July 3: The Day Big Government Finally Imploded

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Photo Credit: Douglas JonesMark July 3, 2013, as the day Big Government finally imploded.

July 3 was the quiet afternoon that a deputy assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy announced in a blog post that the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate would be delayed one year. Something about the “complexity of the requirements.” The Fourth’s fireworks couldn’t hold a candle to the sound of the U.S. government finally hitting the wall.

Since at least 1789, America’s conservatives and liberals have argued about the proper role of government. Home library shelves across the land splinter and creak beneath the weight of books arguing the case for individual liberty or for government-led social justice. World Wrestling smackdowns are nothing compared with Hayek vs. Rawls.

Maybe we have been listening to the wrong experts. Philosophers and pundits aren’t going to tell us anything new about government. The one-year rollover of ObamaCare because of its “complexity” suggests it’s time to call in the physicists, the people who study black holes and death stars. That’s what the federal government looks like after expanding ever outward for the past 224 years.

Even if you are a liberal and support the goals of the Affordable Care Act, there has to be an emerging sense that maybe the law’s theorists missed a signal from life outside the castle walls. While they troweled brick after brick into a 2,000-page law, the rest of the world was reshaping itself into smaller, more nimble units whose defining metaphor is the 140-character Twitter message.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pentagon Papers Whistleblower Says Snowden Made the Right Call in Fleeing US

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Photo Credit: The GuardianSnowden made the right call when he fled the U.S.

By Daniel Ellsberg. Many people compare Edward Snowden to me unfavorably for leaving the country and seeking asylum, rather than facing trial as I did. I don’t agree. The country I stayed in was a different America, a long time ago.

After the New York Times had been enjoined from publishing the Pentagon Papers — on June 15, 1971, the first prior restraint on a newspaper in U.S. history — and I had given another copy to The Post (which would also be enjoined), I went underground with my wife, Patricia, for 13 days. My purpose (quite like Snowden’s in flying to Hong Kong) was to elude surveillance while I was arranging — with the crucial help of a number of others, still unknown to the FBI — to distribute the Pentagon Papers sequentially to 17 other newspapers, in the face of two more injunctions. The last three days of that period was in defiance of an arrest order: I was, like Snowden now, a “fugitive from justice.”

Yet when I surrendered to arrest in Boston, having given out my last copies of the papers the night before, I was released on personal recognizance bond the same day. Later, when my charges were increased from the original three counts to 12, carrying a possible 115-year sentence, my bond was increased to $50,000. But for the whole two years I was under indictment, I was free to speak to the media and at rallies and public lectures. I was, after all, part of a movement against an ongoing war. Helping to end that war was my preeminent concern. I couldn’t have done that abroad, and leaving the country never entered my mind.

There is no chance that experience could be reproduced today, let alone that a trial could be terminated by the revelation of White House actions against a defendant that were clearly criminal in Richard Nixon’s era — and figured in his resignation in the face of impeachment — but are today all regarded as legal (including an attempt to “incapacitate me totally”).

I hope Snowden’s revelations will spark a movement to rescue our democracy…Read more from this story HERE.

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Paper reveals NSA ops in Latin America

By Juan Forero. A Brazilian newspaper on Tuesday published an article it said is based on documents provided by the former American contractor Edward Snowden asserting that the United States has been collecting data on telephone calls and e-mails from several countries in Latin America, including important allies such as Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.

The paper, O Globo, based in Rio de Janeiro, says the documents show the National Security Agency amassed military and security data on countries such as Venezuela, an American adversary that has been accused of aiding Colombia’s Marxist rebels and maintaining close ties with Iran. But the documents also show that the agency carried out surveillance operations to unearth inside commercial information on the oil industry in Venezuela and the energy sector in Mexico, which is under state control and essentially closed to foreign investment.

U.S. officials have declined to address issues about intelligence gathering or the O Globo report, except to issue a statement saying that “we have been clear that the United States does gather foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations.”

The report on Tuesday came after O Globo on Sunday published a story contending that Brazil is a major target of the NSA’s international effort to monitor telecommunications. The newspaper said that in gathering data in Brazil, the NSA counted on the collaboration of American and Brazilian telecommunications companies, though O Globo did not name them.

