Saturday, August 10, 2013

Answers to All Your Questions About Obamacare's Birth Control Mandate

Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act begins October 1, a date that seems far away now that we're in the sweaty dregs of August but will be here before you figure out how to set up your air conditioning. Obamacare should ensure that no woman goes without preventative care, including contraception and well-woman visits, because she doesn't have the means to pay, but what does that actually mean when you're at the doctor's office, waiting in line at the pharmacy, or dealing with bloviating bishops and bigoted bosses who are overly concerned about how your newly insured vagina affects their close and personal relationship with Jesus?
Insured women's health care is one of the biggest advancements in women’s health in a generation. Here are answers to some of our questions about this exciting — but often extremely fucking confusing — time in history.

When/How do I get my free birth control?

An estimated 26,947,000 U.S. women already benefit from the women’s preventive health care provision, which went into effect on August 1, 2012. When the benefit goes into full effect, approximately 47 million women nationally stand to benefit.
If you already have health insurance: your birth control might already be covered without a co-pay. (If you've been to the pharmacy to pick up your birth control and were shocked by a $0 receipt, that’s the new benefit in effect. Planned Parenthood has some of those receipts featured on their Pinterest page here, if you're into that sort of thing!)
If you’re not sure whether your plan already covers birth control without a co-pay, all you have to do is call your insurance company (that number on your insurance card) — unfortunately, not all plans have to cover the benefit just yet. Your plan might not kick in for a year or more.
If you need tips on what to say when you call, click here.
If you don’t have health insurance: you can enroll in an affordable health insurance plans starting on October 1 (plans and prices aren't available until then). These new insurance plans will have to cover preventive care, including well woman exams and a range of birth control methods without a co-pay. That means you won’t have to pay anything out of pocket for these services. Yay!
As of October 1, nearly 12 million uninsured women between the ages of 19 and 44 will become newly eligible to apply for Medicaid or qualify for premium tax credits to help purchase health insurance coverage through state marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act via the Health Insurance Marketplace. Coverage will begin on January 1, 2014. Enrollment is open through March 31, so coverage will begin later depending on when you enroll. Here's an extensive timeline that's pretty easy to follow.
If you qualify for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), your coverage can begin immediately. You can also apply for either of these programs right now, before open enrollment begins.

What is and isn't covered? Exactly what birth control must be covered without a co-pay?

All Marketplace health plans and many other plans must cover this list of preventive services for women without charging a copayment or coinsurance, even if you haven’t met your yearly deductible (applies only when these services are delivered by an in-network provider):
  1. Anemia screening on a routine basis for pregnant women

Obamacare installs new scrutiny, fines for charitable hospitals that treat uninsured people

Obamacare installs new scrutiny, fines for charitable hospitals that treat uninsured people

Patrick Howley
Reporter
Charitable hospitals that treat uninsured Americans will be subjected to new levels of scrutiny of their nonprofit status and could face sizable new fines under Obamacare.
A new provision in Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code, which takes effect under Obamacare, sets new standards of review and installs new financial penalties for tax-exempt charitable hospitals, which devote a minimum amount of their expenses to treat uninsured poor people. Approximately 60 percent of American hospitals are currently nonprofit.
Charity for the uninsured is one of the factors that could discourage enrollment in Obamacare, which requires all Americans to purchase health insurance or else face new taxes themselves from the IRS.
“It requires tax-exempt hospitals to do a community needs survey and file additional paperwork with the IRS every three years. This is to prove that the charitable hospital is still needed in their geographical area — ‘needed’ as defined by Obamacare and overseen by IRS bureaucrats,” said John Kartch, spokesman for Americans for Tax Reform.
“Failure to comply, or to prove this continuing need, could result in the loss of the hospital’s tax-exempt status. The hospital would then become a for-profit venture, paying income tax — hence the positive revenue score” for the federal government, Kartch said. “Obamacare advocates turned over every rock to find as much tax money as possible.”
Additionally, the rise in the number of insured Americans under Obamacare will make it more difficult for tax-exempt hospitals to continue meeting required thresholds for treating the uninsured, driving more hospitals into the for-profit category and yielding more taxable money for the federal government.
“The requirements generally apply to any section 501(c)(3) organization that operates at least one hospital facility,” according to a “Technical Explanation” report of new Obamacare provisions prepared by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) on March 21, 2010, the day Obamacare passed.
Obamacare’s new requirements could slam hospitals with massive $50,000 fines if they fail to meet bureaucrats’ standards.
“The hospital must disclose in its annual information report to the IRS (i.e., Form 990 and related schedules) how it is addressing the needs identified in the assessment and, if all identified needs are not addressed, the reasons why (e.g., lack of financial or human resources). Each hospital facility is required to make the assessment widely available. Failure to complete a community health needs assessment in any applicable three-year period results in a penalty on the organization of up to $50,000,” according to the JCT report.
The government is particularly interested in how and why hospitals will be providing discounted or free care to poor patients, requiring each of them to “adopt, implement, and widely publicize a written financial assistance policy” and explain the methods they use to screen applicants for assistance and how they calculate patients’ bills.
A delegate working under the Department of Health and Human Services must review the innumerable reports charitable hospitals file every three years, along with copies of their audited financial statements.
After sifting through this massive amount of information, the delegate and HHS secretary must attempt to identify trends in the hospitals’ spending and send in a comprehensive report of their findings to Congress by 2015, according to the JCT report.
Healthcare experts warn that the Obamacare’s new requirements make it almost impossible for charitable hospitals to navigate treacherous new waters.
“Nonprofit hospitals should be advised that the new PPACA requirements will play a significant role in how they operate and report, specifically when it comes to billing and collections for services provided to the uninsured. The new law leaves many gray areas and hospitals themselves will have to establish eligibility criteria for financial assistance. Following the new procedures as best they can will ensure the best chance of maintaining their tax exempt status,” wrote D. Douglas Metcalf, partner at the law firm Lewis and Roca, in a 2013 op-ed entitled “Will nonprofit hospitals disappear under Obamacare?”
The White House did not return a request for comment.

