Bloomberg Booed At Annual St. Patrick’s Parade In Storm-Ravaged Rockaways

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Photo Credit: Michael HicksMayor Bloomberg was booed yesterday as he walked in the annual St. Patrick’s Parade in the hurricane-ravaged Rockaways.

The jeers grew so loud toward the end of the Queens parade that mayoral candidate and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn appeared to break away from the mayor to march separately.

A spokesman for Quinn later said she always intended to walk separately from the mayor. Locals didn’t spare their ire over the area’s slow recovery, hoisting signs reading, “Mr. Mayor, we need jetties” and “Listen to the Rockaways.”

“We’ve been dying down here, up to our ears in muck trying to rebuild, get back to a regular life,” one heckler told The Post.

“For the politicians to come down here and try to take our celebration and make it their thing . . . it’s disgusting.” At the end of the route, Bloomberg thanked the Sanitation Department, cops and firefighters who worked to restore the neighborhood after the storm.

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‘Israel Lobby’ Author Addresses State Department

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Photo Credit: APA controversial author and longtime critic of the U.S.-Israel alliance lectured at the State Department Friday on the eve of the AIPAC policy conference, Washington’s largest annual pro-Israel gathering.

Stephen Walt, coauthor of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy and professor of international affairs at Harvard University, was the featured speaker at the Secretary’s Open Forum on Friday afternoon. His topic: “Top reasons American foreign policy fails,” according to a copy of the event flyer posted in the hallways of Foggy Bottom.

It is unclear how high the U.S.-Israel relationship ranked on Walt’s list.

One State Department insider provided the announcement flyer to the Free Beacon and expressed concern that the Department would host such a divisive figure.

Walt’s speech, which took place as Secretary of State John Kerry traveled overseas on his first diplomatic tour, came days after the Senate confirmed Chuck Hagel as secretary of Defense on a sharply divided vote of 58-41. Walt emerged as a strong supporter of Hagel’s nomination, defending the former Nebraska GOP senator’s remarks that the “Jewish lobby” “intimidates” elected officials on Capitol Hill.

The Washington Free Beacon reported on a contemporaneous account, written by a Hagel supporter, of a 2007 speech the then-senator delivered at Rutgers University in which he is alleged to have said that the State Department was an adjunct of the Israeli foreign minister’s office. Hagel said he did not recall making that statement in a letter to Senators Lindsey Graham (R., SC) and Kelly Ayotte (R., NH) and disavowed its content.

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China Deal Benefits Obama Donors

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The government watchdog group Judicial Watch is suing the Treasury Department for records pertaining to the department’s decision to grant a Chinese government-backed company access to oil deposits in the Gulf of Mexico, a move that will benefit Obama donors.

The Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) reached a “definitive agreement” with Nexen, Inc., a Canadian energy company, announced on July 23, 2012, to buy all of the company’s outstanding public shares. Nexen has holdings in the Gulf of Mexico and Canada, giving the Chinese government access to millions of barrels of Keystone XL and Gulf reserve oil.

Nexen’s holdings in the Gulf, coupled with the Chinese government’s ownership of CNOOC, meant the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States had to approve the takeover, which it did on Feb. 12.

The secretaries of several major executive departments—including treasury, state, defense, and homeland security—sit on the committee.

Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information on the deal in November, but the Treasury Department did not reply within the mandatory 20 days. Judicial Watch then filed suit on Feb. 14 to get access to the documents.

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High School Student Disarms Gunman . . . Gets Suspended

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A Florida high school student wrestled a loaded gun away from another teen on the bus ride home this week and was slapped with a suspension in return.

The 16-year-old Cypress Lake High student in Fort Myers, Fla. told WFTX-TV there was “no doubt” he saved a life after grappling for the loaded .22 caliber revolver being aimed point-blank at another student on Tuesday.

“I think he was really going to shoot him right then and there,” said the suspended student, not identified by WFTX because of safety concerns. “Not taking no pity.”

The student said the suspect, a football player, threatened to shoot a teammate because he had been arguing with his friend.

Authorities confirmed to WFTX the weapon was indeed loaded, and the arrest report stated the suspect, identified by WVZN-TV as Quadryle Davis, was “pointing the gun directly” at the other student and “threatening to shoot him.”

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Surrender: Rep. Issa Reportedly Cut Deal to Ease Up on Obama Investigations

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Photo Credit: Chris MaddaloniIn late February 1997, the second month of President Bill Clinton’s second term, the media was in a feeding frenzy over documents obtained by the House oversight panel that showed Clinton had used perks such as overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom to woo big-dollar donors.

Sixteen years later, a Democratic president begins his second term with Republicans controlling the House, and, as in 1997, the two parties are locked in a heated showdown over spending cuts.

But when The New York Times reported Feb. 22 that President Barack Obama’s campaign arm was offering quarterly meetings with the commander in chief for a $500,000 donation, the news was met with silence from California Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Issa, in his past two years as chairman of the panel, is turning over a new leaf, focusing on legislative work he hopes could buttress his legacy.

