Romney pushes back on Obamacare comparisons

Hours beofre Obama's event to endorse Obamacare, former opposing candidate, Mitt Romney, and a few other Republicans once again bashed Obamacare. Romney compares Obamacare to the Massachusetts health care law he put in place, and other Republican figures relate it to coverage on other issues, such as the Vietnam War.

Sebelius: 'I apologize, I'm accountable' for Obamacare website flaws

I felt this article was a good follow up to the article Griffin posted about the immediate issues that occures with online healthcare.  It goes into more details on the problems associated. Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius takes full responsibility for the issues and apologizes to the American public for everything that has gone wrong.

South Koreans Run Away to North Korea...?

It's exactly what it sounds like. Six South Koreans ran away from Soeul to North Korea. After several years in North Korea, the runaways were repatriated to South Korea. "Why the heck would they do that?", you may ask. The reason, apparently, was because the South Koreans suffered economic misfortune in their home country, so believing they would find prosperity in North Korea, they fled. Needless to say they were mistaken. Some of the runaways had participated in pro-Pyongyang campaigns online.

Saudi Women Defy Driving Ban

Over the weekend, a campaign took place in Saudi Arabia in which women were encouraged to defy the de facto driving ban. Many women videotaped themselves driving and uploaded it to YouTube. However, the excitement was short-lived, and now these women who videoed themselves driving are worried about being followed by the government's secret police and the consequences which may follow. As Americans, we view this "right to drive" as a garunteed right, but in Saudi Arabia, not only is the country in general split on the matter, but even the female demographic is divided, some women supporting these protests, while others think the system doesn't need to be changed.

In Fed and Out, Many Now Think Inflation Helps

I figured since we've been beating the dead horse of the debate over healthcare and the government shutdown we could look towards more optimistic subject matter: our nation's prosperous economy. Typically today it seems that we consider inflation as a negative because we associate the term with our struggling economy. However, according to the article, there is a concern of the Federal Reserve policy makers that inflation actually may be rising too slowly. Based on history and economic patterns, inflation has its advantages in our country's current economic conditions, especially for debtors. The article was interesting to me, though, because it contradicted this mindset that I had about how the economy works.

Ted Cruz Spins Shutdown as a Success

Well I realize that this article is very brief, but I saw the title and knew I had to post it. The title really says it all: according to Cruz, the government shutdown was a "success" because the public recognized it as a failure and therefore had quite a bit of heated discussion about it. So I'm curious, based on the other articles about the government shutdown and what you know about Tea Party member Ted Cruz, what do you think? Even if the issue "got people talking," can this really be considered a relative success to the corrupt U.S politics we know today?

Democrats Aim to Restore Immigration to Agenda

With the government shutdown, President Barack Obama and other Democrats were fast to bring up the topic of immigration. A bill may be difficult to pass, however, as some of the GOP is still mad over the small gains they made in the two weeks of government shutdown. Representatives from both parties believe that passing a broad immigration bill could improve the public's opinion on the Republican party. Speaker of the House John Boehner has set a goal to make improvements on America's broken immigration system by the end of the year. Many Democrats are calling for Mr. Boehner to allow a vote such as the one in the Senate that ended the government shutdown. This type of vote passes legislation with both Democratic and Republican votes.

Forget about Obamacare. In Colorado, it's 'Brosurance'

This article discusses a new advertising campaign about healthcare in Colorado.  The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and ProgressNow Colorado Education are behind this. Their hope is to target two demographics, young residents in Colorado and Latino families. The article features two of campaign ads. One of them has a man brake his head while golfing. The other shows a man drinking. Both ads showcase red solo cups and a pair of American flag swim trunks. Along with the posters, the campaign features hash-tags such as "#doyougotinsurance" and "#brosurance." The hope of these meme like ads is for them to go viral on social networking. The end of the article provides statistics on how many people have signed up for the insurance due to this campaign.

Three big takeaways from Hillary Clinton's return to politics

This article details Hillary Clinton's return to the political spotlight on October 20th. The article begins with a video of Hillary Clinton endorsing Terry McAuliffe during his campaign for governor of Virginia. The author mentions Hillary Clinton being a potential presidential candidate in 2016. The rest of the article is then spent analyzing Hillary Clinton's speech. The author writes about Clinton's relaxed demeanor, her criticism of republicans, and her endorsement of McAuliffe.

