UN Security Council Votes to Eliminate Syria’s Chemical Weapons

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday night to secure and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile, a landmark decision aimed at taking poison gas off the battlefield in the escalating 2 1/2-year conflict.

The vote after two weeks of intense negotiations marked a major breakthrough in the paralysis that has gripped the council since the Syrian uprising began. Russia and China previously vetoed three Western-backed resolutions pressuring President Bashar Assad’s regime to end the violence.

“Today’s historic resolution is the first hopeful news on Syria in a long time,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council immediately after the vote, but he and others stressed that much more needs to be done to stop the fighting that has left more 100,000 dead.

“A red light for one form of weapons does not mean a green light for others,” the U.N. chief said. “This is not a license to kill with conventional weapons.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the “strong, enforceable, precedent-setting” resolution shows that diplomacy can be so powerful “that it can peacefully defuse the worst weapons of war.”

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Continued Support for Keystone XL Pipeline

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Most Americans (65%) continue to favor building the Keystone XL pipeline, perhaps the most politically contentious energy issue in Barack Obama’s second term. Yet when it comes to another issue making headlines – a proposal to tighten greenhouse gas emissions from power plants – the public favors stricter limits, by exactly the same margin as the Keystone pipeline (65% to 30%).

Opinions on these two hotly debated issues underscore the complexity of public attitudes on U.S. energy policy. Support for increasing energy production from some traditional sources remains strong: 58% favor increased offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters.

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Yet over the past year, opposition to the drilling process known as fracking has increased, as has opposition to nuclear power. Just 38% favor promoting the increased use of nuclear power while 58% are opposed, the highest level of opposition since the question was first asked in 2005.

The national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Sept. 4-8 among 1,506 adults, finds that, as with other energy-related issues, there is a sharp partisan divide on the Keystone pipeline. But while an overwhelming majority of Republicans (82%) favor construction of the pipeline, so too do 64% of independents and about half of Democrats (51%).

President Obama’s decision about whether to go ahead with the pipeline is expected in the next few months. Environmental groups staunchly oppose the project, while GOP lawmakers are stepping up pressure on Obama to approve it.

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McConnell to Newsmax: Defunding Obamacare Not ‘Waste of Time’ for GOP

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mcconnell64283Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Newsmax in an exclusive interview on Friday that Republicans weren’t fighting a lost cause to defund Obamacare as part of legislation to prevent the federal government from shutting down next week.

“I don’t think it was a waste of time,” the Kentucky Republican said. “The American people do fully understand that still, not a single Republican in the House or Senate favors this awful new law — and if they will send us enough additional new members to get rid of it, we will.”

The Senate voted 54-44 along party lines on Friday to temporarily finance the government through mid-December and pay for the troubled healthcare law for the next year. Independents Angus King and Bernie Sanders voted with the Democrats. Republicans Orrin Hatch and Jeff Flake did not vote.

The vote came after an amendment was approved to remove the language that defunded Obamacare, on the same party-line vote.

The House of Representatives had sent the legislation — a “continuing resolution” — to the Senate last week. The House bill included language to defund the Affordable Care Act.

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Senate Backs Cloture Over Cruz’s Objections – 18 Stand With Cruz (+video)

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s latest battle to get the Senate to defund Obamacare came to an abrupt halt Friday afternoon, when a large majority of senators voted in favor of the procedural move that Cruz had been opposing as the last barrier against the health-care law.

Over Cruz’s objections, Senators voted 79-19 in favor of invoking cloture on the House-passed resolution to fund the federal government past Monday, when the current funding resolution expires. Voting on cloture is a procedural vote that allows the Senate to move forward with consideration of the bill.

Cruz was joined by just 18 of his fellow Republicans: Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Dean Heller of Nevada, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Mike Lee of Utah, Jim Moran of Kansas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rob Portman of Ohio, Jim Risch of Idaho, Pat Roberts of Kansas, Marco Rubio of Florida, Tim Scott of South Carolina, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and David Vitter of Louisiana.

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Romney Decries the ‘Political Dysfunction’ in Washington

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romney_bigotryMitt Romney thinks Obamacare is a bad law and would like to see it “go away,” but said Friday he disagrees with how conservatives are trying to engineer that.

In an interview with CNN, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee said using the the Affordable Care Act in the debate over a funding bill and debt ceiling rise is not effective — and counterproductive.

“We’re more effective tactically not to use a shutdown of some kind to pursue the … anti-Obamacare objective,” he said. “I don’t think that will be as effective.”

