Coach Joe Kennedy has been booted from the locker room at Bremerton High School in Washington State, Fox News has learned exclusively.
Superintendent Aaron Leavell placed the longtime coach on administrative leave after he refused to stop his post-game prayers.
“Effective immediately, pending further District review of your conduct, you are placed on paid administrative leave from your position as an assistant coach with the Bremerton High School football program,” Level wrote to the coach in an Oct. 28th letter. “You may not participate, in any capacity, in BHS football program activities.”
Kennedy, who is a devout Christian, had been under investigation since September after someone complained about his post-game prayers at the 50-yard-line.
He was directed to cease and desist those prayers on Sept. 17th. He was also ordered to avoid kneeling, bowing his head or doing anything that could remotely be seen as religious. (Read more from “This Horrible Thing Just Happened to the Praying Football Coach” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-30 01:21:262016-04-11 10:56:44This Horrible Thing Just Happened to the Praying Football Coach
Two top senators are probing use by the Internal Revenue Service of secret cellphone tracking systems that are more often utilized by federal or local law enforcement agencies.
IRS Commissioner John Koskinen admitted this week that the agency does use the technology, known as cell-site simulators, or StingRays. The admission came after a report by The Guardian that indicated the IRS has spent more than $71,000 to upgrade a version of the device and to receive training from a company that manufactures the devices.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking member Patrick Leahy on Thursday sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew demanding answers about the use of the technology by the IRS.
“We were surprised to learn that IRS investigators may be using these devices,” Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican, and Mr. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, wrote in the letter. “While the devices can be useful tools for identifying the location of a suspect’s cell phone or identifying an unknown cell phone, we have previously expressed concerns about the privacy implications of these devices.”
Cell site-simulators work by mimicking cellphone towers to trick cellphones to connect to them, enabling investigators to obtain identifying information about the phones and their locations. Law enforcement officers often deploy the suitcase-sized StingRays by hauling them around in vehicles as they drive through neighborhoods looking for a suspect’s phone, scooping up data on the cellphones of any passers-by in the process. (Read more from “Senators Demand Answers About IRS Use of Secret Cellphone Tracking Systems” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-30 01:18:572016-04-11 10:56:45Senators Demand Answers About IRS Use of Secret Cellphone Tracking Systems
A U.S. appeals court on Thursday refused to immediately halt the government’s bulk collection of millions of Americans’ phone records during a “transition” period to a new federal scheme that bans the controversial anti-terrorism surveillance.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said it would not disturb Congress’ decision to provide a 180-day period for an “orderly transition” to a new, targeted surveillance system from the sweeping National Security Agency program that the court found illegal on May 7.
“An abrupt end to the program would be contrary to the public interest in effective surveillance of terrorist threats, and Congress thus provided a 180-day transition period,” Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for a three-judge panel. “Under the circumstances, we will defer to that reasonable decision.”
The NSA program collected “metadata” such as phone numbers dialed and call durations, but not call contents. It was first disclosed in 2013 by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Thursday’s decision rejected a request by the American Civil Liberties Union for a preliminary injunction to stop the program until the narrower scheme begins on Nov. 29. (Read more from “U.S. Court Will Not Halt NSA Phone Spy Program Before Ban” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-30 01:15:002016-04-11 10:56:45U.S. Court Will Not Halt NSA Phone Spy Program Before Ban
Behind razor wire and locked metal doors, hundreds of men waited on a recent morning to be counted, part of the daily routine inside a remote facility here that was built based on a design for a prison.
But this is not a prison, and most of these men — rapists, pedophiles and other sex offenders — have already completed their sentences. They are being held here indefinitely under a policy known as civil commitment, having been deemed “sexually dangerous” or “sexual psychopathic personalities” by courts. The intent, the authorities say, is to provide treatment to the most dangerous sex offenders until it is safe for the public for them to go home.
Yet not one of the more than 700 sex offenders who have been civilly committed in Minnesota over the past two decades has actually gone home. And only a few men have been provisionally discharged to live outside of state facilities under strict supervision. “You knew you were going to die here,” said Craig Bolte, a sex offender who has been held here nine years and who says he would rather be sent to prison, where “there is still hope.”
But now Minnesota’s civil commitment program — which detains more people per capita than any other state — is facing an overhaul. Earlier this year, a federal judge found it unconstitutional, calling it “a punitive system that segregates and indefinitely detains a class of potentially dangerous individuals without the safeguards of the criminal justice system.” The judge, Donovan W. Frank, of Federal District Court in St. Paul, is expected to order changes to the program as soon as this week.
