Day Five - Government shutdown news.....

http://twitchy.com/2013/10/06/shutdown-meltdown-elderly-residents-kicked-out-of-private-lake-mead-homes-60-families-affected/

As the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports, some 60 families were given notice:

Bob Hitchcock is in his “least favorite place” these days — inside his landlocked Las Vegas home instead of at his cabin on the North Shore of Lake Mead, tooling around with old engines in his garage.

He’s one of an estimated 60 families with vacation homes along the lake who were given notice by the National Park Service earlier this week to gather their stuff and leave, according to Christie Vanover, a spokeswoman for the Lake Mead Recreational Area.

The homes — from Stewart’s Point on the north to Katherine’s Landing and Temple Bar on the south — sit on federal land.

As a result, the federal government shutdown left Hitchcock just 24 hours to evacuate his two-bedroom, two bath cabin in Stewart’s Point, about 70 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

…“I wouldn’t call it a government shutdown,” said Hitchcock, 71, a retired zone manager for 7-Eleven. “I’d call it a government meltdown. If my kids ever acted like these politicians are acting — it’s probably not politically correct to say this anymore — but I’d beat the crap out of them, then send them to their rooms.”

KNTV has the story of another elderly couple affected by Obama’s shutdown evacuation notices.

and...

If the feds are doing this, why hasn't the East wing been roped off? http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/226557661.html?lc=Smart …

1:58 AM - 6 Oct 2013

and....

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-05/us-shutdown-cut-half-after-pentagon-recalls-400000-workers-half-total-furloughs

( October 17 , 2013 X date might be advance ! )

US Shutdown Cut In Half After Pentagon Recalls 400,000 Workers: Half Of Total Furloughs

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/05/2013 17:25 -0400

BLS

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Debt Ceiling

Unemployment

Unemployment Benefits

It took just four days before the Federal government caved to Congress and admitted that it can't even operate in a partial, "non-essential" shutdown. A few short hours ago Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered 400,000 furloughed Pentagon civilian employees - or about half the total defense employees - back to work. it is also roughly half of the total employees furloughed since the start of the government shutdown, which is now in its fifth day, and since both the House and the Senate are now gone until Monday afternoon, it appears the shutdown, even if now at half mast will continue for at least a week.

Why did Hagel decide he can get bypass orders and tell government workers they can cut their vacation short? The Hill explains:

After consulting with the Justice Department and Department of Defense legal counsel, Hagel noted furloughed employees could be brought back to the Pentagon, while still complying with federal guidelines governing the shutdown, according to the memo.

Civilian workers at DOD shown to play a role in the "morale, well-being [and]...readiness" of U.S. forces could be brought back, under federal rules, Hagel wrote.

Pentagon Comptroller Bob Hale is scheduled to hold a briefing on the details of the recall later today.

The decision was prised by both sides of Congress, even as the political grandstanding and talking point reiterating continued:

Lawmakers praised the Pentagon's decision to put the department's civilian workforce back on the federal pay roll. "Congress fully intended for all of our civilian defense workers to be treated the same as our active duty military members," House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) said in a statement Saturday.

"All [federal employees] are vital to our national defense and need to be on the job protecting the nation," he added.

While supportive of the Pentagon's decision, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said the move would have been unnecessary if Obama had not "been playing politics" with civilian furloughs.

The White Houses "should not have furloughed these hard working men and women," Turner said in a statement Saturday.

"They should have been allowed to work through this entire shutdown," the House defense panel member said, adding Obama is using federal workers as "bargaining chips" in the ongoing shutdown stand off with congressional Republicans.

"These men and women are crucial to our country's national defense and I am glad they will be allowed to go back to work this week to support our armed forces," he added.

Alas, since the coffers of the Treasury are finite, and since there rate of cash inflows is still the same, the fact that suddenly 400k more people will have to be paid salaries will mean that the government's cash will ran out that much faster, likely well before the October 17 X-Date, meaning the debt ceiling deadline, and surrounding negotiations, just got pushed forward.

