University Students Vote to Divest, From America

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: The Blaze By Sharona Schwartz. The University of California Student Association passed a resolution Sunday calling for the state university system to divest from the U.S. government.

The resolution was one of two that passed Sunday; the other, authored by pro-Palestinian students, called for the university to divest from companies that do business with Israel.

The U.S. resolution also called for the UC system to withdraw investments from other countries including Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, Russia, Turkey and Sri Lanka because they engage “in the violation of human rights” and “have violated the universal right ‘to life, liberty and security of person;’ ‘to education;’ to ‘privacy, family [and] home;’ ‘to own property, and … [not to] be arbitrarily deprived of property.”

In this clause, the students attending the state-sponsored university blasted the U.S. for violating the right “to education.”

The resolution pointed specifically to U.S. military drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen which it asserted have “killed over 2,400 people … many of them civilians.” It also lambasted the U.S. government for overseeing the “highest rate of imprisonment in the world” in which law enforcement “disproportionately” target minorities, calling the system the “Prison Industrial Complex.” It criticized the detention and deportation of “undocumented immigrants” and the government’s sale of weapons overseas. The resolution also attacked the University of California for accepting funding from the Defense Department to conduct research projects. (Read more about the university students vote HERE)

_________________________________________________________

University Spends $16k on Campaign to Warn Students to Watch What They Say

By Samantha Audia. Dozens of posters plastered across the University of Michigan caution students not to say things that might hurt others’ feelings, part of a new “Inclusive Language Campaign” at the state’s flagship public university that cost $16,000 to implement.

Words declared unacceptable through the campaign include “crazy,” “insane,” “retarded,” “gay,” “tranny,” “gypped,” “illegal alien,” “fag,” “ghetto” and “raghead.” Phrases such as “I want to die” and “that test raped me” are also verboten.

University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald told The College Fix in an email the campaign aims to “address campus climate by helping individuals understand that their words can impact someone and to encourage individuals to commit to creating a positive campus community.” (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

High School Student Wins Case Against Atheists Trying to Alter the Pledge of Allegiance

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily Mail A high school senior has won her case over atheists to keep ‘under God’ in the pledge of allegiance.

Samantha Jones from Highland Regional High School in Blackwood, New Jersey, has defeated efforts by the American Humanist Association to remove the phrase, insisting it is a student’s right to read the pledge in its entirety.

A judge in Monmouth County threw out the latest attempt to have the phrase banished from the pledge because it did not violate the state’s constitution.

The teenager described America as a country of many beliefs and claimed everyone, including atheists, are protected by ‘one nation under God.’

In a statement released Friday, she said: ‘I’m so grateful the court decided that kids like me shouldn’t be silenced just because some people object to timeless American values.’ (Read more about the atheists trying to alter the pledge of allegiance HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Arizona Sheriff Calls Out Obama, Insists Our Borders are Not “More Secure Than Ever”

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Western Journalism By Heather Laskin. For all of President Obama’s talk of the border being safer than ever, Pinal County, Ariz., Sheriff Paul Babeu provided some evidence to the contrary when he spoke before the House Judiciary Committee on the issue of illegal immigration Tuesday.

Babeu, America’s 2011 “Sheriff of the Year” and an Iraq War veteran, testified before the committee that between 88,000 and 123,000 illegal aliens are apprehended at the Tucson Sector, one of nine border-patrol zones along the U.S.-Mexico border, each year. The Tucson Sector covers most of the state of Arizona from the New Mexico state line to the Yuma County line — a total of 262 border miles.

Between 17 and 30 percent of those apprehended have a criminal record in the U.S. “This clearly shows that the border is not more secure than ever,” Babeu said.

He also detailed how 30 to 50 illegal alien criminals are released into Pinal County every day. “These are the people that everybody, including the president, said are the bad actors,” he said. Many of those released have criminal records that include rape, manslaughter, child molestation, financial crimes, armed robbery, and assault against law enforcement.

