Mitch McConnell Joins Filibuster Against Gun Control
[Breitbart.com]
by AWR Hawkins CWN Post: April 09, 2013
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says he will join GOP Senators to filibuster a bill expanding gun control regulations if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) brings it up for a vote this week.
This puts McConnell shoulder-to-shoulder with Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and eight other Senators who have said they will block a push for gun control in the Senate.
Currently, Reid’s gun control package focuses on instituting universal background checks and new laws against gun trafficking. Reid has made it clear he will allow also amendments establishing an “assault weapons” ban and Sen. Richard Blumentahl (D-CT) has made it clear he will also try to add a “high capacity” magazine ban as an amendment.
McConnell says he now stands with Paul, Cruz, Lee, Rubio, Inhofe, and the other Senators who have vowed to oppose any “motion to proceed to any legislation that will serve as a vehicle for additional gun restrictions.”
DHS Seeks Millions More Rounds of Ammunition
[PrisonPlanet.com]
Market survey asks companies if they can provide 2 million bullets within 30-60 day period
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
May 3, 2013
The Department of Homeland Security has released a market survey asking companies if they are able to provide 2 million rounds of ammunition within a short time period, increasing concerns that the federal agency is continuing its arms build up in preparation for domestic unrest.
With the DHS already having committed to purchasing over 1.6 billion bullets over the course of the last year, a “request for information” on “reduced hazard training ammunition” posted on the FedBizOpps website quizzes bullet manufacturers on how fast they can supply large quantities of ammo;
- Are you capable of producing large quantity orders of any training caliber specified with a short turnaround time of 30-60 days?
- What would your lead time be for an order of 2 million rounds of a single type listed above?
- If you were awarded a contract for some of the calibers listed above, submitted a production lot of one million rounds and that lot or portion of the lot was not accepted, would you be able to replace that order with an additional one million rounds within 60 days?
Libya Imprisons American for Allegedly Proselytizing Christianity in Benghazi
[CNSNews.com]
Egyptian protest the deaht of Ezzat Atallah, who died in a Libyan prison, in front of the Libyan embassy in Cairo. (AP Photo)(CNSNews.com) – On Feb. 12, about two years after the U.S. government first militarily intervened in Libya to advance the cause of Libyan revolutionaries and five months after Libyan terrorists murdered Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans in that country, the post-revolutionary Libyan government arrested a U.S. citizen for allegedly “proselytizing” Christianity in Benghazi.
As of today, according to both a senior administration official and a State Department spokesperson, this U.S. citizen remains imprisoned in post-Qaddafi Libya.
The Libyan government also arrested seven other Christians in Benghazi in connection with the same alleged case of Christian proselytizing. These include a South African woman, a South Korean man and five Egyptian men.
One of the Egyptians, Ezzat Atallah, was tortured by the Libyans while in detention, according to an Egyptian human rights lawyer. Atallah later died in Libyan custody—from what an Egyptian official characterized as natural causes.
Vladimir Putin rolls out the red carpet for visit of President Xi Jinping
[UK Independent]
Russian premier gives unprecedented welcome to new Chinese leader as relations thaw
Friday 22 March 2013
China’s new leader began his first overseas trip as president with a much anticipated visit to Russia today – a symbolic trip that underlines China’s desire to ensure its energy supply while showing defiance in the face of US influence in Asia.
A grand reception was held to welcome President Xi Jinping upon his arrival in Moscow, with guards riding on horseback brought out to greet a foreign leader for the first time. Kremlin guards snapped to attention as Mr Xi and his long retinue walked into the gilded, chandeliered Grand Kremlin Palace, where they met members of official delegations in the ornate St George Hall before sitting down for talks.
“China and Russia are the main and most important strategic partners,” Mr Xi told Russian media upon his arrival. He said he was eagerly anticipating his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “In many ways we speak a common language,” he said.
The grand welcome was a clear indication of the importance placed on the visit by Moscow. Russia is one of the world’s biggest energy producers, and China is the top energy consumer. These realities tend to outweigh the traditionally tense relations between the two neighbouring giants, who were bitter rivals during the Soviet era despite their ideological links.
Russia has watched China’s rise with concern, anxious that it might someday threaten its dominance on its eastern borders. But a bigger concern for the Kremlin, one that it shares with China, is blunting US influence in the region. At the start of talks, Mr Putin described the ties between the two countries as an “extremely important factor of global politics.”
