School Lessons in American Ally Include Jihad

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

There’s a simple reason why attacks on Christians in Pakistan, like the Sept. 22 incident when two Taliban suicide bombers blew up themselves – and 80 Christians – at a church in Peshawar, happen: The nation’s education system.

According to a new report from the Middle East Media Research Institute the textbooks used in public schools across Pakistan teach that killing Christians is a goal and martyrdom is to be sought.

The report by Tufail Ahmad, the director of the organization’s South Asia Studies Project, noted that Ahmad Marwat, a spokesman for Jundul Hafsa, commented about the attack on Christians.

Jundel Hafsa claimed credit for the deadly bombing of Christians at the 130-year-old All Saints church and Marwat explained, “They are the enemies of Islam; therefore we target them. We will continue our attacks on non-Muslims on Pakistan land.”

The MEMRI report explained, “In Pakistan, where Islamist groups are launching regular attacks against non-Muslim Pakistanis like Christians and Hindus as well as some sects of Muslims such as Shiites and Ahmadi Muslims, whom they do not consider to be real Muslims, the official and unofficial media, government leaders and religious scholars have legitimized hate against religious minorities, with the term ‘minority’ itself having come to be seen in a pejorative context.”

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Kentucky Obamacare Marketplace: WARNING: No Explicit or Implicit Expectation of Privacy

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Photo Credit: Free Beacon

Photo Credit: Free Beacon

The Kentucky Obamacare marketplace has no “expectation of privacy,” warning its prospective customers that their information can be monitored and shared with government bureaucrats.

When clicking “let’s get started” on the state-run health insurance marketplace “kynect,” the user is quickly prompted to a “WARNING NOTICE.”

“This is a government computer system and is the property of the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” it states. “It is for authorized use only regardless of time of day, location or method of access. “

“Users (authorized or unauthorized) have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy,” the disclaimer reads. “Any or all uses of this system and all files on the system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized state government and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.”

Such information includes Social Security numbers. When calling kynect to enroll in the marketplace a person is told to have their Social Security card, immigration status, pay stubs, alimony payments, student loan information, and current health insurance information at the ready.

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CA Gov. Brown Signs Bill to Allow Children More than Two Legal Parents

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Photo Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/ AP

Photo Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/ AP

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Friday that will allow children in California to have more than two legal parents, a measure opposed by some conservative groups as an attack on the traditional family.

Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said he authored the measure to address the changes in family structure in California, including situations in which same-sex couples have a child with an opposite-sex biological parent.

The law will allow the courts to recognize three or more legal parents so that custody and financial responsibility can be shared by all those involved in raising a child, Leno said.

“Courts need the ability to recognize these changes so children are supported by the adults that play a central role in loving and caring for them,” Leno said. “It is critical that judges have the ability to recognize the roles of all parents so that no child has to endure separation from one of the adults he or she has always known as a parent.”

The bill was partially a reaction to a 2011 court decision involving a lesbian couple that briefly ended their relationship, according to Leno’s office. One of the women was impregnated by a man before the women resumed their relationship. A fight broke out, putting one of the women in the hospital and the other in jail, but the daughter was sent to foster care because her biological father did not have parental rights.

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‘Disgusting!’ Ranger Reveals Shutdown Orders

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

Even some media outlets supportive of Barack Obama’s presidency are starting to acknowledge his manipulation of the partial government shutdown is going too far.

Some federal government funding ran out earlier this week when Senate Democrats, and Obama himself, refused to negotiate with majority Republicans in the House over a spending bill that defunds Obamacare

Tasked with selecting which functions of government should be shut down, the Obama administration created a firestorm of negative publicity this week when it ordered rangers to barricade otherwise fully accessible public areas in Washington, including war memorials.

An angry Park Service ranger indicated to Washington Times columnist Wesley Pruden that there is a political motive behind the closure of the open-air memorials.

“We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can,” he said. “It’s disgusting.”

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Republicans Press Obama to Back FEMA Funding Bill as Storm Nears

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Photo Credit: Fox News Screenshot

Photo Credit: Fox News Screenshot

The budget showdown is about to collide with a major weather event.

The House voted Friday to fund the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as Republicans cast the bill as an emergency measure to help Americans threatened by the approaching tropical storm.

“This is about people’s lives, people’s businesses,” Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, said.

The bill was one of several House Republicans have pushed in recent days to fund chunks of the government amid the partial government shutdown.

They’ve been pressuring Democrats, with little success, to support these mini-spending measures while the budget impasse drags on. Republicans upped that pressure on Friday, saying disaster response is critical as Tropical Storm Karen tracks toward the Gulf Coast and is poised to hit this weekend.

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Reid Apologizes for Nasty Tone on Senate Floor

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite

Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid delivered a striking mea culpa on the Senate floor Friday as he opened the chamber, saying he and his colleagues have simply gotten too personal and nasty in their floor debates.

