Congressman Exposes Secretive Obama Program to Strangle Politically Out-of-Favor Businesses

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Photo Credit: Bill Clark / Newscom

Photo Credit: Bill Clark / Newscom

Calling a secretive government operation to strangle politically out-of-favor businesses “more dangerous” than the IRS targeting scandal, a congressman with a background in banking is preparing to introduce legislation to kill the Obama administration initiative.

“I believe this activity is probably more dangerous and more disastrous than that of the IRS scandal because this is running people out of business for no reason and it’s harming livelihoods, incomes [and] families,” Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., said today in an interview with The Daily Signal.

Luetkemeyer, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, was comparing the Department of Justice’s Operation Choke Point to the Internal Revenue Service’s much-reviled targeting of tea party and other conservative groups.

Operation Choke Point seeks to cut off the financial lifeblood of payday lenders and other industries the Obama administration doesn’t like by pressuring banks to close their accounts with such businesses.

The government contends that Operation Choke Point combats unlawful, mass-market consumer fraud. However, a congressional report revealed that the initiative’s targets include legal businesses such as short-term lenders, firearms and ammunition merchants, coin dealers, tobacco sellers and home-based charities.

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In Deft Ninja Mind-Control Trick, Obama Calls Gruber ‘Some Adviser Who Never Worked on Our Staff’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

During a press conference at the closing of the G-20 summit in Australia, Fox News White House correspondent Ed Henry asked President Obama to comment on the firestorm created by ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber.
Fasten your seat belt and prepare to suspend disbelief:

“The fact that some adviser who was never on our staff expressed an opinion that I completely disagree with in terms of the voters is not a reflection on the actual process that was run.”

Really? “Some adviser who never worked on our staff”?

• Gruber was not only paid $92,000 by HHS to build an ObamaCare simulation model, he was later signed to an eight-month contract for an additional $297,000, bringing his total take from the administration to nearly $400,000.

Read more from this story HERE.

62-Year-Old Man Unties Himself And His Wife During Home Invasion, Shoots Attacker Dead

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

A 62-year-old Washington man was able to retrieve his gun after untying both himself and his wife during a home invasion earlier this week — a heroic act which left one of the bandits dead.

The incident unfolded Tuesday night in Lakewood after the homeowner answered a knock at his front door, The News Tribune reported. The man’s 66-year-old wife was taking a bath at the time.

The homeowner did not know the three men, but when he tried to close his door they barged into the house, armed with one gun and one knife.

The attackers pistol-whipped the man, who needed stitches in his head. The woman suffered a cut to her hand as the attackers dragged her out of the bath tub in order to tie up the couple.

When the three attackers went outside of the house momentarily, the man was able to bust loose and retrieve his gun, which he kept in a lock box.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Responds to Jerusalem Synagogue Attack: 'Too Many Palestinians Have Died'

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By FRANCES MARTEL.

President Obama has responded to [yesterday’s] terrorist attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem in which four Israeli Jews attending morning prayers condemning the attack, and stating that “the majority of Palestinians” want peace.

In a statement delivered to the White House press pool, President Obama responded to the attack by declaring that “too many Palestinians have died,” as well as Israelis, in the struggle between the state of Israel and the terrorist group Hamas and its affiliates, including the internationally active Muslim Brotherhood. “At this difficult time,” the President told reports, “I think it’s important for both Palestinians and Israelis to try to work together to lower tensions and reject violence.”

“We have to remind ourselves that the majority of Palestinians and Israelis overwhelmingly want peace,” the statement concludes, before the President begins remarks on the Ebola crisis in West Africa. The President did not take questions.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash 90

Photo Credit: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash 90

Terrorists’ Families Celebrate, Pass out Candies in Jerusalem

By Ari Yashar.

The families of cousins Uday and Rassan Abu Jamal in Jerusalem’s Jabel Mukabar celebrated wildly on Tuesday, after learning that the two had murdered four Jews and wounded eight others with hatchets, knives and guns in a synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood.

“We responded with shouts of joy when we received the news about their deaths,” Ala’a Abu Jamal said of his cousins to Yedioth Aharonoth. “People here distributed candies to guests who visited us, and there was joy for the martyrs.”

Trying to justify the horrific attack using the situation on the Temple Mount, where Jews are forbidden from praying and Muslim visitors riot on a near daily basis, he continued by calling the attack “a normal thing that can be expected from every man who has courage and a feeling of belonging to his people and to Islam.”

“The attack was a surprise for us, we didn’t expect that it would occur,” claimed Ala’a Abu Jamal. “The two killed (terrorists – ed.) were regular workers and weren’t associated with any organization. One of them was married with three children. Thank Allah, someone who dies as a martyr, that’s a great thing.”

Despite his claims the two were not affiliated to any group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, which was also praised by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Just Stepped In A Pile Of Gruber (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Dan Riehl.

