“Bang, Bang,” You’re Suspended: Second-Grader Sent Home for Carrying Invisible Gun

 “No physical threats were made and no one was harmed.”

Just when you thought gun-fearing “educators” couldn’t get any sillier.

Last week, it was a couple of teenagers suspended for a year for playing with airsoft guns on the front lawn. This week, it’s a second-grader suspended for a day for using his finger as a pretend gun.

Yes, eight-year-old Jordan Bennett was sent home after administrators at Harmony Community School in Harmony, Florida, concluded that the gesture was an act of violence. School district officials have told the press that their code of conduct prohibits students from playing with invisible guns.

An act of violence? Are they really that dumb? Jordan’s mother, Bonnie, is justifiably bewildered by the stupidity of this punishment: “He had nothing in his hand. It was a finger gun, a pretend gun. He didn’t threaten violence. He didn’t utter words that were inappropriate. He made a sound and used his fingers and that was it.”

This is not the first time that school officials have overreacted to second-grade gun play. In March, Josh Welch, a seven-year-old (yes, seven) student at Park Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland, was accused of nibbling a rectangular, strawberry-filled pastry into a gun-like shape, then stating “bang, bang.” School officials were sufficiently disturbed by this event to remove Josh from class and banish him from the premises for two days.

It didn’t stop with the suspension. Assistant principal Myrna Phillips wrote a stern letter to parents explaining that Josh had “used food to make inappropriate gestures that disrupted the class,” encouraging parents to remind their kids about the “importance of making good choices,” and offering counseling to any student who might need it. All this even as Phillips acknowledged that “no physical threats were made and no one was harmed.”

Via: The Foundry

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A government looking for witches will find them

While the nation’s political class has been fixated on a potential government shutdown in Washington this week, the NSA has continued to spy on all Americans and by its ambiguity and shrewd silence seems to be acknowledging slowly that the scope of its spying is truly breathtaking.

The Obama administration is of the view that the NSA can spy on anyone anywhere. The president believes that federal statutes enable the secret FISA court to authorize the NSA to capture any information it desires about any persons without identifying the persons and without a showing of probable cause of criminal behavior on the part of the persons to be spied upon. This is the same mindset that the British government had with respect to the colonists. It, too, believed that British law permitted a judge in secret in Britain to issue general warrants to be executed in the colonies at the whim of British agents.

General warrants do not state the name of the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized, and they do not have the necessity of individualized probable cause as their linchpin. They simply authorize the bearer to search wherever he wishes for whatever he wants. General warrants were universally condemned by colonial leaders across the ideological spectrum -- from those as radical as Sam Adams to those as establishment as George Washington, and from those as individualistic as Thomas Jefferson to those as big-government as Alexander Hamilton. We know from the literature of the times that the whole purpose of the Fourth Amendment -- with its requirements of individualized probable cause and specifically identifying the target -- is to prohibit general warrants.

And yet, the FISA court has been issuing general warrants and the NSA executing them since at least 2004.

Via: Fox News

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Insurance Manager: ‘We Have Yet To Have Someone Successfully Register On The Marketplace’

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Overloaded websites and jammed phone lines frustrated consumers for a second day as they tried to sign up forhealth insurance under the nation’s historic health care overhaul.

That was putting pressure on the federal government and the states that are running their own insurance exchanges to fix the problems amid strong demand for the private insurance plans.

“I think I’m through with Hawaii Health Connector,” said Richard Gamberg, 61, of Honolulu, after tweeting messages to officials and complaining to state lawmakers on Wednesday. “They’ve got ads in the newspaper, they’ve got ads on the TV — it just flabbergasts me.”

He was among the would-be customers in Hawaii who were still unable to buy insurance policies online Wednesday, forcing them to turn directly to insurance companies to examine their options. In Oregon, officials said a faulty online calculator would not be fixed until late October.

The delays that continued Wednesday offered one good sign for President Barack Obama and supporters of his signature domestic policy achievement, demonstrating what appeared to be exceptionally high interest in the new system. But the problems also could dampen enthusiasm for the law as Republicans use it as a rallying cry to keep most of the federal government closed.

