Police unit's woes leading to high-profile trial delays, spike in dropped drug cases
Principal signed Filipino teachers to buy, sell makeup
The principal of a Baltimore City high school recruited seven Filipino teachers on her staff to buy and resell thousands of dollars of Mary Kay cosmetics, a business arrangement the teachers entered reluctantly but felt would keep them in good standing with their boss.
Baltimore County's homeless count jumped by nearly 25 percent in the past year, according to the county's annual survey of those living without a permanent home. More than a third of the 890 people counted said they were homeless for the first time.
Maryland drivers could soon face a prohibition on chatting on their handheld cell phones while driving. After years of reluctance, the General Assembly now appears to be moving cautiously but steadily toward telling drivers not to hold the phones to their ears with one hand while steering with the other.
Comments about Baltimore Reporter:
Perhaps the best part of blogging or the internet in general is the occasional discovery of something unexpected.Over on
Baltimore Reporter and Conservative Thoughts is a great and thought provoking article by Robert Farrow.I hope you will follow
this link and read this great post.
from conservativecontracts.com
I love your blog
Once again - as happens so often - I have been positioned here on the living room couch, immersed in your blog. You are
better than Fox News.
Kevin Dayhoff
Awards and Rankings:
Voted one of the best local blogs:
Baltimore Examiner: 2006
Voted Top 10 most influential blog in Maryland in 2007.
Blog Net News
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has scheduled a vote next week on a House rule to get ObamaCare passed without one Representative having to vote on the bill. This may be unconstitutional. I have to be careful not to say that “Pelosi will schedule a vote on ObamaCare,” because the plan right now is to pass the Senate version of ObamaCare without a vote in the House. The procedure is purposefully confusing because liberals in Congress hope the American people don’t figure out this procedural fraud until it is too late. So much for the Constitution that says that a bill does not become a law until the House and Senate pass identical bills, and then the President signs that legislation.
Dems: Time to ‘rip the band-aid off’
In addition, it looks like House Democrats won’t have to vote directly on a Senate bill they really don’t like. The speaker hasn’t made a final decision, but she told her rank and file during the meeting that the plan now is to craft the legislation in such a way that they would “deem” the Senate bill passed once the House approves the package of fixes.
That means they would vote on the rule and the so-called reconciliation package, which would make changes to the Senate bill and require only 51 votes to pass the upper chamber. In addition, the package of changes would include a student lending bill that was paired with health care through the reconciliation process, leaders said Friday.
All of this could change if the speaker faces major resistance from her members, but it would mean Democrats won’t be forced to cast a vote specifically in favor of the Senate bill.
Obama was originally scheduled to leave March 18 for a trip to Indonesia and Australia, and the White House had pressed House Democrats to wrap up their work by then. When the House resisted, Obama changed his departure date to Sunday, March 21.
Pelosi reminded her members, as she frequently does, that she wants to make the whole process as quick and politically painless as possible, a person present said. (more…)
In case you’re inclined to relax in expressing your opposition to the nationalization of health care, pay heed to the words of Bart Stupak, via Robert Costa’s report:
Sitting in an airport, on his way home to Michigan, Rep. Bart Stupak, a pro-life Democrat, is chagrined. “They’re ignoring me,” he says, in a phone interview with National Review Online. “That’s their strategy now. The House Democratic leaders think they have the votes to pass the Senate’s health-care bill without us. At this point, there is no doubt that they’ve been able to peel off one or two of my twelve. And even if they don’t have the votes, it’s been made clear to us that they won’t insert our language on the abortion issue.”
According to Stupak, that group of twelve pro-life House Democrats — the “Stupak dozen” — has privately agreed for months to vote ‘no’ on the Senate’s health-care bill if federal funding for abortion is included in the final legislative language. Now, in the debate’s final hours, Stupak says the other eleven are coming under “enormous” political pressure from both the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.). “I am a definite ‘no’ vote,” he says. “I didn’t cave. The others are having both of their arms twisted, and we’re all getting pounded by our traditional Democratic supporters, like unions.”
