Teacher Who Was Removed from Class for Having Students Stomp US Flag Gets $85,000 Settlement

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In a crazy twist made possible by our litigious society, a South Carolina teacher who was removed from his teaching position for making his students repeatedly stomp on a United States flag during a class – purportedly on freedom – has apparently gotten the last laugh.

After the teacher was removed from the classroom, his lawyers threatened to bring a federal lawsuit against the school district. The school district apparently then entered into a secret settlement where the teacher was required to resign but would continue to be paid through June 7 of this year. He also received and $85,000 settlement and $32,000 in attorneys fees. The total package, including salary and benefits, likely exceeded $150,000.

The revelation of the district’s settlement came as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request by a South Carolina newspaper.

Navy Seal Team VI Families to Reveal Obama Admin.’s Culpability in Death of Sons

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Photo Credit: Marion DossThree families of Navy SEAL Team VI special forces servicemen, along with one family of an Army National Guardsman, will appear at a press conference on May 9, 2013, to disclose never before revealed information about how and why their sons along with 26 others died in a fatal helicopter crash in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011, just a few months after the successful raid on the compound of Osama Bin Laden that resulted in the master terrorist’s death.

Accompanying the families of these dead Navy SEAL Team VI special operations servicemen will be retired military experts verifying their accounts of how and why the government is as much responsible for the deaths of their sons as is the Taliban.

The areas of inquiry at the press conference will include but not be limited to:

1. How President Obama and Vice President Biden, having disclosed on May 4, 2011, that Navy Seal Team VI carried out the successful raid on Bin Laden’s compound resulting in the master terrorist’s death, put a retaliatory target on the backs of the fallen heroes.

2. How and why high-level military officials sent these Navy SEAL Team VI heroes into battle without special operations aviation and proper air support.

3. How and why middle level military brass carries out too many ill-prepared missions to boost their standing with top-level military brass and the Commander-in-Chief in order that they can be promoted.

4. How the military restricts special operations servicemen and others from engaging in timely return fire when fired upon by the Taliban and other terrorist groups and interests, thus jeopardizing the servicemen’s lives.

5. How and why the denial of requested pre-assault fire may have contributed to the shoot down of the Navy SEAL Team VI helicopter and the death of these special operations servicemen.

6. How Afghani forces accompanying the Navy SEAL Team VI servicemen on the helicopter were not properly vetted and how they possibly disclosed classified information to the Taliban about the mission, resulting in the shoot down of the helicopter.

7. How military brass, while prohibiting any mention of a Judeo-Christian God, invited a Muslim cleric to the funeral for the fallen Navy SEAL Team VI heroes who disparaged in Arabic the memory of these servicemen by damning them as infidels to Allah. A video of the Muslim cleric’s “prayer” will be shown with a certified translation.

“This press conference takes on special significance given that our government has over the last twelve years since September 11 committed brave American servicemen to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which, in large part as a result of politics, were poorly conceived of and implemented, resulting in the deaths of thousands and the maiming of tens of thousands of our brave heroes. To make matters even worse, America has effectively lost these wars,” stated Larry Klayman, legal counsel for the families.

For more information, contact Freedom Watch at [email protected] or Tel: 424 274 2579.

Source: Only President Could Have Made ‘Stand Down’ Call on Benghazi

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Photo Credit: Breitbart A source with intimate information about the events that happened on the ground in Benghazi the night the U.S. Consulate and the CIA annex was attacked by terrorists told Breitbart News that, ultimately, only the President of the United States, or someone acting on his authority, could have prevented Special Forces either on the ground or nearby from helping those Americans who were under deadly assault.

According to the source, when the attack on the Consulate occurred, a specific chain of command to gain verbal permission to move special-forces in must have occurred. SOCAFRICA commander Lieutenant Col. Gibson would have contacted a desk officer at the time, asking for that permission.

That desk officer would have called Marine Corps Col. George Bristol, then in command of Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans Sahara. From there, Bristol would have made contact with Rear Admiral Brian Losey, then Commander of Special Operations Command Africa. Losey would have contacted four-star General Carter Ham, commander of U.S. AFRICOM at the time.

