Fox’s Ed Henry Explains His White House Press Briefing Walkout

On the Kilmeade & Friends radio show Monday morning, Fox’s White House reporter Ed Henryexplained his controversial “walk out” of Friday’s White House press briefing. According to Henry, he did not leave out of anger, but because he had been overlooked twice and needed to run and make a live appearance for the network.

“What happened Friday? It looked like you got fed up and said, ‘To heck with this,’ he’s not calling on you,” host Brian Kilmeade asked.

“Nah, that’s not it,” Henry replied. “What really happened was that the briefing went on for about 40 minutes and I didn’t get a question. For whatever reason. I guess Jay Carney will have to answer that. I don’t know why, I guess, maybe he was upset. I wasn’t.”

Henry explained that the briefing was lengthy, started about three hours late, and that he had been overlooked a few times, and so he made the decision to exit the briefing in its last few minutes in order to make a live TV hit with Fox’s The Five.

“I was going to be late,” Henry continued. “I would have stayed longer if Jay had called on me. But he didn’t. I had work to do.”

The White House reporter also pointed to the fact that NBC reporter Chuck Todd got his question answered and then walked out afterwards. “I don’t hear anyone saying, ‘Oh my God, he staged a protest.’ No, he had to go file a piece for NBC’s Nightly News, just as I had to go do a live hit with you on The Five, and I had to file my piece for Bret Baier and Special Report.”

Ultimately, he said, at the next White House briefing, he would anticipate that Carney will call on him for a question or two.

Listen below, via Fox News Radio:

Via: Mediaite.com

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Morsi Trial destined to lay bare Obama’s Muslim Brotherhood connections

If America is really fighting terrorism as it claims, shouldn’t it be standing next to Egypt at this crucial time?

Cairo, Egypt—Seems like President Barack Obama is taking on the role of Samson in the famous biblical story, bringing the temple down on everyone’s head after the collapse of his popularity and the exposure of his schemes to enable the extremists in Egypt.

After Obama’s defeat at the hands of Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the Egyptians—which he still refuses to admit—Obama continues to punish Egypt and its army. 

In Obama’s failure to avoid an economic crisis in America, how is it he has time for War Games in Egypt?

Obama should be truly worried about how the trail of ousted President Mohammad Morsi will lead to the truth coming out on his relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood and their common goals.

In fact, Obama’s latest reckless and non-calculated step could lose him a lot of friends and allies for America in the Middle East. He may not only lose Arab support but Israel’s as well, thanks to the announcement that the U.S. is freezing military and financial aid to Egypt.

U.S. aid to Egypt is not a gift or donation on a voluntary basis, but it’s a part of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, which was signed in 1979, and which stipulates that America gives to Egypt similar aid given to Israel, whether financially or militarily, and to maintain the military balance between the two countries, ensuring the continued commitment to that treaty. The Obama administration is now in breach of those essential terms. Egypt now has the right to retreat from the Convention, which could raise a lot of anger in Israel for Obama’s position, which stands against the interests of Israel and does not benefit the interests of either Egypt or America itself.

Via: Canada Free Press

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Two Things Washington Cannot Ignore

Members of Congress are still at an impasse—they cannot agree on the debt limit, spending cuts, Obamacare, or funding the government.

The House has passed a variety of bills that would have reopened portions of the federal government, but the Senate has rejected them all. As they volley proposals back and forth, there are two things they cannot ignore.

1. Obamacare

Obamacare is not even fully implemented, but it is negatively impacting people today. Just look at these responses we received when we asked readers about their health insurance costs. Premiums are going up—by hundreds of dollars per month for many. (Read here about how to send us your cost increases.)

It’s negatively impacting the practice of medicine. See what neurosurgeon and author Dr. Ben Carson told us about Obamacare getting between doctors and patients.

Conservatives across the country have made their voices heard—Obamacare must be stopped. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) told the activists at the Values Voter Summit on Friday thatit is your voices that have helped House Members stand strong against Obamacare. And it’s not time to quit.

Via: The Foundry

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[VIDEO] Wasserman Schultz: All-Women Team ‘Would Get This Done in a Few Hours’

(CNSNews.com) - Women would do a better job than men of solving the current government stalemate, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said on Monday -- because "a woman doesn't want to ruin the person on the other side of the aisle or the table."

