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North Korea: Attack on Obama Wasn’t Racist Because not all Monkeys are Black

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Photo Credit: Getty

Photo Credit: Getty

By Frances Martel. “Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest,” a state article written for the Korean Central News Agency– the government’s main propaganda outfit, remarked. In the same article, it described the United States’ efforts to distribute internet access as “without shame” and compared them to “children playing tag.”

Speaking to Argentine radio station Rock&Pop, Kim Jong Un’s man in Latin America clarified that calling America’s first black president a “monkey” is not racist.

“It is absolutely not a racist comment,” noted Alejandro Cao de Benós. “Not every monkey is black.”

He added wishes that Sony “lose much money” on The Interview and attempted to draw a parallel to American government, claiming that anyone making a similar film about President Obama would be arrested:

Independent of its comedic character, what you cannot do is simulate the assassination of a president. This is a question of respect towards a leader elected by his population. I invite you to make a movie attempting to assassinate President Obama. You would be arrested surely… you would be condemned and sent to Guantánamo.

(Read more about the attack on Obama HERE)

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Activist Will Launch ‘The Interview’ Into North Korea via Balloon Drop

By Kate Scanlon. An activist has decided to bring “The Interview” to the people of North Korea.

Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector and an activist against its regime, will launch into North Korea balloons carrying DVDs and USBs containing the controversial film, according to the Associated Press.

“The Interview” depicts the death of the country’s dictator, Kim Jong Un.

“North Korea’s absolute leadership will crumble if the idolization of leader Kim breaks down,” Park told the AP.

Park said he plans to send 100,000 DVDs and USBs with the movie into North Korea next month. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Illegal Aliens Increasingly Hostile, Aggressive Toward US Border Patrol

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Photo Credit: Fox News Latino

Photo Credit: Fox News Latino

By Fox News Latino. Undocumented migrants arrested in the Arizona desert increasingly mount resistance and behave more aggressively during detentions, Border Patrol agents working in the state said.

“In recent years, undocumented immigrants’ aggressiveness has increased and that is something we face when we patrol the desert,” Art Del Cueto, president of the union representing Border Patrol agents in Arizona, told Efe.

Del Cueto recalled that when he began his career as a Border Patrol agent 12 years ago, during his first arrest of illegal immigrants he alone stopped 80 people and all of them followed his instructions without objection.

“Now, when we stop two or three people, often we find that, at least, one of them is aggressive,” he said.

On Dec. 7, the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector reported that one of its officers had been assaulted by a Mexican migrant near the town of Gu Vo. (Read more from the story Illegal Aliens Increasingly Hostile HERE)

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GOP Leadership may be Developing Plan to Solidify Obama’s Executive Amnesty

By Matthew Boyle. Leaders of the GOP-led Congress that will be sworn in next month are facing a large question: whether or not to defund President Obama’s unilateral executive amnesty. But as 2015 dawns, it isn’t clear whether they’ll be willing to take up the fight.

During December’s lame duck session, Republicans surrendered by passing a 1,774-page, $1.1 trillion so-called “cromnibus” spending bill. That measure funds most of the federal government through September, and the Department of Homeland Security for the next two months. Conservatives wanted Republicans to attempt to roll back Obama’s amnesty by defunding DHS this month.

But the incoming, bicameral congressional GOP leadership team may be working out a plan to fund President Obama’s executive amnesty in totality through 2015 and even beyond, therefore enabling its implementation once and for all. While GOP leaders and their aides haven’t said on the record that they’re going to fund Obama’s amnesty, recent reporting indicates that’s a very real possibility despite a resounding midterm election where voters sent more Republicans to Washington, in large part, to push back against Obama’s power grabs.

