House Leaders Sell Immigration Blueprint

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The House Republican leadership is trying to sell their colleagues on a series of broad immigration principles, including a path to legal status for those here illegally.

Speaker John Boehner’s leadership team introduced the principles at their annual policy retreat here. Top Republicans circulated a tightly held one-page memo titled “standards for immigration reform” toward the tail-end of a day that include strategy conversations about Obamacare, the economy and the national debt.

In the private meeting where the language was introduced, Boehner (R-Ohio) told Republicans that the standards are “as far as we are willing to go.”

“Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that for her caucus, it is a special path to citizenship or nothing,” Boehner said, according to a source in the room. “If Democrats insist on that, then we are not going to get anywhere this year.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Push for New National Cemeteries, As Veteran Deaths Bring Sites Near Capacity

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

National cemeteries across the country are starting to reach capacity amid an increase in the number of veterans dying — fueling a push for the government to approve new sites, particularly in states that don’t have any.

“One of the benefits is to be buried with dignity. All veterans are entitled to that,” Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said.

Titus represents one of the 11 states, many of them in the West, that don’t have a national cemetery. She’s introduced a bill that would force the Department of Veterans Affairs to put them in those states.

“I think they should have that opportunity and not be a victim of where they live,” she said of veterans.

Just what does a national cemetery mean to a veteran?

Read more from this story HERE.

Sandy Hook Killer’s PC Files: Pedophile Rights, Man/Boy Love Movie, ‘School Shooting’ Game

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The state’s attorney report on the horrific murders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School by shooter Adam Lanza found no “conclusive motive” for his actions but did document unsettling facts about the 20-year-old killer, including computer files he kept on the rights of pedophiles, a movie about man/boy love, instant messages concerning “homosexual fantasies,” numerous mass murder documents, and a computer game entitled “School Shooting.”

In “School Shooting,” an amateur computer game, “the player controls a character who enters a school and shoots at students,” reads an Investigation Report (DPS-302-E) that is among the 1,000-plus pages comprising the state’s attorney report on the shootings.

Lanza, after shooting his mother Nancy Lanza at home on the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, drove to the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and shot and killed 20 children and six adults, and then shot himself. (Full report, text and images here. Summary report here.)

In his summary report, State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of Danbury Stephen Sedensky says the “shooter had significant mental health issues” but “the shooter’s mental status is no defense to his conduct as the evidence shows he knew his conduct to be against the law. He had the ability to control his behavior to obtain the results he wanted, including his own death.”

The summary report states that in the electronic evidence gathered at Lanza’s house from his computer, “investigators found many things that are on a typical hard drive or memory card” but, “That being said, the following selected topics or items were found within the digital evidence seized.”

Read more from this story HERE.

US Prosecutors Seek Execution of Boston Marathon Bomber

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Uncredited

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Uncredited

Federal prosecutors Thursday announced they will seek the death penalty against 20-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombing, accusing him of betraying his adopted country by ruthlessly carrying out a terrorist attack calculated to cause maximum carnage.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to press for Tsarnaev’s execution was widely expected. The twin blasts last April killed three people and wounded more than 260, and over half the 30 federal charges against Tsarnaev – including using a weapon of mass destruction to kill – carry a possible death sentence.

“The nature of the conduct at issue and the resultant harm compel this decision,” Holder said in a statement of just two terse and dispassionate sentences that instantly raised the stakes in one of the most wrenching criminal cases Boston has ever seen.

Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty. No trial date has been set.

Read more from this story HERE.

RNC Chair Calls for MSNBC Guest Appearance Boycott Over Race Tweet

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is launching a boycott of MSNBC over an incendiary tweet from the network that suggested “the rightwing” would “hate” a television ad featuring a biracial family, Breitbart News has learned.

“Until you personally and publicly apologize for this behavior, I have banned all RNC staff from appearing on, associating with, or booking any RNC surrogates on MSNBC. I have asked Republican surrogates and officials to follow our lead,” Priebus told MSNBC President Phil Griffin in a letter sent today.

Priebus also sent a memo to Republican officials and surrogates urging them not to appear on the network until Griffin apologizes.

