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Priests Threatened with Arrest if They Minister to Military During Shutdown

October 5, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

priest_in_handcuffsIn a stunning development, some military priests are facing arrest if they celebrate mass or practice their faith on military bases during the federal government shutdown.

“With the government shutdown, many [government service] and contract priests who minister to Catholics on military bases worldwide are not permitted to work – not even to volunteer,” wrote John Schlageter, the general counsel for the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, in an op-ed this week. “During the shutdown, it is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so.”

According to its website, the Archdiocese for the Military Services “provides the Catholic Church’s full range of pastoral ministries and spiritual services to those in the United States Armed Forces.”

In his piece, Schlageter worries about this restriction as Sunday nears. “If the government shutdown continues through the weekend, there will be no Catholic priest to celebrate Mass this Sunday in the chapels at some U.S. military installations where non-active-duty priests serve as government contractors,” he wrote.

Because of the lack of active-duty Catholic chaplains, the military relies on hiring civilian priests to serve as government service and contract ministers. Those civilian priests are not allowed on the bases during a shutdown, Schlageter wrote.

One Republican lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee told The Daily Caller on Friday that this “crosses a constitutional line.”

“The constitutional rights of those who put their lives on the line for this nation do not end with a government slowdown,” Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, a graduate of West Point and an Army veteran, said in a Friday statement. ”It is completely irresponsible for the president to turn his back on every American’s First Amendment rights by furloughing military contract clergy.”

Added Pompeo: “The President’s strategy during the slowdown, just as during the sequestration, is to create as much pain as possible. However, this action crosses a constitutional line of obstructing every U.S. service member’s ability to practice his or her religion.”

The Daily Caller, by Alex Pappas

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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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

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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

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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

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Muslims Wiping Out Christians Across World

August 30, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

muslims-burning-christian-churchesNewly-surfaced video from Egypt shows a Muslim mob storming a Coptic church, setting cars on fire and then toppling a cross atop the steeple, in a shocking attack that Christians say has been played out dozens of times since the ouster of Mohammad Morsi.

The video, obtained by MidEast Christian News, was shot Aug. 14 from a nearby building overlooking the diocese in the southern Egyptian city of Sohag. In the six-minute video, a crowd, incensed by the eviction of pro-Morsi supporters from camps in Cairo, masses outside the church. Several members of the group scale a wall and attack vehicles in a courtyard, setting several ablaze. The video culminates in the crown exhorting a man high up on the steeple to take down a cross, which he does.

Dozens of Coptic churches were attacked by members and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the wake of the military’s move against Morsi, who critics say was turning Egypt into an Islamist state. Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 80 million, but Morsi supporters blamed them for his ouster, according to Coptic leaders.

Bishop Makarious, a Coptic leader from Minya, accused Muslim Brotherhood leaders of planning attacks on Christian churches, homes and businesses in an effort to divide the embattled nation.

“We were expecting this scenario weeks before sit-ins were broken up; as it was evident of the incitement being made by Brotherhood leaders against Copts,” Makarious told MidEast Christian News. “We were then surprised by the systematic attacks on churches and Copts’ properties, many of them occurring at the same time in different places, in a series of attacks made under a plan they called ‘Plan B’”, which targeted all churches to be burned and destroyed.”

The provisional military government has pledged to rebuild Christian churches destroyed by mobs.

Published August 30, 2013 / FoxNews.com
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Kim Jong-Un’s Ex-girlfriend Executed for Porno

August 29, 2013 By Editor 1 Comment

Hyon_Song-wolThe ex-girlfriend of North Korean leader Kim-Jong-un was one of a dozen people reportedly executed by a firing squad last week.

The South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reports that singer Hyon Song-wol and 11 others had been arrested on August 17 for violating North Korea’s laws against pornography and was executed three days later.

The paper reported that the condemned, all members of the performing groups Unhasu Orchestra and Wangjaesan Light Music Band, were accused of making videos of themselves having sex and selling the videos, which the paper reported were available in China.

“They were executed with machine guns while the key members of the Unhasu Orchestra, Wangjaesan Light Band and Moranbong Band as well as the families of the victims looked on,” a source told the paper. The source added that the victims’ families appear to have all been sent to prison camps.

