Heroic Teens Save Alleged Kidnap Victim Who Mouthed ‘Help Me’ From Car – Listen To The Dramatic 911 Audio

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Photo Credit: extranoise

Photo Credit: extranoise

Two Dallas-area teens were able to help save a woman who had allegedly been kidnapped by Charles Lewis, 37, after they witnesses her mouthing the words “help me” from the back of a moving car.

“Yes, I’m on the highway. I’m witnessing a robbery. Not a robbery, a kidnapping,” Aaron Arias, 19, told a 911 dispatcher. “It’s me and another guy. So we’re checking out the girl in the backseat because we’re like, ‘OK, she’s kind of attractive’, and then all of a sudden the guy is turned back, looking at us.”

Arias and Jamal Harris, 17, continued to follow the car while staying on the phone with the 911 dispatcher as the police raced to locate them.

Minutes after the teens made the call, police officers pulled over the vehicle and found the 25 year old alleged kidnap victim. Police arrested Lewis and charged him with aggravated kidnapping.

Listen to the 911 call:

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Parents Who Home-School Question Common Core’s Reach

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Photo Credit: FOXNEWS.COM

Photo Credit: FOXNEWS.COM

There are few things 9-year-old Rhett Ricardo relishes more than curling up on his family’s living room couch and delving into a novel, like “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” – his imagination whirling as he reads the fantastical plot about a mysterious sea monster and a submarine, his mother says.

But Jill Finnerty Ricardo, of Dade City, Fla., who home-schools her three oldest children, has concerns about what is known as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) – a national assessment standard adopted in 45 states that, among other objectives, seeks to balance out a perceived literature-heavy English curriculum with more non-fiction reading and writing, particularly informational text..

While the new standards, which purport to emphasize critical thinking and problem solving, are meant for public schools only, opponents say they will affect all children – including those who are home-schooled, especially when it comes to taking state standardized tests that are aligned with the Common Core.

It is up to each state whether home-schooled children must take standardized tests in grades three through eight, and once in high school. But all college-bound home-schooled students take the SAT, which is now being aligned with the new standards. The new head of the College Board, which is revamping the SAT, is David Coleman, the so-called architect of the Common Core.

“We home-school our kids to make sure we can support and encourage their individual interests, gifts and talents,” said 42-year-old Finnerty Ricardo, who holds degrees in marketing, public relations and biology.

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Instant Lame-Duck? – Obama on Verge of Historic Rebuke Over Syria

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Photo Credit: NDTV

Photo Credit: NDTV

President Barack Obama appears to be dangerously close to what would be an historic rebuke at the hands of Congress, if the current whip-count projections on the authorization to attack Syria continue to hold.

Pundits on both sides of the aisle say losing the high-stakes bid for congressional authorization would make Obama an instant lame-duck, and might well endanger his entire second-term agenda.

The resolution authorizing an attack on Syrian strongman Bashar Assad, as punishment for his use of chemical weapons against his own people, is still expected to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate.

But the real question mark all along has been whether the administration could muster enough support to get the attack resolution through the House. And there, the situation for the administration appears to be growing dimmer by the hour.

Various news organizations are contacting members of Congress to see where they stand on the attack authorization. While each outlet has different numbers, the ominous sign for the administration is that all of them show the “no” votes outpacing the “yes” votes by a more than a 3-1 margin.

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Putin calls Kerry a Liar on Syria

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Things aren’t exactly warming up between the Obama administration and Vladimir Putin, even as President Obama arrived in St. Petersburg for the G-20 summit.

Putin called Obama Secretary of State John Kerry a liar over Kerry’s testimony this week before Congress.

The question may be al-Qaeda’s influence on the Syrian rebels, an issue Kerry has downplayed.

Speaking to his human rights council Wednesday, Putin said, “This was very unpleasant and surprising for me. We talk to them (the Americans), and we assume they are decent people, but he is lying and he knows that he is lying. This is sad.”

Putin has criticized Obama administration claims that Bashar Assad’s government attacked the rebels with chemical weapons.

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Calls to Congress 499 to 1 Against Syria War

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Marine Not Fight for War In SyriaAmericans are slamming at least 22 members of Congress with thousands of phone calls and emails, urging lawmakers not to approve a military strike on Syria – by a margin of as much as 499 to 1.

A national debate is raging on Twitter. Tweets and statements from members of Congress – both Democrat and Republican – show tremendously strong opposition to President Obama’s call for an air strike on Syria:

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., tweeted, “Calls and emails from my constituents is 100 to 1 AGAINST getting involved in Syria. The American people are speaking.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said 99 percent of the calls his office oppose an attack.

Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., tweeted, “Syria constituent calls 489-2 against.”

Rep. Shelley Capito, R-W.V., said of “about 1,000 calls to my office, maybe 5 are for.”

Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., tweeted, “FYI: Received 75 calls/emails from constituents today so far on Syria. All 75 opposed to military action.”

Rep. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said, “I’m told the phone calls are 9 out of 10 against a strike in Syria, from my constituents in Kentucky.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., tweeted, “My office has been inundated with constituent phone calls and emails about Syria. Virtually unanimous opposition to military intervention.”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, tweeted, “So far about 500 emails regarding Syria. 499 say NO and 1 say YES go to war” and “Hundreds of calls to our Provo and Washington, D.C., office. So far not a single call in favor of bombing Syria.”

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., tweeted, “The phones in my office are ringing off the hook and mail is flowing in. Almost all of the people are opposed to intervention in Syria.”

