Cruz Sends Obama Map With Directions From Fundraisers To Border Towns

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Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty ImagesSen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has joined Texas Gov. Rick Perry in calling on President Barack Obama to visit the Mexican border personally, with Cruz sending Obama actual directions to the border from the president’s planned fundraiser stops in Austin and Dallas.

Cruz took to Twitter to invite Obama to take a look at the border itself amid a growing immigration crisis along the southern border with Mexico.

“If President Obama wants to have a real border meeting with @GovernorPerry, here are a couple suggested detours,” Cruz tweeted on Tuesday.

If President Obama wants to have a real border meeting with @GovernorPerry, here are a couple suggested detours https://t.co/1Welshtcp8

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) July 08, 2014

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Murder Rate Drops as Concealed Carry Permits Rise, Study Claims

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Photo Credit: APA dramatic spike in the number of Americans with permits to carry concealed weapons coincides with an equally stark drop in violent crime, according to a new study, which Second Amendment advocates say makes the case that more guns can mean safer streets.

The study by the Crime Prevention Research Center found that 11.1 million Americans now have permits to carry concealed weapons, up from 4.5 million in 2007. The 146 percent increase has come even as both murder and violent crime rates have dropped by 22 percent.

“When you allow people to carry concealed handguns, you see changes in the behavior of criminals,” said the center’s president, John R. Lott, a Fox News contributor. “Some criminals stop committing crimes, others move on to crimes in which they don’t come into contact with victims and others actually move to areas where they have less fear of being confronted by armed victims.”

Increasing gun ownership, litigation and new state laws have all contributed to the rise in concealed carry permits. In March, Illinois became the 50th state to begin issuing concealed weapons permits. But the cost and other requirements for obtaining the permits varies greatly, from South Dakota, where a permit requires $10, a background check and no training, to Illinois, where the cost of obtaining a permit comes to more than $600 when the fee and cost of training programs are taken into account.

Six states don’t require a permit for legal gun owners to conceal their weapons, and Lott notes those states have some of the lowest violent crime rates in the nation.

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GOP: Lerner Warned IRS Employees to Hide Information from Congress (+video)

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Photo Credit: Lauren Victoria BurkeJust as the IRS tea party targeting scandal was erupting, Lois G. Lerner warned colleagues to “be cautious” about what information they put in emails because it could end up being turned over to Congress, according to an email message released Wednesday.

The 2013 email exchange between Ms. Lerner and fellow employees at the Internal Revenue Service also says that instant message conversations were probably never stored and weren’t checked during open-records requests — even though they also fell under the law requiring electronic records to be stored.

“I was cautioning folks about email and how we have had several occasions where Congress has asked for emails and there has been an electronic search for responsive emails — so we need to be cautious about what we say in emails,” Ms. Lerner wrote in an April 9, 2013, message.

She went on to ask whether the instant message communications were stored automatically. When a tech staffer said no but the records could be stored if employees copied them, she replied, “Perfect.”

“Why did it take us this long to get these emails? We’ve been after this for six months,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who raised the emails with IRS Commissioner John Koskinen at a hearing Wednesday.

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Obama Offered Drugs in Denver

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President Obama was asked whether he wanted to smoke marijuana by a fellow patron of a Denver bar last night. The offer came from Instagram user manton89, who posted video of the ask on his Instagram account. “Asked him if he wanted a hit of pot…he laughed!” writes manton89.

Watch here:

A voice can be heard asking President Obama, as he glad hands his way through the establishment: “Do you want to hit this?”

The president does not appear to answer the question, but he does acknowledge it by flashing his signature smile.

Somewhere along the way, President Obama shook hands with someone wearing a horse-mask:

“MY PLANET NEEDS YOU.” pic.twitter.com/ENRT6XuQWn

— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) July 9, 2014

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Liberals Go To the Barricades to Defend Crony Capitalism

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesThere’s nothing like a good fight over corporate welfare to bring out the Left’s love of Big Business.

In the current battle over the Export-Import Bank, Democratic politicians and liberal journalists have dropped their populist pretenses and openly embraced the corporate-federal collusion that Ex-Im embodies.

For some, it’s largely partisanship or disdain for the Tea Partiers who want Ex-Im dead. For others, it’s that increasing government’s role in the economy takes precedence over railing against Big Business. And for a shrewd few, it’s about raising money from K Street and Wall Street.

Liberal writer Michael Lind of the New America Foundation, who in 2013 mocked the notion of free-market populism as “Ayn Rand in overalls,” this year sees the free-market attack on Ex-Im as a grave danger to “Big Business,” and, by extension, all of America. Lind blasted “militants on the right.”

“Angry outsiders on the right are threatening to replace business-friendly market populism with real populism,” Lind warned. “And that, to the business community, is downright terrifying. It ought to frighten the rest of us, too.”

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Obama Turns His Back on Marine Veteran

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Photo Credit: FacebookBy Charles Benninghoff.

Make a wrong turn near the Mexico border and you may find yourself being arrested and thrown in a Mexican prison with little to no chance of getting out.

That is what happened on March 31, 2014 to 25-year old U.S. Marine veteran Andrew Tahmooressi.

While driving in Southern California, he unknowingly took a wrong turn and wound up at a Mexican Customs Checkpoint. He was denied the right to turn back and was arrested for carrying firearms into Mexico that are legally registered in the United States.

In desperation, he even called 911 for help. Now, he is in jail in Mexico, has been denied bail, and is now being represented by the third Mexican attorney after being shifted around the Mexican prison system three times.

Those who have been to the crossing point into Mexico that Sgt. Tahmooressi ran into know that it is no joke. If you blink your eyes just once, you will miss the only off ramp once you start going into the “funnel”. It is treacherous.

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Mexican judge orders Marine sergeant to remain in custody on gun charges

By Fox News.

