Tuesday PM ~ The Front Page Cover

 The Front Page Cover 
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
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Featuring:
Long Time To Pass
Tom McLaughlin
 
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"Rise up together as one voice"
"Be careful where you stand"
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 IRS DOCUMENTS DESTROYED ‘MOST LIKELY’ INCLUDE LERNER EMAILS 
Fox News: “A congressional hearing Thursday morning is expected to reveal evidence was destroyed during the investigation into the IRS targeting scandal, months after the agency was told to preserve documents, Fox News is told. J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, is expected to tell the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee his office found no direct evidence the destruction was intentional. But the destruction nevertheless defied a preservation order, and is sure to raise suspicions over motive. The IG will specifically reveal that IRS employees erased computer backup tapes a month after officials discovered thousands of emails related to the tax agency's Tea Party scandal had been lost. As many as 24,000 emails were lost because 422 backup tapes were erased. George says those tapes ‘most likely’ contained emails to and from former IRS official Lois Lerner…”  -Fox News  
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 NPS Removes Battle Flag From Battlefield 
The hive mind appears to be taking over. While we can at least understand the push to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state capitol grounds, the rush to jerk it from all store shelves or any public view is astounding. From the "General Lee" of Dukes of Hazzard fame, to Apple pulling Civil War games from the App Store, to the National Cathedral removing stained glass over the mere presence of the Confederate flag, the reaction quickly became absurd. Now, the nation's first National Military Park, Chickamauga, a park established in 1890 for reconciliation between veterans of the Confederate and Union forces after the War Between the States, has removed Confederate battle flags from its gift shops. Gettysburg has done so as well. Undoubtedly there was a memo from the National Park Service requiring this asinine measure — in order to propagate nObama's race-bait narrative. It has been said that ignorance is bliss, but the fact is, ignorance is miserable.
          Meanwhile, nObama no doubt will be promoting his race bait later today when delivering the eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who, again, supported the flying of the Confederate flag at the SC capitol. If black lives really matter, then why does nObama not deliver eulogies for the other 20 blacks murdered every day on average, most by other blacks? Simple: It doesn't fit the race-bait narrative.
          Finally, of course, the American flag flew over those 13 rebellious states before the Confederate battle flag was ever flown. Better get that American flag down next.
 -The Patriot Post 
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 Clinton Strings Along Investigators With Hidden Emails 
We're still trying to grasp all we don't know about Hilly Clinton's cannon of destroyed documentation. On Thursday, the State Department admitted that nine full emails and six partial emails that Clinton lackey Sidney Blumenthal handed over to the Select Committee on Benghazi were not in the reams of printed emails Clinton dumped on the department. Clinton had to have known this. Earlier this year, Clinton said she handed over all the emails regarding her tenure as secretary of state, though she admitted that she destroyed half of her emails because they were "private." Clinton swears she told the truth, but it was not the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the events leading up to the day when jihadists killed four Americans in Benghazi. "This has implications far beyond Libya, Benghazi and our committee's work," Benghazi Committee Chair Trey Gowdy said. "This conclusively shows her email arrangement with herself, which was then vetted by her own lawyers, has resulted in an incomplete public record. … The revelation these messages were not originally produced to the State Department by Clinton is significant and troubling." The emails show that Clinton was encouraging Blumenthal to send her intelligence reports on Benghazi, despite Clinton's claim that the reports were unsolicited. So why is the State Department cooperating with the Benghazi investigation now? It's very possible Hilly, Blumenthal and Co. are contriving these releases as a red herring designed to tie up Republican political capital on an issue that may be a nonstarter. Barack nObama did the same thing with his birth certificate.  -The Patriot Post 
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 House Republicans Mull Impeachment of IRS Head 
Last February, Barack nObama glibly claimed there was "not even a smidgen of corruption" at the IRS. A month later, at the height of the scandal over the IRS targeting conservative nonprofits, the agency destroyed 422 backup tapes that might have contained 24,000 of Lois Lerner's emails. Here's what the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee learned at their hearing yesterday: Yes, the IRS knew of significant gaps in the public record. Yes, Congress issued a preservation order and a subpoena. But still, records were destroyed. Furthermore, eight days after former chair of the House Ways and Means Committee David Camp sent a letter to the IRS in June 2011 inquiring about the targeting of Tea Party groups, Lerner's hard drive somehow crashed. Tim Camus, the deputy inspector for investigations, calls the whole email-destroying frenzy an "unbelievable set of circumstances." As for Republican lawmakers, they think the unbelievable set of circumstances is grounds for the impeachment of IRS commissioner John Koskinen. A Republican on the House Oversight committee told National Review, "We've briefed the leadership's counsel, and I think that they're open to it, but it's the type of thing where this town is like, 'oh, that's not how we do things, it's not really been used lately.' But, quite frankly, we really haven't had executive branch officials behave this way like we do now."  
