New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof responded to the explosions that blasted the Boston Marathon on Monday with an eyebrow-raising comment about Republicans on Capitol Hill.
In a tweet during the aftermath of the apparent attacks, Kristof wrote, “Explosion is a reminder that ATF needs a director. Shame on Senate Republicans for blocking apptment.”
The columnist linked to a Feb. 1 article in the Washington Post about Republicans not supporting President Obama’s nominee to lead the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives bureau.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-16 03:24:352013-04-16 03:24:35NY Times Columnist Kristof Slams ‘Senate Republicans’ after Boston Explosions
Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN Monday that foreign students are increasingly “scared” of studying abroad in the United States because of gun violence.
America’s top diplomat has been in Asia to confront North Korea’s increasing aggression but, speaking from Tokyo, he pivoted to American politics.
In “quiet conversations” with officials, Kerry said he has discussed “how safe it is over here in this country [Japan], where people are not running around with guns.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-16 03:14:022013-04-16 03:14:02Anti-Gun John Kerry in Japan: Foreign Students 'Scared' to Study Abroad in U.S. Because of Gun Violence
Two explosions shattered the euphoria of the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry off the injured while the stragglers in the 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts.
A federal law-enforcement source confirmed to The Post there are at least 12 dead and 50 injured in the apparent terror attack. Massachusetts General Hospital was treating 10 people with amputated limbs and all operating rooms were on hold earlier today, sources said.
Law enforcement sources confirmed to The Post that authorities have a identified a suspect, a Saudi national, who is currently being guarded in a Boston hospital with shrapnel wounds.
CBS reported that an individual is in custody. He is reportedly cooperative and denies involvement in the attack.
A White House official told Bloomberg news, “Any event with multiple explosive devices – as this appears to be – is clearly an act of terror.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-15 15:20:342013-04-15 15:20:34Raw Footage of Terror Attack on Boston Marathon that Killed 12, Injured Dozens; Saudi Nat'l in Custody
On April 13, 2013, Eric Williams, a former Kaufman County, Tex. justice of the peace, was arrested on a terroristic threat charge, following a search of his home and a storage unit. The Dallas Morning News reports that he is expected to be charged with capital murder for the deaths of Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse in January, and District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia last month.
Williams, 46, was charged with stealing equipment from the county in 2012 and was aggressively prosecuted by both Hasse and McLelland for the crime. He was found guilty, but instead of serving jail time, Williams was sentenced to probation, and lost his health insurance, his job, and his law license, reports the Morning News.
He is appealing the case, but also faces a second theft charge related to the “misuse of money from a law library fund,” writes the Dallas publication.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-15 04:14:382013-04-15 04:14:38Ex Justice of the Peace is Suspect in Texas DA Killings (+video)
The conflict between law enforcement and armed military personnel in the community around Fort Hood, one of America’s largest military bases, has recently and repeatedly involved the issue of gun control — and the tension has been exacerbated in part by an Obama-supporting prosecutor described as a “bandleader” of anti-gun efforts in the heavily conservative community.
The conflict reached a fever pitch last month, when Texas police arrested an active-duty Army sergeant for “rudely displaying” a hunting rifle. The sergeant, C.J. Grisham, established an online legal defense fund after he was, in his words, “illegally arrested and disarmed” for carrying the firearm.
“While out hiking with my son through backcountry roads to help him earn his Eagle Scout rank, I was illegally arrested and disarmed without cause. I was thrown in jail and my lawfully owned weapons were confiscated without receipt or notice,” Grisham wrote on the website for the defense fund.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-14 03:13:232013-04-14 03:13:23Video: Conflict Between Pro-Obama Prosecutor and Armed Fort Hood Soldiers Reaching Boiling Point
A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants the federal government to butt out of states’ decisions to legalize and regulate marijuana, whether it’s for medical or recreational purposes.
