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Feds Spend Hundreds of Thousands to Teach Doctors How to Talk to ‘Fat Kids’

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A new project from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is using computer simulated training sessions to teach doctors in Minnesota how to talk to fat kids.

The nearly $500,000 study using “virtual role play” to coach doctors is the latest attempt by the federal government to combat obesity.

“Obesity in the United States is at historically high levels and is an important health problem,” the grant for the project states. “Interventions targeting children are a high priority because children bear the greatest lifetime health risk from overweight and obesity.”

“Health professionals in primary care settings are influential in the lives of families,” it continued. “Even brief advice delivered well can have a meaningful impact, and yet, health care providers indicate that lack of efficacy and skill, impact, patient motivation, and educational materials keep them from routinely addressing obesity prevention and treatment in their practices.”

The grant was awarded to SiMmersion, LLC, a communications training company that simulates conversations with virtual actors. In one example video a law enforcement officer interviews a neighbor of a man who “may be dealing drugs out of his house.” “On-screen assistants,” smaller computer animated people, give two thumbs up when the conversation is going well. (Read more on what the feds spend their money on HERE)

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The Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a Terrorist

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Photo Credit: First Look

Photo Credit: First Look

The Obama administration has quietly approved a substantial expansion of the terrorist watchlist system, authorizing a secret process that requires neither “concrete facts” nor “irrefutable evidence” to designate an American or foreigner as a terrorist, according to a key government document obtained by The Intercept.

The “March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance,” a 166-page document issued last year by the National Counterterrorism Center, spells out the government’s secret rules for putting individuals on its main terrorist database, as well as the no fly list and the selectee list, which triggers enhanced screening at airports and border crossings. The new guidelines allow individuals to be designated as representatives of terror organizations without any evidence they are actually connected to such organizations, and it gives a single White House official the unilateral authority to place “entire categories” of people the government is tracking onto the no fly and selectee lists. It broadens the authority of government officials to “nominate” people to the watchlists based on what is vaguely described as “fragmentary information.” It also allows for dead people to be watchlisted.

Over the years, the Obama and Bush Administrations have fiercely resisted disclosing the criteria for placing names on the databases—though the guidelines are officially labeled as unclassified. In May, Attorney General Eric Holder even invoked the state secrets privilege to prevent watchlisting guidelines from being disclosed in litigation launched by an American who was on the no fly list. In an affidavit, Holder called them a “clear roadmap” to the government’s terrorist-tracking apparatus, adding: “The Watchlisting Guidance, although unclassified, contains national security information that, if disclosed … could cause significant harm to national security.”

The rulebook, which The Intercept is publishing in full, was developed behind closed doors by representatives of the nation’s intelligence, military, and law-enforcement establishment, including the Pentagon, CIA, NSA, and FBI. Emblazoned with the crests of 19 agencies, it offers the most complete and revealing look into the secret history of the government’s terror list policies to date. It reveals a confounding and convoluted system filled with exceptions to its own rules, and it relies on the elastic concept of “reasonable suspicion” as a standard for determining whether someone is a possible threat. Because the government tracks “suspected terrorists” as well as “known terrorists,” individuals can be watchlisted if they are suspected of being a suspected terrorist, or if they are suspected of associating with people who are suspected of terrorism activity.

Read more from this story HERE.

Restoring Balance Among the Branches of Government in Washington

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Photo Credit: Brendan Smialowski / GETTY IMAGESThe controversy over President Obama’s decision to exchange five high-ranking Taliban leaders for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl last month focused largely on the price paid. There was less focus on Obama ignoring a federal law that required him to notify Congress 30 days in advance of releasing detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Laws such as this have been enacted to allow vital oversight of actions of such consequence. If this were an isolated instance, it could be dismissed. It is not.

After announcing that he intended to act unilaterally in the face of congressional opposition, Obama ordered the non-enforcement of various laws — including numerous changes to the Affordable Care Act — moved hundreds of millions of dollars away from the purposes for which Congress approved the spending and claimed sweeping authority to act without judicial or legislative controls.

A growing crisis in our constitutional system threatens to fundamentally alter the balance of powers — and accountability — within our government. This crisis did not begin with Obama, but it has reached a constitutional tipping point during his presidency. Indeed, it is enough to bring the two of us — a liberal academic and a conservative U.S. senator — together in shared concern over the future of our 225-year-old constitutional system of self­governance.

We believe that people of good faith can likewise transcend politics and forge a bipartisan coalition to examine these changes. In our view, the gridlock in Washington is not simply the result of toxic divisions. The dysfunctional politics we are experiencing may in part be the result of a deeper corrosion — a dangerous instability that is growing within our Madisonian system.

Read more from this story HERE.