Despite the heated conflict of the past two years, the California Republican has brokered something of a truce with his combative foil, Maryland Democrat Elijah E. Cummings, the committee’s ranking member.

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RNC Event Snags 2016 Hopefuls

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Five of the most talked-about potential 2016 GOP presidential candidates will spend the weekend together next month huddling with top Republican donors near Miami.

The RNC has snagged former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to attend their quarterly finance meeting, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO.

The Republican VIPs will convene at Coral Gables’ ritzy Biltmore Hotel over the weekend of March 9th-10th for an event that’s a perk for the RNC’s top donors. There’s a reception and dinner Friday, a full slate of events Saturday and a breakfast on Sunday. It’s less of a fundraiser than a chance for big givers to get face time with some of the biggest names in the party. RNC Chair Reince Priebus will also be in attendance and speak about the GOP’s future and will be joined by assorted other Republican members of Congress and officials.

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Moral Decay in Bull’s-Eye of Billboard, Banner Campaigns: ‘What Happens in Vegas, God Knows’

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A man who has been placing Ten Commandment billboards and displays around the country for several years says he is excited about WND founder Joseph Farah’s new billboard campaign to remind the public of their accountability to God’s moral law.

“If between us we can put thousands of these billboards and displays up, I truly believe America could turn around from the moral decay we have been seeing,” Philip Klevmoen founder of God’s Ten Commandments said.

Klevmoen founded the ministry in 2005 to draw people’s hearts back to God through public displays of the Ten Commandments, along with Scripture verses to convict people of their need to establish a relationship with God. The ministry provides banners as well as magnets and T-shirts of various sizes for display on vehicles.

“My goal is to have it where everywhere a person goes they will see the word of God, which will pierce their soul and remind them they are accountable for their sin before God,” he explained. “People can put it on the tailgates of their pickups or the sides of their vehicles. When a person is stuck behind or beside them in traffic they have God’s Ten Commandments in front of them where they cannot help but read them.”

He said one of the key people who motivated him to begin his ministry was Alabama state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. The judge is known as the Ten Commandments judge following his refusal to remove a display of the Ten Commandments from his state court building.

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Sanford Is Frontrunner in S.C. House Race, But Says Political Return ‘Humbling, Difficult’

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South Carolina’s unpredictable political universe is now in full orbit with a special election next month that features 18 congressional candidates including a former governor and two first-timers with celebrity last names.

That former Republican Gov. Mark Sanford is an early favorite for the seat he held from 1995 to 2001, despite having had an extra-marital affair while in office, is no surprise.

The open seat is in the conservative 1st congressional district, in largely conservative South Carolina. Furthermore, only Sanford appears to have the kind of political name recognition to raise enough money over such a short period.

“We’ve got a tight time frame, and Sanford’s name ID allows him to be the frontrunner,” said Republican strategist Adam Temple, who has worked for South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint and on Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Sanford told FoxNews.com this week he’s so far been humbled by the experience, with everybody from fellow state Republicans to everyday voters appearing ready to give him another shot at elected office.

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Wall Street Legend Warns: A ‘Storm’ Is Coming

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Photo Credit: BloombergNoted hedge fund manager Stan Druckenmiller, 59, on Friday warned that the U.S. economy is headed for a “storm” that could prove to be far worse than the financial meltdown of 2008.

But first, if you’re not familiar with his name, here’s what you need to know: He’s one of the most respected and successful hedge fund managers in the past 30 years.

Obviously, you don’t achieve that type of success (or notoriety) on Wall Street by running your mouth. That being said, if Druckenmiller, a former partner of billionaire liberal philanthropist George Soros, is predicting serious economic trouble for the U.S., perhaps we should listen.

“I see a storm coming, maybe bigger than the storm we had in 2008, 2010. And really, the reason could happen without people looking as for a lot of similar reasons that we could get into,” he said during an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Stephanie Ruhle.

“But the basic the basic story is, the demographic bubble I was looking at way back in ’94 that started in 2011, we are right at the first ramp-up of this thing that is about to hit,” he added.

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College Shuts Down Student Bible Study

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Photo Credit: Town Hall Officials at a Florida college ordered a group of students to shut down a Bible study they were holding in the privacy of a dorm room – because it violated the rules.

The incident occurred at Rollins College in the midst of a campus battle over whether religious groups that require their leaders to follow specific religious beliefs are violating the school’s non-discrimination policies.

Four students affiliated with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship were holding an informal Bible study in the common area of a dorm suite. Midway through the study, a resident hall assistant entered the room and asked the student leading the study to step outside.

“He was told they were no longer allowed inside the dorm – even with the express consent of the students to do Bible studies,” said Greg Jao, InterVarsity’s national field director. “They said it was because InterVarsity was no longer a registered student group on campus.”

The well-known Christian ministry was de-recognized as an official campus organization after they refused to comply with the college’s non-discrimination policy.

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