IRS Official Who Played ‘Spock’ in Video Apologizes Under Issa Grilling

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

The Internal Revenue Service executive who portrayed Spock in the agency’s “Star Trek” video parody apologized to lawmakers for inappropriate spending on a $4.1 million conference from 2010.

The videos, “at the time they were made, were an attempt in a well-intentioned way to use humor,” said Faris Fink, moments after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee showed excerpts from the video. “It’s embarrassing and I apologize.”

Fink is commissioner of the agency’s small business and self-employed division, which has 24,000 employees across the country and organized the conference.

The IRS spending on conferences was “at best, maliciously self-indulgent,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, the committee chairman.

Issa, a California Republican, said he was less concerned about the total IRS spending on conferences — $49 million from 2010 to 2012 — than about perks such as discounted presidential suites and hotel rooms for local employees at the expense of other employees who could have gotten better training.

Read more from this story HERE.

Oklahoma Twister Largest in Recorded History (+videos)

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Alonzo Adams

The National Weather Service reported Tuesday that the killer tornado that struck near Oklahoma City last Friday was a ferocious EF5 twister, which had winds that neared 295 mph.

An EF5 tornado, the highest number on the “Enhanced Fujita Scale of Tornado Intensity,” is any tornado that has wind speeds of 200 mph or higher.

This beats every world wind record except the more-than-300-mph reading measured during the Moore, Okla., tornado in 1999, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Jesse Ferrell.

The weather service also said the twister’s 2.6-mile width is the widest ever recorded. According to the National Severe Storms Laboratory, the tornado blew up from one mile to 2.6 miles wide in a 30-second span.

Read more from this story HERE.

Outrage Over NSA’s Theft of Millions of Verizon Customers’ Records; but What About the Agency’s Recording of All Cell Calls?

/12 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Matt Rourke/AP

As Restoring Liberty reported last month, a retired FBI counter-terrorism agent let it slip during a CNN interview regarding the Boston Marathon Bombing that the U.S. government is recording all cell phone conversations.

Previously, NSA whistle-blower William Binney, a 32-year veteran of the agency, claimed in an interview with the New York Times that the federal government was engaged in near-universal surveillance of digital communications, not just in the United States but internationally. He claims that he helped develop the technology to accomplish this.

With that as the backdrop, it was disclosed yesterday that the NSA secured an Order from a top secret U.S. Foreign Intelligence Court out of Washington, D.C. to gather up the records – on an ongoing, daily basis – of all telephone calls such as the length of the call, phone numbers, time of the call, and geographic location of the call.

Why would the Feds need this when they’re already recording all cell communications? Mr. Binney would have to answer that question but perhaps the government is only able to intercept the data packets for voice communications and is unable to match those to specific phone numbers without the additional information supplied by the carriers.

In any event, this outrageous Fourth Amendment violation is yet another reason that many are suggesting the country has entered into an era of “soft tyranny.”

Here’s more on the NSA’s Verizon snooping from the British outlet that first broke the story:

The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis” to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered

Army Punishes Soldier Who Served Chick-fil-A

/21 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Generic Brand Productions

An Army master sergeant was punished after he hosted a promotion party and served Chick-fil-A sandwiches in honor of the Defense of Marriage Act.

The unidentified soldier was investigated, reprimanded, threatened with judicial action and given a bad efficiency report, according to the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty.

“They say he is no longer a team player and was not performing up to standards,” Chaplain Alliance Executive Director Ron Crews told Fox News. “This is just one little example of a case of a soldier just wanting to express his views and now he’s been jumped on by the military.”

The soldier’s story was included in a letter to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights documenting concerns about attacks on religious liberty within the Armed Services.

The Pentagon did not return calls seeking comment. Read more from this story HERE.

____________________________________________________

Congressman: Troops Being Punished For Expressing Religious Faith

The House Armed Services Committee is considering a religious liberty amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday over fears the military is punishing soldiers for expressing their religious faith.