Finally, all this happened hours after the House passed the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act, H.R. 3223, in a 407-0 vote: in an expected outcome. This means that the second the government is "restarted" all the furloughed workers will get all their accrued pay backdate to the start of the government shutdown. In other words: government workers just got an extended vacation, and one which may even result in double pay, as most furloughed employees can apply for and receive unemployment benefits, with the proviso that they refund any such compensation the BLS gives them once the furlough ends. Something tells us the BLS will be less than strict in enforcing said collection.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-pentagon-is-ordering-most-of-its-400000-furloughed-civilian-employees-to-return-to-work-2013-10

( Pentagon defies shutdown - recalls civilians employees despite government shutdown ? )

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is ordering most of its approximately 400,000 furloughed civilian employees back to work.

The decision by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is based on a Pentagon legal interpretation of a law called the Pay Our Military Act.

That measure was passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama shortly before the partial government shutdown began Tuesday.

The Pentagon did not immediately say on Saturday exactly how many workers will return to work. The Defense Department said "most" were being brought back.

The law ensured that members of the military, who have remained at work throughout the shutdown, would be paid on time. It also left room for the Pentagon to keep on the job those civilians who provide support to the military.

and....

Pentagon to recall most furloughed workers, Hagel says

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images - Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel testifies before the House Armed Services Committee on Sept. 10, 2013.

By Craig Whitlock, Updated: Saturday, October 5, 3:05 PM E-mail the writer

The Pentagon will recall most of its furloughed civilian workers in the coming days, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Saturday, in a move that could substantially ease the impact of the government shutdown on the federal workforce.

The Pentagon did not immediately specify how many employees would be summoned back to work, except to say that “most” of its 400,000 furloughed civilians would be allowed to return. That means that at least 200,000 Defense workers will go back on the job – a figure that by itself represents one quarter of the 800,000 federal employees on furlough.

Hagel’s decision is based on liberal interpretation of the Pay Our Military Act, a bill passed by Congress last week and signed by President Obama that ensures that uniformed members of the military will not have their paychecks delayed by the shutdown. The bill includes general language exempting Defense Department civilians from furlough if they provide direct support to the military.

After consulting with Pentagon lawyers and Obama administration officials in recent days, Hagel decided that he could justify recalling most of the Pentagon’s furloughed workforce based on that provision in the law.

A senior defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity estimated that potentially 300,000 or more furloughed Pentagon employees could return to work. The Pentagon scheduled a 5 p.m. news conference Saturday to provide more details.

In a statement, Hagel said the Justice Department advised that the law would not permit a blanket recall of all civilians working for the Pentagon. But he added that attorneys for the Justice and Defense departments agreed that the law does permit the Pentagon to eliminate furloughs “for employees whose responsibilities contribute to the morale, well-being, capabilities and readiness of service members.”

Hagel said he has directed the armed services and defense agencies to determine exactly how many employees can come back to work. Workers, he said, can expect to hear from their managers starting this weekend about whether they can return to their jobs.

“I expect us to significantly reduce – but not eliminate – civilian furloughs under this process,” Hagel said. “We will continue to try to bring all civilian employees back to work as soon as possible. Ultimately, the surest way to end these damaging and irresponsible furloughs, and to enable us to fulfill our mission as a department, is for Congress to pass a budget and restore funds for the entire federal government.”

Paradoxically, however, the Pentagon’s announcement could actually relieve political pressure on lawmakers to end the shutdown by canceling furloughs for as many as 300,000 federal employees.

Moreover, Hagel’s decision could bring relief to thousands of private contractors who work for the Defense Department but had faced the threat of layoffs because of the government shutdown. On Friday, for example, Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin said that it would furlough about 3,000 employees next week, and expects that number to grow if the budget standoff doesn’t end soon.

