Gohmert to BLM: ‘Keep Up The Arrogance’ - We’ll Cut Your Budget

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) told two federal land officials, “I come bearing good news. I think if your employees keep up the arrogance, keep denying access to the land then very soon we’ll be able to dramatically cut your employees back and start turning those powers over to the states.”

Gohmert’s comments came during a Joint Legislative Hearing "To protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting, fishing, and shooting, and for other purposes” in late May.

Deputy Director of Operations for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Steve Ellis and Deputy Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, Leslie Weldon testified at the hearing and heard complaints about denial of access onto National Forest Service and BLM land from sportsmen and law enforcement.

“Today, I wanted to take advantage of your presence here by letting you know things I’ve been hearing,” Gohmert said. “About the arrogance of people on U.S. Forest Service land and (Dept. of) Interior land – national forests - even from law enforcement, they say it’s just gotten tougher and tougher to deal with arrogant people on the national forests. Not getting access when they need it, not working with local law enforcement. And that’s been really helpful to me.”

“Some of us have been pushing for a while- let’s just dramatically cut back the U.S. Forest Service, the BLM, the Department of Interior and let each state manage the federal land within it’s boundaries.”

Gohmert later added, “I guess maybe from your standpoint it might be seen as a warning, from my standpoint it’s really good news that the arrogance of both of your employees are ultimately going to allow us to get the next president, Republican or Democrat, to end up eventually signing legislation that lets our states  - they’ll do a much better job at managing your land then your departments have been doing.”

Via: CNS News

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Concealed Carrier Saves Friends From Three Armed Teens

Three Colorado teens were shot — one fatally — while trying to rob three men at gunpoint as they were moving into an Aurora apartment late Friday night.

Aurora police say that the three teenagers approached the three intended victims in the foyer of the apartment building and held them at gunpoint. The three movers were described as being in their 20s.

“Two of the movers started to hand over their money, the third mover who was in fear for his safety of his friends, pulled out his weapon,” Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz said at a press conference on Saturday.

The armed mover opened fire and hit all three of the teens, killing one, putting a second in critical condition, and slightly wounding another.

The three assailants have not been identified. The man who defended himself and his friends was questioned by police and released.

“I don’t think we would call this necessarily a make-my-day issue,” said Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, referring to a state law similar to the “stand your ground” law on the books in other states. “This is a straight up regular common sense statutorily codified self defense,” Brauchler added.

Via: Daily Caller

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OBAMA: I’VE RESTORED THE US AS THE ‘MOST RESPECTED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD’

Monday while President Barack Obama was answering questions at a town hall with YSEALI Fellows, an exchange program for community leaders from ASEAN, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he said his administration has restored the Untied States as the “the most respected country on earth.”

Obama said, “People don’t remember, but when I came into office, the Untied States in world opinion ranked below China and just barley above Russia, and today once again, the Untied States is the most respected country on earth. Part of that I think is because of the work we did to reengage the world and say we want to work with you as partners with mutual interests and mutual respect. It was on that basis we were able to end two wars while still focusing on the very real threat of terrorism and try to work with our partners in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s the reason why we are moving in the direction to normalize relations with Cuba and the nuclear deal that we are trying to negotiate with Iran.”

Via Breitbart

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Air Force for one: Massive military transport plane that usually carries 100 troops picks up US Secretary of State John Kerry to bring him home after he breaks his leg cycling

A US military C-17 transport aircraft that usually carries at least 100 troops flew to Geneva Airport to pick up Secretary of State John Kerry and fly him to Boston where he'll be treated for a broken leg.

The Air Force plane touched down in Switzerland on Monday after taking off from a US base in Ramstein, Germany, and then heading to Massachusetts after collecting the 71-year-old politician.

Kerry tweeted out 'big thanks' to his well-wishers and said he looked forward to getting his leg set and getting back to work at the State Department. 

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An Air Force C-17 transport aircraft carrying US Secretary of State John Kerry took off from Geneva on Monday

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 The C-17 (seen right) was carrying 'additional military medical personnel in keeping with standard practice'

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Kerry, 71, was carried out of a medical helicopter (left) to board on the C-17 at Geneva Airport in Switzerland

Via: Daily Mail

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Investigation: Undercover agents snuck fake explosives, banned weapons past TSA

Undercover agents were able to sneak fake explosives and banned weapons through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, in an investigation that revealed a massive, system-wide security failure at America's airports. 

The findings were part of a DHS inspector general probe. The report is still classified, but Fox News has confirmed the investigation found security failures at dozens of airports. 

Homeland Security officials confirmed to Fox News that TSA screeners failed 67 out of 70 tests -- or 96 percent -- carried out by special investigators known as "red teams." 

