Sshhh… ObamaCare’s Secret Mandate Exemption

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Photo Credit: APObamaCare’s implementers continue to roam the battlefield and shoot their own wounded, and the latest casualty is the core of the Affordable Care Act—the individual mandate. To wit, last week the Administration quietly excused millions of people from the requirement to purchase health insurance or else pay a tax penalty.

This latest political reconstruction has received zero media notice, and the Health and Human Services Department didn’t think the details were worth discussing in a conference call, press materials or fact sheet. Instead, the mandate suspension was buried in an unrelated rule that was meant to preserve some health plans that don’t comply with ObamaCare benefit and redistribution mandates. Our sources only noticed the change this week.

That seven-page technical bulletin includes a paragraph and footnote that casually mention that a rule in a separate December 2013 bulletin would be extended for two more years, until 2016. Lo and behold, it turns out this second rule, which was supposed to last for only a year, allows Americans whose coverage was cancelled to opt out of the mandate altogether.

In 2013, HHS decided that ObamaCare’s wave of policy terminations qualified as a “hardship” that entitled people to a special type of coverage designed for people under age 30 or a mandate exemption. HHS originally defined and reserved hardship exemptions for the truly down and out such as battered women, the evicted and bankrupts.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Levin Calls Out GOP for Targeting Tea Party and Other “Sleazy Crap” (+video)

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Discussing David Jolly’s upset special election in Florida with Neil Cavuto, Mark Levin hammered establishment Republicans for their hostility toward Jolly. Levin renewed his call for fresh, conservative leadership to rescue the party and the country.

Mark Levin also mentioned that the true story of Jolly’s winning campaign was not told by anyone in the media save Neil Cavuto and himself. Inconceivably, the GOP establishment actually attacked its own nominee in the Florida race. Of course, this kind of behavior is not unfamiliar to conservative activists in Alaska, Nevada, Colorado and Delaware.

But Levin has had it with this “sleazy crap” and hopes you have had it, too. Hear the exchange between Neil Cavuto and Mark Levin here:

For more on the GOP’s targeting tea party, click HERE.

Turley Op-Ed: The President’s Power Grab

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Photo Credit: Alex Wong / Getty ImagesRecently, a bizarre scene unfolded on the floor of the House of Representatives that would have shocked the framers of the Constitution. In his State of the Union address, President Obama announced that he had decided to go it alone in areas where Congress refused to act to his satisfaction. In a system of shared powers, one would expect an outcry or at least stony silence when a president promised to circumvent the legislative branch. Instead, many senators and representatives erupted in rapturous applause; they seemed delighted at the notion of a president assuming unprecedented and unchecked powers at their expense.

Last week, Obama underlined what this means for our system: The administration unilaterally increased the transition time for individuals to obtain the level of insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act. There is no statutory authority for the change — simply the raw assertion of executive power.

The United States is at a constitutional tipping point: The rise of an uber presidency unchecked by the other two branches.

This massive shift of authority threatens the stability and functionality of our tripartite system of checks and balances. To be sure, it did not begin with the Obama administration. The trend has existed for decades, and President George W. Bush showed equal contempt for the separation of powers. However, it has accelerated at an alarming rate under Obama. Of perhaps greater concern is the fact that the other two branches appear passive, if not inert, in the face of expanding executive power.

James Madison fashioned a government of three bodies locked in a synchronous orbit by their countervailing powers. The system of separation of powers was not created to protect the authority of each branch for its own sake. Rather, it is the primary protection of individual rights because it prevents the concentration of power in any one branch. In this sense, Obama is not simply posing a danger to the constitutional system; he has become the very danger that separation of powers was designed to avoid.

Read more this story HERE.

Malaysian Gov’t Official: ‘It Is Conclusive’ That Missing Plane Was Hijacked

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Lai Seng SinA Malaysian government official involved in the investigation into the missing Malaysia Airlines jet is claiming it is now “conclusive” that the plane was hijacked.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said investigators have concluded that one of the pilots or someone else with flying experience deliberately hijacked the missing jet.

The official says no motive has been established, and it is not yet clear where the plane was taken. The official said that hijacking was no longer a theory — “It is conclusive.”

The Boeing 777′s communication with the ground was severed under one hour into a flight March 8 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Malaysian officials have said radar data suggest it may have turned back and crossed back over the Malaysian peninsula westward, after setting out toward the Chinese capital.

Read more from this story HERE.

Miller Calls on Begich to Fulfill His Constitutional Duty and Support the ENFORCE the Law Act

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Photo Credit: Breitbart Today, U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller called on Senator Mark Begich to fulfill his constitutional duty and support the ENFORCE the Law Act, which passed handily in the House of Representatives earlier this week.

“The most chilling words this President has stated during his last five-plus years in office are, ‘Where Congress won’t act, I will.’ Nothing could be more antithetical to the government that our Founders established, which created a nation of laws and not of men. A renowned and liberal legal scholar recently testified before Congress that we have reached a ‘constitutional tipping point.’ I agree. The time has long since passed to hold this President accountable for his numerous Constitutional violations,” said Miller.

The list of unconstitutional executive decrees is legion from the dozens of changes to ObamaCare clearly crafted for political gain, to changing our immigration laws, to the re-writing and re-interpreting of the EPA’s authority in order to create new ‘climate change’ laws out of whole cloth, to altering the work requirements for welfare recipients, to refusing to enforce DOMA and thereby appropriating unto himself both the authority of the legislative and the judicial branches of government, this President’s lawless acts threaten the present and future liberty of our nation.

