Conservative Happenings

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Oil prices may plunge if Iran gets a nuclear deal

Oil futures bounced off an earlier four-month low on Friday, but analysts told CNBC that prices could plunge if an agreement on Iran's nuclear program is made this weekend.

Secretary of State John Kerry unexpectedly joined the ongoing negotiations in Geneva, sparking speculation that a preliminary deal could be reached soon. Iranian oil exports have been decimated by sanctions placed against the country's energy sector by the United States and Europe in response to its nuclear ambitions.

"I want to emphasize there is not an agreement at this point in time," Kerry told reporters in Geneva. "There are still some very important issues on the table that are unresolved. It is important for those to be properly, thoroughly addressed."

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Geneva on Friday.

However, energy analysts said that Kerry's participation—along with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle—is a positive sign. The dignitaries are all expected to meet with Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Friday.

"This news reinforces our existing expectation for an 'agreement in principle' or 'preliminary deal' or 'first step,'" analyst Kevin Book of ClearView Energy Partners said in a note to clients. "We reiterate our bearish bias for Brent crude.

Via: CNBC

Ted Cruz to Leno: 'What I'm Trying to Do is Do My Job'

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz made his late night television debut Friday, where he and Tonight Show host Jay Leno talked about his opinions on Obamacare, same-sex marriage and his future ambitions.

Leno wasn't easy on the freshman senator, who has become one of the loudest critics of Obamacare, and whose efforts to defund the president's health insurance plan was one of the factors leading to October's partial government shutdown, CNN reports.

"Don't believe everything you read," Cruz told Leno, in response to questions about complaints from both Democrats and Republicans that he is "aggressive, arrogant and abrasive."

"What I’m trying to do is do my job,” he said. “And occasionally people don’t like it.”
Cruz, while discussing Obamacare, reiterated his belief that the law is both harmful and destructive, but denied he wants to eliminate health care reform.

"I'm a big believer in health care reform" Cruz told Leno. "I think we ought to reform health care so it's personal, it’s portable, it’s affordable. We ought to empower patients rather than government bureaucrats getting between you and your doctor.”

Further, Cruz said he "was not a fan of shutting down the government," to which Leno replied "You looked like a big fan from where I was standing."

Cruz, who is often mentioned as a possible 2016 presidential candidate, also defended his controversial father, Rev. Rafael Cruz, a Cuban immigrant who has become a tea party favorite as his son's star began to rise on a national level.

The elder Cruz's many controversial comments, including opposition to same-sex marriage, were brought up on the show, with the senator telling Leno he shares the same opposition with his father, who he often calls his inspiration.

"I support marriage between one man and one woman," said Cruz, noting he believes the decision should be left up to the states.

But Cruz also told Leno that people who oppose him often attack his father, mainly because of political reasons.

“Some folks have decided to try to go after him because they want to take some shots at me,” Cruz said. “But I think the critics are better off attacking me. My dad has been my hero my whole life."

Via: Newsmax

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Businesses hire up to deal with more regs

A growing thicket of federal regulations under the Obama administration has contributed to an employment spike in at least one corner of the job market: the increasingly vital compliance industry.

ObamaCare, the Dodd-Frank Act and other large federal undertakings have led to an outpouring of new agency rules derided by business groups and defended by advocates.

But the regulations have also been a boon for professional compliance officers paid to help companies understand and adapt to the new requirements.

“Staff to track compliance issues is on the rise, and it has been for the last several years,” said Richard Riese, senior vice president for regulatory compliance at the American Bankers Association. “And, at the moment, there’s no prospect it will decrease anytime soon.”

Data kept by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows an 18-percent increase in the number of compliance officers in the United States between 2009 and 2012, according to an analysis conducted by the conservative American Action Forum (AAF).

At last count, there were an estimated 227,500 compliance officers employed in the United States, according to the BLS. The bureau defines a compliance officer as an employee responsible for evaluating conformity with laws and regulations.

