House Republicans: We’ll Move on Immigration Reform Sometime This Year

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Remember immigration reform? Like Syria, it was a scalding-hot topic for awhile, only to recede to back-burner status as other political conflagrations took its place in the national spotlight. There’s been some drama percolating behind the scenes, though, and it looks like the issue may re-emerge in the coming months, as House Republicans have indicated that they’ll take it up before the calendar flips to 2014:

House Republicans intensified their outreach to Latino groups last week, offering renewed pledges that the House will deal with immigration reform this year. The effort has revived hope among advocates that a bipartisan deal can be reached to address the fate of the nation’s 11 million undocumented workers and students. The chances of a comprehensive deal passing Congress remain doubtful, advocates cautioned, and they worry that the legislative process will spill into 2014, presenting new complications in a year when lawmakers face reelection battles. But they were encouraged by signals from key GOP leaders that the House is willing to move forward on legislation that could produce a breakthrough in the stalled negotiations. Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said Thursday that his panel is working on four new pieces of legislation dealing with border-control laws. He did not disclose details but emphasized the need to resolve the status of people living in the country illegally.

Lots of caveats there. The House is likely to “deal with” reform, but the bill won’t necessarily be “comprehensive,” and a key committee chairman is holding his cards close to the vest on how the legal status question will be resolved. House leadership could either break the bill up into bite-sized pieces, or pursue a broader reform package along the lines of Rep. Raul Labrador’s proposal…

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Treasury Secretary Jack Lew Says Oct. 17 is the Debt Ceiling Deadline

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Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty

Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned Congress in a letter Wednesday morning that Oct. 17 will be the last day that the government has the funds to meet all its obligations if the debt ceiling is not raised.

That is within the range Lew has previously indicated, and in line with projections from outside analysts. But now Congress has a specific deadline. If it does not act before Oct. 17, a Thursday, the government risks defaulting on the debt, an outcome that Lew warned “could be catastrophic.”

Lew previously said that the Treasury would exhaust the extraordinary measures it has used to create headroom under the debt limit by mid-October, at which point it would have only $50 billion in cash on hand and whatever revenues come in on a given day with which to pay the government’s bills.

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‘Biggest Shakeup in Talk-Radio History’

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

Fulfilling a prediction he made last month, top-rated radio host Michael Savage told his listeners tonight he will take over the prime afternoon-drive slot on Cumulus Media Networks stations in January.

Opening his show with the announcement, Savage called it “the biggest shake-up in talk radio history.”

The 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time slot is currently held by Sean Hannity, who has ended his relationship with the network.

Savage said he expects immediately to have five to six times as many listeners.

“The time slot says that something about my show has resonated with the American people,” Savage said.

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Team USA Stages Greatest Comeback in America’s Cup History (+video)

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picture - America's CupSAN FRANCISCO – Now that Oracle Team USA has improbably retained the 34th America’s Cup, what can Larry Ellison & Co. do for an encore?

Oracle’s billionaire bankroller has many questions to answer in the weeks ahead after his team, under the never-say-die skipper Jimmy Spithill, staged the greatest comeback in 162 years of the competition.

Trailing 8-1 a week ago, Oracle sailed away from Emirates Team New Zealand by 44 seconds on Wednesday to retain the Auld Mug, the oldest trophy in international sports, in a winner-take-all finale on San Francisco Bay.

The American-backed team won eight consecutive races to win 9-8 in the first-to-nine series.

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Illegal Aliens Awaiting Deportation Got Preferred Jobs in U.S. Prisons

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Federal Prison Industries (FPI), the government-owned corporation that operates factories in federal prisons, employed 37 inmates as of June 2012 who had been issued final deportation orders and were therefore ineligible for FPI employment.

Although those 37 illegal alien inmates represented less than one percent of Federal Prison Industries’ total inmate employees, the audit shows a “weakness in FPI’s internal controls,” says a recent report from the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).

“We found that FPI’s internal controls did not ensure that aliens who were ordered deported were removed from FPI employment as required,” the report said.

Federal Prison Industries says once the matter came to its attention, it immediately removed 35 of the 37 deportable inmates from FPI employment. Of the remaining two inmates, one claimed he had been misidentified, and one had already stopped working at FPI.

Of the 12,394 inmates FPI employed as of June 2012, 1,580 (approximately 13 percent) were not U.S. citizens, but only 37 had received final deportation orders, which should have precluded them from holding FPI jobs.

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Poll: President Obama’s Approval Underwater

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

President Barack Obama is viewed more unfavorably than favorably for the first time in his presidency, according to a new poll.

In a Bloomberg poll released late Tuesday, 49 percent viewed Obama unfavorably compared with 47 percent who viewed him favorably, the first time he has seen a net unfavorability in Bloomberg’s polling during his presidency.

While the Republican Party is still viewed more unfavorably than Obama, 56 percent to 34 percent favorable, more people blame Obama for pursuing the wrong policies than Republicans for stymying the economy, 32 percent to 28 percent. Thirty percent of those surveyed said the recession is too severe for government to help it rebound.

