Immigration Bill Contains ‘MarcoPhones
” The 844-page immigration reform bill the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” dropped in the dead of night contains a lucrative handout that would give taxpayer-funded free cell phones to some people who live or work near the U.S. border with Mexico.
Pages 43 and 44 of the bill detail what one conservative blogger, Javier Manjarres of Shark Tank, has already described as the “ObamaPhone” from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). That section reads: “
Deadly bombs strike Boston Marathon
” Two bombs struck near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing two people and injuring at least 28.
The explosions sent smoke billowing into the air at Copley Square, turning a site of celebration into a mess of destruction.
“It felt like a huge cannon,” a witness told CNN about one of the blasts.
Authorities in Boston have found other explosive devices that they were working to dismantle, a federal law enforcement source told CNN. The devices were “low flashpoint,” and did not appear to have shrapnel inside them, the source said.
It was unclear who may have planted the bombs. There were no credible threats before the race, a state government official said.
Out of an abundance of caution, the Lenox Hotel was evacuated, the Boston Globe reported, as authorities looked into possible security concerns.
Massachusetts General Hospital said it was treating 19 injured people, six of them in critical condition. Tufts Medical Center reported that it was treating nine people. Combined, that brings the number of injured to at least 28. Police reported 22 people injured.”
Largest Dutch bank defaults on physical gold deliveries to customers
” Last week, a rubicon was crossed in the precious metals market as one of the largest banks in Europe defaulted on their gold contracts, and informed their customers there was no physical gold available for delivery.
ABN AMRO, the largest Dutch bank in the Eurozone, issued a letter to their gold contract customers of failure of delivery, and instead will pay account holders in a paper currency equivalent to the current spot value of the metal.
ABN AMRO, the biggest Dutch bank, has sent a letter to its clients stating that they will no longer be able to take physical deliveries of the gold they have bought through ABN. Instead they are offered money at the current market rate for gold. Basically, instead of owning a risk free, physical asset (a gold bar or a gold coin), the bank’s clients now own a monetary claim on ABN AMRO, being exposed to the bank’s credit risk. - Voice of Russia”
Colorado Shooting Competition Canceled In Wake Of New Gun Control Laws
” GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Organizers of the Rocky Mountain Western States Regional IDPA Championship, initially scheduled to take place July 4-6 in Montrose, Colorado, have announced that the match is being canceled in the wake of Colorado’s recently passed gun control laws.
An estimated 300-plus shooters from the neighboring states and across the country were expected to attend the three-day competitive shooting event. This is the second shooting competition to abandon the state after a recent announcement by firearms maker Ruger that it was moving the 2013 Ruger Rimfire Challenge World Championship out of Colorado . “
HT/Instapundit
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GOP Should Subpoena Benghazi’s Silenced Witnesses
” Benghazi: The House GOP has threatened to subpoena the survivors of the Benghazi terrorist attack, those who know the truth, and hold up the? nomination of our murdered ambassador’s replacement. It should do both.
The Obama administration is fond of using a familiar tactic, the shield of an “ongoing investigation,” to cover up its malfeasance in the deaths of Americans serving their country.
It was used to hide the truth regarding the administration’s Fast and Furious gun-running operation to Mexican drug cartels, which resulted in the deaths of agents Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata. They are using it again concerning Benghazi.
The only American witnesses to the Benghazi attack who have been named by the Obama administration are the four whom the terrorists killed in the Sept. 11 attack on our Benghazi mission — Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, who were working for the CIA.”
Dems preserve US-Mexico food stamp ‘partnership,’ while USDA prepares for meat inspector furloughs
” Salmonella outbreaks. E. coli outbreaks. Millions of dollars in economic losses.
These are among the scenarios the Obama administration warned about last month as it claimed the sequester would force the U.S. Department of Agriculture to furlough meat inspectors.
But while the administration prepares to take that step, it continues to pursue a “partnership” with the Mexican government to “raise awareness” about food stamps among immigrants from that country.
