Video: ‘Barrycades’ Torn Down, Dumped at White House

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Photo Credit: WNDThousands of Americans have taken the government shutdown into their own hands, literally, as they stormed into the nation’s capital, tearing down barricades blocking off the World War II Memorial on the National Mall Sunday morning.

“Barrycades are down,” tweeted Sherry Lucas, a reference to President Barack Obama’s childhood nickname of Barry.

Many of the barricades were then hand-carried by the protesters and dumped in front of the White House.

This weekend has seen the convergence of U.S. veterans and truckers on the nation’s capital, as many protest the closure of public memorials as well as the president’s policies.

Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, addressed the crowd at 9:30 a.m. and were later joined by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

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IMF Chief: U.S. Dance with the Debt Limit is ‘Very, Very Concerning’

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Photo Credit: AP/Alex BrandonBy Tom Howell Jr.

The chief of the International Monetary Fund says the U.S. government’s stalemate over spending and its debt limit is “very, very concerning” and could roll back economic progress around the world.

Christine Lagarde, who took over the financial watchdog-and-rescue organization in 2011, said global finance ministers assembled for meetings in Washington last week feeling like Japan had finally turned the corner and that economies in the U.S. and Europe were on the upswing.

“And then they found out that the debt ceiling was the issue,” she said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “They found out that the government had shut down and that there was no remedy in sight. So it really completely transformed the meeting in the last few days.”

Ms. Lagarde, a lawyer from France, added a global perspective to the standoff that has roiled Washington for weeks and befuddled overseas investors who typically view the U.S. as a paragon of financial rectitude.

Instead, Senate leaders are trying to forge a deal that would extend the federal debt limit and end a government shutdown about to enter its third week.

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Budget Talks at Impasse; Democrats Won’t Agree on Spending Cuts

By The Associated Press.

Senate Republicans and Democrats hit an impasse Sunday over spending in their last-ditch struggle to avoid an economy-jarring default in just four days and end a partial government shutdown that enters its third week.

After inconclusive talks between President Barack Obama and House Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took charge in trying to end the crises although no resolution seemed imminent.

“Americans want Congress to compromise,” Reid said at the start of a rare Sunday session in the Senate in which he pressed for a long-term budget deal.

The two cagy negotiators are at loggerheads over Democratic demands to undo or change the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts to domestic and defense programs that the GOP see as crucial to reducing the nation’s deficit.

McConnell insisted that a solution was readily available in the proposal from a bipartisan group of 12 senators, led by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., that would re-open the government and fund it at current levels for six month while raising the debt limit through Jan. 31.

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Across the Country, Donors Chip in to Help Programs Hurt by Federal Government Shutdown

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Photo Credit: L. Allen BrewerAs the partial government shutdown rolls on, programs that rely on federal money are feeling the strain — and so are the people who depend on their services.

For 16-year-old Alishe’ah Sockwell, federal money makes a big difference.

It helps put a roof over her head. It allows her mother, Nia, to undergo job training. And it pays for childcare for Sockwell’s young daughter so that Sockwell can go to high school every day in Little Rock, Ark.

But with some federal funds out of reach because of the shutdown, Sockwell may have to stay home from school in order to watch her daughter. If the shutdown drags on much longer, her housing could be in jeopardy, too.

So, to fill in the gaps, the nonprofit organization that provides Sockwell and other homeless people in Little Rock with childcare, shelter and other assistance, has asked community members to chip in.

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N.J. Gov. Christie Flips, Says He Now Wants In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrants

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Photo Credit: Mel EvansImmigrant-rights activists say New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie reversed himself Saturday and endorsed giving illegal immigrants in-state college tuition rates, and said he will try to get the issue through his legislature in a lame-duck session.

Mr. Christie, who is up for re-election in November, is also seen as eyeing a bid for the GOP’s 2016 presidential nomination — but his support for in-state tuition could complicate that.

“We need tuition equality for everyone in New Jersey,” the activists said the governor said in a speech to the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey.

Afterward, the activists said, Mr. Christie told one of them that, “We will get it done in the lame duck.”

A message left with Mr. Christie’s office Sunday morning wasn’t returned.

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Louie Gohmert Says Don’t Listen to John McCain, As He ‘Supported Al Qaeda’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Right Wing Watch via YoutubeBy Eric Levenson.

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert said Sen. John McCain “supported al Qaeda and rebels” in Syria while speaking at the Values Voter Summit on Friday. Gohmert accused the Vietnam veteran of supporting the enemy to explain why Republicans shouldn’t listen when McCain says the GOP can’t win the government shutdown. (Recent polls show the GOP is being crushed in the government shutdown.)

“I heard just before I came some senator from Arizona,” Gohmert said, a slight referring to McCain that brought out some audience laughter. “A guy that liked Qadaffi before he wanted to bomb him, a guy that liked Mubarak before he wanted him out, a guy that’s been to Syria and supported Al-Qaeda and rebels.” Finally, he gets to his main point. “But he was saying today ‘The shutdown has been a fool’s errand.’ And I agree with him. The President and Harry Reid should not have shut this government down,” he said to applause.

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Photo Credit: AP‘You’re Wrong There!’: Louie Gohmert Bottles Fox News Anchor Over Who’s to Blame for the Mess in Washington

By Becket Adams.

Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert got into a tense back-and-forth Saturday with Fox New’s Arthel Neville over who is to blame for the partial government shutdown and the frightening possibility of a debt-ceiling breach.

