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Sunday, April 21, 2013
FBI HUNTING 12-STRONG ISLAMIC 'SLEEPER CELL' IN BOSTON: "WE HAVE NO DOUBT THE BROTHERS WERE NOT ACTING ALONE"
The military grade weapons, the bombs, IEDs, grenades -- no, there is no way they were acting alone.
Again, did the soon to be deported Saudi national, Al-Harbi know these jihadists?
More than 1,000 FBI operatives are working on this. They need 10,000 of these politically correct, defanged Keystone Kops, and even then they probably won't find this cell. They are forbidden to examine the motives and goals of the type of people they're looking for -- to do so would be "Islamophobic," according to the Obama Administration. So they're fumbling along in the dark, pretending that there is no such thing as an Islamic terrorist while hunting for Islamic terrorists.
"Boston bombers: FBI hunting 12-strong terrorist 'sleeper cell' linked to brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev," from the Mirror, April 21 (thanks to Jos):
The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist "sleeper cell" linked to the Boston marathon bomb brothers.
Police believe Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were specially trained to carry out the devastating attack.
More than 1,000 FBI operatives were last night working to track down the cell and arrested a man and two women 60 miles from Boston in the hours before Dzhokhar's dramatic capture after a bloody shootout on Friday.
A source close to the investigation said: "We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google.
"They were too advanced. Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now our job to find out just who they were. Agents think the sleeper cell has up to a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come."...
Spokesperson of Royal Canadian Mounted Police at press conference on April 22, 2013, announcing arrests of suspected Al Qaeda-linked terrorists.
In a press conference Monday afternoon, Canadian authorities announced that two Al Qaeda linked suspects - suspects who were directed and supported by al Qaeda in Iran - were arrested Monday morning, April 22. At least one attack was intended to derail a New York to Toronto passenger train. The attack was in the planning stage when the suspects were arrested.
Those arrested were described as an Al Qaeda linked-cell which had been engaged in plans for over a year to engage in major terrorist attacks. Their activities had been monitored since August of 2012. The cross-border operations included the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the FBI and the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security.
In response to questions during the press conference, it was revealed that the connection to the terrorists was to direction and guidance from Al Qaeda in Iran, although they made clear they had no evidence it was to the Iranian government.
The two suspects arrested are Rahid Jasser and Shahid Esegehr, of Montreal. Their bail hearing will take place tomorrow in Canada. The two are not Canadian citizens.
"I commend our Canadian counterterrorism partners, particularly the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, for their efforts in stopping a major terrorist plot which was intended to cause significant loss of human life including New Yorkers. During my years on the Homeland Security Committee it has been my privilege to work with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canadian intelligence services and all counterterrorism units in Canada," said Congressman Peter King (R-NY). King is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Counterintelligence & Terrorism Committee and a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.
About the Author:Lori Lowenthal Marcus is the US correspondent for The Jewish Press. She is a recovered lawyer who previously practiced First Amendment law and taught in Philadelphia-area graduate and law schools.
Clarion Project | 255 West 36th St, New York, NY 10018, USA
Sponsor makes free bus transporatation possible for anyone. The April 23 bus to Harrisburgh is confirmed!
Thank you to all who called, e-mailed and sent your checks to the PO Box. We now have enough to get a bus that will carry our group.
Additionally, anyone who would like to go but finds finances impossible in this stagnant economy, good news! A generous sponsor has made it possible for you to go.
We will be meeting with Darryl Metcalfe and plan to spend time lobbying our state representatives.
The bus leaves promptly from Doylestown Public library at 7am on Tuesday, April 23. We plan to leave Harrisburg by 2pm. Be sure to:Bring a lunch, .snack, munchies. Bring your own AM coffee
We will have drinks - water, soda
Bring signs that focus on the 2nd Amendment. We will also have signs for you.
Bring check or cash
Let us know if you are coming so we have enough seats for those who want to come
At the rally we will show support for Metcalf's HB 357 bill and visit key legislatures to introduce ourselves to them as the only 2nd Amendment organization in PA The bus leaves promptly at 7am from the Library in Doylestown and will leave Harrisburg by 2pm. For further Information or to let us know that you are coming contact Steve Onufrey 215-460-8888, onufrey@verizon.net.
We look forward to see you there as we stand firm on the 2nd Amendment. We will not budge from our peaceful line in the sand.
(This date was changed from Friday, April 26th to the above date)
Where: The Standard Club, Doylestown (formerly The Moose) Time: 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Please join us for pizza and light refreshments to see where it all began.
Speakers from our original 04/18/09 event will be there to discus where we are now and what direction we will be going forward.
We have heard back from Pat Bachtle, Candidate for Prothonotary,and Tom Lingenfelter, Candidate for Sheriff. They will talk for a few minutes and take questions from the audience.
State Representative Marguerite Quinn is Speaking as well.
We will also hear from some folks from the movement including our very own Steve Onufrey.
If you were listening to the Dom Giordano show this past Friday, you may have heard a caller affiliated with a local Tea Party Group erroneously infer that the Independence Hall Tea Party Association backed Senator Pat Toomey's recent 840 page Amendment on background checks for gun owners.
The only 840 page bill currently on the table in DC is the Immigration Bill--which we do not support. The Toomey/Manchin Amendment was much, much shorter in length. (If you are counting, that's strike 1.)
Despite our tremendous respect for Senator Toomey--and the fact that 2/3's of our
membership and friends participating in the Association's February survey indicated that they supported universal background checks, we remained neutral on the Amendment (strike 2)--while still voicing our adamant support for a Senator who has earned an average of 95% on our 2012 and 2013 Congressional Scorecards.
The caller then went on to imply that the Association and Senator Toomey would not
support Americans arming themselves against terrorists--as many Bostonians were hopefully doing during Friday's lock down of that city.
What a boldfaced mischaracterization of our position. Speaking for ourselves, we are squarely behind the Second Amendment. Our Second Amendment event with Brietbart's Ben Shapiro is evidence of such support--and so is our lobbying efforts on behalf of gun rights in DE, NJ, and PA--not to mention our promotion of a number of
pro-Second Amendment rallies in the tri-state area. (That's strike 3.)
Association Editorial
Can those of us in the Center/Right Coalition agree to stop eating each other alive when we have honest differences of opinion within our ranks? We are going to lose election after election if we don't stop with the character assassination of political allies, like Senator Toomey, who are in agreement with us 75-95% of the time. Their replacements might very well be politicians like Allyson Schwartz who agree with us 0% of the time.
There must be room for honest, civil disagreement on the right. We must respect each other.
(PS Thank God the Boston terrorist was caught. How disappointing for Michael Moore and others in the media who were hoping to link him to the Tea Party.)
Stand Up for Pamela Geller Day
Last Sunday, we urged all of you to stand up for a true heroine, Pamela Geller, whose First Amendment Rights were being threatened by left wing thugs.
Ms. Geller, a frequent speaker on the evils of Jihad, is often the focus of leftist hatred and scorn.
We were pleased to learn that so many of you came to her defense.
Ms. Geller, who was scheduled to speak at three different venues, managed to speak at the first two without a hitch.
The evening event was another story, however, as someone phoned in a bomb threat. (For details, visit:
If you recall, we were honored to have Ms. Geller keynote last year's July 4th American Exceptionalism Celebration on Independence Mall (photo above by Jerry Klein).
We presented Ms. Geller with our 2012 Liberty Award. The event had to moved
indoors--partially due to threats aimed at Ms. Geller.
Amity Shlaes on "The President Who Said 'No' to Taxes and Spending"
We are thrilled that Amity Shlaes will keynote our 5th Annual April Tri-State T.E.A. Party. She will be joined by Dom Giordano, Bill Miller, and the 286 Band.
If you would like to attend, register (below) before Friday, April 26 for a 25% discount.
We look forward to seeing you!
On behalf of the Association Board,
Teri Adams
Independence Hall Tea Party Association
presents our
5th Annual April Tri-State T.E.A PARTY
Amity Shlaes
on
"The President Who Said 'No' to Taxes and Spending"
With Dom Giordano, talk show host, WPHT 1210 AM;
Bill Miller, author, Tea Party Papers; and the 286 Band.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
3-5 PM, Doors Open 2:30 PM
Independence Visitors Center Ballroom
6th & Market Streets
Philadelphia, PA
Main Event to include Book Sales/Signings, Q & A, lite refreshments.
Also with Amity Shlaes (April 28): 12 Noon Luncheon at City Tavern;
2 PM Tea & Photo Op at Visitors Center. For details, click link below.
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
$25 OFF Bus if you register before April 22 $25 OFF Participation if you register before April 22
June 19 - 21 we will convene at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC for our fourth annual National Conference & Legislative Briefing.
And here's some really great news: This year's registration fee is only $229! Register by April 15th and you'll receive our "Early Bird" rate of just $189!
We also offer again this year special benefits for Patriot Eagle and Patriot sponsors.
We have some exciting new wrinkles planned for this year's event, and our list of confirmed speakers already includes:
Steven Emerson - Journalist, author, and the Executive Editor of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. A. M. Rosenthal, late-managing editor of The New York Times, described Emerson as "one of the nation's best national security correspondents."
John Guandolo - Former FBI agent and one of America's leading authorities on the Muslim Brotherhood and its inner workings in America. Guandolo spoke at our conference in 2011 and received rave reviews from conference attendees!
Ezra Levant - Canadian lawyer, author, newspaper columnist with Sun Media, and former publisher of the Western Standard. Hauled before a Canadian "human rights commission" because he published the Danish cartoons that satirized Muhammad, Levant's personal account of a politically correct government inquisition is something you won't want to miss!
The National Conference & Legislative Briefing will begin on Wed. evening, June 19th, and conclude on Friday, June 21st at noon, with additional optional training sessions Friday afternoon.
It will again feature our very popular Capitol Hill Awards Luncheon and our signature gala banquet-and of course, our Legislative Briefing, where Members of Congress will brief you on various issues and answer your questions.
So make your plans now to join us in our nation's capital for what promises to be our best National Conference & Legislative Briefing ever!
More details to come!
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.
From a trusted friend:
As some of you may know, I am associated with Coventry Christian Schools as a parent of a graduate (2010) and as member of the Board of Trustees. Last October we spent a wonderful evening honoring Mark Niehls at our revitalized Founder's Dinner and celebrated our shared heritage in the remarkable community that is Coventry Christian Schools. Our vision for future Founder's Dinners is to inspire and inform not only our alumni and current CCS families but to inspire and inform the Tri-County Area and even our region by hosting speakers and artists who can uniquely assist us in celebrating the heritage, core values, and mission of CCS while also lifting our vision for an even greater future built upon the foundation of our past. The caliber of our speakers and guest artists should provide us with wonderful opportunities to share our CCS story with new partners in Christian education. Proceeds from the dinner will be applied to our annual Coventry Kids Fund for CCS scholarships.
This year we are proud to announce that our distinguished guest and speaker is Dr. Benjamin Carson, and our dinner's theme is "Faith of Our Fathers: The Role of Faith in American Schools." Please join us as we welcome Dr. Carson to the Tri-County Area and celebrate the great things God is doing at CCS!
Dr. Carson is a highly regarded neurosurgeon and motivational speaker who has addressed various audiences across the country. He is one of the most honored and recognized physicians in the world and holds more than 60 honorary doctorate degrees along with hundreds of awards and citations. He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. He is the author of five books and is the founder of the Carson Scholars Fund. The 2009 award-winning movie entitled Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Carson, premiered on TNT and is based on his memoir. Dr. Carson is an authentic disciple of Christ, has been married to his wife Candy for more than 37 years, and is the father of three sons.
The 2013 Founder's Dinner, which will once again be a part of our Homecoming festivities, will be held at the historic Sunnybrook Ballroom in Pottstown on Sunday, October 13th, 2013. Doors will open at 4:30pm, followed by dinner at 5:15. Dress will be business/professional. Tickets will be priced at $100 until May 15th, then will be $125, so reserve your tickets for the reduced price.
Due to Dr. Carson's international reputation and recent prominence in the media, including his recent speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, we fully anticipate that this event will sell out quickly once advertised to the public. Tickets go on sale to the public April 15. If you are interested in attending, tickets can be purchased online. I will send the link out to those who wish to go on April 15
th
. While online reservations are preferred because they facilitate efficient event planning, you may also complete a paper order form, which I can forward to you as well.
All of us at Coventry Christian Schools, look forward to sharing this very special evening with you and acquainting you with the school and its mission!
