Obama

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News/Politics 5-20-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

We’ll start with some good news this morning. Here’s the first. From YahooNews

“When Marine Sgt. Ross Gundlach served as a dog handler in Afghanistan, he told the yellow lab who was his constant companion that he’d look her up when he returned home.”

“The 25-year-old learned Casey had finished her military service and had been sent to the Iowa State Fire Marshal’s Office, where she was used to detect explosives.”

“Reynolds decided to arrange a surprise. First, he got in touch with the Iowa Elk’s Association, which agreed to donate $8,500 to buy another dog for the agency.”

“When Gundlach arrived with his parents, Reynolds told them the meeting had been delayed and invited them to join an Armed Services Day celebration in the rotunda. There, hundreds of law enforcement officers, military personnel and civilians were seated, keeping the secret — until they brought out Casey.

When Gundlach saw Casey, he put his head in his hands and cried. She licked his face, wagging her tail furiously.”

Good dog! 🙂

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Next we have a story of a woman abandoned at birth in a dumpster, and her adoption by loving parents who helped her overcome such a horrible start to life. From Today.com

“Rachael Clark is OK now. The straight-A student is graduating from the University of Maryland this year, getting married this summer, and excitedly making plans beyond that: To write a book about adoption; to pursue a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy; to become a mom to at least four kids.

The 23-year-old is so focused and busy that she sometimes forgets about the turmoil that’s dogged her since childhood. “Some days, it’s like it never happened,” Rachael said. “But some days, I really do struggle. I have such strong abandonment issues.”

Her issues stem from the way her life began. On Sept. 27, 1989, the day Rachael was born, she was sealed inside a dark garbage bag with her umbilical cord and placenta still attached. The trash bag was then thrown, hard, into a dumpster.”

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Tornadoes have once again caused serious damage in the nation’s mid-section. From NBCNews

“People in two states were taking shelter amid wailing warning sirens Sunday as tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in Kansas and Oklahoma as part of an extreme weather system plowing through the nation’s midsection.”

“The system, which stretched from North Texas to Minnesota, also heaved hail — dime to softball sized — as well as heavy rainfall.”

“Across central Oklahoma, where multiple twisters were seen, homes were blown apart and off their foundations with some of the worst damage seen in the Twin Lakes area just outside Wellston, according to KFOR. Power lines were downed and trees uprooted.”

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There’s a news overload out there on the IRS scandal. I’m sure you’ve seen most of it. I’m just gonna point out two things. And remember this is a retiring Democrat Senator, and it sure sounds like he knows something we don’t. Yet.

And then this, “Everything comes from the top” From TheWashingtonExaminer

“A story in the Washington Post yesterday about the Internal Revenue Service’s Cincinnati office, which does most of the agency’s nonprofit auditing, clearly contradicted earlier reports that the agency’s targeting of Tea Party groups was the result of rogue agents.

The Post story anonymously quoted a staffer in Cincinnati as saying they only operate on directives from headquarters:”

““We’re not political,’’ said one determinations staffer in khakis as he left work late Tuesday afternoon. “We people on the local level are doing what we are supposed to do. . . . That’s why there are so many people here who are flustered. Everything comes from the top. We don’t have any authority to make those decisions without someone signing off on them. There has to be a directive.””

Exactly. Now who wrote it, and who’s hiding it?

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Oh look, another leak from the Obama admin. And once again, “low-level” people are responsible.  🙄

From TheJerusalemPost

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Bob Schieffer still seems pretty upset that WH officials used his show to push their lies on Benghazi. From NewsBusters

“As NewsBusters reported  two weeks ago, CBS’s Bob Schieffer is fed up with the White House’s talking  points concerning what happened at our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last  September.

His impatience continued on Sunday’s Face the Nation when Obama  senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer gave stock answers to questions about the three  crises facing the President leading Schieffer to first accuse his guest of  taking “exactly the approach that the Nixon administration took” and finally  scolding him by asking, “Why are you here today? Why isn’t the White House Chief  of Staff here to tell us what happened?” (video follows with transcript and  commentary):”

“DAN PFEIFFER, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR: The point that our Chief of Staff  is making is that this is the Republican playbook here which is try, when they  don’t have a positive agenda, try to drag Washington into a swamp of partisan  fishing expeditions, trumped up hearings and false allegations. We’re not going  to let that distract us and the President from actually doing the people’s work  and fighting for the middle class.

BOB SCHIEFFER, HOST: You know, I don’t want to compare this in any way to  Watergate. I do not think this is Watergate by any stretch. But you weren’t born  then I would guess, but I have to tell you that is exactly the approach that the  Nixon administration took. They said, “These are all second-rate things. We  don’t have time for this. We have to devote our time to the people’s business.” You’re taking exactly the same line they did.”

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News/Politics 5-15-13

What’s interesting out there in the news today?

Open Thread, feel free to share. 🙂

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The more we know, the worse it gets. Their stories have more holes than swiss cheese. The claim that it was just the Cincinnati IRS office has already been proven false.

Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by TheWashingtonPost.

Carney: W.H. ‘People Were Aware’ of IRS Targeting Conservatives, But Didn’t Do Anything About It. From TheWeeklyStandard

President Obama will do what he always does. Throw somebody else under the bus. From TheGretaWire

“I’ve directed Secretary Lew to hold those responsible for these failures accountable, and to make sure that each of the Inspector General’s recommendations are implemented quickly, so that such conduct never happens again.  But regardless of how this conduct was allowed to take place, the bottom line is, it was wrong.  Public service is a solemn privilege.  I expect everyone who serves in the federal government to hold themselves to the highest ethical and moral standards.  So do the American people.  And as President, I intend to make sure our public servants live up to those standards every day.”

It’s gonna be fun when these low-level scapegoats are under oath. I’d like to hear where they say the orders came from.

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Franklin Graham says they were targeted by the IRS too. From Politico

“While these audits not only wasted taxpayer money, they wasted money  contributed by donors for ministry purposes as we had to spend precious  resources servicing the IRS agents in our offices,” Graham wrote in the letter, which was shared with POLITICO. “I believe that someone in the administration was  targeting and attempting to intimidate us. This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it ‘un-American.”

Graham said that “in light” of the IRS admission that it targeted tea party  groups for added scrutiny, “I do not believe that the IRS audit of our two  organizations last year is a coincidence – or justifiable.”

Looks like there may have been other victims as well. Someone seems to be using the IRS to harrass perceived “enemies” of the President.

Reporter Claims IRS Harassment After Tough Obama Interview *UPDATE: Conners Muzzled from TheDanaShow

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At least one group had a sense of humor about it, though I doubt the IRS found it funny. 🙂

IRS Asks for Reading List, Tea Party Group Sends Constitution. From ABCNews

“The Ohio woman also did not expect that providing information about the books her group read would be part of the application process.