The Constitution of the United States is a document based upon centuries of history in the advance in the cause of liberty. The Founders knew their inheritance as English citizens and as beings created in the image of God and crafted a document to “secure the blessings of liberty” for themselves and future generations. Our inheritance as Americans is the freedom to govern our own lives free from tyrannical rule. This is the truth contained in the Declaration of Independence, the abolishment of the Star Chamber, the Magna Carta, and based upon the laws of nature and nature’s God.

The Constitution divides power among the three branches of government, so ambition would counteract ambition as the document’s ‘Father’ James Madison wrote, and guard against any taking of authority a particular branch does not have. The ENFORCE the Law Act is a powerful and much needed step to restore the balance of power between the branches.

“We have not come through centuries of hard fought gains in the cause of liberty, through war and peace, only to have its cause reversed in our day. I urge Senator Begich to support the swift passage of the ENFORCE the Law Act,” said Miller.

Now Feds Can Order any Family to Violate their Religious Beliefs

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Photo Credit: WNDAn administrative decision by the Department of Homeland Security means members of a German homeschool family whose grant of asylum in the U.S. later was withdrawn will not be returned to face the persecution homeschoolers face in Germany.

But advocates for homeschooling are warning that the underlying legal precedent in the Romeike family’s case suggests that the government always knows best what education is appropriate for children and can require them to attend a school that violates their religious beliefs.

The warning comes from Michael Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association, which represented the family.

The Romeikes were facing massive punishment, including fines, jail time and loss of custody of their children, had they remained in Germany and continued homeschooling. They made the choice because of teaching in public schools on homosexuality, abortion and other issues that violated the family’s Christian faith.

An appeals court complied with the Obama administration’s request to withdraw the granting of asylum, and the Supreme Court recently left the decision undisturbed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama: The Average Person Will Lose their Doctors Under Obamacare (+video)

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Larry DowningPresident Obama now says that his health law will lead the “average person” to switch doctors.

“For the average person,” Obama conceded in an interview with WebMD, “many folks who don’t have health insurance initially, they’re going to have to make some choices. And they might end up having to switch doctors, in part because they’re saving money.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Goldberg: The Most Cynical Generation – How are the Obama Years Workin’ Out for Ya?

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Photo Credit: National Review In case you hadn’t heard, young people these days — a.k.a “the Millennials” — are the most cynical and distrusting generation ever recorded. Only 19 percent think most people can be trusted. According to a big study from the Pew Research Center, they are less attached to marriage, religion, and political institutions than Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, and the other demographic flavors journalists love to use. They like their friends, their digital “social networks,” and their toys, and that’s about it. Not even a majority will call themselves “patriotic.” Probably more dismaying for liberals: Of any living generation, they are the least likely to call themselves environmentalists.

Now, I should say that I often find generational stereotyping pretty annoying. For instance, there was no “greatest generation.” Sure, there were a bunch of great Americans who stormed the beaches of Normandy. But is some guy who was in jail in 1943 for petty larceny deserving of special respect because he was born around the same time as a guy who won the Medal of Honor during WWII?

Honor, glory, and respect are earned individually, not collectively.

Politicians pander to young people, and lots of young people fall for it. And that speaks well of neither. Politicians pander to “youth” because it’s a time-saving way to trawl for votes and volunteer door-knockers wholesale. It’s the difference between using a gill net and a fishing pole. “You’re great because you were born more recently than other people” is the lamest form of flattery I can think of.

When politicians invoke generational stereotypes, what they are really doing is saying, “Act your age.” What’s pathetic is when young people unwittingly follow that advice.

Read more from this story HERE.

Russia says Intercepted US Drone Over Crimea

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Photo Credit: AFP Photo/John MooreA United States surveillance drone has been intercepted above the Ukranian region of Crimea, a Russian state arms and technology group said Friday.

“The drone was flying at about 4,000 metres (12,000 feet) and was virtually invisible from the ground. It was possible to break the link with US operators with complex radio-electronic” technology, said Rostec in a statement.

The drone fell “almost intact into the hands of self-defence forces” added Rostec, which said it had manufactured the equipment used to down the aircraft, but did not specify who was operating it.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Alaska Sues U.S. Over Its Rejection of Oil Exploration Plan

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Photo Credit: Paxson Woelber/flickrAlaska sued the Obama administration over its rejection of an oil and gas exploration plan for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as the state seeks to determine the extent of energy resources in the area.

Alaska Governor Sean Parnell said exploration for the coastal plain of the wildlife area was mandated by a federal Alaska land conservation act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refused to review the plan, citing a legal opinion by the Interior Department issued in 1987 claiming provisions of the law had expired, Parnell said in a complaint filed in federal court in Anchorage, Alaska.

“It is both disappointing and disturbing that the Obama administration, which claims that it is pursuing an ‘all of the above’ energy policy, is afraid to let the people of the United States learn more about ANWR’s oil and gas resources,” Parnell, a Republican, said in a statement. “The modern technology that we are seeking to use is responsibly utilized all across the North Slope with extremely limited environmental impact, and would dramatically improve our understanding of ANWR’s resources.”

The state is proposing to study a portion of the reserve known as Area 1002, which Alaska officials said covers 3,000 square miles (4,800 square kilometers) and is less than a tenth of the entire Arctic reserve. Estimates from 30 years ago put the median volume of oil in the refuge at 10.4 billion barrels, according to the state of Alaska.

Read more from this story HERE.