Ted Cruz: Immigration Will Increase US Joblessness

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Photo Credit: Graeme JenningsSen. Ted Cruz, a leading voice in the national debate over immigration, on Monday appeared before a group that supports curbing both illegal and legal immigration and urged his fellow Republicans in the House to reject immigration reforms approved earlier by the Senate.

Cruz, the son of a legal immigrant from Cuba, has not publicly called for limits on legal immigration and made he no mention of such restrictions in his address to the DC March for Jobs outside the Capitol. But March organizers — including the Black American Leadership Alliance and Tea Party groups — do support curbing legal immigration, saying it could take jobs away from “millions of American citizens.” Cruz also claimed the Senate immigration reform would cost Americans’ jobs but without specific reference to legal immigrants.

“If this bill is passed, it will increase unemployment,” Cruz, R-Texas, said. “If this bill is passed it will increase African American unemployment. If this bill is passed it will increase youth unemployment. If this bill is passed it will increase Hispanic unemployment.”

House leaders insist they have no intention of taking up the Senate bill, which provides a pathway to citizenship. And many House Republicans, like Cruz, cite a similar approach taken in 1986 that allowed undocumented workers to be legalized but lacked the border security measures needed to prevent millions of other illegal immigration from crossing a porous border.

“We might have been foolish enough to fall for this once in 1986,” Cruz said, “but we’re not foolish enough to fall for it again.”

Read more from this story HERE.

“Zimmerman Verdict Means War” and Other Fallout from the Not Guilty Verdict

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Photo Credit: WNDNew Black Panthers: Zimmerman Verdict Means ‘War’

By Aaron Klein. The George Zimmerman verdict is a declaration of war that only the devil can applaud, according to the Twitter feed for the New Black Panther Party.

The Twitter account, managed by the group’s national chairman, Malik Zulu Shabazz, further urged followers to “take to the streets [and] stay there.”

“Were at war,” Shabbazz Tweeted. “Its (sic) silly and immoral to call for peace when war has been declared.”

The NBPP slammed what it called the “white mans (sic) justice system,” claiming the courts base their law on “the white is right theory.”

“Only a devil would applaud that verdict. Only natural born devil. By applauding that verdict you in fact admit that you are a devil,” wrote Shabbazz. Read more from this story HERE.

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$10,000 Offered for Zimmerman’s Head

By Drew Zahn. Now that George Zimmerman has been found not guilty in the murder trial of black teenager Trayvon Martin, threats that some may take “justice” – or vengeance as the case may be – into their own hands become cause for concern.

New York Giants footballer Victor Cruz, for example, tweeted after the verdict was announced, “Zimmerman doesn’t last a year before the hood catches up to him.”

Atlanta Falcons footballer Roddy White followed up with a similar tweet, “All them jurors should go home tonight and kill themselves for letting a grown man get away with killing a kid.”

Though both players later apologized, the tweets reflect upon the words of black activist Mikhail Muhammad, who claimed last year he had professional athletes’ and celebrities’ financial backing in putting a $10,000 bounty on Zimmerman’s head.

While distributing “wanted dead or alive” posters at a press conference in Jacksonville, Fla., Muhammad, the southern regional director of the New Black Panther Party, stated, “The heat is on [Zimmerman]. He’s never going to be able to sleep peacefully. The family of George Zimmerman must understand, a life for a life, a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye. If you kill my damn baby, we’re going to kill your damn baby.” Read more from this story HERE.

See the NBPP tweet stream for yourself below:

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Photo Credit: Getty Images‘No justice, no peace’: pro-Trayvon MArtin protesters clash with police in NYC, LA.

By Jason Howerton. Demonstrations erupted across the United States ranging from dozens to hundreds – in support of the family of Trayvon Martin. Protesters marched against the not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting of the unarmed black teenager. Zimmerman claims he shot Martin in self-defense after being physically attacked.

At New York City’s Middle Collegiate Church in Manhattan, congregants wore hooded sweatshirts – as the 17-year-old Martin did the night he was shot.

And in Manhattan’s Union Square, hundreds of people gathered to voice their passions over the verdict, hoisting placards with images of Martin. Protesters shouted a number of chants demanding “justice” for Trayvon Martin.

