Obama Criticizes Republicans for Focusing on Benghazi, Obamacare

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / KEVIN LAMARQUEPresident Barack Obama chastised his Republican opponents on Monday for focusing criticism on the events surrounding the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and on his signature healthcare law.

“The debate we’re having now is about what, Benghazi? Obamacare? And it becomes this endless loop. It’s not serious. It’s not speaking to the real concerns that people have,” Obama said.

He was speaking to more than 60 people at a fundraising dinner for Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives.

The event took place at a physician’s home in the Washington suburb of Potomac, Maryland, as Obama seeks to persuade Democrats to organize for a voter turnout effort to prevent Republicans from ousting Democrats from control of the Senate and from building on their majority in the House.

Republicans in the House have begun a new investigation of the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans during a militant attack on September 11, 2012.

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Thailand’s Army Declares Martial Law

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Photo Credit: AP / Sakchai LalitThailand’s army declared martial law before dawn Tuesday in a surprise announcement it said was aimed at keeping the country stable after six months of sometimes violent political unrest. The military, however, denied a coup d’etat was underway.

The move effectively places the army in charge of public security nationwide. It comes one day after the Southeast Asian country’s caretaker prime minister refused to step down and follows six months of anti-government demonstrations that have failed to oust the government.

Armed troops entered multiple private television stations in Bangkok to broadcast their message and surrounded the national police headquarters in the city center. Army jeeps mounted with a machine-guns diverted traffic on a major road in front of Central World, one of the country’s most luxurious shopping malls. But the vast metropolis of 10 million people appeared calm, and commuters could be seen driving and walking to work as usual.

An army official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, told The Associated Press “this is definitely not a coup. This is only to provide safety to the people and the people can still carry on their lives as normal.”

A ticker on Chanel 5, an army station, also denied the military was taking over and asked the public not to panic.

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Credit Suisse Pleads Guilty To Helping U.S. Tax Evaders

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Photo Credit: Evan Vucci / APCredit Suisse AG has pleaded guilty to helping wealthy Americans evade taxes in offshore havens, and the Swiss bank has agreed to pay U.S. authorities $2.6 billion in penalties, the Justice Department has announced.

Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference in Washington on Monday that the Swiss bank had “engaged in an extensive and wide-ranging conspiracy … to help tax cheats dodge U.S. taxes.”

Holder said the conspiracy spanned decades and involved bank employees destroying records in an effort to hide the truth and that the destruction of evidence continued after the Justice Department launched its investigation in 2010.

The Associated Press reports:

“The conspiracy charge was filed in a criminal information, which is a charging document that can only be filed with a defendant’s consent and which typically signals a guilty plea.

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Illinois Spending $1,166 Per Bird to Bring in Prairie Chickens

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Photo Credit: Watchdog Our cash-strapped state government has found a new use for its fleet of aircraft – flying birds into Illinois.

I kid you not.

State aircraft are flying to Kansas and transporting prairie chickens back to the Land of Lincoln.

And at a time state lawmakers are looking at raising the state income tax, Illinois state employees have been hiking across Kansas trapping these chickens.

Talk about fowl fiscal deeds.

State pilots have flown between Illinois and Kansas not once, not twice but 14 times this year taking prairie chickens to downstate Jasper and Marion counties.

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Mom of Marine Jailed in Mexico Says Son ‘Not a Criminal,’ Hopes for White House Response

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Photo Credit: Fox News The mother of a U.S. Marine being held in a Mexican prison on weapons charges told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Monday that her son is “not a criminal,” and she is hoping President Obama will respond to his plight.

Jill Tahmooressi said on “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” that she recently saw her son Andrew after he was transferred to a new prison. She said she was able to bring him clothes and books but not food, and that her son told her he was always hungry.

Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, 25, has claimed he was headed to dinner in San Ysidro, California on March 31 when he mistakenly wound up at a border crossing point in Tijuana. According to his mother, Tahmooressi said he made a wrong turn, and Mexican authorities found three guns in his truck.

In an interview on the Mexican border, Jill Tahmooressi told Van Susteren her son would have never intended of smuggling or selling his guns, adding he had them for self-defense.

“He needed those firearms for his own sense of security,” she said. “He never – not for any price – would he have sold those guns.”

