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Obama Taking Executive Action on Guns after Senate Vote

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Photo Credit: Svadilfari

Blocked by Congress from expanding gun sale background checks, President Obama is turning to actions within his own power to keep people from buying a gun who are prohibited for mental health reasons.

Federal law bans certain mentally ill people from purchasing firearms, but not all states are providing data to stop the prohibited sales to the FBI’s background check system. A federal review last year found 17 states contributed fewer than 10 mental health records to the database, meaning many deemed by a judge to be a danger still could have access to guns.

The Obama administration was starting a process Friday aimed at removing barriers in health privacy laws that prevent some states from reporting information to the background check system. The action comes two days after the Senate rejected a measure that would have required buyers of firearms online and at gun shows to pass a background check. That’s already required for shoppers at licensed gun dealers.

Stung by the defeat, Obama vowed to keep up the fight for the background check expansion but also to do what he could through executive action.

“Even without Congress, my administration will keep doing everything it can to protect more of our communities,” Obama said from the Rose Garden shortly after the Senate voted. “We’re going to address the barriers that prevent states from participating in the existing background check system.”

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Boston Bombs: Obama Lulled America Into False Confidence Over Terror Threat

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Photo Credit: transplanted mountaineer

In his State of the Union address to the American people earlier this year, Barack Obama declared that he was “confident” of achieving “our objective of defeating the core of al-Qaeda”.

Although he acknowledged the need to pursue the “remnants” of the terrorist group and its affiliates, the overall message was clear – al-Qaeda was badly degraded, the tides of war were receding and the US was winning this fight that was no longer even officially a war.

The Boston bombings would appear to present a fundamental challenge to that assessment and once again bring the nagging uncertainty of terrorism back on to the American main street.

It is too soon to be absolutely sure the attacks were motivated by jihadist ideology, but the Islamic videos on the website of the older of the two Tsarnaev brothers point very firmly in that direction.

They bring home the complexity of the global Islamist threat and the fact that it cannot be confined to wars in distant lands, or fought at arm’s length using drones, as the Obama administration has quietly yet insistently led America to believe.

Watch video here:

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Obama on Bomb Suspect Arrest: Don't 'Rush' to Judge 'Entire Groups of People'

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Photo Credit: Getty

Following Friday’s capture of 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, President Obama warned against rushing to judgment about “entire groups of people,” the Associated Press reported.

“In this age of instant reporting, tweets, and blogs, there’s a temptations to latch on to any bit of information sometimes to jump to conclusions. When a tragedy like this happens, with public safety at risk and the stakes so high, it’s important that we do this right. That’s why we have investigations. That’s why we relentlessly gather the facts, that’s why we have courts. That’s why we take care not to rush to judgement, not about the motivations of these individuals and certainly not about entire groups of people,” he said.

“Translation: don’t look behind the curtain at the Islamic radical connection,” said a post at Weasel Zippers.

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Home-Grown Terrorist Attack Threatens to Disrupt Obama Agenda

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The Boston Marathon terrorist attack allegedly hatched by two brothers from Chechnya is threatening to disrupt President Obama’s second-term agenda.

Opponents of immigration reform — the most promising priority of Obama’s second term remaining after the defeat of gun control — are already using the attack to try to slow progress on a bipartisan Senate bill.

More broadly, the attack is raising questions about how the administration should deal with 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was captured Friday after an exhaustive manhunt in Boston, and concerns over whether the FBI was too complacent in letting his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev out of its sight after interviewing him in 2011.

The issues are expected to create political problems and distractions for Obama, whose fight against terrorism has largely been a political success highlighted by the killing of Osama bin Laden.

It is unclear how much oxygen the issue will consume in the coming weeks, but it seems certain it will shift the political debates in Washington.

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Captured Bombing Suspect: Pot Head, Obama Supporter and Other Quirky Details

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

By Robby Soave. Boston bombing suspect and fugitive Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a “normal pot head” who supported President Obama for re-election last November, according to friends and his Twitter account.

Chris Barry, who attended the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with Tsarnaev, described him as normal teenager who loved to smoke pot and cigarettes every day.

“He was a pot head, a normal pot head,” said Barry in an interview with Politico. “I couldn’t even imagine him being mad at someone let alone hurting someone.”

Tsarnaev, a Muslim, did not come across as strongly religious, said Barry.

