Associated Press Story: Believe It or Not Mass Killings Are Not on the Rise, They Are on the Decline

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(AP) — A gold plaque hangs next to a bullet hole in the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., where a lone gunman killed six worshippers and injured three others last August. It is engraved with the words, “We Are One.”

“It frames the wound,” says Pardeep Kaleka, son of former temple president Satwant Singh Kaleka, who died in the massacre. “The wound of our community, the wound of our family, the wound of our society.”

In the past week, that wound has been ripped open with shocking ferocity.

In what has become sickeningly familiar, gunmen opened fire on innocents in what should be the safest of places – first, at a shopping mall in Oregon, and then, unthinkably, at an elementary school in Connecticut.

Once again there were scenes of chaos as rescuers and media descended on the scene. Once again there were pictures of weeping survivors clutching one another, of candlelight vigils and teddy bears left as loving memorials. And once again a chorus of pundits debated gun control and violence as society attempted to make sense of the senseless.

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Family, Friends Remember Heroic Sandy Hook Teacher Vicki Soto

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She took a bullet for her kids.

Teacher Victoria Soto used her body to shield her students from the maniacal gunman who launched a massacre at a Connecticut school, relatives said Saturday.

Soto paid for her bravery with her life. But in doing so, the 27-year-old may have saved her first-graders from the murderous wrath of Adam Lanza — and became a hero.

“The family received information she was found shielding her students in a closet,” Soto’s cousin Jim Wiltsie told the Daily News. “She put herself between the gunman and her students.”

Wiltsie said police told the family of Soto’s bravery at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

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Liberals Call For Murder Of NRA President, Members, and Repeal Of Second Amendment

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When I wrote yesterday about the liberals coming out against guns, I had no idea just how some people would react. What once would have been unthinkable to blast out into public seems to be becoming more normal via things like Twitter and Facebook. Below are a selection of Tweets that are clearly anti-Second Amendment and even calls for the murder of the National Rifle Association President David Keene, along with NRA members.

Isn’t that just like liberals? They are ticked off over a shooting that took innocent lives and they turn right around and want to murder innocent people that have done them absolutely no harm!

But that wasn’t all. There were cries of those wanting to do away with the Second Amendment and banning the NRA.

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Score One for Obama: Boehner Caves on Tax Hikes

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WASHINGTON – House Speaker John Boehner has proposed raising tax rates on people making more than $1 million, a source familiar with the talks told Fox News, in a development that could signal at least some movement toward a deal with President Obama.

According to the source, the latest offer is not being rejected, but there are still issues remaining and there is a serious effort to work out the difference.

At issue are expiring Bush-era tax cuts that would automatically vanish on Jan. 1 for virtually every income tax payer if Congress and the president don’t act. Steep budget cuts are also scheduled to kick in, unless Congress and Obama agree to forestall them with other deficit reduction measures.

Some have warned the economy’s nascent recovery would be reversed by the fiscal cliff. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said this week that the economy has already been affected by the uncertainty, and also warned that the Fed would not be able to offset the impact of the fiscal cliff.

Until now, Boehner had maintained his opposition to raising any rates. Instead, he had proposed to raise up to $800 billion in tax revenue over 10 years by limiting tax loopholes and deductions as part of a broad tax overhaul.

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Rasmussen: Highest-ever Support for Reduced Government Spending

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photo credit: bensonk42

Nearly three out of every four voters want Washington to slash spending, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll.

Overall 73 percent of likely voters believe the federal government should cut its spending rather than increase it, the survey reported.

Just 18 percent believe an increase in federal spending is a better solution to the country’s economic woes.

“That’s consistent with earlier data showing that just 19 percent want to see more stimulus spending at this time,” reported Rasmussen.

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DeMint: Republican Messaging ‘Amatuerish,’ Heritage to Audit Campaign

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Breitbart News sat down with Sen. Jim DeMint, in advance of his exit from the Senate to take the reigns at the Heritage Foundation. Our conversation primarily focused on the future of the conservative movement and the immediate talks surrounding the “fiscal cliff.” But, one particular exchange was unexpected.