Ahead of Mr Xi’s arrival, he said: “We are working together, helping to shape a new, more just world order, ensure peace and security, defend basic principles of international law.”
Mr Xi said that the relations between the two countries are the best ever.
In recent years, the need to counterbalance the growing might of the US has led to the two to set aside some differences. Strong trade links have also smoothed some of the wrinkles in the interim, with bilateral trade soaring to a record £58bn last year.
Beijing and Moscow have taken similar stances on some of the biggest geopolitical issues of recent years, from North Korea to Iran to Syria, often voting in concert to veto punitive sanctions by the UN Security Council.
Many analysts believe their relationship is likely to strengthen, especially as the United States tries to expand its influence in Asia, and both countries are firm in rejecting Western criticism of their human rights records.
The two leaders are expected to discuss Syria and North Korea, but the economy is likely to dominate.
Shortly before Mr Xi arrived in Russia with first lady Peng Liyuan, a £1.3bn deal was announced by Russian and Chinese companies to develop coal resources in eastern Siberia. Russia also sees China as a way to diversify its energy markets away from Europe and it is keen to tie up a potentially enormous gas deal which could eventually see almost 70 billion cubic metres of gas pumped to China annually for the next 30 years.
Mr Xi’s tour continues until March 30 and he will also visit Tanzania, South Africa and the Republic of Congo. In South Africa he will attend the fifth BRICS summit.
The five key emerging economies that make up BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have become an increasingly important channel for China and Russia to counter growing US influence.
BRICS countries hold reserves totalling £3 trillion, most of them held by China, and China now accounts for 20 per cent of Africa’s exports.
China surpassed the US and Europe as Africa’s largest trading partner in 2009 and has maintained its leading place in the years since.
China’s First Lady: A new role model
In China, the big news about Xi Jinping’s first trip as president has not been about energy, investment or BRICS, but rather about his wife Peng Liyuan’s first public appearance as first lady.
Ms Peng is a hugely popular figure in China, indeed, she was probably better known than him until recently, and adored by millions for her stirring renditions of folk tunes in army uniform or ethnic costume.
“Peng Liyuan has a very positive meaning for China. China needs a female role-model. Imagine what would it be like if China had a First Lady like Michelle Obama?” wrote one online fashion commentator.
Since the cult of personality that built up around Chairman Mao Zedong, the Communist Party has sought to avoid making its leaders too personal. Solid, dull technocrats have run the show, and their wives have been even less visible.
Related articles
US plan calls for more scanning of private Web traffic, email
[Reuters.com]
Joseph Menn and Deborah Charles
Posted: March 21, 2013
The U.S. government is expanding a cybersecurity program that scans Internet traffic headed into and out of defense contractors to include far more of the country’s private, civilian-run infrastructure.
As a result, more private sector employees than ever before, including those at big banks, utilities and key transportation companies, will have their emails and Web surfing scanned as a precaution against cyber attacks.
Under last month’s White House executive order on cybersecurity, the scans will be driven by classified information provided by U.S. intelligence agencies — including data from the National Security Agency (NSA) — on new or especially serious espionage threats and other hacking attempts. U.S. spy chiefs said on March 12 that cyber attacks have supplanted terrorism as the top threat to the country.
The Department of Homeland Security will gather the secret data and pass it to a small group of telecommunication companies and cyber security providers that have employees holding security clearances, government and industry officials said. Those companies will then offer to process email and other Internet transmissions for critical infrastructure customers that choose to participate in the program.
DHS as the middleman
By using DHS as the middleman, the Obama administration hopes to bring the formidable overseas intelligence-gathering of the NSA closer to ordinary U.S. residents without triggering an outcry from privacy advocates who have long been leery of the spy agency’s eavesdropping.
The telecom companies will not report back to the government on what they see, except in aggregate statistics, a senior DHS official said in an interview granted on condition he not be identified.
“That allows us to provide more sensitive information,” the official said. “We will provide the information to the security service providers that they need to perform this function.” Procedures are to be established within six months of the order.
The administration is separately seeking legislation that would give incentives to private companies, including communications carriers, to disclose more to the government. NSA Director General Keith Alexander said last week that NSA did not want personal data but Internet service providers could inform the government about malicious software they find and the Internet Protocol addresses they were sent to and from.