In a memo, Hagel noted that the Pay Our Military Act, which was signed by Obama on Tuesday, appropriates funds “as are necessary to provide pay and allowances to contractors” working for the Pentagon. He said that government lawyers are still “analyzing what authority is provided by this provision.”

Hagel’s memo offers some general guidance under which furloughed Defense Department employees can expect to return to work.

Those who will most likely receive a green light include people who provide health care to troops and their families; buy, repair or maintain weapons systems; work at commissaries; or acquire other supplies for the military.

Those who might not be covered include auditors, employees who work in public affairs or legislative affairs, or civilian employees of the Army Corps of Engineers, according to the memo.

FEMA rebelling on shutdown and recalling employees - because of a mild tropical storm ?

http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/23616002/fema-recalls-furloughed-workers-ahead-of-tropical-storm-karen#axzz2gskP57gC

FEMA recalls furloughed workers ahead of Tropical Storm Karen

Posted: Oct 05, 2013 8:28 AM EDTUpdated: Oct 05, 2013 8:28 AM EDT

By myfoxdc Web Producer

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is urging residents of communities along the Gulf of Mexico to prepare for severe weather from Tropical Storm Karen.

"Residents in areas forecasted for potential severe weather are encouraged to monitor local conditions, review their family emergency plans, and follow the direction of local officials," FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said in a statement. "FEMA is staying in close contact with states and local partners and is poised to provide support, if needed."

Despite the partial shutdown of the federal government, FEMA has recalled furloughed more than 100 employees to staff vital functions at the agency to respond to potentially damaging weather along the gulf as well as a separate weather system in parts of the Midwest.

FEMA is urging residents in the part of Karen to:

• Follow the instructions of local officials. Local officials make decisions on evacuations, shelter openings or sheltering in place.

• Have important supplies ready to sustain you and your family, if needed. This includes water, a battery-powered radio, flashlight, extra batteries, cell phone charger, medicines, non-perishable food, and first aid supplies.

• Stay up-to-date with the latest forecast -- Monitor local radio and TV reports, as well as forecasts from the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service.

Where's sense of crisis in a 17 percent government shutdown?

BY BYRON YORK | OCTOBER 5, 2013 AT 1:01 PM

TOPICS: BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL CONGRESS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Everyone knows the phrase "government shutdown" doesn't mean the entire U.S. government is shut down. So in a partial government shutdown, like the one underway at the moment, how much of the government is actually shut down, and how much is not?

One way to measure that is in how much money the government spends. In a conversation Thursday, a Republican member of Congress mentioned that the military pay act, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama at the beginning of the shutdown, is actually a huge percentage of the government's discretionary spending in any given year. And that is still flowing. So if you took that money, and added it to all the entitlement spending that is unaffected by a shutdown, plus all the areas of spending that are exempted from a shutdown, and added it all together, how much of the federal government's total spending is still underway even though the government is technically shut down?

I asked a Republican source on the Senate Budget Committee for an estimate. This was the answer: "Based on estimates drawn from CBO and OMB data, 83 percent of government operations will continue. This figure assumes that the government pays amounts due on appropriations obligated before the shutdown ($512 billion), spends $225 billion on exempted military and civilian personnel, pays entitlement benefits for those found eligible before the shutdown (about $2 trillion), and pays interest costs when due ($237 billion). This is about 83 percent of projected 2014 spending of $3.6 trillion."

So the government shutdown, at least as measured by money spent, is really a 17 percent government shutdown. Perhaps that is why the effects of the shutdown, beyond some of the most visible problems, like at the monuments and memorials on the Washington Mall, don't seem to have the expected intensity. Seventeen percent of federal expenditures is still a huge amount of money, and the shutdown is affecting many people. But many more who are dependent on federal dollars are still receiving their money, either as salary, transfer payment, or in some other form. Viewed that way, it's no wonder both Republicans and Democrats appear to believe they can last the shutdown out, at least for a couple of weeks until they try to resolve the debt limit crisis due to arrive October 17.

http://www.businessinsider.com/debt-ceiling-obama-boehner-14th-amendment-platinum-coin-2013-10

Read into this what you will, but President Barack Obama did not specifically rule out working around Congress to raise the nation's borrowing limit if Congress does not permit a hike before an Oct. 17 deadline.

