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Politicizing Tragedy: Obama asks Newtown Mom to Deliver his Weekly Address

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Photo Credit: Reuters

President Barack Obama has asked a mother whose 6-year-old son was killed in the Newtown, Connecticut massacre to deliver his weekly radio address, an unusual move expected to turn up the pressure on Congress to pass tougher gun control laws.

Francine Wheeler, whose son Ben was one of the 26 people killed by a gunman at an elementary school on December 14, will deliver the Saturday radio address, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Obama brought families of the Newtown victims to Washington on Air Force One on Monday, and they have been meeting with senators to urge them to support new laws that, among other measures, would require more background checks for gun sales.

“He believes their voices and resolve have been critical to the continued progress we’ve seen in the Senate,” Carney said.

Vice President Joe Biden has occasionally delivered the weekly address, but the short message to Americans is traditionally given by the president himself.

Read more from this story HERE.

Daughter of Obama Pastor Jeremiah Wright Indicted (+video)

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Photo Credit: Chicago Tribune

The daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — the controversial former pastor to President Barack Obama — was indicted today in an expanding federal probe of a state grant tied to a former suburban police chief.

Jeri Wright of Hazel Crest is accused of helping former Country Club Hills Police Chief Regina Evans convert fake paychecks from Evans’ nonprofit to Evans’ personal use, allegedly hiding money that was supposed to be used to train minority and female workers in the building trades.

Federal prosecutors in the Illinois’ central district say Jeri Wright received about $28,000 in grant-tied paychecks in 2009, but $20,000 of that was deposited back into accounts controlled by Evans. Prosecutors also say Wright then lied to officers and a grand jury.

The charges emerge about a year after Evans was charged with fraud in relation to a $1.25 million job training grant awarded to her nonprofit, We Are Our Brothers Keeper.

Watch video here:

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GOP Leaders Dismiss Obama’s Budget Plan

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Photo Credit: AP

By Neil Munro. Republican budget leaders dismissed President Barack Obama’s 2014 budget plan as mess of fiscal gimmicks, shirked duties, accounting flim-flam and escalating debt.

The 10-year budget claims to cut $1.8 trillion from future borrowing, but actually trims only $119 billion from the 10-year, $46.5 trillion spending plan, Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House’s budget committee, said April 10.

The removal of the budget tricks “knocks you down to $119 [billion] in actual deficit reduction,” he said. Promised spending reductions are also postponed way into the future, Ryan said. Obama’s budget writers “don’t even start deficit reduction until four years after he’s left office,” he said.

“We are not seeing responsible leadership,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, chairman of the Senate’s budget committee. The administration is “under the mis-impression that deficit don’t matter [and] that they can continue to borrow and spend.”

In his Rose Garden speech today, Obama touted his budget, saying “the numbers work. There’s not a lot of smoke and mirrors in here.” Read more from this story HERE.

President Obama’s budget includes $1 trillion tax hike and $744 billion deficit

By Brian Hughes. President Obama on Wednesday unveiled his $3.8 trillion budget proposal for 2014, calling for higher taxes in exchange for cost reductions in Social Security and Medicare, a proposal swiftly rejected both by his Republican rivals and Democratic allies.

The president’s budget — which would produce a $744 billion deficit next year — includes about $1 trillion in new taxes over the next decade, including nearly doubling the federal tax on cigarettes to $1.95 a pack, increasing the estate tax, and eliminating some tax deductions and loopholes for wealthier Americans.

The budget would raise the national minimum wage to $9 an hour and spend an additional $50 billion on public works projects that could generate jobs.

From the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, the president said he would support cuts to entitlement programs only if Congress approves his proposed tax increases.

“If anyone thinks I’ll finish the job of deficit reduction on the backs of middle-class families or through spending cuts alone that actually hurt our economy short-term, they should think again,” the president said. “When it comes to deficit reduction, I’ve already met Republicans more than half way.” Read more from this story HERE.

Obama and Cuba: 'Remarkable Cooperation on Many Issues'

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Photo Credit: flippinyank

Cuba and the United States may be longtime enemies with a bucket overflowing with grievances, but the fast return of a Florida couple who fled U.S. authorities with their two kidnapped children in tow shows the Cold War enemies are capable of remarkable cooperation on many issues.

