• Home
  • Mission
  • Federalist Papers
  • Foundation
  • U.S. Constitution
  • Bill of Rights

Federalist Press | Defending Liberty — Informing America

Breaking News and Political Commentary

  • All Stories
  • Economy
  • Elections
  • Entitlement
  • Ethics
  • Foreign
  • Gender
  • Religion
  • Sci-Tech

RFK Jr.’s Diary Surfaces: Exposes 37 Affairs, Fierce Jabs At Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson

October 5, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

New York Premiere of Focus Features' Promised Land - After PartyExcerpts from a 398-diary belonging to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have been published by the NY Post, exposing some of the heir’s sexual conquests and political rivalries, and we’ve got all the details for you right here on RadarOnline.com.

The journal keeps track of RFK Jr.’s goings-ons in the year 2001, and he kept a detailed log of his lovers in that time (during his marriage to the late Mary Richardson Kennedy). He kept a number key to classify how far his sexual encounters went, with the number 10 signifying intercourse, the paper reported, citing a source close to his late ex-wife.

In the diary, Robert, now 59, named 37 women, giving 16 of them “10″ codes. The paper reported that the handsome Kennedy heir’s lovers included “a lawyer, an environmental activist, a doctor and at least one woman married to a famous actor.”

On days he did not cheat on his wife, the guilt-racked Kennedy — who referred to his raging libido as his “lust demons” — would submit an entry simply stating “Victory.”

He wrote on Nov. 5, less than two months after 9/11: “Despite the terrible things happening in the world, my life is … great. So I’ve been looking for ways to screw it up. I’m like Adam and live in Eden, and I can have everything but the fruit. But the fruit is all I want.”

Richardson hanged herself at 52 on May 16, 2012.

In other entries, RFK Jr. surprisingly takes some shots at political colleagues, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is his brother-in-law; Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Kennedy predicted Cuomo could fail at his (then-unsuccessful) gubernatorial campaign “because he lacks humanity and doesn’t love people,” and “is not a retail politician.”

He said that Sharpton and Jackson “give [him] the creeps,” adding that Sharpton “has suffocated the decent black leaders in New York. His transparent venal blackmail and extortion schemes taint all black leadership.”

Kennedy said that Jackson possessed “a desperate and destructive addiction to publicity,” recalling an incident at Cesar Chavez’s funeral when Jackson pushed “Cesar’s friends and family out of the way to make himself lead pall bearer.”

“His love affair with Louis Farrakhan and his Jewish xenophobia are also unforgivable,” he added of Jackson. “I feel dirty around him, and I feel like I’m being used. I feel like with Jesse, it’s all about Jesse.”

Asked about the diary’s existence by the paper on Friday, the political heir did his best to distance himself from the salacious tome.

“I don’t think there is any way you could have a diary or journal of mine from 2001,” Kennedy told the paper. “I don’t have any comment on it. I have no diary from 2001.”

He later changed his statement in an e-mail, saying the diary was “illegally stolen” from him.

“The diary served as a tool for self-examination and for dealing with my spiritual struggles at the time. It also contains unedited, unfiltered stream-of-consciousness musings about current events and people.’ Nothing in that diary was ever meant for publication.

“I have nothing but respect for Governor Cuomo, Rev. Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, all of whom have distinguished themselves as extraordinary national leaders over the past decade.”

RadarOnline / By radarstaff

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics, Foreign, Gender, Religion

Help Kids with Cancer? Reid: ‘Why Would We Want to Do That?’

October 2, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

reid_schumerSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid is blaming Republicans for the National Institutes of Health turning away cancer patients. But when asked why the Senate wouldn’t try to help “one child who has cancer” by approving a mini-spending bill, he shot back: “Why would we want to do that?”

The tense exchange occurred Wednesday, as Senate Democrats tried to lambaste Republicans ahead of a vote where the House ultimately approved funding the NIH and other agencies — a bid to ease the pain amid the budget stand-off.

Reid has opposed the measures, saying that if Republicans want to end the government suspension they’ll have to simply approve a “clean” budget bill — devoid of any provision that would hurt ObamaCare.

But Reid was challenged at a Democratic press conference by CNN’s Dana Bash about why the Senate wouldn’t consider the NIH bill.

“If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?” she asked.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., quietly asked, “Why pit one against the other?”

And Reid immediately chimed in: “Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own.”

Reid’s response was widely noticed by Republicans. “How out-of-touch and heartless can Senate Democrats be?” an email from the National Republican Senatorial Committee asked.

But Reid fired back, suggesting he’s being taken out of context.

“Republicans are in such desperate straits that they have literally resorted to accusing me of not caring about kids with cancer. Shameful,” his office tweeted.

Reid argues that the Republicans are trying to “pick and choose” what parts of government to keep open, and that they should be dropping their resistance to ObamaCare and voting to keep all of government open.

“You talk about reckless and irresponsible. Wow. What this is all about is ObamaCare. They are obsessed. I don’t know what other word I can use,” Reid said.

Republicans say it’s Democrats’ refusal to negotiate the health law that has landed the country in this position.

“The entire government is shut down right now because Washington Democrats refuse to even talk about fairness for all Americans under ObamaCare,” Mike Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said in a statement. “Today, the House will continue to pass bills that reflect the American people’s priorities.”

Published October 02, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics, Foreign, Gender, Religion, Sci-Tech

Dirty Secret: Hard to Tell When Government is Shut Down

October 2, 2013 By Editor 1 Comment

capitalThe Obama Administration is doing its best to portray the “shutdown” of the federal government as a catastrophe, caused solely by the heartless, mean spirited, cheapskate curmudgeons in the Republican Party.  In his speech the president opened by mentioning the GOPs guilt in shutting down the federal government several times in the first minute, going as far as zeroing in on the Tea Party faction of the party.

The dirty little secret of the federal government is that most of it is bloat and fat, and provides no visible benefit to the American taxpayers.  In a “shutdown” like the one the country is experiencing, ‘non-essential’ personnel are furloughed, but essential workers are kept on the job.  The first question that arises from this policy is “Why are we even employing non-essential people in the federal government?”  The answer: the more non-productive people that are on the government dole, including its non-essential employee workforce, the more people that vote Democrat–to keep the money coming.  It’s truly that simple.

When the government goes unfunded in a shutdown, as it has 17 times since the 1970s, it continues to operate and provide essential services, including sending out checks to social security recipients, the disabled, veterans, etc.

All of this adds up to the reality that a government shutdown could go on for months–many months–and it would be hard to notice it.  This is a truth that the left seeks to hide at all costs.  If Americans get wind of this fact, the next thing they’ll want to do is keep their money and spend it on things they feel are important–and that would undo 100 years of leftist encroachments on American pocketbooks and liberties.

shutdownIn fact, the president and his administration are pulling out all the stops to convince Americans that they are being hurt by the current shutdown.  They have gone to enormous expense to place barriers at national parks and monuments, to keep Americans away from their properties.  They are doing everything they can to make Americans feel as much pain as possible due to the shutdown.  Statesmen and public servants would do the opposite, of course, but these are not statesmen–they are power mongers, who harness political power by stealing the money and liberty of average citizens.  They care nothing about the general welfare, but only buying political loyalty through redistribution and welfare checks.

In several articles in the past year the Federalist Press has outlined the real power of constitutionalists in congress, which is provided to them by the Constitution itself.  It is the power of the purse.  Not one red penny gets spent in this country that is not authorized by the House of Representatives.  This is part of the power of Checks and Balances.  Let the President bring his brand of socialism to the country, and let a leftist court step aside and clear the skids for him.  No matter what mischief such despots attempt, unless the House of Representatives funds it, it won’t be implemented.

The House has not gone far enough.  As we have recommended several times, the Constitution demands that the House send a balanced budget (which contains only constitutionally mandated spending) to the Senate.  That’s it.  The House can go home after that.  The House need not negotiate with a leftist Senate, or a Socialist White House.

Will the president call it extremism?  Will he call it blackmail?  Yes–and who cares?  The American people hate ObamaCare, and this entire fight is about implementing a juggernaut bureaucracy that will doom the country to socialism for decades or centuries to come.  This is the real fight–for the soul of America–and Americans are behind the congress in this fight.

In reality, the Senate and President will be forced to sign whatever spending bill the House of Representatives sends them, because shut down of the entire government is the only option they have if they don’t go along.