THE WIDER VIEW: Shame of the public buildings which did not fly the St George's Day flag (including the BBC and the House of Commons)

THE WIDER VIEW: Shame of the public buildings which did not fly the St George's Day flag (including the BBC and the House of Commons)


It was the day English national pride was celebrated, free from the shackles of political correctness. The flag of St George flew joyfully across the land – from the grandest public buildings to the most modest family home – in a simple yet stirring display of patriotism.
Backed by a Mail on Sunday campaign, the red cross of England’s patron saint was reclaimed from the extremists as an unthreatening symbol of national esteem.
Some of those who embraced St George’s Day on Thursday may come as a surprise.
Councils that once had a ‘loony Left’ reputation, including Islington and Sheffield, proudly flew the flag, while prominent institutions, such as the BBC and Parliament, chose to ignore the festivities backed so widely by the public.
royal albert hall
Royal Albert Hall: A bare flagpole at the Last Night of the Proms venue
new scotland yard
New Scotland Yard: The Met Police, which flew the Union Flag, puts policy before national pride
bbc
BBC White City: Four flagpoles outside the Corporation's west London HQ - but there's no space for St George. Instead, the fly flags for (from left) independent company Red Bee, two Olympic symbols, and their own logo

houses of parliament
Houses of Parliament: 'We can fly only one flag' said one civil service Sir Humphrey, 'and the Union Flag takes precedence'
buck palace
Buckingham Palace: Protocol allows only a Union Flag, or the Royal Standard if the Queen is in residence

bank of england
Bank of England: They say: 'Despite our name, weare the central bank for the whole UK, so we fly the Union Flag'

st paul's cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral: 'This is Sir Christopher Wren's fault - he specified a dome, but no flagpoles'
hackney town hall
Hackney Town Hall: It flew the Union Flag, its own coat of arms and the Olympic 2012 banner

And the patriots who did...


birm coun house
Birmingham Council House: A day of celebrations included music, food and crafts
islington coun
Islington Town Hall, London: Once a bastion of the Loony Left, it now wants April 23 as a bank holiday

cabbie
Black cab: You don't need a flagpole to show you patriotism - as this unknown taxi driver proved while driving through the streets of the capital

bradford town hall
Bradford Town Hall: Plane flies flags over the city, a year after festivities were cancelled
donwing street
Downing Street: 'Everyone should celebrate this country's proud  history', said a spokesman

chalfont st peter
Chalfont St Peter, Bucks: 'All the town's shopkeepers have joined forces to hang flags up for the past five years' said optician Oliver Samson

sheffield town hall
Sheffield Town Hall: David Blunkett's former stronghold threw itself into the spirit
northcliffe house
Mail on Sunday: We proudly flew the flag from the highest flagpole at our London HQ

st dominic
St Dominic's School: This Catholic primary school in Camden, North London, was bedecked in flags and balloons to mark the patron saint's day


lighthouse
Plymouth Hole, Devon: The beauty spot is inextricably linked with great Englishman Sir Francis Drake
ho ho chinese
Ho Ho Chinese Restaurant, Bucks: Owner Kenny Poon is from Hong Kong but he is a proud patriot

