Obamacare Website Disqualifies Enrollees: You’re in Jail

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Photo Credit: WND Are you in jail and didn’t know it?

Don’t worry. Obamacare will tell you.

That’s the “circumstance” for a commenter to a government website taking responses to the problems with the failing Healthcare.gov website, which has been unable to provide reasonable access for Americans.

“Website said my wife and I were ineligible due to current incarceration,” wrote Fred in an acknowledgement by the left-leaning ProPublica of the website problems. “We have never been arrested in our lives, both 63!!!!!!!!!!!”

Charles Ornstein, in the ProPublica report, documented some of the responses on the federal site collecting comments. “The Obama administration has not always been transparent about Healthcare.gov: A case in point is how HHS has withheld the number of people who have been able to successfully enroll. But in this instance, the administration allowed comments to the blog post to be seen by all.”

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‘We’re Here to Kill Americans,’ Benghazi Attackers Declared: Witness (+video)

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Photo Credit: GettyThe attackers on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, said they were there “to kill Americans,” a Westerner who witnessed the terrorist strike tells CBS News.

The full interview with the British security expert hired to train Libyan guards will air at 7 p.m. EDT Sunday on “60 Minutes.”

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack.

The man called himself “Morgan Jones” to protect his identity, although his face is shown on camera.

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U.S. Middle Class Implosion: 37% Say They’ll Never Retire, Over 40% Can Barely Pay Bills

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Photo Credit: CNBCYou’ve heard the story about America’s retirement crisis.

Young people don’t save enough. Older people have to work longer. Public pension benefits are always on the verge of being slashed, and Social Security’s future is anyone’s guess. No one trusts the stock market, but keeping assets in a savings account generates the same return as keeping them under a mattress.

The retirement picture is alarming at best. And now it has come to this: In its annual retirement study of middle-income Americans (income of $25,000 to $100,000), Wells Fargo asked participants if they expect to work until they die.

“This is the first time we asked if people thought they would work until they die or become too sick,” said Laurie Nordquist, head of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. Thirty-seven percent of middle-income Americans surveyed by Wells Fargo said they have that expectation. The finding translates to just under two in five Americans who believe they will never be able to retire.

Wells included the question based on a larger trend exposed when participants have been asked how many expect to work until they are at least 80. That number was at 34 percent in this year’s survey, a significant rise from 25 percent two years ago. It’s been on a steady rise, too, up from 30 percent in 2012.

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Alaska Air Group Reports Record Third Quarter 2013 Results

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Photo Credit: Kiskadee 3Alaska Air Group, Inc., (NYSE: ALK) today reported third quarter 2013 GAAP net income of $289 million, or $4.08 per diluted share, compared to $163 million, or $2.27 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2012. Excluding the impact of mark-to-market fuel hedge adjustments of $20 million ($12 million after tax, or $0.17 per diluted share), and a one-time special revenue item of $192 million ($120 million after tax, or $1.70 per diluted share) that primarily resulted from the application of new accounting rules associated with the modified affinity card agreement, the company reported record adjusted net income of $157 million, or $2.21 per diluted share, compared to adjusted net income of $150 million, or $2.09 per diluted share, in 2012.

“These results represent our best quarter ever and mark Alaska’s 18th consecutive quarterly profit,” Alaska Air Group CEO Brad Tilden said. “This is noteworthy given significant additional competition in some of our core markets. The balance and strength of our network combined with the ability of our people to respond quickly to changing business conditions are enabling us to succeed in this highly competitive industry.”

The following table reconciles the company’s reported GAAP net income and earnings per diluted share (EPS) during the third quarters of 2013 and 2012 to adjusted amounts:

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Redneck, Inc: The Duck Dynasty Story

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Way out Jonesboro Road in West Monroe, Louisiana, past all the Baptist churches, past the Jack Fluck realty signs, past the Guns & Gifts store, past the dog playing dead in the middle of the road, you will find Phil Robertson in the ramshackle house where he’s lived with his wife, Miss Kay, for the past 37 years – a born-again, God-loving, God-fearing bayou couple if ever there was one – and maybe his gap-toothed brother, Si, too, and his boys, Willie, Jase, and Jep. One thing is for sure: They’ll mostly all be dressed in full duck-hunting camouflage regalia and wearing headbands to restrain their long, knotted hair but letting their long, freaky beards fly free. All of them will probably have gotten ready for the day the same way Phil has – “There’s not a lot of personal hygiene going on,” he says; specifically, no brushing of the teeth (that being reserved for nighttime), no combing of the hair, no flossing of the teeth, no shower, no face washing, no deodorant – and they will all look slightly dazed and bewildered by the success of their A&E TV show, ‘Duck Dynasty,’ which is about them, their wives, and their incredibly lucrative duck-call business.