Blessings,
Christine Gordon
Sponsorships are available as well and are as follows:
Gold Sponsor $3,000
Two tickets at Speaker's Table
Two tickets at Headmaster's Table
Listed as sponsor on school website through 12 months post event
Listed as sponsor on pre-event print marketing
Mentioned by name at event
Full Page ad in Dinner Program
Silver Sponsor $1,500
Two tickets at Speaker's Table
Listed as sponsor on school website through 12 months post event
Half page ad in Dinner Program
Bronze Sponsor $500
Two tickets at Headmaster's Chairman's or Founder's Table
Listed as sponsor on school website through 12 months post event
·Quarter page ad in Dinner Program
Heritage Foundation weighs in on Common Core
By Rachel Sheffield April 11, 2013: Policy Analyst, The Heritage Foundation (courtesy of Citizens' Alliance of Pennsylvania)This coming school year, Pennsylvania public schools will begin implementing the Common Core education standards. Like many other states, Common Core standards are quickly making their way into the classroom. While proponents of the standards continue to champion their predicted benefits, there is significant cause for concern.First, the standards represent a massive federal overreach. The Obama Administration jumped on board from the get go, promoting national education standards, via policy and federal taxpayer dollars, as part of their education agenda. Billions of federal dollars have gone towards and are continuing to fund, the promotion and implementation of these standards nationwide. The federal government's involvement with the standards should be alarming. Pushing state and local leaders away from classroom curriculum is not only a breach in federalism but gives parents, teachers, and communities less say over what children learn in school. Education experts have also raised alarm over the quality of the standards. Sandra Stotsky, Professor of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, has particularly expressed concern over the English Language Arts. Common Core's ELA standards reduce emphasis on literature by promoting the study of "informational texts." Stotsky says
, "A diminished emphasis on literature in the secondary grades makes it unlikely that American students will study a meaningful range of culturally and historically significant literary works before graduation. It also prevents students from acquiring a rich understanding and use of the English language. Perhaps of greatest concern, it may lead to a decreased capacity for analytical thinking."
Common Core goes SOCIAL MEDIA!!! Please share with everyone you know and help us make this a huge success. MARK YOUR CALENDAR!!! Not a TWITTER person.....grab a kid and have some fun.
Parent-Led Reform (@ParentLedReform) will host a Twitter Rally on April 16, 2013 which will start will go from 12:00p-2:00p (EST). We will discuss how the Common Core State Standards effect your family, community and schools? We invite you to participate.
There will be an expert panel and several organizations that will discuss#StopCommonCore. So far I know the panel will consist of:
I'll update with a live link for the Twitter Rally (or you can just follow the hashtag #StopCommonCore) and as the expert panel is finalized.
Update: Be sure to RSVP with the Facebook event invite, this will help keep you up to date with pertinent info.
The whole story on Common Core
Read the sourced and footnoted response to the National Review Online and get all the facts you need to know about Common Core HERE. Compiled by American Principles project and Glenn's research team.
Common Core is the new set of federal education standards being pushed by the Obama administration and several leftist organizations but it's even seeing some support from some conservatives.
defending Common Core, and Glenn gave the definitive response on radio today."Common Core is something that we didn't really get for quite some time and again it's something we've learned from the 9/12 project and concerned parents all around the country that have been bringing this to our attention. When we started in on this work, we thought it was pretty bad. The more we do, the worse it becomes," Glenn said.
Below are some of the points made by the National Review Online in defense of Common Core, followed by Glenn's response.
Today on radio, Glenn gave the definitive response. See that and get all the sources to back it up HERE.
Students in some Albany High School English classes were asked to participate in the unthinkable this week as part of a persuasive writing assignment. The objective? Prove why Jews are evil and convince the teacher of their loyalty to the Third Reich in five paragraphs or less. See the actual lessonHERE.
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.
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
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
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.
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
America needs a history lesson
Sign up now for Hillsdale's newest online courses - available FREE to every American!
Did you know that over 500,000 other students have already registered for one of our free online courses?
As Ronald Reagan once said during a speech delivered on our campus in 1978, "Hillsdale deserves the appreciation of all who labor for freedom...Your creative outreach on national issues enables little Hillsdale to cast a long shadow."
As a school of only 1,400 students, we reach over 350 TIMES that number with our online courses on the Constitution and America's founding principles.
Now is your chance to join with your fellow citizens!
Register now for this free "American Heritage" online course so you can better understand - and defend - the principles of liberty. This is the type of education America's Founders thought necessary to preserve our republic. Lectures in this not-for-credit online course are delivered by members of Hillsdale's history department faculty, and readings are drawn from the American Heritage Reader used in the American Heritage core course taught on Hillsdale's campus.
Course Schedule
Approximately 40 minutes in length, lectures will be released each Monday according to the schedule below. Once available, each week's materials can be viewed at your convenience.
33 East College Street ~ Hillsdale, Michigan 49242
Pennsylvania Action Alert...
27 more sponsors needed to move HB357 out of committee and on to the full state house!
HB357, The Second Amendment Preservation Act to nullify federal gun laws in the State of Pennsylvania, needs your help to move forward.
The bill has been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee. Bill sponsor, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, has said that the bill needs 102 sponsors to get out of committee on to the full House for a vote. It currently has 75 sponsors.
The Tenth Amendment Center requests your immediate help by contacting your state senator to express your support for this legislation. We urge you to CALL and EMAIL. Strongly, but respectfully, inform your representative that you are extremely concerned with federal infringements on the right to keep bear arms - and that you want them to SPONSOR HB357
ACTION ITEMS:
1. Please contact your state representative. First check the link for the following representatives who are co-sponsors to the bill. The most updated list of cosponsors are on the website to House Bill 357 can be found here. If your representative is not listed, please contact them and ask them to cosponsor HB357. If they are, thank them for supporting the bill and encourage them to stand strong.
2. Encourage your local community to take action as well. Present the 2nd Amendment Preservation Act to your city county, your town council, or your county commissioners. Various local governments around the country are already passing similar resolutions and ordinances. Local legislative action is a great way to strengthen a statewide campaign against 2nd Amendment violations
4. Share this information widely. Please pass this along to your friends and family. Also share it with any and all grassroots groups you're in contact with around the state. Please encourage them to email this information to their members and supporters
White House Link to Illegal Taping of Sen. Mitch McConnell
by Dave Jolly
I still recall the news and controversy that surrounded the Watergate affair that resulted in the resignation of President Richard Nixon. The nation's media was all over the illegal break in by Republicans and the subsequent cover up that lead all the way to the Oval Office.
It seems we now have a similar incident, only the liberal mainstream media is pretty much downplaying it because this time it was Democrats that broke the law. Therefore, it's no big deal since, well, the nation's top Democrat breaks the law every day, doesn't he?
Tsarnaev the Fraud Jan LaRue Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should be tried by a military commission at Guantanamo Bay rather than in U.S. federal court on charges related to the Boston Marathon bombing. Naturalized American citizenship obtained by fraud is revocable. More
Did Bill Maher Just Trump Bush on Islam? C. Edmund Wright You could say, to use a bumper sticker metaphor, Maher just stuck "Don't Mess with Texas" on his car, while Bush went with that absurd COEXIST decal. More
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and 'A lesson to the inhabitants of the world' Andrew G. Bostom What's in a name? In the case of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, an understanding of the man after whom he is named is essential to grasp to historic forces on whose behalf he allegedly embraced cruel terror, bringing along his kid brother Dzhokhar. More
With Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the two alleged Marathon bombers, Chechen terrorism has finally arrived on U.S. soil. The brothers not only hailed from Chechnya but had strong ties to al Qaeda.
Planned Parenthood now says it's "appalled" by the Philadelphia house of horrors run by accused serial baby-killer and pregnant-mom murderer Dr. Kermit Gosnell. Bull.
The brothers came to the US from Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim state which declared independence from Russia in 1991, resulting in years of violence and terrorist strikes.
"This is the way things are done with Saudi Arabia," Emerson said. "You don't arrest their citizens. You deport them. Because they don't want to be embarrassed..."
The Boston Marathon is an all-American event. It is a long-held tradition celebrating ordinary people achieving an extraordinary feat: finishing a 26.2-mile race.
A flurry of applause at the scene of a standoff between police and Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev signaled his capture Friday night.
"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
Family Security Foundation, Inc. 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., #298 Washington, D.C. 20006
Politics
House Republicans ask why Saudi Arabia was added to trusted traveler program
1:27 AM 03/29/2013
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and the panel's subcommittee chairmen are calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to explain why DHS has extended a trusted traveler program to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In a letter to Napolitano released Thursday, the seven GOP lawmakers voiced their concerns about "potential risks" associated with opening the Global Entry trusted traveler program - which "allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States" - to Saudi Arabia
"Of the 19 individuals who hijacked American planes on September 11, 2001 - 15 were from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the committee members wrote in the letter dated March 27 but released the following day. "More recently, following the plot to blow up an international flight over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, the Department saw fit to increase the scrutiny of passengers from countries like Saudi Arabia. This must be a factor in determining who to admit into the Global Entry Program."
Brooks: Unconscionable to equate IDF self-defense with terrorist murders
Washington, D.C. (April 22, 2013) -- The Republican Jewish Coalition strongly objected to Secretary of State John Kerry's remarks likening some Turks' anger over Israel's self-defense in the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident to Americans' outrage over last week's terrorist attack on innocent spectators at the Boston Marathon.
RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said, "Secretary Kerry should retract these remarks as soon as possible. It's unconscionable to compare the loss of life resulting from an act of self-defense to the results of cold-blooded, premeditated murder by terrorists."
Brooks added, "We understand that Secretary Kerry has reason to be deeply worried by the disappointing results to date from the President's push to end the rift between Israel and Turkey. But he needs to correct the record so that our allies and critics around the world don't get the idea that the world's most powerful democracy has lost its moral bearings."
Background: During a press conference in Istanbul yesterday, Secretary Kerry said the following about Turkish anger over the 2010 incident, "I know it's an emotional issue with some people. I particularly say to the families of people who were lost in the incident we understand these tragedies completely and we sympathize with them. And nobody - I mean, I have just been through the week of Boston and I have deep feelings for what happens when you have violence and something happens and you lose people that are near and dear to you. It affects a community, it affects a country. We're very sensitive to that." [Emphasis added] http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/04/207813.htm
# # #
The RJC is the national grassroots organization of Jewish Republicans.
Everyone cheered when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, was found hiding in a boat late Friday evening. He is currently under heavy guard in Beth Israel Hospital. He is reportedly unable to speak but is communicating with authorities in writing. Here are some additional details:
There were reports over the weekend that the FBI was investigating the possibility that the brothers were part of a larger sleeper cell. On ABC's Sunday talk show "This Week," reporter Pierre Thomas said that while there was no evidence yet of a broader plot, there was nonetheless "deep, deep concern about the amount of ammunition, guns and working bombs these men had."
In addition, the FBI wants to speak with Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, the wife of slain bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
She converted to Islam when she married him and they have a three year-old daughter. According to her attorney, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev had no reason to suspect her husband since she was working 70 to 80 hours a week, seven days a week to support her family.
The mosque the brothers attended has a checkered past. It has connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, and recently hosted a left-wing author who believes the "war on terror" is really a "war against Islam" being waged by America and its allies.
The brothers' parents, Anzor and Zubeidat Tsarnaev, insist their sons are innocent. In fact, the mother, Zubeidat, contends it is all a plot by the FBI. During an interview with a Russian news agency, she said, "He [Tamerlan] was controlled by the FBI for three to five years... they were controlling his every step and now they say that this is a terrorist act! ...I am 100 percent sure that this is a set up."
Mrs. Tsarnaev's paranoia aside (I'll come back to that below), this is a point that officials must take more seriously. The FBI had investigated Tamerlan before. Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey writes in today's Wall Street Journal, "Tamerlan Tsarnaev is the fifth person since 9/11 who has participated in terror attacks after questioning by the FBI."
Mrs. Tsarnaev seems to be a radicalized Muslim herself. According to this column, Mrs. Tsarnaev, like her eldest son, became increasingly religious in America and abandoned western dress for Islamic garb. She set up her daughters in arranged marriages and is a "9/11 truther." She once told a customer that 9/11 was carried out by the government to make America hate Muslims. "It's real," she said, "My son knows all about it. You can read on the internet."
9/11 Trutherism & The Left
A lot of people continue to wonder why leftists, who are pro-abortion, pro-gay rights and secular, have made political alliances in United States and Europe with Islamists who are opposed to them on a host of issues. Radical Islamists are not debating same-sex marriage, but whether gays should be killed.
What is often overlooked is that in both groups there is propensity to favor big government. Radical Islamists want a caliphate to regulate every aspect of our lives based on Islamic principles. The left wants to tell us what to eat, what to drink, what to drive and what to say and think.
Many on the left also despise Judeo-Christian civilization and its two pillars -- America and Israel. Both groups believe absurd and obscene charges about our country. They do not believe America is a "shining city upon a hill" or a force for mainly good in the world, but rather the source of much of the world's ills.
One of the most obscene lies in recent years is the idea that the 9/11 attacks were "an inside job." Some on the left believe that George W. Bush knew the attacks would happen and didn't do anything because he believed the country's reaction would provide cover to take oil in the Middle East and wage wars that he and other "warmongering neo-cons" wanted.
But others on the left (and sadly even some on the Paulian right) believe the attacks were actually carried out by elements of the U.S. government. They call it a "black flag" or "false flag" operation. According to one 2006 poll, more than half of Democrats were willing to entertain the notion that Bush either knew about or ordered the 9/11 attacks.
