White House takes down White House visitor logs, blames Republicans

The White House has taken down online White House visitor logs and blamed Congress.

The logs, which were posted beginning in December 2009 “as part of President Obama’s commitment to government transparency,” are the latest victims of a partial government shutdown that has temporarily idled 17 percent of the federal workforce.

“Due to Congress’s failure to pass legislation to fund the government, the information on this web site may not be up to date. Some submissions may not be processed, and we may not be able to respond to your inquiries,” reads the index page for the visitor logs.

“This dataset is currently private,” says the exact location on the page where the visitor logs used to be.

It is unclear how much money it costs to keep the visitor database up on the site, but the Obama White House has a history of overspending for web services. The Daily Caller reported today that taxpayers spent $634 million to build its non-functioning Healthcare.gov exchange for Obamacare. (Related: Report: Glitchy Healthcare.gov cost taxpayers more than $634 million to build)

This is also one of many cases in which the shutdown has been cited as a reason to disappear information that is potentially embarrassing to the administration. The Bureau of Labor Statistics quickly deep-sixed its September unemployment statistics as other employment proxies indicated the work situation has worsened once again. The Department of Agriculture has buried its September food stamps statistics which are also expected to show increased poverty, dependency and economic regression under Obama.

The White House is currently embroiled in a growing scandal following revelations Wednesday that senior White House officials exchanged confidential taxpayer information on groups with IRS officials at the center of the IRS conservative targeting scandal.

The White House visitor logs include records of numerous White House meetings between IRS official Sarah Hall Ingram and White House official Jeanne Lambrew, who exchanged confidential taxpayer information in emails sent to one another.

Via: The Daily Caller

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White House says bill to pay military death benefits 'not necessary,' senator blasts Obama

WASHINGTON –  The White House signaled Thursday that President Obama might not sign a bill to pay death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers, leading a top Republican senator to allege the president has hit a "new low." 

The Senate approved the bill Thursday afternoon, after it cleared the House a day earlier. The bill would reinstate the $100,000 "death gratuity" payments to military families, as well as resume funeral and burial expenses -- after funding was suspended as a consequence of the partial government shutdown. 

But White House Press Secretary Jay Carney claimed the bill was "not necessary," noting that charity group The Fisher House Foundation had just entered into an agreement with the Pentagon a day earlier to provide the benefits in the short-term. 

"The legislation is not necessary," Carney said, adding that the Defense Department has already agreed to reimburse the Fisher House. 

"It does mean that we don't need legislation," Carney said, without explicitly saying Obama would reject the bill. 

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who pushed the bill in the Senate, blasted the White House over the response. 

Via: Fox News

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Jason Furman: Senate GOP plan is another ‘ransom’ demand

Top White House economics adviser Jason Furman on Thursday dismissed elements of a potential budget offer by Senate Republicans as “another form of ransom.”

He also questioned why House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) would push ahead with a plan to raise the debt limit but not reopen the government, although he added that the White House has yet to see any legislation.

“There is just no reason to do that,” Furman said at a breakfast hosted by the Center for American Progress. “Every day the shutdown goes on, the effects get worse. I don’t know why you’d want to deal with one of them and not deal with the other.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been gauging support within the GOP conference to temporarily raise the debt ceiling and reopen the government in return for a handful of policy proposals, such as a repeal of the medical device tax in the health care law.

But Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, repeated the White House’s hard line against negotiating until the government shutdown ends and country’s borrowing authority is extended.

“If every six weeks you have some other thing that you are adding and trying to extract in exchange for just doing your basic business of keeping the government funded — and by the way, just at sequester level for six weeks — and not defaulting for six weeks, that is not a remotely tenable way to function,” Furman said.

Via: Politico

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REPORT: NEARLY 80% OF OBAMACARE WEBSITES STILL NOT FULLY FUNCTIONAL

Nearly 80% of the Obamacare insurance exchange websites are still not functional almost two weeks after the Obamacare marketplace debuted.

According to a new report, 39 states do not have fully functional Obamacare websites, while only 11, in addition to the District of Columbia, do as of Wednesday.

As has been reported, the Obamacare websites cost more to build than sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Via: Breitbart

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The Park Police, Part Deux: Hot Cops

The Eagle-Tribune in New Hampshire reported on a local resident who went through something of an ordeal while visiting Yellowstone National park. I’ll let them tell it, just so you don’t think I’m making it up:

Vaillancourt was one of thousands of people who found themselves in a national park as the federal government shutdown went into effect on Oct. 1. For many hours her tour group, which included senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States, were locked in a Yellowstone National Park hotel under armed guard.

The tourists were treated harshly by armed park employees, she said, so much so that some of the foreign tourists with limited English skills thought they were under arrest.

When finally allowed to leave, the bus was not allowed to halt at all along the 2.5-hour trip out of the park, not even to stop at private bathrooms that were open along the route. . . .

Rangers systematically sent visitors out of the park, though some groups that had hotel reservations — such as Vaillancourt’s — were allowed to stay for two days. Those two days started out on a sour note, she said.

The bus stopped along a road when a large herd of bison passed nearby, and seniors filed out to take photos. Almost immediately, an armed ranger came by and ordered them to get back in, saying they couldn’t “recreate.” The tour guide, who had paid a $300 fee the day before to bring the group into the park, argued that the seniors weren’t “recreating,” just taking photos.

Via: Weekly Standard

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