Congress 'Astonished' by Military Smear of Christians

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Members of Congress have expressed astonishment that the U.S. Army Reserve would use a training brief that slams Catholics, evangelical Christians and others and are demanding the practice come to a halt – now.

“Our nation needs to have an honest conversation about religious extremism and what we can do to avoid religious violence. However, labeling these major world religions as extremists is wrong and hurtful,” said a letter by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., that was signed by dozens of other members.

It was addressed to Army Secretary John. M . McHugh at the Pentagon.

“We call on you to rescind this briefing and set the record straight on the Army’s view on these faith groups by providing a balanced briefing on religious extremism,” the letter said.

The letter was prompted by reports that soldiers were taught that evangelical Christians are an extremist threat to America along with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, KKK, Nation of Islam, al-Qaida and Hamas.

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Controversial CISPA Passed in Congress

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The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passed the House of Representatives on Friday and will now head to the upper Senate for further deliberation. This has happened before, but opponents of the controversial CISPA state that it poses a major threat to Fourth Amendment rights. After two days of debate and discussion, the bill was passed 288-127 in favor. Seventeen members of the House abstained from voting.

Proponents of the bill believe it will allow the U.S. government to stop cyber-attacks in their tracks. The bill will also amend the National Security Act. This change would allow U.S. intelligence services to give classified data to those who do not have clearance.

CISPA will allow companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other private sector technology or telecoms companies, including your cell phone service provider, to search personal and sensitive data of average U.S. residents to identify “threat information”.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama on Bomb Suspect Arrest: Don't 'Rush' to Judge 'Entire Groups of People'

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Following Friday’s capture of 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, President Obama warned against rushing to judgment about “entire groups of people,” the Associated Press reported.

“In this age of instant reporting, tweets, and blogs, there’s a temptations to latch on to any bit of information sometimes to jump to conclusions. When a tragedy like this happens, with public safety at risk and the stakes so high, it’s important that we do this right. That’s why we have investigations. That’s why we relentlessly gather the facts, that’s why we have courts. That’s why we take care not to rush to judgement, not about the motivations of these individuals and certainly not about entire groups of people,” he said.

“Translation: don’t look behind the curtain at the Islamic radical connection,” said a post at Weasel Zippers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate to Open Debate on Charging National Sales tax on Online Purchases

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Fresh off last week’s bitter battle over gun control legislation, the U.S. Senate is slated to delve into another divisive issue: legislation to tax Internet sales.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is expected to begin debate on the Marketplace Fairness Act as early as Monday with a possible vote on the measure by the end of the week.

The bill would allow states to require online retailers of a certain size to collect sales tax, even when the seller is from a different state. States now lose about $11 billion in tax revenue because online sales are not taxed, according to a 2011 report by Fitch Ratings.

Under current law, online retailers must collect taxes only in states where they have a physical presence. The legislation would compel those retailers to collect in all states, with an exception for retailers with annual sales of less than $1 million.

Support for the legislation crosses party lines but so does the opposition in the Senate.

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Home-Grown Terrorist Attack Threatens to Disrupt Obama Agenda

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The Boston Marathon terrorist attack allegedly hatched by two brothers from Chechnya is threatening to disrupt President Obama’s second-term agenda.

Opponents of immigration reform — the most promising priority of Obama’s second term remaining after the defeat of gun control — are already using the attack to try to slow progress on a bipartisan Senate bill.

More broadly, the attack is raising questions about how the administration should deal with 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was captured Friday after an exhaustive manhunt in Boston, and concerns over whether the FBI was too complacent in letting his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev out of its sight after interviewing him in 2011.

The issues are expected to create political problems and distractions for Obama, whose fight against terrorism has largely been a political success highlighted by the killing of Osama bin Laden.

It is unclear how much oxygen the issue will consume in the coming weeks, but it seems certain it will shift the political debates in Washington.

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Shooting at Colo. Pot Holiday Gathering Injures 2

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Gunfire erupted at a Denver pot celebration Saturday, injuring two people and scattering a crowd of thousands who had gathered for the first 4/20 counterculture holiday since the state legalized marijuana.

The man and woman who were shot were expected to survive, and police were looking for one or two suspects, said Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson. Police asked festival attendees for possible photo or video of the shootings, and had no immediate motive.

