Free Republic

"If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan." This was one of President Obama's key talking points when selling the Affordable Care Act, and it was never true — as many of the 14 million Americans currently covered by individually-purchased health plans are now learning. As Kaiser Health News reports, individual market insurers are sending out rafts of cancellation notices, telling subscribers they have to change to new plans starting in 2014. Here's why:

The United States Congress canceled the delivery to Turkey of 10 Predators—unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)—following Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan's disclosure of the identity of 10 Iranians who had been allegedly working for Mossad with the Iranian intelligence service, the Turkish newspaper Taraf daily reported. According to the report, the claims about Fidan can be traced back to the year after the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010 when the Turkish intelligence service suspended relations with the Mossad and shared information about the Israeli agency with Iran. …

Health plans are sending hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters to people who buy their own coverage, frustrating some consumers who want to keep what they have and forcing others to buy more costly policies. The main reason insurers offer is that the policies fall short of what the Affordable Care Act requires starting Jan. 1. An estimated 14 million people purchase their own coverage because they don’t get it through their jobs. Calls to insurers in several states showed that many have sent notices. Florida Blue, for example, is terminating about 300,000 policies, about 80 percent of its individual...

My sources tell me House Republicans have postponed tonight’s vote on their plan to end the fiscal impasse. “The votes aren’t there,” says a leadership aide. “We’ve been amending the bill all day, but we’ve been unable to get people around this strategy.” This development leaves Speaker John Boehner with few options as Thursday’s debt-ceiling deadline nears, and it throws the action back toward the Senate, which has been working on a bipartisan package.

Obama canceled plans to attend summits in Indonesia and Brunei on Thursday, the White House said in a statement... will no longer visits to Malaysia and the Philippines... //snip// http://english.cri.cn/index.htm Chinese Premier to Attend East Asia Leaders Meetings, Visit Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam

Aerosmith canceled a show in Indonesia after authorities there said they had foiled a bomb plot targeting the Myanmar Embassy. Concert promoter Ismaya Live cited safety concerns as the reason for the cancellation, but it wasn’t clear if there was a direct connection to the alleged embassy plot. The American rockers were scheduled to perform this coming Saturday for a nearly sold-out crowd of 15,000 in the capital, Jakarta, said Helmi Sugara, event organizer spokesman. …

I’d like to give a nudge today to everyone out there to do something that I did back in 2009 and have never regretted since: cancel your cable TV service and stop your newspaper delivery. If enough people did this, it would decimate the Democrats’ most powerful propaganda tools: the Comcast-owned networks of NBC and MSNBC, CNN, and the other dinosaur media outlets that comprise the Left’s Ministry of Truth (Minitrue, for short) that serves Barack Obama with cultish devotion. Since you can’t just cancel MSNBC and NBC or CNN, you’ll need to cancel your cable TV service altogether. This...

If you bid "Desperate Housewives" a fond farewell last week, did you also mourn "Unforgettable," "Harry's Law" "Terra Nova" and "Ringer"?

A year after the world’s most famous talk-show host hung up the towel on her solo act, Oprah Winfrey is finding the behind-the-scenes work is far less glamorous. Winfrey’s OWN cable network, part owned by Discovery Communications (DISCA: 48.18, -0.15, -0.31%), could lose as much as $143 million this year, on top of the $107 million of negative cash flow it booked in 2011, according to SNL Kagan. The bleak view comes despite efforts by the network to cut costs, including letting go 30 employees -- or 20% of its staff -- earlier this week and canceling Rosie O'Donnell's show...

Donald Trump has backed out of moderating a Republican debate because, he says, he’s still considering running for president as an independent candidate. In a statement on Tuesday, Trump said that GOP candidates are “very concerned” that he will announce an independent candidacy after “The Apprentice” ends, and that they won’t agree to a debate with him unless he rules that out. Which he won’t do. “It is very important to me that the right Republican candidate be chosen to defeat the failed and very destructive Obama Administration, but if that Republican, in my opinion, is not the right candidate,...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Sales of existing homes fell 3.5% in July to an eight-month low, with a high cancellation rate again taking its toll on an already troubled market, according to data released Thursday. The National Association of Realtors said sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.67 million...Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a 4.99 million annual rate. The numbers for the second straight month went against the increase in pending home sales, again showing the difference between agreed and closed transactions.

