Does Congress Defund Matter? Dept. of Commerce Funds Internet Giveaway Anyway.

Commerce Dept. gives sole-source contract to Harvard to review Internet giveaway proposal that Congress defunded.

March 31, 2016, Fairfax, VA — Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting a $18,690 sole-source contract by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to review a Commerce Department proposal to relinquish the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in spite of being defunded by Congress in the omnibus spending bill from performing the transition:

"How is the Commerce Department giving out a taxpayer-funded no-bid contract to the President and Fellows of Harvard College to review the IANA functions transition that Commerce is prohibited from even performing? Congress has defunded the Internet giveaway three times, but still work continues, with Commerce Department officials traveling all over the world to junkets and conferences to prepare the proposal, which was finalized in Morocco just this month. They've already agreed to it. If Congress' Article One power of the purse is so easily ignored by the executive branch without adverse recourse, Congress has little reason to exist.

"The FBO listing even erroneously claimed at first that 'Congress has mandated the review prior to NTIA transitioning its stewardship of certain Internet technical functions to the global multistakeholder community...' before amending it after a Senate office pointed out the error, since Congress never actually mandated any review of the transition. In fact, Congress has denied funds to engage in the transition. Thus it lacks funds to even consider the transition, let alone executing various stages of the proposal to prepare the transition.

"Imagine if Congress defunded a house from being built, and so the agency comes in, builds the foundation, builds the walls, puts on the roof and the doors and windows in, gets plumbing and other utilities all lined up, but doesn't put the doorbell on it, and says it's not a house. That's where we are with the Internet giveaway, where Congress mandated that no funds be spent in the transfer, but the proposal was produced and finalized with the Commerce Department's participation and funding anyway."
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Also Read: Who told NTIA it was still okay to work on Internet giveaway after Congress defunded it? by Rick Manning

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Tags: Dept. of Commerce, funds internet Giveaway, Congress, defund, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Gitmo Detainees: How Many More Will Rejoin Terror Groups?

There Have Been Americans That Have Died Because Of Gitmo Detainees’
The Pentagon plans to transfer about a dozen inmates of the Guantanamo military prison to at least two countries that have agreed to take them, a U.S. official said on Wednesday…” (“Pentagon To Send About A Dozen Guantanamo Inmates To Other Countries Soon,” Reuters, 3/30/16)

• “The first of the transfers are expected in the next few days< and the others will take place in coming weeks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.” (“Pentagon To Send About A Dozen Guantanamo Inmates To Other Countries Soon,” Reuters, 3/30/16)

REP. DANA ROHRABACHER (R-CA): “Let me ask you this. We say that about 30 percent or whatever that figure is that have been released have been -- have returned to terrorist activities. How many lives have been lost by those terrorists who went back to their terrorist activities?” … PAUL LEWIS, Defense Department Special Envoy For Guantanamo Closure: “Sir, what I can tell you is unfortunately, there have been Americans that have died because of Gitmo detainees.” (U.S. House Of Representatives, Foreign Affairs Committee, Hearing, 3/23/16)

Obama Administration Previously: 'We're Going To Die Trying' To Close Gitmo
WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF DENIS McDONOUGH: “We’ll do audacious executive action throughout the course of the year — I’m confident about that.” (“President Obama May Require Federal Contractors To List Campaign Gifts,” The New York Times, 1/19/16)

• McDONOUGH: “We will close Gitmo ... That's what the president will do.” (Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday,” 1/10/16)

SUSAN RICE, National Security Adviser: ‘I can tell you we’re going to die trying’ “‘I can’t say with certainty that we’re 100 percent going to get there, but I can tell you we’re going to die trying,’ said Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, in an interview.” (“Obama's Counterterrorism Chief Takes Fresh Stab At Closing Guantanamo,” Reuters, 11/4/15)

SEC DEF: style="color: red; font-size: 14pt;">‘There Are People In Gitmo Who Are So Dangerous That We Cannot Transfer Them’
SEC. OF DEFENSE ASH CARTER: “[T]here are people in Gitmo who are so dangerous that we cannot transfer them to the custody of another government no matter how much we trust that government. I can't assure the president that it would be safe to do that. ... We're not going to be able to close Gitmo by magically making safe everybody who's in there.” (CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” 1/24/16)

• GTMO Detainee: “... to the American be patient, your days is coming, one day we going to slaughter you behind the tree.” [Detainee leading the rest of his cell block singing]. (Department Of Defense Briefing, June 2006)
• GTMO Detainee: “Their day is coming.  One day I will enjoy sucking their blood, although their blood is bitter, undrinkable…” (Joint Task Force GTMO, “JTF-GTMO Information On Detainees,” P.5, 04/04/05)

‘30 Percent Of The … Detainees Transferred Or Released, Are Now Either Confirmed Or Suspected Of Reengaging’ In Terrorist Activities
“The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has released its latest statistics on the number of former Guantanamo detainees who are either confirmed or suspected of returning to the fight. … The ODNI says that a total of 196 ex-Gitmo detainees, or 30 percent of the 653 total detainees transferred or released, are now either confirmed or suspected of reengaging. The number of confirmed recidivists (117) outnumbers those on the suspected list (79). The figures are current as of July 15, 2015.” (“More Than 100 Ex-Gitmo Recidivists At Large,” The Weekly Standard, 9/4/15)

• ODNI: “Reengagement of Former Guantanamo Bay (GTMO) Detainees as of 15 July 2015: …Confirmed of Reengaging: 117 of 653 (17.9%) …Suspected of Reengaging: 79 of 653 (12.1%).” (Summary Of The Reengagement Of Detainees Formerly Held At Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,” Office Of The Director Of National Intelligence, 9/15)
• ODNI: “Based on trends identified during the past eleven years, we assess that some detainees currently at GTMO will seek to reengage in terrorist or insurgent activities after they are transferred.” (Summary Of The Reengagement Of Detainees Formerly Held At Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,” Office Of The Director Of National Intelligence, 9/15)
• EXAMPLE: “A hardened Al Qaeda fighter who served as Usama bin Laden's jack-of-all-trades before spending a decade at Guantanamo Bay made a military prosecutor's prophecy come true when he resurfaced on the field of battle in Yemen, where he is one of the terror group's top leaders.” (“Prophecy Realized: Ex-Gitmo Detainee, UBL Aide Resurfaces On Battlefield In Yemen,” Fox News 12/10/15)

