Iraq: The Day of Reckoning

Ernest Hemingway observed that people went broke gradually at first then all of a sudden.  Barack Obama’s career, for so long without visible means of support, has now moved onto the “all of sudden stage” of bankruptcy. ✧ The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaeda affiliated front of Muslims, have followed up their lightning seizure of Mosul by taking Tikrit, the former stronghold of Saddam Hussein.

In Mosul and surrounding areas, more than 150,000 troops fled their posts as the militants advanced, leaving behind thousands of weapons, including tanks and helicopters, that are now in ISIL’s possession, said Jabbar Yawer, a spokesman for ethnic Kurdish armed forces in Erbil.

The speed with which ISIL and its allies have advanced after their seizure on Tuesday of Mosul – a city of two million people – has sent alarm bells ringing not only in Baghdad but in western capitals.

Read more at Belmont Club Read More......

SEA CHANGE - GOP regroups as Cantor set to quit leadership post in wake of primary defeat

FOX News - ERIC CANTOR PLANS to step down as House majority leader at the end of July after suffering a shocking primary defeat to Dave Brat, a Tea Party-backed challenger.

• Cantor primary loss shocks Capitol Hill, could put immigration debate on hold
• THE CANTOR UPSET: How Brat pulled it off
• FOX NEWS FIRST: Cantor's defeat, mythbuster edition
• Meet Brat's 23-year-old campaign manager
• OPINION: Why Cantor lost
• OPINION: Can Boehner survive?

Read More......

Senior WH Official to Ron Fournier: VA Not Overhauled Because 'We Don't Do Small Stuff Well'

In a Monday National Journal column about how many Democrats are allegedly saying they have "quit" on Obama — claims I find quite hollow, given that no one asserting this has yet had the guts to go on the record — Ron Fournier quotes "a senior White House official" with a head-shaking take on the Veterans Administration scandal.

Specifically, "Questioning why the Veterans Affairs Department hadn't been overhauled months ago as promised by Obama (actually that was seven years ago, plus six other times, Ron — Ed.), a senior White House official conceded privately to me, 'We don't do the small stuff well. And the small stuff is the important stuff.'"
Read more at Newsbusters Read More......

Report: IRS Sent Database Containing Confidential Taxpayer Information to FBI

The Internal Revenue Service may have been caught violating federal tax law: In October 2010, the agency sent a database on 501(c)(4) social-welfare groups containing confidential taxpayer information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to documents obtained by a House panel.  The information was transmitted in advance of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s meeting the same month with Justice Department officials about the possibility of using campaign-finance laws to prosecute certain non-profit groups. E-mails between Lerner and Richard Pilger, the director of the Justice Department’s election crimes branch, obtained through a subpoena to Attorney General Eric Holder, show Lerner asking about the format in which the FBI preferred the data to be sent.

Read more at National Review Read More......

Cloward-Piven at the border

...Cloward and Piven were specifically interested in replacing welfare programs with a government-guaranteed annual income for everyone – an idea that still emerges from the more absurd quarters of the Left occasionally – but the basic idea of overloading the republican system and replacing it with centrally-planned tyranny can be applied in many different ways. Take a look at the humanitarian crisis on the southern border, which I wrote about two weeks ago. It has since burst onto the front pages with some astonishing stories, including leaked photos of illegal alien children – many of them 12 years old and younger – “warehoused” in overcrowded facilities, where there are growing concerns about sanitation and disease.

Read more at Human Events Read More......

Student who helped stop Seattle shooter is flooded with wedding gifts

Jon Meis became an instant icon of courage on Thursday when he and fellow students helped subdue a gunman who was on a rampage inside Seattle Pacific University.

It turns out that the 22-year-old is also planning to get married. His newfound fans discovered the student’s wedding registry and have been buying up presents for Meis and his future wife.

Read more at Yahoo News Read More......