Witnesses described a scene in which a jovial atmosphere quickly turned to one of panic at the downtown Civic Center Park just before 5 p.m. Several thought firecrackers were being set off, then a man fell bleeding, his dog also shot.

“I saw him fall, grabbing his leg,” said Travis Craig, 28, who was at the celebration, saw the shooting and said he used a belt to apply a tourniquet to the man’s leg.

“He was just screaming that he was in pain, and wanted to know where his girlfriend was. She was OK. And then the cops showed up real quick, like, less than a minute. They put him on ambulance and left.”

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Dr. Ben Carson: ‘We’re Being Crucified by Political Correctness’

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Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon and best-selling author, spoke about how even regular reading by young people can improve their lives and society, but he stressed that a social hurdle is that “we’re being crucified by political correctness,” an unwillingness to tell the truth because it might offend someone or be deemed judgmental.

In an interview with black conservative activist Star Parker, founder of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, she asked Dr. Carson, “Now, this is where you seem to put a lot of emphasis with your life’s work, is that you can break poverty, you can break this cycle even in your family, even if everything around you is broken as you just described in this particular environment, with reading is it really that simple?”

Dr. Carson said, “That’s one of the major components

Watch video here:

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Captured Bombing Suspect: Pot Head, Obama Supporter and Other Quirky Details

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By Robby Soave. Boston bombing suspect and fugitive Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a “normal pot head” who supported President Obama for re-election last November, according to friends and his Twitter account.

Chris Barry, who attended the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with Tsarnaev, described him as normal teenager who loved to smoke pot and cigarettes every day.

“He was a pot head, a normal pot head,” said Barry in an interview with Politico. “I couldn’t even imagine him being mad at someone let alone hurting someone.”

Tsarnaev, a Muslim, did not come across as strongly religious, said Barry.

“He never brought it up. It seemed like he could care less,” he said. Read more from this story HERE.

“Barack, You My Dawg,” and other Pro-Obama Tweets

By Matthew Sheffield. Several posts on what several news organizations have confirmed as the Twitter profile of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev indicate that that the 19-year-old Chechnyan immigrant was a supporter of Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

If that is indeed the case, it does not mean that Obama has any sort of connection with or responsibility for the bombing suspect or his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. It does, however, completely reverse the fantasy that many American liberals were openly hoping for: that the bombing suspects might be revealed as Timothy McVeigh 2.0, someone whose very name they could use to smear and deride anyone who stands against their belief system. In other words, one of those “dog whistles” we keep hearing so much about.

Now that information has emerged which not only indicates the suspected bombers were not radical conservatives but that one of them appears to be a supporter of President Obama, how widely will it be spread in the endless series of reports trying to report as many details about the two suspects? Read more from this story HERE.

Father of Captured Bombing Suspect: ‘Tell the Police Everything’

By Bianna Golodryga. The father of a suspected Boston Marathon bomber started to cry when ABC News told him that his son had been captured alive.

“Thank God,” Anzor Tsarnaev said, speaking in Russian, thanking ABC News for relaying word that his son, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was in custody and alive.

Asked what he wanted to tell his son, Anzor Tsarnaev said, “Tell police everything. Everything. Just be honest.”

Tsarnaev spoke to ABC News on more than one occasion today from his home in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, Russia, as Boston police carried out an intense dragnet for his son.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev survived a running gun battle with police during the night that left an MIT security officer dead and a Boston police officer badly wounded. His older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in the shootout. Read more from this story HERE.

Captured Suspect: ‘I Don’t Have a Single American Friend’

By CBS Boston. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was killed early Friday, once described himself as not having a single American friend and aspired to be a U.S. Olympic boxer.

As police continue the extensive manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hours following a fatal shootout that killed his older brother, more details about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s personal life and past athletic aspirations are coming to light.

In Johannes Hirn’s photo essay, “Will Box for Passport,” Hirn profiled Tamerlan Tsarnaev on his road to the National Golden Gloves competition in Salt Lake City. Throughout the 15-picture photo essay, which has since been made a private gallery, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s life is on display, talking openly about his religion, his straight-edge lifestyle, his boxing dreams, and the difficult time he had adjusting to living in the U.S. for five years.

“I don’t have a single American friend, I don’t understand them,” Tamerlan Tsarnaev said in the photo essay. Read more from this story HERE.

