Rapidly Growing Overpasses Movement Inspires Citizens to Stand for Impeachment

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Photo Credit: Examiner By Dean Chambers

The Overpasses for Obama’s Impeachment movement is growing rapidly, it now has 30,000 members nationally and will soon grow to more than 100,000, says founder James Neighbors, who interviewed with Arlington Conservative Examiner today. Neighbors is National Coordinator and Founder of the Overpasses movement.

“Our growth rate has increased dramatically. We’re now approaching, or have just passed 35,000 members,” said Neighbors, “The media has been publishing articles all over the place, with a few negatives, but that’s to be expected. At our current rate of growth, we estimate that we’ll pass 100,000 members in a month. We had a few issues with law enforcement not understanding the Constitution, again to be expected.”

The 35,000 members have joined one of the 50 state Overpasses for Obama’s Impeachment Facebook groups, where the groups are used by the movement to organize and coordinate events and communicate with members online. Social networking sites have proven effective for the movement to communicate with members, recruit new members, and organize rallies and groups in all 50 states.

Neighbors expects the movement to continue growing and also take on additional goals for reforming government, including opposing members of the House and Senate who have failed to uphold their oath of office. Neighbors said, “By the current rate of growth, averaged out over the time since we came into existence, that is the projected number (100,00 members). We have a very long-term goal. Not only are we intent on having Obama removed from office, we’re also beginning to organize to speak out against DC politicians who have forgotten their oath of office and engaged in unconstitutional acts. Feinstein, Reid, Pelosi, McCain, to name a few.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP41%: Obama’s Approval Drops to Lowest Level in Gallup Poll Since 2011

By CNSNews.com Staff.

The percentage of Americans saying that they approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president dropped to 41% in the Gallup poll’s three-day tracking average, the lowest it has been since Dec. 28, 2011.

Obama’s approval rating plunged in polling done the evening after he go a rare afternoon press conference.

Read more from this story HERE.

Feds Upset Over Release of Mexican Drug Lord who Ordered DEA Agent’s Killing (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsA Mexican court’s releasing of a drug lord who killed a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in the 1980s is sparking outrage this weekend among U.S. law enforcement officials.

Rafael Caro Quintero, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison for ordering the 1985 killing of DEA agent Enrique Camarena, was released earlier this week by a Mexican court that overturned the conviction, saying he had been improperly tried in a federal court for state crimes.

The Justice Department said it found the court’s decision “deeply troubling.”

“The Department of Justice, and especially the Drug Enforcement Administration, is extremely disappointed with this result,” the agency said in a statement.

The Justice Department also said it “has continued to make clear to Mexican authorities the continued interest of the United States in securing Caro Quintero’s extradition so that he might face justice in the United States.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Encrypted Email Service Refuses ‘to Become Complicit in Crimes Against the American People’; Can Never Be Safe From NSA Snooping (+video)

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By Mathew J. Schwartz

Encrypted email service provider Lavabit is shutting down, but a gag order prevents the company from detailing exactly what triggered that business decision.

Ladar Levison, the owner and operator of Texas-based Lavabit, said in a statement that his hand was forced after six weeks of legal wrangling and two attempts by him to squash the gag order, both of which were rejected by a judge. As a result, he’s not at liberty to publicly reveal exactly what’s going on.

“I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly 10 years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit,” he said. “After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot.”

Lavabit had promised that it would be an “e-mail service that never sacrifices privacy for profits” and “only release private information if legally compelled by the courts in accordance with the U.S. Constitution.” The service backed up those claims by storing only encrypted versions of emails on its servers, which could only then be decrypted using a user’s passphrase, which the service didn’t store.

Lavabit’s closure led startup company Silent Circle to announce Thursday that it would shutter Silent Mail, which is its encrypted email service. “We see the writing [on] the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now. We have not received subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else by any government, and this is why we are acting now,” said Silent Circle CTO Jon Callas in a blog post.

Read more from this story HERE.

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By Julie Bort

Silent Circle, a company founded by Internet Hall of famer Phil Zimmermann, famous privacy expert Jon Callas, and a couple of Navy Seals, has shut down its secure email service.

They shuttered it because email can’t be secured in a way that would prevent a government agency like the NSA from snooping, the founders said.

All email messages “leak metadata” they say. That information includes data about who you are talking to and where you are. That info is visible even if the message itself is encrypted.

“E-mail as we know it today is fundamentally broken from a privacy perspective,” Callas says.

Read more from this story HERE.
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Food-Stamp Use Rises; Some 15% Get Benefits; Many Game System (+video)

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By Phil Izzo

Food-stamp use rose 2.4% in the U.S. in May from a year earlier, with more than 15% of the U.S. population receiving benefits.

One of the federal government’s biggest social welfare programs, which expanded when the economy convulsed, isn’t shrinking back alongside the recovery.

Food stamp rolls were up 0.2% from the prior month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in data that aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations. Though annual growth continues, the pace has slowed since the depths of the recession.

Read more from this story HERE.

