Obama: Europe, Congress Must Stem Global Economic Crisis ... Are you kidding me?

With absolute gall U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday that European leaders face an "urgent need to act" to resolve the region's financial crisis as the threat of a renewed recession there spells dangers for an anemic U.S. recovery five months before elections.

Speaking a week after a dismal U.S. jobs report, Obama said decisions about how to solve the euro zone crisis are fundamentally in the hands of Europe's leaders and that showing political commitment will be a "strong step."

"They understand the seriousness of the situation and the urgent need to act," Obama told a news conference.

He also urged the U.S. Congress to pass measures he proposed last September that would create jobs in construction and state and local governments, while noting that private sector employment was looking better.

Obama's remarks on the economy reflect his lack of options on jobs, the number one issue for voters in the Nov. 6 election. Tepid May employment creation that nudged the U.S. jobless rate to 8.2 percent and other recent downbeat data have fanned concerns that a gradual U.S. recovery might be running out of steam, potentially harming Obama's hopes for re-election.

The admission of meetings with the Council on American-Islamic Relations came from George Selim, the White House’s new director for community partnerships, which was formed in January to ensure cooperation by law enforcement and social service agencies with Muslim identity groups in the United States.

“There is hundreds of examples of departments and agencies that meet with CAIR on a range of issues,” he told The Daily Caller, after being asked if his office refuses to meet with any Muslim groups.

CAIR is “the group with the worst record of deception and the deepest ties to terrorists,” said Steven Emerson, the director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, which tracks the public activities of Islamist lobbying groups.

Sen. Rand Paul endorses Mitt Romney [VIDEO]
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul came out and endorsed Mitt Romney for the presidency Thursday night during the broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” program.

Paul’s move may seem overdue, but his timing was complicated by the fact that his father, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, stayed in the GOP presidential nomination contest so long.

“Before you say what I think you’re going to say, did you check in with your congressman father?” host Sean Hannity asked.
 

“Well, you know, my first choice had always been my father,” Paul responded. “I campaigned for him when I was eleven years old; he’s still my first pick. But you know, now that the nominating process is over, tonight I am happy to announce that I’m going to be supporting Gov. Romney.”

“If you didn’t support your father, by the way,” Hannity allowed, “I would really question family loyalty there. And I think it was totally understandable.”
 

Paul said he had met with Romney to discuss his — and his father’s — concerns about the need to audit the Federal Reserve. “We think there needs to be more transparency to the Fed, and more oversight by Congress,” he said. “This is something that Gov. Romney was supportive of throughout his campaign, and also was supportive of in private to me.”

McCain Calls For Outside Counsel to Probe White House Leaks
 

Sen. John McCain is pressing the case for a special outside counsel over recent White House security leaks, even as President Barack Obama says it is "offensive" and "wrong" to claim his White House would deliberately do it for political gain.

The president says his administration has "zero tolerance" for the leaking of sensitive information. McCain accuses the Obama White House of leaking the information to bolster the president's standing on national security in an election year. [Full Story]

‘Tea Bag’ Haters Who Want ‘White Man Rule’: Wis. Union Boss Reacts to Recall at Occupy Rally

Bizarre: Would-Be Robber Gets Spanked on Bare Buttocks and… ‘Bear-Sprayed’ by Shopkeepers

A convenience store owner in Canada turned the tables on a pair of would-be robbers by using “bear spray” to stop the crooks in their tracks. As of Friday, both men were taken into custody. However, before the crooks ended up in jail, one of the robbers was bent over the store’s counter by the owner and spanked on his bare butt. Yes, we said spanked.

It was minutes before closing time when a pair of hoodie-wearing, masked crooks entered the store in a suburb of Ottowa. They flashed knives and demanded cash from the owner Zhen Yang. The quick-thinking Yang grabbed a can of something typically used to keep bears away, a product called “Counter Assault.”

The powerful pepper spray product that stopped the robbers in their tracks is meant to be used as bears approach from a great distance. You can see just how strong the spray is when Yang deploys it inside the store.

Mitchell, who holds the rank of captain, was an on-air meteorologist for the network for seven years. She said the trouble started after the Weather Channel was sold in 2008 to NBC Universal and private equity firms Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to limit the size of sugary drinks sold in New York City is getting some push back from the world’s largest purveyor of soft drinks. A Coca-Cola executive tells USA Today that Bloomberg’s proposal lacks scientific evidence.

"There is no scientific evidence that connects sugary beverages to obesity," Katie Bayne, Coca-Cola's president of sparkling beverages in North American, told the paper in an exclusive interview.

Bayne said that at the same time obesity was rising between 1999 through 2010, beverage consumption of sugary drinks was dropping. She said during the decade sugars from soda consumption fell 39 percent as the percentage of obese children rose 13 percent and obese adults 7 percent.

ED Note: 

Coke should look at the bright side.  While the mayor is banning the Big Gulp he is tantamount to legalizing pot.  That means munchies.  Munchies means thirst.  Thirst means two 16 oz drinks instead of one 32 oz.  At the prices charged at convenience stores that means more money for store owners.  Unfortunately, it also means more drug sales for Mexican Drug Cartels and more funding for their new partners Hezbollah and Hamas who now control the crime and drugs in 250 American cities.  Good job mayor Bloomberg, when the terrorists you are helping to fund blow us up we'll all die a little thinner thanks to you.

SOURCES: RAPTORS SENT TO
HELP ISRAEL

WASHINGTON – A U.S. decision to send Air Force F-22 Raptors to the United Arab Emirates apparently is more than a mere training mission, according to informed sources close to the U.S. intelligence community, Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin reports.

The sources suggest that despite continuing technical problems lurking within the advanced multi-purpose fighter, the Raptors are being staged in the UAE in preparation to assist the Israelis should they decide to launch a military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel and the U.S. believe the Islamic republic is developing nuclear weapons.

The jets also would be used to bolster the military capabilities of the U.S.-backed Gulf Arab countries

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way on Tuesday for the U.S. Supreme Court to consider California's gay marriage ban, declining an appeal to revisit the case.

Of the Circuit Court’s 25 judges, only three dissented. Conservative jurists Diarmuid O'Scannlain, Carlos Bea, and Jay Bybee indicated a desire to rehear the case but were outvoted by a strong majority of their colleagues.

Same-sex couples in California will not be able to wed immediately — the ruling invalidating Proposition 8 has been stayed until supporters of the gay-marriage ban have exhausted their ability to appeal. 

Supporters of the 2008 ban, Proposition 8, have lost two rounds in federal court but have made clear they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and hope for a favorable response from the conservative-leaning court.

The top U.S. court could agree to hear the matter in the session beginning in October, putting it on track to decide the case within a year. It could also decline to review Prop 8.

A House investigative committee said Tuesday it has obtained new information from wiretaps related to the Obama administration’s Operation Fast and Furious that suggests high-ranking officials know more than they are telling Congress about the flawed weapons sting.

The announcement appears to be the latest attempt by GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to press U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder into providing Congress with more information about the operation and an account of which officials knew about any problems -- and when.

“The wiretap applications show that immense detail about questionable investigative tactics was available to the senior officials who reviewed and authorized them,” Issa said in a June 5 letter to Holder. “The close involvement of these officials -- much greater than previously known -- is shocking.”

Drone strike kills No. 2 Al Qaeda leader in Pakistan

Abu Yahya Al-Libi, a top Al Qaeda operative was killed in a U.S. drone strike Monday, Fox News confirms.

Al-Libi, known as a rock star in the jihadist world with his videos and lectures going viral on the Web, was the intended target of the strike, U.S. officials said.

The strikes have been increasingly unpopular among Pakistanis, but successful in recent years at taking out terrorist leaders.

Pakistan has evidence that Al-Libi was in a house hit by the U.S. drone strike, but it was initially unclear whether he was killed.  A U.S. official later confirmed his death.

President Barack Obama is previewing his next strategy in the 2012 campaign — an audacious effort to paint former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and the majority GOP as radical libertarians that have abandoned mainstream American politics.

Since 2000, “we [Democrats] haven’t moved that much. … What’s changed is the Republican Party,” Obama told a group of wealthy donors gathered Monday night at a New York town-house owned by Marc Lasry. Lasry is a billionaire equity-capitalist who runs a $20 billion fund that buys up the shaky assets of failing companies.

Republicans “have gone from a preference for market-based solutions to an absolutism … [to] a belief that all regulations are bad; that government has no role to play,” said Obama, who has presided over record unemployment of at least 8.1 percent, record deficits of more than $1 trillion per year, and a record $5 trillion increase in the national debt.

Chaffetz: Boehner will be ‘embarrassed’ by Holder’s stonewalling

 

Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz said Tuesday that he thinks House Speaker John Boehner will be “sufficiently embarrassed” by Attorney General Eric Holder’s continued stonewalling of congressional investigators on the Operation Fast and Furious scandal. Holder has now missed a Memorial Day deadline to provide documents to Congress.

“In an abundance of caution, Speaker Boehner [and] Eric Cantor, our leader, sent a letter to the White House and Attorney General Holder asking them to answer some very basic questions – that’s been nearly a month,” Chaffetz told the Fox News Channel’s Bill Hemmer when asked Tuesday about what happened to that deadline. “I think the speaker is probably going to be sufficiently embarrassed by the fact that the attorney general is also blowing him off as they did with the subpoena that was issued in October. I find it totally an embarrassment, I find it totally wrong that the attorney general would just ignore a subpoena.”

“You can’t do that in this country and get away with it,” Chaffetz added.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently denied knowing of “a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms),” after a series of instances of cannibalism across the country were reported, but remains silent about the effect of zombie-inducing parasites that live in human brains.

A 2008 piece by Discover Magazine entitled, “Zombie animals and the parasites that control them,” named a single-cell parasite primarily found in cats, the Toxoplasma gondii — which alters the brain-chemistry of rats to make them more likely to seek out cats — as one such parasite.

The Toxoplasma “thus makes a rat more likely to be killed and the parasite more likely to end up in a cat — the only host in which it can complete the reproductive step of its life cycle,” Discover reported in a separate piece.

The parasite can also live in the brain cells of thousands of other warm-blooded animals, including humans. The Toxoplasma, when living inside humans, is linked to causing significant changes in behavior, including neuroticism, increased aggression and schizophrenia.

Everyday, we hear some pretty grim predictions about the markets and the economy.  But this is one of the more comprehensive and most gloomy outlooks we've ever seen.

Raoul Pal expects a series of sovereign defaults, the "biggest banking crisis in world history", and asserts that we don't have many options to stop it. 

Pal previously co-managed the GLG Global Macro Fund. He is also a Goldman Sachs alum. He currently writes for The Global Macro Investor, a research publication for large and institutional investors. 

A note on the presentation; the last slide is not meant to suggest that we're going back to the economic activity of 3000 years ago. It refers to the 3000 year old trade links between the nations along the Indian Ocean, which Mr. Pal believes will be the center of world's opportunities. Just like the West 50 years ago, they have "...low debts, high savings and a young population".

If you think you can handle the truth:  Click here for "The End Game" >
 

This is a special report by the Media Research Center (MRC) that’s been cross-posted on The Blaze. The original by Dan Gainor and Iris Somberg appears on the MRC website. You can get a condensed version of the in-depth report  by reading the executive summary here.

Say the name George Soros and liberals see dollar signs – literally. The world’s 22^ndrichest man, according to Forbes, is now worth $20 billion. But Soros isn’t just noteworthy for the money he has – he’s notable for the money he has given away. Since launching his Open Society Foundations in 1984, Soros has donated more than $8 billion to charities around the world.

But instead of gaining a mighty reputation for his philanthropy, or his investment prowess, Soros is reviled abroad and criticized here ... read more

Ronald Kessler reporting from Washington, D.C. — Last June, President Obama appointed Vice President Joe Biden to root out wasteful government spending. But behind the scenes, it’s a different matter.

Every Friday, Biden takes a helicopter designated as Marine Two from the vice president’s residence to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and then hops on Air Force Two to fly back to his home in Delaware. At the end of the weekend, he returns on Air Force Two, usually a Boeing C-32.

During warm weather, Biden regularly returns to Andrews on the airplane on Saturdays to play golf at the Air Force base with President Obama. After the golf game, he flies back to Delaware and returns to Washington on the plane on Sunday evening — all at taxpayer expense.

DID CHINA GET PLANS FOR OUR SEMI-SECRET F-22 RAPTOR AND COPY IT? SEE THE ALLEGED PICTURES

Last week, the blog China Defense posted two photos, nearly identical, with only one line of text: “Just in case you might get confused, only one bird below is the J-20.”
Gizmodo magnifies the pictures and puts them side-by-side for a better comparison:

The J-20 stealth fighter is the creation of the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group for the People’s Liberation Army in China. About a year and a half ago, the People’s Liberation Army conducted its first tests of the aircraft, which is expected to be fully operational sometime between 2017 and 2019.

(Related: See the new pictures of China‘s ’Mighty Dragon’ J-20 stealth fighter)

If only one is a J-20, can you guess the other? According to Gizmodo and others, it is an F-22Raptor. The two are eerily similar, no? The technology and design of the aircraft by Lockheed Martin, Gizmodo notes, is still largely secret. If that’s the case, what do the similarities between these two photos mean?

If you ever thought you couldn’t win by losing, here’s a story for you. Even though Meghan Vogel came in last place in the recent Ohio D-III 3,200-meter state finals, she came out as the winner.

With just 50 meters left in the race, Vogel — a junior who had earlier won the 1,600-meter race — noticed that one of her opponents, sophomore Arden McMath, collapsed in front of her. It was obvious McMath couldn’t finish, so Vogel did what the rules say she can’t: she helped McMath to the finish line despite facing a disqualification.

