ISIS Claims Responsibility for Tunisia Museum Attack, Massacre

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Gun MenISIS apparently claimed responsibility Thursday for the deadly terrorist attack at a landmark museum in the heart of that country’s capital, a mass shooting that has shaken the birthplace of the Arab Spring and stirred questions about militants in the country.

In an audio statement posted online Thursday, ISIS identified two men — Abu Zakariya al-Tunisi and Abu Anas al-Tunisi — it said used “automatic weapons and hand grenades” to kill and injure what it called “crusaders and apostates” in the Bardo Museum in Tunis. Tunisian Health Minister Said Aidi said 23 people are believed to have been killed, including at least one who died at a hospital overnight.

And that bloodshed, the ISIS message warned, is “just the start” . . .

A U.S. official told CNN there is no reason to doubt the claim’s authenticity. That said, American officials are checking the platform that the statement went out on, including the extent to which it’s tied to the group calling itself the Islamic State.

The current U.S. thinking is the attack may have been carried out by local “franchise” adherents to ISIS, rather than centrally directed by the Islamist extremist group’s leadership, which is now thought to be in Syria. (Read more from “ISIS Apparently Claims Responsibility for Tunisia Museum Attack” HERE)

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New Dashboard Tracks Which Federal Sites You Visit, and How You Got There

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federal siteBy Nextgov. At 11:23 a.m. on Thursday, 150,980 people — more than the population of Alexandria, Virginia — were browsing U.S. federal websites. Five thousand of them visited an IRS.gov page called “Where’s my Refund?” Another 2,091 were checking forecasts on Weather.gov.

These stats come from a new dashboard tracking user behavior on federal websites — what they’re looking at, what device they use, as well as their browser and operating system. The White House’s U.S. Digital Service, along with two General Services Administration’s tech teams, 18F and the Digital Analytics Program, launched the site Thursday.

Created over the course of two to three weeks, the site debuted during Sunshine Week, a national effort dedicated to government transparency.

The data could help federal digital service teams focus on the “services that matter most to the American people” by helping government agencies “understand how people find, access and use government services online,” a White House blog post announcing the site said. (Read more from “New Dashboard Tracks Which Federal Sites You Visit, and How You Got There” HERE)


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ACLU Sues for Airport ‘Behavior Detection’ Program Records


By My FoxNy. A civil rights group is trying to force the federal government to turn over information about airport “behavior detection” programs designed to spot passengers who are potential threats.

A Freedom of Information Act lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in New York City.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the government has been slow to respond to its request to learn more about behavior detection programs that have been used nationwide since 2003. (Read more from this story HERE)

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After Embarrassing Wait, Obama Congratulates Netanyahu on Election Victory

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Photo Credit: Times of Israel

Photo Credit: Times of Israel

US President Barack Obama on Thursday called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on his recent election win, after a campaign that seemed to sour relations between the two allies.

Obama spoke to the Israeli leader “to congratulate him on his party’s success in winning a plurality of Knesset seats,” the National Security Council said in a statement.

According to the White House, Obama “emphasized the importance the United States places on our close military, intelligence, and security cooperation with Israel, which reflects the deep and abiding partnership between both countries.”

The two leaders “agreed to continue consultations on a range of regional issues, including the difficult path forward to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” . . .

Earlier, spokespeople in the White House and State Department indicated the US would re-evaluate its approach to the peace process and its support for Israel in the United Nations in the wake of Netanyahu’s comments. (Read more from “After Wait, Obama Congratulates Netanyahu on Election Victory” HERE)

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Rand Paul 2016 Announcement Date: Senator Eyeing April 7 To Launch Presidential Campaign

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Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is expected to announce plans to join the party’s 2016 presidential field on April 7, multiple sources inside Paul’s camp told MSNBC on Tuesday. The announcement, scheduled to take place in Louisville, Kentucky, will serve as the official campaign launch for Paul, who has spent months traveling to early voting states to assess whether his largely libertarian message will catch fire with the party’s conservative base.

“This will be an official announcement, not an exploratory committee,” said a source close to Paul who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss his plans. “Everything will happen pretty quickly over the next couple of weeks,” another source close to Paul told msnbc.

Doug Stafford, executive director at RandPAC, Paul’s political action committee, had no comment.

