Conservatrolling Topic

[Tails82]

Why not give benefits to EVERYONE on the planet, and every aminal, and every aminal's "spouse" and every pedophile "couple"?

[kode54]

Now you're just being silly.

[Deleted]

Didn't you notice by now? Tails just tosses darts at the logical fallacy list when he needs to make an "argument"; this one landed on slippery slope.

[Tails82]

ad absurdum

The whole idea of giving benefits to gays because they like each other is absurd. The government does not have an interest in doing it, while there is an interest in making things easier for real families. Once everyone gets a benefit, it's not a benefit. It's just a big state handout regardless of behavior.

As far as slippery slope goes, every prediction so far has been right. Scalia's in 2003. Trying to remove bestiality from military code alongside sodomy. Some polygamists already making noise. Marriage does not equal sex, that's the problem we've put ourselves in - anyone who has sex with anything now wants to go out and complain about persecution because the government doesn't recognize their "marriage" when that's not what it is.

[kode54]

Wait, you mean (some) gays don't get married so they can raise a family of adopted and/or surrogate born children? News to me.

And you mean that (all) straight people get married for the explicit purpose of raising a family? Also news to me.

[Tails82]

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303918804579107221209730080.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

Amid the current legislative brinksmanship over ObamaCare, a rallying cry of supporters has been "It's the law of the land."...National Review's Jonah Goldberg rebuts the "law of the land" cliché by acknowledging that ObamaCare is a law, arguing that it is a bad law, and noting that it's entirely legitimate "for citizens to organize peacefully to overturn a law they consider bad and unjust."

That's true, but it misses the point somewhat...ObamaCare is the law of the land, but so is the debt limit, and so too is the constitutional requirement that spending be authorized by Congress. The brinksmanship going on now--which Democrats could bring to an end by yielding to the other side as easily as Republicans could--may be dangerous, but there's nothing lawless about it.

Consider the debt limit. Like ObamaCare, it is a statute enacted by Congress--or rather a series of statutes, each authorizing the issuance of additional debt as it becomes necessary. The Congressional Research Service reports that the 111th Congress--the same one that enacted ObamaCare--raised the debt limit three times: by $789 billion to $12.104 trillion in February 2009, by $290 billion to $12.394 trillion in December 2009, and by $1.9 trillion to $14.294 trillion in February 2010.

Obama and the Democrats, who then controlled Congress, could have avoided the current difficulty by enacting legislation in 2009 or 2010 raising the limit to, say, $20 trillion--or abolishing it altogether, or suspending it until 2017. (A suspension of fixed duration, 3½ months, was in fact enacted this past February.)

It's not hard to think of reasons why instead they followed the custom of enacting only stopgap increases instead of what would have amounted to a blank check. For one, it would have been politically disadvantageous, if not disastrous, for Democrats to announce their intention to put the country that deeply into debt. For another, Obama had not yet been re-elected, so that a blank check from congressional Democrats might have been cashed by a Republican president.

Democrats in Congress are no more eager than Republicans to give up the leverage that comes with the need for periodic legislation raising the debt limit. As we noted Friday, Democrats attempted unsuccessfully to use that leverage 40 years ago to enact laws restricting political speech. And in 2006 a young Democratic senator voted against raising the limit to a comparatively paltry $8.965 trillion. He said:

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that "the buck stops here." Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."

That senator was Barack Obama. Today, of course, Obama is playing the same game, but he is on defense rather than offense.

Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman writes that if Republicans don't give in, "Mr. Obama will either let default happen or find some way of defying the blackmailers, trading a financial crisis for a constitutional crisis." In other words, Obama gets his way or else.

Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution--the venue for that Gore speech--urges the president to take the constitutional-crisis route:

"The only defensible option for the president if the debt ceiling is not raised is to disregard the debt ceiling...The debt ceiling is the fiscal equivalent of the human appendix--a law with no discoverable purpose. It is one law too many. Once Congress has set tax rates and spending levels, it has effectively said what it wants the debt to be. If Congress leaves the debt ceiling at a level inconsistent with duly enacted spending and tax laws, the president has no choice but to ignore it."

It seems to us there are arguments on both sides of this question....But if we are to believe Obama can simply wave that law away, why should anyone be convinced by the observation that ObamaCare is "the law of the land"?

www.politico.com/story/2013/09/justice-department-north-carolina-voter-id-law-97542.html?hp=l20

The Justice Department filed suit against North Carolina on Monday, charging that the Tar Heel State’s new law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls violates the Voting Rights Act by discriminating against African-Americans.

Holder charged that North Carolina’s legislation wouldn’t just incidentally hurt African American turnout, but was intentionally designed that way.

The suit, filed in Greensboro, N.C., asks that the state be barred from enforcing the new voter-ID law. However, the case goes further, demanding that the entire state of North Carolina be placed under a requirement to have all changes to voting laws, procedures and polling places “precleared” by either the Justice Department or a federal court, the source added.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed the voter ID measure into law last last month.

“Common practices like boarding an airplane and purchasing Sudafed require photo ID, and we should expect nothing less for the protection of our right to vote,” McCrory said at the time. “This new law brings our state in line with a healthy majority of other states throughout the country. This common-sense safeguard is commonplace.”

Those no-good whites must be up to their dirty tricks somewhere!

www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/09/30/msnbc-halperin-media-bias-shutdown

Intentionally or not, Monday on Morning Joe, Time's Mark Halperin revealed to the world how the American media's pro-Obama bias will in part be to blame for any coming government shutdown. When asked if President Obama had an incentive to negotiate with the GOP, Halperin explained that, "The White House does not have much incentive. They think the trends are going to go in their direction at the end of the week, or early next week at the latest; because again, the press is largely sympathetic to their arguments on this."

In short: The government is going to shut down because Obama knows the media has his back and therefore feels no pressure to enter into negotiations that might avert a shutdown. In fact, Obama is apparently okay letting the government shut down because he knows the media won't make him pay a political price for it...the media have completely abandoned their championing of "civil bipartisan compromise" with respect to this budget crisis, and as a result, Obama knows he has the media on his side and is therefore comfortable in his position not to negotiate. And Obama's refusal to compromise is hurtling America towards a government shutdown.

What we have here is a situation wherein media bias is helping to inflame a crisis. In other words, were the media acting responsibly, objectively, and professionallly, this would actually decrease the chances of a shutdown. Obviously, though, the media wants its cake and to eat it too. The media are behaving in a way that increases the chances of a shutdown and then the media will blame the GOP for what the media helped cause.

www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/09/30/media_malpractice_on_shutdown_politics

Media Malpractice on Shutdown Politics

Just got urgent news from the Washington Post. I have this urgent news right here my formerly nicotine-stained fingers 'cause I just printed it out. Urgent breaking news from the Washington Post: "You Will No Longer Be Able to Watch This Baby Panda Online if the Government Shuts Down." Right there it is. That's the headline right there with a picture of the panda. I'm showing it there. Urgent news, Washington Post!

Next thing you know, we're gonna hear that they're gonna close the sleigh ride concession, Jellystone National Park. I know there's no snow yet, but there will be soon, and there won't be any sleigh rides. It's gonna be a repeat. Now you can't watch the panda video. So what do we conclude? Republicans hate animals, and Republicans hate the zoo, and they don't want young kids to be able to watch nature.

It's just flat-out journalistic malpractice. There is no pretense of objectivity, here, to portray the Republican position on this anywhere near accurately. It is a multiple hundred word hit piece. You won't read the kind of stuff from the AP about the Iranians or the Syrians that you read about the Republicans in the Associated Press or anywhere in the Drive-By Media. It really is an outrage. It's gonna be seen through countless impressions all over the place.

So you've got this idiot, Van Hollen, saying the GOP want people to be prevented from getting affordable health care so much that they're trying to delay the individual mandate for a year. That's the theory espoused...they characterize the individual mandate as the most beautiful, wonderful gift the government could give its citizens, because it's going to require them to have affordable health care. Oh, by the way, the Obamacare website has just today and very quietly deleted references to free health care. The Obamacare website has now deleted its reference to free health care. The Weekly Standard has it.

"Even as President Obama and his administration are making a last minute push to encourage enrollment in Obamacare," at the exchanges starting tomorrow, "a quiet change was made on the Healthcare.gov website regarding those who will still not be able to afford coverage after the program kicks in. From at least June 26, 2013 to as recently as September 15, under the topic, 'Where can I get free or low-cost care in my community?' the following statement appeared: 'If you can't afford any health plan, you can get free or low-cost health and dental care at a nearby community health center.'"

They have screen grabs showing what it looked like at the health.gov website. "However, sometime between September 16 and September 23, the reference to 'free' care was dropped. The title of the topic was changed as well, and now reads: 'Where can I get low-cost care in my community?'" And then there's a screen grab of that. They have eliminated the word "free." So, up until the moment of truth, they were content to lie to whoever it is that would venture to this website to get answers on health care, and there was an option for "free" all summer up until September 16th. Now it's gone. It's not a new page. They just eliminated the word "free." As I say, the Weekly Standard caught this.

So, anyway, the mainstream media, they're just all too happy to focus on the shutdown aspects of this, because it gives them the opportunity yet again to avoid talking about Obamacare, and they don't want to talk about Obamacare because there isn't anything about it that is a plus.

[Tails82]

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303643304579108983029757304.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

U.S. Stocks Finish Higher

Government Shutdown Fails to Scare Market

blog.heritage.org/2013/10/01/the-story-behind-the-government-shutdown/

Much like the day after sequestration budget cuts kicked in, most people will wake up today to find that the country and their lives aren’t much different. All the fearful fretting over shutting down the government—which is reaching Y2K proportions in the media—is really a distraction.

Government funding isn’t the issue. It’s Obamacare.

The House has passed multiple bills that would fully fund government but would defund or delay Obamacare. The Senate has rejected these plans, and Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges are supposed to open today.

Never mind the fact that Congress and the Administration have already delayed major provisions of Obamacare and given special considerations to labor unions and Congress.

We believe the American people deserve an exemption from Obamacare.

The President and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) continue to go against the will of the public to protect an unworkable law that has raised individuals’ health care premiums, cut workers’ hours, made it more difficult to find a job, and has forced many Americans off their existing health coverage.

