White House Asks American Parents to Monitor Their Children for Signs of Terrorism

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: FBI / Getty

Photo Credit: FBI / Getty

In a speech earlier this week, Lisa O. Monaco, President Barack Obama’s assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, insisted that American parents must be vigilant because their “confrontational” children could be on the verge of becoming terrorists.

Monaco’s full, prepared text is available here. She presented the speech, entitled “Countering Violent Extremism and the Power of Community,” at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government on April 15.

Monaco began her remarks by eloquently describing the lives tragically lost last year during the Boston Marathon bombings. Interestingly, the Harvard grad failed to mention the religion or the motive of brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Muslim terrorists behind the Boston bombings.

In the very next paragraph, Monaco specifically noted racist and disgustingly anti-Semitic beliefs of Frazier Glenn Miller, the 73-year-old former Ku Klux Klan leader accused of gunning down three people at a Jewish Community Center in Kansas last Sunday.

Read more from this story HERE.

Zogby Report Card: Russia’s Winning, and Obama Has Few Options

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Pollster John Zogby reports in our weekly White House report card that President Obama has a real problem on his hands: a lack of options in dealing with issues like Russia, immigration, Syria and the Middle East.

“It seems hard to play the long game in an era of instant news and talking analysis by the nanosecond. The president assures us that President Putin’s gambit in Crimea is doomed and that stronger sanctions can follow. But it is hard to communicate that point while it looks like Russia is winning.

Read more from this story HERE.

Boy Claims Officials Tried to Take His Bible After Banning Him From Reading It During After-School Program

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

A little boy who claims he was told by officials at an after-school program that he couldn’t read his Bible is getting support from the American Civil Liberties Union.

The civil rights group’s Tennessee branch is defending the child, sending a letter to the Cannon County REACH after-school program in an effort to urge officials to better train staff on the proper handling of participants’ religious rights, the Christian Post reported.

Staff at REACH reportedly not only told the boy he couldn’t read the Bible, but they also allegedly tried to take it from him, saying that the program could lose state funding if he continued reading it.

“[The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee] has a long-standing commitment to uphold and defend Tennesseans’ ability to practice religion, or not, as they choose,” Hedy Weinberg, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement. “The goal of our letter is to clarify for the REACH program what seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of how the Constitution protects religious liberty.”

Read more from this story HERE.

US College Students Studying Abroad Prime Targets for Espionage Activity

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: FBI.GOV

Photo Credit: FBI.GOV

The FBI has issued a stern warning to U.S. college students studying abroad: Beware of foreign intelligence officers who are discreetly targeting young, often naive Americans for espionage activities.

Glenn Shriver seemed like any other adventure-seeking college student — embarking on a study abroad program to China in 2004 while majoring in international affairs at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.

The cash-strapped college junior from Jenison, Mich., soon became an easy target of Chinese intelligence officers, who first paid him to write political papers in what seemed like a benign job. The People’s Republic of China officers then befriended Shriver — sometimes meeting him in swanky hotel penthouses — and asked that he consider applying for U.S. government jobs.

Shriver complied, spending the next few years applying for jobs with the U.S. government — in particular, with the CIA and State Department — and receiving a total of $70,000 in exchange for doing so. When his scheme to provide the Chinese with classified information was uncovered in 2010, Shriver, now 32, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison.

The FBI is highlighting Shriver’s case in a new effort to educate students about the unforeseen dangers of studying abroad. The bureau released a 28-minute video this week, titled, “Game of Pawns,” in which they dramatize Shriver’s experience in Shanghai and the espionage activity that would later lead to his arrest and imprisonment. The FBI is urging all U.S. students to view the video before they leave the country to help them understand when they’re being targeted or recruited for espionage.

Read more from this story HERE.

Behind the Cornucopia of Higher Food Prices

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: CNBC

Photo Credit: CNBC

Alert shoppers are accustomed to watching food prices go up and down. But a string of forces—from droughts to diseases—is raising the cost of a trip to the grocery store at a rapid clip.