Stupak also laments the mindset of Democratic leaders:
What are Democratic leaders saying? “If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more. That’s one of the arguments I’ve been hearing,” Stupak says. “Money is their hang-up. Is this how we now value life in America? If money is the issue — come on, we can find room in the budget. This is life we’re talking about.” (more…)
The Justice Department has admitted that Eric Holder failed to tell Congress during his confirmation process that he had contributed to a legal brief which argued that the President lacks authority to hold Jose Padilla, a U.S citizen declared an “enemy combatant,” indefinitely without charge. The Justice Department has also acknowledged what is obvious — that “the brief should have been disclosed as part of the confirmation process.”
DOJ contends that the failure to disclose was not intentional. It says that “In preparing thousands of pages for submission, it was unfortunately and inadvertently missed.”
Some Senators will view this claim with skepticism. The Padilla case was, after all, an extremely high profile matter. Moreover, as Andy McCarthy notes, Holder wrote a letter to Senator McConnell a few months ago discussing the Padilla case at length and in a manner similar to the arguments in the brief he had worked on. This event should have reminded Holder of his involvement with that brief and should have prompted him to correct his erroneous statement during the confirmation process.
More than two dozen Democrats are expected to vote against the healthcare reform bill that will hit the House floor in the coming weeks.
At least 25 House Democrats will reject the healthcare reform legislation, according to a survey by The Hill, a review of other media reports and interviews with lawmakers, aides and lobbyists. Dozens of House Democrats are undecided or won’t comment on their position on the measure.
The 25 opposed include firm “no” votes and members who are likely “no” votes. Most Democrats on The Hill’s whip list are definitely going to vote no, but others, such as Reps. Lincoln Davis (Tenn.) and Harry Teague (N.M.), could vote yes.
However, The Hill has not yet put Democrats who are insisting on Rep. Bart Stupak’s (D-Mich.) language on abortion in the “no” category. Stupak has said there are 12 Democrats who supported the House bill in November who will vote no unless his measure blocking federal funding of abortions is melded into the final bill.
If leadership doesn’t make changes to the abortion language and Stupak does indeed have 12 votes in his pocket, it will be very difficult to pass a bill. Yet if they do change the provisions, supporters of abortion rights in the House will threaten to vote no.
The Hill’s list does not include members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, who are threatening to vote no unless changes are made to the bill’s immigration-related provisions. Most on Capitol Hill believe that language will not be changed and that most members of the CHC will still back the final measure.
With all Republicans expected to reject the bill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) needs to minimize defections. Thirty-nine Democrats voted against the House healthcare bill that passed 220-215 last November.
But the landscape has shifted a bit since last year with Rep. Parker Griffith’s (R-Ala.) decision to leave the Democratic Party and four House vacancies. Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.), who backed the bill last time, will vote no unless the final bill contains changes on abortion-related provisions. (more…)
As Curt astutely pointed out, the US lost an additional 85,000 jobs in December bringing the yearly total of job loss to 2.5 million and increasing the unemployment rate to 17.3 nationwide.
With this news in mind, the Obama administration is pushing a 1 trillion government takeover of student loans through Democrat senator Tom Harkin’s HELP committee. This scheme will eliminate private lenders, in turn adding more citizens to the growing unemployment number and end up giving the government sole control over student loans. This will drastically impact everyone’s ability to decide how they will finance a university education. If it is anything like the healthcare bill, with politics trumping coverage, will some states benefit because their Senator held his or her vote in exchange for more goodies, leaving the other states to pick up their tab?
“My guiding principle is and always has been that consumers do better when there is choice and competition. That’s how the market works.” (Obama’s speech to Congress,9/9/09)
What happened to choice and competition? With the federalization of GM, banking institutions and healthcare, what real choices will American’s have available to them in the marketplace?
For comparison, check out GOP.com… ‘The Democrats’ Job Standard “
Public Option for Student Loans…Part Two
Lowest poll numbers from Gallop yet. Yeah, I know, shocking it isn’t but let’s look at the Washington Post when Bush hit 46 the first time:
Friday, May 14, 2004; Page A01
Six months before the November election, President Bush has slipped into a politically fragile position that has put his reelection at risk, with the public clearly disaffected by his handling of the two biggest issues facing the country: Iraq and the economy.