Babeu said he has asked the federal government for more information regarding those individuals and their criminal histories, but the government refuses to give it to him. “I, as the sheriff, who swore an oath to protect the people of my county, should have a right to that information,” Babeu declared.

He stressed to committee members that the situation is so lawless in some areas of Pinal County — the number one pass through county in America for drug and human smuggling — that it often feels like a war-zone on American soil. (Read more about what Arizona sheriff said HERE)

__________________________________________________

Two US Veterans Disappear in Mexico

By KRGV. The family of two missing veterans in Matamoros is desperate for any word of their safety.

Ernesto and Jesus Garcia were reported missing in Mexico after they did not return home on Monday. The brothers from Brownsville were visiting their grandmother.

Family said they were staying in the south-west side of the city, about 20 minutes south of Brownsville.

The family said this was a trip the brothers made often. Every few months, they would visit their family in Matamoros and check-in on their grandmother.

This trip was different because the two decided to drive home to the U.S. in the middle of the night. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Here are the Three Most Conservative States in the US

/1 Comment/in , /by

By Frank Newport. Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana are the most right-leaning states in the union, with between 46% and 49% of residents in each identifying as politically conservative. Massachusetts, Vermont and Hawaii are the most left-leaning, with 30% of residents in each of those states identifying as liberal.

The top 10 most conservative states in 2014 are very similar to the top 10 in 2013, with the exception of Louisiana, which was not in the top 10 list in 2013, but replaced Wyoming in the top 10 this year.

The list of the top 10 most conservative states is also similar to what it was in 2008, the first year Gallup tracked ideology daily. Mississippi was the most conservative state in 2008 and remains the most conservative in 2014, with 49% of residents identifying as conservative in both years. Three states — Louisiana, Oklahoma and Montana — were not in the top 10 list in 2008 but are in 2014, while South Dakota, Wyoming and Texas dropped out of the top 10 list over the past seven years.

Eight of the top 10 most liberal states in 2014 were on the top 10 list 2013. The other two — Connecticut and Maryland — replaced Delaware and Maine, which appeared in the top 10 in 2013. The only two states in the top 10 most liberal list this year that were not in the top 10 in 2008 are Maryland and New Jersey, and in that year, they came in ranked just below the top 10.

These results are based on Gallup Daily tracking interviews throughout 2014 with 177,034 U.S. adults. Gallup asks Americans if they describe their political views as very conservative, conservative, moderate, liberal or very liberal. The results shown combine the two conservative and the two liberal categories. (Read more about the conservative states in the US HERE)

[Editor’s note: According to Gallup’s poll, Alaska is 21 spots from the bottom, ranking behind states like Indiana, Iowa, Virginia, Kansas and two dozen other states.]

______________________________________________________________

Tyrannical Judicial Rule Continues: Alabama Set to Be 37th State to Allow Same-Sex Couples Can Legally Marry

By Associated Press. Alabama is set Monday to become the 37th state where gays can legally wed.

An order by a federal judge that overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is to take effect Monday. The U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on Alabama’s request to stay the decision, hours before courthouses were to open. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Revealed: What Obama Gave to Al Sharpton After Mandela Funeral

/2 Comments/in , /by

When the Rev. Al Sharpton couldn’t make it to Nelson Mandela ’s funeral in South Africa, President Barack Obama brought him back a little souvenir.

The memento, a program from the funeral, hangs on a wall in Mr. Sharpton’s nondescript offices above Midtown Manhattan.

“To Rev. Sharpton,” Mr. Obama wrote. “A fellow warrior for justice!”

Much has been made of Mr. Sharpton’s reinvention, the remaking of a local, sometimes divisive activist into a polished insider with a national TV show and a direct line to the White House.

