Krauthammer: ‘One of the Most Odd Presidential Speeches Ever Delivered’

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

By Jeff Poor.

Following President Barack Obama’s Tuesday night address to the nation, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer reacted by calling the president’s effort to get support for his Syria strategy “one of the most odd presidential speeches ever delivered.”

Krauthammer decried Obama’s message for giving Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal so much weight.

“That’s what makes this one of the most odd presidential speeches ever delivered,” Krauthammer said. “Here is a president who urgently addresses the nation on all channels to call for a pause in assuming that the nation does not want to do in the first place. This is, you know, almost unbelievable. And the fact that he puts so much weight on the Russian proposal, which is a farce.”

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Syria Plan in Limbo, Obama Asks Congress to Postpone Strike Vote

By Fox News.

President Obama, in a national address originally intended to rally the country behind a strike on Syria, instead used the moment to announce he was hitting pause on military action in order to let negotiations over a Russia-backed plan run their course.

“This initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force,” Obama said Tuesday night.

The president said he has, therefore, “asked the leaders of Congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path.”

The address from the East Room of the White House marked a dramatic turnaround from Obama announcing, just over a week ago, that he’d decided to seek congressional support for a military strike. And it left open where the stand-off with Syria will go from here, with the White House neither fully embracing the diplomatic option nor taking military action off the table.

The president did use much of his address to defend his initial decision to pursue military force. He made an impassioned case Tuesday night for military action, should it become necessary — but also acknowledged that late-breaking international developments had him shelving that approach, for now.

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Benghazi Blackout: How the Big Three Networks Have Censored or Spun Obama’s Deadly Foreign Policy Failure

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Wednesday marks the one year anniversary of the 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead, and sent the Obama administration scrambling for a cover story that the Big Three broadcast networks initially bought and were slow to unravel.

A similar pattern has emerged in 2013. As new information about the administration’s actions before and after the attacks have been revealed through congressional testimony, whistleblowers, and eyewitnesses, the Big Three have responded by censoring, breezing past or spinning politically damaging bombshells.

The following are just some of the findings of this report:

■ Testifying before Congress on January 23 Hillary Clinton dodged questions about her State Department’s bungling of Benghazi. Network anchors toasted the outgoing Secretary of State anyway. ABC’s Diane Sawyer called it “a valedictory that showed her indignation,” while NBC’s Brian Williams took the occasion to congratulate the potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate “as the most admired woman in the world in the Gallup poll, for the 11th year in a row.”

■ On February 7 former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified that Barack Obama was disengaged on the night of the Benghazi attack. Total Big Three Network stories on this stunning admission? Only two. (CBS 1 story, NBC 1 story, ABC 0)

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“Impeachment’ Cited By Growing Number In House Of Representatives (+video)

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Photo Credit: Examiner

Photo Credit: Examiner

A 15th member of Congress has discussed the impeachment of Barack Obama, noting that he’s confident the U.S. House, if it came to a vote, “would probably impeach the president.”

The comments come from Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, who was speaking at a recent town hall meeting.

“I’ve looked at the president. I think he’s violated the Constitution. I think he’s violated the Bill of Rights,” he said.

He said at some point a decision must be made, and he said, “I think if the House had an impeachment vote it would probably impeach the president.”

But he noted the 46 members of the GOP in the U.S. Senate, where an impeached president would be put on trial.

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‘Artificial Egg’ Made from Plants Backed by Bill Gates Set to Revolutionize Cooking Goes on Sale at Whole Foods

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Photo Credit: Cody Pickens

Photo Credit: Cody Pickens

A radical ‘artificial egg’ backed by Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel and Bill Gates goes on sale in US supermarkets for the first time today.

Made from plants, it can replace eggs in everything from cakes to mayonnaise – without a chicken ever coming close to the production process.

The team today started selling their ‘plant egg’, called Beyond Eggs, in Whole Foods in California – and say it could soon be available in supermarkets worldwide.

‘We want to take animals out of the equation,’ said Josh Tetrick, the firm’s founder. ‘The food industry is begging for innovation, especially where animals are involved – it is a broken industry.’

Tetrick’s idea was to find a mix of easy-to-grow plants that, when mixed together in the right way, replicate the taste, nutritional values and cooking properties of an egg.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP REP: Obama Speech a ‘Display of Foreign Policy Incompetence’

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Photo Credit: transplanted mountaineer

Photo Credit: transplanted mountaineer


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Rep. Ron DeSantis Tuesday characterized President Barack Obama’s speech on Syria to Newsmax as “a typical Obama performance.”

“He didn’t say anything new,” the Florida Republican told Newsmax. “This is just topping off a catastrophic display of foreign policy incompetence.”

“He basically repeats all the same arguments,” DeSantis added. “He still has not defined a clear military purpose for what he wants to do — certainly no Plan B: If you strike, what happens? — for him to categorically rule out boots on the ground.

“You cannot do that if you’re going to be honest with the American people, because you don’t know what [Syrian President Bashar Assad] would do once you strike,” he said. “All those problems are still there.

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Jonathan Alter: US Cannot Retreat to ‘Fortress America’

By David A. Patten.

Syndicated columnist and best-selling author Jonathan Alter served up sharp criticism of what he sees as a new isolationist shift in American politics, telling Newsmax that he has been “completely surprised” by the sharp anti-war, neo-isolationist fervor that has swept the country since President Obama announced his intention to attack Syrian strongman Bashar Assad’s regime.

