After seeing one of their own murdered in a cage by ISIS today, Jordan officials announced that they have executed two prisoners associated to with the terrorist group.
Jordan said it had executed 2 prisoners early Wednesday after a new video surfaced on the Internet Tuesday showing ISIS burning alive a Jordanian pilot the terror group had held since December.
Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said that prisoners Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouli were executed. Al-Rishawi has been on death row for her role in a triple hotel bombing in the Jordanian capital Amman in 2005 that killed dozens. Over the past week, Jordan had twice offered to swap her for the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh. However, officials have said his captors did not deliver proof he was still alive, and the swap never moved forward.
The 44-year-old Iraqi woman’s suicide belt did not detonate at the time of the Amman attack and she fled the scene, but was quickly arrested. After a televised confession, she recanted, but her appeal was turned down.
Al-Rishawi had family ties to the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda, a precursor of ISIS. Ziad Al-Karbuli was a former aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian Al Qaeda operative who was killed in 2006.
I have no clue why guns should be allowed in schools. We all know they’re not going to learn anything, but Republicans obviously think guns will benefit somehow if they’re allowed in schools. Or maybe it’s the NRA that benefits.
The bill, supported by leaders of the Republican-led House, would repeal “gun-free zones” carved out around elementary and secondary schools, as well as colleges and universities.
Passed on a 42-17 vote, the measure also would grant concealed-carry permit holders the right to take their guns into meetings of the state Legislature and local government meetings.
The bill must clear the Republican-controlled state Senate before it can be submitted to Governor Matt Mead, also a Republican, for his signature or veto. Mead has in recent years sought to welcome firearms-related companies to Wyoming by promoting it as a gun-friendly state
I mean, just when you thought you’ve heard it all from these backward Republicans, they hit you in the kneecap with another outlandish statement.
During a Q&A at the Bipartisan Policy Center on Monday, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) related a story from his time in the state legislature in 2010, complaining that the U.S. is “one of the most regulated nations in the history of the planet.”
“I was having a discussion with someone, and we were at a Starbucks in my district, and we were talking about certain regulations where I felt like ‘maybe you should allow businesses to opt out,'” the senator said.
Tillis said his interlocutor was in disbelief, and asked whether he thought businesses should be allowed to “opt out” of requiring employees to wash their hands after using the restroom.
The senator said he’d be fine with it, so long as businesses made this clear in “advertising” and “employment literature.”
“I said: ‘I don’t have any problem with Starbucks if they choose to opt out of this policy as long as they post a sign that says “We don’t require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom,” Tillis said.
“The market will take care of that,” he added, to laughter from the audience.
Wrapping up the Q&A, the moderator joked to Tillis, “I’m not sure I’m gonna shake your hand.”
Scott Walker – the man who went on a mission to dismantle the unions in his state of Wisconsin, a state with a dismal economic outlook due to weak job growth since Walker became governor – now has his eyes set in the White House, and according to this new poll, Walker is leading all the potential Republican wannabes for the 2016 presidential election.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is surging, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is an also-ran and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is dominating in a new poll of Iowans likely to vote in the nation’s first presidential nominating contest.
The Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, taken Monday through Thursday, shows Walker leading a wide-open Republican race with 15 percent, up from just 4 percent in the same poll in October. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was at 14 percent and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, stood at 10 percent.
Bush trailed with 8 percent and increasingly is viewed negatively by likely Republican caucus-goers. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is in even worse shape, with support from just 4 percent. More troubling for Christie: He’s viewed unfavorably by 54 percent, among the highest negative ratings in the potential field. At 9 percent, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson pulls more support than either Bush or Christie.
Another week, and more snow is expected in the northeast. There’s more over the PARCC testing storm as well, but this time, there is a ray of sane sunshine.
Here in New Jersey, State Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan Jr. (D-Middlesex), chairman of the Assembly’s education committee, has introduced a bill that would detail a procedure for how parents could opt out of the tests. He’s working on another bill that would delay the use of the tests to evaluate students and teachers for up to three years. Not that using tests for such evaluation is ever a good idea, whether it’s now or in 2018, but a delay might give testing opponents, which include most educators who work in classrooms, an opportunity to put the movement out of our misery.
