Kentucky Gay Marriage: Judge Says State Must Recognize Gay Marriages Performed in Other States

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Photo Credit: APA federal judge has ruled that Kentucky must recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, pointing not only to recent decisions that have struck down bans in other states but also to older rulings on a person’s right to marry.

The state’s ban treated “gay and lesbian persons differently in a way that demeans them,” U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn wrote Wednesday. While the case dealt with out-of-state marriages, it does not require the state to perform same-sex marriages.

Heyburn cited a long line of cases going back to the legalization of mixed-race marriages and mentioned recent same-sex marriage decisions in nine other states, including Hawaii and Utah. But he mainly relied on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling striking down a section of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, on which Kentucky’s same-sex marriage amendment had been based.

The judge also pointed to older rulings dealing with race and gender, noting that bans on interracial marriage, segregation and restrictions on women had been cited in the past as keys to a more stable society. But courts gradually did away with those restrictions.

“Each of these small steps has led to this place and this time, where the right of same-sex spouses to state-conferred benefits of marriage is virtually compelled,” wrote Heyburn, who took a seat on the federal bench in 1992 after being appointed by President George H.W. Bush with the backing of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, both Republicans.

Read more from this story HERE.

Media Double-Standard on Display with Nagin Corruption Coverage

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Photo Credit: NBC News via BizPac ReviewYesterday, former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was found guilty of 20 out of 21 counts including bribery and conspiracy. I’m always curious how the mainstream media will cover these stories. Hat tip to Michael Dorstewitz at BizPac Review for collating the “big three” responses.

ABC 
WORLD NEWS 2/12/14 
[6:42 p.m. EST] GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And back home, down in New Orleans today, a conviction for the former mayor Ray Nagin. He became a household name in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The face and voice of a city in ruins. But today, Nagin was found guilty of corruption for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and a family vacation to Hawaii in exchange for lucrative city contracts…

Not one of these reports mentioned Nagin was a Democrat. There was a similar pattern during the episode surrounding former Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. And as a matter of fact, how many of you remember former Louisiana Congressman William “Cold Cash” Jefferson, was a Democrat?

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Advance for Kansas Bill Allowing Denial of Services to Gay Couples Based on Religious Beliefs

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Photo Credit: John Hanna/APGay rights advocates are outraged over a bill — passed by Kansas lawmakers earlier this week — that would allow businesses and state government employees to deny services to same-sex couples if “it would be contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The bill — H.B. 2453 — passed the GOP-led House in a 72 to 49 vote on Wednesday and now heads to the Republican-controlled state Senate. If it succeeds there, it could then be signed into law by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

Supporters say the legislation would protect business owners and state employees who don’t agree with gay marriage from potential discrimination lawsuits.

“Discrimination is horrible. It’s hurtful,” GOP Rep. Charles Macheers said during a debate on the house floor. “It has no place in civilized society, and that’s precisely why we’re moving this bill.

The law, Macheers said, would put Kansas “on the right side” of history.

Read more from this story HERE.

Tens of Thousands of Connecticut Gun Owners Engage in State-Wide Act of Civil Disobedience

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On Jan. 1, 2014, tens of thousands of defiant gun owners seemingly made the choice not to register their semi-automatic rifles with the state of Connecticut as required by a hastily-passed gun control law. By possessing unregistered so-called “assault rifles,” they all technically became guilty of committing Class D felonies overnight.

Police had received 47,916 applications for “assault weapons certificates” and 21,000 incomplete applications as of Dec. 31, Lt. Paul Vance told The Courant.

At roughly 50,000 applications, officials estimate that as little as 15 percent of the covered semi-automatic rifles have actually been registered with the state. “No one has anything close to definitive figures, but the most conservative estimates place the number of unregistered assault weapons well above 50,000, and perhaps as high as 350,000,” the report states. Needless to say, officials and some lawmakers are stunned.

Due to the new gun control bill passed in April, likely at least 20,000 individual people — possibly as many as 100,000 — are now in direct violation of the law for refusing to register their guns. As we noted above, that act is now a Class D Felony.

