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Medicare key to shocking Dem win in NY House race

Associated Press

Kathy Hochul told her supporters they had picked the right issue to fight a Republican on long-held GOP turf.

The Democrat rode a wave of voter discontent over the national GOP's plan to change Medicare and overcame decades of GOP dominance here to capture Tuesday's special election in New York's 26th Congressional District.

Hochul defeated Republican state Assemblywoman Jane Corwin on Tuesday night, capturing 47 percent of the vote to 43 percent for Corwin, to win the seat vacated by disgraced Republican Chris Lee. A wealthy tea party candidate, Jack Davis, took 9 percent.

The special election that became a referendum on the health care plan for the nation's seniors may serve as a warning shot to further GOP efforts to cut popular entitlement programs.

White House Creates Liberal Damage Control Position

Fox News

Any press is good press, right? The Obama administration apparently doesn't think so.

The White House has created a new position dedicated to damage control in the media, but it appears the role will focus on spinning negative stories published on left-of-center websites -- or "progressive" blogs as the new job defines them -- not right-wing news outlets.

In an internal personnel memo first obtained by the Huffington Post, itself a liberal-slanted blog, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer writes that staffer Jesse Lee will head up the new initiative.

"This week, Jesse Lee will move from the new media department into a role in the communications department as Director of Progressive Media & Online Response," Pfeiffer writes.

"For the last two years, Jesse has often worn two hats working in new media and serving as the White House's liaison with the progressive media and online community. Starting this week, Jesse will take on the second role full time working on outreach, strategy and response."

Bullet 333David Bossie, President, Citizens United
Bullet 333Rev. Clenard Childress, Jr., Assistant Director, Life Education and Resource Network
Bullet 333Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship
Bullet 333Ward Connerly, Author/Founder and Chairman, American Civil Rights Institute
Bullet 333Tom DeLay, Former House Majority Leader, United States House of Representatives
Bullet 333Len Deo, President, New Jersey Family Policy Council
Bullet 333William Devlin, National President, Redeem The Vote
Bullet 333Chuck Donovan, Senior Research Fellow-DeVos Center for Religion a, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333Jessica Echard, Executive Director, Eagle Forum
Bullet 333Tim G. Echols, President/Founder, TeenPact
Bullet 333Steve Elliott, President, Grassfire.org
Bullet 333Joseph Farah, CEO, Founder, WorldNetDaily
Bullet 333Todd Friel, Radio Host, Way of the Master
Bullet 333Frank Gaffney, Founder and President , Center for Security Policy
Bullet 333James Gelfand, Senior Manager of Health Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Bullet 333Rick Green, President, Torch of Freedom Foundation
Bullet 333Colin Hanna, Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring USA
Bullet 333Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
Bullet 333Cliff Kincaid, President, America's Survival, Inc.
Bullet 333Peter Lillback, President, Westminster Theological Seminary
Bullet 333Jennifer Marshall, Director of Domestic Policy Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333Gary Marx, Executive Director, Judicial Confirmation Network
Bullet 333Ryan Messmore, William E. Simon fellow in Religion and a Free Soc, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333Joe Murray, Columnist, The Bulletin
Bullet 333Jeff Myers, Incoming President, Summit Ministries
Bullet 333Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)
Bullet 333Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President, Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny
Bullet 333Phyllis Schlafly, President and Founder, Eagle Forum
Bullet 333Don Shenk, Executive Director, The Tide
Bullet 333Tony Strickland, Taxpayer Advocate
Bullet 333Lorianne Updike, President & Executive Director, The Constitutional Sources Project
Bullet 333Timothy Watkins, Producer/Director, Renegade Productions

Netanyahu: Israel ready for painful compromises

Associated Press

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Tuesday to make "painful compromises" for peace with the Palestinians but said he would not agree to any deal that threatens Israel's security or its identity as a Jewish state.

Speaking before a wildly receptive joint session of Congress that showered him with more than two dozen sustained standing ovations, Netanyahu said Israel wants and needs peace but repeated his flat rejection of a return to what he called the "indefensible" borders that existed before the 1967 Mideast war. He also restated Israel's refusal to entertain the return of millions of Palestinian refugees and their families to land in Israel. And, he maintained that Jerusalem, claimed by both sides as their capital, could not be divided.

