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PAYSON, AZ - Republican Rep. Brenda Barton of Payson compared President Barack Obama to Adolph Hitler on her Facebook page Monday in a post urging county sheriffs to revoke authority from the National Parks Service “thugs” who are enforcing the federal shutdown on national parks lands. “Someone is paying the National Park Service thugs overtime for their efforts to carry out the order of De Fuhrer… where are our Constitutional Sheriffs who can revoke the Park Service Rangers authority to arrest??? Do we have any Sheriffs with a pair?” she wrote. Fuhrer is a German term for leader that is...

WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – The Senate has taken the lead from the House in attempting to devise a plan to reopen the government and avoid a potential default in the coming week. Speaking with Bob Schieffer on Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he is “cautiously hopeful” that the Senate can pick up where House negotiations have become deadlocked, and hopefully avoid the continued government shutdown through bipartisan Senate discussion. “I’m cautiously hopeful, optimistic that we can come to an agreement and open up the government and avoid default based on the bipartisan meetings that are going on,” Schumer said...

ObamaCare is at the center of a rapidly escalating fight that threatens to shut the government down this fall. [WATCH VIDEO]Senate Republicans, including two members of the leadership, are coalescing around a proposal to block any government funding resolution that includes money for the implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.But such a move is a nonstarter for President Obama and congressional Democrats. Republicans have tried this maneuver in Obama’s first term, only to back off later to the chagrin of Tea Party leaders.This time, GOP lawmakers are emboldened by problems plaguing the administration’s ObamaCare implementation. But that zeal...

The key bit comes at the very end, in response to a question about who’s responsible for the temporary suspension of death benefits to families of fallen troops. McCain’s answer: Everyone in Congress — but, implicitly, especially the “defund” caucus. You can tell how eager Maverick was to make that point by how quickly he turns a segment about the administration giving short shrift to the military — normally an easy lay-up for a Republican against a Democratic president — into a lament about Cruz et al. I’m not sure a guy who’s positioned himself as the lead Republican opponent...

Friends, With the federal government shutdown, this has been a difficult week for all Americans. Furthermore, the Obama administration’s unwillingness to negotiate is frustrating to all of us who would like to see meaningful change in Washington. While I am disappointed by the actions of Harry Reid and President Obama, I was shocked to learn that veterans had been denied access to the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. Our veterans deserve better than this! It’s time to send a message to the Democrats in Washington that this sort of political gamesmanship is unacceptable. It is disturbing to note that President...

CAREFREE, Ariz. – Some parents of students at Cactus Shadows High School are outraged over a play that has students acting out sexual encounters with a goat, and using vulgar sexual expressions. Other parents of students in teacher Andrew Cupo’s advanced drama class believe the concerns are overblown, and resent parents who questioned their children about the sexually explicit play without their permission. Parents attended the governing board meeting for the Cave Creek Unified School District Tuesday and shared about two hours of public comment on the play “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” by Edward Albee, which revolves around...

Rtightened his handcuffs. “I thought I’d be treated better ep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) said police who arrested him Tuesday by the Capitol Police than I was,” Rangel said on FOX Business Network Friday. Rangel was one of several Democratic lawmakers arrested by U.S. Capitol Police at an immigration reform rally on the National Mall. “I think they were trying to help me, but the cuffs were so tight that when I said loosen up the cuffs — and I wasn’t cursing then — in an attempt to loosen it up, one of the rookie cops actually tightened it,” he said....

Immigration activists chained themselves to buses and blocked an entrance to a federal courthouse in Tucson, Ariz., today, halting immigration proceedings that could have resulted in deportations. Protesters forced two buses carrying detainees on their way to court for immigration cases to stop for over four hours beginning about 8 a.m., after they locked themselves to the vehicles five minutes from the Evo A. DeConcini U.S. Courthouse. Another six protesters chained themselves to gates at a vehicle entrance at the court.

Hunters and tourists are needlessly being kept away from public lands during the shutdown, Republicans claimed Tuesday. GOP members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee accused the Interior Department of closing roads and lands that could have been kept open in Western states. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is wrongly blocking access for hunters as the Alaskan winter approaches. “This is moose season. This is hunting season. This is when Alaskans are filling up their freezer for a long winter. In so many of our communities there is no Costco;...

A Democratic member of Congress is using the government shutdown to pressure the Department of the Interior to prohibit oil and gas exploration on federal land. Energy companies should not be able to use federal lands if those lands are closed to hikers and campers, according to Rep. Raul Grijalva (D., Ariz.), the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Grijalva started an online petition to demand that Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack “stop mining [on] public lands while visitors are locked out.” “Fossil fuel and logging companies shouldn’t have special access to our federal lands while...

