912 Patriots of Lower Bucks - Your Daily Updates ALL in ONE Place!
March 20, 2013
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"Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever says No, to this question, is an Independent for independency means no more than this, whether we shall make our own laws, or, whether the King, the greatest enemy this continent hath, or can have, shall tell us there shall be no laws but such as I like."
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Russian Foreign Ministry says Syrian rebels used chemical weapons near Aleppo, killing 16
Associated Press | Published March 19, 2013
MOSCOW - Russia's Foreign Ministry says Syrian rebels have used chemical weapons, killing 16 people and injuring 100 others.
The ministry said the attack represented an "extremely dangerous" development in the two-year Syrian crisis. It said the rebels detonated a munition containing an unidentified chemical agent early Tuesday in the province of Aleppo. It didn't give further details.
Syria's state-run news agency has also accused the rebels of the attack, saying 25 people died, but the rebels say government forces fired the weapon.
Russia said that the evidence of rebels getting hold of weapons of mass destruction had taken the confrontation to a new stage.
Russia has been the main ally of President Bashar Assad's regime since the start of the uprising, in which more than 70,000 have died.
A least 26 people were killed by a rocket blast in the Syrian city of Aleppo, according to a human rights group, while both the Assad regime and rebels are pointing fingers at each other for the attack.
"Sixteen Syrian regular army soldiers were killed in Khan al-Assal,'' Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters. "Ten more died in the hospital but I cannot confirm if they are civilians or soldiers.''
Syrian information minister Omran al-Zoubi said the rocket, fired from Nairab district in Aleppo into Khan al-Assal village on Tuesday, was a chemical weapon that contained "poisonous gases."
A Reuters photographer who had visited Aleppo hospitals said patients were suffering breathing problems, and the air smelt strongly of chlorine.
Al-Zoubi added that the attack was the "first act" of the Syrian opposition interim government announced in Istanbul and claimed 86 people were wounded. He spoke to the pro-government Al-Ikhbariya TV station. Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, later said 25 were dead.
The foreign ministry of Russia -- who has been the main ally of President Bashar Assad's regime since the start of the uprising -- backed the regime's statements, saying rebels were the ones who used the chemical weapons.
Hacker Distributes Confidential Memos Sent to Hillary Clinton on Benghazi Attack, Libya
March 19, 2013
Armed with confidential memos to Hillary Clinton that were stolen from the e-mail account of a former White House aide, a hacker has distributed some of the documents to a wide array of congressional aides, political figures, and journalists worldwide.
In a series of weekend e-mail blasts, the hacker known as "Guccifer" disseminated four recent memos to Clinton from Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime confidant of the former Secretary of State.
The 64-year-old Blumenthal, who worked as a senior White House adviser to President Bill Clinton, had his AOL e-mail account hacked lastweek by "Guccifer," who has conducted similar illegal assaults against a growing list of public figures, including Colin Powell, relatives and friends of the Bush family, and a top United Nations official.
The hacker's e-mails went to hundreds of recipients, though the distribution lists were dotted with addresses for aides to Senate and House members who are no longer in office. But many of the addresses to which the Blumenthal memos were sent are good (though it is unclear whether karl@rove.com is a solid address for the Republican mastermind).
Most of the e-mail recipients were sent four separate memos that were e-mailed to Clinton by Blumenthal during the past five months. Each memo dealt with assorted developments in Libya, including the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. One memo marked "Confidential" was sent to Clinton on September 12.
On March 26th, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Perry case, which will determine if Proposition 8 - the citizens initiative approved by the people of California in 2008 to protect marriage - is constitutional or not. More importantly, the question of same-sex "marriage" and the right of Americans to protect marriage will be decided.
It is imperative that political leaders, the media, and the culture see that we care about protecting marriage enough to stand up and march for it.
The March is being organized by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) alongside a broad coalition of pro-family organization, state partners, African-American, Latino, Catholic and Protestant leaders. Speakers include Gary Bauer (American Values), Bishop Harry Jackson, Dr. Robert George (Manhattan Declaration), Penny Nance (Concerned Women for America) and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.
Here's the schedule of events for the March on Tuesday, March 26th:
8:30am - Gather at the National Mall location between 10th Street and 12th Street NW & between Madison Drive NW and Jefferson Drive SW
9:30am - March to Supreme Court and then return to the National Mall location.
11:00am - 1:00pm - Rally begins at National Mall location.
Saturday, March 23, 2013 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (EDT)
Seating is very limited, but as of now there are about 80 spots left. When inviting people, keep in mind that we want the most active and involved people to attend. This is a training event, so we want to train the best, brightest, and most dedicated to become Citizen Watchdogs!
In Liberty,
Matthew M. Hissey
(267) 838 2380
Grassroots Director Americans For Prosperity Pennsylvania
Updated PA Leadership Conference Agenda Released
The conference which will be held April 19-20, 2013 at the Radisson Penn Harris Convention Center in Camp Hill (Harrisburg), PA.
Registration includes admission to all conference functions EXCEPT the pre-dinner reception. Registration DOES include the Friday evening dinner with speaker Steve Hayes of Fox News/The Weekly Standard (do not register separately for the dinner); the Saturday breakfast with John Gizzi and Saturday lunch with pollster/commentator Scott Rasmussen. It also includes all panels, workshops and speakers. The only function NOT included in the registration fee is the pre-dinner reception with Steve Hayes, which is priced separately.
The 'Early Bird' registration period for the
2013 Pennsylvania Leadership Conference
has been extended until midnight Saturday, March 23rd!
Be sure to enter the promo code to save $5.00 off a single registration
It will be a vital addition to your ministry when you attend this very important luncheon. ABSOLUTELY FREE! Olive Tree Ministries and our event hosts invite you to join us for a Middle East Briefing with Pastor Victor Styrsky on April 4th and 5th. Victor a speaker your will love! His straight forward and passionate heart drew enthusiastic response last Fall when his powerful message about Israel reached audiences throughout Delaware and Pennsylvania region. Victor has just returned from Israel where he hosted over 50 pastors on life - changing tours and briefings. As the First State, Delaware need to be on God's radar in support fo Israel, the apple of His eye! Won't you become part of our initiative here in this area to bring together Pastors, Rabbis and congregational Leaders for Israel? NOW is the time! We will look forward to having you join us. Staff of Olive Tree Ministries.
Click above to register for either or both events Bring spouses and guests. You will be linking directly to the CUFI registration pages. Your guests are welcome but each individual person must register as indicated on the registration pages.
$25 OFF Bus if you register before April 22 $25 OFF Participation if you register before April 22
June 19 - 21 we will convene at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC for our fourth annual National Conference & Legislative Briefing.
And here's some really great news: This year's registration fee is only $229! Register by April 15th and you'll receive our "Early Bird" rate of just $189!
We also offer again this year special benefits for Patriot Eagle and Patriot sponsors.
We have some exciting new wrinkles planned for this year's event, and our list of confirmed speakers already includes:
Steven Emerson - Journalist, author, and the Executive Editor of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. A. M. Rosenthal, late-managing editor of The New York Times, described Emerson as "one of the nation's best national security correspondents."
John Guandolo - Former FBI agent and one of America's leading authorities on the Muslim Brotherhood and its inner workings in America. Guandolo spoke at our conference in 2011 and received rave reviews from conference attendees!
Ezra Levant - Canadian lawyer, author, newspaper columnist with Sun Media, and former publisher of the Western Standard. Hauled before a Canadian "human rights commission" because he published the Danish cartoons that satirized Muhammad, Levant's personal account of a politically correct government inquisition is something you won't want to miss!
The National Conference & Legislative Briefing will begin on Wed. evening, June 19th, and conclude on Friday, June 21st at noon, with additional optional training sessions Friday afternoon.
It will again feature our very popular Capitol Hill Awards Luncheon and our signature gala banquet-and of course, our Legislative Briefing, where Members of Congress will brief you on various issues and answer your questions.
So make your plans now to join us in our nation's capital for what promises to be our best National Conference & Legislative Briefing ever!
More details to come!
Coming March 25th & 27th: Two Skills Clinics for Pennsylvania Conservatives
Holding Congress accountable is tough work, and it can seem even more daunting when you're tackling the task alone. Whether you are new to the fight or a seasoned activist, the Sentinel Skills Clinic will help you better engage Congress and have your voice heard. Join fellow Pennsylvania conservatives as we share the tools to take meaningful action at this crucial time in our country's history.
Lancaster Skills Clinic
Homewood Suites by Hilton Lancaster 200 Granite Run Drive Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601
· Navigating Sentinel and the Heritage Action Dashboard · Effective Meetings with your Congressman · Twitter 101 · And more!
We're asking $5 to cover a pizza dinner at the door.
Register for your local clinic today and bring your friends,
Russ Vought Political Director Heritage Action for America
PS: Don't see a clinic near you? Talk to our Pittsburgh or Philadelphia regional coordinators to start planning a local skills clinic now.
2013 RedState Gathering -- Early Bird Special
Dear RedStater,
We announced earlier this week that we'll be headed to New Orleans the first weekend in August for this year's RedState Gathering. As a member of our RedState family, we'd like to extend exclusive Early Bird registration and pricing to you (just use the promo code EARLYBIRD on the registration page).
The 2013 RedState Gathering will be held August 2-3 at the Westin Canal Place in New Orleans, LA. We'll have two full days of speakers and activities and you can expect a good mix of elected officials and potential candidates for the 2014 cycle (we'll keep you informed as additions are made).
The Gathering has always been a unique event, in that all speakers, even the most in-demand and influential, pay their own way and make their own travel arrangements. This helps keep our costs low, a savings we are happy to pass along to our conference attendees. Additionally, we strive to get you up close to the speakers, ask them to take your questions, and we take care of nearly all your meals during the conference. Bottom line: fewer frills, more thrills and access.
We are thrilled to once again be joined by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who will be hosting a reception for all attendees and appear at the Gathering podium as a keynote speaker. A huge hit in 2012, we're looking forward to Gov. Jindal playing an even larger role this year as he welcomes us to his home state.
Now, more than ever, true conservative activists must come together to exchange ideas and strategize for the future. That's what this year's Gathering is all about. We hope you'll join us.
P.S. Don't delay! You'll receive 20% off if you register today - just use the promo code EARLYBIRD. Click here.
Glenn: Help us get in millions of home
Why should you support the "Get TheBlaze" movement to get TheBlaze in millions of homes across the country? For starters, how about a network that will cancel out the damage Al-Jazeera will be doing in America as it replaces Current in your lineup? Check out Glenn's "why" in this exclusive letter HERE.
Ready to take action? Click here to contact your TV provider and urge them to add TheBlaze.
ATTENTION: Are you a Verizon FiOS Subscriber? They've created a new form for you to fill out to request TheBlaze! You can complete the form HERE. And don't forget to make your request public by posting on their Facebook page. Thank you for supporting us!
Hi All - I just spoke w/ Lisa Lnancollas@aol.com (717 437 1327) who lives in Lewistown, Pa and is majorly involved in fighting the smart meters............and it's more than just electric, it's water, furnaces/ac's and wells too
We need to share this information. I asked her if she'd speak to groups in our area and she said yes, but would like to include Mike Reese who's written several bills that we want to get out of committee and approved:
2.signs in our yards saying NO SMART METERS......put them around like election signs
3.Let our State Reps know how you feel ie Warren Kampf....tell him you're in favor of the bills against smart meters
4.Do neighbor alerts........call your neighbors if you see trucks coming into the area
5.Write letters to the editors....remember if they get several letters, they're more likely to put at least one in.....educate the public
6.Prepare handouts
7.Send certified letter to electric company and get return receipt of name of person who signed for it
Be aware:
Water Smart Meters.........(IF YOU LET THEM IN, you're giving permission.) YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LET THEM IN
Well Smart Meters......are coming and will limit the amount of water you use.
