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A trio of conservative groups announced Thursday they will back Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R), who is running for the seat held by Sen. Thad Cochran (R). The Club For Growth, Senate Conservatives Fund and the Madison Project each announced endorsements. "Chris McDaniel is a constitutional conservative who will fight to stop Obamacare, balance the budget, and get America working again," said Senate Conservatives Fund executive director Matt Hoskins. Added Club For Growth President Chris Chocola: "Senator Chris McDaniel represents the next generation of conservative leadership that Mississippi Republicans are waiting for." Cochran has not yet definitively said whether...

...Senator Cruz and his adherents do not view things in conventional terms. They look back over the past half-century, including the supposedly golden era of Ronald Reagan, and see the uninterrupted forward march of the American left. Entitlement spending never stopped growing. The regulatory state continued to expand. The national debt grew and grew and finally in the Obama years, exploded. They see an American population becoming unrecognizable from the free and self-reliant people they thought they knew. And they see the Republican Party as having utterly failed to stop the drift toward an unfree nation supervised by an overweening...

President Barack Obama challenged the GOP to end political brinkmanship and said Republicans should "win an election" if they so badly wish to change his policies.

Social security numbers allegedly passed around in clear sight. Page after page of unworkable code. And no clarity on when it will all be fixed. Just another day of trying to log in to healthcare.gov. Those glitches could take months -- or even years -- to fix, according to reports. But there's a key deadline looming: Jan. 1, 2014, when the ACA's individual mandate takes effect. Under the mandate, millions of Americans who were expected to use the exchanges to obtain health insurance will face fines if they haven't purchased coverage by Feb. 15, raising the question of whether the...

Officials from MNsure provided the first public glimpse into how many Minnesotans have not only created accounts on the new health insurance site, but also committed to choosing a plan and paying for coverage. MNsure officials say about 3,700 visitors to the site are in the enrollment process — they’ve taken the step of selecting coverage through MNsure and are in the payment process if their plans require payment. That’s about 30 percent of the total number of accounts opened. The majority of those in the enrollment process are qualified for government programs such as Medicaid or MinnesotaCare, the state’s...

<p>A state lawmaker from Mississippi is set to announce Thursday whether he will challenge Sen. Thad Cochran in a Republican primary next year.</p> <p>State Sen. Chris McDaniel has scheduled a noon announcement at the Ellisville Courthouse in the Mississippi town of the same name.</p>

...But with tonight’s vote done and the government open once again, I want to return to...and stress once more the essential absurdity of the specific populist gambit we’ve just witnessed unfold, drag on, and now finally collapse. However you slice and dice the history, the strategery, and the underlying issues, the decision to live with a government shutdown for an extended period of time — inflicting modest-but-real harm on the economy, needlessly disrupting the lives and paychecks of many thousands of hardworking people, and further tarnishing the Republican Party’s already not-exactly-shiny image — in pursuit of obviously, obviously unattainable goals...

RACINE COUNTY, WI — National numbers on the federally run insurance marketplace aren’t out until mid-November, but locally the question “How many have enrolled online?” is easy to answer — none. At least, that’s how many the county knows of. Racine County officials said continued technical issues with the Affordable Care Act’s healthcare.gov site are to blame. Meanwhile, organizations seeking federal certification to assist with enrollment are seeing progress, albeit slowly. Halfway through the marketplace’s first month, “It’s just been kind of anti-climactic,” said Hope Otto, who heads in-person enrollment for the Racine County Health and Human Services Department.

That rumor has been flying around, in part due to the natural opacity of last-minute deals struck at the eleventh hour of a “crisis.”  The legislative branch controls the debt ceiling, but Democrats have occasionally proposed to either eliminate it altogether or allow the executive to set it — at least when a Democrat is President.  So what exactly did the Reid-McConnell bill do to the debt ceiling?  Politico has the source of some confusion on this at the bottom of their story: The legislation also includes a McConnell-written proposal that would allow Congress to disapprove of the debt-ceiling increase....

