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President Obama's 70-minute White House meeting late Wednesday afternoon with congressional leaders, an effort to break the stalemate over the partial government shutdown, did nothing to help end the impasse. "We had a nice conversation, light conversation," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said following the meeting, but noted the president repeated that he will not negotiate on dialing back Obamacare. He added that he hopes that Mr. Obama and Democrats will have a serious discussion about resolving their differences with House Republicans. "All we're asking for is a discussion and fairness for the American people under Obamacare," he said. House...

Iconic military cemeteries around the world where thousands of American soldiers who died in the First and Second World Wars lay to rest were temporarily closed from Tuesday due to the US government shutdown. A sign outside the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial, west of Paris, informed visitors of its closure. “Due to the United States government shutdown, this site is closed to the public” But Suresnes isn’t the only one. The move affects some 20 cemeteries in France, Belgium, Britain, Italy, Tunisia and Mexico which serve as the final resting place for troops who died in landmark campaigns such...

The Department of the Interior has made “an accommodation for the Honor Flights and will grant access to the World War II Memorial,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says.

<p>President Barack Obama summoned congressional leaders to the White House on the second day of a partial government shutdown that has furloughed hundreds of thousands of workers and closed military cemeteries as far away as France. Republican leaders welcomed the Wednesday afternoon meeting but questioned whether Democrats were ready to deal.</p>

The National Park Service has ordered the closure of a Virginia park that sits on federal land, even though the government provides no resources for its maintenance or operation. The Claude Moore Colonial Farm announced on Wednesday that NPS has ordered it to suspend operations until Congress agrees to a deal to fund the federal government. According to Anna Eberly, managing director of the farm, NPS sent law enforcement agents to the park on Tuesday evening to remove staff and volunteers from the property. “You do have to wonder about the wisdom of an organization that would use staff they...

Beautiful Graphic by Mama_Bear! Dearest FReeper-Patriots, FRiends & Readers, On the good news front, Jim's heart is good and strong, (we knew that), but on the other side, Jim is coming home from the hospital today to await a rescheduling of his surgery. He's fine with that, knowing it's all in God's hands, so we must continue to pray and put all of our faith and trust in God. "In God, We Trust." Our FReepathon got off to a great start yesterday with 18 Donations of $100 or more and 3 New Monthly Donors, including 1 New $1-A-Day Donor!...

Twitter photo by Charlie Spiering, the Washington Examiner.The Obama administration is adding more barricades at the World War Two Memorial in Washington, D.C. this morning, according to reporters on the scene.The reinforcements are being put in place apparently to prevent a repeat of yesterday when WWII veterans aided by several Republican Congressmen pushed aside barricades to visit their memorial.Buzzfeed got no response from the White House last night when queried about the administration closing the memorial to veterans.A report last night claimed that the Park Service would arrest veterans who attempt to visit the WWII Memorial.

TOLEDO -- Locally in the Glass City, we can see the affects of the government shutdown at our museums, monuments, and national parks. The gates are closed and locked, denying access completely to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. TSA employees were still working at Toledo Express Airport, but when WNWO called the TSA to find out if they would be affected, there was a message that said the public relations representative did not have access to her voicemail or email due to the government shutdown. In a letter from Marcy Kaptur's office in the 9th District, it read, "...only services...

A Florida orthodontist sued the Obama administration on Tuesday, insisting that the White House must abandon changes it has made on its own to the Affordable Care Act, instead obeying the letter of the law as Congress passed it. The administration has made several tweaks to the Obamacare law, including a one-year delay of a measure that requires companies with 50 or more employees to offer them health insurance or pay financial penalties. The law specifies an exact date when that feature is to go into effect – January 1, 2014 – but the White House announced in July that...

The House of Representatives tried but failed to pass three emergency funding bills Tuesday, amid much political finger pointing by both parties in the wake of the potentially drawn out stalemate over the budget.

WASHINGTON — Wheelchair-bound elderly veterans pushed aside barricades to tour the World War II Memorial Tuesday morning, in defiance of the government shutdown which closed all of the memorials in the nation’s capital. The four bus loads of veterans — visiting from Mississippi as part of a once-in-a-lifetime Honor Flight tour — ignored National Park Police instructions not to enter the site as lawmakers and tourists cheered them on. “We didn’t come this far not to get in,” one veteran proclaimed. The scene was both emotional and comical at once. After it was clear they had lost control of the...

Republicans say the GOP-controlled House intends to pass legislation to reopen portions of the government, including national parks and processing of claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The House would also allow the government of Washington, D.C. to use its own taxpayer funds to provide services like garbage pickup, as well as keep D.C. employees on the job.

