At a Democratic rally in Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton’s attempt to attack “trickle-down economics” resulted in a spectacularly odd statement.

Clinton defended raising the minimum wage saying “Don’t let anybody tell you that raising the minimum wage will kill jobs, they always say that.”

She went on to state that businesses and corporations are not the job creators of America. “Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” the former Secretary of State said.

Clinton’s comment will likely be used frequently to attack her as another big-government Democrat. She is seen by many as already running for president in 2016.

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff

We recently heard an elderly Black woman express why so many Black voters are staying home, or switch their voting allegiance this election.

The woman called into C-Span during the time when Barack Obama was doing his early voting. She identified herself as Joyce and indicated that she is an 82-year old black grandmother who has been a Democrat her entire life, but voted straight down the Republican ticket this year. Her voice is filled with both anger and passion as she explains why she has left the Democratic Party.

It is worth listening to the entire two-minute segment. She begins by saying, “First, let me start by saying that I am an 82-year old, black, senior citizen grandmother and I voted straight Republican because I have been noticing for years what the Democrat party have done to my people.”

Joyce unleashes a long string of facts on the devastation the Democrat Party has unleashed on blacks and how her eyes became opened to their ways. She’s in Texas and had some choice words for Democrat candidate for governor Wendy Davis that I’m sure the Davis campaign will not want to use in a campaign ad.

By Jennifer Burke

 

The suspect alleged to have shot three northern California sheriff’s deputies Friday, killing two, was deported twice and has a criminal record, federal officials said late Saturday.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said that the fingerprints of the suspected shooter match those of a man named Luis Enrique Monroy-Bracamonte. Monroy-Bracamonte was initially deported to Mexico in 1997 after being convicted of drug possession in Arizona. Four years later, he was arrested and deported again for an unspecified offense.

“The fingerprints were the basis for our request for an immigration detainer,” ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice told The Associated Press. The detainer requests that local authorities transfer him to federal custody after his case is adjudicated so ICE can purse his deportation, Kice said.

The suspect initially identified himself as Marcelo Marquez, 34, of Salt Lake City. He is charged with two counts each of murder, attempted murder and carjacking. The suspect’s wife, Janelle Marquez-Monroy, was also arrested Friday and charged with carjacking and attempted murder.

Investigators spent Saturday at the multiple crime scenes “trying to kind of sort through the chaos so we can methodically rebuild this,” Placer County Sheriff Ed Bonner said.

The shootings began when Sacramento County sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver, 47, was shot in the forehead with an assault rifle at close range as he checked out a suspicious car in a motel parking lot.

The suspects have talked to investigators, Bonner said, but what sparked the shootings remained unclear.

“‘Why,’ I guess, will remain a question for a long time,” he said. “Why was his reaction so violent?”

It was also unclear what brought the heavily armed suspects from Utah to California, Bonner said. There were no indications they had been sought by authorities.

No attorneys were listed for either suspect in jail records.

Krista Sorenson of Salt Lake City was confounded by the arrest of the Marquez. He and his brother had mowed her lawn about four years ago.

“They were just super nice, decent hard-working, trying to figure out how to make a living,” she said.

Oliver, a 15-year veteran of the department, left a wife and two daughters. After he was killed, the gunman shot Anthony Holmes, 38, of Sacramento at least twice, including once in the head, during an attempted carjacking. He was in fair condition.

The attackers then stole a pickup truck and fled about 30 miles northeast into neighboring Placer County.

Two deputies who approached the pickup while it was parked alongside a road were shot with an AR-15-type assault weapon and never had a chance to return fire, Erwin said. The gunman fled into a neighborhood near a high school and ran into a home. Police used tear gas to force him to surrender.

Homicide Detective Michael David Davis Jr., 42, died at a hospital 26 years to the day after his father, for whom he was named, died in the line of duty as a Riverside County deputy.

Deputy Jeff Davis was treated for a gunshot wound to the arm. The two deputies are not related.

The gunman fled into a neighborhood near a high school and ran into a home. Police used tear gas to force him to surrender.

Several dozen law enforcement vehicles, with lights silently flashing, escorted a hearse carrying Michael Davis’ flag-draped casket to a funeral home as bystanders and law enforcement officials hugged, saluted and wiped away tears.

“It’s a nightmare for all of us,” Bonner said.

He recalled Davis as a well-liked investigator who once took it upon himself to organize a funeral for an abandoned baby.

“He saw it, his heart ached, and he did something about it,” Bonner said. “That’s who he was.”

Davis’ wife works as an evidence technician for the department and his brother is a sergeant.

“Mike was quite a character,” Erwin said. “He was very funny. He didn’t take things very seriously, maybe because he was a homicide detective for so long.”

A search of Utah court records under Marcelo Marquez’s name shows a history of about 10 tickets and misdemeanor traffic offenses between 2003 and 2009. Those records list one speeding ticket for Monroy in 2009 and three small claims filings attempting to collect outstanding debts.

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A doctor who treated Ebola patients in West Africa has tested positive for the virus in New York City, officials said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, along with other city officials, said at a Thursday evening press conference that preliminary tests have confirmed the first case in the city. The CDC will conduct another test to confirm the official diagnosis.

“We want to state at the outset that there is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed,” de Blasio said.

