Rodman Being Used as Doormat, Not Diplomat, say North Korea Defectors

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Dennis Rodman may think he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un are best buddies, but escapees of the Hermit Kingdom say the oddball NBA Hall of Famer is more doormat than diplomat.

“You think Kim Jong Un is your friend, but he is just using you,” Jo Jin Hye, a North Korean refugee who has become a human rights advocate working with U.S.-based North Korea Freedom Coalition and is founder of NKinUSA told FoxNews.com in a message directed at Rodman.

“He’s friendly with you just so he can mislead his people,” she said. “He wants to make them think that the outside world accepts their leader.”

Jo, who most recently testified before the UN Commission of Inquiry on the atrocities committed in her homeland, added that many who have made it out of North Korea are angry that Rodman is currently in North Korea extolling the virtues of Kim, who he has called his “friend.” On Wednesday, Rodman sang “Happy Birthday” to Kim before taking to the court with a group of former NBA players in an exhibition game with North Korean players.

“I don’t understand why he would go there,” Jo said. “He [Rodman] says they are friends, but how can he be friends with someone like Kim Jong Un? He has killed members of his own family like animals.”

Read more from this story HERE.

CDC: U.S. Fertility Rate Hits Record Low for 2nd Straight Year; 40.7% of Babies Born to Unmarried Women

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The fertility rate of women in the United States fell to a record low for the second year in a row in 2012, according to data released last week by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Also for the second year in a row, 40.7 percent of the babies born in the United States were born to unmarried mothers.

The fertility rate is the number of births per 1,000 women aged 15-44. In 2012–according to the Dec. 30, 2013 CDC report “Births: Final Data for 2012″–the U.S. fertility rate was 63.0. That was down from 63.2 in 2011, the previous all-time low.

“The 2012 general fertility rate (GFR) for the U.S. was 63.0 births per 1,000 women aged 15–44, down slightly (less than 1%) from the record low rate reported for the nation in 2011 (63.2),” said the CDC report.

The U.S. fertility rate has dropped from year-to-year for each of the last five years. In 2007, it was 69.3. In 2008, it was 68.1. In 2009, it was 66.2. In 2010, it was 64.1. In 2011, it was 63.2. And, in 2012, it was 63.0.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Escape Poverty: Graduate, Work, Get Married, Have Kids

Fifty years ago today, in his State of the Union Address, President Lyndon Johnson declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.”

Over the next two years, he massively expanded the federal government, creating Medicaid, Medicare and the food stamp program, and increasing federal involvement in public education.

What impact did this have on poverty?

In the mid-1960s, as measured by the Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans living in poverty was on its way down, dropping from 22.4 percent in 1959 to 14.7 percent by 1966.

MARRIED WITH CHILDREN-CHART

Yet, since Johnson declared his war on poverty in 1964, the poverty rate has never dropped below 11.1 percent (the level it hit in 1973) and there has been only one three-year period when it persisted above 15 percent.

Read more from this story HERE.

Fukushima Fall-Out Fears as Double the Normal Amount of Radiation is Found on San Fran Beach, in Missouri Snow (+video)

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

By Marie-louise Olson.

A beach in San Francisco contains five times the safe levels of radiation fueling concerns that Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant’s crisis is impacting areas across the country.

It comes just days after radiation readings were found to be double the normal amount in Missouri’s recent snowfall.

According to YouTube user, DutchSinse, who posted a video of him taking the Geiger readings in St Louis, the findings mean that ‘small particles of radioactive material are indeed coming down in the precipitation. Past tests show around 30CPM in the same spot on a nice day with no precipitation’.

He said snowstorms in 2012 also showed alert level radiation readings.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AFP Photo / Spencer Platt

Photo Credit: AFP Photo / Spencer Platt

Officials reject concerns over 500 percent radiation increase on California beach

Health officials in California are now telling residents not to worry after a video uploaded to the internet last month seemed to show high levels of radiation at a Pacific Coast beach.

The video, “Fukushima radiation hits San Francisco,” has been viewed nearly half-a-million times since being uploaded to YouTube on Christmas Eve, and its contents have caused concern among residents who fear that nuclear waste from the March 2011 disaster in Japan may be arriving on their side of the Pacific Ocean.

Throughout the course of the seven-minute-long clip, a man tests out his Geiger counter radiation detector while walking through Pacifica State Beach outside of San Francisco. At times, the monitor on the machine seems to show radiation of 150 counts-per-minute, or the equivalent of around five times what is typically found in that type of environment.

