“President Obama’s budget, to be released next week, will limit how much wealthy individuals – like Mitt Romney – can keep in IRAs and other retirement accounts.
The proposal would save around $9 billion over a decade, a senior administration official said, while also bringing more fairness to the tax code.
The senior administration official said that wealthy taxpayers can currently “accumulate many millions of dollars in these accounts, substantially more than is needed to fund reasonable levels of retirement saving.”
Under the plan, a taxpayer’s tax-preferred retirement account, like an IRA, could not finance more than $205,000 per year of retirement – or right around $3 million this year.”
“Delays in implementing popular pieces of ObamaCare are hurting it with Democrats.
Ahead of an election year in which Republicans promise to make healthcare an issue again, Democrats are criticizing the White House for delaying policies that could help build support for the unpopular law.
“Senate Republicans will have the opportunity to campaign against Obamacare’s rising health care costs, burdensome paperwork and broken promises and could use it to motivate voters against Democrat candidates, especially vulnerable ones in red states,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said.”
“A mob threw rocks and fired birdshot Sunday at several hundred Christians marching in a protest against Egypt’s Islamist government after the funeral of four Christians killed in sectarian clashes over the weekend.
The Christians were chanting slogans against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, just as several thousand did earlier during the funeral service nearby in the Coptic Orthodox cathedral in Cairo.
Riot police later arrived, firing tear gas at the Christians and the mob. Several tear gas canisters landed inside the cathedral’s grounds, causing a panic among women and children who attended the funeral.”
Central Security Forces are being accused of allowing the attack to continue.
Tweeted by Alastair Beach on site……
“Csf doing absolutely nothing to stop the fighting. Standing around as the rocks and molotovs continue to fly over the wall”
Meanwhile a group of 700 retired special forces members are asking the House to investigate Benghazi. From Breitbart
“Seven hundred retired Military Special Operations professionals from the organization “Special Operations Speaks” sent a letter to the House of Representatives urging members to support H.Res 36, which will create a House Select Committee to investigate last September’s deadly terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
“It appears that many of the facts and details surrounding the terrorist attack which resulted in four American deaths and an undetermined number of American casualties have not yet been ascertained by previous hearings and inquiries,” the letter states. It continues further, “Additional information is now slowly surfacing in the media, which makes a comprehensive bipartisan inquiry an imperative. Many questions have not been answered thus far.” The letter puts forth over twenty unanswered questions the select committee should address.
Congressman Frank Wolf, a sub-committee chairman on the House Appropriations Committee, issued a resolution for a House Select Committee to investigate issues surrounding the Benghazi Attack last November in the 112th Congress. He re-issued his resolution for the select committee when the 113th Congress began. The resolution currently has over 60 co–sponsors.”
The mother of one of the victims is speaking out against the White House handling of the situation. From Mediaite
“On Friday, Sean Hannity brought Pat Smith, mother of the late Sean Smith, on his radio program. The 34-year-old information management officer was one of four Americans murdered in the Benghazi embassy attack on September 11, 2012.
In the chilling interview, a distraught Ms. Smith, in tears, pleaded for answers and spoke of the efforts to silence her.
Ms. Smith first relayed how her son, prior to the attack, requested additional security in advance and warned the State Department:
He did tell them, ahead of time, he typed it into his little typewriter over there, that they were going to be attacked, ‘please they needed more security,’ and they were ignored. And I don’t appreciate everybody going to bed and going to sleep and not taking care of the guys that they put in harm’s way, one of them being my son.”
We talked a little last week about the love Hollywood and the left have with terrorists and radicals. It’s a new week, new celebrity, and new radical, but it’s the same old story. Greg Gutfeld has noticed too. And while he may be a bit abrasive, I don’t see where he’s wrong. He seems to have nailed it if you ask me.
From TheFive on Fox with a content warning for extreme sarcasm.
“Gutfeld: Why The Left Embraces Armed Radicals, Mocks Law-Abiding Gun Owners”
“Progressive groups and lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), are blasting the Obama administration for cuts to Social Security and other programs expected to be unveiled in the president’s budget next week.
One progressive group, Democracy for America, is threatening primary challenges to those Democrats who support the cuts.”
““The Senate just last month went on record in opposition to the president’s approach. In poll after poll, the American people are overwhelmingly against cutting Social Security. And organizations representing a broad spectrum of millions of Americans from the AFL-CIO to the American Legion to AARP to NOW have urged the president not to make this terrible mistake,” Sanders said in a statement.”
“The Obama administration has gone to court to try to block a subpoena from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York seeking White House documents about the government’s requirement of insurance coverage for birth control.
The subpoena requesting documents from President Barack Obama and his senior advisers would be burdensome to fulfill, the administration said in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the suit also argues that civil subpoenas of the president’s executive office are inappropriate except in extraordinary circumstances.”
Not surprising. There’s a lot they don’t want seen.
“A record 89,967,000 Americans were not in the labor force in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is an increase of 663,000 from the 89,304,000 Americans who were not in the labor force in February.
Since President Barack Obama was first inaugurated in January 2009, 9,460,000 people have dropped out of the labor force.”
Here’s some nice Tweets to put it in perspective for ya’.