~~~
Bush’s approval rating in the Gallup poll fell to 46 percent this week — the lowest in his presidency by that organization’s measures. Fifty-one percent said they disapprove — the first time in his presidency that a bare majority registered disapproval of the way Bush is doing his job. A Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday pegged Bush’s approval at 44 percent, with 48 percent disapproving.
Page one news.
How about when he hit 45 for the first time….the next stop on Obama’s trainwreck of a Presidency. (more…)
And now the House Democrats line up at the instruction of their blind commanders for a final charge into glory as they battle to foist a healthcare system on a country that neither wants it nor can afford it.
The charge may or may not reach its objective. But one thing is certain: The carnage among those who vote for healthcare will be reminiscent of the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. As a French military leader who witnessed the spectacle said, “C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre” (It’s magnificent, but it’s not war). The sight of so many Democrats throwing away their political careers may be arresting, but it is not politics.
Before this last, demented attempt to pass healthcare, the Democrats would have lost control of the House anyway. But with it, they face the loss of a historically high number of seats — perhaps more than 80.
The final fight over healthcare boils down to a simple formulation: The People vs. Pelosi. In district after district, the next 10 days will feature an aroused citizenry demanding a “no” vote while an ideologically motivated Speaker demands assent. The echo of this push/pull will take place in the minds of the Democratic House members. Each will ask himself whether he is really prepared to throw away his career for this vote. Is this it? Is this legislation worth the end of line?
To arouse public opinion, anti-ObamaCare groups are drilling down to the congressional district level and running ads in each swing congressman’s backyard pressuring their member to vote no. The League of American Voters is now running ads in the following districts: Baron Hill (D-Ind.), Mark Schauer (D-Mich.), Michael Arcuri (D-N.Y.), Dan Maffei (D-N.Y.), Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Pa.), Chris Carney (D-Pa.), Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), Tom Perriello (D-Va.), Steve Kagen (D-Wis.), Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) and Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.). It will shortly start running ads in these districts: Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.), Allen Boyd (D-Fla.), Bill Owens (D-N.Y.), Jim Matheson (D-Utah), Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.) and Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) told The Weekly Standard anyone thinking he will cave to health care and vote for federally funded abortions, “obviously” doesn’t know him.
The Weekly Standard has the interview: After comments at a Townhall meeting on March 8th, rumors were rife that Stupak had been persuaded to go along with the abortion funding plan. He is quoted saying:
I’m more optimistic than I was a week ago,” [that federally funded abortions might be removed from the legislation].
But the Congressman told The Weekly Standard: “If I didn’t cave in November, why would I do it now after all the crap I’ve been through?”
Stupak seems to have laid down a gauntlet of sorts, after saying the “majority party” can fix the bill if they have the will:
If they say ‘we’ll give you a letter saying we’ll take care of this later,’ that’s not acceptable.”
And he says he won’t agree to a promise now for action later.
Stupak affirmed that he will not settle for an agreement to pass the bill now and fix the bill’s problems on abortion later: “If they say ‘we’ll give you a letter saying we’ll take care of this later,’ that’s not acceptable because later never comes.”
Stupak highlighted other problems with the bill: The president’s proposal has not been translated into legislative language and it still leaves some special deals in place. “If you look at the President’s proposal,” Stupak said, “it says that the Cornhusker agreement is out, but the Louisiana Purchase is in.”
also:
23 Dem Yes Votes on ObamaCare Switch to Undecided (more…)
The other day I exposed the fact that Harry Reid switched the languagein the House-passed H.R. 3590 Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009 and inserted the Senate version of the healthcare bill via a manager’s amendment in order to meet the requirement of all legislation raising taxes originate in the House.
The Senate passed the revised bill with the healthcare language in it, and now the House must revote on the deceptively gutted changed bill because, according to the Constitution, the identical bill must pass both the House and Senate in order to be signed into law. And, once the Senate Health Care bill passes the House, President Obama will sign it right away.
The threat of reconciliation in the Senate is hollow. There isn’t going to be any reconciliation.
