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Ax attacker at Düsseldorf main train station arrested
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Page 6: Politix
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Chaffetz subpoenas ATF agents who skipped hearing on death of ICE officer
[FOX] House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz issued subpoenas Thursday to two ATF agents after they failed to show at a hearing examining the 2011 murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jaime Zapata.

"I'm tired of hearing from just [Justice Department] management, I want to hear from the people that actually are on the front lines doing this," Chaffetz, R-Utah, said.

The committee will now seek to compel testimony from William Temple, special agent in charge of the Dallas Field Division, and Ronald Turk, associate deputy director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, later this month.

The hearing Thursday was meant to examine alleged lapses in the ATF's investigation into the trafficking of guns later used in the February attack that killed Zapata and wounded his ICE colleague, Special Agent Victor Avila.

An inspector general report was completed more than five years after the committee and Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, inquired into Zapata’s murder. Zapata was killed by members of the Los Zetas drug cartel while on official business in Santa Maria del Rio, Mexico.

ATF Acting Director Thomas Brandon said Thursday he did not order Temple and Turk to skip the hearing -- but agreed with their decision not to appear, which drew a bipartisan rebuke from Chaffetz and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings.

"That puts us in a kind of awkward position. We got the boss, 'OK guys, you don't have to show up.' And that sends a hell of a message. That's a problem," the Maryland Democrat said.

Chaffetz complained ATF "continues to insist" the committee should not speak with Turk and Temple.

Another invited witness, John Craft, a prosecutor in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, did not appear. But the chairman said due to the lateness of their invitation, he would not receive a subpoena.

Questions about the firearms used to kill Zapata surfaced during the separate congressional probe of Operation Fast and Furious and the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

The IG issued its Operation Fast and Furious report in 2012, but did not issue its report on the Zapata case until March 1.

According to the report, two weapons used in Zapata's murder were traced back to Otilio Osorio, who bought his gun at a Dallas gun show, and Robert Riendfliesh, who purchased a gun at a pawn shop in Beaumont, Texas.

The IG said the ATF were aware in 2010 that Osorio and his brother might be trafficking firearms to Mexico, but they did not follow up or further investigate until after Zapata’s death.

Otilio Osorio and Riendfliesh were arrested in late February 2011 after the ATF confirmed weapons used in Zapata's murder had been purchased by them.

The report faulted ATF for its handling of the case, saying there was "probable cause" to arrest Osorio and his brother "after ATF witnessed the Osorios complete a transfer of 40 firearms on November 9, 2010."

The IG said: "Overall, we found numerous problems with ATF’s assimilation of information concerning [the suspects] ... and the timeliness of ATF’s response to mounting evidence that they were committing firearms offenses."

Last week, Chaffetz and Grassley sent a letter demanding Justice explain the reason the investigation has dragged on.

"It has been nearly five years since the probe was requested. Given the high level of congressional interest in this matter and the seriousness of the allegations, we are perplexed that your investigative work took so long," they wrote.

Judiciary Committee Press Secretary Taylor Foy told Fox News that the panel is interested in part in "whether government employees involved in the debacle were held accountable."
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/10/2017 13:39 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The IG said the ATF were aware in 2010 that Osorio and his brother might be trafficking firearms to Mexico, but they did not follow up or further investigate until after Zapata’s death.

They were obviously 'waved off.' The challenge now is to find out who did the waving.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/10/2017 13:44 Comments || Top||

#2  With Sessions as AG, it is likely that the DOJ will be far more cooperative than previous two AGs. That ought to speed things up.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/10/2017 16:31 Comments || Top||


Pence: US will 'use the full force of the law' on WikiLeaks if CIA leak legit
[The Hill] Vice President Pence on Thursday vowed that the Trump administration would "use the full force of the law" to go after those involved in WikiLeaks' latest document dump if the materials they released are shown to be valid CIA documents.

"Trafficking in national security information, as is alleged WikiLeaks has done here, is a very serious offense," Pence said during an interview on Fox News's "Special Report."

"It represents a compromise of the security of the American people," he said.

"This president and this administration will take that very seriously and use the full force of the law and resources of the United States to hold all of those to account that were involved," he added.