The New York Times was the first to report that the patient, identified as Dr. Craig Spencer, had tested positive for the virus after he was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in New York Thursday.

Spencer, a 33-year-old emergency room doctor, was working with Doctors Without Borders and returned from Guinea more than a week ago. Officials were contacted after he reported a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms, according to a statement from the commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Cuomo said that New York City was “as ready as one can be for this circumstance.” He said the city is much more prepared than a Dallas hospital was when the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. was admitted there last month.

“The more facts you know, the less frightening the situation is,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo said New York officials spoke earlier in the day with the White House’s new Ebola czar Ron Klain, who immediately dispatched a CDC Ebola response team to the city.

City officials say Spencer acknowledged riding multiple subway lines and taking a cab to a Brooklyn bowling alley called “The Gutter” in the past week before he started showing symptoms. He also visited the High Line park and went on a three-mile jog.

The city’s health commissioner, Mary Bassett, said Spencer’s fiancé and two friends had been quarantined. The city has also been in contact with an Uber driver who drove Spencer, but said the two did not have direct contact.

According to a rough timeline provided by city officials, the doctor’s symptoms developed Wednesday, prompting him to isolate himself in his apartment.

When he felt worse Thursday, he and his fiancé  made a joint call to authorities to detail his symptoms and his travels. EMTs in full Ebola gear arrived and took him to Bellevue in an ambulance surrounded by police squad cars.

His Harlem apartment was cordoned off, and his fiancé , who was not showing symptoms, was being watched in a quarantine ward at Bellevue. Bellevue Hospital is one of eight hospitals designated by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to treat Ebola in the state.

“As a further precaution, beginning today, the Health Department’s team of disease detectives immediately began to actively trace all of the patient’s contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk,” New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene commissioner Mary Bassett said in an earlier statement. “The Health Department staff has established protocols to identify, notify and, if necessary, quarantine any contacts of Ebola cases,” she said.

Spencer works at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, but had not seen any patients or been to the hospital since his return, the hospital said in a statement.

The doctor is a “dedicated humanitarian” who “went to an area of medical crisis to help a desperately under-served population. He is a committed and responsible physician who always puts his patients first,” it said.

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has killed about 4,800 people. In the United States, the first person diagnosed with the disease was a Liberian man, who fell ill days after arriving in Dallas and later died, becoming the only fatality. Two nurses who treated him were infected and are hospitalized.

Four American aid workers, including three doctors, were infected while working in Africa and were transferred to the U.S. for treatment in recent months. All recovered.

Health care workers are vulnerable because of close contact with patients when they are their sickest and most contagious. In West Africa this year, more than 440 health workers have contracted Ebola and about half have died.

The New York doctor is from Michigan and attended Wayne State University School of Medicine and Columbia’s University Mailman School of Public Health.

According to his Facebook page, he left for West Africa via Brussels in mid-September. A photo shows him in full protective gear. He returned to Brussels Oct. 16.

“Off to Guinea with Doctors Without Borders,” he wrote. “Please support organizations that are sending support or personnel to West Africa, and help combat one of the worst public health and humanitarian disasters in recent history.”

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More registered Republicans than registered Democrats have cast a ballot during early voting in Iowa for the first time in a modern-day election, according to a GOP memo.

The memo stated that as of Wednesday, the cumulative number of registered Republican early and absentee voting returns surpassed those of the Democrats by 305 ballots.

An Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman told FoxNews.com that the numbers of early ballots cast are in flux, saying the numbers will continue to change over the coming days. She added that the party believes they “have a significant advantage on the ground.”

“Democrats are expanding the midterm electorate and are turning out non-midterm voters, while Republicans are simply encouraging their base to vote early,” Christina Freundlich said in a statement. “In requests alone, Democrats hold a 18,000 vote advantage relative to the Republican ballots, and we expect those ballots to flood in over the final days.”

The Wednesday numbers were the first time the GOP has led in Iowa in modern early voting history, according to Republicans. There are 13 remaining days of early voting in the state.

“The momentum has been building for a long time, but this development means Republicans have crossed a major Democrat firewall that had given them a boost going into Election Day in previous election cycles,” Republican Party of Iowa chairman Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement. “Democrats are nowhere near where they need to be, and they are quickly running out of time.”

Absentee voting for this November’s midterm election began in Iowa in late September. The most competitive race in the state by far is the contentious battle between Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley and Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat, which is currently held by Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin. The two candidates are in a dead heat, though Ernst is slightly leading in a Real Clear Politics polling average.

According to the memo, at this point in 2010 the Democrats led in early and absentee voting returns by 16,426 ballots. In 2008, they led by 56,908.

The Associated Press reported last month that the number of Iowa voters who had requested an absentee ballot 43 days out from the election nearly doubled that of 2010. Requests for absentee ballots for registered Republican voters were also up by 145 percent.

The GOP said in the report that the party has been engaging in a concentrated effort to increase its number of early voters this year.

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

THE THRILL IS GONE – President Barack Obama and Maryland Gubernatorial Democrat candidate Lt. Governor Anthony Brown campaign at an Early Vote Rally at Dr. Henry Wise High School in Upper Marlboro, Md., Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014. This is Obama’s first major campaign appearance of the midterm elections. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Many attendees of an Obama campaign rally headed for the exits shortly after the president began speaking Sunday evening.

