Saturday, August 24, 2013

Push to defund ObamaCare big test for DeMint at Heritage and rest of Republicans

South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint unexpectedly quit Congress this winter, saying essentially that he could better advance the conservative cause as president of the Heritage Foundation think tank than in Congress.

Roughly eight months later, DeMint has no doubt pressed Congress, and House Republicans in particular, to take a conservative stance on such issues as the Farm Bill and President Obama’s health care law.

Heritage and DeMint won at least a partial victory on the recent Farm Bill vote, getting the House to split funding for food stamps from the rest of the bill but saying more reform is needed on the billions being spent on crop subsidies and other programs. And votes of sequestration, the debt limit and immigration are also on the near horizon.

But DeMint’s biggest challenges to date appears to lie in the weeks ahead when Congress returns in two weeks to vote on a temporary spending bill, which DeMint hopes will not include money for ObamaCare.

“We know that ObamaCare is unfair,” DeMint has said repeatedly over the past few months, as dismantling the law has emerged as a primary focus. “It’s unaffordable, unworkable and very unpopular. And this might be our last chance to stop it. … This is an urgent matter.”

Via:  Fox News Politics


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California gov. declares state of emergency as wildfire spreads into Yosemite

A raging wildfire along the northwest edge of Yosemite National Park is gaining strength Saturday morning as firefighters scramble to protect nearby mountain communities. 

The fire held steady overnight at nearly 200 square miles, but a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says firefighters didn't get their usual reprieve from cooler early morning temperatures Saturday. 

The Rim Fire started in a remote canyon of the Stanislaus National Forest a week ago and is just 5 percent contained with more than 2,600 firefighters on the lines. A half dozen aircraft are being used to battle the blaze. 

The Yosemite Valley, the part of the park frequented by tourists and known around the world for such iconic sights as the Half Dome and El Capitan rock formations and Yosemite falls, remained open, clear of smoke and free from other signs of the fire that remained about 20 miles away.

But the blaze was reverberating around the region. It brought a governor's declaration of emergency late Friday for San Francisco 150 miles away because of the threat the fire posed to utility transmission to the city, and caused smoke warnings and event cancellations in Nevada as smoke blew over the Sierra Nevada and across state lines.

Via: Fox News


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[VIDEO] CNSNews.com Best of The Week 8/23/13

The Best of The Week! 
Via: CNS News

THOUSANDS GATHER TO HONOR WWII VETERAN DELBERT 'SHORTY' BELTON

With the second suspect believed to have been involved in his death is still on the loose, thousands gathered in Spokane, WA on August 23 to honor WWII Army veteran Delbert "Shorty" Belton.

88-year old Belton was attacked and beaten with flashlights by two black teens outside of Eagles Lodge on August 21.
CBS Seattle reported Belton's daughter-in-law said the attackers "used those big flashlights" and "doctors said he was bleeding from all parts of his face."
Belton's friends were shocked their dear friend--who survived being shot during WWII--ended up being killed in a parking lot attack in Spokane at the hands of fellow citizens.
Thousands of people attended the August 23 candlelight vigil for Belton, including many people who had not even known him but came to "pay tribute to an American hero."
Police have made one arrest in the attack that took Belton's life; a second suspect is still on the run.

PELOSI: MLK WOULD WANT US TO FIGHT FOR 'LIVING WAGE,' AFFORDABLE CHILD CARE

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claimed to know what Martin Luther King would have wanted on the 50th anniversary of his "I Have a Dream Speech," saying on Saturday that the late civil rights icon would have wanted the nation to "celebrate him, his birth, and his legacy by acting upon his agenda" and fighting for a living wage, paid medical sick leave for our workers, and quality affordable child care so "the power of women can be unleashed."

Pelosi also said King "would also want us to be fighting for voting rights" and Congress needed to pass new voting rights legislation in light of the Supreme Court's recent ruling that struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Pelosi said the District of Columbia should also get voting rights before the band signaled that it was time for her to get off the stage.  

