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Fitch Ratings on Tuesday put the U.S. AAA credit rating on watch for a potential downgrade because of the standoff over raising the nation's debt limit. The company said it still believed the debt limit would be raised soon, but the "political brinkmanship" was risking a default.

The Obama administration has made headway against an online bottleneck that jammed enrollment for the president's healthcare reform, but new technical problems greeted users on Monday. Three weeks after the launch of new health insurance plans under Obamacare, users were able to create accounts for themselves and begin the process of enrolling. "Today was the first day that we got all the way to the last screen. But then an error screen popped up saying the site would be down for 72 hours," Zahran said.

American Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin, WSJ Editorial Board Member Steve Moore and Dr. Marc Siegel on the launch of the ObamaCare exchanges.

Obamacare is imploding. But thanks to the government shutdown, everyone is talking about the implosion of the GOP instead. The shutdown drama has distracted from the fact that Obamacare’s debut is worse than many realize — and it threatens the fundamental viability of the law itself. The administration claims the Obamacare online exchanges crashed because the Web site got more than 8 million hits in the first week. Please. You know how many people visit Amazon.com every week? More than 70 million. The difference is: 1.) Amazon seldom crashes, and 2.) on Amazon, people actually buy something.

A growing consensus of IT experts, outside and inside the government, have figured out a principal reason why the website for Obamacare’s federally-sponsored insurance exchange is crashing. Healthcare.gov forces you to create an account and enter detailed personal information before you can start shopping. This, in turn, creates a massive traffic bottleneck, as the government verifies your information and decides whether or not you’re eligible for subsidies. HHS bureaucrats knew this would make the website run more slowly. But they were more afraid that letting people see the underlying cost of Obamacare’s insurance plans would scare people away.

FOX NEWS ALERT! The barricades are back up!

Absolutely disgusting that the Obama administration would bring a SWAT team in full riot gear to a protest by those who put everything on the line for this country. Just goes to show what they think about us Americans on the right.

Bob Woodward said that sequestration was Obama's & Lew's idea. Why now is Obama againt it? Why was he for it before he was against it? Why does he flip-flop on his CORE beliefs (raising the debt ceiling, the individual mandate, sequestration, etc)? Not secondary or tertiary beliefs...core beliefs. And why is Lew fearmongering over the debt ceiling? What he has said about it recently has been debunked by Moody's.

President Obama, speaking in 2007 and 2008, explains why he was very much against an individual mandate... Time to give an opt-out for the individual mandate, and hold Congress to the same rules that they enact over others - as to ObamaCare.

China’s official news agency is calling for a “de-Americanized world,” in a blistering editorial characterizing the United States as a “meddling” and “hypocritical” nation that introduces chaos into the world for its own ends. “As U.S. politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world,” writes the Xinhua News Agency.

China's official news agency has called for the creation of a "de-Americanised world", saying the destinies of people should not be left in the hands of a hypocritical nation with a dysfunctional government. Heaping criticism and caustic ridicule on Washington, the Xinhua news agency called the US a civilian slayer, prisoner torturer and meddler in others' affairs, and said the 'Pax Americana' was a failure on all fronts. The official news agency of China, which is seen as the pretender to the world's superpower crown, then rubbed in more salt, calling American economic pre-eminence just a seeming dominance. "As US...

Veterans from every branch of the military have a message for our government. The message will be delivered in person at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13, in Washington, D.C. and at war memorials all across the nation. The Million Vet March on the Memorials is a grassroots movement started by five military brats, a term used to describe children of military members, to honor the nation's veterans.

Recently I got a letter in the mail from the health insurer through which I have coverage as a small business owner. The letter began: "Starting Jan. 1, 2014, we will no longer offer or renew the individual health benefit plan you currently have. We're making this change because of requirements from the new health care reform law, called the Affordable Care Act." After spending a long time with the representative on the phone as he fumbled around trying to figure out how to price a replacement plan, I suggested he call me back when he had the information. He...

