From BFD To MIA: Joe Biden hides from Obamacare crisis

The president is facing his worst crisis of his five-year tenure. So where is the first mate of the Obama administration, good ol’ Joe Biden?

The vice president is in Houston, Texas, and he’s flying to Panama Nov. 20., far away from the crisis, from the president and from media questions about Obamacare.

He was home in Delaware on Nov. 17 after spending the previous three days in a New York, North Carolina and Georgia. On Nov. 13, he joined President Barack Obama for a closed-door White House meeting with advocates of greater immigration.

He met with military commanders on Nov. 12, spent the weekend of Nov. 11 and 10 at home in Delaware, and met with veterans Nov. 9. He stumped for Terry McAuliffe Nov. 4, in Virginia’s gubernatorial race, warning voters that the GOP candidate was “extreme.”

He’s running for president in 2016, but running away from Obamacare in 2014.

The crisis is so bad that on Nov. 14, President Barack Obama defended himself by denying that he was stupid.

“I’m accused of a lot of things, but I don’t think I’m stupid enough to go around saying, this is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity a week before the website opens if I thought that it wasn’t going to work,” told a roomful of TV cameras and reporters.

That’s a real political crisis. But that day, Biden was 600 miles from Obama’s podium.

Via: Daily Caller
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[MUST RED FOR PARENTS] Lesson has kindergarteners fill in bubbles to prepare for standardized tests

MUSKEGON, Mich. –  One teacher has found a clever way to profit off the Common Core-related tests that are about to be inflicted upon the nation’s youngest students.

A new worksheet, found on Teachers PayTeachers.com, trains kindergarteners how to carefully color in bubbles to prepare for the standardized tests related to Common Core national standards.

The lesson also trains young children not to color in the pictures on a standardized test or to write their names anywhere on the official booklet, according to the product’s creator, Maggie’s Kindergarten.

The lesson’s product description explains the need for such training: “Though many K-2 teachers will argue the reasoning behind giving a standardized test to a young child, we accept that educational mandates require us to do so. We also must acknowledge that such tests not only test Common Core Skills, but also skills that may not be required by Common Core at the Kindergarten level.”

Is this really what education has come down to – preparing for standardized tests? We’re all for assessing how students are learning and the effectiveness of educators, but this seems to be getting a little ridiculous.

And for those that attack corporations for “getting rich off of schoolchildren,” it seems teachers are getting in on the game, too.

As one commentator put it, “Don’t blame Pearson for this one.”

Via: EAG

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[VIDEO] Incoherence: Democrats offer contradictory excuses over ‘keep your plan’ lie

Reading Erika’s post this morning got me thinking.  Democrats still haven’t gotten their story straight about the untimely demise of “if you like your plan, you can keep it” — President Obama’s most memorable presidential promise.  For his part, Obama delivered the pledge ad nauseam for years, before misleadingly minimizing the scope of its victims as it unraveled.  Then, after a feeble shot at revisionism cratered, he was forced to muster a half-assed apology.  When that didn’t staunch the bleeding either, he rolled out a desperation “fix” that hits a rare trifecta: It is logistically infeasible — and quite possibly illegal — according to various experts, it has been roundly criticized by lefty wonks who see it as a counter-productive affront to the viability of the law, and it has been dismissed by elected Democrats as insufficient weak sauce.  No one’s happy.  Quite a feat.  As the White House flails and fumbles, Congressional Democrats have been left to their own devices to engage in freelance damage control. The yarn they’re spinning is a tangled web, indeed.  To hear people like House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand tell it, of coursethey knew that ‘keep your plan’ wasn’t exactly accurate.  The president employed “imprecise” language, Hoyer allowed last month.  Hey, “we all knew” Obama’s categorical pledge wasn’t quite right, Gillibrand added over the weekend, lamenting that Democrats hadn’t adequately explained all the details:

Two quick points: (1) A fuller explanation would have rendered Obama’s vow inoperative, and likely would have sunk the bill.  That’s the whole reason they lied in the first place.  (2) Gillibrand needs to have a chat with Kirsten Powers, the Hammacks, Edie Sundby, Bob Laszewski, David Frum, Matthew Fleischer, and countless others who’ve been dumped from their decidedly non “terrible” plans into inferior and/or more expensive coverage.  The Left’s persistent “junk coverage” talking point is garbage, and is especially rich coming from folks who believe with religious fervor that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is the height of human compassion.  (Also, has she heard about Obamacare’s effects on deductibles?) In any case, a number of Democrats want Americans to know that yes, they did know ‘keep your plan’ was inaccurate — and therefore their primary shortcoming was fouling up the expectations management game.  Which brings us to a separate class of Democrats, to whom we’ll refer as the “we had no idea!” crowd.  This nervous bunch is hoping to persuade voters that they were bamboozled by Obama’s promise just like everyone else, and that they’re working tirelessly to rectify the unforeseen breach of trust.  This group is led by vulnerable Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon:

“It was a significant failure to understand that the grandfathering had this flaw in it,” said Merkley, “and now that it’s recognized, we’ve got to fix it.” The senator added that “we just didn’t fully understand” that during the three years before the new law went completely into effect, many people would migrate to other coverage or be forced off these grandfathered plans.

Via: Hot Air
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Watch: Students At Historically Black School Rail Against ObamaCare

(Campus Reform)

Students at Bowie State University assailed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on Thursday after administrators cancelled a low cost school-wide health care plan due to new regulations in the law.

Many students told Campus Reform that the now cancelled plans, which provided coverage for just $50 per semester, were the only insurance they could afford.

"I can't afford anything right now," one said. "I can't even afford my loans."

"We don't have that money," said another. "We can barely afford books."

Via: Fox News

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Maria Bartiromo Leaving CNBC For FBN

Breaking: Maria Bartiromo is leaving CNBC to join Fox Business.

“After 20 years of groundbreaking work at CNBC, Maria Bartiromo will be leaving the company as her contract expires on November 24,” a CNBC spokesperson tells TVNewser. “Her contributions to CNBC are too numerous to list but we thank her for all of her hard work over the years and wish her the best.”

Drudge Report, which was first to report the news, says Bartiromo will anchor a daily FBN program during the market hours and also have a role on Fox News.

Bartiromo, who celebrated her 20th anniversary with CNBC last month, signed with CAA in May. We reported at the time that her contract was set to expire at the end of the year.

Bartiromo will re-join Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, who first put her on the air when he ran CNBC. She will also be reunited with Lou Dobbs, who was her boss at CNN in the early 1990s. As Bartiromo recounted to TVNewser in 2011, Dobbs told her a move to CNBC would be a big career mistake:

But Lou Dobbs wanted to restructure the newsroom and I was on the assignment desk, so Lou promoted me to senior producer for the morning shows and I was upset, because it would put me on the overnights again, and take me out of the field. So after all my crying — I used to cry on the 22nd floor of CNN — I went back and put together my reel. Re-shooting the stories I’d produced. And I sent it to CNBC and Peter Sturtevant and Roger Ailes said “we want to put you on the air.” I went to Lou and I said, “Lou, I’m leaving.” And he said, “Maria, you’re making the biggest mistake of your life.”

Via: TVNewser
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Mark Levin Makes Mincemeat Out of Martin Bashir

F  Email

MARK LEVIN: This guy -- what is his name? Martin Bashir -- if that is his name, Martin Bashir -- Friday closed his show with likely the most disgraceful rant against former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin you've ever heard. Hey tough guy, Martin Bashir, you like picking on women? You like picking on a mother and a grandmother? You a tough guy, pal? You strike me as not tough at all, if you get my drift. As a little puke, tough guy.
.
Besides calling her America's resident dunce and claiming she has a deceased mind, Bashir suggested that someone should defecate in her mouth and urinate in her eyes. And this is a long clip which I will not play because I don't want to disturb you folks about what goes on on this pathetic little carbon footprint called MSLSD.

Via: Fox News
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RAND PAUL: OBAMA THINKS AMERICANS ARE STUPID

BACK TO BREITBART TV

Via: Breitbart

Updated: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan apologizes for “white suburban moms” remark

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan brought a firestorm of criticism on himself over the weekend, after remarking on Friday that “white suburban moms” oppose the Common Core standard in schools because they discovered “their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were” — and now he’s apologizing.

Duncan’s remarks came at an event for state superintendents of education. The Secretary was apparently attempting to convey that many people don’t anticipate the high achievement requirements in the Common Core standards, and are therefore startled when students underperform their expectations.

