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Spacey: ‘House of Cards’ Not Far From Reality (+video)

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Photo Credit: pinguino/flickrActor Kevin Spacey says his Netflix show “House of Cards” isn’t that far from the reality of politics in Washington.

“Look, for me, it’s like performance art,” he said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “We can get done shooting on a day, and I’ll come home and turn on the news and think: ‘You know, our storylines are not that crazy, they’re really not.'”

With some exceptions, “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos cut in, such as politicians murdering people who get in their way.

“I’ve heard from lots of people,” Spacey said. “Some people feel that 99 percent of the show is accurate, and that the 1 percent that isn’t is that you could never get an education bill passed that quickly.”

Read more from this story HERE.

DC Man Set for Hearing After Arrest Over Inoperable Shotgun Shell (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox News A Washington, D.C. man is facing a large fine and possible jail time after he was arrested for having an inoperable shotgun shell in his home. The shell was a souvenir that Mark Witaschek decided to keep from a hunting trip years earlier.

Witaschek, a businessman with no criminal record, is scheduled to appear at a hearing today following the raid by police in July 2012. On Fox and Friends this morning, Witaschek explained that the raid came a month after his estranged wife accused him of threatening her with a gun.

Read more from this story HERE.

Where Does Your State Rank? Gallup’s Most Conservative to Most Liberal

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Photo Credit: APThe percentage of people living in Washington, D.C., who call themselves liberals is far greater than the national percentage, and significantly greater than the percentage in any of the fifty states, according to polling data released today by Gallup.

Nationally, 23 percent of American adults call themselves liberals, according to Gallup, and 38 percent call themselves conservatives.

But in Washington, D.C., 38.1 percent call themselves liberals–65.6 percent more than in the nation as a whole.

After D.C., Vermont is the most liberal jurisdiction, with 32.4 percent of people there calling themselves liberals.

The top five most conservative states are: Wyoming, Mississippi, Idaho, Utah, and Arkansas.

Read more from this story and see the full rankings HERE.

Police Interview Shown in Case of Slain DC Writer

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supreme-court-building-washington-d-c-dcscJurors in the trial of a German man charged with killing his 91-year-old wife were shown bloody crime scene photographs Monday and a portion of an interview with homicide detectives in which he referred to the couple’s relationship as a “marriage of convenience.”

Albrecht Muth, 49, also describes in matter-of-fact fashion how he found the lifeless body of his wife, Viola Drath, in a bathroom of their home but decided that it would be futile to even try to resuscitate her.

“The obvious was obvious,” Muth can be heard telling the pair of detectives.

Muth is charged with first-degree murder in the August 2011 beating and strangulation death of Drath, a German journalist and socialite. He faces life in prison if convicted.

The interview, recorded in a cramped police interrogation room in the days between the discovery of Drath’s body and her husband’s arrest, gave jurors their closest look yet at the defendant: Muth has been absent from the trial, participating passively through videoconference, after doctors said his self-imposed starvation made him too weak to appear in court. He has been fasting off-and-on for what he says are religious reasons.

Read more from this story HERE.

Feds Confiscate Investigative Reporter’s Confidential Files During Raid

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller A veteran Washington D.C. investigative journalist says the Department of Homeland Security confiscated a stack of her confidential files during a raid of her home in August — leading her to fear that a number of her sources inside the federal government have now been exposed.

In an interview with The Daily Caller, journalist Audrey Hudson revealed that the Department of Homeland Security and Maryland State Police were involved in a predawn raid of her Shady Side, Md. home on Aug. 6. Hudson is a former Washington Times reporter and current freelance reporter.

A search warrant obtained by TheDC indicates that the August raid allowed law enforcement to search for firearms inside her home.

The document notes that her husband, Paul Flanagan, was found guilty in 1986 to resisting arrest in Prince George’s County. The warrant called for police to search the residence they share and seize all weapons and ammunition because he is prohibited under the law from possessing firearms.

But without Hudson’s knowledge, the agents also confiscated a batch of documents that contained information about sources inside the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, she said.

Read more from this story HERE.

How Washington is Killing the Economy

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Photo Credit: APThe latest round of fiscal drama has sputtered to a temporary close, but the routine crises have one clear victim: the U.S. economy, which is once again losing altitude. And for the third year in a row, Washington gets much of the blame.

