Obama

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News/Politics 3-12-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. The fighting between the CIA and Senate Intelligence Committee is getting interesting.

From TheWaPost  “A behind-the-scenes battle between the CIA and Congress erupted in public Tuesday as the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the agency of breaking laws and breaching constitutional principles in an alleged effort to undermine the panel’s multi-year investigation of a controversial interrogation program.

Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accused the CIA of ­secretly removing documents, searching computers used by the committee and attempting to intimidate congressional investigators by requesting an FBI inquiry of their conduct — charges that CIA Director John Brennan disputed within hours of her appearance on the Senate floor.”

“Feinstein described the escalating conflict as a “defining moment” for Congress’s role in overseeing the nation’s intelligence agencies and cited “grave concerns” that the CIA had “violated the separation-of-powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution.”

“Over a period of years, investigators pored over more than 6.2 million classified records furnished by the CIA, using a search tool that agency technical experts agreed to install. But U.S. officials said the committee gained access to a set of documents that the agency never intended to share, files that were generated at the direction of former director Leon E. Panetta as part of an effort to take an inventory of the records being turned over to Feinstein’s panel.”

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2. Obama to Dems: It’s time to worry.

From TheHill  “The election is coming, the election is coming!

That’s the message coming from President Obama as he tries desperately to rouse Democrats out of a midterm election stupor that could cost his party control of the Senate — and bury his agenda once and for all.”

“In 2014, the worry is that Democrats will lose the Senate if the base doesn’t come out, and it’s an outcome that political observers and Democratic strategists say is more and more plausible.”

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3. A sign of things to come?

From NBCNews  “Republican David Jolly was declared the winner Tuesday of a closely watched Florida Congressional race both parties viewed as testing grounds to hone strategies for the 2014 midterm elections.

 Jolly defeated Democrat Alex Sink in a tight race to fill the Tampa Bay-area seat of the late GOP Rep. Bill Young, according to the Associated Press.

 The pricey campaign was waged heavily on President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul. Sink, who ran for governor of the Sunshine State in 2010, fought back a litany of attacks for her support of Obamacare in the first Congressional election since the law’s troubled rollout last fall. Jolly was portrayed as a former lobbyist beholden to special interests and whose calls for repeal of the health care law would move the country backward.”

““Tonight, one of Nancy Pelosi’s most prized candidates was ultimately brought down because of her unwavering support for ObamaCare, and that should be a loud warning for other Democrats running coast to coast,” Rep. Greg Walden, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee said in a statement.”

Let’s hope so.

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4. Not surprising. It’s one of the reasons she took the 5th.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “A GOP-led House panel Tuesday released an extensive report that attempts to show former top Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner lied to Congress about her involvement in the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax exempt status.

Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the 141-page report “offers detailed evidence about steps she took to crack down on organizations that exercised their Constitutional rights to free political speech.”

“The report does not include any of the Lerner emails the IRS recently promised to turn over to the House Ways and Means Committee, but Oversight apparently had enough material to determine, according to Issa, that Lerner “misled Congress about targeting and her own conduct.”

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5. This story just gets weirder as time goes by.

From TheWaPost  “There were conspiracy theories and morbid calculation of survival odds, which grew ever darker as the days dragged on.

One of the most eerie rumors came after a few relatives said they were able to call the cellphones of their loved ones or find them on a Chinese instant messenger service called QQ that indicated that their phones were still somehow online.

A migrant worker in the room said that several other workers from his company were on the plane, including his brother-in-law. Among them, the QQ accounts of three still showed that they were online, he said Sunday afternoon.

Adding to the mystery, other relatives in the room said that when they dialed some passengers’ numbers, they seemed to get ringing tones on the other side even though the calls were not picked up.

The phantom calls triggered a new level of desperation and anger for some. They tried repeatedly Sunday and Monday to ask airline and police officials about the ringing calls and QQ accounts. However unlikely it was, many thought the phones might still be on, and that if authorities just tracked them down, their relatives might be found. But they were largely ignored.”

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6. Washington D.C. is trying to outdo Chicago in the public corruption department.

From DCCrimeStories  “D.C. businessman and political donor Jeffrey E. Thompson pleaded guilty Monday to a wide-ranging campaign finance conspiracy that helped elect Mayor Vincent Gray and others to office.

Now, his efforts may help derail Gray’s re-election.

Thompson, whose companies received hundreds of millions of dollars in city and federal contracts, admitted to pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to various candidates since 2006.

His role in the shadow campaign has been a critical focus of the ongoing criminal probe for three years, and on Monday he admitted to funneling $3.3 million in illegal contributions to 28 candidates, including candidates running for mayor and President of the United States.”

Gee…….. I wonder which presidential candidate?…… 🙄

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News/Politics 3-10-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. CPAC finished up it’s annual conference over the weekend. The results from the conservative side of the Republican party are in, and their early favorite has emerged from a crowded pack.

From TheWashingtonTimes  “Sen. Rand Paul demolished his competition in the 2014 Washington Times/CPAC presidential preference straw poll on Saturday, winning 31 percent of the vote — nearly three times the total of second-place Sen. Ted Cruz.”

“In the presidential poll, Mr. Cruz’s 11 percent was a big improvement for the freshman senator, who won just 4 percent in last year’s straw poll. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson was third with 9 percent and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was fourth with 8 percent in results that signal growing discontent with the GOP establishment in Washington.

