ACA computer code riddled with typos, Latin filler text, desperate programmer comments and disastrous architecture

By Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

If I had told you one month ago that ten days into the launch of Obamacare not a single person could be confirmed to have successfully enrolled, you would have called me a lunatic. And yet, here we are, tens days into the launch, and guess what? The White House cannot produce a single person who has successfully enrolled through the federally-run exchange Healthcare.gov.

Not one.

The real story on the catastrophic IT disaster known as Healthcare.gov is only now beginning to be recognized by the nation. As a person with a strong IT background running large R&D projects, I was among the very first to claim that Healthcare.gov is not just broken, it's DOA because of critical design failures.

It's not merely a "glitch." It's way beyond a SNAFU. This is the defining failure moment of the delusional thinking of democrats and their fantasyland government-centralized economy.

Even ABC News is now calling Healthcare.gov, "nothing short of disastrous," adding, "Media outlets have struggled to find anyone who has been successful."

My analysis of the Javascript running Healthcare.gov

I have personally looked at the Javascript code running part of the Healthcare.gov website. If you are curious how I got the code, I simply typed the URL of the Javascript code into the browser address field. The browser then pulls up the entire code block, because Javascript is client-side code (not server-side).

What I am seeing in this code is nothing short of jaw-dropping. As people are now saying, this code is "CRAAAAAZY!" You almost can't even call it Javascript code. If you sat down 100 monkeys in front of 100 typewriters and told them to start banging away, I'm confident at least one of them would come up with something far better than the Healthcare.gov Javascript code.

In fact, I am practically ROFLMAO just looking at this code. Any competent programmer in the world, upon seeing this, would just burst their britches in knowing the U.S. government spent $600+ million dollars on this project. Inside the code, the Javascript programmer comments are just off-the-charts hilarious. Comments found in the code include (yes, these are actual text comments from the script):

"TODO: add functionality to show alert text after too many tries at log in"

"make sure we don't try to do this before the saml has been posted if (window.registrationInitialSessionCallsComplete)"

"Attention: This file is generated once and can be modified by hand"

"Fill In this with actual content. Lorem Ipsum"

"TODO: maybe modify the below to use a similar method instead"

Riddled with typos and errors in the error messages

The code is also full of juvenile typos such as "'Misssing Password" and "This is not a valid organazation ID." Seriously, was this written by eighth graders?

Even error messages contains their own errors, such as "'Exception in [sic] retreiving REInsurance Plan by criteria."

It also contains brain-dead user instructions such as:

"You need to send the Marketplace proof that you are not enrolled in Medicaid or the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Examples of documents you can send include Letter from Medicaid or CHIP." (Yeah, right. Can you imagine calling Medicaid and asking for a letter stating that you are NOT enrolled in Medicaid?)

"Verify [FN]'s SSN and date of death, if applicable"

"Check all attestations before submitting your application."

"Send the Marketplace proof that [FN] isnt incarcerated (detained or jailed) by [Date]."

Do you speak Gujarati?

Although this Healthcare.gov computer code fails to function it does however support the language known as "Gujarati." According to an online encyclopedia, "Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, native to Gujarat, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli in India. It is part of the greater Indo-European language family. Gujarati is derived from Old Gujarati (1100–1500 AD) which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages, and is the chief language in the state of Gujarat."

I am absolutely thrilled to know that my tax dollars may someday pay for the health insurance coverage of an ancestor of the Gujarati and Rajasthani languages, from the state of Gujarat. So while our "greatest generation" World War II veterans are being barricaded out of national monuments, the Obama administration is prioritizing providing subsidized health insurance coverage to descendants of the state of Gujarat.

Latin filler text

Laughably, the application code is also riddled with Latin used as filler text. For example, one line of code actually says:

resources['ffe.ee.myAccount.home.specialEnrollment.description2'] = 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.'

Latin is used by programmers as filler / placeholder text for unfinished applications. The fact that this Latin is found in the code is yet more proof that the entire system never even entered Alpha testing, much less Beta testing or an official release. This is pre-alpha code requiring possible YEARS of development for final release.

Bizarre error messages also found in Obamacare code

Error messages written into the code leave no doubt that the people who wrote the code are masters of chaos and confusion. Here are just a few of the error message I found by casually scrolling through the Javascript publicly posted on the Healthcare.gov website:

"Exception in inconsistency adjudication process"

"Notices are official messages that lorem ipsum."

"Exception in triggering the Inconsistency Clock Service" (By the way, this error message confirms I was right in my public prediction about the system suffering from time clock synchronization errors.)

"Not Acceptable - Queried enrollment group plan is empty OR Selected plan doesnt existException in calling RetrieveNonFaPlanReviewConfirmDetails service"

"Please wait a few minutes and try again." (Uh, 10 million people tried that already...)

And here's our favorite, which claims that your application can't be processed because somehow gremlins behind the curtain are going to "make sure you get the lowest cost..."

We cant finish your application now -- its going to take us a little longer to make sure we get you the lowest possible costs. We will contact you again soon with more information. If you have questions, please call us at 1-800-318-2596 (TTY: 1-855-889-4325).

Truly disastrous architecture calls over 1,000 resources just to load one page

Even though I have only seen the public Javascript code and not the server-side processing code, the Javascript itself is truly disastrous -- on an epic scale.

For example, the Javascript file loaded for each user transfers all error messages, form field messages and front-end error messages from the server to the user's browser repeatedly for each cultural language supported by the system.

In other words, the entire set of error messages is hard-coded into the Javascript for English, then again for German, then again for French, Spanish, and so on, all the way through Gujarati and who knows how many other unheard-of languages.

I don't even know how to begin to tell you how disastrously idiotic such a design is. It practically guarantees a critical server crash under any kind of real user load. No programmer with an IQ above 100 would design js code in such a manner. This code was designed and written by utterly incompetent people who have built into the system exactly the kind of architecture that will make it fail if anyone tries to use it.

When HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says this code is "functioning," she's actually painting a giant "dunce" sign on her forehead. This code is so far from functioning that all the government programmers in the world couldn't make it work smoothly by January 1.

Was Healthcare.gov designed to fail?

It's almost as if the entire system has been designed to fail. There is no rational justification for writing code like this. It's like someone held a contest to find out "who can write the most inefficient, wasteful computer code" and Healthcare.gov won the top prize!