And as the two limped along, the crowd roared. Luckily for the rest of the world, the act of sportsmanship was caught on video:  Click Here For Video:

'Painful Every Step Of The Way'  EPA official admits Obama rules will kill the coal industry

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe plans to highlight a little-known speech by an EPA regional administrator who admitted on video that the Obama’s administration’s air regulations will kill the coal industry.

“Lisa Jackson has put forth a very powerful message to the country. Just two days ago, the decision on greenhouse gas performance standard and saying basically gas plants are the performance standard which means if you want to build a coal plant you got a big problem. That was a huge decision,” Region 1 EPA Administrator Curtis “Curt” Spalding says, in footage filmed at Yale University.

“You can’t imagine how tough that was,” Spalding continued. “Because you got to remember if you go to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and all those places, you have coal communities who depend on coal. And to say that we just think those communities should just go away, we can’t do that. But she had to do what the law and policy suggested. And it’s painful. It’s painful every step of the way.”

Over the weekend, the white Lieutenant Governor of Texas, David Dewhurst challenged his opponent in the Texas Senate race, Ted Cruz, to a debate — in Spanish. Cruz, the Cuban-American former Texas Solicitor General, said he would prefer to debate in English.

Univision reported that Dewhurst made the challenge to Cruz. ”I would welcome a debate with Lt. Gov. Dewhurst in any form,” Cruz told the Spanish-language network. “But I think we would have a better debate if we did the debate in English.”

He explained that as a second generation Cuban American, he grew up speaking “Spanglish.”

“My Spanish is a situation many of your viewers will recognize, which is that as a second generation immigrant, my dad came from Cuba when he was a teenager not speaking English. And I grew up here speaking Spanglish,” Cruz said, shouting out a phrase in half English, half Spanish to illustrate his point.

These kinds of news reports sparked rumors saying zombies were quite real and walking around the city. Perhaps these stories are what prompted the CDC to formally announce this weekend that there is no virus that is turning people into zombies.

The fact that the government tells us there is no “Zombie Virus” apparently did not reach everyone. It also did not stop some foolish people in Miami from trying to scare strangers into thinking that zombies were roaming their town and randomly attacking humans. One person dressed in “typical zombie attire” and began barking and chasing people as his accomplice recorded the action:

More Zombies: DHS PRIDE:  It's not bad enough she is incompetent, now she has sto be annoying too? 

On June 7, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is holding a gay-themed event called the June Pride Ceremony. The hour-long gathering, scheduled to take place from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., will feature DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano as a guest speaker, among others. The purpose of the event is to commemorate June Pride Month, while also marking “a year of significant progress for DHS Pride and for the LGBT community.”

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) web site, DHS Pride, the group behind the event, is an employee association that represents gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered individuals working within DHS’s ranks. The organization seeks to showcase how these individuals work diligently to secure the U.S. Here are some of the goals the group works towards, as per its web site:

• Identify and address issues particularly affecting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender employees of the Department.
• Support and guide the Department in the development and implementation of effective policies and practices for the elimination of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in all Departmental activities.
• Serve as a resource and point of contact for its members, for those seeking or considering employment with the Department, and for other interested individuals or groups regarding LGBT issues and activities at DHS.

As The Blaze has reported, President Barack Obama has been doing damage control among African American pastors since his official endorsement of same-sex marriage last month. But his efforts to put faith leaders at ease apparently haven’t resonated with everyone, as a group of influential black pastors are appealing to Attorney General Eric Holder to setup a meeting for them with the president. The groups maintains that Obama’s endorsement has “broken their hearts.”

“President Obama is the fulfillment of our dreams for our sons — and he has broken our hearts by using his power and position to endorse as a civil right something that is simply wrong,” wrote the Rev. William Owens, the founder and president of the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP). ”I would pray you have enough residual respect for this group of clergy, to agree to meet with us and other national leaders to discuss our concerns over your and President Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage as a civil right.”

OBAMA QUIETLY SEEKING TO CEDE U.S. OCEANS TO U.N. LAW

President Obama’s ambitious plan for stepped up government regulation of the oceans includes an unreported effort to cede U.S. oceans to United Nations-based international law, WND has learned.

The plan was previously a pet project of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, whose ocean-zoning scheme was partnered with a globalist group that also aimed to hand over U.S. oceans to U.N. governance.

Obama’s plan is still in draft form. It calls for an executive order to be issued for a National Ocean Policy that will determine how the ecosystem is managed while giving the federal government more regulatory authority over any businesses that utilize the ocean.

The executive order is to be based on the recommendations of Obama’s Interagency Ocean Policy Taskforce, created in 2010 also by executive order.

The dust is nowhere near settled in the complicated case surrounding 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s death. This morning, ABC’s “Good Morning America” added a bombshell to the case when the show offered a first-time look at George Zimmerman‘s alleged injuries on the night of Martin’s demise.

Mediaite describes newly-released images that purportedly show Zimmerman’s bloodied head in the moments following his violent spat with the teenager:

Zimmerman bond set at $150,000
 

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — A judge says George Zimmerman can be released on $150,000 bail as he awaits trial for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

The judge says there is a possibility Zimmerman will be allowed to go out of state because of worries about his safety, but details need to be worked out among the attorneys and law enforcement.

Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester says Zimmerman cannot have any firearms, drink alcohol or use drugs and must observe a curfew. Zimmerman will also have to wear an electronic monitoring device. The judge says Zimmerman will not be released Friday.

Mitt Romney has taken a harder line on illegal immigration than expected, which has led many commentators to declare that the primaries have hurt his chances by drawing him too far in that direction (costing him support among Latino voters, especially). 

Yet today’s Quinnipiac poll finds Romney favored over Obama on the issue of … immigration (by a margin of 43% to 39%, about the same lead that Romney has on “the economy”). He’s ahead by fifteen points on the immigration issue among independents.  … So why is a “pivot” on immigration needed, again? … What good is Hispandering if it wins Romney New Mexico but costs him Ohio? …
 

Keith Ellison responds to Allen West’s ‘communist’ claim: ‘Sir, have you no decency?’

On Bill Press’ Thursday radio show, simulcasted on Current TV, Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison responded to Florida Republican Rep. Allen West’s accusation that members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are “communist.”

Even though West later claimed the remarks were taken out of context by The Palm Beach Post, Ellison — a co-chair of the progressive caucus — took to the airwaves to challenge West, and likened his comments to former Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s crusade against supposed communist infiltration of the U.S. government.

Ellison echoed U.S. Army head counsel Joseph Welch’s 1954 rebuttal to McCarthy.

“I think that he had us in mind,” Ellison said. “But just like Joe McCarthy was deluded and seeing phantoms and you know, all kinds of crazy stuff, who is the guy that said, ‘Sir, have you no decency?’ OK, so that’s what I feel like saying to my colleague from Florida, from the 22^nd Congressional District of Florida, ‘Sir, have you no decency?’”

ED Note: Actually two notes on this one.  First, I didn't know that Bill Press was still alive let alone on the radio.  Second, this statement from an Islamist who has sworn before his god, that he will kill Christians (infidels) destroy the US Constitution in favor of Sharia law, and is committed to world-wide jihad until he and his fellow Muslims reign supreme. 

The Obama administration is silently diverting $500 million to the Internal Revenue Service to implement President Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to The Hill.

The funds represent only a fraction of what is needed for the agency to implement the health care law, and the funds have been provided outside of the normal appropriations process.

“The law contains dozens of targeted appropriations to implement specific provisions,” The Hill reports. “It also gave the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) a $1 billion implementation fund, to use as it sees fit.”

The president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) has some harsh words for opponents of his appointment to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

“You could actually use the list of people protesting us, it’s a pretty good list of some of the leaders of the Islamist movement in America,” Zuhdi Jasser, who has been a vocal opponent of political Islam, told The Daily Caller.

Last week 64 Muslim organizations — including Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) — expressed “deep concern” with Jasser’s appointment in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye and Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin.

The scandal-plagued chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party has been suspended from the host committee of President Barack Obama’s 2012 convention in Charlotte, according to a tweet from a reporter with the Raleigh-based News & Observer newspaper.

David Parker, chairman of the Democratic Party in North Carolina, is under fire amid allegations that he helped facilitate a plot to cover up claims of sexual harassment by a former staffer who left the party last year.

The move excises an embarrassment for the Obama re-election campaign, which sees the Tarheel State as a must-win in November. The president won North Carolina by just three-tenths of one percent in 2008, leaving no cushion to offset subsequent political damage caused by high unemployment and debt numbers.

News & Observer reporter John Frank tweeted that party chairman David Parker has been “temporarily suspended” from the 88-member panel, which consists of local politicians and business leaders. The committee is helping fund and organize the convention.

Feminist group renews campaign to silence Limbaugh

The National Organization for Women (NOW) is attempting, once again, to do what no other group has been able to accomplish — get radio giant Rush Limbaugh off the air.

On Thursday, the women’s advocacy group announced a renewed protest campaign —”Enough Rush” — to bring Limbaugh down.

“He is going to be whining and calling us out about his First Amendment rights” Terry O’Neill, president of NOW, told The Daily Caller about how she expects Limbaugh to react to their campaign. “There is nothing in the Constitution that says Rush Limbaugh gets $38 million a year for being on a radio show.”

The group, which Limbaugh often jokingly refers to as the NAGs (“National Association of Gals”), is rallying their chapters for a day of protest on May 18th.

MSNBC’s Martin Bashir took the time to slam Mitt Romney for allegedly lying, while using the Book of Mormon to lecture the Republican presidential candidate about the tenets of a moral character. According to Bashir, Romney has told three lies over the past few days (about Ted Nugent’s endorsement, unemployment under President Obama and the media’s leftist tilt) — an offense punishable by “eternal damnation.”

Gingrich: I Can Support Santorum, Talk of Shared Ticket to Stop Romney

• Santorum: Romney Can't Be 'Shoved Down' Voters' Throats

• Rep. Ryan: Romney May Win ‘A Lot of Delegates’ This Week

• Biden: Romney Stuck in “Cold War Mentality” About Russia

   

Bill Ayers: ‘I Get Up Every Morning and Think…Today I‘m Going to End Capitalism’

Palin to Host 'Today' Show on Tuesday

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be the guest hosting on NBC's "Today" show this Tuesday.

"I see this as a good opportunity to bring an independent, common-sense conservative perspective to NBC. We’re 'going rogue' and infiltrating some turf for a day,” Palin told Breitbart News.

Meanwhile this week, Katie Couric will be filling in for Robin Roberts on ABC's "Good Morning America." Palin and Couric  squared off in that  controversial interview on the 2008 campaign trail.

Palin had a brief response to Breitbart News's request for comment about the fact that she will be competing with Couric: "Game on."

A Virginia middle school teacher recently forced his students to support President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign by conducting opposition research in class against the Republican presidential candidates.

The 8th grade students, who attend Liberty Middle School in Fairfax County, were required to seek out the vulnerabilities of Republican presidential hopefuls and forward them to the Obama campaign.

“This assignment was just creepy beyond belief — like something out of East Germany during the Cold War,” one frustrated father, who asked for his family to remain anonymous, told The Daily Caller.

The assignment was for students to research the backgrounds and positions of each of the GOP candidates for president and find “weaknesses” in them, the parent explained. From there, students were to prepare a strategy paper to exploit those weaknesses and then to send their suggestions to the Obama campaign.

Liberty teacher Michael Denman, who declined to comment, unveiled the assignment in mid-January when he broke the Civics Honor’s class into four groups, one for each Republican candidate. The students were then to collaborate as a group and research the backgrounds of their assigned candidate.

The attack on American military computer networks has been so thorough, and so successful, security experts now say the U.S. should quit trying to stop it, and assume spies are already inside.

Security experts testifying before the Senate Armed Services said last week that it’s time the U.S. stopped building up its computer defense, and start retaliating against nations accessing U.S. networks.

The attacks on governmental and private defense networks has been non-stop for years, and last year the Pentagon declared it now regards cyberspace as a military-operable domain.

The 2011 U.S. strategy for operating in cyberspace says that cyberspace is no different than land, sea, air, and space. This means the military is silently building a “cyberforce” to safeguard America’s data.

Islamists, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, are gaining even more power in Egypt! They control Egypt’s parliament, are considering running a candidate for president (despite previous pledges they wouldn’t do so) and now the AP reports they will be in the majority on Egypt’s panel to create a new constitution:

“Egypt’s newly empowered Islamists have tightened their grip, giving themselves a majority on a 100-member panel tasked with drafting a constitution that will define the shape of the government in the post-Hosni Mubarak era … Led by the Muslim Brotherhood to victory in parliamentary elections, fundamentalists now have their eyes set on the next prize: the presidency. The new constitution will decide whether Islam will gain even more strength in Egypt, abandoning decades of secular traditions that made the nation a top U.S. ally and a bulwark against extremism.”

Egyptian security forces have prevented Iranian agents from bombing an Israeli ship as it passed through the Suez Canal, according to the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram.

The Iranians reportedly hired two Egyptians to carry out the attack, Susleiman Razek Abdul-Razek and Salameh Ahmed Salameh, offering them 50 million Egyptian pounds (roughly $8.3 million US).  The two men then tried to pay another to act in their place, but are now denying any involvement in the matter whatsoever.

Egypt has threatened to prosecute anyone found to be attacking Israeli targets in coordination with the Iranians, but Israeli officials also point out that the Egyptian territory of the Sinai peninsula is becoming a safe haven for Iranians and terrorist groups of all shades.