“There is a way to do this that ensures civil liberties and privacy and does ensure the protection of the country,” Alexander told a congressional hearing.
Fears grow of destructive attack
In the past, Internet traffic-scanning efforts were mainly limited to government networks and Defense Department contractors, which have long been targets of foreign espionage.
But as fears grow of a destructive cyber attack on core, non-military assets, and more sweeping security legislation remained stalled, the Obama administration opted to widen the program.
Last month’s presidential order calls for commercial providers of “enhanced cybersecurity services” to extend their offerings to critical infrastructure companies. What constitutes critical infrastructure is still being refined, but it would include utilities, banks and transportation such as trains and highways.
Under the program, critical infrastructure companies will pay the providers, which will use the classified information to block attacks before they reach the customers. The classified information involves suspect Web addresses, strings of characters, email sender names and the like.
Not all the cybersecurity providers will be telecom companies, though AT&T is one. Raytheon said this month it had agreed with DHS to become a provider, and a spokesman said that customers could route their traffic to Raytheon after receiving it from their communications company.
As the new set-up takes shape, DHS officials and industry executives said some security equipment makers were working on hardware that could take classified rules about blocking traffic and act on them without the operator being able to reverse-engineer the codes. That way, people wouldn’t need a security clearance to use the equipment.
Civil liberties implications
The issue of scanning everything headed to a utility or a bank still has civil liberties implications, even if each company is a voluntary participant.
Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that the executive order did not weaken existing privacy laws, but any time a machine acting on classified information is processing private communications, it raises questions about the possibility of secret extra functions that are unlikely to be answered definitively.
“You have to wonder what else that box does,” Tien said.
One technique for examining email and other electronic packets en route, called deep packet inspection, has stirred controversy for years, and some cybersecurity providers said they would not be using that. In deep packet inspection, communication companies or others with network access can examine all the elements of a transmission, including the content of emails.
“The signatures provided by DHS do not require deep packet inspection,” said Steve Hawkins, vice president at Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems division, referring further questions to DHS.
The DHS official said the government is still in conversations with the telecom operators on the issue.
The official said the government had no plans to roll out any such form of government-guided close examination of Internet traffic into the communications companies serving the general public.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
Rand Paul’s immigration plan: Border security before probationary legal status
[HotAir.com]
posted at 12:01 pm on March 19, 2013 by Allahpundit
The AP claimed this morning that Paul was set to endorse a path to citizenship in his speech today. Not so, countered conservatives on Twitter: Read his prepared remarks and you’ll see that citizenship is never mentioned. Which is true, and also irrelevant.
The whole point of Paul’s speech is GOP rapprochement with Latino voters; he spends nearly two-thirds of it extolling Latinos’ work ethic, reminiscing about his friendships with Latinos growing up in Texas, name-checking Jaime Escalante and Pablo Neruda, and of course citing the ancient canard that Latinos are really just Republicans who don’t know it yet. (He mentions abortion and gay marriage as particular areas of overlap.
In fact, younger Latinos support legal abortion in all or most cases and nearly 60 percent of Latinos overall support state recognition of gay marriage.) There’s no earthly way that Paul, having made a conciliatory pitch that florid, would ultimately turn around and insist that illegals be forever barred from seeking citizenship. In his op-ed on immigration today at the Washington Times, he actually refers to them at one point as “undocumented citizens.”(!) When pressed on the issue in the Q&A after his speech, he said this:
So no, he won’t create a special path to citizenship to help move illegals quickly through the green-card process but there’s a path to citizenship through normal channels in the end. Then again, with the singular exception of Jeb Bush, whom no one believes is serious anyway, every prominent Republican politician I can think of supports a path to citizenship eventually. That’s my whole point: If you’re trying to build goodwill with Latinos, there has to be. But what about the rest of Paul’s plan? Quote:
The first part of my plan – border security – must be certified by Border Patrol and an Investigator General and then voted on by Congress to ensure it has been accomplished…
With this in place, I believe conservatives will accept what needs to come next, an issue that must be addressed: what becomes of the 12 million undocumented workers in the United States?
