[DAILYCALLER] An official with the nonprofit Obamacare enrollment group Enroll America conspired to give people's personal information to what he thought was a political action committee, according to James O'Keefe's latest video, provided to The Daily Caller.
Enroll America, which Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted to fundraising for, is a "nonpartisan" 501(c)(3) nonprofit that critics accuse of working as an unofficial Obamacare navigator across the country.
Enroll America's Texas state communications lead Christopher Tarango conspired to provide a list of potential Obamacare enrollees, obtained through the "commit cards" that the group hands out door to door to help them pick insurance plans, to an O'Keefe investigator posing as the representative of a political action committee.
Tarango also admitted that someone tried to export a list from the nonprofit pro-Obama advocacy group Organizing for Action [OFA] to a political campaign, but that the attempted leaker was caught.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013 00:00 ||
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You wonder where ACORN went? Here's your answer.
[THEHILL] Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) was hit over the head and robbed Tuesday night near the Capitol.
An attacker knocked Meng to the ground with a hit to the head while she was walking back to her apartment after eating dinner. The attacker took her bag and bravely ran away near 6th St. and Pennsylvania Ave -- a little less than a mile from the Capitol building.
"While this was a frightening ordeal, I fortunately was not seriously injured," Meng said. "Obviously, things could have been much worse. I thank the U.S. Capitol Police and the District of Columbia Police for responding quickly and professionally."
Meng sustained minor injuries, including a bruise to her chin. She was taken to George Washington University Hospital where she underwent a CAT scan. Meng missed the first two votes on Wednesday but was present for subsequent votes.
The New York Democrat is a freshman elected in 2012.
U.S. Capitol Police, which is leading the "open" and "active" investigation, said no arrests have yet been made. Metro police directed questions to Capitol police.
The politician told news hounds Wednesday evening that police are scrubbing for fingerprints on an old cell phone of hers that was found at the scene. The phone was in Meng's bag but was apparently discarded by her attacker.
She said she was fortunate to be carrying her wallet and credit cards in her coat pocket at the time and not in the bag that was stolen.
"I'm lucky," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
while she was walking back to her apartment after eating dinner
Umm...nobody walks after dark in DC. The New York Democrat is a freshman elected in 2012.
Oh, that explains it. Naively she expected DC to be as safe as NYC.
#4
If it's 6th and Penn NW, then it's right at the Canadian Embassy. Hmmmmm.....
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/21/2013 8:14 Comments ||
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#5
I've lived in DC for the past 14+ years. Up until 2009-10, crime overall was on the decline. But starting around 2011 sometime, I've noticed a significant uptick in these types of "hit and run" assaults/robberies (including the recently termed, "knock out game" types of assaults).
As one might expect, the vast majority of these types of crimes appear to be black-on-white/asian/latino insofar as what gets reported to the police. Of course, I'm the racist for pointing out the obvious rather than the perps who clearly target non-blacks when it comes to victim selection.
For the most part, I blame the 0bama admin for the way it's economically devastated urban minority communities like we have in DC not to mention the stonewalling of school choice that has gone on during this administration's tenure. The persistently high-levels of minority unemployment in this country, particularly for blacks, is beyond shameful. It is a disgrace, a travesty and deserves to be pointed out at every opportunity if only to prove the utter failure of this admin's anti-free enterprise and distributive economic policies which end up hurting the working poor the most. Of course, this is something POTUS will never be held accountable for and will only be blamed on fiscal conservatives for their "favor the rich" and "obstructionist" positions.
The Senate has voted to change its rules so that a simple majority is required to confirm judicial nominations and executive branch picks -- the so-called "nuclear option."
The final vote was 52-48. The previous threshold was 60 votes to bring such nominations to a final up-or-down vote.
"The threshold for cloture on nominations not including the Supreme Court, is now a majority," Sen Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), the Senate president pro tempore, declared after the vote.