As the death toll for Government Shutdown Apocalypse 2013 continues to grow, it appears that the EPA’s plans to make it even more expensive for Americans to drive a car were “shut down� by the government shutdown. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will take one of the biggest hits of any federal agency if the government shuts down this week, operating with under 7 percent of its employees, according to guidance issued by the agency. Just think of how much less the EPA will be able to do with only 7 percent of its employees. That EPA SWAT Team may...

Beautiful Graphic by MamaBear Our 4th Quarter FReepathon is underway, but very sadly, not with Jim at the helm right now, because he is in Fresno's VA Hospital awaiting a rescheduling of his surgery to remove his remaining leg, that's causing him extraordinary pain and actually starting to poison his otherwise fairly healthy body, and I only say "fairly healthy" because of the strain this leg has put on his body and also because of his diabetes. Jim is otherwise one healthy, very strong dude! If you don't know, his surgery had to be delayed yesterday because his heart...

Netanyahu is scheduled to speak 8th today at the UN. Live stream at http://gadebate.un.org/ Live coverage also on cable news channels.

The Senate voted for the second time Monday to kill a Republican counter-offer that would rein in ObamaCare while funding the government, kicking the bill back to the House with only a couple hours left on the clock before the government begins to shut down. Lawmakers are facing a midnight deadline to reach an agreement on a government spending bill. Senate Democrats vow they will not accept any proposal that targets ObamaCare. The latest House bill would have delayed the law's individual mandate while prohibiting lawmakers, their staff and top administration officials from getting government subsidies for their health care....

LIVE on C-SPAN2: Senate Session

The Senate voted Monday afternoon to kill House Republicans’ latest stopgap spending offer, holding firm in their demand that Congress continue to fund Obamacare as part of any government-funding debate. The 54-46 vote officially tabled both proposals the House GOP passed early Sunday morning, one of which would have funded the government while delaying the health law for a year, and the other of which would have repealed one of the Affordable Care Act’s tax increases.

During his Ironman 21-hour speech, Sen. Ted Cruz read excerpts from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, name-dropped "libertarians" at least six times, and yielded to Sen. Rand Paul, who invoked Frederic Bastiat's "What is Seen and Unseen," a favorite among libertarians. Ted Cruz, who retained remarkable composure over the long night, seems in all things deliberate. Political leaders seem to have become more comfortable talking about libertarians, even identifying themselves as such. Libertarians may have reached a tipping point within the Republican Party. Last week, a FreedomWorks study on public opinion found that libertarian views within the Republican Party are at...

U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, said this morning that he will not seek re-election in 2014. Bachus, 65, said in a statement released by email that he will retire from congress at the conclusion of his current term in December 2014. Bachus, who has represented the state's 6th congressional district since 1993, is the senior member of Alabama's congressional delegation.

In a move that makes a government shutdown very likely, House Republicans approved a spending plan early Sunday morning that would delay Obamacare for a year and repeal its tax on medical devices. The temporary budget resolution now goes back to the Senate, where Democrats have consistently said any changes to President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law is a deal-killer. ... The decision to vote on the House amendments overnight emerged from a rare weekend GOP caucus meeting called by House Speaker John Boehner. The votes, taken after midnight, were 231-192 for the Obamacare delay, and 248-174 for the medical...

WASHINGTON, DC – House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and GOP Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released the following joint statement: “The American people don’t want a government shut down and they don’t want ObamaCare. That’s why later today, the House will vote on two amendments to the Senate-passed continuing resolution that will keep the government open and stop as much of the president’s health care law as possible. “The first amendment delays the president’s health care law by one year. And the second permanently repeals ObamaCare’s medical device tax...

The Talk Shows September 29th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.; Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Tim Kaine, D-Va.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Reps. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.THIS WEEK (ABC): Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif; former President Bill Clinton.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.; Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.

The White House is getting ready to launch a major fall blitz for immigration reform... While Washington may be consumed in the latest continuing resolution crisis and debt ceiling drama, it’s also just days away from massive new push on an issue many had written off months ago. [snip] The political imperatives driving the latest immigration effort are clear: Obama can’t just abandon an issue that he promised to deliver on during his last campaign without suffering a major backlash from activists who helped elect him, and congressional Democrats are anxious to make sure Latino voters are motivated to punish...

