Obama Refuses to Add Religious Exemption to Homosexual Employment Mandate

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Photo Credit: Christian News

Photo Credit: Christian News

Barack Obama has refused to include a religious exemption in an executive order that he plans to sign today, which mandates that federal contractors hire homosexual and transgender persons.

According to White House representatives, Obama will sign the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) on Monday without any provisions for religious entities. The order prohibits federal contractors from refusing to hire prospects on the basis of their gender identity or “sexual orientation.”

“Following on his pledge for this to be a year of action to expand opportunity for all Americans, the president has directed his staff to prepare for his signature an executive order that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity,” an unnamed White House official told Time last week.

“The action would build upon existing protections, which generally prohibit federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. This is consistent with the president’s views that all Americans, LGBT or not, should be treated with dignity and respect,” they stated.

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Joaquín Castro: Rick Perry ‘Militarizing’ Border

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Photo Credit: Getty

Photo Credit: Getty

By Jonathan Topaz.

Texas Rep. Joaquín Castro on Monday said Gov. Rick Perry is “militarizing our border” with his decision to deploy state National Guard troops there.

“We should be sending the Red Cross to the border not the National Guard to deal with this humanitarian crisis,” the Democratic congressman said in an email. “The children fleeing violence in Central America are seeking out Border Patrol agents. They are not trying to evade them. Why send soldiers to confront these kids?”

“Militarizing our border is the wrong response to the arrival of children,” Castro continued. “I remain hopeful that our state can provide a more helpful response than to send armed soldiers to greet children seeking refuge from violence.”

Castro was responding to a report from a Texas newspaper The Monitor that Perry is planning to deploy up to 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

At a news conference on Monday in Austin, Perry announced that he has directed the state’s adjutant general to immediately prepare to deploy the forces to help secure the southern border. “I will not stand idly by,” he said in announcing Operation Strong Safety. “The price of inaction is too high.”

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Gov. Rick Perry deploying up to 1,000 National Guard troops to border

By Rebecca Kaplan.

Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, announced Monday that he is activating up to 1,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border as he accuses the federal government of offering “lip service” on border security.

The announcement comes as the Obama administration is still struggling to deal with the influx of more than 50,000 unaccompanied minors, most from Central America, who have crossed into the United States in the past year. The additional resources are not aimed at the children themselves, Perry said, describing them instead as a “force multiplier” to help the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) “combat the brutal Mexican drug cartels that are preying upon our communities.”

“I will not stand idly by while our citizens are under assault and little children from Central America are detained in squalor. We are too good of a country,” Perry said.

The troops could detain people if asked, Texas Adjutant General John Nichols said at the press conference with Perry, but they are planning to play a “referring and deterring” role by deterring cartels with their visible presence and referring any immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally to DPS.

Perry argued that the elevated response at the border by DPS personnel has already has already acted as a deterrent force and reduced apprehensions. That operation comes at a cost of $1.3 million per week. A state memo obtained by the McAllen Monitor, which first reported Perry’s plan to deploy the National Guard, indicated the new efforts will cost the state of Texas $12 million per month.

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IRS Seeks Help Destroying Another 3,200 Hard Drives

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Days after IRS officials said in a sworn statement that former top agency employee Lois G. Lerner’s computer memory had been wiped clean, the agency put out word to contractors Monday that it needs help to destroy at least another 3,200 hard drives.

The Internal Revenue Service solicitation for “media destruction” services reflects an otherwise routine job to protect sensitive taxpayer information, but it was made while the agency’s record destruction practices remain under a sharp congressional spotlight.

Congressional investigators of the IRS targeting of conservative groups have been hampered by the unexplained destruction of emails and other records of Ms. Lerner, the former head of the IRS tax-exempt division and a central figure in the scandal.

The loss of Ms. Lerner’s hard drive also raised broader questions about why the tax agency never reported the missing records to the National Archives and Records Administration, as required by the Federal Records Act.

While those questions remained unresolved, IRS officials signaled plans to destroy tens of thousands of additional electronic records.

