Columnist.
The United States may not negotiate with terrorists, but it certainly hasn't minded using curriculum tied to them in official Army briefings. Despite being linked in federal court to a case of domestic terrorism, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been a go-to "source" of the Obama Pentagon in a string of military training sessions. Americans saw the fruits of that partnership in October, when base instructors shocked service members by warning them that Christians and conservatives were "extremists" who posed a threat to the nation. In subsequent briefings, groups like American Family Association (AFA) were specifically targeted as "hateful," using propaganda pulled directly from SPLC's website ([the same website](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hgjI3wavx-I), incidentally, that directed shooter Floyd Corkins to FRC's front door).
It may be a new year, but there's nothing new about the frustration over ObamaCare. For millions of Americans, the headaches they suffered when they woke up on January 1st were purely financial. Starting last Wednesday, the government officially flipped the switch on its health care exchanges, turning on the coverage for hundreds of thousands of skeptical plan holders. Monday, one of those plan holders, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), is so upset about his coverage that he's suing the administration responsible for changing it. Of course, going to court over his signature law is nothing new for President Obama, whose attorneys have worn out a path to judges' benches all across the country
Long before "Duck Dynasty," other camouflaged Americans were being persecuted for their beliefs: U.S. service members. Now, thanks to Congress, our brave men and women will finally have the legislative armor they need. It took until almost midnight, but when the Senate passed the Defense Authorization bill, it was worth the wait. After a year-long struggle against the forces of political correctness, leaders stood together in defense of our troops' right to speak and act openly on their faith.
A&E wanted a reality show. Trouble is, they weren't ready for the realities that came with it. Anyone who's watched "Duck Dynasty" (and there are close to 90 million of you) knows the Robertson family stands unapologetically for Christ. And if they didn't know, they found out in May, when patriarch Phil Robertson told the network, "God and guns are part of our everyday lives [and] to remove either of them from the show is unacceptable."
Why go to the mall when you can do your shopping on the floor of Congress? Over the past 12 months, plenty of members have dipped into taxpayers' pockets to deliver gifts to the special interests in their lives. And, thanks to Senator Tom Coburn's (R-Okla.) annual "Wastebook," Americans are learning just how generous they were forced to be. As always, this year's top 100 projects will have you laughing at someone's expense -- yours! With the theme "Waste more, want more!" it's obvious that the USDA's prune junket (p. 106) isn't the only thing keeping spending regular.
It looks like the President really is skirting the issues with ObamaCare. Thanks to a new partnership with a Louisiana drag queen show, the administration thinks it's finally be tapping into a market it needs to boost enrollment numbers. With the help of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a troupe of transvestites called Wednesday Night Tea has started promoting HealthCare.gov as part of its act. (If the law lacked legitimacy before, wait until a cast of cross-dressing men get through with it!)
Turns out, marriage isn't about two people who love each other -- it's about three or five or six. That was Judge Clark Waddoups's opinion in the most explosive ruling the media isn't talking about. Late last week, the U.S. District Judge's ruling should have kicked off the evening news in every major market across America. Instead, his 91-page pro-polygamy bombshell is nothing but a back-page blip. And that's no accident. When Waddoups struck down Utah's criminal ban on "plural marriages" last Friday, the networks started tiptoeing around the story like the cultural grenade it is.
The service members who tuned in to Saturday's Army-Navy game at Lincoln Financial Field may have had another reason to cheer. Before jetting off to celebrate Christmas, House members delivered their own package: a Defense Authorization bill that takes some of the uncertainty out of military pay, weapons programs, conscience protections, and other key national security projects. "This legislation pays our troops and their families," said House Armed Services Chair Buck McKeon (R-Calif.). "It keeps our Navy fleet sailing and military aircraft flying."
Don't expect Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Congressman John Shimkus (R-Mich.) to be sharing a cup of Christmas wassail anytime soon. The two leaders got into a heated exchange during the HHS chief's latest turn in the House's witness chair. In a scene eerily similar to October 30 when Sebelius first testified, Shimkus pressed the ObamaCare boss to come clean on taxpayer-funded abortion.
