Begich Spokeswoman Takes Blame For Misstating His Whereabouts During Key Vote to Extend Unemployment Benefits; Murkowski Votes with Dems

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Mark Begich said Thursday that she misspoke when she said he missed a vote in Washington because he was traveling to the capital when, in fact, he was in Hawaii.

The Associated Press asked spokeswoman Heather Handyside by email Tuesday why the Alaska Democrat hadn’t voted on whether to proceed to debate on a renewal of benefits for the long-term unemployed. Handyside responded by email that he “wasn’t there. Is on his way back to D.C.”

The vote was close, with six Republicans, including Alaska’s senior senator, Lisa Murkowski, voting with Democrats to advance to debate. Begich was one of three members, and the only Democrat, shown as not voting.

The Hill reported Thursday that Begich missed the vote to deliver a speech Wednesday at a conference in Hawaii hosted by the American Association of Airport Executives.

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Senator From Colorado Asked State to Mislead the Public About Insurance Cancellations

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Rick Moran.

Desperate people do desperate things. In this case, Senator Mark Udall asked the state’s insurance commission to downplay the number of policy cancellations by changing the definition of “cancelled.”

Breitbart:

CompleteColorado.com reports that emails show U.S. Senator Mark Udall’s (D-CO) office pressured the Colorado Division of Insurance to downplay the number of insurance cancellations caused by the rollout of ObamaCare. A full 249,199 Colorado citizens were victimized by ObamaCare’s cancellations. According to the emails, Udall’s office hoped to change the definition of a “cancellation” as a way to lower the number. All of this occurred late last year as the storm around cancellations was engulfing Democrats and the president.

From an email inside the Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI), Director of External Affairs Jo Donlin bluntly stated to her colleagues:

Sen. Udall says our numbers were wrong. They are not wrong. Cancellation notices affected 249,199 people. They want to trash our numbers. I’m holding strong while we get more details. Many have already done early renewals. Regardless, they received cancellation notices.

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Photo Credit: breitbart

Photo Credit: breitbart

13,000 Obamacare applicants have no records with health insurers

By Tom Murphy and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, AP.

Record-keeping snags could complicate the start of insurance coverage this month as people begin using policies they purchased under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

Insurance companies are still trying to sort out cases of so-called health insurance orphans, customers for whom the government has a record that they enrolled, but the insurer does not.

Government officials say the problem is real but under control, with orphan records being among the roughly 13,000 problem cases they are trying to resolve with insurers. But insurance companies are worried the process will grow more cumbersome as they deal with the flood of new customers who signed up in December as enrollment deadlines neared.

More than 1 million people have signed up through the federal insurance market that serves 36 states. Officials contend the error rate for new signups is close to zero.

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ObamaCare Is a Losing Bet

By Anthony J.Ciani.

“Aim for the heart, Ramon,” the Man With No Name taunted. In the movie For a Few Dollars More, Clint Eastwood’s character covered his heart with an iron plate hidden beneath his poncho, knowing that Ramon would stubbornly aim for his heart and run out of ammunition. Making your opponent waste energy and resources is a classic tactic. At the monthly meeting of the Palatine Township Republican Organization, Congressman Roskam made one thing abundantly clear: the Republican strategy for 2014 is ObamaCare, just as the strategy in 2012 was the economy, and just as Ramon’s strategy was aiming for the heart. If Republicans aim only at ObamaCare, they will find an iron plate.

In September of 2012, Mitt Romney looked fairly well poised to beat President Obama. The lead was not astronomical, but most voters saw the economy as the major issue, and increasingly saw Republicans as better suited to fixing it. Then came the smoke and mirrors. The power of the President was abused to alter economic figures, creating a false and drastic dip in September unemployment. This was not a last ditch effort, but a careful manipulation of census data over two years. Back in 2010, Democratic strategists realized that the highly partisan, Democratic “Porkulus” would fail and the economy would be an albatross about their necks, and so planned the massive deception for 2012; a hidden iron plate to cover their hearts.

The second phase of ObamaCare had a disastrous rollout, and the sticker shock is still stinging, but the general election is 10 months away, and the iron plate is plainly visible. Most of the phase-ins and deadlines of the Affordable Care Act begin just after or well before the Federal elections. For those parts that were planned poorly, Obama has issued imperial decrees to move them post-election. In 2013, the Democrats branded a few million Americans with the mark of ObamaCare. So many people complained, that Obama put the brand back into the fire and promised not to take it out again until after the 2014 elections, when it will be red hot and ready to brand all Americans. All praise the benevolence of our Glorious Leader.