In an interview with The Associated Press that was published on Saturday, Obama ducked the question of whether he is "willing to take other action" to prevent default. He only said that he expected Congress would pass a bill to raise it.

Here's the key exchange:

Q: But if they don't, if they get up to this deadline and they are not willing to pass this clean debt ceiling that you're asking them to do, would you be willing to take other action to prevent default?

THE PRESIDENT: I don't expect to get there. There were at least some quotes yesterday that Speaker Boehner is willing to make sure that we don't default. And just as is true with the government shutdown, there are enough votes in the House of Representatives to make sure that the government reopens today. And I'm pretty willing to bet that there are enough votes in the House of Representatives right now to make sure that the United States doesn't end up being a deadbeat. The only thing that's preventing that from happening is Speaker Boehner calling the vote.

The possibility that Obama will have to work around Congress to raise the debt has been increasingly discussed by analysts over the past week.

Some — including President Bill Clinton — have said he can do that by invoking the 14th Amendment, a Reconstruction-era amendment that says that "the validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned."

But usually, he and members of his administration make a point of noting that it is not a legally tenable option. Just this past week, on a conference call previewing a report warning of the economic catastrophe of breaching the debt ceiling, a Treasury Department official said the administration doesn't believe anyone except Congress can raise the debt ceiling.

And here's what Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters in the daily press briefing on Thursday:

"This administration does not believe that the 14th Amendment gives the power to the President to ignore the debt ceiling. So we do not believe that the 14th Amendment provides that authority to the President. Moreover, even if the President could ignore the debt ceiling, the fact that there is significant controversy around the President’s authority to act unilaterally means that it would not be a credible alternative to Congress raising the debt ceiling and would not be taken seriously by the global economy or the markets."

and....

The coming “Let’s make a deal” shutdown moment

POSTED AT 8:31 AM ON OCTOBER 5, 2013 BY JAZZ SHAW

Over at NRO, Robert Costa has spent the last 48 hours digging in to all his sources among Republicans on the hill and is pretty sure that there’s a deal coming, despite media celebrations to the contrary. From the sounds of it, it’s not a total capitulation to the White House, but there’s also no chance of some sort of grand bargain which either side can list on their resume. Instead, if the Shutdown Beast is to be slain, it won’t be with one massive coup de grace, but rather a death of a thousand cuts.

It hasn’t been announced, and you won’t hear about it today, but the final volley of the fiscal impasse, at least for House Republicans, is already being brokered. And according to my top sources — both members and senior aides — it won’t end with a clean CR, or with a sprawling, 2011-style budget agreement. It’ll end with an offer — a relatively modest mid-October offer that concurrently connects a debt-limit extension, government funding, and a small, but strategically designed menu of conservative demands…

But details are floating to the surface as the leadership reaches out to internal power brokers about what’s within the realm of the possible. What I’m hearing: There will be a “mechanism” for revenue-neutral tax reform, ushered by Ryan and Michigan’s Dave Camp, that will encourage deeper congressional talks in the coming year. There will be entitlement-reform proposals, most likely chained CPI and means testing Medicare; there will also be some health-care provisions, such as a repeal of the medical-device tax, which has bipartisan support in both chambers. Boehner, sources say, is expected to go as far as he can with his offer. Anything too small will earn conservative ire; anything too big will turn off Democrats.