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$5.25 Million For Senate Hair Care And 21 Other Ways Politicians Are Living The High Life At Your Expense

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picture - Barack-Obama-John-Boehner-Nancy-Pelosi-Harry-Reid-Mitch-McConnell-300x300If you want to live the high life, you don’t have to become a rap star, a professional athlete or a Wall Street banker. All it really takes is winning an election. Right now, more than half of all the members of Congress are millionaires, and most of them leave “public service” far wealthier than when they entered it. Since most of them have so much money, you would think that they would be willing to do a little “belt-tightening” for the sake of the American people. After all, things are supposedly “extremely tight” in Washington D.C. right now. In fact, just the other day Nancy Pelosi insisted that there were “no more cuts to make” to the federal budget. But even as they claim that things are so tough right now, our politicians continue to live the high life at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. The statistics that I am about to share with you are very disturbing. Please share them with everyone that you know. The American people deserve the truth.

According to the Weekly Standard, an absolutely insane amount of money is being spent on the “hair care needs” of U.S. Senators…

Senate Hair Care Services has cost taxpayers about $5.25 million over 15 years. They foot the bill of more than $40,000 for the shoeshine attendant last fiscal year. Six barbers took in more than $40,000 each, including nearly $80,000 for the head barber.

Keep in mind that there are only 100 U.S. Senators, and many of them don’t have much hair left at this point.

But hair care is just the tip of the iceberg. The following are 21 other ways that our politicians are living the high life at your expense…

Read more from this story HERE.

High School Football Coach’s Radical Punishment for Entire Team Gets Surprise Reaction from Parents

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Photo Credit: KSL-TV

Photo Credit: KSL-TV

In these days of helicopter parenting — particularly moms and dads who view their athletic kids as superstars who can do no wrong — the jobs of non-parental authority figures are often considerably more difficult.

So when Matt Labrum, head football coach at Union High School in Roosevelt, Utah, suspended his entire team — all 80 of them — last week, can you guess what was coming next from parents of those suddenly former players?

If you figure Labrum got his head handed to him as he heard call after call for his immediate dismissal, you’d be incorrect.

Believe it or not, Labrum says he’s received no ill will from moms and dads for his radical disciplinary move — and that has everything to do with the off-field problems that fueled the total team suspension (e.g., bad attitudes toward teachers, skipping classes, failing grades, and a serious allegation of cyberbullying) and his desire to correct them.

So Labrum told the players to turn in their jerseys — if they wanted to wear them again, they’d each have to earn the right to do so by jumping through an arduous series of hoops, including extensive community service, according to Deseret News.

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Watch Madonna’s Insufferable 17 Minute Black & White Video About Persecution

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Photo Credit: Showbiz411.

Photo Credit: Showbiz411.

Madonna wants to start a revolution. No one will take her seriously. So she’s made this video with photographer Steven Klein. This is what she wants to know: “If I was a black man and had an Afro would you take me seriously? If I was an Arab waving a hand grenade would you take me seriously?”

This sophomoric nonsense is the product of a 55 year old woman whose view of the world really comes from her own isolation from reality…

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Reagan’s Other Battle: With Environmental Extremists!

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Photo Credit: Human Events

Photo Credit: Human Events

In February 2011, Human Events recalled President Ronald Reagan’s top ten achievements, from winning the Cold War, through restoring the economy, revitalizing the Republican Party and the conservative movement, envisioning the Strategic Defense Initiative, to reforming taxes, and taking on the unions. One aspect of his presidency, however, was missing. Reagan biographer Paul Kengor labeled it, the “forgotten Reagan war—not with the Soviets but environmental extremists.”

Reagan’s bold approach to the Soviet Union (“[W]e win and they lose.”), “flabbergasted” Richard V. Allen, Reagan’s first National Security Adviser: “I’d worked for Nixon and Goldwater and many others, and I’d heard a lot about Kissinger’s policy of détente and about the need to ‘manage the Cold War,’ but never did I hear a leading politician put the goal so starkly.” Similarly, Reagan rejected calls by those who served in the Nixon and Ford administrations to continue what “environmental extremists”—Reagan’s term, as was “modern-day Luddites”—dubbed “a bi-partisan consensus on environmental issues.” Reagan knew much more was at stake than whether America developed the energy and mineral resources beneath the third of the country and the billion acres of Outer Continental Shelf owned by the federal government in order to restore the economy and resist Russian aggression.

A fervent conservationist and an environmentalist himself, Reagan believed in being a good steward, but above all, he believed in people, who are, as Reagan put it, “ecology too.” Reagan knew that, from its beginnings, the conservation movement held human beings at its center. Whether the issue was the need to sustain humans by the wise use (conservation) of nature’s bounty, or the necessity to restore humans—emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually—by setting aside (preservation) a portion of God’s great creation, the focus was always on human beings.

Read more from this story HERE.