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Defense Expert: NKorea Has Ability to Attack US
Friday, 05 Apr 2013
By Jim Meyers and Kathleen Walter
. .
Leading defense and national security expert Dr. James Carafano tells Newsmax that the Obama administration has spent four years ignoring North Korea and we now run the risk of an "accidental escalation" of tensions in the region.
He also warns that North Korea does in fact have the technical capability of attacking the west coast of the United States.
Barack Obama's America is a place where the president's daughters can vacation on the taxpayers' dime in the Caribbean and twice at ski resorts, all within three months, plus attend ritzy private schools, while poor black children at horribly failing schools in the District of Columbia have their "opportunity scholarships" taken away.
Barack Obama's America is one where a black man can be elected president and a black man can be appointed attorney general, and then where both they and their sub-appointees can argue that huge parts of America are still fundamentally racist.
Barack Obama's America is one where foreign terrorists captured abroad should be tried in American courts, with full American procedural rights, but where American citizens who aren't an immediate threat can be killed by remote control without benefit of charges, trials or convictions.
Barack Obama's America is one where black applicants who easily pass an entrance exam for the fire academy in New York can be denied a job for years but where black applicants who missed 70 percent of the exam questions can be eligible not just for jobs but for back pay, benefits and retroactive promotions.
Barack Obama's America is one where fishermen aren't allowed to catch red snapper but where the government can kill tens of thousands of snapper by blowing up oil rigs that provide valuable habitat for Gulf sea life.
Barack Obama's America is a place where Americans can't drill for oil in American waters but where American taxes can be used to subsidize Brazilian oil exploration and development.
Barack Obama's America is a place where felons can vote but soldiers can't. It's where elderly people are arrested for peacefully protesting against abortion, but where paramilitary-dressed black radicals can't be prosecuted for threatening voters. It's where children can't shape breakfast pastries into the vague shape of a gun, but where children can procure abortions without even informing their parents.
Barack Obama's America is where citizens must show a valid ID to get a job, but cannot be required to produce ID to vote.
Federal judge rules morning-after pill must be available for women of all ages
Published April 05, 2013
FoxNews.com
A federal judge ruled Friday that the morning-after pill known as Plan B must be made available over the counter for women of all ages.
The decision on the controversial subject comes after lengthy legal battles over who should have access to the pill and at what age. The Justice Department did not say definitively whether it would appeal, but released a statement saying: "The Department of Justice is reviewing the appellate options and expects to act promptly."
The Food and Drug Administration had initially decided to allow the emergency pill to be available for young teens. But Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the FDA in late 2011, and the agency limited availability without a prescription to women 17 and older.
INTERVIEW: Judith Miller on Court Threatening to Jail Fox News Reporter for Refusing to Reveal Source of James Holmes' Notebook
Fox News reporter Jana Winter is facing the prospect of jail time for refusing to divulge her sources for a FoxNews.com report last summer that revealed the contents of a notebook allegedly kept by James Holmes. The notebook, which he sent to his psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, is said to contain details about how Holmes intended to kill people. He was arrested last July for the mass shooting inside a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in which 12 people died.
Now, defense attorneys in his trial are trying to convince a court to force Winter to reveal how she obtained the notebook. Winter argues she is protected by the Colorado Shield Law, which allows a journalist to keep a source confidential on a matter of material public interest.
Announcing - Women On Target, Getting Comfortable With Firearms
Place: Wicen's Shooting Range, 3179 Mozart Road, Furlong, PA 18925
Date: April 26-27.
This is a 2-day class, 4 hours total. You may attend Day 1 classroom only, or you may attend both Day 1 classroom & Day 2 shooting event. You may NOT attend Day 2 shooting event without attending the Day 1 classroom portion. (Some students may choose not to attend the shooting portion, but we will encourage them to do so.)
Day 1 Classroom (40 people maximum): Friday, April 26, 2013 from 7-9pm Day 2 Range: Saturday, April 27, 2013 Two sessions (20 people each maximum): First come first serve 9 am -11 am 1 pm - 3 pm
Cost: Each Day is $25.00. Total cost if you attend both Day 1 and Day 2 will be $50.00 per student. You must make payment in the form of check or cash.
On Day 1 students will take an after-hours range tour, learn firearm safety, reasons to own a firearm, and have the opportunity to handle and ask questions about various pistols, rifles and shotguns.
On Day 2 students will split into 3 small groups, and have the opportunity to shoot pistols, rifles and shotguns, with an NRA Certified Instructor coaching them through each safety step.
All firearms and ammunition will be supplied. Up to 50 rounds per student will be allocated.
This will be performed by Lori Wicen of Wicen's Range (not CGOBC):
Email will be checked each evening and respond accordingly. Please note how many ladies will be attending this course in your email. (Lori will answer and allocate spots according to the time stamp on the email from you.)
Lori will keep a chart of interest, and then highlight when their check is received.
Lori will let us know (via the the Facebook post) when she has 15 in either Saturday session so we know when one class is almost full.
Check must be at least $25.00 (per person) .. you may pay the entire $50 (per person) if you want to lock in both days. If you only pay $25 (per person) then your Saturday class will not be locked in and you risk not getting the time slot you desire.
Please make check payable to: Wicen's Shooting Range Mailed to: Wicen's Shooting Range 3179 Mozart Road Furlong, PA 18925 note in comment area or enclose a note: WOT April 26, and specify morning or afternoon Saturday session, put their telephone number on the check ***You must submit payment (cash or check only) no later than close of business Saturday April 13th or your spot will be released.
contact info: loriwicen@yahoo.com Telephone at the range: 215-598-3534 leave a message!
************************************************ There will be a raffle on day one where four lucky women will receive their $25 "DAY 1" payment refunded and on day two there will be a raffle where four lucky women (two in each session) will receive their "DAY 2" payment refunded. ************************************************ As an added bonus through the generosity of Tanner's Sport Center, Ray Tanner is offering 5% off a gun purchase to attendees of the course after completion of the full course.
***Please refer all questions pertaining to this course to Lori Wicen. loriwicen@yahoo.com 215-598-3534
Gun Owners of America
Gun Control can be Passed Only If Republicans Sell Out
Tell them Gun Owners oppose "universal" background checks
"Gun-control measures that seemed destined to become law after the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., are in jeopardy amid a fierce lobbying campaign by firearms advocates." - The Washington Post, April 1, 2013
We realize that you have been receiving several emails from Gun Owners of America in recent days. And while we apologize for filling your inbox so frequently, we hope you realize that we are in an all-out fight to stop Congress from infringing upon our liberties.
Your activism is making a difference, but we need to keep the pressure on!
As so, as we approach "gun control Armageddon" next week, we are faced, not surprisingly, with "sell-outs and rumors of sell-outs."
But we can conclude that all gun control will die UNLESS Republicans flinch. And this is why, now that anti-gun Senator Chuck Schumer is on the verge of a humiliating defeat, he's scrambling for some feckless Republican who will help him turn GOP victory into GOP defeat.
Anti-gun columnist Ruth Marcus spoke for Schumer last Wednesday morning when she suggested that, as a desperation measure, anti-gunners might have to drop recordkeeping from the universal registry bill.
But even if ALL recordkeeping were dropped, which is doubtful, background checks would mean that:
Americans would still have to get the government's permission to own a firearm from whatever source.
Americans in rural areas without access to the Internet could be barred from gun ownership.
The Brady Check system would break down on weekends even more often than it currently does.
Eight percent of all applicants would still be illegally denied the right to purchase firearms through "false negatives."
Schumer would still claim that he "broke the back of the gun lobby."
The universal registry bill would still be nothing but a vehicle for consideration of other gun control now - and a platform for gun control demands in the future.
The solution to all of this is easy, and it's for Senators to support the Paul-Cruz-Lee filibuster! Tell them not to let Congress sidle up to the gun control buffet and to defeat the motion to proceed to gun control.
ACTION: Click here to contact your Senators. Demand they support the Paul-Cruz-Lee filibuster and oppose the motion to proceed to any gun control vehicle.
The system will automatically select a pre-written editable response, depending upon whether your Senator is a Republican or Democrat.
The Philadelphia Freedom Center Presents: The Crisis in Syria is Exploding
There is no better thinker on the region than Michael Ledeen, the Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Michael is a highly regarded expert on Iran's Green Movement and maintains close ties to opposition groups inside Iran. Join us as Michael provides us with his invaluable insights to the crisis in Syria, in a sit-down conversation with Andrew McCarthy.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013 6:00 PM
Union League of Philadelphia 140 South Broad Street
Program & Cocktails: $35
Private Dinner Party with Andy McCarthy and Michael Ledeen: $125 (limit 12)
More than 70,000 Syrians have been killed, and hundreds of thousands displaced, in the ongoing civil war. Western governments, including the United States, are now being drawn into the fray. Where is the crisis headed? What should American policy be? Join us April 10 at 6 pm participate in this forum!
Michael Ledeen Michael Ledeen is the Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is a highly regarded expert on Iran's Green Movement and maintains close ties to opposition groups inside Iran. Click for full bio.
Andrew McCarthy Andrew McCarthy is a former federal prosecutor and New York Times bestselling author. He's the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Freedom Center. Click here for full bio.
Please join us and guest speaker John Anthony, founder of the Sustainable Freedom Lab.
On Wednesday April 10 @ 7PM
John Anthony will explain how across the country our rights to personal property - land, homes, privacy - are at greater risk than ever.
Plans and ordinances approved in our region could take control of your own property out of your hands! You worry about your mortgage while politicians and bureaucrats consider policies that will slash the value of your property!
Have you ever wonder where the words Sustainable or Agenda 21 originated, then this is the meeting for you. Find out about the plan that is intended to take away the rights and liberties of all Americans. Currently the push is to institute a global tax (Carbon tax) and make the UN the global IRS.
If you think this is not possible, I challenge you to find out the real truth. There are many counties and townships in our area that have already signed up and are involved, including the borough of West Chester. Some municipalities in Maryland have fought and have won their way out of the program.
Location: East Goshen Township Building 2nd floor 1580 Paoli Pike West Chester, PA 19380
VALLEY FORGE PATRIOTS APRIL MEETING
FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 6pm AT PJ RYANS
BRIDGE ST. PHOENIXVILLE
We will have an organizational meeting with members. The VFP wants to talk with our members to review how the organization is structured, what kind of help we need to be successful and to discuss our plans for 2013. We also need to discuss meeting location(s) and what amenities you want.
There will be no formal speakers, however, Paula Stiles will fill us in on the latest with Smart Meters and state legislation dealing with them.
We really need your thoughts and ideas about how you want your organization to function and what you think we should focus on. We have learned that we can't do everything because there is so much going on at all levels.We must focus on a few most important issues.
Should we work on projects at the local level, the state level, and/or the federal level? Or, should we pick several focal points that could be worked on at all levels? Voter ID would be one of these issues. Should the VFP continue its legislator visit program. This would be another program that would involve all levels of government. How about UN Agenda 21? School Board?
The VFP Steering Committee wants your ideas, your help, and your involvement in continuing to make our programs successful.
PLEASE COME OUT AND JOIN IN THE DISCUSSION!
P.S. Since we are having the meeting at a commercial establishment, and since the room is free, we are expected to buy our food and drink at PJ Ryans. No outside food or drink please.
SAVE THE DATE: APRIL 16th CITIZENS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT
Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 6:30-8:30 pm
Quakertown Library, 401 W. Mill Street, Quakertown
hosts PEG LUKSIK on Indoctrination in Education
Founder & Chairman Pennsylvania Parents Commission and National Parents Commission - to give parents a voice in education and public policy: State-wide leader in successful effort to stop implementation of Outcome Based Education
Founder, CEO, Chair Board of Trustees of Mom's House - service network assisting single parents and children in completing education to become employable
State Chairman, Constitutional Party of Pennsylvania 1995
T.V. host "The Learning Curve"
Co-author "Outcome Based Education: The States Assault on our Children's Values"
WHO CONTROLS THE CHILDREN??For a preview of this fantastic speaker, watch this dynamite YouTube video
Peg Luksik "Who Controls Our Children" How Public Schools Dumb Down Kids
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.
Depart: Doylestown Library When: 8 AM Rally at the Capitol followed by lobbying visits 12noon Returning to Doylestown 8:30
Cost is Free To reserve your spot
Please Call Anastasia at 215-534-1851
April 23rd-Bus Trip-2nd Amendment Rally
Depart: Doylestown Library When: 7:30 a.m. Arrive: Harrisburg, PA Depart: 2:30 p.m. Cost: $50.00 due ASAP to reserve bus(es) Includes: Shirt, Drink
Please mail your check payable to CGOBC as follows:
CGOBC PO Box 745 Doylestown, PA 18901
Come join the Concerned Gun Owners of Bucks County (COGBC) on their bus trip to Harrisburg to promote H.B. 357. Plan on entering the capital to meet with your legislators and to support your 2nd Amendment Right!
FrackNation is a documentary on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and the natural gas boom in the US and abroad. FrackNation shows how unfounded opposition to fracking is damaging the lives of some of the poorest and hardest working people in America. FrackNation dispels myths and tells the story of the people directly affected by fracking bans.
FrackNation premiered January 22, 2013 on Mark Cuban's AXS TV. The New York Times called the film "meticulously researched...provocative." And Variety said it was a "briskly paced...mischievous pic."
The film was created and directed by the husband and wife team of Phelim McAleer and the always outrageous Ann McElhinney. Ann will be speaking on April 20th at the upcoming PA Leadership Conference. DVDs of the film will be available for purchase at the PA Coalition booth at PLC
Phelim will be touring Pennsylvania for a series of screenings across the Commonwealth. Listed below are venues and dates for screenings in April. Additional screenings are planned for May including one in the Pittsburgh area. If your grass roots group would like to schedule a screening, please contact Magdalena Segieda at magda@fracknation.com
We are so blessed that over the last four years thousands of churches in over 60 countries have stood in solidarity with Israel through CUFI Sunday. From the largest cities to the smallest towns, from mega churches in the American heartland to underground churches in China, Christians have come together to express their love and support for Israel.
We pray that your church will participate in the fifth annual CUFI Sunday on May 5, 2013. CUFI will provide you with all the materials you need to implement a successful CUFI Sunday, including videos, literature and Pastor John Hagee's personal sermon notes for your use.
Please click hereto participate in CUFI Sunday. As you'll see, you don't have to be a pastor to ensure that your church stands with Israel on CUFI Sunday.
The date we've chosen for CUFI Sunday -- May 5th -- is close to Israeli Independence Day. As the Jewish State celebrates her 65th birthday, there is no better present we can send than the news of thousands of churches standing in solidarity with her!
We look forward to uniting in action and prayer on behalf of Israel with you and your congregation on May 5, 2013.
May God Bless You and Those that You Love,
Pastor John Hagee National Chairman
David Brog Executive Director
Brigitte Gabriel to Speak
in Baltimore, MD!
Brigitte Gabriel
Leading Global Islamic Terrorism Expert
CLICK HERE to view Brigitte's special video invitation!
It is my privilege to invite you to a special event featuring Brigitte Gabriel, Founder and President of ACT! for America. This event is free and open to the public and will be held at the following:
Central Christian
7411 Rossville Blvd. Baltimore, MD 21237
Monday, May 6th at 7 pm
Ms. Gabriel will speak on the rise of Islamic radicalism in your community and in our nation. Her story of survival as a persecuted Christian living in a bomb shelter for 7 years will have you captivated and inspired! She will share how the events of 9/11 compelled her to start ACT! for America, the largest national security grassroots organization in the U.S.
The recent assaults at our embassies have been a sobering wake-up call to America. The lesson is that we should be displaying strength to our enemies, not appeasement which only demonstrates our weakness. Without question, the threats of radical Islam to America have increased.
These are just some of the threats Brigitte will discuss:
Suppression of criticism of Islam
Homegrown jihad
Terrorists infiltrating our borders
The Muslim Brotherhood and creeping sharia law in America
Misrepresentation of history in our public education
You will hear first-hand how ACT! for America is successfully rolling back the tide of radical Islam...how we are winning legislative victories...how we don't have to live in fear or resign ourselves to the inevitability of the threats arrayed against us...and how we will prevail.
I encourage you to forward this email to everyone you know. For those who are not familiar with ACT! for America, please share this short video with them.
I know those of you who have heard Brigitte will agree, not only do you not want to miss this, but you will want to bring your relatives and friends with you. It will be an event people will be talking about for a long time to come!
Invite your friends and come join us in Baltimore, MD! We look forward to seeing you on May 6th
Guy Rodgers Executive Director
Announcing the 2013 National Conference
& Legislative Briefing!
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!
As Israelis celebrate their 65th Independence Day this year, we should all take time out to reflect on the miracle of Israel's independence. We must also ask ourselves the question, "What can I do to ensure that this miracle of Israel survives and thrives?"
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!
Sirius XM adds TheBlaze Radio News to Patriot channel
Sirius XM Radio announced today that TheBlaze, Glenn Beck's multi-platform news, information, and opinion network, will produce 24/7 hourly radio newscasts on SiriusXM Patriot, SiriusXM's conservative talk channel. DETAILS
If you're like most of TheBlaze TV community, you watched the first episode of For the Record when it premiered and immediately wanted to share the truth about how the NSA has turned America into a surveillance state. Now, due to popular demand, we have made this must-see episode available on DVD.