The revelations of the American agency’s operations across a swath of Latin America coincided with news from Russia about where Snowden, who is believed to be at the Moscow airport, may be headed. A leading Russian lawmaker, Alexei Pushkov, said on Tuesday via his Twitter account that Snowden, who had been a contractor for the NSA, had accepted the offer of asylum that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had made on Friday. Read more from this story HERE.

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WikiLeaks: Snowden Has Not Accepted Asylum in Venezuela

By CBSDC/AP. WikiLeaks claims that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has not yet formally accepted asylum in Venezuela after a Russian lawmaker tweeted, then deleted minutes later, that Snowden accepted asylum from the South American country.

“The states concerned will make the announcement if and when the appropriate time comes. The announcement will then be confirmed by us,” WikiLeaks posted on Twitter.

The Associated Press reports that Russian lawmaker Alexei Pushkov initially tweeted that Snowden accepted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s political asylum request.

“Predictably, Snowden has agreed to Maduro’s offer of political asylum. Apparently, this option appeared most reliable to Snowden,” Pushkov tweeted.

But the post was deleted minutes after Pushkov tweeted the information. Read more from this story HERE.

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Edward Snowden: U.S., Israel ‘Co-Wrote’ Cyber Super Weapon Stuxnet

By Lee Ferran and Kirit Radia. The former National Security Agency contractor on the run from U.S. authorities halfway around the world said that Stuxnet, an unprecedented cyber weapon that targeted Iran’s nuclear program, was the product of a joint American-Israeli secret operation.

Before Edward Snowden became a household name, he conducted an interview via encrypted emails with cyber security expert Jacob Appelbaum and was asked about the game-changing computer code, according to the interview published in the German newspaper Der Spiegel Monday.

“NSA [U.S. National Security Agency] and Israel co-wrote it,” Snowden said.

Snowden said that the NSA regularly works with foreign governments and has a “massive body” called the Foreign Affairs Directorate to deal with international partners.

In the interview Snowden did not discuss Stuxnet further and, so far, none of the newspapers Snowden has worked with have published any documents directly relating to the cyber weapon. Read more from this story HERE.

The Castle Under Siege

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Photo Credit: Alexander HunterThe First, Second and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution aren’t much admired by liberals, or “progressives,” or whatever they’re calling themselves this month. Free speech is restrained by speech codes, President Obama’s disdain for the right to bear arms is well known, and the government’s electronic snooping has shredded the guarantees against self-incrimination.

Now even the Third Amendment, which guarantees that “no soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law,” is endangered, too. The courts have rarely considered this iron prohibition on quartering of troops, but now they must.

Two years ago, Christopher Worley, a police officer in Henderson, Nev., called on Anthony Mitchell to ask whether police could use the Mitchell home to keep watch on a neighbor. Mr. Mitchell declined. Soon he heard pounding on the front door. Henderson police officers arrived with orders from their superiors: “If Mitchell refused to answer the door, force entry would be made, and Mitchell would be arrested.” The door was battered down, and Mr. Mitchell was arrested at gunpoint for “obstructing an officer.” The frightened family dog was shot.

The Mitchell family sued, asking the U.S. District Court for Nevada to hold the cities of Henderson and North Las Vegas in violation of their constitutional rights when police seized their home and used it for a sting operation against a neighbor.

Read more from this story HERE.

How the Tea Party Can Save America and the World – A Plea From New Zealand

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Photo Credit: Right Side NewsMany Tea Partiers and American patriots understand that the fate of the United States of America hangs in the balance.

No melodrama here. If the US loses its position as the world’s number one military super power, another country, or countries, will take its place.

Realistically, that can only be Russia or China, or more likely, an alliance of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Vietnam and whoever ever else climbs aboard.

As the U.S. Dollar slowly sinks and America’s prestige and power goes with it, the “Evil Axis” grows bolder.

But why should I care? I’m safe aren’t I? Way down at the bottom of the South Pacific, in New Zealand.

Well, maybe not so safe. China is steadily advancing through the Pacific. It now has several footholds in our region, particularly in Fiji, which is my country’s nearest major island neighbor. To any thinking Aussie or Kiwi, this is cause for major concern.

in June of 2012, Song Xiaojun, a “retired” Chinese general, told Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, that “Australia has to find a godfather sooner or later…” “Australia always has to depend on somebody else, whether it is to be the ‘son’ of the U.S. or ‘son’ of China,” Song said, adding that Australia had best choose China because it all “depends on who is more powerful and based on the strategic environment.”