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

It’s the House’s prerogative to supply funds, or not, for Obamacare.Republican leaders are right: There was a flaw in Ted Cruz’s plan to defund Obamacare: He took Republican leaders seriously. Senator Cruz, along with Senator Mike Lee and House conservatives, devised a strategy to forestall the unpopular socialized-medicine scheme that Democrats unilaterally rammed through Congress in 2010. They would starve it of funds, not unlike the way Democrats and Republicans have slashed funds for fence construction along the Mexican border, even though the fence has been the law of the land for seven years. The Obamacare defunding strategy, though, depended...

Headline at Drudge Report "DELAY OBAMACARE A YEAR OR WE WILL SHUT IT DOWN - BOEHNER MAKES MOVE"

Alleged Republican John McCain responded to Ted Cruz’s heroic but failed attempt to stop ObamaCare by speaking apparently at the behest of Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid. Tune in at around 4:20 in the video below and hear this: “I’d remind my colleagues that in the 2012 election, ObamaCare … was a subject that was a major issue in the campaign. … Well, the People spoke… and they reelected the president of the United States. Now that doesn’t mean we give up our efforts to try to replace and repair ObamaCare. But it does mean that elections have consequences, and...

Streaming link

President Barack Obama said Friday that new exchanges for private health insurance under Obamacare will open next week as scheduled even if there is a government shutdown, adding: "That's a done deal." In a congressional version of hot potato, the Senate on Friday passed a short-term spending plan that would prevent a looming government shutdown and sent it to the House for a weekend showdown between Republican tea party conservatives and their more moderate party leaders. The 54-44 vote on strict party lines came after Senate Democrats pushed through an amendment to restore funding for Obamacare that House Republicans had...

House Republican leaders are stuck with a tough choice after Senate Democrats succeeded in passing a "clean" budget bill which, contrary to GOP wishes, includes full funding for ObamaCare. The Senate, capping a dramatic week on Capitol Hill, approved the bill on Friday, after Democrats stripped a Republican-backed provision to defund the health law. The final vote was 54-44. The bill now returns to the House, and is seen by some lawmakers as a sort of legislative hot potato. If the two chambers cannot agree on a final bill by midnight on Monday, then the government will shut down. Neither...

Earlier today, the United States Senate voted to fund Obamacare. There were 25 Republicans who betrayed their principles and voted for cloture, giving Democrats the power to implement this terrible law. This is a disappointing loss, but the bill now goes back to the House where Republicans must hold their ground and refuse to fund Obamacare. Here are the 25 Senate Republicans who voted to allow Harry Reid (D-NV) and the Democrats to fund Obamacare today: Alexander, Lamar (R-TN) Ayotte, Kelly (R-NH) Barrasso, John (R-WY) Blunt, Roy (R-MO) Boozman, John (R-AR) Burr, Richard (R-NC) Chambliss, Saxby (R-GA) Chiesa, Jeff (R-NJ)...

Senate just came into session. Happily, Dingy Harry is sparing us any commentary early on this morning, as is McConnell. Debate goes until 12:10, at which time there is 30 minutes reserved for majority and minority leaders , then the vote. Will there be any more GOP intramural fireworks on the senate floor?

Graphic by MamaBear

Republican tensions grew Thursday as Tea Party-aligned senators rejected a bid to speed up the vote on a bill to fund the government while defunding ObamaCare, with one senior lawmaker accusing his colleagues of posturing -- as the chances of a government shutdown increased. The flurry of activity occurred late Thursday afternoon on the Senate floor. With lawmakers facing a Sept. 30 deadline to pass a spending bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to get approval to hold key votes on Thursday, in order to give the House more time to consider the legislation. But Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah,...

USA Today cannot be posted to FR. http://www.news10.net/news/national/258637/5/Boehner-House-wont-accept-clean-funding-bill

<p>Rep. Peter King, who called fellow Republican Ted Cruz a 'fraud,' said his office is now receiving threatening phone calls from people who say they're supporters of the Texas senator.</p> <p>"You can't always blame a person if his followers act in a terrible way," King said on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." However, he expressed concern about the "vile, obscene" nature of the phone calls.</p>

Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for British national Samantha Lewthwaite, also knows as the “White Widow.” Kenya requested the warrant, claiming she is a danger to the world. The international law enforcement agency sent the red alert to 190 countries, notifying officials it is a priority to pass along any information on her whereabouts. ********************* Lewthwaite is suspected of being part of the Westgate Mall massacre in Nairobi, Kenya. On September 21, 10 to 15 al-Shabaab jihadists stormed the mall and said they wanted to murder all non-Muslims. They lined up men, women, and children and quizzed them over...

