td11 wrote:http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-return-of-the-welfare-queen-20131212

To understand Kentucky's conflicted relationship with the federal government, 50 years after hosting President Johnson's launch of the "War on Poverty," is to meet Terry Rupe. The 63-year-old widower can't remember the last time he voted for a Democrat, and he's got nothing nice to say about President Obama. He's also never had health insurance, although he started working at age 9. Since his wife's death four years ago, he's been taking care of their 40-year-old, severely disabled daughter full time. She gets Medicaid and Medicare assistance.



"I don't have any use for the federal government," Rupe said, even though his household's $13,000 yearly income comes exclusively from Washington. "It's a bunch of liars, crooks, and thieves, and they've never done anything for me. I'm not ungrateful, but I don't have much faith in this health care law. Do I think it's going to work? No. Do I think it's going to bankrupt the country? Yes."

Rupe sounds like he could be standing on a soapbox at a tea-party rally, but he happens to be sitting in a back room at the Family Health Centers' largest clinic in Louisville—signing up for Medicaid. Rupe, who is white, insists that illegal immigrants from Mexico and Africa get more government assistance than he does. (Illegal immigrants do not, in fact, qualify for Medicaid or coverage under the Affordable Care Act.)

He's not alone in thinking this way. A majority of whites believe the health care law will make things worse for them and their families, according to a United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll.

"President Obama's idea is taking from the working people to give to the people who won't take care of themselves. It's redistribution of wealth," Rupe said. "I've always taken care of myself. You got these young girls who go out and get pregnant and then they get $1,500 a month for having a kid, so they have two."

On the other side of town, Adele Anderson was signing up for Medicaid at a public library. The white, middle-aged woman makes $10 an hour as a child-care provider; she also gets $86 a month in food stamps. She was unaware that Republicans voted to cut $40 billion over 10 years from what's called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. "Democrats are too liberal," Anderson said. "They just want to give handouts."

The disdain she and Rupe show toward living on the government dole at the very moment they are doing just that is typical in a state that distrusts Washington as much as it needs federal help.

...

But even deeper than Kentucky's aversion to Obama is its desperation for health care. Nearly one of six Kentuckians is uninsured. The state rates first or near the top nationally in statistics on smoking, cancer deaths, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. In contrast to the slow and tumultuous rollout of the federal website under the new health care law, enrollment in the state-run exchange and Medicaid is surging in the Bluegrass State.

Just don't call it Obamacare. In Kentucky, a marketing campaign has cleverly branded it "kynect."

"It really is strategic," said Barbara Gordon, director of the state's division of social services, which is helping to oversee enrollment. "We've had events where people say, 'This sounds a whole lot better than that Obamacare!' We train our people not to use that word, and it's effective in breaking down that wall against President Obama."

So if it is colder than normal it is global warming.
If it is hotter than normal, global warming, wetter, global warming, dryer global warming. The warming bunch has stacked the deck so that no matter what the weather it supports their agenda.

Satanists have unveiled their design for a proposed statue at the Oklahoma state Capitol, including a place for people to sit on the devil's lap "for inspiration and contemplation."
The New York-based Satanic Temple submitted its proposal to Oklahoma officials this month after applying for a spot on capitol grounds late last year. The Satanists say their statue would "complement and contrast" with a Ten Commandments monument placed at the Capitol in Oklahoma City in 2012.

The Satanists' proposed monument depicts Baphomet, a goat-headed pagan idol sitting on a 7-foot-tall throne inscribed with an inverted pentagram. In an artist's rendering provided by the Satanic Temple, smiling children look adoringly at the devilish figure.
"The statue will serve as a beacon calling for compassion and empathy among all living creatures," Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the Satanic Temple, said in a statement. "The statue will also have a functional purpose as a chair where people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan for inspiration and contemplation.”

According to its Indiegogo page, the Satanists have raised more than $16,000 toward their goal of $20,000 for the monument, which Greaves said would "be a historical marker commemorating the scapegoats, the marginalized, the demonized minority and the unjustly outcast.”

