Conservative Happenings

Monday, November 4, 2013

[VIDEO] JAY CARNEY SEEMS TO LOSE IT OVER ABC REPORTER’S TOUGH OBAMACARE QUESTIONS: ‘I GIVE UP’

White House press secretary Jay Carney and ABC News reporter Jon Karl got into a tense back-and-forth Monday, with Karl pressing Carney to explain the continued failure of the Obamacare website.

The discussion became charged when Karl repeatedly asked Carney to explain President Barack Obama’s claim that Americans need not worry about the faulty healthcare.gov website because they can always enroll through phone or paper applications.

“I’m going to go back to what the President said, he said you can bypass the website, and apply by phone or in person, and it could be done in 25 minutes, but these memos say that ‘at the end of the day, we are all stuck in the same queue, we all have to go through the same portal,’” said Karl.

The problem with this promise, Karl continued, is that phone and paper applications still have to go through the program’s error-riddled website — contrary to the president’s promise.

Things didn’t get any better as Karl persisted, prompting Carney to mock the ABC News reporter.

“Jon, I get it, but the person who calls isn’t the one who continues to wait after the paper application is filled,” Carney said, imitating Karl’s mannerisms.

“Your mocking is entertaining,” the reporter said, “but the President said you can apply within 25 minutes, that’s not true.”

Carney became increasingly flustered.

“You can have this soliloquy by yourself,” he said. “I think everybody else here understands what I’m saying. I’m sorry I can’t say the same for you.”

“Everyone else seems to get it Jon, except for you. I give up,” he concluded:

Via: The Blaze
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Book: Huntsman campaign peddled Herman Cain rumors to press

It was former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s struggling presidential campaign that fed the rumors to the press that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain had been accused of harassment by multiple women during his business career — a story that ultimately led to Cain’s departure from the contest — a new book reveals.

Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, vehemently denied the claims at the time and shamed Politico, the outlet which eventually wrote about the anonymous accusations, for reporting the story.

But a big mystery since then: who fed Politico the story? Authors John Heilemann and Mark Halperin write in “Double Down: Game Change 2012″ that a campaign that no one really expected was behind the oppo on Cain.

“After getting a tip from a donor, Huntsman’s researchers had dug into Cain’s past, discovered the first two sexual harassment claims, and fed the story to Politico,” the book recounts, according to an excerpt in U.S. News and World Report. “As they waited for Politico to turn their tip into a story, members of Huntsman’s circle asked each other when the ‘high heel’ was going to drop on Cain.”

An aide to Cain told The Daily Caller on Monday that the businessman and radio host has yet to read Heilemann and Halperin’s account, which hits bookshelves Tuesday.

The revelation that Huntsman’s campaign was behind the rumors is ironic, considering how the former U.S. Ambassador to China lamented during the episode that the Cain allegations were keeping Republicans from talking about real issues during the campaign.

“Every time another accusation comes up, it diminishes our ability to stay focused on the issues that really do matter for the American people,” Huntsman said in November 2011. “And I think that’s a disservice to the voters.”

Jonathan Martin, the chief Politico reporter on the Cain story who would know the source, did not reference the revelation in his review last week when he broke several juicy nuggets inside the new book for the New York Times.

Via: Daily Caller

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Red Sox honor Boston Marathon bombing victims during championship parade

In a heart-warming moment on a feel good day in Boston, members of the Red Sox paid tribute to victims of the Boston Marathon as their rolling rally traveled down Boylston Street on Saturday morning.

[Related: Duck boats sport beards for Red Sox parade]

As the parade reached the finish line, the site of the first bombing on April 15, the procession came to a halt and a moving tribute was held with Jonny Gomes and Jarrod Saltalamacchia stepping off their vehicles to acknowledge and interact with victims from that tragic day. They also met with ownership from Marathon Sports and the Forum Restaurant, which were the businesses nearest the bombing sites. The World Series trophy itself was then placed on the finish line, and the 617 Boston Strong jersey that has hung in the Red Sox dugout all season was draped over the trophy symbolizing the unity and strength of the city.

That's a powerful message.

