Reid vows to reject House spending bill

With what would be the first government shutdown in 17 years due to take effect at midnight Tuesday, the Senate will return to business Monday afternoon to consider the Republican House’s weekend spending-bill offer, which the chamber's ranking Democrat has vowed to reject.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had made his feelings on the the bill, which includes an amendment providing for a one-year delay in the implementation of ObamaCare, known even before the House approved the measure early Sunday morning. Throughout the day Sunday, House Republican leaders chided Reid and others in the Democrat-led chamber for not hustling back to Capitol Hill to negotiate a compromise.
“O Senate, where art thou,” said Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, riffing on the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou.”
In a package of weekend votes, the House also agreed to an amendment to repeal the health care law’s medical-device tax and voted in favor of a bill to pay the military on time should a shutdown occur.
Just hours after House Republicans announced their plan Saturday afternoon, the White House vowed President Obama would veto it and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made clear it was unacceptable.
“To be absolutely clear, the Senate will reject both the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax," Reid said. "After weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at square one."
On Sunday, Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson called the House votes “empty political stunts” and said, “Tomorrow, the Senate will do exactly what we said we would do and reject these measures.”
The Senate is scheduled to convene at 2 p.m. Monday and Reid is expected to move quickly against the House legislation. Reid is not subject to a filibuster while doing so, and the bill is likely to be voted down with the support of the Senate's Democratic majority. The House is due to convene at 10 a.m. Monday, but it is believed that GOP leaders will wait on Senate action before sending any alternate proposals to the upper chamber.
Blackburn made her comments along with other members of the House Republican Conference at an informal press conference on the steps of Capitol Hill.
“That the senators are not here … is all that everyone needs to know,” said Arkansas Republican Rep. Tim Griffin. “Democrats want to shutdown the government. … That’s a scorched earth policy.”
Grifffin and others tried to recast the blame for a possible shutdown on Democrats who have argued Republicans’ insistence on tying a spending bill to ObamaCare is intended to force a shutdown.
“Today we see where the Senate doors are shut,” said conference Chairwoman and Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. “Harry Reid says that a shutdown is inevitable.”
House Speaker John Boehner was among the first to put the burden of responsibility back on the Senate.
“Now that the House has again acted, it’s up to the Senate to pass this bill without delay to stop a government shutdown,” the Ohio Republican said after the weekend votes. “Let’s get this done.”
The government would technically run out of money Monday night should Congress fail to pass a spending bill -- resulting in a partial government shutdown that would begin with hundreds of thousands of government workers likely being sent home from work without pay.
The government would still keep open operations and agencies that protect “life and limb,” but national parks would likely close right away and other non-essential programs would also be temporarily shut down.
There have been 17 government shutdowns, the most recent lasting from Dec. 16, 1995, to Jan. 6, 1996 -- the longest in U.S. history.
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy said Sunday morning the chamber has several last-minute options to avoid a government shutdown should the Senate reject the most recent House plan.
The California Republican insisted the proposal can indeed pass in the Senate but acknowledged having an alternative plan.
“You assume they won’t vote for it. Let’s have that debate,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” But “we have other options for the Senate to look at.”
Earlier this month, the Senate rejected a House spending bill to defund ObamaCare, despite a filibuster-style effort by Tea Party-backed, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.
McCarthy declined to tell Fox News whether one of the proposals would be passing a so-called “clean” spending bill, or continuing resolution, which would keep open the government for a few days until Congress agrees on a longer-term plan. But he insisted the House will not be responsible for a shutdown and that it will offer a proposal with Democratic support.
“We are not shutting the government down,” he said. “While the president was out playing golf [Saturday], we were here until 1 a.m. We will pass a bill that reflects this House. … I think there'll be additions that Democrats can support.”
Right now, the House bill covers government spending through Dec. 15, while the Senate bill goes through Nov. 15.

House backs ObamaCare delay as Congress nears shutdown deadline

The House of Representatives approves a temporary spending bill that includes a one-year delay for ObamaCare, increasing the chance of a government shutdown as the White House says President Obama would veto such a proposal.

Professors chide University of Kansas for sanctions over tweet

University of Kansas anthropology professors are accusing school officials of violating the constitutional rights of a fellow professor by placing him on leave because of a post on Twitter.
Journalism professor David Guth got into hot water for a tweet aimed at the National Rifle Association after the Sept. 16 shootings at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., that left 13 dead.
"The blood is on the hands of the (hash)NRA. Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters. Shame on you. May God damn you," Guth posted. Bailey Comment: "Someone who is teaching our kids is putting out this crap, and other teachers are taking up for him"? Are you frigging kidding me!
The backlash was swift, with many accusing Guth of wishing death on the children of NRA members. Some Kansas legislative leaders have called on the university's Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little to fire Guth, with a few saying they will not support funding for the university if he isn't fired.
Guth said he wasn't advocating violence but was trying to make gun-rights advocates look at shootings from the point of view of the victims' families.
In a statement issued Friday, 14 professors and anthropology department chairwoman Jane Gibson said the university's actions against Guth have a chilling effect on academic freedom, The Lawrence Journal-World reported.
"While we take no position on the content of what he said, David Guth spoke as a private person and exercised his right to free speech that is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Faculty Code of Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct," the statement said.
Gray-Little has said Guth was placed on indefinite leave to avoid disrupting classes, "not because of the nature of the professor's comments, regardless of how controversial they may be."
Tenured faculty members in the journalism school also have issued a statement supporting Guth's First Amendment rights to free speech, though they said they disagreed with his statement.

House Republican Spending Plan to Include Obamacare Delay

House Republicans on Saturday pushed the government to the edge of a partial shutdown next week, insisting that President Barack Obama's health care law be delayed a year in defiance of White House and the Democratic-controlled Senate. 
They rejected a Senate bill passed Friday that would keep the government operating another 45 days and make no changes to the health law. Instead, House Republicans prepared to pass their own version Saturday and throw the issue back to the Senate, which is not scheduled to return until Monday afternoon, 10 hours before the shutdown deadline.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has insisted the Senate would not pass a bill that alters the law. The White House has said Obama would veto such a bill.

But in an exclusive interview with Newsmax, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted that Republicans weren't fighting a lost cause to defund Obamacare as part of legislation to prevent the federal government from shutting down next week.

"I don't think it was a waste of time," the Kentucky Republican said. "The American people do fully understand that still, not a single Republican in the House or Senate favors this awful new law — and if they will send us enough additional new members to get rid of it, we will."
In addition to delaying final implementation of the Affordable Care Act for a year, the House bill would repeal a tax on medical devices that helps pay for the law, said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.
The measure would provide the government with operating funds until Dec. 15; the Senate's version lasted until only Nov. 15.
Dealing with the possibility the Senate would reject the bill, the House also planned to pass a companion measure Sunday directing that U.S. military troops be paid on time despite any partial shutdown.
Obama, in his weekly radio and Internet address, accused House Republicans of being more concerned "with appeasing an extreme faction of their party than working to pass a budget."
Before news of the new plan emerged, lawmakers took to the House floor and mixed name-calling with cries for compromise.
"I've got a titanium backbone. Let 'em blame, let 'em talk, it's fine," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., about Democratic claims that the GOP would be at fault if the government must close.
She said the GOP wanted to keep the government open, but also wanted to reduce its size and "delay, defund, repeal and replace Obamacare," as the health law is known.
The Senate's 54-44 vote Friday was strictly along party lines in favor of the bill, which would prevent a shutdown of nonessential government services.
That followed a 79-19 vote to cut off a filibuster by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that exposed a rift among Republicans eager to prevent a shutdown and those, like Cruz, who seem willing to risk one over the health overhaul.
All 52 Democrats, two independents and 25 of 44 Republicans voted in favor. That included McConnell, R-Ky., and most of the GOP leadership.
Cruz was trying to rally House conservatives to continue the battle over heath care. He was urging them to reject efforts by Boehner and other GOP leaders to offer scaled-back assaults on the law such as repealing the tax on medical devices as the House response.
Some conservatives were taking their cues from Cruz rather than party leaders such as Boehner hoping to avoid a shutdown. Closing down the government could weaken Republicans heading into an even more important battle later in October over allowing the government to borrow more money.
If lawmakers miss the deadline, hundreds of thousands of nonessential federal workers would have to stay home on Tuesday.
Critical services such patrolling the borders, inspecting meat and controlling air traffic would continue. Social Security benefits would be sent and the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs for the elderly and poor would continue to pay doctors and hospitals.
The new health insurance exchanges would open Tuesday, a development that's lent urgency to the drive to use a normally routine stopgap spending bill to gut implementation of the law.

