It's The Masters at Augusta, Golf's Hallowed Ground

Phil Mickelson is always a force at The Masters. And this year, with Tiger Woods out for the first time in 20 years because of back surgery, Mickelson will be the golfer the crowds follow. Phil has won three green jackets between 2004 and 2010. He’s vying for his fourth this weekend and is one of the favorites to accomplish that feat. According to the bookmakers, Mickelson is just behind co-favorites Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy (9-1) with odds of 12-1 to claim a championship on Sunday. The fan favorite spoke with reporters on Wednesday about his strategy to win in Georgia, revealing that he removed a sand wedge and a gap wedge from his bag, according to CBSSports.coms’ Kyle Porter. Mickelson said he's always nervous before he starts because The Masters is the most important tournament of the year for him. But Phil was at +3 on Hole No. 10 in Amen Corner. Leader Bill Haas is in the clubhouse at -3. But Mickelson just made a long putt on 10 for a bird to go to +2. Perennial crowd favorite Fred Couples shot a -1 today, as did Fowler and McElroy. ~~~~~ The Masters has an aura in the world of golf...and sports....that few other events can match. Maybe hockey's Stanley Cup, the British Open and the America's Cup of yachting. Even if you don't follow golf, watch a little of The Masters this weekend. Enjoy the most beautiful golf course in the world. And see pro athletes as respectful as only the hallowed ground of Augusta can make them. Breathe in the hovering presence of Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan and Sam Snead and Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus. And Arnie Palmer, whose charisma still lights up the game of golf as no other player ever has, and probably as no player ever will again.

Harry Reid May Become a Retired Senior Citizen Sooner than He Expected

Senate Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid - we all know Harry Reid and his comments. He's the fellow who said in February that "all horror stories" about Obamacare are untrue. So it shouldn't be too surprising to learn that Harry is in "word trouble," but this time it's what he or his campaign committee signed, not what he said. Harry Reid has got himself into a world of political trouble, facing public scrutiny back home in Nevada over his potential enriching of family members through his powerful position as a Democratic leader. The Nevada Senator has recently become enmeshed in an embarrassing controversy surrounding the $31,268 that his campaign paid to his granddaughter Ryan Elisabeth Reid for the purchase of gift items from her jewelry line, a story that has been pursued by Nevada media for several months. But, the Los Angeles Times reported ten years ago about Reid's pulling strings to help family members when a Nevada land bill proposed by Reid appeared to benefit his son-in-law Steve Barringer's consulting firm and his sons' legal firm. The Howard Hughes Corp. paid $300,000 to the Washington firm Steve Barringer worked for to push a provision allowing the company to buy 1,000 acres of federal land for development in the then-burgeoning Las Vegas area, according to the LA Times. The bill also aided a real-estate development headed by a senior partner in the Nevada law firm that then employed all four of Reid's sons - Rory, Leif, Josh, and Key - by moving the right-of-way for a federal power transmission line off his property and onto what had been protected federal wilderness. In its report, the LA Times said, "So pervasive are the ties among Reid, members of his family, and Nevada's leading industries and institutions that it's difficult to find a significant field in which such a relationship does not exist." Reid's reputation for promoting his family's power, status, and wealth was further enhanced when it was revealed that he had lobbied a Nevada mayor and a councilwoman to support his son Josh Reid's application to become the city's attorney. Although young Reid got the job in 2011, the officials said that Harry's phone calls did not influence them. Reid has also faced allegations that in 2012 he helped his son Rory's legal firm receive legal fees from a Chinese company building a solar plant in Nevada, according to Bloomberg. The company's billionaire founder, Wang Yusuo, joined with Reid to win incentives, including paying just $4.5 million for land to build the plant, which was one-eighth of what it was assessed for. The project produced legal work for Rory's firm, which contributed $40,000 to Reid during the past three cycles, says the Bloomberg report. Earlier this year, Reid's penchant for