New Bill Would Allow Cities to Ratchet Up Sales Taxes Even Higher

Although Californians already pay some of the highest sales taxes in the nation, a bill that recently passed the Assembly paves the way for the sales tax to go even higher.Assembly Bill 464 increases to 3 percent (from the current 2 percent cap) the maximum sales tax rate that can be levied by local governments.

That potential 3 percent sales tax levied by cities and counties is in addition to the statewide 7.5 percent sales tax, which could result in a combined 10.5 percent tax in some areas of the state. Tax hikes require majority voter approval for general purpose levies and two-thirds approval for special purposes.

The average state and local combined sales tax in California is 8.5 percent, according to a recent report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office. The lowest rate of 7.5 percent predominates in rural counties, while the highest rates are in urban areas. Residents in eight cities in the Bay Area and Los Angeles County are currently paying a 10 percent sales tax because their counties have received exemptions from the 2 percent cap.

“AB464 is about local control and flexibility,” said the bill’s author Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, on the Assembly floor May 14. “It gives local voters the ability to raise revenue to fund important public services, including transportation, public safety and libraries. This bill is crucial, because if just one city in a county reaches the [2 percent] cap, then the entire county is precluded from having voters raise any additional taxes, hindering key transportation projects or attempts to enhance public safety.

Via: California Political Review

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MCDONALDS TO INSTALL COMPUTER ORDERING SYSTEMS! NO $15 AN HOUR!

Congratulations liberals! You’ve freed thousands from minimum wage McJobs. And put them on McWelfare! But that’s what you McDo, isn’t it, libs?

The problem with liberals is they function primarily in emotion and a keen ability to ignore reality. They have been trained by their college professors (most of whom teach because they can’t earn a living in the real world) that there is always more of someone else’s money to spread around to “the people.” And there’s always the ‘EVIL CORPORATION’ where the CEO makes millions while line employees make minimum wage. It’s just awful and wrong!! But, unfortunately for liberals, it’s reality!

But liberals never realize that the business model of fast food restaurants requires virtually zero skills of their employees. Traditionally, McDonalds and others offered first jobs to kids in high school. It taught them how to work, to arrive promptly, to deal amicably with the public, to shoulder responsibility, etc. More than anything, it taught kids that they didn’t want to work at McDonalds the rest of their lives.

Like being born into poverty, there is no shame in working at McDonalds. There should be great shame in never working to rise above either poverty or a McJob. Enter the liberal mindset. Libs believe those McWorkers are victims too stupid to work and rise above their current state. Like the black trolls who comment on this page, liberals blame their every problem on someone else. Blacks have whitey and the mythical white privilege, liberals have evil corporations.

Via: Angry White Dude

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‘The News’ now planted progressive propaganda

In October of 2008 Obama and the Dems threw the Fundamental Transformation of America up in garish, jaw-dropping neon lights and the world thereafter was never to be the same.

The communications world now digital gave an about-to-be-jettisoned America its first digital dictator.

Back then David Axelrod astroturfing portrayed Obama’s promised Brave New World as an empty screen, one on which Obama could be projected in whatever image folk wanted him to be, history’s first free phone and easy food stamp president.

Down at core, the new messiah of Hope & Change was nothing but another politician with a deeper trick bag than those who came before him, offering nothing more substantial than a cheap carny’s card trick, a diversion and an outright lie, because Marxist progressives had already corralled the unknowing masses into a malleable ongoing transition—a transition from which there would be no way back.

The presentation of Obama from Denver’s faux Greek Temple was followed by a mass media bombardment of Obama pictures.  For the masses,  his omnipresence courtesy of the World Wide Web was as inevitable as it was inescapable.

Somewhere before this process got up to full speed,  the mainstream media, the one we thought we all knew, dropped all pretense of balance and accuracy and departed Stage Left.  Since investigative journalism had already become a dying art, few really missed it.