Despite presiding over a chamber that nearly drove the country to a debt default, John A. Boehner still has the enduring support of a group that would’ve been most harmed by that event: the business community. Rather than revisit their strategy of supporting Republicans after this week’s near-disaster, influential organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are standing behind Boehner. More importantly, Boehner’s friends in the business community are getting ready to take sides in a few Republican primary races against tea party candidates in Michigan, Idaho and Alabama who could cause the House speaker more trouble.

Governor Rick Perry was once alleged to have stated that Texas could secede in the future. But he now states he opposes succession: http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2012/11/13/rick-perry-texas-secession-petition/1702359/ If the different states were to become different nations, the federal government would cease to exist. That means that the federal debt would be reduced to Zero. But the price that Americans would pay, would be the loss of super power status. Would Americans be better off or worse off, if the states were to become different countries?

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Todd and I were proud to stand with Mark Levin and other bold, patriotic warriors in support of Steve Lonegan in the New Jersey Senate race! Mayor Lonegan fought the good fight, and he and his supporters have not “finished the race,” they’ve just begun! The press has now called the race for Barack Obama’s celebrity stand-in, Cory Booker, but rest assured that Steve fought gallantly for every vote that would have led to American solvency and exceptionalism. Steve is a lucky guy to have a strong New Jersey wife and two great daughters who supported him through this campaign....

Here’s the unspoken narrative of the entire recent adventure in Game Theory that was the soon-to-be-terminated government shutdown. The Tea Party is Ba-aaaack! Oh, RMJ, you kwazy Wingnut! How can you speak such blasphemy? The GOP got crushed. Emperor Barack I and his own appointed Conde’ Harry Reid got EVERYTHING they could have wanted. The GOP’s polls are in the septic tank. It’s over for you silly neanderthals. OVER! Except for one thing…The GOP did this to oppose President Obama’s signature healthcare reform – Glorious ObamaCare. On October 1st, the Internet portion of this monstrosity came, saw and 404′d. Reason...

I’ve mentioned in a previous diary about the correlation that being a super-hawk has with a disrespect for civil liberties and disregard for spending prudence. Look no further than John McCain and Lindsey Graham. It was for this reason I declined to support brand-new Rep. Tom Cotton for Senate. It turns out he didn’t wait to get to the Senate to demonstrate a lack of fiscal discipline. Tonight Tom Cotton sided with Boehner, Cantor, and the rest of the spineless establishment in voting for the Democratic budget bill. Here is the roll call: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll550.xml You can read his statement here:...

The heads of the world’s largest defense companies are working to reclaim their clout in Congress after failing to push lawmakers to tackle sequestration as part of an agreement to end the latest standoff. The announcement of the deal to reopen the government and raise the nation’s debt ceiling made clear just how far the industry has fallen in its influence on Capitol Hill. Addressing the Senate on Wednesday, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) touted the accord as a victory for conservatives precisely because it continues sequestration, the automatic spending cuts that have hit the Pentagon and the sprawling defense...

The outmaneuvering of the House by the White House and Senate finds the media and their Democrat puppeteers pronouncing the demise of the Republican Party. Since when is spine a political liability? The real villains of the battle of the budget and debt ceiling are John McCain, Susan Collins and Bob Corker in the Senate and Peter King in the House, not Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and not the House's Tea Party Republicans. These fiscal fisticuffs were always about ObamaCare, the obscenely expensive new entitlement that is demonstrating daily why Americans have been right to oppose it all...

The government shutdown has made it abundantly clear that the anti-conservative news media and the anti-conservative Republican establishment have joined together to the point where it's almost impossible to see where one ends and the other begins. Some might say they merge every day on the set of "Morning Joe." The media have designated as Public Enemy No. 1 a recalcitrant bloc of Tea Party stalwarts who have declared their intention to stop Barack Obama's statist juggernaut from imposing the ObamaCare monstrosity, running up trillion-dollar deficits year after year and in so doing destroying the private sector. Amazingly, liberal Republicans...

