Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Why Liberals Hate Uber

Grandmothers may know best, as Hillary Clinton has put it in tweets, but judging by her latest economic speech, they don’t necessarily get or like Uber.
The ride-sharing service is synonymous with the new efficiency and convenience enabled by information technology, and is anathema to regulators and entrenched interests everywhere. Add to the list of its critics the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Hillary Clinton didn’t mention Uber by name but warned about the disruption caused by it and other companies in the so-called sharing economy. Her husband wanted to build a bridge to the 21st century; Hillary worries about the downsides of “advances in technology and expanding global trade.”
Republicans would be foolish not to welcome a contrast with Hillary over some of the hottest companies in the world. The Bush campaign let it be known that Jeb will order an Uber ride in San Francisco during a campaign swing there. If he really wants to stick it to Hillary, he will find someone handy to do minor repair work at his Miami headquarters through TaskRabbit, or borrow a wrench during his next trip to Des Moines through NeighborGoods.
In the liberal imagination, the sharing economy is hurting workers by substituting part-time, contractor work for higher-paying full-time jobs that come with the full panoply of traditional benefits and protections. This line of attack creates the impression that these new firms are sucking workers from stereotypical 9-to-5 jobs so they can be dispossessed by tech-savvy entrepreneurs. But obviously something is drawing workers to this kind of work.
In a study for Uber, Princeton University economist Alan Krueger found “drivers who partner with Uber appear to be attracted to the platform in large part because of the flexibility it offers, the level of compensation and the fact that earnings per hour do not vary much with hours worked, which facilitates part-time and variable hours.”
Uber is really a paragon of choice. Its drivers decide when or if they are going to work, and customers call it up at will. It cuts out the middleman in the form of the shabby, highly regulated taxi cartels more concerned with their own interests than customer satisfaction or convenience.

[VIDEO] HERE’S WHAT NEW HORIZONS’ PLUTO FLYBY WILL LOOK LIKE

NOBODY IS GOING to see New Horizons fly through the Pluto system. At least, not in real time. But thanks to the power of planetary physics you can watch the space probe pass by on your computer right now. NASA’s awesome visualization team has loaded the flight plan into their Eyes On The Solar System app.
The video above shows 8 hours of the flyby, speeding by at 10 minutes per second. The inset window shows what New Horizons’ suite of instruments see (and which instruments are currently active). And those images are updated as new data comes in.
“That is the best map of Pluto, and if they release another one tonight we’ll update it immediately,” says Doug Ellison, a NASA visualization producer. Like the rest of us, he’s really anticipating that new imagery. “It will be nice to put a map on Charon, it always sucks to have these gray potatoes in space.”
But if you’re really antsy for some real time communications, Ellison recommends you fire up DSN Now. This tool shows active communications from all NASA spacecraft. No need to burn your retinas waiting for New Horizons to perk up. The first communications post-flyby are scheduled to arrive at 9:07pm ET on July 14.
Via: Wired
Continue Reading....

[VIDEO] WATCH NETANYAHU FULL STATEMENT: ‘ISRAEL IS NOT BOUND BY IRAN DEAL AND WILL ALWAYS DEFEND ITSELF’

Netanyahu says the bottom line with this deal is that Iran will get billions in sanctions relief and will keep its nuclear program intact, giving them the ability to create a whole arsenal of nuclear weapons and the methods to deliver them in the coming years. Netanyahu calls this a stunning historic mistake and points out that Iran won’t just continue its terrorist activities in the region, but will increase them because of all the money it will get in sanctions relief.
Netanyahu adds at the very end of his statement that Israel is not bound by this deal and will always defend itself.

[VIDEO] DHS boss can’t say if admin reaching out to SF murder victim’s family

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson could not say Tuesday whether the Obama administration was reaching out to the family of the young woman killed earlier this month on a San Francisco pier, allegedly by an illegal immigrant, after the family complained that no one had been in touch. 
During a Capitol Hill hearing, Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, asked Johnson if the administration had reached out to the Steinle family. 
Johnson initially said: "To who?" 
Chabot clarified he was talking about Kathryn Steinle, 32, who was killed in San Francisco, allegedly by an illegal immigrant who had a lengthy felony record and had been deported several times before. (Johnson, who had spoken about her case earlier in the hearing, later told Fox News he simply couldn't hear the question.) 
Asked again if the administration was reaching out, Johnson said: "I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to that question, sir." 
Chabot urged Johnson to check, and he said he would. 

