The Insiders: Why the “Latte Salute” is a Big Deal

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Photo Credit: InstagramBy now, everyone has seen the pictures of President Obama’s “latte salute,” where he walked off Air Force One and couldn’t even be bothered to switch his cup to his other hand while lazily saluting the Marines at the bottom of the airplane stairs. The Obama apologists are dismissing the criticism, calling it “ridiculousness.”

Perhaps the president meant it as an insult; perhaps not. But we know the president is vain – after all, he has already written two books about himself – and he’s also very stage-aware. He knew what he was doing. President Obama was striking a pose.

While the usual suspects want to make apologies for him – and of course, immediately blame President Bush – this has hit a nerve…

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Celebrity Chef Slams ‘Obama Nonsense,’ Laments Decline of Restaurant Industry

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Photo Credit: TownHallAs a celebrity chef, cookbook author, and TV personality, Emeril Lagasse is one of the most well known chefs in the country, and with a net worth of about $50 million and a food empire that brings in an estimated $150 million, he’s one of the wealthiest, too. So it was surprising to hear him say at a recent event that he has “nowhere to go, really—other than broke.”

The reason? Predictably, Big Government.

“It’s becoming a very challenging industry to become a very successful average restaurateur,” continued Lagasse. “I can’t charge $300 a person in my restaurant or I would not be in business. Am I using any different ingredients? Not really. Am I using any caliber of service staff? I don’t think so. I think our service is as good or better than most places.”

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Democrat Rep. Donates Cash To Hamas-Linked Group

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerA Democratic congressman has donated funds to a political group that was implicated in a criminal fund-raising operation for the jihad group, Hamas.

“Thank you Congressman James Moran for his generous personal donation to @CAIRNational at #CAIRturns20,” said a tweet from Linda Sarsour, the host at a Sept. 27 fund-raiser for the jihad-linked Council on American Islamic Relations.

Sarsour did not say how much money the Democrat donated.

Moran is a Democrat who represents the Alexandria district in northern Virginia. He’s not running for reelection in 2014.

The Islamic group also gave the Democrat a “Lifetime Achievement Award” during the fundraising event, which provided CAIR with at least $350,000.

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Russia at U.N. Accuses U.S., Allies of Bossing World Around

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / EDUARDO MUNOZRussia used its annual appearance at the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday to accuse the United States and its Western allies of bossing the world around, complaining they were attempting to dictate to everyone “what is good and evil.”

The speech by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the 193-nation assembly was the latest example of the deteriorating relations between Moscow and Western powers, which have imposed sanctions on Russia over the conflict in neighboring Ukraine.

“The U.S.-led Western alliance that portrays itself as a champion of democracy, rule of law and human rights within individual countries … (is) rejecting the democratic principle of sovereign equality of states enshrined in the U.N. Charter and trying to decide for everyone what is good or evil,” he said.

“Washington has openly declared its right to unilateral use of force anywhere to uphold its own interests,” Lavrov added. “Military interference has become a norm – even despite the dismal outcome of all power operations that the U.S. has carried out over the recent years.”

Lavrov cited the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo war, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya that led to the toppling and death of longtime Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi as examples of U.S. failures.

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US Military Battles to Halt Spread of Ebola Virus in West Africa (+video)

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U.S. military personnel have begun constructing tent hospitals and other facilities to help fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, though experts warn that they may be too late to prevent the outbreak from killing thousands more.

The Wall Street Journal reports that troops from the Navy’s 133rd Mobile Construction Battalion began building the first of a dozen planned hospitals in a field outside the main airport in Liberia, one of three countries along with Sierra Leone and Guinea that has been hit the hardest by the epidemic.

As of September 23, the Journal says 6,574 cases had been reported in five West African countries — Senegal and Nigeria are the other two — with 3,091 deaths reported. Those official numbers represent a twofold increase in both categories from August, and global health officials have repeatedly stated their belief that the number of cases has been underreported by a factor of three or four. Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that the number of cases would skyrocket to 1.4 million without international aid.

President Obama announced that 3,000 U.S. troops would be sent to West Africa on September 16. In addition to hospital construction, the military’s duties include unloading medical supplies and training nurses. However, the Journal reported that U.S. officials are still hashing out final details of the mission.

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Daily Water Allocation Could Be the Next California Drought Strategy

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Photo Credit: AP / Rich Pedroncelli
You probably know your Social Security number, your driver’s license number and perhaps the latest wrinkle in mattress marketing, your sleep number.

But do you know your drought number?

The latter represents the amount of water you are allowed to use per day. If you don’t know it, you probably should. Not knowing could cost you money. As California’s severe drought moves into a fourth year, state and local water agencies are working on something called “allocation-based rate structures,” a kind of precursor to water rationing that’s all the rage in Sacramento and in some areas such as Santa Cruz, Irvine and Santa Monica.