After the video began to go viral last month, local, state and federal officials began to investigate claims that waste from the Fukushima nuclear plant has washed ashore in California. Only now, though, are authorities saying that they have no reason to believe that conditions along the West Coast are unsafe.

Read more from this story HERE.

[Editor’s Note: The source story is from RT News. RT News originates from Russia and has alleged connections to the Russian government.]

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UPDATE: Removal of nuclear fuel at Fukushima plant resumes

By THE ASAHI SHIMBUN. Work to remove nuclear fuel from a damaged reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was proceeding smoothly as efforts resumed Jan. 6 after the conclusion of the New Year’s holidays.

Work initially got under way on Nov. 18 at the storage pool of the damaged No. 4 reactor building to remove 1,533 nuclear fuel assemblies, but was suspended Dec. 22 for the holiday period.

Two officials from the Fukushima prefectural government’s safety management division observed the resumption of the removal work for an hour during the afternoon of Jan. 7.

Read more from this story HERE.
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Fukushima: Dispelling the Myths

By Joel I. Cehn. Wild speculation on the widespread dangers of Fukushima radioactive fallout has been popping up lately, including posts on the Internet with titles like “Holy Fukushima—Radiation From Japan Is Already Killing North Americans.” These are thin on facts and create more heat than light. But they do certainly grab our attention. For example, videos and news out of California and Missouri claim that high levels of radiation were detected. What they mean is “higher” levels of ambient radiation. Higher than what? Well, higher than measured elsewhere. Here’s the bottom line: natural levels vary a lot. I can see large variations around my own neighborhood. Tenfold differences are not unusual. This is due to a lot of factors, including ground cover, building materials, minerals in the soil, and even weather conditions.

It is true that the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and resulting tsunami wreaked havoc on Japan. It also resulted in the largest nuclear power plant accident since Chernobyl when the tsunami damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Radioactive particles were released into the atmosphere and ocean, which effectively closed local Japanese fisheries.

While there were unfortunate effects from the disaster around the Fukushima Power Plant in Japan, the facts show that people in Alaska, Hawaii, and the West Coast of the United States aren’t in any danger.

The fuel rods in the Fukushima power plant partially melted and radionuclides were released into the ocean. To a lesser extent, radionuclides were also released into the air and were absorbed by the ocean when they rained down upon it. These two pathways introduced mostly iodine-131, cesium-137, cesium-134, and strontium-90 into the area surrounding the power plant. Only two of those remain today (cesium-137 and strontium-90), because the other two radionuclides have short half-lives and have since decayed away.

We have no accurate estimates of how much of each of these radionuclides was released into the ocean, but the current estimates are above levels released by the Three Mile Island accident, but below levels released by the Chernobyl accident. How much will reach the U.S. West Coast? Answer: not much—certainly not enough to increase radiation levels five- or tenfold. Claims of such increases are the tip-off that facts are being sacrificed for attention. The good news is that factual information is available to those interested, and this Health Physics Society website is a good place to start.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gun Sales Hit New Record, Ammo Boom to Follow (+video)

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Photo Credit: Official White House Photo

Photo Credit: Official White House Photo

Gun records checks, fueled by a post-Newtown boom of gun sales, hit a new high in 2013, and industry analysts expect ammunition to be the big seller this year as consumers catch up to all of those firearms purchases.

More than 21 million applications were run through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System last year, marking nearly an 8 percent increase and the 11th straight year that the number has risen.

Background checks serve as a proxy for the number of gun sales, which soared in the months immediately after the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. But NICS checks plummeted in November and December compared with a year earlier, suggesting that the boom may be over.

“2013 was the best year for firearm sales (commercial, domestic) in history — period! That’s true for NH to Hawaii,” said Richard Feldman, president of the Independent Firearm Owners Association in Rindge, N.H. “Ruger alone sold well over one million guns this year.”

Mr. Feldman said to expect the next surge to be in bullets.

Read more from this story HERE.

50 Years and Over $20 Trillion Later, How the War on Poverty Was Lost

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ED-AR697_Rector_DV_20140107134254On Jan. 8, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson used his State of the Union address to announce an ambitious government undertaking. “This administration today, here and now,” he thundered, “declares unconditional war on poverty in America.”

