ROCK STAR ADMITS CAMPAIGNING FOR ROMNEY WAS ‘CAREER SUICIDE’

If it seems like it’s hard to find conservatives in Hollywood, finding conservatives in the music industry can be an even rarer feat. John Ondrasik, the singer-songwriter of the band Five for Fighting, says it’s basically “me and Kid Rock.”

Ondrasik, known for hits like “Superman” and “100 Years” and now marking the release of his sixth album, Bookmarks, got some attention last week after he tweeted about his experience getting physically removed from the Jefferson Memorial during the government shutdown.

TheBlaze spoke with Ondrasik about that, the reaction from people when they find out he’s conservative, and his new song that takes aim at the Sean Penns of the world.

Credit: Jeremy Cowart

What’s been the reaction to your experience at the Jefferson Memorial?

It’s been wild, I never expected it to go viral, obviously it did. Next day, USA Today called me to write an op-ed, they told me my op-ed was the most-read piece on their site. A lot of people I think are passionate about what’s going on and maybe some of those pictures kind of just brought it all out to the front for some folks. So I never expected it to get the reaction it did — I literally just went out for a jog that morning.

Out of everything to do with the shutdown, closing the memorials and trying to keep veterans out seems to have resonated with people the most. Why do you think?

I think there’s one group you don’t pick on, and that’s the troops, and that’s the veterans. And you don’t use them as a political prop. And, you know, it seems obvious to me that there’s a clear strategy by the White House to create optics that unnecessarily pain the average American, that give shutdown horror photo ops for the media. I’m sure there are many “park closed” signs laying around, but someone had to make up the “park closed due to SHUTDOWN” in bold font with caps.

Via: The Blaze

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Shutdown Dents Legislators’ Fundraising

Earlier this week, CalWatchdog.com mentioned some of the political implications that the partial government shutdown will have on Congress, particularly a few vulnerable representatives from California. Members are dealing with the competing demands of winning leverage against the other party, while trying to stress their opposition to an ongoing shutdown. It’s likely the shutdown will continue into next week and potentially even longer, as some conservatives have decided that a prolonged shutdown is a better political fight than one over raising the nation’s borrowing limit.

So while the shutdown continues, lawmakers are now posed with a new question: To fundraise, or not to fundraise? In times of political crisis, lawmakers generally try to avoid fundraisers. After all, no elected official wants news to leak that they were eating shrimp with millionaires while 800,000 government workers are on furlough. But with the midterm elections just one year away, some politicians have decided it’s best to stay away. For some, it’s a matter of logistics: House Speaker John Boehner had to cancel a significant weekend fundraiser last month, and he may be forced to miss an upcoming event in Orange County, Calif. as well.

Vulnerable lawmakers are likely to avoid fundraising. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., was seen at a National Association of Realtors fundraiser earlier this week. Republicans blasted the vulnerable Democrat for raising money instead of negotiating over the impasse.

But politicians in safe seats who can take some political heat are continuing to fundraise, even sounding indignant at times. Roll Call reported:

Several more Democrats in safe seats continued to prime the pump. Reps. John D. Dingell and Sander M. Levin of Michigan and Reps. Charles B. Rangel and Nydia M. Velázquez of New York went forward with their fundraising events.

“Why shouldn’t I?” Dingell responded to a question about one of his events. “I don’t have to ask permission to have a fundraiser do I?”

Via: California Political Review

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White House: Shutdown Has Furloughed 4 Nobel Scientists, CDC Flu Surveillance

The Nobel Prize and the government shutdown were both in the news this week, for different reasons, but they’re also linked by the shutdown briefing that President Obama received Sunday morning. While the mainstream media has established that the shutdown has had no effect on the output of three-minute Youtube videos, it has resulted in the furloughing of four Nobel Prize-winning scientists, and the suspension of the Centers for Disease Control’s flu surveillance program. From a White House official, via email:

Today, the President was briefed by Denis McDonough on the impacts of the lapse in appropriations on important research programs.

