Scandal-Palooza Mega Clearance: Homeland Security Watchdog Accused of White Washing Report, Cover Up and Fraud

Weaselzippers has;

Homeland Security Watchdog Accused of White Washing Report, Cover Up and Fraud

Watchdog not only not watching, but covering things up himself, allegedly committing his own fraud. This is the Deputy Inspector General, because Obama hasn’t gotten around to proposing another candidate that might call out his administration.

Via Daily Caller:

The man in charge of policing waste, fraud and abuse at the federal government’s third-largest department has been accused of suppressing a politically sensitive report, violating anti-nepotism laws and misusing agency resources, according to a letter from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security.
Charles Edwards, Deputy Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security and de facto head of the office, was ordered by Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill and Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson to provide sixteen separate document sets related to the allegations by July 19.
“This is supposed to be the most transparent administration in history, but we’re seeing a real pattern of this White House and their Secretaries applying pressure to inspectors general to whitewash reports,” Johnson said in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Keep reading…

Thank You Zip and Daily Caller.

Scandal-Palooza Big Brother Erupts Again! CFPB Conducting "Warrantless Surveillance" On 5 Million Americans Financial Transactions

Weaselzippers has;

FOIA Documents Show CFPB Conducting "Warrantless Surveillance On 5 Million Americans Financial Transactions

The same Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Obama established on behalf of Elizabeth Warren.

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) revealing that the agency has spent millions of dollars for the warrantless collection and analysis of Americans’ financial transactions. The documents also reveal that CFPB contractors may be required to share the information with “additional government entities.” [...]
The full extent of the CFPB personal financial data collection program is revealed in a document obtained by Judicial Watch entitled “INDEFINITE-DELIVERY INDEFINITY-QUANTITY (IDIQ) STATEMENT OF WORK.”  Issued by CFPB Contracting Officer Xiaoling Ang on July 3, 2012 the IDIQ document’s stated objective: “The CFPB seeks to acquire and maintain a nationally representative panel of credit information on consumers for use in a wide range of policy research projects… The panel shall be a random sample of consumer credit files obtains from a national database of credit files.”
To accomplish this objective, the CFPB describes the scope of the program accordingly:
The panel shall include 5 million consumers, and joint borrowers, co-signers, and authorized users [emphasis added]. The initial panel shall contain 10 years of historical data on a quarterly basis [emphasis added]. The initial sample shall be drawn from current records and historical data appended for that sample as well as additional samples during the intervening years [emphasis added] to make the combines sample representative at each point in time.
Keep reading…

Thank You Zip and Judicial Watch.

Still happy with those FREE ObamaPhones?



That's right. These young people are a product of our Government Funded and Agendized University System.

Victory For Karl Marx and Socialism, Obama Voters Celebrate In Front Of White House

Jesus Wept.

ObamaCare Touting Hollywood Now Complaining Law Too Complicated, "Not Written With This Industry In Mind"

Right on the heels of this groaner, where the ObamaCare Zealots will be Recruiting Hollywood Celebrities to peddle their obnoxious pile of waste, fraud and abuse, . . . . Now, segments of the same Hollywood Machine are registering Their gripe, . . . . with this obnoxious pile of waste, fraud, and abuse, . . .  because They don't want it shoved down Their throats Either.

It just keeps getting more, . . . . Obama-esque.

weaselzippers:
ObamaCare Touting Hollywood Now Complaining Law Too Complicated, "Not Written With This Industry In Mind".

Ten-megatons worth of assploding irony.
Via Beltway Confidential:

Hollywood, which helped sell Obamacare by promoting it in TV shows and is now being recruited by the Obama administration to make the unpopular law look “cool” to youths, is bracing itself for the law’s implementation.

“It’s a morass of regulations and requirements, and everyone’s trying to figure out what their exposure is,” Eric Belcher, president and CEO of Cast & Crew Entertainment Services, told the Hollywood Reporter. “[Obamacare] is thousands of pages and it wasn’t written with this industry in mind.”
The entertainment industry is already having difficulty determining whether employees can be considered full-time or part-time and is fearful of the fines it will face if it chooses incorrectly. Another issue the health law creates is the outsourcing of productions to foreign countries, since Obamacare’s regulations and fines don’t apply to US citizens abroad. Studios may find it much cheaper to film in another country and avoid the burden of Obamacare. They may also cut the number of production days in the U.S. in order to avoid paying a penalty or providing health insurance to full-time workers. This would hit independent films and TV pilots the hardest, as they are the least likely to be able to afford Obamacare.

Thank You Zip, Wash Examiner, and Beltway Confidential.

And we should give a flying Rip about Hollywood's product being outsourced to other countries WHY? Considering the non-stop effusion of Low Information, Leftist, Collectivist Drivel that town inundates America under, What exactly is wrong with a little truth in advertising from them?

This movie has been Approved and Rated K for Korrect by the People's Central Committee for Culturally Progressive Indoctrination of Communist China.  

