Congratulations, House Republicans!

This is only one of many scare tactics that the GOP has used the past several decades that were based on innuendo and lies. Remember Palin's "death panels" under ACA? How far they will go to scare people with lies should be a crime, but with politics "anything goes."

When will Americans learn that the GOP's message are usually wrong in every respects? When will they learn that their crying 'wolf' has no wolf or teeth?

NONE; it's been dead before they even shouted 'wolf.' It's all in their sick imagination for political reasons only.

As I said, it is only free in the sense that people do not pay directly for it. Doesn't change the fact that SOMEONE pays for it. I'm not against education or even paying for it. I'm tired of the use of free this and free that. Every govt program is "free" but once again this sense of free, leads to fraud and abuse and a sense of entitlement. Look up free and tell me if it includes your definition of free.

Do you deny that we pay more taxes now then we did 30 years ago? I'm not talking about the amount of actual tax you pay, I'm talking about the # of taxes we pay. Do you deny that Dems are always looking for ways of taxing something? How many new taxes were enacted to pass the ACA? Dems use taxes as a way to modify people's behavior. If you can't ban something you want to tax it so it can't be used due to cost. Guns any one? Tax the gun, tax the bullets, increase costs on the gun license and background checks. I doubt you guys haven't met a tax you didn't like.

Equivocation - you use different definitions in the same sentence.

Then you resort to hyperbole when you say the sense of free leads to fraud and abuse. Where is the fraud and abuse in a free public education? Are some people getting educated twice? Or are you going to simply change the definition of what constitutes fraud when it comes to a free program?

Actually, I would deny it. The number of taxes can have little to do with what we pay in taxes. 100 taxes that each are 1 penny means you pay less than 1 tax that that is $5.

Government has always used taxes to try to modify people's behaviour. It isn't restricted to the Dems. So, you think the gun license and background check should be free? So much for consistency.

Baldimo wrote,

This is not only based on total ignorance, but applies opinions based on nothing but his own imagination (and probably the political right).

Without education, infrastructure, and many other government services, this country will stop being competitive in the world market place. His so-called "fraud and abuse" are illegal, and it's not 'free.'

Baldimo could NEVER SUPPORT HIS OPINIONS FROM FACTS AND EVIDENCE. NEVER. If he tries, I'll be the first to disprove his claims, because it's so easy to do.

Finally, your "free" doesn't coincide with the definition.



The 'free' you're talking about is government social services, and it's under their control. Fraud is a crime.

Where is there fraud in the education system? Schools and teachers cheating on assessment tests to boost test scores to get more money for the school. Hiding enrollment #'s and faking them to get increased funding due to student population. This isn't just in public schools either, it also happens in charter schools. When it comes to money in the govt, there is always fraud.

Testing Fraud: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/education/test-scandal-in-atlanta-brings-more-guilty-pleas.html

Enrollement Fraud: http://www.dispatch.com/content/topic/special-reports/2012/counting-kids-out.html


How can you say the number of taxes has little to do with what you pay? 100 taxes at 1 penny? If the taxes we paid were only a penny you would be correct. The problem is that taxes are not 1 penny and they all add up over a year. It's more money out of my pocket. Yes I'm selfish about such things, I have said it before that no one is concerned if I can pay my bills but me. So yes the # of taxes I pay does make a difference. The # of state and local taxes has increased in the last 30 years and as I noted before, how many new taxes were created due to the ACA?

CLUE: There is fraud in almost every aspect of human exchange, but they are all ILLEGAL when there is money involved.

That's the reason we have laws. Cheating is ILLEGAL when there is monetary benefit.

Your ideas are out of the mainstream of common sense. Go peddle your ignorance elsewhere.

So because there is fraud in every human interaction, we shouldn't be concerned with fraud when it comes to taxpayer money? I point out area's of fraud in the education system and your response is "Well there is fraud everywhere". That wasn't the point of the discussion. The point had to do with "free" govt programs and I was asked to point out fraud in the education system. I was successful. Suck it up buttercup.

My ideas of fraud are out of the mainstream? Really? Which ones would those be?

The laws are establish to discourage fraud. There are also laws against murder, but people murder. Those are human realities that are part and parcel of living humans. You don't throw out the baby with the bath water to make your point about taxation and why there is fraud.

You're not even making any sense with your conservative meme.

Teachers aren't getting a free education. So it seems you decided to redefine fraud just as I thought you would.

How did I redefine fraud? I provided 2 examples of fraud in the education system. Fraud which results in stolen taxpayer money applied to the education system. Now tell me what I redefined.

Your idea that the commons needs to be privatized because "nothing is free".

Fox News Quiet After Congressional Report Finds No Benghazi Scandal
New House Intel Report Reportedly Finds No Intentional Wrongdoing By The Obama Administration

Fox News has gone silent on Benghazi amid reports that the House Intelligence Committee concluded that there was no intentional wrongdoing in the Obama administration's response to the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on August 1 that the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee voted to declassify findings from its investigation into the 2012 attacks on U.S diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, and "concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack," according to committee member Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA).

The intelligence community "did not have specific tactical warning of an attack before it happened," the process used to create administration talking points was "flawed" but "reflected the conflicting intelligence assessments in the days immediately following the crisis, and "there was no 'stand-down order' given to American personnel," Ranking Member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-CA) said in a statement laying out the committee's findings.