 -The Patriot Post 
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  Al-Jazeera Disclosures Deserve a Closer Look…By the Feds                 
(Steve Emerson) ~ Al Jazeera’s run of bad publicity got a little worse this week, when the online Arabic newspaper New Khalij published an article citing part of a cable from the Saudi Embassy saying the network answers to the Qatar government and is stocked with reporters who are part of the Muslim Brotherhood... “Whatever has been said about the impact of the journalists working in Al-Jazeera, having their weight and their agenda, and most of them belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood or being sympathizers with it, the final say in the end is with Qatari decision makers, with them the ones who determine its objectives, and the ones who identify the direction of the channel to achieve their objectives,” the New Khalij report says, citing the Saudi cable. The cable added that “the existence of a number of prominent journalists belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood in the channel is a matter worthy of concern, as the rulers of Qatar and its Sunni people are of the Hanbali school, and believe in the movement of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and the Muslim Brotherhood does not have roots the Qatari society.”        http://www.aim.org/guest-column/al-jazeera-disclosures-deserve-a-closer-lookby-the-feds/?utm_source=AIM+-+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=email062915&utm_medium=email
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 Uprising: Indiana Governor Won’t Comply With EPA                                   
(fixthisnation.com) ~ Indiana Governor Mike Pence (R) is certainly no stranger to controversy. Pence made national headlines earlier this year as he battled the LGBT agenda and fought to protect Indiana’s right to religious freedom... Now he’s at it again, insisting that unless there are big changes to the EPA’s proposed Clean Power Plan, his state will not be participating. He wrote a bold letter to President nObama informing the administration of his stance against the environmental regulations. “If your administration proceeds to finalize the Clean Power Plan, and the final rule has not demonstrably and significantly improved from the proposed rule, Indiana will not comply. Our state will also reserve the right to use any legal means available to block the rule from being implemented,” Pence wrote.        http://www.fixthisnation.com/conservative-breaking-news/uprising-indiana-governor-wont-comply-with-epa/
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 Texas AG: State workers can deny licenses to gay couples                       
(Betsy Blaney) ~ Texas' conservative Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the Supreme Court decision giving same-sex couples the right to marry a "lawless ruling"... and said state workers can cite their religious objections in denying marriage licenses. He warned in a statement Sunday that any clerk, justice of the peace or other administrator who declines to issue a license to a same-sex couple could face litigation or a fine. But in the nonbinding legal opinion requested by Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Paxton says "numerous lawyers" stand ready to defend, free of charge, any public official refusing to grant one. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GAY_MARRIAGE_TEXAS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-06-28-20-53-42
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 Gary Hart: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption  
(Gary Hart) ~ Welcome to the age of vanity politics and campaigns-for-hire. What would our founders make of this nightmare?... Four qualities have distinguished republican government from ancient Athens forward: the sovereignty of the people; a sense of the common good; government dedicated to the commonwealth; and resistance to corruption. Measured against the standards established for republics from ancient times, the American Republic is massively corrupt. From Plato and Aristotle forward, corruption was meant to describe actions and decisions that put a narrow, special, or personal interest ahead of the interest of the public or commonwealth. Corruption did not have to stoop to money under the table, vote buying, or even renting out the Lincoln bedroom. In the governing of a republic, corruption was self-interest placed above the interest of all—the public interest.        http://time.com/3937860/gary-hart-america-corruption/
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 Republican Candidates Should Stand Together to Block Iran Deal          
(Roger L. Simon) ~ All the Republican candidates, announced or unannounced, should stop what they are doing and band together over the July 4 weekend to stop the Iran Deal... In so doing, they should reach out not just to their fellow Republicans, but to all Americans, including especially their colleagues on the other side of the aisle. This is an emergency. Sometimes world events reach a level that petty politics must be put aside and true patriotism come to the fore. September 11, 2001, and Pearl Harbor were such instances. The about-to-be-signed (between June 30 and July 6) nuclear deal with Iran is another. According to the Corker-Menendez bill, Congress only has thirty days to review the deal and (unfairly) needs to muster a two-thirds majority to overthrow it. Allowing the mullahs a glide path to the bomb, this agreement shifts the international balance of power as nothing since Chamberlain’s famous appeasement of Hitler at Munich. The Iran deal is therefore tantamount to a suicide of the West. And, ironically, the only one who can block it at this point is  Ayatollah Khamenei. Barack nObama seems willing to give the Iranians just about anything they want in order to get an agreement. He might as well load a couple of dozen nuclear-tipped ICBMs on the USS Harry S. Truman and sail them over to Bandar Abbas for off-loading.
