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Opinion: White House Obama's Paris snub wasn't an oversight By Byron York | January 12, 2015 | 4:33 pm The uproar over whether President Obama or another top administration official should have attended the massive unity rally in Paris has obscured an important point about the White House's reaction to the latest terror attacks in Europe. The administration no-shows were not a failure of optics, or a diplomatic misstep, but were instead the logical result of the president's years-long effort to downgrade the threat of terrorism and move on to other things. "The analogy we use around [the White House]...

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — White House aides are accusing soldiers who served with Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl are “swift boating” him following his release over the weekend after five years in captivity. NBC News’ Chuck Todd reported Monday that the White House did not expect this sort of vitriolic backlash exchanging five high-level Taliban members held at Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl, who left his Army post in 2009 in Afghanistan and was subsequently taken captive. “They did not expect this backlash on Bergdahl himself,” Todd reported on NBC’s “Today.” I’ve had a few aides describe it to me as we didn’t...

After the recent Bundy Ranch episode by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Texans are becoming more concerned about the BLM’s focus on 90,000 acres along a 116 mile stretch of the Texas/Oklahoma boundary. The BLM is reviewing the possible federal takeover and ownership of privately-held lands which have been deeded property for generations of Texas landowners. Sid Miller, former Texas State Representative and Republican candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, has since made the matter a campaign issue to Breitbart Texas. “In Texas,” Miller says, “the BLM is attempting a repeat of an action taken over 30 years ago...

Gohmert threatens to contempt for AG Holder. Holder snaps “you don’t want to go there." Gohmert: “I don’t need lectures from you” Holder is testifying at a House hearing on Oversight at the DOJ. Watch live below.. http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/04/08/watch-live-eric-holder-testifies-house-hearing-oversight-doj

George Soros, one of the world’s leading investors, has warned that the European Union is in danger of falling apart if it fails to confront Vladimir Putin’s naked aggression in Ukraine. ...

Driving the Republican jihad was a claim, first reported in October 2012 by Fox News, that CIA personnel had wanted to respond more quickly to the Benghazi attack but were ordered to "stand down," perhaps by political higher-ups. Although this claim was promptly rebutted by CIA officials, it was repeated by Fox at least 85 times, according to a review by the liberal advocacy group Media Matters. This barrage fueled Republican charges that the Democrats were engaging in a cover-up.

Critics of President Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division have described Debo Adegbile as “radical,” “dangerous” and “outside the mainstream.” Now he is facing heated criticism for his role in getting convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence overturned during his time as a lawyer with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). Abu-Jamal was convicted of the 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. However, both Adegbile's supporters and detractors believe he will successfully navigate the Senate votes necessary to be confirmed to head up the Civil Rights Division in the near future.

“Number sense,” courtesy of Common Core? We don’t know the source of that math problem, but based on what we’ve seen elsewhere, it has all the hallmarks of Common Core math. Now try your hand at this third-grade math problem, also reportedly from a Common Core lesson: Common Core: It’s For the Children™.

ust hours after the deadly shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, gun control advocates tried to reignite the national debate over gun laws that had only just subsided. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat and a longtime gun control advocate, denounced “the litany of massacres” over the past few years and asked rhetorically, “When will enough be enough?” [snip] The National Rifle Association had no comment on Monday, and pro-gun groups generally take the stance that days of particularly shocking crimes are not the time to discuss policy. Popular conservative blogger and former CNN commentator Erick Erickson admonished the rush...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ari.) said Wednesday that the rebels engaged in a civil war with Syrian president Bashar Assad feel “abandoned” by President Obama. “I was very disappointed that the president did not mention the Free Syrian Army and our moral and material assistance for them, which is required,” McCain said on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe." “I think they do feel that they’re being abandoned.” “I feel badly, very badly for my friends in the Free Syrian Army today,” he added. In his Tuesday night prime time address, Obama asked Congress to put on hold resolutions to authorize a military strike...