And yet, at the same time, this project perfectly reflects the foundational philosophy of the Obama administration: sell the dream to get elected, then screw everybody when it comes to implementation.

It also forces you to ask the question: To what lengths will Obama go to try to cover-up this disastrous mess by causing some other crisis as a distraction?

I assure you this system has zero chance of smoothly functioning by January 1, 2014. And that means a massive public backlash is on the way. As the truth comes out on this, the Obama administration is going to be embarrassed like nothing else we've ever seen in the history of government. This failure is so monumental, so critical, and so disastrous that it discredits not just Obama but the entire socialist fantasy of government-run, centrally-planned economies. Healthcare.gov is the ultimate argument for a free market run without government interference. It epitomizes the incompetence of Washington D.C. like nothing else in history.

No need to delay Obamacare; it will collapse on its own

Ultimately, this also means we don't have to worry about trying to delay Obamacare. Obamacare is going to destroy itself! Sooner or later, the entire country will realize the absurdity of being fined by the IRS for not buying a mandatory insurance policy that cannot be purchased because the government-run exchange site is utterly non-functional.

Obamacare will go down in history as the greatest IT failure in the history of the world. I can already see this outcome reflected in the code. As usual, Natural News is days, weeks or months ahead of the curve on this, so don't expect the mainstream media -- largely staffed by fantasyland Obama worshippers who know nothing about computer code -- to grasp the seriousness of the critical failures that will bring this system down.

By the way, guess how much you and I paid to build this failed, disastrous system? $634 million. It's a bargain!

The sad story of Cruz's sidekick, Mike Lee

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McDonald's Worker Arrested After Confronting CEO Over Wages

By Lynette Holloway

 

Nancy Salgado (The Real News screenshot); Jeff Stratton (Courtesy McDonald's)

Jeff Stratton started out working behind a McDonald’s counter in Detroit nearly 40 years ago. Now he’s president of McDonald’s U.S.A. Not bad.

With such roots, it would seem that he would have strong relationships with workers, from those in corporate suites to line cooks. Perhaps he does, but that certainly did not appear to be the case during a recent talk in Chicago, near where the company is headquartered in Oak Brook, Il.

Nancy Salgado, 26, told the Real News that she was arrested last week after confronting Stratton at a meeting amid the cloistered elegance of the Union League Club and telling him she couldn’t afford to buy shoes or food for her children, according to an interview and transcript at the Real News.

A cashier, she has worked for McDonald’s for 10 years and the confrontation was staged as part of the "Fight for $15," an ongoing labor battle to increase the minimum wage for fast food workers across the nation.

"It’s really hard for me to feed my two kids and struggle day to day," she shouted as Stratton was speaking, according to the transcript. "Do you think this is fair, that I have to be making $8.25 when I’ve worked for McDonald’s for 10 years?"

"I’ve been there for 40 years,” Stratton answered from the podium.

"The thing is that I need a raise," Salgado insisted. "But you’re not helping your employees. How is this possible?" After that, someone approached her and informed her that she was going to be arrested.

Stratton did not have to take the bait. He could offered to speak to her later. The company’s image has taken a hit in the minimum-wage battle, even as it reported a 4 percent increase to $1.4 billion in profits last quarter. Over the summer, the company was criticized after the joining forces with Visa to help workers create budgets. The sample budget presumes workers will have a second jobs. Perhaps McDonald’s does not see itself a full-time endeavor, but that’s not the message Stratton just sent.

He’s worked "there for 40 years" and look where it got him.

Watch the video here:

J.P. Morgan – the man and the bank

Posted by Jim Hightower

Listen to this Commentary

J.P. Morgan was recently socked in the wallet by financial regulators, who levied a fine of nearly a billion bucks against the Wall Street baron for massive illegalities.

Well, not a fine against John Pierpont Morgan, the man. This 19th century robber baron was born to a great banking fortune and, by hook and crook, leveraged it to become the "King of American Finance." During the Gilded Age, Morgan cornered the U.S. financial markets, gained monopoly ownership of railroads, amassed a vast supply of the nation's gold, and used his investment power to create US Steel and take control of that market.

From his earliest days in high finance, Morgan was a hustler who often traded on the shady side. In the Civil War, for example, his family bought his way out of military duty, but he saw another way to serve. Himself, that is. Morgan bought defective rifles for $3.50 each and sold them to a Union general for $22 each. The rifles blew off soldiers' thumbs, but Morgan pleaded ignorance, and government investigators graciously absolved the young, wealthy, well-connected financier of any fault.

That seems to have set a pattern for his lifetime of antitrust violations, union busting, and other over-the-edge profiteering practices. He drew numerous official charges – but of course, he never did any jail time.

Moving the clock forward, we come to JPMorgan Chase, today's financial powerhouse bearing J.P.'s name. The bank also inherited his pattern of committing multiple illegalities – and walking away scot free. Oh sure, the bank was hit with that big fine, but not a single one of the top bankers who committed gross wrongdoing were charged or even fired – much less sent to jail.

Banks don't commit crimes. Bankers do. And they won't ever stop if they don't have to pay for their crimes.

"Once Again, Punish the Bank but Not Its Top Executives," The New York Times, September 20, 2013
"As Inquiries Persist, JPMorgan Loses Favor," The New York Times, September 20, 2013.
"JP Morgan's Legal Hurdles Expected to Multiply," The New York Times, September 24, 2013.
"JPMorgan is fined $920m over London Whale fiasco," Financial Times, September 20, 2013.

Chris Christie OWNED By Barbara Buono

Published on Oct 9, 2013

October 08, 2013 C-SPAN
http://MOXNews.com

The 7 habits of highly ineffective political parties

When it comes to major policy battles, since 2009 the GOP is 0-3. Before it fails again, David Frum offers up seven ways the party is shooting itself in the foot.
By David Frum

Republicans have lost three major fights since 2009. They seem likely soon to lose a fourth—and all in the same way.

The three previous losses (in case you’re feeling forgetful) were, in order:

(1) The fight over Obamacare. Result: the most ambitious new social insurance program since Medicare, financed—unlike Medicare—by redistributive new taxes on investment and high incomes.

(2) The 2012 election. Result: Despite the worst economy since the Great Depression, the reelection of President Obama, Democratic retention of the Senate, and 1.4 million more votes cast for House Democrats than for House Republicans.