Fifty years later, we’re losing that war. Fifteen percent of Americans still live in poverty, according to the official census poverty report for 2012, unchanged since the mid-1960s. Liberals argue that we aren’t spending enough money on poverty-fighting programs, but that’s not the problem. In reality, we’re losing the war on poverty because we have forgotten the original goal, as LBJ stated it half a century ago: “to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities.”

The federal government currently runs more than 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing, medical care and targeted social services to poor and low-income Americans. Government spent $916 billion on these programs in 2012 alone, and roughly 100 million Americans received aid from at least one of them, at an average cost of $9,000 per recipient. (That figure doesn’t include Social Security or Medicare benefits.) Federal and state welfare spending, adjusted for inflation, is 16 times greater than it was in 1964. If converted to cash, current means-tested spending is five times the amount needed to eliminate all official poverty in the U.S.

LBJ promised that the war on poverty would be an “investment” that would “return its cost manifold to the entire economy.” But the country has invested $20.7 trillion in 2011 dollars over the past 50 years. What does America have to show for its investment? Apparently, almost nothing: The official poverty rate persists with little improvement.

That is in part because the government’s poverty figures are misleading. Census defines a family as poor based on income level but doesn’t count welfare benefits as a form of income. Thus, government means-tested spending can grow infinitely while the poverty rate remains stagnant.

Read more from this story HERE.

Unconscionable: Billions Spent on Climate Change While Veterans’ Pay Gets Cut

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Photo by Gandydancer

Photo by Gandydancer

As Congress prepares to open session this year, Washington is abuzz about the Obama Administration’s intentions to finally take action on global warming, a.k.a. “climate change.”

Ironically, record snowfall is slamming the northeast, while the Midwest has passed into the deep-freeze with unprecedented temperatures as low as -40 degrees, and windchills registering in at -70.

In the mean time, China and Russia are petitioning the United States Coast Guard to assist with the rescue of two stranded ships off Antarctica that were trapped in the summer sea ice while ostensibly studying the effects of “climate change.”

Nevertheless, it was reported this past weekend that, between 2010-2012, the federal government had dished out more than $7.4 billion in foreign aid to mitigate the effects of “climate change.”

Why do I bring this up? Because it is indicative of the kind of big government nonsense that has preoccupied Washington for the last twenty years. And it is “Exhibit A” for why we are $17.4 trillion in debt, and counting . . .

Yet Barack Obama’s favorite Alaskan lapdog, Senator Mark Begich, had no problem voting for a Ryan-Murray budget that slashed military retirement pay for our veterans, and all for the purpose of reportedly saving $6 billion over the course of the next several years.

It’s time to tell Congress to get real! When Washington can blow more money on foreign aid on fairy-tale solutions to a questionable phenomenon, than to keep their commitments to our nation’s veterans, there’s something desperately wrong.

When I’m elected to the United States Senate, you won’t have to wonder whether I’m going to scam your money to fund this internationalist racket. I won’t. But you can be assured that I will fight every day to make sure our military veterans are taken care of, and you can take that to the bank.

In fact, if Congress doesn’t address this outrageous betrayal of our military before I’m sworn in as your next United States Senator, I’ll personally introduce legislation to strip so-called “climate change” funding from the foreign aid budget, and fund our military veterans with the savings.

Mark Begich and both of my GOP primary opponents are all subscribers to the international climate change racket. If that’s your thing, you’ll have lots of options in 2014. But if you want someone who will stand up to this massive federal intrusion, I ask for your support.

Thank you for your faith and friendship!

In the Fight,

Joe Miller, Candidate
United States Senate

U.S. Waived Laws to Keep F-35 on Track with China-Made Parts

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Photo Credit: Reuters/U.S. Navy/Handout

Photo Credit: Reuters/U.S. Navy/Handout

The Pentagon repeatedly waived laws banning Chinese-built components on U.S. weapons in order to keep the $392 billion Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter program on track in 2012 and 2013, even as U.S. officials were voicing concern about China’s espionage and military buildup.

According to Pentagon documents reviewed by Reuters, chief U.S. arms buyer Frank Kendall allowed two F-35 suppliers, Northrop Grumman Corp and Honeywell International Inc, to use Chinese magnets for the new warplane’s radar system, landing gears and other hardware. Without the waivers, both companies could have faced sanctions for violating federal law and the F-35 program could have faced further delays.

