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Obama Administration Opens The Door To Medicare-Funded Sex Reassignment Surgery

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Ruling from Health And Human Services review board changes the game for transgender healthcare in America, advocates say. Update: HHS says it “will carry out this independent board’s ruling.”

The Department Of Health And Human Services in Washington. / Via en.wikipedia.org

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration struck a major blow for transgender rights by quietly ending a decades-long blanket ban that prevented Medicare from covering sex reassignment surgery.

The Department of Health and Human Services' Departmental Appeals Board, an internal review structure within the byzantine federal agency, issued a ruling that ended a ban on Medicare even considering covering sex reassignment surgery and related care because a fear of "serious complications" resulting from the "experimental" surgery. That language was issued in 1981, and most medical professional organizations now consider sex reassignment surgery a safe and accepted procedure. The DAB ruling noted the change in how sex reassignment surgery is understood 33 years after the Medicare ban was issued.

"Even assuming the [National Coverage Determination]'s exclusion of coverage at the time the NCO was adopted was reasonable, that coverage exclusion is no longer reasonable," reads the ruling. "This record includes expert medical testimony and studies published in the years after publication of the NCO."

"Denying Medicare coverage of all transsexual surgery as a treatment for transsexualism is not valid under the "reasonableness standard" the Board applies," the HHS board ruling continues.

Experts say the change to Medicare could have far-reaching implications for American medicine, helping to drive more private insurers to offer coverage for sex reassignment surgery and related care. Though it fits within President Obama's promise to make the government fairer to LGBT Americans, the DAB announcement was a relatively quiet one. The White House did not trumpet the move, and advocates for the change issued a joint statement hailing it but downplaying it as a revolutionary change for transgender people, instead casting it as bringing Medicare up to speed with the rest of the medical profession.

"This decision removes a threshold barrier to coverage for medical care for transgender people under Medicare," leaders of the ACLU, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders and the National Center for Lesbian Rights — the groups that fought for the change — said. "It is consistent with the consensus of the medical and scientific community that access to gender transition-related care is medically necessary for many people with gender dysphoria."

Advocates for the change have noted that the change won't automatically mean Medicare will start covering sex reassignment surgery and related care, but will no longer be prevented from doing so when claims are made.

The statement was a rare on-record communication from a tight-lipped coalition that has sought to avoid controversy by keeping the DAB deliberations out of the headlines. When the Obama administration first broached the idea of allowing Medicare to cover transgender surgery through a public process in 2013, conservative critics launched a vocal opposition campaign that caused the administration to step back and pursue the change through the less public DAB.

As if making the administration's point, the advocates noted that the shift didn't mean that Medicare will immediately be footing the bill for sex reassignment surgery.

"The removal of the exclusion of coverage for surgical care for Medicare recipients means that individuals will not automatically have claims of coverage for gender transition-related surgeries denied," reads the statement from the advocates. "They should either get coverage or, at a minimum, receive an individualized review of the medical need for the specific procedure they seek, just like anyone seeking coverage for any other medical treatment."

HHS spokesperson Aaron Albright issued a short response to the DAB ruling.

"The national policy barring Medicare from covering gender transition surgery has been invalidated by HHS's Departmental Appeals Board. As with all such determinations, CMS will carry out this independent board's ruling through Medicare Administrative Contractors, who manage Medicare claims payment systems. These contractors may cover this care case-by-case or under a local coverage determination based on clinical evidence to determine medical appropriateness."

Read the HHS Ruling


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The 31 Weirdest Political Names Of All Time

Jay Carney Resigns As White House Press Secretary

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Josh Earnest takes over as the president’s top spokesperson.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Staffing shuffles were the name of the game in the White House Friday, with President Obama making the surprise announcement that his chief spokesperson, Jay Carney, was stepping down just hours after Obama came to the mics to announce the resignation of Veteran's Administration Chief Eric Shinseki.