“It’s day two of health care reform, and we have yet to have someone successfully register on the marketplace,” said Matt Hadzick, manager of a Highmark retail insurance store in Allentown, Pa., where people could go to register for the online insurance marketplace. “The registration process is very slow, and at one point it just shuts down.”

Via: CBS DC

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[AUDIO] Mark Levin Warns Obama: 'You Lay One Damn Hand On One Of Those WW II Vets At That Memorial And I’ll Bring Half A Million People To That Damn Memorial!'

I want to say this loud and clear to the people on Capitol Hill who are listening, to this administration. You lay one damn hand on one of those World War II vets at that memorial and I’ll bring half a million people to that damn memorial! You got that?!

 

I’m sitting here stewing thinking about this – playing these damn games? You’ll ignite a movement in this country like you’ve never seen before! The biker patriot army – veterans from all over the country, every single war and battle in this country, Republican, Democrat, Independent, whatever!

 

I’ll be damned if one president, with his feet up on the desk in the oval office, with a smirk on his face, looking at his golf card…I’ll be damned if this president or anybody else is going to shut down that WWII memorial. Period! These men are in their 80s and 90s.

 

So let me repeat! You lay one hand on one of those men and arrest them for going to their memorial, which they fought for, which was not paid by you dammit, it was paid by the American people – we will come out of every town and city in this nation! We will come out of every county. And both coasts! Both borders! And we will march on Washington against your tyranny!

Via: Fox News

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Schumer: No Funding for Veterans and NIH 'Because We Have a Tea Party'

On Monday, Congress unanimously agreed to pass a standalone measure to pay the troops during the partial government shutdown, and President Obama signed the bill into law. But on Thursday morning, Senate majority leader Harry Reid blocked votes on House-passed bills to fund veterans, the military reserves and National Guard, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and national memorials. 

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D-LA.) SPEAKS AT THE 2008 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION.

As Politico reported Thursday, during the 1995 government shutdown congressional Republicans and President Bill Clinton were able to agree to a "stopgap bill to assure funding for veterans, welfare recipients and the District of Columbia."

Why won't Senate Democrats and President Obama agree now to any more stopgap funding bills?

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York told THE WEEKLY STANDARD following a noon press conference Thursday that in 1995 "it was a different world." Why is that? "Because we have a Tea Party," Schumer said without elaborating as he walked away.

On Wednesday, Senate majority leader Harry Reid said Congress "can't pick and choose" between funding the NIH, which includes programs treating children with cancer, and other government functions, like an Air Force base in his home state of Nevada.

Via: The Weekly Standard

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No Retreat, No Surrender

Republicans have partially planned and partially blundered into a government shutdown, and they appear to have no clear exit strategy. For now, many of them think it has become a test of their manhood. If they blink and pass a “clean” spending bill, they will lose face and enter talks over the looming mid-October debt-ceiling fight in a weakened position.

“We’re not going to be disrespected,” Representative Marlin Stutzman, an Indiana Republican, told the Washington Examiner. “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.” That kind of thinking doesn’t inspire confidence.

Timing is everything. For now, Republicans are holding together, but in about a week the financial markets are likely to go down, putting immense pressure on Republicans to abandon the shutdown fight. In 2011, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by more than 15 percent over a three-week period during that fall’s budget and debt-ceiling fight.

Deeply ingrained in the psyche of every congressional Republican is the government shutdown of 1995, for which Republicans were blamed. While many Republicans now believe the shutdown was a mistake, more think the problem was that the party lost its nerve.

Former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos, now host of ABC’s This Week, has validated that view. In his memoir, he wrote that Democrats, until then holding out against the Republicans’ budget-limiting efforts, were close to blinking. “Clinton was grumpy, the rest of us were grim,” until suddenly news came that Senate majority leader Bob Dole and House speaker Newt Gingrich were blinking first. “Whether the cause was hubris, naïveté, or a failure of nerve,” Stephanopoulos explained, “the Republicans had blown their best chance to splinter our party; from that point on, everything started breaking our way.”

