White House cancels tours over sequester cuts, as lawmakers call decision political
The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will cancel all tours starting this weekend, due to sequester cuts. The move prompted swift condemnation from Republican lawmakers, who described the decision as the latest attempt to make the sequester seem worse than it is.
“It’s politically motivated,” Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told Fox News. “It seems childish — take my ball and go home.”
Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, declared in a statement that “the people have been banned from the people’s house.”
The announcement is the latest from the administration about the impact of the cuts that went into effect last Friday. Congressional staffers received a terse email saying White House tours would be canceled effective this Saturday.
Health Dept.: Homeless Can’t Eat Deer Meat
February 27, 2013 by Kristen
Filed under Police State
The Dept. of Health and Hospitals ordered the staff at the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission to throw 1,600 pounds of donated venison in garbage bins – and then ordered then to douse the meat with Clorox – so other animals would not eat the meat.
“Deer meat is not permitted to be served in a shelter, restaurant or any other public eating establishment in Louisiana,” said a Health Dept. official in an email to Fox News. “While we applaud the good intentions of the hunters who donated this meat, we must protect the people who eat at the Rescue Mission, and we cannot allow a potentially serious health threat to endanger the public.”
That statement set off a firestorm among hunters and lawmakers who called it outrageous and insulting.
“That’s a mild understatement,” said Richard Campbell, one of the founders of Hunters for the Hungry, a group that has been donating wild game to shelters since 1993. “Hunters are going nuts over it. It’s created an outrage across our state and even over into Mississippi.”
The controversy started when someone being fed at the rescue mission complained about being fed deer meat.
Henry Martin, executive director of the mission, told Fox News they’ve been serving deer meat for years – from deer chili to deer spaghetti.
“This was really good meat,” he said. “It’s high in protein and low in cholesterol. It’s very healthy.”
Martin said he was extremely bothered by the way state health inspectors handled the situation.
“You would think we would have due process,” he said. “But they meant to destroy the meat – that’s for sure.”
The mission’s chef asked if they could at least return the meat to the processing plant – but the state officials said no.
“They actually took it out to the dumpsters, split the packages open and poured Clorox on it,” Martin told Fox News.
He said the rescue mission serves 200,000 meals a year – without a single dime of assistance from the state or federal governments. As a result of the confiscation, he said as many as 3,200 meals were lost.
DORNER MANHUNT; Perjurer Mark Fuhrman Claims Dorner NOT Highly Trained & NOT Good With Guns, Contradicting Dorner’s Iraq War & Navy Experience
February 14, 2013 by Joel
Filed under Americas, Featured, Police State
Mark Fuhrman still doesn’t know when to keep his yapper shut.
It sure makes you wonder how such a “poorly trained” person, who was also “not good with guns”, could have possibly made it through the Iraq War, stayed employed with the US Navy (until the LAPD got him fired), and somehow managed to do so well in shootouts with Fuhrman’s beloved LAPD?
2013.2.13 PSYOP FAIL?, Former LAPD Detective Says Christopher Dorner Is A Dork Who Can Barely Use A Gun (Interviews Mark Fuhrman; Rick Heltebrake Describes Dorner Coming Out Of The Woods Wearing Camo Gear & Taking His Truck) (FOX News, youtube.com):
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04dfRSrfYBw&w=560&h=315]
Now that’s HUGE! Former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman interviewed by Fox News’ anchor Megyn Kelly contradicts the whole “high-trained-rogue-cop” story and says Christopher Dorner is a dork who’s barely trained by LAPD and feels uncomfortable with guns.
“Well Megyn, when you look at his career at LAPD you can certainly see that he barely had enough training on LAPD and experience to
rob[should say "go out in"- Joel] a police car himself. He had problems in the Academy from day one, we didn’t see any of the… or otherwise describe the problems he had in the Academy. He had an accident with the discharge of a firearm in the Academy, he shot himself in the hand, had a two-day suspension… We look at the videos of training, he looks kinda like a dork, he doesn’t feel comfortable with weapons, we can see it in the way he handles himself(…)”
CIA moved swiftly to scrub, abandon Libya facility after attack
December 6, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under World
Prior Knowledge, Stand Down, Cover up… Cui Bono?
