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The Western Center for Journalism

Jun 20, 2012 02:40 pm | Doug Book
Years as an avid, hands-on “facilitator” for corrupt Democrat presidents have taught Attorney General Eric Holder that contempt and cynicism are the best weapons against annoying Republicans in search of facts. In yesterday’s eagerly anticipated meeting with Darrell Issa, Holder… Continue to Post

Jun 20, 2012 02:38 pm | Ron-Reale
Once again, we are seeing the hundred-year war against America by progressive liberals bear fruit. It is always the same story. We saw it recently with the bank collapse. Progressive liberals, starting with Jimmy Carter, ordered banks to make home… Continue to Post

Jun 20, 2012 02:30 pm | Daniel Noe


Jun 20, 2012 02:29 pm | Cagle Cartoons
Jun 20, 2012 02:25 pm | Alan P. Halbert
A hearing was held on June 18, 2012; it began precisely at 9 am Eastern Time in Leon County, Florida in the Court of Judge Terry Lewis to decide whether Obama would appear on the ballot in November and whether… Continue to Post

Jun 20, 2012 02:21 pm | Daniel Noe


Jun 20, 2012 01:56 pm | Rev. Michael Bresciani
Bill O’Reilly was heard on his show recently parroting the all-too-familiar adage about always “respecting the office of the President even if you don’t necessarily respect the president.” The discussion was about Obama’s heated reply to the outbursts of one… Continue to Post

Jun 20, 2012 01:53 pm | Daniel Noe


Jun 20, 2012 01:50 pm | Shawn Paul
Inspired by their shared tragic experience, two fathers have forged an unlikely partnership to spread awareness of the growing number of Islamic homegrown terrorists in the U.S. and of the government’s refusal to identify the violent acts of these individuals… Continue to Post

Jun 20, 2012 01:44 pm | Daniel Noe


Jun 20, 2012 01:34 pm | Breaking News
Rep. Darrell Issa pressed ahead with a committee vote Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, despite an 11th-hour move by President Obama to exert executive privilege over the Fast and Furious documents at the heart… Continue to Post

Jun 20, 2012 01:24 pm | Daniel Noe


Jun 20, 2012 12:58 pm | Breaking News
I’ll shut off my air conditioning if the government goes first. Maybe I better explain. Federal records say the United States recently completed the hottest spring since such record-keeping began in 1895. March, April and May average temperatures in the… Continue to Post

Jun 20, 2012 12:52 pm | Breaking News
NEW YORK (AP) — A conservative women’s group on Wednesday launched a $6 million ad campaign in presidential battleground states criticizing President Barack Obama’s health care reform law. The 60-second ad from Concerned Women for America features a family physician,… Continue to Post

Jun 20, 2012 12:51 pm | Breaking News
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House moved toward approval Tuesday of a bill that would allow the Border Patrol to circumvent more than a dozen environmental laws on all federally managed lands within 100 miles of the borders with Mexico… Continue to Post

Jun 20, 2012 12:43 pm | Breaking News

Mitt Romney NBC

Jun 20, 2012 12:23 pm | Breaking News
In what conservative Alaskans have come to expect from our state’s LSM, these outlets failed to report the most salient point of the “Offer to Enter Judgment” requested by the borough and its former Mayor Jim Whitaker, which is that… Continue to Post

Jun 20, 2012 12:15 pm | Breaking News


Jun 20, 2012 11:29 am | Breaking News
Years ago, I was working in Mexico City and enjoying lunch in one of those wonderful “Zona Rosa” restaurants. I was catching up with a couple of Mexican friends who happened to be PAN-istas, or members of the conservative party.… Continue to Post

Jun 20, 2012 08:04 am | Cagle Cartoons
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United Nations Small Arms (Gun Confiscation) Treaty to be Ratified by th...