“He never brought it up. It seemed like he could care less,” he said. Read more from this story HERE.

“Barack, You My Dawg,” and other Pro-Obama Tweets

By Matthew Sheffield. Several posts on what several news organizations have confirmed as the Twitter profile of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev indicate that that the 19-year-old Chechnyan immigrant was a supporter of Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

If that is indeed the case, it does not mean that Obama has any sort of connection with or responsibility for the bombing suspect or his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. It does, however, completely reverse the fantasy that many American liberals were openly hoping for: that the bombing suspects might be revealed as Timothy McVeigh 2.0, someone whose very name they could use to smear and deride anyone who stands against their belief system. In other words, one of those “dog whistles” we keep hearing so much about.

Now that information has emerged which not only indicates the suspected bombers were not radical conservatives but that one of them appears to be a supporter of President Obama, how widely will it be spread in the endless series of reports trying to report as many details about the two suspects? Read more from this story HERE.

Father of Captured Bombing Suspect: ‘Tell the Police Everything’

By Bianna Golodryga. The father of a suspected Boston Marathon bomber started to cry when ABC News told him that his son had been captured alive.

“Thank God,” Anzor Tsarnaev said, speaking in Russian, thanking ABC News for relaying word that his son, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was in custody and alive.

Asked what he wanted to tell his son, Anzor Tsarnaev said, “Tell police everything. Everything. Just be honest.”

Tsarnaev spoke to ABC News on more than one occasion today from his home in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, Russia, as Boston police carried out an intense dragnet for his son.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev survived a running gun battle with police during the night that left an MIT security officer dead and a Boston police officer badly wounded. His older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in the shootout. Read more from this story HERE.

Captured Suspect: ‘I Don’t Have a Single American Friend’

By CBS Boston. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was killed early Friday, once described himself as not having a single American friend and aspired to be a U.S. Olympic boxer.

As police continue the extensive manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hours following a fatal shootout that killed his older brother, more details about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s personal life and past athletic aspirations are coming to light.

In Johannes Hirn’s photo essay, “Will Box for Passport,” Hirn profiled Tamerlan Tsarnaev on his road to the National Golden Gloves competition in Salt Lake City. Throughout the 15-picture photo essay, which has since been made a private gallery, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s life is on display, talking openly about his religion, his straight-edge lifestyle, his boxing dreams, and the difficult time he had adjusting to living in the U.S. for five years.

“I don’t have a single American friend, I don’t understand them,” Tamerlan Tsarnaev said in the photo essay. Read more from this story HERE.

Background on the Capture of the Second Bombing Suspect

By Sheldon Alberts, Daniel Strauss and Jonathan Easley. “We are exhausted folks, but we have a victory here tonight,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben said.

After a long day of tension and uncertainty, Tsarnaev’s capture happened in a burst of action Friday evening. It started shortly after an update on the investigation in which law enforcement announced that a daylong lockdown on Boston and the surrounding area had been lifted.

Just after that, gunshots sounded in Watertown, where officials suspected Tsarnaev had been hiding. A fleet of police cars sped to surround the suspect. What followed was a standoff as law enforcement officials eventually closed in on Tsarnaev, who was hiding in a boat behind a Watertown home.

Just before 9 p.m., Boston police tweeted that the suspect was custody.

“CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody,” the department wrote on Twitter. Read more from this story HERE.

Senator Cruz on Obama's Real 'Gun Control' Record

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

From yesterday’s Rush Limbaugh Show:

CRUZ: In 2010, roughly 48,000 felons and fugitives attempted to illegally purchase firearms. Out of those 48,000, the Obama Justice Department prosecuted only 44.

RUSH: Right.

CRUZ: Let me repeat those numbers because those numbers, in my opinion, are quite staggering. Out of 48,000 felons and fugitives who in a single year tried to illegally purchase firearms, the Justice Department prosecuted just 44 of them. In our judgment, that’s unacceptable.

RUSH: What Cruz is doing here is called push-back. He’s a freshman, won election. He’s Tea Party. He’s got a great future. People very much appreciate what Cruz is willing to stand up and say. But did you know the specifics here, the nut of what he said here? It proves the point. Forty-four prosecutions out of 48,000 felons and fugitives who tried to illegally purchase firearms. We’ve already got plenty of law. We only prosecuted 44 of ’em in 2010. Why? Because we don’t want to create the impression we have enough gun laws. In fact, let’s turn it around 180 degrees. The Democrats want the impression created we don’t have enough law.

