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Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) Confronts Obama About Failure to Support House Funding Bill

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Photo Credit: IntangibleArtsDel. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) had what some colleagues called “a heated exchange” and what she described as “a conversation” with President Obama during a White House meeting Wednesday afternoon regarding the District’s budget constraints as a result of the partial government shutdown.

Norton attended the meeting in the White House East Room with nearly 200 House Democrats and was one of a handful given the opportunity to ask the president a question. When she was called upon, Norton pressed Obama to support a House-passed bill that would permit the District to use its locally raised tax funds to maintain operations until Dec. 15.

Democrats, including Obama, have held fast in opposition to such piecemeal funding bills, saying Republicans must come to a deal to fund the entire government, not just favored segments.

Making her point, Norton spoke over the president and refused to yield the microphone, according to a lawmaker who attended the event. The lawmaker described Norton as “strident,” “self-absorbed” and “parochial” in her exchange with Obama.

But Obama held firm to his belief that Republicans should work to reopen the entire federal government and not pass stand-alone spending measures, said the lawmaker, who asked not to be identified in o

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‘Gestapo Tactics’ Meet Seniors at Yellowstone

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By Fox News

A Massachusetts woman says she and fellow tour-group members were locked under armed guard inside a Yellowstone National Park hotel during a visit to the park at the start of the government slimdown.

Pat Vaillancourt told the Newburyport News newspaper the incident unfolded Oct. 1 when they were already inside the park and a ranger would not let them off the tour bus to photograph roaming bison.

The group — roughly 40 senior citizens from around the world — was allowed to return to the Old Faithful Inn to spend a second night at the hotel, but some with limited English skills thought they were under arrest, she said.


Vaillancourt told the newspaper the two-and-a-half hour ride leaving Yellowstone wasn’t much better because tour members couldn’t make a scheduled comfort stop at a dude ranch because the owner was told he would have his license revoked for accommodating the group.

Read more from this story HERE.

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By John Macone – Newburyport Daily News

Pat Vaillancourt was one of thousands of people who found themselves in a national park as the federal government shutdown went into effect on Oct. 1. For many hours her tour group, which included senior citizen visitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States, were locked in a Yellowstone National Park hotel under armed guard….

“We’ve become a country of fear, guns and control,” said Vaillancourt, who grew up in Lawrence. “It was like they brought out the armed forces. Nobody was saying, ‘we’re sorry,’ it was all like — ” as she clenched her fist and banged it against her forearm….

[After park rangers prevented the group from stopping to take pictures of bison], the seniors quickly filed back onboard and the bus went to the Old Faithful Inn, the park’s premier lodge located adjacent to the park’s most famous site, Old Faithful geyser. That was as close as they could get to the famous site — barricades were erected around Old Faithful, and the seniors were locked inside the hotel, where armed rangers stayed at the door…

The bus trip made headlines in [the town of] Livingston [near the park entrance], where the local newspaper Livingston Enterprise interviewed the tour guide, Gordon Hodgson, who accused the park service of “Gestapo tactics.” He added, “The national parks belong to the people…This isn’t right…”

“My father took a lot of crap from the Japanese,” [as a prisoner of war Vaillancourt] recalled, her eyes welling with tears. “Every day they made him bow to the Japanese flag. But he stood up to them. “He always said to stand up for what you believe in, and don’t let them push you around,” she said, adding she was sad to see “fear, guns and control” turned on citizens in her own country.

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WSJ Economist Stephen Moore: The US Will Not Default, Constitution Explains Why

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Wall Street Journal economist Stephen Moore stated the United States will not default. He told Pat Robertson in an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s 700 Club on Monday, “There will be no default. In fact, anyone who is watching this show, who owns a government bond, the chances that we will have a default on that debt and you won’t get paid is very, very close to zero.” He added, “The real danger to our credit rating and our status as a world economic superpower is if we are going to continue to borrow a trillion dollars a year.”

