Surveillance Cam Captures School Security Guard Repeatedly Punching Wheelchair Bound Student in Head

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A security guard at a school in Oakland, California, has been arrested for assaulting a student, who has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair, after he was found in a hallway after class had started. CBS affiliate KPIX 5 reports:

One security officer then ordered the student, identified as freshman Francisco Martinez, to move along and either Martinez didn’t comply or was slow to do so, according to Abdel-Qawi…

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Obama Must Respond to Jailed Marine’s Petition

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Photo Credit: APLast Friday Breitbart Texas reported on Andrew Tahmooressi, a 25-year-old marine who was imprisoned in Mexico for having illegal guns in his car. Tahmooressi claims he was driving to San Ysidro, California to meet a fellow veteran and accidentally took a wrong turn across the border. Crossing into Mexico with the firearms has resulted in his incarceration in a Mexican prison for over two months.

At a border stop in Tijuana, Mexican officials searched the marine’s car. They found three guns which while legal in the United States, are illegal to possess in Mexico. According to Tahmooressi’s lawyer, he is currently being charged with the possession of firearms meant for the exclusive use by the Mexican military. He is currently facing six to 21 years in a Mexican prison.

After serving two tours in Afghanistan Tahmooresi was diagnosed with PTSD. His mother Jill Tahmooressi has repeatedly voiced her concerns that the Mexican jail is not prepared to handle a U.S. veteran with PTSD and has been very active in lobbying for her son’s release. She has appeared on dozens national television and radio programs to tell Andrew’s story and to encourage viewers to sign a WhiteHouse.gov petition she created on his behalf.

Read more from this story HERE.

Duck Dynasty Patriarch Hands GOP Pathway to Victory

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Photo Credit: WNDDuck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson kicked off the Republican Leadership Conference at the Hilton Riverside Hotel in New Orleans on Thursday with an entertaining speech in which he mixed his faith in Jesus Christ with an admonition to the GOP to return to the Bible and the fundamental principles of freedom upon which the nation was founded.

“You lose your religion, you lose your morality, you lose your freedom,” Robertson said. “You cannot be right for America if you are not right with God.”

In an event the GOP billed as an “unofficial kickoff” of the 2016 presidential campaign, Robertson drew repeated applause and more than one standing ovation by insisting, “If the country does not turn to God at a fairly rapid clip, we are going to lose the United States of America.”

Robertson jokingly suggested, “The GOP must be desperate to call a person like me.”

Looking at the outfit that is now linked with his Duck Dynasty television persona, Robertson insisted, “These clothes are the best I own.”

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Cruz: GOP Can Empower Grassroots by Ditching Consultants, ‘Soviet-Style Campaigns’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP / Rick Bowmer, FileSen. Ted Cruz said Saturday that the GOP can bolster its appeal by sticking to its conservative principles and embracing a bottom-up campaign model that empowers grassroots voters.

Speaking at the Republican Leadership Conference, Mr. Cruz said the party must ditch the Washington-centric campaign model and stop listening to the political consultants.

“A lot of Republicans tend to have top-down Soviet-style campaigns,” Mr. Cruz said. “It is very odd for a party that believes in free market that they run campaigns through command and control.”

“That is disempowering and it doesn’t inspire,” Mr. Cruz said. “What is far more effective is having a race built on empowering the grassroots.”

Since being elected in 2012, Mr. Cruz has occasionally butted headed with GOP leaders in Washington, and has become a darling of the tea party and grassroots activists around the country.

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VA Cuts D-Day Veteran’s Benefits to $6 a Month

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Photo Credit: WNYTAn 89-year-old Navy veteran who came under heavy enemy fire aboard a landing craft on D-Day is accusing bureaucrats at the Department of Veterans Affairs of slashing his veterans benefits to $6 a month from $300.

Joseph Teson, of Watervliet, N.Y., told WNYT-TV he used to get $300 a month in benefits, about a third of which he would donate to veterans groups. He said the VA cut his benefits to recoup an overpayment of more than $3,000 that he never even noticed.

