‘It Sounds Vaguely Like a Threat’: Rand Paul Wary of Obama’s Plan to Override Congress

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Brendan Bordelon.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is concerned about the White House’s promise to work around Congress through the use of executive orders and administrative fiat, claiming President Barack Obama’s comments to that effect “sound vaguely like a threat.”

Paul spoke with CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday about the president’s claim that — although he would like to work with congressional Republicans — he will use his “pen” and “phone” to enact federal law if they fail to approve his policies. “When you hear the president talk about that, what does it say to you?” Crowley asked.

“It sounds vaguely like a threat,” the senator responded, “and I think it also has a certain amount of arrogance, in the sense that one of the fundamental principles of our country were the checks and balances, that it wasn’t supposed to be easy to pass legislation. You had to debate and convince people.”

Read more from this story HERE.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: Examiner File/Graeme Jennings

Photo Credit: Examiner File/Graeme Jennings

Sen. Rand Paul: GOP phrasing ‘somewhat’ to blame for shortcomings with women, minorities

by Zack Colman.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday that his party’s sometimes clumsy word choice when speaking about women and minorities is “somewhat” to blame for failing to connect with those demographics.

Paul, who made the comment on CNN’s “State of the Union,” was speaking of remarks last week from former Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Huckabee said that Democrats are telling women that they “cannot control their libido” without government help, which he referred to as “Uncle Sugar.”

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Missing’ Congressman Stockman In Russia as Part of Congressional Delegation; Rips Media for False Reporting

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

By Brandon Darby and Jonathan Strong.

Missing Texas Congressman Steve Stockman told an associate he was headed to Russia to meet with Vladimir Putin, according to an electronic communication reviewed by Breitbart News, and now says he is in London…

Stockman broke his silence on the matter in a text message sent to Breitbart News at 3:26am central time.

“I am on a bipartisan codel. I’m on foreign affairs. Part of my work,” Stockman said, adding that he doesn’t know why a Houston Chronicle reporter said “I’m missing” because “we met with the press every day.”

Stockman also said “I am in a meeting now – London.”

Read more from this story HERE.

_______________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Steve Stockman details overseas travels, rips media

By Brandon Darby and Jonathan Strong.

Rep. Steve Stockman told Breitbart News he traveled to Russia, Egypt, Israel and England as part of an official congressional delegation and ripped the media for what he described as a made-up story about his absence from Congress and his Texas district.

The Texas Congressman said members of the delegation held press conferences in each city they visited and that a reporter for the Associated Press – the news organization which most prominently raised questions about Stockman’s whereabouts – had a reporter at one such event in Egypt.

Stockman said the purpose of the trip was to discuss issues relating to terrorism with foreign governments and said the group of lawmakers met with the President of Egypt and a top-ranking general in Israel.

Though the group of five House members had been scheduled to meet with Vladimir Putin, the Russian President canceled because of meetings in Davos, Stockman said.

Stockman said the group had also wanted to meet with former NSA contractor and whistle-blower Edward Snowden but did not have enough time because of urgent meetings about terrorist threats to the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Won’t Pay ‘Ransom’ for Debt Limit Hike

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer on Sunday pressed Republican lawmakers to raise the debt ceiling without conditions, saying that the American people “should not have to pay Congress ransom.”

But Pfeiffer sidestepped questions about whether Obama would veto a bill that did not offer a clean debt hike.

“Our position on this is the same as it was in October and the same as it has been for more than a year,” said Pfeiffer on “Fox News Sunday.” The American people should not have to pay their members of Congress ransom for doing their most basic function which is paying the bills.”

A GOP effort to defund Obamacare led to a 16-day federal government shutdown in October and brought the U.S. to within hours of defaulting on its debt.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sen. Sessions: Immigration Spikes Income Inequality

Photo Credit: Jacquelyn Martin, AP

Photo Credit: Jacquelyn Martin, AP

In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Obama is expected to discuss the plight of American workers. At the same time, he is pushing Republicans to pass an immigration plan making the problem worse by increasing the flow of immigrant workers to compete against unemployed Americans and those struggling to get by in low-wage jobs. Yet, alarmingly, the move is regarded as a part of Obama’s agenda that has a chance of becoming law.

House Republicans should reply to the president’s immigration effort with a simple message: Our first duty is to help struggling Americans find good work and rising wages.

The president’s own economic adviser, Gene Sperling, recently noted that there are three unemployed people for every job available. Wages today have been flat since 2000. Last year, a record one in five American households received food stamps.

This is a national emergency.

So what is the president’s proposal? With three job seekers for every open job, he proposes doubling the number of guest workers entering every year, granting immediate work permits to millions of illegal immigrants, and tripling the number of new immigrants granted permanent residency over the next decade.