BOOM: Almost 80 House Republicans tell Boehner, leadership to defund Obamacare

Almost 80 House Republicans are asking Boehner to support legislation to defund Obamacare! Fantastic:
DETROIT FREE PRESS – Five Republican members of Michigan’s congressional delegation have signed a letter to U.S. House leaders calling on them to support legislation defunding health care reform legislation passed three years ago.
In all, 79 congressional Republicans signed the letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., saying the Affordable Care Act, or what they referred to as Obamacare, leads to job losses, coverage changes and other negative effects.
“(Since) most of the citizens we represent believe that Obamacare should never go into effect, we urge you to affirmatively defund the implementation and enforcement” of the law in any spending bill that comes to the House floor, the letter read.
Via: Right Scoop

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IRS Now Targeting American Legion

The Internal Revenue Service is targeting the veterans’ organization the American Legion, and a U.S. senator believes that Lois Lerner — a key figure in the IRS scandal – is to blame.

“The IRS now requires American Legion posts to maintain dates of service and character of service records for all members… The penalty for not having the required proof of eligibility is, apparently, $1,000 per day,” the American Legion stated.

The American Legion was referring to a 13-part section of Part 4, Chapter 76 of the Internal Revenue Manual pertaining to “veterans’ organizations.”


The section falls under “Exempt Organizations Examination Guidelines,” which is the jurisdiction of Exempt Organizations head Lois Lerner, who apologized for improperly targeting tea party groups and tried to plead the Fifth Amendment in a congressional hearing.
“The American Legion has recently learned of the so-called IRS ‘audit manual’ and is concerned that portions of it attempt to amend statutes passed by Congress and approved by the president,” American Legion legal counsel Philip Onderdonk, Jr. told The Daily Caller.
“Resolutions recommending action by the Legion’s legislative division on two of the most egregious sections of the IRS document are being presented for a vote by members at The American Legion’s annual national convention in Houston [this] week. If the resolutions are adopted, the Legion will be empowered as a body to urge correction of the veterans service organization-related portion(s) of the IRS manual and suggest congressional review of the entire 38 s.ection IRS document,” Onderdonk said.
“On the heels of Americans’ anger over revelations that the IRS intentionally targeted certain groups, it has been brought to my attention that the IRS is now turning their sights toward our nation’s veterans,” Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran said. “The IRS seems to be auditing veteran service organizations by requiring private member military service forms.”
“If a post is unable or not willing to turn over this personal information, it’s possible they could face a fine of $1,000 per day,” Moran continued
Via: Daily Caller

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Maine Republicans May Break Silence on Obama Remark

Maine Republicans are considering whether to break Gov. Paul LePage’s gag order about what was said at a private GOP fundraiser — an event in which he reportedly stated that President Barack Obama “hates white people.”

The Bangor Daily News reports “rumors are flying that at least a trio of Republicans, including some sitting state lawmakers, are considering going on the record to confirm what anonymous sources have already alleged: that LePage accused the president of being racist.”

The incendiary quip was allegedly made during an Aug. 12 fundraiser at a private home in Belgrade attended by GOP lawmakers and supporters.

“Those in the governor’s inner circle hope to wait the press frenzy out by refusing further comment and denying the reports of the remarks on technical accuracy if not on substance,” Rebekah Metzler, a political reporter with U.S. News & World Report, writes in the Daily News. 

“But a group of Republicans publicly coming out as witnesses to LePage’s remarks and subsequent bold attempted cover-up would mark a significant shift in the party balance as he heads into a three-way re-election race against Democrat Rep. Mike Michaud and independent Eliot Cutler.”

LePage has a history of making outlandish remarks. 

During a disagreement with the Maine NAACP in 2011, he said, "tell them to kiss my butt." And he once compared the Internal Revenue Service to the Gestapo.

Two months ago, he also slammed Maine Assistant Senate Majority Leader Troy Jackson.

Via: Newsmax


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MADDOW'S DISHONEST SCARE PARADE ON NC VOTING

Last night the great David Webb filled in for Sean Hannity on Fox News. Webb put on Allen West and Juan Williams to talk about urban malaise. The visuals at Fox must have been too much for Rachel Maddow, because she put up an hour-long show designed to scare people about voting rights. Her already small audience might have been even smaller otherwise.