George Washington would not be welcome in the modern U.S. military. Neither would Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin, according to Department of Defense training documents that depict the Founding Fathers as extremists and conservative organizations as “hate groups.” The Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute training guide was obtained by Judicial Watch under a Freedom of Information Act Request. It was acquired from the Air Force but originated from the Pentagon. “This document deserves a careful examination by military leadership,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton told Fox News. “Congress needs to conduct better oversight and figure out what the heck is...

Yet another reason to find the Enzi/Cheney race fascinating. Tough call here for Maverick. Does he strike a blow for incumbency by backing his pal Mike, even though it means siding with “wacko bird” nemesis, Rand Paul? Or does he strike a blow for interventionism by endorsing the tea-party favorite Cheney? Here’s the answer, via the Corner. McCain endorsing anyone named “Cheney” at this point was a long shot, incumbent opponent or no. He’s been at odds with Dick sporadically for at least 10 years, dating back to the Bush tax cuts, then to the debate over enhanced interrogation, and...

Former President George W. Bush wants Republicans to consider immigration on its own merits, not just as a party saving piece of legislation, he said during an interview on ABC's This Week. "Sometimes, it takes time for some of these complex issues to evolve. And it looks like immigration, you know, has a chance to pass," Bush said.

Wow..be listening to Becks show this morning..you will understand what's going on. It is in fact the immigration bill. Bohner, Grahmn and McCain are threatening GOP members who are standing firm against immigration bill. There are 50 of them and some have chairs that are being threatened by GOP and Bohner.

In a Spanish-language interview Sunday with the network Univision, Sen. Marco Rubio, the leading Republican on the Gang of Eight comprehensive immigration reform group, made his strongest statement yet that legalization of the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants must happen before any new border security or internal enforcement measures are in place, and will in no way be conditional on any security requirements. “Let’s be clear,” Rubio said. “Nobody is talking about preventing the legalization...

New Zealand Herald can't be posted to FR, but I think a link might be OK: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10889158

Sprint announced Friday that Adm. Mike Mullen would join the company’s board after its proposed $20.1 billion sale to SoftBank of Japan closes. Admiral Mullen, 66, who had served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 2007 to September 2011, would serve as an independent director as well as the company’s security director. He is also on the board of General Motors. His appointment would satisfy one of the concessions that the companies agreed to to win government approval for the merger. ... The two companies, however, have been gradually winning the necessary approvals. A special...

Analysts at the National Security Agency can now secretly access real-time user data provided by as many as 50 American companies, ranging from credit rating agencies to internet service providers, two government officials familiar with the arrangements said. Several of the companies have provided records continuously since 2006, while others have given the agency sporadic access, these officials said. These officials disclosed the number of participating companies in order to provide context for a series of disclosures about the NSA's domestic collection policies. The officials, contacted independently, repeatedly said that "domestic collection" does not mean that the target is based...

Last week he gave aid and comfort to the Muslim Brotherhood (or worse) in Syria, and posed for photos with a "rebel" kidnapper. This week he is disgracing Arizona once again by showing sympathy with the IRS! That's right, the increasingly deranged John McCain this morning said we should "wait and see" before bringing in a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS, despite countless lies and concealed evidence by officials such as Lois Lerner and Douglas Shulman. Just one day after IRS Cincinnati workers said that they were ordered to target right-leaning groups by Washington, McCain actually said: "Certainly when...

UMASS PROF WHO MENTORED SUSPECT #2: I HOPE I DIDN’T INFLUENCE HIM TO COMMIT TERROR (AND COMPARES SOME CHECHENS FIGHTING RUSSIA TO GEORGE WASHINGTON) Apr. 23, 2013 2:37pm Tiffany Gabbay A professor of Islamic Studies at University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth who once mentored Dzhokhar Tsarnaev via email, recently said in an interview that he hoped he didn’t influence the man to commit acts of terror. Professor Brian Glyn Williams said that he had been communicating with the younger Tsarnaev via email in an attempt to inform him of the history of Chechnya and its fight against Russia. Responding to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s...

During friendly questioning from Rep. Hank “I fear that Guam will capsize!” Johnson in Congress last week, Attorney General Eric Holder offered the following statement. In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy. He made that statement before the facts about the sweep on Fox News’ James Rosen were known. Since then, it’s come to light that Holder himself approved the subpoena that, among other things, named Rosen as a criminal co-conspirator.