The restoration of journalism has begun. For The Record is an investigative news magazine with no political agenda and nothing to lose. Probing, fair, but unforgiving. Journalism the way it used to be.
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. Hear from former NSA employees who left the agency after discovering the government was spying on her people. Plus, join us as we investigate a facility being built in Utah slated to become the largest information-gathering center in the country.
This chilling, one-hour episode, reminds us all that with every call, every email...the government is watching.
We can't rely on "honest" journalists to get this information to the public, so we are counting on YOU. Order your copy now.
TheBlaze | 1133 Avenue of the Americas | New York, NY 10036 | TheBlaze LLC | All Rights Reserved 2013
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
Across America, state and local officials are writing bills and resolutions to protect citizen's from Agenda 21's policies. Because many people do not recognize Agenda 21 in action, property owners still remain at risk.
To help officials recognize Agenda 21's footprint, SFL created a document in a Q&A format that answers:
How do I know Agenda 21 exists in the U.S.?
What does Agenda 21 have to do with sustainable development?
What is wrong with the Brundtland Commission's definition of sustainable development?
How do I know the UN's sustainable development is the same one in our community?
I thought sustainable development is good, what makes you think it is so bad?
How can something like this happen in America?
How will I recognize Agenda 21?
The document has a lot more information for community members and officials, including a brief history of Agenda 21 and actions to take to have safe planning without top-down intervention.
Grants issued in conjunction with government 'sustainability initiatives' contain stipulations or implementation practices that are the primary doorway for Agenda 21/sustainable development to enter your community. These stipulations often require no growth boundaries, income integration through low-income housing demands, reduced vehicle usage, healthy cities, livability principles and other forms of social engineering.
Other grants issued by non-profit groups such as the Packard, Pew or Carnegie Foundations, frequently promote Agenda 21. Often this happens when HUD or some other federal agency funds the foundation with the money they in turn offer as a sustainability-related grant.
Non-governmental organizations:
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including ICLEI, the Nature Conservancy, American Farmland Trust and the American Planning Association have close ties to HUD-EPA-DOT sustainability initiatives and promote Agenda 21 through their regional and community work, conservation easements and funding.
Federal agencies:
Federal agency Acts including the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act and Endangered Species Act have so expanded, that individual's rights are losing way to unfounded and often exaggerated endangerment findings. The solutions to their findings invariably require fines, taxes, property rights' infringements or the outright transfer of private lands to the government.
Preservation programs, National Parks, Historic Places and Byways, Heritage Sites and Legacy Forest programs have exceeded prudent land and species' protection and are now confiscating massive quantities of the U.S. land mass in alignment with Agenda 21 principles.
The planning process:
Planners' surveys - contain unfair questions that do not express all of resident's options
Consensus meetings - are conducted in ways that elicit responses that support the planner's goals rather than genuine community desires
Visioning sessions- may be over-conducted to the point that the vision belongs to the facilitator and only appears to be that of the community.
Stakeholder meetings - can produce misleading results when the stakeholders do not represent the average community member. Frequently the "stakeholders" have a financial or ideological interest in implementing the plan.
Zoning regulations - originating with the American Planning Association (and others,) contains language that establishes the legal framework to implement Agenda 21 in communities. HUD, other federal agencies and firms such as Siemens funded the development of the APA's Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook, 2nd ed. These supporters all have a stake in Agenda 21's implementation.
Conservation easements - often contain undiscussed clauses that severely restrict property owners' rights, reduce property values and favor the land trust for future contract changes.
Regionalism:
Regional councils replace much of the local officials' authority with unelected boardmembers.
As the regional council matures, local rule diminishes, leaving citizens with more distant and reduced representation.
Once a region is formed, the ability to oppose sustainable development is limited.
Generally, when the regional council accepts grant monies, all tethered communities are bound by the grant stipulations.
Regional planning often includes tax base sharing which promotes wealth transfer by forcing community members to pay for services in other locations.
Regional planning often includes "no growth boundaries" that force housing into urban and inner ring suburban areas. This reduces homebuyers' choices and artificially inflates the value of some properties, while reducing it for others.
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.
A concerned parent tipped off TheBlaze to the disturbing fact that NY public schools are teaching the U.N.'s Socialist-leaning Universal Human Rights. We also discovered that the schools are delivering this indoctrination using videos made by the Church of Scientology. Learn what our investigation revealedHERE.
TheBlaze has been at the forefront in uncovering the disturbing details of the nationalized curriculum standard known as Common Core. One of the most troubling aspects of this federal program is that government bureaucrats are currently mining sensitive and highly personal information on children through Common Core's tracking system. Watch the powerful segments from The Glenn Beck Program HERE.
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.
What information is being collected on your kids through Common Core?
TheBlaze TV subscribers can watch past episodes covering Common Core and CSCOPE. The March 14th episode focused on Common Core and the March 7th episode focused on CSCOPE. Not a subscriber? Sign up HERE.
Glenn has spent a lot of time over the past few weeks exposing some of the education initiatives in states across the country that are indoctrinating kids into the radical progressive agenda. Today, Glenn discussed an issue tied into Common Core that many people aren't aware of: data mining.
"We cover many important stories and topics on this program, but I don't think any could be more important than what we are covering tonight: the progressive takeover of America's schools,"
OK....when they look at you like you have a tin foil hat on your head......take some of this information with you. It is 126 pages. I have not read through the entire document (YET) but what I have read is enough to blow off the top of your head. I have highlighted some stuff. KIPP (Charter Schools) has a CHARACTER REPORT CARD on Page 39. So for now start on page 39 and work your way through to page 45. Remember FERPA laws were changed last year and I am sure not one parent is aware that permission to share information about our children no longer requires parental consent. Obama just slipped all these new changes in and I don't believe any parents were ever asked their opinions about these changes. And where was our Republican Congress when this happened???
AGENDA 21 is: The complete control and inventory of every human activity. After your friends read some of this information ask them if they still believe A21 is not real. Chapter 36 of A21 document is devoted to education.
Our government forgets there are still people alive that can think and see through their garbage.
Print this document and get a highlighter...........then start visiting your neighbors, school boards, elected officials and start screaming. GET COMMON CORE AND THE GOVERNMENT out of our class rooms. I think it is time to start a MASS movement for Home Schooling. I know Home Schooling will not be spared. This should be a movement to bring education back to the local level and DESTROY the Federal Department of Education. If our kids are not in school it will create an uprising at all levels. We should not settle for shutting down Common Core because they will masquerade it....they are already doing this in VA. VA supposedly never signed on to Common Core but GUESS WHAT........they ARE implementing Common Core and disguising it from the citizens in VA....of course they aren't doing a good job of hiding it and people in VA are catching on. Our schools have been in the process of a government take over (in earnest) for more than 20 years. If we don't shut down the Department of Education it will never stop. We have to cause a citizen uprising!!
Here is the U.S. Department of Education - Office of Educational Technology document:
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests"- Patrick Henry
To fix "THE SYSYEM" We must become "THE SYSTEM" - k. bracken "The change we seek has always required great struggle and great sacrifice." - Barack Hussein Obama "The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master." - Ayn Rand
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
Yes, it's true: You can support ACT! for America-at no cost to you!An important message from Guy Rodgers, Executive Director
The next time you make an online purchase of almost anything, you could be helping ACT! for America-at no cost to you.
Sound too good to be true? It isn't.
All you have to do is sign up for "iGive"-a program that's been around since 1997.
The concept is as powerful as it is simple.
Every time an iGive member makes an online purchase at over 1,000 brand-name stores, a percentage of that purchase is donated to that person's charity of choice.
And with the holidays just around the corner, you could be helping ACT! for America with every gift you buy!
The concept isn't new. In the mid-1990s many supporters of non-profit organizations signed up with long distance telephone programs where a percentage of their bill was donated to their charity of choice.
But our investigation of iGive has convinced us that this program has an ease of use and sophistication that we find remarkable.
Imagine booking a hotel room on Orbitz-and having 1.6% of that purchase price donated to ACT! for America.
Or buying an Xbox at Best Buy-and having 1.2% of the purchase price donated to ACT! for America.
The same goes for buying merchandise at Amazon, Bath and Body Works, Advance Auto Parts, Game Stop, Kmart, Home Depot, Holiday Inn, Old Navy, NASCAR Superstore, Overstock.com, Mattel, J.C. Penney, Office Max, QVC, Radio Shack, Shoe Carnival, Pottery Barn-and on and on the list goes.
In other words, every time you make a purchase of merchandise you would buy anyway, you would be financially supporting ACT! for America!
All you have to do is log on below and follow the directions to create your account and download the iGive "button." (Note: downloading the "button" is key).
When I was first informed of iGive, I was skeptical. I've seen these ideas come and go. Often, they're too good to be true. Or there are all kinds of glitches and problems.
So I spent hours researching.
I looked at online customer reviews (which were very good). I read all of iGive's fine print, such as Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. I signed up and even emailed two tech support questions to see how good their tech support was.
And the more I dug, the more I liked what I saw. For instance, both of my tech support questions were responded to within 60 minutes. How often does THAT happen?
As you know from our Patriot Partner program, we're all about encouraging a lot of people to each do a little-to do something. When everyone does a little, together we accomplish a lot.
So consider what could happen.
If just 1% of ACT! for America members each purchased just $400 in merchandise in 2013, from all the available outlets, and the average percentage donated to ACT! was 1.5%, the total amount donated back to ACT! for America would be...
...$15,000. That's a lot of money, wouldn't you agree?
And if you were one of those ACT! for America members, it wouldn't cost you one thin dime to help ACT! for America receive $15,000.
If this idea really caught on, and eventually 5% of our members made purchases with iGive, that $15,000 could explode to $50,000, $75,000 or more!
What's more, that 1.5% figure might be low. Many of the merchants offer percentage donations that are much higher. One printer inkjet company I looked at offered 13%!
Every merchant website you visit tells you right at the top what percentage of your purchase price will be donated to ACT! for America.
Just think what we could accomplish with an extra $15,000, $50,000 or $75,000 in our fight against radical Islam!
One of the things I most wanted to know was their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Check it out for yourself. I confirmed the terms with a company representative. And I like what I learned. As security-conscious as I am, I have no hesitation using the service-and I'm already doing so.
I know there are many people out there who would love to support ACT! for America, or give more than they're giving, but in these tough economic times they simply can't.
Well, here's a way that everyone who believes in our mission can easily support what we're doing-at no cost to them.
It doesn't get any better than that.
There are already chapter leaders who have signed up for the program, and the feedback I have been getting from them has been all positive. They love the idea and many of them are already using it.
So please, join me and these ACT! for America chapter leaders who are already signed up and using the iGive service.
Yours for a safe and free America
Guy Rodgers
Now Available: Week Six "The Crisis of the Union" Featuring David Raney
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Overview:
The sectional divide that led to the outbreak of the Civil War was rooted in fundamentally opposing interpretations of the principles of the Declaration of Independence in addition to diverging perceptions of the institution of slavery. Slaveholders and non-slaveholders alike at the time of the Founding generally agreed that slavery was unjust and an evil that ran counter to the ethos of the Founding, even while countenancing it in practice. By the 1850s, prominent men such as John C. Calhoun and Alexander Stevens argued that slavery was a positive good, and that liberty and equality, far from being natural rights belonging to every human being, were privileges to be earned.
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Friday, April 5, 2013
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary L. Bauer
Another Jobs Disaster
The Labor Department released a bombshell jobs report this morning. The Obama economy created only 88,000 jobs last month -- well short of the 200,000 new jobs expected by most economists.
Miraculously, the unemployment rate fell yet again to 7.6%. I'm sure faithful readers of this daily report already know the explanation. The labor force participation rate fell to a 35-year low because 663,000 people dropped out of the labor force last month.
Administration apologists argue that the large number of people leaving the workforce is the result of retiring baby boomers. That is true to a point. But there are countless baby boomers who are not retiring because they can't afford to do so. They have not yet dug out from the financial morass of the last five years and must continue working whether they want to or not.
At the same time, the number of Americans collecting disability hit another record last month. Just 16 years ago, the ratio of full-time workers to those collecting disability was 24:1. Today it is 13:1.
What that means is that there are fewer workers and taxpayers supporting a growing percentage of Americans who are either retired or not working. Don't misunderstand me -- I know there are many good folks who genuinely depend on disability payments. But why would disability skyrocket in the Obama years? The numbers speak for themselves. America is on an unsustainable path under Obama's policies.
Don't Blame Sequester Cuts
The spinners in the White House and the media are suggesting that the slowdown in growth is due to the sequestration cuts, which began in March. That is absurd. The budget cuts that have gone into effect to date are minuscule compared to our massive economy. Moreover, the retail sector lost 24,000 jobs last month while the government lost only 7,000 jobs.
But there are other "big movers" in the economy that took effect months ago, namely the Obama tax hikes that went into effect on January 1st. The Social Security payroll tax affected everybody. In addition, there are higher rates on capital gains and higher marginal tax rates. Conservatives have argued for years that such tax increases result in lower economic growth.
And then there is the 800-pound gorilla everyone is trying to ignore -- Obamacare. Every day its effects multiply, as we have often reported here. Small businesses are not hiring. It is reducing hours, forcing many full-time workers to become part-time workers. It is delaying investment.
This should not be new news to anyone. Conservatives warned three years ago this would be the result. Even some in the media have been forced to concede the obvious. Just before the year began, USA Today ran a story headlined, "Health Care Law May Mean Less Hiring In 2013." And Obamacare will continue to become a heavier and heavier burden on the economy as more and more of its mandates, regulations and taxes kick in. It must be repealed!
ACLU Sounds Alarm Against Gun Control Bill
You know Obama is having a tough time when even the ACLU bails out on his left-wing agenda. To the surprise of many, the ACLU now believes that the Obama/Reid/Pelosi gun legislation is threatening the Second Amendment.
According to the Daily Caller, the ultra-left ACLU considers itself among those with "serious concerns" about universal background checks.
It's a focus-group tested phrase that might seem innocent enough. But as many on the right have warned, even the ACLU agrees that universal background checks have the potential to lead to the creation of massive new government databases. Such databases could easily become a national registry list, potentially enabling government confiscation of firearms.
"[U]nfortunately, we have seen in the past that the creation of these types of records leads sometimes to the creation of government databases and collections of personal information on all of us," explained Chris Calabrese, an ACLU privacy lobbyist. "As we've seen with many large government databases, if you build it, they will come."
Priebus & Blackburn Rebuke Planned Parenthood
I've been pretty harsh on the GOP leadership lately and will continue to call out their fecklessness on normal marriage. But I also want to give credit when it is due.
In a column posted at RedState, Priebus noted, "In the last election, Republicans were repeatedly asked about whether they supported cutting funding to Planned Parenthood. It's time Democrats are asked whether they still support funding an organization that refuses to care for a newborn."
That's where Rep. Blackburn comes in. Not only is she demanding answers from Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, but she is also sponsoring legislation to cut off taxpayer funding to organizations that perform abortions.
Every Republican should have joined them in sending out press releases and op-eds, but I applaud Chairman Priebus and Rep. Blackburn for the having the courage to speak out in defense of life.
FRIDAY DIGEST
March Unemployment Madness
April 5, 2013
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government." --Thomas Jefferson
Employers added 88,000 jobs in March, according to the latest unemployment report from the Labor Department. That's down from the 196,000/month average over the last six months. Yet miraculously, the headline unemployment rate dropped from 7.7 percent to 7.6 percent. As with previous drops, however, that's because a staggering 663,000 people simply left the workforce in March and gave up looking for a job. A record 90 million Americans are no longer even seeking employment.
Since the "surprise" drop in unemployment the month before Obama was narrowly re-elected last year, he has focused only on the unemployment number. However, given that his agenda is now to raise even more taxes and further expand government programs and regulations, Obama will insist that even though that number ticked down, it would have been substantially lower if not for the Republican Sequester.
His apologists -- namely economic adviser Austan Goolsbee and the Associated Press -- wasted little time in advancing this line of blame. Goolsbee said, "Now you're going to, interestingly, start seeing a lot of discussion about maybe the sequester's a bigger deal than people thought it was." The AP argued, "The weakness may signal that companies were worried last month about steep government spending cuts that began on March 1."
Obama certainly won't focus on the fact that the lower unemployment numbers mask the more important number that reflects his failed economic policies. The most significant economic news in March is, again, the record number of Americans who are no longer looking for work, and that number has gone up every month in the last two years. The labor participation rate has dropped again, from 63.5 percent to 63.3 percent -- the worst since the height of the Carter malaise in 1979.
Some other numbers: The U-6 unemployment rate (a broader measure) fell from 14.3 percent to 13.8 percent, the lowest since before Obama took office. But, if labor participation was the same as in March just one year ago, the headline unemployment rate would be 8.3 percent. If it remained the same as in January 2009, the rate would be 10.9 percent.
Finally, the Obama budget is due to be released next Wednesday. Look for him to use these disappointing jobs numbers as leverage to call for more government "stimulus."
1.The American workforce collapses on top of the young
Here's a simple media analysis tool for you: if you hear a "news report" describing the March unemployment report as good news in any way, you are listening to a propaganda operation, a political organ of the Democrat Party, not a "news organization."Make a note, and treat all further "news" from this source with great suspicion, at least until you receive word of large-scale staff turnovers.