On January 31, 2010, before the House was set to take up the Senate bill, WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” stated:
“If the House would take up the Senate bill then that bill would go to the president’s desk,” Gibbs said. (more…)
As I noted below, Democrats on the House Rules Committee are considering adopting a special rule that would allow the House to “deem” the Senate health-care bill to have been passed by the very act of voting on reconciliation fixes to it.
This is all a bit obscure, so let me try to put it as clearly as I can. This move would solve for House Democrats the problem of acting first. It would allow the House to pass a reconciliation measure on the health-care bill (complete with fixes to the Cadillac Tax etc.) without first passing the Senate version. It would thus defuse mitigate the threat — ingeniously pounded into the heads of rank-and-file House Democrats by Senate Republican leadership — that the House could pass the Senate bill only to be double-crossed by the Senate on the sidecar. And, worse, that the president could sign the Senate bill into law, leaving wavering House members on the hook for supporting it.
That’s the rub on the politics of this thing, and I wouldn’t blame you for stopping right here. But those of you who are procedural masochists might be wondering how the process itself would work.
Well, each bill brought to the floor of the House is debated under its own “rule” setting the length and structure of debate, including which if any amendments can be considered. A given bill’s rule is created by the — you guessed it — Rules Committee and presented to the whole House for a simple majority vote prior to consideration of the bill itself. In this case, the Democrats would bring a “self-executing rule” to the floor that allowed for the adoption of the Senate bill when, and only when, the reconciliation sidecar is passed, thereby avoiding the need to bring the Senate bill to the floor for a separate up-or-down vote.
What exactly is a self-executing rule? CRS gets into the nitty gritty, calling it a “two-for-one” procedure: (more…)
The White House lashed out at Chief Justice Roberts today afters the top justice told a crowd yesterday that Barack Obama’s unprecedented attack on the court at the State of the Union Address was “very troubling.”
HuffPo reported:
The White House fired back at Justice John Roberts Tuesday night, after the Supreme Court Chief told a crowd that he found it “very troubling” that President Barack Obama would criticize the court during his State of the Union address.
In a statement sent to reporters, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the only troubling thing was the 5-4 ruling by the court, which said that corporations could spend unlimited amounts of money advocating on behalf of candidates in elections. Roberts leads the court.
“What is troubling is that this decision opened the floodgates for corporations and special interests to pour money into elections – drowning out the voices of average Americans,” Gibbs said. “The President has long been committed to reducing the undue influence of special interests and their lobbyists over government. That is why he spoke out to condemn the decision and is working with Congress on a legislative response.”
The push back against the Supreme Court header from the White House seems almost unprecedented in its directness, though White House officials claim previous administrations expressed equally public criticisms of the court. Undoubtedly, it’s bound to spur another round of debates over what constitutes proper decorum between the two branches.
Once again… Barack Obama attacked the Supreme Court during his State of the Union Address this year:
In a number of places around the world, it is open season on Christians. We read of Christians burned out of their homes and slaughtered in Pakistan. Most recently, at least 500 Christians were murdered in Nigeria. The attackers in all cases are Muslims, inspired by the warlike message of their Prophet. AFP reports on the Nigerian attacks:
UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Washington led calls for restraint on Monday after the slaughter of more than 500 Christians in Nigeria, as survivors told how the killers chopped down their victims.
Funerals took place for victims of the three-hour orgy of violence on Sunday in three Christian villages close to the northern city of Jos, blamed on members of the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group. …
“We have over 500 killed in three villages and the survivors are busy burying their dead,” said state information commissioner Gregory Yenlong. “People were attacked with axes, daggers and cutlasses — many of them children, the aged and pregnant women.”
Do you remember the “massacre” at Jenin? Of course: Palestinians initially claimed that 500 had been killed, but it turned out that there was no massacre after all. In Nigeria, on the other hand, no one disputes that more than 500 Christians were slaughtered by Muslims. So where is the outrage? I don’t know what denomination those Nigerian Christians were, but Lutherans are the most numerous Christian denomination in Africa. I’m a Lutheran, but I have never heard a single word from any church source, local or national, about the mass murder of African Christians. No one seems to care.