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Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!

Barack Hussein Obama II

Read more at http://www.conservapedia.com/Barack_Hussein_Obama#Obama.27s_Medical_Administrator
Barack Hussein Obama II (b. August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii) is the 44th President of the United States. Through heavy use of early voting by the Democrat political machine, Obama was elected president in 2008 with 365 electoral votes and 53% of the popular vote. In 2012 he was elected to a second term with 332 electoral votes and 51% of the popular vote. Promoted heavily by liberals, as demonstrated by his unjustified receipt of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, Obama won the presidency despite a short and unremarkable political career by outspending his opponent, John McCain, by hundreds of millions of dollars in 2008^[2], and spending more than a billion dollars from special interests to attain reelection in 2012.^[3]
The liberal claptrap that helped elect Obama as president seems silly today. It was claimed, for example, that Obama has millions of followers on Twitter, when allegedly some 70% of them are fake.^[4] And although the lamestream media promoted Obama as a great orator, in fact he relies almost entirely on teleprompters for his speeches and press conferences, and at one point even had teleprompters set up for him in a middle school classroom in order to speak to the media.
Obama is pro-abortion. During his campaigns Obama said that he intended to "spread the wealth around" and has been portrayed as saying that entrepreneurs and employers deserve no credit for building their businesses.^[5] On March 1, 2013 Obama issued executive orders to implement his sequester of budget cuts which^[6] has been widely criticized for destroying jobs in what was an anemic and fragile recovery.^[7]
Former Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman endorsed Obama's opponent in 2008 and has declined to endorse Obama for the 2012 presidential election.^[8]
Following the 2011 debt ceiling standoff between Obama and House Republicans,^[9] the United States Government's credit rating was, for the first time in its history, downgraded from AAA to AA+, and poverty^[10] increased markedly. By and large his programs, said to combat the recession, unemployment, slow growth, and deficits, have failed^[11] leaving the the country saddled with a $16 trillion national debt and climbing.^[12] One of his most well known tactics is blaming someone else, such as George W. Bush, for all his failures instead of taking responsibility. Also on the domestic front, Obama passed an expensive health care bill in 2010 with no national concensus or bipartisan support and 34 Democrats dissenting. Recently, the Congressional Budget Office wrote an open letter to John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, outlining the effects of repealing Obamacare and explaining why net loss of over 100 billion dollars would occur from the repeal. [10]
Americans deaths in Afghanistan have more than doubled under Obama's leadership compared with the preceding eight years of George Bush, according to the Congressional Research Service ^[13] Against his own Defense Secretary's advice, Obama attacked Libya - a possible violation of the War Powers Act. After he he took credit for the killing of September 11th mastermind terrorist Osama bin Laden, the U.S. State Department warned of increased risk to the lives and safety of Americans.^[14] Bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri confirmed the Benghazi Attack which killed four State Department employees, was motivated by revenge.^[15] Bin Laden's killing, however had negligible impact on Obama's approval ratings.^[16]
Obama's bizarre gaffes are frequent and embarrassing, but typically unreported by the liberal media. Many hardworking American businessmen took offense to a 2012 campaign speech about the economy where he says "You didn't build that." Obama offended Poland by referring to the Nazi death camps there as "Polish death camps." Later Obama apologized.^[17] Even the New York Times was critical of Obama's incessant boasting about the killing of bin Laden.^[18]

If You Don’t Like ObamaCare, Can You Quit?

By G. Keith Smith, MD - http://SurgeryCenterOK.com

At a physician’s roundtable years ago, I asked Senator Orrin Hatch why I couldn’t punch out of Social Security, happy to leave all that I had paid “into the system” on the table. Why couldn’t anyone, I asked, willing to leave behind all they had paid in, be allowed to walk away from these entitlements, as long as they were willing to forgo a future claim to these “benefits?”

He wouldn’t answer me. The answer is obvious, though, isn’t it? Without the current “contributions” of the young (and yes, draws on the credit line of the unborn), the current beneficiaries would discover that these programs were bankrupt.

Virtually all of the legislators that brought us Medicare are dead and gone now. All of the legislators who brought us Social Security are dead and gone. This is no coincidence, for these men realized that it was politically much more popular to give away government goodies paid for by the young and unborn than to tax the very same people who were to “benefit” from their “ideas” and “programs.”

Dead now, these criminal politicians have largely escaped the harsh judgment they deserve for buying votes with property that would belong to future generations. Currency depreciation (“inflation”—the current political class’s favorite way to rob the young for the benefit of their current constituents) has the same effect on future generations.

This is the essence of a Ponzi scheme. That is a fraudulent investment scheme that pays investors not out of profits but out of money paid in by later investors.

If you think about it, all government programs are Ponzi schemes. It is becoming increasingly clear that the same can be said about the [Un]Affordable Care Act. I call it the UCA, instead of the ACA.

UCA can’t let young people out for the same reason that Social Security can’t. Young workers aren’t paying or saving for their own benefits, but for older, sicker people.

UCA rules force insurers to charge them more than they actually cost to help offset the higher cost of insuring older and sicker people. If the young don’t sign up, premiums for everyone in the insurance pool will dramatically increase, as will the cost to the government.

People generally don’t volunteer to be overcharged so that strangers can be undercharged. Hence the individual mandate, and tax penalties.

Young adults are beginning to see the reality as the UCA takes shape, and understand how they wind up losing from every angle. Hence the $600 million advertising campaign and multimillion dollar Navigator program to steer people into the program as quickly as possible. UCA promoters know how hard it is to take away an entitlement once people are trapped in it.

The idea is to entice people with subsidies so they won’t notice how outrageous the premiums are. When enough are lured away from private insurance—the “crowding out” effect shown so well with the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)—private insurance will collapse. Like Medicare beneficiaries now, all Americans will be without options for major medical insurance.

The success of the UCA hinges on the successful fleecing of the young people. This is the same immoral basis for Medicare and Social Security, “programs” that are still alive because participation in these Ponzi schemes is involuntary. With Bernie Madoff, at least people could take their lumps, having learned their lesson and move on. They didn’t have to continue to give him money after they learned what he was up to.

I am optimistic that today’s young people will reject the shackles that many of their elders have embraced.

---

G. Keith Smith, MD is a board certified anesthesiologist in private practice since 1990. In 1997, he co-founded The Surgery Center of Oklahoma, an outpatient surgery center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, owned by 40 of the top physicians and surgeons in central Oklahoma. Dr. Smith serves as the medical director, CEO and managing partner while maintaining an active anesthesia practice.

In 2009, Dr. Smith launched a website displaying all-inclusive pricing for various surgical procedures, a move that has gained him and the facility, national and even international attention. Many Canadians and uninsured Americans have been treated at his facility, taking advantage of the low and transparent pricing available.

