OmniSpeak

Even though the Senate voted it down, a controversial Medicare plan is still on the table, and still has the support of Sen Mitch McConnell.  House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s plan calls for transforming Medicare into a voucher-like system in which future beneficiaries — those 54 and younger — would get subsidies to buy health insurance rather than have the government directly pay their doctor and hospital bills.

But Democrats are against the plan,  who charge it would “end Medicare as we know it.” The Senate rejected it in a vote last week, but also unanimously struck down an alternative plan proposed by President Obama.

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On Saturday the US government said that U.S. weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp. was hit by an unspecified cyber incident.  The DHS said it and the Department of Defense offered help to determine the scope of a “cyber incident impacting LMCO,” according to Reuters.

It was first reported on Friday by the Wall Street Journal, that hackers infiltrated Lockheed Martin.

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During the Patriot Act fight, it has been reported that the NRA sold out the Second Amendment, criticizing Senator Rand Paul’s amendment to exempt gun purchases from search provisions of the Patriot Act in e-mails to Congress while sitting on information showing the need for Paul’s amendment. Already, the FBI and the federal government’s Joint Terrorism Task Force have already begun trolling the records of law-abiding gun owners, using the excuse of terrorism surveillance.

On May 27 the NRA published information the day after the vote, indicating that Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was right in warning that Patriot Act provisions threatened law-abiding gun owners. In fact, the NRA proved that Patriot Act surveillance of law-abiding gun owners as terrorists was already occurring.

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Pro activists were hoping that the law Indiana Gov Mitch Daniels signed stripping Planned Parenthood of federal funding would catch on. It has. Tennessee, Wisconsin, Texas, Kansas and North Carolina lawmakers have all taken up measures targeting the agency’s funding, USA Today reported Friday.

On May 10, Daniels signed into law legislation that bars Medicaid  money from going to any organization that performs abortions, including Planned Parenthood. Anti-abortion activists hailed the measure a victory Congress was unable to deliver on earlier in the year.

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Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker, has just signed into law new voting rules that include a controversial requirement to ask voters for photo ID. The new law, which Republicans have been pushing for more than a decade, has election officials gearing up for the changes.

On Wednesday, as Walker signed the bill into law,  he reminded the crowd that he had pushed for a similar bill when he was a state representative about 10 years ago.

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