Rubio: More Government Breeds More Problems (+video)

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore Responding to President Obama’s State of the Union address on behalf of the Republican Party, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tonight made the case that the president’s calls for government investments are misguided and potentially destructive.

While agreeing with the president on some issues and taking an optimistic tone for the future, Rubio sought to offer a conservative alternative to the president’s agenda, one which takes decision-making out of Washington.

Opportunity, Rubio said, “it isn’t bestowed on us from Washington. It comes from a vibrant free economy where people can risk their own money to open a business.”

In his address before a joint session of Congress, Mr. Obama told lawmakers, “We need to build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class for all who are willing to climb them.” The president laid out a series of actions Washington can take to revive the economy, including investments in the private sector. Rubio, however, charged tonight that Mr. Obama considers a free enterprise economy as “the cause of our problems.”

“His solution to virtually every problem we face is for Washington to tax more, borrow more and spend more,” Rubio said of the president. “And the idea that more taxes and more government spending is the best way to help hardworking middle class taxpayers – that’s an old idea that’s failed every time it’s been tried. More government isn’t going to help you get ahead. It’s going to hold you back. More government isn’t going to create more opportunities. It’s going to limit them.”

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Obama Presses For New Spending, Says Gun Control Bills ‘Deserve A Vote’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: BlatantWorld.comPresident Obama, clearly emboldened off his reelection win, used his State of the Union address Tuesday night to press for more government spending, challenge Republicans over Medicare and declare that victims of gun violence “deserve a vote” on a sweeping gun control package.

In what was effectively the kick-off address of his second term, Obama largely pressed on with the policies of his first, while adding a roster of wish-list items – including a call to increase the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour, up from $7.25, and pass immigration reform.

The speech was wrapped in the theme of boosting the middle class and jolting what continues to be a tepid economic recovery. “It is our generation’s task … to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class,” Obama said.

Still, Republicans saw in his address a president clinging to ideas they have repeatedly rejected, and say do not work.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who was delivering the GOP response, said Obama’s solution “to virtually every problem we face is for Washington to tax more, borrow more and spend more.” More government, he said, will “hold you back.”

See more:

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Coldcock Cop: I thought I Was Swiping A Corona (+shocking video)

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Photo Credit: philly.comEven former Philadelphia Police Lt. Jonathan Josey called the video “disturbing.” The video of him swinging at and decking a woman at a Fairhill street party after last year’s Puerto Rican Day parade was enough to end his decorated 19-year police career and get him charged with simple assault.

But after a three-hour nonjury trial Tuesday, in which Josey testified that he accidentally hit Aida Guzman while trying to knock a beer bottle from her hand, a troubled-looking Municipal Court Judge Patrick F. Dugan seemed uncertain.

Saying he “needed more time to digest this,” Dugan said he would announce his verdict from the bench on Feb. 26.

Dugan, 52, a judge since 2007 and a decorated Army captain who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, acknowledged the groans his delay triggered.

The courtroom was packed way beyond its 109-person capacity. Most appeared to be police officers or officials of the city’s police union, and many wore the distinctive black leather uniform of the Highway Patrol, to which Josey was assigned.

As clear-cut as the seconds-long video appears, both Josey and Guzman may have muddled its impact in their testimony.

See video of incident:

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‘The Silence Is Deafening, Mr. President’: Obama Has Yet To Acknowledge Death Of Legendary Seal Sniper Chris Kyle

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Photo Credit: The BlazeIt has been about 10 days since legendary Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle was tragically gunned down in Texas, and the president of the United States has yet to address his death.

President Barack Obama has not made a public statement regarding Kyle’s murder and his extraordinary service to his county, nor has the White House issued an official press release. Messages left by TheBlaze were not immediately returned by the White House.

Several Blaze readers have also suggested that the White House should have ordered flags be flown at half mast to honor Kyle. You may recall, Obama issued such orders to honor the late Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, the victims of Sandy Hook, and in honor of Arlen Specter, Neil Armstrong and Army Cpl. Frank W. Buckles, as well as others.

While those proclamations were more than necessary, many would argue an American hero like Chris Kyle — the “American Sniper” — undoubtedly deserves the same respect.

However, the most glaring oversight is still the fact that President Obama hasn’t so much as offered a public statement paying his respects to Kyle and his family.

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Food Stamp Rolls In America Now Surpass The Population of Spain

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Photo Credit: APSince taking office in 2009, food stamp rolls under President Barack Obama have risen to more than 47 million people in America, exceeding the population of Spain.

“Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity,” said Obama during his first joint session address to Congress on Feb. 24, 2009.

Since then, the number of participants enrolled in food stamps, known as the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP), has risen substantially.

When Obama entered office in January 2009 there were 31,939,110 Americans receiving food stamps. As of November 2012—the most recent data available—there were 47,692,896 Americans enrolled, an increase of 49.3 percent.