If you get someone knocking on your door asking if you want to save money on your heat/ac, do not say yes or they'll put a clip on your unit that will limit your usage of air conditioning. The fan will work, but your usage will be CONTROLLED.
IF you get a new wall mount (thermostat & it may be required w/ a new ac unit because of the wiring) for your AC DO NOT GET ONE WITH A GPS in it........there is a cheaper model that has no GPS........ask questions BEFORE you start or consider any changes!!!!!!!!
Important Announcement from SFL
You're probably wondering why you've been getting more emails from me and Sustainable Freedom Lab after having had next to none for quite some time.
Well, the truth is that I've been very busy. As always, I spend enormous amounts of my time researching, writing, and speaking to the public about the threats of Agenda 21 and Regionalism.
I've also been working on important projects behind the scenes.
Now I'm finally ready to reveal the first of these "secret" projects: The DVD version of "Stopping Agenda 21 in Your Community".
Like the title suggests, this DVD program offers step-by-step training on how you can fight back against those who would bring Agenda 21 into your community. The test audience who saw this program during the limited streaming we held last Fall felt it was critical viewing for anyone concerned about the erosion of our property rights.
If you've been wanting an interesting, clearly written, how-to-manual for identifying and fighting UN Agenda 21, here it is. Agenda 21--All the information you need to understand what is happening in your town, why it's happening, who is behind it, and what you can do to stop it. BEHIND THE GREEN MASK: U.N. Agenda 21 is 172 pages of truth. Part history, part current events, part hand-to-hand combat, and part blueprint for keeping your freedom, this is one book that you'll put to work immediately. Boots on the ground and all hands on deck is the order of the day. Awareness is the first step in the Resistance.
Awareness about Agenda 21 is finally spreading throughout the country, due in no small part to your efforts. But knowing it is there isn't enough. Now we need to educate ourselves on how to combat it. That's where you come in.
American Policy Center has recently released a booklet that explains everything you need to know to start fighting back against sustainable programs both locally and nationally. The booklet is called Special Report: Agenda 21 and How to Stop It and is available in the APC store for only $5.95.
I wrote this 35 page booklet in order to give activists a succinct resource they can refer to if they suspect Agenda 21 or Sustainable Development is being implemented in their area. It includes my own research coupled with incredibly helpful graphics created by Carroll County, Maryland Commissioner Richard Rothschild.
In the booklet you will find answers to several roadblocks that grassroots anti-Agenda 21 activists often face, including a definition of property rights and "Resolution to Protect Citizens' Property Rights," which many concerned citizens are already using to tie the hands of power hungry politicians.
This booklet is a great resource for anyone interested in preserving their property rights. It includes all the information to put up a first line of defense and step by step instructions for how to proceed from there. If you face Agenda 21 or Sustainable development in your area or are simply concerned with the national fight this booklet is a must read.
P.S. - The American Policy Center store has recently updated our inventory to include everything you need to fight back against Agenda 21. The revamped catalogue includes the "Stop Agenda 21 Action Kit", which provides users with everything they need to know about Agenda 21 in their own living room, as well as ways to share it with other concerned activists and critical knowledge on how to fight back. The store also offers DVDs of past successful conferences and symposiums, books and articles that deal with the issues of sustainability and Agenda 21 and individually packaged manuals and workbooks to aid you in your activism. You don't need to look any farther than the American Policy Center Store for everything you need to combat Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development in your area.
It's time to opt out of the creepy federal data-mining racket.
By Michelle Malkin
Last week, I reported on the federal government's massive new student-tracking database, which was created as part of the nationalized Common Core standards scheme.
The bad news: GOP "leadership" continues to ignore or, worse, enable this Nanny State racket. (Hello, Jeb Bush.)
The good news: A grassroots revolt outside the Beltway bubble is swelling. Families are taking their children's academic and privacy matters out of the snoopercrats' grip and into their own hands. You can now download a Common Core opt-out form to submit to your school district, courtesy of the group Truth in American Education.
Parents caught off guard by the stealthy tracking racket are now mobilizing across the country. According to the
New York Daily News
, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, echoing parents across New York City, blasted the tracking database in a letter to government officials: "I don't want my kids' privacy bought and sold like this." This Wednesday, prompted by parental objections, Oklahoma state representatives unanimously passed House Bill 1989 - the Student Data Accessibility, Transparency and Accountability Act - to prohibit the release of confidential student data without the written consent of the student's parent or guardian.As I noted in last week's column, the national Common Core student database was funded with Obama stimulus money. Grants also came from the liberal Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (which largely underwrote and promoted the top-down Common Core curricular scheme). A division of the conservative Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. built the database infrastructure. A nonprofit startup, "inBloom, Inc.," evolved out of this strange-bedfellows partnership to operate the invasive database, which is compiling everything from health-care histories, income information, and religious affiliations to voting status, blood types, and homework completion.
And it gets worse. Research fellow Joy Pullmann at the Heartland Institute points to a February Department of Education report on its data-mining plans that contemplates the use of creepy student-monitoring techniques such as "functional magnetic resonance imaging" and "using cameras to judge facial expressions, an electronic seat that judges posture, a pressure-sensitive computer mouse and a biometric wrap on kids' wrists."
The DOE report exposes the big lie that Common Core is about raising academic standards. The report instead reveals Common Core's progressive designs to measure and track children's "competencies" in "recognizing bias in sources," "flexibility," "cultural awareness and competence," "appreciation for diversity," "empathy," "perspective taking, trust, [and] service orientation."
That's right. School districts and state governments are pimping out highly personal data on children's feelings, beliefs, "biases," and "flexibility" instead of doing their own jobs of imparting knowledge - and minding their own business. And yes, Republicans such as former Florida governor Jeb Bush continue to falsely defend the centralized Common Core regime as locally driven and non-coercive, while ignoring the database system's circumvention of federal student-privacy laws.
Why? Edu-tech nosybodies are using the Common Core assessment boondoggle as a Trojan horse to collect and crunch massive amounts of personal student data for their own social-justice or moneymaking ends. Reminder: Nine states have entered into contracts with inBloom: Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, and North Carolina. Countless other vendors are salivating at the business possibilities in exploiting public-school students.
Marxism in Education - The Infiltration of Our School Systems by the Common Core Standards
Details
Written by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Right Side News has been reporting on progressive education reformers and the Common Core Standards being implemented in our public schools across the nation. Here is an excellent article with videos detailing how the Obama Administration is requiring the public schools in your county through grants (bribes) to adopt Common Core Standards.
Bottom line: the Obama Administration is using your tax money to indoctrinate your children to a Marxist mindset. You can make a difference, as explained below the videos by downloading an OPT-OUT form and submitting that to your local school district.
Terresa Monroe-Hamilton, Noisy Room Blog
I caught Glenn Beck on The Blaze and his excellent showcasing of Obama's Common Core Standards that are now in 45 states, including my state of Idaho. Common Core is Marxism for children. It is state run propaganda and is meant to dumb down and control our little ones. It is evil and it has been a long time coming. Obama pushed it through slyly and quickly after coming into office, but I can tell you, this has been brewing since at least the 1990s.
A little background... When my children were in school in the 1990s, my husband and I requested to see the school curriculum for their school in Las Vegas, Nevada. We were refused and basically told we were too dumb to understand what the teachers were instructing our son and daughter in. The last straw came when they wanted to put my daughter in the second grade on Ritalin instead of disciplining her. I was pulled in front of four teachers and accused of not raising my daughter correctly, as well as basically being an abusive and stupid parent.
I promptly told these teachers that they could pound sand and pulled our children (our son was in third grade at the time) out of school that very same day. I left the Fortune 500 and home schooled both of them till high school and in retrospect, should have kept them out even then. My children could not do the simplest of math or read when we pulled them out. I tested them and started them all over again with the ABEKA home schooling system, which at the time, cost a great deal of money.
Forty-five states, the District of Columbia, four territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity have adopted the Common Core State Standards.
Has Communist Ideology Overtaken America? Education is crucial. Today I want to share two very interesting lists with you, and rather than adding an extensive amount of my commentary, I want to give you the chance to examine the facts for yourself. It is my opinion that many communist goals have already been accomplished. I also believe that advancement has been made in other areas. But, you owe it to yourself to do your own research. I believe not only in the freedom of speech, but also in the responsibility of free thought. So please don't take my word for it. Examine the facts for yourself.
Again, I want to share two lists with you. The first is a list that was entered into 1963 Congressional Record. The second is the 10 planks of The Communist Manifesto.
If you can't see this happening in America, and a ton of progress being made, then I offer two potential explanations:
You are one of the "useful idiots" of communist teaching.
I am one of the "village idiots" that your Mama probably warned you about.
Some of these points will be open for debate and some will not. In some cases it is blatantly obvious that they have achieved their goals. It is even rumored that our own President has deep communist ties. You might want to check that out as well but I will withhold my opinion at this point. Let's just lay it out and you can interpret it.
This list was originally printed in "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen. It was entered into Congressional Record in 1963 as the 45 goals of "The Communist Takeover of America."
If I Were the Devil - (BEST VERSION) by PAUL HARVEY audio restored
America needs a history lesson
Sign up now for Hillsdale's newest online courses - available FREE to every American!
Did you know that over 500,000 other students have already registered for one of our free online courses?
As Ronald Reagan once said during a speech delivered on our campus in 1978, "Hillsdale deserves the appreciation of all who labor for freedom...Your creative outreach on national issues enables little Hillsdale to cast a long shadow."
As a school of only 1,400 students, we reach over 350 TIMES that number with our online courses on the Constitution and America's founding principles.
Now is your chance to join with your fellow citizens!
Register now for this free "American Heritage" online course so you can better understand - and defend - the principles of liberty. This is the type of education America's Founders thought necessary to preserve our republic. Lectures in this not-for-credit online course are delivered by members of Hillsdale's history department faculty, and readings are drawn from the American Heritage Reader used in the American Heritage core course taught on Hillsdale's campus.
Course Schedule
Approximately 40 minutes in length, lectures will be released each Monday according to the schedule below. Once available, each week's materials can be viewed at your convenience.
If you thought that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had previously been on the record in favor of gay marriage, you'd be mistaken. In what I'm considering some clear jockeying for the 2016 Democratic nomination, Clinton put out a web video explaining her stance:
While not always being the most accurate predictor of the GOP's nominee, the CPAC straw poll is a good test of where the conservative base of the party is heading. It is also a good test of which candidates spend the most time and money organizing supporters to win the top spot. This year, . . . → Read More: Kentucky Senator Rand Paul wins CPAC 2013 Straw poll
Should Gay And Straight Scouts Share A Tent?
The Boy Scouts Are Eager For Your Input On This And Other Questions
March 19, 2013
Seeking input on their current ban on homosexual members and leaders, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) have sent more than 1.1 million surveys to members and parents. The organization is hoping the answers will provide clarity and direction when the executive board reconvenes and votes in May on whether or not to drop the ban.
Among the questions being asked:
"Should gay and straight scouts be allowed to share a tent on a camping trip?"
"What role does faith play in scouting if a church sponsoring a troop has a position on including or excluding gays and lesbians in its congregation?"
"David, a Boy Scout believes that homosexuality is wrong. His troop is chartered to a church where the doctrine of that faith also teaches that homosexuality is wrong. Steve, an openly gay youth, applies to be a member. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for this troop to deny Steve membership to their troop?"