Mike Lawlor, “the state’s top official in criminal justice,” suggested maybe the firearms unit in Connecticut could “sent them a letter.” However, he said an aggressive push to prosecute gun owners in the state is not going to happen at this point.

Read more from this story HERE.

Prominent Liberal Legal Scholar: Obama’s Executive Actions are ‘A Very Dangerous Thing’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsA legal scholar said Wednesday on “The Kelly File” that President Obama’s decision to bypass Congress to enact legislation is “a very dangerous thing.”

“The framers created a system that was designed to avoid one principle thing, and that’s the concentration of power in any one branch, because that balancing between these branches in a fixed orbit is not only what gives stability to our system, but protects us against authoritarian power, protects civil liberties from abuse,” Jonathan Turley, a professor of law at George Washington University Law School, told host Megyn Kelly. “And what we’ve been seeing is the shift of gravity in that system in a very dangerous way that makes it unstable.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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FOX NEWS POLL 74 percent dislike Obama bypassing Congress

When President Barack Obama took an unplanned stop on the tour of Thomas Jefferson’s home Monday, he joked to French President Francois Hollande, “That’s the good thing as a president — I can do whatever I want.” The remark made headlines because Obama’s critics have long said he acts like he really believes that.

Among the most recent examples, they cite Obama’s State of the Union declaration that he plans to take policy actions “with or without Congress” — and this week’s White House announcement that it is delaying another key deadline in the health care law Congress passed in 2010.

Americans say not so fast, Mr. President.

According to a just-released Fox News national poll, most voters don’t think the country’s system of government was designed for the president to act unilaterally, and a majority disapproves of Obama bypassing Congress.

The new poll finds that 74 percent think the president using executive orders to get around Congress is not how things are supposed to work in our country. That includes 54 percent of Democrats.

Read more from this story HERE.

Prideful President Refuses to Admit Obamacare is a Disaster

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Photo Credit: J. Scott ApplewhiteBy Emily Miller.

President Obama is scrambling to put Band-Aids on the health care law instead of admitting that it is DOA.

He pushed Obamacare through Congress with the promise that it would help the 30 million uninsured Americans and not hurt the rest of us. Five years later, the government intrusion has disrupted the coverage of the more than 300 million Americans who were content with their insurance, and it is already dragging down the economy.

Mr. Obama is trying to to hide the problems.

That’s why the White House announced Monday it would again push back the deadline for the mandate to kick in for companies with between 50 and 100 employees to 2016, which gets the negative economic impact to hit after the election.

This is just the latest in two dozen delays to Obamacare that the president has made — without consulting Congress.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: WNDDoc Discovers ObamaCare’s Shocking, Dirty Secret

By Lee Hieb, M.D.

I am being impacted in many ways by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or, to give credit where credit is due, “Obamacare.” But the most stunning attack on my person came this month in the form of insurance rate hikes.

My older son is 24 years old, a student and in perfect health. He has never smoked, is thin, has totally normal labs, is on no meds and comes from a long line of hearty, healthy stock. It seemed appropriate to pay $47 a month for health insurance.

Then, I just received notice from Coventry Insurance that due to the new health-care law we had to make a choice from three options: 1) We could keep his insurance policy and pay nearly four times as much – $167/month; 2) We could explore a different “ACA compatible” policy; or 3) We could try our luck at the Iowa “marketplace” – i. e. Obamacare state exchange. Each option had its own phone number.

Now I’d rather sell my kid into indentured labor than put him on Obamacare, so I called the number for the new policy. I did the appropriate button pushing but ended up at the state exchange anyway. And I confess after a short conversation with a probable navigator, I hung up the phone, saying there was no way I wanted Obamacare. I also confess that I may have been a bit abrupt, thinking I would never talk to him again. So I dialed the number for option No. 1 – updating the original policy.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Democrats Running Ads Criticizing Obamacare

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In Florida’s 26th district, Democrats are running away from the president completely, and Obamacare in part:

Now, it is true that Garcia doesn’t call for repeal. Indeed, the ad boasts that the candidate is “working to fix” the law, and it praises him both for holding “insurance companies accountable” and for defending the provision that prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions…

Read more from this story HERE.

