Catholic Archbishop: Wake Up! Religious Liberty Under Attack in USA

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles J. Chaput is calling on Americans to wake up and recognize that the Founding Fathers’ vision of religious freedom is now threatened by the federal government.

“The day when Americans could take the Founders’ understanding of religious freedom as a given is over,” said the archbishop. “We need to wake up.”

Chaput, who leads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, pointed to Obamacare’s sterilization-contraception-abortifacient regulation as one example. The regulation, issued by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, requires almost all health-care plans in the United States to provide coverage for sterilizations, artificial contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs to all women of reproductive age–even if the person or employer providing the insurance coverage and even if the female beneficiaries themselves do not want the coverage and believe it is morally wrong and violates their religious beliefs.

“[T]he HHS mandate can only be understood as a form of coercion,” the archbishop wrote in a recent column posted on the website of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The column is entitled, “Religious Freedom and the Need to Wake Up.”

Last year, the Catholic bishops of the United States unanimously approved a statement describing the HHS regulation as an “unjust and illegal mandate.” The unanimous bishops said the regulation not only violated the religious freedom of religious institutions but also the “personal civil rights” of individual Americans who will be forced to comply with it either as employers or employees.

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Are Federal Employees Now Involved in a Massive Insider Trading Scandal?

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Photo Credit: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg

Federal employees were given advance notice of an April 1 Medicare decision worth billions of dollars to private insurers. And in the weeks before the decision was officially announced, shares in those firms spiked, the Washington Post reports.

Naturally, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission suspect Wall Street investors and fed workers engaged in insider trading.

The April 1 decision was about increasing funding to Medicare Advantage by $8 billion

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said last week that his office “reviewed the e-mail records of employees at the Department of Health and Human Services and found that 436 of them had early access to the Medicare decision as much as two weeks before it was made public,” the report notes.

“The number of federal employees with advance knowledge is surely higher; the figures Grassley’s staff compiled did not include people at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget who also saw the information,” the report adds.

Read more from this story HERE.

Bill O’Reilly’s ‘Killing Kennedy’ Selects Its’ Lee Harvey Oswald and Will Begin Filming

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Photo Credit: Irish Central

In a press release this afternoon, National Geographic announced, the final major actor has been signed to round out the cast of Killing Kennedy. Actor Will Rothhaar will play the volatile former Marine and assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Rothhaar is the final of the four major players in the film to be announced. He joins Rob Lowe (John F. Kennedy), Ginnifer Goodwin (Jacqueline Kennedy) and Michelle Trachtenberg (Marina Oswald).

The upcoming two-hour original factual drama, Killing Kennedy by Scott Free Productions, will premiere on the National Geographic Channel later this year. It is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; it will air in the United States and globally in 171 countries and 38 languages.

According to National Geographic:

“Based on the best-selling book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, Killing Kennedy begins in 1959, at major turning points for both the future president and his assassin. John F. Kennedy is in Washington, D.C., announcing his presidential candidacy, while Lee Harvey Oswald finds himself in the U.S. embassy in Moscow, renouncing his U.S. citizenship. These two events start both men — one a member of one of the United States’ most wealthy and powerful families, the other a disillusioned former Marine and Marxist — on a cataclysmic track that would alter the course of history. Throughout we see their highs and lows, culminating in not one but two shocking deaths that stunned the nation.”

Bill O’Reilly’s mastery of storytelling artfully woven into his fact based books, is proving to be a goldmine for the Fox News Anchor. His last book, Killing Lincoln, was a blockbuster best seller and made into a movie as well.

O’Reilly has already announced he is working on a third “killing book,” this one titled “Killing Jesus.” National Geographic Channel has already confirmed it is set to adapt this third partnering with the author and Ridley Scott’s, Scott Free Productions on its network.

Production on Killing Kennedy begins this week in Richmond, Va.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Beck: If We Don’t Stop this Right Now, US Will Become the Most Evil Nation the World has Ever Known

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As reports continue to flood in about President Obama’s massive surveillance state, media powerhouse Glenn Beck says, “There wouldn’t be a Jew alive on the planet today if Hitler had this technology.”

Beck made the statement Friday on his radio program while interviewing NSA whistleblower William Binney.

Binney worked at the National Security Agency for nearly four decades, and said the secret surveillance of Americans began in October 2001.

He believes the NSA is storing information on 3 billion phone calls every day.

“I’m telling you, America,” Beck cautioned, “If we don’t stop this right now, we will be remembered as the most evil nation in history of the world. We will dwarf what Germany did. And I’d say that if Mitt Romney were in office and this were happening. I would be saying exactly the same thing.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Edward Snowden: the Whistleblower Behind the NSA Surveillance Revelations

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Photo Credit: guardian.co.uk

By Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras. The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.

The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. “I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong,” he said.

Snowden will go down in history as one of America’s most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world’s most secretive organisations – the NSA.

In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions,” but “I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.”

Despite his determination to be publicly unveiled, he repeatedly insisted that he wants to avoid the media spotlight. “I don’t want public attention because I don’t want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing.” Read more from this story HERE.
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NSA whistleblower donated to Ron Paul’s presidential campaign

By Katie McHugh. National Security Administration whistleblower Edward Snowden, who revealed his identity to The Guardian newspaper on Sunday, was a donor to former Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential campaign.

OpenSecrets.org shows that Snowden twice donated $250 to Paul’s campaign, once on March 18, 2012 from a Maryland address, and a second time on May 6, 2012 from Hawaii. Paul ceased active campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination on May 14, 2012.