Those of us in the ‘alternate media’ naively celebrated replacing the not so dearly departed as the mainstream media alternative.  Little did we realize that Internet giants like Google and Facebook, in league with Big Government,  were already working to suppress conservative alternate media by redirecting all Internet traffic to progressive-supporting news sites.

Via: Canada Free Press

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CA Could Lose Congressional Seats if Supreme Court Changes Law to ‘One Citizen-One Vote’

While the immediate reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court taking up the “one-person, one vote case” has been liberals and minority groups saying “Oh, S***” and conservatives getting excited, the case is much more complicated than that. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of plaintiffs, it would affect two distinct (and often confused) processes. Most articles I’ve read have focused on the affect of district lines.

However, the (and perhaps most significant) effect would be on the apportionment of congressional seats among the states. As Paul Mitchell has pointed out, states with a greater percentage of undocumented immigrants or documented non-citizen residents or even more kids (California, Texas) would lose congressional seats–since they are not considered in the Census’s Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP).

Let’s pause on the last factor. While most of the commentary has been about undocumented residents, those under 18 would also no longer count. California has the third highest percentage of residents under 18, behind DC and Utah. And, of course, DC doesn’t get House seats. Shouldn’t our kids count when education funding is being decided in Washington?

Then there is the impact on redistricting, which could create a couple of additional Republican districts in California.

Via California Political Review

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Plurality of Americans Identify as Pro-Choice for First Time in 7 Years

According to a new Gallup poll, significantly more people identify themselves as “pro-choice” than “pro-life” for the first time in seven years.

In a recent telephone survey on abortion, Gallup discovered that 50% of respondents identified themselves as “pro-choice,” while 44% said they were “pro-life”. In addition, 54% of women agreed that abortion should be an available option, as well as 46% of men.

Gallup noted that while approval for pro-choice policies haven’t been as high as they were during the ’90s, it’s the highest it’s been in the past five years, thanks to “political and cultural events” that influence how Americans view abortion, such as Supreme Court cases, anti-abortion legislation, and violence against women or abortion clinics.

“While events like these may continue to cause public views on abortion to fluctuate, the broader liberal shift in Americans’ ideology of late could mean the recent pro-choice expansion has some staying power,” they observed.

Via: Mediaite.com

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5/30/15 Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) Delivers GOP Address on the National Defense Authorization Act

Via: You Tube

Obama Weekly Address: Pass the USA Freedom Act, Saturday May 30, 2015

Weekly Address: Pass the USA Freedom Act

In this week's address, the President addressed critical pieces of national security business that remained unfinished when the Senate left town. This Sunday at midnight, key tools used to protect against terrorist threats are set to expire. The USA Freedom Act strikes a balance between security and privacy, reauthorizing important measures that give our national security professionals the authorities they use to keep us safe, while also implementing reforms that enhance the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens. But currently, a small group of senators is standing in its way.

The President asked Americans to speak with one voice to the Senate to put politics aside, put the safety of the American people first, and pass the USA Freedom Act now.

Via: WhiteHouse.gov

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A Virtuous Society

When a society abandons these virtues, the people become corrupt, and unwilling to abide by the rule of law. A viciousness blankets the people, which leads to violence and lawlessness

Benjamin Franklin emphasized that without virtue, free societies could not properly function.  He said, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”

With freedom comes responsibility.  The responsible society is one that is virtuous.  A man with virtue is a man that possesses “sacred honor.”  It is for the sake of a free society that men must deny the evils of human nature, and implement the principles of being virtuous into their own lives.  It is best for society, and for one’s own existence, to strive for betterment, to strive to improve oneself each and every day.  To be civilized, and be restrained from the temptation of mob rule, is among the cornerstones of a free society.

