‘Hell to pay:’ Residents angry as RCMP seize guns from High River homes (with video)

06/2013

‘It’s just like Nazi Germany,’ says resident

HIGH RIVER — RCMP revealed Thursday that officers have seized a “substantial amount” of firearms from homes in the evacuated town of High River.

“We just want to make sure that all of those things are in a spot that we control, simply because of what they are,” said Sgt. Brian Topham.

“People have a significant amount of money invested in firearms ... so we put them in a place that we control and that they’re safe.”

That news didn’t sit well with a crowd of frustrated residents who had planned to breach a police checkpoint northwest of the town as an evacuation order stretched into its eighth day.

“I find that absolutely incredible that they have the right to go into a person’s belongings out of their home,” said resident Brenda Lackey, after learning Mounties have been taking residents’ guns. “When people find out about this there’s going to be untold hell to pay.”

See photos from the scene.

About 30 RCMP officers set up a blockade at the checkpoint, preventing 50 residents from walking into the town. Dozens more police cars, lights on, could be seen lining streets in the town on standby.

Officers laid down a spike belt to stop anyone from attempting to drive past the blockade. That action sent the crowd of residents into a rage.

“What’s next? Tear gas?” shouted one resident.

“It’s just like Nazi Germany, just taking orders,” shouted another.

“This is the reason the U.S. has the right to bear arms,” said Charles Timpano, pointing to the group of Mounties.

Officers were ordered to fall back about an hour into the standoff in order to diffuse the situation and listen to residents’ concerns.

“We don’t want our town to turn into another New Orleans,” said resident Jeff Langford. “The longer that the water stays in our houses the worse it’s going to be. We’ll either be bulldozing them or burning them down because we’ve got an incompetent government.”

Langford blasted High River Mayor Emile Blokland over comments made Wednesday in which Blokland said residents will be allowed to return after businesses, such as hardware and drug stores, are opened.

“It was ridiculous,” said Langford. “I think he’s a puppet on a string.”

Langford said Premier Redford should come to High River to address residents’ concerns and provide information.

“This is at the highest tension,” he said. “What’s going to happen next is that people are just going to be walking across these fields, and I don’t care if they put hundreds of thousand of police officers there, they’re not going to stop from getting in.”

Sgt. Topham said he didn’t know when residents would be allowed to return to their homes. “People much higher up are going to make those decisions,” he said.

He did confirm that officer relied on forced entry to get into numerous houses during the early stages of the flood because of an “urgent need”, said Topham.

Police are no longer forcing themselves into homes and the residences that were forced open will be secured, he said.

Topham said the confiscated firearms have been inventoried and are secured at an RCMP detachment. He was not at liberty to say how many firearms had been confiscated.

“We have seized a large quantity of firearms simply because they were left by residents in their places,” said Topham.

The guns will be returned to owners after residents are allowed back in town and they provide proof of ownership, Topham added.

Residents promised to returned to the checkpoint at noon every day until they are allowed to return to their homes.


Source: Calgary Herald

Update from Obama's Favorite Leader: Turkey Attempts to Coerce Facebook and Twitter to Divulge Information on Those who “Insulted” State Officials

06/29/2013

What happens when Western forms of media hit governments like China’s or Turkey’s that hold different values about free speech? In the case of Turkey, they expect companies like Twitter and Facebook to expose people who insult state officials — despite the privacy policies upheld by such companies.

Specifically, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is responding to the heavy demonstrations Turkey has endured this June by aiming to prosecute those who incited it using Twitter and Facebook. It is against the law to insult state officials in Turkey, and an Aksam newspaper says a list of 35 people from Facebook and Twitter has been produced by police to prosecute such people, a list deputy prime minister Bekir Bozdag acknowledged.

“Crimes determined as such by the law don’t change if they are carried out through Facebook, Twitter, or through other electronic means,” said Bozdag, and then added, rather tautologically, “No one has the right to commit crimes under the rule of law.”

Facebook doesn’t want to balk on divulging personal information. “We will be meeting with representatives of the Turkish government when they visit Silicon Valley this week, and we intend to communicate our strong concerns about these proposals directly at that time,” said Facebook, as reported by the Associated Press.

Erdogan has been regarded as increasingly draconian, despite his reputation for being a fighter for democracy, after weakening the overly powerful military of Turkey, which has staged three coups against the government over the years. Nevertheless, their insistence that social media venues such as Twitter are a “menace” and the governments’ claim that the protests are being led by foreign bankers in a conspiracy sounds ominous, to say the least. Their media has also downplayed the protests, which were sparked after peaceful activists were violently attacked on May 31.

Whether their democracy is strong and worthy of joining the EU is still up for debate, but dismissing or attempting to dominate free-speech outlets such as Facebook and Twitter would be a step in the wrong direction.

source

Britain Bans Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, Welcomes Che Guevara’s Daughter

06/29/2013

(Townhall) - After slamming the door on American radio star Michael Savage four years ago, the British government now slams it on American authors Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. The British Home Secretary banned Savage for “extremist views and fostering hatred.”

“The UK should never become a stage for inflammatory speakers who promote hate,” is how the British Home office explains its recent barring of Geller and Spencer.

Yet for the past five years (if not longer) Britain has opened her arms to visits by Che Guevara’s daughter, Aleida. Che’s daughter visits Britain to promote, in her own words: “my father’s ideals, his concerns, and his ambitions. I believe that my father is a banner to the world.” Her last visit was in September 2012 where among other “promotions of her father’s ideals” she demonstrated in front of the U.S. embassy.

In an interview with the Guardian Aleida Guevara boasted: “I want to be like Che and fight until final victory, then you feel elated. It is preferable to sink in the sea than to betray the glory that once lived!”

And what was this glory? Her father was 2nd in command of a regime that murdered more Cubans in its first three years in power than Hitler’s regime murdered Germans during in its first six, jailed and tortured political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin during the Great Terror, and came closest of anyone in history to starting a worldwide nuclear war. In the above process of “glory” Aleida’s father helped convert a nation with a higher per-capita income than half of Europe and a huge influx of immigrants into one that repels Haitians and boasts the highest suicide rate in the Hemisphere.

Let’s have a further look at Aleida’s father’s “ideals.” And let’s keep in mind that what got Geller, Savage and Spencer banned from Britain was their purported “fostering of extremist views and hatred.”

“Hatred is the central element of our struggle!” raved Che Guevara in his 1966 Message to the Tricontinental Conference in Havana. “Hatred so violent that it propels a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him violent and cold-blooded killing machine…We reject any peaceful approach. Violence is inevitable. To establish Socialism rivers of blood must flow… These hyenas (Americans) are fit only for extermination. We must keep our hatred alive and fan it to paroxysm! The victory of Socialism is well worth millions of atomic victims!”

“My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood.” Aleida’s father had raved as early as his Motorcycle Diaries (though this passage was somehow omitted from Robert Redford’s heartwarming movie). “Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any vencido that falls in my hands! With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!”