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Our take: York Housing Authority's no-smoking rule makes sense





Jackie Green, a smoker, said that there are other priorities in her Parkway neighborhood, like the bullet that went though her porch post last week while she was standing on the porch. (File)





It's definitely not a good time to be a low-income smoker in York County. The York Housing Authority is planning to impose a no-smoking rule in its houses and apartments come October.
Nonsmoking residents of those complexes are probably happy about the rule.
Smoking residents are, predictably, angry. What's next, they say? Banning soda, potato chips, bacon, candy, alcohol or other things that are legal but not good for you? That's a valid question, but they won't find too many allies besides other smokers.
Liberals won't have much sympathy.
Smoking is terrible for you - cancer, emphysema, heart disease, etc. From the liberal perspective, it's not such a bad thing for the government to be a bit of a nanny - to promote public health and protect children from second-hand smoke.
Conservatives probably won't be on smokers' side either.
Many will say they don't care if people smoke - if they want to destroy their health, go ahead - but just don't do it on my dime. If you're in public or subsidized housing, you shouldn't be spending your money on tobacco. Save it. Use it for tuition for yourself or your children. Get a job (or a better job) and move to a privately owned apartment that allows smoking - or buy your own house where you can smoke until the walls are yellow. Let this no-smoking rule be a motivator to become more self-sufficient, they might say.
Both sides of the political coin could make some good points on the policy.
York Housing Authority officials also note that it's expensive to clean the units of smokers after they move out (hopefully not on stretchers from smoking-related illnesses). And smoking in the public housing units can also present fire hazards - not to mention the mess made by cigarette butts all over the place.
So, beginning in October, the new policy is no smoking inside or within 25 feet of a building entrance or window.
Honestly, it's hard to dispute either the liberal or conservative perspectives on this.
Except that many of the residents of these apartments are older people who are simply not going to stop smoking. Many of them are frail or disabled and will not be able to go outside.
They'll smoke inside - running the risk of eviction. There will be a lot of fuss and heartache when some 70-year-old wheelchair-bound grandmother is left homeless because she couldn't stop puffing away in her apartment.
Trying to enforce this rule fairly and consistently will be as difficult as enforcing all the other laws that are routinely broken. One resident reportedly pointed to a bullet hole in the outside of her home and wondered whether policing smokers should really be the authority's highest priority.
Maybe, given the anger displayed by residents at a recent meeting on the new policy, an incremental approach would be better. Compromise a little.
Maybe allow current residents who smoke to continue until they leave - but make it clear to new tenants that smoking is forbidden in units. Maybe make certain floors in apartment buildings smoke-free and work toward a time when all floors are smoke-free. Maybe back off enforcing the rules about smoking outside near units - or have a designated smoking area.
And for goodness sake, forget the rule banning the use of electronic cigarettes - which merely emit water vapor. Why would the authority outlaw devices that many use to help them quit smoking?
After all, isn't that the goal?
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Obama invokes executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents

President Obama
President Obama (Paul J. Richards / AFP Getty Images)

By Richard A. Serrano

WASHINGTON — Just as the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was about to vote Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena for documents in the flawed Fast and Furious gun-tracking case, President Obama asserted executive privilege and backed up the attorney general’s position in refusing to turn over the material.

The fast-moving events Wednesday morning at the White House and on Capitol Hill significantly ratcheted up a growing constitutional clash between the two branches of the federal government, one that ultimately may not be resolved until it reaches the courts.

The Republican-led committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), will ask the full House for a floor vote holding Holder in contempt and requesting the U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., or a special prosecutor to force the attorney general to produce the documents.

“The committee has uncovered serious wrongdoing by the Justice Department,” Issa said of his investigation into Fast and Furious, in which several thousand firearms were deliberately circulated along the Southwest border and ended up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. “That wrongdoing has cost lives on both sides of the border.”

Moments before the committee hearing, the White House announced that Obama had formally exerted executive privilege in the matter, giving Holder cover from releasing the material to the committee.

“We regret that we have arrived at this point,” Deputy Atty. Gen. James M. Cole told Issa in a letter that arrived on the Hill just before the committee went into session.

He said making the documents public “would have significant, damaging consequences,” but he did not disclose whether Obama has been briefed or had another supervisory role in Fast and Furious.