Just like many political leftists, Mrs. Tsarnaev has chosen to deny the truth about 9/11. (By the way, Paul Kevin Curtis, the man arrested in Mississippi for mailing letters containing the poison ricin, was also a 9/11 truther.) Polling in Islamic countries shows large majorities do not believe that Arabs were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Why do we never hear about this?
It's not as though the American media are averse to reporting on bizarre theories and the people who believe them. But the conspiracy they are fixed on is "birtherism" -- that some Americans don't think Obama is a citizen. They miss few opportunities to vilify such individuals and put conservative politicians on the hot seat. But the liberal media show no interest at all in the widespread belief on left and among radical Muslims that the Bush Administration (Republicans) attacked America on 9/11.
Anger Management
What angers you more -- Congress not doing what you want or Islamists blowing up your neighbors? Watching his performance last week, you would have to conclude that President Obama seems more bothered by Congress voting against his gun control legislation than by the Boston Marathon bombing.
Obama spoke about the two events several times last week, and he showed far more emotion over losing the Senate vote on background checks than he did about the jihadist bombings in Boston. During his Rose Garden press conference on the gun control vote, Obama was petulant, angry and over the top. He could barely hide his disdain for his opponents, calling them liars and suggesting the vote was "shameful."
But when it came to the Boston bombing, Obama was almost emotionless. He initially refused to call the attack terrorism. Friday night he lectured us, urging everyone not to "rush to judgment -- not about the motivations of these individuals; certainly not about entire groups of people." That's what he felt was really important to tell the American people.
So, Obama thinks some supporters of the Second Amendment are liars but doesn't want to rush to judgment with alleged jihadists.
Exploiting The Boston Bombing
Believe it or not, Reuters and some Democrats are citing the Boston jihadists as justification for tougher gun control laws. Here's the reasonsing, and I use that term loosely: The two men were not licensed to own guns, did not go through background checks, thus we need more laws.
As the Reverend Al Sharpton said, "How can we have such upheaval, such bedlam, and people don't even want to check who we allow to have deadly weapons. Something don't make sense to me."
The left-wing ideology doesn't make sense to me. Think about that for a second: The criminals were obviously ignoring laws on the books and the left's solution is to pass more laws that criminals will undoubtedly ignore, but that will create additional burdens for law-abiding Americans!
EXCLUSIVE -- SECRET EMAILS: CATO, NORQUIST, RUBIO USE BOSTON TERROR ATTACKS TO PUSH IMMIGRATION REFORM
Secret emails obtained exclusively by Breitbart News show the libertarian Cato Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are colluding on immigration reform messaging in the wake of the Boston Marathon terror attack in order to push the "Gang of Eight" bill that was released this past week.
On Friday afternoon, political consultant Peggy Ellis of Ellis & Company, who is supporting the Gang of Eight immigration efforts, emailed "Talkers from Rubio" to the group of organizations supporting their efforts such as Cato and ATR.
The email was headlined: "Rubio talking points re: Boston terrorists vis a vis immigration reform." The message contained three talking points from Sen. Rubio, the first of which argued that the immigration bill would prevent people like the Boston Marathon terrorists from getting into or staying in the country.
"These terrorists came here under the existing system, the one opponents of reform want to leave in place," Sen. Rubio wrote in his first talking point.
If your concern about the threat posed by the Tsarnaev brothers is limited to assuring that they will never be in a position to repeat their grisly acts, rest easy.
The elder, Tamerlan-apparently named for the 14th-century Muslim conqueror famous for building pyramids of his victims' skulls to commemorate his triumphs over infidels-is dead. The younger, Dzhokhar, will stand trial when his wounds heal, in a proceeding where the most likely uncertainty will be the penalty. No doubt there will be some legal swordplay over his interrogation by the FBI's High-Value Interrogation Group without receiving Miranda warnings. But the only downside for the government in that duel is that his statements may not be used against him at trial. This is not much of a risk when you consider the other available evidence, including photo images of him at the scene of the bombings and his own reported confession to the victim whose car he helped hijack during last week's terror in Boston.
But if your concern is over the larger threat that inheres in who the Tsarnaev brothers were and are, what they did, and what they represent, then worry-a lot.
For starters, you can worry about how the High-Value Interrogation Group, or HIG, will do its work. That unit was finally put in place by the FBI after so-called underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up the airplane in which he was traveling as it flew over Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009 and was advised of his Miranda rights. The CIA interrogation program that might have handled the interview had by then been dismantled by President Obama.
Zuma Press
In the White House Situation Room on April 19, President Obama meets with his national-security team, including FBI Director Robert Mueller to his immediate left.
At the behest of such Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups as the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Islamic Society of North America, and other self-proclaimed spokesmen for American Muslims, the FBI has bowdlerized its training materials to exclude references to militant Islamism. Does this delicacy infect the FBI's interrogation group as well?
Will we see another performance like the Army's after-action report following Maj. Nidal Hasan's rampage at Fort Hood in November 2009, preceded by his shout "allahu akhbar"-a report that spoke nothing of militant Islam but referred to the incident as "workplace violence"? If tone is set at the top, recall that the Army chief of staff at the time said the most tragic result of Fort Hood would be if it interfered with the Army's diversity program.
*** URGENT NATIONWIDE ACTION ALERT *** UNACCEPTABLE ALAC SNAG IN FLORIDA OPPOSITION WORKING TO SHUT IT DOWN, IRRESPECTIVE OF STRONG COMMUNITY SUPPORT TARGETED CALLS AND E-MAILS NEEDED NOW!
by Lisa Piraneo, Director of Government Relations
Over the last few months, things have been going very well in the state of Florida with regard to American Laws for American Courts (ALAC) legislation. The Sunshine State has been well on its way to joining the FIVE other states who now have ALAC laws on the books.
Florida's ALAC legislation, SB 58, was introduced by state Senator Alan Hays and protects Floridians' individual constitutional rights from foreign laws or legal doctrines where the application of those laws/doctrines would violate those constitutional rights. No particular foreign law is singled out. The proposal applies to them all. It's that simple.
We have just learned that the ongoing legislative momentum of SB 58 has stopped unexpectedly. This is not representative of the strong support for the bill that has been clearly demonstrated by the Florida community.
THIS IS AN URGENT NATION-WIDE CALL FOR ALL HANDS ON DECK.
During this legislative session, SB 58 passed in three committees in the Florida legislature and was placed in the hands of the Rules Committee to schedule a time for the bill to be brought to the full Senate for a final vote.
Then, without warning, things changed. Why?
There are reports that one member of the Senate leadership reported receiving 300 phone calls in OPPOSITION to SB58 just last week. We need to demonstrate the TRUTH about this bill and show that there is a lot more support for SB58 than there is opposition.
The current situation is unacceptable, but all is not lost-IF WE ACT QUICKLY AND DECISIVELY.
Can we count on you to help us with the following very important and time-sensitive action-and to pass this e-mail along to everyone you know? *** IMPORTANT AND TIME-SENSITIVE ACTION ITEM ***
Starting TODAY and continuing through the close of business this WEDNESDAY, we need as many emails and phone calls as possible to go to the 3 key senators from Florida listed below.
We need everyone to call the capitol offices AND the district offices of these 3 senators AND to e-mail them as well at the emails noted below. It is very important that everyone call BOTH offices for each senator AND email them as well.
Last year, 11th hour shenanigans derailed the effort to pass American Laws for American Courts in Florida. Make sure that the Senate leadership in Florida knows that you will not stand for a repeat of past failures to pass this important legislation, which recently was signed into law in another state (Oklahoma), bringing the total to 5 states thus far.
Today, please contact the offices of the Senators listed below at BOTH their district and Capitol offices, via BOTH phone call and e-mail and relay, respectfully, but firmly, that you are disappointed and outraged that SB58 by Senator Alan Hays has not made it onto the agenda for the Rules Committee to have an opportunity to make it to the floor for an up or down vote.
The following is a sample script. Please respectfully but firmly relay the message in your own words.
Dear Senator,
I am extremely disappointed that SB 58 has not been placed on the Senate legislative agenda so that it can come before the full Senate for a simple up or down vote.
SB 58 was introduced by Senator Alan Hays in order to protect the constitutional rights of Floridians from the incursion of foreign laws and foreign legal doctrines.
The legislation protects Floridians' constitutional rights from foreign laws or legal doctrines where the application of those laws/doctrines would violate those constitutional rights. No particular foreign law is singled out. The proposals apply to them all.
This bill is of the utmost importance to me. The Senate deserves to have a chance to vote on it during this legislative session!
Thank you for your leadership on this vital matter.
Sincerely,
(Your name and city)
Special request: In your calls and e-mails to Senator Don Gaetz, who is the President of the Florida Senate, please respectfully note the following in addition to the sample script above:
1. The bill has already passed three committees. 2. Please have the bill removed from its committees of reference and bring it to the floor for a vote as soon as possible! [HE HAS THE POWER TO DO THIS!] Targeted Offices:
Leadership is crucial, and when leadership is rotten the whole body politic rots and stinks. Our biggest problem is rotten leadership. Until and unless we fix that, we're gonna have lots more trouble like we saw in Boston.
So much has been written (and is worth reading) about David Sirota's Salon article, "Let's hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American," that Sirota felt compelled to write a second piece, doubling down and attempting to justify his initial thoughts. In spite of all the scrutiny, something fundamental has been overlooked, hiding in plain sight.
Both we and our enemies have changed strategies since 9/11. I fear that radical Islamists are becoming more insidious and we more complacent and predictable. Can American elites overcome the epistemic closure of political correctness to fight terrorism?
There were no indications Sunday that President Obama will visit the West, Texas, site of a fertilizer plant explosion that leveled part of a small town, leaving more than a dozen dead and dozens more unaccounted for. When contacted by PJ Media, GOP Sen. John Cornyn said it's "doubtful" Obama will show even though he has a DNC fundraiser in Dallas.
Less than a week after the push by Democrats push for more gun control went down in flames in the Senate, Reuters is reporting the suspected Boston Marathon bombers ignored gun laws that are already on the books in possessing the firearms they used in shootouts with the police.
According to Reuters, "The two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings, who police say engaged in a gun battle early Friday after a frenzied manhunt, were not licensed to own guns in the towns where they lived."
Rep Peter King: Try Tsarnaev As Criminal, Interrogate As Enemy Combatant More
MONDAY BRIEF
The Aftermath of Boston
April 22, 2013
The Foundation
"A universal peace, it is to be feared, is in the catalogue of events, which will never exist but in the imaginations of visionary philosophers, or in the breasts of benevolent enthusiasts." --James Madison
Inspiration
Detained
Due to the outstanding work of both the FBI and Massachusetts law enforcement, the two young Chechen immigrants who bombed the Boston Marathon one week ago were identified and apprehended. The older of the two brothers was killed Thursday in a firefight with police, and the second was captured Friday night. He remains in stable condition at a hospital. Though he is unable to speak because of his injuries, he appears to be cooperating with investigators.
The Department of Justice is determining what charges to file and how to classify the attack. Congressional Republicans are demanding that the suspect be treated as an "enemy combatant" rather than a criminal, though that's unlikely to be the outcome.
As law enforcement seek to clarify whether these two acted alone or as part of a larger effort or cell, we still refrain from speculating other than to say their belief system and tactics have all the DNA markers of Islamic fanaticism.
Opinion in Brief
"Friday morning, the entire city of Boston was put in lockdown. Residents were warned to 'shelter in place,' meaning staying locked in their home, answering only to uniformed law enforcement personnel. Hundreds of police swarmed through the city, tracking a violent terror suspect ... with a clear intent to kill. The situation is a reminder of why millions of Americans cherish their right to own guns to protect themselves and their families. Gun control advocates mistakenly assume Americans cherish their 2nd Amendment rights because of either a cultural anachronism or an affinity for hunting. The left looks at gun control as a debate over which guns Americans 'need.' They often argue, for example, that Americans don't 'need' a 30-round magazine to hunt deer. That's true, but the debate isn't about 'needs,' it is about rights. The 2nd Amendment isn't built on a foundation of hunting, but, rather, the ability to protect one's life and property. The manhunt in Boston ... shows the very real threats that occasionally enter our lives. In a situation like Boston, seconds count, while the police are minutes away. ... Gun control advocates ... would be wise to reflect on the unfolding events to understand why many of us 'cling' to our guns. The world can be a very dangerous place." --Breitbart's Mike Flynn
How Well Is the FBI Keeping an Eye on Self-Radicalizing Immigrants?
The bombers' mother may be cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. Probably is, in fact. But this . . .
One of the two ethnic Chechens suspected by U.S. officials of being behind the Boston Marathon bombings had been under FBI surveillance for at least three years, his mother said.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva told the English-language Russia Today state television station in a phone interview, a recording of which was obtained by Reuters, that she believed her sons were innocent and had been framed.
"He (Tamerlan) was 'controlled' by the FBI, like, for three to five years," she said, speaking in English and using the direct English translation of a word in Russian that means monitored.