“I was trying to be very cordial, but they wanted copies of unbelievable things,” Bower told ABC News today. “They wanted to know what materials we had discussed at any of our book studies.”

Now can someone tell me what the books they read have to do with granting tax exempt status?

Here’s some more of the questions asked of conservative groups. They even wanted info on family members of conservative organization members. From PJMedia

Much of that information would allow the IRS to identify individual members of the targeted groups. Not just staff and donors, but members.”

And then the IRS makes it all public, thereby fulfilling the liberal dream of finding, publicly naming, and attempting to publicly shame conservative donors. Like the Koch Brothers.

And yes, it turns out the IRS did leak info on conservative groups for just that purpose. From ProPublica

“The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year .”

“In response to a request for the applications for 67 different nonprofits last November, the Cincinnati office of the IRS sent ProPublica applications or documentation for 31 groups. Nine of those applications had not yet been approved—meaning they were not supposed to be made public. (We made six  of those public, after redacting their financial information, deeming that they were newsworthy.)”

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Meanwhile, certain shady groups got expedited service. You just have to know the right people. Or be the President’s brother.

IRS official Lerner speedily approved exemption for Obama brother’s ‘charity’. From TheDailyCaller

“Lois Lerner, the senior IRS official at the center of the decision to target  tea party groups for burdensome tax scrutiny, signed paperwork granting  tax-exempt status to the Barack H. Obama Foundation, a shady charity headed by the president’s half-brother that operated illegally for years.

According to the organization’s filings, Lerner approved the foundation’s tax  status within a month of filing, an unprecedented timeline that stands in stark  contrast to conservative organizations that have been waiting for more than  three years, in some cases, for approval.

Lerner also appears to have broken with the norms of tax-exemption approval  by granting retroactive tax-exempt status to Malik Obama’s organization.

Wait let me guess, low-level employees again?

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And is the EPA unfairly assigning fees based on political ideology?

EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups. From TheWashingtonExaminer

“Conservative groups seeking information from the Environmental Protection Agency have been routinely hindered by fees normally waived for media and watchdog groups, while fees for more than 90 percent of requests from green groups were waived, according to requests reviewed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

CEI reviewed Freedom of Information Act requests sent between January 2012 and this spring from several environmental groups friendly to the EPA’s mission, and several conservative groups, to see how equally the agency applies its fee waiver policy for media and watchdog groups. Government agencies are supposed to waive fees for groups disseminating information for public benefit.

“This is as clear an example of disparate treatment as the IRS’ hurdles selectively imposed upon groups with names ominously reflecting an interest in, say, a less intrusive or biased federal government,” said CEI fellow Chris Horner.”

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Here’s more on the AP story.

Even Liberals Call DOJ’s AP Spying “Unacceptable Abuse of Power” From JudicialWatch

Holder is defending the phone record seizure. From TheWashingtonExaminer

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In other news……

Looks like ICE leadership finally found an immigrant they don’t want amnesty for. Or even asylum. They even overturned a judge’s order to protect America from these dangerous individuals. 🙄 From TheBlaze

“The Romeike family has for years been battling for the right to educate their children as they see fit.  Today, the United States government has denied their request.

Originally from Germany, Evangelical Christians Uwe and Hannelore Romeike wanted to homeschool their six children, but it is against the law in Germany.  They faced threats of legal action from the government and crippling fines before choosing to immigrate to the United States in 2010, seeking political asylum.

U.S. Immigration Judge Lawrence Burman granted the Romeike’s request, but it was overturned in 2012 by the Board of Immigration Appeals, after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement challenged the decision.”

Yet ICE leadership is releasing criminal illegals to wander the country, and hundreds of violent offenders directly from prisons. What’s wrong with this picture?

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Next, new info in the Gosnell case.

Gosnell Gives Up Appeal, Prosecutors Agree to Life in Prison, No Death Penalty

This next one has upset some people.

Steve Stockman: ‘Democrats Worship Abortion,’ Don’t Care About Women’s Safety. From TheHuffingtonPost

“Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) on Monday attempted to tie Democrats to Philadelphia abortion doctor and recently convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell.

In a statement released shortly after Gosnell was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of three infants born alive at his medical clinic, Stockman said the crimes had “exposed the horrors and inhumanity of legalized abortion.”

“Despite the blood-soaked horror of Gosnell’s clinic, Democrats refuse to loosen their embrace of unrestricted, unregulated, taxpayer-funded abortion on demand,” he continued. “Democrats do not want abortion to be safe or rare. Democrats oppose even the most basic of health and safety standards for abortion mills. Democrats don’t care how many women are maimed, infected with diseases or die on the routinely filthy abortion mills. Democrats worship abortion with same fervor the Canaanites worshipped Molech.””

As you can imagine, HuffPo readers are not happy with Steve.

And sadly it appears we have another story breaking that’s similar to the Gosnell story. 3 employees have come forward to allege infanticide of born alive babies.

With A VERY STRONG CONTENT WARNING!!!

It’s graphic, and the details are horrible.

More here from LifeSiteNews

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by

News/Politics 5-13-13

UPDATE!

Kermit Gosnell has been found guilty on at least 3 of the 4 1st Degree Murder charges. These were for babies born alive.

From HOTAIR

More on the other charges as it becomes available.

UPDATE! 2

Also guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the death of Karnamaya Mongar, the woman who died in a late-term abortion.

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What’s interesting in the news today?

There’s lots to choose from, so short and to the point.

First, Benghazi. I told you before of rumors that Benghazi was a CIA weapons operation. That idea is being floated again.

Geraldo: My sources tell me they were in Benghazi to round up missiles to send to Syrian rebels via Turkey, from TheRightScoop

CBS reporter  Sharyl Attkisson is being censored by her own network. She has dogged the administration on Benghazi, and now the network appears to be cracking down on her for it. It appears she may be fired for it. Now questions have been asked about ties between the Obama admin and CBS.

Top Obama official’s brother is president of CBS News, may drop reporter over  Benghazi coverage from TheDailyCaller

Benghazi Whistleblower’s Attorney Claims NBC Spiked Him Being a Democrat Who  Voted for Obama, from NewsBusters

Of course they did. Otherwise the “partisan hack” label they tried to use on Hicks would be exposed. Doesn’t fit the meme.

Issa wants the Presidents hand-picked review committee before Congress, and under oath, from TheAP 

CNN: Decision was made to drop reference to terror group from talking points at meeting in White House from TheRightScoop

That whole Patreus thing deserves a second look too. He appears to have strongly disagreed with the edits to the talking points.

 Watch out for Petraeus in Benghazi scandal, from TheWashingtonTimes

Hmmmmmm……

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Next up, Syria.

If You Think America Should Go to War in Syria, You Haven’t Been Paying Attention from PJMedia

Under the black flag of al-Qaeda, the Syrian city ruled by gangs of extremists, from TheTelegraphUK

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Then we have the IRS scandal. Let the investigations begin.