At a surprise appearance at the regularly scheduled White House briefing, Obama announced Carney's deputy Josh Earnest — a longtime fixture of Obama's circle "going all the way back to the Iowa caucuses" in 2008, Obama noted — will take over as White House press secretary.

What's next for Carney, who commanded the White House lectern through a tumultuous time for the White House including the 2012 elections, a Republican-led shutdown of the federal government, and the disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov, wasn't immediately clear after the surprise announcement. Carney said "it's not my last briefing" Friday, but didn't specifically lay out a transition schedule for Earnest to take over.

Carney did once again shoot down rumors he's interested in becoming U.S. ambassador to Russia. The Russian-speaking former Moscow bureau chief for Time told the White House press corps Friday he's not seeking the job.

Amid Scandal, Senate Conservatives Aren't Rushing To Defend Mississippi Tea Party Upstart

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After a sordid scandal consumed national headlines, Chris McDaniel is fighting to shift the narrative and unseat incumbent Thad Cochran in the upcoming June 3 primary. But as some of the details of the scandal remain unclear, many on the Hill are holding their breath and reserving any outright support for the embattled candidate.

Via nakeddc.com

Senate conservative leaders are keeping their distance from Mississippi upstart Chris McDaniel's effort to oust veteran Republican Sen. Thad Cochran as the tea party favorite's scandal plagued primary campaign limps to the finish line.

To be sure, not all conservatives are staying out of the race: Celebrity conservative Sarah Palin, for instance, endorsed McDaniel on Thursday and was scheduled to make an appearance with him on Friday.

But if the Mississippi tea partyer was hoping for a last-minute shot in the arm from Senate conservatives before Tuesday's primary election, it doesn't appear to be coming.

"This election is ultimately going to be about policies, not personalities; specifics, not spin," Sen. Mike Lee said in a statement to BuzzFeed. "People not only want to hear where the candidates are on the issues, but the specific policy proposals they support that will accomplish real reform. So yes, issue-based campaigns are more prominent because, in true democratic fashion, candidates are responding to what voters want in this election cycle."

A spokesperson for Sen. Ted Cruz was similarly vague in response to questions about McDaniel's campaign, saying first that Cruz would leave "the pundits to speculate on other's campaign tactics."

"The senator has said before that we should respect the primary process and work together to elect a majority — not for the mere sake of a majority — but for a majority that commits in no uncertain terms to reject Washington business as usual, restore the Constitution, and enact meaningful reform," Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said in a statement. "He stands ready to work with anyone who commits to reduce the ever-growing power that the federal government imposes on the daily lives of the people."

As for Sen. Rand Paul, whom, along with Lee and Cruz, McDaniel has repeatedly cited as a model for his approach to politics, his office did not respond to requests for comment.

Although it is not uncommon for sitting lawmakers to avoid explicitly endorsing challengers to their Senate colleagues, with McDaniel's campaign mired in an ugly scandal, Senate conservatives are taking a decidedly noncommittal approach. This isn't entirely new for Cruz, though, as he refused to endorse Senator John Cornyn during the Texas primary earlier this year, which read as a breach of etiquette for a fellow delegation member. Yet, earlier this month, Lee backed Ben Sasse's successful primary run in the absence of an incumbent in Nebraska.

It wasn't supposed to be this way for McDaniel, one of the rising stars of the tea party movement. But in the last month, McDaniel has seen his campaign go from a top contender to oust an old guard Republican to a political nightmare as a scandal involving a number of high-profile supporters has engulfed the race.

Clayton Kelly, a political blogger in Mississippi, allegedly broke into a nursing home in which Thad Cochran's ailing wife Rose was housed in order to concoct a hit piece on the senator. The story ballooned into a national conversation when Kelly and three supporters of McDaniel's campaign were arrested in connection to the break-in. One of the men, John Mary, used to host "Right Side Radio" with Chris McDaniel, a program on which the latter made some questionable remarks in the past. Mark Mayfield, an individual with tea party ties in Mississippi who supports McDaniel's campaign, is one of the other men facing charges for the break-in.