“It was a pretty big deal and an unusual situation because there’s a prohibition on doing defense work in China, even if it’s inadvertent,” said Frank Kenlon, who recently retired as a senior Pentagon procurement official and now teaches at American University. “I’d never seen this happen before.”

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is examining three such cases involving the F-35, the U.S. military’s next generation fighter, the documents show.

The GAO report, due March 1, was ordered by U.S. lawmakers, who say they are concerned that Americans firms are being shut out of the specialty metals market, and that a U.S. weapon system may become dependent on parts made by a potential future adversary.

Read more from this story HERE.

NY Group Unveils Design for Satan Statue Next to 10 Commandments in Oklahoma (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Associated Press.

A satanic group unveiled designs Monday for a 7-foot-tall statue of Satan it wants to put at the Oklahoma state Capitol, where a Ten Commandments monument was placed in 2012.

The New York-based Satanic Temple formally submitted its application to a panel that oversees the Capitol grounds, including an artist’s rendering that depicts Satan as Baphomet, a goat-headed figure with horns, wings and a long beard that’s often used as a symbol of the occult. In the rendering, Satan is sitting in a pentagram-adorned throne with smiling children next to him.

“The monument has been designed to reflect the views of Satanists in Oklahoma City and beyond,” temple spokesman Lucien Greaves said in a statement. “The statue will also have a functional purpose as a chair where people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan for inspiration and contemplation.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Satanists unveil design for OK statehouse statue

By Daniel Burke.

Satanists have unveiled their design for a proposed statue at the Oklahoma state Capitol, including a place for people to sit on the devil’s lap “for inspiration and contemplation.”

The New York-based Satanic Temple submitted its proposal to Oklahoma officials this month after applying for a spot on capitol grounds late last year. The Satanists say their statue would “complement and contrast” with a Ten Commandments monument placed at the Capitol in Oklahoma City in 2012.

The Satanists’ proposed monument depicts Baphomet, a goat-headed pagan idol sitting on a 7-foot-tall throne inscribed with an inverted pentagram. In an artist’s rendering provided by the Satanic Temple, smiling children look adoringly at the devilish figure.

“The statue will serve as a beacon calling for compassion and empathy among all living creatures,” Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the Satanic Temple, said in a statement. “The statue will also have a functional purpose as a chair where people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan for inspiration and contemplation.”

According to its Indiegogo page, the Satanists have raised more than $16,000 toward their goal of $20,000 for the monument, which Greaves said would “be a historical marker commemorating the scapegoats, the marginalized, the demonized minority and the unjustly outcast.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Nuns Threatened with $4.5 Million Fines for Not Violating Beliefs (+video)

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Photo Credit: State Library of Victoria Collections/flickr

Photo Credit: State Library of Victoria Collections/flickr

Of the dozens of lawsuits against Obamacare’s requirement that employers pay for abortifacients, probably no other exemplifies the Obama administration’s dedication to abortion at the expense of religious beliefs than the case against the Little Sisters of the Poor.

The order of nuns, founded in the early 1800s, is dedicated to helping the poorest of the seniors and to acting in Christ’s stead whenever they can.

Members are not making public statements on their legal case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court – they leave that to their attorneys. But they have prepared a video that communicates their priorities: Christ and their patients.

Sister Mary Bernard explains: “We’re here to live for Him, and for Him and the elderly. That’s our life.”

The nun said that when “people you care for look up at you, they want to see Christ’s face. ”

Read more from this story HERE.

Group of Arizona Republicans to Censure John McCain for Siding with ‘Liberal Democrats’

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

A contingent of Arizona Republicans is set to vote this weekend on whether to censure GOP Sen. John McCain over his “long and terrible record of drafting, co-sponsoring and voting for legislation best associated with liberal Democrats.”…

Here’s the full text of the proposed censure, posted on icarizona.com:

Senator John McCain Censured by Arizona’s Republican Leadership

As leaders in the Republican Party, we are obligated to fully support our Party, platform, and its candidates. Only in times of great crisis or betrayal is it necessary to publicly censure our leaders. Today we are faced with both. For too long we have waited, hoping Senator McCain would return to our Party’s values on his own. That has not happened. So with sadness and humility we rise and declare;

Whereas Senator McCain has amassed a long and terrible record of drafting, co-sponsoring and voting for legislation best associated with liberal Democrats, such as Amnesty, funding for ObamaCare, the debt ceiling, assaults on the Constitution and 2nd amendment, and has continued to support liberal nominees…

Read more from this story HERE.