Speaking at a campaign rally in Maryland for Democratic candidate for governor Anthony Brown, Obama either ignored or didn’t notice the movement of attendees out of the event.

The White House pool report described the mass exodus as “unusual” and one reporter present tweeted it was “weird.”

Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason tweeted that the steam of rally attendees leaving early was “noticeable and noisy.”

Reports were unclear if attendees left due to unhappiness with President Obama. Disapproval of the president is currently at an all-time high.

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff

 

America’s top infectious disease expert on Sunday again acknowledged that the safety protocols used for the nation’s first Ebola patient were inadequate, and that the Obama administration overstated the country’s readiness for the deadly virus, amid concern that Americans have already lost faith in the government.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told “Fox News Sunday” that the adopted World Health Organization protocol for handling an Ebola patient was better suited for field work than confined hospital care.

As a result, two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas were infected with Ebola while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who arrived from West Africa with the virus and later died.

“It was very clear … that is not the optimal way,” Fauci said.

Fauci said he wasn’t sure how nurse Nina Pham became infected, but it was “likely” because “she was not completely covered.”

As many as 4,500 people in West Africa so far this year have died from Ebola.

Fauci also tried to quell some of the fear and criticism over President Obama and other administration officials overstating U.S. readiness, including White House adviser Lisa Monaco suggesting every U.S. hospital is fully prepared to treat an Ebola patient.

“Nothing is risk free,” Fauci told Fox News. He said that what U.S. health officials need to do now is not talk about things in “absolutes.”

Fauci also announced revised guidance for health care workers treating Ebola patients, which will include using protective gear “with no skin showing,”

Fauci said those caring for an Ebola patient in Dallas were left vulnerable because some of their skin was exposed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working on revisions to safety protocols.

Ebola’s incubation period is 21 days, and Fauci noted that mark was being reached Sunday for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital workers who first treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who later died of the disease.

“The ones now today that are going to be ‘off the hook’ are the ones that saw him initially in the emergency room,” Fauci said.

Duncan was seen at the hospital on Sept. 26 and sent home with antibiotics. He returned by ambulance on Sept. 28, was admitted and died of Ebola on Oct. 8.

Judge Clay Jenkins, the chief executive in Dallas County, said that the protective order that has kept Duncan’s family isolated expires Sunday at midnight.

“That’s going to be a good thing for those families. They’ve been through so much, and we’re very happy about that,” Jenkins said.

But, Jenkins continued, “At the same time, we’re extremely concerned about these health care workers and we continue to make contingency in the event that there are more cases.”

Rep. Tim Murphy, a psychologist and founding member of the GOP Doctors Caucus, said the hysteria about Ebola reaching the epidemic level in the U.S. that President Obama is trying to calm is the result of people wanting answers and getting wrong information, which is typical in such situations.

“So many of those assurances have been inaccurate,” the Pennsylvania lawmaker told Fox News. “What creates panic is when people are given information that is proven to be false.”

Murphy, as chairman of a House subcommittee on oversight and investigations, led a hearing last week on Ebola.

He supports a proposed travel ban on West African countries that the administration opposes, saying some of its arguments are “absurd.”

Murphy also said the so-called Ebola czar that the president appointed to oversee the federal response, Ron Klain, will not calm fears.

“The American people are looking for knowledge and expertise,” he told Fox News. “He has none in these fields.”

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Not exactly a Bush vindication, but a reminder that no one was really giving us the whole story.

The last thing you expect is for the New York Times to publish a story vindicating the Bush Administration report that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, thus justifying the invasion that overthrew him.

And the story published by the Times yesterday does not exactly do that. Instead, it tells the tale of the Pentagon’s secrecy over the course of many years in dealing with older chemical weapons stashes found by U.S. troops – sometimes bringing harm to these troops – and revealing that even Congress often did not get the truth about what the military was finding in Iraq.

As the Times story says:

Congress, too, was only partly informed, while troops and officers were instructed to be silent or give deceptive accounts of what they had found. “ ’Nothing of significance’ is what I was ordered to say,” said Jarrod Lampier, a recently retired Army major who was present for the largest chemical weapons discovery of the war: more than 2,400 nerve-agent rockets unearthed in 2006 at a former Republican Guard compound.

Jarrod L. Taylor, a former Army sergeant on hand for the destruction of mustard shells that burned two soldiers in his infantry company, joked of “wounds that never happened” from “that stuff that didn’t exist.” The public, he said, was misled for a decade. “I love it when I hear, ‘Oh there weren’t any chemical weapons in Iraq,’ ” he said. “There were plenty.”

That raises an interesting question about the entire Iraq venture: When the government tells us anything about what happened there, how would we know if it’s true?

It seems the Obama Administration was reluctant to let it be known that any chemical weapons were found – even old, obsolete ones – out of fear that this might undermine the Democrat narrative that “Bush lied about WMDs.”

Of course, George W. Bush did no such thing. He acted on the same information that the Clinton Administration trusted concerning Saddam’s weapons programs. The mistake the Bush Administration made was in pinning so much of its rationale for the war on the assertion that Saddam not only had active weapons programs, but that U.S. troops would surely find them, and that this would justify everything.