Benjamin Franklin established that the journey to being a moral culture is anchored in thirteen virtues.  Franklin worked daily to achieve a moral life by pursuing these thirteen virtues.  He even kept a journal and charts to assist him in keeping track of his progress in living his life with each of the virtues as his guide.  Franklin admitted that perfection is unattainable, agreeing with biblical doctrine that “all have fallen short of the Glory of God,” but he believed that being in constant pursuit of a moral life would make him, and anyone else that pursued this kind of life, a better and happier individual.  If society was filled with such people who sought a moral life, society would remain prosperous and free, and liberty would be maintained.

Via: Canada Free Press

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GOP Calls on AG to Prosecute Lois Lerner in IRS Scandal

(Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images)

Republican lawmakers are petitioning the new attorney general, Loretta Lynch, to criminally prosecute former IRS official Lois Lerner over the agency's targeting scandal, having failed to convince her predecessor to do so.

According to The Hill, 24 Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to Lynch asking for her to take up the panel's 2014 request to charge Lerner for possible crimes. 

Special: Ted Cruz Discloses the Key to Winning in 2016 – Click Here

The allegations include using her position at the agency to pursue heightened scrutiny of conservative groups; obstructing investigations by giving misleading information; and disclosing confidential taxpayer information, The Hill said.

Before former Attorney General Eric Holder stepped down from his post, House Speaker John Boehner was informed by the department that Lerner would not be prosecuted for refusing to testify at a congressional hearing.

The letter, which was circulated by the committee's chairman, Paul Ryan, also prompted statements of support from Boehner and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

"The American people deserve the truth as to how the IRS was used as a political tool to target and harass Americans for their beliefs. … It is outrageous that despite having evidence right at their fingertips, the DOJ has refused to investigate potential criminal acts taken by Lois Lerner at the IRS," Boehner said in a stat

Via: Newsmax

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Labor Department Preparing Blacklist Rule for Government Contracts

As their previous actions have shown, the Obama administration has proven it has no idea what a functional economic policy looks like. Obamacare is the biggest example of this, but the Department of Labor has just given us another. They are creating what amounts to a blacklist rule to help determine which private businesses are awarded government contracts. Using a 2014 executive order, here’s what they are planning to do, per the Washington Free Beacon:

The regulations could restrict federal agencies from working with companies that have been accused of labor violations or have long track records of “serious” or “pervasive” violations. It forces government agencies to hire “Labor Compliance Advisors” to oversee contractors. Companies will also be forced to disclose pay determinations to employees and regulators over the course of the contract.

On the surface, this might not sound like a bad idea. After all, we wouldn’t want our own businesses to work with companies that have poor track records of labor law violations, right? However, when you look at the rule’s consequences in greater depth, problems start to appear. One of these is the issue of redundancy. As a joint statement from Representatives Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN) 92% (R-TN) and Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) 88% (R-MI), who chair the relevant subcommittees on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, says:

Bad actors who choose to operate outside of the law and deny employees basic protections should not be rewarded with taxpayer dollars.That is why we already have a system in place to deny federal contracts to these bad actors. Instead of promoting more government overreach and more regulations, the administration has a responsibility to ensure the current system is enforced and used effectively.

Redundancy is such a common problem with the government. Whenever a story like this surfaces, I always think back on the list produced by former Senator Tom Coburn back 2011 that highlighted between $100 and $200 billion in government waste from redundant programs alone. Despite the fact that we already have the rules in place to prevent the government from working with bad companies, President Obama has to put his own special touch on this, even if it means redundancy.

Via: Red State

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Report: IRS Hands Out $14 Billion For Green Energy, Doesn’t Keep Track Of It

A new government watchdog report found that the Internal Revenue service has handed out billions of dollars to support green energy projects, and then failed to mention how the money was spent on building new power generation.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that IRS tax subsidies to green energy operators “accounted for an estimated $13.7 billion in forgone revenue to the federal government for renewable projects and $1.4 billion for traditional projects” between 2004 and 2013.

That’s a lot of money, but the IRS can’t (or won’t) tell government auditors how much green energy generating capacity their tax subsidies are supporting. The GAO says the IRS “is not required to collect project level data from all taxpayers” who claim an Investment Tax Credit (ITC) or Production Tax Credit (PTC).