Indeed, diplomats and observers on both sides of the Florida Straits say American and Cuban law enforcement officers, scientists, disaster relief workers, Coast Guard officials and other experts work together on a daily basis, and invariably express professional admiration for each other.

“I don’t think the story has been told, but there is a real warmth in just the sort of day-to-day relations between U.S. and Cuban government officials,” said Dan Whittle, who frequently brings scientific groups to the island in his role as Cuba program director for the Environmental Defense Fund.

“Nearly every time I talk to American officials they say they were impressed by their Cuban counterparts. There really is a high level of mutual respect.”

Almost none of these technical-level interactions make the headlines, but examples are endless. Just last week, Cuba’s top environmental official Ulises Fernandez and several island oil experts attended a conference in New York of the International Association of Drilling Contractors after the State Department expedited their visas.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Now Appears to be Allied With Al-Qaeda in Syria

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Iraq’s al-Qaeda wing has united with a kindred Syrian group in the front line of a struggle to oust President Bashar al-Assad, sharpening a dilemma for nations that back the revolt, but fear rising Islamist militancy. The leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said his group had trained and funded fighters from Syria’s al-Nusra Front — which is blacklisted by the United States — since the early days of the two-year-old uprising.

He said in a statement posted on Islamist websites and seen by Reuters on Tuesday that the two groups would operate under the joint title of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

“It’s now time to declare in front of the people of the Levant and the world that al-Nusra Front is but an extension of the Islamic State of Iraq and part of it,” Baghdadi said.

“We thus declare . . . the cancellation of the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and the name of al-Nusra Front and grouping them together under one name, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” he added.

The militant Islamist element of the Syrian conflict poses a quandary for Western powers and their Arab allies, which favor Assad’s overthrow but are alarmed at the growing power of Sunni Muslim jihadi fighters whose fiercely anti-Shiite ideology has fueled sectarian tensions in the Middle East.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama's Proposed Cuts: Not Even Close to REAL Entitlement Reform

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In his latest attempt to cajole Republicans into raising taxes, Obama has called for a budget plan that makes some cuts to Medicare providers and subjects Social Security payments to the chained CPI. John Boehner was correct to reject this ploy of holding entitlement savings hostage for tax increases. However, he has come close to negotiating such a deal in the past, and there are some GOP officials who are saying they would still agree to such a trade. Lindsey Graham has already expressed encouragement over the proposal.

We must remember that even to the extent we would be willing to trade tax increases for something transformational, Obama’s proposal is not entitlement reform, and it certainly doesn’t represent something transformational. It is a proposal of austerity cuts to the status quo.

The problem with entitlements is not limited to the budgetary cost to the federal government, although that is certainly a major concern. The problem with our entitlements – in the case of Medicare and Medicaid – is the lack of choices, free market forces, and the inflationary cost of healthcare to the individual. The problem with Social Security is the lack of private property rights, dreadful rate of return, lack of individual liberty, and hopeless dependency on government. Limiting benefits to the chained CPI might be fine for the government option, but it should not replace policies that offer more choices. Means-testing benefits might save money, but we must not forget that Social Security is already means-tested, as its benefit formula is tendentious towards low-income earners relative to what they contribute to the program.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pro-Abortion Obama to GOP: You Care More About Gun Lobby Than Children

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Photo Credit: France24

President Barack Obama accused Republicans of stooping to political stunts to block gun reform, in a fervent appeal delivered close to the site of the Newtown school massacre.

At a critical moment for hopes for sweeping action to stem gun violence, Obama traveled to Hartford, Connecticut, not far from Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 children and six adults were gunned down in December.

In sharp, impassioned remarks, he contrasted the courage of parents whose children were killed by a deranged gunman with US lawmakers he said feared the wrath of the powerful American gun lobby.

“Some folks in Washington are already floating the idea that they may use political stunts to prevent votes on any of these reforms,” Obama told a raucous crowd during his second gun control rally in a week.

“They’re not just saying they’ll vote no on ideas that almost all Americans support. They’re saying they’ll do everything they can to even prevent any votes on these provisions.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Screwing Up in North Korea

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photo credit: petersnoopy

After the Obama Administration publicly blamed the U.S. Military for “amping up” North Korea’s boy-leader last week, it is continuing its deferential posture toward the reclusive country.

Today, the Pentagon announced that it is canceling a previously planned Minuteman III ballistic missile test to avoid upsetting ‘Supreme Leader’ Kim Jong Un.