There is absolutely nothing to celebrate about a month in which a mere 88,000 jobs were created - far below the level needed to keep pace with population growth, and even farther below the "expert" projections of 200,000 new jobs.Not after long years of merciless unemployment and anemic GDP growth, with numerous world crises and the job-smashing avalanche of ObamaCare on the horizon.This economy is nowhere near strong enough to face the challenges that are coming, and there really aren't any good surprises to hope for. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2.Walker Sets Example for Republican Governors Tackling Medicaid
Governor Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) has possibly secured for himself a unique front-runner spot among his fellow Republican governors and rumored 2016 presidential contenders on the issue of healthcare. The expansion of Medicaid, once mandatory under ObamaCare, has now become nothing more than a mere suggestion that states can choose to either accept or reject thanks to the Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare. It is quite likely that conservatives reviewing a field of Republican governors in the 2016 campaign will measure each governor's commitment to repealing ObamaCare against how they acted on the voluntary expansion of Medicaid.
Thursday morning, the Texas House voted to begin the expansion of medicaid under Obamacare. Later in the evening, they rescinded the effort. Several reporters and others I talked with explained that while Governor Perry is "rock solid" on the issue, his staff has sent mixed signals on the issue and Joe Straus, the squishy Speaker of the Texas House, and others were taking advantage of it.
I talked to people close to the Governor this morning and they make clear that there is no shadow between the Governor and his staff on this issue. While others may have that impression, they are adamant it is not the case.
More particularly, I'm told that from the Governor to his staff, their position is that the alternative to medicaid expansion pursuant to Obamacare is freedom.. . . please click here for the rest of the post →
4.Union Bosses Should Imagine A World Without Obama's NLRB
Union bosses may soon be facing a labor relations climate not seen in nearly 80 years-a world where there is no government agency for union bosses to run to. If that occurs, while many will proclaim their indignation, the reality is, a world without the NLRB may not be a bad thing-for unions.
Following the 2010 mid-term elections, union bosses saw their dream of getting legislation passed to effectively eliminate secret-ballot elections die. As an alternative, Barack Obama used "recess appointments" of union stalwarts to the National Labor Relations Board to begin implementing their Plan B Strategy in order to rewrite labor law by regulatory fiat.
Now, following the U.S. District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals striking down Obama's appointments as unconstitutional, today's union bosses may face an environment not seen since the 1930s-a nation without the National Labor Relations Board. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
April 8, 2013
Today's Articles:
Jesse Jackson: Neighborhood Watchman, Racial Profiler Jack Cashill It had to pain the very reverend Jesse Jackson that when the Trayvon Martin story began to break nationally in mid-March 2012 he was on a pointless glad handing tour of Europe. More
Definition Of Marriage; What Can We Learn From Islam? Nonie Darwish Before America embarks on changing the concept of marriage, I hope they will at least agree on examining cultures that do not define marriage as a covenant between one man and one woman. More
Barack Obama Spins the Facts Again! April 7, 2013 The president's immigration policy seems pretty odd in comparison to his stances on gun control and health care. More
Act Against Arms: Piers Morgan, Oprah, TriBeCa Films asked to ban guns from movies #ForTheChildren
Rand Paul opposes foreign aid: "A lot of foreign aid is just stolen...they're crooks"
Federal Taxpayers Get Billed for $1 Million Bus Stop
Emily Goff | April 7, 2013 at 1:31 pm
Is a luxurious bus stop worth $1 million? Commuters boarding buses at the newly constructed stop in Arlington County, Virginia, don't seem to think so, as CNN reported.
According to one rider, "This is cute, but cute ain't warm. Cute ain't dry." While $1 million can buy the stainless steel and heated pavement and seating that adorn this "Super Stop," in this case it didn't even buy a bus stop that protects people from the elements while they wait.
Gil St. John leads a very active, successful ACT! for America chapter in Northern Virginia. Four years ago he attended his first ACT! for America National Conference & Legislative Briefing-and it changed his life.
Gil agreed to share his story with the entire ACT! for America membership.
Four years ago I attended my first ACT! for America conference in Washington, DC. I remember mentioning the conference to my wife a few months earlier, and her response was, "You've always been interested in ACT and Brigitte, so why don't you attend?"
As the father of two daughters, reading the story of a young Lebanese Christian girl living 7 years in a bomb shelter resonated with me deeply. I could not get it out of my mind. I had to learn more about this woman and her organization. I needed to know more about ACT! for America and what Brigitte Gabriel had started.
Being new to "activist" organizations, I asked a dear friend if she would like to attend the conference with me. She agreed and we were off to our first ACT! conference. We walked in, listened, and met people from all around the country. After the first day, I was thinking, these people are just like me! They share my same concern about radical Islam and the direction of our country. They get it!
What I saw, what I learned, the people I met-the national conference was simply amazing! I knew I just had to get involved! On the way home in the car, I said to my friend: "I have to do this-But I can't do it alone. Will you help me start a chapter?" She said yes, and we were now a chapter of TWO people.
Today we have hundreds of people on our chapter list, and just recently, our chapter, along with other ACT! for America members, was instrumental in an important school board decision here in Northern Virginia. A group affiliated with the Islamist Gulen movement wanted to start a charter school here, but our phone calls, emails, and large presence at school board meetings helped persuade the school board to deny the request! Words can't express how rewarding it was to see all of our hard work pay off.
Becoming part of ACT! for America has made me feel complete. It's given me the opportunity to give back to the country that has given me so much. I'm still learning new skills, how to grow the local chapter membership, use social media effectively, and work with volunteers just like me.
But it all started when I attended my first ACT! for America national conference. That was the spark that lit a fire that has burned in me ever since.
There is hope for America. There are people just like you, who "get it." That's why I urge you to come to this year's national conference. The speakers are amazing and the information you'll get is remarkable.
But maybe even more important, you'll be inspired to believe that we can really make a difference, if we work together.
Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog
The first rule of Jihad Club is that there's no talking about it. For the second rule, see the first rule. The culture of silence and terrorism denial is sometimes well meaning. Since the Bush days, experts on Islam have warned that the best way to defeat Islamic terrorists is to undermine their claim to fighting on behalf of Islam by refusing to call them Islamic. The sheer brilliance of this strategy was only partly undermined by its origins in Saudi Arabia, the country sponsoring Islamic terrorists, and by the fact that recruiting primarily takes place in media and channels completely immune to the voluntary speech codes adopted by the AP stylebook.
The average Al Qaeda recruit is utterly unaffected by whether the White House press secretary calls the group Islamic, Islamist or terrorist or militant. He similarly does not care whether Nidal Hasan's shooting rampage at Fort Hood is called an act of terror or workplace violence. Such concerns exist only in the bubble of experts who offer shortcuts to fighting terrorism that don't actually involve killing terrorists.
Muslims are more likely to see Al Qaeda as Islamic because it kills Americans, regardless of what the official representatives of the Americans call that killing. The reasons for this are to be found in the militant roots and practice of their religion. And the Americans who get to die, but do not get a vote on how their deaths will be described, know that Al Qaeda is a Muslim terrorist group. Only in the realm of the expert bubble is it thought that changing words can change how favorably Muslims will view the killers of Americans and how Americans will identify or misidentify their killers.
Largely though the denial is not well meaning. To the left, Muslim terrorism runs the gamut from being a distraction to a call for reforming American foreign policy. After Obama won two elections, the liberal has trouble figuring out what more reforms need to be passed and complains that all this terrorism is a distraction from truly important issues like Global Warming and school budgets, while the avowed leftist goes Full Greenwald and rants about drone holocausts in Pakistan.
Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog0 Comments
THAT IS NOT THE ROOSEVELT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR
Bull Moose Sportsmen is a front for some figures in the Colorado Democratic Party. Its name and use of T.R. is yet another tiresome effort to co-opt Teddy Roosevelt for the left's causes.
What would Teddy Roosevelt have thought of being exploited by the gun control crowd?
"The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power," Roosevelt said. "The first step - in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come - is to teach men to shoot!"
In 1905, another step forward was taken, when President Roosevelt signed Public Law 149 into effect, authorizing the sale, at cost, of surplus military rifles, ammunition, and related equipment to rifle clubs.
The best kept secrets of the Muslim world include large populations of former African slaves in places like Pakistan, Iraq and Turkey. While Africans in Israel are not descended from slaves, Afro-Arabs, Afro-Turks and African-Pakistanis are living reminders of a Muslim slave trade that sometimes still lingers on.
The site of the world's greatest slave rebellion was in Basra, Iraq, where half-a-million African slaves rose against the might of the Arab Abbasid Empire.
The Zanj rebellion was brutally suppressed, but its legacy lives on in the modern day city of Basra where hundreds of thousands of Afro-Iraqis live as a despised minority taunted with the slur "Abd" or Slave.
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862. By contrast, Saudi Arabia only abolished slavery in 1962.
21 POTENTIAL HUMAN REMAINS OF 9/11 VICTIMS RECOVERED FROM WORLD TRADE CENTER SITE
Perhaps more families will have closure. I wonder if any of these remains were found in or around the now-defeated Ground Zero mosque.
New York City medical examiner says 21 potential human remains of 9/11 victims recovered from World Trade Center siteNY Daily News (thanks to Lookmann)
Renewed search of WTC site for possible remains of Sept. 1, 2001 victims of terror attack brings total number of remains found during current effort to 39.
The New York City medical examiner's office says more possible pieces of human remains have been found during the sifting of newly uncovered debris from the site of the September 2001 terrorist attacks. The office says 21 potential human remains were recovered Wednesday.
That brings the total found during the current effort to 39. About 60 truckloads of debris that could contain tiny human bone fragments have been unearthed by construction crews working on the new World Trade Center tower in recent years. City officials say investigators will spend 10 weeks trying to find remains in that debris.
The city's last such effort ended in 2010. Some 2,750 people died at the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11 attacks, but remains of only 1,634 people have been identified.
Friday, April 05, 2013
WHITE HOUSE CANCELS JEWISH HERITAGE MONTH RECEPTION
Above: Obama's splendiforous Iftar gala
Who cares about 6,000 years of history, anyway?
White House Scraps Jewish Heritage Month Reception by Keith Koffler, White House Dossier, on April 5, 2013
The White House is picking winners and losers as it cuts back because of the sequester, and a planned reception for American Jews is getting the short end of the stick.
Many other events are proceeding as planned, but according to the Jewish news service JTA, the annual White House celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month is canceled.
"Jewish invitees usually include luminaries in the arts, sports and sciences, lawmakers, armed services personnel and the Israeli ambassador, as well as organizational leaders and political supporters of the president," according to JTA.
The sequester cuts kicked in March 1, but that hasn't stopped the White House from staging a variety of fun events marking all sorts of occasions.
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD-CAIR GOONS STRONG ARM AP WIMPS TO BAN "ISLAMIST' AND THEY DO
First let me say that I think the word islamist is ridiculous (i.e. christianist, jewist?). It's a coward's term for devout Muslim or jihadi. I think the term "islamist" fits non-Muslims who promote and advance jihad and sharia. But jihadists and their mouthpieces didn't like it -- so they sent their sharia goons to bully the effete. And bully they did; the AP caved.
More here: Islamic vs. Islamist: An Artificial Distinction. What does it mean to say that someone or something is "Islamist" as opposed to "Islamic"? Nothing, really, except that the person speaking doesn't want to offend Islam by speaking unwelcome truths about the political nature of the religion.
I expect we'll soon be calling jihadis Quakers or sumthin. But the correct word is jihadi.
How dare the AP and anyone with influence in the West give these fringe Hamas groups such power?
THE INTERFAITH TASKFORCE FOR AMERICA AND ISRAEL (ITAI)
123 S. Broad Street, Suite 1832, Philadelphia, PA 19109
Friday, April 5, 2013
ITAI WEEKLY MIDDLE EAST REPORT
GERMANY, JEWS, AND ISRAEL
By: Joseph Puder
Yom Ha'shoah or Holocaust Memorial Day will be commemorated on Sunday, April 7, 2013, and is an annual reminder of the genocide Nazi Germany perpetrated against Europe's Jews. In Germany, 70 years after the Holocaust, the Jewish Museum in Berlin has put on displaywhatthey have dubbed 'A Jew in the Box,' an exhibition featuring a Jewish man or woman sitting inside a glass box for two hours a day through August, and responding to questions from visitors about Jews and Jewish life. The exhibition is attracting a great deal of attention.
The thinking behind this rather strangely named exhibit is that the post-war generations know next to nothing about Jews and Judaism. Given the relatively small number of Jews in Germany (about 150,000-200,000 out of a population of 82 million Germans), it is likely that many Germans have never encountered a Jew. What Germans do know about Jews however, seems to be increasingly negative, as native and Islamic anti-Semitism is on the rise, and anti-Israel feelings among the young have become commonplace.
The Times of Israel reported on December 14, 2012 that "Reading the comments under Israel-related articles in the mainstream media is quite shocking. There, ignorance meets prejudice meets starry-eyed idealism." Much like elsewhere in Europe, the young, particularly on campuses, are becoming increasingly anti-Israel, if not anti-Jewish. They question the special relations between Germany and Israel, and are essentially ignorant about Middle East realities. The German media and academia's yardstick in judging conflict in the Middle East is human rights. Their skewed reporting fails, however, to recognize that in Israel, human rights are truly applied, and that human rights, religious freedom, and democracy are non-existent in the Arab-Muslim world, including within the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
It is rather ironic that the Holocaust is the bond that ties the German government to the Jewish State. That said one must consider the current German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the exception. She has displayed a genuine friendship for Jews and Israel. The general population is no longer bound by the sense of responsibility and guilt over Germany's horrific past, especially as it relates to Jews. Germans today, under the European Union umbrella, feel free to be critical of Jews and Israel much like many people in Britain and France.
The existence of a large Muslim population in Germany, about 4.3 million, according to the study conducted by the Pew Research Center in December 2010 and released in January 2011 (Muslims constitute about 5% of the German population) has been a contributing factor in the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany. The Jerusalem Post reported (9/2/2012) that according to the Berlin police "four young Arabs punched Rabbi Daniel Alter several times in the face because he was Jewish and wearing a yarmulka, and threatened to kill his six-year-old daughter. Doctors performed surgery on Alter's fractured cheekbone."
The same Rabbi Alter observed that "insults and name-calling, even physical violence -that is completely normal in Germany." According to Alter, recent research found that almost one in three Germans is anti-Semitic, and you can find it at all levels of society.
A report on Deutsche Welle (DW) titled, Anti-Semitism: An Everyday Phenomenon (January 30, 2013) reveals that armed security guards and security checkpoints watch over Jewish life in Berlin; they stand guard outside the synagogues and the Jewish schools. The report quotes an 18-year old Jewish school girl named Ilana who says: "Even in grade school, other (German) students would yell 'Jewish pig,' or 'Hey Jew, bombed a few Palestinians yet?" She told of being beaten and attacked with bricks. Ilana pointed out that anti-Semitism is alive and well among young Germans but teachers, according to Ilana and Rabbi Alter, "dare not discuss the topic of anti-Semitism." Ironically, the study of the Holocaust has been a mandatory component of the German state educational curriculum.
The German media and government officials, however, tend to blame "right-wing extremists" and ignore Arabs and Muslims for anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish violence. European multi-culturalism and political-correctness gone awry have emboldened Muslims in Europe to attack Jews throughout the Continent as well as in Germany.
The U.S. based Simon Wiesenthal Center identified Jakob Augstein, publisher of the German magazine Der Freitag, and son of the founder of Der Spiegel, Germany's leading weekly news magazine, as one of the tenth worst anti-Semites in 2012. Among Augstein's notorious bellowing are statements such as "Jerusalem calls, and Berlin bows to its will," or that "U.S. Republicans and the Israeli government profit from violence in Libya, Sudan, and Yemen." Another one is "the Netanyahu government keeps the world with an ever swelling war chant." Augstein also accused Israel of "initiating the production of the Mohammad video that provoked Middle East riots by Muslims." He also asserted that ultra-Orthodox Israelis "follow the law of revenge."
Germans, it seems, wish to erase the past, and resent the Holocaust memory with its emphasis on German guilt. German laws however, forbid overt anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Hence, German anti-Semitism is expressed not always in direct attacks against Jews but rather by demonizing the Jewish nation. The political-Left in Germany has accused Israel of war crimes, occupation, and apartheid. The German-Left has used inverse Holocaust imagery to characterize Israel as allegedly treating the Palestinians the way the Nazis treated Jews.
A survey conducted by the GFE Europe Project 2011, that appeared in Der Spiegel on January 14, 2013, posed the following statements..."Jews try to take advantage of having been victims during the Nazi era,"...48.9% of the 1000 Germans 16 years and older who were surveyed, answered in the affirmative. "Considering Israel's policy, I can understand why people do not like Jews,"...35.6% agreed. "Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians,"...47.7% responded in the affirmative.
It is rather clear that Germans and other Europeans hate Jewish particularism that is manifested by the existence of the Jewish State. As long as Jews are Universalists in their outlook, they are acceptable to Europeans, albeit as "useful idiots." What is clearly indicative of the European and German double-standard, and thus their transparent anti-Semitism is the fact that Islamic particularism evidenced in the existence of 57 Muslim states has not been a cause for denunciation or hatred by Europeans in general and Germans in particular.
