Parents of Killed SEAL Urge Obama to Resign

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP / Vaughn Family

Photo Credit: AP / Vaughn Family

The parents of a SEAL Team Six member who was killed when his helicopter was shot down over Afghanistan have penned a letter to President Obama, calling into question the commander-in-chief’s leadership abilities and saying outright that he ought to resign.

Billy and Karen Vaughn — who lost their SEAL son Aaron Carson Vaugh in 2011 — said they’re sick and tired of hearing the president’s monotone press conferences, absent any emotion, and frustrated with his inability to confront the Islamic State, the Daily Mail reported.

They were specifically outraged by his less-than-passionate response to the terrorist beheading of American journalist James Foley, and his near-simultaneous retreat to the golf course.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama to Send Approximately 350 Additional Military Personnel to Iraq

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

President Obama announced Tuesday he is sending approximately 350 additional military personnel to Iraq to protect U.S. diplomatic facilities and workers in Baghdad.

The White House said in a press release that the personnel will not serve a combat role, and are fulfilling a request from the State Department for more protection as the country fights an insurgency from the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

The White House said the additional personnel will be able to provide a “more robust, sustainable security force” and will allow previously deployed personnel to leave the country.

Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement that Obama’s authorization will result in a net increase of approximately 350 military personnel. Kirby said 405 personnel will be sent to Baghdad, and 55 will leave, leading to the net increase.

Read more from this story HERE.

D'Souza Announces Tour to Bring "America" Documentary to College Campuses

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Moore of the right,” is launching a college tour this fall to introduce and discuss with students his new documentary, “America: Imagine a World Without Her.” The film challenges the notion that America is a “predatory colonial power” that relied on thievery and exploitation to earn its prominent place in the world.

The tour is being sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation. From the organization’s press release:

Following the release of his breakthrough documentary, America, which has surpassed Michael Moore’s “Capitalism” at the box office, Dinesh D’Souza will be taking the message of his film directly to college students. As showcased in the film, America’s greatness is under attack by those who argue that our country’s founding was based on the theft of America’s natural resources and the exploitation of Native Americans and others around the world. Many of these attacks originate on college campuses and Dinesh will bring the message of the film to young people who often only hear a one-sided view of our history.

Read more from this story HERE.

Our Freedoms Are Slowly Slipping Away

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

As Americans celebrated Labor Day and the freedom to provide for their families, let’s hope they didn’t spoil the holiday yesterday by pausing to consider whether government today is making their lives easier or more difficult.

To wit, the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, published by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, which ranks countries based on four main factors – rule of law, limited government, regulatory efficiency, open markets – has the US is headed in the wrong direction. “The U.S. is the only country,” the survey states, “to have recorded a loss of economic freedom each of the past seven years.”

As ordinary Americans toil to put food on the table and provide for their families, most “cling” to the idea that the highest aim of our leaders is to leave a legacy of greater freedom our children, not less. Americans don’t believe in a monarchy, and they actually believe everyone should live by the same set of rules, not one set of rules for them and another set for the political class when circumstances or political arguments fail.

Needless to say, many Americans are outraged to see laws being re-written midstream, whether in health care, taxes, immigration or in government grants to political cronies. They are discouraged to learn of the secret 2012 decision by the Treasury Department to confiscate the profits of the mortgage guarantors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. With that decision, the federal government thumbed its nose at transparency, flaunted the basic rule of law and property rights, and put the government deeper into the mortgage market. It moves our country in the opposite direction of where it should be headed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Attorney Slams Begich Campaign For Refusing To Take Down ‘Offensive’ Ad

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

An attorney for the family of an Alaska couple murdered last year sent a scathing letter to U.S. Sen. Mark Begich claiming that his political ad using the couple’s case to attack Republican challenger Dan Sullivan is “inciting” the family and “tearing [it] apart.”

Bryon Collins, the family attorney, sent the letter, titled “Second Demand To Take Down All Case References And Ads,” to Begich on Monday.

“The family directly and without question has told your campaign they want no part of this,” Collins writes in the letter, obtained by The Daily Caller.

Collins was referring to an ad first aired by Begich’s campaign on Friday.

It refers to the case of Jerry Active, now 25, who allegedly murdered Touch Chea and Sorn Sreap, two elderly Cambodian-Americans, in Anchorage on May 25, 2013. Active is also accused of sexually assaulting their 2-year-old granddaughter.

Read more from this story HERE.

_______________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Larry Downing

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Larry Downing

Alaska Senate Challenger Dan Sullivan Accuses Mark Begich Of Lying In Ad

Republican Alaska U.S. senate challenger Dan Sullivan is accusing Democratic incumbent Mark Begich of lying in a television ad blaming Sullivan for the early prison release of a man accused of murdering two elderly people and sexually assaulting their young granddaughter.

The case involves Jerry Active, 25, who was arrested for the May 25, 2013 murder of a couple in Anchorage and of sexually assaulting their 2-year-old granddaughter.

The Begich campaign is using Active’s heinous act to attack Sullivan for being soft on crime, though Sullivan completely disputes the claim and says that Begich is exploiting the case for political gain.

“I don’t know how long Dan Sullivan lived in Alaska, but I know what he did as attorney general,” said retired Anchorage police officer Bob Glen in the ad, approved by Begich and released ahead of Labor Day weekend.

“He let a lot of sex offenders get off with light sentences. One of them got out of prison and is now charged with breaking into that apartment building, murdering a senior couple and sexually assaulting their two year old granddaughter.”