If you tried to string all of that together into one package, it would smack of a “grand bargain” and it would be far too easy to find small coalitions of offended parties who would band together to shoot it down. So it looks like we’ll be back to the table with another series of piecemeal bills, turning on the government one slice at a time while extracting some form of concession – no matter how minor it may appear – in exchange for each. In exchange, they would dangle some goodies in front of the Democrats, including backing off on a few pieces of sequestration. Assuming it works, you eventually wind up with so little of the government shut down that it’s not worth fighting over any more and life goes on.

Among the list of demands, the most intriguing one is certainly the idea of gaining some traction on tax reform, which you normally only hear about at election time. (After which, it’s promptly forgotten until the next election.) But is there any meat on that bone? A“mechanism” for revenue-neutral tax reform that will encourage deeper congressional talksnext year? That sounds like the language of people who want to get off the hook by talking about something really popular without having to put their name to any serious changes. But who knows? Perhaps I’m just cynical.

But the keystone of this entire plan seems to rely on something which is none too certain. Up until this point, Obama has drawn a red line in the sand over any negotiating or agreeing to any partial funding bills, insisting that it’s going to be all or nothing and no deals will be made. Getting the Democrats to the table on this sort of thing would require the President completely retreating from that very publicly stated red line and agreeing to a totally different…

Hey, maybe this could work after all.

From Michelle Obama's Mirror blog.....

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Government Shutdown, Day 5: Bring Me Your Sob Story

Day 5 and everything’s closed except the borders. (h/t Jay Leno) This is an important message from your Federal Government:

Give me your fired, your poor,
Your huddled asses, yearning to live for free.
That wretched ruse of the open door
Send these, the homeless, at any cost.
I lift a food stamp, and settle and ancient score.

(with deepest apologies to Emma Lazarus)

Until future notice, Liberty can only be viewed from afar.

That’s right, fences went up everywhere last week;

Essential employee closing nonessential monuments

except along the southern border.

And the White House wants to share your sorrow. Your government handlers want to know; how has the American Anarchist (AA) wing of the Republican party screwed up your life? Tell us, just how bad is it? Have we been successful in demonstrating how much pain Big Guy can inflicted when your government is closed by terrorists?

Boy, that AA party is really making it hard out there for a pimp.

Submit your sob stories here, so we can empathize (boo, hoo, hoo), blame the Republican shutdown jihadies and continue to avert your gaze from the Obamacare fiasco.

Did you get turned away from a National Park?

h/t iOTW

Have to wait in line to buy stamps? Or worse, to collect your food stamps? (oh, SNAP!) We need your input. That’s how we keep score, to know if we are WINNING! yet.

And speaking of pimps and Obamacare: we were working on a way to rein in its run away costs by selling luxury items at deep, deep discounts. Butt apparently, some people thought that was unethical or something, so now the entire Obamacare Website has been ~~hijacked~~shut down; for “maintenance.” Hee, hee hee! I’m sure that its closure is somehow related to the American Anarchist Party’s holding a gun to our head. And I would point out, the closure has nothing to do with the hateful messages that some members of the AA party have been leaving all over the site - trying to make it sound like Obamacare isn’t working, or something.

And please, stop submitting your pictures businesses closing due to Obamacare. At this point we have no plans for soliciting those stories, butt will advise you if this changes.

Let’s just stay focused on one thing at a time.

and.....

http://twitchy.com/2013/10/04/desperately-seeking-shutdownsobstories-white-house-soliciting-tales-of-woe/

Desperately seeking #ShutdownSobStories: White House soliciting tales of woe

The White House is asking for authentic #ShutdownSobStories  Please feel free to oblige.

3:26 PM - 4 Oct 2013

The White House is looking for tales of tragedy from the four-day-long government shutdown. The avalanche of media attention given to Obamacare poster boy “Lying” Chad Henderson would suggest that, yes, works of fiction are acceptable, and perhaps even preferred. In any case, bring the pain. Here are your instructions as they appear on the White House website.

Ironically, a banner on the same webpage notes that, due to the shutdown, “some submissions may not be processed.” There’s your first sob story right there!