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The Democrats’ Free-Speech Hypocrisy

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Photo Credit: The Daily Beast
Last week, the war on the First Amendment entered a new phase when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced his support for S.J. Res. 19, a proposed constitutional amendment designed to “advance the fundamental principle of political equality for all, and to protect the integrity of the legislative and electoral processes.” The intent of the proposed amendment is to empower the Congress and the States to limit all categories of campaign-related spending and contributions and overturn the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, which held independent political expenditures by businesses and unions alike to be protected by the First Amendment.

In plain English that’s called censorship. It’s also called hypocrisy, as many of the proposed amendment’s supporters—and most of its likely opponents—take a situational stance on the First Amendment.

More often than not, politicians think free speech is a fine thing so long as you agree with them. What do I mean? Well, in 2006 the then-Republican-controlled Senate failed by a single vote to move forward a proposed constitutional amendment that would have given Congress the legal authority to ban flag “desecration.” Fortunately, the Constitution mandates that a proposed amendment obtain the backing of two-thirds of both the House and Senate before it can be sent to the States for ratification, and the flag-burning amendment garnered only 66 of the 67 votes it needed.

But here’s the thing. Back then, many of the same folks who would stifle free speech if it comes in the form of money—but not in kind, as in the form of a favorable New York Times editorial—had no problem saying that it was constitutionally OK to put Old Glory to the test by putting it to the torch. The roster of Senate Democrats suffering from First Amendment schizophrenia includes former constitutional law professor and Senator Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and senior Senate Democrats Barbara Boxer, Tom Harkin, Barbara Mikulski, Patty Murray, Chuck Schumer, and Ron Wyden—who rightly took the position that free speech should not be diluted in the name of some greater good, hurt feelings, or offended sensibilities…

So when Democrats decry money in politics are they really being serious, or are they just posturing? One thing’s for certain, money isn’t leaving politics anytime soon. As long as government is around, and politicians need their palms greased, money will be there as well. Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans alike will drape themselves in the Constitution and the flag, except when it gets in their way.

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House GOP Bites Back: Bill Would Roll Back Michelle O’s School Lunch Rules

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Photo Credit: REUTERSHouse Republicans are taking on school nutritional standards championed by first lady Michelle Obama, proposing to let schools opt out of healthier lunch and breakfast programs if they’re losing money.

A GOP spending bill for agriculture and food programs — which included the provision — was released Monday.

The House Appropriations Committee said in a release that the waiver language is in response to requests from schools.

The new standards, touted by the first lady, have been phased in over the last two school years, with more changes coming in 2014. The rules set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on foods in the lunch line and beyond.

The first lady was holding a call to rally supporters of the healthier food rules Monday, as a House subcommittee is expected to consider the bill on Tuesday.

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GOP Congressman Pushes for Immigration Vote

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Photo Credit: David McNewDefying House Republican leaders, a GOP congressman on Monday moved toward forcing an election-year decision on his immigration legislation.

Rep. Jeff Denham of California filed his bill, known as the ENLIST Act, as an amendment to the sweeping defense policy measure that the House will consider this week. The measure would create a path to citizenship for immigrants who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children and serve in the military.

The bill “provides an avenue for those who want to perform the ultimate act of patriotism – serving their county – to earn legal status,” Denham said in a statement. “As a veteran, I can think of no better way to demonstrate your commitment to our nation.”

His move comes three days after House GOP leaders took steps to block a vote on the immigration legislation, dealing a significant blow to efforts to overhaul a system widely disparaged as dysfunctional.

The Rules Committee will decide on Tuesday what amendments the House will consider and vote on as part of its work on the National Defense Authorization Act.

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Patient Dies After Dentist Extracts 20 Teeth

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Photo Credit: myfoxnyThe state has suspended the license of an Enfield dentist after the death of a patient who was having 20 teeth extracted.

The Journal Inquirer reports that Dr. Rashmi Patel faces a June 18 hearing before the Connecticut State Dental Commission.

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Blind Football Player Gets Chance To Play (+video)

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Photo Credit: WBZ-TVAaron Golub of Newton South High School has pinpoint accuracy when it comes to long snapping the football.

The 17-year-old is legally blind, but that hasn’t stopped him from being the starting long snapper for the past two years for the football team. “I just love the sport, always have,” Golub said.

His coach says he is a great athlete. “In football long snapping is one of the most important positions on the field so he felt he could do it,” Coach Ted Dalicandro said.

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