Monuments and Memorials Remained Open During Previous Shutdowns

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Although President Obama claims that he can’t avoid shutting down public sites and monuments, war memorials were in fact kept open during the 1995/1996 government shutdowns. The administration’s decision to barricade the Lincoln Memorial marks the first time in its history the memorial has been totally off limits to visitors during a shutdown.

The administration has also balked at efforts by non-governmental groups to maintain access to public sites.

But during the Clinton-era shutdown, World War II veterans kept the Pearl Harbor memorial open.

“Despite the federal government shutdown and an unrepaired sign that reads ‘Arizona Memorial closed,’ tourists are still getting expert commentary about the World War II memorial at Pearl Harbor,” wrote the Associated Press on January 1, 1996.

“It’s our way of helping to preserve the history of this place,” Bob Kinzler, president of the Aloha Chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors, told the AP.

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High Drama on Capitol Hill as Tempers Flare, Leaders Fail to Reach Deal

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Photo Credit: Fox

Photo Credit: Fox

Despite an emergency meeting at the White House, congressional leaders reported no progress late Wednesday on trying to reach a budget deal — while over on Capitol Hill, tempers were flaring and lawmakers were melting down on the floor of the House.

The top four congressional leaders took a stab, during an hour-long White House meeting, at negotiating with President Obama over the impasse. There was no breakthrough.

House Speaker John Boehner emerged saying he had a “nice, polite conversation” but complaining that Obama would not budge off his demand that Congress pass a straight budget bill — one that does not impede ObamaCare in any way. Boehner wants to launch formal negotiations over the now-stalled short-term spending bill, but Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid says talks over “anything” can only start after the House approves it.

“We’re through playing these little games,” Reid said, with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi by his side.

The White House later issued a statement saying Obama had made it clear to the leaders “he is not going to negotiate over the need for Congress to act to reopen the government or to raise the debt limit.” It added the president was “glad” the leaders could engage “in this useful discussion.”

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Mark Levin: You Lay One Damn Hand on a WWII Vet, I’ll Bring Half a Million People to DC (+video)

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levinConservative talker Mark Levin has a stern warning for President Barack Obama and his administration: Don’t mess with the World War II veterans.

Levin, author of “The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic,” told his audience on his Wednesday radio show should there be any action taken against those veterans for visiting the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, even with the government shutdown, he would bring 500,000 people to march on the Washington, D.C. in response.

“I want to tell you folks something — I want to say this loud and clear to the people who are on Capitol Hill who are listening, to this administration: You lay one damn hand on one of those World War II vets at that memorial, I’ll bring half a million people to that damn memorial,” Levin said. “You got that? I’m sitting here stewing thinking about this — playing these damn games. You will ignite a movement in this country like you have never seen before — the biker patriot army, veterans from all over the country, every single war and battle in this country — Republican, Democrat, Independent, whatever.”

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Harry Reid’s Office Leaks Boehner Office Emails – And it Could Ruin Any Faith You Have in Washington

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Photo Credit: AFP/Getty

Photo Credit: AFP/Getty

A series of leaked emails authored by House Speaker John Boehner’s chief of staff Mike Sommers show that the Speaker may have coordinated with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to exempt Congress from Obamacare.

The emails were leaked Tuesday by Reid chief of staff David Krone, who actually has a history of this sort of thing.

The leaks, which are a major taboo in Washington, show Boehner (R-Ohio) worked behind the scenes earlier this year to address confusion over a provision in the Affordable Care Act that would force members of Congress and their aides into the exchanges. In fact, if one were to go by the leaks, which were first published by Politico, it appears that the offices of Boehner and Reid regularly coordinated to exempt Congress from the health care law.

But given that Boehner is now apparently against congressional Obamacare exemptions, the emails make him look inconsistent and hypocritical – which may have been the point of their leaking.

From Politico:

[B]ehind-the-scenes, Boehner and his aides worked for months with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and others, to save these very same, long-standing [congressional Obamacare] subsidies, according to documents and e-mails provided to POLITICO. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was also aware of these discussions, the documents show.

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Obamacare Fines to be Seized From Bank Accounts?

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Photo Credit: InfoWars

Photo Credit: InfoWars

A man who attempted to sign up for Obamacare online was told that a fine of over $4,000 dollars a year for refusing to take out mandatory health insurance could be taken directly from his bank account, and that his drivers license would be suspended and a federal tax lien placed against his home, according to an entry on the HealthCare.gov Facebook page.

If true, the implementation of Obamacare is going to be a whole lot more draconian than Americans have been led to believe.

Will Sheehan claims that when he tried to sign up for Obamacare and then register to opt out, he received an ominous warning. Sheehan’s full Facebook post reads;

“I actually made it through this morning at 8:00 A.M. I have a preexisting condition (Type 1 Diabetes) and my income base was 45K-55K annually I chose tier 2 “Silver Plan” and my monthly premiums came out to $597.00 with $13,988 yearly deductible!!! There is NO POSSIBLE way that I can afford this so I “opt-out” and chose to continue along with no insurance.