The Temple of Satan is less a religious body organized around rituals and regular meetings than a roving band of political provocateurs, according to Greaves. They believe Satan is a "literary construct," the spokesman said, not an actual being with horns and hooves.

The proposed statue includes quotations from poets Lord Byron and William Blake.

“Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion” runs the Blake quotation. The 18th-century poet was a Christian, albeit one with a mystical bent and little use for traditional morality.

The statue's main figure, Baphomet, has long been associated with Satan, Greaves said. In the 12th century, the Knights Templar, a group of Christian crusaders, were accused of worshipping Baphomet their secretive rituals.

"From the mythology created by these accusations against the Templars, we now have a symbol for Satan pictured as a goat-headed beast," Greaves said.

Since the 1960s, a variation of the horned goat head has been the official symbol of the Church of Satan, which is not affiliated with the Temple of Satan. The head of the Church of Satan has told CNN he does not approve of the idea of a satanist statue on public grounds.

Oklahoma state Rep. Paul Wesselhoft, told CNN that he doesn't think the satanists' statue will be approved.

“What will disqualify them has really nothing to do with Satan as such; it's that it has no historical significance for the state of Oklahoma,” Wesselhoft said.

Trait Thompson, chair of Oklahoma's Capitol Preservation Committee, said he has not received the satanists' proposed design yet. He also said that no applications will considered until a lawsuit over the 10 Commandments monument is settled.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sued over Oklahoma's Ten Commandments monument, calling it an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.

After news broke of the satanists' proposal, the state was flooded with requests from religious groups seeking to erect monuments to their own faith, including Hindus and Pastafarians, a satirical religion that "worships" the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

A Oklahoma lawmaker told CNN that the satanists' message wouldn't fly in the Bible Belt state, where nearly two-thirds of the population are Christian.

"Any monument displayed on state property should reflect the values of Oklahoma or memorialize those who built or defended our freedom," said Rep. Bob Cleveland on Tuesday. "In my opinion this satanist monument does not met with the values of Oklahomans'."

The explosive documents, supplied by Wildstein in response to a subpoena issued by a panel of state lawmakers, don’t spell out the precise reason for the apparent retribution. But they lay bare a disdain for the mayor and an apparent indifference to the hardships suffered by North Jersey residents who sat in four-hour backups. Wildstein has been called to testify about the documents under oath before the panel tomorrow.

In one exchange of text messages on the second day of the lane closures, Wildstein alludes to messages the Fort Lee mayor had left complaining that school buses were having trouble getting through the traffic.

“Is it wrong that I’m smiling,” the recipient of the text message responded to Wildstein. The person’s identity is not clear because the documents are partially redacted for unknown reasons.

“No,” Wildstein wrote in response.

“I feel badly about the kids,” the person replied to Wildstein. “I guess.”

“They are the children of Buono voters,” Wildstein wrote, making a reference to Barbara Buono, the Democratic candidate for governor, who lost to Christie in a landslide in November.

Longtime employees, however, privately describe a man intent on carrying out a political agenda rather than one built on reform or improving the region’s transportation system. They believe the appointment of Wildstein and dozens of others recommended by the governor — for jobs ranging from toll collector to deputy executive director — are evidence that political loyalty trumps merit.

To Christie, though, they are needed to bring about change. And Wildstein figures prominently in that effort.

“He is there in that job because he is well suited to the task of playing a role in reforming the Port Authority in accordance with the governor’s goals,” said Christie’s spokes­man, Michael Drewniak.

Once an ambitious and brash young local politician, Wildstein now stays in the shadows, seldom attending the agency’s public events or appearing in the news.

He did the same while building an Internet site, PolitickerNJ.com, which grabbed the attention of Trenton insiders and the traditional media. Wildstein launched the site while holding a day job — running his family’s floor mat manufacturing business. The Christie administration exposed Wally Edge’s true identity when it tapped Wildstein for the newly created position of interstate capital projects director in May 2010.