(3) The fight over the “fiscal cliff” at the end of 2012. Result: In order to preserve some of the Bush tax cuts, Republicans for the first time since 1991 left their finger prints on a tax increase for upper income groups.

Now comes fight (4), the fight over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling. This one isn’t lost yet. But unless Republicans are prepared to push the country into the catastrophe of national bankruptcy sometime around October 17, it’s hard to see how this one does not end in a Republican retreat, clutching whatever forlorn fig leaf they can negotiate from President Obama.

Behind all four defeats can be seen the same seven mistakes: what you might call the seven habits of highly ineffective political parties. Let’s call the roll:

Habit 1: Maximalist goals.

There’s a lot about Obamacare for a Republican not to like. But to demand Obamacare’s outright repeal (which is what “defunding” amounts to) barely 10 months after decisively losing an election in which Obamacare occupied a central place—well, that’s shooting for the moon. we’ve seen equivalent moon shots again and again since 2009. During the original Obamacare legislation, Republicans took the position: no, no, not one inch. During the election of 2012, Republicans were not content merely to replace one president with another. They also campaigned on the most radical platform the party since 1964. They wanted the biggest possible mandate. Instead they got whomped.

Habit 2: Apocalyptic visions.

Republicans have insisted on maximal goals because they fear they face a truly apocalyptic moment: an irrevocable fork in the road, with one path leading to socialist tyranny, the other to the restoration of the constitutional republic. There sometimes are such moments in history of nations. This is not one. If the United States has remained a constitutional republic despite a government guarantee of health care for people over 65, it will remain a constitutional republic with a government guarantee of health care for people under 65. Obamacare will cost money the country doesn’t have, and that poses a serious fiscal problem. But it’s not as serious a fiscal problem as is posed by the existing programs, Medicare and Medicaid, which cover the people it costs most to cover. It’s not a problem so serious as to justify panic.

Yet panic has gripped the Republican rank-and-file since 2009—and instead of allaying panic, Republican leaders have aggravated and exploited it, to the point where the leaders are compelled to behave in ways they know to be irrational. In his speech to the “Bull Moose” convention of 1912, Teddy Roosevelt declared, “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord!” It’s a great line, but it’s not a mindset that leads to successful legislative outcomes.

Habit 3: Irrational animus.

 

Barack Obama was never likely to be popular with the Republican base. It's not just that he's black. He’s the first president in 76 years with a foreign parent—and unlike Hulda Hoover, Barack Obama Sr. never even naturalized. While Obama is not the first president to hold two degrees from elite universities—Bill Clinton and George W. Bush did as well—his Ivy predecessors at least disguised their education with a down-home style of speech. Join this cultural inheritance to liberal politics, and of course you have a formula for conflict. But effective parties make conflict work for them. Hate leads to rage, and rage makes you stupid. 

 

Republicans have convinced themselves both that President Obama is a revolutionary radical hell-bent upon destroying America as we know it and that he's so feckless and weak-willed that he'll always yield to pressure. It's that contradictory, angry assessment that has brought the GOP to a place where it must either abjectly surrender or force a national default. Calmer analysis would have achieved better results.

 

Recently, GOP lawmakers have been pointing fingers at Democrats for a supposed unwillingness to compromise.

 

Habit 4: Collapse of leadership.

The Republicans have always been the more disciplined of America’s two political parities, and today they still are. But whereas before, discipline used to flow from elected leadership down, today it flows from factional leadership up. An aide to Sen. Mike Lee told the National Review: “The minority of the minority is going to run things until our leadership gets some backbone.”

The Lee aide was specifically referring to the Republican minority in the Senate, but the language has broader implication. According to Robert Costa, a well-sourced reporter at NRO: “What we’re seeing is the collapse of institutional Republican power ... The outside groups don’t always move votes directly but they create an atmosphere of fear among the members [of Congress].” Large organizations are inherently vulnerable to capture by tightly organized militant tendencies. This is how a great political party was impelled to base a presidential campaign on the Ryan plan—a plan that has now replaced the 1983 manifesto of the British Labour Party as “the longest suicide note in history.” It’s the job of leadership to remember, in the words of Edmund Burke, “Because half-a-dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field.” That job is tragically going undone in today’s GOP.

Habit 5: Self-reinforcing media.

The actor Hugh Grant once bitterly characterized his PR team as “the people I pay to lie to me.” Politicians do not always need to tell the truth, but they always need to hear it. Yet hearing the truth has become harder and harder for Republicans. It takes a very unusual spin artist to remember that what he or she is saying isn’t actually true. Non-politicians say what they believe. Politicians sooner or later arrive at the point where they believe what they say. They have become prisoners of their own artificial reality, with no easy access to the larger truths outside.

This entombment in their own artificial reality was revealed to the entire TV-watching world in Karl Rove’s Fox News election night outburst against the Ohio 2012 ballot results. It was the same entombment that blinded Republicans to the most likely outcome of their no-compromise stance on Obamacare—and now again today to the most likely outcome of the government shutdown/debt ceiling fight they started.

Habit 6: Politics as war.

The business of America is business, as Calvin Coolidge said. American politics has been businesslike too. Americans understand that the business of the nation is ultimately settled by a roomful of tired people negotiating their differences in the small hours of the morning: everybody gets something, nobody gets everything. It’s a grubby business, unavoidably, and most of the time, Americans understand that. They build statues to Martin Luther King. They elect Lyndon Johnson.

From time to time in American politics, differences arise that are too wide to negotiate. Slavery versus no slavery. Prohibition versus drink. Pro-life versus pro-choice. Professional politicians usually keep their distance from absolutist movements. As George Washington Plunkitt observed, “The politicians have got to stand together this way or there wouldn’t be any political parties in a short time.”

That line was meant as a joke, but it contains truth. Professional politicians are disagreement managers. Since 2009, however, the GOP has given unprecedented scope to those who for their own ideological, financial, or psychological reasons refuse to allow disagreements to be managed—and instead relentlessly push toward the kind of ultimate crises the country so nearly escaped in 2011 and teeters again on the verge of today.

Habit 7: Despair.