"They knew what my son was doing, they knew what sites on the Internet he was going to," she said in what Russia Today described as a call from Makhachkala, where she lives in Russia's Dagestan region after returning from the United States.
Deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was identified by a foreign government as a "follower of radical Islam and a strong believer" whose personality had changed drastically in just a year, according to the FBI.
As investigators considered possible motives for Monday's fatal bombings, U.S. authorities acknowledged that an unnamed government had contacted the FBI to say the 26-year-old ethnic Chechen "had changed drastically" since 2010 and was preparing to leave the United States "to join unspecified underground groups," according to an official statement from the FBI.
U.S. officials have not named the foreign nation, but it is presumed to be Russia. Tsarnaev traveled there in 2012 and stayed for six months.
Department of Homeland Security officials decided in recent months not to grant an application for American citizenship by Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings, after a routine background check revealed that he had been interviewed in 2011 by the F.B.I., federal officials said on Saturday.
It had been previously reported that Mr. Tsarnaev's application might have been held up because of a domestic abuse episode. But the officials said that it was the record of the F.B.I. interview that threw up red flags and halted, at least temporarily, Mr. Tsarnaev's citizenship application.
Late last year, Homeland Security officials contacted the F.B.I. to learn more about its interview with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, federal law enforcement officials said. The F.B.I. reported its conclusion that he did not present a threat.
At that point, Homeland Security officials did not move to approve the application nor did they deny it, but they left it open for "additional review."
. . . raises some disturbing questions.
Russia (confirmed) makes its inquiry in 2011; the FBI investigates. Apparently there's not enough evidence for the FBI to take further action, but "late last year" DHS decides there's enough suspicion around this guy to delay his citizenship - not enough to deny it - and he's just left there. Meanwhile, sometime around this time (September 11, 2012) the younger brother gets his citizenship. Then they later decide that whatever they've found is sufficient to deny the citizenship . . . but not enough to get him out of the country. (Oh, and somewhere along the line, one or both illegally register to vote.)
For what it's worth, an unidentified intelligence source tells Jake Tapper that it is "rare" for the "Russians to reach out like that, to ask FBI to look into someone as they did with Tamerlan Tsarnaev." So obviously, Russia doesn't ask the FBI to check out every Chechnyan immigrant just out of spite. Tapper also asks a big, big question: Why didn't the FBI re-interview Tsarnaev after his six months in Russia and Chechnya?
Before we move on to a 844-page immigration-reform bill, whose primary purpose is to say to 11 million people currently in the country illegally, "you can stay and become citizens as long as you do X, Y, and Z," we need to make sure that our current immigration-law-enforcement institutions are capable of meeting the minimal standard of keeping out those who are here to do us harm. Obviously, this applies to terrorism, but also to the less dramatic crimes that harm Americans - gang membership, drug smuggling and dealing, people smuggling, etc.
No, Really, You Snot-Nosed Punks, What The Hell Are You So Angry About?
While authorities are still looking into the older brother's trip to Russia last year, there can be little doubt that most of these guys' radicalization occurred here, living on American soil. Somehow these bastards lived among us for the better part of a decade, witnessed everything this country has to offer, and concluded . . . that we all needed to suffer horrific wounds and die, inflicted on one city's happiest day of the year. How does a radical imam on a YouTube video do that? How do you walk the streets of this country, see a family playing, or a child cheering for his father in a marathon, and conclude, "they all need to die painfully?"
Friday afternoon, Marc Ambinder wrote a piece that was almost a parody of a liberal journalist seeing what he wanted; he "highly doubted" that what motivated the bombers was "their decision to accept some form of radical Islamic teachings as their foundational belief system." He concluded, "It is far more plausible that American gun culture, the way that Americans are uncomfortable with people who are different, the gaps in the mental heath system, and a hundred other things, some of which cannot ever be controlled, pushed these two men over the edge." (Perhaps he meant America's nails-and-pressure-cookers culture.)
He did, however, hit on one point worth chewing over as we contemplate the state of our society in 2013. In the Columbine punks, in one mass shooter after another, and we could argue in many of the Islamist bombings we've seen over the years, particularly in Europe, we've seen angry young men decide that the very best way to deal with their grievances and rage is to slaughter as many innocent people as possible.
The world has always had angry young men, and for generations they've found various outlets for it - booze, women, rock and roll, drugs, gangs, sports, driving cars and motorcycles too fast, you name it. For some small but significant number of young men in today's society - Muslim and non-Muslim, immigrant and native-born - none of those other quasi-traditional outlets is sufficient.
And maybe the big question, to be aimed at everybody from the black-clad teen who writes of slaughtering his classmates in his diary and sends threatening letters to school, to the angry young Islamist men fantasizing of inflicting bloodshed upon us infidels, to the kids who wear black masks and smash windows at Occupy protests . . . what the hell do you have to be so angry about? You live in a country and an era of unprecedented technological innovation, better public health, lower crime, less discrimination, than ever before. Probably 90 percent of the world's people would trade places with you in an instant, and even at your worst, you're living a life better than that of 99.99 percent of all people in human history. There's no draft. No one owns you. People endure troubles a hundred times worse than yours, and soldier on. Your life is what you make it.
What, your life isn't like what you see on MTV's Cribs, showcasing the luxurious homes of wealthy music stars and athletes?
And for any immigrant who's feeling anti-American . . . leave. We don't need you. You wanted to come here.
Why I Would Urge You to Go on an NR Cruise, Separate From the Marketing Folks
So you've probably received an e-mail inviting you to the NR cruise to Norway. You may be asking, "okay, all of that sounds good, but what's it really like?" You've heard from the marketing folks; let me give you the skinny on what to expect on a cruise, if you haven't been on one already.
(They cost a pretty penny, I know. So perhaps it's something you decide, "can't afford this year, but someday" - and try to figure out if someday is 2014 or 2015.)
Is it worth it? Well, we have a lot of repeat cruisers, so my sense is yes. This will be my first non-Carribbean cruise, so I don't know if our European or overseas cruises "feel" different from our traditional post-election journeys around tropical islands. I do know that apparently back in the immediate post-Cold War years, NR did a cruise of all of the Baltic ports with several Reagan-administration defense officials, Cold Warriors freely touring the countries they sought to liberate from Soviet oppression. I wish I'd had a chance to go on that one, to walk alongside the people who shaped the end of the Cold War, witnessing the fruit of their efforts firsthand.
A couple cruisers have told me they never get off the boat - and after a while, the Caribbean destinations can blur together - beach, bars, shops catering to tourists. In other words, for some NR cruise-goers, the ports and itinerary are incidental. If you do like our itinerary - Amsterdam, Norway, the fjords - our organizers try to make sure that no NR events are going on while we're in port, so you never have to choose between exploring some port city vs. attending a panel discussion. During these panels, we (or at least I) try to leave time for some questions from the audience. (Yes, every once in a while, we get one of those guys who has a question in the form of a five-minute monologue.)
As they mention, you'll get at least two dinners with either one of the editors or one of our guest speakers, but my sense is that there is rarely a lack of access to us. They put editors and speakers at the same table every night, so you know where to find us.
I've been told a few of our past guest speakers were a bit on the quiet side. You have to understand, most writers, editors, and think-tank folks toil quietly in offices and very rarely encounter their readers and audience in person. So to hear, "I read your stuff all the time, it's so great!" can be wonderful and also a little strange. The cruises are the one week a year that my colleagues, some of our guests, and myself get treated like rock stars. It can be a little surreal. I know Mrs. Campaign Spot has had to stifle some chuckles as some cruise-goer talks about what a genius her husband is, the same hapless guy who forgets to take out the garbage and puts on shirts hoping no one will notice the grease stain that didn't really wash out, and so on.
But a lot of our guests are regular fountains of charisma. (Allen West, Daniel Hannan, James Lileks, John Sununu, Jonah - this is not a shy crowd.) And in addition to the panels, you'll get to see them at the various cocktail hours, after-dinner smokers, etc., and just walking around the ship. It is probably one of the few times in your life you'll get to see someone like Pat Toomey or Fred Thompson just hanging around with their families at the table next to you. As I've mentioned, a few years back my wife and I went snorkeling with the Breitbart family, and getting to spend time with them very much shaped my admiration for Andrew. On the cruise, you encounter these big-name guests in a very different way than just watching them give a speech.
(As I've mentioned before, to be an NR contributor on one of these cruises is immensely enjoyable and a great honor, but also a bit socially exhausting. We have a couple hundred folks on these cruises, and there are cruises where I feel like I've talked to all of them. I try to be 100 percent with everyone I encounter, but if I seem a little run down by the end of the week, I hope you'll understand.)
I know very little about our destinations this time, but I'm bringing a veteran of the region. The schedule on the home front made it impossible for Mrs. Campaign Spot to join us, so I'm bringing my brother, a rapidly-drifting-right wisecrack artist from New Jersey. If you have a strong stomach for occasionally off-color humor, you can find him on Twitter at . . . [sigh] @fuimfunny. There will be a real sense of worlds colliding for me, and I have no idea what kind of embarrassing stories from my childhood he plans to share over dinner. Like I said, there's a certain surreal quality to the week on the cruise.
NRO Digest - April 22, 2013
Today on National Review Online . . .
THE EDITORS: We must invest our resources and creativity in stopping these attacks before they happen. After Boston.
MICHAEL KNOX BERAN: Four thoughts on Boston's two apostles of violence. The Brothers Tsarnaev.
BING WEST: We will win against the Taliban if we emphasize our core mission and spend modest long-term dollars. Afghanistan the Unknown.
JIM TALENT: Congress should repeal the sequester cuts to defense. Necessary Spending.
ROBERT COSTA: A conservative deal-maker clashes with political reality - and the Right. Toomey's Lament.
BETSY WOODRUFF: For the GOP establishment, a fiancee's surprise appearance was the last straw. Mark Sanford's Fall from Grace.
JOHN FUND: Even formerly enthusiastic Democrats now predict a "train wreck" from the president's health-care law. Putting Lipstick on the Obamacare Pig.
Since last week when the Obama Administration and its media were forced to acknowledge the bombing in Boston was a terrorist act NOT carried out by the TEA party or the Klu Klux Klan, but rather by adherent Muslims, we have heard a stream of verbal gymnastics trying to absolve the murderers and somehow blame America for the carnage in Boston.
We've heard from the Muslim apologist crowd - bearded fake intellectuals with pipes, elbow patches and the like - speaking in a halting meter to make it seem like every word is worth carving on Mount Rushmore.
Their sophistry, saying "who radicalized them?" and "young men struggling to fit into a strange new culture" or "just young men trying to be heard" does us no good.
What we need now is truth not feel good, "all cultures have good and bad" relativism.
The Obama administration tries to dismiss a lawsuit that threatens to expose how American taxpayers' money ends up in terrorists' hands. Read More » | Comments
Watching the news about the Boston bombing and the Muslim fanatics who perpetrated the deed, I cannot help reflect on all the nasty attacks that liberals and progressives and Muslim activists have conducted against conservatives who have attempted to warn Americans that their enemies are religious fanatics driven by an apocalyptic hatred of us because we are Jews, Christians, atheists, democrats - in a word, infidels.
It has been said by Nancy Pelosi, George Soros and other Democrats that George Bush created the terrorists by attempting to enforce a UN Security council resolution and take down one of the monsters of the 20th Century in Iraq. It has been said by the late Susan Sontag and other progressive intellectuals that the heinous attacks of 9/11 were the result of American policies. The Center for American Progress and university administrators have relentlessly defamed as Islamphobes and bigots those of us who have had the temerity to talk about the Islamic roots of Islamic terror. If only we ignored the Islamic beliefs behind the terrorism and made nice to all Muslims indiscriminately, the terrorists wouldn't hate us.
Boston has exposed this as the Big Lie and fatuous delusion that it has always been. The Boston killers were treated better in America than all but an elite among Americans born here who love their country. They were given scholarships, they were admitted to the most exclusive prep schools, they lived in a Cambridge environment where critics of Islamic terror were regarded as Islamophobes and they as a minority deserving special consideration and concern. And yet they hated us. They hated America and ordinary Americans like the victims of their mayhem, and enlisted in the army of our mortal enemies. They hated us because they were fanatical believers in the idea that Mohammed had desired them to kill infidels and purify the earth for Allah. This is the face of our enemy and the sooner the delusional liberals among us wake up to this fact, the safer all of us will be.
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Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog10 Comments
In Vienna, toward the end of the Age of Aquarius, a father bought his little girl a baby crocodile for her birthday. The child had become enchanted with the reptile after seeing a picture of it in a storybook and when all the other presents were opened, her new pet was presented to her.
The little girl was delighted with the present. She began to play with the baby croc and then tried to kiss it. The croc bit her on the nose. The little girl began to cry and had to be taken to the hospital. And the angry father went off to dispose of the nasty little beast.
On the next day, the police responded to reports of a strange creature in the Danube canal, that arm of the great river which flows timidly through the locks and into the city. Vienna being full of animal lovers, the crocodile was rescued from the canal while the father was reprimanded for nearly causing the creature, used to the warmer climes of the east, to perish of a cold in the chilly waters. The matter was worried over in the newspaper columns dedicated to one of the rare events in a city where not very much was happening.
