White House To Ignore Court Ruling, Keep Handing Out Obamacare Subsidies

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Kevin Lamarque

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Kevin Lamarque

The Obama administration will continue handing out Obamacare subsidies to federal exchange customers despite a federal court’s ruling Tuesday that the subsidies are illegal.

A D.C. Court of Appeals panel ruled Tuesday morning that customers in the 36 states that didn’t establish their own exchange and use HealthCare.gov instead cannot be given premium tax credits, according to the text of the Affordable Care Act itself.

But the White House said in response that it will continue handing out the billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies…

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Policing America

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

I want the police to be better armed than the bad guys, but what exactly does that mean today?

Apparently it means the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security equip even the tiniest rural police departments with massive military vehicles, body armor and grenade launchers. The equipment is surplus from the long wars we fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

To a hammer, everything resembles a nail. SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams were once used only in emergencies such as riots or robberies where hostages were taken. But today there are more than 50,000 “no-knock raids” a year.

It’s not because crime got worse. There is less crime today. Crime peaked around 1990 and is now at a 40-year low. But as politicians keep passing new criminal laws, police find new reasons to deploy their heavy equipment.

Washington Post reporter Radley Balko points out that they’ve used SWAT teams to raid such threatening haunts as truck stops with video poker machines, unlicensed barber shops and a frat house where underage drinking was reported.

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Report: Terror Group Behind Benghazi Attacks Moved In Nearby U.S. Consulate and ‘Nothing Was Done’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

By Justen Charters.

New information has come to light surrounding the September 11th terror attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

From Fox News:

Fox News’ Adam Housley reported that within three weeks of the U.S. renting the compound, a group aligned with Ansar al-Sharia – the terror organization believed to be behind the attack – moved in nearby.

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Photo Credit: Government

Photo Credit: Government

‘Is This How The Benghazi Talking Points Were Developed?’ Govt Watchdogs Blast Kerry Aide’s Use Of Gmail Account

By Brendan Bordelon.

Two top government watchdogs in Washington D.C. slammed a key aide to Secretary of State John Kerry for using a private Gmail account to conduct official government business, calling it “the worst possible practice in trying to maintain transparency” and speculating whether this was “how the Benghazi talking points were developed.”

The Daily Caller reported on Monday that Glen Johnson, a strategic communications advisor to Kerry, fabricated a claim about the number of times Kerry appeared on “Fox News Sunday” while attempting to force TheDC to change a report which said that the secretary had “shut out” Fox News reporter Chris Wallace from interviews.

Johnson used his personal Gmail account to contact TheDC, though he did also forward the initial email to his government address. As deputy assistant secretary of public affairs, corresponding with journalists counts as Johnson’s official government business. Johnson also signed the first email with his official title.

The State Department official did not appear to carbon copy his government address in a subsequent email to TheDC apologizing for the claims in his original message.

Tom Fitton, president of the conservative government watchdog Judicial Watch, insists that it’s important for federal employees to use official communication channels — especially if they’re high-ranking or in positions of public interest.

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House Investigators: IRS Tech Experts Say Lerner’s Hard Drive Only 'Scratched,' Not Destroyed

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Fox News.

House investigators said Tuesday that the computer hard drive of ex-agency official Lois Lerner — a key figure in the IRS targeting scandal — was only “scratched,” not irreparably damaged, as Americans have been led to believe.

GOP-led Ways and Means Committee investigators, in their quest to recover missing Lerner emails, learned her hard drive was damaged but recoverable by talking to IRS information-technology experts, after the government originally refused to make them available, according to the committee.

“It is unbelievable that we cannot get a simple, straight answer from the IRS about this hard drive,” said committee Chairman Dave Camp.

The Michigan Republican said the new information also raises more questions about potential criminal wrongdoing at the IRS because the committee was told no data was recoverable and the physical hard drive was recycled and potentially shredded.

In addition, learning that the hard drive was only scratched also raises questions about why the IRS refused to use outside experts to recover the data.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

Lois Lerner’s Hard Drive Was ‘Scratched’ Then ‘Shredded’

By Patrick Howley.

Ex-IRS official Lois Lerner’s computer hard drive was “scratched” and the data on it was still recoverable. But the IRS did not try to recover the data from Lerner’s hard drive, despite recommendations from in-house IRS IT experts to outsource the recovery project.

The hard drive was then “shredded,” according to a court filing the IRS made to House Ways and Means Committee investigators.

The IRS claims that it lost Lerner’s emails from 2009 to 2011 including emails to and from the White House, when her computer crashed in the midst of the agency’s conservative targeting program. The IRS also claimed in a transcribed interview that many other IRS employees who worked under Lerner in her Washington, D.C. department and its Cincinnati-based affiliate also experienced computer crashes that deleted their emails, bringing the total number of crash victims to “less than 20.”

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Voters See A More Divided Nation; GOPers More Enthusiastic to Vote

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Voters strongly believe the United States is a more divided nation these days, and they think both sides are to blame. Most are also ready to do something about it at the ballot box in November.

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Likely U.S. Voters say America is a more divided nation than it was four years ago. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just seven percent (7%) think the country is less divided now, while 21% rate the level of division as about the same.(To see survey question wording, click here.)

