Denny’s Owner John Metz to Charge Customers 5% 'Obamacare Surcharge'

By Michael Allen
                                                                                                                                                                                            
John Metz, the owner of 40 Denny’s franchise restaurants in Florida, plans to add a 5 percent surcharge to his customers’ checks to pay for his legal responsibility to provide health care coverage to his employees per Obamacare.

Obamacare requires that businesses with more than 50 workers must offer a health insurance plan or pay a penalty of $2,000 for each full-time worker over 30 workers.

Metz told HuffingtonPost.com that the direct surcharge is “the only alternative. I’ve got to pass on the cost to the customer.”

“Obviously, I’d love to cover all our employees under that insurance, but to pay $5,000 per employee would cost us $175,000 per restaurant and unfortunately, most of our restaurants don’t make $175,000 a year. I can’t afford it.”

Metz, who is concerned about his financial income, said he is unconcerned with the potential backlash or boycotts.

Metz said he hopes to get more restaurant owners to add a 5 percent surcharge on customers' checks: “We’re trying to get more restaurant operators rallied around the concept of adding a 5 percent surcharge to their bill to cover the costs of Obamacare as opposed to raising prices.”

Metz also announced that he will cut employee hours, but shifted the responsibility to Obamacare again: “I think it’s a terrible thing. It’s ridiculous that the maximum hours we can give people is 28 hours a week instead of 40. It’s going to force my employees to go out and get a second job.”

TSA Jails Man with ‘strange watch’ at Airport

*L.A. NEWS*

A Southern California resident is in custody after authorities say he tried to board a plane in Oakland with a watch modified by materials that could have been part of a bomb.

Geoffrey McGann, 49, of Rancho Palos Verdes was taken into custody Thursday about 7:30 p.m. in Terminal 2 of Oakland International Airport. He attracted the attention of authorities after placing a coat and an unusual watch in a plastic bin bound for the screening machine.

The watch included a toggle switch, wires and a circuit board, Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, said Friday.

"Apparently he was wearing it and took it off to go through the screening process," Nelson said. McGann had "all the components" to make an "improvised explosive device," except for the material that would have actually exploded, Nelson said.

McGann also had no checked bag -- another warning flag -- and was wearing shoes two sizes too big, according to authorities. In the shoes, there were homemade inserts with cavities that could be used to stash explosives, Nelson said.

McGann also was wearing a military-style shirt with a tourniquet band built into each sleeve. The shirts are available for purchase, but are not especially common, Nelson said.

“When you add it all up, it didn’t add up,” Nelson said.

But McGann did provide an explanation. The watch, he said, was art. The shoes, he told authorities, were supposed to make him look taller.

"He does do art kind of stuff, but what reasonable person would bring a watch like that into an airport and think that’s OK?"  Nelson said. "You may have a toy gun as art, but would you bring it to the airport?"

McGann also carried a backpack with him that contained no clothes, investigators said. McGann said he’d been on a business day-trip in the Bay Area and was about to return to Los Angeles.

Officers arrested McGann on suspicion of possession of materials that can be used to make a destructive device. He was being held Friday in lieu of $150,000 bail, according to Alameda County records.

The incident delayed flights for about 20 minutes, investigators said.

Obama Supporters 'Not Responsible Enough To Own A Firearm,' AZ Gun Store's Sign Declares

By Gregory Gwyn-Williams, Jr. *CNSNEWS*

It was reported over the weekend that the owner of a gun store in Arizona is telling Pres. Obama's supporters he doesn't want their business.

Cope Reynolds, the owner of Southwest Shooting Authority, a gun store located in Pinetop, Arizona, took out a full page ad in a local newspaper that read: "If you voted for Barack Obama your business is not welcome."

The New York Daily News reports that Mr. Reynolds also posted a sign on the store's front door:

"If you voted for Obama, please turn around and leave! You have proven you are not responsible enough to own a firearm."

It is not known how Reynolds will identify Obama supporters and it doesn't seem likely that one would admit to having voted to reelect the president if they wish to purchase a gun at his store.

In an emailed statement, Reynolds wrote: "Obviously, this is nothing more than a political statement. Of course, it would be impossible to enforce. If they don't say anything, we'll never know. They could purchase whatever they wanted, and they would probably get a big kick out of thinking they are rubbing it in our face as they walk out the door."

Despite Mr. Reynold's personal attempt at "gun control," it has been widely reported that gun sales are on the rise though the reason behind demand varies from source to source.  One theory suggests that citizens are stockpiling arms out of concern that President Barack Obama will tighten regulations on assault weapons, even ban them outright in his second term.

Census: U.S. Poverty Rate Spikes, Nearly 50 Million Americans Affected

*CBS NEWS*

As President Barack Obama is set to begin his second term, new statistics on America’s poverty rate indicate that nearly 50 million Americans, more than 16 percent of the population, are struggling to survive.