The Republican Congressman insisted that President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in the U.S. Senate are responsible for the current mess in the nation’s capital.

“The party’s brand was hurt with TARP,” said Gohmert, “was hurt with so many things, but especially two and a half years ago when we made an offer to cut some of the massive overspending, and the President and Harry Reid (D-NV) said, ‘Nope, it’s our way or the highway.’”

The Fox News anchor wasn’t satisfied with Rep. Gohmert’s analysis.

“You’re not saying that either, Congressman?” Neville said. “Let’s have some honest talk here.”

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Wall St. Elites Reason it’s Time for a ‘De-Americanized World,’ China’s News Agency Says

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Photo Credit: AP/Eugene HoshikoBy Fox News.

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.

“Meanwhile, the U.S. government has gone to all lengths to appear before the world as the one that claims the moral high ground, yet covertly doing things that are as audacious as torturing prisoners of war, slaying civilians in drone attacks, and spying on world leaders.

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China wants a ‘De-Americanized’ world

By Rick Moran.

I suppose if I had a couple of trillion in dollar denominated bonds, I’d be a little worried too.

But really, “De-Americanize” the world? Just how does one go about doing that?

IBT:

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.

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No Recourse for Girls Harassed by Transgender Student (+video)

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Photo Credit: hunnnterrrThe push for radical transgender rights in schools is trumping privacy rights at one Colorado high school.

A male student at Florence High School who claims to be a transgender has been harrassing girls in the bathroom. When parents complained, school officials said the boy’s rights as a transgender trumped their daughters’ privacy rights.

As the controversy grew, some students were threatened with being kicked off athletic teams or charged with hate crimes if they continued to voice concerns.

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I’ll have my Way — or America will Suffer!

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No, this is not a direct quote from Barack Obama, but it is an interpretation derived from every statement he has made of late, and his decision-making regarding what will be funded, and what will not, during the present partial government shutdown.

Since he was first elected in 2008, journalists and pundits have repeatedly exclaimed that Barack Obama is the first president in our history who does not love our country. Being a minister, I always initially refuse a bad report about anyone until there is ample proof; it is the benefit of the doubt. That day has come and gone and I am now among those who believe that Obama actually hates America.

He has smashed traditional marriage, exalted homosexual perversion, used the IRS like a battering ram, left border agents, ambassadors, and good soldiers to die without help, raised the debt to unimaginable heights and now is selectively battering various citizens and veterans with his shutdown. All for his pet legislation, hated by most Americans, the personal idol of his life — ObamaCare!

In fact, I waited a full two years as Mr. Obama harrassed various governors on voting laws and immigration enforcement before concurring with those who say he hates America.

In 2010 in an article entitled “Obama Courts Latino Votes at Arizona’s Expense” I was forced to say “Every time the president speaks, makes another appointment or ramrods a new bill through the democratically controlled congress, he reinforces what millions of Americans now feel; this president does not love America.”

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The Insiders: Obamacare is a Blemish on American Technology

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Photo Credit: Joe Skipper/ReutersWhat the president heralds as his signature accomplishment is not only creating great domestic upheaval as a political and policy failure, it is also an immense American technological failure on display for the world to see.

The American brand has been dealt some sharp blows under this administration. We are suffering from a weak economy, reeling from the recent embarrassing debacle over Syria’s chemical weapons, and we still haven’t brought anyone to justice over what happened in Benghazi. The world watched as our enemies protected junior nobody Edward Snowden when he handed over our secrets, and now the world is witnessing unbecoming squabbling in Washington as our government remains shut down. We also have to contend with this unflattering picture of American technological capabilities. We may have invented the Internet, but our position as the leader in computer and software development has suffered a setback.

The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) claim they do not know how many Americans have successfully signed up for Obamacare. Unofficial reports say that perhaps as few as 51,000 people were able to complete applications during the first week. Is President Obama angry about this roll out? Does he not know what is happening? How long can his administration pretend it doesn’t know the extent of its problems?

While the Republicans have done a lot to create competing news that has momentarily pushed some of the focus on the failures of Obamacare to the back burner, the issue is not going to go away. It’s only a matter of time before this administration will have to face reality.

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RNC Chair: Hillary Should Return Donations from Mcauliffe’s Convicted Pal

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Photo Credit: APOn Sunday RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called on Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, and the Democratic National Committee to return political contributions made to their political campaign committees by Joseph Caramadre, a friend and business associate of Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.

Breitbart News reported on Wednesday that Caramadre, who recently pled guilty to stealing the identities of terminally ill people, donated $25,000 to McAuliffe’s 2009 gubernatorial campaign and that McAuliffe had invested $47,000 in his illegal business venture.

Also on Wednesday, McAuliffe said he would donate the $25,000 he received in contributions from Caramadre and the $47,000 he invested in Caramadre’s business venture—offered and managed by Estate Planning Resources, Caramadre’s Rhode Island-based business—to charity.

Priebus told Breitbart News exclusively on Sunday that “Terry McAuliffe has already given back part of his ill-gotten gains from Joseph Caramadre. It is now up to Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, and the DNC, to decide where they stand.”

Priebus called on Clinton and Reid to return the substantial contributions they have received from Caramadre. “Will they continue to keep the hundreds of thousands of dollars they received from a convicted fraudster who illegally profited off terminally ill patients?” he asked.

Read more from this story HERE.