Lawmakers Demand Army Apologize for Anti-Christian Briefing

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At least a dozen members of Congress have signed a letter demanding the Secretary of the Army rescind and apologize for a briefing that labeled Evangelical Christians and Catholics as religious extremist groups, sources on Capitol Hill tell me.

“This is astonishing and offensive,” read a draft of the letter written by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO). “We call on you to rescind this briefing and apologize for its content and set the record straight on the Army’s view on these faith groups by providing a balanced briefing on religious extremism.”

Lamborn is referring to an Army training session conducted last year that featured a presentation listing Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of extremism – alongside Al Qaeda and Hamas.

Army spokesman George Wright later said it was an isolated incident not condoned by the Dept. of the Army. And the slide, he said, was not produced by the Army nor did it reflect their policy or doctrine.

“To say that Evangelicals or Catholics are somehow in the same league with Al Qaeda or the KKK is outrageous,” Lamborn told me.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gun Control and Immigration Deals in the Works: Is the GOP Selling Us Out Again?

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

For the first time in a while, members of the two parties — at least some of them — appear to be talking about getting things done, even without the deadline of a manufactured crisis looming.

With Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) reaching a deal to expand background checks on firearms purchases, the way appears to have been cleared for the Senate to start debate on gun-control legislation. Although their provision is not as far-reaching as what President Obama proposed after the Newtown massacre in December, he praised it as “common sense.”

Another bipartisan deal also is in the offing, as a group of eight senators nears final agreement on a plan that would give illegal immigrants a path to legal status and, potentially, citizenship.

And Wednesday night, Obama continued his outreach to Senate Republicans, dining with a dozen of them to discuss the nation’s fiscal future and the budget he put forward earlier in the day. It was the second such dinner in a matter of weeks.

“What we did, we did right,” said Manchin in an interview Wednesday, referring to his background-check deal. “And you have to look at that in the toxic atmosphere that we’re in, that I’ve experienced for 2 1 / 2 years. Oh Lordy, if we’re able to get this, I think, good piece of legislation through, it’ll be a major accomplishment.”

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Rand Paul Speaks at Black College: Reject the 'Caricature' of the GOP

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By Alexis Levinson. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), the 2010-vintage Tea Party insurgent who is now considering a 2016 presidential bid, told an audience Wednesday at the historically black Howard University that the Republican Party is still the party of civil rights, and that black voters should look at the substance of Republican ideas and how they would help everyone, rather than accepting the “caricature” of the party described by Democrats.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney overwhelmingly lost black voters in November, prompting an effort on the part of Republicans to reach out to minorities.

Paul acknowledged that he was in potentially unfriendly territory.

“Some people have asked if I’m nervous about speaking at Howard. They say ‘You know, some of the students and faculty may be Democrats,’” Paul joked at the start of the speech.

But, he said, “My hope is that you will hear me out, that you will see me for who I am, not the caricature sometimes presented by political opponents.” Republicans, he said, are not the party of rich white men that they have been portrayed to be. Read more from this story HERE.

Paul gets cool reception at Howard

By Francesca Chambers. Located just minutes away from the U.S. Capitol in northern Washington, DC, Howard University – one of the nation’s oldest black colleges – offered the perfect opportunity for Kentucky Senator and 2016 hopeful Rand Paul to test out the Republican Party’s new message of “Growth and Opportunity.”

Since President Barack Obama’s reelection, in which he carried 95 percent of the black vote, Republican party leaders have sought to convey that not only does the GOP want to be the Grand Old Party, it also wants to be the party of the young and less fortunate.

“Some have said that I’m either brave or crazy to be here today. I’ve never been one to watch the world go by without participating,” Paul told Howard’s students. “I take to heart the words of Toni Morrison of Howard University, who wrote: “If there is a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

And while Paul spoke to a packed house, the message from attendees at Paul’s speech Wednesday was clear: We’re willing to listen, but don’t expect us to change our party affiliation anytime soon.