Haaretz, an Israeli news organization, reports:

On Monday’s “CBS This Morning,” former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean broke with Democratic Party ranks once again on the issue of ObamaCare. But this time, he did it in the terms of how he thinks the Supreme Court will view the law.

Host Charlie Rose asked Dean, a physician and former Democratic presidential candidate, if he thought the individual mandate would ultimately be declared unconstitutional.

“I actually think that’s what they’re most likely to do before, of course, we’ve heard any arguments,” Dean, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, replied. “I can’t imagine how they’re going to decide this isn’t right yet. And you’ll have lawyers talking about the arcane legal question. But yeah, I don’t believe they’ll support that. And they certainly aren’t going to do it from the bench today.”

“I do believe that it’s likely the individual mandate will be declared unconstitutional,” he continued. “[Justice Anthony] Kennedy will probably side with the four right-wing justices. But I’d be very surprised if they — I think Kennedy will switch sides and it will be 5-4 in favor of severing that finding from the rest of the bill. The question is going to be, is this individual mandate question — can that be considered separately from the rest of the bill? And I think it will be.”

WASHINGTON (The Blaze/AP) — The Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments on Monday over President Barack Obama’s contentious health care overhaul, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, derisively labeled “Obamacare” by its opponents. Here is a look at how the case will unfold before the court in question-and-answer form:

Q: What’s this all about?

A: The Supreme Court is hearing a challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is Obama’s signature domestic achievement. Passed by Congress in 2010, its aim is to provide health insurance to more than 30 million previously uninsured Americans, while trying to restrain costs and prevent disruptions to the majority already with coverage. Opponents say the law is unconstitutional; their chief argument is that Congress does not have the power to force unwilling Americans to buy health insurance or pay a fine.

New audio has been uncovered by Buzzfeed reportedly showing him praising fuel efficiency mandates. And it certainly won’t help him erase the Etch-A-Sketch phenomenon.

The audio, which is said to be from a 2007 town hall meeting, features someone sounding a lot like Romney answering a question about fuel efficiency standards. It is slightly hard to hear the original question, but the man reported as Romney repeats it and says, in part, “what can you do about automotive efficiency and would you consider mandates of some kind on automotive efficiency?”

“And the answer,” he says, “is would I consider them, yeah.”

He goes on to explain that certain requirements haven’t really worked, especially because they haven’t applied to trucks and SUVs.

“I’m hopeful that with $3 gasoline being charged by Hugo Chavez, and Ahmadinejad, and Putin and others, that you’re going to see Americans slowly but surely move to vehicles that are far more fuel efficient, and you’ll see our manufactures start competing on the basis of fuel efficiency.”

“I sure hope you‘re going to see more and more hybrids and much better fuel economy because it’s a must,” he ads. “We have to make our automobiles far more fuel efficient.”

Santorum blasts New York Times reporter: ‘It’s bullshit’ [VIDEO]

Footage of Rick Santorum spouting off at a New York Times reporter indicates that the media could be wearing on the former Pennsylvania Senator.

In a back-and-forth with The New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny aired on Monday’s “CBS This Morning,” Santorum challenges the premise of one of the reporter’s questions posed in a rope line in Wisconsin on Sunday. According to Zeleny, Santorum said his chief competitor for the GOP nomination, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is the “worst Republican” to run against President Barack Obama. Santorum, meanwhile, insisted that his comments about Romney had been taken out of context.

Transcript as follows:

ZELENY: You said Mitt Romney is the worst Republican in the country. Is that true?
SANTORUM: What speech did you listen to?
ZELENY: Right here up. Said he’s the worst Republican –
SANTORUM: Stop lying. I said he was the worst Republican to run on the issue of ObamaCare. And that’s what I was talking about.
ZELENY: You said he’s the worst Republican –
SANTORUM: For every speech I give, I said he’s uniquely disqualified to run against Barack Obama on the issue of health care. Would you guys quit distorting what I’m saying in?
ZELENY: Do you think he’s the worst Republican –

Warning:  Strong men will need hand kerchief.  Kleenex stock went up seven points when when it was announced Glenn was going to see this movie.

 In December, The Blaze first reported about “October Baby,” a feature film that focuses upon the intensely controversial issue of abortion.

On Friday, the movie opened in 350 select theaters across America, offering the rare opportunity to explore a subject matter that often makes people on all sides of the debate squirm. Last week, we interviewed Jason Burkey, 29, who plays the male lead (also named “Jason”) in the film.

Before getting into Burkey’s take on the project, let‘s briefly delve into the movie’s plot and synopsis. “October Baby” recaps the story of a beautiful 19-year-old college freshman named Hannah (played by Rachel Hendrix). Despite her youth and good looks, she has always had a sense that something was missing in her life — a sense that she doesn’t really have a right to exist.

The New York Post reported Sunday that a city-funded nonprofit group has been teaching homeless New Yorkers to “homestead” vacant city-owned buildings by breaking into them, establishing residency and hoping the courts will allow them to stay.

“The best time to enter a building is in the late hours,” a Picture the Homeless board member told a group of homeless men and women a few weeks ago. “You make sure you have your proper tools. You remove the chains and padlock, and then you go in.”

The Bronx-based Picture the Homeless, which is run by and for homeless New Yorkers, has collected at least $240,000 in city funding during the last five years, the Post found.

The group’s website offers a 32-page report to justify its activities, blaming “NYC’s laissez-faire free-market strategy for dealing with empty buildings and lots” for the living conditions of homeless New Yorkers.

On January 26, the group held a press conference to launch the report. The event included a supportive speech by Hunter College urban affairs professor Tom Angotti. He said vacant buildings available for homeless invasions include “a lot of buildings in areas that you might be surprised at, that are very classy areas — very high rent … and they’re there for speculation.”

A spokesperson for Village Voice Media, the privately held media company that operates Backpage.com, complained about a ”one-sided demonization” of its Craigslist-like website on Thursday. The Daily Caller was asking whether its “adult” ad section contributes to the entrapment of women and teens in sex slavery.

According to New York Times columnist  Nicholas Kristof, Backpage.com earns its parent company $22 million per year with an immense collection of online prostitution advertisements. The website, Kristof alleged, serves about 70 percent of all online prostitution advertisements in the nation.

Along with “buy/sell/trade” and “community” ads, Backpage maintains extensive ads for such categories as “escorts,” “body rubs,” “dom & fetish,” “ts” [transsexuals], “male escorts” and “adult jobs.”

Village Voice general counsel Liz McDougall told TheDC that “human trafficking online is not a Backpage.com-specific problem, and eliminating an adult category from Backpage.com would exasperate the problem, not contribute to a solution.”

According to The Polaris Project, a Washington, D.C.-based organization focused on ending slavery, an estimated 100,000 underage children are involved with sex trafficking each year in America.

Mitt Romney picked up the support over the weekend of Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a favorite lawmaker of tea party activists.

Lee — who had never held office before — was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010. His support for Romney in the Republican presidential race is a big get for the former Massachusetts governor, who has struggled to win over the conservative grassroots.

“Mike has been fighting on the frontlines to repeal Obamacare and restore fiscal sanity in Washington,” Romney said.

In a statement, Lee said, “If Republicans want to repeal President Obama’s unconstitutional health care plan, restore limited government and individual liberty, they must unite behind Mitt Romney.”

A Confident Obama to Russia: More flexibility after elections

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Barack Obama told Russia’s leader Monday that he would have more flexibility after the November election to deal with the contentious issue of missile defense, a candid assessment of political reality that was picked up by a microphone without either leader apparently knowing.

Outgoing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he would pass on Obama’s message to his successor, Vladimir Putin, according to an audio recording of comments the two leaders made during a meeting in Seoul, South Korea. Obama and Medvedev did not intend for their comments to be made public.

Once they were, the White House said Obama’s words reflected the reality that domestic political concerns in the both the U.S. and Russia this year would make it difficult to fully address their long-standing differences over the contentious issue of missile defense.

Obama, should he win re-election, would not have to face voters again.

“Since 2012 is an election year in both countries, with an election and leadership transition in Russia and an election in the United States, it is clearly not a year in which we are going to achieve a breakthrough,” White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said.

Update:

‘GOD IS A MYTH’: WATCH A PREVIEW OF THE BLAZE‘S EPIC COVERAGE OF ATHEISTS’ ‘WOODSTOCK FOR NON-BELIEF’

Atheists, agnostics and freethinkers “invaded” Washington, D.C. this weekend to show politicians and the American public, alike, that their voices matter in the political sphere. The Blaze already told you about the Secular Coalition for America’s lobbying training that we attended on Friday morning. This event was just one of the many celebrations and meetings surrounding the “Reason Rally” — supposedly the largest gathering of non-believers and skeptics in world history.

(Related: ’Bring Your Kids!’  Atheist Performer Drops 75+ F-Bombs at Reason Rally (WARNING: EXPLICIT VIDEO))

The rally, which included performers, speakers, activities and plenty more, was intended to celebrate non-theism, while taking aim at faith and religion in the public square. Although the overall tone was focused upon atheist empowerment (and the vast majority of individuals we spoke with were respectful and willing to speak candidly about their beliefs), off-color comments and anti-religious sentiment were prevalent among those taking the stage.

TURKISH SHAMPOO AD BLASTED FOR USING HITLER TO SELL PRODUCT

Turkey’s Jews are outraged after an advertisement for Biomen shampoo featured Hitler urging men to buy the product.

“If you are not wearing a woman’s dress, you should not use her shampoo either,“ Hitler ”says.”  The advertisement concludes: “Here it is, a real man’s shampoo, Biomen,“ as though Hitler is the model ”real man.”

According to the Daily Mail, “Turkey has long had an apparent fascination with Hitler, as the Nazi leader’s autobiography Mein Kampf became a bestseller in the country in 2005.” 

Mr Medvedev's stark message to Moscow's traditional ally came only hours after US President Barack Obama announced plans to send "non-lethal" aid to the Syrian rebels and new waves of violence swept the battle-scarred country.

Russia has been facing mounting Western and Arab calls to step up pressure and stop delivering arms to President Bashar al-Assad's regime after a year of violence that the opposition says has claimed more than 9100 lives.

Moscow on Wednesday backed a non-binding Security Council statement after vetoing two previous resolutions. But it did so only after making sure the text contained no implicit threat of further action should Mr Assad fail to comply.

Overnight, Mr Medvedev appeared to be aiming his words at Mr Assad directly by warning of dire consequences if Damascus ignored Mr Annan's peace plan.

Any future Iranian attacks in response to threats by Israel or the West will be much more complex and devastating than the recent terror attacks in India and Bangkok, the Islamic regime warned Saturday.

At the same time, Iran, fearing American firepower, is trying to drive a wedge between the United States and Israel by suggesting that, if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities and the U.S. stays out of it, Washington need not fear Iranian retaliation. Israel and the U.S. are already at odds about attacking Iranian nuclear facilities, with President Obama demanding that sanctions be given time and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that time is running out.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who recently praised Obama’s statement that America is looking for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, has in effect for the first time provided a way out for Obama in case of a conflict with Israel while at the same time warning about the consequences if the U.S. also attacks.

A Fars News Agency analysis said Saturday that if the U.S. is drawn in militarily, Iran will counterattack against U.S. bases in the region and interests worldwide. Fars News Agency, a media outlet of the Revolutionary Guards of Iran, has the imprimatur of the Iranian government.

Atheists, agnostics and freethinkers “invaded” Washington, D.C. this weekend to show politicians and the American public, alike, that their voices matter in the political sphere. The Blaze already told you about the Secular Coalition for America’s lobbying training that we attended on Friday morning. This event was just one of the many celebrations and meetings surrounding the “Reason Rally” — supposedly the largest gathering of non-believers and skeptics in world history.

(Related: The Blaze Goes Inside an Atheist Training Session: ‘We’re Going to Invade Capitol Hill’)

The rally, which included performers, speakers, activities and plenty more, was intended to celebrate non-theism, while taking aim at faith and religion in the public square. Although the overall tone was focused upon atheist empowerment (and the vast majority of individuals we spoke with were respectful and willing to speak candidly about their beliefs), off-color comments and anti-religious sentiment were prevalent among those taking the stage.

(The Blaze/AP) — President Barack Obama is opening his pitch for faster work to lock down nuclear material that could be used by terrorists with an up-close look at the nuclear front lines along the heavily militarized border with volatile North Korea.

Obama arrived in Seoul on Sunday morning, local time, for three days of diplomacy. In the midst of an election year focused on economic concerns at home, Obama has designed a rare Asia visit that features time in just one country. He’ll use much of the time to keep pressure on North Korea to back off a planned rocket launch and return to disarmament talks.

A bookstore in Canada has sold out of an Islamic marriage guide that instructs Muslim men on how to beat their wives, according to the Toronto Sun.

Among the advice dispensed in “A Gift for the Muslim Couple” is to “beat by hand or stick” and “pull [her] by the ears.” The husband may also withhold money to exert control, though should “refrain from beating her excessively.”

The 160-page book’s description says it “deals with the subject of marriage and after marriage relationship, as well as the various pitfalls of marriage, causes of breakdown and their causes.” It was being sold at Islamic Books and Souvenirs in Toronto. The store’s manager told the Toronto Sun it had been sold out for some time. The owner refused to comment to the newspaper.

The office of Dick Cheney has informed the Associated Press that the former vice president is recovering after a heart transplant surgery Saturday.

CBS News reports that the statement said Cheney had been on the transplant list for 20 months and is now recovering in the Intensive Care Unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, outside of Washington. Cheney did not know the identity of the donor, but the statement read ”Although the former Vice President and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift.”

MSNBC reports that in 2010, Cheney had a left ventricular assist device implanted for treatment of end-stage heart failure.

Update (7:22 p.m.)