In a question regarding homosexual scoutmasters:
"A troop is chartered by an organization that does not believe homosexuality is wrong and allows gays to be ministers. The youth minister traditionally serves as the Scoutmaster. The congregation hires a youth minister who is gay. Is it acceptable or unacceptable for this youth minister to serve as the Scoutmaster?"
We find it absurd that the BSA feels the need to even ask these kinds of questions -- that they're even considering such a monumental policy shift in the face of this radical attack.
For more than a century, the BSA has successfully governed itself, and the Supreme Court has ruled that, as a private organization, the Scouts can govern themselves the way they see fit.
+ + Tell The Boy Scouts To Ignore This Latest Attack
So why cave to radical homosexuals that are seeking to corrupt and destroy one of the nation's last conservative strongholds -- where boys are taught and mentored to be "morally strong" before God and man?
This attack should be ignored by the BSA. But sadly, it is not.
That's why Grassfire is urging all of our team members to weigh in and make their position known before the executive board renders their decision.
Whether you're a former scout, a scout parent, a scoutmaster, or a concerned citizen, we urge you to take immediate action to help offset what Grassfire believes is a blistering campaign by homosexual activists to overwhelm those who support the ban.
+ + Sign Grassfire's "I Support The Boy Scouts' Ban" Petition
Prior to the May vote, Grassfire will deliver both the petitions and comments to Scout headquarters in Irving, Texas, and we are eager to represent you. But remember, we have only until May to mobilize as many grassroots patriots as possible to stand with scouts and scoutmasters across the nation who support the ban.
And after signing be sure to leave your personalized comments. Tell the BSA what you think about attempts to radicalize and ultimately destroy this beloved and noteworthy American institution.
Then, alert your friends and family. Be sure to point out the absurdity of this situation, and what will most certainly be the tragic conclusion if conservative, grassroots Americans don't respond.
1.Led by Sen. Mike Enzi, Republicans Will Vote to Raise Taxes & Tax iTunes Downloads
Congressional Republicans led by Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, are about to raise Americans' taxes and set in place the foundation for states to be able to tax downloads from the internet, including from places like iTunes. Senators Durbin and Enzi are inserting an internet tax as an amendment to the Senate budget bill.
The tax sounds innocuous enough. The tax is hiding under legislation called the Marketplace Fairness Act. The Act purportedly just harmonizes state laws so internet sales are also taxed. After all, it is not fair that Amazon does not charge all its customers sales taxes. It puts them at a competitive advantage over mom and pop shops. Sounds good until you realize what's actually going on with this latest scheme to peddle "fairness."
One day I will have a scorecard for conservatives. And those Republicans who vote for the Marketplace Fairness Act in any form will be blackballed from that scorecard. Until then, I hope groups like Club for Growth and Heritage Action will score against it. It is a damnable piece of legislation whose backers are a whose who of major corporations.
The staggering irony of the Marketplace Fairness Act is that it is written by states craving more money and massive corporations like Wal-Mart who want to hurt small businesses that have become successfully competitive against big retailers online. And in selling the Marketplace Fairness Act, these big businesses and governments have hired lobbyists to claim the law actually benefits small businesses. But the backers are a whose who of major corporations who have a history of using their connections in government to hurt small businesses that have figured out how to successfully compete against big businesses.
Even more shameful, these big businesses and state governments have been pouring money into conservative outfits and right-of-center lobbying outfits to try to convince conservatives that tapping a massive new revenue stream for states to balance budgets is somehow a conservative milestone.
Some of those supporting the Marketplace Fairness Act are good people with good intentions who believe the law is noble in purpose and buy the spin. But many are bought and paid for by the major corporations who have for too long rigged the system to their advantage by shutting out entrepreneurial competitors through the tax code and other laws.
Republicans who vote for the Marketplace Fairness Act, including Mike Enzi, should be, metaphorically speaking because it'd otherwise be illegal, flogged.. . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2.The Republican Autopsy
The Republican National Committee has released its 100 page autopsy of 2012, with 97 pages of fun filled reading. Reince Preibus, chairman of the RNC, ordered up the autopsy to try to find a way forward for the GOP without repeating many of the mistakes made in Campaign 2012. It's authors were Henry Barbour, Ari Fleischer, Sally Bradshow, Zori Fonalledas, and Glenn McCall.
What the autopsy misses out of the gate is that some times there is nothing that can be done. Bad election years are bad election years. Candidates like Josh Mandel were model candidates for the GOP who ran great races, but still lost. Some times it just happens.
4.The Associated Press Reads More Into Rand Paul's Speech Than is There
Erica Werner of the Associated Press gives us a textbook example of why talking about immigration in the United States is so hard. She reads into statements things that are not there.
The headline of her article is "Rand Paul endorses immigrant path to citizenship." Giving her the benefit of the doubt that someone else wrote the headline, her first paragraph reads thusly:
"Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is telling a Hispanic business group that illegal immigrants should be allowed to become U.S. taxpayers and ultimately get a shot at citizenship."
I have read the entirety of Rand Paul's speech. I have spoken directly to the Senator.
Priebus's GOP Autopsy Misses the Point Jonathon Moseley The GOP's recently unveiled "reboot" is a start -- but only a start. Republicans are chronically making classic rookie mistakes. More
Ben Carson's Problematic Views on Health Care M. Catharine Evans With his inspiring life story and soaring rhetoric, Dr. Ben Carson has favorably impressed America's conservatives. But is he too good to be true? More
Deconstructing America Glenn Fairman America as de facto "Jailer of the Emergent Progressive Soul?" The "bloody boot" impressed upon the neck of the poor? Thanks to postmodern deconstruction of truth, all too many believe exaclty that. More
The Annulment of Same-sex Marriage Dean Kalahar Attempting to redefine something as basic to biology as gravity is to physics is dangerous and destructive More
The Cypriot Domino Bruce Walker Cypru smay prove the first domino in a collapse of the Eurozone financial system, whose falling pieces will almost surely affect America. More
American Thinker Blog
Why won't Tom Friedman write about this fiasco? March 20, 2013 Tom Friedman has promoted green energy and Chinese communism for years. Now why doesn't he have the basic decency and courage to write about this Chinese green energy disaster? More
Each memo dealt with assorted developments in Libya, including the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. One memo marked "Confidential" was sent to Clinton on September 12.
In the senatorial name-calling, one senses a certain desperation, a fear on the part of McCain and Graham that the ground beneath them is shifting. There's good reason for that.
For some reason, a news story about the examination of future options has brought out certain cave dwellers to complain the US is planning for nuclear Armageddon. Relax folks, calm down.
Though it highlights the failure of the Obama administration's policies toward North Korea in the first term in general, it's a good idea for a couple of reasons.
Earlier this month NGO Monitor released its report on foreign government funding of radical political Israeli NGOs which work to undermine Israel's international standing and subvert Israeli society.
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." ~ Ronald Reagan
Bang for your buck: that's what the Freedom Center provides. Ammunition for the culture war against the Left: that's what your contribution buys. So please act now and help us in the fight we are waging on many fronts for America's future. America is under assault from within and without. There is no time to lose.
Democrats Want Obama to Put More Pressure on Israel; Republicans and Independents Disagree
New Poll Highlights Continued Move of Democrats Away from Historic Bipartisan Support for Israel
Washington, D.C. (March 19, 2013) - A new Gallup poll shows a striking difference of opinion between Republicans and Democrats on how to handle the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Democrats want President Obama to put more pressure on Israel to make compromises to end the conflict, while Republicans and Independents want the U.S. to put more pressure on the Palestinians.
According to Gallup, 64% of Republicans would like the President to put more pressure on the Palestinians, while just 15% say to put more pressure on Israel. 48% of Independents say pressure the Palestinians and 22% think the U.S. should pressure Israel. In contrast, only 34% of Democrats support more pressure on the Palestinians, but a larger share, 38%, think the U.S. should put more pressure on Israel.
This follows another Gallup poll last week showing that American support for the State of Israel is at an all-time high overall, but 78% of Republicans expressed more sympathy for Israel than for the Palestinians, while Democrats did so only 55% of the time.
RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said, "The 'Israel gap' between Republicans and Democrats is deeply troubling for pro-Israel Americans who appreciate our country's historic bipartisan support for Israel. As rank-and-file Democrats move to the left on issues related to Israel, the divide between the two parties will widen. Pro-Israel Democratic leaders must work to rebuild stronger support for Israel within their community."
Gallup: Americans Favor More Pressure on Palestinians Than Israelis
It would take only 33 minutes for a missile to reach the U.S. from anywhere in the world. That's a sobering thought when North Korea is taunting America with threatening video propaganda about its nuclear capabilities and Iran is advancing its nuclear program.
In response to these threats, the Obama Administration announced Friday that it would increase the number of Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Interceptors protecting the U.S. from 30 to 44. These 30 interceptors allowed White House spokesman Jay Carney to state that the U.S. is "fully capable of defending itself" against a North Korean ballistic missile attack.
He didn't mention that the Obama Administration has tried to undermine the long-range missile defense program since it came into office, including announcing the "restructure" of the advanced SM-3 IIB interceptor program designed to protect the U.S. and allies from a long-range ballistic missile threat. As Heritage's Michaela Dodge explained:
When the Administration took office four years ago, it scaled down the number of interceptors protecting the U.S. from 54 to 30. This included cutting 10 interceptors in Poland and 14 in Alaska. The Administration justified its step by saying that the missile defense threat has not progressed as fast as the Bush Administration expected-this despite the fact that both North Korea and Iran have been very public about their efforts to develop long-range ballistic missile capabilities.
President Obama famously told Russia's then-President Dmitry Medvedev that after the 2012 election, he would have more "flexibility" on missile defense. Just last Friday, his new Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, announced a restructuring of U.S. missile defense priorities to focus more on Alaska-based and California-based missile interceptors. This shift away from commitments to deploy advanced interceptors to Poland and Romania is exactly what the Russians have been demanding.
Thirty years ago this week, President Ronald Reagan asked a question that is just as vital today: "[W]hich part of our defense measures do we believe we can do without and still have security against all contingencies?"
To protect America, all contingencies must be covered. And as Heritage President-elect Jim DeMint has said recently, missile defense works. It works because the only sure way to deter an attack against the U.S. is to make certain it isn't worth it for the attacker. As Reagan said:
"Deterrence'' means simply this: making sure any adversary who thinks about attacking the United States, or our allies, or our vital interests, concludes that the risks to him outweigh any potential gains. Once he understands that, he won't attack. We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression.
Today, The Heritage Foundation and the George C. Marshall Institute are co-hosting an event commemorating the 30th anniversary of Reagan's landmark speech on missile defense and discussing the challenges of protecting our nation, then and now. Speakers include Ambassador Henry Cooper, Dr. Lee Edwards, Dr. Kim Holmes, Jeff Kueter, Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL), and Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH). The event runs from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. ET, and you can watch online throughout.
March 19, 2013 News and Analysis on Your Money in Washington
It's Crunch Time on New Budget With the government's spending and debt crisis drawing nearer, the budget for fiscal year 2014 marks a critical moment for the country. The budget must play a key part in restoring the principles that made America an exceptional nation. To do so it should accomplish six goals.
First Look at Paul Ryan's New Budget Plan The latest Ryan budget delivers on its new promise-to balance the budget within the decade. It maintains Ryan's signature reform to Medicare, which will go far toward reining in unaffordable entitlement spending. Read and Comment on our Blog > >
What a Balanced Budget Looks Like
Last week, the budget committees of both chambers of Congress released their budgets. Under the helm of Chairman Paul Ryan, the House delivered a balanced budget in 10 years by slowing the annual growth in federal spending.
Meanwhile, the Senate budget hikes taxes, keep spending high, and continues never-ending deficits.