Moore went on to further explain why he believes the government will not default stating, “The Constitution guarantees that the full faith and credit of the United States government will be assured. That means that if we had a shut down, that doesn’t mean the government can’t spend money, it means it can’t borrow more. So I would make the case and most constitutional scholars would agree with me that the first people who would get paid [from incoming revenues] are the people who own the bonds…I think it’s highly irresponsible for this President to be running around saying we are going to have to default on the debt. Telling people to sell their stocks. Can you imagine, Pat, if a CEO of a company started talking down their stocks and their bonds?”

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Get your Fiscal House in Order: China Warns US as Superpower Expresses Concern for $1.3tn of Investments

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Photo Credit: Glyn Lowe PhotoworksChina, the biggest foreign creditor of the United States, has waded into the American budget crisis, warning Congress that it must resolve the political impasse over the debt ceiling without further delay.

The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister, Zhu Guangyao, told America’s deadlocked politicians on Monday that “the clock is ticking” and called on them to approve an extension of the national borrowing limit before the federal government is projected to run out of cash on 17 October.

“We ask that the United States earnestly takes steps to resolve in a timely way the political issues around the debt ceiling and prevent a US debt default to ensure the safety of Chinese investments in the United States,” Mr Zhu told reporters in Beijing. “This is the United States’ responsibility,” he added.

The American government entered its seventh day of shutdown on Monday, following the failure of Congress to approve the national budget a week ago. And there was little sign of progress on the still more crucial issue of the fast-approaching “debt ceiling” deadline. Yet rather than indicating a willingness to negotiate, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, stated on Sunday that it was “time for us to stand and fight” over the budget. He added that a default was “the path we’re on”. American stock markets opened down in response to the belligerent comments yesterday, with the S&P 500 Index of leading shares shedding 0.5 per cent.

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Government “Shutdown” a Boon for Americans, the War on Energy Has a Lull

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Photo Credit: Irish CentralFrom the emotional headlines, you would think America is in dire straights from a government “shutdown.” But as usual the truth is masked by the headlines and can be found in the print of the details.

In reality only 18% of the government is “shutdown” and the rest of it is humming along as usual, getting automatic funding by rules in place to safeguard our system.

Entitlement checks are on schedule, our armed forces are funded, coasts are guarded and all other critical services essential to running our government are functioning, including the White House chef and dog walker. See White House in shutdown.

Most of the high profile government layoffs are for employees deemed “non essential,” yet even these employees will suffer no long term ill effects, as they will get full pay and benefits for staying home when government “reopens.”…Basically these non essential employees are getting paid vacations.

If American citizens thought there would be some sort of savings from having a government shutdown, on the surface it appears there is none.

But if you look at just one government agency that has a profound effect on the cost of living for all Americans, you can see there is a silver lining.

The Environmental Protection Agency has deemed that over 93% of its employees are “non essential” and have sent them home.

The EPA has been the surrogate bludgeon President Obama has used to wage war on the fossil energy sector, particularly America’s main source of fuel for its electrical energy: coal.

After President Obama was thwarted by members of his own party to impose a crippling carbon tax on the energy industry, he declared a backdoor war of regulations with the end goal of punishing all forms of fossil energy…..All being waged under the guise of his “climate action plan,” which particularly singles out the coal industry.

President Obama did declare his policies would make energy prices necessarily skyrocket and we can see where these policies are leading as Europe and UK citizens struggle under a new devastating economic condition known as “energy poverty.” See: Soaring energy costs make Europeans poor.

“Among those furloughed at the EPA would be most workers at the Office of Air and Radiation, which is in charge of writing and implementing most of the EPA’s major air pollution rules. Also facing furloughs is the unit of the EPA that enforces regulations by taking legal action against an air or water polluter. Just 182 of the enforcement unit’s 804 employees are exempted from furloughs.” See Reuters article-EPA to be hit hard in shutdown.

This brief respite might prove a welcome relief for the blanket of regulations and litigation that add untold expense every time you switch on a light bulb, or start your car to go to work.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Wisconsin Professor tells Students Tea Party, Republicans at Fault for Slimdown

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Photo Credit: UWLAX.EDUA Wisconsin college professor warned her students they wouldn’t be able to get all of their homework done because of the partial government shutdown, and put a partisan spin on the bad news.