The agency estimates do not include professions like bank examiners, tax collectors, or Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors that are tasked to monitor companies for fraud and safety violations.

Compliance officers make an average of just under $65,000 annually, a gross national labor cost of roughly $14.7 billion, according to the BLS data.

Via: The Hill

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HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP KEVIN MCCARTHY: AMNESTY DEAD IN 2013

House Majority Whip Rep. Kevin McCarthy said, with only 13 congressional working days left in the legislative calendar this year, immigration reform efforts in the House are dead for 2013. McCarthy’s comments came during a meeting with amnesty advocates, but the Associated Press reports that McCarthy’s office confirmed them.

“California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the majority whip, said in a meeting with immigration proponents that there weren't enough days left for the House to act and he was committed to addressing overhaul of the nation's immigration system next year,” the Associated Press reported on Friday evening. “The congressman's office confirmed what he said.”

McCarthy is Majority Whip, the third highest position in GOP Leadership, and his view that no votes on immigration will happen before 2014 is significant. It means President Barack Obama’s signature second-term agenda goal—comprehensive immigration reform complete with an amnesty, or pathway to citizenship, for America’s at least 11 million illegal aliens—will not happen this year.

“What he said was, there's 13 days left, it's very hard to do anything in 13 days,” Angelica Salas, the chairwoman of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said about McCarthy’s meeting with pro-amnesty advocates at which he made the declaration.

Amnesty advocates had stormed McCarthy’s office demanding a meeting Thursday, prompting police to respond to the scene. After they remained in his office for hours that evening, McCarthy and his wife Judy eventually came down to meet with them. It was there, they said, he told them immigration reform efforts in the House are dead this year.

Via: Breitbart

The Lonely Guy

He’s a community organizer who works alone. What was once his greatest strength—he kept his cool and didn’t need feedback—is now a liability.

By Todd S. Purdum

When Barack Obama arrived in Washington almost five years ago, the universal assumption was that the young president—who had, after all, won office by exploiting every connective tool of the national social and electoral network—would run his White House in sharp contrast to the bunkered, hunkered-down George W. Bush.

Like so much conventional wisdom, that impression has proved dead wrong. In fact, Obama’s resolute solitude—his isolation and alienation from the other players and power centers of Washington, be they rivals or friends—has emerged as the defining trait of his time in office. He may be the biggest presidential paradox since Thomas Jefferson, the slaveholder who wrote the Declaration of Independence: a community organizer who works alone.

Via: Vanity Fair

Flashback: J.F.K On How Tax Cuts Fuel An Economy, Not Hurt It

Enter the way-back machine and check this one out from JFK. Ever heard the term “Reagan Democrat”? Even before Reagan, it was well understood that tax cuts stimulated the economy. Here’s an example of the same line of thought, from JFK, from a time when Democrats understood economics and truth…

Via: Weasel Zippers

Here is the email I read on the air tonight by Bret Baier

This message came to us from Bill in Kentucky.

"Putting things in perspective: March 21st 2010 to October 1 2013 is 3 years, 6 months, 10 days. December 7, 1941 to May 8, 1945 is 3 years, 5 months, 1 day. What this means is that in the time we were attacked at Pearl Harbor to the day Germany surrendered is not enough time for this progressive federal government to build a working webpage. Mobilization of millions, building tens of thousands of tanks, planes, jeeps, subs, cruisers, destroyers, torpedoes, millions upon millions of guns, bombs, ammo, etc. Turning the tide in North Africa, Invading Italy, D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, Race to Berlin - all while we were also fighting the Japanese in the Pacific!! And in that amount of time - this administration can't build a working webpage."

Via: Daily Brett Blog

Chuck Todd On What Surprised Him About The Interview With The President Last Night

Chuck Todd’s exclusive with Barack Obama is what drove the news cycle the last 24 hours, and guest host Carol Platt Liebau talked about what surprised him the most, including the fact that he had to pull the apology out of him, and that there’s really no plan for the White House to fix the problem of all those who have lost their insurance coverage due to Obamacare going into effect.