Scandalized animal lovers complained that the beast had been misunderstood. They urged readers to empathize with the crocodile. Imagine, they said, that a giant creature a hundred times your size brings you close to its parted mouth. Could they not see that the crocodile was convinced that it was about to be eaten and was only defending itself?
Wiser heads suggested that the father should never have introduced a dangerous creature into his home and once he had introduced it, he should have expected that it would bite. Like the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog; biting was in its nature. And throwing it into the canal after it had bitten one of us was in our nature.
The subject was fortunately confined to crocodiles, canals and little girls. There was no talk of the '75 hostage crisis in which the Austrian government allowed the Arm of the Arab Revolution led by Carlos the Jackal to escape to Algeria with his hostages after murdering a police officer.
Not long after the crocodile controversy, two Muslim terrorists armed with machine guns and grenades attacked a synagogue where a Bar Mitzvah celebration for children was taking place. Hesham Mohammed Rajeh, a mathematics student, had been living in Austria for two years. When he was later put on trial, he tried to kick the judge and shouted, "When I am out of here, I will spit on you."
Hesham Mohammed Rajeh and Marwan Hasan shouted "PLO, PLO" and began to shoot and throw their grenades.
Ulrike Kohut, 25, rolled in front of a grenade to protect another woman's child. She died of her injuries on the way to the hospital. Lotan "Nathan" Fried, 68, died of shrapnel wounds on the same route. Many more were wounded including a pregnant woman and a 12-year-old girl.
Phase one of the Boston investigation came to a head on Friday night, but the saga is far from over. The latest: (1) Despite not being designated as an enemy combatant, the surviving bomber will get worked over by our high value detainee interrogation team:
A special group of interrogators, part of what is known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, is expected to conduct the questioning. The group is a mix of investigators, drawn from the FBI, CIA, State Department and other agencies, created in 2009 to quickly question terror suspects to thwart any additional threats. Separately, investigators have been reviewing a number of detonated and un-exploded devices, the official said. All of the explosives recovered so far, about a handful, appear to be homemade devices that were assembled with commonly available components, much in the style of the pressure-cooker bombs that were detonated at the marathon site. The suspects also had a cache of firearms, a mix of handguns and long guns. It was not immediately clear how the weapons were acquired, the official said.
More good news: Authorities say the younger Tsarnaev brother has been cooperative so far, answering officials' questions in writing because he can't yet talk, due to injuries sustained.
(2) Two "foreign nationals" have been arrested and two women were detained in Massachusetts in connection with the bombings. All four are reportedly of college age:
Agents wearing FBI and Department of Homeland Security jackets detained two men at the Hidden Brook apartment complex just hours after releasing three people believed to be associated with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. A neighbor who declined to identify herself said the same two men were among the three people taken into custody by the FBI Friday afternoon. An FBI spokeswoman could not provide any information on the two men, both of whom were led away in handcuffs around 3:50 p.m. Saturday, or anything related to the apartment, citing the "ongoing" nature of the investigation...Earlier Saturday afternoon, a silver mini-van with consulate license plates arrived at the Carriage Drive apartment along with the FBI and Homeland Security, and stayed a half an hour longer than the agents. The van left with two women, neither of whom appeared to be restrained. One was carrying a pink backpack as she exited the apartment and ran into the van, which sped away as the women told reporters they did not wish to comment.
Obama's former DHS Nominee: Boston Bombers Are "Not Terrorists"
Posted onApril 21, 2013
Philip Mudd, former counterterror expert for the CIA and the FBI, joined Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday to discuss the nature of the threat posed by the Tsarnaev brothers and any network they may have been associated with in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. He said the Boston attack reminded him more of the 1999 attack on Columbine than a terror event orchestrated by a foreign network. "I would charge these guys as murders not terrorists," Mudd said of the suspects in the attack on the Boston Marathon.
President Obama's Predictable Budget: More Spending, More Tax Increases
This column by ACRU General Counsel and Senior Fellow for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published April 19, 2013 on Forbes.com.
President Obama tells us in the Overview to his Fiscal Year 2014 Budget just released last week that his budget proposes, "more than $2 in spending cuts for every $1 of new revenue from closing tax loopholes and reducing tax benefits for the wealthiest." But President Obama's budget does not propose any spending cuts at all on net, not even reductions from expected increases in spending. Instead, his budget proposes to add $160 billion in increased spending just next year to the projected growth in spending, even increasing spending for the current 2013 fiscal year by another $61 billion as well. Over the next 10 years, President Obama's budget proposes to add nearly $1 trillion to the projected growth in spending, proposing to increase annual spending by 2023 by $2.1 trillion as compared to 2012.
This column by ACRU Policy Board Member and Professor of Economics Dr. Walter E. Williams was published April 17, 2013 on Townhall.com. Suppose you buy a gallon of gas for $3. How much did it cost you? You say, "Williams, that's a silly question. It cost $3." That's where you're mistaken, because there's a difference between price and cost. To prove that price and cost are not the same, consider the following. Suppose you live and work in New York City and routinely pay $15 for a haircut. Imagine you were told that there's a barber in Boise, Idaho, who can give you the identical haircut for just $5. Would you start going to the Boise barber? I'm betting you'd answer no because even though the price is cheaper, the cost is greater.
This column by ACRU General Counsel and Senior Fellow for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published April 17, 2013 on The American Spectator website. The biggest fallacy regarding Social Security is that it would be easier politically to cut Social Security benefits rather than to fundamentally reform the way the program works, so as to empower workers with the freedom to choose personal savings, investment, and insurance accounts.
Through such personal accounts, all families at all income levels would receive higher rather than lower benefits, much more than Social Security even promises, let alone what it can pay. That is because a lifetime of savings and investment would always pay more in benefits than a lifetime of no savings and investment, which is Social Security.
Supreme Court Denies Review in Flawed Gun Rights Case, Might Take Next One
This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published April 16, 2013 on Breitbart.com.
The Supreme Court has declined to take Kachalsky v. Cacace, what could have been the next big Second Amendment case for the nation. But Kachalsky was a flawed case, and another case with different lawyers might have better chances of building Supreme Court precedent in the right direction.
Kachalsky was a challenge to New York's law disallowing carrying guns outside your home without a permit, and also challenged the Empire State's power to deny those permits if the applicant lacks "proper cause" to have a gun for self-defense.
The Media and President Obama's View through a Gosnell Lens
This column by ACRU Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell was published on April 16, 2013 on the World website.
Mariners have been familiar with the Fresnel lens for nearly two centuries. It refracts light from a lighthouse to magnify the life-saving capacity of the illumination.
Now, we are seeing a new kind of lens we can call a "Gosnell lens," which refracts light in such a way that the object in view is not seen. It deflects all critical examination of what we plainly see in front of us. The Gosnell lens is named for Kermit Gosnell, who is on trial in Philadelphia for the murder of seven infants born alive and one mother. His alleged victims are all poor, mostly minority. Normally, this kind of trial--with plenty of gore--would be a major news story. After all, if it bleeds, it leads, right? Not this time.
The Saudi national once considered a �person of interest� in the Boston Bombings and who Blaze sources claim was being considered for deportation as early as Tuesday was apparently flagged on a terror watch list. Get the very latest details that Glenn Beck delivered during his Monday radio showHERE.
On Sunday, the House Committee on Homeland Security emailed TheBlaze a copy of their request to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for more information on the Saudi national originally described as a �person of interest� in the Boston Marathon bombing. Will DHS Secretary Napolitano comply? Get the full story HERE.
President Barack Obama stood outside the White House last week and lamented the defeat of the expanded background check bill in the Senate. He stood there, repeating over and over how 90 percent of all Americans wanted such a law and how it wouldn�t have infringed on the rights of a single American. He called the pro-gun lobby lairs for calling it registration. Mr. President, you are the liar!Read the rest of this piece from Tom Knighton, publisher of The Albany JournalHERE.
When TheBlaze first spoke with Erik Lowry, he was running a contest on Facebook to give away an AR-15. Now, a couple months later, the fan page for Eric's company, Pittsburgh Tactical Firearm, has been shut down, along with a secondary page he established to replace it a couple days ago. Learn Facebook's reason for the removal of the pages HERE.
Speaking on �Meet the Press,� Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick said surveillance video from the attack shows one suspect dropping his backpack and calmly walking away before the bomb inside exploded. It clearly puts 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the scene of the attack. See the clipHERE.
This weekend, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry argued that the alleged terrorists� Muslim faith is currently irrelevant in the investigation into the attack. In fact, according to Harris-Perry, the Tsarnaev brothers� faith is about as relevant to the investigation right now as Ben Affleck's movies that depict violence in Boston. Watch the jaw-dropping segment HERE.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) revealed a crucial piece of information that may explain why the elder of the two Boston Bombing suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was allowed to travel to Russia early last year. See the tiny, but crucial piece of information that may explain how he was able to slip past the watchful eye of the FBI HERE.
On Sunday, A.J. Clemente started his new gig as a weekend co-anchor with NBC affiliate KFYR-TV in Bismark, N.D. Co-anchor, Van Tieu, introduced him as her new fellow �weekend news anchor,� and Clemente was not aware his mic was on. Watch the blooper HERE.
Last week, Dove�s Real Beauty campaign released a now-viral video ad with sketches by a forensic artist comparing how women see themselves with how women see each other. On Friday, the comedy group New Feelings Time released a video of the same experiment � this time with men. The men�s description of themselves were far more confident � and hilarious. Give yourself a smile break and watch the videosHERE.
Apr 22, 2013 01:40 pm According to lead Obama investigator Mike Zullo, fear of ridicule is the number one reason authorities are not acting on the mountain of verifiable evidence of document fraud concerning Barack Obama's birth certificate. Appearing on the Carl Gallups, Freedom Friday call-in show, Zullo said, "We are dealing with a fraudulent document that would never survive [...]
Why Boston Was Attacked Is Only Hard To Figure Out If We Deny The Truth
Apr 22, 2013 01:20 pm Since last week when the Obama Administration and its media were forced to acknowledge the bombing in Boston was a terrorist act NOT carried out by the TEA party or the Klu Klux Klan, but rather by adherent Muslims, we have heard a stream of verbal gymnastics trying to absolve the murderers and somehow blame [...]
Saudi Students In U.S. Up More Than 500% Since Sept. 11, 2001
Apr 22, 2013 01:19 pm The number of Saudi Arabian students in the United States has increased by more than 500 percent since Sept. 11, 2001-when Hani Hanjour, a Saudi national who came here on a student visa flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, killing 189 people. According to the Institute of International Education-whose numbers on foreign students [...]
Video: Former Obama Adviser Says ObamaCare Uncertainty Is Driving Up Premiums
Apr 22, 2013 01:18 pm
It is unbelievable that the same Obama advisers that sold Obamacare are now out telling us about the problems. We could see these problems from the beginning and sounded the alarm. We suspect the Obama team saw the problems too, but had a bigger plan. They will now offer the solution of total socialism. Since [...]
Video: Boston Bombers Let Mercedes Owner Live Because He Was A Foreigner
Apr 22, 2013 01:17 pm
Here is a big problem we have in America, the people flooding to our shores don't like Americans and America. We welcomed these bombers into our country as refugees, and this is the thanks we get. America lets more people into our country than all other countries combined. How about we slow immigration down, not [...]
Middle Schoolers Learn Lesbian Kissing, Slut Identification
Apr 22, 2013 12:34 pm There appears to be some fierce competition among school districts to offer the most morally offensive, age-inappropriate lessons imaginable. A presentation, ostensibly focused on bullying, at Linden Avenue Middle School in New York included some unbelievable instruction that understandably outraged many parents. With boys and girls in separate classes, the program revolved around gender and [...]
Secret Emails: Cato, Norquist, Rubio Use Terror Attacks To Push Immigration Reform
Apr 22, 2013 12:27 pm Secret emails obtained exclusively by Breitbart News show the libertarian Cato Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are colluding on immigration reform messaging in the wake of the Boston Marathon terror attack in order to push the "Gang of Eight" bill that was released this past week. On Friday afternoon, political [...]
Video: Rand Paul On Benghazi, Arming Syrian Rebels And Immigration Reform
Apr 22, 2013 12:10 pm
Aaron Klein once again helps us get to the heart of the tough issues. This time he questions Senator Rand Paul. It is a joy to listen to a real journalist with real questions. Related posts: Rand Paul: Immigration Reform Needs Conservatives WASHINGTON - Tea party favorite Sen. Rand Paul said Tuesday... Rand Paul Doubles [...]
Video: Boston Bombing And Civil Liberties Violations
Apr 22, 2013 11:58 am
We don't agree with everything she says, but more often than not, Token Libertarian Girl puts a smile on our lips as she discusses important issues which need answers. Here she tackles the tough questions around the violations of civil liberties in conjunction with the searches in Watertown, MA after the Boston Marathon Bombings. This [...]