YOU CAN STILL PLACE SOME PHONE CALLS. The faxing link below is for those of you who have at least one Republican among the two Senators and one Representative you have in Congress.
Many of you, however, are represented entirely by Democrats and won't be able to see that fax.
If you would like to register your opinion about the pro-amnesty efforts described below, you can use this phone number to reach any Republican in Congress, including Sen. Paul:
202-224-3121
DEAR REPUBLICAN AND CONSERVATIVE OPPONENTS OF AMNESTY,
You may be a little shell-shocked by the news yesterday from the Republican National Committee and this morning from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) saying the future of their Party depends on rewarding millions of illegal aliens with amnesty and add ing massive new migrations of immigrant workers.
But here's an encouraging word from our Capitol Hill Team which is interacting with elected officials and their staffs every day:
Most Republicans in the House and Senate are quite wary of the pro-amnesty advice they are getting. Most of them not only think the recommendations violate important principles but also would lose more votes than they would gain.
Nonetheless, they need to hear from you that they are right that their polit ical base is firmly opposed to another massive comprehensive amnesty law.
And because Rand Paul is an A-list celebrity at the moment, his endorsement of amnesty this morning could be destabilizing to many Republicans until they hear from you that you aren't buying what the Senator is selling.
Below the Action Box, I'll get into the details of the RNC and Paul recommendations.
Offer Advice from a Voter
Your Republican Member(s) have heard from the cheap-labor elites who have lots of money but very few votes. Now tell them what voters think of the advice for amnesty and higher immigration.
Do Republican and conservative voters really favor opening up U.S. jobs to tens of millions current and future illegal aliens as well as increased levels of legal foreign workers?
The big wigs at the Republican National Committee spend most of their time raising money from rich people and fo r 30 years have been promoting the massive importation of immigrant workers. While they have succeeded with their immigration policies in flooding labor markets and holding down the incomes of most wage-earning Americans (increasing profits for the rich), they have also imported a huge new demographic of Democratic voters who they now admit are threatening to make the Republican Party a permanent minority.
The solution according to these very same RNC big wigs is to import a whole lot more immigrant workers in the future, according to its blueprint for the future that it released yesterday.
I know. It doesn't make sense. And that may be one rea son why Republican Members of Congress won't be paying much attention to it.
To win elections in the future, the RNC announced that:
"(The Republican Party) must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform."
Alt hough it got a lot of publicity from the pro-amnesty media, the lack of details on what should be in the reform helps diminish its impact. Many commentators have already noted that Members of Congress (thankfully) don't look to the RNC for policy advice.
KEY POINTS OF THE RAND PAUL AMNESTY
Whether or not you admire Sen. Paul's bold individualistic leadership on other issues, I know you will be disappointed and maybe even shocked by the immigration platform he outlined this morning before the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
This is what he wants Congress to pass:
The 11-19 million illegal aliens would get to live permanently in the United States.
One year after Congress passes the amnesty, illegal aliens can start getting work permits to compete directly in the legal job market with Americans.
New illegal aliens who are enticed by the amnesty will continue to have a relatively open access to U.S. jobs because Sen. Paul opposes mandatory E-Verify and other means to keep employers from hiring illegal aliens.
Sen. Paul will force American workers to compete with far more new legal immigrant workers in the future.
Nowhere in his long speech did Sen. Paul indicate any concern for the 20 million Americans who can't find a full-time job or for the taxpayers who have to support them in myriad ways while 26 million legal and illegal foreign-born workers hold U.S. jobs.
Instead, Sen. Paul emphasized the need for even more foreign workers as if there can never be a downside of too much immigration. He called for a:
" . . . dialogue that shows that the GOP sees all immigrants as assets. . . . The Republican Party must embrace more legal immigration."
Nonetheless, Rand Paul outlined his amnesty with enough ambiguity to give some hope that Kentuckians can rescue him -- and the country -- from disastrous leadership on this issue.
WHAT ABOUT CITIZENSHIP FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS?
An AP story before the speech stated that Sen. Paul was endorsing a path to citizenship. This has spawned a lot of erroneous stories and tweets on the internet.
But Paul said nothing about citizenship in his speech. Rather, it looks like he is proposing a permanent-residency amnesty and work-permit amnesty but not a citizenship amnesty. That is more than enough amnesty to be truly harmful, but it is interesting that Paul is differing with Pres. Obama and the Senate Gang of Eight on the citizenship point.
WHEN DOES JOBS-AMNESTY KICK IN?
Sen. Paul leaves no doubt that he wants all the illegal aliens to be competing with Americans equally in the jobs market. But he proposes a phase-in system that he describes in very general terms.
You can read for yourself what his prepared text said:
"The first part of my plan - border security - must be certified by Border Patrol and an Investigator General and then voted on by Congress to ensure it has been accomplished.
"This is what I call, Trust but Verify.
"With this in place, I believe conservatives will accept what needs to come next, an issue that must be addressed: what becomes of the 12 million undocumented workers in the United States?
"My plan is very simple and will include work visas for those who are here, who are willing to come forward and work.
"A bipartisan panel would determine number of visas per year."
There is a lot there that needs to be explored
OPPOSING E-VERIFY MAKES PAUL'S PLAN MORE RADICAL THAN OBAMA'S
In one way, Rand Paul's plan is far more radical and pro-illegal-immigration than anything proposed by Pres. Obama or the Gang of Eight, both of whom are at least promising workplace verification to cut off the jobs magnet that has created the giant illegal-alien population in the first place.
"My plan . . . will also not have mandatory E-Verify. I don't mind if there's E-Verify, maybe related to the tax code somehow, but I don't like the idea of making every business owner a policeman."
How radical is this idea of not having business owners reponsible for avoiding hiring illegal aliens? Well, business responsibility was about the only thing that was given in return for the first (and supposedly last) amnesty in 1986. Sen. Paul today seemed to say that the only thing that should stand from the 1986 compromise was the amnesty itself.
BACK OF THE LINE? NOT AN AMNESTY?
Like Pres. Obama, Sen. Paul makes two highly questionable assertions about his plan:
"My plan will not grant amnesty or move anyone to the front of the line ."
In fact, his plan does both.
Rand Paul and Barack Obama claim they don't support amnesty because they define amnesty differently than most of us. They contend that if illegal aliens pay a fine it isn't amnesty to give them the lifelong residency and jobs they broke immigration laws to steal.
Of course, one of the last things citizens should do is allow their politicians to define away words that are inconvenient to them. Nobody who cares about the rule of law and an immigration system that serves the American people would call the Paul plan anything but an "amnesty," although it is not as generous of an amnesty as Pres. Obama and the Gang of Eight are proposing.
The "front of the line" line in some ways is even more maddening because it pretends that only future legal immigrants matter and that current unemployed Americans don't count at all.
Sen. Paul and Pres. Obama say that the illegal aliens should not get citizenship before the foreign citizens who are waiting in a backlog line to get immigration status. So, they each have pro visions that delay how fast the illegal aliens get a green card that puts them on a path to citizenship.
But what about the unemployment lines for millions of Americans -- 20 million who can't find a full-time job?
Sen. Paul and Pres. Obama basically put the illegal aliens at the FRONT of the jobs line.
Obama would give illegal aliens work permits almost immediately. Paul seems to say he would make them w ait a year.
Why do I say the illegal aliens would be in the front of the line just because they get work permits? Because most of them already have jobs. Obama and Paul would be giving them the legal permits to continue holding the jobs that they have already taken from Americans.
Many otherwise intelligent people have the idea that illegal aliens take jobs that Americans don't want.
But fewer than 5% are in agriculture, for example. The rest of the illegal workers are in jobs in which the majority of workers are U.S. citizens. In other words, those are clearly jobs Americans WILL do and ARE doing.
There are more than twice as many less-educated Americans looking for jobs in construction, manufacturing and service where the 7 million illegal aliens already have jobs.
That apparently is just fine with Rand Paul and all the other supporters of amnesty.
Is it fine with the voters who put Republicans into office?
Nullification Goes Local
From Utah to PA and Maine, local communities are standing up and saying NO to the Feds!
Last year, the Republican Establishment's choice for President, Mitt Romney, lost a race against a President who has given us unbelievably big deficits and debts, has failed to do his constitutional duty to enforce existing laws, and has committed many unlawful actions in his drive to "fundamentally transform the United States."
Yet, the same folks who failed to elect Romney despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars, and even failed to elect a Republican Senate, are trying to tell us how to win the next time. They say, just give us more money for the next election. One of these Establishment "strategists," Karl Rove, had nearly $400 million of political money to spend last year, but he elected only 9 of the 31 candidates for whom he aired TV ads.
We want more non-Establishment Senators like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, who have the courage to speak up and vote NO on the Obama Democrats' plans to transform America.
I went to the conservative conference called CPAC last week to tell conservatives that we must restore grassroots control of the Republican Party instead of being bossed by Establishment Republicans - also called RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) - who have given us a long series of losers as candidates.
I went to CPAC to explain what we conservatives must do. You can watch my speech here:
Eagle Forum has an army of volunteers ready for action, precinct by precinct, to nominate candidates who are real conservatives and to spend money wisely to get them elected.
If you agree with me, please send a generous contribution to Eagle Forum PAC. I guarantee your money will be spent wisely - and only for real pro-family conservatives.
Thanks for your support. Let us give America a real Choice Not An Echo. We did it in 1980 when we helped Ronald Reagan defeat the Establishment candidate - and we can do it again.
Send your contribution to Eagle Forum PAC, P. O. Box 618, Alton, IL 62002. Or send it online. Thanks for your help.
Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog
The one question I invariably encounter in a conservative movement that tends toward the gray side is how to engage the youth. And the answer is usually nothing that the questioners want to hear.
Now the Republican Party has laid the corpse of the last election on the slab and come up with the expected answers. Some of them are correct, albeit belated. Many others are the sorts of things that the squishy side of the party has been recommending for a while.
The Republican Party has gone from denying that there is a culture war to conceding defeat in the culture war while denying that it ever existed. Its program now is to push aside the socially conservative material and stop frightening off minorities. And that misses the whole point about everything.
A hacker, known only as �Guccifer,� has reportedly distributed confidential memos that were sent to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and dealt with various developments in Libya, including the Benghazi terrorist attack. The hacker has apparently sent four of the recent memos to congressional aides, politicians and journalists across the globe. See the details of what was releasedHERE.
Comedian Norm Macdonald found himself in atheists� cross-hairs on Monday night after he sent a series of tweets affirming his belief in God and scripture. Non-believers, clearly appalled that he joins the majority in embracing the notion of a higher power, quickly responded to his religiosity with angst and annoyance. Get the whole storyHERE.
Did a Facebook photograph showing a young boy holding a gun spark police to try to enter a New Jersey home without a warrant? That's the story being told by the father of the boy. TheBlaze investigated the story and we discovered some very alarming charges. Get the whole storyHERE.
Philadelphia Magazine is under fire, as the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission has been called upon to investigate the publication. The outlet�s offense? Publishing a story about Caucasians� views on race relations. The article entitled, �Being White in Philly,� quickly caught the ire of Mayor Michael Nutter. Get the detailsHERE
Last week, an adjunct law professor at the University of Oregon was arrested, charged and subsequently fired from his post after an incident with a group of students hosting a pro-immigration demonstration on campus. See one video from the protestHERE.
Why is only one popular retailer asking for more than just your I.D. when you�re trying to buy anti-smoking nicotine patches? A man named Rodney was at Target purchasing nicotine patches when the store clerk asked to scan his I.D. Rodney paused and eventually decided to take his business elsewhere. Why is Target scanning drivers licenses? Find outHERE.
