Washington at War: Political Animosity Reaches New, Personal Level

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Everybody knows that “politics ain’t beanbag,” as American humorist Finley Peter Dunne’s “Mr. Dooley” put it more than a century ago.

But the partisan animosity over the government shutdown has gotten unusually bitter and personal, even for Washington.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is quoted calling House Speaker John Boehner “a coward.” Mr. Boehner’s reported characterization of Democratic leaders in Congress – questioning the circumstances of their birth, to put it politely – is no less insulting.

In a piece about Reid, Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell headlined “Bad blood: Four feuding leaders,” Politico reports that “the relationship between the nation’s top political leaders is now brimming with acrimony, distrust, and pettiness at a perilous time for the country’s economy.”

“But the personal animus extends beyond the leaders,” this report notes. “Along with their bosses, aides to Boehner and Reid are in an undeclared war and neither is refusing to budge an inch.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Rev. Billy Graham Prepares ‘Perhaps … My Last Message’

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: David BerkowitzAs he puts the finishing touches on what he says could be “my last message,” 94-year-old evangelist Rev. Billy Graham warns that the U.S. domestic surveillance program involving the NSA poses a serious threat to Americans’ religious liberty.

Graham is about to debut a new book and a video series that continue his life-long mission of preaching the gospel. In an exclusive Newsmax interview, he says that Americans have always fought for liberty, and states: “Our country is turning away from what has made it so great …” The “pastor to presidents” also offers a pointed response to President Barack Obama’s “hope and change” slogan, and sees signs of impending Armageddon because America “cannot go on much longer in the sea of immorality without judgment coming.”

Newsmax: Since your first crusade in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 1947, traditional moral standards in America have changed radically, with attacks on traditional marriage and abortion and divorce. In an increasingly secular world, can even non-believers find ‘hope’ – to borrow a word from your book title?

Rev. Billy Graham: Absolutely non-believers can find hope, because all people have sinned and come short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). But the Bible also tells us that God our Savior desires all people to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4 NKJV). Real hope is found only in the God of hope. To demonstrate this to mankind, He sent His only Son to earth to bring redemption to people’s souls. God stands by ready to grant salvation to all who believe in Him. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only [Son], that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life’ (John 3:16 NKJV). Do not miss the importance of this wonderful phrase ‘in Him.’ When we step into an airplane, fasten our seatbelts and the wheels leave the runway, we have placed our physical being and our complete faith not only in the aircraft, but in the pilot and crew. When we receive salvation offered to us by Jesus Christ, we are committing our entire being—our physical, emotional, and spiritual life — to Him because we put our faith in Him — in everything He has said, done, and promised.

Read more from this story HERE.

Costs for New Nuclear Facility Skyrocket as Critics Question its Creation

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Plans for a new facility that will handle, dismantle and secure nuclear material are in a major meltdown.

The price tag attached to the country’s largest uranium processing facility under the direction of the Department of Energy has climbed to more than 19 times its original estimate. What’s worse is that much of the Tennessee complex, according to the government’s own calculations, isn’t needed and the rest will most likely be outdated when the facility becomes fully operational — two decades from now.

The project was first estimated to cost around $600 million, but that has since climbed to as high as $11.6 billion – and is likely to go even higher, Lydia Dennett, a research associate at the Project on Government Oversight, told FoxNews.com.

“The cost has jumped dramatically, but there’s also been a huge delay in the operational date,” Dennett said.

Originally, the facility was supposed to be up and running by 2018, but that’s been pushed back to 2038.

Read more from this story HERE.

School Lessons in American Ally Include Jihad

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

There’s a simple reason why attacks on Christians in Pakistan, like the Sept. 22 incident when two Taliban suicide bombers blew up themselves – and 80 Christians – at a church in Peshawar, happen: The nation’s education system.

According to a new report from the Middle East Media Research Institute the textbooks used in public schools across Pakistan teach that killing Christians is a goal and martyrdom is to be sought.

The report by Tufail Ahmad, the director of the organization’s South Asia Studies Project, noted that Ahmad Marwat, a spokesman for Jundul Hafsa, commented about the attack on Christians.

Jundel Hafsa claimed credit for the deadly bombing of Christians at the 130-year-old All Saints church and Marwat explained, “They are the enemies of Islam; therefore we target them. We will continue our attacks on non-Muslims on Pakistan land.”

The MEMRI report explained, “In Pakistan, where Islamist groups are launching regular attacks against non-Muslim Pakistanis like Christians and Hindus as well as some sects of Muslims such as Shiites and Ahmadi Muslims, whom they do not consider to be real Muslims, the official and unofficial media, government leaders and religious scholars have legitimized hate against religious minorities, with the term ‘minority’ itself having come to be seen in a pejorative context.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Kentucky Obamacare Marketplace: WARNING: No Explicit or Implicit Expectation of Privacy

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Free Beacon

Photo Credit: Free Beacon

The Kentucky Obamacare marketplace has no “expectation of privacy,” warning its prospective customers that their information can be monitored and shared with government bureaucrats.