In a separate letter that Holder wrote to Obama shortly before the committee session, asking for executive privilege, the attorney general said he had “concluded that you may properly assert executive privilege over the documents at issue, and I respectfully request you do so.” Holder also did not mention any involvement by Obama in Fast and Furious.

According to the Obama White House, President George W. Bush asserted executive privilege six times during his two terms, and President Bill Clinton 14 times during his eight years in Washington.

“In fact,” said Eric Schultz, an Obama White House spokesman, “dating back to President Reagan, presidents have asserted executive privilege 24 times. President Obama has gone longer without asserting the privilege in a congressional dispute than any president in the last three decades.”

Republicans said Obama's move raises serious questions.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked how Obama could assert executive privilege "if there is no White House involvement?"

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said Obama's move "implies that White House officials were either involved in the 'Fast and Furious' operation or the cover-up that followed."

"The administration has always insisted that wasn't the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?" Brendan Buck said.

Staff writer Michael A. Memoli contributed to this report




P.S.
I Wonder: How many fundraiser stops (and teleprompter photo-ops) the president will have today?
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Unconstitutional Use of Drones Must Stop

by  
 
Listen to Rep. Paul deliver this address.

Last week I joined several of my colleagues in sending a letter to President Obama requesting clarification of his criteria for the lethal use of drones overseas. Administration officials assure us that a “high degree of confidence” is required that the person targeted by a drone is a terrorist. However, press reports have suggested that mere “patterns of behavior” and other vague criteria are actually being used to decide who to target in a drone strike. I am concerned that an already troublingly low threshold for execution on foreign soil may be even lower than we imagined.
The use of drones overseas may have become so convenient, operated as they are from a great distance, that far more “collateral damage” has become acceptable. Collateral damage is a polite way of saying “killing innocent civilians.” Is the ease of drone use a slippery slope to disregard for justice, and if so what might that mean for us as they become more widely used on American soil against American citizens?
This dramatic increase in the use of drones and the lowered threshold for their use to kill foreigners has tremendous implications for our national security. At home, some claim the use of drones reduces risk to American service members. But this can be true only in the most shortsighted sense. Internationally the expanded use of drones is wildly unpopular and in fact creates more enemies than it eliminates.
Earlier this month a former top terrorism official at the CIA warned that President Barack Obama’s expanded use of drones may actually be creating terrorist “safe havens.” Robert Grenier, who headed the CIA’s counterterrorism center from 2004 to 2006, told a British newspaper that the drone program “needs to be targeted much more finely. We have been seduced by them and the unintended consequences of our actions are going to outweigh the intended consequences.”
After a drone strike in Yemen last month once again killed more civilians than suspected al-Qaeda members, a Yemeni lawyer sent a message to President Obama stating, “Dear Obama, when a U.S. drone missile kills a child in Yemen, the father will go to war with you, guaranteed. Nothing to do with al-Qaeda.” These are the unseen victims of the president’s expanded use of drones, but we should pay attention and we should ask ourselves how we would feel if the tables were turned and a foreign power were killing innocent American children from thousands of miles away. Would we not feel the same?
The expanded use of drones overseas has been matched with the expanded use of drones in the United States, which should alarm every American who values the Constitution and its protections against government interference in our private lives. Recently, the governor of Virginia welcomed the expanded use of drones in his state because they “make law enforcement more productive.” I find that attitude chilling and am sure I am not alone.
Do we want to live in a country where our government constantly flies aircraft overhead to make sure we are not doing anything it disapproves of? Already the Environmental Protection Agency uses drone surveillance to spy on farmers and ranchers to see if they are in compliance with regulations. Local law enforcement agencies are eyeing drone use with great anticipation. Do we really want to live under the watchful eye of “Big Brother”? It is terrifying enough to see how drones are being misused abroad. We must curtail the government’s ability use drones right away lest the massacres in Yemen and Pakistan turn out to be crude training exercises for what the administration has in mind on our own soil.

Read more by Rep. Ron Paul

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"I Can't See The Difference? Foreign Policy We Get Barack Obama We Get G...