Koch Brothers Give $25 Million to United Negro College Fund

In a move that is sure to confound--and enrage--the left, the Koch brothers have donated $25 million to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), the foremost source of financial support to African-American students. ✧ The UNCF launched the "Koch Scholars" program Friday, which "will provide nearly 3,000 merit- based awards to African American undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctorate students seeking scholarship assistance." ✧ According to Koch Industries, Inc., the donation will also help fund 37 historically black colleges, which have struggled with financial shortfalls in recent years.


Read more at Breitbart CA Read More......

Insurer's Message: Prepare for Climate Change or Get Sued

To insurance companies, there’s no doubt that climate change is here: They are beginning to file lawsuits against small towns and cities who they say haven’t prepared for the floods and storms that will cost the companies billions in payments. Earlier this week, the U.S. arm of a major global insurance company backed away from an unprecedented lawsuit against Chicago and its suburbs for failing to prepare for heavy rains and associated flooding it claimed were fueled by global warming. While legal experts said the case was a longshot, its withdrawal didn't alter the message it contained for governments: prepare now for climate change or pay the price.

Read more at NBC News
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

The Meaning of Treason

The report on Fox News that Sergeant Bergdahl at one point during his captivity declared himself a “mujahid,” or warrior for Islam, and may even have been allowed to carry a weapon puts at a premium an understanding of treason. Sergeant Bergdahl hasn’t been accused of treason and would be considered innocent until proven otherwise. The burden is always and only on the accusers. But all the more reason to understand what treason is and why it is so special under American law.  Treason is the only crime the Constitution pre-empts Congress from defining. It’s also the only crime to which such authorities as the police and the FBI mayn’t take a confession. It is the only crime of which the judicial branch is barred from convicting someone through the normal rules of due process. Treason is special, made so because of abuse by the English kings. And it has often been tested in our courts in ways that guide our thinking in the current crisis.

Read more at the NY Sun
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Easterners, Look West

My trip to the desert southwest two weeks ago helped me understand practically, even more than physically, why most of us in the East don’t really know what it is like to live in the West. Yet we desperately need to learn about the increasing obstacles to the pursuit of happiness in the West if we hold our liberties dear. Fortunately, help is on its way.  The urban elites of California, Washington State, and Oregon are hard at work growing government debt and inventing new schemes to shrink our liberty, but urban progressives are similar throughout America.

Read more at National Review
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

WSJ: Release of Taliban Detainees Alarms Afghan Villagers

SHEYKHAN, Afghanistan—Taliban forces led by Mohammed Fazl swept through this village on the Shomali plain north of Kabul in 1999 in a scorched-earth offensive that prompted some 300,000 people to flee for their lives.

Fifteen years later, local residents here are responding with fear and dismay to the U.S. release of the notorious commander, along with four other Taliban leaders in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American prisoner of war who was held by the Taliban. The group released a video on Wednesday showing the hurried handover a few days earlier of the American captive, looking gaunt and dazed.

Read more at Wall Street Journal Read More......

Data discrepancies in Obamacare sign-ups impact more than 2 million

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 2 million people who got health insurance under President Barack Obama's law have data discrepancies that could jeopardize coverage for some, a government document shows.  About 1 in 4 people who signed up have discrepancies, creating a huge paperwork jam for the feds and exposing some consumers to repayment demands, or possibly even loss of coverage, if they got too generous a subsidy.

Read more at AOL.com
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Swift Boat Vets Co-Chair: Bergdahl Is No Hero, Just Like Kerry

A former chairman of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth defended Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers from a White House charge that they are unfairly “swiftboating” the former Taliban captive by coming forward to criticize him. Bergdahl’s questionable conduct, he suggests, is analogous to that of Secretary of State John Kerry, whom the group famously opposed in the 2004 presidential election.  “Those guys had friends who died in Afghanistan like we had friends who died in Vietnam, and to allow this kind of thing to occur really does tarnish the whole memory of all those people who gave their lives,” former co-chairman John O’Neill told National Review Online. “To allow a guy like this to be posed as a hero, like Kerry self-posing as a hero, is really an affront to everybody who died there, and that’s why those guys in his platoon have come forward and that’s why we came forward 40 years ago and ten years ago.”