The federal government’s research agencies have been largely shuttered, with scientists sent home and projects shelved.  There are five Nobel Prize-winning researchers currently working for the federal government, all of whom are world-renowned scientists and leaders in their field.  Four of them are currently furloughed and unable to conduct their federal research on behalf of the American public due to the government shutdown.

Additional details below:

•          Center for Disease Control: Two-thirds of CDC personnel have been sent home. CDC’s activities in influenza surveillance and monitoring have been cut back, just as we are moving into peak flu season.  While many flu vaccines are produced by private companies, CDC’s annual flu vaccination campaigns have been cut back and the weekly “Flu View” report that is relied upon by public-health authorities has been suspended.  CDC will continue to address any imminent threats to public health.

•          National Science Foundation: 98 percent of the National Science Foundation has been furloughed, and new scientific research grants are not being issued.

•          National Institute for Health: Currently, nearly three-quarters of NIH staff have been furloughed.  Although the NIH Clinical Center remains open for patients already enrolled in studies, most new patients have been turned away during the shutdown.  NIH will continue to monitor its admissions policy and adjust as necessary based on life and safety considerations, depending on the duration of the shutdown.

Via: Mediaite.com

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AP Headline Claims Social Security Inflation Increase Will Be 'Among Lowest in Years,' When 2010 and 2011 Had No Increase at All

There was no annual adjustment to Social Security benefits for inflation during 2010 or 2011. That's because the 2009 increase of 5.8 percent (announced in November 2008, and considered the "2009" increase at this table) was artifically lifted by the $4 per gallon gas prices seen in the summer of 2008, the period used in the annual inflation adjustment calculation. After gas prices came down, overall prices levels were slightly lower during the next two years.

With that background, it's hard to imagine how a headline writer at the Associated Press, aka the Adminstration's Press, could transform what writer Stephen Ohlemacher accurately described as an "historically small increase" to "among the lowest in years" — unless it's to create a false impression among those who only read headlines that the government is being unduly stingy in disbursing benefits. Excerpts from Ohlemacher's report follow the jump (bolds are mine):

SOCIAL SECURITY RAISE TO BE AMONG LOWEST IN YEARS

For the second straight year, millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect historically small increases in their benefits come January.

Preliminary figures suggest a benefit increase of roughly 1.5 percent, which would be among the smallest since automatic increases were adopted in 1975, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

Next year's raise will be small because consumer prices, as measured by the government, haven't gone up much in the past year.

... Nearly 58 million retirees, disabled workers, spouses and children get Social Security benefits. The average monthly payment is $1,162. A 1.5 percent raise would increase the typical monthly payment by about $17.

The COLA also affects benefits for more than 3 million disabled veterans, about 2.5 million federal retirees and their survivors, and more than 8 million people who get Supplemental Security Income, the disability program for the poor.

Automatic COLAs were adopted so that benefits for people on fixed incomes would keep up with rising prices. Many seniors, however, complain that the COLA sometimes falls short, leaving them little wiggle room.

Since 1975, annual Social Security raises have averaged 4.1 percent. Only six times have they been less than 2 percent, including this year, when the increase was 1.7 percent. There was no COLA in 2010 or 2011 because inflation was too low.

The final bolded paragraph above is convenient framing. It is also likely that "many seniors" find that the increases are either adequate or not relevant. But the complainers get the ink and bandwidth. And of course, you can forget about AP reminding readers of Social Security's permanent cash-flow deficit or long-term unsustainability.

Ohlemacher's narrative only implies an important truth about 2010 and 2011. Because the 2009 increase was so large and did not get reduced when overall prices went down, beneficiaries on an overall basis received more in benefits than they needed to maintain their standard of living during the next two years.

But to reiterate the main point: Only two years removed from two consecutive years of no increased at the all, the AP story's headline describing the anticipated 2014 as the "lowest in years" is extraordinarily weak.

Via: Newsbusters

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Sen. Ayotte: Solve Problems Like President Reagan

Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire evoked President Ronald Reagan in arguing against the House Republican strategy to defund Obamacare by forcing a government shutdown.

"Look where we are," Ayotte said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." "The government's shut down, Obamacare exchanges are still open."

