DeMint: Taxpayers Would Pay for Amnesty

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Now that the “Gang of Eight” has introduced a comprehensive immigration bill in the U.S. Senate, the cost to taxpayers of implementing amnesty for an estimated 11 million unlawful immigrants has come into focus.

The core problem with amnesty is clear: It encourages more unlawful immigration in hopes of future amnesties, and it treats unlawful immigrants more favorably than more than 4 million law-abiding people who wait outside our borders, following the rules, for their chance to come to contribute to the economic and social well-being of America.

A properly structured lawful immigration system would help our economy. This is why Heritage and conservatives have long argued for reforming the legal immigration system to make the process more efficient, more merit-based. We need an immigration process that attracts high-skilled workers and encourages patriotic assimilation to unite new immigrants with America’s vibrant civil society.

Amnesty for unlawful immigrants is totally different. Amnesty would impose significant tax burdens on Americans that are completely unnecessary to capture the positive economics that would be associated with a properly reformed lawful immigration system.

The Heritage Foundation is one of the only organizations looking at this cost to taxpayers. Our expert, Robert Rector, is one of the nation’s leading authorities on government social programs, and he is currently calculating what amnesty will cost taxpayers over the long term. It is based on a methodology also used by the National Academy of Sciences.

Read more from this story HERE.

Manipulating Growth: Data Shift to Lift US Economy 3%

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The US economy will officially become 3 per cent bigger in July as part of a shake-up that will see government statistics take into account 21st century components such as film royalties and spending on research and development.

Billions of dollars of intangible assets will enter the gross domestic product of the world’s largest economy in a revision aimed at capturing the changing nature of US output.

Brent Moulton, who manages the national accounts at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, told the Financial Times that the update was the biggest since computer software was added to the accounts in 1999.

“We are carrying these major changes all the way back in time – which for us means to 1929 – so we are essentially rewriting economic history,” said Mr Moulton.

The changes will affect everything from the measured GDP of different US states to the stability of the inflation measure targeted by the Federal Reserve. They will force economists to revisit policy debates about everything from corporate profits to the causes of economic growth.

Read more from this story HERE.

Boston Bombers: FBI Hunting 12-Strong Terrorist “Sleeper Cell” Linked to Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

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The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist “sleeper cell” linked to the Boston marathon bomb brothers.

Police believe Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were specially trained to carry out the devastating attack.

More than 1,000 FBI operatives were last night working to track down the cell and arrested a man and two women 60 miles from Boston in the hours before Dzhokhar’s dramatic capture after a bloody shootout on Friday.

A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google.

“They were too advanced. Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now our job to find out just who they were. Agents think the sleeper cell has up to a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come.”

Read more from this story HERE.

8th Grader Arrested, Jailed For Refusing to Remove NRA T-Shirt (+video)

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When 8th grade Jared Marcum got dressed for school on Thursday he says he had no idea that his pro-Second Amendment shirt would initiate what he calls a fight over his First Amendment rights.

“I never thought it would go this far because honestly I don’t see a problem with this, there shouldn’t be a problem with this,” Jared said.

It was the image of a gun printed on Jared’s t-shirt that sparked a dispute between a Logan Middle School teacher and Jared, that ended with Jared suspended, arrested and facing two charges, obstruction and disturbing the education process, on his otherwise spotless record.

Jared’s father Allen Lardieri says he’s angry he had to rush from work to pick his son up from jail over something he says was blown way out of proportion.

“I don’t’ see how anybody would have an issue with a hunting rifle and NRA put on a t-shirt, especially when policy doesn’t forbid it,” Lardieri said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Questions remain unanswered for 8th grade student arrested over shirt

From the moment 13 News first broke this story on 13 News at 11 on Thursday, emails, Facebook posts and phone calls from people all across the country have been pouring in. Despite all of the attention, Jared Marcum and his family say they’re no closer to a resolution than they were when it all began.

Jared Marcum, an 8th grade student, was suspended, arrested and is now facing two charges after refusing to change his shirt.

“People are saying that I did the right thing, that they’re proud,” Jared said.

The 14-year-old student at Logan Middle School in Logan, West Virginia says the NRA shirt that sparked the controversy now symbolizes a fight that is just getting started.

“What they’re doing is trying to take away my rights, my freedom of speech and my second amendment,” Jared said. [scroll down to see the second video]

Read more from this story HERE.

Illegals to Pay Only $83 a Year to Stay in U.S. Under Senate Plan

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photo credit: corazon girl

The U.S. Senate Gang of Eight unveiled its immigration reform legislation, promising stronger border security, much-need reforms for visas and legal immigration practices and a path to citizenship – but Iowa Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told WND the only thing guaranteed in this bill is a reward for those who came here illegally.

“The big comprehensive amnesty plan is a disaster and a big mistake,” King said. “What are we trying to fix here, and why? We have an executive branch problem, not a legislative branch problem. The president of the United States has refused to enforce immigration law with which he disagrees. So he’s seeking to write his own by executive edict.”