Read more at National Review
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Why Not Separate Marriage and State?

There is no question that the media, political, and cultural push for gay marriage has made impressive gains. As recently as 1989, voters in avant-garde San Francisco repealed a law that had established only domestic partnerships.   But judging by the questions posed by Supreme Court justices this week in oral arguments for two gay-marriage cases, most observers do not expect sweeping rulings that would settle the issue and avoid protracted political combat. A total of 41 states currently do not allow gay marriage, and most of those laws are likely to remain in place for some time. Even should the Court declare unconstitutional the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman for federal purposes, we can expect many pitched battles in Congress.

Read more at National Review Read More......

Remember these heroes

Via Tammy Bruce on Facebook: These are the six men who died looking for Bergdahl after he went AWOL. These are the heroes. Remember their names. Via Pocket Full of Liberty.

Comment from Rusty Redican (FB): Bowe Bergdahl is no "hero". Here are the facts: In the weeks leading up to his "capture", Bergdahl made statements that he was "ashamed to be an American" and "The horror that is america is disgusting." He shipped his personal belongings home. He asked his Squad Leader what would happen if he took someone else's weapon and other sensitive items off base.

On the day of his departure, he was drinking with the Afghans he had befriended. After being caught, he was verbally reprimanded. That evening, angry after being reprimanded, he left behind his weapons, took a knife (by some statements up to five knives), some bottled water, and hid in the back of a vehicle owned by one of the local laborers. Bergdahl and at least two Afghans then drove off base to go smoke hashish, according to multiple statements. After smoking hashish, Bergdahl then walked off into the countryside. By some accounts, he set off to go "find himself" in the mountains. By other accounts, his plan was to walk to Pakistan.

He was discovered missing the next morning at about 0900. By 1200 that day, the entire war in Afghanistan had ground to a halt as all available air assets in Afghanistan were diverted to search for Bergdahl.

In the end assessment, the acts of this "soldier" cost the lives of other Americans (ones that didn't leave their posts in combat), and cost us hundreds of millions of dollars due to his selfish, dishonorable acts. He is a deserter, EVERYBODY in the Chain of Command knows it, and the fact that the US Government continues to pay and promote him shows the lengths they will go to manipulate public opinion.

Now, some of you will insist that we make every effort to rescue this deserter, that we will "leave no man behind". Ask yourself: Knowing the facts, would you send your son or daughter to rescue him? If not, why should someone else's son or daughter, husband or wife, brother or sister, risk their lives to rescue someone who intentionally left their post in a time of war and deserted? Ask yourself why there is no official statement as to the circumstances of his capture? I anticipate a sudden "deal" being made just before the mid-term elections, with Bowe returning to a hero's welcome, and a White House dinner with the Dali Bama.