If America goes under folks, the West goes under. No ifs, no buts. Only a strong America can keep the bad guys in check. Just as soldiers from all over the world fought in Europe and the Pacific to save liberty in WW2, today’s freedom lovers need to join the fight to save the US. Once liberty was fought for in the Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, Normandy and Sicily. Now if liberty is to be saved, we must win the electoral battles of Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado.

From my home in Christchurch, I recently spent an hour on the phone with a savvy Florida activist. She outlined for me the crushing problems being faced by American patriots, in the face of a relentless leftist onslaught from the Obama Administration. According to my usually optimistic friend, much of the Tea Party is in disarray, the GOP leadership is even more arrogant and out of touch than usual and if the Dems pass “immigration reform” the Republic will be swamped with millions of new loyal Democrats, effectively turning the US into a permanent “one party state.”
And to cap that, now I’m hearing whispers of a third party.

Let’s get real. There is only one vehicle that can take back America from the Democrats and their union and far left allies, in the very limited time we have left. That is the Republican Party. If the Democrats hold the Senate and take back the House in 2014, or even 2016, which they could well do, America is done for.

Illegal immigrants will be granted voting rights and the intimidation tactics now being employed will seem like kindergarten bullying, as the Democrats and unions unleash full force on their remaining opposition. There is a climate of fear now in the United States. If the Democrats get back in full control, they will NEVER relinquish it. This is no longer the old GOP/Dem turnabout game. This is the left for playing keeps and the GOP playing constant catchup.

While I have no particular love for the Republican Party, its hard to see how starting a third party right now could possibly do anything but hand both the House and the Senate to the Dems in 2014 and the presidency to the left in 2016.
If that happens, the left will never give up power without bloodshed.

If it ever comes to serious civil unrest and the socialist’s power is actually threatened, foreign troops will be called in to restore order. That will be the end of America – and of the entire West. A peaceful revolution is our only realistic hope.

So what to do? A third party will almost certainly hand America to the tyrants. The GOP leadership is ineffectual at best, often cowardly and unprincipled – occasionally even treacherous.

But the GOP does have a structure, a brand, some money, hundreds of thousands of dedicated activists and tens of millions of voters.

That is not something to throw away.

The Tea Party faces a choice. They can “throw their toys out of the cot” as we say in New Zealand and walk away from the GOP. They can work on local issues alone, or dissolve, or form a third party. Satisfying as those options may be, they are almost certainly guaranteed to consign your children and grandchildren to a life of slavery – at best.

So what is the alternative?

I have addressed more than 150 Tea Party groups. I have met thousands of activists. You people are the best of America. I write this on the verge of tears as I remember the amazing patriots, thinkers and activists I have met on my four speaking tours of your amazing country. If America is to be saved, you will do it. No other movement has the energy, drive, commitment, fortitude, foresight or integrity of the Tea Party patriots.

You however have one major weakness. You lack self-confidence.

The vast majority of you are political novices. You take too much advice from your self-appointed “betters” in the GOP and the mainstream conservative movement. This was illustrated in places like Florida, last year, where the Tea Party activists were “forbidden” from pushing the illegal immigrant issue by various “consultants’ and GOP hacks.

The Tea Party needs to realize you have the truth on your side. You are real people, with roots in your communities. Many of you are veterans. You are far more in touch with voters than any GOP blueblood or K street consultant ever will be.
So what should your wonderful movement do?

Here is my advice. It is far from perfect, but I hope it will at least add to the debate.

Its all about CONCENTRATION OF FORCES.

I’ve met a lot of Tea Partiers working inside the GOP. Some of them very successfully. However what tends to happen is that many of them become marginalized by GOP “moderates” and their good work comes to little.

In Australia, the Labor Party – the counterpart, of your Democrats, operates in two main formalized factions – the conservative/moderate Labor Unity and the Socialist Left. One party, two power blocs. Effectively two separate organizations within a one party structure. The two factions horse trade, do deals, fight like cats and dogs, compete viciously with each other, yet at election time, stand as a “united front” against their conservative opposition.

I’m suggesting that the Tea Party should adopt a variant of this approach. Join the GOP en masse, but don’t dilute your efforts by operating as scattered individuals inside the GOP structure. If the tea parties collectively become say, a “Constitutional Caucus”, within the GOP, you could maintain your agenda and your integrity, but would also have the advantage of GOP structure, branding and the ability to actually get your candidates elected. Don’t join GOP branches, BECOME GOP BRANCHES.

