Obama Says ‘Nowhere to Go But Up’ after HealthCare.gov Debacle

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/MIKE SEGARPresident Barack Obama’s popularity has taken a beating over the botched October 1 launch of Obamacare, but in a television interview set to air on Friday, Obama said he believes Americans eventually will appreciate his signature healthcare reform.

Reflecting on his poll numbers in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, Obama said: “I’ve gone up and down pretty much consistently throughout.

“But the good thing about when you’re down is that usually you got nowhere to go but up,” Obama added, according to excerpts released by ABC.

The interview was taped last week as the Obama administration scrambled to meet a self-imposed November 30 deadline to overhaul HealthCare.gov, the website used in 36 states to shop for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare.

Americans trying to use the website have been stymied by errors and slow speeds. The problems meant only 27,000 people were able to use the website to sign up during the first month, and there is now a backlog of Americans to get through the system by a December 23 deadline.

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Americans Trust In Each Other Has Dropped Significantly

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Photo Credit: AP/Shannon DeCelleYou can take our word for it. Americans don’t trust each other anymore.

We’re not talking about the loss of faith in big institutions such as the government, the church or Wall Street, which fluctuates with events. For four decades, a gut-level ingredient of democracy – trust in the other fellow – has been quietly draining away.

These days, only one-third of Americans say most people can be trusted. Half felt that way in 1972, when the General Social Survey first asked the question.

Forty years later, a record high of nearly two-thirds say “you can’t be too careful” in dealing with people.

An AP-GfK poll conducted last month found that Americans are suspicious of each other in everyday encounters. Less than one-third expressed a lot of trust in clerks who swipe their credit cards, drivers on the road, or people they meet when traveling.

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US Army Gets Caught Allegedly Pirating $180 Million In Software

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Photo Credit: U.S. Army/Sgt. Michael J. MacLeodThe U.S. Army is opting to settle a copyright infringement case for $50 million after a software developer demanded $225 million in damages over the alleged installation of software without licenses, Brian Fung of The Washington Post reports.

Back in 2004, the Army hired Apptricity to create a software application that could keep track of where its soldiers deployed. The company delivered a handful of server and device licenses for $4.5 million that year, and the service purchased more about five years later.

According to Apptricity’s complaint however, the Army installed the software on nearly 100 servers and more than 9,000 devices.

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China Scrambles Two Fighter Jets; Pentagon Continues Defiance of PRC’s Claimed Air Defense Zone

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Photo Credit: Master Sgt. Kevin GruenwaldThe Pentagon said Friday it will continue to operate in an air zone over the East China Sea that China recently declared as under its control.

“We have flights routinely transiting international airspace throughout the Pacific, including the area China is including in their [air defense identification zone],” said Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren.

“These flights are consistent with long standing and well known U.S. freedom of navigation policies that are applied in many areas of operation around the world. I can confirm that the U.S. has and will continue to operate in the area as normal.”

The statement comes after China sent two fighter jets to tail U.S. and Japanese warplanes that were flying in the airspace in defiance of China’s Nov. 23 announcement that all planes flying through the area would have to submit flight plans and other information to Beijing authorities.

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Black Friday Gun Sales Set All-Time Record, By a Long Shot

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Photo Credit: APNothing like chiming in the Christmas season with a new gun. That’s the message advertisers are blasting out, with deals that promise purchasers savings in the double-digit range.

Post-Thanksgiving gun buys have become a holiday tradition for America, The Huffington Post reported. In the past two years, the FBI has been besieged by applications for gun purchases made on Black Friday.

In 2012, the FBI took in 154,873 background check calls on Black Friday — a record-setting level three times what the agency fielded on any given day that year. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System couldn’t handle the volume, and some data centers crashed, The Huffington Post reported.

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Obama Meets with Immigration-Reform Protesters

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Photo Credit: AP/Pablo Martinez MonsivaisPresident Obama and first lady Michelle Obama Friday met with protesters calling for the Republican-led House to take up immigration reform, drawing attention to advocates refraining from eating while the legislation sits on the back burner in the lower chamber.

“The president and the first lady are visiting individuals taking part in Fast For Families on the National Mall and offer their support for those who are fasting on behalf of immigration reform,” said a White House official.

“Since Nov. 12, immigration activists comprising Fast For Families have abstained from all food except water and are calling for the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives to take up action on comprehensive immigration reform,” the official added.

A White House official said Obama told the protesters that the American public was behind their cause.

