Monthly Archives: October 2013

U.S. GOP piecemeal plan to mitigate shutdown fails in House

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WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans failed to move forward Tuesday with a piecemeal approach to fund popular parts of the federal government to lessen the impact of the first government shutdown in 17 years.
 
House and Senate Republicans had offered short-term funding plans to keep open national parks, the Department of Veterans Affairs and other government services in the nation's capital. House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky. said the piecemeal approach would "continue to move the ball down the field" towards finding an agreement to resume full government funding.
 
However, the GOP efforts failed to win the necessary support in the House of Representatives to advance to the Senate. The votes fell well short of the two-thirds threshold needed to suspend House rules.
 
The Senate had already warned that the plan would meet fate there as every previous attempt by the House to amend the stopgap funding bill. In that chamber, Democrats maintain the only way to end the shutdown is for the House to allow a vote on a stopgap measure to fund the government through mid-November that does not include legislation affecting President Obama's health care law.
 
Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said she did not support funding the government in "bits and pieces."
 
"We're the entire United States of America. You keep the whole government going, that's what you're supposed to do," she said. "All they have to do in the House is let the House vote on the Senate (bill) and let the House work it's will."
 
The White House agreed. "These piecemeal efforts are not serious, and they are no way to run a government. If House Republicans are legitimately concerned about the impacts of a shutdown — which extend across government from our small businesses to women, children and seniors — they should do their job and pass a clean CR to reopen the government," said Amy Brundage, a White House spokeswoman.
 
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Democrats were not against debating some of the proposals that Republicans offered in the weeks leading up to the shutdown on the Affordable Care Act. He cited as an example a proposal to repeal a 2.3% tax on medical devices enacted to help pay for the law. However, Durbin said Democrats would not negotiate on the stopgap spending bill, or on a pending vote to increase the debt ceiling, the nation's borrowing limit.
 
"After the CR and the debt ceiling, I have been open to that," Durbin said, "Doing this with a gun to your head, as we've said over and over again, is not the appropriate way to bargain."
 
House Republicans huddled in private earlier Tuesday, and lawmakers showed no signs of losing cohesion on the first day of the shutdown. Republicans are bullish about the politics of a shutdown and they have reason to be, said David Wasserman, an analyst for the non-partisan Cook Political Report.
 
"Democrats have always believed a shutdown would finally make voters pay attention to how 'extreme' House Republicans are. So far there's not a ton of evidence that the game has changed," Wasserman said.
 
The 2014 national landscape still tilts in favor of House Republicans, where only one lawmaker, Rep. Gary Miller, R-Calif., sits in a district currently rated as a "toss-up" by Cook. Following a remapping of congressional districts in 2012, House Republicans represent fewer swing seats and are beholden to more conservative constituencies. There is also little institutional memory from the shutdown fights of nearly two decades ago.
 
Just 37 Republicans currently serving in Congress were present for the shutdowns during the Clinton administration, while 111 Republicans have been elected since President George W. Bush left office, Wasserman said.
 
In the last shutdown, there was also bipartisan interest in resolving the impasses. At the time, 79 Republicans represented districts President Clinton won. Today, just 17 Republicans represent districts carried by President Obama. "If anything, Obama has negative leverage with House Republicans," Wasserman said.
 
The polling today is in Democrats favor. A Quinnipiac national poll released Tuesday show American voters oppose 72%-22% Congress shutting down the government in their effort to block implementation of the law. Voters also choose a Democratic candidate over a Republican candidate 43%-34% in a generic ballot, the widest Democratic margin measured so far for the 2014 elections.
 
"Americans are certainly not in love with Obamacare, but they reject decisively the claim by congressional Republicans that it is so bad that it's worth closing down the government to stop it," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Nigeria: How effective will this national conference be?

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THE Nigerian political landscape was astir, yesterday, following President Goodluck Jonathan’s nod for the much agitated national conference.
 
In his 46-point 53rd Independence Day broadcast, the President said his administration has taken cognizance of suggestions over the years by well-meaning Nigerians on the need for a National Dialogue on the future of the country.
As an advocate of dialogue and in demonstration of his belief in the positive power of dialogue in charting the way forward, he said he had decided to set up an Advisory Committee that will establish the modalities for the conference.
 
