Free Republic

“Thnx Mr. President!” That’s what former MSNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan had to say to President Obama in a tweet earlier today. He was saying it sarcastically. You know, like when you say “thanks a lot!” to someone who bumps into you in the hallway, causing you to spill your coffee all over your clothes. But Mr. Ratigan experienced something far worse than a coffee spill. His health insurance premiums are skyrocketing thanks to the hilariously named Affordable Care Act. What happened? Well, for starters, Ratigan had catastrophic health insurance coverage. That means that he sees himself as pretty healthy and...

Roughly 20 extreme-left activists and Arab protesters arrived at Hevron in Judea this week, but their plans to spark a confrontation with Jewish residents of the “Peace House” and IDF soldiers were upset, as local Arab residents kicked them out of the city. The activists had arrived with cameras and the flags of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), hoping to spark clashes with Jews in Peace House, the Hevron building that in early March finally was recognized by the Supreme Court as having been duly purchased by its Jewish owners, after a six-year-long trial and a ten-year-long struggle. To the...

The was a time when everyone loved making fun of GOP vice presidential canidate Sarah Palin. It’s her turn to get the final laugh. As CBS recounts, in October 2008, after Russia’s invasion of neighboring Georgia emerged as a foreign policy flashpoint in the homestretch of a heated campaign, Palin told an audience in Nevada, “After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next.” Just as amusing was the response to Palin’s comments by foreign policy...

A Buffalo, N.Y. community activist who is well known locally for pushing for a highly restrictive 2013 gun control law has been arrested for — wait for it — carrying a gun illegally at a public elementary school.

In a variation of the nationwide “Knockout Game,” billionaire ultra liberal George Soros’s ex-girlfriend suckerpunched him in the head during a deposition in their palimony law suit. In a vivid display of profanity, Adriana Ferreyr, a South American soap actress, screamed at the Hungarian- born businessman, calling him an “a--hole!” and a “piece of s--t!” For good measure, she knocked the glasses off his California lawyer Martin Singer, berated his other lawyer William Zabel, and then scorched her own high powered attorney William Beslow with more obscene language, according to papers filed Friday by Singer. Unlike typical knockout game assailants,...

On Thursday, sick people with Obamacare-purchased insurance plans were crestfallen when hospital staff in Northern Virginia were unable to verify whether their plans were active, reports the Daily Mail.“They had no idea if my insurance was active or not!” a coughing Maria Galvez told the Daily Mail at the Inova Healthplex facility in Springfield. “It’s not fair—you know, I signed up last week like I was supposed to.”Galvez added, “The people in there told me that since I didn’t have an insurance card, I would be billed for the whole cost of the x-ray” at a rate of over $500.Galvez, who...

The White House is "as sorry as we can be" that a Washington state woman held up as an example of the success of the Affordable Care Act marketplaces appears to be falling through the cracks, press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday. In mid-October, President Obama cited single mother Jessica Sanford as an exchange success story after she wrote to him after being able to sign up for insurance in early October. She's since learned that her state's system miscalculated her tax credit and that her out-of-pocket costs will be substantially higher than expected.

A single mother getting a rude awakening about ObamaCare, very rude. Jessica Sanford thought she was getting a tax credit and an affordable insurance plan. She was so happy that she wrote President Obama a fan letter and the president even giving Sanford a shoutout from the Rose Garden.

Former MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan recently got a rude awakening about Obamacare when he received a cancellation notice in the mail for his catastrophic insurance policy. I bought a catastrophic health policy for $170/mo when I left MSNBC. Obamacare cancelled the policy. New rate $600/mo. Thnx Mr. President! — Dylan Ratigan (@DylanRatigan) November 8, 2013 Interesting discussion...many seem to think paying a high deductible in exchange for low cost catastrophic should be outlawed? I disagree. — Dylan Ratigan (@DylanRatigan) November 8, 2013 Serious question...do you guys think simple catastrophic coverage should be outlawed? If so, why? — Dylan Ratigan...

San Francisco architect Lee Hammack says he and his wife, JoEllen Brothers, are “cradle Democrats.” They have donated to the liberal group Organizing for America and worked the phone banks a year ago for President Obama’s re-election. Since 1995, Hammack and Brothers have received their health coverage from Kaiser Permanente, where Brothers worked until 2009 as a dietician and diabetes educator. “We’ve both been in very good health all of our lives – exercise, don’t smoke, drink lightly, healthy weight, no health issues, and so on,” Hammack told me. The couple — Lee, 60, and JoEllen, 59 — have been...