The great British conservative historian Hugh Trevor Roper scoffed at the Marxist claim that history runs in one direction only. “When radicals scream that victory is indubitably theirs, sensible conservatives knock them on the nose. It is only very feeble conservatives who take such words as true and run round crying for the last sacraments.” The great conservative poet T.S. Eliot explained that there are no lost causes, because there are no won causes. How many ways can one express that idea? So long as there is life, there is hope; everything old is new again; etc. etc. etc.

The trouble with these assurances, however, is that they contain an implicit moral that politics is very hard work. Free-market economics—so discredited in the 1940's—returned to favor in the 1970's because of tireless research by brilliant economists. The excesses of the 2000's have undone that success, and now it will take serious thinking, and some necessary reforms, to repair the damage. It’s a tempting shortcut to throw up one’s hands and say, “I’ve seen the best of it.

The future holds only darkness.” It’s especially tempting for a party that disproportionately draws its support from older voters. The fact is that for those of us over 50, the future offers us as individuals only decline leading to extinction. It’s natural to believe that what happens to us must happen to the world around us. Who wants to hear that things will become much, much better for humanity shortly after we ourselves shuffle off the scene? Yet of all mental errors, despair is the most dangerous to a democracy. The “politics of cultural despair” lead to authoritarianism and worse, as the German historian Fritz Stern warned in his history of that same title.

The man who has no hope will make the most irrevocable errors—and unnecessarily plunging the United States into the first national bankruptcy since the 1780's would be about as irrevocable as an error as history contains.

Any room for compromise for Boehner?

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SNK demands halt of Neo Geo X sales

By Brendan Sinclair

Original console maker says licensing agreement with Tommo was terminated last week, wants it pulled from stores

The company behind the original Neo Geo wants the console's retro revival off store shelves. SNK Playmore has announced that on October 2, its licensing agreement with Tommo Inc. for that company's Neo Geo X Gold console was terminated.

"Upon termination of the License and Distribution Agreement, SNK has demanded that Tommo Inc. immediately cease any and all manufacturing, distribution, marketing and promotion and selling of the Licensed Products," the company said.

The products in question include the Neo Geo X Gold, a handheld device that plays old Neo Geo games and can be plugged into a base for playing on a TV with reproduction Neo Geo arcade sticks.

SNK has demanded that the console, as well as the arcade stick accessories and a variety of game bundles, be pulled from store shelves. SNK Playmore said it is protecting its intellectual property, and "decisive measures will be taken" against the continued sale of now-unlicensed Neo Geo X products.

A Tommo representative had not responded to comment as of press time, but the console was still being offered on websites like Amazon and GameStop.

Shutdown Pain Grows Harder For GOP To Ignore

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Capital Hill Chaos

Woman shot and killed by Capitol police after chaotic chase from White House

 

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Cameras roll as authorities try to take control of the woman who first tried to breach White House security before heading to the Capitol.

30 Or 40 Birthers Are Driving Government Shutdown

By Sarah Rae Fruchtnicht, Wed, October 02, 2013

Republican Rep. Peter King (NY) said Tuesday that the government shutdown is being driven by “probably 30 or 40 Republicans” who believe President Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen of the U.S. and therefore is not in office legitimately.

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“There’s absolutely no reason for the government to be shut down,” King told MSNBC’s “Hardball” host Chris Matthews.

Matthews told King that he has heard members of the GOP make statements that they cannot accept the fact the Obama was elected.

“I’ve had members, they know who they are, they say — ‘I really can’t say with my lips that this man, Barack Obama, was legitimately elected president.’ They choke on that,” Matthews said. “How many are there in Congress on your side that represent that rejectionist front?”

“I would say there’s probably 30 or 40 who are like that,” King said. “As there were a number of Democrats who felt that way about George W. Bush, and going back to when you and I first met, Republicans who felt that way about Bill Clinton… This is a very dangerous aspect to our government.”

“What is?” Matthews asked.

“The fact that we have people who are willing to demonize the president of the United States because he’s from a different party," King said. "When I got elected in '92, I had Republicans elected with me who say they would never set foot in the White House for even a social event while Clinton was president … and now, obviously, with President Obama, it’s definitely there."

King is part of a growing contingency of Republicans who are against the shutdown and want an immediate resolution.

GOP congressmen Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa; Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo.; and Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., have openly questioned the president’s birth certificate, according to ThinkProgress.

House Homeland Security Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., even told a conservative radio host that he believes Congress should “revisit” the president’s “validity.”

King has considered a 2016 presidential run as a “cure” to the Tea Party’s ascendency into the GOP.

The Radical Republican Attempt To Defund The Affordable Health Care Act

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Federal Government Shuts Down

Last-minute tactic fails, government shuts down

By Suzy Khimm and Benjy Sarlin

12:00 AM on 10/01/2013

 

The federal government is closed.

After months, weeks and then a frantic day of brinksmanship on Capitol Hill, Congress failed to pass a bill to fund the government Monday night, shutting it down for the first time in 17 years.

At the heart of the debate was The Affordable Health Care Act, a law that survived Republicans taking control of the House, a presidential election and a Supreme Court challenge. Attaching it to a deal to fund the government was the Republican Party’s last chance to block its rollout–which begins Tuesday.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected all attempts to touch the law and President Barack Obama threatened a veto.

The law will still roll out on schedule, despite the shutdown, and millions of Americans without health insurance will be able to begin signing up for coverage online.

The question for the rest of the government is: what’s next?

Late Monday night, the Office of Management and Budget ordered heads of executive departments and agencies to “execute plans for an orderly shutdown.”

Here’s where things stand: Boehner tried to force negotiations into a formal committee process Monday night. But Reid balked at the idea.  “Republicans are still playing games,” said Reid on the Senate floor. “This is all a subterfuge to satisfy the Tea Party-driven Republicans.”

“We will not go to conference with a gun to our head,” Harry Reid said.

Reid said he would be willing to send senators to conference to work on a solution for funding the government through the rest of the fiscal year, once the immediate threat of a shutdown was removed.

It’s also an abrupt about-face by Republicans who have spent months refusing Democratic offers to hold a conference and work out a budget before October 1.

“The right thing to do was to go to conference any time in that last six months, as we asked 18 times but were told no by the same people who are now sitting on the other side of the aisle saying we want to shut the government down,” Patty Murray said on the floor.

In the House, Boehner wrestled with a conference pressuring him from the right and the left.

House moderates were pressuring their conference to pass the Senate’s “clean” stopgap budget, but Boehner ultimately heeded the calls by the conservative flank to rule out such a measure.