Within eight hours of the initial attack on the United States’ diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, the CIA decided to scrub and abandon rather than protect its annex, a military intelligence source told Fox News.
“The defensive posture was no longer sustainable,” the source told Fox News, revealing for the first time how quickly the CIA chose to secure classified material and close down the facility after it took indirect fire from two mortars at about 5:15 a.m. local time Sept. 12.
The adjoining U.S. consulate, by contrast, has never been secured, even three months after the attack.
The process to sanitize the CIA site began on Sept. 11 after the consulate was attacked around 9:35 p.m. local time. The initial stages of the agency’s proscribed evacuation plan kicked in as a precautionary step.
Given the CIA Annex was designated a high-threat posting by the agency and described to Fox News as having an “expeditionary” feel, there was not a lot of classified material to dispose of. Classified communications equipment was also near minimum.
Within two and a half hours of the decision by the CIA chief of base, the agency’s point person in Benghazi, the annex was cleared of all classified material and equipment. Both CIA Director David Petraeus and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who oversees the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies, were notified of the decision, which was made on the ground in Libya and not directed by Washington.
Fox News has previously reported, based on conversations with current and former intelligence officials, that there is significant evidence the terrorist attack in Benghazi was designed to flush out any remaining Western influence in eastern Libya, and specifically the growing CIA presence.
The Benghazi consulate, where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith were killed, was never secured in the same way. As recently as Nov. 1, six weeks after the terrorist attack and nearly a month after an FBI team briefly collected evidence there, Foreign Policy magazine reported its journalists had found sensitive documents at the consulate, which included unsent memos about “troubling” surveillance by Libyan security guards.
While not commenting on the record, citing the sensitive nature of the information, two congressional sources told Fox News the timeline on the annex shutdown shows that the public exposure of the depth and breadth of the CIA operation in Benghazi was of significant concern to the U.S. intelligence community.
Asked for a response, a CIA spokesperson declined, saying the agency does not comment on operational matters.
Military expert booted after accusing Fox News of ‘operating as wing of the Republican Party’
A Pulitzer Prize-winning author who is acclaimed for his military expertise had his interview abruptly ended on Monday after he accused Fox News of “operating as the wing of Republican Party” because the September attacks in Benghazi had been “hyped by this network especially.”
Fox News host Jon Scott noted that Tom Ricks had “spent decades covering our military” as he invited the author to analyze why Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) seemed to be backing away from his threat to block U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice’s potential nomination to become the next secretary of state.
“I think that Benghazi was generally hyped by this network especially,” Ricks explained. “And now that the [2012 presidential] campaign is over, I think [McCain] is backing off a little bit. They’re not going to stop Susan Rice from being secretary of state.”
Gunman Opens Fire At Conservative Family Research Council
August 15, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Americas
What were we saying about Civil war? Sectarian violence is way up in 2012!
The conservative Family Research Council was the site of a shooting by someone who obviously demonstrates the “radical hatred” of the left. The gunman entered the lobby of the Chinatown headquarters around 10:45am Wednesday and expressed his disagreement with the group’s policy. When the security guard asked him where he was going, the man opened fire on the guard.
“The security guard here is a hero, as far as I’m concerned,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said. “He did his job. The person never made it past the front.”
Fox News reports,
The guard, who was not identified, was shot in the arm and was conscious after the shooting and was in stable condition. The gunman, who also was not identified, was being questioned by the FBI, sources said. Sources said he is in his twenties.
The suspect “made statements regarding their policies, and then opened fire with a gun striking a security guard,” a source told Fox News. WJLA-TV7 reported the suspect was also shot.
Sources also said the gunman may have been carrying a bag from Chick-fil-A, the embattled fast-food restaurant whose president came under fire from gay activists after he said he did not agree with same-sex marriage.
