THE WEEK THAT WAS - THE WEEK IN REVIEW

It’s the scariest time in American history but somehow the country survived the scariest day of the year. Kathleen Sebelius celebratedHalloween early by dressing up as Lois Lerner. She testified at her hearing and displayed the same level of corrupt, arrogantincompetence as her muse. The hair, specs, and blasé expression were all pretty similar, too. Obama has a type.

Ken Cuccinelli is staging a comeback of epic proportions in Virginia, where he is running for governor against Democrat challenger Terry McAuliffe, the Clintons’ sidekick. Fellow conservatives balked at Cuccinelli from the start, saying he is an “ideologue.” Turns out voters might have ideals, too.

Obama’s approval rating this week dipped to its lowest yet. Polls indicate that just42 percent of Americans approve of the job the president is doing. 99 percent of the 42 percent report that they approve of the way Obamacare is not taking effect.

The National Football League is looking to distance itself from the Redskins’ name SNAFU by appealing to a different minority— women. According to reports, the NFL has made a “concerted effort over the past two years to market the game and apparel” to females. The Washington Redskins will have a new name, “The Washington Hopeless Romantics,” and mascot, Tom Brady, by next season.

Oh and the Boston Red Sox won the World Series but the team’s approval rating in the eyes of the country is only marginally better than Obama’s.

Via Human Events

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Ken Cuccinelli helpfully reminds Virginia that Barack Obama & Terry McAuliffe are allies. #obamacare.

 This is, of course, a parody of Barack Obama’s actual remarks about Terry McAuliffe.  You can tell because surely Barack Obama would not be stupid enough to praise Obamacare – and McAuliffe’s intention to actually drag the state further into its clutches – two days before the Virginia gubernatorial election.  There are limits to idiocy.

There have to be.

Anyway, a taste:

I’m here today because Terry has always had my back  — alright maybe not in 2008 — but ever since then. He’s been a vocal supporter for our legislative priorities, especially the Affordable Care Act. Terry even wanted the public option and was just as disappointed as I was when that didn’t work out.

You all know that Republicans like Ken Cuccinelli are doing everything possible to stop the law. They are grossly misleading the public, saying I  wasn’t honest with  you all when I said if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it. Can you believe that? Sure I said that — but you all know what I meant! I meant most of you all! It’s not like I prefaced it with “read my lips” or anything.

There’s more.  And, remember: there is one candidate in this race who is not for expanding Obamacare, and it’s not the ‘Libertarian’ one.  It’s Ken Cuccinelli.

Via: Red State

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IRS warns of elaborate phone scam

This is a “particularly sophisticated and pervasive” telephone scam targeting taxpayers across the state and the nation, according to Wisconsin IRS spokesman Christopher Miller. “Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and they have to pay promptly through a pre-loaded debit card or a wire transfer. And if they refuse, they’re threatened with arrest, deportation, or even suspension of their business or drivers license.”

Miller wants taxpayers to know the IRS will not ask for credit card numbers over the phone, nor will they request a pre-paid debit card or a wire transfer to settle a tax problem. That should be a red flag.

Miller explains, this new scam is especially dangerous because it seems convincing to unsuspecting individuals. “The scammers use fake names and IRS badge numbers. They’re able, many times, to recite the last four digits of the victims social security number. And the scammers have even figured out a way to spoof the IRS toll free number so it shows up on your caller ID.”

AUDIO: Miller says this scam is very convincing. :34

If you get such a call, and you think you do owe taxes, call the IRS directly. If you have no reason to believe you owe taxes, call the Treasury Inspector General. Also, if you’ve been targeted by the scam, you should contact the Federal Trade Commission.

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, here’s what you should do:

• If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 800-829-1040. The IRS employees at that line can help you with a payment issue.
• If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to think that you owe any taxes, then report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484.
• If you’ve been targeted by this scam, you should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.
• Via: Wisconsin Radio Network
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4 Things Obama Will Deny Americans…

President Obama was one of the most promising candidates to ever run for President. He promised us so much that he might as well have run for National Genie.

Obamacare is the skunk that has been called a kitty in hopes that everyone would embrace it. But the stink is nearly impossible to eliminate. There were promises made that turned out to be lies. They could bring down the President. But forget about impeachment. There are too many Democrats to allow that, even though Obama nearly makes Nixon look like a saint.