Kim Jong-un reportedly met Hyon Song-wol approximately 10 years ago, before he was married. The relationship between the two is believed to have ended after interference from Kim’s father, Kim Jong-il, though the two had been rumored to be having an affair. Kim Jong-un’s wife, Ri Sol-ju, was also a member of the Unhasu Orchestra before their marriage. It is not clear if she had any role in the executions.

Published August 29, 2013 / FoxNews.com

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Israeli Intelligence Confirmed Assad Regime Behind Chemical Attack

August 28, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

assad_chemicalThe initial confirmation that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad was responsible for a suspected chemical weapons attack Aug. 21 came from a tip from the Israeli intelligence service, western intelligence sources tell Fox News.

A special unit of the Israeli Defense Force — an intelligence unit that goes by the number 8200, which is a military intelligence listening unit — has been cooperating with the NSA, sources tell Fox News.

This Israeli intelligence unit helped provide the intelligence intercepts that allowed the White House last weekend to conclude that the Assad regime was behind the attack.

Initially, according to well-placed U.S. intelligence sources, there was apparent confusion over whether chemical weapons were used and who gave the orders, but the U.S. now has access to intercepted conversations.

The administration also has satellite images that suggested the Assad regime was in the process of covering up the chemical attack by shelling the area where most of the deaths from the alleged chemical attack had occurred.

“We believe that it’s too late for the U.N. inspection to be credible given the mass shelling that the regime has done in the affected areas,” State Department spokesman Marie Harf told reporters. “And we’re going to make our own decisions on our own timeline about our response. Obviously we will continue consultations with our international partners around the world but we are making decisions based on our own timeline.”

The Obama administration has not yet released intelligence on last week’s chemical weapons attack in Syria, in part because of concerns over what could be declassified.

The report is considered a key component in the administration’s public case for intervention – and a possible military strike – in Syria.

Officials originally suggested the report would be released as early as Tuesday, but now there are hints the release may not come until at least Thursday.

The intelligence community is working through concerns about which intelligence is de-classified, because it could reveal sources and methods.

The timing of the release is important, though, because the more the report is delayed, the longer it will be before the administration steps up its public case for military action — if they choose that route.

A senior administration official told Fox News on Wednesday that once the intelligence community finishes its formal assessment of the chemical attack, a larger and classified report will be sent to Congress that will have a lot more detail. Then the administration will publicly release a smaller declassified version.

“It is important to remember that the protection of sources and methods must be taken into account when the intelligence community determines what information can be declassified and released to the public,” the senior administration official said.

“While the Congress will receive a classified version of the assessment that includes the broad range of intelligence collected, the intelligence information we are able to provide publicly will be limited in scope.”

A senior U.S. official also confirmed a report that initially appeared in the Wall Street Journal that National Security Adviser Susan Rice wanted to get the U.N. inspectors out of Syria last weekend because the U.S. already believed it had the information it needed to confirm the Syrian government’s culpability.

A White House official would not comment on internal deliberations between Rice and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.

The Wall Street Journal quoted from an email that Rice reportedly sent Sunday to Power and others within the administration.

“The investigation is. . .too late, and will actually tell us what we already know: CW was used,” Ms. Rice wrote, using the abbreviation for chemical weapons. “It won’t even tell us by whom, which we already know.”

U.N. inspectors have permission to be in Syria until Sunday.

Jennifer Griffin By Jennifer Griffin, Ed Henry, Bret Baier / Published August 28, 2013 / FoxNews.com

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King: By the Content of Their Character

August 28, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

Martin-Luther-King-JrFifty years ago today Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech, the most memorable portions of which were impromptu. His “I Have A Dream” speech was technically superior, and rhetorically persuasive.

Who among us can argue with his yearning that the dictates and limiting language of the American Constitution would apply to all citizens equally, regardless of race, religion, or other legitimate differentiation? Which defender of the Constitution and the principles upon which this great nation were founded does not likewise yearn for an America where all citizens are happy and productive, lending a helping hand or sharing a kind word to every fellow American?

In his speech, Republican Martin Luther King, Jr., publicly deplored and excoriated the Democrats who were vigorously holding American blacks back from full citizenship, institutionalizing their second-class citizen status in public places and public universities.

