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WASHINGTON — Twenty-three years ago this week, Iran's self-appointed supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, broadcast a religious edict declaring that author Salman Rushdie and his publishers were "hereby sentenced to death." The fatwa also called for "all the intrepid Muslims in the world" to "execute them quickly, wherever they find them." The U.S. State Department acknowledged the proclamation and issued a statement "condemning this threat in the strongest possible terms." Rushdie, then living in London, did the sensible thing; he went into hiding and rarely has been seen in public since. Since 1979, when Khomeini returned to Tehran from...

Retired U.S. Marine Corps officer Oliver North told The Daily Caller that he would like to see former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as commander in chief, saying that another four years of President Barack Obama would be “a nightmare.” North told TheDC at the Conservative Political Action Conference that “two years ago, when [Gingrich] suggested he might run, he asked for my support. I pledged I would do it,” he said. (RELATED: More interviews from CPAC) “It’s time for us to hire a commander in chief who doesn’t feel necessary to run around the world apologizing for America,” said North....

WASHINGTON — "We don't need you, so shut up!" That's the message the Obama administration has sent loud and clear to America's Roman Catholics. And it's a message now being sent to U.S. military chaplains — to the detriment of our armed forces. During World War II, the War Department and the Department of the Navy urged — the operative word is "urged," not "ordered," mind you — U.S. military chaplains to encourage soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines that God was on our side in the global battle against fascists, Nazis and the godless heathens running rampant across...

blacklist (n.): a list of persons who are disapproved of or are to be punished or boycotted. The definition above, from an old Webster's dictionary, was common parlance in the late 1940s and early 1950s as the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee investigated subversive activity, Soviet espionage and pro-communist propaganda. The committee unearthed spies and traitors — Alger Hiss among them. But when the HUAC turned its attention to Hollywood writers, directors and actors, civil libertarians cried foul. The American Civil Liberties Union and others insist those on the "Hollywood blacklist" were unfairly persecuted for exercising their constitutionally protected...

WASHINGTON — It's an unwritten law of modern America that a political campaign speech should last no more than 30 minutes. The lecture candidate Barack Obama delivered on the evening of Jan. 24 in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol came in at just longer than one hour and six minutes. It was full of rhetoric we should expect to hear reiterated from now until Nov. 6. The president's supporters declared his economic message to be "populist." That's liberal-speak for class warfare. In the days since the State of the Union address, politicians and pundits of every stripe...

WASHINGTON — On Dec. 31, just hours before a New Year's Eve celebration, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. Section 1245 of the law contains language providing authority to impose economic sanctions on Iran in order to deter the ayatollahs from acquiring nuclear weapons. White House efforts to have the sanctions provision stripped from the bill failed, and the measure became law with a quiet flourish of the presidential pen. Ever since, Washington and Tehran have been waging a war of words. None of this works to the advantage of the American...

WASHINGTON — Our so-called mainstream media have launched a new anti-military feeding frenzy. The furor is over a crude 39-second video showing four Marines apparently urinating on the bodies of three dead Taliban combatants. In hysteric rhetoric akin to "news reports" on the 2004 Abu Ghraib photos, hordes of print and broadcast "correspondents" rushed to describe the viral video, which surfaced Jan. 11, as evidence of an "atrocity" and "desecration" that reflects the "depravity" of our military in general and the U.S. Marines in particular. As usual, the effort to denigrate our armed forces means that the potentates of...

Decorated military veteran and best-selling author Oliver North tells Newsmax that, with the recently announced cuts to the U.S. military, the Obama regime is looking like the “Jimmy Carter administration on steroids.” North also asserts that President Obama’s efforts to deal with the growing Iranian threat have been an “abysmal failure” and warns that Israel will not “sit idly by and wait to be incinerated” by Iranian nuclear weapons. North served in the U.S. Marines for 22 years and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He also served on the staff of the National Security Council during the Ronald...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military had better get ready to do a whole lot more with a whole lot less. That's the bottom line of the so-called "new strategic guidance" issued this week by President Barack Obama during a brief visit to the Pentagon. Flanked by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Obama proudly proclaimed to allies and adversaries alike that the United States is heading toward a much less expensive, far smaller and ultimately less capable military than we've had since before World War II. Titled "Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities...

