HHS Secretary Sebelius resigning on heels of ObamaCare rollout

(Fox News) – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who was the face of the president’s health care law, is resigning from the Obama administration — a decision that closes one of the rockiest tenures in Obama’s Cabinet.

Sebelius leaves the administration after the tumultuous launch of the Affordable Care Act exchanges last fall. Despite calls for her ouster from Republicans at the time, she stayed on until the enrollment period ended at the end of March.

A White House official said President Obama will formally make the announcement on Friday, and nominate White House budget office director Sylvia Matthews Burwell to replace the outgoing secretary. The Senate would have to confirm Burwell to the position.

The administration has since touted the surge in enrollment in the last few weeks, with Sebelius saying Thursday that 7.5 million American have now signed up for coverage under the law.

But the technical difficulties surrounding the launch, as well as ongoing concerns about the implementation of the law, hung over her. She leaves just one week after the enrollment period ended, and as a tough midterm election cycle expected to focus heavily on ObamaCare begins.

Republicans quickly made clear that Sebelius’ departure will not temper their criticisms of ObamaCare.

“Secretary Sebelius oversaw a disastrous rollout of ObamaCare, but anyone can see that there are more problems on the way,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said. “The next HHS Secretary will inherit a mess — Americans facing rising costs, families losing their doctors, and an economy weighed down by intrusive regulations. No matter who is in charge of HHS, ObamaCare will continue to be a disaster and will continue to hurt hardworking Americans.”

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch said Sebelius “had one of the toughest jobs in Washington” because she had to implement the law, which he said is “flawed” and continues to fall short.

“While we haven’t always agreed, Secretary Sebelius did the best she could during the tumultuous and volatile rollout of the law,” Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi praised Sebelius’ leadership during the rollout, saying she had “been forceful, effective, and essential.”

“Her legacy will be found in the 7.5 million Americans signed up on the marketplaces so far, the 3.1 million people covered on their parents’ plans, and the millions more gaining coverage through the expansion of Medicaid,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said.

The White House official said Sebelius notified Obama of her decision to leave in early March.

“At that time, Secretary Sebelius told the president that she felt confident in the trajectory for enrollment and implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and that she believed that once open enrollment ended it would be the right time to transition the department to new leadership,” the official said, adding the president “is deeply grateful for her service.”

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin praised the nomination of Burwell, a fellow West Virginia native, in a statement Thursday.

“I am confident that her leadership will ensure that we enact commonsense fixes to the Affordable Care Act to help improve the lives of millions of Americans,” Manchin said.

Sebelius, having served five years with the president, was among the longest-serving Cabinet secretaries in the administration.

But Sebelius’ relationship with the White House frayed during last fall’s rollout of the insurance exchanges that are at the center of the sweeping overhaul. The president and his top advisers said they were frustrated by what they considered to be a lack of information from HHS over the extent of the website troubles.

The White House sent management expert Jeffrey Zients to oversee a rescue operation that turned things around by the end of November.

[H/T FoxNews]

Colbert to Succeed Letterman on ‘Late Show’

(New York Times) – CBS made its choice, quickly and definitively: Stephen Colbert is the successor to David Letterman as the star of “Late Show,” the late-night franchise created by Mr. Letterman.

CBS made the announcement Thursday, exactly one week after Mr. Letterman announced on his program that he would be leaving his post after one more year on the air.

Mr. Colbert, the star of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report,” became the immediate front-runner for the position both because of the increasing recognition of his talent — he won the Emmy Award for best late night host last year — and because he clearly wanted the job. Mr. Colbert’s representation had ensured that he would be available to CBS by syncing his recent contracts with Mr. Letterman’s.

Mr. Colbert’s current deal with Comedy Central will expire at the end of this year, making the timing ideal for him to make the switch to CBS.

The show Mr. Colbert produces for CBS will be significantly different from “The Colbert Report” because Mr. Colbert will not bring with him the satirical right-wing blowhard character he has performed as during his nine-year run on Comedy Central.

In a statement on Thursday Mr. Colbert said: “I won’t be doing the new show in character, so we’ll all get to find out how much of him was me. I’m looking forward to it.”

Leslie Moonves, the CBS chief executive, who was the primary mover in getting the deal done, said the negotiations moved at a breakneck pace beginning the day Mr. Letterman announced his plans. He said a host of calls came in from representatives with comics seeking the job. But when Mr. Colbert’s agent, James Dixon, called to express Mr. Colbert’s interest, the talks became serious quickly.

The five-year deal was not difficult to conclude, Mr. Moonves said, because both sides were equally interested. But he said that Mr. Colbert had one special request: “He said, ‘I want to be sure Dave is on board.’ ” Mr. Moonves said he had already decided that “it was essential to me to get Dave’s blessing.”

So he called and spoke to the star personally to let him know the network was leaning toward hiring Mr. Colbert. “Dave was very happy,” Mr. Moonves said. “He was very supportive and said it was a great choice.”

In a statement, Mr. Letterman said: “Stephen has always been a real friend to me. I’m very excited for him, and I’m flattered that CBS chose him. I also happen to know they wanted another guy with glasses.”

Mr. Moonves and other CBS executives stressed Mr. Colbert’s range of talents, setting up the changes he is likely to make when he moves to the broader medium of late night on a network.

Mr. Colbert, 49, has demonstrated that he can do more than his mostly political satire. He won a Grammy Award for his musical Christmas special, “A Colbert Christmas,” in 2009, and starred as Harry in a 2011 production of “Company” by the New York Philharmonic. His Comedy Central show has won three awards for best writing for a variety show and two Peabody Awards.