Among the “non-essential” government functions shutdown during the last 10 days are the offices of leading members of the US Senate including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev), Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill), Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla). “When you get right down to it, all the essential functions of government can be carried out by the President,” Reid argued. “The police and armed forces all report to him. If push comes to shove he can simply order them to enforce his will. President Obama has shown a willingness to take on this responsibility. I believe he...

With the Parks' restrooms at the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC closed, a truckload of portable restrooms of the sort used at construction sites was donated by private citizens. NPS Rangers blocked these from being unloaded. “The President has instructed us to shutdown this site,” explained NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis. “As everyone knows, our efforts have been thwarted by aged veterans breaching our barricades. We certainly can't reward this disobedience by allowing bladder and bowel evacuation facilities near the Memorial.” Jarvis scoffed at the notion that this could be construed as vindictive. “Hah, these guys faced worse when...

Obama's anti-press measures 'are the most aggressive I've seen since the Nixon administration' [James Goodale, the former general counsel of the New York Times during its epic fights with the Nixon administration, and former washington Post Executive Director, Leonard Downie, Jr. both rip the Obama administration big time]

In its first report on press freedom in the United States, the Committee to Protect Journalists warns Obama has ushered in a paralyzing climate of fear for both reporters and their government sources. Among the case it details: six government employees - plus two contractors, including Edward Snowden - have faced felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act for leaking classified information to the press, compared with three such prosecutions in ALL previous U.S. administrations. ...

As many states look to curb abortion access and further regulate the practice, California's government has decided to take the opposite route. Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill into law that dramatically expands abortion access in California, allowing for non-physicians such as nurses to perform the abortion procedure.

On October 13, 2013, American veterans and other patriots are going to launch a major protest. President Obama has been using the government shutdown as an excuse to commit a string of almost unbelievable public outrages against Americans everywhere. These include the following unbelievable eye-poppers:Denying treatments for children suffering from cancer.Denying death benefit payments to families of fallen soldiers, while keeping the Andrews Air Base golf course open so Obama can continue to play.Ordering the Park Service to hold elderly Yellowstone Park visitors in their hotel rooms under armed guard, then ordering them out of the park on busses and...

According to liberal source "Politico", President Obama held a meeting on October 8, with "conservative journalists" Charles Krauthammer, Paul Gigot, Kathleen Parker, Byron York, and Robert Costa. The meeting was described as "off-the-record". When questioned about that meeting the next evening by Bret Baier of Fox News, Krauthammer gave no real information. This is worrisome news because Krauthammer graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1975 with his MD and was board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 1984. As recently as 2009, President Obama called upon Krauthammer's medical stature, inviting Krauthammer to a signing...

How about trying this one on for size? Here is the press release headline from Congressman Tim Huelskamp’s office this afternoon: Obama Administration Denies Mass to Catholics Apparently, a priest was denied access to a military chapel this weekend. Father Ray Leonard serves at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia but because of the government shutdown, he wasn’t allowed to go to celebrate Mass this past weekend. He is contracted by the Defense Department to meet the spiritual needs of Catholics, but not now. The chapel doors were locked and the sign said, “Shutdown: No Catholic service till further...

As the government shutdown enters its second week, the message by the Democrats is loud and clear: use the shutdown to cause as much pain to the American people in order to promote their big government agenda. Progressive liberals had already targeted WWII veterans from visiting their memorial in Washington, D.C. and their nets get wider with every passing day. The Washington Times reported that a Park Service ranger told them, "We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.” The National Park Service has worked overtime to close off trails and parks to...

OLLIE NORTH RAISING MONEY TO SEND FAMILIES TO DOVER TO RECEIVE THE REMAINS OF THE KILLED SOLDIERS TOMORROW I called Ollie North when I learned that Pentagon won’t pay for the families of the killed soldiers to travel to tomorrow’s transfer of remains ceremony on Dover Air Force Base. Ollie – like you, like I am – is outraged. He is scrambling to see if he can locate the families of the killed soldier and to raise money to get them to Dover. Time is running out (the remains of our heroes arrive tomorrow) but we are trying. This is...