This Year: Former Detainees ‘Promot[ing] Jihad,’ Rejoining Al Qaeda, Suspected Of Recruiting Islamic State Fighters
“A former detainee at the American military prison in Guantanamo Bay, who once served as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard and driver, recently released an audio tape in which he promotes jihad in east Africa.” ("Freed Guantanamo Bay Detainee Promotes Jihad in Somalia," ABC News, 2/26/2016)

• “In a message released Thursday on the social media messaging app Telegram and attributed to Ibrahim Qosi, Qosi told fighters in Somalia to ‘continue the raid with a raid, and light up the ground beneath the feet of the Crusaders and team them that the lands of Islam are a fortress that is not allowed to the disbelievers, and a graveyard for the invaders,' according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group. 'Victory is brought by blood and suffering, not by promises and wishes from every libertine,’ he said.” ("Freed Guantanamo Bay Detainee Promotes Jihad in Somalia," ABC News, 2/26/2016)
• “Though the detainee file describes Qosi as ‘high risk’ and of ‘high intelligence value,’ he was released from Guantanamo Bay in July 2012 after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and supporting terrorism. He had originally been sentenced to 14 years, but the sentence was reduced to two . . . At the time of his release to Sudan, the Pentagon said the U.S. had coordinated with Sudan's government to ensure ‘appropriate security and humane treatment measures’ for Qosi. But by late 2014, Qosi had reportedly joined al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, AQAP, and shortly thereafter became one of its senior members.” ("Freed Guantanamo Bay Detainee Promotes Jihad in Somalia," ABC News, 2/26/2016)

“Former Guantanamo detainee among 4 arrested in Spain, Morocco for Islamic State ties.” ("Former Guantanamo Detainee Among 4 Arrested In Spain, Morocco For Islamic State Ties,"The Associated Press, 2/23/2016)

• “Spanish and Moroccan police on Tuesday arrested four suspected members of a jihadi cell that sought to recruit fighters for the Islamic State group, including one described as a former Guantanamo detainee who once fought with militants in Afghanistan. One of those detained in Ceuta was the former Guantanamo detainee who was not named by Spanish authorities but described as ‘a leader who was trained in handling weapons, explosives and in military tactics.’” ("4 Arrested In Spain, Morocco For IS Armed Group Ties," The Associated Press, 2/23/2016)

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Tags: Gitmo  detainees, how many, will rejopin, Terror Groups To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

It’s Only Trump

Donald Trump

Ann Coulter: The only question for Republicans is: Which candidate can win states that Mitt Romney lost?

Start with the fact that, before any vote is cast on Election Day, the Democrats have already won between 90 and 98 percent of the black vote and 60 to 75 percent of the Hispanic and Asian vote. Unless Republicans run the table on the white vote, they lose.

If there's still hope, it lies with Trump and only Trump. Donald Trump will do better with black and Hispanic voters than any other Republican. But it's with white voters that he really opens up the electoral map.

A Republican Party that wasn't intent on committing suicide would know that. But Stuart Stevens, the guy who lost a winnable presidential election in 2012, says it's impossible for Republicans to get one more white vote -- and the media are trying to convince the GOP that he's right.

Stevens says Romney tapped out every last white voter and still lost, so he says Republicans are looking for "the Lost Tribes of the Amazon" hoping to win more white votes: "In 1980, Ronald Reagan won 56 percent of white voters and won a landslide victory of 44 states. In 2012, Mitt Romney won 59 percent of whites and lost with 24 states."

Apparently, no one's told Stevens about the 50-state Electoral College. The national white vote is irrelevant. Presidential elections are won by winning states. (Only someone who got his ass kicked running an eminently electable candidate might not know this.)

Excluding third parties and breaking it down to a two-man race, Mitt Romney won 88 percent of the white vote in Mississippi, but only 40 percent of the white vote in Massachusetts. What sense does it make to talk about his national percentage of the white vote with disparities like that?

Romney lost the white vote to Obama in five crucial swing states: Maine (42 percent of the white vote), Minnesota (47 percent), New Hampshire (48 percent), Iowa (48 percent) and Wisconsin (49 percent). He only narrowly beat Obama's white vote in other important swing states -- Illinois (51 percent), Colorado (52 percent), Michigan (53 percent), Ohio (54 percent) and Pennsylvania (54 percent).

Increasing the white vote in these states gives Trump any number of paths to victory.

If Trump wins only the same states as Romney, but adds Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois -- where Romney's white vote was below his national average -- Trump wins with 280 electoral votes. (Romney wasn't an ideal candidate in the industrial Midwest.)

Trump could lose any one of those states and make up for it by winning Minnesota and Wisconsin -- where Romney actually lost the white vote. Or he could lose two of those states but add victories in places outside the Rust Belt, where Romney's white vote was also below average, such as Colorado, Iowa, Maine and New Hampshire. (In 1992, Ross Perot came in second in Maine, beating George Bush.)

I haven't even mentioned Florida, where Trump recently trounced Stuart Stevens' dream candidate, Marco Rubio, a sitting senator -- and a Cuban! -- in a 20-point rout. Republican primary voters outnumbered Democratic primary voters in that election by more than half a million votes.

If Trump wins Florida, he needs to win only two or three of the 10 states where Romney either lost the white vote outright or won a smaller percentage of it than he did nationally.

Stevens' analysis assumes that there will be no new voters -- and, again, there isn't a mammal on the North American landmass who knows less about winning presidential elections than Stuart Stevens.

It's as if we're only allowed to divvy up the pile of voters from 2012. Unless you voted in 2012, you can't vote in 2016! Use it or lose it, buddy.