“IRS officials stated that IRS is unlikely to collect additional data on these tax credits unless it is directed to do so,” the GAO reported. “Since 1994, GAO has encouraged greater scrutiny of tax expenditures, including data collection. Without project-level data on the ITC and PTC, Congress cannot evaluate their effectiveness as it considers whether to reauthorize or extend them.”

Via: Daily Caller

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If Hillary becomes president, who will make her obey the law?

A President Hillary Clinton would have far more power to set up a secretive system of communications than a Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Who could tell her no? (AP Photo)

Last year, before Hillary Clinton's secret email system became publicly known, Congress passed a law to keep presidents from trying the same trick. If Clinton wins the White House, the law could well be put to the test.

The statute is the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014. It recognizes that government officials sometimes (or in Clinton's case, all the time) want to use private email accounts — in the words of the law, "non-official electronic messaging accounts" — to conduct government business. Such communications are still federal records, Congress declared, and must be preserved in accordance with existing laws requiring not just the president but all federal officials to preserve their documents.

This is what the new law says about emails:

The President, the Vice President, or a covered employee may not create or send a Presidential or Vice Presidential record using a non-official electronic message account unless the President, Vice President, or covered employee (1) copies an official electronic messaging account of the President, Vice President, or covered employee in the original creation or transmission of the Presidential record or Vice Presidential record; or (2) forwards a complete copy of the Presidential or Vice Presidential record to an official electronic messaging account of the President, Vice President, or covered employee not later than 20 days after the original creation or transmission of the Presidential or Vice Presidential record.

That's pretty clear. All presidential communications must be preserved in a timely fashion.

The next paragraph of the law stipulates that federal employees who intentionally violate the Presidential Records Act are subject to "disciplinary action" as determined by the "appropriate supervisor." Such punishments can include suspensions and cuts in pay and rank.

None of that, of course, applies to the president of the United States. As far as the chief executive is concerned, there's no enforcement mechanism in the law.

"The Presidential Records Act is set up on the notion — like all of our laws — that people are going to comply," notes a lawyer who follows these issues after service in the Justice Department in both the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. "There isn't really a clear legal way to hold the president accountable for this stuff." 

Via: Washington Examiner

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MICHELLE O TO GO: Food trucks deliver school lunches to students during summer break

PAUL, Minn. – Government-sponsored food trucks will be stalking students this summer with the goal of giving out thousands of “healthy” free lunches officials don’t trust parents to provide.

Officials at St. Paul public schools recently announced they’re working with the local food bank Second Harvest to dispatch a mobile food truck to expand locations offering students free lunches during the summer. Last year the district supplied 71 locations, and the truck will help to add another 10 to 15 in 2015, KSTP reports.

The district’s director of nutrition services, Stacy Koppen, said the truck will drive around to different locations between 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. to help feed the city’s needy youngsters. The truck will track down students at “spots like suggested basketball courts or fields where kids like to play,” according to the news site.

The very expensive-looking specially rigged step van features a billboard with grinning teens alongside the message “Kids and teens: Get your free meals here.” The district apparently didn’t offer the details on how the new program is financed, or how much the truck cost, and the news station didn’t bother to ask. School officials said the truck will be manned by volunteers.

Koppen said the district serves 29,000 lunches a day during the school year, but only 6,000 a day during the summer, so officials reasoned a truck is necessary to make sure students aren’t starving.

“Time and again, we such a steep decline that we wonder, ‘Where are these children going? Are they getting the healthy, nutritious food they need for their health and academic success?’” Koppen told KTSP.

“We want to make sure that when children return to school for the next school year, that they are at the optimal health status and that they are ready to learn,” she said, adding that the free food is available to all, not just low income kids.