Via: National Review Online

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Dr. Ben Carson Targeted by IRS, Big Three Networks Censor

On October 1 the Washington Times reported that Dr. Ben Carson revealed he had his first ever encounter with the IRS after he delivered a speech critical of public policy in front of Barack Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast back in February. So far ABC, CBS and NBC have yet to report on this stunning revelation. In fact they’ve stopped reporting on the IRS scandal altogether.

It’s been 99 days since ABC last mentioned the IRS targeting scandal, way back on June 26. NBC hasn’t touched the story in 98 days and CBS last did an IRS story 70 days ago on July 24.

On Tuesday the Times’ Douglas Ernst relayed the following: “Dr. Ben S. Carson went years without ever having a run-in with the Internal Revenue Service. But his good fortune changed after his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in February, the former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon said Monday night at an event with business leaders and elected officials in Alabama.

“Alabama’s Yellow Hammer News tweeted Dr. Carson’s remarks from the annual Business Council of Alabama Chairman’s Dinner: ‘I had my first encounter with the IRS this year, unsurprisingly after the Prayer Breakfast.’”

On Thursday Dr. Carson elaborated on his run-in with the IRS as he told the Washington Times that: “I guess it could be a coincidence, but I never had been audited before and never really had any encounters with the IRS. But it certainly would make one suspicious because we know now the IRS has been used for political purposes and therefore actions like this come under suspicion.”

Via: Newsbusters

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Limbaugh: Dana Bash Was on Harry Reid’s Side Before He Insulted Her

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh dug into controversial comments made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Wednesday in response to a question from CNN reporter Dana Bash. Reid called Bash “irresponsible” and “reckless” after asking if the Senate would pass a special bill to restore funding to the National Institutes of Health amid a government shutdown. Limbaugh asserted that Bash, who was sympathetic to Reid’s position, was made less so by the senator’s comment.

“The House is presumably going to pass a bill that funds at least the NIH. Given what you’ve said, will you at least pass that?” Bash asked in the question which set Reid off. “And if not, aren’t you playing the same political games that Republicans are?”

“Even in her question, she savaged the Republicans,” Limbaugh said. “The premise is that Republicans were playing political games with the lives of children. How much more biased could you get?”

RELATED: Harry Reid Chastises CNN Reporter: ‘Irresponsible’ and ‘Reckless’ for Question About Funding NIH

“She is totally on his side throughout this question, except when she says ‘If you can help one child who has cancer why wouldn’t you do that?’” the host continued.

Limbaugh mocked Bash breaking down in tears after being admonished by Reid for asking the question she did. He added that Reid’s “meanness” and “heartlessness” came naturally to him.

“The media tells everybody that it’s the Republicans who have no heart, it’s the Republicans who hate women – war on women, kids, minorities, you name it – it’s the Republicans who are trying to fund these programs after the Democrats shut this whole process down,” Limbaugh insisted.

He played a clip of Reid telling liberal radio host Bill Press that the trap the GOP had set for him was to fund every aspect of the government separately in order to remove funding from the Affordable Care Act.

“This is a mean, vindictive, partisan little man,” Limbaugh declared.

Listen to the clip below via The Rush Limbaugh Show:

Via: Mediaite.com

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IRS Sued By The National Organization For Marriage For Leaking Tax Information

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) filed suit against the federal government and the Internal Revenue Service Thursday, claiming it had “irrefutable proof” someone within the agency illegally leaked the conservative organization’s confidential tax returns to its ideological opponents last year.

NOM is seeking damages from the disclosure, as well as to overturn a statute shielding the IRS from disclosing any information about the incident, according to a complaintfiled by the Act Right Legal Foundation on behalf of NOM in the Eastern District of Virginia Thursday.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) obtained the NOM’s 2008 tax returns in February 2012, which contained an unredacted list of donors, including presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

The president of the HRC became a national co-chair for the Obama reelection campaign in 2012 a day later.

