The same Pennsylvania man who jumped the White House fence in March was shot and killed at a suburban Philadelphia courthouse after attacking one of its guards.
ABC 6 News reports that Curtis Smith, 34, charged right through the entrance security checkpoint at the Chester County Courthouse just before noon. Witness Reiley Aikman recounted that the crazed, knife-wielding man yelled: “I’m gonna get ya, I’m gonna get ya.” And shortly thereafter: “I hear ‘POP, POP.’ And it was the sheriff shooting him.”
The assailant died from the gunshot wounds he received. The deputy attacked by Smith was being treated for injuries to his arm and hand. There were no other injuries reported during the incident.
District Attorney Tom Hogan stated: “In Chester County, we have trained intensively to deal with the threat of an attacker in the Justice Center or any other public building. Today, that training paid off. The armed attacker was immediately neutralized by the Sheriff’s Deputies. Law enforcement responded to make sure that all of the citizens, judges, and court staff were safe. This was a model response to a violent incident.” (Read more from “Man Who Scaled White House Fence Earlier This Year Killed by Police for Doing This” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-26 02:19:452015-08-26 02:19:45Man Who Scaled White House Fence Earlier This Year Killed by Police for Doing This
By Associated Press. The White House has hired its first openly transgender staff member.
The White House announced Raffi Freedman-Gurspan’s appointment yesterday. Freedman-Gurspan is an outreach and recruitment director for presidential personnel in the Office of Personnel.
Transgender advocates say “she” is the first openly transgender official to serve in the White House.
Freedman-Gurspan previously was a policy adviser for the National Center for Transgender Equality’s racial and economic justice initiative. (Read more from “First Openly Transgender Official Hired at White House” HERE)
HRC’s ‘Gender Inclusive Classrooms’ Guide: Say ‘Friends’ or ‘Students’ Instead of Girls and Boys
By Lauretta Brown. To help “create a classroom where students aren’t limited based on gender stereotypes,” teachers should address classes using words like “friends or “students” rather than girls and boys, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) advises in a new back-to-school guide.
The first tip suggested by the HRC’s Welcoming Schools Initiative is for teachers to avoid using gender to “divide and address students.” The guide claims that separating students for activities according to gender “can leave some students feeling out-of-place, making them distracted or isolated and not able to focus on learning.”
The guide recommends finding new, inventive ways of dividing students for activities. “When lining students up for lunch, rather than saying, ‘Girls line up first,’ try saying, ‘Anyone wearing a green shirt can line up,’ or ‘If your name has an E please line up.’”
The guide also advises teachers to “prepare for teachable moments” linking to suggested responses for questions that might come up in class such as: “How can a family have two moms [dads]? Which one is the real one?” and “Don’t you need a woman and a man to have a baby?”
The suggested responses to those questions are, “There are all kinds of families. Some have two moms or two dads,” and “Children come into families in many different ways, and the families that love the children may have a mom and a dad, some a mom, some a dad and some have two moms or two dads.” (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-19 01:28:452015-08-19 01:28:45First Openly Transgender Official Hired at White House
U.S. Senator Jeff Flake announced his opposition on Saturday to the nuclear deal with Iran despite White House lobbying to try to convince the Arizona Republican to break from others in his party and back the accord when U.S. lawmakers vote on it.
The agreement that Iran reached with the United States and other world powers on July 14 “does contain benefits in terms of limiting Iran’s ability to produce sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon for a period of time, particularly at its known nuclear facilities,” Flake said in a statement.
“But these benefits are outweighed by severe limitations the (agreement) places on Congress and future administrations in responding to Iran’s non-nuclear behavior in the region,” Flake added.
The White House had held out some hope that Flake, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, would buck his party and possibly bring some other Republicans with him in support of the agreement.
Flake was the only Republican lawmaker who traveled with President Barack Obama to Africa in July. White House officials lobbied him during that trip to support the deal. Flake had backed Obama’s moves on another important foreign policy initiative, establishing warmer relations with Cuba. (Read more from “Despite White House Lobbying, Senator Flake Opposes Iran Nuclear Deal” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-17 03:01:232015-08-17 03:01:23Despite White House Lobbying, Senator Flake Opposes Iran Nuclear Deal
A White House staffer has been placed on leave after she was accused of taking the gun of an off-duty U.S. Capitol Police officer and firing it at him during a domestic dispute.
