Debt Up $6.666 Trillion Under Obama

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Photo Credit: APThe debt of the U.S. government has increased $6.666 trillion since President Barack Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, according to the latest numbers released by the Treasury Department.

When President Obama was first inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009, the debt of the U.S. government was $10,626,877,048,913.08, according to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt. As of Jan. 31, 2014, the latest day reported, the debt was $17,293,019,654,983.61—an increase of $6,666,142,606,070.53 since Obama’s first inauguration.

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Administrators Reverse Ban on American Celebration at High School

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Photo Credit: SHERIFF JUSTIN SMITHThe sun was just beginning to rise over the Rocky Mountains, but Sheriff Justin Smith was already awake. He was standing outside Fort Collins High School – shivering in the frigid cold.

It was 12 degrees. Snow was falling. But Mr. Smith, wearing his dress blues, stood resolute, waving an American flag.

The sheriff of Larimer County, Colorado had come to school Tuesday to send a message to those responsible for educating the county’s children. The sheriff was not in a good mood.

He was standing in the winter snow to protest the school’s decision to ban a celebration of American patriotism.

The student council had wanted to designate a day during Spirit Week to celebrate the red, white & blue. The young people called it “’Merica Monday.” But the school turned down their request.

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Kansas to Maine: Snowstorm to Impact More Than 100 Million

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Photo Credit: AccuWeather A major winter storm with heavy snow, ice and a wintry mix will reach from the central Plains to the Midwest and Northeast spanning Tuesday night and Wednesday.

It will hit barely after some people had time to dig out from two prior storms in the Midwest and the Monday storm in the Northeast.

By the time the storm has ended it will have directly affected more than two dozen states and at least 100 million people with snow and/or ice. Travel delays and disruptions to daily activities are likely. The storm will hit especially swiftly and hard over part of the central Appalachians to New England.

More than 1,700 flights were canceled and another 4,100 flights were delayed as a result of the winter storm.

The storm has the potential to drop 13 inches or more of snow on portions of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. In part of the Northeast, the bulk of the snow will fall in six hours or less.

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Susan Rice Blasts Israel– On Twitter

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Photo Credit: White House PhotoNational Security Advisor and former UN Ambassador Susan Rice took to Twitter on Monday night to blast Israel for widespread recent criticism of Secretary of State John Kerry by Israeli government officials. The torrent of tweets ran from at 8:14 to 8:17 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and spoke in defense of both Kerry and President Barack Obama, calling recent Israeli criticism of them “totally unfounded and unacceptable.”

Personal attacks in Israel directed at Sec Kerry totally unfounded and unacceptable. — Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) February 4, 2014

John Kerry’s record of support for Israel’s security and prosperity rock solid. — Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) February 4, 2014

POTUS and Sec Kerry remain committed to negotiations that can secure Israeli and Palestinian futures. — Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) February 4, 2014

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Wisconsin Town Sued for Banning Display of American Flag on Overpasses

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Photo Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty ImagesThe town of Campbell, Wis., is facing a federal lawsuit challenging ordinance 9.12, which bans the display of banners or flags on or near the town’s pedestrian overpass.

Demonstrators began using the overpass in August 2013 to call for President Obama’s impeachment and to display patriotism. After a gathering in October angered local citizens and garnered media attention, the Town of Campbell passed the ordinance, which prohibits the display of signs, flags or banners within 100 feet of the overpass.

On Oct. 24, Gregory Luce and a few supporters, wearing T-shirts that collectively spelled out “IMPEACH OBAMA,” were ordered by a policeman to leave the overpass or be issued a citation. They left as ordered. Three days, later Nicholas Newman was issued a $139 citation for displaying an American flag.

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O’Reilly v Obama, Round 2 : Keystone, Poverty and Veterans

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Photo Credit: Fox News President Obama told Bill O’Reilly Monday on “The O’Reilly Factor” that he was waiting to get an official recommendation from Secretary of State John Kerry before proceeding with the Keystone Pipeline.

Obama also took issue with the number of jobs the pipeline would create after supporters said it would create tens of thousands.

“Keystone Pipeline, a new study comes in, environmental impact negligible, 42,000 jobs. You’re going to OK it, I assume,” O’Reilly asked.

