OFA Continues To Demonize Global Warming “Deniers”…

Be like the Drone Army and blindly believe.

Drew –

Here’s how you know that we’re winning the climate change deniers debate:

A conservative think tank is about to spend $1.5 million on a campaign to try to cast doubt on climate change science.

If you ever doubted the power of your voice, just look at how the other side is acting right now. The work we’re doing on climate change is making them awfully nervous.

That means we need to get louder — donate $5 or more to OFA today, and let’s keep calling out climate change denial.

In other news that makes me think our message is getting through, a House committee has scheduled a hearing to question whether we should actually be taking steps to fight climate change.

Now, keep in mind: several members of this panel are climate change deniers, so I doubt we’re going to get anywhere. But this marks the first House committee hearing on climate change in quite some time.

You can prove them wrong — make a donation of $5 or more today to OFA:

https://donate.barackobama.com/Organizing-Matters

Thanks,

Ivan

Ivan Frishberg
Climate Campaign Manager
Organizing for Action

Via: Weasel Zippers 

Can Obama Recover?

Never has Winston Churchill’s epigram looked so apt as right now: “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing,” the eloquent Briton reportedly said, “after they’ve exhausted all the other possibilities.” Barack Obama at first tried just about every possibility in dealing with Syria but the right one. For many months, he ignored the spreading civil war there, even as it spilled over the borders into Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Obama also failed to respond to the regime’s previous, if smaller, chemical attacks when they were documented in June, despite saying he would act; this failure unquestionably emboldened Bashar al-Assad to escalate his use of chemical weapons until the brazen and deadly attack of last month. And when Obama finally did respond, it was with a neck-wrenching pledge to launch an imminent attack. The turnabout caught everyone off guard, especially vacationing members of Congress whom Obama pledged to bypass—until he abruptly delegated his decision to them.

The president never got his timing right. If Obama wanted Congress to approve military action, he should have waited until members returned from their summer recess, rather than allowing them to get ambushed by an angry and ill-informed public in town meetings while the media chewed up his evidence piecemeal on talk TV over the last two weeks. “That was a miscalculation,” says Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Mike Rogers, the committee chairman, also pointed out, “You can’t really go from a dead stop to full speed. We created our own problem here.”

But now Obama has won a reprieve—thanks to the Russians, of all people, America’s chief antagonists—from what looked like an all-but-certain congressional defeat. In the coming days, the president thus has a chance to avoid what could have been the worst humiliation of his presidency. Indeed, he could even achieve two major victories at once. If Syria, under Russia’s disarmament plan, goes beyond its already startling admission that it possesses chemical weapons (coming only days after Assad’s denials, this is already a victory) and gives its stockpiles up to international inspectors for elimination, it will prove a huge American diplomatic triumph in a region where there haven’t been any U.S. breakthroughs for a very long time.

Via: National Journal

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Pope Francis reaches out to atheists and agnostics

The unprecedented gesture came as his incoming number two, the Vatican's newly-nominated secretary of state, said that the rule that priests should be celibate was not "a dogma of the Church" and could be open for discussion.

Francis, who has won praise for spontaneous and unusual moves during his six month papacy, wrote a lengthy letter to a newspaper, La Repubblica, which the Italian daily printed over four pages, including page one, under the simple byline "Francesco".

"God forgives those who obey their conscience," he wrote in the unprecedented letter, the latest example of the markedly different tone and style from his predecessors that he has set since being elected in March.

The 76-year-old pontiff was responding to editorials written in July and August by Eugenio Scalfari, an agnostic and the paper's founder, in which he was asked whether "the Christian God forgives those who do not believe and do not seek faith".

Mr Scalfari said he had not expected the South American pope to respond "so extensively and so affectionately, with such fraternal spirit".

Via: Telegraph

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[VIDEO] Limbaugh: Putin Understands American Exceptionalism Better Than Obama Does

Via: Pat Dollard

Is America Ready for Obamacare?

Specific answers to questions about what 

Obamacare means to consumers.

This is the second in a series of articles on the rollout of Obamacare and how the law will change our health care system. Each week, we will publish two articles: one on the changes in medicine and medical care, and one on changes in the insurance industry. We hope this series of articles will help you make better decisions when it comes to your health care and how you buy insurance.

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was passed in early 2010, but it will get its meaningful debut only in the next few months. The act was designed to make a significant dent in the number of Americans without health insurance. At the time the legislation was passed, the estimate of the number of uninsured Americans was 46.5 million, a number that had risen slightly after the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

The act anticipated providing coverage for approximately 30 million people, leaving close to 20 million uninsured by the middle of the decade. The bill assumed that the number of uninsured would rise without the legislation, to close to 50 million.

The number of uninsured is not a fixed number for a year — the same group of people are not uninsured for the full period of time. People lose their insurance, and others who were uninsured gain new insurance, sometimes through work. The total number of those uninsured for any time during a year is tens of millions higher than the 46.5 million number, and the number who are uninsured for the entire period during any 12-month cycle is tens of millions less than this number.