New figures released by the Census Bureau this week found a spike in poverty numbers last year, going from 49 million in 2010 to 49.7 million last year. The numbers may come as a surprise to Congress, which estimated in September that the poverty rate would drop to 46.2 million. One of the most startling findings showed that almost 20 percent of American children continue to live in poverty.

The Associated Press reports that the new figures are based on an updated formula devised by the Census Bureau to help give the government a better understanding for how to use safety-net programs.

The numbers found that Hispanics and people living in urban areas had a higher chance of struggling to make it financially. Poverty among full-time and part-time workers also saw a jump from its 2010 numbers.


Based on the formula implemented by the Census Bureau, California tops the list as the sate most likely to bring about poverty. The top five is rounded out by the District of Columbia, Arizona, Florida and Georgia.

“We’re seeing a very slow recovery, with increases in poverty among workers due to more new jobs which are low-wage,” Timothy Smeeding, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economist who specializes in poverty, told The Associated Press. “As a whole, the safety net is holding many people up, while California is struggling more because it’s relatively harder there to qualify for food stamps and other benefits.”

Adults in the age groups of 18 to 64 and 65 and older saw spikes in their poverty rates. Hispanics and Asians saw greater spikes than white people, according to the statistics. Black people saw a slight decrease in poverty, but still have a rate of 25.7 percent.

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19,605 to zero is statistical proof of outright vote fraud in 2012 presidential election

J.D. Heyes *NATURAL NEWS*

In the weeks leading up to the Nov. 6 election, there were scattered concerns from across the political spectrum that vote fraud could occur in some sections of the country. While many of those fears did not come to fruition, based on final vote tallies in some polling districts, it’s hard to fathom that some form of fraud did not occur.

Take Philadelphia, for instance – the “city of Brotherly Love” – where, once again, New Black Panther Party members were seen at some of the same polling places they were at in 2008, when charges of voter intimidation were leveled against them. In 59 districts around the city, GOP presidential challenger Mitt Romney got zero votes.

Zip. Nada. None.

Granted, in heavily Democratic urban districts in the city, it’s not unusual for that party’s candidate – in this case, President Obama – to win a heavy proportion of the vote. But all of them?
Sure, say analysts. It’s not unusual at all. Nothing to see here.

Saddam Hussein always got nearly 100 percent of the vote too.

“We have always had these dense urban corridors that are extremely Democratic,” Jonathan Rodden, a political science professor at Stanford University, told Philly.com, a joint website of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News newspapers.


“It’s kind of an urban fact, and you are looking at the extreme end of it in Philadelphia,” he said.
That’s because most large cities are 75-80 percent Democrats, making them practically politically homogenous and much easier to organize than, say, rural areas where folks live far apart, said Sasha Issenberg, author of The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns.

“One reason Democrats can maximize votes in Philadelphia is that it’s very easy to knock on every door,” she said.

But isn’t it just as easy to knock on doors in Republican strongholds, even if they are farther apart? And that’s another issue – if we are to believe there are Democratic “corridors,” doesn’t it follow that there are Republican “corridors” as well?

Some GOP officials are asking these very same questions, especially after learning that, in 59 Philadelphia voting districts Obama out-polled Romney by a stunning 19,605 to zero. Even in heavily Democratic Philly, are we to believe that in nearly 60 polling districts there is not a single dissenting voter? The last political candidate in recent member to poll that overwhelmingly was Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

Those districts were concentrated in overwhelmingly black sectors of the city. But again – not a single Romney supporter? Not even one?

That’s a huge stretch, to say the least, says Steve Miskin, a spokesman for Republicans in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

“We believe we need to continue ensuring the integrity of the ballot,” he said, referencing his party’s voter ID initiative that, perhaps not surprisingly, was held off the state ballot for this election.

No such thing as a 100 percent Republican voting precinct.

University of Virginia political scientist Dr. Larry Sabato, who has studied voting in African American-dominated precincts, told Philly.com he had occasionally seen instances where 100 percent of the vote went to the Democratic candidate, citing precincts in Chicago and Atlanta which recorded no votes for the GOP’s candidate, Sen. John McCain, in 2008.

“I’d be surprised if there weren’t a handful of precincts that didn’t cast a vote for Romney,” he said.
Still, the high number of zero precincts in Philadelphia deserves examination, he added.

“Not a single vote for Romney or even an error? That’s worth looking into,” he said.

In a city with 1,687 of the ward subsets known as divisions, each with hundreds of voters, 59 is about 3.5 percent of the total, Philly.com reported.

Not much has been made about this voting phenomenon by the mainstream media, but we suspect the outrage and uproar would have been loud and boisterous, to say the least, if there were wide swaths of voting districts where not a single Democratic vote was cast.

Pelosi Decides to Run Again for House Minority Leader Post

*THE ASSOCIATED PRESS*

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday she will run to keep her job as the Democratic leader in the House after a pair of elections that kept the party in the minority there even as Democrats gained seats in the Senate and a second term for President Barack Obama.