"I think it's time for conservative problem-solvers to get things done," said. "That's what Ronald Reagan did."

However, Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, said the government will not go into default on Oct. 17, and the White House is trying to scare markets with its rhetoric about raising the debt ceiling by that date.

"There are no payments due on Oct. 17 to pay our creditors," Huelskamp said on the CBS show.

Pressed by host Bob Schieffer that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said the opposite, Huelskamp noted that Lew "said a lot of things a week ago," and that the "White House is trying to scare the markets. "

Via: Newsmax

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[VIDEO] Dan Senor: In 2014 People Will Be Talking About Obamacare, Not Government Shutdown

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
October 13, 2013 12:06 pm

On ABC This Week Dan Senor pointed out that a year from now during the midterm election, people will not be talking about the government shutdown. Instead they will be talking about the failed implementation of Obamacare.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman defended the rollout, suggesting the disastrous introduction of the law thus far could be fixed easily and calling it “a software glitch.”

Señor shot him down, calling it a “technology disaster.”

Via: WFB

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[VIDEO] Graham Calls on Ryan and Boehner to Pass Bill That Would Not Delay, Defund Obamacare

Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) today called on Representative Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) to take on a leadership roll in negotiations over the government shutdown.

Speaking on ABC’s This Week, Graham told host George Stephanopoulos that he believed Ryan should partner with Speaker John Boehner to pass something “that doesn’t delay or defund [Obamacare], but would be good government.”

“That’s the best thing for the Republican party and for the country,” Graham said. “But as between House and Senate Republicans, the sooner this is over, the better for us, guys.”

Ryan has come to the fore lately in negotiations; last week, Ryan published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that proposed a compromise that would trade relief from the sequester for entitlement reform.

Via: NRO

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Obama administration continues to crash in cyberspace

The Obama administration’s continuing multi-billion dollar screw ups in cyberspace are creating public panic.

It would be natural for people suddenly cut off from EBT cards paying for groceries to feed hungry families, to panic.

Lost in this latest denial to the poor and needy is the fact that the Barack Obama administration is hopelessly lost—somewhere in cyberspace.

First came Healthcare.gov, whose site had to be shut down when it couldn’t be accessed by John Q. Public signing up for ObamaCare,  then came the technical glitches which sparked 10 fiery explosions over 13 months at NSA’s newest and largest showcase data storage facility in Utah.

Although it’s reported back up and running this morning, this weekend it was the food stamp debit-style EBT cards rendered useless for people in Ohio, Michigan and 15 other states, after a routine test of backup systems by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure.

System failures across the land seem to be Obama’s latest scandal.

“At about 9 a.m. Saturday, reports from across the country began pouring in that customers’ EBT cards were not working in stores.  (CBS Boston, Oct. 12, 2013)

Via: Canada Free Press

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Veterans toss aside memorial barricades, march on White House

Veterans from all over the country gathered at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. Sunday morning to protest the closure of the memorials during the partial government shutdown, throwing barricades placed in front of the memorials aside in heaps.

Organized by Brats for Veterans Advocacy, the Million Vet March on the Memorials drew in a crowd of vocal veterans fed up with the federal government’s shutdown decisions waving enormous American and “Don’t Treat On Me” flags and signs.

“I’m totally, thoroughly disgusted in our government’s decision to close these monuments,” said retired Army Green Beret Mike Freeman, who served in Vietnam.

Retired Master Sergeant  Jim Hanson also expressed his anger with the closures, telling The Daily Caller that veterans have every right to visit memorials erected in their honor.

“It’s a disgrace to close this memorial,” Hanson said, indicating the World War II memorial. “It cost more to close it than to let the veterans pay their respects. The government is not in charge of keeping people out of monuments that were put here in their own honor.”

An African-American vet who asked to remain unnamed was dismayed that patriotic commemorations were caught in partisan crossfire and that more black veterans were not joining in the protest.

“I think that things are getting bad when they can find the money to fund academy football teams but can’t find the money to give to widows and dead soldiers’ families. That’s just wrong,” he said. “My only regret is that there’s not a lot more black veterans here today. It’s not a black or a white thing, it’s not a Republican or a Democrat thing — it’s a right or wrong thing. I’m here today because it’s the right thing to do.”