“The men and women who put their lives on the line to defend our freedoms should not have their own religious freedom jeopardized during their military service,” said Rep. John Fleming (R-LA), who authored the amendment.

Fleming said steps taken in last year’s NDAA only focused on protecting beliefs of service members – and not the exercise or expression of those beliefs.

“My amendment is necessary to ensure that men and women of faith will not be discriminated against in the Armed Forces, and will be free to exercise their religious beliefs,” he said. “Military service members, particularly chaplains, feel like their ability to execute their duties are being greatly limited by some of the policies and actions in the Pentagon.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about the congressman’s amendment. Read more from this story HERE.

The Broken Heart of Medicine

/4 Comments/in , /by

Did you ever wonder why it seems like doctors don’t care as much as they used to? The images painted by Norman Rockwell or the iconoclastic TV personality of Marcus Welby MD of yesteryear are a rare find today, and if found are probably on the brink of retirement. Is it because medical schools now only attract cold-hearted business men who just want to make a good living in return for their hard work, or are other factors at play? Let me share with you a few thoughts that have tainted my practice just in the short span of 24 years that I have been in medicine.

More and more the message is clear that we as individuals are not to be trusted in thinking or even feeling for ourselves, but must yield to the infinite wisdom of our society as a whole. I will elaborate: there was a day when one of the primary draws for men and women into the practice of medicine was a calling, a deep seated personal burden to ease the suffering of our neighbors from the weight of sickness and the fear of death. This compassion was daily renewed in both large and small ways, at times from victories hard won at the side of courageous patients and other times from the dark stabbing pain of loss shared with grieving families. The older, purer meaning of ‘charity’ as synonymous with ‘an expression of love,’ was a foundation upon which the practice of medicine was built. I still search for that every day.

But I am not to be trusted, my heart might not be true, and so Big Brother must guide me in my compassion, and tell me who I need to have special concern for and to whom I must show special favor. Enter Medicare (or Medicaid, or any other government payer, VA, SSI, IHS, etc.). For example, if I accept Medicare reimbursement in my practice it works like this: I provide one dollar of medical service. I then receive 65 cents for my dollar of service, and am expected to provide 35 cents of charity to this individual, because the government has determined they deserve this, whether or not I am so moved in my heart.

Next, I encounter one who may not have insurance and doesn’t qualify for Medicare, or may have special circumstances that add to their burden, and my soul is moved to compassion for them in a special and unique way, and I want to help them as best as I can. So, I might desire to reduce their fee or even waive it all together. But … if Big Brother Medicare finds out I charged this patient less than the going rate, I have just committed fraud against the Medicare system! In other words, I can be severely punished for thinking that I could trust my own heart to show charity of compassion to one they haven’t approved and enrolled. How dare me!

Thus, it is that I must show charity to whom Medicare tells me to and I better not have compassion on anyone they don’t. It really warms your heart doesn’t it? How did we get here? All these programs sounded so good at the start but have slowly stripped the truest motivation for the heart of medicine. So pardon me, your doctor, please, the next time you sit across from me at the office and I seem just a little bit bitter and empty of compassion.

Rush: Obama is the Epitome of Danger, His Appointments a big “F-You” to America

/8 Comments/in , /by

Rush: Obama Appointments a Big ‘F-You’

BY Joe Kovacs. Radio powerhouse Rush Limbaugh says President Obama is basically telling Americans “F. You” with his two latest appointments in his administration.

Reports indicate Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will become a national security adviser, and her replacement at the U.N. will be Samantha Power, a foreign-policy expert who is married to Obama’s former regulatory “czar” Cass Sunstein.

“I’m gonna tell you what these two appointments are. They are ‘F. You,’ and he’s saying that to us,” Limbaugh said Wednesday on his national broadcast.

Limbaugh called the situation a “Star Wars scene going on right now at the White House.”

“I have no respect for these people at all. None,” he said. “I respect the offices they hold, but to me, these people are just the epitome of danger.” Read more from this story HERE.