“I don’t know how they did it, but they did it,” Teson, 89, told the Albany station Saturday. “I didn’t say nothing. I just let it go. Everybody else complained but me.”

Teson was notified of the overpayment last year. The VA sent him a letter saying his “entitlement to compensation and pension benefits had changed,” resulting in an overpayment to him of $3,090.

“Since you are currently receiving VA benefits, we plan to withhold those benefits until the amount you were overpaid is recouped,” the VA said in a letter dated June 9, 2013, according to WNYT.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APVA Expands Veterans’ Access to Outside Medical Care, In Effort to Clear Long Waits

The Obama administration said Saturday it will allow more veterans to get health care outside Veterans Affairs facilities, following recent revelations about long waits for treatment and purported secret lists that hid backlogs.

The statement was issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which said the plan is to expand capacity at VA facilities to increase care, or when not possible increase care in the community through outside facilities.

Officials said VA Secretary Eric Shinseki put the plan into action following President Obama’s national TV address Wednesday on the issue and that it was being implemented by Friday under the direction of the Veterans Health Administration.

“VA has redoubled efforts to provide quality care to veterans and has taken steps at national and local levels to ensure timely access to care,” the department said Saturday in a statement.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers have pressed for the policy change as the VA confronts the allegations about employees falsifying appointment records to cover up delays in care and about veterans dying while awaiting treatment at VA centers.

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Miller: We Don’t Know the Dignity of Their Births; We Know the Nobility of Their Deaths (+video)

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This Memorial Day we remember the over one million Americans who laid down their lives in military service to our country. To borrow a phrase from General Douglas MacArthur: we don’t know the dignity of their births, but we know the nobility of their deaths. They died serving in a cause greater than themselves, so that our country, dedicated to securing the peoples’ God-given rights, could move forward towards its high calling.

For all the times America has fallen short over its lifetime of nearly two-and-a-half centuries, none can deny the hope and the opportunity and the freedom this nation has brought forth not only on our shores, but to tens of millions of people around the world. We are blessed to live in such a land; it truly has been a “Shining City on a Hill. “

In a few weeks, we will commemorate the 70th anniversary of D-Day, which was one of the many decisive moments when Americans made the ultimate sacrifice to advance the cause of freedom. In Normandy, the United States and its allies fought to rescue an enslaved Europe from a maniacal dictator hell-bent on dominating the planet and eliminating an entire race of people. The scale of the operation was vast, involving over 5000 ships, 175,000 soldiers, and 10,000 aircraft.

General Dwight Eisenhower stated the mission clearly to his soldiers, sailors, and airmen soon to be engaged in Operation Overlord:

The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

In a nationwide radio broadcast that evening, President Franklin Roosevelt asked all Americans to join him in prayer for those in the battle:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith….Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom…Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Thousands gave their lives on Normandy’s shores on June 6th, 1944 and by the time the World War II was over, 400,000 Americans would never be returning home.

While thankfully in our time we have not had to endure that staggering loss of life, none-the-less thousands of homes this day will be missing the smile and the embrace of a father or mother, son or daughter, brother or sister who made the ultimate sacrifice.

As Ronald Reagan so eloquently stated on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day regarding the great heroes who fought for this country, “Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their valor, and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.”

This beautiful song performed by the West Point Glee Club is a fitting tribute to those whom we have loved and lost in war:

Ronald Reagan’s Boys of Pointe Du Hoc Speech on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1984:

Arizona Ditches Common Core Testing Consortium

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Joshua LottArizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced Friday that her state is pulling out of a multi-state consortium that is designing a national test that applies new Common Core education standards.

Arizona was an early governing member of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, bu Brewer’s office announced that effective June 8 the state would be disassociating itself.

