubble.

This time Murphy unveiled the name of a whistle-blower, Andrew Maguire, a London-based metals trader, who he said had emailed investigators about looming market manipulation which came to pass.

The day after the hearing, Maguire and his wife were injured in a bizarre hit-and-run accident in London which led to a wild police chase involving patrol cars and helicopters, and the arrest of the driver of the striking car.

The name of that driver has not been reported nor have any charges. The Maguires were hospitalized with minor injuries and released on March 28.

The left-leaning firedoglake.com was among the first to report the allegations of Murphy and Maguire. It’s now starting to bubble up in more mainstream publications.

Does Obama Hate White People Or Is He Simply Incompetent?

Does Obama Hate White People Or Is He Simply Incompetent? — President Barack Obama checked the box on his census form “Black, African Am., or Negro” and only that box.

The Census Bureau is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce which Obama oversees as president.

Here is how the reference book created by the Census Bureau says the census race question should be addressed:

The race question must be answered for each member of the household. Mark all  boxes for the appropriate races.

Mark the “White” box if this person has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. This includes people who indicate their race as “White” or report entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish.

Mark the “Black, African Am., or Negro” box if this person has origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. This includes people who indicate their race as “Black, African American, or Negro,” or provide written entries such as African American, Afro-American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian.

Obama is more than half white as per the census directions since his mother was entirely of European background while his father’s side includes Arab blood. For some reason, however, he declined to follow his own directions by checking the white box along with the black one.

Maybe he’s just a clueless incompetent who can’t follow directions, which is the explanation to which I lean.

Or maybe he just doesn’t like white people which should be troubling to the vast majority of Americans who happen to be white.

Does Obama Hate White People Or Is He Simply Incompetent?