Bowe Bergdahl surfaces at pot farm in California during a raid

Remember Bowe Bergdahl, the Army sergeant who deserted from his unit, was captured by the Taliban, and was later exchanged for five terrorists? 

You would think the army would have Bergdahl in the slammer, awaiting trial for desertion.  But no.  Bowe was recently seen at an illegal pot farm in Northern California that authorities raided.

Politico:

According to the initial report from The Anderson Valley Advertiser, Bergdahl was an “unexpected visitor” at the Mendocino County farm, which is approximately 120 miles up the coast from San Francisco. He had “no connection to the dope grow,” according to that report. 

Authorities from the county sheriff’s department confirmed to NBC Bay Area that Bergdahl did not face any charges and was not arrested during the raid. 

The initial report from the Advertiser said that military officials were notified, quoting county sheriff Tom Allman who said that Bergdahl was not involved in the growing of marijuana and was “above politeness,” showing his military ID as others in the house were being arrested. 

According to that report, he was escorted to Santa Rosa, California, by military personnel, to return to his duty station near Washington. The sheriff’s department confirmed that he was on authorized leave to visit friends.

A Rose Garden ceremony, celebrating his service as "honorable," and advancing the narrative that the five terrorists released in exchange for a deserter was a political masterstroke.  This is Bergdahl's legacy, and this is why it is extremely doubtful that he will see the inside of a court-martial proceeding until after President Obama leaves office.

The narrative being advanced now about Bergdahl is that he never should have been accepted in the military, but the U.S. Army was desperate for soldiers in 2007 when he enlisted:

While many soldiers in the U.S. military’s history have served long sentences for such crimes, many are highly dubious he will serve a life sentence. There is a sense that there is no interest in handing out a long sentence to a soldier who may not have passed muster had the nation not been so desperate for troops when he joined in 2007—the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Via: American Thinker

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GOP Congressman: ‘Old Age or Disability Does Not Make Someone a Threat to Society’

CNSNews.com) – Speaking on the House floor on Wednesday, Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) warned that President Barack Obama is trying to “deny millions of law-abiding Americans” the right to bear arms “by going through Social Security.”

“Mr. Speaker, President Obama is at it again. He’s now seeking to deny millions of law-abiding Americans their Second Amendment right to bear arms by going through Social Security, and why is that? Because he couldn’t get gun control through the Congress. The American people wouldn’t stand for it,” said Johnson.

“Mr. Speaker, old age or disability does not make someone a threat to society. These folks should be able to defend themselves just like everyone else,” Johnson said.

According to the LA Times, Obama is pushing to extend gun background checks to include “anyone who has been declared incompetent to manage pension or disability payments and assigned a fiduciary.”

“The push is intended to bring the Social Security Administration in line with laws regulating who gets reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, which is used to prevent gun sales to felons, drug addicts, immigrants in the country illegally and others,” the LA Times reported.

“As chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee and a staunch defender of the Second Amendment, I will do everything in my power to stop this gun grab. Yesterday, I ordered the commissioner of Social Security to stand down and abandon any such plan. Mark my words: Americans’ Second Amendment rights must and will be protected,” Johnson pledged.

In a letter to Social Security Acting Commissioner Carolyn Colvin, Johnson wrote, “The representative payee system is vital for beneficiaries who need assistance managing their own finances. Millions of responsible seniors and people with disabilities rely on a representative payee. Simply using this system does not mean beneficiaries are a risk to themselves or others.

“Providing information on individuals who have a representative payee to the NCIS is a broad overreach of authority and violates beneficiaries’ constitutional rights. This police runs counter to the aims of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – the 25th anniversary of which we will celebrate this week – and would stigmatize seniors and people with disabilities and isolate theme from society at large,” Johnson wrote.

The National Council on Disability wrote to Vice President Joe Biden on Jan. 11, 2013 expressing its opposition to such a policy, Johnson noted.

The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) applauded Johnson’s efforts to stop Obama’s “gun grab.”