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Shutdown Prevention: Back-Room Talks Start

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Photo Credit: APA bipartisan group of senators may serve as a last-minute lifeline if the government faces another shutdown at the start of next year.

Led by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and launched during the government shutdown as a springboard for bipartisan negotiations, the “common sense caucus” may offer solutions on budget issues that have long plagued each party…

The group has been there before: Bipartisan deal makers like Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) believe their October talks and draft legislation paved the way for an eventual deal between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to reopen the government and avoid a debt crisis.

The group includes lawmakers who aren’t afraid to buck their leadership, whether it’s Republicans Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voting with Democrats to advance President Barack Obama’s nominees or Democrats Manchin and Mark Pryor of Arkansas opposing Reid’s historic push to revamp the filibuster rules.

Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) described the caucus as “kind of the volunteer fire department,” explaining that it may again be called on to unlock negotiations during what looks to be a heated debate between two parties long divided over tax and spending policy.

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Driver Shot Dragging Chicago-Area Police Officer

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Photo Credit: AP/Chicago Sun-Times, Frank VaisvilasA suburban Chicago police officer was released from a hospital Friday after being dragged by a car driven by fleeing Thanksgiving Day shoplifting suspects, one of whom was charged with attempted murder.

Another police officer fired at the 52-year-old driver, who remained hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his arm following the Thursday night incident at a Kohl’s department store in Romeoville, the Romeoville Police Department said in a statement. The suburb is about 30 miles southwest of Chicago.

The store reported suspected shoplifters to police just after 10 p.m. Thursday. As a patrol car approached the store, one suspect bolted out of a door, jumped into a waiting car and closed the door on the pursuing officer’s arm. The driver then drove off — hauling the officer with him.

“The officer was dragged quite some distance,” Romeoville Police Chief Mark Turvey said at a news conference.

Another officer repeatedly yelled at the driver to halt, then fired three or four shots, striking the driver with one bullet in the left arm and forcing him to stop, police said. The officer who became stuck in the car door injured his right shoulder.

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Black Friday: Two Trampled at Ohio Walmart, One Child

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Photo Credit: APA woman and a little girl were trampled and injured during a Black Friday frenzy at the local Walmart in New Boston, Ohio, officials say.

According to Portsmouth Ambulance crew person Judy Boggs, a little girl was sent to the hospital after being injured by shoppers at about 8PM on Thanksgiving night.

“The first call came in at 7:56 p.m. that a child had been trampled at Walmart. The crew was on scene at 8:01 p.m.,” Boggs told the media. The medical tech said that the injured was an 11-year-old female.
“She was transported to Southern Ohio Medical Center for treatment and I believe she was later released,” she said.

Boggs also reported that a second person was injured that night by overzealous shoppers at the same store.

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Obama: ‘We Have Accomplished As Much, If Not More, Than Any Time in Our History’

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Photo Credit: AP/Pablo Martinez MonsivaisPresident Barack Obama told the crowd at a Democratic fundraiser in Beverly Hills on Tuesday that he has accomplished “as much, if not more” than any other president.

“Over the last five years, thanks to the leadership of Nancy (Pelosi) and Harry (Reid) and legislators who are here, we have accomplished as much, if not more, than any time in our history,” Obama said.

The president then listed among the accomplishments of his administration:”saving an economy from a Great Depression; revitalizing an auto industry that is producing better cars and has come roaring back like nobody believed; doubling our exports; drastically reducing our dependence on foreign oil; doubling fuel efficiency standards; doubling our production of clean energy; reducing the pace of our carbon emissions; ending the war in Iraq; about to end the war in Afghanistan; re-centering our fight against terrorism in a way that respects our values and our ideals; expanding access to college for children all across this country; ending “don’t ask, don’t tell”; making sure that we are vindicating the notion that everybody should have a fair shot regardless of their sexual orientation, as well as their race and their gender; pushing for equal pay for women; reinstituting research for stem cells.”

Notice that Obamacare, the president’s signature achievement, was not mentioned at the top of the list. But Obama did get around to it in the next paragraph, as follows, saying he’s “as proud as he’s ever been” of the law that informally bears his name:

“Across the board, we’ve made changes that will be lasting, some of which aren’t noticed, don’t get a lot of headlines, but make a meaningful difference in people’s lives every single day. But I will tell you, of all those things, I am as proud as I’ve ever been by the work we did to make sure that in this country, if you get sick you don’t go bankrupt and that you can get the health care that you need.

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