GOP Must Strike While Obamacare Iron Is Hot  
David Limbaugh / Townhall Columnist

When it comes to health care, Republicans need to strike while the iron is hot, and it is white-hot now -- and will probably get worse -- because of the Obamacare disaster. 

The nation's health insurance rolls are hemorrhaging with Obamacare-forced cancellations, and new sign-ups are dreadfully slow -- and not just because of the disgraceful website glitches.

People don't want what Obama's offering, er, mandating, and they're not buying what he's selling (at gunpoint).

On Sunday morning, the White House quietly issued a statement revealing that only 1.1 million people have signed up for Obamacare on the federal website. An additional 1 million have signed up on states' websites, but even adding these enrollees, the administration is woefully short of its stated goal of 3.3 million enrollments by Dec. 31 and has less than a third of its targeted 7 million number by March 31. But that's just the good news.

We don't even have information -- because the government won't provide it -- on how many of the allegedly 1.1 million new federal enrollees are actually assured of coverage. All we know is that these people have selected the plans they want on the website; we don't know whether they've paid for them or whether the insurance companies have accepted them for coverage.

The administration's obscure Sunday statement provided no information as to the demographics and income levels of those enrollees. The financial feasibility of Obamacare depends on the participation of the "young invincibles" -- young, healthy people whom this despotic government will soak for premiums to subsidize the sick and elderly. The administration is shrewdly guarding this data because it knows it can't afford more bad news, and these skewed sign-up patterns would mean that premiums would likely jump again in 2014.

The administration also conspicuously failed to mention that Obamacare forced cancellation of the plans of about 5 million people, which leaves a net loss of some 3 million insured. Reportedly, close to 2 million others signed up for Medicaid coverage, but that will just further tax that underfunded system and the federal budget and will do nothing to help fund the Obamacare mandated plans.

It bears repeating that these forced cancellations were no accident. Nor were they mere collateral damage the administration couldn't avoid en route to its socialized medicine utopia. They were deviously planned by the administration because they were necessary for Obamacare's numbers to work.

Despite Obama's repeated lies, the cancellations were premeditated in order to compel people to obtain more expensive plans through the federal website -- to cover things they aren't even at risk for -- and for the federal government to be able to use the premium windfalls to subsidize other people's health insurance costs. Obamacare was never about improving access to health care, reducing health care costs or improving the quality of care. It was an elaborate government-imposed Ponzi scheme for wealth redistribution and to establish another behemoth federal infrastructure for the government to control never-before-imagined aspects of our everyday lives.

As 2014 unfolds, expect further bad news from Obamacare as the other shoe drops on employer-provided plans.

In the midst of this White House news dump, Nero fiddles; Obama is enjoying another extended vacation and playing golf to his heart's delight. Even his once-fawning liberal press acknowledged that he seemed to be without energy and disengaged as he was leaving for vacation.

By all accounts and from all quarters, from former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs to former knee-tingler Chris Matthews, Obama had his worst year in 2013 -- and that's saying something. His approval ratings continue to hang at all-time lows. Support for Obamacare has reached a record low. A new CNN poll shows that Obama is even losing his own base over Obamacare. Democratic senators are complaining that Obama's personality makes it difficult to work with him. Others, along with Democratic congressmen, want to distance themselves from him as the 2014 elections approach.

When I said Republicans should strike while the iron is hot, I meant they need to hammer Obama daily for the damage he's causing to the American people on Obamacare alone. They need to feed Americans the facts as relentlessly as Obama has campaigned to force-feed us this nightmare.

And they need to immediately pass in the House, with great fanfare, a comprehensive health care reform bill containing the myriad market-based reforms they've proposed over the past few years -- from tort reform to ending discriminatory tax treatment for employer-provided plans to expanding health savings accounts to reducing government mandates to ending prohibition on consumers crossing state lines to buy insurance to supporting retail health clinics to providing vouchers for the working poor and chronically uninsured.

Passing such a bill would not keep Obama from lying that Republicans have no alternative plan, but it would give them something tangible with which to counter and showcase his lie.

Republicans have much work to do. We are in a war for the survival of the country as we know it, and in order to save it, we need to fight with the same relentless intensity as Obama and his forces are fighting to destroy it.

Democrats Will Pay Political Price for Obamacare in 2014

Byron York/ Townhall Columnist

As Democrats survey a troubled 2014 political landscape, it's easy to forget how optimistic they seemed less than a year ago.

 "I would expect that Nancy Pelosi is going to be speaker again pretty soon," President Obama told cheering House Democrats at a party retreat last February.

In the rosy scenario that took hold in some Democratic circles, the party was positioned to recapture the House in 2014 and maintain control of the Senate, allowing Obama to defy the history of second-term presidential decline. Great successes and good years lay ahead.

Had Democrats forgotten Obamacare, the law they passed in 2010 that was scheduled to take effect in 2014? It almost seemed as if they had.

Obama and his allies put off the arrival of Obamacare until after the president faced re-election in 2012. His administration also delayed releasing key rules regarding the law until after the election for fear of angering voters. But now they can't put it off any longer. 2014 will be the year Democrats pay for Obamacare.

When Obama spoke to the House retreat, polls consistently showed Democrats leading in the so-called "generic ballot" question, that is, whether voters will choose a Democratic or a Republican representative in the next election. Now, however, there's been a big swing away from Democrats and toward Republicans.