Breitbart News asked Sen. DeMint about the newly announced 5-member panel to examine or “audit” the recent campaign and the Republican Party’s outreach and messaging. His answer was a surprise:

“I’ll see what they do, but we’re going to do that [auditing the campaign] at Heritage and we’re not just going to do an analysis of other pols. We’re going to go out and do our own research. I know you can’t just ask people what they think, unless you give them cues. Like, what do you think of the word conservative. You can ask them if they call themselves conservative or not. 40% call themselves conservative, but you don’t know what the other 60% think about it. They may not like the word, but they may be conservatives.

I just see, looking at the political handling from the Republican side is so amateurish compared to even what I was doing in marketing fifteen years ago, before I came to Congress. And the ability is there to be so much more sophisticated in targeting markets, segmenting and communicating with them individually.”

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Obama: ‘I Would Be Considered a Moderate Republican’ in the 1980s

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(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama says he would be “considered a moderate Republican” in the 1980s because his policies are “so mainstream.”

In an interview with Univision 23 on Thursday, a Spanish station based in Miami, the president was asked about the perception among some Americans that he has a socialist vision for the country.

“One issue that Cuban-Americans are worried about is, they believe that you favor a socialist model for our country,” Obama was asked, according to a transcript of the interview compiled by The Hill. “Cubans and Venezuelans especially because of what they have gone through. What do you think of that?”

“I don’t know that there are a lot of Cubans or Venezuelans, Americans who believe that,” Obama replied.

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Army Acknowledges Pedophilia Part of Islam

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A new Army manual that warns American soldiers in Afghanistan to avoid talking about certain topics has unwittingly acknowledged that Western taboos such as pedophilia are an inherent part of Islamic culture.

“By mentioning that pedophilia and women’s rights and saying that soldiers should not mention such things they are tacitly admitting that those things are indeed part of Islam,” said Robert Spencer, founder of Jihad Watch.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a new 75-page Army manual suggests U.S. soldiers are to blame for the large number of deadly attacks on them by Afghan security forces. The manual reportedly says the soldiers may have brought the attacks on themselves because of insensitivity towards Islamic culture.

“Many of the confrontations occur because of [coalition] ignorance of, or lack of empathy for, Muslim and/or Afghan cultural norms, resulting in a violent reaction from the [Afghan security force] member,” the draft report prepared by Army researchers and obtained by the Journal said.

Clare Lopez, a senior fellow with the Center for Security Policy, said the suggestion that U.S. soldiers are to blame for the attacks on them by Afghan security forces is outrageous.

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Virginia Moves to Make Card-Check Unconstitutional

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AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

(CNSNews.com) – Virginia is moving towards making card-check – the controversial union proposal to replace secret-ballot elections with simple card-signing petitions – unconstitutional in the state.

The effort is led by State Sen. Bryce Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) who said that “no citizen” should be denied the ability to vote by secret ballot.

“It’s really a simple bill,” Reeves told CNSNews.com in an interview Thursday. “It’s there to improve voter integrity and privacy. I personally believe that no citizen should be forced to reveal how they voted in any election be it federal, state, local, or even a union election.”

The proposed amendment would add a section to Virginia’s Bill of Rights guaranteeing the right to a secret ballot election in all cases, even in the case of a union election.

The proposal is intended to block so-called card check legislation that failed to pass Congress two years ago. That bill, which remains a Democratic and union priority, would have allowed unions to organize a workplace simply by getting a majority of workers to sign union cards, avoiding the need for a secret-ballot election where both the union and the business owners can compete for workers’ votes.

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Obama Administration’s ‘Deferred Action’ Program Halts 102,000 Deportations

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photo credit: z2amiller

The administration has issued stays of deportation for 102,965 illegal immigrants under President Obama’s new non-deportation policy, officials announced Friday.

Another 157,151 applications are still under review under the policy, officially known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which grants a tentative legal status to illegal immigrants who qualify — though it does not grant them a path to citizenship.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Homeland Security branch that administers the program, said 12,014 applications were rejected off the bat, while as many as 177,000 more applications are having their biometric data taken before entering the final review.

Mr. Obama announced the policy in June, saying he would no longer deport illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children as long as they haven’t committed any major crimes.

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