PARCC is one of two major constortia that is trying to create a common test for states that have adopted Common Core national education standards. With Arizona’s withdrawal, 15 states and the District of Columbia are members, though only nine are firmly committed to using PARCC’s tests.

The decision to pull out does not affect Arizona’s current adherence to Common Core, whose implementation will continue as planned. In addition, the decision doesn’t necessarily mean Arizona will not ultimately use PARCC to supply its standardized test, as PARCC will be allowed to submit its tests for possible use.

The government’s statement says the state has no problems with PARCC, but rather must disassociate itself to avoid any conflict of interest as it evaluates different bids to provide standardized tests to more than 1 million Arizona students.

Read more from this story HERE.

Faithless Execution

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Photo Credit: Getty Images Faithless Execution is about presidential lawlessness.

Specifically, my new book, which Encounter Books will release this week, is about how the Framers of our Constitution fully anticipated that a president could fail to honor his core duty to execute the laws faithfully — could fail to meet his basic fiduciary obligations to the American people.

Viewing the Obama presidency through the prism of these constitutional norms, Faithless Execution argues that we are experiencing a different kind of presidential lawlessness than our nation has ever known: a systematic undermining of our governing framework, willfully carried out by a president who made no secret of his intention to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.”

What is the president trying to transform?

Well, the constitutional framework he is undermining enshrines two core principles: separation-of-powers and accountability.

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Joe Miller Wins Debate, Back-to-Back Straw Polls (+videos)

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Joe Miller’s victory in back-to-back straw polls and the last debate reflects his campaign’s strong grassroots support. This follows Joe’s successful Patriots Day launch when hundreds of supporters came out, continuing to build momentum statewide.

Joe Miller Wins Poll at Anchorage UFL-CPG U.S. Senate Debate

U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller got another boost this week after being voted the winner of a debate with Republican Mead Treadwell and Libertarian Mark Fish. The exit poll followed the United for Liberty – Alaska/Conservative Patriots Group U.S. Senate debate at the Wilda Marston Theater in Anchorage and was conducted by the debate’s sponsors. There were approximately 200 people in attendance. The other Republican in the race, Dan Sullivan was a no-show.
 
“Joe’s second straw poll win in less than a week reflects the growing momentum the campaign has been seeing on the ground,” said spokesman Randy DeSoto. “Joe turned in a strong performance in the debate, proving he is the true conservative/reform candidate and is the right choice to represent the Republican Party against Senator Begich in the fall.”


 
Some major differences between Miller and Lt. Gov. Treadwell were highlighted during the debate, including Treadwell’s support for a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens (Amnesty), as well as his support for the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). Miller opposes both. Miller’s opposition to LOST is, in part, based on the authority it grants the United Nations to directly tax and regulate the American people. Treadwell also affirmed his belief in man-caused climate change, a theory for which Miller believes the science is inconclusive.

 
One of the highlights of the debate came near its close when the candidates were given the opportunity to ask direct questions of each other. Miller inquired into Treadwell’s past support, financially and otherwise, of left-leaning Republicans and liberal Democrats over conservative challengers, including Lisa Murkowski, Matt Claman and Sheila Selkregg. All three are ardent backers of the big-government agenda, as well as socially liberal policies such as abortion and special rights for homosexuals. Miller questioned how Treadwell could be trusted to support a consistent conservative agenda in Washington when he has been unable or unwilling to do so in Alaska.

Treadwell claimed personal friendship was the reason he chose to support candidates who work against his stated values.
 
“Joe believes principle must trump party, and even friendship,” said DeSoto. “Without strong core convictions concerning fundamental issues, the pressures in Washington will quickly turn campaign rhetoric into false promises.”

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, and advocate of Constitutional liberty who believes in individual rights, private property, free markets and the sanctity of human life.
 

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Joe Miller Convincingly Wins the Alaska Republican Assembly Straw Poll

Over the weekend, U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller handily won the Alaska Republican Assembly’s straw poll, garnering 76 percent of the vote, with Mead Treadwell taking 18 percent, and Dan Sullivan 6 percent.