"Israel will never give up its quest for peace," Netanyahu said, adding that he is "willing to make painful compromises to achieve this historic peace."

Poll: Americans Believe Medicare, Social Security Don't Have to Be Cut

Associated Press

They're not buying it. Most Americans say they don't believe Medicare has to be cut to balance the federal budget, and ditto for Social Security, a new poll shows.

The Associated Press-GfK poll suggests that arguments for overhauling the massive benefit programs to pare government debt have failed to sway the public. The debate is unlikely to be resolved before next year's elections for president and Congress.

Americans worry about the future of the retirement safety net, the poll found, and 3 out of 5 say the two programs are vital to their basic financial security as they age. That helps explain why the Republican Medicare privatization plan flopped, and why President Barack Obama's Medicare cuts to finance his health care law contributed to Democrats losing control of the House in last year's elections.

Senate Refuses to Confirm Obama's Liberal Appeals Court Nominee

CNS News

The nomination of controversial Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals failed by a vote of 52-43 on Thursday with Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) joining Senate Republicans in blocking the long-stalled nomination.

Fifty-one Democrats were joined by Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in voting to send the Liu nomination to the Senate floor for an up or down vote. The nomination needed to garner 60 votes to be sent to the floor.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said the collapse of Liu’s nomination represented a “huge defeat” for President Obama, and that Senate Republicans had “draw[n] the line” on left-wing judges.

NHS budget squeeze to blame for longer waiting times, say doctors

Doctors are blaming financial pressures on the NHS for an increase in the number of patients who are not being treated within the 18 weeks that the government recommends.

New NHS performance data reveal that the number of people in England who are being forced to wait more than 18 weeks has risen by 26% in the last year, while the number who had to wait longer than six months has shot up by 43%.

In March this year, 34,639 people, or 11% of the total, waited more than that time to receive inpatient treatment, compared with 27,534, or 8.3%, in March 2010 – an increase of 26% – Department of Health statistics show.

Similarly, in March this year some 11,243 patients who underwent treatment had waited for more than six months, compared with 7,841 in the same month in 2010 – a 43% rise.

Obama Endorses 1967 Borders for Israel

The New York Times

Seeking to harness the seismic political change still unfolding in the Arab world, President Obama for the first time on Thursday publicly called for a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would create a non-militarized Palestinian state on the basis of Israel’s borders before 1967.

“At a time when the people of the Middle East and North Africa are casting off the burdens of the past, the drive for a lasting peace that ends the conflict and resolves all claims is more urgent that ever,” he said.

Although Mr. Obama said that “the core issues” dividing Israelis and Palestinians remained to be negotiated, including the searing questions of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees, he spoke with striking frustration that efforts to support an agreement had so far failed. “The international community is tired of an endless process that never produces an outcome,” he said.

Waiver requests continue

OneNewsNow

Nursing homes and their industry lobbyists are the latest to request an exemption from the Obama healthcare law, and a former New York lawmaker expects thousands more appeals to come from various companies and unions.

The New York Times reports that nursing home lobbyists are already pressing the Obama administration for exemptions from the "employer responsibility" mandate going into effect in 2014, as the industry claims the mandate is unaffordable.

Dr. Betsy McCaughey, founder of Defend Your Healthcare and former lieutenant governor of New York, says nursing home employees, uninsured by their employers, will be put on Medicaid, which will cause the system's rolls to swell.

"Nursing homes have many low-paid employees -- nursing assistants who earn just slightly more than minimum wage. The nursing home industry is arguing that they can't afford to pay for health benefits on top of that; [they say] it would make hiring those people too costly." But she contends that "that's the kind of expense that many industries face -- small businesses and big ones. So you can imagine how many businesses are going to need waivers from the employer responsibility provision of the Obama health law."

White House shuts out Herald scribe

Boston Herald

The White House Press Office has refused to give the Boston Herald full access to President Obama’s Boston fund-raiser today, in e-mails objecting to the newspaper’s front page placement of a Mitt Romney op-ed, saying pool reporters are chosen based on whether they cover the news “fairly.”

“I tend to consider the degree to which papers have demonstrated to covering the White House regularly and fairly in determining local pool reporters,” White House spokesman Matt Lehrich wrote in response to a Herald request for full access to the presidential visit.

“My point about the op-ed was not that you ran it but that it was the full front page, which excluded any coverage of the visit of a sitting US President to Boston. I think that raises a fair question about whether the paper is unbiased in its coverage of the President’s visits,” Lehrich wrote.

Bullet 333David Bossie, President, Citizens United
Bullet 333Rev. Clenard Childress, Jr., Assistant Director, Life Education and Resource Network
Bullet 333Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship
Bullet 333Ward Connerly, Author/Founder and Chairman, American Civil Rights Institute
Bullet 333Tom DeLay, Former House Majority Leader, United States House of Representatives
Bullet 333Len Deo, President, New Jersey Family Policy Council
Bullet 333William Devlin, National President, Redeem The Vote
Bullet 333Chuck Donovan, Senior Research Fellow-DeVos Center for Religion a, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333Jessica Echard, Executive Director, Eagle Forum
Bullet 333Tim G. Echols, President/Founder, TeenPact
Bullet 333Steve Elliott, President, Grassfire.org
Bullet 333Joseph Farah, CEO, Founder, WorldNetDaily
Bullet 333Todd Friel, Radio Host, Way of the Master
Bullet 333Frank Gaffney, Founder and President , Center for Security Policy
Bullet 333James Gelfand, Senior Manager of Health Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Bullet 333Rick Green, President, Torch of Freedom Foundation
Bullet 333Colin Hanna, Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring USA
Bullet 333Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
Bullet 333Cliff Kincaid, President, America's Survival, Inc.
Bullet 333Peter Lillback, President, Westminster Theological Seminary
Bullet 333Jennifer Marshall, Director of Domestic Policy Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333Gary Marx, Executive Director, Judicial Confirmation Network
Bullet 333Ryan Messmore, William E. Simon fellow in Religion and a Free Soc, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333Joe Murray, Columnist, The Bulletin
Bullet 333Jeff Myers, Incoming President, Summit Ministries
Bullet 333Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)
Bullet 333Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President, Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny
Bullet 333Phyllis Schlafly, President and Founder, Eagle Forum
Bullet 333Don Shenk, Executive Director, The Tide
Bullet 333Tony Strickland, Taxpayer Advocate
Bullet 333Lorianne Updike, President & Executive Director, The Constitutional Sources Project
Bullet 333Timothy Watkins, Producer/Director, Renegade Productions

Democratic Leaders Mislead on Gas Prices, Oil Taxes, Says Energy Expert

CNS News

Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate continue to make misleading statements about the effect their plans to raise taxes on oil companies would have on gas prices.

“We have to do something about the exorbitant gas prices, and the best way to start with that is to do something about the five big oil companies getting subsidies they don't need,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on the Senate floor on Tuesday.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) was even more direct. Appearing on MSNBC’s Jansing & Co., Israel said that Congress could lower gas prices by eliminating tax write-offs for large oil companies.

Nearly 20 percent of new Obamacare waivers are gourmet restaurants, nightclubs, fancy hotels in Nancy Pelosi’s district

The Daily Caller

Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.

That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved.

Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers.

Other common waiver recipients were labor union chapters, large corporations, financial firms and local governments. But Pelosi’s district’s waivers are the first major examples of luxurious, gourmet restaurants and hotels getting a year-long pass from Obamacare.

Palestinians test tactic of unarmed mass marches

Associated Press

Palestinian activists are calling it a preview of new tactics to pressure Israel and win world support for statehood: Masses of marchers, galvanized by the Arab Spring and brought together by Facebook, descending on borders and military posts — and daring Israeli soldiers to shoot.

It could prove more problematic for Israel than the suicide bombings and other deadly violence of the past — which the current Palestinian Authority leadership feels only tainted their cause.

