Army Chaplain Not Backing Down: Will Continue to Use Bible in Suicide Prevention Class

Photo Credit - Daily Caller

Photo Credit – Daily Caller

Despite receiving a warning letter from his superior, an Army chaplain who used the Bible during a suicide prevention training session says he isn’t going to censor himself, Army Times reports.

The incident stems from a complaint that a soldier in the 5th Ranger Training Battalion filed after Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn provided a handout during a mandatory suicide prevention session at the University of North Georgia.

On one side of the handout, Lawhorn listed the Biblical approach to depression and also provided another handout listing non-religious sources for dealing with depression.

Read more from this story HERE.

Conservative Review: Boehner's Omnibus Uses Gimmicks to Bust Through Budget Caps

Photo Credit: Yahoo

Photo Credit: Yahoo


By Mathew Boyle 

A new analysis from the Conservative Review finds that the omnibus spending bill backed by Speaker John Boehner and House Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) would bust through the spending caps set by a budget deal from House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).

“Like most budget bills, far from cutting spending, this bill actually adds to the deficit,” Conservative Review senior editor Daniel Horowitz writes. He adds:

While the bill is being advertised as adhering to the budget cap of $1.013.6 trillion, it actually authorizes billions more in spending. Managers of the bill employed a special budget gimmick, which allows Congress to shift around payments on programs outside of the annual budget bill and gives them cover to increase spending in this budget bill by $19 billion.

Horowitz walks readers through the budgeting gimmicks to find that the bill spends at least more than $85 billion more than previously congressionally-agreed upon spending caps.

Additionally, war spending, known as “Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO),” are exempt from the budget caps. Last year, Congress authorized $85 billion in OCO spending, and due to the drawdown of forces in the Middle East, Obama initially requested only $59 billion. This bill authorizes $74 billion in war spending. There is also another $6 billion in disaster relief and the $5 billion in Ebola funding, which is designated as emergency spending and exempt from the caps. None of the extra spending is offset with spending cuts. Taken as a whole, this bill will total $1.119 trillion, over $85 billion more than the agreed-upon discretionary budget caps.

This–along with how the bill funds Obama’s executive amnesty through at least the end of February, has lots of wasteful spending contained throughout, and has other major issues–could prove detrimental to the bill’s previously-assumed success. The Ryan-Murray budget deal, which passed Congress despite efforts from conservatives to stop it, raised spending caps contained in the previous Budget Control Act (BCA)—commonly known as sequestration—designed to rein in Washington spending.

Read more from this story HERE.

______________________________________________________________

Top 10 Problems with the Omnibus Spending Bill

by Daniel Horowitz 

1. Rubber Stamping Amnesty

As Obama unabatedly moves to enact amnesty – already beginning by hiring 1,000 new government employees to quickly process applications for illegal immigrants in a facility the administration has secured by the Pentagon, this bill fails to defund one penny of the process. Amidst the $1.1 trillion 1,603-page bill that contains roughly hundreds of policy riders, there is absolutely nothing prohibiting any of Obama’s illegal amnesty. GOP apologists for the bill point out that funding for the Department of Homeland Security is only funded until March, but that is irrelevant. There is no defund policy rider to prevent or restrict a single action at a time when we need it most, which is now. Moreover, Obama is using many other agencies to help aid and abet illegal immigration, such as the Justice Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Each of those other agencies will be funded for the entire remainder of the fiscal year – without any restrictions.

2. Accelerates Obama’s Amnesty

Not only does this budget fail to defund amnesty, it actually helps accelerate Obama’s unconstitutional executive order. The bill contains almost $1 billion in additional funding for Health & Human Services (HHS) so that the recent illegal immigrants from Central America (who are not even officially eligible for Obama’s amnesty) can establish themselves in the country. The bill also contains $260 million in additional funding to aid poverty in Central America at a time when we should be withholding existing aid until they respect our sovereignty.
3. Long-Term Funding for Everything Else

At this point, no aspect of government, other than Defense, should be funded for the remainder of the fiscal year, especially by a lame duck Congress. Obama’s lawlessness will not end with immigration. He will remake American through the HHS, Labor Department, EPA, and IRS. All of those departments are now fully funded and Republicans will not have any leverage against more executive action until next October.

4. 72-hour Transparency Rule

Once again, House leadership is breaking their 72-hour posting pledge and plans to vote on a bill less than 48 hours after posting the text online. But this is not just any bill. It’s a 1,603-page, 289,861-word budget bill that funds every aspect of government during a time of grave constitutional crisis. Even Politico noted the Appropriations Committee desire to obscure and suppress as much information as possible about the massive bill for as along as possible.

