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MRCTV's Dan Joseph had a question on his mind that he couldn't shake: who bears the brunt of the blame for the government shutdown? Who really is responsible for the mess we're in right now? Is it President Obama or former President George W. Bush? He decided to take these questions to the heart of our misery: Washington D.C. Despite the fact that "Dubya" has been out of office for the past five years, most of the respondents said former President George W. Bush is to blame for the shutdown.

DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz told the Huffington Post today that "I don't think we should be making excuses" for the Obamacare roll-out:

Republicans in the House of Representatives have scheduled impeachment proceedings against President Obama, claiming his inability to halt the federal government shutdown makes him unfit for office. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann introduced a resolution to impeach Obama this morning and referred the matter to the House Judiciary Committee. Senior aides close to judiciary chairman Bob Goodlatte say hearings will begin Thursday. "I think it's high time President Obama be held accountable for his crimes," explains Bachmann, "For two weeks now, vital government services have been disrupted, federal workers have gone without pay and national memorials have been closed - all because...

We all remember Ron Paul. Who could forget the charming, libertarian, and, as any Reddit user will tell you, “robbed” presidential candidate? For two election cycles, everyone’s favorite septuagenarian gynecologist took on the mantle of ending the Federal Reserve and seeking an isolationist foreign policy. Oh, Ron Paul. Remember when you said that all the Taliban ever wanted was America’s forces out of their Afghanistan? Photo: Northwestern Flipside For better or worse, the majority of voting Americans were not moved by Paul’s libertarian rhetoric. However, maybe they’ll be moved by his 35-year-old Chevette. As part of Paul’s push to get...

<p>Need evidence of Cruz's gains of late? He won the 2016 straw poll at the Values Voter Summit on Saturday with 42 percent of the vote and his speech at that gathering of social conservatives was received very warmly. He has become the center of gravity for a certain not-insignificant element of the Republican party. Cruz has proven that he will be “the Tea Party’s one true standard-bearer in the Republican presidential primary,” according to Evan Smith,the CEO and editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune,a independent media outlet covering the Long Star State.</p>

Will the slights and salt-in-wound exacerbations ever end? It's not enough that white people are cast as the source of all the world's woes as people find that we, increasingly, leave a bad taste in their mouths. Now we hear that even man's best friend doesn't find us very palatable. Writes The Independent in a piece titled "'Racist' LA police dogs only bite Latinos and African-Americans": Police officers in Los Angeles have long faced accusations of institutional racism, but now it appears their dogs may be unjustly discriminatory, too. A new report focusing on the Canine Special Detail of the...

I hadn't seen this posted before. Really, really funny...Leno's getting better and better as he nears the end of his show. He's also far more willing to criticize Obama. Link below...

People whose 2014 income will be a little too high to get subsidized health insurance from Covered California next year should start thinking now about ways to lower it to increase their odds of getting the valuable tax subsidy. "If they can adjust (their income), they should," says Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow with the Kaiser Family Foundation. "It's not cheating, it's allowed." For people in their early 60s, "it's a huge cliff," going from 401 to 400 percent of poverty, Pollitz says. That's because insurers can still charge older people more than younger ones. For younger people, moving below...

Most of the talk on the cable gab festivals regarding shutdown mania has focused on the interplay between House Speaker John Boehner and the President. And rightly so, since all spending bills really are supposed to originate in the House. (Of course, there are little tricks they can use in the Senate to get around inconvenient facts like the Constitution.) But the upper chamber began making noises about taking matters into their own hands this week. “It’s been clear to me for a while we can’t wait for the House to save us,” said Richard Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking...

U.S. Congressman Bruce Braley's complaint about having no towel service at the Congressional Gym was the subject of a joke on Jimmy Kimmel. Braley told a reporter recently “"there's no towel service, so we're doing our own laundry down there." Braley is seeking the seat of Sen. Tom Harkin, who plans to retire at the end of his term.

Cruz: Send ‘search team’ if I don’t return from White House By Cameron Joseph - 10/11/13 10:53 AM ET Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joked that he might not be seen again after Friday’s meeting with President Obama at the White House. "After leaving here, I'm going to be going to the White House," he said at the Values Voter Summit of religious conservative activists. "I will make a request. If I'm never seen again, please send a search and rescue team. I very much hope I don't wake up tomorrow morning among the Syrian rebels." The line drew big laughs...

Gasping for breath! Cartoon shows President Stompy Foot’s next snit fit move? (Bonus postcard) Posted at 3:13 pm on October 10, 2013 by Twitchy Staff Perfection? Achieved!The Democrats’ shutdown has only resulted in the #SpiteHouse and its spite cones, failing Barrycades and a disgraceful attempt at shutting down the Amber Alert website (just confusion, y’all). Punishment? Ha! #OccupyAmerica has turned it into civil disobedience.Twitter users are loving the cartoon, which echoes the thoughts of many. President Stompy Foot, anyone?...

