Detroit Police Chief Nearly Car Jacked In October

Detroit Police Chief James Craig: I was nearly carjacked

Detroit Police Chief James Craig announces the Heatwave campaign targeting auto theft and carjackings, Aug. 26, 2013. (Gus Burns | Mlive Detroit)

By Gus Burns | fburns@mlive.com 
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on October 23, 2013 at 7:15 AM, updated October 23, 2013 at 3:19 PM

DETROIT, MI — Upon returning to his hometown, Detroit Police Chief James Craig seemed miffed by motorists' pervasive tendency to disregard traffic signals.
"One thing that I've been critical of, as it relates to... the way the good people in Detroit drive, some of them just blatantly run red traffic signals," Craig said in late-July. "And I don't know if they just have total disregard for traffic laws or they're afraid of being carjacked."
Craig on a recent Friday, just over three months since moving back to Detroit, experienced first hand what can happen while stopped at traffic lights in his city.
Detroit's head law enforcer believes he nearly became the victim of a carjacking himself.
Craig recounted the story to members of the public during a meeting about carjacking Monday night, the Detroit News reports.
Craig, while stopped at a light on Jefferson, according to the Detroit News told the crowd of 50:

There are certain cars each suspect tends to (be attracted) to, and I guess they liked my police car — a police car with lights, and one suspect jumped out and began running toward the passenger side of my vehicle ... As soon as I saw the suspect running to my car, I accelerated out of harm’s way.
And then, candidly, I got angry ... I said, ‘I can’t believe this just almost happened.’

The Detroit News reports there have been 582 carjackings in the city this year, a one percent decrease compared to the same period in 2012.

Craig has said publicly more than one he intends to pay special attention to reducing carjackings.

"This is the one crime that really drives fear in the community," he said in August while announcing the HeatWave programmed aimed at reducing carjackings and auto theft.
Sgt. Vernal Newson of the Auto Theft and Carjacking Task Force said thieves frequently spot a vehicle they like and follow the motorist to their home or destination before committing the crime.

Global Warming Proponent Gets Trapped In Antarctic Ice.

Saturday Jan 04, 2014 1:17 PM PT

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Global warming researcher gets stuck in ice

Debra J. Saunders

Published 3:39 pm, Monday, December 30, 2013

A funny thing happened during Australian climate-change professor Chris Turney's venture to retrace a 1912 research expedition in Antarctica and gauge how climate change has affected the continent: Two weeks into a five-week excursion, Turney's good ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy got trapped in ice. It turns out, global warming notwithstanding, that there's so much ice down under that two ice-breaking vessels sent to rescue the research team cannot reach the Australasian Antarctic Expedition.

Years ago, global warming believers renamed the phenomenon "climate change" - probably because of pesky details like unusually cold weather undercutting the warming argument. Now, just as advocates argue that Earth is approaching a tipping point, there's so much ice floating in Antarctica during the Southern Hemisphere's summer that the Australasian Antarctic Expedition posted in a statement: "We're stuck in our own experiment."

Does this incident mean that climate change is an illusion or a hoax? Of course not. Even during its summer, Antarctica is subject to extreme weather. "Bad weather is the norm in Antarctica," climatologist Roy Spencer observed.

But it does show that like the rest of us chickens, scientists have feet of clay. Turney had told journalists that his expedition wanted to collect data that could be used to improve climate models. Too bad the folks who are supposed to predict climate decades into the future are guided by scientists who could not manage to avoid ice floes during a five-week trip.

"We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Turney told Fox News. He believes the ship was stuck in old ice from a 75-mile-long iceberg that broke apart three years ago.

Fair enough. But there's still the issue of ice volume. Climate changers usually warn about Arctic ice, which has been receding over the last few decades, but rarely address the overall growth of ice in Antarctica.

"I'm sure some researchers can find a possible explanation where humans are causing both Arctic ice melting and Antarctic ice growth, but I'm skeptical of scientists who blame every change in nature on human activities. Nature routinely causes its own changes, without any help from us," quoth Spencer, himself a climate change contrarian.

"Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change, but here ice is building up," the Australasian Antarctic Expedition acknowledges. It's a conundrum. If warming is melting ice in the North, why isn't it melting ice in the South?

Believers seize on all manner of weather - less Arctic ice, more Antarctic ice - as proof of climate change, but as Spencer notes, there is no climate change without man-caused global warming.

Turney told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that his goal is to excite the public about science. As for climate change, "in the scientific community, it's remarkably solid." And "self-evident."

