Memo for Chairman Upton: Next Week's Hearings On The "It's Really Good" Obamacare Launch

The president's remarkable speech in the Rose Garden yesterday, the high point of which was his claim regarding Obamacare --"It's really good!"-- sets the stage for another MSM fail, because the president made several specific, verifiable claims that ought to be the subject of real, deep and sustained reporting over the next few days.

I had a lot of fun with the "It's really good!" exclamation by the president on yesterday show, mixing his remarks into a 1974 Pinto ad, and calling forth memories of New Coke, Rosanne Barr singing the Star Spangled banner, the launch of Microsoft's Zune, the premier of "Heaven's Gate," and other "It's really good" moments from the past thirty years and seeing #ItsReallyGood take off on Twitter as a result.

Mockery is easy, but second-order exploration of the president's claims is now the key job of all media, especially by those Manhattan-Beltway media elites who share responsibility for the president's election, for the catastrophe that is Obamacare, and for his re-election: Could you at least do your basic jobs now that your favorite president ever is re-installed and your favorite law ever is crushing the little folk?

Yesterday the president announced that a massive "tech surge" was underway, with volunteers from the private sector pouring forth in a sort of virtual Dunkirk to save the collapsing Healthcare.gov. From the White House transcript of yesterday's remarks:

We’ve got people working overtime, 24/7, to boost capacity and address the problems. Experts from some of America’s top private-sector tech companies who, by the way, have seen things like this happen before, they want it to work. They're reaching out. They're offering to send help. We’ve had some of the best IT talent in the entire country join the team. And we’re well into a “tech surge” to fix the problem. And we are confident that we will get all the problems fixed.

Via: Townhall

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ABSOLUTELY REPREHENSIBLE: Dem Alan Grayson Uses Burning Cross to Slander Tea Party, Fundraise

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., an outspoken liberal, is taking heat from Republicans for raising money off an email that associates the tea party with the Ku Klux Klan.

On Monday, a Grayson fundraising email sent to supporters features an image of two KKK members in full regalia looking at a flaming cross, which is used as the “T” in tea party. “Now You Know What the ‘T’ Stands For,” reads a title under the image.

Grayson goes on to write that, “At this point, the tea party is no more popular than the Klan.”

The Florida Democrat was known for insulting Republicans during his first term in Congress, which ended in 2010. He came back to Congress via Florida’s 9th District in 2012. But more recently on Capitol Hill, Grayson earned plaudits for changing his style to work with his counterparts across the aisle.

Republicans have called on House Democrats to condemn the imagery Grayson used in the email.

“There’s no excuse for the hateful words and imagery used by Congressman Grayson,” NRCC spokesman Matt Gorman said in a statement. “House Democrats should swiftly and strongly condemn him and return the money he has raised for them. This hate-filled rhetoric has Americans fed up with Washington.

Grayson’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.

Via: Fox News

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Bombshell: Team Obama Blew Enough Cash on O-Care Website to Pay Developer $200 an Hour for 5,000 Years

Computer engineers are shocked at the cost of the Obamacare website.

One developer calculated the Obama administration blew enough cash on the Obamacare website to pay a technician $200 an hour for 5,000 years.

Where did all the money go?

Despite more than three years to get the job done, the administration unveiled the Obamacare website despite a number of warnings that it wasn’t ready for prime time.

That report from the Washington Post was released just after President Barack Obama held a campaign-style event at the White House to promote the health law and address its shortcomings…

…“My overall sense, right from day one, was it was created by people who had never created a commercial database application before,” said FMS Software developer Luke Chung.

Chung looked over the site and was stunned by the code and the cost – by some estimates, perhaps $200 million.

Chung continued, “At $200 an hour, that would be a million man hours, 5,000 man years. I don’t think they had time to use 5,000 man years. So I don’t know where the money went. I don’t know what these people were doing. There’re not that many web pages. I don’t get it! Where’d the money go?”

Via: Gateway Pundit

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Apple announces iPad Air—thinner, lighter and more powerful than ever

This new tech heavyweight is lighter than air. 