In an interview with The Guardian, Snowden said he voted for a third party for president on Election Day last November. Read more from this story HERE.
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Guardian: NSA contractor was source of massive US surveillance leak

By Fox News. The source of the bombshell leaks about the U.S. government gathering information on billions of phone calls and Internet activities was an American employed as a contract worker for the National Security Agency, The Guardian newspaper, which broke the story, said Sunday.

The British newspaper has identified the source as 29-year-old Edward Snowden, who worked for defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and was a former technical assistant for the CIA.

The Washington Post followed the Guardian announcement by saying Snowden was the source for its surveillance stories that followed.

If the reports are accurate, Snowden could face many years in prison for releasing classified information if he is successfully extradited from Hong Kong, where he claims to have taken refuge.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on Snowden’s disclosure, saying the issue has been referred to the Justice Department. Read more from this story HERE.

RINO Peter King Calls for NSA Whistle-Blower’s Extradition

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Photo Credit: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

The NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was condemned by US politicians and threatened with prosecution by the country’s intelligence chief on Sunday after revealing himself as the Guardian’s source for a series of explosive leaks on the NSA and cyber surveillance.

A spokesman for the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said Snowden’s case had been referred to the justice department and US intelligence was assessing the damage caused by the disclosures.

“Any person who has a security clearance knows that he or she has an obligation to protect classified information and abide by the law,” the spokesman, Shawn Turner, said.

Snowden had top-secret clearance to help run the National Security Agency’s computer systems but he was a contractor, hired by the giant US defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. The company issued a statement describing the disclosures as “shocking” and pledging to co-operate with any investigation.

It said: “News reports that this individual has claimed to have leaked classified information are shocking, and if accurate, this action represents a grave violation of the code of conduct and core values of our firm. We will work closely with our clients and authorities in their investigation of this matter.”

[Editor’s note: It was reported last week that “Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he will not attend a big Republican fundraising dinner, because although his schedule might have prevented it anyway, once he heard Sen. Ted Cruz was the headliner, it ‘made it easy.'”]

Read more from this story HERE.

DoD Stupidity Continues: Airmen Ordered Not to Read Stories About NSA Phone Surveillance

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Photo Credit: WND

WND has received an unclassified NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) that warns airmen not to look at news stories related to the data-mining scandal.

The notice applies to users of the Air Force NIPRNET (Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network), which is the only way that many troops stationed overseas and on bases in the U.S. are able to access the Internet.

The last line of the executive summary states:

“Users are not to use AF NIPRNET systems to access the Verizon phone records collection and other related news stories because the action could constitute a Classified Message Incident.”

Cindy McGee, the mother of an airman stationed in the UAE, spoke with WND.

“The fact that our government is attempting to censor our service members from the truth of what is happening here at home is truly frightening and disheartening,” said McGee.

Read more from this story HERE.

Trial Begins for George Zimmerman, Accused of Murdering Florida Teen Trayvon Martin

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The trial for George Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watch captain accused of murdering teen Trayvon Martin while on patrol, begins Monday with jury selection.

The February 12, 2012, incident in central Florida sparked a fierce national debate about such issues as gun control, equal justice and race after Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, fatally shot Martin, a black teenager.

There is no disputing that Zimmerman fired his 9-mm. handgun after calling police, exiting his pickup truck to follow Martin, then getting into a fight with the 17-year-old on a rainy night inside the gated Retreat at Twin Lakes community.

The 29-year-old Zimmerman, who had a concealed weapon permit, has admitted to shooting Martin in the chest.

But Zimmerman says the teen circled back and attacked him as he walked back to his truck – punching him in the face and slamming the back of his head into the sidewalk.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Lies Again: Claims Immigration Bill Requires Illegals to Learn English

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

In his weekly address, President Barack Obama claimed the Senate “Gang of Eight” immigration bill would require illegal immigrants to learn English to earn their citizenship.

“This bill would provide a pathway to earned citizenship for the 11 million individuals who are already in this country illegally–a pathway that includes passing a background check, learning English, paying taxes and a penalty, and then going to the back of the line behind everyone who’s playing by the rules and trying to come here legally,” Obama said.

While that claim would quell a lot of criticism of the bill if it were true, it simply is not accurate.

As Breitbart News has previously reported, when illegal immigrants apply for “registered provisional immigrant” status under the provisions of the bill, the first step in legalization, they do not need to demonstrate that they can speak English. When they apply for renewal of their RPI status, they still do not need to prove they can speak English.

Only when illegal immigrants apply for their “legal permanent resident” status, or green card, would they be required to demonstrate their ability to speak English or prove that they are currently enrolled in a course “to achieve an understanding of English and knowledge and understanding” of civics.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sources Now Confirm NSA is Gathering Information About Americans from 50 Phone, Credit and Internet Companies

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Photo Credit: AP

Analysts at the National Security Agency can now secretly access real-time user data provided by as many as 50 American companies, ranging from credit rating agencies to internet service providers, two government officials familiar with the arrangements said.

Several of the companies have provided records continuously since 2006, while others have given the agency sporadic access, these officials said. These officials disclosed the number of participating companies in order to provide context for a series of disclosures about the NSA’s domestic collection policies. The officials, contacted independently, repeatedly said that “domestic collection” does not mean that the target is based in the U.S. or is a U.S. citizen; rather, it refers only to the origin of the data.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that U.S. credit card companies had also provided customer information. The officials would not disclose the names of the companies because, they said, doing so would provide U.S. enemies with a list of companies to avoid. They declined to confirm the list of participants in an internet monitoring program revealed by the Washington Post and the Guardian, but both confirmed that the program existed.

“The idea is to create a mosaic. We get a tip. We vet it. Then we mine the data for intelligence,” one of the officials said.

In a statement, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that programs collect communications “pursuant to section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, ” and “cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S person, or anyone within the United States.”

Read more from this story HERE.