The audio is here.

11-08hhs-todd

The transcript is here.

CPL: Right now, we are joined by Chuck Todd, who is of course the chief White House correspondent for NBC News, and you’ve seen him everywhere – NBC Nightly News, Today, Meet The Press, Morning Joe. If you’re talking about politics on TV in America, there is a good chance Chuck Todd will be part of the conversation. Hey, Chuck, thanks for being with us.

CT: Good evening.

CPL: Congratulations on the interview with the President you got. That was a huge get that everybody wanted.

CT: Yeah, one of those times where it seems like he had a lot to answer for, so it was, timing’s everything, sometimes.

Via: Hugh Hewitt

Who Will Fact Check the Fact Checkers?

I give fact checkers five Pinocchios. They invariably prove more dishonest than the worst political Joe Isuzus that they skewer. In their feigned, above-it-all objectivity, they lie every time they investigate whether the “facts” are factual.

PolitiFact initially rated Barack Obama’s “if you’ve got a health care plan that you like, you can keep it” campaign promise as a solid “true.” They’ve subsequently “fact checked” five additional iterations of that pledge, never judging it anything worse than “half true.” One would have to judge that a half truth—at least the half about the promise being untrue passes muster.

The Washington Examiner’s Sean Higgins asked PolitiFact whether it stood by its rosy assessment of Obama’s rosy assessments of his health care plan. In the fashion of BS artists, they responded but not to Higgins’s query. Don’t say they withheld comment! “Apparently,” Higgins concluded, “Politifact thinks accountability is something that only applies to other people.”

The Weekly Standard’s Mark Hemingway deems PolitiFact’s puzzling judgments “indefensible at the time they were made. And in light of what we know now about millions of Americans losing their health insurance, these ratings should be a four-alarm trouser conflagration. Yet, PolitiFact hasn’t updated their rulings to acknowledge that the president’s repeated promise is demonstrably untrue.”

Is the public really incapable of fact checking political spin without the aid of spin-doctor fact checkers? The self-appointed judgers of truth, seeking to decide as well as report, think so.

Via: The American Spectator

A rundown of Obama’s apologies

President Obama this week apologized for problems that have plagued the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, but it wasn’t the first time he expressed regret.

Below is a list of Obama’s apologies, dating back to his time on the presidential campaign trail.

Oct. 8, 2013

Obama apologized to the American people for the government shutdown. At a press conference Obama apologized for the shutdown, but refused to give in to what he characterized as “hostage taking” of House Republicans.

May 2, 2013

Obama apologized to California Attorney General Kamala Harris. He had called her “America’s best looking attorney general.” White House press secretary Jay Carney later said that Obama “fully recognizes the challenges women continue to face in the workplace and that they should not be based on appearance.”

Sept. 21, 2012

Obama apologized to Muslims. The president expressed regret for the anti-Islam film, “The Innocence of Muslims,” which was produced in California and triggered outrage.

June 1, 2012

Obama apologized to Poland. The president had referred to World War II concentration camps as “Polish death camps,” rather than Nazi death camps in German-occupied Poland.

Feb. 23, 2012

Obama apologized to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. This apology came after U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan had burned copies of the Koran, which sparked widespread rioting.

Oct. 1, 2010

Obama apologized to Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom. This one was for a study conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service between 1946 and 1948 in which almost seven hundred Guatemalans were purposely infected with syphilis.

Feb. 2, 2010

Obama apologized to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). In 2010, Obama said, “When times are tough you tighten your belts, you don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.” Reid, who faced a tough reelection race that year, criticized the remark. Obama penned a letter to Reid clarifying his comments.