James Pethokoukis@JimPethokoukis
10.98%: What the unemployment rate would be if labor force participation was the same as in January 2009
8.3%: What the unemployment rate would be if labor force participation was the same as in March 2012
“Mr. Tapper quoted the president as saying, “It is possible for us to create common sense gun safety measures that respect the traditions of gun ownership in the country, and hunters and sportsman, but also make sure that we don’t have 20 children in a classroom gunned down by a semi-automatic weapon — by a fully automatic weapon in that case.”
Mr. Tapper corrected Mr. Obama, pointing out that the weapons used in the Newtown, Conn., massacre were semi-automatic. He also reminded his audience about an interview on ABC’s “Nightline” just days after the shooting in which Mr. Bloomberg described the weapons used in the attack with characteristics only fully-automatic weapons possess.
“It might help the advocates of gun control if, in their advocacy for stricter measures, they seemed more familiar with what they are trying to ban,” Mr. Tapper said.”
They have no clue. Most don’t even seem to have a basic understanding of what they’re talking about.
“Trayvon Martin’s parents have settled a wrongful death claim for an amount believed to be more than $1 million against a Florida homeowners association where their teen son was killed, Fox News confirms. ”
This one I find personally insulting, as I’m sure will many other vets. This is what happens when liberals with agendas run the military. The Army claims it was an isolated incident. And where did this govt employee get this info on scary terror groups like us? Why the SPLC of course. Disgusting.
“A U.S. Army training instructor listed Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of religious extremism along with Al Qaeda and Hamas during a briefing with an Army Reserve unit based in Pennsylvania, Fox News has learned.
We find this offensive to have Evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church to be listed among known terrorist groups,” said Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. “It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization.”
The incident occurred during an Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief on extremism. Topping the list is Evangelical Christianity. Other organizations listed included Catholicism, Al Qaeda, Hamas, the Ku Klux Klan, Sunni Muslims, and Nation of Islam.”
And lastly this. I linked to something on this before, but then the judge issued a gag and the subject was dropped. Needless to say, prosecutors sought to keep this info from the record. And the public.
“In a revelation that may have Colorado voters rethinking their state’s push on gun control, court documents revealed that the mass shooting in Aurora that killed 12 and injured 70 more could have been prevented by law enforcement. The psychiatrist for suspect, James Holmes, had warned campus police that Holmes was dangerous and homicidal a month before the shooting took place. Lynne Fenton even told the police that Holmes had begun to stalk and threaten her, and yet no action was apparently taken:
Lynne Fenton, a psychiatrist at the Denver campus, told police that Holmes had also “threatened and harassed her via email/text messages” in June 2012. He is standing trial for the July 20 shooting rampage that killed 12 and injured 70 during a midnight premiere of the latest Batman movie. …
Soon after the shooting, university police said they had not had any contact with Holmes, a graduate student doing neuroscience research. But a search warrant affidavit released Thursday revealed that an officer had told investigators that Fenton had contacted her to report “his danger to the public due to homicidal statements he had made.””
“The prosecution had tried to keep these records sealed, and it’s not difficult to see why. (They can be viewed at KUSA’s website, where they were posted last night.) The narrative from political and law-enforcement leaders in Colorado has been that this could have been anyone with a gun who just flipped out, and a society without gun control cannot hope to stop it. But Holmes didn’t just flip out shortly before the murder, and police had ample warning of the danger he presented.”
More gun laws wasn’t the solution to this. The police enforcing existing laws may have prevented it.There were plenty of laws broken that would warrant arrest. Yet he wasn’t even interviewed. Amazing.
“Report: U.S. backing off shows of force against North Korea for fear of what Kim might do”
“This isn’t merely a failure of nerve, it’s a failure of intelligence and a failure to keep operational secrets. The White House had a “playbook,” agreed to by O, Hagel, and John Kerry, on how to rattle its saber at North Korea during the next crisis without rattling it so much that NK would get spooked and do something rash. E.g., first comes some B-52 flights over South Korea, then the B-2s make a cameo, then the F-22s, and so forth. Problem one: Kim’s gone further in his bellicosity than U.S. analysts expected and now they’re unsure if they know where his personal red line is. Problem two: The deployment of two destroyers last weekend to the Pacific wasn’t part of the “playbook” and wasn’t supposed to be publicized. That was a bona fide strategic move, not a show of muscle-flexing designed for North Korean and international consumption. But then the news leaked and the Navy confirmed it, which turned the deployment into an inadvertent, potentially war-sparking audible.
One screw-up on top of another, so now it’s time to cool things off before someone gets nuked.”
“The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) may have thought it had the upper hand when it filed suitagainst a North Carolina county for opening its board meetings with explicitly Christian prayers. After all, the federal Establishment Clause of the Constitution prohibits the government from interfering with citizens’ religious exercise.
But a new bill introduced in the North Carolina state legislature would protect the county’s right to prayer in an unconventional way: by nullifying any federal regulations or court rulings regarding religion.
Eleven House lawmakers already have signed on to the bill, which “would [allow North Carolina to] refuse to acknowledge the force of any judicial ruling on prayer in North Carolina—or indeed on any Constitutional topic,” according to WRAL, a local news source.
“In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, a top lobbyist for the ACLU announced that the group thinks Reid’s current gun bill could threaten both privacy rights and civil liberties.