Speaker John Boehner said Thursday the GOP-controlled House will not accept a temporary spending bill from the Democratic Senate if it is shorn clean of a tea party plan to "defund Obamacare." "I don't see that happening," Boehner told reporters. At the same time, the Ohio Republican said House GOP leaders would unveil legislation to lift the government's borrowing cap, but only if the new health care law is delayed for a year. He defended that measure's relatively modest spending cuts even as some rank-and-file conservatives pressed for more. "It does not cut spending significantly. It does not fix the...

After Ted Cruz's marathon 21-hour filibuster on the Senate floor, liberal talk show host Mike Malloy expressed a desire to see the Texas Republican killed, offering to provide the murder weapon, Newsbusters' Tim Graham reported Wednesday. "And wing nut radio host Mark Levin or Levin said yesterday, the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, just stabbed Ted Cruz and Mike Lee in the back!

Senator John McCain lashed out at fellow Republican Ted Cruz on Wednesday over a Nazi appeasement comparison he made during his all-night, anti-Obamacare marathon on the U.S. Senate floor. McCain, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war, said the comparison was inappropriate. He said he had taken Cruz aside privately to tell him, and got a response he did not like: Cruz told him his appeaser reference applied not to distinguished members of the Senate but only media "pundits." "I resoundingly reject" Cruz's comments, said McCain, a senior Republican and former presidential candidate. "I think it's wrong and I...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Senate on Wednesday took the first of several procedural votes designed to enact funding for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. Democrats who lead the Senate are aiming to replace a House-passed funding bill with a measure that maintains money for President Barack Obama's health law and keeps the government open until Nov. 15. The Senate's Wednesday afternoon vote was on proceeding to debate the House-passed bill.

The United States, the world’s largest arms dealer, has joined more than 90 other nations in signing a treaty that regulates global arms trading, but there is strong resistance in the Senate, which must ratify it. Secretary of State John Kerry, who signed the Arms Trade Treaty on Wednesday, said it was a “significant step” in keeping the world safe and preventing terrorists and others from obtaining conventional weapons. … Addressing U.S. critics of the treaty, the former senator said fears that it would undermine Americans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms are not grounded in reality. For one,...

EXCLUSIVE: The recent theft of massive amounts of highly sensitive U.S. military equipment from Libya is far worse than previously thought, Fox News has learned, with raiders swiping hundreds of weapons that are now in the hands of militia groups aligned with terror organizations and the Muslim Brotherhood. The equipment, as Fox News previously reported, was used for training in Libya by U.S. Special Forces. The training team, which was funded by the Pentagon, has since been pulled, partly in response to the overnight raids last August. According to State Department and military sources, dozens of highly armored vehicles called...

In the next few days, politicians in Washington, D.C., will do and say many things to make it look and sound as if they are against Obamacare when in fact they are ultimately planning to use the power that has been vested in them by the people of their districts and states to ensure that Obamacare is funded and implemented. But make no mistake: If Obamacare is funded and implemented it will be because Republican members of Congress decided to do it. This is not a debatable supposition. It is an irrefutable fact. The fate of Obamacare is controlled completely...

We have a few senators doing the heavy lifting for us, led by Senator Ted Cruz, to determine whether or not we lose more of our LIBERTY. Probably lots of us have already called, e-mailed, tweeted and so forth, but we can do it again! After calling if you'd be kind enough to report back what the various staffers had to say, it would be revealing! If you click on the link it takes you to page with all Senate numbers.

WASHINGTON – Asserting the Senate’s constitutional role on treaties, U.S. Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn., ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, in a letter today warned the Obama administration against taking any action to implement the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty without Senate advice and consent. “The ATT raises significant legislative and constitutional questions. Any act to implement this treaty, provisionally or otherwise, before the Congress provides its advice and consent would be fundamentally inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution, law, and practice,” said Corker. Full text of the letter is included below and in the attached document. Dear President Obama,...

The House Republican leadership is seriously considering attaching a one-year delay of Obamacare’s individual mandate to the Senate bill to avert a government shutdown, according to senior GOP aides. If House Republicans decide to go this route, it would all but provoke a government shutdown, since Senate Democrats might not even schedule a vote on a bill that includes that provision, Senate leadership staffers say. Even if the Senate schedules a vote, there might not be time to move the legislation through the slow-moving chamber. The House Republican leadership is planning its next move as it becomes abundantly clear that...

The White House pool reporter says an unnamed official claims President Obama offered to have an "encounter" with his Iranian counterpart, but was turned down: Senior administration officials came to pool hold around 2:45pm to say that the White House had offered to have "an encounter" on the sidelines of UNGA with Iranian President Rouhani, but the Iranians informed the US today that it is "too complicated for Iranians to do at this point."