Tag Archives: National

26 reported killed in Newton, Conn., school shooting

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NEWTOWN, Conn. — A lone gunman killed 26 people at an elementary school here, including 18 children, in a terrifying early Friday morning shooting spree.

The Associated Press and local media reported the shooter, an unidentified adult male, was also dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Two handguns were recovered at the scene. Mayor Mark Boughton said several victims had been taken to local hospitals.

Groups of students — some crying, some holding hands — were being escorted away from the school by their teachers. Some witnesses reported of up to 100 shots.

The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School is the latest in a series mass shootings in the U.S. this year, including Tuesday’s assault by a lone gunman at a Portland, OR., shopping mall that left two dead and one wounded.

Read more at USA Today.

Oscars Snubbed 2016 Obama’s America

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By Slatester

A total of 126 documentaries were eligible for an Academy Award this year, and a selection committee recently narrowed those down to 15 hopefuls for five nominations. Dozens were snubbed, but the producers of 2016: Obama’s America say their film’s exclusion is evidence of something more sinister.

The anti-Obama film directed by Dinesh D’Souza was roundly panned by critics, though it rode word of mouth to a $33 million gross. D’Souza said the film’s success would have resulted in a nomination if it weren’t for Hollywood’s bias. “Liberal political ideology, not excellence, is the true standard of what receives awards,” he said.

Gerald Molen, a 2016 producer who won an Oscar for Schindler’s List, echoed the director’s accusation, adding: “America went to see the documentary in spite of how Hollywood feels about it.”

2016 is currently the second highest-grossing documentary in America, behind Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, which was not eligible for an Oscar.

Source Reagan Coalition

“Drug cartels’ bank,” HSBC, to see no arrests

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(CBS News) As bank slogans go, they don’t come worse than this: “The preferred financial institution of drug cartels and money launderers.”

That’s a quote Tuesday in a U.S. Department of Justice report about HSBC Holdings, one of the largest banks in the world.

To avoid criminal prosecution, HSBC admitted Tuesday that it laundered more than $800 million for Mexican drug cartels, and covered up illegal transactions for Burma, Iran, Sudan, Cuba, and Libya.

Those nations were under banking sanctions because of human rights atrocities, terrorism, or — in Iran’s case — a nuclear program.

The British bank will pay $1.9 billion to the U.S. government, the largest such fine in history.

Read more at CBS News

Pipe dreams: Claims of legalized pot benefits quickly busted in Colo. and Wash.

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Patricia Campion
The Examiner

While pot is still banned under federal law, voters in Colorado and Washington passed referendums legalizing marijuana for recreational use on Nov. 6. Despite claims by advocates that legalization would reduce crime, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that “two University of Colorado Boulder students face multiple felony charges after the marijuana-laced brownies they brought to class put their professor in the hospital.”

Thomas Ricardo Cunningham, 21, and Mary Elizabeth Essa, 19, were arrested on suspicion of planning and intentionally committing second-degree assault and inducing consumption of controlled substances by fraudulent means.

Officials said “two other students were hospitalized with anxiety and lightheadedness, and five more had a ‘bad reaction.'”

“Putting marijuana into a food product and providing it to somebody without their knowledge has always been illegal, and that will continue to be illegal, even after Amendment 64,” campus police spokesman Ryan Huff said Sunday. “So I just want to make this clear that these are serious felony cases and we take these very seriously.”

Read more at The Examiner

Transparency not an option?

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The Internet is abuzz with the story that the January 20th swearing in of Barrack Obama may be a private affair. Apparently the word is that Obama intends not to allow the media that installed him to attend the ceremony. Alana Goodman of Commentary Magazine reported, “Politico reports that Obama’s second inaugural oath for the ‘most transparent administration in history’ might be administered privately, without any media present.”

The web site Politico reported a quote from the NBC News White House correspondent. “Call me shell-shocked. I’m stunned that this is even an issue; it boggles the mind,” Chuck Todd told POLITICO. “This is not their oath, this is the constitutional oath. It’s not for them. It’s for the public, the citizens of the United Sates. It just boggles the mind. How is this even a debate?”

In his original swearing in ceremony, there were mistakes in the oath of office that he took. Some said that mistake nullified the oath causing another swearing in ceremony to be conducted in the White House in private.

According to the Politico office, the White House intends a public ceremony after the private ceremony. Apparently they intend to reverse the process from the first gaffed ceremony.

The excuse of the White House is alleged to be that January 20th falls on a Sunday, they will hold the ceremony privately and hold a public ceremony the following day.

“The White House Correspondents Association has reason to be concerned,” Goodman wrote in her commentary. “While Obama’s second oath of office in 2009 (if you remember, he had to do it twice) wasn’t completely closed to the media, only four reporters were allowed to attend, writes Dylan Byers.”

Despite Tax Increase, California State Revenues in Freefall

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California State Controller John Chiang has announced that total state revenue for the month of November 2012 fell $806.8 million, or 10.8%, below budget.

Democrats thought they could hammer “the rich” by convincing voters to pass Proposition 30 to create the highest state income tax in the nation. But it now appears that high income earners have already “voted with their feet” by moving themselves and their businesses out of state, resulting in over $1 billion shortfall in corporate and income taxes last month and the beginning of a new financial crisis.

Passage of Proposition 30 set off euphoria and expectations of higher spending for public employees. The California Teachers’ Association (CTA) trumpeted: “California students and working families won a clear victory today as voters clearly demonstrated their willingness to invest in our public schools and colleges and also rejected a deceptive ballot measure aimed at silencing educators, other workers and their unions.”

