After Obama-Mocking Rodeo Clown, Missouri Fair Now Requires ‘Sensitivity Training’

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Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

By Josh Levs.

A state fair’s response to the uproar over a rodeo clown’s mockery of President Obama is creating an uproar of its own.

From now on, the Missouri State Fair won’t allow any rodeo cowboys or clowns from the state’s association to take part unless they all undergo “sensitivity training.”

And that’s just part of the fallout from the Saturday incident in which a clown wearing an Obama mask held a broom descending from his backside while a voice said, “Hey, I know I’m a clown. He’s just running around acting like one. Doesn’t know he is one.”

Mark Ficken, president of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, has resigned.

Rodeo clown Tuffy Gessling has apologized. He told Missouri news outlet digitalburg.com that he was the one whose voice was heard at the event, and that he never meant to offend.

“It was a colleague of mine that was dressed up. I am the rodeo clown making jokes,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Flashback: George H.W. Bush Rodeo Clown Spotted in 1994

By Meredith Jessup.

The Washington Examiner’s Charlie Spiering notes that Douglas Campbell, a writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, highlighted another presidential clown’s performance in 1994:

I highlight this article only to demonstrate the rich tradition of politically incorrect rodeo clowns. . .

The big white gate flew open. The bull came out bucking. The rider flopped from side to side and the bullfighters held back, letting the bull make his moves until the rider dropped off. Licciardello crouched in a heavily padded barrel, a human target should the bull decide to charge…

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Georgia School to Keep Display Featuring ‘God is Dead’ Posters

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Photo Credit: Fox

Photo Credit: Fox

A Georgia high school project that has sparked outrage among some students and parents will not be taken down, the district decided.

Alcovy High School leaders will instead meet with students to explain the context behind a poster featuring the quote, “God is Dead” from Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible.”

“It made my daughter very uncomfortable,” Crystal Mitchell, a student’s parent told MyFoxAtlanta.com.

“If my child can’t pray in school and they’ve taken religion out of school, for this to be plastered on the walls of school, is a huge concern for me,” Mitchell said.

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It’s Official: 2012 Deficit Was $1.087T; $1T+ All 4 Yrs of Obama’s 1st Term

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Congressional Budget Office last week released updated historical budget data for the federal government, reporting a deficit of $1.087 trillion in fiscal 2012.

2012 marked the fourth straight year—and the only four years in the history of the nation–when the federal government’s deficit topped $1 trillion.

Last year’s $1.087 trillion deficit was even greater in inflation-adjusted dollars than the peak World War II deficit of fiscal 1943—which was $54.554 billion in 1943 dollars and $723.8714 billion in 2012 dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics online inflation calculator.

The deficit has also remained at a higher percentage of GDP over the last four years than at any time since the conclusion of World War II (which ended during fiscal 1946, which began in June 1945).

In February, the CBO had initially calculated that the deficit for fiscal 2012, which ended on Sept. 30, 2012, had been $10894 trillion. That was based on an estimation that the federal government had taken in $2.4491 trillion in taxes during the year and spent $3,5385 trillion.

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Judge Allows International Law to Trump US Constitution’s First Amendment Right to Criticize Homosexuality

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

An anti-gay pastor takes on Uganda and Russia

By Alexis Okeowo.

On Wednesday, Ugandan L.G.B.T. activists heard news that was exciting even though they had assumed it was inevitable: U.S. District Court Judge Michael Ponsor said that a lawsuit brought by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) against the anti-gay American pastor Scott Lively over his involvement in the effort to persecute gay people in Uganda can move forward. (Ponsor ruled against Lively’s motion to dismiss the suit.) The activists launched the case last year after months of collecting evidence of Lively’s anti-gay teachings over several of his trips to Uganda since 2002, and of his influence on the conception of the country’s “Kill the Gays” bill.

SMUG is being represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights, of New York, and the suit is based on the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreigners to file civil lawsuits against Americans for violations of international law. I spent much of last year with Frank Mugisha, who leads SMUG, and wrote about him for the magazine in December. “We want to name and shame the people spreading homophobia here,” Mugisha told me.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Judge: foreigners can sue U.S. pastor over sermons

By Bob Unruh.

[T]he ruling from Judge Michael Posner in a case brought by Sexual Minorities Uganda against Pastor Scott Lively of Abiding Truth Ministries could … establish that an international consensus disavowing long-held biblical standards could trump the U.S. Constitution.

SMUG alleges Lively must be punished for criticizing homosexuality, calling his speech a “crime against humanity” in violation of “international law”…

[Lively’s attorney said:] “We are disappointed with the decision because we believe SMUG’s claims are firmly foreclosed, not only by the First Amendment right to free speech, but also by the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kiobel, which eliminated Alien Tort Statute claims for events that allegedly occurred in foreign nations”…

The judge took nearly 80 pages to say that he thought the allegations by SMUG were substantive and needed to be adjudicated.

He sided with the “gays” in his first paragraph, explaining that while SMUG is made up of groups “that advocate for the fair and equal treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people,” Lively is an “American citizen residing in Springfield, Mass., who, according to the complaint, holds himself out to be an expert on what he terms the ‘gay movement.’”

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James Inhofe Announces Intent to Investigate NSA Violations

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s ranking member will launch an investigation into the Obama administration’s potentially illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens following revelations that the National Security Administration (NSA) violated legal boundaries imposed by Congress.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the NSA “overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008.”