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz all made appearances to thank the vets for their service and rail against the Obama administration and the closure of the memorials.

Via: Daily Caller

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GOP: WE'LL INCREASE SPENDING TO END SHUTDOWN

Over the weekend, House and Senate Republican proposals on the fiscal showdown, which largely met previously stated demands from the White House, were summarily rejected by President Obama and Senate Democrats. Having shown that they are desperate to end the stand-off, the GOP is now facing pressure from Democrats to undo the sequester cuts agreed to during the last debt-ceiling debate. Limping, the DC GOP seems ready to accept this defeat. 

The Budget Control Act of 2011, a product of the last negotiations on the debt ceiling, enacted across-the-board spending cuts in discretionary programs. They weren't smart. They weren't targeted. They didn't address entitlement spending, the real driver of federal deficits and debt. But, they were actual cuts in federal spending. It was something. Now, having completely misplayed its hand in the shutdown debate, the GOP is willing to negotiate it away. 

The Budget Control Act, aka sequester, limits discretionary appropriations in 2014 to $967 billion. The Senate Democrat budget blueprint, and Obama's budget proposal, outlines closer to $1.1 trillion in spending. Sources on the Hill tell Breitbart News that House Republicans are willing to increase discretionary spending above sequester levels to reach a deal to lift the debt ceiling and end the partial government shutdown. 

In other words, Republicans want to increase spending to enable the national debt to increase. 

Via: Breitbart

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Carney Defends White House’s Decision To Keep Making Obama Propaganda Videos During Shutdown…

Priorities.The government shutdown hasn't stopped the White House from producing its weekly video update, but press secretary Jay Carney wouldn't say much Friday about why it had remained an "essential" function during the shutdown.

“Communications is part of what we do at the White House," Carney said in response to a question about the continued production of "West Wing Week," a video series narrated by principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest.

He declined to say more, referring questions to the Office of Management and Budget, which didn't immediately respond to POLITICO's request for comment.

Via: Politico

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NYT and WaPo Unleash Devastating Takedowns of Obamacare: "These Are Not Glitches"

In March, Henry Chao, the chief digital architect for the Obama administration’s new online insurance marketplace, told industry executives that he was deeply worried about the Web site’s debut. “Let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience,” he told them.

Two weeks after the rollout, few would say his hopes were realized.

For the past 12 days, a system costing more than $400 million and billed as a one-stop click-and-go hub for citizens seeking health insurance has thwarted the efforts of millions to simply log in. The growing national outcry has deeply embarrassed the White House, which has refused to say how many people have enrolled through the federal exchange.

Even some supporters of the Affordable Care Act worry that the flaws in the system, if not quickly fixed, could threaten the fiscal health of the insurance initiative, which depends on throngs of customers to spread the risk and keep prices low.

“These are not glitches,” said an insurance executive who has participated in many conference calls on the federal exchange. Like many people interviewed for this article, the executive spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he did not wish to alienate the federal officials with whom he works. “The extent of the problems is pretty enormous. At the end of our calls, people say, ‘It’s awful, just awful.’ ”

Interviews with two dozen contractors, current and former government officials, insurance executives and consumer advocates, as well as an examination of confidential administration documents, point to a series of missteps — financial, technical and managerial — that led to the troubles.

Politics made things worse. To avoid giving ammunition to Republicans opposed to the project, the administration put off issuing several major rules until after last November’s elections. The Republican-controlled House blocked funds. More than 30 states refused to set up their own exchanges, requiring the federal government to vastly expand its project in unexpected ways.

Via: NYT

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Senators return to work on fiscal crisis, but uncertain about how, when it will end

FILE: October 3, 2013: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor after a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.REUTERS

Two top senators gave bleak assessments Sunday of the likelihood of Congress swiftly reaching deals to end one fiscal crisis and avert another, with the Republican lawmaker saying Democrats are now overreaching in their demands.

