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Sen. Paul—Barack Obama Wrote Regulation To Cancel Your Insurance, And Every Democrat Voted For It

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rand-paulSenator Rand Paul spoke at a luncheon in Charleston, South Carolina on Monday, Veterans’ Day, and pointed out that President Barack Obama himself wrote the regulation to cancel the health insurance of millions of Americans, and every member of his party voted for it.

“I’m still learning about it. It’s 20,000 pages of regulations. The Bill was 2,000 pages and I didn’t realize this until this week, the whole idea of you losing or getting your insurance cancelled wasn’t in the original Obamacare. It was a regulation WRITTEN BY PRESIDENT OBAMA, three months later. So we had a vote, this is before I got up there. The Republicans had a vote to try to cancel that regulation so you COULDN’T BE CANCELLED, to grandfather everybody in. You know what the vote was? Straight party line. EVERY DEMOCRAT VOTED TO KEEP THE RULE THAT CANCELS YOUR INSURANCE.”

PUBLIUS

The Truth About Obamacare Navigators

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Navigators Help Floridians Sign Up For New Health Care MarketplaceJames O’Keefe reveals corruption at the heart of the president’s signature program.

James O’Keefe, the guerrilla videographer who helped bring down ACORN (the “community organizing” group that Barack Obama worked for as a lawyer and trainer) and got NPR’s president fired, is back.

This time, his undercover investigators focused on Obamacare’s “navigators,” the nearly 50,000 people who, in the words of the Department of Health and Human Services, “will serve as an in-person resource for Americans who want additional assistance in shopping for and enrolling in plans” on the Obamacare exchanges (at least when they’re finally working). The total value of grants doled out for nonprofits and community organizations to hire navigators has topped $67 million nationwide, and some of the money is going to a group run by ACORN’s highly controversial founder.

The events of O’Keefe’s video of a Texas navigator site run by the National Urban League are a familiar sight to viewers of his past efforts exposing Medicaid and voter fraud. Government-paid workers supposedly trained to uphold the law advise clients on how to lie on government forms, evade legal requirements, and ignore proper procedures.

“You lie because your premiums will be higher,” one navigator advises an investigator for O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, who tells the worker he sometimes smokes. “Don’t tell them that. Don’t tell ’em.”

The investigator then poses as a low-income worker at a university who has unreported cash income on the side, worrying about how that might affect his premium subsidies. That’s no problem for a navigator, who says, “Don’t get yourself in trouble by declaring it now.”

“Yeah, it didn’t happen,” another navigator says. One more chimes in: “Never report it.”

Records show that the National Urban League was paid $376,000 by the federal government for its Obamacare outreach in Texas.

O’Keefe’s cameras then visit Enroll America, a nationwide nonprofit group that has launched a multi-state grassroots campaign to help millions of Americans sign up for health coverage. Daniel Clayton of Enroll America says the group is “purely nonprofit. It’s not partisan, non-political.” But when Brian Pendleton of Enroll America is introduced at a speaking engagement, Enroll America is described as “the official group for the DNC [Democratic National Committee].”

Enroll America, O’Keefe reports, appears to be sharing data and working directly with an explicitly political group called Battleground Texas, activities that he notes “are prohibited unless certain conditions are met.” Adrian Bell, the regional field director for Battleground Texas, proudly notes the group was “started by President Obama’s national field director” and is “dedicated to turning Texas blue.”

Lee Harvey Oswald and the John F. Kennedy Assassination

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lee-harvey-oswald-2Within hours of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, most Americans were familiar with the name Lee Harvey Oswald. Certain images of him — posing with a rifle, recoiling from Jack Ruby’s gun — have been ingrained in the nation’s memory. Yet to this day, he remains an enigma. Some of the questions and answers about him:

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Q: Did Oswald kill Kennedy? Did he act alone?

A: The Warren Commission, established by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the assassination, concluded in 1964 that Oswald acted alone, firing three shots from a window in his Dallas workplace, the Texas School Book Depository. Many Americans have questioned this conclusion. In 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations ended its own inquiry by finding that Kennedy “was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.”

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Q: What was Oswald’s childhood like?

A: Unstable. By the time he turned 17 and joined the Marines, he’d lived at more than 20 different addresses and attended a dozen schools. He was born in New Orleans on Oct. 18, 1939, two months after his father died of a heart attack, spent time in an orphanage as a 3-year-old, and moved with his family to Dallas in 1944. He and his mother moved in 1952 to New York City, where he had run-ins with truant officers and underwent psychiatric observation. Two years later, they moved back to New Orleans.

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Lee-Oswald-MarineQ: How did he fare in the Marines?

A: Erratically. In early phases of his service at U.S. bases, he got good performance evaluations and qualified as a sharpshooter after marksmanship training. But he was court-martialed twice while stationed in Japan, first after wounding himself with an unauthorized pistol and later after a bar fight. He tried to teach himself Russian, and — at the height of the Cold War — would occasionally speak favorably of Marxism and the Soviet Union.

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Q: Did he try to defect to Russia?

A: Yes. He obtained an early discharge from the Marines, and in 1959 he traveled to Finland and boarded a train to Moscow. Soon after arrival, he told his guide he wanted to defect. Russian authorities initially rebuffed him (he slit his wrist in response) but eventually allowed him to stay and sent him to the city of Minsk to work at an electronics factory. In March 1961, Oswald met Marina Prusakova, a 19-year-old pharmacology student. They married within six weeks and had a child in February 1962. That May, after expressing weariness with life in Russia, Oswald and his wife applied at the American Embassy in Moscow for documents enabling her to immigrate to the U.S. They settled in Dallas that fall.

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Q: Wasn’t Oswald linked to another assassination plot?

A: On April 10, 1963, a gunman fired a rifle through a window of the Dallas home of Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker, a fervent anti-communist and segregationist who resigned from the Army after being reprimanded for giving troops right-wing propaganda. Walker, working at a desk in his home, was slightly injured by fragments. The Warren Commission later concluded Oswald was the gunman.

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Q: What’s the Cuban connection in Oswald’s life?

A: In late April 1963, just days after the attack on Walker, Oswald went to New Orleans and spent the summer there. He printed and distributed leaflets in support of Cuba’s Communist leader, Fidel Castro, and got into a street fight with anti-Castro demonstrators. Yet the leaflets bore an address of a local anti-Castro operation connected to a former FBI agent. That September, Oswald took a bus to Mexico City and visited the Cuban and Soviet embassies in an unsuccessful effort to get clearance to travel to Russia via Cuba.

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Q: How was Oswald arrested on Nov. 22?

A: The Warren Commission said Oswald left the book depository moments after shots were fired from the sixth floor, returned by bus and cab to his rooming house, then ventured out again — soon encountering a Dallas police officer who stopped him based on descriptions of the assassination suspect. According to the commission, Oswald fatally shot Patrolman J.D. Tippit with a handgun, then fled into a nearby movie theater, where he was soon arrested.

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Q: What was playing that day at the Texas Theatre?

