Jon Stewart accuses Kathleen Sebelius of lying to him about Obamacare

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius likely thought her interview with Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” Monday night would be an easy setting to pitch the Obamacare exchanges to young people. Instead, she ended up getting accused of being a liar by the popular comedy host.
During his interview with Sebelius, Stewart repeatedly sought an answer from the secretary on why big businesses got a delay in their Obamacare mandate to provide affordable health insurance to their employees, while individuals did not get a delay in their Obamacare mandate making them purchase health care or face a penalty.
In a rare monologue at the end of the show, Stewart said he remained confused and that he suspected that the secretary may have been lying to him.

“I still don’t understand why individuals have to sign up and businesses don’t, because if the businesses — if she’s saying, ‘well, they get a delay because that doesn’t matter anyway because they already give health care,’ then you think to yourself, ‘#### it, then why do they have to sign up at all,’” he said. “And then I think to myself, ‘well, maybe she’s just lying to me.’”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/08/jon-stewart-accuses-kathleen-sebelius-of-lying-to-him-about-obamacare/#ixzz2hAfF7rm4

Pentagon freezes death benefits for fallen soldiers' families

It's another ugly symptom of the partial government shutdown -- and this time it impacts the families of soldiers who are dying for their country.
The Pentagon confirmed Tuesday that, as long as the budget impasse lasts, it will not be able to pay death benefits to the families of troops who've been killed in combat.
"Unfortunately, as a result of the shutdown, we do not have the legal authority to make death gratuity payments at this time," said Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen, a Defense Department spokesman. "However, we are keeping a close eye on those survivors who have lost loved ones serving in the Department of Defense."
House lawmakers, though, are planning to vote Wednesday on a bill to restore funding for the payments. And Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday accused the Obama administration of needlessly withholding the money.
Boehner claimed a bill passed by Congress and signed by the president last week to pay America's troops should have given the Pentagon the latitude "to pay all kinds of bills, including this."
"I think it's disgraceful that they're withholding these benefits," Boehner said, urging Obama to sign the bill that the House will take up on Wednesday.
The bill would still have to pass the Senate before arriving on Obama's desk. If that bill fails to pass, the Pentagon says, families will be reimbursed once Congress passes an appropriations bill.
The Pentagon says it has specific instructions from its budget office not to make payments for deaths that occurred after 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 30, 2013.
Over the weekend, four soldiers -- two of them Army Rangers -- and one Marine were killed while conducting combat operations in Afghanistan. The bodies of the four soldiers will be returned to Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday.
Due to the impasse, the families of 25-year-old 1st Lt. Jennifer M. Moreno; 24-year-old Pfc. Cody J. Patterson; 24-year-old Special Agent Joseph M. Peters; 25-year-old Sgt. Patrick C. Hawkins; and 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Jeremiah M. Collins, Jr. will not receive the $100,000 payment that they would have otherwise received within three days of the death.
Adding further insult, the families will have to pay for their own travel to Dover. That's a bill the Pentagon also says it can't pay because of the partial shutdown.
Privately, Defense Department officials say they wish they could pay the families and they admit it's a disgrace that deserves national attention.
"If the department was allowed to make death gratuity payments at any point during shutdown, they would've been paid with great relief," one official said.  
Pentagon officials also say Congress was warned prior to the shutdown that these benefits would be stopped.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said during a press conference on Tuesday he would tell those families that their government "let them down."
After the ceremony at Dover on Wednesday, the families will fly to their home states to conduct private funerals. That's also an expense the Pentagon says it can no longer pay due to the stalemate.