Once the guard took away the man’s gun, the suspect allegedly said, “Don’t shoot me, it was not about you, it was what this place stands for.”
Apparently this is being treated as domestic terrorism by authorities, though the head of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, James McJunkin, said that they do not know the gunman’s motives.
Well, whether we call it terrorism or not is irrelevant. The suspect brought a gun in and shot at a security guard who was no threat to him. It seems that he committed a crime and will be tried for that, so labeling it as a “hate crime” or “terrorism” really is pointless.
However, it is curious that organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center refer to the FRC as a “hate group.” Here’s what they have to say:
The Family Research Council, which was recently designated as a hate group by the SPLC because of its dissemination of false and demonizing propaganda about gays and lesbians, has launched a campaign against the SPLC that includes an advertisement in two Washington newspapers.
Even as some well-known anti-gay groups moderate their views, smaller groups, most of them religiously motivated, have continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at LGBT people.
These groups’ influence reaches far beyond what their size would suggest, because the “facts” they disseminate about gay and lesbian people are often amplified by certain politicians and even news organizations.
Let’s be clear why the SPLC calls the FRC a hate group. It’s because they tell the truth about homosexuality and they defend traditional, biblical marriage. They attack a perversion of marriage that deviants in our society are attempting to force down our throats.
The FRC denounced the label of “hate group” in an ad back in 2010 along with several GOP governors and Congressmen. The ad read, “The group, which was once known for combating racial bigotry, is now attacking several groups that uphold Judeo Christian moral views, including marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”
The FRC is not a hate group. It is those opposed to them that demonstrate the real hatred. Maybe we can show a little love and send the people at SLPC a Chick-Fil-A sandwich.
UPDATE: Christianity Today received an update from the FRC:
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins made the following comments after an FRC security guard was shot this morning:
“The police are investigating this incident. Our first concern is with our colleague who was shot today. Our concern is for him and his family.”
PSY OP – Al Qaeda video calling for cyberattacks on Western targets raises alarm in Congress
May 23, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Sci-Tech
Al CIA Duh... Right on Cue
A newly revealed Al Qaeda video calls on followers to launch cyberattacks on Western targets, a message called “alarming” by U.S. lawmakers in light of the increase in such attacks last year.
Sens. Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman, who top the Senate Homeland Security Committee, say they first learned of the Al Qaeda video a week ago in a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
“This tape is really alarming,” Collins, R-Maine, told Fox News. “It’s essentially instructing anybody who’s sympathetic with Al Qaeda’s ideology to engage in cyberattacks, and the tape is telling them how easy it is to do so.”
The six-minute video instructs Al Qaeda followers that the U.S. is vulnerable to cyberattacks in the same way airline security was vulnerable in 2001 before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The video calls on Muslims “with expertise in this domain to target the websites and information systems of big companies and government agencies.”
Lieberman, I-Conn., said it’s hardly surprising that Al Qaeda would turn to such attacks.
“Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are focused on cyber warfare because it can be carried out, if you have somebody smart enough, at very little expense,” Lieberman said.
The senators said the Homeland Security Department responded to 100,000 cyber incidents in 2011, and there was a five-fold increase in the number of attacks aimed at industrial control systems. They are the central nervous system of critical infrastructure, including power plants and dams.
“There has been a huge increase in the number of cyberattacks against our country in the last two years,” Collins said. “It would be naive for us to think that Al Qaeda is not responsible for at least some of those attacks.”
Without getting into classified information, Lieberman confirmed that there has been a spike in cyber intrusions — believed to originate with Iran.
“There is real evidence that the Al Qaeda groups want to pursue and are beginning to pursue the capacity to launch a cyberattack against America,” he emphasized. “I mean, that is the real and present danger and that Iran will share that cyberattack capacity with terrorist groups.”
Fox News has learned this so-called electronic jihad was part of a two-hour Al Qaeda online video that was the basis for the FBI and Homeland Security intelligence bulletin last summer about possible lone wolf attacks. Asked why it took so long to flag the specific threat to the Senate committee, neither federal agency gave an immediate response.
