Fox News’ Megyn Kelly confronted former Vice President Dick Cheney after he and his daughter, Liz, published an op-ed blasting President Barack Obama over his handling of Iraq. The pair wrote in The Wall Street Journal that “rarely” has a president ever been “so wrong about so much at the expense of so many.”

Kelly proceeded to list some of Cheney’s claims and pronouncements from his time at the White House that included: Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, U.S. soldiers would be “greeted as liberators,” the insurgency was “in its last throes” in 2005, and extremists would have to “rethink their strategy of jihad” after the U.S. intervention.

Kelly said, “But time and time again, history has proven that you got it wrong as well, sir.”

“Now, with almost 1 trillion dollars spent there, with 4,500 American lives lost there, what do you say to those who say you were so wrong about so much at the expense of so many?” Kelly questioned.

Cheney defended the Bush administration’s actions in Iraq.

“Well, I just fundamentally disagree…,” Cheney said. “You’ve got to go back and look at the track record. We inherited a situation where there was no doubt in anybody’s mind about the extent of Saddam’s involvement in weapons of mass destruction. We had a situation where, after 9/11, we were concerned about a follow-up attack. It would involve not just airline tickets and box cutters as the weapons but rather something far deadlier, perhaps even a nuclear weapon.”

Kelly pointed to a response to the op-ed from The Washington Post’s Paul Waldman, who wrote there hasn’t been a “single person” who has been “more wrong and shamelessly dishonest” on Iraq than Cheney.

“The suggestion, then, is that you caused this mess, Mr. Vice President,” Kelly said. “What say you?”

“Well, obviously I disagree,” Cheney said. “I think we went into Iraq for very good reasons.”

Their op-ed also sparked a dismissal from the White House.

“Which president was he talking about?” the outgoing WH Spokesman Jay Carney deadpanned during his final White House briefing.

“Look, it’s obviously always good to hear from former Vice President Cheney,” Carney added. “It’s pretty clear that President Obama and our team here have distinctly different views on Iraq from the team that led the United States to invade Iraq back in 2003.”

Now the UK’s Telegraph reports that Islamic State of Iraq and Syria extremists in Iraq have taken control of what was once Saddam Hussein’s chemical-weapons production facility, which still has a stockpile of old weapons. The weapons at the Al Muthanna complex are contaminated and hard to move, a U.S. official said.

Nonetheless, the capture of the stockpile by the forces of the ISIS has grabbed the attention of the U.S.

“We remain concerned about the seizure of any military site…,” Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, wrote in a statement. “We do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to safely move the materials.”

During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, Hussein used the Muthanna complex to make chemical weapons, including sarin, mustard gas, and the nerve agent VX, according the Iraq Study Group, which conducted the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in the aftermath of the war.

“Two wars, sanctions and Unscom oversight reduced Iraqi’s premier production facility to a stockpile of old damaged and contaminated chemical munitions (sealed in bunkers), a wasteland full of destroyed chemical munitions, razed structures, and unusable war-ravaged facilities,” the ISG’s 2004 report concluded.

U.S. officials repeatedly emphasized the takeover of the chemical weapons stocks do not mean a significant military gain by ISIS.

“The only people who would likely be harmed by these chemical materials would be the people who tried to use or move them,” said a military official.

As CBS News’ Rebecca Kaplan’s most recent articles’ headline opines: “Who got it wrong on Iraq? Depends on who you ask.”

Jules Legier passed away June 14, 2014.  He was my civics teacher in high school in 1977.

He had lived in Del Norte County from 1959 to 2012 before moving to Eureka. His family roots were in Humboldt County, where he was born December 20, 1930, especially the community of Pepperwood.

After serving four years in the U.S. Air Force, Jules attended Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. His teaching career led him to Del Norte High School, where he taught history, civics and economics.

