Gov. Christie in State of State Address: ‘I Am Ultimately Responsible’

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Photo Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin

Photo Credit: AP/Ross D. Franklin

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in his State of the State Address on Tuesday addressed the Bridgegate scandal plaguing his administration, saying he is responsible for what happens on his watch – “both good and bad” – and pledged to “cooperate with all inquiries to ensure that this breach of trust does not happen again.”

“The last week has certainly tested this administration. Mistakes were clearly made. We let down the people we’re entrusted to serve. I know our citizens deserve better, much better. I’m the governor, and I am ultimately responsible for all that happens on my watch – both good and bad. Now without a doubt, we will cooperate with all appropriate inquiries to ensure that this breach of trust does not happen again,” Christie said.

Christie’s comments come on the heels of recent accusations that in September, his administration closed down two of three lanes leading to the George Washington Memorial Bridge in Fort Lee, N.J., in an act of political retribution against the town’s mayor for refusing to endorse Christie.

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Report: NSA Used Radio Waves, Hacked into Over 100k Computers Worldwide

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world — but not in the United States — that allows the US to conduct surveillance on those machines, The New York Times reported yesterday (Jan 14).

The Times cited NSA documents, computer experts and US officials in its report about the use of secret technology using radio waves to gain access to computers that other countries have tried to protect from spying or cyberattacks. The software network could also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks, the Times reports.

The Times reported that the technology, used by the agency for several years, relies on radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted covertly into the computers. The NSA calls the effort an “active defence” and has used the technology to monitor units of the Chinese Army, the Russian military, drug cartels, trade institutions inside the European Union, and sometime US partners against terrorism like Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan, the Times reported.

Among the most frequent targets of the NSA and US Cyber Command, the Times reported, has been the Chinese Army. The United States has accused the Chinese Army of launching regular attacks on American industrial and military targets, often to steal secrets or intellectual property. When Chinese attackers have placed similar software on computer systems of American companies or government agencies, American officials have protested, the newspaper reported.

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America Just Got Bumped From This Top 10 List, and That’s Really Depressing

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Photo Credit: Heritage Foundation, Wall Street Journal

Photo Credit: Heritage Foundation, Wall Street Journal

World economic freedom has increased to record levels, according to the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, released Tuesday by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. But the United States, after seven consecutive years of slipping down the index, has dropped out of the top 10 freest economies.

For 20 years, the Index of Economic Freedom has evaluated countries’ performances in 10 categories, including property rights, freedom from corruption, government spending, trade freedom and others. Scores from 0 to 100 are then averaged and the countries are classified as “free,” “mostly free,” “moderately free,” “mostly unfree” or “repressed.”

The “mostly free” United States sank to 12th place with an economic freedom score of 75.5, half a point lower than last year, when it ranked 10th.

The reason, according to editors of the report: “The overall economic policy direction of the United States in recent years has involved substantial growth in the size and scope of government, accelerating the erosion of economic freedom and contributing directly to America’s fall from the top 10 freest economies.”

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Shot Show: Gun Retailers Urged to Get Political, Connect with Grassroots

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In the wake of local, state, and federal pushes to further regulate the firearm industry in the United States, National Shooting Sports Foundation’s (NSSF) Jake McGuigan told attendees at the trade organization’s annual SHOT Show in Las Vegas that it is imperative for more firearm retailers to be politically active.

While the NSSF and National Rifle Association (NRA) have worked together on various issues regarding Second Amendment protections, the NSSF focuses on the business policies of the firearms industry, while the NRA’s focus is on the right to own a firearm.

“Retailers really need to wake up. I can’t tell you how many states I’ve been in where I asked a retailer, ‘Hey, can you put this alert out? Can you do this?’ [The retailer responds,] ‘I don’t want to get political.’ I don’t want to get political?” asked McGuigan, who is NSSF’s Director of Government Relations and State Affairs.

“That unfortunately hurts us, but people that depend on the firearms [for whom it’s their] livelihood, I think, really need to wake up. It’s not getting political. The opponents made it political. It’s not political. It’s your livelihood and it our constitutional right,” he emphasized.

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Obama Angers the United Way and Other Charities with Proposed Charitable Deduction Cut

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Leaders of the charitable coalition the United Way swarmed Capitol Hill Tuesday to lobby against the Obama administration’s proposed cap on the charitable deduction in the federal tax code. Lowering the charitable deduction has long been an Obama policy objective.

United Way US CEO Stacey Stewart and 45 local United Way CEOs hit the Hill to urge “Support for the charitable deduction and expanding incentives for charitable giving in the U.S. tax code,” according to a press release issued on United Way’s behalf. The CEOs were also pushing to strengthen the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit.

United Way’s “Hill Day” was marked by predictable bipartisan photo ops but highlighted an uncomfortable rift between Obama and many economic and health charities and organizations that support most of his agenda.