The lapdog media isn’t affected by the shutdown and is hard at work digging up its own stories. One woman was driven to tears after three days without Head Start.

“I was bawling on Interstate 10,” a Head Start mom said. “I feel so bad for [my son].” huff.to/GDlFYK—
Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) October 04, 2013

As Ashe Schow of the Washington Examiner observed, “while hundreds of thousands of Americans are furloughed for being ‘non-essential,’ the White House has found asking for their stories to be ‘essential.’” Fortunately, a #ShutdownSobStories hashtag has popped up to make these tragic tales easy to find. Check them out, if your heart can take it.

sweet, #shutdownsobstories is a thing!

5:25 PM - 4 Oct 2013

So Did You Buy Your Vasoline, Obama Voters?

From Breitbart:

A single mother of two said she is in school and working full-time while living "75% below the poverty level." She said she was shocked to learn she did not qualify for a healthcare subsidy. "Are you F'ing kidding me????" she wrote on the government's Obamacare Facebook page. "Where the HELL am I supposed to get $3,000 more a year to pay for this 'bronze' health insurance plan!?!??? And I DO NOT EVEN WANT INSURANCE to begin with!! This is frightening," she wrote.

This is what you voted for.

This is what you asked for.

I told you to go to the store and buy Vasoline if you let this crap become "law."

You didn't, and you didn't stop this from happening either.

Now you're going to get it hard, dry, and daily.

And by the way, it's not******because you not only consented you explicitly asked for it.

and.....

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/04/administration-shutting-down-healthcare-gov-applications-this-weekend/

Administration shutting down Healthcare.gov applications this weekend

POSTED AT 7:21 PM ON OCTOBER 4, 2013 BY ERIKA JOHNSEN

And no, it is not part of their absurd and out-of-the-way campaign to hang the “gone fishin’ because of Republican malfeasance” sign across the homepage of every government website they can possibly think of — although I have no doubt that the Obama administration is perfectly content to let anyone and everyone think that the government shutdown is the reason. Via HuffPo:

The federal government will take down a critical part of HealthCare.gov, the Obamacare web portal, for a portion of the coming weekend as programmers feverishly work to fix major glitches that are impeding enrollment and marring the debut of the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s health care reform law. …

The administration will not allow users to fill out applications for coverage on HealthCare.gov during part of the weekend, allowing programmers to write fixes to the website without also fielding visitors, the Department of Health and Human Services announced late Friday.

“To make further improvements to the system, we will be taking down the application part of the website for scheduled maintenance during off-peak hours over the weekend. The enhancements we are making will enable more simultaneous users to successfully create an account and move through the application and plan shopping process,” reads a press release issued by the Department of Health and Human Services Friday. “We expect that Monday, less than a week after the Marketplace opening, there will be significant improvements in the online consumer experience.” The telephone call center will remain open, the department announced.

The real reason, of course, is the many stories about the prohibitive number of “glitches” the ObamaCare portal and its various blue-state brethren are experiencing to which the administration would rather not draw attention.

More than 8.6 million unique visitors have visited the site since Tuesday, HHS proudly informs us — but how many of those 8.6 million visitors have had any success so far? Ahem:

It’s a batting average that won’t land the federal marketplace for Obamacare into the Healthcare Hall of Fame.

As few as 1 in 100 applications on the federal exchange contains enough information to enroll the applicant in a plan, several insurance industry sources told CNBC on Friday. Some of the problems involve how the exchange’s software collects and verifies an applicant’s data.

“It is extraordinary that these systems weren’t ready,” said Sumit Nijhawan, CEO of Infogix, which handles data integrity issues for major insurers including WellPoint and Cigna, as well as multiple Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates.

Experts said that if Healthcare.gov‘s success rate doesn’t improve within the next month or so, federal officials could face a situation in January in which relatively large numbers of people believe they have coverage starting that month, but whose enrollment applications are have not been processed.