SESSIONS: SPECIAL INTEREST, EXTREMIST GROUPS WROTE IMMIGRATION BILL

Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) claimed on Breitbart News Sundaythat the “Gang of Eight” U.S. Senators did not in fact write the 844-page immigration bill, but special interest groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the SEIU, and AFL-CIO and extremist advocacy groups like the National Council of La Raza actually wrote the legislation.

The explosive revelation came during Sessions’ interview with Breitbart News Sundayhost and Breitbart News executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon on Sunday evening. “It’s just unbelievable that legislation of this importance is being written in secret. The Gang of Eight claims they wrote it, but really if you saw the news reports Steve, it was always the unions and the Chamber of Commerce was working with La Raza and SEIU and they’re about to reach an agreement. I mean, like, who’s writing this bill?” Sessions said.

The Alabama Republican argued that the Senate should not go forward with the immigration bill because it is a "dangerous" piece of legislation. “It was written by experts who know what they’re doing,” Sessions said. “It was not written by the Gang of Eight themselves. But they have blessed special interests to write and develop and approve each one of those provisions and sections that impact their interest area." 
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QUOTE OF THE DAY 5-6-13

“Gentleness is everywhere in daily life, a sign that faith rules through ordinary things…

Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people. Lacking any other purpose in life, it would be good enough to live for their sake.”

Garrison Keillor

OBAMA SURRENDERS IN OBAMACARE BATTLE

The Obama administration has surrendered in a key fight with a business over the abortion pill mandate in the president’s Obamacare health industry takeover, asking a federal court to dismiss an appeal of a ruling that prevented application of the mandate.

The move was confirmed today by the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing Tyndale House Publishers.


Tyndale, of Carol Stream, Ill., went to court earlier because it objects to providing abortifacients as Obamacare requires of every health coverage plan.

Tyndale, the world’s largest privately held Christian publisher of books, Bibles, and digital media, won at a lower court level with an order that the abortifacient requirement not be applied in its case.
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South Carolina House Passes Bill Making Obamacare Implementation A Crime

Things are starting to heat up. Expect more of this as we get closer to implementation and people start to see what a disaster Obamacare really is. Moreover, a recent Kaiser poll showed that only 35% of the public support the health care law. That’s bad.

One of the most popular posts I ever published was: Thoughts on Obamacare from a Surgeon and Friend. If you haven’t read it, I suggest you do. If you have read it, it’s worth rereading.

From The Washington Times:

The South Carolina state House passed a bill Wednesday that declares President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to be “null and void,” and criminalizes its implementation.

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Former FBI Agent: All Phone Conversations Are Recorded And Stored

Elizabeth Smart: Abstinence Education Teaches Rape Victims They’re Worthless, Dirty, And Filthy

Elizabeth Smart became a household name after she was kidnapped from her home in Salt Lake City, UT at the age of 14 and held in captivity for nine months. She was forced into a polygamous marriage, tethered to a metal cable, and raped daily until she was rescued from her captors nine months later. Smart was recovered while she and her kidnappers were walking down a suburban street, leading many Americans who followed her story on the national news to wonder: Why didn’t she just run away as soon as she was brought outside?

Speaking to an audience at Johns Hopkins about issues of human trafficking and sexual violence, Smart recently offered an answer to that question. She explained that some human trafficking victims don’t run away because they feel worthless after being raped, particularly if they have been raised in conservative cultures that push abstinence-only education and emphasize sexual purity:
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"This Is A House Of Cards"

Last week at its regular policy-setting meeting, the Federal Reserve announced it would double down on the policies that have failed to produce anything but a stagnant economy. It was a disappointing, but not surprising, move.

The Fed affirmed that it is prepared to increase its monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities if things don’t start looking up. But actually the Fed has already been buying more than the announced $85 billion per month. Between February and March, the Fed’s securities holdings increased $95 billion. From March to April, they increased $100 billion. In all, the Fed has pumped more than a half trillion dollars into the economy since announcing its latest round of “quantitative easing” (QE3) in September 2012.