“The leadership would argue that the secrecy is justified given the political tensions in Congress. But the picture is of a committee so scared of outside disruptions that it’s forgotten the pride it once took as a public panel making public decisions about public money.”

5. Disenfranchising Voters

Voters sent a resounding message in November: they want Obama’s agenda stopped. Not only does this bill consummate Obama’s agenda for another year, it was crafted, in part, by the same Senate Democrats who were voted out of office in November. The notion that they would override the will of the people and deny the new Congress from making these decisions is unconscionable.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Mega-Donors Seek to Crown 2016 Establishment Nominee Early

Credit Jonathan Ernst/Reuters; Alex Wong/Getty Images; Mel Evans/Associated Press

Credit Jonathan Ernst/Reuters; Alex Wong/Getty Images; Mel Evans/Associated Press

Dozens of the Republican Party’s leading presidential donors and fund-raisers have begun privately discussing how to clear the field for a single establishment candidate to carry the party’s banner in 2016, fearing that a prolonged primary would bolster Hillary Rodham Clinton, the likely Democratic candidate.

The conversations, described in interviews with a variety of the Republican Party’s most sought-after donors, are centered on the three potential candidates who have the largest existing base of major contributors and overlapping ties to the top tier of those who are uncommitted: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and Mitt Romney.

All three are believed to be capable of raising the roughly $80 million in candidate and “super PAC” money that many Republican strategists and donors now believe will be required to win their party’s nomination.

But the reality of all three candidates vying for support has dismayed the party’s top donors and “bundlers,” the volunteers who solicit checks from networks of friends and business associates. They fear being split into competing camps and raising hundreds of millions of dollars for a bloody primary that would injure the party’s eventual nominee — or pave the way for a second-tier candidate without enough mainstream appeal to win the general election.

“If you are philosophically a center-right donor, I think you have an interest in clearing the field,” said Bobbie Kilberg, a top Republican fund-raiser in Virginia with ties to Mr. Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee, and the Bush family. “I think that’s important because there is clearly going to be a competition of philosophies for who is going to be the presidential nominee. And I firmly believe that person has to be from the center right.”

Read more from this story HERE.

What is Hillary Hiding?

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

The State Department has failed to turn over government documents covering Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state that The Associated Press and others requested under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act ahead of her presumptive presidential campaign. They include one request AP made four years ago and others pending for more than one year.

The agency already has missed deadlines it set for itself to turn over the material.

The State Department denied the AP’s requests, and rejected the AP’s subsequent appeals, to release the records sought quickly under a provision in the law reserved for journalists requesting federal records about especially newsworthy topics.

In its requests, the AP cited the likely prospect of Clinton entering the 2016 race. The former first lady is widely considered the leading Democratic contender hoping to succeed President Barack Obama. She has made scores of recent high-profile speeches and public appearances.

On Wednesday, the conservative political advocacy group Citizens United sued the State Department for failing to disclose flight records showing who accompanied Clinton on overseas trips.

Read more from this story HERE.

____________________________________________________________________

Hillary Clinton Got The Benghazi Talking Points BEFORE Rest Of Obama Administration

By Patrick Howley

Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton knew the Obama White House’s Benghazi talking points BEFORE the White House even sent them around to administration officials.

Hillary Clinton used the administration’s exact talking point blaming the attack on a YouTube video before Obama’s White House speechwriter Ben Rhodes drafted it to prepare Susan Rice for Sunday morning talk shows days later.

As Rhodes prepares to leave the White House before he can be called to testify in front of Rep. Trey Gowdy’s select committee on the attack, a new timeline emerges that puts the video in Secretary Clinton’s hands.

We know now that Benghazi was an al-Qaeda attack, not just a spontaneous response to filmmaker Nakoula Nakoula Bassely’s obscure film “Innocence of Muslims.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Maine Court Awards Transgender Student $75K

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A Maine court awarded a transgender female student $75,000 this week after her school district would not allow her to use the bathroom of her choice.

Penobscot County Superior Court ruled last week that Nicole Maines, a student who was born a male but identifies as a female, was discriminated against by the Orono school district when she was forced to use a staff bathroom instead of the girls’ bathroom.

According to the Associated Press, the superior court also ruled that the Orono district may no longer “[refuse] access by transgender students to school restrooms that are consistent with their gender identity.” The money awarded in the case will reportedly cover legal fees, with a portion going to Maines’ family.

Read more from this story HERE.

Incredible Rescue of Man Lost at Sea 9 Days After Search Called Off

Fox News

Fox News

The Coast Guard and U.S. Navy rescued a man off the coast of Hawaii on Tuesday, nine days after the search and rescue mission had been called off.