While there is no confirmed link between the break-in and McDaniel's campaign, a Republican strategist on Capitol Hill told BuzzFeed that he and many of his colleagues think that the McDaniel campaign was connected in some way to the break-in.

"These guys who organized the break-in didn't seem very smart and must have had direction from above," he said.

Even without an direct connection, the break-in has been viewed as catastrophic at worst and damaging at best.

While some of McDaniel's most ardent supporters in his home state are still standing behind him, even they expressed some reservations about discussing the men who were arrested for the break-in.

"I'm not officially involved with his campaign, but I support [McDaniel] wholeheartedly," said Jennifer West, the founder of the Hattiesburg Tea Party. John Mary used to be a member of her organization but resigned a few months ago according to West, for reasons she would not explain.

West confirmed that she knew both Mary and Mayfield but alleged that they didn't know each other. "I've never heard either one mention the other," she said. And in the midst of all the confusion, she is certain that those who were arrested for the break-in were not acting on behalf of McDaniel or the tea party.

"Chris McDaniel and Mark Mayfield both share the highest level of integrity in this state," West said. "If you could name two people that never ever crossed the line, they would be two people at the top of the list."

While Cochran's camp has used the scandal in an attack ad, they were hesitant to make hasty allegations in a statement to BuzzFeed last week.

"The investigation is ongoing, and the McDaniel campaign has changed their story daily, sometimes more than once daily," said Jordan Russell, Cochran's spokesman. "Every time something new happens, it raises even more questions. They have a lot of questions that need answering."

The window for those answers is closing as the primary quickly approaches, leaving McDaniel's supporters to assume innocence until proven guilty.

"I can't imagine a guy like Chris McDaniel would ever think this is a good idea; that's ludicrous," said Kevin Broughton, spokesman for the National Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund. "If I were a candidate and somebody came in and said, 'Hey, listen to this,' I'd have shot him with a Taser."

The National Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund purchased a recent ad spot for McDaniel, and hopes he can join a growing team of ideological allies in the Senate.

"I got to thinking, Ted Cruz could use a little help," Broughton said. "And Chris McDaniel is the one guy who had the courage to step out and say, 'I'm going to do this.' He didn't wait. He stepped out there. I think he's got the mentality and the intellectual temperament to be a guy right there with Mike Lee and Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. I couldn't think of a stronger reason to vote for him."

Breakdown Of The Most Awkward Hug In White House History

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Carney’d

President Obama said goodbye to his press secretary of 3 1/2 years today.

President Obama said goodbye to his press secretary of 3 1/2 years today.

And as a parting gesture, Obama gave Carney a historic gift....

And as a parting gesture, Obama gave Carney a historic gift....

The first problem was Obama not really knowing where to put his hands.

The first problem was Obama not really knowing where to put his hands.


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Cuomo Looks To Damage Progressive New York Party

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Aide asks other top state officials to refuse Working Families endorsement.

Hans Pennink / Reuters / Reuters

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is responding to a rebellion from the state's progressive third party by attempting to push other Democrats away from the Working Families Party.

Cuomo has asked Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to refuse the Working Families line on November's ballot, four sources told BuzzFeed. One of those sources said Cuomo had sought the same from State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.

Aides to Cuomo and Tom DiNapoli didn't immediately respond to inquiries about the alleged strong-arm move. An aide to Schneiderman declined to comment.

Cuomo's move is an escalation that raises the stakes on both sides of the ideologically charged battle, one that has brought to the fore the New York governor's growing rift with the state's left. Cuomo political aide and longtime enforcer Joe Percoco has, the sources said, made the request, which is aimed at threatening the party's ability to get the 50,000 votes for governor in November's election required for a permanent slot on the statewide ballot.