March 21, 2009

Obama apologized to the Special Olympics. During an appearance on The Tonight Show, Obama mocked his bowling skills, saying it was “like The Special Olympics or something.”

Via: The Hill

WHY CHRISTIE’S PERSONA WILL PLAY WELL IN THE REST OF AMERICA

Forget the acceptance speech. If you want an example of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s imposing political IQ, watch the nine-minute impromptu speech he delivered in Sea Bright a few days before the election. The impeccable populist instincts that make Christie such a formidable politician were all in play — authenticity, empathy, combativeness.

It’s the latter that is the most widely discussed aspect of Christie’s political persona. It involves the gruff New York-area politico with the disposition of a Teamster. This is a guy who will look you in the eyes when he calls you on your BS. It’s the guy who reacts to Warren Buffett’s pleas for higher tax rates by saying, “Yeah, well, he should just write a check and shut up.” It’s the guy who tells a pestering liberal law student that he’s an “idiot.” (“I mean, damn, man, I’m governor. Could you shut up for a minute?”) The guy who calls a former White House doctor, the one who suggested that he lose weight, a “hack” and, yes, tells her to just “shut up.”

Christie wants a lot of people to shut up. The right people, usually.

Will the bluntness work on the national stage? That’s the question a lot of people are asking. When he runs for president, will the average Minnesotan or Coloradan find this character refreshing? Boorish? Exotic?

Growing up in the NYC area, I am certainly familiar with the Christie type. And those with a similar upbringing will also recognize the cadence, the mannerisms and demeanor. Christie is the counter guy at the local deli who acts as if he’s doing you a favor — “Hey, guy, what do you need?” He’s busy. He’s got important things to do — or at least a lot more important than whatever you’re whining about. Attack is his default position when challenged.

Via: Human Events

The ATM Ate Healthcare.gov

I don’t need to belabor this point, but I think it is a point worth making.

Last year, Barack Obama blamed ATM’s for unemployment. In fact, Barack Obama is pretty sure that the rise of technology has caused unemployment, not his policies.

If he believes that, you’d think he’d hire a bunch of unemployed people to answer phones all day and process Obamacare manually instead of largely relying on Healthcare.gov and technology.

Surely the mass of unemployed in this country would be more efficient with pens, pads, and even mimeograph machines than a site that does not even work. Yes, he has hired some to answer phones, but he did not really put our money where his mouth is in this endeavor.

Good grief people! We can put men on the moon and send spacecraft from the 70′s into interstellar space, but in Barack Obama’s America we can’t even build a freaking website. For Pete’s sake, we put more people on the moon than signed up for Obamacare in Delaware, Kansas, and Alaska combined.

Barack Obama is now Jimmy Carter for that part of America who actually thought the real Jimmy Carter didn’t suck. Yes people, how you’re seeing President 404 Error is precisely how the rest of us saw Jimmy Carter.

Welcome to Barry O’s America.

Via: Red State

A Partial, 3-Day Shutdown for HealthCare.Gov

Consumers won’t be able to find out their eligibility for federal health insurance subsidies on HealthCare.gov for much of the next three days because of scheduled maintenance, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Friday.

The Internal Revenue Service will be conducting maintenance on a system that allows HealthCare.gov to check whether applicants qualify for federal subsidies. The system will go down Saturday night and won’t be available again until Tuesday morning, the spokeswoman said.

Even though applicants won’t be able to check their subsidy eligibility, they’ll still be able to create accounts, shop for health plans and enroll, CMS says. The troubledHealthCare.gov website will also be offline every day for its regular early-morning maintenance.

Government contractors continue to make upgrades to the site. Jeffrey Zients, the former budget official who’s been brought in to clean up the HealthCare.gov mess, said on a call with reporters Friday that even as new fixes have been made, increased traffic volume is “exposing new storage capacity and software issues.”

“We made progress this week although we hit roadblocks that impacted the user experience this week and slowed us down,” Mr. Zients said, adding that the government is still on track to having the site working for most users by the end of November.