"If we put all the women, Republican and Democrat, in the House together, the consensus from all of us is that we would get this done in a few hours," Wasserman Schultz -- the head of the Democratic National Committee -- told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Why not put Sarah Palin in the room, joked Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who was interviewed along with Wasserman Schultz.

"You know, I would argue that even if Sarah Palin were in the room, that we could find a way to get to yes, because that's usually women's goal," Wasserman Schultz replied.

Via: CNS News

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[VIDEO] Noonan and Senor School Krugman on the ObamaCare Train Wreck

Despite all the trouble ObamaCare has been having since health insurance exchanges opened about two weeks ago, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on ABC’s This Week Sunday predictably had nothing but praise for the law.

Fortunately the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan and former Mitt Romney advisor Dan Senor were present to set the record straight (video follows with transcript and commentary):

DAN SENOR: There's no doubt that this is damaging to the Republican brand. That said, a year from now, this will have been long resolved and I don't think voters will be talking about this shutdown and the dysfunction. What people will be talking about is the failed implementation of ObamaCare.

There are very few House seats that are really in play. There’s like a tiny percentage of Republican House members that are in districts that President Obama won. There are six Senate seats, Democratic Senate seats that need to be defended that Mitt Romney won by more than ten percent. So, the field both in the House and the Senate is much more favorable to Republicans.

I think this is a bad moment for Republicans. I think it will pass. I think the field, the history of the Party out of the White House winning midterms combined with the failed implementation of ObamaCare is going to be advantageous.

PAUL KRUGMAN, NEW YORK TIMES: I want to say something about that. The ObamaCare thing will also be long passed. They messed up the software for the federal version of it. But we have the exchanges working just fine in many states which means it’s fixable and it will be fixed. California has a perfectly well-functioning exchange which it’s running itself. If you can do it for 30 million people, you can do it for 300 million. So, that will be, ObamaCare will be working fine by next November.

Via: Newsbusters

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New Jersey state troopers schooled in Muslim culture

If a police officer pulls over a female driver wearing a veil covering all but her eyes, can he demand that she lift the veil so he can identify her?

Before a classroom of state police recruits, Mohammad Ali Chaudry, a Muslim scholar, explained that there’s no religious reason for her to refuse. She has to obey the laws of her country “for everybody’s security,” he said.

Questions about the veil and other facets of Islamic faith and culture are at the heart of the one-hour class, now a requirement for every New Jersey state trooper, that emerged from anxiety and acrimony following news last year that New York City detectives were spying on New Jersey Muslims.

But is one hour of teaching, out of a solid week of police training, enough to markedly improve relations between police officers and wary Muslim communities across the state?

Chaudry, president of the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge and a Rutgers professor, said it’s a start.
One result of strong backlash to spying by the New York Police Department was the creation of the Muslim Outreach Committee, a group of about 20 Muslim leaders and top law-enforcement officials that began meeting a year ago. The training, which is included in classwork this week at the state criminal justice academy in Sea Girt, is one of several committee efforts aimed at building trust.

“When we first started, there was anger and hostility,” said Imam Mustafa El-Amin, who heads the Masjid Ibrahim mosque in Newark. “Now it has actually developed to achievements and goals as opposed to just talking and airing out who’s guilty and who’s not.”

Via: NewJersey.com

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Rollback of cuts fuels claims that government inflated impact of partial shutdown

Two weeks into the partial government shutdown, the Obama administration is increasingly easing off some of its most painful cuts -- fueling the perception among critics that the government initially imposed visible, but ultimately unnecessary, cutbacks as a way to pressure Republicans. 

The Department of the Interior late last week agreed to let states use their own money to reopen some national parks. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also determined football and other sports could continue at service academies through October. 

Following outrage from military groups, the Pentagon contracted with a charity to provide death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers, before President Obama abruptly signed legislation to do just that. 

Earlier, the Pentagon also announced most of its 350,000 furloughed civilian military personnel would return to their jobs. And CIA Director John Brennan said he would begin bringing back employees deemed necessary to the agency's core missions. 

"It appears they are truly just making this up as they go along, as they have put out one inconsistent policy after another," House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said in a statement, accusing the administration of playing "political games."