Ways and Means to IRS: ‘Provide All Communications Containing Words ‘Tea Party,’ ‘Patriot,’ or ‘Conservative’—By Wednesday from CNSNews

Giddy up! 🙂

Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew employees were singling out  conservative groups for extra scrutiny as early as 2011 from Politico

So much for it being just a low level operation.

IRS targeted groups that criticized the government, IG report says, from TheWashingtonPost

10 crazy things the IRS asked Tea Party groups from HotAir

Six times the IRS has been accused of punishing President Obama’s political opponents from TheWashingtonFreeBeacon

And now it appears the IRS targeted other groups as well.

‘The IRS: First they Came for the Tea Partiers, Then They Came for the Jews’ from PJMedia

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And in Other News….

Prosecutor to seek aggravated murder charges against Ariel Castro, citing what he said were terminated pregnancies among captive women, from Cleveland.com

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Here’s more on the story from last week about the SEAL families demanding accountability.

SEAL Families Looking for Answers, Claim government officials, military brass have brushed aside concerns from TheWashingtonFreeBeacon

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Let’s hope there’s a lot more ObamaCare fallout to come for Democrats. 🙂

Grassley: Baucus Retiring Because He’s ‘Fed Up’ With Obamacare, from NationalReview

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And the last one. I told you Saturday about Prince Harry’s visit to the US to honor the wounded and those that gave all. Here’s an update, with tons of photos from Saturday’s Warrior Games with wounded vets. The guy’s a real Prince, in more ways than one. 🙂

Prince Harry opened  the 2013 Warrior games in Colorado Springs today, played sit down volleyball with wounded  service members, from TheDailyMail

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by

News/Politics 4-27-13

What’s interesting out there today?

Open Thread.

First some good news, but only for your taste buds, not your diet. 😦

From GMA/Yahoo

“The bankrupt assets of Hostess Brands, Inc., the company responsible for Twinkies, Ho Ho’s, Sno Balls and Ding Dongs, are being put back to work by a buyout firm. What’s not being put back to work are the former Hostess unionized employees.”

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The idea of the US military being used to aid Al-Qaeda in Syria really bothers me. But that’s the idea being pushed. From RT.com

“The White House says that United States President Barack Obama may approve of using military force against the Syrian government.

Early afternoon on Friday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said that the administration has a number of options in regards to handling reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons, and those routes include but are not exclusive to using military force.”

Pelosi is pushing it too. From TheHill

“House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday that it was time  for the United States to “take it to the next step” in Syria in response to  possible chemical weapons use, although she said that did not include putting “troops on the ground.”

“I myself think that we have tolerated for too long all of the assaults on  the Syrian people made by its own government,” Pelosi told reporters. “I think  we have to take it to the next step. That does not mean troops on the  ground.””

Syria has become the go to place for jihadists looking to fight. From RT.com

“War-torn Syria is now “number one” destination for jihadists who could then return to Europe experienced “in weapons and explosives” to carry out terror attacks, Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague warns.

As the violent military conflict rages on, the threat to Western countries from Syria-grown extremists is rising; and the risk that it may breed a new generation of battle-hardened militants is “growing the longer the fighting in Syria continues,” Hague said in his speech Thursday at the Royal United Services Institute.”

Here’s 4 of the bad arguments being used to argue the case for arming them. From RealClearWorld

“Slowly but steadily, the United States (scratch that, Washington, DC) is talking itself into a deeper involvement in Syria’s civil war. There are already reports indicating that the U.S. is taking an active hand in determining which Syrian rebel groups will receive shipments of weapons purchased by Gulf allies.  The CIA has reportedly been training “secular” fighters in Jordan to send into the fray.

All the while, the Obama administration has been goaded ever-deeper by a series of dubious arguments about U.S. involvement in Syria’s civil war. Four, in particular, have surfaced frequently.”

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Meanwhile, Obama’s speech to Planned Parenthood was a first. It was also quite disgusting to watch. He’d like Planned Parenthood to help him push ObamaCare. From Politico

“President Obama asked Planned Parenthood and its supporters to play a key role in informing Americans of the details of the Affordable Care Act as he addressed the group Friday.

“I’m here to … ask for your help, because we need to get the word out,” he said in Washington during a speech rescheduled from Thursday night, when he chose to spend extra time with victims of the West, Texas, explosion. “We need you to tell your patients, your friends, your neighbors, your family members what the health care law means for them.”

It was about as controversial as Obama got in the speech — the first to the group by a sitting U.S. president — as he avoided talking about the Kermit Gosnell trial or a recent ruling on the morning-after pill.”

Gee, I wonder why? 🙄

From TheDailyCaller

“President Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to deliver a speech  to Planned Parenthood on Friday.

The organization is America’s leading abortion provider.

During a speech at the Planned Parenthood National Conference in Washington,  Obama told the room of about 1,000 attendees that the organization is here to  stay, despite efforts by Republicans to strip the group of federal funding.”

He ended the speech with “God Bless Planned Parenthood.” He also told the adoring crowd at the start that they were “making him blush.” Classless and clueless. He should be embarrassed. If he’s gonna blush, it should be from shame.

And yes, there’s video, from WeaselZippers

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The NY Times has done something I’d never thought I would see. They said Andrew Breitbart was right about the Pigford Settlement to minority farmers all along. From HotAir

“It’s rare to get this kind of vindication, so let’s enjoy it in memory of Andrew Breitbart for as long as possible.  For more than two years, Andrew and Lee Stranahan have investigated the Pigford settlement and the fraudulent claims that not only have cost taxpayers billions, but have left the original black farmers who sued the USDA over discrimination in the lurch.  Today the New York Times reports what Andrew and Lee have been saying all along — that the Pigford settlement was a political hack job by Tom Vilsack’s Department of Agriculture, and that it’s a magnet for fraud (via Twitchy):”

“Career litigators, who had successfully defended the Agriculture Department all the way to the Supreme Court, were aghast:

The payouts pitted Mr. Vilsack and other political appointees against career lawyers and agency officials, who argued that the legal risks did not justify the costs.

Beyond that, they said it was legally questionable to sidestep Congress and compensate the Hispanic and female farmers out of a special Treasury Department account, known as the Judgment Fund. The fund is restricted to payments of court-approved judgments and settlements, as well as to out-of-court settlements in cases where the government faces imminent litigation that it could lose. Some officials argued that tapping the fund for the farmers set a bad precedent, since most had arguably never contemplated suing and might not have won if they had.”

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And lastly, an interesting read from Pat Buchanan over at CNS News called “The Dark Side of Diversity”

“”I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people,” said Edmund Burke of the rebellious Americans.

The  same holds true of Islam, the majority faith of 49 nations from Morocco  to Indonesia, a religion that 1.6 billion people profess.

Yet, some assertions appear true.