____________________________________________________________

Obama’s UN ambassador pick has history of controversial comments

By Fox News. The former White House adviser and longtime Obama friend nominated Wednesday as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has a history of controversial comments that could haunt her in confirmation — including likening U.S. foreign policies to those of the Nazis.

In a March 2003 New Republic magazine essay, Samantha Power wrote that American foreign policy needs a “historical reckoning” which would entail “opening the files” and “acknowledging the force of a mantra we have spent the last decade promoting in Guatemala, South Africa, and Yugoslavia.”

She continued: “Instituting a doctrine of the mea culpa would enhance our credibility by showing that American decision-makers do not endorse the sins of their predecessors. When (German Chancellor Willy) Brandt went down on one knee in the Warsaw ghetto, his gesture was gratifying to World War II survivors, but it was also ennobling and cathartic for Germany. Would such an approach be futile for the United States?”

Republicans in the Senate, which must approve Power for the diplomatic post, could press her during her confirmation hearing on a number of other topics, including comments she’s made on Libya and Israel. If confirmed, Power would take over for Susan Rice, whom Obama appointed as his new national security adviser. Rice, unlike Power, will not face a confirmation hearing.

Power, aside from being a well-known foreign policy expert, is also married to Obama’s former regulatory “czar” Cass Sunstein. Read more from this story HERE.

____________________________________________________________

Obama ‘thrilled’ Rice ‘back at my side’ as national security adviser

By Justin Sink. President Obama on Wednesday appointed U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to replace Tom Donilon as White House national security adviser in a ceremony at the Rose Garden.

“I am absolutely thrilled she’ll be back at my side, leading my national security team in my second term,” Obama said.
The president praised her tenure at the United Nations, saying he was “extraordinarily proud” of her work.

Samantha Power, the former special assistant to the president and senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights, will be nominated to replace Rice at the U.N.

The selection of Rice comes despite heavy criticism over her comments following the terror attack in Benghazi, Libya, when she suggested in a series of television appearances that the violence had grown spontaneously out of protests over an anti-Islam video.

The White House later acknowledged that the incident was a planned terror attack and said Rice’s comments were based on early intelligence assessments. Republicans, though, questioned whether administration officials sought to downplay terrorism ahead of the November 2012 elections. Read more from this story HERE.

____________________________________________________________

Meet Upcoming U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power: 10 Reasons Why She’s the Most Dangerous Woman in the World

By Ann-Marie Murrell.

1. She hates Israel, passionately. (For sources and links, simply Google or Bing-search her name…)

2. She is soon to be our next U.N. Ambassador

3. She is the wife of Cass Sunstein, Obama’s favorite regulatory czar

4. She used to work George Soros’ ‘think tank’ ICG (International Crisis Group)

5. She was re-hired in 2009 as Obama’s Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs on the Staff of the National Security Council. Read more from this story HERE.

MSNBC’s Bashir: When You Criticize Obama Over IRS Scandal, You’re Calling Him the N-Word (+video)

/18 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: YouTube

In an over-the-top attack on Republicans who have been insinuating Obama responsibility for the growing IRS scandal, MSNBC’s Martin Bashir suggests their criticism is grounded in racism:

“This strategy is nothing new, and it was explained way back in 1981 by Lee Atwater, who was Bush 41′s chief strategist. In a tape recording, Mr. Atwater revealed how Republicans evolved their language to achieve the same purpose. He said, ‘You start out in 1954 by saying ‘n-word, n-word, n-word.’ By 1968, you can’t say ‘n-word.’ That hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like ‘forced busing,’ ‘states rights,’ and all that stuff and you’re getting so abstract. Now you’re talking about cutting taxes. ‘We want to cut this’ is much more abstract than even the busing thing and a hell of a lot more abstract than ‘n-word, n-word.’

“So this afternoon, we welcome the latest phrase in the lexicon of Republican attacks on this president: ‘the IRS.’ Three letters that sound so innocent, but we know what you mean.”