A: A double bill of “War is Hell” and “Cry of Battle.”

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jack_rubyQ: Who was Jack Ruby?

A: Ruby was a Dallas nightclub owner well acquainted with many police officers. As Oswald was being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail on Nov. 24, Ruby shot him in the chest from close range. Oswald was rushed unconscious to Parkland Memorial Hospital — where doctors had tried to save Kennedy’s life two days earlier — and died there at 1:07 p.m. Ruby was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He appealed and was granted a new trial, but died of lung cancer before a trial date was set. Ruby said he was angered by Kennedy’s assassination and wanted to spare Jacqueline Kennedy the ordeal of a trial for Oswald. Skeptics, noting that Ruby had some connections with underworld figures, have suggested his shooting of Oswald was part of a broader conspiracy.

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Q: Did the Warren Commission specify a motive for Oswald killing Kennedy?

A: No. Oswald “was moved by an overriding hostility to his environment,” the report said. “He does not appear to have been able to establish meaningful relationships with other people. He was perpetually discontented with the world around him. Long before the assassination he expressed his hatred for American society and acted in protest against it.”

By ASSOCIATED PRESS | 11/11/13

Evidence of Widespread Voter Fraud Found in Virginia Governor’s Race

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mcauliffeRichmond, VA–Merely hours after the close of a bitter and divisive Governor’s race in Virginia that saw Democrat Terry McAuliffe pull out a win over Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, irregularities in voting data have emerged.  According to mainstream media outlets McAuliffe supposedly defeated Cuccinelli in a razor-thin 47-46 percent victory to become the next Governor of the great state of Virginia.

Immediately following the announcement, Cuccinelli’s office opened a full investigation into the legitimacy of the vote and quickly turned up surprising results.  In 13 districts, multiple instances of intimidation at the polls were reported.  Large black men wearing traditional Black Panther garb were reported lingering around polling places approaching older voters asking questions about who they intended on voting for.  In Loudoun and Fairfax counties (traditional Democratic strongholds), election officials withheld submitting voter data in order to get an idea of whether to count absentee ballots or not.  In an audit of the voter registration information, it quickly became apparent that MULTIPLE votes were cast by people who were either deceased or had long ago moved out of the district.

According to exit polling Cuccinelli won the race by big margins reaching a high percent of the key voting blocks of women, Latinos and Blacks.

Cuccinelli was a target of large amounts of out of state financing as the Democrats set out to make the race be a referendum against the Tea Party movement.  McAuliffe got a late boost from Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as Joe Biden, who campaigned hard for the Democrat.

Even in defeat Cuccinelli reminded voters that the election was in fact a referendum against President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.  “Despite being outspent by an unprecedented $15 million,” he said, ”this race came down to the wire because of Obamacare. That message will go out across America tonight.”

Sources within Cuccinelli’s office have warned that “this is not over” and that Ken will be challenging the results of the election in court.

No such irregularities have been discovered in New Jersey where Republican candidate Chris Christie was re-elected in a landslide victory.

By Chase Logan

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Common Core Lessons Sneak Leftist Politics into Classrooms

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Economist Says True US Debt $70 Trillion

Lincoln Was A Democrat?–Dems Try To Rewrite History

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abraham_lincolnThere is a plaque on the Jacob Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies of Northwestern Illinois University that reads: “This building is dedicated to public service honoring the memory of Abraham Lincoln Democrat.”

Indeed, the left-leaning media and the educational system in this country have fed the American public a steady diet of misinformation designed to rewrite its history.  To set the record straight, let us review the true history of the Democratic party, the Republican party, and their role in civil rights in America.

Under the British system, a system where the king could do no wrong, and all subjects were essentially his private property, indentured servitude and slavery were common. It is how many young people escaped the class poverty of Europe, by indenturing themselves until the age of 18, or later, then receiving their freedom. Others were indentured to repay family debt. Many of these became successful free citizens under the system, while many never escaped the bonds of servitude. Europeans had developed quite a system of slave trading before the foundations of America, and under the British Empire slaves were tasked with working the vast agricultural holdings of the colonies, including those in the New World.

Most of the founders were very hostile to the system of servitude, and although they existed within it, they sought to extinguish it. When the founders declared our liberty from Great Britain, they did so with the intent of retaining the new nation’s faith and credit. Huge holdings were offered as guarantee of repayment of war loans, including vast agricultural empires, which included the slaves that worked them. The slavery question was hotly debated in the forming nation, and it is the one failing of the founders that they were unable to win the day against slavery—due mainly to the collateralization of debt issue—but could only “kick the can down the road,” as our current government does daily.

lincoln_democrat_plaque

Plaque on the exterior of The Jacob Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies of Northwestern Illinois University that reads: “This building is dedicated to public service honoring the memory of Abraham Lincoln Democrat”

The intent of the founders was to phase out slavery, but agricultural interests in the southern states resisted all attempts. Finally, the Republican Party was formed and at the peril of national civil war, its candidate, Abraham Lincoln, ran on the platform that slavery must finally be abolished. Over a half million Americans lost their lives in the ensuing conflict, but the issue was officially, if not finally settled. In fact, hundreds of Republican whites and blacks were murdered in the South even after the Civil War, during “Reconstruction.”

Republicans in the 1950s and 1960s attempted to enforce voting and civil rights to the descendants of African slaves emancipated during the Civil War, but they were blocked by the Democrats and Southern state “Dixiecrats,” who blocked passage while they blocked black students from entering Southern universities. Who were these Democrats who filibustered and voted against civil rights and voting rights for blacks? John F. Kennedy, Al Gore, Sr., Lyndon B. Johnson, George Wallace, and Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, otherwise known as the Kleagle and Exalted Cyclops in the Ku Klux Klan, to name a few.

It was when “progressives” adopted the charlatan policy that they “adopted” African Americans and other “minorities” as their charges. In the name of the oppressed, the disenfranchised and the downtrodden, most of whom were that way because of the old prejudices of the Southern Democrats or have become that way through the taxation and confiscatory policies of the expanded left leaning US government, “progressives” have created a fatherless and helpless nation of minorities in America. Once all left leaning politicians received the Memo that all things were possible in the name of the downtrodden, those very politicians who had so vehemently opposed voting and civil rights for American minorities suddenly became their “champions.”

The Republican voting and civil rights bills were immediately redubbed Democratic legislation, and were passed, with several new powers being given to the federal government in the deal.  The “Great Society” was born and American blacks instantly went from struggling to get into the middle class to dropping directly into the abyss.  American minorities are well on their way to becoming completely dependent on government handouts, and feel beholden to politicians who keep them on the public dole.

Does every American liberal or moderate set out with these leftist results as their goal? No. They are fooled by their leadership, who have their own secret agenda, as recently lamented by Bob Beckel, Liberal Commentator:

“We liberals made a terrible mistake, going back 30 years ago.  We made a dependent society because we thought we were doing the right thing.  We had things like public housing, and we had welfare payments, and all that bred dependence.”

African-Americans would do well to return their support to those who have their collective well-being and personal liberty at heart.