HOUSTON - Call them the door-to-door salesmen of Obamacare. A couple of cheerful young men wearing identical T-shirts and carrying a clipboard full of pamphlets walks through a neighborhood near Hobby Airport in southeast Houston. One of the groups working to enroll Texans is the Texas Organizing Project, a decidedly Democratic organization sharply critical of Gov. Rick Perry and other state Republican leaders. There are people like Phyllis Pharr found sitting on her porch, smoking a cigarette next to the birdcage housing a pet cockateel named George. She tried to do some research, but didn't get very far. "Their website...

GOP challenger aims to follow in the footsteps of other Republican firebrands MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- In the Republican Liberty Caucus’ endorsement of state Sen. Lee Bright for the U.S. Senate Wednesday, the group’s seemingly mild-mannered, genial state chairman stepped up to a podium here to offer particular praise not usually associated with the pugnacious politician he was feting. “The thing that really stands out for me is that he is a unifier. He can bring together the various aspects, the various segments of the Republican Party of South Carolina,” said RLC South Carolina chairman Scott Pearson. “And he can...

John McCain took a swipe at Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams Wednesday night. During the interview, Williams brought up a statement Gohmert made last week at the Values Voter Summit claiming that the Republican Arizona senator supports al Qaida. Speaking at an event at the conservative conference, Gohmert referred to McCain as a “guy who’s been to Syria and supported al Qaida and rebels.” McCain told Williams that it isn’t worth responding to someone who “has no intelligence.” “Sometimes… comments like that are made out of malice, but if someone has no intelligence...

Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst called for the impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama during a Tarrant County Tea Party candidate forum on Monday. According to the Texas Observer: The crowd at Monday’s meeting of the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party got more than they bargained for. The event at Concordia Lutheran Church in the Fort Worth suburb of Bedford was originally planned so tea party members could learn about the Muslim Brotherhood’s supposed infiltration of the United States. But the crowd was also treated to a dose of the sniping that’s come to define the Texas lieutenant governor’s race — and...

JURIST Guest Columnist John Frazer argues that the Mississippi legislature's amended definition of a "concealed" weapon is not unduly confusing or vague... A recent decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court may finally have laid to rest the state's status as home to one of the nation's most rigidly interpreted concealed weapons laws, as well as ending one of the oddest recent episodes of gun-related litigation in the US. At the beginning of 2013, Mississippi—like most states—prohibited the carrying of handguns and certain other weapons concealed without a permit. However, unlike any other state's "concealed" carry statute, Mississippi's statute prohibited carrying...

<p>Senate Republicans emerged Wednesday from the Capitol meeting that ended the shutdown and debt ceiling crisis at least for a couple of months, saying, “Never again,” followed by, “I told you so.</p>

The insurance exchange's online search tool for doctors and hospitals has been offline since Oct. 9 while fixes are being made. That's making it hard for consumers to pick insurance plans. The insurance exchange announced this week that nearly 95,000 applications for health coverage have been started since Oct. 1. Officials won't disclose how many applications have actually been completed.

The dollar and European shares fell on Thursday as market relief at a last-ditch U.S. budget deal gave way to worries over the economic impact of the 16-day government shutdown and prospects of a re-run early next year. Chinese credit agency Dagong, downgraded the U.S. sovereign rating to A- from A with a negative outlook, driving further dollar losses.

An eye-catching billboard is causing controversy. Many believe it carries a racist message. The person responsible says that wasn't the intent; it's a political statement about free speech. The billboard went up on Harrison's U.S. 62/65 bypass on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, several viewers had contacted the KY3 newsroom, concerned about the message. The billboard reads "Anti-Racist is a Code Word for Anti-White," in plain black and yellow, no other information. For many, the first impression was outrage. "It really made me mad. It just kind of bothers me. Everything about the sign was screaming out racism, and that's something...

Much cynicism has been expressed over the past month about the effort, led by Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, to fight Obamacare. It was about money or defeating Republicans or something other than what it was about — undermining Obamacare with a united front. It was always about undermining Obamacare, despite the claims of others. But, those of us who were in this fight against Obamacare, have been quite open that we knew there were side benefits. This fight would expose conservative activists to the frauds they have funded. Men like Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, and...