There’s not much hope for a quick turnaround.

The most recent slowdown — highlighted by poor job growth, softening corporate earnings and decimated confidence — comes just as Republicans and Democrats prepare to square off in a fresh fight over the federal budget with another potential shutdown looming in January and a renewed debt ceiling crisis possible in February.

Washington’s drag on the economy now springs from a multiplying array of sources, including the constant threat of devastating fiscal crisis, the blunt nature of the sequester spending cuts, the troubled roll-out of Obamacare and the now deeply strained relations with key economic allies over clandestine surveillance allegations.

Taken together, Washington’s toxic politics and poorly executed policies have all but ensured that fourth quarter growth comes in soft after forecasters initially predicted a strong close to the year. And they mean that 2014, which initially looked like a possible breakout year for the U.S. economy, now seems like it will be a dreary rerun of 2013 featuring sluggish growth, modest job creation and stagnant wages.

Read more from this story HERE.

As Washington Crumbles, This Senator’s Rise To The Presidency Is Almost Assured

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Photo Credit: Standard CompliantToday is a rainy, gloomy day in Washington.

And as John Boehner is up at the White House negotiating the unconditional surrender of House Republicans, I unexpectedly ran into Senator Ted Cruz outside of Washington’s Omni Shoreham Hotel.

Cruz was smiling and said he was invigorated by the outpouring of support for his campaign against Obamacare.

Of course, you may be wondering why Cruz is happy while the Republican leaders around him are groping for a lifeline from Obama and a way to settle the dispute.

The reasons are simple…

Read more from this story HERE.

Anonymous to March on DC on Guy Fawkes Day

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Photo Credit: APDemonstrators involved with Anonymous, a loose collective of online “hacktivists,” will gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 5 to march for a vast, nearly innumerable number of causes and issues.

Flyers began appearing around downtown D.C. over the weekend advertising the “Million Mask March,” which will take place on Guy Fawkes Day.

Anonymous members, when they appear in public, are known for donning masks of Guy Fawkes, who unsuccessfully tried to blow up the England’s House of Lords on Nov. 5, 1605, and restore Catholicism to England.

The group supports leakers of government secrets, such as Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, and Edward Snowden. It was also closely allied with the now-moribund Occupy movement.

Anonymous hackers often target large governments and companies who oppose their interests with malicious cyber attacks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Washington D.C. Wants 24-Hour Wait for Tattoos, Piercings But No Abortion Limits

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Photo Credit: Binder.donedat

Photo Credit: Binder.donedat

Washington, D.C. may soon institute a 24-hour waiting period before a tattoo or piercing can be done. But local officials have no interest in a waiting period before an abortion — as the District of Columbia remains one of the most ardently pro-abortion places in the country.

From a TownHall report:

Najma Roberts, a spokeswoman for the Health Department, said that the waiting period for a tattoo or piercing was necessary so people do not get inked or pierced with something they may regret:

“We’re making sure when that decision is made that you’re in the right frame of mind, and you don’t wake up in the morning…saying, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’?”

Most tattoo parlors have policies stating that they will refuse to tattoo someone who is visibly intoxicated.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dozens Arrested in Pro-Amnesty Protest in DC

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Photo Credit: Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/MCTDozens of leaders in the immigration movement were arrested Thursday after they blocked a major intersection near the Capitol in a protest of Republican opposition to an immigration overhaul that would include a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million immigrants who are in the country illegally.

More than 40 leaders were taken into custody after they walked onto Independence Avenue and locked arms, chanting in Spanish “Si, se puede” – “Yes, we can.” Another, smaller group of activists were arrested later in the afternoon after they blocked the hallway outside the office of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

As members of Congress prepared to leave Washington for a long summer recess, organizers said they wanted to send the “strongest message possible” to Republican leaders in the House of Representatives that they’re dissatisfied with progress on immigration and they’ll continue to fight for a comprehensive overhaul that includes a path to citizenship.

“We have to turn up the heat,” Jess George, the executive director of the Latin American Coalition in Charlotte, N.C., said minutes before she was arrested. “We have to let the House of Representatives know that America deserves a vote on citizenship. The vast majority of Americans want this. It’s democracy, and we need to make (House leaders) pay attention.”

Read more from this story HERE.