The inclusion of universal background checks — the poll-tested lynchpin of most Democratic proposals — “raises two significant concerns,” the ACLU’s Chris Calabrese told TheDC Wednesday.
Calabrese — a privacy lobbyist — was first careful to note that the ACLU doesn’t strictly oppose universal background checks for gun purchases. “If you’re going to require a background check, we think it should be effective,” Calabrese explained.”
I don’t know why the ACLU is making a big deal of this. Obama and Reid have both assured us this national registry thing won’t happen. Yeah, except once again they’re being dishonest.
“As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) must know, Americans who own firearms have a special sensitivity to a “Big Brother” federal government that wants to keep centralized records on who owns what guns and where in America. Loose language in his gun control bill (S. 649) could start America down that slippery slope.
Since the Second Amendment guarantees to the people the right to keep and bear arms, many Americans look askance at efforts to create centralized records that might some day, in some distant future neither wanted nor expected, facilitate a despotic government’s efforts to disarm the populace or ensure that its supporters but not its opponents possess arms. Some Americans look at history and view that concern as far-fetched; others look at history and see careful attention to that concern as essential to maintaining freedom.
Congress has attended carefully to the concern about a federal gun registry in the past.”
“Unfortunately, the Reid legislation deviates from this strong guarantee that protects against misuse of the NICS process to start a national firearms registry.”
Meanwhile, more obvious flaws with their approach emerge. They say they want a national conversation on guns, yet they ignore obvious pieces of the conversation. Not shockingly, the part of the conversation that points to Hollywood as part of the problem. Must protect the cash cow.
“There was something missing from President Obama’s Wednesday speech in Denver about gun violence. He focused almost exclusively on passing gun-control laws, and not at all on one of the nation’s biggest promoters of violence: the entertainment industry.
The president’s campaign against gun violence has produced a stale debate marked by lots of speeches with little achieved. A more creative chief executive would have used this moment to widen the discussion by drawing attention to the increasingly graphic violence so pervasive in television shows, movies and videogames. Mr. Obama is particularly well positioned to challenge Hollywood because of his special relationship with the media world’s elites. They might be more likely to heed criticism coming from Mr. Obama than from any other president or member of Congress.”
“Let me try to understand this: The key incentive for small businesses to support Obamacare was that they would be able to shop for the best deals in health care super-stores—called exchanges. The Administration has had 3 years to set up these exchanges. It has failed to do so.
This is a really bad sign. There will be those who argue that it’s not the Administration’s fault. It’s the fault of the 33 states that have refused to set up their own exchanges. Nonsense. Where was the contingency planning? There certainly are models, after all—the federal government’s own health benefits plan (FEHBP) operates markets that exist in all 50 states. So does Medicare Advantage. But now, the Obama Administration has announced that it won’t have the exchanges ready in time, that small businesses will be offered one choice for the time being—for a year, at least. No doubt, small business owners will be skeptical of the Obama Administration’s belief in the efficacy of the market system to produce lower prices through competition. That was supposed to be the point of this plan.”
“The White House recently released details about how it plans to market ObamaCare to the uninsured. What it reveals is that most of them don’t want what the administration is trying to force them to buy.”
“Let’s leave aside for a minute the oddity of this effort. Its backers have endlessly touted ObamaCare as a miracle of modern government that will at long last bring insurance within reach of 48 million people who desperately want it. Besides, the law mandates that everyone buy ObamaCare coverage.
So why the need for a big marketing push at all?”
“What they’ve learned since is that more than half of the 48 million who the government says are uninsured aren’t interested in health insurance, which is why they don’t bother to buy it in the first place.”
“Walgreen Co. has expanded the reach of its drugstore clinics beyond treating ankle sprains and sinus infections to handling chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure.
The company, based in Deerfield, Ill., said Thursday that most of its 370 in-store Take Care Clinics now will diagnosis, treat and monitor patients with some chronic conditions that are typically handled by doctors.
Drugstore clinics, which are run by nurse practitioners or physician assistants, have grown popular in recent years as a convenient way for patients to get immunizations, physicals and treatment for relatively minor illnesses when their regular doctor is unavailable. But the clinics have been broadening their scope of care: Walgreen’s decision follows a move by CVS Caremark Corp. a few years ago to handle chronic conditions at most of its 640 MinuteClinics.”
“Vader, a system originally used to track the Taliban, finds that more immigrants elude capture at the U.S.-Mexico border than previously estimated.”
“The number of “gotaways,” as the Border Patrol calls those who escape apprehension, is both more precise and higher than official estimates.”
“According to internal reports, Border Patrol agents used the airborne radar to help find and detain 1,874 people in the Sonora Desert between Oct. 1 and Jan. 17. But the radar system spotted an additional 1,962 people in the same area who evaded arrest and disappeared into the United States.
In contrast, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, estimated in January that the Border Patrol had caught 64% of those who illegally crossed into the Tucson sector in 2011.”
They say they catch 64%. The actual numbers are less than 50%.
“President Obama argues that more border security is not a necessary first step before legalizing the status of illegal immigrants already here. But most voters are willing to support immigration reform only if it includes both border security and a way for some illegal immigrants to remain in the country.
Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Likely U.S. Voters favor an immigration plan that gives illegal immigrants legal status to stay in the United States provided the border is really secured to prevent future illegal immigration. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 25% are opposed to this plan. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
That North Korea things is getting a bit outta hand. From Google
“North Korea dramatically escalated its warlike rhetoric on Thursday, warning that it had authorised plans for nuclear strikes on targets in the United States.
“The moment of explosion is approaching fast,” the North Korean military said, warning that war could break out “today or tomorrow”.
Pyongyang’s latest pronouncement came as Washington scrambled to reinforce its Pacific missile defences, preparing to send ground-based interceptors to Guam and dispatching two Aegis class destroyers to the region.”
“Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday that the United States had the right to take preemptive military action against North Korea if there was “solid evidence” that Kim Jon Un planned to attack the U.S. or South Korea.
“If we have good reason to believe there’s going to be an attack, I believe we have the right to take preemptive action,” King said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett Outfront.”
“I don’t think we have to wait until Americans are killed or wounded or injured in any way,” he continued. “I’m not saying we should be rushing into war, don’t get me wrong, but if we have solid evidence that North Korea’s going to take action, then I think we have a moral obligation and an absolute right to defend ourselves.””
“Today the “Spared by the Sequester” spotlight falls once again on the Agency for International Development. On March 29, USAID awarded $3,881,188 to Chemonics International, Inc. to help implement reforms to Armenia’s pension system.”
Now this one is being blamed on Sequester cuts, but that doesn’t really make sense. How exactly does a 2% reduction in INCREASED spending cause this, yet 70 billion of 700 billion in ObamaCare cuts hasn’t impacted it? Really? I’m not buyin’ it. And I’d also note that this is small clinics affected, not hospitals.
“Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, blaming the sequester budget cuts.
Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.
Patients at these clinics would need to seek treatment elsewhere, such as at hospitals that might not have the capacity to accommodate them.”
First the Unions get exemptions, and now they’ll be paid to help the commoners navigate a system they’re not forced to participate in, at least to start. Nice racket they got goin’ there.And of course the ACORN type community activist folks get a cut too. It’s the Chicago way after all. 🙄
“Tens of thousands of health care professionals, union workers and community activists hired as “navigators” to help Americans choose Obamacare options starting Oct. 1 could earn $20 an hour or more, according to new regulations issued Wednesday.
The63-page rulecovering navigators, drawn up by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, also said the government will provide free translators for those not fluent in English — no matter what their native language is.”
“That could be an expensive proposition. The proposed rules, now open for public comment, suggest an estimated pay of $20-$48 an hour.”
And this one doesn’t surprise me. There are many military jobs where this will be the case. That’s not sexist, it’s the physical realities and differences in the sexes. Unless the standards are lowered.
“The only two women to participate in the Marine Corps Infantry Officer Course (IOC) failed ongoing tests to determine which infantry positions should be available to women, according to the Marine Corps Times:
The women failed the introductory Combat Endurance Test, a punishing test of physical strength and endurance, officials at Marine Corps headquarters said Tuesday. The latest class began March 28 at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., with 110 lieutenants participating. Ninety-six men passed the initial endurance test. Twelve men and two women — the only female Marines taking part — failed.
The two women both volunteered to participate in the IOC. Two other women had previously volunteered in September but also failed.”
Byran York points out the obvious. Let’s face it, immigration reforms are necessary. But you can’t solve the issue while more continue to pour in. Secure the border, then we can talk. Why is that such an unreasonable request? Why set the whole process up for failure because you’re unwilling to secure the border? Do the right thing, and you get what you want. It’s a simple enough concept.
“We’ve come to a basic agreement,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Sunday, talking about the Gang of Eight’s progress crafting a comprehensive immigration reform bill. “First, people will be legalized … then we will make sure the border is secure … and after that happens, there’s a path to citizenship.”
Much of the public discussion about immigration reform has focused on the requirement that the border be proved secure before the creation of a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants currently in the country illegally. But Schumer laid out the progression correctly. The still unfinished Gang of Eight plan would first legalize those 11 million (provided they have not committed any serious crimes), and after that would come efforts to improve and certify border security, and then, finally, the path to citizenship.
That first step, immediate legalization, could prove a stumbling block for reformers once it becomes better known. In general, a majority of the public believes that enhanced border security must precede everything else when it comes to immigration reform.”
Here’s a “Conservative Approach to Immigration Reform” from TheLATimes
“A consensus has been building about the need to reform and modernize our immigration system. While I am optimistic that Republicans, including “tea party” members, will support reform, it must be done right. We must create a system for the 21st century and beyond, one that honors the rule of law, provides a fair path for those seeking to come to the United States and fixes our broken borders.
We must not fall prey to the mistakes made by earlier immigration reform efforts. An estimated 11 million or more undocumented people live in our country. Most Americans understand their quest for freedom, but they are here illegally. Successful reform will not reward them, and it must prevent another wave of illegal immigrants who will demand that we legalize their status 10 or 20 years from now.
I am in a unique position to understand the problem. I practiced immigration law for 15 years and experienced the difficulty of working within the current patchwork of immigration laws. As a state legislator and now a member of Congress, I have been frustrated with a bureaucracy that creates inefficiency in the labor market, lacks the proper tools to protect us from threats at the border and does nothing to discourage illegal immigration.