Three Democrats voted with Republicans against the change: Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.). Levin is a longtime senator; Manchin and Pryor come from red states.
To about 1840 or so the House also had a version of the filibuster. It wasnÂ’t quite the same as the Senate but by rule and decorum, one needed a super-majority to move bills through.
From then up to the 1890s there was a variant of this called the “disappearing quorum”: the House needed a super-majority to make a quorum, so the minority party if disciplined enough would refuse to answer whenever a quorum just happened to be called, causing everything to stop. Then House Speaker Reed (a Pub) said, “The best system is to have one party govern and the other party watch”, and set about to eliminate this, and he did. The Democrats howled but the Pubs prevailed, and so now we have a modern House in which 218 yea votes makes things happen.
I shall suggest that it is time for the Senate filibuster to disappear completely.
Yes, I believe that major changes in our government should be done on a bipartisan basis: Social Security. Medicare. Civil Rights Bill. Decision to go to war in Iraq. And so on. Our countryÂ’s parties should agree on the big things.
But if the Democrats are going to behave like monkeys at a zoo then Speaker Reed is right: one party governs, the other opposes. And the party that is in power has the RESPONSIBILITY to govern wisely or else end up out of power.
The lack of a filibuster will hurt the next fourteen months. But the public (I predict) will see how the Democrats govern, and in a year the public shall vote. Eliminating the filibuster removes the one big excuse Harry Reid has had in his time as majority leader, that he couldnÂ’t get anything done because those eeeeeevil Rethuglicans wouldnÂ’t let him.
Okay Harry, letÂ’s see your real agenda. I think the American people will figure out what youÂ’re up to and will decide to oppose you, particularly if the Pubs are smart enough (and remember, weÂ’re called the Stupid Party for a reason) to hoist him on his petard next October.
Budget? No excuse now, they have to pass a budget. Raving red lunatics for the appeals courts? Make clear that theyÂ’re loonies. And so on.
How is it the Pubs can win the House and win most state district and senate races (the Pubs do hold a sizable majority in the state legislatures right now), and yet lose Senate races? Because Dingy Harry, Chuckles Schumer, and Dirty Dick Durbin have managed to keep power and avoid responsibility.
No longer. Now theyÂ’re responsible, 50% + 1.
I predict they shall be called on it in November 2014.
#1
I can only hope the moderator comments are right. But at this point I believe everything is fucked too badly to be fixed. It needs completely torn down and started over.
#2
Harry Reid seems to assume that the Dems will have a permanent majority in the Senate. Payback is a hitch.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/21/2013 15:10 Comments ||
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#3
The beauty of the filibuster is that it slows things down - and often stops them. That's a good thing. The less government does the better. If something really needs to be done then it will get 60 votes in favor.
Obviously we can use this too, but I suspect that McConnell is stupid enough to reinstate the filibuster if he's handed the reins.
#7
The system of the 60% majority was not really bad. I did not like the filibuster. How about this for your Rantburg consideration:
How about a 60% majority voting on everything but treaties? Then a lot of chaff falls by the wayside. The only weakness is vote trading, but we have that anyway.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2013 18:02 Comments ||
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#8
I'll do you one better AP. How about 2/3 to pass anything and a bare majority to repeal.
#11
I think that a lot of suggestions are valid. The problem is the personnel in the Senate and the House. They cannot reform themselves. They are too vested in the logrolling vote buying way of doing business. They need to be gone and replaced with independents. We literally cannot afford the current crop any more.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2013 19:57 Comments ||
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#12
Senator Carl Levin quoted today:
"But Democrats have used the filibuster in the past, and “changing the rules by fiat” means that “there are no rules” in the Senate any longer,” he said. “Today we are once again moving down a destructive path,” Levin said.