Indeed, CPAC voters now have an unfavorable view of Republicans in Congress, with 51 percent saying they disapprove of the job the GOP is doing on Capitol Hill. Just last year the GOP had a 54 percent approval rating, and in 2012 they held a 70 percent approval rating.”

More here from the WT, with more of Paul’s speech.

Ted Cruz lays out his sweeping vision here, also via the WT.

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2. Putin is threatening economic sanctions of his own, while tightening his grip.

From TheTelegraph  “Vladimir Putin has mocked diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine   crisis as Russia threatened to disrupt European gas supplies by cutting off   sales to Kiev over its unpaid debts. 

The Russian president said through his official spokesman that, despite deep   disagreements with the West, he did not want a confrontation over Ukraine to   spiral into a “new cold war”. 

Nevertheless Dmitry Peskov ridiculed Western demands for direct talks between   the Kremlin and the new Kiev government, claiming that the loss of   credibility involved “puts a smile on our face”.”

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3. Will the IRS investigate?

Good question. But no, they won’t.

From TheDailyCaller  “The IRS still has not responded to allegations from a former Center for American Progress (CAP) employee that the left-wing think tank coordinates on editorial content with the White House — revelations that could threaten the organization’s nonprofit status.

Former ThinkProgress reporter Zaid Jilani wrote a piece this week detailing his experiences working for the liberal blog, which is run by CAP’s 501(c)(4) nonprofit Action Fund, the advocacy arm of White House counselor John Podesta’s think tank.”

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4. I’ll believe it when it actually happens.

From HotAir  “On Wednesday, we found out the Big Reveal on whether or not Lois Lerner would be emptying the bag for Darrell Issa. Nope. So many perfectly good conspiracy theories flushed down the tubes after I went through two pots of coffee dreaming them up. It looked like a big, fat nothingburger and another dead end. But now, seemingly out of nowhere, the IRS seems to have had a change of heart.

The powerful House Ways and Means Committee will get everything from disgraced former IRS official Lois Lerner’s email account since a few weeks before Barack Obama became president.

And Republican committee members are hoping they’ll find a smoking gun tying the Obama administration to the years-long scheme to play political favorites with nonprofit groups’ tax-exemption applications.

After eight months of back-and-forth stonewalling, the IRS has agreed to turn over the complete contents of Lerner’s email account, along with other documents that two congressional committees have been demanding.”

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5. This last one is very sad. It’s unbelievable that this is allowed to continue.

From CNSNews  “In New York City, 80% of the babies killed by  abortion in 2012 were minorities: Hispanics, Asians, Pacific Islanders,  and Blacks.

According to a “Pregnancy Outcomes” report published by the New York  City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, there were a total 73,815  “induced terminations,” or abortions, in 2012 in the five boroughs that  comprise New York City. 

Among those abortions, 58,738 were of babies of minority race or  ethnicity.  That’s 79.57% of the total, or approximately 80% of all the  abortions that year.”

The NYC Dept. of Health report is here, (See  Pregnancy Outcomes  NYC 2012.pdf)

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by

News/Politics 3-7-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread.

1. This one isn’t surprising. After all, the amount they were funding was a joke anyway. And Obama would much rather direct this money to Planned Parenthood.

From CNSNews  “President Barack Obama wants to eliminate funding for abstinence education funding in his 2015 budget, which he sent to Congress on Tuesday.

 In the “Cuts, Consolidations, and Savings” portion of the budget, it shows that the $5 million funding to Health and Human Services (HHS) through its Title V Maternal and Child Health Program that was included in the 2014 budget is not part of Obama’s latest budget.

Supporters of “sexual risk avoidance” – or SRA abstinence education programs – expressed the need for such programs and the across-the aisle-approval of them by parents.

“By eliminating SRA (sexual risk avoidance) abstinence programs in his budget, the President has, once again chosen to ignore the wishes of parents and the approach that helps youth avoid all risk associated with teen sex,” Valerie Huber, president of the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA), said in a statement on Wednesday.

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2. He’d rather Planned Parenthood receive the money for stuff like this.

From LifeNews  “Planned Parenthood’s Elokin CaPece is on a global mission—to make “sexperts” of students across the mid-south and send them forth to indoctrinate the world. The University of Memphis campus newspaper, The Daily Helmsman, is hawking “sexpert” training at Planned Parenthood, “offering students the opportunity to become educators and advocates for sexual health and safety on college campuses throughout the MidSouth.”

CaPece, education director for Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region, is quoted in the article: “I hope sexperts becomes a revolution. . . . That we teach you what you need to know about sex and you go and teach the world.” For a Baptist turned Catholic like me, that sounds a lot like a bastardization of “The Great Commission” found in Matthew 28:18-20.

How do these Planned Parenthood trained “sexperts” see their mission? “I just want everyone to do what they want as long as they’re safe and to destigmatize the idea that sex is bad or wrong, outside of the context of marriage,” a senior University of Memphis sexpert graduate says. Her analysis is much more honest and on point than the explanations given by Planned Parenthood.”

“The culture in the U.S. conveys the negatives of sex to people, emphasizing the risks of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases and infections that can be contracted through skin-to-skin contact or body fluids. Many times, sex creates a list of negative consequences and CaPece shares how Planned Parenthood is breaking that barrier. “Planned Parenthood is a sex-positive place. Sex should be positive and sexuality is a part of everyone no matter how you portray it,” CaPece said.

Why fund abstinence education when you have programs like this? This will obviously work so much better…. 🙄

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3. Warrantless searches and cell-phone tapping. Not from the feds, but from your local PD.