Although many were up in arms when the Fed said it would buy $600 billion in government debt outright for the previous round, QE2, all seems quiet about the magnitude of QE3 because it doesn’t come with huge up-front total price tag. But by year’s end the Fed’s balance sheet could hit $4 trillion.

With no recovery in sight, where’s all this money going? It is creating bubbles. Bubbles in the housing sector, the stock market, and government debt. The national debt is fast approaching $17 trillion, with the Fed monetizing most of the newly issued debt. The stock market has been hitting record highs for the past two months as investors seek to capitalize on the Fed’s easy money. After all, as long as the Fed keeps the spigot open, nominal profits are there for the taking. But this is a house of cards. Eventually, just like in 2008-2009, the market will discipline the bad actions of the Fed and seek to find the real normal.

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Lack Of Tree Sex Causes Worse Allergy Symptoms

If your allergies are acting up, it may be due to a lack of sex.

Sex between trees, that is.

WTOP Garden Editor Mike McGrath says while it sounds funny, it's no joke. It's science.

Female trees, such as crabapple trees and ginkgoes, are disliked in many cities because of the mess they leave in late summer.

"The female ginkgoes drop their fruit, which smells bad, and the ornamental crabapples drop these little rotten apples," says McGrath, who explains that many of the female trees are killed due to their unpleasant odor.
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Odd

Isn't it strange that after a bombing, everyone blames the bomber, but after a shooting, the problem is the gun!

Guerrieri Family Foundation Announces $8 Million Gift For SU Academic Commons

SALISBURY, MD---One of the Eastern Shore’s leading philanthropies, the Guerrieri Family Foundation, has announced an $8 million gift for the construction of a new Academic Commons, including a state-of-the-art library, at Salisbury University. This is one of the largest private donations for a capital project in the campus’ history.

The gift is made in memory of Patricia R. Guerrieri, an SU alumna for whom the new complex will be named. “We are grateful for the opportunity to honor our mother at the very place where she first met our father, on this campus, in a way that expresses our love for her and shares with those who did not know her what a truly amazing and gracious person she was,” said Michael Guerrieri.

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TED NUGENT EVISCERATES ‘SOULLESS’ MEDIA IN EXCLUSIVE BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW: ‘I WILL CONTINUE TO GO PIERS MORGAN ON YOU — KNOW THAT’

Legendary rocker and conservative firebrand Ted Nugent takes pleasure in, as he put it in his speech at this year’s NRA convention, “dancing on the skulls” of dishonest and hypocritical members of the media. In an exclusive backstage interview with TheBlaze on Sunday, the NRA board member savaged the “grossly unprofessional” and “sinfully biased” so-called journalism peddled by the mainstream media.

“They’ll never get it,” Nugent told TheBlaze in a dimly lit green room at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. “And that’s why I emphasize the soullessness–I’m pretty good with adjectives but I feel helpless coming up with one incriminating enough or descriptive enough to identify those who would hate freedom, hate the right to self-defense and smirk at the widow of a Navy SEAL for celebrating the freedom that all warriors dedicate and volunteer their lives to fight for.”

The “smirk” Nugent was referring to occurred in the press room during the NRA convention this weekend where an unidentified individual, presumably a reporter (he was wearing a media badge), told this author that it was “weird” that Taya Kyle, the widow of slain Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, would speak at the NRA event after her husband was killed with a gun.
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Overtime Pay Alternative Sought By Republican Lawmakers

WASHINGTON -- It seems like a simple proposition: give employees who work more than 40 hours a week the option of taking paid time off instead of overtime pay.

The choice already exists in the public sector. Federal and state workers can save earned time off and use it weeks or even months later to attend a parent-teacher conference, care for an elderly parent or deal with home repairs.

Republicans in Congress are pushing legislation that would extend that option to the private sector. They say that would bring more flexibility to the workplace and help workers better balance family and career.
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World's First 3D Printed Gun Successfully Fired In The US

Neat, LSE Earn President's Distinguished Community Leadership Awards

SALISBURY, MD---A thoughtful, hard-working businessman with a vision of a caring community and an organization dedicated to enhancing employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities are the 2013 recipients of the Salisbury University President’s Distinguished Community Leadership Awards. Their work is celebrated during SU’s 87th year Spring Commencement 10 a.m. Saturday, May 18, at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center.