“The tactic of using a government shutdown to try and push that will be counterproductive politically, that it’s going to end up hurting our party, and it could well – it could be inconvenience, and hurt some individuals as well, and checks are late, and so forth,” said Romney.

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Kansas School Board Brings Back Student-Led Prayer

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Photo Credit: Biz Pac Review

Photo Credit: Biz Pac Review

A rural Kansas School Board courageously defied 50 years of U.S. Supreme Court rulings by allowing student-led prayer at all school activities, even broadcasting them on the school’s public address system.

What began as an unscheduled, impromptu suggestion at a Monday ISD No. 480 School Board meeting ended up as a motion that was immediately seconded, discussed and unanimously approved, according to the Leader and Times.

“I think that’s one of the greatest things we’ve ever done,” said Board Member Tammy Sutherland-Abbott, who seconded Board Member Nick Hatcher’s motion.

Hatcher had spontaneously introduced the idea.

“I would like to see us bring prayer back to the games,” he told his fellow board members. “I have struggled with that — not having prayer at our activities — because it’s ‘not the thing to do,’ but if the board thought it was important enough that they would support it, and defend it if the time came, I’d like to ask that we do that at our next meeting.”

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‘Cupboard is Bare’? Despite Claims, Feds Find $100M to Give Detroit

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Obama administration has found $100 million to send to struggling Detroit, despite recurring claims that the government cannot afford to make any more spending cuts.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed just last weekend that “there’s no more cuts to make.” Pelosi made the comments in response to Republicans demanding additional cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.

“The cupboard is bare,” she told CNN.

Apparently not completely bare.

Gene Sperling, chief economic adviser to President Obama, told the Associated Press the administration scrounged through the federal budget and found untapped money that “either had not flowed or had not gotten out or not directed to the top priorities.”

That money is now being sent to Detroit.

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How Did the Pakistan Earthquake Create a Mud Island?

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Photo Credit: Gwadar Government/AP

Photo Credit: Gwadar Government/AP

On Tuesday, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck a remote part of western Pakistan, killing more than 260 people and displacing hundreds of thousands. It also triggered formation of a new island off the coast, which has quickly become a global curiosity.

But scientists say the island won’t last long.

“It’s a transient feature,” said Bill Barnhart, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “It will probably be gone within a couple of months. It’s just a big pile of mud that was on the seafloor that got pushed up.”

Indeed, such islands are formed by so-called mud volcanoes, which occur around the world, and Barnhart and other scientists suspect that’s what we’re seeing off the Pakistani coast.

News organizations have reported that the Pakistani island suddenly appeared near the port of Gwadar after the quake. The island is about 60 to 70 feet (18 to 21 meters) high, up to 300 feet (91 meters) wide, and up to 120 feet (37 meters) long, reports the AFP.

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Ted Cruz Part II, Republican Takes On Republican (+video)

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picture - Cruz debateSen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) got into a tense back-and-forth on the Senate floor Thursday over the Texas Republican’s 21-hour anti-Obamacare speech and the House-passed bill that defunds President Obama’s health care overhaul.

Corker accused Cruz of being “confused” and argued Senate Republicans should vote in favor of cloture on the bill sent over from the House because it defunds Obamacare. However, Cruz was quick to remind his colleague that a vote in favor of cloture is a vote in “favor of granting the majority leader [Harry Reid] the ability to fund Obamacare.”

Corker also asked Cruz why he voted for a motion to proceed on the House-passed continuing resolution after he spent 21 hours “filibustering” the bill. He told Cruz, “y’all have sent out released, emails and you want everybody to be able to watch,” but added that the so-called filibuster was not in the best interests of the country or conservative policy.

Cruz seemingly went into “prosecutor”-mode, questioning Corker on every point.

Watch the tense debate below:

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Chilling Video of Killer Aaron Alexis inside Navy Yard Released by FBI

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Photo Credit: FBI

Photo Credit: FBI

On Sept. 25, nine days after shooter Aaron Alexis killed 12 people and wounded four more inside the Washington Navy Yard, the FBI released unbelievable video surveillance footage of Alexis inside the Navy Yard stalking his victims.

According to the FBI, “Alexis had legitimate access to the Navy Yard as a result of his work as a contractor and he utilized a valid pass to gain entry to Building #197.”

Shortly after his arrival in the building and over the course of approximately one hour, Alexis used the Remington 870 shotgun and a Beretta handgun he obtained during the course of his shooting to kill 12 victims and wound four surviving victims before he was shot and killed by law enforcement officers. Investigation to date has determined that Alexis acted alone.

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