Mcnorman's Weblog

Bwhahahahahahaha.  The entire ruling.

U.S. District Court in Pensacola Justice Roger Vinson ruled today that the primary mechanism whereby the health reform achieves universal insurance coverage–the individual mandate–is unconstitutional. “Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void. This has been a difficult decision to reach, and I am aware that it will have indeterminable implications,” he writes.

via BREAKING NEWS: Florida Judge Rules Against ObamaCare, Individual Mandate Unconstitutional – David Whelan – Health Dollars – Forbes.

Nom has spoken about the problem that faces the average Egyptian.  From one of Nom’s comments:

40% of the people in Egypt live on less than $2/day.
Whatever the persuasion of the protest leaders, they may find they have started something of which they are no longer entirely in control.

It’s about the food.  It’s not only in Egypt, but in other Middle Eastern countries.

As long as Egypt’s leadership uncertainty persists, market uncertainty will prevail as well. This means flight to safety patterns will continue if the situation deteriorates, but now that the initial shock is over, sideways is probably the most likely scenario.

Traders have been eager for a correction to buy lower, but it’s too early to play that game. Nobody wants to buy on the first or second day down, so many traders seem willing to move to the sidelines and let the story play out over the next several days.

It is food inflation that is ultimately breaking the the back of the Mubarak regime. Traders on Friday noted that Fitch, in downgrading Egypt’s outlook to negative, specifically cited the high food inflation, which is running at about 17 percent a year. Staples like meat, sugar and vegetables have been climbing out of the reach of the ordinary Egyptian for a year.

via CNBC Trader Talk Blog.  Worry about the Suez Canal being shut down.  The world moves 7% of it’s total commodities through that one area daily.  We might just be looking at the same difficulties that the ordinary Egyptian has faced for a year.

Mubarak must go.  It is unfortunate that the Muslim Brotherhood and others will take advantage of this situation.  We would prefer to see democracy reign.  Is it too late?

Obama is squeezing Mubarak to the point of leaving him with no option but to capitulate to the protesting crowds — with the Muslim Brotherhood only too happy to pick up the pieces.

The rumblings begin:

Mohamed Ghanem, one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, calls Egypt to stop pumping gas to Israel and prepare the Egyptian army for a war with it’s eastern neighbor.

Many in Egypt question ElBaradei’s ability to take the reigns.

The 10 families costing us £1m between them in state handouts | Mail Online.

Ten families in England are sharing an astonishing £1million a year in housing benefits, it emerged last night.

The huge sums being lavished on the families by the taxpayer are allowing them to live in streets normally reserved for millionaires.

Five of the families are receiving the maximum payment of £2,000 per week.

It is the first proof that George Osborne was correct when he claimed some households were receiving sums in excess of £100,000 a year.

snip

‘We are bringing an end to this by putting a cap on the total amount of benefit that a family can receive so the days of £100,000 housing benefit claims are gone.’

snip  They needed proof?

Toorpakai Saiedi, a jobless Afghan immigrant with seven children, had rent of £2,875 per week on a large house in Acton, West London, paid by Ealing Council. The total benefits bill was £170,000 a year.

Foolish.   No job, just lots of kids that they cannot afford to take care of.  What is the UK thinking?  Fine example of social justice gone haywire.

Families of Egyptian businessmen leave Cairo.

An official at Cairo airport says 19 private jets carrying families of wealthy Egyptian and Arab businessmen have flown out of the capital.

The official said the jets left Saturday carrying dozens of family members of Egypt’s business elite. He said most of the planes were headed for Dubai.

The passengers included the families of telecom mogul Naguib Sawiris, the executive chairman of Orascom Telecom, and Hussein Salem, a hotel tycoon and close confidant of President Hosni Mubarak.

No big loss, right?  This is.

Big H/T to these folks that feel as sad as I do about this.  There truly is no reason to destroy these beautiful pieces from the past.

Looters rip heads off two mummies.

Germany’s ZDF television has reported that a high-ranking member of the ruling National Democratic Party was involved in the attack on the museum, which holds some of the country’s most important historical artifacts, including the King Tutankhamun exhibit.

Daily Mail has published an AP photo of the Egyptian army standing guard in front of the Pyramids of Giza, with the following title, “Egyptian Looters Destroy 2,000-Year-Old Mummies in Bid to Steal King Tut’s Treasures“

Fire now threatens the Museum.

Army storms the Museum in order to protect it.

Link

Obama Justice Department Colluded with ACLU to Attack Arizona’s SB 1070 According to Documents Uncovered by Judicial Watch.

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today announced that it has received documents from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that show DOJ worked hand-in-hand with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in mounting their respective legal challenges to SB 1070, Arizona’s get-tough illegal immigration law. The documents, obtained by Judicial Watch pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on June 17, 2010, include email exchanges between DOJ officials and ACLU staff.

The Dems mean to win.  It has become increasingly clear that this administration has redefined corrupt.  Instead of implementing the law, they continuously circumvent it.  The ACLU needs to be defunded.

The document pdf.