The panel will also design a framework and come up with recommendations as to the form, structure and mechanism of the process within one month after which the nation will be briefed on the nomenclature, structure and modalities of the dialogue.
The committee is to be chaired by Dr. Femi Okurounmu with Dr. Akilu Indabawa as secretary. The move, which is coming after 20 years of agitation for a national conference to enable the people fashion a constitution for themselves, immediately, raised dust in the polity.
While some observers hailed the announcement, others received it with cautious optimism and some felt it was a diversionary move by President Jonathan to boost his 2015 re-election ambition.
 
There were also those who feared that the exercise may be another jamboree that will not crack the kernel of socio-economic, ethno-religious, political and development problems plaguing the nation. The divergent views raise the question of whether or not the latest effort will be different from past exercises.
Past conferences, their aims and shortfalls
Before Independence, Nigerian leaders were locked in series of constitutional conferences. In 1958, for instance, 106 Nigerian delegates drawn from the ethnic nationalities attended a conference in London to look at what was then the Nigerian federation. That conference yielded the 1960 Constitution that ushered Nigeria into independence.
With the departure of Southern Cameroon from Nigeria and three years into self-rule, the country fashioned another codebook — the 1963 Republican Constitution. The military intervention of 1966 had the constitution abrogated and the country was ruled by decrees.
However, the military set up a Constituent Assembly in 1977, which produced the 1979 Constitution that returned the country to civil rule. The 1979 Constitution was ratified by the Supreme Military Council, SMC, headed by the then Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo.
About four years later, the military overthrew the civilians and captured power again. They also set aside the 1979 constitution and promulgated decrees.
In 1989, the then General Ibrahim Babamasi Babangida-led military government set up a constituent assembly with the intention of returning power to civilians in 1990.
The move produced the short-lived 1993 Constitution, which went up in smoke when Babangida postponed the handover date several times even though members of the National Assembly and governors had been elected and were in office.
His annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections presumably won by late business tycoon, Chief M. K. O.  Abiola, unleashed much tension and violence on the polity. He stepped aside in 1993 after appointing Chief Ernest Shonekan as interim president.
Agitation for SNC
The clamour for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) gained currency in 1994 following the ‘June 12’ misadventure. Proponents picked holes in the unitary system of government and canvassed a restructured polity that would drive socio-economic and political development.
The General Sani Abacha regime, which snatched power from Shonekan organized a National Constitutional Conference (NCC) in 1994 made of elected and government appointed delegates.
The confab was boycotted by the progressive wing of the South-West, led by late Chief Abraham Adesanya, which insisted on the SNC.
The conference came up with far-reaching decisions like creation of the six geo-political zones and 13 per cent derivation. But it was perceived as exercise meant for Abacha to transmute into a civilian ruler. The proposed constitution was in the works until Abacha died in 1998.
When General Abdulsalami Abubakar took over in 1998, he announced a speedy transition programme that lasted 11 months. He set up a committee led by Justice Niki Tobi to sieve through the volumes of constitutional documents and come up with a grundnorm.
The process gave birth to the 1999 Constitution with which civilians reclaimed power in 1999.
However, the 1999 constitution was replete with many ambiguities and inconsistencies that threatened smooth flow of governance. Pro-democracy activists among others questioned the preamble, which said: ‘we the people…. arguing that the people of Nigeria never took part in making the constitution. They went on to insist on SNC.
 
Constitution amendment exercise
However, the President Olusegun Obasanjo and the National Assembly opposed calls for sovereign national conference, arguing that there could not be two sovereignties in the country. Nevertheless, Obasanjo, in his second term, organised a National Political Reforms Conference (NPRC) with all the delegates appointed.
One of the resolutions of the confab was 18 per cent derivation. However, the decisions of the conference, which the National Assembly was discussing, including its constitution amendment exercise, died with Obasanjo’s alleged Third Term agenda.
Under President Jonathan, the 1999 constitution has been amended twice and the National Assembly is on the verge of completing the third amendment yet the challenges facing the country remain intractable.
Senator Okurounmu, a former leader of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), who hails from the South-West, has been in the thick and thin of the agitation for national conference. He obviously knows how to proceed with the onerous assignment handed him. It is to be seen how far the latest move will go.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Eat peanut butter and reduce breast cancer risk

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THERE is a link between eating vegetable proteins such as those found in peanut butter and a lower risk of breast cancer. Noncancerous benign breast disease occurs from either an infection or injury which causes lumps to breast tissue or from changes to the breast.