Boehner lost a dozen votes on his final bill, when moderates peeled off.

Other Republicans tried for a  last-ditch solution to stop a shutdown, including Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul who both floated the idea of a one- or two-week delay.

Sen. John McCain predicted Republicans would ultimately need to fold–and should just do it.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - The Beginning

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt "The Beginning" provides exclusive information about the creative process behind the game.

Key developers are inviting you on a journey into Geralt's world, where you'll fall in love with the breathtaking vistas and experience the atmosphere that helped us shape some of the locations in the game.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Debut Gameplay Trailer

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Debut Gameplay gives you an exclusive sneak peek into the vast and gritty world of Geralt of Rivia, the witcher. Experience a realm where morality is not a simple choice between good and evil and where every decision ripples through the one hundred hours of gameplay CD Projekt RED has hand-crafted to meet the needs of the RPG fan.

 

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt features:

- Vast, living, open world full of meticulously created quests and Points of Interest, 35 times bigger than the one in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

- Genre-defining story set in a universe created by the acclaimed writer Andrzej Sapkowski

- Redesigned combat mechanic that merges a fluid and highly responsive skirmish system with the precision of a dedicated fighting game

And many, many more...

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will premiere on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC in 2014.

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Killing Monsters Cinematic Trailer

'Left Behind' video game creator faces U.S. SEC fraud charges

By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON
Wed Sep 25, 2013 3:27 P.M. EDT


(Reuters) - The creator of a video game based on the popular Christian "Left Behind" novel series and his friend have been charged with scheming to inflate the company's revenue by nearly 1,300 percent, U.S. regulators announced Wednesday.

Left Behind Games Inc Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer Troy Lyndon issued nearly 2 billion shares to his friend Ronald Zaucha, purportedly as compensation for consulting services, the Securities and Exchange Commission's complaint alleges.

The real reason for issuing the stock was so Zaucha could sell millions of unregistered shares in the marketplace and then kick back the proceeds and use other "sham purchases" to help bolster the struggling company's books, the SEC said.

The SEC's lawsuit was filed late on Tuesday in a federal court in Hawaii, where Lyndon and Zaucha both reside. The SEC suspended the company's stock Wednesday.

The complaint charges both men with fraud, and the SEC said its probe is continuing.

The charges come roughly two weeks after the company announced in an SEC filing that its public accountant Malone Bailey had resigned after previously expressing "substantial doubt" about the company's ability to continue.

Last year, in March 2012, Lyndon filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the SEC said.
Lyndon, of Honolulu, said he only learned of the charges early Wednesday morning after a press inquiry from Reuters and that he believes the government is discriminating against him.

"I'm just a video game guy. If any violation occurred, it would never have been intentional - and certainly, never fraudulent. My attorney told me that any person that earned shares could use them for any purpose," he said.

"For more than two years, I've asked SEC to explain how and if I have violated any rule, so that I could self-report it. As I see it, the government has systematically and intentionally conspired to dismantle Left Behind Games and the facts are both true and hard to believe - worthy of a Ron Howard film or John Grisham novel."

A more detailed statement from Lyndon can be found at www.troylyndon.com/govt

Efforts to reach Zaucha were unsuccessful.

According to the SEC's allegations, Lyndon and Zaucha made a "last ditch" effort to save the struggling company in 2009.

After issuing 1.7 billion shares in stock, the SEC said Zaucha sold most of it for $4.6 million, roughly $3.3 million of which was later kicked back to the company in a variety of ways.

One such example, the SEC said, was when in December 2010 Zaucha formed a company and used the stock sale proceeds to buy $1.38 million in obsolete Left Behind Games inventory.

Zaucha's company then gave most of the products away to churches and religious groups, while Left Behind went on to recognize the transaction as revenue.

The SEC also said Zaucha never truly performed any real consulting services to the company, and he was also allowed to keep more than $1 million of the stock sale proceeds that he used for personal expenses, including buying property in California and Hawaii.

According to his online biography, Lyndon was the "original team lead developer" of the first 3D versions of the John Madden Football video game, among others.

Reuters could not immediately independently verify those details.

He started working on development of religious video games in 2002, and took Left Behind Games public in 2006, he says.

"Although government regulations have resulted in the loss of nearly 50 percent of America's public companies over the past 15 years, Left Behind Games continues to operate and has products in more than 500 retail locations throughout the USA," he wrote on his website.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; editing by Andrew Hay)

Lab Tests on French Wines Find Pesticide Residue in Every Bottle

By News Desk | September 30, 2013

Laboratory tests on 92 wines by a French consumer group found traces of pesticides, insecticides and/or fungicides in virtually every bottle. Even wines made from organic grapes had pesticide traces, although the levels were much lower.

The levels were below the European Union’s maximum residue limits, according to the group, UFC-Que Choisir. However, there are no EU toxicity limits for bottled wine, only for wine grapes before fermentation.

Bloomberg reported on Sept. 25 that the group tested wines from various regions across France, ranging from a $2.20 bottle of generic red to a $20.25 bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Wine producers only use 3.7 percent of France’s farmland but account for 20 percent of the country’s pesticide use, UFC-Que Choisir noted.

“By drinking a glass of wine, you have every chance of unknowingly swallowing a few micrograms of these pesticide residues,” UFC-Que Choisir wrote. “No wine today escapes the pollution by plant-protection products applied to the vines.”

The lab tests even found residues of an insecticide and a fungicide not allowed in the EU, the group said. Wines produced from grapes from “conventional” agriculture on average contained four pesticides, mainly fungicides, while for wine from organic grapes residues mostly consisted of one to two pesticides.

The highest pesticide count was found in a bottle of 2010 Bordeaux, with 14 chemicals detected, followed by 2012 Bordeaux with traces of 13 products, the group reported.

UFC-Que Choisir indicated that climate has a great effect on whether, and to what degree, French wine grapes suffer from diseases and bug infestations.

“Weather conditions, particularly rainfall, have a direct impact on diseases of vines and attacks by parasites,” they wrote. “The warm and dry weather of Provence and the Rhone valley partly explains why the wines from these regions are significantly less loaded with pesticides than their cousins from Champagne and particularly Bordeaux.”