Yes indeed. One need only read a history of the transition of Rome from republic to empire to understand this very point. It didn't happen in a day or a decade; it took about a century. But it happened because very partisan people were willing to change the rules of the game to take care of their own short-term interests, and locked themselves into patron-client relationships to distribute power and spoils, and were willing to use violence and the ruination of fortune and reputation against others to get what they wanted.
Sound familiar?
To borrow from Mr. Twain, history may not repeat but it sure does rhyme.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/21/2013 21:17 Comments ||
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#13
Remember, Harry. The wheel turns. The wheel turns...
The Republican National Committee announced today that it is hosting a press conference for Democrats who will be running on Obamacare. They've invited a host of Democratic politicians who think Obamacare is a good idea, though it's likely none will show up:
WASHINGTON -- Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus has invited Democrats running for the Senate in 2014, along with a number of Democrats running for reelection to the House, to participate in a "We're Running On ObamaCare" press conference on Thursday.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) says they are "eager and proud to run on ObamaCare," and Nancy Pelosi says Democrats will "stand tall" on ObamaCare. Because Republicans also look forward to making the 2014 election about ObamaCare, the RNC has offered to give individual candidates a platform to speak for themselves and voice their support for the unpopular law.
They will also have the opportunity to take a picture in front of a banner reading "Eager and Proud to Run on ObamaCare in 2014," which the RNC will be happy to post online and use in advertisements.
The RNC has also purchased web domain names for each Democrat (PryorLovesObamaCare.com for example) and will donate them to the campaigns of candidates in attendance so they can publicly "stand tall" on the law a majority of Americans oppose.
Details of the press conference are as follows:
WHO:RNC Chairman Reince Priebus
Sen. Mark Begich (D- AK)*
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR)*
Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO)*
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)*
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)*
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) *
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)*
Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM)*
Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC)*
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) *
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01)*
Rep. Ron Barber (AZ-02)*
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)*
Rep. Ami Bera (CA-07)*
Rep. Raul Ruiz (CA-36)*
Rep. Scott Peters (CA-52)*
Rep. Elizabeth Esty (CT-05)*
Rep. Patrick Murphy (FL-18)*
Rep. Joe Garcia (FL-26)*
Rep. Brad Schneider (IL-10)*
Rep. Bill Foster (IL-11)*
Rep. Bill Enyart (IL-12)*
Rep. Cheri Bustos (IL-17)*
Rep. Bruce Braley (IA-01)*
Rep. Dave Loebsack (IA-02)*
Rep. John Tierney (MA-06)*
Rep. Gary Peters (MI-14)*
Rep. Tim Walz (MN-01)*
Rep. Collin Peterson (MN-07)*
Rep. Rick Nolan (MN-08)*
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) *
Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (NH-02) *
Rep. Tim Bishop (NY-01)*
Rep. Steve Israel (NY-03)*
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18)*
Rep. Bill Owens (NY-21)*
Rep. Dan Maffei (NY-24)*
Rep. Pete Gallego (TX-23)*
Rep. Jim Matheson (UT-04)*
Rep. Nick Rahall (WV-03)*
[FOXNEWS] It's no secret that Sarah Mama Grizzly Palin ... the babe libs love to hate ... is mighty steamed at MSNBC and Martin Bashir over his despicable remarks about the abusive treatment he imagines for her.
And now she's doing something about it.
The former Alaska governor and Fox News contributor was scheduled to sit down with Matt Lauer for a Christmas season interview. That's now toast.
Palin has now canceled Lauer's scheduled trip to Wasilla, a source close to her tells me. It's not because Palin is upset with Lauer or the "Today" show, but as a protest against NBC for not taking action against Bashir. In fact, Palin once sat in as a "Today"co-host.
Tim Crawford, treasurer of Palin's political action committee, had told NBC News President Deborah Turness and MSNBC President Phil Griffin that "Americans deserve to know that your network doesn't condone violent and hateful rhetoric."
