2016 West Point rings contain steel from World Trade Center

They won't forget 9-11.

Via NY Post:

When graduates of West Point’s Class of 2016 go into their years of service as officers of the Army, they will be wearing something no other cadets have worn before — class rings that include steel from the World Trade Center.
It hasn’t received mention in the press. But it was movingly noted Friday in the introduction of the commandant of cadets, Brig. Gen. John Thomson III, at the military academy’s annual ring memorial ceremony.
What a cure for the cynicism of a cynical age. It’s at the ring ceremony that seniors — known as “firsties” — get their rings, which become a physical link between future officers and the West Point graduates who went before.
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Don't look now, but Iran's Supreme Leader just called the U.S. government "retarded"

If we made some concessions in talks, it was mainly to remove sanctions; otherwise why should have we negotiated? pic.twitter.com/mdNq2RYo8e

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 3, 2015

Head exploding irony: WH spokesman Josh Earnest, "No public official that is above the rule of law”

Chutzpah! 

Via TPM:

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday afternoon that no public official, including the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed earlier in the day for refusing to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples, is above the law.

Kim Davis, a clerk from Rowan County, Kentucky, was found in contempt of court and taken into federal custody Thursday.

Earnest told reporters during his daily media briefing that he had not yet talked with President Obama about Davis being taken into custody.

“On principle, the success of our democracy depends on the rule of law. And there is no public official that is above the rule of law,” Earnest said. “Certainly not the President of the United States, but neither is the Rowan County clerk. That’s a principle that is enshrined in our Constitution and in our democracy and it’s one that obviously the courts are seeking to uphold.”

It begins. Former Hillary Clinton staffer who set up home brew server to take the Fifth...

If there was no crime, there is no reason to plead the Fifth...

A former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private e-mail server tried this week to fend off a subpoena to testify before Congress, saying he would assert his constitutional right not to answer questions to avoid incriminating himself.
The move by Bryan Pagliano, who had worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the server in her New York home in 2009, came in a Monday letter from his lawyer to the House panel investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. …
“In response to questions…Mr. Pagliano’s legal counsel told the committee yesterday that he would plead the Fifth to any and all questions if he were compelled to testify,” a spokesperson for committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman of the House Benghazi committee, had subpoenaed the computer staffer Aug. 11 and ordered that he appear for questioning before the committee Sept. 10. Gowdy also demanded that Pagliano provide documents related to the servers or systems controlled or owned by Clinton from 2009 to 2013.

Picture of the Day: The most narcissistic President evah!

307,000 veterans died while waiting for healthcare...

I am speechless...

(CNN)Hundreds of thousands of veterans listed in the Department of Veterans Affairs enrollment system died before their applications for care were processed, according to a report issued Wednesday.
The VA’s inspector general found that out of about 800,000 records stalled in the agency’s system for managing health care enrollment, there were more than 307,000 records that belonged to veterans who had died months or years in the past.
In a response to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs’ request to investigate a whistleblower’s allegations of mismanagement at the VA’s Health Eligibility Center, the inspector general also found VA staffers incorrectly marked unprocessed applications and may have deleted 10,000 or more records in the last five years.
In one case, a veteran who applied for VA care in 1998 was placed in “pending” status for 14 years. Another veteran who passed away in 1988 was found to have an unprocessed record lingering in 2014, the investigation found.
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Study: 51 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) received welfare in 2012...

Is anyone surprised by this study? Immigrant households (legal or illegal) should be banned from receiving welfare. We don't need to import welfare recipients. We have enough already.

This study is the first in recent years to examine immigrant (legal and illegal) and native welfare use using the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). While its complexity makes it difficult to use, the survey is widely regarded as providing the most accurate picture of welfare participation. The SIPP shows immigrant households use welfare at significantly higher rates than native households, even higher than indicated by other Census surveys.

• In 2012, 51 percent of households headed by an immigrant (legal or illegal) reported that they used at least one welfare program during the year, compared to 30 percent of native households. Welfare in this study includes Medicaid and cash, food, and housing programs.
• Welfare use is high for both new arrivals and well-established immigrants. Of households headed by immigrants who have been in the country for more than two decades, 48 percent access welfare.
• No single program explains immigrants’ higher overall welfare use. For example, not counting subsidized school lunch, welfare use is still 46 percent for immigrants and 28 percent for natives. Not counting Medicaid, welfare use is 44 percent for immigrants and 26 percent for natives.

Family of Kate Steinle announce lawsuit against government agencies

 

Kate Steinle's brother speaks out: "Nobody has taken responsibility, accountability and nothing has changed." https://t.co/L4iO4V6aeF

— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) September 2, 2015

I hope they bankrupt the city and Sheriff's Department. 

Via Fox News:

The family of Kate Steinle, in an emotional press conference, announced a lawsuit Tuesday against government agencies that they consider partly responsible for her murder because of their handling of the illegal immigrant suspect and the murder weapon itself.
Steinle, 32, was shot dead while walking on a San Francisco pier on July 1. Suspect Juan Francisco Sanchez, who has admitted he fired the fatal shot, is an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times before he was transferred from federal custody to a San Francisco jail earlier this year to face outstanding marijuana charges. Yet he was released in April after prosecutors dropped the pot counts, despite a federal request to detain him until immigration authorities could pick him up.