White House: Nah, We Don’t Want to Meet With Victims of Fort Hood

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford was shot 7 times by Nidal Hasan in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood. He and other survivors wanted to have a conversation with President Obama presumably to let him know firsthand of their experience with violence at the military base.

Speaking to a victim of a tragedy in order to better understand how it could have been prevented with some more common sense solutions seems like something the president would be interested in, right?

Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough wrote: “We forwarded your letter to the Departments of Justice and Defense, who are leading the government’s efforts to ensure the victims of the 2009 shooting receive the justice and benefits they deserve. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet your specific request for a meeting with the president.”


ABC US News | ABC Business News

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Comrade Carney And The Case Of The Disembodied Digit

Photos from the home of White House Press Secretary Jay Carney that accompany a Washingtonian magazine puff piece this week have caused a bit of a stir online after enterprising reporters and bloggers had a closer look. Take a look at the first one:

jaycarne1

First of all, what kind of family are they feeding there? That’s enough food for a small platoon. I see three people in that picture. Three people evidently preparing to go into hibernation.

But secondly, and more interestingly, check out the posters in the background.

posters

Yes, as reported by Business Insider, those are old Soviet propaganda posters. One of the posters encourages men to join the Soviet army, and the other encourages women to take the jobs vacated by the men who have joined the Soviet army…

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At the Core — Human Nature vs. the Test

Photo Credit: Newscom

Photo Credit: Newscom

Common Core – the phrase sets off a mental picture of a multitude of hungry mouths all trying to nibble off of a shriveled apple, nothing much left but cellulose and seeds. Unfortunately, that’s an apt description. I am, like all conservatives, and like many educators, appalled and concerned about this new wrinkle in our rumpled educational wardrobe. I’m concerned about its uniformity, when our pupils, our communities, our cultures are so diverse. I’m concerned about the secretive, manipulative manner in which this was developed and dispersed. I’m annoyed to see commercials trying to sell it like it was a new brand of toothpaste. I’m scared of the probability of our schools being used even more heavily as bastions of propaganda. But my main concern is that it is based on a demonstrably faulty assumption – that you can change student learning from the top down. You can’t.

This program is entirely test-driven. Now, who can argue against “standards” — the current terminology? Is it not true that we should be able to tell whether or not schools are doing their job? Of course, but no one says clearly what that job is, so the test itself becomes the definition:

What is an educated person?

One who can pass the test.

What’s in the test?

Whatever can be tested.Therefore anything that can’t be measured on a multiple-choice bubble sheet, isn’t education. Ta dum!

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Marines, Army Prepare Women for Combat

Photo Credit: Marines / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: Marines / Creative Commons

The military is taking steps to prepare women for combat roles in 2016.

The Marine Corps announced that it would give young female lieutenants who wash out of the grueling Infantry Officer Course a second shot, same as their male counterparts.

The Army is conducting a study to test just how fit a soldier has to be to engage in combat. The study involves 60 women and 100 men.

CBS News reported on both developments last week.

The Marine Corps announcement came after Marine 2nd Lt. Sage Santangelo took the Infantry Officer Court and wrote about her experience last month in an op-ed in The Washington Post. She didn’t make it past the first day and blamed the Marine Corps for a dual standard that sets up women to flunk the course.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Warns Russia of ‘Additional Consequences’ Over Ukraine

Photo Credit: AFP Photo / Alexander Khudoteply

Photo Credit: AFP Photo / Alexander Khudoteply

US Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Ukraine later this month, officials said, as Washington warned Moscow of “additional consequences” if it fails to reduce tensions with Ukraine.

The announcement came just a day after Washington unveiled sanctions against six of Crimea’s breakaway leaders, including the official who signed the deal with Moscow to split the peninsula from Ukraine.

During a telephone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry “made clear that if Russia did not take steps to de-escalate in eastern Ukraine and move its troops back from Ukraine’s border, there would be additional consequences,” a senior State Department official said.

Washington has repeatedly urged Moscow to de-escalate tensions and withdraw Russian troops from Ukraine’s eastern border in the worst East-West standoff since the Cold War.

A first wave of US sanctions unveiled in March had blacklisted officials and businesspeople close to Russian President Vladimir Putin to protest Moscow’s takeover of Crimea.

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Judge Sentences Man To Wear ‘I AM A BULLY’ Sign

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A man accused of harassing a neighbor and her disabled children for the past 15 years sat at a street corner Sunday morning with a sign declaring he’s a bully, a requirement of his sentence.

Municipal Court Judge Gayle Williams-Byers ordered 62-year-old Edmond Aviv to display the sign for five hours Sunday. It says: “I AM A BULLY! I pick on children that are disabled, and I am intolerant of those that are different from myself. My actions do not reflect an appreciation for the diverse South Euclid community that I live in.”

The Northeast Ohio Media Group reported (https://bit.ly/1ieU3sA ) that Aviv arrived at the corner just before 9 a.m., placing the hand-lettered cardboard sign next to him as he sat in a chair. Within a couple of minutes, a passing motorist honked a car horn.

Court records show Aviv pleaded no contest in February to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. His attorney didn’t return a telephone call for comment.