The hour-long Maddow special, done with a live remote in North Carolina, was designed to scare voters that their voting rights were about to vanish.
The special was full of intellectually dishonest scare tactics, hyperbole, false statements, leading questions for reporters, and outright fear mongering.  
Of course, nobody was invited on the show to name the dishonesty.
Naturally, the show featured a parade of college democrats and academics out of central casting, including professor and Castro apologist Renee Scherlen. Notice the sign behind Scherlen deliberately placed on camera. Read all about the totalitarian history of "En Cada Barrio" in Cuba. Hanging a sign for En Cada Barrio is the equivalent of hanging a recruiting poster for the S.A.    
Democrat activist student Mollie Clawson also complained that her flip flops might fall off if she had to walk through the grass to her polling place. Such are the complaints of the grievance generation.
What the Maddow show didn't have was any dissent. Not a single guest appeared to rebut any of her false charges.  
That's standard operating procedure for Maddow. Her skill is preaching to the choir, not having vigorous intellectual debate about ideas. Dissent is forbidden, sort of like En Cada Barrio. That's why if you want actual debate between both sides of an issue, you need to turn to Hannity—or, last night, to David Webb.

The Huge, GOP-Leaning Audience for ‘Duck Dynasty’

Reid Wilson shares a map from National Media, a Republican ad-buying firm, depicting a recent television event: “Using data from Rentrak, a company that monitors data from set-top boxes, the map shows what percentage of television viewers in specific designated market areas watched this television event live.” It’s worth clicking over and reading.
Unsurprisingly, red or Republican-leaning counties, particularly rural and Southern, watched the season premiere of Duck Dynasty while Democratic-leaning counties generally tuned it out. Huge viewership in Louisiana, lowest viewership in New York, San Francisco, and Miami.
What’s more, you could argue that the red-state audience is what’s keeping television afloat these days.
That premiere episode of Duck Dynasty set a new record for audience size for basic-cable “nonfiction series” — read, reality shows — with 11.8 million. In broadcast television, the top show last week was CBS’s Under the Dome, with . . . 10.3 million. (Yes, most network shows are in reruns right now, while theDuck Dynasty episode was new.)

Limbaugh Fires Back at Obama Blaming Him for Congressional Gridlock

Rush Limbaugh found it more than a little amusing that President Obama name-checked him as one of the biggest roadblocks to Congress getting anything done. The president said in a CNN interview Friday morning that many Republicans privately want to work with Obama, but can’t because of pressure from Limbaugh and others. Limbaugh suggested Obama’s just deflecting from his own failures, charging that no one listens to the president anymore.
Limbaugh said, “I am the reason he can’t move his agenda forward, which is silly, because he’s getting everything he wants.” This is not the first time Obama has referred to conservative pundits as one of the biggest reasons for Congressional inaction, which led Limbaugh to call Obama a “broken record.”
Limbaugh threw out this theory for why Obama’s going so far as to blame him.
“I think that nobody’s listening to Obama anymore. I don’t think he commands nearly the attention or the interest that he does, and so what he’s doing is going back to the greatest hits… He recycled this idea that the Republicans are not cooperating with him because they’re afraid of what I’m going to say about them. The Republicans are not listening to me!”
Listen to the audio below, via WABC:

Obama hides Obamacare subsidies for foreign students, guest workers

"YOU HAVE TO PASS THE BILL TO FIND OUT WHATS IN IT" Nancy Pelosi 
President Barack Obama told Americans Friday that federal aid is reserved for citizens, even though his deputies have drafted complex regulations to give taxpayer-funded Obamacare subsidies to foreign students and to millions of guest workers.
He made the misleading claim during a televised roundtable at the second stop of his two-day, two-state tour promoting more aid to students.
“Obviously, when it come to federal grants, loans, support, subsidies, that we provide, those are for our citizens,” Obama told a student questioner from the friendly audience of college professors, administrators and students at the Binghamton University in New York.
“You know, a lot of Americans are having a tough time affording college, as we talked about, so we can’t spread it too thin,” he told the Turkish student, who was asking for aid.
A 1996 law bars foreigners and recent immigrants for most means-tested products.
But the Obamacare system will provide valuable health-care subsidies to many student-workers and foreign guest workers hired for jobs in America.
The costs of this Obamacare subsidy will likely escalate if Washington rewrites current immigration law, because leading House bills would double the inflow of foreign blue-collar workers, professionals, students and agriculture guest workers.
“Most Americans … don’t want their tax dollars subsidizing health insurance premiums for anyone just visiting, studying or temporarily working in our country,” Rep. Jim Gerlach said in a statement to The Daily Caller.