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

[SHOCK VIDEO]: Taxpayer-Funded Planned Parenthood Sells Baby Parts

Planned Parenthood thinks it can put a price on a baby: $30 to $100 per part. 

An undercover investigative video released July 14 showed a Planned Parenthood executive confess that her taxpayer-funded organization sells the body parts of aborted babies by using the partial-birth abortion procedure to ensure the baby parts stay intact. Pro-life leaders challenged the abortion giant after the Center for Medical Progress, a citizen journalist group focused on medical ethics, caught the scene on camera. 

In the video, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s Senior Director of Medical Services, met with investigators posing as buyers and representatives from a “Fetal Tissue Procurement Company” for lunch on July 25, 2014.

 “Every provider has had patients who want to donate their tissue and they absolutely want to accommodate them,” she began. “They just want to do it in a way that is not perceived as, ‘This clinic is selling tissue, this clinic is making money off of this.’”

 “A lot of people are looking for hearts these days,” she told the actors, before saying lungs and livers were also in demand. The price? $30 to $100 “per specimen.”

The video presented a “tissue order form” by stemexrpess.com “a multi-million dollar company” that offers “clinical specimens” to “biomedical researchers.” The site offers 40 different “organs and tissues” from unborn babies as old as 20 weeks. That means a baby – from the nose to the eyes and ears – is worth $1200 to $4,000 to Planned Parenthood. (And that’s without counting the “fetal blood” “fluids” and “nerves” also up for grabs). Nucatola explained how it’s important to know what body part is wanted to sell beforehand, to “know where they’re putting their forceps.” 

“We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact,” she said. Next, she described how partial-birth abortion procedures help keep the baby parts intact to sell.

 “And with the calvarium [the baby’s head], in general, some people will actually try to change the presentation so that it’s not vertex,” she continues. “So if you do it starting from the breech presentation, there’s dilation that happens as the case goes on, and often, the last step, you can evacuate an intact calvarium at the end.”


Montana Justice Of The Peace Reads Riot Act To City Commissioners That Want Confederate Memorial Rededicated, Compares Arabic Writing In Civic Center To Writing On ISIS Flag…