Vencido, by the way, translates into English as “defeated” or “surrendered.” And Aleida’s father made good on his boast. The “acrid odor of gunpowder and blood” rarely reached Che Guevara’s nostril from actual combat. It always came from the close-range murder of bound, gagged or blindfolded men (and boys). The Black Book of Communism, written by French scholars and published in English by Harvard University Press (neither an outpost of the vast right-wing conspiracy), estimates 16,000 firing squad executions in Cuba by the end of the 1960’s -- the equivalent, given the relative populations, of over a million executions in the U.S.

Aleida’s father delighted in delivering the coup de grace to dozens of these. When office work (signing execution warrants) tore him away from his beloved execution pits, Che slaked his blood-thirst by having a special window installed in his office so he could watch his busy and beloved firing squads at work, beaming at the spectacle.

Among Aleida Guevara’s father’s favorite pastimes was taunting his murder victim’s families. Che Guevara was famous for driving the mothers of his young murder victims to near suicidal despair. He’d often give the mothers an audience in his office. Then as they pleaded for their sons’ lives Che would often grab his telephone and bark the orders to execute her son that very night. Often the mother was privileged to hear the firing squad volley that murdered her son, many of them in their teens.

"When you saw the beaming look on Che's face as the victims were tied to the stake and blasted apart by his firing squads," said former Cuban political prisoner Roberto Martin-Perez, to this writer, "you saw there was something seriously, seriously wrong with Che Guevara."

Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, it should be pointed out, were scheduled to speak at a London event condemning the murder of an innocent and defenseless Briton by a murderous ideologue.

Aledia Guevara speaks in London to promote a cowardly murderous ideologue, her father.

But the British government gives no indication that in the process of “promoting her father’s ideals” of glory Aleida Guevara presented the slightest offense to Britain’s “standards and values.”

Alas, when Aleida’s father finally found himself up against armed and determined enemies in Bolivia, all his bloodthirsty bluster vanished in a “poof.” “Don’t shoot!” he whimpered to his U.S.-trained Bolivian captors as he dropped his fully loaded weapons, “I’m Che! I’m worth more to you alive than dead!”

His Bolivian captors viewed the matter differently. In fact they adopted a policy of “Shoot, Shovel and Shut up.” Justice has never been better served.

Hollywood helped Adolf Hitler with Nazis' propaganda drive, academic claims

06/28/2013

Historian Ben Urwand says he has cache of documents that prove Tinseltown enthusiastically cooperated with Nazis' global propaganda effort

Hollywood is not widely thought of as providing much support to Hitler's regime, instead producing a wealth of anti-Nazi films during the Second World War, ranging from Casablanca to The Great Dictator.

But now a young historian says that in the years before the war, Tinseltown was marching to a very different tune. Ben Urwand, 35 has written a book, The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact With Hitler, in which he cites documents that prove, he says, US studios acquiesced to Nazi censorship of their films actively cooperated with the regime's world propaganda effort.

“Hollywood is not just collaborating with Nazi Germany,” Urwand told the New York Times. “It’s also collaborating with Adolf Hitler, the person and human being.”

Urwand, reportedly a folk musician from Australia who has become a member of the Society of Fellows at Harvard, said his interest was first aroused as a student in California when he read an interview with the screenwriter Budd Schulberg referring to meetings between the MGM boss Louis Mayer and a representative of the Nazi regime to discuss cuts to his studio's films.

The book describes many Jewish studio bosses not only censoring films to suit the regime, but also producing material that could be inserted into German propaganda films and even financing German weapons manufacturing. The collaboration of Hollywood with the regime began in 1930, says Urwand, when Carl Laemmle Jr of Universal Studios agreed major cuts to the First World War film All Quiet On The Western Front after riots in Germany instigated by the Nazi party.

“I would say there were a few shocking moments, probably starting with the document I discovered in the National Archives in Washington which explained how MGM was insulating its profits,” Urwand told the Times of London.

“There was a law in Germany that foreign businesses couldn't export currency. They made an exception for MGM because they were financing the production of German armaments.”

After Hitler came to power, the book details regular studio visits by representatives of the regime, including Georg Gyssling, the special consul assigned to monitor Hollywood, who watched films and dictated scene-by-scene requests for cuts. In June 1939 MGM gave 10 Nazi newspaper editors a tour of its studio in Los Angeles, and during the 1930s hardly any Jewish characters appeared in Hollywood films.

Despite some raised eyebrows from other academics over the book's title, Urwand is unequivocal about it:

“Collaboration is what the studios were doing, and how they describe it.”


Source: Independent

68 Senators Vote to Create Incentive for Employers to Hire Amnestied Immigrants Over U.S. Citizens

06/29/2013

(The Weekly Standard) - The immigration bill passed by the Senate Thursday afternoon would give some employers a financial incentive to employ "registered provisional immigrants" (illegal immigrants granted legal status) instead of U.S. citizens.

As the Washington Examiner's Philip Klein recently reported: "Under Obamacare, businesses with over 50 workers that employ American citizens without offering them qualifying health insurance could be subject to fines of up to $3,000 per worker. But because newly legalized immigrants wouldn’t be eligible for subsidies on the Obamacare exchanges until after they become citizens – at least 13 years under the Senate bill – businesses could avoid such fines by hiring the new immigrants instead."

On Tuesday, THE WEEKLY STANDARD asked five U.S. senators about this problem, and none of them knew if it was a problem. "We're trying to solve that right now. I don't know if that's been solved," Senator Max Baucus of Montana (chief author of Obamacare) told THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

"I don't know. I'd have to look at it closely," said Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. "I just haven't read it that closely to know."

As The New Republic, Investors' Business Daily, and the Washington Examiner have all reported, this problem certainly does exist, and the bill was never amended to fix the problem before it was passed by the Senate on a 68-32 vote Thursday afternoon. "[Registered provisional immigrants] are not subject to mandate and the do not count towards an employer's penalty," Sean Neary, communications director for the Senate Finance Committee, told THE WEEKLY STANDARD in an email late Thursday night.





Hat tip: Live Leaks

American Stabbed to Death in Egypt after Taking Photos Near Muslim Brotherhood Office

06/29/2013

(Daniel Greenfield) - Ezz El-Din said the young American had been taking pictures with his mobile phone near one of the offices of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group from which President Morsi hails, when he was attacked by unknown assailants.

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Islam, Rape and Theology

06/29/2013

Five days before 9/11, a famous Norwegian social anthropologist (and Norway may well be the only nation on Earth where there is such a thing as a famous social anthropologist) instructed her countrywomen that the way to bring down the high number of rapes – most of which, even way back then, were already being committed by “non-Western immigrants” – was for them to stop dressing in a manner that Muslim men found provocative. Norway, she lectured, was steadily becoming “a multicultural society,” and Norwegian women, if they didn’t want to wind up being brutally ravished in an alleyway by some Pakistani gang, should choose their wardrobes appropriately. Period.

That anthropologist, whose name is Unni Wikan, didn’t score any points that day for heroically championing women’s equality, but she was, at least, being honest. The rise in rapes in Norway – as throughout Western Europe – was almost entirely a product of Islamic immigration. That was a fact she didn’t attempt to disguise.

