Restoring Liberty Passes Another Milestone: Over Two Million Views in March
The second-most popular news site in Alaska, Restoring Liberty, passed another milestone in March, garnering well over 2,000,000 page views during that month. And its YouTube channel now has over 1.75 million views.
Since Restoring Liberty started its new format on July 4, last year, the site has seen explosive growth in pageview readership of almost 3000%.
As of the date of this article, the only Alaska online news source ranked higher in readership than Restoring Liberty is the ADN. Other major sites such as the Alaska Dispatch, Fairbanks News-Miner, Juneau Empire, and KTUU, have rankings far below this news site.
We remain Alaska’s primary conservative news outlet.
The staff of Restoring Liberty wishes to thank every one of you that has led to this extraordinary success. Your loyal readership has expanded our reach so that we are able to compete with the desperately biased media in the Alaska market. We also wish to thank our advertisers for helping to make this effort possible.
And I, Joe Miller, wish to thank our loyal, mostly-volunteer staff for their sacrifices in making this online publication a success.
If you wish to help us in our goal to hire reporters and produce more original content, please advertise with us or encourage the businesses you frequent to do so. And encourage your friends to sign up for our FREE daily news update.
Finally, please continue to send us your tips and advice. It is your help and readership that has made this success possible.
Obama Administration Worried That It's Being Too Hard on North Korea
By Barbara Starr and Tom Cohen. Recent announcements of American military deployments in response to belligerent statements by North Korea may have contributed to escalating tensions between the two countries, Pentagon officials told CNN on Thursday in explaining an effort to reduce U.S. rhetoric about the reclusive state.
“We accused the North Koreans of amping things up, now we are worried we did the same thing,” one Defense Department official said.
They spoke on the same day a U.S. official first told CNN that communications intercepts indicated North Korea may be planning to launch a mobile ballistic missile in the coming days or weeks.
Classified images and communications intercepts show that North Korea has moved up to two mobile missiles, launchers and fuel tanks to its East coast, another American official with knowledge of the matter told CNN.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told a parliamentary committee in Seoul that the activity signaled an imminent test firing or military drill, according to the semi-official South Korean news agency Yonhap. Read more from this story HERE.
US chemical battalion in South Korea
By PressTV. The United States has deployed a battalion equipped to deal with nuclear, biological and chemical attacks in South Korea after North Korea threatened to attack the US with ‘nuclear weapons.’
Reports say about 250 soldiers from the US Army 23rd chemical battalion have returned to South Korea. The troops are stationed at Camp Stanley in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) has said that the deployment is a revelation of the criminal attempt of the United States to impose nuclear disasters on the Korean nation.
“During the Korean War, the US indiscriminately used germ and chemical weapons against the Korean people, stunning the world,” the CPRK stated on Wednesday. “The US now seeks to make such crimes against humanity repeat.”
War of words escalated between Washington and Pyongyang after the participation of nuclear-capable US B-52s and B-2 stealth bombers in the United States’ joint military drills with South Korea. Read more from this story HERE.
Amid Pyongyang bluster, missile launch feared
By Jethro Mullen, Barbara Starr and Joe Sterling. Missile and launch components have been moved to the east coast of North Korea in the “last few days,” a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the information told CNN Thursday.
The apparent deployment comes amid further threatening statements by North Korea and heightened tensions in the region — a situation that “does not need to get hotter,” a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said.
The move of the missile and launch equipment could mean that Pyongyang, which unleashed another round of scathing rhetoric accusing the United States of pushing the region to the “brink of war,” may be planning a missile launch soon.
The components, the official said, are consistent with those of a Musudan missile, which has a 2,500-mile range, meaning it could threaten South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia.
The United States has been looking for a hidden North Korean east coast launch site or mobile launchers, a concern because a launch from the east coast would go over Japan, the official said. Read more from this story HERE.
'Fast and Furious' Called False Flag Op Against Gun Dealers
Photo Credit: WND
Katie Pavlich is the author of “Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and the Shameless Cover-Up,” news editor of Townhall.com and an expert on the Fast and Furious scandal.
In an interview with WND, she asserted that the Obama administration intentionally orchestrated a “false flag” against lawful gun dealers, the U.S. Border Patrol and Mexican citizens to give cause for more gun regulation.
“This is a situation where the government was creating a situation where they could blame law-abiding citizens, turn them into criminals and creat[e] this false problem that they could solve through gun regulation,” Pavlich said.
Pavlich compares drug cartels to terrorist groups like Hezbollah, and new reports say the groups actually are linked. “This is a situation where [the Obama administration was] willing to put public safety in danger, get thousands of people killed south of the border. The only reason we know about this is because (Border Patrol agent) Brian Terry was killed,” she said.
Read more from this story HERE.
DHS Finally Responds to Senate Demand for Ammo Info but its Numbers Don't Pencil Out
Last fall, Senator Coburn sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding an explanation by the end of November for the agency’s reported purchase of massive quantities of ammunition. Yesterday, Dr. Coburn released correspondence that he finally received from DHS purporting to explain the purchases.
