What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Not good news……
From Inquisitr “ISIS is clearly feeling the pain after weeks of intense air strikes against it by the U.S.- led coalition fighting the spread of the terrorist organization in the Middle East.
Employing its familiar tactics, the Islamic State is now threatening to execute the 150 Assyrian Christians they have taken hostage in Syria.
While initial reports suggested that between 70 and 100 people had been taken captive, according to the Daily Mail the true figure is thought to be almost double, including many women, children and elderly people.
It is thought that a new ISIS video is in the making which will address American President Barack Obama. It will tell him that if the air strikes don’t stop, the 150 Christian hostages will be killed.”
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2. Bibi declines a Democrat offer to meet behind closed doors.
From TheJerusalemPost “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an invitation by Senate Democrats to meet during his visit to Washington next week, citing fears it might “compound the misperception of partisanship” surrounding the trip.
“I regret that the invitation to address the special joint session of Congress has been perceived by some to be political or partisan,” reads the letter, obtained by The Jerusalem Post. “I can assure you that my sole intention in accepting it was to voice Israel’s grave concerns about a potential nuclear agreement with Iran that could threaten the survival of my country.”
The letter was addressed to Senators Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California), who invited the prime minister to discuss his concerns in detail to Democrats in a closed-door environment, in addition to the address.
Netanyahu said he considers the speech an opportunity to address the representatives of the American people, and not of one particular political party.”
So the quarrel intensifies.
From MSN/AP ” Trading barbs, the U.S. and Israel escalated their increasingly public spat Wednesday over Benjamin Netanyahu’s GOP-engineered congressional speech next week, with the Israeli prime minister accusing world powers of rolling over to allow Tehran to develop nuclear weapons. Secretary of State John Kerry openly questioned Netanyahu’s judgment on the issue.
The comments injected new tension into an already strained relationship between the close allies ahead of Netanyahu’s address to Congress next Tuesday. More Democratic lawmakers announced they would skip the speech, which was orchestrated by GOP leaders without the Obama administration’s knowledge.
Netanyahu hopes his speech will strengthen opposition to a potential nuclear deal with Iran, President Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy objective. U.S. and Iranian officials reported progress in negotiations this week on a deal that would clamp down on Tehran’s nuclear activities for at least 10 years but then slowly ease restrictions.”
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3. Vermont is considering legal action against Jonathon Gruber.
From RedAlertPolitics “A Vermont state auditor is blowing the whistle on Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber’s suspect “billing practices.”
In a memo sent to Administration Secretary Justin Johnson Monday, Auditor Doug Hoffer presents evidence that suggests Gruber “overstated” the hours worked on his economic modeling contract for the state, as reports the Burlington Free Press. Hoffer is therefore referring the issue to Attorney General William Sorrell, who himself expressed concern about the “serious questions” raised by the auditor.
The $400,000 contract began in July 2014, and thus Gruber was working on it when his comments about Obamacare’s “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter” went viral last November.
The contract was renegotiated in November following the media reports of the MIT professor’s comments and Gruber’s billing was kept under watch.
“The evidence suggests that Dr. Gruber overstated the hours worked by the RA and that the Agency of Administration ignored the obvious signs that something was amiss,” the state auditor writes in the memo.”
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4. Are police abusing forfeiture laws? Sure looks like it.
From TheDetroitFreePress “Thomas Williams was alone that November morning in 2013 when police raided his rural St. Joseph County home, wearing black masks, camouflage and holding guns at their sides. They broke down his front door with a battering ram.
“We think you’re dealing marijuana,” they told Williams, a 72-year-old, retired carpenter and cancer patient who is disabled and carries a medical marijuana card.
When he protested, they handcuffed him and left him on the living room floor as they ransacked his home, emptying drawers, rummaging through closets and surveying his grow room, where he was nourishing his 12 personal marijuana plants as allowed by law. Some had recently begun to die, so he had cloned them and had new seedlings, although they were not yet planted. That, police insisted, put him over the limit.
They did not charge Williams with a crime, though.
Instead, they took his Dodge Journey, $11,000 in cash from his home, his television, his cell phone, his shotgun and are attempting to take his Colon Township home. And they plan to keep the proceeds, auctioning off the property and putting the cash in police coffers.”
It’s been over a year, no charges, yet police refuse to return his property. There are numerous other examples as well.
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5. Looks like Obama isn’t the only one… 😆
From YouGov “Only 71% of under-30s say they ‘love America’ compared to 93% of over-65s – but Americans tend to think Obama loves the country“
“YouGov’s latest research shows that Americans do tend to think that Barack Obama does, in fact, love America. 47% say that the president loves America, while 35% agree with Rudy Giuliani that the president does not. There is a predictably large partisan divide on the issue, however, with 85% of Democrats saying that he loves America and 69% of Republicans saying that he does not. Independents are roughly divided on the issue, with 42% saying he loves the country and 38% saying he doesn’t.”