...[W]e ran a story in March 2012 which exposed the NSA's unprecedented domestic espionage project, codenamed Stellar Wind, and specifically the $1.4+ billion data center spy facility located in Bluffdale, Utah, which spans more than one million square feet, uses 65 megawatts of energy (enough to power a city of more than 20,000), and can store exabytes or even zettabytes of data (a zettabyte is 100 million times larger than all the printed material in the Library of Congress), consisting of every single electronic communication in the world, whether captured with a warrant or not. Yet despite all signs to...

Leftist geography professor at taxpayer-funded university rails at students over shutdown 9:35 AM 10/07/2013 Eric Owens Education Editor Last week, a geography professor at the public, taxpayer-funded University of Wisconsin-La Crosse used a required assignment in one of her courses to wage a campaign against Republicans, blaming them entirely for the government shutdown over federal spending. Rachel Slocum, an assistant professor in the UW–La Crosse geography and earth sciences department, sent the vitriolic email entitled “government websites” on Oct. 1, reports Media Trackers Wisconsin. Here it is, unexpurgated: hi everyone Some of the data gathering assignment will be impossible to...

Party Believes It Must Break Cycle of Budget Crises Or See Obama's Agenda Sink Away. Republicans have several, sometimes conflicting goals in the current government-shutdown impasse. Democrats, by contrast, have just one. It's called "break the fever." Breaking the fever is code for ending the cycle of recurring, last-minute crises over spending bills and increases in the nation's borrowing limit—the debt ceiling. The White House believes these crises give outsize power to a minority of conservative House Republicans who don't have the strength to push their agenda into law but can, in a crisis, stop the action. More important, Democrats...

A new group bent on unmasking ‘leftists in the media’ has its first target—MSNBC’s ‘racial extortionist,’ the Rev. Al Sharpton. David Freedlander talks with the leader of the right’s answer to Media Matters. A group of conservative activists, tired of what they see as a persistent and little remarked liberal bias in the news media, are set to begin a series of boycotts aimed at advertisers who sponsor what they see as left-wing networks, outlets, and journalists. On Sunday they announced their first target, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil-rights leader turned MSNBC talk-show host whose PoliticsNation has grown in...

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...

I was listening to Attorney Joe DiGenova this morning on WMAL and he pointed out how the DOJ had recently sent a letter to universities telling them they could ignore the June ruling by the Supreme Court on using race in admissions. The Supreme Court, in a nearly unanimous ruling, said that universities could use race in admissions but not as a dominant factor. But in this letter the DOJ is instructing universities to continue with the same racial preferences that the Supreme Court had just barred them from using: WSJ – Obama Administration regulators have made a specialty of...

How many Americans are being smashed by these same sort of crushing financial blows because of Obamacare? Across North Carolina, thousands of people have been shocked in recent weeks to find out their health insurance plans will be canceled at the end of the year – and premiums for comparable coverage could increase sharply. One of them is George Schwab of Charlotte, who pays $228 a month for his family’s $10,000 deductible plan from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. In a Sept. 23 letter, Blue Cross notified him that his current plan doesn’t meet benefit requirements outlined...

William Shakespeare penned the phrase, “To thine own self be true.” So you are out of order when you are out of integrity with yourself. Order starts with the individual. This is why the U.S. Constitution starts with We The People. The health of an organization or a country is reflected first by its people. If the people are not realizing or having an opportunity to realize their full human potential, then the seeds of chaos will begin to be planted, and grow. The authority structure has been established to fulfill that ultimate purpose. The grief-to-happiness ratio shows where citizens...

Harry Reid: Furlough back pay is ‘paid vacation’ By: Burgess Everett October 5, 2013 12:44 PM EDT By passing a bill providing federal workers back pay while the government is closed, House Republicans are giving them a “paid vacation,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Saturday afternoon. Just a few minutes after the House passed its retroactive pay legislation for federal workers, Reid said the legislation is “uncontroversial” but said it is “cruel” to tell those employees they will get paid when the government reopens while at the same time refusing to open government.