Publius

Common Core Lessons Sneak Leftist Politics into Classrooms

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Common_CoreIt’s exactly what critics of the Common Core school curriculum warned about: Partisan political statements masquerading as English lessons finding their way into elementary school classrooms.

Teaching materials aligned with the controversial national educational standards ask fifth-graders to edit such sentences as “(The president) makes sure the laws of the country are fair,” “The wants of an individual are less important than the well-being of the nation” and “the commands of government officials must be obeyed by all.” The sentences, which appear in worksheets published by New Jersey-based Pearson Education, are presented not only for their substance, but also to teach children how to streamline bulky writing.

“We are doing a terrible disservice to this generation and the next if we only present them with one side of the argument and bombard them with ideas contrary to the American ideal.” – Glyn Wright, Eagle Forum

“Parents should insist on reviewing their children’s school assignments,” said Glyn Wright, executive director of the Eagle Forum, a think tank that opposes implementation of Common Core. “Many parents will be shocked to find that some ‘Common Core-approved’ curriculum is full of inappropriate left-wing notions, disinformation, and fails to teach the truth of American exceptionalism and opportunity.”

The politically charged lesson appears in a worksheet titled “Hold the Flag High,” in which students are taught about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. The assignment asks students to make examples of sentences; “less wordy by replacing the underlined words with a possessive noun phrase.” They are then presented with a half-dozen sentences describing the job duties of a U.S. president.

CC_worksheet2

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL WORKSHEET

But if the lessons are meant as a primer on the Constitution, there’s another problem, note critics. The job of making sure laws are fair is not the president’s, but the judicial branch’s. The executive branch’s duty is to administer laws. And the example that places the well-being of the nation above the “wants of an individual” appears to run counter to the basic principles of the Bill of Rights.

“We are doing a terrible disservice to this generation and the next if we only present them with one side of the argument and bombard them with ideas contrary to the American ideal,” Wright said. “In doing so, we allow our children to be indoctrinated instead of educated.”

A Pearson spokesperson told FoxNews.com the “Hold the Flag High” worksheet will undergo some editing of its own, based on issues raised by critics, including Education Action Group Foundation.

“These particular questions appear in a fifth-grade unit of Pearson’s Reading Street, an English Language Arts program,” the Pearson official said. “They accompany a selection about soldiers during the Civil War, and they attempt to make a connection between that passage and language skills. As with all our curricular materials, they underwent a thorough development and review process. Still, we are always open to improving our work … Based on this feedback, we will be modifying the worksheet to clarify these questions.”

The Common Core State Standards Initiative was devised by an association of the nation’s governors and backed by the Obama administration in 2009 with the goal of setting a uniform standard for grades K-12 nationwide. Some 45 states, in many cases enticed by federal grants, have signed on and testing of students in grades 3-8 and once in high school is scheduled to begin next year.

Critics of the initiative say that school districts will devise curriculums to maximize their students’ performance on the national exams; some in fact, have already done so. The same critics also claim that Common Core math standards barely cover basic geometry or second-year algebra and that the classics are all but ignored in English classes.

While Common Core has plenty of defenders — and may prove beneficial — critics maintain that it is not the federal government’s job to impose educational standards.

Obama Misses His ‘Period’

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obama_health_care_promises“If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your healthcare plan, you’ll be able to keep your healthcare plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” – President Obama in address to the American Medical Association, 2009.

Was this an isolated occasion when the president misspoke about the stability of the sweeping health care reform that he and the left fought so hard to implement, and the GOP fought so hard to deflect? In fact, the national press corp has a montage of at least 29 statements by the president that emphasize the president’s personal “guarantee” that those who wish to keep their current doctor or health care plan will be able to keep them.  Period.  The promise–personal guarantee–formed the very basis of selling Obamacare to the American people.  To see a timeline with video clips of Obama’s promises see The Washington Post Timeline article>

Now that millions of Americans have been informed that they will not be able to keep their doctor or health care plan due to the mandates hidden in Obamacare, the president has done what all liars do–he has begun to spin a new lie about what he actually said before.  ‘It depends on what the meaning of is, is.’

“If you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you could keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law’s passed,” Obama clarified to a group of community organizers last evening. “So we wrote into the Affordable Care Act you are grandfathered in on that plan. But if the insurance company changes it, then what we’re saying is they have got to change it to a higher standard. They’ve got to make it better.”

Of course, what the president failed to say was that Obamacare itself forces insurance companies to ‘change’ your plan, and any change whatsoever can trigger the need to cancel your coverage, under Obamacare.  Obama said his health care law is making the insurance market better for everyone, even though millions of Americans who buy individual plans have been receiving cancellation notices, and when they go to the signup website, they find that their premiums have skyrocketed.  Obama admitted that the notices “can be scary for people,” but added they were often getting “a very bad deal” already–in his humble, non-dictatorial opinion.

The “period” that ended the discussion about what Obamacare portended when Obama and the left were selling the sweeping takeover the America’s health care system has now been replaced with caveats, conditions and superseding circumstances–and millions are losing their beloved health care coverage, and are being forced to buy more expensive coverage they can’t aafford.

This, fellow Americans, is exactly what the great debate about Obamacare was all about.  Conservatives lifted the warning voice, while the left and their media spokesmen shouted them down, screaming at the top of their lungs that conservatives were crying wolf.  Now, many of those same media outlets are quietly seeking Freedom of Information Act access to administration documents, asking questions about who knew what and when?  Finally, a few left-leaning journalists have decided to act like journalists–long after the damage is done, and after reparations can be effected.

“The bottom line is — is that we are making the insurance market better for everybody and that’s right thing to do.”  Barack Husein Obama.

We disagree, Mr. President, and you are a liar.

PUBLIUS

New Book: Obama Bragged Drones Make Him ‘Really Good at Killing People’

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Budget_Battle_obamaPresident Barack Obama is criticized every day for the problems and difficulties associated with the Affordable Care Act. But in the long term, it’s likely history will scrutinize the CIA’s use of drone strikes during his administration with a far more critical eye.

A quote from a new book on the 2012 presidential campaign, “Double Down: Game Change 2012,” will surely stoke that interest. As first reported in a book review by the Washington Post’s Peter Hamby, Obama told aides in connection with the CIA’s drone program that he is “really good at killing people.”

It’s the kind of quote likely to make Obama supporters cringe or scramble for justifying explanations, perhaps by rationalizing the quote as either false or out of context, or critiquing the information-gathering methods of authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. The writers spent two years interviewing dozens of people connected with both the Obama and Romney campaigns.

Whether uttered in jest or in resignation, the Obama quote will only add to the concerns of those wondering whether the president has embraced the Godlike, life-and-death power of the Oval Office. After campaigning against the intense interrogation procedures pursued under President George W. Bush, Obama has vastly expanded the drone program. Despite its intense unpopularity overseas, in part because of civilian casualties and in part because of its unclear, secretive mandates, the Pakistan drone program continues as it has since 2004.