Here’s how it works: Your local water company, special district or city assigns you and your household a number in gallons — a daily water allocation. Usually, one number applies to maximum indoor water use, i.e. showers, kitchen and bathroom faucets, dishwashers, clothes washers, etc., and an extra allocation is assigned for outdoor use such as lawn irrigation.

Using census records, aerial photography and satellite imagery, an agency can determine a property’s efficient water usage.

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Alleged Drug Smuggler Tried to Use a U.S. National Guard Bag

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Photo Credit: APA suspected drug smuggler trying to move four kilograms of cocaine from the Texas border to Connecticut drew the suspicion of authorities because he used a bag with the U.S. National Guard logo on it. The value of the seized cocaine ranged from $160,000 near the Texas border to $640,000 at its final destination.

The arrest came when a U.S. Border Patrol agent at the Falfurrias checkpoint got information about an upcoming drug load and stopped a passenger bus that was travelling north, according to court records obtained by Breitbart Texas.

One of the agents went into the bus and asked Hector Samuel Perez, a 26-year-old legal resident from Mexico, where he was headed. Perez said he was headed to Houston to see his sister; the agent’s suspicions had been peaked because he saw that the traveler had a shoulder bag with the National Guard logo on it.

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Michigan Mom Turns to Prayer and Social Media for Miracle to Save her Son

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsIn a pessimistic world, a Michigan mother is looking for a miracle to save her terminally ill four-year-old son – and she’s turning to prayer and social media to find it.

Tammi Curtis Carr of Ann Arbor was given the horrifying news Tuesday that her toddler, Chad, had an inoperative tumor on his brain stem. According to Carr, her son fell on Monday and hit his nose.The mother of three took her youngest to the hospital to make sure he didn’t have a concussion but what the MRI revealed was much worse.

Chad was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, a rare brain tumor that primarily affects children, and once diagnosed, the average rate of survival is nine to twelve months.

On Wednesday, Carr posted a message on her Facebook page hoping the power of prayer could help heal her young boy.

“We now need prayers and it’s my hope that this goes viral and millions fall in love with (Chad) and send him prayers,” she wrote. “It’s going to take a miracle and I believe it can happen and I hope you will help and spread his story!”

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Children Arrange for Doctor to Euthanize Their Parents

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsIf this doesn’t scare you, nothing will.

A doctor has agreed to murder euthanize a healthy elderly Belgian couple who don’t want ever to live apart–and their three children approve. One even procured the death doctor. From the Daily Mail story:

Their son, John Paul, 55, approached their doctor to request their euthanasia – which was legalised in Belgium in 2002 – but the doctor refused because there were no grounds for it. John Paul found another doctor willing to perform the killings in an unnamed hospital in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium in which 82 per cent of euthanasia cases are performed.

Francis said he and Anne were grateful for the arrangement. ‘Without our son and our daughter, it would never have succeeded,’ he said. ‘We are not sad, we are happy,’ he continued. ‘When we were told we could leave life together smoothly we were on a little cloud. It was as if we had spent all that time in a tunnel and suddenly we came into the light again.’

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Clinton Foundation Denies (Unconvincingly) It Had “Escorts” Follow NYT Reporter To Bathroom

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Photo Credit: Stephan SavoiaHillary Clinton’s paranoia about the press was shockingly on display at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York City last week. Veteran New York Times reporter Amy Chozick reported that working press covering the event were herded into a “press corral” in order to keep them apart from the speakers and audience -and especially from Hillary. So stringent were the restrictions on their movements that they couldn’t even go to the bathroom without being accompanied by escorts. Chozick said hers actually “waited outside the stall” to accompany her back to the Corral. (““At Clinton’s Event, A Really Close Watch on Reporters”“)

Chozick described what happened:

“…perhaps the person who stands out is the friendly 20-something press aide who the Clinton Global Initiative tasked with escorting me to the restroom. She waited outside the stall in the ladies’ room at the Sheraton Hotel, where the conference is held every year.”

According to an article on BuzzFeed.com, Clinton Foundation officials vehemently deny that anyone “deliberately” followed any reporter to the bathroom or was asked to do so. They claimed that “after looking into the matter, they found no proof that a volunteer “deliberately” followed a reporter to the bathroom. Aides said that as a matter of policy, CGI staffers and volunteers had never been instructed to accompany press inside restrooms.” (“Clinton Foundation Denies Sending Press Escorts Inside Bathrooms”)

But this unprecedented attempt to control the press has happened at CGI meetings before. It’s not the first time. It’s just the first time they got caught by a national newspaper.

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