GEORGETOWN, S.C. — A year ago, this column questioned whether the 112th Congress — with its new speaker of the House, John Boehner — could "overcome the inane policies of its predecessors" and "mend Washington's free-spending ways." We all know how that turned out. This week, as we prepare to ring out 2011 and welcome 2012, President Barack Obama asked for Congress to authorize yet another increase in our national debt — the third such rise in less than 15 months. Housing prices continue to slide; more than 13 million Americans are unemployed; government spending continues unabated; and America's...

BLUEMONT, Va. — Four years ago, this annual Christmas column was written from Baquba, Iraq, while our Fox News "War Stories" team was embedded with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division and special operations units operating against the Iranian-supported Mahdi Army in the outskirts of Baghdad. A year earlier, the Christmas 2006 column was written in Ramadi, Iraq, while we were embedded with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines in what was then the bloodiest place on the planet. And in 2005, this column originated with 3d Battalion, 7th Marines and the 2nd Brigade of the 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania National...

WASHINGTON — They are coming home. For the first time since March 19, 2003, there are no U.S. combat or combat support troops in Iraq. There is still a contingent of U.S. Marines guarding the biggest American embassy in the world and the largest military attache's office at any diplomatic mission. But there is no doubt in anyone's mind — ally or enemy — that the war in Iraq is over. The only uncertainty now: Who won? Short answer: America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines — and the American people whose sons and daughters served in Iraq. Though...

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Seventy years ago this week, Japanese Cmdr. Mitsuo Fuchida led an airborne strike force of 49 "Kate" bombers, 40 torpedo bombers, 51 "Val" dive bombers and 43 "Zeke" fighters on the first wave of an attack on Pearl Harbor and plunged America into World War II. At 9:45 that terrible Sunday morning, a second wave of 167 attack aircraft added to the devastation. By the time the surprise attack was over, 3,581 Americans were dead or wounded; the largest naval anchorage in the Pacific was littered with sunken and burning U.S. warships; the...

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Our Fox News crew is here wrapping up our 100th "War Stories" documentary — with some of the "stars" of previous episodes. Though most of the Marines here are recent veterans of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, their present focus is on the next trouble spots. Thanks to inept national security planning in Washington, there are more vulnerabilities today than there were just three years ago. At the top of the list: Iran. Few of the young Marines we meet here are old enough to remember what happened to the U.S. Embassy in...

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — Anyone who wonders what to be thankful for this holiday season need only visit a nearby military base. On the eve of Thanksgiving, our Fox News' "War Stories" team came to this sprawling Marine base south of our nation's capital to shoot interviews for an upcoming documentary. What we saw and heard inspired us all. Nearly all the Marines here have served in Iraq, Afghanistan or both theaters of this decadelong war. They know the true meaning of duty, honor and sacrifice. Many of them have lost comrades in arms on bloody battlefields...

JUPITER, Fla. — Not one of the old "frogmen" or young Navy SEALs who gathered this week at the nearby National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum for the annual Muster wants to see another war. Those who came here are veterans of combat spanning from World War II to the present wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to numerous other unnamed fights around the world. Within their ranks are men — and their families — who know what it means to go in harm's way, often without any recognition or public acclaim. The widow of a slain SEAL put it this way:...

CLOVIS, Calif. — This little town not far from Fresno may be the perfect place to observe Veterans Day as our nation closes a decade of war. A quiet San Joaquin Valley community in the heart of our most populous state, Clovis has lost 10 of its sons — eight of them from local Buchanan High School — in Afghanistan and Iraq. Though the Defense Department apparently doesn't keep statistics on per capita losses for American communities, Clovis may be for this war what Bedford, Va., was for World War II. According to local records, 19 "Bedford Boys" —...

