Zuckerberg: Immigration ‘One of Biggest Civil Rights’ Issues of Our Time (+video)

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Photo Credit: Guillaume PaumierWith the movement on immigration reform at a standstill in Congress, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other top Silicon Valley executives joined together on Wednesday to urge lawmakers to press ahead with their work on fixing the country’s immigration system.

Zuckerberg, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Dropbox CEO Andrew Houston were on hand to help kick off a “hackathon” event at LinkedIn’s headquarters, where a group of 20 young immigrants who came to the country illegally as children, often called “Dreamers,” will spend the next 25 hours coding Web tools aimed at advocating for immigration reform.

“I think this is one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time,” Zuckerberg told reporters and the room of young coders from across the U.S. “We’re at a pretty critical moment in the movement right now where it’s really important to keep pushing ahead.”

The three tech executives, along with Groupon co-founder Andrew Mason and immigration rights advocate Jose Antonio Vargas, will judge the young immigrants’ final work on Thursday afternoon and determine which project wins for “best design,” “best advocacy app” and “best storytelling app.”

FWD.us, the political advocacy group co-founded by Zuckerberg that’s funded by many of the tech industry’s most powerful executives, is hosting the event to show Congress that it’s not backing down from its push for passing immigration legislation that includes a path to citizenship for the more than 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States.

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Rush Limbaugh Outlines Nightmare Scenario that Would Give Dems ‘Authoritarian, Non-Challengeable Control’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreDuring his radio show on Thursday, Rush Limbaugh reacted to the Democrat-led U.S. Senate passing the “nuclear option” that essentially stops the GOP from filibustering presidential nominees.

Limbaugh argued that by reducing the number of votes needed to end filibusters against President Barack Obama’s nominees from 60 to 51, Democrats have fundamentally altered the Senate’s balance of power.

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Reports of Violent “Knockout” Attacks Spreading (+video)

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Three “Knockout” Attacks Reported In Philadelphia Area

By CBS.

“Knockout” attacks have been reported in several states around the country and now investigators believe three people have been attacked in our area.

Police in Lower Merion are investigating two attacks in the area, and Philadelphia detectives are investigating an attack in Northeast Philadelphia.

It’s a violent crime that in other parts of the country has proven fatal.

Videos from cities around the country show people being punched and beaten at random.

The attackers are calling their crimes a game, the goal being to knock out the victim with one punch.

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Photo Credit: Fox 5Could “Knockout Game” be spreading to DC?

Police say they are investigating the two women punched in the head in Columbia Heights on Thursday and Friday as simple assaults. But the victims wonder if they were targets of the Knockout game.

It’s a game being played by teens in some cities where groups of people attack innocent victims, with the intention of knocking them out with one sucker punch.

The most recent assault in the District occurred Thursday night. Phoebe Connolly, in town from Vermont, was riding her bike up 11th Street NW near Cardozo High School. She encountered a group of several teens standing on their bikes in the street.

DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG

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Shocking Dashcam Video Released of Vet’s Viral Arrest for ‘Rudely Displaying’ Rifle on Hike with Son, Officer States that Police are ‘Exempt from the Law’

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Photo Credit: YouTube Officials in Bell County, Texas, have released the dashcam footage of a police officer in Temple, Texas, disarming and arresting decorated veteran C.J. Grisham while he was on a hike with his son in March. The officer is seen grabbing the dad’s gun and then seemingly attempting to unlatch it from the man’s sling without telling him why or asking for permission.

Video recorded by Grisham and his son went viral earlier this year, but it did not show the moment the dad was approached and disarmed by the officer. He was later charged with “interference with duties of a public servant,” though the officer is heard in the video from March telling Grisham he was stopped for “rudely displaying” his rifle.

On Nov. 19, Grisham was found guilty by a jury of three men and three women of “interference with duties of a public servant” and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine. In an email to TheBlaze, the veteran said he plans to appeal the decision.

In the newly released dashcam video, officer Steven Ernis can be seen flagging down Grisham and asking him, “What are we doing?”

“We’re hiking,” Grisham replies.

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Obama: ‘We’re Not Lavishly Spending on a Whole Bunch of Social Programs’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP/ Evan Vucci)President Obama told a gathering of business executives on Tuesday that the federal government was not “lavishly spending” on social programs.

“What we know is, is that our — our fiscal problems are not short-term deficits. Our discretionary budget, that portion of the federal budget that isn’t defense or Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid, the entitlement programs, is at its smallest level in my lifetime, probably since Dwight Eisenhower.

“We are not lavishly spending on a whole bunch of social programs out there,” Obama continued. “And in many ways, a lot of these programs have become more efficient and pretty effective,” he added.