AP notes that Cheney suffered a heart attack in 2010, his fifth since the age of 37. He had bypass surgery in 1988, as well as two subsequent angioplasties to clear narrowed coronary arteries. In 2001, he had a special pacemaker implanted in his chest.

A new witness to the Trayvon Martin shooting has come forward, claiming the Florida teen did in fact attack neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, according to media reports.

(Related: Report: New Audio Surfaces of Trayvon Martin Shooter

Zimmerman has said he shot the 17-year-old in self-defense, though Martin was reportedly carrying only a bag of Skittles and an iced tea when he was killed. Despite a loud national outcry, Zimmerman has not been arrested or charged in Martin’s death.

According to Tampa Bay Fox affiliate WTVT-TV, what the witness says he saw could bolster Zimmerman’s claim that he shot Martin in self-defense:

“The guy on the bottom who had a red sweater on was yelling to me: ‘help, help…and I told him to stop and I was calling 911,” he said.

Trayvon Martin was in a hoodie; Zimmerman was in red.

The witness only wanted to be identified as “John,” and didn’t not want to be shown on camera

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — The United States has paid $50,000 in compensation for each Afghan killed and $11,000 for each person wounded in the shooting spree allegedly committed by a U.S. soldier in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official and a community elder said Sunday.

The sums, much larger than typical payments made by the U.S. to families of civilians killed in military operations in Afghanistan, come as the U.S. tries to mend relations following the killing rampage that has threatened to undermine the international effort here.

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is accused of sneaking off his base on March 11, then creeping into houses in two nearby villages and opening fire on families as they slept.

U.S. investigators believe the gunman returned to his base after the first attack and later slipped away to kill again, American officials have said. Bales has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and other crimes and could face the death penalty if convicted.

HAVANA (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was in Cuba on Sunday to begin radiation therapy treatment one month after undergoing surgery that removed a cancerous tumor.

(Related: Days After Cancer Surgery Hugo Chavez Says He‘s Recovering ’Like a Soaring Condor’)

Chavez was met by Cuban President Raul Castro as he arrived at Havana’s airport on Saturday night. Venezuelan television showed Chavez saluting as he stepped off the plane holding hands with one of his daughters, and then embracing Castro.

Chavez said before leaving Venezuela that he would start the treatments on Sunday. He has been recovering from a Feb. 26 surgery in Havana that he said removed a tumor from the same spot in his pelvic region where another tumor was extracted eight months earlier.

Paul Ryan admits he would ‘have to consider’ a VP nod

On Sunday’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace asked Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan whether he would be open to the prospect of accepting the Republican vice-presidential nomination.

Ryan gave the standard line that he had given when asked about his prospects to be the GOP presidential nominee last year — that he wanted to remain active in his role in the House of Representatives.

“Well, I’m already the point guy for doing it in the House,” Ryan said. “I just don’t know the answer to your question, Chris. It is not a bridge I have even come close to crossing. It is a decision that somebody else makes a long time from now. And, quite honestly, I am focused on doing my job in Congress, which I think is important, which is to give the country and alternative choice of two futures on how we save and strengthen America, how we save the American dream from what I think is this path the president has put us on to debt and decline. So, I can’t answer that question. I haven’t given enough thought to that.”

But Ryan didn’t close the door completely to the possibility, saying he would “consider” it.

“I would have to consider it, but it’s not something I am even thinking about right now because I think our job in Congress is pretty important,” Ryan said. “And what we believe we owe the country is if we don’t like the direction the president is taking us, which we don’t — we owe them a specific sharp contrast and a different path they can select in November and doing this in Congress is really important. That’s why I think I have a real good job right now.”

That contrast, according to the House Budget Committee chairman, boiled down to steering the country away from “government dependency.”

Judges discarded impartiality by signing recall petitions, say journalists who signed recall petitions

A Gannett Media executive was red-faced this weekend after nine of her employees were caught doing exactly what their paper had exposed 29 circuit judges for doing: trying to bring down Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

The Post-Crescent newspaper in Wisconsin posted a story earlier this month revealing that about 12 percent of Wisconsin’s county-level judiciary had signed a petition to recall the governor. That’s a problem because the trial-level judges are supposed to remain above the political fray.

Genia Lovett, the president and publisher of The Post-Crescent newspaper, called the story “watchdog journalism” at its finest.

But just days after the big article, Lovett admitted in an open letter  that 25 supposedly unbiased Gannett Wisconsin Media journalists, including nine employees at the Post-Crescent, also had signed recall petitions. Gannett Wisconsin Media owns the Post-Crescent newspaper.

“It was wrong, and those who signed were in breach of Gannett’s Principles of Ethical Conduct for Newsrooms,” Lovett wrote. “The principle at stake is our core belief that journalists must make every effort to avoid behavior that could raise doubts about their journalistic neutrality.”

LifeNews has uncovered a real doozy when it comes to abortion rights activism. On a website titled “RH Reality Check” (with the “RH” standing for “Reproductive Health”), progressive writer Jessica delBalzo has a headline that is sure to bring precisely zero surprise to many pro-life activists, but may also scandalize moderate pro-choicers. The headline reads, “I Love Abortion: Implying Otherwise Accomplishes Nothing for Womens’ Rights.”

The rest is no better:

I love abortion. I don’t accept it. I don’t view it as a necessary evil. I embrace it. I donate to abortion funds. I write about how important it is to make sure that every woman has access to safe, legal abortion services. I have bumper stickers and buttons and t-shirts proclaiming my support for reproductive freedom. I love abortion.[...]

OBAMA GETS DUBBED 'CHIEF LUNATIC'

President's campaign acknowledges it's in trouble

PALM BEACH, Fla. – As the president’s campaign acknowledges it’s in trouble of losing the November election, radio giant Rush Limbaugh has dubbed Barack Obama “the chief lunatic” in Washington.

The Obama campaign is now using unflattering polling data in a plea for more donations.Campaign manager Jim Messina sent out an e-mail last night saying, “According to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, if the general election were held today, we would lose to Mitt Romney. Let me say that again: According to this poll, if the general election were today, we would lose.”

“If the idea of a President Romney scares you, it’s time to own a piece of this campaign – donate $3 or more today,” he added.

Another poll by the New York Times and CBS has similar results showing Obama’s approval rating dropping “substantially in recent weeks” down to 41 percent, and that has political analysts taking notice.

Obama hates Republicans so much that he will even lie about Republican Rutherford B Hays our 19th President.

Not News: Obama Rips Republican Predecessor – News: 19th President Rutherford B. Hayes…

A Tennessee man described as an Obama “fanatic” has been convicted of threatening to kill Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his family, possibly in connection with the lawman’s investigation into the president’s eligibility for office.

Adam Eugene Cox, 33, of Knoxville, was arrested Jan. 27 in connection with graphic online threats that came to light last October.

Cox’s threats included: “I plan to kill Arpaio first. He will be filled with a thousand bullet holes before the year is out. I promise you this. He won’t f**k with Obama. He will be buried 10 feet under and his whole family will be murdered along with him.”

Authorities say Cox’s postings indicate – and his own mother confirms – that Cox is a “fanatical supporter” of Obama, and Arpaio’s ongoing investigation into the legitimacy of the president’s purported birth certificate may have been the reason behind the threat to kill the sheriff.

The MacIver Institute in Wisconsin has been closely following the pro-union protests that started in that state last year. And it’s done a great job of bringing to light interesting stories (remember the fake doctor notes?). And it hasn’t disappointed with one of its latest videos, which takes you inside the courtroom as protesters try and mount a defense for why they disobeyed police in August and refused to vacate the capitol.

The video below does a good job of laying out the story, so I won’t bore you by repeating details. But what I will say is this: the protesters were eventually found guilty ($200 fine plus court costs), and just wait until you hear their defense.

Ed Note:  If this is the pro-union brain trust - the Union is in trouble.

HERE ARE THE TOP FIVE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY ON GOOGLE

NEW YORK (The Blaze/AP) — Like it or not, your relationship with Google has recently become a lot more intimate. According to a recent poll of favored search engines, it’s also likely to remain the one you turn toward on a daily basis.

Although there have been many concerns over Google’s expanding data collection ability from its recently combined privacy policies, there are still measures you can take to protect your privacy as much as possible.
 

(Related: French regulator: Google’s new privacy policy violates EU standards)
 

Google said combining policies for its various services was for the sake of simplicity and to improve your experience on sites such as Gmail, Picasa, Google Plus and YouTube. But there’s a business reason as well. Google gets a chance to use the data it collects to tailor ads that align more precisely with your interests, and those personalized ads are among the most lucrative for the company.

Last summer The Blaze reported on the Obama administration’s double-pronged attack on family farms. This was seen in the new set of regulations coming from both the DOT and the Department of Labor.

The main focus of the new regulations proposed last year was on the operation of farm equipment. The DOT was trying to mandate that anyone operating a piece of mechanized farm equipment be subject to the same rules that apply to drivers of semi-tractor trailers. These changes would have essentially blocked all young people who work on family farms from operating even the smallest tractor or truck, unless those people would be able to pass the stringent tests and maintain the detailed logs that are required of truckers.

These rules would also open the door for the potential unionization of all farm workers in America. Even family farm workers.

In 2010 alone, Wired’s Threat Level explains, the government sent more than 24,000 National Security Letters to Internet service providers and other companies such as credit and financial institutions. Letters such as these come with a gag order in place, which requires the companies to stay mum on the fact that the government was seeking to acquire information on individuals.

(Related: Report: Government requests Google users’ data 31 times each day)

One company served with an NSL earlier this year is pushing back on this request for silence. Wired reports that it wants to tell its customers that their information has been requested by the government and give them the opportunity to take it to court, should they wish. This “minor defiance,” Wired states, has caused the government to file a request that the company, which remains unnamed, be forced to remain quiet because speaking out “may endanger the national security of the United States.”

Wired has more on a case that it believes “shed a little light” on NSLs post-9/11 when they were reformed to not require a court order and come with forced gag orders on companies:

Records filed by Obama for America with the Federal Election Commission indicate that the president’s re-election campaign shelled out at least $345,353 to commission “The Road We’ve Traveled,” a 17-minute campaign documentary by Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim, set for release Thursday. The price comes out to more than $20,300 per minute.

Two separate payments were made to “Guggenheim Short Film” in Washington, D.C. — one for $162,834 and another for approximately $182,159 – according to FEC documents.

Katie Hogan, deputy press secretary for the Obama campaign, refused to provide any additional information about the documentary’s funding stream or whether a public relations firm was authorized to speak about the film project.

It is likely that there are additional costs associated with the documentary, such as advertising and promotional expenses, but Obama for America also would not comment on that possibility.

A lot has been said about President Obama’s impromptu Al Green song that he belted out for a fundraiser last month. The video went viral, and even the president’s critics recognized the president can sing. And if you were watching “American Idol” on Wednesday, you would have seen it all over again.

That’s because one of the contestants, Elise Testone, chose the Al Green song that Obama resurrected, “Let’s Stay Together.” And during a pre-taped segment, one of the guest mentors, Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, couldn’t help but note that Obama had belted out the tune. He suggested a sing off, and seconds later, the show was playing Testone and Obama side-by-side. Here’s how it went down:

Comedian Bill Maher just can’t keep his name out of the headlines — a fact, I assume, he’s more than content with. After all, any publicity is good publicity, right?

Following plenty of drama over his own disparaging words about women, Maher has waded into the Sandra Fluke vs. Rush Limbaugh waters over the past week to share his assessment of the controversy. In an interview with ABC’s Jake Tapper, the comedian drew distinctions between himself and Limbaugh, while seemingly doubling down on his past negative commentary.

Following a Tweet he sent last week saying that liberals look bad not accepting Limbaugh’s apology to Fluke, Maher had plenty more to say on his HBO program. So, on Friday, he openly defended Limbaugh’s free-speech rights on “Real Time,” but also continued his assault on the radio host.

“No one died. A guy made a bad joke. A bad joke because it was a disgusting sentiment that he was evoking, and also because it wasn’t even a joke,” he said. “He’s a stupid fat f–k who’s not funny.”

The New York Times has rejected a full-page anti-Islam advertisement that mirrored a scathing anti-Catholic advertisement the newspaper published on March 9.

According to The Daily Caller, a March 13 letter sent by the Times to the parody’s sponsor, activist Pamela Geller, said the $39,000 anti-Islam ad was rejected because “the fallout from running this ad now could put U.S. troops and/or civilians in the [Afghan] region in danger.”

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, accused the Times of having a double standard and told  DC that The Time’s was based on “either [anti-Catholic] bigotry or fear [of Islamic violence], and they’ve painted themselves into that corner.”

DC adds:

Donohue said the frequent claims of intellectual honesty by Times employees would compel them to address the double standard if they weren’t “shameless.”

TheDC asked Robert Christie, the Times’ senior vice-president for corporate communications, if the Times’ decision is a surrender to violence and also an incentive for additional threats of violence.

However, Christie declined to discuss the paper’s decision, and referred TheDC to the letter sent by the Times to Geller and her organization, Stop the Islamization of Nations.

Asia Bibi’s tale has been a long and tragic one. The Pakistani woman has been detained for nearly three years after being charged with blasphemy for allegedly disparaging the name of the Prophet Mohammed. The penalty for talking negatively about Islam’s leader? Death.

The Blaze originally shared Bibi’s story in November 2010. Since, there have been a number of updates, but none of them have led to the Christian mother of five’s release. Her high-profile case has even led Pope Benedict XVI to appeal for mercy. She is the first woman to be given the death penalty under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws.