According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the CIA has conducted 378 strikes in the program’s 10-year history. Of those, 326 are classified as “Obama strikes.” The total number of people killed by drones is estimated at 2,528 to 3,648. Civilian casualties are estimated at 416 to 948, with 168 to 200 of those being children. As many as another 1,545 are estimated to have been injured in those strikes.

“We conduct those strikes because they are necessary to mitigate ongoing actual threats — to stop plots, prevent future attacks and, again, save American lives,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in February. “These strikes are legal, they are ethical, and they are wise.” And, thanks to this book, the motivations of the man who orders them will remain under scrutiny.

“Double Down” is a sequel of sorts to “Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime,” a best-selling book made into an HBO movie. “Double Down” tracks the 2012 campaign through the voices of campaign strategists and other insiders for both President Obama and Mitt Romney, as well as the half-dozen other ancillary campaigns on the Republican side.

What emerges is a look at two men and two campaigns with singular visions and yet singular weaknesses. Here, via the Post’s Hamby, is a summary of “Double Down”’s through-line:

The book’s loose argument is that both Obama and Romney placed their bets about the race early on and “doubled down” throughout the contest. It’s an apt take on Obama World. The “Obamans,” as the authors call them, set out to annihilate Romney almost two years before the election and executed their plan with brutal efficiency. There were hiccups along the way, specifically Obama’s dreary debate-prep sessions and his cringe-worthy performance in Denver, but his deputies in Chicago rarely deviated from their search-and-destroy mission. Romney’s campaign, though, with its bad habit of reacting to news cycles with snap decisions, always felt more ad hoc, with tactics trumping strategy.

Per Hamby, Obama comes off as “brilliant but peevish, allergic to the nitty-gritty of politics,” while Romney “is a decent man but hopelessly ham-fisted on the stump and oblivious to why voters can’t seem to appreciate his private-equity résumé.”

The drone quote will garner notice, but the book actually saves much of its harshest criticism for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is apparently already making plans for a 2016 presidential bid. The book makes use of the research performed by the Romney campaign on Christie; the vetting is termed “disturbing,” with “garish controversies.” A Justice Department investigation into Christie’s spending, a defamation lawsuit, questions about lobbying and contract awards, Christie’s physical health – these were all fair game for Romney’s investigators and in turn for the authors of “Double Down.” Christie’s people could be busy for months trying to mitigate the damage this book will do to his reputation.

The Obama administration has brushed off the book’s claims about the back-room dealings of the 2012 campaign, critiquing the sources as much as the content. “The president is always frustrated about leaks,” White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I haven’t talked to him about this book. I haven’t read it. He hasn’t read it. But he hates leaks.”

But that’s inside-the-Beltway politicking, the kind of give-and-take where reputations, not lives, are the casualties. The debate over drone use has far more dramatic reach and effect. Lost in the day-to-day squabbling over politics is the fact that, for instance, the Justice Department has a disturbingly vague protocol for sending drones to kill U.S. citizens. “Double Down” may open the door to issues far more significant than who likes whom in Washington, issues that speak to the very heart of what it means to stand for American principles. This is a story that’s not going away anytime soon.

By Jay Busbee,  jay.busbee@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @jaybusbee.

Graham to Block Obama Nominees Over Benghazi Stonewalling

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benghazi-1WASHINGTON – South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham reiterated his pledge to block all of Obama’s nominees for executive branch positions until Congress is allowed to hear testimony from those on the ground during the Benghazi terrorist attacks in 2012.

“I shouldn’t have to do this – to make these threats,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Graham says there are still too many unanswered questions about the Sept. 11 attack in Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

While there have been a number of Capitol Hill hearings on the deadly attack in Benghazi, Graham is among a group of lawmakers who say they aren’t satisfied with the information provided and want more.

“I don’t think it’s over the top to find out what happened to four dead Americans,” he said. “I don’t think it’s over the top to talk to survivors. The State Department interviewed these survivors.”

Along with Ambassador Stevens, Foreign Service officer Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed in the attack.

Graham has been asking for the FBI’s transcripts of interviews with State Department and CIA survivors who were evacuated to Germany after the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate.

In an Oct. 28 letter Graham, the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs, Julia Frifield, referred to “significant risks” and “serious concerns about having the survivors of the attack submit to additional interviews.”

Graham and other Republicans believe the transcripts will show the survivors told the FBI it was a terrorist attack and made no mention of a video or anti-U.S. demonstration at the consulate.

“So I’m going to block every appointment in the United States Senate until the survivors are being made available to Congress,” he said.

Graham also called on fellow lawmakers in Washington for help.

“The only way this will work is if my GOP colleagues get behind me and Democrats too and support my request to find out exactly what happened,” he said.

Published November 04, 2013 / FoxNews.com

ObamaCare Website Offline for Repairs

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ObamaCare_WebsiteThe problem-plagued ObamaCare website shut down Saturday night for “extended” repairs, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Technicians have shut down HealthCare.gov during weekends since the site launched Oct. 1 but just for a few overnight hours.

The site was scheduled to be offline from 9 p.m. ET Saturday until 9 a.m. Sunday.

“The HealthCare.gov tech team is performing extended maintenance this weekend to improve network infrastructure and make enhancements to the online application and enrollment tools,” agency spokeswoman Joanne Peters said Saturday.

The Obama administration says Americas can still apply for insurance coverage by calling a toll-free number available around the clock.

In recent weeks, the administration has brought in outside experts to assist in getting the site running.

Officials say their goal is to eliminate such problems as volume-related crashes, slow response times and incorrect information before the insurance policies kick in January 1, 2014.

They also have set a goal of getting the site running smoothly by month’s end and releasing enrollment numbers by mid-November, as Capitol Hill lawmakers hold hearings about the extent of the problems before the site launch and who knew about them.

FoxNews.com

Face of Murder: LAX Shooter Sought TSA Workers

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tsa_laxAccording to federal prosecutors, 23-year-old Paul Anthony Ciancia was so intent on murdering Transportation Security Administration officers Friday morning at Los Angeles International Airport that when he noticed that an officer he had already shot was still moving, he turned around, walked back down an escalator, and shot him again.

Federal prosecutors announced Saturday that they have filed charges of murder and commission of violence at an international airport against Ciancia, who could get the death penalty if convicted.

Authorities say Ciancia walked into Terminal 3, pulled a Smith & Wesson .223-caliber assault rifle from his duffel bag and fired repeatedly at point-blank range at a TSA officer identified as Gerardo I. Hernandez, 39, who was checking IDs and boarding passes at the base of the escalator leading to the main screening area.

The killing was “believed to be a premeditated act of murder in the first-degree,” U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said in announcing the charges.

After killing Hernandez, Ciancia fired on at least two other uniformed TSA employees and an airline passenger, who were all wounded. Airport police eventually shot him as panicked passengers cowered in stores and restaurants.

Ciancia, 23, remained hospitalized Saturday after being hit four times and wounded in the mouth and leg. The FBI said he was unresponsive and they had not been able to interview him.

