Head of National Black Chamber of Commerce on Obama’s priorities: ‘This is not America’

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily CallerCommitted to successful black entrepreneurship, Harry C. Alford, Jr. has been president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce since 1993.

During that time, he has spoken out with increasing boldness against the liberal orthodoxy hurting the black community. In 2009, he took on Democratic California Sen. Barbara Boxer at a cap-and-trade hearing, and that video went viral. In this interview with Alford, he continues to boldly confront the politics of government dependency, which he believes stand opposed to the founding principles of capitalism, private property and opportunity.

Alford claims President Barack Obama is hurting black entrepreneurship everyday with entitlements and dependency.

“He’s just after votes,” Alford said of Obama. “And people who don’t know, ‘He gives me a free cell phone, I increase my food stamps.’ That’s not America. That’s not why we fought the British.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Idaho Ground Zero for GOP Proxy Fight

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: APThe tensions dividing Republicans in Congress are now spilling onto the campaign trail.

Ground zero for the proxy fight is Idaho, where the insurgent and establishment factions of the GOP are warring over a congressional seat in the eastern part of the state.

On one side of the divide is GOP Rep. Mike Simpson, a longtime figure of the Washington order who is a powerful Appropriations Committee cardinal and one of House Speaker John Boehner’s best friends. On the other side is Bryan Smith, an attorney who was recruited to run against Simpson by the Club for Growth, an anti-tax group that has sought to push the GOP’s congressional wing further to the right.

Smith is branding the eight-term Simpson as a dusty creature of Washington who has turned wobbly on the spending issues that are near and dear to the conservative cause. Simpson, meanwhile, is stressing that he is, in fact, a conservative while making the case that his experience and seniority are, in fact, plusses.

“Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District is turning into a proxy war for the middle-right of the Republican Party and the right-right of the Republican Party,” said Phil Hardy, an Idaho Republican operative and a political analyst in the state. “It’s already happening.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Edward Snowden A Patriot?

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APBy Trevor Timm

Does President Barack Obama think we’re stupid?

That’s the only conclusion possible after watching Friday’s bravura performance in which the president announced a set of proposals meant to bring more transparency to the National Security Agency — and claimed he would have done it anyway, even if Edward Snowden had never decided to leak thousands of highly sensitive documents to The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald.

But even as he grudgingly admitted that the timing, at least, of his suggestions was a consequence of Snowden’s actions, the president declared, “I don’t think Mr. Snowden was a patriot.” When you look at what has changed over the past two months, though, it’s hard not to wonder, “What could be more patriotic than what Snowden did?”

First, the results: More than a dozen bills have already been introduced to put a stop to the NSA’s mass phone record collection program and to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has reinterpreted the Fourth Amendment in secret, creating a body of privacy law that the public has never read. A half-dozen new privacy lawsuits have been filed against the NSA. The Pentagon is undergoing an unprecedented secrecy audit. U.S. officials have been caught deceiving or lying to Congress. The list goes on.

These actions have been accompanied by a sea change in public opinion about surveillance. Poll after poll has shown that for the first time ever, Americans think the government has gone too far in violating their privacy, with vast majorities believing the NSA scooping up a record of every phone call made in the United States invades citizens’ privacy.

Read more from this story HERE.

_________________________________________________________________________________

McCain: Young Americans admire Snowden, see him as ‘some kind of Jason Bourne’

By Ben Wolfgang.

A deep distrust of government has led young Americans to hold up NSA leaker Edward Snowden as a hero, Sen. John McCain said Sunday.

“There’s a young generation who believes he’s some kind of Jason Bourne,” the Arizona Republican said during on “Fox News Sunday,” referring to the lead character in the Bourne movie trilogy who battled his own government, particularly the CIA.

Mr. Snowden’s revelations — including details of the National Security Agency’s data-collection efforts — have led to a debate on the national security vs. privacy question, and how to balance the two.