If you’re wondering why we’re not seeing food-stamp use decline with economic recovery, you’ve gotta see this Fox News Special Report:

DOJ Memo Asserts that All US Phone Calls Are ‘Relevant’ to Terrorism

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Photo Credit: USDAgovThe Justice Department on Friday released its legal rationale for why all U.S. phone calls are “relevant” to terrorism investigations.

The administration released the memo as part of President Obama’s push to enhance public confidence in the National Security Agency’s controversial surveillance programs.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act allows the government to collect business records if they are “relevant” to a terrorism investigation. The NSA has acknowledged that it has been using the provision to force phone companies to turn over records on all U.S. phone calls.

The records include phone numbers, call times and call durations, but not the contents of the conversations.

Numerous lawmakers, including Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the author of the Patriot Act, have accused the NSA of abusing its power under Section 215.

Read more from this story HERE.

Reid on Immigration Reform: ‘If We Go to Conference, We Will Win’

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Friday that if House Republicans end up sending their collection of immigration bills to a conference with the Senate, Democrats and illegal immigration advocates would win.

“If we go to conference, we would win,” Reid told a Nevada radio station.

Reid’s comments are the latest in a long line of Senate Democrats and House Republicans openly stating that the plan for amnesty for all of America’s illegal aliens rests in the House passing a group of immigration bills, then going to a conference with the Senate “Gang of Eight” bill.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a member of the Gang of Eight, said on Wednesday that the House GOP piecemeal strategy is “OK by us” because the Senate would combine all the bills in a conference.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Mother F***er Racist Sons of B**ches From Hell’: Wedding Venue Gets Threats, Fears Shut Down After Refusing Gay Couple’s Nuptials

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Another business is facing retribution for declining service to a same-sex couple. Betty and Dick Odgaard, owners of Görtz Haus Gallery in Grimes, Iowa, are catching the ire of gay rights advocates after they declined offering their venue to Lee Stafford and his fiance Jared.

Now the owners, who are Christians, are receiving vicious and threatening emails and phone calls — and they fear that their business could shut down because of the fierce reaction.

It was less than one week ago that the Lee and Jared entered Görtz Haus looking for additional information about holding their wedding there. After Dick realized that it would be a gay ceremony, he told the couple that they would not be able to hold their nuptials at the establishment — and that’s when the controversy erupted.

“It started with emails and we noticed the emails were from a person with a name that looked like a man’s name. We’re a little suspicious about it and … two fellows walked in and that’s where it all began,” Dick told TheBlaze on Friday. “It was obvious what the situation was. I had to confirm it. I asked if this was a gay marriage celebration and I said we can’t take your money for this.”

From there, news spread that the Odgaards turned the couple away. Before long, phone calls and emails came streaming in. Betty said that some people have promised that the furor won’t stop until the business, which is a bistro, flower shop and a wedding destination, shuts down. Detractors have called Betty and Dick “haters.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Darrell Issa Subpoenas Treasury Department Over Auto Bailout Documents

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Claiming that it has turned over “only a fraction” of the requested documents, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sent a subpoena today to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew regarding the 2009 taxpayer-funded $50 billion bailout of General Motors.

“Taxpayers deserve the full truth about how decisions were made to use their money in an Administration effort that resulted in protecting generous pensions for unionized Delphi employees while greatly diminishing benefits for non-unionized employees,” Issa said in the letter. The chairman has been investigating the matter since 2010.

For over a year, Treasury has slow-walked his document requests, he claimed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obamacare Installs New Scrutiny, Fines for Charitable Hospitals that Treat Uninsured People

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Charitable hospitals that treat uninsured Americans will be subjected to new levels of scrutiny of their nonprofit status and could face sizable new fines under Obamacare.

A new provision in Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code, which takes effect under Obamacare, sets new standards of review and installs new financial penalties for tax-exempt charitable hospitals, which devote a minimum amount of their expenses to treat uninsured poor people. Approximately 60 percent of American hospitals are currently nonprofit.

Charity for the uninsured is one of the factors that could discourage enrollment in Obamacare, which requires all Americans to purchase health insurance or else face new taxes themselves from the IRS.

“It requires tax-exempt hospitals to do a community needs survey and file additional paperwork with the IRS every three years. This is to prove that the charitable hospital is still needed in their geographical area — ‘needed’ as defined by Obamacare and overseen by IRS bureaucrats,” said John Kartch, spokesman for Americans for Tax Reform.

“Failure to comply, or to prove this continuing need, could result in the loss of the hospital’s tax-exempt status. The hospital would then become a for-profit venture, paying income tax — hence the positive revenue score” for the federal government, Kartch said. “Obamacare advocates turned over every rock to find as much tax money as possible.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Media Fail: 63% Want Congress to Keep Going After ObamaCare

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One of the new talking points we are seeing throughout the mainstream media is a mocking “Here we go again” attack-narrative against the Republican Congress as they maneuver to defund ObamaCare, or work to kill various parts of ObamaCare. But a new poll shows that almost two-thirds of the American people want Congress to keep at it.

Fox News notes that when asked if the “health care law needs to be changed and Congress should keep at it, 63% said yes. That is up from 58% a year ago.”

Only 31% oppose.

Watching the news coverage these days, you get the sense that America is tired of Congress going after ObamaCare. But just the opposite is true.

Read more from this story HERE.