The announcement of charges came after authorities say they have found a note handwritten by Ciancia in which he describes his intent to kill TSA employees and “pigs,” a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The handwritten note found in Ciancia’s duffel bag and signed by him stated that he had “made the conscious decision to try to kill” multiple TSA employees and that he wanted to stir fear in them, FBI agent in charge David L. Bowdich said.

“Black, white, yellow, brown, I don’t discriminate,” the note read, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to the Associated Press.

The suspect’s screed reportedly also mentioned “fiat currency” and “NWO,” possible references to the New World Order, a conspiracy theory that foresees a totalitarian one-world government.

A law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the note referred to how the gunman believed his constitutional rights were being violated by TSA searches and that he was a “pissed-off patriot” upset at former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The FBI was still looking into Ciancia’s past, but investigators said they had not found evidence of previous crimes or any run-ins with the TSA. They said he had never applied for a job with the agency.

Authorities believe someone dropped Ciancia off at the airport. Agents were reviewing surveillance tapes to piece together the sequence of events.

“We are really going to draw a picture of who this person was, his background, his history. That will help us explain why he chose to do what he did,” Bowdich said. “At this point, I don’t have the answer on that.”

“He looked at me and asked, `TSA?’ I shook my head no, and he continued on down toward the gate.  He had his gun at the ready and but for the grace of God I am here to tell about it.” – Leon Saryan

Leon Saryan, 65, had just passed through security when he heard gunshots. He fled with a TSA worker, who he said was later wounded slightly, and managed to hide in a store. As he was cowering in the corner, the shooter approached.

“He looked at me and asked, ‘TSA?’ I shook my head no, and he continued on down toward the gate.  He had his gun at the ready and but for the grace of God I am here to tell about it,” said Saryan, of Milwaukee.

Witness Brian Keech said he heard “about a dozen gunshots” from inside the security gate at Terminal 3. Other travelers described the scene as airport security staff evacuated terminals, including onto to the tarmac.

“People started saying there’s a shooter, there’s a shooter,” said Natalie Morin, a senior at USC who was heading to San Francisco for a graduate school interview.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the gunman had an additional 100 rounds of ammunition he did not fire.

President Obama called TSA administrator John Pistole to express his condolences to the families and friends of the TSA officer who was killed and the two other officers who were wounded Friday.

Ciancia’s family had told Pennsville, N.J. Police Chief Allen Cummings early Friday afternoon that the 23-year-old had mentioned taking his own life in a text message to his younger brother, the chief told The Associated Press.

Cummings notified the LAPD, which in turn, went to Ciancia’s residence. He was not there at the time, but his two roommates told authorities that he seemed fine, Cummings said. LAPD told Cummings that they would check on him again when Ciancia returned from work.

Forty-five minutes later, Cummings got a call about the shooting.

Ciancia graduated in 2008 from Salesianum School, an all-boys Roman Catholic school in Wilmington, the school said. Former classmates barely remember Ciancia and even a recent roommate could say little about the young man who moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles less than two years ago.

“He kept to himself and ate lunch alone a lot,” David Hamilton, a former classmate at Salesianum, told the Los Angeles Times. “I really don’t remember any one person who was close to him …. In four years, I never heard a word out of his mouth.”

Outside the father’s home Friday in Pennsville, a police cruiser blocked the long driveway. Phone calls weren’t answered, and efforts to reach siblings were also unsuccessful.

Cummings said he learned from Ciancia’s father that the young man had attended a technical school in Florida, then moved to Los Angeles in 2012 hoping to get a job as a motorcycle mechanic. He was having trouble finding work.

Ciancia graduated in December 2011 from Motorcycle Mechanics Institute in Orlando, Fla., said Tina Miller, a spokeswoman for Universal Technical Institute, the Scottsdale, Ariz., company that runs the school.

A basic motorcycle mechanic course takes about a year, she said.

Hernandez is the first TSA officer killed in the line of duty in the 12-year history of the agency, which was founded in the aftermath of 9/11.

Friends remembered Hernandez as a doting father and a good neighbor who went door-to-door warning neighbors to be careful after his home was burglarized.

In brief remarks outside the couple’s house, his widow, Ana Hernandez, said Saturday that her husband came to the U.S. from El Salvador at age 15.

“He took pride in his duty for the American public and for the TSA mission,” she said.

The shooting, which sent passengers in the airport scrambling for cover, disrupted flights nationwide as planes headed for Los Angeles were temporarily grounded. LAX estimated 1,550 scheduled flights were impacted by the shooting and approximately 167,050 passengers were affected, including those diverted to other airports, held on the ground in Los Angeles or held at their originating airport.

Terminal 3 re-opened at around 1 p.m. Saturday, and airport operations were expected to return to normal by the end of the day. The other terminals had all re-opened by the end of the day Friday.

FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Adam Housley, Shayla Bezdrob, Edmund DeMarche, Karl DeVries, Shayla Bezdrob and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Obama Uses Executive Order in Sweeping Takeover of Climate Change Policies

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obama_scandalsThrough the stroke of a pen, President Obama on Friday used his executive powers to elevate and take control of climate change policies in an attempt to streamline sustainability initiatives – and potentially skirt legislative oversight and push a federal agenda on states.

The executive order establishes a task force of state and local officials to advise the administration on how to respond to severe storms, wildfires, droughts and other potential impacts of climate change. The task force includes governors of seven states — all Democrats — and the Republican governor of Guam, a U.S. territory. Fourteen mayors and two other local leaders also will serve on the task force.

All but three of those appointed are Democrats. The task force will look at federal money spent on roads, bridges, flood control and other projects. It ultimately will recommend how structures can be made more resilient to the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and warming temperatures.

“We’re going to need to get prepared.  And that’s why this plan will also protect critical sectors of our economy and prepare the United States for the impacts of climate change that we cannot avoid,” Obama said last June, when he first launched a Climate Action Plan.

“States and cities across the country are already taking it upon themselves to get ready… And we’ll partner with communities seeking help to prepare for droughts and floods, reduce the risk of wildfires, protect the dunes and wetlands that pull double duty as green space and as natural storm barriers.”

The White House added in Friday’s statement that even as the United States acts to curb carbon pollution, officials also need to improve how states and communities respond to extreme weather events like last year’s Superstorm Sandy. Building codes must be updated to address climate impacts and infrastructure needs to be made more resilient.

Critics of the order charge, among other things, that it groups together everything from forest fires to heavy rains as evidence of climate change – despite scientific testimony from both sides of the debate.

“The devil is in the details,” a former senior government official said to FoxNews.com earlier this month, referring to a recently released study that proposed the streamlining between federal and state agencies. “Who gets to decide what sustainability is? Or what its outcome means?”

The chair of the study, Thomas Graedel, a professor of chemical engineering, geology and geophysics, and currently head of the Center for Industrial Ecology at Yale University, said at the time of its release that the study “provides encouragement for parts of the government to get together on projects of concern. There is no formula for how it all works out.”

