… How would you feel if that scrutiny were being triggered by some wacky word association game made up by the agency and including seemingly harmless words such as “Tea Party” and “Patriot,” “Constitution” and “good government” in a list of suspicious words and phrases?
You’d feel like Big Brother was watching, and you’d be right. What is being revealed about IRS targeting of conservative groups over a period of two years because of words like those mentioned above is Orwellian. For those unfamiliar with the term, it derives from the British writer’s classic work “1984,” in which a character known as “Big Brother” tracked the thought processes of ordinary citizens through a system of omnipresent government surveillance. …
Yet again depictions of Islam’s prophet Muhammad are causing controversy. The French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo has published a special edition released in January 2013 entitled La Vie de Mahomet, 1ère partie: Les débuts d’un prophète (“The Life of Muhammad, Part One: The Debut of a Prophet“; part two will follow in June 2013). Press reaction in both France and Germany, however, has not been uniformly welcoming, demonstrating once more a media aversion to open examination of Islam.
… opponents are gearing up to flood Congress with calls condemning any legislation that allows illegal immigrants to gain legal status or citizenship.
The same tactic helped defeat immigration reform the last time lawmakers considered passing bills in 2006 and especially 2007, when a flood of angry calls shut down the switchboard in Congress. …
Most of you are the descendents of immigrants who came to this great nation legally, who built decent lives by living according to decent values, and passed those values unto you. Your ancestors assimilated. Most of you were raised to believe that the American dream is the chance — the opportunity — to achieve your full potential by working hard, being honest, treating people as you would have them treat you, believing in the common sense law of the land (based on the Constitution), having core values, and having faith, all to build a better life for yourself, your family, your friends, your community, your nation, and even the whole world. Your conscientious legal citizenship — your patriotism — is about to be thrown in the trash.
Democrats and many Republicans view the current immigration legislation now being considered in Congress primarily through a political prism. For Democrats, the new legislation presents the opportunity to add many millions of new immigrants — sympathetic to their party’s perspective of larger and more “helpful” government — to the country’s voting rolls and thus help bring about their dream of a permanent Democratic majority.
After multiple scandals — using the IRS as a political weapon, covering up Americans being killed in Benghazi — the Obama administration may have just put the last nail in its own political coffin. The President has alienated a key ally: the mainstream media. According to the Yahoo! News:
Exactly ten days ago, President Barack Obama was piously telling reporters who cover him that free speech and an independent press are “essential pillars of our democracy.” On Monday, the Associated Press accused his administration of undermining that very pillar by secretly obtaining two months’ worth of telephone records of AP reporters and editors. …
The latest revelations are sure to pour fuel on the fire of Republican-driven Richard Nixon comparisons. They come in the wake of revelations that the IRS may have improperly scrutinized the tax-exempt status of conservative, tea party-linked groups. This might, in order words, not be a great time to announce a groundbreaking trip to China.
And the news threatens to pile fresh political woes on a second term already burdened by a painful gun-control defeat, a seemingly stalled economic agenda, and Republican rage at the botched response to the Sept. 12, 2012 terrorist attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. …
For a long time, many have suspected that Obama has made “the US media its mouthpiece.” Perhaps the “US media” wanted to be Obama’s mouthpiece — until they got targeted. The AP wasn’t too happy, according to NBC:
… In a letter of protest to Attorney General Eric Holder, [AP President and CEO Gary] Pruitt called [sic] said obtaining more than two months of AP phone records on 20 separate telephone lines without prior notice was a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into news-gathering operations. …
CNN is covering the story. MSNBC reported that the Obama administration’s actions against the AP:
… also drew a swift rebuke Monday from members of Congress and freedom of the press watchdogs, one of whom called the move ‘Nixonian.’ …
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, vowed to investigate.
“This is obviously disturbing,” he said. Coming in the wake of other disclosures about the administration’s response to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the IRS’s targeting of conservative nonprofit groups, he said it showed “top Obama administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to anyone.”
Rep. Issa hit the nail on the head: “top Obama administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to anyone.” With the pileup of scandals, Obama will surely lose the trust of the majority of the American people.
A mass exodus of Christians is currently underway. Millions of Christians are being displaced from one end of the Islamic world to the other.
We are reliving the true history of how the Islamic world—much of which prior to the Islamic conquests was almost entirely Christian—came into being.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”
Ongoing reports from the Islamic world certainly support this conclusion. Iraq was the earliest indicator of the fate awaiting Christians once Islamic forces are liberated from the grip of dictators.
In his speech at Ohio State University, President Barack Obama used the word “together” four times. Yet each time he defined the collective endeavor of Americans as merely that of promoting more government. Thus, while trying to turn American history and even the Constitution into precedents for his goals and policies, Obama actually reverses reality, undermining not only the conservative vision of America but also the historic liberal one.
Normally, a president would speak of the vast array of efforts made “together” to refer — or at least include — non-government activities. That means the actions of voluntarily formed communities, organizations, corporations, charities, religious groups, and trade unions. It is the freedom, energy, and enthusiasm to form such groups that marks American society as unusual in the world.
How did scholars of the Middle East and those engaged in moonlighting (non-specialists who write about the region) react to the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013? Before the smoke cleared, some were predicting that the perpetrators would be “right-wingers” who sought to “disrupt tax day,” “neo-Nazis,” or “lone wolves.” Given that Muslims constitute 30 of 32 of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s list of most wanted terrorists, this represents either wishful thinking or willful blindness.
am·nes·ty (am-nuh-stee) an act of forgiveness for past offenses, especially to a class of persons as a whole.