kids flags
Archbishop of York: Dr John Sentamu, who sees St George as a symbol of British unity, hosted a party at Bishopthorpe Palace

mod
MoD, Whitehall: Clearly happy to defend our traditions, too
home office
Home Office: A rare example of Jacqui Smith's department getting it right

churchill arms
Churchill Arms: Decorations at this pub in Notting Hill, London, would do our wartime leader proud

boris and knights
Boris Johnson: The London Mayor said: 'At last the country is getting excited about St George's Day without embarrassment'

newham town hall
Newham Town Hall: The multicultural London borough gave free bunting for parties
lambeth palace
Lambeth Palace: The flag flies at the Archbishop of Canterbury's London residence

morris men
Thaxted Morris Men, Essex: Dancer Peter Brewster said of the 98-year-old group: 'We thought it was time to go out and make a noise. We are English and we are proud'

nottingham
Nottingham Council House: The city handed out 1,000 St George's flags during its three-day celebration, culminating in a grand parade through the streets
haringey
Haringey Town Hall, London: In another former 'loony Left' council, mayor Alan Dobbie was 'delighted' to fly the flag


google
Google: Even the Americans got in on the act. The internet  search engine showed St George and the dragon in a scene from Romeo and Juliet, because April 23 is also Shakespeare's birthday

fern
This Morning, ITV: The set of the London studios is decked with bunting for Fern Britton and Phillip Schofield, who even sent a 'Happy St George's Day' message to his 150,000 followers on the Twitter website

st george
Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem: St George - aka Mark Shelton - arrives at the Nottingham pub said to be England's oldest

Labour 'sellout' to give EU flag same status as Union Jack

Labour 'sellout' to give EU flag same status as Union Jack

by JAMES CHAPMAN, Daily Mail
St George flag
It is illegal to fly a flag without prior permission
Labour has been accused of a sellout to Brussels after quietly upgrading the flag of the European Union so that it has the same legal status as the Union Jack and the Cross of St George.
The EU flag, with its 12 gold stars on a blue background, will be able to be flown without planning permission like any other national flag.
The change in the law is buried deep in one of dozens of consultation documents and statements published by ministers in the run-up to Parliament's summer recess.
Ministers insisted they were simply scrapping 'outdated' laws restricting the flying of flags in many circumstances.
But the Tories and the United Kingdom Independence Party accused the Government of pushing ahead with a pro-European agenda, despite widespread opposition.
Currently, national flags can be flown without planning permission - as long as they are hung from a vertical flagpole. But the EU flag is classed as an advertisement, and does require clearance from the local planning authority.
It is technically illegal to fly any national flags from sloping poles or from windows without permission.
The rule means thousands of football fans were breaking the law during the World Cup by displaying the Cross of St George.
Ministers say that rule will be scrapped in a shake-up of the planning system, meaning national flags can be flown without permission however they are displayed.
But at the same time, the EU flag will be upgraded so that it falls into the same category as national flags.
The UK Independence Party's leader in Brussels, Nigel Farage, said: 'This is yet another sneaky step to establish a national identity for a European superstate against the majority wish of the people of Britain.'
He accused the Government of attempting to hide the elevation of the Euro flag behind a populist change to allow England's own national flags to be flown more freely.
'This is yet another example of how this Government is dragging us further and further into a federal Europe,' Mr Farage added.
'We already have the EU flag on our driving licences and our car number plates - where is the popular will for this? It raises the spectre that even the Queen may be pressured to fly the Euro flag from Buckingham Palace.'
'The EU has its own anthem and currency, yet as far as I am aware there is no country called Europe. How can it be acceptable that it flies its flag in our country as if it were its own?"
Tory MP Maria Miller said the proposal was 'absolutely ridiculous'.
'The EU flags simply should not be given the same legal status as the Union Jack,' she said.
'That's our national flag. The EU flag is something that has been concocted by a bunch of bureaucrats and is actually nothing more than a logo for Europe.'
Planning minister Yvette Cooper insisted: 'The regulations on flags are currently woefully out-of-date and far too bureaucratic.
'It is ridiculous that someone could be prosecuted for displaying their national flag.
'As the World Cup demonstrated, many people want to show their support for their national team and they should be able to do so without fear of prosecution.'
A Peterborough family fell foul of existing regulations during the World Cup when they were threatened with prosecution for flying the cross of St George outside their home.
Because they were hung at an angle to the house, they were classed as advertising.
The city council eventually backed down, saying the flags could be flown on special occasions.
A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said two other international flags as well as the EU banner - those of the UN and the Commonwealth - would also be allowed to be flown without permission under the legal changes.
'This is about making sure the planning process for putting up flags is sensible because at the moment, it's not,' she said.
'The EU flag will never be classed as a national flag. It's not. It's a flag of an international organisation, like that of the UN or the Commonwealth.
'This is not about changing its status, but it won't now need planning permission. It's about making sure that any national flag or the three international flags - the EU, UN and Commonwealth - can be flown without having to go through the palaver of having to get permission.'

