front lines

Memorial Day Photo Gallery & Video

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:15:00 +0000

ICE Official: Mexican Drug Cartels Now ‘Dictating’ Flow of Human Smuggling into U.S.

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:53:00 +0000

(CNSNews.com) -- “Gatekeepers” linked to Mexican drug cartels “are dictating when and where” alien smugglers are allowed to cross the southwest border into the U.S. territory, a federal immigration enforcement agent told House lawmakers at a hearing Monday held in Arizona.

The official, Matthew Allen of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), added that when human smugglers wishing to cross into the U.S. disregard “warnings” from drug cartels, they can be targets of violence including murder.

Allen, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations for ICE in Phoenix, provided both verbal and written testimony during a field hearing in Arizona hosted by the House Homeland Security Committee’ subcommittee on border and maritime security. More

With Recall Vote Days Away – New Study Shows Walker’s Reform Saved Wisconsin $1 Billion

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:10:00 +0000

Gateway Pundit - Democrats had such high hopes just weeks ago that they would recall Governor Scott Walker and oust him from office. But their dreams are fading fast. With just two weeks to go before the election, Governor Walker holds a six point lead in the latest Marquette poll. This past weekend the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, by no means a conservative paper, endorsed Scott Walker in the governor’s race.

Last February, THOUSANDS of Tea Party Patriots turned out in Madison, Wisconsin, to support Republican Governor Scott Walker. The tea party still supports Scott Walker.

And, there is more good news for Governor Scott Walker and Wisconsin. The reforms passed by Governor Walker and Wisconsin Republican lawmakers saved the state one billion dollars.

This comes from the Wisconsin Reporter:

While a lightning rod for controversy and recall, Wisconsin’s Act 10 has paid significant dividends to taxpayers, according to a new analysis by the Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research, at Suffolk University in Boston.

Act 10, which curbed collective bargaining for most unionized public employees, in the whole has saved taxpayers more than $1 billion, according to The Economic Impacts of the Wisconsin Budget Repair Act. The study is slated for release this week by Beacon Hill Institute, a prominent free market think tank.

What the analysis found is that without the law, which in part requires covered public employees to contribute more to their benefits and holds wage increases to the rate of inflation, Badger State governments would have been forced to raise taxes or make deep job cuts to meet budget expenses. More

Newt: Bain Attacks "Didn't Work" For Me--They Won't Work For Obama Either

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:27:00 +0000

h/t - Townhall.Com

Thomas Sowell - A Book for Republicans

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:41:00 +0000

Democrats have been having a field day with the cry of "tax cuts for the rich" -- for which Republicans seem to have no reply. This is especially surprising, because Democrats made the same arguments back in the 1920s, and the Republicans then not only had a reply, but one that eventually carried the day, when the top tax rate was brought down from 73 percent to 24 percent.

What was the difference then?

The biggest difference is that Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon took the trouble to articulate the case for lower tax rates, in articles that appeared in popular publications, using plain language that ordinary people could understand. Seldom do Republican leaders today even attempt to do any such thing.

In 1924, the ideas from these articles were collected in a book which Mellon titled "Taxation: The People's Business." That book has recently been reprinted by the University of Minnesota Law Library. Today's Republicans would do well to get a copy of Mellon's book, which shows how demagoguery about "tax cuts for the rich" can be exposed for the nonsense that it is.

People in the media could also benefit by seeing how the "tax cuts for the rich" demagoguery collapses like a house of cards when you subject it to logic and evidence.

Those who argue that "the rich" should pay a higher tax rate, and that the revenue this would bring in could be used to reduce the deficit, assume that higher tax rates equal higher tax revenues. But they do not.

More

The Man Who Would Rule Egypt - An Islamist wolf in moderate clothing

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:15:00 +0000

FrontPageMag.Com - Egypt, the original heart of the Arab Spring, goes to the polls this Wednesday and Thursday to elect a new president, and the Obama administration’s favored choice, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, may emerge the victor. “He could be the president who puts Egypt on a path towards genuine democracy,” says one U.S. official. But the self-styled “liberal” Islamist is no moderate.

