Chinese Suggest Arming Hawaiian Independence Activists Due to US-Taiwan Arms Sales

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Free Beacon China has suggested arming Hawaii’s independence activists in retaliation for U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and recently threatened to challenge American sovereignty by making legal claims to the Pacific islands as its territory.

Chinese threats to back several groups of Hawaiian independence activists who want to restore the islands’ constitutional monarchy, ousted in a U.S.-backed coup over a century ago, has raised concerns that military facilities on the strategic central Pacific archipelago are threatened at a time when the Obama administration is engaged in a major shift toward Asia as part of its military and diplomatic rebalance.

Michael Pillsbury, a Pentagon consultant and author of the recent book 100 Year Marathon, said Chinese military hawks, known as “ying pai,” told him they are ready to provide arms to Hawaiian independence activists in retaliation for U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

“Beijing’s extraordinary sensitivity to American arms sales to Taiwan—even one bullet or a spare tire for a jeep—often provokes angry words,” said Pillsbury who has held talks with 35 Chinese generals in recent years.

“A favorite comparison the ying pai has made to me is ‘How would the Pentagon like it if we provide arms to our friends in Hawaiian independence movement?’” he said. “I was incredulous because I had never heard of such a movement in Hawaii, but, after checking I met a few of them.” (Read more about the Hawaiian Independence Movement attracting Chinese interest HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Assisted Suicide Legislation Rears its Ugly Head in Alaska‏

/2 Comments/in , /by

Yesterday Representative Harriet Drummond introduced what’s being called “Right-to-Die” or assisted suicide legislation in the Alaska Legislature. This bill (HB99) specifically violates the mission of Alaska Right to Life to “protect and defend innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural end of life”.

Every human being is made in the image of God and is infinitely valuable. God is the one that determines our beginning and our end. We should never tolerate legislation that puts suffering and vulnerable people into the position playing God and taking their own life with the help of their doctor. God’s command “thou shalt not kill” extends to everyone, even in the case of someone contemplating ending their own life.

From a practical standpoint, patients who are given no hope of survival from their doctors are known to have survived and gone on to live profitable and happy lives. A diagnosis can be wrong and taking one’s own life to escape from a current condition shuts off any hope of recovery.

Assisted suicide, no matter how compassionate it may seem on the surface, is nothing more than a cruel lie. To the terminally ill, it tells them that there is no meaning to their life and that when they become a “burden” to others suicide is the easiest answer for everyone. It also robs them of something integral to the human spirit – hope. Real compassion takes time and commitment. It means standing by someone and bearing their burden.

Terminally ill patients in Alaska need love, care and protection from those around them. Instead of killing the pain that terminally ill patients are suffering, these “right to die” activists focus on killing the patient. Few of them seem enthusiastic about educating healthcare professionals about the amazing advances in palliative care. Alaska can definitely do better than assisted suicide.

In a state with the highest suicide rates per capita, why would we think it is a good idea to pass legislation that would, in effect, be encouraging suicide?

In an age of soaring healthcare costs and cutbacks, how much longer until the “right to die” becomes the “duty to die?” How much longer until those considered a “burden” on society are systematically denied healthcare and life-saving measures in order to cut costs?

Alaska Right to Life stands in opposition to HB99 and asks that you contact Health & Social Services Committee Chairman Paul Seaton and demand that he not schedule the bill for a hearing. You can contact Representative Seaton via email at [email protected] or by phone at 907-465-2689. It is imperative that we protect and defend all innocent human life!

(Read more from Alaska Right to Life HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

How This New Obamacare Regulation Will Drive Up Your Health Care Costs Significantly

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: The Daily Signal America’s doctors, already struggling with the Affordable Care Act’s regulatory burdens, could face another round of red tape—which means higher costs for ordinary Americans.

The new round of red tape is the government-mandated implementation of the International Classification of Diseases tenth revision (ICD-10). The new system, delayed last year, goes into effect Oct. 1, 2015.