In one case, an undercover agent with a fake bomb strapped to his back set off a magnetometer -- but the screener still failed to find it. 

A Department of Homeland Security spokesman told Fox News on Monday that DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson "immediately" directed changes upon learning of the investigation's findings, "to address the issues raised in the report." 

The tests, and findings, were first reported by ABC News. 

Via: Fox News

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If You Can't Trust A Clinton, How Can You Trust One Of Them To Run The Country?

With another shoe dropping in the Hillary Clinton scandal nearly every day, America is witnessing an unprecedented spectacle. Never in modern times has a presidential candidate been so tarnished — and yet also so popular.

Oops, there was one other time. Actually, two. Those were the times when Bill Clinton ran for president.

Like her husband, Hillary’s a human Rorschach test. He captured the White House twice without ever winning a majority of the popular vote, and polls paint an eerily similar challenge for her.

Half the country thinks she is fundamentally dishonest and untrustworthy. The other half is ready to make her president. One recent survey showed her beating each leading Republican rival head-to-head, but never getting to 50 percent. 

Via: Fox News

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4 Liberal Myths About Ronald Reagan Debunked

Presidential historian H. W. Brands’ new biography of Ronald Reagan and his conclusion that modern American politics is best seen as “The Age of Reagan” has aroused liberals to circulate once again the hoariest myths about the man and his presidency, including the malicious charge that Reagan was deliberately indifferent to the lot of African-Americans and other minorities.

Liberal Myth No. 1: Reagan’s dangerously belligerent foreign policy had little to do with the disintegration of Soviet Communism. Mikhail Gorbachev was the leader most responsible for bringing the Cold War to a non-nuclear conclusion.

Reality: In the 1970s, as presidential scholar Kiron Skinner has written, Reagan formulated four key ideas about U.S.–Soviet relations and the Cold War. One, discussion of Soviet expansionism around the world had to precede any talk about arms control, not the reverse. Two, America was an “exceptional” nation obligated to match deeds with words in the promotion of freedom around the world. Three, because the Soviet Union was an “abnormal” nation with no popular base of support, it was prepared to foment global crises to maintain its control. Four, the Soviet Union’s inefficient economy and inferior technology “could not survive competition” with America. Once elected president, Reagan began carrying out a multifaceted victory strategy based on these ideas.

Reagan ordered an across-the-board buildup of the defense establishment, including land-based weapons, new ships, and new medium-range missiles. He launched a psychological offensive, declaring that the Soviets’ “evil empire” was headed for “the ash heap of history.” He made SDI (the Strategic Defensive Initiative) the cornerstone of the Reagan Doctrine and would not surrender it, even at the Reykjavik summit. He strongly supported anti-Communist forces in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola, and Cambodia.

He carried his crusade for freedom into the disintegrating Soviet empire. Standing before Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate in 1987, he directly challenged the Kremlin, saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” A little more than two years later, the wall came down and Communism in Eastern and Central Europe collapsed. Lech Walesa, Nobel laureate and founder of the Polish trade union Solidarity that confronted the Communist regime, said of President Reagan, “We in Poland … owe him our liberty.”

Democracy triumphed in the Cold War, Reagan wrote in his autobiography, because it was a battle of ideas—“between one system that gave preeminence to the state and another that gave preeminence to the individual and freedom.” The Cold War ended in triumph for the idea of freedom because of Ronald Reagan, not Mikhail Gorbachev, who as late as 1988 quoted the Communist Manifesto when asked his position on private property.

Liberal Myth No. 2: The ’80s were a decade of greed that benefited only the wealthy and overlooked the middle class.

Reality: Reagan inherited a dangerously weakened economy. High tax rates had severely limited jobs and investment and brought in less than expected government revenue. President Reagan reversed the process by cutting personal tax rates and government regulations, stabilizing the economy and encouraging entrepreneurs.

Via: Daily Signal

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KATHLEEN WILLEY: HILLARY A 'MONEY-HUNGRY HYPOCRITE'

Kathleen Willey

Kathleen Willey, the former White House aide who claims President Bill Clinton sexually assaulted her in 1993 during his first term, now suspects the former president suffers from dementia, and calls Hillary Clinton a “money-hungry” hypocrite who looks “awfully haggard” and is the “worst role model for a wife and a mother and a politician.”

Willey, author of the book “Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton,” made her scathing comments in an interview Sunday night on Aaron Klein Investigative Radio, broadcast on New York’s AM 970 and Philadelphia 990 AM, as well as online.

She is now seriously questioning the mental health of both of the Clintons.