One of the two front-running candidates (along with Amr Moussa, 75, a former foreign minister under Mubarak and most recently secretary-general of the Arab League), Fotouh, 61, is a doctor and former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose political party took nearly 50 percent of the seats in parliamentary elections and is the best-organized political force in the country. He served for 25 years in the Brotherhood’s leadership body before being expelled last year when he defied the group’s leaders to run for the presidency.

Fotouh is described as a reformist member of the organization, and as such has received support from younger Brothers, even though the Brotherhood is putting forth its own candidate, Mohammed Morsi. Fotouh is viewed as more liberal than the other Islamists in the race, prompting comparisons to Turkey’s Recep Erdogan. That would be the same Erdogan who proclaimed that “there is no moderate Islam,” who advised Turkish immigrants in Europe that “assimilation is a crime against humanity,” who has taken an increasingly bellicose stance toward Israel – and who is a favorite of Obama in the Middle East. More

HHS Inks $20 Million Contract to Sell Obamacare to Skeptical Public

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:32:00 +0000

The Foundry - The Department of Health and Human Services has inked a $20 million contract with a top public-relations firm to sell aspects of the Obamacare law to the American public.

According to a report in PR Week, HHS’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has awarded the contract to PR firm Porter Novelli. The firm has offices worldwide, and boasts PepsiCo, Hewlett Packard, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as existing clients.

According to The Hill, the Porter Novelli campaign is “designed to educate the public about how to stay healthy and prevent illnesses.” It will do so by highlighting provisions of Obamacare.

The PR push is part of a sustained effort to try to sell the unpopular Obamacare law to the American public. Last year, HHS asked Congress to quadruple the budget for its public affairs office – to nearly $20 million – and nearly double the size of the office’s staff. The department insisted the changes were necessary to “help Americans understand and access their benefits and information under the law.” More

Obama Bundler’s Husband Awarded Over $1 Billion in DOE Guaranteed Loans

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:05:00 +0000

It pays to go green – with Barack.

Jason and Arvia Few are Obama bundlers.
(Black Tie)

The husband of one of Barack Obama’s top bundlers has received $1.2 billion in federal loan guarantees from the Obama Administration.

The Free Beacon reported:

New disclosures show that one of President Obama’s bundlers is the wife of an executive at an energy company that received a more-than-$1.2 billion Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee for a solar power plant.

Arvia Few is a bundler for the Obama re-election campaign who has promised to raise between $50,000 and $100,000. She began bundling for Obama in the first quarter of 2012. Her husband, Jason Few, is an executive at a company that has benefited handsomely from the Obama administration’s clean energy spending, records show. More

Dave Weinbaum - Wars From Our President

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:27:00 +0000

Karl Marx Jr. AKA Barack Hussein
Obama is showing us his hand--at least
the back of it. Simply put: Dear Leader
has failed in almost everything he’s tried
except for mileage on AF1 and
Michelle’s vacations--on our dime. His
campaign slogan FORWARD is a
cynical attempt to avoid his record and
keep us believing in his now proven
false, Hope and Change mantra.
Never lend a hand when you can point a finger

Cardinal Wuerl: Mother Teresa Wouldn't Qualify as 'Religious' Under Obamacare Rule

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:56:00 +0000

(CNSNews.com) - Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., said in an open letter on Monday and in a videotaped message that the Obama administration would not have considered the work of Mother Teresa as "religious" and thus would not have exempted her charitable organizations from a new federal regulation, issued under Obamacare, that will force Catholics to act against their faith.

"Under the mandate, even the work of Mother Teresa wouldn't be qualified as religious," said Cardinal Wuerl in the video.

Watch the Video

"Contrary to America's great tradition of religious freedom, embodied in the First Amendment, Catholic institutions will now be forced to act against their conscience and provide coverage for drugs and procedures they believe are morally wrong, simply because they serve people of all faiths or no faith equally," said Cardinal Wuerl. More

Thomas Sowell - Big Lies in Politics

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:13:00 +0000

The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy them, and only in the short run. The current outbreaks of riots in Europe show what happens when the truth catches up with both the politicians and the people in the long run.

Among the biggest lies of the welfare states on both sides of the Atlantic is the notion that the government can supply the people with things they want but cannot afford. Since the government gets its resources from the people, if the people as a whole cannot afford something, neither can the government.