There are at least two notable issues that emerge from this brief clip of Barack Obama’s latest remarks on the current fire storm surrounding Jonathan Gruber, ObamaCare and the White House.

First, Obama describes Gruber as “some adviser who never worked on our staff.” While that may be technically correct, it would depend on what the definition of “staff” is. While Gruber didn’t take the pay cut that joining Obama’s staff may have cost him, certainly he was specifically sought out and retained by the administration as a key figure in their efforts to pass the Affordable Care Act.

The other issue raised by Obama’s comments is significant and pertains to Gruber, as well.

In 2009, just one month after President Obama took office, the Department of Health and Human Services put out a sole-source solicitation titled “Technical Assistance in Evaluating Options for Health Reform.” The contract would be with Gruber, who the document said was the only person “reasonably available to satisfy agency requirements.”

As the agency put it, “Dr. Gruber developed a proprietary statistically sophisticated micro-simulation model that has the flexibility to ascertain the distribution of changes in health care spending and public and private sector health care costs due to a large variety of changes in health insurance benefit design, public program eligibility criteria, and tax policy.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Obama in 2006: ‘I Have Stolen Ideas From’ Jonathan Gruber

By Daily Signal Video Team.

President Obama was casual on Sunday about the role Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Jonathan Gruber had played in the creation of Obamacare, saying Gruber was “some adviser who never worked on our staff.”

Gruber has been under fire in recent days after several videos emerged of him discussing the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. In one clip, Gruber called the American people “stupid.”

Read more from this story HERE.

10 Supposedly ‘Naughty’ Companies That Are Censoring ‘Christmas’

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The American Family Association has released its “Naughty-or-Nice 2014 Retailer List,” an annual report that offers Christian consumers information about how companies market their products during the holiday season.

The conservative group rates brands on a color-coded scale, with the highest marks going to “5-star rated” businesses that both “promote and celebrate Christmas on an exceptional basis.” This year, some of the companies that fall under that category are Lowe’s, Sears, Hobby Lobby and Wal-Mart.

On the lower end are companies that the American Family Association claims “use ‘Christmas’ sparingly in a single or unique product description” and that, overall, purportedly do not adequately recognize the holiday in newspaper advertisements and TV and radio spots.

Some of these so-called “naughty” companies are: Barnes & Noble, Family Dollar, Foot Locker, Limited Brands, Office Depot, Office Max, Pet Smart, Staples, Victoria’s Secret and Maurice’s, according to a list published on the organization’s website…

christmas-620x373

Read more from this story HERE.

That's an Order: Obama Announces Action on Immigration…

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Obama to announce immigration action Thursday

By Jim Kuhnhenn and Erica Werner.

In a broad test of his executive powers, President Barack Obama declared Wednesday he will sidestep Congress and order his own federal action on immigration — in measures that could spare from deportation as many as 5 million people illegally in the U.S. and set up one of the most pitched partisan confrontations of his presidency.

Obama declared that Washington has allowed America’s immigration problem “to fester for too long.”

The president will use an 8 p.m. EST address Thursday to announce his measures and will sign the executive actions during a rally in Las Vegas on Friday. In doing so, Obama will be taking an aggressive stand that he had once insisted was beyond his presidential power.

As many as 5 million people in the country illegally are likely to be protected from deportation and made eligible for work permits under the plan. They would not have a path to citizenship, however, and the actions could be reversed by a new president in two years. Officials said the eligible immigrants would not be entitled to federal benefits — including health care tax credits — under Obama’s plan.

The 5 million estimate includes extending deportation protections to parents and spouses of U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have been in the country for five years. The president also is likely to expand his 2-year-old program that protects young immigrants from deportation. The administration had considered extending the executive action to parents of young immigrants covered under the 2012 Obama directive, but immigration advocates said they did not expect the parents to be included in the final plan.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jason Reed

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jason Reed

Obama to act unilaterally on immigration

By Steve Holland and Richard Cowan.

President Barack Obama will outline a plan on Thursday to relax U.S. immigration policy for as many as 5 million people, bypassing Congress and angering Republicans.

U.S. Representative Paul Ryan, the leading Republican voice on fiscal policy and a potential 2016 presidential candidate, called the plan a “partisan bomb” while a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner branded the president “Emperor Obama” for acting unilaterally.

The White House said Obama will deliver a televised speech at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday (0100 GMT Friday) laying out the plan followed by a trip to Las Vegas on Friday. Nevada is home to the highest proportion of undocumented immigrants.

Frustrated by years of congressional inaction on what most in Washington agree is a broken immigration system, Obama said he is now prepared to use his executive authority.

Obama’s directives are expected to remove the threat of deportation for as many as 5 million of the estimated 11 million people living illegally in the United States.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Fails To Move Ahead With Keystone Pipeline and NSA Reform

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

By Matt Vespa.