Then, however, came 9/11. And in the years since, there’s been a desperate effort by bien pensant types throughout Europe to deny that the ever-increasing incidence of rape on the continent has anything whatsoever to do with Islam. Some try to dismiss or explain away the numbers entirely; others grudgingly acknowledge them, while fiercely denying that there’s any Islamic connection at all; some, while admitting that a disproportionate number of rapists are immigrants, attempt to blame the problem on ethnic European racism, the idea being that immigrants grow so frustrated over their mistreatment that they resort to rape.

All of which is absurd to anyone who’s remotely aware of Islam teachings about sex and of the high incidence of rape in Muslim societies that is a direct consequence of those teachings. We’re talking about a religion that treats the male sex drive as a virtually holy phenomenon, and that allows men to have multiple marriages and divorce at will, even as it demands that females deny themselves even the most innocuous sorts of human contact in the name of preserving family honor – and that punishes a single infraction with death. In the view of Islam, when a man rapes an immodestly dressed woman, the rape isn’t his fault but hers; and when a Muslim rapes an infidel in the “House of War,” it’s recognized as a form of jihad. As forgiving as Islam is of virtually every imaginable heterosexual act that might be committed by a Muslim male, it’s equally unforgiving of a Muslim woman who happens to be caught alone, doing nothing whatsoever, with a male who’s unrelated to her, or who, for that matter, commits the inexcusable sin of being raped.

The only thing worse than being raped, moreover, is tattling about it. A couple of years ago, a Pakistani woman, Rooshanie Ejaz, contributed several very frank essays on rape in Muslim countries to the website of Norway’s Human Rights Service. Noting in a March 2011 piece that “sexual abuse is actively hidden in Pakistani society, and in Muslim society generally,” she said that “a large percentage of the people I have grown up with have experienced some form of it….Whether the act is committed by a cousin, uncle, house servant, or stranger, the victim is likely to be subjected to further abuse and emotional torment if she opens her mouth about it.”

One distinctive aspect of Islamic theology is its prescription of rape as a punishment – a punishment usually imposed upon some innocent female to avenge a crime committed by a male relative. In another 2011 piece, Ejaz cited a Pakistani village court’s recent decision in the case of a young man who’d been “seen with a young girl from a tribe superior to his”: it ordered several of the girl’s male relatives to gang-rape the guilty party’s sister, Mukhataran – who afterwards (as if the gang-bang itself weren’t enough) “was paraded nude” through the village. Sharia justice of this sort is commonplace in the Muslim world; the only thing special in this instance was that Mukhataran complained to the authorities and argued her case all the way up to the Pakistani Supreme Court – which, in the end, freed five of the six defendants, even as a chorus of prominent media figures and government leaders expressed sympathy for the rapists and dragged Mukhataran’s name through the mud.

Pakistan did pass a Women’s Protection Law in 2006 that allowed women to file rape charges even without the four male witnesses that sharia law requires. Before the law came along, 80% of Pakistani rape victims who dared to go to the cops ended up behind bars for adultery while their assailants remained free. Yet the law was a feeble instrument in a country drenched with Islam; and in late May, the Council of Islamic Ideology, an official body whose job it is to rule on the theological correctness of Pakistani legislation, announced that “DNA tests are not admissible as the main evidence in rape cases” and that, indeed, lacking those four male witnesses, you’re better off keeping quiet.

This rule doesn’t just apply to Pakistan, of course. In Afghanistan, where freedom from Taliban rule cost the U.S. and its allies thousands of lives and gazillions of dollars, the number of rape victims being sent to prison is actually on the rise. In April, the Daily Mail ran a harrowing account of a women’s prison in Kabul that’s full of inmates being punished for crimes of which they were the victims. (According to women’s-rights activists, “life for women is almost the same” in Afghanistan as under the Taliban.) Then there’s Iran, where, according to a 2010 Guardian article, the government uses “rape and the threat of rape as weapons against its opponents.” A 2009 piece in the Huffington Post quoted a young Iranian woman’s observation that rape victims in her country routinely keep silent about their victimization because “a young woman who has been raped can never be touched again.”

What about Syria? An April headline in the Atlantic didn’t pull punches: “Syria Has a Massive Rape Crisis.” A Syrian psychologist who works with rape victims said that she always tells families rape is “a way to break the family” and that she urges them, “Don’t let this break you – this is what they’re trying to do.” (To which the women respond: “Tell that to our husbands.”) A Toronto Star piece acknowledged that rape victims in Syria risk “being cast out or even killed to protect the family’s honour.” – yet managed, as so many of these reports in the Western media do, to omit entirely the words “Muslim” and “Islam.”

In wartime, Islam actively encourages the use of rape as a weapon and/or reward for the soldiers of Allah. On April 3, the Washington Times reported that Salafi Sheikh Yasir al-Ajlawni had issued a fatwa permitting Muslims who are fighting Assad’s regime to “capture and have sex with” non-Sunni women. Raymond Ibrahim observed the next day at Front Page that Aljawni wasn’t “the first cleric to legitimize the rape of infidel women in recent times”: a top Saudi preacher had recently green-lighted the gang-rape of captives, and an Egyptian imam had explained how to turn captured infidels into sex slaves. Yes, rape is almost invariably a side effect of war; but rape instigated by clergy and carried out in the name of God is an Islamic specialty.

In Libya, the number of rapes rose during its revolution – and has kept rising ever since. “Gaddafi used rape as a weapon,” one Libyan women’s-rights activist told the Guardian this month. “It was organized and systematic.” While rape victims aren’t imprisoned quite as often now as under Gaddafi, “there are still strong disincentives against speaking out, making it hard for victims to access help or to seek justice.” In March, two Pakistani-British women – who’d just participated in the latest convoy seeking to break Israel’s Gaza blockade – were gang-raped in Benghazi by a pack of Libyan soldiers.

So it goes. And yet when the growing incidence of rape in an increasingly Muslim Europe is discussed by politicians, academics, and mainstream journalists, such data are almost never adduced, the theoligical and cultural background to these phenomena almost never mentioned. In the last year or two I’ve written here about Oslo, where everyone found guilty of rape assault between 2006 and 2010 was “non-Western” (i.e. Muslim), and Sweden, with Europe’s second-highest percentage of Muslims and its highest rape figures; I’ve covered Britain‘s wave of Muslim “sex grooming” and Laurent Obertone’s documentation of Muslim rape in France.

All these developments have, of course, a common root – which it’s impossible to understand without a basic awareness of Islamic teachings about sex, gender roles, jihad, and so on. It’s all there, in the Koran, the fatwas, the sermons and public statements by those European imams who aren’t pretending to be building bridges and preaching love. No one who’s reasonably well acquainted with Islamic belief and practice should be surprised in the slightest by Europe’s rape epidemic. Unni Wikan (though her prescribed response to it was nothing but multicultural mush) saw it all quite clearly twelve years ago; Europe’s elites, however, persist in their refusal to recognize this epidemic as part of their continent’s transformation into a Muslim province. And so the statistics continue to soar.

Source: FrontPageMag.com

Facebook Loving Sicario Killed

06/29/2013

(Borderland Beat) - One of five criminals who were killed in a clash with elements supporting the State Police in the town of San Juanito, had a Facebook account, where he described himself as hitman and businessman, He also posted several photos of himself with high powered weapons.
His name, Roberto Arturo Gandara Estrada, 27 and was second in command of the criminal group "La Linea",led by Espino Baltazar Fuentes, aka "The Balta", 42, also killed in the clash.