Another Great Leap Forward. 

20 Highest Paid Biopharma CEOs of 2012

Fierce Pharma has;

20 Highest Paid Biopharma CEOs of 2012
by Tracy Staton


Call it a rite of spring. Every year about this time, FiercePharma takes a look at executive compensation in the industry, and we rank the highest-paid CEOs. If you're a regular reader, you'll notice that this year's list is longer than previous editions. And there's a reason for that: curiosity.

As we were beginning to gather numbers from biopharma companies' proxy statements and annual reports, news surfaced that Valeant Pharmaceuticals ($VRX) and Actavis ($ACT) had been in merger talks. The former CEO of Mylan ($MYL), one of Actavis' rivals, regularly appeared on our highest-paid executives list, so we looked up the numbers on Actavis. No dice; CEO Paul Bisaromay have pulled off his biggest merger ever last year, but $8.66 million in compensation still didn't qualify him for our ranking.

Then, we pulled out Valeant's proxy statement. And while CEO Michael Pearson didn't earn enough in 2012 to make the cutoff--his compensation just surpassed $6 million--he should have been at the top of the list last year. Pearson's 2011 pay package broke $36 million. He collected more than $18 million in stock and option awards, plus a special $13.7 million dividend payment, stemming from agreements negotiated years before.

We hate to miss a scoop. Naturally. So, we vowed to avoid making the same mistake this time around. Rather than limit our executive-pay search to the biggest pharma companies and biotechs, plus the usual suspects who often make CEO-pay rankings, we used a bigger net. We collected compensation information from 50 companies, including numbers for CEOs, CFOs, R&D chiefs and other top executives.

Partly because of this search, but mostly because of big bonuses and awards at fast-growing Regeneron ($REGN), we have a brand-new No. 1 on our list. That's Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer, whose 2012 compensation totaled $30.047 million. You'll notice some other newbies, such as Leonard Bell from Alexion ($ALXN), whose pay bump put him in 12th place. And then there are familiar faces, such as Pfizer ($PFE) CEO Ian Read; Johnson & Johnson's ($JNJ) former chairman and CEO, William Weldon; and Eli Lilly ($LLY) CEO John Lechleiter, who hung on in 10th place.

Many of the companies we researched pay their top people far less than the $10 million that served as our cutoff figure. Novo Nordisk ($NVO) CEO Lars Sorensen, who has presided over double-digit growth there for several years, collected a package of cash and stock awards worth about $5 million for 2012. GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) CEO Andrew Witty made less than $6 million himself; he took a pay cut for the year because of Glaxo's shortfall on certain performance targets.
And then there are others who would have made the list, had their titles been different. There's Regeneron R&D chief George Yancopoulos, whose extraordinary $81 million in compensation shows how much the company appreciates its newly minted blockbuster, Eylea. There's Mylan Chairman Robert Coury, who used to be a fixture on our list until Heather Bresch took over as CEO; he made more than $28 million last year. Novartis' ($NVS) former chairman Daniel Vasella could have qualified for 12th place with his $13.98 million in compensation.

Vasella, then, gives us a quick segue to the ongoing debate over executive pay. In Switzerland, populist dismay at some high-profile compensation figures led to a public vote earlier this year. Citizens voted in new restrictions on common bonuses, such as golden parachutes, and gave shareholders a binding vote on executive pay. And local analysts figure that late-breaking news of Vasella's behind-the-scenes noncompete agreement--worth some $78 million over 5 years--helped pay activists to get out the vote. (Vasella ended up refusing the deal, by the way.)

In the U.S., where executives are paid more than anywhere else in the world, shareholders at some companies have successfully lobbied for a greater emphasis on performance pay and against extraordinary bonuses, such as change-in-control payments that send top executives on their way with tens of millions after a merger. Other companies have instituted "say-on-pay" advisory votes for shareholders, but those often end up as rubber stamps for the status quo.

Now, we're interested in what you have to say about executive compensation. Are the CEOs on this list worth their price? What's a supersuccessful new drug worth? Should CEO pay be docked for R&D failures? What about failed launches? Should other, lower-paid executives earn more? Tweet your opinions to @FiercePharma using the hashtag #FPexecpay, leave your comments below or email us. We'll collect your thoughts in a future article.

As always, feel free to send us your thoughts on our coverage. And if we missed a well-paid CEO, be sure to let us know.

