Twenty-Seven Illegal Aliens Convicted of Child Sex Crimes Arrested Near Mexican Border

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Breitbart Twenty-seven illegal immigrants and convicted sex offenders were apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents in February. 15 illegal immigrants who are members of violent street gangs were also taken into custody that month. The arrests happened in the Rio Grande Valley area.

Two additional men, one convicted for murder and another convicted for voluntary man slaughter, were also arrested in the area that month.

11 of the arrested gang members belong to the Los Angeles-based Mara Salvatrucha gang, better known as MS-13. The four others men were members of the 18th Street gang.

Read more this story HERE.

Cruz: Conservatives Can Listen Timidly to DC Consultants, or Stay True to Core Values

/7 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters By Tony Lee.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who has the lead among Tea Partiers in nearly every 2016 GOP presidential primary poll, opened CPAC on Thursday. Cruz said that conservatives can win elections when they draw a clear and sharp contrast between corrupt Washington and the American people, in a way that the GOP establishment has not been able to do.

The potential 2016 presidential candidate noted that Washington is the wealthiest region in the U.S. and blasted the “corrupt interlocking system” of lobbyists, lawyers, and consultants that are “suckling off of Washington.”

Cruz said conservatives can choose to listen to D.C. consultants who want Republicans to be timid, or they can stay true to their core values.

“If you want to lose elections, stand for nothing,” Cruz said.

Read more this story HERE.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: mailonline.comConservative firebrand Ted Cruz launches political convention with crowd-pleasing demand to abolish the IRS

By David Martosko.

Ted Cruz, the rock-ribbed conservative Texas senator who figures to be a factor in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, told thousands of conservatives Thursday morning that the IRS should go the way of the dodo.

‘We need to abolish the IRS,’ he said, calling instead for a flat income tax rate and a user-friendly tax return that can be filed on a postcard.

That verbal gauntlet, thrown as much at a near-century of tax collection as at the Obama administration, was Cruz’s biggest applause line.

‘By virtue of your being here today,’ he jokingly cautioned the nation’s largest annual gathering of politically conservative activists, ‘tomorrow each and every one of you is going to be audited by the IRS.’

On Wednesday the former IRS official in charge of vetting nonprofit groups that seek tax-exempt charitable status refused, for the second time, to tell a congressional committee what she knew about the scandal.

Read more this story HERE.

Miller: Nation’s Military Preparedness in Peril

/3 Comments/in , , /by

Joe Miller near the Iraq Border, ’91I am deeply concerned about the future and the readiness of our military. Believe me, as a combat vet with a son at the US Military Academy at West Point, it’s not an abstraction to me, it’s personal.
 
What brings it all even closer to home for me is living in Alaska, which is now within striking distance of North Korean and Chinese missiles. And as Arctic neighbors, Russian aggression could be an existential threat to the State of Alaska in the future if we don’t summon the will to lead.

While Russia moves to reconstitute its Soviet-era control in Ukraine and solidify strategic assets in the Americas, our president is proposing a military draw-down to pre-World War II levels. This coming on the heels of cuts to our strategic missile defense, and a massive reduction in our nuclear arsenal.

Alaska’s geo-political significance could not be overstated. As General Billy Mitchell testified before Congress in 1935: “I believe that in the future, whoever holds Alaska will hold the world. I think it is the most important strategic place in the world.”
 
Alaska needs representation in the United States Senate with the knowledge and experience to address these national security concerns. In days to come, our national security may require it.

 
That’s why Combat Veterans for Congress has endorsed my run for United States Senate, and Gun Owners of America has rewarded my commitment to the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms against all enemies, foreign and domestic, with their endorsement.
 
Barack Obama’s irresponsible foreign policy has weakened America’s standing in the world and has put us on a dangerous path of appeasement. Make no mistake about it, the trajectory we’re on constitutes an imminent threat to our national security.
 
China now stands poised to rival the American military within a few short years. Rogue regimes around the world, including Iran and North Korea, are testing the limits of US resolve. And Islamic militants the world over are gathering strength.
 
History teaches us that weakness invites aggression. Ronald Reagan was right, “Peace through strength!”
 
We must project strength – if we are to maintain our leadership in the world and properly defend our borders in an increasingly hostile world.
 
As a veteran and as an American, I was outraged when Congress passed the Ryan-Murray budget which President Obama signed into law. I was the only U.S. Senate candidate in Alaska to stand against this horrendous piece of legislation. The measure would have cut some working age retirees’ benefits by as much as twenty percent. Collectively, the cuts purported to save six billion dollars. Yet Big Government politicians had no problem with a $63 billion spending increase in the bill.
 
