US Army Plans to Send Abrams Tanks and Bradleys to Eastern Europe "To Counter Russia"

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Photo Credit: CJCS

Photo Credit: CJCS

The new Army commander in Europe plans to bolster the U.S. armored presence in Poland and the Baltic states and keep rotations of U.S. troops there through next year and possibly beyond to counter Russia.

Lt. Gen. Frederick “Ben” Hodges, who replaced Lt. Gen. Donald M. Campbell earlier this month as commander of U.S. Army Europe, said the Army was looking to add about 100 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the forces in Eastern Europe.

“We are looking at courses of action for how we could pre-position equipment that we would definitely want to put inside a facility where it would be better maintained, that rotational units could then come and draw on it and use it to train, or for contingency purposes,” Hodges said in a briefing from Vilnius, Lithuania. . .

Since taking command, Hodges has made clear his concerns about Russia, which annexed Crimea last March and has supported the separatists in eastern Ukraine. U.S. Army Europe, which had 280,000 troops at the height of the Cold War, now has 31,000.

The rotations of U.S. troops on training missions in Eastern Europe would provide “deterrence against Russian aggression,” Hodges said. . .

He referred to the NATO treaty article calling on all member states to respond to an attack on any member of the alliance. Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia are all members of the 28-member NATO alliance.

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White House Declares Muslim Brotherhood Not Terrorists

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Photo Credit: CBN

Photo Credit: CBN

By CBNNews.com

The White House is declaring that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a terrorist group.

The move comes in response to a petition with 213,146 signatures on the White House’s “We the People” site.

The petition states: “Muslim Brotherhood has a long history of violent killings and terrorizing opponents. Also MB has direct ties with most terrorist groups like Hamas.”

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

White House Shoots Down Petition to Declare Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Organization

By Sam Taylor.

The White House has officially rejected a ‘We the People’ petition calling for the U.S. Government to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization after more than a year and 200,000 signatures…

However, the White House failed to respond until Monday, when it issued an unequivocal ‘no’:

We have not seen credible evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood has renounced its decades-long commitment to non-violence.

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Congress Must Reassert its Authority and Preserve our Constitution

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120114_hn_immigration_640It’s unconstitutional.

It’s reckless.

It’s lawless.

All these things have been said about President Obama’s executive action on immigration—a breathtaking order that not only changes laws passed by Congress, but will likely send millions of mostly low-skill workers flooding into a workplace that is already struggling to raise wages and find room for all those needing jobs.

Immigration is a remarkably complex subject, and not just as a matter of policy. Our nation’s immigration laws can be difficult to understand. Our Constitution, however, isn’t complicated. Our system of government is simple.
Congress writes the law, the president executes the law, and the judiciary interprets the law. The president does not make new law.

That concept is called the “separation of powers,” and it’s of core importance to our democracy. As a bulwark against tyranny, our Founders determined that no single branch of government could perform all the functions of government—making, enforcing, and interpreting the law. In other words, our Founders took the classic powers of a king and divided them between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

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Hillary Clinton: I Want $300,000 And A Bowl Of Hummus

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Over the Thanksgiving week, the Washington Post obtained rare email exchanges between Hillary’s representatives and UCLA regarding her planned speech appearance. When the fee was being discussed, UCLA asked if there was a special rate after being given the $300k figure.

Her representatives said that is the special rate, but don’t you dare forget Madam Secretary’s hummus (via WaPo):
At UCLA, efforts to book Clinton and then prepare for her visit were all-consuming, beginning almost immediately after she left her job as secretary of state on Feb. 1, 2013, until she delivered her Luskin Lecture for Thought Leadership speech on March 5, 2014.

The documents show that Clinton’s representatives at the Harry Walker Agency exerted considerable control over her appearance and managed even the smallest details — from requesting lemon wedges and water on stage to a computer, scanner, and a spread of hummus and crudité in the green room backstage.

Top university officials discussed at length the style and color of the executive armchairs Clinton and moderator Lynn Vavreck would sit in as they carried on a question-and-answer session, as well as the kind of pillows to be situated on each chair. Clinton’s representatives requested that the chairs be outfitted with two long, rectangular pillows — and that two cushions be kept backstage in case the chair was too deep and she needed additional back support.

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Proposed Bill Would Mandate High School Seniors Pass Citizenship Test to Graduate

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Here’s an interesting piece of proposed legislation in the Peace Garden State: a bipartisan bill recently unveiled to the North Dakota legislature would require high school students to take and pass the same citizenship exam given to immigrants seeking naturalization in order to graduate.

North Dakota’s first lady Betsy Dalrymple and state School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler unveiled a proposed bipartisan legislation on Monday that would require every high school students to get a passing grade on the civics exam to graduate.

Initiative spokesman Sam Stone says the goal is to enact similar laws in all states by 2017, when the Constitution turns 230 years old.

He says that eight states, including the Dakotas, are supporting the idea so far.

Backers say the goal is for North Dakota high school students to learn more about how American government works before they graduate.

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Milwaukee Sheriff: DOJ Profiling Guidelines Don't Mean Anything to Me

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke (D) said that new anti-racial profiling guidelines announced by Attorney General Eric Holder “aren’t going to mean anything to me” on Tuesday’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on the Fox News Channel.

