Bombshell: Federal Judge Suddenly Green-Lights Lawsuit that Could Stop Obamacare in its Tracks

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Photo Credit: Corbis A federal judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss a case that could fatally cripple the Obamacare health insurance law.

The Affordable Care Act forbids the federal government from enforcing the law in any state that opted out of setting up its own health care exchange, according to a group of small businesses whose lawsuit got a key hearing Monday in federal court.

The Obama administration, according to their lawsuit, has ignored that language in the law, enforcing all of its provisions even in states where the federal government is operating the insurance marketplaces on the error-plagued Healthcare.gov website.

Thirty-six states chose not to set up their exchanges, a move that effectively froze Washington, D.C. out of the authority to pay subsidies and other pot-sweeteners to convince citizens in those states to buy medical insurance.

But the IRS overstepped its authority by paying subsidies in those states anyway, say the businesses and their lawyers.

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Ex-Apple CEO Sculley: Rollout Reflects Broken Government

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Photo Credit: gtsantos/flickrFormer Apple CEO John Sculley says it would be great if the Obamacare rollout fiasco led to a realization that the private sector works better than government. But he isn’t holding his breath.

“I think this huge belly-flop of the president’s most important program is really a great lesson for all of us of just how broken government is,” Sculley said Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto.”

The White House tried initially comparing what it termed “glitches” in the HealthCare.gov website to issues with Apple products that it quickly fixes. That explanation has been panned by mainstream media outlets and even liberal supporters of the Affordable Care Act as it’s become clear the government knew about the problems even before the site was launched.

Government thinks about special interests, not about customers, Sculley told Cavuto. When he worked for Apple, the rule was to start with “clear thinking,” then constantly simplify, he said.

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Thousands Of Consumers Get Insurance Cancellation Notices Due To Health Law Changes

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Photo Credit: kaiserhealthnews.orgHealth plans are sending hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters to people who buy their own coverage, frustrating some consumers who want to keep what they have and forcing others to buy more costly policies.

The main reason insurers offer is that the policies fall short of what the Affordable Care Act requires starting Jan. 1. Most are ending policies sold after the law passed in March 2010. At least a few are cancelling plans sold to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

By all accounts, the new policies will offer consumers better coverage, in some cases, for comparable cost — especially after the inclusion of federal subsidies for those who qualify. The law requires policies sold in the individual market to cover 10 “essential” benefits, such as prescription drugs, mental health treatment and maternity care. In addition, insurers cannot reject people with medical problems or charge them higher prices. The policies must also cap consumers’ annual expenses at levels lower than many plans sold before the new rules.

But the cancellation notices, which began arriving in August, have shocked many consumers in light of President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their plans if they liked them.

“I don’t feel like I need to change, but I have to,” said Jeff Learned, a television editor in Los Angeles, who must find a new plan for his teenage daughter, who has a health condition that has required multiple surgeries.

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Jon Stewart Savages Obamacare Website Fiasco (+video)

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It’s not a stretch to say that “The Daily Show” could become one of the Obama administration’s worst nightmares on Obamacare. Four in every 10 of its viewers are younger than 30 — exactly the type of people who need to sign up for the Affordable Care Act to make it work.

On Monday night, two weeks after he sparred with Human and Health Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in an interview on the show, Jon Stewart went hard again after the rollout of the law…

“Yes, apparently the HealthCare.gov website has 99 problems, but a glitch is all of them,” Stewart said.

Stewart seemed baffled by how some of the website’s most basic functions — even the calculator — won’t work. He also dismissed how Democrats “are trying to spin this turd,” like when Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that the glitches are a good sign of the strong demand.

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Dem. Rep Alan Grayson Uses Burning Cross to Spell ‘Tea Party’

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Photo Credit: APFlorida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson’s campaign sent out a fundraising email likening the tea party to the Ku Klux Klan, complete with an image of a burning cross.

The email, which went out to supporters yesterday, shows a burning cross — complete with images of two KKK-like figures in the background — used as the “T” in “tea party.” When users click on the image, they’re taken to a fundraising landing page for Grayson’s campaign.

Photo Credit: Dave Levinthal (Twitter)

The text of the email is an excerpt from an interview Grayson did with the Rev. Al Sharpton, in which he draws the tea party-KKK comparison.

“At this point, the tea party is no more popular than the Klan,” Grayson says in the interview.

The email praises Grayson’s bluntness and urges supporters to donate to his campaign.

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Craigslist Makes Turning Food Stamps Into Cash a SNAP

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsFood stamp recipients are turning the government handouts into quick cash with ads on Craigslist, despite efforts to stem fraud.

The federally-funded grocery assistance coupons — which are issued by states in the form of debit cards under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — are being sold on the online bulletin board as well as auction sites like eBay. FoxNews.com found several offerings at Craigslist sites around the country, where the sellers offered the welfare benefits at large discounts from face value.

