Three Men ‘Illegally’ Arrested for Openly Carrying Civil War Era ‘Black Powder’ Pistols in Texas (+videos)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

Three people were reportedly arrested on Friday for openly carrying Civil War-era pistols during a pro-gun protest outside the Texas Capitol. Gun rights activists tell TheBlaze the arrests were unlawful as it is legal in Texas to openly carry a pre-1899 antique firearm.

Terry Louis Holcomb, 44, identified as a Huntsville-area pastor, and Scott Douglas Smith, 50, a military veteran from San Antonio, and Gary Hayes, a quadriplegic, were reportedly arrested by state troopers in Austin and charged with disorderly conduct, which is defined, by law, as an action with a firearm “calculated to alarm.”

However, witnesses say the men, one of which was in a wheelchair, had their “black powder” pistols holstered and weren’t causing alarm in any way. More than a dozen other gun-rights activists openly carrying rifles walked free.

Under Texas law, a gun manufactured before 1899 isn’t even considered a “firearm,” therefore not subject to open carry laws…


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Trump: Putin Op-Ed Piece ‘Just Amazing’; Obama Making Us Look Bad

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trumpDonald Trump said on Friday that President Barack Obama was being “outplayed” by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose op-ed piece in The New York Times earlier this week was “just amazing.”

“We have a president that’s not looking very good,” the billionaire businessman told CNN. “It’s making us look very bad as a country — and, certainly, he’s looking very bad.”

Putin’s op-ed piece, published on Wednesday, was effective because “he said so much — and he said it in very nice way, but it wasn’t very nice at all,” Trump said. “It was tough. It was about as tough as you’re going to get. And Obama’s having a very tough time competing.

“The letter was very well-crafted,” he added. “This was about as well-crafted as you could’ve imagined. I don’t know if he wrote it, but it certainly was his thoughts. It covered so much territory.”

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Reagan was to Gorbachev what Putin is to Obama (+video)

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Photo Credit: World Economic Forum Creative Commons

Photo Credit: World Economic Forum Creative Commons

Putin Didn’t Save Obama, He Beat Him.

With the Russian proposal on Syrian chemical weapons, the United States is being escorted out of the Middle East.

Maybe Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin really did discuss the idea of putting Syrian chemical weapons under international control last week on the sidelines of the G20 conference. Putin sure doesn’t care that Obama’s taking credit for the proposal, or that the administration is posturing like a Mob enforcer. “The only reason why we are seeing this proposal,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney, “is because of the U.S. threat of military action.”

Right, Putin is laughing to himself. Whatever. If Obama wants to sell it like a Christmas miracle on Pennsylvania Avenue that’s fine with Putin, because Putin won.

Reset with Russia was originally a strategic priority for the Obama administration because it saw Moscow as the key to getting Iran to come to the negotiating table. Putin, from the White House’s perspective, was destined for the role of junior partner. Now Putin has turned “Reset” upside down. By helping Obama out of a jam with Syria, Putin has made himself the senior partner to whom the White House is now beholden. Accordingly, when Putin proposes the same sort of deal with Iran, with Russia having established its bona fides as an interlocutor for Syria, Obama is almost certain to jump at it.

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Palin To Union Members: Demand Resignation of ‘Thug’ Bosses For Backing Obamacare

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picture - palin-speechFormer Alaska Governor Sarah Palin says that union members across America should demand that Obamacare be repealed and defunded, and some of their leaders should resign for not opposing the health care law.

“Union brothers and sisters, don’t let your incompetent leadership hoodwink you again,” Palin wrote in a Facebook post Thursday. “Demand a full repeal, an immediate defunding, and some resignations.”

Palin, who has in the past criticized union bosses for betraying their hard-working members, said this was another instance of that, as they believed President Barack Obama’s false promises on Obamacare and are supporting carve-outs instead of a full repeal.

“Remember when President Obama promised us, ‘If you like your current health care plan, you can keep your plan?'” Palin wrote. “That was not true, and his deceptive claim falls in line with all the other lies about Obamacare—like there’d be no health care rationing.”

“More cronyism, select exemptions, and special subsidies make the problem worse,” Palin said. “We need to repeal the whole darn thing, and that starts with defunding it.”

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Medicare Cuts, Obamacare Prompt Hospital Layoffs

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Many hospitals are slashing jobs and cutting patient services citing Medicare cuts, the difficult health care landscape, and the Affordable Care Act as the reasons behind their decision.

Over a dozen hospitals have announced job cuts in the past three weeks, the Washington Free Beacon found. Some hospitals announced they would close altogether, while others are downsizing and eliminating some of their services.

Connecticut’s Lawrence + Memorial Hospital announced last week it was cutting 33 jobs, citing the “sheer magnitude” of payment cuts from both Medicare and Medicaid.

“L+M and other hospitals are contending with massive structural changes that are happening very rapidly,” hospital president and CEO Bruce D. Cummings said in a statement. “We are also experiencing unexpected—and previously unbudgeted—cuts in federal (Medicare) and state (Medicaid) funding. “

“The sheer magnitude of the Medicare and Medicaid cuts impel us to look at all of our services and costs, including the largest component of our budget—personnel,” Cummings said, citing a 20 percent cut in Medicaid proposed by Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy and approved by the state legislature resulting in a $550 million hit to Connecticut hospitals. Sequestration also resulted in an additional $1 million loss for L + M this year.

