Pentagon Denies Relationship With Anti-Christian Extremist but Instantly Complies with His Demands

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Photo Credit: breitbart

One month ago the Pentagon assured the public it was not being advised by anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein. Yet two days ago Weinstein called the Pentagon demanding that a Christian painting be removed from a dining hall in an Idaho Air Force base [see the painting HERE], and the Pentagon complied with his demand–in less than one hour.

On Apr. 28, Breitbart News reported that Pentagon brass met with Weinstein and his Military Religious Freedom Foundation. That was shortly after Weinstein published an article in which he called observant Christians “fundamentalist monsters” who seek to impose “a rapacious reign of theocratic terror” in the military through their “putrid theology.”

While he opposes all religion in the military, Weinstein reserves his most caustic language for observant Christians. And the one thing he objects to above all things is proselytizing in the military, which Christians call evangelism.

Regarding evangelism, Weinstein told the Washington Post that, “What is happening aside from sexual assault is spiritual rape. And what the Pentagon needs to understand is that it is sedition and treason. It should be punished.” (Emphases added and brackets omitted.)

Weinstein said service members who evangelize in the military should be court-martialed, and added, “You need a dozen court-martials real quick.” A court martial is a criminal prosecution in the military, which depending on the crime can carry punishments ranging from fines, to expulsion from the military, to imprisonment. In case anyone missed the point, he also said, “We would love to see hundreds of prosecutions.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Constitutional Sheriff of the Year Awarded for Encouraging Citizens to Arm Themselves

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Photo Credit: WND

The cop who told the citizens of Milwaukee to arm themselves against violent criminals has now been crowned the “Constitutional Sheriff of the Year.”

Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. received the award Friday at the annual convention of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, or CSPOA, in St. Charles, Mo.

Clarke became national news in January when he released a Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office public service announcement inviting citizens to join him in the fight against crime by learning to defend themselves from it.

“Simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option,” the PSA states. “You can beg for mercy from a violent criminal, hide under the bed or you can fight back. But are you prepared? Consider taking a certified safety course in handling a firearm so you can defend yourself until we get there. You have a duty to protect yourself and your family. We’re partners now. Can I count on you?”

Members of the CSPOA were so impressed with Clarke’s PSA, and his defense under blistering scrutiny since releasing it, not even a tornado could stop them from giving him the award.

Read more from this story HERE.

Star of Discovery’s ‘Storm Chasers’ Show Among Dead in Oklahoma Tornado

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Photo Credit: Discovery Channel

A star of the Discovery Channel show “Storm Chasers,” his son and a colleague have been identified as three of the 13 people killed after an outbreak of tornadoes struck the Oklahoma City area on Friday.

Tim Samaras, 55, died with his son Paul, 24, and friend Carl Young, 45, in Canadian County chasing down a tornado that wreaked havoc along Interstate 40, Fox 25 reports.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Tim Samaras his son Paul and their colleague Carl Young,” the Discovery Channel said in a statement to FOX411. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families.”

The channel added that it would be dedicating Sunday night’s show on the tornadoes in their memory.

Read more from this story HERE.

Congressman’s Chief of Staff Tied to Absentee Ballot Vote Fraud Effort

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Photo Credit: Getty

Congressman Joe Garcia’s chief of staff implicated in phantom absentee-ballot requests scheme

By Patricia Mazzei. Congressman Joe Garcia’s chief of staff abruptly resigned Friday after being implicated in a sophisticated scheme to manipulate last year’s primary elections by submitting hundreds of fraudulent absentee-ballot requests.

Friday afternoon, Garcia said he had asked Jeffrey Garcia, no relation, for his resignation after the chief of staff — also the congressman’s top political strategist — took responsibility for the plot. Hours earlier, law enforcement investigators raided the homes of another of Joe Garcia’s employees and a former campaign aide in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation into the matter.

“I’m shocked and disappointed about this,” Garcia, who said he was unaware of the scheme, told The Miami Herald. “This is something that hit me from left field. Until today, I had no earthly idea this was going on.”

Jeffrey Garcia, 40, declined to comment. He also worked last year on the campaign of Democrat Patrick Murphy of Jupiter, who unseated tea-party Republican congressman Allen West. Murphy has not been implicated in the phantom-requests operation. Read more from this story HERE.

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Congressman denies involvement in staffer’s alleged vote fraud attempt

By Gregory Wallace. U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia said Saturday he was saddened and disappointed by absentee ballot fraud allegations leveled against his former chief of staff.

The congressman said at a press conference he asked for the staffer’s resignation and called for fixes to the “flawed voter absentee process” which left the system vulnerable.

Garcia said he demanded the resignation of chief of staff Jeffrey Garcia (no relation, according to local media reports), then fired him shortly after learning of the allegations Friday afternoon.

No fraudulent ballots were cast as a result of this alleged plot, the congressman said.

“I’ve asked an attorney to investigate what went on and interview the people. I have asked all of my staff to fully cooperate with any investigation,” he said. “Here’s the good part about this – from my conversations thus far, no ballots were tampered with, no ballots were touched. Read more from this story HERE.

