The world's most expensive selfie: State Department blows $11.5 million on Obama's trip to Mandela funeral not including the cost of Air Force One

Via Knuckledraggin' My Life Away

Obama arrived and departed on the same day, spending less than 13 hours on the ground in South Africa for Nelson Mandela's memorial service

The State Department budgeted $11,519,617 in three separate contract documents covering ground transportation and lodging

Hotel rooms were authorized through the middle of January even though Mandela was laid to rest on December 15

The nearly $180,000-per-hour cost of flying Air Force One, the president's customized Boeing 747 aircraft, was not part of the cost estimateThe State Department set aside a staggering $11,519,617 on hotels and ground transportation costs for President Obama and his entourage to attend Nelson Mandela's memorial service last week, it was revealed today.

One contract letter budgeted more than $8.2 million for 'passenger vehicles, SUVs, vans, and buses, as well as supplies and goods vehicles such as pickup trucks, box trucks, and larger capacity vehicles,' according to documents first posted online by the Weekly Standard.

Two more authorized State to spend in excess of $3.2 million on hotels from December 6 to January 20, including costs for a whopping 5,730 'hotel room nights' overall – a number that works out to represent more than 127 separate rooms.

It's unclear how much the State Department actually spent. But the president, it turned out, spent less than 13 hours on the ground in South Africa on December 10 – arriving and departing on the same day.

More @ Daily Mail

Eyewitness to Hitler Warns Americans: “Keep your guns. Keep your guns and buy more guns”

Via Angry Mike

 

 

 

When Katie Worthman was a little girl in Austria, she witnessed firsthand Adolph Hitler’s rise to power and the Soviet communist occupation that followed.  She also witnessed, for decades, the distortions of the media when it came to the reporting of the events.

From her eyewitness perspective, Worthman said that the whole thing didn’t happen overnight, in a brutal attack, like the media portrays it, but rather, it evolved into a dictatorship gradually, over a period of a few years.  Hitler didn’t come across as someone evil, to be feared, initially.  ”In the beginning, Hitler didn’t look like, or talk like a monster at all. He talked like an American politician.”

 

More with video @ The Daily Sheeple

Pictures: 2013 SCV Christmas Party: Private Bryan Jackson Buck Camp # 1769, Peletier NC

Yum.

The Carteret Grays

 

UCV Flag

One of two.

Another year hast past.

South Florida Cops Convicted of Questionable Felonies After Whistleblowing Complaint

Via avordvet

Every day we read stories of cops gone bad, abusing the power of their badge, only to get free passes from their superiors, leaving us wondering why don’t the good cops, if there are any, ever speak up.

But if we look a little deeper, we will realize that those cops who do speak up end up getting retaliated against, their lives turned into a living hell, resulting in termination, hospitalization and even incarceration.


Police call it the Blue Code of Silence, that unwritten rule that you turn the other way when you see an officer abuse his power. Not much different than Omerta, the deadly code of silence within the mafia.

More @ Photography Is Not A Crime

How to hurt Phil Robertson’s Powerful Dynasty of Enemies Read

If Americans wish to voice their indignation for another attack on conservative American’s first amendment rights and traditional American culture, I would recommend they identify the proper targets.

Cable and satellite television network A&E is the flagship property of Hearst Corporation and the Disney—ABC Television Group which is owned by Disney Media Networks, commonly called “The Walt Disney Company.”

Hearst Corporation is a communications giant with interests in 15 daily and 36 weekly newspapers, 300 magazines, 29 television stations and various networks including ESPN Inc. Hearst operations are supervised by their CEO Steve Swartz who can be reached at www.hearst.com.

More @ Freedom Outpost

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s annual public hearings for proposed changes start Jan. 7, 2014

The nine public hearings begin at 7 p.m., but the Wildlife Commission this year also has added 30-minute public meetings prior to each of the public hearings to preview and discuss six bear regulation proposals and answer questions.  These public meetings about bear regulations proposals are all scheduled for 6:30-7 p.m. at the same location as the public hearings.

More @ NC PAWS

'Anti-Gay': Entertainment Weekly Attacks 'Duck Dynasty' Star's Christian Faith

 

One of the most sinister movements in the mainstream media is the labeling of Christian beliefs as de facto bigotry, or anti-gay. It is baseless, it is anti-Christian bigotry disguised as tolerance, it is a smear, and it is a form of McCarthyism. And this is exactly what Entertainment Weekly is doing to one of the stars of the wildly popular (and Christian-themed) "Duck Dynasty."

Absolutely nothing "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson said here even comes close to bigotry, unless you want to claim that he is also bigoted against heterosexuals:

 

More @ Breitbart

Mandela's legacy: The freefall of South Africa

 

Rapes, murders, disease, corruption, poverty, communism rampant – and maybe genocide

The horror stories about life in South Africa under apartheid are endless, of course, and the fall of that morally repugnant political system is universally hailed as a triumph.

But two decades after the white-led government relinquished power, and especially in the afterglow of worldwide praise for the nation’s former president Nelson Mandela after his passing at age 95, an objective look at South Africa today is very disturbing.

In fact, even among the harshest critics of apartheid and racial oppression, there is an acknowledgement that in many ways the “rainbow nation,” under African National Congress and South African Communist Party rule, is heading downhill.

Fast.

More @ WND

K011 assault rifle modelled after the Kalashnikov AK-47

Via grossfater_m

 

At War in Burma's Kachin State

A Kachin Independence Army (KIA) officer displays a Kachin-made K011 assault rifle modelled after the Kalashnikov AK-47 at a mountain outpost of Laisin, Kachin State on January 27, 2012. The Kachin have produced at least three variants of the rifle to serve as a standard assault rifle, a sniper rifle (fitted with telescopic sights) and as a grenade launcher. Conflict between the Burmese Army and the KIA resumed on June 9, 2011, after seventeen years of ceasefire.  

More @ James Robert Fuller

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More @ TFB

Arkansas Mother Obliterates Common Core

Via Billy

Ted Cruz: Free Speech Matters

 

Duck Dynasty Star Phil Robertson is getting some heavy hitter backup after A&E made the decision yesterday to suspend him for voicing a personal religious opinion about homosexuality in GQ Magazine. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has already weighed in and now, Texas Senator Ted Cruz is stepping up in defense of free speech.

From Cruz's Facebook page:

More @ Townhall

Bus passengers fight back against armed robber

Via Nancy

WDAM.COM - TV 7 - News, Weather and Sports

 Newly-released surveillance video shows a violent confrontation on a Seattle bus last month.

A man was robbing passengers at gunpoint - until they decided to fight back and stop the suspect cold.

"It's the bus I take home every day," said Chris Briggs. But one evening his commute home became unforgettable.

Police say 19-year-old Trevonnte Brown was robbing passengers at gunpoint.

Briggs says that's the man who robbed him, just moments after pulling a gun on a woman - and shortly before a scuffle.

"Then he came up to me and stuck the gun at me and took my phone," Briggs said.
At first Briggs said no.

More @ WDAM

The True Duty of a Jury

Defense Secretary Hagel Asked to Review Military’s Connections to the $outhern Poverty Law Center

Via avordvet

 

The Thomas More Law Center with the Family Research Council (FRC) and 14 other organizations announced yesterday the submission of a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel requesting that the Department of Defense (DOD) ensure that future training materials do not rely on information from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) or any other organization that engages in groundless and highly pejorative mischaracterizations of long-standing Christian organizations for their own political purposes.

The request comes after several training incidents in which Army instructors may have relied on anti-Christian materials produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that was linked to domestic terrorism in federal court in February, 2013. 

Lt. General Jerry Boykin (retired), Family Research Council's executive vice president, made the following comments:

More @ Thomas More

Homeland Security helps smuggle illegal immigrant children into the U.S.

Via avordvet

 

A federal judge in Texas late last week accused the Obama administration of aiding drug cartels, saying that instead of enforcing immigration laws, agents knowingly helped smuggle an illegal immigrant girl into the U.S. to live with her mother, also an illegal immigrant, in Virginia.

In a 10-page order, Judge Andrew S. Hanen said the case was the fourth such case he’s seen over the last month, and in each instance Customs and Border Protection agents have helped to locate and deliver the children to their illegal immigrant parents.The judge said in each case, the taxpayers footed the bill for flights — including flights to multiple locations in different parts of the U.S. that it took to find one of the children’s parents.

“The DHS is rewarding criminal conduct instead of enforcing the current laws. More troubling, the DHS is encouraging parents to seriously jeopardize the safety of their children,” the judge said, adding that some of the children have been made to swim the Rio Grande River or traverse remote areas as part of the smuggling.

More @ The Washington Times

City's lesbian mayor sparks 'anarchy' uproar. Judge slaps down executive order aimed at 'gays'

 

A judge in Houston has slapped down lesbian Mayor Annise Parker’s decision to give benefits to spouses of same-sex couples who were married in other jurisdictions, issuing a temporary restraining order.

The ruling from Judge Lisa Millard found that “imminent and irreparable” injury would be imposed on the plaintiffs without the order. The court’s next hearing on the case is Jan. 6.

WND reported earlier this month accusations that Parker was instituting “mob rule” in Houston.

A complaint from Jared Woodfill, chairman of the local Harris County Republican Party, and others, followed her Nov. 20 decision. It accused Parker of “unilaterally dispos[ing] of the Houston City Charter and the Texas Constitution without anything even resembling democratic process.”

A voter-approved charter amendment in 2001 banned benefits to same-sex couples.

More @ WND

NSA slayer: White House behind CNN 'hit piece' Larry Klayman shut down during interview after critical intro

When CNN preceded an interview with legal activist Larry Klayman last night with an unflattering profile and then removed him from the screen when the dialogue got heated, powers much higher than the cable news network were wielding influence, charges Klayman.

“What CNN did to me yesterday was a hit piece orchestrated against me by the Obama White House with the direct involvement of the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to discredit me and to turn the public against Judge Leon’s court decision that the NSA is violating Fourth Amendment rights,” Klayman told WND in a telephone interview.

“This was a Clinton thing as much as it was an Obama thing,” he said.

More @ WND

Harry Reid Takes Taxpayer Subsidy: 'My Employer Helps Me Pay for My Health Care'

 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.), whose salary is $193,400 a year, said he has purchased a health care plan through the D.C. Obamacare exchange and that he is accepting the federal subsidy that can run up up to $11,378 per year for a member of Congress to purchase a plan on that exchange.

More with video @ CNS News

A&E Networks: End The Wrongful Suspension Of Phil Robertson

Via Billy

When being interviewed by GQ magazine, Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson talked about his views on a whole host of issues, including homosexuality. We call on A&E, activist liberals, and politically correct (PC) police to stand down and be tolerant of Mr. Robertson's religious beliefs, which are grounded in the Bible.

Direct comments to A&E at the following email address: feedbackaetv@aenetworks.com

Join our Facebook page at this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bring-Back-Phil-Robertson/568187893258350

 More with petition @ Change.org

Just To Ruin Your Day: Get Enrolled

Via Cousin John

Buy the kids guns for Christmas! 'The gift of firepower is the gift that never stops giving'

 

With the Christmas shopping orgy well under way, never forget that the ultimate gifts that keep on giving throughout life for young and old are guns.

For the young boys and girls, cap guns and holsters, nerf guns, toy bows and arrows with the suction cup arrows and other assorted toy guns and associated accessories are the obvious choice.

Whatever you do, don’t forget to teach your rootin’ tootin’ boys and girls how to quick draw their cap guns and how to twirl them on one finger Roy Rogers style.

More @ WND

NSA Coworker Remembers The Real Edward Snowden: 'A Genius Among Geniuses'

Via Daily Timewaster

A principled and ultra-competent, if somewhat eccentric employee, and one who earned the access used to pull off his leak by impressing superiors with sheer talent.
 
The anonymous NSA staffer’s priority in contacting me, in fact, was to refute stories that have surfaced as the NSA and the media attempt to explain how a contractor was able to obtain and leak the tens of thousands of highly classified documents that have become the biggest public disclosure of NSA secrets in history. According to the source, Snowden didn’t dupe coworkers into handing over their passwords, as one report has claimed. Nor did Snowden fabricate SSH keys to gain unauthorized access, he or she says.

Instead, there’s little mystery as to how Snowden gained his access: It was given to him.

“That kid was a genius among geniuses,” says the NSA staffer. “NSA is full of smart people, but anybody who sat in a meeting with Ed will tell you he was in a class of his own…I’ve never seen anything like it.”

More @ Forbes