Poll: Trust in Government Down 44 Percent Among GOP in Last Decade

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Photo Credit: REUTERSWhen it comes to Washington controversies, most American voters think Benghazi, the IRS and the government’s electronic surveillance program are serious matters. A Fox News poll also finds that less than four in 10 voters trust the federal government.

The new poll, released Thursday, finds 37 percent of voters answer “yes” when asked: “would you say you generally trust the federal government?” Six in 10 say they don’t trust the government, down a touch from a high of 62 percent (June 2013 and July 2011).

One thing that is sure to erode trust is a scandal, and 78 percent of voters consider the Obama administration’s handling of the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi a serious matter, including 52 percent who say “very serious.” Just over half (53 percent) see government surveillance of everyday Americans as “very serious” and 44 percent feel that way about the IRS targeting conservative groups.

Partisanship also shapes views on trustworthiness. In 2002, the first time this question was asked on a Fox News poll, 47 percent of Democrats said yes, they trust the government. That increased to 53 percent in February 2009, about a month after President Obama was inaugurated, and it stands at 55 percent in the new poll. The trend is reversed and more dramatic among Republicans: 63 percent trusted the government in 2002, while 32 percent felt that way in 2009 and just 19 percent trust Uncle Sam today.

For independents, trust was 53 percent in 2002, 35 percent in 2009 and 31 percent now.

Read more from this story HERE.

Millennials Have ‘Historically Low’ Levels Of Trust In Government

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A new poll surveying young Americans’ political attitudes released by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics Tuesday found millennials have less trust in government than ever before.

Harvard’s poll showed millennials, which the pollsters defined as peopled aged 18 to 29, have lost trust in a variety of different major public institutions including the President, the military, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the federal government as a whole. Of all the institutions tracked by the poll, the President and the military lost the most trust among young Americans with a seven point drop. Overall, the pollsters said the level of trust millennials have in “most American institutions tested in our survey” had dropped below even “last year’s historically low numbers.”

This chart created by the pollsters shows the steep declines in their “composite trust index,” which is the level of trust on average in six different public institutions; the President, the U.S. Military, the Supreme Court, the federal government, and the United Nations. The drop is dramatic:

composite trust chart

Read more from this story HERE.

Common Sense and Straight Talk Sorely Needed

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Photo Credit: Win McNamee / Getty Images

Photo Credit: Win McNamee / Getty Images

Something is terribly wrong with our government and the citizens who vote year after year to keep them in office. Common sense is desperately needed, and straight talk needs to ensue as a result.

In southern Nevada a rancher who merely wants to earn a living and be left alone is called a “domestic terrorist” by the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev. Reid further called all who support this rancher “domestic terrorists.”

Now for the common sense and straight talk. It is Sen. Reid and all of his cronies who think like him who are the domestic terrorists, and here’s why. The U.S. government has no authority to seize and hold property unless it is to be used directly in the service of the government. The Constitution does not give the federal government the power to hold lands. It’s land must be used for the buildings that house it’s various functions, including the military. It cannot hold land just to have it, or to sell it for a profit, or to favor certain corporate interests that may want it. It does not even have the legal authority (Constitutional authority) to seize it, hold it, or hamstring landowners due to “endangered species.”

The United States, therefore, is in violation of its own law. That means that those armed federal agents who gathered in the hills above the Bundy ranch last week are domestic terrorists. They wish to enforce an illegal action of the U.S. government. That land does not legitimately belong to the Feds, though the courts and the Feds, like all good tyrannical progressives (regressives) say that it does.

But this is not the only example of the inversion of our values, the tendency to call that which is good evil and that which is evil good. The Attorney General of the United States believes that lying to Congress is acceptable behavior. And that being held in contempt of Congress for it is an outrage.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: CBS Las Vegas

Photo Credit: CBS Las Vegas

“Domestic Terrorists” Celebrate At Bundy Ranch

By Kevin Wall / CBS.

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy celebrated what many of his supporters called a “victory” in the ongoing battle with the Bureau of Land Management.

Bundy and his supporters from around the country gathered at the Bundy Ranch for a barbecue Friday night. People came from around the country to join Bundy’s family, neighbors, and ranch hands to enjoy music, inspirational speeches and plenty of “Bundy Barbecue”.

A number of those in attendance had weapons strapped to their waist in what is called “open carry” mode. Others admitted to be in a “concealed carry” mode.

Bundy continues to deny charges made Wednesday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that he failed to pay his taxes. On Wednesday, Bundy told Kevin Wall of KXNT’s “Live and Local” that Reid is in error on the issue of taxes.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: John Locher / Las Vegas Review-Journal / AP

Photo Credit: John Locher / Las Vegas Review-Journal / AP

Nevada range war: Western states move to take over federal land

By Brad Knickerbocker.