Minnesota is not alone in revisiting its policies. In Missouri, a federal judge last month found that state’s program violated people’s right to due process, potentially imposing “lifetime detention on individuals who have completed their prison sentences and who no longer pose a danger to the public, no matter how heinous their past conduct.” Of about 250 people held since Missouri began committing people in 1999, state officials say seven have been granted what the state considers release with court-ordered restrictions, though some of those men remain in a group-home-like setting behind razor wire at a state facility. (Read more from “States Struggle With What to Do With Sex Offenders After Prison” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-30 01:05:222016-04-11 10:56:48States Struggle With What to Do With Sex Offenders After Prison
By Jonathan V. Last. Yesterday’s debate showed that the GOP field is smaller than it looks. Technically, there are still fourteen people running, but the winnowing is far along. We probably have a final six and possibly a final four . . .
Rubio ended Jeb Bush’s campaign with the kind of body shot that buckles your knees. That’s on Bush, who never should have come after Rubio in that spot for a host of strategic and tactical reasons. But what should scare Hillary Clinton is how effortless Rubio is even with throwaway lines, like “I’m against anything that’s bad for my mother.” Most people have no idea how fearsome raw political talent can be. Clinton does know because she’s seen it up close. She sleeps next to it for a contractually-obligated 18 nights per year.
Cruz was tough and canny—no surprise there. He went the full-Gingrich in his assault on CNBC’s ridiculous moderators. He did a better job explaining Social Security reform than Chris Christie, even (which is no mean feat). And managed to look downright personable compared with John Harwood, whose incompetence was matched only by his unpleasantness. If you’re a conservative voter looking for someone who is going to fight for your values, Cruz must have looked awfully attractive.
Then there was Trump. Over the last few weeks, Trump has gotten better on the stump. Well, don’t look now, but he’s getting better at debates, too. Trump was reasonably disciplined. He kept his agro to a medium-high level. And his situational awareness is getting keener, too. Note how he backed John Kasich into such a bad corner on Lehmann Brothers that he protested, “I was a banker, and I was proud of it!” When that’s your answer, you’ve lost the exchange. Even at a Republican debate . . .
So there’s your final six: Trump, Carson, Rubio, Cruz, and maybe—just maybe—Fiorina and Christie. (Read more from “We Have Our Final Six GOP Candidates” HERE)
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Republican Debate: Here’s Who Won…and Who Lost
By Jeff Cox. RUBIO: The senator from Florida faced some fundamental character questions, namely about the votes he’s missing while campaigning, and some personal finance missteps. Each time, Rubio deflected the challenges and focused on issues. “I’m not worried about my finances,” he said in one exchange. “This debate needs to be about the men and women across this country who are struggling on a daily basis to provide for their families a better future that we always said this country is about” . . .
Score Rubio a winner . . .
Score Carson a loser . . .
Score [Ted] Cruz a winner . . .
Score [Donald] Trump neutral. (Read more from “Republican Debate: Here’s Who Won…and Who Lost” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 03:12:332016-04-11 10:56:48We Have Our Final Six GOP Candidates
By Nick Gass. Several campaigns had threatened to bail on the debate during negotiations unless CNBC limited the event to 2 hours including commercial breaks, a chief concern of Donald Trump and Ben Carson, who sent a joint letter to the network complaining about the format.
“I could stand up here all night. Nobody wants to watch three and a half or three hours. And I have to hand it to Ben,” Trump said during his closing statement, motioning to Carson.
“They lost a lot of money. Everybody said it couldn’t be done,” Trump continued. “And in about two minutes, I renegotiated it to two hours, so we can get the hell out of here,” he said, to cheers. (Read more from “Trump Boasts About Limiting the Debate” HERE)
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Bozell: CNBC Debate Was an ‘Encyclopedic Example of Liberal Media Bias’
By News Busters Staff. MRC president Brent Bozell issued a statement Wednesday night criticizing the overall tilt and tone of the CNBC Republican debate in Boulder:
“The CNBC moderators acted less like journalists and more like Clinton campaign operatives. What was supposed to be a serious debate about the many issues plaguing our economy was given up for one Democratic talking point after another served up by the so-call ‘moderators.’ They clearly war-gamed this thinking that a relentless series of personal attacks on the candidates would somehow drive their ratings and help Hillary Clinton.
(Read more from “Bozell: CNBC Debate Was an ‘Encyclopedic Example of Liberal Media Bias'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 03:03:532016-04-11 10:56:49Trump Boasts About Limiting the Debate
Yesterday, the GOP-led House passed a budget bill and debt ceiling increase that countermands every principle they campaigned on when pursuing majority control of that chamber in 2010. The policy and political outcomes of this vote will be far reaching and gravely consequential.
How ironic that on the final day of Boehner’s tenure, he passes a wretched bill that represents everything his leadership embodied, which engendered the coup against him in the first place. How ironic that this bill only garnered support of 79 Republicans, yet 200 of 247 Republicans voted to replace its sponsor with Paul Ryan – the man who supported this very budget deal.