The real story isn’t the government shutdown, but rather the insistence by President Obama and Reid to foist Obamacare on the American people.

blog.heritage.org/2013/10/01/wwii-veterans-dont-let-shutdown-interrupt-visit-to-memorial/

World War II Veterans Don’t Let Shutdown Interrupt Visit to Memorial

While spiteful Democrats were setting up barriers against our vets, Republican lawmakers were letting them in.

www.politico.com/story/2013/10/world-war-ii-memorial-veterans-97658.html?hp=r7

“We’ll be here every day we’re shut down, until it’s done,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) who was out doing her “usual morning walk” when she received an email from another member of Congress about the veterans.

“I ran over here to do what I could. We figured with our authority we could get these guys in,” she told POLITICO.

A number of politicians were also at the scene, and Shane noted, “Credit where due — I watched Rep Steve King distract a park police officer while vets and staffers knocked down the fences here.”

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R) also tweeted a photo of him with a veteran at the memorial, writing, “Proud to stand with #WW2 veterans today in Washington, DC,” and Michigan Rep. Bill Huizenga (R) told his followers, “Amazing grace sounds even more beautiful on bagpipes when I am helping WWII vets tour the monument they risked their lives for. #freedom.” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) was also spotted in the crowd.

Huizenga also called the veterans’ takeover of the WWII Memorial “the best civil disobedience we’ve seen in Washington in a while,”

This is why nobody listens to Jake News anymore:

www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/09/30/live-blog-media-coverage-government-shutdown

SPOILER: Click to show

Last week, as the prospect of a federal government shutdown loomed as reality, the President of the United States told the media that he would "not negotiate" with "house burners." And with that, the American mainstream media threw away their longstanding belief in "civil bipartisan compromise" in order to stand with Obama.

-CNN's Ashleigh Banfield brought on two Congressional Republicans in order to attack them for shutting down the government and refusing to negotiate. Republican Dana Rohrbacher attempted to explain that the GOP have passed two compromise bills and that it was the Democrats and Obama who refuse to negotiate. Banfield didn't want her viewers to hear this truth, though, and continued to interrupt him with White House talking points.

Rohrbacher was having none of it and hit right back. He demanded to be heard and asked "Who is pulling your strings?"

Rohrbacher was able to get his points in. Banfield then went on to demagogue congressional pay.

In the Zucker era, CNN has tossed aside every pretense of objectivity, except for the pretense of objectivity...This week a top Democrat can claim on a major news network that the GOP are worse than two murderous regimes without anyone in media tut-tutting the extremist rhetoric -- not even on Morning Joe!

-Imagine the media uproar had Republican House Speaker John Bohner golfed over the weekend -- like Obama did. Imagine the media uproar had Boehner not showed up to work today until 2pm, which is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's plan.

The fact that the media are not making Obama or Reid pay a price for loafing as a government shutdown looms, is one thing.

What is most telling is that the Democrats are so sure the media is in the tank for them that they are comfortable loafing.

-Monday on Morning Joe, Time's Mark Halperin admitted that one of the reasons we are headed for a shutdown is because Obama knows the media does now and will have his back.

In other words, media bias is playing a roll in pushing our government towards a shutdown. If Obama was dealing with an objective media instead of a bunch of cheerleaders he knows he can count on, he might be willing to engage in bipartisan compromise, which would save the day. But with the media on his side, Obama knows he doesn't have to act in a bipartisan manner.

-CNN's Wolf Blitzer continued to spew White House talking points and to rewrite the history of the '95 shutdown. Blitzer insisted the 17 year-old shutdown hurt the GOP. Gingrich had to remind Blitzer that, even according to Nate Silver, there was no real electoral fallout for the GOP over the shutdown. Gingrich also reminded Blitzer that under Democrat House Speaker Tip O'Neill, the government shut down over a dozen times.

-Same CNN that Ignores ObamaCare Victims, Very Concerned with Victims of Shutdown

-Media Silent as Reid Attacks Half the Country as Anarchists

-We don't hear the media talk much about the lauded Independent voter anymore. Problem is, they are not big fans of Obama and therefore no longer worth lauding. When it comes to handling the budget, Obama is in big trouble with a group the media once loved to hold up as all things wise and wonderful. Only 34% of Independents approve of the president's handling of the budget.

-Watch Repub Rep Rip CNN's Ashleigh Banfield: "Whose Bidding Are You Doing?"

Daaaaang you got owned, Chromesian reporter

This is how you handle a CNN anchor. Unfortunately the video cuts off before Banfield demagogues, and practically starts crying, over the fact that Congress still gets paid in the event of a shutdown, and the military doesn't.

Rohrbacher hits her back by explaining that Congress also gets an ObamaCare exemption the rest of the country doesn't, and Banfield doesn't seem too upset about that.

-New CNN Spin: Pointless for Obama to Negotiate

-Chuck Todd Tells America that Obama Simply 'Can't' Negotiate...Personally, I am mourning the loss of the Chuck Todd I have come to know and love -- the Chuck Todd who just last week made a career of calling for "bipartisan compromise."

-CNN's "New Day" Hosts Panel of "Real People" Affected by Shutdown...A bureaucrat gets furloughed for a day and the media freaks out. Hundreds of thousands of working class people are victimized by ObamaCare and the media says nothing.

-Last week, when the media wanted immigration reform and gun control, they were all about "civil bipartisan compromise." This week, the Washington Post is publishing "9 ways to punish congress for a shutdown" and under a picture of John Boehner is the suggestion, "Line 'em up and shoot 'em"

-CNN Does Man On the Street Interviews Over Govt. Shutdown, Not OCare

-CNN Describes GOP as 'Kamikaze'...Just last week, this kind of language was unnaceptable from Fox News, the Tea Party, and the GOP.

-Last week, Chuck Todd believed quite strongly in "civil bipartisan compromise." This week, Todd is spouting incoherent nonsense to defend a president who won't negotiate with those he describes as "house burners."

-Huffington Post Admits Media Biased Against GOP, Singles Out ABC News

-NBC News Reporter: Who will 'hold doors,' 'push elevator buttons' for Congress!

If you were going to create a phony Twitter account to mock Kasie Hunt, it could never top this:

"Shutdown affects ppl Mems of Congress see daily. They push elevator buttons for them, serve them food, hold their doors; now home w no pay"

I'm crying a river right now.

-Objective Politico: Obama Shows 'Resolve and Strength' By Shutting Government...Last night on Twitter I predicted Politico would run a lead story Today about Obama getting his politico mojo back. I wasn't far off. That doesn't make me a genius. It is just that the left-wing Politico is laughably predictable.

- Obama just completed a 10-minute attack on the GOP that was vicious, divisive, and nothing close to the conciliatory language a leader would use as a way to resolve this crisis.

Wolf Blitzer's first reaction was to describe the speech as "strong."

"Objective analyst" Gloria Borger then vomited out the talking points blaming everything on the GOP being divided. After Newt Gingrich pointed out that legislation has been attached to continuing resolutions since Eisenhower and that Obama could offer opening the Keystone Pipeline or killing the medical device tax, Borger stood by her White House talking points that history and precedent don't matter -- Obama should not negotiate.

-Dana Bash Reports GOP Just Got Smart; Preparing to Fund Parks, DC Government...Like the move yesterday to ensure the military is paid, by doing this the GOP takes away the media's primary talking points and photo-ops. The media are already cry-babying over the park service being shut down and elevator operators at the DC Capitol being laid off.

If the GOP makes this move, will the Democrats say no? Will Obama refuse to sign?

If they do, those heartbreaking photo-ops are now on them.

-NBC Reports Dems Oppose Funding Veterans and Parks

-Wall Street Climbs, Defies Narrative; So Media Collectively Ignore

-Salon's Joan Walsh Makes Feeble Attempt to Inject Race in Shutdown; Will Media Bite?...An obviously desperate Joan Walsh just wrote a Salon article and launched a series of tweets claiming the shutdown is a racist act.

It is easy to laugh at Walsh, but this narrative will now jump to MSNBC (where Walsh frequently guests) and who-knows-where from there.

-Less than 20 minutes ago I asked if the mainstream media would become desperate enough to inject race into the shutdown politics. ABC News was good enough to answer that question with this attack on GOP negotiators as "all white males"

-Slate Gins Up Identity Politics' Machine: Women Hit Hardest in Shutdown

blog.heritage.org/2013/10/01/obamacare/

“If the health care reform law is not repealed or employer mandate does not go away, we’re going to have to take drastic action,” said Scott Womack, who owns 12 IHOP restaurants in Indiana and Ohio.

Womack employs nearly 1,000 full- and part-time employees and provides health insurance to his managing staff. Obamacare will force him to provide insurance to all full-time employees. He said that the typical profit per employee is $3,000, but the Obamacare mandate will actually cost his company anywhere from $7,000 to $10,000 per employee.

“I really believe that you can’t put a mandate on business like this unless you know that an industry can actually pay for it, and without a doubt this industry cannot pay what is required here, not even the penalties,” Womack said.

www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/10/01/Video-Glitches-Force-MSNBC-to-Give-Up-on-Health-Care-Exchange-Sign-Up-Attempt

Video: Glitches Force MSNBC to Give Up on Health Care Exchange Sign Up Attempt...You know things are bad when MSNBC throws in the towel on the air:

After 35 minutes spent trying to get into the system and shop for insurance the host gave up. No doubt this was psychically painful for everyone at MSNBC.

washingtonexaminer.com/the-glitchy-error-filled-misadventures-of-creating-an-account-on-healthcare.gov/article/2536640

The glitchy error-filled misadventures of creating an account on healthcare.gov

With pictures!

www.politico.com/story/2013/10/obamacare-rollout-president-obama-interview-97613.html?hp=r3

President Obama: Expect months of 'glitches'

www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/10/01/wapo-ways-to-punish-congress-shoot-em

WaPo: 'Ways to Punish Congress...Line 'Em Up and Shoot 'Em'

www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/10/01/senate_votes_to_keep_obamacare_subsidy

The Senate did vote to maintain their subsidy. They did that. One of the things the Republicans sent over from the House was an offer to not shut down if the Democrats would give that up.

The Democrats in the Senate voted to keep their subsidies. I think a big deal needs to be made of that, and we will do our part here, as we did yesterday. "The Office of Personnel Management ruled Monday that members of Congress and their staffs," in addition to getting their 75% subsidy on the purchase of insurance at the exchanges, "will be able to buy health care plans that pay for abortions, even though the premiums are funded largely by taxpayer money," and that makes it illegal.