“[Hillary] is really looking awfully haggard these days,” Willey said.

“After watching [Bill's] performance with [NBC News' Cynthia] McFadden, when he said that I’ve gotta pay my bills, I think he’s showing early signs of dementia or something. He’s not the old Bill Clinton that we all remember. I mean, he was all over the place. Now you’re seeing clips of [Hillary] talking to herself all the time. I think that I want somebody in there who knows what they’re doing, and money isn’t the No. 1 issue for them. They have enough money. They made $30 million … in the last 15 months on speaking engagements. Isn’t that enough?”

What do YOU think? Is Kathleen Willey right that Bill Clinton has ‘dementia?’ Sound off in the WND Poll!

Speaking of Hillary Clinton’s behavior during those White House years, Klein said, “There’s no way Hillary did not know what was going on, that women were being abused and accosted by her husband. You took it further on my show. You said Hillary was the war on women.”

“She’s absolutely unqualified to run this country,” stated Willey. “Just look at something as simple as her judgment. … I question her judgment on a number of issues when it comes to being the president. She enabled his behavior. It’s as simple as that. She looked the other way. She might throw a tantrum, but she enabled it to happen again and again and again and again. Then she chooses to go after the women that he hooked up with to ruin them again and again and again and again. That’s how it works. I don’t see how anybody can respect a woman like that, especially another woman. She is the worst role model for a wife and a mother and a politician, anything. … She is a hypocrite.”

Via: WND

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CA: 2 GOP STATE SENS WANT MORE LIMITS ON WHERE CONCEALED PERMIT HOLDERS CAN CARRY

Melissa Golden/AP Photo

by AWR HAWKINS30 May 201517

During the past week. two Republican state senators in California voted to further limit the places in which concealed carry permit holders can carry a gun for self-defense.

Senators Pat Bates (R-Orange County) and Jim Nielsen (R-Roseville) both voted in support of SB 707, a bill which repeals the exemption allowing concealed carry permit holders to carry guns on campus for self-defense.

Neither Bates nor Nielsen cited an illegal use of a gun on campus by a concealed carry permit holder prior to siding with the Democrats to further limit the number of places in which people can defend themselves.

SB 707 is sponsored by senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis).

The Davis Enterprise reported that Wolk believes a ban on concealed carry on college campuses is necessary because concealed permits “are becoming more prevalent and easier to obtain.” Ironically, her statement comes as several lawsuits are filed in California over the difficultly of getting a concealed carry permit in the state.

One of the most prominent suits revolves around California’s “good cause” requirement, which forces law-abiding citizens to demonstrate a need for carrying a gun before being approved for a permit. The continued existence of this requirement automatically limits permit issuance to the few people who can walk into a county sheriff’s office and detail a specific threat against their lives. Only then are they justified in the carrying of a firearm for self-defense in the eyes of California law.

It should also be noted that concealed carry has been legal on Colorado campuses since 2003. In those twelve years, there have been no mass shootings or crimes on campus by permit holders.

In short, the argument that concealed carry permits are too easy to get is demonstrably false, and any concern over the behavior of college-age concealed carry permit holders is answered by Colorado’s example.

Via: Breitbart

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Employees Hired To Drive Drunk CA Senators Home At Taxpayer Expense

As a result of too many high profile drunken driver arrests involving California legislators, state senate officials have hired designated driving employees to drive home inebriated lawmakers.

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León refused to discuss details of the program.  “We’re not going to provide comment, because it’s a security issue,” his spokesman, Anthony Reyes, said.

The Sacramento Bee reported that four lawmakers in the past five years have been accused of driving while under the influence of alcohol.

Known as “special services assistants,” the designated drivers work in the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Office and are responsible for providing “ground transportation for Senate members.”

The Bee reported that the two employees—a retired Assembly sergeant-at-arms and a retiree from the Department of General Services—are paid $2,532 per month, of course at taxpayer expense.

A man who turned down the position said that the job description mandated that he work from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. to drive senators home “just if they were drinking too much…  and to pick them up and take them home.”

Via: Breitbart

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5 Supreme Court Cases to Watch in June

The Supreme Court's 2014-2015 term will soon reach its finale. By the end of June, when the justices depart for their summer break, the Court is expected to issue a series of blockbuster decisions, including rulings on gay marriage, death penalty drugs, and Obamacare. Here are five cases to watch as another momentous SCOTUS term reaches its peak.

Elonis v. United States

Anthony Elonis claims that he's "just an aspiring rapper" who likes to post violent lyrics and graphic first-person murder fantasies to Facebook. But after numerous Facebook postings in which Elonis wrote about killing his estranged wife, killing his boss, and killing others, including the FBI agent sent to investigate him, a federal jury found him guilty of transmitting "in interstate or foreign commerce any communications containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another." He was sentenced to 44 months in prison.