Barvetta Singletary, 37, has been charged with first-degree assault, second-degree assault and reckless endangerment in connection with the incident Friday, Prince George’s County police said Monday.
The incident began Friday morning at Singletary’s home in Upper Marlboro, Md., after she and the officer argued, according to police charging documents. Singletary asked the officer about another woman he was dating and left her house to search his Cadillac Escalade for his cellphones, the documents state.
When she found the officer’s phones, she also retrieved his service weapon in his bag and demanded that he give her the passwords to his phones, charging documents state . . .
“We are aware of the matter and have temporarily placed the employee in question on unpaid leave and revoked her access to the complex until we have more information,” a White House spokesman said in a statement. “We will take additional actions as needed.” (Read more from “White House Staffer Accused of Taking Officer’s Gun, Firing It During Dispute” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-12 01:43:432015-08-12 01:43:43White House Staffer Accused of Taking Officer’s Gun, Firing It During Dispute
Photo Credit: CNS News White House Spokesperson Josh Earnest says he suspects somebody in the Obama Administration has seen a series of videos on Planned Parenthood’s role in harvesting the organs of babies, but the administration is basing its position that the videos are edited unfairly on the comments of Planned Parenthood and “the high ethical standard they live up to.”
During a White House press briefing Thursday Earnest was asked if anyone at the White House has watched the series of videos about Planned Parenthood . . .
“Where are you getting your information that the fact that it’s fraudulent, or the fact that they’re distorted and edited unfairly?” a reporter asked.
“Based on the public comments of Planned Parenthood who has indicated that the views that are represented in the video are entirely inconsistent with that organizations policies and with the high ethical standard they live up to.” (Read more from “White House Declares Support for Planned Parenthood Due to Their ‘High Ethical Standard'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-31 02:32:042016-04-11 10:58:17Watch: White House Doubles Down, Declares Support for Planned Parenthood Due to Its ‘High Ethical Standard’
By Adam Kredo. White House officials on Monday held a private conference call with liberal organizations to discuss ways of pressuring Democrats and other lawmakers on Capitol Hill into supporting a nuclear deal with Iran that is expected to be finalized in the coming days, according to an audio recording of that call obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The call, in which there were more than 100 participants, was organized by the liberal pro-Iran group Ploughshares Fund, which has spent millions of dollars to slant Iran-related coverage and protect the Obama administration’s diplomatic efforts.
The White House officials described a nuclear deal with Iran as President Obama’s “signature foreign policy accomplishment” and urged liberal groups to launch an all-out lobbying campaign to pressure lawmakers, especially Democrats, to back the deal.
Progressive leaders on the call told participants to prepare for a “real war” and repeatedly declared that “the other side will go crazy” in the coming days. The call also included the anti-war group MoveOn.org.
“This has really been on the front burner from a foreign perspective, although not in the public eye necessarily, since the very beginning,” Matt Nosanchuk, an official in the White House Office of Public Engagement, told participants. “This is not an issue of the day, this is really an issue of the presidency.” (Read more from “White House Officials Plot Ways to Pressure Lawmakers Into Supporting Iran Deal” HERE)
Iranian Official: US Will Remain Our Enemy Despite Emerging Nuclear Deal
By JPost Staff. A senior Iranian military official said Sunday that despite the emerging nuclear deal between Iran and the US-led P5+1 group of world powers, America will remain Tehran’s enemy.
Iranian Ground Force Commander Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said that even if a nuclear deal comes to fruition in Vienna, where Iranian and western negotiators are currently trying to reach an agreement by a Tuesday deadline, Tehran and Washington will not become friends.
“The US might arrive at some agreements with us within the framework of the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany), but we should never hold a positive view over the enemy,” Iran’s Fars News Agency quoted Pourdastan as saying.
“Our enmity with them is over the principles and is rooted because we are after the truth and nations’ freedom, but they seek exploiting nations and putting them in chains,” he explained further.