In medical research, we were maybe a generation away from breakthroughs that could have helped most Americans and lowered medical costs dramatically. The pain bypass unit that will be smaller than a AAA battery would be placed at the base of the brain to prevent most pain signals from being felt. Millions of Americans and hundreds of millions of others around the world would have benefited from the development of the device, which might have cost less than $1,000 to users thanks to government absorption of most of the expenses. The need for pain pills and pain treatment would be dramatically reduced, and multitudes would have lived normal lives. But since the company or companies that would have developed the idea would also have been taxed heavily and maybe driven out of business, they may never develop something people need and would have financially benefited from (thanks to less need for pain medication.)

Another device that might be denied is the nerve bypass that would be implanted to allow paralyzed people to function normally again. The first version of the device was drawn in 1974, and I approached a head of surgery with that idea and the idea that nerves would be transplanted from one part of the body to another. He said that both ideas were impossible. At the time, he might have been right. But the second idea has become reality, and I trust the first idea will also become reality unless Obamacare prevents it from becoming available.

Via: Western Journalism

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Pelosi: Chicago Jesus Is A “President of Great Vision, Great Knowledge, Great Judgement”…

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday dismissed Mitt Romney’s statement that President Obama’s second term is rotting away.

Pelosi said she missed Romney’s appearance on “Meet the Press,” during which the former GOP presidential candidate said Obama’s broken promise that everyone who liked their healthcare plan could keep it has undermined Obama’s presidency. 

“I don’t even know why Romney was on that show myself,” she said in an interview on MSNBC. “I want to know what about the future —what about the future. But the fact is that President Obama is a president of great vision, of great knowledge, of great judgment.”

Pelosi noted that Obama led the effort to overhaul the healthcare system, an effort in which former presidents have failed. 

The Associated Press reported Sunday that at least 3.5 million people who buy insurance on the individual market have received cancellation notices for existing plans. The administration has consistently noted that the individual market makes up 5 percent of people. 

“For 95 percent of the American people who have health insurance that is the case,” Pelosi said. “For the small number in the private market, they will do better.” 

For people with preexisting conditions, Pelosi called the healthcare law a “godsend, emphasis on the God.”

Pelosi predicted that the healthcare law, and its botched rollout, will not be an issue in the 2014 midterm elections. 

“I don’t even think of it as a political issue,” she said. “But for the American people this will be a giant plus.”

The minority leader reiterated her point that Democrats have a better chance of winning back the House in the midterms because fallout hitting Republicans due to the government shutdown. 

Heading into the House-Senate budget conference that has a December deadline to come up with a spending plan, Pelosi said revenue will need to be on the table and predicted Obama and others in the conference would hold firm.

“I think we will all stay there together,” she said. “If you have revenue on the table, you can come to a bigger agreement to reduce the deficit and grow the economy to do so in a fiscally sound way.”

Via: The Hill

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Tomorrow Is National Insurance Policy Day Of Mourning

Via: Weasel Zippers

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Obama’s Waffling Foreign Policy

AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGANMANDEL NGAN/AFP/GettyImages

President Obama’s foreign policy over the course of his presidency has suffered from severe inconsistency, writes Heritage Foundation distinguished fellow Kim Holmes in The Washington Times:

He’ll draw red lines in Syria and threaten military strikes, then call off the strikes and convene diplomatic conferences. If he’s not killing terrorists with drones, he’s bringing them to New York for civilian trial. He’ll bypass the United Nations Security Council to take military action against Syria, but demand its approval before bombing Libya.

As Jackson Diehl wrote in The Washington Post this week, even if “al-Qaeda’s new base in eastern Syria, Hezbollah’s deployment of tens of thousands of missiles in Lebanon and the crumbling of the U.S.-fostered Iraqi political system pose no particular threat to America,” these are major concerns to U.S. allies. This leaves our allies wondering whether the U.S. will act to defend them in the face of aggression from common foes.

This is no way to lead a country on the international stage and is a result of President Obama’s being, as Holmes puts it, “deeply conflicted about the purposes of American power.” Consistent policy is based on conviction, and without conviction, a leader cannot successfully defend his actions to allies. More importantly, he has no chance of expecting those allies to maintain their trust in the security he is supposed to provide.

Via: The Foundry

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[VIDEO] Romney: ‘You Have to Tell the American People the Truth’

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
November 3, 2013 11:25 am

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney again rejected President Obama’s comparisons between Obamacare and Romney’s health care policy while governor of Massachusetts Sunday on Meet The Press, saying Obama had failed to learn the lessons from that state-run plan and had been dishonest with the American people.