The Working Families Party, whose base combines labor unions and individuals and activist groups, has emerged as a force in New York through unusual "fusion" laws that allow candidates to run on more than one party line. Serving at times as the tail that wags the Democratic Party dog, it has close ties to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and other top officials.

Cuomo, who ran on the party line in 2010, has governed as a liberal on some cultural issues, like marriage equality, but has moved to his party's right on the economic issues of higher taxes on the rich and expanded spending that are at the core of the Working Families Party's agenda. People close to the party say its leaders hoped to use the endorsement as leverage to extract a promise from Cuomo — for instance, a major change to campaign finance law that could tilt the balance away from wealthy individuals and businesses.

But while Working Families elements from major labor unions, like 1199 SEIU, worked to cut a deal with Cuomo, sources close to the party said, its grass roots revolted. The activist group Citizen Action and local leaders are instead fighting to have the party endorse Zephyr Teachout, a law professor and former aide to Howard Dean, at its convention this weekend.

People close to the party say Cuomo may find it hard to win at the convention.

"They've actually built a part that is full of true believers — and nobody in the rank and file believes the government promises," said one person close to the WFP.

"The core activists are asking, 'How can we endorse this guy? He's a right-wing douchebag,'" said a New York Democrat.

A source close to the governor's office cast it in similarly ideological terms:

"Let's remember there's a national debate going on right now about where the Democratic party is. Is it a party of Bill de Blasio and Elizabeth Warren? Or is it the party of Cuomo, Governor O'Malley and Hillary Clinton?" the source said. Cuomo is "trying to blend that into this years re-election bid."

The logic of Cuomo's request to Schneiderman — a political foe — and DiNapoli is that pulling other top officials off the line could diminish the votes for its gubernatorial candidate. Some in the Working Families Party argue the reverse: That it will get more votes as a protest against Cuomo, and that the other officials would do more damage to themselves than to the party if they dropped the line.

Cuomo is also, in any event, expected to win handily in November.

And Cuomo is fighting for the endorsement — but the legendarily brass-knuckles governor's new move is going further, and attempting to do deep damage to a party that has become one of the most powerful progressive institutions in the country.

The Week Republicans Stopped Fighting Marriage Equality

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The GOP starts the move to “living in the real world.”

Governor Tom Corbett salutes as a Boy Scout raises the American flag while the National Anthem is played on Monday, May 26, 2014.

Nabil K. Mark/Centre Daily Times / MCT

NEW YORK CITY — While Republicans aren't likely to join the fight for marriage equality en masse, the past week has shown that a growing core of the party is done fighting.

Since Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett announced last Thursday that he would not be appealing a ruling striking down his state's ban on same-sex couples' marriages, two key Republican voices have signaled that Corbett is right and the fight is over.

The next day, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — one of the Republicans often discussed as a potential 2016 presidential nominee — essentially ceded the issue to federal judges.

"Any federal judge has got to look at that law not only with respect to the state's constitution but what it means in terms of the U.S. Constitution, as well. Again, I'm not going to pretend to tell a federal judge in that regard what he or she should do about it," Walker said, adding that "[v]oters don't talk to [him] about that."

Then, on Wednesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch — a key voice for Republicans on judicial issues since the 1990s — went even further than Walker in an interview with KSL radio.

"Anybody that does not believe that gay marriage is going to be the law of the land just hasn't been observing what's going on," he said. "The trend right now in the courts is to permit gay marriage, and anybody who doesn't admit that just isn't living in the real world."

Following state and federal court rulings in Arkansas, Idaho, Oregon, and Pennsylvania striking down state bans on same-sex couples' marriage — and decisions by Oregon officials and Corbett in Pennsylvania not to appeal those decisions — Corbett, Walker, and Hatch are staking out the new Republican normal on LGBT rights.

Sen. Orrin Hatch

Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images


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Andrew Cuomo Wins Spot On Progressive New York Party Line

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A contentious vote.

Hans Pennink / Reuters / Reuters

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo won the Working Families ballot line Saturday night, but he didn't win the crowd.