Apr 22, 2013 11:48 am MAKHACHKALA, Russia - The father of the two Boston bombing suspects says he will travel from Russia to the United States this week to seek "justice and the truth." Anzor Tsarnaev told The Associated Press that he has "lots of questions for the police" and he wants "to clear up many things." In the interview [...]
Immigration Plan Could Aid Migration From Unstable Regions, Including Chechnya
Apr 22, 2013 11:40 am The Senate's pending immigration bill would give an advantage to people seeking to immigrate from Kyrgyzstan, the former Soviet republic that provided passports to the two ethnic Chechens who allegedly bombed Boston. As part of a compromise that would replace the current "Diversity Lottery" program, countries with low rates of immigration to the United Sates [...]
Apr 22, 2013 11:21 am One of the most specious and inane arguments in politics today is that the Constitution is an arcane, anachronistic document created by imperfect men, and that it is therefore illogical to interpret it literally. They assert that the founding fathers didn't have a "crystal ball" and couldn't have foreseen issues like privacy in the 21st [...]
Apr 22, 2013 11:12 am I find it pretty amazing that the Southern Poverty Law Center missed the entire communist plot to overthrow the United States. It didn't take me that long to find the information about the communist revolution in Hawaii in 1949. Everything I ever wanted to know about a communist plot to overthrow the United States, was [...]
Video: 3 Critical Questions In The Bloody Wake Of Terror
Apr 22, 2013 10:47 am
Here are three questions we must ask in the wake of the bloody terror attack in Boston. No one in the media is asking these vital questions, so we had to do it. Related posts: Obama Politicizes Attempted Terror Attack, Blacklists Fox News Taking his vendetta with Fox News to a new low,... Bush's War [...]
Apr 22, 2013 10:41 am I just went through this in re-instating my architectural license in AZ. They wanted me to provide college transcripts, proof of registration in previous states, proof of passing the national licensing exam, and 30 year professional experience (work) history, proof of citizenship, proof of Social Security registration, and government-provided photo ID (not necessary to vote [...]
Apr 22, 2013 10:32 am It's hard to think that there are those in our government who would have innocent lives sacrificed in order to further an agenda that only they know about. This type of thinking is called conspiracy thinking and is looked down upon by those on the left and the right side of our political landscape. However, [...]
Apr 22, 2013 10:01 am Photo Credit: Fresh Conservative (Creative Commons) "One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine."-Ronald Reagan The full implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) coming soon body slams the health care industry, the American economy and our liberties. "We need to [...]
Presidential Meth Addiction In The White House At the Carlyle Hotel in New York, a man "peeled off his clothing and began prancing around his hotel suite." The man in question was delusional, paranoid and suffering a "psychotic break" from the effects of an overdose of methamphetamine. He was also the president of the United States.
White House Linked To McConnell Wiretap On December 5, 2012, a number of Democrats attended a meeting at the White House. Among those in attendance was Barack Obama's chief campaign fundraise Matthew Barzun from Kentucky...
FBI Hunting Multiple Terrorist Cells Linked To Boston Bombers The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist "sleeper cell" linked to the Boston marathon bomb brothers. Police believe Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were specially trained to carry out the devastating attack.
$3,000 Credit To Business That Hire Illegals Under Gang of Eight Amnesty Investor's Business Daily uncovered yet another controversial provision of the Gang-of-Eight amnesty plan, it would appear after an illegal is given provisional legal status, employers could then hire them, not offer insurance and not be subject to the penalty for not offering insurance under the ObamaCare mandate...
That's the question posed by the Daily Caller. The answer, unfortunately, appears to be that Rubio did not tell the truth to Levin and his audience.
During his appearance on Levin's program on April 17, Rubio referred four times to the creation of a commission led by border governors. This statement is typical of how he described the commission and its role:
If, in five years, the plan has not reached 100 percent awareness and 90 percent apprehension, the Department of Homeland Security. . .will lose control of the issue and it will be turned over to the border governors to finish the job. . .which is not a Washington commission, made up of congressmen or bureaucrats. It's largely led by the border state governors, who have a vested local interest in ensuring that that border is secure. . .and there's money set aside in the bill for them to do it.
But when Byron York read Rubio's bill, he found that if the 100 percent and 90 percent goals are not met, the job of the commission is almost entirely advisory, i.e., to make "recommendations to the President, the Secretary, and Congress" on how to meet them. The bill provides that the commission shall write a report "setting forth specific recommendations," send it to the Government Accounting Office, and then go out of business in 30 days.
Thus, Rubio was not telling the truth when he told Levin that the commission will take control of the issue and "finish the job."
As for Rubio's other assertions, it is true that the bill creates a $2 billion pot of money for the DHS to use to carry out the commission's recommendations. But the Daily Caller notes that there's nothing that compels the DHS to actually spend it on all of them, or any of them, let alone to actually achieve the "90 percent apprehension" goal.
Moreover, if the goal isn't reached, the bill does not delay the issuance of green cards to the already-legalized former illegals. Rubio seemed to suggest otherwise to Levin.
Finally, the commission isn't "largely led" by the governors" of border states. Only four of the 10 commission seats will be filled by such governors. The other six will be held by "Washington" appointments.
A Rubio spokesman took issue with part of the Daily Caller's report. He referred to a Rubio press release that states:
if the Commission recommends 200 additional miles of fencing, the Secretary of Homeland Security will be compelled to implement the recommendation. He or she will not be able to divert resources to other projects. The Comptroller General will review the plan to ensure the Commission's recommendations can be achieved with the available funds, and then DHS must use the $2 billion on exactly what the Commission says.
But there appears to be no such provision in the legislation. According to the Daily Caller, despite "repeated Twitter provacation," Rubio's spokesman did not point to a passage in the bill that says what he claims the bill says.
Earlier this afternoon, Paul described today's immigration hearing, including the testimony of Mark Krikorian, one of the few witnesses called so far who are critical of the Gang of Eight's proposal. I thought it would be of interest to our readers to post Krikorian's testimony verbatim; this is, of course, just his prepared testimony and not his answers to the Senators' questions. His testimony, while measured and even understated, shows clearly how poorly thought out the Gang's "comprehensive reform" is:
There may be circumstances under which an amnesty for certain illegal aliens would make sense. Given the pervasive and deliberate non-enforcement of the immigration laws for so many years, and the resulting large population of illegal aliens, one could make a case for clearing the decks, as it were, and making a fresh start. This would be a distasteful proposition, to be sure, given that virtually all illegal aliens are guilty of multiple felonies, among them identity theft, document fraud, tax evasion, and perjury. Nonetheless, for practical reasons conferring legal status on established, non-violent illegal aliens may well, at some point, be a policy option worth discussing.
But only after the problem that allowed the mass settlement of illegal aliens has been addressed.
S 744 takes the opposite approach. It legalizes the illegal population before the necessary tools are in place to avoid the development of yet another large illegal population. As such, it paves the way for yet more demands for amnesty a decade or so in the future, as those who entered in, say 2015, are so well-established by 2023 that we will be told that we have to permit them to stay as well.
What's more, the legalization provisions of the bill make widespread fraud very likely.
Much has been made of the so-called triggers in Sec. 3 that would permit the Registered Provisional Immigrants (RPI) to receive permanent residence. Tying the green card to achievement of these benchmarks - which include an employment authorization system for all employers, biographical exit tracking at airports and seaports, and substantial completion of two border strategies - is presented as a guarantee that this scenario of serial amnesties would not happen. Unfortunately, those triggers are, in a very real sense, beside the point.
The other triggers mentioned in Sec. 3 - those allowing the granting of the initial RPI status - are the submission by the Department of Homeland security of two plans: A "Comprehensive Southern Border Security Strategy" and a "Southern Border Fencing Strategy". Since similar plans have been frequently offered over the years, this isn't much of a hurdle.
And yet it's the only hurdle that matters because receipt of Registered Provisional Immigrant status is the amnesty - that is to say, it represents the transformation of the illegal alien into a person who is lawfully admitted to the United States.
RPI status brings with it work authorization, a legitimate Social Security account, driver's license, travel documents - in effect, Green Card Lite. It is only the upgrade of this status to that of lawful permanent resident - Green Card Premium, if you will - that is on hold until the enforcement benchmarks are satisfied. But the political and bureaucratic incentives to press for the achievement of those enforcement benchmarks are blunted by the fact that the amnesty has already happened. With people "out of the shadows" and no longer "undocumented", the urgency to meet enforcement deadlines would evaporate, especially in the face of determined opposition to enforcement by business and civil liberties groups.
To use an analogy, if you're flying to the West Coast, it doesn't ultimately matter whether you're in coach or first class - your destination is the same. By the same token, whether or not the beneficiary of the RPI amnesty is upgraded to a green card, the destination is the same - the ability to live and work in the United States. An upgrade from coach to first class may actually be more consequential than the upgrade from RPI to permanent residence; while the former results in wider seats and free drinks, all a green card offers that RPI status does not is the right to apply for citizenship, something most recipients of green cards from the IRCA amnesty had not done a quarter century after the enactment of the law.
And many of those who receive the RPI amnesty are likely to do so fraudulently. Reading Sec. 2101 harkens back to the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act's Special Agricultural Worker program, which the New York Times called "one of the most extensive immigration frauds ever perpetrated against the United States Government". The Justice Department's Office of Inspector General described it this way:
To be eligible for adjustment of status under the SAW provisions, the applicant had to prove with documentation that he or she had worked in an agricultural enterprise in the United States for 90 days in each calendar year from 1984 through 1986, or for 90 days between May 1985 and May 1986. The evidence of having engaged in such work, INS employees believed, was often forged and sold to undocumented individuals seeking U.S. residency. Given the crush of applications under the program and the relative fewer investigative resources, INS approved applications absent explicit proof that they were in fact fraudulent.
When Sec. 2101 of S 744 is considered in this light, the sources of fraud become apparent:
* If IRCA created a "crush" of applications when only 3 million people applied, what should we call the workload that DHS will face when triple the number of people - at least - apply for the RPI amnesty? The administrative capacity does not exist to handle this properly, which all but guarantees that most applications will be rubber-stamped by overwhelmed DHS staff.
* The bill says DHS "may interview", not "shall interview", applicants for the RPI amnesty. Given the aforementioned crush, it is unlikely many will be interviewed. In fact, the current DACA amnesty (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is a good model for how the administration would manage S 744's amnesty provisions. DACA processing is almost entirely paper-based, with few interviews, resulting in the approval of 99.5 percent of applications. And yet the number of cases so far decided amounts to perhaps one-fiftieth the number likely to apply for the RPI amnesty.
* S 744 allows affidavits by non-relatives regarding the work or education history of RPI amnesty applicants. Fraudulent affidavits were common among IRCA applicants, with some small farmers claiming to have employed hundreds of illegal-alien farmworkers. The temptation to fraud will be great in any program giving away something as valuable as the RPI amnesty, but the ability to investigate fraudulent affidavits will be extremely limited given the millions of applicants. And there is no realistic level of fees or penalties that could raise enough money to hire enough staff to follow up on questionable affidavits. They will be approved, as in the 1980s, absent specific proof that they're fraudulent.  * The current bill also contains a confidentiality clause, prohibiting the use of any information provided by illegal alien applicants for other purposes. This means illegal aliens with little likelihood of approval are free to apply and try their luck, knowing that there's no downside, and a significant upside.
* As a corollary to this, there is no requirement that rejected applicants be immediately taken into custody and deported. In fact, the bill specifically says that failure to qualify does not require DHS to commence removal proceedings. Again, unqualified applicants would have nothing to lose in applying, in the hope that they could fall through the cracks and get approved, something certain to happen to a significant number of people.
* As an additional incentive to fraudulent applicants, S 744 provides de facto work authorization to those merely applying for the RPI amnesty, pending the adjudication of the application. Application alone also forestalls removal, making a frivolous application an attractive option for illegal aliens with no chance at amnesty.
We don't have to speculate about the consequences of such widespread fraud. Mahmoud "The Red" Abouhalima was an Egyptian illegal alien driving a cab in New York when he fraudulently - and successfully - applied for amnesty as a farmworker. This legal status allowed him to travel to Afghanistan for terrorist training, which he put to use in the first World Trade Center attack in 1993.
A co-conspirator, Mohammed Salameh, also applied for the 1986 amnesty but was, remarkably, turned down. But since that amnesty, like the one in S 744, did not mandate the removal of failed applicants, Salameh was able to remain and assist in the 1993 bombing.
S 744 thus places amnesty before enforcement, and ensures an amnesty process that would reward fraud. A better approach would be to make the initial legalization dependent on the bill's enforcement provisions, rather than a future upgrade in status. The enforcement provisions themselves would have to be strengthened by requiring, for instance, biometric exit-tracking at all ports of entry, not just airports and seaports - as it already required in current law and as was recommended by the 9/11 Commission. Another trigger for initial legalization would have to be an explicit statement by Congress that states and localities are not preempted from en forcing civil immigration law. And any future amnesty would need to be constructed differently. Not only should all lies, however small, be punished with criminal prosecution, but the amnesty might best be conducted piecemeal, rather than addressing millions of people effectively all at once. That is to say, candidates might be considered as they are apprehended for traffic stops or factory raids or what have you, with those who fail to qualify be removed.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this important matter and I look forward to any questions you might have.
