Push for New National Cemeteries, As Veteran Deaths Bring Sites Near Capacity

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

National cemeteries across the country are starting to reach capacity amid an increase in the number of veterans dying — fueling a push for the government to approve new sites, particularly in states that don’t have any.

“One of the benefits is to be buried with dignity. All veterans are entitled to that,” Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said.

Titus represents one of the 11 states, many of them in the West, that don’t have a national cemetery. She’s introduced a bill that would force the Department of Veterans Affairs to put them in those states.

“I think they should have that opportunity and not be a victim of where they live,” she said of veterans.

Just what does a national cemetery mean to a veteran?

Read more from this story HERE.

Sandy Hook Killer’s PC Files: Pedophile Rights, Man/Boy Love Movie, ‘School Shooting’ Game

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The state’s attorney report on the horrific murders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School by shooter Adam Lanza found no “conclusive motive” for his actions but did document unsettling facts about the 20-year-old killer, including computer files he kept on the rights of pedophiles, a movie about man/boy love, instant messages concerning “homosexual fantasies,” numerous mass murder documents, and a computer game entitled “School Shooting.”

In “School Shooting,” an amateur computer game, “the player controls a character who enters a school and shoots at students,” reads an Investigation Report (DPS-302-E) that is among the 1,000-plus pages comprising the state’s attorney report on the shootings.

Lanza, after shooting his mother Nancy Lanza at home on the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, drove to the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and shot and killed 20 children and six adults, and then shot himself. (Full report, text and images here. Summary report here.)

In his summary report, State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of Danbury Stephen Sedensky says the “shooter had significant mental health issues” but “the shooter’s mental status is no defense to his conduct as the evidence shows he knew his conduct to be against the law. He had the ability to control his behavior to obtain the results he wanted, including his own death.”

The summary report states that in the electronic evidence gathered at Lanza’s house from his computer, “investigators found many things that are on a typical hard drive or memory card” but, “That being said, the following selected topics or items were found within the digital evidence seized.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Christian Film Stripped of ‘Best Song’ Oscar Nomination

Photo Credit: Matt Sayles

Photo Credit: Matt Sayles

This year’s most-obscure Oscar nominee is no more.

At a meeting this week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board of governors decided to strip the surprise nomination for Best Song from “Alone Yet Not Alone,” which appears in the independent Christian-produced film of the same name.

Writer Bruce Broughton, a former member of the board of governors and currently on the music branch’s executive committee, violated the Academy’s rules against lobbying by personally e-mailing “members of the branch to make them aware of his submission during the nominations voting period,” according to a statement released by the governors Wednesday.

The nomination of “Alone Yet Not Alone” raised the eyebrows (and hackles) of many veteran Oscar-watchers when the nominations were announced Jan. 16. The film had a public profile more associated with obscure foreign films and nobody had tipped it as a possible nominee in any category.

“Alone Yet Not Alone” played on 11 screens nationwide for one week in October and grossed less than $135,000, BoxOfficeMojo.com said. As of Wednesday evening, fewer than 100 people had rated it on the Internet Movie Database. By comparison, the Sandra Bullock October release “Gravity,” which was nominated for 10 Oscars, has grossed more than $260 million and been rated by more than 250,000 IMDb users.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Prosecutors Seek Execution of Boston Marathon Bomber

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Uncredited

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Uncredited

Federal prosecutors Thursday announced they will seek the death penalty against 20-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombing, accusing him of betraying his adopted country by ruthlessly carrying out a terrorist attack calculated to cause maximum carnage.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to press for Tsarnaev’s execution was widely expected. The twin blasts last April killed three people and wounded more than 260, and over half the 30 federal charges against Tsarnaev – including using a weapon of mass destruction to kill – carry a possible death sentence.

“The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision,” Holder said in a statement of just two terse and dispassionate sentences that instantly raised the stakes in one of the most wrenching criminal cases Boston has ever seen.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set.

Read more from this story HERE.

RNC Chair Calls for MSNBC Guest Appearance Boycott Over Race Tweet

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is launching a boycott of MSNBC over an incendiary tweet from the network that suggested “the rightwing” would “hate” a television ad featuring a biracial family, Breitbart News has learned.

“Until you personally and publicly apologize for this behavior, I have banned all RNC staff from appearing on, associating with, or booking any RNC surrogates on MSNBC. I have asked Republican surrogates and officials to follow our lead,” Priebus told MSNBC President Phil Griffin in a letter sent today.

Priebus also sent a memo to Republican officials and surrogates urging them not to appear on the network until Griffin apologizes.

MSNBC’s tweet, sent from the network’s official account last night at 8:06pm, said, “Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go aww” and linked to a Cherios ad “w/ biracial family.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Begich Not Interested in Campaigning In Alaska with his 93 Percent Friend

Screen Shot 2014-01-30 at 2.44.55 AMJoe Miller is not surprised that Mark Begich does not want to campaign with Barack Obama and questions the senator’s commitment to opening ANWR and other federal lands to resource development, given his voting record. 

