Bill de Blasio Wins in New York, Ushering in New Era of Liberal Governance

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Photo Credit: Washington PostBill de Blasio overwhelmingly was elected mayor here Tuesday, becoming the first Democrat to lead New York in 20 years and ushering in an era of activist liberal governance in the nation’s largest city.

In early returns Tuesday night, de Blasio was soundly defeating Republican Joe Lhota, a protégé of former mayor Rudy Giuliani.

De Blasio campaigned on a mantle of progressive change following Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s 12 years in office, highlighting what he saw as “a tale of two cities.” The moneyed Manhattan elite have had their mayor, he argued, and now the 46 percent of New Yorkers living at or near the poverty level need one of their own.

De Blasio’s administration will be a laboratory of sorts for modern progressivism — testing whether an anti-establishment activist can effectively manage a sprawling municipal government and lessen growing inequality between the rich and poor.

“Tackling inequality isn’t easy. It never has been, and it never will be,” de Blasio said in a victory speech at the YMCA gymnasium in his Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. “The challenges we face have been decades in the making, and the problems we set out to address will not be solved overnight. But make no mistake: The people of this city have chosen a progressive path. And tonight we set forth on it — together, as one city.”

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Illinois Passes Same-Sex Marriage Law; Obama ‘So Proud’

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Photo Credit: APPresident Obama is “so proud” that lawmakers in his home state of Illinois have voted to legalize same-sex marriage, he said Tuesday night.

“I applaud the men and women of the Illinois General Assembly, a body in which I was proud to serve, for voting to legalize marriage equality in my home state,” Obama said in a statement released after the state House and Senate voted earlier in the day. The White House had previously said that Obama would have supported the measure if he were still in the legislature.

Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, has said that he will sign the bill, making Illinois the 15th state to legalize same-sex marriage.

“As president, I have always believed that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally under the law. Over time, I also came to believe that same-sex couples should be able to get married like anyone else,” Obama added. “So tonight, Michelle and I are overjoyed for all the committed couples in Illinois whose love will now be as legal as ours — and for their friends and family who have long wanted nothing more than to see their loved ones treated fairly and equally under the law.”

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Toronto Mayor Admits Smoking Crack in a “Drunken Stupor” but Refuses to Resign

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Photo Credit: Nathan Denette/APHours after dropping a bombshell admission that he had smoked crack cocaine in a “drunken stupor” during his time in office, the mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, made his second startling announcement of the day on Tuesday: that he would not be stepping down.

At a press conference shortly after he told reporters he had smoked crack as recently as a year ago, Ford apologised to the people of Toronto for embarrassing them.

“With today’s announcement, I know I have embarrassed everyone in this city, and I will be forever sorry,” Ford said at a press conference. “There’s only one person to blame for this and that is myself.”

Allegations over his drug use have swirled around Ford for months amid reports of a video that allegedly showed him smoking crack. He had previously denied such a video existed, but last week, Toronto police said they had recovered a recording which appeared to show him puffing on a crack pipe.

Appearing in front of reporters who had been waiting outside his office for two hours following his earlier admission over his cocaine use, Ford gave a short speech in which he apologised several times. He said admitting what he described as “my mistake” was the most difficult and embarrassing thing he has ever done, but that doing it gave him a huge sense of relief.

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Football Game Crowd Boos at Mention of Barack Obama

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Photo Credit: UPI/Bill GreenblattIt happened again. Three months after a rodeo clown mocked the president at the Missouri State Fair, fans at a Missouri-Tennessee football game Sunday booed when Barack Obama’s name was mentioned during a halftime ceremony.

New members of the Missouri National Guard were being sworn in, said Chad Moller, spokesman for University of Missouri-Columbia athletics.

But during part of the oath that reads “I will obey the order of the president of the United States” members of the crowd could be heard booing, according to the Missourian.

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Feds Spent $29 Million on Prescription Drugs for 4,139 Individuals “Unlawfully Present” In U.S.

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Photo Credit: APThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) spent almost $29 million to cover Medicare Part D prescription drugs for 4,139 individuals “unlawfully present” in the U.S. and thus ineligible to receive federal health care benefits, according to an audit by Daniel Levinson, inspector general of the Department of Health & Human Services. (See Medicare prescription drugs.pdf)

CMS “inappropriately accepted 279,056 PDE [prescription drug event] records with unallowable gross drug costs totaling $28,990,718” between 2009 and 2011, Levinson reported. Total federal expenditures under Medicare Part D during that same two-year time period came to $227 billion.

Medicare Parts A and B cover hospitalization, skilled nursing care, doctor visits, and other medical services and supplies. The IG previously reported in January that CMS had also paid $91.6 million to health care providers to cover 2,600 ineligible illegal aliens.

The unallowable payments were made by CMS despite the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which prohibits illegal aliens from receiving federal health care benefits, and CMS’ own 2003 memo warning: “Make no payments for Medicare services furnished to an alien beneficiary who is not lawfully present in the United States.”

Medicare Part D is a voluntary program that requires individuals who are entitled to benefits under Part A or enrolled in Part B to opt in by filling out a form to enroll in a federally approved prescription drug plan that has a contract with CMS. Enrollee premiums cover about a quarter of the overall cost, with Medicare picking up the rest.