From WatchDog.org  “Recent court documents reveal a troubling cell phone surveillance program conducted by a Florida police department against unsuspecting cell phone users.

Attempts to keep the practice secret, even from judges, is raising questions as to just how prevalent police spying is within the Sunshine State.”

“Now on appeal, courtroom deliberations revealed last week that the Tallahassee Police Department used a Stingray 200 times since 2010 without seeking a warrant.

“This record makes it very clear that (Tallahassee Police Department) were not going to get a search warrant because they had never gotten a search warrant for this technology,” an appeals court judge said.”

Welcome to the police state. Please check your rights at the door.

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4. The number of victims of the terrorist group Boko Haram continues to grow.

From TheDailyStar  “A Catholic bishop says Islamic insurgents have destroyed 20 churches in northeastern Nigeria  in recent attacks.

Bishop Oliver Dashe Dome  says more than 500 of his parishioners have been killed since insurgency in the region began in 2009. At least 180 people have been killed in less than two weeks, including 60 children.

Boko Haram  insurgents advocate a harsh version of Islamic law and have threatened the Christian minority in northern  Nigeria in the past.  However, their victims have also been Muslim.”

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by

News/Politics 3-6-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, with a few to start things off.

1. This should make healthcare sooo much easier…. 🙄

From TheWeeklyStandard  “Ever considered suicide by jellyfish? Have you ended up in the hospital after being injured during the forced landing of your spacecraft? Or been hurt when you were sucked into the engine of an airplane or when your horse-drawn carriage collided with a trolley?”

“But should any of these unfortunate injuries befall you after October 1, 2014, your doctor, courtesy of the federal government, will have a code to record it. On that date, the United States is scheduled to implement a new system for recording injuries, medical diagnoses, and inpatient procedures called ICD-10​—​the 10th version of the International Classification of Diseases propagated by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. So these exotic injuries, codeless for so many years, will henceforth be known, respectively, as T63622A (Toxic effect of contact with other jellyfish, intentional self-harm, initial encounter), V9542XA (Forced landing of spacecraft injuring occupant, initial encounter), V9733XA (Sucked into jet engine, initial encounter), and V80731A (Occupant of animal-drawn vehicle injured in collision with streetcar, initial encounter).

The coming changes are vast. The number of codes will explode​—​from 17,000 under the current system to 155,000 under the new one, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

The transition to ICD-10 was planned long before Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010. But Obama administration officials say it is a critical part of the coming reforms. “ICD-10 is the foundation for health care reform,” said Jeff Hinson, a CMS regional administrator, in a conference call about ICD-10 for providers in Colorado.”

138,000 new codes is sure to streamline things. 🙄

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2. Good. A little bi-partisan common sense. Having an NAACP lawyer in charge of this division was a bad idea.

From RollCall  “Seven Senate Democrats joined Republicans to block President Barack Obama’s pick of Debo P. Adegbile to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division amid a controversy over his legal defense of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.”

“Democrats Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Chris Coons of Delaware, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and John Walsh of Montana all voted no. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also voted no in order to preserve his right to reconsider the vote. If Adegbile had mustered just two more votes plus Reid, Vice President Joseph Biden was on hand to cast a possible tie-breaking vote.”

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3. She did it again. Time for a contempt citation.

From TheDailyMail  “Former IRS official Lois Lerner refused for a second time on Wednesday to testify about her role in a scheme to target conservative organizations that applied for tax-exempt status during President Barack Obama’s first term in office. Lerner risks arrest if she is found in contempt of Congress.

The House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee ruled on June 21, 2013 that Lerner, formerly in charge of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations office, waived her right to invoke the Fifth Amendment during a May 22 hearing when she insisted in a lengthy opening statement that she had done nothing wrong.

Wednesday’s continuation of that hearing was a brief affair, with Oversight Committee Chairman Republican Rep. Darrell Issa adjourning it after Lerner cited the Fifth amendment again and refused to answer questions.”

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4. Did he know? Of course he did. And do you really think the DoJ will do anything about it? Of course they won’t.

From HotAir  “If you missed the morning post on this topic, the short version is that the CIA’s Inspector General has called for a Justice Department probe into alleged CIA snooping on a Senate Intelligence Committee (SSCI) investigation into Bush-era interrogation and detention activities by the agency. Now a letter written by a Democratic Senator to Barack Obama this week suggests that the President knew of the snooping before it went public today (via Glenn Reynolds):

“A leading US senator has said that President Obama knew of an “unprecedented action” taken by the CIA against the Senate intelligence committee, which has apparently prompted an inspector general’s inquiry at Langley.”

“As you are aware, the CIA has recently taken unprecedented action against the committee in relation to the internal CIA review and I find these actions to be incredibly troubling for the Committee’s oversight powers and for our democracy,” Udall wrote to Obama on Tuesday.”

“Independent observers were unaware of a precedent for the CIA spying on the congressional committees established in the 1970s to check abuses by the intelligence agencies.” That’s because such spying is illegal. I wonder who else, inside and outside the various branches of government, was being similarly spied upon. And what was done with the information learned. (Bumped, because this seems big.)”

Sure it’s big, but do you really think the press will pursue it? I have zero confidence in that.

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5. Another unlawful ObamaCare delay. I’m sure Hillary is pleased. This attempt to provide cover to Dems will drop the other shoe just as she seeks the presidency.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it would allow insurers to issue until October 2016 health plans that do not meet Obamacare regulations, pushing back another Affordable Care Act deadline well past November’s midterms.