Tom Kilgannon, President of Freedom Alliance shared his thoughts recently touching on the organizations multi part mission: “… to advance the American heritage of freedom by honoring and encouraging military service, defending the sovereignty of the United States and promoting a strong national defense.” Let me be timely here Tom. Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up quickly. Your “Gifts from Home” initiative is part of the Alliances’ work. Tell us about this gift program so people can spread the word to help out this year. For the deployed troops, they love getting our Gifts From Home care packages. First, it...

WASHINGTON — Our head of state is now in Cannes, France, at the G-20 summit, gallivanting with elites from the planet's most powerful economies. For the first time since his 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama isn't the center of attention. The stars of this week's party on the French Riviera are German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy — architects of a "bailout plan" to save the European Union's artificial euro currency and keep the PIIGs (Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Greece) from going bankrupt. It's all a sideshow, designed to convince us that governments can continue to...

U.S. Virgin Islands — We arrived at a tiny outpost on St. Thomas on Oct. 26. As we stepped ashore, the gentleman beside me said, "28 years ago at this very minute, I was lining up my 'thirsty' A-7 to land on the deck of the USS Independence (CV-62) not far from here. It was day two of Operation Urgent Fury. We were flying nonstop close air support missions for troops in contact on the island of Grenada." The retired naval aviator went on to describe his admiration for the then commander in chief, who boldly ordered more than...

PIERRE, S.D. — The good news about Moammar Gadhafi's demise arrived via my cellphone early Thursday morning. A friend from the Reagan administration, remembering the Libyan dictator's attempt to kill my family, called to let me know and added, "You must be very glad to see this day." But it doesn't seem to be a time for celebration. Most of the Libyan people seem to be rejoicing — and with good reason. They suffered the most under the egomaniacal despot. But unless you are a U.S. Air Force, Navy or Marine pilot who had to brave anti-aircraft fire in...

WASHINGTON — Official Washington — meaning the Obama administration, fellow travelers in Congress and their allies in the so-called mainstream media — here's a quick peek at some recent events, the lead stories they generated and the response by the O-Team. Let me know if you think I'm wrong, but it looks to me as if they have the collective attention span of a fruit fly. For three weeks, several hundred mostly young, media-savvy protesters billing themselves as "occupiers" have been encamped at a small Manhattan park not far from Wall Street. In a pale shadow of what has...

WASHINGTON — Ten years ago this week, America went to war in Afghanistan. At 1 p.m. Eastern time on Oct. 7, 2001, President George W. Bush told the world, "On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al-Qaida terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan." At the conclusion of his seven-minute broadcast from the White House Treaty Room, he pledged: "The battle is now joined on many fronts. We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail." Now,...

WASHINGTON — When the U.S. State Department announced this week that it finally is going to designate the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization, it was a nonevent for most of our countrymen. That's because few Americans know how deadly the organization is. For that we can thank those at Foggy Bottom who are wedded to the naive hope of a near-term "diplomatic breakthrough" in Afghanistan. Couple that misguided belief with the Obama administration's self-deception that the radical Islamic jihad against the West ended with the demise of Osama bin Laden and it's understandable why the Haqqani network...

WASHINGTON — Last week, this column prognosticated that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance at the United Nations General Assembly would be celebrated by those who hate America. That's certainly true. So, too, was the prediction that Ahmadinejad would claim the mantle of "humanitarian" and be showered with praise for the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal — the two Americans held by Tehran since they were detained on the Iran-Iraq border in 2009. And then there was the forecast that this week's General Assembly session would be devoted to bashing the United States and Israel, demanding "Palestinian independence"...

WASHINGTON — When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in New York next week to address the United Nations General Assembly, he will present himself as a great "humanitarian." Many of the America haters at the U.N. will shower him with accolades and commend his "untiring efforts" to gain the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, two Americans jailed in Tehran since they were detained on the Iraq-Afghanistan border in 2009. And seeing as past is prologue at the annual UNGA soiree, the participants will then get down to the work at hand: bashing the United States and Israel,...