Bibi, 42, was originally scheduled to be put to death by hanging on Nov. 8 2010, but the intense debate surrounding her detention has helped keep her alive. Rather than admitting fault, Bibi claims that it was her co-workers — whom she has forgiven — who wrongly made claims against her.

Sen. Lugar ruled ineligible to vote in home state

An election board ruled Thursday that Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar, the longest serving Republican in the Senate, is no longer eligible to vote at the home he used to live in.

The Daily Caller first reported in January that Lugar has not lived in Indiana since 1977. Lugar and his wife have resided in the upscale Washington suburb of McLean, Virginia for the last three decades.

The Marion County Elections Board voted 2-1 that Lugar is no longer a resident and will not be allowed to vote there. The decision came in response to a complaint filed by fraud investigator and tea party activist Greg Wright, who has been trying to bring attention to Lugar’s residency for months.

According to Frances Fox Piven:

• The Occupy Wall Street movement is entering the phase where it “makes trouble.”
• “We’ll see action against the banks, against the corporations.”
• Different forms of protests that will engage many people.
• Occupy was helped by “sympathetic” press coverage.

Leftist professor and activist Frances Fox Piven last week predicted the Occupy Wall Street movement is entering the phase where it “makes trouble” and will soon be taking action against banks and other institutions.

“It may well be that the Occupy movement is now in its second phase, in the phase where it makes trouble, in the phase where it threatens to shut down institutions,” Piven said. “The Occupy movement has moved into the neighborhoods of our cities, it has moved into the schools….This spring, we’ll see action against the banks, against the corporations.”

(Related: Google’s new privacy policy rolls out today despite opposition)

Mozilla describes the add-on named “Collusion” as an experimental feature that will show you “how that data creates a spider-web of interaction between companies and other trackers.” PC World has more on how the add-on works:

Ever wonder who is booking Sandra Fluke — the contraception advocated paraded around by Nancy Pelosi — on all those media appearances? And ever wonder if there’s something bigger going on with her? Bill O’Reilly is and he has a theory: the White House is behind it all. And now he’s uncovered a little nugget that plays right into that theory: Fluke is being represented by a PR firm partially run by a former Obama adviser.

O’Reilly made his case by first detailing who has been booking Fluke with various media outlets — a mysterious man named “Mike.” Strangely enough, O‘Reilly can’t track Mike down, and now, Fluke is being represented by someone from the progressive PR firm SKDKnickerbocker, where Anita Dunn — the former Obama communications director — is a managing director.

New data shows a shocking trend: Banks are foreclosing on religious institutions at an alarming rate. Much like individuals who lose the capability to continue paying their mortgages, churches, too, are feeling the financial crunch. In fact, since 2010, more than two hundred houses of worship have experienced foreclosures.

Reuters has more about the crisis, which has hit a diversity of churches:

Since 2010, 270 churches have been sold after defaulting on their loans, with 90 percent of those sales coming after a lender-triggered foreclosure, according to the real estate information company CoStar Group.

In 2011, 138 churches were sold by banks, an annual record, with no sign that these religious foreclosures are abating, according to CoStar. That compares to just 24 sales in 2008 and only a handful in the decade before.

IS THERE MORE TO THE INVISIBLE CHILDREN STORY IN UGANDA THAN MEETS THE EYE?

I was a sophomore in college when I first saw the movie. I remember sitting cross-legged in front of the screen while wearing a white undershirt and khaki pants. I cried.

How can you not shed a tear when you see innocent children talking about having to kill family members and being captured to take part in a mad man’s war? I never forgot the images.

Those images were the result of the nonprofit Invisible Children — a group fighting to end the atrocities of Joseph Kony in Uganda. He and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) captures the helpless children, forces them to fight, and kills and rapes others.

Obama campaign pulls Air Force aircraft from combat to tote re-election gear

The U.S. Air Force is pulling nine cargo aircraft from military operations to support President Barack Obama’s stepped-up visits to campaign events.

The five medium-capacity C-130s and four heavyweight C-17s will be used to ferry security vehicles, armored limousines and communications gear into cities ahead of Obama’s campaign appearances.

In the months before November, the president is expected to fly into multiple cities per week, and speak at multiple sites per day. On Mar. 8, for example, the president will fly to Richmond, and then drive over to a Rolls-Royce aircraft-parts factory. That evening, he’ll fly down to Houston, Texas.

His wife, Vice President Joe Biden and many of his cabinet secretaries are using the Air Force’s fleet of VIP aircraft to visit more states as the election season speeds up.

The nine cargo aircraft will begin operations in April, said Maj. Michelle Lai, communications officer for the Air Force’s 89th Airlift Wing. “They’ll stand down in November 2012,” she said.

The Air Force allocated extra aircraft to support President George W. Bush when he was running for re-election in 2004, she added.

NetJets Inc., the private-plane company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), was countersued by the U.S. over $366 million in taxes and penalties.[...]

Claiming the federal Internal Revenue Service wrongfully assessed a so-called ticket tax — an excise tax on payments made in exchange for air transportation — to private aircraft owners maintaining their own planes, the Columbus, Ohio-based company demanded refunds and abatements.

The federal government, in a revised answer and countersuit filed yesterday in federal court in Columbus, rejected NetJets’ claims and alleged that four of the company’s units owe unpaid taxes and penalties. NetJets Aviation Inc. owes more than $302.1 million, and another unit, NetJets International, is liable for $52.9 million, the U.S. said. Executive Jet Management Inc. owes $10 million while NetJets Large Aircraft owes $1.19 million, the U.S. claimed.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie got into a shouting match during a town hall Thursday, calling a man in the audience an “idiot” and telling him to “shut up.”

According to the New Jersey Star-Ledger, William Brown, a 34-year-old law student and veteran, had been repeatedly shouting at Christie in opposition to a proposed merger of two New Jersey universities. Video of the incident shows him asking the governor to “please consider veteran students and non-traditional students like myself.”

“If you decide what you want to do is put on a show today, let me tell you something, I can go back and forth with you as much as you want,” Christie said to applause. “And let me tell you something, after you graduate from law school, you conduct yourself like that in a court room, your rear end’s gonna get thrown in jail, idiot.”

“Wind farms in the Pacific Northwest – built with government subsidies and maintained with tax credits for every megawatt produced – are now getting paid to shut down as the federal agency charged with managing the region‘s electricity grid says there’s an oversupply of renewable power at certain times of the year,” Q13 Fox reports.

Keep in mind, as mentioned in the above, these companies were built with government subsidies and have been maintained with tax credits. To put it plainly: the government is offering to compensate companies that it subsidized and then ordered to stop doing what they were subsidized to do in the first place.

Does any of this make sense?

“The problem arose during the late spring and early summer last year,” Fox explains, “Rapid snow melt filled the Columbia River Basin. The water rushed through the 31 dams run by the Bonneville Power Administration [BPA], a federal agency based in Portland, Ore., allowing for peak hydropower generation. At the very same time, the wind howled, leading to maximum wind power production.”

WHITE HOUSE ORGANIZES…PRAYER VIGIL FOR OBAMACARE OUTSIDE SUPREME COURT PROBABLY WHILE FACING MECCA

As the White House struggles to garner support for Obamacare as it approaches Supreme Court arguments on the new health care law, the administration is not leaving anything to chance — not even forces from heaven above.

Yes, on Wednesday, White House officials reportedly called on dozens of nonprofit leaders to aid them in organizing a prayer vigil outside the court – right when justices plan to hear arguments for three days beginning March 26.

In a push that hopes to shape public opinion on the issue at the very center of the battle for the White House and Congress, advocates and officials set their strategy to win favor in motion. White House officials, however, deny they are trying to influence others or garner support by facilitating rallies outside the Supreme Court.

When a yankee like Mitt Romney makes it down South, expect some mocking to take place.

“No self-respecting Southerner should vote for Romney after what he said on @100WAPI yesterday,” said Alabama radio host Matt Murphy in a tweet Friday.

Romney’s sin? In an interview with Birmingham radio host Leland Whaley on Thursday, the former Massachusetts governor admitted that after a long day of campaigning, “I try to eat some cold cereal at the end of the day.”

In an email to The Daily Caller, Murphy explained that in the South, “there’s no such thing as ‘cold cereal.’ It’s just cereal! ‘Hot cereal’ doesn’t exist. If you want ‘hot cereal’ in Alabama, you order oatmeal or grits.”

“While my tongue was planted in cheek,” Murphy said, “I think the comment speaks to the southern disconnect.”

Gas Prices and Foreign Destruction of Our Economy

From Glenn Beck: On Monday, Glenn welcomed two guests with quite a lot to say on the subject of energy prices to dissect the Obama administration’s “misleading facts about oil prodcution.” The first of these was Jack Gerard, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute (API). The second was the founder of Cross Consulting and Services and author of the book “Secret Weapon,” Kevin Freeman:

 Freeman, meanwhile, runs a company known simply as Freeman Global Holdings, LLC., which operates at the global level trying to gauge world markets for clients. His book alleges that foreign countries deliberately sabotaged the United States economy

Kevin Freeman is considered one of the world’s leading experts on the issues of Economic Warfare and Financial Terrorism. He has consulted for and briefed members of both the U.S. House and Senate, present and past CIA, DIA, FBI, SEC, Homeland Security, the Justice Department, as well as local and state law enforcement. He has traveled extensively with research trips to Russia and China and throughout Europe and the Americas.

One of the few Americans with the distinction of having been a terrorist’s defense attorney has been named number three in command at the Justice Department.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division Tony West’s promotion to Acting Associate Attorney General last week.

Harvard- and Stanford-educated with a long legal career, West also has the distinction of having defended American terrorist John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban member sentenced to 20 years in prison after being captured in Afghanistan fighting on the enemy’s side in 2001.

“The American people need to know who is controlling the debate in the Justice Department about terrorist detainees, how they are treated and where they are going to be tried.” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch explained to The Daily Caller.

The United States can lawfully kill terrorism suspects abroad, including American citizens who pose an immediate threat and can’t be captured, Attorney General Eric Holder said.

Holder’s comments, in a speech today in Chicago, marked the Obama administration’s highest-profile defense of killings that target terror suspects since an American drone strike in Yemen last September killed Anwar al- Awlaki, a U.S.-born al-Qaida recruiter and propagandist.

Holder didn’t justify specific killings. Under U.S. law, the United States can kill specific senior leaders of al-Qaida and associated groups, Holder said in remarks released by the Justice Department. He also described circumstances that would justify the use of lethal force against a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al-Qaida or associated forces and is “actively engaged in planning to kill Americans.”

Revealed: Abortion Agenda of Campus Group Headed by Sandra Fluke

It’s Super Tuesday, which means today is the busiest day yet of the 2012 Republican race for president with 419 delegates up for grabs in 10 states across the country.

“We’re feeling good,” former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said Monday on a conference call with news outlets including The Daily Caller. “Not just about Ohio. We’re feeling good about all of Super Tuesday.”

“There’s a great opportunity for us given the amazing fact that just came out today that we’re being outspent here in the state of Ohio 12 to 1,” Santorum said, comparing the money being spent by his campaign and political action committees on his behalf to rival Mitt Romney.

The latest Suffolk University poll, released on Monday, has Santorum with 37 percent of the vote in Ohio, which has 66 Republican delegates. Mitt Romney has 33 percent, Newt Gingrich has 16 percent, and Ron Paul is fourth with 8 percent.

 In Tennessee, which has 58 delegates, Santorum leads with 35 percent in the latest American Research Group (ARG) poll, with Romney at 31 percent, Gingrich at 20 percent, and Paul at 9 percent.

Santorum also leads in Oklahoma (43 delegates) with 37 percent, ahead of Romney with 26 percent, Gingrich with 22 percent, and Paul with 9 percent, according to an ARG poll released on Sunday.

Maryland’s goal to control the amount of firearms carried by residents is unconstitutional, according to U.S. District Judge Benson Everette.

A decision in  Woollard v. Sheridan on Monday made by Maryland’s U.S. District Court upholds that the Second Amendment “right to bear arms is not limited to the home.” Therefore, Maryland citizens should not be required to submit a “good and substantial reason” when applying for a concealed carry permit.

Woollard’s case charged the state police superintendent and members of the Handgun Permit Review Board for putting the burden of proof on a citizen and wrongly denying Woollard’s application in 2010.

“People have the right to carry a gun for self-defense and don’t have to prove that there’s a special reason for them to seek the permit,” Woollard’s attorney, Alan Gura, told the Associated Press. Gura has fought handgun bans in the District of Columbia and Chicago.

Conservative groups slam ABC’s ‘GCB’ as ‘sex-filled attack on Christians’

 

The new ABC series “GCB” was marred by controversy from the start. The series was originally titled “Good Christian Bitches,” then watered down to “Good Christian Belles,” and then totally sanitized to “GCB.”

Now the show, which is characterized as “Desperate Housewives” goes to Texas, is being ridiculed by Christian and conservative groups as “a sex-filled attack on Christians, conservatives and Texans.”

Based on the novel “Good Christian Bitches,” the series revolves around Amanda, a former Dallasite who moves back home with her children after her husband dies in a car crash (while engaging in oral sex, mind you) and finds that her former Bible quoting, big-haired, wealthy friends are less than welcoming.

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday winds up a high-profile US visit focused on Iran's perceived nuclear threat after warning that his country would not live in the "shadow of annihilation."

Netanyahu was to meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and visit the US Congress a day after keenly-watched talks with President Barack Obama against the backdrop of speculation over a possible Israeli strike on Iran.

"Unfortunately, Iran's nuclear program has continued to march forward. Israel has waited ... for diplomacy to work, we've waited for sanctions to work. None of us can afford to wait much longer," Netanyahu told some 13,000 attendees late Monday in a speech before the AIPAC pro-Israel lobbying group.

