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Sarah Palin, attractive and sharp as ever, can not only see into the future she can see Syria, indeed the entire Middle East, from her house. Or a conference in the USA. The woman who was laughed at for predicting death panels would accompany the Obamacare Unaffordable Health Care Act (they're not laughing now) "And our government passing something called, Obamacare - The Affordable Care Act. I'll repeat that, the Affordable Care Act. And, it's chief result, making our healthcare premiums enormously unsustainably more expensive with death panels to boot." She also offered her astute foreign policy advice at the...

Finally! We have common sense in our public schools, at least in one Virginia school district anyway. After two boy were suspended for “using pencils like guns“, the Suffolk School Board decided to review their current weapons policy, which was a very strict zero tolerance policy which left no room for interpretation. According to 10News.com, Under the revised policy, school administrators can look at factors such as intentions of harm and whether the object is listed as a weapon to determine the punishment. Ordinary objects will not be considered weapons A local television station reports that school board members voted...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Monday announced his intention to file another amendment to the so-called “gang of eight” immigration bill that is facing tough opposition from some GOP lawmakers. “I’ll file amendment to immigration bill that permits states to require ID before registering voters & close this hole in [federal] statutory law,” Cruz wrote via his official Twitter account. I'll file amendment to immigration bill that permits states to require ID before registering voters & close this hole in fed statutory law. Ted Cruz to Introduce Voter ID Requirement Amendment in Immigration Billabout 10 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite Ted...

On Monday, NSA leaker Edward Snowden suggested in an online interview with The Guardian (UK) that someone at the National Security Agency does indeed receive the content of your emails. “If I target for example an email address, for example under FAA 702, and that email address sent something to you, Joe America, the analyst gets it. All of it. IPs, raw data, content, headers, attachments, everything. And it gets saved for a very long time – and can be extended further with waivers rather than warrants.” He added that he stands by his original accusation that he had the...

SANFORD — Quietly and with hardly anyone noticing, George Zimmerman's attorneys persuaded a judge to ban prosecutors from using the word "profiled" in their opening statement. That means the theory that was the backbone of the state's case — that 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was profiled — is now something prosecutors cannot mention as they launch into their case against the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer. It is a major pretrial victory for the 29-year-old Zimmerman, who in the days and weeks immediately after Trayvon's death was denounced as a racist, made into a social pariah and became the subject of a...

Tens of thousands of acres in Oregon's drought-stricken Klamath Basin will have to go without irrigation water this summer after the Klamath Tribes and the federal government exercised newly confirmed powers that put the tribes in the driver's seat over water use — a move ranchers fear will be economically disastrous. Klamath Tribes Chairman Don Gentry and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor said Monday that they were making what is known as a "call" on their water rights for rivers flowing into Upper Klamath Lake in Southern Oregon.

Al-Qaeda's north African branch confirmed that one of its top leaders, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, was killed in fighting in Mali, three months after France announced his death, according to a statement published Sunday. Algerian-born Abou Zeid, considered one of the most radical leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was killed "on the battlefield defending Umma (the Muslim community) and sharia law," according to a statement carried by the private Mauritanian news agency ANI. It gave no date for his death. Paris had announced in March that Abou Zeid was killed in fighting with its forces after France led...

More than 100,000 people took to the streets in overwhelmingly peaceful protests in at least eight cities Monday, demonstrations that voiced the deep frustrations Brazilians feel about carrying heavy tax burdens but receiving woeful returns in public education, health, security and transportation. In Sao Paulo, Brazil's economic hub, at least 65,000 protesters gathered at a small, treeless plaza then broke into three directions in a Carnival atmosphere, with drummers beating out samba rhythms as the crowds chanted anti-corruption jingles. They also focused on the cause that initially sparked the protests last week — a 10-cent hike in bus and subway...

So I'm watching the news today and start seeing our illustrious Bureaucrats Out Right Lying about what they collect and what they don't.   They tell us today they don't collect locations of cell phone trawled for in pursuit of a target named in a warrant.   I want you to understand when they issue a warrant, many times, with "Reasonable Cause" They are violating the Constitution by: 1.  Using "Reasonable Cause" as the basis for a warrant.  The Constitution requires no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause.   2.  supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the...

