I’m Darth Vader, And I Approve This Message

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: NPR

Photo Credit: NPR

Ukraine’s presidential election season took an interesting turn over the weekend, as Darth Vader declared his candidacy for the nation’s highest office, promising that he knows what it takes to rebuild an empire.

“I alone can make an empire out of a republic to restore former glory, to return lost territories and pride for this country,” said Vader, according to Agence France-Presse.

Vader (or, at least, someone wearing a costume of the Star Wars character) has filed paperwork with the Central Elections Commission to make his candidacy official for Ukraine’s presidential election, slated for May 25.

As he announced his run Saturday, Vader was flanked by the Royal Guard; as is often the case, several Imperial Stormtroopers were also nearby as the Sith Lord spoke, wearing his trademark black helmet and cape. And in a sign that he might be more skilled in coalition-building than has been recognized, Vader’s news conference included another Star Wars character: his frequent enemy, Chewbacca.

Read more from this story HERE.

Republican Running for Governor of NY Plans to Take a Stand for His Kids With ’Symbolic’ Protest of Common Core

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: The Blaze

Photo Credit: The Blaze

A Republican candidate for governor of New York said he and his wife plan to pull their children from Common Core testing in a “symbolic” protest on Tuesday.

In a short campaign video, Rob Astorino says his “family’s protest tomorrow is a symbolic one.”

“But as parents, we think it’s important to take a stand. Our children aren’t guinea pigs, Governor Cuomo, and we want them educated by teachers — not faceless bureaucrats in Washington,” he added.

He claims hundreds of thousands of New York children from third to eighth grade will be subjected to Common Core testing on Tuesday. Astorino said his kids will remain in school but opt out of the test.

New York News

Read more from this story HERE.

Jeff Sessions: ‘DHS Is a Department in Crisis’

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, reacted today to a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document showing that tens of thousands of convicted criminal aliens were freed by ICE last year into the U.S., as well as the presence of nearly one million individuals in the U.S. ordered removed by authorities who remain unlawfully in the country.

Sen. Sessions says that DHS Sec. Johnson should stand up to Pres. Obama’s pro-amnesty policies and tell the president that immigration laws must be enforced:

“The preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that immigration enforcement in America has collapsed. Even those with criminal convictions are being released. DHS is a department in crisis. Secretary Johnson must reject the President’s demands to weaken enforcement further and tell him that his duty, and his officers’ duty, is to enforce the law-not break it. As Homeland Secretary, Mr. Johnson is tasked with ensuring the public safety and the rule of law. But Secretary Johnson is not meeting these duties.”

Read more from this story HERE.

California Dems Cook-Up Strategy to Deflect Leland Yee Scandal

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: American Thinker

Photo Credit: American Thinker

The specter of a highly visible gun control advocate caught attempting to supply machine guns and shoulder-fired rockets to (apparently) drug gangs may not rate coverage by CNN, but it has been irresistibly big news in the state of California.

Obviously, an excuse has to be created, and it hasn’t taken the corruptocrats in Sacramento very long. It was the lack of public campaign financing that did forced an idealistic crusader into something he would otherwise never have done. Jim Miller of the Sacramento Bee reports on the Democrats’ rationalization:

The 137-page FBI affidavit against Yee and more than 20 other defendants says the San Francisco Democrat’s focus on retiring a $70,000 campaign debt from his unsuccessful 2011 mayor’s race and raising money for his 2014 candidacy for secretary of state led him to accept bribes in return for official favors and arrange overseas weapons deals. (snip)

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Sidesteps Questions About Releasing Spy Jonathan Pollard

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP/Ayala Bar

Photo Credit: AP/Ayala Bar

White House spokesman Jay Carney sidestepped a question about whether the U.S. is weighing the possibility of an early release for Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in exchange for concessions in the Mideast peace talks.

Carney did not respond directly when asked Monday afternoon if he would break with previous administrations, which have emphatically stressed that Pollard not be considered a bargaining chip in any negotiations with the Israelis.

“What I’ll say is that I have nothing new about Jonathan Pollard that I haven’t said in the past, which is that he was convicted of espionage and he is serving his sentence,” Carney told reporters Monday during his daily press briefing.

“When it comes to the Middle East peace process and the work being done with both parties to try to move the process forward, there’s a lot of complicated moving parts,” he added.