It is doubtful that the Berlin Jewish Museum exhibit will change what have become a common European and (increasingly) a German mindset regarding Jewish particularism and Israel. For Jews however and the State of Israel, the memory of the Nazi Holocaust (Yom Ha'shoah) is a moral obligation and a promise to prevent yet another.
We are being assured not to worry about the possibility of N. Korea making a nuclear attack on the U.S. mainland. It may be useful to remember Pearl Harbor and some other lessons from history.
This is the same organization that employs journalists who have repeatedly shown naked bias against tea party members, gun owners and pro-life activists.
The chaos that one finds on the ground can also be found in the White House that foolishly assumes history is moving in a continuum that favors our interests.
In a staggering case of affirmative action gone wild, officials are actually recruiting minorities to be lifeguards at public pools even if they're not good swimmers. It's all in the name of diversity.
A new documentary provides haunting one-on-one interviews with former heads of Shin Bet-who nearly consecutively ran the secretive, counterterrorist Israeli security service.
Liberalism has done much to undermine the American spirit. The result is too much regulation that impedes entrepreneurship and economic growth, and too much dependency on the government.
A 30-year-old Army veteran is charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the U.S. after he acknowledged fighting with a designated terrorist group.
It is disgraceful that the Obama administration is denying those soldiers the military honors they are long overdue from having been wounded by an enemy operative in a wartime terrorist attack.
Did you know that if everyone who visited our FSM website this year donated just $1, we would easily exceed our annual budget?
Your gift will be an investment in freedom.
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, The Family Security Foundation relies upon the thoughtfulness and (tax-deductible!) generosity of visitors like you.
"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
The Israeli Palestinian Conflict: 10 Myths Preventing Peace
This article shows how the political instability created by the Muslim Brotherhood spreads from country to country, creating an Islamist "domino effect." Jordan is a small country of 6 ½ million people, and it's sure to become destabilized by 1.2 million Syrian refugees, among whom will be many hard-core Islamist operating under the cover of chaos. Can you image the United States suffering an influx of refugees equal to 20% of our population? If we experienced what Jordan is experiencing, we'd have 60 million refugees wandering about us - except that our country has fertile land for them, whereas Jordan is tasked with supporting these people in a desert. Where's their food going to come from?
Prepare to watch Jordan turn into the Middle East's next disaster...
Dave
UN predicts Syrian refugee numbers in Jordan will swell to 1.2 million by year's end
Published April 05, 2013
| Associated Press
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GENEVA - The United Nations is predicting that the number of Syrian refugees in neighboring Jordan will more than double to 1.2 million by the end of this year.
UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said Friday that the U.N. agency for children urgently needs new funding to continue coping with the influx of refugees. Mercado said: "The needs are rising exponentially, and we are broke."
The number of Syrian refugees in Jordan is approaching half a million. Jordan has a population of 6 million.
The total number of Syrians who have fled their country and are seeking assistance hit 1 million a month ago. The U.N. says the pace of refugees fleeing has accelerated dramatically in recent months.
Where did all the Palestinian money go?! Calev Myers
Army Training Session Lists Evangelicals, Catholics, Mormons as 'Extremists'
Posted on April 6, 2013 by Tad Cronn
An Army Reserve unit undergoing training on religious extremism recently in Pennsylvania was told by an Army instructor that Evangelical Christians, Catholics, Mormons and Orthodox Jews are on the same level with Hamas, al-Qaida and the Ku Klux Klan.
The training was part of the Army Reserve Equal Opportunity program. The slide that listed examples of "religious extremism" put Evangelical Christianity as the first entry and included the Jewish Defense League, Catholicism and even "Islamophobia" alongside the Muslim Brotherhood, Sunni Muslims and Hamas.
When a soldier complained, the Army ducked and covered. Army spokesman George Wright said the slide was not produced by the Army and was removed from the instructional program for future uses.
"This slide was not produced by the Army and certainly does not reflect our policy or doctrine. ... It was produced by an individual without anyone in the chain of command's knowledge or permission," Wright said. "... We consider the matter closed."
Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, said, "It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization."
The recently announced delay of an important component of ObamaCare is raising anxiety among Democrats, according to The Hill. HHS recently announced that it was delaying for one year a provision that would allow small businesses to choose from an array of insurance plans for their employees. Most small businesses, however, won't have that option until 2015, at the earliest, and will have only one plan option to provide their employees. As a result, it will be more expensive for the businesses to comply with the law.
I know, you are probably thinking like I am after reading the title, "You've got to be kidding!" I'm not. Even after the Department of Homeland Security indicated that they had nearly 264 million rounds of ammunition back near the end of November 2012, they have sent out an email to Border Patrol agents yesterday informing them that they will not be issued any new proficiency ammunition for next quarter.
Townhall obtained an email sent to Border Patrol agents stationed in the El Centro border sector by a supervisor:
Enforcement Personnel,
Due to budget concerns and ammunition availability, we will not be getting issued any proficiency ammunition for next quarter. In addition to these reductions, we are also being limited to qualification ammo only. What this means to you is that you will not receive the normal 150 rounds for practice and we will not have any extra ammunition for a combat course following normal qualifications.
If you have the ammunition available and would like extra practice during your qualification day, the firearms instructors will have a training course available for Indio Station Personnel, keeping in mind basic marksmanship skills as well as tactical training with a limited amount of ammunition. You are not required to bring your own ammunition.
If you do not have extra ammo to bring, you will be given extra time to clean and maintain your issued handgun as well as station long arms.
If you have any questions about this quarters (sic) quals please feel free to send me your concerns.
Diana West: Sean Hannity utterance regarding Obama eligibility was last straw
Get ready for the last straw.
First, though, I'd like to suggest that anyone reading this column in a local newspaper or news site pat the editor on the back for publishing what in our neo-medieval world of fear amounts to a "forbidden" column.
Yup, I am about to say something about the Great Barack Obama Identity/Eligibility Scandal again. I know that this is one rich and urgent topic that doesn't see the light of day in certain so-called news outlets - and I say that from the experience of watching my own syndicated columns fail to appear when covering news of the White House press conference where the president's long-form birth certificate was unveiled, news of courtroom proceedings in various states on Obama's ballot eligibility and news of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's investigators presenting evidence that the online Obama birth certificate is a forgery.
So be it. This was, as noted, the last straw.
I refer to something radio host Sean Hannity said on his show this week. He was speaking in rebuttal to a Democrat arguing that racism was a problem among conservatives. As evidence, the Democrat brought up the "birther issue" - the label used to encapsulate any topic related to Obama's identity documents and constitutional eligibility. Erroneously, it is a label that narrowly connotes, and derisively so, only the belief that President Obama wasn't born in the United States.
In fact, the whereabouts of Obama's nativity is in no way the main bone of "birther" contention, despite the blinkered focus on it by the enforcers of silence. Of far greater concern to me, for starters, is the purportedly original documentation President Obama belatedly provided the American people to attest to his identity.
Do you remember how you and your family spent that last summer weekend before Sept. 11, 2001?
Probably not, but most Americans will have a sense of that weekend as the time when life was normal ... the days before "everything changed."
This may be another such weekend.
Here's what the North Koreans are doing right now that could make this next week the time when EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVERYTHING changes ... for decades ... or longer.
U.S. Army ID's No. 1 extremist threat - anyone you know?
U.S. Army reservists are being trained to recognize the enemy among us.
And in a list of extremists and extremist organizations that includes the Muslim Brotherhood, KKK, Nation of Islam, al-Qaida, Hamas and neo-Nazis, THIS group ranks as the biggest threat to America.
To say you'll be surprised is an understatement ...
Sources close to the administration suggest much of the U.S.'s current military response toward North Korea is being driven by the need to undo THIS major Obama miscalculation ...
We should only get mail delivered on Mondays and Thursdays.
The Conservatives in the House should be drafting a bill concerning the number of taxpayer funded vacations any future president gets, and a cap on costs over which the President is responsible. Going to Camp David or their private home for extended times are fine, as they are considered "working vacations". High priced hotels, lavish multiple, separate family vacations on the taxpayer dime must have some restrictions. Even the Royal Family in Britain has a set allowance. There is no reason our President's, (and other elected officials perks), should be unlimited or undefined.
No politician other than the president should receive any lifetime pension from the taxpayers above $100,000 a year.
A definition of the duties of the unelected first lady is due. A cap on their taxpayer funded activities is long overdue. These women are not elected, and there is no oversight of ... Continue Reading:Woulda, shoulda, coulda in Washington and elsewhere
North Korea's dictator, Kim Jung Un is playing a mean game of chicken with South Korea and the United States. This is how chubby little dictators behave to gain the attention of world leaders and garner support-grudging or otherwise- of their own populace. Most likely he is in a power play with older military leaders in a political battle royal to keep himself in power.
Nukes
This week the tyrant-in-training authorized the North Korean military to use untested nukes against American bases in South Korea. In poker this is called a bluff. It is also a ploy mainly for domestic consumption, not for external interests. Kim is untested and basically an unknown entity whose erratic behavior is a sign of immaturity which may lead to an inadvertent war. In fact, the only adults keeping Kim in check in the rouge nation are members of Korea's military leadership. (1) During the current Kim ... Continue Reading:Is Kim in Control of North Korea's military?
Tea Party favorite former US Congressman Allen West admitted to investigator Lt. Mike Zullo that political expediency was more important to him than supporting the investigation of Barack Obama's eligibility for office. "I would really have to think about this, but I don't think so," West said in response to Zullo's "Would you support an individual that steps forward to bring this (document fraud) to the forefront?" The officer heading up Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Cold Case Posse investigation went to the Conservative C-PAC enclave with radio talk host Carl Gallups to tell any and all listeners about the criminal law enforcement probe of birth certificate document fraud. (1) Zullo described his conversation with West as a face to face, direct on conversation with the Tea Party favorite to whose political campaign so many trusting Americans gave their hard earned dollars.
Mandatory liability insurance for gun owners is the latest gun control idea being pushed by liberals in Congress. This draft legislation is a pathway to registration - and confiscation.
North Korea is a charter member of the Axis of Evil, and works hand in glove with the other surviving regime of that infamous trinity, Iran. What if all of the recent saber rattling is just misdirection?
Just as the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., stirred the broader gun-control debate ready to makes its Senate floor debut next week, the chilling attacks on two Texas state prosecutors have sparked concern about how those putting criminals behind bars can defend themselves from the next ambush.
"The Company You Keep," Robert Redford's valentine to aging former members of the Weather Underground, opens this week in New York and Los Angeles. I've seen it so you don't have to. Beyond the disgust of the topic, it's an entertainment dud.
"With respect to the two words 'general welfare,' I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." ~ James Madison
Obama's Favors To Voting Non-Voters
Obama Quietly Signs Executive Order Enabling Voter Fraud And Nationalizing Elections Posted On America's Conservative News Following rampant allegations of voter fraud in last November's Presidential election, President Barack Obama defied his harshest critics this past week, by quietly signing an executive order establishing a Presidential administration dedicated to, among other things, registering non-English speaking citizens to vote.
Can Liberty Win? Do the Math By Bradlee Dean RightSideNews.com We the People are confronted with assaults to our foundations--both biblically and constitutionally--not from an enemy without, but an enemy within.
Four More Years Of Pain By Donald Lambro HumanEvents.com Second terms are usually challenging for presidents who have won re-election without having the slightest idea about what they will do over the next four years.
Disability Trust Fund Ran Record $31.2B Deficit in 2012; In Deficit Every Year Under Obama By Terence P. Jeffrey CNSNews.com The federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, which takes in money via a federal payroll tax and pays it out in disability benefits, ran a record $31.2 billion deficit in calendar year 2012, according to the Social Security Administration.
Those In Charge Of Fixing It Just Aren't Feeling It
3.6 Percent Unemployment--for Government Workers By Elizabeth Harrington CNSNews.comThe unemployment rate for civilian government workers dropped to 3.6 percent in March from 3.8 percent in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
RNC Declares War on Conservative Grassroots By Michael Patrick Leahy Breitbart.comAt a meeting of the Ripon Society held in Washington, D.C.'s exclusive Capitol Hill Club on Tuesday, new Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Mike Shields effectively declared war on the conservative grassroots.
According to a statement released by the Saddleback Valley Community Church, the youngest son of California Pastor Rick Warren, author of �The Purpose Driven Life,� has committed suicide. Read the pastor's emotional statement about his son's death and watch the video coverage of this tragedyHERE.
Seeking an elusive middle ground, President Barack Obama is proposing a 2014 budget that embraces tax increases abhorred by Republicans as well as reductions, loathed by liberals, in the growth of Social Security and other benefit programs. On Friday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said �it�s not what he would do if he were king.� Watch the video of Carney's very telling statementHERE.
It isn�t supposed to be this way. After a recession, an improving economy is supposed to bring people back into the job market. After a full year of fruitless job hunting, Natasha Baebler just gave up. She�d already abandoned hope of getting work in her field, counseling the disabled. But she couldn�t land anything else, either � not even a job interview at a telephone call center. Read the Associated Press' detailed analysis of the latest numbersHERE.
Leadership expert John C. Maxwell breaks down 11 ways to improve your thought processes to achieve success. If you want to stay competitive in our fast-changing world, grab this quality read for a great price (only $3.79) rightHERE.
Bill O�Reilly�s highly charged gay marriage debate with conservative radio host Laura Ingrahamdrew a strong reaction from TheBlaze audience, particularly over O�Reilly�s contention that same-sex marriage opponents often �thump the Bible� to make their point. Many of you commented on that story. Some of our favorites areHERE.
A video posted by the pro-life advocacy group Created Equal appears to show an angry young woman turning over and stomping on anti-abortion signs while asking her audience whether they want �an overpopulated earth� with �a generation� of babies �born to crackheads.� Watch the one minute video HERE.
Furniture store giant Ikea says it has withdrawn 17,000 portions of moose lasagna from its home furnishings stores in Europe after traces of pork were found in a batch tested in Belgium. Ikea spokeswoman Tina Kardum said the product had only been on sale for a month when it was pulled off the shelves on March 22. You're probably curious to know who is eating moose lasagna and how the pork got into the recipe. Go ahead, indulge your curiousity and clickHERE.
Several days ago, it was reported that "R&B's power couple" Jay-Z and Beyonce were spending their fifth anniversary in Havana, Cuba. Now they are coming under fire for that decision from no less than two members of Congress and a host of Cuban rights lobbyists. Watch the video report of the trip and the subsequent indignation HERE.
The Rutgers coach's firing combined with this weekend�s NCAA basketball finals, gave the writers at SNL some prime components for comedy. And with Oscar-nominated comedic actress Melissa McCarthy hosting, the stars aligned for some great laughter. Watch the sketchHERE.
For the first time in the event�s 183-year history, Jean A. Stevens, a woman led a prayer Saturday at the semiannual gathering of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The morning session�s closing prayer was attended by more than 100,000 Mormons gathered in Salt Lake City for the two-day general conference, and millions more watched or listened via satellite, radio or Internet broadcast. Watch the video of this historic eventHERE.
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer seemed to render his fellow Fox News panelists momentarily speechless after he said President Barack Obama has lost the main gun control battle and �all he wants now is the money." Krauthammer made the comment during Fox News� �Special Report� and you can watch the videoHERE.
Those who tuned into ABC�s �Wife Swap� last week were likely stunned for a number of reasons. To begin, many Americans were introduced for the first time to the inner workings of a �polyamorous� family (i.e. a family unit comprised of and headed by more than two adults). The show also featured a the shocking pairing of a conservative, Christian, Tea Party mother (Dr. Gina Loudon) with the polyamorous family. TheBlaze spoke with Dr. Loudin about everything that happened during the show's taping. Read her explanation of the "Wife Swap" experience HERE.
On Friday�s edition of �The Five� on Fox News, co-host Greg Gutfeld blasted the left and America�s academic institutions for embracing violent far-left radicals while relentlessly mocking law-abiding gun owners. Watch Gutfeld in attack mode against Hollywood "dirtbags"HERE.
Regardless of where you stand on the issue of gay marriage, few people will likely agree with MSNBC host Krystal Ball�s decision to use her young daughter to promote gay marriage during a segment titled �Political Playground� seen on the channel this past Thursday. Watch the cringe-worthy segmentHERE.
Reacting to the disappointing March jobs numbers and other economic indicators, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said �we are living in a dying country.� Listen to the segment from Rush's radio show HERE.
From TheBlaze Contributors Page: Michael Porfido, an editor and contributor to the website freemarketsfreepeople.net, looks at the real costs of Obamacare and wonders where the press is on covering this story. After all, the President promised that his plan would not add a dime to the deficit. Read Porfido's pieceHERE.
A 15-year-old student at Appleton North school in Appleton, Wisconsin, is claiming that he was bullied by faculty members for being a conservative. Now, the school district has launched an investigation into the charges and they claim to be taking the allegations seriously. Read the disturbing detailsHERE.
Dr. Ben Carson on Friday apologized to Johns Hopkins University for �poorly chosen� comments he made last week in which he seemed to compare gay relationships to pedophilia and bestiality. Read Dr. Carson's entire statementHERE.