Among voters who see more division or about the same level of it, 35% believe President Obama is to blame. But 34% point the finger at Republicans in Congress instead. Twenty-three percent (23%) say they’re both to blame. Just five percent (5%) attribute the division to something else.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of all voters say they are more likely to vote this year than they have been in past elections. Only four percent (4%) say they are less likely to do so, while 38% rate their intention to vote as about the same as in past years.

Perhaps problematic for Democrats is that 65% of GOP voters and 55% of voters not affiliated with either major party are more likely to vote this year, compared to 53% of those in the president’s party. But that could change as the election gets nearer.

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Obama Sets Out On Dem Fundraising Sprint Amid Mounting Crises

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / KEVIN LAMARQUE

Photo Credit: REUTERS / KEVIN LAMARQUE

President Obama began his three-day West Coast fundraising tour in Seattle with an admission that mushrooming global crises were adding anxiety to an American public already concerned about the economy.

“Part of people’s concern is just the sense that around the world the old order isn’t holding and we’re not quite yet where we need to be based on the new order,” said Obama, who later cautioned against letting those anxieties lead to cynicism and a lack of interest in democracy.

“People who really need government to work for them on their behalf, they withdraw, they opt out, and that makes government even more dysfunctional,” he said.

The president already has taken heat for making time for a burger stop and fundraisers last week shortly after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed over Ukraine, killing hundreds. While the president repeatedly has addressed the tragedy in public, he also spent his Sunday playing golf at Fort Belvoir.

Later Tuesday, Obama will attend a Democratic Party fundraiser in Seattle, before catching Air Force One to San Francisco. He’ll end the three-day swing later this week in Los Angeles.

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A Policy So Bizzare, So Obama

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Obama has a new get-tough policy with Russia.

It’s called the War on the Billionaires.

The United States is using narrow sanctions against Russian billionaires—private persons presumably– some of whom Obama supposes supports Russia’s war in Ukraine. And the policy isn’t just bizarre; it’s Obama.

He’s seen our war on millionaires here at home, and raised them a war on billionaires in Russia.

“The U.S. and Europe are gearing up for a new round of sanctions expected to be announced this week that will impose travel bans and business sanctions against several Russian billionaires with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin,” reports CNBC. “In a phone call last night, British Prime Minister David Cameron told Putin that his ‘cronies’ will face sanctions unless Russia withdraws its support for the separatists in Ukraine.”

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Welfare Cash for Weed in Colorado

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Photo Credit: Dreamstime

Photo Credit: Dreamstime

For the past six months, welfare beneficiaries in Colorado have repeatedly withdrawn their cash benefits at marijuana retailers and dispensaries, according to a new analysis by National Review Online. Such apparent abuses have caught the eye of Colorado’s executive and legislative powers alike, and the state has launched an effort to curb them.

At least 259 times in the first six months of legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, beneficiaries used their electronic-benefit transfer (EBT) cards to access public assistance at weed retailers and dispensaries, withdrawing a total of $23,608.53 in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash, NRO’s examination found.

In 2012, the latest fiscal year available, Colorado used $124 million in TANF money from the federal government, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Withdrawals at marijuana establishments represented only a tiny fraction of the more than 500,000 total EBT transactions that have occurred since recreational weed became legal in Colorado on January 1. And it’s impossible to determine how much of that welfare money actually was used to buy pot, given that cash benefits are fungible and some of these establishments also sell groceries.

Nevertheless, welfare withdrawals at weed stores are coming under increasing scrutiny, and Colorado’s legislators and bureaucrats are beginning an effort to restrict abuses.

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Sarah Palin Drives Stake Through Heart of 'True Blood' Producers

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin rejected overtures from True Blood’s producers for a cameo role on the conservative-bashing vampire show. Her instincts proved to be correct after Sunday’s HBO episode in which Republican women were once again demeaned when one of the lead characters said in horror, “Oh my God, I’m a Republi-c*nt.”

Palin told Breitbart News after she heard about the misogynistic episode that she simply wondered, “‘True Blood’ or true gall?”

“The brilliant minds of ‘True Blood’ were brazen enough to ask me to do a cameo on their show, apparently so they could insult a conservative woman in person instead of just all conservative women in general,” Palin told Breitbart News. “Their offer wasn’t presented in any negative way, perhaps to benefit from a surprise factor after the guest appearance. I turned them down anyway.”

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LA Street Artist Blasts Obama for 'Scandalous' Fundraiser

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Photo Credit: Truth Revolt

Photo Credit: Truth Revolt

As President Obama arrives in Los Angeles for his $32,000 per plate fundraiser at the home of Shonda Rhimes this week, a local street artist is pointing out the irony of the producer of the hit TV show Scandal, a show about a Washington public relations firm that specializes in managing political scandals, hosting the producer of such actual scandals as the cover-up surrounding the Benghazi attack, the lost hard-drives of IRS officials targeting conservatives, and the Fast and Furious gun running scheme.

Posters went up Monday night all over Hollywood around Rhimes’s Hancock Park home and the Sunset Gower Studios where Scandal is filmed.

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