The other good news is that another bill sponsored by state Assemblyman David Rible (R-Monmouth) would put limits on how student data is used and disseminated. The Christie administration has said that student privacy protections are in place, but that’s quickly becoming the most laughable line in any industry, much less in education. See Target, Home Depot, and anyone involved in The Interview. Plus, Christie can’t even keep his political operatives from talking about their political contretemps. How is he going to safeguard the privacy of all the schoolchildren in New Jersey?
New FAQs about the PARCC tests released by the state Department of Education do say that the tests are not mandatory even though many districts are sending the implicit message that they are. Other districts and organizations are sponsoring evenings where members of the community can come and take a sample test to see what their children will experience. These evenings are being presented as informational sessions, but clearly if parents don’t like what they see, they could take action.
Right now, the opt-out movement is small, but it is growing. As we get closer to the March administration, I would expect that more parents will take their children out of the tests. There might even be more opt-outs after the March tests once students go home and tell their parents/caregivers about their experiences. The final administration is in late April or early May.
For all the talk about the procedural aspects of PARCC, the real issue is what the tests actually measure and whether students are doing their best, either because they’ve decided that they don’t want to bother or are flummoxed by technology issues.
These are high stakes tests for only one group: teachers, because student scores can determine whether one is retained or fired. The ultimate irony is that the people who will be most affected will be the ones with the least amount of control on test day.
A Sniper? Or maybe the toddler just figured out how to hit two birds with one stone. In any case, the single bullet fired by the toddler hit his father in the buttocks, then hit his mother in her shoulder.
Albuquerque police say the toddler apparently reached for an iPod but found the loaded weapon.
The bullet first struck his father in the buttock and then hit the shoulder of his mother, who is eight months pregnant. His 2-year-old sister was present but unhurt.
Local media reports say police believe Saturday’s shooting was accidental.
Police said in a statement that the father was treated and released, while the mother was hospitalized in stable condition. They will be investigated for possible negligence charges.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that the family was living in the motel room where the shooting occurred.
Police say child care officials are taking care of the children.
For the Republicans to invite a foreign leader to address a joint session of congress, and have that leader give a partisan speech against the United States government is a slap to our faces. For Benjamin Netanyahu to accept that invitation is even lower than the invite itself. And it is clear from that acceptance that Netanyahu knows nothing about the words “friend” and “alley.”
Negotiations with Iran have reached a critical point. The United States and our partners on the United Nations Security Council have set a July 2015 deadline on reaching a deal for Iran to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. The fact that we’re talking is significant. But, clearly, Iran wouldn’t even be at the table if it wasn’t already hurting from sanctions already in place.
So why not add more sanctions? There’s the rub. Most Republicans and several top Democrats, including the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), believe that enacting more sanctions now would force Iran to make a deal.
President Obama and former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, however, argue that slapping more sanctions on Iran now would kill the talks. Obama has vowed to veto any new sanctions bill from Congress, while promising to impose additional sanctions if negotiations fail.
This is an important issue on which honest men and women disagree. But here’s the point: You don’t invite the leader of any foreign country to walk into Congress and disagree with the president of the United States. For three reasons.
First, there’s no need to. Menendez, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others are perfectly capable of making the argument for more sanctions. Why do they need Bibi Netanyahu?
Second, it’s a serious breach of protocol. Relations with heads of state are handled by the White House and the State Department, not partisan leaders in Congress. Those dealings should be above politics.
Third, throwing any foreign leader into the middle of a policy debate in this country is a dangerous mix of foreign policy and partisan politics. We know what’s behind it. Boehner’s counting on Netanyahu to dump on Obama and accuse him of being soft on national security. For his part, Netanyahu wants to use our Congress as a forum for helping him win reelection, just two weeks after he was invited to speak. Both are abusing the honor of addressing a joint session of Congress in order to play their political games. And both are willing to risk undermining the strong bonds between the United States and Israel in the process.