Arrested after confrontation was Javier Dominguez Rodriguez, operations coordinator Bocoyna Municipal Police, assigned to San Juanito, for allegedly providing "protection" to the criminal gang.
Some of the rifles AR-15 .223 caliber, 7.62x39, and 5.56x45 HK, which were secured by police, are in the photos on the Facebook account of Gándara Estrada.

Likewise several handguns .357 magnum, .38 special and .9 mm, and 0 tactical uniform, including bulletproof vests. Information provided in the profile of Estrada, says he is "Dealer in and HITMAN ", he wrote that he "studied at Eastern Hills High School", and lives in Cuauhtemoc.

All photos were accessed from the Facebook account which has now been deactivated.




Source: La Parada - video from Texcoco's post -see Texcoco's Post here 

The Obama Supporter Beauty Pageant #WCS13

06/29/2013



The Caleb Bonham Show took to the streets in the first ever Obama Supporter Beauty Pageant. Caleb asked Obama supporters the same question from the infamous viral beauty pageant videos. Were Obama supporters able to give more coherent responses? Watch the first ever Obama Supporter Beauty Pageant to find out!

Link

HOPE: Hobby Lobby Wins a Round Against the Obamacare

06/29/2013

DENVER (AP) — An appeals court said Thursday that Hobby Lobby and a sister company that sells Christian books and supplies can fight the nation's new health care law on religious grounds, ruling the portion of the law that requires them to offer certain kinds of birth control to their employees is particularly onerous, and suggesting the companies shouldn't have to pay millions of dollars in fines while their claims are considered.

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Communist Party Will Work With Democrats (and “Moderate Republicans”) to Give GOP a “Licking” in 2014 – A Lesson for the Tea Party

06/29/2013

(Trevor Loudon) - Sam Webb, chair of the Communist Party USA wants to give the GOP a “Licking” in 2014 and its going to work even more closely with the Democrats to do it.

In his latest message to the Party faithful Ingredients for a movement that can transform our country Webb outlined Communist Party objectives for the near future.

READ: Speaking of the broad “progressive” alliance with the Communist Party at its center Webb said

Hundreds Denied Access to DC Job Fair

06/29/2013

DC Job Fair Sees 450 Applicants More Than Expected

WASHINGTON (WUSA9) -- Friday, hundreds of people got in line for a job fair held by United Planning Organization. They were hoping for one on one time with potential employers, but there was such a large turnout some job seekers said they were turned away. Many people went home frustrated when they found out they would not be able to participate.

We were told that 1,200 people showed up when there was a cutoff number of 750 people to attend the job fair at the Petey Greene Center. The people in line had been standing there since early Friday morning.

WUSA 9's Delia Goncalves spoke to an organizer of the job fair in Ward 8 at noon. She admitted that the need was greater than they anticipated but insisted they did not turn anyone away. She told us that the organization collected applications from everyone in line and told people to come back on Monday for face-to-face time with potential employers.

Ward 8 has among the highest unemployment rate in the city.

HILLARY CLINTON'S SUPER FUNDRAISING PAC TIED TO GEORGE SORORS AND MEDIA MATTERS

06/29/2013

A founding member of the Ready for Hillary PAC’s Finance Council is a member of George Soros’ progressive donor network, The Democracy Alliance, and has links to controversial progressive organizations Media Matters for America and the Tides Foundation.

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Taylor Swift Concert Boycotted by the Westboro Baptist Church

06/29/2013

By now, it’s common knowledge that the Westboro Baptist Church hates pretty much everyone on the pop scene, be they Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert, or Justin Bieber. We can now add Taylor Swift to the list.

The WBC will boycott Taylor’s August 3 concert at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.

According to a statement released by the WBC, Taylor is a woman of very loose morals (only that they use a much harsher word in reference to her), who should use her platform to help spread the word of God – and not her wicked ways.

“[Taylor Swift] works ‘girl next door’ country-singer shtick, while hopping from one young man to the next and strutting across the world stage like a proud [expletive],” the group says.

“With a hating hypocrite for a dad – who will jealously guard her income, while not giving a thought for her never-dying soul – no wonder she grew up to be the poster child for the young [expletive]-s of doomed-America,” the statement further says.

Moreover, the WBC believes that Taylor could save her soul by using, say, her Twitter platform to promote a more wholesome life to all her young fans and “[warn] her fellow man of the coming destruction.”

source

Lebanese Canadian Bank to Pay $102 Million in Hizballah Laundering Case

06/28/2013

The Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank ("LCB") will pay $102 million as part of a settlement reached this week with federal prosecutors. The LCB was accused in a December 2011 complaint of funneling money to the Lebanese terrorist group Hizballah as part of a global money-laundering scheme.

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Full Disclosure: What the Media Isn't Telling You About War in Syria

06/28/2013

link: http://youtu.be/ZLTkMYg4zbI

Video: While Jeantel testifies, Trayvon's mother turns to his father & says "she lyin'" (38:00 mark)

06/28/2013

Rachel Jeantel (Witness 8) Part 2 (up to second break) June 26 2013

link: http://youtu.be/wGeK3XHJ7l0

President Embraces Flat Earth Science... and Economics

06/28/2013

On Tuesday President Obama joined the Flat Earth Society.

That’s not how he put it, of course. Just the opposite. He said, “We don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society,” i.e. those not prepared to join him in embracing radical anti-fossil fuel policies.

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Nevermind their own crimes: Justice Dept. targets general in leak probe

06/28/2013

A retired four-star Marine Corps general who served as the nation’s second-ranking military officer is a target of a Justice Department investigation into a leak of information about a covert U.S.-Israeli cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear program, a senior Obama administration official said.

FULL STORY

'Malaysia can become data storage hub'

06/28/2013

GREAT POTENTIAL: Capitalise on existing good infrastructure in nation, says minister

MALAYSIA has the potential to become a data storage centre in the cloud computing industry, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek.

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Syrian Orthodox bishop and his assistant, beheaded by militants logistically protected by Israel and armed by NATO/EU/USA/petromonarchies

06/28/2013

Note: Video Below Article

The three are brutally executed – beheaded with a small combat knife. Echoing previous beheading recorded by insurgents, the head is held up to the cheers of onlookers and then placed on the body.

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Fitzgerald: Immoral decision stifles legitimate disagreement

06/28/2013

So now the wrong has been declared right, not by a consensus of Americans, but rather by government fiat, the way they do it in nations where people live under the thumbs of tyrants, having no voice in their own affairs.

We once pitied them. Now we’re beginning to resemble them.

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Ted Cruz Exposes Amnesty Bill: $5000 Penalty For Hiring Citizens Over Legalized Aliens

06/28/2013

We can’t possibly expect our Senators to read a 1200 page bill before voting on it. Can we? Well Thank God Ted Cruz read it. Not only did Cruz read it but he schooled anyone who would listen from the Senate floor on Tuesday. Cruz found a loophole that actually penalizes an employer $5000 for hiring a citizen over a legalized alien. Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up.

READ: Senator Cruz was quoted as saying

Bummer… No Bids on John McCain Baseball After Amnesty Vote

06/28/2013

Tonight is the annual Orange County Lincoln Dinner in Orange County, Florida.