Officials for the EPA released a statement on Friday afternoon praising the order, saying it will be vital in their attempts to help local-level communities “adapt to a changing climate.”

“To meet our mission of protecting public health and the environment, EPA must help communities adapt to a changing climate,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in the statement. “These Implementation Plans offer a roadmap for agency work to meet that responsibility, while carrying out President Obama’s goal of preparing the country for climate-related challenges.”

But critics say the order has the potential to do much more, including:

•  Hold back money to communities unless they meet new standards on various items and agendas set by the federal government. For example, using new policies that will encourage communities to rebuild to pre-disaster standards instead of stronger ones.

•  A possible mandate to bring sweeping new changes to land use and resource policies.

•  More control and refocus of climate change data and use of it to push a new agenda into every priority of the federal government.

•  Create the need for a new internal organization for coordination efforts during a government sequestration and possible future shutdowns.

The task force includes Govs. Jerry Brown of California, Jay Inslee of Washington and Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, as well as Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. The panel also includes several big-city mayors, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Houston Mayor Annise Parker. All three are Democrats.

The task force builds on efforts Obama announced for his Climate Action Plan last June, which include the first-ever limits on climate pollution from new and existing power plants.

The plan is intended to reduce domestic carbon dioxide emissions by 17 percent between 2005 and 2020. The plan also would boost renewable energy production on federal lands, increase efficiency standards and prepare communities to deal with higher temperatures. The 12 hottest years on record all have occurred in the past 15 years.

Climate change skeptics, as well as scientists, argue there is no proven link between extreme events and global warming. Indeed, Roger Pielke, Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research who has called for climate mitigation, argued recently that — heat waves aside — there is little evidence for an increase in extreme events themselves.

Others find small links between climate change and some specific natural disasters, saying storms like Sandy were worsened by rising sea levels. But for other events, notably droughts and downfalls, there’s no evidence of a global warming effect.

A Sept. 2012 editorial in the prestigious journal Nature urged caution in drawing any such connection: “Better models are needed before exceptional events can be reliably linked to global warming.”

By / Published November 01, 2013 / FoxNews.com / Fox News’ George Russell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Fed App Court Reinstates Texas Abortion Restrictions

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texas_abortionA federal appeals court issued a ruling Thursday reinstating most of Texas’ controversial new abortions restrictions, just three days after a federal judge ruled they were unconstitutional.

A panel of judges at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said the law requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital can take effect while a lawsuit challenging the restrictions moves forward. The panel issued the ruling after District Judge Lee Yeakel said the provision serves no medical purpose.

The panel’s decision means as least 12 clinics won’t be able to perform the procedure starting as soon as Friday. In its 20-page ruling, it acknowledged that the provision “may increase the cost of accessing an abortion provider and decrease the number of physicians available to perform abortions.”

However, the panel said that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that having “the incidental effect of making it more difficult or more expensive to procure an abortion cannot be enough to invalidate” a law that serves a valid purpose, “one not designed to strike at the right itself.”

The panel left in place a portion of Yeakel’s order that prevents the state from enforcing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol for abortion-inducing drugs in cases where the woman is between 50 and 63 days into her pregnancy. Doctors testifying before the court had said such women would be harmed if the protocol were enforced.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott had made an emergency appeal to the conservative 5th Circuit, arguing that the law requiring doctors to have admitting privileges is a constitutional use of the Legislature’s authority.

Abbot said in a statement Thursday that “this unanimous decision is a vindication of the careful deliberation by the Texas Legislature to craft a law to protect the health and safety of Texas women.”

Texas’ Republican Gov. Rick Perry also spoke out praising the ruling Thursday night.

“Today’s decision affirms our right to protect both the unborn and the health of the women of Texas,” Perry said. “We will continue doing everything we can to protect a culture of life in our state.”

Lawyers for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers had argued that the regulations did not protect women and would shut down a third of the abortion clinics in Texas.

In a statement Thursday, Planned Parenthood said the appeals court decision means “abortion will no longer be available in vast stretches of Texas.”

“This fight is far from over,” Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said in the statement. “This restriction clearly violates Texas women’s constitutional rights by drastically reducing access to safe and legal abortion statewide

The court’s order is temporary until it can hold a complete hearing, likely in January. The restrictions are among the toughest in the nation and gained notoriety when Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis launched a nearly 13-hour filibuster against them in June.

The law also bans abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy and beginning in October 2014 requires doctors to perform all abortions in surgical facilities.

During the trial, officials for one chain of abortion clinics testified that they’ve tried to obtain admitting privileges for their doctors at 32 hospitals, but so far only 15 accepted applications and none have announced a decision.

Many hospitals with religious affiliations will not allow abortion doctors to work there, while others fear protests if they provide privileges.

Many have requirements that doctors live within a certain radius of the facility, or perform a minimum number of surgeries a year that must be performed in a hospital.

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report

WH Meeting Notes: Only 6 ObamaCare First-day Signups

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ObamaCare_WebsiteNotes from an Obama administration meeting about the problem-plagued ObamaCare website indicate only six people signed up for the health care law on its first day, according to documents released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Fox News’ Ed Henry told Megyn Kelly on “The Kelly File” Thursday that the documents, released by committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, are not official enrollment numbers, but say that as of the morning of Oct. 2, “six enrollments have occurred so far with five different issuers.”

The notes were taken at a “war room” meeting of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has been tasked with implementing ObamaCare.

They say that at the next meeting, which took place on the afternoon of Oct. 2, “approximately 100” people had signed up and 248 enrollments had occurred by the morning of Oct. 3.

The Obama administration has thus far not released any official numbers on ObamaCare enrollment, saying the first numbers would be released in mid-November after the HHS collects data from a variety of different sources.

A HHS spokesman told Fox News the documents “appear to be notes,” and do not include official enrollment statistics.

“As the Secretary said before Congress, we are focused on providing reliable and accurate information and we do not have that at this time due to the issues with 834 forms,” Joanne Peters said. “We have always anticipated that the pace of enrollment will increase throughout the enrollment period.”

Health care industry consultant Robert Laszewski told Kelly the numbers are not surprising, saying “clearly the White House does not want insurance companies talking about what’s going here.”

“And given what was released tonight, the news that so very few people are signing up, you can see why,” he continued. “If four weeks ago the enrollment numbers were public it would look very bad. I can tell you based upon the information that I continue to get this trickle of enrollment that you’re reporting on for the first three days has really continued for the first month.”

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee received the documents in response to its request to 11 of the contractors involved in the ObamaCare website rollout.

FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Ed Henry contributed to this report

CNN: Obama Pressuring Insurance Companies to Shut Up about Problems with Obamacare

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Drew_GriffinCNN’s Drew Griffin appeared on Anderson Cooper and reported that he has confirmed that “the Obama administration is leaning on insurance companies companies to keep a lid on problems with the health care law roll out.”

According to CNN, if an insurance company says anything publicly about the many problems being created by the implementation of Obamacare, “you’re going to get a call from the White House, with pressure to be quiet.”

