Hasan Says ‘Illegal War’ Provoked Fort Hood Massacre (+video)

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

The soldier on trial for the 2009 Fort Hood shooting rampage rested his case Wednesday without calling any witnesses, but later told the judge that the attack was provoked because “these were deploying soldiers who were going to engage in an illegal war.”

Maj. Nidal Hasan is representing himself but told a military judge Wednesday that he wouldn’t be calling any witnesses in his defense.

The jury was dismissed after the prosecution asked for more time to prepare jury instructions and logistics before closing arguments.

But after jurors were dismissed, Hasan told the judge, Col. Tara Osborn, that the jury shouldn’t have the option of convicting him on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.

“I would like to agree with the prosecution that it wasn’t done under the heat of sudden passion,” Hasan said. “There was adequate provocation — that these were deploying soldiers that were going to engage in an illegal war.”

Read more from this story HERE.

New Audit Finds IRS Can’t Keep Track of its Own Software

Photo Credit: WatchDog

Photo Credit: WatchDog

The Internal Revenue Service soon will have a larger role to play in managing the health records of Americans. But they’re having a hard time managing their own records, it seems.

A new audit report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which oversees the IRS, found the agency was not keeping track of its software licenses and did not employ specialized tools to track and manage the multitude of licenses being used daily at the IRS.

“Efficient and cost-effective management of the IRS’s software assets is crucial to ensuring that information technology services continue to support the IRS’s business operations and help it to provide services to taxpayers efficiently,” auditors wrote in their report.

The division of the IRS charged with managing the licenses could not provide auditors with the proper licenses for 24 of the 27 software products reviewed.

The IRS spent $235 million on computer software products during 2011, according to the audit. Keeping better records of licenses could save the agency money by preventing unnecessary duplicate purchases of the same software, the auditors noted.

Read more from this story HERE.

Bradley Manning to Request Pardon from Obama Over 35-Year Jail Sentence

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Bradley Manning will send a personal plea to Barack Obama next week for a presidential pardon after he was sentenced on Wednesday to 35 years in prison for passing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents to WikiLeaks.

The sentence was more severe than many observers expected, and is much longer than any punishment given to previous US government officials who have leaked information to the media.

Manning showed no emotion, neither when the sentence was delivered, nor after being escorted into a side room, where his lawyers and members of his family were waiting, some of them in tears.

“Everyone in his defence team was emotional, including myself,” his lawyer, David Coombs, told the Guardian. “The only person that wasn’t emotional was Brad. He looked to us and said: ‘It’s OK. I’m going to move forward and I’m going to be all right’.”

Coombs told a press conference that next week he will formally submit the request for a pardon, “or at the very least commute his sentence to time served”. That request will contain a personal appeal from Manning to Obama, which his lawyer read out.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘North Colorado’ Secession Movement Inches Forward

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Voters in Weld County will vote on whether to secede from Colorado after commissioners this week unanimously agreed to put the question on November’s ballot.

Weld County, the largest of several that have been seriously discussing breaking away to form their own state, joins three other counties in putting the question to its citizens. Several others are also considering referring the measure to voters or waiting to see if citizen initiatives show support for the idea.

The so-called 51st State Initiative is a result of rural Coloradans feeling abandoned by politicians in Denver. The last legislative session, which was controlled by Democratic majorities in both chambers, saw the passage of numerous controversial laws, many of which thumb their noses at rural values, commissioners in the plains counties have said.

Chief among them was a controversial bill requiring rural electricity cooperatives to double the amount of renewable energy they offer by 2020, a mandate that doesn’t apply to city utilities and which opponents have said will raise electricity rates on rural customers.

County leaders have also been alarmed at attempts to strengthen regulations on oil and gas developers, which are heavily invested in rural counties. And they’ve also been riled by tough new gun laws that limit the size of ammunition magazines and require universal background checks for all firearms transfers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Cruz: Ignore Media, GOP ‘Can Win’ Defunding Obamacare Argument

ted cruz immigrationAt a spirited town hall today, Senator Ted Cruz pushed for Obamacare to be defunded in the upcoming spending bill.

“Our friends in the media like to tell us this is not a fight we can win,” Cruz told attendees at the event which was sponsored by Heritage Action. “Let me tell you how we win this fight. The house of representatives will pass a continuing resolution that funds everything, everything in its entirety, except Obamacare.”

“What happens next is President Obama and Harry Reid are going to scream and yell ‘Those mean nasty Republicans are threatening to shut down the federal government,’” Cruz continued. “What has to happen after that is we’ve got to do something conservatives haven’t done in a long time. We’ve got to stand up and win the argument.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Pollster: Ken Buck Leads ‘Thin’ GOP Field to Unseat Mark Udall

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Republican Ken Buck holds the early lead over what a Denver pollster called a “strange” field of GOP contenders hoping to unseat Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.