Via: Fox News

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Ezra Klein: Obamacare Rollout Has So Far ‘Been a Big Failure’

October 14, 2013 9:50 am

Liberal MSNBC contributor Ezra Klein continued his criticism of the Obamacare website Monday on Morning Joe, saying it was a “big failure” so far on the part of the Obama administration.

“The way this IT is going out is a disaster,” he said. “They have done a terrible job on this website. We’re a couple weeks in now. People can’t sign up. People have tried 20, 30, 40 times. It’s one thing for that to be true in the first three or four days, it’s another for it to be true two or three weeks in.”

There is a concern the website has deeper, more systemic problems beyond just glitches and too much traffic, Klein said.

“One of the Obama administration’s jobs, separate from all of the political stuff we talk about here, is to simply run things like this well, to run their signature legislative initiative well, to do government in a way that makes people confident and able to use it,” he said. “On that so far, this has been a big failure.”

Via: WFB

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Budget Talks at Impasse; Democrats Won't Agree on Spending Cuts

Senate Republicans and Democrats hit an impasse Sunday over spending in their last-ditch struggle to avoid an economy-jarring default in just four days and end a partial government shutdown that enters its third week.

After inconclusive talks between President Barack Obama and House Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took charge in trying to end the crises although no resolution seemed imminent.

"Americans want Congress to compromise," Reid said at the start of a rare Sunday session in the Senate in which he pressed for a long-term budget deal.

The two cagy negotiators are at loggerheads over Democratic demands to undo or change the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts to domestic and defense programs that the GOP see as crucial to reducing the nation's deficit.

McConnell insisted that a solution was readily available in the proposal from a bipartisan group of 12 senators, led by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that would re-open the government and fund it at current levels for six month while raising the debt limit through Jan. 31.
"It's time for Democrat leaders to take 'yes' for an answer," McConnell said in a statement.

The latest snag comes as 350,000 federal workers remain idle, hundreds of thousands more work without pay and an array of government services, from home loan applications to environmental inspections, were on hold on the 13th day of the shutdown.

Unnerving to world economies is the prospect of the United States defaulting on its financial obligations on Thursday if Congress fails to raise the borrowing authority above the $16.7 trillion debt limit.
Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, spoke fearfully about the disruption and uncertainty, warning of a "risk of tipping, yet again, into recession" after the fitful recovery from 2008.

Via: Newsmax

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California: Business Scores the Legislature and Governor

A mixed record for business in this year’s legislative session got a bit of a boost when the governor signed a slew of bills intended to help business. While the latest flurry of bill signings is good news, big issues still concern the business community.

The ballyhooed effort at the beginning of the legislative session to improve the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) ended in a whimper. What CEQA reform was achieved came about because politicians in Sacramento wanted to make it easier to build a basketball arena in downtown Sacramento. Broader CEQA reforms were benched.

Minimum wage was increased against business opposition as businesses, especially small businesses, struggle to recover from the recession. Business is still battling the burdens of heavy taxes and regulations, which has prompted some businesses to consider relocating outside the state.

But there were some steps forward.

Among the bills signed by the governor was AB 227 that would allow businesses in violation of Proposition 65 anti-toxic regulations to have a couple of weeks to fix any problems. This bill will reduce the threats of bounty-hunter lawsuits and give businesses a fair chance to correct honest mistakes.

Some regulations were swept away for California’s high-tech companies. New laws will make it easier for digital retailers to deal with smart phone payments.

Importantly, investors who received notices following a court decision that they must pay a total of millions in back taxes got relief from the legislature who passed a bill to overturn the decision. The governor signed the bill.

During the session, the legislature moved to drastically reduce the time to approve business filings at the Secretary of State’s office. The issue highlighted California’s slow paper filing system to get businesses up and running. The average waiting time was 43 days. The legislature demanded the time be trimmed to five days and quickly passed AB 113, signed by the governor.

The California of Chamber of Commerce also had a successful session in opposing its list of Job Killer bills. Of the 38 bills the Chamber tagged as Job Killers, 37 did not become law.

The governor also signed SB 12 by Senator Ellen Corbett, which will enhance the state’s marketing effort with a newly created “Made in California” label to highlight the state’s reputation for creating innovative products.

Via: California Political Review

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