It did not need to go that way. Under terms of the 1991 Gulf War cease fire agreement, Saddam was obligated to file reports with UN weapons inspectors that proved he had destroyed his weapons of mass destruction. He continually violated this agreement. He was also obligated to grant unfettered access to UN weapons inspectors. He routinely kicked them out. He was also obligated to respect no-fly zones set up by the U.S. and our allies. He constantly pushed the envelope.

During the Clinton Administration, the only price he paid was the occasional pin-prick missile strike. Saddam knew that Clinton had little interest in going back to war, and both sides were content to play cat-and-mouse rather than move toward any sort of permanent resolution to the problem.

Once the Bush 43 administration was in charge, and we were all taking the threat of Middle Eastern-based terrorism more seriously post-9/11, it no longer seemed so plausible to let Saddam keep defying us. The obligation was Saddam’s to prove he had destroyed the weapons. It wasn’t on us to find them and prove he hadn’t.

The Bush team understood that even the presence of older, obsolete weapons proved the defiance of a man who could, at any time, restart his weapons programs – whether to use them against his own people (as he had done in the past) or to use them in posing a threat to others.

So why did they base so much of their selling of the war on the promise of active WMDs they were sure they’d be able to find? Looking back, you’ll recall that the Bush Administration wanted very badly to get the United Nations behind the invasion – even though they already had the legal right to resume hostilities based on the 1991 Gulf War cease fire. They felt they needed this politically. Those at the UN had little appetite for an invasion, but the Bush White House thought WMDs would get their attention, so they sent Colin Powell to present the evidence they had.

That actually did result in a 9-7 vote in favor of authorizing the invasion, but because the French and others had veto power as permanent members of the Security Council, the resolution was not passed. It didn’t matter. We invaded anyway because President Bush rightly declared he would not ask for a permission slip to protect America’s interests.

Except that he did kind of sort of ask for one. He just went ahead anyway when he didn’t get it. And in the process of asking, he set himself up for a political narrative – there are WMDs and we will find them – that came back to bite him.

I think the Bush Administration didn’t want to make announcements about old, obsolete weapons that would just prompt Democrats and the media to argue they had found nothing current. And the Obama Administration didn’t want to admit there were any WMDs at all.

The result was that our troops found lots and lots of chemical weapons in Iraq, and we didn’t hear about any of it because the actual facts always presented a problem for someone’s narrative.

Any way you look at it, politics is trumping strategic reality in our national security decisions. That needs to stop.

UPDATE: Gabriel Malor at Ace of Spades gives an absolutely outstanding review of the real case Bush made for the invasion of Iraq, and demonstrates how liberals – especially those at the New York Times – have been lying about it ever since and really are lying about it in this story as well. As Malor points out, one of the most astonishing things about this whole story is that much of it is easy to remember. I remember most of it, although he did a better job than I did of going back and researching the contemporaneous facts, quotes, etc.

The narrative that’s been developed since then is built completely on lies, and Malor does a great job of demonstrating that. If you’re at all interested in the truth about the Iraq War, you need to read what Malor wrote here.

By: Dan Calabrese

DALLAS, TX – A second female health care worker at the Dallas hospital where Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was treated has tested positive for the virus, Texas health officials confirmed Wednesday, as the state prepares for the possibility of more cases.

“We are preparing contingencies for more and that is a very real possibility,” Jenkins said in a press conference.

Officials did not specify what position the worker held at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, but they did say she was among those who provided care for Duncan, who died from the virus Oct. 8.

“Like Nina Pham [a nurse, and the first  health care worker at the hospital to test positive for Ebola], this is a heroic person, a person who is dedicating her life to helping others and is a servant leader,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in press conference Wednesday morning.

Officials confirmed that within 90 minutes of reporting a fever, the health care worker’s temperature was taken and she was placed in isolation.

Preliminary tests were run at the state public health lab in Austin and results came back at approximately midnight Wednesday. A separate test will be done this morning at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

Officials have said the health care worker was interviewed quickly to identify any contacts or potential exposures, and that others will be monitored. The type of monitoring will depend on the nature of their interactions with the health care worker, and the potential of exposure to the virus.
Jenkins said health officials are currently monitoring more than 70 others who treated Duncan. These workers are employed but not working.

“You can imagine the anxiety of the families of these 77 people,” said Jenkins. “You can imagine the gut shot that this is to the family that is Presbyterian hospital has done a great job taking care of this community in many, many years.”

During the press conference, officials did not confirm the number of possible contacts with the worker.

The second worker has not been identified by name, but officials confirmed she lived alone on the 6000th block of Village Bin Drive and without pets.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said the city has sent a team to her apartment to disinfect the patient’s home and the inside of her car, which will be removed this afternoon.

On Sunday, officials confirmed that Pham, 26, had tested positive for the virus. Pham received a blood transfusion from a recovered Ebola patient and has moved from “stable” to “good” condition, Jenkins said. Pham’s dog has also been isolated.

More than 70 people who may have had contact with Duncan at the hospital are currently being monitored. The 48 contacts outside of the hospital who may have had contact with Duncan are asymptomatic, and Sunday marks the end of the 21-day incubation period, during which Ebola symptoms can arise after direct contact.

Officials have not said when or how the second healthcare worker or Pham may have had contact with Duncan. But the second case pointed to lapses beyond how one individual may have donned and removed personal protective garb.