There is, of course, the perennial fallacy that the government can simply raise taxes on "the rich" and use that additional revenue to pay for things that most people cannot afford. What is amazing is the implicit assumption that "the rich" are all such complete fools that they will do nothing to prevent their money from being taxed away. History shows otherwise.

After the Constitution of the United States was amended to permit a federal income tax, in 1916, the number of people reporting taxable incomes of $300,000 a year or more fell from well over a thousand to fewer than three hundred by 1921.

Were the rich all getting poorer? Not at all. They were investing huge sums of money in tax-exempt securities. The amount of money invested in tax-exempt securities was larger than the federal budget, and nearly half as large as the national debt. More

Taxpayer Funded University Presidents Raking in Major Dollars

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:35:00 +0000

Townhall.Com - Year after year it seems public university presidents are lobbying their state legislatures for even more taxpayer funding and it seems that every year, students protest rising tuition prices and budget cuts. But the Washington Post recently dug up the numbers in a new survey showing just how much public university presidents are making around the country and for some, it's nearly $2 million per year. Priorities people. Is higher learning really about educating students anymore?

Texas A&M Chancellor Michael McKinney earned nearly as much, $1.97 million to Gee’s $1.99 million. Ousted Penn State President Graham Spanier earned $1.07 million. More

New Freedom Center Video — Ten Reasons to Abolish the UN

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:44:00 +0000

FrontPageMag.Com

Tribute To Andrew Breitbart: The Breitbart Awards For Journalists, Bloggers And Citizens

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:20:00 +0000

Susan Duclos - What an excellent tribute to the memory of Andrew Breitbart.

Andrew Breitbart pioneered a new media revolution that transformed journalism and the political landscape. As we continue to mourn his tragic passing, we also seek to ensure that his legacy is honored and that the movement he spawned continues on with the army of citizen activists that he cultivated and inspired.

The Heritage Foundation and Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity ask for your assistance in paying tribute to the monumental achievements of Andrew Breitbart's work, and the recognition of those who continue his legacy by carrying the torch for freedom and truth.

We will honor three individuals - from the realms of professional journalism, blogging, and citizen activism - whose efforts advance the spirit of Andrew Breitbart's work. Nominations will be accepted for individuals who are driven by an indomitable pursuit for truth and accountability, and whose work has broken meaningful ground in advancing those causes on behalf of the public good. More

Iran 'committed to Israel's annihilation,' says top general

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:46:00 +0000

Israel Hayom - When Ahmadinejad purportedly said Israel "should be wiped off the map" there were many who argued that the Iranian leader was mistranslated. No such argument can be made regarding the latest comments by the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces.

When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad purportedly said that Israel "should be wiped off the map" there were, and still are, many who argue that the Iranian leader was misquoted or mistranslated. No such argument can be made however regarding the latest comments by the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces.

According to the Iranian Fars news agency, while addressing a defense gathering in Tehran on Sunday, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi stressed that the Iranian nation remains committed to the "full annihilation of the Zionist regime of Israel to the end." More

IAEA: Deal with Iran to be signed 'quite soon'

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:58:00 +0000

UN nuclear watchdog chief says "a decision was made to conclude and sign the agreement," which would boost its cooperation with investigations into its atomic program; Baghdad talks with P5+1 set to take begin.

Photo: REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

Jerusalem Post - VIENNA - The UN nuclear watchdog chief said on Tuesday he expected to sign a deal with Iran soon to boost its cooperation with an investigation into Tehran's disputed atomic activity, although differences remained.

Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), spoke a day after holding rare talks in Tehran and a day before Iran and six world powers will hold broader negotiations on the extent of Tehran's nuclear program.

"(A) decision was made to conclude and sign the agreement ... I can say it will be signed quite soon," Amano told reporters at Vienna airport after returning from Tehran. More

MSM: Obama’s Faith Is Off The Table, Romney’s Isn’t

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:19:00 +0000

RightWing News - Sunday, two of the biggest papers on the East coast decided to run long articles on Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith. The NY Times one trended on Memeorandum Sunday, and included subtle digs at Mitt being very religious (see Ann Althouse for more)

As a young consultant who arrived at the office before anyone else, Mr. Romney was being “deseret,” a term from the Book of Mormon meaning industrious as a honeybee, and he recruited colleagues and clients with the zeal of the missionary he once was. Mitt and Ann Romney’s marriage is strong because they believe they will live together in an eternal afterlife, relatives and friends say, which motivates them to iron out conflicts.