Facing the prospect of another wave of cancellation notices this fall, the administration took even further action to mitigate the blowback from President Obama’s broken promise that all Americans could keep their health care plans under Obamacare.

The Department of Health and Human Services had already given insurers the option of continuing those plans facing cancellation through 2014, and on Wednesday said those policies could remain in effect an additional two years.”

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by

News/Politics 3-5-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread.

1. The Russians are promising some economic sanctions of their own.

From YahooNews  “Russia could reduce to zero its economic dependency on the United States if Washington agreed sanctions against Moscow over Ukraine, a Kremlin aide said on Tuesday, warning that the American financial system faced a “crash” if this happened.

“We would find a way not just to reduce our dependency on the United States to zero but to emerge from those sanctions with great benefits for ourselves,” said Kremlin economic aide Sergei Glazyev.

He told the RIA Novosti news agency Russia could stop using dollars for international transactions and create its own payment system using its “wonderful trade and economic relations with our partners in the East and South.”

They also hold a couple hundred billion of American bonds too.

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2. The Imperial President strikes again. And like the last 14 times he’s done this, it’s still illegal by the language of the bill he signed. It’s to provide cover to vulnerable Dems. It won’t work.

From TheHill  “The Obama administration is set to announce another major delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act, easing election pressure on Democrats.

As early as this week, according to two sources, the White House will announce a new directive allowing insurers to continue offering health plans that do not meet ObamaCare’s minimum coverage requirements.

Prolonging the “keep your plan” fix will avoid another wave of health policy cancellations otherwise expected this fall.

 The cancellations would have created a firestorm for Democratic candidates in the last, crucial weeks before Election Day.”

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3. The President has finally released his budget, which is a joke, and DOA. A nearly 4 trillion dollar budget, with 650 billion in new taxes.

From Politico  “President Barack Obama’s $3.901 trillion budget would raise taxes on the rich, expand tax credits for the poor and middle class — though as of now, it merely serves as a White House wish list.

Although very little of it is expected to become law — or even be seriously considered via legislation on Capitol Hill — the president’s budget still serves as a benchmark for congressional Democrats.

It seeks $651 billion in new revenue from the rich, would formalize in the tax code a rule named for billionaire investor — and Obama supporter — Warren Buffett, cuts the size and pay of the military, and expands or creates a series of social programs the president has long touted.

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4. The Labor Force Participation Rate has fallen to a new low.

From CNSNews  “The average annual labor force participation rate hit a 35-year-low of 63.2 percent in the United States in 2013, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The last time the average annual labor force participation rate was that low was in in 1978, when it was also 63.2 percent. Jimmy Carter was president then.”

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5. I don’t know….

I could see why she might be afraid, but it seems an awful convenient excuse.

From TheDailyCaller  “Lois Lerner fears for her life if she testifies openly before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Wednesday, according to her attorney.

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa announced Sunday that Lerner will testify at Wednesday’s hearing, but Lerner’s attorney Bill Taylor said that Lerner will seek to continue invoking her Fifth Amendment rights and will also seek a one-week delay of her testimony.

Oversight members are reportedly open to granting Lerner a one-week delay if she petitions for one in person at Wednesday’s hearing. The delay would allow Lerner’s lawyers to continue negotiating for immunity, which they have been doing since at least September.”

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News/Politics 3-4-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, with a few from me to start off.

1. Why Russia no longer fears the US.

From Politico  “The West is blinking in disbelief – Vladimir Putin just invaded Ukraine. German diplomats, French Eurocrats and American pundits are all stunned. Why has Russia chosen to gamble its trillion-dollar ties with the West?

 Western leaders are stunned because they haven’t realized Russia’s owners no longer respect Europeans the way they once did after the Cold War. Russia thinks the West is no longer a crusading alliance. Russia thinks the West is now all about the money.

Putin’s henchmen know this personally. Russia’s rulers have been buying up Europe for years. They have mansions and luxury flats from London’s West End to France’s Cote d’Azure. Their children are safe at British boarding and Swiss finishing schools. And their money is squirrelled away in Austrian banks and British tax havens.

Putin’s inner circle no longer fear the European establishment. They once imagined them all in MI6. Now they know better. They have seen firsthand how obsequious Western aristocrats and corporate tycoons suddenly turn when their billions come into play. They now view them as hypocrites—the same European elites who help them hide their fortunes.”

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2. 8 steps Obama must take to punish Russia.

From Politico  “Russia’s illegal military incursion in the Crimea region in Ukraine is a grave violation of a nation’s sovereignty and cannot go unpunished.

 First, President Obama should speak unequivocally and call this what it is: a military invasion. The Obama administration must publicly acknowledge that its “reset” with Russia is dead. The president must now accept that the only way to deal with tyrants like Vladimir Putin is with a clear understanding that they can’t be trusted and that only decisive action will deter their provocative moves.

Second, President Obama should dispatch Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to Kiev to show U.S. support for Ukraine’s transitional government, and urge our allies in the European Union and NATO to send representatives there as well. The United States should convene an emergency meeting of NATO to develop a strong united response from the trans-Atlantic alliance. And we should send high-level delegations to our allies in Central and Eastern Europe to reinforce the fact that we are standing by them. As part of this work with our allies, we should develop a series of economic and security assurance measures to help the transitional government in Kiev remain stable and carry out a democratic transition.”

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3. The WaPo editorial board is pointing out the fact that President Obama’s foreign policy is based on fantasy.