Chaos unfolded at the Honolulu International Airport when a homeless woman viciously attacked a TSA worker. The scuffle was quickly halted after a shoeless, off-duty cop leaped over the security barrier and jumped in. Watch the surveillance videoHERE.
Zachary Copfer might not be unique in all the images he replicates, but his medium for choosing to reproduce famous photos and other works of art is certainly novel. Copfer�s work is what he calls bacteriography. The �scientist who went rouge and became a bioartist� grows the images out of bacteria. See the imagesHERE.
TheBlaze has covered MSNBC's Joe Scarborough's many commentaries against the NRA since the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in December. But on Friday morning, the host took a u-turn and seemingly defended the organization, while also slamming Hollywood and calling liberals out for hypocrisy. If you are shaking your head in disbelief, watch the video segment that proves itHERE.
A New York father has had his firearms all but confiscated after the Suffolk County Pistol License Bureau suspended his pistol license indefinitely over a perceived threat made by his 10-year-old son and two of his classmates at school. The dad, John Mayer, of Commack, N.Y., told TheBlaze that the incident occurred on March 1st, but its implications that could last another eight years. Get all of the detailsHERE.
A week since North Korea declared itself in a state of war, announced it was authorized to launch a nuclear attack on the U.S. Additionally, North Korea has shuttered access to South Koreans in a shared industrial park, responses from other countries and analysis about the situation continues to circulate.
The 6 key things to you should know the situation on the Korean peninsula are gatheredHERE.
Reports are leaking out in Federal documents, on what could be the biggest scandal in Barack Obama's entire presidency.
Will this ruin the President? Will it dramatically change America? One wealthy Maryland citizen says it's definitely possible. Check out his full analysis, free of charge HERE.
The father of two Ohio teenagers was outraged when he found out about a so-called "twerking" video they had posted online. So angered, he allegedly whipped them with a cable repeatedly. Graphic video of the beating was captured and has led to him being faced with several charges including child endangerment and corporate punishment. See the shocking video HERE.
On Thursday night, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly continued to discuss his "thump the Bible" controversy, bringing on Megyn Kelly to share her views about the outrage that has ensued since his comments about conservatives and gay marriage from last week. Kelly strongly defended O'Reilly, claiming that his controversial statement about conservative Americans and their same-sex marriage arguments shouldn't be taken so contentiously. Watch the segmentHERE.
In her view, Suzy Lee Weiss did everything right. The Pittsburgh high school senior has a 4.5 GPA, scored 2120 on her SATs and worked as a page in the U.S. Senate. Still, she didn't get accepted to any of her top college picks. So she vented her frustrations in an open letter the schools that was published in the Wall Street Journal. Read the letterHERE.
For months there has been speculation that Facebook would release its very own mobile phone. At an event Thursday, the social media giant's founder Mark Zuckerberg put those rumors to rest and introduced the slightly "more than just an app" instead. Learn about "Home" and how it could put a user's privacy at riskHERE.
A proposed new law in Colorado could give Secret Service employees local police powers in the that state. This new power has many concerned that Secret Service personnel will be used to arrest or force county sheriffs to enforce the state's new gun laws. See the arguments on both sides of the storyHERE.
There's never been a better time to buy the #1 New York Times best seller "MICHAEL VEY: The Prisoner of Cell 25." You can get the first book in this action-packed teen series from author Richard Paul Evans for only $1.99 on ebook. Take advantage of this offerHERE.
Speaking before Maryland legislators at recent a hearing, the young woman made her case against gun control and argued restrictive legislation will only affect law-abiding American citizens. It only took her about three minutes to effectively make her point. Watch the clipHERE.
Kevin Ware, the Louisville, KY Cardinal basketball player who was badly injured during his team's big win last week, is preparing to attend his team's Final Four game in Atlanta. Ware will be on crutches after his leg was reset in a two-hour surgery earlier this week. However, his injuries did not prevent Ware from appearing on television to present the Top 10 List on the "Late Show with David Letterman." See the entertaining clipHERE.
On Friday, the Labor Department reported that non-farm payrolls grew by just 88,000 in March, a number far below expectations. Just a few weeks ago, economists predicted a gain of around 200,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is at 7.6%. Average hourly earnings were flat.
The March jobs number is the latest in a string of recent bad economic data. In February, the economy added around 268,000 jobs. The pullback was most dramatic in the private sector. In February, the private sector added 254,000 jobs. In March, however, it was just 95,000.
Apr 06, 2013 01:35 pm Back in 2009, 11 days after becoming the first illegal alien to hold the office of President, Barack Hussein Obama, citizen of Indonesia, was nominated for (and shortly thereafter awarded) the Noble Peace Prize. It appears to have been awarded on the basis of his skin color and his uber-liberal, leftist outlook on life, the [...]
Video: Obama's Wants America To Be The Largest Muslim Country In The World
Apr 06, 2013 01:31 pm
Obama also said earlier that the US was not a Christian nation, though there is an 80% demographic that considers itself Christian. Related posts: Mosques Flourish In America; Churches Perish In Muslim World As Muslims prepare to erect a mega-mosque near the site... Obamacare Largest Tax Increase In The History Of The World? RUSH: Hey, [...]
Apr 06, 2013 01:23 pm "I hear all the time the expression 'the good old days.' Well, the good old days, we forget they have been good for some, but they weren't good for everybody. It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling people back ... for blacks to be back in the back [...]
According to at least one participant, Juneau, Alaska pro-life protesters were physically attacked and, for the second day in a row, blocked from expressing their First Amendment rights to assemble and protest. View this video and decide for yourself. Related posts: Vegetarian Protesters Compare Themselves To Oppressed Blacks An ongoing complaint by members of an [...]
Apr 06, 2013 01:07 pm The HHS initiative is anti Catholic in its inception and its implementation. The Obama administration has demonstrated its disdain for Catholics and religious freedom in general. The initiative is a disgrace for what it intends to do. Anyone who looks at the situation through an objective lens can see that this administration is trying to [...]
The NRA is on top of this! Related posts: Former UN Ambassador John Bolton On The UN Arms Trade Treaty Ginny Simone talks to former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton... The UN Arms Trade Treaty Obama is expected to sign the UN Arms Trade Treaty...
Apr 06, 2013 12:45 pm Complaining that "some wealthy individuals are able to accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts," the Obama administration announced a plan to cap the total sum of any individual's retirement accounts at $3 million. Stashing cash beyond that point, the administration insists, builds sums "substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of [...]
Apr 06, 2013 12:44 pm Bill O'Reilly is becoming a boor. Many 'Bible thumpers' have appreciated his aggressive defense of certain conservative principles. But when it comes to Christianity and social issues, his temper and his ignorance make for rude and ill-advised commentary, as revealed in his recent attempt to smack down Laura Ingraham when she politely tried to get [...]
Video: 1,000 Plus Armed Protestors Rally In Michigan
Apr 06, 2013 12:33 pm
Close to one thousand heavily armed demonstrators, some in wheelchairs and some in strollers, descended upon the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing on Wednesday March 20th to draw a line in the sand, telling the Federal government in no uncertain terms that they would oppose any attempts to register or ban any type of [...]
Apr 06, 2013 12:29 pm There are many successful liberals, so why do so many of them wish to subsidize failure for the poor instead of showing them how to succeed? Is it because they need the poor and downtrodden to remain that way so that they can get the victims to vote the way they want them to? Once [...]
With liberals-generally atheists-gaining governmental power in the twentieth century, that troublesome Shroud of Turin, believed to be the shroud Jesus of Nazareth was buried in, had to be dealt with. A group of sloppy scientists in 1988 cut a piece from the edge of the shroud and did a Carbon-14 dating test, finding the shroud [...]
Apr 06, 2013 12:20 pm TOPEKA, Kan. - Kansas legislators gave final passage to a sweeping anti-abortion measure Friday night, sending Gov. Sam Brownback a bill that declares life begins "at fertilization" while blocking tax breaks for abortion providers and banning abortions performed solely because of the baby's sex. The House voted 90-30 for a compromise version of the [...]
Exposing A Mass Amnesty's Ultimate Results: 100 Million Immigrants
Apr 06, 2013 12:12 pm The First Basic Law of Human Stupidity asserts without ambiguity: always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation. At first, the statement sounds trivial. Closer scrutiny reveals its veracity. No matter how high are one's estimates of human stupidity, one is repeatedly startled by the fact that: people whom one had [...]
Apr 06, 2013 12:09 pm Last fall, Senator Coburn sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding an explanation by the end of November for the agency's reported purchase of massive quantities of ammunition. Yesterday, Dr. Coburn released correspondence that he finally received from DHS purporting to explain the purchases. First, here's what was disclosed by DHS: As of November 2012, it [...]
Apr 06, 2013 11:47 am President Barack Obama attended two fundraisers on Wednesday on San Francisco's "Billionaires' Row" and said it would be a "whole lot easier" to govern if House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) became House Speaker after 2014. Obama even said he expected Pelosi "is going to be once again the Speaker of the House." The President [...]
The so-called "Gang of Eight" yesterday announced they were very close to coming up with an immigration reform bill. Leading conservative Republicans, however-not the gaggle of RINOS that make up half of the Gang of Eight-point out that the immigration "reform" bill has a flaw: it will provide a back door for millions of illegal [...]
God (Not SCOTUS) Will Be The Final Judge On Gay "Marriage"
Apr 05, 2013 01:27 pm There seems to have been a shift in the Republican party away from opposing so-called gay marriage and towards an acceptance of homosexuals being able to be married with the state's imprimatur. I can understand Senator Rob Portman's position. His son is gay, and he is still his son, and he loves him. I saw [...]
Video: Huckabee: Obama/Hitler Comparisons "The Truth"
Apr 05, 2013 01:17 pm
On his radio show Wednesday afternoon, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee suggested that new gun control efforts could bear similarities to how pre-Nazi Germany devolved into a brutal dictatorship. Related posts: Huckabee: Media Ignoring Catholics Suing Obama 'Like Missing The Roe V. Wade Decision' Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has a good point here....... Saving [...]
Congressman Moves To Automatically Kill Senate Gun Ban
Apr 05, 2013 01:13 pm WASHINGTON - Should Senate Democrats approve a sweeping new anti-gun bill, Congressman Steve Stockman (R-Texas 36th) announced Tuesday he will seek to automatically kill it using a House "blue slip." "The Democrat gun ban is dead on arrival. I will introduce in the House a blue slip resolution that will automatically kill the Senate gun [...]
Video: Fox Guest Urges Network To Rally Behind Obama
Apr 05, 2013 01:09 pm
At least on the supposed threat from North Korea. Do you agree with this guy's plea? Related posts: North Korean Guards Have Detained One Or More American Journalists Near The Country's Border With China, South Korean Media Have Reported. Tania Branigan The news comes amid increasing strains... N. Korea Threat May Be More [...]
Apr 05, 2013 01:06 pm On Tuesday evening, Laura Ingraham was seen slouching back in her chair in an exhausted pose in response to Bill O'Reilly's defense of the term 'bible thumper.' Ingraham, a regular substitute host anchor for O'Reilly, couldn't get a word in edgewise; and when she did, it was only to state once again that the [...]
It's time to play "Cowboys and Communists." The liberal left are communist to the core, and Wild Bill exposes them Related posts: How Democrats Are Implementing The Communists' Plan To Destroy America Will Rogers, a famous Democrat, used to say "All I... Communists Fear Conservative Racial Unity Demo-crack dealers in office and the private sector [...]
Apr 05, 2013 12:54 pm "Study The Past"- Inscription on the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Love him or hate him, President Woodrow Wilson rightly stated that "A nation that does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we [...]
Apr 05, 2013 12:52 pm There is a bright spot in the March jobless numbers, if government is your line of work. The unemployment rate for civilian government workers dropped to 3.6 percent in March from 3.8 percent in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In February, there were 828,000 unemployed federal, state and local governments in the [...]
Video: Krauthammer - Obama Lost The Gun Control Fight
Apr 05, 2013 12:51 pm
During a discussion on Fox News Thursday afternoon that linked President Obama's latest round of fundraising for the 2014 midterm elections with his efforts to pass stricter gun control laws, contributor Charles Krauthammer suggested an idea that appeared to shock his fellow panelists as well as host Chris Wallace... Related posts: Krauthammer: Obama " Isn't [...]
Apr 05, 2013 12:45 pm A keynote is defined as being "the first and harmonically fundamental tone of a scale." Sustainable freedom and a free people require a foundation of moral absolutes that foster biblical truth and restrain vice - the fundamental tone in the Founding of America was laid on the bedrock of "for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian [...]
Apr 05, 2013 12:44 pm I once had a boss who was independently rich, and when I asked him for a raise, he turned me down, adding that he, too, had forsaken a raise that year. A surge of anger, resentment and sheer hatred welled up in me, and were it not that I needed the job, I would have [...]
Video: Sequester Shocker: It Feels Like Nothing's Changed
Apr 05, 2013 12:44 pm
It's been over a month since the automatic federal spending cuts known as "the sequester" kicked in, and Reason TV's Kennedy reports from the suddenly-mean streets of Washington, D.C.... Related posts: Sen. Rand Paul: 'The Sequester Is A Pittance' (CNSNews.com) - While President Obama and many Republicans are now... Kudlow: No Sequester Catastrophe President Obama [...]
Apr 05, 2013 12:35 pm Washington, DC - (4/5/13) - Generation Opportunity, a national, non-partisan organization advocating for Millennials ages 18-29, is announcing its Millennial Jobs Report for March 2013. The data is non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) and is specific to 18-29 year olds: The youth unemployment rate for 18-29 year olds specifically for March 2013 is 11.7 percent (NSA). The [...]
Apr 05, 2013 12:33 pm "If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you," said Calvin Coolidge, who ever counseled patience over the rash response. Unfortunately, the troubles presented by North Korea's Kim Jong Un seem unlikely to run into a ditch before they reach [...]
Video: Entitlement Nation - Food Stamp Fraud $753 Million
Apr 05, 2013 12:33 pm
I think the only way to actually solve this problem is to abolish the entire food stamps program at each level of government in America-especially at the federal level. Where in the Constitution is a federal welfare state mandated anyway? Related posts: State Gets $5 Mil Bonus For Food Stamp Sign Up In its quest [...]
Apr 05, 2013 12:26 pm DENVER- A Colorado Democrat who wanted to prevent individuals suspected of posing a threat from possessing a gun quickly backed off that plan after details of the proposal became public late Thursday. Rep. Beth McCann said she's still working on a bill dealing with firearm restrictions for people believed to be a danger, but it's [...]
Apr 05, 2013 12:25 pm NEW YORK- Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has a book deal. She is working on a memoir and policy book about her years as secretary of state, Simon & Schuster told The Associated Press. The book has yet to be titled and is tentatively scheduled for June 2014. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Clinton [...]
As the sponsor of a bill that would ban large magazines, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) "doesn't know how guns work," Steve Doocy asserted on Fox & Friends on Thursday. Related posts: Democrat Mocks Elderly Man During Gun Control Forum Diana DeGette (D-CO) mocked the concerns of a senior citizen... Fox And Friends Rips Obama Over [...]
Would the last honest politician in Albany turn off the lights - or simply steal the bulbs? Related posts: Issa: Obama Admin Proving To Be "Most Corrupt In History" Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and... Obama's Call For "Revenge" By Voting Reveals Corrupt Campaign Barack Obama, the candidate of "hope" and [...]
Thousands Of Out-of-State Voters Found On Alaska's Voter Registry
Apr 05, 2013 11:52 am Just two years after Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell gave Alaska's Division of Elections a clean bill of health, the Associated Press reports that 25,000 of Alaska's registered voters are also registered to vote in other states. The revelation comes as a result of Alaska's participation in a 22-State cooperative effort to cross-check voter rolls. Treadwell [...]
In Springfield, Illinois, Lucinda White was tasered by a cop after her boyfriend's dispute with another individual over a fender bender went south... Related posts: Lets Rename Black History Month American History Month My fellow Americans of all colors and creeds, this proposal... Bumps In The Road In Obama's World We heard ad nauseam for [...]
Shop that sold gun to Newtown shooter's mom loses license
Published April 05, 2013
Associated Press
Dec. 20, 2012: In this photo, law enforcement officials stand outside Riverview Gun Sales, as authorities raid the store in East Windsor, Conn. (AP)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A shop that sold a gun to the Newtown school shooter's mother has lost its federal firearms license.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revoked the license of Riverview Gun Sales in East Windsor in December. The agency, which confirmed the revocation to reporters Thursday, didn't say why.
Authorities raided the store for undisclosed reasons shortly after the December school shootings in which Adam Lanza killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He also shot to death his mother, Nancy, at their home. Authorities say he fired 154 shots with a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle inside the school, then killed himself with a Glock handgun.
This column by ACRU General Counsel and Senior Fellow for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published April 3, 2013 on The American Spectator website.
President Obama likes to pose as a martyred man, because when he entered office, the economy was in a recession. But the recession soon ended, following the pattern of the American economy for the entire previous two-thirds of a century, and more.
During that time before Obama, America suffered 11 recessions since the Great Depression. The average length of those previous recessions was 10 months, with the longest being 16 months, as I have reported in this column before. When Obama entered office, the recession was in its 13th month. So based on the previous, long-term pattern of the American economy, the recession would soon be over.