After a late frenzy of back room dealing, Cuomo ultimately secured a spot on the ballot line for the state's leading progressive party with 59% of the vote.

Cuomo's nomination wasn't challenged until the Thursday before Saturday's convention, when Zephyr Teachout, a former aide to Howard Dean and Fordham University professor, announced she would also seek a spot on the ballot.

His unexpectedly tough fight was supported by key Democratic and Working Families allies — including New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and several top unions, like 1199 SEIU — who negotiated votes behind the scenes on behalf of the governor.

Though Teachout ultimately couldn't out-maneuver Cuomo for votes, she did bring an enthusiastic following at the convention. Cuomo, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, was raucously booed multiple times at the convention, which he did not attend because of "other engagements." Some stood with their backs to Cuomo in silent protest as his video message was played to the crowd.

Teachout and her supporters were, in contrast, met with cheers, chants and at one point a group of people marching between aisles with signs.

The party is divided on Cuomo because he governs on the right of its economic ideologies like taxes on the rich, though he has supported liberal cultural issues like marriage equality.

Having Cuomo on the ballot is also helpful to the party. If it can garner 50,000 votes for governor in November it will have a permanent slot on the statewide ballot.

Cuomo's nomination came on the heels of a deal brokered between Working Families leaders that included a promise to push for a Democratic state Senate, including a $10 million fund to help make it happen.

New York's senate is currently controlled by Republicans as a part of a power sharing deal with five breakaway Democratic senators who caucus with the GOP.

Cuomo pledged to primary the members of the breakaway caucus if they don't come back to the Democrats.

"There is nothing moderate about these Republicans," he said in a video message.

"I believe [Cuomo's] assurance that he supports this progressive vision, and we'll move forward with it," said de Blasio, who made a last minute trip to Albany to speak on Cuomo's behalf.

Several labor leaders, including 1199 SEIU's George Gresham and CWA's Bob Master, also spoke in support of Cuomo.

"We believe that we can unite with Governor Cuomo around a platform of progressive change, come a Democratic senate," Master said.

Bertha Lewis of the Black Institute nominated Teachout.

"We gave [Cuomo] four years and we said then, 'never again.' What are we doing here now?" she said.

LINK: Cuomo Looks To Damage Progressive New York Party


Democratic Senator On National Debt: "Shame On Us"

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Speaking in Harrisonburg, Virginia, on Friday as a part of his U.S. Senate campaign kickoff tour, Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said of the national debt, “shame on us.” Warner described the national debt as a national security threat. Since 2009, when Warner was sworn into office, the national debt has increased by nearly $7 trillion.

youtube.com

Tense New York Convention A "Gut Check" For Democrats

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“We have to regain the confidence of the electorate that we don’t just say we stand for something different, but we really can effectively deliver,” says Schneiderman.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

ALBANY, N.Y. — Forced to choose between passion and pragmatism, New York's leading progressive party made a deal with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, handing its ballot line to a moderate in whom many of its members have completely lost faith.

When the final votes were tallied and it was announced late Saturday night that Cuomo would once again be on the Working Families Party ballot line come November, an audible eruption of boos, hisses, and profanities could be heard from the crowd.

But Cuomo had gone around the grassroots. Instead, he struck a deal with the party's core leadership, comprised primarily of activists and top union leaders, giving him nearly 59% of the weighted party vote. Despite a video message in which he promised to champion some progressive causes and commit to reinstalling a Democrat-controlled state Senate, Cuomo's victory was reviled by a large part of convention's attendees, a New York left for whom his name is now a dirty word — but many of whom didn't have a nominating vote.

The choice represented an ideological crossroads for progressives in New York, and a national test for a rising left, aides to one of whose leading figures, Mayor Bill de Blasio, played a role in brokering the deal.