Mr. Romney’s penchant for rules mirrors that of his church, where he once excommunicated adulterers and sometimes discouraged mothers from working outside the home. He may have many reasons for abhorring debt, wanting to limit federal power, promoting self-reliance and stressing the unique destiny of the United States, but those are all traditionally Mormon traits as well.

Outside the spotlight, Mr. Romney can be demonstrative about his faith: belting out hymns (“What a Friend We Have in Jesus”) while horseback riding, fasting on designated days and finding a Mormon congregation to slip into on Sundays, no matter where he is.

And, *gasp*, he prays. A lot. Obvioiusly, that means he is a bad choice for president. How dare he have faith!

The Washington Post also took a stab at Mitt’s Mormon roots: Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith tangles with a quirk of Arkansas history

On the wildflower-studded slopes of the Ozarks, where memories run long and family ties run thick, a little-known and long-ago chapter of history still simmers. More

Fox News Sunday Panel on Obama, Romney, and 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:30:00 +0000

The Weekly Standard

Greek talks collapsed amid anger, insults, “unreality”

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Mon, 21 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000

HotAir - This may end up being the political quote of the year, uttered by the president of Greece after talks aimed at forming an emergency government collapsed last week:

“Gentlemen, we are finished,” said the patrician President, calling an abrupt halt to two hours of baiting and cat-calling between furious Greek politicians. “I’m starting to get upset myself now. We are finished.”

The final collapse of talks to forge a new Greek government triggered repeat elections and fears of a chaotic exit from the euro zone. But it is the manner of that collapse, the acrimony and rancor cited by Karolos Papoulias, that bodes ill for efforts after June polls to pull Greece back from the brink.

“It was a complete madhouse,” a source at the socialist PASOK party told Reuters after their leader,Evangelos Venizelos, returned from the May 17 showdown. “The discussion was unbelievable.”

The only people who don’t seem to realize the depth of the truth in that quote are the Greeks themselves:

Voters infuriated by grinding poverty, spending cuts and corruption, punished Samaras and fellow mainstream party leader Evangelos Venizelos. Leftist Alexis Tsipras, 37, emerged with the power to block them. Greece, he said, could ditch its spending cuts and renounce its debts to EU partners, yet enlist their help in keeping the euro currency some 80 percent of Greeks cherish. More

New evidence illegally kept hidden by prosecutors seems to exonerate George Zimmerman from murder charges, according to Alan Dershowitz & More From Dave Weinbaum

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:42:00 +0000

New evidence illegally kept hidden by prosecutors seems to exonerate George Zimmerman from murder charges, according to Alan Dershowitz

Jews -- including Rabbis -- who cooperate with anti-Semites

Visit DaveWeinbaum.Com for more articles, video, humor & more!

138 U.S. Customs and Border Personnel Arrested For Corruption Since 2004

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:39:00 +0000

(CNSNews.com) - There have been 138 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees arrested since 2004 for engaging in acts of corruption including drug and alien smuggling, in part, due to Mexican drug cartel influence.

During the same period, over 2,000 CBP employees, which include Border Patrol and Customs agents, have been charged for criminal acts other than corruption including off-duty behavior. CBP is a component of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Thomas Winkowski, acting deputy commissioner for CBP, made these revelations in written testimony provided to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management on May 17 during a hearing examining ethical standards at DHS.

According to Charles Edwards, the DHS inspector general who testified alongside the CBP deputy commissioner, the influence of Mexican drug cartels has reached into the ranks of CBP and contributed to corruption at the agency. More

U.S. Leads Effort to Criminalize Free Speech

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:20:00 +0000

Middle East Forum - The Human Rights Council concluded its nineteenth session on March 23, 2012 and adopted, without a vote, yet another resolution aimed at restricting freedom of speech throughout the world. While its title[1], as usual, suggests it is about combating intolerance based on religion, its plain language shows that, once again, speech is the real target.