I saw this on another post: Forwarded from Jeff Howard. "We were at OP Mest, Paktika Province, Afghanistan. It was a small outpost where B Co 1-501st INF (Airbone) ran operations out of, just an Infantry platoon and ANA counterparts there. The place was an Afghan graveyard. Bergdahl had been acting a little strange, telling people he wanted to "walk the earth" and kept a little journal talking about how he was meant for better things. No one thought anything about it. He was a little “out there”. Next morning he's gone. We search everywhere, and can't find him. He left his weapon, his kit, and other sensitive items. He only took some water, a compass and a knife. We find some afghan kids shortly after who saw an american walking north asking about where the taliban are. We get hits on our voice intercepter that Taliban has him, and we were close. We come to realize that the kid deserted his post, snuck out of camp and sought out Taliban… to join them. We were in a defensive position at OP Mest, where your focus is to keep people out. He knew where the blind spots were to slip out and that's what he did. It was supposed to be a 4-day mission but turned into several months of active searching. Everyone was spun up to find this guy. News outlets all over the country were putting out false information. It was hard to see, especially when we knew the truth about what happened and we lost good men trying to find him. PFC Matthew Michael Martinek, Staff Sgt. Kurt Robert Curtiss, SSG Clayton Bowen, PFC Morris Walker, SSG Michael Murphrey, 2LT Darryn Andrews, were all KIA from our unit who died looking for Bergdahl. Many others from various units were wounded or killed while actively looking for Bergdahl. Fighting Increased. IEDs and enemy ambushes increased. The Taliban knew that we were looking for him in high numbers and our movements were predictable. Because of Bergdahl, more men were out in danger, and more attacks on friendly camps and positions were conducted while we were out looking for him. His actions impacted the region more than anyone wants to admit. There is also no way to know what he told the Taliban: Our movements, locations, tactics, weak points on vehicles and other things for the enemy to exploit are just a few possibilities. The Government knows full well that he deserted. It looks bad and is a good propaganda piece for the Taliban. They refuse to acknowledge it. Hell they even promoted him to Sergeant which makes me sick. I feel for his family who only want their son/brother back. They don’t know the truth, or refuse to acknowledge it as well. What he did affected his family and his whole town back home, who don’t know the truth. Either way what matters is that good men died because of him. He has been lying on all those Taliban videos about everything since his “capture”. If he ever returns, he should be tried under the UCMJ for being a deserter and judged for what he did. Bergdahl is not a hero, he is not a soldier or an Infantryman. He failed his brothers. Now, sons and daughters are growing up without their fathers who died for him and he will have to face that truth someday." Read More......

Bergdahl release arrangement could threaten the safety of Americans, Republicans say

Amid jubilation Saturday over the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from captivity by the Taliban, senior Republicans on Capitol Hill said they were troubled by the means by which it was accomplished, which was a deal to release five Afghan detainees from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Top Republicans on the Senate and House armed services committees went so far as to accuse President Obama of having broken the law, which requires the administration to notify Congress before any transfers from Guantanamo are carried out. ✧ “Trading five senior Taliban leaders from detention in Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahl’s release may have consequences for the rest of our forces and all Americans. Our terrorist adversaries now have a strong incentive to capture Americans.

Read more at Washington Post Read More......

President Obama Crashes and Burns at West Point

Excerpt: President Obama was the commencement speaker at West Point’s graduation this past week, and while the administration hoped for a big win with the speech, they’ve received the exact opposite. His speech was vapid, dreary and even disdainful to the particular crowd he was speaking to. Even the President’s traditional allies at liberal media outlets could not muster up any support for his hollow rhetoric and terrible excuse making.

Read more at Eagle Rising Read More......

Two Americas

In early January 2014, Bob Lonsberry, a Rochester talk radio personality on WHAM 1180 AM, said this in response to Obama’s “income inequality speech”:

Two Americas – The Democrats are right, there are two Americas. The America that works, and the America that doesn’t. The America that contributes, and the America that doesn’t. It’s not the haves and the have nots, it’s the dos and the don’ts. Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society, and others don’t.

That’s the divide in America. It’s not about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility. It’s about a political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office. It’s about a political party that loves power more than it loves its country. That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone said it.

The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income inequality.” He noted that some people make more than other people, that some people have higher incomes than others, and he says that’s not just. That is the rationale of thievery. The other guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you. Vote Democrat. That is the philosophy that produced Detroit. It is the electoral philosophy that is destroying America. It conceals a fundamental deviation from American values and common sense because it ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal.

The Democrats have not empowered their followers, they have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and entitlement, of victim-hood and anger instead of ability and hope. The president’s premise – that you reduce income inequality by debasing the successful – seeks to deny the successful the consequences of their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices. Because, by and large, income variations in society is a result of different choices leading to different consequences. Those who choose wisely and responsibly have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of failure.