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 Israel Turns Back 'Freedom Flotilla'- Hands Out Snarky Bibi Letter          
(Jeff Dunetz) ~ The so called "freedom flotilla" has been stopped from entering Gaza and is being towed to the Israeli port of Asdod. The IDF released a terse statement... In accordance with international law, the Israeli Navy advised the vessel several times to change course. Following their refusal, forces visited and searched the vessel in international waters in order to prevent the intended breach of the maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip. The forces have reported that use of force was unnecessary, and that the process was uneventful. The vessel is currently being escorted to Ashdod Port and is expected to arrive within 12-24 hours. Truth is while ships are not allowed to head to Gaza, groups can send as much aid to the terrorist controlled area as they wish. Their cargo, however must be sent through Israel so it can be checked for arms. In the past Israel has intercepted ships filled with arms from Iran and other terrorist supporting countries. Of course the mainstream media never explains that fact, they claim it's an embargo of consumer goods.       http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2015/06/israel-turns-back-freedom-flotilla.html?utm_source=The+Lid+List&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=24587fd9fa-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_term=0_597b72c01c-24587fd9fa-291705165&goal=0_597b72c01c-24587fd9fa-29170516
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 The Strategic Consequences of "Grexit"                                                          
(Peter Martino) ~ Last weekend, Greece failed to reach an agreement with its three creditors, the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. A bankruptcy of the Hellenic Republic is now imminent... If it materializes, a so-called Grexit will follow: Greece will be forced to leave the Eurozone -- the group of 19 European Union (EU) member states that use the euro as their common currency. Leaving the Eurozone automatically means that, under the EU treaties, Greece will also have to leave the EU. Grexit is likely to lead to economic and political turmoil in Greece, a hugely important strategic country, which borders on an increasingly unstable part of the world. Greece lies on the Mediterranean, fewer than 350 kilometers to the north of the Libyan coastal town of Derna, a stronghold of the Islamic terrorists of ISIS. It was here that, last February, ISIS beheaded 21 Coptic Egyptian prisoners, and vowed to conquer Europe. The threat to Greece's eastern borders is even greater. Greece is currently being inundated by illegal immigrants, arriving from Turkey by sea. Each day in June, human traffickers were transporting between 650 and 1,000 migrants by boat from Turkish ports to Greece. Last January, ISIS revealed that it is smuggling terrorists into Europe by hiding them among the migrants leaving Turkey.       http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6071/grexit-consequences
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 What Scares Lt Col Allen West About America’s Future And Present     
(rickwells.us) ~ Perhaps it’s just as well for Lt Col Allen West that he is no longer in the United States Congress. As a patriot who is informed and a man of integrity who cares deeply for his country, he didn’t really belong in the company of most of the riffraff that populates that legislative body anyway... He’s still working to restore our nation to greatness and there is more than enough to keep him and the rest of us Americans who share his concerns quite busy. Col West published a list he called “Twenty Things That Cause Me To Fear For My Nation,” a serious and damning list of things that he put down right off the top of his head. In addition to the content, the fact that it was so easy for him to come up with a list of that length is indicative of the trouble our nation is in.        http://rickwells.us/however-you-add-it-up-what-scares-lt-col-allen-west-about-americas-future-and-present/
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 Alfonzo Rachel Thinks Democrats are the Party of Slavery                       
(http://gopthedailydose.com) ~ Alfonzo Rachel is hated by the liberal crowd. He’s black, he believes in traditional, moral values, and he understands that America is not intrinsically racist. Watch the video below and try to see if anything he says is off-base...