Aviv has feuded with his neighbor Sandra Prugh for the past 15 years, court records show. The most recent case stemmed from Aviv being annoyed at the smell coming from Prugh’s dryer vent when she did laundry, according to court records. In retaliation, Aviv hooked up kerosene to a fan, which blew the smell onto Pugh’s property, the records said.

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The Koch Ness Monster

Based upon “Rate the Oligarchs”. Illustrated by @BiffSpackle:

140331-koch-ness-monster

• Obama, Soros, Petrobras, Brazil and offshore drilling double standards

• Tom Steyer’s Bet is Paying Off: Meet one of Barack Obama’s richest green energy cronies

• Schweizer’s New Book: 80% of Energy Department’s “Green Loan” Program Went to Obama’s Backers

Pot Vending Machine Unveiled In Colorado

Photo Credit: Theo Stroomer / Getty Images

Photo Credit: Theo Stroomer / Getty Images

An automated pot-selling machine was unveiled at an event held at an Avon, Colo., restaurant Saturday, promising a potential new era of selling marijuana and pot-infused snacks from vending machines directly to customers.

Its creators say the machine, called the ZaZZZ, uses biometrics to verify a customer’s age. The machine is climate-controlled to keep its product fresh.

You may be picturing a vending machine on a sidewalk, ready to dispense pot brownies to anyone with correct change. That’s not quite what backers of the machine have in mind. For now, at least, the ZaZZZ is aimed for use only by medical marijuana patients. And it’ll be in licensed stores, where it will serve a purpose like that of an automated checkout line at a grocery, they say…

The machine is built by American Green; its first model is geared toward selling snacks and other items at dispensary Herbal Elements in Eagle-Vail, Colo. — after the company is sure it has met all regulations.

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News Flash: General Bundy Defeats the FedCoats at Bunkerville!

Photo Credit: Natural News

Photo Credit: Natural News

History was made today! The People vs. BLM: Liberty defeats govt. tyranny as feds release all cattle at Bundy Ranch

By Mike Adams.

Breaking news: The BLM, now in a full retreat against the Citizens of the United States of America, has announced a stand down and has begun releasing the Bundy family’s cattle from the BLM’s “bovine concentration camps.”

This has just been confirmed by the Bundy family on their Facebook page. Also, here’s a breaking video showing the cattle being released.

A tense standoff had taken place for several hours, where armed citizens of the United States of America — many on horseback — drew a literal line in the sand and refused to back down until BLM released the cattle.

The photo below — one of the most iconic photos of recent American history — shows armed American citizens in a standoff with BLM thugs (in the white SUVs) who engaged in the felony theft of the Bundy family cattle and committed numerous felony assaults on American citizens.

As you can see in the photo, a brigade of armed Americans — many waving American flags — blockaded the road at a strategic roadway point. BLM, a tyrannical police state gang conducting illegal, illegitimate operations, earlier ordered the FAA to ban all civilian flights over the region in an effort to enforce a media blackout (possibly in preparation for an armed assault on the protesters).

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jim Urquhart

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jim Urquhart

Victory for Cliven Bundy, Nevada rancher who challenged feds

By Robby Soave.

Citing safety concerns, federal agents are withdrawing from the Nevada cattle ranch where they had engaged in a week-long showdown with Cliven Bundy, a 67-year-old rancher who claimed the federal government had no right to tax and regulate property his family has owned since 1880.

The Bureau of Land Management had dispatcher agents, helicopters and four-wheelers to remove several hundred of Bundy’s cattle that they claimed were encroaching on federal lands–and may have posed a threat to an endangered tortoise habitat. A BLM spokesperson also claimed that Bundy owed over $1 million dollars in fines that he accrued since the early 1990s.

Bundy and his family challenged BLM’s authority to “manage my ranch out of business,” he said, according to ABC News.

Federal policies had starved out all the other cattle ranchers in the area, and Bundy saw his dispute with BLM as a challenge to destructive federal power.

Read more from this story HERE.

In Case You Missed It…GOP Lawmaker Suggests Eric Holder Should ‘Be In Jail’ — to His Face!

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

By Brendan Bordelon.

…Farenthold’s turn for questions came towards the end of a contentious hearing. The lawmaker explained that he would not exercise his right to question the witness as a protest against Holder’s refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas for documents related to the IRS’ Tea Party targeting investigation.

“I’m committed to maintaining the constitutional balance of power and the authority this branch, this legislative branch, has,” Farenthold said. “And I just don’t think it’s appropriate that Mr. Holder be here.”

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eric_holder1177Eric Holder explodes at GOP rep: ‘You don’t want to go there, buddy!’

By Caroline May.

In the midst of questions about the Justice Department’s failure to divulge documents about the Holy Land Foundation terror funding trial, Gohmert made a side comment about how the House of Representatives found Holder in contempt in 2012 for refusing to turn over documents related to the Fast and Furious gun-running scandal.

“I realize that contempt is not a big deal to our attorney general, but it is important that we have proper oversight,” Gohmert said.

“You don’t want to go there, buddy! You don’t want to go there, okay,” Holder shot back.

Read more from this story HERE.