Referring to Obama’s infamous promise that “if you like your plan you will keep your plan,” Romney said that falsehood could undermine his entire presidency.

“Perhaps the most important lesson the president, I think, failed to learn was, you have to tell the American people the truth,” Romney said. “When he told the American people that you could keep your health insurance if you wanted to keep that plan, period, he said that time and again, he wasn’t telling the truth, and I think that fundamental dishonesty has really put in peril the whole foundation of his second term.”

Via: WFB

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Callista Gingrich: Preserving the America We Love

In a world of incredible change, it’s vital that young Americans learn American history.

America is a large and diverse country, founded upon common principles and values that have drawn millions of people here from across the globe for over 200 years. It’s critical that each generation learns about the ideas and traditions upon which our country has been built, and understands the sacrifices of those who came before us. 

This means that each new generation must learn American history to understand what it means to be American.

Today, unfortunately, we are doing a poor job of passing on our history to the next generation. Many students are failing to learn the basics about American history, and are consequently failing to appreciate our rich heritage.

The Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress shows the enormity of this challenge. In a recent NAEP survey, just 20 percent of fourth-graders, 17 percent of eighth-graders and 12 percent of twelfth-graders were at grade-level proficiency in American history.

In the same survey, only one in three fourth graders could identify the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. Less than half understood why George Washington was an important leader in American history. And most fourth graders didn't know why the Pilgrims left England.

These results suggest that most students are failing to learn the fundamentals. Being born in a time of relative prosperity, safety, and freedom, we must look back to those who fought for and won our freedom. We can start by teaching our children about our founding fathers, including, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, as well as our founding documents, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 

We must find creative ways to engage our children in learning American history. As the author of three children’s history books, I’ve visited classrooms and libraries across the country to share the adventures of Ellis the Elephant, my time-travelling pachyderm, with four to eight year olds. Most young people I meet are energetic and eager to learn. 

Via: Newsmax

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How Ted Cruz Won the Shutdown Drama

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and his Republican colleagues won the shutdown drama in October.  However, the effects are still gradually rippling through the electorate.  And the full results will depend upon Republicans understanding the strategy (they don't) and continuing to implement conservatives' obvious plan consistently for maximum impact (unlikely).

Approval has dropped five percent for President Barack Obama since the October government shutdown, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal opinion survey.  Obama's disapproval rating has reached a toxic 51 percent -- as even Obama-worshiping NBC News admits.  Over 50 percent of voters disapproving is considered fatal for an incumbent office holder, at least if he were facing re-election.  In a sense he is -- facing the 2014 congressional elections.

Forty-seven percent now think that ObamaCare is a bad idea, up from forty-three percent in this same poll from early October.  The race for governor in Virginia has tightened up to within four percent, although Ken Cuccinelli's Mitt Romney-style campaign probably won't withstand the outrageous, unanswered lies told about him by the Democrat.

Skeptics ask: What was achieved by Ted Cruz with his 21-hour filibuster against ObamaCare on the floor of the U.S. Senate?  What did Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives accomplish by trying to delay or defund ObamaCare?

Via: American Thinker

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Four Legal Arguments Why ObamaCare is Bad Law & Ought be Overturned

When it became obvious on the day of ObamaCare’s premier that the Internet websites did not work, some were wildly disappointed, others angry, while another group heaved a sigh of relief.  The fact that the legislation may not be fully available for months, or years, gives Americans a unique opportunity to review and potentially revoke this law. So we now have a chance at congress’ equivalent of a mulligan—a do over to right any obvious wrongs. So what would such bad elements be?

Following is a list of four possible arguments to fight the case at court, in the legislature or in the court of public opinion. The notion that the people must accept all laws no matter how they were passed, or how injurious to the populace, or damaging to the economy, no matter the morality— is a patent fiction. No bad law should be allowed to stand on the fact that it is the result of a technicality, accident or bad deed, which lead to its imposture, and therefore, we must just learn to live with it. In fact, our Common Law heritage always taught that an unjust law is no law at all. Further, it also taught that citizens had a duty to defy unjust laws in the name of upholding liberty.

This is America, the most generous, noble and free society in the history of the world. We have a right and a duty to demand the best government and laws. This will allow us freedom to be the leaders of the world, not slaves under the yoke of an all-powerful, rapacious and blind government.