The Republican Assembly conducted the poll at its annual convention, which took place in Wasilla on Saturday. Other winners of the poll included Ted Cruz for President, Sean Parnell for Governor and now Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan for Lieutenant Governor.

“Joe’s victory in the Republican Assembly’s straw poll over the weekend reflects the campaign’s strong grassroots support,” said spokesman Randy DeSoto. “We also saw it last month when hundreds of supporters came out for the campaign launch, and the momentum continues to build statewide.”

The Alaska Republican Assembly, along with its parent organization the National Federal of Republican Assemblies “NFRA,” self describe as the “Republican Wing of the Republican Party.” The group is committed to keeping the Party true to its platform of limited constitutional government, free market capitalism, a strong national defense, and traditional values. It does so through grassroots activism and identifying and supporting true conservative candidates for office. The Republican Assembly aligns with the principles championed by Ronald Reagan.

Featured speakers at Saturday’s Alaska Republican Assembly Convention included Rev. Rafael Cruz (father of U.S. Senator Ted Cruz), Sharron Angel (current president of NFRA), Willes Lee (NW Vice President of NFRA) and Sheriff and author Richard Mack.

Miller carried a reform message, in the vein of the Republican Assembly, to the GOP state convention in Juneau last month. He exhorted the delegates to resist the temptation to water down the Party platform, especially with regards to traditional values (life and family), along with other core issues. Quoting Reagan’s call to raise a banner of “bold colors, no “pale pastels,” he said, “If you want to defeat Mark Begich this fall, getting rid of the Reagan coalition is the wrong way to do it.”

“People realize Joe is the real deal. I believe that was reflected in this past weekend’s Republican Assembly straw poll results,” said DeSoto. “What he says is not just campaign rhetoric, but a real commitment to help change the current disastrous direction of our country and to restore constitutional government.”

Republicans Likely to Win Senate Majority; Miller Slated to Win in Alaska

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Liberal Senator Mark Begich is running for reelection and, according to pundits, will face Joe Miller in the general. Miller is slated to win that contest, too.

Photo Credit: Win McNamee / Getty ImagesIn Nebraska, Republican senate nominee Ben Sasse leads by 17 percent over Democrat nominee David Domina, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll released yesterday. Sasse, a conservative Republican supported by all the major national TEA party and conservative organizations, won the primary in Nebaska this past Tuesday and appears to be likely to be elected the state’s junior senator in November. Rasmussen Reports have him leading 51 percent to Domina at 34 percent in that senate race.

In the meantime, the senate seat in Kentucky is now in play, as the Real Clear Politics average of polls gives Mitch McConnell only a one point lead over Democrat nominee Alison Lundergan Grimes in the race for the Kentucky senate seat. McConnell first ran in 1984 for this senate seat, and by the end of 2014 he will have served 30 years as senator. McConnell was reelected with just 53 percent of the vote in 2008, and is likely to be more vulnerable in 2014.

If McConnell loses the general election, it would help the Democrats retain a majority of the senate after the 2014 elections despite seat lost in other states. There are 36 seats up for election in 2014. Among the other 64 seats not up for election in 2014, Democrats hold 34 of them while Republicans hold 30. 25 of the seats up for election are considered likely or safe for either party, which includes 16 seats currently held by Republicans and 10 seats currently held by Democrats. With those seats added, Democrats will have 44 seats (including the two independents that caucus with the Democrats) and Republicans will have 46 seats. The remaining 10 seats will decide which party controls the senate after the 2014 elections…

Alaska: Incumbent Senator Mark Begich is running for reelection and 2010 nominee Joe Miller appears to be the likely GOP nominee. Begich should be a strong candidate but a united (rather than divided like four years ago with Lisa Murkowski running as a write-in) GOP behind the eventual Republican nominee would give him a fair shot at defeating Begich. For now, this one leans Republican.

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