President Obama last week laid out a series of proposed reforms to government spying programs in an effort to reassure Americans that their Fourth Amendment rights aren’t being trampled. His proposals include having a privacy advocate argue against the federal government in court, more restrictions on the mass collection of phone records and other steps.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gohmert: President Lied About GOP on Obamacare

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreRep. Louie Gohmert charged on Sunday that President Barack Obama lied when he said during his White House press conference Friday that Republicans want to stop Americans from getting health care.

“That’s a false narrative. He said that we’re trying to keep people from getting health care. That’s just not true. That is an absolute, blatant lie,” the Texas Republican said. “We’re not trying to keep anybody from getting health care. And whether or not they have insurance under an exchange or not does not prevent people from getting health care.”

Gohmert was appearing on a political roundtable panel on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday with a fellow Texas congressman, Democrat Joaquín Castro, who defended Obama’s remarks and criticized Republicans for “extreme ideology.”

“The fact is you have millions and millions of Americans that can’t afford health insurance. Obamacare is helping people get health insurance. Republicans have offered no other solutions or plans,” Castro said, adding over Gohmert’s objection: “At this point, Louie, it’s just, you know, ideology. It’s just extreme ideology.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Levin: States Should Call Convention to Propose Amending Constitution and Put Tax Day, Election Day Back to Back

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: CNS NewsMark Levin: States Should Call Convention to Propose Amending Constitution

Mark Levin, the nationally syndicated radio host who served as chief of staff in the Justice Department during the Reagan Administration, argues in his new book—The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic—that state legislatures should use the authority granted them in the Constitution to call a convention to propose amendments to the Constitution.

“It is the only way out,” Levin said in an interview on CNSNews.com’s Online With Terry Jeffrey. “The federal government, Congress, the Supreme Court, the president, the bureaucracy, they are not going to reform themselves, they are not going to limit their activities. Only we can–through our state representatives from the bottom up.”

Levin’s proposal is based on Article 5 of the Constitution, which says constitutional amendments may be proposed in two ways—either by two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress or by a convention called by two-thirds of the state legislatures. Whichever way an amendment is proposed, however, it cannot become part of the Constitution unless it is ratified by three-quarters of the states.

“It’s time to turn to the Constitution, to save the Constitution, if you love the Constitution, before there is no Constitution,” Levin told CNSNews.com.

Levin says in The Liberty Amendments that he used to oppose the idea of the state legislatures convening a convention to propose constitutional amendments.

Read more from this story HERE.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Mark Levin: Amend Constitution to Put Tax Day and Election Day Back to Back

In his new book—The Liberty Amendments: Restoring the American Republic—nationally syndicated radio host Mark Levin, who served as chief of staff in the Reagan Justice Department, argues that the Constitution should be amended to put tax day and election day back to back.

“I would move tax day to the day before election day,” Levin said in an interview on CNSNews.com’s Online With Terry Jeffrey.

“I think this is very important, because if you’ll notice, election day and tax day are about as far apart as they can get, like seven months apart,” said Levin. “So we’re voting on the promises of politicians rather than the reality of what these politicians have done.”

“In my view,” said Levin, “particularly when it comes to incumbent politicians, those of us who still pay our federal income taxes, we pay our taxes, then the next day we go out and vote, and I think that is crucially important, so we are linking reality to the electoral process.”

Under current law, Americans must file their federal tax returns by April 15 and elections for federal offices are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Obama Run Down by a Bull’

/10 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APA clown wearing a President Barack Obama mask appeared at a Missouri State Fair rodeo this weekend and the announcer asked the enthusiastic spectators if they wanted to see “Obama run down by a bull.”

The antics led the state’s second highest-ranking official, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, to denounce the performance in a tweet Sunday. He said it was “disrespectful” to the president.

“We are better than this,” the Republican tweeted.