Pourdastan’s comments came as differences still remained between the two sides over the country’s disputed nuclear program ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for a final agreement to end a 12-year-old dispute. (Read more from “Iranian Official: US Will Remain Our Enemy Despite Emerging Nuclear Deal” HERE)
By Madeleine Morgenstern. The White House on Friday castigated the gay activists who posed for pictures while giving the middle finger to a portrait of former President Ronald Reagan during a recent visit.
“While the White House does not control the conduct of guests at receptions, we certainly expect that all attendees conduct themselves in a respectful manner. Most all do,” White House spokesman Shin Inouye told Fox News. “These individuals clearly did not. Behavior like this doesn’t belong anywhere, least of all in the White House.”
Matthew “Matty” Hart and Zoe Strauss were among a group of activists invited to an LGBT reception at the White House earlier this month. Photos first published in Philadelphia Magazine showed them posing in front of the Reagan portrait with their middle fingers raised. Hart, the national director of public engagement at Solutions for Progress, posted his photo on Facebook with the caption, “F–k Reagan.” Strauss, who also took a photo beneath the portrait kissing another woman, posted hers on Twitter with the caption “F–K YOU, REAGAN.” (Read more from “White House Rebukes Activists Who Flipped off Reagan Portrait: ‘Behavior Like This Doesn’t Belong Anywhere'” HERE)
Obama tells WH staff that he’s like RONALD REAGAN!
By Michael Schaus. The Gipper is turning over in his grave.
Speaking on a conference call to White House staffers and administration officials, President Obama claims he has led a new Reagan Revolution, paving the way for Hillary Clinton to be the next “Bush senior.”
Using his policy to “normalize” relations with a brutal communist regime in Cuba as a backdrop, Obama compared himself to President Reagan – the man who crushed the Soviet Union and brought the Cold War to an end . . .
“Much in the same way that the Reagan Revolution required Bush Senior” to complete his transformation of American politics, Obama told alumni of his White House staff, “we’ve got to make sure that we’re laying the foundation” for the next Democrat elected. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-03 04:00:232016-04-11 10:59:20Activists in White House Flip-Off Reagan Portrait While Obama Claims He’s Like Reagan
Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, could be in for a rough ride when they go before the House Armed Services Committee this week to explain the Obama administration’s strategy toward Iraq.
There is a widespread and growing criticism that the “No Boots on the Ground Plus Light Airstrikes” approach has failed to drive ISIS back from its gains in Iraq and has enabled the radical Islamist terror group to achieve record recruiting.
The administration is under pressure to change its failing strategy for Iraq and to at least articulate a more effective approach. So far, President Obama has refused to go beyond the use of trainers (no combat role), some equipping and air support seemingly disconnected from the local actions on the ground.
[Listen to the head of the Heritage Foundation’s team of foreign policy experts, Dr. James Carafano, describe the ISIS catastrophe]
There is a responsible middle ground between the fairly “thin” investment made by Obama and a full reinvasion of Iraq, and some in Congress are ready to explore that. The Heritage Foundation has outlined one such approach, modeled on the successful operations in Afghanistan from late 2001 through early 2002. Heritage has called for embedding American and allied Special Operations forces with local ground units (Iraqi, Kurdish, and eventually Syrian), supported by heavy airpower controlled by the Special Operations embeds. This model drove the Taliban from power and has the potential to do the same to ISIS.
Instead, ISIS continues to take territory, including Ramadi last month. The limited U.S. air campaign and the 3,100 non-combat advisers have done little to slow its march. The terrorists have been stopped in some areas, but not all, and very few towns have been “liberated.” They now recruit from across the Muslim World, including the West. And until America summons the will to defeat them, they will continue to win the propaganda war. Much more must be done.
Last week, the administration approved 450 more advisers, but it essentially doubled down on the current failed plan. The new advisors still are prohibited from combat operations or from being embedded with frontline units. This is not a game changer, and in fact only 50 of the 450 are advisors. The others will provide logistical support and security for the 50.
Clearly, the administration is not being serious about defeating ISIS. The White House spokesman even has tried to portray this fight as solely an Iraqi issue, rather than the threat to U.S. national interests it truly is. ISIS is pushing the entire region toward a potentially disastrous Sunni-vs.-Shia conflagration as well as greatly increasing transnational terrorism.
