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(TheBlaze/AP) — Major problems were reported Saturday all across America with the Electronic Benefits Transfer System, as consumers were stuck with no way to pay at registers, notes WBZ-TV in Boston. WBZ reported that a computer-system upgrade was to blame, while the Associated Press reports that a routine check by vendor Xerox Corp. resulted in a system failure. People in Ohio, Michigan and several other states found themselves unable to use their food stamp debit cards while shoppers from Maine to Oklahoma had to abandon baskets of groceries because they couldn’t access their benefits.

<p>A "very disturbed" President Obama has ordered his top aides to restore death benefits today for families of military service members killed in action.</p> <p>"The president was very disturbed to learn of this problem," said White House press secretary Jay Carney. "The president expects this to be fixed today. He was not pleased."</p>

On the Chuck Brooks Law-Call hour, 12:00-1:00 pm, Saturday October 10, on the Baltimore station WCBM, two separate callers stated that the "Food Stamp System" was not working at several Baltimore grocery stores. The second caller mentioned that folks in the store were blaming Republicans. I cannot personally confirm these reports. Are other Freepers noticing this in their locations?

Jonathan Bernstein considers what the pointless shutdown fight has done to Ted Cruz’s political prospects: It’s one thing to have a reputation as a loudmouth; it’s quite another to have a reputation as a loser. That’s what the shutdown fight has done to Cruz. Among true believers he’ll be the one who was a leader in a fight that surely would have won if the squishes hadn’t sold them out. But for most party actors, including many sympathetic to Tea Partyism, he’s going to be the guy who ran up the wrong hill. It would have been different if Cruz’s...

Appearing on MSNBC on Friday, Congressman Peter King continued his epic verbal assault on Ted Cruz — and, to a lesser extent, Rand Paul — by describing the Texas Senator as a “RINO” (Republican in name only) and a “fraud.” Speaking with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, King called the ongoing government shutdown “the strategy of Ted Cruz” and wondered aloud “why more Republicans around the country didn’t join me in denouncing Ted Cruz” before the shutdown began. “We cannot allow our party to be taken over by the likes of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul,” King continued, describing Cruz and Paul...

Obama told 25 governors on a conference call that the shutdown "is hurting local economies." President Obama hit Congressional Republicans on Friday telling a bipartisan group of governors that the "brinksmanship strategy" of shutting down the government and threatening default is something "the country can't afford." Obama made the comments to 25 governors on a conference call aimed at discussing the effect of the federal shutdown on state budgets and the overall economy, according to a White House readout of the call....... Obama was joined on the call by senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, NEC Director Gene Sperling, Deputy Office of...

Here is where we’re at: The Republican establishment — the guys who told us that for a trillion dollars and several thousand American casualties, we could build “Islamic democracies” that would be reliable U.S. allies in the War on Terror — say it is Ted Cruz who is “delusional” and the effort to stave off Obamacare that is “unattainable.” These self-appointed sages are, of course, the same guys who told us the way to “stabilize” and “democratize” Libya was to help jihadists topple and kill the resident dictator — who, at the time, was a U.S. ally, providing intelligence about...

"...................But perhaps the most extraordinary story to emerge from the NPS is that of the tour group of foreign seniors whose bus was trapped in Yellowstone Park on the day the shutdown began. They were pulled over photographing a herd of bison when an armed ranger informed them, with the insouciant ad-hoc unilateral lawmaking to which the armed bureaucrat is distressingly prone, that taking photographs counts as illegal “recreation.” “Sir, you are recreating,” the ranger informed the tour guide. And we can’t have that, can we? They were ordered back to the Old Faithful Inn, next to the geyser of...

Let's just get into this NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that just totally turned Washington upside down yesterday....The poll that shows the Republicans literally getting killed over the government shutdown... Now, keep in mind just two days ago there was an AP poll that showed Obama at 37% and we're still hearing crickets over that poll. People have looked at the internals of the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, and it's 800 people. The spread of Democrat to Republican is 43 32. So 43% in the poll are Democrats, 32% are Republicans. That's an 11 point difference there. That's not representative at...

[with AUDIO] House Republicans wouldn’t accept a bad deal on the government shutdown and the pending federal debt ceiling negotiations from President Barack Obama, House Rules Committee chairman Texas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions announced. “I will tell you we will not back down, but there is much, much that we must understand about what is out there and how to accomplish it,” Sessions said on an interview set to air on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Friday night. Hewitt asked Sessions about the possibility of a deal made by the first of the month to ensure the government fulfills certain...

