Susan Rice Blasts Israel– On Twitter

/7 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: White House PhotoNational Security Advisor and former UN Ambassador Susan Rice took to Twitter on Monday night to blast Israel for widespread recent criticism of Secretary of State John Kerry by Israeli government officials. The torrent of tweets ran from at 8:14 to 8:17 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and spoke in defense of both Kerry and President Barack Obama, calling recent Israeli criticism of them “totally unfounded and unacceptable.”

Personal attacks in Israel directed at Sec Kerry totally unfounded and unacceptable. — Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) February 4, 2014

John Kerry’s record of support for Israel’s security and prosperity rock solid. — Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) February 4, 2014

POTUS and Sec Kerry remain committed to negotiations that can secure Israeli and Palestinian futures. — Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) February 4, 2014

Read more from this story HERE.

Wisconsin Town Sued for Banning Display of American Flag on Overpasses

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty ImagesThe town of Campbell, Wis., is facing a federal lawsuit challenging ordinance 9.12, which bans the display of banners or flags on or near the town’s pedestrian overpass.

Demonstrators began using the overpass in August 2013 to call for President Obama’s impeachment and to display patriotism. After a gathering in October angered local citizens and garnered media attention, the Town of Campbell passed the ordinance, which prohibits the display of signs, flags or banners within 100 feet of the overpass.

On Oct. 24, Gregory Luce and a few supporters, wearing T-shirts that collectively spelled out “IMPEACH OBAMA,” were ordered by a policeman to leave the overpass or be issued a citation. They left as ordered. Three days, later Nicholas Newman was issued a $139 citation for displaying an American flag.

Read more from this story HERE.

O’Reilly v Obama, Round 2 : Keystone, Poverty and Veterans

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News President Obama told Bill O’Reilly Monday on “The O’Reilly Factor” that he was waiting to get an official recommendation from Secretary of State John Kerry before proceeding with the Keystone Pipeline.

Obama also took issue with the number of jobs the pipeline would create after supporters said it would create tens of thousands.

“Keystone Pipeline, a new study comes in, environmental impact negligible, 42,000 jobs. You’re going to OK it, I assume,” O’Reilly asked.

Obama responded, “Well, first of all, it’s not 42,000. That’s not correct. It’s a couple of thousand to build the pipeline.”

He said the next steps in the pipeline approval process would be to get “agencies to comment on what the State Department did, public’s allowed to comment, Kerry’s going to, then, give me a recommendation.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Ryan: ‘We Have an Increasingly Lawless Presidency’ (+video)

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Eric GayRep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopolous” that President Barack Obama’s presidency is becoming “increasingly lawless,” because the president is “actually contradicting law” or “proposing new laws without going through Congress.”

“We have an increasingly lawless presidency,” said Ryan.

“We have an increasingly lawless presidency where he is actually doing the job of Congress, writing new policies and new laws without going through Congress,” Ryan said. “Presidents don’t write laws. Congress does, and when he does things like he did in health care – delaying mandates that the law said was supposed to occur when they were supposed to occur, that’s not his job.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Judge Mocks Obama’s NSA Lawyer

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: WNDI just denied your motion to dismiss,” U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon told Department of Justice attorney Marcia Berman.

“Do you understand that?” he asked, speaking slowly and deliberately, as though to a child.

The judge appeared frequently perplexed by Berman’s explanations Monday afternoon in the federal courtroom as to why the government was not prepared to argue its case after filing a motion three weeks ago asking him to halt further proceedings while appeals go forward in the nation’s biggest spy case.

Leon had already ruled in December that the National Security Agency had probably violated Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure with its PRISM program.

Monday, the two sides in the case were to argue over whether the NSA had also violated First Amendment rights to free speech and Fifth Amendment rights to due process.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gen. Boykin to Congress: Religious Liberty Must Be Affirmed, Cherished in Military

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: CNS News In a statement put into the record at a Jan. 29, 2014 hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Military Personnel, retired Lt. Gen. William “Gerry” Boykin, said religious liberty is a “core value of our nation,” and that religious beliefs “sustain” troops who face harm or death in the course of performing their duties.

“In sum, religious freedom and expression is not something to be given begrudging accommodation,” Boykin, the former commander of the U.S. Special Forces Command, said on behalf of the Family Research Council (FRC) as its executive vice president. “It is a core value of our nation, necessary for strengthening individual troop wellbeing and instilling the values of respect and goodwill.”

“Religious freedom must be celebrated, affirmed, and cherished within our military just as our men and women sacrifice to defend that freedom for those outside the military,” Boykin said in the statement.

Boykin also spoke about the nature of a soldier’s duty and the role religious belief plays in it.