But in order to stay there the pollster said,, he must avoid a repeat of his “mistake-prone 2010 race” against Sen. Michael Bennet.

Floyd Ciruli, a respected Colorado pollster with Ciruli Associates, wrote in a recent blog that Buck is the “least controversial and most competent” of those vying for the GOP nomination.

“Unless someone else gets into the race, neither State Senators Owen Hill nor Randy Baumgardner have the resources or network, at least at this stage, to be competitive,” he wrote.

During his last run for Senate, Buck went from being an underfunded dark horse who won the primary against an opponent with much stronger name recognition and a bigger war chest.

Read more from this story HERE.

Joe Miller Returns from Kenya (+videos)

KenyaThis past week my wife and I visited Kenya for a mission’s trip with the Christian missionary organization, International Commissions. The purpose of the trip was to visit with small churches in rural villages near the town Sultan Hamud and evangelize to locals with the assistance of their respective churches. During the course of this mission, my wife and I met some amazing people, witnessed to the lost and experienced the power of Christ as we had never seen before.

Upon arriving in Kenya, my wife and I were assigned to assist the local church of Kawawakata. After visiting with our church, we established a plan of action and set out with our national pastor from Mombasa and our local interpreter, Anton, to make visits. Although it was an arduous task, my wife and I worked to witness to all the villagers in the rural and mountainous region near Nunguni and disciple members of Kawawakata church. Our interactions with the local church members were enlightening to the way Kenyan culture operates and also many of the misconceptions present amongst Kenyan Christians.

Some of the misconceptions present among church members were disheartening, to say the least. Most of the villagers did not know what true salvation was, as described by Romans 10:9-13. Most people thought that simply attending church, tithing, doing occasional “good deeds” or even baptism alone were ways to be saved. With testimonies and witnessing materials in hand, my wife and I determined to change the false notions of salvation and spread the message of Christ and His salvation to as many people as possible.

I believe that many of the misconceptions were caused by the complete absence of bibles in the community. Fortunately, we were equipped with a few bibles in both English and Swahili to disseminate to schools and churches. The locals were more than grateful for the bibles and were eager to read them. This was particularly true of the young-adults (teenagers) who were overjoyed to have bibles to read and share.

Over the week of our mission, we were able to clarify the concept of salvation and personally lead 253 people to Christ, while the unofficial total commitments to Christ reported by all members of our group was nearly 5,890. We hiked many miles to visit schools, homes and other churches to speak with people and pray for them. I also had the opportunity to preach to and worship with our church daily. During this mission, the presence of the Holy Spirit was so great at times that full grown men were moved to tears.

I will never forget the words spoken to us by our church as we parted ways. As we were saying goodbye, our interpreter made a statement on the behalf of the church. He said, “Before you came to our church, we were like a baby, we couldn’t stand on our own two legs. We lacked strength and nourishment. But, now that you have come to us and fellow-shipped with us, we are strong and we can continue to carry the word of Christ to all who need him.”

My wife and I intend to continue to do mission work with IC. If you would like to donate to our efforts, please follow this link.

Also, many of the children in the surrounding villages had not seen white people before. This video shows their initial reaction to seeing white people, my wife and I, for the first time ever. While children in other areas went into hysterics after seeing us, due in part to old ghost stories, most children found it a very novel experience:

___________________________________________________________

Joseph Andrew Miller is the oldest son of Joe Miller. He went on his first mission trip with his dad to the Philippines in 2005 and has been hooked ever since. Joseph Andrew is currently studying at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks with his wife Katrina. They are both in their last year of studies.

Duck Dynasty Star Rails Against Abortion Culture in America: “What in the World Happened to Us?” (+video)

Duck DynastyBehind the beard and camouflage, Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson is an incredibly insightful man with a penchant for straight talk. In a video posted on YouTube in January, Robertson is seen giving a speech in Pennsylvania discussing the abortion culture in America, among other things.

Robertson stated what we need more in our day are people like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson who understood that our right to life comes from God. “I’m with George Washington. I’m in the same camp as George Washington…That big Washington Monument in DC. You know what the capstone says on top of it? Praise God,” he said. The Bible and our own founding document, the Declaration of Independence, make the right to life emphatically clear.

“We have been endowed by our creator, according to Thomas Jefferson, with certain unalienable rights. Among these are life,” Robertson exhorted, adding, “I’ll tell you, it didn’t take us 150 years, we started ripping babies out of wombs. They should have listened to Thomas Jefferson—you have a God-given right to live inside your mother—come on!…What in the world happened to us?”