"If proven to be true and confirmed publicly, I can assure you that no resource will be spared in holding those [to] account that have leaked information that could well constitute a compromise of methods and a compromise of national security."
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/10/2017 02:33 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Operative phrase: "If CIA Leak Legit."
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/10/2017 2:37 Comments || Top||

#2  So, the CIA won't be investigated for breaking the law. Gotcha Pence.
Posted by: Harcourt Angoluting9366 || 03/10/2017 6:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Benjamin Franklin (sometimes Thomas Jefferson) is often quoted as saying:

Those who would give up Essential Liberty
to purchase a little Temporary Safety,
deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/10/2017 16:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Old Ben had it right.

I'm torn between distress that the CIA was hacked and secret info leaked, BUT, even more distressed about the nature of the crimes perpetrated by the CIA that were there to be disclosed.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/10/2017 16:50 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Man allegedly posing as Bieber online charged in Australia
[Daily Excelsior] A 42-year-old Australian man who allegedly posed as Justin Bieber online to solicit explicit images from children has been charged with more than 900 child sex offenses, police said today.

Bieber, a 23-year-old Canadian pop singer, is currently in Australia performing his “Purpose World Tour.” Police have warned young fans and their parents to be extra vigilant when using the internet.

Gordon Douglas Chalmers, a law lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, was charged in November with using Facebook and Skype to impersonate the star, after tip-offs from US and German authorities. Chalmers was charged with using a carriage service to procure and groom children for sex and to access child pornography. He was also charged with possessing child porn.

As a result of warrants issued in November to search his social media and messaging accounts and cloud servers, Chalmers was charged this week with another 931 child sex offenses dating back a decade, including rape and making child exploitation material, a police statement said.

“The fact that so many children could believe that they were communicating with this particular celebrity highlights the need for a serious rethink about the way that we as a society educate our children about online safety,” Police Detective Inspector Jon Rouse said in a statement.

“The breadth of offenses committed in this instance is frankly horrendous,” Rouse added.

Police have not said how many children had become victims or in what countries they live. But Rouse said the investigation showed “the global reach and skill that child sex offenders have to groom and seduce victims.”

Chalmers has yet to enter pleas. It is not clear how long he could spend in prison if convicted.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
I Went to Hooters on The Day Without Women and It Changed My Life Forever
[FREEBEACON] I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when I decided earlier this week that the "Day Without a Woman" would be a good time to give Hooter's new smoked wings a try.

On one hand, Hooters is a massive restaurant chain that operates around the world and it would never allow its restaurants to be affected by some fringe protest. On the other hand, entire school districts in the D.C. area were closing up shop because so many women were taking the day off, and some restaurants said women could get paid leave if they wanted to participate in the day. Hooters, which famously sports an exclusively female wait staff budding with mounds of talent, is undoubtedly more susceptible to a women's strike than any other restaurant.

Despite the unknown, I ventured to Hooters on Wednesday afternoon. It was open and had quite a few cars in the parking lot.

I got a table by the bar and told my waitress that I was happy to see that Hooters was serving customers, given that it was the "Day Without a Woman."

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

She was not alone in her confusion, given that I also didn't know exactly what the day entailed. When I first heard about it I thought that organizers were going for the type of situation seen in HBO's The Leftovers, where a certain slice of the population is just gone and the rest of us have to survive without it. I had no idea that the intent of the "Day Without a Woman" was actually to have the women skipping work participate in large demonstrations and visibly disrupt commuters.

I explained what I was talking about and, given a bit of a push, she remembered seeing something about the protest.

"Oh, that thing with the girls?" she said. "That's not going down here. I wish I was still in school though, so I could get the day off."

That was the last we spoke about protests.

It was time to enjoy Hooters, and the circumstances were very ripe for enjoyment. Not only was the ACC tournament playing on one of the bar's large screens, but after I let them know that the New York Mets were playing the Boston Red Sox and that Tim Tebow was slotted in the eight hole, they quickly got the game up there on an equally large screen right next to it.

Then, as if my waitress knew exactly why I came, she let me know that the new Smoked Wings were all the rage lately. I ordered a large plate with the Texas BBQ dry rub.
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The world didn't lurch to a standstill did it? We've found the non-essential "workers"!
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 03/10/2017 2:45 Comments || Top||

#2  According to the Huffington Post, only a few hundred protesters showed up for an after-work march in New York City, and many of them appear to have been there in solidarity, rather than because they were women with paying jobs for which they were vital. Or at least that's my conclusion after reading the first few of their samole women quotes. Nor have I read about massive marches in Washington, DC or elsewhere, suggesting that few women were involved.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/10/2017 11:34 Comments || Top||

#3  yes the women are lovely and, yes, a lot of nice brews and wide screen TVs but the noise in these places makes it difficult to hear the TV (or anyone you are with)


Posted by: lord garth || 03/10/2017 13:03 Comments || Top||


Women’s Day Protest Groups Conflict over Race in Santa Cruz
[BREITBART] Conflict emerged between protest groups demonstrating on International Women’s Day in downtown Santa Cruz, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, on Wednesday, as a "Brown Squad" focused on racial issues faced off against a "less diverse" group of protesters.