Wisconsin professor tells students Tea Party, Republicans at fault for slimdown

A Wisconsin college professor warned her students they wouldn't be able to get all of their homework done because of the partial government shutdown, and put a partisan spin on the bad news.
“Some of the data gathering assignment will be impossible to complete until the Republican/tea party controlled House of Representatives agrees to fund the government,” University of Wisconsin La Crosse Assistant Geography Professor Rachel Slocum told students in an e-mail.
“The Census website, for instance, is closed,” she continued. “Please do what you can on the assignment. Those parts you are unable to do because of the shutdown will have to wait until Congress decides we actually need a government. Please listen to the news and be prepared to turn in the assignment quickly once our nation re-opens.”
At least one student in the online course reported the professor's political spin to the education blog The College Fix, which first reported the story.
Slocum could not be reached for comment, but a school official told FoxNews.com the issue was addressed.
“It would be inappropriate to use partisan politics in a class, so we contacted the professor in question,” Chancellor Joe Gow told FoxNews.com. “We want to be sure our students feel that they can have a different opinion from others on campus,” Gow added. “She (Slocum) can have a personal conversation with someone, but this e-mail was for an online class so the message is more in an official capacity.”
In a subsequent e-mail from Slocum, also obtained by The College Fix, Slocum sought to downplay the politics of the partial government shutdown that has resulted from Congress' budget impasse.
“The e-mail I sent you all about the government shut down [sic] was not meant to be partisan, but it may have come across that way," she wrote. "It is true that I am dismayed that you cannot easily do the assignment. My opinion is that this shutdown is a bad idea.”
She even pleads with her students at one point, asking them not to forward her e-mails to others outside the class.
“If you want to discuss all of this, let me know and I can make an internal discussion board about it. But please don’t forward my emails to conservative blogs or list servs and I will make sure my emails explain things fully,” she wrote.

Negotiate

7 not-so-essential things still operating during the slimdown

National parks are closed. IRS call centers have no staff. Countless government websites have been taken down.
Yet despite these changes -- which range from inconveniences to major headaches -- a number of not-so-essential government operations are still up and running.
Here are a few that have evaded the partial government shutdown:
The Denali Commission: 
You've probably never heard of The Denali Commission. But the tiny Alaska-based economic development agency gained some notoriety after it emerged that the group's inspector general was petitioning Congress to de-fund it.
But guess what agency survived the "shutdown?" According to its own contingency plan, because the commission's staffers are paid under the prior year's budget, all 14 employees are exempt from furlough, and "reporting to work."
White House Twitter:
Right as Congress missed the deadline last week to pass a spending bill, first lady Michelle Obama's office informed its Twitter followers that "due to Congress's failure to pass legislation to fund the government," updates to the official first lady Twitter account would be limited.
But the White House Twitter account is alive and well.
The account has blasted out a series of tweets calling on Congress to end the budget impasse.
'Let's Move': 
While a number of government websites have been temporarily taken offline, and the first lady's Twitter account has been largely abandoned, not so for Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign.
The website for the first lady's healthy-living initiative remains operational -- though it doesn't appear to have been updated much since late September. The top of the site displays the message: "Cheers to water!"
Park Rangers on Patrol: 
Despite national parks and monuments being shuttered across the country for lack of funds, the National Park Service is devoting considerable resources to putting up barricades and patrolling them.
An innkeeper along the Blue Ridge Parkway who was forced to close his business due to the partial shutdown told FoxNews.com that park rangers have set up a "24/7 blockade" outside his inn -- to prevent would-be customers from coming in.
Obama Campaign Stop: 
President Obama canceled a long-planned trip to Asia over the budget impasse.
But he nevertheless ventured outside the Beltway last week for a rally in nearby Rockville, Md., to pressure Republicans to pass a budget bill.
Patent Office: 
Happen to invent something during the budget stalemate?
Good news. The United States Patent and Trademark Office is open for business. According to the office, it's using fees from the prior year to keep running, and should be able to for roughly four weeks.
IRS Taking, But Not Giving: 
IRS call centers are closed, and the IRS is not issuing refunds during the partial shutdown. 
The agency, though, will gladly accept tax payments during that time. 
The IRS says in a statement on its website: "The IRS will accept and process all tax returns with payments, but will be unable to issue refunds during this time."