Rep. Peter King (N.Y.) would support a discharge petition on a "clean" spending bill if GOP leaders don't bring it to the floor soon, the centrist Republican vowed this week. King has long-pushed Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to take up the Senate-passed continuing resolution (CR) to reopen the government. But he has refused to buck leadership further by endorsing the Democrats' discharge petition, which would force a floor vote on the bill. Until Friday. "If we have to do a discharge petition, ultimately, we will, but this is going to come [to the floor]," King said in an interview with...

Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that there was never a chance of defunding Obamacare, blaming politicians who said it was possible for the current government shutdown. “We started this on a fool’s errand, convincing so many millions of Americans and our supporters that we could defund Obamacare,” McCain (R-Ariz.) told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. “[That] obviously wouldn’t happen until we had 67 Republican senators to override a presidential veto.”[snip] “[It was] the people that convinced so many millions of Americans, tea partiers specifically we’re talking about, that there was some way to defund Obamacare. We can’t,” McCain said.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) channeled his inner-maverick Friday during an appearance on Fox News Channel, repeatedly reminding the conservative network that the government shutdown was brought about by the quixotic effort to halt the Affordable Care Act. When anchor Martha MacCallum asked him about the White House's handling of the suspension of death benefits to military families, McCain said that while the administration deserves blame it was a GOP-induced shutdown that caused the problem in the first place.

  Why would the president of the United States try to purposely hurt the American people? Well, in 2013 this is done in order to score political points and force the opposition in to doing what you want them to do. A few days ago, an angry Park Service ranger publicly admitted that he and his fellow rangers have been ordered to “make life as difficult for people as we can” during this government shutdown. That Park Service ranger would never have received such an order unless it came from the very top. Apparently the Obama administration plans to cause as...

The National Park Service’s closure of the World War II and other memorials violates rules requiring them to stay open, 93 House members charge in a letter to the agency. Led by Michigan Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga, they claim that Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis is simply making up closure rules to punish the public during the government shut down and they question the costs of the random closures in Washington where not all memorials are being closed. "The National Park Service continues to act in an arbitrary and punitive manner to exclude veterans from memorials built in their honor...

President Barack Obama’s former senior White House adviser and campaign manager David Plouffe accused House Republicans of “committing economic treason” during the partial government shutdown on Thursday. In a snarky tweet about Republicans’ attempts to negotiate an end to the government shutdown, Plouffe dredged up the “birther” issue in order to discredit the GOP: David Plouffe @davidplouffe Maybe throw in a Special Counsel to investigate the President's birthplace and the House GOP will stop committing economic treason. 8:56 AM - 10 Oct 2013

"Part of the atmosphere that allowed this shutdown to take place was this attitude that these folks aren’t providing important services and value to our country and they’re dead wrong about that," Obama said. "Those politicians who are always complaining about federal workers ... I guess they’re doing it for political reasons." He said he has seen the impact of the shutdown firsthand -- seeing younger staff get furloughed and struggle day in and day out. "There are people who are being impacted every day, and in the D.C. metro region that much more," Obama said. "I’ve got young staff...

In the current fight over the government shutdown, Republicans are simply representing the views of the American people. Americans didn't ask for Obamacare, they don't want it, but now their insurance premiums are going through the roof, their doctors aren't accepting it, and their employers are moving them into part-time work -- or firing them -- to avoid the law's mandates. Contrary to Obama's promises, it turns out: You can't keep your doctor, you can't keep your insurance -- you can't even keep your job. In other words, it's a typical government program, but this one wrecks your health care....

Folks who live in the Great Smoky Mountains have just about reached their breaking point with the federal government. “It’s almost like they are pushing to see how far they can push before the American people say enough is enough,” said Ed Mitchell, the mayor of Blount County, Tenn. “We were founded on a declaration of independence. And they are about to push the people to the line again.” Nearly a third of Blount County is inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. So when the federal government shut down the park, it also shut down one of the area’s...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: So Bo Snerdley walks into my compound here, broadcast facility, oh, I guess about an hour ago. And he's somewhat stuttering, trying to pay me a compliment. He says, "How did you... I mean, well, I know you know, but how did you... how did you..." I said, "What are you talking about?" "How did you know we were winning this?" He had just seen the AP story with Obama's approval rating at 37%. Grab sound bite number two. Barack Obama's approval rating at 37%. That fact is in an AP story. Would you like to hear...