Why the LA Times Stopped Carrying Cartoonist Diaz
In his first policy response to the killings of five American troops at a Tennessee reserve center, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter released a memo Thursday that will let more service members carry guns stateside while on base or at more vulnerable satellite offices.
A two-page memo tells service secretaries to review rules and revise as needed to meet security threats. It could mean that more armed security personnel are added to a base or center and that, in some cases, regular personnel are told to carry guns because of a heightened threat environment.
The Islamic State group, based in Syria and Iraq, has put great effort into trying to persuade Muslims via social media to kill U.S. military personnel.
“The tragic shooting on July 16 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, illustrates the continuing threat to DoD personnel in the U.S. homeland posed by Homegrown Violent Extremists,” Mr. Carter wrote. “This incident and the ongoing threat underscore the need for DoD to review its force protection and security policies, and procedures, particularly for off-installation DoD facilities.”
Mr. Carter reminded military leaders that current regulations allow authorized personnel to be armed at recruiting offices, such as the one attacked by Kuwait-born Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez.
Pursued by police, Abdulazeez promptly made his way to a Navy-Marine Corps reserve center, where he gunned down four Marines and one sailor. Police shot and killed Abdulazeez.
The defense secretary said now is the time for the four branches to develop plans for the option of arming personnel, particularly 7,000 recruiting and ROTC stations that have no security and rely on local police.
Mr. Carter said he wants security improved at those sites. “Looking at arming personnel doesn’t mean that’s what the services will ultimately decide,” said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, as quoted by The Associated Press. “But it does tell them that they have, within DOD policy anyway, the existing authority to do that.”
Military personnel are generally not allowed to carry guns on base. That duty is left to security personnel and military police.
“I’m sure that the service chiefs, as they look at this, will be well aware of the constraints that they face in doing this, and that will be part of their plans,” Capt. Davis said.
Rep. Scott E. Rigell, the Virginia Republican who represents the military-rich Tidewater region, sent a letter to Mr. Carter urging him to change policy. “I appreciate and support Secretary Carter’s decision to allow specified service members to carry firearms on military installations as a means of enhanced force protection,” Mr. Rigell said Thursday. “Our nation’s military Secretaries now have until August 21, 2015, to submit their specific policy recommendations to Secretary Carter. The solutions they advance should be comprehensive and equivalent to the known threat posed to our service members. Secretary Carter should move these policy changes forward deliberately and without unnecessary delay. Our service members have the right to defend themselves.”
Mr. Carter’s signed memo said, “I know commanders and other leaders will remain committed to the protection of our dedicated men and women of the all-volunteer force who sacrifice on a daily basis to keep our Nation free.”
Authored by URL of the original posting site: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/07/wow-dnc-chair-freezes-cant-answer-whats-the-difference-between-democrat-party-and-socialist
Things got very awkward today when Chris Matthews asked DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz what the difference was between the modern Democratic Party and Socialism.
We haven’t seen that dazed look since Rachel Dolezal was busted as a fraud.
Wasserman Schultz was speechless. Completely stumped. Couldn’t answer. Then changed the subject.
Because we all know there is no difference between today’s Democrat Party and the radical Socialists in Venezuela or Argentina.
THIS MAY BE THE MOST REVEALING VIDEO YOU WATCH THIS YEAR—
Chris Matthews: Will Sanders speak at the Democrat convention, win or lose? Do you want to have him up there as a Socialist representing the Democratic Party?… You want him up there? You want him on the floor of the convention?
Debbie Wasserman Schulz: Bernie Sanders has been a good Democrat. He caucuses with the Democrats.
Matthews: Should he speak? Speak at prime-time?
Wasserman Schultz: Of course he should speak.
Matthews: In prime-time with everybody watching? (laughing)
Wasserman Schultz: Of course Bernie Sanders should speak…
Matthews: What’s the difference between the Democratic Party and Socialist?
Wasserman Schultz: (Speechless) (Laugh)
Matthews: I used to think there’s a big difference. What do you think it is?
Wasserman Schultz: Wuh… The difference between…
Matthews: Like Democrat Hillary Clinton and Socialist Bernie Sanders?… Well what’s the big difference between the Democrat Party and Socialist. You’re chairman of the Democratic Party. Tell me the difference between you and a Socialist?…
Wasserman Schultz: (She won’t answer) The relevant debate we will be having over the course of this campaign is what’s the difference between a Democrat and a Republican.
Wow!
Even the DNC Chair knows there is NO DIFFERENCE between the Democratic Party and Socialism.
Via News Alert:
Reported by Lindsey Bruce •07/30/2015
This is by far the most disturbing Confederate flag associated crime I have heard yet. One person was killed and five family members were injured in Columbus Ohio. Three male victims were stabbed and a female victim was shot in the neck.
The family flies a large Confederate flag on their porch and reports claim they may have been targeted because of their race. Both of the attackers were black and the family is white.
From NBC4i.com :
Police said two men, 36-year-old Clement Dwight Cooper and 32-year-old Michael Antonio Long had been burglarizing the home when they were surprised by the residents returning home from work.
One of the residents, Tim Bowls said he saw a shadow on the basement steps, thinking it was his brother, but it wasn’t.
“Pointed a gun at him and told him to lay down, then proceeded to beat him with the gun, stabbed him several times and tied him up with an orange extension cord,” said his Aunt Kim. She asked NBC4 not to use her last name. While the two suspects were attacking Bowls his father, mother and brother also came home from work.
“One of them pointed a shotgun up at them and big Tim started wrestling him for the gun so they shot him and then all hell broke loose,” said Kim.
She said six people were fighting in the stairwell and basement, when the mother was shot at close range.
“Jill was shot in the face and neck,” she said.
The Aunt said the family was afraid for about girls sleeping upstairs.
“There were two girls and three small children asleep upstairs they could have killed them.”
They heard the gunshots and call 9-1-1.
“They shot my mother, please, please someone,” said one of the girls.
Columbus police said five family members were injured and taken to two hospitals. Investigators said they found one of the suspects, Cooper dead in the basement.
Investigators are waiting for an autopsy report from the Franklin County Coroner that will reveal how Cooper died. The family is out of the hospital and staying with relatives while they recuperate.
“They are hurting very bad they were beaten pretty bad we are upset, I mean somebody comes in your house you feel violated,” said Kim.
Violent attacks like these are happening far too often. The term “race war” was once only used by racial extremist, now it is becoming more of a reality. Thank God, this family was armed or else the situation could have been even worse. When simply being proud of your heritage can get you killed, something needs to change.
By Jennifer Van Laar (1 day ago)
When students arrive on campus at the University of New Hampshire this fall, they’ll be welcomed with a “Bias-Free Language Guide” to help them in their conversations. Since college campuses have become very concerned with “microaggressions” being committed on their campuses, UNH decided to help their students understand which words might offend others.But, according to Campus Reform:
The university website encourages readers to understand that the guide “is not a means to censor but rather to create dialogues of inclusion where all of us feel comfortable and welcomed.”
For each category, the University makes recommendations that, for the most part, are much longer and contain multiple words. Instead of “poor person,” for instance, the student should say “person who lacks advantages that others have.” Mothering and fathering are frowned upon because they advance gender stereotypes. Instead, one should use “parenting” or “nurturing” because they describe the behavior. “European-American individuals” is the favored term over “Caucasian.” And instead of “healthy,” use “non-disabled individual.”
The purpose is to:
“…not stereotype or demean people based on personal characteristics.”
Students will be able to access the university’s 4,750-word web page to easily understand which words they are supposed to use when conversing with their peers.
Published: 07/11/2015 by 
Greg Corombos
America needs to prepare for a major governmental assault on religious liberty in the wake of the Supreme Court’s marriage ruling, but those standing against the tide can find plenty of inspiration from those who pioneered the concept of religious freedom at the American founding.
Michael Farris is co-founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association and author of “The History of Religious Liberty.” The book details the fierce fight for the religious freedom provisions that eventually emerged in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Farris said history is critical to understand in the wake of the marriage decision and the brand new threats to liberty being advocated on the political left.
The day after the Obergefell v. Hodges decision was handed down, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., told MSNBC she believed religious liberty was a much narrower concept than has been understood for centuries. “Certainly the First Amendment says that in institutions of faith that there is absolute power to, you know, to observe deeply held religious beliefs,” Baldwin said. “But I don’t think it extends far beyond that. We’ve seen the set of arguments play out in issues such as access to contraception.”
She added, “Should it be the individual pharmacist whose religious beliefs guides whether a prescription is filled? In this context, they’re talking about expanding this far beyond our churches and synagogues to businesses and individuals across this country. I think there are clear limits that have been set in other contexts, and we ought to abide by those in this new context across America.”
Farris is dumbfounded at Baldwin’s reading of the First Amendment. “The ignorance of members of Congress and the U.S. Senate never ceases to baffle me. How did they get there in the first place without taking a basic civics course? Or maybe they have and they just don’t believe it,” Farris said. “This senator has just simply walked away from not only the text of the Constitution and the meaning of the Constitution but our great American traditions.”
In response to the court decision, Govs. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, and Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, have announced their states will vigorously protect the religious liberty of the people. Farris applauds the efforts but warns those policies won’t stop all government intrusion into Americans’ lives or the practices of religious institutions. “That’s a good thing. It limits the areas where a church or a school can expect an attack. But a Christian college residing in one of those states can still expect an attack from the IRS or from the accrediting association or from the U.S. Department of Education if they don’t go along with the federal edicts on this,” said Farris, who warned schools and churches would be wise to protect themselves legally now given the dire warnings offered in the dissents to the Obergefell decision. “We have four justices on the Supreme Court effectively warning all the religious institutions, ‘You better do something about this because trouble’s coming.’ I don’t think that’s an idle speculation,” he said. “That’s about as strong of a warning from about as high a source as you can possibly get.”
<div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div>Farris expects the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to provide federal protection for Christian individuals and organizations, but only to the extent that Justice Anthony Kennedy acknowledges it.
Modern history textbooks credit enlightenment thinking for the emergence of religious liberty in America. To Farris, that’s academic fantasy, 
and true scholars have actually debunked that notion. “It’s simply not true,” he said. “I lay out the historical evidence in great detail. One Harvard historian around the 1920s said the evidence that people who are indifferent to religion, that basically is the enlightenment crowd, were the cause of religious liberty is an unsustainable argument. There is simply no evidence for that point.” He added, “It was people who cared very deeply. It was grassroots kinds of Christians fighting establishment kind of Christians who gave us religious liberty for everybody. The battle for religious liberty wasn’t settled on the Mayflower.”
Protections for the free exercise of religion were anything but guaranteed in America. Farris said the colonial government of Virginia teamed with the Anglican Church to punish dissenters as late as the 1770s. In 1776, Virginia’s Declaration of Rights became the first declaration of religious liberty anywhere in the world.
In 1789, Congress approved the Bill of Rights and sent them to the states for approval. That same year, the French Revolution unfolded. The upheaval in the two countries has long been compared, especially as the U.S. moved forward with stability and France subsequently endured the Reign of Terror and the Napoleonic era.
Farris said there are key reasons for the very different results of revolutions rooted in freedom, including America’s much deeper respect for personal religious liberty and vastly different views about the nature of man.
“France believed that man was perfectable and that we could create our own utopia, whereas the American Revolution followed the Christian biblical idea that all men are sinners and that’s why you needed limited government, because you can’t trust any man in government to rule faithfully forever,” he explained.