State bureaucrats immediately ramped up deficit spending far beyond the state’s $6 billion annual tax increase, with the Departments of Health Services and Developmental Services increasing this month’s spending by over $1 billion versus last year. The lower tax collection and higher spending drove the State’s deficit after the tax increase to $2.7 billion for the first 5 months of this fiscal year. State Controller John Chiang reported:

November’s disappointing revenues stand in stark contrast to recent news that California is leading the nation in job growth, has significantly improved its cash liquidity to pay bills, and even long-distressed home values are starting to inch upward… This serves as a sobering reminder that, while the economy is expanding, it is doing so at a slow and uneven pace that will require the State to exercise care and discipline in how its fiscal affairs are managed in the coming year.

The improved “cash liquidity” Chiang referred to turns out to be $24.9 billion of debt.

Read more at BreitBart News

Soros Remakes America into Narco Nation

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As more states embrace legalization of marijuana—a pet cause of George Soros for decades—the British publication The Independent has published a groundbreaking series of articles by journalist Patrick Cockburn on how his son went insane smoking the drug.

Cockburn and his son Henry, who was treated for psychosis and partially recovered, have written an article in which Patrick Cockburn is quoted as saying his son played Russian roulette with cannabis “and lost.”

Henry, who smoked marijuana daily for seven years and was in mental hospitals for about eight years as a result, says, “When I reached a mental hospital, called St Martin’s, I spent three hours walking around the lunch tables trying to listen to my shoes. I thought my shoes were talking to me.”

Patrick Cockburn spent months speaking to the experts in the field and reports on the substantial evidence linking sustained marijuana use with mental illness. One expert, Sir William Paton, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, reveals “that even limited social use of cannabis could precipitate schizophrenia in people who previously had no psychological problems,” and noted that “smoking a single joint could induce schizophrenia-like symptoms such as hallucinations, paranoia and fragmented thought processes.”

Read more at Accuracy in Media

Bill of Rights monument dedication in Phoenix on Bill of Rights day

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PHOENIX—The Bill of Rights Day celebration for Arizona will be particularly special this year. With the mast of the U.S.S. Arizona celebrating the remembrance of Pearl Harbor, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer will dedicate a monument to the Bill of Rights at the State capitol on Wesley Bowlin Plaza. Arizona will be the first to complete a monument dedicated to the Bill of Rights through the effort of Chris Bliss of My Bill of Rights.

During this season, the attention of kids and adults are directed more to the material matter that they will receive in ten days over matters related to their natural rights and liberties. Rarely is this season interrupted with ceremonies relating to the fact that on December 15th, 1791, Ten Amendments were added to the Constitution, “… in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its [the National government] powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.”

The Ten Amendments in fact it is the first of the Ten Amendments that protects the sanctity of this season and the right of people to worship God in schools and other public places.

On Saturday, December 15th from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., Governor Brewer will dedicate a monument containing the inalienable Bill of Rights engraved on them.

The monument is part of an effort by Chris Bliss of the My Bill of Rights organization to get Bill of Rights monuments placed in civic spaces across the country. The organization hopes to promote awareness of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights through this effort.

In addition, the Phoenix Elks Lodge will host a $22 buffet dinner with cash bar and keynote speaker Russell Pierce. The Cartridge Family band is scheduled to appear and a portrayal of Patrick Henry by Dr. Lance Hurley. To RSVP for the dinner, call 602-942-9281. The dinner begins at 6 p.m.

Alan Korwin, author of several books on gun and self defense laws, will also be in attendance.

See Also: Committee for the Bill of Rights

Eugene Smith, county resident and Tuskegee Airman, passes away

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Eugene Smith, famed member of the Tuskegee Airmen who fought for his proper recognition and honor, passed away on Wednesday, November 21st, at the Harrison County Hospital in Cynthiana, Kentucky.

Eugene Smith had lived in Switzerland County for nearly 20 years, retiring to a houseboat moored at Turtle Creek Marina in Florence. He was very active in the community while residing here, including membership at Patriot Baptist Church and was a regular attendee at the Senior Mealsite in Vevay.

Born in Ohio in 1918, he was a 1939 graduate of Withrow High School in Cincinnati; and then earned his bachelor’s degree from Kentucky State University.

When World War II began, Eugene Smith volunteered to serve his country, enlisting in the Army Air Corps to become a pilot.

That’s where his unusual story of heroism begins.

Because his parents were of mixed origin with Native American ancestry, the doctor who delivered Eugene Smith listed on his birth certificate that he was “colored”, even though he was fair skinned. When he was accepted into the Air Corps and was about to begin his flight training, the Army found that his birth certificate listed his race in that way, so the Army declined to send him to flight school with “white” soldiers.

Read more at the Vevay Reveille Enterprise

Texan of the Year nominations still coming in for Larry Hagman

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They started shortly after Larry Hagman died Thanksgiving weekend. They continued through the next week and into this one. Larry Hagman is a people’s favorite for Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year.

A sampling of the emails, starting with one from yesterday:

– From Dorothy Herrington:

I nominate Larry Hagman as Texan of the Year. Not only was he a great entertainer (who could possibly forget “J.R.”?), but he supported the South Dallas Cultural Center, launched the Larry Hagman Foundation, gave thousands to the Dallas Children’s Center, Big Thought, Artreach, Frazier Revitalization, and also organized a program for Dunbar Elementary. He advocated organ donation especially after his own transplant in 1995. The only Larry Hagman most of us knew was that he had such a zest for life, and had this uncanny ability to play his acting parts like no other.

We shall never forget him, and will miss him greatly. I would wonder what he is orchestrating upstairs right now, but am sure all those present are under his spell at this very moment. Oh, that we could see what kind of mischief he is conjuring up, as he twitches those eyebrows. You can bet it is entertaining.

Read more at The Dallas Morning News

See Also: Hagman knew the end was near, his ‘Dallas’ wife says – Houston Chronicle