WATCH: 400 lb Man Choked to Death by Police on New York City Street as He Yells ‘I Can’t Breathe!’

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Photo Credit: NYDN

Photo Credit: NYDN

The New York Daily News is reporting a tragic story out of New York City involving video footage of the NYPD choking out a 400 lb. man, who outside sources say was only guilty of breaking up a fight.

The asthmatic Staten Island dad Eric Garner, who is a husband and father to six, was clearly standing peaceably on the sidewalk when New York Police Department officers approached him and attempted to arrest him.

The man complained on video shot by 22-year-old Ramsey Orta that he was tired of being harrassed by police officers. The NYPD stated their accusation after the news story broke that he was suspected of selling untaxed cigarettes.

Read more from this story HERE.

D'Souza: Obama's Retreat From The World Enabled Airliner Tragedy

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

President Barack Obama is remaking the world according to his vision of a less influential America, and one result is chaos abroad that leads to disasters like the apparent shootdown this week of a passenger jet over war-torn Ukraine, conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza told Newsmax TV on Friday.

“This downing of the airplane is a small indication of what happens when American power is subtracted from the world,” D’Souza told “MidPoint” host Ed Berliner.

It’s an argument that coincides with the theme of D’Souza’s new docu-drama movie, “America: Imagine the World Without Her,” and companion book of the same title.

In print and on screen, D’Souza contends that the progressive moment’s relentlessly downbeat portrait of America emphasizes past failings, portrays national strengths as liabilities, and shuns the country’s essential contributions to global peace, prosperity and freedom.

D’Souza said President Obama, in withdrawing from the international stage and conceding management of global affairs to others, is helping to make the movie’s point.

Read more from this story HERE.

Small-Town Cops Stockpiling Weapons of War (+video)

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Photo Credit: paffairs_sanfrancisco

Photo Credit: paffairs_sanfrancisco

McMinn County is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It boasts beautiful scenery, but its sheriff’s department can boast something else.

The department received more military surplus guns than any other local department in the state last year.

“We actually reconfigured the whole armory to accommodate all of this,” said Sheriff Joe Guy.

Read more from this story HERE.

Biden’s 7-Figure Hotel Bill for One Wild Brazilian Night Brings ‘Cost-Cutting Mission’ to Abrupt End

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Photo Credit: IJ Review

Photo Credit: IJ Review

Remember last summer, when President Obama appointed Joe Biden to head the Campaign to Cut Waste to root out wasteful government spending?

Like you, we’ve been anxiously awaiting the results of the comprehensive report that’s surely coming any day now. In the meantime, it seems like he’s adding to the list of things to root out.

Last month it was reported that every weekend he gets a lift from D.C. to his home in Wilmington, Delaware, via Air Force Two — the V.P.’s airplane — and Marine Two — the V.P.’s helicopter. And he often gets a mid-weekend lift back to the Andrews Air Force Base for a round of golf with the President.

Based upon the $22,000 an hour cost for the airtime, that works out to about $1 million per year in shuttling costs. That doesn’t count the cost of the 20 condominiums that the Secret Service rents in Wilmington nor the cost of Air Force Two sitting and waiting for him while he plays 18 holes of golf.

Read more from this story HERE.

Chougule: Unfathomable Billions in Government Waste

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Photo Credit: Cliff Owen

Photo Credit: Cliff Owen

Earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified before Congress that federal agencies made more than $100 billion in improper payments last year. To put that number in perspective, $100 billion is more than the combined total budgets of the Coast Guard, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Border Patrol, Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency — a lot more.

The GAO report is the latest example of why Washington must get serious about eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, and enacting sweeping reforms and spending cuts before any more damage is inflicted on American taxpayers.

Improper payments result when people collect money from government programs for which they are ineligible. For example, paying unemployment insurance to people who are secretly working is an improper payment, and needlessly adds to the already out-of-control deficit.

The GAO thinks it’s likely the amount of improper payments is even higher than the $105.8 billion reported. In its own words, “the federal government’s inability to determine the full extent to which improper payments occur” represents a serious limitation on their estimates. Some programs, such as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare program, do not bother reporting estimates of improper payments at all.

Read more from this story HERE.

Convert, Pay Tax, or Die, Islamic State Warns Christians

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Photo Credit: Beth Rankin

Photo Credit: Beth Rankin

Islamist insurgents have issued an ultimatum to northern Iraq’s dwindling Christian population to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death, according to a statement distributed in the militant-controlled city of Mosul.

The statement issued by the Islamic State, the al Qaeda offshoot which led last month’s lightning assault to capture swathes of north Iraq, and seen by Reuters, said the ruling would come into effect on Saturday.

It said Christians who wanted to remain in the “caliphate” that the Islamic State declared this month in parts of Iraq and Syria must agree to abide by terms of a “dhimma” contract – a historic practice under which non-Muslims were protected in Muslim lands in return for a special levy known as “jizya”.

“We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract – involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword,” the announcement said.

A resident of Mosul said the statement, issued in the name of the Islamic State in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, had been distributed on Thursday and read out in mosques.

Read more from this story HERE.

EPA Proposes Limits on Alaska Mine Project

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Photo Credit: AP / Al Grillo

Photo Credit: AP / Al Grillo

The Environmental Protection Agency Friday proposed restrictions on a large copper-and-gold mine slated for a watershed in southwest Alaska that has pitted environmental groups against business regarding the EPA’s authority to veto such projects.

