Columnist.
From a PR standpoint, April Fools' Day was probably the worst possible moment to announce ObamaCare's enrollment numbers. But President Obama plowed ahead anyway, refusing to acknowledge the biggest joke was the White House's own data. In an event that felt more like a campaign rally than a press conference, the President claimed victory on his health care law, insisting in the Rose Garden that the legislation was just a late bloomer. More than seven million Americans have "enrolled" in the exchanges by the March 31 deadline, claimed ObamaCare's namesake -- though no one, including the White House's own staff, seems to know what "enrolled" actually means. Faced with a barrage of questions, even Press Secretary Jay Carney admitted that he didn't have "breakdown data" at this point. But the facts certainly haven't gotten in the way of the administration's victory parade, which continued today despite fresh doubts that the law is actually helping the people who needed it.
Yesterday may have been April 1st, but Democrats are nobody's fool. While they frantically try to hang onto their seats, the Left is putting as much distance between ObamaCare and the Democratic Party as possible. Even as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) insists the policy is a political "winner," more House and Senate members are climbing aboard any effort to repeal or change public health care enemy number one. That includes cosponsoring an increasing number of GOP bills to undo the damage -- like Rep. Todd Young's (R-Ind.) Save American Workers Act.
At Carillon Elementary School, teachers on cafeteria duty weren't monitoring lunch, they were *out to lunch* on students' rights. When the daughter of Marcos Perez bowed her head to pray, a teacher interrupted her and said, "You're not allowed to do that." The five-year-old looked surprised and responded, "But it's good to pray." No, said the teacher, "It's not good." Fox News's Todd Starnes reports that the little girl tried to pray again but was stopped. When she got home and explained what happened, Marcos and his wife were furious. "My five-year old should not feel conflicted about prayer with respect to trying to follow rules or authority. We remain speechless that our daughter had to experience [that] from an individual with an agenda." They contacted the school, demanding to know why his five-year-old would be accosted for exercising her religious rights.
In the abortion debate, there aren't many areas where the two sides agree. But shouldn't women's safety be one of them? Planned Parenthood doesn't think so -- and spends hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees proving it. In one of the greatest ironies of politics, the one thing standing between women and safe abortions continues to be the people providing them. In Texas, the abortion giant isn't fighting the "war on women," it's fighting the war on health care accountability. No sooner had Governor Rick Perry (R) signed his name to the bottom of HB 2 than Cecile Richards's group was in court, filing for the right to keep the clinics' shoddy standards in place. Despite a five-clinic sting that same month, in which inspectors found everything from rusty suction machines to contaminated medicine in several locations, a lower court sided with Planned Parenthood in its crusade to protect clinics from the accountability they so desperately need.
Anyone who bought the media's line that Christians don't care about the issue of marriage found out just how wrong they were. The church not only cares about marriage -- it remains a priority for Bible-believing Christians. Every American, no matter where they stand on marriage, was stunned when World Vision -- one of the largest charities in the country -- walked away from 60 years of moral tradition by agreeing to hire same-sex "spouses." Fortunately, they hadn't walked out of earshot, as thousands of Christians jammed phone lines and email boxes with messages of shock and dismay. Some of the most influential Evangelical leaders weighed in publicly and privately, while supporters took their outrage directly to the organization's executives. Some churches were already making plans to redirect fundraisers to other groups when word broke that World Vision had reconsidered. Barely 48 hours after departing from the straight and narrow, President Richard Stearns released a statement officially reversing its short-lived plan to bring about "unity" in the Church.
The White House must be having fun blowing through its $52 million ObamaCare advertising budget, because it just gave itself another two and a half weeks to spend it. The administration, which never met a deadline it didn't like to postpone, confirmed the delay late Tuesday night to the Washington Post's Amy Goldstein. For HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the optics are less than flattering. Exactly two weeks ago, the health care boss sat before the U.S. House and insisted that the sign-up cut-off was firm. Asked if she was going to delay open enrollment beyond March 31, Sebelius replied, "No, sir." Her answer was echoed by Julie Bataille, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- who, unlike the rest of the administration, seems to understand why it shouldn't. "We don't actually have the statutory authority to extend [it]..." she admitted.