Armey: Christie Guilty of ‘Debilitating Stupidity’

/10 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Newsmax

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey says New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is guilty of “debilitating stupidity” in calling for a special election to replace late Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

“This is what really rankles conservatives,” Armey told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “There’s not a Democrat governor alive that wouldn’t have seized the opportunity to appoint a Democrat senator.

“All Christie had to do is appoint a Republican. Now I put it down as debilitating stupidity, because the first rule of politics is don’t lose the friends you already have for the friends you’re never going to get.”

Republicans and Democrats alike are slamming Christie for scheduling a special election in October just three weeks before the regularly scheduled general election, in which Christie will stand for re-election.

Many Republicans had hoped that Christie would have chosen to appoint a Republican to the seat and postpone an election until November 2014, and not risk losing the seat to Democrats in a state where they outnumber Republicans by 700,000 registered voters, The New York Times reported

Read more from this story HERE.

California vs. New York as Nation’s Worst State

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Kyle Platts

Whenever a free-market research or business group releases a “best and worst” list of states, my eye goes straight to the bottom: To see whether California is last or was edged out for the lowest rank by one of the other mismanaged liberal bastions. Illinois seems to exist to boost the self-esteem of Californians.

I can raise a glass of zinfandel to California’s great victory in the Mercatus Center’s recent “Freedom in the 50 States” study. The state didn’t place last. That distinction went to New York, thanks to its highest-in-the-nation tax rates and entrepreneur-crushing economic regulations. I owe an apology to residents of the Land of Lincoln.

For all the study’s detail about tax rates and regulation, this information jumps out as the most telling about New York: “9.0 percent of the state’s 2000 population, on net, left the state for another state between 2000 and 2011, the highest such figure in the nation.” Moving is the surest sign of dissatisfaction, especially when people relocate from a state that has long been an economic and cultural magnet.

Californians talk incessantly about high-tailing it to Texas or Nevada, yet New Yorkers flee at about double our rate. Migration numbers aside, I would still rank the Golden State as the Most Hopeless State. There are other studies that bolster that case, including Chief Executive magazine’s “2013 Best and Worst States for Business” that places California dead last, with New York in 49th place.

The magazine ranks states based on three categories: taxation and regulation, workforce quality, and living environment. Even with its natural advantages in the last category and high ranking in the second one, California still flopped because its officials have adopted a punitive environment in the first category. That takes some doing.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Intervention Not the Answer to the Terrorist War in Syria

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: National Review

By Jonah Goldberg. If there was a moment when the United States could have productively intervened in Syria, it looks like that moment has passed.

Shiite militants, including Hezbollah — partly at the behest of their paymasters in Iran — are racing to the defense of Bashar Assad’s regime. According to a witness account in the New York Times, there were some 11,000 Hezbollah fighters in the besieged town of Qusayr alone.

A Shiite religious student in Najaf, Iraq, told the Times that his colleagues believe the leader of Qatar, a backer of Sunni Syrian rebels, is a long-prophesied demonic figure who, it is foretold, will raise an army in Syria to wipe out Shiites in Iraq. As a result, devout Shiites are racing to defend their faith.

Sunnis around the world, meanwhile, are being called on to join the conflict, with the material support of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Sunni Muslim Scholars Association of Lebanon issued a fatwa calling on followers to support the rebels “by words, money, medical aid, and fighting.”

The hugely influential Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, a Sunni Egyptian cleric based in Qatar, called on Sunnis everywhere to come to Qusayr’s aid and proclaimed Hezbollah “more infidel than Jews and Christians.” Read more from this story HERE.

_____________________________________________________

Jordan: U.S. to deploy F-16s, anti-missile batteries to protect against Syria

By Cheryl K. Chumley. Jordan security heads said on Wednesday that the United States is going to deploy anti-missile batteries and F-16 fighter jets to the nation as a precautionary measure against a Syrian attack.

The deployment is set for the coming days, said two security officials involved in the mission who requested anonymity, The Associated Press reported. The United States is going to send and maintain either one or two Patriot missile launchers on Jordan’s northern border with Syria, along with several F-16 jets, AP reported. Read more from this story HERE.