Despite the arrival of B-2’s and other significant U.S. assets over the last week, sources are continuing to report that North Korea is not only prepping for another missile launch but may also be preparing for another nuclear detonation.

Additionally, the Chinese have now reported live-fire maneuvers near the border.

If Obama wishes to put an end to North Korea’s games, he’s certainly going about it the wrong way. Publicly blaming your own military and interrupting long-planned tests upon which our national security depends plays directly into the little dictator’s hands.

Kim Jong Un now has bragging rights that he forced the world’s superpower to blink, something that has likely earned his hard-line military’s respect. Obama has almost certainly guaranteed that we’ll see the same type of scenario play out, yet again, in the not-so-distant future.

Will Benghazi Come Back to Bite Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama? 700 Retired Special Forces Warriors Demand Answers

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Photo Credit: Irish Central

It seems no matter how hard the Obama administration tries to keep the lid on the simmering pot of Benghazi, someone comes along and turns up the heat.

This time it’s an open letter signed by 700 of some of Americas top retired special operations military personnel. The letter demands answers to many of the unanswered questions regarding the Benghazi terrorist attack that killed four Americans and wounded several.

Of key concern to the Special Ops personnel, is the code that says the US will support its forces and do everything humanly possible to send help if they are under attack. Answers provided so far by the Obama administration, seem to contradict that code and point in the direction that our personnel were abandoned by orders given high up in the chain of command.

Military personnel point out that if our fighting forces feel they will not be backed up if they are in dangerous situations, it will send a chill throughout the entire military.

Of course we still do not know who made the decision to deny our Libyan ambassador the additional security he desperately requested in the days leading up to the attack, even though he warned Hillary Clintons state department his situation was dangerous.

Here is the letter in its entirety.

Some of the key questions include:

Why was there no military response to the events in Benghazi?

Was military assistance requested by the Department of State? If so, what type?

How many US personnel were injured in Benghazi?

Why have the survivors of the attack not been questioned?

Where are the survivors?

Were any strike aircraft (such as an AC-130 gunship) in the area or possibly overhead that would cause former SEAL Tyrone Woods to laser-designate his attacker’s position and call for gunship fire support, thereby revealing his own location that led to his death?

Who gave the order to “STAND DOWN” that was heard repeatedly during the attacks?

Why are so many agencies now requiring their personnel that were involved in or have access to information regarding the events that took place in Benghazi sign Non-Disclosure Agreements?

Even though the main stream media and the Obama administration seem to want to forget about this, a large segment of the American population doesn’t… and they are demanding answers.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Tea Party Challenges Obama, K Street on Corporate Welfare

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Photo Credit: Kevin Dietsch

Congressional Republicans and the Obama White House are headed for another clash over corporate welfare, and once again President Obama is on the side of big business while Senate conservatives are on the side of free markets.

The battleground is the Export-Import Bank, a federal agency that subsidizes U.S. exports — mostly Boeing jets — by issuing taxpayer-backed financing to foreign buyers. In 2008, candidate Obama aptly described Ex-Im as “little more than a fund for corporate welfare.”

Obama has spent four years pumping steroids into Ex-Im, setting a record $35.7 billion in taxpayer-backed financing last year. Ex-Im’s biggest subsidy program is its loan guarantees, and the agency doled out $14.5 billion of those last year, with $12.2 billion going to subsidize Boeing jets. Piloting Ex-Im as chairman for those four years has been Fred Hochberg. Late last month, Obama announced he is nominating Hochberg for a second term.

As Hochberg used the agency’s annual conference on Thursday to defend and extol his tenure, the conservative Club for Growth — a significant money source for the Tea Party insurgency in the GOP — came out against his appointment. The club announced that it would include Hochberg’s confirmation vote in its annual scorecard. In other words, if a Republican senator wants to avoid a Tea Party primary challenge, he or she would do well to oppose Hochberg.

Hochberg’s nomination would be yet another Tea Party-vs.-K Street battle within the GOP. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is firmly in Hochberg’s camp. At Ex-Im’s conference (where JPMorgan Chase was named Lender of the Year), Hochberg gave the Chairman’s Award to chamber President Tom Donohue to thank him for his group’s successful effort fighting off a Tea Party-led effort to kill Ex-Im, whose charter was up for renewal last year.

Read more from this story HERE.