Mixed messages: Obama and Kerry offer conflicting perspectives on Snowden

http://twitter.com/#!/ChrisLoesch/status/350375683224109057

The confusion is understandable.

John Kerry has said people could actually die as a result of the Snowden leaks:

http://twitter.com/#!/GlennThrush/status/350101191545454593

And here’s president Obama speaking in Africa today:

http://twitter.com/#!/mundyspeaks/status/350333547510374402 http://twitter.com/#!/nytimes/status/350311844977717248

Others are curious about the discrepancy as well:

http://twitter.com/#!/Ktcarang/status/350234238601273344

Obama referred to Snowden as a “29-year-old hacker” when in fact he is a 30 year old leaker, but maybe he didn’t go to that briefing.

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2013/06/27/mixed-messages-obama-and-kerry-offer-conflicting-perspectives-on-snowden/

Tommy Christopher: Like your health care plan? You don’t know sh*t

http://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/395269643570401280

Now that the president’s promise that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” has been exposed as a lie, the White House and its messengers are rolling out a new line: maybe you really don’t like your existing plan as much as you think you do. Business Insider’s Josh Barro recently wrote that “there are a lot of health plans that Americans shouldn’t be able to keep,” so that cancellation notice in the mail is good news.

Yesterday, Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher sent out a similar message in response to a CBS News report on Dianne Barrette, a 56-year-old woman who claimed her plan was increasing from $54 a month to $591 a month. An increase of more than 10 times certainly seems drastic, but as Christopher notes, Barrette’s $54 policy “barely qualifies as insurance.” In fact, it’s “junk insurance,” writes Christopher, and “Dianne Barrette has no idea what her plan covers.”

“It’s entirely possible that now-healthy Dianne is ‘happy’ with this plan, but the whole idea behind the Affordable Care Act is that the rest of us are not happy having to pick up the tab if Dianne gets a disease, has an accident, or otherwise needs to go to the hospital,” writes Christopher. Odd: we thought the whole idea was to insure the uninsured, while allowing the insured to keep their plans and doctors.

PJ Media editor David Steinberg stood up for the “CBS lady.”

http://twitter.com/#!/DavidSPJM/status/395272145476939776 http://twitter.com/#!/DavidSPJM/status/395273352148819968 http://twitter.com/#!/DavidSPJM/status/395274464792821760 http://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/395275288780611584

You know who’s the country’s foremost expert on health insurance? Barack Obama.

http://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/395276248806457344 http://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/395277520141963264

Got that? If you like your plan and received a cancellation notice, you’re better off. You don’t know it yet, but you are.

http://twitter.com/#!/tommyxtopher/status/395277690241953793

That’s the next logical step, right? In the meantime, it’s time to stop worrying and love your cancellation notice. It’s for your own good.

http://twitter.com/#!/DavidSPJM/status/395282713147473921

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2013/10/29/tommy-christopher-like-your-health-care-plan-you-dont-know-sht/

Minor League Baseball Team To Hold “Brian Williams’ Pants-On-Fire Night”

The Akron RubberDucks, a Double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, will host a themed night mocking the recently suspended NBC News anchor.

1. The Akron RubberDucks, the Cleveland Indians’ Double-A affiliate team, have announced they will hold a “Brian Williams’ Pants-on-Fire Night” night on April 27th, which happens to be National Tell a Story Day.

2. The team says fans will be treated to “lie-detector testing, giveaway suspenders, and more.”


Other activities will include “a between-inning chance for fans to audition to be the next television news anchor on the video board, with the fan-voted winner’s video sent to NBC” and “On-field contests, including ‘To Tell the Truth’ and ‘Two Truths & a Brian Williams,'” also known as “Two Truths and a Lie.”

3. The RubberDucks are also seeking a fan named Brian Williams to throw out the first pitch, read “tall tales,” and offer up a pair of pants to be lit aflame in a “‘pants on fire’ ceremony.”

4. Earlier this week, NBC News announced Brian Williams–of NBC Nightly News, not an Akron-based baseball fan–will be suspended for six months without pay after it was revealed he “misremembered” an incident that took place in Iraq in 2003.

Phil Mccarten / Reuters

5. By the time the RubberDucks hold their Brian Williams-themed night, he will be over two months into his suspension.


Will the suspension still be relevant at the end of April? It seems the RubberDucks are taking that bet. But as Don Van Natta Jr. of ESPN said on Tuesday:

Six months in 24-hour news-cycle time is 42 years.

— DVNJr (@Don Van Natta Jr.)

Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/lindseyadler/minor-league-baseball-team-to-hold-brian-williams-pants-on-f