In his weekly radio address, President Obama preposterously pouted that "it's well past the time for folks to stop rooting for [ObamaCare's] failure," with the obvious implication that conservative Republicans are in fact cheering for the pain of the un-insured. No, Mr. President, we are not. We are, however, having a delicious moment of schaden-fraud. This is the magnificent validation we are experiencing as all elected Democrats and members of the Jurassic media are fast discovering that the man and the plan they have so arrogantly shoved down our throats - and so naively placed their hopes in -- are...

Washington Post columnist George Will said he wants Obamacare to fail, pointing the impossibility of controlling one-sixth of the economy with central planning after his co-panelist Juan Williams declared Republicans did not want the law to work. Williams accused Will and his other co-panelists on this weekend’s “Fox News Sunday” during the show’s online-only “Panel Plus” segment of “schadenfreude” in voicing their reactions to the failure the HealthCare.gov launch. “[Y]ou know, I just think there is a lot of schadenfreude on the panel this morning,” Williams said. “ And people, ‘Oh yeah, you know, isn’t it terrible — oh my...

Stardate 20021005.2128 (On Screen): As I think many of my readers know, I used to work for Qualcomm designing cell phones. Qualcomm is the company which invented CDMA, and made it practical, and made it into a market success, and it now dominates the American market, where Verizon and Sprint both use it. There are two other nationwide cellular systems: AT&T currently uses IS-136 TDMA, which is obsolete and has no upgrade path. Cingular uses GSM, a more sophisticated form of TDMA from Europe. And right now I'm basking in the evil glow of a major case of schadenfreude. The...

Summer Reese, interim executive director of the Pacifica Radio Network, choked up as she announced this afternoon that legendary New York radio station WBAI was laying off its entire news department, and the majority of on-air talent, effective Monday. WBAI, the station where Pacifica's flagship program, Democracy NOW!, was founded, has broadcast on 99.5 since 1960. Andrew Phillips, former general manager of KPFA, Pacifica's Berkeley, California, station, has been appointed interim program director. The station's general manager, Berthold Reimers, and interim development director, Andrea Katz, will also stay on board. "Today I have concluded union negotiations with SAG-AFTRA, regarding proposed...

This year's bad news for MSNBC has only gotten worse. The "Lean Forward" network has struggled in the ratings since the Boston Marathon bombings exposed the network's glaring weakness when it comes to news gathering. MSNBC had hoped to turn that around by going all-in on with the Zimmerman, but it didn't. Compared to last year in July, MSNBC was down -12% in total viewers and -4% in the 25-54 demo. "Morning Joe" lost -4% of its viewers, -8% in the 25 to 54 demo. Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O'Donnell all took huge hits over last year. Hayes...

In order to ensure Americans understand how to access the benefits available to them when many provisions of the Affordable Care Act go online October 1, the Obama administration announced last month that it is setting up a call center that will be accessible to Americans 24 hours a day. One branch of that call center will be located in California’s Contra Costa County, where, reportedly, 7,000 people applied for the 204 jobs. According to the Contra Costa Times, however, “about half the jobs are part-time, with no health benefits — a stinging disappointment to workers and local politicians who...

IRS employees have a prominent role in Obamacare, but their union wants no part of the law. National Treasury Employees Union officials are urging members to write their congressional representatives in opposition to receiving coverage through President Obama’s health care law. The union leaders are providing members with a form letter to send to the congressmen that says “I am very concerned about legislation that has been introduced by Congressman Dave Camp to push federal employees out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and into the insurance exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act.”

Retired city workers are asking a judge to block Mayor Emanuel from making them rely on Obamacare for their health insurance. It could cost Chicago taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. This affects most city retirees and it underscores how, after decades of grotesque financial mismanagement, the only choices left are painful ones. A spokesman for the lawsuit was a retired cop, wounded several times in the line of duty. Public employee unions hope that angry taxpayers staring at a doubling or even tripling of City Hall’s property tax will empathize with Mike Underwood. … When Mayor Emanuel sent letters...

Court Yard Hounds Not that many years ago, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire filled the Bradley as two thirds of the Dixie Chicks. But the Chicks have been on a long vacation, and to fill the time, Robison and Maguire started another group they call Court Yard Hounds. Wednesday night at the Uline Warehouse, the Hounds drew about enough people for a respectable family picnic. At the scheduled 10 p.m. start time, there were four people in the third row.