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Colorado County Considers Giving Flowers a ‘Right to Life’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Boulder, Colo. local government will deliberate a new law next week that would legally define and protect plants and animals as living beings.

The ‘Rights of Nature’ movement recently descended on Boulder to push environmentalist laws to the local government, according to Denver Westwood News. Their most recent proposal asks that Boulder County recognize ”the rights of all naturally occurring ecosystems and their native species populations to exist and flourish.”

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Study: More than 400 Union Officials Made Over $250K in 2012

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

More than 400 labor officials earned more than a quarter of a million dollars in salary in 2012, according to a new study.

Media Trackers found that the top 100 highest paid union officials garnered more than $52 million in 2012, salaries paid by membership dues of the laborers and government employees they represent.

The top-paid union official is NBA Player’s Association head G. William Hunter, who made more than $3.1 million on the year. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees chief Lee Saunders rounded out the top 100 with gross pay of $353,580, according to the study.

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Helium Balloons Lift Aviator Jonathan Trappe Up For Transatlantic Trip

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Photo Credit: Paul Cyr / Barcroft USA

Photo Credit: Paul Cyr / Barcroft USA

An American aviator has begun the first attempt to cross the Atlantic suspended by hundreds of coloured balloons. Jonathan Trappe took off from Caribou, Maine, on Thursday morning as his capsule was lifted by 370 helium-filled balloons in heavy fog and he headed east from the US.

The concept may sound like the story from the Disney film Up but Trappe, 39, specializes in cluster ballooning and was the first person to cross the Channel and the Alps using the method.

The transatlantic trip could be as long as 2,500 miles (4,000km) and take between three and five days. Depending on the weather, he could land anywhere between Iceland and Morocco.

Trappe is relying on state of the art weather data from the meteorologist who advised Felix Baumgartner on his record-breaking skydive from the stratosphere last year. The latest weather reports suggested winds would take Trappe to western Europe.

“Weather is absolutely the most dangerous factor,” said Trappe, speaking immediately before launch. ” It’s the only thing that will carry me across, but bad conditions could also ruin the attempt or endanger my life.”

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Biden Calls Republicans ‘Neanderthals’

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Photo Credit: Matt Rourke

Photo Credit: Matt Rourke

Vice President Joe Biden said Repulican opposition to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in the House of Representatives came from the “Neanderthal crowd.” And he gave himself credit for coming up with the law almost 20 years ago.

“Packed into the front room of the Vice President’s residence just before 7pm, Biden spoke for about half an hour to the crowd of several dozen people, most of whom played a role in making VAWA a reality. The room was full of chatter as Biden was standing at the mic waiting to talk, so he turned around and let out a piercingly loud whistle, and the room went quiet. He talked about when he first came up with the idea for VAWA legislation in the early 1990s,” according to the pool report from an event last night.

“I caused a lot of trouble because I just started writing,” Biden said to laughs. “I’m serious. This isn’t one of these cases, I didn’t ask for staff help, I didn’t ask for any help, I was so God darn– gosh darn mad.”

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Interview: Kiss’ Gene Simmons Defends Tim Tebow: He’s Cool to Me

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Photo Credit: AFP/Getty

Photo Credit: AFP/Getty

Has polarizing football player Tim Tebow gotten a raw deal in the press because of his religious beliefs? And would he be treated more respectfully if he were not Christian, and specifically, Muslim? Gene Simmons thinks so.

“He’s got a religious passion, as well he should, we’re in America,” the KISS frontman told Radio.com earlier this week. ”He’s proud to be a Christian, what’s wrong with that? And yet, with sports media and pop culture media, they make fun of his religion. Really? In America? If he was wearing a burqa, they wouldn’t dare say anything [editor’s note: only Muslim women wear burqas]. But if you’re a Christian, you get to be picked on? What the hell? The guy’s got family values. I never saw the media picking on Michael Vick for torturing dogs. Or this other football player, who’s alleged to have killed, committed murder. That’s ‘cool.’ But a guy who’s religious and has got family values isn’t ‘cool?’ He’s cool to me.”

As has been widely reported, Simmons and his KISS bandmate Paul Stanley are now co-owners of a new Arena Football League team, to be called LA KISS. And Simmons wasted no time drawing attention to the expansion team (which will begin playing in 2014), extending a very public offer to quarterback Tim Tebow, who after a brief up-and-down career in the NFL, was released by the New England Patriots a few weeks ago.

In an interview focusing on the new oral history of KISS, Nothing To Lose (more on that to come), Simmons addressed the situation with the man who he hopes will be the KISS QB.

“We haven’t heard back from Tim,” Simmons said. “He’s considering this seriously; he’s in Los Angeles. Right after this, I’m gonna fly back with our guys and try to sit down with him and tell him that we’re serious about this. He’ll get the respect here that he didn’t get at the NFL.”

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