“Those guidelines aren’t going to mean anything to me. He’s not in a position to tell local law enforcement anything about training or standards. That’s nothing more than a scurrilous charge. I’m not going to let him get away with it. I’m going to continue to push back on behalf of the men and women all across this country who go out and risk their lives in service to the community” he stated.

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Obama's Dangerous Legacy for Democrats

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Photo Credit: Getty / John Gres

Photo Credit: Getty / John Gres

Now that the 2014 elections are over and national politics is all about 2016, Democrats have good reason to worry that, for all his success at the polls, President Obama will leave his party with a toxic legacy.

The Obama damage is two-fold. First, his success relied on a coalition that likely will not survive, or at least survive at full strength, without Obama himself on the ticket. Secondly, Obama drove a significant portion of white voters away from the Democratic Party.

Put those two things together — smaller Obama coalition and more alienated whites — and the result could be huge trouble for whoever the Democratic presidential nominee is in 2016.

First the coalition: Obama’s powerful appeal to minorities, women, and young people propelled his decisive wins in 2008 and 2012. But those voters didn’t show up at the polls in 2010 and 2014.

Some Democrats are confident the coalition will be back in 2016, when interest in a presidential race is far greater than during midterms. But will it return in the strength it showed in ’08 and ’12? Or will Democratic voting return to pre-Obama patterns?

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Obama Calls for $263M Federal Spending in Response to Ferguson

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Photo Credit: NY Post

Photo Credit: NY Post

Spurred by the Ferguson, Missouri, shooting, President Barack Obama is calling for $75 million in federal spending to get 50,000 more police to wear body cameras that record their interactions with civilians. However, Obama is not seeking to pull back federal programs that provide military-style equipment to local law enforcement.

The president made the announcement Monday from the White House during a series of meetings with his cabinet, civil rights leaders, law enforcement officials and others. At least for now, Obama is staying away from Ferguson in the wake of a racially charged uproar over a grand jury’s decision last week not to charge the police offer who fatally shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Obama is proposing a three-year, $263 million spending package to increase use of body-worn cameras, expand training for law enforcement and add more resources for police department reform. The package includes $75 million for the small, lapel-mounted cameras to record police on the job.

The White House has said the cameras could help bridge deep mistrust between law enforcement and the public. It also potentially could help resolve the type of disputes between police and witnesses that arose in the Ferguson shooting.

After the shooting and resulting protests in August, Obama ordered a review of federal programs that fund military gear for local police after critics questioned why police in full body armor with armored trucks responded to dispel demonstrators. Obama seemed to sympathize when announcing the review over the summer.

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Lawsuit Claims ICE Mounted Campaign to ‘Purge’ Senior Officials Amid Immigration Changes

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

A longtime federal immigration attorney claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement managers mounted a campaign of “humiliation” and “brutal scape-goating” to purge officials they didn’t want, raising concerns from a top GOP lawmaker that the administration was trying to “force compliance” with its controversial policies.

The attorney, Patricia Vroom, made the allegations in a lawsuit filed last month. The lawsuit is getting renewed attention in the wake of President Obama’s executive actions to let potentially millions of illegal immigrants stay in the country and work.

In the suit, Vroom claimed she was rebuked for her “push-back” on a prior effort to drop cases against illegal immigrants with identity theft convictions, and received a low performance rating at the time.

“It was part of an orchestrated, coordinated effort … to purge [the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, OPLA] of senior Chief Counsel so that much younger, much less experienced, and thus much more impressionable individuals who were beholden to them, could be installed in their place,” the lawsuit alleges.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., cited the lawsuit in a letter on Monday to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and the acting ICE director. He said the suit shows the administration “bullied career lawyers” to “force compliance” with its policies, and ultimately replace them with “favored individuals.”

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Total US Debt Rises Over $18 Trillion; Up 70% Under Barack Obama

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Photo Credit: Human Events

Photo Credit: Human Events

By Tyler Durden.

Last week, total US debt was a meager $17,963,753,617,957.26. Two days later, as updated today, on Black Friday, total outstanding US public debt just hit a new historic level which probably would be better associated with a red color: as of the last work day of November, total US public debt just surpassed $18 trillion for the first time, or $18,005,549,328,561.45 to be precise, of which debt held by the public rose to $12,922,681,725,432.94, an increase of $32 billion in one day.

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Chart from U.S. Department of Treasury Shows Alarming Milestone the National Debt Just Passed

By Pete Kasperowicz.

The U.S. national debt hit $18 trillion for the first time on Friday, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

A website that tracks the national debt said it rose to $18.005 trillion, a jump of more than $40 billion from two days prior. There was no figure given for Thanksgiving, a holiday.

Screen-Shot-2014-12-01-at-4.54.55-PM-620x258

The milestone is likely to renew Republican scrutiny over the federal government’s spending habits, just as the GOP is set to widen its majority in the House and resume control of the Senate in 2015. While Republicans have made a point of saying they would use their new control of Congress to fight Obamacare and ease federal regulations, they have also made a point of saying debt reduction is critical.

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