Lewis & Clark County Justice of the Peace Mike Swingley weighed in last week on the future of Helena's Confederate Memorial Fountain, urging the two city commissioners who are pushing for rededication of the monument to "start focusing on your real job."
"Shame on you both," Swingley wrote in an email last week to Commissioners Katherine Haque-Hausrath and Andres Haladay.
He suggested that a logical extension of the move to rededicate or otherwise alter the fountain would be to also remove other potentially offensive items.
"If you want to cleanse Helena of of the items that offend the sensitive, I request that you remove the Arabic writing from inside the Civic Center," he wrote. "It reminds me of the Arabic writing on the flag of ISIS and as 99.9% of the terrorist (sic) in the world have turned out to be Islamic fundamentalist and Arab speaking, it offends me that Helena would allow such a symbol."
Reached Monday by telephone, Swingley said he had received numerous notes of support since his email was described on the Montana Cowgirl blog. He said the words had been taken out of context.
Haque-Hausrath says the comments are troubling even in context, and judges need to avoid even an appearance of bias.
"Judge Swingley's statements are deeply troubling because they exhibit such a clear bias toward Arabic and Muslim people that there is no way anyone who might even appear to be Arabic or Muslim could be confident about getting a fair trial in his courtroom," she wrote in an email to MTN News.
While Swingley may have been trying to make an absurd example of over-reaction to offensive materials, Haque-Hausrath says there's reason to believe he was serious in what he said about Arabs and Muslims.
"Even if Judge Swingley does not actually want to remove the Arabic writing from the Civic Center, he exhibited clear bias toward Arabic and Muslim people when he said that (he) considers them to be synonymous with terrorism," she wrote. "Regardless of whether Judge Swingley was trying to tell a joke, or he was under a lot of stress, or had a hard childhood, it is completely unacceptable for a sitting judge to espouse racist views in an official public record."
Swingley said any suggestion he's a racist is ridiculous and that he's always treated all people fairly in his court. He said that when he was a Montana Highway Patrol trooper based in Hardin for three years, he got along very well with the people of the Crow Indian Nation.
"I have a very diverse background working with native Americans and that blood runs through my veins," Swingley wrote in an email to Haladay. "I will always stand up for others, race is not a factor in my thinking, ever. Common sense is."
The low-key Confederate Monument, off Park Avenue in Hill Park, was given to the city by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1916, in tribute to Confederate soldiers.
Haque-Hausrath likens the monument the to the Confederate flag and said it was installed as part of a nationwide propaganda effort to improve the reputation of the Confederacy. Swingley disagrees.
"Finally, I suggest you both learn more about the town you live in and the history of it," Swingley wrote in the email. "The truth is, Helena is a great place to live, with virtually no racism, and despite a beginning that was heavily influenced by confederates, old Helena had more than 2000 ex slaves who moved here, lived and worked successfully. That fountain is a symbol of success and a town that shaped itself as a melting pot of all, ex confederates and ex-union, plus Chinese, native Americans, ex-slaves and many more, including foreign nationals of Ireland, Germany, etc.,"
Swingley also said he the commission should focus instead on mental health issues, methamphetamine, sidewalks, streets, water lines, and police and fire resources.
"Your efforts are misguided," he wrote. "There is no issue with Helena Montana with race wars, no Nazi White fundamentalist, no problems that raise issue with this ridiculous idea. It is an attempt at getting in the spotlight with an idea to show how sensitive the commission is to the issues. I do not believe the commission has the power or position to be the political, ethical and moral think take of Helena. I suggest you start focusing on your real job."
Haladay responded to Swingley, discussing his about city issues one by one but not directly addressing Swingley's comments about Muslims or the Confederacy.
In his original email and again in his reply to Haladay, Swingley lamented the loss of Helena's historic character.
"I watched as a child while the Marlowe Theater was destroyed (and) the downtown area changed forever during urban renewal," he wrote to Haladay. "Few truly historic items remain in Helena that have not been destroyed, moved, changed or rewritten."
He also repeated his call for improvements in tackling the problems of mental illness and methamphetamine.
"As you are fully aware, the mental illness is not only uncontrolled, but intimately connected to the drug and alcohol issues er face," he wrote. "It is time to rethink and retool our approach."
The City Commission last week charged the City-County Heritage Tourism Council to come up with a proposal for a rededication and possible new signage for the fountain. It could be a few months before that seven-person council makes its recommendation.
Swingley's full email is below:
Commissioners,
I have to say, I have been disappointed by the City Commission in the past. I spent my entire life in Helena and watched as the commission and Urban Renewal committee tore down buildings and reshaped Helena forever. Much of our history was lost in that debacle and Helena has never been the same.
Keep in mind that slavery was only one issue that caused the Civil War. The largest portion was economic based war as the southern states wanted to separate and begin printing their own currency, and detach from the banks of the United States.
Today I read of the Commission's issue with the fountain in Hill Park and I am, once again frustrated on many points. First, Dylan Roof was a mentally ill man who committed a heinous act in South Carolina and had obviously aligned his beliefs with the confederate flag and the race issues in the south. The key here is mental illness. The knee jerk reaction to this by the commission is unacceptable and misguided. If you want to tackle the issue at hand, start dealing with the rampant mental illness issues in Helena and the lack of resources to deal with them.
Further, Helena has a multitude of issues that the commission is not talking about. Streets are in disrepair, water lines breaking, Fire and Law Enforcement are in need of more resources, and a recent article focused on the lack of funds for basic maintenance issues in Helena. My own children have to walk in the street to school because there are no sidewalks on Hauser Blvd where we live and the City has allowed the residents to landscape the city right of way to the point that you can't even walk unless you are on the street. The meth issue is absolutely killing Helena. I have never heard the Commission even speaking the words "meth" or "mental Illness". Fix these things first before your non-issue.
Second, the fountain in Hill Park is a memorial placed by the daughters of the confederacy, in honor of their fathers. It is not possible to separate the history of Helena from the ex-confederate soldiers and their influence here. Helena was discovered by four individuals, at least two of whom were ex-confederates.
The four Georgians, D.J. Miller, Reginald Stanley, John Cowan and John Crabb, started the gold digs here and subsequently the town. Half or more of the miners were from the southern states. White's City, a ghost town east of Helena is located in Confederate Gulch. The fact is that
Helena was heavily influenced and started by them. If you want to cleanse Helena of all Confederate influence, you will need to rename several schools in Helena, including Four Georgians Elementary, several streets, tear down the Montana Club which was started by the wealthy ex-confederate gold miners and had black servants working there, and much more.
Your efforts are misguided. There is no issue in Helena Montana with race wars, no Nazi White fundamentalist, no problems that raise issue to this ridiculous idea. It is an attempt at getting in the spotlight with an idea to show how sensitive the commission is to the issues. I do not believe the commission has the power or position to be the political, ethical and moral think tank of Helena. I suggest you start focusing on your real job.
Third, if you want to cleanse Helena of the items that offend the sensitive, I request that you remove the Arabic writing from inside the Civic Center. It reminds me of the Arabic writing on the flag of ISIS and as 99.9% of the terrorist in the world have turned out to be Islamic fundamentalist and Arabic speaking, it offends me that Helena would allow such a symbol. I realize that the history of the Civic Center was that of a Masonic/Shriner's temple, that aligned themselves with the far east and had a large Arabic influenced theme.
But if we are going to rewrite and ignore the facts of history, we need to be fair and remove that symbolism as that conflict is still active and Christians like me are being killed daily by Arabic speaking fundamentalist who show those characters on their flag.
Finally, I suggest you both learn more about the town you live in and the history of it. The truth is, Helena is a great place to live, with virtually no racism, and despite a beginning that was heavily influenced by confederates, old Helena had more than 2000 ex slaves who moved here, lived and worked successfully.
That fountain is a symbol of success and a town that shaped itself as a melting pot of all, ex confederates and ex-union, plus Chinese, native Americans, ex-slaves and many more, including foreign nationals of Ireland, Germany, etc.
Shame on you both. And before you accuse me of being pro-confederate, I will inform you that my ancestors ALL served with the North in the Civil War and two of my ancestors served in Anderson Ville Prison. My family came to Montana in covered wagons and I have spent my entire adult life as a trooper and now judge defending and protecting all, regardless of their race, religion, political affiliation, etc.....
Respectfully,
Mike

