Japanese Mayor Apologizes for Saying US Troops Should Visit Adult Businesses to Reduce Rapes

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APA Japanese mayor apologized Monday for saying earlier that U.S. troops should patronize legal adult entertainment businesses as a way to reduce rapes and other assaults.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, who is also the co-head of an emerging nationalistic party, said his remarks two weeks ago rose from a “sense of crisis” about cases of sexual assaults by U.S. military personnel on Japanese civilians in Okinawa, where a large number of U.S. troops are based.

“I understand that my remark could be construed as an insult to the U.S. forces and to the American people” and was inappropriate, he said at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Tokyo.

Hashimoto had created another uproar when he said that Japan’s wartime practice of forcing Asian women, mostly from South Korea and China, to work in front-line brothels was necessary to maintain discipline and provide relaxation for soldiers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Do You Believe? Holy Image Appears Behind Child Battling Leukemia (+video)

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Potter FamilyBeliever or not, the image behind Erin Potter, a Kirtland girl battling leukemia, is stunning. It certainly stunned her mom.

“My reaction immediately, it’s Mary, they hear us, she’s there,” Jen Potter said.

The picture of Erin, running with sparklers, was taken in her backyard by a friend just after the family learned that Erin’s cancer was back, for the third time, and she was facing a second bone marrow transplant.

“I didn’t necessarily see it as a sign that Erin is fine and is going to walk out of this, but it’s a sign that we’re watching over her,” Jen added.

KPTV – FOX 12

Read more from this story HERE.

Tea Party Gets a Bump After Being Targeted by IRS

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APThe Tea Party movement is showing signs of a resurgence following the revelation that the IRS targeted groups and other politically conservative organizations for the past several years.

A recent poll shows Americans have a more favorable opinion of the less-government, anti-tax groups. And one of the biggest groups in the grassroots movement told FoxNews.com this weekend that fundraising and donations have increased since news of the IRS targeting broke earlier this month.

However, one of the biggest remaining questions is whether the Tea Party can take the momentum in the 2014 elections.

The movement started in 2009 as a reaction to the federal government’s multibillion-dollar bank bailouts in the recession and played a major role in the 2010 midterm elections by backing conservative candidates who helped Republicans take control of the House. However, critics during the 2012 election cycle repeatedly argued the movement had become less relevant.

“We’re definitely seeing a spike in both interest and contributions,” Sal Russo, co-founder of the California-based Tea Party Express, told Fox on Saturday.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul: Obama ‘Losing Moral Authority’

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Getty Images President Barack Obama is in danger of losing his moral authority to lead the nation, Rep. Rand Paul, R-Ky., says.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Paul said the three controversies currently swirling around the administration weaken his leadership ability.

“Nobody questions his legal authority, but I think he’s really losing the moral authority,” Paul said. “I don’t care whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, nobody likes to see the opposite party punishing you for your political beliefs.”

Paul was referring to IRS agents targeting conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status prior the previous election cycle. Some have charged that agents wanted to suppress Republican voter turnout, though administration officials say the agents simply used bad judgment.

Asked whether he was aware of anyone at the IRS breaking the law, Paul responded that he didn’t know. But he noted that Lois Lerner, the head of tax-exempt organizations at the agency, took her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself when asked to testify before Congress last week.

Read more from this story HERE.

Boston Community Cancels Veteran’s Day Parade Because of Lack of Veterans (+video)

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: mrsdkrebsThis Sunday, the streets of Beverly will look just like they always do. And that’s the problem, some veterans say. The city has cancelled its annual Memorial Day parade for what’s believed to be the first time since the end of the Civil War.

Many veterans who were gathered at the Herman A. Spear American Legion Post on Friday night are upset by the decision.

“It’s not right to me,” says Ron Innocenti. He is a Vietnam veteran who has not only marched in the city’s Memorial Day parade in the past, he says he has also been its grand marshal.

He hates to cancel because of the message it sends to men and women serving now.

“It’s a slap in the face to them that we’re not doing it,” he says. “But on the other hand, I can see why we’re not doing it because of the age of the veterans we have now.”

Read more from this story HERE.

By 22-Point Margin, Voters Favor Obamacare’s Repeal

/9 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Weekly Standard It would be a major understatement to say that Obamacare has had a bad spring. Around the time of Lincoln’s birthday, registered voters told Fox News that, by a margin of 6 percentage points (48 to 42 percent), it would “be better to go back to the health care system that was in place in 2009” than it would be “to leave the new health care law in place.” Three months later, as we head into Memorial Day, nostalgia for the good ol’ days of 2009 now beats Obamacare by a whopping 22 points (56 to 34 percent).

