An American flag with President Obama’s image in place of the stars flew over a Florida county’s Democrat headquarters long enough to enrage local veterans who called the altered banner “a disgrace.”

Lake County Democratic Party officials took down the flag, which flew just below a standard Old Glory on the flagpole outside headquarters in Tavares following complaints by local veterans. But merely taking it down wasn’t enough for several local veterans, who said they fought for the flag Betsy Ross made famous, not one with a politician on it.

“It’s absolutely disrespectful,” Jim Bradford, a 71-year-old veteran who participated in the Bay of Pigs Invasion told FoxNews.com. “It’s totally ridiculous. To put somebody’s picture there, to me, it’s a disgrace to do that.”

Bradford, an organizer with the Veterans Memorial at Fountain Park in Leesburg, Fla., snapped photos of the flag and distributed them to fellow veterans and friends. By late afternoon, he and several other veterans delivered a copy of the federal flag code to Nancy Hurlbert, chairwoman of the Lake County Democratic Party.

“We read that to her, but she would not accept that,” Bradford said. “The discussion finally got a little bit heated.”

Read more at FoxNews.com HERE.

No doubt you have read about the lawsuit that Charles and David Koch have filed to give themselves majority control of Cato’s long-dormant shareholder arrangement and therefore control over the Board of Directors, which has heretofore run the Institute for 35 years with no input from the shareholders. Already the Koch forces have managed to put 7 people on the Board.

For now, our friends should know this: We believe this effort is a direct threat to the independence, nonpartisanship, and libertarianism of the Cato Institute. Koch control would destroy 35 years of hard work by our Board, officers, staff, and donors to build the Cato Institute’s brand and reputation. We intend to fight it. And we intend to win and to preserve our independence.

To read more go to SaveCato. And “like” the Facebook page Save the Cato Institute.

There are many links at those sites. But you might be especially interested in Tuesday’s New York Times story. And Steve Chapman’s short item at the Chicago Tribune.

This misguided attempt at corporate control of an independent, nonpartisan think tank is bad for the Cato Institute and bad for the libertarian movement. We hope that everyone will come to see that, soon, before any more damage is done.

Read original article HERE.

The Obama administration disclosed on Tuesday that it is considering sharing some classified U.S. data as part of an effort to allay Russian concerns about a controversial antimissile shield.

The administration is continuing negotiations begun under former President George W. Bush on a defense technical cooperation agreement with Moscow that could include limited classified data, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Brad Roberts told a House of Representatives’ Armed Services subcommittee.

He gave no details on the sort of data that might be shared under such an agreement.

Russia strongly opposes the U.S.-engineered bulwark being built in and around Europe against ballistic missiles that could be fired by countries like Iran.

Moscow fears that such a shield could grow strong enough over time to undermine Moscow’s own nuclear deterrent force and has threatened to deploy missiles of its own as a counter.

Read more at Reuters.com HERE.

Germany’s Die Welt newspaper reported Sunday that Iran held at least one nuclear weapons test in North Korea in 2010.

The paper’s report is based on “Western intelligence agencies sources,” and says that the test, in fact, refutes US intelligence assessments suggesting there is no “hard evidence” that Iran is building nuclear weapons.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has recently declared that its nuclear negotiations with Iran have failed.

The statement followed Tehran’s decision the bar IAEA inspectors from what is believed to be key military sites in the Islamic Republic.

Iran vehemently claims that its nuclear program is meant to serve civil, peaceful purposes only.

Read the original German Die Welt article HERE (must use Google translate).

Read more from the above article HERE.

Joe Miller describes in this KCBQ interview from this week that the GOP Establishment, with the cooperation of Democrats, will do virtually anything to stop genuine reform congressional candidates from winning their races.  Starts at 2:15.