Pelosi made the announcement in a private meeting with members of her caucus, saying she'd toss her hat back in the ring if Rep. Steve Israel, N.Y., agreed to stay on as head of the party's campaign committee.

Republicans reacted with derision.

"There is no better person to preside over the most liberal House Democratic caucus in history than the woman who is solely responsible for relegating it to a prolonged minority status," said Paul Lindsay, spokesman for the National Republican Campaign Committee. "This decision signals that House Democrats have absolutely no interest in regaining the trust and confidence of the American people who took the speaker's gavel away from Nancy Pelosi in the first place," he said.

Pelosi, 72, has represented a San Francisco area district in the House includes becoming the first woman in history to serve as speaker. The tea party-fueled political wave of 2010 forced the gavel from her hand to Rep. John Boehner, an Ohio Republican.

Holding a news conference Wednesday morning with women members of her caucus, Pelosi said "we're very, very proud" of how large a role women played in the Nov. 6 election.

"We don't have the gavel" of majority status in the House, she said, "but we have unity. I think our caucus this morning demonstrated that very clearly."

"We must have the further empowerment of women," said Pelosi, who noted that when she came to Congress there were 23 women in the House compared to over 60 of the seats in the House. "Not enough. We want more," she said.

Pelosi was a major force behind the passage of Obama's health care overhaul and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Even after the 2010 elections, when her party lost 63 seats, Pelosi was reelected Democratic leader by her caucus.

Pelosi's colleagues had said for days that the top leadership post was hers if she wanted it in the next Congress that begins in January. She refused to reveal her plans for a week after the Nov. 6 elections failed to give Democrats gain they wanted.

It was a disappointing, but not unexpected result of a bitter year of elections that focused on the tight contests for president and control of the Senate. Throughout, Pelosi raised millions of dollars for Democratic House candidates and insisted that the 25 seat gain was within reach. But in the end, Democrats will gain at most eight seats and Republicans will keep their majority.

Waiting in the wings of Democratic ranks was Pelosi's deputy, Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the party whip, whom she has known since they were congressional interns, and South Carolina Democrat James Clyburn, assistant to the Democratic leader.

Pelosi is the daughter and sister of former Baltimore mayors. Her father, Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr., served as mayor of Baltimore for 12 years after representing the city for five terms in Congress. Her brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III, also served as mayor.

$1.6 TRILLION? OBAMA DOESN'T WANT A DEAL

By JOEL B. POLLAK

President Barack Obama has responded to House Speaker John Boehner's gesture last week towards reaching a deal to avoid the Jan. 1 "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts, putting a specific demand on the table: $1.6 trillion in new tax revenues, reached by raising tax rates on the wealthy in addition to other "tax revenues." The offer is twice as high as a deal Obama scuttled last year, suggesting he may be prepared to let talks fail again.

Last week, Boehner proposed raising "revenues," but not "rates"--the same position he took during negotiations on raising the debt ceiling in the summer of 2011. Then, Boehner had agreed on raising revenues by $800 billion--all without raising tax rates. The White House had been prepared to agree on the deal, until President Obama decided to demand an additional $400 billion from increased tax rates, destroying the "grand bargain."

The day after the 2012 election, Boehner essentially repeated his principles for a deal, without offering a specific number. In a stage-managed speech in the East Room of the White House, complete with a standing ovation by and a multicultural tableau of staffers behind the President, Obama welcomed the gesture and repeated the word "revenues" without mentioning "rates," suggesting that he might be prepared to accept Boehner's terms quickly.

Obama's actual offer, however, indicates that he is spoiling for a fight. He clearly hopes to use his re-election to assert greater leverage within the talks--though Boehner's Republicans, too, were returned to power by the same electorate. His goal is not merely to reach a compromise at a higher number than the $800 billion deal that fell through last time; rather, his aim is to force Republicans to agree to the higher tax rates necessary to reach that number.

Such an agreement would likely provoke a revolt within the Republican caucus that would end Boehner's speakership. Indeed, one of Boehner's goals last week--in addition to showing the public that Republicans are willing to make a deal--may have been to trigger conservative opposition, thus showing that his hands are tied and he has no room to budge. On cue, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed publicly not to allow tax hikes to pass.

Obama is also interested in creating impressions. He huddled with his most radical allies at the White House today--including MoveOn.org--to reassure them that he would fight hard for Republican concessions. Today's $1.6 trillion offer may be part of that display. Alternatively, Obama may have chosen the number so that the halfway mark between this offer and Boehner's last from 2011 would be $1.2 trillion--exactly what Obama demanded last year.

But knowing that Boehner cannot accept tax hikes and remain in charge of the House, $1.6 trillion seems less like a serious opening gambit and more like the highest possible demand that would be guaranteed to prevent a deal without seeming entirely unreasonable. Obama may prefer to go over the fiscal cliff, which would raise taxes by default and cut defense spending and entitlements with both parties sharing the blame. That's what $1.6 trillion buys today.