OBAMAS AGENDA

OBAMAS AGENDA
IS OBAMA GETTING RID OF EVERY ONE THAT OWNS A BUSSINESS
OBAMAS AGENDA IS TO TAKE OVER EVERY THING FROM HEALTH CARE TO OUR BANK ACCOUNTS
OBAMAS AGENDA IS TO TAKE OVER EVERY THING
LOOK HE KNOWS IF YOU ONLY HAVE OBAMA CARE ALL THE MONEY COMES TO HIM
OR THE GOVERNMENT
OBAMA KNOWS IF HE GETS RID OF ALL US WHO HAVE OUR OWN BUSSINESS THEN HE OWNS THAT TOO
OR SHALL I SAY THE GOVERNMENT
THIS WAY THE GOVERNMENT HAS EVERY THING
AND WE THE PEOPLE WILL HAVE NOTHING
WE WILL HAVE TO DO WHAT THEY SAY OR DIE

Tom Coburn And Harry Reid Agree: Obamacare Designed To Pave Way For Single-Payer System


Designed to fail.  Just like Obama himself.
Via The Weekly Standard:
In just about seven weeks, people will be able to start buying Obamacare-approved insurance plans through the new health care exchanges.
But already, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is predicting those plans, and the whole system of distributing them, will eventually be moot.
Reid said he thinks the country has to “work our way past” insurance-based health care during a Friday night appearance on Vegas PBS’ program “Nevada Week in Review.”
“What we’ve done with Obamacare is have a step in the right direction, but we’re far from having something that’s going to work forever,” Reid said.
When then asked by panelist Steve Sebelius whether he meant ultimately the country would have to have a health care system that abandoned insurance as the means of accessing it, Reid said: “Yes, yes. Absolutely, yes.”
Keep reading…


Critics question IRS initiative targeting small businesses

Small business owners across the country are receiving letters from the IRS questioning if they are reporting all of their cash income, in a new push by the agency some are saying could unnecessarily create fear in the small business community.
The Wall Street Journal reports the initiative is an attempt to respond to what the agency feels is a widespread failure by small businesses to report all their cash sales.
The agency says the letters are not the same as an audit, and it is simply seeking more tax information from the businesses. However, some lawmakers and business owners who received the letters say the initiative is alarming.
"There's an emotional thing when you get a pretty ominous-looking letter from the IRS, [saying] you might have done some bad things," small business owner Tom Reese tells the Wall Street Journal. "I really work hard with my accountant to make sure that I not only follow the law, but follow the letter of the law."
One letter the IRS sent is headlined, "Notification of Possible Income Underreporting."  It notifies the business owner "your gross receipts may be underreported" and says they must complete a form "to explain why the portion of your gross receipts from non-card payments appears unusually low."
One lawmaker says the letter’s tone implies wrongdoing from the start.
"The letter implies that this is a serious matter that could lead to assessments of additional tax, penalties and interest," says a letter sent to the IRS Friday by Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., chairman of the House Small Business Committee.
Though the IRS has only sent letters to small percentage of businesses so far, around 20,000 of the estimated millions in the U.S., the agency says they hope to expand the program in the coming months.
One small business owner says the initiative will likely create fear among business owners, as it is often difficult to match credit transactions with income.
"There are so many reasons why, even if you're the most honest tax payer, you're not going to match (what card records show),” Fran Coet, who runs an accounting business in Westminster, Colo., tells the Wall Street Journal.
For example, Coet says, when a company sells a gift card it does not count for accounting purposes as a sale, but appears as such to credit card companies.
In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, the said the agency is “working diligently to minimize burden on both taxpayers and tax professionals” in implementing the new program.
The agency has been under fire in the past few months when it was revealed it was unfairly targeting conservative groups for special scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.
Click for more from The Wall Street Journal. 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/10/critics-question-irs-initiative-targeting-small-businesses/#ixzz2bdHbdHdq

We Will No Longer Accept the Lies’: Glenn Beck’s Powerful Speech at Washington, D.C. Rally

Glenn Beck is the CEO & Founder of Mercury Radio Arts. Beck is one of America's leading radio and television personalities, and author of #1 New York Times bestsellers in both fiction and non-fiction. The Glenn Beck Program is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks and is the third highest-rated national radio talk show among adults ages 25 to 54. Glenn is married with four kids.



