Obama Pledges to Use Last 18 Months in Office Pushing Gun Control

(CNSNews.com) – President Obama on Thursday pledged to use his last 18 months in office to work on gun control, calling it “the one area where I feel that I’ve been most frustrated and most stymied.”

“If you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I’ve been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient, common-sense gun safety laws – even in the face of repeated mass killings,” he told the BBC in an interview.

“And if you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands," Obama continued.

“For us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing, but it is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months.”

In the U.S., at least 34 Americans have been killed in terror attacks since 9/11. Those attacks include the 2009 killing of 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and the Chattanooga, Tennessee shootings last week which cost the lives of four U.S. Marines and a sailor.

Abroad, another 363 U.S. citizens have been killed in terror attacks since 9/11, according to data accumulated from State Department country reports on terrorism – or in years where data is incomplete, from the department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs’ record of citizens killed due to “terrorist action.”

The annual breakdown of terrorist fatalities abroad is 24 in 2014, 16 in 2013, 10 in 2012, 17 in 2011, 15 in 2010, 9 in 2009, 33 in 2008, 19 in 2007, 28 in 2006, 56 in 2005, 74 in 2004, 35 in 2003 and 27 in 2002.

Via: CNS News

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These two wind turbines will take four centuries to pay for themselves

One British town is in the renewable energy game for the long run — literally. The town bought two wind turbines that will take more than four centuries to pay for themselves.

The BBC reports that the two wind turbines installed in the English town of Rushcliffe will not likely produce any financial benefits for the town. Rushcliffe spent nearly $50,000 in 2004 installing the wind turbines at a county park, which doesn’t actually get much wind.

“Due to higher than anticipated maintenance costs and relatively low generation rates, it is unlikely the council will make a financial saving within the anticipated lifespan of the turbine,” said the Rushcliffe Borough Council.

The wind turbines’ poor location and mechanical problems mean that it only produced 477 kilowatt hours in 2012 and 2013. Last year, the turbine only generated about $121 worth of power, meaning that it would take 405 years for them to pay for themselves.

The Rushcliffe council, however, contended that the “meter wasn’t operating properly” and that the two turbines usually produce 3,478 kilowatt hours annually — which would still mean a 55-year payback period.

This information was obtained by the UK Telegraph as part of an in-depth investigation on how the towns all across the United Kingdom are spending millions of dollars on wind turbines that are faulty and don’t generate enough revenue to pay for themselves.

“Some turbines generate so little energy they would take hundreds of years to repay their original value,” Telegraph reported. “Experts argue that the failure of some wind turbines to recoup their value shows how small wind turbines are a poor way to generate renewable energy.”

Only three out of a handful of the towns that responded to the Telegraph’s inquiries had wind turbines with payback periods under ten years.

Via: Daily Caller

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[VIDEO] Mark Levin EXPLODES: Oprah Winfrey Has NO IDEA What It’s Like To Live In A Country That Is Brutally Racist

Mark Levin rips into Oprah Winfrey for her comments to the BBC on Friday noting that the neither she, nor many of us, know what it’s like to live in a country that really is brutally racist. And she of all people, who has gained so much from this country and is living in the lap of luxury because of it, is now trashing the country.

Levin asks, if the country were as bad as she and some of the other race-baiters claim it is, then when are people literally dying trying to get here?

Via: Fox News

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Lies Transcend all Colours

The evil sin of lying does not come in any particular colour.  White men lie; black men lie and politicians of both colours do it all the time.

Over in the UK, US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is using South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson’s shout “You lie!” when President Barack Obama was pushing the benefits of his now epic fail Affordable Health Care Act, aka ObamaCare, as proof positive that dislike for the president comes down to “the colour of his skin”.

Winfrey, talking to BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz about her starring role in The Butler, which recounts the life of an African American man who grows up on a cotton plantation,  raised Wilson’s calling out Obama a liar as evidence that Americans don’t like Obama based on the colour of his skin.

“Asked if some of the challenges and criticisms faced by President Barack Obama were down to the colour of his skin, she said: “There’s no question.” (BBC, Nov. 13, 2013)

“She recalled an incident in 2009 when Mr Obama was giving a speech to Congress, and Republican congressman Joe Wilson called out “you lie”.

“Remember that?” she said. “I think there’s a level of disrespect for the office that occurs.

“And that occurs in some cases, and maybe even many cases, because he’s African American. There’s no question about that. And it’s the kind of thing no one ever says, but everybody’s thinking it.

Via: Canada Free Press

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US National Security Agency 'spied on French diplomats'

The US National Security Agency has spied on French diplomats in Washington and at the UN, according to the latest claims in Le Monde newspaper.

NSA internal memos obtained by Le Monde detailed the use of a sophisticated surveillance programme, known as Genie.

US spies allegedly hacked foreign networks, introducing the spyware into the software, routers and firewalls of millions of machines.

It comes a day after claims the NSA tapped millions of phones in France.

The details in the latest Le Monde article are based on leaks from ex-intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, through Glen Greenwald, the outgoing Guardian journalist, who is feeding the material from Brazil, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris.

It comes on the day the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, is in London meeting foreign counterparts to discuss Syria.

'Spy implants'

The Le Monde report sets out details of Genie, an NSA surveillance programme in which spyware implants were introduced remotely to overseas computers, including foreign embassies.

Via: BBC News

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US income inequality at record high

The income gap between the richest 1% of Americans and the other 99% widened to a record margin in 2012, according to an analysis of tax filings.

The top 1% of US earners collected 19.3% of household income, breaking a record previously set in 1927.

Income inequality in the US has been growing for almost three decades.

Overall, the pre-tax incomes of the top 1% of households rose 19.6% compared to a 1% increase for the rest of Americans.

And the top 10% of richest households represented just under half of all income in the year, according to the analysis.

Emmanuel Saez at the University of California, Berkeley, one of the economists who analysed the tax data, said the rise may have been in part because of sales of stock to avoid higher capital gains taxes in January.

Mr Saez wrote in an analysis that despite recent policy changes aiming at lessening income inequality, the measures were relatively small in comparison to "policy changes that took place coming out of the Great Depression".

"Therefore, it seems unlikely that US income concentration will fall much in the coming years."

Via: BBC

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