Appearing the October 6th airing of This Week With George Stephanopoulos, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) wants "complete surrender" by the GOP as a prerequisite for meaningful negotiations. After, Stephanopoulos said, "Reid said he is more than willing to have a conference, more than willing to have a negotiation, but not under the threat of a government shutdown." Boehner responded: "So it's 'my way or the highway,' that's what [Reid] is saying. Complete surrender, and then we'll talk to you." Boehner added: "It's about having a conversation. I gave the Senate Majority Leader...

Ordinarily, in a presidency lasting four, or even eight, long years, the strengths and weaknesses of an administration become evident through trends and statistics. Relatively few are the single defining moments, like Ronald Reagan at the Berlin Wall, or George W. Bush at Ground Zero, when a lasting truth of a particular presidency is instantly framed for the world to see. Historians will look back at the October Shutdown of 2013, however, and see an opportunity for worthwhile study, as so many aspects of this era have been crystallized in these unusual days of budget stalemate in Washington, D.C. While...

The government shutdown is being felt close to home for some locals. They say they're being forced out of private homes on Lake Mead because they sit on federal land. Joyce Spencer is 77-years-old and her husband Ralph is 80. They've been spending most of their time in the family ice cream store since going home isn't an option. The Spencers never expected to be forced out of their Lake Mead home, which they've owned since the 70s, but on Thursday, a park ranger said they had 24 hours to get out. "I had to go to town today and...

The weapons-at-school hysteria generally peaks with a suspension. Not so for a high school student in Georgia who is facing felony charges because the contents of a tackle box in his car. 17-year-old Cody Chitwood was busted during a random sweep of the Lassiter High School parking lot by police and this student who has never been in trouble before now faces prosecution, large fines, prison time, and the loss of his plans to join the Air Force in the future due to a hysterical overreaction that has resulted in his arrest. Cody Chitwood, 17, is a senior at Lassiter...

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says that the barricading of parks and monuments is “merely lesson number one in the effort to educate Americans on how their government works. Not being able to visit a park or monument is an inconvenience. Lesson number two, I assure you, will cut closer to home.” “Lesson number two” will apparently entail the withholding of benefit checks for Social Security recipients, persons on welfare, and veterans pensions. “This more painful lesson can be avoided if Congress cooperates in implementing the President’s program for America,” Lew cautioned. “However, the continued insistence that the President negotiate a...

When I first saw this story, I assumed that it almost had to be a hoax. After the previous incidents with veterans and the added expenditures involved in closing open spaces to keep veterans from paying their respects to the Honored Dead one would assume that even a novice politician would move to staunch the bleeding. But instead, it seems that the White House is doubling down, as reported at The Weekly Standard. Via William Jacobson, NBC’s affiliate in Washington, D.C. reports that police ordered tourists and Vietnam war veterans who were visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall to leave...

SNIP Like the hundreds of World War II veterans who came to National Mall to pay their respects this week, a group of Vietnam veterans found a barricade blocking the way to their memorial Friday. News4's Mark Segraves said two U.S. Park Service Rangers manning the gate asked that the group respect the government's shutdown but moved aside. Segraves described the exchange as pleasant and respectful. The veterans then moved the barricade and walked down to the wall to pay their respects. But a flood of tourists followed even though the memorial is closed to the general public. U.S. Park...

Unbelievable! Barack Obama brought out the German Sheperds today to threaten US veterans at the Vietnam Memorial. He’s using attack dogs against our veterans! Vietnam Wall entrance is open to all. Guard dog and guards are solely for intimidation. Go in. God Bless 'em pic.twitter.com/O7XSjOzbtj — Steve King (@SteveKingIA) October 5, 2013

Dems say NO to an exemption from ObamaCare (for one-year) for average, hard-working Americans... Dems say NO to ending taxpayer-funded health care subsidies for fat-cats in the U.S. Senate and House of Reps... Dems say NO to ending the ObamaCare exemption for Big Business. Dems say NO to opening up national historic sites that are open 365 days a year - with no federal supervision to boot.