Justices Return to a Death Penalty Issue

In 2002, the Supreme Court banned executing the "mentally retarded' in Atkins vs. Virginia. On Monday, the justices agreed to clarify how states should determine who does and does not qualify, triggered by a new case: Hall vs. Florida. In 1978, Freddie L. Hall and an accomplice sexually assaulted and beat 21 year old Karol Hurst, who was 7 months pregnant at the time. In 1999, a trial judge found Mr. Hall to be mentally handicapped, claiming him to be probably somewhat retarded and to have both learning difficulties and a speech impediment. After the Atkins case, Mr. Hall challenged his death sentence. In the case the court decided that "mentally retarded" meant three things; having an IQ lower than 70, having a lack of social skills, and having both appear before the age of 18. Hall tested three times, scoring 71, 73, and 80. The argument now is that what if a mentally retarded person is executed just because of the 70 cut-off line? Justice James E. C. Perry says that “if the bar against executing the mentally retarded is to mean anything, Freddie Lee Hall cannot be executed.” Pamela Jo Bondi, Florida's attorney general, is urging the Supreme Court to dismiss the case, stating that this case is just trying to get the states to not have the power to set an intelligence score for execution.

You think you've had a hard month? Talk to Obama

This article, from USA Today, provides a recap of this month and the political and economic events that have taken place. These events required executive involvement and supports the author's main point that the president has had a lot to deal with in this eventful month. The article is divided into four parts: the recent, lackluster, job report, the technical issues Healthcare.gov has faced, the government shutdown and debt ceiling, finally the President's approval rating has also dropped. The article is filled with statistical data and offers a good summary of the government as of late.

Civilian Deaths in Drone Strikes Cited in Report

This article explains how the CIA's drone attacks in the surrounding area of North Waziristan, Pakistan, specifically Miram Shah, aren't as flawless as reported by the Obama administration. Citizens of Marim Shah are now being backed by a new Amnesty International investigation which reveals that 19 people have been killed in just two attacks since January of 2012. Buzzing drones are always hovering over the area in hopes of finding Al Qaeda or Taliban commanders, who have gotten quite good at avoiding these missiles. Soldiers are typically left at their bases, leaving residents alone in these very trying times. The constant psychological burden on these people has caused sales of sleeping tablets, antidepressants, and anti-anxiety medications to soar. The civilians are forming their lives around the drone attacks and military checks. Even though there is proof that these attacks have killed civilians, President Obama continues to support this system.

Three Takeaways from Hillary Clinton's Return to Politics

This article is about three takeaways taken from Hillary Clinton's first large political speech following her departure from the State Department. The first takeaway is that she was relaxed, this shows that she has become more confident and authoritative since the 2008 elections. The second takeaway is that she wasn't afraid to jab Republicans. Although she remained positive through most of the speech, she had no problem firing shots at Republicans. The third and final takeaway is that she executed the McAuliffe game plan. Based off of these takeaways it is clear that Hillary Clinton could be making a comeback and could be a contender in coming elections.

Democrats Aim to Restore Immigration to Agenda

This article is about how President Obama and other Democrats wanted the issue of immigration to be one of the first back on the agenda of Congress following the government shutdown. Progress on this issue is said to be determined in the House of Representatives and by Speaker John A. Boehner. Democrats and Republicans argue that the Republicans passing a bill on immigration would be a good way for them to make a comeback after bad results in polls during the shutdown. Republicans believe that the President's recent attitude has made it harder to come to an agreement on immigration and that he is less likely to negotiate fairly after the shutdown. Many Democrats say Boehner could pass a bill similar to the Senate’s if he allowed a vote like the one that ended the shutdown, to pass legislation with both Democratic and Republican votes.