A day earlier Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, had scolded Mr. Reid for attacking Sen. Ted Cruz, another Texas Republican, by name as they debated the government shutdown. Mr. Cornyn read directly from the Senate Rules that prohibit members from impugning each other’s motives or conduct.

Mr. Reid on Friday said it was a lesson all senators, including himself, should learn.

“I’ll work harder and I hope my senators will work to their best to maintain these habits of civility and decorum,” he said.

The Nevada Democrat said the chamber has “lost the aura” of Sen. Robert C. Byrd, the long-time lawmaker from West Virginia who was seen as a keeper of the chamber’s traditions.

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Obama’s Media Lapdogs Ban ‘Dirty’ Word…

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

Two of America’s largest mainstream media outlets have decided reporters should cut down on the use of the term “Obamacare,” fearing it’s gotten too negative of a connotation.

Tom Kent, the deputy managing editor and standards editor of The Associated Press who is responsible for “accuracy and balance” across the stories carried on AP’s newswire, wrote a column Tuesday telling reporters to back off using the term “Obamacare” when referring to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“‘Obamacare’ was coined by opponents of the law and is still used by them in a derogatory manner,” Kent argued. “It’s true that the White House, and even Obama himself, have used the term on occasion. But the administration hasn’t totally embraced ‘Obamacare’ and still uses the Affordable Care Act much of the time. We’re sticking with our previous approach to ‘Obamacare’: AP writers should use it in quotes, or in formulations like ‘the law, sometimes known as Obamacare.’”

At at NPR, Stuart Seidel, managing editor for standards and practices, announced in a memo ruling earlier this week that reporters should cut back on use of the term.

“‘Obamacare’ seems to be straddling somewhere between being a politically-charged term and an accepted part of the vernacular. And it seems to be on our air and in our copy a great deal,” Seidel said. “[W]ord choices do leave an impression. Please avoid overusing ‘Obamacare.’

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Obamacare Enrollee in Media Spotlight Hasn’t Completed Signup Process

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Photo Credit: POLITICO Screen grab

Photo Credit: POLITICO Screen grab

The Georgia college student who basked in national media attention after claiming he and his dad were among the first to enroll in Obamacare is changing his story.

“I never said that I had actually purchased a plan,” said Chad Henderson, 21, who was thrust into the national spotlight after announcing Tuesday on Twitter that he had “enrolled in Obamacare.” He told POLITICO Friday he had been online to shop in the federal exchange, but had never completed the final steps of getting in the health plan.

Henderson, an Organizing for Action volunteer and supporter of President Barack Obama, said he was “sorry for this confusion” and never intended to mislead the numerous media outlets, including POLITICO, that contacted him to hear his story. “I’ve received so much flak for something that has been misinterpreted,” he said.

Questions arose after Reason’s Peter Suderman contacted Henderson’s father, Bill, who owns a shaved ice company in Chattanooga, Tenn. He posted a story outlining discrepancies.

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What a ‘Shutdown’ Means: $63B Spent, $26B Taxed; $1.6B Borrowed; $1B Paid in Salaries–in Just 2 Days

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In general terms, politicians and the press may be referring to what has been happening in Washington, D.C., over the past few days as a government “shutdown” or a “partial government shutdown,” but the actual accounting sheets of the U.S. Treasury show that massive amounts of taxed and borrowed money were flowing in and out of the government during the first two days of fiscal 2014.

According to the Daily Treasury Statement for Oct. 2, which was released yesterday at 4:00 p.m., the Treasury spent a total of $63.262 billion in the first two days of fiscal 2014. At the same time, it took in $25.681 billion in tax revenue.

The Treasury also sold $1.648 billion in new Treasury securities–which is government debt.

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Priests Threatened with Arrest if they Minister to Military During Shutdown

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Photo Credit: U.S. Navy/Johnny Bivera/Getty

Photo Credit: U.S. Navy/Johnny Bivera/Getty

In a stunning development, some military priests are facing arrest if they celebrate mass or practice their faith on military bases during the federal government shutdown.

“With the government shutdown, many [government service] and contract priests who minister to Catholics on military bases worldwide are not permitted to work – not even to volunteer,” wrote John Schlageter, the general counsel for the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, in an op-ed this week. “During the shutdown, it is illegal for them to minister on base and they risk being arrested if they attempt to do so.”

According to its website, the Archdiocese for the Military Services “provides the Catholic Church’s full range of pastoral ministries and spiritual services to those in the United States Armed Forces.”

In his piece, Schlageter worries about this restriction as Sunday nears. “If the government shutdown continues through the weekend, there will be no Catholic priest to celebrate Mass this Sunday in the chapels at some U.S. military installations where non-active-duty priests serve as government contractors,” he wrote.

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