Via: EAG

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NY-bound passenger jet reports near-miss with drone

A commercial airliner narrowly missed colliding midair with a drone at 2,700 feet as it neared New York's LaGuardia Airport Friday morning, just hours after a string of incidents involving lasers pointed at planes, according to federal officials.

The pilot reportedly had to swerve upward over Brooklyn's Prospect Park in order to avoid the drone as the plane neared the airport. The incident followed several earlier instances of pilots reporting they had lasers pointed at them near New York airports.

"The crew ... reported that the unmanned aircraft was operating in the vicinity of Prospect Park in Brooklyn at an altitude of about 2,700 feet."

- FAA

"The flight crew of Shuttle America Flight 2708 reported climbing 200 feet to avoid an unmanned aircraft while on final approach to LaGuardia Airport at about 11 a.m. today," the Federal Aviation Administration said. "The crew ... reported that the unmanned aircraft was operating in the vicinity of Prospect Park in Brooklyn at an altitude of about 2,700 feet."

Via: Fox News

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FIVE SCANDALS FOR HILLARY CLINTON AND BERNIE SANDERS THAT WOULD SINK ANY REPUBLICAN

On Thursday, Dan Joseph of Media Research Center uncovered an old column written by 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VA). In that column, Sanders bestowed upon the world his wisdom with regard to men and women:

A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused. A woman enjoys intercourse with her man – as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.

The date: February 1972. The place: the Vermont Freeman. Mother Jones called this charming description of male-female sexual differences “a stream-of-consciousness essay on the nature of male-female sexual dynamics.” Thus far, Sanders’ abuse fantasies and his own fantasy that women dream of rape by multiple men have been covered by precisely zero mainstream news outlets. Mother Jones didn’t even bother quoting the essay directly, instead choosing to embed a screenshot. That’s because rape fantasies are funny and charming when they come from an aged socialist hippie.

Welcome to the 2016 presidential race, where Republicans are targeted for scandal when the media deliberately misquote them, but Democrats get away with behavior that would make Caligula blush.

Yesterday, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was quoted speaking about the benefits of ultrasounds, which he said were “a cool thing out there.” The media spun the quote as though Walker had called it “cool” to mandate transvaginal ultrasounds when Walker wasn’t even talking about transvaginal ultrasounds.

Via Breitbart

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Former House speaker Dennis Hastert indicted by federal grand jury

YORKVILLE, Ill. —

J. Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker in the history of the U.S. House, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges that he violated banking laws in a bid to pay $3.5 million to an unnamed person to cover up “past misconduct.”

Hastert, who has been a high-paid lobbyist in Washington since his 2007 retirement from Congress, schemed to mask more than $950,000 in withdrawals from various ac­counts in violation of federal banking laws that require the disclosure of large cash transactions, according to a seven-page indictment delivered by a grand jury in Chicago.

The indictment did not spell out the exact nature of the “prior misconduct” by Hastert, but it noted that before entering state and federal politics in 1981, Has­tert served for more than a decade as a teacher and wrestling coach at Yorkville High School in Illinois.

In 2010, confronted about the “prior misconduct,” the former speaker agreed to pay $3.5 million to the person “to compensate for and conceal his prior misconduct against Individual A,” prosecutors alleged.

That person, whose identity was shielded by prosecutors, has known Hastert most of his or her life, growing up in Yorkville, the city next to Hastert’s home town of Plano, in the exurbs west of Chicago. Prosecutors said the actions “occurred years earlier” than the 2010 meeting that sparked the payments.

Via: Washington Post

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NYPD: Gangs responsible for spike in shootings

NEW YORK (MYFOXNY) -

Inside what looks like an ordinary storefront is the headquarters for a youth group. Community leaders are hoping it will help stop the rise in gang youth crime.

The NYPD has set its sights on dismantling the gangs police say are largely responsible for the shootings and murders in the city.

"This is a violent, violent bunch of guys -- they're all G Stone Crips," said Deputy Chief Kevin Catalina of the NYPD Gang Unit. "We took down associates of theirs a couple of weeks back. During that takedown, we pulled 11 guns off these guys."