“He’s consulting with his members and the Speaker on how best to proceed,” Don Stewart, a spokesman for incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, told Breitbart News of his boss’s role in these matters—while explicitly not answering whether funding for executive amnesty would be blocked or not. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller at Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The Narcissist-in-Chief Forces Military Couple to Relocate Wedding Just so He Can Play Golf

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Photo Credit: The Telegraph

Photo Credit: The Telegraph

If “You’re Only President Once” means anything, it means telling a pair of Army officers who’ve spent months planning their Hawaiian dream wedding that they’ll have to make way because you simply must, must golf at that very hour.

It was the second time that day that the couple heard from the nation’s commander in chief, whose affinity for golf has, at times, caused political headaches for the White House. Stationed in Hawaii and knowing the president spends his Christmas holiday on the islands, they invited him to their ceremony on a lark. They had received a letter earlier on Saturday saying Obama regretted he couldn’t come and wishing them happiness on their wedding day.

“It was kind of ironic they got the letter from them and then, within hours, they were told they had to be moved due to him,” Jamie McCarthy, Mallue’s sister, said in an interview. “It was emotional, especially for her—she’s the bride and in less than 24 hours they had to change everything they had planned.” (Read more about the military couple who had to relocate wedding for Obama HERE)

Congressional Report: Obama Weaponized IRS Against Conservatives

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

By Pete Kasperowicz. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will release a report Tuesday that finds the Obama White House has turned the IRS into a political organization that has spent years attacking conservative groups.

“The Internal Revenue Service has compromised its traditional position as an independent tax administrator,” the report found. “The IRS’s inability to keep politics out of objective decisions about interpretation of the tax code damaged its primary function: an apolitical tax collector that Americans can trust to treat them fairly”. . .

The decision to target conservative groups was followed by later decisions to cover it up, and blame lower level workers for the initiative.

The report also blamed Obamacare, which gave the IRS a key role in implementing Obama’s health program, for turning the IRS into an arm of the White House, when it should have remained independent.

“Evidence shows an IRS responsive to the partisan policy objectives of the White House and an IRS leadership that coordinates with political appointees of the Obama administration,” it found. It said efforts to cover up the scandal were ultimately led by Obama himself. (Read more about how Obama has used the IRS against conservatives HERE)
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GOP report: Top IRS official considered admitting targeting before 2012 election — but didn’t

By FoxNews.com. A top IRS official considered going public with the agency’s targeting of conservative groups at a hearing just months before the 2012 presidential election but ultimately decided against revealing the bombshell news, according to a new report from a GOP-led House committee.

Then-Deputy Commissioner Steven Miller wrote in an email in June 2012, about a month before a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing, that he was weighing whether to testify to “put a stake” in the “c4” issue — apparently a reference to allegations about politics playing a role in the agency’s denial of tax-exempt, 501(c)(4) status to conservative-leaning groups.

“I am beginning to wonder whether I should do [the hearing] and affirmatively use it to put a stake in politics and c4,” Miller told his chief of staff, Nikole Flax, in a June 2012 email obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Miller ultimately testified at the July 25 hearing but never revealed his knowledge of the misconduct.

“Because he did not, he did a great disservice to the American taxpayers,” the House oversight committee report states. (Read more from this story HERE)

Obama Admin. Trying to Shut Down Crude Transport in US?

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rail road oil tankersFollowing the lame-duck Senate’s defeat of a bill that would have authorized construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, attention has shifted to concerns about transporting crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale and oil sands in Alberta to U.S. refineries, many of which are located on the Texas and Louisiana coast. . .

Railroads move hazardous materials—crude oil and chemicals, among other flammable cargoes—without mishap more than 99 percent of the time. Nevertheless, railroads in 2012 pumped a record $25.5 billion into upgrading and maintaining the freight railroad system’s infrastructure. And, since then, billions more have been invested in making the system more efficient and safer. The same attention to safety is true of the pipeline system, which carries some of the nation’s oil and most of its natural gas.