MSNBC’s tweet, sent from the network’s official account last night at 8:06pm, said, “Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go aww” and linked to a Cherios ad “w/ biracial family.”

Read more from this story HERE.

State of the Union 2014 Fact Check

Photo Credit:  John Shinkle/POLITICO

Photo Credit: John Shinkle/POLITICO

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address prodded Congress to act on issues like immigration and economic inequality, with a warning that he won’t hesitate to act unilaterally if lawmakers drag their feet.

But the real audience wasn’t the lawmakers in the chamber. The president was trying to sell his policies and his leadership to tens of millions of people watching at home.

With that rare, outsized audience comes the temptation for the president to put some spin on his arguments that might not otherwise fly or gain traction in Washington.

Here’s POLITICO’s analysis of some of the key parts of Obama’s speech, and where the truth may have been shaped or even stretched in the process:

Obamacare numbers game

Obama: “More than 9 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Former Bush Speechwriter Accuses Obama of Plagiarism (+video)

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

Former George W. Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen has accused President Obama of plagiarizing parts of his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

“Barack Obama has gone from blaming George W. Bush to plagiarizing George W. Bush,” he said, adding that Tuesday night’s speech and Mr. Bush’s 2007 address were “eerily familiar.”

“There were lines like ‘Our job is to help Americans build a future of hope and opportunity, a future of hope and opportunity begins with a growing economy, a future of hope and opportunity requires that all citizens have affordable and available healthcare, extending opportunity and hope depends on a stable supply of energy,’ all of that came from the 2007 State of the Union from George W. Bush,” Mr. Thiessen said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Bachmann Says House Preparing to Sue Obama for Overreach: ‘He’s Not a King’

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Larry Downing

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Larry Downing

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann says House conservatives are preparing to sue President Barack Obama for executive overreach in response to his threats of unilateral action on a host of issues.

“He’s the president of the United States — he’s not a king,” the Republican lawmaker told reporters after Obama’s State of the Union address. “He may think he’s a king, he may declare himself king, but that’s not what he is under our Constitution.”

Bachmann said an effort is underway in Congress to take back their “authority under the Constitution as the House of Representatives.” She said the plan is to introduce legislation allowing lawmakers to hire an attorney, so “we can force the president to act under the Constitution.”

“We’ll sue the president of the United States and force him to no longer act unilaterally,” she said.

In his address at the Capitol Tuesday night, Obama said he plans to take unilateral action on the minimum wage for federal workers. He suggested he might go solo on guns, for example.

Read more from this story HERE.

Chick-fil-A Gives Free Food to Motorists Stranded in Southern Snowstorm

Photo Credit: COURTESY LAUREN DANGO

Photo Credit: COURTESY LAUREN DANGO

A snowstorm in the South is about as rare as a glass of unsweetened tea at a church supper. Folks around Birmingham, Ala. weren’t all that worried though. The storm was only supposed to dust the city – not even enough powder for a Southern snowman.

So when the first snowflakes began to fall, no one paid all that much attention. But then, the flakes kept falling. Before too long folks in places like Hoover and Inverness realized it was much more than a dusting. By that point, it was too late for anyone to do anything.

Icy interstates and highways soon became clogged with cars and trucks. Thousands of motorists soon found themselves stranded with nowhere to go – including many stuck on Highway 280.

But a good number of those stranded motorists were able to find shelter in the storm thanks to the kindness and generosity of Chick-fil-A restaurant employees and the restaurant’s owner, Mark Meadows.

Once the snow started accumulating, Meadows closed the restaurant and sent his staff home. But a few hours later, many of them returned – unable to get to their homes.

Read more from this story HERE.

Christian Stars Kirk Cameron, Natalie Grant Blast Grammy Awards

Photo Credit: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP

Photo Credit: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP

Christian actor Kirk Cameron criticized Sunday night’s Grammy Awards for what he called an “all out assault on the traditional family.”

During the ceremony, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis performed “Same Love” alongside Mary Lambert and Madonna while Queen Latifah officiated the marriages of 33 gay and straight couples, the Huffington Post reported.

“How did you like the Grammy’s all out assault on the traditional family?” the “Growing Pains” star asked on Facebook.

Read more from this story HERE.