While overall crime is down almost seven percent, shootings are up 7.1 percent so far this year. Murders are up 15.3 percent. Even with the increase, it's a much lower number than the 1980s and 1990s.

"For those of us who were here in the bad old days, when we had 2,000 or more murders a year, a lot or ordinary citizens were getting caught in those crossfires, it was a horrible, horrible time," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

But Dr. Darrin Porcher, a former NYPD lieutenant, said there is cause for concern.

"Whenever there is violence in the community, it always creates a hazard for the common citizen," Porcher said. "So when we think in terms of this violence, bullets have no names. They land anywhere."

The majority of those involved in gang or crew shootings are under 21. Many are in their teens. That is why former gang member Shanduke McPhatter, now a community activist, established G.M.A.C.C. Teens at risk have new Apple computers to do their homework and that keeps them off the streets. A weight room to get them focused on health and to work out frustrations instead of doing it through violence.

"When you talk about what's happening in our communities, we're really predominantly dealing with cliques and crews," McPhatter Said. "These are young organizations who really have no leadership, who really have no goals, no history of what they're doing."

McPhatter said he doesn't have all the answers but he is hoping that his program can at least save some lives this summer.

Via: Fox NY

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National Review Editor: ‘#SomeBlackLivesDontMatter’ to Civil Rights Movement

With just over a year between Rich Lowry‘s newsworthy comments on Arizona’s SB 1062and President Barack Obama‘s apparent hatred for Benjamin Netanyahu, you’d think we have another year to go before the National Review editor makes headlines, no? Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Lowry’s latest column attempts to tackle the #BlackLivesMatter movement and Baltimore’s high murder rate in the month of May with some satire and a new hashtag: #SomeBlackLivesDontMatter, which is also the title of the column. The satire? Not sure.

The essay’s 905 words attempt to devote as much time as they possibly can to rationalizing the hashtag title. Sure, Lowry cites plenty of recent statistics to try and back up his claims. But the real, thinly-cut meat of the matter boils down to his title’s desire to troll the #BlackLivesMatter social media movement.

Lowry’s cynicism stands out the strongest in the sixth paragraph:

Let’s be honest: Some black lives really don’t matter. If you are a young black man shot in the head by another young black man, almost certainly no one will know your name. Al Sharpton won’t come rushing to your family’s side with cameras in tow. MSNBC won’t discuss the significance of your death. No one will protest, or even riot, for you. You are a statistic, not a cause. Just another dead black kid in some city somewhere, politically useless to progressives and the media, therefore all but invisible.

Maybe, maybe not, but Lowry’s narrow focus on Baltimore neglects the protests’ national theater (a few concluding remarks on New York notwithstanding). Again, this all just seems like a ploy to tweet #SomeBlackLivesDontMatter, and many agree:

Via: Mediaite

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Guy Who Created Obama’s ‘Hope’ Poster: ‘Americans Are Ignorant And Lazy

Shepard Fairey, the artist who designed Barack Obama’s “Hope” poster that symbolized his 2008 campaign, said that he thinks Americans are largely “ignorant, lazy, uneducated and complacent.”

In an interview with Esquire, the 45-year-old said Obama hadn’t even come close to living up to his expectations, but he thinks the American people are to blame for that.

“We also need a public that isn’t so uneducated and complacent,” Fairey said. “I hate to say Americans are ignorant and lazy, but a lot of them are ignorant and lazy.” (RELATED: Shepard Fairey Is A Fraud)

“Obama has had a really tough time, but there have been a lot of things that he’s compromised on that I never would have expected. I mean, drones and domestic spying are the last things I would have thought [he’d support].”

But Fairey, who was a “big supporter” of Occupy Wall Street, thinks Obama’s goals were thwarted because things were out of his control.

“I’ve met Obama a few times, and I think Obama’s a quality human being, but I think that he finds himself in a position where your actions are largely dictated by things out of your control.”