“There’s clear there was an exposure somewhere, sometime in the treatment of Mr. Duncan,” Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer for Texas Health Presbyterian, said during the conference. “Let’s be clear, we’re a hospital that may have done some things different with the benefit of what we know today. But make no mistake, no one wants to get this right more than our hospital first to diagnose and treat this insidious disease that’s now attacked two of our own.”

The Ebola virus is transmitted when a person comes in direct contact with an infected, symptomatic Ebola patient’s bodily fluids, such as blood, sweat, saliva and tears.

News of the latest positive test comes one day after the largest U.S. nurses’ union charged that Duncan’s caregivers worked for days without proper protective gear and faced constantly changing protocols.

A statement from National Nurses United also says Duncan was left in an open area of an emergency room for hours.

A spokesman for the group says nurses were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments. It’s said that the patient had explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting.
In a conference call with reporters executive director RoseAnn DeMoro says the allegations are based on revelations from “a few” nurses and that the claims were vetted.

The nurses also said that Duncan’s lab samples were allowed to travel through the hospital’s pneumatic tubes, opening the possibility of contaminating the specimen delivery system. The nurses also alleged that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling.

A hospital spokesman told the Associated Press that the facility had not received similar complaints.

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

We already told you earlier today that folks are willing to use the gay rights movement as a pretext to go after those who live by the Word of God. Then we were talking about some lunkhead at a Canadian tourism company. I bet you didn’t think the attorneys for a major American city would ever try to subpoena pastors’ sermons to see if they had dared to speak any criticisms of the city’s lesbian mayor.

Well. They did. Houston, we have . . . yeah, OK, it’s an overused cliche. But if it ever applied, it would be here:

Houston’s embattled equal rights ordinance took another legal turn this week when it surfaced that city attorneys, in an unusual step, subpoenaed sermons given by local pastors who oppose the law and are tied to the conservative Christian activists that have sued the city.

Opponents of the equal rights ordinance are hoping to force a repeal referendum when they get their day in court in January, claiming City Attorney David Feldman wrongly determined they had not gathered enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. City attorneys issued subpoenas last month during the case’s discovery phase, seeking, among other communications, “all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO, the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession.”

The subpoenas were issued to several high-profile pastors and religious leaders who have been vocal in opposing the ordinance. The Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a motion on behalf of the pastors seeking to quash the subpoenas.

The back story is that in June the Houston City Council passed, and Mayor Parker signed, a “human rights ordinance” that panders in numerous ways to activists pushing for gay and “gender identity” rights, including a requirement that men be allowed to use women’s bathrooms and vice versa. Not surprisingly, many local pastors opposed the ordinance, and more than 17,000 residents filed referendum petitions to get it repealed – which the city blatantly threw out alleging “irregularities”.

But lest you thought Houston politicians were done playing hardball with their critics, not a chance. The subpoenas are supposedly to see if pastors had in any way violated the law by using the pulpit to preach about the law. Aside from the obvious First Amendment problems here, the pastors weren’t even involved with the petition drive, so the city had no basis for issuing them subpoenas.

Not that this would stop them. The secular cultural left smells blood when it comes to gay rights, and they think they are now free to take any action – no matter how unconstitutional or illegal – against those who oppose the gay agenda because the cultural winds are blowing in their direction.

Big picture: If a city can subpoena a pastor’s sermons just because the pastor preaches from the book that includes 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and other passages that call homosexuality sin, then we no longer have freedom of religion. At all. Period. Any pastor at any time could find himself in legal jeopardy if he preaches something not in agreement with the political, social or cultural orthodoxy of the moment.

It’s a mistake to think the left has no god. They do. Their god is government, and specifically their own attainment of government power to use in shaping America’s economic, social, cultural and political institutions to their liking. Those who preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ threaten the left’s god, so no method of taking them down is off the table.

It’s not just Houston that has a problem.

Published by: Dan Calabrese

Craig Bergham hopes his new documentary will provide a powerful platform to urge fellow Americans to join the growing movement to abolish the IRS. “Unfair: Exposing the IRS,” which he wrote and produced, delves deep into the alleged abuses of power and cover-ups  at the Internal Revenue Service, including its apparent targeting of conservative groups.

“The national conversation needs to be the start of an abolitionist movement. The IRS is over the line and has got to go,” the nationally-syndicated radio host told FOX411. “We have to take this into a political movement where the tax policy becomes one of the main issues. It has to be black and white. You are either for an income tax system or you are not.”

Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is featured in the documentary, echoed such Bergham’s sentiments – stating that the IRS has become a “criminal enterprise that shakes down innocent people, harasses them out-of-business and does so without accountability.”

Glenn Beck, Ted Cruz, Michele Bachmann, David Barton and Grover Norquist are just some of the prominent figures featured in the film.

Bergman insisted that the IRS is still targeting right-leaning groups, even though there was a lot of backlash last year when certain IRS practices were made public. Lois Lerner, who has since stepped down as IRS Director, made headlines and was held in contempt of congress earlier this year in association with the scandal. But ultimately, Bergman doesn’t think she or any other employee will have the book thrown at them.

“I believe none of them will go to jail,” he predicted. “They are going to get away with it. The IRS never allowed a case to go to the Supreme Court. They have the resources to push back, but they know what they do is unconstitutional.”