In addition, a new CNN poll found that 55 percent of voters surveyed said that when it comes to congressional races, they're more likely to vote for a candidate who opposes Obama than one who supports the president.

"Those kind of numbers spelled early trouble for the Democrats before the 1994 and 2010 midterms, and for the GOP before the 2006 elections," CNN polling director Keating Holland reported on the network's website.

Meanwhile, support for Obamacare, already low, could fall further as more middle-income Americans -- voters -- figure out that they are the ones who will be paying for the Democrats' national health care scheme.

In 2009 and 2010, Obama, Pelosi and their fellow Democrats sold Obamacare as a kind of miracle. It would give health insurance to 30 million previously uncovered people and cut the federal deficit by more than a trillion dollars at the same time. And the only taxes needed to pay for it all would fall on the very wealthy. It seemed impossible, but that's what they claimed.

Now, millions of middle-income Americans who probably felt safe from Obamacare's taxes are learning that they will pay for the program after all, in the form of higher premiums. Democrats constructed a system in which insurance companies would be forced to cover more people and then spread the cost around among those who had coverage all along, meaning many middle-income Americans will have to pay more for what they already had. Taxpayer-paid subsidies would go to lower-income Americans.

"The Affordable Care Act was not designed to reduce costs or, the law's name notwithstanding, to make health insurance coverage affordable for the vast majority of Americans," health care consultant Kip Piper told USA Today. "The law uses taxpayer dollars to lower costs for the low-income uninsured, but it also increases costs overall and shifts costs within the marketplace."

It was a clever strategy, allowing Democrats to sell their bill as a deficit cutter that wouldn't raise taxes on the vast majority of Americans. But the public had to find out eventually. "ACA taxes were imposed only on high-income people," the conservative writer David Frum noted recently in a series of tweets. "But large costs fall on the middle class, too, in the hidden, kludgy form of rate hikes. 'Obamacare is deficit neutral' wasn't technically a lie, but it was highly misleading. The middle class will pay and is paying."

Did most Americans understand that when Obamacare was passed and signed into law? Unlikely. But 2014 will be the year they find out.

And they are unlikely to be kind to the people who sold them that bill of goods. Democrats can comfort themselves by noting that the public disapproves of Republicans, too. But if Obamacare is a major political issue in November 2014 -- and indications are that it will be -- then Democrats will be the party that pays. And all their optimism of 2013 will seem like it was a long, long time ago.

Egypt arrests Al-Jazeera's TV crew for ties to Muslim Brotherhood

From JIhad Watch / Posted by Robert Spencer

If Al Jazeera in the U.S. had a pro-Brotherhood bias, who would notice? So does the rest of the mainstream media. "Egypt arrests Al-Jazeera TV's 4-member crew," from the Associated Press, December 30 (thanks to Jayke):

CAIRO (AP) -- Egypt's Interior Ministry says security forces have arrested journalists working for the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera network over alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood, the leading Islamist group that was last week branded as a "terrorist" organization. 

The network said Monday that four of its Cairo team - correspondent Peter Greste, producers Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, and cameraman Mohamed Fawzy - are in custody since Sunday night.

Al-Jazeera says it's demanding their immediate release.

The ministry says only two Al-Jazeera staff were arrested, an Australian journalist and a second person, a Brotherhood member. It says they were meeting at a five-star Cairo hotel that is used to "spread rumors harming national security."

Egypt's military-backed government has long accused Al-Jazeera of bias because Qatar is perceived to have supported the Brotherhood.

How To Create A Banana Republic Out Of A Once-Great Nation

by Bob Livingston  / Personal Liberty Digest

Altruism is a mask for deception. The fiat system promotes altruism with slogans like, “For the greater good,” “It’s for the children” and “Equality for all.”

Translated, this means, give of your substance so that we may all be equal.

Altruism is an attribute of the liberal mind. It is based on groupism, which is the concept of egalitarianism.

It is the opposite of individuality and responsibility. It is the basis upon which all redistributive schemes are launched.

The psychopaths walking the halls of power are about to employ it yet again. They want to divest people of their retirement funds in order to prop up the failing regime. They will do so by converting 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts to government debt. These discussions have been going on for several years.

There is also precedent for this confiscation scheme. It happened as recently as September in Poland.

What you will hear more and more of in the coming months are words like “savings inequality” and “racial inequality.” They will be used to condition simple minds to accept that they are responsible for funding the retirements of the “less fortunate.”

A report by the liberal think tank National Institute on Retirement Security notes that black and Latino households hold much less retirement savings than white households. Among near-retirees, the per-household average savings balance for blacks, Latinos and Asians is $30,000; whites average $120,000 in savings.

I have already reported to you that the Washington, D.C., elites are eying your retirement funds and the discussions are becoming more open. President Barack Obama proposed “automatic IRAs” in his 2013 budget. These would have required business to contribute 3 percent of an employee’s salary to private companies selected by the government in order to fund a pension.

So how do you turn a once-great nation into a banana republic? First, you divide the people against themselves by slowly changing their psyche to collectivism and altruism. Then morality becomes quicksand, and reality becomes spurious and frivolous.

Collectivism and altruism diminish individualism and transforms the mind. Adolf Hitler used this concept to manipulate the German people into false patriotism and self-sacrifice. Now, it’s déjà vu all over again.

Can we be slaves and give our total allegiance to the state without being conscious of it? Can we support the state without awareness? Yes. And how do we do it? The answer is that we work for depreciating currency. We “save” in depreciating currency. We buy life insurance in depreciating currency. And we leave our estates in depreciating currency.