The chants in NYC included, “No justice, no peace,” “What do you want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” and “Trayvon! Trayvon! Trayvon!” Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Occupy Oakland/TwitterProtesters in Oakland burn flag, smash windows over Zimmerman verdict

By Joe Newby. Protesters in Oakland angry over the not guilty verdict in the Zimmerman case went on a rampage, smashing windows, starting small fires and burned a U.S. flag at a local area McDonald’s, The Blaze reported Sunday.

The protests attracted anywhere from a few dozen to a couple hundred people, Madeleine Morgenstern said. Police said protests continued into the early hours on Sunday.

Some in the crowd broke windows on businesses and started small fires in the streets.

The Oakland Tribune said some of the windows in its downtown office were smashed and video from a helicopter show people attempting to start fires in the street. Others can be seen spray painting anti-police graffiti.

Vandals smashed windows at Dogwood Restaurant located at Telegraph and 17th St. in Oakland, ABC7 reporter John Alston said in a tweet. He later said windows were smashed in an Oakland Sears store. Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul: Hillary Probably Perjured Herself

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Photo Credit: WNDSen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told a radio interviewer today he doubts former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s claims about not having knowledge of weapons transfers when asked about the matter during sworn testimony in a Senate hearing on Benghazi.

During the hearing in March, in response to a question from Paul, Clinton stated she did not know whether the U.S. mission in Libya was procuring or transferring weapons to Turkey and other Arab countries.

Those weapons transfers were allegedly intended to arm the rebels fighting in Syria.

Yet a New York Times report claimed that since early 2012, the CIA has been helping Arab governments and Turkey obtain and ship weapons to the Syrian rebels.

“I’m concerned about the veracity of how she responded,” Paul told “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s WABC Radio.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Military Ignorance in Full Display: Unlawful Command Influence Taints Numerous DoD Trials

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Photo Credit: Doug MillsWhen President Obama proclaimed that those who commit sexual assault in the military should be “prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged,” it had an effect he did not intend: muddying legal cases across the country.

In at least a dozen sexual assault cases since the president’s remarks at the White House in May, judges and defense lawyers have said that Mr. Obama’s words as commander in chief amounted to “unlawful command influence,” tainting trials as a result. Military law experts said that those cases were only the beginning and that the president’s remarks were certain to complicate almost all prosecutions for sexual assault.

“Unlawful command influence” refers to actions of commanders that could be interpreted by jurors as an attempt to influence a court-martial, in effect ordering a specific outcome. Mr. Obama, as commander in chief of the armed forces, is considered the most powerful person to wield such influence.

The president’s remarks might have seemed innocuous to civilians, but military law experts say defense lawyers will seize on the president’s call for an automatic dishonorable discharge, the most severe discharge available in a court-martial, arguing that his words will affect their cases.

“His remarks were more specific than I’ve ever heard a commander in chief get,” said Thomas J. Romig, a former judge advocate general of the Army and the dean of the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kan. “When the commander in chief says they will be dishonorably discharged, that’s a pretty specific message. Every military defense counsel will make a motion about this.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Homosexuals Organize Blood Drive to Circumvent FDA’s Safeguards Against Spread of AIDS

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesActivists are organizing the first national gay blood drive Friday in an effort to combat the Food and Drug Administration’s ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men.

The FDA bans donations from men who have had sex with other men since 1977, saying there is an increased risk of exposure to and transmission of infectious diseases — including HIV — in male-to-male sexual encounters.

“FDA uses multiple layers of safeguards in its approach to ensuring blood safety,” the government agency’s website says. The FDA screens all potential blood donors based on risk factors and signs of infections.

Blood banks have been instructed to ask male donors if they have ever had sex with a man. If the potential donor responds “yes,” he is instantly removed from the donor pool for life.

The policy started in the 1980s when people didn’t know how the deadly virus that causes AIDS spread. At the time, there wasn’t a good test to detect whether HIV was present in donated blood, and HIV was getting into the nation’s blood supply. Scientists also knew that a disproportionate number of gay men were affected by the virus.

Read more from this story HERE.

George Zimmerman: NOT GUILTY (+video)

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By Yamiche Alcindor. George Zimmerman, the man accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, has been found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter.

The verdict is the culmination of a case that captured the nation’s attention and will undoubtedly be imprinted in America’s history. The not guilty verdict means the jury of six women found that Zimmerman justifiably used deadly force and reasonably believed that such force was “necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm” to himself— Florida’s definition of self-defense.