And it soon was. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a collection of top economists recognized as the authoritative body as to when recessions start and when they end, the recession ended in June 2009. So the rest of Obama's entire first term was the recovery from the recession.
Christians and Religious Liberty in America on Easter Sunday, 2013
This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published March 31, 2013 on Breitbart.com.
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also."
--The Lord Jesus Christ, John 15:18-19
The nature of constitutional law is such that when I litigate or file briefs on religious liberty issues, I survey and cite to the Supreme Court's decisions and religious liberty historical facts in this country going back to when the Constitution and Bill of Rights were first adopted. Doing so recently, it vividly struck me that in all of American history religious liberty has never been as gravely threatened as it is today, especially for Christians.
Churchill, writing in 1951 about the idea of invading China to win the Korean War:
That would be the greatest folly. It would be like flies invading fly-paper.
When asked in the House of Commons one day where North Korea was procuring its arms, Churchill answered:
Although there are movements ever being made in aerial locomotion, it would be premature to suppose that they came from the moon.
And about China, Churchill in 1962 doubted that Communism would stick:
I am by no means sure that China will remain for generations in the Communist grip. The Chinese said of themselves several thousand years ago: 'China is a sea that salts all the waters that flow into it.' There is another Chinese saying about their country which dates only from the fourth century: 'The tail of China is large and will not be wagged.' I like that one. The British democracy approves the principle of movable party heads and unwaggable tails.
Courtesy of Claremont Institute Chairman Tom Klingenstein, Bowdoin College was the subject of unwanted attention this past week. Tom funded a study of Bowdoin by National Association of Scholars President Peter Wood and his NAS colleague Michael Toscano. The book-length study sets out to answer the question What Does Bowdoin Teach? How a Contemporary Liberal Arts College Shapes Students.
The Wall Street Journal's David Feith answers a different question in his WSJ column "The golf shot heard round the academic world." Feith answers the question: Why did Tom Klingenstein fund the study? Tom himself wrote about the underlying incident two years ago in the Claremont Review of Books column "A golf story."
The NAS study must represent some kind of a milestone. Peter Wood is a distinguished scholar. In his academic career he was, among other things, a member of the Anthropology Department at Boston University, where he also held a variety of administrative positions, including associate provost and president's chief of staff. He is the author of Diversity: The Invention of a Concept.
In the NAS report, as my daughter Eliana notes, Wood and Toscano undertake to provide a "full-fledged ethnography." Eliana writes that report constitutes "the most comprehensive assessment of the academic culture, customs, and values of a college conducted to date" and that it renders a highly critical judgment. Peter Berkowitz also examines the study in the RCP column "The sad state of liberal education at Bowdoin." Bowdoin is a stand-in for just about every elite (i.e., admission to which is highly competitive) institution of higher education in the United States, so the report should be of interest beyond the Bowdoin community.
Bowdoin has issued its initial response to the NAS study. Bowdoin Communications VP Scott Hood released the following statement on April 3:
The National Association of Scholars today released a report titled "What Does Bowdoin Teach?" We will review the report because we encourage open discourse on the effectiveness of American higher education and because we support academic freedom, which is the essence of a liberal arts institution.
Bowdoin will continue to assess its effectiveness by relying on many factors to evaluate our academic and residential life programs, including the accomplishments of students, faculty, and staff, and the achievements, loyalty, and support of alumni. The College will also look to the informed judgment of foundations, corporations, and other outside donors that are well versed in assessing the quality and efficacy of the institutions they support, and we will depend on the rigorous decennial reaccreditation process. Collectively, these and other internal measures provide us with the qualitative and quantitative means to consider carefully how we are doing currently and what we must do to prepare for the future.
We are proud of our students and our commitment to build and support a community that resembles America and the world. We are proud of our faculty who represent intellectual rigor across the disciplines and who are both excellent teachers and engaged scholars. We are also proud of our alumni who are leaders in all walks of life. A Bowdoin education trains young men and women of varied backgrounds to think critically, solve complex problems, apply sound judgment, embrace lifelong learning, and make principled decisions in support of the common good. This is both our mission and our record.
I trust intelligent readers to do their own translation of Bowdoin's statement, but they will also want to consider this interesting exchange between Bowdoin College President Barry Mills and Bowdoin Assistant Professor of Economics Stephen Meardon.
Edward Jay Epstein's new book is The Annals of Unsolved Crime, just published by Melville House. Ed is incapable of writing a dull book, and this one lacks a dull page. Michael Wolff's USA Today review is in the nature of an appreciation that I share in full. Ed now writes to invite Power Line readers to participate in a series of online programs geared to the book:
I will be giving question-and-answer sessions on six of the most intriguing cases in my book. I am using an interactive platform called "Shindig," allowing attendees to share the stage with the speaker or mingle with other participants online. The discussions will be free, but are limited to the first 800 RSVPs who sign up. Everyone signing up will receive an excerpt from the book and a "briefing" on the crime to review before the live chat. The first one is on Tuesday, April 16, on The Lincoln Assassination. Here is the link. The URL is http://www.mhpbooks.com/unsolvedcrime/.
I would be delighted if Power Line readers would participate.
Ed's subsequent sessions address mysteries of the Vatican, the Amanda Knox ordeal, the case of Alexander Litvenenko, the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and the Lindbergh kidnapping. I have to think that all of these sessions would be of interest to Power Line readers. Please check out the programs and sign up if interested at the link.
The White House, through economist turned flack Alan Krueger, wasted no time in blaming yesterday's lousy jobs report on the sequester. It's a ridiculous claim. As we observed, government employment held steady, and the sequester is too recent to have affected the private sector.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's, who is frequently cited by the Obama administration, agrees that the sequester is not yet in play. Zandi told CNBC: "I don't think the sequester is in here at all; it's way too premature for the sequester."
Zandi did identify a different culprit, though. As Eliana Johnson points out, the Moody's economist said that Obamacare might be having an impact on the jobs picture.
Although the sequester isn't having an impact yet, it almost certainly will. Anticipating this impact, congressional Republicans should move to decrease the extent of the sequester as it applies to defense spending. This way, they will be on record as opposing cuts that likely will cause many contractors to reduce their payrolls.
Trying to restore defense appropriations isn't just good politics; it's also sound policy. The sequester will hurt our preparedness, as President Obama's former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta admitted.
Unfortunately, neither political party seems to care much about our preparedness just now. The military, it seems, is seen primarily as a vehicle for social experimentation and/or budget cuts.
But in these "come home, America" times, military spending is also seen as a vehicle for employment. Ensuring the nation's security may no longer be viewed as sufficient reason not to slash defense spending. But preventing layoffs can perhaps function in its place.
Well, not intentionally. But Jim Ragsdale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune attended a conference in Chicago on covering gun issues, which he describes this way:
"Covering Guns" brought reporters with front-line experience covering mass shootings in Tucson, Ariz.; Aurora, Colo.; Newtown, Conn., and Red Lake, Minn., to meet with gun experts and advocates and gun trainers. Sponsored by the Poynter journalism center and funded by the McCormick Foundation of Chicago, we gathered in a city that witnessed 506 homicides last year.
The idea, I take it, was to educate reporters so they could do a better job of covering news stories about firearms:
A team led by Don Haworth, a Chicago private investigator and firearms trainer, explained the components of a round, the various sizes of ammunition magazines, even the spiral etching inside the barrel that spins the bullet for accuracy and leaves a ballistic fingerprint.
If the reporters who attended the event came away knowing what a magazine is, they are ahead of the game. But Ragsdale's account shows what an uphill battle it is to educate reporters. He is endearingly candid in describing the trepidation with which he approached the firing range:
Then someone handed me a Glock.
There suddenly was only one overriding truth and it was exploding in my hands, like a tiny cannon. I held on as my kindly gun-range instructor urged me to breathe deeply and squeeze gently.
"Good, good," he kept saying, but I felt like I was holding on for dear life. ...
But I felt no sense of "gun control" - not much better than the member of our party who screamed and dropped the weapon on a table after it fired.
What a wonderful image! A reporter who covers news stories involving firearms actually fires a gun, presumably for the first time in his or her life, and responds by screaming and dropping the pistol. Priceless!
But the real problem isn't that reporters are wimpy, it is that they let their biases interfere with accurately reporting the facts. Ragsdale comes across as a reasonably well-intentioned guy, but he is myopically unable to connect dots. He posits a tight relationship between gun rights and homicide rates. Ragsdale refers to "a Chicago Crime Lab bar chart of victims, in which the column for young African-American males spikes as tall as what they used to call the Sears Tower." He continues:
But no one disputed the fact that some of our 270 million guns inevitably leak into Chicago and north Minneapolis and also into the hands of people who are the emotional opposite of Haworth and our coolheaded trainers. The Chicago Crime Lab's numbers show that U.S. residents are no more crime-prone on non-gun measures than, say, Londoners. We lead the world in gun ownership, and England has few firearms in private hands. It's difficult to get shot in the U.K.
But it's easy to get stabbed.
I left Chicago wondering whether there is any middle ground - if we can have our Glocks and our ranges and our permits to carry without that Sears Tower of tragedy.
The key datum for Ragsdale is "the unavoidable fact that the U.S. homicide rate towers over those of other developed nations." That, he thinks, confirms the ineluctable connection between gun rights and homicide. But he is wrong: as I wrote here, there is no correlation between legal gun ownership and murder rate. The homicide rate in the U.S. is around average. Russia's homicide rate is four times ours; rates in Africa average around five times ours; the rate in Brazil is five times ours; Mexico, which has stringent gun control laws, has double our homicide rate; murder rates in the Caribbean approximate those in Africa. It is true that Western European countries in general have lower rates than we do, but that is mostly because African-Americans commit murders at eight times the rate of whites. The murder rate in Norway is very low, but it is indistinguishable from the rate among Norwegian-Americans. It is also noteworthy that the homicide rate in the U.S. today is only one-half what it was in the early 1990s. That decline, which has occurred during a time when gun laws have generally been liberalized, is never addressed by gun control advocates.
Ragsdale was correct to focus on the fact that murder in the United States occurs largely among young African-American males. That is where the problem lies, and where solutions, if there are any, must be found. But gun laws are irrelevant. Whether viewed internationally or from state to state, there is no correlation between firearms laws and murder rates. As has been pointed out many times, Chicago, with its sky-high homicide rate, has draconian gun control laws, and Illinois was the only state in the union with a blanket prohibition on concealed carry, until the courts ruled that law unconstitutional.
It is a good thing when reporters confront their fears and work up the courage to fire a gun. But it will be better when they confront their prejudices and have the courage to put their biases aside, and report the facts.
Eliana Johnson reports that four Republican members of the Senate Judiciary - Jeff Sessions, Chuck Grassley, Mike Lee, and Ted Cruz - are calling for transparency from their GOP colleagues in the "Gang of Eight" that is drafting immigration reform legislation. In a letter to John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, and Jeff Flake, the four Judiciary Committee members express concern that an immigration reform bill will be rushed through Congress without proper oversight in the form of hearings and robust debate. They note that the Gang has "secretly met for months" without consulting with members of the Judiciary Committee about changes to the country's immigration laws.
Extensive hearings should be a given for any consequential piece of legislation. And when it comes to foundational legislation like immigration reform, which will determine who is lawfully in our country and who can become a citizen, the absence of extensive hearings and deliberation would seem unthinkable - except for the fact that there were no hearings during the last attempt at immigration reform and none on the transformative Obamacare legislation.
Hearings aren't welcome because they stand in the way of the efforts of small groups of Senators to impose unpopular legislation and in the way of efforts by lobbyists to include even more unpopular surprises in such laws. Most Americans don't favor a path to citizenship for illegal aliens, just as most Americans didn't favor Obamacare, and certainly not the "Louisiana Purchase" and the "Cornhusker Kickback."
It is thus no exaggeration to say that the trend towards passing tranformative legislation without extensive hearings and time for careful deliberation and robust debate threatens to transform the U.S. into a sham democracy.
In the case of the current attempt at immigration reform, the need for hearings and deliberation is even more acute because, although this purports to be bipartisan legislation, the left appears to control the drafting. Among the Republicans, McCain and Graham have long sided with the left on immigration reform, and Flake appears to be a cipher.
That leaves Rubio, but he admitted up front that he's a novice in the field of immigration law. I have no doubt that Rubio is working to diligently on the subject now, but he's still playing catch-up.
The real drafting, of course, is being performed by staffers and interest group representatives. It's a given that, to the extent these folks care about anything other than business and labor interests, they strongly favor amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegals. But one also hopes that there are people in the room who care about border enforcement.
Unfortunately, from what I'm hearing, that doesn't appear to be the case. Folks who were involved in the 2007 immigration reform bid say that those who worried about enforcement back have not been invited to participate this time around. Those who have been invited appear to regard enforcment not even as an afterthought, but rather as an annoyance.
This isn't surprising. In 2007, the Bush administration did the inviting. Now it's Chuck Schumer, the Obama administation (presumably), and maybe Lindsey Graham.
No wonder the Gang of Eight, with the possible exception of Rubio, doesn't want hearings or time for deliberations. God only knows what will be smuggled into this legislation.
There's so many good memes about the nattering nabobs of North Korea that it calls for a special photo spread. I'll have the best of the rest of the week in a later post.
Just wish this on were true.
Unfortunately, this is more likely to be the Obama policy:
Turns out Obama's comment that California's callipygian Kamala Harris is the nation's best looking attorney general was not just politically incorrect, it may be inaccurate. Some folks in Nevada have cried foul, and are saying "Hey-wait a minute, we have the hottest state attorney general! Check out our Cortez Masto!"
[UPDATE] But wait! There's also Florida's attorney general, Pam Bondi! And she's a Republican! (Thanks for reader tips on this breaking story.)
It's the perfect job for Power Line, especially since we seem to be between beauty pageants right now. So check 'em out, and cast your vote. We report, you decide.
AG Harris
AG Masto
Harris
Masto
Florida AG Bondi
. . . who apparently moonlights as a flight attendant.
Turns out Masto and Harris have appeared together. What would Obama do?
New York State is in the midst of a corruption scandal, which caused Mayor Michael Bloomberg to tee off on the political class yesterday:
"The average legislator who has to make policy on things that influence our lives, our kids' lives, our future, would they ever get a job in the private sector making policy on big things? No, not a chance," the mayor said.
"And yet these are the ones we keep re-electing. You've got to ask yourself why."
When he was asked if the corruption scandal that's rocking the state capital could get any worse, Bloomberg initially said it couldn't before deciding it could. "I don't see how it can get much worse. You can only have every two days another scandal," the mayor said on his weekly WOR radio show.
But Bloomberg, a liberal, fails to draw the obvious conclusion. If politicians are stupid and corrupt, why should we keep giving them more and more of our money? And if they are stupid and corrupt, why should we let them control our lives? To name just two examples, why would we let dishonest incompetents tell us what size beverages we can order, or micromanage how we exercise our natural right to self-defense?
Like Elvis Presley and Ray Charles, Merle Haggard is a singer in whose voice one can hear all the strands of American popular music. A few years back the Los Angeles Times published a terrific profile of Haggard by Times music critic Robert Hilburn (the profile is no longer available on the Times site). Hilburn's profile focused on Haggard's songwriting. Hilburn opened the profile with a visit to Haggard from the tax man:
Merle Haggard, the country music star who really did turn 21 in prison, just like it says in one of his songs, figures it cost the IRS nearly $100,000 the day an agent came to his ranch near here to try to figure out what goes into writing a hit.
Haggard's tax return was apparently kicked out by the computer for too many business deductions, and the agent wanted the songwriter to show him how the 200-acre spread in the mountains helped him do his work. During a walk around the grounds, Haggard explained how a creek inspired one song, a flowerbed led to another, and a bulldog jump-started a third.
"Finally, this fellow looks at me and says, 'Why, Mr. Haggard, everything you do is a write-off,' and he started pointing out other things I should have declared," the songwriter says, laughing so hard his whole body shakes.
In a thoughtful column (no longer available online), Sacramento Bee editorial page editor David Holwerk dubbed Haggard poet of the people and argued the case for naming him California's next poet laureate. Holwerk portrayed Haggard as something of a latter-day Woody Guthrie, appending the lyrics to "Mama Tried,""Tulare Dust,""Hungry Eyes," and (the terrific) "Rainbow Stew" to his column. Holwerk acknowledged but discounted "Okie from Muskogie," a song that seems to me to sit uncomfortably between the anthemic and the satirical. To support Holwerk's nomination of Haggard as California's poet laureate, I would cite a song that gets about as close to poetry as the great traditional folk songs do, "Kern River," or a painfully self-revelatory gem like "Footlights."
Outside his art, Haggard now talks like a conventional lefty. His views have probably "evolved" over the years. For a few songs that belie the political tinge that Holwerk attributed to Haggard, however, I would cite his paean to freedom and his derogation of "your so-called Social Security" in "Big City," as well as his hard-headed tribute to the working man in "Workin' Man Blues."John Hinderaker would cite "My Own Kind of Hat," Haggard's politically incorrect meditation on language and life.
Haggard of course did not start out as a musician, much less a poet. He started out as a criminal and landed in prison. As governor of California Ronald Reagan granted Haggard a full pardon in 1972, and Haggard hasn't forgotten.