“Some of the data gathering assignment will be impossible to complete until the Republican/tea party controlled House of Representatives agrees to fund the government,” University of Wisconsin La Crosse Assistant Geography Professor Rachel Slocum told students in an e-mail.

“The Census website, for instance, is closed,” she continued. “Please do what you can on the assignment. Those parts you are unable to do because of the shutdown will have to wait until Congress decides we actually need a government. Please listen to the news and be prepared to turn in the assignment quickly once our nation re-opens.”

At least one student in the online course reported the professor’s political spin to the education blog The College Fix, which first reported the story.

Slocum could not be reached for comment, but a school official told FoxNews.com the issue was addressed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Least Essential? Some Agencies Have 0 Employees on Job During Slimdown

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Photo Credit: APFiscal hawks say the silver lining to the partial government shutdown, which is entering its second week of scaled-back services, could be the picture of government waste it paints for taxpayers.

A look through the shutdown contingency plans of the federal government shows some little-known commissions and agencies — like the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness — don’t have anybody reporting for work during the partial shutdown.

The ability of the government to run without any of the people from any of these agencies on the clock is prompting some watchdog groups to question why, then, do the agencies need to exist in the first place?

“Think of all the money we could save as a nation,” Judicial Watch said in an Oct. 7 post. “Besides bringing attention to these largely unheard of agencies, the shutdown – caused by Congress’s inability to agree on a funding bill – is also shedding light on just how bloated the federal government is, with an astounding workforce that’s seen nearly 800,000 furloughed this week.”

Government bodies that have exactly zero people on the job this week include the USDA Risk Management Agency, where all 430 employees are furloughed, and the Federal Maritime Commission, where all 120 workers are furloughed.

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IG That Watchdogs IRS–And Uncovered Targeting of Tea Party–‘Shut Down’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP/Charles DharapakWhile the Treasury Department has continued its basic operations since the government “shutdown” last Tuesday–collecting tens of billions in taxes and spending even more–the Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), which conducts audits and investigations of the IRS, and which uncovered the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party groups, has been “shut down.”

“As of October 7 at 8:30 am, due to the continued lapse in appropriated federal funding, TIGTA’s normal operations are shut down,” says the recorded message at an “emergency notification” phone line that the IG’s office set up for its workers. “Employees should’ve already received instructions to not report to work, and to not incur any work related expenses.”

“We anticipate full cessation of audits, inspections and evaluations during the shutdown period,” says a TIGTA document obtained by CNSNews.com. The document is entitled “Bureau Shutdown Plans During Periods of Lapsed Appropriations, September 2013.”

According to the document, in addition to ceasing audits, investigations and evaluations, TIGTA is also furloughing 61% of its staff.

Read more from this story HERE.

Shutdown: 83% of Government Still Operating

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Everyone knows the phrase “government shutdown” doesn’t mean the entire U.S. government is shut down. So in a partial government shutdown, like the one underway at the moment, how much of the government is actually shut down, and how much is not?…

I asked a Republican source on the Senate Budget Committee for an estimate. This was the answer: “Based on estimates drawn from CBO and OMB data, 83 percent of government operations will continue. This figure assumes that the government pays amounts due on appropriations obligated before the shutdown ($512 billion), spends $225 billion on exempted military and civilian personnel, pays entitlement benefits for those found eligible before the shutdown (about $2 trillion), and pays interest costs when due ($237 billion). This is about 83 percent of projected 2014 spending of $3.6 trillion.” So the government shutdown, at least as measured by money spent, is really a 17 percent government shutdown.

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Federal Government Closes AMBER Alert Website

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Photo Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Amber_Alert.jpgBy Christine Rousselle.

The government website for AMBER Alerts, a service dedicated to the safe recovery of missing children, has been closed during the shutdown. The name is a reference to Amber Hagerman, who was abducted and murdered in 1996. Over 650 children have been safely recovered since the advent of the AMBER Alert system.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children:

AMBER Alerts are broadcast through radio, television, road signs and all available technology referred to as the AMBER Alert Secondary Distribution Program. These broadcasts let law enforcement use the eyes and ears of the public to help quickly locate an abducted child. The U.S. Department of Justice coordinates the AMBER Alert program on a national basis.

Read more from this story HERE.