Now, there's a very active pro-life member of Congress from New Jersey. His name is Christopher Smith. He says that the Office of Personnel Management is violating a law that he wrote in 1983.

It is "the law of the land."

It "prohibits OPM from paying any expenses to administer plans that cover abortion, except in cases of rape or incest or when the mother’s life is in danger. 'You can't break the law, Mr. President, and just issue a final rule as if somehow you’re comporting with the law,' Mr. Smith told The Washington Times. 'We don’t want to subsidize abortion on demand, and the public is absolutely with us,'" but it's a violation of law. Of course, "Democrats applauded the ruling, saying it ensures equal access to abortions."

The law of the land is that taxpayer money cannot be used for this, but the Office of Personnel Management (which is Obama) has basically said that taxpayer money can be used. Now, this issue, this abortion issue, is rooted, really, in life. It's been masked over and papered over with supposed feminist policy concerns, but what it is really the root of the deterioration throughout our culture, particularly among young people, of the loss of respect for the sanctity of life.

This is a price this culture continues to pay, our society continues to pay for these 1.3 million abortions a year. You just can't have that happen since 1973, 1.3 million a year, and it not have an impact on the culture, even if it's subconscious. But this is just a wanton violation of law. The law of the land says that this cannot happen, but the Office of Personnel Management says, "To hell with that!"

You know, I got a question. If the Democrats can just exempt themselves from having to pay for Obamacare, why didn't they just exempt themselves from paying taxes? What's to stop them? If the law of the land says that taxpayer money cannot be used to fund abortions and they have a plan that does that, why not just exempt themselves from paying taxes? Why not just bonus themselves any amount of money they want to pay their taxes.

What's to stop them?

The Roman Republic didn't fall instantly. It slowly turned despotic as leaders became emboldened after ignoring constitutional laws, one by one. Now, those guys had an unwritten constitution. We don't have that excuse.

www.politico.com/story/2013/10/epa-official-who-faked-cia-ties-takes-the-fifth-97644.html?hp=r17

The former senior EPA adviser who stole $900,000 from taxpayers while posing as a CIA agent pleaded the Fifth on Tuesday morning — shortly before House members expressed outrage upon learning that he’s still due to get his government pension.

John C. Beale invoked his right not to incriminate himself when facing questioning from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, just four days after he pleaded guilty to charges that could bring him three years in prison.

The hearing then took an even more bizarre turn when investigator Patrick Sullivan noted that Beale eventually filed retirement paperwork, and thus is due his government pension.

Both Republicans and Democrats on the panel called themselves dumbfounded by the news.

“Still month after month the American taxpayers are going to pay” Beale, said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). He said he wants to see EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy come before the committee to answer for why she didn’t immediately fire Beale after becoming aware that he was receiving unearned bonuses and had stayed on the payroll even after holding a retirement party.

“What does it take to actually get fired in this federal government?” Chaffetz railed.

[Tails82]

Lots of silly business going on today. First there's the opening efforts from the administration to set up a Berlin Wall to keep vets out of their memorials.

SPOILER: Click to show

blog.heritage.org/2013/10/02/for-second-day-veterans-break-past-barricades-at-world-war-ii-memorial/

Another day, another confrontation at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Yesterday, a group of veterans with Honor Flight were waiting to get into their memorial after police had blocked entry. Eventually, the group knocked down the barricades in front of the memorial.

Today, the Obama administration is continuing the shutdown and adding even more barricades.

The saga is playing out in the shadow of the White House, which reportedly did nothing to assist the veterans.

Prior to their visit yesterday, Representative Steven Palazoo’s (R-MS) office sent a request to the White House and the Department of the Interior about the World War II veterans, most of whom were traveling with Honor Flight Network. The Daily Caller reported Palazoo’s request was denied.

washingtonexaminer.com/shutdown-overreach-more-personnel-sent-to-wwii-memorial-than-benghazi-park-service-closes-park-it-doesnt-run/article/2536710

Shutdown overreach: More personnel sent to WWII memorial than Benghazi; Park Service closes park it doesn't run

A Claude Moore Colonial Farm official said that the privately-funded staff is on the job Wednesday, but barred from letting anybody visit the historically accurate buildings or animals. Anna Eberly, the managing director, sent out an email decrying the decision and rude National Park Service staff handling the closure.

Pointing to Park Service claims that parks have to be closed because the agency can’t afford staff during the government closure, Eberly wrote: “What utter crap. We have operated the Farm successfully for 32 years after the NPS cut the Farm from its budget in 1980 and are fully staffed and prepared to open today. But there are barricades at the Pavilions and entrance to the Farm. And if you were to park on the grass and visit on your own, you run the risk of being arrested. Of course, that will cost the NPS staff salaries to police the Farm against intruders while leaving it open will cost them nothing.”

She added: “In all the years I have worked with the National Park Service, first as a volunteer for six years in Richmond where I grew up, then as an NPS employee at the for eight very long years and now enjoyably as managing director for the last 32 years — I have never worked with a more arrogant, arbitrary and vindictive group representing the NPS. I deeply apologize that we have to disappoint you today by being closed but know that we are working while the National Park Service is not — as usual.”

www.politico.com/story/2013/10/world-war-ii-memorial-republicans-government-shutdown-97735.html?hp=l6

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus on Wednesday offered to pay to keep the National WWII Memorial open for the next 30 days as he blasted the Obama administration, a move the Democratic National Committee knocked as a “silly stunt.”

“Make no mistake, it was the Obama administration’s choice to barricade this memorial,” Priebus said at a press conference at the memorial. “The administration decided they wanted to make this shutdown as painful as possible.”

The RNC has put aside enough money to hire five full-time security personnel to keep the memorial open, Priebus said, with an estimated price tag of $150,000 for 30 days.

Priebus also said he was inviting DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was not present, to join in paying for the additional guards.

“Seeing that the DNC has bragged about fundraising off of the government shutdown, I’d invite my counterpart, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to join with us in keeping this memorial open,” he said.

Keep in mind that the RNC is on sound financial footing and can afford this, while the big spending debt-driving libs over at the DNC are facing big budget shortfalls.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/02/Palin-Calls-for-Civil-Disobedience-Around-Barrycades-at-WWII-Memorial

Palin Calls for Civil Disobedience at WWII Memorial 'Barrycades'

Palin wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday that it is "beyond shameful to see Barack Obama disrespect and mistreat our World War II veterans so blatantly," charging that he sent more guards to bar World War II heroes from seeing their memorial after the government shut down than he sent to Benghazi to protect Americans under assault by terrorists.

"This simple act of civil disobedience will galvanize our nation against atrocious political games, and I promise you’ll sleep well tonight," she said to them.

Palin also said Obama is "treating our veterans the same way he treated school kids when he cancelled their White House tours" by closing down certain Washington memorials and threatening veterans who go past the barricades (or "Barrycades") with arrest.

"When times called for obvious government belt-tightening, he took it out on kids rather than look for anything that would affect him personally," Palin wrote. "And while our vets are barricaded from the memorial they built with their heroism, the government 'slim down' won’t affect Obama’s golf game or his family’s White House chefs."

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/02/House-Committee-Obama-shutdown-monuments

House Committee: Obama Selectively Closed Most Popular Tourist Memorials

“[T]he Obama Administration is applying this policy inconsistently and choosing which memorials to block off and which to keep open. While these popular monuments remain barricaded, other U.S. Park properties such as the Constitutional Gardens and Japanese Americans Memorial remain completely open,” the Committee said in a press release.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings stated, “It appears as though only the highly visible monuments and areas are being closed to the public – further proof that the Obama Administration is only playing politics and purposely choosing to make this shut down as painful as possible. Their actions are shameful and wrong.”

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/02/Park-Police-Recalled-to-Defend-Memorial-From-Veterans

Breitbart News has learned that the federal government specifically activated members of the Park Police to block the veteran's access.

The visit, organized by the charity Honor Flights, which brings WWII veterans to DC to see the memorial to their sacrifice, had been known for some time. The organization had even sought approval from the White House for the visit, in light of the legislative drama over the budget fight. What ought to have been a simple request turned into even greater drama as the federal government actively called up resources to block the veteran visit.

I can't stress enough how little there is to guard. The WWII Memorial is an open structure on the National Mall, which is, effectively, a public park. Thousands of cars drive past it every day. It is accessible by any pedestrian. There is no "entrance" to close or no access that needs to be monitored. It is literally like walking up to a statue in your local park.

Yet, knowing veterans were coming to visit, the government not only tried to shut off access, it apparently called up furloughed workers to enforce the security. Of a memorial. Against the very people whose sacrifice inspired it.

There is perhaps no greater sign that the federal government is out of touch with the general public. Fortunately, in this case, Rep. Steve King temporarily distracted the Park Police officers and the WWII veterans tore down the barricades.

Obama ignores more laws he doesn't like:

www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/02/make-it-hurt-republicans-accuse-administration-inflicting-budget-pain/

Make It Hurt? Republicans accuse administration of inflicting added budget pain

Republicans...point to the Pentagon furlough of 400,000 civilian staffers -- even though Congress passed and the president signed a bill to supposedly keep them on the job.

"This is no time to use national security or our national security workforce as a political pawn," Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

The dispute comes ahead of a planned White House meeting late Wednesday afternoon. House Speaker John Boehner and other congressional leaders have agreed to meet with Obama to discuss the stalemate. "We're pleased the president finally recognizes that his refusal to negotiate is indefensible. It's unclear why we'd be having this meeting if it's not meant to be a start to serious talks between the two parties," Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement.

The bill concerning military pay was the only piece of legislation that Congress passed -- and Obama signed -- in the run-up to the midnight deadline on Monday. According to the text, it would pay the Armed Forces, as well as civilian and contractor personnel deemed to be "providing support" to the Armed Forces.

Republicans argue that the intent of the law was to keep them on the job, and that the Obama administration "narrowly interpreted" it against congressional intent in order to furlough more employees.

Mike Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, fired back, "How does the White House justify signing the troop funding bill, but vetoing similar measures for veterans, National Parks, and District of Columbia? The President can't continue to complain about the impact of the government shutdown on veterans, visitors at National Parks, and DC while vetoing bills to help them. The White House position is unsustainably hypocritical."