The local Santa Cruz Sentinel described an "intense conflict" between the two protest groups, which it described as follows:

The protest’s two distinct groups clearly had different agendas. The first included roughly 75 younger protesters, mostly women of color, who marched down from UC Santa Cruz. This group’s messaging was focused on racism, white privilege, patriarchal oppression, as well as transgender and queer issues.

The second group consisted of about 150 women and a few men dressed mostly in red who had been brought together by the Santa Cruz General Strike Organizing Committee. Older and less diverse, this group focused on issues primary to the larger International Women’s Day Strike -- reserving most of its anger for the administration of President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
"Gimme yer stuff!"
"No!"
"Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!"
"Help! Help! I'm being oppressed!"

The "Brown Squad" was the more radical of the two, according to the Sentinel. It blocked traffic downtown, leading to a tense standoff with a pickup truck driver that was captured on YouTube.
"Help! Help! I'm being oppressed! [THUMP!] Ow!"
At one point, a member of the "Brown Squad" delivered a speech to the "less diverse" group, exhorting it to address its own internal privilege, according to the Sentinel:
"Ally-ship means getting off your high horse and realizing that other people are suffering a lot more than you ... To join those people over there you have to address the darkness within you."
But if they have darkness within they aren't truly less diverse, as the current cant has it, meaning the Brown Squad is confusing apparent appearance with felt reality, the bigots.
Horst Wessel ist glücklich.

Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As always, the inlines are entertaining!

This seems a case of one group trying to hijack another group and failing! I'm still trying to figure out which group was trying to do the hijacking and cane to the conclusion that both groups (as well as other not mentioned groups) were trying to hijack each others.

Hilarities resulted!
Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance || 03/10/2017 9:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Even in Santa Cruz, which pretty much divides the year into marching season and Christmas break, couldn't muster more than about 230 people altogether. What a way to demonstrate this is a cause without followers.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/10/2017 11:37 Comments || Top||

#3  In "Santa Cruz," Deadheads are dancin'
With radicals. Red hot romancin'!
But is "Cross" really on
In this dawn of Aztlan?
Let's say, UC "Dildo de Tonantzin."

With full respect to the Virgencita. Do I look crazy? Candles this very evening.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 03/10/2017 15:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Peepoles gotta half they oxen to grind, till they ain't no oxen no mo:

Farah: Msabu's bleeding. She does not have this ox. This lion is hungry. He does not have this ox. This wagon is heavy. It does not have this ox. God is happy, msabu. He plays with us.

Ray B Haiku

The darkness descends
All light vanquished forever
And The Rock Cried Out.
Posted by: JHH || 03/10/2017 15:49 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
Starbucks CEO's refugee comments sour customer views of chain: survey
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/10/2017 12:40 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Plus their coffee sucks
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/10/2017 12:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, I can't boycott a place I've never stepped into...
Posted by: Raj || 03/10/2017 13:38 Comments || Top||

#3  McDonald's fresh coffee is better tasting and cheaper IMO.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/10/2017 16:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Ditto Raj, unless you count a couple of stores that have a Starbucks built in. But never have and never will drink that swill.
Posted by: AlanC || 03/10/2017 16:42 Comments || Top||

#5  actually I like 7-11 coffee the best because they have a huge (or yuge) selection of gourmet additives

also, I like using the word 'gourmet' and '7-11' in the same sentence; also the adjective 'gourmet' and the noun 'additive' next to each other
Posted by: lord garth || 03/10/2017 17:00 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukrainians finger 2 for 2015 rocket artillery attack


Two men, one Russian and one Ukrainian have been identified by the Ukrainian internal security agency, the SBU for their role in a 2015 artillery attack on a bus in western Donetsk, according to several Russian language news accounts.

The attack took place January 13th, 2015 in Volnovaha, where Ukrainian military say a Russian backed rebel rocket artillery unit struck a passenger bus, killing 12.

