Obama Admin Wants to Deport Christian Homeschoolers

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Photo Credit: TownhallThe Romeike family fled their German homeland in 2008 seeking political asylum in the United States – where they hoped to home school their children. Instead, the Obama administration wants the evangelical Christian family deported.

The fate of Uwe and Hannelore Romeikie – along with their six children – now rests with the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – after the Dept. of Homeland Security said they don’t deserve asylum. Neither the Justice Dept. nor the Dept. of Homeland Security returned calls seeking comment.

“The Obama administration is basically saying there is no right to home school anywhere,” said Michael Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association. “It’s an utter repudiation of parental liberty and religious liberty.” The Justice Dept. is arguing that German law banning home schooling does not violate the family’s human rights.

“They are trying to send a family back to Germany where they would certainly lose custody of their children,” Farris told Fox News. “Our government is siding with Germany.”

Farris said the Germans ban home schools because “they don’t want to have religious and philosophical minorities in their country.”

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DOJ Fighting To Deny Veteran Right To Own A Firearm Based On 40-Year Old Misdemeanor

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More prosecutorial indiscretion

Really, why does our government waste its resources on cases like the fight to prevent Jefferson Wayne Schrader from purchasing a firearm?

This case demonstrates what happens when a bureaucracy deprives someone of a right just because the bureaucracy can, and then the full force of the U.S. government goes to bat against the individual for no reason other than it can.

The case is Schrader v. Holder. In a January 11, 2013 decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the government’s position, but the question is why is the government exercising such a ridiculous discretion?

The short version is that Schrader got into a fistfight when he was in the Navy in 1968. Schrader was convicted of a misdemeanor and received no jail time.

That conviction prevented Schrader from clearing a background check for shotgun and handgun purchases in 2008 because federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a crime which carries a potential penalty of more than two years from owning a firearm. Maryland law at the time in 1968 carried no maximum penalty for a misdemeanor, but the feds construed the lack of a maximum penalty as being a potential penalty more than two years.

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Russians Conduct Huge Nuke Drill

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Photo Credit: APRussian nuclear forces conducted a major exercise last month that tested the transport of both strategic and tactical nuclear weapons near Europe, according to United States officials.

The exercise raised concerns inside the Pentagon and with the U.S. European Command because it was the largest exercise of its kind in 20 years and involved heightened alert status of Russian nuclear forces. The nuclear drills were part of other military maneuvers in Russia carried out between Feb. 17 and Feb. 21.

The exercises followed a recent surge in Russian strategic bomber flights that include a recent circling of the U.S. Pacific island of Guam by two Tu-95 Bear bomber and simulated bombing runs by Tu-95s against Alaska and California in June and July.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Wesley P. Miller sought to play down the nuclear exercise but declined to comment on the movement of nuclear weapons and whether nuclear forces went on a heightened state of alert. “We don’t comment on intelligence matters,” he said. Miller said the nuclear forces maneuvers were “nothing to be concerned about because the Russians, like us, have routine exercises and inspections.”

However, a U.S. official said the exercise was a concern within the U.S. national security community because of the scale of the exercise and the number of weapons being moved. “Certainly it’s a concern when you have this kind of exercise going on,” this official said.

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Divisions Among Republicans Stalling Formation Of Benghazi Select Committee

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Photo Credit: BretbartTop Republicans with classified information about the terrorist assault on the U.S. mission in Benghazi last September may not want to see a House Select Committee formed to investigate the attack that left four Americans dead, including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens, although a number of Senate and House Republicans remain unsatisfied with information they have received from the Obama administration about the deadly attack. Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA), a subcommittee chairman on the House Appropriations Committee, has re -filed a resolution to form such a select committee. Only Speaker John Boehner can allow the formation of a House Select Committee.

Other Republicans were unsure of their support for a select committee. “You know, I don’t think so. We’re still under the review of our committee right now, so we’re still conducting our investigation. We haven’t finished it yet. I’m not exactly sure where the foreign affairs committee is yet, but I know they are still doing their review,” said Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, when Breitbart News asked if he would support Wolf’s effort.

“And then there is a DoD review, so I’m not so sure we’ve exhausted all of our ability to get the information that we need for a select committee. They’re very expensive,” he added.

Wolf sent a “dear colleague letter” to Republican House members on Friday asking for their support for his resolution. Wolf expressed the necessity for the select committee so that Benghazi survivors could have a venue to put forth their accounts without risking their jobs or face prosecution from the Justice Department.

Boehner and Rogers are both part of Congress’ “super 8,” both parties’ top leadership in the upper and lower chambers. They, as well as chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, are all privy to classified information about the Benghazi attack.

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Stossel: The Sequester Is Not Even A Cut

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Photo Credit: Human EventsIf you’re reading this, you’ve survived the “sequester” cuts!

That may surprise you, since President Obama likened the sequester to taking a “meat cleaver” to government, causing FBI agents to be furloughed, prosecutors to let criminals escape and medical research to grind to a halt!

The media hyped it, too. The NBC Nightly News said, “The sequester could cripple air travel, force firefighter layoffs — even kick preschoolers out of child care!” The truth is that the terrifying sequester cuts weren’t even cuts. They were merely a small reduction in government’s planned increase in spending. A very small reduction.