Via: WSJ

Change Has Come to America: 4.8 Million Now Without Insurance …

Via: Weasel Zippers

RNC Statement on October Jobs Report

WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement on the October jobs report:

“While more Americans found jobs this month, I continue to worry about the millions of Americans who can’t find a job despite looking for one month after month after month,” said Chairman Priebus.

“Right now the biggest roadblock to job creation is ObamaCare. Republicans sounded the alarm on ObamaCare for years, but Democrats ignored those warnings. That’s why American families are now feeling the impact of the law—slashed paychecks, reduced hours, lost jobs, fewer job prospects, struggling small businesses, a weak economy.

“Despite Democrats’ promises, millions of families are losing their insurance, losing access to their doctors, or being forced to pay more for insurance. Their household economies are taking a hit, and ObamaCare has made life more uncertain for them.

“Americans deserve better. In Washington and in state capitals across the country, Republicans will continue to fight for free market solutions that create jobs and give hope, while opposing the big government programs that crush economic opportunity.”

Via: GOP.gov

[VIDEO] NRA beat Bloomberg anti-gun group in 65 of 67 Va. delegate races

TOPICS: WASHINGTON SECRETS GUN CONTROL NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION KEN CUCCINELLI NEW YORK CITY CAMPAIGNS 2013 VIRGINIA GOVERNOR RACE MICHAEL BLOOMBERGNearly 10 percent of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group Mayors Against Illegal Guns retired from their job or were sacked in Tuesday’s elections, including the organization’s two leaders: Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

Some 95 key members of the group that targets and criticizes lawmakers backed by the National Rifle Association are losing their title of “mayor.” According to an election review of Bloomberg'smembership list of about 1,000, three quit the group, 69 retired from their jobs, and 23 were rejected by voters.

On the retirement list: Bloomberg and Menino.

Among the defeated members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns were the mayors of Annapolis, Md.; Omaha, Neb.; Atlantic City, N.J.; Rochester, N.Y.; and Seattle, Wash.

Guns and Bloomberg's group were issues in some of the campaigns where the incumbents were defeated. In Chambersburg, Pa., newly-elected Republican Mayor-elect Darren Brown declared that among his first moves will be unhooking the town from the anti-gun group.

"The very, very first thing I'd like to do is get Chambersburg off the Mayors Against Illegal Guns list," Brown said.

What's more, while Bloomberg's Independence USA PAC can claim a victory in its campaign and advertising against Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, a review of all NRA-endorsed candidates in the state show that the mayor had virtually no impact.

For example, of the 67 NRA-endorsed candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates, 65 won their election on Tuesday.

What’s more, after the 2011 legislative elections in Virginia, there were 63 states delegates rated an "A" by the NRA and that number grew to 65 on Tuesday.

Via: Washington Examiner

Blake Lively, Harvey Weinstein and Hollywood Makeup Artists Create Teachable Moments at White House

It was all Michelle Obama's idea, gushed mega-producer Harvey Weinstein, as he and some of Hollywood's greatest gathered at the White House Friday for a careers-in-film workshop for high school students out of D.C., New York and Boston.

Weinstein, Whoopi Goldberg, actress Blake Lively and a handful of directors and producers gave the kids a serious pep talk, emceed by CBS News' Gayle King.

Weinstein said that the idea to bring Hollywood to Washington to talk jobs came about around the same time Michelle Obama was being tapped to announce best picture last year at the Academy Awards.

"This is what I want to do," Weinstein recalled the first lady saying in a meeting. (Weinstein also revealed that he couldn't believe it didn't leak that FLOTUS was going to play such a pivotal part in the Oscars. "Amazingly, enough, we did keep in a secret," Weinstein recalled.)