From a March 1971 article in the Eureka Times-Standard, by Andrew Genzoli:

“At Del Norte High School, I met Jules Legier, civics and social studies teacher, who has adopted Indian studies as a lively thing in his classes.  Jules has roots which go back to the Mattole Indian tribe.  He is a handsome, quick-witted individual, with a full measure of good humor. He is deeply steeped in the ways of education and in Indian history.  In his educational pioneering, he finds all phases of Indian lore compatible to the school’s programming.”

He’s survived by his wife, Evelyn, son Tyge, daughter Tressa, and grandson Travis.

Last Tuesday, the country of Yemen suffered a total blackout after al-Qaeda sabotaged key power lines in the eastern province of Marib. The power lines were attacked twice the day before.

The attack brings to mind on in which several transformers were knocked out using an AK-47. That incident may be tied to a larger operation.

It was April 15th, 2013 when two radical Islamist brothers set off two bombs near the finish line at the Boston Marathon.

Three people died and 264 were injured.

They later killed an MIT police officer in a separate incident. The media focused closely on these events and the ensuing manhunt.

But the media missed the terrorist attack that happened the next day on the other side of the country in California. And until recently, this attack has been kept secret.

On the evening of April 16th, 2013, a group of men attacked the power grid in San Jose. Video of the attack exists but anti-terrorism experts haven’t been able to identify the individuals or the group they belonged to and they’ve never been caught.

Experts say the attack, which included well-trained snipers shooting at and disabling transformers, may have been a test run for a bigger attack. During the course of the twenty-minute attack about 150 shots were fired.

Authorities said someone lifted tow heavy manhole covers along the Monterey Highway south of San Jose, climbed under the road, and cut AT&T fiber optic cables, temporarily knocking out 9-1-1 and regular phone service. About 15 minutes later, someone fired a high-powered rifle into a nearby PG&E substation, damaging the transformers and causing an oil leak.

This is not an isolated event, however.

In 2007, a worker driving into the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station 50 miles west of Phoenix was stopped at a checkpoint leading to the reactors, where security found a 5-inch pipe packed with firework explosives. The discovery sent the facility into a nearly seven-hour lockdown while security teams searched for additional explosives.

More than 3,000 people are employed at the plant, including several hundred contract workers brought in to help with upgrades on one of the three nuclear reactors, which make Palo Verde the largest power plant in the United States.

Two of the three reactors at Palo Verde were not in operation.

One was in a refueling stage and another was scheduled to return to the power grid the day following the discovery of the pipe bomb. The third reactor was fully operational.

At the time, authorities said the incident did not seem to be an act of terrorism.

Last month, The Department of Homeland Security reported that a U.S. public utility was the target of a cyber-attack, which compromised its control system network. DHS did not identify the utility in its report.

The agency did say hackers launched the attack through an Internet portal that enabled workers to reach the utility’s control systems. It said the system used a simple password mechanism that could be compromised using a technique known as “brute forcing,” where hackers digitally force their way in by trying various password combinations.

DHS also reported another hacking incident involving a control system server connected to “a mechanical device.” The agency provided few details about that case, except to say the attacker had access over an extended period, though no attempts were made to manipulate the system.

Currently, the FBI is investigating whether a makeshift bomb placed next to a 50,000-gallon diesel tank at a Nogales, Arizona power station last week has any connection to a suspicious incident this year at another substation owned by the same company. The plant is owned by UniSource Energy Services, a subsidiary of UNS Energy, which is also the parent company of Tucson Electric Power.

The attack caused minor damage and no injuries. Contrary to initial accounts, the bomb was placed under the valve of the diesel tank and ignited, charring the steel tank, but failed to explode.

The Valencia Generating Station is a small “peaking” facility, used only during the hottest hours of summer or the coldest hours of winter, when electricity demand spikes. The adjacent substation, however, is important for balancing the regional power supply.

Police said they believe the saboteurs got into the substation sometime Tuesday evening, when maintenance workers locked it and left, and Wednesday morning, when workers returned to check the plant.

The following day, law-enforcement officials said the FBI was looking at past suspicious incidents in the area, including one near Sahuarita, north of Nogales. In that incident, someone was reported to be trying to cut power lines.