Griffin reports that insurance companies “feel defenseless against the White House PR team . . . and they are fearing White House retribution.”

“The White House is exerting massive pressure on the industry, including the trade associations to keep quiet.” – Robert Laszewski, President, Health Policy and Strategy Associates, LLC.

Industry insiders are saying that insurance companies are being forced by the administration to drop coverage and policies that do not meet the hidden requirements of Obamacare, resulting in the loss of coverage for millions of Americans–the same Americans Obama personally guaranteed would NOT lose their coverage.

Griffin said, “Despite all of the rhetoric from the President, you simply cannot keep you current health care plan if it does not meet these requirements.”  He reports that Laszewski’s group “warned the Administration about this very scenario, and ignored the advice.”

“I think the administrative mess you’re seeing right now is indicative of what happens when somebody tries to run somebody else’s business and think they’re smarter than you are.”  – Robert Laszewski

Anderson Cooper and the CNN team seemed quite surprised by the tactics of the Administration, and wondered aloud why the President and the White House would adopt these strong arm tactics.

PUBLIUS

MSNBC’s Clarence Page: Obama Deliberately Lied About Obamacare

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clarence_pageMSNBC contributor and Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page joined conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday and confessed that when President Obama told Americans that they would be able to keep their plans if they like them, he was fully aware he was lying about it.

President Obama said to the American People: “Here’s a guarantee that I’ve made–if you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance.  If you’ve got a doctor that you like–you will be able to keep that doctor.”

Here’s another version of the promise:

“If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your healthcare plan, you’ll be able to keep your healthcare plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” – President Obama in address to the American Medical Association, 2009.

Page said Obama knew “. . . there was no guarantee everybody was going to keep their insurance because people couldn’t keep their insurance under the old system.”

Hewitt asked, “He knew he was lying?”

Page replied, “Probably, probably.”

Page attempted to defended Obama saying many people will be able to keep their insurance policies and that Obama was simply being “too grandiose.” Hewitt was disturbed that this didn’t bother Page very much, but Page maintained that Obama is mostly guilty of ‘overselling’ his program.

PUBLIUS

GOP Seeks to Save Millions Booted by Obamacare

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gop_helpsHouse Republicans are pushing a new bill to let Americans keep their health insurance plans following revelations that the Obama administration knew millions could lose their current coverage due to changes from the Affordable Care Act.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., was introducing the “Keep Your Health Plan Act” in a bid to address widespread reports of people losing their current plans. CBS News reported Monday that more than 2 million Americans have already been told they can’t renew their policies.

“This legislation is about providing folks the peace of mind that they will be allowed to keep their current coverage if they so choose,” Upton said in a statement. The bill would allow plans sold on the market today to continue to be available.

Fox News confirmed on Monday that despite assurances from President Obama that anybody who likes their health insurance can keep it, a 2010 IRS document predicted a huge swath of customers could lose their coverage.

The document addressed a rule in the law that states individual policies purchased on or before March 23, 2010 would be “grandfathered” — or exempt from changes required under ObamaCare. However, the provision was changed so that plans that undergo “significant changes” could lose that special status.

The IRS document estimated that “40 percent to 67 percent” of policies would in fact lose the status, meaning customers could be kicked off those plans because they don’t meet minimum coverage requirements. The document was earlier reported by NBC News.

The Obama administration argues that for those being kicked off their plans, they mostly will be offered policies with stronger consumer protections.

“It’s true that there are existing health care plans on the individual market that don’t meet those minimum standards and, therefore, do not qualify for the Affordable Care Act,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. “But what is also true is that …  Americans who have insurance on the existing individual market will now have numerous options available to them.”

But Republicans argue this flies in the face of Obama’s repeated claims that people would not lose their current coverage.

Conservative commentator Marc Thiessen, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, called the claim a “lie” by the administration, during Fox News’ “The Kelly File.”

“The smoking gun is there in your hand,” he said, referring to host Megyn Kelly’s copy of the IRS form. “Look, they knew.”

White House spokeswoman Jessica Santillo said in a statement that those getting notices are in plans “that do not provide all these protections.”

“But in the vast majority of cases, those same insurers will automatically shift their enrollees to a plan that provides new consumer protections and, for nearly half of individual market enrollees, discounts through premium tax credits,” she said.

She still claimed, though, that “Nothing in the Affordable Care Act forces people out of their health plans: the law allows plans that covered people at the time the law was enacted to continue to offer that same coverage to the same enrollees – nothing has changed and that coverage can continue into 2014.”

FoxNews.com

Federal Agents Raid Reporter’s Home

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ShredConstitutionAudrey Hudson’s husband had just left for work on August 6 when suddenly, her dog began barking. The nationally-known journalist walked over to the curtains and peeked outside to discover her Chesapeake Bay home was surrounded by law enforcement officers wearing full body armor.

The phone rang. It was her husband.

“I’m in the driveway,” he said. “The police are here. Open the door.”

And so began Hudson’s nightmare – held captive by armed agents of the U.S. Coast Guard, Maryland State Police and the Department of Homeland Security as they staged a pre-dawn raid in search of unregistered firearms and a “potato gun.”

“I think they found a great way to get into my house and get a hold of my confidential notes and go through every other file in my office.” – Audrey Hudson, journalist

But instead of taking the potato gun, agents seized unrelated government documents and notes from the former Washington Times journalist.

Agents took Hudson’s records during a search for guns and related items owned by her husband, a civilian Coast Guard employee. They also confiscated her legally registered firearms, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The armed agents held Hudson and her husband in the kitchen as they searched their home. At some point, one of the agents asked if she was the same person who had written a series of stories critical of the Federal Air Marshal program in the mid-2000s.

Hudson did indeed author those stories for The Washington Times.

“Those stories were embarrassing to the agency,” she told me.

It wasn’t until five weeks after the pre-dawn raid that Hudson realized agents had taken her private documents – documents that were not listed on the search warrant. At the time she was told that “miscellaneous documents” had been taken.

“I got a call from Homeland Security and they told me I could come pick up the documents,” she said. “The search warrant did not allow them to walk out with those documents. They clearly violated the search warrant.”

It appears the agents were on a fishing expedition. Hudson tells me her home is filled with boxes and boxes of files.

“But they only took five files – and all five had to do with the Federal Air Marshal stories,” she said.

The Coast Guard told The Associated Press its investigator was suspicious that the government documents in her possession were labeled “law enforcement sensitive.” However, they were returned after concluding Hudson had obtained them under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

But that doesn’t explain why the Coast Guard took her personal, handwritten notes. Nor does it explain why the Coast Guard accessed her personal Facebook page.

“I think they found a great way to get into my house and get a hold of my confidential notes and go through every other file in my office,” she said.

The Washington Times said Friday it is preparing legal action to fight what it called an unwarranted intrusion on the First Amendment.

“While we appreciate law enforcement’s right to investigate legitimate concerns, there is no reason for agents to use an unrelated gun case to seize the First Amendment protected materials of a reporter,” Times Editor John Solomon said.

