Liberal groups fight Heritage anti-Obamacare tour

The Heritage Action tour to defund Obamacare is getting an unwelcome visitor: Obamacare allies.

Americans United for Change and Protect Your Care are planning to travel across the country to counteract Heritage Action’s nine-city August tour calling on Congress to choke off funds to the president’s health care law.

“We’re not going to let this dangerous and ludicrous proposal be touted without a response — we’re going to every state they are [going to] and our presence will be felt,” the liberal groups wrote as they ann0unced the tour Friday. “We’ll hold our own events in some cases with dozens of concerned citizens, elected officials, doctors, nurses, students, seniors and people from across the spectrum who are or will benefit from the law.”

The Heritage Action tour, meant to drum up support for defunding the health care law during the congressional budget battles this fall, will be led by former Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and starts Monday in Fayetteville, Ark.. It wraps up Aug. 29 in Wilmington, Del. Some of those advocating defunding say it’s nonnegotiable — even if that means a government shut down.

Supporters of the president’s health law will hold their own events and speeches hours before the Heritage stops, and they’ll be visible at the Heritage events, too. They’ll also use mobile billboards in Fayetteville and Dallas on Tuesday, where the Heritage tour will be joined by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex), whose prominent role in the funding fight has brought him national attention and a burst of speculation about 2016 presidential ambitions.

The Obamacare allies claim the law’s opponents want to take away tangible benefits people are receiving, like preventive care and coverage for young adults. They say the GOP foes of the law want to deny health coverage to people —a theme that President Barack Obama hit hard in last week’s White House press conference.

Via: Politico

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Play or Pay? IRS Proposes Rules for a Key Provision of the Affordable Care Act

As you may be aware, deadlines and guidelines surrounding the ACA continue to be in flux. Moss Adams will continue to provide insight on and analysis of health care reform legislation and its potential impact on your organization, but for up-to-the-minute news about the ACA, we recommend Healthcare.gov or the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The IRS has issued proposed regulations for the health insurance premium tax credit created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This credit helps eligible taxpayers purchase individual coverage through a health insurance exchange. The guidance is significant to businesses because, under the ACA’s shared responsibility provisions, also known as “play or pay,” beginning in 2014 certain employers may be subject to penalties if just one employee receives the credit.

The regulations provide additional guidance to employers on how to determine whether their employer-sponsored plans satisfy the requirements to disqualify employees for the credit, which, in turn, will allow them to avoid play-or-pay penalties. The IRS earlier released regulations addressing the affordability issue; the new regulations lay down the rules for minimum value.

Though the regulations are proposed, taxpayers can consider them effective for periods starting after December 31, 2013, and may apply them to taxable years ending before January 1, 2015. When the rules are issued in final form, if there are any changes, taxpayers will need to comply with the changes only on a prospective basis and won’t be penalized for having relied on these proposed regulations.

Via: Moss-Adams LLP

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James Inhofe Announces Intent to Investigate NSA Violations

Inhofe will ‘work to investigate as to what laws were 

broken by the Administration’

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s ranking member will launch an investigation into the Obama administration’s potentially illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens following revelations that the National Security Administration (NSA) violated legal boundaries imposed by Congress.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the NSA “overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008.”

Many of these legal violations involved the “unauthorized” surveillance of American citizens in the United States, according to the Post’s report.

Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.) said on Saturday that he will now “work to investigate as to what laws were broken by the Administration,” according to a statement provided to the Free Beacon.

“The NSA violations recently reported by the Washington Post are very concerning as it appears the Obama Administration has abused the authority granted to them by Congress,” Inhofe said.

“NSA has been an essential tool in fighting terrorism, as seen in preventing the New York City subway bomb plot in 2009 as well as countless other classified incidences where we could have lost a number of innocent Americans,” Inhofe said.

Inhofe said that it is critical for Congress to uphold its duty to act as a check on the Obama administration, particularly when it comes to clandestine dealings that impact U.S. citizens.

“Congress has an important role to provide oversight of the NSA, and as Ranking Member of Senate Armed Services, I will work to investigate as to what laws were broken by the Administration,” Inhofe said. “As we uncover any violations, it is important we strike a balance of civil liberty protections with intelligence collection against those seeking to attack us overseas and here at home.”

Via: WFB

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[VIDEO]Rep. Aaron Schock: IRS Can't Stop Its Own Illegal Practices

The Internal Revenue Service is too incompetent to stop its own illegal behavior and it continues to target conservative groups even after President Barack Obama said the practices would stop, insists Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock.