He shared his “dream” with the American people that such official barriers would be cast aside by government officials, pressured by kind and caring white citizens, led by the Republican Party who since before the Emancipation Declaration had championed their equal treatment under the laws of the land.

This speech was the turning point for the true civil rights movement in America.

However, the movement was soon co-opted by the Democratic Party, who saw the plight of the underclass they had created as a rallying point for the expansion of the federal government.  We have documented that coup and its insidious re-enslavement of America’s minorities in our recent articles, Zimmerman: The Subtext of July 8, 2013, Democrat Senator ‘abandons big government plantation’ to join GOP of June 18, 2013, and Dems Hurting Minorities of June 8, 2013.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” was the most poignant and enlightening line of that great speech. When spoken, American Blacks were a family centered, hard working and Christ focused people for the most part. They had indeed earned the respect of their nation by transitioning from the status of southern slaves to upwardly mobile working class people, who with equal protection under the laws could fulfill the measure of their creation in a land of promise and opportunity, as so many other immigrant groups had done, and have done since.

The problem is that “Progressive” policies have obliterated the Black Family, and crime, violence, abortion and addiction have devastated much of the entire race in this country. American blacks feel disenfranchised more than ever, and the race-hustlers in the Democratic Party and Black “Leadership” have done everything in their usurped power to drive our black brothers and sisters deeper into the abyss of hopelessness.

Indeed, the major problem facing many black Americans is society’s tendency to judge by the content of their character–which has declined steadily since the “Great Society” enticed American blacks onto the Democrat plantations. Government dependence, fatherless families, children born out of wedlock, indolence, violence, crime, unemployment, lack of character or values . . . these are the natural results of the expansion of a godless government whose main objective is to reduce the prominence of individual liberty and the family unit in favor of expansion of the government and its role in citizens’ lives.

How much longer will the cries of America’s black children go unheard by decent citizens? How much longer will we suffer the rapid encroachments of a leftist government hell-bent on the enslavement of every American citizen?

What has happened to black Americans is a foreshadowing of what awaits us all if this movement toward a totalitarian government goes unchecked. As the character of all youth declines and they pursue a path of taking more than they give, we see an inevitable course that leads to the destruction of every American family, every American value, and every person’s individual liberty.

It does not require a prophet or a mathematician to predict where we are all going to end up if we do not immediately and abruptly change our national course. If we are going to salvage our Constitutional form of government, we would do well to allow the constitutionalists to free the slaves once again, and so doing, ensure our collective freedom for generations to come.

PUBLIUS

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Administration Ignores ObamaCare Deadlines

August 20, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

obama_scandalsThe Obama administration has missed half its own deadlines for implementing the health care overhaul, according to a report that suggests the recent delay of a key insurance mandate is hardly an outlier.

The finding was included in a Congressional Research Service report, and first published in an article on Forbes.com.

The nonpartisan congressional research unit examined 82 deadlines that the Affordable Care Act imposed on the administration, and found the administration missed exactly half of them.

The White House, according to the June report, did not meet nine of 12 deadlines from the first year after ObamaCare was enacted. It failed to meet 22 of 53 deadlines in the second year. In the third year, the administration missed 10 out of 17 deadlines.

That’s a total of 41 out of 82 deadlines missed.

One Republican lawmaker suggested this report should not surprise anyone.

“I think this is one of the obvious signs that ‘ObamaCare’ is doomed to fail,” Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told Fox News. He also criticized the administration for using “blogs” to “communicate these delays” to the public.

He was referring in part to the recent announcement by the administration, via an official blog, that the requirement on mid-sized and large employers to provide health coverage for full-time workers was being pushed off by a year.

The Health and Human Services Department, though, defended the implementation and said a key part of the law — the so-called insurance exchanges where people can shop for various regulated plans — will launch on time.

“Millions of Americans are benefiting from the provisions of the Affordable Care Act that are already in place, such as ending lifetime limits on coverage and requiring insurance companies to cover preventive care with no cost sharing,” HHS spokeswoman Joanne Peters said. “On October 1, the Health Insurance Marketplace will open on time, where millions of Americans will have access to quality, affordable coverage for the first time.”