That's not how it works.

Trump is saying he'll bring in lots of new people, as he has throughout the primaries. In the Florida GOP primary, for example, Trump got nearly half a million more votes than Romney did in 2012 -- and about half a million new people voted. Trump may be wrong, but it's insane to say that it's impossible for him to bring out new voters.

What's impossible is for any Republican candidate, other than Trump, to win a single state Romney lost. Ted Cruz's corny speaking style is creepy to anyone who doesn't already agree with everything he says. He's the less likable, more hard-edged version of Romney. Every other Republican is, one way or another, a less attractive version of Romney.

Maybe 50 years of Third World immigration means it's too late, and even Trump can't win. But it's an absolute certainty that any other Republican will lose.
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Ann Coulter is a conservative author of ten New York Times bestsellers, writes numerous columns and is a frequent guest on numerous radio and TV shows. Her web site is AnnCoulter.com. She is the author of Adios America which she signed and gave to the ARRA News Service editor at the 2015 Eagle Council.

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Tags: Ann Coulter, It's only Trump, Donald Trump, winning states, Romney lost To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

State Department Loses Another Round in the Clinton Email Fiasco

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

by Hans von Spakovsky: In a second loss in less than two weeks, a federal court has once again ruled against the Obama administration, this time in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) tussle with Judicial Watch over the Clinton email fiasco.

Previously, on March 22, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Justice Department and the IRS to stop their “continuous resistance” and “meritless” objections to producing information and documentation sought in a lawsuit filed by a Tea Party organization in the IRS targeting scandal.

This time, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the District Court of the District of Columbia issued an order on March 29 giving Judicial Watch the ability to take limited discovery of State Department officials on the adequacy of the Department’s “search for responsive documents” in a FOIA request filed by Judicial Watch seeking former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s internal email correspondence. The purpose of the discovery, which, Lamberth admitted, “is exceedingly rare in FOIA cases,” is to help the court determine whether the State Department’s search “reasonably produced all responsive documents.”

Lamberth noted that he has set out the proper standards for limited discovery in a prior FOIA action filed by the Landmark Legal Foundation against the Environmental Protection Agency in which the agency:

… had excluded its Administrator from a search of ‘senior official’ files …, did not search personal e-mail accounts where official government business was being conducted, and ultimately disclosed that the Administrator was sending and receiving e-mails in her dog’s name – which was not subject to the FOIA search.As Lamberth said (emphasis added), “where there is evidence of government wrong-doing and bad faith, as here, limited discovery is appropriate.”

Lamberth called Clinton’s “exclusive” use of “her ‘clintonemail.com’ account to conduct official government business, as well as other officials’ use of this account and their own personal e-mail accounts to conduct official” State Department business “extraordinary.”

Lamberth also criticized the State Department’s claim that Judicial Watch was relying on “speculation” or “surmise” over the inadequacy of the department’s search, noting instead that Judicial Watch was “relying on constantly shifting admissions by the Government and the former government officials.”

The State Department claims that it had no obligation to produce Clinton’s State Department emails “because it did not ‘possess’ or ‘control’ them at the time the FOIA request was made.” Lamberth stated, however, that Judicial Watch is “certainly entitled to dispute” this position.

The administration also argued that the fact that it had not actually searched Clinton’s emails at the time Judicial Watch asked for all of her emails “was neither a misrepresentation nor material omission”—a dubious claim, to be sure.

In response to the State Department’s claim that its non-search and subsequent responses to Judicial Watch did not show “a lack of good faith,” Lamberth said “that is what remains to be seen, and the factual record must be developed appropriately in order for this Court to make that determination” (emphasis added).

Lamberth acknowledged that there is a similar ongoing case filed by Judicial Watch pending before Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who is also in the District of Columbia District Court.

Sullivan has already ruled “that he will authorize limited discovery.” Briefing in that case is ongoing and may effect “what additional proposed discovery, tailored to this case,” Lamberth will allow.

The bottom line is that Judicial Watch is now going to be able to take limited discovery to plum the State Department’s “constantly shifting admissions” over the use of Clinton’s home-brewed computer network by Clinton, her aides, and other senior State Department officials and the extent of their knowledge about that unsecured system—a system that would have been a target-rich environment for lone wolf hackers as well as sophisticated foreign intelligence agencies.
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Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issues—including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law and government reform—as a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and manager of the think tank’s Election Law Reform Initiative. More ARRA News Service articles by or about Hans von Spakovsky

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Tags: State Department, loses another round, Clinton email fiasco, scandal, Judicial Watch, Hans von Spakovsky, The Heritage Foundation, The Daily Signal, editorial cartoon, AF Branco To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Government Zombies

by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: Congress is considering a bill to fight government zombies. That is the name Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers gives to the many government programs that have never been reauthorized by Congress. These “walking dead” programs continue to function with little or no government oversight.

Her bill would gradually cut funding for unauthorized government programs in order to compel Congress to take action on them. Currently, the federal government funds 256 unauthorized programs costing $310.4 billion. This even includes entire agencies like the State Department.

That raises a point. Would Congress refuse to refund the State Department? Certainly not, but imagine the oversight that would occur if even the State Department had to come to Congress and explain its action. Representative Rogers notes that many of these agencies have “become arrogant, they become disconnected from their mission.” She believes that this bill “restores accountability with the elected representatives.”

Under the bill, programs that have expired authorizations would be subject to a 10 percent spending cut the first year of unauthorized status and a 15 percent cut in the second and third years. If Congress fails to reauthorize after that time, the program will be sunsetted (all funding would disappear). In addition to the sunset process, the bill also creates a Spending Accountability Commission to oversee the authorization schedule and review all mandatory spending programs.

Citizens and candidates all complain about spending and the lack of accountability but we rarely see concrete programs that would change the current system in Washington. An automatic cut in spending will get the attention of the agency and members of Congress. This is the type of fiscal discipline with need in Congress.
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Kerby Anderson is a radio talk show host heard on numerous stations via the Point of View Network endorsed by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service

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Tags: Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, Government Zombies, unauthorized programs, Cathy McMorris Rodgers To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Doggone Truth . . .