After making a distress call that his boat was in danger of sinking, Ron Ingraham went missing 12 days ago.

A search that covered 12,000 square miles and included a plane, a helicopter and multiple boats was unable to locate Ingraham and was called off on Dec. 1.

Rescue crews were reportedly shocked to receive a mayday call from Ingraham yesterday.

Using the USS Paul Hamilton, they were able to pinpoint his location, 64 miles off the coast of Honolulu, where they found him tired and dehydrated.

Read more from this story HERE.

Lawmaker to Gruber – 'Get Over Your D-mn Glibness.'

Screen Shot 2014-12-09 at 10.16.19 PMRepublican Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming shared the heartbreaking story of her husband’s death today and outlined how the glitches in Obamacare have real-life consequences for Americans, including her.

Lummis spoke about her own experiences with the Affordable Care Act during a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing, which focused on the transparency of Obamacare. Marilyn Tavenner, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Jonathan Gruber, a key architect of the law, testified.

The Wyoming Republican and her late husband, Alvin Wiederspahn, received health insurance through the new law. However, the couple encountered glitches in the system and were told they were not enrolled when they went to file claims.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama: Next President Won’t Dare Reverse my Executive Action on Immigration

Washington Times - ObamaThe next president won’t dare take the political risk that would come with undoing recent executive action on immigration reform, a defiant President Obama said Tuesday as he predicted his highly controversial steps will survive the test of time, even under a Republican administration.

Mr. Obama conceded that without new legislation, his action — which includes de facto amnesty for more than 4 million illegal immigrants — technically could be undone rather easily.

But in practical terms, the president said his successor will be unable to roll back his executive moves because doing so would carry grave political consequences.

His comments underscore the White House’s belief that the executive action, while lacking the heft of actual law, still can permanently transform the way America deals with illegal immigration.

“It’s true a future administration might try to reverse some of our policies. But I’ll be honest with you — the American people basically have a good heart and want to treat people fairly and every survey shows that if, in fact, somebody has come out and subjected themselves to a background check, registered, paid their taxes, the American people support allowing them to stay. So any future administration that tried to punish people for doing the right thing, I think, would not have the support of the American people,” Mr. Obama told a supportive crowd at a town hall meeting in Nashville. “It’s true, theoretically, a future administration could do something that I think would be very damaging. It’s not likely, politically, that they reverse everything we’ve done.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Public Given Little Time to Examine $1.1T Spending Bill

Screen Shot 2014-12-09 at 10.57.45 PMBy Alex Pappas — Even if the details of the massive $1.1 trillion spending bill being crafted by Congress are made public sometime Tuesday, there won’t be much time to examine it before lawmakers vote on the measure.

Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats continued into Tuesday on the omnibus/continuing resolution package. Both parties are trying to come to a deal to pass legislation by Thursday’s deadline to keep the government from shutting down.

Read more from this story HERE.

————————————————————————————-
Washington Speak: What is the ‘Cromnibus’?

by Andrew Rafferty

And the Washington word of the week is: “Cromnibus.”

It’s the love child of a “continuing resolution” (CR) and “omnibus” spending bill, two inside-the-Beltway terms for measures Congress has approved to keep the government funded. And with Capitol Hill again scrambling to find a way to fund the government before leaving town for the rest of the year, the cromnibus is the country’s best hope of avoiding a shutdown.

Congress has recently relied on continuing resolutions, or stopgap spending measures, to keep the government running for short amounts of time. Now, House Speaker John Boehner is looking to fund just the Department of Homeland Security with a CR in response to President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

Read more from this story HERE.

Parents Angered By Sex Ed Classes Telling 13 Yr Olds They Can Have Sex, Choose Gender

Screen Shot 2014-12-10 at 12.00.33 AMStudents at one northern California high school are learning more than just the birds and the bees.

Along with local area groups, some parents are irate that their children’s sex ed class at Acalanes High School in Lafayette is being taught by employees of Planned Parenthood without their prior knowledge. They are also fuming over the methods and materials being used, including a checklist that asks students if they are “ready for sex” and another worksheet that describes how to give and obtain consent, as well as a diagram that uses a “genderbread” person for lessons in gender identity.

“[Parents] are very concerned,” Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, a non-profit legal organization that is assisting the concerned parents, told FoxNews.com. “Planned Parenthood is not exactly the best when it comes to putting young people first.

“They get more grants from the promiscuity of children,” he added. “The material they have provided was material that mirrored their agenda.”

It was the parents of ninth-graders at Acalanes that started raising questions after their children told them one instructor threw a model of female reproductive organs at one student and that many felt the sessions were pressuring them to have sex.

Read more from this story HERE.