The Senate will return to work Sunday and attempt to find another way to end the partial shutdown of government services and reach an agreement on the nation's borrowing limit before an October 17 deadline after Democrats rejected a proposal by Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins that had bipartisan support.
Leaders of the Democratic-led Senate rejected the proposal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling Saturday before heading down Pennsylvania Avenue to meet with President Obama at the White House.
Whether Senate Democrats will try to revive the proposal was unclear. They left the 75-minute meeting without talking to reporters. Sen. Collins appeared hopeful that Democrats may be open to reviving the plan.
"Despite [Senate Majority Leader] Senator Harry Reid's unfortunate dismissal of the 6-point plan, …. it continues to attract bipartisan support,” Collins said. “Six Senate Republicans and six Senate Democrats met twice today to discuss how we could move forward with the plan or some version of it. These meetings were constructive and give me hope that a bipartisan solution … is within our reach."
Reid rejected the plan  -- which calls for funding the government for six months and increasing the federal debt limit through January -- purportedly, in part, because the spending level of $967 billion next year was too low, despite it providing more flexibility in administering the federal budget cuts under sequester.
Collins’ plan also calls for a two-year delay on ObamaCare's medical device tax and requires income verification for Americans seeking subsidies for ObamaCare.
“Susan Collins  is one of my favorite senators, Democrat or Republican,” Reid said. “I appreciate her effort, as always, to find a consensus. But the plan that she suggested … is not going to any place at this stage.”
The upper chamber also failed the get the necessary 60 votes on a bill to increase the debt limit through 2014 that was “clean” of Republican demands for spending cuts or changes to ObamaCare.
In the Republican-controlled House, negotiations ended abruptly when Republicans refused to let Democrats vote on a bill to reopen the government, which resulted in an exchange between a staffer from each party.
“They amended the rules so only Majority Leader Eric Cantor can put something on the floor to open the government,” said Maryland Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House minority whip.
Earlier in the day, House Speaker John Boehner told his caucus in a closed-door meeting that he and the president still have no deal.
"The Senate needs to hold tough," Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Boehner told House GOP lawmakers. "The president now isn't negotiating with us."
The White House rejected a House plan to open the government for just six weeks.
The partial government shutdown kicked in Oct. 1, after lawmakers failed to reach a temporary spending bill. And the federal government is projected to miss the debt ceiling deadline on Thursday unless Congress increases the federal government’s borrowing limit.
Still, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are keeping an open dialogue, which appears to show the best opportunity to resolve the fiscal crisis is now in the upper chamber.
"The only thing that's happening right now is Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell are talking,” said Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn. “And I view that as progress.”
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said early Saturday: “Congress must do its job and raise the debt limit to pay the bills we have incurred and avoid default. It is unfortunate that the common sense, clean debt limit increase proposed by Senate Democrats was refused. … This bill would have taken the threat of default off the table.”

Conservative website vows to 'unmask leftists in the media'

leftists in the media'

Published October 12, 2013

FoxNews.com

FILE: Oct. 10, 2013: The Rev. Al Sharpton receiving a citation from the Philadelphia City Council, at City Hall in Philadelphia, Pa.AP

A California conservative group is launching a bare-knuckle campaign to expose the so-called liberal media and its advertisers -- vowing to knock down the highest-profile players and “unmask leftists in the media.”
“The media must be destroyed where they stand,” Truth Revolt, a new project by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, said Sunday before launching a website. “That is our mission.”
To be sure, its first target was MSNBC talk-show host Al Sharpton and major advertiser Ritz Crackers -- an opening flurry followed by at least 15 Sharpton-related stories over roughly the past week.
However, the attack on Ritz, sold in the United States under the Nabisco label and owned by parent company Mondelēz International, has resulted in some criticism among conservatives about a potential job-killing strategy in a slow-growing economy.
Horowitz has hired Breitbart News editor at large Ben Shapiro -- author, Harvard Law School graduate and a well-known voice of the young conservative movement.
The project has been branded as the conservative response to the George Soros-back Media Matters of America, which has used similar tactics to attack members of the so-called “right wing media.”
Horowitz, Shapiro and others also appear eager to take the fight beyond network TV.
“TruthRevolt understands that all politics is local, and therefore looks to fight leftist propaganda at the local level, monitoring local newspapers, television and radio,” according to the website. “TruthRevolt also seeks to stop the left dead in its tracks when it comes to training the next generation, our college campuses.
Exactly who is backing the entire Los Angeles-based Horowitz operation is unclear since the foundation is a 501 (c) 3 charity, which does not require it to disclose contributors on IRS filings.
However, the foundation reported a total of $5.5 million in contributions in 2011, the most recent available year.
The foundation -- whose operations include the project Jihad Watch and which puts out publications and hosts a variety of salons with high-profile conservatives -- also reported $6.4 million in total revenue in 2011, including $914,293 from programming.
Horowitz started the group in 1988 under the name the Center for the Study of Popular Culture to “establish a conservative presence in Hollywood and show how popular culture had become a political battleground.” The name was change in 2006 to the foundation.
Horowitz could not be reached for comment despite several attempts.
However, Shapiro recently told The Daily Beast that boycotts like the ones aimed at Sharpton and Ritz are just the beginning.
“Politics is a hard-nosed game, and the right has been playing Marquess of Queensbury rules for a long time on this,” he told the news website.

Detroit, Obama Town

Detroit, the town where Obama got his start in politics?

Judge Judy: 'Government is there to serve us, not the other way around'

Popular television judge Judy Sheindlin – better known as “Judge Judy” – told Megyn Kelly Friday on "The Kelly File" that “government is there to serve us. Not the other way around."
Judge Judy didn’t stop there, also questioning whether the welfare state has allowed people to become too dependent on government.
“What we’ve done to a whole group of people is say, ‘not to worry, if you can’t take care of yourself, we’ll take care of you,’” she said.
At the end of her chat with Kelly, her self-proclaimed "number one fan," Judge Judy wondered if today’s children are too often told that they’re special.
“It gives young people a false sense of reality,” she said. “It creates mediocrity. It stops people from wanting to be better.”

Cruz Calls Out Hecklers at Values Voter Summit

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz effectively dealt with a small group of hecklers who tried to shout him down during his speech Friday at the Values Voter Summit

The shouting started after Cruz had launched into an attack against "that trainwreck, that disaster, that nightmare that is Obamacare."

"It seems that President Obama's paid political operatives are out in force today," Cruz said.

Urgent: Do You Support Sen. Ted Cruz's Efforts to Defund Obamacare? Vote Here.

The smattering of catcalls continued throughout his speech. "I'm curious, is anybody left at the Organizing for America headquarters? Cruz asked at another point, referring to Obama's political action committee.

"I'm actually glad that the president's whole political staff is here instead of actually doing mischief in the country."

The hecklers were eventually hustled out of the room at Washington's Omni Shoreham Hotel.

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