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World
& National
FCC Approves Net Neutrality in Straight Party-Line Vote
In what one Republican called a “monumental shift toward
government control of the Internet,” the Federal Communications
Commission on Thursday approved a proposal granting the federal
government the authority to regulate Internet broadband providers under
the same law as public utilities.
The five commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines in favor of the
proposal known as net neutrality. The 332-page plan, which has not yet
been publicly released, bans broadband providers from blocking,
throttling or prioritizing certain Internet pages over others. The FCC
has said the proposal will not seek to impose any new taxes or fees.
'Jihadi John' from Islamic State beheading videos unmasked
Investigators believe that the "Jihadi John" masked fighter who fronted
Islamic State beheading videos is a British man named Mohammed Emwazi,
two U.S. government sources said on Thursday.
He was born in Kuwait and comes from a prosperous family in London,
where he grew up and graduated with a computer programming degree,
according to the Washington Post.
In videos released by Islamic State (IS), the black-clad militant
brandishing a knife and speaking with an English accent appears to have
decapitated hostages including Americans, Britons and Syrians.
Obama: 'Consequences' for ICE Officials Who Don't Follow Execuitve Amnesty
President Obama warned workers at the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement: implement executive amnesty, or else. He made the comments
in a town hall event on immigration on MSNBC.
According to the White House pool report, President Obama was asked for
reassurance that people wouldn't be deported as the legal battle over
the executive amnesty plays out in the courts.
“Until we pass a law through Congress, the executive actions we’ve taken
are not going to be permanent; they are temporary. There are going to
be some jurisdictions and there may be individual ICE official or Border
Control agent not paying attention to our new directives. But they’re
going to be answerable to the head of Homeland Security because he’s
been very clear about what our priorities will be,” Obama said,
according to a partial transcript provided by the pool reporter.
Foreign governments gave millions to foundaton while Hillary was at State Dept
The Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from seven foreign
governments during Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of
state, including one donation that violated its ethics agreement with
the Obama administration, foundation officials disclosed Wednesday.
Most of the contributions were possible because of exceptions written
into the foundation’s 2008 agreement, which included limits on
foreign-government donations.
The agreement, reached before Clinton’s nomination amid concerns that
countries could use foundation donations to gain favor with a
Clinton-led State Department, allowed governments that had previously
donated money to continue making contributions at similar levels.
Lynch AG nomination clears commitetee with GOP votes, amid charges of racism
The SenateJudiciary Committee cleared Loretta Lynch on Thursday to be
the next attorney general, virtually guaranteeing she will be confirmed
in the full Senate next month, even as Democrats intimated that
Republicans who opposed her were guilty of racism.
Ms. Lynch, an African-American and U.S. attorney for the Eastern
District of New York, has won widespread praise for her work as a
prosecutor — but has suffered by comparisons to current Attorney General
Eric H. Holder Jr. and because she declined to distance herself from
President Obama’s claims of unilateral executive powers, which have
angered Republican lawmakers.
“The senate cannot confirm someone to this post who’s going to support
and advance a scheme that violates our Constitution,” said Sen. Jeff
Sessions, Alabama Republican, who said the vote was part of “a
constitutional tipping point.”
Boehner Blows Kisses to the Press, Won't Budge on DHS
Funding for the department expires at midnight on Friday.
February 26, 2015 With less than two days to go before a Homeland Security Department shutdown, John Boehner isn't blinking.
"We passed a bill to fund the department six weeks ago. Six weeks ago!"
the House speaker said during a press conference Thursday. "It's time
for the Senate to act. How many times do I have to say it?"
Boehner doesn't appear to be going along with his Republican
counterparts in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is
looking to avert a shutdown by offering Democrats a clean funding bill
for DHS. The speaker would not say whether he would back a Senate
funding bill without provisions that would defund President Obama's
executive actions on immigration. At one point, Boehner blew kisses at
reporters after they asked whether he would.
Treasury won't explain decision to make $3-Billion in Obamacare payments?
The U.S. Treasury Department has rebuffed a request by House Ways and
Means Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis., to explain $3 billion in
payments that were made to health insurers even though Congress never
authorized the spending through annual appropriations.
At issue are payments to insurers known as cost-sharing subsidies. These
payments come about because President Obama’s healthcare law forces
insurers to limit out-of-pocket costs for certain low income individuals
by capping consumer expenses, such as deductibles and co-payments, in
insurance policies. In exchange for capping these charges, insurers are
supposed to receive compensation.