Alert readers have reported that their flight, United Airlines 3681, from St. Louis to Washington Dulles had to make an emergency return to the gate as it prepared for take-off. According to local officials, it was found that two men who had boarded the plane as ‘federal air marshals’ didn’t have the proper credentials. Passengers were deplaned, all luggage was removed and re-scanned. All passengers were also re-screened. Passengers are now in the process of re-boarding. There is no word on the two ‘air marshals.’ BigGovernment has contacted security officials in St. Louis. Ron Meyer, of Young America Foundation, was...

Alert readers have reported that their flight, United Airlines 3681, from St. Louis to Washington Dulles had to make an emergency return to the gate as it prepared for take-off. According to local officials, it was found that two men who had boarded the plane as ‘federal air marshals’ didn’t have the proper credentials. Passengers were deplaned, all luggage was removed and re-scanned. All passengers were also re-screened. Passengers are now in the process of re-boarding. There is no word on the two ‘air marshals.’ BigGovernment has contacted security officials in St. Louis. We will report back what we hear....

GODFREY - Retired Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North minced no words Sunday in describing his feelings about terrorists, men and women in uniform, the media and his faith. Speaking before an audience at an awards ceremony of the Riverbend Memorial, North said, "We are confronted by a vicious, godless and sometimes suicidal enemy." North spoke to the crowd at Hatheway Hall on the campus of Lewis and Clark Community College. North, 68, is now a Fox News commentator, specializing in stories about the military men and women in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. "I have the best job in the...

WASHINGTON — Everyone older than 20 remembers whom he was with, what he was doing and how he learned we were at war that beautiful Tuesday morning a decade ago. Most of us recall a gorgeous late-summer morning with blue skies — "shirt-sleeve weather" — and then the horror: two of the world's tallest buildings collapsing into piles of rubble, the west wall of the Pentagon in flames and a fire-bathed crater in the soil of Somerset County, Pa. Like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning of Dec. 7, 1941, the assault on Tuesday, Sept. 11,...

WASHINGTON — Some have described Hurricane Irene as "the most over-hyped event in history." Americans in the Northeast who were flooded out of their homes and businesses and those without electricity, fuel or water don't agree. But a U.S. official I spoke with this week told me, "The next storm coming from down south is already deadlier than Irene, and nobody is paying attention." My source wants to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to talk about these matters with the media. He doesn't work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency or...

  WASHINGTON — For most of the year, irrational behavior is a natural state in our nation's capital. This is a place where potentates and politicians, lobbyists and legislators and the elite and the lowly routinely say and do completely irrational things.We also have come to expect that irrational behavior takes a brief hiatus when Congress goes home on recess and the president of the United States heads out of town on vacation. This year is the exception that proves the rule. POTUS may be playing golf on Martha's Vineyard and Congress may be out of town, but this...

  WASHINGTON — Having completed his three-state "Midwest listening tour," President Barack Obama is now on vacation on Martha's Vineyard. According to his handlers, in between golf outings and cocktail parties, our president also is working on yet another speech on how he will balance our government's books and put Americans back to work. Those who believe that ought to recall his remarks March 22, five days after U.S. and allied military operations began in Libya: "I said at the outset that this was going to be a matter of days and not weeks."This week, we passed the five-month...

  WASHINGTON — Sixty-six years ago, Aug. 14, 1945, the bloodiest war in human history finally ended with a radio broadcast by President Harry S. Truman. Even before the instrument of surrender was formally signed aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, plans to demobilize the 16 million American men and women in uniform were being carried out. Though the conflict claimed nearly 50 million lives — including more than 400,000 American dead and another 670,000 wounded — it was the beginning of an era of great expectations for our "Greatest Generation" and its progeny.Unlike...