Like a mustang tied to a fence post, many westerners for years have resisted Uncle Sam’s control of land they say more properly belongs to states or counties – or to nobody at all except the ranchers, miners, and loggers who work the land for its natural resources.

The tussle over Cliven Bundy’s 400 cows – grazing on federal land, although he refuses to pay the required fees now amounting to more than $1 million – sharpens this debate, which has featured state legislators, county officials, environmentalists, and federal judges (all of whom have ruled against Mr. Bundy).

In Salt Lake City Friday, representatives from Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington met for a “Legislative Summit on the Transfer of Public Lands.”

“Those of us who live in the rural areas know how to take care of lands,” Montana state Sen. Jennifer Fielder said at a news conference. “We have to start managing these lands. It’s the right thing to do for our people, for our environment, for our economy and for our freedoms.”

In other words, today’s revival of the “Sagebrush Rebellion” is as much about political philosophy as it is about great stretches of the largely-arid territory west of the 100th meridian splitting the Dakotas and running down through Texas.

Read more from this story HERE.

Untruthful and Untrustworthy Government

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Photo Credit: National Review

Photo Credit: National Review

Transparency and truth are the fuels that run sophisticated civilizations. Without them, the state grinds to a halt. Lack of trust — not barbarians on the frontier, global warming or cooling, or even epidemics — doomed civilizations of the past, from imperial Rome to the former Soviet Union.

The United States can withstand the untruth of a particular presidential administration if the permanent government itself is honest. Dwight Eisenhower lied about the downed U-2 spy plane inside the Soviet Union. Almost nothing Richard Nixon said about Watergate was true. Intelligence reports of vast stockpiles of WMD in Iraq proved as accurate as Bill Clinton’s assertion that he never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.

Presidents fib. The nation gets outraged. The independent media dig out the truth. And so the system of trust repairs itself.

What distinguishes democracies from tinhorn dictatorships and totalitarian monstrosities are our permanent meritocratic government bureaus that remain nonpartisan and honestly report the truth.

The Benghazi, Associated Press, and National Security Agency scandals are scary, but not as disturbing as growing doubts about the honesty of permanent government itself.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dinesh D’Souza: Today’s US Government Would Terrify Founders (+video)

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Photo Credit: cliff1066™Dinesh D’Souza — who made a documentary critical of President Barack Obama and has since been indicted for arranging excessive campaign contributions — says he is just one of many being penalized for criticizing Obama, and says the Founding Fathers would be terrified of what’s happening.

“There seems to have been a pattern of various groups critical of the president all getting inquiries and being subjected to a standard of scrutiny and review that had not been typical,” D’Souza told “The Steve Malzberg Show” on Newsmax TV.

“The federal government has a great deal of power, and now, with the NSA surveillance, with the government, in a sense, having access to your apps and your emails . . . the Founders would’ve been a little terrified about what this kind of power does to people,” D’Souza said Tuesday.

“Once you give the government this kind of power, what’s going to happen? How is that power going to be used?”

D’Souza, a conservative commentator and best-selling author who made the 2012 documentary “2016: Obama’s America,” was indicted by a federal grand jury last month on a charge of arranging excessive campaign contributions to an unnamed candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Read more from this story HERE.

Huckabee: Dems Say Women Need Government to ‘Control their Libido’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says that Democrats are pushing women to believe “they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government.”

The onetime presidential candidate made the comments to the Republican National Committee’s Winter Meeting in Washington D.C.

“If the Democrats want to insult women by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it,” he said. “Let us take this discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be.”

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Read more from this story HERE.

Government Intrudes Into Virtually Every Aspect of Our Lives

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Photo Credit: Newscom

Photo Credit: Newscom

No matter how we label ourselves — conservative, liberal, moderate or none of the above — we all must grapple with the ever-expanding size and scope of government.

America has reached a tipping point. The federal government has grown exponentially, not just in spending, but in its reach. Government intrudes into virtually every aspect of our daily lives, from the type of toilet we can buy, to the mix of fuel we put in our cars, to the kind of light bulb we can use.

Government policies have stifled domestic energy production while pouring billions of tax dollars into alternative-energy subsidies, reflecting the elitist, “progressive” faith that bureaucrats can pick winners and losers better than individuals making voluntary decisions in their own interests can. Unelected bureaucrats have been empowered to stipulate what health services we will purchase, and how and from whom we will receive them.

Excessive government intervention not only limits individual freedoms, it stifles entrepreneurial creativity and job creation. It locks the poor into a lifetime of dependency and poverty. And it limits the ability of hard-working Americans to enjoy upward mobility.

The federal government also dominates in spheres of activity traditionally reserved to the states. This leaves little or no room for state-level innovation in areas such as education, transportation, health care, welfare and even law enforcement.

Read more from this story HERE.