At a recent public meeting of the agency’s commissioners in Manhattan, he stood at the back of the conference room, next to the exit doors and behind rows of agency executives. When a reporter asked him about his job, past experience and relationship to the governor, he smiled and referred each question to the media relations office. Why, he was asked, would he not talk about his role at the agency?

“Because I don’t do anything publicly,” he said.

Key figure

But inside the agency’s headquarters, Wildstein plays a central role in decisions that affect the public.

He keeps a close watch on the agency’s $1 billion project to raise the Bayonne Bridge, a big priority for the governor, and construction of a new Goethals Bridge, a top official familiar with his work said. Wildstein helped carry out the decision to strip most Port Authority employees and retirees of free E-ZPass privileges after Christie criticized the perk.

He was also one of a handful of executives who planned the proposal for toll hikes in August and the subsequent public hearings, several sources said. As part of what sources said was a coordinated plan, union workers flooded the hearings to speak in favor of the toll hikes. The hearings were held on one day during rush hour and at hard-to-find venues, making it difficult for many commuters to attend. At the time, Christie said he was surprised by the size of the toll hike proposal and later agreed to a smaller increase.

Several executives said Wildstein has played a role in placing some of those recommended by the Christie administration in jobs and that he seems to serve as the administration’s eyes and ears within the byzantine agency.

The Montville resident arrives at the agency’s Manhattan headquarters before almost anyone, often at 6:30 a.m., several said. He walks the halls noting the comings and goings of other executives, some said. And he often attends high-level meetings in the place of Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni, quietly tapping notes on his electronic tablet.

Wildstein got an early start in politics in his hometown of Livingston.

A change of allegiance led to one of his first appearances in the headlines. The local weekly newspaper matter of factly reported in a 120-word article that Wildstein had resigned from a group supporting one congressional candidate in favor of his opponent, Thomas H. Kean Sr., then a state assemblyman who lived down the block from Wildstein. A small photo made clear what the article did not: Wildstein was a 12-year-old.

At 16, he unsuccessfully sued to get on the ballot for the county Republican Committee. A year later, while he was still in high school, Wildstein ran for the local school board, even though he was not old enough by law to occupy the seat . He generated 37 votes — and a minor controversy.

His high school social studies teacher publicly accused Wildstein of duping him into signing an endorsement letter that later appeared in the local newspaper. The pair later issued a joint statement calling it “basically a misunderstanding.”

Although Wildstein and Christie attended the same high school, they seemed to be of different molds. Christie, a year younger, was a perennial class president and baseball player who wrote in his senior yearbook in 1980 about high school sweethearts and going to concerts. There are no remembrances, school clubs or sports teams next to Wildstein’s 1979 senior picture. The space is blank.

The bespectacled teenager was focused on a bigger popularity contest than the one playing out in Livingston’s high school.

And the bridge thing makes him out to be a shorter version of Tony Soprano.

Youseff wrote:I don't really see this as the type of scandal that the American public will latch on to. Wildstein will fall on a sword and we'll move on. If it's discovered that Christie is getting hummers from someone other than his wife then we got a story that the voting public will care about.

Emergency responders were delayed in attending to four medical situations – including one in which a 91-year-old woman lay unconscious – due to traffic gridlock caused by unannounced closures of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, according to the head of the borough’s EMS department.

The woman later died, borough records show.

In at least two of those instances, response time doubled, noted EMS coordinator Paul Favia, who documented those cases in a Sept. 10 letter to Mayor Mark Sokolich, which The Record obtained.

On Sept. 9, the first day of the traffic paralysis, EMS crews took seven to nine minutes to arrive at the scene of a vehicle accident where four people were injured, when the response time should have been less than four minutes, he wrote.

It also took EMS seven minutes to reach an unconscious 91-year-old woman who later died of cardiac arrest at a hospital. Although he did not say her death was directly caused by the delays, Favia noted that “paramedics were delayed due to heavy traffic on Fort Lee Road and had to meet the ambulance en-route to the hospital instead of on the scene.”