When a top Senate Republican proposed cutting off funds for that program last week — in the form of an amendment to a budget resolution — Democrats on the Budget Committee shot it down. It’s hard to put a firm price on the cost of the partnership, which was launched under the George W. Bush administration.
But an aide to Sen. Jeff Sessionns, R-Ala., who has railed against the partnership for months, said it could easily be in the millions. Since 2004, the program has blossomed to include dozens of meetings and conferences and health fairs with Mexican officials — all of which cost money, not to mention the cost to the food stamp program of new enrollees brought in as a result of this partnership . “
From Magpul Industries Facebook Page
” Apparently Gov Hickenlooper has announced that he will sign HB 1224 on Wednesday. We
were asked for our reaction, and here is what we said:
We have said all along that based on the legal problems and uncertainties in the bill, as well
as general principle, we will have no choice but to leave if the Governor signs this into law.
We will start our transition out of the state almost immediately, and we will prioritize moving magazine manufacturing operations
first. We expect the first PMAGs to be made outside CO within 30 days of the signing, with the rest to follow in phases. “
SWAT officer attracts ridicule after he’s pictured with his rifle sight on backwards
“A SWAT team in upstate New York is being mocked as an example of the difference between military and police training after an officer was captured peering through a backwards sight on his combat rifle.
As users on the military Reddit were quick to point out when the image was posted, the reverse sight makes it effectively useless.
Users mocked the SWAT officers training and some went so far as to question the motives of some of the men serving in local law enforcement.”
America Sinks as We Bail Out Egypt
” John Kerry just spit in the eye of the American people. For the past month we have been bombarded with Obama and his administration predicting Armageddon due to the sequester.
The American people were supposed to be looking at cutbacks and layoffs, long lines at the airports, no more food inspections, and children starving in the streets! Not to mention we haven’t enough money to send the aircraft carrier U.S. Truman to the Persian Gulf.Well that was last week. I guess we found some spare change in an old suit because John Kerry just gave $250 million to Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood this weekend! Wow! Think of the kids that could have fed
Just after the delivery of our $213 million dollar gift of F-16’sto the Muslim Brotherhood, guess who was invited over for tea? None other than Ahmadinejad who received the full red carpet treatment from Morsi. What was he doing? Picking out which jets he wanted sent to Iran? Perhaps they were comparing notes on their hatred of Israel calling the Israeli people “descendants of apes and pigs” and saying that Egyptian children should be “nursed” on “hatred for Israel”. “
” Back in my teaching days, many years ago, one of the things I liked to ask the class to consider was this: Imagine a government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to children. If this agency’s budget were cut, what would it do?
The answer, of course, is that it would cut back on the medications for children. Why? Because that would be what was most likely to get the budget cuts restored. If they cut back on building statues of Benedict Arnold, people might ask why they were building statues of Benedict Arnold in the first place.The example was deliberately extreme as an illustration. But, in the real world, the same general pattern can be seen in local, state and national government responses to budget cuts.”
” The first line item on page 121 of the OMB’s September 2012 report says that under sequestration the National Drug Intelligence Center would lose $2 million of its $20 million budget. While that’s slightly more than 8.2 percent (rounding error or scare tactic?), the bigger problem is that the National Drug Intelligence Center shuttered its doors on June 15, 2012–three months before the OMB issued its report to Congress. “
Nate Silver: 2014 GOP Could Win Senate
” Twenty-one of the 35 seats up for election are now held by Democrats,” Silver penned on Wednesday.
“ Moreover, most the states that will be casting ballots for the Senate in 2014 are Republican leaning: 7 of the 21 Democratic-held seats are in states carried by the former Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, while just one of the Republican seats is in a state won by President Obama.”
Obama, Holder Called Out for Not Enforcing Gun Laws
” A group of 23 Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee Friday sent letters to President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder demanding existing gun laws be enforced before additional limitations are passed.
The committee, which has held hearings in recent weeks on ways to prevent gun violence, again called into focus statistics that show a dramatic drop in federal weapons prosecutions over the past decade.