After attempted border breaches from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Gaza left 15 Palestinians dead Sunday, Israeli officials openly puzzled over how to handle an unfamiliar new phase.

Hatch Warns Against Punishing Businesses for Being Profitable

CNS News

Even before the first oil company executive testified before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, Sen. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) criticized the hearing as a dog-and-pony show.

Lawmakers should not go down the “dangerous road” of punishing American businesses for being profitable, said Hatch, the committee’s ranking member.

With a photo of a dog riding a pony as a backdrop behind him, Hatch said Thursday’s hearing would only provide “political theater.”

He noted that contrary to what some people think, the Obama administration does indeed have an energy policy: “Are you ready for this? Their energy policy is to increase the cost of energy,” Hatch said.

Mock a 'moat,' will you?

OneNewsNow

A member of Congress who is a leading advocate for border enforcement is calling President Barack Obama to task for mocking Republicans in a recent speech pushing amnesty for illegal aliens.

The president made the speech Tuesday in El Paso, Texas, before an audience that appeared sympathetic to his pro-amnesty agenda. Obama claimed the U.S.-Mexico border is more secure than ever, and he took a shot at Republicans who are pushing for stronger enforcement.

"Now they're going to say we need to quadruple the Border Patrol -- or they'll want a higher fence," he said. "Maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe they'll want alligators in the moat."

Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) is vice-chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement. He says the president was making fun of a fence array that has proven to be very effective in the border city where he was speaking.

Democrat: Non-Energy-Producing States Shouldn’t Complain About High Gas Prices

CNS News

A U.S. senator -- a Democrat – is taking a strong stand against a bill introduced by a fellow Democrat that would end energy subsidies for big oil companies.

In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Mary Landrieu, from the oil-producing state of Louisiana, said the bill introduced by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) targets an industry that supports 9.2 million jobs and contributes more than 7.7 percent to U.S. gross domestic product.

Ending energy subsidies for oil and gas companies, she said, will not reduce gas prices, but it will eliminate jobs.

Exit From Auto Bailout Will be Difficult, And Likely Cost Taxpayers, Says GAO

CNS News

As the Treasury Department seeks to extricate itself from the 2009 auto industry bailouts, it will struggle to balance being both an investor and a government agency, in the view of the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

A GAO report also notes that the Treasury will not likely recoup all of the $62 billion it spent to prevent General Motors and Chrysler from going through the normal bankruptcy process.

“Treasury’s divestment strategy for its GM and Chrysler investments – including the timing of Treasury’s exits and the extent to which it will recoup its investments – will depend on how Treasury balances its goals of maximizing taxpayers’ return and exiting as soon as practicable,” the May 10 report stated.

No more death penalty?

OneNewsNow

As California officials have halted death row executions at least until next year, a former prosecutor says the state may be considering pulling the plug on the death penalty.

The 713 inmates on California's death row have been awarded more time, thanks to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's request to delay review of changes to lethal injection procedures. Meanwhile, Governor Jerry Brown decided last week to toss plans of building a new death row facility in San Quentin.

Even though some people believe the death penalty is proper for those who committed grotesque crimes, Carol Chase, associate dean of academics and professor of law at Pepperdine University, wonders "whether there is a less costly way to achieve that same result. Life in prison without [the] possibility of parole, if it is less expensive, may be an option that should be pursued in California," she suggests.

Problematic ban for San Francisco's Jews

OneNewsNow

One California city's initiative that would ban circumcision may make it to the ballot in November.

Proponents of the effort to end circumcision in San Francisco collected more signatures than the required 7,168 to place the measure on the ballot. Petitions were sent to the San Francisco Department of Elections at the end of April, but the initiative is expected to be challenged by Jewish groups in the region.

"I understand that people, if they misunderstand it or they look at it very superficially, I understand that it would upset them," admits StandWithUs CEO and co-founder Roz Rothstein. "It is a ritual that causes pain and does make a child bleed; it's the ritual of circumcision."

If passed, the measure would ban circumcisions on males under the age of 18 and impose a $1,000 fine or a prison sentence on those who do not comply. The law would, however, permit some exceptions for medical reasons, but not for religious reasons. So Rothstein believes it will stifle religious freedom.