"As prime minister of Israel I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation."

Kirk Cameron on fury over 'gay' marriage

'I should be able to express moral views without being slandered, accused of hate speech'

Christian actor Kirk Cameron was a guest on “Piers Morgan Tonight” over the weekend to discuss “Monumental,” his new project on the roots of America coming to theaters later this month, when the British host of the program suddenly turned subject and asked Cameron his views on homosexual marriage.

Cameron’s calm answer explaining his view that marriage “was defined by God a long time ago … one man, one woman for life” has drawn a firestorm of criticism from fellow celebrities, homosexual organizations and even rock musician Nikki Sixx, who blasted Cameron as “a–hole of the week” for his answer, and Roseanne Barr, who called Cameron “an accomplice to murder with his hate speech.”

The Obama White House held a formal news conference last year to announce “proof positive” of Barack Obama’s Hawaii birth, posted his “birth certificate” online and has been busy making fun of anyone who doesn’t believe that story ever since.

But 37 percent of Republican primary voters in Ohio, 38 percent of them in Georgia and a startling 45 percent of them in Tennessee simply don’t believe it.

Another large percentage, some 1 in 5, have doubts so that they cannot say for sure they believe him.

The results come as the voters will be making their choice tomorrow for their favorite GOP candidate to oppose Obama, the presumptive Democrat nominee for the presidency this fall.

Want to See Mercedes‘ ’Invisible’ Car? Here’s the Awesome Video…

When you saw “invisible car” in the headline of this story, I’m sure a yeah right slipped out from some of your mouths. But I’m not kidding.

The whole thing is a “publicity stunt,” writes Mashable, in order to show how the new Mercedes F-Cell hydrogen car has zero emissions (save for water). The clever line is that it’s essentially “invisible to the environment.” And while that is up for debate (after all, what about all the coal burned to manufacture the parts for the car?) the truth is the video below shows how it’s at least nearly invisible to the naked eye.

Wyoming legislator David Miller introduces “doomsday” bill

(AP/ The Bohle Company for Left Behind Games )

Wyoming Republican state legislator David Miller has introduced a bill to prepare his state for a doomsday scenario in which the nation's economy and social structure completely collapse.

"Things happen quickly sometimes — look at Libya, look at Egypt, look at those situations," Miller told the Star-Tribune. "We wouldn't have time to meet as a legislature or even in a special session to do anything to respond."

Miller's bill seeks to create a state-run continuity force that would study and prepare Wyoming for potential national or worldwide catastrophes. One specific component of the bill calls for the state to look into the possibility of issuing its own currency in the event the U.S. dollar collapses.

"If we continue down this course, this is the way any society ends up — with a valueless currency," Miller told the Star-Tribune.

Miller's original bill would have appropriated $32,000 for the task force, but the state's Joint Appropriations Committee has already cut the number in half. Six other states have attempted a similar currency creation effort in recent years — and all have failed. While Miller's bill may sound a bit extreme, there have been genuine concerns about the devaluation of U.S. currency in recent years. Last year, the International Monetary Fund predicted that China's economy would overtake that of the U.S. in five years.

Stunning:  the Left Gets It Right – This From The Daily Beast? 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali:The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World

From one end of the muslim world to the other, Christians are being murdered for their faith.

We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.

The portrayal of Muslims as victims or heroes is at best partially accurate. In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries.   Read More:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rick Santorum is looking to capitalize on a string of stunning victories that snapped his four-state losing streak and raised new questions about front-runner Mitt Romney’s clout with conservatives.

Romney shrugged off his poor showing, but his losses Tuesday in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado laid bare his stubborn weakness just when it looked as if his party was beginning to embrace him. Bringing up the rear of the Santorum surge: Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker who mostly skipped the contests and finished at or near the back of the pack in all three states.

Santorum cast the results as a victory for a purer form of conservatism than Romney has offered, heard more clearly by voters across the nation’s midsection without a deafening TV air war that the former Massachusetts governor has dominated.

Joe Weisenthal is the intrepid finance writer over at Business Insider. He’s usually more plugged in than a Chevy Volt. So when he looks at a chart and says he feels “something is about to happen,” it’s not a bad idea to pay attention. And that’s just what he did.

I‘ll let Weisenthal explain what he’s seeing;

The above chart is the VIX. Sometimes it’s called the “fear index”. Whatever you want to call it, it’s a quick way of looking at how much investors are willing to pay for downside protection in the market. Right now, complacency is high, and nobody wants to pay much for “insurance.”

Once again, we‘re getting close to what’s been a floor for the index (since the crisis) and so it seems inevitable that something is going to come along and jolt everyone awake. [Emphasis added]  Read More:

STATES PREPARE BRAKES ON CITIZEN-DETENTION OPTION

State and local officials in surging numbers are telling Washington they simply won’t cooperate with any plans to detain Americans the federal government may choose to describe as “belligerents.”

The issue centers on provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, signed by President Obama, for the indefinite and rights-free detention of those Washington cites as belligerents, whether American citizens or not.

WND reported when Rep. Daniel P. Gordon Jr. immediately drafted a resolution in the Rhode Island legislature to express opposition to the sections of the NDAA “that suspend habeas corpus and civil liberties.”

Now the Tenth Amendment Center confirms that the resistance to the federal bureaucracy is catching on.

As America prepares to draw down from wars abroad, it faces a new conflict as a vicious drug war spills across our southern border with Mexico.

Former Border Patrol Agent Zachary Taylor told The Blaze just how grave the threat really is.

Taylor broke down the imminent dangers and expanded upon the case that the U.S.-Mexico border has become the soft underbelly of U.S. homeland defense.

It’s not just an immigration problem, Taylor insisted, but also a major national security vulnerability.

A former US Border Patrol Agent himself, Taylor says all these threats have been exacerbated by current Obama administration policies and deliberate distortions by much of the media.

9TH CIRCUIT CALLS PROPOSITION 8 UNCONSTITUTIONAL

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that Proposition 8, through which voters in California defined marriage in their state constitution as being between one man and one woman, is unconstitutional.

The 2-1 ruling upheld the district court decision by Judge Vaughn Walker, a homosexual who was in a position to benefit from his own decision.

The appeals court had heard arguments that the vote in 2008 by Californians should not be allowed to stand. Voters approved Proposition 8 shortly after the state’s Supreme Court had tried to mandate homosexual “marriage.”

Jimmy Carter-appointee Stephen Reinhardt and Bill Clinton-appointee Michael Hawkins joined in the majority opinion. Randy Smith, appointed by George W. Bush, dissented.

Hostage Crisis?  Egypt outlines evidence in case against Americans
 

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s military-backed prime minister says Cairo will not halt its crackdown on foreign nonprofit groups despite what he calls threats to cut off aid from Western and Arab countries.

Egypt’s campaign against pro-democracy and rights groups began late last year with raids by security forces on their offices. On Sunday, judges referred 19 Americans and 24 others to trial on accusations they illegally used foreign funds to foment unrest in the country.

The U.S. has threatened to cut some $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt over the dispute.  Kamal el-Ganzouri said Wednesday that Western countries “turned against us” after the crackdown began.

Peter Schweizer: Dump STOCK, go with RESTRICT Act to clean up DC

The STOCK Act would do little to address the problem of insider trading on Capitol Hill, says Hoover Institute fellow Peter Schweizer.

“My biggest concern is enforcement,” Schweizer told The Daily Caller.

He cited the example of former Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson, who famously stored $90,000 in cash bribes in his freezer.

“He had been taking bribes,” Schweizer explained. “The FBI heard about this, so they did everything they were supposed to do. They got a search warrant from a federal judge and they went in and searched his congressional office. … Congress went absolutely ballistic and said this was an infringement of constitutional rights and authority and there were actually threats to cut the FBI budget as a result of doing this.”

Acknowledging that it is “not good for Democrats” to go “head-to-head” with “any church,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told The Daily Caller that he and his Democratic caucus “totally” support President Barack Obama forcing religious institutions to cover contraception in employee health insurance plans or pay a federal fine.

Catholic bishops across the country are speaking out against this provision of the health care law.

TheDC asked Reid if he thinks it is a good idea, politically, for the president to go against the Catholic Church on the issue.

“Of course it’s not good for the Democrats to go head-to-head against any church, so we certainly don’t intend to do that,” Reid said at the Capitol on Tuesday. “But we had a good discussion in our caucus today and the caucus totally supports the president. I do.”

Addressing reporters with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republican leaders, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said the GOP will attempt to “repeal” the provision.

Leading Pennsylvania Democrat convicted of theft, conspiracy

A jury convicted former Pennsylvania House Democratic leader Bill DeWeese on Monday of theft, conspiracy, and other charges, but he said he would not give up his seat and would continue to seek reelection, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

“I certainly feel I did nothing wrong,” DeWeese insisted after a 12-person jury found him guilty of five of six charges brought against him by the state Attorney General’s Office. He was acquitted of one theft charge.

The legislator said that he believed a jury from his district of southwestern Pennsylvania would have acquitted him of all charges and that he hoped they will vote for him again this year.

There’s been no shortage of coverage — and controversy — over Chrysler’s Super Bowl ad featuring Clint Eastwood titled “Halftime in America.” The spot, meant to encourage and inspire Americans, centers on Detroit’s resilience (you can read our full coverage and watch the video here). While Eastwood and his handlers have incessantly claimed the ad wasn’t political, others disagree. Nola.com explains the drama surrounding the ad:

Though some people liked it, the Chrysler Super Bowl commercial in which Clint Eastwood channels “Morning in America”-era Ronald Reagan on behalf of Detroit’s attempted comeback caused some viewers to just go off.

Said Karl Rove on Fox News:

“I’m a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, I thought it was an extremely well-done ad, but it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising.”

CNN cameras were following Mitt Romney as he was shaking hands with supporters at a Colorado campaign event. The cable news channel’s Anderson Cooper and Donna Brazile were chatting about Tuesday‘s caucus results as they watched Romney’s Secret Service detail abruptly moved the candidate to one side while a man was hustled from the room.

We later learned that the man was attempting to cover the candidate with a “glitter bomb:”

When Kylie Bisutti won the Victoria’s Secret Model Search in 2009, she was elated. Considering her initial excitement, some may be scratching their heads to hear that the model, now 21, has decided to turn her back on the profession that once brought her such immense fulfillment. She’s citing her Christian beliefs as the reason for her departure.

“Victoria’s Secret was my absolutely biggest goal in life, and it was all I ever wanted career-wise,” she explained. “But the more I was modeling lingerie, and lingerie isn’t clothing, I just started becoming more uncomfortable with it because of my faith.”

Initially, posing in sexy lingerie wasn’t a major problem for her. But after two years of posing in provocative garb, she began to feel more compelled than ever to change course. Additionally, she maintains that her husband should be the only individual to see her body so openly (Bisutti married right before beating out 10,000 other contestants in the well-publicized model search).

‘SPREAD THE WORD’: ON TUESDAY BECK WILL EXPOSE THE DISTURBING TRUTH BEHIND THE VIOLENCE ON US-MEXICO BORDER
 

“There is going to be hell to pay in the future.”

Those haunting words by a former DEA chief about our painfully vulnerable borders ring of truth — a truth you will not find in the mainstream media — and head straight to the heart of the matter Glenn Beck will discuss on Tuesday night’s episode of The Glenn Beck Program on GBTV.

During his Monday evening broadcast, Glen delivered viewers a sneak peak at what he warns will be a disturbing yet vitally important segment that examines the breeding grounds of “rape, murder and dismemberment” along the U.S.-Mexico border. Without sugar coating, Glenn promises to unveil the real world of Mexican drug cartels, their collaboration with known middle east terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and the “systematic evil” running rampant, east to west, along our compromised borders with Mexico.

Glenn explains that Americans have been mislead, by both the Bush and Obama administrations, into believing that the situation along the border is far better than it truly is. He will also map out how and why these insurgents ultimate goal is to cause great harm to America.

Glenn will reveal what network television has yet to — the truth about the drug cartels who are in bed with Islamic extremists

Two American brothers of a Mexican casino magnate who is wanted in the U.S. on drug and fraud charges have been making large contributions to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign, The New York Times reports.

The casino owner, Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, whose nickname is "Pepe," fled bail in Iowa in 1994 and remains wanted on drug and fraud charges. He has been linked to violence and corruption in Mexico, the Times reports. 

The State Department in 2009 said he may have been involved in the assassination of a business rivals and making illegal campaign donations to Mexican officials.

Meanwhile, his brothers and other family members since last year have been making significant donations to the Obama campaign,  totaling more than $200,000.  When The New York Times asked the Obama campaign about the Cardonas, officials said they were unaware of the brother in Mexico, and late in the day told the Times they were returning all money.

Bolton: Egypt Situation Approaching 'Hostage Crisis'
 

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton says the situation in Egypt, where authorities announced Monday 19 Americans and 24 other employees of nonprofit groups will be tried on accusations they illegally used foreign funds to foment unrest in the country, is “approaching a kind of hostage crisis.” Bolton also told Fox News the Obama administration is doing “precious little” to resolve the predicament.

“They have now made it plain they will charge them — I wouldn’t place any money on the odds of a fair trial in Egypt. I certainly wouldn’t want to see them in an Egyptian jail,” Bolton told Fox’s Greta Van Susteren. “So I think the situation is approaching a kind of hostage crisis here. And from all that we can see behind the scenes — which is where the activity should be — the administration has done precious little to protect these Americans.

“I think the fact is that the government of Egypt — and it’s not just the military here — I think you have to take into account the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament sees a weak, indecisive president,” he said. “This is a way to make political points in the Egyptian context. And they are apparently not afraid of what the U.S. reaction will be — that is a prescription for bad news.”