“Ham answers directly to the President of the United States,” said the source. It wasn’t a low-level bureaucrat making the call, the source adamantly added.

Read more from this story HERE.

Alleged Cleveland Kidnapper Ariel Castro’s Daughter Slashed Her 11 Month Old Baby’s Throat (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsBy Fox News. Monday night’s revelation that Ariel Castro allegedly kept at least three women as prisoners in a Cleveland, Ohio, home for almost a decade is not the first time a spotlight has been placed on the family.

His daughter, Emily, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for slashing the throat of her then 11-month-old daughter, Janyla, according to the Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The incident happened in 2007, a day after she broke up with the child’s father, prosecutors said.

According to the paper, police showed up at her home on April 4th and saw the baby’s maternal grandmother, Grimilda Figueroa, holding the bleeding infant, who had severe cuts on her throat.

During the trial, the family argued that Castro suffered from severe depression and that it pushed her to paranoia – to the point where she believed her family was trying to kill her and her daughter. Read more from this story HERE.

Amanda Berry: Three captive women chained up in grim dungeon for a decade gave birth to five babies

By Chris Bucktin and Ben Rossington. Three women held captive in a dungeon for a decade gave birth to five babies during the ordeal.

Gina DeJesus, 23, Michelle Knight, 30, and Amanda Berry, 26, and her six-year-old daughter fled the house in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ariel Castro, 52, and his two brothers have been arrested.

Frantic Amanda choked back tears as she told police “I’m free” after she escaped the dungeon.

Amanda fled the hell-hole thanks to a hero neighbour before her dramatic 911 call ended the victims’ ordeal.

It had been feared that Amanda and the other captives – Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight – had been murdered. Read more from this story HERE.

Senator: “The Dam is About to Break on Benghazi”

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Photo Credit: APSen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday predicted that “the dam is about to break on Benghazi,” and said that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would shoulder some blame.

“I think the dam is about to break on Benghazi,” Graham (R-S.C.) wrote on his Facebook page. “We’re going to find a system failure before, during, and after the attacks. We’re going to find political manipulation seven weeks before an election. We’re going to find people asleep at the switch when it comes to the State Department, including Hillary Clinton.”

Graham has been a vocal critic of the Obama administration for its handling of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Amb. Chris Stevens, among others.

Read more from this story HERE.

Media Bias at Work: US Gun Crime Plunges, but Most Americans Think It’s Increased

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Photo Credit: AFP-GettyGun crime has plunged in the United States since its peak in the middle of the 1990s, including gun killings, assaults, robberies and other crimes, two new studies of government data show…

In less than two decades, the gun murder rate has been nearly cut in half. Other gun crimes fell even more sharply, paralleling a broader drop in violent crimes committed with or without guns. Violent crime dropped steeply during the 1990s and has fallen less dramatically since the turn of the millennium.

The number of gun killings dropped 39% between 1993 and 2011, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in a separate report released Tuesday. Gun crimes that weren’t fatal fell by 69%…

Despite the remarkable drop in gun crime, only 12% of Americans surveyed said gun crime had declined compared with two decades ago, according to Pew, which surveyed more than 900 adults this spring. Twenty-six percent said it had stayed the same, and 56% thought it had increased.

It’s unclear whether media coverage is driving the misconception that such violence is up. The mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., were among the news stories most closely watched by Americans last year, Pew found. Crime has also been a growing focus for national newscasts and morning network shows in the past five years but has become less common on local television news.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Admin. Poised to Back FBI’s Demand For Wiretap Access to Online Communications

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Photo Credit: Christopher GregoryThe Obama administration, resolving years of internal debate, is on the verge of backing a Federal Bureau of Investigation plan for a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate using the Internet rather than by traditional phone services, according to officials familiar with the deliberations.

The F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, has argued that the bureau’s ability to carry out court-approved eavesdropping on suspects is “going dark” as communications technology evolves, and since 2010 has pushed for a legal mandate requiring companies like Facebook and Google to build into their instant-messaging and other such systems a capacity to comply with wiretap orders. That proposal, however, bogged down amid concerns by other agencies, like the Commerce Department, about quashing Silicon Valley innovation.

