Representative: ‘My Constituents Want More Sequestration, Not Less’

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesNobody is particularly happy about the arbitrary, across-the-board spending cuts taking effect as a result of sequestration. That is, except for maybe Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.), who said Tuesday that his constituents want even more cuts to kick in.

“The people that I’ve talked to seem to be doing well,” Long told local news affiliate KOLR10 News. “In fact, when I got out in restaurants here in town, people come up to me. They want to see more sequestration, not less.”

Long said people in other parts of the country may be feeling pain as a result of the $85 billion in cuts. But not his community.

“We haven’t seen any measurable effect here at all,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Saudi Arabia Warned the United States IN WRITING about Boston Bomber in 2012

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Photo Credit: APThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent a written warning about accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2012, long before pressure-cooker blasts killed three and injured hundreds, according to a senior Saudi government official with direct knowledge of the document.

The Saudi warning, the official told MailOnline, was separate from the multiple red flags raised by Russian intelligence in 2011, and was based on human intelligence developed independently in Yemen.

Citing security concerns, the Saudi government also denied an entry visa to the elder Tsarnaev brother in December 2011, when he hoped to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the source said. Tsarnaev’s plans to visit Saudi Arabia have not been previously disclosed.

The Saudis’ warning to the U.S. government was also shared with the British government. ‘It was very specific’ and warned that ‘something was going to happen in a major U.S. city,’ the Saudi official said during an extensive interview.

It ‘did name Tamerlan specifically,’ he added. The ‘government-to-government’ letter, which he said was sent to the Department of Homeland Security at the highest level, did not name Boston or suggest a date for his planned attack.

Read more from this story HERE.

Chief Justice Roy Moore Making Eligibility Backers Desperate?

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Photo Credit: WNDThe Democratic Party has jumped into a Barack Obama eligibility case before Judge Roy Moore’s Alabama Supreme Court, filing an uninvited brief that even quotes late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel in an effort to see the case dismissed.

As WND reported, 2012 Constitution Party presidential nominee Virgil Goode and Alabama Republican Party leader Hugh McInnish have filed a case seeking to force Secretary of State Beth Chapman to verify that all candidates on the state’s 2012 ballot were eligible to serve.

The case, dismissed at a lower level, is now being appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court, where Roy Moore was elected chief justice last November. The case becomes all the more intriguing because Moore is on record questioning Obama’s constitutional eligibility to serve as president.

Speculation abounds online that Alabama Democrats have jumped into the case out of concern Moore may not be so quick as other judges to dismiss challenges to Obama’s eligibility.

In a brief of amicus curiae filed last week, the Alabama Democratic Party insists the court is required to dismiss the case.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Press Conference: ‘I’m Still Relevant’ and ‘It’s Everyone Else’s Fault’

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller President Obama: I’m still relevant

By Glenn Thrush. If ever 47 minutes illustrated the frustration, tantalizing promise and ambivalence of a second term, this was it.

President Barack Obama, marking the 100th day since he delivered an ambitious inaugural address brimming with expansive plans, sparred with the White House press over a succession of issues over which he has conspicuously clipped control — from his response to the “game-changer” revelation that Syrian government forces used sarin gas, to the failure of his gun control push, to his continued efforts to shutter the Guantanamo Bay detention facility over the objections of Congressional Republicans and Democrats.

“Mr. President, you are a hundred days into your second term…my question to you is do you still have the juice to get the rest of your agenda through this Congress?” asked ABC’s Jonathan Karl — eliciting a surprised chuckle and “goll-y” from the commander-in-chief during a Tuesday morning press conference in the White House briefing room.

“You know… as Mark Twain said, you know, rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point,” said Obama, who seemed a lot less lighthearted than during his sharp-elbowed stand-up routine at the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday. Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Blames Everybody

By Neil Munro. President Barack Obama spent most of his surprise April 30 press conference on the defensive, blaming the Senate, budget cuts, Republicans, Syria’s dictator and much else for the shaky start to his second term.

He had nothing major or new to announce, and no theme or message to steer media coverage.

About a third of the way through the press conference, Obama responded to a question about his political clout by saying sardonically that “as Mark Twain said, rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point.”

“In the Senate, this habit of requiring 60 votes for even the most modest piece of legislation has gummed up the works there,” he complained. Read more from this story HERE.