“When Americans themselves are asked whether they love America, under-30s are noticeably less likely than their elders to say that they love America. 93% of over-65s and 90% of people aged 45 to 64 say that they love America, but only 71% of under-30s also say that they love America. 15% of under-30s say that they do not love America, while 14% aren’t sure.”
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6. Related to the above? 😆
From RedAlertPolitics “American millennials really can’t catch a break.
If they aren’t getting bad news from the latest unemployment numbers or the student loan debt dollars, they aren’t getting disappointing news from a new study comparing them to the rest of the developed world.
The new analysis, released Tuesday by the Educational Testing Service, makes use of data collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development through a project called the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, according to Inside Higher Ed.
It focused on millennials, defining the generation as those between 16 and 34, and focused on three areas of study — literacy, numeracy and problem solving.
The U.S. did not fare well.
The U.S. ranked last in both numeracy and problem solving. They were tied with Italy and Spain for last in numeracy and tied with Slovak Republic, Ireland and Poland in problem solving.”
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Wandering Views 
#6 The reasons for this are numerous, centering around the lack of discipline, the availability and addiction to social media and lack of spiritual and moral direction throughout the culture.
I’m not certain about the outcome of this, but China and the Islamists are waiting for us.
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#4. This is happening in America? Michigan, I presume. And nothing can be done?
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That’s only because they didn’t interview MY millennials, four, all of whom could have run circles around Ireland.
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Mine too, Michelle.
But they were reared with certain responsibilities. They had lots of advantages this generation had, but they were accountable.
😆 Chuck was always amazed how Becky could arrive at exactly 10:59.9 p.m.
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Here comes a news dump. There’s some winners…
With R’s like these, who needs D’s?
Here comes Holder 2.0….
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/loretta-lynch-attorney-general-committee-vote-115539.html
“Loretta Lynch cleared a key vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday in her bid to become the nation’s next attorney general, picking up support from three Republicans on the panel in favor of her confirmation.
The vote was 12-8. The three Republicans who backed her nomination, along with all committee Democrats, were Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
The next battle is on the Senate floor, where the federal prosecutor from Brooklyn is still expected to have enough GOP backing to be confirmed. But the controversy over President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration have overshadowed her nomination — particularly after her confirmation hearing last month, where she testified that those unilateral moves are legal.”
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Once again, the president ignores any and all attempts at oversight. They just do as they please……
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/treasury-wont-explain-decision-to-make-3-billion-in-obamacare-payments/article/2560739
“The U.S. Treasury Department has rebuffed a request by House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis., to explain $3 billion in payments that were made to health insurers even though Congress never authorized the spending through annual appropriations.
At issue are payments to insurers known as cost-sharing subsidies. These payments come about because President Obama’s healthcare law forces insurers to limit out-of-pocket costs for certain low income individuals by capping consumer expenses, such as deductibles and co-payments, in insurance policies. In exchange for capping these charges, insurers are supposed to receive compensation.
What’s tricky is that Congress never authorized any money to make such payments to insurers in its annual appropriations, but the Department of Health and Human Services, with the cooperation of the U.S. Treasury, made them anyway.”
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Mark Cuban takes Obama’s internet takeover to it’s obvious conclusion.
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/02/26/cuban-fcc-net-regs-will-spill-over-tv-as-you-know-it-is-over/
“Dallas Mavericks owner and investor Mark Cuban predicted that proposed FCC Internet regulations will end up impacting TV and “your TV as you know it is over” on Thursday’s “Squawk Alley” on CNBC.
Cuban began by predicting “the courts will rule the Internet for the next however many years.” He then explained, “let’s just take it all the way through its logical conclusion. All bits are bits, all bits are equal. If all bits are equal, then let’s look at what a stream bit is an example. So when Henry and I do an interview, and it’s streamed lived on the Internet, there’s a camera, it goes through an encoder, it sends it out via server or some manner to the Internet, you click on Business Insider and you watch the stream, right? Now, let’s look at CNBC on Comcast. There’s cameras right in front of you, they go through a switcher, they go through an encoder, it’s put through a server, it goes to Comcast, and it’s streamed in a managed service environment to television. It’s the exact same thing. And if it’s the exact same thing technologically and all bits are equal, then why shouldn’t CNBC and all TV networks that are delivered on cable, and Telco, and fiber like Verizon, why shouldn’t they be part of the open Internet as well? And if they are and all bits are equal, now, let’s take it one step further. It’s the purview of the FCC now. The FCC, right? So, the FCC now has to apply their same standards to content, don’t they, that they do to television content because that’s where it is and there’s going to be certain citizens who think ‘well now, since all content is delivered over the Internet because all bits are bits, and it’s a fair, and open, and equal Internet — decency standards.’ And remember the FCC is the same agency that fought Nipplegate for eight years over a wardrobe malfunction.”