The Republicans decided to hold a silent auction to raise money for the party.
Sadly, after today’s amnesty vote – NO ONE bid on the John McCain signed baseball.

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Obama Donor Set To Profit From Keystone Demise

06/28/2013

Energy Policy: A billionaire hedge fund manager and Barack Obama donor is pushing the president to stop the pipeline that would compete with one he's invested in. That pipeline could send Canadian oil to China.

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A real war on women: lies about reading

06/28/2013

Only 3 minutes. A complete explanation of why sight-words are unworkable as a way for learning to read.

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EPA’s Assault on State Sovereignty Part II

06/28/2013

Obama’s recently released climate change initiative calls for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to unleash yet another energy regulation aimed at reducing greenhouse gases from existing power plants, severely threatening the generation of affordable and reliable energy. This is only one piece of an unprecedented EPA regulatory assault unleashed in the past few years as detailed by ALEC’s latest report, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Assault on State Sovereignty.

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Are We Dying to Surrender

06/28/2013

Flag of Jihad

Do you remember when Al Gore first brought his “man-made global warming” circus to Capitol Hill? At that time folks could almost feel his glow of self-satisfaction contributing markedly to the very warming trend he so smugly warned the world against.

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Bloomberg: If sparklers are legal, the terrorists will win

06/28/2013

Citing national security concerns and the war on terror, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked New York Gov. Michael Cuomo to ban the sale of children’s fireworks.

City officials worried that sparklers — handheld fireworks that emit colorful sparks and are often waved through the air by kids on the Fourth of July — could be used in terrorist attacks, according to The New York Post.

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Arab Spring or Tornado?

06/28/2013

Since the so-called Arab Spring began in Libya in 2011, we have seen the devastation and destruction of that Arab country by Libyan and NATO forces. This Arab Spring has since spread to Tunisia and Egypt, the most populated Arab country. This fire has burned relentlessly in Gaza and all of Palestine since 1948. It is spreading into Jordan, Bahrain, and Iraq and has caused the most devastation in Syria, where many of us have ancestral roots. Unfortunately, the American and European news outlets are not reporting such stories to the world, neither through the written word nor graphic photographs like the ones you see in this sad issue of The WORD magazine. The WORD has been able to obtain these pictures and information from reliable sources. Syria has been most victimized and experienced the most devastation by this seemingly endless war. The WORD believes that the only country that can bring peace to this most explosive region of the world is the United States of America, because America has leverage over Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Europe.

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Twitter Account Gets Scrubbed In Zimmerman Case

06/28/2013

Deletion spree sanitizes postings of teenage prosecution witness

JUNE 26 (TSG)--In a late-night scrubbing spree, dozens of embarrassing and incriminating posts were deleted Tuesday evening from the Twitter account of a Florida woman who has been described as a star government witness in the George Zimmerman murder case, The Smoking Gun has learned.

The sanitizing of Rachel Jeantel’s Twitter account came as the 19-year-old Miami resident prepared to take the stand and testify about a phone call she had with Trayvon Martin immediately before the unarmed 17-year-old was shot to death by Zimmerman in February 2012.

In relating that conversation, Jeantel has told investigators that a “scared” Martin said he was being followed by an unknown white man who demanded to know what the teen was doing inside the Retreat at Twin Lakes, a gated community in Sanford, Florida. Jeantel contends that she heard Martin ask the man, “Why you following me for?” before she heard someone “bump” the teenager. “Next thing I hear…the phone is shut off,” Jeantel told investigators in an April 2012 interview.

Jeantel’s testimony may allow prosecutors to further portray Zimmerman, a 29-year-old neighborhood watch commander, as Martin’s pursuer, an armed aggressor who profiled the black teen before murdering him with a single gunshot to the chest.

As TSG reported yesterday, Jeantel, pictured above, maintains a Twitter account (@MsRachel_94) to which she has made more than 200 posts over the past five months. Many of the teenager’s tweets referred to drinking, smoking, and getting high. She also made references to Martin’s death, referred to acquaintances as “bitch” and “nigga,” and wrote about having “jackass lawyers on my ass.”

Yesterday afternoon, after TSG sought to contact several of Jeantel’s Twitter followers and Facebook friends, 14 tweets--and 13 linked Twitpic photos--were deleted from her Twitter account (which carries the personal motto “My Character And Action Describe Who I Am”). The removed tweets included references to drinking and a link to a sexually suggestive set of photos. Another killed tweet, from June 23, read “Court nails” and linked to a photo of fingernails (presumably Jeantel’s) with fresh orange polish. Additionally, several Twitpic images of assorted liquor bottles were deleted.

The scrubbing of Jeantel’s Twitter account, however, did not end there.

After 10 PM (Eastern) last night, 43 other tweets were deleted. The postings disappeared about two hours after TSG published a story about Jeantel’s social media musings. A TSG comparison of Jeantel’s sanitized Twitter account with the version from early Tuesday afternoon showed that the number of published tweets plummeted from 202 to 146.

A compilation of the 43 deleted Jeantel tweets can be found on pages beginning here. The 14 tweets deleted yesterday afternoon can be found here.

The material deleted last evening included nearly all remaining references to the underage Jeantel’s partying, including tweets like “When u drinking & smoking u need good music in ur ears hahaha I feel so good on Sunday” and “I need a drink to sleep dis off fuck dis shit boi.”

A quartet of consecutive February 24 tweets was also killed. “Party time let get high,” read the first tweet, which included beer glass emoticons. The messages “Omg everybody high” and “Lol we going to hell for smoke on Sunday I need some more drink” then followed. Jeantel’s final tweet that day was “I hope I dnt hit no one tonight lord plz watch my driving.” Her first February 25 tweet, also deleted, read, “Just got home thank u lord good night.”

Several tweets from February 26--the one-year anniversary of Martin’s death--were also deleted, including one that read, “Omg people calling n praying n shit lol I need a drink smoke and a pray my head killing me right now cannot wait when this day end.” A February 26 message reading “#rip Tray” remains on Jeantel’s Twitter page.

On March 5, it was disclosed that Jeantel was not truthful to investigators last year when she claimed that the reason she did not attend Martin’s funeral was due to a hospitalization. In apparent response to news reports about that lie, Jeantel tweeted, “Jus got home n hear wat was going and I’m angry.” In a follow-up post, she wrote, “remember who cause the funeral to happen keep it 100% Mr.ass hoe damn they p*ssed me off.” Those two tweets were erased last night.

A pair of Jeantel’s deleted April tweets appear to refer to Robert Zimmerman, Jr., George’s older brother and the outspoken Zimmerman family spokesman who recently had to apologize for a pair of his own controversial Twitter posts. In one tweet, Zimmerman juxtaposed a photo of Martin with an image of a Georgia teen recently charged with murdering a 13-month-old boy. The picture of Martin shows him holding up two middle fingers, while the photo of the other teen appears to show him flashing gang signs. “A picture speaks a thousand words. Any questions?" tweeted Zimmerman, who is seen above on CNN's "Piers Morgan Live.".