He pushes a framework of science being data-driven and free from politics. And yet it's hard to escape the suspicion that whatever the icebound researchers experience, they will frame it as proof that climate change is unassailable.

2013--A Year Of Declining Morality, Increasing Internet Influence And Other Issues

Thursday,January 02, 2014

[Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV Editor-in-Chief, Jeff Berwick, and is but a small excerpt from the TDV Newsletter]

Should 2013 be remembered as the year in which the War On Drugs, war, and statism all reached all time popularity lows?

For sure, the US is changing dramatically and quickly.

Pew Research Center found a large range of "data milestones, breakthroughs, peaks and valleys in 2013," such as record support for same-sex marriage and the legalization of weed. But more importantly (yes, even more important than weed), record levels of distrust of the federal government. Perhaps this is because, for the first time in 2013, 50% of the population received its news from the internet.

From Pew:

1. Just over half (51%) of the public now favors same-sex marriage, while 42% are opposed.
2. A majority of Americans (52%) now favor legalizing the use of marijuana.
3. A majority agrees the U.S. should mind its own business internationally, the highest measure in nearly a half century of polling.
4. The share of Americans saying they do not want their own representative in Congress reelected – 38% – is at its highest point in two decades.
5. For the first time, a majority of the public (53%) says that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms.
6. 36% of the nation’s young adults ages 18 to 31—the so-called Millennial generation— now live in their parents’ home, the highest share in at least four decades.
7. A record 40% of all households with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income for the family.
8. The U.S., which has a total population of 317 million, is now home to a record 40.4 million immigrants.
9. A record seven-in-ten (69%) Hispanic high school graduates in the class of 2012 enrolled in college that fall, two percentage points higher than the rate (67%) among their white counterparts.
10. The percentage of Americans who say the U.S. plays a more important and powerful role as a world leader than it did 10 years ago has fallen to a 40-year low of just 17%.
11. The percentage of American Catholics calling themselves “strong” Catholics is at a four-decade low.
12. For the first time since Pew Research Center began tracking smartphone adoption, a majority of Americans now own a smartphone of some kind.
13. 50% of the public now cites the internet as a main source for national and international news.

Statism At All-Time Low

A Reuters poll, amid mainstream media balderdash aimed towards inspiring intervention in Syria, found only 9 percent of Americans supported military intervention in Syria (a factor that might have, for the first time in history, prevented a war). Mainstream media is only trusted by 23 percent of the public.

Such low sentiment has long also reflected public opinion of Congress, and even the Presidency.

Secretary of State John Kerry, before a group of State Department workers, told the audience that the world has been "complicated" by "... this little thing called the internet and the ability of people everywhere to communicate instantaneously and to have more information coming at them in one day than most people can process in months or a year."

According to Kerry, the internet "makes it much harder to govern, makes it much harder to organize people, much harder to find the common interest."

I take that as a compliment. 

Can This Be True? A Major City Police Chief Endorses Concealed Carry? Maybe It Was The Car Jacking That He Prevented By Pulling His Own Gun!!

Detroit Police Chief Endorses Concealed Carry For A Safer City

January 3, 2014 by Ben Bullard

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Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who’s been on the job since July of last year, started blowing minds this week by telling anyone who would listen that law-abiding citizens who possess concealed carry permits — and the pistols to accompany them — make for wonderfully effective crime deterrents.

Craig spoke at a press conference Thursday, telling reporters he once believed in gun control. But over the course of a 36-year career in law enforcement, Craig found that violent criminals believed in gun control, too. After all, why would bad guys want to increase the probability that their victims are capable of matching force with force?

From a Friday story in The Detroit News:

If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday.

Urban police chiefs are typically in favor of gun control or reluctant to discuss the issue, but Craig on Thursday was candid about how he’s changed his mind.

“When we look at the good community members who have concealed weapons permits, the likelihood they’ll shoot is based on a lack of confidence in this Police Department,” Craig said at a press conference at police headquarters, adding that he thinks more Detroit citizens feel safer, thanks in part to a 7 percent drop in violent crime in 2013.

Craig said he started believing that legal gun owners can deter crime when he became police chief in Portland, Maine, in 2009.

“Coming from California (Craig was on the Los Angeles police force for 28 years), where it takes an act of Congress to get a concealed weapon permit, I got to Maine, where they give out lots of CCWs (carrying concealed weapon permits), and I had a stack of CCW permits I was denying; that was my orientation.

“I changed my orientation real quick. Maine is one of the safest places in America. Clearly, suspects knew that good Americans were armed.”