Collectivism and altruism are the rot of morality and individualism. The people evolve into nothing more than an expression of the State.

Op-ed: 

Back to the YouTube video we go...back to covering up for Hillary 
By: Diane Sori

"The attack was led ... by fighters who had benefited directly from NATO's extensive air power and logistics support during the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi. And contrary to claims by some members of Congress, it was fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam." - The New York Times

Well it's started.  Laying the groundwork for a Hillary run in 2016, the New York Times has come out with a farce of an article...actually a six-part series about the attack on Benghazi which leads back to that ridiculous claim that a YouTube video about mohamed was the cause of it all.

Trying to defect all blame for Bengahzi away from Hillary...to actually try and exonerate her...good leftist newspaper that they are...the New York Times this past Saturday started running the series 'A Deadly Mix In Benghazi' by David Kirkpatrick. This series claims there is NO evidence whatsoever to prove that al-Qaeda was involved in the Benghazi attack, and that the attack was carried out solely by local militant islamist groups who were furious over the American-produced video the 'Innocence of Muslims' that slammed islam and the (supposed) prophet mohamed.

And this series uses quotes from 'anonymous' sources...Libyans who claimed they were in Benghazi and who claimed to have direct knowledge of the attack...as their 'supposed' credible sources. Anonymous sources who in their very anonymity means they are NOT credible at all.

Hate to tell The New York Times but this was a pre-planned well orchestrated attack by al-Qaeda and done in conjunction with the al-Qaeda aligned Muslim Brotherhood. Even Muslim Brotherhood members who were directly connected to ousted US educated, former professor at California State University (1982-1985) Muslim Brotherhood puppet President Mohamed Morsi, admitted to having had an operational role in the attack. And here's a little something our media has NOT reported on...the first two of Morsi's five children were born in the US and have US citizenship and passports they will NOT give up.

After being arrested at the scene, statements and confessions were taken from six members of one of the cells who took part in the attack and they admitted to being Egyptians connected to the al-Qaeda affiliate group Ansar al-Shariah. During interrogations these Egyptians, according to a US government verified Libyan intelligence document, “confessed to very serious and important information concerning the financial sources of the group and the planners of the event and the storming and burning of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi…. And among the more prominent figures whose names were mentioned by cell members during confessions were: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi."

In fact there's even a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eRgZ82OTRk) shot on a cell phone that shows a mob approaching the American compound while it was under siege, clearly showing some in the mob telling the terrorists in the dialect of Upper Egypt: “Mahadesh, mahadesh yermi, Dr. Morsi ba`atna” which translates to, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, Dr. Morsi sent us.”

By the way, the name 'Morsi' is Egyptian only and appears in NO other Arabic dialect.

Four Americans were murdered in the attack on the Benghazi diplomatic mission and CIA compound and to date still NO one at the top has been called to task. Some low-level minor State Department employees were slapped on the wrist but that's it. Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walked away seemingly untouched even after saying about those killed at Benghazi, "What difference at this point does it make" when questioned by Congress. Barack HUSSEIN Obama, who watched them die in real time and who, as Commander-in-Chief, could have been the only one to tell rescuers to 'stand down,' jetted off the next morning to a fundraiser in Las Vegas and I can imagine him laughing that he pulled off another one. But isn't it odd that all the generals, admirals, and high-ranking officers who knew the truth about the attack have either 'suddenly' retired early or been relieved of their commands.

And all this because of a poorly crafted video...NO...I do NOT think so.

Claiming that everyone is confusing local Libyan extremist groups like Ansar al-Shariah (Supporters of Islamic Law) for al-Qaeda’s world-wide terrorist network, the New York Times series states that Ansar al-Shariah and other local islamic militia groups were already planning an attack when the video just happened to be released adding the much needed final bit of fuel to the fire...a video that stirred up the restless already out for blood who now wanted the time frame for the attack moved up...a video that became the perfect foil for Obama's much needed cover for the truth.

Remember, with the Benghazi attack occurring in the middle of the 2012 presidential campaign, Obama knew this attack could seriously damage his chances of winning re-election if the truth were ever to come out that Ambassador Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and ex-Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty died in a carefully planned attack by al-Qaeda to mark the eleventh anniversary of 9/11, and that he knew it was going to happen and did NOTHING to stop it or to try and rescue those in danger. So instead Obama and his minions concocting and spread the YouTube story to cover up al-Qaeda’s role to avoid the sure to come discrediting of Obama's bloviations that al-Qaeda had been decimated and was on the run, all because he had single-handily (said with much sarcasm) taken out Osama bin Laden.

And of course the video was used to deflect any and all blame away from Hillary Clinton...the woman the media had already deemed to be the next in line for the presidency...never mind that she time and again willfully ignored Ambassador Stevens' many pleas for help.

Willfully ignoring those pleas for help because the most probable scenario...a scenario I have said since day one and still stand by...is that Benghazi was an Obama funded and orchestrated ILLEGAL gun and weapons running operation to the al-Qaeda backed Syrian rebels that Ambassador Stevens found out about and was going to blow the whistle on. And I bet Hillary knew it all...and knowing that Hillary had sympathy towards the Muslim Brotherhood (due to her close friendship with her then State Department Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin) she probably even condoned the gun and weapons running.