1. Unpopular: It Violates Declaration’s Government by “Consent of the People”

2. Sold by Lies: An Utterly Misleading Campaign for a Passed Law is Illegal

3. Doctrine of Impossibility: Agreements Impossible to Fulfill are Null & Void

4. Public Policy Against Waste: ObamaCare Will Destroy Economy

Conclusion: An Unjust Law is No Law at All

Via: Canada Free Press

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NYTimes: Obama ‘misspoke’ when he claimed Americans could keep their health insurance

YES!!  OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!

In its Sunday paper, The New York Times editorial board defended President Barack Obama from criticisms that he had intentionally misled the public when he had claimed if an individual likes their health insurance plan, they could keep their health insurance plan.

The paper’s board also attacked congressional Republicans for stoking fear and confusion, writing that Obama “clearly misspoke” when he repeatedly claimed Americans could keep their health insurance plans as he fought to pass the law and defend it during the 2012 election.

“Mr. Obama clearly misspoke when he said that,” the editorial read. “By law, insurers cannot continue to sell policies that don’t provide the minimum benefits and consumer protections required as of next year. So they’ve sent cancellation notices to hundreds of thousands of people who hold these substandard policies. (At issue here are not the 149 million people covered by employer plans, but the 10 million to 12 million people who buy policies directly on the individual market.)”

Later in the editorial, the Times described Obama’s contradicted claims as an overblown controversy.

“This overblown controversy has also obscured the crux of what health care reform is trying to do, which is to guarantee that everyone can buy insurance without being turned away or charged exorbitant rates for pre-existing conditions and that everyone can receive benefits that really protect them against financial or medical disaster, not illusory benefits that prove inadequate when a crisis strikes,” the editorial said.

Via: Daily Caller
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First Obamacare Retail Store Opens in Connecticut

(CNN) -- Ways to sign up for Obamacare are expanding, The first Obamacare retail store is up and running in Connecticut.

The physical location seems to be a hit with some locals, but it's not problem-free.

Take a trip down Main Street in New Britain, Connecticut and right next to Edible Arrangements, you'll pass a store that has the locals intrigued.

A retail store set up by Connecticut's State Exchange, dedicated solely to all things Obamacare.

Think of it as the first brick and mortar version of an online state exchange. Management says they wanted to be creative, so they used the Apple store as their inspiration.

“It's clean, it's open, it's bright, and as you can see it's very open for a customer to walk in and just kind of feel welcome.”

Past the greeting area, there's a screening area for informational videos on insurance, a play area for uninsured customers with toddlers and cubicles for insurance brokers.

Management also says, by having a physical store they eliminate some of the confusion about what the exchanges actually are.

“We got a lot of questions from individuals confusing this with a stock exchange or people thinking it was physically a place where they had to bring their insurance cards into to physically exchange them for something else.”

The in-store experience has already run into problems, one customer says she's already had to come in three times to try and enroll for health insurance. Every time she moves further along in her online application, problems connecting to the federal data hub, force her to come back and start over.

Problems aside, Connecticut is rolling full speed ahead. The state already has plans to open a second retail store in New Haven in the coming week.

“We wanted to find a way to make a firm commitment to physically being in the communities where many uninsured people reside.”

Via: Ozarks First

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EIGHT-YEAR-OLD THREATENED WITH EXPULSION FOR DRAWING NINJA WITH GUN

An eight-year-old at Scottsdale, Arizona's Country Day School was threatened with expulsion after drawing a picture of soldier with a gun as an idea for a Halloween costume.

The child's name has not been released—to protect his identity—but his parents pulled him from the school last week after he was threatened with expulsion for drawing a picture of a soldier with a gun, a ninja warrior with a gun, and a Star Wars character holding laser guns. 

According to CBS 5 Arizona, the child's father, who also remains anonymous, said this is a situation where the headmaster literally "bullied" his son over the drawings, and "bullied the parents" too.

The father said the headmaster pointed to writings in the eight-year-old's journal where he wrote of adventures filled with "booby traps" and "shooting gadgets [like] a rope gun." The boy also wrote about doing away with nuclear weapons, "saving the earth and protecting humanity."

However, the headmaster focused on the drawings—like the one of the soldier with a gun—and said he "couldn't guarantee the safety of other student's with [the eight-year-old] around."

Via: Breitbart

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GLOVES OFF: GOP ESTABLISHMENT GOES AFTER TEA PARTY

The National Republican Senate Committee, the GOP campaign arm responsible for Senate elections, has decided to use its political power to block consulting firm Jamestown Associates from receiving political work from GOP candidates or incumbents. 

