File under: “How to fake a walkback.” With its unconstitutional, coercive, discriminatory Obamacare abortion mandate under fire, the White House announced…nothing today. A supposed “accommodation” to the policy will result in no compromise in the impact of the HHS edict forcing religiously affiliated health care providers and employers to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives, abortifacients, and related services that violate the religious principles and freedom of the mandate’s targets. In fact, close observers say today’s announcement will make things worse. The deets : With the White House under fire for its new rule requiring employers including religious organizations to offer health insurance that fully covers birth control coverage, ABC News has learned that later today the White House — possibly President Obama himself — will likely announce an attempt to accommodate these religious groups. The move, based on state models, will almost certainly not satisfy bishops and other religious leaders since it will preserve the goal of women employees having their birth control fully covered by health insurance. Sources say it will be respectful of religious beliefs but will not back off from that goal, which many religious leaders oppose since birth control is in violation of their religious beliefs. White House officials are likening it to the so-called Hawaii compromise. Phony baloney, say Catholic bishops: It’s difficult to know what people may mean by the “Hawaii compromise.” But a central feature of the Hawaii law is that every religious organization that is eligible for the exemption has to instruct all employees in how they can access all methods of contraception and sterilization locally “in an expeditious manner.” Just a few days ago the White House was saying that this is just about coverage, that no one has to be involved in getting people to the actual services they object to. It would be no improvement to say: “Sure, you don’t have to include the coverage, you just have to send all your lay employees and women religious to the local Planned Parenthood clinic.” The Administration’s press release of January 20 hinted at such a requirement. That would not be a compromise. In some ways it would be worse. As usual, this defiant administration keeps digging itself deeper. *** The Hill calls Obama’s announcement a “retreat.” The White House will announce a retreat from its controversial rule requiring religious organizations like charities and hospitals to include contraception in their healthcare plans. President Obama has come under heavy criticism from the Catholic Church and other religious organizations, Republicans and even some Democrats over the issue, and Vice President Biden has suggested a compromise could be worked out. A White House official on Friday confirmed an announcement on changing the rule would be made Friday. The White House is referring to the change as an accommodation. It’s not a retreat. It’s a re-trick. It’s not an accommodation. It’s an abomination. *** Update 11am Weekly Standard reporter John McCormak is on a conference call with White House officials providing background on the policy head fake. He tweets … Sr. admin off.: “the insurance company, not the hospital, not the charity will be required to reach out” to women to provide contraception So religious groups will still be mandated to offer plans that cover contraception, and the abortion drug ella. Reporter asks if WH even consulted bishops before announcing ‘accommodation.’ Sr admin official won’t say. To clarify, religious groups have to contract with INSURERS who do offer the pills, then the insurers offers free pills to women. Update 12:26pm EST – From his brief press conference, Obama attacks “cynical” opponents of abortion mandate. He says “principle” of “access to free preventative care including contraceptive services” will stand. “Religious liberty will be protected.” Translation: You’re still screwed. *** Update: On Fox News, Kathleen The Shredder Sebelius attempts to defend the policy as a “no-cost strategy” by citing “actuaries” who claim that contraceptive coverage will actually “save money.” You know who she’s citing? The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. She repeatedly invokes “women’s health” to defend the edict. Sanger’s grim reapers have the rhetoric down pat. *** More from Steven Ertelt at Life News: Pro-Life Advocates Blast Revised Obama Pro-Abortion Mandate : Jonathan Imbody, Vice President for Government Relations for the Christian Medical Association, called the revisions “offering a distinction without a difference to mute opposition.” He said the revision fits a pattern of contempt for conscience that includes how Obama “has gutted the only federal regulation protecting the exercise of conscience in health care, denied of federal grant funds for aiding human trafficking victims because a faith-based organization refused to participate in abortion; lobbied the Supreme Court to restrict faith-based organizations’ hiring rights; and issued a coercive contraceptive mandate that imposes the government’s abortion ideology on every American.”
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Obama’s fraudulent abortion mandate “accommodation” Updated: Prez condemns “cynical” opposition
Amphipods, a type of crustacean whose body is divided into 13 segments, are generally less than 10 millimeters — 0.39 inch — in length. Now, imagine the surprise scientists had when they found some 20 times that size. Scientists at the University of Aberdeen have announced finding amphipods so big that drawing the analogy between humans and the Incredible Hulk isn’t even a big enough comparison. They’re so giant, they are being called “supergiant”. OurAmazingPlanet reports that the “insects of the sea” were found in a deep sea trench off the coast of New Zealand: “We pulled up the trap, and lying among the fish were these absolutely massive amphipods, and there was no inkling whatsoever that these things should be there,” said Alan Jamieson, a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and leader of the expedition that turned up the fantastical creatures in November 2011. “They actually don’t feel real,” Jamieson told OurAmazingPlanet. “They feel like plastic toys. They have a waxy texture to them.” OurAmazingPlanet notes that the largest of the amphipods found was nearly a foot long.