"After the investigation had already begun, after the illegal behavior had already been exposed, they were asking pro-life groups how much of their time was being spent in prayer, how much of their time was being spent outside of abortion clinics, things that are clearly illegal for the IRS to ask when it's determining the tax-exempt status of any organization," Schock said in a Fox News interview on Friday. 

Story continues below video.



And according to recent testimony from an IRS screener in Cincinnati, the IRS has not issued any new guidelines in the wake of the scandal and all applications from political advocacy groups are being referred for secondary screening, The Hill reports. 

Schock said that while Democrats want the IRS scandal to fade away the issue will remain a topic for discussion.

"I would remind you that the only reason the American people are continuing to hear about this, the only reason that we know that the illegal targeting is continuing, is because we have a Republican-controlled House," Schock told Fox. "The Democrats on the committee have already said if they ran the place, the investigation would be complete."

Via: Newsmax

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Average Family Summer Travel Cost, $4,580 – Obamas’ Flight From Orlando to Mass., $359,500

(CNSNews.com) –The average American family of four will spend $4,580 on vacation travel this summer while the Obamas will spend about $359,000 in air travel alone to get to Cape Cod, enroute to Martha's Vineyard for their vacation -- and that's just the one-way flight.

According to American Express' 2013 survey on summer vacation travel, the average expense per person in the United States is $1,145, or $4,580 for a family of four. For contrast, the cost of flying President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama from Orlando, Fla. to Massachusetts on Aug. 10 was $359,000.

That cost estimate is based upon a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report that puts the price of operating Air Force One at $179,750 an hour.

The $359,000 is only for the flight from Orlando to the Coast Guard Air Station on Cape Cod -- it does not include the cost of flying the Obamas aboard the helicopter Marine One from Cape Cod to the island Martha’s Vineyard.

According the Martha’s Vineyard Times, based on press pool reports, the president and first lady boarded Air Force One on Saturday, Aug. 10 in Orlando at 1:20 p.m. and arrived at Coast Guard Air Station Cape Code in Massachusetts at 3:24 p.m. The couple was then transported by helicopter and motorcade to the $7.6 million home they rented for their 8-day stay.

Via: CNS News

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Behavior, Power and Control, Racism and Playing the N Word Game

Within the field of Psychology there are known behavioral scripts that people act out. They are so common that psychologists and psychiatrists even give them numbers and it is said joke about them occasionally at parties. What's interesting and instructional about behavioral scripts is that there are two types that drive us: instinctual and learned. For example, drinking fluids and eating are basic instincts; selecting the fluids and foods that won't kill us or make us sick are behaviors we learn. Learned behaviors that become scripts are those that are common among us, like the ways we get out of doing chores we don't like, or get out of going to jobs we learn not to like, even imagining better lives when we complain about the ones we live. There were successful situational comedy programs based on common stereotypes, like I Love Lucy, Family Matters, Archie Bunker and many and others.

It is also true that anyone feeling a lack of control in their life, because they have made little or no effort to construct one of self-choosing, will probably try to bring some level of control by altering their personal behavior and habits to control stress. These coping behaviors include overeating, blaming parents or the lack thereof, blaming racism, blaming the lack of money to buy books (colleges discard millions each year), blaming life circumstances that prevent adequate time for self-improvement, etc. And when coping behaviors become debilitating, some will withdraw from friends and family, physically or psychologically, take drugs or find other ways to escape reality, or seek professional help. Others will simply overcome their circumstances and coping behaviors and move forward, some drawing inspiration and or guidance from self-help books.

Via: American Thinker

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WOMAN WITH CONCEALED CARRY HANDGUN STOPS SIX ROBBERS AT HOUSTON DENNY'S

A woman whose husband was being accosted by six men in a Houston area Denny's pulled her concealed carry handgun from her purse and opened fire on the robbers.  

According to Click2Houston.com, the wife was in the restroom, and when she came out she saw her husband lying on the floor, the group of robbers nearby. Police say she then "pulled her gun and shot at them."

It appears the robbers shot back and police say there was a shootout. The robbers were apparently running as they shot. 

"No bystanders or customers" in the restaurant were injured, and the robbers "fled the scene."

The brother of the robbery victim praised the woman for doing what she did and said, "Self-defense saved my brothers' life."

Via: Breitbart

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Management removes American flags without warning, Korean War veteran says

A Korean War vet living in a Georgia federally subsidized housing unit says his American flags were removed by building management without warning.

Armond "Sonny" Noah said his four American flags were taken from outside his home without notice, and that when he asked maintenance where the flags went, they didn’t have an answer.

“It was an honor for me to serve the country. And I was proud of that. I was a good soldier."

- Armond "Sonny" Noah

Noah said a management official left a phone message days later saying that they had his flags, and that he couldn’t place flags in the commons area, MyFoxAtlanta.com reported.