Turning to Syria, Bolton noted the administration has misjudged President Bashar Assad’s determination to use violence against protesters of his regime “from the beginning” and said China and Russia’s vetoes of a U.N. resolution condemning the government in Damascus were “entirely predictable.”

Former Tucson Drug Enforcement Administration chief Tony Coulson told The Daily Caller that Attorney General Eric Holder either knew guns were walking during Operation Fast and Furious, or should have known about the deadly practice.

“[Fast and Furious] was driven locally and it was driven from Arizona, from the ground up, I mean it was not much oversight,” Coulson said in a phone interview. “And, I mean, I can only speak to the reporting, but people all the way up to the attorney general knew what was going on.”

Coulson, who ran the DEA’s Tucson office during Fast and Furious’ implementation, told TheDC he learned that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was letting guns walk back in 2009 or 2010. He said he learned this from people who were working in the Phoenix Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. He didn’t know it was called “Fast and Furious,” but said it was widely known guns were walking.

The office of the Chief of Chaplains of the U.S. Army forbade Catholic chaplains from reading, in Sunday masses, a letter about a controversial Obamacare mandate from the Catholic Church’s military archbishop. The move, which amounts to the head of Roman Catholic military chaplains calling the Obama administration un-American, will set the stage for a philosophical conflict between Catholic soldiers and their commander-in-chief.

In the forbidden letter, Archbishop Timothy Broglio

encouraged Catholics in military congregations to disobey a federal government mandate — part of President Obama’s health care overhaul — requiring Catholic employers to provide health coverage that includes “sterilization , abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception.”

“[T]he Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” Archbishop Broglio had written, “denying Catholics our Nation’s first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty.”

‘I CHOSE THE GUN’: NETHERLANDS’ GEN. GIVES PASSIONATE DEFENSE OF MILITARY

Peter van Uhm is the Netherlands’ chief of defense. He knows the art of war. But despite being a man of the sword, he’s not a bloodthirsty soldier with an insatiable desire to kill as some would like to characterize those in the military. Instead, he is a distinguished man with a craft. And in an inspiring TED talk recently, he explained why he “chose the gun.” And he even brought one on stage.

“Ladies and gentleman, I share your goals,” he said while holding a rifle. “I share the goals of the speakers you heard before. I did not choose to take up the pen, the brush, the camera. I chose this instrument. I chose the gun.”

“Let us cherish the fact that most of you have never been close to a gun,” he added. Why? “It means the Netherlands is a peaceful country. The Netherlands is not at war. It means soldiers are not needed to patrol our streets.”

Residents and businesses in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C., are banding together through their neighborhood association to install surveillance cameras pointed toward public spaces in an effort to deter crime and provide video evidence should criminal activity occur.

The Washington Times reports that the Citizen’s Association of Georgetown will install cameras on private property to capture footage of sidewalks and streets, after a test of the system was completed on one block using three cameras paid for by residents.

But as the group moves forward with this plan, privacy concerns have surfaced among some of its members and advocacy groups, especially as the group figures out protocol for when footage will be viewed and by whom.

The battle over the Obama administration’s contraception mandate continues to heat up. On Monday, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, made some bold proclamations regarding just how hard the Catholic Church plans to fight the government’s requirement that religious-affiliated schools and organizations cover contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.

“Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church,” said Donohue. “This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions, and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets.”

Here, Donohue is potentially calling for Catholics and supporters of religious freedom to join in peaceful protest against the mandate. Similar action (peaceful marches and events) has been taken in New York City, where religious groups have converged to fight a local ban on the use of public schools for worship.

Ed Note:  This is a battle that every Pro-Life American must be involved in.  Forcing us to help murder Children is no different than the orders received by Nazi Soldiers who were ordered to kill the Jews.  the difference is that Hitler was stopped after murdering six million Jews - This holocaust has claimed the lives of fifty million.  I cannot and will not succumb to this the tyranny of being forced to murder a baby.  Obama is insane - He has become a seditionist and both his loyalties and sanity need to be put on trial.

The FBI has been paying closer attention to “sovereign citizen” extremists around the country out of concerns that they will react violently when they interact with government officials. But if you dig deeper, the FBI’s attention raises questions about why focus on this group as opposed to others.

But first, whos are sovereign citizens? They’re a mixed bag. Some reject their U.S. citizenship and don’t recognize government authority, like laws and taxes. But others don’t, and are more concerned with private property. The website Sovereigncitizens.org explains:

Our goal is to educate and inform the American public about the very real threat to the United States of America as we have known it – coming from many different institutions that make up our government and policy infrastructure.  We hope to teach those who wish to remain free how to recognize this threat and disarm it in their communities.

We do NOT endorse non-payment of taxes or violence to achieve these changes. We do NOT endorse giving up a social security number and we do NOT endorse violence against the police or the government. [Emphasis added]

In January, we reported about the Colorado woman who was ordered by a district court judge to comply with prosecutors’ wishes and decrypt her laptop, a ruling that defense lawyers say violates her Fifth Amendment rights. Now, Wired reports Ramona Fricosu might have conveniently forgotten her password.

Wired writes:

The authorities seized the Toshiba laptop from defendant Ramona Fricosu in 2010 with a court warrant while investigating alleged mortgage fraud. Ruling that the woman’s Fifth Amendment rights against compelled self-incrimination would not be breached, U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ordered the woman in January to decrypt the laptop

“It’s very possible to forget passwords,” the woman’s attorney, Philip Dubois, said in a telephone interview. “It’s not clear to me she was the one who set up the encryption on this drive. I don’t know if she will be able to decrypt it.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, following a recent anti-piracy legislative debacle with SOPA and PIPA, will lead his second effort of 2012 to push Internet-regulating legislation, this time in the form of a new cybersecurity bill. The expected bill is the latest attempt by the Democrats to broadly expand the authority of executive branch agencies over the Internet.

Details about the bill remain shrouded in secrecy. Clues available to the public suggest that the bill might be stronger than President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity proposal, which was released in May 2011. Reid said that he would bring the bill — expected to come out of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, chaired by Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman — to the floor during the first Senate work period of 2012.

A classified meeting behind closed doors in October 2011 between key Senate committee leaders with jurisdiction over cybersecurity and White House officials, took place at the request of the Obama administration. Lieberman, in an interview with The Hill in October, said that past Senate cybersecurity bills were considerably stronger than the White House proposal.

Democratic partisans denounce job-creating Alabama immigration reform
 

Diversity advocates are bombarding Alabama with adjectives.

Left-wing groups are trying to intimidate companies into joining them in lobbying against the state’s successful and popular immigration reform law, which has already prompted a large number of illegal immigrants to flee the state.

The reform has also opened up jobs for thousands of Americans and also helped cut the state’s unemployment rate.

The anti-Alabama campaign complements a broad effort by President Barack Obama to spur turnout by Hispanic supporters for his November re-election effort.

The popular reform, dubbed HB56, is “a travesty of justice … a debacle … an assault of the civil rights of Latinos,” claimed Janet Murguia, CEO of the National Council of La Raza.

Although the bipartisan law has helped many African-Americans find jobs vacated by illegal workers, NAACP Senior Vice President for Advocacy Hilary Shelton condemned it as “a misguided, heinous and racially and ethnically discriminatory law.”

Greece’s coalition government has finally agreed to cut civil service jobs, announcing 15,000 positions would go this year, amid mounting international pressure to agree on austerity measures needed to secure major new debt agreements.

The announcement Monday signals a shift in Greece’s policy, as state jobs have so far been protected during the country’s acute financial crisis, which started about two years ago. Public Sector Reform Minister Dimitris Reppas said the job cuts would be carried out under a new law that allows such firings.

Naturally, this hasn’t gone over well with the unions.

Unions have called a 24-hour general strike for Tuesday, in response to the new austerity measures, while about 4,000 protesters joined protest rallies organized in central Athens by left-wing opposition parties.

Greece is racing to push through the tough reforms – which have yet to be agreed to by Greece’s coalition partners – to clinch a €130 billion ($170 billion) bailout deal from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and avoid a March default on its bond repayments.

During an appearance on Hannity’s America, Ann Coulter shared her view that Mitt Romney is the “most conservative” candidate left out of the four and thus, conservatives “should be celebrating” the notion that he could become the Republican nominee.   Coulter heaped on the praise, calling Romney “appealing” and “gentlemanly” in addition to comparing him to conservative icon Ronald Reagan.

 Mediaite adds: 

President Barack Obama’s deputies announced late Monday night that they would help so-called “super PACs” raise unlimited amounts of political cash from wealthy Americans to support his November campaign, following several months of disappointing fundraising efforts.

Obama has loudly — and often — opposed super PACs. His campaign manager justified the about-face as a defensive measure.

“We decided to do this because we can’t afford for the work you’re doing in your communities, and the grassroots donations you give to support it, to be destroyed by hundreds of millions of dollars in [GOP] negative ads,” said a late-night email from campaign manager Jim Messina.

“The stakes are too important to play by two different sets of rules,” he said in a 11:17 p.m. mass mailing sent out after the publication deadlines for many morning newspapers had passed.

The announcement provides tacit permission from Obama for many wealthy Democratic supporters in the high-tech, media and culture sectors to write huge checks to Democratic super PACs. Those funds will likely be used to launch negative TV ads against the GOP’s eventual presidential nominee.

In what can be described as another “Oh, that Joe Biden!” moment, the Vice President admitted before a crowd of students at Florida State University Monday morning that government intervention in the free market and providing subsidies for students to attend college has led to an increase in college tuition.

“Good morning Mr. Vice President,” one Florida State student began during a Q&A session, “I was wondering how do you feel about the idea that government subsidies and interference with the free market, for example, by artificially increasing availability of student loans is at least partially responsible for rising tuition costs.”

“And now we‘re facing a possible student loan bubble and subsequent collapse just as we’re coming out of the housing crisis,” the student said.

“Well, say the first part of your question again about how we’re artificially creating what?” Vice President Joe Biden asked.

“By manipulating variables in the free market and giving out government subsidies that maybe is partially responsible for rising tuition costs,” the student clarified.

Ed Note:  The Communists in Russia had their "Uncle Joe" we have ours.  Uncle Joe Biden

“In another setback for President Obama’s clean energy loan programs, the recipient of more than a half-billion dollars in federal loans is laying off workers at their Delaware and California operations [emphasis added],” Bryan Tau of Politico reports.

Fisker Automotive, a California-based electric car company, is laying off an “undisclosed number” of staff to try to reserve enough capital in order to qualify for more federal help from the Department of Energy, according to a Delaware state development official.

Wait a minute. The Fisker Automotive?

That’s right, that Fisker Automotive: a company backed by an Al Gore-associated venture capital firm that was awarded a $529 million federal loan guarantee in April, 2010.

This is the same government-assisted automaker that outsourced manufacturing jobs to Finland because, “There was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle,” the car company’s founder and namesake told ABC News. ”They don’t exist here.”

Now they are laying off workers in both Delaware and California.

Heritage Foundation celebrates Reagan’s birthday with Facebook app

Monday was President Ronald Reagan’s 101st birthday, and the Heritage Foundation launched a Facebook app using the new OpenGraph technology to commemorate the occasion.

The app allows users to write messages to Reagan — yes, to the late President Reagan — and wish him a happy birthday. Heritage ran a “soft launch” of the app last Tuesday. As of late Monday evening, Heritage had collected 5,367 signatures with the app.

Heritage communications director Rory Cooper told The Daily Caller that the Washington, D.C. think tank was looking to commemorate the event in a manner different from the previous year’s centenary celebration.

“We worked with Facebook to make sure we could get the OpenGraph technology in time for Reagan’s birthday,” said Cooper. ”They were great about understanding what we were looking to do.”

Click Here To See "Missing The Gipper" done the weekend of  his death.

Over the weekend, you may have missed an epic debate that aired on FOX News between Annie Laurie Gaylor, the co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) and Jordan Sekulow, the executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).

The two couldn’t stand further apart from one another on the ideological and theological spectrum, which was illustrated when they clashed in a tense on-air debate over the presence of a Jesus statue on federal land in Montana. In addition to this subject, the two tussled over the presence of Moses in the U.S. Supreme Court as well.

The situation was so intense that Gaylor, clearly overwhelmed by Sekulow’s opinions on church-state issues, resorted to calling her opponent “a bully” who misinforms the public.

There’s a reason FOX chose to bring these individuals in to debate the Jesus statue. To begin, the FFRF, an atheist group, has been the main force behind an attempt to have the relic removed from federal lands, while the ACLJ, a right-leaning, pro-faith legal non-profit, has been the primary source working against the atheist groups’ actions (the latter organization helped gather 70,000 signatures in support of the statue).

Heading to Minnesota and Missouri, Romney campaign swings at Santorum

Coming off weeks of alternately attacking Newt Gingrich and President Barack Obama, the Romney campaign switched gears on Monday and came out swinging against former Sen. Rick Santorum, who looks to be Romney’s toughest competition in the three primary contests on Tuesday.

Minnesota and Colorado hold their caucuses on Tuesday, and Missouri holds a non-binding primary that day. Polls suggest that Santorum could perform strongly, especially in Missouri and Minnesota.

In Minnesota, Santorum actually edges Romney 29 percent to 27 percent. In Colorado, he holds a distant second place 14 points behind Romney, but leads Gingrich by 8 points, suggesting that he may be taking the place of the former speaker of the House as the Romney alternative. In Missouri, Gingrich is not on the ballot — having not filed the necessary paperwork — leaving an opening for Santorum.