It's pretty obvious that Ambassador Stevens had to be silenced one way or another (Smith, Woods, and Doherty were considered 'collateral damage') and both Obama and Hillary need this truth hidden at all costs...especially Hillary if she is going to run in 2016. And it's the truth that many in Congress also know but are just too afraid to admit to or to seriously act upon beyond the 'dog and pony show' Congressional Benghazi hearings that went nowhere.

And so the true objectives of this New York Times series...especially coming out now while speculation about a Hillary run are all over the media and the internet...are clearly NOT to get to the truth about Benghazi, but are about trying to diffuse the right from being able to use Benghazi against Hillary. And to that I say, sorry but it will indeed be used every chance we get NOT only to damage and diffuse her campaign but also to try and prevent Hillary from running in the first place for America has had quite enough with Barack HUSSEIN Obama...America does NOT need his socialist agenda continued under a Hillary Clinton presidency... period.

Russia: Ten murdered in second jihad attack in two days in Volgograd

From Jihad Watch / Posted by Robert Spencer

Muslim leader Doku Umarov has "instructed his followers 'to use maximum force on the path of Allah to disrupt this Satanic dancing'" -- that is, the Sochi Olympics.

"Two blasts in two days in Russia's Volgograd emperil Sochi Olympics," by Supriya Jha for Zee News, December 30 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Moscow: A day after the horrific attack at a railway station in Russia's Volgograd, another blast was reported to have taken place on a trolleybus in the city on Monday, killing 10 people. 

Like yesterday's blast, this blast too, is thought to be a terrorist attack, reported a Russian news agency.

The blast on a trolley bus in Volgograd comes just a day after a suicide attack at a railway station in the same city had killed 16 and injured many others.

The attacks have fuelled fresh concerns about safety of Winter Olympics at Sochi with the spectre of terrorism looming large.

The attacks that come just weeks before the crucial Winter Olympics at Sochi, which is scheduled in February, have posed a serious question mark on the security risks near the Games venue that is situated near the the volatile North Caucasus region.

Although, Russia has already put in place a formidable security system in wake of the Games, President Vladimir Putin has ordered the security to be beefed up at all the railway stations and airports across the country after yesterday's attack.

The attack at the railway station, that is said to have been carried out by a female suicide bomber – called as Black Widows in Russia – was captured on a CCTV camera and took place at the main entrance of the station near the metal detectors.

The bombing is being treated as an act of terrorism,Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the Investigative Committee said.

"Most likely, the victims could have been much higher if the so-called protective system had not stopped the suicide bomber from getting through the metal detectors into the waiting room where there were passengers," Mr Markin said in a statement posted on Investigative Committee's website.

A severed head of a female, thought to be the perpetrator of the suicide attack, will help in identifying the bomber, reports said.

Before Volgograd attack, another suicide bombing in the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk last week had killed three people.

Also in October, Volgograd had witnessed a bus suicide attack which had killed six people.

Even that attack was carried by a 'Black Widow', a female bomber who wanted to avenge the death of her husband.

The attacks are seen as the manifestation of the threat delivered by a Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov, who in July this year had condemned Russia for hosting Sochi Games, which he called as a “Satanic Dance”.

He had vowed to stop the Games from proceeding in Sochi, pledging attacks against civilian targets.

He instructed his followers “to use maximum force on the path of Allah to disrupt this Satanic dancing.”

"They plan to hold the Olympics on the bones of our ancestors, on the bones of many, many dead Muslims, buried on the territory of our land on the Black Sea," Umarov had said in a video.

Sochi Olympics is Putin's ambitious project and he has gone out of his way to mute the chorus of international criticism against Russia's dismal rights record by releasing his major opponents like oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Pussy Riot band girls and Greepeace activists.

However, it seems that the threat of Islamic terror attacks outweighs the cacophony of international criticism and poses a graver risk to the Games.

Obama-in-Wonderland with Special Guest Hillary Clinton and the GOP All-Stars

John Ransom / Townhall Finance Editor

Despite the mixed signals that the economy is flashing, the stock market at least believes that finally the economy is starting to recover.

So does the bond market.

And that’s the problem.

Just after making record low yield in the spring near 1.50 percent, the Ten Year Treasury note did an “about face” and has nearly doubled just in 8 months with rates closing on Christmas Eve at 2.80 percent.

This is significant because if means that the bond market either thinks the economy is gaining steam or it means bonds are predicting inflation. Bond rates tend to go up as the market gains steam in order to contain inflation.

In either case, the stock market looks to be moving higher short term.

Dow 20,000 in 2014?

Not likely, but… if, if, if, voters, politicians and lobbyists can get their act together and do something to HELP the economy, there certainly is enough money to get a large portion of the way to Dow 20,000.

In order for that to happen, we’ll have to see GDP normalize at 3 percent or higher AND inflation to remain in check.

That’s a tough thing to manage, especially with oil and other commodities trading like financial assets rather than commodities.


Bonds look to me like they are betting on inflation.

But inflation isn’t the only thing that stands in the way of the economy and the stock market.

In 2014, many of the headwind provisions of Obamacare will ramp up again. Given the type of dislocation that Obamacare has already had on the economy, there are some predicting 2014 to be worse as the more strenuous parts of Obamacare are contemplated, if not fully enacted.

And despite the lame duck status of Obama, I think that any meaningful changes to Obamacare—including even repeal, are largely up to the president.

He seems however content to go down with the SS Obamacare, taking both women and children with him.

“Real federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment decreased 1.5 percent in the third quarter,” says the Bureau of Economic Analysis “compared with a decrease of 1.6 percent in the second.”