The 13-episode fifth season that was ordered last year, which includes a holiday special, is going to be the final season of Eureka. Here’s a statement from Syfy: “After painstaking consideration, we have had to make the difficult business decision to not order a season six of Eureka. But Eureka is not over yet. There is a new holiday episode this December and 12 stellar episodes set to debut next year, marking its fifth season and six memorable years on Syfy. The 2012 episodes are some of the best we’ve seen, and will bring this great series to a satisfying...

I was to have been on QVC today to introduce my book, “Prime Time,” about aging and the life cycle. The network said they got a lot of calls yesterday criticizing me for my opposition to the Vietnam War and threatening to boycott the show if I was allowed to appear. I am, to say the least, deeply disappointed that QVC caved to this kind of insane pressure by some well funded and organized political extremist groups. And that they did it without talking to me first. I have never shied away from talking about this as I have nothing...

The September 16, 2010 Accuracy in Academia author’s night has been cancelled due to complications. Allie Duzett, author of How To Save America: A Tactical Guide For Practical Patriots, will appear at the next AIA event. On October 14, 2010, AIA will host a 25th anniversary reception at Ebenezer’s on Capitol Hill which will feature: * M. Stanton Evans, author of Blacklisted By History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies; * Leslie Carbone, author of Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform; and * Cliff Kincaid , editor of the AIM report...

Two days before the resurrected Lilith tour is scheduled to begin in Calgary, Alberta, a report in The Globe and Mail newspaper of Toronto said the concert series has been canceling dates because of poor ticket sales. The Lilith tour, which spotlights female artists and whose founders include Sarah McLachlan, is preparing for its first season since 1999, with a lineup that includes Mary J. Blige, Sheryl Crow and Erykah Badu. But a manager for Norah Jones told The Globe and Mail that the dates Ms. Jones was scheduled to perform on, from Aug. 10 through Aug. 16, in cities...

Raid fall-out continues, after 'Klaxons,' 'Gorillaz' also pull out. US alternative rock bank the 'Pixies' canceled their June 9 Tel Aviv show on Sunday, producer Shuki Weiss announced. The decision followed earlier cancellations by the 'Klaxons' and 'Gorillaz' following the death of nine Turks, when the Navy boarded ships belong to the Gaza-bound flotilla on Monday. Before the raid on the ship, British rock icon Elvis Costello' canceled a show, generating a lot of publicity and anger in Israel, however the latest pull-outs were received with more resignation. The producer issued the following statement purporting to come from the band:...

Report: Fox Will Cancel “The Wanda Sykes Show“ Report: FlashForward, Romantically Challenged, Better Off Ted, Scrubs Canceled It’s Official: “Chuck” has been renewed for 13 episodes “V” Renewed by ABC Surprising Report: ‘Law & Order’ Canceled By NBC Josef Adalian, now writing for New York Magazine’s Vulture reports that NBC is likely to cancel Heroes, though perhaps wrap it up with a two hour movie:

PARIS — President Obama’s decision to skip a United States-European Union summit meeting scheduled for Madrid in May has predictably upset European officials, who suggested Tuesday that the summit meeting itself would now be postponed, possibly to the autumn. In addition to the palpable sense of insult among European officials, there is a growing concern that Europe is being taken for granted and losing importance in American eyes compared with the rise of a newly truculent China

France has asked the Paris Club of creditor nations to speed up the process of canceling Haiti's debt. France's Economy Minister Christine Lagarde says she has contacted other members of the Paris Club to accelerate the cancellation of Haiti's debt of nearly $78 million. Haiti did owe $84 million. But Lagarde says about $6 million has been canceled since Tuesday's devastating earthquake. France chairs the Paris Club, which in July agreed to cancel most of the debt owed by Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. In addition to France, the Paris Club includes the United States, Britain, Japan, Russia, Germany...

By now everyone reading the Main Stream Media (MSM) knows how biased the reporting was during the election campaign. This bias extended far beyond the editorial page and has been confirmed through independent studies of the press. The reporting has an almost in-your-face attitude, as though we readers have no options and the press can report whatever they want. The St. Louis Post Dispatch, my daily paper, does not even bother to present facts fairly; they simply choose to show those things favorable to Obama with no analysis of the facts. The press captured this election for Obama, and now...