“I don’t think he changed any minds,” one student said, noting that Howard has a tradition of allowing controversial figures speak at their university in order to get a broad range of viewpoints. Read more from this story HERE.

AFL-CIO: We Will 'Steamroller' any Lawmakers Who Oppose Amnesty

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A principal official at the AFL-CIO, one of America’s biggest labor unions, said Wednesday the organization would politically demolish any politician who opposes mass amnesty for the country’s at least 11 million illegal immigrants.

“Politicians know that if they stand in the way of citizenship we will steamroller them,” AFL-CIO director of immigration Ana Avendaño said, according to the Financial Times. “That’s a fun evolution.”

Avendaño (pictured) has been involved in the immigration reform negotiations between the labor community, the business community, and the bipartisan Gang of Eight U.S. Senators.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Leaders Dismiss Obama’s Budget Plan

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By Neil Munro. Republican budget leaders dismissed President Barack Obama’s 2014 budget plan as mess of fiscal gimmicks, shirked duties, accounting flim-flam and escalating debt.

The 10-year budget claims to cut $1.8 trillion from future borrowing, but actually trims only $119 billion from the 10-year, $46.5 trillion spending plan, Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House’s budget committee, said April 10.

The removal of the budget tricks “knocks you down to $119 [billion] in actual deficit reduction,” he said. Promised spending reductions are also postponed way into the future, Ryan said. Obama’s budget writers “don’t even start deficit reduction until four years after he’s left office,” he said.

“We are not seeing responsible leadership,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, chairman of the Senate’s budget committee. The administration is “under the mis-impression that deficit don’t matter [and] that they can continue to borrow and spend.”

In his Rose Garden speech today, Obama touted his budget, saying “the numbers work. There’s not a lot of smoke and mirrors in here.” Read more from this story HERE.

President Obama’s budget includes $1 trillion tax hike and $744 billion deficit

By Brian Hughes. President Obama on Wednesday unveiled his $3.8 trillion budget proposal for 2014, calling for higher taxes in exchange for cost reductions in Social Security and Medicare, a proposal swiftly rejected both by his Republican rivals and Democratic allies.

The president’s budget — which would produce a $744 billion deficit next year — includes about $1 trillion in new taxes over the next decade, including nearly doubling the federal tax on cigarettes to $1.95 a pack, increasing the estate tax, and eliminating some tax deductions and loopholes for wealthier Americans.

The budget would raise the national minimum wage to $9 an hour and spend an additional $50 billion on public works projects that could generate jobs.

From the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, the president said he would support cuts to entitlement programs only if Congress approves his proposed tax increases.

“If anyone thinks I’ll finish the job of deficit reduction on the backs of middle-class families or through spending cuts alone that actually hurt our economy short-term, they should think again,” the president said. “When it comes to deficit reduction, I’ve already met Republicans more than half way.” Read more from this story HERE.

Will New York Take the Weiner Back?

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Photo Credit: Pablo Manriquez

A bold comeback attempt or the height of chutzpah? In what could be the start of one of the most intriguing second acts in American politics, Anthony Weiner, the congressman who tweeted himself out of a job two years ago with a photo of his bulging underpants, is considering jumping into the New York City mayor’s race.

The Brooklyn Democrat said in a New York Times Magazine story posted online Wednesday that he realizes he would be an underdog, but he wants to “ask people to give me a second chance.”

“I do recognize, to some degree, it’s now or maybe never for me,” Weiner, 48, said in a long and highly personal profile that he clearly hoped would be the start of his rehabilitation.

But are voters ready to forgive? Will they at least stop giggling long enough to hear what he has to say?

Political analysts say Weiner would face a steep climb to get past his past, but his political skills, his rich reserve of campaign money and the dynamics of a crowded Democratic primary could make him a player, if not a clear winner, in the contest this fall to succeed Michael Bloomberg as mayor of the nation’s largest city.

Read more from this story HERE.

Post Office Backs Off Threat to End Saturday Mail Delivery

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The financially beleaguered Postal Service backpedaled on its plan to end Saturday mail delivery, conceding Wednesday that its gamble to compel congressional approval had failed.