1. INCREASES DEBT CEILING UNCONDITIONALLY
This bill suspends the debt ceiling through March 2017, granting this president another $1.5 trillion in debt authority after already amassing $7.5 trillion in debt. This, at a time when revenue is at record highs. There are now no external constraints on the amount of debt this president can accumulate in his final year.
2. BUDGET CONTROL ACT PERMANENTLY TERMINATED
The bill increases spending by $112 billion, thereby permanently overturning the only meaningful spending victory secured by conservatives over the past five years. There will be little leverage to preserve these cuts in the future. Spending was already slated to increase by $250 billion for the new year (from $3.677 trillion to $3.928 trillion); this bill will bump that increase to over $310 billion for 2016 alone. This is why Republicans have never cut spending. Despite record projected revenue of $3.5 trillion for 2016, they can’t balance the budget and will spend $4 trillion annually for the first time ever. In the era of “austerity,” the federal government is now growing by 8.4% despite the fact that the private economy is averaging 2.5% growth.
3. RUBBER STAMPS OBAMA’S BACKWARDS FOREIGN POLICY
Included in the increased spending is an extra $32 billion in war spending on top of existing appropriations. This comes on the heels of reports that Obama is commencing ground operations involving our military in the Islamic civil war in both Iraq and Syria. It is cowardly of Congress to not issue a declaration of war with specific policy demands from Obama dictating our strategic goals. Nobody can identify the mission – who we are fighting and with whom we are allying? Yet, this is Congress’ backdoor means of greenlighting this tepid and aimless effort without taking responsibility for supporting it or blocking it. As we’ve noted before, much of the money we send to the Middle East has wound up in the hands of Al-Nusra in Syria and Iranian-backed Shiite forces in Iraq. This budget allows Obama to invest more in failure, and worse – our enemies – because much of the OCO funds go to the State Department.
4. PAVES THE WAY FOR MORE SPENDING WITH ENRON STYLE ACCOUNTING
It would have been better had Congress not deceived the public with Enron-style accounting gimmicks to “offset” the cost of the bill. As Congressional Quarterly noted today, “Budget Deal Pay-Fors May Provide Template for Future Accords.” The political class thinks that a hodgepodge of notional and intangible offsets spread out 10 years from now are so clever. They will be emboldened to use the same gimmicks to bust even more spending caps, even in areas of the budget they’ve been cautious to do so until now.
5. WE ARE AT THE MERCY OF OBAMA WITH NO LEVERAGE
The most under-reported aspect of this deal is that it completely “clears the decks” of any budget bill for the remainder of Obama’s presidency, thereby taking the power of the purse off the table. As bad as the increased spending is for our fiscal solvency, the Obama policies are worse. There will be no budget to leverage against Obama’s growing amnesty, EPA overreach, foreign policy disasters, prison break, and dangerous clemencies. For example, Obama released 66,000 criminal aliens in 2013-2014, who had accrued a total of 166,000 convictions: 30k DUIs, 414 kidnappings, 11,000 sex assaults, and 395 homicides. They went on to commit at least 121 murders after being released. Who knows how high those numbers will go now that Obama has completely suspended deportations. Yet, conservatives will not have an opportunity to leverage DHS and Justice Department funding against his amnesty, which will likely grow more dangerous and lawless in his final year.
6. PAUL RYAN OWNS THIS BUDGET
Even if one buys into Ryan’s defense that he had nothing to do with the budget, a dubious assertion in itself, he clearly owns this deal for two reasons.
First, the notion that the Speaker-elect cannot speak out against this travesty and demand it be halted is like saying that a newly elected fire chief is powerless against ordering his men to put out the flames of an arson that began the day before. Even if we accept that the debt ceiling deadline was sprung on him and cannot be stopped, there is no reason for him to agree to the budget deal, which does not come due for another six weeks. He certainly doesn’t have to agree to take the debt ceiling AND budget off the table for the rest of Obama’s presidency; he could have opted for a shorter-term bill so that he can show us the magic of his budget work and his amazing messaging skills. Now he will have no leverage to enact all of the fiscal reforms he will so eruditely articulate in the coming months.
Second, Paul Ryan forged the original Ryan-Murray bill in 2013, which established the precedent that breaking the budget caps is a “must-pass” initiative. Until that point, Republicans had held firm. In that sense, this deal is merely the grandchild of Ryan’s original betrayal.
The fact that Ryan supported this excrement sandwich shows that he has no desire to actually force important conservative changes. He relishes the opportunity to “clear the barn” of any meaningful leverage so that he can discuss policy reforms in the abstract without having to fight for them in any significant way.
7. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS DEAD
Republicans have checked out from the fight against the consequential societal transformational issues for years: marriage, religious liberty, immigration, law and order, etc. They have made it clear now they will never fight for fiscal conservatism. Unless a true conservative is elected as president, the party is done. (For more from the author of “Budget Deal Passes, Republican Party Is Dead” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 03:01:422016-04-11 10:56:49Budget Deal Passes House, Republican Party Is Dead
How scary are your jack-o’-lanterns? Scarier than you think, according to the Energy Department, which claims the holiday squash is responsible for unleashing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Most of the 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins produced in the U.S. end up in the trash, says the Energy Department’s website, becoming part of the “more than 254 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in the United States every year.”
Municipal solid waste decomposes into methane, “a harmful greenhouse gas that plays a part in climate change, with more than 20 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide,” Energy says . . .
Municipal solid waste can be used to harness bioenergy, the Energy Department says, which can help the U.S. become less dependent on carbon-based fuels while limiting stress on landfills by reducing waste. The agency has partnered with industry to develop and test two integrated biorefineries — “facilities capable of efficiently converting plant and waste material into affordable biofuels, biopower and other products.” (Read more from “Pumpkins Cause Climate Change?” HERE)
The “Trumpkin” has become a novelty hit for front porch decorating this Halloween season, with the largest known one sitting outside the home of an Ohio woman.
Jeanette Paras, of Dublin, Ohio, is a pumpkin artist who tries to come up with a clever pop culture idea to use every Halloween. She has “pumpkinized” singer Miley Cyrus, Phil Robertson of “Duck Dynasty” fame, Lady Gaga and Monica Lewinsky. Last year, she painted the face of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on a pumpkin.
She’s also painted the faces of politicians, including Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, on pumpkins for her display at various times in the past. This year, Paras opted to paint the face of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Paras went huge for the project and used a 374-pound pumpkin, according to WJW in Cleveland. It was a tedious job, with Paras describing how she first sketched the design on paper and then transferred it to the pumpkin. The famous Trump hairstyle wasn’t easy to achieve either, she said.
“He required six, 38-inch blond wings,” Paras said. (Read more from “Look: The Bizarre Image of ‘Donald Trump’ That’s Taking the Internet by Storm” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-29 02:57:012016-04-11 10:56:49Look: The Bizarre Image of ‘Donald Trump’ That’s Taking the Internet by Storm
By Randy DeSoto. For the first time in many months, the GOP has a new front-runner in the presidential primary race: Dr. Ben Carson.
The latest New York Times/CBS poll has Carson taking the lead from Donald Trump garnering 26 percent to 22 percent of registered Republican voters. The lead falls within the margin of error of 6 percent.
The results are a reversal from last month in the Times/CBS poll, which had Trump at 27 percent and Carson at 23.
No other candidate registers in double digits in the new poll. The next three after the two leaders are Sen. Marco Rubio at 8 percent, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina each at 7 percent.
The poll also finds that a majority of Republican primary voters have not made up their minds regarding who they will support. Seven in 10 indicated it was too early to say for certain who they would vote for, with just 28 percent reporting their minds were made up.
“Carson has made gains across many key Republican groups. In a reversal from earlier this month, he is now ahead of Trump among women and is running neck and neck with him among men. Carson’s support among evangelicals has risen and he now leads Trump by more than 20 points with this group,” according to CBS News. (Read more from “Major Shakeup at Very Top of GOP Field That’ll Send Shock Waves Through the Race” HERE)
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Ben Carson Edges Trump in National GOP Race
By Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, and Fred Backus. Ben Carson has surpassed Donald Trump and now narrowly leads the Republican field in the race for the nomination in the latest national CBS News/New York Times Poll.
Twenty-six percent of Republican primary voters back Carson, giving him a four-point edge over Trump (22 percent). Support for Carson has quadrupled since August.
The rest of the Republican presidential candidates lag far behind in single digits. Marco Rubio is now in third place (eight percent), followed by Jeb Bush (seven percent) and Carly Fiorina (seven percent). All other candidates are at four percent or lower.
Carson has made gains across many key Republican groups. In a reversal from earlier this month, he is now ahead of Trump among women and is running neck and neck with him among men. Carson’s support among evangelicals has risen and he now leads Trump by more than 20 points with this group.
Carson performs well among conservative Republicans and those who identify as Tea partiers. Trump does well with moderates and leads Carson among those without a college degree – although Trump had a larger advantage with non-college graduates earlier this month. (Read more from “Ben Carson Edges Trump in National GOP Race” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-10-28 00:08:102016-04-11 10:56:50Major Shakeup at Very Top of GOP Field That’ll Send Shock Waves Through the Race