According to a news report which appeared in korrespondent.net, Russian army Colonel Anatoly Sinelnikov and Yuri Shpakov combined to call a rocket artillery mission on top of a Ukrainian army checkpoint. The rocket artillery, said to be 122mm rockets from a BM-21 Grad rocket artillery launcher, was commanded by Shpakov. A separate news report in vesti.ukr.ua said that Shpakov is a Ukrainian national fighting in the service of the rebels. Col. Sinelnikov is identified as the commanding officer of the rebel 5th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, the unit to which the rocket unit was attached.

The reports say that the rocket artillery unit was based in Dokuchaevsk when the incident occurred.

Reports at the time of the incident, quoting rebel sources, were that the bus was struck by a Ukrainian directional mine, similar to a Claymore mine. A video of the location released by the Ukrainian side showed rocket artillery impacts in the area, but rebel media said the video was doctored and that the impacts looked nothing like a BM-21 rocket artillery attack.

The SBU cannot bring charges against Col. Sinelnikov or Shpakov; they only can refer a criminal case to a prosecutor, likely the Ukrainian national prosecutor's office in Kiev. The reports do not indicate Col. Sinelnikov's location or current command, but they do say Shpakov is still in Dokuchaevsk.

Since the summer of 2015, BM-21 rocket launchers were removed by agreement from the line of contact by both sides. Before that time it was the most commonly used artillery by both sides. Despite the agreement by both sides not to use BM-21s, an occasional report filters out of both sides using the multiple rocket launcher system, to limited effect.

The BM-21 in its most common configuration has a range of about 20 kilometers, or about 12 miles. The distance between Dokuchaevsk and Volnovaha is close to 11 miles.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian media reports that five Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in ongoing artillery attacks along the line of contact in Donetsk and Lugansk.

According to a report which appeared in lb.ua, rebel mortar fire hit locations in southern Donetsk including at Novotroitskoye, Vodyanoye, Pavlopol and Bogdanovka. Near Donetsk city, rebel mortar fire hit Ukrainian positions at Avdievka. Rebel mortar fire also was reported in Lugansk at Novoaleksandrovka and Popasnaya.

Rebel media said the Ukrainian overnight shelling (Mar. 8th-Mar. 9th) hit several locations in Donetsk for a total of 388 shells. The locations hit by Ukrainian artillery include near Donetsk city at Gorlovka, Zaitsevo, Yasinovataya, Aleksandrovka, Trudovskoye and western outskirts of Donetsk city. In the south locations hit by Ukrainian overnight shelling include Yelenovka, Kominternovo and Oktyabrskoye.

According to a news release posted by the Donetsk ministry of defense, Ukrainian shelling struck several residential buildings at Yelenovka and Yasinovataya, damaging two buildings. Three more buildings were destroyed by Ukrainian artillery in Gorlovka and Zaitsevo.

Gas lines in southern Donetsk were damaged by early morning (March 9th) Ukrainian shelling in Kominternovo and Sahanka.
Posted by: badanov || 03/10/2017 00:28 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
South Korea president Park Geun-hye ousted by court
[BBC] South Korea's President Park Geun-hye has become the country's first democratically elected leader to be forced from office.

Judges unanimously upheld parliament's decision to impeach Ms Park over her role in a corruption scandal involving her close friend, Choi Soon-sil. She now loses her presidential immunity and could face criminal charges.

There have been angry scenes outside the court. Police said two protesters had died. The court ruling is the culmination of months of political turmoil and public protest. An election must now be held within 60 days.

Ms Park's office said she would not be leaving the Blue House, South Korea's presidential palace, on Friday nor making any statement. Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn has called for calm, saying the government should remain stable to prevent internal conflict from spreading.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/10/2017 07:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


US ambassador to UN: Kim Jong Un 'is not rational'
[CNN] US Ambassador to the United Nations
...boodling on the grand scale...
Nikki Haley
...first woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley is the youngest current governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems...
lashed out against North Korean leader Kim Pudge Jong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
in unusually personal terms on Wednesday.

"This is not a rational person," she told news hounds at the UN. "He is not thinking clearly."

Haley spoke after the latest urgent UN meeting addressing Pyongyang's actions, this time after North Korean missiles fell in Japanese fishing areas.

Frustration at the UN is high after rounds of sanctions and numerous resolutions and statements of condemnations have failed to stem the behavior.

The UN Security Council, which held closed-door consultation Wednesday, remains united in opposition to North Korea's missile launches. But determining the next options that might deter Pyongyang's behavior is difficult.