DC Man Set for Hearing After Arrest Over Inoperable Shotgun Shell (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox News A Washington, D.C. man is facing a large fine and possible jail time after he was arrested for having an inoperable shotgun shell in his home. The shell was a souvenir that Mark Witaschek decided to keep from a hunting trip years earlier.

Witaschek, a businessman with no criminal record, is scheduled to appear at a hearing today following the raid by police in July 2012. On Fox and Friends this morning, Witaschek explained that the raid came a month after his estranged wife accused him of threatening her with a gun.

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: New Navy Map Shows U.S. Had ‘Multitude of Forces’ in Region Surrounding Libya During Benghazi Attack

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Photo Credit: Screengrab via TownhallGovernment watchdog group Judicial Watch published a U.S. Navy map on Wednesday showing the locations of ships in the region surrounding Libya on the night of the deadly Benghazi Attack.

The unclassified map was obtained by Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Randall R. Schmidt via a Freedom of Information of Act (FOIA) request. Schmidt is reportedly investigating the U.S. military’s response to the Benghazi attack and provided a copy of the map to the group.

“The U.S. military had a multitude of forces in the region surrounding Libya when terrorists attacked the Special Mission in Benghazi and murdered four Americans,” Judicial Watch writes.

“Destroyers could have responded to the attack,” Schmidt said.

He also said the military had “rapid reaction forces” and “armed predators” in the region. So far, the Department of Defense has refused to provide him records on the air fleet on Sept. 11, 2012.

Read more from this story HERE.

Communism, Socialism, and Christianity: One of These Does Not Belong

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Photo Credit: APOn Christianity, Socialism and Communism

By Rev. Marcel Guarnizo

February 5, 2014

There has been much discussion in recent weeks over the debt of Christianity to—and its compatibility with —the ideas and praxis of the socialist revolution, and even of communism. Many, even in the Catholic Church, believe that we share some of the ideals of the socialist revolution because it seems to them that communism, socialism and Christianity are for the poor. In addition to this most unfortunate error, the opposite fallacy has also been made popular in the minds of many, namely that capitalists and advocates of a free market economy, hate the poor.

But the historical record of communism tells an entirely different story. I have worked with the countries of the former Soviet Union for over 20 years, and I have seen what communism does to populations and nations. The scourge of the socialist revolution around the world gave us 6 million people killed by artificial famines in Ukraine and, as documented by The Black Book of Communism, 20 million victims in the U.S.S.R., 65 million in China, a million in Vietnam, 2 million in North Korea, another 2 million in Cambodia, a million more in the rest of Eastern Europe, 150,000 in Latin America, 1.7 million in Africa, 1.5 million in Afghanistan and through the international Communist movement and related parties about 100,000 more victims in various nations. This is a body count that reaches to 100 million victims worldwide.

Communism completely destroyed the economy, social fabric, and political culture of dozens of nations. It hollowed out the intelligentsia, ruined every economy where the seed of socialism fully “bloomed,” and abrogated fundamental rights and individual freedoms of the nations it subjugated. Clearly the Judeo-Christian commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” is not among the doctrinal teachings of communism and the socialist revolution. It is hard to believe that the socialist revolution—unlike Nazism—still finds promoters and defenders in the West.

The compatibility of Christianity and its legitimate concern for the poor owes nothing to the violent and inhuman regimes created by the socialist revolution. No system in human history has produced more poverty and misery than communism.

No greater foe has the Church ever encountered, than the communist revolution. During the 20th century, hundreds of thousands of religious and priests were sent to forced labor camps or simply executed. Five year plans to abolish religion were implemented and no true believer was ever safe in such nations. What social doctrine of the Church was ever derived from such madness? Communism and the socialist revolution are not only the antithesis of Christianity. They are also incompatible with free, just, and democratic societies.

Read more from this story HERE.