Jodi Arias is Guilty; So Are We

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Bernard GoldbergThere are times, not many thankfully, when I get depressed, brought down by the sorry evidence that we live in a country fixated on shiny objects. This is one of those times.

A jury in Phoenix has found Jodi Arias guilty of first-degree murder. That’s not what gets me down. What I find so depressing is our collective fascination with trivia, with anything that we can follow without having to actually think.

No one ever heard of Jodi Arias until cable TV made her famous. No one ever heard of the boyfriend she killed, you know, what’s his name. The Arias murder trial tells us nothing about anything bigger than Jodi Arias. She wasn’t famous like O.J. Simpson before she was arrested. This wasn’t Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. Those trials had implications. The Arias trial had none.

When it became known that the jury had reached a verdict, cable news went wall-to-wall with Jodi Arias. It would be 90 minutes before the verdict was announced in court, so anchors and pundits spent the time saying nothing – nothing that mattered anyway. But this is a small point. Saying nothing about Jodi Arias gets you more viewers than saying something about the national debt.

But you can’t blame cable TV news, not entirely anyway, because television is a business that gives the people what they want. And if they want Jodi, TV executives will give them Jodi for hours on end. Hell, if she had been found not guilty they might have even given her a show.

Read more from this story HERE.

In Hours, Thieves Took $45 Million in Massive, Internationally Coordinated A.T.M. Scheme

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: NY TimesIt was a brazen bank heist, but a 21st-century version in which the criminals never wore ski masks, threatened a teller or set foot in a vault.

In two precision operations that involved people in more than two dozen countries acting in close coordination and with surgical precision, thieves stole $45 million from thousands of A.T.M.’s in a matter of hours.

In New York City alone, the thieves responsible for A.T.M. withdrawals struck 2,904 machines over 10 hours starting on Feb. 19, withdrawing $2.4 million.

The operation included sophisticated computer experts operating in the shadowy world of Internet hacking, manipulating financial information with the stroke of a few keys, as well as common street criminals, who used that information to loot the automated teller machines.

The first to be caught was a street crew operating in New York, their pictures captured as, prosecutors said, they traveled the city withdrawing money and stuffing backpacks with cash.

Read more from this story HERE.

Coulter: Liberal Media Lying Again About Evangelical Support for Amnesty

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily Caller Every few months since at least 2006, The New York Times has taken time out from brow-beating Evangelicals to praise them for supporting amnesty for illegal aliens.

Most of the “Evangelicals” the Times cites are liberal frauds, far from “unlikely allies” in amnesty, as alleged. It is a specialty of the left to pose as something they’re not in order to create the impression of a zeitgeist. The only one I haven’t seen quoted yet is the ACLU’s minister, Barry Lynn.

The Times keeps touting Evangelicals for Amnesty as evidence of a “shift,” a “change of heart” and a “secret weapon.” Breaking the same news story every two months since 2006 isn’t a shift; it’s propaganda.

Any Evangelical promoting the McCain-Rubio amnesty plan has the moral framework of Planned Parenthood. Like the abortion lobby, they have boundless compassion for the people they can see, but none for those they can’t see.

One Evangelical after another told the Times that they no longer believe Americans should have control over who immigrates here on the basis of having met illegal aliens in their pews. The millions harmed by illegal immigration are left out of the equation. They don’t go to church here.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Admin. has been Working “for Years” to “Gut Welfare Reform”

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APThe Obama administration was planning to weaken the welfare work requirements as far back as 2009, GOP lawmakers charge.

An internal Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) memo from 2009 released Tuesday by Senate Finance Committee ranking member Orrin Hatch and House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp explores the legal justifications to allow the HHS secretary to waive work and other requirements for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) that were part of the 1996 welfare reform law.

Last summer the Obama administration issued an Information Memorandum allowing states apply to waive the TANF work requirement. At the time, the administration said this was due to requests from some states for more flexibility and was meant as a way to test strategies “to improve employment outcomes for needy families.”

Republicans, including then-presidential candidate Mitt Romney, charged that the action “gut” the 1996 welfare reform.

According to Hatch and Camp, the memo shows that the Obama administration was looking to find ways to get around the work requirement years in advance of receiving requests from states.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s HHS Budgets $150 Million to Teach People How to Enroll in Obamacare (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Joel Gehrke. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Thursday that HHS will spend $150 million to teach people how to enroll in the Obamacare exchanges, after a Democratic senator scolded her for running a poor “public information campaign.”

“Investing in health centers for outreach and enrollment assistance provides one more way the Obama administration is helping consumers understand their options and enroll in affordable coverage,” Sebelius said Thursday. HHS promised that the health centers would provide “unbiased information to consumers” about various provisions in the law.

Read more from this story HERE.
________________________________________________

Colorado health insurance exchange seeks another $125 million to implement Obamacare

By Greg Campbell. Conservative members of a nonprofit organization set up to run Colorado’s Affordable Care Act-mandated state health insurance exchange are reeling from sticker shock over the cost of rolling out the program.

Federal grants have already paid $61 million to set up the one-stop health insurance shop, but the board is now being asked to approve another $125 million federal grant request.

