Poll: Only 10 Percent Approve of Congress, 10 Pt Drop Since Beginning of September

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

A new poll released Monday found Congress has only a 10 percent approval rating.

The low rating represents a 10-percentage-point-drop since the beginning of September and comes as a government shutdown looks likely. CNN/ORC International poll conducted the survey.

Nearly 90 percent of those polled disapprove of Congress, the highest disapproval rating CNN has ever recorded.

People have also grown increasingly bitter with congressional leadership.

“House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the two party leaders at the center of the budget negotiations that may lead to a shutdown, have become more unpopular since May, and both are facing the highest unfavorable ratings they have ever received in CNN polling,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Ignores Law, Waives Ban on Aiding Regimes that Use Child Soldiers

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

President Obama determined that it is once again in the national interest of the United States to waive a provision of a law against aiding regimes that use child soldiers to provide non-lethal assistance and peace-keeping support to several African countries.

By law, the president has to notify Congress that he is waiving the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 within 45 days of making the decision. Obama’s press team published the presidential determination on Monday afternoon, with Congress on the eve of a government shutdown.

The Child Soldiers Prevention Act waiver applies fully to Chad, South Sudan and Yemen. Congo and Somalia received partial waivers.

Obama first waived the provision in 2010. Samantha Power, then the National Security Council senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights, promised “at the time that the waivers would not become a recurring event,” as The Cable recalled.

Read more from this story HERE.

FHA Gets $1.7 Billion Bailout, No Congressional Approval Required

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

For the first time in its 79-year history, the Federal Housing Agency (FHA) announced on Friday the need for a $1.7 billion bailout from the Treasury to cover losses on its reverse home mortgage programs.

FHA Commissioner Carole Galante said in a letter to Congress that the FHA will withdraw the money from the Treasury by Monday when the fiscal year ends. Galante does not need congressional approval to tap the funds.

“In the next few months, we expect updated data and economic forecasts to reflect what we already know to be true–the health of the fund has improved significantly,” wrote Galante.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Leaker Edward Snowden Among 3 Finalists for EU’s Top Human Rights Prize

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden is among three finalists for the European Union’s top human rights prize.

European lawmakers on Monday narrowed down the list of nominees for the prestigious 50,000 euro ($65,000) award to Snowden, Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, and imprisoned dissidents from Belarus.

The pro-environment Greens’ caucus said Snowden, who leaked a trove of documents on U.S. surveillance agencies’ programs, deserves to win because he “risked his freedom to protect us.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Controversial Homeland Security Adviser Defends Use of Muslim Brotherhood-Associated Icon on his Twitter

/2 Comments/in , /by

An adviser to the Department of Homeland Security — who was recently promoted — is defending his use of the controversial “R4BIA” four-finger salute symbol associated with the Muslim Brotherhood as decor on his Twitter profile, a choice that elicited criticism on Sunday on the social media site and from one Israeli blog.

Mohamed Elibiary, one of 28 members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, insists the symbol is “bigger than” the Muslim Brotherhood and that to him it means “Freedom4All.” In his Twitter profile, Elibiary describes himself as not only associated with Homeland Security but also as a “proud American” who “hearts” Egypt.

Screenshot: Twitter

Screenshot: Twitter

The yellow symbol gained notoriety after Egyptian security forces raided two Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins in August, killing hundreds. The larger Cairo sit-in supporting ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi took place at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square. Rabaa in Arabic means fourth, hence four fingers and the number “4” planted between the English letters representing the symbol brandished as a tribute to those killed.

One website reportedly set up by Turkish Muslim activists describes the essence of the R4BIA icon as symbolizing more than the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s described as a “symbol of freedom” but also promotes the “return of Muslims to world stage.” It supports “justice for everyone against rotten Western values,” “a pure martyrdom,” “unification of Islamic World,” “the end of capitalists,” and “the end of Zionists.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Airmen say Air Force is Punishing Evangelical Christians

/4 Comments/in , /by

091229-A-3108M-001Evangelical Christian airmen at Lackland Air Force Base are facing severe threats and retribution for their religious beliefs and some personnel have been ordered to publicly express their position on gay marriage.

“There is an atmosphere of intimidation at Lackland Air Force Base,” said Steve Branson, the pastor of Village Parkway Baptist Church in San Antonio. “Gay commanders and officers are pushing their agenda on the airmen. There is a culture of fear in the military and it’s gone to a new level with the issue of homosexuality.”