Something perverse happened after the Supreme CourtÂ’s decision today invalidating citizenship-verification requirements in Arizona for registrants who use the federal voter registration form. The Left knows they lost most of the battle, but are still claiming victory. ThatÂ’s what they do. Election-integrity proponents and the states are saying they lost, but donÂ’t realize they really won. The Left wins even when they lose, and conservatives are often bewildered and outfoxed in the election-process game. Earlier today, I called the decision a nothingburger. After re-reading the case and reflecting a bit more, itÂ’s clear that the decision was a disaster for...

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said if he were president, he would have intervened in Syria much sooner than President Obama did to identify the “reasonable” rebels opposed to the regime of President Basher Assad. “It behooved us to kind of identify whether there was any elements there within Syria fighting against Assad that we could work with—reasonable people that wouldn’t carry out human rights violations and could be part of building a new Syria. We failed to do that,” Rubio told Jonathan Karl on ABC News’ “This Week.” … Obama announced this week that the Assad regime had crossed the...

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has authorized a three-year study to find out why some HIV-positive homosexual men in Kenya do not seek the free treatment that American taxpayers already are funding. The study, which will cost U.S. taxpayers $228,147, seeks to encourage Kenyan homosexuals, including prostitutes, to avail themselves of the AIDS treatment known as antiretroviral therapy (ART)—and to continue taking it once they start. … Researchers say they have worked with male prostitutes on the Kenyan coast since 2005 and have found “significant disparities” among people who seek treatment and continue with the therapy, partly due to...

Al Qaida-linked group Syria rebels once denied now key to anti-Assad victories Nearly a year later, however, Jabhat al Nusra, which U.S. officials believe has links to al Qaida, has become essential to the frontline operations of the rebels fighting to topple Assad. “When we finish with Assad, we will fight the U.S.!” one Nusra fighter shouted in the northeastern Syrian city of Ras al Ayn when he was told an American journalist present. He laughed as he said it and then got into a van and drove off, leaving the journalist unable to ask whether it had been a...

One hundred and fifty years after twin defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg destroyed the South’s quest for independence, the region is again on the rise. People and jobs are flowing there, and Northerners are perplexed by the resurgence of America’s home of the ignorant, the obese, the prejudiced and exploited, the religious and the undereducated. Responding to new census data showing the Lone Star State is now home to eight of America’s 15 fastest-growing cities, Gawker asked: “What is it that makes Texas so attractive? Is it the prisons? The racism? The deadly weather? The deadly animals? The deadly crime?...

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In post-Great Recession America, which is the bigger barrier to opportunity — race or class? A decade ago, the U.S. Supreme Court kept the focus on race as a barrier, upholding the right of colleges to make limited use of racial preferences to ensure a diverse student body. But in a ruling due this month, the court is widely expected to roll back that decision. Such an outcome would shift attention more toward a less constitutionally controversial practice: giving a boost to socio-economically disadvantaged students, regardless of race. If that happens, it would reflect more than just a more conservative...

KANSAS CITY, KS - Police are investigating a protest at Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach's home as he said Monday he is prepared to use lethal force if necessary.The KCK Police Department issued a statement Monday afternoon about the protest on Saturday at Kobach's home. "We are reviewing (sic) matter to determine if protestors violated any laws or ordinances," according to the brief news release... "I was just appalled," he said. "They have a right to protect at my office or at my public places, that's fine. But they don't have the right to enter someone's private property and...

In a classic case of procrastination, China has been keeping its massive debt crisis at bay by issuing more debt. However, Fitch’s Charlene Chu, a leading expert on China’s debt, thinks the country’s time is up. ”The credit-driven growth model is clearly falling apart,” said Chu in a recent report. Chu’s argument is that usually “stress starts in the periphery and moves to the core.” Here are five signs that she’s right: 1) Plummeting exports in May A government crackdown on fake trade invoicing likely caused a sharp drop-off in exports, which rose 1% year-over-year in May, compared with 14.7%...

Seven people were killed and at least 41 others were shot in violence that plagued Chicago over Father's Day weekend. Six of the fatalities and 13 other shootings occurred overnight Saturday leading into Father's Day, including the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy. On the Southwest Side, five people were shot, one fatally, in two shootings in the Little Village neighborhood.