An Arizona man with an incurable form of leukemia has received notice from his insurance company that his plan is being terminated due to regulations from the “Affordable Care Act.” -snip Back in 2006, he found out he had an incurable form of leukemia that requires ongoing treatment until he dies. In 2012, his treatment bill was more than $350,000. But because of his insurance, his out-of-pocket was only $4,500. That’s about to change because Michael just got a letter from his insurance carrier saying as of January 1, he would be dropped from coverage because of new regulations under...

Insanity: Mesa, AZ Police Officer Scott Urkov was asked to stop wearing his uniform and gun when picking up his daughter from school.- The anti-gun hysteria at American schools has continued apace since the Newtown shootings, with school bureaucrats enforcing insane "zero tolerance" edicts - punishing children for forming cookies shaped like guns, possessing a gun keychain the size of a quarter, and even suspending them for playing with toy guns at home. Now one school in Arizona has asked an officer of the law to leave his sidearm, and for that matter his uniform, at home.When Officer Scott Urkov...

A police officer who dropped off his daughter at her Phoenix elementary school was asked by the school’s principal not to wear his uniform to the school because other parents were concerned that he was carrying a gun, MyFoxPhoenix.com reported. Scott Urkov is a police officer for the Coolidge Police Department. The department told him not to comment to media inquiries, but immediately after he received the no-uniform request, he posted on Facebook. "Nothing like your kids school calling and asking if I could not come to pick up my daughter in uniform cause parents were concerned when their kids...

Last year, just under 15% of the U.S. population did not have health insurance coverage. But as the different stages of the Affordable Care Act roll out over the next few years — and more Americans become insured — this rate is likely to fall. For now though, health insurance remains out of reach for many Americans. In states like Florida and Alaska, more than one in five residents are without insurance. And an estimated 22.5% of Texans didn’t have health insurance last year. Based on data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10...

Sen. Rand Paul conceded Saturday that congressional Republicans have little chance of stopping Obamacare. “We probably can’t defeat or get rid of Obamacare,” the Kentucky senator told reporters at a gathering of Michigan Republicans, according to the Associated Press. Paul acknowledged that time is running out for Congress to pass a government funding bill, however he said House Republicans’ efforts to defund Obamacare in its government funding bill could lead to a compromise. ~~snip~~ Reid has said any bill defunding Obamacare would be dead on arrival, and Sen. John McCain said Thursday that it was “not rational” to think the...

An angry Sheriff Joe Arpaio is defending a Georgia police chief who was suspended for simply making a cross country trip - on his own vacation - to visit the Arizona sheriff. As we reported, Grantville, Georgia police chief Doug Jordan met with Sheriff Arpaio on August 23 and expressed his hopes to establish an anti-drug team in his own town. Sheriff Joe says Jordan and his wife were in Arizona to celebrate their 31st wedding anniversary and paid their own way. Chief Doug Jordan decided to stop in and see the Sheriff in his office to talk about his...

"Take your DACA and shove it!" - by John HillStand With ArizonaArizona Governor Jan Brewer is under fire from pro-illegal alien "rights" groups like the ACLU and La Raza for refusing drivers licenses to illegal alien "youth" granted virtual amnesty under Barack Obama's DACA program. They have sued repeatedly to try and stop her. But rather than back down, Brewer has doubled down. Brewer has now directed her Department of Transportation to expand her denial of drivers licenses to ALL illegal aliens granted a reprieve from deportation by the Obama DHS or ICE, regardless of circumstances. The left has erupted...

Arizona expands ban on undocumented immigrant driver's licenses to include victims of domestic violence and human trafficking Take that, Obama. Arizona has expanded a statewide ban on giving driver's licenses to undocumented workers to include immigrants who have been granted legal status under President Obama’s Deferred Action program. Those most likely to be affected by the new policy have been spared the threat of deportation from the U.S. based on humanitarian reasons, such as domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual exploitation, the Arizona Republic reported. The policy change was announced by the state in a court filing on Tuesday in...

Immigration advocates reacted angrily Wednesday to President Obama’s declaration that he does not have the authority to completely halt the deportations of millions of people who are living in the country illegally. The heated response, from some of the administration’s closest allies, reflects the mounting frustration many feel about the diminishing prospects for immigration reform on Capitol Hill. The blowback was further evidence of the high stakes involved for the president on one of his second-term priorities as House Republicans continue to delay action on a proposed overhaul of the nation’s border control laws. After focusing for months on GOP...

MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian state TV host has invited US Senator John McCain to take part in his show and discuss his stance on Syria. Popular Russian TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov said Sunday that the Republican senator known for his critical views on Russia’s leadership can appear in his show to respond to President Vladimir Putin’s recent article in the New York Times on Syria. “On our behalf, the broadcaster and myself invite Senator McCain, who wanted to respond to Putin’s letter … to the Sunday Night program,” Solovyov said on Sunday. McCain said earlier that...

Despite a recent court ruling that the department run by Maricopa County’s top cop used racial profiling in his quest to crack down on illegal immigration, a recall effort against Sheriff Joe Arpaio has failed. On Thursday, members of Respect Arizona and Citizens for a Better Arizona -- who launched the recall effort against Arpaio -- failed to gather the necessary 335,000 valid voter signatures by the 5 p.m. deadline. The aim was to force a recall election. Activists behind the recall effort would not say how many signatures they were short. Randy Parraz, president of Citizens for Better Arizona,...

Two Republican senators who are among President Barack Obama's sharpest foreign policy critics on Saturday blasted a Syrian chemical weapons agreement as "an act of provocative weakness" by America that will embolden enemies such as Iran as it continues its push for a nuclear weapon. The House Democratic leader said the deal, under which Syria will be expected to put its stockpile of chemical weapons under international control before they ultimately are destroyed, represented "significant progress" in efforts by the U.S. to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction. "What concerns us most is that our friends and enemies...

U.S. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) today released the following statement on the U.S.-Russian agreement on Syria: “What concerns us most is that our friends and enemies will take the same lessons from this agreement – they see it as an act of provocative weakness on America's part. We cannot imagine a worse signal to send to Iran as it continues its push for a nuclear weapon. “Without a U.N. Security Council Resolution under Chapter 7 authority, which threatens the use of force for non-compliance by the Assad regime, this framework agreement is meaningless. Assad will use...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul was in the middle of one of his trademark takedowns of the “right-wing hawks” in his party who “have never met a war they didn’t want to get involved in,” when he suddenly paused and began grinning. “There was a funny article the other day in Mother Jones — did you see it? About one of my colleagues?” he asked. He was trying to do the polite, senatorial thing by not mentioning his “colleague” by name. But when his vague prompt was met with a blank look during an interview with BuzzFeed, he scrapped the...

The Legislative District 26 Republican Party in Arizona has passed a formal rebuke of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for abdicating GOP principles in helping Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) secure votes to approve several of President Barack Obama’s controversial nominees. “Senator John McCain unilaterally negotiated with the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to secure Republican votes necessary to pass a number of controversial Presidential nominees,” the resolution, which passed the official GOP body in the state by a 24-13 vote with four abstentions on Tuesday evening, reads. The resolution notes that President Obama nominated “Gina McCarthy for head...

Above: Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Chief Doug Jordan meet in Phoenix.- Unbelievable! The Grantville, Georgia Police Chief has been suspended for a week - without pay - merely for visiting Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio during his vacation. Chief Doug Jordan and his wife planned a recent trip to Arizona to celebrate their wedding anniversary. They had honeymooned there 31 years ago. They paid for the trip and its expenses themselves. While there, Jordan thought it would be a great idea to see if he could meet with Arpaio. He was honored when Arpaio agreed to do so.“I meet with...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said Wednesday he considers his views on foreign policy to be “somewhere in between” the poles of libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and hawkish GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.). “I agree with Rand Paul that we should not intervene militarily in Syria, because it’s not in defense of our U.S. national security interests,” said Cruz during a question-and-answer session following a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. But, Cruz added, he also agrees “with John McCain that if Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons that we...

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) says President Obama should bomb Syria before Congress says otherwise and that he should ignore any talk of impeachment for doing so. "They're not going to impeach the president," said McCain. "They're not that crazy." According to HotAir, McCain said the president has to decide what is in "our vital national interest." He said if the "Russian initiative" fails, Obama should make his case to the American people once more and then bomb away. In this way, he can carry out a strike before Congress has a chance to tell him not to do so: If...

Sen. John McCain has warned that President Barack Obama could face impeachment if he put “boots on the ground” in Syria. "No one wants American boots on the ground," the Arizona Republican told Phoenix CBS affiliate KFYI-TV on Thursday. "Nor will there be American boots on the ground because there would be an impeachment of the president if they did that. "The fact is [Syrian President] Bashar Assad has massacred 100,000 people," McCain added. "The conflict is spreading … The Russians are all in, the Iranians are all in — and it’s an unfair fight."