What’s tricky is that Congress never authorized any money to make such
payments to insurers in its annual appropriations, but the Department of
Health and Human Services, with the cooperation of the U.S. Treasury,
made them anyway.
Obama to ban bullets by executive action, threatens top-selling AR-15 rifle
It’s starting.
As promised, President Obama is using executive actions to impose gun
control on the nation, targeting the top-selling rifle in the country,
the AR-15 style semi-automatic, with a ban on one of the most-used AR
bullets by sportsmen and target shooters.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this month
revealed that it is proposing to put the ban on 5.56mm ammo on a fast
track, immediately driving up the price of the bullets and prompting
retailers, including the huge outdoors company Cabela’s, to urge
sportsmen to urge Congress to stop the president.
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Byron Allen Goes To War With Sharpton, Obama, Comcast
Legendary TV talk show host Byron Allen is taking on Al Sharpton,
President Obama, and the most powerful media corporations in the world
in a battle to spotlight the crisis at the heart of American race
relations. It’s a daunting mission. But for some reason he doesn’t sound
scared.
Allen told The Daily Caller that top media interests are actively
freezing out and in some cases destroying black-owned media companies —
and they’re paying Reverend-turned-MSNBC host Al Sharpton to give them
racial cover to do it.
As for Washington politicians like Obama? According to Allen, they’re
bought out by the very same interests, and they’re playing a part.
Mark Cuban: FCC Regs Will Spill Over, 'TV As You Know It Is Over'
Dallas Mavericks owner and investor Mark Cuban predicted that proposed
FCC Internet regulations will end up impacting TV and “your TV as you
know it is over” on Thursday’s “Squawk Alley” on CNBC.
Cuban began by predicting “the courts will rule the Internet for the
next however many years.” He then explained, “let’s just take it all the
way through its logical conclusion. All bits are bits, all bits are
equal. If all bits are equal, then let’s look at what a stream bit is an
example. So when Henry and I do an interview, and it’s streamed lived
on the Internet, there’s a camera, it goes through an encoder, it sends
it out via server or some manner to the Internet, you click on Business
Insider and you watch the stream, right? Now, let’s look at CNBC on
Comcast. There’s cameras right in front of you, they go through a
switcher, they go through an encoder, it’s put through a server, it goes
to Comcast, and it’s streamed in a managed service environment to
television. It’s the exact same thing. And if it’s the exact same thing
technologically and all bits are equal, then why shouldn’t CNBC and all
TV networks that are delivered on cable, and Telco, and fiber like
Verizon, why shouldn’t they be part of the open Internet as well? And if
they are and all bits are equal, now, let’s take it one step further.
It’s the purview of the FCC now. The FCC, right? So, the FCC now has to
apply their same standards to content, don’t they, that they do to
television content because that’s where it is and there’s going to be
certain citizens who think ‘well now, since all content is delivered
over the Internet because all bits are bits, and it’s a fair, and open,
and equal Internet — decency standards.’ And remember the FCC is the
same agency that fought Nipplegate for eight years over a wardrobe
malfunction.”
He added, “your TV as you know it is over.”
Ben Carson charges Democrats with taking advantage of blacks
Dr. Ben Carson grabbed the Democratic Party's third rail with both hands
Thursday morning, launching a political attack based on his complaint
that liberals are 'making people dependent' in majority-black American
inner-cities.
Race politics have been the near-exclusive domain of the Democrats since
the civil-rights era of the 1960s, and Barack Obama's successful White
House bid in 2008 solidified their position.
But Carson – the most prominent black Republican in the 2016
presidential picture – told the Conservative Political Action Conference
near Washington, D.C. on Thursday that the Democrats now see
African-Americans' support as an entitlement – choosing to 'keep them
suppressed and cultivate their votes.'
The stranger in the White House
After six years, Americans still don’t know Barack Obama
Does Barack Obama love America?
At this point, who really cares?
Half of America isn’t paying much attention to him, and the other half is thinking about who might succeed him in 2016.
And yet, thanks to a recent comment by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the question shows it still has political legs.
The problem is that it misses the real point.
Time to be honest about Israel
Embracing the sumptuous history of snubs, leaks and insults by the Obama
administration towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
prominent Democrats are now hurling recriminations at Mr. Netanyahu.