Eventually, the College Board will hand over its student data to research organizations like SDP, with restrictions on sharing information; but Coleman was not clear on how this would happen. However, Coleman made it abundantly clear he will concentrate on data mining our schoolchildren's proclivities. So, how does intrusion into children's privacy through more accumulation of data support Coleman's stated goals of making students career and college ready? Now that many states have awakened to the deficiencies in Common Core and are even moving to defund them, Republican governors who bought Coleman's spiel three years ago need to redeem themselves...

A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent allegedly told a 15-year-old girl at Los Angeles International Airport to "cover herself" before she boarded her flight. ...

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is applauding Texas Gov. Rick Perry for signing a repeal of the Lone Star State’s ban on so-called “switchblade” knives, thanks largely to efforts by Knife Rights, a group CCRKBA has supported from its inception. “While other knife restrictions in Texas remain in effect,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “this looks like a good first step toward more rational laws regulating knives, which must be protected under the Second Amendment, same as firearms. The right to keep and bear arms is not limited simply to guns.”...

WASHINGTON—Jesse Jackson Jr. asked a federal judge on Monday to let him serve his prison time first—before his wife, Sandi, if she is given a sentence—and not the probation her lawyers are requesting. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors, in a memo filed on Monday, brushed aside earlier pleas from Jesse Jackson Jr. lawyers that he get a break because he is suffering mental illness and could not receive proper treatment while in a federal prison. They noted that the two doctors who submitted letters on behalf of Jesse Jackson Jr. wrote only about three pages combined; those letters were “surprisingly bereft of...

The Mideast: The president opposed arming the Syrian rebels last year on the grounds the arms could find their way into Islamist hands. This year he's changed his mind — but the rebels haven't changed their Islamist spots. One would have thought that the decision to intervene in the Syrian civil war, a conflict in which the U.S. has no clear strategic interest, would have been announced by President Obama, sans golf garb, sitting behind his desk in the Oval Office, and not by Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. One would also have...

Former US president Bill Clinton on Monday night urged Israel to work toward a two-state solution with the Palestinians, saying that he had never heard a credible alternative that would enable Israel to remain a Jewish and a democratic state. “No matter how many settlers you put out there [in the West Bank], the Palestinians are having more babies than the Israelis as a whole,” Clinton said, and thus demographics were working against Israel. Clinton was answering questions after a speech at the Peres Academic Center in Rehovot in honor of President Shimon Peres’s 90th birthday celebrations, which continue Tuesday...

The White House is threatening to veto the House version of a massive, five-year farm bill, saying food stamp cuts included in the legislation could leave some Americans hungry. The House is preparing to consider the bill this week. The legislation would cut $2 billion annually, or around 3 percent, from food stamps and make it harder for some people to qualify for the program. Food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, cost almost $80 billion last year, twice the amount it cost five years ago. The Senate passed its version of the farm bill last...

A report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that Connecticut was last in economic growth last year, the only state in the nation where the combined value of goods and services produced shrank compared with 2011. The report measures GDP, the sum of what residents, businesses and the government spend, plus investments and net exports. The value is in constant 2005 dollars, which controls for inflation. By that measure, total state GDP fell $250 million in 2012, to $197.2 billion. Not only did the state GDP decrease by 0.1 percent in 2012, it fell by the same amount in...

Rep. Jeff Duncan, who is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Oversight Subcommittee, agreed with host Rick Wiles from TruNews in a radio interview Friday that it is time for a new investigation into Obama's validity. Here is the transcript of what was said: WILES: While you guys are rounding up and deporting the illegal immigrants, any chance the House may actually pursue Barack Obama’s phony identification papers? That’s the original scandal, congressman. DUNCAN: People should have voted against him in November. I’m afraid that that wouldn’t get to the Supreme Court where it ought to get. WILES: But...

The United States and Europe will not be able to significantly cut their debts in the next three years, a large majority of investors believe, according to a poll published on Monday. Almost 90 percent of investors did not see European governments making significant progress in reducing their debts by 2016, the poll found. Similarly, more than two thirds doubted President Obama's administration could make a big difference to debt levels in the next three years. Most of the investors saw no end to austerity in Europe and said governments were most likely to use spending cuts to address their...

As you probably know, the immigration amnesty bill is on the Senate floor. This is a status report on where we are, and we will attempt to give you regular follow-ups over the next two weeks. For starters, why should gun owners care about immigration amnesty? First: It will add up to a net 8.4 million anti-gun voters in the next 13 years or so. This could make comprehensive gun control and confiscation inevitable within our lifetimes. Second: Victory feeds on itself; but so does defeat. If anti-gun Senator Chuck Schumer passes this bill out of the Senate with a...