Last year DHS responded to 256 cyber incident reports, more than half of them in the energy sector.

In 2009 the Department of Homeland Security through its Office of Intelligence and Analysis published a report titled “Rightwing Extremism.” The report states that ultra conservatives form that biggest threat to the security and safety to the United States since the rise of al-Qaida.

Then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano expressed the fear that soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan would be recruited by “right wing terrorist groups.”

Brandon Raub was arrested August 16th, 2012 for posting “controversial song lyrics, conspiracy theories related to 9/11 and talk of upcoming revolution,” on Facebook. He was taken to a mental health institution and admitted for Oppositional Defiance Disorder, a term that the government uses to brand those who disagree with the way government is being run, as being insane.

Raub says two FBI agents came to his door and they spoke to for several minutes.

“They said they were there just to talk,” he said. “In the beginning it was very vague. It was almost as if they wanted me to volunteer information, which I was very happy to do.”

The subject of Raub’s Facebook page came up and a secret service agent asked him to step outside. In total, they spoke for 10-15 minutes before he was eventually taken into custody.

“It was almost as though they had come with that purpose from the beginning,” he said.

Raub was never read his Miranda rights, held at John Randolph Hospital in Hopewell and later transferred to Salem. Three days later, Circuit Court Judge Allan Sharratt ordered Raub released, stating the prosecution was “so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.”

On February 28th of this year, a judge dismissed his lawsuit.

His lawsuit blamed county mental health worker Michael Campbell for his detention. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson ruled Friday that Campbell acted reasonably in recommending Raub be held for evaluation.

Raub claimed the weeklong detention violated the prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure as well as his free-speech rights.
Hudson scoffed at Raub’s assertion that officials had conspired to suppress dissident speech.

“Given the collective information presented to (the psychiatric evaluator) and the results of his interview with Raub, (the evaluator’s ) decision as a mental health evaluator to seek a temporary detention order was objectively reasonable, irrespective of Raub’s political beliefs.” Hudson wrote.

“Raub’s assertion that Campbell, in league with the Chesterfield County Police Department and the FBI, was involved in a conspiracy to suppress dissident speech is unsupported by the evidence—and frankly, far-fetched.”

“What may sound far-fetched to the courts is a grim reality to Americans who are daily being targeted for daring to exercise their constitutional rights to speak their minds, worship as they please, criticize the government, defend themselves and their families against over-reaching government surveillance and heavy-handed police tactics,” said John W. Whitehead, president and lead attorney for the Rutherford Institute.

“Ultimately, Brandon Raub’s case tests our tolerance for free speech and those dissidents who keep the First Amendment relevant, because if we cannot proclaim our feelings about the government, no matter how controversial — on our clothing or to passersby, or to the users of the worldwide web — then the First Amendment really has become an exercise in futility,” added Rutherford.

“In a hearing on Aug. 20, government officials pointed to Raub’s Facebook posts as the reason for his incarceration,” Rutherford concluded. “While Raub stated that the Facebook posts were being read out of context, a special justice ordered Raub be held up to 30 more days for psychological evaluation and treatment.”

This is part of a DHS directive called “Operation Vigilant Eagle,” a directive for scrutinizing the behavior of veterans for anything nonconformist as a means of weeding out dissent. The program claims to be trying to help veterans who are “disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war.”

However, critics have noted that the criteria is overly broad and seems to target right-wing thought as a dangerous behavior worthy of institutionalization where veterans can become re-educated.

In 2012, San Francisco Examiner’s Anthony Martin reported on the crisis:

“Perhaps the most troubling of these newly coined illnesses is ‘oppositional defiance disorder,’ which denotes that the person exhibits ‘symptoms’ such as the questioning of authority, the refusal to follow directions, stubbornness, the unwillingness to go along with the crowd, and the practice of disobeying or ignoring orders. Persons may also receive such a label if they are considered free thinkers, nonconformists, or individuals who are suspicious of large, centralized government.