No doubt readers can refer us to some Christian sources–evangelical, most likely–who have tried to draw attention to the plight of Christians in Africa, the Middle East and Asia who are being exterminated. But any such effort has wholly failed to gain traction in the “mainstream” Christian community.
Why? I can’t explain it. Maybe “mainstream” Christianity is dead, except as an appendage of secular liberal opinion. Maybe, as the world’s largest religion, Christianity has become so diffused that New World Christians don’t much relate to their co-religionists in Africa and Asia. I don’t know. What I do know is that it is much more dangerous to publish a cartoon of Mohammed than to slice apart a Christian with a machete.
also:
Does Hollywood Make You Stupid?
It seems that way. Tom Hanks is one of Hollywood’s more respectable denizens, but that doesn’t save him from this remarkably dim-witted exchange, featured in the current issue of Time, as dissected by John Nolte at Big Hollywood. The subject is Hanks’s new HBO series on World War II in the Pacific. This is how the Time story ends: (more…)
Liberal Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) indicated Monday night that he is willing to serve as the deciding vote against healthcare reform legislation.
The former presidential candidate voted against the House’s healthcare bill in November because it lacked a “robust” public health insurance option. He called it a giveaway for the insurance industry.
To proceed on healthcare, the House will likely have to pass the Senate’s bill, which does not include a public option at all, along with a package of fixes to the bill proposed by President Barack Obama.
“I told the president twice in two different meetings that I couldn’t support the bill if it didn’t have a robust public option” or significant consumer protections, he said on MSNBC.
Pressed by host Lawrence O’Donnell on how he will vote, the Ohio congressman said “If that sounded like a no, you’re correct.”
Asked if he was willing to serve as the deciding vote against the Democrats’ healthcare reform bill, Kucinich indicated he was.
“Every vote counts. And I am one of 435 members of the House of Representatives,” he said. “If the White House is ready to go back and have a robust public option…Then we have something to talk about. Otherwise, I need to hear more about what they’re proposing. And what they’ve proposed so far isn’t anything different than I voted against.”
Democratic leaders are currently rounding up votes to pass the final version of the legislation. Kucinich is listed as a firm “no” vote in the latest healthcare whip count by The Hill.
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) has threatened to whip at least 12 votes against the proposal because he believes it will allow federal subsidies to fund healthcare plans that provide for abortions. But the Michigan lawmaker said Monday that he thinks a deal could be reached for his support.
That could take pressure off House leaders, who now need 216 votes to pass the bill because of vacancies, to pick off other “no” votes this time around.
218 House members were needed to pass the bill through the House in November.
Obama: The Will Of The People Be Damned - I’LL Decide Who Can Go Fishing
*Now* he means to ration recreational fishing and boating, folks
Posted by Dave Poff (haystack) (Profile)
It all started here this morning:
The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.
I had to read that 3 times before it sank in…and then I did a little research. Guess what old Barack (I’ve never had a fishing rod in my hand a day in my life) Obama has been up to since last year? Plotting a Federal takeover of all our bodies of water (freshwater…saltwater…doesn’t matter), in an effort to set up MORE bureaucracies and circumvent the rights of the States to determine fair use and access rules amongst themselves based on the local interests of everyone involved.
If he was out to ban recreational fishing this piece would be easy enough to write; scream a little, stomp my feet, vow he’ll have to pry my fishing rod from my cold dead hands, etc…and be done with it. Problem is, this is much darker and more corrupt than that.
The White House plan would establish 9 regional planning bodies (bureaucracies) whose job would be to bring “Federal, State, and Tribal Partners together” to look for ways to “decrease user conflicts; improve planning and regulatory efficiencies and decrease their associated costs and delays; and preserve critical ecosystem function and services.”
It should come as no surprise that the Administration is no longer accepting comments or input from the public (though you should click through to see some of the doozies that WERE accepted), and it should come as no surprise that a member of Obama’s Administration (Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator) has some interesting ties with a couple private charities and goofy greenie groups whose interests will be very well served by a Federal takeover of our various bodies of water:
While she possesses impressive academic and professional credentials as a marine biologist, she also has close ties to those who produced the November document. For example, she was a trustee of the Environmental Defense Fund, and served on the Pew Oceans Commission.”