I received an email tonight at 5:00 P.M. informing me that my fine would be $4,037 and could be attached to my yearly income tax return. Then you make it to the “REPERCUSSIONS PORTION” for “non-payment” of yearly fine. First, your drivers license will be suspended until paid, and if you go 24 consecutive months with “Non-Payment” and you happen to be a home owner, you will have a federal tax lien placed on your home. You can agree to give your bank information so that they can easy “Automatically withdraw” your “penalties” weekly, bi-weekly or monthly! This by no means is “Free” or even “Affordable.”

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Obamacare Can Be Defunded Without Senate Approval

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Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

When the House passed legislation to defund ObamaCare but would keep the government running through mid-December, the Senate, led by Senate Majority Leader, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) stated that they would not budge on Obamacare and the legislation was defeated.

On Monday, Dr. Harold Pease, an expert on the United States Constitution, stated that the authority in dealing with Obamacare funding belongs to the U.S. House, not the U.S. Senate and that the House is doing this all wrong.

Pease said, “Everything hinged upon funding which was given exclusively to the House of Representatives, the only power that they alone had.”

Pease went on to say, “All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills. To fund anything, in this case Obamacare, first approval is required by the House of Representatives.”

“If that does not happen taxpayer money cannot be spent. The people, through their representatives to Congress, have determined, after a three-year closer scrutiny of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), that it does not protect the patient, is not affordable and is not even workable; hence in the interests of the vast majority of the people needs to be defunded.”

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Palin Calls for Civil Disobedience at the WWII Memorial “Barrycades”

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picture - palin-outsideFormer Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has called on Obama administration employees to engage in civil disobedience and allow veterans to access Washington’s World War II memorial during the federal government’s ongoing partial shutdown.

Palin wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday that it is “beyond shameful to see Barack Obama disrespect and mistreat our World War II veterans so blatantly,” charging that he sent more guards to bar World War II heroes from seeing their memorial after the government shut down than he sent to Benghazi to protect Americans under assault by terrorists.

“Obama’s political stunt to ‘shut down’ their memorial by barricade is to elicit an angry response,” she asserted, “to generate bad publicity for people the president uses in his continual blame game.”

To make her point, Palin linked to a photo of a singular barricade at the World War I memorial. “The difference is obvious. There aren’t any World War I veterans alive today to mistreat in a shameful political stunt,” she wrote. “He’s deployed more guards to bar our World War II heroes from their memorial than he sent to Benghazi when our consulate was under attack.”

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Iran Military Official: Obama has Surrendered

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

President Obama’s statement to the United Nations last week that America is not seeking regime change in Iran is not merely a kind remark, but a recognition of U.S. inability to bring change to Iran, the head of Iran’s Quds Forces, Gen. Qasem Soleimani, said.

Joining in that view, an outlet of the Quds cyber forces officers posted an image of a surrendering Obama in military uniform under the title “In a not too distant future.”

The image has Soleimani on top overlooking the defeat of America with a note at the bottom: “One Qasem Soleimani is enough for all the enemies of this country (Iran).”

That claim was underscored this week by Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, a member of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, who said that while “Iran complies with the Non-Proliferation Treaty rules and regulations and cooperates within that framework, it will never accept the Additional Protocol.”

That protocol allows the IAEA to verify whether countries are complying with nuclear regulations.

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No Go: Boehner says Obama Still Won’t Negotiate on Government Funding

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Photo Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta

Photo Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta

Congressional leaders emerged Wednesday night from a meeting with President Obama at the White House reporting little progress as all sides struggle for a solution to the government shutdown, which began Tuesday and showed no signs of breaking.

At the Capitol, the House continued to try to chip away at the problem by passing bills to fund high-profile programs such as national parks and the National Institutes of Health. But Mr. Obama has vowed to veto those bills, saying he won’t fund the government piece by piece.

Instead, Democrats held firm on their insistence that Republicans pass the Senate’s version of a spending bill that would fund the entire government at last year’s levels, and would preserve Mr. Obama’s health care law.

“They will not negotiate,” House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, told reporters after the meeting.

Although both sides said they didn’t want a shutdown, congressional aides were predicting that the fight could last for weeks. Mr. Obama canceled part of a trip to Asia, scheduled to begin this weekend, to keep working on the issue.

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NSA Admits Tracking Locations of Cellphones in the United States

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Photo credit: from_ko

Photo credit: from_ko

The director of the National Security Agency revealed Wednesday that the government collected Americans’ cellphone location data in bulk as part of a secret pilot program in 2010 and 2011.

The program tracked the locations of an unknown number of people in the United States who were under no suspicion of wrongdoing.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander said the agency “received samples in order to test its systems” but that the cellphone location data was not used for any intelligence analysis.

He said the NSA is no longer collecting the information under Section 215 of the Patriot Act and promised that the agency would notify Congress before it resumes the program.

“This may be something that would be a future requirement for the country, but it is not right now because when we identify a number, we can give that to the FBI,” Alexander said. “When they get their probable cause, they can get the location data they need.”

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