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304176904579111331134686614.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

For people who claim that defaulting on U.S. debt is unthinkable, President Obama and Harry Reid are sure behaving as if they can't wait for that day to arrive. Why else are they refusing to take up the multiple Republican offers to guarantee that the U.S. will never default?

House GOP leaders also insist they don't want a default, and they've already passed a bill to prevent it—not that the media have paid any attention. First sponsored in 2011 by California Republican Tom McClintock and Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, the Full Faith and Credit Act is essentially an insurance policy against miscalculation. Their bill certifies that U.S. sovereign debt will always be repaid, on time and in full.

If Congress fails to authorize a statutory increase in the debt limit—during a period of, say, intense political conflict over the fisc like the one now—the bill stipulates that Treasury can continue making contractual interest and principal payments to bond holders and rolling over debt with incoming tax payments. Debt service gets the first call on revenue.

The McClintock-Toomey bill replicates the guarantees that state constitutions have had for hundreds of years to strengthen investor confidence. It gives the Treasury Secretary discretion to prioritize among other federal obligations until the political deadlock ends, tempers cool and the parties can reach a deal. But it makes his first priority to protect the full faith and credit of the U.S.

Yet instead of embracing this insurance against default, Democrats have voted to kill it even as they cry havoc about the risk of default. The House passed McClintock-Toomey in May, but only on a 221 to 207 party-line vote after a raucous debate. The White House issued a formal veto threat, calling it "unwise, unworkable and unacceptably risky."

House Republicans have continued to press the measure, attaching it to a continuing resolution last week. But Mr. Reid moved to strip it out, and his motion passed the Senate 54 to 44. The Majority Leader denounced McClintock-Toomey as the "Pay China First Act."

Mr. Reid may think that is clever xenophobic political cover, but someone should tell him that millions of Americans have a stake in Treasurys through pension funds, 401(k)s, savings accounts and as individual investors. Two-thirds of U.S. debt is held domestically and the Chinese own roughly 7% to 10%, though who cares who U.S. creditors are if the goal is for the U.S. to reassure its creditors?

In the May debate, Democrat after Democrat made the argument that the provision would make school lunch programs, student loans, unemployment insurance and the rest second-class. So they are denouncing Republicans for putting U.S. credit at risk even as they are denouncing Republicans for putting U.S. credit first. Which is it?

A President who really wants to limit the chance of default would take the GOP up on its Full Faith and Credit offer. Mr. Obama's refusal suggests that his real goal is to go to the edge of default, gambling that he can then either coerce total surrender or blame a default on Republicans and use it to take back control of the House in 2014. This isn't how leaders looking out for the interests of all Americans behave.

washingtonexaminer.com/obamacare-exchanges-just-opened-and-already-fake-websites-scammers-are-ripping-people-off/article/2536745

Obamacare exchanges just opened, and already fake websites, scammers are ripping people off

This is on top of the "legitimate" navigator scamming that's going on, mind you.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/02/Congressman-Brags-His-State-Enrolled-126-Obamacare-Enrollees-Out-of-28-000-Visitors

Dem Brags His State Enrolled 126 Out of 28,000 Visitors to Obamacare Site...That works out to a 0.59% conversion rate of visitors to enrollees.

Connecticut's low percentage of actual Obamacare enrollees contradicts the narrative offered by the Obama Administration that the widespread technical malfunctions experienced on Obamacare's grand opening was the result of massive demand from Americans seeking to sign up.

Instead, a more likely explanation appears to be that citizens and journalists were curious to see the websites but chose not to enroll.

Whether that trend holds true for other states remains to be seen. On Tuesday, CNN reported that two-thirds of the government's Obamacare exchanges failed to work properly. And for the second day in a row, the government's main Obamacare website, www.HealthCare.gov, continues not to work properly and has a broken "Live Chat" feature.

Obamacare will cost taxpayers an estimated $2.6 trillion over the first decade of implementation.

www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/02/why-would-want-to-do-that/

Help kids with cancer? Reid asks: 'Why would we want to do that?'

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is blaming Republicans for the National Institutes of Health turning away cancer patients. But when asked why the Senate wouldn't try to help "one child who has cancer" by approving a mini-spending bill, he shot back: "Why would we want to do that?"

Reid's response was widely noticed by Republicans. "How out-of-touch and heartless can Senate Democrats be?" an email from the National Republican Senatorial Committee asked.

But Reid fired back, suggesting he's being taken out of context.

-Democrats send the cameras out to find sob stories
-Republicans say ok let's fund that
-Dems say no

They want the crisis.

www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/10/02/obama_and_democrats_denied_gop_request_to_fund_the_nih_for_cancer_stricken_kids

Obama and Democrats Denied GOP Request to Fund the NIH for Cancer-Stricken Kids

Two words: death panel

blog.heritage.org/2013/10/02/government-shutdown-highlights-need-for-head-start-reform/

The failed program known as Head Start temporarily closes - GOOD

blog.heritage.org/2013/10/02/court-rejects-dojs-startling-argument-in-fast-and-furious-lawsuit/

A federal district court judge in Washington, D.C., has rejected the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the House of Representatives against Attorney General Eric Holder to enforce its subpoena for documents related to the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.

Holder was held in contempt by the House—the first time that has happened to an Attorney General—for refusing to turn over the subpoenaed documents. After the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia declined to enforce the contempt citation and President Obama invoked executive privilege to protect the DOJ documents from disclosure, the House of Representatives filed its own lawsuit against Holder. The House claimed that the assertion of executive privilege was invalid since there was no claim that the documents withheld by the DOJ contained any advice provided to the President or that they touched upon any core constitutional functions of the President.

In its motion to dismiss, the DOJ made the startling argument that the courts have no role in resolving a dispute between Congress and the President over the legitimacy of his invocation of executive privilege. This would permit the President to stonewall any congressional inquiry—as Richard Nixon tried to do by ignoring subpoenas—or invoke executive privilege in an improper fashion to prevent the disclosure of embarrassing information or criminal conduct.

However, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama nominee, was having none of it. In her view, “endorsing the proposition that the executive may assert an unreviewable right to withhold materials from the legislature would offend the Constitution.” She chided the DOJ for asserting that an assumption of jurisdiction by Judge Jackson to decide this question “would mark an unprecedented expansion of the role of an Article III court.” She pointed out that there “has been binding precedent to the contrary in this Circuit for more than thirty-five years.”

www.ncregister.com/daily-news/study-thousands-of-taxpayer-funded-abortions-part-of-obamacare/

Study: Thousands of Taxpayer-Funded Abortions Part of Obamacare

During debate over whether to pass the health-care legislation, President Obama secured the support of several pro-life Democrats led by then-Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., by signing an executive order that confirmed the application of long-standing restrictions on elective abortion funding to the health-insurance exchanges.

However, critics of the executive order said at the time that it would not prevent federal subsidies from going to insurance plans that pay for abortion and are allowed on the health exchanges.

Donovan said that the Obama administration is paying Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S., to direct consumers to abortion-funding plans in the multistate plans through the Center for Medicaid Services’ “Navigators” program. This could help enroll girls and women in plans that cover elective abortion and discourage them from enrolling in plans that do not.

The report prompted some members of Congress to criticize the Obama administration.

“The results of this study are a sad reminder that, despite assurances from the president when Obamacare was signed into law, this law will in fact result in the taxpayer funding of abortion,” said Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn. “This staggering loss of precious human life is an abomination, and American taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill.”

Jen says this isn't happening and they just done gone and made it all up again.

www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/10/02/new_health_care_system_horror_stories

New Health Care System Horror Stories

CALLER: On this health care plan I've got a question. I make around $52,000 a year, and I will end up paying $455 a month per month for health care on the Obama plan.

RUSH: Have you run that out for 12 months what that's gonna cost you a year?

CALLER: Over $5,000 a year...Okay, first of all, that's not my cell phone plan, like they said it would be less than my cell phone plan. You know?

RUSH: It's not. They said that your premium would be falling $2,500.

CALLER: Yep. And how come someone making three times I am making gets 75% of theirs subsidized?

RUSH: Because they complained. And Obama needed their votes.

...

CALLER: I was reading an article, I don't know if it was in Breitbart or on Fox News or something about how they laid off 15,000 EPA workers and they only kept a thousand that were essential. Well, the first thing that occurred to me is, if you only need a thousand essential to keep it running, what are the other 15,000 doing for their time. You know, I worked in a factory --

RUSH: They are paying dues to the Democrat Party.

CALLER: Yeah, I understand that, but then I read the comments, okay, underneath the article, which I love to read because it gives me a sense of how people are thinking about this, and I don't think the mainstream media is actually conveying it because they were saying for the 800,000 that got furloughed, they ought to permanently furlough 'em and see how long we can last. You know, that's what private industry would do. They'd cut down to the bone to see how long they could last without having people doing stuff that they didn't need to have done. You know, non-effective or non-contributory type work. I think everybody has the understanding that that's really what's going on.

...

CALLER: Thank you, Rush, for taking my call. I'll get directly to the point. I am a self-employed business owner that's currently insured through one of the major carriers, one of the largest in the country, and Monday I just got a letter in the mail stating that they're no longer gonna be providing any insurance plan in the area that I live and work in after 2014, and my plan is currently in place until September of 2014. they can extend it to December 1st, but after that, they will not offer any plans.

RUSH: Well, you know where you're headed.

CALLER: I went online, and there isn't an insurance company in Wisconsin.

RUSH: No. No. You're headed for the exchanges, pal.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: With all the rest of us.

CALLER: Yeah, there isn't a company that'll provide a private insurance that isn't part of the exchange in my area of Wisconsin.

RUSH: Yeah. That's by design...you knew this was coming, I'm sure, and it's coming for everybody. But you can go the fine route, if you want, the first couple years and then just... I don't know if they treat you or not if you pay the fine. That's one thing they don't say.

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303722604579111492249901278.html

With Washington embarked on another of its oxymoronic shutdowns, everyone is giving it in the neck to the Republicans. So maybe someone should give it to Barack Obama in the knees. He's the president. He wanted this job and must bear some responsibility for what has become of politics in the nation's capital. Which is to say, the obliteration of politics.

By choice and disposition, Mr. Obama does not engage in the horse-trading and negotiation that defines Washington's political life. He passed a national entitlement, the Affordable Care Act, without securing any votes by the nation's other party. Readers of Robert Caro's biographies of Lyndon Johnson come away agog at the presidential effort to woo and win opposition votes.