Some critics view the process of declaring such persons emotionally unfit as a major step toward designating all so-called ‘right wing extremists’ as mentally ill.

At one time the accepted protocol among mental health professionals was to reserve the diagnosis of oppositional defiance disorder for children or adolescents who exhibited uncontrollable defiance toward their parents and teachers.”

“The forced committal of veterans to mental hospitals for nothing more than post traumatic stress is raising the eyebrows of more than one of the many government watchdog groups who are convinced that a more sinister goal lies beneath the government’s treatment of veterans,” concluded Martin.

In the end, Raub said: “I’m pretty tough, so I roll with the punches. But it made me scared for my country. The idea that a man can be snatched off his property without being read his rights I think should be very alarming to all Americans.”

Last week, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “The president’s goal is to look for opportunities to act administratively, unilaterally using his executive authority to try to make our communities safer.”

This followed a question and answer session, where President Barack Obama said executive action isn’t enough.

“If public opinion does not demand change in Congress, it will not change,” Obama said. “We don’t have enough tools right now to make as big a dent as we need to.”

“Our levels of gun violence are off the charts. There’s no advanced, developed country that would put up with this,” Obama lamented. “And it happens now once a week. And it’s a one-day story. There’s no place else like this.”

While most of the Tumblr questions concerned the president’s student loan programs, and higher education in general, Obama turned emotional when one user asked about school shootings.

His “biggest frustration” as president, Obama claimed, has been that “this society has not been willing to take some basic steps” to keep guns away from people who “can do just unbelievable damage.” He specifically stated the U.S. should be working towards keeping guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people.

The president also criticized Congress again for blocking a proposal to expand background checks for gun buyers, saying too many lawmakers are “terrified” of the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups. Opponents of various gun control proposals said they would be ineffective, and some threaten Second Amendment ownership rights.

They also said shootings are a mental health issue, an argument that Obama disputed.

“The United States does not have a monopoly on crazy people,” Obama said. “Now it’s hard to get even the most minor legislation passed and we should be ashamed.”

So what kind of legislative action would the president like to see?

“A couple of decades ago Australia had a mass shooting similar to Columbine or Newtown, and Australia just said, ‘Well, that’s it. We’re not doing — we’re not seeing that again,’ and basically imposed very severe, tough gun laws,” Obama stated.

To see the types of edicts Obama means to impose if he can get away with it, one need only look at gun laws in Australia, compiled by GunPolicy.org, which, while decidedly anti-gun, nonetheless provides instructive and useful compilations of gun laws from around the globe.

“The regulation of guns in Australia is categorized as restrictive,” the summary reads. “In Australia, the right to private gun ownership is not guaranteed by law.”

“In Australia, civilians are not allowed to possess automatic and semi-automatic firearms, self-loading and pump action shotguns, handguns with a caliber in excess of .38 in with only narrow exemptions, semi-automatic handguns with a barrel length less than 120mm, and revolvers with a barrel length less than 100mm,” the site advises.

“In Australia, private possession of fully automatic weapons is prohibited, with only narrow exceptions for permanently inoperable collector’s, display, or museum guns…” the site continues. “(P)rivate possession of semi-automatic assault weapons and their lookalikes is prohibited in all but exceptional circumstances…(P)rivate possession of handguns (pistols and revolvers) is only permitted subject to stringent condition.”

Licenses are also required to own firearms and ammunition, and a “genuine reason” must be approved to get a license. Both open carry and concealed carry “in a public place is prohibited without genuine reason. In law, personal protection is not a genuine reason.”

The issuance of a license is also contingent on such things as “third party character references,” reapplication and requalification, limits on the number guns and ammunition, and of course, government registration. The reasons for refusing a license would include “reliable evidence of a mental or physical condition which would render the applicant unsuitable for owning, possessing or using a firearm.”

This is what Obama and other Progressives would like to impose on the U.S.