‘Not how we do it in New York’: Ex-NYPD cop questions sister's killing by Capitol police Published time: October 05, 2013 10:44 Police in Washington DC did not have to resort to shooting dead an unarmed woman, who lead officers on a short-lived car chase through the Capitol on Thursday, said the driver's sister, former New York police sergeant Valarie Carey. "My sister could have been any person traveling in our capital," Valarie Carey told reporters outside her Brooklyn home on Saturday. "Deadly physical force was not the ultimate recourse and it didn't have to be."

Our President has no morals. With great ease, Obama and his Democratic minions are issuing orders to their public worker soldiers to make the lives of every American as torturously difficult as possible…to score cheap political points against the GOP “faction.” A Park Service ranger spoke out against what he called “disgusting” tactics. “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.” Via Drudge, The Washington Times reports, The games politicians play: Barack Obama...

House Democratic leaders believe they have hit on a new way to potentially force House Republican leaders into allowing a vote on a “clean CR” funding the government without any defunding of Obamacare attached. At last count, as many as two dozen House Republicans appear prepared to vote for a clean CR. With Democrats included, that means a majority of the House of Representatives would vote right now to reopen the government. But the House GOP leadership won’t allow such a vote. Dems have hit on a way to use a “discharge petition,” which forces a House vote if a...

With the government shuttered and a deadline for raising the debt limit just two weeks off, anxious Republicans began steering the party away from a dead-end debate about the health-care law and toward discussion of a broader deal to reduce the nation’s debt. Given that a bloc of hard-line conservatives is unlikely to vote to increase the limit under any circumstances, Boehner has told fellow Republicans that they must craft an agreement that can attract significant Democratic support.

Listened to the podcast of Mark Levin's show tonight(10/3/2013). All of the following is Levin's take on the government shutdown. There's no transcript so I'm going to do the best I can. What is Obama's endgame? The clue is in Obama's repeated use of the word 'default' in his recent interviews. The Dems and Obama keep repeating the story that the Repubs are crazy. That they have a 'gun to the head' of the country. That they are 'holding America hostage.' Obama is setting up the idea that "I have no choice but to take matters into my own hands...

Recently, our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, had this to say about the government shutdown in between bowls of chicken poodle soup and attempting to start World War III: *** "And in keeping with the broad ramifications of a shutdown, I think it's important that everybody understands the federal government is America's largest employer." http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-president-obamas-sept-30-remarks-on-looming-government-shutdown/2013/09/30/87437ea6-2a10-11e3-b139-029811dbb57f_story.html *** And there, ladies and gentlemen, is the root of of all of our economic ills, our social ills, and our political ills. The Federal Leviathan has grown so massive and Chris Christie-like it can't support its own weight anymore. Now, keep in mind, this...

Serco, the British company to whom President Obama awarded a 1.25 billion dollar contract to monitor Obamacare.is under investigation in the UK. They were hired to do the monitoring of criminals wearing a leg tag. As it turns out, one out of every six charges they billed the government were people in prison, out of the country, not wearing a tag, or plain dead. The total amount that Serco collected by fraud is as high as 80 million dollars. The alleged fraud was investigated by U.K.’s Ministry of Justice. Once the audit was complete, they immediately referred it to Serious...

Just months after he gave a speech earlier this year that challenged America’s leadership in President Obama’s presence, Dr. Ben Carson was targeted by IRS agents who requested to review his real estate holdings and then conducted a full audit without finding any wrongdoing. “I guess it could be a coincidence, but I never had been audited before and never really had any encounters with the IRS,” Dr. Carson said in an interview Thursday with The Washington Times. “But it certainly would make one suspicious because we know now the IRS has been used for political purposes and therefore actions...