My plan is very simple and will include work visas for those who are here, who are willing to come forward and work…
Conservatives confident federal gun measures will be scaled back
[FoxNews.com]
Associated Press
Published March 16, 2013
March 15, 2013: National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre gestures as he speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md. (AP)
OXON HILL, Md. – Conservatives are all but declaring victory on their defense of gun rights, exuding confidence as calls for aggressive controls in the wake of the Newtown elementary school massacre have given way to scaled-back expectations to firearm restrictions in Congress.
“They can call me crazy and whatever else they want, but NRA’s nearly 5 million members and America’s 100 million gun owners will not back down — not now, not ever,” an emboldened Wayne LaPierre, the CEO and executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, told conservatives gathered at an annual conference. He pointedly ignored President Barack Obama’s most restrictive proposals in his speech, using it instead to assail the one that has the potential of getting approved — a near-universal background check for gun owners.
Obama meets with House Republicans, downplays ‘immediate’ debt crisis
[FoxNews.com]
Published March 13, 2013
Pro-Obama group picks up president’s sequester…
President plays defense on the sequester
President Obama met Wednesday with House Republicans in an apparent bid to find consensus on fiscal policy, even as he seemed to antagonize the other side by claiming there’s no “immediate crisis in terms of debt.”
His statement would be sharply at odds with a core Republican principle that the debt must be addressed soon — and which underpinned the cost-cutting GOP budget released Tuesday. The president also acknowledged, in an interview aired earlier in the day, that differences with the GOP might be “too wide” to bridge.
Still, the president made the rare visit with House Republicans on Capitol Hill as part of what some are calling his charm offensive. The president is making a renewed effort to meet with Republican leaders and rank-and-file lawmakers amid overlapping budget battles and a series of deadlines on the horizon.
The president is trying to find common ground with Congress in order to halt the sequester spending cuts, which have already taken effect — as well as pass a stopgap budget bill in order to avert an end-of-the-month government shutdown, pass a bona fide budget for next year and once again raise the debt ceiling.
A source in the room during the meeting with Republicans told Fox News that Obama told them he’s looking for bipartisanship on a range of issues, including fiscal matters, immigration, gun regulation and foreign policy.
One skeptical source told Fox News, “we shall see.” Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., though, later emerged saying the president “did himself some good.”
Obama went into the meeting with his aides and allies ripping House Republicans for their newly introduced budget, which aims to balance the country’s finances in 10 years. In an interview with ABC News, the president declared that there is no “immediate” debt crisis and that “for the next 10 years, it’s going to be in a sustainable place.”
That message is likely to rile Republicans, who cite widespread economic warnings in saying the debt — which is nearing $17 trillion — must be addressed.
“We are addressing the most predictable debt crisis in this country’s history,” Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said Tuesday while introducing his budget plan.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that “everybody” recognizes there is a “long-term debt challenge.”
And he said the president “believes that bipartisan cooperation is possible.”
Senate Democrats were unveiling their budget proposal Wednesday afternoon, in response to the House Republican plan introduced Tuesday.
The Republican plan touts longstanding party proposals to cut funding for domestic programs, repeal Obama’s health care reform law and overhaul the Medicare health care program for the elderly. It would balance the federal budget in 10 years with steep spending cuts alone — a nonstarter with Democrats.
“Ultimately, it may be that the differences are just too wide,” Obama said in the interview broadcast Wednesday.
If Republicans insist that their only solution is to avoid tax hikes and “gut” entitlement programs, “then we’re probably not going to be able to get a deal,” he said.
Obama has continued reaching out to lawmakers in hopes that he can somehow reach a “grand bargain” that reins in deficit spending without hurting the economy and stops Washington from lurching from one self-induced fiscal crisis to another.
The fence-mending campaign started with an unusual dinner Obama hosted last week at a hotel near the White House for a dozen Senate Republicans and continues Wednesday with his meeting with House Republicans.
Obama, who also will meet with Senate Republicans and House Democrats on Thursday, has shown a willingness to reduce spending on big entitlement programs but has not agreed to the kinds of changes Ryan and other Republicans have sought.
Republicans, however, object to any more tax increases, insisting that Obama got his way with tax hikes on top earners in the New Year’s Day deal that averted the “fiscal cliff.” That last-minute deal prevented automatic tax hikes for all federal income tax payers, but merely delayed $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts.
The parties were unable to reach a compromise on a deficit-cutting plan, so the automatic spending cuts began taking effect March 1 and are set to continue through the decade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Six months later, where are Benghazi’s survivors?