Operation of this free market medical practice, arguably the only one of its kind in the U.S., has gained the endorsement of policymakers and legislators nationally. More and more self-funded insurance plans are taking advantage of Dr. Smith’s pricing model, resulting in significant savings to their employee health plans. His hope is for as many facilities as possible to adopt a transparent pricing model, a move he believes will lower costs for all and improve quality of care

Cruz

What Now? Budget bill heads to House after Senate restores ObamaCare $$

Bailey Comment: Do all of us Americans a huge favor and let the government shutdown. The majority of  us are sick and tire of the politicians in Washington who instead of being employed by us actually believe themselves to be the Masters of the America.               House Republican leaders heading into a rare weekend session struggled with a tough choice after Senate Democrats succeeded in passing a "clean" budget bill which, contrary to GOP wishes, restores funding for ObamaCare.
The Senate, capping a dramatic week on Capitol Hill, approved the bill on Friday, after Democrats stripped a Republican-backed provision to defund the health law. The final vote was 54-44.
The House is expected to take up the legislation starting on Saturday, and the bill is seen by some lawmakers as a sort of legislative hot potato. If the two chambers cannot agree on a final bill by midnight on Monday, then the government will shut down. Neither side wants to be left holding the bill if that happens.
House Speaker John Boehner could, theoretically, just call up the Senate-passed bill and rely on mostly Democrats to pass it. But House Republicans are under heavy pressure, now, from fellow conservatives to stand by their demand that ObamaCare be defunded, or least delayed.
A group of 62 conservative Republican lawmakers emerged late Friday with a proposed amendment to the spending bill that would delay the entire health care law for a year. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., said he plans to introduce the amendment when the House considers the funding bill.
"This approach was developed over several meetings with House Republicans, with a goal of keeping our conference unified, as we continue working to keep the government open and protect our constituents from the harmful effects of ObamaCare,” Graves said in a statement.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who staged an unsuccessful effort to stall the bill in the Senate, predicted the House would restore anti-ObamaCare provisions -- and urged Senate Republicans to unite with them. "Today, far too many Republicans joined Harry Reid in giving the Democrats the ability to fund ObamaCare," he said.
Boehner signaled he will not accept the Senate-passed bill in its current form. If the bill is altered in any way, it will have to return to the Senate for yet another vote.
"The House will take action that reflects the fundamental fact that Americans don't want a government shutdown and they don't want the train wreck that is ObamaCare," spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement.
But President Obama, during remarks at the White House, warned Republicans not to go down that road.
"(Undoing ObamaCare is) not gonna happen," Obama said. "House Republicans will have to decide whether to join the Senate and keep the government open, or shut it down because they can't get their way. ... This grandstanding has real effects on real people."
Obama also warned Republicans to back down on threats to tie an increase in the debt ceiling to other demands, claiming a U.S. default would cause an "economic shutdown."
Should Republicans stand by their anti-ObamaCare demands, Democrats have launched an aggressive campaign to pre-emptively blame them for a government shutdown. During a post-vote press conference, Senate Democrats displayed a countdown clock to the "Republican government shutdown."
"I don't know of anyone who wants to shut down the government. The only thing we want to shut down is ObamaCare," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said.
Amid the fighting, federal agencies are warning about the impact of the looming shutdown. The Pentagon warned Friday that as many as 400,000 civilian workers could be furloughed. Military personnel are not subject to furlough and would continue to work, for the time being, without pay.
Democrats used the doomsday scenarios to pressure Republicans into backing down.
"We've passed the only bill that can avert a government shutdown Monday night. I've said this on the floor -- I say it again: This is it," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said.
Earlier Friday, Reid narrowly won approval to restore funding for ObamaCare. The 54-44 vote fell along party lines.
That was after the Senate voted 79-19 on the initial version of the bill, which in its original form would keep the government open while defunding ObamaCare. Several Republicans joined Democrats in voting "yes" on that vote, ignoring appeals by Cruz and other conservatives to stall the bill.
The first roll call had put Republicans in a difficult position, and prompted a very-public spate of infighting. Tea Party-aligned Republicans like Cruz, who staged a 21-hour anti-ObamaCare speech on the Senate floor this week, argued that Republicans should stop this bill in its tracks. Though the bill technically defunded ObamaCare -- which Cruz and his colleagues wanted -- they argued that since Reid would restore the funding, they should vote "no."
A number of Republicans rejected this logic.
"I don't understand how I can otherwise vote on a matter that I want to see passed," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. (Click to see the vote breakdown.)
Though the test vote put Senate Republicans in a tricky spot, the bigger question is what House Republicans will do next.
If Republicans stand by their demand that ObamaCare be defunded, delayed or otherwise undermined, then the two chambers could easily be at an impasse by midnight on Monday.
Tempers and rhetoric were heated on Friday as Democrats accused their Republican colleagues of playing with legislative fire.
"We are at one of the most dangerous points in our history right now -- every bit as dangerous as the break-up of the Union before the Civil War," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
But Republicans are treating their push to defund ObamaCare with urgency, in part because a key part of the law is set to go into effect next week.
"ObamaCare is the biggest job killer in the country," Cruz said.

'Cupboard is bare'? Despite claims, feds find $100M to give Detroit

Published September 27, 2013

FoxNews.com

Sept. 26, 2013: A young man walks in front of a row of abandoned houses in Detroit.AP

DETROIT –  The Obama administration has found $100 million to send to struggling Detroit, despite recurring claims that the government cannot afford to make any more spending cuts.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed just last weekend that "there's no more cuts to make." Pelosi made the comments in response to Republicans demanding additional cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.
"The cupboard is bare," she told CNN.
Apparently not completely bare.
Gene Sperling, chief economic adviser to President Obama, told the Associated Press the administration scrounged through the federal budget and found untapped money that "either had not flowed or had not gotten out or not directed to the top priorities."
That money is now being sent to Detroit.
Considering the Motor City is at least $18 billion in debt, it will take a far larger infusion of cash or historic deals with bond holders, insurance companies and other creditors to correct the problem.
But the $100 million infusion is a step toward greater federal involvement.
Sperling and three other top Obama aides -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan -- were meeting Friday with state and local officials. The meeting was to include Gov. Rick Snyder, state-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr, Mayor Dave Bing and community and business leaders.
The federal money being directed Detroit's way by the U.S. government will be augmented by millions of dollars more in resources from foundations and Detroit businesses
The Obama administration repeatedly had signaled it would not offer a massive federal bailout like the one credited with helping rescue Chrysler and General Motors.
"There is not going to be a bailout," Democratic U.S. Sen. Carl Levin told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "We have enough problems with the federal deficit. We need to be creative and look at existing programs. There are still some funds there."
The funding announced by Sperling will include $65 million in Community Development Block Grants for blight eradication, $25 million in a public-private collaboration for commercial building demolition and nearly $11 million in funds to ensure working families can live in safe neighborhoods.
Holder will announce $3 million that, in part, will be used to hire new police officers. About $25 million also will be expedited to Detroit to hire about 140 firefighters and buy new gear.
"It wasn't enough to try and free the resources," Sperling said. "We had to make sure they are well-used and targeted."
In addition, Orr, the city's emergency manager, has told the city's two municipal retirement systems he wants to freeze Detroit's pension plans and move to a 401(k)-style system.
The gathering Friday follows a series of meetings with the White House to plot ways to pull Detroit from a fiscal pit that this summer made it the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy protection.
Detroit has had a poor record in making sure grant money is used properly and even spent at all.
In 2011, Mayor Dave Bing fired the director of the city's Human Services Department after an internal investigation revealed $200,000 intended for poor residents was spent on office furniture for staff members.
The following year, his office had to scramble to use about $20 million in grants that had been left sitting for demolitions of thousands of vacant houses. The city's Police Department also allowed a $400,000 grant to lapse for a new armored vehicle.
The grant troubles have rankled Orr, the emergency manager Gov. Rick Snyder appointed to lead the city out of its financial mess.
Orr has said Detroit is so poor that it can't afford to lose out on any resources. In July, he made Detroit the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy protection.
Grants only can pay for things the city otherwise couldn't afford. Several businesses even pitched in $8 million earlier this year to help pay for a new fleet of emergency vehicles, including 23 EMS units and 100 police cars, to boost public safety and reduce response times.
Police Chief James Craig said Thursday that he was in Washington a few weeks ago in search of federal resources for his department.

