White House Has Harsh Words for Senators Seeking New Iran Sanctions: Actions Could Lead to War

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Photo Credit: T.J. Kirkpatrick / Getty Images

Photo Credit: T.J. Kirkpatrick / Getty Images

The White House launched a harsh attack on supporters of a Senate bill to impose fresh sanctions on Iran, suggesting that they have a hidden goal of drawing the country into another Mideast war.

If supporters “want the United States to take military action, they should be up front with the American people and say so,” Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said in a statement. “Otherwise, it’s not clear why any member of Congress would support a bill that possibly closes the door on diplomacy and makes it more likely that the United States will have to choose between military options or allowing Iran’s nuclear program to continue.”

[Updated at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 10: A pro-sanctions advocacy group, United Against a Nuclear Iran, pushed back.]

“It is wrong for the White House to continue questioning the integrity and motives of anyone who supports more sanctions,” said Mark Wallace, chief executive of the group. “It is nonsensical and out of bounds to say that a bipartisn majority of U.S. senators secretly wants war with Iran.”]

The White House argues that by driving Iran from the bargaining table, the tough new sanctions bill could undermine international negotiations aimed at an agreement to ensure that Tehran’s nuclear program remains peaceful. Many nations fear that Iran, despite its denials, seeks a nuclear weapon capability.

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Joe Miller: This is The Best Anti-Poverty Program

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610px-Signing_of_the_EOAAs we mark the 50th Anniversary of the Great Society, the greatest lesson that we can draw from it is that the best anti-poverty program is a job. The question then becomes what is the best manner to create jobs and grow the economy. 

The lesson of the 1920s, the 1960s, the 1980s and the 1990s, is that if you create an atmosphere in which businesses can thrive and hire new workers, who turn around and buy goods and services, the rising tide of economic prosperity raises all boats. Both John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan knew this to be true and acted on it.

Unemployment during all four of those decades following pro-growth tax reform and reduction in regulations was 5 percent or less, which resulted in a significant decrease in the poverty rate. 

Using the government as the instrument to raise people out of poverty and put them back to work failed in the 1930s, the 1970s (as the full weight of the Great Society programs came into play), and the late 2000s/early 2010s. Under FDR, the federal government undertook all manner of programs and regulations in an attempt to control the economy and put Americans back to work, but it failed miserably. 

Roosevelt’s own Treasury Secretary testified before a Senate committee in 1939, in terms of creating jobs, that the New Deal had been a failure and doubled the National Debt. Does any of this sound familiar?

Today, true unemployment in the United States remains at over 13 percent, and we are on course to double the national debt within the decade. 

Big Government Begich holsters a rubber stamp with a big fat “YES” on it: ObamaCare, Yes; trillion dollar stimulus bill, Yes; for the nuclear option to end the filibuster and push radical nominees through the senate, Yes; for nearly $8 trillion in new debt since taking office a mere 5 years ago, Yes; Voting 91 percent of the time with Harry Reid and the Democrats, YES! So much for being an independent voice for Alaska in the Senate.

He and the Democrats must be stopped and replaced. As Alaska’s next senator, I will link arms with reformers like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul and work to restore economic prosperity and our constitutional freedoms.

Thank you for your support!

In the fight,

Joe Miller, Candidate
United States Senate

Beware of the Left-Wing-Funded “Main Street” Republicans

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

What do George Soros, labor unions and money-grubbing former GOP Rep. Steven LaTourette all have in common? They’re control freaks. They’re power hounds. They’re united against tea party conservatives. And they all have operated under the umbrella of D.C. groups masquerading as “Main Street” Republicans.

LaTourette heads up the so-called “Main Street Partnership,” which claims to represent “thoughtful,” “pragmatic,” “common sense” and “centrist” Republican leadership. Reality check: The pro-bailout, pro-debt, pro-amnesty, anti-drilling group founded by former liberal New York GOP Congressman Amory Houghton includes three liberal Senate Republicans (John McCain, Mark Kirk and Susan Collins) and 52 center-left House Republicans. LaTourette himself is a self-serving Beltway barnacle who held office for nearly two decades. Now he’s leveraging his new tea party-bashing platform to benefit a family-operated lobbying business.

The New York Times shed light on LaTourette’s tangled web of GOP establishment outfits last week. But that story just scratched the surface. As the paper reported, the Main Street Partnership is a nonprofit group that charges members up to $25,000 per year to rub elbows with Washington’s rich and powerful. The Main Street Advocacy Fund and the Defending Main Street SuperPAC are political satellites planning to amass $8 million to bolster Republican liberals and moderates facing tea party challengers in 2014. McDonald Hopkins Government Strategies is LaTourette’s lobbying firm.

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Darrell Issa: Obama Administration Waging ‘a War on Guns’ with ‘Rogue’ ATF Sting Operations

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Darrell-Issa-2853California Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, accused the Obama administration of waging “a war on guns” after new reports of “rogue” sting operations by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) conducted during 2013.

Issa spoke to Fox News’ Shannon Bream Sunday about a report by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, which claimed that ATF agents operating firearm stings in 6 separate cities “took advantage of the mentally ill, set up stings near churches and schools and made decisions which some claim actually increased crime in their neighborhoods.” Issa and Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter to ATF Director Todd Jones this week to demand answers on the tactics and how often they’ve been used.