Craig had actually begun making similar statements to media last month, telling a Detroit radio host he believes there’s a direct link between “good Americans with CPLs” and reduced crime.

The chief’s candor has taken some 2^nd Amendment supporters in Michigan by surprise. “I’m not ready to say he’s pro-gun just yet,” Detroit gun safety instructor Rick Ector told the newspaper, “but it’s vastly different from what police chiefs have said in the past.”

Here’s hoping Craig doesn’t run into a buzz saw of sanctimonious and misguided opposition in a city crippled — and very much still haunted by — decades of progressive leadership.

When You Lie Down With Dogs...They Supported ObamaCrapCare, Now President Argues To Force Them To Provide Birth Control.

Obama Asks Supreme Court to Halt Catholics' Contraception Exemption

Friday, 03 Jan 2014 10:34 AM

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The Obama administration on Friday called on a Supreme Court justice to stop blocking the new health care law's requirement that some religion-affiliated organizations provide health insurance that includes birth control.The Justice Department called on Justice Sonia Sotomayor to dissolve her last-minute stay on the contraceptive coverage requirement of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Sotomayor issued the stay on New Year's Eve, only hours before the law's coverage went into effect.
Under the health care law, most health insurance plans have to cover all FDA-approved contraceptives as preventive care for women, free of cost to the patient. Churches and other houses of worship are exempt from the birth control requirement, but affiliated institutions that serve the general public are not. That includes charitable organizations, universities and hospitals.
In response to an outcry, the government came up with a compromise that requires insurers or health plan administrators to provide birth control coverage, but allows the religious group to distance itself from that action. The exemption is triggered when the religious group signs a form for the insurer saying that it objects to the coverage.

The insurer can then go forward with the coverage.
A group of Denver nuns who run nursing homes for the poor, called the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged, say signing that form makes them complicit in providing contraceptive coverage, and therefore violates their religious beliefs. "Unfortunately, the federal government has started the new year the same way that it ended the old one: trying to bully nuns into violating their religious beliefs," said their lawyer, Mark Rienzi, who is also senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
But Solicitor General Donald Verrilli said in court papers that nothing in the law will make those nuns pay for birth control for their employees. The nuns' insurance is provided through a church plan that is not required to provide contraceptive coverage and has said it will not, he said, making their complaint baseless.
"With the stroke of their own pen, applicants can secure for themselves the relief they seek from this Court — an exemption from the requirements of the contraceptive-coverage provision — and the employer-applicants' employees (and their family members) will not receive contraceptive coverage through the plan's third-party administrator either. The application should be denied," Verrilli argued.
It is not known when Sotomayor will make a decision.
© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Another Lie--ObamaCrapCare Will INCREASE Visits To ER Rather Than Lessening Them According To Harvard Study.i

Harvard Study: Obamacare Drives up ER Visits

Friday, 03 Jan 2014 11:50 AM

By Drew MacKenzie

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The number of costly emergency room visits is set to soar under Obamacare, according to a  "gold standard" Harvard study, which directly contradicts claims by President Barack Obama that his healthcare law would cut ER trips.

The millions of people who have just been enrolled in Medicaid will go to ERs on a regular basis instead of their local doctors, according to the research.



Obama had said that his signature healthcare reform law would help cut back on government spending by reducing trips to the ER, the Daily Caller reports.

The study, published in the journal Science and released on Thursday, shows that the nearly 4 million new patients subsidized by government under the expansion of Medicaid are more likely to end up seeking treatment in emergency rooms for non-emergency health problems than before they entered the program.

Harvard conducted the study in Oregon in 2008 after that state expanded its Medicaid program. It found that newly-insured Medicaid patients went to the ER 40 percent more than the uninsured.

The findings are the polar opposite of government calculations that these millions of new patients would pick lower-cost options for their healthcare, by going to their primary care physicians.

The study came during Oregon's Medicaid expansion six years ago when the state, with limited funds available, staged a lottery to decide who would get coverage. The researchers compared the trips to ER by those who won the Medicaid lottery and those who were not so lucky and remained uninsured.

The results showed that 25,000 Medicaid patients went to the emergency departments at Portland area hospitals 1.43 times over 18 months while those who were not insured only made 1.02 trips to the ER in the same time frame.

Obama had said the Medicaid expansion would reduce the number of visits to ERs for ailments that could be better treated, and at lower cost to the government, by primary care doctors. But the Harvard research found that Medicaid patients showed up in droves at emergency departments for minor ailments such as colds and flu.

The study found that Medicaid patients who went to the emergency room weren't admitted to hospitals any more frequently than uninsured people.