President Obama lied to us -- he told America some real whoppers about ObamaCare

President Obama lied to us.
It wasn’t a white lie. It wasn’t a fib. It wasn’t a half truth. It was a bold-faced lie.
“No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise,” President Obama told the American Medical Association in 2009. “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”
That statement turned out to be a lie. Period.
On Thursday I asked my Facebook community if they had faced hardships as a result of ObamaCare.
The response was overwhelming. I received nearly 1,000 replies – from small business owners, nurses, doctors, electricians, stay-at-home moms, and military personnel. Every single person said they had been adversely affected by President Obama’s signature legislation.

President Obama also promised us that we would be able to keep our doctor. Another lie.

So let’s break down the president’s lies.
Thursday he told an audience in Largo, Maryland that the Affordable Care Act had not hurt jobs.
“There's no widespread evidence that the Affordable Care Act is hurting jobs,” he said.
Investor’s Business Daily reports that as a direct result of ObamaCare, more than 300 companies have either eliminated jobs or reduced full time jobs to part time jobs. Hospitals across the country are firing staff and reducing work hours.
Janet Blanck owns Country Blossom Florist, a small shop in Gilbert, Ariz. She tells me that as a result of ObamaCare she’s had to lay off three employees.
At one time, she employed eight people. Those who were not let go now work part-time because of rising insurance costs.
“Obama is killing us,” she told me. “It breaks my heart to have to do this. I have to protect what I have built and this is the only way that I know of to get around this law and still stay in business.”
President Obama also promised us that we would be able to keep our doctor. Another lie.
Several hundred of you, like Joel Keefauver, wrote to tell me that your doctors were either shuttering their practices or shedding patients.
“Under the forthcoming Affordable Care Act and new healthcare regulations, I will no longer be able to provide the quality of healthcare you have come to expect and that I believe is proper,” the doctor wrote in a letter to Keefauver. “The increased cost imposed by complying with these new laws, along with decreasing reimbursements, creates a financial burden that is unsustainable for my solo practice.”
DiDi Henry’s elderly mother recently moved from Alabama to Louisiana. She has been unable to find a doctor willing to take Medicare patients.
“Several doctors told her that they just aren’t taking Medicare patients because of ObamaCare,” she told me.
The president also told us ObamaCare would make health insurance affordable? Another whopper.
Business owner Sheila Frey tells me her insurance rates have increased by 46 percent. Her small family-run company is paying $2,000 a month for coverage.
And remember how President Obama promised rebate checks to defray the cost of buying insurance coverage? Well, Shelia tells me her rebate check was a meager $127. You do the math.
Tammy Boisvert told me she had to find a new pediatrician.
“My family doctor of 20 years couldn’t take my newborn due to this insurance mess,” she wrote. “With a family of six all seen by this one doctor, I suddenly had to search for a new pediatrician.”
President Obama promised we could keep our current health care plan. Another lie.
Michelle Cox, of Asheville, N.C. wrote to me about a letter she received Thursday from her insurance company.
“ACA requires is to make significant changes to our health benefits plan designs,” the letter read. “We cannot renew your existing plan in 2014.”
Alissa Delamar is in the same boat -- searching for insurance after her company canceled its group plan.
“I’m stressed so much financially now I can’t fathom any more debt,” she wrote. “It leaves you hopeless.”
Catherine Schneider and her husband own Blue Sky Trucking in Montgomery, Minn. They were just informed that their insurance policy would be canceled in December.
“It’s too expensive,” she said. “The Affordable Care Act is disrupting our business and it has the potential to destroy our family.”
Allison deNijis’s family policy was also canceled.
“I thought Obama said we could keep our insurance?” she asked. “I thought he said our cost would decline? Not true! Epic fail!”
Her family was offered a new policy that now includes a nearly $1,000 monthly premium and $5,000 in individual deductibles.
“I am seriously considering just paying the fine and putting the differential amount in a personal savings account,” she told me. “Why should I pay over $13,000 in premiums?”
By the time ObamaCare is fully implemented, I suspect most Americans will be begging for death panels – to put us out of our misery.

Despite gov't assurances, some could see insurance costs soar under ObamaCare

While the administration maintains that ObamaCare will make health insurance more affordable for Americans, experts say that won’t be the case across the board – and some people could see their rates soar.
On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released an overview of premiums and plan choices, saying “For millions of Americans, these new options will finally make health insurance work within their budgets.”
The administration also said premiums would generally be lower than what congressional budget experts had estimated during debate on the legislation.
But former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin said Thursday, “unfortunately you can go all through that HHS report and not be able to answer the most important question: will my insurance rates go up in 2014?"
"They cherry picked the data in order to highlight the fact that people of low income will benefit under the law," adds Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a New York-based think tank. "But people of middle income will not. And they didn’t really talk about that."
The new law requires the addition of what it calls essential benefits -- a list of things that must be covered and which make insurance more expensive than it is now.
"This report is intended to send the message, 'hey everybody wins, this is a great thing, please show up,"says Holtz-Eakin.
"That's not the reality. The reality is much messier. There's going to be some people who do better. There are going to be a lot of people who do much, much worse."
The Manhattan Institute analyzed rates around the country and found that for people of medium income, costs will soar -- up by as much as 99 percent for men, and up about 55 percent for women.
"Even if the average American gets some subsidy, a partial subsidy," says Roy, who authored the study,"that partial subsidy won't be enough to overcome the dramatic increase in the cost of insurance, the underlying cost of insurance ObamaCare imposes on the market."
But insurance premiums are only one part of the puzzle. Most plans also have very high deductibles.
"Do you have a large deductible?" asks Holtz-Eakin. "How much do you have to pay before the insurance starts picking up the cost?"
Analysts expect deductibles to be in the $5,000 to $6,000 range for the lowest level of coverage, the bronze plan.
Dan Mendelson, CEO and founder at Avalere Health in Washington,says,"So, if you're in a bronze plan, the premiums are going to be relatively low, you know, as HHS said, in some cases people won't pay premiums at all.
“But there are going to be very high out of pocket costs and deductibles in some cases are going to be over $5,500."
That means a person with a plan at that level might only pay $100 dollars a month in premiums, as the administration has said.
But depending on medical events, the deductible could add almost $500 dollars a month more, without even counting the co-pays

Iran's New President

IRS failed to account for $67M in ObamaCare costs, report says

The Internal Revenue Service is unable to account for $67 million in spending related to the implementation of ObamaCare, according to an IRS watchdog report released Wednesday.
The report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said the money was part of a $488 million fund established to cover implementation costs between 2010 through 2012.
The $67 million in unaccounted-for spending was associated with "indirect" implementation costs, which can include providing employees with workspace and information technology support.
The report recommended the IRS improve its record-keeping for direct labor charges associated with implementing ObamaCare.
"TIGTA found that costs charged to [the Health Insurance Reform Implementation Fund] funding related to direct labor were sometimes inaccurate and not always substantiated by reliable supporting documentation," the report states.
The report concluded that the IRS "lacks complete information regarding the full cost of [Affordable Care Act] implementation."
"This lack of complete information on ACA implementation costs limits the IRS’s ability to accurately report to stakeholders the total resources it applied to the ACA implementation and fully estimate the resources needed in the future for this effort," the report states.
The report comes as the Senate considers a controversial bill that would both avert a government shutdown while defunding ObamaCare, after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, delivered a marathon 21-hour speech in a bid to push fellow Republican lawmakers into showdown to unravel the law.
Legislation passed by the Republican-controlled House last week would cancel all funds for the three-year-old law, preventing its full implementation. But Senate Democrats have enough votes to restore the funds, and Majority Leader Harry Reid labeled Cruz's turn in the spotlight "a big waste of time."
Any differences between the two houses' legislation must be reconciled and the bill signed into law by next Tuesday to avert a partial shutdown.