The Respect State Marijuana Laws Act, introduced in Congress by a consortium of congresspeople led by Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, would immunize pot smokers, growers and sellers in permissive states from federal prosecution.
Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., have some form of medical marijuana laws and two — Colorado and Washington — recently passed laws legalizing pot for recreational use.
The bill is co-sponsored by Republicans Don Young and Justin Amash and Democrats Jared Polis, Earl Blumenauer and Steve Cohen.
“This bipartisan bill represents a common-sense approach that establishes federal government respect for all states’ marijuana laws,” Rohrabacher said in a statement. ”It does so by keeping the federal government out of the business of criminalizing marijuana activities in states that don’t want it to be criminal.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-14 03:11:522013-04-14 03:11:52Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Protect Pot Smokers from the Feds (+funny video)
Retired Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus declared to Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview that “Obamacare is going to kill off small business.”
“If [employees] are thrown out of their medical plans now, where they’re covered in a good plan and thrown under the bus, they’re going to be destroyed,” Marcus said on Thursday. “If, in fact, they don’t stay as full-time employees but go to part-time employees, they’re going to be destroyed…
“People have to understand that the villain is not their employer; the villain is the U.S. government,” Marcus added. “Obamacare is the capper. That’s the bullet to the temple.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-14 03:06:072013-04-14 03:06:07Video: Home Depot Co-founder: Obamacare Will ‘Kill Off’ Small Business, Gov't is the 'Villain'
On CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report” on Friday night, conservative commentator and author Ann Coulter faced off against founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist over the issue of immigration reform.
Norquist supported the reported outline of the proposal that is being negotiated in secret by a group of senators dubbed the “Gang of Eight.” Norquist said the these efforts will bring substantial benefits for Americans…
Coulter, author of “Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama,” said the current bill shouldn’t be defined as pro- or anti-immigration, but instead shoudl be judged on the merits of the proposal.
“It isn’t pro-immigration or anti-immigration — it’s changing the current immigration policy,” Coulter said. “I think we ought to be trying to get immigrants who are better than us, not worse than us. And 85 percent of legal immigrants come from the Third World since [former Sen.] Teddy Kennedy changed immigration law in this country. Sixty-five percent of them need some sort of government assistance. I mean, when I hear that — you know, ‘Don’t worry, immigrants are only on welfare 15 percent higher than native Americans,’ it shouldn’t be any immigrants.”
“We ought to be getting — we can’t get the surgeons, the businessmen, the people who would be competing with everybody who is talking about immigration — it is the servant class that is coming in who taxpayers need to support,” she added. “And of course, the business community has always been for immigration. Some elements of the evangelicals always have, but the point is: Is it a good policy or bad policy? It is bad for America. It is good for people who want cheap labor, while the rest of us subsidize cheap labor.”
By Elizabeth Weise. A video released by Saturday by North Korea shows nuclear launches against the United States reaching four sites, including Washington, D.C., California, Hawaii and what the announcer describes as Colorado Springs, but which looks like Arkansas. U.S. officials were clear they did not believe the belligerent nation has missiles capable of reaching the United States.
The video was released Saturday on Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean government web site. It has also been posted on YouTube.
In it, each of the U.S. targets explodes into a ball of flames as the missiles strike on the map. The Colorado Springs attack is presumably because the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is located near there, as well as the U.S. Air Force Academy. However based on the map the North Koreans posted, the attack site is actually in either southern Arkansas or northern Louisiana.
The video, typical of North Korean propaganda, is introduced by a male voiceover while a female news anchor in the traditional Korean hanbok dress reads from news headlines. The images are accompanied by synthesizer music and sounds of thunder. Further in, jarring montages of missile launches and military equipment are accompanied by what sound like 1970s power rock guitar solos. The video had more than 225,000 hits on YouTube by Saturday afternoon. Read more from this story HERE.
Kerry assured: China committed to getting N. Korea to abandon nuclear weapons
By Guy Taylor. After a day of diplomatic talks with Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Saturday, Chinese authorities claimed they are committed to working “peacefully” toward the goal of getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.