[OPINION] Carr: Pesky facts confirm Donald Trump right on illegals

Every time somebody watches a cable TV newscast, or reads a newspaper, it’s more votes for Donald Trump.
Even the moonbat media can’t ignore the tsunami of violent crime being committed by welfare-collecting illegal aliens. And now we have reports that Donald Trump was threatened by an escaped billionaire Mexican drug dealer, one of those criminals that all Democrats from Obama on down now want to pretend don’t exist.
Illegals are running amok, and the media are angry — at Donald Trump! Odd, though, isn’t it, how the Beautiful People still won’t acknowledge what open borders hath wrought? God forbid the media should ever say that any perp is an illegal. That’s “hate speech.” If you must mention a criminal’s immigration status at all, use Juan Ellis Bush’s preferred euphemism — valedictorian.
Take what happened in Waltham this weekend, at a DCR pool. One Victor Lopez was arrested and charged with groping an 11-year-old girl.
After his arrest, Lopez needed an interpreter to speak to the state police. He had a “Guatemalan passport.” Needless to say, he was identified as a “Waltham man.”
I asked the state police about Lopez’s immigration status. “He’s not a permanent U.S. citizen,” the flack said. What is a “permanent U.S. citizen?”
I asked the same question of the Middlesex DA — is Lopez an illegal alien?
The email response was: “Please note that our office has a Waltham residency for Victor Lopez.”
I didn’t ask about his residency, I asked whether he was a valedictorian. By the way, his bail was initially set at $300 — for groping a little girl in a pool. Do you suppose he paid with his EBT card?
Donald Trump tells the truth about this crime wave, and he’s shunned by the Beautiful People.
Last week in Lawrence the cops stopped a guy who first gave them a false name and then couldn’t produce a driver’s license. A valedictorian, perhaps?
The cops searched his car, then tossed his apartment. The haul was 9 kilos of heroin, two handguns and $340,000 in cash. Now we were definitely in valedictorian territory. I called the Lawrence PD to confirm my suspicions. Nobody called back. I called the Essex County DA’s office. Ditto.
They think we’re so dumb that we can’t figure out who’s committing all these crimes. Anyone who tells the truth must be destroyed.
Two weeks ago, the N.H. State Police grabbed two valedictorians at the DMV in Manchester. In their press release, the staties to their credit identified the perps (who’d given phony names — notice a pattern here?) as Dominicans.
But the next morning, the lead in the Union Leader was “Two men were arrested …”
Last month a sportscaster in Oklahoma City was run over by a valedictorian who’d been deported three times. In his wallet, he had no driver’s license, but he did have cocaine.
The headline: “Man charged in accident … ”

[EDITORIAL] Hillary’s practiced deceptions

[VIDEO] Lindsey Graham: Iran Deal a 'Declaration of War on Israel, Mideast'

The goal going into the talks with Iran was to dismantle its nuclear program, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday, but instead, the Obama administration has "ensured they've become a nuclear nation" and created a situation that will lead to nuclear proliferation throughout the Middle East.