GOP's rejection of the Affordable Care Act shows hypocrisy

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George Zimmerman's Mother-in-Law Files Police Report Claiming He Stole Her Furniture, TV

By Selena Hill | First Posted: Sep 27, 2013 04:57 PM EDT

As much as George Zimmerman tries to keep a low profile, he seems to have a knack for garnering negative publicity, to put it lightly. In the latest twist in the ongoing Zimmerman saga, his mother-in-law, Machelle Dean, filed a police report Friday claiming that he stole furniture and a television set from her house when she ordered him to leave.

George and his estranged wife Shellie were staying in Shellie's mother's house in Lake Mary, Florida during his murder trial. However, according to TMZ, Dean claims that Zimmerman left with her belongings when she ordered him to vacate the property by Thursday. When police arrived to the scene, they reportedly characterized it as a landlord-tenant dispute between Zimmerman and his in-laws.

The home is the same place where Lake Mary police were called to earlier in September after an altercation broke out between George and Shellie. In a 911 call, Shellie said that her husband threatened her and her father with a gun and punched her father in the nose. The theft report surfaced shortly after Shellie Zimmerman admitted that she now doubts her husband's innocence in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin after seeing another side of him during a domestic dispute earlier this month.

Shellie Zimmerman, speaking publicly for the first time since she told cops her husband threatened her with a gun on Sept. 9, told NBC's "Today," that the 29-year-old former volunteer neighborhood watch caption has changed dramatically after being acquitted for the murder of the unarmed teen.

"This person that I'm married to that I'm divorcing, I've kind of realized now that I don't know him," she said Thursday morning. "And I really don't know what he's capable of."

Shellie, who filed for divorce within two months of her husband's acquittal, revealed that she has "conflicted" feelings about the night when George fatally shot Martin. "I'm conflicted on that,'' said the 26-year-old nursing student. "I believe the evidence, but this revelation in my life has really helped me take the blinders off and start to see things differently."

In a follow up question, Lauer asked, "So you now doubt his innocence, at least the fact that he was acting in self-defense on the night that Trayvon Martin was killed?" Shellie responded: "I think anyone would doubt that innocence because I don't know the person that I've been married to. I have doubts, but I also believe the evidence."

Roast, grill, and fry this chicken – then toss it out

Posted by Jim Hightower

Listen to this Commentary

An old country saying notes: You can't make chicken salad out of chicken manure." However, President Obama's department of agriculture intends for us give it a try.

Chicken contaminated with chicken manure is one likely result to come from the ag department's dangerous and ridiculous determination to privatize poultry inspection in some 200 processing plants across the country. Currently, government inspectors – who're professionally-trained in food safety – are stationed along the processing lines in the factory operations of such giants as Tyson Foods. They examine the birds for diseases and visible defects, including – yes – contamination by feces.

But the Obamacans have a "modernization" plan to remove these skilled, independent inspectors and let corporations police their own lines with untrained company hirelings. In addition, the privatization scheme would allow the poultry plants to speed up their lines to an absurd 175-birds-per-minute! To justify this, USDA notes that it has been running a pilot project on privatization in 20 chicken factories since 1999.

Yes – but the "modernizers" did not mention that salmonella rates in the privatized plants were higher than those having government inspectors. Just as alarming, of the poultry operations that failed the most recent salmonella tests, a disproportionate share were using the spiffy self-policing model. Worse, government inspectors who observed the corporate-controlled system report that when the company inspectors tried to be thorough about safety or even tried to remove diseased birds from the line, they were yelled at, reprimanded, and shunned.

This senseless rush to privatize is literally sickening. For more information and clean food alternatives, go to Food & Water Watch at www.FoodAndWaterWatch.org.

"Changes to Poultry Rules Are Flawed, Report Says," The New York Times, September 5, 2013.

"Justification for Privatized Poultry Inspection Flawed, GAO Study Reveals," www.foodandwaterwatch.org, September 4, 2013.

"Obama Administration Caves to Poultry Industry By Proceeding With Privatized Inspection," www.foodandwaterwatch.org, April 10, 2013.

" USDA Plans to Expand Pilot Program that Leaves Meat Contaminated with Fecal Matter," www.portside.org, September 10, 2013.

Debunking the right wing propaganda machine

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Calling out Ted Cruz's faux filibuster lie

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Clearing out the message on The Affordable Health Care Act

Ed Schultz changes the conversation from Ted Cruz’s hours-long speech in opposition to the Affordable Care Act, to focus on the importance of the law and Congress’ ability to do something great. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., joins Ed Schultz to discuss the benefits of the law.

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Sanders' Epic Senate Rant Shames 'Right-Wing Extremists' for Shutdown Threat

By David



Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Friday tore into what he called "extreme right-wing Republicans" for threatening to shut down the government and default on the nation's debts if President Barack Obama's health care reform law was not defunded.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Sanders said that he welcomed a discussion about how to improve the health care law.

"But one thing is certain, you do not hold the American people hostage by threatening to shut down the government or for the first time in the history of our country not paying our bills and bringing this country and perhaps the entire world into a major financial crisis," he explained. "There was an election a year ago on this very issue - one of the major issues in the campaign - and the Republican candidate said, 'Let's defund Obamacare.' He lost the election! Republicans lost seats in the Senate, they lost seats in the House! And that's what democracy is about."

"What democracy is not about is a handful of members of the House of Representatives, extreme right-wing Republicans, saying, 'If we do not get our way, we are prepared to punish tens of millions of Americans. Yeah, we lost the election. Yeah, we lost seats in the House and Senate. But we are prepared to bring this government down. We are prepared to cause, perhaps, a major global financial crisis unless we get our way!'"

He continued: "Let us not tell men and women in the United States armed forces, who today are putting their lives on the line to defend us, that they're not going to get paid. Let us not tell police officers here in Washington and elsewhere, they may not get paid. Let's not tell working families, who take take their little kids into Head Start so they can then go out to work, that that program may be killed. Let's not tell senior citizens, who are on the Meals on Wheels program who can't leave their homes who depend upon a meal, let's not punish them because you've got small number of extreme right wingers who want to get their way at the expense of millions and millions of people."

Sanders pointed out that the current debate in Congress was "making us look like fools throughout the entire world because a handful of right wing extremists are so determined to try to destroy this president."

"There's a lot to be debating about, but one thing we should not be debating about is shutting down the United States government in order to achieve a narrow political goal."