State Fair officials said the show was “inappropriate” and “does not reflect the opinions or standards” of the fair. “We strive to be a family friendly event and regret that Saturday’s rodeo badly missed that mark,” they said in a statement Sunday.

It wasn’t clear if any action will be taken against the performers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Detroit Doctor Charged in $35M Medicare Scam Gave Fake Cancer Diagnosis, Feds Say

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: FoxA Detroit-area doctor has been charged with bilking the government of tens of millions of dollars by deliberately misdiagnosing patients with cancer and illegally billing Medicare for the treatment.

Dr. Farid Fata will remain behind bars until at least Tuesday as a third federal judge considers whether or not to grant him bail. He was arrested last week on charges he ripped off Medicare for millions of dollars by giving chemotherapy to patients who didn’t need it and diagnosing cancer when the illness wasn’t apparent, MyFoxDetroit.com reported.

Fata owns Michigan Hematology Oncology, which has offices in Clarkston, Bloomfield Hills, Lapeer, Sterling Heights, Troy and Oak Park. The government says the clinics billed $35 million to Medicare over two years.

Fata earned about $24.3 million in drug infusion billings directly to Medicare, “more than any hematologist/oncologist in the state of Michigan during that time period,” FBI agent Brian Fairweather wrote in the criminal complaint.

The criminal complaint quotes co-workers and former employees as saying dozens of people passed through the office each day, although Fata spent less than five minutes with each patient and hired doctors who may not have been properly licensed to practice medicine.

Read more from this story HERE.

Air Force Base Hosts Drag Queens

/22 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox NewsMilitary personnel at the Los Angeles Air Force Base were treated to a Diversity Day musical performance featuring three individuals dressed in drag. The performance sparked outrage among some airmen who called the performance “totally offensive and inappropriate.”

The Diversity Day celebration featured a speech by Brigadier General Tammy Smith and included booths representing and honoring a number of ethnic heritages as well as an LGBT booth.

The airman said he was troubled when three individuals dressed in drag began performing on the air base.

Photographs of the event show an individual wearing a giant wig performing to a sparse crowd underneath the American flag. It’s unclear whether the individuals in high heels and form-fitting dresses are members of the Air Force.

Read more from this story HERE.

Reid Says Obamacare Just a Step Toward Eventual Single-Payer System

/13 Comments/in , /by

In just about seven weeks, people will be able to start buying Obamacare-approved insurance plans through the new health care exchanges.

But already, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is predicting those plans, and the whole system of distributing them, will eventually be moot.

Reid said he thinks the country has to “work our way past” insurance-based health care during a Friday night appearance on Vegas PBS’ program “Nevada Week in Review.”

“What we’ve done with Obamacare is have a step in the right direction, but we’re far from having something that’s going to work forever,” Reid said.

When then asked by panelist Steve Sebelius whether he meant ultimately the country would have to have a health care system that abandoned insurance as the means of accessing it, Reid said: “Yes, yes. Absolutely, yes.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Sudden Flood of Asylum Requests at U.S./Mexico Border

/1 Comment/in , /by

At the Otay crossing near the San Diego border last Monday, about 200 people coming from Mexico gained entry to the United States all using the same key phrase; they claimed they had a ‘credible fear’ of drug cartels. According to KSAZ FoxPheonix:

So many were doing this that they had to close down the processing center and move the overflow by vans to another station.

“They are being told if they come across the border, when they come up to the border and they say certain words, they will be allowed into the country,” said a person who did not want to be identified on camera. “We are being overwhelmed.”

This apparent new shift in tactics to enter the United States comes at a time when the Associated Press is reporting a spike in the number of asylum requests in the past few years:

According draft testimony for USCIS Associate Director Joseph Langlois that was to be submitted for a congressional hearing on asylum requests last month, USCIS received more than 19,119 asylum requests through the end of May. The agency anticipates receiving more than 28,600 by the end of the fiscal year . . . during the 2009 budget year the agency received just 5,369 such requests.

Read more from this story HERE.