The ICD-10, created and maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO), is the latest version of the medical coding system doctors use to file claims for reimbursement with Medicare and insurance. (When you see a doctor, a code associated with your diagnosis determines how much your insurance will be billed.) The ICD-10 will replace the existing coding system (ICD-9), for medical diagnoses and inpatient procedure coding.

The new version of the ICD will increase the number of codes from 18,000 to 155,000. There is also a lot of unnecessary (not clinically relevant) data doctors must document to remain compliant.

While most Americans have probably never even heard of the ICD-10, if you go to the doctor or hospital you will be affected by it, in one way or another. For instance, the reimbursement your doctor receives is based on the code of the disease you were diagnosed with. (Read more about the increasing health care costs HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Jeb Bush Releases Emails Including Social Security Numbers of Florida Residents

/2 Comments/in , /by

By T.C. Sottek. Jeb Bush, a rumored 2016 Republican presidential candidate, just decided to publish hundreds of thousands of emails sent to him during his time as governor of Florida. On its face it seems like a great idea in the name of transparency, but there’s one huge problem: neither Bush nor those who facilitated the publication of the records, including the state government, decided to redact potentially sensitive personal information from them.

“In the spirit of transparency, I am posting the emails of my governorship here,” a note on Bush’s website says. “Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration.” Some also contain the email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers of Florida residents. The emails are available in Outlook format, and can be searched on the web at Bush’s website.

The Verge did not receive a response from Mr. Bush or his Political Action Committee’s office at the time of publication. (Read more from “Jeb Bush Releases Emails” HERE)

____________________________________________________

Will Jeb Bush’s Foreign Policy Lean More Towards His Brother’s or Father’s?

By Patrick O’ Connor. Jeb Bush faces a unique dilemma as he builds a Republican presidential campaign—whether to follow in the foreign-policy footsteps of his father or his brother.

One early indication suggests he is leaning toward his father’s more pragmatic and restrained philosophy. The former Florida governor is considering naming Meghan O’Sullivan as his top foreign-policy aide; several people familiar with the deliberations describe her as the front-runner for the post.

In many ways, the 45-year-old Ms. O’Sullivan, who now teaches at Harvard, bridges the two Bush worlds. She served as deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan for much of George W. Bush ’s second term and was heavily involved in carrying out his Iraq policies. But she wasn’t among the neoconservative advisers who drove the initial decision to invade Iraq, and she is more closely aligned with—and is being promoted by—the kind of pragmatists who dominated George H.W. Bush ’s presidency.

All candidates running for president in 2016 will be asked to articulate what factors would drive them to send U.S. troops into battle. The question would be more delicate for Mr. Bush, should he run, because he would have to navigate the legacies of his father and his brother, whose public image was marred by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Family of US Aid Worker Confirms Her Death at the Hands of ISIS

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News Kayla Mueller wrote her family a heart-wrenching letter nearly a year ago, possibly from the bowels of a Raqqa, Syria, building that U.S. special forces raided on July 4, 2014, only to learn Mueller – and at least three other hostages who were later killed – had been moved days earlier.

“If you could say I have ‘suffered’ at all throughout this whole experience it is only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through,” wrote Mueller, a 26-year-old aid worker from Arizona who was kidnapped in Syria by ISIS in August 2013.

“I have a lot of fight left inside of me. I am not breaking down + I will not give in no matter how long it takes,” Mueller said in the newly released letter, believed to have been written in the Spring of 2014. “I know you would want me to remain strong. That is exactly what I am doing. Do not fear for me, continue to pray as will I + by God’s will we will be together soon.”

Mueller’s parents confirmed Tuesday their daughter died while in the hands of the terror group, though they did not say how or when she was killed.

“We are heartbroken to share that we’ve received confirmation that Kayla Jean Mueller has lost her life,” Carl and Marsha Mueller, of Prescott, Ariz., said in a statement. “Kayla was a compassionate and devoted humanitarian. She dedicated the whole of her young life to helping those in need of freedom, justice, and peace.” (Read more about the death of the US aid worker HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Man Convicted of Capitol Murder After Horrifying Burned Child Case

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Chron From the moment he was doused with gasoline and set on fire until his last breath in 2011, Robert Middleton spent every day fighting — for life, for health, for respite from pain, for a return of the happiness and carefree attitude that was his by nature. But the one thing he never got to do was fight back.