[HotAir.com]
posted at 1:21 pm on March 12, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
Yesterday marked six months from the date that four Americans were killed in a terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, the first American ambassador murdered in the line of duty in 33 years. While the Obama administration begrudgingly cooperated with Congressional panels looking into the attack and the White House response by sending officials to testify, one group still has not yet been made available. CBS’ Sharyl Attkisson wonders — where are the survivors?
Today marks six months since the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya in which four Americans were killed, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Some watchdog groups, members of the media and Republican members of Congress are asking: Where are the more than two dozen U.S. personnel who survived the attack but haven’t been seen nor heard from in public since? There were also an undisclosed number of witnesses at the U.S. compounds in Tripoli but they also have not spoken publicly.
In a recent press report, Secretary of State John Kerry said he visited one survivor at “Bethesda hospital,” and referred to him a “remarkably courageous person who is doing very, very well.” Kerry added, “I’ve called his wife and talked to her.” But the identities, condition and testimony of the survivors and witnesses have been closely held from the public.
WSJ’s Henninger: Obama Living in ‘Alternative Universe’
[Newsmax.com]
Thursday, 28 Feb 2013 09:50 AM
By Lisa Barron
President Barack Obama is living in an “alternative universe” where crisis looms but all he does is give speeches rather than tackle the problem, The Wall Street Journal said Thursday.With $85 billion in automatic spending cuts due to hit on Friday, Obama has made no effort to speak to Congressional leaders to avert the so-called sequester, writes the paper’s Daniel Henninger.“Barack Obama gives his State of the Union speech, the sequester looms, and the president flies around the country giving speeches. He’s had virtually no contact on the sequester with the legislative branch. Now he’s going to meet with them after the sequester happens. This is unusual. We need to look outside normal politics for explanations,” Henninger, the Journal’s deputy editorial page editor, writes in his weekly “Wonderland” column.“We are in the fifth year of the Obama presidency, and Washington is still dead in the water. Four straight years in which the government of the United States of America fails to enact a budget is, well, amazing,” he says.Henninger posts that Obama is “creating an alternative universe, the Obamaian Universe.”
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!
Barack and Michelle: FORMER LAWYERS?
[CWNewsONLINE.net]
Posted by Mark Newland
I knew they had both lost their law license, but I didn’t know why until I read this.
This is 100% legit. I checked it out at https://www.iardc.org/. IARDC stands for Illinois Attorney Registration And Disciplinary Committee. It’s the official arm of lawyer discipline in Illinois; and they are very strict. [Talk about irony.] At the advanced age of almost 65, even I maintain (at the cost of approximately $600/year) my law license that I worked so hard and long to earn.
Big surprise.
The Former Constitutional Law Lecturer and U.S. President Makes Up Constitutional Quotes During State Of The Union (SOTU) Address.
Consider this:
1. President Barack Obama, former editor of the Harvard Law Review, is no longer a “lawyer”. He surrendered his license back in 2008 in order to escape charges he lied on his bar application. A “Voluntary Surrender” is not something where you decide “Gee, a license is not really something I need anymore, is it?” Forget to renew your license. No, a “Voluntary Surrender” is something you do when you’ve been accused of something, and you ‘voluntarily surrender” your license [five seconds] before the state suspends it for you.
WH: Obama Called Hillary at 10PM on Night of Benghazi Attack–About Same Time Clinton First Publicly Linked Attack to YouTube Video
[CNSNews.com]
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama called Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at approximately 10 p.m. on the night of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told CNSNews.com.
That was more than six hours after the attacks started, more than an hour before Tryone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed–and about the time that Clinton first released a statement linking the attacks to “inflammatory material posted on the Internet,” a reference to an anti-Muslim video on YouTube.
“Like every president before him, he has a national security adviser and deputy national security adviser,” Carney told CNSNews.com on Tuesday. “He was in regular communication with his national security team directly, through them, and spoke with the secretary of state at approximately 10 p.m. He called her to get an update on the situation.”
White House [Obama aids] walks back leaked immigration plan amid GOP outrage
[FoxNews.com]
Published February 18, 2013
President Obama’s advisers tried to put the genie back in the bottle after a leaked White House immigration plan drew outrage from Republicans who accused the president of endangering the reform push.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a key figure in immigration reform talks, was among those who slammed the president for the plan. After what was described as a draft White House proposal was first leaked in USA Today, Rubio said over the weekend it would be “dead on arrival in Congress.”