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Gore, Current Silent As Cleric Affirms Death Penalty For Leaving Islam On Al-Jazeera

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Photo Credit: Mark LennihanAides to former Democratic Vice President Al Gore have failed to respond to a recent Al-Jazeera TV broadcast, in which a top imam affirmed the death penalty for anyone who quits Islam.

Gore sold his Current TV network to Al-Jazeera, which now plans to extend its broadcast into the United States this summer, according to Ashok Sinha, vice president of corporate communications at Current TV/Al-Jazeera America.

Gore reportedly sold Current TV for $500 million and endorsed Al-Jazeera’s news programs.

Western critics of Islam highlighted a recent broadcast of the network’s regular “Shariah and Life” show, which has an estimated audience of 60 million viewers worldwide. The show’s host is Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent Sunni Islamic cleric.

He declared that Islam’s mandated death-penalty for apostasy has kept Islam alive since the 1400s. “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment Islam wouldn’t exist today,” Qaradawi said on the show.

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Fort Hood Hero Says President Obama ‘Betrayed’ Her, Other Victims

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Photo Credit: ABC NewsThree years after the White House arranged a hero’s welcome at the State of the Union address for the Fort Hood police sergeant and her partner who stopped the deadly shooting there, Kimberly Munley says President Obama broke the promise he made to her that the victims would be well taken care of.

“Betrayed is a good word,” former Sgt. Munley told ABC News in a tearful interview to be broadcast tonight on “World News with Diane Sawyer” and “Nightline.”

“Not to the least little bit have the victims been taken care of,” she said. “In fact they’ve been neglected.” There was no immediate comment from the White House about Munley’s allegations.

Thirteen people were killed, including a pregnant soldier, and 32 others shot in the November 2009 rampage by the accused shooter, Major Nidal Hasan, who now awaits a military trial on charges of premeditated murder and attempted murder.

Tonight’s broadcast report also includes dramatic new video, obtained by ABC News, taken in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, capturing the chaos and terror of the day.

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DHS Memo Reveals Government Not Screening Out Dependents in Immigration Process

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller After more than six months and three oversight requests, the Department of Homeland Security has finally responded to four Republican senators’ inquiry into why the government seems so willing to allow entry to immigrants likely to become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence, or “public charges.”

In the DHS response to Republican Sens. Jeff Sessions, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch and Pat Roberts — penned by Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Nelson Peacock and exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller — the department explains that from 2005 through Aug. 9, 2012, a total of 9,796 applicants under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) were denied admission because they were deemed likely to become a public charge.

According to a calculation from Sessions’ office, based on data from DHS’ Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, the total number of people denied admission constitutes only .0084 percent of approved VWP applicants in that seven-year period.

The VWP allows eligible citizens from 37 participating countries to enter the United States without first obtaining a visa for stays of 90 days or less. The applicants who were turned away were denied entry, not a visa — but either way, very few have been denied entry on public charge grounds in recent years.

The concern with these VWP participants is that they might overstay their 90-day limit through the program, which is easier to navigate than the process for obtaining a normal visa. An estimated 40 percent of illegal immigrants have overstayed their visas.

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Roger Ailes: Obama Is ‘Trying To Get Everybody To Hate Each Other’

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Photo Credit: BeckyFFox News president Roger Ailes believes President Obama “likes to divide people into groups.” “He’s too busy getting the middle class to hate rich people, blacks to hate whites. He is busy trying to get everybody to hate each other,” Ailes tells The New Republic’s Eliza Gray in an interview for this week’s issue.

But the interview isn’t about Obama. It’s about Ailes, and his hopes to market Fox News to Hispanics, a group alienated by right-wing media and the Republican party, but one that — according to oft-repeated conventional wisdom about Hispanic values — can be brought back into the fold.

“I happen to think that the Latino audience is an essentially traditional audience and will go to Fox News for traditional American values,” Ailes tells Gray. It’s just that “Republicans haven’t used the right language… They keep talking about illegal immigration.”

Of course, Fox News is the principle perpetrator in that regard. Gray cites a recent National Hispanic Media Coalition survey, which found “a consistent pattern whereby Fox News audiences are indeed more likely to hold negative stereotypes about Latinos.”

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A Godly Man In An Ungodly Age (+video)

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photo credit: sergey gabdurakhmanov“To govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me.”

With those brave, wise, simple words, Benedict XVI announced an end of his papacy. How stands the Church he has led for eight years?

While he could not match the charisma of his predecessor, John Paul II, his has been a successful papacy. He restored some of the ancient beauty and majesty to the liturgy. He brought back to the fold separated Anglican brethren. The Church is making converts in sub-Saharan Africa. And in America, new traditionalist colleges and seminaries have begun to flourish.

That is looking back eight years. Looking back half a century, to that October day in 1962 when Pope John XXIII declared the opening of Vatican II, the Church appears to have been in a decline that, in parts of the world, seems to be leading to near extinction.

At Vatican II, the Rev. Joseph Ratzinger, the future Benedict XVI, was among the reformers who were going to bring the Church into the modern world. The encounter did not turn out well.

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