The starting place — the trigger for reforming and modernizing our immigration system — must be securing our borders and effectively enforcing our immigration laws before any legal status is granted to those here illegally.”
In other news the White House has defied the Senate’s wishes and signed the UN Small Arms Treaty. The Senate already squashed this idea, so the idea that they’d get 2/3 to go along and ratify it is silly. A symbolic, empty gesture at best. So when they make a big deal of Obama signing it remember, it’s just posturing, nothing more.
“The Obama administration defied a majority of the Senate on Tuesday by voting to approve a United Nations treaty on the trade of small arms and other conventional weapons.
The treaty, overwhelmingly approved by the U.N., requires countries to create internal mechanisms to ensure that their arms exports aren’t likely to be used to harm civilians or violate human rights laws.
President Obama is expected to sign the treaty within the next few months, but it faces a tough road to win the two-thirds majority support needed in the Senate for approval.”
“FACT: Nearly 40% of all gun sales don’t require a background check under current law. #DemandAction”
— tweet from @BarackObama, March 28
“Two months ago, we were willing to cut the White House some slack, given the paucity of recent data. But the president’s failure to acknowledge the significant questions about these old data, or his slippery phrasing, leaves us little choice but to downgrade this claim to Three Pinocchios.
“Much of the national discussion in the wake of the Newtown schoolhouse shootings has focused on limiting gun ownership by high-risk people. But to truly address the many homicides committed in America’s cities, lawmakers also need to ensure there are real consequences for illegally carrying a gun on the street. Regardless of whether or not the gun was lawfully obtained—carrying one illegally is a more serious offense than possession, since it is directly linked with high murder rates.
In 2012, 506 people were murdered in Chicago. According to an analysis of homicide data by the University of Chicago Crime Lab, nearly 86% of those killings were committed with a firearm, and more than three-fourths occurred outdoors, virtually all with illegally carried guns. Across the country in 2010, guns were used in 11,078 homicides—and illegally carried guns were a central element in most of the killings.
Although gun offenses are generally taken seriously when they are part of crimes such as homicide, aggravated assault or robbery, the act of illegally carrying a gun itself typically doesn’t incur significant punishment. Many judges often seem to focus on the fact that no one was hurt, and so they treat these cases leniently—often by sentencing offenders to probation. Time behind bars is saved for those who commit “real” crimes.”
And why don’t they? Why because it would be racist to do so. The DoJ and Obama admin have been very clear on that. PC stupidity trumps actual deterrents. So they go with useless “feel good” stuff that doesn’t work instead.
It’s all about controlling people’s perceptions and false fronts with this guy. Even TheNYTimeshas noticed.
“A photo of the Obamas hugging that was released on Election Day 2012 has become the world’s most popular tweet on Twitter. A dressed-up version of Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, packed with charts and graphs, is huge on YouTube. A playful picture of the president cavorting with a 3-year-old in a Spiderman costume is a favorite online.
It’s all courtesy of the Obama image machine, serving up a stream of words, images and videos that invariably cast the president as commanding, compassionate and on the ball. In this world, Obama’s family is always photogenic, first dog Bo is always well-behaved and the vegetables in the South Lawn kitchen garden always seem succulent.
You’ll have to look elsewhere for bloopers, bobbles or contrary points of view.”
I’ve posted a few stories the last couple of days on the leftist lunacy which seems to have completely taken over the establishments of “higher” learning. Here’s yet another example of a possible reason for such radicalism. They love their radicals. First Weather Underground member Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn were embraced by academia, now another of their co-conspirators is as well.
“Former Weather Underground radical Kathy Boudin — who spent 22 years in prison for an armored-car robbery that killed two cops and a Brinks guard — now holds a prestigious adjunct professorship at Columbia University’s School of Social Work, The Post has learned.
Boudin, 69, this year won another academic laurel — being named the Sheinberg Scholar-in-Residence at NYU Law School, where last month she gave a lecture on “the politics of parole and re-entry.”
This coincides nicely with Hollywood about to glorify these terrorists in a new sympathetic Robert Redford piece, titled oddly enough, “The Company You Keep” From TheBlaze
““The Company You Keep” tells the story of a 30 year long FBI manhunt for a Weather Underground terrorist, to be played by Redford, who must evade law enforcement after his identity is outed by an ambitious reporter (LaBeouf).
The producers may have already given a peek at the politics behind the film. Voltage producer Nicolas Chartier, who has teamed up with Redford’s Wildwood Enterprises production company for the project, said of the movie that:
“This is an edge-of-your-seat thriller about real Americans who stood for their beliefs, thinking they were patriots and defending their country’s ideals against their government.””
Your house. Except you can’t visit it unless you’re rich and well-connected because rich squatters have taken over. Tours are canceled for you little people.
“At a “workshop” for the film 42 in the State Dining Room of the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama told the assembled guests that “this is your house, too.”
“I want to make sure that you all know how welcome you are here in this house, because the truth is we do these things — we make sure that we do these workshops so that you all know that this is your house, too,” Obama told the guests. “So we want you to make yourselves at home. We want you to feel good and relaxed and learn and ask questions, okay?”
The White House is currently not allowing the public to tour or access the White House. Only invited guests are allowed inside.”
Sorry.The least they could do is give us cake to eat. Even Marie Antoinette had cake……
And while you stand around wishing you had some cake, the pretty people will be partying. In the White House of course. Turns out there’s still enough money for parties. Good thing too, otherwise they’d need another vacation.