Hey everybody-it's Earth Day! I know, you can hardly contain your excitement. I'm planning to observe it as I do most sunny days on the coast: by lighting up my carbon-intensive barbecue and roasting some green weenies.
I'm behind on a lot of things these days, one of them being the update of my Almanac of Environmental Trends. I have managed to complete an update of the air quality section, and here's a bit of news I'll bet you see nowhere in the mainstream media today: conventional air pollution, according to the most recent EPA data (through 2010; through 2012 in California) is falling like a rock. Between 2008 and 2010, emissions of the six main air pollutants fell by one-third. See Figure 1b and the two tables below. (Click to enlarge.)
Some of this was the result of the recession, but an equally large part of it is explained by two other factors: the rapid switch from coal to natural gas in the electricity sector (the result of the fracking-led gas boom that environmentalists oppose), and the ongoing turnover of the auto and truck fleet from older, higher-polluting models to new, state-of-the-art vehicles whose emissions are astonishingly low. Investors Business Daily has more on this subject today, drawn chiefly from my assembled database.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media are starting to get a few things.The Washington Post's editorial page yesterday featured a house editorial entitled, "Europe is becoming a green energy basket case." This is pretty delicious:
FOR YEARS, European leaders have flaunted their unwavering commitment to fighting climate change - and chastised the United States for lagging behind. But last week brought yet more confirmation that the continent has become a green-energy basket case. Instead of a model for the world to emulate, Europe has become a model of what not to do.
Of course, the editorial ended badly, saying the United States should "put a price on carbon"-but isn't this what the Europeans tried to do? I suspect this editorial was written by committee, or more likely that this dolorous conclusion was inserted by a higher up late in the editorial process.
Over at American.com, Ben Zycher gives a nice sampling of all of the busted flushes of environmental doomsaying over the years, such as the Associated Press reporting in May 1989 that "Using computer models, researchers concluded that global warming would raise average annual temperatures nationwide two degrees by 2010." (Of course, it's the AP, so we know right away it's going to be wrong.) And at Freedomwork.com, Jon Gabriel offers his list of The 13 Worst Predictions from Earth Day 1970. My favorite, from Harvard biologist George Wald: "Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind."
And today is a good occasion to take note of a good book that I have neglected to mention here previously: Elizabeth Nickson's Eco-Fascists: How Radical Conservationists Are Destroying Our Natural Heritage. Normally I don't go in for titles and themes that include "fascism" in the title for some of the ordinary reasons, but Nickson, a former European bureau chief for Life magazine and reporter for Time (which sound suspiciously like mainstream media cred, no?), makes a solid case that even if most people with environmental sympathies aren't fascistic authoritarians, the activists on the margin who drive policies and regulation are. Moreover, Nickson documents how most of these efforts actually have contrary effects than the stated intentions, which suggests that the real agenda is something different than the stated agenda. They may not take their environmentalism as far as the Earth Day co-founder who composted his girlfriend after he killed her (now that's full lifecycle analysis and genuine recycling!), but the strain of green-uber-alles is definitely present.. Nickson's well-written book is worth a read.
I'm spending the day watching the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the Gang of Eight immigration bill. Thus far, there have been two panels and a total of 11 witnesses. Unfortunately, none addressed, or is qualified to address, the core issue of border security.
The first panel dealt with the issue of agricultural workers. All three witnesses testified in favor of the legislation, which would provide a path to a Blue Card and then to citizenship for farm workers who are here illegally, as well as a guest worker program through which to replenish the agricultural work force as the current force moves into more desirable jobs.
The key thing to remember about this issue is that, as Sen. Cruz pointed out, the needs of the agricultural industry could be met through a guest worker program without offering a path to citizenship to anyone who is in this country illegally. A second point, made by Sen. Sessions, is that there is every reason to expect strong pressure to legalize those who would come here under the guest worker program once their six year stay is over.
The second panel consisted of eight witnesses, all of whom support the legislation, but some of whom argued for a changes that would liberalize it.
Seven of the eight witnesses testified about how provisions pertaining to legal immigration would benefit business. The other witness, former Rep. Jim Kolbe, testified in favor of extending family unification provisions to gay and lesbian couples. Kolbe is gay and plans to marry a Panaminian male.
As with the earlier panel, all of the business needs cited by the panelists could be met without creating a path to citizenship.
For those keeping score, the Committee has now heard from 13 witnesses, 12 of whom support the Gang's bill. None has any expertise in the area of border security.
To date, there has been more testimony about "unifying" gay couples than about border security. That, I think, speaks to the seriousness of the legislation's proponents when it comes to border security. Yet border security is at the heart of the bill and, indeed, is supposedly the trigger for amnesty and a path to citizenship.
A third panel is about to convene. I will report on its testimony later.
UPDATE: The third panel contains six witnesses. Four of them support the Gang of Eight legislation. They are two Hispanic activists, a local pastor, and an immigration lawyer. None has testified about border security, nor would any be qualified to do so.
Two of the witnesses oppose the legislation. They are Mark Krikorian and Jim Kobach, the secretary of state of Kansas. Neither has experience in border enforcement, but both appear knowledgeable about the issue and obviously have carefully analyzed the legislation as it applies to enforcement and amnesty. Both delivered withering attacks on the enforcement and amnesty provisions of the Gang's bill. I'll summarize these attacks in a subsequent post.
We'll see whether the proponents on the Committee take them on. Chairman Leahy studiously avoided questioning either Krikorian or Kobach. I hope and expect that Sen. Schumer (who "called out" Krikorian, though not by name, earlier in the day) and Sen. Graham will tread where Leahy feared to go.
FURTHER UPDATE: Minnesota's Amy Klobucher takes a pass on questioning Krikorian and Kobach.
Jeff Sessions questions the pastor as to whether Scripture forecloses a nation from taking serious action to enforce its immigration laws, past and present. Going one step further, Sessions cites Scripture in support of such enforcement.
Sessions also defends his estimate that the Gang's bill might well result in the legalization of 30 million people.
Durbin asks Kobach about the "dreamers" - those who were brought to America as youngsters. Kobach says that the children should be treated like others of the same nationality, and not be given the opportunity to take advantage of their being here illegally. The child, in other words, should neither be punished nor rewarded for the sins of the parent.
Durbin falls back on the fact that the four Republicans in the Gang agreed with him, after much discussion. Not much of an argument. He then asserts that "we're a better a country" with the "dreamers" being legalized. Again, this is the triumph of assertion over genuine argument.
I think we're a better country when our laws are respected, rather than being trumped by disregard for the law on a massive scale.
Sen. Cornyn asks the pastor about a provision that would allow illegals who have two convictions for drunk driving, domestic violence, or child abuse to be eligible for amnesty and a path to citizenship. The pastor, David Fleming of Houston, admits this makes him somewhat uncomfortable. One would hope so.
Al Franken ducks Krikorian and Kobach. We have a new way of separating the lightweight Democrats on this Committee from the non-lightweights. Let's call it the Krikorian/Kobach test.
Sen. Coons, who defeated Christine O'Donnell in the 2010 Delaware Senate race, ducks Krikorian and Kobach. I think we already knew he's a lightweight.
Sen. Blumenthal questions Kobach about the dreamers, and how they differ from those who are born here to illegal immigrants (by law, they are legal). It's a fair and interesting question, but not very helpful in determining whether the dreamers should be legalized. The proper response to one mistake is not to repeat the same mistake or a similar one.
As expected, Sen. Schumer asks Krikorian a question. The question is whether Krikorian favors lower levels of legal immigrtion. Krikorian says yes, but the more important issue is what to do about illegal immigrants. That ends Schumer's questioning and also this panel.
The fourth panel consists of six witnesses - three in favor of the legislation and three opposed. The three in favor are Mark Shurtleff, former Utah attorney general; Bill Vidal, former mayor of Denver; and Grover Norquist. In their statements, none of the three said anything substantive about border enforcement. Only Shurtleff even gave it a nod.
The first of the three witnesses opposed to the legislation was Janice Kephart, former counsel to the 9/11 commission. She testified that the system established by the Gang of Eight bill would not stop terrorists. She also explained the defects of the trigger for amnesty. I'll discuss them in another post.
The next opponent witness was Chris Crane head of the union that represents employees of ICE. He is the first witness with hands on experience in immigration enforcement.
Not coincidentally, Crane was excluded from ever appearing before the Gang of Eight, even as union and big business representatives virtually camped out with the Gang. Indeed, Crane testified that when he tried to ask a question at a press conference in which the bill was unveiled, the police and Senate staff escorted him out of the room. The Gang's treatment of Crane - which is about what one would expect from a real gang - tells us all we need to know about the lack of good faith of Sens. Schumer, Rubio, etc.
Crane testified that the bill ignores the problems that are making enforcement of the immigration laws so difficult. It gives more discretion to those in government who are refusing to enforce the law. How, he wondered, can one depend for enforcement on a government in which the president refuses, as President Obama has, to apply provisions of the immigration law with which he disagrees?
Crane also denounced the bill's unwillingness to use bio-metrics. This, he said, renders the bill "ineffective yesterday."
The third opponent witness, Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, testified persuasively that illegal aliens take more in services than they pay in taxes. The reason is that illegal immigrants as a group are poorly educated, and poorly educated immigrants as a group take more in services than they pay in taxes.
Norquist's response on this issue was less persuasive. He asserted his mindless mantra that "people are an asset, not a liability," and referred to a study by Douglas Holtz-Eakin (who testified on Friday) - a study that Camarota showed to be flawed.
The Senators are now questioning the members of this panel, but I'm going to sign off at this point.
You may already know this, but the ISB mosque in Cambridge referenced in your Power Line post has a long history, and the group I belong to has been part of it. You can learn more at this Web site.
It will be very interesting to see what turns up from various investigations, including our own. As for the Boston Globe, they have responded with utter indifference, over a period of nearly a decade now, to the information we have given them about the radicalism of the mosque's leaders. They are apparently continuing this pattern in the face of the Marathon bombing.
Our Muslim partner [name omitted] visited this mosque several years ago and was so appalled at what he heard there that he never went back. He told us: "I left Egypt to escape the Muslim Brotherhood and found out that they had got here first."
In my post yesterday, I mocked the Boston Globe's failure to identify the mosque attended by Tamerlan Tsarnaev and quoted from the Los Angeles Times story reporting that Tamerlan Tsarnaev followed "radical Islam." The Globe catches up with the story and seems to be doing some damage control on behalf of the mosque in "Bombing suspect broke angrily with Muslim speakers."
The Times reported on a service mosque at the Islamic Society of Boston cultural center that Tsarnaev attended near his apartment in Cambridge:
The imam had held up slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as an example of a man to emulate, recalled one worshiper who would give his name only as Muhammad.
Enraged, Tamerlan stood up and began shouting, Muhammad said.
"You cannot mention this guy because he's not a Muslim!" Muhammad recalled Tamerlan shouting, shocking others in attendance.
The Times has now inserted this note:
[For the Record, 11:25 a.m. PDT April 21: A previous version of this post stated that a worshiper said Tamerlan Tsarnaev had an outburst during a prayer service at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, which is in Roxbury Crossing. The alleged outburst occurred at the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge. A photo of the incorrect location has been removed from the post. The post also has been updated to include comments from a leader of the Cambridge mosque disputing the claim that Tsarnaev had been ejected.]
Boy Scouts issue resolution draft - you need to see it
Final vote to be held next month - we will hand-deliver your petition!
April 19, 2013
Dear ##FirstName[AFA Supporter]##,
The Boy Scouts of America has released a proposed resolution that will continue to ban homosexuals from serving as leaders, but will allow for "gay" boys to join the ranks. This resolution was drafted by liberal members of the BSA National Committee.
Here's the key language:
While the BSA does not proactively inquire about sexual orientation of employees, volunteers, or members, we do not grant membership to individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals or who engage in behavior that would become a distraction to the mission of the BSA.
Youth membership in the Boy Scouts of America is open to all youth...No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.
This doesn't make sense. The BSA resolution creates two standards of "morally straight" which are totally contradictory to each other.
In essence, the resolution doesn't allow a gay adult to go camping with boys, but may put an "experienced" gay 17-year-old inside a tent with a 12-year-old boy on his first campout. This creates a perfect environment for sexual abuse within scouting.
On May 23, the BSA will hold a vote on the resolution during its annual meeting in Texas.
AFA will hand-deliver your petition to the Boy Scouts of America, urging a full rejection of this proposed resolution.
Take Action - Support Scouting!
1. Sign this petition to the Boy Scouts of America. AFA will hand deliver this petition to the BSA on May 22, one day before the vote takes place. 2. Visit or call your local council executive.Contact information here. Politely share your concerns and ask your local council representatives to vote against any change to the current membership policy. 3. Please use the link above to "share" this alert with your Facebook friends. Urge them to sign the petition too!