The Coast Guard defended their actions. A spokesman said the warrant authorized police to search the family’s home for guns, ammunition, records of gun purchases, gun cleaning kits and other gun-related documents.

It should be noted that neither Hudson nor her husband have been arrested and no charges have been filed.

“We have absolutely no idea what this is all about,” Hudson told me.

I’ve got a pretty good idea. It’s about the federal government trying to intimidate an American journalist.

The Obama administration has a history of targeting journalists in their effort to root out leaks. The Associated Press noted that the raid on Hudson’s home came one month after Attorney General Eric Holder toughened the Justice Department’s rules for seizing reporters’ phone records, notes or emails using federal subpoenas or search warrants.

“This really can’t stand,” Hudson told me. “You cannot come into a journalist’s home under false pretenses with a bogus warrant and just waltz out with confidential files.”

So if you’re doing the constitutional math, I’d say the Obama administration has violated the Hudson family’s first, second and fourth amendment rights.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that state police and federal officers would come into my house at 4:30 in the morning to take my files without a federal subpoena,” she said.

It’s really not all that surprising the Obama administration would use a potato gun to trample the constitutional rights of an American citizen.

It’s a perfect tool for shredding potatoes – and the U.S. Constitution.

The Associated Press contributed to this report /By / Todd’s American Dispatch / Published October 28, 2013 / FoxNews.com

 

New ObamaCare Site Outage – Glitches ‘Tip of the Iceberg’

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ObamacareThe federal government’s online portal to buy health insurance suffered another glitch Sunday when the data services hub, a conduit for verifying the personal information of people applying for benefits under the law, went down in a failure that was blamed on an outside contractor.

“Today, Terremark had a network failure that is impacting a number of their clients, including healthcare.gov,” HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said in a statement Sunday evening. “[Health and Human Services] Secretary [Kathleen] Sebelius spoke with the CEO of Verizon this afternoon to discuss the situation and they committed to fixing the problem as soon as possible.”

Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Enterprise Solutions, of which Terremark is a part, told the Associated Press: “Our engineers have been working with HHS and other technology companies to identify and address the root cause of the issue. It will be fixed as quickly as possible.”

The latest glitch came just days before Sebelius is scheduled to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the problems that have plagued the online health exchanges since they launched Oct. 1.

“The incompetence in building this website is staggering,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the second-ranking Republican on the panel, told “Fox News Sunday.”

Republican lawmakers also signaled Sunday that their efforts to dismantle ObamaCare will go well beyond criticizing the problem-filled website, saying computer glitches are only the “tip of the iceberg” for the federal health care plan.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told “Fox News Sunday” that creating and running a website on which millions of Americans can shop for and buy an insurance policy is “the easy part.”

“The real problems will be when it’s time to schedule your grandmother’s cancer surgery,” said Jindal, chairman of the Republican Governors Association and a potential 2016 presidential candidate.

Republicans have largely opposed President Obama’s signature health care initiative long before it was signed into law in 2010 — using Americans’ concerns about the massive government undertaking to help retake the House in 2010.

More recent opposition — including the attempt to use voter dissatisfaction with ObamaCare to win the 2012 presidential election and more recently trying to “defund” ObamaCare — have failed.

However, conservatives say they fully intend to chip away at the law straight through 2016 when they’ll try again to elect a Republican president who will repeal the law.

Jindal also told Fox News the bigger issue is that problems like those related to the ObamaCare website are almost inevitable when the federal government gets too big.

“This is symptomatic of a liberal ideology that believes government should be running our health care,” he said. “We don’t need the government running health care.”

Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso told ABC’s “This Week” that the website issues “are just the tip of the iceberg.”

“There are bigger problems to come,” he said.

Among the concerns of Barrasso and others are the millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on a slow, crash-prone website and Americans having to pay a tax penalty in March after trying, but failing, to sign up for insurance, while the president has exempted businesses from having to pay.

“It has Americans saying, “ ‘Why do I have to pay a penalty,’ ” Barrasso said.

Critics also argue some Americans will be forced to drop existing policies for more expensive, ObamaCare-approved ones, despite the president vowing that people could keep the insurance they liked and had.

“It’s all just not true,” Barrasso said.

Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the problem with ObamaCare is that it doesn’t control costs.

“It drives up cost for Ohioans,” he said. “It threatens businesses to grow over 50 employees. The economy is stalled.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report /Published October 28, 2013 / FoxNews.com

 

 

Western Eyewitness in Benghazi Goes Public

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benghazi-1The first Western eyewitness to the deadly Benghazi terror attacks has given an account of the seven-hour assault on the U.S. outpost in Libya and says Americans knew such an incident was inevitable.

The witness — a former British soldier who for decades helped protect U.S. diplomats and military leaders — told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that Al Qaeda forces first attacked the U.S. Special Mission Compound in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed. Then they launched a second attack on a secret CIA annex about a mile across the city.

“They knew what they were doing,” the security guard told CBS. “That was a well-executed attack.”

The guard said he was in his apartment about 15 minutes away from the attacks when he learned of them through a frantic phone call from a Libyan guard.

“I could hear gunshots,” said the guard, “And he said, ‘There are men coming into the mission’ … You could tell he was really scared and he was running.”

The guard said that when he asked for details the other guard said: “We’re getting attacked. … They’re all over the compound.”

Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks.

Susan Rice, then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and other administration officials said in the days following the attacks that they appeared to have been sparked by an anti-Islamic video posted onto the Internet.

The guard also told CBS that he considered the security forces hired to protect the U.S. interests in Benghazi lax and suggested the attack appeared inevitable.

Fox News has previously reported that an Aug. 16, 2012, cable revealed that an “emergency meeting” was convened less than a month before the assault to warn that the consulate could not defend against a coordinated attack. Congressional hearings held over the past year have also covered how security was a concern in the run-up to the attack.

And Fox News reported last week that, according to a source on the ground in Libya, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee with Al Qaeda ties — Sufian bin Qumu — was in Benghazi the night of the attack. Fox News also reported that two other suspects have ties to the Al Qaeda senior leadership — one believed to be a former courier and the other, a bodyguard for the network.

The guard who spoke with CBS noted that Al Qaeda tried to kill a British ambassador in Benghazi three months before the attack on the anniversary of 9/11. He added that the terror group said online that it would attack the Red Cross, the British, and then the Americans in Benghazi.

“They made good on two out of the three promises,” the guard said. “It was a matter of time till captured the third one. … [Washington] knew we monitored it. We included that in our reports to both State Department and” the Department of Defense.

The guard’s most dramatic account of the hours-long ordeal is when a team from the annex rushed to help fellow Americans under siege at the compound.

“About 30 minutes into the attack, a Quick Reaction Force from the CIA annex  ignored orders to wait and raced to the compound, at times running and shooting their way through the streets just to get there.

“Inside the compound, they repelled a force of as many as 60 armed terrorists and managed to save five American lives and recover the body of Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith. They were forced to fight their way out before they could find the Ambassador” Stevens.

FoxNews.com

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