Commander: U.S. Military Not Ready for Cyber Warfare

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Gen. Keith Alexander / APThe U.S. military is ill-prepared for waging cyber warfare and needs to bolster defenses against the growing threat of cyber attacks against both military systems and private infrastructure, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command told Congress on Thursday.

“Those attacks are coming and I think those are near term and we’re not ready for them,” said Army Gen. Keith Alexander, head of Cyber Command and also outgoing director of the National Security Agency.

Alexander, in prepared testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, sounded the alarm on the need for better cyber attack and defense capabilities. He said the command’s priorities include setting up a secure “defensible” telecommunications architecture, training cyber warfare personnel, increasing intelligence data on global cyber threats, and clarifying lines of authority for conducting cyber attacks and defending government and private networks.

Cyber Command, currently staffed by 1,100 people, is making progress in all areas, said Alexander, who retires next month. However, he warned that cyber threats are increasing, shifting from temporarily disruptive attacks, to extremely damaging cyber strikes that can destroy data and machines, and potentially threaten the U.S. economy and endanger American lives.

“Despite our progress at U.S. [Cyber Command], I worry that we might not be ready in time,” he said. “Threats to our nation in cyberspace are growing.”

Read more this story HERE.

SC Officer Shoots Man Reaching for Cane

/2 Comments/in , /by

A police officer in South Carolina shot a 70-year-old motorist who was reaching for a cane during a traffic stop because he thought the man was grabbing a rifle from the bed of his pickup truck, investigators said. The man was expected to survive.

The York County deputy, Terrence Knox, pulled over Bobby Canipe (kah-NYP’) of Lincolnton, N.C., for an expired license tag about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday north of Clover, S.C., York County sheriff’s spokesman Trent Faris said.

After stopping, Canipe got out of his pickup truck and reached into the bed, pulling out what Knox thought was a long-barreled rifle, Faris said. It was Canipe’s walking cane. The officer fired several times, hitting Canipe once, Faris said.

Read more this story HERE.

Texas City Working To Turn Sewer Water Into Tap Water (+video)

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Titanas/flickrDrastic times call for drastic measures. But what would it take for you to drink tap water that had been recycled straight from the sewer?

The concept sounds crazy but it could happen soon in one North Texas city. Wichita Falls is two hours outside of Dallas. Three years ago 88-percent of Texas was under exceptional drought conditions – that’s the worst classification of drought. Today there are just two small areas that still have that designation and the city of Wichita Falls is in one of them.

You need drive no further than nearby Lake Arrowhead to see how bad the drought is. The lake is one of the main water sources for the town, but it’s only at about 27-percent capacity. Boat docks stand 10 to 15 feet above dry land and the nearest water is hundreds of feet away. The lake bed is littered with dead fish and shells. When the wind blows you’re reminded of a dustbowl.

Every time the water in the lake drops, officials in Wichita Falls consider enacting more severe water restrictions. Through conservation efforts, city water usage dropped from between 45 and 50 million gallons of water each day before the drought, to 12 million gallons a day now. But the water savings still aren’t enough.

“This reuse system will put five million gallons [of water] back in the distribution system a day,” explained Mayor Glenn Barham. “So, it saves us taking five million gallons out of the lake.”

Read more this story HERE.

Ted Cruz Blasts Obama for Failing Venezuela: ‘Negotiating with Tyrants and Bullies Never Works’

/7 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Fernando LlanoSen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spoke out strongly in support of the political uprising in Venezuela and criticized President Obama for his history of “negotiating with tyrants and bullies” in the country.

Cruz criticized a State Department spokeswoman who explained Tuesday that the United States was open to closer engagement with the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

“Negotiating with tyrants and bullies never works,” Cruz said, calling for the United States to demand the tyrannical government to stop oppressing its people and censoring the media.

Read more this story HERE.

Rand Paul – An Early GOP Presidential Front-Runner

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFPRepublican strategists like to say the party’s next nominee needs to hail from the GOP’s gubernatorial ranks. It’s a response to how unpopular Washington is—particularly the party’s congressional wing—and a reflection of the party’s strength in holding a majority of governorships. But another reason for the gubernatorial focus is to sidestep the one formidable candidate that gives the establishment heartburn: Sen. Rand Paul.