Obama proposed a cap on charitable deductions in his 2014 budget proposal in April, and it is currently being debated in Congress. The proposal would cap charitable deductions with a 28 percent limit, down from its current 39.6 percent limit on high earners. Obama has tried every year since taking office to set a 28 percent cap.

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Student, 12, Used Shotgun to Shoot 2 Students in Roswell, New Mexico

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Photo Credit: Mark Wilson/Roswell Daily Record/AP Photo

Photo Credit: Mark Wilson/Roswell Daily Record/AP Photo

A middle school student opened fire in his gym with a shotgun today and critically wounded two students in Roswell, N.M., according to authorities.

The injured were a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy who were “simply sitting in their gym waiting to go to class,” New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said. The shooting occurred shortly before class was to begin at Berrendo Middle School.

The Eastern New Mexico Medical Center confirmed it treated two patients, who were then air lifted to the University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, located about 175 miles from the middle school.

A spokesperson for UMC said the boy, who the governor said was 12, is out of surgery and is listed in critical condition. The girl, 13, is also being treated at the hospital and is listed in serious condition, according to the spokesperson. A school staff member suffered a minor injury and declined treatment.

The names of the shooting victims have not been released.

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Open Internet Order Loses. Net Neutrality Struck down Again.

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Photo Credit: RedState

Photo Credit: RedState

As many of us predicted all along, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the FCC’s Open Internet order, which attempted to force “Net Neutrality” on the nation. The Open Internet order was part of a plan claimed to oppose “discrimination” but in practice would hinder ISPs from charging people for what bandwidth they use.

The FCC had previously attempted to enforce such rules illegally, but lost in the Comcast v FCC case. This time Verizon took them on, and the FCC lost again.

If we don’t win the next Presidential election, I expect an even more radical attempt next time, though a move called Title II Reclassification.

You see, back in the Clinton years, a bill passed with bipartisan support that freed the Internet from burdensome regulation. It was called the Telecommunications Act, and its specifically separated information services from telecommunications services, disallowing the FCC from imposing the same degree of regulations on Internet services that they can on the Phone company.

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Justice Scalia Slams Obama’s Unconstitutional Power Grab

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Photo Credit: PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES

Photo Credit: PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES

On Monday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia slammed President Barack Obama’s interpretation of the U.S. Constitution during oral arguments over Recess appointments.

The case, National Labor Relations Board vs. Noel Canning, is over whether the president acted legally when he made a series of temporary appointments to the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate was not conducting business but still gavelling in and out every day.

Clause three of the Constitution’s section on presidential powers states that, “The president shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.”

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Harry Reid Puts Off Vote on Jobless Benefits, Negotiations with GOP Continue

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Monday delayed a key procedural vote on legislation to extend unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans as Democrats and Republicans continued negotiations on a bipartisan accord.

The measure to aid the long-term jobless still needs about a half-dozen Republican votes to clear a 60-vote threshold and advance to a final vote. But Republicans are withholding those votes to pressure Reid to allow votes on Republican amendments to the bill, a demand Reid on Friday hinted he could accept.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., the chief Republican negotiator, confirmed that progress was being made toward a bipartisan agreement on the extension. Heller said any agreement would have to allow votes on GOP amendments and offset the cost with budget cuts.

“There are multiple issues here and that’s why the negotiations are taking so long,” Heller told reporters Monday evening. “I’m pretty optimistic.”

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Obama Admin Goes to Court Seeking to Deport German Homeschoolers In U.S. Under Political Asylum

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Photo Credit: national Review

Photo Credit: national Review

Ronald Reagan electrified the world when he demanded that the Berlin Wall be torn down. Barack Obama is helping to build a new one, even as the German government begins rounding up members of a despised religious minority.

The Romeike family was granted asylum in the United States because the German government was intent on wresting away the children and putting the parents in cages for the crime of homeschooling their children, which is verboten in Germany, a legacy of the country’s totalitarian past. The Obama administration, which in other notable areas of immigration law has enacted a policy of “discretion” regarding deportations, took the Romeike family to court to have its asylum protections revoked, and succeeded in doing so. The family has appealed to the Supreme Court, which has ordered the Obama administration to respond to the Romeikes’ petition, but the administration has so far refused to do so.

As the Romeikes’ story unfolds, another German family is being held in the country against their will, also for the crime of homeschooling their children — or intending to do so, at least. The Wunderlich family had their children kidnapped by the German government — the agents of which came crashing through their door with battering rams — as retaliation for their homeschooling. They complied with the government’s demands regarding their children’s education and, understandably enough, began the process of relocating to France, where attitudes toward family life are more civilized. The Germans responded by refusing to reinstate their custody of their children, with a judge determining that the desire to homeschool presents an “endangerment” to the children.

That is the environment into which the Obama administration intends to send the Romeike family.

Why?

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