The Legislative District 26 Republican Party in Arizona has passed a formal rebuke of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for abdicating GOP principles in helping Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) secure votes to approve several of President Barack Obama’s controversial nominees. “Senator John McCain unilaterally negotiated with the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to secure Republican votes necessary to pass a number of controversial Presidential nominees,” the resolution, which passed the official GOP body in the state by a 24-13 vote with four abstentions on Tuesday evening, reads. The resolution notes that President Obama nominated “Gina McCarthy for head...

Elizabeth O’Bagy is listed as a Political Director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF) in the group’s Washington, D.C. office. SETF lobbies Congress on behalf of the Syrian rebels. During a Senate hearing this week, Senator John McCain, perhaps the most vocal supporter of the Syrian rebels in Congress, pointed to an op-ed by the twenty-six year-old O’Bagy that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on August 30th. He then asked Secretary of State John Kerry, who agrees with him, if O’Bagy’s assertions were correct... *snip* Georgetown University is under the very strong influence of Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin...

Sen. John McCain wanted to spend the night with rebels linked to kidnappers during his visit to Syria in May, according to a pundit who has been advocating an American strike against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Elizabeth O’Bagy, Syria team leader at the Institute for the Study of War, told The Daily Caller the Arizona Republican was so taken with his Sunni guerrilla hosts that he had to be “forced” by his security detail to leave. In an exclusive interview with TheDC, O’Bagy described the trip she arranged for the senator through the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF). “The rebels had...

The deputy to General Salim Idriss — the Free Syrian Army commander Senator McCain would have us back — has announced that the mujahideen rebels’ supreme council will disband unless the West drops its demands to steer clear of violent jihadists and refrain from attempting to take over the Assad regime’s chemical weapons stocks. The Foreign Policy report is excerpted by Weasel Zippers, including this:

Five days after WND first broke the news that the strategy by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Secretary of State John F. Kerry to cast members of the Free Syria Army as “moderates” among the Syrian rebel forces was the brain-child of a Wall Street Journal researcher, the analyst has been fired from a Washington think-tank for lying about her qualifications. As WND reported, Elizabeth O’Bagy, 26, had claimed she was pursuing a Ph.D. in Arab studies and political science at Georgetown University and working on a dissertation on woman’s militancy. In his Sept. 3 testimony before the Senate Foreign...

The Syria researcher, who wrote the oft cited OpEd piece by Elizabeth O'Bagy, on the Syrian Conflict was fired for lying about having a PHD. from Georgetown University. She also failed to reveal one small little detail. She works for the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a nonprofit group who advocates for Al Qaeda and other opposing forces in Syria. And let us not forget the best part. Who pays for this propaganda? You do. The main problem is that she has caught the ear of many of our leaders. She has been cited by John McCain, John Kerry, and others....

Elizabeth O'Bagy, whose WSJ column was relied on by John Kerry and John McCain to justify Obama's proposed Syria intervention was fired from her job for falsely claiming to hold a Ph.D. degree. Was she even enrolled as a Ph.D. candidate somewhere? It is unclear. A web page for Georgetown's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies indicates that "Elizabeth (Bailey) O'Bagy" graduated with an Master of Arts in Arab Studies. She is fifth from the bottom of the list at http://ccas.georgetown.edu/story/1242708341083.html. Was she even a doctoral candidate? Dunno.

A little taste of what might have been during a McCain presidency. The senior Republican acknowledged the decision would be a difficult one, but he said he did not think members of his own party would try to remove President Obama from office if he acted in the vital national interest.“They’re not going to impeach the president. They’re not that crazy,” he told reporters after the event… “I think that, one, that the president of the United States should go back, if this fails, this Russian initiative, and convince the American people again,” McCain said. “Then I think the president...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argued Wednesday that President Obama should consider bombing Syria without congressional approval, because the credibility of the White House is now on the line. McCain said that if Obama acts before any vote in Congress, he could argue that he has acted in conformity with past administrations, including President Reagan’s invasion of Grenada in the 1980s. “He notified everybody the next morning,” McCain noted at a Wall Street Journal breakfast roundtable. The senior Republican acknowledged the decision would be a difficult one, but he said he did not think members of his own party would try...