Texas Senate Approves Bill Allowing Guns in Locked Cars on College Campuses

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Photo Credit: Andrew-HydeA bill that would allow Texas college students to keep handguns locked in their cars in college campus parking lots easily passed the state Senate on Tuesday.

The bill, OK’d in a bipartisan 27-4 vote, would override rules by several state colleges and universities that prohibit guns on campuses.

During the debate on the Senate floor, Democratic Sen. Jose Rodriguez of El Paso argued the bill would lead to allowing guns in college classrooms. He later told FoxNews.com, “I opposed the bill because, given today’s climate and the rise of crime on ours campuses, the last thing we need to do is pass a bill like this.”

Supporters say the measure isn’t a traditional concealed weapons bill because the legislation would restrict students to keeping their guns in a locked vehicle. But Rodriguez says that would do little to deter a determined shooter.

“You allow it in the glove compartment of your car in the college campus and if you have a disgruntled student who wants to take (his or her) anger out on the teacher or an administrator, what’s going to stop the student from walking to the car and getting it?” Rodriguez said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Iran Source: President Ahmadinejad Arrested

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Photo Credit: WNDIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was arrested and held for seven hours Monday and warned to keep his mouth shut about matters detrimental to the Islamic regime before he was released, according to a source within the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence unit.

After his visit to Tehran’s 26th international book fair Monday, the source said the head of Ahmadinejad’s security team informed the Iranian president that he had been asked to appear at the supreme leader’s office for an urgent matter.

On the way to the meeting, contact between the security team within the president’s convoy was disconnected while three other cars joined the convoy, instructing the lead car to take a different direction. Ahmadinejad, instead of being taken to the supreme leader’s office, was taken to a secret location in one of the buildings belonging to the Foreign Ministry, which is under the control of the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence unit.

As soon as Ahmadinejad exited the car, he and his security team were involved in an altercation with Guards’ members in which his team was disarmed and communications equipment confiscated. Ahmadinejad was then forced to enter an office belonging to Hossein Taeb, the head of the Guards’ intelligence, located underneath the building.

As this was happening, the source said, hundreds of other Guards’ members from the intelligence unit sought out Ahmadinejad’s associates throughout Tehran and questioned them on the existence of documents detrimental to the regime.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rubio: Immigration Bill Doomed; Homosexual Push Continues

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Photo Credit: Reuters Marco Rubio: Gang of Eight’s immigration bill can’t pass the House

By Seung Min Kim. Sen. Marco Rubio acknowledged Tuesday on a conservative radio talk show that the Gang of Eight’s comprehensive immigration reform bill won’t likely pass the Republican-led House.

The comments from Rubio, perhaps the most influential congressional Republican on immigration, illustrate the challenges facing the prospects for reform after months of private negotiations by a bipartisan coalition of senators produced a wide-ranging, 844-page bill.

“The bill that’s in place right now probably can’t pass the House,” Rubio told Mike Gallagher, a nationally syndicated talk show host. “It will have to be adjusted, because people are very suspicious about the willingness of the government to enforce the laws now.”

He continued: “That is a very legitimate suspicion, it’s one that I share, and if there’s anything we can do to make [the bill] even tighter … that’s exactly what we should be working on.”

In a separate radio appearance Tuesday, Rubio elaborated on the challenges facing the legislation in the House, saying the enforcement mechanisms in the Senate legislation would need to be much stronger in order to pass the lower chamber. Read more from this story HERE.

Push to Include Gay Couples in Immigration Bill

By Julia Preston. This has been a good year for gay rights advocates — with public opinion shifting in their favor and same-sex marriage advancing in the states — but not when it comes to immigration.

An 844-page bill introduced in the Senate in mid-April by a bipartisan group of eight lawmakers includes measures to make legal immigration easier for highly skilled immigrants, migrant farmworkers and those living here illegally. It has no provisions that would help foreigners who are same-sex partners of American citizens to become legal permanent residents.

Gay advocates were sharply disappointed to find that same-sex couples were excluded from the legislation, since the Democrats who wrote it included two of their most consistent champions, Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the second highest-ranking Senate Democrat. Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the Democrat who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, where the bill is under consideration, has offered, since as far back as 2003, a separate measure that would allow immigrants in long-term same-sex relationships to obtain residency with a green card.