After a decade, the federal government will simply spend about $4.6 trillion a year instead of $4.5 trillion (in 2012 dollars).

And still members of Congress, Republicans included, look for ways to delay the cuts, like spreading them out over 10 years instead of making any now. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., asked, “If we cannot do this little bit … how are we ever going to balance the budget?” Actually, we don’t even need to balance the budget. If we just slowed the growth of government to 1 or 2 percent a year, we could grow our way out of unsustainable debt.

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Pilot Reports Mysterious Drone Near JFK Airport

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Photo Credit: Examiner On Monday, an Alitalia pilot reported seeing a mysterious black drone flying above New York near JFK International Airport, which is one of the busiest in the world. Minutes later, another unidentified pilot reported a similar sighting of a black unmanned aircraft. The incident was first reported by ABC News.

Government officials are currently launching a multi-agency preliminary investigation which includes the Federal Aviation Administration and the FBI. The Joint Terror Task Force is also looking into the matter to see whether there are any travel or homeland security threats and risks.

The Alitalia pilot said he spotted a black drone 1,500 feet above ground near JFK International. In a statement, the FAA said that the pilot saw a “small, unmanned or remote-controlled aircraft” on final approach heading towards the runway at JFK. The Alitalia plane was on final approach about 1:15 p.m. when its pilot spotted the mysterious black drone about four to five miles southeast of the airport.

In a radio communication with the tower controller, the pilot said:

“We saw a drone, an aircraft.”

See news report:

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Iditarod Mushers Welcome Rest in Villages

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ROHN, Alaska – Imagine standing on a sled behind a team of 16 dogs, traveling mile after desolate mile in the Alaska wilderness without any sign of other human life.

All of a sudden, lights shine off in the distance, the first village to come into view in a very long time.

Whether it’s a single cabin or a booming village of several hundred people, for mushers on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the villages are not only checkpoints to eat, rest and recharge, but a chance to interact with someone other than their dogs.

“There are no checkpoints that I dislike,” said defending champion Dallas Seavey. “Every time you come around the corner and see the lights of a checkpoint approaching, it’s a great sight.”

Four-time champion Martin Buser rested at the checkpoint in Rohn after a blistering fast 170-mile run that had put him hours ahead of the other teams.

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Ex-DEA Chiefs, Czars Urge Action Against States Legalizing Pot

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Photo Credit: Ed AndrieskiThe Obama administration is facing rising national and international pressure to nullify efforts in Colorado and Washington state to implement new laws legalizing recreational marijuana use.

Nine former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs and four former drug czars are asking the Senate Judiciary Committee this week to “encourage Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to adhere to long-standing federal law and policy in this regard” at its Wednesday oversight hearing.

“Our nation urgently needs action from Attorney General Holder to ensure that federal marijuana laws are enforced, federal preemption is asserted, and our obligations under international drug treaties are honored,” said the officials in a letter dated Monday on stationery from S.O.S.: Save Our Society from Drugs.

The letter comes as a United Nations agency, the International Narcotics Control Board, called on U.S. officials in its annual report released Monday to “ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties on its entire territory.”

Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, issued a statement Tuesday blasting the former anti-drug chiefs for “taking action to maintain the policies that kept them and their colleagues in business for so long.”

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Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan President, Dead At 58

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesHugo Chavez, Venezuela’s fiery and controversial socialist president who came to power on wave of popular sentiment and befriended some of the world’s most notorious dictators, has died at the age of 58, Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro said today.

Chavez had been fighting cancer, recently seeking treatment at a clinic in Cuba.

A self-described champion of the poor who first tried to overturn Venezuela’s powerful elites in a failed 1992 coup, Chavez was democratically elected in 1999, with huge support from the country’s poor.

During his time in office, he became one of Latin America’s most well-known and polarizing figures. A constant thorn in the side of the United States, he commanded headlines in newspapers around the world. A populist who suppressed free speech, he remained immensely popular among his country’s poor.

From the time he won election in 1999, Chavez held onto power through tightly controlling the media and through a series of populist elections and referenda, including one that allowed him to seek a limitless number of terms.

Watch video here:

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Email Tells Feds To Make Sequester As Painful As Promised (+video)

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Photo Credit: Carolyn KasterThe White House announced Tuesday that it is canceling tours of the president’s home for the foreseeable future as the sequester spending cuts begin to bite and the administration makes good on its warnings of painful decisions.

Announcement of the decision — made in an email from the White House Visitors Office — came hours after The Washington Times reported on another administration email that seemed to show at least one agency has been instructed to make sure the cuts are as painful as President Obama promised they would be.

In the internal email, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official Charles Brown said he asked if he could try to spread out the sequester cuts in his region to minimize the impact, and he said he was told not to do anything that would lessen the dire impacts Congress had been warned of.

“We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,” Mr. Brown, in the internal email, said his superiors told him.

Neither Mr. Brown nor the main APHIS office in Washington returned calls seeking comment, but Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack, who oversees the agency, told Congress he is trying to give flexibility where he can.

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