By Monday, Obama insiders were walking the plan back and suggesting the leak was not intentional.
One White House official told Fox News they were “surprised” that the “draft” language was given to the press and thought the publication was “unfortunate.”
“This was not the administration floating anything,” the official said, adding that the White House reached out to Senate offices Saturday evening to stress their support for ongoing congressional talks.
Jon Stewart Grills Susan Rice on Obama Admin’s Alleged Mismanagement of Benghazi Terror Attack
[TheBlaze.com]
Questions continue to swirl surrounding the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead. Among the most confounding factors were inaccurate comments made by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice in the wake of the assault. The embattled administration official appeared last night on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” to discuss the government’s handling of the crisis.
During the exchange, the host challenged Rice on some of the confusing and contradictory information that emerged in the wake of the terror attack. The ambassador also issued some tough words for those who still believe the Obama administration is hiding key information.
Stewart wasted no time launching into his questioning. Almost as soon as Rice sat down, he asked the ambassador why she was selected to speak out on Sunday morning shows and pondered why someone else more appropriate (i.e. Hillary Clinton or another official) wasn’t chosen. The ambassador gave this long-winded answer:
“I’ve spent many-a-Sunday doing the Sunday shows. In this case, Secretary Clinton, who had been asked originally to do it, felt that she didn’t want to, couldn’t do it that week, having been through quite an intense week with the loss of our colleagues in Benghazi, the violence against our embassies all over the Arab and Muslim world and then — also that Friday having to join President Obama in greeting the families of our fallen colleagues and bringing their bodies back.”
Gun-Grabbing Madness: Chicago Murder Rate Tops Afganistan War Death Toll
Chicago, one of the best test cases for gun control in the nation, has a murder rate exceeding the war in Afghanistan and coming close to the death rate in Iraq:
The death toll by murder in Chicago over the past decade is greater than the number of American forces who have died in Afghanistan since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom, according to a police analysis.
In addition, police reports in Chicago – where President Obama once worked as a community organizer and where his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, now serves as mayor – show most of the city’s massive murder mayhem is black-on-black crime.
A WND review of the Chicago Police Department Murder Analysis reports from 2003 to 2011 provides a statistical breakdown of the demographics of both the victims and offenders in the 4,265 murders in Chicago over that time period.
Of the victims of murder in Chicago from 2003 to 2011, an average of 77 percent had a prior arrest history, with a high of 79 percent of the 436 murdered in Chicago in 2010 having arrest histories.
For the same 2003-2011 period, blacks were the victims of 75 percent of 4,265 murders. Blacks also were the offenders in 75 percent of the murders.
…Operation Enduring Freedom, the name for the war in Afghanistan, which started Oct. 7, 2001, has seen a total of 2,166 killed. The war has been ongoing for 11 years, 3 months and one week.
President Obama’s Deficit Problem
[Townhall.com]
Kevin Glass
Managing Editor, Townhall.com
Jan 20, 2013 03:38 PM EST
Republicans are reportedly ready to vote to hike the debt ceiling without any of the major deficit-related concessions they’ve been pushing for from Democrats, and budget-watchers will soon turn their attention to the looming sequestration spending cuts (from the Budget Control Act, or BCA) scheculed to take place on March 1 and the expiration of the continuing resolution budget that the federal government has been operating on, scheduled to take place March 28.Progressives, however, have been declaring the deficit problem “mostly solved.” A report from the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that, including all BCA cuts and the additional tax revenues from the January 1 fiscal cliff legislation, the U.S. is close to being on a stable ten-year budget path.
George Will: Obamacare’s death star?
[HumanEvents.com]
By: George Will
1/19/2013 08:00 PM
WASHINGTON — A willow, not an oak. So said conservatives of Chief Justice John Roberts when he rescued the Affordable Care Act — aka Obamacare — from being found unconstitutional. But the manner in which he did this may have made the ACA unworkable, thereby putting it on a path to ultimate extinction.