"This is the most dangerous, irresponsible step I have ever seen in the history of watching the Middle East," the South Carolina Republican and presidential candidate told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "You have put every Sunni Arab in a terrible spot ... with the passage of time, this industrial-strength program we have locked in place will become a nuclear program."

In regards to Israel, Graham said,  "You have taken their biggest threat on the planet, who constantly chants 'Death to Israel,' and you have created a possible death sentence."

And as for the United States, "you have taken our chief antagonist, people who have killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq, toppled pro-American governments throughout the region, including Yemen, and given them capability to become a nuclear nation."
Graham blamed the deal on a "dangerously naive" President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, who have effectively brought new levels of chaos to the Middle East.

"Any senator who votes for this is voting for a nuclear arms race in the Mideast, and is voting to give the largest state sponsor of terrorism $18 billion," said Graham. "What do you think they'll do with the money? It's going to go to [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad, to Hezbollah and Hamas."

Graham said he would have been more open to a deal that tied Iran's enrichment programs to a change in its behavior, including inspections and finances.

"I would never relieve inspections until there was a certification that Iran is no longer the state sponsor of terrorism," said Graham, adding that he also would never have agreed to lifting the arms embargo "until they changed their behavior."

The deal is also a "virtual declaration of war against Sunni Arabs," said Graham. "You're making every Sunni Arab nation recalculate. You have locked in an industrial-sized nuclear program on behalf of the Iranians."

Further, the deal ensures that "every Sunni Arab nation who can get a nuclear weapon will because now they must," Graham said. "The goal President Obama set out [to achieve] I shared — to dismantle the program, to give them a nuclear capability consistent with a peaceful power program, and to require them to change their behavior before you gave them weapons or a nuclear capability. The goal has not been achieved."

Instead, he said, "With this deal, you've ensured that the Arabs will go nuclear. You have put Israel in the worst possible box. This will be a death sentence over time for Israel if they don't push back. You put our nation at risk."
And at the end, "every goal the president expressed two years ago has absolutely not been met, and you put the arms embargo on the table at a time when they're destroying the Mideast with their conventional weapons program," Graham said. "This is a terrible deal. It's going to make everything worse, and I really fear that we have set in motion a decade of chaos."

Even though the agreement's details have not yet been made public, Graham said he has been to the Middle East enough to know that the deal is a disaster, as it will "lock in a nuclear program that is mature over time without behavior change because that's going to push every Arab to get a weapon."

Graham said he considers Kerry a "good man," but he and Obama "want a deal so bad" Kerry is not listening to the Arabs or to Israel, as they are "are telling him something he doesn't want to hear."

The deal will now move to the Senate for a 60-day review period, and Graham said he plans to argue to his colleagues that it will initiate a nuclear arms race, and that giving Iran cash means "they're going to put it in the war machine, which puts us at risk."

He said he will also "tell the president to go back and try to get a better deal. Tell them there's a better deal to be had."

Graham also had a warning for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton: "If you think this is a good deal, you're dangerously naive." But still, he said even she could broker a better deal than the one at hand.

"I think she could negotiate a better deal than this," he said. "I think everybody on our side could, except Rand Paul."

And he said that if the Senate cares about Israel, "you will not put her in this box," and if it cares about the United States, "you will not allow our chief antagonist to become a nuclear threshold nation ... If you care about Americans, you will not give this regime one penny."


Via: Newsmax

Continue Reading....