More below the “who needs jobs and successful multi-billion dollar industries anymore, anyway?” fold…
More info here, and a call for some Asian Carp-killing love here. Don’t miss the policy pdf here if you really want your head to explode. Read between the lines folks…this will lock down oil exploration faster and farther than the moratorium Congress JUST let expire ever did, and allows the greenies to set policy for fishing AND boating (at the expense of millions of jobs and billions of boating and fishing industry dollars).
ALWAYS worry when you read this from Obama’s people: “The planning process would be fully transparent and participatory.” and don’t forget to laugh out loud when you follow up with this timeless classic: “Places Science-Based Information at the Heart of Decision-Making. Scientific data, information and knowledge, as well as relevant traditional knowledge, will be the underpinning of the regionally developed plans.”
How’s that “settled” climate change science mumbo jumbo working out again?
also:
The Abortion Gambit: Stupak’s Folly
Posted by Erick Erickson
“The Democrats can give all the cover they want to Stupak, but the Senate GOP will show the cover to be the fig leaf it is.”
Credit where it is due: the Senate GOP has come up with a great strategy to combat talk of compromise on reconciliation. The Senate GOP will block any effort to strip abortion funding in reconciliation.
This may get a few pro-life groups upset and I want to be very clear here — you will be able to tell the real pro-life groups from the posers by their stand on this strategy. The real pro-life groups will support this and the posers will oppose it.
And Again:
The NRCC has a list of targets in the House of Representatives on the health care vote.
Go check the list, see if your congresscritter is on it, and pick up the phone. Tell ‘em to vote no on Obamacare. (more…)
Sean Penn Suggests Prison Time for Journalists Who Call Hugo Chavez a Dictator
By Tim Graham
At the end of a discussion of Haiti on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, actor Sean Penn went on a rant in defense of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, suggesting prison time for American journalists: “every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it! And accept it. And this is mainstream media, who should – truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.”
This is a little strange, since a study by our Business and Media Institute of Chavez coverage from 1998 to 2006 found Chavez’s much-criticized human rights record was mentioned in only ten percent of stories, and he was described as a leftist in only 12 percent of stories. Maher shifted to Chavez and the end of the Haiti interview, asking Penn to make a case for his man Chavez:
MAHER: His image in the media is just a buffoon. You have been there. You know him. You’ve talked to him. That’s all I really know about Hugo Chavez, is what I read in the media. A dictator, took over a lot of the branches of government, wants to be president for life. What do you know that I don’t know, that I should not have such a harsh feeling about this guy?
PENN: I think that if you’re more happy with 20 percent of a population having the access to dreams, access to the feeling they have an identity and a voice. If it’s okay with the 20 percent, versus the 80 percent he gave it to, then you can criticize Hugo Chavez. You know, there are a lot of complicated issues that comes simply out of perspective. We in the United States have a difficult time putting ourselves in the shoes of what has been the history of Venezuela, the history of Latin America, and many other places.We’re very monocultural. And then we are hypnotized by the media. For example, Hugo Chavez. Who do you know here who’s gone through fourteen of the most transparent elections on the globe, and has been elected democratically, as Hugo Chavez?
Stay with the transcript here, because Penn’s talk gets very fuzzy and inarticulate, but his primary point is that Venezuela and Cuba helped him provide assistance to Haiti, when he knew next to nothing about how to help, so he is frustrated that anyone would speak negatively about them: (more…)
A suburban Pennsylvania woman known by the alias “Jihad Jane” has been arrested and charged with trying to recruit Islamic fighters and for plotting to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist who made fun of the Prophet Mohammed, according to a federal indictment unsealed today.
Colleen R. LaRose, 46, of Montgomery, Pa., described by neighbors as an average “housewife,” is better known to federal authorities as “Fatima Rose” or “Jihad Jane.”
The indictment, obtained by ABC News, charges LaRose with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill in a foreign country.
She is also accused of making false statements to a government official and of attempted identity theft, a passport she allegedly stole with the intention of giving to an Islamic fighter. The court papers claim that LaRose reached out through the Internet to jihadist groups saying she was “desperate to do something to help” suffering Muslim people, and that she desired to become a martyr.