After a British soldier wearing a Help for Heroes charity T-shirt was run over, stabbed and slashed with machetes and a meat cleaver, and beheaded, the Tory government advised its soldiers that it is probably best not to appear in uniform on the streets of their capital. Both murderers were wounded by police. One was photographed and recorded. His message: "There are many, many (verses) throughout the Quran that says we must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I apologize that women had to witness this today, but in...

More whistleblowers will emerge shortly in the escalating Benghazi scandal, according to two former U.S. diplomats who spoke with PJ Media Monday afternoon. These whistleblowers, colleagues of the former diplomats, are currently securing legal counsel because they work in areas not fully protected by the Whistleblower law. According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The former diplomats inform PJM the new revelations concentrate in...

More whistleblowers will emerge shortly in the escalating Benghazi scandal, according to two former U.S. diplomats who spoke with PJ Media Monday afternoon. These whistleblowers, colleagues of the former diplomats, are currently securing legal counsel because they work in areas not fully protected by the Whistleblower law. According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. snip... Stevens’ mission in Benghazi, they will say, was to...

"The State Department says, “Eligibility for access to classified information, commonly known as a security clearance, is granted only to those for whom an appropriate personnel security background investigation has been completed."

Well, well, well, the Huma Abedin controversy has finally hit the legacy media. Okay, okay — it’s not the Huma Abedin controversy, but it’s one Obama’s court stenographers apparently feel comfortable talking about. It seems Ms. Abedin, accurately described by the New York Times as Hillary Rodham Clinton’s ”longtime aide and confidante,” spent her last months at the State Department not really at the State Department. Despite maintaining her title as Secretary of State Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, she was permitted, upon returning to government service from maternity leave in mid-2012, to remain at home in New York with...

BENGHAZI DOT ONE, WHY THE VIDEO AND WHY AP This began as a response to a question posed by 'just a hairy ape' on a previous thread. To fully understand Benghazi, I have to go back and break this down into parts. There was more than one reason and we need to understand them all which isn't easy,(and even less easy to explain,) because there are details long forgotten as if each 'thing' was in a box of its own separate from each other 'thing'. In reality, they are connected in a myriad of ways. So this is going to...

During the 2nd Presidential Debate on Oct. 16, 2012, President Obama was indignant at the suggestion that anyone on his team would play politics with Benghazi. Recent reports suggest that talking points were altered to remove references to al Qaeda and prior attacks in Benghazi, both of which might have left the State Dept. open to criticism.

Calculating the Cost of Amnesty By The Editors The Heritage Foundation has undertaken to back a plausible theory with numbers. The theory is that the amnesty contained in the immigration bill before Congress will cost taxpayers plenty; it is plausible because we have a large redistributive state, and many of the illegal immigrants to whom this bill will grant legal status — and the relatives their legal status will allow them to bring here — will be net recipients of government benefits.

MSNBC’s co-host of The Cycle, Touré, declared his support on Monday for “the open borders movement.” While he says that the Senate’s immigration reform plan is a welcome development, it will never go far enough in making it easier for immigrant labor to come to America. Touré added that, just as currency and employment are borderless, immigration should also be borderless. He noted that chronic poverty plaguing foreign nations and fueling terrorism would be alleviated by open borders. “The answer to our immigration issue is open borders,” Touré declared. “Tear down the fences. Rip up the red tape. Yup; I’m...

Cesar Conda is Marco Rubio’s Chief of Staff. He recently made his Tweets private (protected) so the general public can’t read them. Cesar Conda has been pushing amnesty for illegals on Twitter and else as Marco Rubio’s PR agent. Conda, who is an immigration lawyer, went to work for George Soros before becoming Rubio’s Chief of Staff. Cesar Conda worked on the editorial advisory board of George Soros magazine, The International Economy Magazine. Cesar Conda had been spinning lies about the amnesty bill about how illegal wouldn’t get welfare, wait more than 10 years for citizenship, etc. Those lies have...