He added, “your TV as you know it is over.””
That decency standards thing could turn ugly. TV’s bad enough, but if the internet is the new standard, it’ll go further downhill real quick.
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Told ya….
They can’t do it legislatively it, so they’ll go the dictator route….
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2560750
“It’s starting.
As promised, President Obama is using executive actions to impose gun control on the nation, targeting the top-selling rifle in the country, the AR-15 style semi-automatic, with a ban on one of the most-used AR bullets by sportsmen and target shooters.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this month revealed that it is proposing to put the ban on 5.56mm ammo on a fast track, immediately driving up the price of the bullets and prompting retailers, including the huge outdoors company Cabela’s, to urge sportsmen to urge Congress to stop the president.
Wednesday night, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, stepped in with a critical letter to the bureau demanding it explain the surprise and abrupt bullet ban.”
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If this was a Republican administration, you’d have been seeing this story 24/7 since Tuesday.
http://weaselzippers.us/215380-state-dept-official-arrested-for-soliciting-sex-with-minor/
“A U.S. State Department official was jailed Tuesday on a charge of soliciting a minor.
Daniel Rosen was arrested at his home in Washington, D.C., about noon Tuesday and was in custody at the D.C. jail Tuesday night, said Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Department spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell.
Rosen, 44, was arrested “following a series of online exchanges” with a detective assigned to the Fairfax County Police Department’s Child Exploitation Unit, Caldwell said. He was charged with one count of “use of a communications device to solicit a juvenile.””
“In a statement issued Tuesday night, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the department was aware that one of its employees had been arrested and charged but “for issues related to Department personnel and for privacy reasons” could not identify the person or the charges.”
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So is this the clown responsible for the recent “Everyone’s an extremists except for Islamic terrorists who we can’t mention them” summit?
“Rosen’s Linked In profile, if accurate, reveals he’s the guy responsible for the State Department’s “Countering Violent Extremism” programs.”
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Austria has passed a law banning foreign money from Islamic groups.
http://news.yahoo.com/austria-passes-law-islam-banning-foreign-money-muslim-194501339.html
“Austria’s parliament passed a law on Wednesday that seeks to regulate how Islam is administered, singling out its large Muslim minority for treatment not applied to any other religious group.
The “Law on Islam” bans foreign funding for Islamic organizations and requires any group claiming to represent Austrian Muslims to submit and use a standardized German translation of the Koran.
The law met with little opposition from the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic population, was backed by Austria’s Catholic bishops, and was grudgingly accepted by the main Muslim organization. But it upset Turkey’s state religious establishment.
“We want an Islam of the Austrian kind, and not one that is dominated by other countries,” said Sebastian Kurz, the 28-year-old conservative foreign minister – formally the minister for foreign affairs and integration – who is easily Austria’s most popular politician.
Austria’s half a million Muslims make up about 6 percent of the population and are overwhelmingly the families of Turkish migrant workers. Many of their imams are sent and financed by Turkey’s state religious affairs directorate, the Diyanet.”
Maybe we should do the same with the Saudi’s? Not the messin’ with their interpretations or restricting anyone’s religious freedom, just their money unless they can show it’s legitimate and not funding anti-US activities. Too restrictive?
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In a Democrat stronghold? Oh say it isn’t so……. 🙄
Remember the old days when the press would be all over a story like this? You know, the old days, like 7 years ago…..
This is the second story on this from the Guardian, the first can be linked there.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/held-for-hours-at-secret-chicago-black-site-youre-a-hostage-its-kidnapping/ar-BBhZwD3
“A woman who says she was shackled to a bench within Chicago’s secretive interrogation facility for 18 hours before being permitted access to a lawyer described the ordeal as being “held hostage’’ in the police compound that has been likened to a CIA black site.
Vic Suter, a protester arrested before the 2012 Nato summit in Chicago, has told the Guardian about her experience of being detained inside Homan Square, a warehouse where multiple detainees allege they have been unable to contact legal counsel. Suter described a situation in which she was neither booked nor permitted a phone call – in defiance both of Chicago police procedures and a statement by police on Tuesday attempting to deny the Guardian’s reporting.
Suter’s account echoes that of Brian Jacob Church, whose story of extended detention without public notification and delayed legal access was featured in a Guardian’s exposé on Tuesday.
At the nondescript warehouse on Chicago’s west side, lawyers and arrestees say police detain suspects and witnesses for hours without booking or otherwise posting public notifications of their whereabouts, preventing their relatives and attorneys from knowing where they are.
Suter, whose recollection was backed up by her former lawyer Lillian McCartin, said she was shackled by her right wrist to a bar behind a bench in Homan Square for approximately 18 hours before she was permitted access to her attorney.
“The stark difference between Homan and a county jail or a precinct that has holding cells or any other concept of a common jail that most Americans have is that you have no rights at Homan,” Suter said.”
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