Republican-led House Rules Committee Bars Amendments That Would Remove Pork From Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill

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The Republican-led House Rules Committee late Monday approved a rule for a massive Hurricane Sandy relief package that shuts out most GOP proposals to pare back the size of the bill.

The main bill provides $17 billion in relief, and an amendment made in order would add another $33.7 billion, for a total of $50.7 billion.

Late last week, Republicans offered amendments that would trim the bill significantly, but few of those were made “in order” by the Rules Committee on Monday. For example, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) proposed amendments that would have slashed $22 billion from the total package, but none of them were accepted by the committee.

And Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) proposed several amendments that would have cut more than $300 million from the bill. House Rules made just one of these in order — to cut $13 million in funding to “accelerate the National Weather Service ground readiness project.”

All told, Republican amendments were made in order that would cut less than $200 million from the $50.7 billion package. One of these, from Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas), would cut $150 million for Regional Ocean Partnership grants.

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Itchin’ for a Fight: Senators Express Disapproval of Obama Judicial Nominees

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President Barack Obama last week re-nominated 33 individuals to federal benches, several of whom faced stiff resistance when originally nominated.

The judicial nominations come as the president faces stiff confirmation battles for some of his cabinet nominations, including over secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel.

The judicial nominations have raised concerns among court-watchers of increased judicial activism and maneuvering for potential Supreme Court vacancies.

“He wants to appoint judges based on their empathy rather than based on their commitment to the law,” said Carrie Severino, chief counsel for the Judicial Crisis Network, a judicial watchdog group.

Severino highlighted Caitlin Halligan’s nomination to the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals. Citing her stated positions on affirmative action, gun rights, gay rights, and environmental issues, Severino said Halligan “has staked out a position that is well left of the American people.”

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Section 8 Housing Voucher Distribution Canceled After Thousands Waiting in Line Get Out of Control (+video)

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TAYLOR, Mich. – A chaotic scene erupted at the Taylor Human Services Center when the crowd waiting for a Section 8 housing voucher distribution got out of control.

The center is located at Eureka and Lange Roads. That’s on Eureka, between Beech Daly and Inkster.

Police say thousands of people from all over the area were at the center. Many were homeless, single moms, or disabled. They were hoping to get help paying for their housing from the government.

“There was elderly, disabled people, pregnant single women. They were here for help, to get their Section 8 vouchers. It just shows you what a desperate need… some were here since yesterday,” said Rhianna Rodriguez.

7 Action News is being told there were 1,000 vouchers available and 5,000 people showed up trying to get one.

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David Gregory Gets Off Scot-Free

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The attorney general for the District of Columbia, Irvin Nathan, announced Friday that he will not press charges against NBC News’ David Gregory nor any employee of the broadcast network for violating the city’s gun laws. Violation of the city’s firearms laws carry a maximum $1,000 fine and one year in jail.

Mr. Nathan wrote to an attorney representing Mr. Gregory and NBC News, Lee Levine of Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, LLP, that, “OAG has made this determination, despite the clarity of the violation of this important law, because under all of the circumstances here a prosecution would not promote public safety in the District of Columbia nor serve the best interests of the people of the District to whom this office owes its trust.”

In the three-page letter, Mr. Nathan also wrote that “no specific intent is required for this violation, and ignorance of the law or even confusion about it is no defense.” He said, “We therefore did not rely in making our judgment on the feeble and unsatisfactory efforts that NBC made to determine whether or not it was lawful to possess, display and broadcast this large capacity magazine as a means of fostering the public policy debate.”

The full text of the letter is at the bottom of this story.

The “Meet the Press” anchor ignored police guidance and held up an illegal 30-round rifle magazine in his D.C. studio during an interview on Dec. 23 with the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre on gun-control laws.

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Separation of Church and State Isn’t Such a Good Idea After All; Biden Urges Religious Groups to Preach Gun Control

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President Barack Obama is trying an end run around the NRA — rallying groups as varied as churches, medical organizations, retailers and the Rotary Club to build support for new gun regulations.

It’s an unusual strategy but one the Obama administration has used before: projecting strength on an issue by trying to create the perception that the White House is riding a wave of momentum from the American people. It was the theme of Obama’s two presidential campaigns and was central to his campaign-style road show to tout his fiscal cliff priorities in December.

Participants in Vice President Joe Biden’s meetings have said the White House is seeking to mount an aggressive effort to back the gun control push, which is likely to formally commence next week after Biden delivers his recommendations to the president.

During one session with a dozen religious leaders on Wednesday, Biden made a specific request to those gathered to preach to their congregations about the importance of enacting stronger gun control laws, said the Rev. Michael McBride, a participant in the meeting and a community organizer for the PICO Network, an alliance of faith-based organizations.

“The vice president shared how he felt this was one of the most important meetings of all the meetings, that the faith leaders, the faith community has a very unique role in engaging in the moral persuasion necessary to address the gun challenges in our country,” McBride said. “He called upon us to take that seriously and that the administration and everyone involved is going to be looking to us to help to make that argument across the different faith traditions.”