According to Farris, the greatest parallel between the colonial struggle for religious freedom and today’s cultural battles is where the battle lines are drawn. Religious freedom was not championed by the ruling class. “It was a monumental battle,” he said. “It was the common people, who believed in Jesus, who believed the Bible was the authority for their faith and their life, who really fought the war and won. Many of them paid with their lives.”
Farris said the founding generation should serve as inspiration for the religious freedom fights of this century.
“Common people armed with bravery and faith in God can turn anything around,” he said. “I’ve seen it in my own life through the homeschooling movement. We were outnumbered and outgunned by the teachers’ unions day after day after day. We won battle after battle after battle because (we were) common people armed with the Constitution of the United States and belief in the Word of God.”
By Cathy Burke | Wednesday, 29 Jul 2015URL of the original posting site: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Iran-Deal-GenMartin-Dempsey/2015/07/29/id/659518
The Army’s top general says it was never his military advice that the United States either make a nuclear deal with Iran or face the prospect of war — a haunting choice President Barack Obama has claimed Congress now faces in its scrutiny of a pact with Tehran. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate hearing Wednesday on the deal that he never presented Obama with an either-or choice for a nuclear proliferation agreement, the National Review reports. “At no time did that come up in our conversation nor did I make that comment,” Dempsey told Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst. “I can tell you that we have a range of options and I always present them.” 
“It’s not a choice the president wants to make, but it’s the inevitable consequence of them moving to assert what they believe is their right in the furtherance of their program,” he insisted, the Review reports.
Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker called Dempsey’s brief opening statement a “tepid endorsement” of the accord and “damning disagreement with faint praise,” but Dempsey disagreed, saying he supported the deal, Defense News reports. Instead, Dempsey called his assessment neither “tepid nor enthusiastic, but pragmatic,” adding his input in the deal was sought “episodically,” and that his final recommendation was offered weeks before talks concluded.
Dempsey also told New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte that he advised Obama not to agree to the lifting of sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program and other arms.
“Yes, and I used the phrase ‘as long as possible’ and then that was the point at which the negotiation continued — but yes, that was my military advice,” he said, the Review reports.
Yet he seemed caught off guard when Ayotte pointed out the “plain language” of the bargain requires the United States “to help strengthen Iran’s ability to protect against sabotage of its nuclear program” — even to the point of warning Iran if Israel tries to launch cyberattacks against the program. “I hadn’t thought about that, senator, and I would like to have the opportunity to do so,” he responded, the Review reports.
Congress, which has begun a 60-day review of the deal, is expected to vote in September. If the Republican-controlled Congress passes a resolution of disapproval for the deal, Obama has said he will veto it.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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by Charlie Spiering 30 Jul 2015MANCHESTER, N.H. – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie indicates that he 
was appalled by the investigative project surrounding Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of body parts of unborn children, suggesting that a criminal investigation was certainly possible as a result of the video tapes that have been released so far. When asked about whether or not Planned Parenthood should be criminally prosecuted as a result of the investigation, Christie admitted as a former federal prosecutor that it was “certainly worthy of inquiry.”“If I were a U.S. Attorney, would that be something worthy of inquiry? Sure,” he said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News in New Hampshire. “And then you see where the facts lead.”
He said that he didn’t know all the facts about the pro-abortion corporations’ practices.
Christie said that he had personally watched the first two video tapes released by the Center for Medical Progress, but admitted that he hadn’t yet seen the third video, which raised even more questions about the ethics of the pro-abortion corporation. He said that pro-life activists were right to be morally outraged by the material revealed in the videos.
“This is an awfully serious issue, they’re absolutely right,” he said. “The American people should be sickened by what’s being talked about on there, the harvesting of body parts, I just think it’s sickening. That’s a life.”
Christie has vetoed funds for Planned Parenthood six differrent times in six years in New Jersey, and vowed to do the same if elected president. “I just don’t think that the organization has any business getting federal money,” calling that decision an “easy call as president.”
Democrats, he pointed out, appeared afraid to discuss the tapes, because they couldn’t defend the activity that was exposed by the investigation.
Posted on July 30, 2015URL of the original posting site: http://clashdaily.com/2015/07/trump-reveals-his-pick-for-ag-liberals-will-hate-this
Did Trump really just say this? Oh yes he did. Conservatives will love this and liberals will cry.
July 29, 2015 10:12pm The group behind the release of recent undercover videos which purport to show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of aborted fetus parts issued a statement Wednesday after a court barred the release of some new footage. The Los Angeles Superior Court ruled Tuesday that the Center for Medical Progress is prohibited from releasing footage taken at a restaurant in May of high-ranking officials from StemExpress.
In a statement, the Center for Medical Progress blasted StemExpress and accused them of attempting to “suppress free speech.”
Here’s the full statement:
StemExpress, a for-profit company partnered with over 30 abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood, to harvest and sell aborted baby parts and provide a “financial benefit” to Planned Parenthood clinics, is attempting to use meritless litigation to cover-up this illegal baby parts trade, suppress free speech, and silence the citizen press reporting on issues of burning concern to the American public. They are not succeeding—their initial petition was rejected by the court, and their second petition was eviscerated to a narrow and contingent order about an alleged recording pending CMP’s opportunity to respond. The Center for Medical Progress follows all applicable laws in the course of our investigative journalism work and will contest all attempts from Planned Parenthood and their allies to silence our First Amendment rights and suppress investigative journalism.
On Wednesday, David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress appeared on TheBlaze TV’s “Dana” and called for Planned Parenthood to disclose how much it has profited from its practice.
“We don’t have a good way of knowing because Planned Parenthood’s baby part sales are buried so deep down within their organization that some of the national leadership of Planned Parenthood doesn’t even fully know the scope of it,” he said. “The national office has for many years now chosen to have a ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policy about the fetal tissue sales of the affiliates in order to … keep themselves insulated it from it legally, even though they’re still aware of it.”
The Senate is expected to vote next week on a motion aimed at defunding Planned Parenthood.
Ann Coulter | 
Washington has tried to sneak through three amnesties in the last decade — in 2006, 2007 and 2013. Each time, amnesty had the full support of the media, the White House, leaders of both political parties, big campaign donors and lobbyists.
Couldn’t Republicans spare themselves the embarrassment of having to say they “learned their lesson” by learning the same lesson of the last 17 guys to push amnesty?
The McCain-Kennedy amnesty passed the Senate in 2006, instantly inspiring an outpouring of voter anger so virulent that it shut down the congressional switchboards. Despite enormous opposition from voters, lame-duck President Bush cockily told reporters, “I’ll see you at the bill signing” — the first step to ushering in a Democratic Congress in the upcoming midterm elections.
By contrast, House Majority Leader John Boehner told a group of Republicans that he had “promised the president today that I wouldn’t say anything bad about this piece of s— bill.” Weeks later, the chief sponsor of the POS bill, Sen. John McCain, voted for a fence with no hint of amnesty.
Contrary to liberals’ claim that they had finally won the hearts and minds of the people in opposing the Iraq War, leading to the Democrats’ 2006 sweep of Congress, a Washington Post/ABC News poll taken about a month into Bush’s incessant yammering about amnesty showed that more Americans approved of Bush’s handling of the Iraq War than approved of his handling of immigration.
In nearly every poll on Bush’s handling of immigration that year, about 60 percent of the public disapproved and only 25 percent approved.
After Bush’s party was wiped out in the midterm elections, the Democratic-controlled Congress seemed certain to pass amnesty. Bush still wanted it. So did the Democrats. So did the media. So did the donors.
You know how people always say “you can’t beat something with nothing.” When it comes to amnesty, “nothing” outpolls “something” every time.
In early June of 2007, a Rasmussen poll found that support for “no bill” beat support for the Senate immigration bill by 5-to-3. By the end of the week, “no bill” was winning 2-to-1, with 53 percent against amnesty and only 26 percent for it.
Public opposition was so vociferous, the Senate didn’t even vote on the 2007 amnesty.
Then, a few years later, erstwhile tea party darling Sen. Marco Rubio burst on the scene deciding he was going to be the one to enact amnesty! Teaming up with everybody’s favorite senator, Chuck Schumer, Rubio spent a full year zealously pushing amnesty, which entailed his telling huge, whopping lies about it.
He blanketed the airwaves, convinced Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin to support the bill, toured all the Sunday morning talk shows. It worked! The Senate passed Rubio’s amnesty bill. It was Rubio’s only accomplishment in Washington. But then, unfortunately for him, the public found out about it and, once again, an amnesty bill died. (When will these so-called “voters” stop with their infernal meddling?)
The next thing we knew, Rubio was swearing to attendees at the March 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference that what “I’ve learned is you can’t even have a conversation” about “immigration reform” until “future illegal immigration will be controlled,” calling it “the single biggest lesson of the last two years.” A few months later, he told The Wall Street Journal that he wouldn’t vote for his own bill if it came up again.
One-time GOP star, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, was suckered into supporting the Schumer-Rubio amnesty by a mere 20-minute conversation with Schumer. Not content to support the intensely hated amnesty bill, Christie also signed a bill granting illegal aliens in-state tuition. But just before announcing his run for the presidency this year, Christie claimed that he, too, had “learned” more about the issue. He now claims he considers a path to citizenship “extreme” and accused Hillary Clinton of “pandering” by supporting a path to citizenship. I’d say Christie had to eat his own words on immigration, but that would be a cheap shot.
As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee denounced a bill to require verification of citizenship before registering to vote or applying for public benefits, saying it “inflames those who are racist and bigots.” (Voters LOVE being called bigots!)
He made the weird claim that companies like Toyota or Nestle might refuse to invest in Arkansas if the bill became law, by sending the message that, “If you don’t look like us, talk like us and speak like us, we don’t want you.” It might also send the message that we don’t want foreigners voting in our elections or collecting public services meant for Americans.
But whenever he runs for president, Huckabee becomes a born-again Minuteman! His current presidential website denounces “the Washington establishment” for trying to “reward illegal immigrants with amnesty and citizenship,” adding, “Without a secure border, nothing matters.”
12:24 PM, Jul 29, 2015 • By DANIEL HALPERURL of the original posting site: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/kerry-we-cant-reveal-contents-secret-side-deals-american-people_1000761.html
Secretary of State John Kerry testified on Capitol Hill today the U.S. government will not be revealing the contents of secret side deals with Iran to the American people. Senator Tom Cotton wanted to know why it can’t be made public.
Watch the exchange:
“I’d like to stick with you, Secretary Kerry,” Cotton said. “Why can’t we confirm or deny the content of these agreements in public? Why is this classified? It’s not a sensitive U.S. government document.”
“Because we respect the process of the IAEA and we don’t have their authorization to reveal what is a confidential agreement between them and another country,” said Kerry.
Cotton said, “So the ayatollahs will know what they agreed to but not the American people?”
Kerry said that members of Congress would be able to learn about it in a classified briefing.
Posted on July 30, 2015URL fo the original posting site: http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/its-another-boy-4th-planned-parenthood-video-is-more-gruesome-than-the-last-watch
And people find killing a lion is more offensive than this. Ridiculous.
By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times – Tuesday, July 28, 2015 
The IRS sent one of its intrusive scrutiny letters to a nonprofit group in order to throw up a smokescreen and prevent the group from complaining to Congress about poor treatment, according to one of Lois G. Lerner’s apparently lost emails, which were recovered by auditors and released by an interest group Tuesday.