Sign your petition to the Boy Scouts of America now!
It is very important that you forward this alert to your friends and family members.
Sincerely,
Tim Wildmon, President American Family Association
Common Core Standards: How States Are Roped In By Kelsey Harris
What happens when the federal government extends its overreach into America's classrooms? Should all states be forced to teach kids the same thing?
Heritage's Lindsey Burke, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education, debated the repercussions of the Obama Administration's push for national education standards on "Stossel" Thursday night.
Kathleen Porter-Magee of the Fordham Institute, which has been a major proponent of Common Core standards, argued that states were accepting the new standards "voluntarily."
In response, Burke explained how the Obama Administration used federal dollars to convince "cash-strapped" states to agree to national education standards.
"You were prioritized in winning a grant if you agreed to adopt Common Core," Burke said. "And now we have waivers from No Child Left Behind which were conditioned in large part upon adoption of Common Core standards."
"Competition, after all, improves education just as it improves most other things. When schools compete, parents can choose the one that's right for their child's learning needs, and that helps everyone."
Dozens of studies from around the U.S. show that school choice benefits students, says a new report from the Friedman Foundation for Education Choice.
A Bipartisan Tax Increase on Everything You Buy Online
Pro-tax Senators are trying to ram their unfair, anti-free-market internet sales tax bill through the Senate. Make no mistake: this bill gives an unfair advantage to brick-and-mortar businesses over their Internet competitors.
For the past 21 years, businesses have made their decisions based on the free-market rules. Now that brick-and-mortar companies are feeling the heat of competition from their Internet-based counterparts, they've called for a rules change. This is not fair; it is not conservative; and, it is anti-free-market.
This internet sales tax bill does not remove any burdens from businesses. Rather, it adds draconian and costly new burdens to Internet businesses, likely forcing many to set up outside the United States.
Conservatives must tell their Senators that we strongly oppose this new, unfair tax.
Sincerely,
Russ Vought Political Director Heritage Action for America
Why are states so eager to collect taxes on Internet sales?
In short, because they could grab money from other states.
Heritage legal expert David Addington lays it out:
Like the money-hungry federal government, many state governments have financial and political interests in getting their hands on more and more money to grow their governments. It is not surprising that many of those state governments find out-of-state businesses to be lucrative and politically easy targets for tax legislation.
Addington explains how this would work. Take, for example, a company whose workforce and warehouses are in New Hampshire. This company has no contacts with Illinois other than taking remote sales orders over the Internet.
The Internet sales tax proposal would allow Illinois politicians to use the New Hampshire company as their tax collector. The New Hampshire company would have to collect Illinois sales tax on its remote sales to Illinois residents and send the taxes to the Illinois state government.
As The Wall Street Journal puts it, "Small online sellers will therefore have to comply with tax laws created by distant governments in which they have no representation, and in places where they consume no local services."
Who's hurt?
Consumers nationwide could be hit with higher prices.
State politicians, who find it politically easy to impose tax collection duties on out-of-state businesses that have no say on taxes or tax procedures in that state.
States collecting new tax revenue to grow their governments.
The Senate is likely voting today on this proposal. As Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) put it, "what this is about is officials in cash-strapped states across the country looking for new ways to plug their budget holes."
And because Congress would be allowing states to grab from other states, Addington notes that "all the politicians get to hide from the consequences of their own tax decisions."
The bottom line: "Less money in the pockets of people, more money for big government."
Commissars at the White Fortress have announced that a Saudi Arabian traveling pressure-cooker salesman, who happened to be watching the Boston Marathon and coincidentally was hospitalized because of unexplained chemical burns, is being quickly deported in the interests of world harmony and international friendship.
The Department of Crime Redistribution issued a memorandum saying that Middle Easterners had fulfilled their international violence quota through their hard work in Afghanistan, Syria, and Mali, and so no further international terrorism could be attributed to them this fiscal year.
Last week, the Senate Gang of Eight unveiled its "comprehensive" immigration reform plan just after 2 a.m. Wednesday morning. The pro-amnesty and open borders lobbies are wasting no time in trying to ram this bill through Congress before the American people have a chance to understand the bill's detrimental effects!
Proponents of the amnesty legislation argue they are allowing the bill to be addressed in a fair and open manner, yet they insist on holding hearings on the legislation before anyone has a chance to read the bill in its entirety.
In fact, the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on the 844-page legislation Friday morning, barely 48 hours after the Gang introduced it. Now the Senate Judiciary Committee is currently holding a second hearing on the legislation, featuring 23 witnesses-all of whom have unlikely had time to read the near 900-page bill either.
The Gang claims its bill is not a special path to citizenship, will secure the border, and will strengthen worksite enforcement. This is simply untrue. In reality, the bill:
Grants amnesty (referred to as "registered provisional status" by Gang members) to illegal aliens who came to the U.S. before 2012. This will be done after the Secretary of Homeland Security merely issues PLANS to secure the border and add fencing-not actually secures the border;
Grants an expedited path to citizenship in just five years to illegal aliens who entered the U.S. before the age of 16 and meet certain criteria regardless of their current age;
Gives a green card in five years to illegal alien farm workers whopledge to continue working in ag for a certain period of time;
Allows previously deported illegal aliens to apply for amnesty if they are a spouse, parent, or child of a U.S. citizen or green card holder, or entered the country unlawfully before the age of 16 and meet additional criteria;
Grants green cards in 10 years to those given provisional status so long as:
the Secretary's border security and fencing plan is "substantially" in place,
E-Verify is simply "implemented" but not yet used by all employers,
and an exit system is in place at only air and sea ports but not land ports of entry;
Waives the above conditions to granting green cards to provisional amnestied aliens if one or more of the conditions are tied up in court after 10 years; and
Grants millions of dollars to organizations to help illegal aliens submit amnesty applications.
Starting tomorrow, Organizing for Action, President Obama's campaign arm,is urging its members to call Congress to support this amnesty bill.
Don't let their voices be the only ones your Members of Congress hear. Tell your Members you've had enough of the Gang of Eight's lies. Americans need jobs and our immigration laws enforced, not more D.C. pandering to special interests!
- Let them know that the Gang of 8 bill won't secure the border and will weaken enforcement laws!
- Need help? Read FAIR's 1-page summary of the Gang of Eight bill.
Amnesty Watch
Mon Apr
22
Today: NEW POLL - BAD NEWS FOR THE AMNESTY BILL... HELP US BUILD MOMENTUM!
GAINING MOMENTUM?
We have gained some traction over the past several weeks and with your help, we can build on our momentum. As this debate ramps up, pro-amnesty groups are gearing up to spend $150 million dollars in support of the bill but polling shows far more Americans are passionately against the amnesty than for it.
We don't have that kind of money, but we do have the voters -- IF YOU SPEAK UP.
Since NumbersUSA began running TV and radio ads in February highlighting the amnesty leadership of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), his popularity among South Carolina voters has plummeted, according to a new Winthrop University poll.
Although he retains majority support among Republicans, his approval rating among them fell from 71.6% in February to 57.5% in April.
Graham has shrugged off questions when national journalists ask him about the effectiveness of NumbersUSA's educational campaign about the Senate Amnesty Bill, but the poll numbers suggest that he should take notice.
Graham's approval rating among all registered voters has fallen to 43.9%, according to the university poll. He is up for re-election in 2014. Two Republicans are threatening a challenge in the primary next year: state Sen. Lee Bright and former congressional candidate Richard Cash.
Sen. Graham has been saying that South Carolinians support giving work permits to illegal aliens, but a recent poll of likely South Carolina voters paints a different picture:
QUESTION: Congress is considering a bill to give work permits to an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. Support or oppose? 38% SUPPORT
57% OPPOSE
-- Pulse Opinion Research
It is VITAL that you act now as the other side ramps up their push for amnesty.
WITH ONE CLICK on the red box below, you can send a message to your Senators urging them to oppose the Gang of Eight Amnesty Bill.
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Senate Amnesty Bill Raises National Security Concerns
Just days after its introduction, the Senate Gang of Eight's amnesty bill is already raising national security concerns. The bill would legalize approximately 12 million illegal aliens through a process that protects them at every turn and makes it harder for DHS to detain or remove them.
Senate Bill Contains Slush Fund for Pro-Amnesty Groups
Buried within the Gang of Eight's 844-page bill is a boon to the pro-amnesty and immigration lawyer lobbies that grants DHS the discretionary authority to award newly-created "Initial Entry, Adjustment, and Citizenship Assistance" grants to "eligible public or private, non-profit organizations."
Senate Holds First Hearing on Gang of Eight Amnesty
Barely two-days after the Gang of Eight introduced its 844-page amnesty bill in the early morning hours Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on the legislation.
NC House Introduces Conflicting Omnibus Immigration Bill
Earlier this month, the North Carolina House introduced an omnibus immigration bill entitled the RECLAIM NC Act. Although the bill contains several good provisions that strengthen North Carolina law, there are other provisions in the bill that will only make North Carolina more desirable to illegal aliens.
FAIR's Hold Their Feet to the Fire Provides Counterbalance to Mainstream Media's Amnesty Euphoria
Last Wednesday and Thursday, FAIR's annual Hold Their Feet to the Fire event brought 46 talk radio hosts to Washington, D.C., to discuss immigration. For two days, these hosts and numerous guests were able to provide listeners around the country the truth about the detrimental impact an amnesty and expanded immigration would have on most Americans.
EARTH DAY: A day of action to save the earth from farmers, ranchers, mining, timber, oil, chemical companies, and anyone else who seeks to utilize the planet's resources to enhance, enrich, and extend the lives of people worldwide.
Characterized by the media's massive awareness drive to (a) remind the world that U.S. capitalists are raping the earth, stealing its riches, and causing environmental problems; (b) advocate a greater government control of land, resources, and industries; and (c) increase the ever growing white male guilt levels.
A great way to hijack spring cleaning and politicize the rebirth of nature.
Our previous celebrations of Earth Day / Lenin's Birthday:
Suspect #3: Congressmen confirm Saudi national was to be deported for terrorist activity
TheBlaze has been reporting on the Saudi national who was initially in custody before suddenly being ruled out as a possible third suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Today there are more breaking details. Glenn goes through the stunning timeline and the media's not so stunning neglect of the story. WATCH
GB called it: NJ Senator now going after gun powder
Senator Frank Lautenberg has used the Boston Marathon attacks to do exactly what Glenn predicted some idiot politician would do: Go after gun powder. The N.J. Dem has introduced two new amendments to a gun bill that would restrict the Second Amendment even further. Will it pass? MORE
Penn Jillette wants you to Get TheBlaze: Watch Penn's special message about TheBlaze TV HERE.
The really bizarre Saudi/US relationship
The United States and Saudi Arabia have a very odd relationship. There's something about it that seems to trump all national interests during a time of crisis. Shortly after 9/11 over 140 Saudis were rushed out of the country (when everyone else couldn't fly anywhere), a fact that wasn't revealed until three years later. Now something similar appears to be happening. What gives? WATCH.
Exclusive Offer from 1791: Pre-order an autographed copy of Glenn's new book CONTROL and get 1791's new 'Stands with the NRA' t-shirt or 'The Gun Debate, Settled Since 1791' t-shirt for a special price! This is a very limited offer, only available while supplies last. Get yours at 1791.com before it's too late!
Opine first, ask questions later: TheBlaze TV's B.S. of A. brings you the hilarious new segment 'Rush to Judgment'. WATCH
Why wasn't the suspect given Miranda Rights?
During a press conference shortly after the apprehension of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the U.S. attorney assigned to the case confirmed that no miranda rights were given to the suspect, who is an American citizen. Why would the government feel it's okay to deny a citizen, albeit a dirtbag, their rights? Full story and Glenn's reaction HERE.
Great news! The ninth episode in the WRATH & RIGHTEOUSNESS e-book series has been released!
Wrath & Righteousness examines the eternal battle between Light and Darkness while asking one of the fundamental questions of our existence: what is mankind's relationship to the spiritual world? Download the previous episodes HERE and get ninth episode in the 10-part series HERE. Have a question or comment about the series? Visit our newly updated FAQ page.
Tonight's primetime lineup on TheBlaze TV
5pm ET -The Glenn Beck Program: More important data on the Saudi national who was allegedly a "person of interest" in the Boston bombings.
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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 
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.
The Boy Scouts of America has released a proposed resolution that will continue to ban homosexuals from serving as leaders, but will allow for "gay" boys to join the ranks. This resolution was drafted by liberal members of the BSA National Committee.
Commissars at the White Fortress have announced that a Saudi Arabian traveling pressure-cooker salesman, who happened to be watching the Boston Marathon and coincidentally was hospitalized because of unexplained chemical burns, is being quickly deported in the interests of 
EARTH DAY: A day of action to save the earth from farmers, ranchers, mining, timber, oil, chemical companies, and anyone else who seeks to utilize the planet's resources to enhance, enrich, and extend the lives of people worldwide.
Suspect #3: Congressmen confirm Saudi national was to be deported for terrorist activity