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Diversity Training Obama-Style: USDA Sessions Included Participants Chanting ‘Our Forefathers Were Illegal Immigrants’

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A U.S. Department of Agriculture official has confirmed some of the government’s “diversity training” – including participants banging on tables and chanting, “Our forefathers were illegal immigrants!” – was “not in line” with USDA guidelines.

Breitbart reported last year the USDA paid a Chicago-based diversity training and consulting firm $200,000 to hold a series of “Diversity Training Workshops” around the country.

According to a press statement issued by the Department of Agriculture, the workshops were designed to “foster overall diversity awareness.”

Documents obtained by the watchdog groupJudicial Watch, however, revealed the seminars required participants to chant, “Our forefathers were illegal immigrants!” and encouraged the attendees to bang on the tables while chanting the phrase.

Souder, Betances and Associates was given the USDA contract to conduct the training seminars.

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Teacher Forced to Remove Reagan Quote, Bible Verses From Classroom

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A New York public school teacher who advised a school Bible Study club has filed a civil rights lawsuit against her school district after she was forced to remove all religious content from her classroom — including a quote from former President Ronald Reagan.

Joelle Silver, a veteran teacher in the Cheektowaga Central School District in western New York, said she received a “counseling letter” signed by her superintendent that ordered her to remove all religious-themed items from her classroom or else she could be fired.

The eight-page letter informed the teacher that “your rights to free speech and expression are not as broad as if your were simply a private citizen.”

Among the items that had to be removed were a poster with an inspirational Bible verse superimposed over an American flag and inspirational messages she had written on sticky notes kept on her desk, according to court documents obtained by Fox News.

The school district also ordered her to remove a quote from former President Ronald Reagan which read in part — “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.”

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Voter ID Battle Set to Rage Again

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The national battle over voter ID laws that roiled the presidential campaign for a time then fizzled before Election Day is set to rage again in 2013.

This year promises a flurry of new voter ID legislation across the country as well as reignited court battles in states where the laws were blocked last year and a Supreme Court ruling on part of the Voting Rights Act.

All of the activity will bring the debate — which pits conservatives targeting potential election fraud against voting-rights groups convinced the laws are really about disenfranchising low-propensity liberal voters — to the forefront again.

“There are a number of states where there’s clearly active legislative attempts to make their voter ID laws more restrictive,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, which has been involved in court challenges to a handful of the voter ID laws around the country. “This is not an issue that has gone away.”

States with voter ID legislation to be debated this year include Alaska, Arkansas, New York, North Carolina, Missouri, Montana, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin. All of the bills would require voters to present some kind of government-issued photo ID in order to vote.

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FreedomWorks Intends to Use New Year’s Day Tax ‘Massacre’ in 2014 Primaries

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The fiscal cliff deal cut in the wee hours of New Year’s Day was a late Christmas present, according to FreedomWorks’ Matt Kibbe, whose tea party group plans to capitalize on what he called a tax “massacre” heading into the 2014 midterm elections.

“Our sense is that the New Year’s Day massacre is … unfortunately, is going to be a gift that keeps giving,” Kibbe told The Daily Caller in a phone interview.

Asked who was massacred, Kibbe said “the taxpayers … [and] fiscal responsibility are getting massacred.”

“I think, whether we like it or not, this constant budget crisis — which I think is by design — is going to continue to define the congressional debate all the way up until the 2014 election,” he continued.

“And we view each of these failures … as opportunities to educate the American public on the gross irresponsibility of the representation in Washington,” Kibbe said, describing it as “a teaching moment for America on exactly how not to do things.”

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Obama To Begin Aggressive Push for Amnesty

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WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to push Congress to move quickly in the coming months on an ambitious overhaul of the immigration system that would include a path to citizenship for most of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, senior administration officials and lawmakers said last week.

Mr. Obama and Senate Democrats will propose the changes in one comprehensive bill, the officials said, resisting efforts by some Republicans to break the overhaul into smaller pieces — separately addressing young illegal immigrants, migrant farmworkers or highly skilled foreigners — which might be easier for reluctant members of their party to accept.

The president and Democrats will also oppose measures that do not allow immigrants who gain legal status to become American citizens one day, the officials said.

Even while Mr. Obama has been focused on fiscal negotiations and gun control, overhauling immigration remains a priority for him this year, White House officials said. Top officials there have been quietly working on a broad proposal. Mr. Obama and lawmakers from both parties believe that the early months of his second term offer the best prospects for passing substantial legislation on the issue.

Mr. Obama is expected to lay out his plan in the coming weeks, perhaps in his State of the Union address early next month, administration officials said. The White House will argue that its solution for illegal immigrants is not an amnesty, as many critics insist, because it would include fines, the payment of back taxes and other hurdles for illegal immigrants who would obtain legal status, the officials said.

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