One of its sponsors, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly the Organization of the Islamic Conference or "OIC" ), has, for over a decade, introduced speech-restrictive resolutions at the United Nations. In the past, these resolutions contained explicit language about "defamation of religions." Last year, however, when the OIC introduced Resolution 16/18 without the term "defamation of religions," the West's resistance to the OIC's efforts faltered (discussed here). The "defamation of religions" concept had been easy for Western countries to rally against, in part, because it seemed to attach rights to a concept (here, religion) rather than to individuals. But, dropping that term was little more than a cosmetic change leaving speech-targeting language behind and the OIC's speech-restrictive agenda intact.

Resolution 19/25, like 16/18, specifically "condemns" certain types of speech and "urges States to take effective measures as set forth in the present resolution, consistent with their obligations under international human rights law, to address and combat such incidents." (emphasis added) In short, it is an explicit call to action for states to curtail certain types of speech.

The "advocacy" (read: speech) that the resolution "condemns" and calls on states to limit is "any advocacy of religious hatred against individuals that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence" using "print, audio-visual or electronic media or any other means." This language almost directly parallels International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights Article 20(2), which reads: "Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law."

At the time Article 20 was being debated, there was little doubt that it was about limiting speech; and indeed, concerns were raised about the potential for abuse of the provision to limit an essential right. Further, when the United States finally ratified the ICCPR in 1992, it did so with an explicit reservation to Article 20, reading: "That Article 20 does not authorize or require legislation or other action by the United States that would restrict the right of free speech and association protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States." More

Protesters Attack Police at Chicago NATO Summit – Toss Bottles & Sticks at Officers

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:42:00 +0000

h/t - Gateway Pundit

Iran Orders Churches to Report 'List of Names'

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:42:00 +0000

Iran – Ministry of Intelligence further

restricts Farsi-Speaking churches

h/t - TheReligionOfPeace.Com

In addition to the increased restrictions against Iranian Christian converts, the Ministry of Intelligence has now ordered the leaders of the central AOG church in Tehran to compile a list of the names and National ID numbers of its members and submit it to the security authorities.

According to Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, reports from Tehran indicate that leaders of the central AOG church of Tehran asked their congregation in Sunday May 6 service to voluntarily present them with a list of their names and National ID numbers so that they submit the list to the officials. This reveals the identity of Christian converts and enables security authorities to record detailed information about the Christians.

It is clear that such a decision by the leaders of the AOG church, is a result of pressures the security authorities have been imposing on them. This seems to be a precautionary move by the security organizations to identify Christians and possibly use the information later to arrest Christian converts and watch the activities of the church even more closely, especially to prevent them from receiving new people. Such orders by security authorities make Christians' relationship with their church riskier than ever.

This security move by Iranian authorities reveals that even after cancelling the Farsi services in some churches, they have not been successful in reducing the number of Christian converts and the trend by other people to attend the church. In recent months, organizers and operational groups of the Ministry of Intelligence ordered the last two churches in Tehran still holding Farsi services, to cancel these services. However, this has not stopped Christians from attending church services and illustrates the failure of all these repressive plans and threats which were designed to deal with spread of Christianity in Iran. More

Islamist group claims victory over LAPD

noreply@blogger.com (Candice Lanier) — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:38:00 +0000

The LAPD was compromised long ago and this is just the fruit of Islamic
jihad labor. via Muslim advocacy group claims victory in LAPD anti-terrorism reforms | 89.3 KPCC.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council announced on Friday that the LAPD’s anti-terrorism bureau has agreed to change the way it handles suspicious activity reports.

Council president Salam Al-Marayati said the LAPD has agreed to keep files only on activity that could be criminal or have “a nexus to terrorism.”

“These checks on the program are not in place now,” Al-Marayati explained. “So if somebody is photographing a building as a tourist, they can easily be put in that system.”

Though LAPD officials did not immediately return a call for comment, Al-Marayati said department officials plan to issue new guidelines in the coming months that will include a means to determine whether officers racially profile when looking for terrorist activity. More