Editor’s note: Below are the prepared remarks for Glenn Beck’s speech in Washington, D.C., on June 19, 2013. This post has been updated with more up-to-date text, though the delivered remarks may slightly differ.

Today, inside, they dedicated a new statue of another American giant, Fredrick Douglas – a man born into slavery, but who knew instinctively that he was not born a slave. No man is.
To keep a man a slave you do much the same as the cruel circus masters did to the elephant around the turn of last century. Clamp heavy chains around their legs and stake them to the ground. Then beat and terrorize them. After a while you no longer even have to stake the chain; the elephant gives up and just the mere rattle of the chain convinces the elephant there is no hope, so they give up and do what ever it is the circus requires.
(Scroll down to watch the full speech)
Fredrick Douglas was lucky enough to live in a house where he was taught to read, write and think. He knew God did not make men masters over others. Nor did he ever intend any man to impose unrighteous dominion over another man or beast.
Glenn Beck Washington D.C. speech
(Photo: TheBlaze)
It is time we remind ourselves of this truth again, and begin to rise up against the intimidation before the handful of peanuts from our new political circus masters is considered a kindness and not the symbol of evil cruelty.
In the building behind me, they are now excusing storing all data, phone calls, financial transactions, geotracking on every American for our “safety,” while allowing anyone to cross our borders either on foot or in underground tunnels without any worry or consequence.
They have not suspended or fired but promoted those at the IRS who rattled the chains of control to any group that disagreed with their policies. And now, after pushing misery and death through the so-called “Arab Spring” in country after country, they are plotting a new war with Syria. This will bring death and destruction the world over. We are told that we need to pick sides and arm those who are so far down the scale of decency that even Vladimir Putin asked Americans if they knew that those we are arming have literally eaten their enemies on the battlefield.
The fact that he even needed to ask that question, and that most have never even seen the video of the commander of the rebel troops on TV engaging in this ungodly horror, is an indictment of our government officials and our media.
I am surrounded today by some modern-day spiritual giants. All from different faiths, different backgrounds and many different views. But we all have one thing in common. We don’t recognize our country anymore and because we know that God is just, we tremble for our children’s future.
We wonder, are we even worth defending anymore? If so, why? Who are we? And will we even notice or care when the chain is finally snapped around our legs?
What will be written about us? The greatest generation has passed. We are who historians will watch.
Will it be said that none called for justice not one pleaded for truth? They trusted in vanity and spoke lies. They conceived mischief and brought forth iniquity.
What is it we even believe as a people anymore? Where did we get these ideas that now seem so popular?
Our forbears came to these shores not for free stuff, but for freedom. The chance to make their own way, create a different life. They came here because they knew that God made them free to make their own way in life, take the risk, do their best and take responsibility for their own lives.
They came here because they wanted to serve Him in the way they believed, not as they were told.
But how many care about our history? And, of those who do care, how many really still believe?
Some things are worth believing in. That the little guy can make it. Every single life has value and is worth living. That honor and integrity do matter. That justice will prevail – if not in this life – then the next, and that God does exist. And what we do in our lives matters.
It is the meek and the humble that inherit the earth. Have we forgotten?
We have declared ourselves masters of the earth — spread our troops all over the world, taught the world how to do banking like we do it here in America.  Even though we can’t even master our own homes, protect our neighborhoods, or simply balance a check book. How grotesque and garish we must appear to those looking in.
I, for one, still believe in the silly notion of truth, justice and the American way.
Your browser does not support iframes. Since our founding, a good percentage of our fellow citizens closed their eyes to the civil rights of all Americans. “I’m okay. I don’t want to think of the bad things going on. I am busy. It doesn’t affect me. It can’t be that bad and even if it is, I am just one person and what can I do about it anyway?”
Nothing has changed, except the chairs at the table.
Someone has always been on the losing end of the stick of power. Blacks are the most obvious, the Chinese, the Native Americans, but lets not forget the Irish, the Catholics, the Mormons, the Jews, and now it seems all those of faith that will not conform.
For those that think men make progress collectively: I warn you, history teaches that you couldn’t be more wrong. We are redeemed one man at a time. There is no “family pass” ticket or park hopping pass to life. One ticket, one life at a time.
Man doesn’t vanquish hatred or bigotry. The target keeps moving. From the blacks to the Irish. Atheists to Christians.
But as always, there are a few leaders: Ben Franklin, John Quincy Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Fredrick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. They know that the march toward freedom never ends; man must be ever-vigilant and pray less with his lips and more with his legs.
They never forget that truth, justice, and freedom are the wellspring from which the waters of man’s civil rights come. And so they must be upheld for all men – those you know, those you do not, and maybe more importantly — they must be upheld for those who you do know but do not like or agree with at all.
If they are lost for one, in the end they are lost for all.
In the past, these historic stands which we now call civil rights movements were done by a small but dedicated portion of our citizens which led to great shifts in our culture.  But those movements always came from the same institutions … the church.  And usually not the church with the popular preacher, but the one who put it on the line to tell the people the truth.
Preachers like these men, who know that we are all born free, but that freedom comes at a great price — a profound responsibility to stand against injustice, hatred and bigotry. Our pulpits have gone quiet out of arrogance, fear and apathy. Their faith is found in the wisdom of man and not in the power of God. For some, losing tithing checks or the gold Rolex watch has become more important than losing man’s freedom.