Is not the greatest question this nation faces is the absolute rejection by so many of a republican form of constitutional government?

Is not the greatest question this nation faces is the absolute rejection by so many of a republican form of constitutional government?
Watching the absolute dismal repulsive actions of especially the verbal insanity of the senator from Arizona, Mc(INSANE) and the Texas disgrace, John Coryn(HOLIN) how could any who believe in this nation this absolute wonder, this miracle of what this nation is—and not be dumbfounded of what is happening in this country.
Attempting to put some reason into this insanity the obvious becomes clear. If one uses their mental intellect, and in that journey of intellectual reasoning reaches the reality that in the laws of nature, and nature’s God all events have a beginning, the reason, the alpha, and the conclusion, the ending, the omega.
This constant holds true from the beginnings of the universe; the creation by our creator, to the actions that occur in every segment of every action in our lives, our society, and our nation to this day have this beginning.   
IN the absolute dementia of our constitutional government the alpha, the idea, that as long as men govern—as James Madison told us—the greatest danger mankind, this nation will ever has…or will have…is those same men who will be elected to govern.
Cause and effect, is a simple philosophy of how to look at anything. For does there not require something to occurs, to set the stage, create the reason, that any result occurs? In life we normally find it, something, a catastrophe, a problem exists—resulting that as men…who love that challenge of design how to correct things…then create a means or a way to accomplish it. Too often the situation occurs where the environment must be prepared, the society corrupted, in order for the result to then appear, not as the correction, but really the problem; which could have never occurred if rational reasoning men would have made the decision.
Our constitution is a prime example. Was there a problem? Not by any of the complaints of the states—except they didn’t desire the expense of paying for the expenditures that those who would pay the debt, the people, didn’t want to pay the debt through taxation. There are so many things that were wrong about this expense—like what happened to the money—that make this one of the least discussed, or even considered problems of this nation. Yet the problem was what? Most don’t know. It was that those who lent money to this fledgling nation—were not like the US of today—and actually desired to have the debt repaid. Unfortunately there was no economic ignorant nation like ours today, that would just write it off and place the burden on their nation’s citizens as the statist of our current political parasites do. As such the creditors, the foreign banks demanded that this nation have a centralized taxing power, a federal dictate of taxation, to guarantee the outstanding, or any future debt. The result the most impossible task ever undertook by man was attempted. The cause for this event…the demand of the banks…the effect, the unknown never attempted, or successful, to enumerate—restrict—the power of central government, while giving the central government the power to lay taxes. This is as impossible as the fallacy of perpetual motion, demand side economics, compassionate islamist, or reasoning communist aka democrats.
Is it that difficult to make the observation, the decision of understanding that the philosophical idealism of this nation—and the demented ideology of communism, or as the current democrats call it…social democracy; whatever
the hell that means…are the diametric opposite? How can any nation consisting of a society of what are supposed to be identified as ‘homo sapiens…thinking entities’ make some convoluted conclusion that an ideology as demented as a theocracy, can even coexist with philosophical principles and ideals? This has to be the greatest question ever asked or even considered; as it is as impossible as making day night, while night day.
Is this not the problem with those who oppose communism, the Democratic Party? If those elected in the Republican Party do not have the conviction that the Republican form of separation of power, and the checks and balances of holding power in ‘enumeration’ restricted and confined to power; then how in the name of Hades can they even present themselves with the name of Republican?
In a war—as this nation is now in with the advancement of the dementia of our president, the Democratic Party…and their template of using both Lenin’s design along with the cultural communism of Antonio Gramsci hegemony—there are no weapons removed from the battle. As the communist advance uses the confines of our own enumerations, to limit the response of those attempting to save this nation; while when the enumerations of our constitution hinder their advance, they, as Lenin did, simply ignore them.
No we need to take Ted Cruz, and those who understand this nation’s design and push them to the forefront. Those who oppose this nation’s republican design, can leave this party, create their own party, or join the advancement of communism that is already in full bloom.
We, the American people, need those who will fight for this nation—not those whose only purpose is its destruction, and the nihilism of the principles that made this miracle of a nation—the greatest experiment ever of man.  

• Posted by Dan Short on September 26, 2013 at 10:45am

Was The 2012 Election Stolen By Obama And The IRS?

It is increasingly clear that the 2012 elections, both Presidential and Senate, were stolen by Barack Obama, the Democratic Party, the Internal Revenue Service and government employee unions. It’s right out of a mob movie like “The Godfather.”
The Obama crime family could give the mob lessons. Don Obama plays for keeps. The Don gets what he wants. And when he found himself in danger of losing his power and control, Obama went to his enforcers: the IRS.
In a story reminiscent of the mob’s fixing union elections, the IRS enforcers conspired to destroy Don Obama’s main competition: Tea Party and other conservative fundraising groups.
Lois Lerner was only one of many IRS big shots in D.C. who gave orders to IRS offices across the United States to “kill” Tea Party and other conservative groups. Their goal: Steal the election. As of only days ago, the “fall gal” retired from the IRS. We can only guess what kind of massive payoff she received from Obama’s donors.
The 2010 elections were the biggest embarrassment suffered by a U.S. President in modern history. The power, energy and passion of the Tea Party won the GOP an amazing 63 House seats, six Senate seats, six governorships and 680 seats in State legislatures. It was a historic landslide. Obama’s entire agenda was threatened.
Yet the mainstream media expects us to believe that only two years later (2012) that Tea Party energy and passion was gone — overnight. Or perhaps they changed back to fans of Obama and the Democratic Party. What a fairy tale.
The real story is that the Obama Administration ordered the IRS to delay, distract, hound, harass and intimidate Tea Party groups across the United States. Without IRS attacks and interference, Tea Party groups would have had the same influence and momentum as in 2010, when their raging energy and passion led to a shocking landslide defeat for Obama and his allies.
There is no need to question or debate any longer. We now have emails from IRS officials stating exactly that: The Tea Party groups had to be stopped if Democrats wanted to win the election.
And conservative donations had to be stalled if Democrats wanted to retain control of the U.S. Senate.
Instead of massive Tea Party rallies and record-setting fundraising for conservative candidates, Tea Party groups were busy being distracted, hounded, harassed and intimidated by the IRS. They were busy being asked about the names of their members, the names of their speakers, the content of their Facebook posts and even the content of their prayers.
Conservative media personalities (like yours truly) were attacked with IRS audits, as were pro-life, pro-Israel and pro-Constitution groups. The tax-deductible status of Tea Party groups was purposely stalled so they could not raise money for the 2012 election.
What the biased liberal mainstream media refuses to do is connect the dots. None has the courage to state that “the fix” was in and that a fraud perpetrated by government employees handed control of the United States of America to Obama, a politician who supports government employees and their unions.
What did the IRS get out of this? The answer is pure bribery. Republicans, and especially Tea Party groups, believe in limited government, smaller budgets, fewer government employees and cutting bloated salaries, obscene pensions and early retirement for government employees. Another Tea Party landslide would have threatened the power of government employee unions. Many government employees would have been laid off.
Does anyone believe it a coincidence that Obama met with IRS union boss Colleen Kelley at the White House the day before the targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS began? If you do, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
Obama was fraudulently re-elected. Our country was hijacked by government employees protecting their cushy lifetime jobs, bloated salaries, obscene pensions and powerful unions.
Think I’m wrong? Evidently, IRS officials don’t. Several of them have been busy hiring famous and expensive law firms to defend them.
Where are they getting the money? Is Obama arranging for big Democratic donors like George Soros or union political funds to pay their legal bills? Is Obama scared to death of what these IRS bosses will say under oath? Could their testimony end his Presidency and destroy his legacy?
In the end, it’s clear to anyone who hasn’t been brainwashed by government schools or bribed by government checks that the 2012 election was fraudulently stolen by Obama.
What did Obama, Democrats and the IRS gain?