But Issa believes he already knows what’s going on.

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Al-Qaeda’s New Poster Boy for the Middle East

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Photo Credit: Telegraph

Photo Credit: Telegraph

THE FBI “most wanted” mugshot shows a tough, swarthy figure, his hair in a jailbird crew-cut. The $10 million price on his head, meanwhile, suggests that whoever released him from US custody four years ago may now be regretting it.

Taken during his years as a detainee at the US-run Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, this is the only known photograph of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the new leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria. But while he may lack the photogenic qualities of his hero, Osama bin Laden, he is fast becoming the new poster-boy for the global jihadist movement.

Well-organised and utterly ruthless, the ex-preacher is the driving force behind al-Qaeda’s resurgence throughout Syria and Iraq, putting it at the forefront of the war to topple President Bashar al-Assad and starting a fresh campaign of mayhem against the Western-backed government in Baghdad.

Last week, his forces fought open clashes with Iraqi army troops around the city of Fallujah – once known as the graveyard of the Americans – after brazenly attempting to seize control there the weekend before.

“They turned up in convoys waving their black flags and saying that Fallujah belongs to al-Qaeda again,” said Ayad Dulaimi, a local resident. “With God’s help, the army will destroy them.”

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Former SecDef Gates: Obama Didn’t Work to Make Troops Believe in their Mission

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President Obama visits Bagram AirfieldFormer Defense Secretary Robert Gates doubled down on criticisms against his former boss on Sunday, claiming that President Barack Obama failed to convince American troops that their sacrifice was worth it and saying that absence of conviction “disturbed” him.

Gates spoke with “CBS This Morning’s” Rita Braver about “Duty,” his new book about his five-year tenure as Secretary of Defense. His unique position as a high-level holdover from a rival administration allows him to compare George Bush and Barack Obama’s handling of the War in Afghanistan. And his conclusion is none-too-flattering for the Oval Office’s current occupant.

“It’s one thing to tell the troops that you support them,” Gates began. “It’s another to work at making them believe that you believe, as president, that their sacrifice is worth it. That the cause is just. That what they are doing is important for the country. And that they must succeed.”

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Congress: More Democrat Millionaires than Republican . . . and Here’s Why

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Photo Credit: Weasel Zippers

Photo Credit: Weasel Zippers

The suckers are buying it!

In a report from AllGov.com, we learn that for the first time more than half of all members of Congress are millionaires. But what’s really interesting about the story is that it tells us there are more Democrats than Republicans in Congress who are millionaires.

That is not surprising to some of us, but it might be to a lot of people who have bought the Democrat/lamestream media narrative that Republicans are “the party of the rich.”

Let me tell you why this really is.

First, let’s understand there is nothing wrong with being a millionaire, or a billionaire for that matter. Contrary to what the rhetoric of the Democratic Party suggests, the vast majority of rich people have earned their fortunes by working hard and accomplishing things that have benefited others. That includes those who have made their money by investing, because they have put their capital at risk to help finance businesses that create jobs and produce goods and services people want and need.

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The Real Unemployment Rate?

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The U.S. Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent in December—but does that rate tell the real story?

A number of economists look past the “main” unemployment rate to a different figure the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls “U-6,” which it defines as “total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of all civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.”

Main-vs-U6-jobs

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Report: Rate of Christians Killed for their Faith Doubled in 2013

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Reported cases of Christians killed for their faith around the world doubled in 2013 from the year before, with Syria accounting for more than the whole global total in 2012, according to an annual survey.

Open Doors, a non-denominational group supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, said on Wednesday it had documented 2,123 “martyr” killings, compared with 1,201 in 2012. There were 1,213 such deaths in Syria alone last year, it said.

“This is a very minimal count based on what has been reported in the media and we can confirm,” said Frans Veerman, head of research for Open Doors. Estimates by other Christian groups put the annual figure as high as 8,000.

The Open Doors report placed North Korea at the top of its list of 50 most dangerous countries for Christians, a position it has held since the annual survey began 12 years ago. Somalia, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan were the next four in line.

The United States-based group reported increasing violence against Christians in Africa and said radical Muslims were the main source of persecution in 36 countries on its list.

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Over 56 Million Abortions in America Since Roe vs. Wade in 1973

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Photo Credit: Life News

Photo Credit: Life News

Given the trends seen in recent national reports, National Right to Life now believes that there have been over 56 million abortions since 1973.

One critical piece of evidence in that calculation arrived in November of 2013, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported its latest national figures. It was important to find out whether the drop in abortions for 2009 seen by the CDC–4.6%–would continue in 2010. If it dropped again, we’d have some confidence that the 2009 figure wasn’t just some odd statistical aberration, that there really was some real and significant decline. It did.

As reported in NRL News Today, abortions for 2010 declined another 3.1%, according to the CDC. (See “CDC Report Shows Decline in Abortions for 2010; abortion rates and ratios both down”)

We typically like to compare and confirm those trends with data from the Guttmacher Institute, the former special research affiliate of Planned Parenthood which publishes its own private study.

Guttmacher, which surveys abortion clinics, hospitals, and private practice physicians directly, has higher and what are widely thought to be more reliable abortion numbers. Unlike the CDC, however, they do not survey every year, and have not, as of this date, published anything more recent than 2008 data when Guttmacher reported there were 1,212,400 abortions.

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