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Obama spends $600 million on rail projects that benefit private companies
By Curtis Tate

McClatchy Washington BureauDecember 2, 2013 Updated 11 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The railroad industry brags in its national publicity campaign that it spends billions of dollars improving its infrastructure “so taxpayers don’t have to.”

But the ads don’t tell everything. The nation’s freight rail network has been the quiet recipient of more than $600 million in federal investment during the Obama administration.

According to Federal Railroad Administration numbers, at least half that amount has gone to projects that benefit the nation’s four largest railroads, the same companies at the heart of the industry’s ubiquitous “Freight Rail Works” campaign.

That doesn’t even include tens of millions more that states have contributed for additional investment in ports and high-speed passenger trains that’s boosted the nation’s freight railroads.

Read more here: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/12/02/210101/obama-spends-600-million-on-rail.html#storylink=cpy

Ridgewood beats Paramus but loses fullback Jack Foresman
Friday, November 29, 2013
BY  JIM MCCONVILLE
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
The Record

RIDGEWOOD — With both teams heading to MetLife Stadium next weekend, the final Thanksgiving Day game between Ridgewood and Paramus became an anticlimactic effort.

Paramus elected to keep its starters on the bench. Ridgewood, still pursuing an undefeated season, played its starters into the third quarter before taking them out, but still suffered an injury that will affect it in the North 1, Group 5 final.

Ridgewood now is 11-0 after a 35-7 triumph but it lost fullback Jack Foresman, who suffered his second broken collarbone of the season. It definitely overshadowed the Maroons’ victory.

“It’s a shame,” Maroon coach Chuck Johnson said of the end of the Thanksgiving tradition.

“This is a great rivalry, but the specter of the playoffs has changed the atmosphere of the game. It becomes a distraction in the middle of the playoffs and you run the risk of losing a player like Jack. That really sours the day.”

The game plan for Ridgewood was to get up quick and get the starters out, but the Spartans’ backups didn’t just roll over. Albeit against a somewhat-uninspired Ridgewood side, the Paramus reserves gave a good effort.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/sports/233801351_H_S__football__Ridgewood_beats_Paramus_but_loses_player_to_injury.html#sthash.vBc3XxxV.dpuf

file photo

Ridgewood Maroons roll past East Orange, 63-34
Saturday, November 16, 2013
BY  JIM MCCONVILLE
SPECIAL TO THE RECORD
The Record

RIDGEWOOD — It’s a good thing you don’t get points for time of possession, because Ridgewood would never get any. The Maroons’ high powered offense was on display again Friday night in the opening round of the North 1, Group 5 playoffs.

Ridgewood ran only 30 offensive plays, yet scored nine touchdowns. Four came on the first play of a possession as the Maroons ran away from East Orange, 63-34, to advance to the semifinals next Friday against Passaic Tech.

The Maroons defeated the Bulldogs, 41-18, last week in a regular-season game.

“They just couldn’t stop us,” Ridgewood coach Chuck Johnson said.

His team had 11 plays of 20 or more yards and at one point in the second quarter, the Maroons scored on four consecutive offensive snaps.

Having beaten the Jaguars, 53-0, a month ago, it was important for Ridgewood (9-0) to get off to a quick start. Four plays into the game, Cooper Telesco scored on a 13-yard run and Ridgewood never looked back. Telesco added two more touchdowns in the first half and had all of his 111 rushing yards before halftime.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/sports/232165301_H_S__football__Ridgewood_rolls_past_East_Orange__63-34.html#sthash.vPevrvuv.dpuf

Obama’s Massive Fraud
By Andrew McCarthy

If he were a CEO in the private sector, he’d be prosecuted for such deception.

“If you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan.  Period.”

How serious was this lie, repeated by Barack Obama with such beguiling regularity? Well, how would the Justice Department be dealing with it if it had been uttered by, say, the president of an insurance company rather than the president of the United States?

Read the rest of Andy’s compelling argument here:

https://www.nationalreview.com/article/363538/obamas-massive-fraud-andrew-c-mccarthy

Public Revolts Against Obama, Political Establishment’s Amnesty Efforts
by Matthew Boyle 10 Nov 2013

According to new national polling data from Pew Research, the American people have revolted against President Barack Obama’s and the GOP establishment’s efforts to grant amnesty to America’s at least 11 million illegal immigrants through comprehensive immigration reform.

“Only about a third of the public (32%) approves of the job Obama is doing on immigration policy; 60% disapprove,” Pew wrote. “Obama’s ratings for this issue among Democrats are mixed: About half (53%) approve of his handling of the issue while 42% disapprove.”

Obama’s 60 percent disapproval rating on immigration from the American people is an all-time high for him on the issue and puts him on par with former President George W. Bush’s immigration polling numbers. Obama’s immigration disapproval rating has skyrocketed as he has ramped up his efforts to lobby Congress for the passage of an amnesty—particularly the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” immigration bill.

As the American people have learned more and more about the Gang of Eight bill and the effects which amnesty and a drastic influx of millions of new workers would have on the hurting economy, they have grown more and more outraged with what Washington, D.C., is doing regarding immigration reform. In February—before Obama and lawmakers like Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and DIck Durbin (D-IL) began their push for immigration reform—the President’s immigration policy approval rating among the American people, according to Pew, was higher than his disapproval rating. His approval rating on immigration then was 44 percent, whereas his disapproval rating was 43 percent.

https://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/10/Public-revolts-against-political-Obama-s-and-establishment-s-amnesty-efforts

World’s anger at Obama policies goes beyond Europe and the NSA
Published: October 25, 2013

By Hannah Allam and Jonathan S. Landay — McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Whether miffed over spying revelations or feeling sold out by U.S. moves in the Middle East, some of the United States’ closest allies are so upset that the Obama administration has gone into damage-control mode to ensure the rifts don’t widen and threaten critical partnerships.