O’Reilly Factor producer Jesse Watters visited Brown University to cover nudity week. In the Watters’ World segment above, he asks students about what they believe going nude accomplishes. From creating a more positive self-image to gender expression, students seemed in favor of the event. One student said, “If the whole thing was violence in the media, people are okay with that. But if you show one nipple, everyone goes crazy.” After a few phone calls to parents and an attempt to seek out some of the events, Watters was eventually kicked off campus by an administrator.

1) The Death Panel will now decide if your treatment is too expensive. 2) Yeah, right! There's a better chance Democrats would go after veterans or kids with cancer than do that! 3) We'll get to the bottom of this scandal in no time now that the Obama Administration is investigating itself! 4) Sure, it's dangerous being in this embassy, but the Obama Administration is handling security; so we have nothing to worry about. 5) Come on, you really think liberals are going to be offended by that? 6) As long as Lindsey Graham doesn't cave, Republicans have got this...

Obama: Won’t negotiate ‘with a gun at my head’ By: Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan and Burgess Everett and Jonathan Allen October 9, 2013 07:38 AM EDT President Barack Obama told House Democrats on Wednesday that he would negotiate with Republicans but “not with a gun at my head,” according to one lawmaker who attended a caucus-wide meeting at the White House. As he has before, Obama said he was open to short-term agreements to open the government and raise the debt ceiling if that’s what it took to help Republicans out of what he described as a political box,...

How out of touch is Bruce Braley? As workers, families and veterans feel the effects of the government shutdown, Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Braley is demanding that he receive the special perk of using the House of Representatives gym. The reason for his argument? The House gym doesn’t even have towel service! Poor Bruce Braley. It’s tough to be him.

Republicans Are Fed Up With Republicans National Journal Brian Resnick 4 hours ago Favorability ratings for Republicans are at historic lows. According to the latest from Gallup, 62 percent of Americans now view the Grand Old Party unfavorably, with the numbers rising sharply in recent weeks. Dislike of Democrats has increased as well, but by a tiny degree in comparison. Republicans haven't been this despised since the end of 2008, right before Democrats rushed into the House and Senate in a wave. But perhaps more interesting is Gallup's inspection of how Republicans feel about their own party. The headlines about...

Carney doesn't know whether Obama has tried HealthCare.gov By JENNIFER EPSTEIN | 10/9/13 2:00 PM EDT White House press secretary Jay Carney isn't sure whether President Obama has tried out HealthCare.gov for himself. "There's no question that he's capable" of using technology, Carney said Wednesday of the iPad-obsessed president. Carney told Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet that Obama has been "shown how the system works ... so I know he’s very familiar with it." But "I don’t know he’s personally gone on the website"

Obamacare website looks "like nobody tested it," programmer says (CBS News) Healthcare.gov launched more than a week ago, and while millions of Americans have signed into the site, not many have been able to actually sign up for insurance because of glitches with the website. Administration officials implementing the new health care law will be on the hot seat Wednesday as the House Oversight Committee hopes to find out what the problems were. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa told CBS News' Jan Crawford that he plans to ask how the mess surrounding the website could even happen. No one knows how...

... And amid this closedpocalypse, the heroic democrats are here to tell you that the ouchies are all thanks to republicans taking you hostage with guns. Why, just yesterday John Boehner himself took over a bank and demanded a bus and nude photos of Bea Arthur. And we wouldn’t know about this evil without the Obama administration cleverly turning off all the lights, that the darkness might illuminate it.

As Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sat down to be interviewed, the Comedy Central host opened his laptop and issued a challenge: "I'm going to try and download every movie ever made, and you're going to try to sign up for Obamacare, and we'll see which happens first." The website for people who don't have health insurance through their employers opened on Oct. 1, but has been plagued with glitches. The administration said that was because the program is so popular, but even defenders such as Stewart didn't buy the explanation. HHS has declined to give numbers for...

"This mess was created by the Republicans for one purpose, and they lost. People in my district are calling in for Obamacare -- affordable health care -- in large numbers. These guys have lost, and they can't figure out how to admit it... So we sit here until they figure out they ******* lost."

October 6, 2013 #SpiteHouse: President Stompy Foot sparks new name for White House [Photoshops] by Twitchy Staff Dead-on. As Twitchy reported, citizens can see 2014 from the petulant president’s Barry-cades. His vindictive and teen drama queen behavior has inspired a Barry-cades definition at Urban Dictionary.Twitter users have had it with the president’s spiteful snit fits.