Make no mistake: The Kentuckian scares the living daylights out of many Republicans looking for an electable nominee capable of challenging Hillary Clinton. At the same time, he’s working overtime to broaden the party’s image outside its traditional avenues of support. The 2016 Republican nominating fight will go a long way toward determining whether Paul is the modern version of Barry Goldwater or at the leading edge of a new, more libertarian brand of Republicanism.

“That’s the big challenge—is America ready? I think that Rand and his small-L libertarian Republicanism can break through,” said Paul’s longtime adviser Jesse Benton. “He’s a fundamentally better messenger than Barry Goldwater—[Goldwater’s 1964 campaign slogan] ‘In your heart you know he’s right’ is not very compelling. Rand is a wonderful communicator, and I think a message of individual liberty can build wide support.”

Either way, Paul’s brand of politics is a distinct departure from the party’s traditional moorings. His occasional sympathy for Edward Snowden puts him on an island within the party. His critique of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance techniques and noninterventionist views on foreign policy are gaining some conservative followers, but are still outside the party mainstream. Many conservative foreign policy hawks could sooner support Clinton than Paul in a 2016 matchup.

Read more this story HERE.

Brewer’s Foolish Veto

/9 Comments/in , /by

By Rich Lowry.

It was jarring to read the coverage of the new “anti-gay bill” passed by the Arizona Legislature and then look up the text of the instantly notorious SB 1062. The bill was roughly 998 pages shorter than much of legislation that passes in Washington, so reading it didn’t take much of a commitment. Clocking in at barely two pages, it was easy to scan for disparaging references to homosexuality, for veiled references to homosexuality, for any references to homosexuality at all.

They weren’t there. A headline from The Week declared, “There is nothing Christian about Arizona’s anti-gay bill.” It would be more accurate to say that there was nothing anti-gay about Arizona’s anti-gay bill.

The legislation consisted of minor clarifications of the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which has been on the books for 15 years and is modeled on the federal act that passed with big bipartisan majorities in the 1990s and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton…

Eleven legal experts on religious freedom statutes — who represent a variety of views on gay marriage — wrote a letter to Gov. Brewer prior to her veto explaining how the bill “has been egregiously misrepresented by many of its critics.”

In addition to the federal government, 18 states have such statutes and about a dozen other states interpret their state constitutions as extending the same protections, according to the letter. The statutes, the scholars write, “say that before government can burden a person’s religious exercise, the government has to show a compelling justification.”

Read more from this story HERE.

___________________________________________________________________________________
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Ross D. FranklinBy Bob Christie.

Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday vetoed a Republican bill that set off a national debate over gay rights, religion and discrimination and subjected Arizona to blistering criticism from major corporations and political leaders from both parties.

Loud cheers erupted outside the Capitol building immediately after Brewer made her announcement.

“My agenda is to sign into law legislation that advances Arizona,” Brewer said at a news conference. “I call them like I see them despite the cheers or the boos from the crowd. After weighing all the arguments, I have vetoed Senate Bill 1062 moments ago.”

The Republican governor said she gave the legislation careful deliberation in talking to her lawyers, citizens, businesses and lawmakers on both sides of the debate. Her office said it received more than 40,000 calls and emails on the legislation, with most of them urging a veto.

Brewer said the bill “could divide Arizona in ways we could not even imagine and no one would ever want.” The bill was broadly worded and could result in unintended negative consequences, she added.

Read more this story HERE.

National Young Republican Vice Chair: Tea Party ‘Senile,’ Full of ‘Bullies’

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Breitbart An animated discussion over the proper role of the Tea Party in the greater conservative movement erupted on Twitter Tuesday night when Southern Regional Vice Chair Luke Niles of the Young Republican National Federation (YRNF) labeled grassroots activists as “senile.” He further labeled them “bullies” and prone to “temper tantrum[s].”

Niles engaged with a number of individuals taking issue with his claims, including Breitbart Texas’ Managing Director Brandon Darby.

The dialogue took a rather ironic trajectory when Niles categorically labeled grassroots activists in the Tea Party as “senile angry people mad at everything.”

Read more this story HERE.

Witnesses Warn House Panel: US Is in a ‘Constitutional Crisis’

/3 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: ‘caveman chuck’ cokerMultiple witnesses told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that Congress is in danger of ceding all of its power to the presidency if it continues on the path it is on.