  The potentates on the Potomac claim that President Barack Obama's signature on the "debt deal" solves the immediate problems created by Washington's spendthrift fiscal madness while "protecting America's future." Truth be told, it does neither. Here's why.The arcane legislation cobbled together by House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the Obama White House doesn't increase our taxes, but it does raise the U.S. government's debt limit by a staggering $2 trillion in order to "preserve our AAA credit rating." The agreement says our government will somehow reduce spending by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. It also creates a...

  Collectively, Washington has the attention span of a fruit fly. That's why all we have heard about lately are the consequences of failing to raise the federal debt limit — action that has prompted no fewer than two dozen dueling news conferences, presidential addresses and Republican "responses" in the past 10 days. Our political leaders and the mainstream media are totally focused on how this theoretical "potential catastrophe" can be ameliorated, while existential threats to our national security and very way of life are being ignored in Washington.Meanwhile, in the real world, after nearly a decade at war,...

  GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. — "Will your Boykin hunt?" asked the young man, admiring the little red spaniel at my side. "Casey" wagged her tail and sat, patiently waiting for me to check out of the local farmers market with a basket of fresh peaches, corn and tomatoes."She's not yet a year old, but she already works well into the wind, can kick up a bird and if I shoot right and retrieves to hand," I replied with no small amount of hubris. The conversation abruptly shifted to international politics — but not in the direction I expected."What are...

  WASHINGTON — Few of us ever will meet a Medal of Honor recipient. Fewer still ever will have the opportunity to be of assistance to one. In part, that's because "The Medal" — our nation's highest military decoration, awarded for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty" — is worn by just 85 living Americans.Since we were attacked on 9/11, the Medal of Honor has been awarded only nine times to the more than 2 million Americans who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul...

  WASHINGTON — First the good news. The war in Afghanistan is being won. As our Fox News team saw on our most recent trip through the length and breadth of the country, the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies are being defeated at nearly every turn. Though military operations and police actions are being conducted at their highest pace since the war began a decade ago, coalition, Afghan and civilian casualties continue to decline — even in the midst of "fighting season." According to U.S. and allied military officers with whom we spoke, Taliban fighters are defecting in greater...

  CAMP HANSEN, Afghanistan — This austere U.S. Marine base in the Marjah district of Helmand province is headquarters for 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment — famous for action during World War II on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa. Dubbed "America's Battalion," the unit has adopted a new slogan in Afghanistan: "Front Toward Enemy" — the label placed on devices such as claymore mines and anti-tank rockets. It's appropriate here in the southern Helmand River valley.Lt. Col. J.D. Harrill, the 2/8 battalion commander, is a hero in his own right — and so are his Marines and Navy...

  CAMP EGGERS, Afghanistan — Here on this NATO base — named in honor of Daniel W. Eggers, a U.S. Army special forces captain killed near Kandahar on May 29, 2004 — President Barack Obama's decision to withdraw 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year is getting mixed reviews. Reactions from scores of U.S. and NATO personnel and Afghan soldiers and police officers with whom my Fox News' "War Stories" team has spoken run the gamut from "It's a deeper, faster cut than I expected" to "I guess we all knew this day was coming."...

  WASHINGTON — This week, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved an amendment to the fiscal year 2012 Defense Department appropriations bill, which would set up an independent, nonpartisan Afghanistan-Pakistan Study Group to provide recommendations for future U.S. military missions in the region. The measure, proposed by Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., would establish a panel modeled on the 2006 Iraq Study Group, chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Rep. Lee Hamilton. It's something the Obama administration should have done — as President George W. Bush did by executive order — a long time ago....

  PATRIOTS POINT, S.C. — Sixty-seven years ago this week, more than 155,000 U.S., British and Canadian troops assaulted German defenses in Normandy, France, during Operation Overlord. The USS Laffey, the most decorated World War II destroyer in existence — normally an exhibit at this magnificent museum but now undergoing repairs — was there on D-Day.During the first 24 hours of the invasion, nearly 2,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors and airmen were declared "MIA" — missing in action. Many of the paratroopers, Army Rangers, "straight-leg infantrymen" and small-boat crewmen who were listed as "unaccounted for" in the first 48 hours...