Read more from this story HERE.

West Point Report Describes Islamic State Threat as Crisis 4 Years in the Making

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

A new report from the West Point counterterrorism center challenges the notion that the Islamic State only recently became a major terror threat, describing the network’s gains in Iraq as a crisis four years in the making.

Meanwhile, Fox News has learned that top aides to President Obama expect the threat from the organization, also known as ISIS or ISIL, to outlast Obama’s time in office.

The details underscore the challenge facing the U.S. government and its allies as the president and military advisers weigh how — and where — to confront the Islamist militant forces.

“ISIL did not suddenly become effective in early June 2014: it had been steadily strengthening and actively shaping the future operating environment for four years,” the report from the West Point center said.

The report said that the “shattering” of Iraq’s security forces in June is a “case-in-point, the result of years of patient preparatory operations.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Feds Encouraging Deported Illegal Aliens to Come Back to US

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expected to allow thousands of illegal immigrant deportees to return to the U.S., so long as they have ties to Southern California. Taxpayers will additionally fund a media campaign in Mexico, alerting deportees that they may be eligible to come back to the United States.

An agreement outlining the new settlement was announced in late August, according to the Los Angeles Times. The plan, which only applies to Southern California, was reportedly drawn up in response to a lawsuit that was filed last year by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) relating to the rights of illegal immigrants.

The Times reported that an unknown fraction of the some 250,000 previously-deported illegal immigrants will be allowed to come back to the country under the new plan.

Under the settlement, Border Patrol agents will be required to inform illegal immigrants of their right to fight deportation in the U.S. court system. Agents also must “provide them access to an informational hot line and a list of free legal service providers,” the Times reported.

A taxpayer-funded “outreach effort” will also be launched through Mexican media outlets. The ad campaigns will inform deportees that they might be eligible to come back to the United States.

Read more from this story HERE.

"Emergency Regulations": NY's Latest Attempt to Suppress Free Speech

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Remember when President Obama touted the Affordable Care Act by claiming if you “liked your plan you could keep it”? He earned Politifact’s 2013 “Lie of the Year” for that whopper. Amazingly, several other Democrats made the same false promise. Knowing what we know now, wouldn’t you want to expose any politician who stood behind that misleading statement? Well, if someone uttered those words in the state of New York, you may now be forced to let it slide. A new law in the Empire State, which some are calling the ‘shut up rule,’ could allow such lofty claims to go unchallenged.

The New York Board of Elections, in an attempt to regulate political spending by special interest groups during campaigns, has enacted “emergency regulations” that would make it much more difficult to challenge political speech:

The new regulations require individuals and groups spending on races — independently of candidates and political parties — to register with the state as a political committee and file financial reports that list so-called “independent expenditures.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Geraldo Rivera: Second Amendment is 'Blind and Stupid'

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

In covering the tragic story of a young girl accidentally killing her range instructor with an Uzi, my colleague Matt Vespa predicted that the anti-gun lobby would exploit this story to promote their agenda. It appears his prediction has been proven true. This past Thursday, Geraldo Rivera, a noted proponent of gun control, posted the following anti-Second Amendment message on his website and Facebook page: (emphasis added)

Like I always say, the 2nd Amendment, the provision that gives every American the right to keep and bear arms, is blind and stupid. In its relentless pimping for the gun industry, the NRA has unleashed an avalanche of deadly weapons on this gun-crazy country. Just as protects access to weapons for cops and hunters, it also protects access to weapons for domestic abusers, mental patients, jerk-offs on the no-fly list, all-around dim bulbs, and now little children.

As the father of a sweet, smart nine year old daughter myself, the latest example of gross excess is the image of that pony-tailed New Jersey girl accidentally killing her gun range instructor. It is obscene and uncivilized to let a third grader shoot a fully automatic Uzi machine gun. What was she training for, revolution? Invasion? Service in the coming post-apocalyptic social disorder? Stupid, but just another of countless examples of how far into insanity we have let the gun nuts push us

Read more from this story HERE.

WWII Anniversary: The Lessons We Haven't Learned

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

“Now I believe for the first time there will not be war”. This was an English diarist in September 28, 1938, slightly less than a year before the Second World War broke out, writing on the eve of the Munich agreement.

Of course, we all know with hindsight that you would have had to be an imbecile to have imagined such a thing by that stage in the advance of Nazi Germany. Had Hitler not already made his hostile intentions perfectly clear in Mein Kampf, in his aggressive rearmament in breach of the Versailles treaty terms, his Austrian Anschluss, his increasing persecution of the Jews and his noises about the Sudetenland?

But actually this diary entry was from the extremely well-connected and well-informed Duff Cooper who at the time was serving in the Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty. He later changed his mind about treating with Hitler and resigned his position. The point though is this: if even a man like that could, however briefly, gull himself into the immensely fashionable narrative that another global conflict with the Germans was unthinkable is it any wonder that the outbreak of the Second World War 75 years ago today caught so many by surprise?

Duff Cooper’s naivety (as it seems now, though I think “wishful thinking” is a fairer term) was shared by many writers and politicians and ordinary folk of the period. Read the diaries of almost anyone in the emigre community of artists, boulevardiers and journalists in Paris in that era: few of them entertained the idea until the very last minute (June 1940) that such a glorious city could possibly fall to the Germans.

Read more from this story HERE.