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Student Loan Debt Owed to Federal Government Up 463% Under Obama

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Photo Credit: Ali Meyer/CNSNews.comSince President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the amount of outstanding federal student loan debt owed to the government has skyrocketed, increasing by 463 percent. The balance owed currently stands at $674,580,000,000.00 compared to $119,803,000,000.00, where it stood in January 2009, according to the Financial Management Service’s latest monthly treasury statement.

Direct federal student loan spending began to rise rapidly in fiscal year 2010, when the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act – one of the two laws that make up Obamacare — gave the federal government complete control over federal loans for education, the Direct Student Loan (DL) program. This aspect of HCERA became effective July 1, 2010, when the amount of outstanding loans stood at $178,806,000,000. Since then, the balance has increased by 277 percent.

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The Military ‘Purge Surge’ Continues – Another General Fired, Nine So Far This Year

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Photo Credit: WND After multiple top generals described to WND what they regard as a full-scale “purge” of the U.S. military by the Obama administration, the commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan was summarily relieved of duty and his civilian deputy reassigned, pending a “misconduct” investigation.

Nine generals and flag officers have been relieved of duty under Obama just this year – widely viewed as an extraordinary number – and several sources put the total number of senior officers purged during the five years of the Obama administration as close to 200.

In response, prominent retired generals – ranging from Army Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely, a Fox News senior military analyst, to Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a founder of the Army’s elite Delta Force, to Medal of Honor recipient Maj. Gen. Patrick Henry Brady – have all gone on the record with WND, characterizing Obama’s actions as nothing less than an all-out attack on America’s armed forces.

According to U.S. Army Japan, Col. Eric Tilley was suspended from his job by Maj. Gen. James C. Boozer Sr., commander of U.S. Army Japan and I Corps (Forward) for a “lack of confidence” based on the results of an inquiry.

A spokesman for U.S. Army Japan, Maj. Kevin Toner, would not elaborate on what prompted a “lack of confidence,” saying it would be “inappropriate to make public the allegations because the investigation did not lead to findings of criminal misconduct.”

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Gingrich: GOP Must Stop ‘Stumbling Into Next Crisis’

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreNewt Gingrich urged House Republicans to stop “stumbl[ing] into the next crisis” and instead seize the policy initiative by seeking “breakout” policies in healthcare, education, and other major policy areas.

Although the 2014 midterm elections already look to be fought over raising the debt ceiling or defunding ObamaCare, the former Speaker said Republicans must look in a different, more future-oriented direction.

“Instead of sitting around, passively waiting to stumble into the next crisis, we ought to be out there looking at new ideas,” Gingrich told The Hill in an interview.

These new ideas, said Gingrich, cover everything from promoting regenerative medicine to the potential benefits of online schooling and self-driving cars.

Gingrich’s new book “Breakout,” published Monday, argues that America is on the cusp of major technology-driven innovations in most major policy areas. But such a “breakout” requires overcoming the political and bureaucratic “prison guards of the past” who benefit from stagnation, Gingrich says.

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Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Sets Record for Annual Spending by a Federal Agency

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Photo Credit: APThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs the federal government’s major health-care programs as well as the Obamacare insurance exchange, spent $1,113,178,000,000 in fiscal 2013, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement for September, which was released last week.

That sets a record for the most money ever spent by a federal agency or department in a single year.

It also means CMS spent more in inflation-adjusted dollars than the entire federal government spent in 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the legislation creating the Medicaid and Medicare programs.

In 1965, the entire federal government spent $118,228,000,000 in 1965 dollars, according to the Office of Management and Budget. That converts to $878,824,380,000 in 2013 dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.

In 2010, CMS became the first federal agency to spend more than a trillion dollars, when it spent $1,035,783,000,000. In 2011, CMS spent $1,095,406,000,000; in 2012, it spent $1,052,799,000,000; and, in 2013, it spent a record $1,113,178,000,000.

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Tuesday’s Elections Will Serve as Battleground for the Competing Ideological Groups Struggling for Control of Republican Party

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Photo Credit: Ivan Couronne /AFP/GettyHours before its biggest political test since defeat in the 2012 national election, the Republican party is praying that voters in Virginia’s election for state governor on Tuesday prove more like the enthusiastic crowd gathered recently just outside the town of Norfolk.

Aging, overwhelmingly white – despite being hosted by the local Filipino cultural centre – and surrounded by the world’s largest naval base, the core supporters turning out at last-minute rallies like this for conservative candidate Ken Cuccinelli are as loyal as they come.

The problem is, there aren’t enough of them. Shortly before the opening prayer, organizers patrol the back of a half-empty room, gently prodding the elderly campaigners to stand closer together so they appear a tight throng before the watching television cameras. The stark math is mirrored by multiple opinion polls showing that the once-dominant Cuccinelli has slipped more than six points behind his Democratic rival Terry McAuliffe.

Both sides have spent the final few days preaching to the converted in similar small rallies up and down this swing state. Both camps are increasingly more pre-occupied with ensuring turnout among the political base than persuading any last-minute floating voters.

At recent McAuliffe rallies, even Barack Obama and his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton have warned that the Democrats’ biggest danger lies in a low turnout, a particular problem in the “off-year” votes that follow presidential elections.

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