As Dan wrote [yesterday], the Keystone Pipeline vote went down in flames. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s Hail Mary ended in disaster; she fell one vote shy to invoke cloture on a bill that probably would not have saved her from defeat in her state’s upcoming runoff election on Dec. 6 against Republican Congressman Bill Cassidy.

Additionally, a bill to reform the National Security Agency post-Snowden also fell two votes shy of cloture; incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spearheaded the bill’s opposition. Yet, both bills are expected to return to the Senate floor next year. Keystone will probably pass, but the changes in the NSA bill will be quite different under a Republican Senate (via NYT):

[T]he vote only put off a fractious debate over security and personal liberties until next year. While a Republican-controlled Senate is less likely to go along with the kinds of changes that were in the bill, which would have ended the N.S.A.’s ability to collect bulk phone call data, the debate could further expose rifts between the party’s interventionist and more libertarian-leaning wings.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: TOM PENNINGTON / Getty

Photo Credit: TOM PENNINGTON / Getty

Democrats Block Keystone Bill, Landrieu’s Plea Rejected

BY BEN GEMAN, CLARE FORAN AND JASON PLAUTZ.

Mary Landrieu begged her fellow Democrats to back legislation approving the Keystone XL pipeline, looking for a lifeline in her long-shot bid to keep her Senate seat. But on Tuesday night, she fell one vote short.

The Senate rejected an attempt to get cloture on the measure, with 41 senators—all Democrats or independents—voting to stall the measure.

It’s a victory for environmental groups and their Democratic allies, who oppose the oil-sands pipeline because of its contributions to global warming. And it saves President Obama a headache: The White House opposed the bill but will be relieved not to have to veto it.

For Landrieu, it’s another setback at an already low moment. Weeks away from Louisiana’s Dec. 6 runoff election and trailing Rep. Bill Cassidy in the polls, Landrieu had hoped to use her steering of the measure through the Senate to infuse new life into her campaign. She got a boost from her party’s top brass when they agreed to hold a stand-alone Keystone vote, a step they’d been loathe to take in the past.

And going into the vote, Landrieu had 59 assured supporters for her motion, but—despite her assurances she could break a filibuster—it was never clear where she’d get No. 60. Democratic Majority Whip Dick Durbin was seen as one of Landrieu’s last options, but he voted ‘no’ on the bill.

Read more from this story HERE.

A Republic, If We Can Keep It: The Founders Vs. 'Emperor Obama'

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

As “Emperor Obama”—to cite a title applied to Barack Obama by House Speaker John Boehner, Senator Jeff Sessions, and others—proceeds with his plan to trample the Constitution by issuing an Executive Order on amnesty for illegals, perhaps it’s worth looking back to see how the authors of the Constitution might have reacted to such a crisis.

The short answer is that the Founders worried about presidential power-grabbing, and so wrote a proper response into the Constitution. However, the longer answer is that Emperor Obama might be setting in motion a process that actually undermines the Constitution. Although he was defeated at the polls in 2014, Obama could be initiating a process that consolidates Democratic power for the rest of the century.

In Philadelphia, in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked what sort of government the just-completed Constitutional Convention, presided over by George Washington, had created. “A republic,” he replied. Then the great patriot quickly added, “If you can keep it.”

And that was the key point: If Americans can keep it. The following year, 1788, James Madison wrote in Federalist #51, arguing for the ratification of the Constitution, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” But since men are not angels, Madison continued, it was necessary to create a Constitutional system of checks and balances; as Madison put it, “divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other.”

Yet where would ultimate power reside? In any kind of Constitutional showdown which of the “several offices” would be decisive? Would it be the executive branch? The judicial branch? The legislative branch? In the same Federalist #51, Madison had a ready answer: “In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.”

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30,000 Emails that IRS's Lerner 'Lost Forever,' Now Recovered

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Photo Credit: AP / Susan Walsh

Photo Credit: AP / Susan Walsh

Up to 30,000 missing emails sent by former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner have been recovered by the IRS inspector general, five months after they were deemed lost forever.

The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) informed congressional staffers from several committees on Friday that the emails were found among hundreds of “disaster recovery tapes” that were used to back up the IRS email system.

“They just said it took them several weeks and some forensic effort to get these emails off these tapes,” a congressional aide told the Washington Examiner.

The IRS, in a statement provided to the Examiner, said the agency and IRS Commissioner John Koskinen is fully cooperating with the investigation.

“As Commissioner Koskinen has stated, the IRS welcomes TIGTA’s independent review and expert forensic analysis.” The IRS statement said. “Commissioner Koskinen has said for some time he would be pleased if additional Lois Lerner emails from this time frame could be found.”

Read more from this story HERE.