Even so, the U.S. Department of Transportation wants the existing fleet of rail cars to be replaced or upgraded in two years. Such a rapid phase-out, however, could restrict the production of oil and gas, costing consumers as much as $45 billion, according to a study done by ICF International Inc. Lengthening the replacement period to four years would help hold down that cost. So, too, would repealing the outmoded Jones Act and allowing U.S. crude oil to be exported to the rest of the world.

Without oil trains, oil production in the United States would not be booming, and the United States would not be on the verge of becoming the world’s biggest oil producer, surpassing even Saudi Arabia. Thanks to the shale revolution, the nation’s economy is gaining strength, manufacturing is making a comeback, and tens of thousands of jobs have been created, along with billions in new tax revenue.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Does Not Have Authority to Change Cuba Policy

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Credit - Washington Post

Credit – Washington Post

By Mike Gonzalez

Exchanging three hardened Cuban spies for American hostage Alan Gross establishes a wrong moral and legal equivalency. Worse, extending recognition to Cuba’s dictatorial regime harms U.S. national interests and fails to advance freedom in Cuba.

The White House “Fact Sheet” on Cuba makes clear that the Obama administration received nothing in exchange for its many and substantial concessions to Havana’s Communist regime. In essence, after five years of “negotiations,” the White House ended up where Raul Castro started: Gross would be exchanged for three Cuban spies whose activities led to the death of an American in the 1990s.

The administration’s announcement that “the president has instructed the secretary of state to immediately initiate discussions with Cuba on the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba,” also gives in to a longstanding Castro demand. Cubans will not gain freedom of expression, of association, of thought or of anything else as a result.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Obama announces the ‘most significant changes’ in Cuba policy in more than 50 years

By Katie Zezima

President Obama announced the normalization of relations with Cuba Wednesday, stating that while the decades-old policy toward Cuba was “rooted in the best of intentions,” it has had little effect.

In what Obama called the “most significant changes” in Cuba policy in more than 50 years, the president announced that the United States plans to reopen its embassy in Cuba and ease travel and trade restrictions. The changes end an “outdated approach,” Obama said.

“Neither the American nor the Cuban people are served by a rigid policy that’s rooted in events that took place before most of us were born,” Obama said.

While the policy was “rooted in the best of intentions,” Obama said, “…it has had little effect.”

Obama said he spoke with Cuban President Raul Castro yesterday, the first time the leaders of the two countries have spoken since the Cold War. Obama said he told Castro that Cuban society remains constrained due to restrictions, and said that he is under “no illusion” that barriers to freedom remain for Cuban citizens.

Read more from this story HERE.

WATCH: Obama Joke to Troops at Military Post Falls Flat

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Speaking at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, President Barack Obama made a joke comparing the military to Santa Claus which fell awkwardly flat.

“Every year, you never stop serving. You never stop giving,” Obama told the soldiers. “You guys are like Santa in fatigues.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Washington Post Votes No Confidence in Obama Bailout of Castro Regime

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Credit - Javier Galeano/Reuters

Credit – Javier Galeano/Reuters

Elite opinion on Obama’s attempt to bury the Cold War hatchet with Cuba is shaping up just as you might expect it would.

The New York Times editorial board gushed over the decision, calling it “a bold move that ends one of the most misguided chapters in American foreign policy.”

The Times applauded Obama for doing everything within his power to normalize relations with Cuba within the constraints of a 1996 law imposing sanctions on the Cuban regime. Odd that The Times’ argument against the Cuban sanctions is that they are so “outmoded,” and yet they must concede that they were ratified by the American Congress as recently as the eve of President Bill Clinton’s second term…

With these powerful political actors heading into their familiar corners, The Washington Post editorial board’s vote of no confidence in Obama’s move came as a shock…

The Post’s editorial is not merely a registration of their disapproval in Obama’s decision, but an indictment. The paper suggests that any progress toward Democracy in Cuba has been arrested by the president’s shortsighted move.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Obama Gives the Castro Regime in Cuba an Undeserved Bailout

By Washington Post Editorial Board

IN RECENT months, the outlook for the Castro regime in Cuba was growing steadily darker. The modest reforms it adopted in recent years to improve abysmal economic conditions had stalled, due to the regime’s refusal to allow Cubans greater freedoms. Worse, the accelerating economic collapse of Venezuela meant that the huge subsidies that have kept the Castros afloat for the past decade were in peril. A growing number of Cubans were demanding basic human rights, such as freedom of speech and assembly.