On Wednesday the press started to write Where's Waldo? pieces about the president's non-contributions to ending the impasse, so Mr. Obama invited congressional leaders to the White House. They've been there before. The deficit-reduction supercommittee effort of 2011 produced nothing. In fact it collapsed after he became personally involved.

On Wednesday the White House announced Mr. Obama would not make an important confidence-building visit this weekend to Malaysia and the Philippines. The White House planning staff would have (or should have) seen this collision of deadlines coming months ago. So two Asian countries that want to be friends of the U.S. get stiffed, while this headline about Chinese President Xi Jinping appeared in the China Daily: "Xi's visit to lift China-Malaysia ties to a higher level." Foreign relations suffer so Mr. Obama can pummel the GOP.

That catastrophe is predictable right now, but avoidable, if Mr. Obama will exercise the leadership he was elected to provide. The country Ronald Reagan "inherited" in 1981 was also beset with problems and divisions. The country he left behind after two terms was not.

Let's end on a lighter note: Occupy leftovers decide to do things their way, end up like anyone else. Gasp.

washingtonexaminer.com/occupy-wall-street-debit-card-now-available-some-fees-may-apply/article/2536741

Occupy Wall Street debit card now available (some fees may apply)

Hey there, do you hate the cruel capitalist system that is destroying America and need someplace to store that trust fund money from mommy and daddy that enables you to protest the system instead of getting a real job?

Well, you are in luck. The Occupy Money Cooperative, a group established in the early days of the original Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti Park, is now offering a prepaid debit card to members. Motto: "take part in the revolution that will make banking fair, transparent and affordable."

With this card, you'll know that your money will be used for progressive ends because our board of directors you've never heard of before say so. Just know that they provide high quality financial services to the 99%. Live like the plutocrats that disgust you so much!

There are, however, some charges associated with the card. We do require monthly fees -- but they are low! There is also a modest fee associated with purchasing the card. Sorry, but there is no way around that -- it costs money to print and issue a card.

We are afraid there are also monthly charges for cash withdrawals. They'll be swipe fees at some places like 7-Elevens too. Again, we're sorry, but we couldn't find a away around that either.

We're going to have to charge if you need to talk to customer service too. Oh, and looking at your balance on an ATM is going to cost you, too.

There are going to have to be some charges for incidentals too, like replacing lost cards, changing your PIN number or getting declined from an ATM. We're also going to have to charge you if you want to close out the account.

Oh, and, well, we may need to, umm, update these charges at some point in the future.

Again, we are sorry, but it turns out this financial stuff can be really complicated. If we are going to make this work, we have to ensure that these numbers add up and adjust the charges if they don't. Don't worry, though: We'll let you know if that happens.

Thank you in advance! Now let's bring those capitalists to their knees!

[Pyro ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ ✔]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx2scvIFGjE

loltron

Only the black guy went with the obama thing cos they black

[Tails82]

Day three and the Obamacare train wreck explodes as it crawls out of the station. I'm starting to think Dems caused the shutdown to distract from it.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/02/Dems-Reject-Same-Funding-Measures-Congress-Passed-And-Clinton-Signed-During-Last-Shut-Down

Dems Reject Funding Measures They, Clinton Approved During Last Shutdown

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/03/Government-Is-Normally-Funded-by-Piecemeal-Bills

Since the government shutdown, House and Senate Republicans have proposed restoring funding to specific agencies or government functions while the parties seek consensus on the larger issues. The House has proposed legislation to reopen the National Parks, the National Institutes for Health and the Veterans Administration, among others. Democrats have flatly refused, dismissing the GOP efforts as "piecemeal" approaches. The thing is, however, government is normally funded by such a "piecemeal" approach.

Before the Senate decided some five years ago that it would no longer take the trouble of passing a budget, the government was largely funded through the appropriations process. Around a dozen separate appropriations bills, each covering one or two federal agencies, made their way through Congress. Some passed through Congress easily. Others took much longer and witnessed more sustained and impassioned debate.

Yet, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid now criticizes this approach. “They are focusing on trying to cherry-pick some of the few parts of the government that they like,” Reid said, deriding the plan as “just another wacky idea by the Tea Party-driven Republicans.”

What Reid now calls a "wacky idea" used to be called "regular order" in Congress. His criticism now of what used to be the normal manner of government budgeting exposes either his disingenuousness or his memory failure after neglecting to pass an actual budget for the past five years.

Crossing the line into cartoonish supervillainy:

www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/10/03/dingy_harry_reid_on_helping_kids_with_cancer_why_would_we_want_to_do_that

Dingy Harry Reid on Helping Kids with Cancer: "Why Would We Want to Do That?"

BASH: If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?

REID: Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own. This is... To have someone of your intelligence to suggest such a thing maybe means --

BASH: I'm just asking a question.

REID: -- you’re irresponsible and reckless.

RUSH: Can you hear it? She is so embarrassed. Her idol, Harry Reid, has humiliated her. Little Dana Bash, accredited CNN infobabe, official member of the establishment, part of the ruling class, walks up to her idol, Harry Reid, when she learns that Reid refuses a Republican bill that would fund the National Institutes of Health... This is the story yesterday where 200 kids denied cancer treatment. Republicans said, "Here's a bill that pays for that," and Dingy Harry said, "No, I'm not gonna get tricked into that."

So Dana Bash asked, "If you could help one child has cancer, why wouldn't you do that?" and Reid said, "Why would we want to do that, you dumb b-i itch? we've got 1100 people at Nellis Air Force Base sitting at home. They got a few problems of their own. To have someone of your intelligence suggest such a thing maybe means you're irresponsible." Bash: "I'm just asking a question! I'm just asking a question." Jeez. Jeez, oh, man.

You know, I heard and read the Dingy Harry answer to Dana Bash yesterday, but I didn't know it was anything like this. This is just... This is what I mean about them imploding.

He says he's not going to fall for the Cruz-led Republican trap. And is what the Cruz-led Republican trap? Cherry-pick. We're not gonna cherry-pick.

Would somebody explain to me what the hell Obama's been doing with his own health care plan? He's been cherry-picking who gets a waiver and who doesn't. He's been cherry-picking who's subject to it and who isn't. He's been cherry-picking laws that he doesn't like left and right, DOMA, gay marriage, you name it, Obama cherry-picks, and if he doesn't like a law, he just ignores it. But his own health care plan, he decides what will be delayed and what won't be delayed

In fact, Betsy McCaughey has made the point that what we are implementing today is not the legislation that was signed into law by Obama. The law as signed by Obama did not have waivers for 2,500 companies, businesses, and unions. The law as signed by Obama did not have a one-year delay of the employer mandate. And the point that she is making in this is that we have a president who is behaving outside the bounds of the Constitution. He's lawless. By virtue of his own cherry-picking, he's deciding what parts of his own law he's going to delay so as not to hurt him or his party in future elections. So the employer mandate, delayed 'til 2015. A bunch of businesses and unions got waivers through the 2012 election.

I think Harry Reid proves exactly why the government should not have so much control over people's health care, because Harry Reid was basically saying, "You do what we say or kids will die." Now, no government should ever have that much power over its citizens, but particularly ours, which is a constitutional republic. "You do what we say or kids will die." That was Harry Reid exercising the power that he thinks he has.

Mr. President, the person holding up funding of this government and shutting it down is you, you and Senator Reid. The GOP have already, and are prepared to, send you bills to fund the government. If you really want to fund the NIH to help those sick little people, those kids, here's a bill; here's a pen. Go fund yourself! WIC, Head Start, the National Parks? Here's a bill. Here's a pen. Go fund yourself!

Remember when Republicans said bureaucrats would deny service to people? Reid really wanted to jump onto that power trip. Enjoy dying quickly, sick kids.

More barricades:

SPOILER: Click to show

blog.heritage.org/2013/10/03/storming-the-barricades-in-washington/

Americans are justifiably angry over the political game being played by the Obama administration to barricade the World War II Memorial in Washington. And they should be. Under federal law, there is no justifiable reason for closing the memorial.

On Tuesday, the National Park Service put up barricades around the open-air memorial that is normally accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even when Park Service personnel are not there. Police threatened to arrest visiting veterans, who came to Washington as part of Honor Flight, a non-profit that gives veterans free transportation so they can see war memorials.

It is one of the most blatant and shameful political stunts being carried out by the White House, which appears intent on keeping the government shut down to protect Obamacare.

How do we know this is purely political theater? Because under applicable federal law – and the interpretation of that law by both the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget — all “law enforcement” operations of the federal government are exempted from being shut down during any funding lapse.

The only possible reason for preventing access to the World War II Memorial would be a concern about security. But because the National Park Police are operating even during the government “slimdown” — that is why they were at the memorial when the veterans were threatened with arrest — this is not a valid concern.

Under intense pressure, the Obama administration began to relent Wednesday, agreeing to “an accommodation for the Honor Flights.” That isn’t good enough. The memorials should be fully open for everyone and anyone.

The White House had an opportunity to prevent this confrontation.
Representative Steven Palazzo (R-MS), who helped arrange Tuesday’s Honor Flight visit, says both the White House and the Interior Department rejected his request to allow the veterans to visit the memorial. Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the National Park Service, which claimed it was told by the White House to shut down the memorial.

dailycaller.com/2013/10/02/mark-levin-you-lay-one-damn-hand-on-a-wwii-vet-ill-bring-half-a-million-people-to-dc-video/#ixzz2gcoS61ap

Mark Levin: You lay one damn hand on a WWII vet, I’ll bring half a million people to DC

“I’ll be damned if one president with his feet up on the desk in the Oval Office, with a smirk on his face, looking at his golf cart — I’ll be damned if this president or anybody else is going to shut down that World War II Memorial, period,” he continued. “These men are in their 80s and 90s, so let me repeat: You lay one hand on one of those men and arrest them for going to their memorial, which they fought, which was not paid by you, dammit — was paid by the American people — we will come out of every town and city in this nation, we will come out of every county on both coasts, both borders and we will march on Washington against your tyranny. You have been warned.”

Levin iterated that the sentiment was heartfelt and was in no way a stunt.