“We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis with sweeping implications for our system of government, constitutional lawyer Jonathan Turley told the committee. “For Congress not to act borders on self-loathing.”

“If you want to stay relevant as an institution, I would suggest that you not stand idly by and let the president take your power away,” testified Elizabeth Price Foley, a law professor at Florida International University.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, heads the committee and told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, “It didn’t start with Obama.”

Read more this story HERE.

Planned Parenthood Told Them Their Abortion Was Risk-Free, Now They Can’t Have Children (+video)

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: LifeNewsBy Brad Mattes.

There’s a group of women Planned Parenthood doesn’t want to talk about. In fact, they won’t even admit they exist. They’ll gladly usher vulnerable women into their abortion chambers. But when those very same women experience physical or psychological effects of their abortion, they’re considered an anomaly.

They don’t fit the façade the abortion industry has carefully built for public consumption. According to the Planned Parenthood website, there are no long-term risks associated with abortion. They reject any link between abortion and breast cancer. They deny that women may experience intense psychological consequences. And they claim there’s no relationship between abortion and infertility, miscarriage or future premature birth. Call it misleading, neglectful or deceptive, Planned Parenthood’s marketing is intentionally designed to point women in one direction—in favor of abortion.

The ramifications for women’s health and future fertility are huge. Planned Parenthood cites that in the US, an estimated 4 out of 10 women facing an unplanned pregnancy will choose abortion. That means millions of women are post-abortive. What’s important to note is the impact may not be felt immediately. Many women experience an initial sense of relief. In their minds, their “problem” has been taken care of. Later, when issues do surface, she may not make the connection that there’s a link to her abortion experience. These women then suffer from what seems to be unexplained physical or mental conditions.

A study from Norway shows that abortion can be tied to long-term psychological distress. For five years, researchers followed women who had miscarriages and women who had abortions. What they discovered was that women who suffered a miscarriage, experienced more anxiety and depression early on. But abortion was associated with increased anxiety two years and five years after the event.

Pro-abortion activists want you to believe that abortion is “safe.” Not true. And when things go wrong, it can be physically devastating. Planned Parenthood in Birmingham, Alabama was sued when a botched abortion left a young woman infertile. Roberta Clark came to have a “safe and legal” first-trimester abortion. An ultrasound was performed and the worker concluded that she was eight weeks, four days pregnant with an intrauterine pregnancy. A pelvic exam was given confirming the same diagnosis.

Read more this story HERE.

________________________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Susan WalshPlanned Parenthood Produces Video Promoting Bondage and Sadomasochism to Teens

By Barbara Hollingsworth.

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE)–which received more than $2.75 million in government funding in 2012–has produced and posted online a video specifically aimed at teenagers that promotes bondage and sadomasochism (BDSM) and proposes “rules” to follow when engaging in these activities.

“People sometimes think that those who practice BDSM are emotionally scarred or were once abused—not true, it’s a total myth,” the host of the video, Laci Green, informs its intended audience of teens.

“BDSM relies upon and creates trust,” she says.

In a message published at the beginning of PPNNE’s 2012 annual report, PPNNE President Meagan Gallagher described the genesis of the project that produced the video on bondage and sadomasochism.

Read more this story HERE.

Chain Cites ‘Copyright Law’ in Refusing to Print Images of Bible Verses, Woman Says

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Kelly TaylorA Mississippi woman says she waged a nearly three-week battle to get pictures of Bible Scripture printed, after the photo department at a national chain store insisted that her images of Gospel inspiration violated copyright laws.

Kelly Taylor, 46, of Gulfport, told FoxNews.com her local Walgreens refused to process two prints of Scripture verses she had ordered online, first blaming it on a “technical issue,” then explaining it was due to copyright law — which has never applied to the Good Book.

“I was in total shock; it just dumbfounded me the whole day,” she said. “I feel this is an attack on Christians.”

After a clerk told her the order had been deep-sixed, Taylor got an explanation by way of an automated email.

“Hello Kelly! Due to a technical issue we were unable to process your print order at this time,” the email read. “For more details, contact a photo team associate — they’re happy to help! Just have your order number handy.”

Read more this story HERE.