 

Studies show that although other types of vegetable proteins and fats could have the same effect, there is not as much data on those as on peanut butter.

Although researchers  from Harvard Medical School, the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, did not show that eating peanut butter would prevent  breast cancer, they only showed the relationship between eating peanut butter and breast disease.

 

The study involved 9,039 girls from the United States from nine to 15 years old, starting in 1996. Annually, they filled out food questionnaires until 2001. They then filled out the questionnaires every two years until 2011. The study determined the effects from childhood or adolescence until early adulthood.

The study began to track whether the females had breast disease in 2005. The women were all adults then, with the youngest being 18.

According to the research, eating peanut butter twice a week as children or adolescents reduced the chance of getting the breast disease by 39 percent. The effect was more noticeable in girls whose families had a history of breast cancer.

The findings seem to suggest that peanut butter could “reduce the risk of breast cancer in women.”

 

According to the study, lentils, beans, corn and soybeans may also help prevent the breast disease. Because the consumption of these items was lower by participants in the study, the evidence of this was weaker, however.

There have been previous studies which have demonstrated that the consumption of vegetable fat, peanut butter and nuts may lower the risk of benign breast disease.

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Nigeria Government 419 Biometrics

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The need to identify every Nigerian citizen does not call for lengthy explanations. It is therefore in order for the Nigerian Identity Management Commission whose mandate it is to do so to take steps which it considers necessary to meet the mandate. In this age of technology, the commission would probably have the right to acquire the biometrics of all citizens.
 
Another agency of government- the National Population Commission has the mandate of determining the numerical strength of the Nigerian population. In doing so, the commission would need to have an accurate record of each person who claims to be a Nigerian. As a result, the commission considers it expedient to subject us all to a biometrics exercise. Thus, the Identity Commission and the Population Commission are two government bodies that have in their records, names, face recognition, fingerprints and other details of all Nigerians
 
Every Nigerian is also entitled to possess the international passport especially those who may wish to travel outside the country for certain transactions. The Nigerian Immigration Service is responsible for issuing international passports to anyone. It is however not compulsory to hold a passport but any person who is interested in having one must be prepared to face another set of biometrics arrangement. The same fate awaits all those who are 18years and above and are desirous of being registered as voters in Nigeria. For this group, the body to surrender biometrics to is the Independent National Electoral Commission. So, with all these bodies capturing the same personal information, though for different purposes, biometrics in Nigeria has become an industry and like 419, it is now a game everyone is playing.
The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) appears to be the highest bidder now; charging exorbitantly for its own artistic biometrics arrangement. Its fee is so high that the Police which is more statutorily entitled to the loot is up in arms. Luckily for the Police it found a way to claim its right by charging less than half the FRSC fee. Only a few days back, the ample light which Senator Ayo Arise threw on the subject on national television diminished the persuasive outing of the police. He said the police fee of N3, 500 is also too high arguing that INEC used N65 only for the same project. Really?
Beyond costs however, there are too many unanswered questions. First, what image does the proliferation of biometrics give to our government? Can the relevant data required by all the bodies not be domiciled in one agency? One school of thought says that since the police is empowered to retrieve data from any other body, it should not have gone into the industry at this point of proliferation.
 
Another school of thought is angered by the gradual transformation of the FRSC into a security agency which it is not. If so, why is the body dissipating its energy on law enforcement rather than ensuring free movement on our roads? Anyone who travels on the Lokoja-Okene road would testify that with or without the FRSC, the hilly spot in Okene before the fuel station where southwest bound vehicles turn right is forever jammed. Could it be that the FRSC deliberately allows the hold-up or does the build-up occur when road safety officials are busy with security functions? Obviously many people think FRSC should leave security to the police. But are those saying this aware of the numerous new provisions in the amended FRSC law?
Whoever is right between the Police and the FRSC, there is no denying the fact that the biometrics issue is another good example of lack of collaboration and cooperation amongst government agencies in Nigeria. The other day, the National Security Adviser himself had to condemn the lack of synergy between and among the security agencies in our clime. Why do Nigerian officials find it hard to share information and strategies when they were not set up to compete against each other? Again, when will Nigeria itself dissuade the replication of statutory functions in the polity? The Oronsaye Panel which was set up to rationalize our unwieldy bureaucracy made the point when it frowned at the setting up of bodies like the FRSC and the anti-corruption agencies to carry out certain police functions without excising such functions from the police.
 