Usually US diplomats issue sharp criticism of the country, not the leader, of North Korea. Haley in her two months on the job has targeted Iran and Russia. She upped the rhetoric in her personal broadside Wednesday.

But beyond personal attacks, what can the UN do? Before Haley spoke, the council had already issued one of its toughest statements of denunciation ever on the latest incident, which involved the launch of four missiles.

Asked if the arsenal for further action is depleted, Haley responded, "All the options are on the table."

She said that each country would return to its capitals and investigate "what else we can do to get the attention of North Korea."
Posted by: Fred || 03/10/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Commies

#1  Are Y'all just now figurin this out?
Aww, we knew this before that little turdpole was born. We just looked at his jung assed grand pops and knew that boy was no good befre he ever been born.
Some sayin it may Just be a curse, or bad taste or something.
Posted by: newc || 03/10/2017 11:07 Comments || Top||


Economy
Feb. jobs report adds 235,000 jobs, overshooting the 190K predicted
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/10/2017 09:29 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  1. probably will be revised up

2. definitely exceeds the 150k needed to prevent the jobless rate from increasing

3. BLS also does productivity estimates (once each quarter) and 2016 was, per their calculation, a bad year for this metric (granted real productivity is difficult to estimate). In the mid to long term, if you can't increase productivity, the consequences are pretty bad.
Posted by: lord garth || 03/10/2017 13:12 Comments || Top||

#2  There's this:

The U-3 unemployment rate of 4.7% has been lower, but U-3 is not the best measure for unemployment. The U-6 rate calculates marginalized workers and offers a better overall picture, and that dropped two-tenths of a point to 9.2%. That’s the best level since April 2007.

Then there's the historical dodgy-ness of the BLS report.

At best, the patient has stabilized. At worst...
Posted by: Pappy || 03/10/2017 15:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Apparently the recent spell against Trump by a bunch of witches was too weak. Hard to find good "toe of frog" these days in urban sprawls for the witches brew.
Posted by: Nero White 3083 || 03/10/2017 17:42 Comments || Top||

#4  ...toe of frog, shipped in from the farms in Jiangsu province (like everything else).
Posted by: Procopius2k || 03/10/2017 17:56 Comments || Top||


Europe
Helicopter crashes on outskirts of Istanbul; Russian businessmen killed
[Winnipeg Free Press] ISTANBUL - A helicopter crashed on a highway on Istanbul's outskirts Friday after apparently hitting a television tower in dense fog, reports said. All seven people on board were killed, the city's mayor said.

The Sikorsky S-76 was carrying an executive of the Eczacibasi group of companies, four of his Russian guests and two pilots.Gov. Vasip Sahin said that the helicopter crashed in Istanbul's Buyukcekmece district after taking off from Ataturk Airport, adding that the cause of the crash was under investigation.

Authorities initially recovered five bodies from the crash site, but Mayor Kadir Topbas later said that all seven on board were killed.

Thick black smoke could be seen billowing from the crash site in video shown on Turkish network DHA. Burning debris was scattered across a large stretch of the highway.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/10/2017 15:10 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A lot of Russians in various capacities seem to be biting the big one in the vicinity of Turkey.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 03/10/2017 22:06 Comments || Top||


German Prosecutors Examining WikiLeaks Report on Klingon Base
BERLIN (AP) -- Germany's federal prosecutors say they are examining a WikiLeaks report suggesting that the Central Intelligence Agency used the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt as a base for covert hackers.

The federal prosecutors' office says the reports published Tuesday are being reviewed, but that this is a standard procedure.

Prosecutors said Wednesday that "if it turns out there is an initial suspicion of a concrete crime committed by a specific person then a preliminary investigation may be opened."

German foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer said authorities were trying to verify the authenticity of the alleged CIA documents published WikiLeaks.

"The rest remains to be seen," he said.

Relations between Berlin and Washington took a hit after Edward Snowden's revelations about NSA eavesdropping. It later transpired Germany had partly cooperated with the NSA.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/10/2017 09:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  US based hackers out of computer range ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/10/2017 9:04 Comments || Top||

#2  From Der Spiegel (November 2015):

Germany Spied on Friends and Vatican

Efforts to spy on friends and allies by Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, were more extensive than previously reported. SPIEGEL has learned the agency monitored European and American government ministries and the Vatican.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/10/2017 11:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Dem Rep Introduces Bill to Block DJT from Using Fed Funds to Pay for Border Wall
[Breitbart] Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) is slated to introduce legislation Thursday that would block President Trump from using federal funding to pay for a wall along the Mexican border.
"I am not in favor of the wall, but if there is a wall, then I do not want the United States of America to pay for the wall," Moore told CBS News, saying that American taxpayers should not be burdened by Trump’s campaign promise.