Synonym: par·don (pahr-dn) a release from the penalty of an offense; forgiveness of a serious offense or offender; to release (a person) from liability for an offense; to remit the penalty of (an offense)
Led by Senator Marco Rubio, the “Gang of Eight” is attempting to hide the fact that their “comprehensive immigration reform” bill would provide amnesty for illegal aliens and their employers.
Rubio argues that illegal aliens would not be forgiven of past, harmless infractions, but would be required to pay for them. However, a review of the bill shows that the token penalties, when they do exist, are not commensurate with the employment-related felonies committed by the vast majority of illegal aliens, nor are they commensurate with the benefits received by illegal aliens. The penalties are, therefore, no more than thinly veiled attempts to hide the amnesty provisions of S. 744.
David Wheaton: Perhaps you watched the Boston Marathon bombings that killed four people and injured more than 200 others and wondered, “Why would two young Muslim men, who were granted political asylum in America years ago, educated in our schools, and received financial aid from U.S. taxpayers, set off two bombs in order to murder and maim as many Americans as possible?”
It’s a very good question. It has been said that, “All Muslims are not terrorists … but almost all terrorist attacks against America are committed by Muslims.”
Why is this? What is it about Islam — or perhaps about America? — that leads two young Muslims to murder the people that have actually taken them in?
… As we look for ways to crack down on terrorism and terrorist activity, looking at UNRWA is a good start. American taxpayer dollars fund approximately one-third of UNRWA’s operating budget. UNRWA provides food, medicine, economic aid, jobs, radical education, political opportunities, and even logistical assistance to Hamas and other extremist groups. UNRWA’s budget, which exceeds $365 million, is funded by many nations, but the United States and other Western nations are the largest contributors. …
If you want to find out even more truth about UNRWA, I suggest you read this very thoughtful, well-documented treatise by three well-recognized experts on Middle East affairs: Barry Rubin, Asaf Romirowsky, and Jonathan Spyer. They eloquently showed that UNRWA:
… actually helps destroy the chance of Arab-Israeli peace, promotes terrorism, and holds Palestinians back from rebuilding their lives.
Unique in history, UNRWA’s job is to keep Palestinian refugees in suspended animation — and at low living standards — until they achieve the goal set for them by the PLO and Hamas: Israel’s extinction. In the meantime, their suffering and anger is maintained as a weapon to encourage them toward violence and intransigence. …
Some people seem to be perplexed as to why a gun owner would want a high-capacity magazine for his/her weapon. A “magazine” or “clip” is a cartridge that holds the bullets that a gun can fire. The gun know-nothings ask their capacity question as if only a lunatic would want to fire more than 5 bullets before reloading. These people have no idea what they’re talking about. They’re certainly not the type of person you’d want to have defending you during a home invasion. When push comes to shove, you’re defending your own life and/or that of family, friends, and compatriots, handling a gun is not like it seems on TV. Guns are not easy to aim, handle, or reload — especially when lives are at stake. It can take years of practicing, training, or both to become proficient with a self-defense weapon. It can be difficult to neutralize an opponent, especially if he/she is moving, has superior firepower, he/she has armed accomplices, and you’re all pumped up with adrenaline and emotion (fear). Instead of trying to write an explanation of why you’d want a high-capacity magazine, watch the following public service announcement created by MB Studio Productions. If you have brains, you’ll understand. If you don’t understand, there are explanations (“In a gunfight, being able to reload with new magazines is a real advantage, and this is why police officers and licensed civilians regularly carry spare magazines for their pistols.”). If you do not want to understand, then go join the the rest of sheep who are deluded into thinking that only mercenaries should be allowed to protect the common good of this nation:
In January, an American Christian was sentenced to an eight-year prison sentence on charges of “endangering national security” in Iran. A 32-year-old married father of two from Boise, Idaho, Pastor Saeed Abedini traveled to his country of origin last year to visit family and help build an orphanage, only to be arrested and sent to Tehran’s brutal Evin prison.
According to Fox News, Abedini, a Muslim convert to Christianity—also known as an apostate deserving of death under Islamic Sharia law—is “facing physical and psychological torture at the hands of captors demanding he renounce his beliefs.” In a recent letter smuggled to family members, he recounted the “horrific pressures” and “death threats” he endures: “My eyes get blurry, my body does not have the strength to walk, and my steps become very weak and shaky… They are only waiting for one thing… for me to deny Christ. But they will never get this from me.”
We’ve gathered some poll numbers that anti-Second Amendment politicians should take into account before national elections in 2014, so tell your reps. Of Americans surveyed: 1) “58 percent of people worry that stricter gun legislation would make it more difficult for people to protect their families;” 2) only 4% consider gun control the “most important problem facing this country today;” and, 3) only 47% “say they are ‘angry’ or ‘disappointed’ that gun legislation failed to pass.” Regarding a very important subset of U.S. citizenry, “15,000 verified law enforcement professionals” taking part in a recent gun control survey “oppose the theories brought forth by gun-control advocates” and “feel that those [gun] controls will negatively affect their ability to fight violent criminals.”
… 48 percent of gun owners purchased firearms for protection — an increase of 22 percent from the survey conducted in August of 1999. 65 percent of women listed protection as their top priority, compared to 43 percent in 1999, while 42 percent of men said protection was their main concern, up 21 points from 1999. …
58 percent of people worry that stricter gun legislation would make it more difficult for people to protect their families and homes …
Only 4 percent of Americans think guns and gun control are an important problem facing the country, according to Gallup, and far more Americans are concerned about the economy, unemployment and the federal debt. …
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