State Department Bureau Spent $630,000 on Facebook ‘Likes’

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Photo Credit: Thinkstock Image

Photo Credit: Thinkstock Image

State Department officials spent $630,000 to get more Facebook “likes,” prompting employees to complain to a government watchdog that the bureau was “buying fans” in social media, the agency’s inspector general says.

The department’s Bureau of International Information Programs spent the money to increase its “likes” count between 2011 and March 2013.

“Many in the bureau criticize the advertising campaigns as ‘buying fans’ who may have once clicked on an ad or ‘liked’ a photo but have no real interest in the topic and have never engaged further,” the inspector general reported.

The spending increased the bureau’s English-language Facebook page likes from 100,000 to more than 2 million and to 450,000 on Facebook’s foreign-language pages.

Despite the surge in likes, the IG said the effort failed to reach the bureau’s target audience, which is largely older and more influential than the people liking its pages. Only about 2 percent of fans actually engage with the pages by liking, sharing or commenting.

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National Intelligence Director Clapper Apologizes for Lying, Now Suggests He Was Confused

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has apologized for telling Congress the National Security Agency doesn’t gather data on millions of Americans.

The apology comes after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden gave top-secret information to newspapers that last month published stories about the federal government collecting the data from phone calls and such Internet communications as emails.

Clapper apologized in a letter to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein that was posted Tuesday on the website of Clapper’s office.

Clapper said in the June 21 letter that his answer was “clearly erroneous”…

Clapper said in the letter to Feinstein that when answering he was confounded by the word dossier and challenged by trying to protect classified information. He also said that when answering Wyden, he was focused on whether the U.S. collected the content of phone and email conversations, and not so-called metadata, which essentially is phone numbers, email addresses, dates and times. He wrote that he “simply didn’t think of” the pertinent section of the Patriot Act under which that information can be collected.

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Governor of Last State Without Concealed Carry Vetoes Bill

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn triggered a backlash from his own party as well as the NRA on Tuesday after he unilaterally changed legislation meant to allow the carrying of concealed weapons.

In a challenge to gun-rights supporters, Quinn moved to cap the number of firearms and rounds that can be carried by Illinois residents and ban guns from any place that serves alcohol.

The move was a nod to the governor’s gun-control base as the state faces a court-ordered July 9 deadline to allow concealed-carry.

But, by using what is known as his “amendatory veto power,” Quinn could imperil the carefully crafted deal, which now heads back to the legislature.

Some lawmakers have already vowed to reject Quinn’s new provisions.

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Republican Senator Accuses Group of Bribing People To Block New Alaskan Mine’s Construction

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Photo Credit: Opposing Views

Photo Credit: Opposing Views

Republican Sen. David Vitter claimed an environmental group tried to skew survey results regarding the construction of a new Alaskan mine, which has recently put Republicans and the Environmental Protection Agency at odds.

Vitter accused the group, Trout Unlimited, of “bribing” people to comment on a study examining the environmental impact of the new mine by offering them a chance to win a free fishing trip, according to Fox News.

The study, which was conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency, looked into the effects of the proposed copper and gold mine — named Pebble Mine — on its surrounding the Alaskan ecosystem, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

“This is a pretty low tactic to try and bribe support of their efforts to preemptively kill a job-creating project,” Vitter said. “Skewing the public’s response is really unhelpful in the process to get an unbiased review.”

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Same-Sex Couples Flood Immigration Offices For Visas

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Kori Kirkbride didn’t get that immediate feeling of joy and relief when she heard the Supreme Court had struck down the Defense of Marriage Act.

Instead, it hit after she talked to her attorney, and found out that the court’s decision will allow her Polish wife, Kasia Kurzatkowska, to apply for a green card, putting an end to a heart-wrenching seven years in which the two have been periodically separated by immigration laws.

“When we sat with our attorney, it became real,” said Kirkbride, 40, of Walnut Creek, Calif. “Waiting for this decision was like waiting to find out if you are pregnant – your whole life can change if you are. Now, we can have a future and buy a house, and have a child.”

Kirkbride and Kurzatkowska are among an estimated 26,000 same-sex couples in the U.S. with one partner who is not a U.S. citizen. Under the law, a subset of these couples – those who are married or considering marriage – had been prevented from applying for green cards for their spouses or fiances.

In the last decade, some of those non-citizens have been deported, even though they were legally married. Many others have been in a legal limbo, with one partner living undocumented in the United States. Some couples have left the country entirely to be somewhere they can both work and live legally.

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Rise in Gay Homeless People Threatens San Francisco’s Name as Gay-Friendly Mecca

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Photo Credit: independent.co.uk

Photo Credit: independent.co.uk

When “Strawberry” was ejected from his student digs in Denver, Colorado, following a rental dispute, he headed to San Francisco thinking it would provide a sanctuary for a young gay man.