. . . Meet The Clinton 'Muzzled' Truth Dog. Don't think that dog can hunt.

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Tags: Editorial Cartoon, AF Branco, Hillary Clinton, the truth, truth dog To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Incumbent Upon Heaven

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: Many who pledged to limit their terms in Congress have gotten elected and, then . . . actually kept their word. Yet, with the temptations of power, combined with the acute narcissism of politicians, not a few have flung their honor aside to break their promise.

Four years ago, Oklahoma Congressman Markwayne Mullin was a challenger, “who pledged repeatedly . . . not to serve more than six years in the House.” Okie voters limited their congressional reps to three terms (six years) via a ballot initiative back in 1994. Of course, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that and 22 other state-imposed congressional term limits laws just a year later.

NewsOK.com reporter Chris Casteel asked Rep. Mullin if this coming term would, as Mullin vowed, be his last.

A simple yes or no question, eh?

Well, the incumbent’s response was less than unequivocal, “leaving open the possibility that he may run for a fourth term,” Casteel reported.

“Our position on this has not changed,” read Mullin’s official statement. “However, Christie and I will continue to seek the Lord’s guidance and do what is best for our family and the 2nd District of Oklahoma. The only election I am focused on right now is in 2016.”

Hmmm. Do you recall the Lord ever guiding anyone to break his word to the people?

What a dodge!

Mullin is like a burglar announcing, “I’m not sure if I’m going to rob your home when I get out of jail. That’s too far off in the future. But I’m seeking spiritual advice about it.”

Come to think of it, incumbent politicians and burglars have quite a lot in common.

But not Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Paul Jacobs is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacobs is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.

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Tags: Paul Jacob, Common Sense, politicians, incumbent upon heaven, Oklahoma. Congressman. Markwayne Mullin To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Nuclear Jihad: The Threats Are Inside Our Tent

Image of terrorists in Brussels' Airport
via Belgium Government

by Michelle Malkin: It’s not over. It’s never over. After last week’s deadly airport and subway bombings in Brussels, the Belgian government remains on high alert for jihad attacks and espionage at its nuclear facilities.

One Belgian nuke plant security guard was murdered recently and his ID is missing. Two of the Brussels bombers reportedly spied on the home of a top senior scientist in the country’s nuclear program. ISIS has been implicated in an alleged insider plot to obtain radioisotopes from one of Belgium’s nuclear plants for a dirty bomb. Two former Belgian nuke plant workers left their jobs to fight for ISIS in Syria.

This is all according to plan. The al-Qaida house organ, Inspire magazine, has urged its followers to conduct attacks using “specialized expertise and those who work in sensitive locations that would offer them unique opportunities” to wreak havoc.

Could Islamic terrorists and other criminal menaces now exploit homeland security vulnerabilities at our own nuclear power plants and other utilities here in the U.S.?

Answer: They already have.

In 2011, a little-remembered Department of Homeland Security intelligence report warned of the ongoing enterprise of jihadi infiltration at nuclear, utility and other infrastructure facilities. The memo, titled “Insider Threat to Utilities,” warned that “violent extremists have, in fact, obtained insider positions.” Moreover, “outsiders have attempted to solicit utility-sector employees” for damaging physical and cyber attacks.

“Based on the reliable reporting of previous incidents, we have high confidence in our judgment that insiders and their actions pose a significant threat to the infrastructure and information systems of U.S. facilities,” the bulletin detailed. “[I]nsider information on sites, infrastructure, networks, and personnel is valuable to our adversaries and may increase the impact of any attack on the utilities infrastructure.”

No kidding, Captain Obvious and First Lieutenant Duh!

Since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. nuclear industry has spent more than $2 billion upgrading security — including more than doubling the number of armed guards at entrances and checkpoints surrounding the plants.

But when the threats are coming from inside the tent, all those armed forces outside the perimeters are for show.

South Jersey jihadist and al-Qaida-linked radical Sharif Mobley held positions at several nuclear power plants in Salem County, New Jersey, before moving to Yemen. He had passed several federal background checks as recently as 2008. In December, Mobley was sentenced to 10 years in prison after shooting a guard during an attempted escape from detention on terrorism charges.

How many radicalized Muslims — homegrown converts, foreign business visa holders and foreign students — are working inside America’s sensitive infrastructure? Thanks to our suicidal refusal to profile international visitors and workers from jihadist breeding grounds, nobody knows!

Politically correct politicians and terror-coddling grievance groups condemn monitoring and tracking of Muslim refugees and Muslims enclaves (such as those in Minneapolis and Maine where tens of thousands of Somalis have resettled). They cried “Islamophobia” when homeland security officials wanted to interview Muslim visa holders from terror-sponsoring nations after the 9/11 attacks.

And consider this: There are now more than 100,000 Muslim students accepted into U.S. college and universities every year from the Middle East and North Africa. Nuclear engineering is one of the fields of study for which F-1 foreign student visa holders can obtain work and extended residency through the Optional Practical Training program. None are screened for jihadist loyalties and sympathies.

How many legal visa holders (let alone illegal visa overstayers) who entered through these pipelines have gained access to sensitive facilities? Nobody knows!

Earlier this year, DHS admitted it doesn’t investigate 99 percent of illegal visa overstayers who entered here on business or tourism — 500,000-plus in 2015 alone, including thousands from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen. The feds still haven’t compiled up-to-date visa overstay data for those who came in as foreign students and guest workers (including high-tech foreigners working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

Then there are the security breaches involving who knows how many illegal border-crossers, fake document users and deportation violators. Dozens of illegal immigrants using fake Social Security numbers were swept up in immediate post-9/11 raids at nuclear sub bases, power plants and Navy aircraft carriers. But it didn’t take long for the feds to hit the snooze button.