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The Cowboy Byte

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June 19, 2012 News and Thoughts for the day
Today's Cowboy Headlines: Headlines you might have missed: Today's Featured Article:

Healthcare, Borders, and Unions Oh My: The Week in SCOTUS

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Rubio autobiography proves he's not eligible for VP?
Marco Rubio's autobiography is finally hitting the shelves today, and inside the book, does the Florida senator actually disqualify himself from being Mitt Romney's VP pick?
Read the latest now on WND.com.
Plus!
Is the pressure of the Oval Office getting to Barack Obama? A noted presidential scholar thinks so, suggesting he looks 10 years older than when he assumed office on Jan. 20, 2009.
Click here for details.
1990 article: Obama raised in yet ANOTHER country
It's just mind-boggling. Now a Vanity Fair article unearthed from 1990 mentions Barack Obama was raised in yet ANOTHER country. And no, it's NOT Kenya, Indonesia or even Canada. It's a country that hasn't come up before. Look where Vanity Fair pegged Obama's childhood.
Click here for details.

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Heresy charges fly over Southern Baptist Convetion document

Hundreds, including seminary presidents, have signed a statement on salvation criticized by both Reformed and Arminian theologians.
 
by Weston Gentry 
 
As Baptists Prepare to Meet, Calvinism Debate Shifts to Heresy AccusationA statement by a non-Calvinist faction of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has launched infighting within the nation's largest Protestant denomination, and tensions are expected to escalate Tuesday as church leaders descend on New Orleans.
While the election of the denomination's first African American president in its 167-year history will dominate the meeting's headlines, water-cooler talk is sure to be fixated on a theological dirty word that, for the past two weeks, has spiked the blood pressure of theologians as much as it has Baptist visits to Wikipedia.
The May 30 document, "A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God's Plan of Salvation," aims "to more carefully express what is generally believed by Southern Baptists about salvation." But both Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler and George W. Truett Theological Seminary professor Roger Olson, in separate blog posts, said that parts of the document sound like semi-Pelagianism, a traditionally heretical understanding of Christian salvation.
One sliver of the document's second article particularly drew their ire. It reads, "We deny that Adam's sin resulted in the incapacitation of any person's free will."
Even though the two scholars represent opposite ends of the evangelical spectrum on salvation, both made essentially the same allegation: the wording seems, at best, theologically careless and, at worst, represents a heretical understanding of sin, human nature, and the human will.
"This is what many laypeople believe that they shouldn't, and pastors and theologians should be correcting," Olson said. "My surprise is that the framers of this statement didn't immediately go back and rewrite it because it is so obviously and blatantly semi-Pelagian."
Olson, a classical Arminian and author of the book Against Calvinism, is unaffiliated with the SBC, but has long asserted that most evangelicals—not just Southern Baptists—adhere to a sort of semi-Pelagian "folk religion," whose origins can be traced to the Second Great Awakening and revivalists in the mold of Charles Finney.
He believes the new document proves his thesis.
"Traditional Christian doctrine, since Augustine anyway, has always been that people need a special infusion of God's grace to be able to respond to the gospel—both Calvinists and classical Arminians agree on that," he said. "They haven't addressed that here at all."
Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, denies the charge.
"We are obviously not semi-Pelagians," Patterson said. "We do believe that the entire human race is badly affected by the fall of Adam. However, we don't follow the Reformed view that man is so crippled by the fall that he has no choice."
Patterson didn't assist in the framing of the document, but was one of six former SBC presidents and two SBC seminary presidents to affirm it.
At last count, more than 650 other Southern Baptists, ranging from laymen to SBC state directors, have signed the more specific articulation of a "Traditional Southern Baptist" soteriology in an effort to rebuff the "New Calvinism"—a movement whose growth, both in and beyond the SBC, garnered it a spot on Time's 2009 list of "10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now."
A just-released survey conducted by LifeWay Research found that roughly equal numbers of SBC pastors identify their congregation as Calvinist/Reformed (30%) or Arminian/Wesleyan (30%). However, two-thirds of pastors identify their congregation as neither, and more than 60 percent are concerned about Calvinism's influence on the denomination.
A 2006 Lifeway survey found that only 10 percent of SBC pastors identified themselves as "five-point Calvinists." However, a similar 2007 study of young ministers by the SBC's North American Mission Board discovered that almost 35 percent of SBC ministers that graduated from SBC seminaries in 2004 and 2005 self-identified as "five-point Calvinists."
"We needed to assure other young, non-Calvinists that they were not alone," Patterson said in relation to the document's timing and content.
Eric Hankins, the primary author of the statement, said he expected backlash when he posted it to the SBC Today website.
"The statement's language displeases our Calvinist and Arminian friends not because it is heterodox, but because their terminology and categories are not employed," he said. "That's all the charge of semi-Pelagianism really means: 'You aren't following our rules. You have to pick.'"
"Well," Hankins said, "we beg to differ."
Hankins said his formulation, which was an adaptation of a paper he wrote for the Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry earlier this year, "Beyond Calvinism and Arminianism: Toward a Baptist Soteriology," was an attempt to make a complex topic more accessible to pastors and laymen.
The 40-year-old pastor of First Baptist Church Oxford, Mississippi, said he doesn't see an immediate need to revise the statement because it wields no binding authority.
While acknowledging Hankins's right to produce the document, Owen Strachan, a 31-year-old assistant professor of Christian theology and church history at Boyce College, said many young Calvinists in the SBC believe it wasn't necessary because they already have a "big tent" theological agreement with non-Calvinists under the Baptist Faith & Message.
"I'm all for leaders finding ways to enfranchise these brothers and sisters [non-Calvinists in the SBC], but this statement is tough," he said. "It's a confrontational document, which effectively aims to push away many of us who love the SBC."
There are no plans for an official salvation dialogue to take place at the conference this week, but Strachan said the meeting's democratic nature makes it ripe for an unpredictable agenda.
"I don't necessarily think the floor of the convention would be the best place for the cool-headed, rational debate that this issue deserves," he said. "Even if doesn't come up, this has already created a sense of unease in the SBC."
 