helping his family made him the target of an ethics and conflict-of-interest complaint after he helped to fast-track US visa applications for Chinese investors in the new Las Vegas casino SLS, represented by his son Rory, Ryan Elisabeth's father. Until the recent controversy, Politico writer Jon Ralston said in a report titled "Harry Reid's Kryptonite," referring to his family, that the senator was Mr. Teflon : "Even when Reid gets caught pulling strings for his family, nothing seems to stick," Ralston wrote. But the scandal surrounding his campaign payments to his granddaughter has brought intense scrutiny, with Jahan Wilcox, a Republican National Committee spokesman, calling it a "personal slush fund." The latest family problems for Reid began when it was revealed that his campaign had paid a total of $16,787 in 2013 to Ryan Elisabeth for "holiday gifts" for the senator's staff, consisting of jewelry items created by his 23-year-old granddaughter. The nepotism issue escalated when it was learned that Reid's campaign had paid another $14,481 to Ryan in 2012, bringing the total in payments over two years to $31,268. Although his payments appeared to enrich a family member, Reid defended the payments by stating that he had complied with Federal Election Commission standards that allow the purchase of goods from relatives if those goods are sold at fair market value. The Democratic leader explained, "I thought it would be nice to give supporters and staff thank you gifts that had a personal connection. But I have decided to reimburse the campaign for the amount of the expenditure." But to Ralston, who worked the political beat for two Las Vegas newspapers before joining Politico, the appearance of impropriety is still an issue. "I gave the money back so I don't look guilty of something," said Ralston in Politico, quoting what he thought Reid was really saying. Politico also pointed out that although the law allows for "nominal gifts," there needs to be a great deal of such gifts to reach $31,268. One report even calculated that with a piece of jewelry from Ryan Elisabeth's line costing $70 on average, it would be the equivalent of buying 450 "nominal gifts" over two years. Ralston said that when he appeared last month on Fox News, host Sean Hannity introduced him by saying, "Tonight we have an in-depth investigation into a scandal that is just beginning to break, and it's one that could mean the end of Harry Reid's political career." ~~~~~ Dear readers, it requires a very active conscience and an iron determination not to succumb to every politician's disease -- they soon come to believe that they are above the law so that whatever they do is in the public interest, because they know what the public's real interest is better than the public does. And if a politician is elected often enough and becomes powerful enough, they forget that they are not the people's servants but rather a breed somehow above the mere mortals who elected them. Why else would the Senate Majority Leader compromise his future and his honor? However, we have had glimpses of Harry Reid's self-righteousness before the jewelry scandal. Reid defended the indefensible Obamacare website by blaming senior citizens for being computer illiterates : “Okay, if you're over age 50, the internet issomething you're just learning about.” (Harry Reid, October 24, 2013). Not knowing when to shut up, Reid added : “If you want to go to the internet, it has not done well, just like when Google started doing all their things, it didn't work out well.” (Harry Reid, October 24, 2013). And just to prove he was right about the Obamacare website being A-OK and senior Americans being out of touch, recently, on March 26, Harry Reid said : “There are some people who are not like my grandchildren, who can handle everything so easily on the Internet, and these people need a little extra time. The example they [Republican Senators] gave us is a 63-year-old woman came into the store and said, 'I almost got it. Every time I just about got there, it would cut me off.' We have a lot of people just like this through no fault of the Internet, but people are not educated on how to use the Internet.” (Harry Reid, March 26, 2014). Now, there, Harry Reid was on to something -- not only do his children and grandchildren know how to use the internet, they seem to know how to tap Harry for money and favors whenever they want to. My advice to Harry Reid would be to stop attacking senior citizens and start preparing for his return to civilian, i.e., non-political, life. Because it may be that Harry will join the ranks of American senior citizens sooner than he anticipated.