“Next week Justin Timberlake, Al Green, Queen Latifah, and many others will perform at the White House in a “Memphis Soul” concert, the White House announced today.
“As part of their ‘In Performance at the White House’ series, the President and First Lady will invite music legends and contemporary major artists to the White House for a celebration of Memphis Soul music. The program will include performances by Alabama Shakes, William Bell, Steve Cropper, Al Green, Ben Harper, Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper, Joshua Ledet, Sam Moore, Charlie Musselwhite, Mavis Staples and Justin Timberlake, with Booker T. Jones as music director and band leader. The President’s remarks will be pooled press and the entire event will be streamed live on www.whitehouse.gov/live starting at 6:55 PM ET. ‘In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul’ will be broadcast Tuesday, April 16 at 8 PM ETon PBS stations nationwide (check local listings). The program will also be broadcast at a later date via the American Forces Network to American service men and women and civilians at U.S. Department of Defense locations around the world,” the press release reads.”
You can’t come in for a tour, but at least they’ll let you watch while they have fun. That’s nice of ’em.
And finally this. In case you haven’t heard, the President has proclaimed April the Month to Teach Youths ‘How to Budget Responsibly’. Since it was released on the 1st everyone thought it was an April Fools joke. But no, he’s serious. So I guess we’ll now teach kids that it’s OK to overdraft your account, ignore doing a budget, and spend money like you have it even when you don’t. You know, like the President. 🙄
Megyn Kelly does the mocking, so I don’t have too. 🙂
“A blurry blob on a hospital screen is the first view most expectant parents get of their child. But new state-of-the-art imaging software is now able to map a foetus in incredible detail. The software takes a conventional 3D ultrasound scan and adds colour, skin texture, lighting and shadows.”
“The technology gives unparalleled clarity and allows parents to see the face of their child before it is born.
There is also a 4D version which means mothers and fathers are able to see their baby smiling and kicking in the womb in realtime.”
Needles to say, pro-abortion groups will continue to fight legislation which makes it a requirement.
“Former CIA director Mike Hayden credits “an incredible band of sisters” for the success of the operation that found and brought down Osama bin Laden. Now one of those sisters has been appointed acting chief of the CIA’s National Clandestine service. It is a major milestone for women at the CIA, the first time in the agency’s history that a female officer has headed the clandestine service.
But The Post reportsthat CIA Director John Brennan is “hesitating” at giving her the position on a permanent basis, because of her past association with the CIA’s rendition, detention and interrogation (RDI) program.
This is an outrage. According to several former senior CIA officials I spoke with, the officer is highly respected and unquestionably qualified for this post. Denying her this promotion because of her role in the RDI program would not only be a personal injustice, but also send a chilling message through the ranks of the CIA. It would effectively tell hundreds of talented officers who were involved in the program — who constitute the best and brightest of the agency’s counterterrorism professionals — that their careers over. It would push the agency back into a risk-averse, pre-Sept. 11, 2001, mindset, sending an unmistakable signal to CIA officers across the world: Don’t take risks in the fight against the terrorists; if you want to advance, play it safe.”
“The Student Government Association at Johns Hopkins University compared pro-life students to white supremacists and denied them official club status at the school.
“They were denied status because the students on the student council felt being pro-life violates their harassment policy,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America.“
“Another SGA member said they objected to pro-life displays at Johns Hopkins, saying she “felt personally violated, targeted and attacked at a place where we previously felt safe and free to live our lives.”
Violated? Really? 🙄
Overly dramatic and intolerant maybe, but not much else.
Well we learned yesterday that amnesty is coming. We also learned that there’s an influx because of it on our unsecure southern border. All by design I might add.And the writers took the time to video and photograph some of the illegal crossings.
“As the immigration reform Gang of Eight inside the Beltway prepares to announce a deal later this week, claiming border security will come before a path to citizenship for millions of illegals, Border Patrol agents have seen illegal border crossings double and warn the cutting of agent work hours will only result in less border security, not more.
“We’ve seen the number of illegal aliens double, maybe even triple since amnesty talk started happening,” an agent told Townhall, who asked to remain unnamed due to fears of retaliation within Customs and Border Protection [CBP], something he said is common. “A lot of these people, although not the majority, are criminals or aggravated felons. This is a direct danger to our communities.”
Data obtained by Townhall and reported within CBP from February 5 through March 1, 2013 shows 504 illegal aliens were spotted exploiting the Tucson/Nogales area, 189 were caught on CBP intelligence cameras. Of those 504, only 174 were apprehended and 32 of the 189 on camera were carrying large drug load packs for Mexican cartels. Some were armed with AK-47 style weapons.”
Here’s more on the cartel strategy, which is exploiting the lax security Obama is responsible for.
“Mexican drug cartels whose operatives once rarely ventured beyond the US border are dispatching some of their most trusted agents to live and work deep inside the United States — an emboldened presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world’s most lucrative narcotics market and maximize profits.
If left unchecked, authorities say, the cartels’ move into the American interior could render the syndicates harder than ever to dislodge and pave the way for them to expand into other criminal enterprises such as prostitution, kidnapping-and-extortion rackets and money laundering.