While the F.B.I.’s original proposal would have required Internet communications services to each build in a wiretapping capacity, the revised one, which must now be reviewed by the White House, focuses on fining companies that do not comply with wiretap orders. The difference, officials say, means that start-ups with a small number of users would have fewer worries about wiretapping issues unless the companies became popular enough to come to the Justice Department’s attention.

Still, the plan is likely to set off a debate over the future of the Internet if the White House submits it to Congress, according to lawyers for technology companies and advocates of Internet privacy and freedom.

“I think the F.B.I.’s proposal would render Internet communications less secure and more vulnerable to hackers and identity thieves,” said Gregory T. Nojeim of the Center for Democracy and Technology. “It would also mean that innovators who want to avoid new and expensive mandates will take their innovations abroad and develop them there, where there aren’t the same mandates.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Despite Scandal, Ex-SC Gov. Sanford Back in Office

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Photo Credit: Rainier EhrhardtFour years after scandal derailed his political career, ex-Republican Gov. Mark Sanford once again holds a South Carolina political office, winning back his old congressional seat Tuesday after a race in which he battled his past and an opponent who outdid him in fundraising.

Sanford’s resurrection was completed when he defeated Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of political satirist Stephen Colbert, in a district that hasn’t elected a Democratic congressman in more than three decades.

“Some guy came up to me the other day and said you look a lot like Lazarus,” Sanford told a crowd of more than 100 cheering supporters at his victory celebration, referring to the man who, according to the Bible, Christ raised from the dead.

With all precincts reporting, Sanford had about 54 percent of the vote.

“I’ve talked a lot about grace during the course of this campaign,” he said. “Until you experience human grace as a reflection of God’s grace, I don’t think you really get it. And I didn’t get it before.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Is Chris Christie’s Weight-Loss Surgery a 2016 Clue?

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Photo Credit: New Jersey National GuardNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who recently described himself as “the healthiest fat guy you’ve ever seen,” revealed Tuesday that he’s taken a major step toward slimming down.

The Republican told the New York Post that he underwent lap-band stomach surgery over the Presidents Day holiday — auspicious timing given that news of the procedure is seen as the latest indication that he’s eyeing a White House run in 2016.

Christie, however, denied that the procedure had any political implications, saying the decision was made after pleas from his family to shape up after a milestone birthday.

“I’ve struggled with this issue for 20 years,” he told the newspaper. “For me, this is about turning 50 and looking at my children and wanting to be there for them.”

Christie checked into a surgery center under a false name on Feb. 16, the Post reported. The procedure, which is less intrusive than gastric bypass surgery, is meant to make individuals feel fuller and cut down on food intake. One analyst told NBC News on Tuesday that Christie could lose 100 pounds if he does cut back on his eating.

Read more from this story HERE.

Another Financial Crisis Coming, Much Worse Than Last

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Photo Credit: Getty Images The bond markets will crash once global central banks stop buying debt, triggering a financial crisis much worse than the one seen in 2008, strategist David Roche told CNBC.

Roche, who has previously warned that “safe haven” government bonds are the most dangerous place for investors to be in, said Wednesday: “Yes it [a financial crisis] will happen and yes, it will be bigger [than the credit crisis]. Once you re-price the burden of the world’s debt… the ugly truth will be revealed.”

According to Roche, president of Independent Strategy, once the expansive quantitative easing programs initiated by Western central banks come to an end, sovereign bond yields, including U.S. Treasurys, German Bunds and U.K. Gilts, will spike significantly prompting a crash.

Yields on U.S. 10-year Treasurys have fallen more than 200 basis points over the past five years and are now around 1.8 percent. Meanwhile, U.K. 10-year Gilts and German 10-year Bunds were also trading near record lows on Wednesday at 1.8 percent and 1.29 percent, respectively.

“As long as the central bankers print money, the only way to have to distribute it is [for governments] to buy 70 percent of new bond issuance in these safe haven bond markets. As long as they go on doing that, the yields won’t go up, and the day they stop, the yields will go up by so much we will have a financial crisis on our hands,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.