Yet, at home in New York City, as tensions simmered last year over race, police conduct, and the deaths of Eric Garner and police officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, Mr. Sharpton’s new role has been tested. (Read more about what Obama gave Al Sharpton HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Social Media Blasting Texas Lawmaker After She Asks Muslims to Pledge Allegiance to US

/40 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Western Journalism Freshman Republican state representative Molly White recently wrote a Facebook post asking American Muslim visitors to her office to pledge allegiance to the United States, and now she is getting blasted on social media for it.

The Texas lawmaker wrote on Facebook Thursday:

Today is Texas Muslim Capital [sic] Day in Austin. The House is in recess until Monday. Most Members including myself are back in District. I did leave an Israeli flag on the reception desk in my office with instructions to staff to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws. We will see how long they stay in my office . . .

CAIR sent a letter to Texas House Speaker Joe Straus asking whether Rep. White had engaged in an ethics violation by asking American Muslims coming into her office to renounce terrorism and pledge allegiance to the US. The letter reads:

Our ethics question is: Has Rep. White violated any House rules in creating such an internal office policy that is selectively being enforced to discriminate against certain religious minorities trying to meet with her or her staff? Are House members prohibited from making constituents take oaths before meeting with their elected representatives or House staff? . . .

Fatima Ahmed wrote on Facebook:

You can’t seriously be this clueless. Not very ‘Christian’ of you. We should organize a group to come visit you and shower you with love in return for your hate. That’s would Jesus (Peace Be Upon Him) would do. But what would you know about that. #Islamophobia #Bigotry #MollyWhite #TAKEONHATE. . .

White stood by her statement. . .

(Read more about the Texas lawmaker getting blasted on social media HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Top White House Official Says US Strategy to Beat ISIS is Working; General Disagrees

/2 Comments/in , /by

By Fox News. Secretary of State John Kerry and a top White House official claimed Sunday that the U.S. strategy to defeat the Islamic State is working – despite warnings from other corners of the Obama administration that the terror network is in fact spreading.

Following the purported deaths last week of two ISIS hostages and concerns about the U.S. needing to do more, Kerry told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the U.S.-led coalition was “on the road” to defeating the Islamic extremist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in Iraq and Syria.

He argued that coalition forces have recaptured 22 percent of the populated areas that ISIS once held in the region “without launching what we would call a major offensive.”

The claim came just days after Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, delivered a grim assessment of the group’s evolution in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee. He described how the group was surfacing in North Africa.

“With affiliates in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, the group is beginning to assemble a growing international footprint that includes ungoverned and under governed areas,” Stewart testified. (Read more about the claims that the strategy to beat ISIS is working HERE)

__________________________________________________________

ISIS ‘Sentenced’ US Hostage to Death Last Year, Activist Says

By The Jerusalem Post. The young American hostage who Islamic State says was was killed in a Jordanian air strike was condemned to death by the militant group last year, according to an American Muslim activist.

Islamic State seized aid worker Kayla Mueller in 2013 in northern Syria and initially gave her a “life sentence” in retaliation for the jailing in Texas of a Pakistani woman whose case is a well-known cause among Islamist militants, said activist Mauri Saalakhan, who leads a US campaign to free the Pakistani.

The militant group said on Friday that Mueller, a 26-year-old from Prescott, Arizona, was killed when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building where she was being held. Jordan expressed doubt about the claim and US authorities said they could not confirm it. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Snapchat Selfie Solves Teenage Murder in Pennsylvania

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Tribune-Review A selfie photograph led police to charge a teenager in connection with the Wednesday shooting death of another teen in Jeannette, according to authorities.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck confirmed late Friday night that Maxwell Morton, 16, was charged as an adult in the shooting death of Ryan Mangan.

The alleged selfie obtained by police showed Morton posing in front of Mangan’s body. A woman contacted police Thursday after her son received the Snapchat photo from Morton, police said . . .

The selfie “depicted the victim sitting in the chair with a gunshot wound to the face,” according to a police affidavit. “It also depicts a black male taking the selfie with his face facing the camera and the victim behind the actor. The photo had the name ‘Maxwell’ across the top” . . .