The Republican Party's tea-party adherents believe they made an important point by setting in motion the events that led to this month's government shutdown, ill-fated though that shutdown might have been. The question they and the rest of their party now are left to ponder is this: Was the price paid worth the point made? That question, in fact, now lies at the heart of what figures to be a full-fledged struggle over the soul of the party, and over who really leads it.

Texas, for starters. Between his 21-hour non-filibuster to halt Obamacare, his impassioned, hard-line speech at the right-wing Values Voters Summit, and his meeting with House Republicans at the mediocre Mexican joint, Tortilla Coast, it’s clear Ted Cruz has been conducting the shutdown train, even as the country heads into default and his party heads over a cliff. Just about every write-up of the man portrays a smart and opportunistic political mind, eager to be, as The Texas Tribune’s Evan Smith puts it, “the Tea Party’s one true standard-bearer.” But is his strategy just crazy? Pundits in Washington can’t decide what...

On his radio show Tuesday evening, Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin lamented the current state of the Republican Party and both wondered aloud whether the time is nigh to form a third party for disillusioned conservatives. “There’s no difference between the two parties, at this point,” Hannity asserted. At another point during the interview, Palin suggested the president’s actions on the debt ceiling have, thus far, been “impeachable” offenses. The two discussed whether it’s plausible to jump ship to a third party now that the GOP has seemingly “abandoned” both of them and their followers. Later on during the discussion,...

This is just a plug for John Boehner's more organized primary opponent: anyone that feel up to it should send Mr. "Speaker" a message! http://jdwinteregg.com/

Moscow (CNN) -- Edward Snowden's father expressed satisfaction Wednesday with the way his son, the former National Security Agency contractor, has been treated since being granted asylum in August. Lon Snowden spoke to reporters at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport as he prepared to return to the United States after a six-day visit, his first reunion with his son since April. "I felt that this is the best place for him, this is the place where he doesn't have to worry about people rushing across the border to render him," Lon Snowden said. "It's not going to happen here." It may...

So the Senate has reached a deal, and the House GOP leadership will reportedly allow a vote on it, meaning this crisis is probably over. For now, anyway. How long until Republicans put us through all of this again? It’s easy to make fun of GOP Rep. Peter King, but he was one of the few to call out GOP insanity from the inside early in this process. Now, in an interesting and entertaining interview with Capital New York, he’s calling for Republicans to wage war on Ted Cruz. King predicts the Texas Senator will try do this all again...

In 2006, then-Governor Phil Bredesen signed CoverTennessee into law giving thousands of people not purged off TennCare access to some type of health care. It not only helped small business owners, but also struggling families and children. Fast forward to today the state says the looming Affordable Care Act means the program has to go away because it doesn't meet new federal guidelines that begin January 1st.

<p>WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans conceded defeat on Wednesday in their bitter budget fight with President Obama over the new health care law as the House and Senate approved last-minute legislation ending a disruptive 16-day government shutdown and extending federal borrowing power to avert a financial default with potentially worldwide economic repercussions.</p>

On the evening the Senate of the United States voted to effectively assign its power of the purse to President Obama, I thought it appropriate to call up an earlier age. Throughout the imperial period, the Roman emperors kept up the façade of republicanism. They pretended to consult the Senate and be guided by its votes. The Senate in turn, pretended it had a will of its own. Tacitus: Tiberius, in the meantime, while securing to himself the substance of imperial power, allowed the Senate some shadow of its old constitution. So corrupted indeed and debased was that age by...

Hal Lindsey does a real good job of summarizing the Obama Administration scandals and spends a good deal of time on the IRS scandal. Apparently, his organization has been under audit for over 2 years and they are OK so far. Make sure you listen until the end as he has some interesting comments on the definition of what constitutes a church and its minister in the IRS eyes.

Veterans hold new protest of partial government shutdown at WWII Memorial

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) didn’t defund Obamacare. He drove a government shutdown. His party is tanking in the polls. But he couldn’t be happier. At a press conference on Wednesday, Cruz called the House’s actions a “remarkable victory” and a “profile in courage.” Cruz has emerged as the latest celebrity politician who doesn’t need big policy achievements to build his cred, but a following on the far right of his party.