Judicial Watch, which sued to force the production of the Lerner emails, said the emails confirm that Ms. Lerner, the central figure in the targeting probe, and her colleagues were aware of the sensitive nature of the cases but appeared to hide details of the massive backlog they were amassing as they held up hundreds of tea party and conservative group applications for nonprofit status.
The IRS turned over 906 pages of emails July 15 to Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest law firm, ahead of a Wednesday court hearing. Judicial Watch concluded that the emails were part of the messages Ms. Lerner lost in a computer malfunction, and released them Tuesday. “This material shows that the IRS’ cover-up began years ago,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. “We now have smoking-gun proof that top officials in the Obama IRS unlawfully harassed taxpayers just to keep them from complaining to Congress about IRS’ targeting and abuse. No wonder the Obama IRS has had such little interest in preserving or finding Lois Lerner’s emails.”The Lerner emails have become almost as big a scandal as the initial targeting. Ms. Lerner, who was head of the division that scrutinized the tea party applications until she retired while under investigation in 2013, suffered a computer hard drive crash that cost potentially thousands of emails that should have been part of the record. The IRS took routine steps to try to recover the emails but reported that it was unable to do so.
But the agency’s independent inspector general said it was able to find the messages easily on backup tapes stored at remote locations — and that the IRS never bothered to look for those tapes, even as it was telling Congress that all possible routes for message recovery had been exhausted.
That email exchange did confirm that IRS employees in Washington were deeply involved in making decisions about the nonprofit groups’ cases. The IRS initially blamed the Cincinnati office for the glitch.
President Obama last week blamed the targeting scandal not on poor management but on “crummy” legislation he said Congress passed that gave his employees confusing instructions, and on funding cuts. He said the IRS wasn’t able to do its best work as a result. “Congress has passed a crummy law that didn’t give people guidance in terms of what they were trying to do. They did it poorly and stupidly,” Mr. Obama told “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart.
A number of the 906 pages of emails released to Judicial Watch are redacted, with the agency citing the “b5” exemption under the Freedom of Information Act, which allows the government to withhold information deemed to be part of the agency deliberative process. The IRS claimed other pages that were withheld contained sensitive taxpayer information — including what appear to be published news articles.
On Monday, Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform called Mr. Obama to oust Ms. Lerner’s successor, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, for obstructing the targeting investigation.
Chairman Jason Chaffetz, Utah Republican, said Mr. Koskinen gave assurances that the IRS would save email that was key to the investigation at the same time the emails were being destroyed. “The reality is what he said was false. He repeatedly made false statements,” Mr. Chaffetz said at a Capitol Hill press conference, where he was joined by more than a dozen fellow Republicans from the committee. “Mr. Koskinen should no longer be the IRS commissioner,” said Mr. Chaffetz. “Mr. Koskinen failed in his duty to preserve and produce documentation to this committee.”
The IRS defended Mr. Koskinen. “The record is clear that the IRS and Commissioner Koskinen have been cooperative and truthful with the numerous investigations underway. The agency has produced more than one million pages of documents in support of the investigations, provided 52 current and former employees for interviews and participated in more than 30 Congressional hearings on these issues,” the agency said in a statement.
The IRS inspector general has concluded that the agency did in fact target conservative and tea party groups for intrusive scrutiny, and the Justice Department is still conducting a criminal investigation into the targeting.
Mr. Chaffetz noted that 24,000 potential emails were destroyed after the materials were under subpoena and after the agency’s chief technology officer issued a preservation notice ordering employees not to destroy anything. The chief technology officer later told the committee that he was “blown away” that backup tapes were destroyed 10 months after his preservation notice.
By: Jim Shempert; Posted: Wednesday, July 29, 2015I am a great lover of history. While most kids were poring over the latest comic book, I had my nose stuck in a history book. At first, it was American history, and that grew into a general love of all things historical. Because a large portion of human history has been shaped by war, my particular focus seems to be based around the squabbles of differing kingdoms. I’m a sucker for a cheesy Hollywood war movie, because I have hope, that one day Hollywood will tell a true war story, as opposed to the fairy tale that every war movie made turns out to be. You know the scene I am talking about. A mortally wounded soldier, being comforted by his friend, the five stages, and finally….the end. The movie usually turns on what the one says to the other. So, what should Christians tell a mortally wounded, dying world?
Some of my past blogs talked about America no longer being a Christian nation. The conservatives decried me as weak and giving up the fight. The liberals came with the same old tired line that “America never was a Christian nation.” To the conservative camp, let me assure you that weak is not an adjective to describe me. To the liberals, normally, I would try to point you to historical context, quotes by our founders, and other overwhelming evidence that though America was not meant to be a theocratic society it most assuredly was built around and meant to be based on Christian values. However, I know that liberals’ entire knowledge base comes from themselves, and if they don’t agree with it, then it’s wrong. Truth be told, history speaks for itself.
The same could be said for Christianity. Far too often in today’s America, the Church is trying to “change things up” to attract a bigger crowd by raising more dollars to fill more seats. Church leaders go to seminars on how lighting affects giving, which music to play at poignant moments, and how to court more givers. We sacrifice the Gospel and the eternal for public acceptance. Sure, we talk about physical poverty, but not spiritual. We talk about golden streets and harps, but nothing about flames, damnation, and endless torment. We preach God’s Grace, which I am a firm believer in, but we don’t talk about God’s judgment anymore. In doing so, we make Christ a liar. If all those things didn’t await those who refused His sacrifice, then what was the need for Him to die?
I lost a few of you there. I said that Hell is a real place. I said that not everyone gets to go to Heaven. Jesus says the same, and no “new-thinking” wolf-in- sheep’s clothing will trump the words of Christ in my book. While on earth Christ said: “This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:49-50.) Later is Revelation, “They, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name (Revelation 14:10-11.)”
A lot of fair weather fans just jumped off the bandwagon. Too much fire and brimstone, not enough grace. Friends, you can’t have light without dark, the hope of Heaven is only fully appreciated by the fear of Hell, and you cannot have mercy without judgment.
If Christ is Who He said, and it is my belief that He is the Son of God who died for my sins, then judgment is coming. Some say soon, some say at the end of our lives, but whatever the time, we will all stand in a place of judgment. By our sin nature, we all stand condemned. “There is none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10.)” Whatever we try to do to change ourselves for the better, will not be enough, because you can’t be “good enough” to attain forgiveness. If salvation could be earned then there would have been no need for Christ to die.
What the world, mortally wounded as she is, needs to hear as she edges closer to the end is the message of the Gospel. There is right and wrong. Unrepentance leads to damnation.
But…
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, saw you in your sin. He loved you before you could ever love Him. He was there at the beginning, and will be there at the end. No matter how far we push him out of our government, we cannot push Him out of history, because He was there before history began, and He has seen when “history” will end.
We will stand before Him one day, and give an account of every word and deed that you have said and done while in this life (Matthew 12:6). That, to me, is enough to make my knees quake. However, those who are found to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ will receive forgiveness. Those who are found to not be in
“Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) has filed a motion to try to force Speaker John Boehner from his leadership post,” Politico wrote in a breaking news alert. “The move, called a motion to vacate the chair, represents a new level of opposition to GOP leadership from the conservative wing of the House Republican Conference. The motion can be postponed for several days before consideration.”
It’s unclear if this will be successful, but over the past few years there have been two major coup attempts at Boehner. Both were unsuccessful—but extraordinarily close to succeeding—and centered around plays at the beginning of this Congress and the beginning of the last Congress.
This move will focus on centering around a different strategy, and it all comes after Boehner’s leadership team unsuccessfully attempted retaliation against Meadows for opposing Obamatrade. They had tried to pull a subcommittee chairmanship from Meadows—and did so, but then reversed themselves under enormous pressure from the GOP conference and the American people, turning Meadows into a conservative movement hero of sorts.
Boehner’s office has not immediately responded to a request for comment but conservative movement stalwarts including nationally syndicated radio host Mark Levin have called for his ouster in recent days.
Meadows is a highly respected conservative member of the House and is intricately involved in the House Freedom Caucus. He’s plugged in party-wide, and wouldn’t be doing this if he didn’t think it could be successful.
Read the full motion to vacate the chair, filed by Rep. Meadows, here: MEADOWS
July 28, 2015 Authored by A regional branch of Planned Parenthood warned reporters in a new letter Monday against airing recent sting videos that purport to show the abortion provider’s employees discussing the sale of aborted fetus parts.
KVLY-TV in North Dakota published the letter from Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
“CMP has used footage obtained through deceit and unlawful behavior, including possible violations of state recording laws, federal tax laws and falsified state identification. Then, they concoct wildly false stories through selective editing,” the letter alleges.
“We expect this video will be no different in that regard; however, footage yet to come is expected to represent an extreme violation of patient privacy by including footage of post-abortion fetal tissue neither patients nor health care professionals authorized be filmed,” it adds.
The letter was sent one day before the Center for Medical Progress released a third video, appearing to show Planned Parenthood workers standing by dead fetuses while talking about the price “per item.” The letter concludes with a warning that “the material should not be aired.”
A representative for Planned Parenthood could not be reached for comment by TheBlaze.
Read the entire letter below via KVLY:
To: North Dakota Health and Political Reporters and Producers
From: Jen Aulwes, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota
Date: July 27, 2015
Re: Center for Medical Progress Expected to Violate Patient PrivacyThe Center for Medical Progress (CMP) is an extreme activist organization whose sole mission is to prevent women from accessing health care and to destroy Planned Parenthood. The board members of this group believe that abortion is “genocide,” and employ people who went to jail for attempting to bomb a women’s health clinic. They are also connected with the man who murdered abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.
CMP has used footage obtained through deceit and unlawful behavior, including possible violations of state recording laws, federal tax laws and falsified state identification. Then, they concoct wildly false stories through selective editing. We expect this video will be no different in that regard; however, footage yet to come is expected to represent an extreme violation of patient privacy by including footage of post-abortion fetal tissue neither patients nor health care professionals authorized be filmed.
When your network decides whether to consider this story newsworthy, or whether to use any of this footage at all, we urge you to keep this in mind: The extremists who entered Planned Parenthood labs under false pretenses violated research protocol, and, worse, violated the privacy of patients involved. Those patients’ privacy should not be further violated by having this footage shared by the media.
The storage and examination processes that CMP used to get this footage are medically necessary. It is necessary medical professionals ensure an abortion is complete so that patients do not get an infection. When tissue is donated for medical research, these steps are also necessary for the donations to be completed. It is also medically necessary that researchers evaluate the laboratory procedures of a medical provider for safety standards and best practices.
Some of the conversations and protocols that occur in medical settings and among professional peers can sound jarring when taken out of context. While this can be difficult to hear or watch, it should not be used as an excuse to defund Planned Parenthood.
CMP gained access to Planned Parenthood facilities under false pretenses and filmed without securing approval from the Planned Parenthood staff being filmed or the patients whose privacy is compromised by this secret videotaping. The material should not be aired.
Please contact me at 651-755-XXXX or XXXXXXX@ppmns.org if you have any questions or need any more information.
(H/T: Truth Revolt)
An anti-abortion activist group released a video that they say proves Planned Parenthood “sells the body parts of aborted fetuses.”
Is it misleading?
Posing as a biological tissue procurement company, actors for the Center for Medical Progress secretly filmed a luncheon with Planned Parenthood’s senior director of Medical Services Dr. Deborah Nucatola in 2014. On July 14, 2015, the group released a nine-minute video that they say shows Nucatola talking about performing partial-birth abortions to keep body parts intact in order to “sell” them, an action which the video alleges is a felony.