In an April 4 tweet, Jeantel recounted a tweet she had received from “J” asking her “did you see the bro talking shit bout u.” Her tweet concluded, “oh really I have jackass lawyers on my ass kno “JR” want to up in ok.”

The following day Jeantel tweeted, “JUST FOR ‘JR’,” and included a link to a Twitpic showing someone giving the camera the finger. The image was deleted last night.

A third post seeming to refer to Robert Zimmerman, Jr. appeared on Jeantel’s Twitter page on May 28. That day, Robert appeared at the Sanford courthouse for a hearing in his brother’s case and later conducted a press conference during which he declared his brother’s innocence and called for the withdrawal of second-degree murder charges against his sibling.

“Omg can somebody Robert jr shut the fuck up with his life story,” Jeantel wrote in her May 28 tweet. While that message was not among the 43 tweets removed last night from Jeantel’s Twitter account, it was deleted early this morning. A follow-up tweet, scrubbed last night, reported, “This shit right here goin make me smoke I need a drink a Lott.” (5 pages)

VIEW SOURCE DOCUMENTS>>

Asia-Pacific arms spending to outstrip North America’s by ’21: analysts

06/28/2013

LONDON – Defense budgets in the Asia-Pacific region will overtake the U.S. and Canada combined by 2021, according to a study by respected analysts published by IHS Jane’s.

Weapons spending in China and regional neighbors is expected to rise 35 percent above its 2013 level to $501 billion by 2021, outstripping North America, the Balance of Trade study concluded.

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Copperhead

06/28/2013

It's a miracle! A fascinating and compelling movie whose plot is driven by the protagonist's fidelity to the Constitution. (In fact there were more mentions of the Constitution than any other movie I have ever seen.) You have never seen a movie like Copperhead, and you ought to take the opportunity to see it on a big screen if you live in one of the forty-some cities where it is opening today. But even if you don't, it is available today via all on-demand platforms, which is a great strategy to reach the widely dispersed audience that would appreciate this movie and have access to on-demand via cable, satellite, or the internet.

The story covers several months starting in the spring of 1862, as the Civil War began to felt in upstate New York, where dairy farmer Abner Beech holds a very politically incorrect view for his time and place: he is a so-called Copperhead who believes that the war was unwise, that President Lincoln has violated the Constitution in his conduct of the war, and the Confederacy should be allowed to go its own way or reunite with the Union, as it wishes.

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Traitor Sessions: 'This Bill Must Never Become Law'

06/28/2013

Senator Jeff Sessions, the chief opponent of the immigration bill, released this statement in response to the Senate passing the law by a vote of 68-32:

“Sponsors of this legislation—despite the array of financial, establishment and special interest support—failed to hit their target of 70 votes. The more people learned about the bill the more uneasy they became. Failure to reach 70 votes is significant, and ensures the House has plenty of space to chart an opposite course and reject this fatally flawed proposal.

"So while the bill passed the Senate, this is just the beginning.

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Clinton, Obama Slip in Popularity; Uncertainty About Rubio Stays High

06/28/2013

Hillary Clinton has lost some ground in personal favorability this year, but continues to outpace both Barack Obama and, by a wide margin, Marco Rubio - like Clinton, a possible successor to Obama - in this basic measure of public popularity.

Six in 10 Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll see Clinton favorably, down 6 percentage points from her career high in January. Obama's seen favorably by 53 percent, down 7 points from January and back to his pre-re-election level across most of 2012.

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Birdwatchers see rare swift killed by wind turbine

06/28/2013

Around 40 people were watching the White-throated Needletail, the world's fastest flying bird, on the Isles of Harris when the tragedy happened.

Sightings of the bird have only been recorded eight times in the UK in nearly 170 years, most recently in 1991, prompting around 80 ornithologists to visit the island in the hope of catching a glimpse.

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Palin: Immigration Bill Targets American Workers

06/28/2013

On Sunday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin denounced the Senate's immigration bill in an exclusive opinion piece for Breitbart News. One week before that, though, Palin laid out a promise and a warning to her own party in a speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, D.C. She said Americans do not deserve the exceptional country its founding fathers left them if they do not keep faith with the working class. And she said that that faith would be lost if the the Gang of Eight's bill, passed by the Senate on Thursday, became law.

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Police: Husband fled to Egypt after wife killed, body dumped

06/28/2013

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - Metro detectives believe a Nashville man fled to Egypt after his wife was killed and her body was dumped along Interstate 65 in Kentucky.

The body of Madiha E. Roshdy, 27, was found by a mowing crew May 29 on the shoulder of the interstate near Elizabethtown, KY.

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H-1B Reform Might Bring Unintended Consequences

06/28/2013

The immigration reform bill under debate in the Senate would impose higher costs to obtain H-1B visas and raise the required wages of visa-holders – moves that could have an effect opposite of what the bill’s Gang of Eight authors intended. Employers and analysts say that rather than protect U.S. workers, the measure could lead to more work being sent offshore.

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Obama Brings Affirmative Action Back With A Vengeance

06/28/2013

While the Supreme Court rolls back the Voting Rights Act of 1965, condemning it as an unnecessary vestige of the civil-rights era, President Obama is acting as if America were still in the mid-'60s.

His race-obsessed administration is bringing racial preferences and affirmative action back with a vengeance.

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Jeb Bush to present Liberty Medal to Hillary Clinton

06/28/2013

Hillary Rodham Clinton will receive the 2013 Liberty Medal at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Jeb Bush, the chairman of the Constitution Center, will present the award to Clinton at a ceremony scheduled for Sept. 10.

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Obama administration pushes new public health research agenda on gun control

06/27/2013

In the near future, Americans who own or want guns likely will be subject to rafts of new questions from social scientists, medical researchers and law enforcement officials intent to discover just what guns they own, why they own them and what they intend to use them for — not to mention where and how they keep them.

Full Story

The President’s Climate Action Plan – the good, the bad, and the ugly (with full documents)

06/27/2013

This post was written last night, shortly after I received the document. It is autopublishing at 6AM EDT (3AM PDT) since I’ll hopefully be asleep here in California when the embargo time passes.

There were two documents provided to the press: a fact sheet/summary and the full plan. Both are available as PDF’s at the end of this essay. I see a lot of “pie in the sky” language in the plan document, with little in the way of concrete ideas. It seems just another expansion of “big government” bureaucracy with little tangible benefit to the American citizen.

This is by no means a complete point by point commentary, I’m just touching on things that caught my eye. Readers are encouraged to submit responses to specific points in the comments section below.


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Sexual Anarchy: Progress, Perversion and the ‘Emerging Awareness’ Doctrine

06/27/2013

It was a quiet ceremony. Elizabeth Miklosovic had an outdoor wedding in June 2004 in Michigan’s Manistee National Forest, where the couple lit candles and exchanged vows. Miklosovic’s marriage lasted only a few months, however. Later that year, the mother of the bride found out that her daughter had, at age 13, become the lesbian “wife” of Miklosovic, who had been the girl’s language arts teacher at Baseline Middle School in South Haven, Michigan. For some reason, state law did not recognize the legitimacy of Miklosovic’s pagan lesbian marriage, and she was convicted of felony sex offenses and sentenced to prison.