At issue for the Pebble Mine near Bristol Bay’s watershed is whether the EPA can veto a needed Clean Water Act permit. The proposal comes with a comment period that ends Sept. 19. If finalized, it could invite legal action from the mine’s backers on an issue that has attracted the attention of congressional Republicans.

Republicans and industry say the EPA can’t veto the project because the developer, Pebble LP, has not filed a formal blueprint. The House has held hearings on the project, and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee has subpoenaed the EPA for documents. Some Democrats, commercial fishermen, native tribes and environmental groups say it can because the EPA has an outline of the mine’s parameters based on Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

“This is not a pre-emptive veto,” Dennis McLerran, regional administrator for EPA Region 10, said in a media call in response to criticisms from industry and Republicans that the EPA was planning to reject the Clean Water Act permit even though Pebble LP hadn’t yet submitted an application.

McLerran, speaking of the years-long delay by developers to file an application, said, “the amount of uncertainly that has hung over the Bristol Bay watershed is a consideration” in the step the agency outlined Friday.

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Tea Party Groups' Suit Against IRS Moves Forward

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tea_party_gunsA federal judge has allowed a lawsuit by 10 tea party groups to move forward against the Internal Revenue Service, rejecting a request by the federal government to dismiss all the allegations that the agency subjected conservative groups to additional, often burdensome scrutiny.

In her ruling Thursday, Judge Susan Dlott allowed two of the tea party groups’ claims — including that the IRS discriminated and retaliated against them based on their views in violation of their free speech rights — to survive to trial.

The Cincinnati-based Dlott did dismiss a third claim, ruling the tea party groups could not pursue allegations of privacy violations on behalf of their individual members. The individuals themselves have to do that, she said.

Edward Greim, the lead attorney for the tea party groups, said Friday he is pleased the case will move forward.

“If the government is right in this case, it means that from now on, no matter who the president is, the IRS can pick out a group of people that disagrees with the president and pull those people out, delay them, harass them, target them, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it,” Greim said. “And our position is very simple: That cannot be true and that’s not the republic that we live in.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Tries to Connect with Ordinary Americans – Through Junk Food

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Photo Credit: AP / Jacquelyn Martin

Photo Credit: AP / Jacquelyn Martin

By Katie Zezima.

Has food – especially junk food – played as large a role in the messaging of any other presidential administration as it has in that of President Obama?

Obama has long complained about feeling hemmed in by the presidency, and has made a habit lately of escaping the White House by walking down the street, skipping town and meeting with regular Americans who have written him letters or have some connection to an issue he plans to discuss. The common thread in almost all of these excursions? Food or drink. And nothing fancy.

The latest adventure came Thursday, when Obama had a burger and fries at the Charcoal Pit in Wilmington, Del., with Tanei Benjamin, who wrote Obama last year about her struggles as a single mother. Why the Charcoal Pit?

“Biden told me the burgers are pretty good,” Obama said. Biden is, of course, from Delaware.

Obama has said his excursions out of Washington are meant to connect him with regular Americans and their struggles. The cuisine and restaurants chosen by Obama and the White House is yet another reflection that Obama is attempting to bolster his populist bona fides out on the road.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: EAG News

Photo Credit: EAG News

With nation’s school lunches fundamentally transformed, Michelle O eyes ‘talking shopping carts’

By Ben Velderman.

First, Michelle Obama seized control of your child’s school lunch and made it “healthy.” Now, the First Lady wants to change the way you buy groceries.

A new 80-page report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture explains that federal bureaucrats hope to use a variety of tools to modify the way Americans select food items at the supermarket.

The goal is to steer consumers toward fruits and vegetables – and away from sugar- and fat-laden items. The plan is in line with “Michelle Obama’s stated second term agenda to ‘impact the nature of food in grocery stores,’” reports FreeBeacon.com.

While the feds’ plan deals mostly with the 47 million Americans who participate in the government’s food stamp program, it would indirectly affect all consumers.

According to FreeBeacon.com, the federal busybodies want to provide food-stamp shoppers with “incentives” for making healthy food choices – such as discounts or free movie tickets – and even talking shopping carts that will notify them when they’ve selected enough healthy items.

Read more from this story HERE.

NYT Story Prompted Clinton to Question CIA's Info On bin Laden, According to Newly Released Memo

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

When a New York Times article cast doubt on the accusation Usama bin Laden had a hand in the 1998 bombings of African embassies, President Clinton questioned his own CIA, according to a note he scrawled to his national security adviser.

The memo, part of a 1,000-page release of documents Friday afternoon by the National Archives, was written after the president apparently read an article in the self-professed “paper of record” casting doubt on the U.S. Justice Department’s case that the Al Qaeda mastermind was involved in the Aug. 7, 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Some 224 people were killed in the twin attacks, including 12 Americans.

Two months later, a federal grand jury in New York indicted bin Laden and 20 others for participating in a terrorist plot to kill Americans. But the Times article, entitled “U.S. Hard Put to Find Proof bin Laden Directed Attacks,” and written the following April, raised doubts about bin Laden’s involvement, at least with Clinton.

“Sandy, if this article is right, the CIA sure overstated its case to me — What are the facts?” Clinton wrote in pen.

Read more from this story HERE.