Nearly every Republican presidential candidate has responded, condemning Planned Parenthood. And Congress, as well as the states of Texas and Louisiana, have called for investigations into the women’s reproductive health care organization.
Many, including Planned Parenthood, have said the video was heavily edited and is misleading. They say Nucatola was discussing a standard, legal procedure for providing fetal tissue for scientific research, for which clinics are often reimbursed for costs associated with procuring the tissue (as opposed to selling tissue for a profit).
Who’s right? We read the 60-page transcript of the nearly three-hour luncheon and found that Nucatola reveals very little concrete information on Planned Parenthood’s practices. Put simply, there’s no clear gotcha.
We’ll leave it up to readers to come to their own conclusions about Planned Parenthood’s practices and Nucatola’s statements, but we want to highlight a few key moments in the conversation to put the edited video in context.
It’s clear in the full-length video that Nucatola believes she is speaking with representatives from a company that provides scientific researchers with tissue from aborted fetuses (a legal process that raises difficult ethical questions). She describes the process of getting consent from patients, as well as how Planned Parenthood clinics typically interacts with the companies that take the tissue from the clinics to the researchers.
The edited video shows Nucatola discussing a per-specimen price range for tissue parts. But the full video shows that the cost under discussion is a reimbursement for the cost of preparing the specimens for transfer, not the value of the specimens themselves. She adds that Planned Parenthood needs to be able to explain exactly what the funds are used for.
Asked by the actors about a price range, Nucatola said:
“You know, I would throw a number out, I would say it’s probably anywhere from $30 to $100 (per specimen), depending on the facility and what’s involved. It just has to do with space issues, are you sending someone there who’s going to be doing everything, is there shipping involved, is somebody going to have to take it out? You know, I think everybody just wants, it’s really just about if anyone were ever to ask them, ‘What do you do for this $60? How can you justify that? Or are you basically just doing something completely egregious, that you should be doing for free.’ So it just needs to be justifiable.
“The way they budget (for the cost of producing a specimen) is by the amount of time they spend on one patient. … It depends, if (the procurement service is) expecting somebody to process, and package, identify tissue for you, it’s going to be at the higher end of the range. In all cases, it’s really going to be about staff time, because that’s the only cost to the affiliate. And then, if you want space.”
Nucatola also said Planned Parenthood affiliate clinics appreciate that they can reduce some of their overhead costs of disposing of aborted fetal tissue by using a tissue procurement service.
Nucatola said:
“I think for affiliates, at the end of the day, they’re a nonprofit, they just don’t want to — they want to break even. And if they can do a little better than break even, and do so in a way that seems reasonable, they’re happy to do that. Really their bottom line is, they want to break even. Every penny they save is just pennies they give to another patient. To provide a service the patient wouldn’t get.
“No one’s going to see this as a money-making thing. The other reason affiliates think this is a good thing is, it’s less tissue that they need to worry about, it’s taken care of. They have to do something with that tissue, it’s hard to find somebody that wants to do something with that tissue, so the fact that there’s somebody that’s looking for that tissue is — that is such a huge service to them.”
Nucatola says throughout the luncheon that Planned Parenthood is not interested in making a profit off the specimens — an interpretation the edited video pushes.
“(Clinics) want to do this, but they want to do it in a way that’s not going to impact them, and it’s much much less about money. You could call them up and say, ‘I’ll pay you double the money,’ and they’re almost more inclined to say no, because it’s going to look bad. … To them, this is not a service they should be making money from, it’s something they should be able to offer this to their patients, in a way that doesn’t impact them.
“Again, affiliates don’t — affiliates are not looking to make money by doing this. They’re looking to serve their patients and just make it not impact their bottom line.
“At the end of the day we just want to keep the doors open. And we don’t want to let jeopardize keeping the doors open. We just want (the cost per specimen) to be reasonable for the impact it has on the clinic. This is not a new revenue stream the affiliates are looking at. This is a way to offer the patient the service that they want. Do good for the medical community.
“Like I said, is to give patients the option without impacting our bottom line. The messaging is this should not be seen as a new revenue stream because that’s not what it is.”
The actors in the video act as if they are on the same page:
Actor: “I understand what you’re saying. This cannot be seen as, ‘We’re doing this for profit.’ ”
Nucatola: “No. Nothing, no affiliate should be doing anything that’s not like, reasonable and customary. This is not — nobody should be ‘selling’ tissue. That’s just not the goal here.”
Actor: “Right. And, I never see that as, I don’t look at it that way, we’re not selling tissue, we’re selling the possibility of what the research can offer.”
Nucatola: “I think we all would agree with you. That’s just not the perception, sadly, for everybody.”
Actor: “I mean, researchers are paying for procurement, they’re not paying for — You’re not buying a brain, you’re buying a procurement service.”
Nucatola: “Exactly. Exactly.”
The conversation indicates that at least some Planned Parenthood clinics do sell aborted fetal tissue. But Nucatola plainly argues that the money they’re charging is trying to offset the costs associated with tissue procurement — a legal service.
Posted on July 27, 2015 by 
A self-described Satanic group held the “largest public satanic ceremony in history” on Saturday in Detroit as it unveiled a statue of the devil to a crowd of some 700 people. The statue of Baphomet, the goat-headed version of Satan, shows the devil sitting on a throne looking all pagan and demonic as smiling children look on adoringly.
The group behind this 1-ton bronze monstrosity is The Satanic Temple. Organizers said the 9-foot-tall statue “is not only an unparalleled artistic triumph, but stands as a testament to plurality and the power of collective action.”
In other words, it’s a big honking finger in the eye of Christians, which is really what Satanism is all about.
The temple is fighting to get the hideous thing erected at the Arkansas State Capital next to a monument of the Ten Commandments.
What’s most interesting about this event isn’t the audacity of keeping the statue at a secret location in Detroit (I wonder how many major cities have statues of the devil kept at secret locations), and it’s not that 700 people are hate-filled, deluded or psychotic enough to have paid for tickets to this event. (The temple claims 200 registered members in Detroit.)
It’s not even the brazenness of The Satanic Temple’s ploy of positioning itself as a family-friendly cult. No, what I find most interesting are the political causes the temple proclaims support for on its own website. Leading among these are abortion (“reproductive rights”) and gay “marriage,” both of which have been in the news of late.
The temple also makes common cause with atheist groups when it says the statue’s unveiling “will serve as a call to arms from which we’ll kick off our largest fight to date in the name of individual rights to free exercise against self-serving theocrats,” meaning Christians.
Gay “marriage” and abortion are also issues where critics have long noted an anti-Christian bent among proponents, so the Satanists’ interest is clear.
The anti-Christian movement in this country is broad and often well-disguised, being spread out over numerous institutions, groups and political issues. But the one thing they all have in common, from pro-abortionists to the outright Satanists, is a talent for lying.
Just take a look at Planned Parenthood and its massive PR counterattack in the past two weeks as two separate videos showed PP officials negotiating the sale of fetal tissue.
Every left-wing outlet in the mainstream media and the Internet has made a concerted effort to tell the public that Planned Parenthood is being harassed and the videos are faked, even though the doctors in the videos make themselves very clear and do not appear to be in any way coerced into talking to the actors posing as medical middlemen.
To the degree that videos are used regularly by people on the Left and the Right to embarrass political opponents these days, it’s remarkable how staunchly indignant the Planned Parenthood supporters are that anyone would tape their personnel speaking freely about the organization’s practices. And all the spin from the Left is intended to cast Planned Parenthood as angelic victims being picked on by the evil pro-lifers.
The campaign is working, as Planned Parenthood’s allies in the California and federal governments are investigating the maker of the videos, even though the videos clearly contain evidence of possible crimes by the abortion organization that by rights should be investigated.
Don’t even get me started on the homosexual rights movement or the “separation of church and state” crowd.
The Satanists planting a statue of the devil in Detroit is more than just an overt symptom of a long-festering disease in this country, it’s a crowning achievement.
Maybe The Satanic Temple’s support for gay “marriage,” abortion and church-state separation means the devil’s finally coming out of hiding.
By: Ray Rooney, Jr., Posted: Tuesday, July 28, 2015
I knew it was coming. I had already read that Planned Parenthood said they were afraid a video might yet be released that showed the actual “procurement” of unborn baby organs and tissues. Dumped unceremoniously and inhumanely onto a tray, a human being is being reassembled following dismemberment while technicians are snickering and giggling. Unmitigated evil. I had to shut the door to my office because the tears began to flow.
It’s been 15 years now. My wife was pregnant with our fourth child. Ultrasound showed it was to be our first son. Lemuel. This was the fourth go around for us so everything was (unfortunately) seemingly routine. We were halfway there at 20 weeks for a routine ob-gyn checkup. It was so routine I stayed at work while our oldest daughter accompanied my wife to the doctor.
It seems like it was around four or five in the afternoon and I got a call from the clinic. It wasn’t my wife. The nurse said I was needed. I knew it couldn’t be good. When I got there the nurse was waiting and waved me into the back. The entire mood in the clinic seemed somber. I saw my wife and daughter and both were weeping. The doctor couldn’t find a heartbeat. It had been fine and healthy on all the other visits. It was nowhere to be found on that day. Our firstborn son was gone.
A few days later we were in the hospital to induce labor. I had been present for two of our deliveries (the first was a
This is a photo of a dad with his hands in a heart shape holding his 3 week old infants feet.
C-section and I wasn’t allowed in) and this seemed no different. When at last our son was born the doctor was visibly shaking. He gingerly put Lemuel in a little blanket and laid him next to my wife.
Though he was gone it was such a privilege to actually see him for a little while. So small. Tiny. Perfect except for a heart that wouldn’t beat. We cherished those few moments and then said goodbye.
No, not to some hospital incinerator. The funeral home came. We had a graveside service a day or two later. A tiny casket was provided and our son was laid to rest in a special section of the cemetery called “Baby Land.”
I went home and I wrote to my son.
Today, when I saw that horrible, vulgar, but undeniable video I couldn’t help but contrast it to the broken hearts, the dignity, and the love that was so present 15 years ago. Here was a little baby that nobody cared for or about. Here, snickering and giggling. Fifteen years ago the room was drenched in reverence, awe, and sadness.
I said that I wrote to my son. Today, I want to share those words written to a boy named Lemuel on behalf of all those babies that weren’t afforded the dignity and reverence for their little bodies that was given to him. My son was wrapped in a little orange blanket and treated just like any other baby delivered at that women’s hospital. Maybe God will allow the words written for him to count in some way for all those who have been harvested and “procured” by those given over to evil.
Reported by 
Kerry Picket, Reporter, 07/28/2015
WASHINGTON — In an effort to expedite the awarding of purple hearts to the four Marines and Navy sailor killed in Chattanooga last week, Tennessee Rep. Chuck Fleischmann proposed a bipartisan House resolution to award the decoration to the military personnel. “It’s a resolution really calling for a sense of Congress to encourage all of the parties, who have say in the process, to award our five fallen heroes in uniform who have died purple hearts,” Fleischmann told The Daily Caller Monday. “We don’t want a situation similar to what happened with the heroes who got killed at Fort Hood and they had to wait a very long time to get a purple heart.”
Nidal Malik Hasan fatally shot and killed 13 service members and injured 30 others in 2009 at the Fort Hood Army Base in Texas. The Obama administration refused to call the incident an act of terrorism and therefore denying those killed and wounded Purple Hearts for six years after the tragic events.