The quarrels differ in their causes and degrees of seriousness. As a whole, however, they pose a new foreign policy headache for an administration whose overseas track record is seen in many quarters at home and abroad as reactive and lacking direction.

In Europe and the Middle East, rifts that once would’ve been quietly smoothed over have exploded into headlines and public remonstrations.

Read more here: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/25/206552/worlds-anger-at-obama-policies.html#storylink=cpy

For thousands, keeping your old health insurance policy isn’t an option
Published: October 18, 2013
By Anna Gorman and Julie Appleby — Kaiser Health News

WASHINGTON — Health insurance companies are sending notices of cancellation to hundreds of thousands of people who buy their own coverage, frustrating some consumers who want to keep what they have and forcing others to buy more expensive policies.

Insurers say the cancellations are necessary because 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 canceling plans sold to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

By all accounts, new policies to replace the canceled ones offer consumers better coverage, in some cases for comparable cost – especially after the inclusion of federal subsidies for those who qualify. They cover 10 “essential” benefits the law now requires, including prescription drugs, mental health treatment and maternity care, and they generally have lower thresholds for what consumers will have to spend before the plan picks up the full cost of treatment.

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.

Read more here: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/18/205847/for-thousands-keeping-your-old.html#storylink=cpy

Oh, and By the Way, Obama’s Approval Rating Down to 37
By Andrew C. McCarthy
October 9, 2013 9:54 AM

Talk about burying the lede. Seven paragraphs into a report it headlines “Poll: GOP Gets The Blame In Shutdown,” which purports to show how lopsidedly an angry public has come down against Republicans over the so-called shutdown of the government, the Associated Press grudgingly drops this little detail:

Most Americans disapprove of the way Obama is handling his job, the poll suggests, with 53 percent unhappy with his performance and 37 percent approving of it.

In fact, the spin notwithstanding, the poll is full of bad news for the administration. While the AP/GfK poll finds that 62 percent blame Republicans for the shutdown, “about half” blame Obama and congressional Democrats. Eighty percent of respondents “felt no personal impact from the shutdown” (even though 68 perecnt say it’s “a major problem for the country”). Fifty-two percent say Obama is not doing enough to cooperate with Republicans.

https://nationalreview.com/corner/360748/oh-and-way-obamas-approval-rating-down-37-andrew-c-mccarthy

Boehner: House will not pass bill to re-open government until Obama agrees to negotiate

Posted by Anita Kumar on October 6, 2013

Speaker John Boehner said Sunday that the House of Representatives will not pass bills to re-open the federal government or raise the debt limit unless President Barack Obama comes to the negotiating table.

“He knows what my phone number is, all he has to do is call,” Boehner, R-Ohio said on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

In his first extended TV interview since shutdown Tuesday, a defiant Boehner placed the blame for the fiscal impasse firmly on Obama, who has refused to sit down with House Republicans until they re-open the government at current spending levels.

“The president just can’t sit there and say, ‘I’m not going to negotiate,’ ” Boehner said.

Boehner said that there aren’t enough votes in the Republican-led House to simply re-open the government with no other strings attached.

“There are not votes in the House to pass a clean (continuing resolution),” he said.

But Democrats immediately called that claim false, arguing that 195 Democrats and 21 Republicans are ready to vote for that bill.

“Put it on the floor, and let’s see if you’re right,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. said in an interview on ABC after Boehner spoke

Read more here: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/06/204429/boehner-house-will-not-pass-bill.html#storylink=cpy

Senate Dems reject formal talks with House to end shutdown
By Ramsey Cox – 10/01/13 10:01 AM ET

Senate Democrats on Tuesday rejected negotiating with the House on government funding, leaving no clear path for ending the federal shutdown that began overnight.

The Senate voted 54-46 to table a House request for a conference committee on a continuing resolution (CR), marking the third time that Democrats have voted down legislation from the lower chamber since Monday.

“The government is closed,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. “All over America federal employees are getting furloughs this morning … because of the irrationality that is going on in the other side of the Capitol.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Democrats had been rooting for a shutdown all along.

“Democratic leaders in Congress finally have their prize — a government shutdown that no one seems to want but them,” McConnell said. “With just hours left to go Democrats voted again and again to reject reasonable legislation. … They don’t even want to talk about it.”

https://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/325747-senate-dems-reject-formal-talks-with-house-to-end-shutdown

Zombie apocalypse

House delays Obamacare as shutdown nears

By JOHN BRESNAHAN and JAKE SHERMAN | 9/28/13 10:39 AM EDT Updated: 9/29/13 12:41 AM EDT

House Republicans forced through a short-term government funding bill that delays Obamacare and permanently repeals a tax on medical devices, setting up their most dramatic face-off ever with President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats.

The vote to delay Obamacare was 231-192, with two Republicans voting against the bill, while two Democrats supported it.  The Republicans opposed to the bill were New York Reps. Chris Gibson and Richard Hanna, and the Democrats who supported the measure were North Carolina Rep. Mike McInytre and Utah Rep. Jim Matheson.

The move represents a complete about-face by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the House Republican leadership. They wanted to shift the focus of health care and budgetary squabbles onto the debt ceiling fight, but conservative Republicans honed in on the government funding battle.

This strategy — forced upon Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) by the conservative rank-and-file — dramatically increased the chances of a government shutdown come Oct. 1.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/house-gop-budget-strategy-government-shutdown-97496.html#ixzz2gH2mss6v