On Monday, a jury in Galveston stepped forward in his absence and convicted Don Willburn Collins of capital murder, almost 17 years after the attack that horrified the community of Splendora and all but defied the legal system to do anything about it.

Collins, whose trial now moves into the punishment phase, faces a maximum of 40 years imprisonment because he was only 13 at the time of the assault, not old enough for the full range of adult punishment. For Middleton’s parents, however, the conviction was satisfaction enough. They never knew if Collins would be forced to answer for the inexplicable assault on a wooded path behind their home, just hours after Robert was to celebrate his 8th birthday with cake, presents and a sleepover.

“We wanted to make sure people knew what kind of person he was,” Colleen Middleton said. “I didn’t think we’d see this day, really” . . .

The Middletons won a victory in civil court in 2011, but there was no criminal prosecution until a new state law and a new Montgomery County district attorney changed the landscape. Previous prosecutors had told them that “contradictions” in various stories made the case too shaky to take to court. (Read more about the conviction of capitol murder from the burned child case HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Jon Stewart Leaves “The Daily Show” For Unknown Reasons

/3 Comments/in , /by

Jon Stewart, whose wit defined “The Daily Show” for more than 15 years, will sign off the iconic Comedy Central program later this year.

“In my heart I know it is time for someone else to have that opportunity,” he said on Tuesday night’s show as his studio audience gasped.

Members of the audience yelled “we love you Jon” as he expressed his appreciation for the show’s staff and called hosting it “the honor of my professional life.”

It isn’t clear when Stewart will sign off; his contract expires in September, but he may leave as soon as July, or as late as December, he said.

In a farewell statement, Michelle Ganeless, the president of the channel, called Stewart “a comic genius, generous with his time and talent,” and said the host “will always be a part of the Comedy Central family.” (Read more from “Jon Stewart leaves ‘The Daily Show'” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Gallup CEO: I May ‘Suddenly Disappear’ For Telling Truth About Obama Unemployment Rate [+video]

/10 Comments/in , /by

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens. Years of unending news stories on U.S. government programs of surveillance, rendition and torture have apparently chilled the speech of even top business executives in the United States.

Yesterday, Jim Clifton, the Chairman and CEO of Gallup, an iconic U.S. company dating back to 1935, told CNBC that he was worried he might “suddenly disappear” and not make it home that evening if he disputed the accuracy of what the U.S. government is reporting as unemployed Americans.

The CNBC interview came one day after Clifton had penned a gutsy opinion piece on Gallup’s web site, defiantly calling the government’s 5.6 percent unemployment figure “The Big Lie” in the article’s headline. His appearance on CNBC was apparently to walk back the “lie” part of the title and reframe the jobs data as just hopelessly deceptive.

(Read more about what the Gallup CEO said HERE)

_________________________________________________________

But Another Poll Shows Majority of US Approves of Obama on Unemployment

By Emily Swanson. Americans’ views of President Barack Obama have improved slightly in the past two months, and opinions are more positive about the direction of the country and the health of the economy, an Associated Press-GfK poll finds.

A slim majority now approves of the way Obama is handling unemployment, according to the poll, conducted before Friday’s release of a surprisingly strong jobs report.

Forty-seven percent of those surveyed approve of how Obama is doing his job, compared with 41 percent in December, and 51 percent approve of his handling of unemployment, compared with 44 percent before. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Chief Justice Roy Moore Defies Feds, Urges Alabama’s Judges to Refuse Gay Marriage Licenses

/7 Comments/in , , /by

By Sandhya Somashekhar. On the day that same-sex unions became legal in Alabama, local officials in dozens of counties on Monday defied a federal judge’s decision and refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, casting the state into judicial chaos.