And it looks like it will be a while before the price pressure eases.

Some of that pressure is coming from California—the source of roughly half the nation’s fruits and vegetables—where a long-running drought is forcing farmers and ranchers to cut production. After the driest year on record, large sections of farmland are expected to lay fallow this year as the Golden State copes with an ongoing water crisis

That could have “large and lasting effects on fruit, vegetable, dairy and egg prices,” according to a recent USDA report, which said the full impact has yet to be felt.

Smaller cattle herds have forced meat prices higher in March—up more than 5 percent from a year ago, as demand remained strong despite tightener supplies. Ranchers are getting higher prices for cattle and food companies are able to pass them along.

Read more from this story HERE.

Franklin Graham: Muslims Who ‘Want to Practice Sharia Law’ Should ‘Go Back Where You Came From’

/21 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

“We should be afraid of sharia law” in America, and Muslims here who want to practice sharia should go back to where they came from, “to those nations that recognize sharia law,” said Rev. Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

In a recent interview with the Charlotte Observer, Graham was asked, “Some say you demonize Islam, and Christians in this country have opposed building a mosque or are worried about Sharia law. Isn’t it –”

Graham, who oversees the international Christian aid group Samaritan’s Purse, said, “We should be afraid of Sharia law. We should be absolutely afraid of it. No question about it, because there’s no tolerance in Sharia law. It persecutes those that do not believe in Islam.”

“And I would say to Muslims in this country, if they want to practice Sharia law, go back to where you came from, to those nations that recognize sharia law,” said Graham. “But we have our own laws here.”

Sharia law is the law of Islam, governing public life as well as private life. “Also meaning ‘path’ in Arabic, sharia guides all aspects of Muslim life, including daily routines, familial and religious obligations, and financial dealings,” states a backgrounder on sharia published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). “Marriage and divorce are the most significant aspects of sharia, but criminal law is the most controversial.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Miller Slams ‘Reckless and Irresponsible’ BLM

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Natural News

Photo Credit: Natural News

Joe Miller today spoke out on the recent standoff between Bureau of Land Management officials and ranchers over disputed land in Nevada.

“The Bureau’s actions were reckless and irresponsible,” Miller said. “Lives could have been lost. There is a right way and a wrong way to do things, and federal agents “gunning up” against otherwise law-abiding citizens and depriving them of their First Amendment Rights isn’t just wrong, it’s unAmerican.”

Miller further pointed out that the Bundy case raises deeper concerns about the 10th Amendment and State jurisdiction. He has long been an advocate of Constitutional limits on the federal government, and of returning power to the states. He believes the best future for our state is Alaskan control of Alaska’s land and resources.

“What we saw in Nevada was the ugly underbelly of a federal government that has gone too far. It’s time for Alaska to assert its prerogatives under the 10th Amendment,” Miller said. “What I don’t understand is the deafening silence from our Congressional delegation on this case, especially in light of the BLM’s role in overseeing 87 million acres in Alaska and the recent federal raids on gold miners near Chicken.”

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, and advocate of Constitutional liberty who believes in individual rights, private property, free markets and the sanctity of human life.

Thomas Jefferson Was Right

/0 Comments/in , /by

Picture - Thomas JeffersonI was honored to receive the endorsement of Alaska Right to Life this past week.

Government has been given a sacred trust to protect life, especially the lives of the innocent and most vulnerable among us. This trust is recognized in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

In announcing the group’s endorsement, Alaska Right to Life stated, “The pro-life position Joe Miller takes isn’t merely a common political platitude, but is centered in the core of who he is. Joe will be a champion for the pro-life cause in Washington and is exactly the caliber of man we need representing Alaska in the US Senate.”

This much I pledge to you, on the first day that I am sworn in as Alaska’s next senator, I will co-sponsor Senator Rand Paul’s Life at Conception Act. Science now matches what faith has taught us for thousands of years: life begins when we are knit together in the womb.