In Elonis v. United States the Supreme Court will decide whether those Facebook posts constituted a "true threat" of violence or whether they count as constitutionally protected speech under the First Amendment.

Glossip v. Gross

The state of Oklahoma employs a three-drug protocol when carrying out the death penalty via lethal injection. The first drug is supposed to render the prisoner totally unconscious and insensate. The second drug is a paralytic. The third drug does the killing. But what if there is a lack of medical consensus about whether or not the first drug actually renders the prisoner unconscious and insensate? What if paralyzed prisoners sometimes suffer excruciating pain in the final minutes before death? Would that lack of medical certainty about the drug's effects violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against imposing cruel and unusual punishments?

Glossip v. Gross centers on such concerns. At issue is Oklahoma's use of the drug midazolam to render prisoners unconscious during execution. According to the petitioners, midazolam "is not approved or used as a standalone anesthetic during painful surgeries, because it is inherently incapable of reliably inducing and maintaining deep, comalike unconsciousness." The Supreme Court is tasked with determining whether or not the lower court got it wrong when it allowed Oklahoma to continue using this potentially unreliable drug.

Horne v. United States Department of Agriculture

The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment requires the government to pay just compensation when it takes private property for a public use. Yet according to a federal regulation designed to "stabilize" the raisin market, raisin farmers such as Marvin and Laura Horne are required to physically surrender a portion of their crop to federal officials each year without receiving just compensation in return. For example, in 2002-2003, the USDA demanded 30 percent of the annual raisin crop, which amounted to 89,000 tons. In return, the federal government paid nothing back to raisin farmers.

Do the USDA's actions violate the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment? The Supreme Court will decide in Horne v. USDA.

Obergefell v. Hodges

Do state legislatures have the lawful power to prohibit gay marriage? Or do state bans on gay marriage violate the 14th Amendment, which forbids the states from denying the equal protection of the laws to any person within their respective jurisdictions? In Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court confronts the possibility of legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

King v. Burwell

The question before the Supreme Court in King v. Burwell is whether the Obama administration illegally implemented the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) when the IRS allowed tax credits to issue to certain persons who bought health insurance on federally established health care exchanges. According to the text of the ACA, such tax credits should only issue in connection with purchases made via an "Exchange established by the State." According to the Obama administration, however, the phrase "established by the State" is actually a "term of art" that encompasses exchanges established by both the states and by the federal government. The legal challengers, by contrast, maintain that the statutory text is clear and that the health care law means what it says. Depending on how the Court sees it, the long-term survival of Obamacare could be at risk.

Via: Reason.com

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Rod J. Rosenstein U.S. Attorney for the District of MARYLAND are you listening?

THIS IS WHAT I SEE
At first blush the demeanor of this Baltimore Mayor is GUILT!!!
It’s my gut feel and I always go with it.
If you don’t think drug money isn’t finding it’s way into the Mayor’s coffers you’re kidding yourself.
Drug money is the biggest game in the town of BALTIMORE and liberal black politicians will take it every time.
The liberal black Mayor of New Orleans and many others are now serving time for corruption and she knows it.
That puss of her’s spells “I hope nobody finds out!!!”
Hello hello – Rod J. Rosenstein U.S. Attorney for the District of MARYLAND are you listening???? – N.P.Contompasis

Via: Before its News

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CBS's Moonves expects deal with Apple on TV

Asa Mathat | Re/Code

Les Moonves at the 2015 Code Conference.

CBS is in talks with Apple about offering content on Apple's revamped TV offering, CBS CEO Les Moonves said Wednesday.

When asked whether he would consider a deal with Apple—which is working to update its Apple TV product—Moonves said he "probably" would.

What would it take? "Money."

Moonves said discussions were ongoing with Apple, and recently met with Eddy Cue, the company's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.

Moonves' comments came at the second annual Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

"Apple TV is trying to change the universe a little bit as did Sling as is Sony," he said.

What Apple will offer is "a more select group at a lower price. Any one of those groups will need CBS. We have the NFL, which is must have television. Any of those bundles we will be a part of that and we should get a better proportion of the share of that universe than we currently do on cable," he said.

Read MoreSee all of CNBC's coverage of Code Conference

Despite the rapid growth in non-traditional media, and the rise of a generation that thinks of on-demand television as normal, Moonves said he isn't terribly worried about digital and streaming media

Seventy percent or more of people who watch television do so while the show is being broadcast, and the average American still watches 5 hours of television a day, he said.