There need be nothing covert about this. Tea Party groups should identify themselves openly as Constitutional Republicans and refuse to be in any way subservient to head office dictates. Put the GOP old guard on notice that you are here to retake your party and restore it to its constitutional foundations. Openly state that you regard them as usurpers until proven otherwise.

Boldly proclaim that you fully intend to bloc vote your way into positions of influence and that you will work with other Constitutionalists in your state and nationally to primary GOP candidates, no matter how long serving, who do not actively support in word and deed, the US Constitution. TAKE NO PRISONERS.

Concentrate your resources. Pick winnable fights only. Do not primary candidates you cannot defeat this election cycle. I’ve seen that happen too often. Tea Party groups targeting scattered RINOs all over the state and not quite beating any of them. Pick a handful of winnable races each election cycle and call in fellow Constitutionalists from all over the state to defeat the RINOs and elect some of your own. If they do not respect you MAKE THEM FEAR YOU. The respect will follow later – trust me.

Now is not the time for peripheral issues either. The survival of the United States of America is at stake. The future of Western civilization hangs in the balance. CORE ISSUES ONLY. The Constitution, National Security (including border control, and gun rights), Education and the Economy). I don’t want to minimize other issues, but this is a last ditch effort to save your country and mine. If we blow this one, there may not be another in our great great grandchildren’s lifetimes.

This is cultural warfare folks and we must concentrate resources on core issue that may actually help to defeat our opponents in both parties, in the fast approaching battles ahead.

Logically, the United States of America should never been born. In the 1770′s most Americans were either pro-British or apathetic. Fewer than 10% of the population actually supported the revolution and way fewer actually fought it.

How in God’s name, did a bunch of poorly armed farmers and lawyers, laborers, shopkeepers and tradesmen, seriously hope to defeat the mightiest army in the world at that time? Yet they did it. I left out one important group for a reason. The first American revolution was preached from the pulpit. Hundreds of pastors, a bible in one hand, a long rifle in the other, boldly supported George Washington’s ragtag army. They understood better than any one that America was founded on religious freedom. They understood exactly what was at stake.

The first American revolutionaries were inspired by something much greater than themselves. You Tea Party revolutionaries always need to keep the big picture in mind.

If you don’t think this war is worth winning, you tell me one that is? If you don’t think your grandchildren’s liberty is worth fighting for, please tell me what you do care about?

We all admire the first American revolutionaries, for their incredible bravery and fortitude and sacrifice. They risked everything to give you the exceptional country you enjoy today.

In two hundred years’ time, young teenagers will be standing in front of civics and history classes in schools all across America. These young people will talk about their free and prosperous country with great pride. But some of the proudest will be able to say something like this;

“You know guys, you know back in the early 2000s when the country was in crisis, when a lot of people thought America was done for. When patriots stood up and saved the Republic, restored the Constitution? Gave us the incredible freedom and prosperity we enjoy today? Well I’ve done some family research. And you know what? My great great great Grandpa and Grandma…they were in the TEA PARTY…”

Your Creator gave you both a heart and a brain folks. Now is the time to use both.

Yours in Liberty

Trevor Loudon

Christchurch, New Zealand

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Author Trevor Loudon is a New Zealand based blogger and researcher, noted among other things, for exposing the communist background of Obama “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones , which led to his eventual resignation from his White House position. Loudon was also the first to publicize Barack Obama’s ties to Hawaiian Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis.

Trevor Loudon’s research has been cited by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, countless articles, blog posts and in books by well known authors Paul Kengor, Aaron Klein and Jerome Corsi. He has given countless radio interviews and addressed audiences in more than 30 states in his four tours of the United States.

Trevor Loudon speaks on internal subversion, communism and socialism, national security, culture and constitutional conservatism.

See Trevor’s website

72 Shot, 12 Killed in Chicago Over Weekend, Yet Media Obsesses on a Plane Crash Where 2 Die

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Photo Credit: Irish CentralSan Francisco International Airport was ground zero for national media attention as it focused on a jet crash which claimed the lives of two passengers.

Although the crash was spectacular and captivated our attention….The very fact only 2 people lost their lives in the fiery mishap should have been enough to realize many other weighty events were happening around the country.