Barack Obama has vowed to tackle climate change in his second term, but so far has not acted to strengthen a tool that does not require backing from Congress - the National Environmental Policy Act. NEPA, a statute that dates to the Nixon administration, calls on officials to weigh whether projects such as highways, dams or oil drilling could harm the environment. While it does not have the power to block development, NEPA forces officials to consider the environment before approving federal projects, and the White House has proposed that climate change should rank high among those concerns. Former White...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- The Obama administration Monday lifted a veil of secrecy surrounding the status of the detainees at Guantánamo, for the first time publicly naming the four dozen captives it defined as indefinite detainees — men too dangerous to transfer but who cannot be tried in a court of law.

Sarah Palin is back! Not only did she get another Fox News contract, she was the star of Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Conference this past weekend for her slashing attacks not only on President Obama and Democrats but on Republican sellouts (and 2016 hopefuls) like Jeb Bush. Watching Palin gleefully take on Bush, who made a dumb comment about needing immigration reform because immigrants are “more fertile” than native-born Americans, I realized that Palin’s star really is rising again, at a time of heightened racial insecurity on the white far-right. They need a hero, and here she is again....

Should Gov. Scott Walker have pulled Portage native Scott Inglett's nomination as a student regent at the University of Wisconsin because Inglett signed a petition in 2011 to recall the Governor from office?

First Lady Michelle Obama is staying Monday evening in the $3,300-per-night Princess Grace suite of Dublin’s Five-Star Shelbourne Hotel, according to Irish press reports, adding some credence to accusations she is in the city for a quick vacation at taxpayer expense.Michelle jetted to Dublin Monday afternoon Irish time after a brief stop in Belfast with President Obama, who is in the city for the two-day G-8 Summit.The White House is billing Michelle’s trip to Dublin as having diplomatic significance, but her itinerary suggests otherwise. She and her daughters will visit the Trinity College library to explore President Obama’s Irish family...

Texas Republican John Cornyn supplemented his Senate salary with a trio of public pensions last year from his days as a Texas judge and elected official—a practice some fiscal watchdog groups have attacked as “double dipping.” Cornyn, who is the minority whip and the No. 2 ranking Republican in the Senate, reported collecting $65,383 in public retirement benefits in 2012 in addition to his $174,000 salary as a U.S. senator. Cornyn’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Elected to the Senate in 2002, Cornyn is a former district judge, Texas Supreme Court justice, and state attorney general. In...

Finally, finally, we've heard from Lon Snowden, the father of Edward Snowden, who we just found out exists, and he actually has some interesting things to say. Such as: "You know, I would rather my son be a prisoner in the U.S. than a free man in a country that did not have ... the freedoms that are protected" in the U.S., he said.We're not sure Lon totally thought this through, but God bless him for his willingness to share his confusing opinions with the world.

In Detroit, bankruptcy lawyer turned city manager Kevyn Orr is playing hardball while preparing the city for a likely Chapter 9 bankruptcy. He’d like the various stakeholders to negotiate a “pre-packaged” bankruptcy in order to avoid a drawn-out and extremely costly legal battle, but reaching agreement could be incredibly tough, as Reuters points out: [G]etting everyone on board for a pre-packaged plan is easier said than done, said Douglas Bernstein, a bankruptcy attorney at Plunkett Cooney in the Detroit area.“When it comes to a pre-packaged plan, the big question is whether he (Orr) would have enough acceptance going into court,”...

President Barack Obama used a television interview set to air Monday night to defend his administration’s use of far-reaching surveillance programs as carefully supervised and controlled. Obama also appeared to reject comparisons between himself and Vice President Dick Cheney, who strongly backed similar surveillance efforts in the George W. Bush administration and has defended Obama’s continuation of national security-related programs similar in many respects to those pursued by the previous administration.

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition… it’s America’s Clean-Up Hitter! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

If one believes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the reason certain populations in the U.S. report more cases of HIV isn’t a mystery. Except to the Obama administration. The administration seems perplexed about why homosexuals – whom it defines as “men who have sex with men”– along with racial and ethnic minorities, transgender persons and youths 13-29 continue to represent the “overwhelming majority” of the 50,000 new HIV cases reported annually in the U.S. So now the Obama administration, through the CDC, is working to amass a list of researchers who could investigate and publish, independently of the...

