Kim Cartoon

Valdosta State University

Veteran detained after taking American flag from protesters who were walking on it, report says

A military veteran was reportedly detained and charged by Valdosta State University police in Georgia Friday after she took an American flag from a group of protesters who were walking on it.
The Valdosta Daily Times reports Michelle Manhart, an Air Force veteran, said she wanted to take action after hearing about the group’s demonstrations, but did not want to take the flag from them.
“I did not want anything like this, but I got a call from a student who told me that the flag was on the ground, and they were walking on it,” Manhart told the Daily Times. “I was just going over there to pick up the flag off the ground. I don’t know what their cause is, but I went to pick it up because it doesn’t deserve to be on the ground.”
Manhart said she was taken into custody by campus police who then returned the flag to the demonstrators. Manhart did admit to the paper she was resisting arrest.
The group declined to press charges. The officers who detained her did not press charges either for resisting arrest.
However, Valdosta State police gave Manhart a criminal trespassing warning, which bans her from any university activity, including graduation and foot games, the school’s vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications Andy Clark told the paper.
A VSU student told the paper that a demonstrator said putting the flag on the ground and walking on it was “a symbol of our protest. When a slave understands his situation and understands he doesn’t want to be in slavery, he does not respect or revere anything his slavemaster has put in front of him.”
Manhart said if the cause was racism, then she would have agreed with the cause but opposed the method of which the demonstrators were protesting.
Manhart hopes for an apology from the group and to obtain the flag so it could be disposed of properly.

Texas set to approve open carry of handguns, seen as win for gun-rights activists

Texas is poised to become the largest state in the U.S. to allow citizens to openly carry handguns, a change long sought by gun-rights activists.
The Texas House of Representatives on Friday voted 96-35 to allow residents with concealed-handgun licenses to openly carry their guns in public in holsters. A similar open-carry measure passed the Texas Senate last month; the two open-carry bills must be squared before being sent to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has indicated support for the idea.
In contrast to its reputation for being permissive on firearms, Texas is one of six states, including California, New York and Florida, that currently bars citizens from openly carrying handguns. People who want to carry handguns in public on their person must obtain concealed-weapons permits and keep the weapons hidden.

“We are seeing historic progress in Texas”- Terry Holcomb Sr., executive director of Texas Carry, a gun-rights group

Texas currently allows citizens to openly carry long guns in public, however. That has spurred gun-rights groups to carry assault rifles into restaurants and stores and along the sidewalks adjoining the Texas Capitol, to highlight what they see as a senseless legal distinction.
The push by gun enthusiasts, a powerful constituency within the Texas Republican Party, has helped legislation move through the GOP-controlled Legislature this year after several years of stalled efforts.
Gun-rights groups are also calling for legislation to allow some students and university employees to carry concealed handguns on college campuses. The Texas Senate last month approved a campus-carry measure, as it is known. The Texas House is expected to pass a companion measure, and the idea is also supported in principle by Mr. Abbott.
It would make Texas one of only eight states with laws permitting concealed guns on college campuses, and the largest state to do so.
“We are seeing historic progress in Texas,” said Terry Holcomb Sr., executive director of Texas Carry, a gun-rights group. He noted that open-carry legislation had never even made it out of a Texas legislative committee before this year.

At NH summit, GOP 2016 hopefuls take turns attacking Clinton ahead of her arrival