Cartel activity in the US is certainly not new. Starting in the 1990s, the ruthless syndicates became the nation’s No. 1 supplier of illegal drugs, using unaffiliated middlemen to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and heroin beyond the border or even to grow pot here.”
Must be filling those jobs that Americans won’t do or something.
“Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators working on an immigration-reform bill, said Sunday the group had agreed on a deal to be unveiled soon and that he was confident the bill would eventually be signed into law by President Obama.
“We’ve got a deal,” said Graham on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “2013 I hope will be the year we pass bipartisan immigration reform, signed into law.””
“Sen. Charles Schumer, another member of the immigration group gave a similar timeline. He said the final draft will be done this week, Senate Judiciary Committee hearings would be in April, and the bill could hit the floor for a vote as early as May.”
“The pastor at the Washington, D.C. church where the Obama family celebrated Easter on Sunday said members of the religious right want blacks “in the back of the bus,” women “back in the kitchen” and immigrants “back on their side of the border.”
“It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back…for blacks to be back in the back of the bus…for women to be back in the kitchen…for immigrants to be back on their side of the border,” Rev. Dr. Luis Leon said in his sermon, according to the White House press pool report.”
We have an interesting read here from FreedomWorks
“As a 15 year old, I never imagined my activism in politics would translate into controversy for me at school.
My name is Benji Backer and I attend a public high school in Appleton, Wisconsin. I have always supported the public school system and plan to do so for the rest of my life. Many Americans who stand up for the public school system and the unions believe there is no attempt to sway opinion or that students with opposing beliefs are singled out. Unfortunately, experiences I have had with harassment and bullying prove that wrong. This is a timeline of the most extreme cases of harassment and indoctrination I have had in the three different public schools I have attended over the last three years.
I am currently in my freshman year of high school and the incidents are happening more frequently and I believe are more severe. As you can imagine, the ongoing pressure and bullying has been disturbing to me, my friends and my family.”
“The former superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools and nearly three dozen other administrators, teachers, principals and other educators were indicted Friday in one of the nation’s largest cheating scandals.
Former Superintendent Beverly Hall faces charges including racketeering, false statements and theft. She retired just days before a state probe was released in 2011 and has previously denied the allegations. The indictment represents the first criminal charges in the investigation.
The previous state investigation in 2011 found cheating by nearly 180 educators in 44 Atlanta schools. Educators gave answers to students or changed answers on tests after they were turned in, investigators said. Teachers who tried to report it faced retaliation, creating a culture of “fear and intimidation” in the district.”
“Were California’s state government a business, it would be a candidate for insolvency with a negative net worth of $127.2 billion, according to an annual financial report issued by State Auditor Elaine Howle and the Bureau of State Audits.
The report, which covers the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, says that the state’s negative status — all of its assets minus all of its liabilities — increased that year, largely because it spent more than it received in revenue.”
More NY news, this is not as good. Also from TheNYPost
“New York’s big government — with its hands deep in taxpayers’ pockets and regulations controlling everyone’s lives — has made the Empire State the worst in the nation for personal liberty, a new study shows.”
“The university found New York’s government slams citizens from every angle — from huge taxes to tight controls on business to myriad rules on all kinds of fun.
“New York has, by a wide margin, the highest taxes in the country,” the report found.”
“Airport operators are mounting a legal challenge to the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to cut funding for 149 air traffic control towers, accusing the agency of violating federal law meant to ensure major changes at airports do not erode safety.
Several airports are now asking a federal court to halt the plan and compel the FAA to more carefully study the potential safety impact, said Carl Olson, director of the Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington, Ill. He warned that without a more cautious approach, lives will be put at risk by cuts that he contends are arbitrary and the result of reckless political brinkmanship in Washington.
“I think everybody’s going to realize what the industry knows, and that is there is a razor thin margin of error in aviation and any diminishment of safety is going to have an immediate and cascading effect,” Olson said in an interview Friday. “And all the talk to the contrary won’t change that fact.”
Hey it was either this or less vacations. Guess which one they picked? 🙄
“Governments and rights organizations are decrying raids by Russian authorities on more than 2,000 international and domestic advocacy groups, what observers say is an unprecedented campaign to silence critics of the Kremlin.
In the past couple of weeks, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has conducted surprise inspections at hundreds of locations, including the offices of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Transparency International.
In addition, Russian groups that receive money from foreign donors have been targeted, as have religious groups, environmental advocates, and cultural exchange and education programs.”
“Ben Carson, the noted pediatric neurosurgeon, has become the target of a petition by Johns Hopkins students who want him removed as the medical school’s commencement speaker this spring.
Dr. Carson became a media sensation in January when he questioned Obamacare and progressive taxation in a speech to the National Prayer Breakfast as President Obama sat just a few feet away from him.
With his new prominence, Carson has apparently also riled some liberals, including these Johns Hopkins students. Last Tuesday, he told Sean Hannity of Fox News that “marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn’t matter what they are, they don’t get to change the definition.””
“Florida legislators considering a bill to require abortionists to provide medical care to an infant who survives an abortion were shocked during a committee hearing this week when a Planned Parenthood official endorsed a right to post-birth abortion.
Alisa LaPolt Snow, the lobbyist representing the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, testified that her organization believes the decision to kill an infant who survives a failed abortion should be left up to the woman seeking an abortion and her abortion doctor.