This is the Rio Grande Crossing in Texas on Sunday, June 15th, 2014 — illegal aliens entering the U.S. by the thousands. Could we be seeing the end of this nation?

The reason I’m posting this is to show you how easily history and objects associated with it can cross through our lives. Above are three different shaving implements.

On the left is the straight edge by which my Great-grandpa and grandpa shaved with. In the center is a safety razor — my father used this style and I learned to shave with one jus’ like it.

Finally, on the right is the style of shaver I am using. My son, learned to shave using this kind and continues to use the multi-blade system.

You also have bits and pieces of family history in your life — all you have to do look around.

He’s a successful student, yet his high school administration refused to allow him to speak openly about his faith at his graduation. Yet that didn’t stop California’s Brawley Union High School senior Brook Hamby.

“In coming before you today, I presented three drafts of my speech, all of them denied on account of my desire to share with you my personal thoughts and inspiration to you: my Christian faith,” Hamby said. “In life, you will be told, ‘No.’ In life you will be told to do things that you have no desire to do. In life, you will be asked to do things that violate your conscience and desire to do what is right.”

He added, “No man or woman has ever truly succeeded or been fulfilled on the account of living for others and not standing on what they knew in their heart was right or good.”

Then he quoted from “the biggest best-selling book of all-time in history.”

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” he quoted, from Matthew in the Holy Bible. “It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”

“Be the salt of the earth, be strong and stand for your convictions and stand for what right, what is ethical, what is moral and Godly no matter what is the cost to you,” Hamby concluded. “Stand for whatever is good wherever you go and what ever you do.”

No word on whether his act of disobedience against the school district cost him his diploma.

In High Point, North Carolina the dress she wore was exactly a half-inch too short.

With two hours left in the last day of her senior year of high school, Violet Burkhart said the milestone she hoped would be “great and exciting” was “pretty much ruined.”

A teacher at Central Davidson High School pulled her aside and measured her dress in the middle of the hallway, then told her to call her mother, because she had to go home and change. In tears, Violet did as directed.

“I literally looked back at the clock and I’m thinking, ‘It’s one in the afternoon on her last day of her senior year,’” said Amy Redwine, Burkhart’s mother. “My daughter — it’s supposed to be one of her best days and she’s there crying.”

She isn’t disputing the districts dress code, but thinks it could have been handled better, given the fact Violet had worn the dress to school before. So in response, Redwine decided to wear the same dress to her daughter’s graduation.

“If her dress is too short, then my dress is too short,” Redwine stated, “and I’m going to wear it in front of everybody and be proud just like she should have been able to on her last day.”

The school district has yet to comment on the matter.

Finally, Quintin Murphy disrobed during his graduation ceremony to display his leopard-print skivvies at Jack Britt High School, he was stripped of his diploma.

Murphy stripped down to draw attention to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder — specifically his uncle and grandfather — and how they’re being cared for medically by Veterans Affairs.

“Fayetteville does not have the best VA hospital,” said Murphy. “I have been there with my uncle and grandfather, and I’ve see how poor things are, and like these are men that have served.”

His uncle Leonard Johnson, a disabled Iraq war vet, knew what he was planning for the ceremony and says he supports his nephew.
“You know it really touched my heart,” Johnson said.

Johnson said for the last decade he’s battled the VA over PTSD and other medical treatments.

“I have been on morphine for 10 years,” said Johnson. “It took over a year-and-a-half to get my brace, my back brace, my knee braces, and an arm brace.”

School officials claim Murphy’s actions were inappropriate, and for that reason he won’t receive his diploma and has been banned from school property.

He was escorted off by police following the stunt but was not charged with a crime. But Murphy, who plans to go to college and then enlist in the Army, says it was worth it.

The year 2014 marks 50th anniversary of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The action cost the lives of 58, 195 soldiers — including nine from Del Norte County.

The men who lost their lives include James H. Whisenhunt, Donald Shanks, Robert G. Owen, John R. Klotz, Paul O. Klotz, Howard Cramblet, Leonard Greville, Richard K. Wells and Gene A. Mitchell.