Morton is charged with criminal homicide and murder in the first degree, in addition to one count of possession of a firearm by a minor, according to court documents. He was denied bail Friday night. (Read more about the teenage murder in Pennsylvania HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Obama Admin. Rewarding Illegal Aliens with Tens of Thousands in Earned Income Tax Credits

/7 Comments/in , /by

By Daniel Halper. President Barack Obama has promoted his recent executive action on immigration by arguing that he’s only deferring action – holding off on enforcement of the current immigration laws until an immigration reform he approves of passes Congress. But that’s not really true; in fact there’s a way for illegal immigrants immediately to receive “amnesty bonuses,” as Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska terms it.

Here’s how. A recent Homeland Security Committee hearing on immigration revealed an alarming consequence of President Obama’s executive amnesty—that illegal immigrants with deferred status may be able to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Moreover, this person, who is here in the U.S. unlawfully, could be able to file an amended tax return for up to the last three tax years, possibly receiving upwards of $24,000 in tax credits.

The discovery was made by Eileen J. O’Connor, a tax lawyer and the former head of the tax division of the United States Department of Justice, who used her congressional testimony in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee to explain it. “The law makes a social security number a requirement of eligibility to receive the earned income credit,” O’Connor explained.

“But in 1999, the Chief Counsel’s office of IRS ruled (in a non-binding, non-precedential way, but no one but the IRS pays attention to those disclaimers) that when a person receives a social security number, he can file amended returns to claim the credit for the three preceding years during which he did not. The logic is puzzling: the credit is not available if you don’t have a social security number, but you can receive it retroactively for years during which you did not qualify for it because you didn’t have a social security number.”

Senator Sasse, who along with Senator Ron Johnson has written a letter addressed to the inspector general of the U.S. Treasury Department, has released a statement commenting on the “amnesty bonuses.” (Read more about Obama rewarding illegal aliens HERE)

_____________________________________________________

As Employment Increases For Foreign-Workers, it Decreases For Native-Born Americans

By Caroline May. In the months and years since the recession began in December 2007, foreign-born workers have experienced a net increase in employment, while native-born Americans have experienced a net loss.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released updated employment data Friday.

The new BLS figures reveal that since the start of the recession in 2007 — which is said to have ended in June 2009 — the number of foreign workers employed in the United States rose by 1.7 million.

In December 2007 the number of foreign-born workers was 22,810,000 by January 2009 the number has increased to 24,553,000.

Meanwhile the number of American-born workers employed decreased by 1.5 million, from 123,524,000 to 121,999,000. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

These Experts Will Tell You Where Oil Prices are Headed

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Bloomberg Business. The outlook on oil prices is clear: Oil will crash. Unless prices surge. Definitely one or the other.

Crude just had the biggest two-week gain in 17 years, but it’s still about 50 percent cheaper than it was in June. The situation is volatile, and forecasts are all over the place — from $30 a barrel predicted by the president of Goldman Sachs to as high as $200 a barrel seen by the head of OPEC . . .

What’s an investor to think? In 2015, the average price is likely to be anywhere from $35 to $80, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence survey of 86 investment specialists. That’s a pretty big range. (Read more about the increasing oil prices HERE)

____________________________________________________

Oil Prices Post Biggest One-Week Gain Since 2011

By Nicole Friedman and Georgi Kantchev. Oil prices posted their largest weekly percentage gain in almost four years as traders looked past the current world-wide glut of crude to focus on signals of future production cuts.

Some market participants said oil prices, which have fallen 52% in the past seven months, could be bottoming out as producers have reacted to the low prices by cutting expenditures and reducing drilling activity. But many analysts caution that the global oil market still is oversupplied and there are few signs of a major uptick in demand, so prices could slip yet again.

The market was volatile this past week, posting a one-month high Tuesday before falling Wednesday and then regaining those losses by week’s end. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.