[VIDEO] NRA beat Bloomberg anti-gun group in 65 of 67 Va. delegate races

TOPICS: WASHINGTON SECRETS GUN CONTROL NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION KEN CUCCINELLI NEW YORK CITY CAMPAIGNS 2013 VIRGINIA GOVERNOR RACE MICHAEL BLOOMBERGNearly 10 percent of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group Mayors Against Illegal Guns retired from their job or were sacked in Tuesday’s elections, including the organization’s two leaders: Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

Some 95 key members of the group that targets and criticizes lawmakers backed by the National Rifle Association are losing their title of “mayor.” According to an election review of Bloomberg'smembership list of about 1,000, three quit the group, 69 retired from their jobs, and 23 were rejected by voters.

On the retirement list: Bloomberg and Menino.

Among the defeated members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns were the mayors of Annapolis, Md.; Omaha, Neb.; Atlantic City, N.J.; Rochester, N.Y.; and Seattle, Wash.

Guns and Bloomberg's group were issues in some of the campaigns where the incumbents were defeated. In Chambersburg, Pa., newly-elected Republican Mayor-elect Darren Brown declared that among his first moves will be unhooking the town from the anti-gun group.

"The very, very first thing I'd like to do is get Chambersburg off the Mayors Against Illegal Guns list," Brown said.

What's more, while Bloomberg's Independence USA PAC can claim a victory in its campaign and advertising against Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, a review of all NRA-endorsed candidates in the state show that the mayor had virtually no impact.

For example, of the 67 NRA-endorsed candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates, 65 won their election on Tuesday.

What’s more, after the 2011 legislative elections in Virginia, there were 63 states delegates rated an "A" by the NRA and that number grew to 65 on Tuesday.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Blake Lively, Harvey Weinstein and Hollywood Makeup Artists Create Teachable Moments at White House

It was all Michelle Obama's idea, gushed mega-producer Harvey Weinstein, as he and some of Hollywood's greatest gathered at the White House Friday for a careers-in-film workshop for high school students out of D.C., New York and Boston.

Weinstein, Whoopi Goldberg, actress Blake Lively and a handful of directors and producers gave the kids a serious pep talk, emceed by CBS News' Gayle King.

Weinstein said that the idea to bring Hollywood to Washington to talk jobs came about around the same time Michelle Obama was being tapped to announce best picture last year at the Academy Awards.

"This is what I want to do," Weinstein recalled the first lady saying in a meeting. (Weinstein also revealed that he couldn't believe it didn't leak that FLOTUS was going to play such a pivotal part in the Oscars. "Amazingly, enough, we did keep in a secret," Weinstein recalled.)

[READ: Country Crooners Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood Knock Obamacare at CMA Awards]

At the afternoon discussion, while Goldberg, producer Bruce Cohen, director Ryan Coogler, actress Naomie Harris and director David Frankel all spouted words of wisdom, Lively's story stood out as she talked about her unexpected path into the business.

Lively said in high school she was disinterested in acting, the family business, and interested in attending an Ivy League school.

"It was the only thing I knew I didn't want to do," she said of a career in Hollywood. "I wanted to get a great education."

To pursue this goal, Lively became class president and practically overdosed on extracurriculars, to the point where the school tried to tell her no.

"They said, 'you can't do this,'" she recalled.

But the acting bug eventually got Lively and high school administrators again came down on her, not allowing her to walk at graduation because she missed too many school days shooting the movie, "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."

"They didn't let me do that because they wanted to shut me down," she said. (Years later, they asked the star to speak at graduation. She said no.)

Lively's breakout role came on the CW soap "Gossip Girl."

Via: US News

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Only 'hundreds' enroll in Illinois exchange

Only hundreds of people enrolled in the Illinois health insurance exchange in October, state officials said today, offering the first glimpse into an online marketplace that has been vexed by glitches.

Insurance carriers have told state officials that hundreds of consumers signed up in October, confirmed Jennifer Koehler, director of the Illinois Health Insurance Marketplace. But she and Cristal Thomas, Illinois deputy governor, cautioned that it was just a guess since federal officials haven't yet provided enrollment figures.

“We do not know,” Ms. Thomas said. “If we have to guess we would guess probably in the hundreds.”

Before the launch, Illinois officials predicted that about 486,000 individuals and small business in Illinois would buy health insurance in 2014 on the exchange, a key part of the Affordable Care Act to tamp down rising health care costs.

The state officials and Michael Gelder, senior health policy adviser to Gov. Pat Quinn, briefed reporters today about the exchange at a fellowship in Chicago held by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

The news isn’t much better elsewhere around the country. Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Iowa released figures today that indicated just a handful of people in Washington, D.C. had enrolled for plans from two carriers as of the end of October. Two other carriers had not enrolled anyone, they said.

"With data from D.C.'s four participating health plans in, there's been a whopping five people enrolled in the city's exchange," Mr. Hatch said, according to a statement. "That's right, five. Whether it's significant problems with the website, people being forced off the coverage they had or skyrocketing costs, these numbers are even more proof of what a disaster Obamacare is and why it should be delayed."