NOM Chairman John Eastman said the group was able to remove redaction layers from the PDF documents that were leaked, showing that they came from within the IRS. The unauthorized disclosure of tax information is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

No criminal charges have been filed after 18 months. An internal investigation by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) was conducted, but the results were never released.

Via: WFB

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Some Fed Agencies Should Shut Down Permanently

The government shutdown has provided a great opportunity to examine some of the more obscure agencies that most Americans have probably never even heard of and that the country could likely do without. Think of all the money we could save as a nation. 

Besides brining attention to these largely unheard of agencies, the shutdown—caused by Congress’s inability to agree on a funding bill—is also shedding light on just how bloated the federal government is, with an astounding workforce that’s seen nearly 800,000 furloughed this week. Some media outlets report the shutdown could cost the already frail U.S. economy about $1 billion a week in pay lost by the government workers.

Of course, this doesn’t apply to members of Congress. They will continue getting their checks and so will the president because his annual salary—$400,000—is considered mandatory spending. There are other exceptions like active duty military, all of 1.4 million of which will remain on the job and receive paychecks.

Well-known agencies such as the departments of Commerce and Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is part of Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development are also mostly shut down. So is the Department of Education, that useless 4,195-employee monster created by Jimmy Carter. Public education is a state duty yet the agency, which has grown immensely under President Obama, is bulldozing its way towards a takeover by, among other things, issuing federal standards known as Common Core.

We can’t move on to the less-known agencies that shouldn’t even exist before mentioning that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has six separate divisions that are closing during the impasse. The Food Safety and Inspection Service has the largest payroll (9,633), but there’s a Rural Development division with nearly 5,000 employees that provides consultations, assistance and funding opportunities for rural communities. The USDA’s 1,363-employee food stamp division will scale down but still operate to assure a record 46 million people keep getting their free groceries from Uncle Sam.

Here are some of the closures that are likely to go completely unnoticed. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, with 39 employees, advises the president and Congress on national historic preservation policy. The Corporation for National and Community Service will have 538 of its 610 employees stay home. We can’t really say what they do because the agency’s website is “currently not available” due to a “lapse in government funding.”

Here are a few other good ones; the Institute of Museum and Library Services, with 69 employees, will close, but not the Inter-American Foundation, which assists with development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. The National Capital Planning Commission, which provides long-range planning guidance for Washington and nearby areas, will only keep five of its 35 employees and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board will still function. A mainstream media outlet has provided a list of all the agencies and the number of workers they employ.    

Via: Judicial Watch

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California grants driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Thursday granting illegal immigrants driver’s licenses, in a decision immigrant rights groups hailed as a major step forward for their movement.

The country’s largest state becomes the latest to reverse course and grant legal driving privileges to illegal immigrants.

Mr. Brown, a Democrat, still has several other major immigration bills pending on his desk that he must sign or reject by Oct. 13, including one that would require localities to turn over violent criminal immigrants that federal authorities want to deport.

The new California licenses will have special markings that show they aren’t supposed to be used as identification for federal purposes, but they will allow illegal immigrants to drive legally and, advocates said, to own cars.

Those advocates say allowing illegal immigrants to become licensed means better safety and lower insurance rates for all drivers, since those illegal immigrants who choose to go through the legal process will have to take a driver’s test and follow the rules for obtaining insurance coverage.

“The governor’s signature on AB60 opens a window of opportunity unfairly closed shut to millions of Californians in 1993,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. “The state Legislature and the governor recognize a driver’s license makes our roads safer and offers a practical tool any Californian, regardless of immigration status, can use to conduct everyday tasks that greatly contribute to our state’s growth.”

Via: Washington Times

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DNC Chief Wasserman Schultz: “Tea Party Extremists Holding Cancer Patients Hostage”…

She also claims she voted against NIH funding because, “I care about cancer survivors.”

Via: Weasel Zippers

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