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American Vision News

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The Conservative Byte

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June 19, 2012
Today's Politically Incorrect Headlines: Today's Featured Article: Dead Dog Receives Voter Registration Form

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ACLU of Pennsylvania Disappointed After PA House Passes Spying Bill

American Civil Liberties Union of PennsylvaniaHARRISBURG (June 13)- The Pennsylvania House of Representatives today passed legislation to expand the surveillance capabilities of both the government and civilians, a move that drew a sharp rebuke from the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.
"It is disappointing that the state House rushed into this action," said Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. "This bill makes at least 13 changes to a highly technical section of law and was introduced less than three weeks ago.
"This legislation was jammed through in record time with no hearing and little serious consideration. This isn't how government is supposed to work."
House Bill 2400 amends the state's Wiretap Act to allow the recording of private conversations without a person's consent or knowledge, to allow the government to intercept incoming messages to a mobile phone it has seized without court approval, and to allow the government to gather location data of mobile phones.
"This bill is an expansion of the surveillance state," said Andy Hoover, legislative director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
The Wiretap Act is a section of law that governs how the government conducts surveillance and when civilians may record others. It includes a provision known as "two-party consent," which requires that all parties to a private conversation consent to being recorded.
HB 2400 includes multiple exceptions to two-party consent, including an exception when a person believes he may gather evidence of a first degree felony or a "crime of violence," the use of illegal civilian wiretaps by the government in its investigations and prosecutions, and recording without consent when "constructive notice" of possible recording has been posted somewhere.
"Two-party consent is a key provision in law. It keeps Pennsylvanians from worrying that their every private word could be recorded by anyone at any time," Hoover said. "But HB 2400 includes de facto repeal of two-party consent.
"The legislation creates an Orwellian society in which neighbors are encouraged to spy on neighbors."
The House slightly modified the legislation. On Tuesday, the chamber approved an amendment to allow wiretaps from out-of-state to be admitted as evidence if the recording was obtained under a court order. The previous version of the legislation did not include the court order requirement.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania supported the amendment, which was sponsored by Representative Eugene DePasquale of York.
HB 2400 now heads to the Senate for its consideration.
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Ron Paul's Plan to Audit and End The Fed is Almost Law!

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