That’s saying something, because, back in 2009 — largely as a result of Republicans’ refusal to do much of anything on health care in the nearly decade-and-a-half between their defeat of Hillarycare and their defeat at the hands of Obama — Americans clearly weren’t very happy with the health-care status quo. Every one of the half-dozen polls published by RealClearPolitics in the first half of 2009 — before Obamacare clearly took shape — showed Americans favoring efforts to reform our health-care system. Now, Obamacare is even more unpopular than the unpopular pre-Obamacare status quo — and that has been true for nearly four years.

None of this, however, should lull Republicans into thinking there’s no need for them to advance conservative, limited-government reforms in lieu of Obamacare’s liberal, big-government model of centralized control over American medicine. For at least two main reasons, it’s crucial that the GOP push not only for the full repeal of Obamacare, but also for real reform.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Essentially Declares an End to the Global War on Terror

/17 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APSome call it wishful thinking, but President Barack Obama has all but declared an end to the global war on terror.

Obama is not claiming final victory over extremists who still seek to kill Americans and other Westerners. Instead, he is refocusing the long struggle against terrorism that lies ahead, steering the United States away from what he calls an equally frightening threat — a country in a state of perpetual war. In doing so, Obama recasts the image of the terrorists themselves, from enemy warriors to cowardly thugs and resets the relationship between the U.S. and Islam.

His speech Thursday was designed to move America’s mindset away from a war footing and refine and recalibrate his own counterterrorism strategy. Obama asserted that al-Qaida is “on the path to defeat,” reducing the scale of terrorism to pre-Sept. 11 levels. That means that with the Afghanistan war winding down, Obama is unlikely to commit troops in large numbers to any conflict — in Syria or other countries struggling with instability in the uncertain aftermath of the Arab Spring — unless, as his critics fear, he tragically has underestimated al-Qaida’s staying power.

“Wishing the defeat of terrorists does not make it so,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry, a Texas Republican who is vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Read more from this story HERE.

One-Third of Young Adults Regret Going to College

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Forbes Here’s an indication of how burdensome student loans have become: About one-third of millennials say they would have been better off working, instead of going to college and paying tuition.

That’s a according to a new Wells Fargo WFC +0.57% study which surveyed 1,414 millennials between the ages of 22 and 32. More than half of them financed their education through student loans, and many say the if they had $10,000 the “first thing” they’d do is pay down their student loan or credit card debt.

That’s no surprise when you consider student borrowing topped the $100 billion threshold for the first time in 2010, and total outstanding loans exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in 2011. Student loan debt now exceeds credit card debt in the U.S. which stands at about $798 billion.

Delinquencies are also on the rise. The number of borrowers who are at least 90 days late on student loan payments has jumped from 8.5% in 2011 to 11.7% today, according to a study by the New York Federal Reserve.

Read more from this story HERE.

Flesh Eating Bacteria Survivor, Triple Amputee, Celebrates Life (+video)

/1 Comment/in , /by

Last fall, we reported on the case of Aimee Copeland, a beautiful West Georgia graduate student who almost died in May.

Out for a weekend of fun, Ms. Copeland and her friends played on a homemade zip line. Unfortunately, while she was on the line, it snapped. Ms. Copeland fell, severely injuring her leg.


After receiving 22 staples to close the wound, she returned to the hospital, complaining of extreme pain. Turns out, she was suffering from necrotizing fasciitis – flesh eating bacteria.

To save her life, doctors had to amputate her hands, leg and foot.

Now, a year later, Ms. Copeland is celebrating life. Hear her encouraging story:

Jailed for Facebook Comments, Marine Sues (+video)

/20 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: USDAgovIt happens in China routinely. It frequently happened in the old Soviet Union. Undoubtedly in North Korea, although generally there’s no one around to witness it. But in the United States? It happens here, too, apparently.

A lawsuit has been filed by officials with the Rutherford Institute on behalf of a Marine who was jailed and held for the comments he made on Facebook – comments that expressed a dissatisfaction with the present direction of the U.S. government.

According to officials at Rutherford, the civil rights action names as defendants members of law enforcement and the government who were involved in last year’s episode where Marine veteran Brandon Raub, 27, was arrested by a swarm of FBI and Secret Service and forcibly detained in a psychiatric ward for a week.

His crime was posting controversial song lyrics and political views on Facebook, the institute reported.

In one of his postings, he cited the evil in the world.

“The United States was meant to lead the charge against injustice, but through our example not our force. People do not respond to having liberty and freedom forced on them,” he wrote.

Read more from this story HERE.