This plausible judgment comes from professor Thomas A. Lambert of the University of Missouri Law School, writing in Regulation quarterly, a publication of the libertarian Cato Institute. The crucial decision, he says, was four liberal justices joining Roberts’ opinion declaring that the ACA’s penalty for not complying with the mandate to purchase health insurance is actually a tax on not purchasing it. With this reasoning, the court severely limited the ability of the new health care regime to cope with its own predictable consequences.
TV Guide Hails Martha Raddatz as ‘Moderator of the Year,’ Slams Clint Eastwood, Bristol Palin
[Newsbusters.org]
December 31, 2012
TV Guide published a “Cheers and Jeers” issue to analyze “2012′s Best and Worst in TV.” When it came to political TV, the magazine made it quite clear that Obama’s re-election was a highlight, and conservative celebrities were only mentioned in “Jeers.”
Raddatz was hailed for “asking direct questions and keeping the candidates on point,” which does not describe her first question to Joe Biden on Benghazi. She noted the State Department now admitted there were no protests, but could ask Biden if the Benghazi attack was a “massive intelligence failure,” not a massive campaign of misleading the American people:
CHEERS to ABC News’ [sic] Martha Raddatz for being moderator of the year. She took control of the vice-presidential debate with blunt forcefulness, asking direct questions and keeping the candidates on point, a marked contrast to Jim Lehrer’s passive style in the first presidential matchup. Can she do all the debates from now on?
The magazine sort of ruined that pro-substance argument by awarding “Jeers” to the “Today show train wreck” for letting go of Ann Curry, the woman who couldn’t locate Illinois on a map.
Clint Eastwood’s speech at the Republican convention – where someone thought his star power would eclipse the eloquence of his presentation – drew only jeers:
JEERS to the Eastwoods for not knowing when to stay off camera. Clint’s embarrassing and rambling diatribe to an empty chair at the Republican National Convention raised eyebrows, while wife Dina’s narcissistic celeb-reality show Mrs. Eastwood & Company provoked only yawns.
CNN Throws Liberal Smears and Talking Points at NRA
[Newsbusters.org]
By Matt Hadro | December 27, 2012
CNN’s Carol Costello threw ugly smears and liberal talking points at the NRA’s president David Keene on Thursday. Keene repeatedly had to deflect criticisms that the NRA is out of touch with most Americans during a lengthy 15-minute grilling.
Costello resorted to sharing smears of the NRA from her Facebook page. “And many, many comments said, ‘Why is the NRA crazy? Why are they, like, out of touch with reality?’ A lot of people said – why do you think that people say those things about the NRA?” she asked Keene. [Video below the break. Audio here.]
Costello also quoted GOP pollster Frank Luntz smacking the NRA as out of touch. She described Luntz “as conservative as you can get,” even though he also polled for the anti-gun Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
EXCLUSIVE — Soros-Backed Attack Dog Expands War on Fox
[Breitbart.com]
by Capitol Confidential 21 Dec 2012, 7:31 AM PDT
“Gabe Sherman is Jayson Blair on steroids.” That’s one tough assessment of Gabriel Sherman, the over-eager reporter and from-a-great-distance biographer of Roger Ailes. Who said it? A well-placed source close to Fox News. And the source makes a very strong case.
Jayson Blair, of course, was the serially dishonest reporter for The New York Times who was fired, finally, in 2003.
Today, in the opinion of many, Sherman is following in Blair’s disastrous and disgraced footsteps. On December 17, under the headline, “Rupert Murdoch Wants Stricter Gun Laws After Newtown, But Fox News Doesn’t Get the Memo,” Sherman falsely claimed that Fox News had put out an “edict” against discussions of gun control in the wake of the Newtown, CT shooting. The next day, Sherman’s claim was knocked down here at Breitbart.com, among other news outfits.
Now, having been nailed for his incorrect story, Sherman is currently scrambling to save his reputation by enlisting his Fox-phobic allies in the MSM.
First responders cite difficulty in getting past scenes witnessed at Sandy Hook Elementary
[FoxNews]
Associated Press
Published December 20, 2012
Dec. 14, 2012: In this file photo provided by the Newtown Bee, paramedics and others rush toward Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., shortly after Adam Lanza opened fire, killing 26 people, including 20 children. (AP/Newtown Bee)
NEWTOWN, Conn. – While the people of Newtown do their best to cope with loss and preserve the memories of their loved ones, another class of residents is also finding it difficult to move on: the emergency responders who saw firsthand the terrible aftermath of last week’s school shooting.
