Conservative Happenings

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Pregnant couple had to SELL CAR, disconnect cable because of Obamacare…

A pregnant couple in Michigan has had to sell their car and disconnect their cable because Obamacare is forcing them to pay another deductible in 2014. Normally their $5,000 deductible would expire next April, after they’ve had their first child. And they’ve already spent the $5,000 needed to fulfill that deductible. But thanks to Obamacare resetting everything in 2014, they will now be forced to come up with another deductible of $5,000 at the beginning of the new year and their pregnancy still won’t be covered 100% like it would have been under her current insurance.

Watch:

Government default? It’s already happened, twice

Although President Barack Obama and the establishment media routinely describe a potential federal default as “unprecedented,” the United States government has flaked on its debt service several times, and one expert

says the current default has already begun.

The historical default precedents should be of limited comfort to Obama

, however. One of the deadbeat presidents was the commander in chief during a disastrous war that saw Washington, D.C. occupied and the White House burned to the ground. The other was Jimmy Carter.

According to Connie Cass of The Associated Press, the U.S. government “briefly stiffed some of its creditors on at least two occasions.” The first default took place in November 1814, during the administration of James Madison, America’s tiniest chief executive. Just a few months after the British conquest of Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812, the Treasury was unable to move enough precious metal to service its debt, and missed interest payments on bonds. Boston bondholders, according to Wayne State College

history professor Don Hickey, were paid off in short-term interest-bearing treasury notes or more bonds. These debt service troubles, and the war, were resolved within a few months.

A more recent default came in 1979 under President Carter, who, until Obama, held the record for presiding over the country’s longest post-World War II period of economic stagnation. Cass attributes the ’79 default to “a back-office glitch that ended up costing taxpayers billions of dollars.” She writes, “The Treasury Department blamed the mishap on a crush of paperwork partly caused by lawmakers who — this will sound familiar — bickered too long before raising the nation’s debt

limit.”

The Carter default is potentially more relevant because it occurred under the 14th Amendment, a post-Civil War change to the Constitution that declared the “validity of the public debt….shall not be questioned.”

These precedents for an event the president describes as unexampled in U.S. history are unlikely to get much attention from media that have been eager to ape the administration’s terror-mongering over the debt ceiling increase. Executive branch efforts to whip up hysteria have gotten wide distribution and arguably caused minorfinancial

panic.

Via: Daily Caller

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Editorial: Why Obamacare is a mess

And this from the liberal Chicago Tribune. Home town turns on ObamaCare.

If you've tried to sign up online for health coverage under the problem-plagued Obamacare exchange, our sympathies. Many people have tried to create accounts and shop for insurance under the new law. Few have succeeded. Those that have enrolled have found that the system is prone to mistakes. Some applications have been sent to the wrong insurance company.

Wait. It gets worse. Those who have managed to browse the marketplace have often been hit by sticker shock. Take Adam Weldzius, a nurse practitioner and single father from Carpentersville. He sought the same level of coverage on the exchange as he and his 7-year-old daughter have now, with the same insurer and the same network of doctors and hospitals. At best, Weldzius found, his monthly premium of $233 would more than double. If he chose a plan priced at the same level, the annual deductible would be $12,700, more than three times his current $3,500 deductible.

"I believe everybody should be able to have health insurance, but at the same time, I'm being penalized. And for what?" Weldzius told the Tribune's Peter Frost. "For someone who's always had insurance, who's always taken care of myself, now I have to change my plan?"

Last spring, President Barack Obama said "there will still be, you know, glitches and bumps" in the rollout of the new system. But what we're seeing now is no glitch or bump. There is a growing mountain of evidence that Obamacare has fundamental problems in design and implementation.

Via: Chicago Tribune

5 THINGS LOST, 5 THINGS WON BY GOP IN BUDGET/DEBT FIGHT

The House has yet to vote on Republican leaders' proposed bill for ending the government shutdown and the debt ceiling fight. The GOP, having entered aiming to defund Obamacare and reach some agreement on major budget changes, now merely hopes that the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House will accept the Vitter amendment to remove Obamacare subsidies from Congress, its staff, and political appointees.

The polls have been bad for both parties, and the president as well. But Republicans are receiving more of the blame. Yet there are a few gains the GOP can claim, even while taking some losses. Here are the bad and good:

Via: Breitbart

DOD Refuses to Say If It Would Stop Priest from Giving Last Rites to Dying Serviceman

(CNSNews.com) - Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a spokesman in the Office of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, is refusing to say whether the Department of Defense would attempt to stop a civilian Catholic priest, who had been a contract chaplain for the military, from administering the last rites to a serviceman on a U.S. military base.

“I feel no particular compulsion to answer outlandish, hypothetical questions in a yes/no fashion nor does the Department, generally, answer hypotheticals at all,” Breasseale said in an email.

“Further, it is a matter of long standing Department policy to not address matters that are currently under active litigation,” Breasseale continued.

Prior to Breasseale sending this email declining to say whether DOD would try to stop a priest from administering the last rites to a serviceman, a spokesman for the National Security Staff at the White House, had responded to the question, by saying: “We'd refer you to our colleagues at DOD for comment.”