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 Israeli official: nObama's got Muslim Daddy issues                                      
(wnd.com) ~ During a radio interview Sunday, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren reinforced his position that President nObama’s relentless outreach to the Muslim world may be motivated by nObama’s being abandoned by two Muslim father figures... Last week, Oren had speculated Obama’s purported abandonment issues may have caused him to seek acceptance from the Muslim world. Sunday, Oren maintained  “it’s a legitimate question” to ask whether the “abandonment” of nObama’s Kenyan Muslim father and Indonesian Muslim stepfather have been partially driving nObama’s policy toward Islam , the Middle East, the war on terrorism and Iran. Oren was speaking on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” broadcast on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and Philadelphia’s NewsTalk 990 AM.        http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/israeli-official-obamas-got-muslim-daddy-issues/
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Long Time To Pass
Tom McLaughlin
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Carrying Ryan in his backpack
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     (tommclaughlin.blogspot.com) ~ I now belong to an exclusive club no one wants to join: parents who have lost a child. “I cannot imagine how you must feel,” say other parents not in the club. Neither could I before it happened but I knew it would be awful, and it is.
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     What happened wasn’t my worst fear, but close. I feared our son might die alone, and he didn’t. He lingered in the ICU for nine days. During the first five he was in and out of consciousness, knew all his loved ones were with him and had the Last Rites. There’s nothing for me to fear anymore, but sadness and grief have taken fear’s place. Those two will be with me, and my family, a long time I think.
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     I don’t know which is worse but fear had become familiar. Addiction is a terrible thing, debilitating for the addict, but also for his family and for everyone else who loves him. It’s a progressive disease and a fatal result was inevitable unless he could stop, and he couldn’t. Ten years ago I joined a 12-step group for families of alcoholics and it helped me cope, helped me live with the fear and anxiety. The program reduced but didn’t eliminate those two crippling emotions. Now there are two more with which to wrestle.
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With his hamster
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     We buried our son’s body last week but I know his spirit survives, and I will see him again when my own body finally gives out. That knowledge is a comfort, and will it ultimately trump both sadness and grief. He passed peacefully, even if life offered little peace during his last years. He has eternal peace now. I know that, but sometimes I forget and have to remind myself that he’s in a better place.
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     Our family was open about what caused Ryan’s death. All of us contributed to his eulogy which my wife bravely read at his funeral mass with me standing beside her. Having done three eulogies in one year, the last being one for my brother at which I got very choked up and could barely get through, I didn’t think myself capable of doing one for my own son. While we were both thinking of whom to ask, my wife declared she was going to deliver it. I told her that morning I believed I could find the strength to do it, but she said no, I want to, and she did. We were all proud of her.
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     As a columnist for twenty-two years, editors have tried to influence me to write more about this or that, but I’ve always written about what was most on my mind any given week — except my son’s addiction. Very often that was what I thought most about, but I’ve never written about it until now. Readers of the newspapers in which this column runs know my son died because his obituary appeared in their pages, but other readers around the country don’t know. Hence, this piece.
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     My wife and I are helping each other through this ordeal and I’m grateful to have her. Our children and our grandchildren help too. While we were sitting next to our son’s coffin tearfully listening to the priest’s homily, our four-year-old granddaughter, Lila, came into our pew to hold our hands and console us. She helped enormously. When days later I thanked her, she said: “Friends are supposed to help each other.”
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     Before Ryan died, we had been at the hospital more than a week consulting with doctors and other specialists. Most of another week was taken up with funeral arrangements. People in our church community and friends in the wider community were sympathetic and solicitous. Everyone in our immediate family gathered pictures to display at the reception in our church hall following the burial. Assembled pictures of Ryan were both endearing the heartbreaking to look at. People hugging me and expressing their condolences triggered more tears. It’s going to take a long time to wring them all out but, as my wife the therapist says, “If you can let it flow, you can let it go.” And that’s the goal, isn’t it? I have to let him go.
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     I’ve had some practice with that. I’ve had to let go of my obsession with his addiction. My program teaches the “Three Cs”: You didn’t cause it. You can’t control it. You can’t cure it. I had to love and support my son as he struggled for all those years. Thirteen times he went into treatment. He had stretches of sobriety lasting several months, but always slipped back. He was much harder on himself than we ever were on him, and now his struggles are over.
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     Knowing I won’t be able to talk with him anymore this side of heaven makes me miss him desperately. It’s going to be a while before that longing diminishes to bearable levels, but with God’s help, I’ll make it. When it gets hard I have to consider all the good things in my life, and there are many.
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