Whatever else might be hurting the economy, it’s not the decrease in government spending that’s holding the economy back.

It’s the regulations.

At this rate, I'd like to see more sequester, since it seems to be working out so well for the economy.

How do we sequester Obamacare?Helloooo? Anyone? Bueller? Boehner? Boehner?

“Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States,” writes the BEA, “increased at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the third quarter of 2013 (that is, from the second quarter to the third quarter), according to the ‘third’ estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2.5 percent.”

Those GDP numbers are closer to historic norms for our economy, but in the Obama-in-Wonderland economy nothing necessarily is as it seems.

We’ve been in this territory before and have seen the economy stutter, gasp, cough and stop.

In 2011, the 4^th quarter poster 4.9 percent and then trailed off posting weaker and weaker numbers until the Fed cried “uncle” and began the latest round of quantitative easing in the summer of 2012.
GDP is probably expanding because of the little bit of fiscal restraint that we’ve shown since 2010.

Add in the delayed provisions of Obamacare and 2013 GDP performance is credible. But that doesn’t mean that it will carry into 2014, an election year and the last of where Obama will control the levers to reward or punish.

Look for Hillary to ride in to the mid-terms on her white horse proposing some final solution for Obamacare (pun intended) that Mitch McConnell, John McCain and John Boehner will gush over publicly in order to poke the eye of Tea Party conservatives.

2014 looks to be a watershed year for the country politically, economically and historically.

The decision will be left in the hands of the voters.

Ouch. And at this point, it shouldn’t be that close.

Ouch: Obamacare Enrollment Numbers Fall Two Million Short of Goal

Sarah Jean Seman / Townhall Columnist

 

White House officials announced Sunday that Obamacare enrollment has reached more than 1.1 million, this falls more than 2 million sign-ups short of their 2013 goal.
As reported by TIME:

The federal health care marketplace saw only 27,000 people sign up in October and 137,000 in November. Though surpassing the million mark is a positive sign for President Barack Obama’s landmark health care reform, the administration had hoped that more 3.3 million Americans would sign up for insurance through federal and state exchanges by year’s end. 

White House officials have yet to release data on the 14 states managing their own exchanges. Figures for December are expected next month. The administration is aiming to sign up 7 million Americans before the first-year open enrollment period ends in late March.

From Hawaii, President Obama claimed:

“The basic structure of that law is working despite all the problems — despite the website problems, despite the messaging problems.”

Messaging, perhaps, like the 2013 Lie of Year: “if you like your plan, you can keep it?”

The basic structure is not really working either. Not only are millions of Americans losing their health insurance plans, but they are finding their new insurance plans anything but affordable.

Organizing for Action, the group behind BarackObama.com, tweeted:

Barack Obama
 ✔ @BarackObama Follow

If you believe in affordable health care, keep up the fight in 2014: http://ofa.bo/bE 

11:36 AM - 29 Dec 2013

 
                    581 Retweets 662 favorites
 
However, based on America's reaction to the bill, few people will be lining up to join that fight.

From my friend Pamela Geller...

2013  Today and tomorrow are the last days to make your tax deductible contribution for 2013. Do it. Now. Donate.  If not you, who?         You and AFDI. Together we changed the narrative and challenged the Islamic supremacists and their leftist lapdogs. Others talk, talk, talk. We do.  This week, our lawsuit against Boston transit moved forward, despite the judge's ruling.  Watch this NBC video clip: Judge backs T on Israel posters, The Boston Globe Massachusetts Transit Authority wins court battle over banned pro-Israel ads The Jerusalem Post Post-Dec 24, 2013 Here is the most interesting (and perhaps telling that Judge Gordon agreed with us, but had to follow Ridley - the Dred Scott of free speech decisions ) part of the opinion: Nevertheless, the Court agrees with the plaintiffs that the most reasonable interpretation of their advertisement is that they oppose acts of Islamic terrorism directed at Israel. Thus, if the question before this Court were whether the MBTA adopted the best interpretation of an ambiguous advertisement, it would side with the plaintiffs.  But restrictions on speech in a non-public forum need only be reasonable and need not be the most reasonable. See Ridley, 390 F.3d at 90. We are moving forward with this lawsuit. Read the whole thing here. We mean to overturn Ridley and will go all the way to the Supremes. When you and your family hear of the daily acts of jihad both here and abroad, where do you turn? If you are like most knowledgeable freedom lovers,  you come here. You support our work. Why? Because you know that no one is doing the work we are doing, going on the offense, exposing the agenda of the enemies of freedom. And you also know that your contribution will fund the fight in defense of freedom by dedicated, indefatigable freedom fighters. Your contributions have helped make scores of ad campaigns and initiatives possible.  We are so grateful to you for supporting our efforts. Thanks to you, the message has reached the hundreds of thousands of Americans -- informing, educating, activating. And if you’d like, you can specify your gift to a particular ad campaign or program – our pro-Israel ad campaigns, anti-CAIR ad awareness, the honor killing media campaign, jihad awareness ads, public demonstrations, free speech lawsuits – wherever you choose. Just write it in the message here. We are embroiled in free speech lawsuits in Boston, Detroit, Florida and the UK.  Support our legal defense (here). You have just one week to make your tax deductible year-end contribution for 2013. The Jew-haters are at it again. The have launched another vicious blood libel in Seattle. AFDI did not let this go unanswered -- we have submitted the following ad to Seattle transit: DONATE HERE!  We responded to their fallacious narrative (below): Our action plans for 2014 are even more ambitious. Now more than ever, we have to educate the American people. And we are getting it done. AFDI fights this propaganda putsch by going on the offense and taking the message to the people. We’re bringing the truth about the jihad against free people and Islamic supremacism directly to the people. We force a media discussion of the grim realities of jihad and Sharia that they usually sweep under the rug. Our ads just went up on buses in Denver! And they are a sight for the sore eyes tired of the propaganda and Jew-hatred of antisemites and Islamic supremacists. Here is our ad. Contribute here to help make these campaigns happen.