Islam  is growing in militancy and intolerance, evolving again into a fighting  faith, and spreading not only through proselytizing, but violence.”

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by

News/Politics 4-25-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

It appears from press reports that Boston bomb suspect #1 was on a watch list, yet it didn’t help, or work as it’s supposed to. From Reuters

“The name of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was listed on the U.S. government’s highly classified central database of people it views as potential terrorists. But the list is so vast that this did not mean authorities automatically kept close tabs on him, sources close to the bombing investigation said on Tuesday.”

“After being put in the TIDE system, his name was entered in another database, this one maintained by the Homeland Security Department’s Customs and Border Protection bureau which is used to screen people crossing U.S. land borders and entering at airports or by sea.

Tsarnaev was flagged on that database when he left the United States for Russia in January 2012 but no alarm was raised, presumably because the FBI had not identified him as a threat after the interview.”

It was the CIA who asked that his name be put on the list. From TheWashingtonPost

“The CIA asked the main U.S. counterterrorism agency to add the name of one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers to a watch list more than a year before the attack, according to U.S. officials.

The agency took the step after Russian authorities contacted officials there in the fall of 2011 and raised concerns that Tamerlan Tsarnaev — who was killed last week in a confrontation with police — was seen as an increasingly radical Islamist and could be planning to travel overseas. The CIA requested that his name be put on a database maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center.”

“The CIA’s request came months after the FBI had closed a preliminary inquiry into Tsarnaev after getting a similar inquiry about him from Russian state security, according to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

The new disclosure suggests that the U.S. government may have had more reason than previously known to scrutinize Tsarnaev in the months leading up to the bombings in Boston.”

John Kerry has made some statements that raised eyebrows. From Politico

“Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned from Russia last year “with a willingness to kill people.”

“Well, of course we have the same problem. We just had a young person who went to Russia, Chechnya, who blew people up in Boston,” Kerry said. “So he didn’t stay where he went, but he learned something where he went and he came back with a willingness to kill people.”

His remarks appear to go further than those made by other U.S. officials, who have said they haven’t determined yet if Tsarnaev received terrorist training during his 6-1/2 month stay in Russia. Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, are suspected of carrying out the Boston bombings last week.”

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And in an unrelated domestic terrorism case we have some interesting testimony from Floyd Lee Corkins II, the Family Research Council shooter. His motivation? He explained to investigators that he attacked the group’s headquarters because the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) identified them as a “hate group” due to their traditional marriage views. The hate preached by the SPLC motivated him. From TheWashingtonExaminer

““Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups,” Corkins tells interrogators in the video, which FRC obtained from the FBI. “I found them online, did a little research, went to the website, stuff like that.””

“The Southern Poverty Law Center still lists FRC as an “anti-gay” hate group on the “hate map” Corkins used. “The SPLC’s reckless labeling has led to devastating consequences,” said FRC President Tony Perkins.  “Because of its ‘hate group’ lists, a deadly terrorist had a guidemap to FRC and other organizations.  Our staff is still reeling from the attack, and the chilling effect this could have on organizations that are simply fighting for their values is outrageous.”

And yes, there’s a short video.

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And the Obama admin and DHS have been handed a loss in federal court. It’s not the final decision, but the judge feels the ICE Agents Union is likely to prevail. The Union filed suit over the admin insisting that agents NOT do their jobs. It’s a shame that these folks had to sue, but the admin only enforces laws it likes. From BusinessWeek

“A court challenge by federal immigration agents seeking to block President Barack Obama’s deferred-deportation initiative will probably succeed, a judge said.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Dallas today put off his own decision on whether to grant the request for a preliminary injunction by 10 U.S. Immigration and Customs agents. He asked both sides to file additional arguments no later than May 6.”

““The court finds that DHS does not have discretion to refuse to initiate removal proceedings” when the requirements for deportation under a federal statute are met, O’Connor said today in a 38-page decision, referring to the Department of Homeland Security.”

More here from TheWashingtonExaminer

“The judge’s comments come one day after Napolitano scolded the union, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill, for challenging the policy she and Obama have implemented.

“There are tensions with union leadership, unfortunately,” Napolitano told Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., on Tuesday. “Here’s what I expect as a former prosecutor and attorney general: that is that law enforcement agents will enforce the law in accordance with the guidance they are given [by] their superiors.”

Sessions faulted Napolitano for refusing to meet with the ICE officers’ union. “I have never heard of a situation in which a group of law officers sued their supervisor, and you, for blocking them from following the law,” he said. “They weren’t complaining about pay, benefits, working conditions — they were saying their very oath they took to enforce the law is being blocked by rules and regulations and policies established from on high, and that this is undermining their ability to do what they are sworn to do.””

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by

News/Politics 4-19-13

In other news today………

Reid has had to pull the gun bill from consideration.

From TheWashingtonPost

“Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) announced Thursday that the Senate will “take a pause” and return to consideration of gun legislation at a later date.”

“Reid’s decision came the day after President Obama’s comprehensive gun control effort suffered defeat in the Senate, with all the major proposals he backed failing to gain enough votes.”

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How Obama misread the politics of gun control. From NationalJournal

“Watching President Obama’s fury after Congress failed to pass any gun-control legislation was a sign of his political helplessness. Despite aggressively pushing for expanded background checks, despite enlisting the victims of recent gun violence to lobby their representatives, despite getting one of the more conservative senators to support a watered-down background-check measure, he fell five votes short of getting anything passed in the Senate, including losing four members from his own party.

If this doesn’t demonstrate the limitations of the president’s political muscle and the influence of his newly minted Organizing for Action lobbying group, I don’t know what does. Yet, despite the embarrassing setback, Obama nonetheless argued that he still held the upper hand, politically: “If this Congress refuses to listen to the American people and pass commonsense gun legislation, then the real impact is going to have to come from the voters.”  That couldn’t misread the political environment heading into 2014 anymore. That’s the audacity of mope.

Put simply, the 2014 Senate elections will be fought predominantly on the very turf that is most inhospitable to gun control–Southern and Mountain West conservative states. It’s no coincidence that three of the four Democrats who opposed the Toomey-Manchin bill are facing difficult reelections in 2014 and presumably are attuned to the sentiments of their constituents. Blame the National Rifle Association for the bill’s failure, but the lobby is feeding into already deeply held opposition to gun regulations and a broader sense of anxiety about the president’s and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s intentions–particularly given the president’s past publicized remark about “bitter” rural voters who “cling to their guns and religion.”  It doesn’t take much for the gun-rights crowd, significant in these states, to jump to inaccurate conclusions given that history.”

Inaccurate conclusions? I think he’s describing Obama, not the “bitter clingers.”

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We’ve all seen the President and Senate Dems pitching fits over the whole thing in front of the cameras. But the fits the media are throwing over their failure to persuade the commoners is just as bad. From Politico

“Even by the standards of today’s partisan media environment, the response has  been noteworthy. Television hosts, editorial boards, and even some reporters  have aggressively criticized and shamed the 46 Senators who opposed the plan,  while some have even taken to actively soliciting the public to contact them  directly.