Allen West Fired After Alleged Anti-Semitic Slur

By Wes Williams

Poor Allen West. The former Republican congressman from Florida just can’t seem to keep a job. According to BuzzFeed, West has left his job at Pajamas Media after an argument with a female staffer, during which he allegedly called her a “Jewish American princess.”

The BuzzFeed story says that West denied that he was fired, but he did not deny that an argument had taken place. When asked specifically if he had called the other employee a “Jewish American princess” West responded “There was an exchange, that’s all.”

West has a history of behavior similar to this alleged incident. In 2003 West, then a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel serving in Iraq, was investigated following accusations that he abused an Iraqi prisoner. CNN reported on the incident on December 13, 2003.

The commanding general of the 4th Infantry Division on Friday accepted a U.S. military investigator’s recommendation and ordered administrative action against Lt. Col. Allen West, who was accused of using improper methods to force information out of an Iraqi detainee.

Following a military hearing, West was fined $5,000 over two months, according to West’s civilian attorney, Neal Puckett.

The punishment does not affect West’s eligibility for retirement and pension, Puckett said in a statement.

West, 42, will be assigned to the rear detachment of the 4th Infantry Division awaiting the processing of his retirement request, the statement said.

West admitted that he had lost his temper and that he had acted improperly. Had his commander, Major General Raymond Odierno, rejected the investigator’s recommendation West would have faced a court-martial and as much as 11 years in prison.

While a congressman, West went on an email tirade against fellow Floridian Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, following remarks she made on the floor of the House that he took far too personally. In the email he said

Look, Debbie, I understand that after I departed the House floor you directed your floor speech comments directly towards me. Let me make myself perfectly clear, you want a personal fight, I am happy to oblige. You are the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up. Focus on your own congressional district!

Always willing to play the victim, West displayed his utter lack of class after narrowly losing his re-election bid to Democrat Patrick Murphy. In typical fashion, West explained his loss not on a rejection of his combative, divisive nature, but by claiming that his opponent cheated in some unspecified way. West told radio host Mark Levin

I’m not going away just because of a congressional race where he seems to have to cheat to beat me.

Also worth noting is that the “fiscally responsible” West, who voted against Obamacare and supported the Paul Ryan budget plan that would slash the social safety net, was the fourth largest giver of taxpayer money to his staff after he lost to Murphy, according to the site Legistorm.com. West gave bonuses totaling $81,525 to staff members in the fourth quarter of 2012.

So what will Allen West do, now that he’s out of yet another job? Here are some ideas:

• West likes to fight. He would be a perfect fit in the UFC
• Monday Night Football. Oh, wait. That didn’t work out too well for fellow righty Dennis Miller. Scratch that.
• Spokesperson for the NRA. Aren’t we all tired of Wayne LaPierre?
• Replacement for Gordon Ramsey on “Hell’s Kitchen.”
• If all else fails, it looks like Gilberton, Pennsylvania may be in need of a police chief.

George Zimmerman's Wife Doubts His Innocence

By Amanda Sakuma, @iamsakuma

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Shellie Zimmerman said she cried tears of joy after her husband, George Zimmerman, was acquitted of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. But after months of standing by her husband’s side—even lying under oath for him—Shellie Zimmerman says she now has her doubts that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense the night of Martin’s death.

“I think anyone would doubt that innocence,” she said, adding that recent ”revelations helped take the blinders off,” and that she no longer knows who her husband is.

“I have doubts,” she said. “But I also believe the evidence.” She said she did not believe her spouse profiled Martin

Shellie Zimmerman filed for divorce less than two months after her husband’s acquittal. “The marriage between the parties is irretrievably broken,” according to court documents outlining the divorce.

After sticking by him during the height of the trial, Shellie said that her husband’s behavior had changed dramatically. “He just kind of treated me like I was disposable,” she said with a faltering voice. “After standing by him, he kind of left, and I guess kind of went on a victory tour without me.”

Earlier this month, police in Lake Mary, Fla., responded to a 911 call made by Shellie Zimmerman, when she alleged that her spouse was arguing with her father, and that he had his hand on a gun. “I don’t know what he’s capable of,” she said in the 911 call. “I’m really, really scared.” However officers later said that George Zimmerman did not have a gun during the incident, and cops did not recover a firearm.

Despite the differing accounts, Shellie Zimmerman told the Today show’s Matt Lauer Thursday that she “absolutely” stood by her story. She described her husband’s actions that night, claiming George Zimmerman repeatedly threatened and advanced at her with a hand under his shirt, as if he were bearing a gun. ”Logically, I assumed he had a gun on him,” she said.

Shellie Zimmerman said her words in the 911 call were not meant to incite questions or doubts about her husband’s behavior that night, or the night he said he acted in self-defense in Martin’s death. She says she now regrets her decision to not press charges against her husband.

“In hindsight, I should have, and I really regret that,” she said.

Zimmerman was also entangled in her husband’s murder trial—in August she pleaded guilty to perjury charges for lying under oath while disclosing the family’s finances during a bail hearing earlier that year. Under a plea deal, she was sentenced to a year of probation and 100 hours community service.

In her interview with Lauer, Shellie Zimmerman said the charges against her confirmed that her credibility has been damaged. “I do have credibility issues,” she said. And though she left her husband’s innocence of self-defense in question, she said she believed that the justice system worked in his case.

“I respect the jury’s decision,” she said. “They saw more evidence than I’ve seen.”

Editor’s note: George Zimmerman has sued NBC Universal for defamation. The company strongly denies the allegation.

California Raises Minimum Wage To $10/Hour

By Stuart Shapiro

Big news from the west coast about how California will raise the minimum wage, although gradually between now and 2016. Hopefully other states will follow suit. In fact, this should be national law.

California has become the first state in the nation to commit to raising the minimum wage to $10 per hour, with the increase to take place gradually through the start of 2016, under a bill Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on Wednesday.

The law raises minimum pay in the most populous U.S. state from its current rate of $8 per hour to $9 by July 2014, and $10 by January 2016, well above the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

There is a fascinating experiment going on in this country.  Blue states are expanding marriage rights, increasing the minimum wage, and implementing The Affordable Health Care Act.  Red states are doing the opposite.  It will be very interesting to see what the country looks like in a decade when the states vary as much as they have at any time since the end of Jim Crow.