Today, the U.S. admits 1 million immigrants a year. The plan supported by the president and Senate Democrats would increase that to 3 million a year, or 30 million largely lower-skill immigrants over the next 10.

Read more from this story HERE.

If You Like Obama’s Executive Orders, You Are Going to Love 2014

Photo Credit: Townhall

Photo Credit: Townhall

The American system of government has as it’s chief executive, a president who is carefully checked by a watchful Congress and a consientious judiciary.

Except, when it isn’t.

Case in point: Our president plans to rule us – not govern us – by using the vast powers of his office and absolute control of the federal bureaucracy to ram his vision of hope and change down our throats. Done without the approval of Congress and with little challenge from the judiciary.

Can he get away with it? Watch him:

The new plan “is to bring all of the government alive in a way we have never been very good at,” said another official.

“We’ll be doing that as aggressively as possible…. and if we succeed, that is a big presidency,” a senior administration official told the Post.

Read more from this story HERE.

HSBC Imposes Restrictions On Large Cash Withdrawals

Photo Credit: BBC

Photo Credit: BBC

Some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it, the BBC has learnt.

Listeners have told Radio 4’s Money Box they were stopped from withdrawing amounts ranging from £5,000 to £10,000.

HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November.

The bank says it has now changed its guidance to staff.

New rules

Stephen Cotton went to his local HSBC branch this month to withdraw £7,000 from his instant access savings account to pay back a loan from his mother.

Read more from this story HERE.

Iranian Official Confirms Country Sought to Build Nuclear Weapons

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

A founder of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards now admits that the Islamic Republic was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. This is the first time any regime official has made such an admission, even as another report claims that one of Iran’s most radical clerics was the spiritual overseer of the nuclear weapons program.

“We pursued ways in order to gain nuclear arms,” Gen. Mohsen Rafiqdoost told the regime’s Mehr News on Saturday. “I asked Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] what his opinion was. He said do not pursue atoms, and we stopped.”

But that claim falls short of the truth. In the late 1980s, a letter by Mohsen Rezaei, then the chief commander of the Guards, asking Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution, for approval of the nuclear bomb program was revealed. It showed the leader had approved of seeking nuclear weapons.

Rafiqdoost became the first minister of the Guards and was in charge of purchasing arms on the black market.

Iranian officials have for a long time denied that there ever was a nuclear bomb program and have consistently insisted that the country’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes to help feed its only existing nuclear power plant and ones the country plans to build.

Read more from this story HERE.

Michigan Gov Rick Snyder Endorses Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

On Friday, Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder emphatically supported comprehensive immigration reform and implied that enforcement of the current immigration laws were “dumb” at an event with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“We need comprehensive immigration reform,” Snyder said at an immigration summit on Friday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “That’s the bottom line. To be blunt, we have a dumb system.”

Read more from this story HERE.

US Forces Launch Missile Strike Against Shebab Leader in Somalia

Photo Credit: AFP Photo/Mohamed Abdiwahab

Photo Credit: AFP Photo/Mohamed Abdiwahab

The US military launched a missile strike in Somalia on Sunday targeting a suspected Shebab militant leader, defense officials said.

One of the officials said an unmanned drone launched the missile in the late evening hours, but declined to confirm the suspect’s identity or whether the strike was successful.

The US government has “been tracking this guy for years,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A second US official said the strike in the southeastern port town of Barawe “was against a senior Shebab commander.”

“The US is assessing the results of the operation” to determine if the suspect was killed, the official added.

Read more from this story HERE.

Congressional Black Caucus Unhappy with Obama Judicial Appointments

Photo Credit: Neon Tommy

Photo Credit: Neon Tommy

The Hill’s Mike Lillis, reports that leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) plan to “publicly rebuke” President Obama because of the “lack of diversity’ in his federal judicial appointments.”

It’s hard to understand the CBC’s complaint. According to Freddie Allen, Obama’s judicial appointments have resulted in a higher rate of Black judges confirmed than any other president in history. Research compiled by the Alliance for Justice, demonstrated that so far during the Obama administration, Blacks have accounted for 18.7 percent of the federal judicial confirmations, more than the 7.3 percent under George W. Bush or the 16.4 percent under Bill Clinton.

Its not just Blacks, Obama’s judicial appointees are more diverse among other demographics:

“During the Obama administration, 41 percent of the federal judges that have been confirmed are women, compared to 22 percent under George W. Bush and 29 percent for Clinton.

President Obama has also managed to get more Asian Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and gays confirmed to the federal bench than either Bush or Clinton.”

Read more from this story HERE.