In 2011, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio arrested Cruz Loya Alvares, who was working at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station despite being a Mexican illegal immigrant who had been deported in 2000. He paid human smugglers to bring him back, secured work in construction, and somehow escaped re-deportation despite being cited by Mesa County Police for driving with a suspended license.

In 2012, another Mexican illegal immigrant, Nestor Martinez-Ochoa, who worked in construction, was arrested after trying to enter the same Palo Verde nuclear power plant with a fake ID — not by federal authorities, but again by Arpaio’s office.

These arrests are exceptions, not the rule. Worksite enforcement under President Obama is a joke.

The specter of nuclear jihad is terrifying, but the chilling fact is that homeland security has already been in meltdown for years. We’re doing ourselves in.
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Michelle Malkin is mother, wife, blogger, conservative syndicated columnist, and author. She shares many of her articles and thoughts at MichelleMalkin.com.

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Tags: Michelle Malkin, Nuclear Jihad, Threats Are Inside Our Tent To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Taxpayers Footing Bill for Solar Project That Doesn’t Work

$2.2 billion Ivanpah solar thermal plant in CA
 (Img: Flickr / Atomic Hotlinks / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

by David Kreutzer: As every 10-year-old who ever got a sweater for a birthday present has been told, “it’s the thought that counts.” That seems to be the guiding principle at the Department of Energy and the California Public Utilities Commission when it comes to solar power.

The latest example is the $2.2 billion Ivanpah solar thermal plant in California. (Note: Solar thermal plants do not use solar panels to directly convert sunshine to electricity; they use sunshine to boil water that then drives conventional turbines.)

Here’s the story so far. Ivanpah ...

• is owned by Google, NRG Energy, and Brightsource, who have a market cap in excess of $500 billion.
• received $1.6 billion in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy.
• is paid four to five times as much per megawatt-hour as natural gas-powered plants.
• is paid two to three times as much per megawatt-hour as other solar power producers.
• has burned thousands of birds to death.
• has delayed loan repayments.
• is seeking over $500 million in grants to help pay off the guaranteed loans.
• burns natural gas for 4.5 hours each morning to get its mojo going.

Brightsource, which is privately held, is owned by a virtual who’s who of those who don’t need subsidies from taxpayers and ratepayers.

In spite of all this, Ivanpah has fallen woefully short of its production targets. The managers’ explanation for why production came up 32 percent below expected output is the weather. In addition to raising questions about planning for uncertainty, it is not all that clear how a nine-percent drop in sunshine causes a 32-percent drop in production.

More bizarrely, the natural gas used to get the plant all warmed up and ready each day would be enough to generate over one quarter of the power actually produced from the solar energy. Sorry, let’s not be haters.

The problem for Ivanpah’s customers (California power utilities) is that they planned on all those solar watt-hours to meet California’s renewable power mandates, which require that renewables produce a large and rising fraction of California’s electricity. That is why they pay so much more for Ivanpah’s output than for conventionally powered electricity.

Breaching their contracts with these California utilities threatened to shut down Ivanpah. More likely than permanently shutting Ivanpah down would have been a change of ownership at a price that came closer to reflecting reality.

But this would have been bothersome for Ivanpah’s investors and the Department of Energy’s ridiculous Section 1703 Loan Program, so the California Public Utilities Commission saved the day (for the fat-cat owners, of course, not for actual the electricity consumers) by granting the company an extension to meet the production targets.

The best part of the ruling is the section on the cost—it’s pretty succinct.

But hey, Ivanpah’s plant is a shiny new technological marvel. That’s what counts, right?
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David Kreutzer (@dwkreutzer) is the senior research fellow in energy economics and climate change at The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis. In this position, Kreutzer researches how energy and climate change legislation will affect economic activity at the national, local, and industry levels.

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Tags: Taxpayers, Footing Bill, Solar Project, That Doesn’t Work, Department of Energy, California Public Utilities Commission, Ivanpah solar thermal plant, David Kreutzer, Heritage Foundation To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Sen. Harry Reid - March 2016 Porker of the Month

Nevada Senator Harry Reid
Democrat Minority Leader
March 2016 Porker of the Month

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste named Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) its March Porker of the Month for his blatant blocking of a bipartisan bill designed to empower federal agency inspectors general in their battles against waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced S. 579, the Inspector General (IG) Empowerment Act, on February 26, 2015. The bill ensures that IGs have access to all agency records for their investigations, as clearly stated in the 1978 Inspector General Act, which created presidentially-appointed IGs. When Sen. Grassley attempted to bring the bill to the Senate floor on December 15, 2015, Sen. Reid objected to the unanimous consent request, which would have allowed what should be a noncontroversial bill to pass on a voice vote. Sen. Reid then refused to fully explain to his colleagues why he blocked the measure, simply stating that he and other unnamed senators were “concerned about it.” Fellow Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo), a former state auditor, was dumfounded at Reid’s opposition: “There is no universe that the IG Act should mean anything less than what it says.” Sen. Reid again refused to detail his objections when he was questioned by reporters on March 18, 2016.

An August 5, 2014 letter from 47 IGs to the House and Senate oversight committees detailed how certain Obama administration agencies such as the Peace Corps in 2011, and the Environmental Protection Agency in 2013-14, skirted and obstructed investigations by IGs since 2010. Most notably, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel granted the FBI veto power when the DOJ IG requested certain documents in a memo released on July 23, 2015. The IG’s straightforward message to the committees stated that “refusing, restricting, or delaying an IG's access to documents leads to incomplete, inaccurate, or significantly delayed findings or recommendations, which in turn may prevent the agency from promptly correcting serious problems and deprive Congress of timely information regarding the agency’s performance.”

The need for fully empowered IGs has not waned since Sen. Reid’s initial opposition. But, after his March 18 refusal to respond to questions about his objection, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) assailed Sen. Reid’s tactics, saying, “Americans deserve a transparent and accountable government … it is particularly concerning that Minority Leader Reid refuses to disclose why these bipartisan, commonsense reforms are being blocked.”

CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “Inspectors general are frontline fighters in the battle against waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the federal government. They should have unfettered access to any and all documents they need in order to hold agencies accountable and safeguard taxpayer dollars. Allowing IGs to have such access has been the law since 1978, but due to the Obama’s administration’s actions, Congress has no choice but to tighten the requirements. Sen. Reid’s unfathomable objection to this measure exemplifies his utter and complete disregard for protecting taxpayers.”

For standing against accountability, transparency, and one of the taxpayers’ best friends in fighting waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the federal bureaucracy, CAGW names Sen. Harry Reid its March Porker of the Month.
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Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the interests of taxpayers.

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Iran Cheats Again

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Western nations that negotiated last year's nuclear deal with Iran have sent a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon declaring that the Islamic Republic's recent ballistic missile tests are violations of U.N. Resolution 2231.

In their letter, officials from the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany warn that the missiles Iran launched were "inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons." As a result, the launches were "inconsistent with" and "in defiance of" U.N. resolutions, and the various countries are demanding that the Security Council consider "appropriate responses."

That's a big deal, right? Well, maybe not so much.

According to Reuters, "Western officials say that although the launches went against [Resolution] 2231, they were not a violation of the core nuclear agreement between Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States."

The fact that Iran can continue to test ballistic missiles without violating the nuclear deal is a good indication of just how bad Obama's deal really is. Common sense would seem to dictate that any deal covering Iran's nuclear weapons program should have included its ballistic missile program, the purpose of which is to deliver nuclear warheads!

Only a few weeks ago, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before Congress, saying that Iran "would choose ballistic missiles as its preferred method of delivering nuclear weapons."

Clapper added, "Iran's ballistic missiles are inherently capable of delivering [weapons of mass destruction], and Tehran already has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East."

Today, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had this to say about his country's missile tests, "Those who say the future [of Iran] is in negotiations, not in missiles, are either ignorant or traitors."

It is painfully obvious to everyone, except the Obama Administration, that the Iranian regime is not interested in peace. It is doing everything it can to develop its nuclear weapons program -- testing its delivery systems while waiting for the day when it can rush to a "breakout" point.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, Iran, cheats, again, ballistic missile, tests, violations, U.N. Resolution 2231 To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

John Kerry’s New Terror Treason . . .

. . . Befriending Communist Terrorists With American Blood On Their Hands!

by Daniel Greenfield: Stop by your local post office and you might just see a poster of Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londono hanging next to the Most Wanted posters of bank robbers and fugitives. The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information about the Communist terrorist leader.

But all the State Department had to do was ask Secretary of State Kerry. Obama did the wave with the Cuban dictator and Kerry met with Timochenko , the leader of FARC, a Marxist terrorist organization that appears on his own department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations a little above Al Qaeda.

Timochenko is a Communist who was trained at the USSR’s infamous Patrice Lumumba University. The State Department accuses him of ordering the kidnapping of Americans and responsibility for much of the cocaine that is smuggled into the United States. But none of that bothered Kerry who accepted a signed copy of a memoir by the terror group’s former leader which was addressed to “Senor” Kerry.

The signatures in Kerry’s new keepsake include Pablo Catatumbo, a FARC leader with a $2.5 million reward on his head from the State Department, who is wanted for “the production, manufacture, and distribution of hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States and the world” and “the murder of hundreds of people who violated or interfered with the FARC’s cocaine policies.”Also signing Kerry’s book was Iván Márquez, who has a $5 million reward on his head for most of the same reasons.

Two of the men sitting opposite John Kerry had been convicted of forcing children to join the terror group as soldiers and sex slaves. FARC runs on thousands of child soldiers and sex slaves. Little girls as young as 7 and 9 were brought into the terror group whose fronts have a “quota” of women to fill. Families that refuse to turn over their daughters to FARC have been massacred as a warning to others.

Rape is a typical tactic for the military arm of the Colombian Communist Party. Children were seized from families. Others were “bought” from kidnappers operating in cities. Girls who became pregnant had their children forcibly aborted so the babies wouldn’t interfere with their job of servicing male fighters who protected the narcotics trade while keeping the dream of a Communist dictatorship alive.

But Kerry’s new Communist narcoterrorist chums also had American blood on their hands.

“Take them across the river and burn them.” That was how the lives of three left-wing American environmental activists had ended in the spring of 1999. Their killers were members of the FARC Marxist terror group. The victims were shot in the face after being tortured.

The Clinton administration had engaged in covert contacts with FARC terrorists even while the Marxist terrorists were helping move huge amounts of heroin and cocaine into the United States. Meanwhile it applied pressure on the Columbian government to negotiate with the terrorists by holding up weapons.

Congressman Dan Burton blasted the Clinton White House for "sitting down at the table with a group that actively seeks to wantonly kidnap and murder Americans."

After the killings, Clinton’s press secretary warned that, "The United States will not rest until those who have committed these crimes have been brought to justice." The US ambassador to Colombia stated that the United States, "cannot have direct contact with the FARC until it hands over those responsible for the crime.”

That comes as news to Secretary of State John Kerry. Last year, Obama Inc. said that it would not seek the extradition of FARC terrorists. It’s also possible that Obama may hand over Simon Trinidad, a FARC commander serving a sixty-year sentence for his role in taking three American hostages. Freeing Trinidad has become a popular cause for American leftists.

The three hostages, Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, and Keith Stansell, were held for 5 years until they were rescued. Their pilot, 56-year-old Tom Janis, a Vietnam veteran and Bronze Star recipient, was shot. He left behind a wife and four children. Tom is yet another Vietnam vet betrayed by John Kerry.

Mark Rich, David Mankins, and Rick Tenenoff, three missionaries, were kidnapped and murdered by FARC. As were two other missionaries, Tim Van Dyke and Steve Welsh. Frank Pescatore, a geologist, was kidnapped and murdered by FARC in 1996. The Marxist terrorists packed his body with lime and formaldehyde and tried to pretend that he was still alive in the hopes of collecting a ransom for him.