Calling it "the gold standard" for research on the effects of Medicaid coverage, James Smith, a Rand Corp. economist, said the study showed that Medicaid expansion results in "emergency department use and increases costs." He added, "That doesn't mean it isn't a good thing to do, but that's what it does."

Last year Obama justified his Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act by noting the potential savings from fewer hospital ER visits by the poor, which he says are more expensive than trips to the local GP.

"We just pay for the most expensive version, which is when they go to the emergency room because what happens is the hospitals have to take sick folk," Obama said. "They're not just going to leave them on the streets."

But the Daily Caller points out that Oregon will be forking over even more cash to pay for ER visits, which likely could mean the same problem will happen to every other state in the country that has expanded Medicaid.

Katherine Baicker, an economist at the Harvard School of Public Health, said the study, which she helped to write, concluded that people who gained Medicaid coverage used ERs more often for "a broad range of types of visits, conditions and subgroups," including problems that could be treated in less costly settings.

"That leaves policymakers with the difficult evaluation of comparing the substantial real costs of the program, with the substantial benefits to enrollees of having the coverage,"she told Bloomberg.

Although Obama has claimed that his healthcare law would help to lower deficits, the Harvard study will put a big dent in his theory.

"Because we’re driving down costs, we actually end up saving a little money," Obama said last year at a Clinton Global Initiative event. "It is a net reduction of our deficit. The irony of those who are talking about repealing Obamacare because of, it’s so wildly expensive is if they actually repealed the law, it would add to the deficit."

More than 19 million people nationwide are projected to join Medicaid this year, a 35 percent jump from last year as Obamcare widens the number of people eligible for the program. The increase is projected by the Obama administration to boost the program's cost by 18 percent this year and almost double it to $957 billion by 2021.

According to the Daily Caller, 25 states and Washington D.C. will expand Medicaid while nine have rejected the program.

Bloomberg News Contributed to this story.



Related Stories:

• Next Big Obamacare Shock May Come at Tax Time
• Big Medicaid Changes in 2014 Under Obamacare

© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

2014--Will It Be A Banner Year For Obama?

We found the following story which was related from "The Beast," a liberal blog. It has much to celebrate when it comes to Obama. Could this be the way the media is thinking? Will they do everything in their power to make 2014, his redemption year?

Let's take their hopes one at a time. They say the economy is growing, heck any economy would grow if the government would be dumping billions into it each month. Once the tapering starts to take effect, we will see how strong this economy really is. We think if anything, the economy will not be strong and will a big issue against the Democrats this year.

As far as "Obama Crap Care", or as we are starting to call it "Outrageously Expensive Crap Care", the liberals think it could get no worse. It will be the opposite. Once the employers (with more than 50 employees) start getting their premium notices, we will find that the 43% approval rate the program now has will drop to 20%. We expect major companies will entirely stop providing health insurance for their employees or will significantly raise employee contributions.

When the author speaks about issues on Obama's side, any increase in the minimum wage or an approval of an immigration plan will be good for the "low information crowd" but will not benefit the country. Raising the wage for kids and fast food workers (many of which earn more than the current minimum) will only reduce jobs and will invite more automation of products usually reserved for the lower tier workers. 

Legalizing illegal immigrants will also hurt the economy more than it will help. In a time when millions cannot find jobs, when others have lost their unemployment, adding these people to the job rolls would be crazy. However, the Democrats will push it. They will not be successful.

The one point the author is right,  the Republicans cannot get it together. Conservatives and main street pols look at things differently and instead of working it out behind closed doors, we expose our dirty laundry to everyone which is not a smart winning philosophy. Republicans will have a hard time in the 2014 elections unless they can put aside their petty disagreements and work together to win the midterms. If they do not, they are guaranteeing that President Obama will have a veto proof remainder of his second term.

The author's last two points could be summed up by saying "Obama's second term is going terrible, things in politics change quickly and he can only go one way and that is up."  The problem with the President is that he does not know how to lead, to cast a vision of the future and to pull everyone in the same direction.  He already has lost a vast majority of independents and many Democrats have become less positive.  The lies about ObamaCare did more damage to his reputation than some liberal political watchers are willing to concede. Americans generally don't like liars however, some politicians can pull it off. Obama is not one of those. 

Can 2014 be a good year for Obama, surely. Will it be, probably not.  He has major headwinds facing him. The economy will not prosper and the illegal immigrant push will make things worse. We expect "Outrageous Expensive Obama Crap Care" to suffer more spits and starts with the program grinding to a halt after the midterm elections right when the major rate increases for large businesses are announced.