The decision by some members of the media to come down so  firmly on one side of a policy debate has only served to reinforce  conservatives’ longstanding suspicions that the mainstream media has a  deep-seated liberal bias.

“I guess the liberal media get annoyed when Senators listen to their  constituents and think for themselves, rather than doing the media’s bidding,” Bill Kristol, the editor-in-chief of the Weekly Standard, told POLITICO.”

Bias? What bias? 🙄

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So the President plans on doing the only think he can. Make like a third world dictator and do it by decree. From TheWeeklyStandard

“Joe Biden says the president of the United States is preparing to take “executive actions” to deal with guns.

BuzzFeed reports:

Vice President Biden told White House allies in the gun control fight Thursday that President Obama will be announcing new executive actions on gun violence in the days after the Senate voted down a gun violence bill.”

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Meanwhile the Senate has a bi-partisan amendment to prevent the media from releasing gun owner info, with strong support.

From TheWashingtonExaminer

“Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., in an attempt to prevent local newspapers from publishing lists of gun owners in a given area, convinced 66 of his colleagues to support an amendment that cuts funding for state and local governments if they release the information.

“If a state or local government releases private information on gun owners — which we know has happened — then that state or local government will lose part of its funding that comes from the Federal Government,” Barrasso said while arguing for the amendment.  “This includes private information on individuals who have licenses to purchase, possess, or carry firearms.”

Wow. Look at that. Some common sense for a change.

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ObamaCare is causing rate increases? 😯

Say it ain’t so! 🙄 

But Dems like Franken would like you to believe it’s not true, just an insurance industry plot or something. From KaiserHealthNews

“Few aspects of the Affordable Care Act are more critical to its success than affordability, but in recent weeks experts have predicted costs for some health plans could soar next year.

Now health law supporters are pushing back, noting close ties between the actuaries making the forecasts and an insurance industry that has been complaining about taxes and other factors it says will lead to rate shock for consumers.

“Most actuaries in this country — what percentage are employed by insurance companies?” Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, asked an actuary last week at a hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.”

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And for the last one today, another abortion related story the national media will ignore. From LifeNews

“The former director of a leading abortion advocacy group who was caught in a child sex sting pleaded guilty to his crimes.

Scott Richard Swirling, who was the director of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA), was arrested for attempting to arrange for a sexual encounter with a twelve-year-old girl. He was charged with traveling across state lines to engage in illicit sexual conduct, a crime which carries a penalty of up to 30 years.”

“Sexual predators who impregnate underage girls rely on cooperative abortion clinics to cover up their crimes.  As Live Action, Life Dynamics, and others have documented, Planned Parenthood abortion clinics frequently fail to comply with mandatory reporting laws,” it said.

“The National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association strongly supports taxpayer funding for abortion clinics.  Many Planned Parenthood affiliates are NFPRHA members,” it added. “There is no mention of Mr. Swirling on the NFPRHA website.”

That’s not surprising.

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by

Life Matters 4-18-13

The more details that come out in the Gosnell case, the worse it gets. It seems he’s been harming women for a lot longer than was previously known.

From LifeNews with a CONTENT WARNING!!!

“More revelations are coming to light about the gruesome abortion business Kermit Gosnell ran where he killed a woman in an abortion and killed babies in grisly abortion-infanticides and kept their bodies as trophies.

But new information is also coming to light about the abortion practice Gosnell ran for decades — including in the 1970s when he injured several women in a odd experiment on women using a new abortion method. Whether Gosnell obtained the consent of women to engage in this experiment is unknown but multiple women were injured as a result.”

“It was called the Mother’s Day Massacre. A young Philadelphia doctor “offered to perform abortions on 15 poor women who were bused to his clinic from Chicago on Mother’s Day 1972, in their second trimester of pregnancy.” The women didn’t know that the doctor “planned to use an experimental device called a ‘super coil’ developed by a California man named Harvey Karman.””

“Nine of the 15 Chicago women suffered serious complications. One of them needed a hysterectomy. The following year, the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade. It would be 37 more years before the Philadelphia doctor who carried out the Mother’s Day Massacre would go out of business. His name is Kermit Gosnell.”

Not surprisingly, Planned Parenthood seems to have been involved as well. And again, CONTENT WARNING!!!

“In 1972, International Planned Parenthood Federation was one of two groups partnering with the country of Bangladesh to bring Dr. Harvey Karman (pictured right) and a small team of “abortion experts,” which included two IPPF doctors, to the newly formed country to commit abortions and train native doctors and paramedics how to commit them.

Abortion was Karman’s “consuming passion,” according to Salon, which acknowledged Karman wasn’t really any sort of doctor whatsoever but had simply “added a Ph.D. to his name, though his degree came from a dubious Swiss diploma mill.”

Karman was, in fact, a convicted felon, having served 2-1/2 years in prison – until pardoned by then Gov. Jerry Brown – for killing a mother in 1955 while attempting to illegally abort her in a hotel room with a nutcracker.”

This is the same “new method” Gosnell used.

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President Obama has finely acknowledged the Gosnell trial. But as expected, it sounds like another “present” vote on the subject by Obama. I guess it’s still above his pay grade.

From Politico

“In the interview, he noted that he was “familiar” with the trial of Gosnell,  which has sparked outrage from some on both sides of the political spectrum, as  many on the right — and some on the left — have charged that the mainstream  media has not sufficiently covered the case, which involves gruesome allegations  including of murder. Obama said he couldn’t comment, however.

“Well, I’m familiar with it. I can’t comment on it because it’s an active trial,” he said.”

Talk about a cop-out. Funny, he wasn’t worried about things like that in the Trayvon Martin case, or the “Beer Summit” fiasco. It’s just cowardly.

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And a college professor at the University of Buffalo has been arrested for profanely ranting at pro-lifers for exposing the truth about abortion.

From FoxNews with a CONTENT WARNING!!! because the “educator” has a foul mouth.

“A University of Buffalo professor was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after she launched into a profanity-laced tirade directed towards a group of pro-life students.”

““I can swear in public because that is profane,” she said referring to the display. “That image is swearing to me. That is profane to me.””

“Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students For Life of America, said pro-life students are typically singled out for attacks on campus.

“As we’ve seen again and again, a pro-abortion supporter couldn’t handle the ugly truth of abortion and lashed out,” Hawkins told Fox News. “She had to resort to yelling and using profane language with police officers.”

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And in another show of the intolerance pro-lifers must endure on college campuses, we have this story.

From LifeNews

“Abortion advocates apparently vandalized a pro-life cross display at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania.

When pro-life groups set up such memorials to remember the number of babies who have been victimized by abortions, they frequently become targets of vandalism by students who are apparently in favor of abortion but too closed-minded to be tolerant of the pro-life message.

