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Opioid deaths continued to surge in 2015, surpassing 30,000 for the first time in recent history, according to CDC data released Thursday. That marks an increase of nearly 5,000 deaths from 2014. Deaths involving powerful synthetic opiates, like fentanyl, rose by nearly 75 percent from 2014 to 2015.

Summary - Ash Carter, Frank Kendall and Robert Work bury a Defense Business Board / McKinsey report that $125 B is wasted on bloated bureaucracy in particular supported by hordes of overpaid contractors. Frank Kendall was“very disappointed” by the board’s work, which he criticized as “shallow” and “very low on content.” He said the study had ignored efforts by his agencies to become more efficient." Kendall said he needs 1000 more people working directly under him. Peter Cook, a spokesman for Carter, said the Pentagon chief was busy dealing with “a long list of national security challenges.” He added that...

It appears former president Jimmy Carter, now 92 years old, has yet to meet a tyrant he doesn’t admire. His continuing embrace of terrorist regimes makes some wonder when we will see the cessation of his continual self-exhumations from political burial in order to once again resume his prophetic declamations on behalf of odious regimes, past and present. Carter’s latest declamation on the demise of the pitiless tyrant Fidel Castro reveals once again his lifelong empathy for totalitarian regimes: “Rosalynn and I share our sympathies with the Castro family and the Cuban people on the death of Fidel Castro. We...

Former US president Jimmy Carter penned an op-ed in The New York Times Monday imploring President Barack Obama to formally recognize a Palestinian state before Donald Trump takes office in January. Carter, who helped broker the 1978 Camp David Accords that brought peace between Israel and Egypt, argued the possibility of solidifying a two-state outcome between Israelis and Palestinians was dwindling because of continued settlement activity in the West Bank. Carter’s controversial 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” designated Israel an apartheid state “with two peoples occupying the same land, but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant...

The heads of the Pentagon and the nation’s intelligence community have recommended to President Obama that the director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael S. Rogers, be removed. The recommendation, delivered to the White House last month, was made by Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., according to several U.S. officials familiar with the matter. Action has been delayed, some administration officials said, because relieving Rogers of his duties is tied to another controversial recommendation: to create separate chains of command at the NSA and the

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, let's move on to 1980. This Indiana poll, I don't want to get ahead of myself here. But I have to tell you -- and I know it's Indiana, but Monmouth, they're at the top of the poll in terms of respect and credibility in this particular polling season. I don't know. Maybe some of you expected to see a state poll with Trump up by 11 a week out, but I didn't. And I will guarantee you the Hillary camp didn't expect to see it. And they may try say, "Well, of course. It's Indiana....

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Yesterday on this program I discussed the 1980 election, Ronaldus Magnus and Jimmy Carter, and in it I described the election night coverage that night and how I will never forget it. Because this was the election that they called it for Reagan before California had even closed the polls, it was such a landslide.  Yet the last polling data going into the election in 1980 had Jimmy Carter winning by nine points.  And so Cookie went back to the archives and got a bunch of audio from John Chancellor, Judy Woodruff, Tom Brokaw and David Brinkley...

The journalists at CBS This Morning on Friday promoted a petition by “concerned” United Nations staffers against the honoring of Wonder Woman, a “large-breasted, white woman” who wears an “American flag motif.” The fictional DC comics character is being hailed as an “Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls.” Talking to Lynda Carter, the ‘70s era Wonder Woman, guest co-host Margaret Brennan insisted the character was “drawing some scrutiny because of the way you’re dressed.” Gayle King catalogued the list of complaints from outraged, dissident UN staffers: “Listen on to what they are saying though, Lynda. ‘A large breasted,...

While many analysts dismiss Donald Trump’s chances of winning over black voters, the Republican nominee has an unlikely ally making his case -- the founder of a group that once rallied black voters for Bernie Sanders. Bruce Carter, who led "Black Men for Bernie," told FoxNews.com he had a change of heart after he traveled to urban communities and saw the levels of poverty in Democrat-controlled areas of the country. “Once I got involved, I realized that the Democratic Party was operating as if they own the country, and that was a major turn off for me,” Carter said. “I...

Jimmy Carter says the United States is experiencing a “resurgence of racism” and he’s calling on Baptist faith leaders to foster change in their churches and communities. The former U.S. president spoke Thursday at a summit hosted by the New Baptist Covenant, which he convened in 2007 to unite Baptists of different races, ethnicities and theologies. Carter’s keynote address came during a three-day meeting in Atlanta aimed at creating partnerships between black and white churches to work together on pressing issues in their community...