A restaurant manager from Tyler, Texas, briefly became the world’s first trillionaire earlier this week—until his $4 trillion bank balance was found to be an online glitch. In an interview with KLTV, Reggie Theus said he would have used $3 trillion of his windfall to pay down the national debt.

At His Majesty's Superior Residency, begun and held in Washington, D.C. in the fifth reign of Barack Obama I, by the grace of Government, socialism, political correctness, and social justice, King, Defender of the Faithless, has, by his greatness, and moral superiority, thus declared that the racist and bigoted offensive name Washington "REDSKINS" should be changed to a more fitting and progressive title, worthy of the mediocrity it so deserves.

A Canadian tech firm that has provided service to that country's single-payer health care system is behind the glitch-ridden United States national health care exchange site healthcare.gov. CGI Federal is a subsidiary of Montreal-based CGI Group. With offices in Fairfax, Va., the subsidiary has been a darling of the Obama administration, which since 2009 has bestowed it with $1.4 billion in federal contracts, according to USAspending.gov. The "CGI" in the parent company's name stands for "Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique" in French, which roughly translates to "Information Systems and Management Consultants." However, the firm offers another translation: "Consultants to Government...

Harry Reid calls for return to ‘civil’ Senate By: Burgess Everett October 4, 2013 11:20 AM EDT Majority Leader Harry Reid urged his colleagues — and reminded himself — to uphold the Senate’s standards of civility Friday morning. In a departure from a series of blistering opening speeches this week, Reid said the past month of the Senate has been a departure from arcane rules to encourage senators to address each other indirectly, encouraging debate over ideas rather than people. The Nevada Democrat reminded the chamber to address people in the third-person and to speak through the presiding officer of...

Via Charles Cooke. Imagine it. Imagine a movement so selfish that it would sabotage the operations of a venture on which vast numbers of people depend simply to gain leverage for its own agenda. Then imagine that that movement grew in numbers to the point where it could elect its own bought-and-paid-for politicians to do its bidding. Who knows how much havoc it could wreak? When you think about it, Democrats are right: It really is a sort of terrorism. Am I awake? Youtube

Anyone here got time to make a Downfall parody on the closing of the WWII Memorial? When the camera zooms in on the map, Krebs could be telling Hitler about where the Barrycades are being set up."Mein Fuhrer . . . Steiner was not able to hold the line. The WWII vets got through . . . "I don't know who does these, but this one has the potential for being the best ever.

CNN goes 0-for-100 trying to find successful Obamacare enrollee By Cheryl K. Chumley The Washington Times Thursday, October 3, 2013 CNN asked 100 people in South Carolina to tell how easy it was to enroll in Obamacare exchanges. And from all 100 sources, CNN received the same reply: We couldn't do it. Not one of Dr. Sanjay Gupta's 100 interview sources was able to enroll online because the websites kept crashing, The Blaze reported. Dr. Gupta, moreover, found that in the entire state of Kentucky, only 2,900 were able to access the online exchanges and successfully enroll. The news comes...

1. A barrier (usually temporary) that exists for no reason. 2. A barrier erected for political reasons. "Dude, Obama barrycaded the park." "Hey, let's put up some barrycades to keep those World War II veterans away from the open-air World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., in order to try and score some cheap political points."

Mark Levin warned everyone on Capitol Hill that if they lay a hand on the WWII vets at the memorial to arrest them for visiting their own memorial, he’ll bring a half a million people to march on Washington. He says it will ignite a movement like they’ve never seen before: I want to say this loud and clear to the people on Capitol Hill who are listening, to this administration. You lay one damn hand on one of those World War II vets at that memorial and I’ll bring half a million people to that damn memorial! You got...

President Obama ‘Exasperated’ by Shutdown, Says, ‘I Have Bent Over Backwards to Work With the Republican Party’ By Mary Bruce @marykbruce Follow on Twitter Oct 2, 2013 5:17pm President Obama said today that he was “exasperated” by the government shutdown and made clear that he will not negotiate with Republicans until Congress passes a clean bill to re-open the government and agrees to raise the debt ceiling. “During the course of my presidency, I have bent over backwards to work with the Republican party,” the president told CNBC’s John Harwood in an interview. ”I think I’m pretty well known for...

EPIC FAIL: Los Angeles high schools now confiscate all free iPads they gave students The Daily Caller 3 hours ago Hilariously, officials at high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District are now taking back a couple thousand iPads a week or so after giving them to students as part of a 47-school pilot program. The mass repossession is the latest in a series of responses by school officials to the fact that hundreds of students figured out almost immediately how to hack the security settings on their iPads. Another 71 kids ostensibly lost their iPads just as immediately....

The government shutdown will temporarily slash the staffs and operations of every “nonessential” federal program — which, as you can imagine, adds up to a whole lot of programs. There are the ones you know about, like the national parks and the panda cam. Then there’s everything else.....

