Premier of Life Fine Tuned

Don't Forget ... Life Fine Tuned on December 14!

Remember, on Saturday, December 14 you have an opportunity to attend the theatrical premier performance of Life Fine Tuned, a family-oriented movie produced by Nina May, a Rappahannock resident known for her excellent writing and video productions. 

Not only is Life Fine Tuned an excellent movie, but you will get a kick out of watching familiar faces and places in Rappahannock and Culpeper counties.  But you have to see it first!   Please make Saturday evening, December 14, beginning at 6:30 p.m., a family event.  You will be amazed to see the level of expertise in this production and know that much of it was produced and directed in our backyards!  The movie has won numerous awards. 

 

Please go to http://www.culpepertheatre.org/events/life-fine-tuned/ to order your tickets.  There are two price levels...adults and children --- there is no excuse not to bring your child/children to this event. 

See you on Saturday, 

Evelyn Kerr

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Tweet of the Day

Dean Meek ‏@deanmeek 4h

President Obama looks so natural in this picture: @BarackObama @ObamaNews @WhiteHouse @whitehouseostp #p2 #Democrats pic.twitter.com/lWTKmM76cl

 

Statement by Rep. Robert Hurt on the Latest Unemployment Report

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Robert Hurt (R-VA) today released the following statement after the Department of Labor issued the latest unemployment report:

"While I was pleased to see that our national unemployment rate has dropped slightly, the continued threat of excessive regulations, tax increases, and Washington's out-of-control spending culture is stalling our economic recovery, as well as threatening the existence and creation of jobs across the country.

"My colleagues and I in the House have continued to pass bipartisan, pro-growth jobs bills that would help turn our economy around by removing the government as a barrier to job creation to restore certainty to the marketplace. This week, legislation I introduced, the 'Small Business Capital Access and Job Preservation Act,' passed the House with bipartisan support.  At a time when economic uncertainty and over-regulation are hindering job creation in Virginia and across our great nation, it is imperative that we implement policies like this pro-growth legislation to fuel job creation and move our economy forward.

"It is my hope that the Senate does not stall in passing these commonsense House-passed bills that would put us on the path to economic recovery and spur job growth across the nation."

Today's Obamacare Disaster Update

Gary L. Bauer
Campaign for Working Families

Since the December 1st relaunch of Healthcare.gov, Obama and his Democrat allies have been desperately trying to convince the American people that Obamacare is now working smoothly. They are even touting a "surge" of enrollments, which in two days this week exceeded October's total. But despite their wishful thinking and self-delusion, the headlines tell a different story.

• CBS News reported Wednesday that "insurance companies are still receiving either no data or garbled data from people who put their information in. If that isn't improved, people who think they've enrolled will not have a health insurance policy."
  
  
• One of the major reasons people won't be covered by these technical "glitches" is that the backend payment system on Healthcare.gov is not working. Administration officials tried to address the problem this week by instructing applicants to "pay your premium to the insurance company directly -- not to the Health Insurance Marketplace."
  
  How many people who have already signed up will know to do this? One Indiana insurance company reports that only 20% of applicants have actually paid. And what happens if they haven't paid by January 1st? Their application is voided and individuals must start the infuriating process all over again.
  
  
• Technical "glitches" aren't limited to the federal website. State exchanges are reporting similar problems. Washington state officials recently discovered errors in nearly 8,000 applications. California has yet to process tens of thousands of paper applications.
  
  
• Meanwhile, vastly more people continue to be enrolled in Medicaid, rather than Obamacare. In Washington state, nearly nine times more people were signed up for taxpayer-financed Medicaid assistance than purchased their own plan through the state exchange. (That entitlement program's costs are certain to skyrocket.)
  
  But because of all the glitches, some states may stop processing those applications too, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of low-income individuals.

"Low-Information Leadership"

Obamacare is the president's signature initiative. It was the most sweeping legislative change in decades. It is a massive tax increase that radically alters one-sixth of the American economy and vastly expands the IRS and the government's intrusion into our lives.

Given Obamacare's importance to Obama's legacy (not to mention the political careers of many Democrats), how many times do you think Obama sat down face-to-face with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, whose office was charged with implementing Obamacare? Just once.

Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan wrote a brilliant column this week critiquing Obama's leadership (or lack thereof) given the calamitous failure of Obamacare. She described Obama as a "low-information leader," out-of-touch with the real world and overly impressed by his own words. Here are few key excerpts:

"It's a leader's job to be skeptical of grand schemes. Sorry, that's a conservative leader's job. It is a liberal leader's job to be skeptical that grand schemes will work as intended. You have to guide and goad and be careful.