GOP presidential hopefuls turned up their attacks Saturday on Hillary Clinton -- taking turns piling on the 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner during a party summit in New Hampshire.
The first five 2016 GOP presidential candidates or potential candidates used at least some of their stage time at the Republican Leadership Summit, in Nashua, N.H., to criticize Clinton, who is scheduled to be in the state Monday and Tuesday.
“I’m starting to worry that when Clinton travels she'll need two planes -- one for her and her entourage and one for her baggage,” said Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, particularly critical of Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state in which four Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya, and she used a private server and email address for official business.
“When I think of scandals, the one that bothers me the most is Benghazi,” he continued. “What I fault Hillary most for is for nine months (Americans in Benghazi) pleaded for help.”
Nearly 20 Republican White House prospects were on the program for the weekend conference that ended Saturday afternoon.
Paul was followed by former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, the only high-profile, potential 2016 GOP White House female candidate so far this year.
“Hillary Clinton must not be president of the United States,” said Fiorina, who repeated her criticism that Clinton’s extensive travelogue as the country’s top diplomat is not a marker of success.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal began his remarks by pretending to have mistakenly read a Clinton stump speech, saying he wanted to talk about President Obama’s “great success” in the Middle East.
“I’m sorry, this is Hillary Clinton’s speech, not my speech,” Jindal said to laughter and applause.
He later said: “We can win, we must win, we will win. It is critical we beat Hillary Clinton.”
N.Y. real estate mogul Donald Trump was perhaps the easiest on Clinton, suggesting she was not invincible.
“I know Hillary very well,” he said. “I can beat her. And I think most people cannot.”
South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham was critical of Clinton’s now 8-day-old campaign in which her interactions with people in Iowa, and those she met along the way in her van, appear to be carefully managed.
“Hillary Clinton couldn't be here today because we didn't ask her,” said Graham, also critical of Clinton before, during and after the Benghazi attacks.
“And the reason she isn't (here) is because you can ask questions. This listening tour is like North Korea. Is there anything you'd like to ask the dear leader? How does she get away with this? I don't know. If you want to meet her you better be able to run 35mph” to catch her van.

GIVING IN? Obama suggests possible compromise on Iran sanctions

President Obama suggested on Friday that Iran could receive significant economic relief immediately after concluding a deal to curb its nuclear program, a gesture towards one of Tehran’s key demands.

Obama said such a move would depend on the final accord allowing international sanctions to be quickly re-imposed if Tehran violated the agreement it is now negotiating with global powers. The administration has said the U.S. prefers sanctions would be lifted in phases as Iran meets certain requirements.
“Our main concern here is making sure that if Iran doesn’t abide by its agreement that we don’t have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops in order to reinstate sanctions,” the president said at a news conference. “It will require some creative negotiations,” Mr. Obama said, adding, “I’m confident it will be successful.”
Such solutions could potentially include a faster timetable for lifting sanctions and also freeing up tens of billions of dollars in Iranian oil revenue that has been frozen, though Obama made no reference to that money.
Later, seeking to clarify the president’s comments, a White House official said Obama “will not accept a deal without phased sanctions” relief.
How sanctions would be lifted under is becoming a flashpoint as Iran and the West try to move from a preliminary agreement made earlier this month to a final deal by a June 30 deadline.
Obama, at the news conference, which came after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, said the level and timing of sanctions relief are less important to the U.S. than the measures that will determine how quickly sanctions can be re-enacted if Iran breaks any final agreement.
On both the lifting of sanctions and the “snap back” provisions that put them back in place if Iran is in violation, Obama said U.S. negotiators will be seeking “formulas that get to our main concerns while allowing the other side to make a presentation to their body politic that is more acceptable.”

First Lady Cartoon

Fool of the Week: America's lap dog, lamestream media

Well, it was a week filled with fools. But who would be "Fool of the Week"?
Would it be Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid for calling Republican’s "losers"?
Or would it be ESPN reporter Britt McHenry for losing her temper?
Or would it be Gwyneth Paltrow for dropping her food stamp challenge after just 4 days?
All viable fools.
But by unanimous decision... the Fool of the Week title goes to, drum  roll, wait for it.. the “lap dog” media who fell over themselves trying to chase down the elusive “Scooby" van carrying the “inevitable" Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. 
By the way, when they finally caught up to her, did the media demand questions answered about Benghazi? How they were supposedly broke when they left the White House? Her emails?
Nope.
They wanted to know what Hillary ordered at Chipotle. It was the lame stream media at their finest.

College apologizes for serving Mexican food at space alien-themed party

Idiots for Apologizing.