The Senate is scheduled to take up its version of legislation tackling cyber security next month.
FBI quietly forms secretive Net-surveillance unit –CNET has learned that the FBI has formed a Domestic Communications Assistance Center, which is tasked with developing new electronic surveillance technologies, including intercepting Internet, wireless, and VoIP communications. 22 May 2012 The FBI has recently formed a secretive surveillance unit with an ambitious goal: to invent technology that will let police more readily eavesdrop on Internet and wireless communications. The establishment of the Quantico, Va.-based unit, which is also staffed by agents from the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency, is a response to technological developments that FBI officials believe outpace law enforcement’s ability to listen in on private communications.
New York Legislation Would Ban Anonymous Online Speech 22 May 2012 Did you hear the one about the New York state [GOP] lawmakers who forgot about the First Amendment in the name of combating cyberbullying and “baseless political attacks?” Proposed legislation in both chambers would require New York-based websites, such as blogs and newspapers, to “remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post.” No votes on the measures have been taken.
Anonymous attacks Justice Dept., nabbing 1.7GB of data –In a new hack into the U.S. Department of Justice’s Web site, Anonymous claims to have grabbed “lots of shiny things such as internal emails, and the entire database dump.” 22 May 2012 In a hack it dubbed “Monday Mail Mayhem,” Anonymous claims to have collected and released 1.7GB of data from the U.S. Department of Justice yesterday. “Within the booty you may find lots of shiny things such as internal emails, and the entire database dump,” the hacker group wrote on the AnonNews Web site. “We Lulzed as they took the website down after being owned, clearly showing they were scared of what inevitably happened.”
Fox News: Ron Paul Dominating State Conventions (5-7-12)
SNL cuts sketch critical of Obama, replaces it with Fox News parody
May 7, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Media
Yes… This is Freedom under Obama. They also added a few lines in this bit where the dumb as dirt hosts of “Fox and Friends” question if Osama was really killed by Obama, creating the idea that if you question the White House version of this event, you are an idiot programmed by FOX. Sleazy. Not “Funny”.
Do NOT Mock the Dictator!
The Daily Caller has obtained a scrapped sketch critical of President Barack Obama that was intended for airing at the opening of last night’s “Saturday Night Live” on NBC.
In the skit, President Obama addresses Americans soon after the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden — and he makes sure to remind viewers that all credit for the raid on the terrorist leader’s compound belongs to him.
“I hope you had a safe and joyous first anniversary of his killing,” the president, portrayed by Fred Armisen, begins.
“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be at home this year, as I had to fly to Afghanistan, to remind President Karzai that, exactly one year ago, we killed Osama bin Laden, and that the decision to do so was a gutsy one,” the president continues. “And was mine.”
The president then outlines what gifts are appropriate on the anniversaries of “Killing Osama bin Laden Day,” and reminds his audience that “heavy drinking, and Killing Osama bin Laden Day, are never a good combination.”
The full text of the skit, which was authored by comedian Jim Downey, is viewable below. It is “not clear” why the skit was scrapped.
The real President Obama has faced harsh criticism in recent weeks for allegedly politicizing bin Laden’s death by taking too much credit for the operation that killed him.
Instead of the skit, NBC opted instead to air a parody of Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends.” That skit, which also featured Armisen, mocked Fox News personalities by portraying them as clueless partisans.
“Shame on President Barack Obama, who is running a campaign ad that argues that Mitt Romney would not have made the decision to launch the raid,” said Taran Killam, who portrayed Fox personality Steve Doocy.
“I can name one person who wouldn’t have launched that raid: Barack Obama!” Bobby Moynihan, playing Fox host Brian Kilmeade, interjected.
Obama Address Cold Open – May 6, 2012
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Libertarians nominate Gary Johnson for president, Judge Jim Grey VP
May 6, 2012 by Jack Blood
Filed under Americas
By Timothy Pratt
LAS VEGAS | Sat May 5, 2012 11:20pm EDT
(Reuters) – The U.S. Libertarian Party on Saturday chose former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, who was once a Republican White House hopeful, as its presidential candidate in the November 6 election.