The U.S. Treasury Department records the following expenditures on a few of the many social safety-net programs for Fiscal 2013 and Fiscal 2012. In most cases, the amounts increased year-to-year:

–Medicaid: $265.392 billion ($250.534B in FY 2012)

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Levin: ‘You Can’t Get Along with Harry Reid and Barack Obama – They’re Insane’ (+video)

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On his program Tuesday night, Mark Levin called Harry Reid and Barack Obama ‘insane’ for the way they’re trying to pack the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals with left-leaning justices, namely Patricia Millett, Nina Pillard, and Robert Wilkins.

Referring to an article from Politico, Levin said:

“And I love the way, people like the delusional Chris Matthews, the misogynist among others talk about how Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan got along. You can’t get along with Harry Reid and Barack Obama, they’re insane. They’re political radicals. They don’t wanna get along.

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Rand Paul: ‘We Want Our Freedoms Back’; the Fourth Amendment Still Applies (+video)

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Photo Credit; APOn Wednesday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) released a video to Breitbart News exclusively in which he argued that the surveillance state under President Obama had grown beyond any reasonable proportions. “We were once outraged and dismayed and spurred to resist when British soldiers came knocking at our door with illegitimate warrants seeking taxes on our papers. Today,” Paul continued, “your government responds that there is no expectation of privacy once you consign your records to a third party. Your government applies that the Fourth Amendment applies not at all to your bank records, your Visa bill, your internet searches or purchases or emails. If not resistance, shouldn’t there at least be outrage?”

Paul said, “Imagine for a moment what information could be gathered from your Visa bill,” mentioning health information, political information, and personal information. “Are we so afraid of terrorists that we are willing to give up the very freedoms that separate us from them?” Paul asked.

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FBI Video Shows Al Qaeda in Kentucky Handling Heavy Weapons (+video)

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Photo Credit: WNDAn al Qaeda-linked terrorist, who was resettled in the U.S. as an Iraq War refugee after allegedly killing American soldiers, was caught on camera in Kentucky handling heavy weapons that the FBI said he believed would be sent to insurgents back in Iraq.

The 2010 video, obtained exclusively by ABC News, was part of a broader ABC News investigation into the flawed refugee vetting program, which officials said may have let “dozens” of terrorists into the country.

In the video, Waad Ramadan Alwan is seen expertly field stripping what the FBI identified as a Russian PKM machine gun. Other still images provided by the FBI from hours-worth of surveillance footage show Alwan and an accomplice, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, handling a Stinger missile launcher and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher.

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Jordan on Obama’s Promises: ‘Every time, It’s Been Proven Wrong’

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Photo Credit: CNSNews.com/Penny StarrRep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said on Tuesday at The Heritage Foundation that the promises President Obama made about the Affordable Care Act have “been proven wrong.”

“Every single line they made – if you like your plan you can keep it, if you like your doctor you can keep it, your premiums are going to go down – they’re going to go down $2,500, the website’s going to work Oct. 1; now it’s going to work Nov. 30,” Jordan said. “Every time, it’s been proven wrong.”

Jordan made his remarks at the Conversations with Conservatives event in response to CNSNews.com asking if Obama made a true or false statement when he said: “If you like your insurance plan, you will keep it. No one will be able to take that away from you.”

“They promised that your premiums were going to go down to the tune of $2,500, and they promised the website would work on Oct. 1, and now they’re promising that it’s going to work by Nov. 30, and they’re backing away from that,” Jordan said.

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Obama’s Approval Rating Down 13 pts for Year; Disapproval Reaches Career High (+video)

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Photo Credit: APBarack Obama has been hammered by the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act, with disapproval of his job performance reaching a career high, opposition to the new healthcare law up sharply and evidence of potential fallout in the midterm elections a year off.

The president’s job approval rating has fallen to 42 percent in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, down 13 percentage points this year and 6 points in the past month to match the lowest of his presidency. Fifty-five percent disapprove, a record. And 70 percent say the country’s headed seriously off on the wrong track – up 13 points since May to the most in two years.

Other ratings of the president’s performance have tumbled as well. He’s at career lows for being a strong leader, understanding the problems of average Americans and being honest and trustworthy – numerically under water on each of these (a first for the latter two). His rating for strong leadership is down by 15 points this year and a vast 31 points below its peak shortly after he took office. In a new gauge, just 41 percent rate him as a good manager; 56 percent think not.

This poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that the president’s personal image has suffered alongside his professional ratings. Fewer than half, 46 percent, see him favorably overall, down 14 points this year to the fewest of his presidency. Fifty-two percent now view him unfavorably, a new high and a majority for the first time since he took office. It may matter: Personal popularity can provide a president with cushioning when the going gets rough. Losing it leaves the president more vulnerable.

ACA – Skepticism about the Affordable Care Act looks to be the driving force in Obama’s troubles. Americans by nearly 2-1, 63-33 percent, disapprove of his handling of implementation of the new health care law. And the public by 57-40 percent now opposes the law overall, its most negative rating to date, with opposition up by 8 points in the past month alone.

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