They are livid at his accepting House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation
to address Congress about Iran. The charge is that he is undermining
America’s purportedly invulnerable bipartisan embrace of Israel, as
though his precarious country’s imminent existential concerns over the
administration’s backdoor dealings with Iran are thin political
pretense.
But with much of the Middle East perilously destabilized - also arguably
by Obama’s foreign policy - fear of a nuclear Iran is of course a
legitimate concern for Mr. Netanyahu. The pretense is the vaunted myth
of American bipartisanship on Israel. Everyone in Washington knows the
parties are deeply divided on Israel and that the chasm is rooted in
fundamental philosophies. Far from being personal or cyclical, the
partisan division has steadily grown over the past 25 years regardless
of who is in the White House or who controls Congress.
Medal of
Honor
The
Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in action
against an
enemy force which can be bestowed upon an individual serving
in the
Armed Services of the United States.
GeneTrerally presented
to its recipient by the President of the
United States of America in the name of Congress.
The
first award of the Medal of Honor was made March 25, 1863 to
Private
JACOB PARROTT.The last award of the Medal of Honor was made
September 15, 2011
to Sergeant DAKOTA MEYER.
Since
then there have been: •
3458 recipients of the Medal of Honor.
•
Today there are 85 Living Recipients of the
Medal of Honor.
BENAVIDEZ, ROY P.
Rank: Master Sergeant
Organization: U.S. Army
Company: Detachment B-56
Division: 5th Special Forces Group
BENAVIDEZ, ROY P.
Citation
Master Sergeant (then Staff Sergeant) Roy P. Benavidez
United States Army, who distinguished himself by a series of daring and
extremely valorous actions on 2 May 1968 while assigned to Detachment
B56, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, Republic
of Vietnam. On the morning of 2 May 1968, a 12-man Special Forces
Reconnaissance Team was inserted by helicopters in a dense jungle area
west of Loc Ninh, Vietnam to gather intelligence information about
confirmed large-scale enemy activity. This area was controlled and
routinely patrolled by the North Vietnamese Army. After a short period
of time on the ground, the team met heavy enemy resistance, and
requested emergency extraction. Three helicopters attempted extraction,
but were unable to land due to intense enemy small arms and
anti-aircraft fire. Sergeant Benavidez was at the Forward Operating
Base in Loc Ninh monitoring the operation by radio when these
helicopters returned to off-load wounded crewmembers and to assess
aircraft damage. Sergeant Benavidez voluntarily boarded a returning
aircraft to assist in another extraction attempt. Realizing that all
the team members were either dead or wounded and unable to move to the
pickup zone, he directed the aircraft to a nearby clearing where he
jumped from the hovering helicopter, and ran approximately 75 meters
under withering small arms fire to the crippled team. Prior to reaching
the team's position he was wounded in his right leg, face, and head.
Despite these painful injuries, he took charge, repositioning the team
members and directing their fire to facilitate the landing of an
extraction aircraft, and the loading of wounded and dead team members.
He then threw smoke canisters to direct the aircraft to the team's
position. Despite his severe wounds and under intense enemy fire, he
carried and dragged half of the wounded team members to the awaiting
aircraft. He then provided protective fire by running alongside the
aircraft as it moved to pick up the remaining team members. As the
enemy's fire intensified, he hurried to recover the body and classified
documents on the dead team leader. When he reached the leader's body,
Sergeant Benavidez was severely wounded by small arms fire in the
abdomen and grenade fragments in his back. At nearly the same moment,
the aircraft pilot was mortally wounded, and his helicopter crashed.
Although in extremely critical condition due to his multiple wounds,
Sergeant Benavidez secured the classified documents and made his way
back to the wreckage, where he aided the wounded out of the overturned
aircraft, and gathered the stunned survivors into a defensive
perimeter. Under increasing enemy automatic weapons and grenade fire,
he moved around the perimeter distributing water and ammunition to his
weary men, reinstilling in them a will to live and fight. Facing a
buildup of enemy opposition with a beleaguered team, Sergeant Benavidez
mustered his strength, began calling in tactical air strikes and
directed the fire from supporting gunships to suppress the enemy's fire
and so permit another extraction attempt. He was wounded again in his
thigh by small arms fire while administering first aid to a wounded
team member just before another extraction helicopter was able to land.