Via: CNS News
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[VIDEO] Bernstein: House GOP Acting Like Segregationist Dems

Journalist Carl Bernstein continued his vilification of the “rabid” House Republicans by comparing their resolute stance in the current battle in Washington to the Democrats’ persistent opposition to integration.

“You have to go back to the party, the Democratic party of segregation to find this kind of scorched-earth politics putting the national interests nowhere and putting ideology and ideology above all else,” Bernstein said on Morning Joe on Wednesday.

Last week, Bernstein likened GOP members to Senator Joe McCarthy.

Via: NRO

Shutdown Delays U.N. Probe of U.S. Human Rights Record; GOP Blamed

(CNSNews.com) – A United Nations’ review of the United States’ compliance with international human rights norms will not happen as scheduled because of the partial government shutdown, and the chairman of the reviewing body blames the Republican Party.

The Geneva-based Human Rights Committee was due to have examined the U.S. record on Thursday and Friday, but reluctantly agreed to postpone the session at the request of the U.S. government.

The discussion, which is expected to include scrutiny of such controversial issues as Guantanamo Bay detentions, National Security Agency surveillance and “stand your ground” laws, has been moved to next March.

The committee’s chairman, Nigel Rodley, said as he opened a three-week session on Monday that the panel was normally unwilling to grant extensions at short notice, but he felt he had no choice on this occasion.

The U.S. delegation had made it clear that it was willing to participate in the scheduled review, but could not, “for reasons that had been widely covered in the media.”

Rodley, a British international law professor, then went further, laying the blame for the rare postponement squarely at the door of the GOP and its stance on Obamacare.

Via: CNS News
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Cruz Blasts Senate Deal for Caving on ObamaCare: Once Again Washington Establishment Refuses to Listen to the American People

Sen. Ted Cruz after the Senate reached a tentative budget deal that would end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling while barely touching ObamaCare: "Unfortunately, once again it appears the Washington Sen. Ted Cruz after the Senate reached a tentative budget deal that would end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling while barely touching ObamaCare: "Unfortunately, once again it appears the Washington establishment is refusing to listen to the American people. The deal that has been cut provides no relief to the millions of Americans who are hurting because of ObamaCare. ... The U.S. Senate has stayed with the traditional approach of the Washington establishment of maintaining the status quo."

Via: Fox News
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Saving California: Interview with Greg Raths (R-CAND CA-45)

Here at RedState we believe strong conservative candidates deserve our support, especially in deep blue states like California. On June 3rd, in California’s 45th Congressional District, retired Marine Colonel Greg Raths will face off in a primary against State Sen. Mimi Walters and Pat Maciariello to replace U.S. Rep. John Campbell, who is retiring. Not only does Col. Raths stand for traditional conservative values, such as small government and fiscal responsibility, but he has also been endorsed by the organization Combat Veterans for Congress.

Col. Raths was at the California Republican Party Convention with conservative icon and former Congressman Barry Goldwater, Jr., who is a Director for Combat Veterans for Congress. Former Congressman Goldwater spoke enthusiastically about Col. Raths and the fact that his combat experience gives him an advantage over the competition. I spoke with Col. Raths about the top issues facing our country and what he plans to bring to the table.

Col Raths, the biggest issues facing the country right now are ones that we all know has plagued California for some time: Budgets and debt. How do you suggest America move towards a balanced budget and reducing her debt?

RATHS: This goes back to leadership. First of all, Americans like you and me are starved for leadership in Washington. People just want someone to lead in the current crisis that’s going on today. There’s one man who’s in charge and that’s President Obama. His job is not just to be leader of the Democrats, he’s supposed to be the leader of the whole country. He needed to get these people together, meaning the Majority Leader of the House and Senate and other leadership a long time ago to stop this from happening. He knew, if he had any sense, what was going to happen on October 17th and October 1st. So how to get the debt reduced? We need conservative candidates to run for Congress and we need conservatives in state government and local government. The only way we can reduce the deficit is to have a majority in both houses and hopefully the presidency; right now we don’t, so we have to work with what we have. I feel that it’s the President’s job and his responsibility as a leader to ensure that we don’t spend more money than we bring in. This year alone, the American taxpayers have sent to Washington more money than they ever have in any specific year. And they are still seven or eight hundred thousand short. So, it has to come from the top, it has to come from the leader, and I tell my constituents where I’m running that in order to get these goals passed, we need the leadership in Washington that will do it; currently I don’t think we have it. So we have to look at 2014 to see what we can do to bring in some good conservative candidates into Congress.

Via: Red State

Fired DOJ Atty. Sues: U.S. Ignored 9/11 Fundraising Evidence

A respected veteran federal prosecutor got fired for reporting government misconduct involving a terrorism fundraising operation run by 9/11 hijacker Mohamaed Atta, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court against the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Attorney General Eric Holder.

The complaint, filed this month in United States District Court for the District of Columbia, is downright chilling. It outlines an alarming retaliation plot at the upper levels of the DOJ to oust an esteemed prosecutor who had received numerous awards for outstanding performance. Scarier even is that the feds failed to act on evidence that linked domestic fundraising to the 9/11 terrorists because it was uncovered by the Assistant U.S. Attorney under fire for exposing government wrongdoing.