Alter, a presidential historian as well as a journalist, has written two books on the Obama presidency, The Promise, and The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies.

Speaking immediately after the conclusion of President Obama’s national televised address on Tuesday night, the Bloomberg columnist conceded the administration’s response to the Syrian issue “has been not very skillfully handled up to now.”

But he gave the president strong marks Tuesday evening for presenting a compelling case for why the United States must respond to an apparent, blatant violation of international and humanitarian norms regarding Assad’s apparent use of chemical weapons on his own people.

Alter said he could never have predicted the wave of anti-war sentiment that has suddenly swept the United States.

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Middle School Teacher Disciplined After Showing Gay Rights Rap Video in Class

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Photo Credit: Wikimedia

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

A North Carolina teacher was disciplined for showing a music video supporting gay rights to a middle school class last week.

The Taylorsville Times reported Alexander County Schools Associate Superintendent Dr. Jeff Peal said the teacher is back to work this week but showed “an inappropriate video…outside the bounds of the curriculum” that merited “disciplinary action.”

The rap video was Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Same Love,” which was written in collaboration with Seattle-based singer-songwriter Mary Lambert. It appeared on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ debut album “The Heist” in 2012.

Here’s the full music video (content warning — some strong language):

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Rand Paul: Obama Didn’t Convince Me

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rand-paul9326Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, said President Barack Obama “didn’t quite convince me” on the need to launch a military strike on Syria in his Tuesday night speech.

But Paul said Obama did make a compelling case that Syrian President Bashar Assad is guilty of killing almost 1,500 civilians with poison gas last month.

“If Assad is responsible he deserves death for this,” Paul told Fox News Channel after the Tuesday night speech. “But the president’s plan is to leave Assad alone,” Paul said on a later CNN appearance.

Paul said he thinks Assad will not be held accountable for the chemical weapons attack. And even if the diplomatic solution Russia is trying to broker goes through, Assad still will be left in office, he added.

Though the video images of children dead and dying showed a clear atrocity, Paul said he couldn’t support U.S. action unless there was a compelling American interest…

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Google, Facebook, Yahoo Step Up Pressure on FISA Requests

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Technology giants Facebook, Google and Yahoo presented a rare united front in filing separate motions asking to publicly disclose more details about secret national intelligence requests they receive under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

They made the motions Monday in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The companies are seeking permission to reveal the number and nature of the national intelligence requests to address growing public concern and regain the trust of users.

“We believe there is more information that the public deserves to know, and that would help foster an informed debate about whether government security programs adequately balance privacy interests when attempting to keep the public safe,” Facebook’s general counsel Colin Stretch said.

Steps taken so far to allow technology companies to release aggregate data does not address the concerns of users, Google said.

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Both Anti-Gun Senators Angela Giron AND John Morse RECALLED in Colorado

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Photo Credit: gunssavelives

Photo Credit: gunssavelives

We’ve already reported that Colorado State Senate President, and one of the architects of Colorado’s anti-gun laws that were passed earlier this year has conceded his recall election and is OUT as state senator.

Now, it seems that Angela Giron, the rookie senator who was also a staunch supporter of the gun laws who was also facing recall is also OUT! The results are still unofficial, but preliminary numbers have the Senator losing her race 60% to 40% with a wide majority of the votes counted.

Colorado reporter Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) is also predicting Giron’s defeat based on the current numbers.

Colorado pro-gun activists appear to be 2 for 2 on their recall efforts!

This is a massive win for gun rights on a national level as many saw these local races as a nation referendum on gun rights.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Rescues Assad

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

What could be worse for America’s standing in the world than a Congress refusing to support a President’s proposal for military action against a rogue regime that used WMD? Here’s one idea: A U.S. President letting that rogue be rescued from military punishment by the country that has protected the rogue all along.

That’s where President Obama now finds himself on Syria after he embraced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to take custody of Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons. The move may rescue Mr. Obama and Congress from the political agony of a vote on a resolution to authorize a military strike on Syria. But the diplomatic souk is now open, and Mr. Obama has turned himself into one of the junior camel traders.

What a fiasco. Secretary of State John Kerry, of all people, first floated this escape route for Assad on Monday in Europe where he was supposed to be rallying diplomatic support for a strike. The remark appeared to be off-the-cuff, but with Mr. Kerry and this Administration you never know. In any case before Mr. Kerry’s plane had landed in the U.S., Russia’s foreign minister had leapt on the idea and proposed to take custody of Assad’s chemical arsenal to forestall U.S. military action.

The White House should have rebuffed the offer given Russia’s long protection of Assad at the United Nations—a fact noted with scorn on Monday by Mr. Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice. Instead Mr. Obama endorsed the Russian gambit as what “could potentially be a significant breakthrough.” The Senate immediately called off its Wednesday vote on the military resolution. By Tuesday Assad had accepted the offer that he hopes will spare him from a military strike.

France will press for a U.N. Security Council resolution supposedly for U.N. inspectors to supervise the dismantling of Syria’s stockpiles, though Russia will no doubt try to put itself in the lead inspecting role. On Tuesday Russia was even objecting to a French draft that would blame the Syrian government for using chemical weapons. Mr. Putin also insisted the U.S. must first disavow any military action in Syria, even as he and Iran make no such pledge.

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