And, at least for now, network television remains a primary cultural institution in American life.

"For every Chelsea Handler who doesn't want to be on network television, I have a Steve Colbert who does," he said. "I think I've won."

Via: CNBC News

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The Supreme Court Could Transfer A Lot Of Political Power Away From Cities

This week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a lawsuit filed by conservative activists in Texas that could redefine the principle of “one person, one vote” as we know it. And if the Court sides with the plaintiffs, Republicans could stretch their already-historic majorities in the House and state legislatures even wider — the GOP would be helped just slightly in presidential elections.

Is Congress’s job to represent people, or just voters? Currently, all states are required to redraw their political boundaries based on the Census’s official count of total population every 10 years, which includes minors and noncitizen immigrants. But the Texas plaintiffs argue that states should be allowed to apportion seats based on where only U.S. citizens over 18 years of age live.

It seems like a minor detail, but it’s actually a major distinction. The decennial Census doesn’t track citizenship data, but the Census’s American Community Survey does. And although all 435 U.S. congressional districts have roughly equal total populations, the number of eligible voters and rates of actual participation can vary wildly from place to place.

For example, in Florida’s 11th District, home to the largely white retirement mecca of The Villages, 81 percent of all residents are adult citizens. But in California’s heavily Latino 34th District, anchored by downtown Los Angeles, only 41 percent of all residents are eligible to vote. The variations across districts in terms of actual turnout can be even more eye-popping. According to results compiled by Polidata for the Cook Political Report, Montana’s lone House district cast 483,932 votes for president in 2012, more than four times the tally in Texas’s 29th District, 114,901.

Via: FiveThirtyEightPolitics

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The hotel industry is sending a clear signal that the US economy is not grinding to a halt

Ethan Miller/Getty ImagesVisitors sit by the pool at the Riviera Hotel & Casino on April 30, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Want a sign that the economy is doing fine? Look no further than the hotel industry. 

First flagged by Bill McBride at Calculated Risk, in April all of the major metrics measuring the hotel industry hit all-time highs.

Via Jan Freitag at HotelNewsNow:

April had the highest occupancy ever (66.8%) and the highest room demand (99.4 million rooms) ever.

This pushed annualized occupancy (measured as a 12-month moving average) up to 65%.

What does this mean? All key performance indicators (rooms available, rooms sold, revenue, average daily rate, occupancy and revenue per available room) are still at all-time highs.

The broader economic takeaway is simple: If people are moving around the country, be it for leisure or business, the economic engine is still humming along. 

In his report, Freitag also noted that April was the 62nd-straight month that RevPAR, or revenue per available room, increased. What this measure means, most simply, is that hotels are getting more money for each of their rooms, whether via price increases or because each room is booked more often. And right now, it appears the latter is the case. 

In his report, Freitag writes, "Demand was 3 million rooms higher than last year, and supply was only 1.7 million roomnights higher. Ultimately that will change and the industry will sell less new rooms than build new rooms, but we do not expect that to happen until 2017."

So basically, there is a supply shortage in the hotel industry, and it looks like there will be one for some time. 

Via: Business Insider

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Colleges and Universities Have Grown Bloated and Dysfunctional

 American colleges and universities, long thought to be the glory of the nation, are in more than a little trouble. I’ve written before of their shameful practices — the racial quotas and preferences at selective schools (Harvard is being sued by Asian-American organizations), the kangaroo courts that try students accused of rape and sexual assault without legal representation or presumption of innocence, and speech codes that make campuses the least rather than the most free venues in American society.

In following these policies, the burgeoning phalanxes of university and college administrators must systematically lie, insisting against all the evidence that they are racially nondiscriminatory, devoted to due process and upholders of free speech. The resulting intellectual corruption would have been understood by George Orwell.

Alas, even the great strengths of our colleges and universities are threatening to become weaknesses. Sometimes you can get too much of a good thing.

American colleges, dating back to Harvard’s founding in 1636, have been modeled on the residential colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. The idea is that students live on or near (sometimes breathtakingly beautiful) campuses, where they can learn from and interact with inspired teachers.

American graduate universities, dating back to Johns Hopkins’ founding in 1876, have been built on the German professional model. Students are taught by scholars whose Ph.D. theses represent original scholarship, expanding the frontiers of knowledge and learning.

That model still works very well in math and the hard sciences. In these disciplines it’s rightly claimed that American universities are, as The Economist recently put it in a cover story, “the gold standard” of the world. But not so much in some of the mushier social sciences and humanities. “Just as the American model is spreading around the world,” The Economist goes on, “it is struggling at home.”

Via: Human Events

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