Asked by CNN following the State of the Union Address earlier this week whether he wanted Barack Obama to campaign with him in Alaska, Begich said, “I’m not really interested in campaigning. What I’d like him to do is see why his policies are wrong on ANWR for example. He opposes oil and gas development.”  

Recent polling indicates a good reason the senator does not want to campaign with the President. A Gallup Poll released this week found Barack Obama has a 33.5 percent job approval rating in Alaska, while a recent poll found a 39 percent approval rating for the state’s junior senator.

 
Miller stated, “I’m not surprised Mark Begich does not want to campaign before the people of Alaska with the man he has voted with 93 percent of the time back in Washington, D.C. The President and his policies are even less popular in our state than the senator’s. Whether it is ObamaCare, blocking the development of ANWR, or the profligate tax and spend policies that are stymieing job creation and stealing our future, Alaskans know our nation is currently on the wrong track.” 

Begich insists he is a strong proponent of opening ANWR, but his vote last summer to confirm Sally Jewell as Interior Secretary, who is an outspoken opponent of such a move, makes the senator’s pronouncements highly suspect. He also voted to confirm Regina McCarthy to head the EPA, who opposes opening ANWR. 

“It is a mystery to me how Mr. Begich can imagine that he has any credibility on this issue when he is, at least in part, personally responsible for elevating the very people to power who are blocking access to Alaska’s resources,” said Miller.

State of the Union 2014 Fact Check

Photo Credit:  John Shinkle/POLITICO

Photo Credit: John Shinkle/POLITICO

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address prodded Congress to act on issues like immigration and economic inequality, with a warning that he won’t hesitate to act unilaterally if lawmakers drag their feet.

But the real audience wasn’t the lawmakers in the chamber. The president was trying to sell his policies and his leadership to tens of millions of people watching at home.

With that rare, outsized audience comes the temptation for the president to put some spin on his arguments that might not otherwise fly or gain traction in Washington.

Here’s POLITICO’s analysis of some of the key parts of Obama’s speech, and where the truth may have been shaped or even stretched in the process:

Obamacare numbers game

Obama: “More than 9 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Malkin: Standing Up Against Wealth-Shaming

Photo Credit: MichelleMalkin.com

Photo Credit: MichelleMalkin.com

America, we have a bullying epidemic. No, not the school bullying issues that get constant attention from Hollywood, the White House and the media. No, not the “fat-shaming” and “body-shaming” outbreaks on Facebook. The problem is wealth-shaming. Class-shaming. Success-shaming.

The State of the Job Creator is under siege.

Last week, a prominent self-made tech mogul dared to diagnose the problem publicly. His passionate letter to The Wall Street Journal decried the “progressive war on the American 1 percent.” He called on the left to stop demonizing “the rich,” and he condemned the Occupy movement’s “rising tide of hatred.”

The mini-manifesto was newsworthy because this truth-teller is not a GOP politician or conservative activist or Fox News personality. As he points out, he lives in the “epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco.” No matter. The mob is shooting the messenger anyway. But maybe, just maybe, his critical message in defense of our nation’s achievers will transcend, inspire, embolden and prevail.

The letter-writer is Tom Perkins, a Silicon Valley pioneer with an MIT degree in electrical engineering and computer science and a Harvard MBA. He started out at the bottom at Hewlett-Packard, founded his own separate laser company on the side and then teamed up with fellow entrepreneur Eugene Kleiner to establish one of the nation’s oldest and most important venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Planned Parenthood Suing Over Alaska Abortion Reg

Photo Credit: Wonderlane/flickr

Photo Credit: Wonderlane/flickr

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest sued the state health commissioner Wednesday over regulations that would further define what constitutes a “medically necessary” abortion for purposes of receiving Medicaid funding.

The lawsuit, filed in Anchorage Superior Court, seeks to have the regulations struck down as unconstitutional and to block the state from enforcing them. The lawsuit alleges the regulations violate the rights to equal protection, privacy and health and are also a violation of the administrative procedure act. The lawsuit says the department violated the act by not holding a public hearing on the proposal.

A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, Kristen Glundberg-Prossor, said the regulations circumvent a 2001 Alaska Supreme Court decision, which held that the state must fund medically necessary abortions if it funds medically necessary services for others with financial needs. The lawsuit lists as defendants Bill Streur, the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services who proposed the regulations, and the department.

A health department spokeswoman said Streur had not seen the lawsuit and would not comment until he has reviewed it with the Department of Law.

Read more from this story HERE.

Former Bush Speechwriter Accuses Obama of Plagiarism (+video)

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

Former George W. Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen has accused President Obama of plagiarizing parts of his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

“Barack Obama has gone from blaming George W. Bush to plagiarizing George W. Bush,” he said, adding that Tuesday night’s speech and Mr. Bush’s 2007 address were “eerily familiar.”

“There were lines like ‘Our job is to help Americans build a future of hope and opportunity, a future of hope and opportunity begins with a growing economy, a future of hope and opportunity requires that all citizens have affordable and available healthcare, extending opportunity and hope depends on a stable supply of energy,’ all of that came from the 2007 State of the Union from George W. Bush,” Mr. Thiessen said.

Read more from this story HERE.