Alaska is long overdue for representation in the United States Senate that respects life. Mark Begich has been a rubber stamp for Barack Obama’s radical judicial nominees and voted with Harry Reid for the so-called “nuclear option,” which allows the most anti-life President in American history to continue to pack the federal bench with judges who have no regard for the life of the unborn.

One of Begich’s first “yes” votes following the nuclear option last fall was to confirm Nina Pillard to the DC Circuit Court in a 51-44 middle of the night disgrace. Pillard wrote concerning abortion, “Casting reproductive rights in terms of equality holds promise to re-center the debate…away from the deceptive images of fetus-as-autonomous-being that the anti-choice movement has popularized…”

Begich also voted for New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen’s amendment last year upholding the ObamaCare HHS contraception mandate. This onerous regulation requires businesses to provide coverage that includes abortion inducing drugs, regardless of deeply held religious convictions.

Over 56 million babies have been aborted since the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe vs. Wade in 1973. Last year in Alaska alone, approximately fourteen hundred were denied the opportunity to take their first breath and become the people they were created to be. This national tragedy must end.

The words of Thomas Jefferson ring through time: “the God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.”

On this special weekend, when we remember the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, may we all be renewed to do our part to allow His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

God bless you and yours this Easter!

Harry Reid’s View on Terrorists Explained in One Cartoon

/7 Comments/in , /by

TP-terrorist-590-CI
Photo Credit: Political cartoonist A.F. Branco

As an American who believes vehemently in our Constitution, free speech and free political discourse I find Reid’s comments both ridiculous and hurtful.

Read more from this story HERE.

Barack Obama and the Politics of Lies

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Washington Examiner Editorial.

That was quite a victory dance President Obama did Thursday while claiming Obamacare is “working” because eight million people have now supposedly signed up for the health care program. He even indulged in some less-than-subtle mockery of Republicans – and by extension the majority of Americans who have disapproved of Obamacare since before it became law. “The repeal debate is and should be over,” Obama said, taking a dig at Republicans who are “going through, you know, the stages of grief … anger and denial and all that stuff …”

But a president who is viewed by most Americans as less than honest has no business crowing about a victory that remains anything but obvious. And he certainly should not heap insults on people who for four years have profoundly disagreed with him on the wisdom of Obamacare. To put this as “less than honest” is to be charitable. What Fox News found in its most recent public opinion survey was that 61 percent of Americans believe Obama “lies” about important public issues either “most of the time” or “some of the time.” No other president in living memory has conducted himself in a manner that warranted even asking if such a description was appropriate.

It comes as no surprise today that Obama’s defenders are sparing no invective for Fox News in the wake of that survey. But it was the president, not Fox News, who repeatedly and knowingly misled the American people with two infamous Obamacare lies: “You can keep your health insurance if you like it. Period. You can keep your doctor. Period.” For better or worse, Obama will forever be known as the president who chose repeatedly to propagate two falsehoods. Those two lies were profoundly significant because they were designed to hide the truth about how Obamacare would affect the daily lives and health of hundreds of millions of Americans.

Read more from this story HERE.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Dems’ 2014 challenge: How to win when Americans see a liar in the White House

By Mark Tapscott.

Timing is everything in politics and the latest Fox News poll suggests the timing of the 2014 midterm election could not be worse for President Obama and his fellow Democrats.

With public approval of Congress in the single digits, senators and representatives in both parties may face the most challenging political environment of their careers.

But the Fox survey makes clear that things aren’t breaking well for Obama, either, and his popularity rating may be the most important factor in determining how Democrats fare in November.

Liar, liar, pants on fire

Presidents have been unpopular before. Harry Truman’s approval rating sank to 23 percent at one point and Richard Nixon was so unpopular that he became the first chief executive ever to resign.

Read more from this story HERE.