“I don’t think we should have to fight for the flag,” Noah told MyFoxAtlanta.com. “It was an honor for me to serve the country. And I was proud of that. I was a good soldier.”

A spokesperson for the DeKalb County residence said that the matter was mishandled and that they plan on issuing an apology to Noah.

Management said they hope to reach a compromise with Noah, MyFoxAtlanta.com reported.

Via: Fox News

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Shock claim: 40,000 public school teachers moonlight on sugar-daddy website

Believe it when The Daily Caller tells you: If you find any fault with public school teachers, you will definitely hear about how very hard they work, and how they care so much about making the world a better place.

The Daily Caller now has evidence that the many spirited defenders of the old profession of teaching are right in many exciting, stimulating ways.

SeekingArrangement.com, which bills itself as “the #1 online dating website for sugar babies and generous men,” is now boasting that some 40,000 public school teachers of a certain moral caliber have joined the website in an attempt to sell sexual services seek wealthy, older men for “mutually beneficial relationships.”

In a press release, SeekingArrangement’s CEO suggests that teachers on the website are responding conventionally to diminished budgets, overcrowded classrooms and, of course, the perpetual need for school supplies.

“You can’t expect a teacher to accept less pay for more work than their peers, and then reach into their pockets to fund your child’s classroom,” declared Brandon Wade, the website’s founder and CEO. “But that’s what’s happening. If those are the expectations and pressures we are putting on our teachers in America, than they can’t possibly be judged for whatever extracurricular activities they choose to pursue to stay afloat.”

According to SeekingArrangement, the top five school districts in the country for sugar-baby teachers are (in order): the School District of Philadelphia, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Los Angeles Unified School District, the Clark County School District (in the Las Vegas area) and the New York City public schools.

Data is self-reported by the women who use the site when they initially sign up.

“Based on the occupation field ‘teacher,’ we polled members to see which school districts they worked in,” explained Jennifer Gwynn, SeekingArrangement’s public relations manager, in an email to The Daily Caller.

Via: Daily Caller

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Town Hall Heckles Congressman Over Obamacare: ‘Stop Lying!’

With Congress on vacation, it’s town hall season in America, with lawmakers returning to their states and districts to make their case to constituents before the session resumes in September. And with the implementation of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act set to occur on October 1st, some Republicans have been using these final months to argue against the law at home.

But Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL) got more than he bargained for this week when he faced an angry crowd in Winter Haven, Florida, who urged him to “stop lying” about Obamacare. The town hall crowd was relatively subdued and respectful, with only a few grumbled of “misleading,” until Webster got to his main point. “I believe that Obamacare is bad for America,” the congressman said, “and so does the president.”

At that point, the town hall audience exploded into objection, with one loud voice asking, “What about the seniors in your district?” Another voice chimed in with, “What about us?”

An event official had to step in to ask the crowd to quiet down and let Webster speak, but he couldn’t get out more than a few words, before one man shouted, “Well, tell him to stop lying!” followed by “You want to shut us up.”

Webster resumed his remarks, explaining to people that even if they are able to get health care plans with lower premiums, they will end up paying more “out of pocket,” a charge that audience was clearly not buying.

He did manage to get a smattering of applause at the end, when he laid out his “three principles” of health care: “the care we need, at a price we can afford, from the doctor we choose.”

Watch video below, via YouTube:

Via: Mediaite

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Oversight Committee: Administration withheld ObamaCare documents

vThe House Oversight Committee slammed the Treasury Department on Thursday for withholding documents related to the committee's investigation of the administration's expansion of subsidies in the ObamaCare exchanges. 

Committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Health Care Subcommittee chairman James Lankford, R-Penn., threatened in their letter to use legal force against the department if it does not turn over the documents by Aug. 29. 

The committee has been investigating for over a year the administration's decision to expand subsidies to the federally run health insurance exchanges mandated by ObamaCare. The 2010 law creates subsidies for insurance purchased on state-created exchanges, but it is unclear if the law permits the federal government to extend these subsidies to the federally run exchanges. 

Issa and Lankford, along with leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee, requested 50 outstanding emails and other documents by Aug. 13 in a letter dated July 25. 

The two Oversight Committee leaders found the documents provided by Treasury insufficient. 

Via: Fox News

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Egypt considers outlawing Muslim Brotherhood

CAIRO (AP) - Egyptian authorities are considering disbanding the Muslim Brotherhood group, a government spokesman said Saturday, once again outlawing a group that held the pinnacle of government power just more than a month earlier.