From TheWashingtonPost  “FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which “the tide of war is receding” and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces. Other leaders, in this vision, would behave rationally and in the interest of their people and the world. Invasions, brute force, great-power games and shifting alliances — these were things of the past. Secretary of State John F. Kerry displayed this mindset on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday when he said, of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, “It’s a 19th century act in the 21st century.”

That’s a nice thought, and we all know what he means. A country’s standing is no longer measured in throw-weight or battalions. The world is too interconnected to break into blocs. A small country that plugs into cyberspace can deliver more prosperity to its people (think Singapore or Estonia) than a giant with natural resources and standing armies.

Unfortunately, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not received the memo on 21st-century behavior. Neither has China’s president, Xi Jinping, who is engaging in gunboat diplomacy against Japan and the weaker nations of Southeast Asia. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is waging a very 20th-century war against his own people, sending helicopters to drop exploding barrels full of screws, nails and other shrapnel onto apartment buildings where families cower in basements. These men will not be deterred by the disapproval of their peers, the weight of world opinion or even disinvestment by Silicon Valley companies. They are concerned primarily with maintaining their holds on power.”

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4. Next, some video reminders, and healthy dose of “I told you so.”

Apparently Putin didn’t get the memo.

From HotAir  “Now seems like a reasonable moment to recall these zingers, which Democrats and the media thought were terribly clever in 2012. Mitt Romney’s clear-eyed assessment of Vladimir Putin’s Russia is looking more spot-on accurate than ever, yet it was greeted at the time with widespread ridicule.”

“Who’s laughing now?”

There’s also more video of the DNC propaganda network explaining how wrong Romney was. Except he wasn’t, they were.

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5. Finally……. About time someone points out the obvious. This is just another of the President’s foreign policy fantasies.

From TheJerusalemPost  “Prime MinisterBinyamin Netanyahu met with US President Barack Obama in theOval Office on Monday, pushing back against pressure from the White House to swiftly cut a deal with the Palestinians as the president warned time was running out for peace.

“Israel has been doing its part, and I regret to say that the Palestinians haven’t,” Netanyahu said to Obama, in front of the press. “The people of Israel know that it’s the case.”

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6. Birds of a feather and all.

From TheDailyCaller  “Progressive billionaire George Soros and the Obama administration help fund the Chicago nonprofit that set up Obamacare enrollment programs for prison inmates.

Chicago-based Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC) helped establish Obamacare enrollment programs for prisoners at Chicago’s Cook County Jail. Cook County is one of at least six states and counties enrolling prisoners to help shift inmate medical costs to federal taxpayers.

“A lot of states will come to this, because state corrections budgets are huge and county jail budgets are huge,” said TASC spokesperson Maureen McDonnell.”

All this does is shift the burden from the local/state level to the federal level. But don’t hold your breathe looking for a tax rebate on the local level. They need the extra cash to fund their pension/legacy costs.

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7. Is yelling the new spanking?

From Today  “You love them like crazy, but they can also drive you crazy, so no matter how well-behaved your children are, there comes a time when you need to get tough.

For lots of parents, that means yelling – something many feel awful about afterwards.”

“She’s also an opponent of spanking. In fact, some experts speculate that many families – apparently taking to heart research that indicates spanking can make kids more aggressive, angry and lead to problems later in life — are instead turning to yelling as a way to control their children.

 “Yelling is the new spanking. It’s sort of the go-to strategy for parents… I think (this) definitely is a generation of yellers,” said Amy McCready, founder of Positive Parenting Solutions and a TODAY Moms contributor. Many families tell her it’s the number one issue they want to change.“

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News/Politics 3-3-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. The Bear seems to be waking from hibernation.

From TheWallStJournal  “The American and Russian presidents spoke on the phone for 90 minutes on Saturday after Russia’s parliament voted unanimously to deploy troops in Ukraine, defying warnings from Western leaders not to intervene.

In his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin , U.S. President Barack Obama expressed “his deep concern over Russia’s clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Mr. Obama urged Russia to de-escalate tensions by withdrawing its forces back to bases in Crimea and to refrain from any interference elsewhere in Ukraine.”

Or what?

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2. Chess and marbles.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers Sunday said the naivete of President Obama‘s national security advisers about Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s motivations is allowing Russia to outmaneuver the U.S. in Ukraine and other hot spots around the globe.

“Putin is playing chess and we’re playing marbles,” Rogers, R-Mich., said on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.”

“As you move down the list in Syria and the Ukraine and other areas,” he said, “they’ve been running circles around us.”

Quick! Somebody hit the Reset Button again. 🙄

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3. Mission accomplished.

From TheTelegraph   “Ukraine: Putin’s Crimea aim is to make the West look weak”

“This is tragic for Ukraine, for the near-abroad and for Nato not because it is   taking us by surprise but because we have expected it for so long and seen   it before and yet remain incapable of acting. This is the salami-tactics   that Yes, Prime Minister joked about decades ago. Slice by slice, Russia is   invading Ukraine and weakening the alliance that has kept the peace in   Europe for almost 70 years. 

It is a textbook KGB-led operation: the agent provocateur, followed by a   self-organised militia, then Russian military protection to defend ‘their’    people. The tactic was used to good effect throughout the Soviet period in   Communist coups. It’s what brought down the government of Afghanistan and   caused 30 years of war. And again it is unlikely to be resisted.”

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4. Meanwhile Ukraine officials are calling up reservists.

From TheJerusalemPost   “Ukraine mobilized on Sunday for war and called up its reserves, after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to invade in the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

Ukraine’s security council ordered the general staff to immediately put all armed forces on highest alert, the council’s secretary Andriy Parubiy announced. The Defense Ministry was ordered to conduct the call-up, potentially of all men up to 40 in a country that still has universal male conscription.