With all of that power, one wonders why the House of Representatives has failed so miserably to reign in a burgeoning, activist federal government run amok.  Finally, the GOP has followed the Constitution.  American citizens stand behind you–so don’t let us down and cave in to the pressures brought by America’s domestic enemies.

PUBLIUS

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics, Foreign, Gender, Religion, Sci-Tech

Federal Government Shut Down – Non Essential Personnel Sent Home

October 1, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Government_shutdownCongress blew by a midnight deadline to pass a crucial spending bill, triggering the beginning of a partial government shutdown – the first in 17 years.

The failure means the gears of the federal government will start to slow down on Tuesday, though hundreds of thousands of federal workers will remain on the job. Though it’s been a long time since the last one, this marks the 18th shutdown since 1977.

Lawmakers missed the deadline after being unable to resolve their stand-off over ObamaCare, despite a volley of 11th-hour counterproposals from the House. Each time, Senate Democrats refused to consider any changes to ObamaCare as part of the budget bill.

House Republicans, for their part, refused to back off their demand that the budget bill include some measures to rein in the health care law – a large part of which, the so-called insurance “exchanges,” goes into effect on Tuesday.

As House Republicans endorsed one more counterproposal in the early morning hours, lawmakers spent the final minutes before midnight trying to assign blame to the other side of the aisle. Republicans are no doubt wary of the blowback their party felt during the Clinton-era shutdown, while Democrats were almost eager to pile the blame on the GOP.

“This is an unnecessary blow to America,” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said.

House Speaker John Boehner claimed that Republicans are the ones trying to keep the government open but “the Senate has continued to reject our offers.”

Ahead of the deadline, the White House budget office ordered agency heads to execute an “orderly shutdown” of their operations due to lack of funds. Americans will begin to feel the effects of a shutdown by Tuesday morning, as national parks close, federal home loan officers scale back their caseload, and hundreds of thousands of federal workers face furlough.

The question now is how long the stand-off will last. Congress is fast-approaching another deadline, in mid-October, to raise the debt limit or face a U.S. government default. Lawmakers presumably want to resolve the status of the government swiftly in order to shift to that debate.

Throughout the day Monday, lawmakers engaged in a day-long bout of legislative hot potato.

The House repeatedly passed different versions of a bill that would fund the government while paring down the federal health care overhaul. Each time, the Senate said no and sent it back.

As a last-ditch effort, House Republicans early Tuesday morning endorsed taking their disagreement to what’s known as a conference committee – a bicameral committee where lawmakers from both chambers would meet to resolve the differences between the warring pieces of legislation.

The latest House bill, which the Senate shot down late Monday, would delay the law’s individual mandate while prohibiting lawmakers, their staff and top administration officials from getting government subsidies for their health care.

The House voted again to endorse that approach early Tuesday and send the bill to conference committee.

“It means we’re the reasonable, responsible actors trying to keep the process alive as the clock ticks past midnight, despite Washington Democrats refusal – thus far – to negotiate,” a GOP leadership aide said.

Reid, though, said the Senate would not agree to the approach unless and until the House approves a “clean” budget bill.

The rhetoric got more heated as the deadline neared.

“They’ve lost their minds,” Reid said of Republicans, in rejecting the latest proposal.

“Senate Democrats have made it perfectly clear that they’d rather shut down the federal government than accept even the most reasonable changes to ObamaCare,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell countered.

Amid the drama, President Obama said he was holding out hope that Congress would come together “in the 11th hour.”

Such a deal did not come to pass.

A prior Republican effort to include a provision defunding ObamaCare in the budget bill failed. House Republicans then voted, early Sunday, to add amendments delaying the health care law by one year and repealing an unpopular medical device tax.

The Senate, in a 54-46 vote, rejected those proposals on Monday afternoon.

At this stage, congressional leaders are hard at work trying to assign blame.

Democrats have already labeled this a “Republican government shutdown.” But Republicans on Sunday hammered Reid and his colleagues for not coming back to work immediately after the House passed a bill Sunday morning.

Published October 01, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics

The World Watches as America Falls

September 28, 2013 By Editor 2 Comments

statue-of-libertyPROVO, UTAH  For generations the United States of America has been widely considered the hope of the world. Because our system of government allowed us to freely think, become, do and have, we have been the envy of good people everywhere. Americans were considered to be pioneers, problem solvers, can-do types who possessed the qualities of courage, creativity, work ethic and personal accountability. Collectively, these things were at the very heart of the American character. America was synonymous with freedom and stability in growth. These are just a few of the reasons that for many years the US dollar has been the peg currency of the world.

However, what the world has seen over the last few years is the rapid decline of American character. A growing percentage of Americans are willing to give up their freedom in exchange for proffered security. As politicians promise all kinds of goodies in exchange for power and as American citizens accept that exchange, the very freedom that allows for the development and maintenance of the American character in a rising generation is being lost.

People the world over know very well what awaits Americans at the end of the path we are now on. They know because they have, in their past, and are now living with the consequences of empowering kings, monarchs, magistrates and savvy individuals. Without the checks and balances of a democratically elected republican form of government, as envisioned and provided by our Founding Fathers, the aforementioned ruling individuals are never more than an election away from becoming socialists, communists, fascists, dictators and despots. An early signal that the transition has begun is when duly elected officials cease to respond to the voice of their constituents and begin to pass laws that benefit (or exempt) the very few in leadership while burdening the people . . . and the voting public allows it. It’s happening now in the United States of America and the people of the world are seeing it.

If Americans exemplify to the world that we are no longer willing (or able) to solve our problems through peaceful debate and the fair elections of leaders who will listen to and be responsive to their constituents, we will loose the confidence of people the world over. It won’t be long thereafter that nations will reject America as an example of how things could be for them and see America as having nothing better to offer than what they now have.

There will be additional pressure exerted upon those who traffic in international financial circles to throw out the American dollar as the world’s currency peg and replace it with a basket of other currencies that are ‘just as good.’ When that happens, the value of the dollar will drop out of sight. The domino effect on nation after nation throughout the world will create a global depression like the world has never seen.

Think it can’t happen? Only those who are either completely ignorant of historical fact, are egotistically and intellectually dishonest, or believe that they will emerge as members of the new ruling class of ‘haves’ verses the ‘have-nots’ will deny the possibility of such an occurrence.

The world is watching. We have the 2014 mid-term elections and the general election of 2016. Again, the world is watching. What will we put on display? Are we willing, as a people to remove from office those who will not listen to the people? Or, will we once again show the world that we can be bought by shallow campaign promises, trading our freedoms and personal accountability for what we think will make us safe and secure.

The world is watching. What will they see?

by John Bingham

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics, Foreign, Gender, Religion

National Park Service Produces Videos Praising Islam

September 23, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

NationalParkServiceA series of videos produced for the National Park Service shows American Muslim students blaming hatred against their faith on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The videos also promoted Islam as a pioneer in women’s rights and addressed a “general ignorance about what Islam is.”

“Islam within itself, Islam itself means peace,” the government video states. “Islam brings nothing but peace if you truly look into it.”

The video was posted on the website for the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. It was filmed at the AnNur Islamic School in Schenectady, N.Y. by a National Park Service intern. According to the park’s website, the three-part series features children as they “discuss their experiences and challenges with negative Muslim stereotypes and assumptions.”

The National Park Service did not respond to questions about whether they’ve produced videos promoting other religions – like Christianity or Judaism.

“Since 9/11 happened – before there wasn’t that much hate against Muslims, but since 9/11 happened people saw that and that was a big thing because a lot of people died,” a student said in the video. “They just started believing this is what they do. This is what they know. This is what they’re supposed to do. This is what their holy book tells them. This is what their Prophet told them. They think that ever since.”

The National Park Service tells me no federal taxpayer dollars were spent on the production of the videos. They said the funding came through a donation from the Friends of Women’s Rights National Historical Park.

“The videos are part of the park’s ongoing effort to share the story of the women’s rights movement and show that the fights for human and civil rights – including the freedom to worship – are struggles that continue to this day,” chief spokesman Mike Litterst said.

The National Park Service did not respond to questions about whether they’ve produced videos promoting other religions – like Christianity or Judaism.

The video praised Islam’s treatment of women – while completely ignoring the violence and discrimination many women are still facing in modern-day Islamic nations.

“People think that Islam oppresses women and there’s no equality but they’re wrong,” one student said. “There’s equity.”

The students said that in Seventh Century A.D. Islam gave women the right to be involved in politics, the right to earn and keep their money and the right to work outside the home.