Apple unveiled a thinner, lighter version of its popular tablet called the iPad Air along with a slew of new Macs and new software at a Tuesday event in San Francisco -- just in time for the holiday shopping season.

The company also said that its latest computer operating system, Mavericks, is available free of charge.

The Cupertino, Calif. company said the iPad Air weighs 1 pound, compared with 1.4 pounds for the previous version. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller called the tablet a "screaming fast iPad" that's eight times faster than the original, which came out in 2010.

The iPad Air will go on sale Nov. 1 and start at $499, while the iPad 2 will continue selling at a starting price of $399. BUt Apple CEO Tim Cook first took the stage to announce major updates to the company's line of computers.

"We've had one focus since the beginning: to build the best personal computers in the world."

- Apple CEO Tim Cook

"We have an amazing line up of desktops and notebooks," Cook said. "And we've had one focus since the beginning: to build the best personal computers in the world."

Unlike the competition, which Cook called "confused," Apple has a very clear direction and a very ambitious goal, he said. "We still believe deeply in this category and we're not slowing down on our innovation. We've been really hard at work on the Mac."

Via: Fox News

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YEAR OF THE UNEMPLOYED WOMAN

Via Drudge, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that women are dropping out of the labor force in droves. And, no, it’s not because times are so good they can stay home and bake:

American women participated in the nation’s labor force in September at a rate that matched the lowest level in 24 years, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

At the same time, the number of women actually holding jobs declined by 154,000 from August to September.

Back to the 1950s! That was the Obama campaign’s re-election slogan, wasn’t it? It is almost eerie how Obama’s policies are most devastating to his most loyal supporters–who, for the most part, are remaining loyal despite the havoc that the Obama administration has wreaked on their lives.

Via: Powerline

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California & other states urge Supreme Court to take up ACA contraception mandate Posted by Michael Doyle on October 21, 2013

California and 10 other states are joining forces to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the so-called "contraception mandate" of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Get ready for Obamacare redux!

In the brief filed Monday, California Attorney General Kamala Harris pressed the court to hear the appeal now known as Kathleen Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. The brief contends that the decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, permitting for-profit corporations to assert religious exemptions to certain laws, "could interfere with enforcement of other important regulations that protect public safety, civil rights, social welfare, housing, employment and public health."

"The decision’s reasoning could allow corporate owners to improperly disregard the corporate form and assert religious motivations to avoid regulatory obligations, leading to unfair market advantages and threatening the uniform enforcement of essential state regulation," the brief states.

The melodiously named Hobby Lobby case is likely to be one of the hottest of the high court's 2013 term, assuming it is granted. It will be granted, no doubt.

The Hobby Lobby owners contend regulations implementing the 2010 health care law violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. In particular, under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, they are challenging a regulation that requires them, beginning July 1, 2013, to provide certain contraceptive services as a part of their employer-sponsored health care plan.

Via: McClatchy

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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/21/206026/california-10-other-states-urge.html#storylink=cpy

Planned Parenthood Plays The Rape Card Against Ken Cuccinelli In Virginia Gubernatorial Race…

I guess we should expect no less from America’s top abortion mill.

CECILE RICHARDS (CEO): Planned Parenthood Votes is responsible for the content of this advertising and Planned Parenthood Votes paid for this ad.

NARRATOR: Three hundred thousand women report being raped in America every year. But Ken Cuccinelli would put his extreme policies ahead of their needs.

He’d force a survivor of rape or incest in Virginia to carry a pregnancy caused by her attacker –

He even opposes the emergency contraception they need to prevent pregnancy.

Ken Cuccinelli: wrong for women. Wrong for Virginia.

Via: Weasel Zippers

VA Backlog at 400,000 Claims, Untouched for 4 Months

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More than 400,000 claims from the nation's warriors have been left untouched for more than four months in the offices of the Department of Veterans Affairs, it has been revealed.

And it's not even the fault of the government shutdown — the number actually went down during the 16 days that Washington stood nearly idle.