“It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary,” Duncan said, according to The Washington Post. “You’ve bet your house and where you live and everything on, ‘My child’s going to be prepared.’ That can be a punch in the gut.”

He added that students were now competing on an international academic playing field, instead of just nationally.

Duncan apologized on Monday for his comments.

“My wording, my phrasing, was a little clumsy and I apologize for that,” he told CNN.

He reiterated that his point was to convey the higher standards of achievement that are need to compete in a  ”globally competitive work force.”

Duncan’s remarks received scattered press coverage, and the media focused on his dramatic-sounding — and definitely offensive — quote while leaving out the necessary context: agree or disagree with Common Core, American kids could seem ‘less brilliant’ when compared internationally. Comparison of test scores internationally is incredibly complex and there are many factors to consider, but at face value — what parents are likely to see of the data — Duncan’s statement has a ring of truth. Plus, the second half of his quote clearly reveals his concern for parents who are worried about their child’s success.

Via: Red Alert Politics

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Carney dodges on Duncan comments

The White House on Monday sidestepped a brewing controversy over whether Education Secretary Arne Duncan had erred when he said last week that "white suburban moms" were opposing new education standards.

Press secretary Jay Carney said he had not seen Duncan's "full comments" and had not spoken to President Obama about the remark.

But he also defended the apparent spirit of Duncan's comments, in which the secretary said it was "fascinating" that opposition to the Common Core standards was coming from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were, and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”

"If his point was that we need to be honest with kids and parents about whether we're providing the skills they need to succeed, I think we can all agree on that," Carney said. "So, again, I haven't had a discussion with the president about that, but I think the broader point that we need to be honest about whether we're providing the skills these — our children need to succeed, I think we can agree on that."

Asked if it was "appropriate" for Duncan to single out white mothers for their opposition to the standards, Carney again declined to respond.

"I can just tell you that the secretary of Education and everybody on the president's team dedicated to this effort is focused on making sure that we do everything we can, working with states and others, to ensure that our kids are getting the education they need for the 21st century," he said.

Duncan's remarks about the Common Core standards were reported by The Washington Post.

The controversial federal initiative is designed to standardize a single set of education criteria for English and Math studies from kindergarten through 12th grade. All but five states have adopted the standards, which are supported by a $4.35 billion stimulus grant.

Via: The Hill

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Majority in U.S. Say Healthcare Not Gov't Responsibility

Republicans' attitudes on this measure have changed significantly since 2000

by Joy Wilke

PRINCETON, NJ -- The 56% of U.S. adults who now say it is not the federal government's responsibility to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage continues to reflect a record high. Prior to 2009, a clear majority of Americans consistently had said the government should take responsibility for ensuring that all Americans have healthcare.

The most recent data were collected in Gallup's annual Health and Healthcare poll, conducted Nov. 7-10. The percentage of U.S. adults who said it is the federal government's responsibility to ensure all Americans have healthcare coverage peaked at 69% in 2006. Attitudes began to shift significantly in 2007, and continued to change through the time President Barack Obama took office in 2009. Americans who feel healthcare coverage is not the federal government's responsibility have been in the clear majority the past two years.

Most Republicans Now View Ensuring Healthcare Coverage as Outside Government Purview

Attitudes across all three partisan groups have shifted away from the view that ensuring healthcare coverage is a proper role of government, but most significantly among Republicans and independents. In September 2000, 53% of Republicans believed the government should not be responsible for ensuring all Americans had health coverage; today, 86% feel that way, an increase of 33 percentage points in 13 years. Over the same period, the percentage of Republicans believing the government should ensure healthcare coverage for all has fallen from 42% to 12%.

Fifty-five percent of independents currently say the government should not be involved with healthcare -- an increase of 28 points since 2000.

The percentage of Democrats who hold this view is now 30%, its highest level since Gallup first asked the question and an 11-point increase since 2000 -- with the largest change in opinion occurring between 2006 and 2008.

Via: Gallup

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THEY STILL BLAME BUSH

Jeremy Hammond was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Friday for his role in the December 2011 hacking of Strategic Forecasting (StratFor) and a number of other 

websites targeted by members of the so-called “hacktivist” group known as Anonymous. The feds had more than enough evidence to convict Hammond. He had a prior conviction on a similar crime and was potentially facing more than 30 years this time, so the best he could do was cop a plea deal. Before he was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, however, the 28-year-old hacker once known as “Anarchaos” had a political statement to share with the world, a statement that could be summarized in two words: Blame Bush.