(Photo: University of Aberdeen Oceanlab)
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‘Supergiant’ Crustacean 20 Times Larger Than Usual Surprise Scientists
TMZ has over 100 photos of President Barack Obama with family and friends from his December vacation in Hawaii. Watch him face plant while diving for a football on the beach: And why is he the only one shirtless?!
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Obama face plants while shirtless on Hawaiian beach
AP – President Barack Obama will waste little time getting back in front of voters following a 10-day Hawaiian vacation spent largely out of the spotlight.
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Obama readying for re-election bid after vacation
(AP)
AP – With an eye on the 2012 campaign, President Barack Obama wrapped up a low-key Hawaiian vacation Monday and planned to quickly get back in front of voters as he ratchets up his bid for re-election.
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Obama ending vacation, readying for re-election
(AP)
**Written by Doug Powers BigGovernment.com ran an interview this week with Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra, who said that her mother would get out of politics if not for her loyalty to her donors: She would retire right now, if the donors she has didn’t want her to stay so badly. They know she wants to leave, though. They think she’s destined for the wilderness. She has very few days left. She’s 71, she wants to have a life, she’s done. It’s obligation, that’s all I’m saying. Alexandra Pelosi later told BigGovernment that she said “greatness” and not “wilderness.” In any case, Pelosi’s office quickly issued a denial : Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for the House minority leader, said it’s simply not true. “This may be wishful thinking on the part of a right-wing blog, but it is totally untrue,” Elshami said. “When the day comes and Leader Pelosi’s work is done, she won’t be announcing it there.” True. We’ll know Nancy Pelosi’s work is done when she’s announcing her retirement as the country is declaring bankruptcy and being repo’d by China. Hopefully Nancy cuts her daughter some slack though and realizes that her words had to be passed before we found out what was in them. More : Alexandra Pelosi didn’t deny uttering the remark but declined to expand in an email to POLITICO. “I don’t speak for Nancy Pelosi — I was merely projecting my own personal opinions,” Alexandra Pelosi wrote in an email. It’s a good thing Christmas dinner has already been served at the Pelosi household, or else Alexandra might have found herself in the other room at the card table where the kids and/or people who provided stock tips that didn’t pan out were made to sit. Forget about any talk of retirement — Pelosi’s more immediate problem is that “Occupy Hawaii Island” could soon be making an appearance near her vacation spot. Naturally Pelosi will go join in because she’s such a loyal supporter . **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Pelosi’s Office Denies Daughter’s Retirement Claim
AP – President Barack Obama will travel to Cleveland the day after the Iowa caucuses as he seeks to draw a contrast with Republicans running for president.
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Obama to visit Ohio day after Iowa caucuses
(AP)
As anyone who follows the Drudge Report, Hotair (or “Hot Gas” if you’re Gov. Rick Perry), or The Blaze knows, President Obama’s Hawaiian vacation will cost the American taxpayer quite a chunk of change. Understandably, some Americans are bothered by the his decision to take such a costly vacation during these economically unstable times. Perhaps because this irritation is so sharply felt, people are finding new and different ways to vent their frustration. One such outlet is a website called Wasted in Hawaii: President Obama’s Hawaiian Binge . The website includes information on the cost of president’s trip as well as an interactive tool that allows users to send messages to the president’s @BarackObama Twitter handle. “A leader is supposed to suffer with the people he serves, but Obama doesn’t seem to understand that principle. He could go to Camp David or his million-dollar home in Chicago, and show solidarity with the rest of us who made sacrifices,” writes Tyler Ament, the website’s creator, to The Blaze in an email. Indeed. Maybe what’s most annoying to Americans is the fact that the president takes these expensive vacations after he tells them they’ve “ gotten lazy ” and that they need to make a “ shared sacrifice .” Who’s the “we” in the “we’ve gotten lazy”? Now, there’s nothing wrong with a little vacation. Some people deserve the time off. But perhaps it’s a little difficult for those who are unemployed, struggling to find work and/or have lost their homes to justify the price tag on the president’s “me time.” And maybe websites like Wasted in Hawaii can serve as a type of political watchdog for these kind of junkets; a constant reminder of what this is costing us. “[Most] Americans fail to understand how much money $4 million dollars really is, and therefore allow the President to get away with waste and hypocrisy,” Ament writes. “Just the other day, the Obama administration said that $40 is no small amount, yet the President is spending that amount every 15 seconds on his Hawaii trip [emphasis added].” Exit question : Were there any other reasons—other than the hypocrisy—that prompted Ament to set up this website? “I wanted to address these issues through humor. We can tend to get too negative and caught up in rhetoric, so I figured that a little fun could reach people’s hearts, and help them grasp just how wasteful and reckless our President is being,” writes Ament. You can find the website here.
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Want to let the president know what you think of his million dollar Hawaiian vacation? Now you can