Obama responded, “Well, first of all, it’s not 42,000. That’s not correct. It’s a couple of thousand to build the pipeline.”

He said the next steps in the pipeline approval process would be to get “agencies to comment on what the State Department did, public’s allowed to comment, Kerry’s going to, then, give me a recommendation.”

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Ryan: ‘We Have an Increasingly Lawless Presidency’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Eric GayRep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopolous” that President Barack Obama’s presidency is becoming “increasingly lawless,” because the president is “actually contradicting law” or “proposing new laws without going through Congress.”

“We have an increasingly lawless presidency,” said Ryan.

“We have an increasingly lawless presidency where he is actually doing the job of Congress, writing new policies and new laws without going through Congress,” Ryan said. “Presidents don’t write laws. Congress does, and when he does things like he did in health care – delaying mandates that the law said was supposed to occur when they were supposed to occur, that’s not his job.”

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Judge Mocks Obama’s NSA Lawyer

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Photo Credit: WNDI just denied your motion to dismiss,” U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon told Department of Justice attorney Marcia Berman.

“Do you understand that?” he asked, speaking slowly and deliberately, as though to a child.

The judge appeared frequently perplexed by Berman’s explanations Monday afternoon in the federal courtroom as to why the government was not prepared to argue its case after filing a motion three weeks ago asking him to halt further proceedings while appeals go forward in the nation’s biggest spy case.

Leon had already ruled in December that the National Security Agency had probably violated Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure with its PRISM program.

Monday, the two sides in the case were to argue over whether the NSA had also violated First Amendment rights to free speech and Fifth Amendment rights to due process.

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Gen. Boykin to Congress: Religious Liberty Must Be Affirmed, Cherished in Military

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Photo Credit: CNS News In a statement put into the record at a Jan. 29, 2014 hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Military Personnel, retired Lt. Gen. William “Gerry” Boykin, said religious liberty is a “core value of our nation,” and that religious beliefs “sustain” troops who face harm or death in the course of performing their duties.

“In sum, religious freedom and expression is not something to be given begrudging accommodation,” Boykin, the former commander of the U.S. Special Forces Command, said on behalf of the Family Research Council (FRC) as its executive vice president. “It is a core value of our nation, necessary for strengthening individual troop wellbeing and instilling the values of respect and goodwill.”

“Religious freedom must be celebrated, affirmed, and cherished within our military just as our men and women sacrifice to defend that freedom for those outside the military,” Boykin said in the statement.

Boykin also spoke about the nature of a soldier’s duty and the role religious belief plays in it.

“Given the unique stresses and dangers of military life, a conscious focus on spiritual matters often accompanies military service,” Boykin said. “The ability to live out one’s faith openly with the support of one’s peers and the military chaplaincy can afford the comfort, certainty, and security so necessary to service members otherwise faced with serious injury and death on a regular basis.”

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HealthCare.gov Can’t Handle Appeals of Enrollment Errors

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Photo Credit: ReutersTens of thousands of people who discovered that HealthCare.gov made mistakes as they were signing up for a health plan are confronting a new roadblock: The government cannot yet fix the errors.

Roughly 22,000 Americans have filed appeals with the government to try to get mistakes corrected, according to internal government data obtained by The Washington Post. They contend that the computer system for the new federal online marketplace charged them too much for health insurance, steered them into the wrong insurance program or denied them coverage entirely.

For now, the appeals are sitting, untouched, inside a government computer. And an unknown number of consumers who are trying to get help through less formal means — by calling the health-care marketplace directly — are told that HealthCare.gov’s computer system is not yet allowing federal workers to go into enrollment records and change them, according to individuals inside and outside the government who are familiar with the situation.

“It is definitely frustrating and not fair,” said Addie Wilson, 27, who lives in Fairmont, W.Va., and earns $22,000 a year working with at-risk families. She said that she is paying $100 a month more than she should for her insurance and that her deductible is $4,000 too high.

When Wilson logged on to HealthCare.gov in late December, she needed coverage right away. Her old insurance was ending, and she was to have gallbladder surgery in January. But the Web site would not calculate the federal subsidy to which she knew she was entitled. Terrified to go without coverage, Wilson phoned a federal call center and took the advice she was given: Pay the full price now and appeal later.

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