Today’s Supreme Court decision declaring that Congress has no authority to limit federal recognition of same-sex marriage did nothing to ameliorate the unfair discrimination against lesbian middle-school teachers and their pagan child-brides — at least not in the short term.

FULL STORY

Ted Cruz: ‘If the NY Times is this hysterical, it may be a sign we are doing something right’

06/27/2013

Sen. Ted Cruz has remained persistent in his message on immigration reform, but some Democrats and some newspapers’ editorial pages have accused him of “fear-mongering.”

Cruz has mentioned on several occasions that the Gang of Eight bill on immigration will grant legalization but will never follow through on securing the border. The Texas senator also believes that Obamacare will act as an incentive to hire amnestied immigrants over American citizens.

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Ted Cruz Vows to Block All State Dept. Nominees

06/27/2013

The long-festering problem of senior-level vacancies at the State Department is about to get worse. On Wednesday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz vowed to place a hold on all State Department nominations until Secretary of State John Kerry appoints an inspector general. The move could delay the confirmations of a string of high profile nominations including Samantha Power, appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Victoria Nuland, appointed to assistant secretary of state to European and Eurasian Affairs, and Danny Russel, appointed assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

In a statement, Cruz called President Obama's failure to nominate an Inspector General at the State Department "unacceptable."

"The position has been vacant for almost 2,000 days. This is a crucial oversight position and should be a priority for an agency facing substantial management challenges," said the Republican lawmaker. "Until the President acts, I have notified Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that I will place a hold on all State Department nominations."

The appointment of a permanent IG, tasked with finding and preventing government waste and corruption, has earned support from Democrats and Republicans, but Cruz is alone in vowing to hold up all nominations at State in order to force the appointment.

As evidence of a need for a permanent IG, Cruz ticked off a range of controversies facing the department, including the deadly attacks on U.S. officials in Benghazi last year, mismanagement of security contractors at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan, and squandered taxpayer money designated for police training in Iraq.

Interestingly, Cruz did not highlight one of the most high-profile scandals facing the department -- one in which he himself has become a player. Allegations from former IG investigator Aurelia Fedenisn that senior State Department officials discouraged or called off internal investigations into misconduct such as soliciting sexual favors from minors and prostitutes, drug use and sexual assault.

Of all the lawmakers Fedenisn could've sought out to leak materials to, she chose Cruz, a freshman senator who hails from the same state as her Dallas-based lawyers, Damian Mathias and Cary Schulman. Fedenisn says she hired the lawyers after the State Department sent law enforcement officers to her house in an alleged effort to intimidate her into silence.

Earlier this month, a State Department official, speaking on background to the Washington Times, charged that if Fedenisn leaked her complaints to the press before Cruz, it discredits her claims of being a whistleblower. "What you have to look at is the timing," the official told the newspaper. "In order for her to officially become a whistleblower, she has to give the documents to a congressional authority first."

In fact, Fedenisn attorney Cary Schulman told The Cable that she did go to the press before Cruz, but disputed that the sequence events has any legal bearing on her status as a whistleblower.

In any case, though Cruz is the only lawmaker vowing to hold up every State Department nomination, he's not the only one upset about the lack of an IG.

This morning, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), the ranking member and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged the president to appoint an Inspector General. "We are witnessing the longest vacancy in the history of the Office of the Inspector General, which is tasked with preventing and detecting waste, fraud and abuse within both the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors," Royce said. "The time to nominate a qualified IG is long overdue." Weeks earlier, Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, similarly urged the president to appoint an IG, saying they were "deeply concerned."

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment. Update: At a press briefing, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Secretary Kerry and President Obama have "identified an excellent candidate" for IG and "look forward to making it public," but did not clarify when that might happen. Ventrell declined to directly criticize Cruz, but noted "we don't want holds placed on people."

Source: The Cable

Marco Rubio as the new Mitt Romney

06/27/2013

This clip from the 2010 CNN/St. Pete Times U.S. Senate debate shows how Marco Rubio was crystal clear back then in his opposition to any pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the country:

Go to Article

A moment of self-recognition? Nah, No chance... Priest Says Pelosi Has Admitted Her Abortion Position is Not Catholic

06/27/2013

Now that Pelosi has responded to the letter, Pavone emailed LifeNews with his response. He said that, rather than answer the simple question as to what is the moral difference between killing a baby outside the womb or inside the womb, Pelosi has criticized him and his letter.

Read what the Wicked Witch of the West had to say>>

Giron supporters scrutinizing recall petition signatures

06/27/2013

PUEBLO, Colo. -

Supporters of Democratic Pueblo state Sen. Angela Giron are knocking on doors and calling those who signed a petition to recall her. Members of Pueblo United for Angela say they want to make sure people know what they signed.

Daniel Bravo signed the petition. On Wednesday afternoon, he received two calls from different people. He said the callers asked if he wanted to remove his name from the petition. He said no. Both times he asked who he was speaking to but said each time the caller hung up on him.

"I felt like I was being harassed only because they wouldn't tell me who they were," Bravo said.

Bravo voted for Giron in 2010, but now he wants her out of office.

Full Story

Snowden deserves political asylum - Russian HR officials

06/27/2013

Members of the Russian Presidential Council for Human rights said that it would be justified if the US whistleblower Edward Snowden received political asylum in a country of his choice, including Russia.

The head of Russia’s top official Human Rights Body, Mikhail Fedotov, told reporters on Wednesday that it would be just if some country grants Snowden political asylum. He added that the reports that the Venezuelan government was ready to look into such request were “raising good hope” and that it was his personal impression that the whistleblower “would get political asylum where he wants”.

READ THE REST..

Unhappy with the Supreme Court lately?

06/ 27/2013

General Contact Information:

U.S. Mail:
Supreme Court of the United States


1 First Street, NE


Washington, DC 20543


Telephone:
202-479-3000

TTY:
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(Available M-F 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. eastern)



Where to Send Questions or Comments:

For technical questions or to report problems with this website, email: Webmaster

For time sensitive or urgent questions please contact the Public Information Office at the following number:
202-479-3211, Reporters press 1

For general questions that are not time sensitive, email: Public Information Office

Contact the Public Information Office by US Mail:

Public Information Officer

Supreme Court of the United States

1 First Street, NE

Washington, DC 20543



Other Helpful Telephone Numbers

Clerk's Office: 202-479-3011
Visitor Information Line: 202-479-3030
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Gun Control Update: 36 killed after knife gang attacks China police station

06/27/2013

Knife-wielding assailants killed nine policemen and 17 civilians in a bloody attack that only ended after 10 attackers were shot dead in western China early Wednesday.

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Eric Garcetti, L.A.'s First Elected Jewish Mayor, Will Take His Oath On A Christian Bible

06/27/2013

Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti still has a lot of decisions to make about his upcoming inauguration. Should he sit in with Moby, or would that be too show-offy? Which food truck should he hit first?

But one decision seems to have been made. Garcetti -- L.A.'s first elected Jewish mayor -- will take his oath on a Christian Bible.

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Reach Out and Kill Someone

06/27/2013

From activists organizing pro-democracy protests on Twitter to farmers checking crop prices on their Nokias, the positive impact that cell phones have had in the developing world has gotten plenty of press. But it turns out there's a dark side to wireless connectivity: It can kill you.

