American Pie

Dutch investigators on Tuesday questioned two Detroit-area men arrested at Amsterdam’s airport after U.S. authorities found suspicious items in their checked luggage, including a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle and a knife and box cutter.

The pair were arrested Monday morning at Schiphol Airport after getting off a United Airlines flight from Chicago, where their decision to change their flight plans raised flags in the U.S. that they were potentially assessing the aviation system for a potential future terror attack.

For the rest of this story, go to: Simple Misunderstanding — Or Rehearsal for Airline Terror?

Source: foxnews.com

A damming report has highlighted questions over the credibility of a leading climate change body

A high-level inquiry into the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found there was “little evidence” for its claims about global warming.

It also said the panel had emphasised the negative impacts of climate change and made “substantive findings” based on little proof.

The review by the InterAcademy Council (IAC) was launched after the IPCC’s hugely embarrassing 2007 benchmark climate change report, which contained exaggerated and false claims that Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035.

The panel was forced to admit its key claim in support of global warming was lifted from a 1999 magazine article. The report was based on an interview with a little-known Indian scientist who has since said his views were “speculation” and not backed by research.

For the rest of this story, go to: PAPER: CLIMATE CHANGE LIES ARE EXPOSED...

Source: dailyexpress.co.uk

ABC News’ Steven Portnoy reports:

With a number of polls showing a sustained level of opposition to the Democrats’ health care reform efforts more than five months after passage, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the Obama administration has “a lot of reeducation to do” heading into the midterms.

For the rest of this story, go to: Sebelius: Time for 'Reeducation' on ObamaCare...

Source: abcnews.com

By: Lisa Gartner

President Obama’s top education official urged government employees to attend a rally that the Rev. Al Sharpton organized to counter a larger conservative event on the Mall.

“ED staff are invited to join Secretary Arne Duncan, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and other leaders on Saturday, Aug. 28, for the ‘Reclaim the Dream’ rally and march,” began an internal e-mail sent to more than 4,000 employees of the Department of Education on Wednesday.

Sharpton created the event after Glenn Beck announced a massive Tea Party “Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial, where King spoke in 1963.

The Washington Examiner learned of the e-mail from a Department of Education employee who felt uncomfortable with Duncan’s request.

Although the e-mail does not violate the Hatch Act, which forbids federal employees from participating in political campaigns, Education Department workers should feel uneasy, said David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute.

“It sends a signal that activity on behalf of one side of a political debate is expected within a department. It’s highly inappropriate … even in the absence of a direct threat,” Boaz said. “If we think of a Bush cabinet official sending an e-mail to civil servants asking them to attend a Glenn Beck rally, there would be a lot of outrage over that.”

For the rest of this story, go to: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Education-secretary-urged-his-employees-to-go-to-Sharpton_s-rally-651280-101839293.html

Source: washingtonexaminer.com

PHOENIX – A shake-up in immigration policy may lead to deportation proceedings being dropped for thousands of aliens who entered the United States illegally but are applying to stay in the country, officials said on Friday.

They said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) seeks to end deportation proceedings against detained illegal immigrants who have applications pending to become legal U.S. residents, if agents determine they have no criminal history and do not present a security threat. [American Patriot's Pledge editor's note: Of course, the very act of being here illegally means that ALL illegal aliens do, in fact, have a "criminal history"]

The policy shift emerged from an internal memorandum ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton sent last week to the agency’s principal legal adviser and a director of enforcement and removal operations.

The memo was published by the New York Times on Friday and confirmed to Reuters by officials.

For the rest of this story, to go: Obama’s ICE Shift Would Let Thousands of Illegals Stay

Source: newsmax.com

If Democrats had doubts about the voter unrest that threatens to rob them of their majority in Congress, they needed only look from the Capitol this weekend to the opposite end of the National Mall.

It’s where Ken Ratliff joined tens of thousands of other anti-government activists at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial for conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally.

“There’s gotta’ be a change, man,” said Ratliff, a 55-year-old Marine veteran from Rochester, N.Y.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans can afford to ignore the antiestablishment fervor displayed Saturday during Beck’s rally that took on the tone of an evangelical revival.

Billed as a nonpolitical event, it nevertheless was a clarifying moment for those curious as to what clout an anti-Washington sentiment could have on midterm congressional elections in November. The gathering was advertised as an opportunity to honor American troops. But it also illustrated voters’ exasperation — and provided additional evidence that Democrats in power — as well as some incumbent Republicans — may pay the price when voters go to the polls.

For the rest of this story, go to: Beck Rally Signals Election Trouble for Democrats

Source: newsmax.com

While House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, urged President Obama Tuesday to fire his economic team, a real CEO would have made that move months ago. A real CEO would have also developed and implemented a new strategy to stimulate the economy as soon as it became apparent that the old one was not working.

