Obama 'AWOL'?: GOP Questions President's Role in Freeing Marine

Photo Credit: Fox News Republicans on Saturday welcomed the news of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi being released from a Mexico prison and the efforts by GOP congressmen to help broker a deal but questioned whether the Obama administration did enough.

“President Obama still isn’t using all of the tools and levers that we have as the world’s lone super power, whether it is as simple as getting Sgt. Tahmooressi released from custody to defending our interests or protecting our allies in the Middle East,” Arkansas GOP Rep. Tom Cotton told Fox News.

Cotton, who is now running for Senate, wrote Obama asking him to intervene.

A Mexican judge on Friday ordered Tahmooressi’s immediate release, after he spent seven months behind bars for crossing the border with loaded guns.

The judge said Tahmooressi should be freed because of his mental state. But he did not make a determination on the illegal-arms charges against the Afghanistan veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a Mexican official who had knowledge of the ruling but was not authorized to give his name.

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Holder's Wife Linked to 'Fast and Furious' and Abortion Clinic Fraud

Photo Credit: on.aol.comWhile outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder continues to fend off responsibility for the law enforcement snafu known as Operation Fast and Furious, documents obtained through a judge’s order reveal that not only did Holder know about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), but he discussed it via email with his physician spouse, Sharon Malone, however President Barack Obama is granting those emails to be withheld based on an “executive privilege” claim.

While most media organizations are quick to give President Barack Obama, Holder and others the “benefit of the doubt,” in Holder’s wife’s case they actually turned a blind eye to corruption that included alleged confict-of-interest. For example, Dr. Malone is no stranger to controversy: While Holder had been blasted for his failure to investigate alleged crimes involving abortion clinics, his wife, Sharon, and his sister-in-law co-owned an abortion clinic run by an abortion physician, Tyrone Cecile Malloy, who was indicted by a Georgia grand jury on charges of Medicaid fraud after Holder’s office failed to prosecute the alleged fraud.

The Fast and Furious documents, according to the prolific government watchdog group Judicial Watch, include the emails between the attorney general and his wife regarding a White House statement on the “gun walking” scandal that the White House wanted kept secret.

On July 18, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates ordered the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to produce, a Vaughn Index of withheld documents regarding Fast and Furious which the DOJ grudgingly released on October 22. When the DOJ asked the court to delay the release day until later in November — a ploy to avoid their release before the mid-term elections — Judge Bates denied the obviously politically-motivated request to delay the release until after the Nov. 4, 2014, elections.

In a Vaughn Index, the government must list each withheld document, state the statutory exemption claimed for it and explain how the disclosure of each document would damage the governmental interests asserted by the exemption. Malone is not a government employee or a member of the Obama White House, and so the executive privilege claim rings hollow with many legal scholars.

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Scientists Predict 130 Ebola Cases in US by the End of 2014

Photo Credit: AP / John MinchilloTop medical experts studying the spread of Ebola say the public should expect more cases to emerge in the United States by year’s end as infected people arrive here from West Africa, including American doctors and nurses returning from the hot zone and people fleeing from the deadly disease.

But how many cases?

No one knows for sure how many infections will emerge in the U.S. or anywhere else, but scientists have made educated guesses based on data models that weigh hundreds of variables, including daily new infections in West Africa, airline traffic worldwide and transmission possibilities.

This week, several top infectious disease experts ran simulations for The Associated Press that predicted as few as one or two additional infections by the end of 2014 to a worst-case scenario of 130.

“I don’t think there’s going to be a huge outbreak here, no,” said Dr. David Relman, a professor of infectious disease, microbiology and immunology at Stanford University’s medical school. “However, as best we can tell right now, it is quite possible that every major city will see at least a handful of cases.”

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'He's Sort Of God': Remember When Obama Was The Messiah?