“Given the unique stresses and dangers of military life, a conscious focus on spiritual matters often accompanies military service,” Boykin said. “The ability to live out one’s faith openly with the support of one’s peers and the military chaplaincy can afford the comfort, certainty, and security so necessary to service members otherwise faced with serious injury and death on a regular basis.”

Read more from this story HERE.

HealthCare.gov Can’t Handle Appeals of Enrollment Errors

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: ReutersTens of thousands of people who discovered that HealthCare.gov made mistakes as they were signing up for a health plan are confronting a new roadblock: The government cannot yet fix the errors.

Roughly 22,000 Americans have filed appeals with the government to try to get mistakes corrected, according to internal government data obtained by The Washington Post. They contend that the computer system for the new federal online marketplace charged them too much for health insurance, steered them into the wrong insurance program or denied them coverage entirely.

For now, the appeals are sitting, untouched, inside a government computer. And an unknown number of consumers who are trying to get help through less formal means — by calling the health-care marketplace directly — are told that HealthCare.gov’s computer system is not yet allowing federal workers to go into enrollment records and change them, according to individuals inside and outside the government who are familiar with the situation.

“It is definitely frustrating and not fair,” said Addie Wilson, 27, who lives in Fairmont, W.Va., and earns $22,000 a year working with at-risk families. She said that she is paying $100 a month more than she should for her insurance and that her deductible is $4,000 too high.

When Wilson logged on to HealthCare.gov in late December, she needed coverage right away. Her old insurance was ending, and she was to have gallbladder surgery in January. But the Web site would not calculate the federal subsidy to which she knew she was entitled. Terrified to go without coverage, Wilson phoned a federal call center and took the advice she was given: Pay the full price now and appeal later.

Read more from this story HERE.

NC High School Football Coach Ordered To Cease Baptisms, Leading Prayers

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: SAEED KHAN/AFP/Getty ImagesHead football coach of Mooresville High School, Hal Capps, has been ordered to stop baptizing players and leading them in prayer following criticism from a national organization promoting constitutional separation of church and state.

The Wisconsin-based nonprofit Freedom from Religion Foundation wrote a request last fall that coach Capps cease leading prayers and joining baptisms for his players as a base rule of separating public school activities and religious ceremonies. School Superintendent Mark Edwards met with Capps, who said, “he understood” the violation and would no longer participate in such religious observances, the Charlotte Observer reports.

“It is a violation of the Constitution for the Mooresville High School football coach to organize, lead, or participate in prayers or other religious proselytizing before, during, or after games and practices,” Patrick Elliott, attorney for Freedom from Religion Foundation, wrote to the school’s district attorney last fall.

“It is well settled that public schools, and by extension public school officials, may not advance or promote religion.”

Elliott emailed the Observer a picture from the Blue Devils’ team Twitter, reportedly showing Capps at a team baptism. But Superintendent Edwards said the photo is from a baptism performed at the Charles Mack Citizen Center, a church that many team members attend and Capps was simply invited to attend.

Read more from this story HERE.

Chuck Grassley Demands Legal Arguments Behind Obama’s ‘Pen and Phone’ Strategy

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: APA top Senate Republican wants access to the legal opinions that justify President Obama’s plans to step up his use of executive orders.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter Monday to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, asking for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to disclose to the public its opinions and analyses of the president’s executive orders.

Grassley’s request comes a week after Obama promised “a year of action,” which he would undertake even if Congress does not vote in favor of his proposals.

“In his State of the Union address earlier this week, the President made plain his intention to implement his agenda through aggressive use of these orders, whether or not the Congress and the American people agree,” Grassley wrote to Holder. “I am gravely concerned that the system of checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution is threatened by the President’s determination to take unilateral action if he cannot persuade Congress and the American people of the merits of his ideas.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Conservative Legal Activist, Who Succeeded at Trial Court, Asks Supreme Court to Hear NSA Case

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APThe conservative legal activist who won the first court ruling questioning the legality of the National Security Agency’s massive phone-call tracking database is asking the Supreme Court to short circuit the normal appeals process and take up the case directly.

Attorney Larry Klayman said he sent the unusual petition to the high court on Monday.

“We went to the Supreme Court because, unlike the government, we’re not dragging our feet. We want a quick decision here,” Klayman said in a brief phone interview Monday afternoon.

A Justice Department spokesman had no immediate comment on the submission

The filing, known as a petition for writ of certiorari before judgment, is granted exceesingly rarely by the court. Usually, the justices prefer for cases to have full appellate review and in many cases review by appeals courts from more than one circuit.

Read more from this story HERE.