On Wednesday, the Castros suddenly obtained a comprehensive bailout — from the Obama administration. President Obama granted the regime everything on its wish list that was within his power to grant; a full lifting of the trade embargo requires congressional action. Full diplomatic relations will be established, Cuba’s place on the list of terrorism sponsors reviewed and restrictions lifted on U.S. investment and most travel to Cuba. That liberalization will provide Havana with a fresh source of desperately needed hard currency and eliminate U.S. leverage for political reforms.

As part of the bargain, Havana released Alan Gross, a U.S. Agency for International Development contractor who was unjustly imprisoned five years ago for trying to help Cuban Jews. Also freed was an unidentified U.S. intelligence agent in Cuba — as were three Cuban spies who had been convicted of operations in Florida that led to Cuba’s 1996 shootdown of a plane carrying anti-Castro activists. While Mr. Obama sought to portray Mr. Gross’s release as unrelated to the spy swap, there can be no question that Cuba’s hard-line intelligence apparatus obtained exactly what it sought when it made Mr. Gross a de facto hostage.

Read more from this story HERE.

Castros' Ship Finally Came in With Obama

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Credit - Politico

Credit – Politico

Candidate Barack Obama said that, as president, he would talk to anti-American dictators without precondition. He didn’t mention that he would also give them historic policy concessions without precondition.

His surprise unilateral change in the U.S. posture toward the Castro dictatorship came without even the pretense of serious promises by the Cubans to reform their kleptocratic, totalitarian rule.

The trade of Alan Gross, the American aid worker jailed in Cuba for the offense of trying to help Jewish Cubans get on the Internet, for three Cuban spies is understandable (we also got back one of our spies, and Cuba released several dozen political prisoners as a sweetener).

The rest of Obama’s sweeping revisions — diplomatic relations and the loosening of every economic sanction he can plausibly change on his own — are freely granted, no questions asked. It is quid with no pro quo. Even if you oppose the isolation of Cuba, this is not a good trade.

After waiting out 10 other U.S. presidents, the Castro regime finally hit the jackpot in Obama, whose beliefs about our Cuba policy probably don’t differ much from those of the average black-turtleneck-clad graduate student in Latin American studies.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Has Issued More Executive 'Memoranda' Than Any Previous President

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Credit - AP

Credit – AP

President Obama has issued a form of executive action known as the presidential memorandum more often than any other president in history — using it to take unilateral action even as he has signed fewer executive orders.

When these two forms of directives are taken together, Obama is on track to take more high-level executive actions than any president since Harry Truman battled the “Do Nothing Congress” almost seven decades ago, according to a USA TODAY review of presidential documents.

Obama has issued executive orders to give federal employees the day after Christmas off, to impose economic sanctions and to determine how national secrets are classified. He’s used presidential memoranda to make policy on gun control, immigration and labor regulations. Tuesday, he used a memorandum to declare Bristol Bay, Alaska, off-limits to oil and gas exploration.

Like executive orders, presidential memoranda don’t require action by Congress. They have the same force of law as executive orders and often have consequences just as far-reaching. And some of the most significant actions of the Obama presidency have come not by executive order but by presidential memoranda.

Obama has made prolific use of memoranda despite his own claims that he’s used his executive power less than other presidents. “The truth is, even with all the actions I’ve taken this year, I’m issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years,” Obama said in a speech in Austin last July. “So it’s not clear how it is that Republicans didn’t seem to mind when President Bush took more executive actions than I did.”

Read more from this story HERE.