Campus Reform has more information on what happened:

Photos of the incident show dozens of crosses flung about the area with a few turned upside down and a pro-choice banner stuck into the ground around the destroyed display.”

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by

News/Politics 4-18-13

What’s interesting in the news today.

As always, Open Thread.

There was a devastating explosion at a Waco, Texas fertilizer plant late Wednesday. Video from the scene shows a fire which set off a huge explosion. Authorities say 5 to 15 dead, and 160 wounded. Homes and businesses around the plant were leveled in the explosion.

From NBCNews

“At least five to 15 people were killed and more than 160 wounded when a large fertilizer plant explosion rocked a small Texas town late Wednesday, destroying dozens of homes under a cloud of toxic smoke, police said.

Firefighters, including local volunteers, were battling a blaze at the time of the blast, which caused a ground tremor equivalent to a magnitude-2.1 earthquake, the USGS said.”

“”It was a huge explosion,” Swanton said. “It reached blocks, if not miles, in its devastating effect. … My guess is going to be that … we will see the casualty rate rise and the injury rate rise.”

“We know fire was there, we know law enforcement was there assisting with traffic, and I believe there were EMS …,” Swanton said, adding some of those first responders were among the missing.”

Hat Tip to Donna J

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Police have made an arrest in the Ricin letter case. President Obama was a target, as were a group of elected officials. The person responsible didn’t seem to care about the intended victim’s political party.

From NBCNews

“Federal agents on Wednesday arrested a suspect in the mailing of letters to President Barack Obama and a U.S. senator that initially tested positive for the poison ricin.

The suspect was identified as Paul Kevin Curtis of Tupelo, Miss., federal officials told NBC News. They said he may appear in court as early as Wednesday night.

Both letters carried an identical closing statement, according to an FBI bulletin obtained by NBC News on Wednesday.”

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Police believe they have some suspects in the Boston bombing.

From TheAP

” In what could be major break in the Boston Marathon case, investigators are on the hunt for a man seen in a department store surveillance video dropping off a bag at the site of the bombings, a local politician said Wednesday.

Separately, a law enforcement official confirmed that authorities have found an image of a potential suspect but don’t know his name.

The development – less than 48 hours after the attack, which left three people dead and more than 170 wounded – marked a possible turning point in a case that has investigators analyzing photos and videos frame by frame for clues to who carried out the twin bombings and why.”

For some reason they haven’t released photos for the public yet. But at least one website claims to have photos of possible suspects.

From TheNYPost

“In the photos being distributed by law-enforcement officials among themselves, one of the men is carrying a blue duffel bag. The other is wearing a black backpack in the first photo, taken at 10:53 a.m., but it is not visible in the second, taken at 12:30 p.m.

“The attached photos are being circulated in an attempt to identify the individuals highlighted therein,” said an e-mail obtained by The Post. “Feel free to pass this around to any of your fellow agents elsewhere.”

“Meanwhile, officials have identified two potential suspects who were captured on surveillance videos taken shortly before the deadly blasts, law-enforcement sources told The Post yesterday.

Authorities know the names of the two men, but do not have enough evidence to make an arrest for Monday’s attack, which killed three and wounded 176, the sources said.”

UPDATE II  Or not?

From HotAir

“The FBI is (finally!) going to release the footage that everyone’s been clamoring for later today. If you’ve read the New York Post this morning, you probably think you know who the guys in the video will be. You’re probably wrong. I watched an interview on Erin Burnett’s show last night with Fran Townsend (I think it was her), who’d seen photos of the suspects circulated by cops; CNN refused to air the pics but it was abundantly clear from her description that it’s the same two guys in the Post’s story today. If you followed Reddit’s marathon photo sleuthing yesterday, you knew instantly watching that interview who she meant. There were at least five or six different shots of them near the finish line being scrutinized on Reddit — one of them wore a white cap and bulging black backpack, the other a blue track suit with a sagging duffel bag. I went to bed last night thinking that’s who’d be in the video released today.

But apparently I’m wrong. The administrator of the Reddit sleuthing thread posted an alert this morning urging people to back off.”

“We are not waiting for them to be officially cleared, one of the men has contacted the police to try and clear his name. Please understand that the FBI now knows who they are, so our posts now have no purpose. If the situation changes then people can make new posts. It’s not our job to keep their information out there, people are innocent until proven guilty – not the other way around.”

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Some in the left-wing media are pretty upset about the “dark-skinned” references some news sources used. Others on the left are hoping it’s a white male that’s responsible. But only because they fear it could hurt Obama’s agenda or some such nonsense. And believe it or not, it supposedly has something to do with “white privilege.”

From Salon

“As we now move into the official Political Aftermath period of the Boston bombing — the period that will determine the long-term legislative fallout of the atrocity — the dynamics of privilege will undoubtedly influence the nation’s collective reaction to the attacks. That’s because privilege tends to determine: 1) which groups are — and are not — collectively denigrated or targeted for the unlawful actions of individuals; and 2) how big and politically game-changing the overall reaction ends up being.

This has been most obvious in the context of recent mass shootings. In those awful episodes, a religious or ethnic minority group lacking such privilege would likely be collectively slandered and/or targeted with surveillance or profiling (or worse) if some of its individuals comprised most of the mass shooters. However, white male privilege means white men are not collectively denigrated/targeted for those shootings — even though most come at the hands of white dudes.

Likewise, in the context of terrorist attacks, such privilege means white non-Islamic terrorists are typically portrayed not as representative of whole groups or ideologies, but as “lone wolf” threats to be dealt with as isolated law enforcement matters. Meanwhile, non-white or developing-world terrorism suspects are often reflexively portrayed as representative of larger conspiracies, ideologies and religions that must be dealt with as systemic threats — the kind potentially requiring everything from law enforcement action to military operations to civil liberties legislation to foreign policy shifts.

“White privilege is knowing that even if the bomber turns out to be white, no one will call for your group to be profiled as terrorists as a result, subjected to special screening or threatened with deportation,” writes author Tim Wise. “White privilege is knowing that if this bomber turns out to be white, the United States government will not bomb whatever corn field or mountain town or stale suburb from which said bomber came, just to ensure that others like him or her don’t get any ideas. And if he turns out to be a member of the Irish Republican Army we won’t bomb Dublin. And if he’s an Italian-American Catholic we won’t bomb the Vatican.””

🙄

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The Senate has defeated the Obama admin backed gun bill. They couldn’t get the 60 votes needed. The President is not happy.

From TheHill

“The Senate delivered a devastating blow to President Obama’s agenda to regulate guns Wednesday by defeating a bipartisan proposal to expand background  checks.

It failed by a vote of 54 to 46, with five Democrats voting against it. Only four Republicans supported it.”

But they certainly aren’t giving up.