"If left to their own devices, President Obama’s Social Security Administration would be free to implement the largest gun grab in American history,” NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox said. “The NRA appreciates Chairman Johnson’s swift action to put a halt to this outrageous scheme that would deny millions of Americans a fundamental constitutional right because they need or want help managing their finances."

"The Obama administration will stop at nothing to strip as many people as possible of their Second Amendment rights,” Cox said. “The NRA will employ all means available to prevent the implementation of such a widespread injustice.”

Via: CNS News

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REP. GOHMERT: ‘TRUMP HAS STRUCK A NERVE ACROSS AMERICA’

Representative 

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

94%

 shared in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News his experience meeting with family members of victims killed by illegal aliens.

The loved ones of the victims came to Washington, D.C. for a hearing on Kate’s Law and meetings with several legislators concerning the epidemic of illegal immigration into the United States.

Gohmert said that 2016 Presidential candidate Donald Trump has struck a nerve across America on the issue of illegal immigration, because he isn’t beholden to big business and special interests. Gohmert then cited Congressional efforts to bring financial repercussions on sanctuary cities for their blatant violation of federal law.

“I read about them (families whose loved ones have been killed by illegal aliens) in the news and I had also read they were coming up here to testify and the stories just break your heart. You don’t have to have had a child to understand how tragic these situations were and then the fact that they were completely avoidable makes them even more so.”

Gohmert took a group of about ten of these family members, some who came from as far as California, on a tour of the United States Capitol Tuesday evening. “I had first met them right after they testified before the Senate hearing and so we met and we had a visit outside and invited them inside the Capitol and we met, visited and talked and there were tears.”

Sabine Durden lost her only son Dominic Durden when an illegal alien hit the young 911 operator in a traffic collision. She told Breitbart News how appreciative she was of the Texas Congressman’s time and care for the families.

Gohmert said, “We talked and I heard from them on the different stories and what happened and how avoidable these were and that they could still have their child or family member here with them alive if we enforced our immigration laws.”

When asked if meeting the family members drove his conviction about the problem of illegal immigration, Gohmert said, “This reinforces the need to do something and reinvigorates me to make sure that we get something done so that we don’t have to keep meeting people who lose children, lose family members, lose spouses that are completely avoidable.” He said, “We just need to enforce immigration law.”

“This is something that every one of the family members of victims that I met and talked with, they’re affected every single day of their life. It’s just something that’s never far from their thoughts at all.”

Gohmert noted the need to enforce visa overstays and current immigration laws as well as securing the border. Border security is about 60 percent of the problem, Gohmert noted.

“If we just had an administration that enforced the law as it exists and that includes protecting the border, making sure that people don’t come in illegally,” he said it could take care of itself.

Referencing his experience as a judge, he noted the effect of deterrence by having something like Kate’s Law that is intended to put people in jail for coming back in after they are deported.

“Donald Trump has struck a nerve across America.”

Via: Breitbart

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New York Times Edits Clinton Email Story At Her Request

The New York Times altered its story about two inspectors general calling for an investigation into whether Democratic Party front-runner Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information on her secret private email server.

The change to the lede paragraph came at the request of the Clinton campaign, Politico reports.

“It was a response to complaints we received from the Clinton camp that we thought were reasonable, and we made them,” Times reporter Michael Schmidt said, according to Politico.

The current version of the Times story starts:

WASHINGTON — Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account Hillary Rodham Clinton used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.

But the original lede, as captured by NewsDiffs, which tracks changes to posted news stories, implicated Clinton as a target of the probe:

WASHINGTON — Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether Hillary Rodham Clinton mishandled sensitive government information on a private email account she used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.

The original version highlighted the accusation that Clinton was the reason for and subject of the call for a criminal investigation, that “Clinton mishandled” classified information. The edited version leaves the impression that the information may have been handled, but only “in connection” to Clinton’s actions.

This was discovered by the left-wing DailyKos Elections Twitter feed.