So you have all of these fugitives, all of these felons committing these horrendous crimes, and we’re not pursuing and we’re not prosecuting ’em, and the reason, “We need more law, Mr. Limbaugh. We don’t have enough law to go after these people. The gun control laws are woefully inept, we need more.” That’s what they want everybody to conclude. Just like we don’t have the laws necessary to deal with immigration. Yes, we do. All we would have to do is enforce current law, and we could reform the immigration problem without anything new.

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Obama: 'Damned if He Does, Damned if He Doesn't' (+video)

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey

There are two very different President Obamas.

There’s the confident, uncompromising Obama who sought to shame and bully Republicans into submitting to his agenda of tax increases and sweeping gun reform. This version of Obama was dominant until one month ago.

Then there’s the calmer, more compromising Obama — the one who has courted Republicans and taken on his own party with a call for (modest) reductions in entitlement spending. This version of Obama took command last month. Both are flailing.

Obama, regardless of the personality and political approach he displays on any given day, keeps running into the same wall of insurmountable opposition. The cold, hard reality is that the president is trapped in a very frustrating box: He realizes that the vast majority of Congress is as impervious to his pressure as it is his charm. He is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t — and he knows it, several of his friends tell us.

He will most likely get nothing on guns despite his vow after Wednesday’s Senate defeat that “this effort is not over.” He will most likely get nothing more on a grand bargain to lift the economy.

Watch video here:

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Snubbing Thatcher's Funeral? No, Obama Is Consistent!

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Photo Credit: roberthuffstutter

Is President Obama snubbing Lady Thatcher’s funeral in London? No, he’s simply being consistent. Mrs. Thatcher was a great defender of democracy. Mr. Obama is not.

Mr. Obama went to London in 2009. There, he bowed to that desert despot, Saudi King Abdullah. It was Abdullah who refused in 1998 to give the U.S. access to Madani al Tayyib, the financial kingpin of al-Qaeda. So, of course, Mr. Obama would bow to Abdullah.

Back home, the new president tossed a bust of Winston Churchill out into the snow. The brave champion of freedom who resisted Hitler’s “Nozzies” triumphed over tyranny.

Mr. Obama extends his hand to tyrants.

And, after all, he did give an iPod with recordings of all his speeches to Britain’s Queen. It was a most thoughtful gift — just in case Her Majesty was having trouble with insomnia.

Read more from this story HERE.

Move Over ObamaPhone: 844-Page Immigration Bill Funds New 'MarcoPhone'

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Photo Credit: Shark Tank

With the new ‘Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act’ finally being filed in the U.S. Senate, concerns over how much money the immigration reform bill will cost an already debt-ridden United States continues to swirl among Americans who are already strapped for cash.

According to the newly filed bill, immigrants who are allowed to enter the United States under a work visa, will be ‘granted’ a taxpayer funded cellular phone. Move over “Obama phone,” we present the new ‘Hola, Como Estas?!’ MarcoPhone.

Here is the actual mention of the free phones in the bill-

SEC. 1107. ACCESS TO EMERGENCY PERSONNEL. (a) SOUTHWEST BORDER REGION EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS GRANTS.—

The Secretary, in consultation with the governors of the States in the Southwest Border region, shall establish a 2-year grant program, to be administered by the Secretary, to improve emergency communications in the Southwest

ELIGIBILITY FOR GRANTS.—An individual is eligible to receive a grant under this subsection if the individual demonstrates that he or she— (A) regularly resides or works in the Southwest Border region; is at greater risk of border violence due to the lack of cellular service at his or her residence or business and his or her proximity to the Southern border. (3) USE OF GRANTS.—Grants awarded under this subsection may be used to purchase satellite telephone communications systems and service that— (A) can provide access to 9–1–1 service; and (B) are equipped with global positioning

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Another Letter, this One to Obama, Tests Positive for Ricin; Suspect Claims He's on the 'Front Lines of a Secret War'

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Photo Credit: Getty

Mississippi man arrested in connection to ricin letters sent to Obama, lawmakers

By Fox News. A Mississippi man has been arrested as a suspect in connection to the mailing of three letters sent to President Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and a Mississippi official that initially tested positive for ricin, Fox News confirms.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Daniel McMullen said the man was arrested Wednesday at approximately 5:15 p.m. CT. It is unclear if charges are getting filed tonight or if they will be filed tomorrow.