In its 64 years, World Vision has been exactly that -- a kingdom view on a globe in need. Monday, the organization walked away from one of the greatest legacies in Christian ministry, trading a vision to reach the world for the world's vision of marriage. In an announcement that continues to shock and dismay its supporters, President Richard Stearns closed the chapter on six decades of an incredible witness, driving a deep and irreparable stake into the heart of Christian outreach. The billion-dollar organization, which has served more than 100 million people, will, in its words, "no longer require its 1,100 employees to restrict their sexual activity to marriage between one man and one woman." Stearns, who made the decision public on Monday, claims this radical theological departure was not the result of a lawsuit or outside lobbying. Rather, he argues, it is a "very narrow policy change" -- a description orthodox Christians would challenge.
At the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Dr. Mike Adams teaches crime -- but he never dreamed he'd be the victim of one. Unfortunately for the assistant professor, that all changed when his ideology did. When he was hired as a criminology expert 21 years ago, Adams was an avowed and outspoken atheist -- a worldview that was shaken to the core when Mike went to visit a prisoner on death row in 2000. The convict, a mentally handicapped man, had read the entire Bible -- something Adams had never done. He resolved then and there to change that -- and when he did, Mike was completely transformed.
The President can blow out the candles on ObamaCare's birthday, but he can't put out the fire over his signature policy. ObamaCare turned four over the weekend, and White House officials have blown through $52 million of advertising propaganda to promote the policy -- but with little to show for it, pollsters say. According to the latest Pew Research Survey, ObamaCare may be older, but Americans don't believe it's wiser. Despite a 48-month adjustment perior, the toll on families' wallets, lives, jobs, and freedom remains a major drag on the President's health care law.
There are plenty of threats to democracy, but what happens in the voting booth shouldn't be one of them. In the wild west of polling stations, voter fraud has never been easier to commit -- and with Left's all-out war on proof-of-citizenship laws, never harder to stop. Even with 70% of Americans on their side, states that try to enact even the mildest forms of election accountability -- like voter ID laws -- run into the brick wall of the Obama administration. Like most liberals, this White House's most reliable supporters are the ones who aren't even eligible to vote: the dead, illegal, or relocated.
Under ObamaCare, almost everyone loses. But thanks to the Young Invincibles, there is at least one winner -- of a $1,200 sweepstakes. It's just the latest gimmick aimed at signing up more Americans for a health care plan they overwhelmingly oppose. The Invincibles, a liberal brainchild that targets the 18-34 year-olds, is doing its part to pump up ObamaCare enrollment before the March 31 deadline -- most recently by offering cash prizes to people who download their information. Unfortunately for the lucky recipients, $1,200 may not be enough to even cover their first year's premium, based on the newest information available. As conservatives warned, rates are already rocketing through the roof -- and the sticker shock is only getting worse. The insurance sector expects ObamaCare premiums to double (and in some cases, triple) in certain parts of the country. Barely a week ago, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius tried to downplay the costs in her testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, insisting, "the increases are far less significant than what they were prior to the Affordable Care Act."
When liberals said global warming causes crime, no one knew it was because they planned on prosecuting their opponents! Late last week, climate alarmist Lawrence Torcello didn't do his movement any favors when he lobbied for jailing global warming skeptics (which, after yesterday's storm, might have included the entire city of Washington). It was a new low for an environmental movement that is already God's gift to late-night comedy.
At one Indianapolis shop, 111 Cakery almost turned into a 911 for religious liberty. Like most Christians in the wedding business, Randy and Trish McGath knew the risks of turning down an order for a same-sex ceremony. In their industry, word was spreading fast about the price of standing up for your faith -- from florists and facilities rentals to caterers and bed and breakfasts. They'd heard the horror stories of photographers, who were dragged before human rights commissions and another baker under threat of jail -- all for operating their businesses under the same values that they have lived out all their lives.
The hot seat just got hotter for Air Force officials at Friday's House Armed Services hearing. With the backdrop of Scripture scrubbing and Christian harassment at the branch's Academy, a routine budget debate turned into a fireworks display over the Air Force's growing hostility towards faith in the ranks. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Walsh were originally scheduled to talk about branch spending until conservatives intervened, demanding a detailed explanation of the events that unfolded at the Academy. Representatives from Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) to Democrat Mike McIntyre (N.C.) took turns grilling the duo on the incident, which ultimately resulted in a cadet erasing Bible verses from his dorm whiteboard.