A Mexican federal judge ordered Andrew Tahmooressi back to prison after the U.S. Marine sergeant made his first official courtroom appearance since being locked up March 31 for accidentally crossing the border with guns in his pickup truck.

The 26-year-old veteran of two tours in Afghanistan was finally able to tell his story to a judge, after his case had been delayed by both Mexico’s unpredictable legal system and his own trouble settling on a lawyer. It was not immediately clear what Tahmooressi said at the evidentiary hearing, which was closed to the public. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for August 4.

Despite the judge’s ruling, Tahmooressi’s attorney, Fernando Benitez, told reporters that he was confident that the Marine’s case was on the right track. Benitez said that his client’s statement to the judge was “sound and made perfect sense,” and claimed that irregularities with Tahmooressi’s detention were grounds for dismissal of the case. The attorney said that his client was not provided with consular services for nearly eight hours after he was detained, nor did he have access to an adequate translator.

In addition, Benitez said that the order to search Tahmooressi’s vehicle was dated March 28, three days before the Marine crossed the border.

Benitez had earlier sought to dampen hopes that federal Judge Victor Octavio Luna Escobedo would free Tahmooressi, although supporters, including his mother, Jill Tahmooressi, had held out hope.

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Costco Angers Many, Sparks Boycott after Yanking 'America’ from Shelves

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Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty ImagesBy Joe Newby.

On Monday, WND’s Jerome Corsi reported that Costco Wholesale, the second-largest retailer in the country, decided to pull all copies of Dinesh D’Souza’s best-selling book, “America: Imagine a World Without Her,” from its shelves. The move sparked anger from a number of people who let Costco know in no uncertain terms that they would no longer do business with the company.

“GOODBYE COSTCO,” one person said on the company’s Facebook page Tuesday morning. “To me, your company is UN-AMERICAN.”

“This is America and you have the right to conduct your business as YOU see fit,” another person added. “I the CONSUMER have the right to shop where I see fit. I WILL NOT be shopping at Costco anymore. Yeah, that’s at least 300 dollars a month you will not be seeing. Let Freedom Ring.”

“Costco Members: Don’t simply stop shopping there. Call and ask for a refund of your membership,” said another visitor to the page.

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Photo Credit: Washington TimesD’Souza on Costco debacle: ‘It was really bizarre’

By Jennifer Pompi.

Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza called Costco’s decision to pull his best-selling book off its shelves this month “bizarre” and credited the ensuing social media outcry with causing the wholesaler to restock “America: Imagine the World Without Her.”

“The whole thing was very bizarre,” he said in an interview on the One America News Network Wednesday, noting his longtime relationship with Costco.

He said the decision was particularly shocking when Costco officials told him they were “clearing out books that don’t sell.”

Mr. D’Souza’s book — which soared to No. 1 on Amazon.com after the Costco debacle — was ranked No. 40 when it was pulled. In contrast, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s latest book, “Hard Choices,” was ranked No. 100 on Amazon, and several other books sold by Costco had far lower rankings, Mr. D’Souza said.

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Boehner: 'I Disagree' With Impeaching Obama (+video)

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Photo Credit: APHouse Speaker John Boehner plans to sue President Obama, but he’s not in favor of impeaching him.

“I disagree,” he said twice on Wednesday, when a reporter asked him about Sarah Palin’s call to impeach Barack Obama.

Palin told Fox News on Tuesday that the “tippng point” for her was the “illegal immigration issue.”

On that topic, Boehner was asked about President Obama’s request for $3.7B in emergency spending to deal with the border crisis — more than half of it humanitarian aid.

Boehner said he’s waiting for a recommendation from the Appropriations Committee and from the newly created Border Working Group…

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ISIS Destroys Shrines and Mosques, May Be Targeting Mecca

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Photo Credit: Fox News ISIS is leaving a path of destroyed churches, shrines and mosques in its wake as it storms across Syria and Iraq, and has even set its sights on Mecca — Islam’s holiest site.

The nihilistic jihadis, led by self-proclaimed descendant of Prophet Muhammad Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, have already bulldozed or blown up some of the most sacred places in Iraq, and seem bent on killing and destroying anyone or anything that does not measure up to their vision of Islam. Experts say the group, which originally stood for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, but now simply calls itself “Islamic State,” has appointed itself the leading proponent of the Muslim faith.

“They see themselves as the last defenders of Islamic civilization and want to eradicate anything that they see as the enemy of Islam, and any Muslim they perceive as compromising with the West,” Yvonne Haddad, a professor at Georgetown University who specializes in the history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations, told FoxNews.com.

Mostly comprised of Sunnis, ISIS surprised few when it vowed to destroy sites revered by the rival Shia sect. The two main blocs of Islam have been at odds for nearly 1,400 years because of a dispute over who was Prophet Muhammad’s successor. The destruction of at least 10 ancient Shia shrines in Iraq has enraged the Shia government in Baghdad, as well as the Iranian regime, also Shia.

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Safety and Security Concerns about Drones (+video)

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Photo Credit: MyFoxNYPolice say operators flew a drone too close to an NYPD helicopter that was on patrol at the George Washington Bridge and forced the chopper to change its course to avoid a collision early Monday morning. As a result, the two men were arrested.

Daniel Rose is an aviation lawyer. He points out that a bird brought down the jet in the Miracle on the Hudson incident. So a drone could do that or worse.

“To have a piece of metal, essentially, that high up in the sky coming in contact with a plane, a plane’s engine, a plane’s flight control system, a helicopter, can do a myriad of different types of damages including bringing the plane down,” Rose says.

Rose says drones are a fast-growing industry. Anyone can buy and operate one. He says the FAA is in the process of attempting to develop regulations, but that could take a year or longer.

New York News

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