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Insolvent US Giving Away $47M To Gaza Strip

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Photo Credit: AP / Adel Hana

Photo Credit: AP / Adel Hana

The U.S. is sending $47 million in humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip to help tens of thousands of Palestinians there who have been forced from their homes since war broke out two weeks ago.

A State Department breakdown of the aid that was released Monday said nearly a third of the money — $15 million — will go to the United Nations’ refugee mission in Gaza.

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Luis Gutierrez to La Raza: Obama Assured Steps to 'Stop the Deportations of Our People' (+video)

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Photo Credit: White House

Photo Credit: White House

By Tony Lee.

On Saturday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) said President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was a “down payment” to the Hispanic community before more grants of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Speaking at the National Council of La Raza conference in Los Angeles, Gutierrez said that Obama assured him during a White House meeting with Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week that he would be as “generous and broad” as he can to “stop the deportation of our people each and every day.”

“You gave us a down payment when you freed 600,000 DREAMers from deportation,” Gutierrez said. “Now it is time for the president in the United States… [to] free the Mom and Dads of the DREAMers. And to go further. Be broad and expansive and generous.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Budget to transport illegals across USA approaches $100M

By Kristin Tate.

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee approved a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 that includes $5.508 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Included in that amount is more than $87 million for the transportation of illegal immigrants–most often via plane–from the U.S.-Mexico border to federal facilities around the nation.

The FY 2015 bill summary states that the federal government will provide “$87.6 million above the request for the transportation of unaccompanied immigrant children– often via commercial or charter aircraft – from DHS custody to the legally required shelters operated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement within Department of Health and Human Services.”

A DHS request for “escort services for unaccompanied alien children,” posted online in January, claimed that 50 percent of transported foreign minors are brought to interior U.S. cities via commercial planes. The others are transported via local ground transport and ICE charter air crafts.

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Miller Blasts Begich on Border Crisis, Says Palin Right on Impeachment

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Photo Credit: Jesse / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: Jesse / Creative Commons

Today Joe Miller blasted Alaska’s junior senator, Mark Begich, for his leadership failure relating to the illegal immigration crisis.

“Silence is consent,” said Miller. “Mark Begich has not even deemed the crisis on our southern border worthy of a press release. There is no doubt that he is complicit with the President in encouraging and empowering this illegal invasion, both from a policy perspective by voting for amnesty, and by virtue of his refusal to hold Barack Obama accountable for dereliction of duty and usurpation of Congressional authority.”

Joe Miller is the only candidate in the race for US Senate to take an unequivocal stand on amnesty and border security. Mead Treadwell has embraced limited amnesty for illegals, and Dan Sullivan has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash from numerous big-monied pro-amnesty donors, including Paul Singer’s Friends for an American Majority, John McCain’s America First PAC, and Lindsey Graham’s Fund for America’s Future. He is also backed with independent expenditures from Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and the US Chamber of Commerce. Both favor amnesty for illegals.

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, ten thousand illegal aliens reside in Alaska, costing the state more than $138 million per year in public services.

Joe Miller is the only candidate to fill out the NumbersUSA candidate questionnaire. He has also been named a “True Reformer” for his strong stand for the rule of law and against amnesty for illegals.

While the illegal immigration crisis has very serious implications for the rule of law in America, other concerns exist as well, including public health–given recent reports of illness and disease among those crossing the border illegally–and national security. Many the Administration describes as “children” are actually teens who are affiliated with gang activity, and are connected to the Mexican drug cartels. The confirmed cases of Middle Eastern terrorists and Chinese nationals coming through our porous southern border are alarming.

Miller concluded: “The truth is, what we are facing with respect to the massive influx of illegals is not only a rule of law issue, it is a public health risk and a threat to our national security. There is no doubt President Obama and enablers like Mark Begich are responsible. Sarah Palin is right; it’s time to impeach this President for dereliction of duty, selectively enforcing the law, and usurping powers that the Constitution does not authorize. He is willfully undermining the rule of law and creating chaos.”

Rasmussen: 40% Still Not Sure Obama is American Citizen

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

By Rasmussen Reports.