Russian forces who have already bloodlessly seized Crimea – an isolated Black Sea peninsula where most of the population are ethnic Russian and Moscow has a naval base – tried to disarm the small Ukrainian contingents there on Sunday. Some Ukrainian commanders refused to give up weapons and bases were surrounded.”

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5. Here’s some good news.

From FoxNews  “Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, a central figure in the IRS scandal, will appear before Congress on Wednesday after refusing to testify last year on the matter, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., claimed Sunday — though Lerner’s attorney and Issa may still be at odds over the timing.

Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told “Fox News Sunday” that Lerner’s lawyers have indicated she will testify before his committee, after saying last week that she would not.

“It’s going to be a good, fact-finding hearing,” he said.”

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6. Yesterday Donna posted a link to a piece titled “If Daniel Three Were Written Today …”

Here’s a similar kinda piece, from Allen West. “The Book of Judges: Scary biblical parallels for America today”

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News/Politics 2-28-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, with a few from me to start things off.

1. Talk about overreach.

From TheGuardian  “Britain’s surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal.

GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not.

In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.

Yahoo reacted furiously to the webcam interception when approached by the Guardian. The company denied any prior knowledge of the program, accusing the agencies of “a whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy“.”

2. And on a related note….

From PersonalLiberty.com  “The Internet has provided a forum for average people throughout the world to disseminate, share and debate information unattenuated by gatekeepers in the mainstream media and their politically connected friends. New media outlets like Personal Liberty Digest™ have, for years, been warning readers that the well-connected and ruling elite, displeased by this newfound proletariat freedom, have been prolific in attempts to undermine and marginalize information provided by any media outlet unwilling to obey the same unspoken rules that govern the content choices of major media outlets.

Now, thanks to the efforts of National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden and journalist Glenn Greenwald, readers no longer have to take the word of “paranoid” bloggers who relate tales of paid government trolls lurking in comment sections and other concentrated top-down efforts to muddy the information provided by alternative media.”

“The documents deal largely with the goals of GCHQ’s previously secret Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), an apparatus whose mission Greenwald describes thusly: “Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable.””

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3. Give it to her, and then let’s hear what she has to say. After all, there’s nothing to lose here, she’s already retired, with her pension, and won’t be charged. At least this way you get her under oath and maybe find out who orchestrated it. 

From USAToday  “Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner will testify about the IRS handling of Tea Party cases only in exchange for an immunity agreement, her lawyer told a congressional committee Wednesday.

Until then, Lerner will not answer questions unless  ordered to do so by a federal judge, her attorney said.

The response from attorney William Taylor came the day after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ordered Lerner to reappear at a hearing next week.  When Lerner appeared before the committee last May, she asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.”

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4. Not shocking. It’s how things are done in this administration.

From TheFreeBeacon  “Several Environmental Protection Agency employees obstructed an investigation into the mismanagement that allowed a senior EPA official to bilk taxpayers for nearly $900,000, the EPA Inspector General said in a letter to Sen. David Vitter (R., La.) released Wednesday.

EPA employees threatened Inspector General investigators, refused to cooperate, and handed out non-disclosure agreements to other employees to keep them from being interviewed, EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins Jr. wrote in response to a request for information by Vitter on the case.

“Over the past 12 months, there have been several EPA officials who have taken action to prevent [the Office of Investigations] OI from conducting investigations or have attempted to obstruct investigations through intimidation,” Elkins wrote.”

““We are starting to see proof of what we had already suspected: John Beale’s time and attendance fraud was the tip of the iceberg at the EPA,” Vitter said in a statement to the Free Beacon. “The whole agency seems to be in complete disarray, which is exactly why we need to have a full [Environment and Public Works] Committee hearing on the fraud surrounding this case and other prevalent problems.””

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5. Boko Haram continues it’s bloody rampage. This brings the victim count to around 240 in the last 10 days alone.

From Google/AFP  “Suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed at least 37 people in three separate attacks in northeast Nigeria, including at a theological college, a local government official and residents said on Thursday.

The coordinated attacks in Adamawa state late on Wednesday came just a day after Islamist militant fighters were blamed for killing 43 people, most of them students, as they slept at a boarding school in Yobe state.”

“He had earlier put the death toll in Shuwa, part of Madagali local government area, at 17. But he later told AFP that eight more bodies were recovered in the village, including three from a Christian college, confirming the account of a resident about the three burnt corpse found in the seminary.

“The death toll in the Shuwa attack now stands at 25 after eight more bodies were recovered, including three discovered under the burnt debris of the theological school,” Ularamu said.

In Shuwa, several buildings were burnt, including a Christian theological college and a section of a secondary school.”

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6. Planned Parenthood has achieved a new low in what passes for sex education.

With a CONTENT WARNING!!!! for adult subject matter.

From CNSNews  “has produced and posted online a video specifically aimed at teenagers that promotes bondage and sadomasochism (BDSM) and proposes “rules” to follow when engaging in these activities.

“People sometimes think that those who practice BDSM are emotionally  scarred or were once abused—not true, it’s a total myth,” the host of the  video, Laci Green, informs its intended audience of teens. “

“”BDSM relies upon and creates trust,” she says.”

“We are dedicated to protecting the sexual health of teens by providing  accurate information, opportunities to explore and  establish beliefs  and attitudes, and the skills to communicate their  needs,” says PPNNE’s “For Teens” page.”