Even worse, the administration is in denial about the fact that its economic policies are not working. This is evidenced by Vice President Joe Biden’s spin tour trying to convince people that their policies are working using concocted measurements such as “jobs saved” and the latest addition to their spin vocabulary – “lives touched.”

I am one of many writers who warned that we could not spend our way to prosperity, but the administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress passed the $862 billion non-stimulus bill anyway. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called members of Congress back during the August congressional recess to spend another $26 billion to help save some more union jobs.

Obama is now floating the idea of spending another $30 billion to stimulate community bank lending to small businesses. Add this idea to the growing list of poorly executed and ineffective pop-tart programs such as Cash for Clunkers, cash for caulkers, cash for air (air conditioning system upgrade) and the Home Affordable Modification Program, and it’s no wonder the administration is making up new words to avoid talking about their failed programs and policies.

For the rest of this story, go to: Exclusive: Herman Cain explains what a genuine leader would have done

Source: wnd.com

In a swift and unexpected decision, the Environmental Protection Agency today rejected a petition from environmental groups to ban the use of lead in bullets and shotgun shells, claiming it doesn’t have jurisdiction to weigh on the controversial Second Amendment issue. The decision came just hours after the Drudge Report posted stories from Washington Whispers and the Weekly Standard about how gun groups were fighting the lead bullet ban.

The EPA had planned to solicit public responses to the petition for two months, but this afternoon issued a statement rejecting a 100-page request from the Center for Biological Diversity, the American Bird Conservancy, and three other groups for a ban on lead bullets, shot, and fishing sinkers. The agency is still considering what to do about sinkers.

For the rest of this story, go to: Rejects attempt to regulate lead in bullets after protests

Source: politics.usnews.com

By Aaron Klein
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Photo from State Department website

The State Department is funding the construction of mosques around the world as part of the U.S. government’s outreach programs to Muslims.

Six million dollars in taxpayer funds will be used this year to restore dozens of Islamic cultural sites and mosques around the world as part of State’s Ambassador Fund for Cultural Preservation.

For the rest of this story, go to: State Department lists 29 projects under ‘cultural preservation’

Source: wnd.com

By Anita Crane
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Restoring Honor attendees (Photo courtesy of Tim Hester and Karla Kuykendall Hester)

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of thousands of Americans – of many creeds and colors – made what ended up being a pilgrimage of sorts to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally.

Catholics, other Christians and Jews spoke to WND on site, many celebrating the themes of faith and reliance on God proclaimed from the platform.

As WND reported, Beck proclaimed the purpose of the rally, saying, “It has nothing to do with politics; it has everything to do with God.”

Beck, the Fox News TV host and a professed Mormon, urged his fellow Americans to live according to the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity. He asked everyone to enter into 40 days of deep prayer, an obvious plea to imitate Jesus Christ’s 40 days of prayer and fasting in the wilderness.

Beck also preached the Christian philosophy that the common good starts with individuals, and therefore, he said, Americans need to begin by examining their souls.

Paul and Jeff Strange, father and son, came from Bloomington, Ill., with their friend Tom Morgan. Just prior to the formal presentations, Jeff Strange spoke presciently:

“I came here to try and improve myself as an individual, because I think we need to restore our character in this country,” he said. “We need to restore the character of our leaders, and we need to start electing virtuous leaders.

“We’re in big trouble, and it’s time to do something about it,” said Strange. “We came out here to be with thousands of other people to take a stand, to change ourselves and our country.”

Different faiths, different colors

Day Gardner (left) and Alveda King at Restoring Honor rally

The crowd itself included veterans, parents, disabled Americans, people of all ages and – contrary to some criticism leveled against the rally – attendees of many races and ethnicities.

Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union based in Washington, D.C., for example, stood on the platform with Alveda King as she recalled her uncle Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech.

Before the multitudes assembled Alveda King proclaimed, “If Uncle Martin could be here today … he would surely remind us that as brothers and sisters, united by one blood in one single race, the human race, we are called to honor God and to love each other.”

Praising the entire rally, Gardner exclaimed, “It was phenomenal!

“It felt great to be up there with all these wonderful leaders, the black pro-life leaders from all over the country,” Gardner said. “I was extremely proud of my sister in Christ and my dear friend, Dr. Alveda King. … Seeing her walk out where her uncle and her father were 47 years ago – my eyes welled up, and I had a lump in my throat, because we have come a really long way.”

For the rest of this story, go to:

Glenn Beck crowd: Not so lily white as advertised …

Source: wnd.com