The latest figure, from last Friday, stands at 411,704, The Wall Street Journal reports. These are claims that were filed before June 15. 

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On the last Friday before the shutdown, the number of backlogged claims stood at 421,973, so during the time Washington was on furlough, the numbers went down by more than 10,000.

GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado, who sits on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said, "This drop is stunning in light of the administration's threats the backlog would increase as a result of a government shutdown."

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki had said that claims processors would lose ground during the enforced break. Employees had been working mandatory overtime shifts to clear the backlog. When the government closed up shop, claims were processed but hours were cut.

The VA has struggled with a backlog problem for years. New computer systems have enabled employees to clear claims faster, but the VA still fell short of its own processing goal this year. Republican Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida believes this is the issue to focus on.

"Instead of debating whether or not VA's dire predictions regarding the shutdown’s impact came to fruition, I remain focused on a much more important question: Why is the department still falling short of its own backlog goals?" he said. 

The agency had planned to process 1.27 million claims by the end of June, but only processed 1.17 million claims.

Via: Newsmax

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James Madison Would Know Who Today's Extremists Are, And They're Not The Tea Party

In the aftermath of the government shutdown, widely regarded as a self-inflicted political disaster for Republicans, two conspicuous themes deserve attention.  The first is the view that the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party is too extreme, and leading the party into the political wilderness.  Much of the Republican establishment—if such a thing can be said still to exist—holds this view.

While there is plenty of room to criticize the strategy and tactics of the Tea Party, one wonders whether it is correct to categorically deplore the fact that Republicans in Washington may finally be shedding their long-time Stockholm Syndrome of collaborating with the expansion of government.  Almost fifty years after Barry Goldwater famously declared that “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice,” it looks like a critical mass of Republicans are finally catching on.  It is inconceivable, for example, that today’s House Republicans could be goaded into passing an unfunded entitlement like Medicare Part D as they improvidently did in 2003.

Via: Forbes
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Suggestive campaign posters litter NSU campus

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - Sexually suggestive campaign posters turned up on campus at Norfolk State University this weekend, and they have to do with Virginia’s race for governor.

The posters went up around NSU’s campus late Friday night with sexual and suggestive messages sponsored by the Democratic Party of Virginia (DPV). The message attacked Republican candidate and current Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

“Ken Cuccinelli wants to make oral sex a felony. You can stop him,” reads the bottom of both posters.

Photo: Sexually suggestive campaign poster 1

“That's horrible,” said NSU alumna Shenita Perry. “Whatever you do in your personal business is your personal business.”

Many NSU students didn’t get a chance to see the posters before Monday, but students across the state may have. The DPV says the posters were sent to other campuses around the state, as well, all with the purpose of targeting college students’ vote.

“I don't understand what this has to do, how this one for sure, has to do with making our state better or making the streets better,” said NSU junior Courtney.

Photo: Sexually suggestive campaign poster 2

Political consultant Michael Muhammad called WAVY.com after he learned about the posters. He believes the Democrats were out of line.

"I think the Democratic Party went absolutely too far,” Muhammad said. “I think that they are taking people's vote for granted.”

Via: 10 WAVY

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Jay Carney: September Jobs Report ‘Disproves’ Anti-Obamacare Part-Time Jobs Talking Point

Tuesday’s White House Daily Briefing was dominated by discussion of the Healthcare.govwebsite’s difficulties, but Fox News’ Ed Henry did give Press Secretary Jay Carney the opportunity to remind viewers that the Affordable Care Act reduces the federal budget deficit, and to respond to the oft-cited claim that Obamacare isresponsible for a surge in employers cutting workers’ hours to part-time status.

Henry began by asking several questions regarding the “tech surge” that President Obama has promised in order to fix the problems with the Obamacare website, specifically whether the names of the experts and companies being used would be disclosed, and what the additional costs might be.

Carney largely referred Henry to the Department of Health and Human Services, although Henry made the point that “If these individuals work for companies, they have business before the White House, business before the Congress, do you think, in the interest of transparency, it would be a good idea to list the people and their companies?”