European institutions are tracking users of their web sites, in breach of the EU’s own data protection rules, EurActiv has learned. The fact has been confirmed by Europe’s data protection watchdog, in an interview with EurActiv, while Brussels is reviewing privacy legislation to tackle the abuse. The European Data Protection Supervisor, Peter Hustinx, said that institutions were aware of the problem, that new guidelines are being drawn up to deal with the issue, and that his own office avoided using EU institutional software last year because he realized they were “inappropriate”. … The European Commission’s homepage sets cookies to store...

Via the Examiner, a short but noteworthy clip insofar as it exposes a potential fault line between Cruz and Rand Paul. McCain lumps them together as “wacko birds� but I’m not so sure that’s true of Cruz on national-security issues. His alliance with Paul interests me because it strikes me as a personification of the uneasy libertarian/tea-party alliance. The groups overlap heavily on spending issues, and both are deeply suspicious of Obama’s expansion of government. The master stroke of Paul’s drone filibuster was that he found a sweet spot for both, making the philosophical case for due process while humiliating...

Via the Right Scoop, a follow-up to Friday’s post. Forgive me for a possibly stupid question but when she says that her computers were turning on and off, she means they were powering on and then powering down, not that they were merely “waking up� from sleep mode, right? When I tweeted the link to this, a bunch of people tweeted back that a computer might “wake up� automatically due to Windows Update. But Attkisson has had professional computer forensics people investigate, though; obviously she knows the difference by now between a computer updating itself and doing something freaky weird...

Iran’s newly elected president showcased his reform-leaning image Monday by promising a “path of moderation” that includes greater openness on Tehran’s nuclear program and overtures to Washington. He also made clear where he draws the line: No halt to uranium enrichment and no direct U.S. dialogue without a pledge to stay out of Iranian affairs. Hasan Rowhani’s first post-victory news conference was a study in what may make his presidency tick. Rowhani may be hailed as a force for change, but he also appears to carry a deep and self-protective streak of pragmatism. He knows he can only push his...

The Supreme Court says prosecutors can use a person’s silence against them if it comes before he's told of his right to remain silent. The 5-4 ruling comes in the case of Genovevo Salinas, who was convicted of a 1992 murder. During police questioning, and before he was arrested or read his Miranda rights, Salinas answered some questions but did not answer when asked if a shotgun he had access to would match up with the murder weapon. Prosecutors in Texas used his silence on that question in convicting him of murder, saying it helped demonstrate his guilt. Salinas appealed,...

A Canadian couple who recently stumbled upon a 400-year-old skeleton is now saddled with a $5,000 bill, the Star reports. -snip- Ontario police, who cordoned off the area, called up forensic anthropologist Michael Spence to examine the site. Spence told the Star that the skeleton is likely that of a 24-year-old aboriginal woman who died in the late 1500s or early 1600s. Spence then contacted the Registrar of Cemeteries, which told Sauve that she and Campbell would have to hire an archeologist to examine the rest of the backyard—at their expense. According to the Star, property owners are legally responsible...

First lady Michelle Obama is sparing no expense on her trip to Ireland, staying at a $3,300-per-night hotel suite in Dublin. Irish press reports Monday said Mrs. Obama and her entourage have booked 30 rooms in the five-star Shelbourne hotel. The first lady is said to be staying in the Princess Grace Suite, named for the Hollywood film star and princess who had an attachment to the room. The suite has two guest bedrooms, a living room and a dining area, according to the hotel’s website. There are four phones, three large televisions, bedding of 100 percent Egyptian cotton, a...

Outstanding report from literally ground zero on the new push for Gun Control.Sorry for my friends that see this elsewhere, sharing on the usual gun forums: So, I have my asbestos suit on…. flame away…. I went down to Newtown to face the Bloomberg folks today Went with a buddy of mine, Joshua. He’s a younger guy, Marine, getting active in the 2A movement. I decided not to wear a CCDL shirt, I don’t think that was the time (especially if the anti’s decided to engage us in a loud ruckus and all – I didn’t want the organization getting...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Just days after CBS News confirmed that reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s computer had indeed been hacked, Attkisson spoke to Dom Giordano about the investigation.