According to Forbes.com, most of the 41 missed deadlines pertain to items that aren’t exactly critical to the law’s implementation. One of them reportedly pertained to the requirement on HHS to submit a report to Congress on the “appropriate level of diabetes medical education.”

But there are other high profile delays that are not included in this report — one of them being a delay in caps on out-of-pocket insurance costs.

Published August 20, 2013 / FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Doug McKelway contributed to this report.

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Spoon In Underwear Saving Kids From Forced Marriage

August 19, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

protective_custodyLONDON, England (AFP) –  As Britain puts airport staff on alert to spot potential victims of forced marriage, one campaigning group says the trick of putting a spoon in their underwear has saved some youngsters from a forced union in their South Asian ancestral homelands.

The concealed spoon sets off the metal detector at the airport in Britain and the teenagers can be taken away from their parents to be searched — a last chance to escape a largely hidden practice wrecking the lives of unknown thousands of British youths.

The British school summer holidays, now well under way, mark a peak in reports of young people — typically girls aged 15 and 16 — being taken abroad on “holiday”, for a marriage without consent, the government says.

The bleep at airport security may be the last chance they get to escape a marriage to someone they have never met in a country they have never seen.

The spoon trick is the brainchild of the Karma Nirvana charity, which supports victims and survivors of forced marriage and honour-based abuse.

Based in Derby, central England, it fields 6,500 calls per year from around Britain but has almost reached that point so far in 2013 as awareness of the issue grows.

When petrified youngsters ring, “if they don’t know exactly when it may happen or if it’s going to happen, we advise them to put a spoon in their underwear,” said Natasha Rattu, Karma Nirvana’s operations manager.

“When they go though security, it will highlight this object in a private area and, if 16 or over, they will be taken to a safe space where they have that one last opportunity to disclose they’re being forced to marry,” she told AFP.

“We’ve had people ring and that it’s helped them and got them out of a dangerous situation. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to do with your family around you — but they won’t be aware you have done it. It’s a safe way.”

The charity is working with airports — so far London Heathrow, Liverpool and Glasgow, with Birmingham to come — to spot potential signs, such as one-way tickets, the time of year, age of the person and whether they look uncomfortable.

“These are quite general points, but there are things that if you look collectively lead you to believe something more sinister is going on,” said Rattu.

People who come forward can be escorted out of a secure airport exit to help outside.

Marriages without consent, or their refusal, have led to suicides and so-called honour killings, shocking a nation widely deemed to have successfully absorbed immigrant communities and customs.

Officials fear the number of victims coming forward is just the tip of the iceberg, with few community leaders prepared to speak out and risk losing their support base.

One woman, whose identity was protected by Essex Police in southeast England, was forced to get married in India.

She said she was threatened by her father “because he said if I thought about running away he would find me and kill me”.

“I was shipped off with a total stranger.

“That night I was raped by my husband and this abuse continued for about eight and half years of my life.”

She eventually fled.

Last year, the Foreign Office’s Forced Marriage Unit dealt with some 1,500 cases — 18 percent of them men.

A third of cases involved children aged under 17. The oldest victim was aged 71; the youngest just two.

The cases related to 60 countries: almost half were linked to Pakistan, 11 percent to Bangladesh, eight percent to India, and two percent to Afghanistan. Other countries were Somalia, Turkey and Iraq.

Calls to Karma Nirvana tend to spike before the British school summer holidays and again at the end, said Rattu.

“The holidays are a really good time for young people to go missing because there is nobody accounting for where they are at school,” she said.

Since Ramadan ended last week, calls have risen again, including one from an 18-year-old who has fallen pregnant and her family is trying force her into marriage to conceal it.

Burdened by South Asian codes of “izzat”, or family honour, youngsters can be under extreme physical and emotional duress to marry relatives in a culture and country they were not brought up in.

If they refuse, they are often threatened with being thrown out of the family — or worse.

“It really takes a brave person to stand up against their family,” said Rattu.

By Robin Millard / Published August 15, 2013 / AFP

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Obamacare Penalty — Single Mom pays $8,173 For Marriage License

August 19, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

marriage-penaltyObamacare attacks the liberty and financial viability of the traditional family, and nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the system of federal subsidies it puts in place starting next year.