"And this president wasn't. I think part of the reason he wasn't careful is because he sort of lives in words. That's been his whole professional life -- books, speeches. Say something and it magically exists as something said, and if it's been said and publicized it must be real. He never had to push a lever, see the machine not respond, puzzle it out and fix it. …He never had to stock a store, run a sale and see lots of people come but the expenses turn out to be larger than you'd expected and the profits smaller, and you have to figure out what went wrong and do better next time. …

"Commentators like to decry low-information voters -- the stupid are picking our leaders. I think the real problem is low-information leaders. They have so little experience of life and have so much faith in magic -- in media, in words -- that they don't understand people will get angry at you when you mislead them, and never see you the same way again."

FRC Praises California, Maryland for Shifting Focus to Ethical Stem Cell Research

December 04, 2013

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Family Research Council (FRC) is encouraged by a new story from the Washington Times highlighting recent findings from the Charlotte Lozier Institute on state funding for stem cell research. The institute has found that the bulk of stem cell funding grants in California and Maryland are now going to ethical stem cell research, and not unethical embryonic stem cell research - a decided shift in focus for these states.

Of the findings FRC's Senior Fellow Dr. David Prentice said:

"This latest news simply emphasizes what advocates of ethical stem cell research have said for years - adult stem cells are the true gold standard for stem cells. They are certainly golden for patients; more than 60,000 people a year around the world are currently treated with adult stem cells.

"We heard for years that embryonic stem cells were the 'only' stem cells for treatment as well as lab research, and the federal government as well as several states rushed to pour money onto this research. But even in states previously devoted exclusively to embryonic stem cell and cloning research, the majority of grants now are going to ethical, successful adult stem cell studies.

"Embryonic stem cell research relies on the destruction of young human life, and has zero proven successes for patients. Adult stem cells provide effective treatments now for dozens of diseases and conditions, with many more therapies under development. They're the best cells for the job, and all without harming the stem cell donors.

"States such as Kansas, with its new comprehensive Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center devoted to adult stem cell therapies, research, education and physician training, are at the leading edge of the science. Adult stem cell research is showing tremendous progress, while holding the ethical line that defends all human life at every stage of life.

"Adult stem cells save lives," Prentice concluded.

Prentice is an internationally-recognized expert on stem cells and cloning, and has testified before the U.S. Congress, numerous state legislatures, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the President's Council on Bioethics, European Parliament, British Parliament, Canadian Parliament, Australian Parliament, German Bundestag, French Senate, Swedish Parliament, the Vatican, and the United Nations. This year he helped the state of Kansas establish its Midwest Stem Cell Therapy Center.

To read more about life-saving and ethical adult stem cell treatments, click here: http://www.stemcellresearchfacts.org/

House Passes Hurt Bill to Help Small Businesses Access Capital and Create Jobs

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Robert Hurt (R-Virginia) released the following statement after House passage of H.R. 1105, the Small Business Capital Access and Job Preservation Act, which was introduced by Hurt in May 2013 and passed with a bipartisan 254-159 vote:

 

"I am pleased this important bill has passed the House with bipartisan support.  At a time when economic uncertainty and over-regulation are hindering job creation in Virginia and across our great nation, it is imperative that we implement policies to fuel job growth and move our economy forward.

 

"The Small Business Capital Access and Job Preservation Act will reduce unnecessary regulations implemented by Dodd-Frank that inhibit private equity firms from investing private capital into small businesses.  By reducing over-regulation, this bill will promote greater access to capital for small businesses, encouraging the creation of new jobs and economic stimulation across the country. 

 

"I thank my colleagues for joining me in this effort to grow our economy and create much-needed jobs throughout Virginia and America."

 

H.R. 1105:

 

• Reduces complicated and unnecessary registration requirements that unfairly burden private equity firms that are not highly leveraged.  Private equity invests hundreds of billions of dollars into U.S. businesses each year. Private equity funds did not cause the financial crisis, and they continue to pose no systemic risk to the U.S. economy.
• By eliminating unnecessary regulations, this bill seeks to expand capital formation so that companies can innovate and expand.  H.R. 1105 is a crucial aspect of the bipartisan Financial Services Committee agenda to improve access to capital for businesses so they can infuse much-needed jobs into our fragile economy.
• For more information on H.R. 1105, click here.

 

[To view Congressman Hurt's Floor Speech, click here or below.]

 

 

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Obama Doubles Down

Gary L. Bauer
AMERICAN VALUES

Politico reports that Barack Obama and his congressional allies are launching "a coordinated campaign" today to try to resell Obamacare to the American people. Good luck. A new Rasmussen poll finds that only 16% of likely voters support it.