2013: The Year of Broken Obamacare Promises

By: Cathy Burke / Newsmax

President Obama's inauguration in January kicked off a year of broken promises about his signature health care law, threatening to turn a presidency based on vows of hope and change to one doling out disappointment and failures.

The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, but it was in 2013 that the health care reform law implode into a nightmare of broken promises. Assertions made by the president and Health Secretary weeks ago, months ago and even years ago have over and over again proved to been misleading at best and complete untrue at worst.

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No, you may not be able to keep your doctor or your plan. And, no, the website is not user-friendly.

Here are the Top-10 Obamacare promises that were broken in 2013:

1. The website is simple and user-friendly

Hardly. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's claim in an op-ed piece in USA Today turned out to be a glib — and false — boast.

Even Democrat-friendly Jon Stewart's The Daily Show hammered Sebelius on the widespread and well-reported problems with the HealthCare.gov sign-ups. Stewart ended the interview with the official in a merciless monologue in which he wondered: “And then I think to myself, ‘well, maybe she’s just lying to me.’”

Just days into its disastrous rollout, the Obamacare website was out of order until mid-morning Oct. 8, a public relations headache given the administration had pledged to sign up 7 million people for Obamacare insurance by the start of 2014.

The early outage wasn't the last; on Dec. 20, a mere three days before the deadline to sign up for coverage starting Jan. 1, yet another outage lasted for several hours.

Even members of Congress were vexed by Obamacare's glitches.

2. "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."

Obama's June 6, 2009 assertion was wrong. As insurers sent cancellations to millions of individual policy holders because their plans were sub-par for Obamacare standards, the president's oft-repeated pledge blew apart, and PolitiFact declared the vow the "lie of the year."

But respected Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer railed Obamacare itself was a fraud from the beginning, writing the law "was designed to throw people off their private plans and into government-run exchanges where they would be made to overpay — forced to purchase government-mandated services they don’t need — as a way to subsidize others."

3. "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."

Obama's 2009 promise was wrong again, we learned in 2013. For insured Americans dumped by their employer-sponsored plans because they don't cut it with the new health care law, or pushed by their insurers to re-enroll at higher rates, it's likely they won't be able to keep their doctors, conservative blogger Cam Harris writes.

Offering the example of the 15,000 spouses of UPS employees forced to seek out new plans on the individual market, Harris writes they'll find their Obamacare network won't include their usual MD.

4. Premiums will fall by as much as $2,500 per family

That won't happen. Forbes magazine, comparing Affordable Care Act premiums versus pre-Obamacare premiums, finds this presidential assertion a dud.

According to Forbes, and based on a Manhattan Institute analysis of the HHS numbers, Obamacare will actually jack up underlying insurance rates for young men by an average of 97 to 99 percent, and for young women by an average of 55 to 62 percent. As for states, the worst off is North Carolina, which is expected to see individual-market rates triple for women, and quadruple for men, the analysis showed.

5. Obamacare won't add 'one dime to our deficits'

But it does. Even the Government Accountability Office's report of Feb. 26, 2013, projected Obamacare will increase the long-term federal deficit by $6.2 trillion.

An Investor's Business Daily analysis also shot down the Obama promise, reporting the Affordable Care Act could actually add $18 billion in red ink.

6. The ACA will cost around $900 billion over 10 years

Not even close. A Congressional Budget Office’s report from May 2013 puts the real price tag more around the area of $1.8 trillion. And the cost projections rise with every new estimated, conservative blogger Cam Harris noted.

7. Families making less than $250,000 won't see 'any form' of tax increase

Far from it. Obamacare contains 18 separate tax hikes, fees, and penalties, many of which heavily impact the middle class, the Heritage Foundation maintains.

Citing a Joint Committee on Taxation 2012 report and Congressional Budget Office information, as well as a Heritage Foundation report, Obamacare’s taxes and penalties will accumulate over $770 billion in new revenue over a 10-year period, and among taxes that'll pound the middle class are the individual mandate tax, the medical device tax, and new penalties and limits on health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts.

8. The ACA will keep healthcare costs down.

So says the president's Council of Economic Advisers.

But it's just not so, according to senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow James Captretta writes in the Weekly Standard.

Here's why: National Health Expenditure projections show a slowdown in health spending that began long before Obamacare was passed, and was due to factors entirely unrelated, he argues.

In 2002, NHE spending per capita rose 8.5 percent and then began to slow over the ensuring years, he notes. And HHS actuaries even concede the reasons their estimates of health costs over the coming decade are lower than they were a few years ago is due to economic conditions, fiscal policy changes, including a sequester cut of Medicare payments, and a slowdown in growth in Medicaid, Medicare, and other government programs — all unrelated to Obamacare.

9. You have a deadline and a mandate.

Maybe. Squishy deadlines, and "fixes" have been a hallmark of Obamacare almost from the start.