Zimmerman showed no emotion as the verdict was read. After the verdict was read, he smiled slightly and shook hands with one of his lawyers.

The women decided Zimmerman didn’t “intentionally commit an act or acts that caused death” or demonstrate a “depraved mind without regard for human life” –Florida’s definitions of manslaughter and second degree murder, respectively.

“Its means there was reasonable doubt,” said Susan Constantine, a jury consultant and body language expert who attended Zimmerman’s trial regularly. “They just could not put the pieces together.” Read more from this story HERE.

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State never proved its case, legal analysts say

By David Ovalle. After five weeks of trial and 56 witnesses, few legal observers believed prosecutors came close to proving Sanford, Fla., neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman committed second-degree murder when he shot and killed Trayvon Martin in February 2012.

So for many legal analysts, it was no surprise that jurors rejected even a lesser “compromise” verdict of manslaughter, acquitting Zimmerman outright of all criminal charges and deciding he acted in a reasonable way to protect his own life.

The acquittal was a stinging blow for prosecutors and their decision to file the second-degree murder charge against Zimmerman, who was not initially arrested by Sanford police after claiming self-defense. And it was a resounding embrace of the defense’s strategy during closing arguments not just to establish that prosecutors hadn’t proven Zimmerman guilty, but also to show he was “absolutely” innocent.

“The jury clearly believed that you have a right to defend yourself,” said Jude M. Faccidomo, the former president of Miami’s Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “Especially when cases are so gray, like this one was, self-defense really resonates because people can associate with being afraid.”

And while some also have questioned the state attorney’s office acceptance of a mostly white jury, a more diverse panel would have returned the same verdict, lawyers who have watched the case believe. Read more from this story HERE.

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Guilty until proven innocent: how the press prosecuted Zimmerman while stoking racial tensions

By John Nolte. As we await the verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman, the Florida man who claims to have shot and killed teenager Trayvon Martin in self-defense, this seems the perfect time to reflect on the media’s cynical and dishonest role in turning a local crime into a national obsession.

As you will see below, by hook and crook, the mainstream media did everything in its still-potent power to not only push for the prosecution of Mr. Zimmerman (the police originally chose not to charge him) but also to gin up racial tensions where none needed to exist.

It all started with the anchor of a major television network (Al Sharpton) inserting himself in the story to spread division and hate; it continued straight through to the closing days of the trial when another major news network, desperate to keep a fabricated racial narrative alive, propagated the portrayal of Zimmerman as part of a racial group that doesn’t exist — the “white Hispanic.”

In-between, there has been an astonishing amount of malicious fraud and lies, all in an effort to serve a president, stir racial hatred, and influence the justice system. Read more from this story HERE.

IRS Intentionally Paying Billions to Illegal Aliens, Won’t Turn Over Info to Immigration Officials

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Photo Credit: APThe question of whether to legalize illegal aliens and put them on a pathway to citizenship may be the most controversial legislative issue facing the U.S. Congress this year.

But, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), seventeen years have already passed since the Internal Revenue Service made its own “policy decision” to “’legalize’ illegal aliens.”

That policy, made those many years ago, not only determined that the IRS would treat illegal aliens the same as legal immigrants and U.S. citizens, but also that the IRS would not hand over to federal immigration authorities information about employers who appeared to be hiring large numbers of illegal aliens and about illegal aliens who filed false documents with the IRS.

As a result of the IRS’s policy, by 2010, according to TIGTA, the service was paying out $4.2 billion in refundable “Additional Child Tax Credits” to illegal aliens. In 2011, according to TIGTA, the IRS would pay more than $46 million in tax refunds to what theoretically were 23,994 illegal aliens who all used the same address in Atlanta.

The story starts in 1996, when Democrat Bill Clinton was president, and the Republicans controlled Congress.

Read more from this story HERE.

Journalist: US Better Not Do Anything to Snowden or Undisclosed Info Will Be Fed’s “Worst Nightmare”

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Photo Credit: ReutersSnowden documents could be ‘worst nightmare’ for U.S. – journalist

By Reuters. Fugitive former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden controls dangerous information that could become the United States’ “worst nightmare” if revealed, a journalist familiar with the data said in a newspaper interview.

Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the documents Snowden leaked, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the U.S. government should be careful in its pursuit of the former computer analyst.

“Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had,” Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinian daily La Nacion.

“The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare.”

Snowden, who is sought by Washington on espionage charges after revealing details of secret surveillance programs, has been stranded at a Moscow airport since June 23 and is now seeking refuge in Russia until he can secure safe passage to Latin America, where several counties have offered him asylum. Read more from this story HERE.

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The (spy) game’s afoot in hunt for NSA leaker Snowden

By Rowan Scarborough. One twist in the fugitive hunt for asylum-seeking Edward Snowden is that the man who has revealed the most secrets about the National Security Agency in history now is undoubtedly one of its chief targets.

A subplot in this international thriller is a cat-and-mouse game: Will the NSA penetrate his communications or will the master leaker outwit all the agency’s high-tech gadgets — since he, as well as anyone, knows how they work?

“NSA is probably doing what it does best, which is sweeping the ‘electronicshere’ for communications, voice and data, indicating his next chess move,” former CIA officer Bart Bechtel says. “They may also be looking at known and suspected collaborators.”

A second analyst, a former intelligence operative, says that the same methods Mr. Snowden, an ex-NSA contractor, disclosed in documents leaks to the press are now being turned on him. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AFPMorales says US hacked Bolivian leaders’ emails

By AFP. Bolivia’s leftist president Evo Morales on Saturday accused US intelligence of hacking into the email accounts of top Bolivian officials, saying he had shut his own account down.

Latin American leaders have lashed out at Washington over recent revelations of vast surveillance programs, some of which allegedly targeted regional allies and adversaries alike.

Bolivia has joined Venezuela and Nicaragua in offering asylum to Edward Snowden, the former IT contractor for the US National Security Agency who publicized details of the programs and is now on the run from espionage charges.

Morales said that he learned about the alleged US email snooping at the Mercosur regional summit in Montevideo earlier this week.

“Those US intelligence agents have accessed the emails of our most senior authorities in Bolivia, Morales said in a speech. Read more from this story HERE.

Computer Security Vanishing: Hackers Exploit Vulnerabilities for NSA, Governments

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Photo Credit: Gianni CiprianoOn the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta, two Italian hackers have been searching for bugs — not the island’s many beetle varieties, but secret flaws in computer code that governments pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn about and exploit.

The hackers, Luigi Auriemma, 32, and Donato Ferrante, 28, sell technical details of such vulnerabilities to countries that want to break into the computer systems of foreign adversaries. The two will not reveal the clients of their company, ReVuln, but big buyers of services like theirs include the National Security Agency — which seeks the flaws for America’s growing arsenal of cyberweapons — and American adversaries like the Revolutionary Guards of Iran.

All over the world, from South Africa to South Korea, business is booming in what hackers call “zero days,” the coding flaws in software like Microsoft Windows that can give a buyer unfettered access to a computer and any business, agency or individual dependent on one.

Just a few years ago, hackers like Mr. Auriemma and Mr. Ferrante would have sold the knowledge of coding flaws to companies like Microsoft and Apple, which would fix them. Last month, Microsoft sharply increased the amount it was willing to pay for such flaws, raising its top offer to $150,000.

But increasingly the businesses are being outbid by countries with the goal of exploiting the flaws in pursuit of the kind of success, albeit temporary, that the United States and Israel achieved three summers ago when they attacked Iran’s nuclear enrichment program with a computer worm that became known as “Stuxnet.”

Read more from this story HERE.

NIH Spends $3 Million To Study Health Risks of “Dating” Mexican Prostitutes

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Photo Credit: APJust how dangerous is it to your health to shack up with a Mexican hooker? That’s the question at the heart of a five-year, $3,029,663 study by researchers at the University of California San Diego funded by the National Institutes of Health.

The five-year study is taking the first-ever look at the love lives – and sexually transmitted diseases – of 200 prostitutas mexicanas and their “non-commercial” male partners.

Based on previous research, UCSD scientists have been able to determine conclusively that the “non-commercial male partners” of Mexican prostitutes are very likely to pick up and spread their partners’ sexually-transmitted diseases, and may in fact be “significant drivers of HIV/STI acquisition and/or their re-infection.”

Begun in 2009, the Mexican prostitute study has already been receiving federal funding of over half a million dollars annually, and the $3 million price tag does not include the as-of-yet undetermined 2014 grant for the study’s final year.

Read more from this story HERE.