Miracles happened that morning that prevented a far larger loss of life and averted tragedy of mass proportions….

Yet 2,000 miles away, far more Americans were losing their lives in horrendous violence plaguing one of our largest cities.

The miracles in San Francisco that prevented far more death, were absent on the mean streets of Chicago…and there are no breathless, glamorized national talking heads reporting on it.

Out of the headlines and buried on the back pages is the fact that over the 4th of July holiday, 72 American citizens were shot and 12 of them were killed in one violent city in America: Chicago, which is starting to be renamed “Chiraq” due to the violence. See video.

President Obama said if only one child’s life was saved due to his proposed gun control mandates, then his efforts would be worth it. But his hometown of Chicago is the poster child for strict gun control and has the same or worse statistics for violence as a war torn 3rdworld country.

Chicago: The most difficult city in the US for a law abiding citizen to legally own a firearm. Yet criminals rule the streets having gunfights while innocent bystanders get shot in the crossfire.

Chicago: Under one party rule for decades and the epicenter of gun violence. Gun crime so horrendous it skews the nation’s violence statistics.

Yes the crash of the jet in San Francisco was a tragedy, but in the whole scheme of things, it was an extremely rare occurrence and the loss of life miniscule in comparison to the daily violent meat grinder of violence that the citizens of Chicago must suffer with.

It is time for the media to turn its priorities to what is at the core of this violence in one of our biggest cities. Because taking away guns from law abiding American citizens is not the solution.

Chicago was awash in illegal money and violence after the government declared a war on alcohol during the Prohibition era …..Perhaps it is time to examine who profits from the governments “war on drugs” and who/what is behind that violence.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Insanity of Environmentalists’ Opposition to Keystone Pipeline Revealed in Last Week’s Canadian Explosion

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Photo Credit: Paul Chiasson/APAs environmental disasters go, the explosion Saturday of a runaway train that destroyed much of the Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic, about 20 miles from the Maine border, will probably go down the memory hole.

It lacks the correct moral and contains an inconvenient truth.

Not that the disaster lacks the usual ingredients of such a moral. The derailed 72-car train belonged to a subsidiary of Illinois-based multinational Rail World, whose self-declared aim is to “promote rail industry privatization.” The train was carrying North Dakota shale oil (likely extracted by fracking) to the massive Irving Oil refinery in the port city of Saint John, to be shipped to the global market. At least five people were killed in the blast (a number that’s likely to rise) and 1,000 people were forced to evacuate. Quebec’s environment minister reports that some 100,000 liters (26,000 gallons) of crude have spilled into the Chaudière River, meaning it could reach Quebec City and the St. Lawrence River before too long.

Environmentalists should be howling. But this brings us to the inconvenient truth.

The reason oil is moved on trains from places like North Dakota and Alberta is because there aren’t enough pipelines to carry it. The provincial governments of Alberta and New Brunswick are talking about building a pipeline to cover the 3,000-odd mile distance. But last month President Obama put the future of the Keystone XL pipeline again in doubt, telling a Georgetown University audience “our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.”

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Rape Culture’ vs. ‘Islamophobia’

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Photo Credit: Hiro Komae/APThe weathermen at Twitchy.com report that novelist Joyce Carol Oates set off a twit-storm Friday with a pair of tweets about sexual violence in Egypt: The first coyly referred to recently deposed president Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood: “Something dispiriting about ‘Brotherhood’ political parties–wonder what it is.” The second was explicit: “Where 99.3% of women report having been sexually harassed & rape is epidemic–Egypt–natural to inquire: what’s the predominant religion?”

“Don’t miss @JoyceCarolOates coming out publicly as a serious bigot,” tweeted Umair Haque, an economist who writes for the Harvard Business Review. “Check out her tweets today, they’re awesomely gross!” Salon.com’s Prachi Gupta described Oates’s tweets as “Islamophobic.” Lauren Rankin–whose Twitter bio describes her as “feminist. writer. activist. graduate student. reproductive justice. sour jelly bean enthusiast”–insisted: “this is islamophobia embodied. islam doesn’t encourage rape or sexual assault. you know what does? PATRIARCHY.”

“Another day, another white woman #islamophobe,” mused Lucy Homan, another white woman “trouble-making, invisibly disabled, non-binary gender, queer, sexqueer, trans femme” whose passions include “kink, parenting, disability, polyamory, feminism, and sex talk.”