So, too, the composition of the uninsured population is quite varied. About a fifth earn $75,000 or more in annual income, a level well above the national median income for an individual or family unit. About 18 million, or near 40% of the uninsured, have incomes over $50,000, close to the median income level. Obamacare provides subsidies for those buying policies in the state exchanges with incomes between 138% of the poverty level and 400% of that level (now $94,000 for a family of four).  The legislation also provides expanded coverage under the state Medicaid programs for those with incomes between 100% of the poverty level and 138% of that level, depending on family size.

At the time the legislation was passed, there were some estimates that over 10 million Americana qualified for Medicaid, Medicare, or some other government program even without the new legislation, but had never enrolled. It is, of course, possible that many newly eligible for Medicaid will not enroll despite the eligibility expansion under Obamacare.

Via: PJ Media

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CRUZ: DC ESTABLISHMENT 'SCARED TO DEATH' OF GRASSROOTS

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has been one of the leading proponents of defunding Obamacare, said establishment politicians in Washington, D.C. are "scared to death" of the grassroots because they do not want to be held accountable. 

Speaking with Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon on Breitbart News's broadcast of the Exempt America rally on Tuesday, Cruz, as he often does on the stump, spoke of the "paradigm shift" that has coincided with the rise of the grassroots in American politics, which he said has changed the playing field on which politics is played. 

He urged opponents of Obamacare to get millions more Americans to rise up and sign the petition at "dontfundit.com" in addition to calling their Congressmen in the next 20 days to urge them to stop Obamacare before it is implemented.

Cruz emphasized that the new battle is between "entrenched career politicians and the American people." He criticized those in Congress who refused to hold town halls during the August recess. 

"They didn't even want to hear what their constituents want to say," Cruz said, noting that more power was leaving Washington and going back to the American people. 

Cruz also said that "restoring economic growth" is his top priority and said he was frustrated that the Senate has spent more time on issues like gun control rather than talking about jobs, the economy, and tax and regulatory reform that he said would jump start the economy.

Via: Breitbart

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Tea Party Republicans flex muscle, put Boehner in tight spot as shutdown looms

House Speaker John Boehner once again finds himself caught in the middle of a Capitol brawl between Tea Party Republicans and his Democratic counterparts, as he tries to navigate the choppy political waters and prevent a government shutdown at the end of the month. 

Tea Party-aligned members of Boehner's caucus are flexing their muscle and pressuring him to allow a vote on an anti-ObamaCare measure as part of ongoing budget talks. They want the vote tied directly to the budget measure, and rejected a compromise plan earlier this week -- leaving unclear how Congress might pass a short-term spending bill before funding runs out on Sept. 30. 

Boehner, after meeting with bipartisan congressional leaders on Thursday morning, offered no hint of what the next step might be. In the face of heated intra-party squabbling -- and even nastier accusations flying between Republican and Democrats -- he projected cool. 

"There's all this speculation about these deadlines that are coming up. I'm well aware of the deadlines. So are my colleagues," he said. "And so we're working with our colleagues to work our way through these issues. I think there's a way to get there. ... There are a million options that are being discussed by a lot of people." 

Via: Fox News

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No Drama Obama’s Dramatic 2012 Reelection Campaign

The press liked to call their style No Drama Obama. 

It was a nice turn of phrase that matched the mood of the candidate in 2008. 

But that all changed with the reelection. The personal tensions started earlier and rapidly worsened. They fought in private and in the open. There was plenty of simmering, and often a high boil. The team of rivals rarely achieved a spirit of cooperation and seemed more inclined to bitter, dogged rivalries. 

There was a new actor in the campaign drama: Jim Messina. Obama convinced Messina to leave his political father, Sen. Max Baucus, by calling him the day after Hillary Clinton dropped out of the Democratic primary contest. The sales pitch was neither about hope nor change. “You’re really going to get to run a business,” Obama told Messina. 

Seven days later, Messina was in Chicago with control of the campaign staff and its budget. On his first day at work, David Plouffe handed him a list of half a dozen people.

“Fire them,” Plouffe said.

So he did. Messina would introduce himself to bemused staffers and ask them to visit his office for a second or two. That was the last conversation they would have with him at campaign headquarters. Other staffers might be unhappy at taking the ax to new coworkers; Messina was not one of them. He was in Chicago to bring some order to an operation that had outlived the structure of the primaries. If that meant he was unpopular, so be it.

Just five months after President Obama signed his historic health-​care reform into law, he shared his armored limo with Messina in Seattle, where they had traveled for an event to help reelect Sen. Patty Murray.

Via: The Daily Beast,

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Consider Yourself Warned, Apple, Sharpton Wants Bite Out of You

File under predictable news -- peerless grievance-monger Al Sharpton has found another target to shake down for insufficient diversity in hiring and upper management.

Sharpton is turning his easily aroused wrath toward high-tech giant Apple. After all, if you're looking for cash, go where there's lots of it, to paraphrase the comparatively more honest Willie Sutton. (Audio after the jump)

Here's a clip from his radio show of Sharpton and businessman/former NBA player Earl Graves Jr., complaining about Apple, one of the most innovative and profitable companies in the history of humanity, not making hiring decisions based on skin hue (h/t for audio, Brian Maloney, mrctv.org) --

Via: Newsbusters

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Twitter Announces Plans For Initial Public Offering

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) – Twitter is going public. The short messaging service says it has filed confidential documents for an initial public offering of stock.