“Islam gave women the right to own property, Islam gave women the right to divorce, Islam gave women the right to choose who she marries,” a student said.

Another added, “Islam gave women a whole bunch of rights that western women acquired later in the 19th and 20th centuries and we’ve had these rights since the 7th Century A.D. and it’s just not acknowledged worldwide.”

Most of the videos showed images of students sitting in a classroom defending their faith and talking about how Muslims are persecuted for their beliefs in America.

“People always say, ‘You’re Muslims. Go back to your country,’” one student said. “I mean, this is the land of the Native Americans. Everyone should go back to their country if you think about it.”

Another student blamed public perceptions about Islam on a “general ignorance about what Islam is.”

“A lot of people are against us so they’d do anything to make us look bad,” one of the youngsters said. “We’re all human beings. Just because we have a different religion doesn’t mean that we’re all difference from others.”

The videos spent considerable time on the aftermath of the terrorist attacks and how perceptions of Islam changed.

“Islam means peace, too,” a student said. ‘So we all just want to be peaceful with everybody.”
They said the main reason that non-Muslims generalize Islam is because of how the media portrays their faith.

“We’re supposed to represent our religion at all times,” a student said. “That’s something that the Prophet and God ordained on us. But especially after 9/11 we have to be super careful how we act around people, definitely watch what we say.”

The students all agreed that the terrorist attacks had something to do with how they are perceived.

“A lot of people from Christianity and Judaism and a whole bunch of other religions – a lot of them have done stuff wrong, but especially if it’s Muslim, they think of it as we’re terrorists,” one student said.

“If a Christian man does something or a Jewish man does something or an atheist man does something, nobody ever blames their religion,” another student said. “But if you see a Muslim man doing something, their religion is blamed when Islam brings nothing but peace when you truly look into it.”

Erwin Lutzer, the author of “The Cross in the Shadow of the Crescent,” told me he is quite alarmed that the National Park Service would endorse videos that seem to rewrite history.

“Islam has a very poor record when it comes to the rights of women,” Lutzer told me. “In Ontario in 2004, when the premier said Sharia law should be practiced in Muslim enclaves, it was the women from Muslim countries who joined others to oppose it. (They) said Sharia law is legalized violence against women.”

Lutzer said he was puzzled as to why the National Park Service would commend Muslims on this particular issue. He said it has no historical basis whatsoever.

“If you look at the history of Islam, there was no such thing as equal rights between men and women,” he said. “We must be very careful here when history is sometimes made out of thin air.”

By Todd Starnes / Todd’s American Dispatch / Published September 23, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary heard on hundreds of radio stations and in his weekly podcast. Sign up for his American Dispatch newsletter and be sure to join his Facebook page.

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics, Foreign, Gender, Religion

CNN: Traditional American Values Are Racist

September 17, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Miss America winner Nina DavuluriTraditional American Values Are Racist. That’s what CNN apparently thinks, anyway.

According to this, Todd Starnes posted a tweet “affirming the American values” of Theresa Vail, Miss Kansas, who we’ve been basically girl crushing on since last week. He said, “The liberal Miss America judges won’t say this – but Miss Kansas lost because she actually represented American values.”

He wrote that, you see, because pretty much everything about Miss Kansas SCREAMS traditional American values.  She’s in the military, she’s a 2nd amendment supporter, she’s a woman of faith, she’s devoted to her family, and she’s a traditional conservative girl.

miss-kansas-theresa-vailBut CNN went completely bonkers and reported that Todd’s comments were essentially a racist rant against the winner of the crown, Nina Davuluri. CNN’s headline?  “Miss America crowns 1st winner of Indian descent; racist tweets flow.”  And front and center was Todd’s tweet.

But here’s the problem (for CNN, that is):  Todd’s tweet was posted before Nina’s victory was announced.

Whoops.

And it gets better.  Jumping on the racism bandwagon was NBC – who wrote a story called, “New Miss America’s Indian heritage sparks racist comments.” In the column, the author accused Todd of “blaming the win on a ‘politically correct’ panel of judges.”

Except that he didn’t blame the win on anything, because at the time he was tweeting, HE DIDN’T KNOW WHO HAD WON.  Nor did anyone else, for that matter.

Since Twitter timestamps are kind of irrefutable, by mid morning yesterday morning CNN had revised their story, removing all mentions of Todd. And they changed their headline to, “Miss America crowns 1st winner of Indian descent.”

Did they offer any explanation?  Nope.  Did they offer an apology?  Of course not.

This is what mainstream media reporting looks like today.

By  Mockarena

Filed Under: All Stories, Elections, Ethics, Foreign, Gender, Religion

Gun Control Advocates Complain Colorado Recall Spreading Nationally

September 15, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Colorado_recallColorado’s historic recall of two state legislators who backed new gun restrictions may have national repercussions, as advocates say the effort will make it harder to revive stalled efforts in Congress to tighten firearm laws.

In April, federal legislation expanding background check requirements for gun buyers fell five votes short in the Senate, despite political momentum from last December’s massacre at a Connecticut elementary school.

Gun control backers say they have yet to win a single new Senate supporter, and many worry that the muscle shown by pro-gun groups and voters last week in Colorado will make it even harder to find converts.

“The NRA does its job better than our side does our job,” said Jim Kessler, a co-founder of Third Way, which advocates for centrist Democratic policies. “They know how to influence and intimidate elected people.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who was representing Newtown, where 20 first-graders and six school staffers were gunned down, in the House at the time of the shooting, said “the results of the recall were not good news.”

Minutes after the Senate rejected the new background checks on April 17, President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged to continue the fight.

Democrats and gun control lobbyists, however, don’t expect Reid to bring the bill up again until next year at best, not until he has found enough additional votes to have a strong chance of prevailing.

That means the Dec. 14 anniversary of the school shootings probably will pass without a fresh Senate vote. Some gun curb advocates have hoped to use the widespread public attention that anniversary will receive to schedule a new vote by then.

“My advice to Reid is, if there’s any indication of change or movement in a positive direction, we should consider it. But so far I’ve not seen that,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., his party’s chief Senate vote-counter.

Colorado voters last Tuesday removed two Democratic state lawmakers from office — Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron — and replaced them with Republicans who are gun-rights supporters.

The two Democrats had supported expanded background checks and limits on ammunition magazines. Colorado enacted those measures following Newtown and a July 2012 rampage in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater that left 12 dead and 70 wounded.

The recall drew national attention and became a proxy fight between gun control and gun rights forces. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an advocate for stricter gun laws with his group Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns, contributed around $350,000 to the two Democrats. The NRA spent roughly the same amount opposing them.

Overall, reported contributions to Morse and Giron totaled around $3 million, giving them a 5-1 advantage over recall supporters. Yet foes of the two state senators found enough angry voters to prevail.

NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam played down his group’s role. He noted the overall spending disparity and saying his organization participated only after being asked to by local gun-rights advocates.

“It sends a strong message that grassroots still matters, and voters trump Bloomberg and his money,” he said of the vote, echoing a theme the NRA has used before against the wealthy New Yorker.

Mark Glaze, executive director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said the NRA “cherry-picked” two vulnerable legislators to target. He said his group’s spending in those races underscored its commitment.

“Legislators who take risks to keep the public safe are going to have every resource they’d ask for to defend themselves,” he said.

Former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, said his state’s recall votes meant little for U.S. senators pondering their stance on guns. He said the recall movement tapped into public unease with a broad Democratic agenda “that may have drifted too far to the left,” including enactment of civil unions for gay and lesbian couples and in-state tuition for college students in the U.S. illegally.

Murphy and other gun control supporters such as Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, say that with polls showing wide approval of background checks and groups like Bloomberg’s spending large sums, the NRA’s potency has been weakened.

Even so, Senate talks have proceeded intermittently as supporters of the background check language written by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., seek five more votes.

Background checks, aimed at weeding out criminals and the mentally unstable, are required for buyers obtaining firearms through licensed gun dealers. The defeated legislation would have expanded that to sales at commercial venues like gun shows and the Internet.

Participants say they have explored ways to keep the NRA neutral, including exempting gun show sales or letting buyers conduct their own background checks online. Gun control advocates objected that such concessions go too far. Participants spoke on condition of anonymity after agreeing their names wouldn’t be attached to discussions of private conversations.

Asked if such changes would keep the NRA on the sidelines, Arulanandam said, “The NRA remains opposed to expanding a broken system on background checks, period.” Four Democrats opposed broadening background checks: Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Others opponents wooded by advocates include GOP Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Arizona’s Jeff Flake.