Bashir apologized to Palin and to viewers Monday for his comments, which he called "totally unacceptable." In response to a speech in which she likened the national debt to slavery, the onetime "Nightline" co-anchor said Palin should be subjected to an ancient slavery punishment in which someone would defecate and urinate in her mouth.
MSNBC has not suspended Bashir, despite imposing a two-week suspension on another talk show host, actor Alec Baldwin, for hurling an anti-gay slur at a photographer outside his New York apartment. The network has had nothing to say publicly about Bashir's sliming of Palin.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
She should have waited until Lauer was switching planes in Vancouver to cancel.
Bashir didn't say it in a vacuum. The show has a producer. There is a production staff. There is a control room. There are broadcast procedures in place to deal with issues like this.
Apparently no one saw a problem with Bashir's diatribe.
Posted by: Barbara ||
11/21/2013 18:47 Comments ||
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#6
Couldn't this be regarded as a rational gamble on their part? I haven't kept up with who's who, but MSNBC must know pretty much what they are. Bashir must know pretty much what he is. What do they have to lose? They run their little "Look, I made poopie!" bit, and what happens? Folks like y'all loathe 'em asymptotically more than you did before? They worry more about butterflies flapping up the Amazon. Moderate lefties hoot "Oh no he dint!" and get their usual self-congratulatory jollies: looking at Mapplethorpe and feeling like they wrote Pynchon. But the principled left might love it. Suddenly they're in like Fisk with keffiyeh-wearing college les6ians. Rappers call 'em n----. Sly fist-bump with a Clinton at the next WHCD. High tea and prison stories with Greyson and Loubani. The sky's the limit. But the real point is to bait Palin. If she fires back something a tenth as edgy or creepy or angry... all of the above and big bucks too. Cr-p. Think I'll go get me a leather coat and a mimeograph machine. The good old days.
#10
#6 Nature will retire this man before his constituents do it.
Probably right, but let me just say as one of those constituents I'll vote to primary him out, and if that doesn't work I'll hold my nose and vote for his Dim opponent, since McStain's a closet Dim anyway.
Tried it with Hayworth last time but failed, dammit.
[POLITICALWIRE] "George Prescott Bush, a political newcomer who is the grandson and nephew of U.S. presidents, filed to run for Texas land commissioner on Tuesday -- a move that officially begins the continuation of his family's political dynasty with a young, Hispanic, Spanish-speaking candidate.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013 00:00 ||
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Conservative or merely the next silver spoon dynastic republican?
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio thinks Democrats might be ready to repeal Obamacare in eight weeks.
"Look, this law cannot be saved. It will have to be repealed and the question is how long will it take for Democrats to realize that and cooperate in that endeavor," Rubio told Bill O'Reilly on Fox News Tuesday.
"So far I think upper echelons of the Democratic party, they're still being very stubborn about it. My prediction is check back in eight weeks," Rubio said.
Rubio promoted a bill he introduced to prevent the federal government from subsidizing insurance companies if they don't profit from health care plans during the first three years of Obamacare.
"The idea that the federal government should be bailing out insurance companies in order to make Obamacare work, that's not something a lot of people are aware of and I haven't taken a poll on it but I guarantee you it would be hugely unpopular," Rubio said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013 00:00 ||
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Wishful thinking. 0-Care was designed to fail. The problem, if you can call it that, is that it has been too successful. Dems won't quit while they are ahead, and they won't cry over losing a few elections in the short terms when 0-Care means a Left majority for the next hundred years.
#2
I don't know, I'm thinking some of the Dems can hear the chickens being plucked and smell the tar heating.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
11/21/2013 12:04 Comments ||
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#3
If there is a vote it will be to provide cover for vulnerable Dems. It will fail by a couple of votes -- the entire show having planned out in advance.
#4
The problem is that even repealing the law won't really help. If the law were repealed today, things would not immediately go back to the sraus quo ante. Insurance companies have written policies, and updated their systems to comply with the law. Rules and regulations have been promulgated. These things cannot be turned off like a light switch.