Graham Offers Sanders Help 'Reforming' Tax Code in Exchange for Help 'Reforming Entitlements'

By Heather



I've generally been staying as far away as possible from CNN's new stinker of a show, which is the revival of Crossfire, but this Tuesday, the inclusion of Sen. Bernie Sanders as one of their panel members actually gave me a reason to sit through most of it.

Towards the end of the show, they spent some time arguing about the Senate filibuster rules and whether Republicans have been allowed to air their grievances over the Affordable Care Act or not, along with Ted Cruz and his stunt of a fake filibuster. Sen. Sanders took the opportunity to do what he does best, and advocate for working Americans out there, and the record income disparity and the fact that the Congress has done very little to get Americans back to work and rebuild our infrastructure.

So naturally, his fellow guest on the show, Sen. Lindsey Graham thought it was a perfect opportunity to make an offer to Sanders to "reform entitlements" in exchange for flattening the tax code. What a deal. Thankfully Sanders was there to remind the audience of just what Graham's "reforms" would mean for average Americans.

SANDERS: Let me just jump in and say I happen to think -- and by the way, Newt, when you were speaker, you ran a pretty tough ship there, as well, I recall.

But I happen to think that the rules in the Senate are pretty crazy. You or I could go down there and basically stop the entire United States government. One person could do that. Is that what democracy is about? I don't really think so.

But here's the point. Lindsey correctly says there are some bills that he thinks are not getting to the floor that might pass. Fair enough. But let me tell you something else. I happen to believe that the reason that Congress is now held in such contempt is the American people are hurting very badly. Middle class, in my view, is collapsing. Poverty numbers are at an all-time high, and the gap between the very, very rich and everybody else is growing wider.

JONES: And they blame Obama for that. Do you blame Obama for that?

SANDERS: No. I mean, it's a -- you know, it's a long-term trend.

JONES: Just checking. Just checking.

SANDERS: The bottom line is, what do the American people want, Lindsey? They want us to create jobs.

GRAHAM: Yes.

SANDERS: They want us to rebuild a crumbling infrastructure and create millions of jobs. They want us, in my view -- Newt, you quoted polls -- to raise the minimum wage substantially above where it is now. They want us to end these absurd loopholes that billionaires and corporations enjoy.

One out of four corporations doesn't pay a nickel in taxes. And Republicans are saying, "Oh, we have to cut 4 million people from Food Stamps."

GRAHAM: Bernie, if I -- if I was willing to flatten the tax code and take deductions away from the wealthy to pay down debt, would you reform entitlements by extending the age, based on the fact we're all living like Strom Thurmond?

SANDERS: Absolutely not. Not at a time where we have so much...

GRAHAM: That was a moment of bipartisanship that quickly passed.

SANDERS: Now let me ask you. Let me ask you.

GRAHAM: OK.

SANDERS: At a time when the top 1 percent own 38 percent of the wealth in America and the bottom 60 percent own all of 2.3 percent, will you work with me to ask the wealthy to start paying their fair share of taxes so we can deal with...?

GRAHAM: Here's what I will do. I will create a tax code that creates jobs for more Americans, because that's a good thing. But I would tell the wealthy people of this country, when it comes to Medicare, you're not going to get any more subsidies. When it comes to Social Security, you're going to have to take less, because we can't afford to give everybody what we promised.

If you will help me reform the tax code, I -- help me reform entitlements, I'll help you reform the tax code, because we're becoming Greece if we don't do this.

SANDERS: All right. But when you talk about reform entitlements, I understand.

GRAHAM: Yes.

SANDERS: Correct me if I'm wrong. You want to raise the entitlement age to Social Security?

GRAHAM: Over 30 years.

SANDERS: Over 30 years to 70 years.

GRAHAM: No. What I want to do is harmonize Medicare with Social Security: go from 65 to 67 over the next 30 years. And I want means testing for people in my income level, Newt's income level, Van's income level. Have to pay the actual costs.

SANDERS: But you also support the chain CPI.

GRAHAM: Yes, I do.

SANDERS: Which cut benefits -- let me talk. Which would cut $650 from Social Security benefits between the ages of 65 and 70. And make massive cuts for disabled vets.

GRAHAM: Well, no. What I'm trying to do is save the country from bankruptcy. And when the president of the United States, who I usually don't agree with, put CPI on the table, I thought it was a very courageous thing to do. And I am willing to flatten that tax code. I can go to the rich people in America and all the corporations, say, "We're going to take deductions off the table you now enjoy. Take that money back for the many, not just the few."

But if you don't help me reform the entitlements, there's no way to get there by taxing people.

SANDERS: I want everybody to understand, when Lindsey talks about reforming entitlements, what he means is cutting Social Security and cutting Medicare. I think that's a bad idea.

GINGRICH: OK. And I would say -- and we're about to run out of time. But I would say what you're talking about is going bankrupt, and that's a debate we want to invite you to come back.

GRAHAM: ... program. I've actually spent...

GINGRICH: We'll have you back on access for health care, which will be a great topic, the two of you. And we ought to come back and talk a little bit more about how do we solve this?

GRAHAM: Eighty million Baby Boomers are going to retire in the next 40 years. How do we replace them? We need rational immigration.

JONES: The first thing, maybe stop giving those subsidies...

GRAHAM: How do you save Medicare and Social Security with 80 million people coming into the system?

JONES: What about first of all, you supported $4 billion subsidies to oil company that don't need them. We've got -- we have a lot of conversations we need to have -- I'm going to give it back to you, Newt, to take us out of here.

GINGRICH: Kind of -- You almost agreed with him for a second. I was sitting back.

JONES: I changed my mind.

GINGRICH: Let me -- I want to thank Senator Sanders and Senator Graham.
Next, we "Ceasefire." Is there anything out of all this that the two of us can agree on?

I think Sanders did a good job here, but it would have been nice to see him push back harder when Graham pulled the "we're becoming Greece" card."

When Graham wants to address what's gone on with Wall Street and the banks and what they did with Greece and allowing them to mask their debt, maybe we can have an "honest conversation" about that as well, but I've seen no desire on the part of the likes of Graham or his fellow Republicans to do anything other than further deregulate financial markets and make those sort of problems worse and not better.

The fact that he continually brings up Greece to justify gutting our social safety nets is dishonest and disgusting, but that hasn't stopped him from doing it over, and over, and over, and over again.