The film features several members of Tea Party groups and others who claim to have been targeted by IRS officials, but Bergman told us that getting people to talk on camera about their experiences proved to be a challenge.

“We met hundreds of people and made hundreds of phone calls. I was calling good Americans and yet they were so paranoid about their government having been targeted that they didn’t want to talk about it,” he continued.

“Unfair,” the first theatrical documentary to expose the negative impact the IRS has supposedly had on our liberties, businesses, religious, charitable and civic organizations, seeks to make both a moral and economic case for ending the service. In doing so, it brings to light numerous stories of betrayal seemingly enacted by the government faction.

Perhaps in perfect timing, 2014 also marks the 100th anniversary of United States citizens paying income tax.

“The idea of progressive tax on what people earn not what they spend – income tax – came out of the 1850s with Karl Marx and the communist manifesto. The way to destroy and to enslave the free people is go down this route and have class division and take money from people before they even see it,” Bergman added. “The IRS is out-of-control and people should care.”
The IRS could not immediately be reached for comment.

“Unfair: Exposing the IRS” opens in theaters nationally on Oct. 14.

By Hollie McKay

 

The number of cases in the Ebola outbreak has risen to nearly 9,000, with the number of dead climbing to nearly 4,500, as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Tuesday that there could be up to 10,000 new cases a week in two months.

For the last four weeks, there’s been about 1,000 new cases per week – including suspected, confirmed and probable cases, WHO assistant director-general Dr. Bruce Aylward said, adding that the U.N. health agency is aiming to get 70 percent of cases isolated within two months to reverse the outbreak.

WHO increased its Ebola death toll tally to 4,447 people on Tuesday, nearly all of them in West Africa, from 8,914 cases. The death rate has risen to 70 percent— previously the WHO estimated the death rate at around 50 percent.

Aylward said the 70 percent death rate was “a high mortality disease” in any circumstance and that the U.N. health agency was still focused on trying to get sick people isolated and provide treatment as early as possible.

Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia have been hardest hit nations in the current outbreak. Aylward said WHO was very concerned about the continued spread of Ebola in the three countries’ capital cities -Freetown, Conakry and Monrovia.

He said the agency was still focused on trying to treat Ebola patients, despite the huge demands on the broken health systems in West Africa.

“It would be horrifically unethical to say that we’re just going to isolate people,” he said, noting that new strategies like handing out protective equipment to families and setting up very basic clinics – without much treatment – was a priority.

In Berlin, a U.N. medical worker infected with Ebola in Liberia died despite “intensive medical procedures.” The St. Georg hospital in Leipzig said Tuesday that the 56-year-old man, whose name has not been released, died overnight of the infection.

The man tested positive for Ebola on Oct. 6, prompting Liberia’s U.N. peacekeeping mission to place 41 other staff members under “close medical observation.”

He arrived in Leipzig for treatment on Oct. 9. The hospital’s chief executive, Dr. Iris Minde, said at the time there was no risk of infection for other people, since he was kept in a secure isolation ward specially equipped with negative pressure rooms that are hermetically sealed.

He was the third Ebola patient to be flown to Germany for treatment. The first man recovered and returned home to Senegal. A Uganda aid worker is still being treated in Frankfurt.

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers has a lead over challenger Clay Aiken in the race to hold on to her seat in House District2, according to a recent poll.

The flash poll of 400 registered voters conducted by the conservative-leaning Civitas Institute over the weekend shows Ellmers leading with 47 percent to 39 percent, with a five-point margin of error.

“It’s a comfortable lead,” said Patrick Sebastian, a senior adviser with the Ellmers campaign. He said the 54 percent disapproval rating of President Obama bodes well for Ellmers with undecided voters.

“Renee is not taking this race for granted and is working around the clock to earn the chance to represent the 2nd District in Washington,” he said.

Tucker Middleton, communications director for the Aiken campaign, said the poll shows Ellmers is in trouble.

“When a conservative group like Civitas has you up by eight points,” she said, the margin is likely lower.

“She’s under 50 percent, which never bodes well for an incumbent,” Middleton said. “There’s room for it to narrow.”

The poll is a rare public look into voter sentiment regarding the 2nd District race, which encompasses about 480,000 registered voters including many in Cumberland County.

Despite Ellmers’ lead among those surveyed, the poll showed the candidates with the same favorability rating – at 25 percent. But more voters judged them unfavorably, with Ellmers at 28 percent and Aiken at 35 percent.

Jim Tynen, communications director for the Civitas Institute, said the Ellmers-Aiken contest “is the most high-profile congressional race in the state right now” and fits well into a series of legislative flash polls the institute will be releasing this fall.

North Carolina pollsters and political analysts told The Fayetteville Observer last week that many polling organizations have steered clear of polling on the race because they don’t expect it to be terribly close.

These organizations have for the most part devoted resources to the neck-and-neck U.S. Senate race between Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan and Republican state House Speaker Thom Tillis. Civitas’ flash poll also showed 2nd District voters at a tie in their support of these two candidates, at 44 percent each.

“Every poll is just a snapshot of voter sentiment,” Tynen said.

He noted that sentiment can change and that other polls may show different snapshots.

“We think for practical reasons, this is about the best kind of look you’re going to get right now.”