Marty Neat, president of First Shore Federal Savings and Loan, has served on boards for many civic organizations and agencies for more than three decades. Anthony Sarbanes calls him, “the most worthy candidate I have ever seen for the President’s Distinguished Community Leadership Award for an individual. … We need more people just like him.”

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$7.9 Billion in Improper Social Security Payments in FY 2012

The Social Security Administration (SSA) needs to focus on "program integrity," a polite term for reducing fraud and payment errors, the agency's inspector general told Congress last week.

Reducing improper payments is one of the challenges facing the next SSA commissioner, Patrick O'Carroll, Jr., the agency's inspector general, told the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security on April 26.

In fiscal year 2012, the Social Security Administration reported $4.7 billion in improper payments in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, a 9.2 percent improper payment rate. (SSI is funded by general tax revenues, not payroll taxes. It helps elderly, blind, and/or disabled people who are poor.)
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Breaking News

Salisbury paramedics have been called to the WCDC for an alleged hanging.
More to come

How States Are Making It A Felony To Enforce Federal Gun Laws

In mid-April, Kansas passed a law asserting that federal gun regulations do not apply to guns made and owned in Kansas. Under the law, Kansans could manufacture and sell semi-automatic weapons in-state without a federal license or any federal oversight.

Kansas’ “Second Amendment Protection Act” backs up its states’ rights claims with a penalty aimed at federal agents: when dealing with “Made in Kansas” guns, any attempt to enforce federal law is now a felony. Bills similar to Kansas’ law have been introduced in at least 37 other states. An even broader bill is on the desk of Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell. That bill would exempt any gun owned by an Alaskan from federal regulation. In Missouri, a bill declaring federal gun laws “null and void” passed by an overwhelming majority in the state house, and is headed for debate in the senate.

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Who Says You Can't Mess With Texas?

One U.S. District Judge did just that in his ruling over a San Antonio city ordinance that bars exotic dancers from "entertaining" without bikini tops. Judge Fred Biery's 29-page ruling was so full of hilarious double-entendres that its hard to believe it includes a real legal outcome. He didn't waste any time getting into the jokes, starting his decision with the sentence, "an ordinance dealing with semi-nude dancers has once again fallen into the city's lap." And, while addressing the issue in the case, Judge Biery wrote, "to bare, or not to bare, that is the question." The judge denied the injunction, meaning San Antonio dancers must continue wearing their itsy-bitsy bikini tops, but he didn't let the humor stop there. His final sentence stated that if the parties choose to take the case to trial, "the Court encourages reasonable discovery intercourse as they navigate the peaks and valleys of litigation, perhaps to reach a happy ending." We'll just leave it there...

The Family Of The Victim In The Pasadena Hit-And-Run Crash Donates His Heart To A Friend.

Blood is pumping, feet are turning, sweat is dripping, and hearts are pounding.

They are supportive hearts, to help a family thrown off the saddle the past three weeks, and sad hearts longing for 15-year-old Skylar Marion.

Younger brother Sam is spinning the pedals.

"All three of my boys rode bicycles with Kyle," said Michael Marion, Skylar’s dad.

The story begins on the bike where Skylar bonded with Kyle Wilkerson, who is also 15 and from Pasadena. Skylar was hit by a driver on Mountain Rd. three weeks ago and rushed to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
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Colorado Has Embraced Good Government Syndrome – They Want Everybody To Vote

Both state houses just passed a major election law, which includes same-day registration, mandates mail-in ballots be automatically sent to every voter, and creates a statewide voter database to prevent fraud. Already, Colorado is one of three states that uses a universal vote-by-mail system, and voter turnout in those states typically exceeds the national average by more than five percentage points. Because same-day registration laws have been shown to boost turnout by as much as 14 points, Colorado could soon lead our nation in voter participation. Since the 2012 election, 31 states have introduced legislation to make it harder for people to vote, but not Colorado. They're streamlining the process, and making sure every voter in their state has a voice. Colorado lawmakers know that as voter participation goes up, the influence of the special interests goes down. Great Work - Now, let's make this a national policy.