Hillary’s Tired, Demagogic Economic Proposals

Hillary's Tired, Demagogic Economic Proposals
Hillary Clinton is a walking, talking cliche who spouts decades-old sound bites that were bad enough when her husband first delivered them but are painfully anachronistic today. Same old material, same old demagoguery.
You would think a self-styled “progressive” would be less regressive and reactionary, but this woman apparently believes that the Clinton magic of the ’90s can be dusted off and resurrected without the slightest rhetorical modification. The problem with that is that Clintonomics only works on the heels of Reaganomics and liberals have been squeezing every last ounce of Reaganomics out of our system.
In her first major economic policy speech at The New School in New York, Hillary made clear that she wants to revive the shamefully populist Clinton-Gore trope of “trickle-down economics.” This hackneyed slogan is grounded in the lie that Republicans believe that only by stacking the deck in favor of the wealthiest people will the rest of America be able to do better, and then only by catching their breadcrumbs as they trickle down into the general economy.
Hogwash. First, neither conservatives nor Republicans advocate special advantages for the rich. Most propose some level of progressive income taxes, which means stacking the deck against the higher-income groups, not in favor of them. Even those who support a flat tax, by definition, are not favoring the rich over the poor.
Second, conservatives don’t argue that the non-rich succeed only by licking scraps from the rich. They do say that freer markets are conducive to economic growth across the board. Yes, opening up the markets and reducing onerous taxes provide incentives for risk-taking and spur economic growth, and when big and small businesses grow, they have more jobs to offer and people have more money to spend. It’s not a matter of trickling down; it’s that a rising tide lifts all boats. The policies that are conducive to rich people’s succeeding are the same ones that lead to lower- and middle-income earners doing better as well.
Conservatives don’t favor the rich, but liberals discriminate against them and all who succeed or who aspire to achieve. Roughly half of income earners in the United States don’t pay income taxes now, and higher-income earners are responsible for paying a wildly disproportionate share of federal revenues. To claim they don’t pay their fair share is objectively dishonest, and no one with half the brains Clinton’s admirers attribute to her could possibly believe it.

How The Republican Presidential Candidates Are Responding To The Iran Deal

The Republicans running for president are blasting the Obama administration over the nuclear deal announced with Iran Tuesday.
“President Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran will be remembered as one of America’s worst diplomatic failures,” said Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. “The deal allows Tehran to dismantle U.S. and international sanctions without dismantling its illicit nuclear infrastructure—giving Iran’s nuclear weapons capability an American stamp of approval.”
“This is the most dangerous, irresponsible step I have ever seen in the history of watching the Mideast,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
“Shame on the Obama administration for agreeing to a deal that empowers an evil Iranian regime to carry out its threat to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ and bring ‘death to America,’” former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said. “John Kerry should have long ago gotten up on his crutches, walked out of the sham talks, and went straight to Jerusalem to stand next to Benjamin Netanyahu and declared that America will stand with Israel and the other sane governments of the Middle East instead of with the terrorist government of Iran.”
“I have said from the beginning of this process that I would not support a deal with Iran that allows the mullahs to retain the ability to develop nuclear weapons, threaten Israel, and continue their regional expansionism and support for terrorism,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said. “Based on what we know thus far, I believe that this deal undermines our national security.”
“The nuclear agreement announced by the Obama Administration today is a dangerous, deeply flawed, and short sighted deal,” said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. “A comprehensive agreement should require Iran to verifiably abandon – not simply delay – its pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability.”
“The deal threatens Israel, it threatens the United States, and it turns 70 years of nuclear policy on its head,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said. “I urge Republicans and Democrats in Congress to put aside politics and act in the national interest. Vote to disapprove this deal in numbers that will override the President’s threatened veto.”
“If Secretary Clinton goes along with President Obama’s efforts to appease Iran, it will make our enemies stronger, endanger our ally Israel and trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East that will destabilize the region,” said Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
“The Iran deal announced today with fanfare and another heaping dose of false hope is almost certain to prove an historic mistake with potentially deadly consequences,” former neurosurgeon Ben Carson said.
“President Obama’s decision to sign a nuclear deal with Iran is one of the most destructive foreign policy decisions in my lifetime. For decades to come, the world will have to deal with the repercussions of this agreement, which will actually make it easier for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon,” said former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
President Obama made an early morning statement at the White House, saying: “Today, because America negotiated from a position of strength and principle, we have stopped the spread of nuclear weapons in this region.”

Liberal Boston Mayor Says Trump Is Not Welcome

Boston’s liberal mayor Martin Walsh told the Boston Herald on Monday that he would do everything he could to block a Trump hotel or real estate project in Boston because of Republican Donald Trump’s remarks regarding illegal immigrants during his presidential campaign announcement last month.
“I didn’t criticize him; I just don’t agree with him at all,” Walsh said to the Herald. “I think his comments are inappropriate. And if he wanted to build a hotel here, he’d have to make some apologies to people in this country.”
Yet this morning Walsh tweeted “we are committed to retaining our talent and by working together to create a thriving innovative #Boston” in regards to an event coming to Boston.
Trump has received widespread condemnation from many on the left and some on the right for his remarks.
“They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us [sic]. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” Trump said in his campaign kickoff speech.
Trump has remained firm in his immigration views, asking for an apology from the media because of the escape of drug lord ‘El Chapo’ from a Mexico Prison over the weekend. Trump believes that the escape validates his remarks.