Success and failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income. You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college – and you are apt to have a different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with purposeful education. You have your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course; you have them within a marriage and life is apt to take another course. Most often in life our destination is determined by the course we take.

My doctor, for example, makes far more than I do. There is significant income inequality between us. Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives also have had an in equality of effort. While my doctor went to college and then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job in a restaurant. He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to different outcomes. His outcome pays a lot better than mine. Does that mean he cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away his wealth? No, it means we are both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes.

It is not inequality Barack Obama intends to take away, it is freedom. The freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail. There is no true option for success if there is no true option for failure. The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more happiness than the other guy. Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing. Even if the other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine and shortsighted decisions.

Barack Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while completely ignoring inequality of effort. The simple Law of the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap – is sometimes applied as, “The harder you work, the more you get.” Obama would turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of society.

Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward mobility in American society if Barack Obama gets his way. He seeks a lowest common denominator society in which the government besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity. He and his party speak of two Americas, and their grip on power is based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other. America is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences in our efforts.

It is a false philosophy to say one man’s success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man’s victimization. What Obama offered was not a solution, but a separatism. He fomented division and strife, pitted one set of Americans against another for his own political benefit.

That’s what socialists offer. Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow. Two Americas, coming closer each day to proving the truth to Lincoln’s maxim that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

(Hat tip: AH) Read More......

Federal authorities under fire for dumping illegal immigrants in US

SCORES OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, caught by authorities in Texas trying to sneak into the country via the Rio Grande Valley, are being flown, bused and then abandoned in places like Arizona, New York and Maryland instead of being sent back across the border.

"What an astonishing failure of leadership at every level inside the Beltway," said [Arizona] Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Smith.

Story and video at Fox News Read More......

ISSA: 'Operation Choke Point' is Illegal, Must be Dismantled

The Justice Department's “Operation Choke Point” is so flagrantly illegal it cannot continue in any form under the law, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Charman Darrell Issa's staff said in a new report, setting up a constitutional confrontation between the legislative and executive branches of the federal government.
Snip...
DOJ has said the program is targeted at fraud, but the oversight committee report provided evidence the program was "was created by the Justice Department to 'choke out' companies the Administration considers a 'high risk' or otherwise objectionable, despite the fact that they are legal businesses."

Read more at Breitbart Read More......

Dinesh D'Souza's 'America' warns Hillary Clinton will 'finish off' the country

In his highly anticipated new book and movie "America," conservative author Dinesh D'Souza is warning that Hillary Clinton won't be a clone of her moderate husband, but will instead take the baton fromPresident Obama to continue radicalizing the country and “undo the nation's founding ideals.”

"America -- Imagine a World Without Her," published by Regnery and set for release Monday, charges that as students of radical organizer Saul Alinsky, Obama and Clinton could have enough time to “unmake and then remake America” into a nation the founding fathers wouldn't recognize.

Read more at the Washington Examiner Read More......

HBO's Dreadful Reagan Lie

It's been 10 years since Ronald Reagan passed away, but one horrible myth about him will not die. When he passed, The Advocate magazine published an essay by radical gay playwright Larry Kramer titled "Adolf Reagan." The rant began: "Our murderer is dead. The man who murdered more gay people than anyone in the entire history of the world, is dead. More people than Hitler even."

In Kramer's fever swamp of a brain, Reagan caused AIDS. He reveled in its fatalities. Now HBO is honoring Kramer's unceasing hatred by making a TV movie out of his hate-filled 1985 play/jeremiad "The Normal Heart."

Read more at Townhall.com
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Almost 1/3 of US workers now need a permission slip from the government to work

University of Minnesota public affairs professor Morris Kleiner has written extensively on the topic of occupational licensing and has been featured before on CD here and here, and by Jimmy P here. Among his key findings: 1. Occupational licensing drives up costs to consumers. Licensed workers earn 15% more on average than their unlicensed counterparts in other states. Across the U.S. economy, occupational licensing adds at least $116 billion a year to the cost of services. 2. For several occupations that are regulated in some states but not others (e.g. librarians, nutritionists and respiratory therapists), employment growth for those professions was about 20% greater in the unregulated states between 1990 and 2000 than the regulated states.

Read more at the American Enterprise Institute
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

OMB: 13-year high for new and costly federal regulations

The number of complicated federal regulations with an economic impact of $100 million or more has hit a 13-year high for the “spring” season, according to the Office of Management and Budget.  The group that tracks regulations, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Secrets that Obama has issued far more big dollar regs in his first six years than former President Bush: 376 for Obama to 287 for Bush.  “And,” said CEI's Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., “this is not even counting the ‘pen' and ‘phone' rulemaking happening off the books.”

Read more at the Washington Examiner
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Inside the Ring: Memo outlines Obama’s plan to use the military against citizens

A 2010 Pentagon directive on military support to civilian authorities details what critics say is a troubling policy that envisions the Obama administration’s potential use of military force against Americans.  The directive contains noncontroversial provisions on support to civilian fire and emergency services, special events and the domestic use of the Army Corps of Engineers.  The troubling aspect of the directive outlines presidential authority for the use of military arms and forces, including unarmed drones, in operations against domestic unrest.

Read more at the Washington Times
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

U.S. Economy Contracts in First-Quarter on Inventories, Trade

The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter for the first time in three years as it buckled under the weight of a severe winter, but there are signs activity has since rebounded. The Commerce Department on Thursday revised down its growth estimate to show gross domestic product shrinking at a 1.0 annual rate. It was the worst performance since the first quarter of 2011 and reflected a far slower pace of inventory accumulation and a bigger than previously estimated trade deficit.

Read more at Reuters Read More......

Hard Questions About Oregon’s Employment Picture

Last week the Oregonian published an article on the declining labor force participation rate in Oregon. Well it wasn’t actually an article – it was a rewrite of the Oregon Department of Employment’s press release right down to the pretext of the decline that holds Gov. John Kitzhaber and three decades of Democrat administrations blameless. Not a single critical question was asked by the Oregonian. Not a single moment was spent on any independent research. It’s what happens when a decidedly liberal press corps evolves from watchdog to lapdog.

I suppose one can be encouraged that Mr. Kitzhaber and the Oregonian have stooped to even acknowledging the labor participation rate in contrast to the much ballyhooed and specious unemployment rate.

Read more at the Oregon Catalyst Read More......

Germany’s Green Jobs Miracle Collapses

Renewable energy was supposed to create tens of thousands of green jobs. Yet despite three-digit Euro billions of subsidies, the number of jobs is falling rapidly. Seven out of ten jobs will only remain as long as the subsidies keep flowing.—Daniel Wetzel, Die Welt, 26 May 2014

“A few years ago the renewable sector was the job miracle in Germany, now nothing is left of all of that,” said the deputy leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, Oliver Krischer.—Daniel Wetzel, Die Welt, 26 May 2014

The same green subsidies have led to rising costs and job losses in many other areas, such as heavy industry and commerce as well as conventional power plants.

Read more at Canada Free Press Read More......

Bombshell Investigation Delivers Big Blow to Book on Rising ‘Wealth Inequality’ Hailed by the Left as a ‘Game-Changer’

An investigation conducted by the Financial Times reportedly revealed a “series of errors” that “skew” the findings outlined in Thomas Piketty’s best seller “Capital in the 21st Century” on income inequality. The book has been hailed by the left as a “game-changer,” and compared to Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” by critics.

However, FT economics editor Chris Giles claims to have found serious errors in Piketty’s data, which likely undermine his findings.

Read more at The Blaze Read More......

Media Ridiculed for Hyping “Antarctic Collapse” Amid Record Ice

For the one in five Americans who still express confidence in the establishment media, recent headlines probably suggested it was time to start building an ark to prepare for the supposed upcoming surge in sea levels — all of it allegedly brought about by the imminent “collapse” of an ice sheet in Antarctica. Back in the real world, though, sea ice levels in Antarctica are off the charts, covering more area than at any point since records began and still going higher. The mischaracterized “mainstream” media, meanwhile, only solidified its reputation in recent days as an increasingly ridiculous source of fear mongering, propaganda, and unwarranted hysteria rather than credible reporting.

Read more at the New American
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Eurosceptic 'earthquake' rocks EU elections

UK Independence Party and French National Front both performed strongly. The three big centrist blocs all lost seats, though still hold the majority. ✧ The outcome means a greater say for those who want to cut back the EU's powers, or abolish it completely. ✧ UK PM David Cameron said the public was "disillusioned" with the EU.

Read more at the BBC.com
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

A chilling message from the cartels

A chilling message from the cartels: Billboards with hanging mannequins warning cops to choose 'silver over lead' appear in Texas 

• Two billboards along highways in El Paso, Texas were vandalized and had mannequins hanging off of them
• One reads 'silver or lead' in Spanish which is taken to mean that police and business owners can either take drug cartels' bribes or die
• Worries spreading that cartels that have ruled Mexican border towns with violence may be headed north

Read more at the UK Daily Mail
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Long after announced 'resignation,' ex-Cover Oregon director Bruce Goldberg draws $14,425 monthly salary

He was the highest profile casualty of Oregon's health insurance exchange disaster.  Bruce Goldberg, the respected, long-time director of the Oregon Health Authority, offered to resign on March 18. Two days later, with the Cover Oregon tech mess going from bad to worse, Gov. John Kitzhaber announced that he'd shown Goldberg the door.

The resignation was "effective immediately," said officials in the governor's office.

Or so we thought.

Read more at The Oregonian
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

IRS backtracks on 501(c)4 rule after flood of negative comments

Will the IRS retreat from managing political speech through the tax code? One might have thought that the scandal that erupted a year ago this month would have discouraged the tax agency from pressing forward again, but they still proposed a more extensive enforcement mechanism for 501(c)4 groups just months after the targeting of conservative groups was exposed. After an avalanche of negative comments in the public-review period, though, the IRS is rethinking their approach...

Read more at Hotair.com
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

CIS: Nearly 8 million STEM degree holders in U.S. not working in STEM fields

A new study from the Center for Immigration Studies asks whether or not there is a shortage of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workers in the United States, and their resounding conclusion is "no". The report released today and written by CIS researchers Steve Camarota and Karen Zeigler found that there are more than 5 million native-born Americans with an undergraduate degree in STEM, but not working in STEM with another 1.2 million degree holders not working at all. Additionally, there are 1.6 million foreign-born residents with an undergraduate degree in STEM that are also not working in STEM fields or working at all.

Read more at Numbers USA
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

CNN President Jeff Zucker: ‘We’re Not Going To Be Shamed’ Into Covering Benghazi

CNN President Jeff Zucker declared his network would “not going to be shamed” into covering Benghazi and other stories without “real news value” at an awards dinner Monday.  Capital New York reports that Zucker explained CNN’s post-plane plans during an interview at the Deadline Club’s annual dinner on Monday night.

Read more at The Daily Caller
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

US Subpoenas Oregon Insurance Website Documents

The governor's office says federal prosecutors have subpoenaed state records for a grand jury investigation of the troubled Cover Oregon health insurance website.  The state abandoned its plans for an independent site after it didn't work. They decided to switch to the federal portal, the first state to do so. The governor's office released subpoenas Tuesday issued by the U.S. attorney's office.

Read more at ABC News
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Meeting in Monroe to Discuss the Bailey Branch

Cross posted from Benton GOP News.
Tuesday May 13^th, Benton County Americans For Prosperity (BCAFP) hosted a meeting of concerned South County landowners to discuss the County’s intentions for the Bailey Branch railroad right-of-way it has purchased.  There are about twenty landowners with property along the right-of-way and about sixteen of them were in attendance.

On April 6, 2011, years after the Union Pacific Railroad announced they were abandoning the Bailey Branch because of unprofitability, an article in the Albany Democrat-Herald announced, “Benton vows fight to keep Bailey Branch.”  Benton was not fooling; in 2013, the Benton County Commissioners purchased the Bailey Branch for $486,000.

At Tuesday’s meeting we learned that many of the landowners have not been happy with the Bailey Branch since its beginning.  The rail line bisects most farms making it difficult to gain access to parts of their land.  Each landowner was coerced through intimidation into to actually selling the land the tracks would be placed on at the buyer’s price.  Negotiation was not allowed even though some of the deeds failed to describe exactly where the tracks would be laid.  Most of today’s landowners were glad to hear that the Union Pacific had decided to abandon the Branch.  As one person put it, “What we would really like is for it to just go away.”

The County didn’t buy all of the Bailey Branch, however.  In the meeting, Mr. Larry Venell told how he purchased a little over five miles of the Branch, from Avery Park to just past Llewellyn Road, because rail access is critical to his business.  He has already begun the needed maintenance on that section.

The landowners present were as curious and confused about the purchase as many Benton County taxpayers are.  Why would the County want to purchase less than fourteen miles of railroad right-of-way that doesn’t actually go anywhere?  And why, now that they have actually purchased it, do they say they had no plans in mind for it when they bought it?

Commissioner Linda Modrell, who was the individual most responsible for the purchase and handled 100% of the transaction, has at times cited reasons such as protecting the County from possible liability and ‘saving’ the valuable right-of-way for possible future use.  She has been an advocate for improving passenger rail service from Corvallis to Eugene in the past and has even talked about the possibility of high-speed rail.  Unfortunately her hopes on that issue were dashed in January by Jim Cox of ODOT when he said, “[D]on’t get your hopes up.  There is no estimate for when ... even moderately fast passenger train service up the Willamette Valley might start.”  (Hasso Hering)

There has also been talk about something called Rails-to-Trails, which was heavily discussed at the meeting.  The County Commissioners held a meeting with South County residents last year where they assured everyone that they had no intentions to put a bicycle and/or hiking trail along the Bailey Branch right-of-way.  Yet one person at the meeting has heard that plans are already being drawn up for Opening Ceremonies for such a trail in 2015.  Another landowner at the meeting, upon hearing this, said that he spent several years working as a project development engineer for a large corporation.  He estimated the cost of such a project would be four times what was spent on the Right-of-Way.  “Where are they going to get two million dollars for something like that?” he asked.

Landowners are very concerned about this.  Currently they have to deal with trespassers, theft and vandalism, damage to fences and outbuildings, and even harm to livestock on a regular basis.  Putting any kind of trail down the right-of-way would make public access to their private property even easier.  There is also the issue of safety and security of those who might actually use such a trail, possibly leading to liability for landowners when persons using such a path are injured or worse.  Even weed control along the Branch is critical because weeds can contaminate the crops that are the livelihood of the farmers.

Currently the County is developing a Bailey Branch Development Strategy to guide its utilization, “adhering to the best uses for that property.”  A draft strategy will be presented for public review and comment beginning in July, with a decision by the commissioners sometime in August.

Go to: http://www.co.benton.or.us/boc/bailey_branch.php for details on how to submit comments or suggestions.  We need to be alert for any announcements concerning the Strategy and the public input meetings to be held over the summer.  An alert email list is currently being assembled by AFP to get the word out.  If you would like to be on that list, send email to BCAFP@comcast.net.

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