US Sending Marines to Africa in Preparation for Evacuations in South Sudan

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

The U.S. military is sending Marines and aircraft to the Horn of Africa in anticipation they may be needed to respond to the violence in South Sudan, Fox News confirms.

A senior U.S. Defense official told Fox News that 150 Marines are being moved from Moron, Spain, to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, in case the State Department asks for their assistance in evacuating U.S. citizens left in South Sudan. So far, no request from the department has yet come in to evacuate the roughly 100 U.S. citizens left in the country.

The decision comes after four U.S. troops were injured Saturday when gunfire hit evacuation aircraft. Three of those troops are stable and being sent to the military hospital in Germany, a spokesman said, while the fourth continues to get treatment in Nairobi, in neighboring Kenya.

A few dozen U.S. troops already are in South Sudan providing security. Others are in Djibouti, where the U.S. maintains its only permanent military base in Africa. Ten aircraft are now stationed there including Osprey helicopters and C-130 transport planes.

The U.S. continued intense diplomatic efforts Monday to calm the roiling ethnic violence, including holding a meeting between the U.S. special envoy for South Sudan, Donald Booth, and South Sudan President Salva Kiir.

Read more from this story HERE.

Tiny Miracle Baby Beats the Odds and Brings Big Joy for Christmas

Photo Credit: Florida Hospital

Photo Credit: Florida Hospital

When Connor Sorensen was born six months ago, he weighed less than a pound and his father’s wedding ring fit loosely around his tiny leg. Doctors weren’t sure if he would survive.

Today, he is going home to spend his first Christmas with his family.

Connor was just 14 ounces when he was born on June 29 — that’s two ounces less than a pound. He was only 24 weeks old and the smallest baby ever born at Florida Hospital in Orlando, Fla.

“When Connor was first born, the staff at the hospital suggested we take a lot of pictures,” Connor’s dad Eric Sorensen said, according to a hospital news release.

Read more from this story HERE.

Eagles Honor Cheerleader Turned Soldier

Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

Rachel Washburn once carried pompoms. Now she carries an M4 carbine.

The military brat who became an NFL cheerleader is today a first lieutenant in the United States Army.

On Sunday, she was honored as a Hometown Hero by the Philadelphia Eagles, the team she cheered for from 2007 to 2009.

The Bronze Star recipient served two tours of duty in Afghanistan, including one as a member of the Army’s new Cultural Support Program.

It was a dangerous and stressful job, where she would go on missions with special operations forces and help search and talk to Afghan women and children.

Read more from this story HERE.

Barbara Walters: ‘I Regret Not Having More Children’ (+video)

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

After a storied broadcast news career spanning five decades, Barbara Walters told CNN’s Piers Morgan that one of her biggest regrets in life was not having more children.

“I regret not having more children. I would have loved to have had a bigger family,” an emotional Walters, who has one adopted daughter, told CNN’s Piers Morgan in a Dec. 17 interview.

After several miscarriages, Walters adopted a daughter with second husband Lee Guber. Jacqueline Danforth, now 44, was named after Walters’ sister, who died in 1985.

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New Armored Tank for Town Police Sparks Fear, War of Words

Photo Credit: bizpacreview

Photo Credit: bizpacreview

A war of words has broken out over police force in California getting a new armored vehicle built more for a state of war than patrolling in the Golden State.

The Salinas Police Department recently issued a news release proudly announcing the arrival of the armored truck built to survive minefield explosions, which it got compliments of federal taxpayers as part of a program to convert military equipment to law-enforcement use.

Critics took to the police department’s Facebook page to ask exactly why a city of 150,000 on the northern California coast really needs a vehicle designed for battlefield use. It’s more likely to be used against its own citizens, they said..

“That vehicle is made for war. Do not use my safety to justify that vehicle,” one wrote. “The Salinas Police Department is just a bunch of cowards that want to use that vehicle as intimidation and to terrorize the citizens of this city.”

‘To stop gang members?” another wrote. “Hmmm gang members don’t riot in mass numbers. It’s right in front of our faces and we don’t see it. Why would the ARMY!!! give something like that for FREE!!! Let’s think for once people.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson Breaks His Silence: Reality Star Says He’s ‘a lover not a hater’ But REFUSES To Back Down

article-2528043-1A425F9700000578-41_634x563Phil Robertson spoke out on Sunday for the first time since a furor erupted last week over his comments regarding homosexuality in a GQ magazine interview. Will Payne, the author of the following article, mistakenly contended that Robertson’s comments were “homophobic,” but then went to report:

The Duck Dynasty patriarch led a small Bible study group in his home town church in West Monroe, Louisiana on Sunday, granting MailOnline exclusive access. And the deeply religious outdoorsman stood by his incendiary statements – which saw him call homosexuality a sin and led to his suspension from the hit reality show by network bosses at A&E.

During Sunday’s speech, he defended himself, saying he was simply quoting from the Bible and even went so far as to say Jesus could save gay people. ‘I love all men and women. I am a lover of humanity, not a hater,’ he added.

The 67-year-old has been slammed by gay rights groups since his interview in January’s issue of GQ magazine was made public last week. He was quoted as saying: ‘It seems like, to me, a vagina – as a man – would be more desirable than a man’s anus.

‘That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.’ But despite the criticism Robertson has faced, his family and local community have come to his defense and stood firmly behind him.

Read more from this story HERE.