San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. posted on its official Twitter account that it has “confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO.”

Twitter’s IPO has been long expected. The company has been ramping up its advertising products and working to boost ad revenue in preparation.

Via: CBS San Francisco

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The Importance of Quin Hillyer

A principled conservative in 

Alabama.

Butternut squash.

Say what?

In the world of disagreements between like-minded conservative colleagues, this was the code word I would use with Quin Hillyer when we had reached that rare stage of disagreement.

It was meant to acknowledge the disagreement — while making certain that both of us knew that in fact, in the larger world, we were exactly on the same conservative page.

My friend and former colleague Mr. Hillyer is a conservative’s conservative — the kind who takes umbrage if you mistake that fact. This is decidedly not someone who runs from the fray, trying to figure out what mealy-mouthed toss of word salad can please whomever needs pleasing in the moment. Quin, as it were, takes his conservatism straight-up. He runs straight towards the action, principles fixed.

This is, sadly, a rare phenomenon in the Republican Party, as conservatives have repeatedly learned to their chagrin. But take heart: today that principled political courage is on display as Quin runs for the congressional vacancy in Alabama’s 1st district in Mobile.

And by a quirk of fate — the resignation of the incumbent — the special election in the Alabama First takes on a special importance as the place the repeal of not just ObamaCare but the disaster that is the Obama presidency begins.

Via: American Spectator

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US Senate Set To Define 'Journalist'

A Senate panel on Thursday approved a measure defining a journalist, which had been an obstacle to broader media shield legislation designed to protect reporters and the news media from having to reveal their sources.

The Judiciary Committee's action cleared the way for approval of legislation prompted by the disclosure earlier this year that the Justice Department had secretly subpoenaed almost two months of telephone records for 21 phone lines used by reporters and editors for The Associated Press and secretly used a warrant to obtain some emails of a Fox News journalist. The subpoenas grew out of investigations into leaks of classified information to the news organizations.

The AP received no advance warning of the subpoena.

The vote was 13-5 for a compromise defining a "covered journalist" as an employee, independent contractor or agent of an entity that disseminates news or information. The individual would have been employed for one year within the last 20 or three months within the last five years.

Via: Breitbart

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Brennan: It's time I stopped calling team 'Redskins'

I can't tell you how many times I've said the words "Washington Redskins." At one point in my career, I probably used the term at least 50 times a day. I said it on television and radio. I wrote it in the newspaper. Over the years, I've used it thousands of times, probably more than 10,000 by now.

It's time I stopped.

I live in Washington, and for three years, from 1985-87, I was the Redskins beat writer for The Washington Post. Then, and even now, saying "Redskins" has always come naturally to me. That word has been a significant part of my life – my professional life anyway – and a very happy, proud, fulfilling part of it. In talking about the team, or my career, I've used the name so often that I've never given it a second thought.

The Q: Did Goodell soften stance on 'Redskins?'

CAMPAIGN: Indian tribe takes aim at Goodell, Snyder

But when I said the nickname this summer during a panel discussion, I stopped myself. For the first time, it didn't seem right to say it.

Why then? Why not last year? Or five years ago? Or when I covered the team? I think it was the cumulative effect of all the reporting on the issue in the past year or so, solid journalism that continually brings to the surface just how racist the term is to many in the Native American community. And even if only some Native Americans think it's racist, here's news for the rest of us, whether we want to hear it and deal with it or not: it's racist.

Via: USA Today

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How to Reform Food Stamps

For decades, farm bills have combined agriculture policy with the food stamps program. These farm bills would have been better deemed “food stamp bills,” as food stamps account for about 80 percent of farm bill costs.

In July, the House passed an agriculture-only farm bill. By separating agriculture programs from food stamps, the House took a good first step, but it missed the point of separation by passing the bill without any real reforms. The House is expected to take up a food stamps bill in the near future. There are several crucial reforms that should be put into place.

Ripe for Reform

The food stamps program is one of the largest and fastest growing of the federal government’s roughly 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing, medical care, and social services to lower-income Americans. Spending on food stamps has increased substantially over the past several years, doubling from $20 billion to $40 billion between fiscal years (FY) 2000 and 2007 and then doubling again to roughly $80 billion by FY 2012.[1] Moreover, food stamps is just one program of a nearly $1 trillion government welfare system.

The increase in food stamp spending over the past five years is certainly partially due to the recession and the subsequent increase in food stamp enrollment. However, program growth is also due to policy changes made over the past decade that have eased eligibility requirements. States have also been employing aggressive outreach tactics to bring more individuals onto the rolls.

Food stamps has remained largely unreformed since the 1970s and is in dire need to be brought into the modern world. Policymakers should take the opportunity now to reform food stamps. Congress should:

Via: Heritage Foundation

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