Surely, members of Congress and the White House can work this out on their own without having to bring in an outsider. Both Boehner and Netanyahu should drop their silly, and dangerous, caper.
The students from Vermont took on Bill O’Reilly and Fox News because Fox News lied about the people of Vermont and then broadcast their lies on the network. The students thought a course in The Code of Ethics in Journalism might do Fox News some good and they ended up slamming the network in the process.
You see, Bill O’ thought it would be funny to send his henchman to Vermont to “interview” people of the state. While at it, Bill and his henchman conveniently managed to portray the entire state as a liberal utopia filled with mindless sheep who overwhelmingly voted for President Obama.
Watch how the students put Bill O’Reilly and Fox News in their place – at the bottom of the journalistic pile. According to one student’s conclusion, “Based on our studies about the field of journalism, we have determined that you’re not practicing journalism. You’re practicing rank propaganda.”
I’m not one to laugh at the mishaps of another, but I will post this video of Chris Christie falling on his butt at a radio station – SportsRadio 94WIP. As he was introduced by Angelo Cataldi, Christie pulled out his chair and rolled right off it, landing on his hind-quarters. The incident happened last June and was released to the public on Friday.
Whatever happened to the days when an unruly student is sent to the principal’s office or held for detention. Those days are dead, buried and forgotten in The Lone state of Texas!
According to a new bill introduced by Rep. Dan Flynn, a Republican in the Texas legislature, teachers would now have the right to shoot and kill students in the classroom, on the school grounds or at any school sponsored event.
The Lone Star State already permits teachers to have firearms in the classroom, but H.B. 868, also known as the Teacher’s Protection Act, would authorize instructors to use “force or deadly force on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored event in defense of the educator’s person or in defense of students of the school that employs the educator.” Instructors would also have the right to use deadly force “in defense of property of the school that employs the educator.” Moreover, civil immunity would be granted to those who use deadly force, meaning they would not be liable for the injury or death of student.
And this nutjob, Flynn, is a real nutjob. Thinkprogress reports that he is one of the state’s staunchest gun-rights advocates who previously co-authored legislation to allow firearms on college campuses. In 2013, he successfully co-authored a law that reduced the minimum number of training hours needed for a concealed handgun license.
I was gearing up for his return. I had all my Romney is a flip flopper, Romney the chameleon posts from his last failed bid ready to go. I wanted to see how Romney was going to flip flop on his positions for this 2016 run, but my fun and enthusiasm just came to an end as Mitt Romney announced that he is not going to run a third campaign to become President of the United States.
In a conference call with his supporters, Mitt Romney said that he is confident that with their support he ciuld win the nomination if he runs in 2016. But he is convinced that at this time running is not his best option.
“I am convinced that we could win the nomination, but fully realize it would have been difficult test and a hard fight,” Romney’s prepared remarks on a conference call with supporters said.
And he partiality shuts the door to being drafted by his Republican colleagues.
“I’ve been asked, and will certainly be asked again if there are any circumstances whatsoever that might develop that could change my mind. That seems unlikely. Accordingly, I’m not organizing a PAC or taking donations; I’m not hiring a campaign team,” he said.
The official report states that only “35 permanent jobs” will be created from the construction of the Keystone pipeline. That same report, conducted by the State Department, found the negative impact of the pipeline on the environment could be tremendous. But still, with all this researched evidence staring them in the face, Republicans continue to push, fighting this six year battle to get the pipeline approve.
The 62-36 vote advanced a top priority of the newly empowered GOP, and marked the first time the Senate passed a bill authorizing the pipeline, despite numerous attempts to force President Barack Obama’s hand on the issue. Nine Democrats joined with 53 Republicans to back the measure.
This bill “is an important accomplishment for the country,” said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. “We are hoping the president upon reflection will agree to sign on to a bill that the State Department said could create up to 42,000 jobs and the State Department said creates little to no impact on the environment.”
Still the vote was short of the threshold needed to override a veto, and the legislation still must be reconciled with the version the House passed.
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