In "Are the Good Times Really Over?" (video above), Haggard asks a series of questions that are still timely, and that (mostly) still bite. His observations are part mock nostalgia, part wordplay, and part kidding on the square. He concludes the questions with an answer that is both optimistic and needed.
In any event, as Holwerk suggested, Haggard is the author of a large, complex body of work. Holwerk's nomination of Haggard as California's poet laureate was inspired, but why stop at California? (First posted in 2010.)
Senator Jeff Sessions released this statement about today's disappointing jobs numbers:
Today's jobs report reveals that 90 million Americans are now outside the labor force. We need to be getting Americans back to work, helping people move off of food stamps and welfare, and find good jobs with steady incomes. But the comprehensive immigration bill being drafted right now would provide nearly immediate work authorization to millions of illegal immigrants while substantially increasing the future flow of workers. Our first priority must be to help American citizens, and current legal immigrants, find good employment. What we cannot have, and what is not sustainable, is an economic system where a large and growing share of our population is permanently unemployed while jobs are filled by a constant supply of foreign workers.
This strikes me as self-evidently correct. I can't understand how advocates of immigration "reform" can survey the current unemployment disaster without experiencing cognitive dissonance.
We continue our look at the all-time best basketball players for the schools paricipating in this year's Final Four. Syracuse is now up, and with all of its great stars, we'll need to select three teams.
First team Sherman Douglas (1986-89)
Lightly recruited until late in his senior year at Washington D.C.'s Spingarn High, went on to become Syracuse's all-time leader in asists and number 6 all-time in points (he was number 1 when he finished his career). The beauty of his playmaking can't be captured in numbers, but you get some idea from the fact that he holds the top three places on the Cuse's all-time single season assist list. In his senior year, he averaged 8.6 assists per game.
Dave Bing (1964-66)
Like Douglas, Bing played his high school basketball at Spingarn (which closed this year). Bing averaged 24.8 points per game over his Syracuse career, and 28.4 his senior year. In addition, at 6 feet 3 inches, he averaged more than 11 rebounds per game in his last two seasons. A basketball Hall of Famer, Bing currently is the Mayor of Detroit. Even so, he says he's rooting for Syracuse (coached by his former backcourt mate, Jim Boeheim) to beat Syracuse.
Billy Owens (1988-91)
A first-team All-American and Big East player-of-the-year in his junior (and final) season at Syracuse, Owens had a terrific all-around game. In that final season, he averaged 23.3 points per game and 11.6 boards.
Carmelo Anthony (2003)
I hate to honor a "one-and-doner" with first team status. But Anthony delivered Syracuse's only national championship in his one season. That year, Melo averaged 22.2 points per game and 10 rebounds. He was named second team All-American, but by the latter stages of the season, the freshman might well have been the best player in the country.
Derrick Coleman (1987-90)
Coleman was interested in playing for Georgetown, but John Thompson never recruited him. Thompson later told Coleman he didn't want to coach any more crazy kids from Detroit. Georgetown's loss was the Cuse's enormous gain. D.C. was a first-team Big East selection from his sophomore to his senior year, in which he was a consensus All-American and National Player of the Year. He's the only player in college basketball history with more than 2,000 points, 1,500 rebounds and 300 blocks. And his career field goal percentage is .568.
Second team Pearl Washington (1984-86)
Pearl was the embodiment of the glamour of Big East basketball in the 1980s. He was also a helluva of point guard. In his junior (and final) season, Washington averaged 7.8 assists per game.
Lawrence Moten (1992-95)
He's another Washington, D.C. product. If I'm not mistaken, he was the D.C. area player of the year in both football and basketball. Moten tops the Syracuse all-time scoring list. He averaged 19.3 games over four years. Last summer, at the age of 40, he played in the top D.C. summer league and still had that sweet stroke.
John Wallace (1993-96)
In his senior year, he carried Syracuse all the way to the national championship game, a loss to mighty Kentucky. That year, he was second team All-American and first team all Big-East. Wallace stands third all-time on both the school's scoring and rebounding list.
Hakim Warrick (2002-05)
Warrick was born to provide "length" and athleticism to Jim Boeheim's famous 2-3 zone. By providing it, he played a key role in winning the 2003 national championship. Indeed, his block of a Kansas shot secured victory in the final game. Warrick was Big East player of the year as a senior. He's number 4 on the Syracuse all-time rebounding list.
Rony Seikaly (1985-88)
Seikaly was the top scorer on the national runner-up team of 1987. He's number 2 on the Syracuse all-time rebounding list and number 7 all-time in career shooting percentage.
Third team Gerry McNamara (2003-06)
As a freshman, McNamara was the point guard on the national championship team. He hit 6 three-pointers in the first half of the championship game. He's number 1 by a mile on the school's all-time three pointers made list and number 3 all-time in assists.
Greg Kohls (1970-72)
As a junior, Kohls averaged 22.1 points per game. As a senior, he averaged 26.7.
Stevie Thompson (1987-90)
This versatile guard-forward ranks 7th on the school's all-time scoring list and 6th in all-time field goal percentage (.560). Everyone above him in field goal percentage played mostly in the low post.
Bill Smith (1969-71)
Averaged 22.7 points and 14.5 rebounds a game in his senior year.
Roosevelt Bouie (1977-80)
With Louis Orr, he formed the enormously successful Bouie and Louie show. At the end of his career, Bouie was the all-time Syracuse leader in blocked shots and shooting percentage, was second on the career scoring list, and third on the career rebounding list. He's still number 2 in blocks and number 4 in shooting percentage.
The Honorable Mention list is too long to recite here. But let me mention two from the top of that list:
Vinnie Cohen (1955-57)
Cohen averaged 24.2 points per game as a senior. He went on to become one of Washington, D.C.'s top lawyers. I once tried to hire him as an expert witness, but he couldn't take the assignment due to a conflict. Cohen, an African-American, was in the same Syracuse class as the legendary Jim Brown.
Rudy Hackett (1973-75)
Hackett was the star of Syracuse's first Final Four team, and was a second-team All-American.
Extending the theme of personal testimony this morning a little further than it should go, I want to turn to the IDF Blog for a report you won't catch in the mainstream media:
On September 23, 2011, Asher Palmer, 25, was driving with his infant son, Yonatan, on Route 60 near Kiryat Arba. He was headed towards Jerusalem to visit his pregnant wife. Driving in the opposite direction was former Palestinian Authority security officer Waal al-Arjeh and his accomplice Ali Saadeh. As they crossed paths, al-Arjeh hurled a large rock that pierced the windshield of Asher's car, hitting him in the head and causing the car to crash on the side of the road. Asher and his son died upon impact.
This week, over a year and half after the incident, justice was finally served. Waal al-Arjeh was convicted of murder for the deaths of Asher and Yonatan in a military court. Among the counts against him were two counts of manslaughter, 22 counts of attempted manslaughter and three counts of hurling objects at moving vehicles. This historic ruling is unique - it is the first time a person has been convicted of murder for stone throwing and this could set the precedent for cases in the future.
The Jerusalem Post has more on the case here, noting that this former PA "security officer" was a pioneer of sorts. He will undoubtedly have a street or square or park within the domain of the Palestinian Authority named after him some time soon, for he is "the ringleader of a gang that developed this method to kill Jews. They had tried it many times before."
For illustrative purposes the IDF posts the video below with the comment: "Imagine if this were heading towards your windshield next time you were driving."
The latest government jobs reports finds that only 88,000 jobs were added in March. That's half of the 12 month average and less than half of what most experts expected.
The unemployment rate actually declined slightly to 7.6 percent. This is the result of the decrease of folks looking for work. The labor-force participation rate dropped from 63.5 percent to dropped to 63.3 percent, its lowest point since 1978, according to Patrick Brennan at NRO.
Liberals undoubtedly will blame the sequester for the poor March report. However, as Brennan argues, that's a difficult case to make. Excluding the nearly insolvent U.S. Postal Service, federal payrolls actually expanded slightly in March. And although çuts in defense spending likely eventually will have an impact on jobs, it's not plausible to think that this impact has already kicked in.
JOHN adds: The employment picture is truly dire. The real story here is the steadily declining labor force participation rate. This chart, via Zero Hedge, shows the numbers graphically:
Another 663,000 Americans fled the labor force in March. This is a human tragedy: many of those who have left the labor force will never return. Millions have gone on disability, not because they are actually disabled, but because they can't find work and there is always government money available if you are willing to settle for it. Consequently, much of the harm now being done will not be undone even if the economy does finally mount a real rally.
The American comedian Jon Stewart's criticism of the Egyptian government briefly escalated into a diplomatic incident on Tuesday, as the United States Embassy in Cairo shared a link to a "Daily Show" segment on Twitter, causing the office of Egypt's president to react with anger.
Mr. Stewart devoted the first 11 minutes of his program on Monday to mocking Egypt's continuing investigation of Bassem Youssef, the Arab world's most popular television comedian, for the supposedly criminal use of satire in jokes about President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist political party.
There is much more in the Mackey/Fahim report, all of it worth a look. They also post Stewart's 11-minute commentary below. What is a source of anger to Morsi's office is, well, anger management therapy to me.
THIS JUST IN: NRO reports: "According to Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi's official Twitter account, the U.S. ambassador to the country has apologized for tweeting a link to a video of Comedy Central host Jon Stewart criticizing Morsi."
Hacked Clinton e-mails: Adultery supported in April 1 announcement.
A draft statement for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, released from an anonymous hacker and dated April 1, 2013, reveals the potential 2016 presidential candidate will become the first presidential hopeful of either party to formally endorse legalizing polygamy, polyamory and adultery."
For the first time in more than four decades of polling on the issue, a majority of Americans favor legalizing the use of marijuana. A national survey finds that 52% say that the use of marijuana should be made legal while 45% say it should not.
Support for legalizing marijuana has risen 11 points since 2010. The change is even more dramatic since the late 1960s. A 1969 Gallup survey found that just 12% favored legalizing marijuana use, while 84% were opposed.
For many years we have published analyses of the drug problem. An important and frequently cited essay by Professor Michael Gazzaniga (Feb. 5, 1990) brought a scientist's discipline into the picture, shedding light on matters vital to an understanding of the drug question. He wrote, for instance, about different rates of addiction, and about ambient pressures that bear on addiction. Elsewhere, Professor James Q. Wilson, now of UCLA, has written eloquently in defense of the drug war. Milton Friedman from the beginning said it would not work, and would do damage.
We have found Dr. Gazzaniga and others who have written on the subject persuasive in arguing that the weight of the evidence is against the current attempt to prohibit drugs. But NATIONAL REVIEW has not, until now, opined formally on the subject. We do so at this point. To put off a declarative judgment would be morally and intellectually weak-kneed.
Things being as they are, and people as they are, there is no way to prevent somebody, somewhere, from concluding that "NATIONAL REVIEW favors drugs." We don't; we deplore their use; we urge the stiffest feasible sentences against anyone convicted of selling a drug to a minor. But that said, it is our judgment that the war on drugs has failed, that it is diverting intelligent energy away from how to deal with the problem of addiction, that it is wasting our resources, and that it is encouraging civil, judicial, and penal procedures associated with police states. We all agree on movement toward legalization, even though we may differ on just how far.
We are joined in our judgment by Ethan A. Nadelmann, a scholar and researcher; Kurt Schmoke, a mayor and former prosecutor; Joseph D. McNamara, a former police chief; Robert W. Sweet, a federal judge and former prosecutor; Thomas Szasz, a psychiatrist; and Steven B. Duke, a law professor. Each has his own emphases, as one might expect. All agree that the celebrated war has failed, and that it is time to go home, and to mobilize fresh thought on the drug problem in the context of a free society. This symposium is our contribution to such thought.
I realize public opinion on marijuana legalization is shifting quickly, but count me among those who are skeptical that legalization of marijuana would really make the United States a better place to live. If I thought legalization of this or any other drug would mean less addiction, I would be on board with it. But I suspect legalization would probably increase addiction slightly.
(In case you're wondering, I am in fact one of those straight-laced geeks who has not partaken of marijuana, or any other illegal drug. While I could say that's because I'm as pure as driven snow, it would be more accurate to state that the legal thrills of wine, women, and song have been my vices of choice. Oh, and unhealthy amounts of unhealthy food.)
Yes, the country and world are full of people who use marijuana recreationally with little or no negative consequence to their lives. And yes, lots of people don't find marijuana addictive. But then again, a person's likelihood to become addicted to a substance is influenced by genetics. (Believe it or not, it was considered unbelievably controversial when Bob Dole, running as the Republican nominee for president in 1996, argued that tobacco was not addictive.) It's quite striking how often, "I consumed X, and didn't become addicted, thus it is not addictive" is the dominant form of argument on controlled substances.
There's a reason the stoner or pothead is a stock character in some teen comedies, college movies and television shows, and so on. It seems that everyone, or almost everyone, encounters some white guy with dreadlocks who is, if not addicted, unhealthily focused on smoking weed and stumbling around in a happy, mellow, relaxed daze, seeking out snack products, and not very capable of doing much else in life - holding down a real job, attending classes, etc. And I can't help but suspect that if pot were legal, we would have more of those guys, not less.
Sure, some folks can enjoy marijuana with no consequence, and then sometimes you get Ricky Williams, the one-time NCAA career rushing leader and Heisman Trophy winner who failed a bunch of drug tests through his NFL playing days, and who then decided to retire, in his prime playing days, after failing his third drug test. He spent a year out of football, and then came back . . . this time going an entire year before failing another drug test. Yes, Williams had personality disorders and other personal issues going on, but he's a fantastic example of enormous talent and potential wasted because of an inability to resist the allure of a chemical bliss.
So, under legalization, how many folks who currently don't use marijuana would do so, and how many would develop life problems as a result of that? I'll try to bring some humility to this debate and admit I don't know, and any figures will be disputed. Having said that, "According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about nine percent of people who use marijuana become dependent on it. The number increases to about 1 in 6 among those who start using it at a young age, and to 25 percent to 50 percent among daily users."
I want as little chemical dependence as possible in society, and that's a concern that is entirely separate from the issue of whether the current sentences for marijuana possession are too harsh.
I'll let you decide whether the reign of President Choom Gang reinforces or refutes my wariness about marijuana.
'We Need to Rebuild Trust,' the President Lied
Yeah, I just can't improve upon Tom Maguire's quick assessment of Obama's recent comments on guns:
He waved toward the assembled officers and local politicians and added, "We've got to get past some of the rhetoric that gets perpetuated, that breaks down trust, that's so over the top that it just shuts down all discussion."
In contrast to some of his earlier, more emotional remarks about the impact of gun violence, the president portrayed the debate as one of a principled difference that needs to be bridged.
If he really wants to rebuild trust he could take a step in that direction by dropping his phony stat about 40 percent of guns being obtained without a background check.
Nor does it bolster his credibility when he tells a room of California's One Percenters that the Newtown shooting was done with a semi-automatic weapon and then "corrects" himself to make it an automatic.
On the official Maddow Blog, MSNBC's Steve Benen believes that "[n]ullification must never be on the table" as a means to protect innocent lives and property.
Apparently he can't think of a single reason that nullification should be used by states or local governing bodies. The logical implication is that opponents of slavery - that is advocates of freedom - in the antebellum period were wrong to have used nullification as a means to protect the lives and freedom of former slaves.
No doubt, Harriet Tubman would be described by Benen as a radical, and her willful defiance of federal slave laws would be denounced, had the two been contemporaries.
One of the best educational articles anywhere on the original meaning of the 2nd Amendment
the Constitution, properly understood, is clear that there are NO permissible restrictions on the right, however much the politicians may think they are "common sense" or "reasonable."