The short ceremony then concluded with the crowd and Red Sox players singing a rendition of "God Bless America."

Planned or not, that added touch was Boston Strong in more ways than one.

Via: Yahoo
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Uniting the Right - Freedom is the idea that can bring our fractious movement together.

Anyone who pays attention to politics can see that when Democrats attack, they speak from the same text, and when they vote, they march in lockstep. If one Democrat says the wealthy must pay their “fair share,” all Democrats do — regardless of the merits of the charge. If their leaders say Republicans want to shut down the government in order to deny Americans affordable care, the rest of the party will follow their lead — whether the claim is true or not. When a key program like Obamacare is the issue, not only do Democrats back it with one voice, but every player on the political left — journalists, professors, talk-show hosts, union heads, MoveOn radicals, and Occupy anarchists — falls into line and promotes it with virtually identical words. They act in “solidarity” in fair political weather and foul, and they do it even for a program like Obamacare, which (as some of them must surely see) is ill-conceived, falsely presented, incompetently executed, and fiscally unsustainable.

When the voices of the Left all come together, the amplification is stupefying. The result is that a morally bankrupt, politically tyrannical, economically destructive party is able to set the course of an entire nation and put it on the road to disaster.

Republicans, in contrast, speak with multiple voices, and in words that often have no relation to each other. If one Republican says “defund Obamacare,” another says, “fund the government,” even if that might mean funding Obamacare. The argument and the dissension are over tactics, not substance, since all Republicans oppose Obamacare. If one Republican says “don’t intervene in Syria,” another says “don’t hesitate”; if one says “Obama-supported immigration reform is a dagger aimed at American sovereignty,” another says “opposition to immigration reform is a death-knell for our party.” This, again, is a tactical division, since all Republicans support enforceable borders.

Via: NRO

[VIDEO] Obamacare Phone, Paper Applications Plagued as Much as Website

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
November 4, 2013 8:33 am

Internal administration memos reveal that phone and paper applications for Obamacare are just as glitch-ridden as the website, Good Morning America reported Monday.

Using those other outlets is not the “quick and easy fix that the White House suggested it would be,” ABC White House correspondent Jonathan Karl said.

Applications over the phone have the same problems as the website, because they use the same computer system. The same portal is used to determine eligibility no matter now an application for health coverage is submitted, according to one memo written by the team charged with fixing the website.

That memo describes filling out the paper application as a way to “buy time,” Karl said. It goes on to read, “The paper applications allow people to feel like they are moving forward … At the end of the day, we are all stuck in the same queue.

Via: WFB

NYT Trumpets How 'Millions Are Eligible for Free (Obamacare) Policies,' Reveals Out-of-Pocket Maximums in Paragraph 21

On Sunday, the editorialists at the New York Times claimed that President Barack Obama merely "misspoke" when he dishonestly promised the American people that "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan" to get Obamacare passed.

Sunday evening for Monday's print edition, reporters Reed Abelson and Katie Thomas carried heavy buckets of water on behalf of Obama and his administration. The headline: "Under Health Care Act, Millions Eligible for Free Policies." It took the Times pair 21 paragraphs to inform readers that the "free" plans have annual out-of-pocket cost limits of $6,350 for individuals and $12,700 for families. They never described how the deductibles or copays work, and never noted that taxpayers are funding the subsidies. Excerpts follow the jump (bolds are mine):

Millions of people could qualify for federal subsidies that will pay the entire monthly cost of some health care plans being offered in the online marketplaces set up under President Obama’s health care law, a surprising figure that has not garnered much attention, in part because the zero-premium plans come with serious trade-offs.

Three independent estimates by Wall Street analysts and a consulting firm say up to seven million people could qualify for the plans, but federal officials and insurers are reluctant to push them too hard because they are concerned about encouraging people to sign up for something that might ultimately not fit their needs.

The bulk of these plans are so-called bronze policies, the least expensive available. They require people to pay the most in out-of-pocket costs, for doctor visits and other benefits like hospital stays.