Phil, 67, flips up the footrest on his camo-patterned, extrawide La-Z-Boy recliner, wiggles his toes in the air, tells the rat terrier named Bobo to hush, and says, “We’re trying to infuse a little good into a culture in which gentleness, patience, kindness, self-control, love, joy, and peace have become abnormal.”

Si, 65, is sitting next to him, sipping tea from the blue Tupperware cup his mother sent him while he was serving in Vietnam and that has since become nearly as famous as he has. “Sad,” he says, shaking his head.

“Very sad,” says Phil. “I go out into America and I am literally navigating a minefield. Godliness has become abnormal. I just left California, where I spoke to 40,000 altogether. I told them I was a Bible man. I told them I believe that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. ‘What’s he trying to say? That I can’t sleep with anybody I want? Is this guy crazy?’ Then they see a little family structure on TV – us – and the show goes ballistic. Thousands and thousands of people have thanked us. Isn’t that right, Si?”

Si bobs his head and says, “Yeah.”

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Student Homelessness Hits Record High (+video)

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Photo Credit: John Moore/Getty Images The number of homeless students in U.S. public schools is at an all-time high, according to new data.

There were 1.2 million homeless students during the 2011-12 academic year, from preschool all the way through high school. That’s up 10% from last year and 72% from the start of the recession, according to the most recent data available from the National Center for Homeless Education, which is funded by the Department of Education.

Advocacy groups say continuing economic struggles are causing more students to end up homeless, meaning that they live in shelters, motels, or are staying temporarily with someone else because they have nowhere to live.

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Al Gore: Keystone Pipeline an ‘Atrocity’

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Photo Credit: M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICOA fiery Al Gore urged President Barack Obama on Thursday to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline, calling the controversial project an “atrocity.”

“This should be vetoed. It is an atrocity. It is a threat to our future,” the former vice president said during a Center for American Progress 10th anniversary event in Washington.

Gore criticized the Canadian oil sands that the pipeline would carry, arguing that approval of the project would be akin to a desperate drug addict looking for fresh veins.

“Junkies find veins in their toes when the ones in their arms and legs give out,” said Gore, a vocal climate advocate who has previously used the drug addiction metaphor to describe Keystone. “We are now at the point where we’re going after these ridiculously dirty and dangerous carbon-based fuels. And we’ve got to stop that.”

Gore delighted the progressive crowd at the CAP event, listing off a bevy of facts and figures about the threat of climate change.

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Did MSNBC’s Chris Hayes Use ‘KKK’ Image for Cruz, Paul, Rubio? (+video)

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Photo Credit: Breitbart Chris Hayes, host of MSNBC’s All In, has a favorite tactic–though not an original one: connecting today’s Republicans with the racist Democrats of the old South. In June, he rewrote history by casting George Wallace as a Republican–an error for which, to his credit, he later apologized. On Wednesday, he appeared to use a more subtle tactic to connect the Tea Party’s Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio to the Ku Klux Klan.

In a segment on possible Tea Party contenders for the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2016 presidential race, Hayes used a graphic (above) that portrayed Cruz, Paul, and Rubio as kings in a deck of cards–and that, rather conveniently, spelled out the initials “K K K.” (Hayes did not say the word “kings” during the segment.)

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‘Offensive’ Halloween Costumes Banned by US University

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Photo Credit: Alamy University students in America have been told not to wear “offensive” halloween costumes including cowboys, indians and anything involving a sombrero.

Students at the University of Colorado Boulder have also been told to avoid “white trash” costumes and anything that portrays a particular culture as “over-sexualised” – which the university says includes dressing up as a geisha or a “squaw” (indigenous woman).

They are also asked not to host parties with offensive themes including those with “ghetto” or “hillbilly” themes or those associated with “crime or sex work.”

In the letter sent by a university official students are asked to consider the impact that their costumes could have.

Christina Gonzales, the dean of students, wrote: “Making the choice to dress up as someone from another culture, either with the intention of being humorous or without the intention of being disrespectful, can lead to inaccurate and hurtful portrayals of other people’s cultures.

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Ohio Pastor Viciously Beaten By Militant Atheist (+video)

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A pastor in Ohio was viciously beaten this past Sunday after a self-described militant atheist knocked him to the ground for asking his girlfriend if she felt safe with the man.

Pastor Norman Hayes of Bridge Community Church in North Hampton says that following the church service, James Maxie, 28, and his girlfriend came to talk to Hayes. When Hayes asked the woman if she was being abused, the man reportedly became angry and punched him to the floor.

“He was very, very upset that I’d even suggest that he would hurt her,” Hayes told the Dayton Daily News. “Then he turned around and hurt me very badly.”

Police Chief Jarrod Campbell remarked to the publication that he has rarely seen “an incident this brutal.”

As Hayes lay on the floor, Maxie sat on top of him and repeatedly beat him until Hayes began to fear for his life. He begged Maxie to stop.

Read more from this story HERE.