1. The right to continue to loot the Treasury with bailouts, stimulus, corporate welfare and government contracts to his friends, donors, loyal media lackeys and corrupt union bosses.
2. The right to continue to redistribute income from the business owners (who vote Republican) to Obama’s voters (the poor, unions and government employees).
3. The ability to save Obamacare and unionize 15 million healthcare workers, thereby raising $15 billion in union dues to elect Democrats. And, of course, the ability to overwhelm middle-class families with $20,000 annual health insurance bills they can’t pay, thereby addicting them to government handouts.
4. The IRS itself gains tremendously. They are now in charge of policing Obamacare, a huge new bureaucracy. It also adds thousands of new IRS agents, thereby greatly enriching the IRS union.
5. The opportunity to pass immigration amnesty, thereby producing 10 million to 20 million new loyal Democratic voters.
6. The opportunity to bankrupt business owners and permanently weaken the private sector, thereby drying up donations for conservative candidates and causes.
7. The ability to keep American energy dependent by using the Environmental Protection Agency and executive orders to literally ban or severely damage domestic coal, oil, fracking and nuclear energy production.
8. The opportunity to weaken American influence internationally. (See Egypt, Libya, Syria.)

Obama’s re-election also means he may serve long enough to appoint one or two more Supreme Court justices, whose radical leftist views will ensure America is permanently transformed to a big-government socialist nation.
This wasn’t just any theft, folks. It was a trillion-dollar theft. The Obama crime family (so far) has gotten away with the greatest and most daring act of fraud in world history. They stole the election.

Sixth-graders learn all about Jay-Z, Big Pimpin’

Students at a Southaven, Miss. middle school were educated in the “Big Pimpin’” thug life of Jay-Z, and the school district can’t imagine why anyone would object to lessons on reading, writing and rapping.
Sixth graders at Desoto Central Middle School spent three days learning about one of the most successful hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs in the nation. They were also tested on their knowledge about Jay-Z’s “resilience.”
A parent, who had a son in the English class, reached out to me – and she’s fired up. The mad mom asked to remain anonymous over fears of repercussions. I was able to verify her claims and have agreed to provide anonymity.
“One of the songs listed on the paper that was brought home was ‘Big Pimpin’,” she told me. “Another song talked about thug life. My child was getting an education about thug life.”
She could not believe that her child was learning about a man who sings songs that degrade women and glorify the thug life.
“When he pulled out the paper in his backpack in the car, I called my husband right then,” she told me. “I was furious. We talked about it until late that night. My husband was about to blow his top.”

It’s really unfortunate that the school superintendent won’t talk to me about the assignment. I’d love to hear his side of the story.

I called the principal to get his side of the story, but he said he didn’t want to talk to me. Instead, he referred me to the superintendent’s office.
No answer.
Eventually, I was told to contact their official spokesperson.
The spokesperson told me she could not understand why Fox News was interested in a simple classroom assignment. She said she would send an official statement but declined to go on the record. I’m still waiting for the “official statement.”
The child’s parents had a similar experience. They contacted the school – hoping to get some answers. Instead, they got the brush-off.
“They made it sound like it was no big deal,” the mom told me. “They said the point of the assignment was because Jay-Z is successful.”
She said one school official even chimed in that the rapper owns a professional sports team.
“I asked him what that had to do with anything,” the parent told me. “Let’s talk about somebody that is a success that has done good things – not thug life things.”
Using the school’s logic, the mom wondered why the school doesn’t assign lessons on Hugh Hefner or Larry Flynt.
“Either way, it’s all the same,” she said.
She said the same school official told her that no matter who they assigned the kids to learn about – that person would have something negative in their past.
“We are conservative,” she said. “We are Christian. And this was brought into my house. That’s why I was so furious. It was a moral issue.”
The little boy’s father was so livid that the school brushed off his wife he decided to write a letter to the school district:
“The page sent home was an eye-opener and I refuse to have my son subjected to today’s version on what should be accepted as okay and normal without knowing the facts,” the dad wrote.
“The facts are this page represented this thug in a positive way and calls him successful. Success to me doesn’t mean demeaning women, glorifying drugs and violence and flaunting money. Success should be about living decent and having respect for themselves and others.”
And to put an exclamation point on his reasoning, the dad included the lyrics to a Jay-Z song. I’d love to share some of those lyrics with you – but I’ve got standards. Let’s just say, Jay-Z has an affinity for the F-word and the B-word.
Heather Fox is not surprised to learn about the three-day Jay-Z lecture at the middle school. She runs a Facebook page called “Desoto County Reform” – an online gathering place for parents concerned about the school district.
“Hopefully we can address the issues that most people are afraid to address out loud,” she told me. “The school district is not happy about our website.”
“We know there are students at the high school who’ve had to read explicit books,” she said. “And now we know about the Jay-Z class.”
Fox said the sixth grade assignment was not age appropriate.
“A lot of the kids don’t know anything about the things that surround Jay-Z – it’s something that a lot of parents are concerned about,” Fox said. “Why make them exposed to it at such an early age?”
It’s really unfortunate that the school superintendent won’t talk to me about the assignment. I’d love to hear his side of the story. But the school district’s silence makes me a bit suspicious.
If there’s nothing wrong with the assignment, what’s there to hide? Why brush off a concerned parent who has a valid concern about what her child is learning?
The mom told me the school made a “bad, bad choice” – and now she and her husband are about to make a choice.
“It really makes me want to either send him to a private school or homes school,” she said.

Government Shut Down

EPA

Cruz vows to use all ‘means available’ to block ObamaCare, Reid tees up budget vote

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz vowed Monday to use “every procedural means available” to block funding for ObamaCare, as he squared off against Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid at the start of a showdown that could risk a government shutdown in a matter of days.
Cruz is trying to back up House Republicans, who last week passed a bill that would defund the health care law while funding the government past Sept. 30. Cruz, however, has charted an unusual course – because he’s worried that Reid will strip the language defunding ObamaCare, Cruz is calling on his colleagues to block the House bill, even though he supports it.
But Cruz and his allies were running into serious roadblocks Monday night as GOP leaders tried to short-circuit his plan to stall the bill.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell threw a wrench into Cruz's plan earlier Monday, saying he will not vote to block the House bill because it "defunds Obamacare and funds the government without increasing spending by a penny."
Fox News has now learned both McConnell and Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) are actively working on colleagues who may be on the fence, according to sources familiar with the situation.
That move reportedly came as a surprise to Cornyn's Texas colleague Cruz.
A well placed source told Fox News that Cruz was "caught off guard" and "very upset" when he got wind of what was going on, adding he felt like he was stabbed in the back.
The Texas senator’s battle, though, has been rocky all day as he threw up a series of roadblocks only to be rebuffed by Reid.
At the same time, Reid arranged for an initial test vote Wednesday on the House passed-legislation that would avoid a partial government shutdown on Oct. 1 while simultaneously canceling funding for the health care law.
A second key vote is set for later in the week as Democrats seek to keep the health care law intact and Cruz and other Republicans resist.
Cruz told reporters he’ll do whatever it takes to prevent that outcome.
Speaking earlier on the Senate floor, he warned that any member who votes to advance the bill “will be voting to allow the majority leader to fund ObamaCare.”
“I think that vote’s a mistake,” he said. “I think that vote hurts the people of America.”
Cruz and his allies, though, face an uphill battle. To block the bill, they would have to corral 41 senators.
Reid claimed he has the votes to prevail on the health care issue.
"Any bill that de-funds Obama and his health care law is dead on arrival in the Senate," he said.
Democrats, meanwhile, have launched an aggressive campaign that seeks to pin the blame on Republicans in the event of a government shutdown. If Reid succeeds in stripping out the “defund ObamaCare” provision and sends the bill back to the House, it’s unclear whether House Speaker John Boehner would stand by the conservative wing of his caucus, or allow the bill to be called to the floor and potentially pass it with a majority of Democrats.
For its part, Obama administration spent the day warning of dire consequences unless Congress approves funding beyond the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Medicare beneficiaries could lose their fully-paid annual wellness doctor's visit if funding is cut off, prescription drug costs could rise, and millions of seniors who are enrolled in private Medicare coverage might be required to switch to the traditional fee-for-service coverage to continue receiving health care.
Sebelius also said federal funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program would end on Oct. 1, some Medicaid recipients would lose coverage and Indian health programs would also be affected. Bailey Comment: Only a bunch of morons and people who get a lot of freebies would believe that Reid really cares about their health. Him and Nancy and all the rest of the fat cats in Washington are rich and can always have the best things in life including the best insurance.