Whatever the reason, too many are no longer willing to call evil by its name. There is no vision. And when there is no vision, the people perish.
I humbly suggest to you that Martin Luther King knew the answer, and he lost more than congregants during his long march. Students are taught that his vision came from the ideas of Gandhi. Maybe a new radical 20th century progressive philospher was the one that taught MLK that “although we be free of all men, when we choose to make ourselves servants to all, we gain the more.”
Let’s get a couple of things straight. What MLK and Gandhi did was not progressive or new. It was an ancient idea. Hollywood, Woodstock, nor the hippie culture was the source of power of the 1960s freedom movement.
God was.
He was leading those who risked their lives over that bridge in Selma, not Janice Joplin, Columbia University, or a labor union. It wasn’t John Lennon that taught people about love and peaceful resistance — that job fell on the shoulders of a Jewish carpenter. And it is there that we will find the answers that will break the chains that are being forged for a new generation of slaves.
Your browser does not support iframes. The rights that so many Americans ignorantly preach about so often are not really their rights. They belong to God and they are given to us for stewardship. They are pretty important and obvious. So obvious that we used to say they were “self-evident,” meaning that humans don’t need to be taught; you instinctively know that you have a right not to be executed without a trial, held without charge, searched without warrant or spied upon without cause.
The government is no longer the protector of those civil rights, and so we must be. When we are told that it is okay for the IRS, EPA, ATF, FBI or anyone to hassle, threaten or intimidate others because of their skin color, religion or political belief, we stop being the country that we all want to build, and start being the country the world should fear.
The long train of abuses regarding these rights are the same MLK marched against, and the very same our dusty founders warned us about losing.
Men may make progress, but man never changes. Man loves power and money. No matter the skin color, religion or income level. These symbols of our nation make men drunk with power, who then justify their lust for more by claiming they are public servants. The only difference between Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. is that at least Vegas has the decency to admit the town is full of hookers and crooks.
We must sober up and admit that too many of the Republicans and the Democrats have played us, lied to us and stolen from us, while the getaway car was driven by the media. A media that can no longer claim with a straight face the role of journalist. Journalists print the things the powerful don’t want printed. What they do is public relations. Those PR firms will not print the truth about the average American who finds himself concerned with the direction of our country today. So we must.
We are not violent. We are not racist. We are not anti immigrant. We are not anti-government. And we will not be silent anymore.
Those who wish to use unrighteous dominion over mankind are not enemies of ours; they are enemies of God, and He will not be silent much longer either.
We will no longer accept the lies, the corruption, or the information and data gathering. It is evil. And we come here today to send a message that we will surround all of those who wish to stand and break the cycle of corruption. We will use ourselves as shields to protect those in the system, the elected officials or whistle blowers with the courage to stand.
We come here today to respectfully, but with the power of the spirit, demand to be treated as an equal member of society. I am a man, and I will be treated as such. I answer to only one king and His kingdom will come, His will be done. We have chosen sides and we choose God. America as a nation must do the same, as well.
Glenn Beck Washington D.C. speech
(Photo: TheBlaze)
We come today to declare our independence, to reaffirm our founding principles. We, as a nation, acknowledge a creator. We acknowledge that he gives certain natural, guaranteed rights to man. We declare that government exists primarily to protect these natural, God-given rights. He has established right and wrong. He is just and therefore, man must pay for his mistakes either now on Earth, or through God’s justice later.
There is no such thing as social justice. Only God can balance things out, and we are not God. But honest and decent men can fight for and establish equal justice.
There is no such thing as collective salvation. We, however, are going to be judged on how we treat our fellow brothers and sisters. Thus we must serve them, help them with charity toward all. “Malice toward none,” Lincoln said. God said it slightly differently – vengeance is mine.
Anyone who speaks of punishing their political enemies in on the wrong side. It is clearly evil and we have a responsibility to say so.
America: it is now your time to rise up and boldly declare those same self-evident truths that changed the world, and demand that those truths remain the basis of our laws.
My civil rights will not be trampled, and I say this not for me but for my children, and all those who yearn to breathe free. Those who make your Apple products at Foxxcon, those who languish in prisons in Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela. Those homosexuals who are stoned to death in the streets of Egypt or Iran, while our so-called civil rights leaders hold coffee klatches with third graders in the White House.
We will stand not for our job, house or income, but we will stand for those immigrants who came here the right way, and not have their dreams destroyed by increasing competition at the lowest rung of the ladder while keeping the brightest and best minds out of the visa pool allowing for little competition at the top.
We will not pervert women’s rights and twist it into a gross silent defense of abortion doctors in Philly and Houston while turning our eyes from the forgotten women who have never had the civil right to walk alone on a street without a man, or to drive a car in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, and even those who now cower in fear with their faces covered in states like Florida, Virginia, New York and Minnesota.
We will not waste another second shadow boxing the demons of the past when the fight to end actual slavery is still happening today. Call it what you will, but those who make your iPad in China – those who make your cute little Mao purses – are the very people you claim to care so much about. They are the ones yearning to breathe free. And worse, there is the oldest form of human degradation man has ever known, the sex slave trade that currently has in its coils over 2 million children. The biggest source of this evil is a wide open hole in our Arizona border.