Asked if the Colorado recalls made him less likely to switch, Flake said last week, “I was not prone to do so. I’m comfortable where I am.”

Published September 14, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Ethics

Assad Continues to Bitch Slap Weak Obama

September 13, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Assad_SyriaSeeming to no longer fear a U.S. attack, an emboldened Bashar Assad is adding to his list of demands in exchange for handing over Syria’s chemical weapons, fueling concerns in Washington that — with Russia’s backing — he’s succeeding in turning the tables on Secretary of State John Kerry’s negotiating effort in Geneva.

“They’re just kind of playing with us,” Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told Fox News on Friday.

Kerry was meeting for a second day Friday with Russian and Syrian diplomats to try and work out the framework for a deal to have Syria hand over its chemical weapons to international control, and avert military action by the U.S. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he expects a soon-to-be-released report to show chemical weapons were used in Syria last month — though U.N. inspectors are not expected to say who used them.

Sensing perhaps that the threat of a U.S. military strike is no longer imminent, Assad is publicly trying to strengthen his hand. In an interview with Russian television, he not only demanded the U.S. drop the threat of military action — he also said the Obama administration must stop arming the opposition.

“When we see that the U.S. genuinely stands for stability in our region, stops threatening us with military intervention and stops supplying terrorists with weapons, then we will consider it possible to finalize all necessary procedures and they will become legitimate and acceptable for Syria,” Assad said, according to the translation by Russia’s RIA Novosti. “Terrorists” is the term Assad often applies to members of the Syrian opposition.

The Obama administration decided months ago to start arming the Syrian opposition, after prior evidence of chemical weapons use. Media reports this week said the CIA, after a significant delay, has started to deliver small arms to the rebels.

Assad made one other request that might be difficult to satisfy. He said that all countries in the area must honor anti-chemical weapons agreements, “and the first country to do so is Israel because it possesses nuclear, chemical and biological weapons — all types of weapons of mass destruction.”

Israel signed the Chemical Weapons Convention 20 years ago, but did not end up ratifying it.

The Assad government now claims effectively to be a party to that weapons agreement. But Syrian government officials say they need a month to submit data on their stockpiles.

Kerry objected to that time frame on Thursday, suggesting that was too long.

On Friday, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, made a demand of his own, writing a letter to Kerry saying that bioweapons should also be included in the disarmament talks with Syria.

“I remain highly skeptical of Russia’s true intentions, but I believe omitting Assad’s bioweapons from any agreement would represent a gaping hole in the plan and would not adequately protect U.S. national security interests,” he said.

Kerry, on Thursday, stressed that the negotiations are not a “game,” and that the U.S. must keep the threat of military action on the table in order to keep the pressure on Assad. The military build-up continues, as Russia reportedly dispatched several ships to the eastern Mediterranean, while the U.S. keeps its ships in position in the region.

Kerry said Friday that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have had “constructive conversations.”

“I will say on behalf of the United States that President Obama is deeply committed to a negotiated solution with respect to Syria, and we know that Russia is likewise,” he said. “We are working hard to find the common ground to be able to make that happen and we discussed some of the homework that we both need to do.”

He said he and Lavrov agreed to meet again in New York later in the month.

Published September 13, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Filed Under: All Stories, Elections, Ethics, Foreign, Religion, Sci-Tech

Colorado State Senators Recalled Over Gun Control

September 11, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Gun_Control_RecallTwo Democratic lawmakers in Colorado, including the president of the state Senate, were recalled Tuesday in elections brought about by their support for tougher gun control laws.

According to unofficial results, voters in Colorado Springs favored recalling state Sen. John Morse, the body’s president, by 51 percent to 49 percent. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, state Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo was defeated in her recall election, 56 percent to 44 percent.

The Colorado Republican Party called the vote results “a loud and clear message to out-of-touch Democrats across the nation” in a statement released late Tuesday. Colorado’s Democratic governor, John Hickenlooper, said he was “disappointed by the outcome of the recall elections” before calling on state residents to “refocus again on what unites Coloradans — creating jobs, educating our children, creating a healthier state — and on finding ways to keep Colorado moving forward.”

“We as the Democratic Party will continue to fight,” Morse told supporters in Colorado Springs as he conceded the race. Republican Bernie Herpin, a former Colorado Springs city councilman, will replace him. Giron will be replaced by Republican George Rivera, a former deputy police chief in Pueblo.

colorado_gun_recall“We will win in the end because we are on the right side,” Giron said in her concession speech.

The votes marked the first time in Colorado history that a state lawmaker faced a recall effort and the biggest backlash in states that passed tougher gun-control laws following two mass shootings last year – at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater and a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.

Democratic-leaning Connecticut, Maryland, and New York also passed tougher gun laws without a recall effort making a state ballot.

The states’ effort came after President Obama’s unsuccessful attempt to get Congress to pass stricter federal laws – including tighter background checks and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines.

In Colorado Springs, the majority of registered voters are Democrats, but many are conservative-leaning. 23 percent of them, in fact, signed the petition to recall Morse, according to The Denver Post.

The National Rifle Association and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg lined up on opposite sides of the recall effort, led by gun-rights advocates upset over the legislation and how the hearings were conducted.

Both state legislators voted for 15-round limits on ammunition magazines and for expanded background checks on private gun sales.

The legislation passed Colorado’s Democrat-led legislature without any Republican support and was signed into law by Hickenlooper, who had initially rejected calls for stronger gun control laws.

Morse, a former police chief in suburban Colorado Springs, said Colorado’s gun laws were commonsense ideas to reduce fatalities in mass shootings. He was first elected to the Colorado Senate in 2006.

Reported contributions to Morse and Giron totaled about $3 million, dwarfing the reported amount raised by gun activists who petitioned for the recall, though some independent groups didn’t have to report spending. Both the NRA and Bloomberg contributed more than $300,000 to the pro- and anti-recall campaigns.

In addition, dozens of elected county sheriffs have sued to block the gun laws.

One of the Morse recall organizers, Timothy Knight, said supporters are upset that lawmakers limited debate on the gun legislation and seemed more inclined to take cues from the White House than their constituents.

“If the people had been listened to, these recalls wouldn’t be happening,” Knight said.

By Joseph Weber / Published September 11, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Filed Under: All Stories, Elections, Ethics, Religion

Benghazi, One Year After

September 11, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

benghazi-1WASHINGTON –  On the one-year anniversary of the brutal terror attacks in Benghazi, the families of the four murdered Americans are still no closer to the truth about what happened to their loved ones than they were 12 months ago.

Five House panels and an internal investigation later, no one has been arrested, no one has been fired or held accountable, and the communication between the families of the victims and the State Department and White House has become almost non-existent.

“When I was there in Washington, when this first started, the FBI had me in a room to tell me what they were doing,” Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, one of the Americans killed in the terror attacks, told Fox News.

Smith says President Obama, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the FBI promised her that finding out who killed her son Sean, an information specialist working in Benghazi, would be a top priority.

But it’s a commitment Smith says the president hasn’t kept.

“The government is not doing what they should do,” she said. “Everybody knows this. They lie to you. They tell you what they want you to know. It may or may not be correct. And in my case, it’s always been lies.”

One day after the 2012 attack, Obama told the country that “we will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act.”

benghazi_mudersSmith and the families of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, have said they were promised answers but so far, haven’t gotten many.

“It has been almost a year since my son Ty Woods sacrificed his life defending 30 Americans at the Benghazi consulate,” Charles Woods said in a written statement Monday. “After one year, we still do not have answers.”

Smith’s uncle Michael Ingmire also circulated a letter this week blasting Congress for not doing enough to seek the truth in what happened. He claimed House Speaker John Boehner “failed” in his leadership by bucking calls for an independent investigative panel.

In August, Secretary of State John Kerry reassigned four State officials who had been put on paid administrative leave following criticism of their conduct during and following the deadly attack.

The move angered many conservatives who have long called for the government to hold someone accountable.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.Benghazia_survivors, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, called Kerry’s actions “a charade that included false reports of firings and resignations and now ends in a game of musical chairs where no one misses a single day on the State Department payroll.”

Last month, federal prosecutors filed the first criminal charges related to the Benghazi attacks against Libyan leader Ahmed Abu Khattalah, but no arrests have been made.

The White House, State Department, CIA and FBI have been repeatedly pressed on why they haven’t been able to catch Khattalah, who has given multiple media interviews, including some that took place in open-air markets and coffee shops.