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News/Politics 2-27-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. This is progress? It’s the same mentality that allows them to ignore laws they disagree with. Pretend it doesn’t exist and say problem solved. Talk about dereliction of duty.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “Thousands of orders for diagnostic medical tests have been purged en masse by the Department of Veterans Affairs to make it appear its decade-long backlog is being eliminated, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner.

About 40,000 appointments were “administratively closed” in Los Angeles, and another 13,000 were cancelled in Dallas in 2012.

That means the patients did not receive the tests or treatment that had been ordered, but rather the orders for the follow-up procedures were simply deleted from the agency’s records.

It is not known how widespread the practice is, or how many veterans hospitals have mass-purged appointment orders to clear their backlogs.”

2. This one goes along with the story above. Yet another example of this tactic of clearing backlogs instead of providing care.

From WISTV  “Three Wm. Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center executives left their jobs after six deaths occurred that could’ve been prevented.

Dr. Robert Petzel, under secretary for health for the VA, admitted to Congressional representatives that there was a criminal investigation completed by the Inspector General’s Office at Dorn VA concerning the backlog of gastrointestinal cases from 2012. No criminal intent was found.

“There’s no way to hold them accountable when people die because of their failures,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas.” Petzel explained that the responsible individuals left their jobs before disciplinary action could be taken.”

Others are apparently purging their records in order to avoid being held accountable. No one is held accountable in this administration. The buck stops nowhere.

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3. Here’s that mentality at work again. Just pretend you can do whatever you’d like.

From TheWashingtonTimes  “The Obama administration regularly cuts a break for businesses that hire illegal immigrants, reducing their fines by an average of 40 percent from what they should be, according to an audit released Tuesday that suggests the government could be doing more to go after unscrupulous employers.

According to the audit, conducted by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cut one business’s fine from $4.9 million to slightly more than $1 million — a 78 percent drop.

Investigators said the reduction is legal, but it may be undercutting the administration’s goal of getting tough on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

“The knowledge that fines can be significantly reduced may diminish the effectiveness of fines as a deterrent to hiring unauthorized workers,” the inspector general said.”

That is their intent.

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4. Yet another example, and another ObamaCare lie exposed.

From TheLATimes  “A new report shows that as many as 125,000 young California immigrants may qualify for an expansion of Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program.

The Affordable Care Act bars insurance subsidies and enrollment in the Medicaid expansion for undocumented immigrants, but a wrinkle in California rules does offer coverage for those with “deferred action status.”

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was created by President Obama in 2012 to grant immigrants who came to the country illegally as children — sometimes called Dreamers — legal status and work authorization for two-year periods.

Laurel Lucia, a policy analyst at the UC Berkeley Labor Center and author of the report released Tuesday, said California is one of the few states that lets youth with deferred action status enroll in Medicaid. “But the word still hasn’t been spread,” she said.”

Oh but it will. Quickly.

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5. And yet another ObamaCare lie. Remember, we were all supposed to see an average savings of $2500.00 per family, as promised by the President. About another 11 million people are about to find out that promise had an expiration date. Hey, somebody’s gotta pay for the folks in the story above. Looks like middle class workers drew the short straw. Again.

From FoxNews  “Republicans renewed their fight against ObamaCare on Monday in response to a new report in which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services concludes that 11 million small business employees may see their premiums rise under the law. 

The report, released Friday, says the higher rates are partly due to the health law’s requirement that premiums can no longer be based on a person’s age. That has sent premiums higher for younger workers, and lower for older ones.

The report found that 65 percent of small businesses would see a spike in insurance premiums and about 35 percent of small businesses would see lower rates for plans covering six million people, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The estimate is far from certain, partly because many small businesses renewed their policies in 2013. Renewing before the end of the year allowed them to avoid higher premiums that went into effect Jan. 1, when coverage was required to conform to the law.”

Just wait until the sticker shock from this happens. They illegally delayed it until after the elections, but it’s coming.

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6. Here’s a good start point for reigning in this administration.

From CNSNews  “During a press conference on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to announce a signature campaign to impeach U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Rev. Bill Owens said President Barack Obama has “hurt the American people.”

“We’re on a downward road,” Owens, who is founder and president of the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP), said at the event at the National Press Club. “And this president has done more to hurt the American people than any president, as I see it, in my lifetime and in history.”

“Owens cited Holder’s “repeated lawlessness” of disregarding state laws and the Constitution. “What we have in Attorney General Holder is a man so political in his zeal to redefine marriage that he is willing to run roughshod over the rulings of the Supreme Court, binging federal law, and the United States Constitution along with the constitutions of a majority of states,” Owens said in a statement distributed at the press conference.”

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7. Before reading this one remember, as always, that vote fraud is a myth. 🙄

From NationalReview  “Vice President Biden claimed voter ID laws were evidence of “hatred” and “zealotry” during a Black History Month event yesterday in Washington.

Ignoring the fact that voter ID laws were declared constitutional in a 2006 Supreme Court decision written by John Paul Stevens, the Court’s then most liberal justice, Biden is continuing the fact-free assault on anti-voter fraud measures.

When such laws aren’t “hateful” they are “unnecessary.” The Brennan Center for Justice says “voter fraud is essentially irrational” so it almost never happens. Voter fraud is so rare “you’re more likely to get hit by lightning than find a case of prosecutorial voter fraud,” insists Judith Browne-Dianis, co-director of the liberal Advancement Project.