Gay couples were able to get licenses in about a dozen places, including Birmingham, Huntsville and a few other counties where probate judges complied with the judge’s decision. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled early Monday that it would deny Alabama’s request to put the marriages on hold.

But in the majority of counties, officials said they would refuse to license same-sex marriages or stop providing licenses altogether, confronting couples — gay and heterosexual — with locked doors and shuttered windows.

Many of the state’s 68 probate judges mounted their resistance to the federal decision at the urging of the firebrand chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore. He is best known for refusing more than a decade ago to comply with a court order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from the state Supreme Court’s offices.

In Mobile, about 10 gay couples who had expected to be granted licenses first thing in the morning found the marriage-license window closed indefinitely. (Read more about the refusal to marry homosexual couples HERE)

___________________________________________________________

Alabama’s Largest Paper Mocks Christian Judge: Is Roy Moore a Closeted Homosexual?

By Tim Graham. The Birmingham News is the largest newspaper in Alabama (even though it only publishes a print edition three times a week now.) That could be in part due to leftist pranks. The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore, has defiantly ordered a halt on gay marriage licenses, prompting News commentator Kyle Whitmire to offer a Readers Poll on Sunday asking “Is Roy Moore a closeted homosexual?”

Liberals apparently love this question, because the poll results are 71 percent yes, 6 percent no, and 22 percent “Maybe, but just that one time in college.” It probably won’t be shocking to note that until he joined the News, Whitmire was a stringer for The New York Times for seven years (2005-12).

Moore, a Baptist married with four children, is best known for insisting on having the Ten Commandments posted in his courtroom, leading to court fights with secularists — and popularity with Alabama voters. (Read more from this story about Chief Justice Roy Moore and his fight against unconstitutional federal acts HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Judicial Watch Sues, Gets Records for Obamas’ Tax Payer Funded Vacations

/13 Comments/in , /by

Judicial Watch Obtains Records Revealing Obama’s $1,176,120.90 in Transportation Expenses to Attend Political Fundraisers in Los Angeles and San Francisco:

Lavish fundraiser hosted by Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow marked Obama’s 30th fundraising visit to Los Angeles County, CA.

Judicial Watch: Air Force Documents Show President Obama Ran up $1,539,402.10 in Flight Expenses Alone for Labor Day 2014 Weekend Trips:

After fundraising in Westchester, New York, Obama flew home to ‘spend the night in his own bed’ before returning for a wedding, running up to $295,227.80 in additional expenses.

Obama July Political Fundraising Trips to Denver, New York City Cost Taxpayers $1,159,823.50 in Flight Expenses Alone:

U.S. Department of Air Force Headquarters Air Mobility Command records detail expenditures of $1,159,823.50 by President Obama in flight costs alone for his July 2014 fundraising trips to Denver, Colorado, and New York, New York.

Judicial Watch Obtains Documents: Secret Service Tab for Obama Family 2013 Africa Trip Cost Taxpayers $2,189,727.60 for Lodging, Entertainment, and Security:

The Secret Service entourage accompanying President Obama and his family during their trip to sub-Saharan Africa from June 27 to July 3, 2013, incurred $2,189,727.60 in lodging, entertainment, and security expenses. (Read more from this story HERE)

___________________________________________

Judicial Watch Pursues Records from Michelle Obama’s Spain Trip

By Andrew Spalding. Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit against the Air Force for records detailing the cost of Michelle Obamas lavish 2010 trip to Spain . . .

The Obamas have done their best to shroud this vacation in mystery. All we know is that in August of 2010, Michelle and one of her daughters jetted off on a “whirlwind tour of Spain,” where they travelled through coastal towns and had lunch with the king and queen. Accompanying Michelle and her daughter were “two friends and four of their daughters, as well as a couple of aides and a couple of advance staff members.”

The White House claims the Obamas “paid their own way” on the trip, but if this were the case, why wouldn’t they release the records? At the very least, taxpayers paid for Michelle’s security, and that would have been quite costly. (Read more about Judicial Watch suing Michelle Obama HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.