This system rewards people who don’t marry, don’t work and don’t take care of their own children. It punishes people who do marry, work hard and take care of their own children.

Under Obamacare, the federal government orders all Americans to have health insurance. Households with adjusted gross incomes of less than 100 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) will go on government-run Medicaid, and households with adjusted gross incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of FPL can qualify for a subsidy to help them buy their government-mandated health insurance — provided they do not qualify for Medicaid in their state and their employer does not offer them coverage.

As explained by the Congressional Research Service, the subsidy — which is technically a refundable tax credit — works as a cap on the percentage of income the household can be made to pay in annual health insurance premiums if they buy a “Silver” plan on their state exchange. (The exchanges will sell Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze plans, with Bronze being the cheapest and Platinum the most expensive.) If someone with a subsidy buys a more expensive plan, they must pay the additional cost out of their own pocket.

For a household earning an adjusted gross income between 100 percent and 133 percent of FPL, Obamacare caps their health insurance premiums at 2 percent of annual income. That cap incrementally increases as a household’s income increases, peaking at 9.5 percent for households earning between 300 percent and 400 percent of FPL.

When a household gets the subsidy, the federal government pays their insurance company directly for any amount the household owes that exceeds their percentage-of-income cap.

No one getting a subsidy ever pays more than 9.5 percent of their income in premiums.

But if a household earns as little as one dollar over 400 percent of FPL, the household no longer qualifies for a subsidy, and there is no longer a cap on the percentage of income they can be forced to pay for health insurance.

Married couples seeking the subsidy are required to file joint tax returns and whether their premiums are capped or not is determined by the couple’s combined income.

The law thus imposes a steep penalty on Americans who live in traditional families.

Take the hypothetical twin sisters Lucille and Linda, who live across the street from each other and who will buy health insurance on the same state exchange.

They are 50 years old, and their husbands have abandoned and divorced them and their three children. Each earns $47,100 per year, which is 200 percent of FPL for a family of four.

The Kaiser Family Foundation maintains an online “Subsidy Calculator” that “illustrates health insurance premiums and subsidies for people purchasing insurance on their own” in the exchanges.

This calculator estimates a Silver plan for a family of four headed by a single mom like Lucille or Linda would cost $11,140 in annual premiums. But because their income is just 200 percent of FPL, the government will cap the premiums Lucille or Linda would pay at 6.3 percent of their income. Thus, they would each pay $2,967 per year in premiums, and the government would make up the difference by paying $8,172 directly to their insurance companies.

But then Lucille falls in love with 56-year-old Bill. They decide to marry. Bill’s adjusted gross income is $63,300, which is more than 400 percent of FPL for a single person. Before marrying Lucille, Bill bought a Silver plan on the state exchange for what the Kaiser Family Foundation calculator estimates was $7,041.

Under Obamacare, as unmarried people, Lucinda and Bill pay combined health insurance premiums of $10,008 per year and receive total subsidies of $8,172 per year.

After their wedding, Bill and Lucille settle down in one home with Lucille’s three kids. They are now a five-person family with an adjusted gross income of $110,400 — just a bit more than 400 percent of FPL for a family of five.

Now, as a married couple, they look into buying a Silver family plan on the state exchange. The calculator says their new annual premiums will be $18,181 — and because Bill and Lucille and the three children are too wealthy to qualify for the Obamacare premium cap, they must pay every penny of the $18,181 out of their own pockets.

As a penalty for marrying, Bill and Lucille have lost Lucille’s $8,172 subsidy and must pay $8,173 more in annual health insurance premiums than the combined $10,008 they paid before they were married. Their federally mandated health insurance plan costs 16.5 percent of their family income.

Linda, after seeing the plight of Lucille and Bill, falls in love with Bill’s twin brother, Jack, who like Bill, earns $63,300 per year. Will she marry him?

By Terence P. Jeffrey — editor-in-chief of CNSnews.com

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Obama Faces Dem Backlash Over New NSA Revelations

August 16, 2013 By Editor Leave a Comment

obama_scandalsThe Obama administration faced a backlash from congressional Democrats on Friday following revelations that the National Security Agency broke privacy rules and overstepped its authority thousands of times since 2008.