Background on the Capture of the Second Bombing Suspect

By Sheldon Alberts, Daniel Strauss and Jonathan Easley. “We are exhausted folks, but we have a victory here tonight,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben said.

After a long day of tension and uncertainty, Tsarnaev’s capture happened in a burst of action Friday evening. It started shortly after an update on the investigation in which law enforcement announced that a daylong lockdown on Boston and the surrounding area had been lifted.

Just after that, gunshots sounded in Watertown, where officials suspected Tsarnaev had been hiding. A fleet of police cars sped to surround the suspect. What followed was a standoff as law enforcement officials eventually closed in on Tsarnaev, who was hiding in a boat behind a Watertown home.

Just before 9 p.m., Boston police tweeted that the suspect was custody.

“CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody,” the department wrote on Twitter. Read more from this story HERE.

Gosnell Trial Witness: Baby Abortion Survivor Was 'Swimming' in Toilet 'Trying to Get Out'

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By Elizabeth Harrington. On the last day of testimony before the prosecution rests in the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell, a former worker at Gosnell’s clinic testified that she saw one late-term baby who survived an abortion “swimming” in a toilet and “trying to get out.”

Kareema Cross, a “medical assistant” who worked at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society clinic for four-and-a-half years, testified in a Philadelphia court today, telling of the horrors of babies who survived abortions only to have their necks snipped with scissors.

“Did you ever see those babies move?” asked Prosecutor Joanne Pescatore.

“Yes, once in the toilet,” said Cross.

The baby “was like swimming,” she said. “Basically, trying to get out.” Read more from this story HERE.

Gosnell Worker: Baby Surviving Abortion ‘Breathing for about 20 Minutes’ Until Neck Was Slashed

By Cheryl Sullenger. While she worked for Gosnell, Cross testified that at least twice a day, six days a week, at least two babies would “precipitate” or be birthed before Gosnell ever arrived. She said “Dr. Steve,” Steven Massof, an unlicensed medical school graduate with a ghoulish curiosity about abortions, would be there to snip the babies’ necks. She saw him do it around 50 times. When babies “precipitated” in Gosnell’s presence, he would do the dirty deed himself.

Cross sometimes worked from 8:00 am until 3:00 the next morning helping with procedures. She routinely saw babies born alive, moving, breathing, and moaning.

Once in Gosnell’s absence, Cross saw a large baby delivered into the toilet. She saw his little arms and legs moving in a swimming motion as he struggled to get out of the toilet bowl. Cross held her hands 12-16 inches apart to demonstrate to the jury how big the baby was. Adrienne Moton, who was the first worker to testify for the prosecution, snipped the baby’s neck in front of the mother while she sat bleeding into the toilet. Moton then took the body away and put it into a container.

In 2009, Cross testified that another co-worker, Linda Williams, called Cross over to see a baby that had just been born. Cross saw the baby’s chest heaving up and down in steady breathing motions. Linda reached down and lifted the baby’s hand up, but the newborn pulled it away on its own strength. Cross said she saw the baby breathing for about 20 minutes before Williams murdered the child by severing its spinal cord with scissors. Cross demonstrated again with her hands that the baby was about a foot long. Read more from this story HERE.

Captured Suspect Favorited This Tweet: 'The Battle Within is Defined by the Word Jihad.'

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Photo Credit: FBI.gov

Amid the mundane chatter of an ordinary digital teenager, a Twitter account believed to belong to the Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was captured after eluding authorities on Friday contains some chilling chatter.

The @J_tsar Twitter feed is believed to belong to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, one of two Chechen brothers police say carried out Monday’s terror attack in Boston. Buzzfeed on Friday reported that a high school classmate of Dzhokhar, Stefanie Gardner, confirmed that the account belonged to Tsarnaev.

A tweet Tsarnaev marked as a favorite was apparently sent just hours before the attack, at 1:07 a.m. on Monday, from someone going by “Steezy_Be_Eazy”:

“The ultimate sacrifice is within you, The battle within is defined by the word jihad.”

The last tweet orginating from the account believed to be Tsarnaev’s, on April 16, after the Monday bombing that killed three and left dozens gruesomely injured: “I’m a stress free kind of guy.”

Read more from this story HERE.