“This isn’t intended to be controversial,” he added. “This isn’t intended to be a joke. This is exactly how I feel in my heart and soul. I take this very personally. My grandfather fought at Iwo Jima and he fought at Guam. And my great uncle fought at Guadalcanal. And I’ll be damned if this community activist is going to shut down their memorial. They beat the Germans. They beat the Nazis. They beat the Japanese. They beat fascist Italy. And I’m not going to allow as one person, this administration, these people to beat them now that they’re in their 80s and 90s. No damn way.”

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304176904579113411163443266.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

"Since the shutdown began, Obama and [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid have taken tough stands against the two most villainous groups: WWII veterans and kids with cancer."

Palazzo noted: "This is an open-air memorial that the public has 24/7 access to under normal circumstances--even when Park Service personnel aren't present. It actually requires more effort and expense to shut out these veterans from their Memorial than it would to simply let them through." We can vouch for that. We recall strolling through the memorial one afternoon in February 2004, before its official opening that April. As far as we remember, it was unsupervised. So shutting down the memorial was a political stunt that wasted taxpayer money.

Yesterday more veterans visited the memorial. PJMedia reports they were met by an "SEIU rent-a-mob" (that's the Service Employees International Union). "About 20 protesters arrived on the scene chanting 'Boehner, get us back to work' and claiming"--falsely, it seems--"they were federal employees furloughed because of the shutdown." One of the protesters told PJMedia's Patrick Poole he was being paid $15 an hour.

As for the kids with cancer, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday on the consequences of cuts to the National Institutes of Health: "Director Francis Collins said about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center for clinical trials each week will be turned away. This includes about 30 children, most of them cancer patients, he said."

Even diehard partisans in the press are on the defensive. "Come On, No. Harry Reid Doesn't Hate Kids With Cancer," reads a headline on The Atlantic's website. When you feel compelled to answer a question like that, it's a sign you aren't winning the argument.

www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/10/03/unprecedented_an_american_president_attempts_to_talk_down_the_stock_market

Unprecedented: An American President Attempts to Talk Down the Stock Market

CNBC, John Harwood. Obama warned the world markets that it cannot be taken for granted that the Congress would be able to raise the debt limit before the October 17th deadline so that the US doesn't default. I kid you not. And then he said that he thought world markets should be concerned.

I can't remember a previous president ever trying to talk down the economy like this. If anything, in Obama's situation, they would be talking about how the country would never let a default happen. But he's out there warning the world that it could. I'll tell you what this is, all of it, everything. I get so blue in the face. Everything Obama and the Democrats do is political and has an agenda, is part of the agenda, and the agenda right now is destroy the Republicans, the Tea Party. And I think -- I could be wrong about this -- I think the Democrats are imploding. I think they're getting batty. I think they're going nuts. This is not playing out the way they thought.

When has a US president ever told Wall Street that they're not worried enough?

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/02/Oops-CA-Healthcare-Exchange-Overstated-Web-Traffic-by-Nearly-4-5-Million-HIts

CA Healthcare Exchange Overstated Web Traffic by Nearly 4.5 Million Hits...Officials for the "Covered California" website claimed the five million hits number, which in hindsight was grossly misstated, was the primary reason why the website had so many problems on the first day.

The $313-million online health exchange website has already had to shut down twice because of various problems...

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/03/Obama-union-workers

GAFFE: Obama Condemns Labor Strikes with Shutdown Analogy

Oddly, after veering off teleprompter, he likened Republicans shutting down the government to striking workers shutting down a business: “Everybody here does their job, right? If you’re working here and in the middle of the day you just stopped and said, ‘You know what, I want to get something, but I don’t know exactly what I’m gonna get, but I’m just gonna stop working until I get something, I’m gonna shut down the whole plant until I get something, you’d get fired.”

Except that they wouldn’t. Obama, a constitutional law lecturer at the University of Chicago, apparently forgot about the National Labor Relations Act, which explicitly bars employers from firing striking employees.

washingtonexaminer.com/175-premium-for-a-young-healthy-student-thanks-obamacare/article/2536798

American media outlets were finally able to track down a mythical creature — a person who actually signed up for the Obamacare exchanges online.

Henderson’s going to pay a $175 premium and he won’t even receive vision or dental insurance. He has contacts, so not having vision insurance is kind of a bum deal...Without Obamacare, Henderson could have received health insurance for as little as $44.72 on eHealthInsurance.com, according to Michael F. Cannon of the Cato Institute.

Thanks to Obamacare’s community-rating price controls that take effect in 2014, Henderson’s cheapest plan option on eHealthInsurance jumped up to $190.23.

“So it appears that Obamacare quadrupled Chad’s premiums, and Enroll America thinks this is a success story,” Cannon said.

www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/03/dr-ben-carson-says-irs-targeted-him-for-his-anti-obama-comments/

Dr. Carson targeted by the IRS after criticizing the Obama administration in his speech.

www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/03/irs-must-be-held-responsible-for-leaking-national-organization-for-marriage/

NOM, also targeted by the IRS, seeking answers. IRS so far refuses to release info claiming it would violate a law that has nothing to do with this info, and a law which they already violated when they leaked NOM's info to left-wing groups.

www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2013/10/03/quick_hits_page

First up from the AP: "Online Delays Signal Strong Demanded for Health Care." This is the AP doing everything it can for their Democrat masters.

So here's the AP and their version here. "Online Delays Signal Strong Demanded for Health Care." Oh, yeah. "Overloaded websites and jammed phone lines frustrated consumers for a second day as they tried to sign up ... That was putting pressure on the federal government and the states ...

"The delays that continued Wednesday offered one good sign for President Barack Obama and supporters of his signature domestic policy achievement, demonstrating what appeared to be exceptionally high interest in the new system." AP, people don't have a choice here! They have to do this, AP! This isn't like some new product has been announced, and there's massive national demand for it.

As usual, you go to the British press for the truth. UK Daily Mail: "Exclusive! Less Than 1% of Visitors are Signing up for Obamacare on State Exchange Websites." At AP, there's so much demand, we can't deal with it! But in the UK Daily Mail, nobody is showing up.

New Orleans Times-Picayune. "Obamacare Website Glitches Leave Blue Cross of Louisiana Without New Enrollees After First Day." Blue Cross and Blue Shield say that they spent $60 million dollars preparing for the opening day of Obamacare. They did not get a single customer in New Orleans, Louisiana. They did not get a single customer in Louisiana...This is particularly rich since Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the insurance company that worked the closest with the regime to give us Obamacare, because they saw massive numbers of new customers mandated by law.

Now, the question is how does Ted Cruz get 100,000 people on a telephone town hall and Obama cannot get a thousand people to sign up on one of his exchange websites? Did you ever stop to think about that?

By the way, I don't know if you heard this or not, folks. You may have by now. Mount Vernon, which is the home of George Washington, is privately owned. The federal government tried to shut it down by barricading the parking lots. The parking lots, however, are not under federal purview because it is free parking at Mount Vernon. The only relationship the Feds have to Mount Vernon is the roadways leading to it.

So they tried to blockade the parking lot, and they can't, because Mount Vernon is privately owned. It's not owned by the federal government. The land is not owned by the federal government. Mount Vernon itself is not a national monument, it's not a national park or any of that, and yet they tried to shut it down.

dailycaller.com/2013/10/03/need-health-care-coverage-just-dial-1-800-fuckyo-to-reach-obamacares-national-hotline/

Need health insurance? The Obama administration has you covered. Simply dial 1-800-FUCKYO to reach the next available health-care provider.

Far from being a mistype, that’s the official number that Health and Human Services wants Americans to dial when seeking health care. Obamacare’s national call center really did list its number as 1-800-318-2596, helpfully spelling out President Barack Obama’s tendency to blatantly flip the bird in plain view.

[Tails82]

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/03/Obama-Forcing-Shut-Down-of-Parks-the-Feds-Don-t-Even-Fund

Looking to cause as much pain as possible to the American people during this shut down, President Obama sent National Park Service (NPS) police officers to shut down hundreds of parks and historic sites that the federal government doesn't even fund.

Needlessly shutting down the WWII memorial wasn't the only unnecessary shut down Obama perpetrated. He also sent NPS personnel fanning out across the country to shut down dozens of parks that the federal government doesn't even fund.

One place the NPS stormed in without prior warning was the Claude Moore Colonial Farm (CMCF) in Virginia.

President Obama sent the NPS to the Virginia park without prior notification, upsetting an event that was underway and forcibly removing everyone from the premises.

“We do not know why CMCF was barricaded from public access or why NPS police escorted staff and volunteers off the property right before a fundraising event on Monday. The National Park Service does not pay CMCFs employees, for its operations, maintenance, events or programs,” Claude Moore Colonial Farm Operations Manager Heather Bodin wrote in an email to FOX Business. "In our 32-year history of running the farm, through other government shutdowns, we have never had to close our doors before.”

Another such nonsensical shutdown occurred in Arizona where 100 campgrounds that are fully funded by fees paid by visitors were forcibly shuttered and all campers removed.

The campgrounds, run by Recreation Resource Management, take no money from the government.

RRM president Warren Meyer told Fox Business, "our operations are self-sufficient (we are fully funded by user fees at the gate), we get no federal funds, we employ no government workers on these sites, and we actually pay rent into the Treasury."

Meyer speculated that this was a tactic intended to make the government shut down hurt as many people as possible. "I can only assume their intention is to artificially increase the cost of the shutdown as some sort of political ploy," he said.

The famous Ford's Theater--site of Abraham Lincoln's assassination--was also forcibly shut down even though the theater and its programs are run by a private non-profit group.

Another unnecessary shut down occurred at George Washington's home, Mount Vernon.

In the case of Washington's home, the park is run by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, a group that takes no federal or state money to operate. After the NPS arrived on the scene, though, the MVLA insisted that they were open despite Obama's attempt to send his NPS stormtroopers to shut the place down.

“We receive no funding from federal or state governments. We are not a national park or monument,” the Mount Vernon website states. “We rely solely on the generosity of caring people to whatever degree they are able.”

washingtonexaminer.com/scott-walker-refuses-federal-order-to-close-state-parks/article/2536844

Scott Walker refuses federal order to close state parks...In rejecting the order, Walker explained that the Badger State, not the feds, provides the majority of the parks' funding so there is no need for a closure.