“We will see our way through this, but the last 24 hours have not been good,” Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker told “Fox News Sunday.” “I agree that Republicans started with the overreach, but now Democrats are one tick too cute. They are now overreaching.”

Corker argues that Senate Democrats want Republicans, as part of the fiscal negotiations, to roll back the steep cuts to government spending, known as sequester and signed into law in the 2011 Budget Control Act.

He told Fox News the cuts are just as much the law of the land as ObamaCare, which Republicans tried to dismantle in the deals – one to end the partial shutdown of government services that started Oct. 1 and another to agree on the nation's borrowing limit before Thursday’s deadline.

Corker also said he thinks the White House told Senate Democrats earlier in the weekend to pull back.  

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is among 24 senators who have given bipartisan support to a proposal put forth by Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins that Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected Sunday.

Via: Fox News

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Union concerned House will join Senate in sweeping immigration reform

A union representing hundreds of federal Citizenship and Immigration Services employees is concerned that House leaders will abandon the Republican-led chamber’s incremental approach toward illegal-immigration reform for the sweeping changes passed in the “extremely dangerous” Senate bill.

“I worry the House may be following a similar path,” Kenneth Palinkas, president of the National Citizenship and Immigration Services Council, said recently.

Palinkas said the union’s major concerns are that House leaders might be trying to “advance proposals to open citizenship benefits to the majority of those here illegally, in combination with proposals to expand visa programs.” 

He said the union also is concerned that House and Senate members will meet -- in what is known on Capitol Hill as “conference” -- to merge or “blend” the House bill “with the extremely dangerous Senate bill.”

Palinkas said the union is basing its concerns in part on media reports about Republican Reps. Paul Ryan, Wis.; Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Va.; Bob Goodlatte, Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Illinois Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez.

Goodlatte could not be reached for comment Sunday. However, his stated stance on immigration reform is that the system is “broken” and that the way for Congress to remedy the problem is to “methodically look at each of the various components that need to be fixed and take any final bill through the traditional legislative process.”

Via: Fox News

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No Evidence Dems Can Take Back House

The 2010 midterm election that swept Republicans into power in the U.S. House of Representatives was a mandate to put the brakes on President Obama and his agenda.

Aside from voters also hoping that Republicans would do something – anything – to boost the economy, restraining Obama was pretty much the issue of that election.

It was the second wave election in four years (Republicans were dumped from the majority in 2006). And it had less to do with voters finding Republicans appealing once again and more to do with putting a halt to the Democrats’ overreach.

At the center of that overreach was the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare – which is why many of those elected to office in that cycle and reelected last year have been adamant about repealing it, even at the cost of a government shutdown.

Or even at the cost of losing their seats, which has led to talk of a Democrat wave election cycle. It is a possibility pushed by paid pundits as reality, but the facts do not support it.

That does not mean a wave election isn’t brewing out on Main Street. In fact, early polling indicates the 2014 midterm might produce another electoral shift, but not one that shoves Republicans out of power.

First of all, the playing field of vulnerable GOP seats is too narrow for Republicans to lose their majority, baring a massive wave. (Think 1894, when 107 Democrats were swept out of the House.)

Second, major waves historically have not happened concurrent with the “six-year itch” – the election held in the sixth year of a president's tenure, in which the party holding the White House typically loses a substantial number of House and Senate seats.

And remember that, in the 1996 midterm election of the Clinton era, Republicans lost 18 incumbents but kicked the Democrats’ butts in the open-seat races. The Republicans’ losses were mostly “wave seats” that they unexpectedly won two years earlier, during their first sweep back into power after 40 years in the political wilderness.

Via: Real Clear Politics

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Huffington Post Opines: God Wants Socialism, Not Shutdowns

Over at The Huffington Post, socialist activist Jim Wallis is typically insisting that the Bible’s verses on the poor all underline that socialism is God’s demand in the current shutdown. We're not individually responsible for the poor, we must be collectively, bureaucratically responsible. 

“We're hearing lots of babble at the Capitol, but across the street, we're trying to hear the word of God -- what God says about the people, families, and children who will suffer the most because of Washington's babble,” he wrote. Don’t they know God wanted a statist “War on Poverty”?