Now, let’s return to the biometrics posers. Not long ago, the new chairman of the National Population Commission was under fire for seeking to flaw previous census exercises in the nation. Will his own team get into the biometrics business like his predecessors or would the team go for biometrics from only those who were not in the previous exercise? In the past, an international passport was designed to last 5 years and renewable for another 5 years. In these days of biometrics, renewal has been technically cancelled because at the end of the first 5 years, every holder must follow the same process of getting a brand new passport. Why should this be so? One citizen imagined that it is the best way to charge new fees. If so, is it not ridiculous to periodically subject the same person to repeated exercises on biometrics?
 
At a forum on the Media and Elections in Abuja last Thursday, INEC was reported to have said that its plans to distribute permanent voters’ cards to persons registered in 2010 were almost concluded-the same statement we have been hearing all through this year. Why does it take a minimum of 3years to get a “permanent” card from INEC biometrics arrangement when it takes about 3days to get those done at other agencies? Is INEC awaiting a distribution law from the National Assembly or are national identity cards, international passports and drivers’ licenses of inferior quality?
Considering the high fees charged by FRSC, curious Nigerians may begin to speculate on the special source of its own biometrics equipment. May be it is not a matter of equipment but that of design. One analyst imagined last week that perhaps the commission wants vehicle owners who purchase the new plate numbers to appreciate that every purchase comes with a beautiful copy of the map of Nigeria!
 

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Nothing Shocks Again in Nigeria as the war on terror continues

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THE body counts from the war against terrorism are getting abnormal. Whether the losses are on the part of the security agencies or mere standbys, like school children, it is becoming clearer that government needs to do more.
 
Terrorists may do all they can to make the country unsafe, but government has the responsibility to not only protect us, it has to make us feel safe.
What we find more absurd is that the seasonal killing of school children which terrorists in Yobe State have made their specialty, no longer shocks.
The condemnations have thinned. We have moved on with obviously more important matters like who becomes whatever in 2015. We forget the killings quickly in order to sustain the pretence that the union is in sane state.
 
Nigeria has lost thousands of lives to terrorists. Neither the numbers, no those killed, appears to be important. Lives, no longer seem to count, they have become numbers, ordinary statistics, kept for the records.
Which society watches its members decimated in this manner without being shocked into action? How can a society be so unfeeling when it cannot protect its young, its future?
 
Nigeria has failed to tell terrorists in succinct terms, that their actions would be punished. There are no  examples to deter them.
The choice of soft targets like schools, markets, entertainment centres and churches has become a trademark of these attacks. The terrorists want attention, and bigger headlines. Our security agencies need to do more. Failure of intelligence and armed actions against terrorists is not as bad as the unwillingness of many top Nigerians who can exert pressure to do so.
 
We cannot bring terrorists to account when we place personal and political considerations above millions of lives terrorists place at risk. The lives at risk could be anyone’s as the indiscriminate attacks have proved.
The war against terrorists cannot be won when we are pulling in different directions. Any group that can murder children so mindlessly is a risk to everyone, even its avowed supporters

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Jonathan sets up national conference committee

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President Goodluck Jonathan has announced the setting up of an Advisory Committee to establish modalities for a national conference aimed at resolving issues that currently cause friction in the polity.
In an Independence Day broadcast today, President Goodluck Jonathan said that the committee which will have Dr. Femi Okurounmu as its Chairperson and Dr. Akilu Indabawa as its Secretary, is expected to complete its assignment within one month.

“Fellow Nigerians, our Administration has taken cognizance of suggestions over the years by well-meaning Nigerians on the need for a national dialogue on the future of our beloved country.
“When there are issues that constantly stoke tension and bring about friction, it makes perfect sense for the interested parties to come together to discuss.

“In demonstration of my avowed belief in the positive power of dialogue in charting the way forward, I have decided to set up an advisory committee whose mandate is to establish the modalities for a national dialogue or conference.
“The committee will also design a framework and come up with recommendations as to the form, structure and mechanism of the process.

“The full membership of the committee will be announced shortly. I expect its report to be ready in one month, following which the nation will be briefed on the nomenclature, structure and modalities of the dialogue,” President Jonathan said in the broadcast.

