Los Angeles welfare bum threatens riot over EBT failure

In a man on the street interview, posted to World Star Hip-Hop, residents on Los Angeles’ Skid Row threaten to tear the city apart over a hiccup in their welfare benefits.

The outage of the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system was apparently caused when the vendor Xerox Corp. was performing a routine check on their back up systems and it caused a system failure.

While there are some reports that the system has come back online now, the interruption to the service has caused some raised tempers.

“My heart goes out to people who don’t have food right now” one welfare recipient told WSHH.

Another man explained how he and his cohorts had been personally impacted by the failure of the system. “We had to cancel a picnic today cuz we were gonna use EBT cards to buy hamburgers and stuff.”

The man, wearing a Vietnam veterans hat,  explained that he was organizing a cookout for veterans but had to cancel it due to the failure. “We couldn’t do it,” he said.

One man told WSHH the bare reality of what the system failure meant for him. “We don’t eat,” he said. “We don’t drink. We don’t have anything.”

But not all the shiftless takers were content merely to complain.

“They had better resolve something because if it stays like this there is gona be a uproar in the city of L.A.,” one public assistance layabout intoned. When asked to elaborate, he responded, “A Rodney King, baby”

The Rodney King riots, which went on for six-day in 1992 in South Central L.A., stemmed from the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers on charges of police brutality for the videotaped beating of King. Fifty-three people died in the riots and more than 2,000 people were injured.

Via: Weasel Zippers

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The sequester: The hammer Republicans hold

Liberals constantly lecture, more in theatrical sorrow than in actual anger, about their eagerness to compromise with Republicans, just not with Republicans who are — liberal moderation expresses itself immoderately — hostage-taking terroristic anarchistic jihadist suicide bombers. But Maine’s Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the very model of moderation, spoiled the Democrats’ piety charade by demonstrating its insincerity when she suggestedthis compromise:

Republicans would support a continuing resolution that funds the government for six months at the “sequester” levels of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which was produced by that year’s debt-ceiling negotiations. Republicans would also support raising the debt ceiling to enable the government to borrow enough to finance the substantial deficit spending involved in even sequester-level spending. (The sequester’s supposed severity does not come close to balancing the budget.) Republicans also would grant agencies greater flexibility in administering the sequester’s cuts.

In exchange, Collins asked for only two things. First, a mere delay, and for just two years, of Obamacare’s medical-device tax, which is so “stupid” — Sen. Harry Reid’s characterization — that bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress favor outright repeal. Second, enforcement of income-verification criteria for those seeking Obamacare’s insurance subsidies — criteria the administration wrote but waived.

Via: Washington Post

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[MUST READ] Obama's military contempt: The outrageous treatment of Clint Lorance By Allen West

WASHINGTON, October 14, 2013 – If the fact that the Obama Administration has blocked aging veterans from visiting the World War II memorial and denied death gratuity benefits for fallen warriors doesn’t seem to indicate contempt for our military, how about this most recent story?

Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, a 28-year-old combat leader in the 82d Airborne Division from Celeste, Texas was recently found guilty of two counts of murder in Afghanistan and sentenced to 20 years in Ft. Leavenworth.

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SEE RELATED: Fort Hood: The difference between Nidal Hasan and Aaron Nemelka

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The story of First Lieutenant Lorance has not been covered by a single major media source.

In July 2012, Lorance was ordered to take command of a platoon in the southern Afghanistan province of Kandahar, a region where I also spent two and a half years training and advising the Afghan National Army. The platoon Lorance now commanded had lost its previous leader to enemy attack.

During a patrol in enemy territory, Lorance ordered a marksman to engage two unarmed Taliban fighters on a motorcycle operating as scout spotters.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, a common enemy tactic is for unarmed fighters on motorcycles with cell phones to track unit movements. In fact, enemy combatants had previously used the tactics against this same platoon.

Via: The Washington Times Community

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Obama: GOP Using Debt Ceiling to ‘Extract Extreme or Partisan Concessions’ from Dems

Hours before he and the vice president are scheduled to meet with Congressional lawmakers in order to seek a resolution to the government shutdown and the looming debt ceiling crisis, President Barack Obama spoke to reporters on Monday. Obama said that the shutdown is “unnecessary” and the GOP is attempting to “extract extreme or partisan concessions” from Democrats unreasonably. 

Obama told reporters that he would “urge” members of Congress later this afternoon that they should reopen the government and increase the nation’s debt ceiling.

“This whole shutdown has been completely unnecessary,” Obama added.

RELATED: Dems Up the Ante in Negotiations with GOP Making Deal Less Likely, Chuck Todd Blames Tea Party

The president said that deficits are decreasing, the nation has the revenue to pay its bills, and there is consensus in Washington that there needs to be a budget which is solvent but also invests in growth.

“The problem is is that we’ve seen this brinkmanship as a strategy time and time again to try to extract extreme or partisan concessions,” Obama concluded.

Watch the clip below via Fox News Channel:

Via: Mediaite.com

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Fighting Obamacare: The Difference Between Cutting Spending and Limiting Harmful Government

As Mitch McConnell puts the finishing touches on his terms of surrender, here are some thoughts to ponder.