Supporters of the Affordable Care Act say that the availability of free-premium plans — as well as inexpensive policies that cover more — shows that it is achieving its goal of making health insurance widely available. A large number of those who qualify have incomes that fall just above the threshold for Medicaid, the government program for the poor, according to an analysis by the consulting firm McKinsey and Company.

The latest analysis was conducted by McKinsey’s Center for U.S. Health System Reform, whose independent research has been cited by the federal government and others.

(Paragraph 22)

All plans, including bronze policies, limit annual out-of-pocket costs to $6,350 for individuals and $12,700 for families. But insurers and advocates said out-of-pocket costs — even those under that limit — can be daunting to people with low incomes.

Via: Newsbusters
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Fox’s Shep Smith-Led LAX Shooting Coverage Dominates Cable News Ratings

It was the first major breaking news event since Fox News introduced its elaborate Fox News Deck. And on Friday, Fox was the #1 most-watched cable news network during extensive coverage of the shooting incident at LAX airport in Los Angeles. Between 1 and 4pm, when most of the breaking developments occurred, Fox beat CNN and MSNBC combined in total viewers and bested both networks in the 25-54 demo.

During those three afternoon hours, Fox averaged 1.549M total viewers and 292K viewers in the demo. CNN was second with 807K total viewers and 233K in the demo. And MSNBC came in third with 409K total viewers and just 86K in the demo. The numbers marked a 46% increase over Q3 2013 ratings for Fox in total viewers and a 47% increase in the demo.

The bump for Fox continued into the primetime hours Friday, where the channel posted 2.041M total viewers and 323K in the demo. CNN averaged 621K total viewers in primetime and 141K in the demo while MSNBC averaged 609K total viewers and 167K in the demo.

Fox News was also the first of the three major cable networks to break the news that the shooting had occurred, interrupting regular coverage at 12:42pm ET with the alert. CNN was next at 12:44pm ET followed by MSNBC at 12:46pm ET.

Watch the initial report below, via Fox News:

Via: Mediaite.com

[VIDEO] Former Obama Administration Official: Obama Will ‘Pay Price’ For Healthcare Promise Reversal

This morning on “This Week,” Crossfire co-host Van Jones, a former Obama administration official, said the president would “pay a price,” for reversing course on his now famous promise that those Americans who like their plans could keep them if them if they wished under Obamacare.

“”And he overpromised. And he will, listen, he will pay a price. ‘Mission accomplished,’ you pay a price. ‘No new taxes,’ you pay a price. ‘You keep your plan,’ you pay a price,” Jones said.

During his appearance on the “This Week,” roundtable Jones also tweaked the Obama administration for being too ambitious with Healthcare.gov, which has been plagued by problems since its launch last month.

“First of all, they tried to do too much on this website, you could just have the website where you allow people to shop and then they could just call in, I mean, they tried to do too much and I think part of it was because it was a central thing they did, they tried to do too much,” he said.

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, who appeared on “This Week,” defended the president.

“If the president didn’t intend to keep this promise, why would he have gone out of his way to put a provision in the law that specifically says that if you have a plan before Obamacare passed, you can keep that plan,” he asked.

Jones also took the Republicans to task for what he described as hypocritical behavior.

“It is amazing to me now to see the Republican party now become the party of Ralph Nader. They’re the biggest consumer protection operation in the world now but 6 months ago, we had people who were getting these same cancellation notices and the Republican party was silent,” Jones said.

Via: ABC News

A $15 Minimum Wage

Union organizers are counting on it big time in Washington state.

A small suburban Washington city of 27,000 has recently taken center stage in the national debate over living wages. Voters in the City of SeaTac will soon decide on Proposition 1, a ballot initiative to establish perhaps the most draconian employment standards in the nation, complete with a $15 minimum wage requirement.

Labor leaders are thrilled, and it’s not hard to see why: Labor support of Prop 1 appears to be part of a growing trend to promote union organizing through local ballot initiatives.

Though small in terms of geography and population, the City of SeaTac is economically significant because it hosts Sea-Tac International Airport and surrounding travel and hospitality businesses.

Prop 1’s roots go back to 2005, when Alaska Airlines replacedunionized baggage handlers with non-union contractors. Six years later, Unite Here Local 8, the hospitality workers union, spent historic amounts of money to successfully finance three city council elections.