"I think the Democratic Party nationally is going through a period where people all over the country are seeing this and people are getting a little more of a gut check," said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a progressive stalwart who helped win votes for Cuomo in the final hours of Saturday's convention. "We have to regain the confidence of the electorate that we don't just say we stand for something different, but we really can effectively deliver."

Cuomo has governed on the left on social issues like marriage equality, but as a moderate on taxes and education policy. He has also made little effort to end Republican control the state Senate. Saturday's convention marked a clear, dramatic break with elements of the left that had been a long time in coming.

The relatively close vote showed "the deep dissatisfaction with the Cuomo administration, and the raw hunger for deep change," the left's candidate, law professor Zephyr Teachout, said in a statement Sunday night. "We need a whole different argument about what kind of America we want to live in."

One progressive strategist, Mike Lux, described the frenzy at the convention as a microcosm of national Democratic politics, in which an increasingly confident left is struggling to find an identity and a central issue on which to confront mainstream Democrats; he pointed to the split over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which Obama supports but the progressive wing is bitterly against.

"The two sides of the party, they have to work together at times because the Republicans are nuts and nobody wants the Republicans to take control of the national government," Lux said. But "on a lot of policy issues they are going to part ways and they are going to push and shove each other. And that's the way it is."

House Armed Services Chairman: There Will Be Hearings On Bergdahl-Taliban Deal

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“We will be looking into this,” says Rep. Buck McKeon. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was released from Taliban captivity on Saturday in exchange for five Gitmo detainees.

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7 Times Barack Obama Promised To Reform The VA

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“It’s time for comprehensive reform. When I am president, building a 21st century VA to serve our veterans will be an equal priority to building a 21st century military to fight our wars.”

Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press / MCT

Speaking publicly last week after the presentation of an internal report that Veterans Affairs hospital officials doctored paperwork to cover long wait times for veterans seeking care, President Obama called the misconduct "unacceptable."

"They found is that the misconduct has not been limited to a few VA facilities, but many across the country," Obama said. "Totally unacceptable. Our veterans deserve the best. They've earned it. Last week I said that if we found misconduct, it would be punished, and I meant it."

Earlier in his first term as president and during his campaign and transition into office Obama repeatedly promised to make the VA a leader in health care reform promising "comprehensive reform" and to bring the department into the "21st century."

Here are seven times Obama spoke of transforming the VA:

To keep our sacred trust, I will improve mental health screening and treatment at all levels: from enlistment, to deployment, to reentry into civilian life. No service-member should be kicked out of the military because they are struggling with untreated PTSD. No veteran should have to fill out a 23-page claim to get care, or wait months - even years - to get an appointment at the VA. We need more mental health professionals, more training to recognize signs and to reject the stigma of seeking care. And to treat a signature wound of these wars, we need clear standards of care for Traumatic Brain Injury.

We also need to provide more services to our military families. Let me thank the VFW for helping families with everything from repairs and errands to calling cards that bring a loved one nearer. Efforts like Operation Uplink make a huge difference. You are filling in some of the painful spaces in peoples' lives. And anyone who has visited our military hospitals has seen wonderful spouses who don't see visiting hours as part-time. That's why I passed a bill to provide family members with a year of job protection, so they never have to face a choice between caring for a loved one and keeping a job.

I have also fought to improve shameful care for wounded warriors. I led a bipartisan effort to improve outpatient facilities, slash red tape, and reform the disability review process - because recovering troops should always go to the front of the line, and they shouldn't have to fight to get there.

But we know that the sacred trust cannot expire when the uniform comes off. When we fail to keep faith with our veterans, the bond between our nation and our nation's heroes becomes frayed. When a veteran is denied care, we are all dishonored. It's not enough to lay a wreath on Memorial Day, or to pay tribute to our veterans in speeches. A proud and grateful nation owes more than ceremonial gestures and kind words.

Caring for those who serve - and for their families - is a fundamental responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief. It is not a separate cost. It is a cost of war. It is something I've fought for as a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs. And it is something I will fight for as President of the United States.