With limited options for saving money, the governing board said the agency should reopen negotiations with unions to lower labor costs and consider raising mail prices.

Yet the board also said it’s not possible for the Postal Service to meet its goals for reduced spending without altering the delivery schedule. Delaying “responsible changes,” the board said, only makes it more likely that the Postal Service “may become a burden” to taxpayers.

Congressional reaction was mixed, mirroring differences that have stalled a needed postal overhaul for some time. Some lawmakers had urged the agency to forge ahead with its plan, while others had said it lacked the legal authority to do so.

The Postal Service said in February that it planned to switch to five-day-a-week deliveries beginning in August for everything except packages as a way to hold down losses. That announcement was risky. The agency was asking Congress to drop from spending legislation the longtime ban on five-day-only delivery. Congress did not do that when it passed a spending measure last month.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP and Democrats Announce Compromise on Gun Control; Aide Says it Wouldn't Have Stopped Newtown

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Republican Pat Toomey and Democrat Joe Manchin announced a gun bill compromise to expand background checks earlier today. The legislation is in direct response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December.

“This amendment won’t ease the pain … but nobody here, not one of us in this great capital of ours in good conscious could sit by and not try to prevent a day like that from happening again,” Manchin told the press at today’s announcement.

But aides on Capitol Hill admit that there is not a thing in the bill that would have prevented the killer, Adam Lanza, from killing 26 at the school in Newtown, Connecticut.

“There’s nothing in this legislation that addresses the fact pattern at Sandy Hook,” a senior Senate aide told me on the phone.

The aide explains that the bill expands on the background-check system already in place, but that the system doesn’t work properly. “They are expanding on a broken system that we know will fail,” says the aide.

Read more from this story HERE.

Politico, Washington Post Carry Fabricated Stories About Palin in Wake of Thatcher's Death

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Mainstream media publications immediately exploited the passing of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Monday to again advance their political agendas by falsely smearing former Alaska Gov. and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

In a rush to write whatever they could to tarnish both, outlets like Politico and the Washington Post resorted to “reporting” on a fictitious story and an imaginary trip that have already been debunked years ago.

The Post, a publication known for its liberal agenda, immediately “re-upped” the debunked story about Thatcher having snubbed Palin when Chris Cillizza, the editor of “The Fix,” allowed his underling to publish parts of the disproven 2011 report.

Politico ironically included the story in its article about Thatcher as well, even though the publication debunked the story two years ago.

In 2011, a left-wing and anti-Thatcher British newspaper, the Guardian, tried to smear Palin by writing a fictitious story, with an anonymous quote, about how Thatcher supposedly snubbed Palin for a meeting that had never even been scheduled, as both camps immediately confirmed. The British newspaper also claimed a Thatcher adviser called Palin “nuts.”

Read more from this story HERE.

14 Slashed, Stabbed With Knife in Texas Campus Assault, 2 Critical

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A student went on a building-to-building stabbing attack at a Texas community college Tuesday, wounding at least 14 people before being subdued and arrested, authorities said.

The attack at about 11:20 a.m. on the Lone Star Community College System campus sent at least 12 people to area hospitals, including four people taken by helicopter, according to volunteer fire department spokesman Robert Rasa. He said several people refused treatment at the scene and all the wounds were consistent with stabbing.

Sheriff Adrian Garcia said officers responded to the campus after receiving a call about a male “on the loose” stabbing people. He said it was not immediately clear what type of weapon was used.

“Some of the details in the call slip did indicate that students or faculty were actively responding to work to subdue this individual,” Garcia said, describing the man as being about 21 years old and enrolled at the college. “So we’re proud of those folks, but we’re glad no one else is injured any more severely than they are.”

Lone Star officials initially urged people on campus, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of downtown Houston, to take shelter and be on alert for a second suspect. But the sheriff’s department said a short time later that authorities believed just one person was responsible.

Read more from this story HERE.