In the most major fix of a problem aimed at people who lost their coverage because it didn't measure up to Obamacare standards, the administration abruptly shifted gears Dec. 19, changing policy to help people make a deadline to replace dropped insurance plans.

Those with inadequate insurance that got canceled were now allowed to claim a “hardship exemption," giving them the option to buy cheaper, minimal coverage plans normally available only to people under 30.

Another "fix" came Nov. 14, a week after the president apologized for the cancellations sent to people whose insurance didn't meet new standards. The president asked insurers to keep offering those plans for a year even if they don't meet minimum Obamacare requirements.

For small businesses, Obama last July bumped back the deadline requiring companies with 50 or more employees to offer insurance from Jan. 1 2014 to Jan. 1, 2015.

As for sign-up deadlines, it's been confusing at best. In October, people had until Dec. 15 to pick a plan if they wanted coverage beginning Jan. 1. Then, in November, it was extended to Dec. 23.

But citing high traffic to the HealthCare.gov website and at call centers before that deadline, the goal posts moved again, this time to Christmas Eve, Dec. 24.

Officials said nearly 2 million visits had been logged by that time in the last-minute rush, Yet in a blog post on the website Dec. 24, the administration suggested additional flexibility.

"Sometimes despite your best efforts, you might have run into delays caused by heavy traffic to HealthCare.gov, maintenance periods, or other issues with our systems that prevented you from finishing the process on time," the post said. "If this happened to you, don't worry -- we still may be able to help you get covered as soon as January 1."

HHS also pushed back the deadline when the first month's premium would be due, and insurers obliged, extending the payment deadline nine days, to Jan. 10.

10. Sure, the national exchange is glitchy, but the state sites are working great.

Not so fast.

Obamacare’s state-run enrollment operations have had technological delays and low sign-up levels. Several states even replaced top executives.

“Some of these states have been committed, but it’s just been hurdle after hurdle after hurdle,” said Heather Howard, program director at the State Health Reform Assistance Network, a Princeton, New Jersey-based group advising state exchanges told Bloomberg News. “I do think those states will get there, but this is an ambitious undertaking in the best of cases.”

Meanwhile, Massachusetts and Vermont are weighing legal options against the contractor that designed their healthcare insurance exchange websites. both states used Montreal-based CGI Group, which built HealthCare.gov, and say they are withholding future payments and taking steps now to recoup millions in taxpayer dollars already spent on their websites that still have serious problems, reports The Boston Globe.

“CGI has consistently underperformed, which is frustrating and a serious concern,” said Jason Lefferts, a spokesman for the Massachusetts' insurance marketplace, Commonwealth Home Connector. “We are holding the vendor accountable for its underperformance and will continue to apply nonstop pressure to work to fix defects and improve performance.”

The Year’s Big Stories

by Bob Livingston  / Personal Liberty Digest

PHOTOS.COM

It’s time to put a cap on 2013. It’s a year that, for liberty’s sake, would have best been thrown into the crapper.

The U.S. system is a totalitarianism that has over the past year begun to lose even its veneer of benevolence. This is typical of governments, which naturally grow, increasingly centralize power and become more corrupt.

As countries have more and more centralized power (fascist state), the people have less and less freedom. Propaganda is intensified, vital information is withheld, and peoples’ expectations are manipulated.

In reality this mind manipulation and control are nothing less than an assault upon the mental and physical body. It is all accepted gradually — so gradually that most of the people never become alerted to lost freedoms.

It is this gradual, insipid assault on the people and freedom that we battle every day. That is our purpose here at Personal Liberty Digest™.

It’s customary as each year draws to a close for media organizations to cover the year’s big stories.

Those decisions are usually quite subjective and are made by people living in an insular bubble of their own design. Their ideas are generally an echo chamber of groupthink.

The wonders of the Internet allow us to use a different metric in determining the big stories. It is you, the readers, who determined for us what was important and what was controversial. You did so by your responses.

What follows are the top stories based upon input you didn’t realize you were providing. They are the stories written by me that had the highest number of viewers. You think this isn’t the best way to list them? Wait until you read them to decide. Most of them deal directly with the growing fascist state.

 

No. 1: Viewed 53,832 Times

Proof Of A U.S. Police State

America has fast descended into a police state. The trouble is that we want to believe in the rule of law and the system that alleges to support and enforce it. But when reality collides with illusion, it is too late. No matter how bad things seem, we always think that times will get better and that government will do the right thing.

Only a few people left Germany in the early 1930s. They could clearly see the evolving tyranny. Many who stayed thought that things would not get so bad or that times would get better. They suffered from normalcy bias, a form of cognitive dissonance. They paid.

The wisdom today is in being able to see what is happening and having the vision to discern what is going to happen. Sorry. Anyone who still believes in the illusion of the rule of law will not see reality until it’s too late to do what is necessary to survive and keep their assets.

Today, the rule of law is what the 1 percent (the government) says it is. The government holds the police power and the military power. Its main purpose is to be the silent force to contain the population.

The population in the United States is well-armed. That fact does not escape the 1 percent. That is why the 1 percent is so eager to find a basis upon which to justify disarming the people. The armed populace is all that stands between the people and full-blown tyranny.

To read the rest of the article, go here. 

 

No. 2: Viewed 35,776 Times

Is Government Readying For A Shooting War Against Gun Owners?

Gun grabbing lawmakers at both the State and Federal level continue to push forward with their anti-American, anti-2^nd Amendment, anti-gun agendas, even as more individuals, State legislatures and manufacturers of weapons, weapons accessories and ammunition push back. It almost seems as if the elected class is itching for a fight.