Chelsea Clinton declares 2014 the 'Year of the Baby' By Judy Kurtz - 10/02/13 11:31 AM ET Get ready for Chelsea Clinton Bump Watch 2014 — the only daughter of the former president and former secretary of State is declaring next year the “Year of the Baby.” In an interview for the November issue of Glamour magazine on her work with the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, Clinton reveals that she and husband Marc Mezvinsky are planning for a bouncing addition to their household. According to the 33-year-old Oxford grad, the pair, who married in 2010, sat down together...

Well, it happened, the deadline came and went and the government shut down. Oh, the horror! The lawlessness! The freedom! Daniel Greenfield and his crack news team at Sultan Knish report on no government scenes from across the country. The United States of America (1787-2013) came to a swift and sudden end last night as the government shut down. The nation which had survived Pearl Harbor, the War of 1812 and Jimmy Carter ceased to exist. (snip) "The government shut down! We can do anything we like," shouted Sam Hasbley of Grassley, Iowa, while tearing the tag off a mattress...

Channel 10 have this feature on their Facebook page and website where they encourage viewers to send in photos of bad South Florida drivers. Well, cameras are everywhere, and someone sent SFLTV this photo of a WPLG Local 10 news ENG van parked in a handicap parking space...

MSNBC Anchor Unable to Sign Up For Obamacare Health Exchange By Matthew Sheffield Created 10/01/2013 - 12:25pm Even as Politico and others are urging the public to overlook some of the many flaws in the Obamacare health insurance exchanges which just opened up today, MSNBC anchor Mara Schiavocampo is not playing along with the spin game. Early this morning on “First Look,” Schiavocampo took viewers along with her as she filed a report on her experience trying to sign up for an exchange. It was an exercise in frustration as she soon found. As the video below demonstrates, Schiavocampo experienced...

Rachel Maddow blasted Republicans for shutting down the government, claiming they’ve been trying to do this since they took control of the House of Representatives. MSNBC host Maddow said Monday that Republicans took control of the House and were sworn in January 2011. By April they were threatening to shut down the government. Maddow criticized the GOP Congress for being the least productive Congress in U.S. history. She said there has been “no significant legislation since John Boehner got the speakership.” The GOP has been “otherwise occupied” with threatening to shut down the government. “By July [2011] Republicans had forced...

HALLOWEEN: Is this Barack Obama vampire card offensive? While shopping for Halloween cards at Target in San Bernardino, JoAnn Nelson was appalled when her 5-year-old granddaughter showed her this card. Nelson said she finds the card tasteless and offensive. ”I was disturbed and did not want my grandbaby to see this,” she wrote in an email.

As a blogger, I subscribe to the email lists of some organizations whose goals I do not, shall we say, necessarily embrace. Among them is Organizing For Action, the successor to the 2012 Obama campaign. As you can imagine, although I read OFA's messages with interest, I don't succumb to its frequent appeals for funds. You might think OFA might let me loaf along on its list, but no. Just now arrived an email I'd call kind of creepy. Start with the subject line [emphasis added throughout]: "Mark: Not an OFA donor". Whoah: so this is not just a generic...

It's for America.

Critics think the Tea Party senator is being self-defeating, but his antics make sense if he's actually trying to remake the Republican Party in his image. What's Ted Cruz up to? Is he a political idiot or a political savant? Many people have argued that his antics, however well designed to appeal to the Tea Party and the Republican-primary voting base, also seem equally well designed to anger his Republican colleagues in Congress, "establishment" Republicans, and organs of opinion like the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and, perhaps more important, big business and big-money donors whose support Cruz will need...

Obama: Obamacare critics are 'desperate' fat-cat Fox News watchers Olivier Knox, Yahoo News 1 hour ago President Barack Obama went nuclear this week in his attacks on Republicans trying to derail the Affordable Care Act, painting the controversial law’s opponents as fat-cats who watch too much Fox News. Or freeloaders. Or the Koch Brothers. Or folks who think the Fugitive Slave Act and Obamacare are equally terrible. That’s a slight exaggeration. Slight. And always-pugnacious senior Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer took to CNN to compare Republicans to terrorists. And kidnappers. And arsonists. Here’s Pfeiffer on CNN’s The Lead : “It is...

CNS News is reporting that a group of 21 House members have sent a letter to all GOP Senators, warning them against a cloture vote on the Continuing Resolution. A vote on cloture would give Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) the ability to remove the defunding Obamacare provision included in the CR. The House conservatives who signed the letter stated that they consider a cloture vote the same as a vote in support of Obamacare. “it is highly likely that Majority Leader Harry Reid will move to amend the House-passed CR and remove the language from the bill that defunds Obamacare...