File photo: President Goodluck Jonathan addressing the Nation at The State House in Abuja
Terrorism?On the spate of terrorist attacks,Jonathan reaffirmed his government’s commitment to taking necessary steps to put an end to domestic terrorism.
“My heart goes out to the families of all those who have fallen victim of these dastardly acts. Our Administration will not rest until every Nigerian is free from the oppression of terrorism. I reassure you that no cost will be spared, no idea will be ignored, and no resource will be left untapped in the quest to enable our people live without fear.
“I implore every Nigerian – wherever you are, whatever language you speak, whatever your religious persuasion, whichever political party you support – let us join together to fight this evil of extremism,” President Jonathan declared.
Assuring Nigerians
“As men and women in leadership, we must continually focus on service, duty, responsibility and the next generation, not the next election. Those who are elected to govern at all levels must focus on improving the lives of our people, not selfish ambition.
“This is no time for the harmful clutches of parochial sentiments and the politics of bitterness, impunity, arrogance and unhelpful indiscipline.
“We must stand as one, with absolute commitment and resolve to resist any force that threatens us and the sanctity of our union,” President Jonathan said.
He congratulated all Nigerians as the nation marks 53 years of independence.
“If we look back over the years, we can confidently say that there is every reason to celebrate. The past 53 years have seen Nigeria evolve on an epic scale.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Independence Day Message to Nigerians by Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje

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As I salute my fellow country men and women on this special, epochal and historical event of the 53rd Anniversary of our independence and knowing that many of our leaders have spoken to Nigerians on this special day, let me reiterate on behalf of our great party that no matter the obvious shortcomings and challenges facing our nation in areas of education, health, infrastructure, roads, security, governance etc. I will suggest that we don’t give up hope as there is light at the of the tunnel.

In addressing some of these lapses, let me suggest the following to our President and those in government:-

•We demand the constitution of a critical management team made up of apolitical, eminent technocrats and knowledgeable Nigerians to take over the management of the national economy given the woeful failure of the economic management team of the Federal Government.

•We call for a similar team to arrest the infrastructural decay that is threatening the nation’s infrastructural base at present.

•In view of the present quagmire in the education sector particularly in our public Universities, we are suggesting on behalf of our great party a state of emergency particularly on the area of funding with view of arresting the present conflict and demands of ASUU as it is becoming very embarrassing keeping our children at home for over three months now.

•We demand the empanelling of a credible, independent and resolute anti-corruption body to cleanse the country of the thick stench of corruption that has overwhelmed it at present.

•We demand a re-ordering of the inchoate federal structure we are running with a view to allowing the states and the other federating units more access to resources to attend to the numerous responsibilities placed on them.

•We call for the introduction of state police as an antidote to the worsening security problems, which the present inept and highly politicised Nigerian Police had been unable to deal with.

•We see the clamour for a national dialogue as timely and appropriate as there is an urgent need for Nigerians to come together and discuss matters affecting them as well as the way forward. We, therefore, welcome Mr. President’s announcement in his Independence Day broadcast about the establishment of a committee to advise him on the modalities for the holding of the conference. We, however, wish to warn the proposed conference should not serve the same cosmetic purpose served by previous efforts; it should be empowered to discuss all issues agitating the minds of Nigerians – there should not be any no-go areas except the unity and oneness of Nigeria, which is not debatable.

•Finally, we urge Nigerians not to lose hope but to remain resolute in demanding good governance, transparency and accountability from government at various levels as that is the only way to force the corrupt clique in power to change their ways.  

ALH. ABUBAKAR KAWU BARAJE, CON

NATIONAL CHAIRMAN, PDP

01-10-13

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Government shuts down after Congress fails to pass spending bill

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WASHINGTON —The federal government shut down for the first time in nearly two decades following more than a week of legislative jockeying by House Republicans to extract concessions from President Obama and Senate Democrats on the Affordable Care Act.
 
Shortly before midnight, Obama notified government agencies to prepare to cease operations Tuesday, even as House Republicans worked on a fourth and final attempt to again advance a plan to delay the individual mandate to buy health insurance exchanges that open for enrollment Tuesday.
 
The House Republicans' moves came as a series of polls released Monday showed that they were bearing the bulk of the blame for the shutdown. One of their Senate colleagues, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the party's 2008 presidential nominee, called their position doomed to eventual failure.
 