When clicking “let’s get started” on the state-run health insurance marketplace “kynect,” the user is quickly prompted to a “WARNING NOTICE.”

“This is a government computer system and is the property of the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” it states. “It is for authorized use only regardless of time of day, location or method of access. “

“Users (authorized or unauthorized) have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy,” the disclaimer reads. “Any or all uses of this system and all files on the system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized state government and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.”

Such information includes Social Security numbers. When calling kynect to enroll in the marketplace a person is told to have their Social Security card, immigration status, pay stubs, alimony payments, student loan information, and current health insurance information at the ready.

Read more from this story HERE.

CA Gov. Brown Signs Bill to Allow Children More than Two Legal Parents

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/ AP

Photo Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/ AP

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Friday that will allow children in California to have more than two legal parents, a measure opposed by some conservative groups as an attack on the traditional family.

Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said he authored the measure to address the changes in family structure in California, including situations in which same-sex couples have a child with an opposite-sex biological parent.

The law will allow the courts to recognize three or more legal parents so that custody and financial responsibility can be shared by all those involved in raising a child, Leno said.

“Courts need the ability to recognize these changes so children are supported by the adults that play a central role in loving and caring for them,” Leno said. “It is critical that judges have the ability to recognize the roles of all parents so that no child has to endure separation from one of the adults he or she has always known as a parent.”

The bill was partially a reaction to a 2011 court decision involving a lesbian couple that briefly ended their relationship, according to Leno’s office. One of the women was impregnated by a man before the women resumed their relationship. A fight broke out, putting one of the women in the hospital and the other in jail, but the daughter was sent to foster care because her biological father did not have parental rights.

Read more from this story HERE.

Brryan Jackson, AIDS Patient Injected With HIV By His Father As Infant, Forgives Father

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Opposing Views

Photo Credit: Opposing Views

Over 20 years ago, St. Louis resident Brian Stewart injected his infant son with HIV-tainted blood.

When his unfathomably evil act came to light, Stewart was sentenced to life in prison and called “the worst kind of criminal” by the presiding judge. When asked why he would inject his son with the deadly virus, Stewart said he wanted to kill his son in order to avoid paying child support.

The infant, now 22-year old Brryan Jackson, contracted full-blown AIDS by the age of five. Doctors gave him five months to live.

“Anyone in my condition would die in three months, they gave me five,” Jackson said.

The side effects from his medicine were terrible – Brryan lost 70% of his hearing from his treatments. As a five-year-old child, Brryan was taking 23 different pills, two IV bags, and three injections daily.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama to GOP: ‘If You’re Being Disrespected, It’s Because of That Attitude You’ve Got’ (+video)

/36 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP/Charles Dharapak

Photo Credit: AP/Charles Dharapak

President Obama lectured Republicans about their “attitude” problem on Thursday, telling an audience in suburban Maryland that Republican “extremists” are the only thing standing in the way of a “yes-or-no vote” on a continuing resolution to fund the federal government.

He quoted a House Republican as refusing to be “disrespected” by failing to “get something” out of the CR vote.

“If you’re being disrespected, it’s because of that attitude you’ve got — that you deserve to get something for doing your job,” Obama said. “Everybody here just does their job.”

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Disgusting!’ Ranger Reveals Shutdown Orders

/14 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

Even some media outlets supportive of Barack Obama’s presidency are starting to acknowledge his manipulation of the partial government shutdown is going too far.

Some federal government funding ran out earlier this week when Senate Democrats, and Obama himself, refused to negotiate with majority Republicans in the House over a spending bill that defunds Obamacare

Tasked with selecting which functions of government should be shut down, the Obama administration created a firestorm of negative publicity this week when it ordered rangers to barricade otherwise fully accessible public areas in Washington, including war memorials.

An angry Park Service ranger indicated to Washington Times columnist Wesley Pruden that there is a political motive behind the closure of the open-air memorials.

“We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can,” he said. “It’s disgusting.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Republicans Press Obama to Back FEMA Funding Bill as Storm Nears

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News Screenshot

Photo Credit: Fox News Screenshot

The budget showdown is about to collide with a major weather event.

The House voted Friday to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as Republicans cast the bill as an emergency measure to help Americans threatened by the approaching tropical storm.

“This is about people’s lives, people’s businesses,” Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, said.

The bill was one of several House Republicans have pushed in recent days to fund chunks of the government amid the partial government shutdown.

They’ve been pressuring Democrats, with little success, to support these mini-spending measures while the budget impasse drags on. Republicans upped that pressure on Friday, saying disaster response is critical as Tropical Storm Karen tracks toward the Gulf Coast and is poised to hit this weekend.

Read more from this story HERE.