After severe backlash, vulnerable Democrats like Alaska’s Mark Begich, who voted for the original cuts, pushed through a measure to restore benefits. Another election-year ploy by desperate politicians!
 
There is no doubt this President is out of control, and Congress is almost as bad. The former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned that our national debt is the most serious national security threat our nation faces. We are now four years and $4.5 trillion further in debt, since he made that statement.
 
To keep this nation secure, we must get the federal government back within its means and ensure our military remains second to none.

Amnesty is a Vote-Killer for GOP, Says WashPo Poll

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily Caller A new poll by the Washington Post shows that amnesty is a vote-loser for GOP legislators.

The poll of 1,002 adults shows that pluralities of independents and moderates oppose candidates who support amnesty, which was euphemistically dubbed “a path to citizenship” by the poll designers.

The poll showed that 41 percent of independents and 37 percent of moderates were less likely to vote for an amnesty-backer.

Only 28 percent of independents and moderates said they were more likely to vote for a candidate who backs amnesty.

The poll showed legislators’ support for amnesty inflicted a 12-point penalty from registered voters, 28 points from white people who did not go to college, 14 points from middle-class people who earn between $50,000 and $100,000, and even a few points from college grads, people who earn over $100,000 and people who earn less than $50,000, the poll also showed that the GOP’s opposition to amnesty doesn’t lower their one-in-four support among Latinos.

Read more this story HERE.

Bill to Make the Fine $0 for Violating the Individual Mandate Passes by 90 Votes

/2 Comments/in , /by

The House of Representatives passed legislation Wednesday afternoon to make the fine/“tax” for violating Obamacare’s individual mandate $0 for this year, and it did so by the wide margin of 90 votes (250 to 160). That’s 83 more than the 7-vote margin (219 to 212) by which Obamacare passed the House four Marches ago. Moreover, 27 Democrats voted for today’s legislation—27 more than the number of Republicans who voted for Obamacare when it passed. In all, 223 Republicans voted for today’s bill, while only one—Paul Broun of Georgia—voted against it. Here’s the member-by-member tally for the vote.

Earlier today, the Obama White House released a 3-paragraph statement on the legislation, noting that Obamacare “helps millions of Americans stay on their parents’ plans until age 26”—which, of course, has nothing to do with the individual mandate or the fine/“tax” for violating it—and saying that if President Obama were presented with the legislation, “he would veto it.”

Read more this story HERE.

New Health Insurance Marketplaces Signing Up Few Uninsured Americans

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APThe new health insurance marketplaces appear to be making little headway in signing up Americans who lack insurance, the Affordable Care Act’s central goal, according to a pair of new surveys.

Only one in 10 uninsured people who qualify for private plans through the newmarketplaces enrolled as of last month, one of the surveys shows. The other found that about half of uninsured adults have looked for information on the online exchanges or planned to look.

The snapshots from the surveys released Thursday provide preliminary answers to what has been one of the biggest mysteries since HealthCare.gov and separate state marketplaces opened last fall: Are they attracting their prime audience?

The findings emerge as the Obama administration has been revising a series of rules that define how the 2010 law works in practice. According to a variety of health-policy experts who support and oppose the law, the changes are in response to consumer hesitancy and political opposition that linger — at least, in the early going — as the law’s major provisions have taken effect.

The rule changes postpone or relax aspects of the law, sometimes to adjust for technical problems, other times to push into the future controversies that have arisen from specific groups of consumers or parts of the health care industry.

Read more this story HERE.

IRS Hearing, ObamaCare Changes Make American Nation of Men, Not of Laws

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the IRS’ targeting of conservative non-profit applicants. The hearing, led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), quickly devolved into chaos after former IRS official Lois Lerner repeatedly used the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions about her involvement in the targeting. When Issa rose for adjournment, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) went berserk: “I am tired of this. You cannot just have a one-sided investigation. There is absolutely something wrong with that, and it is absolutely un-American.” When Issa maintained that Cummings had asked no questions, Cummings said, “Chairman, what are you hiding?”

Afterward, Issa approached the media and explained, “He was talking into a mic in an adjourned meeting. The fact is Mr. Cummings came to make a point of his objections to the process we have been going through. He was actually slandering me at the moment that the mics did go off by claiming that this had not been a real investigation.”

But Cummings does not care about the truth. Nor does he care about the rise of an arbitrary and capricious executive branch willing to manipulate the law at will. For too many Democrats, America under President Obama has become a government of men, not of laws – and they’re just fine with that.

Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) revealed on Wednesday that the Obama administration lied when it said that Obama aides would cooperate with the investigation into the IRS scandal. Instead, the Obama administration has claimed that the IRS scandal is in fact a non-scandal – a “phony scandal,” in the words of White House press secretary Jay Carney. Camp pointed out that the committee still did not have Lerner’s full emails. “I still don’t have all for the documents that I’ve requested,” Camp stated. “The administration promised a quick action, and I’m still waiting for her emails. I need all of those, before I can conclude.”

Read more this story HERE.

Once Obama Warned Putin Stand Down; Ukraine Occupation Was Assured

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: WND Once Barack Obama warned Putin to stand down in the Crimea, its occupation by Russian troops was assured. As Syria showed the world recently, and the Ukraine shows today, Barack Obama needs to learn how to shut his mouth. Yet, who knew when he said, “there will be costs,” we would be the ones to pay?

To paraphrase Lincoln, it is better to shut up and be thought weak than to open your mouth and prove it. Someone should tell Barry. Every time his mouth writes a check his butt won’t cash, he weakens America and makes the world a much more dangerous place for everyone. Does anyone really think that if the Chinese attack Japan over the Senkaku Islands, Obama, even though treaty-bound, will come to their aid? If the Iranians declare they have a nuclear weapon, will Obama do one damn thing?

Putin does not respect Obama — he views him as weak and incompetent, ill suited for the world stage and the big game. He took the measure of Obama in 2009, when Barry gave up his only bargaining chip, missile defense systems about to be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic, before negotiations on cutting nuclear arsenals even began. The Russians were playing chess and Barry was playing with himself.

Has Barry done anything in the last five years to prove otherwise? Putin embarrassed him, casually dismissing his demand for Eric Snowden’s return, and then he embarrassed him once more with the Syria incident, and now yet again, with putting the ‘crime’ in Crimea.

Everyone remembers, “I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line.” One would think he would have learned his lesson, having been so thoroughly humiliated with Syria.

Read more this story HERE.

Bait-and-Switch Liberalism: Obamacare and the Politics of Deception

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: National Review In June 2009, as health-care reform was being debated vigorously across the country, President Obama told the American Medical Association’s convention that, whatever the provisions of the health-care bill he would sign into law ultimately included, “we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”

After the Affordable Care Act lurched into effect in 2013, it became clear the president meant to say that if you like your doctor and health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep them . . . footnote. And, as you’d expect from a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, that footnote has turned out to be as long and convoluted as a Russian novel.

When people who did like their health-care plans started receiving notices of cancellation or enormous rate increases, Obama’s defenders tried to qualify the original promise, which Obama had made repeatedly while campaigning, first for president and then for enactment of new health-care policies. Economist Jared Bernstein, who worked in the White House in 2009, said a better formulation would have been, “If you like your plan and it doesn’t get significantly worse such that it’s out of sync with what we’re trying to do here, you can keep it.” In fact, he argued, because “such nuances were clear at the time” — which is not how nuances typically operate — Obama’s veracity about his proposals’ consequences was not in question.

The New York Times editorial page took the same position: The president “clearly misspoke” when he promised that people could keep health-insurance policies they liked, but the controversy over that pledge was “overblown.” After the sanitizing “misspoke” set off a controversy of its own, the paper’s “public editor” prodded chief editorialist Andrew Rosenthal, who allowed that “clearly wrong” or “clearly weren’t true” might also have been fair characterizations of Obama’s promises.

Read more this story HERE.

First Lady To Obamacare Counselors: ‘You Are Doing God’s Work’

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty ImagesWith just weeks left to sign up for health care under the Affordable Care Act, Michelle Obama zeroed in on recruiting the crucial young adult demographic during a visit to a Miami community health center Wednesday.

The first lady congratulated a handful of residents who had just enrolled during an intimate event, asking one woman whether she had gotten her son to enroll.

“Tell him he could get hit by a car. It’s crazy. They don’t think about that kind of stuff,” said Obama, who moments later applauded another mother for signing herself and adult son up for insurance plans. “Did you get his friends?”

“We have our most precious people walking around here at any point time being hit by a car or being struck by an unforeseen illness and they will not be able to get the care they need when it costs so little. … We need people to make sure we reach out to the young people in our lives.”

Insurers are counting on the business of the so-called “young invincibles” to offset the costs of covering older, sicker enrollees. The Obama administration has been hotly courting the crucial 18- to 34-year-old demographic through social media campaigns and celebrity endorsements.

Read more this story HERE.