‘The Law Is the Law!': Megyn Kelly, Jose Antonio Vargas Face Off over Sanctuary Cities

megyn
Fox’s Megyn Kelly and journalist Jose Antonio Vargas tussled tonight over “sanctuary cities” and whether cities with those laws need to be changed following the death of Kate Steinle.

Vargas said the issue here squarely comes down to ICE not acting when they could have issued a warrant for the killer’s arrest. He pointed out that sanctuary cities are beneficial for immigrants who “can actually report to police.”
Kelly still insisted, “The law is the law, and fidelity to the law is what binds us together.”
Vargas––who has made it clear he wants the media to start calling out Donald Trump on this issue––made it clear that the San Francisco killer doesn’t represent millions of other illegal immigrants. Kelly agreed that anyone making that leap is “engaging in hyperbole,” but still called sanctuary cities “lawless.”
Watch the video below, via Fox News:

Persecuting Christians, attacking free speech

My parents immigrated to the United States in 1951, after surviving the tyranny of Nazi Germany and Soviet communism.

It never would have occurred to them that any American, such as Aaron and Melissa Klein of Oregon, would have their freedom to speak, their right to live their lives according to their religious beliefs and their ability to practice their chosen profession taken away by an unapologetic, self-righteous government bureaucrat in basic disregard of the most fundamental tenets of the First Amendment.

But that is exactly what has happened to the Kleins, who committed what is these days the socially unacceptable faux pas of refusing to bake a wedding cake for Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer. Instead of going to one of the dozens of other bakers who would have baked them a cake, this lesbian couple filed a claim for “emotional damages” against the Kleins with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI).

BOLI is run by Commissioner Brad Avakian, a generous financial supporter of Basic Rights Oregon, the largest homosexual rights group in Oregon. This means he has an inherent conflict of interest in the matter.

In fact, emails obtained through a public records request show Avakian and other employees at BOLI worked behind the scenes with the gay lobbying group to organize the persecution of the Kleins through the administrative hearing process. The Kleins lost their bakery business because of a boycott and the burden of defending themselves in the administrative process that lacked the due process protections of a court, where Avakian himself was the final judge, jury and executioner.

On July 2, just days before we celebrated the Declaration of Independence and the fight for our liberties, Avakian issued a final resolution of the complaint. He ordered the Kleins to pay Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer $135,000 for “emotional” damages.

Apparently, not getting the cake they wanted caused them “acute loss of confidence,” “doubt,” “excessive sleep,” “shock,” “uncertainty,” “high blood pressure,” “impaired digestion,” and a host of other symptoms. Of course, they didn’t lose their jobs, their profession, or their ability to make a living as the Kleins did.

But Avakian didn’t stop there. He found it unacceptable that the Kleins defended themselves in the media and -- horrors -- on their Facebook page! Apparently, talking about how they try to live their lives in accordance with their religious beliefs was too much.

By “repeatedly appearing in public to make statements” about the complaint, the Kleins are “liable for any resultant emotional suffering experienced by” the lesbian couple. Therefore, Avakian ordered the Kleins to “cease and desist from publishing, circulating, issuing, or displaying” any communication about their beliefs about sexual orientation and public accommodations. He overruled the hearing officer’s recommendation to dismiss this part of the claim.

America was founded on the basis of religious freedom and free speech. Freedom from persecution like that instigated by Avakian drew many to America, from the pilgrims to the Huguenots. Those principles were embedded in our First Amendment and ingrained in American culture -- until now.

The issue here is not same-sex marriage, a fiercely debated social issue, or whether you approve of it. The issue is that all Americans have the right not only to live their life according to their religious principles without the government dictating what social mores are acceptable, but also the right to speak freely -- particularly when they are being hounded by the government.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote that “freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins.” With this unfair, unjust, and unwarranted judgment and gag order against the Kleins by an unprincipled government official, that pillar has just been destroyed in Oregon.

 - Hans von Spakovsky is a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a former Justice Department attorney.
Originally appeared in Providence Journal

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