When asked on “Fox News Sunday” why authorities haven’t been able to catch a man who doesn’t really seem to be in hiding, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough seemed to be caught off guard.

“We’ve been very clear that we will hold those people who carried out this dastardly, heinous attack against our people to account,” he said. “You know what the United States does? We track every lead until we …can accomplish what we say we will do.”

But to Smith, it’s the same runaround she’s been hearing for months.

“When I was there in Washington, when this first started the FBI had me in a room over there to tell me what they were doing,” Smith said. “There were about 10 of them sitting around the table, with the attorney and everybody that was involved with the FBI. And they said they were going to follow this up until they finally got the guys that did this and they showed me pictures of three different guys that they suspected and wanted to question and bring them in.

“Those same three guys never were caught, never were questioned and I saw the same three pictures of them just the other day on TV. They are still looking for them. So I don’t have too much faith in that.”

The Justice Department said in a written statement on Tuesday that investigators have made “very significant progress in the investigation.”

Some military and law enforcement officials also say they’re frustrated with what they claim is the White House’s unwillingness to apply pressure to the Libyan government to arrest the people in connection with the attack or – as an alternative — to allow American authorities to come to Libya and do it themselves.

On Monday, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., suggested the trepidation over Benghazi could be linked to the situation in Syria.

“I firmly believe that whatever the State Department and CIA were doing in Benghazi had a direct connection to U.S. policy in Syria – a policy that to date has not been fully revealed to the American people or to Congress,” Wolf said during a panel discussion at Judicial Watch’s headquarters in Washington.

Wolf believes that the government had been stockpiling weapons for Syrian opposition fighters when they came under attack by terrorists in Benghazi.

“How can this conversation advance in a responsible manner without clarity about what transpired that night in Benghazi?” he said.

Wolf is using the accusation to launch his renewed calls for the creation of a House Select Committee to investigate the Benghazi incident. He argues that forming a select committee will give lawmakers the power they need to subpoena additional witnesses, whistleblowers and documents linked to the attack in Libya.

So far, more than 160 lawmakers have signed their names to the petition asking Boehner to green-light the formation of the bipartisan committee.

A subpoena would be a legally enforceable demand to produce information, whether it’s oral testimony, documents or electronic information. Calls to Boehner’s office were not returned.

By Barnini Chakraborty / Published September 11, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Filed Under: All Stories, Elections, Ethics, Foreign, Religion

Obama’s Mojo Meter: 0

September 10, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Obama_lost_mojoPresident Obama plans to call for a “pause” Tuesday night in the push for a congressional vote on military action in Syria, senior administration officials told Fox News, as the president waits to see if an emerging diplomatic option can work.

The early details of the president’s national address show he is continuing to back off his “red line” threat to take military action against President Bashar Assad’s regime for its use of chemical weapons. Though his Secretary of State, John Kerry, seemed to push for a congressional vote during testimony on Capitol Hill earlier in the day, officials said Obama is now hitting “pause” on that process.

The pause comes as Kerry plans to meet with his Russian counterpart in Geneva on Thursday to discuss a proposal to have Syria turn over its chemical weapons stockpile to international control.

The administration claims it wants to find out quickly whether this proposal is serious.

Administration officials clarified that Obama is not canceling the congressional votes; but rather, wants to slow them down. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid already has postponed a Wednesday test vote on whether to authorize military force.

One official described the administration’s current approach as a two-track plan – setting up potential votes for military force on the Hill, while also pursuing the diplomatic track.

Another official said that during Tuesday’s meetings on Capitol Hill Obama “indicated a desire to pursue the diplomatic option that was put forward yesterday by the Russians.”

He said the president said his administration would spend the days ahead “pursuing this diplomatic option with the Russians and our allies at the United Nations” while his administration worked with members of Congress on authorizing language.

Administration officials also claimed the White House has been working on the chemical weapons hand-over idea with the Russians for up to year. According to the officials, Kerry did accidentally let the news out on Monday – when he appeared to make an off-handed comment that Assad could avert a strike by turning over his weapons. Kerry immediately walked back the remark.

The officials said that because Russia then openly agreed to the idea, the president is willing to see if this will work. If not, officials said, the White House will still pursue a military course.

No matter what course the administration takes, the president was being challenged from all sides Tuesday — with Russia’s Vladimir Putin pressuring Obama to drop his call for a military strike and members of the Syrian opposition warning that a newly emerging diplomatic option would only play into Assad’s hands.

In Russia, Putin reportedly needled the Obama administration to abandon the military option. Putin said the only way diplomacy can work is if “we hear that the American side and all those who support the United States in this sense reject the use of force,” according to Reuters.

But the diplomatic option was running into early obstacles, as an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council was suddenly called off, after Russia withdrew its request.

And members of the Syrian opposition and others voiced concern that the chemical weapons plan is indeed turning into a “stall” tactic that will allow the Assad regime to escalate conventional warfare on its own people.

Among the most outspoken since the emergence Monday of a potential U.S.-Russia plan has been the Syrian Coalition — a leader in the nearly three-year-long effort to oust Assad.

“It is vital to remember that the Assad regime, notwithstanding its use of chemical weapons, continues to use all kinds of conventional weapons against innocent women and children,” said the group, formally known as the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces. “The Assad regime, which has butchered people with knives and burnt them alive, has exhausted all time limits over the past two-and-a-half years.”

More than 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the civil war, including an estimated 1,400 in the sarin-gas attack last month that prompted Obama to conclude on Aug. 31 that the United States should launch a punitive strike and ask for congressional support.

The diplomatic plan appeared to emerge Monday morning in London when Kerry said Assad has a long-shot possibility of avoiding a strike by surrendering the weapons. The plan was promptly endorsed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and by Monday night Obama appeared to make the idea part of his evolving foreign policy.

“I welcome the possibility of the development,” the president told Fox News. “And John Kerry will be talking to his Russian counterparts. I think we should explore and exhaust all avenues of diplomatic resolution of this. But I think it’s important for us to keep the pressure on.”

Syria’s foreign minister embraced the proposal to turn over chemical weapons, saying Tuesday that Syria would declare its chemical weapons arsenal and sign the chemical weapons convention. Kerry, though, said Syria should “go further.”

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain — among Capitol Hill’s most outspoken supporters of efforts to end the Assad regime — said Tuesday he was “very skeptical” about the proposed diplomatic solution, considering Assad had refused to acknowledge having chemical weapons.

Still, he said Congress should wait on deciding on a military strike until the possibility of a U.N. resolution on controlling Assad’s chemical weapons “plays out.”

“To not pursue this option would be a mistake,” McCain told CBS News before making clear he still thinks the best strategy is military support for Assad opposition forces to help overthrow the government.

Meanwhile, Kansas Republican Rep. Mike Pompeo, a member of the Select Intelligence Committee, told FoxNews.com LIVE’s “Power Play” on Tuesday the United States should still strike because the Syrian uprising is a national security concern.

“I don’t trust the president to execute this plan well,” he said. “It’s why I wanted to engage. I was over at the White House yesterday. We had a very direct conversation about what the president ought to say tonight. But more importantly, what the president ought to do if he were to engage militarily in Syria. It’s not enough to fire a couple missiles.”

Many in Congress, though, are against any U.S. military action in Syria. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday joined those opposing a strike. It’s not clear whether Congress will take up a resolution to authorize the use of force.

Earlier in the day, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed there was no need for a congressional vote.

“It is not necessary for Congress to give the president this authority,” Pelosi said. “We are grateful that he has asked for it but if he sees an opportunity we don’t want the Russians to think that his leverage is diminished because of a vote (that) may or may not succeed within the Congress.”

The push-back from Washington and Moscow poses a challenge for Obama, as he finds himself caught between two very different paths on Syria — a missile strike that potentially drags the U.S. into a bloody civil war, and a diplomatic solution that would likely do little to end that war.

The momentum, at least temporarily, appeared to be running in favor of the diplomatic course.

On Capitol Hill, a bipartisan group of eight senators started writing an alternative resolution that would call on the United Nations to state that Syria used chemical weapons and require a U.N. team to remove the chemical weapons from Syria within a specific time period, possibly 60 days. If that can’t be done, then Obama would have the authority to launch military strikes, congressional aides said.

Published September 10, 2013 / FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Ed Henry and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics, Foreign, Gender, Religion

Arctic Sea Ice Up 60 Percent in 2013

September 10, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

seaIceMin_2013_v04_p30.jpgAbout a million more square miles of ocean are covered in ice in 2013 than in 2012, a whopping 60 percent increase — and a dramatic deviation from predictions of an “ice-free Arctic in 2013,” the Daily Mail noted.