Ukraine and the Thin Varnish of Civilization

Ukraine's government is struggling to control its eastern regions as pro-Russian "separatists" try to hold on to positions seized in three cities. The Ukraine government recaptured its regional headquarters and detained dozens of pro-Russian protesters in Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city. In Donetsk, 250 km (155 miles) further south, protesters dug in for a third day at the 11-story regional administration headquarters they captured on Sunday and then began to declare their own parallel government. Nothing on Tuesday suggested that government forces had an immediate plan to retake the regional administration building. Donetsk has been the scene of weekly marches on government offices, but on Sunday masked men carrying batons burst through police lines to take over the building. Today, lines of car tires wrapped in razor wire were erected to deter any attempt by police to storm the building, a tactic copied from the anti-government protests in the capital, Kiev, which led to pro-Russian President Yanukovych's overthrow. And, as in Kiev, food stations have been set up inside the Donetsk building, supplied by volunteers and residents. No clear leader or agenda has emerged from Donetsk activists, but they are demanding a referendum to be held no later than May 11, on declaring Donetsk a free, independent area. While none of them have said they necessarily want the region to join Russia, they have also declined to rule out the option. Despite claims by the separatists groups to represent all of Donetsk, a region of more than 4 million people, weekend rallies outside the regional building drew crowds only in the low thousands. In addition, Kiev says unknown "separatists" with weapons and explosives are keeping 60 people hostage and threatening them inside a security service branch in the city of Luhansk. In a statement today, the Ukrainian Security Service said it is not clear who the hostages are or if they are security service employees. The building was seized Sunday by armed pro-Russian protesters. Reuters reported that the protesters occupying the building denied that they had wired the building with explosives and were holding people against their will. "There are no explosives, no hostages. We do not need hostages to get what we want," said Anton one of the protesters who described himself as a coordinator of the action, according to Reuters. ~~~~~ Although Ukraine authorities have had some success in controlling the unrest that swept across eastern provinces Sunday, discontent may threaten Kiev's plans to hold a presidential election on May 25. US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday threatened Russia with tougher economic sanctions if it fails to back down from its involvement in Ukraine. "What we see from Russia is an illegal and illegitimate effort to destabilize a sovereign state and create a contrived crisis with paid operatives across an international boundary," Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry called the demonstrations in eastern Ukraine a "contrived pretext for military intervention just as we saw in Crimea." The Ukrainian parliament has voted to toughen the punishment for undermining Ukraine's national security, imposing jail terms of up to 5 years for separatism. Clearly, the seizures of buildings and calls for local votes on secession are an echo of the events that led to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula last month. After Yanukovych fled to Moscow, Russian troops took control of Crimea and the region voted to join Russia in a hastily called referendum. The White House announced today a high-level meeting among US, EU, Ukrainian and Russian diplomats to be held in the coming days to try to solve the crisis. In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today that the date and format of the four-way talks haven't yet been agreed. He suggested that Ukraine's presidential candidates could be invited to join the negotiations. The Kiev Post reported today that Russia also warned Ukraine to stop its military preparations in eastern Ukraine or risk civil war, quoting Russian state-owned ITAR-TASS news agency. The Kiev Post also said that Ukraine has been trying to shore up its defenses in case of a Russian attack. In other action, NATO warned Russia not to encroach further into the region, saying it would represent a "serious escalation" of the crisis : "We call on Russia to pull back the tens of thousands of troops it has massed on Ukraine's borders, engage in a genuine dialogue, and live up to its international commitments." Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov appeared to answer the US and NATO by meeting today in Moscow with Angola's foreign minister, thanking Angola for "understanding Russia's stance" in Ukraine." One is tempted to say "Birds of a feather flock together." ~~~~~ It seems useless to say yet again that the Ukraine crisis is extremely dangerous. But, a dear friend recently wrote to me about Vladimir Putin : "It must be considered that Putin is a student of Stalin and Khrushchev. He was, is, and always will be the poster child for the inhumanities that the KGB is well know for. To have women and children be a shield against advancing  forces or as a protector of his own advancing forces would not bother him at all. He is ruthless to the core. So if I were he, what would I do - exactly what he is prepared to do - win a war if that is what it comes to. Putin I think only fears personal defeat. He played the US and some of the EU in Syria and won the confrontation. He has measured the will of Obama and finds there is none there, and little in the EU except for the strength of Chancellor Merkel. I really believe that he is fully ready to risk it all to have his Motherland back in total under his control. And isn't it ironic that what stands in his way of a re-unified Russia is Merkel's strength. I'm concerned with what happens....after the US and EU decide on their next move(s). He holds the instant power via the oil and natural gas that goes to Europe....Reagan told us to beware, that Russia was not to be taken lightly or ignored. And that is what has exactly happened - 'out of sight, out of mind.'" ~~~~~ Dear readers, perhaps the enormity of the possible outcomes in Ukraine is a reminder, as Will Rogers so succinctly put it, that "We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others." The trouble with this is that what is happening now in Ukraine is being caused by one player, Russian President Putin, who gives no indication that he cares about civilization, at least not in the Greco-Roman sense. Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Allbright once said that in the long term democracy is the most stable form of government, but in the short term it is very fragile. If the West has been called upon to defend democracy-based civilization by forcing Putin to stop his aggression on Ukraine and then eastern Europe, then the West's leaders must accept that the defense may require much more than they had thought necessary. Sanctions thus far have done nothing to stop Putin. What should follow the sanctions? Troop movements. Military support for Ukraine's army. A naval blockade of the Black Sea. One's instinctive reaction is to say - 'Stop. No war over Ukraine.' But, as Reinhold Neibuhr said : "There are historic situations in which refusal to defend the inheritance of a civilization however imperfect, against tyranny and aggression may result in consequences even worse than war." The consequence here is a Putin-led Russian creeping takeover of eastern Europe - until western civilization is looking across a new "wall" at the non-democratic soviet-socialist hegemony reconstructed by an unopposed Vladimir Putin. Ironically, American comedian Carrie Snow reminds us how easy it is to lose civilization and fall into a dark age of brutality led by inhuman tyrants : "Civilization is hideously fragile and there's not much between us and the horrors underneath, just about a coat of varnish."