On his Monday evening broadcast, Glenn Beck blasted Bloomberg for his increasingly-intrusive Nanny State regulations intended to control just about every aspect of private citizens� lives. From his crusades against ear buds, sodium levels in food donations to soup kitchens, big gulps, car idling, baby formula, alcohol, cigarettes, taxis, there may very well be no limits to what New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg seeks to regulate. Watch the segmentHERE.
Don't miss your chance to own the premiere episode of For The Record. Watch as For The Record investigates how the NSA turned America into a surveillance state. This chilling, one-hour episode reminds us all that with every call, every email...the government is watching. Get your copyHERE.
A man was testing out his new camera recently by filming the body of a dead cow, when he was chased around a pasture and over a fence by an irate herd of cattle. And that was just the beginning. Watch the full videoHERE.
This weekend, Jillian Pavlica, a news anchor for WZDX-TV in Huntsville, Ala., got the surprise of her life when her boyfriend proposed to her live on the air. Pavlica thought she was bringing the station�s audience some �breaking news� but she was really setting the stage for her marriage proposal. Watch the touching momentHERE.
There is a scene in the movie "A Bronx tale" where the father of a young man counsels his son not to attack another young man over a $20.00 debt which has gone unpaid for too long. The father explains this is a small price to discover that someone is not trustworthy. He tells his son to be glad he has been shown how untrustworthy the other man is in this minor matter. "Now you know not to trust him in the future in bigger things," he says.
This small lesson begs the question: Why would we trust school administrators who cannot tell the difference between an imaginary "weapon" fashioned out of a cupcake and something that is genuinely dangerous?
The stories of idiots suspending second graders for pointing a finger at a playmate and saying, "Bang" were funny the first dozen times we heard them, but not anymore.
Two weeks ago, while on routine patrol two New York City police officers saw a Black teenager named Kimani Gray acting in a manner they deemed suspicious. Gray had adjusted what they surmised was a gun in his waistband. When they attempted to stop and question Gray he pulled the gun up in preparation to use it. That was a mistake that cost the 16 year old his life.
Choosing to disregard the code of the streets (which requires non-cooperation with the police) three witnesses, speaking on the record, said they heard the police warn Gray but that Gray disregarded the warning. Gray was promptly shot dead.
This incident appears to be an open and shut case of a foolhardy criminal losing a gunfight to two trained police offers. That interpretation has become meaningless to the feral adolescents who roamed the streets with Gray. His death has become an ... Continue Reading:Riots in Brooklyn show feral adolescents' demand for entertainment is unquenchable
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." ~ Winston Churchill
Shaping Children's Minds With A Very Bad Chisel
Texas Public School Curriculum Teaches Students To Design A Socialist Flag And That Christianity Is A Cult By American Dream RightSideNews.com
Socialism is being promoted and Christianity is being demonized in the public school systems of some of the most conservative states in America.
Obama Nominates Lead Prosecutor Against Voter ID Laws, Former Ted Kennedy Aide As Secretary Of Labor
Labor Nominee Stubbornly Refused To Say DOJ Won't Try To Limit 1st Amendment Rights By Joe Schoffstall CNSNews.com
Pres. Obama's nominee to head the Labor Dept. refused to affirm the security of First Amendment rights when he testified in a 2012 House hearing as an assistant attorney general for the Justice Dept.
Here is how you can help get his story out to more people... Related posts: Terry Lakin Discusses His New Book, "Officer's Oath" Yesterday morning, Lt. Colonel Terry Lakin appeared on the Peter... The Persecution Of Terry Lakin A Kansas board that denied a licensed doctor of osteopathic...
Mar 19, 2013 01:22 pm Why has there been no serious effort to ask the Supreme Court if it is constitutional to force 78 million American citizens under 18 to inherit an overwhelming tax burden without their knowledge or consent? Why all the uproar over serving soda to kids in containers holding 16+ ounces and not even a whisper of [...]
Video: Dr. Ben Carson: Obama Trying To 'Destroy Country'
Mar 19, 2013 01:16 pm
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Hillary Clinton Announces Support For Gay Marriage
Mar 19, 2013 12:41 pm WASHINGTON- Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her support for gay marriage Monday, putting her in line with other potential Democratic presidential candidates on a social issue that is rapidly gaining public approval. Clinton made the announcement in an online video released Monday morning by the gay rights advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. [...]
Video: Al Qaeda In Syria, The Story You Haven't Heard
Mar 19, 2013 12:29 pm
"Ben Swann: Full Disclosure" talks with Emilio Ibrahim, a Syrian man living in Damascus about the U.S. and Saudi funding of Al Qaeda fighters who are leading the so-called Syrian revolution. Related posts: Saudis Prompt Al Qaeda-Iraq Move To Syria: Assad's Ouster Top Priority Saudi rulers, seeing Bashar Assad on the verge of defeating... Obama [...]
Video: Taitz Confronts Breitbart News About Obama's SSN
Mar 19, 2013 12:27 pm
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Video: Does Obama Plans To Cut Back On Lavish Travel?
Mar 19, 2013 12:20 pm
That's a question asked by a local reporter in Colorado to Jay Carney the other day. Related posts: WH's Carney Refuses To Name The Capital Of Israel Twice What's the problem, Mr. Carney? Why can't you answer a... Bill Ayers' Plans For "Re-Education Camps" And "Elimination" Conservative bloggers in 2008 discovered Obama's long-time connection to [...]
Planned Parenthood Patient Torture Leads To Huge Lawsuit
Mar 19, 2013 12:12 pm Planned Parenthood receives around $540 million a year of taxpayer money. Supposedly, the majority of those funds are to be used for family-planning and women's health, but Alliance Defending Freedom believes their primary focus is meeting their ever increasing quota of abortions. In fact, they are so focused on meeting their abortion quotas that they [...]
Mar 19, 2013 12:05 pm In a book, Benjamin Anderson tells the story of how a wealthy entrepreneur reacted to the imposition of much higher income-tax rates in 1935 at the bottom of the Great Depression. Anderson's Economics and the Public Welfare, a highly regarded study of the Great Depression, was based on his personal experience as an economist for [...]
Mar 19, 2013 11:57 am WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday that illegal immigrants should be allowed to become U.S. taxpayers and ultimately get a shot at citizenship, a significant step for the Tea Party favorite amid growing Republican acceptance of the idea. "Let's start that conversation by acknowledging we aren't going to deport" the millions already here, [...]
Video: No Easter Egg Hunt Because Of The Sequester
Mar 19, 2013 11:48 am
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Judge Orders Mediation In Fast And Furious Lawsuit
Mar 19, 2013 11:36 am WASHINGTON - A federal judge has ordered mediation in a lawsuit over congressional efforts to get records related to Operation Fast and Furious, a bungled federal gun-tracking operation in Arizona. Judge Amy Jackson Berman issued the order Monday, after the GOP-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Justice Department said they hadn't been [...]
Mar 19, 2013 11:06 am WASHINGTON - Over strong objections from some conservative leaders, the Republican National Committee formally endorsed immigration reform on Monday and outlined plans for a $10 million outreach to minority groups - gay voters among them - as part of a strategy to make the GOP more "welcoming and inclusive" for voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats [...]
Mar 19, 2013 10:53 am WASHINGTON - Reeling from back-to-back presidential losses and struggling to cope with the country's changing racial and ethnic makeup, the Republican National Committee plans to spend $10 million this year to send hundreds of party workers into Hispanic, black and Asian communities to promote its brand among voters who overwhelmingly supported Democrats in 2012. Committee [...]
Syria Says Rebels' Chemical Weapon Attack Kills 16
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Video: How Many Citizens Were Slaughtered Between 1933 And 1945?
Mar 19, 2013 10:43 am
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Washington elites are aghast with reports that a 135 year-old tradition in the nation's capital may be the next victim of "draconian" budget cuts. Yesterday the White House blasted out messages to Easter Egg Roll ticket holders warning them that "this event is subject to cancellation due to funding uncertainty surrounding the Executive Office of the President and other federal agencies."
Evidently the "deficit hawks" in the White House -- the same folks who pushed a trillion-dollar takeover of health care and wasted billions "investing" in failed green energy boondoggles -- have decided that the best ways to save money are to cancel the White House tours and that pesky Easter Egg Roll.
Of course for Christians, the holy day has nothing to do with rolling eggs, but rather the rolling away of a rock from the tomb. But if the egg roll is in fact cancelled, I know there will be many disappointed parents and children.
That, of course, was the reason for sending the message in the first place. The White House is still trying to maximize the impact -- and the publicity -- of the sequester cuts, and it is once again using little children as "policy shields."
Now if this budgetary stalemate continues, it will be interesting to see if the Obama White House cancels its annual Ramadan dinner too.
House Questions Sequester Cuts
House Republicans have had enough of these games. Today the Oversight and Government Reform Committee took testimony from three federal agencies to examine the logic behind the implementation of the sequester cuts.
For example, why is the federal government threatening to furlough meat inspectors while it is promoting food stamps to Mexican immigrants? Why did the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency release thousands of illegal immigrants BEFORE the sequestration cuts took effect? Some were never supposed to be released and ICE agents are trying to track them down again.
I applaud House Republicans for holding these hearings. They should continue to keep pressure on the administration to go after waste and fraud. I hope the liberal media will give the hearings the coverage they deserve, but I won't hold my breath.
Confiscating Your Money
Yesterday I highlighted the raw confiscation of wealth taking place in Cyprus on the orders of European Union bureaucrats. I suggested that it was already taking place here under Obama in different ways. But I forgot to mention one of the most subtle ways it is happening in the banks today.
Interest rates are being held unnaturally low by Ben Bernanke and our Federal Reserve. Individuals who have played by the rules and were frugal enough to save all their lives are now being penalized. You are losing money every day as inflation grows and exceeds the meager amount you can get in interest on your savings. And it is happening by design.
GOP Learning Wrong Lessons
Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, yesterday delivered what was described as a "blistering" post mortem report on the party's failure to win the 2012 elections. There is nothing wrong with trying to learn from your mistakes. But there is nothing worse than watching the GOP grovel at the feet of its left-wing opponents and the media as it learns the wrong lessons.
According to the RNC's analysis, the party is widely seen as "out of touch" and just a bunch of "stuffy old men." To improve our electoral prospects, Republicans must "embrace and champion" comprehensive immigration reform and be "welcoming and inclusive" to those who disagree with us on values issues.
Everybody wants the mess that is our current immigration system to be fixed. To most Americans that means securing the border first. But in Washington, comprehensive immigration reform has a different meaning -- amnesty.
It is sad that some GOP elites think the party should abandon the rule of law. A major critique of Obama has been his regular violations of the rule of law -- issuing executive orders to circumvent Congress, his use of czars, etc. But what is even worse is that all the evidence suggests that it won't help the party win!
If the party wants to be welcoming to those who disagree with them, why limit it to values issues? They could welcome people who disagree on taxes and spending. Of course, if they did that it would signal that they aren't really serious about taxes and spending. And that is what they are signaling about values.
Priebus said on one of the Sunday talk shows that GOP has to do a better job of winning the "heart war" and not just the "math war." I agree. But if people don't think you have a heart, the last thing you should do is surrender on the sanctity of life. Instead, the GOP should find its voice and tell America that we believe in the dignity and worth of every human being, from a defenseless newborn at the beginning of life to the 91 year-old dealing with dementia.
How have Barack Obama and the Democrat party, which proudly embrace the destruction of one million unborn children every year, somehow stolen the hearts of the American people? I submit that it might be due to the fact that GOP elites never remind the American people of how radical Obama is and how committed he is to the carnage of abortion-on-demand.