Photo Credit: Daily CallerPresident Barack Obama had an approval rating of just 38 percent as of late September and he is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

This week, the man who once filled arenas like a rock star suffered the indignity of Wisconsin Democrats walking out on him as he stumped for another struggling Democrat, Mary Burke. Obama’s visit to Wisconsin coincided with the disappearance of Burke’s modest lead in statewide polls. She now trails her opponent, Scott Walker, by seven points.

The very same thing happened in deep-blue Maryland last week, where the bleachers reportedly began emptying while Obama was giving a speech. The Republican gubernatorial candidate then enjoyed a nine-point polling boost.

Adding still further to Obama’s misery, a new nationwide poll from Harvard’s Institute of Politics shows his Svengali-like hold over America’s 18-to-29-year-old voting cohort has finally loosened.

And in Kentucky, Democratic Senate candidate Alison Grimes won’t even admit she voted for Obama.

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Alabama Incest Ring Unravels Following Teen's Disappearance

Photo Credit: APA teen’s mysterious disappearance helped prompt the deciphering of an alleged sex ring, involving numerous family members in the back woods of Alabama. 19-year-old Brittney Wood is thought to have been with Donnie Holland — her uncle, who was being investigated for disturbing sex crimes — in May 2012, the night Holland died from a gunshot in his car. Wood has not been seen since, and many questions remain surrounding rampant incest in her family, which is being described by investigators as “the largest sex ring ever uncovered in Alabama.”

Eleven individuals — eight of whom are adult relatives of Wood — have been charged with sex crimes related to the alleged ring, according to the Associated Press (AP). The adults allegedly shared their own children for group sex.

According to prosecutors, incest has gone on, unchecked, for at least three generations in the family. Holland was thought to be one of the group’s leaders; he was scheduled to be questioned about his role in the incest ring the same day that his body was discovered.

Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson told the AP, “Donnie was the manager. He’d say, ‘I’ve got this child and this adult, come on over.'”

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Lt Gov Dewhurst Asks For Cost Estimates To Expand Border Security

Photo Credit: Breitbart Lt. Governor David Dewhurst asked the Texas National Guard (TNG) and Department of Public Safety (DPS) to provide cost estimates to expand the current border security operations underway along the Texas-Mexico border. In addition to expanding the operation to covering more of the border, the governor is asking for estimates to carry the operation through 2016.

“While defending our borders is, without question, a federal responsibility, Texas has an obligation to defend itself independently of the federal government when Washington fails to fulfill its Constitutional duties,” Dewhurst said in a letter to the DPS and TNG obtained by Breitbart Texas. “As policymakers continue discussion on how to fill the void left by Washington, it is important that the debate be informed by sound strategy and honest budgetary considerations.” Dewhurst’s letter is attached below for reference.

Dewhurst wrote the request to Colonel Steven McCraw, Texas DPS Director and Major General John Nichols, TNG Adjutant General. He requested the department leaders to provide cost estimates for the Offices of the Lt. Governor, Governor and Speaker of the House along with other lawmakers who are involved in the process.

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Judge Suggests it's OK for Redskins to Sue Indians

Photo Credit: AP / Alex BrandonA federal judge seems to think Native Americans offended by the Washington Redskins team name are properly being sued by the NFL franchise.

Judge Gerald Bruce Lee suggested during a hearing Friday that it would be unprecedented to dismiss the team’s lawsuit against five Native Americans who complained about the name to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

A trademark office board decided in June to cancel some of the Redskins’ trademarks, citing federal regulations against protecting words and images that are disparaging or offensive.

The team could have challenged the ruling in appellate court in Washington, but sought help instead in a venue that gives it more options, by going to a trial court to sue the Native Americans who complained in the first place.

The team has used the Redskins name since 1933, and has asked the judge to reverse the trademark board’s removal of protections of six trademarks the team registered between 1967 and 1990. The team argues that the name is not offensive, and that canceling its trademarks would violate its free speech rights and take its property without compensation.