“We maintain that the issue should be handled and resolved peacefully through dialogue and consultation,” China’s State Councilor Yang Jiechi said on Saturday evening in Beijing while sitting beside Mr. Kerry at a restaurant in the Chinese Capitol.
“To promptly address the Korean nuclear issue serves the common interests of all parties,” said Mr. Yang. “It is also the shared responsibility of all parties.”
The remarks created the appearance of fresh unity between Beijing and Washington, where the Obama administration hoped that Mr. Kerry would be able to convince Chinese leaders to take a more active role in encouraging North Korea to tone down its recent nuclear threats.
Mr. Yang, however, took care to avoid making any specific commitments with regard to actions China is willing to take to pressure the North Korean military or the nation’s 28-year-old leader Kim Jong-un to give up the nation’s nuclear arsenal and back away from the recent wave of antagonistic posturing. Read more from this story HERE.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offers many faces, many threats
By Ernesto Londoño. When Kim Jong Un first appeared in Pyongyang’s carefully stage-managed public spotlight in the fall of 2010, North Korea watchers began scouring for clues to learn whether the pudgy heir apparent would be a reformist or simply the newest face of a despotic regime.
Nearly 16 months after taking the reins of the hermit state following the death of his stoic father, North Korea’s 30-year-old leader appears to be careening toward the latter — at least on the surface.
Having disavowed his country’s armistice with South Korea and threatened to fire his increasingly capable missiles toward the United States, Kim has put the Korean Peninsula and Washington on a war footing. His behavior follows the playbook of his predecessors, with one notable and potentially dangerous departure that appears to have him backed into a corner.
“His father and his grandfather always figured into their provocation cycle an off-ramp of how to get out of it,” Adm. Samuel Locklear III, the commander of U.S. troops in the Pacific, told Congress this past week. “It’s not clear to me that he has thought through how to get out of it. This is what makes this scenario, I think, particularly challenging.”
Making sense of the Kims has been more of an art than a science. A cadre of North Korea scholars has spent decades piecing together a portrait of the eccentric, secretive family by poring through mounds of propaganda, defector accounts and the limited, sporadic contact the regime has had with the West. While acknowledging that Kim Jong Un remains an enigma, experts in the intricacies of Pyongyang say a careful study suggests his recent bout of bellicose rhetoric probably represents a desperate cry for legitimacy rather than a genuine appetite for combat.Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-14 02:55:132013-04-14 02:55:13North Korea Produces Video Depicting Nuke Attack on US, While China "Commits" to Help Defuse Situation
The FBI has requested more than $41 million to improve the bureau’s ability to collect and analyze cyber information and address “critical gaps” in its capability to monitor web activities.
As part of an overall $86 million budget request for a “Next Generation Cyber Initiative,” the FBI wants to hire 36 employees, including 10 agents, to improve its cyber collection and analysis capabilities. The justification for that $41 million request, which includes over $33 million in nonpersonnel spending, was submitted in a classified report to Congress as part of the bureau’s 2014 budget request.
The FBI said it would use the new initiative to “help promote a whole of government approach to cybersecurity, as well as address critical gaps in the FBI’s current ability to investigate computer intrusions and identify, mitigate, and disrupt cyber threat actors.”
The FBI has long had concerns that new technologies are not “wiretap friendly” and create blind spots for law enforcement when targets use certain methods of communication. Last year, the FBI privately pressured Internet companies to create backdoors for government surveillance.
Two explosions shattered the euphoria of the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry off the injured while the stragglers in the 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts.
The conflict between law enforcement and armed military personnel in the community around Fort Hood, one of America’s largest military bases, has recently and repeatedly involved the issue of gun control — and the tension has been exacerbated in part by an Obama-supporting prosecutor described as a “bandleader” of anti-gun efforts in the heavily conservative community.