Kathleen Sebelius heads up HHS, not the CIA -- but with all the secrets she's keeping on ObamaCare, it can be tough to tell the difference. Earlier this week, the agency's cover was blown on yet another clandestine operation to change the health care law -- a change so classified that the media didn't notice until this week, when the Wall Street Journal blew the story wide open. It seems the individual mandate, which forces people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty, was suspended by the White House last week without so much as a peep to the media. Instead, the administration buried the news in a technical bulletin on a totally unrelated rule -- stunning reporters and confusing Americans who the change was meant to help. "Keep in mind," writes the Journal, "that the White House argued at the Supreme Court that the individual mandate to buy insurance was indispensable to the law's success, and President Obama continues to say he'd veto bipartisan bills that would delay or repeal it."
At the U.S. Air Force Academy, jets aren't the only thing taking off. So is a campus-wide rebellion against the forces of political correctness. Frustrated by the school's decision to scrub a Bible verse from one of the dorm whiteboards, cadets decided to take matters into their own hands. In a show of defiance, Bible verses started popping up on dry erase boards throughout the dorms -- outraging the anti-Christian "tolerance" police at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. This latest controversy boiled over earlier this week, when MRFF insisted that a verse from Galatians, posted on a cadet's personal hallway whiteboard, somehow created a "hostile environment." He pressed for the cadet -- and any officer(s) who ignored the display -- to be punished for "misconduct."
It was a lot of hot air about a lot of hot air. That's how the AP explained the Senate's 20-hour global warming pajama party. While the rest of the country was sleeping, liberals tried to put other doubts to rest -- specifically, the skepticism over climate change. Even one of the most brutal winters on record didn't stop two dozen liberals from taking turns in an all-night "talkathon" aimed at getting Americans to "wake up" on the issue. But the reality is, Americans *have* woken up -- to cold temperatures, school closures, and snow plows. Last week, if you'd have asked anyone in D.C. about global warming, they'd have laughed out loud. And after Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) used his turn to read directly from Dr. Seuss's *The Lorax*, they probably were.
They say you can't buy love, but that won't stop SPLC from trying! Money may be no object for the anti-Christian group, but mainstream support certainly is. Facing growing scrutiny for their tainted and biased "research" from the military to the media, Southern Poverty Law Center is resorting to bribing teachers to force their agenda into the public schools where unsuspecting children reside. In Hawaii, eyebrows shot up at the news that SPLC was giving teachers a $250 kickback just for attending a local training session on "Teaching Tolerance." The cash incentive struck a lot of people as odd, including state Representative Bob McDermott. In academia, where educators are used to paying for trainings -- not profiting from them -- McDermott thought something smelled fishy with SPLC's offer. In a letter to Hawaii State Department of Education District Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi, he asked the office to put the brakes on the session. Matayoshi refused and instead gave the department's blessing to the workshop, which SPLC held the first weekend of March.
In the clash between football analyst Craig James and Fox Sports Southwest, score one for religious liberty! The former star and broadcaster, who was fired for his mainstream views on marriage after a single day on the job, is handing off to the Texas Workforce Commission. Thursday, Craig's attorneys at Liberty Institute delivered the good news that the Commission is not only launching an investigation of the network -- but issued a formal charge of discrimination. For the former running back, last September's controversy was a "sucker punch." "For someone to call you and offer you a job, praise your talents, your credentials, put you on the air the next day and fire you the following day -- that's like some kind of mean joke." As you might remember, Craig was sacked by the network because the company had concerns about pro-marriage comments he'd made during his Senate campaign 18 months before. Despite the fact that Craig never uttered a peep about his views from the sports desk, Fox executives felt compelled to give him the boot.
It wasn't what Lois Lerner said at Wednesday's House hearing that incriminated her -- but what she didn't. For the second time, the former head of the IRS's tax-exempt division pled the Fifth Amendment, dodging the tough questions about the agency's discrimination against conservative and Christian groups. Government Oversight and Reform Chair Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said over the weekend he was confident Lerner would testify, only to be proved wrong in a frustrating display of administration obstructionism.