His indomitable spirit kept him going as he began to ferry his comrades
to the craft. On his second trip with the wounded, he was clubbed from
additional wounds to his head and arms before killing his adversary. He
then continued under devastating fire to carry the wounded to the
helicopter. Upon reaching the aircraft, he spotted and killed two enemy
soldiers who were rushing the craft from an angle that prevented the
aircraft door gunner from firing upon them. With little strength
remaining, he made one last trip to the perimeter to ensure that all
classified material had been collected or destroyed, and to bring in
the remaining wounded. Only then, in extremely serious condition from
numerous wounds and loss of blood, did he allow himself to be pulled
into the extraction aircraft. Sergeant Benavidez' gallant choice to
join voluntarily his comrades who were in critical straits, to expose
himself constantly to withering enemy fire, and his refusal to be
stopped despite numerous severe wounds, saved the lives of at least
eight men. His fearless personal leadership, tenacious devotion to
duty, and extremely valorous actions in the face of overwhelming odds
were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service,
and reflect the utmost credit on him and the United States Army.
From the Archives
American Fairness to a Fault — a Deadly One
Tuesday, 10 Nov 2009 02:28 PM
American’s tragic flaw is our unbridled fairness, which has been
corrupted ever more by the cancer of political correctness to the point
we put ourselves at risk rather than create even the perception of
prejudice.
Sometime after the VOLAR (all volunteer) Army, the military veered from
the “yes sir, yes sir, three bags full” blind adherence to all orders to
the concept of refusing “unlawful orders” and that was ostensibly a
good thing.
However, the uniformed services do not set or get to pick and choose
foreign policy. The civilian leadership sets foreign policy, and the
U.S. military enforces it — with a big, honking combined arms stick.
Retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters has been one of the rare pundits with the
courage to target the “culture of political correctness” in leadership
of the military. In at least two interviews on Fox, Peters (correctly)
blamed the culture of political correctness for the Army’s diffidence in
taking action against Nidal Malik Hasan in the wake of knowledge of the
problem.
Many mechanisms exist for dealing with matters of deep conscience — all
without killing those one might think disagree with in principle.
However, it is not prejudice to discriminate based on threat facts in
evidence. Refusal to act judiciously for fear of a tainted perception is
just plain dumb.
Notwithstanding the articulated fears of the Army chief of staff and the
secretary of Homeland Security, officials made an epic mistake in
handling suspicions about Hasan. A mistake founded on political
correctness and sustained by diffidence that cost the lives of
innocents.
Reportedly, U.S. intelligence agencies were aware (months ago) that
Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with
al-Qaida. He spoke openly to too many people about his angst and
misdirected sympathies. He was apparently a poster child for suspicion,
and the Army failed bigtime to intervene.
“It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army
that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al-Qaida
figures," the officials said.
But you damnbetcha they SHOULD have done so.
Investigators want to know whether Hasan maintained contact with a
radical mosque leader from Virginia, Anwar al Awlaki, who now lives in
Yemen and runs a Web site that promotes jihad around the world against
the United States.
In a recent blog posting titled "Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing,"
Awlaki calls Hasan a "hero" and a "man of conscience who could not bear
living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that
is fighting against his own people."
Increasingly we are told people who knew or worked with Hasan say he
seemed to become gradually more radical in his condemnation of the war
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Subordinates and superiors had a responsibility
to flag the inappropriate rhetoric, and they apparently did not.
The fear to speak out is a symptom of the PC disease fueled by
recriminations and implied threats of discrimination — a fear that
indirectly resulted in mayhem.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman said, "If Hasan was showing signs, saying to
people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to
have a zero tolerance," and despite the echo of shutting the barn door
after the horse got out, he is right.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey Jr. is concerned that speculation
about the religious beliefs of Hasan could “cause a backlash against
some of our Muslim soldiers.” He’s right, but such a backlash would be a
direct result of the failure of command — not prejudice.
When confronted about whether he thought the Army “dropped the ball” in
not responding to warning signs, Casey replied that the Army needs to be
careful not to jump to conclusions based on early tidbits of
information.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., both of whom
are veterans, took pains to say that Muslims have served honorably in
the military and at risk to their lives.
“At the end of the day, this is not about his religion — the fact that
this man was a Muslim,” Graham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
But, hey, it is (kinda/sorta) about religion (when the FBI says 10
percent of American Mosques preach jihad) — at least from a risk
analysis perspective.
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