The Department of Justice said he was arrested at his Corinth, Miss., home following an investigation conducted by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Memphis, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss., the U.S. Capitol Police, and the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Secret Service.

The suspect has been identified as 45-year-old Paul Kenneth Curtis of Tupelo, Miss., a source told Fox News. Tupelo is also the hometown of Wicker and his wife.

The FBI confirmed earlier Wednesday that a letter addressed to President Obama had “preliminarily tested positive” for ricin, a day after lawmakers said another letter sent to the Capitol Hill office of Sen. Roger Wicker tested positive for the same substance. Read more from this story HERE.

Letter to Obama Tests Positive for Ricin

By Associated Press. Police swept across the U.S. Capitol complex to chase a flurry of reports of suspicious packages and envelopes Wednesday after preliminary tests indicated poisonous ricinin two letters sent to President Barack Obama and a Mississippi senator.

In an intelligence bulletin, the FBI said that the letters to Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, were postmarked Memphis, Tenn. Both letters say: “To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.” Both are signed, “I am KC and I approve this message.”

Reports of suspicious letters also came in from congressional offices in Michigan and Arizona as police investigated the discovery of at least three questionable packages in Senate office buildings.

The rush of activity came as tensions were high in Washington and across the country following the twin bombings on Monday at the Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured more than 170. The FBI said there was no indication of a connection between the letters and the bombing. The letters to Obama and Wicker were postmarked April 8, before the marathon.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, said that police have a suspect in mind in the Obama and Wicker mailings, someone who “writes a lot of letters to members.” She made the comment Tuesday as she emerged from a briefing by law enforcement on the Boston bombing. Read more from this story HERE.

Mind-boggling details emerge about ricin letter suspect: ‘I’m on the hidden front lines of a secret war’

By News Editor. TheBlaze is reporting that the individual arrested today in connection with the ricin letters had formerly been fired from a medical facility for allegedly uncovering an illicit trade in body parts. He likely filed the following petition on Change.org:

To:
The President of the United States
The U.S. Senate
The U.S. House of Representatives
The Governor of MS
Sen. Thad Cochran, MS
Sen. Roger Wicker, MS
Rep. Travis Childers, MS-01

I am petitioning for legislation on a federal level as well as investigations into the secret world wide business of illegal bone, tissue, body parts and organ harvesting.

In 2000, I was fired & banned from the largest non-metropolitan charity hospital in the United States of America after questioning unfair employment practices and ethics. I filed suit against this organization, was re-hired for a period of two months and then ultimately terminated and banned for life from the hospital as well as every government affiliated business associated and/or connected to this so-called charity, tax exempt health care organization.

It is my firm belief I was terminated & banned in an effort to silence me immediately after I questioned several employee’s in the ER about a refrigerator full of body parts, organs, bones and tissue. I further believe hospital administrator’s manipulated employment records & documents in an effort to reduce risk of public attention & legal actions in which I informed hospital CEO Dr. Jeff Barber & Director of Human Resources would be taken by myself. Dr. Jeff Barber was terminated within a few months upon my filing lawsuit along with a dozen other hospital employee’s. Two high profile Mississippi millionaire attorneys I turned to for help are now in prison. These and other questions remain by myself and others. If something illegal was not taking place in the hospital in December of 1999, then why was I forced into a private room, interrogated by administrative officers, threatened & told to forget about the body parts I saw? Death threats followed.

Since 2000, I have investigated the secret world of illegal organ harvesting while contacting hundreds of investigator’s, reporters & news media outlets via fax, telephone & internet connection all over the United States and I am confident that my research, countless court hearings & tireless efforts to take a stand, make sense & expose this horror has contributed to class action lawsuits & investigations all over the United States of America thus bringing criminals such as Michael Mastromarino to Justice.

Why should the lives & careers of innocent people be at risk and/or destroyed due to legal loop holes and an industry which is yet to be regulated by our federal government?

I urge you today to take action and help pass House Bill 6631 into law making it illegal to remove, distribute, buy or sell any bones, tissue, body parts or organs from any person(s) in the United States of America before and/or after victim’s death.

Thank you in advance & God bless…