Cruz Announces Early Opposition to Obama’s Blame-America-First UN Nominee; McCain Announces Support for Obama Pick

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President Obama’s nominee to replace Susan Rice as the next U.N. ambassador is running into early opposition from conservative Jewish groups and at least one Republican senator, as she prepares for what could be a tough confirmation.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, shortly after Obama nominated Samantha Power, called the selection “deeply troubling.”

Never shy about his views, Cruz bluntly questioned a series of statements Power has made, including a 2003 essay in which she called for the U.S. to institute a “doctrine of the mea culpa” to enhance credibility.

“No nation has spilled more blood or sacrificed more for the freedom of others than ours, and yet Ms. Power has publicly embraces the need for America to continue apologizing to the world for perceived transgressions, going so far as to explicitly urge ‘instituting a doctrine of the mea culpa’,” Cruz said in a written statement.

It’s unclear whether other conservatives will join Cruz or mount a sizeable opposition. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., already has said he would support Power, while other influential lawmakers have not yet offered an opinion on her credentials.

Read more from this story HERE.

Massachusetts Governor Got Drunk, Left Bar Without Paying Tab After Boston Bombing

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Photo Credit: Jared Wickerham

It was a very drunk governor Deval Patrick who sat in a restaurant in the Berkshires for some alone time in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings and ended up drinking heavily, the Boston Herald reported on June 6 after the governor gave a candid talk to employees and revealed that he had become drunk.

At the time, the drunk governor didn’t even have the money to pay for his food or drinks at the West Stockbridge bistro called Rouge. Still drunk, Gov. Patrick left Rouge without paying his bill that night, but he did return at some point later and pay up, said Rouge co-owner Maggie Merelle, who served him.

Merelle, in fact, said that the drunk governor was so well-behaved that she didn’t even realize that he’d had a few too many. The drunk governor wasn’t even tipsy, she said.

But Gov. Patrick has owned up to his heavy drinking that night. “By the end of the meal, I was actually quite drunk, by myself,” he conceded to his employees.

Read more from this story HERE.

Kathleen Sebelius Advocates for GaybamaCare

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This is June, and Barack Obama has transformed a month that used to be about fatherhood and dragging out the barbeque into 30 days of homage to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (and Questioning) pride. That’s right, count ’em: 30 whole days to rejoice in LGBTQ-ness.

Along with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Barack must feel it’s time that fairness be extended to the gay community. That’s why, for those who tend toward melancholy and depression, if ever there were a time to be gay, this would be it. Why? Because in addition to reassuring college grads that free birth control should give them peace of mind and sharing the roster at Girl Scout conferences with late-term abortionists, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wants to commemorate LGBTQ month by making it one of her priorities to actively advocate on behalf of the sexually confused, conflicted, and/or questioning.

When not sending out clandestine e-mails on her secret Obama-established e-mail account, Mrs. Sebelius is about the important business of spreading the word that she’ll be doling out privileges to the LGBTQ community based solely on non-traditional sexual preference. And although she doesn’t expound on exactly how they’ve been pushed to the side, Sebelius feels that “for too long … [LGBTQ people] were pushed to the side.”

To prove how committed she is to preferential treatment for homosexuals, Sebelius has refused to override a policy that will deny help to a dying 10-year-old girl with cystic fibrosis in need of a lung transplant. Because of government regulation concerning adults getting first dibs on adult lungs, the woman who has been integral in directly benefiting victims of HIV/AIDS has declined the opportunity to intervene.

Sebelius concurs that in the case of Sara Murnaghan, it is an “incredibly agonizing situation where someone lives and someone dies.” So in other words, if you’re 10 years old and your name is Sara Murnaghan and, through no fault of your own, you have a deadly lung disease, you will be “pushed to the side.” On the other hand, if you’ve participated in promiscuous, risky lifestyle choices and simply refused to join the Rubber Revolution or attend Condom University, or if you’re a 12-year-old girl trapped in a 12-year-old boy’s body and desire sex reassignment surgery, by way of GaybamaCare, Kathleen Sebelius will override any policy obstacle that might stand in the way of realizing your dream to be prom queen.

Read more from this story HERE.

Study: Facial Expressions of Unborn Babies in the Womb Show They Feel Pain

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Photo Credit: Life News

A newly-published research study shows unborn children are capable of feeling pain in the womb, as evidenced by the grimaces they show in their facial expressions…

Researchers from Durham and Lancaster Universities in England say unborn babies learn to show pain in their facial expressions as part of the process of fetal development. They took 15 scans of healthy unborn children and found that, when responding to painful stimuli, the babies were capable of one-dimensional expressions of pain in their faces at 24 weeks — such as moving their lips in a negative fashion.

At the 36th week of pregnancy, the researchers found unborn children can perform complex multi-dimensional facial expressions similar to what children make after birth.

Read more from this story HERE.

Admiral on China: ‘We’re in Another Cold War with Another Communist, Totalitarian Regime’

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China is claiming control over the vast majority of the South China Sea in its latest effort to challenge U.S. authority, and President Obama must make it clear that cannot happen, warns retired U.S. Navy Admiral James “Ace” Lyons.

The New York Times recently reported that China is quietly distributing official maps to foreign diplomats showing it controls 80 percent of the South China Sea, considerably more than it has publicly claimed in the past. Six different nations have competing claims for various parts of the sea, which is rich in oil, gas and minerals. If China were recognized as controlling 80 percent of the sea, foreign planes and ships would have to seek permission to enter those critical waters.

Lyons, who served 36 years in the U.S. Navy and completed his career as commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told WND this simply cannot be allowed to happen, and it’s incumbent upon President Obama to stop it.

“President Obama has to be very clear and let China know we will not tolerate their illegal claims to these vast ocean areas that have been recognized for centuries as international waters,” said Lyons, who argued that Obama has a golden opportunity to set things straight this week when he meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in California. “This will probably be one of the first issues discussed at the summit, and I’m sure that our allies will be watching carefully how President Obama handles this issue.”

According to Lyons, the U.S. Navy policy on the South China Sea has been consistent from the beginning of our nation, and he said China benefits from the longstanding policy as well.

Read more from this story HERE.

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

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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)

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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?

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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

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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.

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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

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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.