A baby boom among conservatives could push the nation's politics further right in the coming decades, especially since liberals aren't having as many children, according to a new study of online dating habits of conservatives and liberals. The study featured in a Harvard University Shorenstein Center review of recent surveys released Tuesday on how political polarization of the nation is impacting Washington's budget talks is the first to challenge left-leaning pundits who have claimed that as the white population shrinks, the GOP will become marginalized. Instead, the study in the authoritative journal Political Behavior, conducted by scholars from Brown and...

Wounded, bandaged and hooked up to tubes in an Afghanistan intensive care unit, a U.S. Army Ranger, thought by hospital staff to be unconscious, heard his commander’s voice and addressed him with the iconic symbol of respect: a salute. Josh Hargis, a Purple Heart recipient with the 3rd Ranger Battalion, was injured after 13 improvised explosive devices went off while he was conducting a mission in Afghanistan to capture a high value target, according to the website Guardian of Valor. Several members of the unit were killed by a woman wearing a suicide vest and others injured by the IEDs...

Breitbart News has obtained a legislative summary of the provisions in the Senate deal to reopen government and extend the debt ceiling. Breitbart News has also obtained a copy of the legislative text. Currently, Senate staff are able to review the summary and legislative text in the Senate cloakroom, but aren't allowed to retain a copy or make it public. In the interest of transparency, we have included the document below. [8 page document] As expected, the deal provides full back-pay for furloughed federal workers who haven't been at work for two weeks. It also provides back-pay, though, for state...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, there's so much out there that seems on the surface to be inexplicable. The problem in this country, as a majority of people recognize, I mean, look at this poll here. Look at this. It is a poll from the Pew Research Center. The bottom line: 81% of the people in this country are dissatisfied. Eighty-one percent are dissatisfied. Do you think they're dissatisfied with Ted Cruz? Do you think they're dissatisfied with the Tea Party? Do you think they're dissatisfied with the opposition to Barack Obama? The Republican Party obviously thinks so, but...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz railed against a Senate deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt limit, but he said to filibuster would be a pointless exercise. … “It is about all the people across this country who are right now facing terrifying decisions, because they are losing their health care, losing their jobs, being left in the cold. And, sadly, the United States Senate has said Washington will do nothing,” he said. “The Washington establishment is refusing to listen to the American people. The deal that has been cut provides no relief to millions of American who...

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the debt ceiling agreement reached between Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The vote will likely be at 6pm ET. If the agreement passes, it goes to the House for a vote, possibly later tonight.

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition… it’s America’s Clean-Up Hitter! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Joseph J. Dioguardi is a former member of Congress from New York and Certified Public Accountant. Dioguardi in his book “Unaccountable Congress: It Doesn’t Add Up” lists the top twelve gimmicks Congress uses to hide the true costs of government from the people. These gimmicks have been used for decades by both Republican and Democrat administrations, Congresses under both parties and government agencies. The idea behind these gimmicks is to “[K]eep Americans in the dark (or – I should say – in the red!), writes, Dioguardi. Dioguardi calls this “plastic budgeting”. As David A. Stockman, former Director of the Office...

The Senate Judiciary committee will vote on either Wednesday or Thursday whether to confirm Robert Wilkins, President Obama’s nominee to the prestigious D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals -- the court often referred to after the Supreme Court as the “second highest court” in the country. President Obama has spared little rhetoric in threatening Republicans should they dare defeat or delay Wilkins’ nomination. When Wilkins was nominated in June, Obama accused Republicans of being “cynically” engaging in “unprecedented”obstruction of judicial nominations. Democrats claim that any fair consideration would guarantee Wilkins’ quick confirmation. After all, as they point out, Wilkins was quickly...

Down by double digits with only hours to go before the polls close, here's what needs to happen for Lonegan to walk away with victory. 1. Lonegan needs huge turnout among conservative Republicans. 2. Moderate Republicans need to engage. 3. Voters in the Urban Centers need to stay home.