Poll: Voters want to throw out bums in Congress

This article shows the great distrust the people have in our government. A record 74% of voters don't want to see the congress members reelected in 2014. But most people blame the Republicans for the government shutdown, which is deserving. But the polls 42% say the GOP can handle the government better while 39% say the Democrats can. Last year 90% of House Members were reelected and 91% of Senators were. I think in 2014 we will a house cleaning of congress because honestly they are a bunch of bums right now. I think we will just have to live with Obamacare for now and maybe the next batch of congress members can repeal it then, but not now.

Dr. Ben Carson compares Obamacare to American slavery, Soviet Communism

Before I tell you about this article you must know two things about me; 1. I hate Rabbits 2. The only thing I hate more than Rabbits is Communism. This article is a Republican view point on Obama Care. Dr. Ben Carson, an African - American, states that Obama Care is the worse thing in America since slavery. He also says it is impossible to deny the fact that Obama Care is a Communist idea created by Vladimir Lenin. Michelle Bachman called it "The crown jewel of socialism." Lenin called socialized medicine the keystone to a socialist state. Before this article I was for healthcare, but some facts are hard to ignore. This truly is a communist idea, and that shouldn't be tolerated in this country. We fought to hard to destroy communism for it to come back to the United States. Now I don't agree with the government shutdown, but I don't think Obamacare belongs in the United States. Any communist idea doesn't belong in this country.

China Begins to Worry About the U.S. Fiscal Crisis

This article is about how the U.S. government shutdown is affecting more countries than just ours. Since our government shutdown our economy has began to decline due to the halt of all government funded jobs. Our economic decline is affecting other countries by causing the value of the dollar to decrease. So for countries like China, who has invested much of their money in U.S. bonds, the pain is starting to set in as they watch their money lose value. Also their hands are tied because if they were to drop the debt that the U.S. owes them it would heavily impact their economy since 60% of their foreign reserves are "in dollar-denominated debt".

Veterans Push to End Government Shutdown

This article is about how various veteran groups are becoming upset with the government shutdown. The main reason veterans are becoming upset is because they are not receiving benefits that they are entitled to. An example of this is that veterans who receive disability and GI Bill benefits are not receiving their payments and so those veterans who rely on those payments are going broke and struggling to make ends meet. Veterans are expressing their frustration by holding a protest at the National Wold War II memorial in an attempt to convince the government to conclude the shutdown. 

Global Reaction to Debt Ceiling Crisis

In this article, the different reactions of many countries around the world are described. While each country has a slightly different message, the main theme is the same. The United States should work to avoid a default as it would negatively affect economies around the world. The article mentions how many country's economies are still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis and avoiding pressure from a default is critical. Diverse leaders from around the world see that a quick resolution is needed to this situation, yet American politicians still continue to argue. If steps to raise the debt ceiling, at least temporarily, are not taken soon, this article points out how the situation could have catastrophic effects not only on the economy of the United States but on that of the world as well.

Republicans Using Shutdown to Stake Positions for Potential 2016 Bids

This article talks about the different approaches Republican leaders are taking in response to the current government shutdown. Many, such as Sn. Marco Rubio of Florida, are trying to associate themselves with Ted Cruz and the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party. Others, like Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, are trying to stay out of the problems currently associated with Washington.

I think this article points out an important trend in politics today. Republican leaders, especially in Congress, are too concerned with pleasing the extreme members who have come to control their party. While millions of workers are furloughed and the government shutdown is negatively affecting the lives of Americans, many Republican leaders seem to be more focused on party politics and reelection than helping the people that they claim to represent.

Talks Clear Path for U.S.-Afghan Deal on Troops

This was an intriguing article involving Secretary Kerry and Mr. Karzai's talks involving immunity for United States troops staying in Afghanistan after the end of 2014. At the moment, the talks seem to have gone pretty well but it still depends on how the elders in Afghanistan and their parliament feel about the bill.

Obama Sounds Alarm on Debt as Senators See a Deal in Reach

This is an interesting article regarding Obama's recent push for Republican's to put aside their partisan views to pass a bill to fund the government until the end of this year.

GOP Discusses Short-Term Debt Limit Offer

This is an interesting article about the GOP discussing a short-term debt limit offer.

Business Groups Holding Less Influence on GOP

This article talks about how little influence traditional business groups have within certain Republican circles these days.