First, here’s what was disclosed by DHS: As of November 2012, it had over 263 million rounds of ammunition on hand. The agency said it was purchasing an additional $37 million of ammunition in this fiscal year, but did not give the actual number of rounds. Using the prior year’s cost per round of approximately 35 cents, it appears that DHS is adding another 105 million rounds on top of the 263 million on hand, minus rounds consumed in training and operations this fiscal year.
Using this 363 million round figure, the agency’s explanation for its large purchases can be assessed. For Immigration (ICE), DHS claims that 1,000 rounds per firearm per year are necessary for training. Assuming training of 250 rounds per quarter, this estimate seems reasonable.
The Federal Protective Service or “FPS” (the agency charged with protecting federal facilities owned or leased by the General Services Administration) also uses “1000 rounds of ammunition per firearm per year for quarterly qualifications and training.” Again, another reasonable number.
Curiously, no average training rounds per firearm for any other component agency of DHS is provided. For US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), DHS gives a percentage, stating that 70% of all CBP ammo is used for training. The remaining 30% of CBP’s ammo stock is purportedly maintained for operational needs (20%) and reserves (10%). For USSS (the Secret Service), 60% of its ammo is used for training.
Another quirk in DHS’s explanation is that the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), whose mission is to “train those who protect our homeland” by training personnel from 91 federal agencies, has another approximately 35 million training rounds (almost 19 million on hand in November 2012 plus the estimated 16.6 million purchased this fiscal year) that are supposedly in addition to training rounds maintained by the other individual DHS component agencies like ICE, CPB, and FPS.
So, really, the only way to properly assess the numbers from DHS – assuming that the agency has actually come clean on its inventories and future purchases – is to divide the ammunition stocks by the number of armed personnel.
Let’s start with FPS. According to the DHS website, FPS has approximately 900 armed agents. Supposedly, the FPS has an available stock of approximately 3.8 million rounds this year (2.5 million on hand in November plus the estimated 1.3 million purchased this fiscal year) . DHS claims its stock is explained by the 1000 rounds per firearm training requirement. No operational inventory is disclosed. Dividing the FPS stock of 3.8 million rounds by 900, provides well over 4,000 rounds per armed FPS employee, over four times the ammo necessary for annual training.
The ICE numbers give us a similar result. This agency has about 56.9 million rounds for this fiscal year (42.3 million on-hand as of November plus an estimated purchase of 14.68 million this fiscal year). ICE has about 20,000 employees of which 12,446 carry firearms. This DHS agency has also armed itself to the tune of well over 4,000 rounds per gun-toting ICE employee, well over the 1,000 rounds need for annual training and far in excess of any peace-time operational requirements.
CBP’s is almost as bad. This agency has about 129.7 million rounds for this fiscal year (94.4 million on-hand as of November plus an estimated purchase of over 35.3 million rounds this fiscal year). According to the U.S. Department of Justice, CBP agency has about 37,000 armed employees. That equates into approximately 3,500 rounds per firearm-carrying CBP officer, well in excess of the 1,000 rounds necessary for annual training.
Looking at the entire DHS, the DOJ’s 2012 Bureau of Justice Statistics stated that the DHS had approximately 55,000 armed officers (relying on 2008 data). Although one newspaper claimed last month that DHS now has 65,000 armed personnel, DHS is claiming it has at least 100,000 armed agents. (This is an enormous increase, perhaps even more troubling than federal agencies’ ammunition purchases.)
Taking the DHS ammunition on hand in November (263.7 million rounds) plus the estimated purchases of 105 million this fiscal year, provides a rough estimate of over 3,500 rounds per armed DHS federal agent. This is well over three times the training needs for DHS personnel and over ten times what’s necessary for operational needs (using CPB’s 30% figure for operational and reserve needs).
Read more from this story HERE.
Governor Parnell Responds to Department of Administration's Interference With Pro-Life Demonstration
Governor Parnell’s office contacted Restoring Liberty today and responded to the story and YouTube charging the Department of Administration with interfering with a pro-life protest in front of the Capitol.
Here’s the Governor’s statement:
I was surprised to learn that a Department of Administration employee had been directed to park a State vehicle in front of peacefully assembled demonstrators outside the capitol. I am unaware of any State or local law having been violated by the protestors and cannot condone infringing Alaskans’ constitutional liberties. I have given direction to the Department to ensure this does not happen in the future unless public safety is at risk or the rule of law violated.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at (907) 465-3500.
Here’s the email itself:
Two Texas District Attorneys Now Murdered, Link With Colorado Prison Chief Murder Previously Probed
Photo Credit: REUTERS
Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found with fatal gunshot wounds at their home near the town of Forney, Texas, on Saturday, two months after Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was gunned down.
“In my view it appears that it was not random. It was a targeted attack,” Forney Mayor Darren Rozell told CNN.
“We’re obviously sad and shocked but there’s some outrage too,” said Rozell. He did not elaborate on a possible motive for the double murder, but neither he nor Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes ruled out a link between the killings.
Hasse was shot and killed the same day the U.S. Department of Justice released a statement saying the Kaufman County District Attorney’s Office was involved in a racketeering case against the Aryan Brotherhood white supremacist group.
Read more from this story HERE.