Despite the FBI currently calling the gunman, Mohammed Abdulazeez, who killed all five men in Chattanooga a “homegrown violent extremist” as opposed to a terrorist, the resolution will state that Abdulazeez’s actions constituted a terrorist act.
“We are affirmatively stating in there that this was a terrorist act. And it’s my hope that the FBI classifies it as such. I classify it as such. When someone does what this shooter did at two locations to cause such horrific terror and carnage, to me that’s an act of terrorism and I think it must be deemed so.
However, ultimately, Congress is not the final arbiter of what is considered to be a terrorist act; the Executive branch makes that final call a Congressional aide noted. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 allows the Purple Heart to be awarded “to a member of the Armed Forces killed or wounded in an attack inspired or motivated by a foreign terrorist organization.”
The Daily Caller placed an inquiry to The White House and did not receive a response as to whether the president will allow the five members of the military killed in Chattanooga to be awarded the Purple Heart.
“I think right now the FBI is trying to get further Proof as to whether it was a — they opened it as a terrorism case. My argument would be if it is an act of terrorism on American soil, they deserve the Purple Heart. Major Hassan admitted he was a terrorist. And it was a terrorist act,” Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee Mike McCaul told TheDC.
“I think in this case so far we have seen his online radicalization with Anwar Alaki and other militant sites. I think for Purple Heart purposes, it would probably be good to see the investigation play out. But in my judgment this guy is a terrorist. He was ISIS-inspired,” McCaul added.
The Purple Heart also includes medical benefits to wounded military as well as surviving family members of killed in action military members. Fleischman’s resolution would ensure that the benefits would also be included along with Purple Heart honors.
“I actually spoke to the Department of Defense to day and told them we were going to be doing a resolution and, obviously, they’re going to review that, but it’s my understanding that the Marines have already prepared packets,” Fleishman said. “We had four Marines and one Navy sailor killed. In addition to that, there was an additional service person wounded and this would also make him eligible.”
House Armed Services Committee member Louisiana Rep. John Fleming says that Congress will likely have to go through both the Department of Defense as well as State Department to get the ball rolling, but it will be difficult to legislate something that the president can only decide. Fleming also wonders why it took the president five days to call for the lowering of the American flag to half mast on government buildings to honor those killed in Chattanooga.
“These men lost their lives and there was a delay of lowering the flag at half staff and it is just inexplicable. And certainly we should decorate them and acknowledge them for what they do and sacrifices they make,” Flemming said. “They were in the line of duty. They we’re doing what they do in the military by recruiting. It wasn’t as if they were in a grocery store or something. They were targeted as military members.”
July 27, 2015 Authored by Daniel Greenfield
Obama made headlines by complaining that Republicans are being mean to him over the Iran deal.
“We’ve had a sitting senator call John Kerry ‘Pontius Pilate.’ We’ve had a sitting senator who also happens to be running for president suggest that I’m the leading state sponsor of terrorism,” Obama said, referring to Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ted Cruz of Texas, respectively. “These are leaders in the Republican Party.”
But, the president said, when he is attacked, the people who were outraged on McCain’s behalf “are pretty quiet.”
Let’s look at the facts. Here’s what Ted Cruz said.
“If this deal goes through the Obama administration becomes the leading financier of terrorism against Americans in the world. I’ve heard this referred to before as the “Jihadist Stimulus Bill.”
Is Iran a state sponsor of terrorism? Obama has admitted that it is.
“Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism,” Obama told Asharq al-Awsat.
Will the billions of dollars that Iran receives be used to sponsor terror? The Supreme Leader of Iran has stated that it will.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei gave a particularly inflammatory speech just days after the deal, stating that the Islamic Republic’s policies toward the US have not changed.
“We will never stop supporting our friends in the region and the people of Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon,” he continued, referring to the Iranian terror axis in the Middle East. “Even after this deal our policy towards the arrogant US will not change.”
Secretary of State John Kerry has admitted that it will.
“Now, with respect to the money, I can’t tell you that some — you know, some amount of money might not find its way to some effort.”
And that’s out of $140 billion. Some money out of that is a whole lot.
1. Obama admitted Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism
2. Kerry admitted that sanctions relief will be used to sponsor terrorism
So in fact Obama’s policies will lead to a huge sum of money flowing into a regime that he has admitted is a state sponsor of terrorism and which his Secretary of State has admitted will be used to sponsor terrorism.
Obama can whine about the “tone” and the “rhetoric”, but it’s hypocritical for a guy whose proxies were accusing Republicans in the Senate of being the #47Traitors of complaining about the tone of the attacks over Iran.
BY: July 27, 2015
AP
The number of illegal immigrants in the United States totaled 11.3 million in 2014, outnumbering the 9.6 million Americans who were unemployed in the same year, according to data from Pew Research Center and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). “An estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2014,” says a Pew report. “The new unauthorized immigrant total includes people who cross the border illegally as well as those who arrive with legal visas and remain in the U.S. after their visas expire.” Of those 11.3 illegal immigrants, 8.1 million are participating in the labor force. “Unauthorized immigrants make up 5.1% of the U.S. labor force,” Pew says. “In the U.S. labor force, there were 8.1 million unauthorized immigrants either working or looking for work in 2012.”
In 2014, there were 1.7 million more illegal immigrants living in the United States than there were unemployed Americans. According to the BLS, the average number of unemployed Americans in 2014 was 9.6 million. The BLS defines an unemployed individual as someone who did not have a job but actively sought one in the past four weeks.
The executive action on immigration President Obama put in place in November of 2014 is set to help more illegal aliens become active in the labor force. “Last year, President Barack Obama took executive action to expand an existing program and establish a new one that would offer work permits and deportation relief to an estimated 5 million unauthorized immigrants,” according to Pew. “The actions—which are on hold because of a lawsuit by 26 states—would be open to unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, who are parents with a child who is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, as long as they meet certain requirements.”
by John Nolte27 Jul 2015
URL of the original posting site: http://conservativetribune.com/obama-green-light-turkeyAccording to sources, over 40-50 U.S. soldiers are among the ranks of Kurds fighting the Islamic State. However, Turkey has long viewed Kurdish autonomy as a threat and have included Kurdish groups in their latest bombing attacks inside Syria. And now, they have the White House’s blessing.
The Kurdish peshmerga, which has long been an ally of the United States, issued a statement about the White House’s move on their official Twitter account.
“Msg. to the American people and the US gov. : Is this a penalty because we fought against ISIS instead of the world?” one tweet read. “After the nuclear deal between Iran and US … Kurds= terrorists … Shiite militias (#PMF)= Forces to protect human rights.” (H/T Gateway Pundit)
We’ve previously reported on Americans fighting with the Kurdish forces. One of them is Jordan Matson, a 28-year-old from Sturtevant, Wisc.
“I was looking for a way to join one of the militias fighting against ISIS over a year ago, because NATO wasn’t really taking any action as ISIS grew,” Matson said when he asked why he went over to fight with the Kurds.
“They said it was an Iraqi problem,” he added. “And that didn’t sit well with me, especially after of all the blood that was shed here by — I’m former military, so my brothers in arms.”
These are the men that Obama sees fit to bomb. The Iranians, meanwhile, try to build a nuclear weapon to attack either America or our allies, and we give them a sweetheart deal that allows them to continue developing nuclear weapons.
Thirty years ago, it was actually dangerous to be an enemy of the United States. Now, as we turn a blind eye to the slaughter of these valiant Kurds and Americans fighting against our common enemy, it’s fatal to be our friend
Authored by Connor D. Wolf Contributor, 07/25/2015
Six years ago Friday marked the last time since the federal minimum wage was increased, and now with talks of raising it again, here is a look back at its impact.
The federal minimum wage was increased to $7.25 per hour on July 24, 2009 as part of a three step plan. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 first increased the federal minimum wage to $5.85. After that it automatically increased to $6.55 in 2008 before finally landing on $7.25 per hour in 2009. The hope was it would help to reduce poverty.
“This well-deserved increase will help workers better provide for their families in the face of today’s economic challenges,” then-Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis said in a statement. “I am especially pleased that the change will benefit working women, who make up two-thirds of minimum wage earners.”
A renewed push to raise the minimum wage has taken hold in recent years, with unions asking for $15 an hour and President Barack Obama looking at a more moderate $10.10 an hour. Democratic presidential hopeful and self-described socialist Bernie Sanders introduced a bill Wednesday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
“And that’s why the President has made it a policy priority to try to find ways to make sure that American workers are getting paid fairly,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said recently. “So one way we can do that is to raise the minimum wage.”
The aftermath of the last increase in 2009, however, was not all that good. Though some people found themselves in a better financial situations, others 
were left much worse. “Most of them would receive higher pay that would increase,” stated a 2014 report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). “But some jobs for low-wage workers would probably be eliminated.”
The CBO report looked at the 2009 increase along with other local incentives. While states cannot go below the federal minimum wage, many have decided to go above it. A report from American Enterprise Institute (AEI) found the impact is much worse for young and low skilled workers. “When the minimum wage rose by 41% between 2007 and 2009 – it had a disastrous effect on teenagers,” the AEI report detailed. “The jobless rate for 16-19 year olds increased by ten percentage points, from about 16% in 2007 to more than 26% in 2009. Of course, the overall US jobless rate was increasing at the same time, from about 5% to 10%.”
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and The Heritage Foundation also both found employment opportunities for young and low skilled workers falls when the minimum wage goes up. Not all economists, however, are in agreement about the negative impact of raising the minimum wage. A 2013 study from Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) found the impact on employment would be small at best. “Two recent meta – studies analyzing the research conducted since the early 1990s concludes that the minimum wage has little or no discernible effect on the employment prospects of low – wage workers,” the CEPR report found. “The most likely reason for this outcome is that the cost shock of the minimum wage is small relative to most firms’ overall costs and only modest relative to the wages paid to low – wage workers.”
Some, like Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, have even claimed increasing the minimum wage makes employment go up. Those claims though have been mostly disproved. The nonpartisan PolitiFact has called the statement mostly false. Nevertheless, raising the minimum wage may not even be necessary to address poverty. The Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) found most workers are able to move beyond the minimum wage after only a year of employment.
“Of those workers making the minimum wage today, two-thirds will be earning a higher wage one year from now,” an IPI report by Naomi Lopez Bauman stated. “Most workers, once they learn the job and demonstrate a level of competence, will earn more as the value of their labor increases to their current employer or a competing one.”
Americans for the most part overwhelmingly support raising the minimum wage. According to Gallup, upwards of 76% of people favor raising it to $9 an hour while 22% opposed the idea.
By The Hill staff – 07/26/15 URL of the original posting site: http://thehill.com/policy/international/249206-obama-jokes-about-his-birth-certificate-at-state-dinner-in-kenya
President Obama attends state dinner in Nairobi with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
By Mark Finkelstein | July 25, 2015Shades of 1968 and the Days of Rage? Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has announced that “any opportunity we have to shut down a Republican convention, we will.”
Appearing on today’s Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC, Cullors also blithely spoke of “the murder of Mike Brown” in Ferguson, MO. Neither of the co-guest hosts sitting in for Harris-Perry, Richard Liu and Janet Mock, challenged Cullors’ characterization. This despite the fact that even Eric Holder’s Justice Department found no wrongdoing on the part of the police officer who shot Brown.
Question: what would be the effect on the election if Black Lives Matter seriously disrupted the Republican convention?
JANET MOCK: What action do you want to see the candidates take for what the movement is calling for?
PATRISSE CULLORS: I think first off we want candidates to actually call movement leaders sit and have meetings with us, have a conversation with us about what’s happened this last year since the murder of Mike Brown.