And when one considers that the Department of Homeland Security has contracted for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition — much of it hollow points or for use in sniper rifles — for its 55,000 armed agents, plus 2,717 armored personnel carriers and 7,000 select fire “personal defense weapons,” it seems even more apparent that’s the goal. For perspective, 1.6 billion rounds is enough to fight the Iraq war for 20 years. It’s enough to shoot every American five times. It’s 28,000 tons, or the equivalent of three guided missile destroyers. It’s almost 30,000 target practice rounds per armed agent — but of course, because they are more expensive, hollow points are not used for target practice.

These purchases have long concerned many of those who pay attention. But only the alternative media talked about it — to derision and catcalls — until Feb. 15. That’s when The Denver Post ran an article by The Associated Press about the purchases. That prompted a column by Ralph Benko at Forbes.com in which he said it’s time for a national conversation about the purchases.

More than that, it’s time for a national conversation on the link between the purchases and the ongoing push by the elected class to collapse the economy and pass legislation against the will of the people.

To read the rest of the article, go here. 

 

No. 3: Viewed 31,083 Times

Prepare For A Grid-Down Scenario

On Nov. 13-14, America’s major electricity generating companies along with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and government agencies in Canada and Mexico will conduct a drill to test system responses to cyberattacks and physical attacks on the North American electrical grid that cause its widespread failure.

The drill is called GridEx II, and it moves the threat of a total electrical blackout that sends the country back into the 19^th century from the stuff of science fiction and/or tinfoil hattery to the mainstream. According to The New York Times, the drill is designed to:

practice for a crisis unlike anything the real grid has ever seen, and more than 150 companies and organizations have signed up to participate.

“This is different from a hurricane that hits X, Y and Z counties in the Southeast and they have a loss of power for three or four days,” said the official in charge of the drill, Brian M. Harrell of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, known as NERC.

“We really want to go beyond that.”

One goal of the drill… is to explore how governments would react as the loss of the grid crippled the supply chain for everyday necessities.

Should the grid collapse, those with medical conditions requiring machines to keep them alive or stable could be in trouble quickly, but most people could easily survive without power for two or three days. It’s not unusual for major storms to knock out power for that long. But longer-term power outages turn into desperate situations as water and food run low and/or generators run out of fuel. Google Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy to see how some people fared during long-term localized outages.

To read the rest of the article, go here. 

 

No. 4: Viewed 31,036 Times

An Open Letter To The Elected Class Regarding Gun Control

Dear ______________:
I realize it is customary to begin missives to elected representatives with the words Honorable Senator ______________ or Honorable Representative ______________, but I believe that title must be earned. Frankly, you (I am referring to you individually and to Congress as a whole) have not done so and, therefore, do not deserve to be addressed that way. However, the purpose of this letter is not to criticize you, but to inform you about what is happening in the country you were elected to serve.

According to a recent poll, Congress’ favorability ranks below lice, cockroaches, colonoscopies and root canals. Have you for a moment stopped to wonder why? It’s because a vast majority of Americans believe that Congress no longer represents them, but instead represents big corporations and, mostly, themselves and their cronies. The recent “fiscal cliff” deal is a perfect example. It socked a tax increase on 80 percent of American workers while doling out $76 billion in government money (which means my money) through special tax favors to large corporations, such as General Electric, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and DIAGEO, and to Hollywood and green energy companies. According to a recent column in The Washington Examiner, Senator Max Baucus’ (Fascist-Mont.) former staffers who are now lobbyists all got their clients millions of dollars in special benefits from the fiscal cliff deal. In return, Baucus received thousands of dollars in political contributions from those companies’ political action committees. Americans, myself included, believe this is standard operating procedure in Washington, D.C. And there is talk that additional tax increases on the middle class are on the way.

Upon your inauguration, you swore an oath, with your hand on a Bible, to uphold and defend the Constitution. You have repeatedly violated that oath by passing unConstitutional laws like the USA Patriot Act (and subsequent extensions) and the National Defense Authorization Act, which grants the President the authority to indefinitely detain American citizens and suspends habeas corpus. If I’m not mistaken, these unConstitutional laws contain provisions that in some way violate Amendments 1, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9. That’s quite a feat for two laws.

To read the rest of the article, go here. 

 

No. 5: Viewed 29,619 Times

More Blood On Obama’s Hands

The overhyped and superfluous George Zimmerman trial is winding down, and Florida’s law enforcers are growing antsy. That’s because they’re seeing in social media and hearing from the streets that if Zimmerman is acquitted in a trial that never should have been held to begin with, blacks will riot and kill whites.

If there are riots and people are injured and property is damaged, President Barack Obama and his Department of Justice will be to blame. The blood will be on their hands.

In the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, Obama claimed that if he had a son, Trayvon Martin is what he’d look like. Then the DOJ dispatched its Community Relations Service (CRS) team to Florida to hold “marches, demonstrations, and rallies” on Martin’s behalf. According to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, the DOJ spent more than $3,800 to incite racial tensions in Sanford, Fla., and oust the police chief because Zimmerman was not charged immediately in Martin’s death. One of the rallies sponsored by CSR was headlined by the notorious race-baiter Al Sharpton. CSR-sponsored rallies went on for a couple of weeks; and if sparking unrest was the goal, the money was well-spent.

To read the rest of the article, go here. 

Says it all...