There are a lot of furrowed brows among Republican insiders worried about demographics. Well, let me give them something to think about. If you keep "dissing" values voters and we get disgusted enough to decide to leave, you won't carry one state in the next presidential election.
Building Alliances
Catholic leaders are calling on the House of Representatives to defund Obamacare's contraception mandate, which the Catholic Church and many evangelicals consider an unjust assault on religious liberty. I stand with our Catholic friends in support of religious freedom, just as strongly as I stand with them in support of life and traditional marriage.
My recent USA Today column applauding the election of Pope Francis continues to make news. It was highlighted Sunday by David Gregory, host of "Meet The Press." You can watch the segment below.
Meet the Press discusses Gary's recent article on why evangelicals should care about Pope Francis
Congressman Leonard Lance (R-NJ) has come out and demanded that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explain why the Department of Homeland Security has been engaging in huge amounts of purchases of ammunition over the past year. Rep. Lance has called on Congress to get involved in ascertaining DHS' stockpiling of ammunition which is enough to wage a 20 year plus war, which has most certainly caused a shortage in the public market.
Optimism for the future is the necessary motor for human progress. When you look out at the Hollywood Freeway and see gypsy homeless encampments, it's hard not to be pessimistic. But that pessimism is the very thing that creates poverty and despair. The mindset of Barack Obama must be overcome.
Here is a brief travel log of five days amid 21st century California. Whatever you say about some of the small towns of central California, and I've said a lot, they are certainly alive, a boom-and-bust Tombstone that is premodern and postmodern all at once, and so similarly a lot more exciting, a lot more dangerous, and a lot more alive than was life back in 1880s Massachusetts.
All things considered, it's not hard to imagine the Obama administration backing a "resolution" to the Falklands dispute that would be more to Argentina's liking than Britain's - perhaps shared sovereignty or some form of joint administration. In terms of foreign policy accomplishments, it wouldn't exactly be solving the Israel-Palestine dispute, but it would be a feather in Obama's and Kerry's caps, and it would play well with the restive neighbors down south, as well as with Latino voters back home.
Veteran author and columnist Zev Chafets drops by to discuss his latest book, "Roger Ailes: Off Camera," which is a profile of the complex man who helped Nixon, Reagan and Bush #41 get elected, produced Rush's TV series, and built CNBC and Fox News. (With audio and transcript.)
On Monday, the House Republican Study Committee unveiled an aggressive plan to balance the federal budget in just 4 years. The plan, from the internal conservative caucus of the GOP Conference, achieves balance must faster than Rep. Paul Ryan's budget released last week. Ryan's plan would achieve balance in 10 years.
The RSC budget is built on many of the same elements in the Ryan plan. It just implements them faster. The RSC moves up the implementation of Ryan's Medicare reform proposal five years earlier, for example. It also imposes lower caps on non-defense discretionary spending, achieving a net reduction in actual spending. The Ryan plan, by contrast, simply lowers the rate of increase in discretionary spending.
premises. The premises of our reasoning determine the reliability of our conclusions - no matter how valid our facts or logic may otherwise be... (more)
- Six months after a terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, survivors of the savagery that left four Americans dead the night of Sept. 11, 2012, still have not been permitted to tell their story in a public forum. So now, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are threatening to subpoena them... (more)
- "How do we know that there are planets around other stars? Most of the detected exoplanets have revealed their presence by small effects that they have on their own star." This is how the folks at NASA begin their discussion of the science involved in the search for solar systems other than our own... (more)
- The headline says it all: "Anderson Cooper Kissed Madonna, Dressed In Boy Scout Uniform, at GLAAD Media Awards." The CNN host did something that was sure to offend the millions of parents who are resisting the homosexual campaign to force homosexuals into the Boy Scouts of America as Scoutmasters or leaders... (more)
- Walking up to crowds, shaking hands with surprised bystanders in the street, mixing his formal speeches with off-the-cuff remarks, Pope Francis stamped his own style on the papacy Sunday... (more)
- Shortly after voters in Colorado and Washington State approved measures that legalized the recreational use of marijuana, President Obama told Barbara Walters that his Justice Department would not prosecute pot users in these states... (more)
- On Friday afternoon at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mitt Romney delivered his first major speech since losing the presidential election. He entered to a big standing ovation and gave a short speech that was well-received by the crowd. But it's not clear why he felt compelled to make the speech...(more)
- Pope Francis toasted the cardinals who had just elected him by joking, "May God forgive you for what you've done." New details from inside the secretive Vatican enclave revealed that the humble Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina was overwhelmed by his elevation to the leadership of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics... (more)
- In the humility and vigor of his first appearance, Pope Francis gave immediate hope and spiritual renewal to the world's Catholics. Secular liberals who were hoping the new pope would bend the Church's teachings to their political agenda
-- such as acceptance of same-sex marriage
-- will no doubt be disappointed to discover that Francis is, in fact, a Catholic... (more)
- Sure, it's easy to criticize Hollywood, but try to remember that the entertainment industry today is an intellectually demanding environment, fraught with cognitively challenging, even intractable, questions, like, to take one recent example: How can the cable mini-series "The Bible" be such a ratings hit when there is no audience for overtly religious entertainment programming?... (more)
- Last Sunday, the first installment of History's five-part miniseries The Bible beat everything on television with a massive 13.1 million viewers, making it cable's most-watched entertainment telecast this year...(more)
- The North Dakota Senate approved what would be the most restrictive abortion law in the United States on Friday, a measure banning the procedure in most cases once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks...(more)
- Chinese doctors have performed more than 330m abortions since the government implemented a controversial family planning policy 40 years ago, according to official data from the health ministry...(more)
- In a stunning reversal of position, Republican Ohio Sen. Rob Portman has told newspapers in his state that he now supports same-sex marriage, after revealing his son is gay. His staff said he told GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney of his son Will's sexual orientation while he was being considered as a potential running mate...(more)
- With all of the talk of women lately, why has no one sounded the whistle that March is Women's History Month? During the 1960s, feminist-movement moguls such as Betty Friedan championed themselves as liberators of the poor and miserable stay-at-home mothers. They deemed motherhood as a life sentence with no hope of parole...(more)
- NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre is not cowed by the criticism he and his organization have received in the wake of the shooting in Newtown, Conn. In a fiery speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference
-- met with cries from the audience of "Right! Right!" and "Amen!"
-- LaPierre dismissed Democrats' calls for expanding background checks and called once again for putting armed guards in schools across the country...(more)
- Just days after WND published multiple reports about how returning veterans were being deprived of their Second Amendment rights without a court-based adjudication competency process, members of the U.S. Senate say they have had enough, and are seeking a change...(more)
- Former Attorney General Edwin Meese told CPAC 2013 attendees that the best approach for the country's future is one that emphasizes returning to the original principles that built the United States, as opposed to the more powerful centralized government favored by President Barack Obama...(more)
- President Obama has many supporters in Hollywood, but Pat Boone is definitely not one of them. The 78-year-old actor and singer went on Fox Business News on Wednesday bashing Obama's politics, calling him a "Marxist" and "socialist."... (more)
- What if a dictator in America used the force of law to tell you what to eat? What if the same dictator told you what to drink? What if the dictator told you the sizes of the containers in which you could purchase a lawful beverage? What if the dictator just made up the rules according to his own personal taste?... (more)
Dazzling video: 1 man chases away black mobs
With many American cities under siege from the violence of black mobs, one man is doing more than standing his ground.
He's actually chasing them away, with some flying through the air, literally.
You've got to see this amazing video and story ...
You already know the alphabet soup of "alleged" news networks out there on television.
But now, a brand-new formal study has been done on them, and one network stands head and shoulders above the rest for hardly even being a real news network.
Look how far this liberal news anchor has fallen ...
One of the most despised liberal news anchors in America is said to be having big trouble these days, even seeking sympathy among colleagues in the broadcast business.
Having one's face on TV is apparently not an eternal guarantee of success ...
For years Washington's bureaucracy has metastasized. Some states have encouraged the growth of government. Others states have simply cowered in its wake. In his latest paper, Robert Moffit shakes the states out of complacency and offers fresh ideas to rein in government. For instance, why not invite Secretary Sebelius to testify before the state legislature to explain her rules on Obamacare?
Now's the time to limit government and here's what states can do.
If you want to know where you're going, you'd better know where you've been. That's why it's important for conservatives to be aware of Herbert Croly. He's mostly forgotten now (although his magazine, The New Republic, remains with us). But Croly's ideas are important, because they launched the modern Progressive movement.
Americans fighting for the defense of marriage have much to learn from the French. The French pro-marriage movement has forced a national conversation on the redefinition of marriage. They've flipped public opinion on same-sex marriage: A majority is now opposed to it. And they've built support with the general public and attracted many people who are neither conservative nor religious.
So how did they do it?
Quote of the Week
"[T]he states can best govern our home concerns and the general government our foreign ones. I wish, therefore . . . never to see all offices transferred to Washington, where, further withdrawn from the eyes of the people, they may more secretly be bought and sold at market."
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institute - a think tank - whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
For many members of Congress and Capitol Hill staffers, their first introduction to The Heritage Foundation is through our Government Studies department.
Headed by Capitol Hill veterans Mike Franc and Dani Doane, Government Studies coordinates Heritage's outreach to Congress, one of the most important audiences for our research.
Just last month, more than 60 members of Congress attended weekly Heritage-sponsored events and meetings where they heard from Heritage Foundation experts. And hundreds of Congressional staffers attended Heritage-led training sessions, luncheons and briefings on issues like taxes, spending, defense, America's first principles, and more. This is made possible by Heritage's proximity to the Capitol, which allows legislators and their staff to participate regularly in our events.
In all, Heritage hosted 63 separate events for lawmakers and Capitol Hill staff in February. This fits into a broader strategy of innovative outreach to Capitol Hill.
In addition to these events, we routinely pass along Heritage policy analysis and research to key Congressional offices to ensure they have the facts on critical debates.
Our sister organization, Heritage Action for America, has a new activist. But he's not your typical activist.
Alex Cohen is a 17-year-old high school student who founded a conservative club at his high school to "promote and educate youth on Heritage Action's mission." Heritage Action organizes grassroots activists and pressures Congress to advance The Heritage Foundation's conservative ideas.
His first order of business, Cohen told Heritage Action, is "getting everyone on the topic of defunding Obamacare." He would also like to showcase and explain the Heritage Action Scorecard to the members of his club. Action's Scorecard grades lawmakers on how they vote to advance conservative principles.
Conservative ideas need to break through the media spin. That's is why year after year, The Heritage Foundation fights to take our ideas directly to the American people using these media.
highlights of Heritage's media activity in 2012, which includes: 3,792 radio appearances, 1,169 television interviews, 490 articles in the 10 largest newspapers in America, and 500,000+ fans on social media.
Heritage Work of Note
President Ronald Reagan and Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner developed a close relationship in the early 1980s. A new book by Heritage scholar Lee Edwards, Leading the Way: The Story of Ed Feulner and the Heritage Foundation, tells the story about their relationship. Read more about their relationship, including an amusing anecdote, on myHeritage.
If you're a Republican in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, happy primary day.
Enjoy your Morning Jolt.
Jim
The RNC Doesn't Set Republican Policy. So Why All the Shouting?
"How many divisions does the pope have?" The number is the same as the number of votes that RNC chairman Reince Priebus controls in the House and Senate.
Oh, sure, Priebus might be able to get any member of the House or Senate to take his calls, and he can try to persuade GOP officeholders. But the national party committees don't really set policy. So I don't quite understand why somebody would get up in arms about the RNC "Growth and Opportunity Project" hinting or outright suggesting that the party should embrace comprehensive immigration reform or comments that appear to suggest supporting gay marriage is fine with Priebus.