By Paige Rentz

Wake up, America!

While everyone is up in arms about Ebola, and we must remain vigilant and fight it with all we have, there is another virus that has already taken hold of Americans in every state: liberalism.

Truth, transparency, freedom and liberty.  The flag, “Under God” patriotism have all been tossed out the window.

They are  being replaced by “everybody gets a trophy,” “share the wealth,” “government knows what’s best for your business,” your family and even what should go on in your bedroom.

What the hell is happening?

Be careful, America. Liberalism is a dangerous virus. Here are four signs you might have caught the liberalism virus:

1. If you think it’s OK to call ISIS “the J.V. team” — until Americans are seen being beheaded on video..

2. If you think it’s OK that President Obama promised Ebola wouldn’t arrive here on an airplane from a country where the virus has been virulent. And then it did.

3. If you think it’s OK that representatives from the Obama White House continue to tell you that our economy is great. Milk prices are at a record high. Gasoline prices have almost doubled. Yet American’s wages, household worth and the percentage of Americans working, those numbers are all still in the Dumpster.

But wait, there’s more…

4. You might have liberalism if you think it’s OK to  pay members of our armed services just 94 cents an hour as combat pay… if…  they fight ISIS in Iraq or Syria.. Let me repeat: Just 94 cents an hour to fight ISIS.

Meanwhile, our country’s government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on things like:
– Obamaphones — that is, the $2 billion program to give low income households free cell phones.

– Windmills to nowhere and the administration’s $100 billion green energy push.

Yet, we send our sons and daughters into combat and we bump their pay up to a measly  94 cents per hour!

So, my fellow Americans, the next time you’re at Starbucks and you buy that Venti Skim Latte, just think, a Marine couldn’t even buy that coffee with the combat pay she earned fighting ISIS for eight hours (do the math: 94 cents x 8 hours = $7.52. After taxes where does that leave you?).

What the hell is happening?

Wake up,  America. Liberalism is a virus, too.

Try not to catch it. And if you do, for goodness sake, don’t spread it!!

Eric Bolling currently serves as co-host of Fox News Channel’s “The Five” (weekdays 5-6PM/ET). He also serves as the host of “Cashin’ In” (Saturdays 11:30AM-12PM/ET), an analysis program on FNC’s weekend business block, “The Cost of Freedom.” Bolling joined the network in 2008. Click here for more information on Eric Bolling. 

A health care worker at a Dallas hospital tested positive for Ebola in a preliminary test, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement early Sunday.

The health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, who has not been identified, provided care for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, who died last week.

If the preliminary diagnosis is confirmed, it would be the first known case of the disease being contracted or transmitted in the U.S.

A statement posted on the Texas Department of State Health Service’s website said “confirmatory testing will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.”

“The health care worker is a heroic person who provided care to Mr. Duncan,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said at a press conference Sunday morning. “We expected it was possible that a second person could contract the virus. Contingency plans were put into place.”

Jenkins said he wanted to stress Ebola cannot be contracted unless one comes into contact with the bodily fluids of an Ebola victim.

“You cannot contract it by walking by people on the streets,” he said. “There is nothing about this case that changes that basic premise of science.”

Dr. Daniel Varga, of the Texas Health Resource, said the worker was in full protective gear when they provided care to Duncan during his second visit to the hospital.

Varga said the family of the worker has “requested total privacy.”

Varga said the health care worker reported a fever Friday night as part of a self-monitoring regimen required by the CDC.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said the Dallas Fire Department’s rescue hazmat team has decontaminated any open areas of the health care worker’s apartment complex.

“Police are standing by to make sure no one enters that apartment complex,” he said.

Rawlings said officials have knocked on every door within a block of the apartment and have spoken with every person that came to the door. Reverse 911 calls have been made to residents within four blocks of the apartment complex and printed materials have been left at each door, he said.

A team has decontaminated and secured the vehicle the health care worker drove to the hospital. Rawlings said hazmat units will go into the worker’s apartment and clean up the interior Sunday.

“We had this plan in place last week, so when we got this phone call, which we thought we might get, we put an action team in place,” Rawlings said.

“We knew a second case could be a reality, and we’ve been preparing for this possibility,” said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. “We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread.”

Health officials have interviewed the patient and are identifying any contacts or potential exposures. They said people who had contact with the health care worker after symptoms emerged will be monitored based on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus.

Ebola spreads through close contact with a symptomatic person’s bodily fluids, such as blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen. Those fluids must have an entry point, like a cut or scrape, or someone touching the nose, mouth or eyes with contaminated hands, or being splashed. The World Health Organization says blood, feces and vomit are the most infectious fluids, while the virus is found in saliva mostly once patients are severely ill. The whole live virus has never been culled from sweat, WHO says.

Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died Wednesday in Dallas. Duncan, 42, grew up next to a leper colony in Liberia and fled years of war before later returning to his country to find it ravaged by the disease that ultimately took his life.

Duncan arrived in Dallas in late September, realizing a long-held ambition to join relatives. He came to attend the high-school graduation of his son, who was born in a refugee camp in Ivory Coast and was brought to the U.S. as a toddler when the boy’s mother successfully applied for resettlement.