US government seizes NY skyscraper allegedly secretly owned by Iran

The U.S. Attorney’s office has seized ownership of a skyscraper in New York City, alleging that it was secretly owned and operated by the Iranian Government.
The structure at 650 Fifth Avenue, a 36-story building near Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan formerly known as the Piaget Building, was seized after a judgment by the New York Southern District court on Tuesday. The government plans to use money from the seizure to compensate victims of Iranian–sponsored terrorism.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara claimed that the property owner, the Assa Corporation, was nothing more than a front for the state-run bank that financed the building.
“The Judge’s opinion upholds what was the contention of this Office from outset: ‘Assa was (and is) a front for Bank Melli, and thus a front for the Government of Iran,’” Bharara said in a statement.
The building was originally erected in the 1970s by the Phalavi Foundation, a non-profit that was operated at the time by the Shah of Iran and financed by Bank Melli, which is controlled by the Iranian Government.
After the Iranian revolution, the loan for the building was cancelled in the 1980s and ownership was transferred to Assa and the Alavi Corporation. The U.S. alleges that Assa and Alavi were shell companies set up by the Iranian regime, with the former based in the UK’s Channel Islands to launder money back to the government.
The U.S. has spent the past five years on seizing the building in what it calls “the largest-ever terrorism forfeiture.”
A statement from the Alavi Foundation posted on its website claims it intends to appeal the court’s decision.
“We are obviously disappointed with the district court’s decision granting partial summary judgment against the Alavi Foundation,” reads the posting. “We have reviewed the decision and disagree with the court’s analysis of the facts and the law. The Foundation was ready for trial and is disappointed that it did not have the opportunity to rebut the Government evidence before a jury.”
It is alleged that both companies had transferred income made from rental space to Bank Melli and in turn the Iranian Government.
Some of the corporations that have offices in the building include CitiBank, Starwood Hotels and Armani.
Reports say that the building will have a sale tag of between $500-700 million and recently had $11 million in improvements. How unbelievably stupid us Americans must seem to the rest of the world.

Three Attackers in Kenya Mall Siege Lived in US

Three of the attackers at the Westgate Mall siege in Nairobi, Kenya, are from the United States, sources within the terror group that orchestrated the attack told CNN on Sunday.

CNN reported that the American-linked militants from the terrorist group al-Shabab are among nine people listed on a since-shuttered Twitter account linked to the group.

Sources told CNN that other names linked to the account include two individuals from Somalia and one each from Canada, Finland, Kenya and the United Kingdom. They range in age from 20 to 27 years old.

Two of the Americans are from Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, and the other is from Kansas City, Missouri. Minneapolis has a large Somali community that in the past has been linked to recruitment efforts by al-Shabab as well as al-Qaida. The U.S. State Department is trying to match the names released by al-Shabab, but is growing more confident that American citizens were involved in the attack, according to CNN.

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/kenya-siege-attackers-american/2013/09/22/id/527062?ns_mail_uid=35959384&ns_mail_job=1538617_09222013&promo_code=14F53-1#ixzz2fhstVEwl
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!

Iran

Obama to Boehner: No Deal on Debt Limit, Defunding Obamacare

Bailey Comment: Like we didn't see this coming! President Barack Obama called House Speaker John Boehner late Friday and reiterated that he would not negotiate with Congress on raising the debt limit, a Boehner representative told Newsmax.

"The president called the speaker this evening to tell him he wouldn't negotiate with him on the debt limit," the spokesman said in a statement. "Given the long history of using debt limit increases to achieve bipartisan deficit reduction and economic reforms, the speaker was disappointed, but told the president that the two chambers of Congress will chart the path ahead.

"It was a brief call," the Boehner spokesman said.

The president also called House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the White House said.

"The president telephoned Speaker Boehner and told him again that the full faith and credit of the United States should not and will not be subject to negotiation," an administration official told Politico in a statement. "The president reiterated that it is the constitutional responsibility of the U.S. Congress to pass the nation's budget and pay the nation’s bills."

Editor's Note: Should ObamaCare Be Defunded? Vote in Urgent National Poll

Obama's calls came as the House of Representatives voted to temporarily finance the federal government while defunding Obamacare. The 230-189 vote set up a showdown with the Senate and the White House.

House Republicans said on Wednesday they were preparing legislation to raise the government's $16.7 trillion debt limit.

Leaders have said that they were considering including such options as blocking Obama administration plans to curb coal ash pollution; forcing civil servants to contribute more to their retirement plans; requiring Congress to approve many major regulations; and defunding Obamacare for a year.

Obama has said he wants Congress to send him legislation that simply extends the debt limit and has said that he will not negotiate the matter.

The government is expected to exhaust its borrowing authority by late October. That would threaten a first-ever federal default, which many analysts believe would deal a severe blow to the economy.

Meanwhile, Republican leaders have said they do not want a federal default and have noted that past presidents, including Obama in 2011, have negotiated over earlier bills to extend the debt limit.

In a video released on Thursday, Boehner questioned Obama's willingness to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the chemical weapons issue in Syria but not with Republicans.

"Why is the Obama administration willing to negotiate with Putin on Syria ... But not with Congress to address Washington's spending problem?" the text from the ad asks.

The United States and Russia reached a deal last week in which Syrian President Bashar Assad would give up his nuclear arsenal to be destroyed via international standards. The threat of a U.S. military strike against Syria was staved off by the agreement.

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-boehner-debt-obamacare/2013/09/20/id/526969?ns_mail_uid=5689450&ns_mail_job=1538488_09212013&promo_code=14F46-1#ixzz2fYEWxGL8
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!

Another far left nut coming out.

These are the people educating our young?

Kansas professor placed on leave after tweet about Navy Yard killings

A journalism professor at the University of Kansas was placed on administrative leave Friday after posting a comment on Twitter regarding Monday's shooting at the Washington Navy Yard that killed 12 people.
David Guth, an associate professor at the school, went after the National Rifle Association in a Twitter message that read: "#NavyYardShooting The blood is on the hands of the #NRA. Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters. Shame on you. May God damn you."
Guth, who said he was writing as a private citizen simply looking to start a debate, has stood by his message.
"I dont apologize for it because I'm not saying in the tweet that I want anybody harmed, and I expanded on it in my blog," Guth told Fox4KC.com. "I defend the NRA's rights first and second amendments and I hope they respect mine."
The Kansas State Rifle Association, however, has called for Guth's immediate dismissal.
"The KSRA will do everything possible to see to the removal of this man," said Kansas State Rifle Association President Patricia Stoneking.
The school's chancellor, Bernadette Gray-Little, made the announcement in a statement Friday about about his "indefinite administrative leave pending a review of the entire situation."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/20/kansas-professor-placed-on-leave-after-tweet-about-navy-yard-killings/?intcmp=latestnews#ixzz2fW9fVEVs

The real solution for liberal academia

It happens almost like clockwork. 