Republicans were also seeking a motion to start formal negotiations, called a conference committee, with the Senate on the stopgap spending measure — an unusual request for a six-week spending bill that funds the government at current levels, but it provides Republicans a vehicle to keep the debate going. It was quickly rejected by Senate Democrats.
 
"Under the Constitution there is a way to resolve this process and that is to go to conference and talk through your differences," Boehner said in a short press conference after the shutdown began.
 
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, made it clear late Monday he did not intend to go to conference under the present circumstances.
 
"We will not go to conference with a gun to our head," Reid said.
 
Reid and other Senate Democrats urged House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to put a Senate-passed bill on the floor to keep the government funded through Nov. 15 and that did not include any provisions affecting the health care law. Boehner refused.
 
"That's not going to happen," he said.
 
Obama took to his Twitter account to comment on the failure to fund the government. "They actually did it," he wrote. "A group of Republicans in the House just forced a government shutdown over Obamacare instead of passing a real budget."
 
The Senate voted twice Monday to reject House efforts to delay the individual mandate, repeal a 2.3% tax on medical devices enacted to help pay for the law, and a proposal to eliminate a proposed subsidy to members of Congress, their staffs, and members of the Obama administration to buy insurance in the new system.
 
Obama reiterated that he would not sign any bill that seeks to dismantle the law. "One faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election," Obama said at the White House.
 
The president did sign late Monday a bill that would pay members of the military during a shutdown.
 
Reid maintained the only way to avoid a shutdown was to approve the Senate-passed stopgap spending bill with no provisions on "Obamacare."
 
"They try to send us something back, they're spinning their wheels," Reid said.
 
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats would deliver most of their 200 votes if Boehner would agree to put the Senate bill on the floor. "I think it's very clear Democrats are making an explicit offer to the speaker to keep government open. Whatever he may bring out of his caucus to bring to the floor, we hope that he will also give a vote to the clean (funding bill)," Pelosi said.
 
The House provision on insurance subsidies was a reaction to an Office of Personnel Management decision to provide members of Congress and their staffs the same amount of money they get now as part of the federal employees insurance system to pay for policies they will now have to buy on local exchanges, which are state websites where people can shop for and buy insurance.
 
"There should be no special treatment for the well-connected under ObamaCare. Delaying the individual mandate and withdrawing special exemptions for Congress is the fair thing to do," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said in a statement.
 
Some of the health care law is already in place, including provisions that expand prescription-drug discounts and allow young people up to age 26 to remain on their parents' health insurance policies. Obama said Monday that those exchanges will open regardless of what Congress does.
 
"We're at an impasse that can only be resolved by Speaker Boehner going to his caucus and saying, 'Enough is enough,'" Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee and a former campaign committee chairman, said at a breakfast hosted Monday by The Christian Science Monitor.
 
The standoff has energized Tea Party organizations, which have made dismantling the health care law a top priority and have exercised substantial influence over House Republicans elected with their help since 2010.
 
"What's happening in Washington right now is largely a result of the grass roots speaking with one voice at the same time," said Dean Clancy, vice president of public policy for FreedomWorks, one of the leading Tea Party-affiliated groups. His group, which touts an e-mail list and social media following of more than 6 million, said it has driven more than 50,000 calls to Congress in recent weeks as part of the effort to defund the law.
 
"We are setting the agenda in Washington, and it feels good," he said.
 
Van Hollen said he's not sure when a shutdown will end. "I think the scary thing about this period we're in is that there's no clear end point to a shutdown," he said.
 
The last time the government shut down was in 1995-96 for a combined period of 28 days during budget standoffs between the Clinton administration and a Republican Congress. Most Americans would not feel the effects of a short-term shutdown because most essential government operations would continue, but a longer-term shutdown could negatively affect the economy and federal workers and inconvenience Americans in need of government services.
 
Contributing: David Jackson, Gregory Korte, Fredreka Schouten and William Cummings.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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U.S. Feds grant Texas No Child Left Behind waiver

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Education Department on Monday excused Texas from the most strenuous requirements of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law, granting the state a reprieve from some of the standardized testing-based accountability standards it helped pioneer.
 
The department said it issued a waiver in exchange for a state plan to prepare students for college and career, focus aid on the neediest students and support effective teaching and leadership.
 
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have been issued similar waivers, but none may carry the symbolic importance of Texas' waiver. The law was the signature education initiative of President George W. Bush, who modeled many of the changes it implemented nationwide on the practices of his home state while he was Texas' governor.
 