Oates defended her line of inquiry: ” ‘Rape culture’; has no relationship to any ‘religious culture’–how can this be? Religion has no effect on behavior at all? How possible?” To which Anita Felicelli responded with a tu quoque: “Do you also think that mass gun violence in schools bears a relationship to Christianity?” That turned out to be an illi quoque, for Oates answered: “Yes. There is a Christian Crusade culture. All religions are ‘militant.’ Secular law needed to restrain them.”

Here Oates goes off the rails. While the Crusades were an example of militant Christianity, there is no factual basis for asserting a connection between Christianity and “mass gun violence in schools,” whether of the psycho-killer or the street-thug kind, in 21st-century America.

Read more from this story HERE.

Kill the Bill

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Photo Credit: Weekly Standard We are conservatives who have differed in the past on immigration reform, with Kristol favorably disposed toward it and Lowry skeptical. But the Gang of Eight has brought us into full agreement: Their bill, passed out of the Senate, is a comprehensive mistake. House Republicans should kill it without reservation.

There is no case for the bill, and certainly no urgency to pass it. During the debate over immigration in 2006–07, Republican rhetoric at times had a flavor that communicated a hostility to immigrants as such. That was a mistake, and it did political damage. This time has been different. The case against the bill has been as responsible as it has been damning.

It’s become clear that you can be pro-immigrant and pro-immigration, and even favor legalization of the 11 million illegal immigrants who are here and increases in some categories of legal immigration—and vigorously oppose this bill.

The bill’s first fatal deficiency is that it doesn’t solve the illegal-immigration problem. The enforcement provisions are riddled with exceptions, loopholes, and waivers. Every indication is that they are for show and will be disregarded, just as prior notional requirements to build a fence or an entry/exit visa system have been—and just as President Obama has recently announced he’s ignoring aspects of Obamacare that are inconvenient to enforce on schedule. Why won’t he waive a requirement for the use of E-Verify just as he’s unilaterally delayed the employer mandate? The fact that the legalization of illegal immigrants comes first makes it all the more likely that enforcement provisions will be ignored the same way they were after passage of the 1986 amnesty.

Marco Rubio says he doesn’t want to have to come back ten years from now and deal with the same illegal-immigration problem. But that’s exactly what the CBO says will happen under his own bill. According to the CBO analysis of the bill, it will reduce illegal immigration by as little as a third or by half at most. By one estimate, this means there will be about 7.5 million illegal immigrants here in ten years. And this is under the implausible assumption that the Obama administration would administer the law as written.

Read more from this story HERE.

Analysis: George Zimmerman Probably Won’t Be Convicted of Murder or Manslaughter – Here’s Why (+video)

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Photo Credit: API drew a legal conclusion on “Good Morning America” Saturday that would have surprised the Dan Abrams who covered the George Zimmerman case leading up to, and shortly after, his arrest.

Now that the prosecution’s case against Zimmerman is in, as a legal matter, I just don’t see how a jury convicts him of second degree murder or even manslaughter in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

So what happened? How can an armed man who shot and killed an unarmed teen after being told by the police that he didn’t need to keep following him, likely be found not guilty of those crimes?

I certainly sympathize with the anger and frustration of the Martin family and doubt that a jury will accept the entirety of George Zimmerman’s account as credible. But based on the legal standard and evidence presented by prosecutors it is difficult to see how jurors find proof beyond a reasonable doubt that it wasn’t self defense.

Prosecutors are at a distinct legal disadvantage.

Read more from this story HERE.

Common Core: In Pursuit of the New Soviet Man

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Photo Credit: APThe Common Core State Standards Initiative is a federal initiative designed to homogenize diverse state educational curricula.

It is also the latest example of destructive federal overreach into the education system.

Like its predecessor No Child Left Behind, Common Core will not produce vibrant, inspired thinkers eager to tackle the world.

Instead, Common Core is designed to churn out young people who will be educated enough to work, consume, and pay taxes, but who are not encouraged to be creative, or to use critical thinking, or to develop anything remotely characteristic of those who possess superior minds and the ability to achieve great things.

Common Core proponents seem more interested in producing what Russian communists called “New Soviet Men” — people who are selfless, moderately educated, and stripped of all nationalist sentiment — than they are in delivering the next Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, or Steve Jobs.

Read more from this story HERE.