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http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2015/03/17/democrat-jim-webb-hires-aide-rania-batrice/24890241/Gannet publication. Link only.

Hillary Clinton tweeted out a new video this morning featuring a one Mike Yowell, a much quoted gay rights activist in Iowa who was on hand at an Iowa diner yesterday and thanked Clinton for coming out in favor of the Supreme Court ruling in favor gay marriage. Check it out:

It’s is a vividly accurate, cutting-edge film about one of the most shockingly misunderstood wars in American history – and it took Westminster, California, by storm when it premiered there this month, selling more than $30,000 in tickets in just three days during its limited release at a single movie theater. Overall, the film brought in $50,923 in a week of showings at the Regency Westminster 10 theater from March 27 to April 2. The film profits will support four charities: Semper Fi Fund, Agape International Missions, Field of Dreams and Allegiant Giving. “I’ve been waiting 40 years for this...

Financial Times Washington Bureau Chief Megan Murphy said that situations such as the press chasing Hillary Clinton’s van will happen “constantly” and that Hillary “drove right past” voters in wheelchairs waiting to see her at one of her Iowa campaign stops on Friday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC.

One of the best lessons I learned in my years of service in the military is a quote often share with y’all: “the enemy has a vote.” You can try and sell the American people — and others — a politicized line such as “al-Qaida has been decimated and destroyed” or “we have reached the framework of a deal with Iran” or “ISIS is not Islamic,” but the bad guys are not affected by empty rhetoric. And here we go again with the Obama administration and the conflagration against Islamic terrorism. We’ve been told that ISIS has stalled. Their recruiting...

Wind energy in Michigan is approximately two-thirds fossil fuels (predominantly natural gas) used in a less than efficient way, coupled with one-third wind. Most people are unaware of that reality and misinformation flourishes as a result. Case in point: a new study claims to provide comparisons between wind and natural gas by treating them as if they were two totally separate and distinct forms of energy generation. The University of Michigan and Lansing-based consulting firm 5 Lakes Energy are touting a joint study based on a “model” produced at the university. The stated purpose of the study is to provide...

First case I know of since the gay rights/religious liberty debate sharpened up over the last few years where a Christian business owner threatened to refuse all service to gay — or “openly gay,” i.e. affection-displaying — clients rather than service for gay weddings specifically. Although, strictly speaking, this isn’t a “religious liberty” case: There are no state or local laws where this guy lives that require him to serve gays. He can refuse for any reason he likes, religious or not. I wonder if it occurred to him when he was posting to Facebook that what he wrote,...

On April 15 Tax Day, Americans paid about the same amount of income tax as total student loans outstanding. The St. Louis Federal Reserve on the same day published a report titled ‘Student Loan Delinquency: A Big Problem Getting Worse?' The Fed has determined that of the $1.3 trillion in non-bankruptcy-dischargeable student loans, the delinquency rate for students in repayment is over 27 percent. With tuition at the University of California and other top schools growing faster than inflation, student loan defaults are skyrocketing. Prior published student loan reports have stated that the “30+ days delinquency rate for all student...

Dr. Danielle N. Lee, who writes for the Scientific American blog network and calls herself "the Urban Scientist," believes that the push to visit Mars and eventually inhabit it is "white colonialism." Dr. Lee expressed her concerns in both the Scientific American blog and on Twitter. Writing in Scientific American in an article titled, "When discussing Humanity’s next move to space, the language we use matters," Dr. Lee discusses Elon Musk's push to inhabit Mars some day. She is very critical of Musk, saying that his language is not inclusive enough to either women and minorities. "Diversity, Inclusion, Access and...

Class warriors on the left argue that the United States should be more like Sweden, and we agree: Senate Republicans should move forward with a plan to repeal the inheritance tax, which the House passed Thursday. Sweden had an inheritance tax for 110 years, and though the rate was sometimes quite high, the tax never became an important source of revenue. In the United States, the hated death tax produces only a fraction of a percentage point of federal revenue, though it imposes very heavy costs on a small number of families and businesses. In Sweden, the tax provoked various...

BRANDON, Fla. - Walmart stores across the country suddenly closed Monday, supposedly as a result of plumbing problems. Now a Hillsborough County commissioner who has worked closely with the company for years says he has plenty of questions. In Midland, Texas, which, until Monday, was home to one of the 10 busiest Walmart stores in the country, City Building Official Steve Thorpe told the I-Team his plumbing inspector was sent away when he visited the closed store and offered to help secure permits. While the company claimed to have an average of 100 to 150 plumbing issues a year in...