Although he was only 15 when George W. Bush was elected president, Hammond declared in federal court in Manhattan, this was a traumatizing experience for him. “My introduction to politics was when George W. Bush stole the Presidential election in 2000, then took advantage of the waves of racism and patriotism after 9/11 to launch unprovoked imperialist wars against Iraq and Afghanistan,” Hammond declared in his manifesto. “I took to the streets in protest naively believing our voices would be heard in Washington and we could stop the war. Instead, we were labeled as traitors, beaten, and arrested.” Hammond added that he had “been arrested for numerous acts of civil disobedience on the streets of Chicago.”

Ah, yes, “civil disobedience,” otherwise known as crime. In the worldview of the far-left fringe to which Hammond belongs, crime is actually a noble activity when undertaken in defiance of a “racist” regime that fights “imperialist wars.” And these beliefs — including the claim that Bush “stole” the 2000 election — were expressed by many mainstream liberals and elected Democratic officials during the eight years of Bush’s presidency, an era they viewed as a crypto-fascist nightmare. It was during those years that a certain sort of political insanity took hold among radical youth like Jeremy Hammond, who grew up in the prosperous Chicago suburb of Glendale Heights, but who was profoundly alienated from the bourgeois values usually associated with suburban life.

Via: American Spectator

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The Democrats’ ObamaCare Crackup

Democrats spent the past weekend trying to pretend nothing of importance happened on Friday. But despite the brave show they put on, few were buying their spin. The decision of 39 Democrats to cross the aisle and support Republican Rep. Fred Upton’s bill to allow insurance companies to go on selling policies to consumers that were cancelled by ObamaCare was a watershed event in a Congress which has been characterized by a stark partisan divide in recent years. Though it doesn’t necessarily mean that the president’s signature health-care plan is in immediate danger of repeal, it illustrates that a significant portion of the Democratic Party is not only not walking in lockstep on this issue anymore but that those who are most in danger of defeat next year are fleeing from the position of their party’s leader.

The Upton bill is dead on arrival in the Senate and President Obama has vowed to veto it. His administrative fix of the bill that would deal with his lie about people being able to keep their coverage has the same goal, at least in the short term. But the president’s solution (which is arguably unconstitutional and dependent on state insurance commissioners and insurance companies cooperating) is only for the coming year. Though presented as another way to repair a broken piece of legislation, liberals are right that Upton’s fix is more likely a death sentence since without the young and healthy being forced to buy into ObamaCare it will eventually collapse.

But the key point here is that in voting for a bill their leadership vigorously opposed, for the first time vulnerable Democrats are no longer acting as if President Obama was someone to follow and/or to fear. The Upton vote was, if we needed one, a declaration on the part of many of the president’s supporters that he is a lame duck. The ObamaCare crackup of the Democratic Party has officially begun.

Via: Commentary

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D.C.-Based Health Care Exchange May Have Engaged in Illegal Political Activity

Online communications 

with OFA allegedly 

violated 

Hatch Act

A former chief White House ethics lawyer has filed a Hatch Act complaint against a D.C.-based health care exchange, alleging that its online communications with liberal activist group Organizing for Action (OFA) violated rules against federal political activity.

Richard Painter, who served as the chief ethics counsel under President George W. Bush, requested a federal investigation into DC Health Link in a Nov. 13 letter to the Office of Special Counsel’s Carolyn Lerner.

Painter says DC Health Link appears to be subject to the Hatch Act, which limits political activity by federal employees, because the health exchange was created by the D.C. government and is acting on its behalf. He noted that the exchange may have violated the Hatch Act after it promoted OFA’s pro-Obamacare activism on Twitter.

Painter said DC Health Link may have also violated the Hatch Act by “following” OFA’s D.C. twitter account and retweeting one of its messages on Nov. 8.

The Office of Special Counsel determined that federal agencies cannot “friend,” “like,” or “follow” political parties, partisan political campaigns or partisan political groups on social media platforms. Agencies are also restricted to posting content that is related to official business and politically neutral.