Jamestown's "sin" is working with the Senate Conservative Fund, an organization that supports conservative candidates for the US Senate. 

NRSC communications staffer Brad Dayspring, a former spokesman for House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), told The New York Times on Friday, “We’re not going to do business with people who profit off of attacking Republicans. Purity for profit is a disease that threatens the Republican Party.”

Jamestown Associates has done work with the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), a conservative group largely responsible for the elections of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rand Paul (R-KY), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Ron Johnson (R-WI), among others. Former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who left the U.S. Senate last year to become the president of the Heritage Foundation, founded SCF.

"In a warning shot to outside conservative groups, the National Republican Senatorial Committee this week informed a prominent Republican advertising firm that it would not receive any contracts with the campaign committee because of its work with a group that targets incumbent Senate Republicans," the Times wrote. 

"Even more striking," the Times continued, "a senior official at the committee called individual Republican Senate campaigns and other party organizations this week and urged them not to hire the firm, Jamestown Associates, in an effort to punish them for working for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Jim DeMint, then a South Carolina senator, that is trying to unseat Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and some other incumbents up for re-election next year whom it finds insufficiently conservative."

Via: Breitbart

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Virginia Democrat Calls For Forcing Doctors To Accept Medicare And Medicaid Patients

You would think that when your party is burying a hole that is getting harder and harder to get out of, you wouldn't want to that hole get deeper faster.  But here is Kathleen Murphy, Democrat running for the House of Delegates against Barbara Comstock, telling a forum in Great Falls that she believes it should law to force doctors to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients.  Forced by government decree, mind you.  A birdie sent me this:

FYI last night at the Great Falls Grange debate, Democrat delegate candidate Kathleen Murphy said that since many doctors are not accepting medicaid and medicare patients, she advocates making it a legal requirement for those people to be accepted.  

She did not recognize that the payments are inadequate to cover the doctors' costs.  She also did not recognize there is a shortage of over 45,000 physicians now and that it is forecast to be 90,000 in a few years.  

Democrats appear to want to make physicians slaves of the state, but Democrats don't admit they would just drive more doctors out of practice into retirement and other occupations.  The Obamacare law and regulations are causing millions of people to lose their health insurance, drop many doctors and hospitals. The HHS internal forecast is 93 million Americans would lose their health insurance due to the Obamacare law and rules about adequacy of insurance.

Many more people will be uninsured.   The penalties for being uninsured start at $95 per year, but the penalties can't be collected by the IRS if a person does not have a tax refund to attach.  

The out of pocket costs required by Obamacare's Silver Plan for a non-smoking mother and father with two children making a gross before income taxes of $50,000 (roughly average salary for VA) would be $13,765 per year including the deductible of $10,400.  That's 28% of their gross income -- not very affordable and about the same as guidelines for a mortgage payment.  For such a family making $100,000 of gross income, The cost would be $21,431 including the deductible of $12,700, or 21% of gross income.   

With such high deductibles doctors are stuck with trying to collect cash from the patients, even at regulated charge structures.  Thus is makes sense for primary care doctors not to participate in Obamacare, medicare and medicaid.  They should encourage patients to participate in Concierge Care and insurance programs run by the doctors themselves with patients who can do simple math.  Patients can take out catastrophic insurance with high deductibles for major surgeries.  Tax deductability for individual medical savings accounts would make health care more affordable.  

The head of Obamacare programs, Berwick, loves the socialized medical system in the UK, but never mentions that malpractice insurance is minimal.  In the UK, panels of doctors review and approve malpractice awards, rather than emotional juries misled by trial lawyers.  Malpractice reform like this with caps on malpractice awards would go a long way in making health care affordable.

I hope physicians rise up and speak out for common sense, protecting quality medical care in the US and giving patients freedom to choose

THIS along with the fact that Terry McAuliffe has already said he'd go to the government shutdown mat to get a state exchange in Virginia.  Unbelievable.  Combine the chaos of thousands of people across Virginia losing their health insurance, we are going to add to that on the state level by forcing doctors to accept patients they can't afford to help?  Unbelievable.  Dark days are ahead, but there is still time.    Three days to make sure this does not happen.  

Democrats in Virginia will drive up health care costs, drive doctors out of the state, and then drive health care costs up even more because there will not be enough doctors practicing in the state. 

Via: Mason Conservative

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