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Al Qaeda Controls More Territory Than Ever in Middle East

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Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

From around Aleppo in western Syria to small areas of Falluja in central Iraq, al Qaeda now controls territory that stretches more than 400 miles across the heart of the Middle East, according to English and Arab language news accounts as well as accounts on jihadist websites.

Indeed, al Qaeda appears to control more territory in the Arab world than it has done at any time in its history.

The focus of al Qaeda’s leaders has always been regime change in the Arab world in order to install Taliban-style regimes. Al Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri acknowledged as much in his 2001 autobiography, “Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet,” when he explained that the most important strategic goal of al Qaeda was to seize control of a state, or part of a state, somewhere in the Muslim world, explaining that, “without achieving this goal our actions will mean nothing.”

Now al-Zawahiri is closer to his goal than he has ever been. On Friday al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq seized control of parts of the city of Falluja and parts of the city of Ramadi, both of which are located in Iraq’s restive Anbar Province.

Anbar is home to predominantly Sunni Muslims, who feel that that the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki treats the Sunnis as second-class citizens.

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Afghanistan Releasing 72 Prisoners Considered Security Threat by US

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the country is going to release all but 16 of 88 prisoners considered a security threat by the United States.

In a statement Thursday, Karzai says that a review of the prisoners’ cases by Afghan intelligence and judicial officials turned up no evidence of wrongdoing for 45 of the detainees. Karzai says there was insufficient evidence on another 27 and that they must be released.

The U.S. is strongly opposed to their release because it says the prisoners have been involved in the wounding or killing of U.S. and coalition troops, Reuters reported.

The issue has been a sticking point in Afghan-U.S. relations as the two sides struggle to agree on a framework for the withdrawal of American and allied forces by the end of next year and the aftermath. Last week, a group of U.S. senators met Karzai in Kabul to warn him that release of the 88 detainees from the Parwan Detention Facility “would be a major step backward” for U.S.-Afghan relations.

A review of the prisoners’ cases by Afghan intelligence and judicial officials turned up no evidence of wrongdoing for 45 of the detainees, and there was insufficient evidence on another 27, so they must be released, Karzai said in a statement. He gave no details on when the release will take place.

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North Korea Tops Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan as Worst Place to Be Christian

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon

On the day former NBA star Dennis Rodman sang “happy birthday” to Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, a religious freedom advocacy group named North Korea the world’s worst country to be a Christian for the 12th consecutive year.

Islamic states dominated Open Doors’ 2014 world watch list, accounting for nine of the ten countries with the worst records. Of the full 50-country list released Wednesday, 36 are countries where Islamic extremism is “the main engine driving persecution of Christians,” stretching from North Africa to Brunei.

The top ten countries for persecuting Christians over the last year were: North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Pakistan, Iran and Yemen.

“In no other country in the world are Christians so fiercely persecuted because of their faith than in North Korea,” said Open Doors. “Like others in that country, Christians have to survive under one of the most oppressive regimes in contemporary times. They have to deal with corrupt officials, bad policies, natural disasters, diseases and hunger.

“On top of that, they must hide their decision to follow Christ. Being caught with a Bible is grounds for execution or a life-long political prison sentence. An estimated 50,000 to 70,000 Christians live in concentration camps, prisons and prison-like circumstances under the regime of leader Kim Jong-un.”

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74% of U.S. Afghan Casualties Came After Obama Ordered Troops Increased

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Seventy-four percent of the U.S. military personnel who have given their lives serving in the Afghan War died after Feb. 17, 2009, when President Barack Obama announced his first increase in the number of U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan, according to CNSNews.com’s database of U.S. casualties in the war.

In the more than twelve years that have passed since U.S. troops first entered Afghanistan with the aim of removing al Qaeda from its sanctuary there, 2,162 U.S. service personnel have given their lives in and around Afghanistan in support of U.S. military activities in that country.

1,593 of those 2,162 U.S. casualties—or 73.7 percent—have occurred since Feb. 17, 2009, when Obama announced the first of his multiple increases in U.S. military personnel deployed to Afghanistan.

“To meet urgent security needs, I approved a request from Secretary Gates to deploy a Marine Expeditionary Brigade later this spring and an Army Stryker Brigade and the enabling forces necessary to support them later this summer,” Obama said on Feb. 17, 2009.

MONTH-BY-MONTH CASUALTIES IN AFGHANISTAN

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Congress Is Now Mostly A Millionaires’ Club

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Photo Credit: Larry Downing / Reuters

Photo Credit: Larry Downing / Reuters

Congress is loaded, if you weren’t already aware.