People are right to be skeptical. During an interview on CNBC last week, cybersecurity expert David Kennedy warned that it could take "over a year to at least address some of the critical-to-high exposures on the website itself." Morgan Wright, another cybersecurity specialist, said, "There's not a plan to fix this that meets the sniff test of being reasonable."

Security aside, the website continues to produce faulty data. In a front page story today, the Washington Post reports that nearly one-third of applications processed through the Obamacare website contain errors. The Post writes:

"The mistakes include failure to notify insurers about new customers, duplicate enrollments or cancellation notices for the same person, incorrect information about family members, and mistakes involving federal subsidies. …

"The errors, if not corrected, mean that tens of thousands of consumers are at risk of not having coverage when the insurance goes into effect Jan. 1"

Quote of the Day

"The President can talk about the website's progress all he wants, but no amount of technology can make up for the biggest ObamaCare errors of all: lost freedom, choices, consciences, and profits."

Tony Perkins' Washington Update

A Thanksgiving Miracle

Gary L. Bauer

American Values

We are getting reports from all over the country of a possible Thanksgiving miracle. Truly, something appears to have happened once believed to be impossible.

On farms in Iowa and in gritty working class neighborhoods in Pittsburg, from sunny L.A. to windy Chicago, we have seen reports that at Thanksgiving meals across the nation, lost sheep came home. As families gazed in wonder in home after home, former "Obamabots" renounced their indoctrination and admitted they had been wrong when they bought into the doubletalk from our community organizer-in-chief.

Sure, these conversions aren't quite a "road to Damascus" experience and backsliding is still possible. But from unemployed college graduates to recently insurance-deprived consumers, the "faith" in "O" has collapsed. God bless America!


Healthcare.gov 2.0

The White House is hailing the relaunch of the Obamacare website, Healthcare.gov, as a success now that it supposedly remains online 90% of the time. Despite all the hype, all is not well. The site crashed when CNN tested it yesterday.

In a report detailing its efforts to rebuild the site, the administration included this telling line: "While there is more work to be done, the team is operating with private sector velocity and effectiveness, and will continue their work to improve and enhance the website in the weeks and months ahead."

After three years and hundreds of millions of dollars down the drain, the administration is now attempting to emulate the private sector. As MSNBC's Chuck Todd put it, "That is an indictment on the whole idea of government as a solution."

The editors of USA Today were particularly harsh in their assessment. In a scathing editorial, the paper noted, as we have many times, that designing a website should have been the easiest part. They wrote:

"…Obama and his signature effort are nowhere near out of the woods. The system still doesn't have enough capacity to handle a rush. …problems that were overshadowed by the website's catastrophic early failures will loom much larger. … and the almost incomprehensible mismanagement exposed by the website fiasco does not inspire confidence…"

Staff Members from Robert Hurt's Office to Hold Local Office Hours in Madison and Halifax Counties

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Staff members from Congressman Robert Hurt's (R-Virginia) office will hold Local Office Hours in Madison and Halifax Counties on Friday, December 6 to meet with constituents who need assistance with federal agencies. For more information, please visit our Local Office Hours Interactive Map.

 

Friday, December 6, 2013

9:00 am to 11:00 am

Local Office Hours in Madison

Madison County Administration Building

Conference Room

414 N. Main St.

Madison, VA

 

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Local Office Hours in Halifax

Mary Bethune Office Complex

Public Meeting Room, 2nd Floor

1030 Mary Bethune Street

Halifax, VA

 

Dec. 14th: Premier of Life Fine Tuned

A Special Holiday Invitation!  

On Saturday, December 14, you and your family will have an opportunity to attend the theatrical premier performance of Life Fine Tuned, a family-oriented movie produced by Nina May, a Rappahannock resident known for her writing and video productions. 

Not only is Life Fine Tuned an excellent movie, but you will enjoy watching familiar faces and places in Rappahannock and Culpeper counties.  But you have to see it first!   Please reserve Saturday evening, December 14 at 6:30 p.m., for you and your family to enjoy some fine entertainment produced in your own back yard.  

Again, the movie will premier on Saturday, December 14, 6:30 p.m., at the State theater in Culpeper, Virginia.   Please check it out at:   www.LifeFineTuned.org, and order your tickets from the State Theater at:  http://www.culpepertheatre.org/events/life-fine-tuned/

The show is totally family-friendly, so pack everyone in the car and head for Culpeper.  But don't forget to check out the website www.LifeFineTuned.org and order your tickets: http://www.culpepertheatre.org/events/life-fine-tuned/

See you at the premier.   

Evelyn Kerr

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