Well, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation disagrees. Not a state known for its hateful politics, Iowa’s DCI wrapped up its investigation this month and has referred more than 80 cases of voter fraud to county attorneys for possible prosecution. Since the investigation was initiated by GOP Secretary of State Matt Schultz a year and a half ago, five people have pleaded guilty to voter fraud and 15 others are facing charges.”

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8. Polly wanna cracker?

A little comedy for the last one. This is why he has like 26 viewers. It’s not news, it’s parroting the same talking points.

🙂

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News/Politics 2-25-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. 4 Pinocchios. Again.

From TheWaPo  ““We’ve got close to 7 million Americans who have access to health care for the first time because of Medicaid expansion.”– President Obama”

The Fact Checker has written several times about the fuzziness of the Medicaid numbers issued by the Obama administration. But it is like playing whack-a-mole. Every time we rap someone for getting it wrong, the same problem pops up someplace else.”

“What does this mean in terms of evaluating the president’s statement? He seems to be falling into the same trap as other Democrats, and some reporters, by assuming that everyone in the Medicaid list is getting health insurance for the first time because of the Affordable Care Act. But that number is nowhere close to 7 million. It could be as low as 1.1 million (Avalere) or as high as 2.6 million (Gaba.) If one wanted to be generous, one could include people coming out of the woodwork, even though they would have been covered under the old law, but no one is really sure what that figure is.

In any case, no matter how you slice it, it does not add up to 7 million. It is dismaying that given all of the attention to this issue, the president apparently does not realize that the administration’s data are woefully inadequate for boastful assertions of this type.”

He knows, but he says it anyway. And it keeps popping back up because they all use the same White House talking points.

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2. Meanwhile Democrats continue to jump ship as a result of their ObamaCare votes.

From TheDailyCaller  “Seven of the Democratic lawmakers surrounding President Obama when he signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010 are either now out of Congress or on their way out.

As depicted in this Daily Caller graphic, seven smiling Democrats have gone down or out in the last four years.”

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3. In other ObamaCare news, Notre Dame has lost a court battle over the contraceptive mandate.

From FoxNews  “A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the University of Notre Dame in a case over parts of the federal health care law that forces it to provide health insurance for students and employees that covers contraceptives.

The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld a federal judge’s earlier ruling that denied the Roman Catholic school’s request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent it from having to comply with the birth control requirement as the university’s lawsuit moves forward.

The lawsuit challenges a compromise in the Affordable Health Care Act offered by the Obama administration that attempted to create a buffer for religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service groups that oppose birth control. The law requires insurers or the health plan’s outside administrator to pay for birth control coverage and creates a way to reimburse them.”

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4. Margret Sanger’s dream come true.

From TheBlacksphere  “Sanger was a nurse and a birth control advocate in the early 20th century. But more importantly, she formed the organization, American Birth Control League, which would eventually become Planned Parenthood.

And like the modern day organization, cloaking its true agenda in palatable verbiage such as “family planning” and “choice,” Margaret’s goal was far more evil than the respectable facade she presented.”

“Such narratives lend to the Margaret Sanger reverence by new guard feminists, those women who prioritize self and convenience over the preciousness of life. Several generations of women have been raised to view sacrifice as demeaning, and new life as a potential threat to a self-centered career.

The real Margaret Sanger espoused sinister motives for advancing birth control and abortion: she fully endorsed eugenics for the betterment of race and society.”

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5. Here’s another story that demonstrates how the media omit relevant details to protect abortion.

From NewsBusters  “Australian TV Star Commits Suicide After Depression Triggered by Her Abortion; U.S. Media Accounts Omit Abortion”

“Abortion proponents push for easy access to abortion, deemphasizing its after-affects to the point they absolutely refuse to acknowledge post-abortion depression, which further incapacitates those actually living through it.

This is such a tragedy. Charlotte Dawson, RIP, was born in New Zealand but achieved fame in Australia as a model and a judge on Australia’s Next Top Model.”

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6. And remember… as always,

Media bias is a myth. 🙄

From CapitolCityProject  “Conservatives often argue that the mainstream media is unabashedly liberal, and a look at campaign contributions given by employees of mainstream media companies shows this seems to be the case on an individual level.

Using data from the Center for Responsive Politics, Capitol City Project has found that these donations, indeed, go heavily to Democratic politicians. For example, CNN’s ratio of individual political contributions from employees to politicians shows that of the total contributions, $29,460 is given to Democrats as opposed to $12,500 to Republicans from 1998 to 2014. That is a ratio of 70 percent to Democrats and 30 percent to Republicans.”

“NBC has one of the largest discrepancies of political donations between the parties. Contributions to Democrats total $85,853. On the other hand, Republicans received $4,050. That is 93 percent to Democrats. If you add in NBC Sports, individuals gave $2,500 to Democrats and none to Republicans.”

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7. Just like with the ObamaCare website. They know people’s personal info is at risk, but they don’t care.

From TheDailyCaller  “The Obama administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) knew that a breach of veterans’ personal information was “practically unavoidable” months before it happened in January, according to an internal VA risk assessment that also said the department’s security programs are “non-compliant” with three federal laws.

House Veterans Affairs chairman Rep. Jeff Miller recently wrote a letter demanding VA secretary Eric Shinseki take steps to address software glitches like the kind that plagued the department’s eBenefits portal, which in January exposed the “medical and financial information” of more than 5,000 veterans to anyone able to log on to the portal.”

“This breach came as no surprise to VA.”

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8. Former Pres. Bush has a new project for vets, joining Jacob Wood of Team Rubicon.

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