Paul is set to travel to the four major early voting states immediately after the announcement, aides said. He will host events in Milford, New Hampshire, April 8; Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina on April 9; Iowa City, Iowa on April 10; and Las Vegas, Nevada on April 11.

Paul, a 52-year old ophthalmologist, is the son of Ron Paul, the well-known Texas libertarian congressman who sought the presidency three times, in 1988, 2008 and 2012. The younger Paul has worked to reassemble his father’s passionate supporter base while also extending his reach into more traditional Republican audiences. Rand Paul has also courted voters not traditionally allied with the GOP, including young people and African-Americans. He recently joined Democrats including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Cory Booker of New Jersey to introduce legislation loosening federal restrictions on the use of medicinal marijuana. (Read more from “Rand Paul 2016 Announcement Date: Senator Eyeing April 7 To Launch Presidential Campaign” HERE)

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Tom Cotton Calls for ‘Global Military Dominance’ in Maiden Senate Speech [+video]

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Over the course of just a few days last week, Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) went from relatively anonymous freshman senator to what seemed like the tip of every tongue in Washington — thanks to the letter he wrote and got 46 fellow Republicans to join, warning the ruling Iranian regime to be wary of negotiating a nuclear deal with President Obama.

But here’s a fun fact: Cotton made his big splash before even giving his first speech on the Senate floor.

That occasion came late Monday, when Cotton delivered his “maiden speech,” which is typically given after a period of silence and as a statement of principles or objectives rather than a comment on the partisan issue of the day.

Cotton’s address has gotten a lot less attention than his Iran letter, and that is not surprising: Where the letter was terse and seemingly calculated to influence the multiparty nuclear negotiations now underway, the half-hour speech was dense, rich in historical references, and calibrated to further establish Cotton as the Republican Party’s young leading light on foreign affairs and defense — positioning him to assume the mantle now worn by elders like John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

“An alarm should be sounding in our ears,” Cotton said. “Our enemies, sensing weakness and hence opportunity, have become steadily more aggressive. Our allies, uncertain of our commitment and capability, have begun to conclude that they must look out for themselves, even where it is unhelpful to stability and order. Our military, suffering from years of neglect, has seen its relative strength decline to historic levels.” (Read more from “Tom Cotton Calls for ‘Global Military Dominance’ in Maiden Senate Speech [+video]” HERE)

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Obama: If I Could Do It Again, ‘I Think I Would Have Closed Guantanamo on the First Day’ [+video]

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President Barack Obama slammed Republicans’ latest budget proposals on Wednesday, saying funding for research, education and infrastructure would be better for economic growth than tax cuts.

In a speech at the City Club of Cleveland, Obama mocked Republicans for turning to tax cuts in a budget that “doubles down on trickle-down” economics..

“Republicans in Congress have put forward the same proposals year after year after year regardless of the realities of the economy,” Obama said. “When the economy’s in a slump? We needed tax cuts. When the economy’s doing well? You know what – let’s try some tax cuts,” he said.

In another issue that has divided Washington, Obama said he wished he had closed the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on his first day in office. His efforts to close the controversial facility have since been thwarted largely because of Republican opposition.

Obama said the budget plan put forward this week by Republicans in the House of Representatives would cut funding to centers that help manufacturing, a sector critical to the economy of northeast Ohio, home to plants owned by Ford, GM, Goodyear and Sherwin-Williams Co. (Read more from “Obama: If I Could Do It Again, ‘I Think I Would Have Closed Guantanamo on the First Day’ [+video]” HERE)

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Secret Service Wants a Fake White House to Help Protect the Real One [+video]

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Stung by accusations that it cannot adequately protect the White House, the Secret Service wants to spend $8 million to build another White House in Beltsville, Md.

In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, Joseph P. Clancy, the director of the Secret Service, on Tuesday urged lawmakers to give him money to build a detailed replica of the White House to aid in training officers and agents to protect the real thing. Beltsville, about 20 miles from the real White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is the location of a 500-acre Secret Service training site in the verdant terrain of southern Maryland.

“Right now, we train on a parking lot, basically,” Mr. Clancy said. “We put up a makeshift fence and walk off the distance between the fence at the White House and the actual house itself. We don’t have the bushes, we don’t have the fountains, we don’t get a realistic look at the White House.”