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said “a very high percentage” of the constituents contacting his office have been against U.S. involvement in Syria. He estimated that 90 percent of more than 1,000 calls and emails from Americans have been urging him not to support intervention.

Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., tweeted, “I’ve been hearing a lot from members of our armed forces. The message I consistently hear: Please vote no on military action against Syria.”

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Democratic Leadership More Pro-War than GOP Leadership

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Democratic leadership in the Senate and House are more in favor of military action in Syria than Republican leadership in either chamber.

Four out of eight members of Democratic leadership have stated they would support involvement, while the other four remain undecided but seem to lean toward an attack.

Meanwhile, just two out of 10 members of Republican leadership support a resolution to attack Syria. Two more are currently against but may be swayed. Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., is firmly against military action and the rest are either skeptical or undecided.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.: For intervention. “I believe the use of military force against Syria is both justified and necessary,” Reid said in a press release.

Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.: For intervention. “If we can do something to discourage Assad and others like him from using chemical weapons without engaging in a war and without making a long-term military commitment of the United States, I’m open to that debate,” Durbin said in a press release.

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CRS: DOD Estimates ‘Over 75,000 Troops’ Needed to Secure Syria’s Chem Weapons

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in a report released on August 20 that the Pentagon has estimated it would take “over 75,000 troops” to secure Syria’s chemical weapons.

Meanwhile, the draft text of the resolution authorizing President Barack Obama to use force in Syria that is being taken up by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today prohibits the president from putting ground troops in Syria “for the purpose of combat operations”–but appears to leave open the possiblity that the president could put troops in Syria to secure chemical weapons.

“The authority granted in section 2 does not authorize the use of the United States Armed Forces on the ground in Syria for the purpose of combat operations,” says the text of the draft resolution.

However, Section 2 of the resolution gives the president the authority to use the Armed Forces in Syria “as he determines necessary and appropriate” for a limited set of purposes, including “to protect our allies and partners against the use of” weapons of mass destruction.

The CRS report saying that the Pentagon had estimated it would take “over 75,000 troops” to secure Syria’s chemical weapons was issued just one day before an August 21 chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs. According to an assessment released by the U.S. government, that attack killed 1,429 people. Ten days after the attack–and eleven days after the CRS released its report–President Obama announced his intention to use military force to penalize the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Asad for perpetrating the attack.

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Big Labor Boss Admits ObamaCare Causing Businesses to Cut Hours (+video)

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Photo Credit: United Liberty

Photo Credit: United Liberty

Fresh off admitting that ObamaCare “still needs to be tweaked,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka took note of the damage being done to workers as businesses have been forced to cut hours due to ObamaCare during a recent interview with David Shuster of al-Jazeera America:

This employer mandate requires businesses with 50 or more full-time employees to offer health insurance benefits or face a punitive tax. Because ObamaCare defines a full-time employee as someone who works 30 or more hours a week, many employers have been scaling back hours or hiring only part-time workers.

Interestingly, Trumka complained when the Obama Administration delayed the employer mandate. “In the health reform debate, we fought to ensure that employers have a responsibility to provide affordable, comprehensive health benefits to their workers and their families,” he said in July.

“The employer responsibility provision included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), while not as strong as we asked for, was designed to give large employers an incentive to offer or continue offering affordable, comprehensive health care coverage to some of their employees,” he added. “The Administration’s announcement that it is delaying employer responsibility assessments until 2015 is troubling because it removes that incentive for next year. In light of this decision, we believe it is even more urgent for Congress and the Administration to reaffirm their commitment to employer responsibility.”

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Calif. County Votes for Secession from State

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Photo Credit: Chris Stewart

Photo Credit: Chris Stewart

Supervisors in a far Northern California county where residents are fed up with what they see as a lack of representation at the state capitol and overregulation have voted in favor of separating from the state.

The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Tuesday for a declaration of secession, the Record Searchlight of Redding reported (https://bit.ly/1cFTqUG ). The vote appears mostly symbolic since secession would require approval from the state Legislature and the U.S. Congress, but supporters say it would restore local control over decision making. They want other rural counties in Northern California and Southern Oregon to join them in the creation of a new state called the State of Jefferson.

“Many proposed laws are unconstitutional and deny us our God-given rights,” Gabe Garrison of Happy Camp said at the meeting. “We need our own state so we can make laws that fit our way of life.”

Garrison was among more than 100 people who attended the meeting, and most were in support of the declaration, according to the Record Searchlight.

The declaration does not launch any type of formal process toward secession, but only reflects the county’s support, said Tom Odom, the county’s administrative officer.

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Georgia School District Mulls Placing Rifles in School Offices

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A school system in north Georgia is considering a proposal that would allow district police to store rifles in school offices in case they’re needed to defend students in a school shooting.

Gainesville City Schools Superintendent Merrianne Dyer said school resource officers would have access to rifles placed at Gainesville High School, Gainesville Middle School and Wood’s Mill Academy.

“These things happen quickly, they happen unexpectedly and in places and locations where we can’t anticipate. Any lapse of time to get a weapon would be detrimental in an emergency,” Dyer told MyFoxAtlanta.com.

Dyer said the weapons would be locked inside safes in the offices of school resource officers. She said all school resource officers are armed, but recent training showed that handguns they carry would not be effective in long hallways or corridors.

Gainesville Lt. Jay Parrish told MyFoxAtlanta.com that officers should not be required to leave a school during an emergency to retrieve certain types of weapons.

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