  ABOARD USS YORKTOWN — There has been much said and written of late regarding "high-risk decision-making" and "courageous leadership" in Washington. The so-called mainstream media, politicians and pundits are all atwitter — literally — about a congressman's underwear, the damage done by WikiLeaks and how the death of Osama bin Laden and the "Arab Spring" are changing the course of history. For those having difficulty discerning what qualifies as "decisiveness under duress" or a "gutsy call," the first week of June offers some excellent examples from living history that put current events into a more reasonable perspective.Much of...

      QUANTICO NATIONAL CEMETERY — When I was a kid, we called May 30 "Decoration Day." It was an occasion for Boy Scouts to be up before dawn and report, in uniform, to the American Legion hall. There, Cub Scouts would be paired with older Boy Scouts, organized into detachments of a dozen or so and issued bags of small American flags. The groups then "deployed" in station wagons and pickup trucks to local cemeteries and churchyards, where we placed Old Glory on every veteran's grave. Later in the morning, there was a parade down Main Street, led by...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, Barack Obama went to the State Department to "mark a new chapter in American diplomacy." The president's handlers boldly billed his lengthy address "A Moment of Opportunity" for the Middle East. It was neither. Instead, he delivered a naive, revisionist lecture that was sufficiently utopian and self-centered to have been drafted by Jimmy Carter. Unfortunately, he also demanded major concessions from the only democracy in the Middle East and America's most steadfast ally in the region, Israel. To no one's surprise, Obama alluded — for the 12th time in two weeks — to the...

QUANTICO, Va. — Here at this sprawling Marine Corps base south of our nation's capital, nothing has changed since Osama bin Laden met his demise in Pakistan. Thousands of Marines here at the "Crossroads of the Corps" are still waking up at "Oh-Dark-Thirty," going about their duties, running for miles, lifting weights and tossing each other about in hand-to-hand-combat drills. Apparently these American heroes are unaware that Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass; Carl Levin, D-Mich.; and even Dick Lugar, R-Ind., and a host of others up the road in Washington, D.C., have decided that bin Laden's death means the war...

Let Me Push Certain Individuals Buttons Fox News will air a Oliver North special on Special Ops, probably because of the Osama bin Laden operation in Pakistan. Part of the program will cover the U.S. DEA in Afghanistan and a mission to go after the Opium drug profits used by the Taliban. The Poppy Fields of Afghanistan supply the raw materials used to make Opium. How ironic. Oliver North is one of the principals involved in Drug Running during the Iran / Contra operations in Central America. The profits from those drugs illegally funded the weapons smuggling for that war...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It took nine years, seven months and 21 days to pinpoint the man who plotted, paid for and perpetrated the terror attacks of 9-11-01. When a U.S. Navy SEAL team finally found Osama bin Laden in the third-floor bedroom of a comfortable house in a suburb of Islamabad, Pakistan, they killed him. Last Sunday's complex and highly successful operation validates Ronald Reagan's maxim for terrorists after U.S. Navy SEALs captured the murderous hijackers of the Achille Lauro in October 1985: "You can run, but you can't hide." Afterward, one of the participants penned a corollary: "Don't...

PITTSBURGH — According to the experts, this ought to be "Obama Country." In the 2008 presidential election, the Obama "Hope and Change" machine scored big in western Pennsylvania, carrying the region with nearly 58 percent of the vote. But this week, there's little evidence of that support here in the Steel City, where more than 70,000 freedom-loving Americans have gathered for the National Rifle Association's 140th annual meeting. On Wednesday, while NRA officials were making final preparations for the "Three Rivers Celebration of American Values," President Barack Obama made an unanticipated visit to the White House pressroom for a...