Are Saudi Arabia and Qatar trying to get Obama to bomb Syria back to the Middle Ages so they can run that big gas pipeline through Syria? Is that the real back story here, an attempt by the inscrutable Arabs to pimp America’s military to do their work even as such actions would destroy Assad and support Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood? A “Vanity” posting on Free Republic, dated Sept 6, urges Americans to call Congress and say: “I know about the gas pipeline Saudi Arabia and Qatar want to run through Syria and Assad won’t let them!” The...

rantville Police Chief Doug Jordan was suspended without pay for one calendar week at Monday’s city council meeting. The reason for Jordan’s suspension was that he violated a policy given by City Manager Johnny Williams. “I require all my employees to inform me of anything that is not routine in nature,” Williams said. “A trip to Arizona and an article in the paper that was not discussed with me or the police committee is not routine.” Recently, Jordan traveled to Arizona to meet with “America’s Toughest Sheriff, Joe Arpaio.” Following their meeting, Jordan expressed his hopes to establish Grantville’s own...

Putin wants US to take use of force off the table - unacceptable. "Putin: No US strikes for #Syria deal" http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/putin-us-strikes-syria-deal-96559.html?hp=f3 Vladimir Putin: No U.S. strikes for Syria deal - Tal Kopan Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that for the proposed Russian agreement that Syria turn over its chemical weapons to work, the United States must take military action off the table....

Fox confirms Vice President Joe Biden will have dinner Sunday night with a group of GOP Senators who could be swayed on Syria. The topic of conversation is expected to be what the President needs to say in his Tuesday address.

What are we going to do with John McCain who is helping Obama “save-face” by supporting his phony war on Syria? It is clear Americans do not want to get involved. Like Sarah Palin says, “Mr. President, please give America justification before you spend blood and treasure to intervene.” Sarah Palin and John McCain don’t have much in common, except being on the same ticket in 2008. They don’t agree on much politically, especially Syria. The Governor does what the Senator is supposed to do, but that is as far as it goes. John McCain’s transgressions seem to be getting...

Christopher Greene at AMTV hammers McCain.

John McCain was rightly heckled by many constituents last week in Phoenix, AZ over the blowhard senator's misguided call for bloody war in Syria as reported by Jason Howerton for The Blaze. The warmongering windbag should just resign. The old fool has done more damage to the national security of the United States than perhaps any other ignorant politician with his repeated support for military intervention and other American meddling in the Middle East. Exactly what has the United States gotten for all of its spent lives and treasure in that God forsaken region of the world? Indeed, if the...

Syria isn’t the only battle into which President Obama is injecting himself where he doesn’t belong. True, on a global scale, Arizona’s fight over net metering seems insignificant. However, on a personal scale, what is taking place in Arizona’s sunny desert has the potential to directly impact far more Americans than the shots being fired in Syria’s desert. Syria’s conflict is often called a proxy war in that it is an indirect confrontation between superpowers via substitute actors. According to the definition of a proxy war found on the Intro to global security blog, “Modern non-state actors do not necessarily...

Senator weighs pushing for unpopular missile strike as his re-election opponents wait in the wings. As one of the leading advocates for bipartisan immigration reform, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., had already firmly affixed himself to one cause deeply unpopular with conservatives heading into a re-election year. [POLL: Most Americans Oppose Military Strike in Syria] Now as a war-weary Congress weighs a military strike in Syria, he finds himself championing another policy that risks antagonizing the base. ... Next to Sen. John McCain, there's no more forceful and visible advocate for a muscular response... Nonetheless, as he seeks a third term...

A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal ran a high profile article from one Elizabeth O’Bagy arguing that the majority of the Syrian rebels were actually moderates. Senator McCain mentioned Elizabeth O’Bagy’s op-ed during the Senate hearings, when he wasn’t playing poker, and tweeted it. That should come as no surprise, considering that O’Bagy is credited with arranging McCain’s infamous photo op with the Syrian rebel leadership. The Wall Street Journal lists O’Bagy’s role as the Institute for the Study of War. It leaves out the fact that she is the political director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force...

PHOENIX - U.S. Representative Kyrsten Sinema was part of a bipartisan congressional delegation that made a three-day visit to Afghanistan this week. The Arizona Democrat's office says the delegation went to Afghanistan to see the drawdown of the American military presence and the transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces.

Indeed, both Kerry and McCain do understand what going to war means: They are Vietnam veterans, with Purple Hearts, Silver Stars and other medals, and the crucible of combat has shaped their respective legislative careers. But anyone watching the hearing or the interactions between the two men and their president as they press for the intervention couldn't help but marvel at how they got there. John McCain, the secretary of state said, is someone who understands "what going to war means." Kerry and McCain are President Obama's top surrogates advocating for a U.S. strike on the Syrian regime of Bashar...