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Rep. Smith Slams Use of Obamacare Funds to Promote Amnesty for Young Illegals

Photo Credit: AP / Charles DharapakIn a letter to House Appropriations Chair Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) on Tuesday, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) called for defunding a provision in Obamacare that has been allowing taxpayer dollars set aside for public health initiatives to fund television ads for President Obama’s illegal alien amnesty programs.

In his letter, Smith cites a $15 million grant from the Prevention and Public Health Fund that the Department of Health and Human Services gave the California Endowment. The Prevention and Public Health Fund was created by the Affordable Care Act to support public health care initiatives. The California Endowment is a statewide, private health foundation that supplies grants for various organizations throughout California, and has served as one of the Obama administration’s loudest promoters of Obamacare.

Newsbusters (which like CNSNews.com is part of the Media Research Center), reported earlier this month that the California Endowment last year signed a $20 million deal with the Spanish-language TV outlet “Univision” to help promote Obamacare. Using federal tax dollars from the health fund, the foundation then sponsored ads on Univision reminding qualifying illegal aliens to renew their Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) permits before they expire.

“U.S. taxpayer dollars are being spent for Univision morning show weatherwoman Ximena Córdoba to exhort beneficiaries of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to renew the permits exempting them from deportation proceedings for another two years,” Newsbusters reported.

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How a D.C. Airport Reacted When an Honor Flight Landed

Photo Credit: Gary Coronado / The Palm BeachRecently I saw one of those spontaneous events that renews your faith in the patriotism and good will of the American people. It also illustrated their appreciation for the servicemen and women who have risked their lives for our nation.

It was in the C Terminal of Reagan National, one of three airports serving Washington, D.C. I had just passed through security when I saw a huge crowd of travelers gathered around Gate 38, clapping and cheering. I could hear music, too: “I’ll Be Seeing You,” a World War II standard seldom heard these days.

It turned out that an Honor Flight had pulled up to the gate and was unloading a group of veterans for a special visit to Washington. With a live band playing favorites of a bygone era and flags flying on either side of the entrance to the jetway, veterans of World War II and Korea came out of the gate. Some were walking, some rolling in wheelchairs, and others hobbling with the aid of canes or family members and Honor Flight ground crew.

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Obama’s Border Policy Fueled Epidemic, Evidence Shows

Photo Credit: CBS NewsBy Neil Munro.

The deadly EV-D68 enterovirus epidemic, which struck thousands of kids this fall, was likely propelled through America by President Barack Obama’s decision to allow tens of thousands of Central Americans across the Texas border, according to a growing body of genetic and statistical evidence.

The evidence includes admissions from top health officials that the epidemic included multiple strains of the virus, and that it appeared simultaneously in multiple independent locations.

The question can be settled if federal researchers study the genetic fingerprint of the EV-D68 viruses that first hit kids in Colorado, Missouri and Illinois to see if they are close relatives to the EV-D68 viruses found in Central America.

Officials ”have to do the genetic analysis” to disprove or prove the link, Nora Chapman, an enterovirus scientist at the University of Nebraska, told The Daily Caller.

Read more from this story HERE.

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IMMIGRATION CRISIS: 94% OF BORDER CROSSERS SKIP COURT HEARINGS OVER 11-WEEK PERIOD

By Caroline May.

Thousands of family units that recently entered the United States illegally failed to appear before immigration judges between July 18 and October 7 of this year.

Documents from the Executive Office of Immigration Review provided to the House Judiciary Committee this week and exclusively obtained by Breitbart News offer a brief snapshot into the failure of certain undocumented immigrants who’ve been released into the United States to appear in immigration court.

According to the EOIR documents, in that two-and-a-half month period from mid-July to early October, immigration judges across the country rendered 3,885 decisions on removal cases dealing with “aliens” in family units. Of those decisions, 94 percent (3,661) were made “in absentia,” or the alien’s failure to appear resulted in an order of removal.

The document also showed that 9,874 cases were still pending over those months.

Read more from this story HERE.