Branson tells me at least 80 airmen attended a private meeting at the church where he heard them voice their concerns about religious hostilities at the Air Force base. It was a standing-room only crowd.

“The religious persecution is happening,” the pastor said. “It’s getting bigger every day. Gay and lesbian airmen can talk about their lifestyle, but the rest have to stay completely quiet about what they believe.”

Among those at the church meeting was Senior Master Sgt. Phillip Monk. The 19-year veteran was punished after he refused to tell his lesbian commander his position on gay marriage. I was the first reporter to tell his story.

Read more from this story HERE.

Muslim Man Becomes Christian after Recovering From Brain Aneurysm

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A Syrian-born Alabama man says he was a Muslim when a brain aneurysm left him in a prolonged coma, but when he surprised doctors with his recovery, it started him on a path to Christianity.

Karim Shamsi-Basha was raised in Syria with parents he says were tolerant of all faiths. His family practiced Islam mostly culturally, but Shamsi-Basha says he was “very serious” about his religion as a teenager. “I prayed five times a day. I walked to the mosque before sunrise. I fasted the month of Ramadan,” Shamsi-Basha told the Christian Post.

Weary of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, Shamsi-Basha immigrated to the U.S. when he was 18, to attend the University of Tennessee. After that, he married, had his first son, and moved to Birmingham, Ala. In 1992, he suffered a brain aneurysm that left him in a coma for almost a month.

When he awoke from the coma, his rare, almost total recovery amazed his neurosurgeon, who told Shamsi-Basha he was extremely fortunate and needed to find out why he survived.

That question started Shamsi-Basha on a 20-year journey that he says led him to Jesus Christ…

Read more from this story HERE.

Showdown on Meet the Press and Ted Cruz Doesn’t Back Down (+video)

/25 Comments/in , , /by

Screen shot 2013-09-30 at 12.41.00 AMNBC’s David Gregory repeatedly pressed Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz Sunday, over his strategy aimed at defunding President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law.

The showdown came on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” with Gregory taking issue with Cruz’s characterization that the Democrats in Congress and the president won’t compromise over their stance on Obamacare.

“There are not protests in the streets arguing to do away with this law in the way that you’d like. Again 56% in one poll said let’s uphold the law,” Gregory continued. “I’m focusing on results. Where have you moved anything?”

Cruz responded, noting even unions are asking for exemptions to the law, but that answer did not satisfy Gregory who continued to grill the Texas firebrand.

Read more from this story HERE.

Who’ll Blink? Dems, GOP in Shutdown Stare Down

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

With the government teetering on the brink of partial shutdown, congressional Republicans vowed Sunday to keep using an otherwise routine federal funding bill to try to attack the president’s health care law.

Congress was closed for the day after a post-midnight vote in the GOP-run House to delay by a year key parts of the new health care law and repeal a tax on medical devices, in exchange for avoiding a shutdown. The Senate was to convene Monday afternoon, just hours before the shutdown deadline, and Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had already promised that majority Democrats would kill the House’s latest volley.

Since the last government shutdown 17 years ago, temporary funding bills known as continuing resolutions have been noncontroversial, with neither party willing to chance a shutdown to achieve legislative goals it couldn’t otherwise win. But with health insurance exchanges set to open on Tuesday, tea-party Republicans are willing to take the risk in their drive to kill the health care law.

Action in Washington was limited mainly to the Sunday talk shows and a barrage of press releases as Democrats and Republicans rehearsed arguments for blaming each other if the government in fact closes its doors at midnight Monday.

“You’re going to shut down the government if you can’t prevent millions of Americans from getting affordable care,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Read more from this story HERE.

Boehner Slams Senate Dems’ ‘Arrogance’

/3 Comments/in , /by

boehner_budgetSenate Democrats must meet Sunday to vote on legislation funding the government, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, calling their failure to do so “an act of breathtaking arrogance.”

House Republicans voted early Sunday on a spending bill that delays ObamaCare by a year. Senate Democrats say they’ll vote in down when they convene Monday, all but ensuring a government shutdown come Tuesday.

“The House worked late into the night Saturday to prevent a government shutdown, and the Senate now must move quickly, today, to do the same,” Boehner said in a statement.

“If the Senate stalls until Monday afternoon instead of working today, it would be an act of breathtaking arrogance by the Senate Democratic leadership.”

Read more from this story HERE.