Former President Jimmy Carter is taking on a more public role in Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the White House. Clinton supporters across the country this morning were greeted by an email from the former Georgia governor asking them to pitch in to help elect Clinton in November. And Carter wrote that he had a personal reason for asking: “During my 1976 presidential run, a young woman moved to Indianapolis to help turn out the Indiana vote for me. Forty years later, I will proudly cast my vote for that same woman to be the next President of the United States.”...

Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that both major presidential candidates are “quite unpopular,” but he knows who’s more qualified and he’s voting for Democrat Hillary Clinton in November. The 91-year-old Carter spoke with The Associated Press on the site of a Habitat for Humanity construction project in Memphis. Carter, considered a worldwide ambassador for Habitat for Humanity, said he doesn’t like to advocate for particular issues because he works equally with Republicans, Democrats and people of many religious beliefs in his role with the home building charity. But he did say that “everybody knows that I’m a Democrat, and...

As I type the headline to this article I can already here the cries of leftist fools everywhere… How dare you try and deny anyone the right to serve in the military! Being mentally or morally or physically unqualified is no bar to enlistment. You dinosaur! It’s 2016 and we have…according to the words of our beloved Commander in Chief yesterday, “the greatest military the world has ever seen.” Really? Pardon me while I bust a gut laughing. Better than the Roman Legions? Better than the German Wehrmacht of Rommel and Guderian? Better than the US military in WWII? Better...

As Barack Obama’s tenure comes to a close, political analysts are already drawing comparisons between the current administration and that of Jimmy Carter’s. Both proved to be exceedingly inept at dealing with emerging foreign crises, both were harshly and unfairly critical of Israel and both betrayed loyal allies, utilizing all methods available to undermine friends while propping up hostile foes. The personification of this doctrine is best illustrated by that manner in which both administrations empowered and emboldened the mullahs of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Islamic fundamentalist takeover of Iran in 1979 was a disastrous occurrence that was...

It's CPAC weekend - the grand rallying of the conservative clan here in Washington. It's a season where conservatives from across the country meet to compare notes, share stories, and seek political consensus. The consensus forming this year however is an ominously dangerous one - ominously dangerous to conservatives themselves that is. Conservatives live in thrall to a historical myth, and this myth may soon cost us dearly. The myth is the myth of the Goldwater triumph of 1964. It goes approximately as follows: In 1964, after years of watered down politics, Republicans turned to a true conservative, Arizona Senator...

Harold M. Ickes never forgets a favor, especially if he's the one who did the favor. So the veteran political operative made sure that, when the time was right, he alone would call Garry Shay, former chairman of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party... And once Ickes started calling, he didn't stop until Shay said the words Ickes wanted to hear -- that he would support Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August... the man in charge of Clinton's feverish effort to lock up superdelegates is Ickes, whose enthusiasm for...

In 1979, after a long campaign of political pressure applied by the Carter administration in the United States, the Shah of Iran fell to the Islamic Revolution, ending a tradition of monarchic rule that had persisted in Iran for thousands of years since the rule of Cyrus the Great. The stage was set for the rise of the Ayatollah, and the establishment of a theocracy in Iran that, today, most Iranians do not even want. But what if none of that had ever happened? While a momentous departure from actual history, it is not nearly so far-fetched as it sounds....

As a species, humans tend to behave as a herd, following one another in opinion and action — whether or not the consequences for doing so are dire. Of course, politicians and others holding seats of power, fully cognizant of the opportunities provided by this herd mentality, deftly manipulate the masses — particularly through public polls during the lead-up to presidential elections. Most everyone comprehends how bias-infused political polling can be; however, the extent such polls play in the outcome of elections — and, conversely, how their artfully constructed questions and population samples often miss the mark — makes polling...

Recently declassified U.S. documents have revealed shocking information on how President Jimmy Carter and his administration conducted secret meetings and communications with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his entourage, thereby undercutting our longstanding ally and friend, the Shah of Iran and his loyal military. The story was published by the BBC in a June 3 article by Kambiz Fatthi of the BBC Persian Service. As the situation steadily deteriorated in late 1978, a 48-member Iranian interagency task group was formed under the direction of Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Newsome. I was the director of political military affairs for...

It’s 1984 at the Pentagon, where the truth is warped like an old 78 RPM record sitting in the sun all day. At the Pentagon, true is false and false is true and the difference couldn’t be located with a million GPS’. We are living in dangerous times, when incompetent, leftist social engineers are calling the plays in the Pentagon and in the process, sealing the fate of the US military in future conflicts. As reported on Townhall this week: The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are getting a progressive make-over. The word ‘man’ will be dropped from each job...