[READ: Country Crooners Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood Knock Obamacare at CMA Awards]

At the afternoon discussion, while Goldberg, producer Bruce Cohen, director Ryan Coogler, actress Naomie Harris and director David Frankel all spouted words of wisdom, Lively's story stood out as she talked about her unexpected path into the business.

Lively said in high school she was disinterested in acting, the family business, and interested in attending an Ivy League school.

"It was the only thing I knew I didn't want to do," she said of a career in Hollywood. "I wanted to get a great education."

To pursue this goal, Lively became class president and practically overdosed on extracurriculars, to the point where the school tried to tell her no.

"They said, 'you can't do this,'" she recalled.

But the acting bug eventually got Lively and high school administrators again came down on her, not allowing her to walk at graduation because she missed too many school days shooting the movie, "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants."

"They didn't let me do that because they wanted to shut me down," she said. (Years later, they asked the star to speak at graduation. She said no.)

Lively's breakout role came on the CW soap "Gossip Girl."

Via: US News

Only 'hundreds' enroll in Illinois exchange

Only hundreds of people enrolled in the Illinois health insurance exchange in October, state officials said today, offering the first glimpse into an online marketplace that has been vexed by glitches.

Insurance carriers have told state officials that hundreds of consumers signed up in October, confirmed Jennifer Koehler, director of the Illinois Health Insurance Marketplace. But she and Cristal Thomas, Illinois deputy governor, cautioned that it was just a guess since federal officials haven't yet provided enrollment figures.

“We do not know,” Ms. Thomas said. “If we have to guess we would guess probably in the hundreds.”

Before the launch, Illinois officials predicted that about 486,000 individuals and small business in Illinois would buy health insurance in 2014 on the exchange, a key part of the Affordable Care Act to tamp down rising health care costs.

The state officials and Michael Gelder, senior health policy adviser to Gov. Pat Quinn, briefed reporters today about the exchange at a fellowship in Chicago held by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

The news isn’t much better elsewhere around the country. Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Iowa released figures today that indicated just a handful of people in Washington, D.C. had enrolled for plans from two carriers as of the end of October. Two other carriers had not enrolled anyone, they said.

"With data from D.C.'s four participating health plans in, there's been a whopping five people enrolled in the city's exchange," Mr. Hatch said, according to a statement. "That's right, five. Whether it's significant problems with the website, people being forced off the coverage they had or skyrocketing costs, these numbers are even more proof of what a disaster Obamacare is and why it should be delayed."

Via: Chicago Health Care Daily

Report: Obama Already Eased Iran Sanctions Before Nuke Talks

The White House began easing economic sanctions that have crippled Iran for five years not long after its new president was elected in June — and months before Hassan Rouhani and President Barack Obama talked by telephone in September, State Department documents show.

The United States has done everything but stopped blacklisting individuals and companies that Iran evade international sanctions since Rouhani's election on June 14, The Daily Beast reports.

And the Obama administration has been doing less of that since the election, despite claims to the contrary, the website reports.

“In the months since the Iranian election we have continued to pursue our unwavering goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” a spokesman for the Treasury Department told the Daily Beast. “We have not let up on vigorous sanctions enforcement one iota.

"This includes new designations of sanctions evaders as well as other steps to address potential sanctions evasion,” the spokesman said.

Designating such violators has been crucial to the Obama administration's strategy to force Iran into abandoning its nuclear program — and they have been a factor in the current negotiations between Tehran, the U.S., and other world powers in Geneva this week.

Negotiations to curb Iran's nuclear efforts are in their third day on Saturday. Officials are optimistic, but said there still is no certainty of a deal.

"The negotiations taking place are about how Iran begins to meet its international obligations and provide assurances not just to us but to the entire world,” President Obama told NBC News on Thursday. They are “not about easing sanctions.”

But the administration on several occasions has indicted they are ready to lift sanctions. And Vice President Joe Biden last month urged that no new sanctions be imposed on Iran
Via: Newsmax

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Saturday, November 9, 2013

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