Obamacare's a Bad Joke for American Taxpayers

Gallup Poll analysts are using its latest survey results to figure out just what Obamacare has produced in enrollments. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index measured the share of adults without health insurance, which shrank from 17.1% at the end of last year to 15.6% for the first three months of 2014. Gallup equates this to 3.5 million new insured Americans under Obamacare. But, the administration says 7.1 million have signed up for subsidized private plans through new insurance markets, while 3 million previously uninsured people gained coverage through the law's Medicaid expansion. Why the big difference? The administration's numbers include people who switched or were dropped from their previous coverage, as well as people who have not paid their first month's premium, and who would therefore still be uninsured. The administration is also counting sign-ups dating back to October, although enrollment in the first few months was relatively low and would not really affect the Gallup conclusion. So, it is probably safe to say that the Obama administation numbers are artificially inflated, perhaps by as much as 200%. ~~~~~ At the same time, Congress is having to deal with another Obama decision about Obamacare. Several Democrats - including some lawmakers whose re-election bids are vulnerable in this year's midterm races because of their vote for and support of Obamacare - are joining Republicans in calling for the Obama administration to stop proposed cuts to the Medicare Advantage program. Administration officials plan to announce the 2015 rates for the program, perhaps today, and this could be a sensitive issue because both parties are seeking the votes of senior citizens who tend to turn out in high numbers in midterm elections. Republicans say Medicare Advantage is a valid private alternative to Medicare because it allows seniors to enroll in plans offered by private insurers, who are then directly paid by the government. Until now, Democrats have complained that the plan receives a disportionate amount of money compared to the Medicare program. But, more important to President Obama is the fact that Obamacare is being partially financed by $200 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage over 10 years. Democrat opponents include Senators Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, considered two of the Democratic Party's most vulnerable senators seeking re-election. But some powerful Democrats are also speaking out, including Senators Charles Schumer and Michael Bennett. Earlier this year, 19 Democrats joined with 21 Republicans to sign a letter urging the Medicare Administrator to protect Medicare Advantage, passed under President George W. Bush to give seniors more healthcare plan options from private insurers. Twenty-eight percent of seniors now participate in the plan, but insurers say they will be forced to pass on higher costs to seniors or cut benefits if their rates are reduced, and some plans may drop out altogether. The impact could vary significantly around the country. The industry says the cuts come as Medicare Advantage reductions programmed under Obamacare are ramping up, with the goal of compensating for prior years in which the plans were overpaid. But it also includes a new tax on insurers, so industry officials fear the combined impact will be much higher. The Medicare Advantage issue is already coming up in early primaries, with Republicans who vowed to make Obamacare the key issue this election cycle tying Democrats to the proposed Medicare Advantage cuts. The tactic has already worked in a Florida special election, defeating the Democrat and keeping a Republican in the congressional seat after the incumbent's death. Louisiana Senator Landrieu opposes the cuts, but her GOP opponent has attacked her over them, saying that her vote helped get Obamacare approved and bring about the cuts that she now opposes. The insurance industry is also fighting the White House's proposed cuts, with insurers rolling out a public relations campaign with the message that "seniors are watching" Washington. But the Obama administration says the cuts will pay back "overpayments" to the program, which has resulted in Medicare Advantage receiving more benefits than Medicare. Meanwhile, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services say that the cuts will strengthen the program by rooting out waste, and enrollment in Medicare Advantage will remain stable, even with the cuts. However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that Obamacare would reduce Medicare Advantage payments by $156 billion over a decade. In February, the Department of Health and Human Services announced tentative cuts that most analysts calculated to be around 5%, which would reduce payments to insurers by $7 billion next year alone. According to Ana Gupte, an industry analyst : “It’s a big deal. It’s huge,...2015 earnings are very, very dependent on what the rates look like.” Last year, similar pressure on Medicare Advantage payments caused “reductions in benefits, increases in out-of-pocket costs and changes in provider networks,” according to healthcare industry experts. ~~~~~ But, dear readers, rather than abandoning the program, in 2013 more seniors signed up for Medicare Advantage, whose membership grew by 9%. So, putting aside the bungled job the Obama administration has done in launching Obamacare, despite its refusal to give real enrollment numbers, despite its attempt to destroy the greatly preferred choice-based American healthcare system, 28% of senior Americans are still trying to connect to the private healthcare system through Medicare Advantage - while Obama and company are trying to force the preferred private program out of business by reducing payments to it and taxing it to fund the unpopular public Obamacare program. The Congressional Budget Office originally estimated that Obamacare would cost $1 trillion. That estimate is now at $1.072 trillion for the first 10 years and an additional $2.85 trillion for the next 10 years. These costs will be added to the national debt, unless Obamacare pays for itself, something no expert believes will happen. If we take the Obama figure of 10 million enrollees, Obamacare will cost taxpayers about $100,000 for each initial enrollee for the first 10 years and $306,000 over the entire first 20 years. But, if we take the Gallup enrollee figure of 3.5 million enrollees, Obamacare will cost taxpayers about $400,000 for each initial enrollee for the first 10 years and $1,100,000 over the entire first 20 years. That ought to make Americans feel a whole lot better about President Obama's Obamacare as they prepare to pay their annual federal tax bills.