The Center for Responsive Politics analyzed the personal financial disclosure data from 2012 of the 534 current members of Congress and found that, for the first time, more than half had an average net worth of $1 million or more: 268 to be exact, up from 257 the year earlier. The median for congressional Democrats was $1.04 million and, for Republicans, $1 million even.

To calculate the net worth of lawmakers, the Center added together members’ significant assets, such as corporate bonds and stocks, then subtracted major liabilities such as loans, credit card debt and property mortgages.

Here’s the breakdown: the median net worth for all House members was $896,000 (Democrats averaged $929,000 to Republicans’ $884,000) and, for Senators, $2.5 million…

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Significant Obama Donor to Head IRS Tea Party Targeting Investigation

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The attorney heading the internal investigation into potential unfair targeting of conservative groups by the IRS is a frequent and significant donor to both the Democratic National Committee and President Obama, Rep. Darrell Issa revealed today, in what he calls a “startling conflict of interest” that jeopardizes the investigation.

Rep. Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter today to Attorney General Eric Holder revealing new information that reached the committee on who is conducting the internal investigations at the IRS regarding the inappropriate targeting of conservative groups. Seeking an explanation as to why the FBI has been unresponsive to the committee, Rep. Issa noted that current and former IRS officials revealed Barbara Bosserman, a trial attorney within the IRS’s Civil Rights Commission, is leading the internal investigation.

Bosserman’s leadership raises all sorts of questions about the investigation’s fairness. Rep. Issa’s investigations revealed that she has been a loyal financial backer of the DNC since 2004 and has donated multiple times personally to President Obama’s two campaigns. Her personal donation total reaches $6,750 to both the party and President Obama.

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Levin: Obama Is ‘an Economic Illiterate…Who Takes Responsibility for Nothing’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: markn3tel/flickr

Photo Credit: markn3tel/flickr

Discussing President Obama’s remarks in the White House Tuesday, Mark Levin called the president an “economic illiterate” during Tuesday evening’s radio show…

Levin: “So there’s Obama today, with about ten people behind him, which demonstrates what a failure he is, and what a failure his policies are. And, of course, they don’t even get the irony of the damn thing. And, he says among other things, cut one, go:

Obama: “But, although the economy has been growing, and we’ve been adding new jobs, the truth of the matter is, is that the financial crisis was so devastating that there’s still a lot of people who are struggling, and in fact, if we don’t provide unemployment insurance, it makes it harder for them to find a job.”

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Bombshell Documents Show One Of Chris Christie’s Top Aides Ordered George Washington Bridge Lane Closures

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Brett LoGiurato.

Bombshell documents show that decisions that caused days of traffic jams near the George Washington Bridge — possibly in retaliation against a Democratic mayor who wouldn’t endorse Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) for reelection — reached closer to Christie than he has previously acknowledged.

Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s deputy chief of staff, sent an August 13 email to former Port Authority Director of Interstate Capital Projects David Wildstein, a Christie ally: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich (D) had declined to endorse Christie for re-election, unlike many other Democratic municipal officials in the state.

The Wall Street Journal obtained that email and 21 other pages of emails and text messages, a series that shows coordination between the Christie administration and the Port Authority over the lane closures — and suggests the closures were politically motivated, not part of a “traffic study.”

In a text to Baroni, Sokolich had said that the problem of busing students to school was “maddening.”

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

‘Outraged’ Chris Christie DENIES knowing about aide’s order to snarl up NYC bridge traffic in revenge on political enemy

By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor.

New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie broke his day-long silence Wednesday afternoon to say that a petty plan to exact revenge against a Democratic mayor by bottling up traffic in his town was carried out ‘without my knowledge.’

Christie put out a strongly-worded statement aimed at distancing himself from the growing scandal that threatens to engulf him and put the brakes on his presidential ambitions.

‘What I’ve seen today for the first time is unacceptable,’ Christie said. ‘I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge.’

Shocking emails released hours earlier revealed Christie’s aides punished a Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich for refusing to endorse their boss by snarling commuter traffic entering his town’s on-ramp to New York City’s busy George Washington Bridge.

‘One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable,’ he said, ‘and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my Administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions.’

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Christie ‘Outraged’ By ‘Unacceptable’ Email Exchanges Over GWB Lane Closures

By CBSNewYork/AP.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie responded Wednesday afternoon to email exchanges made public earlier in the day linking a top aide to the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal that has been under investigation.

“What I’ve seen today for the first time is unacceptable. I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge. One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my Administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions,” the governor said in a statement.

Hearings on the issue begin Thursday, a day after the emails were released.

As CBS 2’s Jessica Schneider reported, Christie had said previously that no one in his office or his campaign knew about the lane closures back in September.

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