I can understand disagreeing with Priebus. I can't get my head around thinking that his opinion changes the policy stances of any current or future GOP officeholder.
And yet, here we are.
Our Betsy Woodruff details social conservatives' response to Priebus' kind words for Senator Rob Portman, who announced at the end of last week that he now supported gay marriage - after his son revealed he was gay.
"I think [the RNC] should pretty much ignore him," says Phyllis Schlafly, a longtime conservative activist, in an interview with National Review Online. "I think he has made a mistake, and he probably won't get reelected."
Ralph Reed, the founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, says the party has to be careful. "If the Republican party tries to retreat from being a pro-marriage, pro-family party, the big tent is going to become a pup tent very fast," he says. "I am concerned that some in the party are going wobbly on this issue."
A source familiar with Ohioans' response to Portman's decision tells NRO that 60 percent of the calls the office received were against Portman's shift and 40 percent of calls received were in support.
Schlafly, for her part, isn't impressed. "Portman was one of their stars when he won, and he was supposed to be so very smart," she says, "and I find it hard to believe the stupidity of his statement."
Other social conservatives share her ire. Brian Brown, the president of the National Organization for Marriage, says Portman will likely face a primary challenger. "He will have a primary because this is too critical of an issue for a Republican senator to abandon," he says.
Brown also thinks the RNC has "definitely" been too soft on Portman. "This is a critical issue, and to act like it's just no big deal is just wrong," he says.
Brown believes the RNC should withhold financial support from Portman and any other senators who change their views to support gay marriage."The grassroots of the party are 100 percent committed to protecting marriage, to protecting life, the whole platform," he says, "and you can't just kick them to the curb."
In the end, policy comes from the folks who get elected. This means that the Republican party's stance on illegal immigration, gay marriage, and every other issue under the sun is set by the folks who are in office, and the folks who are trying to get into office in the midterms or off-year elections. Priebus isn't going to withhold RNC funds from an electable candidate because he opposes some comprehensive immigration deal, and he's not going to withhold funds from candidates on either side of the gay-marriage issue. You're going to have Republicans running on different issues and themes depending upon whether they're running in Silicon Valley or West Virginia.
The so-called "Washington insiders" aren't nearly as powerful as they're painted by those who oppose them the loudest. Just ask Senator Mike Castle, Senator Sue Lowden, Senator Jane Norton . . .
For a short furlough of a covered employee, the law (5 U.S.C. 7513) gives a covered employee the following rights:
At least 30 calendar days advance written notice by the agency stating the specific reasons for the proposed action. (Typically, the reasons for the action would involve a lack of work or funds.) The 30 calendar day period begins upon an employee's receipt of the written notice. Therefore, agencies should plan accordingly to allow time for mailing the notice when hand-delivery is not possible.
As you know, it has been 19 days since the sequestration was announced.
If Working Parents are 'Leaning In,' It's Because They're Too Tired to Stand Up Straight
She's like the Tiger Mom for working moms, telling them that they can have it all, that they just need to "lean in," putting forth more effort to get closer to the top in their pre-parenting years.
Anne Marie-Slaughter's review in the New York Times summarized how so many working moms - but I think a few working dads, too - are finding the advice of the multimillionaire Facebook executive:
Inevitable questions of privilege aside, many parents will think, as I did, that this is a young woman's book. Indeed, I nodded in recognition at so much of what Sandberg recounts, page after page, remembering my own early professional experiences and looking back to the days when my children were 5 and 3 (the age when they complain that they don't see enough of you, rather than wanting you to get out of their face). This is also the book of someone who has never met a challenge she couldn't surmount by working harder and believing in herself. But for the 229 missing female Fortune 500 leaders, as well as the hundreds of thousands of women who should be occupying lower-level leadership positions but aren't, the problem is not leaning back but encountering a tipping point, a situation in which what was once a manageable and enjoyable work-family balance can no longer be sustained - regardless of ambition, confidence or even an equal partner. Sandberg is right to say that it is easier to handle work-family conflicts from as high a position on the career ladder as possible, but if in fact it's the tipping points that tip women out of the work force, or at least prevent them from rising, then no amount of psychological coaching will make a difference.
Over in the New York Post, Andrew Peyser tore her apart:
It is an uncomfortable truth to victim-happy feminists, like Sheryl. But younger women today out-earn guys. Sometimes by a lot.
But many women of childbearing age don't want the headaches, long hours, and time away from family that comes with being a captain of industry.
Some women want to be moms.
Rumors abound that Sheryl plans to seek elective office. I hope she wins.
Then, maybe, she'll stop saying how badly I've failed.
There are probably not that many working mothers who don't feel harried. There are probably not that many working fathers who don't feel harried, either.
When you become a new dad, way too many people buy you books on fatherhood, and they're mostly written by guys who are convinced they're funnier than they are, doing a second-rate Dave Barry imitation on the cover, shrugging with hapless incompetence. In the pages within, they make fun of the Baby Bjorn (a fine, comfortable way to carry a child) and tell allegedly hilarious tales of putting the diaper on the child's head. Ladies and gentlemen, I've changed hundreds of diapers in my time and I've never put it on the wrong end.
[Insert from Mrs. Campaign Spot: "Jim was pretty good at changing diapers, but don't let him fool you with that 'hundreds of diapers' line. The relevant figure is not number of diapers changed but the percentage of diapers changed. Oh, and who handled the ones in the middle of the night?"]
But one of the books I read mentioned a survey of Fortune 500 CEOs who were asked what they believed was the appropriate amount of time for a man take off from work when he becomes a father. The most common answer was, "None." I should note, I gave away the book a few years ago and I haven't been able to verify that anecdote anywhere else. But it doesn't seem all that implausible. (Ancient and modern history is full of men who did great things but who were lousy fathers. That strikes me as an awful price to pay for greatness.)
Sandberg, Slaughter, and most of the writing on this subject dances around a hard truth: the pace and expectations of the modern work culture mean you can't be the employee/worker/superstar you want to be and the parent you want to be simultaneously. Something's gotta give.
When you become a parent, aren't you effectively declaring to the world, "I cannot be as single-minded about my work as I used to be"? I recall in fall 2008, a reader wrote in, accusing me of secretly knowing McCain was doomed but refusing to share the hard truth with readers; he said it was reflected in the lack of posts on weekends, compared to the days of the Kerry Spot in autumn of 2004. I pointed out to a reader that a big difference between the cycles was the arrival of my son. (Son No. 2 arrived in 2010.) In the Kerry Spot days, I was waking up in the middle of the night and looking at maps of Cambodia and Vietnam and the effective range of Boston Whaler boats to evaluate Kerry's "magic hat" stories and writing up posts at 3 a.m. You can do that stuff when you're not a parent, as long as your spouse can live with borderline obsessive-compulsive behavior. By 2008, I had to be able to produce better stuff with the amount of time available, because on weekends . . . hey, those Thomas the Tank Engine tracks aren't going to assemble themselves.
This, of course, is a formula for the childless, or those with spouses who are willing to be stay-at-home moms or stay-at-home dads to rise to the top. At least, the childless will have the advantage over working parents until the kids go off to college.
But . . . isn't that the trade-off? They pay a big price, at least from where I sit: They don't get any heirs, anyone to carry their caskets when they're gone, no kisses and hugs good night, no little crayon portraits of themselves. Is the corner office worth giving up all that?
ADDENDUM: Kevin Eder: "At the risk of repeating myself, I know of not one person who didn't vote GOP in 2012 because they were insufficiently conservative . . . But if you DO know someone who stayed home in 2012 because they thought the GOP is insufficiently conservative, tell them I hope they like the results."
What two companies are promoting homosexual marriage with TV ads?
Send an email to Amazon.com and Microsoft, urging them to stay out of the homosexual marriage debate.
March 19, 2013
Two well-know companies, Amazon.com and Microsoft have released pro-homosexual marriage commercials in advance of next week's Supreme Court reviews of the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments, beginning on March 26, on both the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California's Proposition 8. DOMA defines marriage for federal purposes exclusively as the union of one man and one woman, and protects the right of each state to craft its own marriage policy.
Prop 8 amended California's state constitution to give maximum legal protection to natural marriage in the Golden State, and was supported by over 7 million voters.
The RNC has said that Republicans "must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform" in order to gain appeal among Hispanic voters. But RNC Chairman Reince Priebus now insists that he and his Committee are not taking a position on immigration.
Priebus' claim insults our intelligence. Yes, in theory "comprehensive immigration reform" could mean almost anything. A bill that ended all legal immigration, sent the U.S. Army en masse to the border, and called for the aggressive deportation of every illegal alien would qualify as comprehensive immigration reform.
But in the context of the ongoing immigration debate, comprehensive immigration reform, to my knowledge, has always meant, in part, doing something for (not against) the millions of illegal aliens who reside in the U.S. Moreover, we know that this is what Priebus means because only by doing something for illegal aliens can the GOP hope to gain appeal among Hispanic voters. If the Party "embraces and champions" legislation that does nothing for illegals, it will be worse off than if it avoids talking about the subject.
Accordingly, it is absurd for Priebus to claim that he's not taking a position on immigration. Clearly, he and his Committee favor doing something on behalf of illegal aliens in order to change the Party's image among Hispanic (and probably other) voters. That's a position.
There are only two serious things that can be done for illegal aliens. One is to grant them amnesty; the other is to grant them amnesty plus a path to citizenship.
It is true that Priebus hasn't taken a position on which of these two approaches he prefers. The problem is that only supporting a path to citizenship holds any promise for making inroads with Hispanic voters. If Republicans balk at providing that path, they become the Party that embraces second class status for millions of hardworking Hispanics - accepting them as our gardeners and caretakers, but denying them equality and the chance to share fully in the American dream. This is hardly a stance that will appeal to Hispanic voters
If Priebus doesn't understand this reality, he is being foolish. If he does understand it, then, like Sens. Rubio, McCain, and Graham (whose work on immigration he complimented) he favors a path to citizenship, but simply won't admit it.
To be clear, there are reasons one might support comprehensive immigration reform that provides for amnesty but not path to citizenship. These reasons include (1) obtaining concessions, such as better enforcement, in exchange, (2) the argument that we have de facto amnesty already, and (3) the belief that we shouldn't force people from whom our population receives services to live under a cloud.
But the prospect of winning Hispanic votes is not a reason to support such reform.
Yesterday the Republican National Committee released a report on the "Growth and Opportunity Project." The chairmen of the group who authored the report explain:
As the co-chairs of the project, we were charged with making recommendations and assisting in putting together a plan to grow the Party and improve Republican campaigns. We were asked to dig deep to provide an honest review of the 2012 election cycle and a path forward for the Republican Party to ensure success in winning more elections.
The report, which you can read here, is addressed to the RNC and focuses in large part on steps that the Committee itself can take. It includes, however, broader recommendations directed to the party as a whole. It is these recommendations that have stirred a great deal of controversy. While the group that produced the report emphasized that "We are not a policy committee," it has been widely reported as advocating Republican support for citizenship for illegal aliens and gay marriage, and has been roundly criticized on that basis. Paul joined the chorus this morning, criticizing the committee's call for comprehensive immigration reform.
But what does the report say on this topic? It certainly does argue that Republicans should embrace comprehensive immigration reform, as the key to competing more successfully for Hispanic votes:
[A]mong the steps Republicans take in the Hispanic community and beyond, we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform. If we do not, our Party's appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only. We also believe that comprehensive immigration reform is consistent with Republican economic policies that promote job growth and opportunity for all. *** In essence, Hispanic voters tell us our Party's position on immigration has become a litmus test, measuring whether we are meeting them with a welcome mat or a closed door.