Johnson, who announced in December he would run for president as a Libertarian after mounting a long-shot candidacy for the Republican nomination, won 70 percent of the votes cast by 632 delegates at the party’s convention in Las Vegas, Libertarian Party spokesman Stephen Gordon said.
Johnson, who became the front-runner after winning straw polls at 12 previous state debates, beat Air Force veteran R. Lee Wrights, after the field narrowed to two candidates from six at the start of the convention on Thursday.
“I am very humbled. This is just the start,” Johnson told Reuters after securing the nomination of the Libertarian Party, whose philosophy is “minimum government, maximum freedom.”
Third parties have traditionally fared poorly in the two-party U.S. political system long dominated by Republicans and Democrats.
The Libertarians’ best presidential showing came in 1980 when nominee Ed Clark won 921,128 votes or 1.1 percent. In the 2008 election, party nominee Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman, got 523,686 votes or 0.4 percent.
Johnson, 59, is running on a platform that includes slashing government spending to balance the federal budget by 2013, as well as ending the war on drugs, beginning with the legalization of marijuana.
Delegates said their preference for Johnson stemmed from his experience as Republican New Mexico governor from 1995 to 2003, which they said gave him a greater chance of success in a national election. Wrights had no prior political experience.
Democratic President Barack Obama is seeking re-election in the November election. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is the presumptive Republican nominee.
APPEAL TO RON PAUL SUPPORTERS?
Party officials hope they can count on supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul for votes in the general election. Paul’s campaign has focused on issues favored by Libertarians like small government and a non-interventionist foreign policy.
Paul, who ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988, is the last remaining Republican challenger to Romney. The Texas congressman is far behind in the polls and has not won a single nominating contest.
As New Mexico governor, Johnson vetoed so many bills – some 750 – that he was later nicknamed “Governor Veto” – a record he referred to in a debate on Friday as evidence of his strong character.
Wrights, 53, avoided complex policy proposals. Asked about gun control, he said, “I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but you don’t want to be crawling into my window after midnight.” On foreign policy, he said, “Stop being a nosy neighbor and start being a good neighbor.”
Both spoke of abolishing multiple federal agencies. The crowd’s favorite target was the Internal Revenue Service, but proposals to curb the Departments of Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, and Education were also greeted by applause.
Don’t expect Johnson to be part of any of those big political debates, either. Appearances are driven by poll numbers and his chief opponents, President Barack Obama and likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney, are “eating up” all the attention. MORE
WHO IS THE VP?
Libertarian presidential candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson has picked California Judge Jim Gray, a prominent pro-marijuana legalization advocate, to be his running mate, The Daily Caller has learned.
The decision to run with Gray “puts pot front-and-center in the campaign,” one Johnson adviser told TheDC, before adding that Johnson’s opposition to the war in Afghanistan will likely remain the campaign’s defining issue.
According to the biography on his website, Gray “currently presides over the civil trial calendar for the Superior Court of Orange County.” Gray previously served in the Peace Corps, was an attorney in the Navy JAG Corps, and prosecuted cases in the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office. He ran as a Libertarian against California Democratic Sen. Barbra Boxer in 2004.
Other possible choices for Johnson’s running mate included Judge Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News fixture, and former California Rep. Barry Goldwater, Jr.
Both turned the position down, as did Daily Caller editor-in-chief Tucker Carlson.
“Gary had liked him from the very beginning,” the Johnson adviser said. “Every time we would bring up somebody else, Gov. Johnson would say ‘what about Jim Gray?’ He was Johnson’s favorite from the beginning.”
Gray was a conservative Republican who later became a Libertarian after deciding that the nation’s drug laws did more harm than good. He is the author of several books about law, politics and the drug war, and helped spearhead Proposition 19 in California, which would have decriminalized marijuana in the Golden State had it passed.