Opponents, led by board member Dr. Mike Fallon, said the request is an example of how the spending on the program can easily get out of control.

“Just because federal funds are available doesn’t mean we should ask for them,” the Denver Post quotes Fallon as saying at a meeting earlier this week.

But other board members say the money is needed to advertise what the health exchange will do, as well as hire enough insurance “navigators” to help customers deal with what is expected to be a confusing array of health plan options. Read more from this story HERE.

Education Dept. Eliminates ‘Father,’ ‘Mother’ From Student Aid Forms

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APThe U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday that beginning with the 2014-2015 federal student aid form, the Department will — for the first time — collect income “from a dependent student’s legal parents regardless of the parents’ marital status or gender, if those parents live together.”

The new FAFSA form will use terms like “Parent 1” and “Parent 2” instead of gender-specific terms like “mother” and “father.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Colorado Dems Adopt ‘Kermit Gosnell Enabler Act’

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Photo Credit: WNDOn the heels of Kermit Gosnell’s extended abortion murder trial in Philadelphia, in which he was accused of killing infants who had been born alive by using a scissors to cut their spinal cords, majority Democrats in Colorado have adopted a strategy to prevent any such prosecution in Colorado

The Democrats are led by Senate President John Morse, majority caucus chair Jeanne Nicholson and House Speaker Mark Ferrandino. One opponent has come up with a striking name for House Bill 1154, which repeals certain state criminal statutes regarding the abortion procedure.

“Under guise of protecting pregnant women, this bill repeals the Colorado criminal abortion statutes, which in some respects, makes this the Kermit Gosnell Enabler Act,” Colorado Rep. Lori Saine, R-Dacono, told WND.

“In addition, HB 1154 repeals part of the statute that protects freedom of conscience – severing the rights of hospitals, doctors and medical staff to refuse [to participate] in abortions.”

Gosnell’s case attracted attention from even the generally pro-abortion establishment media with its horrific testimony of babies born alive, left on shelves breathing for 20 minutes then summarily killed with the spinal column snip.

Read more from this story HERE.

School Bans Religious Graduation Songs After Complaint They Were “Bullying”

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: schwglrA Georgia school district will no longer allow prayers or songs with religious references at graduation ceremonies after a Wisconsin group threatened to file a lawsuit and suggested that forcing non-Christian students to listen to religious music was a form of bullying.

“If the valedictorians want to thank their parents, grandparents and god, that’s freedom of speech,” Houston County Superintendent Robin Hines told the Macon Telegraph. “We can’t stop that. As long as it’s not lewd, they can say whatever they want.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent the school district a letter complaining that last year’s graduation ceremony included prayers and a musical performance of a song written by a Christian artist.

“It is wholly inappropriate for Christian worship songs to be performed in a public school setting or at public school events,” wrote FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel. “There are a multitude of secular songs that would be appropriate.”

The FFRF took offense to “Find Your Wings,” a song written by well-known Christian artist Mark Harris, arguing that it was a blatantly religious song that “belongs in a church, not a public school event.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Admin. Denies Retaliating Against Benghazi Whistle-Blower

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Andrew GeraciThe State Department on Thursday dismissed accusations that it retaliated against one of the key witnesses at this week’s Benghazi hearings by demoting him after he questioned the Obama administration’s account of the terrorist attack.

Foreign Service officer Gregory N. Hicks, who was the No. 2 U.S. diplomat in Libya during the Benghazi terrorist attacks last September, told lawmakers at an explosive House hearing on Wednesday that he was chastised and “effectively demoted” after he questioned the decision to blame the military-style assault on a spontaneous demonstration against an anti-Islam video.

The State Department “has not and will not retaliate against Mr. Hicks,” spokesman Patrick H. Ventrell said.

“As Mr. Hicks testified yesterday … he has followed ‘standard’ employment processes,” Mr. Ventrell added, quoting Mr. Hicks‘ testimony Wednesday.

During that testimony, Mr. Hicks said that his jaw “hit the floor” when, five days after the deadly assault, he heard U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan E. Rice directly contradict the president of Libya by saying the attack appeared to have grown out of a demonstration against the video and that there was no evidence it might have been preplanned.

Read more from this story HERE.

Powerful Testimony from Benghazi Hearing (+videos)

/0 Comments/in , /by

At today’s hearing, whistle-blower Eric Nordstrom choked up during his testimony:

Whistle-blower Gregory Hicks also described the “saddest phone call I’ve ever had in my life.” Later, he stated he was “stunned” and “embarrassed” by Ambassador Susan Rice’s ridiculous statements about the YouTube video being the cause of the Benghazi attacks:

Congressman Jim Jordan did a phenomenal job during his interview of the whistle-blowers, taking particular care to inquire with Mr. Hicks about the efforts made to shut him up:

In a radio interview, Congresswoman Ann Wagner, a former ambassador, also directly implicated Obama in the mess, stating that any stand down order had to have come directly from the President of the United States:

Finally, true to form, at least one liberal Democrat couldn’t help but reflect his utter disregard for human decency: