Where President Obama’s Promise Zones Can Meet Rand Paul’s Economic Freedom Zones

Across the aisle, Senator Rand Paul introduced a bill to Congress to create “Economic Freedom Zones” that would reduce taxes and ease government regulation in distressed areas.

imgres2Income inequality is the name of the political game in 2014.

Democrats and Republicans alike have taken on the challenge of addressing America’s rampant, deep-seated inequality as the cornerstone of their platform for the upcoming midterm elections.

President Obama made it clear in his 2013 State of the Union address that the growing income gap in America is the greatest challenge of our time. And just this week, Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Paul Ryan – both potential White House hopefuls – have made the issue their own, with Rubio proposing his own changes to anti-poverty programs and Ryan discussing it with NBC’s Brian Williams.

To be sure, this has traditionally been a Democrat issue and we have recently seen the Democrats push to increase the federal minimum wage and extend unemployment benefits.

Read more at Forbes

Indiana guardsman stopped for speeding in Madison County had 48 bombs, prosecutor says

By Laura Arenschield, The Columbus Dispatch

andrew-scott-boguslawskiAn Indiana National Guardsman was arrested outside Columbus on New Year’s Day after a state trooper found nearly 50 bombs and the blueprints for a Navy SEAL training facility inside his car, the Madison County prosecutor said yesterday.

Andrew Scott Boguslawski, 43, also had a remote-control device to detonate the bombs, Madison County Prosecutor Stephen Pronai said. Boguslawski’s civilian job is as a groundskeeper at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in south-central Indiana. Prosecutors could not say definitively yesterday whether the blueprints in his car were for the facility where he worked.

Boguslawski also had a bulletproof vest in his car, Pronai said.

Read more at The Columbus Dispatch

36 Signs The Media Is Lying To You About How Radiation From Fukushima Is Affecting The West Coast

Fukushima-Radiation-450x270The west coast of the United States is being absolutely fried by radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the mainstream media is not telling us the truth about this. What you are about to see is a collection of evidence that is quite startling. Taken collectively, this body of evidence shows that nuclear radiation from Fukushima is affecting sea life in the Pacific Ocean and animal life along the west coast of North America in some extraordinary ways. But the mainstream media continues to insist that we don’t have a thing to worry about. The mainstream media continues to insist that radiation levels in the Pacific and along the west coast are perfectly safe. Are they lying to us? Evaluate the evidence compiled below and come to your own conclusions…

#1 Independent researchers have measured alarmingly high levels of radiation on the beaches of the west coast. For example, the video posted below was taken on December 23rd, 2013 at Pacifica State Beach. As you can see in this video, radiation levels near the water are up to five times higher than normal background radiation…

#2 According to Oceanus Magazine, the total amount of cesium-137 that has been released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima is 10,000 to 100,000 times greater than the amount released into the oceans by the Chernobyl disaster or by the atmospheric nuclear weapons tests of the 1960s.

#3 Former MSNBC host Cenk Uygur has admitted that while he was at MSNBC he was instructed not to warn the public about the radiation coming from Fukushima…

“I was on MSNBC at the time when this happened, I said, “Don’t trust what the Japanese government is saying, they’ll say trust what the electric power company is saying. Go, go, go, get outta there. Get as far away from that plant as you can. It’s literally a core meltdown.” And they always don’t want people to panic, so they were always like, “Oh it’s going to be okay.” […] I’m like, “You’re crazy man, don’t be anywhere near that reactor.” And I remember at the time, of course not at The Young Turks, but on cable news, people were like, “Hey Cenk, you know, I don’t know that you want to say that, because the official government position is that it’s safe.” Oh, is that the official government position? Now go explain that to the people who served on the USS Ronald Reagan.”

#4 71 U.S. sailors who assisted with the initial Fukushima relief efforts have developed serious diseases such as testicular cancer, thyroid cancer, Leukemia, “unremitting gynecological bleeding” and brain tumors since that time as a result of exposure to radiation coming from Fukushima.

#5 Something is causing starfish all along the west coast of the United States to literally disintegrate into piles of “white goo“…

Researchers say nuclear pollution from the 2011 earthquake in Japan that damaged the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant could be partially to blame for a disease wiping out starfish along the West Coast.

Dr. Peter Raimondi of the University of Santa Cruz says something is making starfish susceptible to whats believed to be a bacteria coined “Wasting Disease.” It essentially disintegrate the marine invertebrates into a white goo, after the starfish loses its legs.