Local unions are now marching in lockstep behind Prop 1. So far, labor unions have provided 95 percent of the campaign resources supporting the initiative — over $1.2 million, according to the statePublic Disclosure Commission. While the labor-backed campaign has decried the influence of “deep-pocketed greedy big corporations,” unions have outspent businesses 2-1, making Big Labor the biggest special interest in SeaTac.

Via: American Spectator

ObamaCare Will Raise Average Insurance Claims By 32% For Individual Coverage The Next Four Years

In my search for the truth about how much ObamaCare will increase the cost of health care insurance, I came upon a frightening map of the United States that projected what the percentage hikes would be state by state for people with individual coverage. The projections, prepared by the Society of Actuaries in March 2013 predicted some pretty outrageous total health care increases for people with individual coverage in the likes of California (62%), Alabama (60%), Texas (34%) and Arizona (41%). Only in New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey would the premiums decline slightly for people with individual coverage, a segment of the market that is expected to increase from 11.9 million people at present to 25.6 million as more Americans sign up for insurance coverage under ObamaCare.

The Society of Actuaries contacted me this morning to explain that the large percent increases are the projected estimate for “underlying claims costs… not the expected premium. So, I was incorrect in pinning the 32% just on the rise in the cost of buying health insurance, but rather it refers to the projected average increase in the insurance claims to be paid by the health insurance companies.

Via: Forbes

Food Stamp Fraud: Beneficiaries Illegally Sell EBT Cards On Craigslist, Social Media Sites

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – It’s a welfare fraud scheme costing U.S. taxpayers $750 million a year. People are illegally selling their electronic food stamp cards on Craigslist and other social media sites for cash.

CBS13 found two people here in Sacramento, both with the same idea, using Craigslist as free advertising to blatantly and illegally sell their state benefits.

Our hidden cameras were rolling as a woman, who we’ll call Lorie, told our undercover producer about her brilliant idea to game the system for a quick buck.

“Everyone said I was crazy, but I thought they’d say, ‘that’s freaking brilliant man,’ ” she said.

Another man, who we’ll call Joe, rolled up on a skateboard. He showed us his CalFresh card he illegally put up for sale on Craigslist.

“See, right now it still has $116 on it,” he told our undercover producer.

Rather than use that money for food like he’s supposed to, Joe offered to sell us the card for just $60 cash.

Via: CBS Sacramento

White House Buys Ad Time To Promote Obamacare Website During NFL Games…

Even though the website doesn’t work.

Via Twitchy:

Via: Weasel Zippers

[VIDEO] Gibbs: 'Certainly' Wrong of President to Promise People Could Keep Their Health Care Plans

President Obama's former press secretary, Robert Gibbs, says it was "certainly" wrong for the president to continuously promise that people would be able to keep their health care plans under Obamacare:

"Robert. you're a communications guy and you were there," said an MSNBC host this morning. "How could the president say, and there's a clip we'll show where he says it many, many, many, many -- I remember it -- 'You can keep your plan.' When you know that 5 percent of the people, and 5 percent is obviously a small part of the story and overall the impact if you believe in this law is better than what happens here, but it's millions of people. You know what's going to happen in the press. You know there's going to be hardships for those people. Why would you let your president say that?"

"Well, look, I don't recall significant discussions around some of the verbage on this, to be a hundred percent honest with you," said Gibbs this morning.

"But do you agree it was a wrong move?"

"Oh, well, certainly," said Gibbs. "I mean, I don't think anybody dealing with this today finds what was said. Now, I do think some explanation in terms of the fact that policies that were in place at the point at which the president signed them were grandfathered in for this."

Via: Weekly Standard

WZ Exclusive: David’s Bridal Transitioning ALL Full-Timers To Part Time Because of Obamacare…

I just had lunch with a friend who is a manager of a David’s Bridal. She told me all store managers received an email from the CEO of David’s Bridal. The e-mail explains that all store employees will begin to transition to part-time employment as of last week. The e-mail goes on to say the decision was made as a result of the impact providing insurance to employees would cause to the company, in accordance with the requirements of the ACA.