These words aren't just directed to churches and charities about what we should do with the poor. They're about the obligations of kings, rulers, and government to protect the poor...

We plan to give out copies of The Poverty and Justice Bible, which has all 2,000 verses about the poor highlighted in orange, to each Member of Congress and their staff during the shutdown. We want the politicians who assault each other and the nation with their words every day to hear what we Christians call the Word of God, just across the street from their verbal battles... 

We're going to keep sharing God's message of good news for the poor to help our elected officials rediscover the vision of the "common good." We invite you to come down and support the Faithful Filibuster. And if you can't join us in person, tweet one of the 2,000 Bible verses on poverty with the hashtag #FaithfulFilibuster. Let's remind the politicians and pundits whose babble has dominated, that it is only the Word of God that endures forever. (Isaiah 40:8)

The HuffPost also included a link to his new book “On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn't Learned about Serving the Common Good.” It quotes from Lincoln saying, "My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side."'

Liberals love to use this against the Christian right. This utterly misses that Lincoln might not have been thinking of Gary Bauer.

Via: Huffington Post

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Obama calls Pelosi amid debt talks

President Obama called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday as lawmakers are attempting to reach a deal to avert a default on the U.S. debt, the White House said.

Obama and Pelosi “discussed the way forward on the pressing fiscal matters facing Congress today,” the White House said.

The Democratic leaders agreed on the necessity of a “clean” bill to hike the U.S. debt limit, which the Treasury Department has said the federal government will reach on Thursday, according to a White House statement about the call.

“This afternoon the president spoke with Leader Pelosi over the phone,” the White House said. “The President and Leader Pelosi discussed the way forward on the pressing fiscal matters facing Congress today. They reinforced that there must be a clean debt limit increase that allows us to pay the bills we have incurred and avoid default, and that the House needs to pass the clean continuing resolution to open up the government and end the shutdown that is hurting middle class families and businesses across the country.”

The White House said Obama and Pelosi agreed that they should not negotiate with Republicans on budget issues until the GOP agrees to reopen the government and prevent a first-ever default on federal bills.

Via: The Hill

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California Officials Raid Offices Of Obama Mega Donor

AP Photo15558

The Orange County, Calif. District Attorney's Office this week raided the offices of Landmark Medical Management, whose president and CEO, Kareem Ahmed, was one of the largest individual financial backers of President Obama's 2012 re-election effort.

Officials with the district attorney's office on Tuesday morning executed a search warrant at Landmark's office in Ontario, Calif., according to a source who works at Landmark and was present during the raid. The exact nature of the district attorney's investigation is unclear.

"After they gathered everybody in the main area of the building, yeah, there was just an announcement that they had a search warrant, we weren't to touch anything work related, we weren't to touch any type of phones, we weren't allowed to leave the area until we were identified and questioned," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told TPM.

According to the source, Ahmed was not present at Landmark's office during the raid.
Landmark's human resources manager, Ladonna Hieber, told TPM on Thursday that the company had "no comment on anything," but that she was aware that this reporter was attempting to contact Landmark employees.

"My employees aren't supposed to speak to you," Hieber said.

The district attorney's office also declined to comment on the raid.

"I'm not going to confirm or deny it," Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff to the Orange County district attorney, told TPM on Thursday.

Ahmed had practically no history of political giving, and Landmark had little public profile, before he began giving large amounts of money to Obama, Democrats, and Democratic outside spending groups in 2012. Ahmed and his wife contributed well over a million dollars to Democratic efforts in 2012 -- with the bulk of the money going to Priorities USA Action, the most prominent Obama-supporting super PAC.

Via: TPM

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Government 404 Error

It was a lovely day. Everything in the Capital, it seemed, was closed due to the shutdown, and traffic was sparse so I wandered downtown to see how things were faring. My favorite spot was packed with White House aides leaking fake inside tips to credulous pressmen, and I really didn't want to be there. I asked the bartender for a carryout sandwich and coffee and headed to Lafayette Park across the street from the White House.