We beg the American people to wake up and help the 8-year-old children being sold into sex slavery. The press may say, ‘How dare these men declare themselves the next Martin Luther King or civil rights leaders?’
How blind to believe the civil rights movement ever ended. The civil rights movement never ends, and it never will. It has been marching since the beginning of time. Where Martin Luther King started is where Gandhi left off, and where he started, Abe Lincoln left off, and before that Whitfield all the way back to Moses. God has not moved. We have. But it is never too late. We are not at the mercy of these events. We can alter the course of history. We can stand against the dangerous arc of this story.
But we need people who are willing to speak truth.
Glenn Beck Washington D.C. speech
(Photo: TheBlaze)
The last century was a century of genocide. A century where collectivist, national socialist, and communist evil rose up again and again… swallowing up the lives of millions. It happens every time man says the collective is more important than the right of the individual. That one phrase becomes in the end – every time – a license to kill anyone deemed to be standing in the way of progress.
But evil met its match. Goodness eventually prevailed. People like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr., Lech Walesa and Mother Theresa awoke the world. They gave their lives to the pursuit of human rights. They took the side of justice against injustice; they held aloft the torch of freedom to push out the darkness of hate. These men and women lived difficult lives. They often lived shortened lives. They were often born to relative privilege, but willing to take on suffering. They did want not to martyr themselves. They would have happily lived to the end of their natural lives in comfort… but to the righteous, there is no comfort when evil has taken root.
But the cause of human rights has been taken over by organizations who share little with the individuals who led the movement. Human rights was once a cry for justice. Now it used as a threat. These organizations have become bullies and grotesque parodies of the principles they pretend to represent. They criticize free nations and spare the unfree. They denounce nations like Israel and America, who have high standards for freedom, and leave alone nations that have no freedom at all. They are nearly comical in their double-standards.
They are no more than the enforcers or the attack dogs of those who wish to keep men confined in spaces they design. Whatever moral force they once had is spent. Their time is up. And so, we dismiss them. Today we take back the phrase “human rights” and place it where it belongs, as the first half of God’s plan for humanity. The second half is responsibility.
If we want to be endowed with rights – real human rights, we have to act with responsibility. We must not be comfortable with rights. We must be comfortable with responsibility.
Who will protect your rights better? A king, president or you?
Who will protect the truth? A reporter, a labor union or you?
Who will protect and teach your children to seek truth? A textbook committee, an education bureaucrat, or you?
Did a commission of wise men stop the Holocaust? Did a committee of Congress end Jim Crow?
No. In each case, the work was done by individuals who would not abide convenient lies.
They saw injustice and they called it out. They saw their nation wage war against a single group and they said “not in my name.” They didn’t wait for the conventions of society to catch up to God’s laws. They pushed. They pressed. And they were victorious.
Glenn Beck Washington D.C. speech
(Photo: TheBlaze)
Each of us have been waiting for a leader to rise from among us. And none have. How many have been called and refused to serve? How many must have failed to heed the call for the Lord to make it all the way down to us?
I pray now that those who have heard the call to rise up in the tradition of peaceful resistance do so now before, as it was with Bonhoeffer, it is too late. I beg those with eyes and ears to heed the call and begin to train under the exact system used by MLK. Search his words out. You will find that your history professors and civil rights activists left out the real author of the words of Gandhi, King and Bonhoeffer.
Read them, ponder them, and risk living them. Even though they will make you a target of the NSA, having your name on their list as an enemy may in the end be the way your name is forever etched in his book of life.
Pastors, priests and rabbis: I challenge you. What have you done with your knowledge and priesthood power that those without have not done this week? If you cannot answer that with power every day, what does that say about you?
Average citizens and college students: I challenge you. Martin Luther King didn’t take a class, get a certificate and a bunch of permits. He saw injustice, studied eternal truths, exercised discipline and marched.
If you don’t find a leader, perhaps it is because you were meant to lead.
Christians: I believe in the free market. If your preacher is too afraid to preach it from the pulpit, maybe you should preach it from the street corner. Many are called. Will you answer?
Our spiritual body is out of shape and we need intensive training right now.
Get back to God, and know that some things are true and worth believing in. The good guys do win in the end. Evil does not stand unless good men never rise up. The time is now and we are the people the world is waiting for. We must never stop being the shore that others can come to for shelter and hope.
But to do so we must realign ourselves with truth and rise up and stand. This is the vision. We must preach good tidings to the meek, bind up the brokenhearted, and proclaim liberty to those held captive. To declare vengeance belongs to God and God alone. We must give unto those who mourn — beauty for ashes and water the trees of righteousness. We shall not perish.
I can’t help that most of us don’t like to hear the truth, but hear it we must: George Washington told us religion and morality are the only stable and lasting basis of individual life and public policy. If we are to survive, they must be part of our public policy rather than driven from it.
It is no longer enough to just be a good person. We must work to be the next Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King. It is noble to strive to be the size of the bronze giant they dedicated this morning in the building behind me. Fredrick Douglas’ time was in the 1800; King’s time has passed. This is our time. This is the next long march toward civil rights and we shall overcome.
Stand without fear, lock arms and stare down the bullies that wish to enslave mankind yet again.
Honor, courage and love are what is required, and they are contagious. Spread the word and proclaim liberty throughout the land.
“Let us, today, raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God.”

