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Jeb Bush Says He Hopes He Would Be A Good 2016 GOP Candidate December 14, 2014 Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a television interview Sunday said a decision is coming soon on whether or not he is going to run for president -- adding that he hopes he would be a good candidate -- while declaring the need to fix a “broken immigration system” in the U.S. “I have no clue if I’d be a good candidate, I hope I would be,” the Republican told ABC's Miami affiliate WPLG-TV. “I think I could serve well as president, to be...

The Post reports: The Senate on Saturday night approved a sweeping $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund most of the federal government through the next fiscal year, turning back a conservative rebellion against President Obama’s immigration policy. On a vote of 56 to 40, senators passed the spending bill and sent it to Obama, who plans to sign it. The bill’s passage eliminates the threat of a government shutdown and capped days of acrimonious debate on Capitol Hill over the omnibus agreement. A small group of conservatives, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), had sought to slow debate on the...

Relying on allies that aren’t allies is yet another consequence of the Washington establishment’s determined refusal to face the realities of the jihad, and to formulate policy based on those realities. “Qatar ‘broke promise to US over Guantanamo detainee,'” by David Blair, the Telegraph, December 12, 2014 (thanks to Lookmann): Qatar broke an “explicit” promise by allowing a former Guantánamo detainee who had trained with al-Qaeda to leave the country and visit Britain, a new report has found. Jarallah al-Marri, who attended an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan before the terrorist attacks on September 11, was freed from Guantánamo in...

The Armed American Radio broadcast with Mark Walters is on every Sunday 8PM Eastern, 5PM Pacific. Coming to you live from the Crossbreed Holsters Studio. Find AAR on your local stationFacebookListen LiveThe AAR iTunes podcasts are usually available the following Monday Are you sad because the GunTalk radio show with the awesome Tom Gresham ended it's last few minutes, and you have to wait a week for another firearms-related radio show to appear so you can listen? Do you crave to hear from the experts across the nation about our current problems regarding twisted politicians inflicting their anti-gun agendas on...

This story is breaking now. Live stream here. “A man is holding several people hostage at Martin Place cafe,” News.com.au, December 15, 2014 (thanks to Jill): AT LEAST one armed man is holding several people hostage at a cafe in Martin Place in Sydney. There are hostages standing with their hands up at the windows in the popular Lindt chocolate shop, which has two or three entrances. There is also a black and white flag being held up in a window. It is believed to be the Black Standard, a jihadist flag. Staff in shop aprons can be seen with...

<p>The cafe in Sydney's central business district has been surrounded by armed police.</p>

~~snip~~

A hostage has been forced to hold up an Islamic State flag in the window of a shop in Martin Place that is currently under siege. It is believed there are 12 hostages in the store and an ISIS flag has been placed in the window. Martin Place is the main financial area of the Sydney CBD.

Distinction ditched It divided the world into rich and poor (Annex 1 and Non-Annex 1, in UN jargon). The richer countries would take on carbon-cutting commitments - the poorer ones would not. Here in Lima, that old fashioned view of the world was consigned to history, though not without a desperate struggle. Developing countries resolutely fought to keep this sense of differentiation firmly in the text. They were very upset when the original text about the pledges countries will make next year, used the word "shall". ... No one seriously expects the countries in sub-Saharan Africa will have to do...

Matt Drudge of the influential Drudge Report news aggregation site expressed discontent over a federal spending bill that passed with votes from both Republicans and Democrats in the House. The $1.1 trillion spending bill that runs through September 2015 is now up for a vote in the Democratically-led Senate. Many conservatives, including Drudge, are upset that the bill funds both Obamacare and President Obama's immigration executive orders. "Obama got EVERYTHING," Drudge tweeted Friday. "NSA dirt on Boehner must be incredible. Chicago wins."

U.N. mission spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de la Combe did not immediately return a message for comment.

DISILLUSIONED recruits who joined the Islamic State terrorist group have sought assistance from the Australian Government to leave the conflict zone in Syria and Iraq. A handful of young men who took up arms with IS to fight for an Islamic caliphate across the region have, either directly or through their families at home, contacted Australian authorities for help. It is believed up to a dozen Australians, most of whom flew to Syria to join militants fighting the al-Assad regime, found themselves in limbo after laying down their weapons but fearing they would be arrested under tougher counterterrorism laws if...

The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced on Sunday that the draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council that would set a two-year deadline for Israel to “end its occupation” will be submitted on Wednesday. "The Palestinian leadership took a decision to go to the Security Council next Wednesday to vote on their project to end the occupation," senior Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) member Wassel Abu Yussef told AFP after a meeting in Ramallah. The Israeli foreign ministry declined to comment ahead of Monday's meeting in Rome between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kerry...

There is some speculation about what may be said on 16 December in Rome about the Apostolic Visitation that was conducted of communities of women religious in these USA by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (aka Congregation for Religious).   Some suggest (hopefully, even triumphantly) that a rosy picture, or at least not a black picture, will be painted of religious life in female institutes and orders.  Or, perhaps, there will be the usual positive comments about the many “fruits”, just like all the “fruits” we have obviously been granted since the Second...

Turkish police on Sunday arrested the editor of Turkey's biggest-selling newspaper and 26 others in lightning raids on supporters of a US-based cleric who has become President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's top foe.

The head of the Teachers Association, Ran Erez, on Sunday sent a letter to members of the organization in which he instructed them to stop serving as chaperones on school trips after Chanukah. Erez claimed that despite the commitment of the Ministry of Education, no steps have been taking to regulate the criminal liability imposed on teachers in the event that a student is ...

In an impromptu sermon at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheik Omar Abu Sara called to slaughter the Jews, whom he called "the most evil of Allah's creations." The sermon was posted on the Internet on November 28, 2014. Transcript is pending. Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon delivered by Palestinian preacher Sheik Omar Abu Sara at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was posted on the Internet on November 28, 2014: Omar Abu Sara: Let me start by saying that talking about the traits of the Jews requires one to get into a special mode, because we are dealing with people to...

In this case out of New Mexico, a man was found not guilty, but only after the prosecution did everything they could to convict him.  It would have been a straightforward case of defense of self and others if he had refrained from making frivolous threats before the incident.  From daily-times.com: AZTEC — After six hours of deliberation Friday, a jury found David Markham not guilty on all criminal charges, including first-degree murder, in the 2011 fatal shooting of Christopher Lucero. Following a weeklong trial, the jury determined Markham, 60, acted in defense of himself and Leandra Tafoya when...

The environmental activist group Greenpeace has apologized after damaging the Nazca Lines, an ancient Peruvian site. The group placed a series of yellow banners very close to the hummingbird geoglyph spelling out a message calling for environmental awareness. In doing so, the members of the group trespassed on the area and disturbed the otherwise-pristine grounds around the lines with a series of footprints. The area around the Nazca Lines is so protected that even the president of Peru cannot walk around there without express permission, and those who are permitted to enter the site have to wear specialized footwear...