It's time for comprehensive reform. When I am President, building a 21st century VA to serve our veterans will be an equal priority to building a 21st century military to fight our wars. My Secretary of Veteran's Affairs will be just as important as my Secretary of Defense. No more shortfalls - it's time to fully fund the VA medical center. No more delays - it's time to pass on-time VA budgets each and every year. No more means testing - it's time to allow all veterans back into the VA. I will immediately reverse a policy that led the VA to turn away nearly 1 million middle and low-income veterans since 2003.

The VA will also be at the cutting edge of my plan for universal health care, with better preventive care, more research and specialty treatment, and more Vet Centers, particularly in rural areas.

As president, I won't stand for hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting for benefits. We'll hire additional claims workers. We'll bring together veterans groups and the VA to work out a claims process that is fair and fast. And instead of shutting veterans out, we'll make sure that our disabled vets receive the benefits they deserve, and we'll allow all veterans back into the VA health care system. And we'll have a simple policy when it comes to homeless veterans: zero tolerance. We'll expand housing vouchers. We'll set up a new supportive services program to prevent at-risk veterans and their families from sliding into homelessness. We'll stand with veterans in their hour of need, just as they have stood up for us.


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An Obama Effigy Hanging From A Bridge Shut Down A Busy Highway In Missouri

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Police are investigating if it should be viewed as a legitimate threat to the president.

Grain Valley and the bridge are just southeast of Kansas City.

Grain Valley and the bridge are just southeast of Kansas City.

Via google.com

According to Fox4 News in Kansas City, a driver spotted the effigy at 5:30 in the morning and a bomb squad robot was called in to remove it.

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You Might Learn Something From John Oliver's Goddamn Brilliant Net Neutrality Explainer

Obama Dismisses Critics Of His Green Push

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“At every one of these steps there have been folks who said it can’t be done,” the president said on a conference call Monday.

Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press / MCT

WASHINGTON — As Republicans and coal industry supporters ramped up plans to shut down President Obama's most ambitious climate change program, the president dismissed the opposition as willfully ignorant on a conference call Monday with the American Lung Association.

"You should expect that there's going to be a heated debate in Washington," he said. "A lot of efforts to put out misinformation and to try to make sure that spin overwhelms substance and that PR overwhelms science."

Earlier in the day, EPA administrator Gina McCarthy announced the latest move in Obama's plan to use executive power to drive the country toward more energy efficiency. Under new rules proposed by the EPA, power plants would be required to reduce their carbon emissions by up to 30% of 2005 levels over the next 15 years.

The coal industry and its supporters in Washington — including some red-state Democrats in the Senate — attacked the plan, and vowed to try to keep it from being adopted, warning the standards could raise energy prices and kill energy industry jobs.

Obama said those complaints are unfounded, and emphasized his administration's findings that climate change impacts are adversely affecting Americans now.

"I promise you, you will hear from critics who say the same thing they always say. That these guidelines will kill jobs or crush the economy," Obama said. "What we've seen every time is that these claims are debunked when you actually give workers and businesses the tools and incentive they need to innovate. When Americans are called on to innovate, that's what we do."

"At everyone one of these steps there have been folks who said it can't be done," Obama said.


CNN Host: "Obama Likes His Bros"

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An amusing moment from Jake Tapper during a panel discussion about the White House’s decision to select “another white man” to be Obama’s press secretary.

Congressman Takes Off Shirt, Surfs Into Your Heart

GOP Science Committee Chair Begins Hearing By Saying Scientific Climate Change Consensus Has Been "Debunked"

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“We should focus on good science, rather than politically correct science.”

In his opening remarks, committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith said the IPCC report and Obama administration's third National Climate Assessment are "designed to spread fear and alarm and provide cover for previously determined government policies."

Via science.house.gov

At the hearing, Smith also said the figure of 97% of scientists believe climate change is caused by humans "has been debunked."