I found a nice empty bench, spread my things out and minutes later a chubby fellow in a BGIU T-shirt asked if I minded sharing the bench. "No, of course not," I answered, moving some stuff to make sure he had plenty of room.

"What's BGIU?" I asked. "I've never heard of that one before."

"It's Big Government Is Us," he answered. We're a group of citizens who think government should get ever bigger, unlike those tea party nuts."

"Bigger? I mean the whole shebang seems to be on autopilot with a permanent, unaccountable civil service already running the show. Federal spending is now $250 billion a month and even with the shutdown and all non-essential employees furloughed we still spend 80% of that without any congressional control. How do you square that with the Constitutional prohibition against spending money without Congressional appropriations?"

My bench mate looked away and I saw a tear running down his cheek.

"Everybody knows now," he sobbed. He reached down into his briefcase and pulled out a stack of clippings. Handing one to me, he said, "Look at what I mean."

Via: American Thinker

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THIS IS A STICKY THREAD FOR A DEVELOPING LARGE-SCALE EVENT.

If you are looking for regular news. Please scroll down.

Via: Weasel Zippers

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Obamacare enrollees become urban legend

Will the Floridians who have enrolled for Obamacare please stand up?

Nearly two weeks after the federal government launched the online Health Insurance Marketplace at HealthCare.gov, individuals who have successfully used the choked-up website to enroll for a subsidized health insurance plan have reached a status akin to urban legend: Everyone has heard of them, but very few people have actually met one.

The Miami Herald searched high and low for individuals who completed enrollment for a subsidized health plan through the marketplace, also called an exchange, launched by the federal government on Oct. 1 in 36 states, including Florida.

The Herald solicited readers for stories of enrollees online and in the newspaper, and received a fair number of responses reflecting various degrees of success with HealthCare.gov, which has been plagued by technical problems that federal officials attribute to an overwhelming number of people trying to access the website at once.

A keystone of the federal healthcare reform law known the Affordable Care Act, the exchange is intended to provide affordable, comprehensive health insurance for the millions of Americans who do not have coverage.

As of Friday, however, only a smattering of success stories had emerged in news reports. Politico.com, an online news outlet, reported that a 21-year-old Georgia resident who enrolled successfully has become a cause célèbre, with national media and even the White House touting his story.

For now, there’s no reason for consumers to panic, federal officials say.

Enrollment in the exchange lasts until March 31, though people must pick a plan by Dec. 15 to have coverage begin on Jan. 1.

On Friday the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the federally-run exchange, reported that HealthCare.gov had received 14.6 million unique visitors in the first 10 days.

Via: Miami Herald

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Re

Via:MiamiHerald

a:MiamiHerald

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California Rep. Devin Nunes bucks GOP strategy California's Rep. Devin Nunes calls some GOP colleagues 'lemmings with suicide vests.' But he still votes with them on the shutdown.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Devin Nunes was a low-profile Republican from California's Central Valley, perhaps best known for his battles with environmentalists over water, including once bringing a bowl of fish to a Capitol Hill hearing to argue that their interests were being elevated over those of farmers.

And then he uttered four words, describing colleagues who were willing to let the federal government shut down over Obamacare as "lemmings with suicide vests.''

That put the six-term legislator in the very small circle ofRepublicans willing to speak out against his party's strategy.

He said the "lemming caucus" that sought to defund the 2010 healthcare law as a condition for keeping the government open has misled his constituents into believing — falsely, he says — that their strategy could succeed. He said that he, too, hates Obamacare but sees no prospect of its repeal with its biggest fan in the White House and Democrats in control of the Senate.

"You guys ever watch 'Sixteen Candles'? ... That's going to be us tomorrow," Nunes recently told reporters, suggesting — tongue in cheek, he later said — that Republicans would end up like a character in the 1984 movie, waking up on a lawn after crashing the car.

The 40-year-old farmer says he believes the shutdown is hurting his party by dominating the headlines when Republicans could otherwise be highlighting problems with the rollout of the healthcare law. He's also taken on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a darling of the tea party. "He's the one that got us into this mess," Nunes says.

Via: LA Times

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