Many of these legal violations involved the “unauthorized” surveillance of American citizens in the United States, according to the Post’s report.

Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.) said on Saturday that he will now “work to investigate as to what laws were broken by the Administration,” according to a statement provided to the Free Beacon.

“The NSA violations recently reported by the Washington Post are very concerning as it appears the Obama Administration has abused the authority granted to them by Congress,” Inhofe said.

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In First Year of New Program, Deportation Is Deferred for 400,000 Young Illegal Aliens

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

About 400,000 “Dreamers” have been allowed to stay in the United States in the year since the Obama administration began accepting applications for young illegal immigrants to defer deportation proceedings and receive work permits, according to data compiled by the Brookings Institution and released on the anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The numbers show that out of more than a half-million applicants for deferred action, more than three-quarters were accepted and just 1 percent denied. The applications were concentrated in states that already have large immigrant communities, such as California, Texas, New York, Illinois, and Florida. On the East Coast, the applications were from a more diverse set of countries while in the West, Midwest, and South the vast majority of applicants were from Mexico.

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“DACA has been an incredible success for our country,” said Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas. “To date we have given 400,000 young immigrants the ability to continue to contribute to this country, the only country that most of these outstanding individuals have ever known.”

The fate of these younger immigrants brought to the country illegally as children—the so-called Dreamers—is less precarious than many of the other 11 million people living in the U.S. without papers. Lawmakers have been quicker to agree that the Dreamers deserve special treatment, including an expedited path to citizenship.

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GOP Rep: Obama’s ‘Arrogant Disregard’ for ‘Voice of the People’ Has Founding Fathers ‘Turning in their Graves’

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

A Republican Congressman from New York recently turned to Fox News to issue a scalding criticism of President Obama for taking unilateral action to extend high speed Internet to virtually every school in America.

Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) took issue with President Obama asking the Federal Communications Commission to raise a fee that would help pay for the Internet program reportedly estimated to cost taxpayers $4 billion to $6 billion.

“It’s just a flagrant, you know, disregard not just for the current Congress,” Grimm reportedly said. “Look, it’s not about me personally. That’s not what this is about. You think about who is the Congress? It really — it is the voice of the people.”

“He [President Obama] has an agenda and he’s going to do whatever he has to do to pass that agenda, regardless of the Constitution,” he added. “I mean, I think our founding fathers are turning over in the graves right now because he’s just so blatant in his — the administrators, the people he puts in charge of these agencies are bold and brazen about saying, ‘yes, we’re going to make an end run around Congress.’”

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Obama Blasts Government-Shutdown Threat; GOP Wants Individual-Mandate Delay

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

President Obama used his weekly radio/YouTube address to tout the pending implementation of his signature health-care law and bash the GOP for threatening a government shutdown, while Republicans used theirs to call for a delay in one of the Affordable Care Act’s controversial provisions, the so-called “individual mandate.”

In October, regional exchanges will begin offering private insurance plans for people who are not covered through their employers, and as the Affordable Care Act’s rollout continues, it’s being contested by Republicans who want to push the law back or halt it entirely, after the Obama administration delayed by one year the requirement that larger businesses supply health insurance to employees.

Obama listed the law’s more popular elements, like free mammograms, the requirement that insurers sell coverage despite “preexisting conditions,” and the requirement that insurers let young adults stay on their parents’ coverage plans until the age of 26.

“It’s OK if you’re not a fan of the Affordable Care Act,” Obama said. “You can take advantage of these things anyway.”

The president blasted Republicans who have effectively threatened a government shutdown if “Obamacare” continues as planned. Conservative lawmakers have pledged to oppose renewed government funding, when the tab comes due to Congress this fall in the form of an expired funding measure, if the next funding bill includes money for the Affordable Care Act.

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Many 2016 Republican Hopefuls Agree: Defund ObamaCare

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Paul-Cruz-LeeMany Republicans who are eyeing a run for president in 2016 are backing an all-or-nothing plan to defund ObamaCare.

More than half a dozen possible GOP White House candidates support that strategy while a handful are calling for a more nuanced approach to defunding or repealing the healthcare law. Another five are dodging questions and a couple others are not signaling one way or another.

In short, some are willing to go to the brink and beyond of a government shutdown to defund ObamaCare. But it’s far from unanimous.

Still, the results of The Hill’s survey favors the shutdown-showdown strategy hatched by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), thanks to outspoken endorsements from GOP frontrunners, such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

The Florida Republican and three other colleagues also entertaining presidential runs — Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) — have backed Lee’s effort by refusing to support government funding bills that include money for ObamaCare.

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ICE Agents Raid Arizona Car Wash Chain

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Photo Credit: bark

Photo Credit: bark

A chain of Phoenix-area car washes that’s raised thousands for local charities, including numerous law enforcement agencies, found itself the target of a sweeping raid Saturday by law officers.

Special agents from Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s homeland security investigations unit conducted raids at 13 Danny’s Family Car Wash locations in central Arizona, plus three locations tied to its outsourced staffing service provider, HR Betty, said ICE spokesman Andrew Munoz.

“We are … going after businesses that are a magnet for unauthorized workers,” Munoz said.

The action came as part of a criminal investigation into alleged criminal fraud, identity theft and financial violations, according to the agency. Few details were immediately available, though more would come out if an indictment in the case is unsealed.

Read more from this story HERE.