It's a clinical, point-by-point refutation of the Benghazi hoax Fox has pushed for nearly 2 years.

Yet Fox News made no mention of the report on Monday.* In sharp contrast to its current silence, when House Speaker John Boehner announced the formation of a select committee to investigate Benghazi in June, Fox devoted at least 225 segments to the topic over just two weeks, an estimated publicity value of more than $124 million.

Fox's sudden lack of interest in congressional investigations into Benghazi comes less then one week after Rep. Trey Gowdy, head of the select committee, announced - in what Fox News billed as an "exclusive" interview - that he would hold more public hearings on the attacks in September.

"The American people have not been given clear answers to things like Benghazi," Bill O'Reilly said Friday night on Fox. Monday night, O'Reilly's audience didn't learn the answers that the House Intelligence Committee declassified last week.

On July 31, the day the House Intelligence Committee adopted its report, Fox News signaled its intention to continue politicizing the Benghazi tragedy by immediately pivoting to Hillary Clinton.

"The Republican head of the powerful House Intelligence Committee told Fox News that there was no intelligence failure and that all roads lead to the State Department," Herridge said on America's Newsroom.

Hours later, the conclusion that there was no intelligence failure had evaporated from her reporting. "The chairman of the House Intelligence Committeee says, Hillary Clinton's State Department has more explaining to do," Herridge claimed on The Kelly Report that night.

That assessment was based on questions answered long ago about who signs diplomatic cables at the State Department.

* Media Matters searched transcripts provided by TVEyes.com for the terms "Benghazi" and "House Intelligence Committee."

UPDATE: On Fox's evening news program Special Report, the network finally noted the findings of the House Intelligence Committee report and that they were in line with past congressional investigations. Host Bret Baier noted that House Republicans are still looking to the upcoming House select committee as "the definitive word on the terror attack."

Republicans Had To Explain To Colleagues Why Torture Is Wrong
Posted: 08/04/2014 2:03 pm EDT Updated: 08/04/2014 2:59 pm EDT


WASHINGTON -- Ahead of the expected release of a massive, damning report on the Central Intelligence Agency's use of torture in the years after 9/11, at least two Republican senators felt the need to explain something to their GOP colleagues: Torture is wrong.

That was the message Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) relayed as Congress recessed until September, anticipating the possible release of a declassified version of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report of 600-plus pages on CIA abuses.

They felt compelled to speak out because several Republican members of the committee are believed to have written a dissenting section of the report that contends that torture helped save American lives.

McCain, a former member of the Intelligence Committee who knows the report's outline, and Graham, a military lawyer, dispute that the torture of terrorism suspects helped prevent attacks. But even if it did, they argue, any benefit was far outweighed by the damage done to America's reputation and the resulting boost to terrorists' ability to recruit new members.

Watch the clips above, but McCain summed up his argument simply: "It is a stain on America's honor."

McCain, who was held captive for more than five years during the Vietnam War and tortured to the point that he can no longer raise his arms, also brought up a practical issue about inflicting pain on a person to get information -- most of the information is wrong.

"They will tell you anything they think you want to hear in order to have that pain stop," McCain said.

Asked if he was speaking from personal experience, he answered simply: "Oh, yeah. Yes. Absolutely."

The release of the report was expected as soon as this week, but Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced Friday that so much of the declassified version has been redacted that she would delay the release indefinitely to find out why that much is blanked out.

The CIA has vigorously opposed efforts to expose its abuses and last week admitted to spying on the very Senate investigators who were tasked with doing the investigation. Several senators on both sides of the aisle have demanded that CIA Director John Brennan resign and that some sort of independent investigation be launched.

Michael McAuliff covers Congress and politics for The Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook.

Who said anything about privatizing anything? I didn't.

Teachers aren't getting anything free nor are they entitled to anything free.

You redefined fraud from your earlier use of the word where it meant those that were getting something free.

You sure do put a lot of words and meanings into things I say. You want to now narrowly define the word fraud. So if teachers aren't taking anything, then there is no fraud in the education system? Just so you know, I never accused teachers of fraud.

The real fact about teachers is that they are underpaid for the responsibilities they carry. It's common knowledge that licensed teachers must put in more than four years of college to continue as a certified teacher, and their pay and benefits fall short.



From nea.org.

First off I have nothing against teachers. I respect teachers and think they do indeed have tough jobs. I despise the unions who hinder teachers and parents from being able to fully educate their students/children.

Pay and benefits fall short? What are those salaries when you use 9 months vs 12 months of being paid? $56103 as an example: $6233 per month pre-tax for 9 months. $4675 per month pre-tax for 12 months. I'm not saying that is great money but it is good money for an average salary.

You will notice that they are using average salaries. So if the average is $56000 a year how much are they making after 10 years? How much is the starting salary and how long does it take to climb the money ladder.

Do I think they need to be paid more? Yes I do. I think unions are a barrier to pay for teachers. They more than likely prevent teachers from getting paid what they are really worth. Do you think good teachers should make more money than bad teachers? Do you think exceptional teachers should be paid more than good teachers? Should it be easy to fire bad teachers so that they can hire good teachers? If some schools are having a hard time finding teachers to work in their areas, should they be allowed to offer more money to entice teachers to come work for them? In my opinion the answer to this is yes on all points.

Sounds appropriate.

It seems that everyone has taken a hit over the last decade. Teachers are not alone in that dept.