ALAN KEYES - [This is a comment from one of my Facebook readers, with my reply. It was occasioned by my last post entitled "Bullying 'bible thumpers,' O'Reilly rejects God-endowed rights."] THE COMMENT: The states should decide. It's not a federal issue... (more)
FRED HUTCHISON, RA ANALYST - The crisis in public education is well known. High dropout rates, low test scores, deficits in reading, math, and history, and inarticulate young people who do not read books are so frequently reported in the news that we have almost come to expect bad news about education. Why are these chronic problems so difficult to fix?... (more)
CLIFF KINCAID - Offending the moral sensibilities of millions of Americans, Time Magazine is featuring cover stories showing two white homosexual couples kissing. The Right Scoop blog ran a "censored version of the offensive covers."... (more)
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE - North Korea dramatically escalated its warlike rhetoric on Thursday, warning that it had authorised plans for nuclear strikes on targets in the United States. "The moment of explosion is approaching fast," the North Korean military said, warning that war could break out "today or tomorrow"... (more)
JOSEPH FARAH - Is all this talk of war by North Korea just the kind of posturing we've heard off and on from three generations of "supreme leaders"? Maybe. But with the rhetoric of the kind emanating from Pyongyang in the last week, only one thing is certain -- if war comes, it will be the worst camouflaged sneak attack in history... (more)
F. MICHAEL MALOOF - An expert on North Korea predicts the isolated Hermit Kingdom could stage "some kind" of attack or bombing within a few days on the Korean Peninsula amid heightened rhetoric about nuclear war... (more)
WASHINGTON TIMES - Four months after the shooting rampage in Newtown, the Connecticut state legislature has signed off on what lawmakers touted as the strictest gun control package of any state in the nation. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy plans to sign the package at noon Thursday at the state Capitol in Hartford... (more)
WASHINGTON TIMES - Maryland's House of Delegates on Wednesday passed a package of gun restrictions making its laws among the toughest in the country and reinforcing what analysts say is a trend toward states with strict gun regulations passing laws making them stricter... (more)
NEWSMAX - Republican Mike Lee of Utah on Wednesday became the 34th senator to oppose an international treaty that would regulate the $60 billion global small arms trade, giving the opposition enough votes in the U.S. Senate to block its ratification... (more)
TIMOTHY P. CARNEY - When liberal nanny-staters infringe on their citizens' freedom to enjoy anything from soft drinks to semi-automatics, they often flatter themselves as being science-based technocrats. But look into the science behind these government intrusions and you'll find little to no evidence justifying the power grabs... (more)
WASHINGTON TIMES - The open border so dear to the hearts of many Democrats, eager to get the 11 million illegal aliens on the voter rolls, ends short of compassion for refugees from First World countries, as Uwe and Hannelore Romeike have found out. The administration is working overtime to deport this family because they home-school their children... (more)
REUTERS - The Alabama Senate passed an abortion bill on Tuesday critics say would limit access to the procedure with stricter requirements for clinics that provide it. The Senate passed the bill on a vote of 22-10, after the House passed a similar bill in February. A committee will reconcile the two bills before the proposed legislation goes to the Alabama Governor, Dr. Robert Bentley, who is expected to sign it into law... (more)
NEWSMAX - Television and film star Gary Sinise, who has worked tirelessly to bring attention to the needs of the nation's veterans, is urging Americans to take a more active role in ensuring veterans get the care and support they need once their military service is complete... (more)
NEWSMAX - Dr. Ben Carson on Tuesday accused critics of his stance on gay marriage of trying to completely shut down debate on the issue and called his white liberal critics "the most racist out there." In an appearance on the Mark Levin radio show, Carson said he represents an existential threat to gay marriage proponents, which is why attacks on his stance against gay marriage have been so vicious... (more)
MICHELLE MALKIN - File this in the overflowing cabinet labeled, "No Wonder the Mainstream Media Is Dying." On Tuesday, the Associated Press announced that it is banishing the phrase "illegal immigrant" from its famous stylebook. The world's largest newsgathering outlet now advises reporters that "illegal" will "only refer to an action, not a person"... (more)
ROBERT KNIGHT - The last time I was in Ipswich, Mass., I had one of the tastiest plates of fried clams imaginable. They were fresh, full-bellied and cooked perfectly. Try getting something like this outside the Bay State. If it weren't for the bizarre political culture, which ranges from the Kennedys on the left to the Kennedys on the far left, Massachusetts would be a wonderful place to live, if only to enjoy the superlative seafood... (more)
DAILY CALLER - A contingent of liberal Democrats in Congress is proposing a new federal gun control idea: mandatory liability insurance for gun owners. When New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney introduced the legislation last month with eight other Democrats, she boasted that it is "the first bill to require liability insurance of gun buyers nationwide."... (more)
REUTERS - A small Georgia town on Monday passed a law requiring the head of each household to own a gun as a way to keep crime down. The ordinance, approved unanimously by the City Council in Nelson, is symbolic, however, because there is no penalty for violating it, according to Councilman Duane Cronic, who introduced the measure last month... (more)
NEWSMAX - While the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the first international treaty attempting to regulate the $60 billion global small arms trade on Tuesday, the measure is likely to be dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate as Republicans have repeatedly voiced concerns that such a measure is a backdoor attempt to usurp Second Amendment gun rights... (more)
WORLDNETDAILY - A research paper in a prestigious journal that claimed to show a dramatic increase in global temperatures in the 20th century caused huge headlines around the world. There's just one problem. It's not true. "Global Temperatures Highest in 4,000 Years," blared the New York Times on March 7... (more)
Harry Reid has a doozy of a gun plan, but President Obama wants to reassure you that it's just "common sense."
In a speech Wednesday, Obama said that "opponents of some of these common-sense laws have ginned up fears among responsible gun owners that have nothing to do with what's being proposed and nothing to do with the facts, but feeds into this suspicion about government."
As Heritage's David Addington reminds us, America's founders were the first to have this suspicion of government, and that's part of the reason why they made certain that the Second Amendment protected our right to keep and bear arms. And as for the facts, the proposals from Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) have major problems.
Addington, head of Heritage's Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, lays out some of the dangers in Reid's proposal:
It effectively puts a new tax on selling or giving away a firearm.
It could help criminals figure out where it is easiest to buy guns.
Background checks have become the focus of the new wave of gun control laws. Obama insists that "We're not proposing a gun registration system; we're proposing background checks for criminals."
It's worth noting that criminals wouldn't bother themselves with going through America's existing background check system-and pointing out that there is a background check system in place. The new laws Reid is proposing would capitalize on fears of "loopholes" to create intrusive records of gun transfers.
the loose language could be construed to allow the Department of Justice itself (or another agency specified by the Attorney General) to keep centralized records of who received what guns and where, by sale or gift from one individual to another.
Even the ACLU is worried, according to an exclusive Daily Caller report. The ACLU's Chris Calabrese said that Reid's legislation fails to include "privacy best practices."
"We think that that kind of record-keeping requirement could result in keeping long-term detailed records of purchases and creation of a new government database," Calabrese said.
The Daily Caller reports that "The ACLU's second 'significant concern' with Reid's legislation is that it too broadly defines the term 'transfer,' creating complicated criminal law that law-abiding Americans may unwittingly break."
Heritage's Addington agreed, explaining that Reid's legislation would treat anyone as a felon "who misplaces a firearm and does not report it to the police and the federal government fast enough." He said:
Under no circumstances should Congress make it a federal crime to fail to report a missing firearm within 24 hours to local authorities and the Attorney General. It is an unreasonable use of power to define as a federal crime conduct that no reasonable person would know was a federal crime.
But President Obama insists that "suspicion about government" is unfounded.
Last Friday afternoon, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a short frequently asked questions (FAQ) document that should remove any remaining belief that the federal government will give state lawmakers flexibility on the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. The message is clear: The only thing a state that agrees to the Medicaid expansion will get is a bigger Medicaid program.
The CMS reiterated the position it took in an earlier FAQ that the Obama Administration considers the expansion to be an "all or nothing" proposition for states.
The issue arose out of last summer's Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare. The Court held that the federal government could not coerce states into expanding Medicaid by conditioning continued federal funding for their existing Medicaid programs on states implementing the expansion. While the effect was to make the expansion optional for states, the Court did not address the practical consequences of its ruling.
In the wake of the Court's ruling, a number of state officials suggested that, since the new federally subsidized exchange coverage will be available to those with incomes above the federal poverty level (FPL), they might be willing to expand Medicaid that far up the income scale. States would then give those with incomes between 100 and 138 percent of the FPL-who would otherwise be part of the Medicaid expansion-federally subsidized exchange coverage instead. However, the Administration has once more made it clear that it will not agree to such an arrangement.
It should now be apparent to all that that any state that agrees to the Medicaid expansion will get exactly what the term expansion implies: simply a bigger version of the same expensive and dysfunctional program.
Napolitano Scraps Border Security as Pre-Condition for AmnestyHomeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last Tuesday reaffirmed the Obama administration's opposition to securing the border before granting amnesty to the roughly 12 million illegal aliens in the United States. Full Story
Michelle Malkin: AP Wrong to Ban the Term "Illegal Immigrant"File this in the overflowing cabinet labeled, 'No Wonder the Mainstream Media Is Dying.' On Tuesday, the Associated Press announced that it is banishing the phrase 'illegal immigrant' from its famous stylebook. Full Story
House Gang of Eight Amnesty Bill Nears CompletionAccording to House 'Gang of Eight' Member Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), the group is 'very close' to releasing its comprehensive immigration reform bill. Full Story
Bush Says U.S. Needs More ImmigrationFormer Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, author of a new book on immigration, says that America's 'incredibly complex' immigration laws should be reformed 'from stem to stern.' Full Story
Garbage In, Garbage Out: GOP Operatives Design Immigration Survey to Support AmnestyResurgent Republic, a Republican strategy group led by former party chairman Ed Gillespie and pollster Whit Ayres, is urging the GOP to get behind amnesty... Full Story
Newsletter
Week of Apr
5
This Issue: Today's jobs report shows record number out of the Job Market; Gang of Eight wants More Foreign Workers
This morning's jobs report was not good news for American workers and the unemployed. About 663,000 Americans gave up their job search in March, and there's now more than 55 million working-age Americans no longer working.
Is relief on the way? Not if the Senate Gang of Eight has its way.
The massive immigration bill they're putting together would add millions more to the legal labor market by granting an amnesty with instant legal status and work permits for 11 million illegal aliens. Plus, the new deal agreed to by both union an d business lobbyists would create up to 200,000 new temporary guest-worker visas each year in addition to a yet unspecified increase in permanent green cards.
Some business groups came out against the tentative agreement - not because they're concerned about the impact it would have on America's unemployed, but because it's not big enough! A coalition of construction groups said:
"A guest worker program that fails to provide a sufficient number of visas to meet market demand as the construction sector recovers will inevitably make it harder to fill critical labor openings..."
Tamar Jacoby, who heads ImmigrationWorks, an organization that works with state business groups, had this to say about the deal:
"[S]everal of its most ingenious, most thoughtful elements may not work as intended on the ground, prim arily because the program is too small."
The original framework agreed to by the unions and business lobbies would already put a strain on America's unemployed. Imagine what could happen if the other business interest groups have their way in expanding the proposed guest-worker program.
Also this week, the GOP Members of the Senate Budget Committee, including its Ranking Member, Sen. Jeff Sessions, issued a statement that said the Gang of Eight's amnesty plan would cost taxpayers trillions of dollars.
Under current immigration law, legal immigrants are supposed to demonstrate that they won't be a public charge before entering the country. But Sen. Sessions said the Gang's proposal will not require amnestied illegal aliens to do so before receiving a green card. Read more about the details here.
chris chmielenski
Fri, Apr 5th
Action
Yesterday, we posted brand new faxes that tell your 2 Senators what the ICE Union President told reporters during a conference call earlier this week. He said that if an amnesty comes before enforcement is increased, the U.S. will have another 10-20 millio n illegal aliens 10 years from now.
Features
Have you seen our new TV ad that targets Sen. Mark Begich in Alaska. Sen. Begich has not said whether or no t he supports the Gang of Eight's plan, but has said that his vote would be based on whether or not the legislation provides foreign workers for fisherman in Alaska. Watch our ad at SayNoToAmnesty.com.
Account
There's an App for that! Our new mobile app is now available for both Android and iPhone users. From the new app, you can send messages to elected officials by fax, sign immigration petitions, make one-click calls to Congress, read the latest news and blogs from NumbersUSA.com, and help recruit new activists through "Five Ways Immigration Impacts You" feature. Download today at the Google Play Store or the Apple Store!
Radar Shows More Illegal Border Crossers Avoid Apprehension Than Are Caught
A story in the Los Angeles Times reports that a sophisticated airborne radar system being used along the border has found that more individuals trying to cross the border illegally elude Border Patrol agents than what has been traditionally thought. According to the story, between Oct. 1, 2012 and Jan. 17, 2013, the radar helped Border Patrol detain 1,874 people, but another 1,962 people were able to elude capture.
New Rasmussen Poll Shows Lack of Support for Amnesty Without Effective Enforcement First
A new poll from Rasmussen finds that likely voters overwhelmingly favor border security before legalization for 11 million illegal aliens, and 53% of respondents don't think it's likely that the federal government will actually secure the border to prevent future illegal immigration.
ICE Union Chief: Enforcement Must Come Before Amnesty
President of the National ICE Council, Chris Crane, hosted a conference call with the media on Wednesday and said the current plan being drawn up by the Senate Gang of Eight will do nothing to fix our broken immigration system. Crane referred to a statement made by Sen. Chuck Schumer on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" when he said that legalization will come before enforcement.
Despite Gang of 8 celebration, unemployment crisis not over -- week's news was full of the dismal jobless situation
Is the country's unemployment nightmare over? It sounded like it from all the excitement over the weekend about the Senate Gang of Eight's near agreement on comprehensive immigration reform which is about greatly increasing the number of work permits for foreign workers to compete with Americans from the lowest to the highest education levels.
A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies has found that the United States issued nearly 700,000 guest-worker visas in 2012. This weekend, labor and business groups agreed on terms that would create a new low-skill, guest-worker program, creating up to 200,000 new temporary work visas each year. Business groups claim the U.S. doesn't issue enough guest-worker visas, specifically low-skill worker visas.
Is War With North Korea Inevitable? By Patrick J. Buchanan Whatever comes of this North Korea crisis, U.S. policy, seemingly frozen in the 1950s, is in need of review. We cannot indefinitely be responsible for the defense of South Korea from an erratic dictator hell-bent on acquiring nuclear missiles.
Farewell to Hollywood's Favorite Bureaucrat By L. Brent Bozell III In his four years at the helm of the FCC, Julius Genachowski hasn't issued one fine to Hollywood for indecent content on broadcast television. Now there's a legacy.
Smiley-Face Lies and Homicide Hogwash in Dem Hellholes By Michelle Malkin As President Obama continues to wage war on law-abiding gun owners, his home team in Chicago is trying its hardest to spread smiley-face lies to downplay the city's homicide statistics.
Small Cities in Small Counties By Rich Galen Small cities, in small counties are the backbone of American politics and, in a very real way, are the heart and soul of the American dream.
With the launching of the BRAIN Initiative to map the human brain, we at The People's Cube can't help but wonder if his results would match our previous findings: The Democrat brain is radically different from the Republican brain.
On Today's Program is making its comeback next Saturday at 10:30pm ET on TheBlaze TV. With Glenn on vacation this week, we asked Stu to take the reins of the newsletter to tell you about all the exciting stuff he has planned for the new season!
Hello America,
When the truth is being spun, someone has to shine light on the lies.
Let me give you a good example. Last week, I was in a meeting to discuss the best ways to promote the return of my show The Wonderful World of Stu on April 13th. There were lots of great ideas thrown around, and then, one strange one: "What if Stu took over the email newsletter one day while Glenn is on vacation?" Sure, that might sound like a good idea, and it seems like a great way to let everyone know that my little baby show has been (re)born. But you can't stop at the surface. You have to continue to dig.
Interestingly, the idea came from the two people specifically responsible for the content of THIS newsletter. The bottom line: They get a day off, while I have to work on my vacation.
So, you can look at this little message as a heads up that The Wonderful World of Stu is returning on April 13th at 10:30pm ET on TheBlaze TV.
Or, you can look past that embarrassingly false façade, and see the truth. The newsletter people wanted a day off, and I get stuck writing my own intro for the magnificent television genius you'll see in the free highlights below.
The truth has no agenda. The people who run the newsletter, however, definitely have one.
Editor's note: Ok, so asking Stu to reach out and connect with YOU, the fans, to talk about his new show may not have been the best idea I've ever had. I figured taking off so much time a few weeks ago for maternity leave would have left him eager to keep working. By the way, has anyone out there actually seen Ainslee - or is she just an elaborate trick Stu played on everyone for a few extra days off? I digress...onto the "highlights" from the pilot season of The Wonderful World of Stu!
Hot Girl, Conservative Monologue Is the conservative viewpoint more palatable when it's delivered by a beautiful woman? Yup. WATCH
Deserted! Remember all that talk about food deserts? Oh no, little Timmy doesn't have an organic vegetable farm across the street - how will he EVER survive? Stu takes a trip to a food desert in the New York Rockaways, and what he found was SHOCKING. This is investigative reporting that you won't find anywhere but The Wonderful World of Stu! MORE
Anti-Social: Gun Control
Do you hate going on Facebook to find that your idiot friends are posting story after story about the horrors of guns? The truth is, people tend to fall for the misleading opinions-disguised-as-facts from people like Piers Morgan as opposed to actually doing any real research. But guess what!? Stu has the truth, and it's delivered in a way even your uninformed friends can handle. WATCH
Great Moments in Progressive History: Lib Mayor takes down Tea Party "fascist"
Free health insurance. Plenty of vegetables. Strong bonds between city hall and the local unions. Sounds like a sunny paradise, right? What happens when Tea Party candidate Mayor McFascist gets involved and threatens to inject a little common sense? Find out HERE.
TODAY ONLY: Get MICHAEL VEY: THE PRISONER OF CELL 25 on ebook for ONLY $1.99! There's never been a better time to buy the #1 New York Times bestseller MICHAEL VEY. Today only, Amazon is offering the 1st book in this action-packed teen series from author Richard Paul Evans for ONLY $1.99 on ebook. Don't miss out on this great opportunity to share this riveting series with your kids that not only has good values, but a great story they'll actually ENJOY reading. Take advantage of this offer HERE.
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Gun Control can be Passed Only
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.
OK....when they look at you like you have a tin foil hat on your head......take some of this information with you. It is 126 pages. I have not read through the entire document (YET) but what I have read is enough to blow off the top of your head. I have highlighted some stuff. KIPP (Charter Schools) has a CHARACTER REPORT CARD on Page 39. So for now start on page 39 and work your way through to page 45. Remember 
is making its comeback next Saturday at 10:30pm ET on 