Read more at The Truth

SEE ALSO: As Fukushima radiation makes landfall on California beaches, Natural News announces lab to test foods for radioactive cesium-137, How Can You Detect Radiation?

HISD school bus drivers disciplined for praying after child’s death

HOUSTON (KTRK) — Houston ISD bus drivers came together to support a coworker and to protest a move by the school district.

Several drivers were reprimanded for praying with that coworker, after she lost a child. In response to that — they’re praying even more.

On December 16, a 12-year-old girl was struck by a car as she walked home from school in north Harris County. She would later die from her injuries. She was the daughter of an HISD bus driver, whose coworkers rallied around her.

Bus driver Cynthia Cormier said, “From a parent’s point of view and from a grandparent’s, prayer is the answer.”

As news of the tragedy spread among the community of HISD school bus drivers, they spontaneously prayed for one of their own who was grieving. They joined not holding hands, but by using a back channel on the bus radio system.

Wretha Thomas, with the Educational Support Union, said, “Somebody else heard it and called in and reported it to the administration and they chose to write them up.”

Read more at ABC 13

Current legislation of interest to veterans.

Veterans and current military members are certainly aware of the reduction of retiree pay while blocking Republican efforts to close tax credits for illegal aliens.

The Air Force Sergeants Association Facebook page has compiled a list of current legislation of interest to the military and veterans.

Many of the efforts address the reduction in veteran retirement in one fashion or another. Democrat Daniel B. Maffei of New York, for example, would restore military pay while closing “corporate tax loopholes.”

The list from the Air Force Sergeants Association is as follows:

H.R. 3787, by Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., would repeal of annual adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62. Note: This bill would restore $6 billion to replace the cuts in military retirement by combining DoD and VA drug-buying power, that Lankford contends would save an estimated $7 billion.

H.R. 3788, by Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., (and 45 cosponsors), would repeal the reductions in military retirement benefits made by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013; and require inclusion of the taxpayer’s social security number to claim the refundable portion of the child tax credit.

H.R. 3789, by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., (and 120 cosponsors), would exempt the retired pay of certain disabled veterans from the reduced adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62; and prevent any adverse impact of the reduced adjustment on annuities under the Survivor Benefit Plan based on retired or retainer pay.

H.R. 3790, by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., (and 87 cosponsors), would repeal of annual adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

H.R. 3792, by Rep. Robert J. Wittman, R-Va., would bill to repeal the reduction in the annual percentage increases of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

H.R. 3793, by Rep. Daniel B. Maffei, D-N.Y., (and 36 cosponsors), would restore full military retirement benefits by closing corporate tax loopholes.

H.R. 3794, by Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., would repeal the annual adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

H.R. 3797, by Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., would repeal an annual adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

H.R. 3798, by Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., would repeal an annual adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

H.R. 3801, by Rep. Darrell E. Issa, R-Calif., would repeal the reductions in military retirement benefits made by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013; and authorize the United States Postal Service to implement a modified Saturday delivery schedule.

S. 1869, by Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., would repeal section 403 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, relating to an annual adjustment of retired pay for members of the Armed Forces under the age of 62, and provide an offset.

S. 1872, by Sen. Mark L. Pryor, D-Ark., would provide that the annual adjustment of retired pay for members of the Armed Forces under the age of 62 under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 shall not apply to members retired for disability and to retired pay used to compute certain Survivor Benefit Plan annuities.

S. 1880, by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., would provide that the annual adjustment of retired pay for members of the Armed Forces under the age of 62 under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 shall not apply to members retired for disability and to retired pay used to compute certain Survivor Benefit Plan annuities.

This Man Chased A Nazi Fighter Plane Under The Eiffel Tower

william-overstreetToday, people on two continents mourn the death of 92-year-old William Overstreet Jr. He was a resident of Roanoke, Virginia, a retired accountant, and like many men from his generation, a veteran of World War II. And in the spring of 1944, Overstreet did something people in France and the U.S. still talk about.

Overstreet, who died Sunday at a Roanoke hospital, is remembered for being the U.S. Army Air Corps pilot who flew underneath the Eiffel Tower’s arches in his P-51 Mustang during an aerial battle while in hot pursuit of a German fighter plane, which he ultimately shot down.

Even back in war-torn, Nazi-occupied Paris, that wasn’t something you saw every day. Or ever. And it was an act that is said to have reignited the spirits of the French resistance fighters who witnessed it from the ground. The Richmond Times-Dispatch quoted the son of one fighter, who had this to say:

One of those French Resistance fighters was the father of Bernard Marie. A French dignitary who has hosted D-Day events every year since 1984, Marie said he met Overstreet in 1994.

