Speaker John Boehner Headlining Alaskan Fundraiser with Randy Ruedrich and Commissioner Dan Sullivan in Anchorage

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is set to raise money in Alaska with the former chair of the Alaska GOP that Sarah Palin took on for corruption.

Politico reported on Thursday that Boehner will raise money in Alaska on July 2, and former Alaska GOP Chair Randy Ruedrich is listed on the invitation to the event.

According to Politico, Boehner will “headline a July 2 event at a private home in Anchorage to collect donations for the Boehner for Speaker joint fundraising committee, which benefits his campaign, PAC, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Ohio Republican Party.” The maximum donation allowed is $52,600.

Rep. Don Young (R-AK), who has faced numerous ethics charges in Congress, is also on the host committee for the event.

Ruedrich ultimately resigned “his job as a state oil and gas regulator” in 2003 after Palin joined Democrats to call his political fundraising a conflict of interest for drawing money from industries he regulated.

Read more from this story HERE.

Was NSA Whistleblower Snowden Really in Hong Kong? (+video)

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Photo Credit: Kin Cheung

Photo Credit: Kin Cheung

By Aaron Klein. While NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden continues to baffle world governments and the news media with his exact whereabouts and travel plans, one question apparently not being asked is whether he was ever in Hong Kong in the first place.

Or, if Snowden was in Hong Kong, did he leave the region the weekend, when he was reported to have departed for Moscow?

Snowden is currently a high-profile figure in the news. Yet not a single picture or video that places him in Hong Kong has emerged, including during his purported arrival at the airport with a small entourage of lawyers and a WikiLeaks representative.

The South China Morning Post claimed Snowden took off from the Hong Kong airport at 10:55 a.m. local time on Sunday on flight SU213 and was due to arrive at Moscow’s Shermetyevo International Airport at 5:15 p.m.

Upon the flight’s arrival, Russian and international camera crews caught no glimpses of Snowden. Read more from this story HERE.

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U.S. loses secrets, prestige as China, Russia defy Obama over Snowden

By Dave Boyer. It doesn’t look good when the most powerful man in the world can’t get his hands on one of the most wanted men in the world.

Edward Snowden, the confessed National Security Agency leaker, has eluded U.S. authorities since early June, even as President Obama’s administration pleaded with officials in China and Russia to send the fugitive back to America.

The traditional rivals of the U.S. have even seemed to enjoy the Obama administration’s distress. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Mr. Snowden “a free man” Tuesday, confirming that Mr. Snowden had been at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport since Sunday. He explicitly refused to comply with the U.S. request to turn over Mr. Snowden, noting that the two countries don’t have an extradition treaty.

The episode is making the U.S. look weak in the eyes of Russia and China, said Leon Aron, a foreign policy analyst at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

“From the point of view of the Russians and the Chinese, definitely,” Mr. Aron said. “In their systems, legitimacy comes from being treated with fear and respect. And clearly, they’re choosing not to treat the United States that way.” Read more from this story HERE.

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The Age of American Impotence: As the Edward Snowden saga illustrates, the Obama administration is running out of foreign influence.

By Bret Stephens. At this writing, Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive National Security Agency contractor indicted on espionage charges, is in Moscow, where Vladimir Putin’s spokesman insists his government is powerless to detain him. “We have nothing to do with this story,” says Dmitri Peskov. “I don’t approve or disapprove plane tickets.”

Funny how Mr. Putin always seems to discover his inner civil libertarian when it’s an opportunity to humiliate the United States. When the Russian government wants someone off Russian soil, it either removes him from it or puts him under it. Just ask investor Bill Browder, who was declared persona non grata when he tried to land in Moscow in November 2005. Or think of Mr. Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, murdered by Russian prison officials four years later.

Mr. Snowden arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong, where local officials refused a U.S. arrest request, supposedly on grounds it “did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law.” That’s funny, too, since Mr. Snowden had been staying in a Chinese government safe house before Beijing gave the order to ignore the U.S. request and let him go.

“The Hong Kong government didn’t have much of a role,” Albert Ho, a Hong Kong legislator, told Reuters. “Its role was to receive instructions to not stop him at the airport.”

Now Mr. Snowden may be on his way to Havana, or Caracas, or Quito. It’s been said often enough that this so-called transparency crusader remains free thanks to the cheek and indulgence of dictatorships and strongmen. It’s also been said that his case illustrates how little has been achieved by President Obama’s “reset” with Moscow, or with his California schmoozing of China’s Xi Jinping earlier this month. Read more from this story HERE.

Rush: Obama One of the Most Successful Presidents

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

With the U.S. still struggling to emerge from the economic malaise of recent years, the top-rated radio host who once said he hopes Barack Obama fails is now saying Obama “may be one of the most successful presidents that we’ve ever had.”

The remark from Rush Limbaugh was in response to complaints from others lamenting the state of the country, telling him, “Boy, this Obama. He’s really, really making a mess of things.”