Arctic sea ice averaged 2.35 million square miles in August 2013, as compared to the low point of 1.32 million square miles recorded on Sept. 16, 2012, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. A chart published Sept. 8 by NSIDC shows the dramatic rise this year, putting total ice cover within two standard deviations of the 30-year average.

Noting the year over year surge, one scientist even argued that “global cooling” was here.

“We are already in a cooling trend, which I think will continue for the next 15 years at least. There is no doubt the warming of the 1980s and 1990s has stopped,” Anastasios Tsonis of the University of Wisconsin told London’s Mail on Sunday.

The surge in Arctic ice is a dramatic change from last year’s record-setting lows, which fueled dire predictions of an imminent ice-free summer. A 2007 BBC report said the Arctic could be ice free in 2013 — a theory NASA still echoes today.

“[An ice-free Arctic is] definitely coming, and coming sooner than we previously expected,“ Walt Meier, a glaciologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md, told LiveScience last month. “We’re looking at when as opposed to if.”

Noting the growth in ice, the Snow and Ice Data Center said that coverage was still well below the 30-year average. And the year over year growth in ice is “largely irrelevant,” argued The Guardian, noting that more ice is to be expected after the record low a year ago.

“We should not often expect to observe records in consecutive years. 2012 shattered the previous record low sea ice extent; hence ‘regression towards the mean’ told us that 2013 would likely have a higher minimum extent,” wrote Dana Nuccitelli.

Meanwhile, global surface temperatures have been relatively flat over the past decade and a half, according to data from the U.K.’s weather-watching Met Office.

A leaked draft of the next major climate report from the U.N. cites numerous causes to explain the slowdown in warming: greater-than-expected ash from volcanoes, a decline in heat from the sun, more heat being absorbed by the deep oceans, and so on.

Climate skeptics have spent months debating the weather pattern, some citing it as evidence that global warming itself has decelerated or even stopped.

“The absence of any significant change in the global annual average temperature over the past 16 years has become one of the most discussed topics in climate science,” wrote David Whitehouse of the Global Warming Policy Foundation in June. “It has certainly focused the debate about the relative importance of greenhouse gas forcing of the climate versus natural variability.”

Published September 09, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Filed Under: All Stories, Elections, Ethics, Foreign, Sci-Tech

Al-Qaeda-Linked Fighters Seize Ancient Christian Village in Syria

September 9, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Syria_ChristiansRebels including al-Qaeda-linked fighters gained control of a Christian village northeast of the capital Damascus, Syrian activists said Sunday. Government media provided a dramatically different account of the battle suggesting regime forces were winning.

It was impossible to independently verify the reports from Maaloula, a scenic mountain community known for being one of the few places in the world where residents still speak the ancient Middle Eastern language of Aramaic. The village is on a UNESCO list of tentative world heritage sites.

The rebel advance into the area this week was spearheaded by the Jabhat al-Nusra, or Nusra Front, exacerbating fears among Syrians and religious minorities about the role played by Islamic extremists within the rebel ranks.

It was not immediately clear why the army couldn’t sufficiently reinforce its troops to prevent the rebel advance in the area only 43 kilometres from Damascus. Some activists say that Assad’s forces are stretched thin, fighting in other areas in the north and south of the country.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Nusra Front backed by another group, the Qalamon Liberation Front, moved into the village after heavy clashes with the army late Saturday.

“The army pulled back to the outskirts of the village and both (rebel groups) are in total control of Maaloula now,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

syrian_attack_christiansHe said pro-government fighters remain inside the village, in hiding.

Initially, troops loyal to President Bashar Assad moved into Maaloula early Saturday, he said, “but they left when rebels started pouring into the village.” Now, Abdurrahman said, the army is surrounding the village and controlling its entrances and exits.

A Maaloula resident said the rebels, many of them sporting beards and shouting Allahu Akbar, or God is great, attacked Christian homes and churches shortly after moving into the village overnight.

“They shot and killed people. I heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in the old quarters of the village,” said the resident, reached by telephone from neighbouring Jordan. “So many people fled the village for safety.”

Now, Maaloula “is a ghost town. Where is President Obama to see what befallen on us?” asked the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal by the rebels.

Syria’s state SANA news agency said the army reported “progress” in its offensive against the rebels in Maaloula. “The army inflicted heavy losses in the ranks of the terrorists,” it said, using a government term to describe the rebels.

“Military operations are continuing in the vicinity of Maaloula and its entrances,” SANA said.

State-run TV reported that all churches in Maaloula were now safe and the army was chasing gunmen in the western hills.

The development came as President Barack Obama’s administration pressed ahead with efforts to win congressional backing and international support for military strikes against Syria over an alleged chemical attack in August outside Damascus.

The U.S. says Assad’s forces fired rockets loaded with the nerve agent sarin on rebel-held areas near the capital before dawn on Aug. 21, killing at least 1,429 people. Other estimates put the death toll from the attack at more than 500.

Back in Washington after a trip to Europe that included a two-day visit to Russia to attend a Group of 20 summit, Obama will intensify his efforts to sell a skeptical Congress and a war-weary American public on a military strike against Syria.

A passionate debate is already underway in Congress and the administration’s lobbying campaign culminates Tuesday, as Obama gives an Oval Office speech the evening before a critical vote on the possible Syria action is expected in the Senate.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius questioned in a television interview Sunday Assad’s willingness for a political solution to the Syrian crisis.

“No one is for war,” Fabius told France 3 TV. “The question we ask is if we want to get to a political resolution, will Bashar Assad accept if nothing is done? My opinion is no. There has to be a firm response to push toward a political negotiation.”

Fabius said that a military intervention didn’t require every country to be behind it. He said: “We must be vigilant against barbarity.”

Jamal Halaby / AMMAN, Jordan — The Associated Press

Filed Under: All Stories, Elections, Ethics, Foreign, Religion

Bloomberg Complains Top Dem Using Racism in Campaign

September 8, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

bill_de_blaisoOutgoing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is saying the leading Democratic candidate to replace him is running a “racist” campaign.

His comments were directed at public advocate Bill de Blasio, a come-from-behind candidate now leading in most polls ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

De Blasio is white, but he has been polling well among blacks since he began airing television ads featuring his interracial family. His wife is black and the couple has a son and a daughter.

De Blasio has said Bloomberg has not been doing enough for the poor, saying New York has become “two cities,” one for the rich and one for everyone else. And Bloomberg has been a supporter of early Democratic front-runner and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Bloomberg made his comment during an interview with New York magazine.

The interviewer calls de Blasio’s bid “in some ways … a class-warfare campaign.” Bloomberg interjects, “class-warfare and racist,” according to the magazine.

However, the mayor clarified his statement by saying de Blasio is “making an appeal using his family to gain support.

“I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone watching what he’s been doing. I do not think he himself is racist. It’s comparable to me pointing out I’m Jewish in attracting the Jewish vote.”

Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire, said he also found de Blasio’s “two cities” rhetoric divisive.

New York’s wealthiest residents, he said, contribute tremendously to the city and also deliver a huge amount of tax revenue that gives the city financial muscle that other municipalities lack.

“By most of the world’s standards, you ain’t poor,” said Bloomberg, noting that in some corners of the globe, people don’t have access to things like air conditioning or own their own cars.

At a campaign event on Saturday, de Blasio called the remarks “very unfortunate.”

A Quinnipiac University Poll released on Tuesday shows de Blasio has extended his lead and pushed past the 40 percent threshold, which would spare him a runoff with other candidates in the Democratic primary.

The poll released shows 43 percent of likely voters supporting de Blasio. Former City Comptroller William Thompson has 20 percent of the likely vote, Quinn has 18 percent and former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner has 7 percent, according to the poll.

De Blasio also leads in two key voting blocs — blacks (47 percent) and women (44 percent), according to the poll.

Quinn and Weiner were the early leaders. However, Weiner’s run faltered after revelations in July that he had continued to send women sexually explicit messages via social media after resigning from Congress over the issue in June 2011.

Quinn’s campaign has been hurt by critics who continue to point out that in 2008 she helped lead a City Council effort to successfully overturn term limits, allowing Blooombergl to win a third term.

The likely Republican primary winner will be former Metropolitan Transportation Authority CEO Joseph Lhota, with 48 percent of likely voters now supporting him, according to the Quinnipiac poll.

Published September 08, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics

Obama Praises Islam in America

September 7, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

obama_scandalsPresident Barack Hussein Obama taped the following message to the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) for its 50th Convention, praising Islamic efforts in this country to help him implement many of his policies.

“My Administration is proud to be your partner in our shared efforts to promote economic opportunity, accessible health care and affordable education in Muslim communities throughout our country,” he said.

Watch video:

PUBLIUS

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics, Foreign, Gender, Religion

Obama Claims He’s Found the WMDs

September 6, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

BRITAIN G20 PALACEPresident Obama announced Friday that he’ll make his case to the American people next week for military action in Syria.

But with lawmakers lining up against the plan, some warn that a national address set for Tuesday could come too late.

One senior Republican aide told Fox News there may be 300 lawmakers already on record against the use-of-force resolution in the House. The resolution was formally introduced in the Senate on Friday, with a vote there expected next week. The aide said the feeling among Republicans is the president should have delivered a major address this week, the “critical week” to change minds on the Hill.

Instead, the president traveled to the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. Though he won early support from House Speaker John Boehner and other congressional leaders before leaving, he’s still facing resistance to a strike from rank-and-file members of his own party, as well as Republicans.

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck gave a cautious assessment of the coming national address.

“The speaker has consistently said the president has an obligation to make his case for intervention directly to the American people,” he said. “Members of Congress represent the views of their constituents, and only a president can convince the public that military action is required. We only hope this isn’t coming too late to make the difference.”

In advance of the president’s address, the administration will continue to lobby lawmakers hard. Fox News confirms that Vice President Biden plans to have dinner on Sunday night with Republican senators the administration thinks could be swayed on Syria — ahead of a vote as early as next week.

Obama announced the Tuesday address while speaking toward the close of the G-20 summit in Russia. He reiterated that the Assad regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons last month is a “threat to global peace and security” and must be met with a military response.

“I will make the best case that I can to the American people as well as to the international community to take necessary and appropriate action,” Obama said.

The president was running into continued international resistance from some corners, and especially from Vladimir Putin, during his brief visit to St. Petersburg, Russia, for the G-20 summit. Still, at the close of the summit, 11 nations including the U.S. released a statement condemning the use of chemical weapons and calling for a “strong international response.”

Obama said he spoke with Putin, and had a “candid and constructive conversation,” on the “margins” of the summit. But having already abandoned seeking support through the U.N. Security Council, Obama is focusing more on U.S. lawmakers and voters.

“I knew this was going to be a heavy lift,” Obama conceded, adding that given the last decade of war, any hint of “further military entanglements in the Middle East” is viewed with suspicion.

“I was elected to end wars, not start them,” he said. But he stressed that any U.S. involvement in Syria would be “limited.” The president said that if the Rwandan genocide were happening now, “it probably wouldn’t poll real well” either.

For now, U.S. lawmakers say their constituents are overwhelmingly against military action in Syria – a fact they weigh heavily as they consider how to vote.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., one of the biggest advocates for military action on the Hill, acknowledged in an interview with Fox News that he’s not at all certain there are 218 votes in the House for the resolution to pass. Informal tallies show only a few dozen members of the House have come out for military action.

“It is up to the president to be much more forceful and not seem like he is trying to pass the buck on to someone else,” King said.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi also said in an interview with Time that she’s not sure she can get a majority of her caucus on board.

Opposition to, and support for, a military strike cuts across party lines. Reluctant House members may be waiting to see what the Senate does before making up their minds. But even this week’s successful committee vote, which sent the resolution to the full Senate, exposed deep divisions – the measure passed on a narrow 10-7 split.

Meanwhile, emerging videos are stoking concerns about the nature of the opposition that the U.S. would inevitably be helping should the U.S. strike Assad. Though there are moderate wings of the opposition that the Obama administration would like to support, some are worried about the risk of more extreme factions jockeying for control in the event of a power vacuum.

One video, obtained by The New York Times, purported to show Syrian rebels executing seven shirtless prisoners.

There’s also the concern of retaliation. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the U.S. intercepted an order from the Iranian government to militants to attack U.S. interests in Iraq if there is a strike on Syria.

Published September 06, 2013 / FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Ed Henry and Wes Barrett contributed to this report. 

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Foreign, Religion

Drudge Rebukes GOP Over Syria, NSA

September 5, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

matt-drudgeInternet pioneer Matt Drudge may have had enough of the Republican Party.

Though known to needle the GOP and its leaders from time to time, the founder of Drudge Report let loose over the party’s direction on Twitter this week.

Asking why anyone would vote Republican, Drudge listed his grievances: “Raised taxes; marching us off to war again; approved more NSA snooping. WHO ARE THEY?!”

His tweets referred to Republican leaders, like House Speaker John Boehner, getting behind the president’s military-strike push in Syria and other positions. But Drudge’s comments also touched on the broader internal fight in the party.

Or as Drudge put it: “It’s now Authoritarian vs. Libertarian. Since Democrats vs. Republicans have been obliterated, no real differences between parties.”

But Drudge’s recent tweets are hardly the first time he’s gotten in the middle of Republican Party infighting.

In January 2012, conservative Republicans accused him of catering to the GOP establishment and said he used his influential site as a virtual soap box for presidential candidate Mitt Romney. They were upset that he had taken repeated swipes at candidate Newt Gingrich.

Some fans openly questioned whether Drudge, once the darling of the conservative right, had become an enemy to the “cause” and accused him of using his digital real estate to push a more mainstream message. Politico wrote at the time, “Newt Gingrich better hope voters who lapped up his delicious hits on the ‘elite media’ and liberals don’t read the Drudge Report this morning … If they do, Gingrich comes off looking like a dangerous, anti-Reagan, Clintonian fraud.”

Known for its never-changed spartan look, Drudge Report has become one of the most powerful drivers of political news in the country. The headlines trend toward news that interests conservative readers the most, but news outlets of all stripes relish a link on the heavily trafficked site — and check it regularly.

According to a May 2011 Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism study, Drudge is an “extremely important traffic driver.”

“In other words, the Drudge Report’s influence cuts across both traditional organizations such as ABC News to more tabloid style outlets such as the New York Post,” the study found. “What’s more, Drudge Report drove more links than Facebook or Twitter on all the sites to which it drove traffic.”

Drudge Report started off as an online news group in the ’90s. Its break-out moment came in 1998, when it out-scooped Newsweek on its own story. Drudge reported that the national magazine had information on the inappropriate relationship between then-President Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky but was sitting on it. Newsweek published the story after Drudge’s report came out.

Not known for his tact, Drudge has been repeatedly slammed by the left for sensationalizing news.

Yet earlier this year, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange hailed Drudge as a “news media innovator” who should be applauded.

Assange claimed that Drudge made his name by “publishing information that the establishment media would not. It is as a result of the self-censorship of the establishment press in the United States that gave Matt Drudge such a platform and so of course he should be applauded for breaking a lot of that censorship.”

Published September 05, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics, Foreign, Gender, Religion

Critics Blast Fed Common Core Education Edicts

September 4, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

US-DeptOfEducationA full year before students around the nation submit to the new Common Core standardized tests, the federally-backed program is already causing chaos and confusion at local school board meetings, in the classroom and at the dinner table.

As critics fear Washington is poised to take control of what and how local districts teach kids, school administrators are adopting new curriculum in an effort to ensure their students outperform their peers and parents worry that their children are being used as academic guinea pigs. As the program gets closer to full implementation, a full-blown backlash is developing despite assurances from supporters that it is merely a test aimed at establishing a national standard.

“Common Core is forcing districts to re-think math curriculum. And in cases like ours, they are making poor decisions.” – Kelly Crisp, parent from Fairfield, Conn.

“It’s just now reaching their school districts and their children’s schools and they want to know, ‘What is this, and why is it being forced on us?’” said the Cato Institute’s Neil McCluskey.

When 90 percent of states signed on to subject K-12 students to the Common Core math and English standards being pushed by the federal government, the program looked like an unqualified success. Kids around the nation would be tested once a year in grades 3-8 in math and English language arts, and once in high school, either in the 10th or 11th grades. Finally, students throughout the country could be measured by the same yardstick, long before taking college entrance exams. Local districts that excelled at educating children could be singled out, and ones who lagged could also be identified in order to address problems.