Bullet 333Rev. Clenard Childress, Jr., Assistant Director, Life Education and Resource Network
Bullet 333Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship
Bullet 333Tom DeLay, Former House Majority Leader, United States House of Representatives
Bullet 333Len Deo, President, New Jersey Family Policy Council
Bullet 333William Devlin, National President, Redeem The Vote
Bullet 333Chuck Donovan, Senior Research Fellow-DeVos Center for Religion a, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333Steve Elliott, President, Grassfire.org
Bullet 333Joseph Farah, CEO, Founder, WorldNetDaily
Bullet 333Todd Friel, Radio Host, Way of the Master
Bullet 333Frank Gaffney, Founder and President , Center for Security Policy
Bullet 333James Gelfand, Senior Manager of Health Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Bullet 333Rick Green, President, Torch of Freedom Foundation
Bullet 333Colin Hanna, Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring USA
Bullet 333Dr. Janice Hollis, Bishop, Progressive Believers Ministries
Bullet 333Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
Bullet 333Cliff Kincaid, President, America's Survival, Inc.
Bullet 333Peter Lillback, President, Westminster Theological Seminary
Bullet 333Jennifer Marshall, Director of Domestic Policy Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333Gary Marx, Executive Director, Judicial Confirmation Network
Bullet 333Alex McFarland, President, Southern Evangelical Seminary
Bullet 333Ryan Messmore, William E. Simon fellow in Religion and a Free Soc, The Heritage Foundation
Bullet 333Joe Murray, Columnist, The Bulletin
Bullet 333Jeff Myers, Incoming President, Summit Ministries
Bullet 333Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)
Bullet 333Elizabeth Racine, Founder, Moralert.com
Bullet 333Phyllis Schlafly, President and Founder, Eagle Forum
Bullet 333Don Shenk, Executive Director, The Tide
Bullet 333Walid Shoebat, President, Shoebat Foundation
Bullet 333Tony Strickland, Taxpayer Advocate
Bullet 333William Sutter, Executive Director, The Friends of Israel
Bullet 333Lorianne Updike, President & Executive Director, The Constitutional Sources Project
Bullet 333Charl Van Wyk, Pastor/Author, “Shooting Back–The Right & Duty of Self-Defence"
Bullet 333David Wheaton, Author, Speaker, Radio Talk Show Host, TheChristianWorldview.com

Primary Care Still Hard to Get in Massachusetts

MedPage Today

More than half of primary care practices in Massachusetts are not accepting new patients, and wait times for many new patients continue to lengthen five years after the state passed its landmark healthcare reform law, according to a survey sponsored by the state medical society.

"Massachusetts has made great strides in securing insurance coverage for its citizens, but insurance coverage doesn't equal access to care," Alice Coombs, MD, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, said in a press release. "We still have much work to do to reduce wait times and widen access."

The law passed by Massachusetts in 2006 required all residents to have insurance, and was, in some ways, a model for the national healthcare reform law signed into law last year.

Long wait times persist for new patients making appointments to see an internist or family physician in Massachusetts, the survey found. The average wait time is 48 days for a new patient to see an internist -- five days shorter than last year -- and 36 days to see a family doctor, which is an increase of seven days from 2010.

Obama to Tout Amnesty in Speech Near Mexican City That Had More Casualties Than Afghanistan

CNS News

President Barack Obama’s commitment to providing legal status for illegal aliens is reflected in the time he has spent focusing on the country’s immigration laws in recent weeks, the White House said on Monday, one day before the president is set to deliver a national address on immigration in El Paso, Texas.

El Paso is across the border from Juarez, Mexico, a city where 3,111 civilians were murdered last year--more than in all of Afghanistan.

In recent weeks, Obama has met with current and former elected officials, business leaders and Hollywood celebrities – all of whom agree with his position on the matter – to promote comprehensive immigration reform.

Proponents call the proposal a “pathway to citizenship” for the roughly 12 million illegal aliens in the country, but critics call it “amnesty.”

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