The ousted prosecutor, identified only as John Doe in the complaint, led an investigation dubbed Money Exchange that uncovered evidence that Atta was raising cash for terrorist missions in the U.S. before 2000. Rather than focus on his solid investigative work, his bosses at the DOJ retaliated against him for refusing to sign off on an illegal search and seizure in the terrorism fundraising case. His superiors, George W. Bush appointees, approved the illegal search anyways and the prosecutor blew the whistle on the wrongdoing.

“John Doe made additional disclosures regarding his supervisors’ misconduct from 2005 through 2008 which are protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act,” the complaint says. “These additional protected disclosures included reports of misconduct by his superiors in disciplinary proceedings, in political hirings, and in mishandling of a terrorist investigation.”

Besides forcing the whistleblower out, the DOJ hierarchy continued punishing him by snubbing his topnotch investigative work on the terrorism financing case, which spanned several years. In fact, he came under fire for distributing a memo on the Money Exchange investigation to the DOJ counterterrorism division as part of an agency directive to promptly make disclosures of national security information to all law enforcement components.

Incredibly, authorities never followed through with the valuable evidence that the former federal prosecutor and his team provided, according to the lawsuit. “On May 23, 2008, John Doe urged the Acting United States Attorney to act upon the Money Exchange Memorandum because bank records underlying the terrorist funding would be destroyed after 7 years,” the complaint says.

“On May 27, 2008, the United State Attorney ordered John Doe to retrieve the May 5 Money Exchange Memorandum from all recipients. The Acting United States Attorney then criticized John Doe for “going outside the chain of command.” The Acting United States Attorney ordered John Doe to turn over the Money Exchange case materials to another AUSA. That AUSA never followed up on the Money Exchange Memorandum.”

If the allegations in the complaint are true, heads should roll at the DOJ for allowing a personal vendetta to interfere with a terrorism investigation. While the complaint doesn’t mention names, you can deduct that the Assistant U.S. Attorney suing the DOJ was pretty high up at the agency and probably has a boatload of evidence that authorities prefer to keep from going public.

Via: Judicial Watch

[VIDEO] US energy could be a $500 billion boon: FedEx CEO

Play Video

SAFE Conference takes aim at OPEC

Wednesday, 16 Oct 2013 | 7:37 AM ET

Retire Marine Corps Gen. James Conway and FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith discuss progress on U.S. energy independence.

Developing a comprehensive plan to achieve U.S. energy independence is the "single biggest" way to boost the economy, FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith told CNBC on Wednesday.

"Oil is at the center of everything we do," Smith said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "If we produce more in the U.S. and use less and develop alternatives … you allow the United States within our economy a half a trillion dollars more in GDP."

Smith opened the OPEC Oil Embargo 40 summit, sponsored by Securing America's Future Energy, in Washington on Wednesday. He's the co-chair of the advocacy group's Energy Security Leadership Council of retired generals, admirals and CEOs of oil-using companies.

"When OPEC instituted the oil embargo 40 years ago … we were only importing about 35 percent of our oil," he said. "Withholding those oil supplies threw the U.S. economy into complete chaos." The U.S. now imports less than 40 percent, he added.

Less reliance on foreign oil "allows us the flexibility to conduct our international affairs and our foreign policy without regard to be hostage to these national oil companies," Smith said.

Via: CNBC

Consumer confidence plunges while other indicators hold up

Almost alone among economic indicators, consumer confidence has plunged during the government shutdown and as the possibility of a default nears.

The economic confidence index updated daily by Gallup has fallen steadily since the summer and dramatically since the shutdown began two weeks ago. This week, it registered its lowest reading -- negative 41 -- since the debt ceiling standoff of 2011, suggesting that Americans expect conditions to rapidly worsen.

No other major economic indicators have fallen so dramatically.

Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasuries remain at 2.7 percent, below where they were in August, despite the threat of a default. The Dow Jones industrial average had risen for three straight days before falling 133 points Tuesday. The U.S. dollar has risen against a basket of currencies following the shutdown.

Yet the consumer confidence index is a different story, raising the possibility that it is out of sync with underlying sentiment — or, more ominously, that other economic indicators haven't caught up yet.

Eric Sims, a University of Notre Dame economics professor who has studied movements in consumer confidence, said that there are "pretty tight links" between survey responses and subsequent consumer spending patterns. "What they say is what they do," he said, adding that the drop in confidence has been "troubling."

In part, consumer confidence reflects Americans’ reactions to ongoing economic trends. But there’s another component that reflects consumers’ uncertainty over news, according to Marta Lachowska.

In a study of daily Gallup polling in 2008 released this year by the W.E. Upjohn Institute, Lachowska, found that movements in daily confidence indices, independent of other economic indicators, lead to "very short fluctuations in consumer spending." That's because consumers are risk averse, Lachowska told the Washington Examiner, and they tighten their budgets in reaction to bad news.

Via: Washington Examiner

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

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