“At this point, Ed, I just don’t have more information,” Carney said, and referred him, again, to HHS.

“What is your estimate on how much more money it’s going to cost, then, to fix the website and implement the early stages?” Henry asked. “It’s already hundreds of millions of dollars that have been laid out, has been disclosed. What’s your estimate?”

“The budget for this is something that’s housed over at HHS, so I’d refer you to them,” Carney said, then appeared to draw inspiration from someplace.

“It’s important to note, although it’s rarely noted, certainly in some places,” Carney continued in response to Fox News’ Ed Henry, “that the Affordable Care Act, as it is implemented, as measured by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office as well as others, will reduce our deficits in the first 10 years, and then significantly in the next 10 years. We are already seeing benefits from the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act when it comes to slowing the growth in our health care costs. The three slowest years of health care cost growth has been the last three years, three slowest in the past half century. All of this data, I think,  is contradicting some of the predictions and even current charges by critics of Obamacare when they say it is going to explode health care costs growth, when the opposite has been true.”

Via: Mediaite.com

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Bloomberg to Spend $1.1 Million for McAuliffe

Billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's pro-gun-control super PAC will finance $1.1 million in advertising for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe in the final weeks of the race, Politico reported Monday.

The ads will roll out Tuesday. The election is Nov. 5.

McAuliffe journeyed to New York in August to seek the mayor's support.

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Bloomberg, a political independent, has spent more than $15 million on various gun control initiatives — and spent $1 million helping elect Newark Mayor Cory Booker to a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey's special election to replace the late Frank Lautenberg, who championed gun control, The New York Post reported.

McAuliffe supports stricter gun laws, including an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, limiting the size of magazines and preventing people from buying more than one gun a month.

Roll Call reported Monday that the political action committee of the National Rifle Association has spent $466,000 on television and Internet ads highlighting McAuliffe-backed gun control measures.

The campaign of Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who supports a focus on mental health to reduce gun violence, slammed the ads as out-of-state interference.

Via: Newsmax

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FWISD Investigating Allegations Of Teacher’s Racism

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Fifth graders at a Fort Worth elementary school told their parents a teacher separated them by race, and then insulted them and their families. The Fort Worth Independent School district said in a statement it was aware of the allegations, and would take appropriate action after the facts are known.

Parents said the incident happened in a music class Friday at Hazel Harvey Peace Elementary school. Sandra Lee said it was the first thing her daughter told her about after school.

“He called the class stupid, and when he separated the black kids from the white kids, he told the black kids I know where y’all from,” Lee said her daughter told her. “He said I can tell neither one of y’all get punished at home.”

Another student told CBS 11 News that he and some of his classmate were then told to leave the classroom.

Lee, who went to the school Monday to talk to administrators, said she was told all the students gave administrators written statements about the incident.

VIA: CBS DFW

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Local cops really excited about their terrifying new tank

The police department in St. Cloud, Minnesota is excited to have a new means of transportation: a menacing, jet-black tank.

The tank will be the official method of transportation for the department’s SWAT team, which was accustomed to driving an old ambulance on “high-risk” missions, according to the St. Cloud Times.

But thanks to Minnesota’s Homeland Security office, the city was able to upgrade to a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, or MRAP. The tank is worth $400,000, but St. Cloud only paid a $3,000 transportation fee.

“We got to acquire a very expensive piece of equipment that has everything to do with our ability to do our job in a safe effective way,” said St. Cloud Police Lt. Jeff Oxton in reference to the armored car, which is designed for battlefield combat operations.

The SWAT team will use the tank–which is built to endure grenade explosions–when executing search warrants or responding to disturbances that may involve knives or firearms.

Local police are increasingly utilizing military-style vehicles and equipment–in large part thanks to federal government programs. The federal Department of Homeland Security gives billions of dollars to local law enforcement units for the purposes of procuring armored cars and other army gear.

The Minnesota government doled out $3.5 million worth of military equipment to local cops in the last two months.

Via: Daily Caller

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