Mr. Clancy added, “It’s important to have a true replica of what the White House is so we can do a better job of this integrated training between our uniform division officers, our agents and our tactical teams.”

The proposed replica would provide what Mr. Clancy described in prepared testimony as a “more realistic environment, conducive to scenario-based training exercises,” for instructing those who must protect the president’s home. It would mimic the facade of the White House residence, the East and West Wings, guard booths, and the surrounding grounds and roads. (Read more from “Secret Service Wants a Fake White House to Help Protect the Real One” HERE)

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Republican Lawmaker: Sodomy Law Needed for Public Health

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[Editor’s note: This excerpt is biased but is included for its news content] Texas Republican state Rep. James White has said that the state’s unconstitutional ban on same-sex sodomy should not be repealed for “public health” reasons and to stop bestiality.

The San Antonio-Express News recently asked White if he would support repealing the ban since he had filed a bill to rollback regulations on hair braiding.

Even though the Supreme Court struck down the sodomy law in its 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision, White insisted that it should be kept on the books. The law specifically bans “deviant sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex.”

“Absolutely, there is a difference,” White said, arguing that hair braiding regulations were “a way of disenfranchising them out of the marketplace. I don’t necessarily think this was the case with sodomy.”

According to the Republican lawmaker, the anti-gay law represented “a community coming together and having a moral standard, per se, as opposed to using the regulatory environment to disenfranchise people.” (Read more from “Republican Lawmaker: Anti-Gay Sodomy Law Needed for ‘Public Health’” HERE)

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Watch: It Was a Mass Murder in America the Media Didn’t Report, Now There’s a Director to Tell the Story

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“Gosnell,” the movie about mass murderer and abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, will be directed by international film and television star Nick Searcy.

The announcement was made Wednesday on the documentary film’s Indiegogo site. Last year, the project set a movie crowd-funding record. Searcy is the latest in a line of well-known individuals involved in the movie.

John Sullivan, the co-director of Dinesh D’Souza’s two documentaries, “2016: Obama’s America” and “America: Imagine the World Without Her,” has signed on as executive producer. The script is being written by Andrew Klavan, who best known as the author of the novel True Crime, which was turned into a movie directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.

“Gosnell” is being produced by Phelim McAleer, Ann McElhinney and Magdalena Segieda, who also created the documentary “FrackNation,” in response to the anti-hydraulic drilling film “Gasland.”

Searcy, well known for his role as Art Mullen on the recently-concluded FX show “Justified,” as well as his roles in movies such as “Moneyball,” “Castaway,” and “Fried Green Tomatoes,” is also a very outspoken political conservative. (Read more from “Watch: It Was a Mass Murder in America the Media Didn’t Report, Now There’s a Director to Tell the Story” HERE)

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Watch: Groups Set up Fake New York City Gun Shop, Shame Would-Be Gun Buyers

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Photo Credit: TownHall Two gun control organizations set up a faux gun store in Manhattan’s Lower East Side stocked with hidden cameras and guns that were illegal under state and city law for the purpose of gun violence education.

The front, simply named “The Gun Shop” specifically had window advertisements aimed at first time gun buyers. Once inside the space, shoppers were confronted with mannequins dressed in tactical gear, a gun counter and a wall of firearms ranging from military surplus SKS rifles to submachine guns. Those interested in items were told that the gun in question had a unique and interesting history that included violence.

“Collectors love this one,” said the bearded gun store attendant, holding an AR-15 prop gun to a shopper in a video released by the organizations. “Adam Lanza’s mom had this in her collection too. Until he took this and several other guns and killed her, then went down to Sandy Hook and killed six teachers and 20 innocent children.”

New Yorkers Against Gun Violence set up the store front for two days while States United to Prevent Gun Violence – who made news earlier this month with a public service announcement featuring celebrities such as Snoop Dogg for the ImUnloading campaign, directed at 401K investments containing firearms stocks – was responsible for the video.

“The people who came in were actually seriously considering buying a gun,” New Yorkers Against Gun Violence Executive Director Leah Gunn Barrett told the Washington Post. “We thought that showing the guns and their histories and getting people to think twice about owning a firearm would be an instructive thing to experience.” (Read more from “Watch: Groups Set up Fake New York City Gun Shop, Shame Would-Be Gun Buyers” HERE)

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