The legislation is called the "No Taxpayer Funding for the Wall Act," which would prohibit any federal funding, including funding already set aside for that purpose, from going to the wall. The bill has reportedly already gained the support of three dozen Democrats.

Moore is also hoping to gain support from Republicans who are worried about the cost of the border wall.

"My bill gives amazing opportunities, I think, to people like Jim Jordan to opt out of building the wall," she said, referring to the Republican lawmaker from Ohio. "I’m trying to mobilize some interest in my bill from deficit hawks."
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/10/2017 07:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The bill has reportedly already gained the support of three dozen Democrats. Of course it has. Damned obstructionists. Wasn't legislation for a wall passed some years ago and money set aside as well?
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/10/2017 16:23 Comments || Top||

#2  When the revolution begins in earnest, I hope the first ones lined up against the wall are the ones who held elected office without treating the safety of the citizenry as one of their highest priorities.
Posted by: Crusader || 03/10/2017 18:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Gwen Moore is not one of the brighter bulbs, and has a dimmer switch that activates when she gets an idea (rare thing, I know). I suggest 24 hr marathon viewing of School House Rock: "I'm just a bill" to understand how she and 36 other fools can talk themselves to death and it isn't changing shit
Posted by: Frank G || 03/10/2017 20:40 Comments || Top||


Pruitt starts steering EPA away from climate change, more toward clean water and air
[Wash Times] Scott Pruitt on Thursday made clear he doesn’t believe carbon dioxide is the main driver of climate change -- and his declaration touched off a firestorm among critics who interpret the remark as concrete proof that the EPA administrator plans to disregard the past eight years and take the agency in a new direction.

Mr. Pruitt offered the comments during a morning interview with CNBC as President Trump was preparing to sign an executive order reversing key government regulations on carbon pollution.

The EPA chief told CNBC that it’s challenging to truly measure humans’ effect on the climate and that there is "tremendous disagreement" about exactly how much carbon pollution contributes to climate change.

"I would not agree that [carbon] is a primary contributor to the global warming that we see," Mr. Pruitt said.
His remarks put him on the opposite side from most climate scientists, researchers and governments, and underscore a sharp break from the EPA’s approach over the past eight years.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/10/2017 02:55 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  > disregard the past eight years and take the agency in a new direction.

in other words do what the public voted for.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 03/10/2017 7:33 Comments || Top||

#2  One step in the right direction.

Now get rid of all the extra and stupid regulations the EPA put out and just concentrate on the base mission.
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/10/2017 9:24 Comments || Top||

#3  While you're at it, give us an update on the Flint Michigan drinking water contamination issue. Modern civilizations have a need to know.
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/10/2017 9:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Yay. But seriously, this sort of reform only lasts until the next administration. You would that after 8 years of 0bumble, Republicans would be passing legislation to roll back the rule making authority of these administrative agencies.
Posted by: Iblis || 03/10/2017 10:51 Comments || Top||

#5  And rename it from EPA to Clean Water and Air and Nothing Else Agency so the progressives can't repurpose it to take over the USA.
Posted by: gorb || 03/10/2017 13:51 Comments || Top||

#6  Currently, the EPA is out of control. Good idea to get away from the notion of climate change/global warming. Clean air and clean water is a worthy goal. Limiting toxic dumps is also a worthy goal. As with other agencies there has to be accountability. I can remember when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire due to people dumping combustible stuff in the river. We don't want that again.
Posted by: JohnQC || 03/10/2017 16:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Kill nine out of ten at the EPA and THEN make clear their new purpose in life. Maybe a bit harsh, but hey, like they matter.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 03/10/2017 22:08 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
The spy who came into your living room
[Economist]
Posted by: Frozen Al || 03/10/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Science
Electromagnetic head device to treat veterans battling depression
Posted by: Skidmark || 03/10/2017 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:



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Fri 2017-03-10
   Ax attacker at Düsseldorf main train station arrested
Thu 2017-03-09
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Wed 2017-03-08
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Tue 2017-03-07
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Mon 2017-03-06
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