Firefighter Peter Barresi was driving through Newtown on Friday when police cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring raced toward his oldest son’s elementary school. After he was sent to Sandy Hook school himself, he saw things that will stay with him forever.
With anguished parents searching for their children, he prepared to receive the wounded, but a paramedic came back empty-handed, underscoring the totality of the massacre. Barresi, whose own son escaped unharmed, later discovered that among the 26 dead were children who played baseball with his son and had come to his house for birthday parties.
Boehner warns Obama: If you veto our Plan B bill, the automatic tax hikes on January 1 are all on you
[HotAir.com]
posted at 5:13 pm on December 19, 2012 by Allahpundit
This is a leverage ploy, right? The House passes Plan B, Reid kills it in the Senate, and then Boehner gets to say, “We did what Democrats wanted by taxing millionaires and they still prefer to go over the cliff.” But … what if it doesn’t even pass the House? Then Democrats get to turn around and say that the GOP caucus won’t even agree to tax the rich when it’s their own Speaker asking them to do so. As of last night, per National Journal, GOP vote counters weren’t sure that Boehner had the votes. Grover Norquist did him a favor this morning by declaring that Plan B doesn’t violate Republicans’ no-tax pledge, and this’ll help too:
Evil Comes Calling
[American Spectator]
By Matt Purple on 12.18.12 @ 6:09AM
Searching for answers after Newtown and finding little.
It’s been three days since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., and America is still in a daze.
We see it everywhere. At coffee shops, people sit at tables, talking uncomfortably, stifling tears. At malls, shoppers meander while the Christmas music drifting from the speakers sounds flippant, even mocking. At Sunday mass, burly men dab their eyes during the homily.
We’ve endured a string of shootings lately, from the movie theater in Aurora to the mall in Clackamas. But this one hit harder, bringing a collective grief and loss that hasn’t been felt in America since 9/11. News anchors keep telling us that Newtown is the second worst school shooting in our history, after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. But really, it’s the worst. Most of those killed were children, six- and seven-year-olds, shot three to 11 times with a semiautomatic rifle. The scene was the most disturbing that Connecticut’s veteran medical examiner had ever seen.
Watch Obama get his ‘medicine’ on live TV
[WND.com EXCLUSIVE]
Limbaugh raves about doctor’s speech: ‘Talk about a tingly feeling up your leg!’
Posted: February 09, 2013
At the National Prayer Breakfast, broadcast live on C-SPAN2, Dr. Ben Carson said he didn’t want to “offend” anyone, but his words nonetheless were likely to have made one distinguished guest in attendance – President Barack Obama – squirm in his seat.
Carson is director of the pediatric neurosurgery division at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. His inspiring story of growing up the son of an illiterate, single black woman to becoming one of America’s most esteemed doctors has been detailed in the book “Gifted Hands” and the movie of the same name.
At Thursday’s prayer breakfast, Carson took aim at a number of topics that may have caused the man seated two chairs to his right a bit of indigestion, including class-warfare economics.
“Some people say, they say, ‘Well, that’s not fair because it doesn’t hurt the guy who made $10 billion as much as the guy who made 10,’” Carson said. “[But] where does it say you have to hurt the guy? He just put a billion dollars in the pot!
“We don’t need to hurt him,” Carson continued. “It’s that kind of thinking that has resulted in 602 banks in the Cayman Islands. That money needs to be back here, building our infrastructure and creating jobs.”
(more…)
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February 9, 2013 | Categories: 2012 Election, America's Freedoms, Balanced Budget, Congress: Inquiries & Committees, Corruption, Corruption in Government, Deficit, Economic Terrorism, Elections Politics, Electorate, Fiscal Responsibility, Freedom Justice and Liberty, Government, Individual Rights and Freedoms, Liberals Big Spending and Taxes, Manufactured Crisis, National Debt, New Media News, Politically Intentioned Crisis, Politics, Radical Liberal Progressive Left, Redistribution of Wealth | Tags: Barack Obama, church leaders, current-events, Dr. Ben Carson, Drew Zahn, live on tv, Obama "medicine", pediatric neurosurgen, politics, prayer breakfast, Rush Limbaugh comments, Science, speech, squirm in his seat, WND | Leave A Comment »