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s immigrant grandparents turn out not to have been immigrants, just as Elizabeth Warren’s Indian ancestors turn out not to have been Indians, though Mrs. Clinton was one-quarter truthful about her ancestry, which is a hell of a lot more than Senator Warren can say. That’s too bad, really: If the imaginary Rodhams of old arrived on these shores and tricked the imaginary ur-Warrens into trading their land for a handful of shiny trinkets, that would have been a much better story than the burning question of whether Herself tipped at Chipotle. It would also be a pretty...

A veterans group wants to complete the Veterans Memorial in Milford's Central Park with a fallen soldier monument, but the Village Council isn't sure the piece — which features a pair of boots and a helmet atop an M-16 rife — is an appropriate focal point for the park. Bear Hall, founder and chairman of the local Friends of American Veterans (FAV), approached the council earlier this month hoping for approval of the plan. The group wants to place a fallen solder memorial – also known as a battle field cross – at the end of the brick paver walkway...

Italy's migration crisis took on a deadly new twist Thursday as police in Sicily reported that Muslim migrants had thrown 12 Christians overboard during a recent crossing from Libya, and an aid group said another 41 were feared drowned in a separate incident. Palermo police said they had detained 15 people suspected in the high seas assault, which they learned of while interviewing tearful survivors from Nigeria and Ghana who had arrived in Palermo Wednesday morning after being rescued at sea by the ship Ellensborg. The 15 were accused of multiple homicide aggravated by religious hatred, police said in a...

Senator Marco Rubio, one of our most attractive and charismatic leaders in the rising generation, just announced he’s running for president. So naturally he’s being peppered with the one question uppermost in the minds of American voters: What do you think of gay marriage? Rubio is getting this hit, in part, because he’s trying to negotiate a Third Way: He’s for traditional marriage but will “respect” the rights of states to disagree. He thinks states should have the right to decide the definition of marriage, but (unlike Ted Cruz) he refused to sign onto an amicus brief asking the Supreme...

Jeb fires hot sauce at Hillary, saying 'I don't need to go to Chipotle' – his wife is Mexican and they cook their own Jeb Bush doesn't need to follow Hillary Clinton into a campaign-stop Chipotle: he and his Mexican wife can cook their own burritos, thank you very much. At a campaign event in New Hampshire, the presumptive Republican presidential front-runner told a capacity crowd that 'we normally cook our own food, my own Mexican food, at home. It's pretty good.' 'I actually cook it at home. I don’t need to go to Chipotle,' Bush said at a Republican...

For the past five years I have been absolutely fascinated about how little is stated about the Two Witnesses' ministry of Revelation (Rev. 11:3-12), but also have been absolutely blown away with how much in that little given one could write a novel on! The Divine POWER and AUTHORITY given unto them by Almighty God is inconceivable but by faith we must believe it to be so. The key is knowing where they fit into Almighty God's final outworking of Biblical prophecy before the return of the Messiah (Rev.19:11-21). These two Lamp Stands of Revelation's chief ministry for 1260 days...

With typical gall, Hillary Clinton in her campaign launch lit into "those at the top" for "stacking" the deck against middle-class families when in fact they are buried under the house of cards built by her husband. Earth to Hillary: It wasn't the richest 1% or Wall Street bankers who crashed the economy and created financial wreckage from which working Americans "have fought" to dig themselves out of. No, that path to destruction was set by Bill Clinton and his social housing policies. The evidence is overwhelming that Clinton was the architect of the financial disaster that wiped out trillions...

It's early days, and a few people who will likely be running haven't formally announced yet. But I think it's worth looking at Republican contenders for the White House and giving you my initial impressions. I'll be looking at Democrats in a subsequent article. Senator Ted Cruz was the first to announce, and of course caught an initial blast from the Left's media hacks. We certainly can't dignify them with the term 'journalist since so many of them are simply Leftist activists with access to a microphone or a byline. Expect them to ignore blatant violations of law by the...

More than half of some 770,000 soldiers are pessimistic about their future in the military and nearly as many are unhappy in their jobs, despite a six-year, $287 million campaign to make troops more optimistic and resilient, findings obtained by USA TODAY show. Twelve months of data through early 2015 show that 403,564 soldiers, or 52 percent, scored badly in the area of optimism, agreeing with statements such as "I rarely count on good things happening to me." Forty-eight percent have little satisfaction in or commitment to their jobs. The results stem from resiliency assessments that soldiers are required to...