It is encouraging that there are many Republican leaders both in the House and the Senate working on immigration proposals. As the party advocates for positive solutions on immigration, we will be more successful appealing to Hispanic voters on other issues.
The report does not say anything about what "comprehensive immigration reform" should include, and it implies, as in the quote immediately above, that there is a diversity of proposals. In an interview with Jennifer Rubin, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said that neither he nor the report is taking a position on what form immigration reform should take:
He clarified that he is not, for example, taking a position on immigration. The report calls for comprehensive immigration reform but says nothing about the form of that reform. (That could be a borders-only plan and delayed green-card status with no citizenship, frankly.) He said, "It's not appropriate for the party chairman to pick and choose what provision of what law is going to be included or excluded." But the issue is "important [enough] for us to be a part of the debate."
Is this difference a significant one? I think it is. I can imagine a "comprehensive immigration reform" proposal that I would support enthusiastically. Such a plan would address legal immigration as well as illegal immigration, and its cornerstone would be an immediate and total end to chain immigration. It could include better border security, which largely means more effective sanctions against the hiring of illegals. And, in return for those things, I for one would happily accept an expansion of work permits for, e.g., agricultural workers, and would be willing to extend those permits to, among others, those who are now here illegally. "Comprehensive immigration reform" need not include a path to citizenship for current illegals.
That this distinction is far from academic is illustrated by the speech that Rand Paul gave before the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce this morning. If anyone on the current scene is not an "establishment" Republican, it is Rand Paul. But he endorsed comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to legal status that would include those now here illegally. Initially, it was widely reported that Paul had called for a "pathway to citizenship" for illegals. I happened to hear Paul interviewed on the Mike Gallagher radio show shortly after he delivered his speech. Gallagher asked him about the headlines to the effect that Paul had come out for a "path to citizenship."
Paul said that he had been misquoted, and in fact the word "citizenship" appeared nowhere in his speech. As the conversation continued, however, Paul added that there is already a path to citizenship under current law: that is, persons who are now here illegally can apply for citizenship in the normal course. He said that under some reform proposals, they would be required to return to their home countries before they could apply for citizenship, but he saw little point in that. His idea, as I understand it, is that those who are now in this country illegally would be able to apply for citizenship on exactly the same terms as anyone else, neither being penalized nor receiving preferential treatment. How those applications would be treated would depend, of course, on the immigration laws then in effect.
In my view, it would be possible-indeed, rather easy-to fashion a "comprehensive immigration reform" that would not have the effect of legalizing millions of Democratic voters-in-waiting. One can debate how much good such proposals would do for Republicans among Hispanic voters. But what the RNC report emphasizes above all, on this issue, is the importance of tone. I do think it makes sense for Republicans to offer immigration reform proposals that, among other things, address some of the problems in the current legal immigration system, which, in my view, are every bit as serious as the illegal immigration problem. There is plenty of room for debate on other issues, like the number of work permits that should be made available for agricultural workers, hotel and restaurant employees, and so on. On one hand, allowing mass low-wage immigration undoubtedly brings down the incomes of unskilled and semi-skilled American citizens. On the other hand, as Rand Paul said this morning, what we have in place currently is a system of de facto amnesty. So I think there is room for Republicans to debate these issue and offer competing proposals that would go under the heading of "comprehensive immigration reform."
The RNC report is interesting in a number of other ways, and I will have more to say about it over the next few days.
Yesterday, the Republican National Committee issued its plan for improving the Party's electoral performance. Portions of the report deal with purely technical issues (e.g., digital transformation), while others pertain to technical matters with policy implications (e.g., fewer caucuses, more primaries, and fewer debates).
But the report also calls for the Republican Party, in the words of the Washington Post, "to transform itself into a modern, welcoming home for a rapidly diversifying American electorate." And a key component of this transformation is the report's call for the Party to support "comprehensive immigration reform." The Party establishment believes it lost the 2012 election because, as one top consultant puts it, "we ran out of white voters."
So what is the establishment's solution? It proposes further to dilute the white vote by providing a path to citizenship for millions of non-white voters who are in the U.S. due to disregard for its laws.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus appears to be thinking only about the short term. Supporting comprehensive immigration reform might trim 2 or 3 points from the Democrats' margin among Hispanic voters (still a relatively small cohort) in 2016. As for the long term, let future RNC Chairmen worry about how to offset the 5 million vote pro-Democrat margin that a path to citizenship for (say) 11 million illegal immigrants likely will create down the road.
Republicans probably can partially offset that margin by making their substantive policy positions as appealing to a new underclass as the positions of Democrats are. But I don't see how they can make these changes and remain a conservative party. (Perhaps someone will explain how this can be done, but please don't resort to the "we're good people; they're good people" mantra). And if the Republican Party ceases to be conservative (in the commonly understood sense of that word), a strong third party will emerge, all but handing dominance to the Dems.
But none of this will happen while Reince Priebus is RNC Chairman, and apparently that's good enough for him.
On Saturday, Everton defeated Manchester City, the defending English Premier League champions, 2-0. They accomplished this playing the last half hour with only 10 men. The score stood at a nail-baiting 1-0 until the final moment when Nikica Jelavic, who hadn't scored for Everton in forever, produced the clinching goal.
The video below takes you into the lower Gwladys Street stand, where Everton's most rabid supporters reside, as Jelavic's goal unfolds. It conveys what it means to support Everton far better than I have been able to do in my many thousands of words about the team.
Notice in particular the voice calling for the pass to Jelavic and then advising Jelavic (profanity alert) what to do.
The White House has posted the video below on its YouTube channel with this explanation: "President Obama sends best wishes to the Iranian people as they celebrate Nowruz. In his video message, the President speaks directly to the people and leaders of Iran about the opportunity to begin a new relationship between our two countries."
President Obama, with all due respect, sir, you are a complete and utter fool.
Reid says Senate won't leave town before finishing budget By Erik Wasson
Senate Democrats say they will force a final vote on their 2014 budget before leaving for Easter recess at the end of the week.
Given time constraints related to work on a six-month continuing resultion (CR) to fund the government, it is possible this could mean a rare vote on Saturday or Sunday on the Senate floor.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) often threatens the Senate with weekend work and then fails to carry out his threat, but this time it appears the schedule could force his hand.
"There will be no more talk of not having a budget," Reid said Tuesday on the Senate floor. "We're going to have one before we leave here for recess."
Was Iraq Worth It? By Patrick J. Buchanan We are not known as a reflective people. But a question has to weigh upon us. If Saddam had no WMD, had no role in 9/11, did not attack us, did not threaten us, and did not want war with us, was our unprovoked attack on that country a truly just and moral war? This generation is eyewitness to how a Great Power declines and falls. And to borrow from old King Pyrrhus, one more such victory as Iraq, and we are undone.
Intellectuals and Race By Walter E. WilliamsAfter reading Dr. Thomas Sowell's latest book, "Intellectuals and Race," one cannot emerge with much respect for the reasoning powers of intellectuals, particularly academics, on matters of race. There's so much faulty logic and downright dishonesty.
Glenn updated the radio audience today on the status of the his family's beloved dog, Victor, who has been battling health issues for quite some time now. The family made the incredibly tough decision to put Victor down this weekend, something especially difficult for the kids. How did the History Channel series 'The Bible' help make the situation brighter? Glenn explains on radio today.
Here's one progressive exec Kraft Foods probably doesn't miss much
What happens when the progressive ideology gets a hold of your mind? Look no further than this former Kraft Foods exec. who basically blames obesity on food companies, because they make food that tasts good or something. It's an utterly ridiculous point and Glenn addresses it with the respect it deserves - mockery. WATCH
Get TheBlaze: Are they listening?
For weeks, thousands of you have taken the time to reach out to your cable and satellite providers to request that TheBlaze, a network that represents your values, be added to your channel lineup. Don't stop there! Remind your provider that you have a choice - they should value your opinion. Call 1.800.996.2529 or go to GetTheBlaze.com and ask your provider if they're listening to your requests to get TheBlaze on TV.
Sandy Hook update: killer planned for months, equated murder with video game points
The New York Daily News published an article that released new evidence on the Sandy Hook massacre. The article suggests that the perpetrator, Adam Lanza, was heavily influenced by the culture of the video games he played obsessively. According to one law-enforcement veteran, this attack was well-calculated and an attempt to carry out a mission similar to the video game persona he had created. Evil is an understatement for the deranged actions that Lanza took leading up to the horrible tragedy. Glenn shares the details on radio.
For the Record is Now Available on DVD!
Don't miss your chance to own the premiere episode of For The Record. Episode one of For the Record investigates how the NSA turned America into a surveillance state. This chilling, one-hour show reminds us all that with every call, every email...the government is watching. Order your copy today or you can watch on demand with a subscription to TheBlaze TV.
Glenn Interviews Rick Perry
It's been awhile since Glenn had last spoken to the Governor of his beloved state of Texas. The two covered a wide range of topics from guns and gold to the boy scouts and education. What is Rick Perry's stance on CSCOPE & Common Cause? What does he think about the proposed gun legislation in Colorado? Those answers and more HERE.
Guns in America: As the debate over new gun control legislation rages on Capitol Hill and across the country, there are a lot of facts and figures being thrown around - most of them wrong. TheBlaze.com takes a look at the real numbers on gun ownership in the United States. STORY
Get the eighth episode of Glenn's e-book thriller series WRATH & RIGHTEOUSNESS
Great news! The eighth episode in the WRATH & RIGHTEOUSNESS e-book series has been released! Wrath & Righteousness examines the eternal battle between Light and Darkness while asking one of the fundamental questions of our existence: what is mankind's relationship to the spiritual world? Download the previous episodes HERE and get eighth episode in the 10-part series HERE. Have a question or comment about the series? Visit our newly updated FAQ page.
Wake up on the right side of the bed every morning with Doc Thompson on TheBlaze Radio Network Listen to The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson weekday mornings live from 6 to 9am ET on TheBlaze Radio Network. Too early for you? Doc's show is now available on demand free through iTunes, Stitcher, and SoundCloud!
Separated at Birth
March 19, 2013
One of these guys is Satan from the History Channel's hit show "The Bible". HINT: The one on the left.
HBO Could Make Obama's Drone Strikes Into This Hit Series
Fun With Technology
Sequester Strikes Again
Non Compos Mentis
"And for those whose memories fade, I want you to be reminded of the [massive and deadly Japan] tsunami. For it does not give notice and it is tragic and reckless for those who say 'You know what, the sequester has started and I feel pretty good' because you have not been hit by the tsunami. And It may come at a moment ... when we are away on work recess, or when the speaker has sent us home and we're not here working. And all of a sudden a great percentage of America will be walking around without benefits, without childcare, without teachers in our schools, and we'll ask the question 'What happened?' It was a tsunami of the sequester." --Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)
And Now For Some Cartoons...
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Glenn: Help us get in millions of home
American Policy Center has recently released a booklet that explains everything you need to know to start fighting back against sustainable programs both locally and nationally. The booklet is called Special Report: Agenda 21 and How to Stop It and is available in the APC store for only $5.95.
Has Communist Ideology Overtaken America? Education is crucial. Today I want to share two very interesting lists with you, and rather than adding an extensive amount of my commentary, I want to give you the chance to examine the facts for yourself. It is my opinion that many communist goals have already been accomplished. I also believe that advancement has been made in other areas. But, you owe it to yourself to do your own research. I believe not only in the freedom of speech, but also in the responsibility of free thought. So please don't take my word for it. Examine the facts for yourself.
First Look at Paul Ryan's New Budget Plan
Glenn's emotional update on his dog, Victor