Both Parties Attack Obama’s Failure to Address Veterans’ Claims

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Photo Credit: AP

Congress is turning up the heat on President Obama to cut the backlog of Veterans Affairs disability claims, which has gone up by 2,000 percent while the agency’s budget has increased by 40 percent over the past four years.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is the latest to call upon the president to be more aggressive, sending a letter this week asking him to “take direct action.”

“We need direct and public involvement from you to establish a clear path to end the backlog once and for all,” said the letter by Reps. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., and Patrick Murphy, D-Fla.

The number of veterans waiting for overdue disability claims is now at 600,000 with the average wait for first-time filings at 317 to 327 days, according to the letter.

“In many cases, veterans have waited and continue to wait 800 days, 900 days and even more than 1,000 days,” Coffman and Murphy said in the letter, cosigned by 164 other House Democrats and Republicans.

Read more from this story HERE.

Carbon-Tax Advocate Pays $32k to Lobby Obama for 2 Minutes So He Can Sell More Electric Cars

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Photo Credit: Paul Scott

A Los Angeles car salesman and electric car advocate is shelling $32,400 out of his retirement savings so he can make a pitch directly to President Obama at a “private, off-the-record” Democratic fundraiser next week.

Paul Scott, 60, says he isn’t a rich guy. He’s a $50,000-a-year Nissan salesman who plans to rub elbows with 24 bigwigs in a private luncheon that he says will put a crimp in his retirement plans.

But he says the goal is worthwhile. He wants to make a few points to Obama about on how to better support electric cars — a cause that Obama already embraces — and thought the private audience would be a fine way to do it.

So when a solicitation came for the fundraiser, Scott says he was told that he’d get a chance sometime over the luncheon to offer his advice directly to the president. “That was something I had to confirm before I wrote the check,” Scott says. At least two minutes, probably no more than four, he says he was told.

Read more from this story HERE.

Shale Oil Boom Rattles OPEC

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Photo Credit: joern_kh

At a critical Friday meeting in Vienna, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will set production policy. For the first time, they will be grappling with the challenges of shale oil, even none of the member states are major shale oil producers.

The shale boom began in the U.S. as a ripple in North Dakota and Texas. Some thought its impact would be limited and regional, not global. Now that uptick on our domestic production curve has triggered a tsunami with geopolitical implications.

That’s because the U.S. does not need 100% energy independence to get OPEC’s attention. Due to production but also conservation and a protracted recession, our need for imported oil has contracted from 60-70% of consumption to about 40%, headed south. As the world’s largest crude oil market, changes in our domestic supply picture must necessarily reshuffle the import mix. Remember how skeptics argued that the shale boom is “a mirage“? I have often maintained that domestic supply increments of 500,000 barrels per day can be significant in a worldwide 90 million bpd marketplace. We’re starting to see that play out, albeit in some surprising ways.

Read more from this story HERE.

Marco Rubio Touts Chris Christie in Fundraising Pitch

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Photo Credit: AP

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s PAC has sent an email to his supporters praising New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as a “conservative leader” in the blue state where he’s running for reelection.

The pairing of Rubio and Christie is interesting for a few reasons, including that both are often mentioned as potential 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls. Christie has been hit by conservatives for appearing with Obama during the final week of the election after Hurricane Sandy, a move critics said unnecessarily undermined Mitt Romney.

And Rubio — one of the party’s brighter young stars after he defeated then-Gov. Charlie Crist in the tea party wave of 2010 — has been dinged by some conservatives over his work on the immigration reform bill that recently cleared a Senate committee.

“Conservative leadership is hard to find these days, but the voters in New Jersey have seen it firsthand,” Rubio writes in the email from his Reclaim America PAC.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dems Rebel Against Obama’s Environmental Agenda

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Democratic governors of Montana and West Virginia are rebelling against the Obama administration and challenging federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions, opting out of what critics are calling the Environmental Protection Agency’s “war on coal.”

“The EPA’s proposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions threaten the livelihood of our coal miners to the point of killing jobs and crippling our state and national economies, while also weakening our country’s efforts toward energy independence,” said West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.

West Virginia and Montana are joining Kansas in filing an amicus brief to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to rules that give the federal government the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The states want the court to rule that the EPA misinterpreted its authority under the Clean Air Act and has overreached.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Divide Between Senators Paul and McCain Over Syria Grow Deeper

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Photo Credit: AP/REUTERS

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Arizona Sen. John McCain are once again banging heads – this time over whether to arm Syrian rebels – in the latest dispute that underscores a divide in the GOP and intensifies the fight over what the party will represent in 2016 and beyond.

Paul, a first-term senator and Tea Party favorite surging in popularity, took the latest shot by opposing aid to the rebels – a key part of McCain’s plan to end the two-year Syrian civil war in which 70,000 civilians and others have been killed.

“It is very clear that any attempt to aid the Syrian rebels would be complicated and dangerous, precisely because we don’t know who these people are,” Paul wrote in an opinion piece earlier this week. “The situation in Syria is certainly dire. … Al Qaeda is making confirmed inroads into the country. No one wants to see Syria become a bastion of extremism. But like other American interventions in the past, U.S. involvement could actually help the extremists.”

But McCain, fresh off a secret trip to Syria, on Friday upped his call for intervention — telling the Associated Press the opposition needs heavy weapons.

Read more from this story HERE.