-- Tracy Staton (email | Twitter)

For more:
Top 10 Biotech CEO Pay Packages of 2012
Top 10 Pharma CEO salaries of 2010
Top 10 Pharma CEO salaries of 2009
2012's 10 highest-paid Med Tech CEOs
Top 10 Medical Device Industry CEO Salaries for 2011

• 1
  Leonard 'Len' Schleifer - Regeneron
• 2
  William Weldon - Johnson & Johnson
• 3
  Ian Read - Pfizer
• 4
  Miles White - Abbott Laboratories
• 5
  David Pyott - Allergan
• 6
  Robert Parkinson - Baxter International
• 7
  Lamberto Andreotti - Bristol-Myers Squibb
• 8
  Kenneth Frazier - Merck
• 9
  John Martin - Gilead Sciences
• 10
  John Lechleiter - Eli Lilly

• 11
  Joe Jimenez - Novartis
• 12
  Leonard Bell - Alexion Pharmaceuticals
• 13
  Robert Bradway - Amgen
• 14
  George Scangos - Biogen Idec
• 15
  Severin Schwan - Roche
• 16
  Angus Russell - Shire
• 17
  Alex Gorsky - Johnson & Johnson
• 18
  Robert Hugin - Celgene
• 19
  Heather Bresch - Mylan
• 20
  Christopher Viehbacher - Sanofi

Thank You Fierce Pharma and Ms Staton.

GOP: Felons Could Be 'Navigators' Under ObamaCare

From The Hill's Healthwatch;
GOP: Felons Could Be 'Navigators' Under ObamaCare
By Elise Viebeck - 06/20/13 03:48 PM ET


A program designed to help people enroll in ObamaCare could accept convicted felons as "navigators" and give them access to confidential health information, GOP lawmakers charged Thursday. 

Republican senators redoubled their attacks on the "navigator" program in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, arguing the effort is dangerous to consumers and a waste of taxpayer money. 

The lawmakers also demanded a long list of details on the program, including the minimum requirements for becoming a "navigator" and any training materials distributed to would-be participants. 


They also asked whether "navigators" will have access to confidential tax documents and what steps the Obama administration has taken to protect consumers against potential fraud. 

"The unreasonably low standard for becoming a navigator not only undermines the state’s ability to ensure consumers are protected but raises questions about the appropriate use of federal resources and the protection of highly sensitive consumer information," the lawmakers wrote. 

Under the Affordable Care Act, "navigators" will help consumers understand their coverage options in the new insurance exchanges. 

Some of the counselors are required to be affiliated with nonprofit groups, but none has to be licensed as an insurance agent or broker. 

"Navigators" are not permitted to select a plan for their clients and do not determine individuals' eligibility for federal subsidies. 

Supporters say the program is necessary to help underserved communities gain access to ObamaCare coverage. 

The Health and Human Services Department has set aside $54 million for the effort and says any participants will have to demonstrate expertise in health insurance and take a 20-30 hour online course on ObamaCare. 

Thursday's letter was signed by Senate Finance Committee ranking member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), John Thune (R-S.D.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas). 

Thank You The Hill and Ms Viebeck.

HHS Looks To Celebs, Pro Sports To Promote ObamaCare

And as Everybody knows, you just can't get a job in Hollywood or the NBA without a PhD in Economics, Medical Science, Crony Capitalism, the works of Karl Marx, and World History.

Just ask Lindsay Lohan about the talent pool in her neck of the woods. She'll tell you all about how well qualified they are.

FierceHealthcare has;
HHS Looks To Celebs, Professional Sports To Promote Healthcare Reform
June 26, 2013 | By Alicia Caramenico


With deadlines for healthcare reform implementation quickly approaching, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services is ramping up promotional efforts and calling on the help of some famous faces.

This week, HHS kicked off its healthcare insurance exchange education efforts, re-launching the healthcare.gov website and opening a 24/7 call center.

The agency is also heading to the Hollywood hills, hoping to recruit celebrity spokespeople for the healthcare reform law, a top celebrity political adviser told The Hill's Healthwatch. Having celebrity endorsements would allow the Obama administration to reach young people and get them to sign up for coverage and benefits under the new law, the article noted.

Healthcare reform ads could feature several Hollywood A-listers who have ties to President Barak Obama--whether through personal friendships or political support--including Oprah Winfrey, John Legend, Eva Longoria, Kerry Washington, Jay-Z and Beyonce, among others, according to another article from The Hill's Healthwatch.

Longoria, who served as national co-chair for Obama's re-election campaign, focused on Latino voters, who are key to the healthcare law's success, the article noted.

In addition to celebrities, HHS is reaching out to professional sports leagues for help promoting healthcare reform provisions. The agency may partner with the NFL to educate consumers about insurance exchanges and encourage enrollment, as FierceHealthPayer previously reported.

HHS also contacted the NBA about partnering up to market the reform law, Politico reported. With an HHS-NBA partnership, basketball icons like the Miami Heat's LeBron James could star in ad campaigns that appeal to young, single males.

For more:
- read the Healthwatch articles on celeb outreach and potential sponsors
- here's the Politico article

Related Articles:
HHS begins educating public about exchanges with 100 days till enrollment
New campaign aims to educate uninsured about exchanges
Hospitals, celebs join forces to improve brand, volume
Will NBA players slam dunk messages about exchanges?


Thank You Fierce Healthcare and Ms Caramenico.