. . .
MOCK: What is your plan for the Republican candidates specifically after Jeb Bush and his idea of saying that #black lives matter is just a slogan?
CULLORS: Yes. And we — many folks have asked why would you go after the Democratic party? They’re on our side. What about the Republican party? And trust and believe that any opportunity we have to shut down a Republican convention, we will. We will make sure that our voices are made loud and clear. And we also want to be clear that the Democratic party isn’t off the hook.
By LU Staff on July 25, 2015
The Connecticut Democratic Party has officially dumped both Thomas Jefferson’s and Andrew Jackson’s names from its annual fundraising dinner due to their ties to slavery. The move was made in response to demands from the state’s chapter of the NAACP.
Each fall, the state party holds a Jefferson-Jackson-Bailey dinner to raise money for the party. Similar Jefferson-Jackson dinners are held by Democrats around the country (the Bailey name is peculiar to Connecticut).
But now the first two names are gone, voted out unanimously by the party’s state board in just a few minutes with almost no discussion, according to the Hartford Courant.
“As members of the Democratic Party, we are proud of our history as the party of inclusion. Democrats have led the way on civil rights, LGBT equality and equal rights for women,” the board’s resolution declared. “It is only fitting that the name of the party’s most visible annual event reflects our dedication to diversity and forward-looking vision.”
A replacement name will be chosen later.
Jefferson is well-known to most Americans for writing the Declaration of Independence, serving as America’s third president, championing religious freedom, and being one of the nation’s leading intellectuals in its early years. He was also a key figure in the genesis of the Democratic-Republican party, which evolved into the modern Democratic Party, so throughout history Democrats have been happy to claim him as their own.
Now, though, Democrats are souring on Jefferson due to his position as a slaveholder, as well as the belief that he fathered children with slave Sally Hemmings.
Andrew Jackson is even more vilified today. While his presidency was a key point in the rise of the “common man” as a major force in American politics, Jackson was also a slaveholder, and his policies toward American Indians have been characterized by some as genocidal.
Calls to change the name grew after the massacre of black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina last month.
Party chairman Nick Balletto said he hoped the rest of the country would join Connecticut in rejecting Jefferson’s legacy.
“I wasn’t looking to be a trailblazer or set off a trend that’s going to affect the rest of the country,” Balletto told the Connecticut Post. “Hopefully, they’ll follow suit when they see it’s the right thing to do.” Balletto added that the name simply had to go, because some people were offended by it. “When something offends someone, it’s beyond being politically correct,” Balletto said. “It just causes a need for change.” “You can’t change history, but you don’t have to honor it.”
This report, by Blake Neff, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
By Tim Brown / 24 July 2015–>
In York County, South Carolina, a group of 23 “pastors” (and yes, I use the term lightly) have gotten behind a push by a liberal PCUSA pastor to call Christians to view Islamists as “brothers and sisters.”
Sam McGregor, pastor at Allison Creek Presbyterian Church near Lake Wylie, spoke with Freedom Outpost following a local article that stirred up a hornets’ nest.
McGregor wrote the following letter:
“In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his listeners ‘Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.’ We are 24 Christian pastors from various denominations across York County who stand with our Muslim brothers and sisters who live in and around the community called Islamville. We stand opposed to any acts of violence or threats of violence against anyone due to their religious affiliation. We stand with law enforcement as they seek to protect all residents of York County regardless of their race or religious expression. Any Christian who uses their faith as a basis for bringing harm upon another has completely misunderstood what it means to lift up the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We urge all Christians to unite together and speak out against any threats of violence against their York County neighbors in Islamville and throughout York County.”
While one can agree that we should not be instigators of violence against anyone, what Mr. McGregor fails to point out is the ideology behind Islam is responsible for over 20,000 Islamic jihad attacks since 9/11. Well, Mr. McGregor, yours truly is speaking out. The Koran “your brothers and sisters” hold to issues threats of violence against all Christians. What will you do about it?
“If there is one God, one Creator, then we are all God’s children because God has created all of us,” McGregor told Freedom Outpost. “Because we all have the same parent, whether we acknowledge that, you know, whether we’re atheist,… deny it, whether we call God different names, whether we seek after different gods.”
Now, I did have him clarify that what he was referencing was the Created order. This is the idea that all men are created in the image of God.
“I affirm my belief in Genesis one and two that God created us all,” he said. “Therefore, since God created all of us… that means that every human being on this earth… is my brother or sister.”He even went on to say that because of his belief he was able to learn of Allah from his “brothers and sisters” and they learn from him. “Together, we learn more about this God who created all of us.”
Far from calling Muslims (anti-Christs) his brothers, the apostle John, whom Jesus loved, penned the following:
“And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” -2 John 1:6
All of this comes as the Gospel of the person and work of Jesus Christ is presented to sinners (yes, just like me) and God graciously works in their hearts through the power of His Holy Spirit.
When I provided the above references to Mr. McGregor, he tried to point to the fact that Muslims, Christians and Jews trace their lineage back to Abraham as though it is the same religion. It is not. Islam began five centuries after Christ and though Islam claims to extend from Abraham through Ishmael, the covenant from God does not extend through that line, neither is it an “Abrahamic religion” because it does not follow the covenant religion. (See my previous address of this subject.)
He then dropped the bombshell that he just began to read a book that claims to correct “misapprehensions about Jesus in the Koran.” Immediately red flags go up. Consider that Mr. McGregor has a PhD, so there is no excuse for his ignorance of history, Islam, the Christian faith or the Bible. I have read the Koran. I have read numerous commentaries on the Koran. MacGregor did not assert that he had even fully read the book he was referencing nor did he assert the fact that he had read the Koran fully. From the interview, I got the sense he is not familiar enough with the Christian Scriptures to answer basic theological questions. As one who calls himself Presbyterian, I’m sure John Calvin is rolling over in his grave.The problem with Mr. McGregor’s position in all of this is the fact that Scripture is not his final authority. Over and over I asked him why share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those he considers his brothers and sisters. He had no answer. When asked his purpose in sharing the Gospel, he had no purpose.
To further demonstrate that Mr. McGregor does not adhere to God’s Word as the final authority, but rests in his opinion and “belief,” I asked him, since he is a part of the apostate PCUSA, if he agreed with women elders and marrying those who engage in sodomy.
He laughed and said those were “loaded questions.” However, they are simple “yes” or “no” questions. While he did affirm his approval of women elders, in spite of the specific commands from Scripture (1 Tim. 3; Titus 1), he would not elaborate on sodomy-based “marriage,” which tells me that he is in league with the apostates of his denomination in affirming what God calls an abomination.
McGregor is in the snake pit and itwon’t be long before hegets bit. Perhaps one day soon, when they are sawing his head off for all to see, reality will catch up to him. Until that time, I told Mr. McGregor that it was my Christian duty to command him to repent of his sin and open deceptionconcerning the Gospel, God and Islam. With that, he mockingly told me to “have a blessed day.”If you want to know why America and the Church in America is in the position we are, you need to look no further than people like Sam McGregor. Please warn your friends in the York, South Carolina area of Mr. McGregor’s church and all those who promote the assimilation with the anti-christ religion of Islam.
Finally, according to Anna Douglas, there were at least two pastors who would not sign the letter because of the deceptive language ofreferencing Muslims as brothers and sisters. Good for them!The following are other pastors in the area who are apparently leading their flocks astray:
By Nick Leghorn on July 25, 2015
According to ABC News, the handgun used in the Lafayette theater shooting this past week was legally purchased. “John Russell Houser, 59, bought the Hi-Point .40-caliber handgun at a pawn shop in Phenix City, Alabama, in February of 2014, Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said at a news conference.” It is entirely possible that the pawn shop FFL holder followed all the rules, did a proper background check, and released the firearm in accordance with the laws. That said, the sale was still illegal. Why? One simple reason . . .
In order to purchase the handgun, the person in question would have completed the ATF’s “Firearms Transaction Record” paperwork, affectionately known as an ATF Form 4473. Anyone who has ever bought a gun from a FFL license holder should recognize question 11 (F):
Have you ever been adjudicated mentally defective (which includes a determination by a court, board, commission, or other lawful authority that you are a danger to yourself or to others or are incompetent to manage your own affairs) OR have you ever been committed to a mental institution?
As we already know, the attacker in this case was involuntarily committed to a mental institution after being judged a danger to himself and others in 2008. Legally, the person filling out the form would be required to tick the “YES” box — anything else would constitute a felony, as stated on the declaration that the buyer is required to sign. The problem in this case is that the attacker most likely lied, checked the “NO” box, and the subsequent NICS background check didn’t include that nugget of information.
And even if the ATF had discovered Houser’s lie, there’s almost no chance they would have done anything about it.
So this isn’t a story of broken gun laws, but one of a broken system. Just as in the case of the Charleston church shooting, the attacker in question purchased his firearm from a law-abiding gun dealer who dutifully followed the law to the best of their abilities. Where things broke down in both instances was that the NICS system apparently did not have the relevant information at hand, and as a result the individuals (who should have otherwise been barred from purchasing firearms under existing laws) walked out with a brand new handgun.
Despite these two individuals falling through the cracks in the system, that doesn’t make this handgun purchase “legal.” The Lafayette shooter committed a felony when he lied on his ATF Form 4473, and the system simply didn’t have enough information to detect it. So before the rallying cries go up for more gun control laws, can we at least try to fix the existing system? Crazy as that idea might be, it might just work.
24Jul, 2015 by 
Warner Todd Huston In June, Sen. Dean Heller tried to get the Pentagon to change its practice of banning arms from our soldiers on bases and recruiting centers here in America. But it appears that John McCain was the principle foe of the move and helped to defeat the arming of our soldiers which ended up having deadly consequences in Tennessee.
Last week Nebraska Senator Dean Heller appeared on the Kevin Wall show on KKFT Carson City, NV, to talk about his bill and noted that John McCain himself defeated the move to arm our soldiers.
Dean Heller: “So I submitted an amendment in the Department of Defense Authorization bill to allow this to happen. Now this was of course six weeks ago before Chattanooga. And the chairman of the committee wouldn’t support it–by the way, chairman was John McCain–did not want the amendment as part of the bill and wouldn’t accept it.”
Here is what Heller said on his website about the bill:
Today, U.S. Senator Dean Heller sent a letter to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, requesting that National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) conferees include his amendment to give military base commanders the authority to allow service members to carry personal firearms on base for their personal protection and force protection. In June, Senator Heller offered this amendment during the Senate’s consideration of the Fiscal Year 2016 NDAA. In addition, Senator Heller introduced stand-alone legislation to address this issue critical to the safety of our nation’s service members.
Published July 25, 2015, FoxNews.comShe said her office will look into “allegations that individuals impersonated corporate officials from a fake biologics company, resulting in the release of secretly filmed videos of Planned Parenthood physicians without their consent.” Harris, a Democrat, plans to run for the U.S. Senate in 2016. The videos show Dr. Mary Gatter, a Planned Parenthood medical director in Southern California, meeting with people posing as possible buyers of intact fetal specimens. The conversation is centered of the cost of the specimens.
David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress, the group that released the videos, contends it follows all applicable laws when making videos that he called investigative journalism. He said in a statement that Planned Parenthood is “trying to use the power of their political cronies to shut down free speech” and to “silence the freedom of the press.”
The videos have shined the spotlight on Planned Parenthood’s policies on aborted fetuses by three Republican-led congressional committees and three states. Federal law prohibits the commercial sale of fetal tissue, but it allows the not-for-profit donation of tissue if the women who underwent abortions give their consent. Planned Parenthood says the payments discussed in the videos pertain to reimbursement for the costs of procuring the tissue — which is legal.
Gatter says in the second video, which was released on Tuesday a week after the first, that “We’re not in it for the money,” while also discussing whether a payment of $100 per fetal specimen would be adequate.
Planned Parenthood spokesman Eric Ferrero said in a statement after the release of the second video that the organization behind the videos “is a group of extremists who have intimidated women and doctors for years in their agenda to ban abortion completely.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
by Jordan Schachtel24 Jul 2015Washington, DC
President Barack Obama admitted Friday that the Iran deal, which allows Tehran to access an estimated $100-150 billion dollars in frozen assets, would let the theocratic regime better finance terrorist organizations.In attempting to defend the Iran deal, Obama told the BBC Friday that terror groups already have access to advanced weaponry, and that the nuclear accord would not change that dynamic too much. “Hezbollah for example, threatening to fire missiles at Israel, has no shortage of resources,” he said. “We have seen that even in times of distress, Iran is able to allocate resources in what it sees as its strategic priority.” 
The President said that a “military option” is still available.
“Iran has proven that it is willing to change its priorities and its strategy,” Mr. Obama added. “We have sent a clear message to the Iranians – though we closed the deal, we still have not closed account. I hope that solutions will be reached diplomatically, but if necessary, there is also a military option.”
Iran has admitted that the regime funds and arms terrorist groups throughout the Middle East, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthi insurgency in Yemen.
Recent remarks by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter during a visit to Baghdad on Thursday added fuel to the rumors spreading on the coming possibility of a U.S. de facto alliance with the Shiite militias.
Posted By Bob Unruh On 07/24/2015Article printed from WND: http://www.wnd.com
URL to article: http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/state-forbids-pastors-calling-homosexuality-sinful
The policy was uncovered by Liberty Counsel, which has sent a letter to Bob Hayter, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice, demanding that the state religious test be dropped and that a dismissed counselor be reinstated. “Liberty Counsel writes regarding the blatantly unconstitutional revocation of volunteer prison minister status of ordained Christian minister David Wells, who has provided voluntary spiritual counseling and mentorship to juvenile inmates under the control of the Department of Juvenile Justice. … This revocation was issued by Warren County Regional Juvenile Detention Center on the basis of the April 4, 2014, DJJ Policy 912, which mandates full DJJ support of homosexuality and transvestism.
“With no evidence of any violation of DJJ policy on Mr. Wells’ part, his volunteer status was revoked by the Warren RJDC superintendent because he could not sign a state-mandated statement that homosexuality was not ‘sinful,’ among other things,” the letter said.
WND requested a comment from the state agency, but there was no immediate response.
The state agency was told in the letter it has until July 31 to reinstate Wells’ volunteer visitor credentials. “Many juveniles are in DJJ custody because of sexual crimes,” said Mat Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel. “Pastor Wells must be able to discuss what the Bible says about matters of sexuality with the juveniles he is trying to help. To remove the Bible from a pastor’s hands is like removing a scalpel from a surgeon’s hands. Without it, they cannot provide healing.”
Wells had volunteered more than 10 years at the facility under the prison ministry of Pleasant View Baptist Church in McQuady
He wrote, “I must terminate your involvement as a religious volunteer serving the youth in this facility per DJJ Policy 112, Section IV, Paragraph H, (8).”
Liberty Counsel reported Policy 912, “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity,” states that volunteers cannot refer to homosexuality or other alternative sexual lifestyles as “sinful.” “DJJ 912 equates the teaching of biblical morality with ‘derogatory,’ ‘biased” and ‘hateful’ speech,” added Staver. “In so doing, the DJJ policy creates an unconstitutional, religious litmus test for DJJ access. The First Amendment prohibits the government from viewpoint discrimination. This detention center may not prohibit the expression of biblical morality simply because a few DJJ policymakers object to the Bible and its teaching,” the letter said
Liberty Counsel’s letter noted Wells was ordered to sign a form “promising to refrain from telling any juvenile inmates that homosexuality was ‘sinful.’”
But Liberty Counsel argues the Bible “explicitly prohibits any expression of sexuality outside of the confines of man-woman marriage.”
“It recognizes that every person, regardless of personal proclivities or attractions, is separated from God because of sin, whatever form that sin may take. Many juveniles are in DJJ custody because of sexual crimes, and Mr. Wells must be able to discuss the Bible and matters of sexuality with inmates, and he therefore was unable to sign the form.”
The letter says many inmates have been sexually abused and need such counseling.
“Second, at no time in more than 12 years of ministry has Mr. Wells or any of the other volunteer ministers who assist him ever used ‘derogatory language’ in a manner that ‘conveys bias towards or hatred of’ children.’
“Third, any religious services or spiritual counseling offered by Mr.Wells is always completely voluntary in attendance; and no juvenile offender is ever required to attend the services or meet with him or other volunteers,” the letter said.
Wells has dealt with cases ranging from “a young man who sexually abused his sister, and then killed her … to children who have been molested and sodomized by adults and older teens.”
“All of these children have asked Mr.Wells if there was any hope for them in this life, and in the life to come. He has told them without exception that Christ can, and would, forgive them, if they would repent and believe the gospel.”
The policy even conflicts with other department policy, Liberty Counsel explained, because DJJ 345 states: “A volunteer minister, pastor or religious counselor, approved by the facility religious coordinator, shall have access to each area of the facility identified for religious programming. Clergy shall be allowed to have confidential communications with youth pursuant to clergy privilege.”
The state demand “violates the First Amendment by prescribing an official state religious ‘orthodoxy:’ now, only a religious belief that homosexuality is not ‘sinful’ may be expressed in DJJ facilities.”
That’s even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that “no official, high or petty, can prescribe that shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion and force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.” The U.S. Supreme Court also has ruled that speech restrictions cannot be based on viewpoint. The practice also creates similar conflicts with the Kentucky Constitution, Liberty Counsel said.
“There is simply no evidence that any pastor or volunteer minister, much less Mr. Wells, has ever expressed ‘derogatory’ language toward, or ‘bias’ or ‘hatred’ of DJJ youths who have sexuality issues. For that matter, it is not ‘hatred’ or ‘bias’ to lovingly point out the harms of homosexuality,” the letter said.
The result is that the state of Kentucky “singles out a particular theological viewpoint as expressly disfavored. This the state cannot do,” the letter said.
The issue of counseling sexually confused youth has come up several other states already. In California, Oregon and New Jersey, officials already have adopted rules that prohibit people from offering help during counseling sessions to juveniles who have unwanted same-sex attractions. Several other states have rejected the idea.
Most recently, it was a judge’s “bias” toward homosexuality that prompted a jury to award about $72,000 to plaintiffs who sued under a New Jersey consumer fraud law. They claimed their counseling sessions aimed at getting rid of unwanted same-sex attractions failed, according to a licensed counselor. The verdict recently was announced in New Jersey for plaintiffs who brought their case, with the assistance of an organization that has been linked to domestic terror, against JONAH, or Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing. The verdict was “the consequence of liberal judicial bias,” licensed professional counselor Christopher Doyle told Anglican Mainstream, a publication for orthodox Anglicans.
“Before and during the trial Judge Peter Bariso stripped JONAH of so many opportunities to really defend themselves, disqualifying five of the six expert witnesses for the defendants because their opinions contradicted the so-called mainstream view that same-sex attractions are not at all disordered, even if a client is distressed by these unwanted sexual feelings because of their sincerely held religious and spiritual beliefs,” Doyle’s report said.
A decision on whether the case will be appealed is looming, Liberty Counsel said. “The judge’s bias against religious freedom was so ruthless that he even refused to allow JONAH’s chief attorney to mention the First Amendment freedom of religion in his closing argument,” Doyle said. “This verdict sends a chilling message to anyone of faith who either offers counseling or wants to receive counseling to overcome unwanted same-sex attractions,” he said.
The case was brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which opposed racism and discrimination during its early years. However, three years ago it was linked to domestic terrorism in a court case. That was when homosexual activist Floyd Lee Corkins on Aug. 15, 2012, walked into Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, D.C., armed with a semi-automatic pistol, 95 bullets and a sack of Chick-fil-A sandwiches with the intent, he later confessed, of killing “as many people as I could.” Corkins admitted he picked FRC, which promotes traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs about family and sexuality, because it was listed as an “anti-gay” hate group by SPLC on its website.
The judge actually had pre-ordained the conclusion against JONAH, writing early in the case “the theory that homosexuality is a disorder is not novel but – like the notion that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it – instead is outdated and refuted.” For that reason, he gutted much of the organization’s defense.
Doyle explained that the jury probably was less convinced about consumer fraud claims but more by the actions of “a liberal judge who hamstringed the defendants while feeding the jury a steady diet of mischaracterizations on the work of JONAH.”
WND reported JONAH was defended by the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund.
Authored by Steven Ertelt Jul 24, 2015 | Washington, DCNow, another company and a large nonprofit group are joining the list — saying they last donated to Planned Parenthood many years ago and no longer do so: American Express and the American Cancer Society.
Officials with both companies contacted the Daily Signal and told the publication about the cessation of donations to Planned Parenthood:
American Express: “American Express last contributed to two Planned Parenthood community projects more than fifteen years ago. One project provided services to teens such as computer workshops, job preparation, mentoring, recreation and counseling. The other supported adult volunteers working with at-risk adolescents in a local school district.”
The American Cancer Society: “The American Cancer Society does not fund grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates. We have previously funded a very limited number of cancer control grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates to implement cancer control programs, such as training clinic staff to screen patients for smoking, providing patients the benefits of quitting smoking, and referring patients to a toll-free smoking cessation helpline. These grants expired several years ago. The American Cancer Society does not fund—nor has it ever funded—abortion or contraceptive counseling.”
This latest development comes in the wake of two undercover videos that showed Planned Parenthood executives talking about the sale of fetal body parts. Planned Parenthood is facing both federal and state investigations—and the possibility of losing taxpayer funding.
Here’s what the other companies had to say:
By Wednesday afternoon, Planned Parenthood had removed Xerox from its list of companies that match gifts to the organization. By Thursday morning, Planned Parenthood removed every company name listed as a donor.
Steven Ertelt Jul 24, 2015 | Washington, DCURL of the original posting site: http://www.lifenews.com/2015/07/24/senate-will-vote-soon-on-bill-to-immediately-de-fund-planned-parenthood-abortion-biz
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell started a fast-track process Friday on legislation to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding in the wake of two controversial videos showing officials discussing delivery of fetal parts.
The Republican leader began “Rule 14,” which will let the legislation skip the committee process and be placed on the Senate calendar so it can be brought up for a floor vote.
McConnell has been asked by pro-life senators to allow a vote on an amendment to an unrelated highway funding bill to de-fund Planned Parenthood, but the pro-life Senate Republican leader appears to want to avoid a debate about putting forward an unrelated amendment so lawmakers don’t vote against it on that basis alone.
Specifically, the Senate bill, Defund Planned Parenthood Act, would set a one-year moratorium on Planned Parenthood funding from the government, unless the organization ceases performing abortions, his office informed LifeNews.com. This would allow more federal dollars to go toward organizations like community health centers, which serve low-income populations and provide direct health care to women across the country without also killing unborn children in abortions.
“The recent videos uncovering Planned Parenthood’s inhumane abortion practices have hit a nerve with many Americans,” said Lankford. “While the government investigates Planned Parenthood to determine if their practice of adapting their abortion procedures to harvest the organs of children violates federal law, they should not continue to receive taxpayer money. Planned Parenthood receives more than $500 million in taxpayer money every year.”
“This is a sensitive topic for many and I am aware our nation is divided on the issue of abortion, but it is common sense that we shouldn’t force taxpayers to assist the harvesting of human organs,” he said. “Although abortion services account for about 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s activities, serving about 10 percent of its clients, they perform over 300,000 abortions a year.”
Last Thursday, Lankford delivered a passionate speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate about Planned Parenthood. Lankford also wrote an op-ed calling for Congress to end taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood and take up the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (S.1553) to ban abortions after five months.
Black, a Tennessee Republican and a nurse for more than 40 years, told LifeNews that the shocking video provides yet another reason to ensure the Planned Parenthood abortion company does not receive taxpayer dollars.
Since 2013, Congressman Black has sponsored H.R. 217, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, which would combat one of Planned Parenthood’s major government revenue streams by withholding Title X grants from any health care provider that performs abortions or gives funds to organizations that do. However, a nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) study released earlier this year found that Planned Parenthood also received $1.2 billion from Medicaid over a three year window – making it clear that legislation is needed to combat any possible source of federal funding for the scandal-ridden abortion mill.
House Republicans previously approved bills to de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business but the Senate has not recently voted for the bill because Democrats have prevented its passage.
In 2011, House members voted 241-185 for a resolution that would prohibit the Planned Parenthood abortion business from qualifying for family planning funds. The vote saw almost all Republicans supporting de-funding while Democrats generally opposed it. That was the second vote taken to de-fund the abortion giant. An earlier vote in 2011 saw the House de-funded Planned Parenthood on a 240-185 margin.
While it remains America’s biggest abortion corporation, the “nonprofit” continued to make money — bringing in $305.4 million last year and $305.3 million this year. Planned Parenthood continued to receive over a half-billion dollars in taxpayer money, as it took in $540 million in 2012 and $528 million in 2013.
Black told LifeNews in a statement: While Planned Parenthood and its counterparts like to repeat the company line that federal dollars do not directly fund abortions, commonsense tells us differently. According to Planned Parenthood’s own annual report, the organization performed 327, 653 abortions in 2013 alone – all the while receiving more than $528 million in funding from Uncle Sam. The sad truth is they are not alone. Similar organizations continue to threaten the lives of the unborn while cashing in on our tax dollars. My legislation will stop this shameful practice in its tracks.”
Some other takeaways from Planned Parenthood’s own figures:
Authored by Tim BrownURL of the original posting site: http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/07/alabama-sheriff-jimmy-harris-in-wake-of-chattanooga-jihad-put-your-faith-in-god-learn-how-to-handle-a-weapon/#ppGykBZU63MaPiWR.99
Many people have responded to the Chattanooga Islamic jihad attack in several ways. We’ve seen the communist gun grabbers in America already pitching for more gun laws, which is exactly what got four Marines and one Navy petty officer killed. We’ve seen American citizens and veterans take up arms to defend those the “law” infringes on their rights to defend themselves. And then there is one Alabama Sheriff who encourages all Americans to trust in the Lord and learn how to handle a gun.
DeKalb County Sheriff Jimmy Harris issued a press release last Tuesday.
“After spending more than 25 years in law enforcement and in my third term as sheriff, I never imagined our country would be in the violent state it is in now,” he said. “The world is in a state of disarray and the United States is going down fast. We are losing everything that our founding fathers based this country on. Until last week, almost all the bad terrorist or mass shootings were somewhere else and now they are in our backyard. Chattanooga, TN is only about 35 minutes away from the DeKalb County line.”
Though his deputies don’t follow a policy of carrying weapons off duty, Harris wants to make it a requirement that they do. I’m all for that portion. However, he also wants to raise $25,000 to purchase backup weapons for them. I’m not for that. More than likely, each deputy has his own gun at home he can carry without charge to the citizens of Alabama or Dekalb County.
He also takes a similar approach to that of Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke in encouraging citizens to prepare themselves and be trained and armed. “We don’t have backup,” he said. “We’re out here in the county by ourselves and you might be 25 minutes away from backup.” “We’ve had cutbacks everywhere in all these counties,” he said. “It may take time to get a police officer or a deputy sheriff to where you need them to be, so people, need to get some kind of self-defense training.” “This country is based on God, guns, and the right to protect ourselves. I think as sheriff, it is my place to protect the safety and security of our citizens. And help citizens in ways to protect their selves and their families,” Harris said.
Amen! This is a sheriff that gets it, and I like that. He then went on to unashamedly proclaim his Christian faith, encouraging others to do the same and also to use the tools God has provided to defend themselves and their loved ones.
“If you are not prepared, it is time that you get self-defense training or firearms training. As a Christian, I ask you to put your faith in God, and as a life time NRA member, it is time you learn to protect yourself by learning the proper and safe ways to handle a weapon,” Harris said.
“They are saying this terrorist in Chattanooga was a [lone] wolf. You do not have to be a member of ISIS to belong to their terrorist organization. You just have to believe the way they do and carry out deadly attacks against U.S. citizens. This doesn’t make them a [lone] wolf it makes them a pack of [wolves.] This is what makes them so dangerous.”
by John Hayward24 Jul 2015
The article began as follows: “Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether Hillary Rodham Clinton mishandled sensitive government information on a private email account she used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.”
But suddenly, without notice to readers or attribution, the headline was changed to, “Criminal Inquiry Is Sought in Clinton Email Account.”
It’s so very, very, very good to be Democrat royalty. You never get asked tough questions about issues that make your big supporters squirm, like Planned Parenthood’s baby parts-harvesting operation. You’re completely insulated from everything other members of your Party do and say, while every Republican is instantly joined at the hip with the most controversial members of theirs. Your court media will leap into action at the snap of your fingers, suppressing or blunting stories and headlines that are incredibly damaging to your campaign.
The opening paragraph of the story was stealth-edited to an even more absurd degree, to distance Clinton herself from the story. It now reads as if she was a bystander to the potentially illegal activity: “Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account Hillary Rodham Clinton used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.” [emphasis added]
The Times even altered the URL of the web page to cover its tracks, evidently having learned that one of the favorite tactics of media watchdogs is to check the URL – which usually defaults to the initial headline – against what the story currently says.
As of Friday morning, there was nothing in the article to indicate it had been changed, or why. This isn’t a correction or an update – it’s chicanery.
And there’s no mystery about why, as reporter Michael Schmidt explained to Politico: “It was a response to complaints we received from the Clinton camp that we thought were reasonable, and we made them.”
As for the story itself, interested readers might want to check it out before Hillary Clinton demands more stealth edits from her good friends in the editorial room. At the moment, it explains that the unnamed inspectors general sent a memo to Patrick F. Kennedy, under secretary of state for management, saying that hundreds of the emails sent through Clinton’s secret, possibly illegal mail server were “potentially classified.”
Clinton has always maintained no formally classified information was sent through the insecure server, although a great deal of unquestionably sensitive material was. Students of the email scandal have wondered how anyone could effectively serve as Secretary of State without sending or receiving any classified information, although Hillary Clinton’s disastrous performance in the office might actually make her claims of never handling secret documents more plausible.
One of the details that needs clearing up is whether material pumped through Clinton’s basement server was classified at the time. At least two dozen of the emails she decided to hand over to Congress, rather than pronouncing them “personal” and defying subpoenas to destroy them, were redacted because they have been retroactively classified by the State Department. It would have been nice to have a Secretary of State who knew better than to send information so sensitive it would be retroactively classified through a hacker-vulnerable mail account she wasn’t supposed to be using in the first place, but here we are.
However, the Times adds: “In a second memo to Mr. Kennedy, sent on July 17, the inspectors general said that at least one email made public by the State Department contained classified information. The inspectors general did not identify the email or reveal its substance.”
The article goes on to discuss the State Department’s generally slipshod handling of sensitive material and its foot-dragging response to Freedom of Information Act requests and congressional subpoenas it has been ignoring, in some cases for years.
Amusingly, the Times reports that “some State Department officials said they believe that many senior officials did not initially take the [House Select Committee on Benghazi] seriously, which slowed document production and created an appearance of stonewalling.”
A branch of Barack Obama’s corrupt, hyper-partisan Administration didn’t think it had to bother with a lawful investigation conducted by the Republican House majority? Who could have seen that coming?
On the subject of corruption, don’t hold your breath waiting for Obama’s Justice Department to investigate Hillary Clinton’s email abuses. They’re too busy launching investigations into the people who would dare expose Planned Parenthood’s possible violation of the law to harvest baby organs for sale, in pursuit of the cash needed to buy expensive sports cars. This story isn’t likely to go any further than the inspectors general making their recommendation, which is enormously embarrassing for Clinton, and will get people talking about a subject she’s been hoping her loyal friends, financial supporters, and former employees in the press could bury while she lays low during the Trump Moment.
It’s a measure of just how embarrassing it is that she was able to pick up the phone, or maybe fire off an email from one of those portable devices she claims she hates carrying, and get the story stealth-edited in a matter of minutes.
By: Meeke Addison; Posted: Friday, July 24, 2015There must be an immediate investigation of Planned Parenthood, and it must subsequently be defunded of the tax-payers’ dollars it currently enjoys. Videos have surfaced recently revealing that Planned Parenthood is in the business of butchering babies and doing so “softly” so as to preserve valuable parts for sale. These videos have been widely circulated, and Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, has been forced to deny their legitimacy. She can now be seen making a cold, detached video statement that reduces what her organization does to making “donations for medical research.” However, the “donations” are bringing in money for Planned Parenthood.
The Center for Medical Progress is to release more videos, and that threat has Planned Parenthood shaking in their blood-stained medical gowns. In fact, according to LifeNews.com, Planned Parenthood admits “that CMP investigators may have video of actual tissue procurement at a PP facility.” And that’s not the worst of it. In a written response to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s request for a staff briefing regarding Planned Parenthood’s “tissue donation” programs, the organization alerts the committee to damaging information still yet to be revealed.
Planned Parenthood writes:
At this point, we do not know the full extent of Biomax’s illicit conduct. We believe that on at least one occasion a representative from Biomax was shown a highly sensitive area in a clinic where tissue is processed after abortion procedures. While this work is standard and essential during any abortion procedure, any filming in such an area would be an extremely serious invasion of our patients’ privacy and dignity. We also believe that in at least one interaction at a Planned Parenthood facility, the Biomax representative asked questions about the racial characteristics of tissue donated to researchers studying sickle cell anemia, apparently seeking to create a misleading impression.
As more videos surface, are we going to learn that Planned Parenthood had a particular interest in selling the body parts of aborted black babies? It certainly appears to be so. And if you consider that in 2013 in New York City alone more black babies were aborted than were born, they certain didn’t lack “specimens for donation.” According to an article published on theamericanmirror.com, Kyle Olson cites a report from, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene entitled “Pregnancy Outcomes.” The report found, “Abortions among the ‘non-Hispanic black’ demographic were by far the highest among any racial group.” This is #blacklivesmatter at its best.
We don’t know what will be uncovered about Planned Parenthood and their immoral, illegal, and heinous practices, but you can be sure that none of it will show them having veered too far away from their founding mission of nearly 100 years ago: the extermination of “human weeds.”
Meeke Addison Urban Family NetworkMore Articles
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