Read more from this story HERE.

Japan Must Halt Whaling Program In Antarctic, Court Says

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Shizuo Kambayashi/AP

Photo Credit: Shizuo Kambayashi/AP

The country’s government had argued that hunting whales was part of a research program, but the International Court of Justice ruled Monday that Japan hasn’t generated enough scientific research to justify killing hundreds of whales. Critics said the hunts were instead a way to justify commercial hunting.

Under the whaling program, Japan had set annual “lethal sample size” limits of 50 per species for fin whales and humpback whales, in addition to approximately 850 Antarctic minke whales. But the court said the research program had generated only two peer-reviewed papers that together refer to nine whales.

“In light of the fact that [Japan’s program] has been going on since 2005 and has involved the killing of about 3,600 minke whales, the scientific output to date appears limited,” the court wrote in its judgment.

By a 12-4 vote, the court based in The Hague decided Japan must “revoke any extant authorization, permit or license granted in relation to” its whaling program, “and refrain from granting any further permits” related to it.

The court’s ruling stems from a complaint filed by Australia in May 2010, when it accused Japan of being in breach of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling by operating a system that produced whale meat for sale in Japan, rather than creating scientific data.

Read more from this story HERE.

Women Now 33% More Likely Than Men to Earn College Degrees

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

American women born in the early 1980s are 33 percent more likely to have earned a college degree by the time they reach 27 years of age than their male contemporaries, according to the results of a longitudinal study published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The study also showed that women in that age group who started college were more likely to have completed it.

“Thirty-two percent of women had earned a bachelor’s degree, compared with 24 percent of men,” said the BLS. The 32 percent of women with college degrees was 8 points–or 33.3 percent–more than the 24 percent of men.

WOMEN 33 PERCENT MORE LIKELY TO GRADUATE-CHART

Read more from this story HERE.

Researchers Claim Holy Grail Found in Spain

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Eduardo Millo / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: Eduardo Millo / Creative Commons

It’s been the focus of theological argument for centuries, but two Spanish historians now claim they’ve found the Holy Grail, the cup from which Christ was said to have drunk during the Last Supper.

The location? A church in Leon, in northern Spain.

Margarita Torres and Jose Ortega del Rio, who have spent three years researching the history of the chalice, co-wrote a book released last week entitled “Los Reyes del Grial,” which translates to “The Kings of the Grail,” the Irish Times reported.

In the book, they detail how they believe the 2,000-year-old vessel is contained within another, antique cup known as the Chalice of Dona Urruca, which sits in Leon’s basilica of Saint Isidore. It has been there since the 11th century, the historians claim.

Read more from this story HERE.

Frightened Dem: ‘We Could Lose’ Congress To More Candidates Like Ted Cruz

/12 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In another sign that Democrats are worried that the 2014 midterm elections may resemble the 2010 midterms in which the Tea Party movement gave the GOP historic gains, Vice President Joe Biden sent out a fundraising email Sunday imploring Democrats to donate to prevent more conservatives like Ted Cruz from getting elected.

Biden and Cruz (R-TX) may be rivals for the presidency in 2016, and Biden’s email on behalf of the Democratic National Committee a day before the end of the fundraising quarter warned supporters, “We could lose.”

“Losing will mean more senators like Ted Cruz, and more Tea Party Republicans in the House,” he writes in the email.

Claiming that he is not engaging in hyperbole, Biden urges supporters to chip in $3 before the fundraising deadline to help Democrats because “the deadline tomorrow is among the most important.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Covered California Sends Voter Registration Card Pre-Marked for Democratic Party

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: KGTV/ABC 10 San Diego

Photo Credit: KGTV/ABC 10 San Diego

A couple in the southern California community of La Mesa are not too happy after receiving a voter registration card pre-marked with an “x” next to the Democratic Party from Covered California, the state’s Obamacare exchange website, ABC 10 reported Saturday.

The couple, who wished to remain anonymous, said they have lived in La Mesa for years and have always been registered Republicans.

Now, ABC 10 said, they are wondering why they received the pre-marked registration card.

“I’m an old guy and I never would have noticed it, except I have an accountant that notices every dot and dash on a piece of paper as a wife,” the man said.

ABC explained that Covered California began mailing the cards to some four million people last week after it was threatened with a lawsuit from a voting rights group.

Read more from this story HERE.