He knew Overstreet was well-known for his flight underneath the Eiffel Tower but didn’t understand its true importance until he spoke with his father.

“My father began shouting at me — ‘I have to meet this man,’ ” Marie said. Members of the French Resistance had seen his flight and it inspired them, including Marie’s father, he said.

“This guy has done even more than what people are thinking,” Marie said. “He lifted the spirit of the French.”

Read more at JALOPNIK

Scientific study full of poop?

bear-woodsGlen Davis

It seems that the United States taxpayers are not the only ones who pay for scientific studies that are full of poop. A research team of Czech and German scientists have finally discovered why dogs seem to gyrate wildly before they take a poop.

Apparently dogs try to align their bodies along the North-South axis in conjunction with their internal compass.

The study—published this week in Frontiers in Zoology—examined the daily habits of 70 dogs during 1,893 defecations and 5,582 urinations over the course of two years. Consistently, during times of calm electromagnetic “weather,” the dogs chose to eliminate while facing north or south.

While this might seem like a stinking study, it would explain that annoying feng shui that dogs exhibit before getting down to business.

There have been instances noted in the past that dogs exhibit unrest before an earthquake or other natural disaster. Thus it has long been suspected that dogs (horses, cattle and other animals, as well) are extremely sensitive to the most minor changes in the earth.

As a personal observation it seems as though my dog is a rebel. Or, perhaps, it is because he is a mixed breed. I have not tested the Poop theory since this study was released. My recollection, however, is that my dog seems to align West-to-East. Even unleashed. So you might want to check your dogs alignment before you decide to use his compass.

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Angry viewers flood FCC with complaints over ’2 Broke Girls’

And The Big HoleMany viewers of the hit CBS show “2 Broke Girls” refuse to turn the other cheek — or the channel.

Instead, at least 91 “fans” of the show have made informal complaints to federal regulators over the last two years about the crude sexual double entendres and outright crassness of the show.

Among the complaints of dialogue containing such words and phrases as “shoot on my chest,” “penis alerts,” “bitches,” “girl-on-girl porn,” and “giving head,” according to the complaints sent to the FCC.

The bawdy show, created by Michael Patrick King, whose credits include “Sex and the City,” follows two young women — one rich, one poor — who work as waitresses and try to fulfill dreams of running their own cupcake business.

Read more at New York Post

Brooklyn man arrested and charged in five hateful “knockout” attacks on women.

Four individuals were arrested in the latest 'knockiout' game earlier this morning

NEW YORK—The New York Daily News and New York Post are reporting on the arrest of a Brooklyn man by the NYPD hate crimes unit for five alleged “knockout” attacks perpetrated against women.

Police sketch of Barry Baldwin, 35 of Brooklyn.

Police sketch of Barry Baldwin, 35 of Brooklyn.

According to the reports, 35 year-old Barry Baldwin attacked his hapless victims from November 9 through Christmas eve. Victims were Jewish women ranging from 20 to 78 years of age. One woman had a 7 year old child with her for which prosecutors added a charge of endangering a child.

Initial reports had police treating this as a hate crime since it was specifically against the Jewish community. But it was, unfortunately, reported as being downgraded. Prosecutors would not comment on the reason for the downgrade from a hate crime.

“Everyone will sleep a little easier,” said Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who has been warning the community about the menace.

Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers dies at 74

everlyPhil Everly, who with his brother, Don, made up the most revered vocal duo of the rock-music era, their exquisite harmonies profoundly influencing the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Byrds and countless younger-generation rock, folk and country singers, died Friday in Burbank of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his wife, Patti Everly, told The Times. He was 74.

“We are absolutely heartbroken,” she said, noting that the disease was the result of a lifetime of cigarette smoking. “He fought long and hard.”

During the height of their popularity in the late 1950s and early 1960s, they charted nearly three dozen hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, among them “Cathy’s Clown,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love,” “When Will I Be Loved” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream.” The Everly Brothers were among the first 10 performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when it got off the ground in 1986.

“They had that sibling sound,” said Linda Ronstadt, who scored one of the biggest hits of her career in 1975 with her recording of “When Will I Be Loved,” which Phil Everly wrote. “The information of your DNA is carried in your voice, and you can get a sound [with family] that you never get with someone who’s not blood related to you. And they were both such good singers–they were one of the foundations, one of the cornerstones of the new rock ‘n’ roll sound.”

Read more at Los Angeles Times