No Child Left Behind took effect in 2002 with the goal of making all children proficient in math and reading by 2014. The program's benchmarks have gotten harder to reach each year, and federal education officials suggested that waivers would give states more leeway to improve how they prepare and evaluate students.
 
Despite being up for renewal since 2007, Congress hasn't addressed the law, prompting the Obama administration to issue waivers.
 
Texas has long said it would like the flexibility of a waiver but that it was reluctant to seek one because of fears that the federal government could attach strings to it. Still, Education Commissioner Michael Williams, then settling into his first week on the job, reversed course last September and asked for a waiver.
 
Williams, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry, said Monday that the waiver will no longer require Texas' 1,200 public school districts and charters to be designated as having met federal "adequate yearly progress" standards. Federal designations will instead only go to the lowest performing 15 percent of schools statewide, which will become subject to a series of federally mandated interventions.
 
In 2012, just 44.2 percent of Texas public schools met No Child Left Behind adequate yearly progress standards. The state didn't release 2013 results because it was seeking the waiver.
 
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote to Williams and said the waiver was being granted conditionally, since Texas had yet to finalize its guidelines for teacher and principle evaluations. It will take effect for this school year, though.
 
Texas has long championed accountability benchmarks for students, teachers, school administrators and districts based on student performance on state-mandated tests. That system helped serve as the basis for the creation of No Child Left Behind.
 
Last year, Texas began a new testing regimen that required high school students to pass 15 standardized tests in order to graduate. Amid a backlash against perceived over-testing, however, the Legislature in May overhauled the state's education standards. It slashed the number of passed tests needed to graduate to five and rewrote curriculum standards to leave students more flexibility for vocational and career training rather than strictly college-prep courses.
 
Williams said he emphasized to federal officials that "Texas was the first state to develop and implement college- and career-readiness curriculum standards, the first state to assess those standards, and is the first state to implement an accountability system to hold schools accountable for preparing students for postsecondary success."
 
"The underlying message throughout our negotiations with the federal government," he said, "has been Texans know what's best for Texas schools."

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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Venezuela expels top U.S. diplomat, 2 envoys

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Nicolas Maduro said Monday that his government was expelling the top U.S. diplomat in Venezuela and two other embassy employees for allegedly conspiring with the political opposition.
 
Maduro made the announcement during a live TV appearance and said the Americans would have 48 hours to leave the country.
 
In naming the three diplomats he pronounced clearly the name of Kelly Keiderling, the charge d'affaires and top U.S. diplomat in the country though he did not specify her position. The other two diplomats' names were less clearly enunciated.
 
Venezuela and the United States have been without ambassadors since 2010, when the late President Hugo Chavez refused to accept a newly named U.S. ambassador.
 
The U.S. Embassy had not yet been officially informed of the expulsions when Maduro announced them, said Gregory Adams, its acting deputy chief of mission.
 
"I have asked Foreign Minister Elias Jaua to proceed with their immediate expulsion from the country," Maduro said. "They have 48 hours to leave the country."
 
"Out of Venezuela," the leftist leader said in Spanish, then added: "Yankees go home," in English.
 
"I don't care what actions the government of Barack Obama takes," he said. "We're not going to permit an imperialist government to come and bring money and see how basic companies can be halted and see how to take away electricity and shut down all of Venezuela."
 
Maduro, like Chavez, has a history of making unsubstantiated accusations against the United States and his political opponents.
 
Last week, he said he had canceled a planned trip to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly due to an unspecified U.S. plot.
 
The last time Venezuela expelled U.S. diplomats was on March 5, when it ejected two military attaches for allegedly trying to destabilize the nation. That move came several hours before Maduro announced that Chavez had died of cancer.
 
Chavez governed Venezuela for 14 years, solidifying control of all branches of government as he won solid backing from the poor with generous social spending and blamed the United States for an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow him in 2002.
 
In recent years, however, the oil-rich country's woes have been compounded by corruption, rampant violent crime, worsening power outages and increasing shortages of food and medicines.
 
At the same time, Maduro's government has been accused by international human rights and press freedom groups of cracking down on free speech and independent media political activity
 
Maduro narrowly won election in April over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles, who claims the victory was fraudulent.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
ionyclaret@gmail.com
https://www.codewit.com
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