Not so. After six months of living on the streets he had lost the shirt on his back – literally. Identified as an easy target he was chased, beaten and robbed of the backpack containing all his worldly goods. “He grabbed me by the hair, threw me to the ground and started dragging me,” he said of his attacker. “My shirt was ripped off and I got a black eye and a bloody nose,” he said. “San Francisco is not the gay-friendly mecca that they say it is.”

Thanks to the equality rights work of pioneers such as the politician and activist Harvey Milk, San Francisco has a reputation as the gay capital of the world. But as the city recovers from its 43rd gay Pride festival at the weekend, attended by more than 1.5 million people, it must confront an uncomfortable issue. The streets through which about 200 colourful parades – from drag queens to the motorcycle-riding Dykes on Bikes – travelled, are also home to increasing numbers of gay homeless people, many of whom are exceptionally vulnerable to prejudice and violence.

Research produced by the Human Services Agency of San Francisco (SF-HSA) has revealed that 29 per cent of the city’s homeless population are from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. “Strawberry” is now living in a shelter but says his sexuality places him at risk.

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Anchorage Activists Protest Against Boehner’s Fundraiser With Former ARP Chair Randy Ruedrich (+video)

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A group of Anchorage Tea Party activists protested GOP House Speaker John Boehner’s fundraiser with former Alaska Republican Party Chair Randy Ruedrich and other Alaska establishment politicos such as Commissioner Dan Sullivan.

The GOP event, held in a residential area, was carefully choreographed so that Boehner did not have to confront the protesters, many of whom were criticizing GOP support for Rubio’s amnesty bill:

Boehner Protest Amnesty2

Boehner Protest Amnesty3

Boehner Protest Amnesty

Some of the protesters pointed out that Boehner and the other state Republican officials were consorting with members of the self-described “Corrupt Bastards Club”:

Boehner Protest CBC

The activists also chanted an anti-amnesty message:

GOP Reveals its 2016 Strategy Against Hillary: She’s Too Old

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Stuart Stevens, the top strategist for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, declared to an audience of reporters at a breakfast last month that electing Hillary Rodham Clinton would be like going back in time. “She’s been around since the ’70s,” he said.

At a conservative conference earlier in the year, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, ridiculed the 2016 Democratic field as “a rerun of ‘The Golden Girls,’ ” referring to Mrs. Clinton and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is 70.

And Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, seizing on the Fleetwood Mac song that became a Clinton family anthem, quipped to an audience in Washington, “If you want to keep thinking about tomorrow, maybe it’s time to put somebody new in.”

The 2016 election may be far off, but one theme is becoming clear: Republican strategists and presidential hopefuls, in ways subtle and overt, are eager to focus a spotlight on Mrs. Clinton’s age. The former secretary of state will be 69 by the next presidential election, a generation removed from most of the possible Republican candidates.

Despite her enduring popularity, a formidable fund-raising network and near unanimous support from her party, Mrs. Clinton, Republican leaders believe, is vulnerable to appearing a has-been.

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Obama: ‘Planet Will Boil Over’ If Young Africans Are Allowed Cars, Air-Conditioning, Big Houses (+video)

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Photo Credit: CNS News

Photo Credit: CNS News

President Barack Obama said at a town hall event in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday that unless we find new way of producing energy “the planet will boil over” if people in Africa are allowed to attain air conditioning, automobiles and big houses.

“Ultimately, if you think about all the youth that everybody has mentioned here in Africa, if everybody is raising living standards to the point where everybody has got a car and everybody has got air conditioning, and everybody has got a big house, well, the planet will boil over — unless we find new ways of producing energy.”

The president’s comments, made the day before unveiling his “Power Africa” initiative for a “sustainable” African energy strategy, came while speaking at University of Johannesburg-Soweto.

According to Obama, global warming constitutes “the biggest challenge we have environmentally,” one greater than all other environmental calamities like “dirty water, dirty air.”

However, the President’s statements do not reflect statistics released by the United Nations…

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Father Defends Family, Shoots and Kills Two of Three Home Invaders (+videos)

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Photo Credit: jseattle

Photo Credit: jseattle

By Click2Houston.com. Police said three men broke into an apartment, demanded money and showed a gun, but what they didn’t know is the resident also had a gun and shot two of them to death.

Neighbors at Oak Leaf Village heard gunshots around 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Houston police said there was a home invasion at one of the apartments.

Lila Pena’s husband, Javier Ortiz, got out his gun and fatally shot two of the men.

“They said ‘the money, the money,'” said Pena.

Pena said her kids witnessed the whole thing, including her oldest child, 7-year-old Fernando Ortiz.

“My dad took the gun out, then he shot the two,” said Fernando. “He’s a great hero.”

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Video released of officer shooting man in Wal-Mart

By Associated Press. Midwest City police have released a video showing a standoff between an officer and a man who held a knife to the throat of a 2-year-old girl he had abducted inside a Wal-Mart.

The standoff ended with Capt. David Huff shooting Sammie Wallace in the head at .blank range as Wallace began a countdown and moved the knife to the child’s throat. Huff is seen standing from a crouch, pulling his weapon then pointing it at Wallace as Wallace appears to turn away as the video ends.

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