On a list of some of the world’s best-known conspiracy theories, Americans are most likely to believe the one about JFK‘s assassination. But President George W. Bush and President Obama don’t escape suspicion.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 45% of American Adults reject as false the theory that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by more than one shooter. Thirty-two percent (32%) believe more than one shooter was involved in the 1963 assassination in Dallas, and another 23% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Last November, on the 50th anniversary of the assassination, 36% of adults said Kennedy was the victim of a lone gunman, but just as many (37%) said he was the victim of a larger conspiracy.

One-in-four adults (24%) are convinced that the U.S. government knew in advance about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and did nothing to stop them, and 19% more are not sure. Only 57% say that conspiracy theory is false.

Just as many (23%) say the theory that Obama is not an American citizen is true, with another 17% who aren’t sure. Sixty percent (60%) reject that theory as false.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Battleground Poll: Obama Disapproval Climbs to 57 Percent

By Guy Benson.

…Fewer than one in five favor leaving Democrats’ signature healthcare experiment intact. For all of their “fix, don’t nix” rhetoric, Congressional Democrats’ 2015 budget proposed zero changes to Obamacare, as liberal Senators and pundits alike continue to blindly extol its implementation:

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It’s Not Just the VA: Systemic Weaknesses Plague Government Agencies Across the Board

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Headlines broke in April surrounding an investigative report that revealed 40 veterans had died waiting for appointments at the Pheonix Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Further examination affirmed that this was not a singular instance, but rather a widespread case of bureaucratic corruption.

Between the falsification of waiting lists, the retaliation against whistle blowers, and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s resignation, all eyes have been on the VA the past few months. Should it come as a surprise, then, that numerous commissions, GAO investigations, hearings, and IG reports previously spoke to the inefficiencies of the VA? Nothing was done about this deep, institutional problem until it was too late.

Peter Schuck, Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale Law School, has written a book titled “Why Government Fails So Often: And How It Can Do Better” which chronicles the deep structural flaws that undermine the vast majority of federal agencies. Though the VA is a perfect case study for what he describes in his book, Schuck analyzes a large number of domestic programs and develops criteria for assessing their effectiveness.

At last week’s “Fixing the US Department of Veterans Affairs” panel at the American Enterprise Institute, Schuck outlined several features that contribute to the defective nature of large government service programs:

1. Ever-increasing budgets: In the case of the VA, the budget has doubled in real terms over the past 10 years. Big government agency budget hikes are often driven by demographics and interest group politics.

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Judge Tosses Senator's ObamaCare Lawsuit

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

A federal judge on Monday dismissed a U.S. senator’s lawsuit challenging a requirement that congressional members and their staffs obtain government-subsidized health insurance through small business exchanges, saying the senator had no grounds to sue.

Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, filed the lawsuit in January after the Office of Personnel Management decided months earlier that lawmakers and their staffs should continue to receive health care benefits covering about 75 percent of their premium costs after leaving the health insurance program for federal workers.

Johnson said the decision would make him decide which staff members qualified for subsidized insurance, potentially creating conflict in his office. He also said it forced him to participate in a program that he believed was illegal and that it could make voters view him negatively because his staff received benefits the general public did not.

But U.S. District Judge William Griesbach said Johnson and a staff member who filed the lawsuit with him didn’t have grounds to bring the suit.

Johnson’s belief that subsidies provided to lawmakers and their staffs are illegal isn’t a strong enough reason to disqualify him from the rule put in place under the Affordable Care Act, Griesbach said. The judge also said Johnson failed to show voters would view him negatively if his staff received subsidized insurance.

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Big Brother is Watching — Your Waistline

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Data mining is digging into your health.

Actuaries predict your life span. Banks track your spending habits. Now, your employer can tell whether you’ll have diabetes a year from now.

And the federal government is encouraging businesses to use that information to tell you how to eat and exercise, to “data mine” for your own good and the employer’s bottom line.

Medical records, social media, credit card records and new activity tracking gadgets like Fitbits are being used to assess your riskiness to yourself and to the cost-conscious health care system.

Aetna is among the companies paving the way. It’s using data analytics and interventions on its own 50,000 employees — and about 40 of the companies it insures are using them, too.

Read more from this story HERE.