King said Obama’s approach to border enforcement has been infuriating, but the likelihood of Republicans getting behind this legislation leaves him baffled.

“Now I’m hearing Republicans say, ‘Well, if we’re ever going to have enforcement of the border, we have to make this agreement with the president and the Democrats or we’re never going to have border security,’” he said. “When I read this bill, I wonder: What’s the point in having border security if you’re going to legalize anybody that can come into America that is here and send an invitation to those that have been deported to apply to come back in?”

The congressman is also not impressed by the severe penalties the Gang of Eight is promising to impose on those willing to go through the legalization process.

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: Federal Stimulus Used to Lobby for Higher Taxes

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At least seven U.S. communities that received stimulus money as part of a $373 million government program to educate Americans about obesity and tobacco use potentially violated federal law by using the funds to lobby for higher taxes and new local laws, according to a report by the nonpartisan group Cause of Action.

The findings are part of a 19-month investigation by the nonprofit group on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Communities Putting Prevention to Work Program.”

Beyond potentially breaking federal law, the communities also appear to have violated CDC guidelines, according to the 36-page report titled “How the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s … Grant Program Became a Front for Lobbying, Government Propaganda and Cronyism.”

Congressional hearings in 2011 and follow-up letters to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius addressed a potential violation in a South Carolina community.

However, the April 16 report found seven other potential violations and states the CDC’s one recorded violation “was worse than disclosed.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Feds Halt Business to Clear Path for Rodents (+video)

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A lawsuit has been launched by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of property owners in Cedar City, Utah, whose private land effectively is being confiscated by the federal government for the use of a species of rodent that has been determined to have “no commercial value.”

The action by the PLF, which has taken on federal government environmental regulations in several high-profile cases in recent months, is on behalf of members of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners – or residents of the Cedar City area.

It names as defendants the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Director Daniel M. Ashe, Regional Director Noreen Walsh and others.

The case focuses on the mandated protections for the Utah prairie dog, a type of ground squirrel, or rodent, established by the federal government for owners of private property in the Utah region.

A new rule that was imposed just last fall demands that property owners are not allowed to “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect” the animals – including when they are blocking construction, development or the protection of private property.

Read more from this story HERE.

Playing Politics: Secret Emails Reveal Cato, Norquist, Rubio Using Boston Terror Attacks to Push Immigration Reform

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Secret emails obtained exclusively by Breitbart News show the libertarian Cato Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are colluding on immigration reform messaging in the wake of the Boston Marathon terror attack in order to push the “Gang of Eight” bill that was released this past week.

On Friday afternoon, political consultant Peggy Ellis of Ellis & Company, who is supporting the Gang of Eight immigration efforts, emailed “Talkers from Rubio” to the group of organizations supporting their efforts such as Cato and ATR.

The email was headlined: “Rubio talking points re: Boston terrorists vis a vis immigration reform.” The message contained three talking points from Sen. Rubio, the first of which argued that the immigration bill would prevent people like the Boston Marathon terrorists from getting into or staying in the country.

“These terrorists came here under the existing system, the one opponents of reform want to leave in place,” Sen. Rubio wrote in his first talking point.

Read more from this story HERE.

Former FBI Agent Predicts More Attacks in Muslim Jihad

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The Boston Marathon bombings are a continuation of a Muslim jihad against the United States dating back before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, says a former FBI agent dedicated to warning America about the Islamist threat.

John Guandolo, a former counterterrorism agent, posted a Web report over the weekend pointing out that the Boston Marathon attack is not an aberration but one in a string of foiled and executed assaults on American soil by self-described jihadists.

More attacks are to be expected, he said, even as the mainstream media and President Obama say they are having trouble explaining why two Muslim brothers carried out the twin bombings that killed three and injured more than 170.

“It is truly astounding to watch newscasters continue to ask the question ‘WHY?’” wrote Mr. Guandolo, who runs the website Understanding the Threat to America.

“Why did they do this? What will it take for the U.S. media and American leadership to face the reality of the imposing danger breathing down our necks the global Islamic Movement,” Mr. Guandolo wrote. “These men did this because they are commanded to. The global jihad is on.”

Read more from this story HERE.

N. Korea Denies Any Tie to Boston Bombing

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North Korea has denied a WND report that it had any links to the Boston Marathon bombing which killed three people and wounded some 180 people on April 15, the day of North Korea’s commemoration of the 101st anniversary of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung.

The North Korean news agency, KCNA, or Korean Central News Agency, dismissed the report, saying it was an attempt by “hostile forces” to damage the country’s reputation and raise “false propaganda which does not deserve even a passing note,” even though KCNA devoted an entire commentary to it.

“We stress again that we have no links to al-Qaida and by signing on to international anti-terrorism agreements, continue to maintain a stance against any form of terrorism,” KCNA said in a commentary.

The KCNA commentary added it will not hide behind terrorism if it ever feels the need to strike the U.S.

“When (North Korea) feels necessary to strike the U.S., it would not resort to such heinous terrorism in hiding,” KCNA said.

Read more from this story HERE.