The state Department of Natural Resources...also removed a barricade federal officials had put before a Mississippi boat launch.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/04/Obama-illegally-furloughing-defense-civilians

Obama Illegally Furloughing Civilian Defense Employees at STRATCOM

Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) told Breitbart News that President Obama was illegally furloughing approximately two thousand federal civilian defense contractors at Offutt Air Force Base, in direct contravention of the Pay Our Military Act, passed last week through Congress and signed by Obama himself. Those four thousand employees represent approximately two thirds of the civilian personnel at Offutt Air Force Base.

"This is a political game that they’re playing, endangering this country. They’ve had to lay off over 60 percent of their civilian employees, who are all basically retired military who just keep the same jobs and become civilians. These are integral people to protecting our nuclear arsenal and to our military readiness. This is a dangerous game this president is playing.”

“Airplane mechanics are being furloughed,” a representative from Terry’s office stated. “How is that not critical to getting an airplane off the ground if we need to? This is an illegal furlough. The President is completely breaking the law. Congress passed it unanimously, he signed it into law, and now he’s breaking that very law.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told Breitbart News exclusively, “President Obama is jeopardizing our national security just to play politics on this shutdown.”

www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/04/white-house-congress-find-elusive-common-ground-on-paying-federal-workers/

Republicans press Obama to back FEMA funding bill as storm nears

The bill was one of several House Republicans have pushed in recent days to fund chunks of the government amid the partial government shutdown.

"When you've got a storm in the Gulf of Mexico, this is not a time for partisanship," Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., said after the vote, flanked by Gulf state lawmakers. Scalise called on President Obama to remove his veto threat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to pass the bill in the Senate.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/03/Obamacare-Facebook-Erupts-With-Citizen-Sticker-Shock

On Thursday, the government's official Obamacare Facebook page was riddled with people expressing sticker shock over the government's high cost premiums after struggling for hours to wade through the technical failures vexing Obamacare exchanges all across the country.

"I am so disappointed," wrote one woman. "These prices are outrageous and there are huge deductibles. No one can afford this!"

"There is NO WAY I can afford it," said one commenter after using the Kaiser Subsidy Calculator. "Heck right now I couldn't afford an extra 10$ [sic] a month...and oh apparently I make to [sic] much at 8.55/hour to get subsidies."

A single mother of two said she is in school and working full-time while living "75% below the poverty level." She said she was shocked to learn she did not qualify for a healthcare subsidy. "Are you F'ing kidding me?" she wrote on the government's Obamacare Facebook page. "Where the HELL am I supposed to get $3,000 more a year to pay for this 'bronze' health insurance plan!?! And I DO NOT EVEN WANT INSURANCE to begin with!! This is frightening," she wrote.

Amid scores of comments expressing frustration with technical failures, one woman said she is "just amazed you could even get to the point of seeing pricing" and that she had been trying to access the system for three days to no avail.

Obamacare sticker shock will not affect millions of low-income Americans; a New York Times analysis published on Wednesday found that Obamacare "will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help."

Obamacare will cost taxpayers an estimated $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/03/No-One-Signs-Up-For-ObamaCare-In-Sebelius-Own-State-of-Kansas

No One Signs Up for ObamaCare in Sebelius' Own State of Kansas

Though HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is the former governor of Kansas, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) was informed by an insurance provider in his home state that none of the 365,000 uninsured people living there successfully signed up for insurance on the ObamaCare exchange on the first day.

According to LifeNews, Huelskamp had his own difficulties signing up in the exchanges as well, waiting “on hold” for over 60 hours, and still, as of Thursday, being unable to sign up.

“This is yet another example of why we need to get rid of ObamaCare,” Huelskamp added. “We knew it was unpopular. We knew it was unaffordable. And now we know it is unworkable.”

Turning to overseas:

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303722604579113512339011346.html

'Let Them Starve'

How the U.S.-Russia deal on Syria looks from a Damascus suburb.

The world continues to hail the U.N. deal to remove Bashar Assad's chemical weapons as a diplomatic triumph, and Vladimir Putin is even being floated for the Nobel Peace Prize. But peace hasn't come to Syria, as reporter Sam Dagher reported in Thursday's Journal.

Mr. Dagher reports that Assad's forces are laying siege to the same rebellious Damascus neighborhood of Moadhamiya that was one of the targets of the regime's August 21 chemical attack. Regime forces have cut off and encircled the area, and the military strategy is to starve the remaining 12,000 residents into submission.

"Let them starve for a bit, surrender and then be put on trial," one regime paramilitary told Mr. Dagher. Sources within Moadhamiya report that "people are subsisting on whatever they can forage locally," including olives and grape leaves. The regime has turned down seven attempts by the Red Crescent to deliver food, most recently in June.

To this human catastrophe the international response has been . . . a U.N. statement.

washingtonexaminer.com/health-emergency-on-eve-of-obamacare-britains-nhs-needs-political-therapy/article/2536520

SPOILER: Click to show

Health emergency: On eve of Obamacare, Britain's NHS needs political therapy

In early September, Julie Bailey was settling into her new home. Weeks before, she had been chased out of her town after a succession of death threats, the desecration of her mother’s grave and the collapse of her small business.

No, Bailey isn't the star witness in a mob trial. She's just an average British citizen who became a lightning rod for exposing failures of the country's vaunted National Health Service after her mother died while in its care.

In Britain, the NHS is often described as the “envy of the world.” A vast bureaucracy boasting 1.7 million workers, it is the fifth-largest employer on the planet, according to the BBC. NHS workers are so esteemed that they’re treated to a wide range of discounts – in restaurants and hotels, for instance, and even for mobile phones – typically reserved in the United States for senior citizens and members of the military. When London hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics, the opening ceremony included a glitzy tribute to the health service, complete with a parade of dancing nurses.

In recent years, the institution has been besieged by a succession of major scandals, notably by the one at Stafford Hospital brought to light by Julie Bailey.

Bailey was an unlikely candidate to gain notoriety as a whistleblower against such a cherished institution. “Seven years ago, Mum and I were proud of the NHS,” she recounted. “So when we went into Mid Staffs [hospital], it was a huge shock to find what we did.”

A former social worker and lifelong liberal, Bailey lived in Stafford, a town 140 miles northwest of London, where she took care of her mother, Bella. In the fall of 2007, her mother was hospitalized at Stafford Hospital after a rough, sleepless night interrupted by coughing and retching.

Once in the hospital, Bailey was bullied by staff members and dismissed when she suggested her mother needed medication for a chest infection. One night, her mother was left lying in her own vomit, despite screaming for help. One doctor told Bailey that her mother would die a “painful death,” snapping his fingers for emphasis.

Her confidence shaken, Bailey took to sleeping on a hard plastic chair in the hospital to attend to her mother’s care. But spending more time in the hospital meant being exposed to the depth of its horrors. “What I saw was the abuse of vulnerable adults,” she said.

Bailey said she witnessed nurses leaving food out of reach of immobile patients who couldn’t feed themselves. Sometimes, nurses would come by to say they forgot the keys to the drug cabinet, meaning they couldn’t distribute medication to those in need of it. Patients who required assistance going to the bathroom were often forced to relieve themselves in their own beds. Desperate patients deprived of fluids resorted to drinking water out of the dirty flower vases in the hallway. “One of the worst things was walking down the corridor,” she recalled, “and it would just be, ‘Nurse! Nurse! Help! Help!’ ” More mobile patients would often wander around the hallways, confused, in a futile search for care.

Without any nurses around, Bailey started feeding the other patients herself, helping them go to the bathroom and providing whatever assistance she could. But one day, an inadequately trained health assistant dropped her mother just as she was preparing to be discharged from the hospital. “From that moment on, it was murder,” Bailey said.

Her mother – a tough woman who had worked in a munitions factory during World War II – now required constant attention, so Bailey said she had to ignore the pleas of others who had become dependent on her help.

“I just bought earplugs and I pulled the curtains around so I couldn’t see anything, because these were people I’d grown attached to,” she said. “To see them scrumming down in bed after food and eating it with their fingers, and feces all over them, it was just terrible.”

In 2010, just 41 MRIs and 77 CT scans were performed per 1,000 people in the U.K., according to OECD data, compared with 98 MRIs and 265 CT scans per 1,000 in the U.S.

The drawback of such an approach is that because the system prides itself on creating equity by putting the needs of society as whole ahead of any given patient, it means that the needs of individuals often get lost in a sea of managers, administrative targets and rationing decisions.

“The individual is essentially a supplicant,” said Philip Booth, program director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, a free market think tank in London. “He's irrelevant to the whole system as far as the National Health Service is concerned.”

Individuals cannot get tests within the NHS if its doctors don’t approve them. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (whose acronym NICE is a source of irony to critics), a board of experts that recommends treatments based on cost-benefit analyses, can deny cancer patients drugs if it concludes that a short extension of life isn’t worth the expense. In a further bit of irony, NICE was created in the 1990s to foster equality within the system because certain drugs were more available in some regions of the country than others.

The NHS is rife with examples of centralized policies producing real-world results that range from tragic to absurd.

For instance, the former Labor government responded to complaints about waiting times at hospital emergency rooms by instituting a target for NHS hospitals to treat patients within four hours. Under pressure to meet these targets, the Daily Mail reported in 2008, hospital administrators let seriously ill people wait in ambulances for hours outside the hospital so that they weren’t technically counted as patients. As a result, the ambulances weren’t available to answer emergency calls.

One of the more recent scandals has its roots in the 1990s, when the NHS established a set of best practices for providing care to patients at the end of their lives. Known as the Liverpool Care Pathway, it has since been applied to hundreds of thousands of people. Last November, the Mail reported, an independent review found that 60,000 people were put on the pathway without their consent and a third of the time families weren't even informed. Thus, they had no idea that their close relatives were removed from life support equipment and were being denied nourishment. In extreme cases, nurses shouted at relatives who attempted to give their dying loved ones sips of water. According to the Mail, hospitals were given incentive payments for putting more people on the pathway - effectively, the government was providing bonuses for ending people's lives earlier.

Bailey wrote to hospital managers about what she had witnessed. After being ignored, she drafted a letter to the local newspaper. As responses flooded in from people who had similar experiences at the hospital, she founded Cure the NHS in December 2007 and set up a website to help gather accounts from others. But she continued to meet resistance from government officials...Bailey’s first vindication came in March 2009, when a report by the Healthcare Commission found that “appalling” care along the lines of what she had witnessed had led to an estimated 400 to 1,200 deaths at the hospital.