“What frustrates me to no end are people who want to blame Obama or blame anything that is something that if they were actually doing anything as simple as voting, it might not be as bad as it is.”

Via: Daily Caller

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U.S. No Longer Considers Cuba State Sponsor of Terrorism

Five months after President Obama‘s announcement that the United States and Cuba would move to normalize diplomatic relations, the State Department has officially removed the island nation from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

According to Bloomberg Business and multiple other outlets, Cuba’s removal from the list was officially announced via an emailed statement on Friday morning.

“While the United States has significant concerns and disagreements with a wide range of Cuba’s policies and actions,” cautions department spokesperson Jeff Rathke, “these fall outside the criteria relevant to the rescission of a State Sponsor of Terrorism designation.”

President Ronald Reagan added Cuba to the State Department’s list back in 1982. In order for the announced removal to occur, Congress either had to approve (or not block) the the action during the 45-day period following Obama’s April 14th announcement of a massive “four-month interagency review.” No prominent steps were taken to block the removal, hence Friday’s announcement.

However, this has no effect on the trade embargo the U.S. first placed on Cuba back in 1960 during Dwight D. Eisenhower‘s presidency. It remains in place until both countries have had adequate time to normalize diplomatic relations.

Via: Mediaite

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Ben & Jerry's Doesn't Let Facts Get In Way of 'Climate Justice'

ONE MORE REASON NOT TO BUY THERE PRODUCT!!!

In a recently published info-graphic, entitled “Climate Change By The Numbers”, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream serves up a seamy confection of poor analysis, misleading truths, and downright falsehoods.  The bright and breezy assemblage (one in a series promoting “Climate Justice”) approaches the topic with such childlike simplicity it practically spoon-feeds us its ‘factual’ memes.  In the very first sentence, we’re told that the science of climate change is a “story” that is “told with numbers”.  Thus, it seems only fair to count the errors in this shoddy work.

Predictably enough, the graphic begins with a frightening pronouncement:

To support the claim, they tell us that “9 of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000”.  At best, the assertion is cavalier; at worst, it is untrue.  In order to believe it, we must first forget that the temperature records in question are a brief 160 years old (a relative eye-blink compared to the 4.5 billion years of earth’s total existence).  We must then play ignorant to a host of recent studies that have suggested the Medieval Warm Period was global in scope.  Thirdly, we have to ignore the fact that earth’s temperatures have NOT risen, hand-in-glove, with CO2 emissions.  Indeed, even reliable Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) alarmists like Michael Mann have felt obligated to try to explain the seventeen-year hiatus in global warming.  And lastly, in order to swallow the fear inspired by the headline, we must pay no attention to the scientific evidence that CO2 levels have historically lagged behind corresponding changes in temperature.

Via American Thinker

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California: How not to Handle a Water Crisis

Californians have a love affair with water. It’s used for pools, irrigation, green grasses, and washing cars. Yet, because of the drought the grass is turning brown, cars are staying dirty, and pools might be a thing of the past. American Thinker interviewed people who have some knowledge about this crisis. 

There have been about four years of drought. The water supply has been severely depleted largely due to the all time low level of the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which usually provides about one-third of the state’s water. Governor Jerry Brown in an executive order directed the State Water Resources Control Board to implement a twenty-five percent mandatory reduction. Cuts will vary from community to community, based upon per capita water use. 

Russell Lefevre, the Torrance Director of the Metropolitan Water District, told American Thinker that to deal with the crisis they went to their twenty-six customers, totalling about nineteen million residents, and imposed a fifteen percent cutback. He also explained that the governor’s plan has nine tiers and the cutback he issued by executive order differs by community, ranging from 8% to 36%. For example, Beverly Hills and Palos Verdes must cut back by 36% while Los Angeles and San Diego’s cutback is 16%. Why is the governor requiring more of a cutback than the MWD?

Via: American Thinker

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