The Klotz brothers were killed 18 months apart from one another. Paul Klotz and Gene Mitchell were severely injured while in Vietnam and died from their injuries while they were in the hospital.

James Whisenhunt was a local police officer when he went in. He was killed while saving several other soldiers in Ka Sahn and was awarded the Silver Star.

If someone with a gun stops you and takes your money, you would you call police. But what if the person taking your money also has a badge?

California resident Tan Nguyen won $60,000 from a Las Vegas casino. On his way back home Humboldt County Deputy Lee Dove stopped Nguyen on I-80 near Winnemucca, Nevada for driving three-miles over the speed limit.

Dove, a trained narcotics interdiction agent, knows that accusing someone of drug trafficking is all that’s required to walk away with their money and property. The policy enables him to do this is known as ‘civil asset forfeiture.’

Dove immediately stated that he smelled drugs, which gave him legal cause to search Nguyen’s car. From the deputy’s dash cam video recording:

“I just smelled weed. I know I did. I know I smelled weed,” he said as he returned to his cruiser.

“That’s not yours, is it?” asked Dove.

“That’s mine,” Nguyen responded.

“Well, I’m seizing it,” the deputy declared.

The first issue is whether Dove obtained permission to search the car or whether he simply told the driver, Tan Nguyen, he was going to do it.

“Well, I’m gonna search that vehicle first, ok?” Dove asks.

Nguyen challenges the deputy, “Hey, what’s the reason you’re searching my car?”

“Because I’m talking to you …I don’t have to explain that to you. I’m not going to explain that to you, but I am gonna put my drug dog on that,” as he points to money. “If my dog alerts, I’m seizing the money. You can try to get it back but you’re not.”

Nguyen: (inaudible) got it in Vegas.”

“Good luck proving it. Good luck proving it. You’ll burn it up in attorney fees before we give it back to you.”

Dove however never seizes the money under state forfeiture law, instead he offers Nguyen a deal: abandon the cash and leave with the cashiers’ checks otherwise, he’ll confiscate the cash anyway and tow the car because Nguyen’s name isn’t on the rental agreement.

“It’s your call,” Dove tells Nguyen. “If you want to walk away, you can take the cashiers checks, the car and everything and you can bolt and you’re on your way. But you’re gonna be walking away from this money and abandoning it.”

“I don’t have all day to sit here debating it,” Dove insisted.” You need to give me a decision what you want to do.”

Nguyen protested that the officer had no right to rob him. But Deputy Dove reminded him that government theft is legal in a police state.

“Everyday I do this,” said the Deputy Dove. “It’s all I do for a living. It’s drug interdiction and I get money. The only reason why you have that cash is because it’s related to some sort of illegal activity. You know it and I know it.”

“I don’t have to prove my case on the side of the road. Ok, I don’t have to prove that all right? You can take these and the car and the luggage and your written warning and you proceed and I will give you a receipt for the money and you abandon it and you walk away and you chalk it up to don’t do this no more, all right? That is what it amounts to,” Dove told Nguyen.

After taking the cash, Dove forced Nguyen to sign a document stating that he was “abandoning the money,” and then let him leave.

Dove never issued a speeding ticket or warning. In fact, Nguyen was never charged with a crime at all.

After he got home Nguyen cashed his $10,000 in cashier checks and used the money to hire a lawyer to get the rest of his money back. Thankfully, he was successful in recovering the stolen money.

The controversial drug interdiction stops have since been suspended and Nevada’s Attorney General, Catherine Cortez Masto called in to review the practice.

“The public confidence has eroded in the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. I want the citizens that we serve to know we are lawful. Therefore, I contacted the Nevada Attorney General’s Office to ask for an independent review of our program,” Sheriff Ed Kilgore said.

Kilgore added that departmental guidelines were not followed and claims he thought the cases were being sent to the district attorney’s office. Meanwhile, Dove is still on duty, patrolling I-80.