The level of detail in the Francis inquiry and the succession of news stories about the horrific state of care at Mid Staffs was a shocking blow to those who like to think of the NHS as supremely humane, especially compared to the U.S. health system. It was followed by another report detailing similar failings in ignoring patient needs at 14 other trusts, or hospital systems, within the NHS.

Britain typically ranks poorly among developed nations when it comes to cancer outcomes. The U.S. ranks well ahead of the U.K. in five-year survival rates for 22 out of 23 types of cancers, according to data from the American Cancer Society.

Another source of NHS strength is the sense of social responsibility on which wealthier Britons pride themselves. “People, by what they believe, think they're being virtuous,” said James Bartholomew, author of the book “The Welfare State We're In,” which detailed the failings of the NHS. “I don't have to do anything virtuous, I just have to believe in the NHS.”

Andrew Lawson, a former NHS doctor and senior lecturer on medical ethics at London's Imperial College School of Medicine, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007. Had he relied solely on the NHS for treatment, he wrote in the Telegraph in August, he might be dead by now. Instead, he was able to supplement his NHS treatment with private care and participated in a clinical trial in the United States...When he was diagnosed in the U.K., Lawson was told he had 12 to 14 months to live. But he found American doctors more open. “I like their attitude,” he said. The approach was, “ ‘Maybe this will help you. Why don’t you try this?’ Around here, at times, it was, ‘You’re finished. Make peace with your God and go sort out your mortgage.’ ”

Julie Bailey’s public campaign for accountability for what happened at Mid Staffs made her a polarizing public figure, especially in Stafford. Her critics portrayed her as wanting to close the Stafford Hospital and destroy the NHS. She was subjected to harassing notes and phone calls that devolved into death threats. Her mother’s grave was vandalized. And business suffered at the small cafe she owned as activists staged a boycott and others were afraid to go inside and be viewed as enemies of the NHS. Last summer, fearing for her safety, she sold the cafe and moved to another location.

In the meantime, despite all the revelations, nobody at NHS has been held accountable for what happened at Mid Staffs.

If America's bitter health care debate over the past several years is any indication, more government control means increasing politicization of health care. And that is something that has been a constant in British politics, even though both major parties accept the basic principle of government provision of health care. As Enoch Powell, Britain's health minister in the early 1960s, put it, “Whatever is entrusted to politicians becomes political even if it isn't political.”

[Tails82]

With the shutdown, the Obamacare disaster, $17 trillion in debt, the mighty Obama weighs in on the most important matters facing us today:

www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/05/obama-open-to-name-change-for-washington-redskins/?intcmp=latestnews

Obama open to name change for Washington Redskins

Obama, in an interview with The Associated Press, said team names like the Redskins offend "a sizable group of people."

It only offends retards like you. Only 11 percent think it should be changed and this is probably max, if it drops out of the news no one would care. It's the dumb lib cause for this week.

www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/04/catholic-priests-in-military-face-arrest-for-celebrating-mass/?intcmp=latestnews

Catholic priests in military face arrest for celebrating Mass

The U.S. military has furloughed as many as 50 Catholic chaplains due to the partial suspension of government services, banning them from celebrating weekend Mass. At least one chaplain was told that if he engaged in any ministry activity, he would be subjected to disciplinary action.

“They were told they cannot function because those are contracted services and since there’s no funding they can’t do it – even if they volunteer,” he said.

John Schlageter, general counsel for the archdiocese, said any furloughed priests volunteering their services could face big trouble.

“During the shutdown, it is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so,” he said in a written statement.

A well-placed source told me that a furloughed Air Force chaplain was threatened after he offered to forgo pay. The chaplain was told he could not go on base or enter his chapel offices. He was also barred from engaging in any ministry activity.

The source told me the chaplain was told that if he violated those orders he and his supervisor would be subjected to disciplinary action – with the possibility of being fired.

Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, called those developments disturbing.

“Catholic military personnel should not have their religious liberties held hostage by this funding crisis,” Crews told me. “I find it alarming that these priests cannot even volunteer to provide services without threat of arrest.”

Bill Donohue, of the Catholic League, told me he’s not surprised by the decision to furlough Catholic priests.

“In American history there has been no administration more anti-Catholic than the Obama administration,” he said. “For them to deny Catholic men and women the opportunity of the sacraments and to deal with their prayerful vocations is really a stunning statement.”

“It’s a sad contrast when we can let a football game go on but we won’t let a priest go on base and celebrate Mass,”

washingtonexaminer.com/house-approves-more-small-funding-bills-democrats-plan-to-kill/article/2536863

The House voted Saturday to grant back-pay to federal employees for time missed during the government shutdown, and to allow military chaplains to go back to work, bringing to nine the number of targeted appropriations bills it's approved.

“We have committed to fund the areas of government we agree on, which is a lot more than not,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said after the vote on the fifth day of the government shutdown. He predicted that the measures would pass the Democratic Senate if they were brought to a vote, but Democrats have no plans to allow such votes.

blog.heritage.org/2013/10/05/obama-keeps-world-war-ii-memorial-closed-depsite-public-outry/

Obama Keeps World War II Memorial Closed Despite Outcry from Veterans

The political stunt — a result of President Obama’s decision to shut down the government to protect Obamacare — has prompted questions from members of Congress.

“It appears as though only the highly visible monuments and areas are being closed to the public – further proof that the Obama Administration is only playing politics and purposely choosing to make this shut down as painful as possible,” said House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings.

These open-air sites, normally open to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, were not closed during the last government shutdown in 1996 or during the Occupy D.C. camp.

Heritage legal expert Hans von Spakovsky has studied the law and determined there is no justifiable reason for closing the World War II Memorial. While the Obama administration continues the political stunt, veterans and citizens have taken matters into their own hands to keep it open.

On Thursday, I witnessed a man dressed a black shirt, jeans and a military fatigue cap at the World War II Memorial cut the wires bounding the barricades together and tear them open so visitors could enter. He walked around perimeter of the monument to ensure all the entrances of the monument were open then he saluted and ran across the street toward the Washington Monument.

The World War II Memorial remained open for about two hours. The park rangers began kicking everyone out and blocking the entrances before an Honor Flight tour group arrived. The rangers allowed the veterans in, but blocked entrance for others and told them that the memorial had been closed all day — contradicting what I saw firsthand.

Will the barricades be strong enough to keep veterans and citizens out this weekend?

www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/10/03/DOD-Sued-for-Records-about-Removal-of-So-Help-Me-God-from-Air-Force-Academy-Written-Materials

There has been a wave of attacks against religious freedom inside the United States Military.

There was the Air Force officer who was forced to remove a Bible from his desk because it might offend someone. There is the military chaplain who was instructed to resign his commission if he refused to “get on board” with the abolition of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. There’s the 20-year-old ethics course that was eliminated in July 2011 because it referenced scripture. And there is the painting containing a verse from scripture that was removed from the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho following a complaint by an anti-Christian “religious freedom” group.

Recently, the United States Air Force (USAF) Academy removed the words “So help me God” from some written materials, including the oath administered to USAF inductees, based upon the objections of a single atheist, we allege.

While this oath has undergone modifications over the centuries, the phrase “So help me God” dates all the way back to 1776. So there can be no question regarding whether or not our Founding Fathers believed there was any conflict among the reference to “God” and our founding principles and the Constitution.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/05/list-obama-closures-for-shutdown

While our president still enjoys his essential employees and locations: the White House chefs, Camp David, and a military golf course, there doesn't seem to be any question that in mercenary pursuit of a political win, this White House is determined to unreasonably punish as many everyday people as possible. And this includes children sick with cancer. That might sound like hyperbole, but it is not.

Although Barack Obama's chefs have been deemed "essential," employees at the National Institutes of Health who offer last-chance experimental cancer treatments for children suffering from cancer have not. Worse still, House Republicans have offered to compromise with the president and single the NIH out for funding. The White House has threatened a veto.

Using children sick with cancer as pawns is community organizing on steroids. And the media are covering for him. When the media thought they could emotionally blackmail the GOP with these sick children, telling their story was all the rage. Now that it is Obama and Senate Democrats wrist-flicking refusing treatment for these children, suddenly the media aren't too interested in telling their story.

There are many other examples of this president's cold-hearted fanaticism and willingness to punish people for reasons that seem to have much more to with spite than what is and is not "essential." In fact, there are a number of examples where Obama seems to be spending more money and using more resources to close and block and inconvenience than to just leave it alone.

1. Treatments for Children Suffering From Cancer

2. The World War II Memorial - The Republican National Committee has offered to cover any costs required to keep the memorial open. The White House refused. Moreover, like the NIH, the GOP will pass a compromise bill that would fund America's national parks. Obama has threatened to veto that bill.

3. Furloughed Military Chaplains Not Allowed to Work for Free

4. Business Stops In Florida Keys

5. Obama Blacks Out Sports, Entertainment Programming to Overseas Troops

6. Obama Closes D-Day Memorial

7. Obama Tries to Close Privately-Funded Mt. Vernon

8. Obama Closes Over 100 Privately-Managed Parks That Cost No Money to Run - No federal employees are used to staff these parks. Taxpayers make a profit from these parks. Still, Obama had them closed and as a result 400-500 employees and a private business are taking it in the neck.

9. Obama Closes Self-Sustaining Colonial Farm It Hasn’t Supported Since 1980

10. Obama Tries to Close State-Run Parks in Wisconsin

11. Obama Closes Vietnam Memorial - The GOP have passed compromise legislation that would fund national memorials and parks, and open them to the public. Obama threatened a veto. Apparently, the "essential" government employees are those erecting barricades, not those who could keep the memorial open.

12. Obama Closes Privately-Owned Hotel, Police Block Parking Lot - "The operator of a 51-room inn located on U.S. government-owned land in North Carolina abandoned his defiant stance on Thursday to keep the property open despite being ordered to close as part of the federal government shutdown."

October is this inn's prime season. The GOP have offered compromise funding opening the parks. Obama said he will veto that compromise.

13. Park Service Ranger: 'We've Been Told to Make Life As Difficult For People As We Can' - “It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”

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Surprising no one, Republicans force a shutdown by repeatedly pushing for cuts on health care and then promptly point fingers at Obama when things start getting shut down.

[Tails82]

Republicans have been passing funding measures. Democrats keep saying no because they would rather do political games.

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Democrats have been protecting the right to affordable health care. Republicans keep saying no because they would rather keep us in the dark ages.