 

Daily Kos Elections‏@DKElections

"Clinton mishandled" & "mishandled in connecttion" w/Clinton's email acct = huge, huge difference

• RETWEETS7
• FAVORITES9
• 

10:18 PM - 23 Jul 2015

 

Daily Kos Elections‏@DKElections

"Clinton mishandled" & "mishandled in connecttion" w/Clinton's email acct = huge, huge difference

• RETWEETS7
• FAVORITES9
• 

10:18 PM - 23 Jul 2015

Via: Daily Caller

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[VIDEO] Lafayette movie theater shooting: Injury count increases to 9

Including the gunman, a total of 12 people were shot at The Grand Theatre in Lafayette on Thursday night (July 23), officials said as they revised the number of injured from seven to nine.

Three people died in the shooting, including the shooter, who police say died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police are not yet publicly identifying the shooter, who was described as a 58-year-old white male. Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft, speaking at a news conference at about 1:45 a.m. Friday, said investigators have multiple addresses for the suspect -- including in different states -- and are working to follow up on all of those leads.

Craft provided more details early Friday about how the series of events unfolded. Witnesses told police the shooter was "seated in the theater just like everybody else," apparently watching the comedy "Trainwreck" with the rest of the audience, when he stood up and started shooting with a semi-automatic handgun. The first two people he shot were directly in front of him, Craft said.

Two police officers were very close to the theater and were able to respond to the chaotic scene in less than a minute, Craft said. The officers entered the theater as a stream of theatergoers fled. As the officers entered, they heard a single gunshot, which was the suspect shooting himself. He may have seen the police coming, Craft said.

Officials found suspicious packages in the suspect's car and inside the theater, but after detonating them, determined they weren't anything of significance.

Officers are now continuing the lengthy work of processing the crime scene, which could take four to six hours, Craft said. Many people left shoes, purses and other items behind as they fled. 

Bodies of two of the people who died remained inside the theater as of about 1:45 a.m. The third person died at a hospital, Craft said.

Police spent much of Thursday night interviewing dozens of witnesses. Though they had left by early Friday morning, many of their cars remained in the theater's parking lot. Craft said officials plan to do follow-up interviews with the witnesses on Friday, and also hope to speak with those who had been injured.

The next update from police is expected at about 6 to 6:30 a.m. Friday.

Via: NOLA

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[VIDEO] Civil defense: Citizens, vets, guardsmen and cops take up arms to protect military facilities

It’s supposed to be the other way around, but civilians – as well as state and local authorities – have taken up the task of protecting the military in the wake of the Chattanooga terror attack.

Citizens groups, veterans, local law enforcement and the National Guard are all standing armed watch over the men and women of the military, protecting them from terrorists and – some say - from a federal policy that leaves service members unable to defend themselves on Pentagon property.

“After the recent shooting in Chattanooga, it has become clear that our military personnel must have the ability to defend themselves against these types of attacks on our own soil,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. “Arming the National Guard at these bases will not only serve as a deterrent to anyone wishing to do harm to our service men and women, but will enable them to protect those living and working on the base.”

“We’re just a group of citizens who exercise their rights and do things like this when it comes to filling security gaps where the government falls short,” spokesman Chris McIntire

- Chris McIntire, 3% of Idaho

The July 16 attack that left four Marines and a Navy sailor dead at Chattanooga’s Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center, and followed a shooting at a recruiting center nearby, has sparked a national conversation on the 23-year-old policy. But governors, sheriffs, police chiefs and concerned citizens across the nation are not waiting for Washington to change the law.

The governors of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma,  Texas and Wisconsin have all signed orders in the last several days to allow National Guard troops to carry loaded guns on bases and at military recruiting centers in their states.

Citizens, veterans and local police are also stepping up to protect service members.

In Idaho, an 800-member volunteer group calling itself “3% of Idaho” is guarding military recruiting centers in an effort it dubs “Operation Guardian Angel.”

“We’re just a group of citizens who exercise their rights and do things like this when it comes to filling security gaps where the government falls short,” spokesman Chris McIntire, who said his group is not a militia and takes its name from the number of colonists believed to have taken part in the Revolutionary War, told KBOI 2News on Tuesday.

James Maxwell was one of five men who stood guard Wednesday outside a Farmington, N.M., recruiting substation. He told the Daily Times service members deserve protection since the attack in Chattanooga and amid calls from ISIS for its "lone wolf" sympathizers to attack Americans who wear the uniform.