“So, um, it is just really hard for me to even ask you this question because I’m almost in disbelief,” said Rep. Jim Boyd. “If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?”
“We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician,” said Planned Parenthood lobbyist Snow.”
Not shockingly this is the same group of affiliates Michelle Obama’s aide left to take a CEO position in. I posted that story on Thursday from LifeNews
I just couldn’t seem to find any news items that seemed important to me today. I’m concentrating on my family, church, and the ultimate gift we received today thru the death of Christ.
So I guess that’s today’s news from me. Christ died, for you and me. Forgiveness is ours, thru Him. That’s about as big a piece of news as you’ll ever hear. 🙂
So the headline for me today is 1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit
“Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder decided in 2011 that the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. They quit defending it in the courts, but directed federal agencies to continue to comply with the law.
Conservatives on the Supreme Court criticized that approach Wednesday during oral arguments over whether DOMA is constitutional.”
““I don’t see why he doesn’t have the courage of his convictions,” Chief Justice John Roberts said of Obama’s decision to continue following the law, even though he believes it is unconstitutional.
Justice Antonin Scalia said the legal system appears to be “living in this brave new world” in which the Justice Department can simply opt out of its traditional responsibility to defend federal laws in the courts.”
Just like with gun laws. They cry for more restrictions on guns, yet at the same time complain that enforcing existing ones is racist and harder on minorities.Enforce the laws, it’s not rocket science.
“Janet Napolitano: We shouldn’t wait until the border is secure to legalize illegals”
“No worries. She says the border’s already “as secure as it’s ever been,” even though her department has given up trying to measure that. Marco Rubio recently claimed that 10 million new illegals would cross the border over the next decade if there’s no new guest-worker program in place. Maybe Napolitano could quantify border control that way. Are things secure enough now to ensure that only nine million of them would make it? Eight million?”
Of course they don’t want to have to secure it first. They’re not even trying. And they’re releasing criminal illegals already, which is another example of them chosing not to enforce the law.
We also had another example of our not so secure borders yesterday. She was apprehended, but you know she’ll be released. The only question is on which side of the border will she be released on?
This one is disturbing, but sadly not surprising. Given our anything goes culture, consequences like this will continue to worsen. Just like abortion. Meanwhile groups like Planned Parenthood that promote and encourage this free love/if it feels good lifestyle are also the ones who benefit financially from the real life consequences of both.
“According to new datareleased by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 19.7 million new venereal infections in the United States in 2008, bringing the total number of existing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the U.S. at that time to 110,197,000.”
“The STI study referenced by the CDC estimated that 50 percent of the new infections in 2008 occurred among people in the 15-to-24 age bracket. In fact, of the 19,738,800 total new STIs in the United States in 2008, 9,782,650 were among Americans in the 15-to-24 age bracket.”
““CDC’s new estimates show that there are about 20 million new infections in the United States each year, costing the American healthcare system nearly $16 billion in direct medical costs alone,” said a CDC fact sheet.”
20 million new infections a year. Obviously what these groups are teaching in schools isn’t working. I can’t help but think that’s by design.
“Just after November’s election, I posed three paradoxes of American politics, asking why certain demographic groups make up reliable voting blocs for the left, even though the pro-free-market ideas of the right have so much to offer them.
I have begun to revisit these paradoxes. In part one of this series, I laid out the case for why the pro-free-market right needs to reclaim these key demographic groups—young people, racial minorities, and city dwellers—and why I regard these as natural constituencies for the free market whose lockstep voting for the left is a paradox.
In this installment, I take up the first of the paradoxes: Why do the young vote for dependency—when the essence of youth is a quest for independence? My purpose for now is mostly just to solve the paradox, to explain the reason for the apparent contradiction, and to indicate what this implies for how the right should change its message and its sales tactics. When I am done looking at all three paradoxes, I will look in greater depth at an agenda of reform for the political strategy of the right.”
“A prime example of how slowly the federal government moves is a piece of prime real estate in Washington’s tony Georgetown neighborhood — an old steam-generating plant with a spectacular view of the Potomac waterfront.
The government-owned building was finally sold to a private developer for $19.5 million this month. But it sat there for 10 years — off the market and vacant — while taxpayers footed the bill for its upkeep.
A for-sale sign only went up the day before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform dragged General Services Administration officials into the musty structure for a hearing last summer. Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., berated a bewildered GSA official at that hearing, saying: “You can’t get your job done! I don’t care if it’s a Republican or Democratic administration, the job is not getting done!””
But that’s not even the worst we have today. For that, we go to CNSNews
” The National Science Foundation awarded a grant for $876,752 to the University of Iowa to study whether there is any benefit to sex among New Zealand mud snails and whether that explains why any organism has sex.
The study, first funded in 2011 and continuing until 2015, will study the New Zealand snails to see if it is better that they reproduce sexually or asexually – the snail can do both – hoping to gain insight on why so many organisms practice sexual reproduction.
“Sexual reproduction is more costly than asexual reproduction, yet nearly all organisms reproduce sexually at least some of the time. Why is sexual reproduction so common despite its costs,” the study’s abstract asks.”
A better question to ask is why is govt. waste like this so common despite it’s costs?
Wandering Views 