The U.S. needs to ease restrictions on use of forces to increase effectiveness of air power and include possible combat operations, especially for special operations forces. The administration should stop removing further use of American forces from the table of options. This self-imposed limitation is a huge hindrance that almost guarantees failure.
To excuse his unwillingness to consider stronger action, Obama has used the old saw that “if all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” True enough, Mr. President. But if the problem is a “nail,” throwing the hammer away is simply unwise. (“The White House Is Not Being Serious About Defeating ISIS”, originally posted HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-19 03:45:232016-04-11 10:59:50Experts: Obama Is Not Serious About Defeating ISIS
By Dustin Volz. An exasperated White House on Tuesday ratcheted up pressure on the Senate to pass surveillance-reform legislation before intelligence tools considered crucial to national security expire at the end of the month—while appearing to throw a direct barb at Sen. Rand Paul for gumming up the process.
Though he didn’t call out Paul by name, White House press secretary Josh Earnest seemed to accuse the Kentucky senator of using the debate over the Patriot Act’s sunsetting spying powers to bolster his presidential campaign.
“At some point, the political ambitions of individual members of the United States Senate are going to have to come second to the national security of the United States,” Earnest said.
Earnest’s comments come after the Senate failed to forge a path forward on dealing with the June 1 sunset of the Patriot Act’s spy provisions following a late-night round of votes Friday night into Saturday morning. Those authorities include the controversial Section 215, which the National Security Agency uses to justify its bulk collection of U.S. call data.
House-passed reform legislation known as the USA Freedom Act, which would effectively end the NSA’s phone dragnet, failed to advance Saturday, coming three votes short of the 60 necessary to clear a procedural hurdle. A bill to extend the provisions unchanged also failed. (Read more from “Exasperated White House Pushes Senate to Pass Surveillance Reform Bill” HERE)
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Obama Claims Bill is Necessary to Keep Nation “Safe and Secure”
Photo Credit: APBy Erica Werner. President Barack Obama called on the Senate Tuesday to extend key Patriot Act provisions before they expire five days from now, including the government’s ability to search Americans’ phone records.
“This needs to get done,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “It’s necessary to keep the American people safe and secure.”
But with the May 31 deadline fast approaching, there was scant evidence Tuesday of a search for a deal on Capitol Hill. The House and Senate stood in recess for the week, and a House GOP leadership aide said there were no talks happening between the two chambers. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity, because the aide was not authorized to discuss the issue on the record.
The Senate adjourned for its Memorial Day break early Saturday after a chaotic late-night session during which senators failed to pass a White House-backed House bill reforming the phone collection program. Attempts by GOP leaders to extend current law also repeatedly fell short, amid objections from presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and others.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is calling the Senate back into session on Sunday, May 31, just hours before the midnight deadline, but it’s not clear lawmakers will have any new solution. (Read more from “Obama Urges Senate to Renew Phone-Records Program” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-05-28 02:15:302016-04-11 11:00:42Exasperated White House Pushes Senate to Pass Surveillance Reform Bill
The White House on Monday raced to dispel the notion that President Barack Obama’s efforts to reassure anxious Persian Gulf nations about his overtures to Iran were unraveling ahead of a rare Camp David summit this week.
Officials insisted there was no weakening in ties between the U.S. and the Gulf, despite the fact that just two other heads of state will join Obama for Thursday’s meetings at the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains. The rulers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman are skipping the summit and instead sending lower-ranking, yet highly influential representatives.
“We very much feel we have the right group around the table,” said Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser.
The absence of Saudi Arabia’s newly crowned King Salman in particular has sparked questions about summit’s effectiveness. The Saudis are bitter rivals with Iran and among the most outspoken critics of Obama’s nuclear detente with Tehran.
Adding to the diplomatic intrigue: Saudi Arabia’s announcement Sunday that Salman would not travel to the U.S. came just two days after White House officials said Obama and the king would hold one-on-one talks in Washington ahead of the Camp David meeting. (Read more from “White House Denies Obama’s Gulf Overtures Are Unraveling” HERE)
The same Pennsylvania man who jumped the White House fence in March was shot and killed at a suburban Philadelphia courthouse after attacking one of its guards.