Unlike many other late-night hosts, Mr. Colbert has been comfortable as a product pitchman on his show, integrating into it products ranging from Halls cough drops to Budweiser beer. Sometimes Mr. Colbert has segments that seem connected to branded entertainment deals, but are actually parodies of the conventions of late-night television. Frequently those segments have been about Doritos snack chips.

Mr. Colbert also recently became a pitchman in actual commercials, for Wonderful pistachios. The first two commercials were shown in February during the Super Bowl.

The selection of Mr. Colbert will very likely push several rows of dominoes into action in late night. Comedy Central will need a host for its 11:30 show. Chris Hardwick, who is hosting a new late night show on the channel, “At Midnight,” will surely be among those mentioned as a possibility to move up a half-hour.

And CBS will face questions about its own host-in-waiting, Craig Ferguson. If Mr. Ferguson decides to leave, having been passed over for the leading late-night job at CBS, the network will be seeking another host for its 12:35 a.m. show.

[H/T NewYorkTimes: Bill Carter]

Fox News host: Obama is ‘giving away’ the Internet in a plot to tax web page clicks

(Raw Story) – Fox News host Gregg Jarrett asserted on Thursday that President Barack Obama’s plan to “give away” the Internet was the first step in a plot to allow taxation of web page clicks.

Last month, the Commerce Department announced that it was moving forward with a 1998 plan to transition the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which controls the global domain system, over to international stakeholders in the private sector.

With the announcement that ICANN was going to be transitioned as planned, Fox News has recently found itself taking the side of big government control.

“Steve Jobs, if he were alive, wouldn’t cede control of Apple,” Jarrett opined to conservative lawyer Jordan Sekulow on Thursday.

“This is actually a time when I would say that government has done a great job of managing something that you don’t want necessarily run by businesses or potential foreign businesses,” Sekulow agreed. “Or foreign governments like the U.N. agencies.”

Jarrett speculated that President Obama’s “guilt” over recent leaks about NSA surveillance had prompted him to “give away” the Internet.

“I can envision this future controlling body, especially if its associated with the United Nations, which is — remember the food for oil program that was the most corrupt, billions and billions were stolen from it — I can envision them taxing the Internet,” the Fox News host warned. “What then?”

“That’s exactly the second move,” Sekulow said. “The first move is to get rid of anything that’s anonymous. And the second move is to tax foreign website visits.”

“If you go to Google and you’re in Russia, you would pay a tax,” he declared. “So, think what that does to Google or Facebook or Yahoo. Your email, your Gmail.”

“Why are we giving it away now?” Sekulow asked.

“It makes no sense to a great many people,” Jarrett concluded. “And Congress may step in and say, ‘Mr. President, you can’t give away the Internet. You shouldn’t have the ability to do that.’”

Watch the video below from Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, broadcast April 10, 2014.

http://videos.rawstory.com/video/Fox-host-Obama-giving-away-Inte/player?layout=&read_more=1

[H/T RawStory: David Edwards]

Cliven Bundy Calls on Sheriff to Start Arresting BLM Feds

(InfoWars) – “Don’t we pay him to protect our life, liberty and property?”

Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy has called on Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie to start arresting Bureau of Land Management agents on charges of trespassing and theft as his battle against the federal government intensifies.

Bundy’s dispute with the feds escalated yesterday when several of his supporters were assaulted by BLM officials. The BLM is currently rounding up Bundy’s cattle in order to enforce a regulation in order to protect an endangered desert tortoise after 600,000 acres of public land was reclassified as federal property.

During a Moapa Valley town hall meeting last night, Bundy said he went to visit Sheriff Gillespie a few days ago but “found him hiding under the table”.

“He is the man that has constitutional jurisdiction and authority, he has policing power here in Clark County Nevada, and he has arresting power, so we elected him and we pay him, what do we pay him to do?” asked Bundy, adding, “Don’t we pay him to protect our life, liberty and property?”

Bundy noted that his life was under threat because he couldn’t get a response from a 911 call, adding, “My liberty is threatened when they lock me away from my land and my property and I can’t care for my cows….they stole my property, around 300 head of cattle….they stole them in Clark County Nevada.”

Bundy also called on Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval to make a stand for residents of Clark County. Sandoval publicly blasted the BLM over their creation of a ‘First Amendment Area’ outside of which free speech is banned while also decrying the “intimidation” tactics used against the Bundy family, but he has yet to offer anything other than vocal condemnation.

“I love you people, and I love this land, and I love freedom and liberty, and I love the sovereign state of Nevada and nobody can tell me the United States owns this land,” said Bundy, adding that he would pay any grazing fees to Clark County and not the federal government.

Asserting that the land under dispute was owned by the people of Clark County, Bundy asked, “Is the United States government trespassing on your land?” to which the crowd reacted with an emphatic “yes!”

During the town hall meeting, Bundy’s sister, Margaret Houston also spoke about how she was assaulted by BML agents earlier in the day, remarking, “It felt like a war zone and I felt like I was not in the United States….they have snipers, they have helicopters, they’re carrying machine guns, it’s not pretty, it’s like a foreign country.”

The fact that at least 200 armed federal agents are watching Bundy’s ranch from a military-style compound with sophisticated surveillance technology has sparked fears that the dispute could escalate into a Waco-style assault.

[H/T InfoWars: Paul Joseph Watson]