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"The president and others often claim that 97% of scientists believe that global warming is primarily driven by human activity. However, the study they cite has been debunked.

"While the majority of scientists surveyed may think humans contribute something to climate change, and I would agree, only 1% said that humans cause most of the warming. So the president has misrepresented the study’s results.

"We should focus on good science, rather than politically correct science. The facts should determine which climate policy options the U.S. and world considers."

Republican Senator Suggests Obama Made Prisoner Swap To Speed Up Closing Guantanamo

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Sen. Jim Inhofe said Monday the president was motivated to make the Bergdahl-Taliban deal in part because he wants to close the facility.

Sen. Jim Inhofe

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee suggested Monday that the Obama administration negotiated the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban prisoners without first consulting Congress in part because the president wants to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

"All I know is arguably is that these five are perhaps the most dangerous terrorists that were at [Guantanamo],"said Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe. "I think the whole motivation here is the president wants to shut that down; he knows he doesn't have the support of Congress and that's part of the motivation.

"It fits right in with what the president has been trying to do on Gitmo since before he was president of the United States."

In a joint statement with the House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon, Inhofe on Sunday also said the White House may have broken the law by not notifying Congress 30 days before the transfer of the prisoners. The White House said Bergdahl's circumstance was "unique and exigent," requiring them to move quickly.

Sen. Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, announced there would be a closed hearing on the prisoner exchange next week. Inhofe said he wanted the hearing to be open.

"In this case, I am not sure I want to go to a closed one," Inhofe said. "If I can't share it with the public, I don't want to know it."

Republican Strategist Helped Organize Bergdahl Critics

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Former Bush administration and Romney campaign official Richard Grenell helped connect the media and soldiers who served with Bergdahl.

Bowe Bergdahl

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A former Bush administration official who was hired, then resigned, as Mitt Romney's foreign policy spokesman played a key role in publicizing critics of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the released prisoner of war.

The involvement of Richard Grenell, who once served as a key aide to Bush-era U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton and later worked for Romney's 2012 campaign, comes as the Bergdahl release has turned into an increasingly vicious partisan issue.

The New York Times reported that "Republican strategists" had arranged an interview for them with men who served in Afghanistan with Bergdahl, who was released after five years of imprisonment by the Taliban in a controversial prisoner swap deal. In the article, the men express their anger at Bergdahl for leaving the base, causing other soldiers to risk their lives looking for him.

The same soldiers also did interviews with The Weekly Standard, the Daily Mail, the Wall Street Journal, and Fox News.

Cody Full, one of the soldiers quoted in the New York Times and other stories, tweeted yesterday about Grenell: "I want to thank @richardgrenell for helping get our platoon's story out." Grenell retweeted the tweet, calling Full a "true American hero."

The issue of the prisoner swap that led to Bergdahl's release has quickly become partisan, with many Republicans arguing that the release of five Taliban prisoners for Bergdahl was too high a price. The circumstances under which Bergdahl left the base are also disputed, and there have been questions in the media about whether Bergdahl was a deserter.

Reached by phone, Grenell's partner at Capitol Media Partners, Brad Chase, confirmed that the firm had been helping the soldiers get their story out.

"Obviously Ric is a well-known Republican and these guys found him on Twitter and reached out asking for help in getting their story out," Chase said. "Ric obviously saw that this is something that needed to be told and came to me and others in our firm, and I and some of the others determined that this was a story that we wanted to work on."

Chase said the New York Times' reference to them as "Republican strategists" was "100% factually inaccurate" because he himself is not a Republican. But a producer for The Michael Berry Show, a radio show that one of the soldiers spoke on, told BuzzFeed that Grenell was the point of contact for the bookings.

He declined to confirm which other interviews Capitol had arranged, but said the work for the soldiers was pro bono and added, "We're just providing administrative help forwarding along emails" while the soldiers themselves decide which interviews to do.

Gideon Resnick contributed reporting.

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