Schoen & Blakeman: Voters Warm to Romney; Gingrich Must Reorganize

GOP front-runner Mitt Romney coasted to victory in the Nevada caucuses with all the suspense of a casino card dealer taking on a group of tourists from the Midwest in a hand of five-card stud.

“I think it’s obviously good news for Romney, but it has already been factored into the equation,” observed political analyst and Democratic pollster Doug Schoen in an exclusive interview with Newsmax Saturday night. “It is more a ratification of something that was expected than any fundamental change in the race.”

GOP strategist and Fox News contributor Bradley A. Blakeman tells Newsmax that the Nevada vote was significant in terms of helping the former Massachusetts governor overcome questions about whether he is conservative enough to carry the GOP torch into the general election

“I would not look to the U.S. Constitution if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012,” Ginsburg said in the interview, which aired on Jan. 30 on Al-Hayat TV.

Her comments have stunned writers across the conservative blogosphere, though many major media outlets have not given much attention to it.

In the interview, she argued that the United States has the “oldest written constitution still in force in the world,” so instead “you should certainly be aided by all the constitution-writing that has gone one since the end of World War II.”

“I might look at the constitution of South Africa,” Ginsburg said. “That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary.”
 

Poll: Anger Over Obama's Birth-Control Policy Spans All Religious Groups

Roman Catholics aren’t the only ones outraged about the Obama administration’s mandate that religious-affiliated institutions provide birth-control insurance coverage for their employees. The objections to the new policy span all religious groups — and even include people who say they are non-religious, according to a ConservativeHQ (CHQ) poll.

“The message is the same across all religious groupings and beliefs: This is none of the government’s business,” CHQ observed in announcing its results.

Although the new Department of Health and Human Services policy under Obamacare exempts those directly involved in religious work, such as churches, temples, mosques, etc., from the requirement, it orders religious affiliates such as hospitals, social service agencies, and colleges to provide the coverage.

The CHQ poll asked: “A new U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy requires religious organizations to provide coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraceptives in their health plans, and religious hospitals to provide those services, even when some or all of those practices violate their conscience. Is this a proper extension of government power over religious institutions?"

Leaders with Ginni Thomas: Arnaud de Borchgrave

Arnaud de Borchgrave has a unique take on world affairs, journalism and national security.

The 85-year-old, who has worked as a journalist for 62 years, writes two columns a week, leveraging his huge network of contacts around the world. He also manages a department focused on transnational threats at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a public policy institute focused on national security and international affairs.

In an interview with The Daily Caller’s Ginni Thomas, de Borchgrave discusses what he believes to be the biggest threats to the nation, what new breakthroughs he is seeing around the corner and much more.

What is the biggest threat to the U.S. that people do not recognize sufficiently?

The Obama administration's decision to require Catholic-affiliated institutions to cover contraceptives and sterilization in their employee healthcare plans — a practice that violates a core Catholic belief — is turning into a major political miscalculation for Democrats in the midst of an election year.

The ruling, which could burden universities such as Notre Dame and hospitals with huge fines if they don't comply, has prompted anger among some liberal and progressive Catholics, as well as traditional conservatives and evangelicals.

They say it forces them to choose between a moral and social question — providing medical care in many communities to the poorest of the poor. Catholic hospitals roughly care for one-sixth of the U.S. population annually, according to several studies.

The ruling has been the subject of two letters read on Sundays from Catholic pulpits around the nation. And it's stirring anger in key constituencies in vital swing states such as Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, where a concentration of decades-old Catholic hospitals and universities provides vital services in many cities and towns.

Giuliani Still Won't Endorse Romney, Changed on 'Virtually Everything'

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani still isn't endorsing Mitt Romney for president.

Despite Romney's win in Florida and Nevada this weekend, Giuliani told Bob Schieffer on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday he still had reservations about Romney.

And Giuliani suggested serious issues divide Gingrich and Romney.

Here's the key take from Giuliani:
"There is a difference. They have some big differences over Romneycare. They have big differences over taxes.

"Newt's plan on taxes is better than Gov. Romney's plan, it's . . . bolder.

"Newt is much more willing to make dramatic changes in the way the government operates."

Tim Tebow Hints at a Future in Politics

Denver Broncos quarterback and devout evangelical Christian Tim Tebow is hinting that one day he may seek a post-football second career in politics.

In an interview broadcast Saturday night, the unabashed religious conservative said he could one day explore politics "if it's something I care about."

"I don't know -- it could be something in my future," Tebow said, speaking to Dave Feherty -- host of the Golf Channel's "Feherty Live." "If it's something I care about, possibly."

“A lot of people are praying for me, a lot of people are encouraging me,” Tebow continued. “Ultimately I know that my goal and my platform through the game of football isn’t just to score touchdowns and win games. You know, it’s about being a great role model and setting an example for the next generation. My ultimate goal is to be an athlete that some mom or dad can look at their son and daughter and say, ‘That’s someone who’s trying to do it the right way, that’s someone who’s trying to live with character."

Though Tebow has sparked controversy on the left over his strong religious views, conservative pundits and politicians have embraced the University of Florida graduate. Texas governor Rick Perry compared himself to the athlete during a debate, saying "I hope I am the Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses."

In a supremely cold move, on the eve of the Super Bowl the New England Patriots released wide receiver Tiquan Underwood Saturday.

ESPN is reporting that Underwood was not cut due to disciplinary reasons.

His roster spot will be taken by defensive lineman Alex Silvestro who was promoted from the practice squad.

Underwood in recent days made news for cutting the Patriot’s logo into the back of his hi-top fade.

The — now — former Patriots wide receiver took to Twitter Saturday night but expressed no negative feelings toward the Patriots.

Fox News Lauds Romney Winn in Florida: 

Mitt Romney heads into the next phase of the Republican presidential nominating contest carrying a big win under his belt, after reasserting his frontrunner status with a crushing victory over Newt Gingrich in Florida.

However, Romney and the rest of the Republican candidates will have to fine-tune their approach as they enter the bevy of contests scattered all across the country in February, starting in Nevada this Saturday. 

The head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is threatening to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress if he fails to comply with congressional subpoenas for documents. 

Holder has until Feb. 9 to comply.
 

In a four-page letter to Holder, Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., claims the Department of Justice has "misrepresented facts and misled Congress," which began its investigation of Operation Fast and Furious one year ago.

Issa wrote that Holder's "actions lead us to conclude that the department is actively engaged in a cover-up" because it refuses to comply with previous subpoenas. 

"If the department continues to obstruct the congressional inquiry by not providing documents and information, this committee will have no alternative but to move forward with proceedings to hold you in contempt of Congress," Issa warned in the letter. 

RADIO HOST LOSES IT WITH FEMALE GOP CANDIDATE: ‘GET YOUR STUPID A**’ OUT & I‘M SCARED YOUR ’WHITENESS’ MIGHT RUB OFF ON ME

What you’re about to hear is stunning. Get ready.

Here’s how MRC explains the exchange between a Memphis radio host, Thaddeus Matthews, and a GOP candidate for Congress, Charlotte Bergmann:

Researchers, as part of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) under the Department of Homeland Security, are trying to come up with a way to better predict where and when terrorist attacks would happen on U.S. soil.

To start, the researchers from the University of Maryland and University of Massachusetts-Boston mapped all events considered terrorism since 1970 to 2008 in the United States (below). This established areas they deemed terrorism “hot spots” but also revealed that terrorism is actually “widely dispersed”. So widely dispersed that every state has experienced some act of terrorism in some form, according to the report. The report defines a hot spot as an area where more than the average number of terrorist attacks have taken place — the average for the U.S. is six.

LONDON (AP) — Four British men radicalized by a U.S.-born Muslim cleric pleaded guilty on Wednesday to involvement in an al-Qaida inspired plot to spread terror and cause economic damage by bombing the London Stock Exchange at Christmastime.

The men were among nine defendants facing trial in London over an alleged plot to attack the exchange and several other high-profile targets in December 2010. All had initially pleaded not guilty to all the charges against them.

But on Wednesday four of the defendants pleaded guilty at Woolwich Crown Court to involvement in the Stock Exchange plot, and the five other British Muslims to lesser charges.

Mohammed Chowdhury, 21; Shah Rahman, 28; Gurukanth Desai, 30; and Abdul Miah, 25, all admitted preparing for acts of terrorism by planning to plant an improvised explosive device in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange.

Israel’s diplomatic and military correspondents got quite the surprise watching the live feed of the Senate Intelligence Committee when Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) revealed the head of the Mossad had made a secret visit to Washington earlier this week to hold talks with senior U.S. officials.

The item led the “Mabat” main newscast on Israel’s government-run network IBA on Tuesday evening and was the headline on Ha’aretz newspaper’s website.

The travels of Mossad Director Tamir Pardo are usually kept secret and in fact, the name of the head of the Mossad and Shin Bet [Israel’s version of the FBI] were up until a few years ago kept secret from the public.

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) has made headlines for criticizing Democratic leaders including President Barack Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

“This is a battlefield that we must stand upon. And we need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and my dear friend, chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain’t on the table,” West said last Saturday at a Lincoln Day Dinner in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Rep. West went on to say that Democratic leaders should take their message of “economic dependency” and “get the hell out of the United States of America.”

Apparently, his comments proved too much for The Five’s co-host Bob Beckel.

“I’m going to try to be as calm here as I possibly can here in deference to my friends here at this table,” Beckel said.

“In my 30 years of politics, I have never heard anything more disgraceful in my life. I think that Allen West owes an apology to a lot of people. He’s lucky to have that seat in the first place. I’ll tell you this, Mr. West; When you start shooting your mouth off like that – and I admire the fact that you were in the military and you served your country. I understand that,” Beckel said.

Ed Note:  In the first place these anti-American leftists advocating the demise of the Constitution should get out of the country.  Two, Beckel has said on many occasions that real Christians and Constitutionalists are un American.  Very little difference in the two statements accept that  when Beckel calls people un-American who are to the right of Stalin, he is calling them traitors. 

James O’Keefe strikes back at critics
 

Conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe vowed in an interview with The Daily Caller on Tuesday to continue making sting videos to expose waste and fraud in government despite criticism from liberals who have attacked him over the tactics he uses.

O’Keefe and his group Project Veritas most recently made news in January by producing a video during the New Hampshire primary showing how easy it is for someone to commit voter fraud.

“Absolutely,” O’Keefe said, when asked if observers can expect more videos soon from his organization.

He had tough words for the liberal activists who claim he and his operatives broke the law with their New Hampshire video by successfully obtaining ballots in the name of dead voters in the state because there is no voter identification law.

“There is a long tradition of turning people who expose the ineptitude of government into political prisoners,” he said. “But it’s just un-American.”

A coalition of liberal groups including People For the American Way, Daily Kos and Granite State Progress on Thursday plan to submit more than 100,000 petitions to New Hampshire’s attorney general asking him to investigate O’Keefe for the video.

Ed Note:  Typical left - don't worry about the corruption O'Keefe exposed - just prosecute the investigator for getting to the truth.  We must find a way to stop these people they are insane.

DeMint: Just say ‘no’ to compromise

South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint is just saying “no” to compromise with liberals.

“I can guarantee you the [Super Bowl] coaches are not telling their players to go out on the field and cooperate and compromise with the other team,” DeMint said at The Heritage Foundation’s Blogger’s Briefing Tuesday, during a discussion about his new book “Now or Never.”

“There is a reason for that, the other team has an opposite goal, they are there to beat you,” he said.

According to the Senate’s most conservative member — as measured by the National Journal — an atmosphere of competition over compromise is as poignant in the nation’s capitol as it has ever been. Compromise, to DeMint, is simply unrealistic.

In the South Carolina senator’s Super Bowl analogy of Washington, the two teams are divided along ideological, yet incompatible lines.

“One team believes in centralized economic and political power, collective planning, concentration here in Washington,” DeMint explained. “The other team — while it has been maybe erratic in supporting those principles we believe in — believes in the decentralized individualistic approach to America. It is very difficult to compromise with another team that does not have the same goal of limited government, individual liberty.”

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley accused President Obama of dictatorial behavior in a floor statement Thursday, saying that his recess appointments were not the first acts he has taken to circumvent the constitutional system of checks and balances.

“President Obama’s decision to bypass the constitutional advice and consent of the Senate is not an isolated incident,” Grassley said, according to prepared remarks. “It is merely the latest escalation in a pattern of contempt for the elected representatives of the American people and the constitutional separation of powers.”

Obama appointed Richard Cordray as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while the Senate was in recess, after the Senate indicated that they would not confirm his nomination.

Grassley accused the president of “usurping legislative powers” by overriding and working around Congress when possible. This, Grassley argues, is in violation of the Constitution.

Obama promises cheap mortgages

President Barrack Obama is set to announce a new package of regulations and draft bills intended to provide cheap or free mortgage refinances to middle-class homeowners across the country.

If implemented, the election-year gambit would reduce mortgage holders’ payments’ by a few hundred dollars per month, according to an administration statement.

The prospect of monthly savings may translate into additional votes for Obama’s 2012 campaign. Approximately 10 million people owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth.

However, those savings would be deducted from banks’ revenues, reducing their funds available for commercial investment needed to spur the economy. Banks’ executives are being pressured to cooperate with the new push, partly because Obama has stepped up federal investigations of banks’ mortgage-selling divisions prior to the crash.

The offer of cheap mortgage refinances is possible because interest rates are already at historic lows, despite huge government borrowing.

A retired U.S. lieutenant general who made comments some consider disparaging to Islam withdrew Monday from speaking at a West Point prayer breakfast after a progressive veterans’ advocacy group — VoteVets.org — along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) asked the Army chief of staff to rescind the invitation.

Last week