David’s Bridal employs thousands of employees across America in its 300 stores.

Via: Weasel Zippers

Post-9/11 airport security measures didn't prevent LAX shooting

LOS ANGELES — Despite a $1.6-billion investment in new security measures at Los Angeles International Airport since 9/11, Friday's shooting by a gunman who made his way deep into a passenger terminal demonstrates that the airport remains vulnerable to attacks that appear costly and difficult to defend against.

Lobbies, ticketing counters, baggage claim areas and sidewalks of the nine terminals at Los Angeles International Airport, the nation's third-busiest, are easily accessible to attackers intent on bringing firearms or bombs into the airport's public areas.

Creating a fail-safe security perimeter for the terminal area, however, would be extremely costly and might shift attacks by those seeking to do harm to other public gathering places, said Brian Jenkins, an authority on terrorism and aviation security at Rand Corp., the Santa Monica-based think tank.

"It would be very hard to do," Jenkins said. "There would be very little net security benefit. Terrorists could go somewhere else, like attack a shopping mall in Nairobi or a theater in Aurora, Colo., or Times Square. What do we really gain?"

In Friday morning's attack, a gunman identified by police as Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, carried an assault-style rifle through the lobby of Terminal 3 and began shooting as he passed through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint.

Via: McClatchy

A dishonest presidency

The Wall Street Journal broke the news this weekend that, even as President Obama was telling the American people they could keep their health plans, “some White House policy advisors objected to the breadth of Mr. Obama’s ‘keep your plan’ promise. They were overruled by political aides.”

Overruled by political aides? This is simply damning.

It’s not easy to get a lie into a presidential speech. Every draft address is circulated to the White House senior staff and key Cabinet officials in something called the “staffing process.” Every line is reviewed by dozens of senior officials, who offer comments and factual corrections. During this process, it turns out, some of Obama’s policy advisers objected to the “you can keep your plan” pledge, pointing out that it was untrue. But it stayed in the speech. That does not happen by accident. It requires a willful intent to deceive.

In the Bush White House, we speechwriters would often come up with what we thought were great turns of phrase to help the president explain his policies. But we also had a strict fact-checking process, where every iteration of every proposed presidential utterance was scrubbed to ensure it was both accurate and defensible. If the fact-checkers told us a line was inaccurate, we would either kill it or find another way to make the point accurately. I cannot imagine a scenario in which the fact-checkers or White House policy advisers would tell us that something in a draft speech was factually incorrect and that guidance would be ignored or overruled by the president’s political advisers.

Via: Washington Post

Maybe Pain Will Teach You Millenials Not To Vote For Your Own Serfdom

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You Millenials voted for Obama by amargin of 28 percent, which will make it a lot easier for me to accept the benefits you will be paying for. We warned you that liberalism was a scam designed to take the fruits of your labor and transfer it to us, the older, established generation. Oh, and also to the couch-dwelling, Democrat-voting losers who live off of food stamps and order junk from QVC with their Obamaphones.

You didn’t listen to us. Maybe you’ll listen to pain.

I have been told that being hard on you Millennials will turn you against conservatism, that I should offer you a positive, hopeful message that avoids the touchy problem of your manifest stupidity.

No. There’s no sugar-coating it – your votes for Democrats have ensured that you are the first generation in American history that will fail to exceed what their parents attained. Embracing liberalism was a stupid thing to do, done for the stupidest of reasons, and I will now let you subsidize my affluent lifestyle without a shred of guilt.

I’m a 48 year old trial lawyer living on the coast in California – I should have “Hope and Change” tattooed on my glutes. I’d have an excuse to be lib-curious, but you Millennials? Why do you support an ideology that pillages you to pay-off Democrat constituencies? Your time in the indoctrination factories of academia trained you in a form of “critical thinking” that is neither. Somehow, you came to embrace the bizarre notion that conservatives are psychotic Jesus freaks who want to Footloosisze America into a land of mandatory Sunday school and no dancing.

Via: TownHall

Monday, November 4, 2013

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