Watch Beck’s full speech below:

Did You Catch Obama’s Surprise Benghazi Revelation During Presidential Press Conference?

Did You Catch Obama’s Surprise Benghazi Revelation During Presidential Press Conference?

President Barack Obama revealed for the first time the existence of a sealed indictment in the Benghazi terror attack, a move that would mean legal trouble for anyone other than the commander-in-chief.
During a presidential press conference on Friday, Obama was asked why justice has been slow in the aftermath of the Benghazi attack that left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
“[W]e have informed, I think, the public that there’s a sealed indictment,” the president said. “It’s sealed for a reason. But we are intent on capturing those who carried out this attack, and we’re going to stay on it until we get them.”
Obama Reveals Existence of Sealed Indictment in Benghazi Attack
WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 09: U.S. President Barack Obama arrives for a press conference in the East Room of the White House August 9, 2013 in Washington, DC. Obama answered questions on national security issues and related matters during the press conferece. Credit: Getty Images
While it was widely reported that the first “charges” in the Benghazi investigation had been filed, Obama’s comments marked the only official confirmation on record of a sealed indictment. Administration and intelligence officials have repeatedly refused to confirm reports of a sealed indictment.
There’s a reason no one has been willing to talk. Under federal law, “no person may disclose [a sealed] indictment’s existence,” and a “knowing violation … may be punished as a contempt of court,” ABC News reports.
It’s unclear whether Obama revealed the existence of a sealed indictment on accident, but the president is clear either way, according to Peter Zeidenberg, a former prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section.
“The [president], by virtue of his position, can’t violate any non-disclosure/confidentiality rule,” he told ABC News. “One of the perks of being the head of the executive branch: Nothing he says is technically a leak. If he does it, it is authorized.”
“[A]n argument could be made that a sealed matter can only be unsealed by a court,” he added.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington and the DOJ both declined to comment when contacted by ABC News.
A White House official said the president was only “referencing widely reported information and was not asked about, nor did he comment on any specific indictment.”

(H/T: Drudge)