Every couple of weeks, some far left wing professor pops off on Twitter.  These left wing professors do not simply express an opinion.  They say something so outrageous and beyond the pale that it makes news. 

Then they get placed on administrative leave for the semester, they are forgotten about and they return to their jobs.  It’s a great racket for left wing professors.  It is a simple way to earn a paid vacation.

Kansas University professor David Guth has been placed on administrative leave after tweeting that he wished death and damnation on NRA members and their children. 

Guth is now a hero to his left wing colleagues.  He will no doubt be fêted with lunches in his honor and he will be invited to speak at liberal gatherings.  Meanwhile odds are an overwhelming majority of the taxpayers of Kansas who help pay his salary are not too happy with him as a state employee.

It’s not just Twitter where these far left wing professors spout their garbage.  William Penn teaches creative writing at Michigan State University.  He went on a political rant the first day of class, saying, “If you go to the Republican convention in Florida, you see all of the old Republicans with the dead skin cells washing off them. They are cheap. They don’t want to pay taxes because they have already raped this country and gotten everything out of it they possibly could.”

Most of those students thought they had signed up for a creative writing course.

Michigan State put William Penn on paid leave for the semester.  He gets a full vacation.  Most people who did something that stupid would get fired.

In Florida, a professor Dr. Deandre Poole, told students to make a sign with the name “Jesus” on it then stomp it.  One student refused and was suspended.  Eventually the University apologized to the student and instead suspended Poole.  Another paid leave.



Here is an idea for the people of Florida, Kansas and Michigan who are tired of left wing professors who are using their classrooms to indoctrinate students and otherwise insult the people who pay their salaries.

Most of these professors cannot be fired because of tenure.  But there is nothing that says the state legislature cannot defund their position and the positions of the Deans above them. 

There is a lesson liberals don’t get.  When you work for someone, that means you represent them.  That means you don’t get to say anything and everything you want to and you don’t get to insult the people who pay your salary.

The left has hijacked academia and no one remembers why we have colleges anymore.  It isn’t a four-year party and contrary to what the left thinks, it is not the full employment office for unemployed radicals. 

Parents send their children to college to get an education so they can get a job after they graduate.  It is time for state legislatures to do their duty and start reminding taxpayer funded colleges and universities of that truth.

They can start by getting rid of some of these radical leftists.

• Posted by Judson Phillips on September 20, 2013 at 3:46pm in Tea Party Nation Forum

Dumb Quixote

President Obama’s FERC Nominee Ron Binz Derailed by Truthiness

President Obama’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) nominee Ron Binz was caught in a tangle of contradictions during his confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
For starters, Ranking Member Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) suggested that Binz misled her during a previous face to face meeting. As reported by Politico’s Darius Dixon,

Murkowski suggested early in the hearing that Binz may have misled her last week when they discussed whom he has worked with to guide his confirmation.
“You’ve effectively got a team — a shadow team* — of lobbyists and PR experts that have been helping throughout,” she told Binz. She added, “But what I can’t reconcile is your statement to me that said the only ones that you were working were the FERC external team.” (full article here)

So that’s one instance of Binz seeming to bend the truth before the U.S. Senate.
Later, during the same hearing, Binz told another apparent whopper. According to our friend Todd Shepherd at Complete Colorado,

Mr. Binz attempted to defend his record on coal by telling Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Va.), “I approved the largest coal plant that was ever built in Colorado.”* Mr. Binz is referring to the Comanche-3 power plant. Only the Colorado Public Utilities Commission would have the authority to approve new coal plants.
The problem is the fact the decision by Colorado’s PUC to build the largest coal plant in the state’s history came in 2004, according to Xcel Energy’s website. Mr. Binz did not become a member of the PUC board until 2007.

Alas, there’s more.
Regarding a 2010 fuel switching plan that Binz implemented as Chair of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the FERC nominee told the junior Senator from West Virginia, “The legislation told us to approve a plan to comply with future EPA regulations.”
Binz clearly was intimating to Sen. Manchin, who represents a pro-coal state, that it was Colorado lawmakers (rather than Ron Binz) who were responsible for the plan that required fuel switching from coal to gas for almost 1,000 megawatts of power generation. But that’s not the whole story. As I explain in this report on Binz’s Colorado history, Binz helped write the fuel switching law! Here’s the relevant excerpt from the report (citations omitted):

Binz’s operating thesis is that “today’s regulation may not be up to the task” of “making over” the utility industry. Thus, Binz sought to expand his regulatory role at the Colorado PUC, in order to facilitate clean energy investment and energy efficiency. To this end, he actually participated in the drafting of legislation that mandated fuel switching from coal to gas for almost 1,000 megawatts of power generation. From a separation of powers perspective, it is unsettling that Binz helped write legislation whose implementation he oversaw. Due to this appearance of impropriety, seven Colorado state senators sent former Colorado governor Bill Ritter a letter demanding that Binz recuse himself from implementing the fuel switching law.

Binz’s seeming difficulty telling the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, was not without consequence. At the hearing, Sen. Murkowski announced her intention to oppose his nomination. And yesterday, Sen. Manchin announced his opposition, citing Binz’s Colorado history.
Assuming that no Republican breaks ranks with Ranking Member Sen. Murkowski and all the Committee Democrats (other than Sen. Manchin) vote for Binz, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee vote is 11 -11. This puts confirmation in doubt. According to National Journal, “since 1987 only five nominations that got a neutral reporting from a committee were brought to the floor, and only one was approved.”
A neutral committee report would be an extraordinary development coming from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which is known for harmony. However, Binz is an extraordinary case. As I explain in the aforementioned study on his history in Colorado, Binz has a troubling record of pushing the boundaries of regulatory power in order to discriminate against fossil fuels and promote green energy.
*N.B. The existence of Binz’s “shadow team” was revealed earlier this week by the Washington Times’s Stephen Dinan. His report, in turn, was based on emails obtained by my colleague Chris Horner on behalf the Independence Institute and the Free Market Environmental Law Clinic.

Ohio clinic touted by Obama slashes budget due to ObamaCare

The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.
An Ohio clinic that was touted by Obama while he was speaking on health care reform is now blaming ObamaCare after it was forced to cut $330 million from its budget.
Fox 8 reports the Cleveland Clinic, which is the largest employer in Northeast Ohio with about 39,000 workers in the region, announced the cuts to its 2014 budget at a meeting Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for the clinic tells Fox News the clinic is being forced to cut back to prepare for increased costs and decreased revenue under the health care reform law.
These changes will include offering early retirement to approximately 3,000 employees, reducing operational costs, and then layoffs as needed.
The clinic says its main priority is to continue to provide a high quality of care during the transition, an attribute that led Obama to tout it in 2009 as an example of what hospitals could be under ObamaCare.
In a press conference in July of that year, Obama said the Cleveland Clinic is an example of health care that works “well.”
“And part of the reason it works well is because they've set up a system where patient care is the number-one concern, not bureaucracy, what forms have to be filled out, what do we get reimbursed for,” Obama said. “Those are changes that I think the American people want to see.”
Now four years later, employees at the clinic say they are worried they won’t be able to provide patients care at all anymore if they are laid off.
“It absolutely concerns me,” employee Joanne Lyons told Fox 8. “Everybody wants to keep their job and we want to do the best that we can do, but it’s a new era and we don’t know what to expect. But I believe the administration is just trying to prepare for whatever could happen and make sure that we’re strong.”
Clinic officials tell Fox 8 their situation is not unique, as hospitals nationwide are being forced to cut back due to ObamaCare.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney did not comment when asked about the budget cuts to the Cleveland Clinic at a press briefing

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/19/ohio-clinic-touted-by-obama-in-health-care-reform-speech-slashes-budget-due-to/#ixzz2fQJbFXxR