“If you need food. This is not a gimmick or game,” read one posting from Philadelphia. “Please let me know, I have food stamps for sale….. Serious Replies only!!!”

“I have $500 worth and it costs $350 cash. No I will not do half!” read another posting from the Atlanta area. “I don’t need to sell. If you would like to get an extra $150 to $175 in grocery and pay no taxes and can see the benefit that you will still be saving then email me or call me and we can arrange the whole deal as soon as you like.”

Those who are desperately hungry are also taking to the website, offering cash for the stamps.

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Media Matters Snagged in Benghazi Deceit

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Photo Credit: WNDIn their new e-book, “The Benghazi Hoax,” Media Matters for America executives David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt dispute the claim that highly trained Special Forces were available and could have been deployed in time to make a difference in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

The authors, however, fail to inform readers that Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conceded highly trained Special Forces were stationed just a few hours away from Benghazi on the night of the attack but were not told to deploy to Libya, as WND was first to report.

Brock and Rabin-Ravt also did not raise the many questions prompted by Dempsey’s testimony, including an admission to the highly unusual move of changing command of the Special Forces in the middle of the Benghazi attack.

Instead, Brock and Rabin-Ravt attempt to refute an exclusive Fox News interview aired April 30 in which a special government operator, speaking on condition of anonymity, contradicted claims by the Obama administration and a State Department review that there wasn’t enough time for military forces to deploy the night of the attack.

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White House Staffer Fired for Tweeting Under Fake Name

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Photo Credit: west.mA White House national security official was fired last week after being caught as the mystery Tweeter who has been tormenting the foreign policy community with insulting comments and revealing internal Obama administration information for over two years.

Jofi Joseph, a director in the non-proliferation section of the National Security Staff at the White House, has been surreptitiously tweeting under the moniker @natsecwonk, a Twitter feed famous inside Washington policy circles since it began in February, 2011 until it was shut down last week. Two administration officials confirmed that the mystery tweeter was Joseph, who has also worked at the State Department and on Capitol Hill for Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Joe Biden. Until recently, he was part of the administration’s team working on negotiations with Iran.

During his time tweeting under the @natsecwonk name, Joseph openly criticized the policies of his White House bosses and often insulted their intellect and appearance. At different times, he insulted or criticized several top White House and State Department officials, including former National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, Secretary of State John Kerry, and many many others.

The Daily Beast saved a long record of @natsecwonk’s tweets prior to the shutting down of his Twitter feed.

“I’m a fan of Obama, but his continuing reliance and dependence upon a vacuous cipher like Valerie Jarrett concerns me,” he once tweeted.

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Post Office $5.6 Billion Default Raises Urgency of Reforms

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Photo Credit: APWith Congress and the media focused on the government shutdown and how to avoid default on the national debt, little attention was directed toward the U.S. Postal Service which earlier this month defaulted on a required $5.6 billion payment for the healthcare of its future retirees.

The third default on the down-payment in just over a year underscores the necessity of much-needed reforms for the beleaguered Postal Service.

Rep. Darrell Issa of California told Newsmax that without “the freedom to realign its infrastructure and operations in line with the changing way Americans use mail, the agency will remain insolvent.”

“Prolonged insolvency of USPS will result in a massive taxpayer bailout and ongoing subsidy, or a sudden disruption in mail service, or both,” the California Republican said.

Just days before the default, USPS Board of Governors Chairman Mickey Barnett announced an increase in the price of stamps beginning in 2014, which he said was the result of USPS’ “precarious financial condition” and the “uncertain path toward enactment of postal reform legislation.”

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Ex-Secret Service Agent Charges ‘Pattern’ of Drunkenness by Traveling Obama Aides

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner A former Secret Service agent who spent three years at President Obama’s side is claiming in a new book that White House staff regularly got drunk at “wheels-up” parties overseas, acting just as badly as agents fired for their involvement in a foreign booze-and-prostitution scandal last year.

Dan Bongino, who quit the service in 2011 to run as a Republican in the Maryland Senate race, charged that he witnessed Obama staffers boozing at parties in foreign nations after Air Force One was “wheels up” and the president headed for home. The parties bring together U.S. and foreign staff involved in presidential trips.

“The only bad behavior I ever witnessed at these events was by intoxicated White House staff,” wrote Bongino, who expressed dismay at how the agents fired in the Colombian sex scandal were treated by the president.

“I felt the president’s harsh words were inappropriate,” he said of Obama’s comments about the 2012 scandal involving agents advancing an Obama trip to Cartagena. “He failed to acknowledge that this was a pattern of behavior that was not uncommon among his own staff members within the White House.”

In the upcoming “Life Inside the Bubble,” provided in advance to Secrets, the 12-year agent added: “I assure you, if the same level of investigative scrutiny was applied to the White House staff members conducting advance work as was applied to the Secret Service, the results would not be flattering.”

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