The trip was the culmination of decades of effort, friends and family members said. But when Duncan arrived in Dallas, though he showed no symptoms, he had already been exposed to Ebola. His neighbors in Liberia believe Duncan become infected when he helped a pregnant neighbor who later died from it. It was unclear if he knew about her diagnosis before traveling.

Duncan had arrived at a friend’s Dallas apartment on Sept. 20 — less than a week after helping his sick neighbor. For the nine days before he was taken to a hospital in an ambulance, Duncan shared the apartment with several people.

FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON –  Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on Wednesday allowed same-sex marriage to begin in Nevada, clarifying that an earlier order temporarily blocking gay unions applies only to Idaho.

Kennedy said in a brief order that he was lifting the hold he imposed five hours earlier Wednesday on same-sex weddings in Nevada. He said his order would continue to block gay marriage in Idaho, where state officials have asked for the delay. Nevada officials did not make a similar request.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco declared gay marriage legal in Idaho and Nevada on Tuesday. A day earlier, the Supreme Court let similar rulings from three other appeals courts become final and effectively raised to 30 the number of states where same-sex couples can marry, or soon will be able to do so.

In response to the 9th Circuit decision, Idaho officials filed an emergency request with the court about 90 minutes before they said that state and county officials would otherwise have been required to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Kennedy’s initial order was issued around 9:50 a.m. EDT, 10 minutes before the deadline cited by Idaho officials. The order initially included Nevada, where officials had been planning to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples later Wednesday.

The delay in Idaho could last just a few days. Kennedy’s order requested a response from the plaintiffs involved in Idaho’s gay marriage lawsuit by the end of day Thursday.

The full court almost certainly would weigh in to extend the delay much beyond the weekend. That has been the justices’ practice in other cases in which a single justice initially blocked a ruling from taking effect.

Having just allowed other appellate rulings to take effect without a full review by the Supreme Court, it would be surprising if the justices were to put the 9th circuit ruling on hold for any length of time.

The high court’s action Monday suggested that only an appellate ruling upholding a gay marriage ban would prompt the court to step in.

Philanthropy.com has just released the relative charitable giving of all 50 states (and DC) based on a percentage of adjusted gross income.

The 17 most charitable states in order: UT, MS, AL, TN, GA, SC, ID, OK, AR, NC, KS, TX, SD, KY, LA, NE & IN.

The 24 least charitable states in order starting with the stingiest: NH, ME, VT, NJ, RI, MA, CT, ND, WI, HI, PA, CA, MN, AK, DE, NV, IL, WV, WA, OH, CO, VA, OR & NY.

What have libs (backed by the media) told you your entire life? That they’re the ones who are giving and compassionate while conservatives are cold-hearted, selfish and care only about money. So let’s see: The 17 most charitable states ALL voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. While on the other end 21 OUT OF THE 24 least charitable states voted for Barack Obama. (below)

Libs always insist that they are more caring and generous yet as this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt … ONLY WITH OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY!

By Paula Priesse

Former congressman, Lt. Col. Allen West proclaimed on Wednesday that there is only one true explanation that Obama is “purposely enabling the Islamist cause.”

West, a favorite among many in the pro-freedom, pro-Constitution Tea Party movement, listed six instances where the Obama regime has been “working counter to the security of the United States of America”:

1. The unilateral release of five senior Taliban back to the enemy while the enemy is still fighting us.

2. Providing weapons of support to the Muslim Brotherhood-led Egyptian government — F-16s and M1A1 Abrams tanks — but not to the Egyptian government after the Islamist group has been removed.

3. Negotiations with Qatar and Turkey, two Islamist-supporting countries.

4. Negotiations with Hamas, a terrorist group.

5. Returning sanction money, to the tune of billions of dollars, back to the theocratic regime led by Iran’s ayatollahs and allowing them to march on towards nuclear capability.

6. Obama’s evident support of Islamists in Libya.

Along with the above, West cited the recent report that Obama has lifted longtime restrictions against Libyans attending flight schools and receiving nuclear science training in the U.S, only two years after the terrorism that took place in Benghazi, Libya.

There is only one logical reason for the Democrat president to make these anti-American decisions, West concluded Wednesday on his website, that there is no other reason why Obama would prop-up America’s enemies:

Sorry, but I can only explain this one way: Barack Hussein Obama is an Islamist in his foreign policy perspectives and supports their cause. You can go back and listen to his 2009 speech in Cairo, where Muslim Brotherhood associates were seated front and center.

All the circumstantial and anecdotal evidence points to that conclusion. The pivot away from the Middle East seems to be nothing more than an opportunity to enable Islamists and their goals. Anyone supporting this Libyan ban being lifted is indeed an enemy of this state.

In June, the former congressman from Florida called for Obama’s impeachment, following Obama’s negotiation with terrorists, releasing military deserter Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for the U.S. release of five notorious Muslim terrorists from GITMO.

Barack Obama’s longtime pastor for over two decades, Jeremiah Wright, told author Ed Klein two years ago that “Barack Obama was steeped in Islam” and that he “knew very little about Christianity.”

“When I asked the Reverend Wright about this whole question of Islam and Christianity. He said, well, you know, Barack Obama was steeped in Islam. He knew a lot about Islam from his childhood. But he knew very little about Christianity. And I made it easy for him to feel not guilty about learning about Christianity without turning his back on his Islamic friends.”

By Matthew Burke