But if what happened in New York and Kentucky, two of the 45 states that have signed on to the Common Core State Standards Initiative, is any indication, the chaos has only just begun. Those states administered their own standardized tests aligned with Common Core, and the results were disastrous. Just 31 percent of New York students in the third through eighth grades were deemed proficient in math and English on the new tests, down about 50 percent from the traditional test given the year before. Kentucky, which also implemented its own Common Core-aligned tests, experienced similar declines in scores.

Other states are waiting until at least 2014-15 to implement Common Core tests that are still in development. But at the state and district level, educators are tinkering with the curriculum in the hopes of having students prepared for the new tests – sometimes with disastrous results. In the affluent town of Fairfield, Conn., the school district last year adopted a new math curriculum for eighth- and ninth-graders called College Preparatory Math, with an eye toward the looming Common Core tests. But a year later, standardized test scores dipped and, according to one parent, Kelly Crisp, kids who had always done well in math were left disillusioned with the subject.

Five parents filed a complaint with the state over use of the new Algebra 1 book, and, after a protracted battle, forced the district to establish an “instructional online interactive forum” for Algebra 1 students and adopt new regulations for pilot programs as part of a settlement on the controversy over use of a textbook. Crisp said she worries about some 800 students who spent a year studying from a textbook hastily adopted in the frenzy to align with Common Core. The district later disavowed the book.

“Common Core is forcing districts to re-think math curriculum,” Crisp said. “And in cases like ours, they are making poor decisions.”

McCluskey said school districts are “flailing to try to adopt curriculum that will prepare students for Common Core, but there is no real standard.

“What we’re seeing is the market flooded with curriculum that claims to be Common Core aligned,” McCluskey said.

While the Obama administration has embraced Common Core, the plan was actually drawn up by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Carissa Miller, deputy executive director of Council of Chief State School Officers, bristles at the suggestion that Common Core seeks to impose a Washington-based, politically correct curriculum on local districts.

“It’s a misperception,” Miller said. “States have had standards for a long time. This would just set common standards, and standards are not curriculum.”

As an example, Miller cites a third-grade writing standard in which students must be able to recall information from print or digital sources, write notes on it and then sort it into relevant categories. The process, Miller notes, is the same for all students. But the source materials used to prepare for it are up to the teacher or district.

David Coleman, whose nonprofit Student Achievement Partners was hired by the National Governors Association to design the Common Core standards, said parents should look at the standards set forth before deciding whether they are good or bad for their children.

“They are a set of standards that we expect kids to know,” said Coleman, now president of the College Board, where he is redesigning the SAT to reflect Common Core standards.. “It is not taking away any kind of state or district rights to say how or what kids are taught.

“Any time you do something new, there’s always concern. It is valid for parents to be concerned. But with more information, it will become apparent that this is simply setting a high bar and having a uniform standard across the nation.”

Proponents say that because Common Core only applies to math and reading, fears that revisionist history or agenda-driven social studies will find their way into K-12 textbooks are unfounded. But in McCluskey’s words, “standards are designed to set a box around curriculum,” meaning whatever is on the test will have to be taught.

Phyllis Schlafly of The Eagle Forum goes even further.

“Common Core means federal control of school curriculum, i.e., control by Obama administration left-wing bureaucrats,” wrote Schlafly. “The control mechanism is the tests (called assessments). Kids must pass the tests in order to get a high school diploma or admittance to college. If they haven’t studied a curriculum based on Common Core standards, they won’t score well on the tests.”

Published September 04, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics, Gender, Religion

Rubio Blasts $9M ObamaCare Advertising Campaign

September 4, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

marco_rubioA proposed $8.7 million TV advertising campaign to promote ObamaCare in the lead-up to a key launch date is being targeted by Sen. Marco Rubio, who calls the effort a “blatant misuse of federal dollars.”

The Florida Republican said Tuesday that such spending is “unconscionable,” considering the uncertainty of the law and urged the Department of Health and Human Services to halt the spending.

“Until critical questions can be answered regarding the availability and type of health insurance to be provided by ObamaCare, it is unconscionable to spend taxpayer dollars to promote and advertise ObamaCare plans that have yet to be finalized,” Rubio wrote in the Sept. 3 letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

The agency did not return a request for comment late Tuesday.

Obama signed his signature health care proposal into law in March 2010.

However, the administration has more recently delayed implementing parts of the law, most notably the requirement for businesses to offer insurance to employers.

The administration has tried rigorously to promote the program over the past several months, knowing that its success depends largely on a large pool of customers. The start for people to sign up for insurance in so-called “exchanges” is Oct. 1.

This is not the first time such HHS-related efforts have been criticized.

In the spring, Sebelius asked charitable groups, businesses executives, churches and doctors to donate money to nonprofit organizations such as Enroll America to sign up uninsured Americans.

This raised questions about Sebelius asking for money from groups her agency might regulate and prompted a probe by the Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The agency said a special section in the Public Health Services Act allows the secretary to solicit financial support for nonprofit organizations conducting public health work.

This summer, Sebelius purportedly asked the NFL to help promote insurance options under ObamaCare.

The most recent program would be administered through HHS’ Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The ads are expected to appear first in parts of Florida, Texas and Tennessee.

Published September 04, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Filed Under: All Stories, Economy, Elections, Entitlement, Ethics, Gender, Religion

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Federalist Press Dispatch

Get breaking political news, investigations, and uncensored analysis delivered directly to your inbox.

Please wait...

Thank you for subscribing to the Federalist Press Dispatch.

Get free info to help your life

Get free info to help your life

Simple bite-sized guides for life, money, civics, and more . . . because some stuff school just didn’t cover.

Brit Axton Mysteries Series

Brit Axton Mysteries Series

Brit Axton Mysteries is a series of young adult adventure novels that lead young Brit Axton and her friends on whirlwind adventures to uncover hidden secrets and long lost treasures.

Byrna Non-lethal Self Protection

Byrna Non-lethal Self Protection

Byrna offers non-lethal self protection at an affordable price. Watch the short video, or click to learn more!

Understanding Cryptocurrency: Essentials for Building Wealth in Digital Currency

Understanding Cryptocurrency: Essentials for Building Wealth in Digital Currency

Understanding Cryptocurrency serves as a definitive guide for novice investors looking to understand the world of cryptocurrency and harness its potential for financial growth and prosperity.

Real Estate Wealth Strategies During High Inflation

Real Estate Wealth Strategies During High Inflation

Real Estate Wealth Strategies During High Inflation is a comprehensive guide on navigating the real estate market, offering strategies and insights for successful investing, during high inflation and interest rates.

Follow us

  • parler
  • welcome-widgets-menus
  • facebook
  • envato

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

Economy

The “Authoritarian” Narrative vs. Reality: Why Trump’s Positions Are Historically Mainstream

Election Autopsy: What Yesterday’s Results Revealed

Why Is the United States Still Allowing Iran to Threaten the Strait of Hormuz?

Elections

Stephen Colbert’s Final Curtain: When Late Night Became Political Therapy Instead of Comedy

Where Are the Handcuffs?

Skid Row Vote-Buying Case Exposes How Dems Cheat America’s Election System

Foreign

BREAKING: President Trump Orders Devastating Airstrikes on Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Facilities in Historic Preemptive Strike

Jamie Lee Curtis Wept Over Kanye’s Antisemitism—But Where Is Her Outrage Now?

Trump confirms ‘comprehensive’ trade deal with UK

Crime

When Political Rhetoric Becomes a Security Threat—Yet Another Assassination Attempt

Where Are the Handcuffs?

Skid Row Vote-Buying Case Exposes How Dems Cheat America’s Election System

Science Tech

Fed Appeals Court Judge Stayed Silent for Decades. Now Witnesses Beginning to Talk.

Trump’s ISIS Strike in Nigeria Sends a Message: America Can Still Hunt Terrorists Anywhere

Trump’s UFO Disclosure Has Changed the Conversation — But Not Yet Answered the Biggest Question

Reader Responses

  • Linda Livaudais on Trump’s UFO Disclosure Has Changed the Conversation — But Not Yet Answered the Biggest Question
  • T059736 on Trump and Musk Announce Plans to Shut Down USAID
  • C.Josef.D on ‘Pay to Play’ at Clinton Foundation Under Investigation
  • John D Cole on Biden Says ‘You ain’t black’ If You Don’t Vote for Him
  • Ed on U.S. Attorney Huber Moving to Indict Clintons and Others

Copyright © 2026 by Federalist Press · All rights reserved · Website design by RoadRunner CRM · Content Wiriting by GhostWriter · Log in