The details were reported late Thursday in The Washington Post, based on an audit and other secret documents provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The report challenged claims by President Obama just last week that the NSA was not abusing its authority, and complicated his effort to reassure Americans and Congress that — with a little more oversight and transparency — the surveillance programs are nothing to be worried about.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called the latest reports “extremely disturbing.”

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said: “Reports that the NSA repeatedly overstepped its legal boundaries, broke privacy regulations and attempted to shield required disclosure of violations are outrageous, inappropriate and must be addressed.”

Senior lawmakers said they had been unaware of the audit until they read the news on Friday.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he planned to hold another hearing in the wake of the report.

“The American people rely on the intelligence community to provide forthright and complete information so that Congress and the courts can properly conduct oversight. I remain concerned that we are still not getting straightforward answers from the NSA,” Leahy said in a statement. “I plan to hold another hearing on these matters in the Judiciary Committee and will continue to demand honest and forthright answers from the intelligence community.”

Obama has repeatedly said that Congress was thoroughly briefed on the programs revealed by Snowden in June. The two that were described vacuum up vast amounts of metadata — such as telephone numbers called and called from, the time and duration of calls — from most Americans’ phone records, and scoop up global Internet usage data.

Proposed legislation to dismantle the programs was narrowly defeated last month in the House, and at least 19 other pending bills are aimed at restraining NSA’s powers or changing how the agency is regulated, according to a count kept by the ACLU. The July legislative effort brought together Libertarian-leaning conservatives and liberal Democrats who pressed for change against congressional leaders and lawmakers focused on security.

A week ago, Obama sought to soothe concerns by promising to consider reforms to NSA surveillance.

“It’s not enough for me to have confidence in these programs,” he said at a White House news conference. “The American people have to have confidence in them as well.”

He announced changes such as convening an outside advisory panel to review U.S. surveillance powers, although it is unclear how that would differ from the existing U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, mandated by Congress to monitor surveillance and constitutional concerns.

Obama also said the NSA would hire a privacy officer — though the NSA already has a compliance office. None of those measures would seem likely to stop the kind of inadvertent collection of information that was described in the NSA audit.

Most of the infractions revealed late Thursday involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by law and executive order, according to the May 3, 2012 audit, and other top-secret documents.

The May audit counted 2,776 incidents in the preceding 12 months of unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications. Most were reported to be unintended, and many involved failures to take sufficient care or violations of standard operating procedure. They ranged from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interceptions of U.S. emails and telephone calls.

The most serious incidents included a violation of a court order and unauthorized use of data about more than 3,000 Americans and green-card holders.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, backed up the administration on its claims, releasing a lengthy statement on Friday afternoon claiming that most the compliance problems at the NSA happen when the agency inadvertently collects records on a non-American who enters the U.S., a point when the NSA is supposed to follow different procedures.

“The majority of these ‘compliance incidents’ are, therefore, unintentional and do not involve any inappropriate surveillance of Americans,” she said. “As I have said previously, the committee has never identified an instance in which the NSA has intentionally abused its authority to conduct surveillance for inappropriate purposes.”

Late Friday, the White House issued a statement saying, “the majority of the compliance incidents are unintentional. The documents demonstrate that the NSA is monitoring, detecting, addressing and reporting compliance incidents.”

It directed questions to the National Security Council, and NSC spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden directed questions to the NSA.

NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said the number of incidents in the first quarter of 2012 was higher than normal, and that the number has ranged from 372 to 1,162 in the past three years, due to factors such as “implementation of new procedures or guidance with respect to our authorities that prompt a spike that requires `fine tuning,’ changes to the technology or software in the targeted environment for which we had no prior knowledge, unforeseen shortcomings in our systems, new or expanded access, and `roaming’ by foreign targets into the U.S., some of which NSA cannot anticipate in advance but each instance of which is reported as an incident.”

“When NSA makes a mistake in carrying out its foreign intelligence mission, the agency reports the issue internally and to federal overseers — and aggressively gets to the bottom of it,” Vines said.

Published August 16, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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

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