Republicans and conservatives have spent the past few years messaging their platform to the American people built upon budget-speak.  It’s all about the debt and cutting spending.

In reality, we don’t have a spending problem per se, we have a big and harmful government problem.  The two are not always the same.

All of us who follow policy issues very closely understand that debt in itself is not just a problem for the federal balance sheet, it will have to be paid back by our children and grandchildren.  However, most people don’t see it that way, at least not in a meaningful way.  What people care about is loss of employment, lower/stagnant wages, the rising cost of living, and personal liberty.  It is our job to prioritize an agenda both in substance and messaging that directly addresses the harmful effects of government on jobs, standard of living, and personal liberty.  The federal budget is secondary, and will take care of itself once we restore government to its proper role.

For example, we spend roughly $8 billion in discretionary spending funding the EPA each year.  Now, is that $8 billion in wasted spending contributing to our debt?  You betcha.  But the more serious problem with the EPA is not the $8 billion in discretionary spending, but the hundreds of billions that are removed from the private economy in the form of lost jobs and higher cost of living (not to mention personal liberty), as a result of the regulatory regime.

Hence, when we cut the operating budget of the EPA from $8.4 billion to $8 billion via the sequester, are we really limiting government?  Not really.  We are cutting spending, which slows the debt crisis ever so slightly, but we are not really providing relief to the American people in a way most people understand or feel in any tangible way.

Via: Red State

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ObamaCare Exchange Website Asks Applicants to Register to Vote

[Madison, Wisc...] The Obamacare exchange website is complicated to use and has seen more than a few glitches since it officially opened on October 1st, but the MacIver Institute has found that once you get through the application process, the website asks individuals to register to vote.

The MacIver Institute was trying to use HealthCare.gov to compare rates on the Wisconsin exchange on Thursday and Friday. This requires an individual to fill out an application before the rates can be seen. Unfortunately, the website crashed before premium rates could be compared.

However, prior to the website crashing, which was not the first time during the application process, it was discovered that the Obamacare website actually tries to register individuals to vote.

The link is optional, but the question remains, what does registering to vote have to do with signing up for Obamacare?

"The launch, the website and the enrollment process all have been a complete disaster for Obamacare," said Brett Healy, President of the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy. "Why doesn't the federal government wait until they successfully sign some people up for the program before they complicate things even further?"

Via: MacIver Institute

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OFA plans Tuesday rally at Capitol

The tea party had its protest Sunday at the World War II Memorial, now President Barack Obama’s supporters are set to respond at the Capitol.

Organizing for Action is holding a “Budget shutdown Day of Action event” at noon Tuesday at the reflecting pool west of the Capitol.

“Tuesday is the start of the third week of the government shutdown,” OFA wrote in a message to supporters. “With every day that passes, these members of Congress need to feel more pressure from the constituents who sent them to Washington. Millions of Americans across the country are feeling the effects of the shutdown -- and it's only getting worse.”

OFA executive director Jon Carson tweeted Monday urging supporters to "Come join OFA at an event tomorrow to say #EnoughAlready to the #TeaPartyShutdown.” 

OFA, despite its fundraising success, has shown little results in moving public opinion or members of Congress to support Obama’s agenda. A planned climate change event in August in Georgetown drew zero attendees during a rainstorm.

Tuesday will mark OFA’s first attempt to stage a large rally at the Capitol.

OFA officials did not respond to requests for comment about the event

Via: Politico

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Graham Joins Vitter in Fight over Hill’s Carve-Out

It’s a contest over which senator is the most unpopular with his colleagues. Surprisingly, it’s probably not Ted Cruz. The most likely winner is David Vitter of Louisiana, who is mounting a campaign to end government subsidies for congressional health coverage. Polls show that 92 percent of voters dislike the idea of a special Obamacare privilege for anyone on Capitol Hill.

Yesterday, Vitter won an influential new recruit: GOP senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Graham told NRO’s Bob Costa that he will “object” to any pending fiscal deal unless the Senate at the same time votes on Vitter’s proposal.

“We’re down to stopping bad things, and the only bad thing at this point that we can really push on is the [Office of Personnel Management] rule,” he told Costa, referring to the rule that allows subsidies for Congress and its staff. “At this point, I’m not sure if we’re going to get it, so I’m going to object on any deal until I get that up-or-down vote. That’s only fair, and I believe the American people will be with me.”

Graham knows Vitter’s amendment may be the best leverage the Republicans have in any budget-deal negotiations. Democrats have personally and passionately appealed to Graham not to throw up a poison pill such as the Vitter amendment. But Graham says the Senate Democrats and President Obama “have moved the goal posts on a reasonable deal.”

Throwing the Vitter proposal into the mix is hugely unpopular with Capitol Hill veterans of both parties. Harry Reid, the majority leader, has slammed Vitter as “an anarchist” and “mean-spirited.”

Vitter responds that the original 2010 Obamacare law barred members of Congress and their personal staffs from continuing to get employer subsidies — worth $5,000 for individual policies and $11,000 or more for family coverage — because they would be buying coverage from the health-care exchanges, where employer subsidies are banned.

Via: NRO

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