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Meanwhile Benghazi is back in the news, thanks to new, and talkative, whistleblowers.

From CBSNews

“CBS News has learned that multiple new whistleblowers are privately speaking to investigators with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee regarding the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya.

The nature of the communications with the whistleblowers and their identities are not being made public at this time. But in response, the Oversight Committee yesterday sent letters to the three federal agencies involved: the CIA, the Defense Department and the State Department.

The letters make the case for the whistleblowers to be able to share sensitive or classified information with their own attorneys, and ask for each agency’s official description of the legal steps that process must follow. The letters also state that additional witnesses may be “compelled by subpoena to give testimony.””

And a Hat Tip to CBS, who has been on this story from the get go.

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by

News/Politics 4-15-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

We’ll start with some good news this morning.

First, President Obama on Thursday recognized the Rev. Emil Kapaun with the Medal of Honor. It’s quite a story.

From the NYPost

“America traditionally bestows the Medal of Honor on those who display uncommon valor on the battlefield. But sometimes heroism doesn’t use a weapon.”

“Kapaun’s is a story of self-sacrifice so noble that surviving vets still speak of him with awe — and the Vatican is considering making him a saint.

At the moment of capture, as one soldier lay helpless with a broken ankle at the point of a gun, Father Kapaun pushed the rifle aside and lifted the wounded American up, carrying him 80 miles through what became known as the Tiger Death March.”

“In captivity, he gave away his own rations and stole grain to feed others, picked lice off men too weak to do so themselves, traded his watch for a blanket — which he cut up to make socks for those whose feet were freezing — and defied his Communist captors by saying Mass on Easter. Even before capture, he’d been awarded a Bronze Star for running through enemy fire to drag wounded soldiers to safety. He succumbed to the effects of starvation and neglect in 1951 at age 35.”

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I can’t help but think the media fears giving the Gosnell case the coverage it deserves. They know what it will do to public opinion on the matter. That’s important given the number of states advancing abortion restrictions. But it’s getting harder to ignore thankfully.

And it’s nice to see a “mainstream” show finally get it, but it’s on Twitter, not on the Nightline show.

From HotAir

“Gosnell might be the worst serial killer in history, says … “Nightline” anchor”

“Before you ask, searching ABCNews.com’s archives reveals multiple pieces on the Gosnell trial over the past month — all from the Associated Press wire. There’s no original content from ABC News itself unless I missed something. There is original content that mentions Gosnell dated from late January. It’s a story about … threats to late-term abortionists and how they’re not all monsters like that terrible man in Pennsylvania. So yes, they’ll mention him, as long as they can somehow spin what he did in service to The Cause. Of course.

And yes, they know about the case. And they’ll acknowledge it in lower-profile formats:”

Like Twitter.

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Some of the Newtown parents have lobbyists, complete with handlers? Now who do you suppose set all this up?

From Politico

“When a lobbyist for families of Newtown shooting victims called the office of  Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to set up a meeting, the first response was a  standard D.C. offer. They could get a meeting with her staff, and Collins would  stop by, they were told.

The families’ answer: not good enough. According to their lobbyists, the  families have a rule against staff-only meetings: They won’t do them. They  insist on sitting down with the senators themselves. The families wound up  getting more than 15 minutes with Collins.

That rule is just one of the ways that the Newtown families, political novices  just a few months ago, are proving to be savvy, effective advocates as they  promote the gun legislation that has finally begun to move through the Senate.  The families are well-educated, and many are well-off. They have been polished  and sharp on TV. They’re mostly non-political, but quite accomplished in their  own fields. With access to money and media, they’re using persistence,  visibility — and, most all, their unique moral authority — to help prod Senate  action. They also have their own lobbyists — several of them, in fact.”

Grassroots activism from the parents, or orchestrated and scripted astroturf from the White House?

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Business interests are not happy about the details leaked about the Immigration/Amnesty Bill. Funny, they didn’t seem concerned about reforms, or supporting them, while contributing to the problem by employing people at sub-standard wages and encouraging illegal immigration. They’ve discovered this will cost them money.

From Politico

“The business community has long supported the idea of immigration reform — particularly the high-tech sector and the construction industry, which badly  need the workers.

What they don’t support are some of the specifics leaking out on a new  immigration reform proposal expected Tuesday from the Gang of Eight.

Now, companies and trade groups — that have been pressuring the key Senate  negotiators — are preparing to unleash their lobbying forces broadly on Capitol  Hill in hopes of securing changes to the package.

And that could spell trouble for the bill since any significant change to even a  single element could scuttle the delicately reached bargain, leaving final  passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill in serious jeopardy.”

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How 1960s Radicals Ended Up Teaching Your Kids.

From TheDailyBeast

“Last week, Rutgers University fired its mercurial basketball coach after he was videotaped “shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players in practice and using gay slurs,” according to ESPN. Under pressure from school administrators, Rutgers’ athletic director, who had previously defended the coach’s behavior, resigned. It was an appropriate response: violent oafs should be fired from their university jobs for violent, oafish behavior.

On the same day ESPN broadcast the Rutgers tape, The New York Post reported that Kathy Boudin, a professor at Columbia University, was named the 2013 Sheinberg Scholar-in-Residence at NYU Law School. In 1984, Boudin, a member of the Weather Underground, a violent, oafish association of upper-class “revolutionaries,” pled guilty to second-degree murder in association with the infamous 1981 Brinks armored car robbery in Nyack, New York. Babbling in the language of anti-racism and anti-imperialism, Boudin assisted in ending the life of three people, including Waverly Brown, the first black police officer on the Nyack police force, and left nine children fatherless. She was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. In 2003, Boudin was released; by 2008 she had landed a coveted teaching position at an Ivy League university.

Indeed, Boudin’s Columbia University biography doesn’t mention her violent past, describing her simply as “an educator and counselor with experience in program development since 1964, working within communities with limited resources to solve social problems.” Neither does an official NYU press release announcing her new gig, instead explaining that Boudin “has been dedicated to community involvement in social change since the 1960’s.” Well, that’s one way of putting it. (Boudin didn’t respond to an interview request.)

Kick a student on the basketball court and you’ll lose your university job. Spend two decades in prison on radical chic murder rap and you’ll get one.”

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And last, some questionable tactics in Nevada being used on the mentally ill.

From TheSacramentoBee

“Since July 2008, Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas has transported more than 1,500 patients to other cities via Greyhound bus, sending at least one person to every state in the continental United States, according to a Bee review of bus receipts kept by Nevada’s mental health division.”

“Nevada’s approach to dispatching mentally ill patients has come under scrutiny since one of its clients turned up suicidal and confused at a Sacramento homeless services complex. James Flavy Coy Brown, who is 48 and suffers from a variety of mood disorders including schizophrenia, was discharged in February from Rawson-Neal to a Greyhound bus for Sacramento, a place he had never visited and where he knew no one.

