Welcome to Thunderdome

Vince wrote:

Leisher wrote:Now it appears that the man Obama's administration released 5 known terrorist leaders to save is a deserter, and potentially, a traitor.

Read the article, this guy is basically hated by U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and his desertion seems to be responsible for a LOT of U.S. deaths.

Sadly I'm not even shocked by this. More perplexed by it than anything.

Hillary Rodham Clinton says she knows she has a decision to make about running to become the first female president, and believes "we need to break down that highest, hardest glass ceiling in American politics."

Poland and former Soviet states "will never stand alone," Obama said. "These are not just words. They are unbreakable commitments backed by the strongest alliance in the world and by the armed forces of the United States of America -- the most powerful military in history."

Julie Bataille, communications coordinator for the health care rollout, said most of the discrepancies appear to be due to outdated information in government files -- and the "vast majority" of cases are being resolved in favor of consumers. The government is making an all-out effort to reach those with discrepancies, which officials have termed "inconsistencies."

The HHS document provided to AP, dated May 8, describes a laborious effort to try to resolve the data problems, largely requiring hands-on work from a legion of workers employed by government contractor Serco, Inc.

As the Roll Call story noted, the CBO based its original estimate of long term deficit reduction on the assumption that the new law – including hundreds of billions of dollars of Medicare cuts and tax increases to finance insurance subsidies—would be implemented as written.

That was before a blizzard of administrative changes, delays in deadlines for implementation and an important 2012 Supreme Court ruling upholding the law but granting states the discretion to opt out of a new expansion of the Medicaid program.

A defiant Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday defended the prisoner exchange that brought the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl after years of captivity with the Taliban, telling skeptical lawmakers that the operation had needed to be kept secret from Congress to ensure that the soldier was not killed by his captors in the days leading up to the swap.

...the operation had needed to be kept secret from Congress to ensure that the soldier was not killed by his captors in the days leading up to the swap.

“Without compromise, you don’t have a democracy,” Clinton said. “You have people who believe that it’s their way or the highway. You have people who point fingers at anybody who deviates one small inch from what the perfect is, who think they have a direct line to the divine. And that is not the way a democracy works. That’s a theocracy, that’s an autocracy. That’s not a democracy.”

At the same time, Mr. Mazur said, Treasury needs to "maintain a balance between enforcement efforts and equity, including the burdens that may be placed on taxpayers."

Mr. Mazur said Treasury was looking into how best to work with Congress and the IRS to fine-tune the system: "You can always improve."

“One of the fastest ways to accelerate the closure of Guantánamo is for other countries to agree, in a responsible manner, to receive detainees,” Biden told the paper.

Obama’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act drew overwhelming support when it was introduced in 2010. But a small percentage of schools said they were struggling to implement the new dietary requirements, claiming menu items rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables were more expensive and less appetizing to students.
...
“School Nutrition Association does not want to gut the current standards. Our members simply want relief from some of the onerous regulations slated to take effect this summer, which will lead to fewer students receiving healthy school meals, more food being thrown away and many school meal programs in financial straits,” Montague added.