Via: Chicago Health Care Daily

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Report: Obama Already Eased Iran Sanctions Before Nuke Talks

The White House began easing economic sanctions that have crippled Iran for five years not long after its new president was elected in June — and months before Hassan Rouhani and President Barack Obama talked by telephone in September, State Department documents show.

The United States has done everything but stopped blacklisting individuals and companies that Iran evade international sanctions since Rouhani's election on June 14, The Daily Beast reports.

And the Obama administration has been doing less of that since the election, despite claims to the contrary, the website reports.

“In the months since the Iranian election we have continued to pursue our unwavering goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” a spokesman for the Treasury Department told the Daily Beast. “We have not let up on vigorous sanctions enforcement one iota.

"This includes new designations of sanctions evaders as well as other steps to address potential sanctions evasion,” the spokesman said.

Designating such violators has been crucial to the Obama administration's strategy to force Iran into abandoning its nuclear program — and they have been a factor in the current negotiations between Tehran, the U.S., and other world powers in Geneva this week.

Negotiations to curb Iran's nuclear efforts are in their third day on Saturday. Officials are optimistic, but said there still is no certainty of a deal.

"The negotiations taking place are about how Iran begins to meet its international obligations and provide assurances not just to us but to the entire world,” President Obama told NBC News on Thursday. They are “not about easing sanctions.”

But the administration on several occasions has indicted they are ready to lift sanctions. And Vice President Joe Biden last month urged that no new sanctions be imposed on Iran
Via: Newsmax

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REFERENDUM: ACTIVISTS GATHER SIGNATURES TO OVERTURN NON-PHYSICIAN ABORTION IN CALIFORNIA

Anti-abortion activists may begin gathering signatures to place a referendum on the 2014 election ballot in California to overturn AB 154, a law permitting non-physicians to perform abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the law last month, over the objections of pro-life groups and some physicians, and with the enthusiastic support of Planned Parenthood, which offers abortion services.

The City News Service reports that Secretary of State Debra Bowen granted permission to supporters of the ballot initiative to begin gathering signatures: "Valid signatures from 504,760 registered voters--5 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 general election--must be submitted by Jan. 7 to qualify each referendum for the November 2014 ballot." Abortion could, once again, be a prominent election issue.

Via Breitbart

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If Obama were a corporate executive, he'd be prosecuted for fraud

Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor of distinction, has written an important column for National Review Online, laying out what would happen to a corporate executive who behaved as President Obama has, selling an insurance product. I laid out the case that Obama was guilty of fraud late last month, but McCarthy's expertise and careful explication are of a much higher level.

The entire article deserves to be read in its entirety. But here is a sample:

Fraud is a serious federal felony, usually punishable by up to 20 years' imprisonment - with every repetition of a fraudulent communication chargeable as a separate crime. In computing sentences, federal sentencing guidelines factor in such considerations as the dollar value of the fraud, the number of victims, and the degree to which the offender's treachery breaches any special fiduciary duties he owes. Cases of multi-million-dollar corporate frauds - to say nothing of multi-billion-dollar, Bernie Madoff-level scams that nevertheless pale beside Obamacare's dimensions - often result in terms amounting to decades in the slammer.

Justice Department guidelines, set forth in the U.S. Attorneys Manual, recommend prosecution for fraud in situations involving "any scheme which in its nature is directed to defrauding a class of persons, or the general public, with a substantial pattern of conduct." So, for example, if a schemer were intentionally to deceive all Americans, or a class of Americans (e.g., people who had health insurance purchased on the individual market), by repeating numerous times - over the airwaves, in mailings, and in electronic announcements - an assertion the schemer knew to be false and misleading, that would constitute an actionable fraud - particularly if the statements induced the victims to take action to their detriment, or lulled the victims into a false sense of security.

Via: American Thinker

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EDITORIAL: In Washington, a crisis in competence

Both the federal shutdown and the botched rollout of the healthcare website sent the public the same sad message.

Elected officials in the nation's capital have spent the past several weeks demonstrating that they can't do the jobs voters sent them there to do. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers got into an extended spat that shut down much of the government for 16 days and threatened to turn Treasury Secretary Jacob Lewinto the world's biggest deadbeat. Meanwhile, the Obamaadministration launched a website for the new federally operated health insurance exchanges that failed epically, with so many design flaws and technical problems that it may take weeks to reach a basic level of reliability.

Granted, the government shutdown and the HealthCare.gov meltdown happened for very different reasons. The former was a result of a cynical and ill-conceived gambit by House Republicans, who tried to force changes in Obamacare that they didn't have the votes to win. The latter stemmed from the administration's inept management of a complex project, a problem exacerbated by political imperatives that repeatedly trumped technical ones.

The overarching message to the public, however, is the same in both instances: Your leaders are incompetent.