But in the lengthy closed-door negotiations that produced the overhaul proposal, the four Republicans in the bipartisan group made it clear early on that they did not want to include such a hot-button issue in a bill that would be a challenge to sell to their party even without it, according to Senate staff members. The Republicans are Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona, and Marco Rubio of Florida. Read more from this story HERE.

Gay rights push threatens immigration deal

By Carrie Budoff Brown. The most serious threat to bipartisan immigration reform doesn’t involve border security or guest workers or even the path to citizenship. It’s about gay rights.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has told advocates that he will offer an amendment during the bill markup next week allowing gay Americans to sponsor their foreign-born partners for green cards, just as heterosexual couples can. The measure is likely to pass because Democrats face pressure from gay rights advocates to deal with it in committee, rather than on the Senate floor, where the odds of passage are far less favorable.

But by doing so, Republicans warn that Democrats will tank the whole bill.

“It will virtually guarantee that it won’t pass,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the Gang of Eight negotiating group, told POLITICO in a brief interview. “This issue is a difficult enough issue as it is. I respect everyone’s views on it. But ultimately, if that issue is injected into this bill, the bill will fail and the coalition that helped put it together will fall apart.”

As the legislation moves through the Judiciary Committee and on to the Senate floor, many people will make pronouncements about things that must be kept in or kept out of the bill — but few issues worry the Gang of Eight as much as same-sex partner rights. Read more from this story HERE.

Obama to be Democratic Nominee in 2016?

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Photo Credit: WNDA new poll of Democrats on their preferred candidates for the 2016 presidential race has produced the Obama name, which pollster Fritz Wenzel described as “bizarre.”

The results come from a poll by Wenzel of Wenzel Strategies, who found that Hillary Clinton is winning 55 percent of the support from respondents who said they plan to vote in the Democrat Party primary.

But in the No. 2 position was Michelle Obama, with support from 19 percent of the respondents.

“In a limited field of just four candidates – Clinton, Joe Biden, Michelle Obama, and John Kerry, Michelle Obama finished a very distant second place at 19 percent support. The second-place finish of Obama is every bit as bizarre as Clinton’s first-place finish is predictable,” he said.

“Joe Biden’s support by just 8 percent of likely Democratic voters is simply pathetic, and if John Kerry ever harbored a thought that his current role as Secretary of State might support a presidential comeback, this survey shows he should discard such a thought,” Wenzel said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Nullification: Alabama Lawmakers Vote to Ignore New Federal Gun Control Laws

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Photo Credit: APThe Alabama Legislature is telling the federal government and others to back off on gun control.

The Senate passed legislation Tuesday declaring that “All federal acts, laws, orders, rules or regulations regarding firearms are a violation of the Second Amendment.” It also says federal laws in violation of the Second Amendment shall be considered null and void in Alabama. The vote was 24-6.

The sponsor, Republican Sen. Paul Sanford of Huntsville, said the bill resulted from hundreds of emails and calls he received from his north Alabama constituents concerned that Congress might enact new gun regulations or restore the previous ban on assault weapons. He said the assault weapon ban is an example of federal regulation that he considers a violation of the Second Amendment.

Democratic Sen. Bobby Singleton of Greensboro, who voted against the measure, said state law can’t trump federal law. “This bill is null and void on its face,” Singleton said.

In the House Tuesday, members voted 76-22 for a proposed constitutional amendment that would require Alabama’s courts to use “strict scrutiny” when reviewing any new gun control laws. That would require proponents of the laws to show a compelling interest for the regulations and that they be narrowly tailored.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrats Claim that Climate Change Will Push Women into Prostitution

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Photo Credit: Public Domain PhotosSeveral House Democrats are calling on Congress to recognize that climate change is hurting women more than men, and could even drive poor women to “transactional sex” for survival.

The resolution, from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and a dozen other Democrats, says the results of climate change include drought and reduced agricultural output. It says these changes can be particularly harmful for women.

“[F]ood insecure women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and poor reproductive health,” it says.

Climate change could also add “workload and stresses” on female farmers, which the resolution says produce 60 to 80 percent of the food in developing countries.

The chances for regional conflict also increase with climate change, the resolution says, because changing weather patterns could lead to migration and refugee crises. It said these sorts of potential conflicts over land will have a disproportionate impact on “the most vulnerable populations including women.”

Read more from this story HERE.