Senator Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) party got a bench for Christmas -- a federal one. That's the unfortunate effect of the Left's latest power grab, which this week yielded its first prize: a radical appointment to the D.C. Circuit Court. Two months ago, the nomination of Patricia Millett, an anti-Christian, anti-marriage ideologue, was a nonstarter under the chamber's historic 60-vote threshold. That all changed before Thanksgiving when the Left steamrolled the Senate's rules and unleashed the majority on a confirmation system that, until recently, gave both parties a say in the process. Now, in this "post-nuclear" world, the Senate that most Americans complained was moving too slowly is suddenly shifting into high gear to give the President's picks lifetime jobs.
The weather may be chilly, but it's nothing compared to people's reactions to ObamaCare. This month, the only thing falling faster than the temperature is the number of the new law's supporters. Making matters worse, the policy's biggest defectors seem to be the ones most crucial to it: the medical community. Thousands of doctors are walking away from the exchange in a large-scale mutiny over the government's reimbursement rates. In California, where 70% of the 104,000 physicians are refusing to participate in ObamaCare, practices stand to lose millions of dollars under the state's bargain basement insurance rates.
As the owner of Masterpiece Cakes, Jack Phillips is used to making batter. What he's not used to is being battered for his beliefs. Unfortunately for Jack, the two now go hand in hand under a ruling many would argue is its own masterpiece of religious intolerance. The case had been brewing since July 2012, when two homosexuals stormed out of Phillips's shop, irate that Jack wouldn't make a cake for their upcoming "wedding."
The only thing that belongs under a "big tent" is a circus. And that's apparently what Republican leaders are aiming for. Unfortunately for conservatives, the GOP's latest sideshow comes at the expense of the party's greatest opportunity: capitalizing on America's disgust for ObamaCare. While Democrats try to change the subject from their epic failure, Republican leaders seem intent on helping them out by splitting the party over controversial candidates. The timing couldn't be worse for an internal spat, as polling shows the public moving conservatives' way on a host of issues. Making matters worse, it's a debate the party doesn't need to have.
Are you willing to risk contracting HIV to prove how tolerant you are? If the FDA repeals its blood bank policy, you may not have a choice. At Thursday morning's HHS hearing in Maryland, liberal activists did their best to persuade the government to overturn its ban on blood donations from homosexuals. Ironically, this latest push happens to coincide with the agency's latest report that the demand for blood donations is not only dropping -- but becoming more selective.
Leave it to the federal government to build a national health care system without bothering to nail down a cost structure first. Unfortunately, that's just the latest installment of "Adventures in ObamaCare," as the President's team scrambles to figure out how the website's pricing system will work for insurers. Thousands of Americans may be paying for coverage, but insurers still have no way of receiving their money through HHS's joke of a website. As recently as last month, the brain trust behind HealthCare.gov admitted that the website's bridge to insurers hadn't even been built yet.
It doesn't matter how healthy you are, everyone signing up for ObamaCare is in a high-risk pool when it comes to online security. While the White House boasts that HealthCare.gov is more functional than ever, internet experts beg to differ. For those applicants lucky enough to make it past the exchange's home page (and that still isn't many), "proceed at your own risk" seems to be the motto from most insiders -- including HHS's own.
Before Cyber Monday, it was Cyber Saturday for HealthCare.gov, as the President's deadline for fixing the website came and went without most of the improvements he promised. Of the "hundreds of problems" Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted to, many remain. According to insiders, a full 10% of the portal is still completely dysfunctional or worse, unfinished, leaving tens of thousands of consumers dangling without the insurance they were promised.
The Senate may not be the only ones going nuclear under the Obama administration. This weekend, the White House rounded out its embarrassments at home with a dangerous one abroad by plowing ahead on a six-month pact whose only cheerleader is the country it aimed to subdue: Iran. Against the advice of trusted Middle East allies, Congress, and even his own party, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry agreed to rollback $6 to $7 billion in economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for President Hasan Rouhani's word that his country would curb its nuclear weapons program.
Judging by the ObamaCare mess, Congress has enough to worry about without adding U.S. sovereignty to the mix. But in the Senate, where inefficiency is an art form, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is choosing to waste more of the chamber's time on an international treaty that could be one of the greatest threats to parents' rights that no one knows about.
Until yesterday, the biggest nuclear debate was over Iran. That all changed last night, when Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) put his finger on a nuclear option of his own -- this time over judicial confirmations and administration appointments. Like most liberals, Sen. Reid is still seething that Republicans shot down three radical nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court using one of the only tools at the minority's disposal: the filibuster.