Of course, Obama would veto any resolution to repeal. He has too much ego invested to allow it to go away.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/21/2013 15:23 Comments ||
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#5
They have to kill it in order to save it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/21/2013 19:59 Comments ||
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[Chicago Tribune] Oregon, a state that fully embraced the Affordable Care Act, is enduring one of the rockiest rollouts of President Back Obama's signature health care law, with an inoperative online exchange that has yet to enroll a single subscriber, requiring thousands to apply on paper instead.
Unlike most other states, Oregon set an ambitious course to make its insurance exchange, dubbed Cover Oregon, an "all-in-one" website for every individual seeking health coverage, including those who are eligible for Medicaid.
But instead of serving as a national model, Oregon's experience has emerged as a cautionary tale, inviting comparisons to technical glitches that have plagued other state-run portals and the federal government's website for those states lacking exchanges of their own.
Oregon's online exchange has remained inaccessible to the public, requiring the state to sign up applicants the old-fashioned way, using paper forms. This has made comparison shopping more difficult for consumers and severely slowed the enrollment process.
"Oregonians have questions," said state Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat, in a written statement on Tuesday. "What went wrong with the rollout? How are they going to fix it? When are they going to get it right? Is the website contractor doing everything it can? Our people need to know."
Courtney urged state politicians to "ask the hard questions" of officials overseeing the state's healthcare exchange, and the Oregon Health Authority, at a pair of legislative hearings on the program scheduled for Wednesday.
With its online insurance marketplace out of commission and unavailable to the public indefinitely, the state has resorted to urging would-be subscribers to fill out applications that are between nine and 19 pages long by hand, said Michael Cox, a front man for Cover Oregon.
In the meantime, the program has hired about 400 temporary workers to help process those applications before January 1, when the new plans are due to take effect, Cox said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/21/2013 00:00 ||
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Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10, and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.
He next announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers, and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.
The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would buy on his behalf.
In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35, and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50
each."
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys for 700 billion dollars.
They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of monkeys!
Now you have a better understanding of how the Obama Health Care PLAN WILL WORK!!!!
#2
In the meantime, the program has hired about 400 temporary workers to help process those applications before January 1, when the new plans are due to take effect, Cox said.
That way, the temporary workers decide who should lie to get the subsidy - the one the taxpayers (or the Chines) fund.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/21/2013 8:09 Comments ||
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#3
You ain't seen nothing yet - This is just the signup process, just wait until they start handling your healthcare....
#3
No, no, no ... not under the bus, it's all consistent. Just listen very carefully -
But he said the president's familiarity with the report and recommendations did not contradict previous statements from the White House that described Obama as surprised by the scope of flaws in HealthCare.gov.
Obama was told that the problems identified by McKinsey were being addressed, Carney said. And Obama had never claimed to be unaware of "red flags" about the site, only of their seriousness.
O prolly said, "I know you guys can fix it, so just make it happen." THEN he played another round of golf.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/21/2013 7:30 Comments ||
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#4
O prolly said, "I know you guys can fix it, so just make it happen." THEN he played another round of golf.
Everything is easy for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Republican National Committee announced today that it is hosting a press conference for Democrats who will be running on Obamacare. They've invited a host of Democratic politicians who think Obamacare is a good idea, though it's likely none will show up:
Sarah 
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio thinks Democrats might be ready to repeal Obamacare in eight weeks.
[Chicago Tribune] Oregon, a state that fully embraced the Affordable Care Act, is enduring one of the rockiest rollouts of President Back Obama's signature health care law, with an inoperative online exchange that has yet to enroll a single subscriber, requiring thousands to apply on paper instead.
Oregon's online exchange has remained inaccessible to the public, requiring the state to sign up applicants the old-fashioned way, using paper forms. This has made comparison shopping more difficult for consumers and severely slowed the enrollment process.