FARC attempted to murder US Ambassador Myles Frechette and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. It plotted to bomb President Clinton during his visit to Colombia. Agricultural scientist Thomas Hargrove was kidnapped and held by FARC for almost a year. His story inspired the movie Proof of Life. Eldon Lee Horton and Clyde Nolan Killgore, two American oil workers, were also held hostage by FARC. As was missionary Ray Rising. And bird watchers Peter Shen, Todd Mark and Louise Augustine, a former nun and retired schoolteacher. Tom Fiore, another bird watcher, escaped through the jungle.

In 2003, a FARC terrorist threw grenades at bars that Americans often visited. Five Americans were injured in the blast. Vance Vogeli described his reaction. “I looked down and there was blood.” That same year, FARC had tried to set off a car bomb near the US embassy and American hotels.

FARC’s war on America dates back to 1983 when the Marxist terror group took its first American hostage. Its last American hostage, Kevin Scott Sutay, an ex-Marine, was freed only a few years ago.

Now wanted FARC terrorists have met with Kerry and attended a baseball game with Obama. These are some of the most direct contacts possible. The indictments issued by Attorney General Ashcroft and Gonzalez are null and void. The rewards will eventually be erased by the State Department.

The Bush Administration had parted ways with Clinton’s pandering to terrorists. Instead it indicted FARC leaders and helped Colombia target them with smart bombs. Martin Caballero, a FARC commander who had plotted to bomb Clinton was blown away. As was Raul Reyes, who had been indicted in the abduction of the three American hostages.

But the victories against FARC have been thrown away once again. The peace deal gives FARC the breathing room it needs. At their meeting with Kerry, FARC leaders asked for American protection. And there is little doubt that they will receive it. Obama bailed out Cuba and intends to bail out its FARC terror group. Its American victims will never see justice. Instead their killers and torturers will thrive.

In an administration of endless lows, Secretary of State John Kerry has found a new low by meeting with wanted terrorists from a Marxist organization with American blood on its hands.

“This Cuba policy is also our Latin American policy,” Ben Rhodes boasted. Rhodes is the man who wrote Obama’s Cairo speech. The Cuba policy is solidarity with Communist enemies of the United States. Reversing JFK’s inaugural address, Obama and Kerry will pay any price, oppose any friend and support any foe in order to assure the death and defeat of liberty. That much they have pledged and done.

50 years after Kerry first turned traitor, his betrayal of the United States continues without end.
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Daniel Greenfield is Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. David Horowitz is a Contributing Author of the ARRA News Service

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Tags: Daniel Greenfield, FrontPage Mag, John Kerry, Left, Terrorism, Reason, Communist Terrorists,American Blood, On Their Hands To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Brussels and the Border

by Phyllis Schlafly: The bombs that killed 35 and injured 300 in Brussels, Belgium, shutting down the capital city of the European Union, followed a familiar pattern. Young Muslim men born to immigrant parents were inspired by radicals overseas to wage holy war against Western civilization.

President Obama, attending a baseball game in Cuba when the bombs went off, did not change his plans to go on to Argentina where he performed a tango with a professional dancer. In a previously recorded interview published in the latest issue of The Atlantic magazine, Obama said Americans have an inordinate fear of terrorism because we’re more likely to die from falling in the bathtub.

Ohio Governor John Kasich said on Fox News, “We cannot afford to alienate all the Muslims in the world who, by the way, are condemning this act of murder in overwhelming numbers.” Kasich seemed to be saying that when Muslims engage in jihad, it’s our fault for doing something to “alienate” them.

That’s such a perfect example of political correctness, it’s no wonder Kasich has lost 30 out of 31 Republican primaries and caucuses to Donald Trump. And, by the way, there’s no evidence to support Kasich’s claim that Muslims around the world are condemning terrorism in overwhelming numbers.

Even the New York Times, in its news report from Belgium, attributed terrorism to “poorly integrated Muslim immigrants.” We, too, have millions of “poorly integrated” immigrants, mostly from Mexico and Central America. Consider these crimes by immigrants in recent weeks.

In Kansas City, Kansas, Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino is accused of shooting four men inside a house there. He then crossed the state line to New Florence, Missouri, where he killed a fifth man in front of the man’s wife.

After he was apprehended, we learned that Pablo was an illegal alien from Mexico who had been stopped last September for a traffic violation in Overland Park, Kansas. Despite records showing that he had been previously deported in 2004, ICE sent the detainer to the wrong county, and he was released.

In Framingham, Massachusetts, brothers Elmer, Ariel, and Adan Diaz and their friend Marlon Josue Jarquin-Felipe are accused of seizing a young woman off the street, gang-raping her, and beating her boyfriend who tried to rescue her. All four thugs were illegal aliens from Guatemala, Central America; two had previously been deported after convictions for drunk driving.

In South Omaha, Nebraska, Eswin Mejia is accused of street racing while drunk, causing a crash that killed a 21-year-old Iowa woman, Sarah Root. Despite being an illegal alien from Honduras, Central America, Mejia was released on bond with no ICE detainer because the Obama administration has “de-prioritized” the deportation of illegal aliens with no previous felony convictions.

Murder, rape, and mayhem by motor vehicle are not the only consequences of immigration from south of the border. We’re also fighting diseases brought in by immigrants, including the frightening new Zika virus as well as old diseases such as tuberculosis which we thought we had eradicated.

The Centers for Disease Control just reported that the number of TB cases rose last year for the first time in 23 years. Contrary to liberals who say the disease doesn’t discriminate, most TB cases occur in immigrants from Mexico, China, India, Vietnam and the Philippines and their U.S.-born children.

When Hillary Clinton was campaigning in Arizona on the eve of that state’s Democratic primary, she bragged that “I voted to secure the border when I was in the Senate” and “I think we’ve done a really good job securing the border.” Like so many of Hillary’s statements, nothing could be further from the truth.

Within a week of Hillary’s statement, authorities discovered a Mexican-built drug-smuggling tunnel the length of four football fields running from a restaurant in Mexicali, Mexico to a house in Calexico, California. At the other end of the border in Hidalgo, Texas, frightened residents invited the local TV news to film dozens of men crossing through their back yards every night from Mexico.

The president of the National Border Patrol Council told a House subcommittee that the number of people arrested at the border from Afghanistan, Pakistan and China is up dramatically from last year. Brandon Judd also testified that official statistics are low-balling the number of “got-aways,” defined as people seen crossing the border without being detained by U.S. officials.

Back home from his tango in Argentina, Obama said on his weekly radio address that the massacres would not change “our openness to refugees” (he still plans to import another 100,000 Muslim refugees) and he vowed to “reject any attempt to stigmatize Muslim-Americans, and their enormous contributions to our way of life” because we are “a nation built around the idea of religious freedom.”

Earlier that same week, Obama’s lawyer asked the Supreme Court to punish the Little Sisters of the Poor for exercising its religious freedom not to cover abortion and contraception in its employee health plan. Obama is eager to accommodate the religious freedom of Muslims who want to move to our country from the Middle East, so why won’t he recognize the “enormous contribution to our way of life” by Catholic nuns who operate thousands of America’s schools, hospitals and homes for the aged?
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Phyllis Schlafly has been a national leader of the conservative movement since 1964. She founded and is CEO and Chairman of Eagle Forum. She has testified before more than 50 Congressional and State Legislative committees on constitutional, national defense, and family issues.

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Tags: Phyllis Schlafly, Eagle Forum, Brussels, Border, illegals, crimes To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

When It Comes To Trump-hating, It Is Worse Than Conspiracy, It Is Consensus

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

READ THIS ARTICLE UNTIL THE END!

by Don Todd: No candidate in modern times has been on the receiving end of more demonizing than Donald J. Trump. It spews from leftist publications and blogs, publications and blogs on the right and from the so-called main stream media. Second only to the hate directed at Mr. Trump is the demonizing directed to his supporters.

The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, Weekly Standard, The New Republic, The Nation, The Dailey Kos, The Huffington Post, and Red State all have joined in a huge spitting squad and the spit is all directed at Mr. Trump. As some of us used to say about during the Cold War about the U.S. Government aiding the Soviet Union, “it is worse than conspiracy, it is consensus.”

If you think this is an exaggeration just Google “Trump Stalin.” You will get 772,000 hits comparing Mr. Trump to one of worlds all time mass murders and leader of The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Then try, “Trump Hitler.” That will get you 2,710,000 hits comparing Mr. Trump unfavorably with the leader of the National Socialist Workers Party.

What has Mr. Trump done to engender this raw hatred from all points of the establishment’s political spectrum? Makes one wonder is there any real difference between alleged conservative Bill Kristol and Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders. It is like listening to a chorus of the ruling class. The sopranos sound different than the baritones but in reality they are all singing the same song.

Demonization is the name of the game. When Mr. Trump suggests enforcing existing law at the border we are told he hates Mexicans. When he suggests we have a moratorium on Muslim immigration we are told he hates a billion people. Conclusion: He is a hater just like Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin.

When he calls for a restoration of libel laws destroyed by the New York Times v. Sullivan Supreme Court decision he is calling for the repeal of the First Amendment. When he criticizes Obama he is a racist. If he takes issue with Mrs. Clinton he is a sexist. If he does not agree with Bernie Sanders he is an anti-Semite.

When provocateurs invade his venues with the goal of causing violence and they are successful it is his fault and he is roundly condemned. When these same provocateurs illegally block a public highway to attempt to prevent Mr. Trump from speaking they are exercising their First Amendment rights and he is trying to rob them of such rights.

In the world of the Trump haters black is white, wrong is right and up is down. George Orwell, call your office.

As Scott Adams of Dilbert fame and the Breitbart web site have observed, what the media, right, legacy and left is doing consciously or unconsciously is setting Mr. Trump up for assassination, there has already been one attempted assault on Mr. Trump in Chicago. It will be his fault. “He brought it on himself!” This will be loudly and incessantly repeated. The assassination will be a ratings bonanza for the media which will give them the opportunity to make a lot of money while pushing this message and excusing themselves.

What the threats towards Mr. Trump’s children and his sister show is that this scenario not as far-fetched as it may appear at first glance. Can it be stopped? One can only hope.
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Don Todd is Director of Research at Americans for Limited Government.

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Tags: Trump-hating, worse than conspiracy, it is consensus, Don Todd, Americans for Limited Government,  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Rebranding the Odious?

Alain de Botton
Why Listen to this Guy?

by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: Being a clever person is hard work. Many of the truly clever things about everyday life have already been said. New and innovative cleverness? A rare thing indeed.

But if you are in the business of being clever, that puts you in a pickle, if “being relevant” and “worth our attention” is part of your cachet.

Take Alain de Botton (of Switzerland) , a very clever man who has written at least one brilliant book . . . and several not-so-brilliant ones. He has tackled Proust, Epicureanism, and is now deeply into religion.

Well, maybe not so deeply.

He wants politicians to follow the lead of religious leaders, who, he asserts, are masters of rebranding. (I had thought that was for marketing specialists.)

Recognizing that the word “tax” is an odious one — few people really like paying their taxes — de Botton says that politicians should follow what “religions do” and “rebrand ‘tax’ as ‘charity.’”

Charity, he notes, is a “much more appealing word.”

Well, yeah. That’s because charity is a word for love. It is all about deep concern, sympathy, etc., and “acts of charity” are expressions of love and concern.

And the only way that acts of charity can be determined to be expressions of concern is that they are voluntary. Taxes, on the other hand, are not voluntary. They are taken by force (try not paying them — force will find you).

Forcing people to “be charitable” will automatically scuttle that very purpose.

Trying to rescue politics from the stench of compulsion should not be done with rebranding, but by limiting government.

The less government, the less force.

And more scope for charity.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Paul Jacobs is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacobs is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.

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Tags: Paul Jacob, Common Sense, Rebranding, the Odious, Alain de Botton To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!