Press Release – Combat Veterans for Congress PAC Endorses Joe Miller for U.S. Senate

Picture_Joe_Standing_By_Tank21c4daFairbanks, Alaska. December 23, 2013 – Joe Miller, candidate for U.S. Senate is proud to receive the endorsement of the Combat Veterans for Congress PAC.

The Combat Veterans for Congress enjoyed great success in the 2010 and 2012 campaign cycles seeing dozens of the candidates they endorsed elected to office. The group’s mission statement reads, “Combat Veterans For Congress Committee is dedicated to supporting the election of fiscally conservative Combat Veterans to Congress . . . who believe in limited government, will rein in the out of control spending of Congress, are committed to preserving and defending the US Constitution, and will support the independence and freedom of the individual as outlined in the Bill of Rights.”

In their endorsement, the Combat Veterans for Congress highlighted some of Miller’s achievements including being an honor graduate of West Point, holding a juris doctorate from Yale Law School and a masters in economics from the University of Alaska, being a veteran who was awarded the Bronze Star for his leadership in combat, as well as serving as a state and federal magistrate judge–the youngest then serving in those positions in the state and nation, respectively. Miller also had the distinction of being the only to serve at both the state and federal levels simultaneously in the nation at that time. Miller, in both the private practice of law and as a part-time borough attorney, has argued several cases successfully before the Alaska Supreme Court.

The group’s endorsement of Miller reads in part:

“The Combat Veterans For Congress PAC is pleased to endorse former Captain Joseph Miller, Esq., USA who will bring to Congress private sector skills and wisdom to better solve problems in government and represent the Alaska and the Republic…The military is one of the few remaining institutions producing the caliber of men and women needed to restore this nation to the greatness our Founding Fathers envisioned. We have endorsed another Combat Veteran For Congress that General George Washington would have approved of. He is a Veteran who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America’ for an amount up to and including his life.”

Miller responded to the group’s endorsement stating, “I am honored to receive the endorsement of the Combat Veterans for Congress Committee, and I am also proud to stand with my fellow veterans in defense of our Constitution. It is time to make America the land of liberty and opportunity the Founders intended, once again.”

Joe Miller is a husband, father, war veteran, businessman, and Constitutional conservative who believes in limited government, the Right to life, individual liberty, private property, and free markets.

Senator Tom Coburn: America in Debt Crisis ‘Not Because We Didn’t Agree, But Because We Did’ (+video)

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn turned conventional Washington wisdom on its head Sunday, telling NBC’s David Gregory that “the reason we’re in trouble on deficits and debts is not because we didn’t agree, but because we did.”

Coburn appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer to discuss the bipartisan budget deal that scuttled certain sequester cuts in exchange for spending reductions down the road. Gregory asked Coburn whether Republicans, in the wake of last week’s deal, would still demand concessions for raising the debt ceiling by next February.

Coburn opened with a subtle swipe at his own party. “I guess I can’t really speak for Republicans,” he claimed. “My thoughts are, the American people don’t believe we have a debt ceiling because we always increase it, and they don’t believe we have the discipline in Washington.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Benson, Oregon Math Teacher Fired for Pro-Life Views (+video)

Photo Credit: Free Patriot

Photo Credit: Free Patriot

With a major push to improve math scores through the Common Core in Oregon, it seems they can hardly afford to fire math teachers, particularly the only one who is qualified to teach dual high school and college credit math courses. To achieve that goal, one would think that Planned Parenthood’s role in the classroom would be less important than math. Yet, it seems they fired a math teacher who wanted to teach math rather than turn his classroom into a Planned Parenthood recruitment ground.

Bill Diss was a math and technology teacher at Benson High School in Portland, Oregon for 11 years. Mr. Diss was opposed being forced to allow recruiters from the Teen Outreach Program (TOP), a program administered by Planned Parenthood, to enter his classroom during tutorial sessions. Previously, a “health education team” came into his computers science class uninvited to enroll his students in the Health and Human Services’ Teen Outreach Program (TOP).

He was fired this week because he told Planned Parenthood they were not allowed in his class.

His objections to the TOP outreach program seems well grounded. The “facilitators” had not gone through the mandatory background checks that are required for school personnel/volunteers nor did they have the certifications for sex/child abuse that the state requires. Further, he felt the use of monetary rewards for enrollment to be troublesome. Then there is the issue of effective use of classroom time, particularly since the TOP program has no relevance to anything he is teaching.

Read more from this story HERE.

Biblical Scholar Smacks Down Piers Morgan When Asked To Explain How Jesus Condemned Homosexuality (+video)

Photo Credit: Downtrend

Photo Credit: Downtrend

Piers Morgan is clearly a glutton for punishment. We saw that repeatedly during the gun control debates in the wake of the Newtown shooting.

A couple of nights ago on his program, Morgan criticized Phil Robertson’s recent anti-gay remarks as “repulsive” and claimed that he should be fired. Apparently, that’s Morgan’s way of handling opposing viewpoints from major celebrity figures.

On his program last night, he decided to invite a Biblical scholar, Dr. Michael Brown, on the show so that he could trap him into admitting that Jesus did not, in fact, condemn homosexuality.

That trap was not set properly.

When Morgan asked Brown to cite just one instance of Jesus condemning homosexuality, he probably thought that he had already won the debate. But alas, he was hoisted on his own petard.

Read more from this story HERE.