It was largely overshadowed by the Boston bombing, but on April 18, Sen. John McCain gave what might have been an important speech at the Center for a New American Security. It was clearly aimed at rhetorically pushing back at the non-interventionist Rand Paul wing of the GOP, but at the end of the speech, McCain took things to a new level: ”[T]here are times these days,” he said, “when I feel that I have more in common on foreign policy with President Obama than I do with some in my own party.”

Acting Deputy Spokesman Patrick Ventrell defended the State Department restricting access to Congress from lower-level staffers directly involved with the Benghazi investigation. Ventrell said that it was "appropriate" for the FBI and the Accountability Review Board to interview the Department employees but that Congress should only have access to their superiors. "Just as you wouldn’t have necessarily a soldier or troops called as witnesses, you have their superior officers, that’s the same practice for the State Department," Ventrell argued. Ventrell went on to say, "I think that these folks want to be able to continue their professional duties and activities,"...

'You’re a nice guy. That's a problem.  Nice guys are only popular in prison and in the Senate- and for similar reasons.' Today's Republican Party suffers from a paucity of those who can effectively communicate the conservative message. So what a shame I might not be able to vote for one of the few who DID possess that gift... WHAT on God's green Earth are you thinking, dude? Has it yet occurred that you're a DREAM prop for the Democrats here- the hispanic Republican who's marching lockstep with them on a bill that MANY of us see little good in? That...

Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Scott Brown joined John McCain in denouncing the congresswoman's Muslim witch hunt Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising star in the party and a potential vice-presidential pick for Mitt Romney, said this morning that he disagreed with Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann’s baseless call to investigate Muslim Brotherhood infiltration in the U.S. government. Appearing on NPR’s Diane Rehm show, Rubio was asked by a caller if he would join Republican Sen. John McCain’s strong condemnation of the anti-Muslim witch hunt on the Senate floor yesterday. While Rubio said he doesn’t personally know Huma Abedin, a...

Members of the Senate’s bipartisan Gang of Eight have stressed that under their new immigration plan, currently illegal immigrants will have to wait more than a decade before achieving citizenship. Newly-legalized immigrants will be given a provisional status and “will have to stay in that status until at least ten years elapse and [border security] triggers are met,” Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio told Fox News on April 14. “Then the only thing they get is a chance to apply for a green card via the legal immigration system.” The green card process would take additional years, meaning the road...

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday the U.S. intelligence community believes the Syrian regime used the chemical weapon sarin, a revelation that immediately raised the question of whether a "red line" had been crossed in the country's civil war. Hagel confirmed the intelligence assessment, which was detailed in a letter to select members of Congress, while speaking to reporters on a visit to Abu Dhabi. The administration swiftly released those letters, which said U.S. intelligence determined with varying degrees of confidence that "the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin."...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require background checks to be run on anyone buying explosive powder, a reaction to last week's Boston Marathon bombing. Reid introduced the bill, S. 792, for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who has been out sick for much of the year. But in a press statement, Lautenberg said the Boston bombing shows that background checks are needed for explosive materials. "It defies common sense that anyone, even a terrorist, can walk into a store in America and buy explosive powders without a background check or any questions asked,"...

Not a single word in the 844-page "Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act" introduced by Senator Marco Rubio and the "Gang of Eight" addresses the controversial practice of "birthright citizenship." Birthright citizenship is the common description given to the automatic grant of U.S. citizenship to babies born in the U.S. regardless of the citizenship status of the parents. Many experts agree with the verdict of law professor Lino Graglia -- that the practice generates "perhaps the greatest possible inducement to illegal entry." The failure of Congress to confront the subject is nothing new. The "four pillars" of the...