"They weren't expecting anything to happen in Chattanooga," he told the newspaper. "They're sitting ducks here."

Via: Fox News

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How Democratic-Leaning Detroit Helped Shape Ben Carson's Conservative Views

Long before Benjamin Carson was a Republican presidential candidate, he was a hero and a role model.

For a generation of black parents, the retired neurosurgeon's life's story was used to inspire their children. He grew up poor in Detroit. His mother had a third-grade education and could not read. Carson initially didn't do especially well in school. His poor grades led some of his classmates to refer to him as "dummy."

Detroit's Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine is named after presidential candidate Ben Carson.

Brakkton Booker/NPR

Carson would eventually overcome those obstacles. He became a stellar student and went on to Yale and then to the University of Michigan's medical school before becoming the head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore at just 33 years old. He would later receive international recognition for leading a surgical team in what was the first operation to separate twins conjoined at the back of the head.

Despite his success, the scars of growing up in poverty left their mark on Carson.

"One of the things that really bothered me when I was a kid was poverty. I didn't like being poor," Carson said to a room full of mostly black high school students at Detroit's Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine (named for him) on the day of his presidential announcement in May. "I remember we used to have popcorn balls at school. And they looked so good, but they cost a nickel. And I never had a popcorn ball, the whole time."

Carson, the only black candidate in the 2016 presidential race, grew up in Detroit during the 1960s. It was not — and is not — exactly known as a haven of conservatism, especially in the black community. Back then, the civil rights movement was gaining momentum, the "Motown Sound" became synonymous with the Motor City and the Vietnam War had no end in sight. Going to where Carson grew up and talking to former classmates and friends revealed a young man determined not to allow the grip of poverty to keep him bound to southwest Detroit.

Via: NPR

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POLL: CLINTON TRAILS THREE REPUBLICAN CONTENDERS IN KEY STATES

If this news doesn’t have Joe Biden, Al Gore, or Elizabeth Warren seriously considering entering the presidential race — and serious Democrats urging them to do so — then nothing will. According to a Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll, Hillary Clinton trails Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Scott Walker in Colorado, Iowa and Virginia.

Two of the three Republicans Clinton trails are neither well known nor in possession of a well known name. Thus, the poll results should be viewed mostly as a referendum on Hillary.

This assessment is confirmed by Clinton’s favorability ratings. In Virginia, they are 41-50. In Colorado, they are 35-56. In Iowa, where Clinton has been a fairly constant presence, they are 33-56 — a tribute to her skill as campaigner.

Clinton runs ahead of these numbers against the three GOP hopefuls, but behind all three. Against Rubio, she trails by 8 points in Colorado and Iowa and 2 in Virginia. Against, Walker she is down 9 points in Colorado, 8 in Iowa, and 3 in Virginia. As for Bush, he of the burdensome family name, Clinton is 5 points down in Colorado, 6 down in Iowa, and 3 down in Virginia.

Clinton is losing ground. In April Quinnipiac, Clinton didn’t trail in of these match-ups against the three Republicans, and she was ahead in five of the nine.

Naturally, Clinton is suffering as a result of the various revelations and scandals of the past several months. According to Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll, she has lost ground on the question of her honesty.

In addition, she has lost ground on the question of being a strong leader. It’s difficult to look like a strong leader when you’re unwilling to face the press or answer other than softball questions.

Ominously, perhaps, for Clinton, Quinnipiac’s Brown points out that “Vice President Joseph Biden, who is considering a 2016 run, does better than Clinton on honesty and on caring about voter needs, always a key Democratic strong point.”

Donald Trump fares even worse than Clinton among those polled in the three swing states. But the GOP won’t be saddled with Trump as its nominee. And the poll tends to confirm what common sense tells us — voters aren’t holding Trump against Rubio, Walker, or Bush.

The real Trump problem lies in the possibility that he will run as a third candidate. As poorly as she’s faring, Clinton might well carry the three states polled by Quinnipiac pretty handily in a three-way race involving Trump.

Via: Powerline

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