Read more from this story HERE.

Study: Welfare Pays More than Work in Most States

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Looking for a good paying job? Well, look no further.

No, really, stop looking. In 35 states, welfare benefits pay more than a minimum wage job, according to a new study by the libertarian Cato Institute, and in 13 states welfare pays more than $15 per hour.

“One of the single best ways to climb out of poverty is taking a job, but as long as welfare provides a better standard of living than an entry-level job, recipients will continue to choose it over work,” said Michael Tanner, senior policy analyst and co-author of the study.

The study is an updated version of one Tanner put out in 1995 that estimated the full value of welfare benefits packages across the states. The 1995 study found that such tax-free welfare benefits greatly exceeded the poverty level and “their dollar value was greater than the amount of take-home income a worker would receive from an entry-level job.”

Despite efforts to curb welfare spending, many welfare programs and benefits have continued to outpace the income that many workers can receive for working an entry-level job, which disincentivizes work, according to the study.

Read more from this story HERE.

Europe and America are Suffering from Green Energy Tyranny

Photo Credit: Irish Central

Photo Credit: Irish Central

President Obama and the hard left ideologues, who guide his energy policies, don’t seem to be paying attention to European economies staggering under the weight of years of “green.”

In a new article called The Law of Unintended Consequences, Peter C. Glover details Europe’s difficulty in coming to grips with providing energy for a modern society:…. with the economic realities of actual paying for a green energy society:

“If there is a message to be gotten across to Joe Public it’s this: there’s no such thing as ‘free’ solar, wind or any other ‘clean energy’ source. Someone, somewhere always has to pay for them. And they will always cost far more than hydrocarbons – don’t believe the green hype believe the physics. The bulk of that subsidized social levy is set to continue to be sustained by Joe Public, especially those forced into fuel poverty by costly renewable levies in their domestic bills.”

Europe is buckling under the weight of subsidizing green and the United States wouldn’t be far behind, except for the fact we have astronomical amounts of fossil energy on private and state lands, where it can’t be sealed off, or regulated away by federal edicts….yet.

But the Obama administration policies are punishing, non green energy producers and the resultant consequences mean unnecessarily higher costs to American consumers.

I asked Richard Storm, an energy expert and power engineer affiliated with Citizens for Common Sense Energy & Environment, for a snap shot into where clean coal technology is today and his thoughts on America’s energy landscape: Coal power is the source of almost 40% of Americas electrical energy:

New coal plants are clean and efficient. In most cases, the new plants replace older plants with much more efficient and much cleaner generation

These new, clean coal plants are likely to continue to produce reliable electricity for decades to come at the most reasonable rates, using America’s Treasure of Coal Energy.

Natural gas prices are likely to increase in the future as more demand for clean natural gas materializes.

Let’s look at just one example: The Duke Energy Cliffside Unit #6, is one of the cleanest power generation plants in the world furnishing enough power for about 660,000 average sized homes

The new Clean Coal Plants are not only cleaner than any others in the world, but they are also more efficient and use about 10% less fuel per megawatt of electricity generated.

America’s oil and gas production has increased during the Obama Presidency because of American innovation, risk taking and hard work by the oil and gas industry. With no help or encouragement from the Obama Administration. In fact, the Keystone Pipeline is just one clear example of Obama’s administration fighting progress. He is against literally all forms of energy except “Green, renewables”

How about shale gas? Nope. Neither Obama or the allies in the Environmental extremists support shale gas either. After the Sierra Club received millions of dollars to fight coal plants from Chesapeake Energy, now they are against shale gas. So are the Dept. of Interior and the EPA. One of the planned new coal plants for Oklahoma was stopped by the Sierra Club and Cheapeake Energy. As in other states, natural gas fueled plants were built as a substitute. This may be economical for a couple more years, but then gas prices are expected to rise. So will power costs because fuel is about 80% of the production cost of electricity.

A reminder, America runs on energy. 90% of America’s Energy comes from the traditional fuels of Coal, Oil, Natural Gas and Nuclear. Yes, 90%. When organizations are against these, millions of jobs are at risk as well as America’s energy security. Not to mention the fact that America has a high standard of living which is enjoyed by all.

Who can be against America’s sustained strength? Here are a few answers. The Sierra Club, The Natural Resources Defense Council, PEW Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation,most of The Democrat Party and for certain, the Democrat leadership.

Come on America; let’s get back to making America strong again. I support the four E’s: Energy, Economic Prosperity, Education and Environmental protection. Yes, speaking for myself and every other power engineer in the business, I support clean air, clean water and a strong America. Who wouldn’t?

_____________________________________

Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.