SEN. IN CO RECALL ATTACKED FOR COLLECTING PER DIEM FOR 'HAIRCUTS AND GOLF GAMES'

IACE Action is running an ad against Colorado state senator John Morse (D) for collecting per diem for "haircuts and golf games."

Morse faced an ethics investigation for this in 2011, when it was learned that of all the legislator in Colorado he was one of only 11 who collected per diem during the entire 120 day legislative session. He was also investigated for billing the people of Colorado $99 a day for leadership pay for more than 200 days while the legislature was not meeting.
Because of this, the IACE ad claims Morse was collecting per diem for "haircuts and golf games."
The ethics panel that investigated Morse ultimately cleared him. But on August 22, 2013,National Review Online (NRO) pointed out that the panel was comprised of three Democrats and two Republicans, and that it basically acknowledged "that a senator's word alone is sufficient for claiming legislative per diem payments."
"In short," added NRO, "[Morse] said he did legislative work on those days, and that was good enough for [the ethics panel]; no need to verify that he actually did work related to his state-office duties."
The IACE ad makes clear Coloradans did not elect Morse in order to pay for haircuts and golf games.
Via: Breitbart
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Pelosi dodges questions about Tierney ethics probe

BEVERLY, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi brushed off questions about coming to Massachusetts Friday to appear alongside Rep. John Tierney even though he is the target of an ethics investigation.

Pelosi made an appearance with Tierney, who represents the state's 6th Congressional District, at a forum on economic issues for women in Beverly.

While Tierney refused to answer questions at the event, FOX 25's Sharman Sacchetti asked Pelosi about why she chose not to wait until the completion of the probe to appear alongside the Congressman.

"Our timing is about the timing that works for the American people," Pelosi replied. "To create good paying jobs for them and not to worry about what's happening in Washington D.C., but to meet the needs of what is happening to people out here.

Tierney has been under fire since his wife pleaded guilty in 2010 to helping file false tax returns for her brother, who ran an illegal off-shore gambling ring.

When Pelosi was asked if she believed the ethics investigation was warranted, she said she welcomes it.
"I don't know the merits of it, I welcome it. I think John does too, to clear up the issue," Pelosi said.
Sacchetti also asked Pelosi about her longstanding goal to clean up Washington.

"Well, we have cleaned up Washington. We did. And now it has lapsed, but that's not the point," Pelosi said. "I want to go to your question. I'm here to stand with John Tierney and thank him for what he has done for our women's economic agenda."

Pelosi's appearance with Tierney is a sign the North Shore Democrat still carries national support as he faces what will likely be a tough bid for re-election. The California Congresswoman told FOX 25 that she would have joined Tierney at Friday's event even if he were facing no opposition.

Tierney is facing a primary challenge from former Marine Seth Moulton and immigration attorney Marisa Defranco. He is the target of Republicans as well, having narrowly beat Richard Tisei in 2012. Tisei is said to be considering another run for the seat.

Via: Fox 25 Boston


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Southern Illinois Limits Graduate Students' Hours Due to ObamaCare

Southern Illinois University is the latest institution to limit graduate assistants' workloads ahead of the Affordable Care Act's so-called "employer mandate" taking effect. In an e-mail sent earlier this week to Southern Illinois' Graduate School deans, chairs and graduate directors, Susan M. Ford, interim dean, said that starting in January the school will no longer approve graduate assistant contracts over a 50 percent assignment  -- what typically equates to a 20-hour workweek. Under the Affordable Care Act, large employers such as colleges and universities will have to provide employees working 30 hours or more weekly with health insurance, or face fines, beginning in January 2015.
"This restriction relates to the university's current understanding of the Affordable Care Act and its impact on the way [graduate assistant] benefits will be determined," reads the email, obtained by Inside Higher Ed. "This restriction is consistent with practice being enacted at universities across the country and put in place after consultation with the various offices involved with [graduate assistant] benefits on campus."
Ford did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how many students the new policy could affect.
Earlier this summer, the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa announced it was limiting graduate students' workloads universitywide ahead of the Affordable Care Act. Adjunct instructors at dozens of institutions across the country also have seen their workloads limited for the same reasons.
Via: Inside Higher Ed

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