The announcement comes after security forces broke up two sit-in protests this week by those calling for the reinstatement of President Mohammed Morsi, a Brotherhood leader deposed in a July 3 coup. The clashes killed more than 600 people that day and sparked protests and violence that killed 173 people Friday alone.

Cabinet spokesman Sherif Shawki said that Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi, who leads the military-backed government, assigned the Ministry of Social Solidarity to study the legal possibilities of dissolving the group. He didn't elaborate.

The Muslim Brotherhood group, founded in 1928, came to power a year ago when its Morsi was elected in the country's first free presidential elections. The election came after the overthrow of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising in 2011.

Via: My Way News

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Obama Pushes Green Energy Agenda Despite Congressional Opposition

For the first time since the Carter Administration, solar panels are going up on the roof of the White House. It's part of a mandate towards renewable energy in the federal government, but also a symbolic gesture that the president is plowing ahead with his green energy agenda, regardless of congressional opposition.
It's a policy that EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy affirmed Wednesday at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "He said that he wasn't going to wait for Congress, but that he had administrative authorities," she said. "It was time to start utilizing those more effectively, in a more concerted way."

Via: Fox News

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[VIDEO] Congresswoman Capito talks Obamacare in Republican Weekly Address Saturday August 17, 2013

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Second District Congresswomen Shelley Moore Capito is calling on President Obama to back a bipartisan, House-passed measure that protects all Americans from the Affordable Health Care Act.

“It’s time for your Senate to pass, and for you to sign the House’s bipartisan delay of the individual mandate,” said Capito during the Republican Weekly Radio Address Saturday.

Last month, a bipartisan majority in the House passed legislation delaying the individual mandate in the president’s health care law. The president has threatened to veto the bill, according to Capito, despite already signing seven bills that repeal parts of the law. The most recent move came this week with the Obama administration delaying part of the act for big businesses.

Capito said it’s time the president reconsiders the legislation because it is only fair that individuals and families get the same relief that big businesses have unfairly received.

“It’s more than fair when you look at how this law is already raising costs, hurting jobs and reducing access to the plans and the doctors you like,” she said during the nationwide address.

In addition, Capito believes the health care law is not working, contrary to what the president claims.

“Not when the administration is missing deadlines, issuing waivers and granting delays hand over fist,” she said. “Things have become so bad that the administration wants to rely on the honor system to verify who is eligible for subsidies.”

Capito urges the president to pass the legislation delaying the individual mandate because it’s simply the right thing to do.

“Let’s delay this health care law, not just for some but for all Americans. That would only be fair,” she said. “That would government working the way it’s suppose to.”

[VIDEO] OBAMA DECLARES HEALTH INSURANCE A 'RIGHT'

Claims Republicans fighting Obamacare are 'sticking it to 

you'

Obama On Obamacare: Lots Of Free Stuff But Republicans Want It To Fail

President Obama says we are on the way to fully implementing the Affordable Care Act and helping millions of Americans.  

• Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness – and now health insurance?

In his weekly address, released Saturday morning, President Barack Obama declared health insurance is now the “right” of every American.

Speaking mostly on the topic of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, the president stated, “I’m going to keep doing everything in my power to make sure this law works as it’s supposed to. Because in the United States of America, health insurance isn’t a privilege – it is your right. And we’re going to keep it that way.”

The statement came at the end of an address in which Obama blasted Republicans for resisting implementation of his signature health-care law and accused them of simply trying to “stick it” to him.

“There’s [a] group of Republicans in Congress working hard to confuse people, and making empty promises that they’ll either shut down the health care law, or, if they don’t get their way, they’ll shut down the government,” Obama said. “A lot of Republicans seem to believe that if they can gum up the works and make this law fail, they’ll somehow be sticking it to me. But they’d just be sticking it to you.”

Via: WMD

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WHY OUR CITIES ARE WRITHING IN DEATH-GRIP OF CRIME, BANKRUPTCY

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

“And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

“And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

“Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

“So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

“Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.” (Genesis 11:4-9 KJV)

There is something a little strange about big cities.

The enigmatic biblical story of the tower of Babel revolves around this strange something that occurs when large numbers of people come together in one place and form a great hive.

It’s not that something bad has to happen – it doesn’t, especially if the people governing that city are highly principled and grounded in reality. But how often does that happen?

What, then, is this strange “something”? It’s what happens when deceitful and power-hungry people rise to positions of power to rule over their own little “kingdom.” On a more cosmic level, one might say it’s the futility and ultimate disintegration of anything – even a great city – built as a monument to man’s greatness rather than God’s.

Such sentiments are, of course, foolishness to today’s secular and sophisticated Western mind.

But then, our cities are disintegrating. So why don’t we take a closer look?

Via: WND

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