“Wait a minute,” Limbaugh responded. “Obama isn’t ‘making a mess’ of anything. Obama may be one of the most successful presidents that we’ve ever had.”

“He’s getting everything he wants,” Limbaugh continued. “He’s transforming this country in ways that no one ever thought possible. He is succeeding at every turn, and he has a scandal pop up at just the right time every moment some big transformation’s taking place so that we’re all distracted. Everything the guy wants is happening one way or the other, sooner than later, later than sooner. Whatever. Nobody’s stopping Obama. Nobody’s stopping the Democrats. They’re getting everything they want.

“They’re getting everything they want with the Republican Party going along with most of it! Now, if your definition of a successful president or a failure as a president is somebody who is making a mess of things? Yeah, then he’s a miserable failure. But from his standpoint, Obama’s objectives, his goals? I’ll bet you Obama, in private, can’t believe how easy this has been. I’ll bet you when he and [Attorney General Eric] Holder and Valerie Jarrett and rest of them get together, they laugh and talk about how easy this has been.”

Read more from this story HERE.

84 Year Old Shoots At Robber, Now Under Investigation Himself for Assault (+video)

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Photo Credit: gfairchild

Photo Credit: gfairchild

For the second time this week, a gun owner is under investigation for shooting at a criminal who unlawfully invaded his property.

Tony DiSanto, 84, known simply as Mr. Tony, discovered a would-be robber stuffing stolen items into a Volkswagen parked in his driveway in Bradenton, Fla. After retrieving his firearm, Mr. Tony reportedly issued several warnings to the robber.

According to witnesses, the robber then rammed his car into a fence and into DiSanto’s vehicle in a bid to escape. When the criminal refused to listen to his multiple warnings, he shot at the vehicle multiple times.

One of the rounds missed its target and hit an SUV across the street, WFTS-TV reports. Police are still looking for the robbery suspect, who escaped by riding across a next-door lawn and backing all the way down the street.

DiSanto is cooperating with police, however, Dave Bristow, a spokesman with the Manatee Sheriff’s Office, said the case is under investigation and will likely be turned over to the State Attorney’s Office to determine if the man broke the law.

Read more from this story HERE.

“Sexting” Weiner Leads Democrats in Race for NYC Mayor

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Photo Credit: Michael Howard Saul

Photo Credit: AP

Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner leads City Council Speaker Christine Quinn in the race for New York City’s Democratic mayoral nomination for the first time, snatching the frontrunner mantle as the contest heads into the final months before the primary, the latest survey from The Wall Street Journal-NBC New York-Marist showed.

Among registered Democrats, Mr. Weiner had 25% of the vote, compared with Ms. Quinn, who had 20%, marking her lowest level of support since polling of the race began. Trailing them were former Comptroller Bill Thompson, at 13%, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, 10% and city Comptroller John Liu, 8%. Fewer than one in five Democrats say they are undecided.

“Things are changing – the race has been scrambled by Weiner’s candidacy,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. “Weiner’s candidacy has gotten more acceptable to voters since he announced, (and) Quinn’s having a difficult time reversing what has been a slow but steady decline in her numbers.”

Mr. Weiner’s dramatic move to the front of the Democratic pack comes two years after he resigned from Congress amid a sexting scandal. He admitted he sent women sexually explicit photos via Twitter and then lied about it. Mr. Weiner has made asking New Yorkers to give him a second chance a central part of his campaign since he began flirting with a candidacy in April.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democratic Lawmaker Hits Justice as ‘Uncle Thomas’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A Democratic lawmaker from Minnesota criticized Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act by calling Justice Clarence Thomas “Uncle Thomas,” then saying he didn’t know “Uncle Tom” was a racist epithet.

On his Twitter account Tuesday, state Rep. Ryan Winkler called the justices’ 5-4 ruling striking down a part of the law racist, and the work of “four accomplices to race discrimination and one Uncle Thomas.” Justice Thomas, who is black, was one of the five justices in the majority.

That tweet was quickly deleted, and Mr. Winkler, who is white and represents some upper middle class suburbs west-southwest of Minneapolis, offered a conditional-tense quasi-apology in subsequent tweets.

He said he “didn’t think it was offensive to suggest that Justice Thomas should be even more concerned about racial discrimination than colleagues. But if such a suggestion is offensive, I apologize.”

However Mr. Winkler, whose website says he has an undergraduate history degree from Harvard and a law degree from the University of Minnesota, seemed to dig the hole deeper in a subsequent tweet, in which he said the racism of the term “Uncle Tom” was disputed and unknown to him.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaska, Other States No Longer Subject to Key Provisions of 1965 Voting Rights Act

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Photo Credit: Evan Vucci

Photo Credit: Evan Vucci

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that states no longer can be judged by voting discrimination that went on decades ago, a decision that argues the country has fundamentally changed since the racially motivated laws of the civil rights era.

In a 5-4 ruling, the justices said the Voting Rights Act’s requirement that mainly Southern states must undergo special scrutiny before changing their voting laws is based on a 40-year-old formula that is no longer relevant to changing racial circumstances.