PDS On Display - Sarah Palin Used Canadian Health Care As A Child….And Paid For It
The latest Palin Derangement Syndrome is the fact that Sarah Palin admitted she would cross the border into Canada to partake in some of their health care. Sounds like a sure fire “gotcha” moment right?
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has uncovered, via a Freedom of Information Act request, a fascinating instance of the symbiotic relationship among 1) left-wing advocacy groups, 2) left-wing Obama administration officials, and 3) lobbyists for moneyed interests who benefit from left-wing policies. It has to do with wind energy. The Obama administration has hailed Spain’s wind energy initiatives as a model for its own wind subsidies. Unfortunately, a devastating study (which we highlighted here) showed that Spain’s wind subsidies were a disaster: they eliminated more than two jobs for every one they created, only one in ten “green jobs” created by the subsidies was permanent, and each wind energy job cost more than $1.3 million.
Did this cause the Obama administration to realize that its wind energy policies were misguided? OK, that was a joke. Christopher Horner at Pajamas Media describes what did happen:
Emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Obama Department of Energy is using the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) — the lobbying arm of “Big Wind” in the U.S. — to coordinate political responses with two strongly ideological activist groups: the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and the George Soros funded Center for American Progress (CAP). (more…)
If it wasn’t so stressful it would be a great Washington soap opera to watch in living color. We are down to the wire on Obama health reform and my nerves are rattled and so are every American’s who have common sense. President Barack Obama took an absolutely wonderful presidency handed to him and ruined it. He has associated himself with a bunch of radicals pushing his progressive agenda. We should have listened to Joe the plumber. Well I did! Just who is running the White House anyway? Rahm Emanuel the White House chief of staff, the White House chief strategist David Axelrod or Obama? It’s Obama that is responsible for the current state of his presidency not his two top aides.
The Democrats are running from him like the plague because he has failed to enact sweeping changes, including a historic healthcare reform and the country is in severe debt with unbelievable unemployment numbers. Emanuel is actually a foe of progressive policy moves that don’t have immediate results. After all he believes you can’t waste a good crisis. He has become the scapegoat for the liberals. Did Obama listen enough to Emanuel in the first year? Is that why health care is hanging on a limb?
Now the soap opera continues in Washington with Emanuel the pragmatist vs Axelrod the ideologue!! Both say there isn’t a problem between them. Is that why the backbitting continues? Who is missing from the picture? Obama! People make policy and Obama appears as a smart guy who is capable of making his own tough calls. They both share Obama’s presidential functions and can do it well or poorly. They may have failed in their jobs but the buck stops with the president who is responsible for shaping his own role in the drama. (more…)
The Ravens retained the most prolific wide receiver in team history, re-signing Derrick Mason to a two-year, $8 million contract. He is set to receive $3.5 million in the first year.
The return of Mason bolsters a vastly improved passing attack for the Ravens, who signed Donte' Stallworth and traded for Anquan Boldin this offseason. Mason, though, brings continuity and consistency.
Since joining the Ravens in 2005, he is the team's all-time leader in receiving yards (4,975) and ranks second in receptions (410) and receiving touchdowns (22).
"We know exactly what we're getting with Derrick, and that's production," general manager Ozzie Newsome said. "Every Ravens fan knows what Derrick brings to this team.
Mason to return to Ravens; agrees on 2-year deal (AP)
After twice reaching outside the organization to enhance their wide receiving corps, the Baltimore Ravens secured one of their own Wednesday night: two-time Pro Bowl player Derrick Mason. Mason, an unrestricted free agent, agreed to a two-year deal with the team he joined in 2005. Mason's future with the Ravens appeared unclear after the Ravens obtained free agent wideout Donte' Stallworth...
Inside the banquet hall, a humbled but defiant Michael Vick was honored Tuesday night as one of 32 NFL players to receive the Ed Block Courage Award. Outside, dozens of protesters expressed dismay over his nomination. The award is presented to players who exemplify commitment to the principles of sportsmanship and courage.
Support the Baltimore Reporter.