2014 is not going to be a rosy year. It will be a very negative year from many points of view. Will it impact Obama? No, he doesn't care. He has his job, his insurance, his Secret Service, and his house. He cares only for the Democratic 1%.  Anyone not in that group can go fly a kite!

This Could Be Obama’s Best Year

By Dean Obeidallah7 hours agoThe Daily Beast

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President Barack Obama smiles as he prepares to answer a question during an end-of-the year news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, Friday, Dec. 20, 2013. Obama will depart later for his home state of Hawaii for his annual Christmas vacation trip. It's the first time in his presidency that his departure plans have not been delayed by legislative action in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

“Obama is done! He’s a lame duck. It’s over for the president.”

These are the type of the comments we saw in the media as 2013 came to a close. As some political pundits saw it, Obama can forget seeing any of his proposals enacted and should simply enjoy the perks of being president -like free cable and limo rides.

Could they be right? Sure, it’s possible. Obama’s approval ratings are near his lowest as president and his disapproval rating is at 54 percent, his worst ever.

With that said, 2014 could be a great year for the president—in fact, it could be his best ever. I know some of you are thinking: I must be crazy.  Well, a lot of people who have been called crazy later went on to be recognized as geniuses. Of course, some who were labeled as “crazy” actually turned out to have mental disorders.

In either event, here are the six reasons that 2014 could be Obama’s finest.

1. The US economy is improving: A good economy generally equals higher approval ratings for president and in turn more political capital for him to push for his proposals. Even President Clinton had an approval rating of 73% in the midst of his impeachment. Why? One big reason was the US economy was strong with unemployment at 4.5% and falling. Currently, the US economy appears poised for growth. The unemployment rate is at its lowest point during the Obama administration at 7%. This is in sharp contrast to the 10% unemployment rate we saw at one time in Obama’s first term. In addition, the stock market just had its best year since 1997, the GDP for the third quarter of 2013 grew at a surprisingly strong 3.6% annual rate and the IMF recently raised its 2014 growth projection for the US economy.

2. Obamacare will get better: It has to-It can’t get worse.  And Obamacare was the number 1 reason cited in a recent NBC News/WSJ poll for why people gave the president only a 43% approval rating. But here’s the thing: The Obamacare website issues are now behind us and over 2 million people and counting have signed up for the program.  That means Obamacare will soon be judged on its actual merits—not on website issues nor on the constant Republican fear mongering about the law’s uncertainties. If we start hearing stories from Americans whose lives have been made better by this law, expect to see public support rise.

3. Obama has key issues on his side:  President Obama recently stated that 2014 will be his “Year of action.” So expect to see him push hard on issue like immigration reform and raising the minimum wage. Both of these have broad public support. Immigration reform -including a pathway to citizenship as Obama has championed-has the support of 73% of voters. On minimum wage, a November Gallup Poll found that 76% of Americans support a raise form the current level of $7.25 an hour to $9—including 76% of independent voters. Obama is in a win-win situation on these two issues. They pass and it helps him as well as Congressional Dems. The Republicans block them and it will hurt their standing.

4. Republican Party has no ideas: Frankly, the only issue the badly splintered Republican Party seems to agree upon is to repeal Obamacare.  That’s a lot to stake your entire 2014 midterm election campaign on—especially given that there’s a real possibility that Obamacare becomes more popular during the year. If the Obamacare issues fades, so, too, do the GOP’s chances of success in 2014 election since the only other issue getting them press is the infighting between its Tea Party and establishment wings.

5. Political fortunes change fast:  Anyone remember right after the government shutdown inOctober headlines declaring, “Major damage to GOP after shutdown?” Polls at that time found that the public favored Democrats 50% to 42% over Republicans in generic Congressional match ups.Flash forward just two months later and pollsters now find Republicans leading Democrats 49% to 44%.Who knows where we will stand by November 2014 but all you can say for sure is that the current polls numbers are about as meaningful as the storyline on Duck Dynasty.

READ MORE Obamacare Has a New Problem

6. 2013 was so bad for Obama he can only go up: When we look back a year from now on the fortunes of President Obama, it will, of course, be contrasted to 2013.  Lets be honest: There are some benefits to having really bad year—namely, it’s easier to make the next one appear better.

So there you go: My six reasons why I think 2014 could be an amazing year for President Obama. I encourage you to save this article and if turns I’m right, I expect to be heralded as political soothsayer second only to Nate Silver.  And If I’m wrong, I will of course, offer a long list of excuses.

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