“The communications that I believe violated the Hatch Act were made on Twitter and all relate to Organizing for Action (“OFA”), formerly known as Organizing for America, an organization the [Office of Special Counsel] has specifically identified as a ‘partisan political group,’” wrote Painter.

Via: WFB

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[VIDEO] NBC Touts President's 'To-Do List' for Containing Political Damage From ObamaCare

On Monday's NBC Today, White House correspondent Peter Alexander lifted talking points directly from an Organizing for Action email while reporting on the political fallout from ObamaCare: "With his signature law under fire, the President faces a daunting to-do list to resuscitate ObamaCare. Number one, fix the website....Number two, clear up confusion....Number three, keep Democratic allies on board....And finally, regain Americans' trust." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

In the OFA email, President Obama told his supporters: "I have just over three years left as president – and there's a lot left on my to-do list. That's why I want to talk with you....I want to cut through the noise and talk with you directly about where we're headed in the fight for change."

Co-host Matt Lauer introduced Alexander's report by declaring: "The Obama administration's taking some new steps to fix the troubled rollout of the new health care law." He frettted: "Can the website and the President's legacy be saved?"

Alexander began by observing: "This is new territory for President Obama, he's really never faced a crisis like this, a crisis of confidence in his very leadership. The flawed rollout of the Affordable Care Act now threatening to undermine the future of his second term and his presidency."

Via: Newsbusters

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[VIDEO] No. 2 House Dem: Obamacare Attempt to Change 'Value System in Our Country'

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.). the assistant House Democratic leader, said on CNN's "State of the Union With Candy Crowley" on Sunday the Obamacare is an attempt to change a "value system in our country."

"The fact of the matter is, this is a rollout problem, this is not a values problem. And I think that if we were to look at what we're attempting to do with the Affordable Health Care Act, you will know that what we're trying to do is change a value system in our country."

Clyburn didn't elaborate on the nation's "values system." Instead, he talked about policy cancellations, which are nothing new to him:

"I've been hearing from constituents for the entire 21 years I've been in the Congress about cancellation letters that they've been getting from insurance companies as soon as a child is born with diabetes, cannot get on your health care policy, gets sick, go for your second treatment you get a cancellation letter, you limit your benefits, you get annual benefits -- a cancellation letter from your insurance company.

Via: CNS News

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Good News on a Convention of States

It’s Liberty Amendments Monday again, here at TheRightScoop, and we’ve got good news.

As you know I’ve been banging away at code like …well, whatever you’d call it, if I were President, Oprah would say it’s racist. Anyway, I’ve been a bit preoccupied with my small part of the effort, but others have most definitely been hard at work as well.

We’ve discussed the state of Indiana here before. Republican Governor Mike Pence (a strong conservative that people seem to forget about in regard to 2016) is the most recognizable name in Indiana politics. But Indiana’s General Assembly appears to be leading the way among states in calling for a Convention for Proposing Amendments. David Long (R-Fort Wayne) is the Indiana Senate Majority leader, and he’s convening a Mount Vernon Assembly of representatives from the states’ legislatures to begin the long hard work of co-ordinating “applications” to present to Congress. He spoke with Mark Levin the other night and said he had twenty-six states “committed” to the project. They convene at Mount Vernon December 7th.

That’s major progress. But it’s not the only good news to report.

Many of you have linked to ConventionOfStates.com as a resource for people. This group has produced a new version of their Convention Of States Handbook. This is a good resource for people who want to know what they can do to help make this a reality. It’s definitely something to download and read as soon as you can get to it.

And finally, The ArticleFiveProcess site is settling in as far as presentation and data flow is concerned. This week I hope to have the “State Wrangler” panel finished. When that’s done, the rest is mere draperies and carpet (and a few ugly graphics things to fix, still). Right now the data is live, and I believe folks can submit the forms (but I won’t swear to that). You are asked to use an email confirmation thingy. We don’t do anything with this but make it hard for people to fake being you. This helps make the data more useful. At any rate, if you know of a representative’s position, please stop by and fill out a form. (By the way, you get there by following the link to the Article Five Data HQ). The Scoreboard will be updated as soon as I put on my “wrangler” hat. If anyone has a better word than ‘wrangler,’ do tell.

Via: The Right Scoop

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