A new study by Jan Pierskalla of the German Institute of Global and Area Studies and Florian Hollenbach of Duke University looks at the relationship between mobile phones and political violence in Africa. They found that from 2007 to 2009, areas with 2G network coverage were 50 percent more likely to have experienced incidents of armed conflict than those without. The clearest overlaps between cell coverage and violence were observed in Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

The authors think that improved cell-phone coverage helps insurgent leaders overcome what's called the "collective-action problem" -- that people are reluctant to join group endeavors when there's a high level of personal risk. But better communication helps leaders recruit reluctant followers, whether they're demonstrating for higher wages or killing people in the next town.

Still, as Pierskalla points out, the relationship between cell-phone coverage and violence is "specific to regions and countries that are prone to violence in the first place." So unless you live in, say, Mogadishu, it's probably a safe bet that the arrival of ever more powerful phone reception isn't going to lead to bloodshed.

Source: Foreign Policy

Police captured on camera serving a warrant for uncut grass

06/27/2013

Turtle Creek, PA —A Turtle Creek woman recorded police, when they came to her door, demanded she show identification then followed her inside.

"I didn't want to tell them anything," Robyn Ruckman said.

Police from Turtle Creek, The Housing Authority and East Pittsburgh showed up at Ruckman's door, looking for her landlord. They had a warrant for Roben Edwards for Failure to Maintain property.

Ruckman recorded the officers as they told her to get her ID.

FULL STORY

Obama Says He Won’t Force Christian Churches to Hold Gay Weddings… Not Yet Anyway

06/27/2013

Barack Obama said he won’t force Christian churches to hold gay weddings.
Not yet, anyway.

Read: The Examiner report via Gateway Pundit

Alec Baldwin: The Military Might Be About To “Overthrow” Obama…

06/27/2013

hat tip: red flag news

Dems voted for DOMA, cheered its end

06/27/2013

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act “a great, historic day for equality in America.”

He went on: “The idea that allowing two loving, committed people to marry would have a negative impact on anyone else, or on our nation as a whole, has always struck me as absurd.”

Pretty strong words from a guy who voted for the Defense of Marriage Act.

But Reid isn’t the only one. There was a long line of prominent Democrats Wednesday who all queued up to applaud the Supreme Court for striking down DOMA — even though they voted for it when it passed in 1996.

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A Wet Dream Come True for the Anti-Gun Left: Woman's toy gun scares off masked intruder in Deerfield Beach

06/27/2013

When Jane Rainboth was awaken from her sleep by a masked man peering into her bedroom, she reached for the black, semi-automatic pistol on her nightstand.

"I got a gun! I got a gun!" she hollered. But it was a trick — Rainboth's gun was a plastic toy.

The would-be burglar turned heels and ran out the patio door, with Rainboth in hot pursuit down the hallway of her Deerfield Beach apartment.

Read More

Ruling could free Marine imprisoned for six years for killing Iraqi

06/27/2013

A military appeals court Wednesday tossed out the high-profile conviction of a Marine from Camp Pendleton for the killing of an unarmed Iraqi man in 2006 in Hamandiya, west of Baghdad.

The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ruled that Larry Hutchins was improperly denied a lawyer when investigators in Iraq first began to question him about the killing. He was put in solitary confinement for seven days, according to his lawyer, Babu Kaza.

"At that point he broke and informed NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) that he would give them what they wanted," Kaza said.

The government could appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, or the Marine Corps could seek a new trial.

FULL STORY

Scandal #234,216 Update: IRS Official Takes the Fifth Over IBM Contract

06/27/2013

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scandal heated up today when Greg Roseman, Washington D.C. Metro Area Contracting Officer and Deputy Director of the IRS, invoked his constitutional Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid answering questions in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to determine if he fraudulently steered $500 million in IRS computer contracts to a $250,000 a year company fronting for IBM.

Read the rest..

RINO Chris Christie blasts gay-marriage ruling

06/27/2013

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie slammed the Supreme Court decision on DOMA as “wrong” and an example of “judicial supremacy.”

Christie, a former federal prosecutor, made the remarks on his “Ask the Governor” radio show, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court struck a crucial section of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Read More

An everyman's guide for going invisible on the internet

06/26/2013

Protect your privacy with these services

Let's get this out of the way first: It's impossible to go 100 percent invisible online if you use the internet in any capacity. We still don't completely understand the scope and power of the NSA's surveillance capabilities, and it's highly unlikely that any single individual, no matter how resilient their encryption protocols, could withstand a rigorous investigation by the U.S. government. Still, there are ways ordinary users can better protect their privacy online. This isn't by any means an exhaustive guide; rather, it's a starting point to help educate beginners about the sheer amount of data we leave out there, and what we can do to keep it safe from prying eyes (the NSA's or otherwise).

As always, we also welcome any and all suggestions for going invisible online in the comments below.

Here, in no particular order, are a few suggestions:

New Developments in House Oversight Investigations of IRS, Benghazi

06/26/2013

Rep. Darrell Issa confirmed on On the Record Tuesday evening that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will decide on Friday whether Lois Lerner’s Fifth Amendment plea is valid.

“You don’t get to pick and choose” what you say and then refuse to answer questions, the Oversight Committee chairman argued. He expects that the committee will work to get Lerner’s “full testimony” in the coming weeks.

Issa also provided details on the questionable IRS contracts that surfaced recently. The granting of these types of contracts to companies like Strong Castle Inc. ”looks wrong” and will be investigated by Congress, he explained.

The Republican representative from California described the IRS as “an agency in crisis.”

Read the rest (includes videos)

Rebellious Colorado counties move forward with plans to secede

06/26/2013

Representatives of 10 rural Colorado counties met Monday in the sleepy plains town of Akron, about a half an hour from the Kansas border, to advance a plan that has been both hailed and ridiculed in recent weeks: A bid to split from Colorado and form the country’s 51st state.

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German police foil Islamist terror plot to use remote controlled aircraft filled with explosives as guided missiles

06/26/2013

Armed officers raided homes in Stuttgart, Munich and Dachau this morning

One raid was in the Olympic Village in Munich - scene of the 1972 massacre

Reports that model aircraft powerful enough to carry explosives capable of destroying a commerical building were seized in the raids

Keep Reading

UN Human Rights Funding: Your Tax Dollars at Work?

06/26/2013

In 2012, leading democracies contributed tens of millions of dollars to the UN human rights system, through funding allocated from the general budget and additional voluntary contributions given by each country to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:

United States: $31,273,996
United Kingdom: $11,708,747
Germany: $13,277,191
France: $7,806,841
Italy: $4,193,394
Netherlands: $13,727,350
Canada: $7,572,973
European Commission: $7,152,139

(Source: OHCHR Report 2012)

While some of these funds are well spent on UN mandates that legitimately speak out for victims of torture or repression, according to an internal UN chart entitled “Financial implications of recent HRC resolutions by type of mandate” — publicized here for the first time — millions of dollars are being wasted by the UN human rights system to fund questionable mandates that either have no connection to individual human rights or, worse, are designed by countries such as Cuba as political mechanisms to attack democracies:

Read the Rest..