A California college has apologized for its “insensitivity” after serving Mexican food at an official school night party whose theme, “Intergalactic,” included decorations featuring aliens from outer space.
In a letter addressed to its student body, Stevenson College - which is part of the University of California, Santa Cruz - said it received complaints from students and others within the university who were offended by the decision to serve Mexican food at the Sci-Fi party because of its perceived connection to the immigration debate.
The term “illegal aliens” is sometimes used to describe people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without documentation, but many Latinos and immigration advocates consider it pejorative.
“We would never want to make a connection between individuals of Latino heritage or undocumented students and ‘aliens,’ and I am so sorry that our College Night appeared to do exactly that,” reads the letter, which was written by Carolyn Golz, a student life administrator.
Golz said the incident “demonstrated a cultural insensitivity on the part of the program planners,” but called it an “unintentional mistake.”
Now, as a result of this “poor decision,” the university is requiring cultural competence training for all students interested in putting together on-campus programs as well as other safe guards that “will ensure college programs are culturally sensitive and inclusive.”
College Night is a special monthly event designed to bring students together, according to the college’s website, which includes photos from former themed parties, including “Midnight in Paris,” at which French food was served, and “Harry Potter,” which featured turkey, potatoes and stew.
“For [the sci-fi] event, students landed on Mexican food because they weren't sure what food would work with the intergalactic theme,” a college spokesman told Fox News. “It sounds like an honest mistake - choosing a food for college night without thinking about how it could be perceived by others. The students decided on Mexican food as they hadn't had it yet this year. “
Some believe Stevenson College is overreacting with its decision to not only apologize, but to now require cultural competence training of program staff.
“This seems a bit of a stretch,” said Geraldo Rivera on the Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends on Friday morning.  “This seems like political correctness gone way too far, and now they are going to get much more inferior food at their next gala for fear of offending.”

ISIS continues deadly assault on western Iraq as thousands flee

Iraqi special forces maintained control of the provincial capital, Ramadi, in Iraq's western Anbar province Friday, after Islamic State militants continued to pound the western city with bombings, causing fearful residents to flee their homes.
Anbar provincial council member Athal al-Fahdawi said Thursday the city was "in great danger," the BBC reported. Nine people were killed by militants in the village of Albu Ghanim— four of the victims were police officers, the Kurdish website Rudaw said- and thousands of people fled Ramadi and surrounding areas in recent days.
Sabah al-Karhout, head of Anbar's provincial council, said there were no major attacks on the city Friday but that the militants still maintained control of three villages to the east of Ramadi, which they captured Wednesday.
Suicide bombers attacked government buildings and checkpoints in Ramadi earlier in the week and Friday a series of bombings ripped through Baghdad, mainly targeting public places and killing at least 40 people, Iraqi officials said.
A car bomb went off at a car dealership in the Shiite neighborhood of Habibya in eastern Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding 26, police said. Several cars were burned in the attack. A half-hour earlier, a car bomb detonated near an outdoor market, killing 13 people and wounding 24.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks but violence has escalated both in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq in the wake of Islamic State group's capture of large parts of the country last year. The Islamic State has taken credit for similar attacks in the past, especially those targeting Shiites, as well as Iraqi security forces and government buildings.
The attacks come as Iraqi government forces and allied Shiite and Sunni fighters-- backed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led international coalition-- are battling ISIS militants to retake key cities and territory in northern and western Iraq.
Sabah Nuaman, a special forces commander in Anbar, said the situation had improved early Friday after airstrikes hit key militant targets on the city's fringes.
Also Friday, Iraqi security forces gained full control over a contested area south of the Beiji refinery, as part of their push to secure the rest of Salahuddin province.
General Ayad al-Lahabi, a commander with the Salahuddin Command Center, said the military, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and Shiite and Sunni militias dubbed the Popular Mobilization Forces, gained control of the towns of al-Malha and al-Mazraah, located 1.9 miles south of the Beiji oil refinery, killing at least 160 militants with the Islamic State group.
Al-Lahabi said security forces are trying to secure two corridors around the refinery itself after the Sunni militants launched a large-scale attack on the complex earlier this week, hitting the refinery walls with explosive-laced Humvees.
Extremists from the Islamic State group seized much of Salahuddin province last summer during their advance across northern and western Iraq.
The battle for Tikrit was seen as a key step toward eventually driving the militants out of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the capital of Nineveh province. In November, Iraqi security forces said they had recaptured the town of Beiji from the militant group. The refinery had never been captured by the militants but has been subjected to frequent attacks by the group.