The Boston bombing crime shows that comprehensive immigration reform should not be only a southern border problem or even just a problem of illegal aliens. It’s also a problem of foreigners who are admitted legally but should never have been admitted, and of others admitted legally on a visa but are not tracked to make sure they depart when their visitor’s time expires, as U.S. law requires. For starters, why would our government have admitted the Tsarnaev family whose son was named Tamerlan? That should have been a red alert because that is the name of one of the world’s...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that he will support the Assault Weapon Ban against what he calls conspiracy theorists, black helicopters and false flags: “I’ll vote for the ban because saving the lives of police officers, young and old, and innocent civilians, young and old, is more important than preventing imagined tyranny,”

Grover Norquist, champion of Islamism infiltration, is working to advance the cause of tax reform by backing an illegal alien amnesty that will impose a whopping economic burden on the country… leading to higher taxes. The contradiction is obvious. If you’re going to legalize 12 million undocumented Democrats plus all their family members then you are tremendously boosting the welfare state on the receiving end and the voting end. The only way that the pro-amnesty side can win the amnesty debate is by not having it. And that means going after any sources of facts and taking them down. The...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Sunday expressed opposition to possible GOP efforts to filibuster a Senate gun-control measure, saying he did not “understand” the move to block debate. “I don’t understand it,” said McCain on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “The purpose of the United States Senate is to debate and to vote and to let the people know where we stand.” “What are we afraid of? Why would we not want… if this issue is as important as all of us think it is, why not take it to one of the world’s greatest deliberative bodies… A number of GOP...

At a meeting of the Ripon Society held in Washington, D.C.'s exclusive Capitol Hill Club on Tuesday, new Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Mike Shields effectively declared war on the conservative grassroots. In a strong attack, Shields coined a new derogatory term, "the professional right," to refer to groups that have publicly criticized the recent RNC "Autopsy" report. "It's a term I'll be using often in the coming months," he told the crowd of about 40 Ripon Society members, RNC insiders, and Capitol Hill staffers. But Reagan biographer Craig Shirley, who was not one of those in attendance at...

In a bizarre rant--or "open letter"--at Townhall, Scottie Hughes, the news director for the Tea Party News Network, falsely accuses former Alaska Governor and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin of rushing out of this year's CPAC and having a pattern of ignoring grassroots conservatives. While Hughes's motivation for writing such a column may only be known to her, her accusations are demonstrably false. Doug McMarlin, who has been with Palin since 2008 and was with her at this year's CPAC, was also perplexed by Hughes's characterization of the event. Palin met with volunteers, supporters and CPAC leadership at this...

GOP strategist Karl Rove says he can imagine a Republican candidate in the next presidential campaign supporting gay marriage. The statement from the former adviser to President George W. Bush appears to acknowledge that opposition to gay marriage has waned in some conservative circles. …

Bombshell: FOX News Reporter Told Sheriff Joe They Are Not Allowed To Report Obama Identity Fraud FOX News Reporter Jana Winter Refuses To Retract False Obama Birth Certificate Report - Jean-ClaudeTremblay Ticked.

The nationwide shortage of ammunition has left many police departments scrambling to get their hands on the necessary rounds - with some even bartering among each other. Meanwhile, Rep. Timothy Huelskamp (R-Kansas) says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to respond to multiple members of Congress asking why DHS bought more than 1.6 billion rounds in the past year. Police Chief Cameron Arthur of Jenks, Oklahoma says, "Ammunition and assault weapons in general have skyrocketed...In addition to the fact, not only is it a lot more expensive, but the time to get it could be six months to...

In October 2010 a man was repeatedly stabbed and then grotesquely beheaded in Chandler, AZ, and now one of the three reputed narco soldiers from the Sinaloa cartel whom authorities suspect in the gruesome crime has pleaded no contest for his alleged role as reported by the Daily Mail. Although the Obama Administration insists that there is no drug cartel spillover violence the dead bodies on the north side of the border stubbornly belie the President's cynical lie. Former DEA supervisor Phil Jordan insists that the drug traffickers' most gruesome tactics including beheadings are occurring on American soil, and says...

For the past four years or so, I’ve written numerous posts condemning the inbred society of Republican “insiders� and “consultants� who tell their candidates that they need to become Democrat light to win elections. These Washington denizens, I’ve argued are more interested in a candidates willingness to spend huge amounts of money for their services than their ideology or electability. That’s why they’ve consistently tried to marginalize real conservatives who see them for what they are: parasitic mercenaries who’ve become rich dispensing bad advice since about the time Reagan left office. They are scared to death by conservatives with core convictions who, thus, don’t need them such as Governor Palin. In a...