“Congress — if it is to divide the states — must identify those jurisdictions to be singled out on a basis that makes sense in light of current conditions. It cannot rely simply on the past,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority, which was comprised of the court’s conservative-leaning justices.

The four liberal-leaning justices dissented, arguing that racial discrimination in voting remains a real threat. The majority didn’t disagree with that, but the core of Chief Justice Roberts‘ opinion was that discrimination today looks markedly different from what it did decades ago, so the law must be changed to reflect that.

The Shelby County v. Holder ruling sparked an immediate debate about the status of race and discrimination in modern America.

Read more from this story HERE.

Glenn Greenwald: Snowden’s Files Are Out There if ‘Anything Happens’ to Him

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

As the U.S. government presses Moscow to extradite former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, America’s most wanted leaker has a plan B. The former NSA systems administrator has already given encoded files containing an archive of the secrets he lifted from his old employer to several people. If anything happens to Snowden, the files will be unlocked.

Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who Snowden first contacted in February, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday that Snowden “has taken extreme precautions to make sure many different people around the world have these archives to insure the stories will inevitably be published.” Greenwald added that the people in possession of these files “cannot access them yet because they are highly encrypted and they do not have the passwords.” But, Greenwald said, “if anything happens at all to Edward Snowden, he told me he has arranged for them to get access to the full archives.”

The fact that Snowden has made digital copies of the documents he accessed while working at the NSA poses a new challenge to the U.S. intelligence community that has scrambled in recent days to recover them and assess the full damage of the breach. Even if U.S. authorities catch up with Snowden and the four classified laptops the Guardian reported he brought with him to Hong Kong the secrets Snowden hopes to expose will still likely be published.

A former U.S. counterintelligence officer following the Snowden saga closely said his contacts inside the U.S. intelligence community “think Snowden has been planning this for years and has stashed files all over the Internet.” This source added, “At this point there is very little anyone can do about this.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Admin. Slashing Combat Brigades at 10 US Bases

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Photo Credit: The U.S. Army

Photo Credit: The U.S. Army

In a massive restructuring, the U.S. Army is slashing the number of active duty combat brigades from 45 to 33, and shifting thousands of soldiers out of bases around the country as it moves forward with a longtime plan to cut the size of the service by 80,000.

Officials say the sweeping changes would eliminate brigades at 10 Army bases in the U.S. by 2017, including in Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, Colorado, North Carolina, New York, Kansas and Washington. The Army will also cut thousands of other jobs across the service, including soldiers in units that support the brigades, and two brigades in Germany have already been scheduled for elimination.

Officials provided details on the plans on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. An announcement is expected Tuesday afternoon. The Army is being reduced in size from a high of about 570,000 during the peak of the Iraq war to 490,000 as part of efforts to cut the budget and reflect the country’s military needs as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end. Additional reductions could be required if Congress allows automatic budget cuts to continue into next year.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Admin. Tells Egyptian Christians to not Protest Muslim Brotherhood

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Photo Credit: FrontPagemag

Photo Credit: FrontPagemag

As Egyptians of all factions prepare to demonstrate in mass against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi’s rule on June 30, the latter has been trying to reduce their numbers, which some predict will be in the millions and eclipse the Tahrir protests that earlier ousted Mubarak. Among other influential Egyptians, Morsi recently called on Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to urge his flock, Egypt’s millions of Christians, not to join the June 30 protests.

While that may be expected, more troubling is that the U.S. ambassador to Egypt is also trying to prevent Egyptians from protesting—including the Copts. The June 18th edition of Sadi al-Balad reports that lawyer Ramses Naggar, the Coptic Church’s legal counsel, said that during Patterson’s June 17 meeting with Pope Tawadros, she “asked him to urge the Copts not to participate” in the demonstrations against Morsi and the Brotherhood.

The Pope politely informed her that his spiritual authority over the Copts does not extend to political matters.

Regardless, many Egyptian activists are condemning Patterson for flagrantly behaving like the Muslim Brotherhood’s stooge. Leading opposition activist Shady el-Ghazali Harb said Patterson showed “blatant bias” in favor of Morsi and the Brotherhood, adding that her remarks had earned the U.S. administration “the enmity of the Egyptian people.” Coptic activists like George Ishaq openly told Patterson to “shut up and mind your own business.” And Christian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris—no stranger to Islamist hostility—posted a message on his Twitter account addressed to the ambassador saying “Bless us with your silence.”

Indeed, the U.S. ambassador’s position as the Brotherhood’s lackey is disturbing—and revealing—on several levels. First, all throughout the Middle East, the U.S. has been supporting anyone and everyone opposing their leaders—in Libya against Gaddafi, in Egypt itself against 30-year U.S. ally Mubarak, and now in Syria against Assad. In all these cases, the U.S. has presented its support in the name of the human rights and freedoms of the people against dictatorial leaders.

Read more from this story HERE.