The letters cite a Syracuse University study that show firearms prosecutions under President George W. Bush peaked at 11,015 in 2004 while the Obama administration has prosecuted about 7,774 firearms cases in 2012.
A prosecution rate this low is not indicative of a Department of Justice that takes the act of illegally attempting to acquire a firearm seriously,” Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said in a statement accompanying the letters.”
Do You Live In A Death Spiral State
” Don’t buy a house in a state where private sector workers are outnumbered by folks dependent on government.
Thinking about buying a house? Or a municipal bond? Be careful where you put your capital. Don’t put it in a state at high risk of a fiscal tailspin.
Eleven states make our list of danger spots for investors. They can look forward to a rising tax burden, deteriorating state finances and an exodus of employers. The list includes California, New York, Illinois and Ohio, along with some smaller states like New Mexico and Hawaii.”
If your career takes you to Los Angeles or Chicago, don’t buy a house. Rent.
Canadian Youth Soccer Leagues Stop Keeping Score
” I heard about this on Red Eye Radio about an hour ago and it’s too silly to let go without comment. Some youth soccer leagues in Canada have decided not to keep score of the games or publish the standings of teams, anymore. I guess this is all part of the “helping self-esteem” movement for kids. From the Toronto Star:
Tessa’s league is one of many across the province that will stop keeping score and tabulating standings this season in an attempt to shift the focus of kids’ soccer away from winning and toward skills development.
Some leagues and age groups started last season, others will adopt the approach this year, and by 2014 it will be mandatory across Ontario for all competitive players under 12.
It’s part of a well-established, research-supported and holistic approach to player development, common in soccer-rich countries and endorsed by the sport’s brightest minds.”
Authorities’ new advice to schools: Confront shooter
” Law enforcement authorities are increasingly advising school officials — and even young students — to physically confront suspects in future campus attacks as a final line of defense.
The advisories, now included in training videos and documents prepared by police, represent a major shift in tactics for law enforcement officials who have traditionally counseled potential victims to flee and hide while waiting for authorities to answer calls for help.”
Easy to see why Tehran endorses Hagel
” You don’t have to be that good to fend off a committee of showboating senatorial blowhards. Hillary Clinton demonstrated that a week or so back when she unleashed what’s apparently the last word in withering putdowns: What difference does it make?
Quite a bit of difference, it seems. This week, an oversedated Elmer Fudd showed up at the Senate claiming to be the president’s nominee for Secretary of
Defense, and even the kindliest interrogators on the committee couldn’t prevent the poor
chap shooting himself in the foot.
Twenty minutes in, Chuck Hagel was all out of appendages.
An email from a fellow liberty lover .
” Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al: We have stuck together since the late 1950′s for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let’s just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way. Here is a our separation agreement: –Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes. –We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. –You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. –Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. –We’ll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and the coal mines, and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel. –You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them. –We’ll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. –You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens. –We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO’s and rednecks. –We’ll keep Bill O’Reilly, and Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood . –You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. –You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we’ll help provide them security. –We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian values. –You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill. –We’ll keep the SUV’s, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Volt and Leaf you can find. –You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors. –We’ll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right. –We’ll keep “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “The National Anthem.” –I’m sure you’ll be happy to substitute “Imagine”, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”, “Kum Ba Ya” or “We Are the World”. –We’ll practice trickle-down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot. –Since it often so offends you, we’ll keep our history, our name and our flag. Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I’ll bet you might think about which one of us will need whose help in 15 years. Sincerely, John J. Wall Law Student and an American P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin & Charlie Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & ( Hanoi ) Jane Fonda with you. P.S.S. And you won’t have to press 1 for English when you call our country. “
America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power
” Americans have increasingly expanded presidential power over recent decades by expecting the president to provide solutions for all national problems, prosperity for all, and protection from harm. Healy demonstrates how the president’s role needs to return to its properly defined constitutional limits, with its powers held in check by Congress and the courts.
“The year’s most pertinent and sobering public affairs book.”
— GEORGE WILL, Newsweek
Read the free e-book version of Cult of the Presidency below. Available for a limited time only “