And the people are listening. Gallup reports that Congress' approval rating sank to an abysmal 11% during the shutdown, after rebounding slightly from its record low of 10% in February. President Obama, meanwhile, has seen his approval rating slide steadily this year to 39%, nearing the low point of his tenure. Dwindling faith in government has contributed to a pessimism about the economy that discourages consumer spending, the lifeblood of U.S. growth. According to surveys, the relentless stream of bad news out of Washington last month coincided with sharp drops in consumers' hopes for the economy and their confidence about the future.

The administration can undo some of the damage by fixing HealthCare.gov soon, giving people ample time to shop before policies are supposed to go into effect Jan. 1. But Washington faces another potential shutdown and default early next year, when the temporary measures enacted in mid-October expire. The best way for lawmakers to avoid a replay of last month's debacle would be to strike a deal before the end of the year that keeps federal agencies operating and the Treasury paying its bills.

Via: LA TImes

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The ‘White Poppy President’

The same president, who barely two months ago tried to keep 80-plus-year-old war veterans from visiting their open-air Washington war memorials, will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Veteran’s Day this Monday.

The same president, who is gutting the U.S. military, will host a breakfastto honor veterans and their families that is closed to the press. (White House Schedule)

For reasons above and more,President Barack Obama fully qualifies as ‘The White PoppyPresident’.

The White Poppy is the symbol of the ‘conscientious objector’.

Both here and overseas, the White Poppy is piggybacking the Red Poppy as an equal symbol for public displayon Remembrance Day and Veterans Day.  The pacifist and bedraggled White Poppy has much in common with politicians of the day who piggyback the internationally celebrated day to honour the world’s war dead with the same empty words and photo-ops.

Around since 1926, the White Poppy has never, in any way that can be called significant, come down off the shelf. (Canada Free Press, November, 2006)

“In 1926, a few years after the introduction of the Red Poppy in the UK, the idea of pacifists making their own poppies was put forward by a member of the No More War Movement (and that the traditionalblack centre of the British Legion’s red poppies should be imprinted withthe words “No More War”). (Wikipedia).  “Nothing seems to have come of this, until in 1933 the Women’s Co-operative Guild introduced the White Poppy; their intention was to remember the war dead (as with the red poppy), but with the added meaning of a hope for the end of all wars.

Via: Canada Free Press

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The Drift toward Despotism - Too many of our rulers and their enforcers reflexively see the citizenry as a threat. By Mark Steyn

At a time when over 4 million people have had their health insurance canceled, it’s good to know that some Americans can still access prompt medical treatment, even if they don’t want it. David Eckert was pulled over by police in Deming, N.M., for failing to come to a complete halt at a stop sign in the Walmart parking lot. He was asked to step out of the vehicle, and waited on the sidewalk. Officers decided that they didn’t like the tight clench of his buttocks, a subject on which New Mexico’s constabulary is apparently expert, and determined that it was because he had illegal drugs secreted therein. So they arrested him, and took him to Gila Regional Medical Center in neighboring Hidalgo County, where Mr. Eckert was forced to undergo two abdominal X-rays, two rectal probes, three enemas, and defecate thrice in front of medical staff and representatives of two law-enforcement agencies, before being sedated and subjected to a colonoscopy — all procedures performed against his will and without a valid warrant.

Alas, Mr. Eckert’s body proved to be a drug-free zone, and so, after twelve hours of detention, he was released. If you’re wondering where his lawyer was during all this, no attorney was present, as police had not charged Mr. Eckert with anything, so they’re apparently free to frolic and gambol up his rectum to their hearts’ content. Deming police chief Brandon Gigante says his officers did everything “by the book.” That’s the problem, in New Mexico and beyond: “the book.”

Getting into the spirit of things, Gila Regional Medical Center subsequently sent Mr. Eckert a bill for $6,000. It appears he had one of what the president calls those “bad apple” plans that doesn’t cover anal rape. Doubtless, under the new regime, Obamacare navigators will be happy to take a trip up your northwest passage free of charge. That’s what it is, by the way: anal rape. The euphemisms with which the state dignifies the process — “cavity search” — are distinctions that exist only in the mind of the perpetrator, not the fellow on the receiving end. Fleet Street’s Daily Mail reports that this is at least the second anal fishing expedition mounted by local authorities. Timothy Young underwent a similar experience after being fingered by the same police dog, Leo, who may not be very good at sniffing drugs but certainly has an eye for a pert bottom. At the time of Mr. Young’s arrest, Leo’s police license had reportedly expired a year-and-a-half earlier, but why get hung up on technicalities?

Via: NRO

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Three Ritzy Eric Holder Events Cost A Staggering 400K In Awards Alone

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog blasted the U.S. Marshals Service for excessive spending on “swag,” but the attorney general spent half as much on just three events.

Internal documents reveal that award spending for the Annual Attorney General Awards Ceremony — headed by Attorney General Eric Holder — more than doubled between 2009 and 2011, coming to a total of over $410,000 in the course of just three ceremonies.

The event is held by the Justice Department to recognize employees for their work. Holder presents the awards himself, which may explain why the department spared no expense when purchasing them.

Via: Daily Caller

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