The hospital sent him on the 15-hour bus ride without making arrangements for his treatment or housing in California; he arrived in Sacramento out of medication and without identification or access to his Social Security payments. He wound up in the UC Davis Medical Center’s emergency room, where he lingered for three days until social workers were able to find him temporary housing.

Nevada mental health officials have acknowledged making mistakes in Brown’s case, but have made no apologies for their policy of busing patients out of state. Las Vegas is an international destination and patients who become ill while in the city have a right to return home if they desire, the state’s health officer, Dr. Tracey Green, told Nevada lawmakers during a hearing last month.”

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by

News/Politics 4-13-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

The media continues to sandbag the Gosnell story. Here’s a rather pathetic attempt to explain why.

From Patheos

“Then I decided, since tmatt has me reading the Washington Post every day, to look at how the paper’s health policy reporter was covering Gosnell. I have critiqued many of her stories on the Susan G. Komen Foundation (she wrote quite a bit about that) and the Sandra Fluke controversy (she wrote quite a bit about that) and the Todd Akin controversy (you know where this is going). In fact, a site search for that reporter — who is named Sarah Kliff — and stories Akin and Fluke and Komen — yields more than 80 hits. Guess how many stories she’s done on this abortionist’s mass murder trial.

Did you guess zero? You’d be right. So I asked her about it. Here’s her response:

Hi Molly – I cover policy for the Washington Post, not local crime, hence why I wrote about all the policy issues you mention.”

“But gosh darn it, can you think of any policy implications to this, uh, “local crime” story? And that’s all it is. Just like a bunch of other local stories the Washington Post also refuses to cover — local crimes such as the killing of Trayvon Martin and the killing of Matthew Shepard and the killing of students at an elementary school in Connecticut. Did the Washington Post even think of covering those local crime stories? No! Oh wait, they did? Like, all the time? Hmm. That’s weird. But did they cover them in terms of policy implications? Asking politicians for their views and such? Oh they did that, too? Hmm. So weird. Oh, and Sarah Kliff herself wrote one of those stories? Well, gosh, I’m so confused.”

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Meanwhile MSNBC continues to ignore the story as well. But they did take the time to investigate if the GOP is too pro-life.

From Mediaite

“As examples of self-parody go, you can’t do much better than this. As the story of Philadelphia “house of horrors” abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell explodes on the internet and makes its way gradually onto the radars of the nation’s newsroom editors, questions have arisen about why this sensational story never received the wall-to-wall treatment it appears to merit. From conservatives and liberals alike, the universal horror that the Gosnell story has inspired is palpable. But some have suggested that the story is politically inconvenient for absolutist pro-choice activists. It simply does not fit the narrative, some say, which the media has come accustomed to reporting. A rather textbook example of this narrative stewarding came today via MSNBC. The network has not yet reported on Gosnell’s infanticide factory, but they took some time out of their busy programming day today to ask a panel of political professionals if the Republican Party’s base voters are simply too culturally conservative – and too pro-life – for the party’s leadership and the general electorate.”

“UPDATE: Lest you think that this was simply an oversight by Todd’s program, MSNBC’s straight news anchor Thomas Roberts and panel guests dug into a new NBC poll which shows that more people feel that restrictions on abortion rights are appropriate. One would think that the Gosnell case would dovetail well with this segment. One would think…”

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But as was noted in the story above, it is getting out. Not at NBC, CBS, CNN, ABC, WaPo, NYTimes, LATimes, Politico and others, but from less biased sources. And even on the floor of the House.

From TheWashingtonTimes

“Reflecting mounting frustration over the lack of press coverage of inner-city Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell’s murder trial, a group of pro-life House members took to the floor to denounce what they call a “national media cover-up” of the sensational case.

“Again, I ask my colleagues and I ask the news media, ‘Why the blackout?’” said Rep. Christopher H. Smith, New Jersey Republican. “Will America ever be told of the brutality of abortion?”

The congressional outcry is the latest effort to draw attention to the gruesome courtroom drama unfolding in Philadelphia, where Dr.  Gosnell stands accused of committing eight murders  including seven live  babies born after botched abortions  at the Women’s  Medical Society.

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And I must say, Rep. Smith pulled no punches. See for yourself.

“If Dr. Gosnell had walked into a nursery and shot seven infants with an AR-15, it would be national news and the subject of presidential hand-wringing.”

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Meanwhile the President continues to exploit the Newtown tragedy, and use the families as props to push his agenda. Here’s the latest display.

From Reuters

“President Barack Obama has asked a mother whose 6-year-old son was killed in the Newtown, Connecticut massacre to deliver his weekly radio address, an unusual move expected to turn up the pressure on Congress to pass tougher gun control laws.”

And just like the victims of Hurricane Sandy, they’ll be cast aside and ignored once the photo ops are over and they’re no longer useful.

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They’re just going completely over the top with this nonsense. Now you have law enforcement and an Obama supporting prosecutor targeting soldiers outside Ft. Hood.

From TheDailyCaller

“The conflict between law enforcement and armed military personnel in the community around Fort Hood, one of America’s largest military bases, has recently and repeatedly involved the issue of gun control — and the tension has been exacerbated in part by an Obama-supporting prosecutor described as a “bandleader” of anti-gun efforts in the heavily conservative community.”

The conflict reached a fever pitch last month, when Texas police arrested an  active-duty Army sergeant for “rudely displaying” a hunting rifle. The sergeant,  C.J. Grisham, established an online legal defense fund after he was, in  his words, “illegally arrested and disarmed” for carrying the firearm.”

“Video of the incident obtained by The Daily Caller shows officers defending their behavior to Grisham while restraining him.

“In this day and age, [people] are alarmed when they see someone with what you have,” one of the officers tells Grisham in the video. “They don’t care what the law is.””

But you as a police officer should.

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While the police are busy harassing law-abiding citizens/soldiers, the illegals continue to break actual laws. But these actual laws aren’t enforced like the non-existent law above.

From WOAIRadio

“Officials say the number of people entering  the U.S. illegally is way up and, tragically, the number of undocumented  immigrants who have been found dead in the unforgiving Texas Brush Country is  way up, and is on path this year to beat last year’s record for the number of  people found dead in the ranch country.

Linda Vickers, who owns a ranch in  Brooks County, which is Ground Zero for the immigration debate, pins the blame  directly on talk of ‘amnesty’ and a ‘path to citizenship’ for people who entered  the U.S. illegally.”

“”The Border Patrol agent was loading one man up, and he told the officer in Spanish, ‘Obama’s gonna let me go’.” Border Patrol agents report that immigrants are crossing the border, and in some  cases surrendering while asking, “Where do I go for my amnesty?””

“She says the current increase in illegal  immigrant entries began last summer, at almost exactly the same time as President Obama unilaterally announced plans to no longer deport young people  who came to the U.S. as children with their illegal immigrant parents.”

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