Obama Admin. Drops 3-Year Witch-hunt Against Sheriff Joe Arpaio (No Charges)

by John Hill

It’s finally over. The 3-year, disgraceful witch-hunt of Sheriff Joe Arpaio by the Obama Department of Injustice was dropped tonight, with absolutely no charges to be filed in the matter.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann Birmingham Scheel released a statement saying her office “is closing its investigation into allegations of criminal conduct” by current and former members of the sheriff‘s and county attorney’s offices.
 

Scheel didn’t elaborate, saying only that County Attorney Bill Montgomery was advised of the decision “not to pursue state criminal charges related to the investigation.” Scheel, who is based in Arizona, said she was acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice.
 

Friday night releases of embarrassing political revelations are a long and infamous tradition, in order to minimize the exposure of the story to the American people. But this release took the cake: Friday at 5pm, before a Labor Day weekend, and right after the close of the Republican National Convention.
 

And no wonder. This one was a doozy. After all, this was a political persecution right from the start. The Obama DOJ started this thing less than 100 days after Obama took office, at a time when the Department was not even fully staffed. They were chomping at the bit to go after him. 

And now it is all for nothing.
 

Dozens of investigators, 4 Federal prosecutors, countless FBI agents, all working for three damn years to try and bring down Sheriff Joe. We won’t hold our breath waiting for the left-wing media to demand to know how much the DOJ spent on this disgraceful witch-hunt, but you can bet it was in the tens of millions.
 

And they came up with NOTHING. Because there IS nothing. Because this was never about substance, only politics.
 

They simply hate Sheriff Joe Arpaio. They hate his muscular enforcement of our immigration laws without apology, his workplace raids to liberate jobs for legal Americans, his “posse” and “crime suppression sweeps” that brought in tens of thousands of illegal aliens, identity thieves, drug and human smugglers and violent criminals. They hate his Tent City – which began its 20th year this month.
 

They hate him for being the biggest national symbol in the fight against illegal immigration – and for having the support of millions of Americans in that effort.
 

We will always stand with him, and say to ‘America’s Toughest Sheriff’ tonight, WAY TO GO JOE!

Clint Eastwood To Speak At Republican Convention on Thursday

WRLTHD Headline News

by The Deadline Team
Clint Eastwood will be speaking at the Republican Convention in Tampa on Thursday according to Fox News. The network’s website is reporting that a GOP source confirmed “that Eastwood is indeed the mystery speaker”. Thursday night’s line-up has a “To Be Announced” speaker scheduled ahead of Senator Marco Rubio and GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney himself. Eastwood’s name was floated earlier this week as the speaker along with former VP nominee Sarah Palin, Donald Trump and even a hologram of former President Ronald Reagan. No stranger to politics, Eastwood served as the Mayor of Carmel, California from 1986 to 1988. He supported John McCain in 2008 and endorsed Mitt Romney earlier this month at a Sun Valley fundraiser. “Now more than ever do we need Mitt Romney, I’m going to be voting for him,” the Oscar winner said as the GOP nominee stood next to him on August 4. If Eastwood is really heading to Tampa to speak Thursday evening, he’s going to have to get going soon. Deadline has learned that as of Wednesday afternoon, the actor/director was still at his home in Carmel. Eastwood’s latest film, Trouble With The Curve comes out on September 21, 2012.

'Obama's America' Filmmaker Lashes Out at Media

"A lot of these guys have just become moral cowards," Dinesh D'Souza says about Chris Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell, Rachel Maddow and others.

TAMPA, Fla. – A frustrated Dinesh D’Souza called out a slew of reporters for bias and cowardice because they have ignored his film, 2016: Obama’s America, despite the film's ranking as the top documentary this year.

D'Souza said unlike with Michael Moore's films, cable and broadcast news interviews have been few and far between -- save for one on CNN and several on the Fox News Channel, the filmmaker told The Hollywood Reporter outside Radio Row at the Republican National Convention.

"A lot of these guys have just become moral cowards," D’Souza said.  "Look at MSNBC. You could watch that channel and you wouldn’t even know we have a film out. You look atLawrence O’Donnell, You look at Rachel Maddow. You look at Chris Matthews. I mean, look at those cowards … trying to pretend that there’s no film.

"So, they’re just hoping that all of this will just go away, but it’s not going to. I would love to go on MSNBC and cross swords with those guys, but I just think they’re all hiding under their desks.”

2016: Obama’s America, based on D’Souza’s best-selling book, The Roots of Obama’s Rage, is a negative take on the president’s agenda. The film also uses Obama’s own book, Dreams From My Father, as source material. The movie, produced by Oscar-winning producer Gerald Molen (Schindler's List), surged to No. 2 at the domestic box office on Monday and is expected to expand into 2,000 theaters next week, a rare feat for a documentary.

Yet, says D’Souza, even the New York Times shows little interest.

“Tom Friedman writes a column. He’s supposed to be Mr. Know-it-All on a whole bunch of subjects, but the truth of it is he’s kind of ignoring the film because it has ideas that he’s unable to contend with,” 

D’Souza said. "Maureen Dowd  … I don’t get that. She fulminated against my book. She called me Ann Coulter in pants. But I put out a thinking movie that addresses some of the issues that she’s raised … It’s a riveting story but it has huge political implications, and I think Maureen’s a little bit scared of what those political implications are.”

He also criticized Charlie Rose of CBS, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and HBO’s Bill Maher.

"You think of yourself as a smart guy, and you are," he said of Maher. "But I also happen to be a smart guy who knows what he’s talking about."

D’Souza’s harshest criticism, though, was directed at Matthews and the MSNBC anchor’s pronouncement in 2008 that he "felt this thrill going up my leg" after listening to Obama speak.

"You get to sort of prove that you’re not a racist by supporting Obama," said D’Souza. "Why would a hard-bitten reporter like Matthews feel a thrill up his leg? I mean, that’s abnormal behavior. Matthews is a guy who’s patting himself on the back and saying, 'I’m a morally wonderful person because I support Obama.' Well, if you’re such a morally wonderful person, why don’t you engage in some real debate?

"Chris Matthews is always shrieking about this or that, and the evil Tea Party and so on,” said D’Souza, "but when it comes to a film of real ideas, in which we interview people who knew Obama’s dad, knew his mom and knew Obama, and interview George Obama, somehow Chris Matthews – I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t like me. Maybe I don’t send a thrill up his leg.”

Email: Paul.Bond@thr.com

12 Mexico police held over US embassy car shooting

A Mexican judge ordered 12 federal police officers held for 40 days on Monday as prosecutors mull charges against them for shooting at a US embassy car and wounding two US government employees.

The officers are being treated as suspects over Friday's incident, when a sport-utility vehicle with diplomatic plates was chased by four cars south of Mexico City and hit by a hail of bullets.

"We will continue to deepen the investigation," Attorney General Marisela Morales Ibanez told reporters. "Right now we have an abuse of power."

"We are cooperating with all national and international authorities that we must collaborate with to clarify the events," Morales added.

She did not indicate what other charges the officers could face apart from abuse of power over the shooting, which the US embassy has described as an ambush. The judge must decide the degree of responsibility of each suspect.

"No crime and no investigative leads are being ruled out at the moment," she said. "This is why we asked for provisional detention, so we have the time we need to carry out an exhaustive investigation."

The officers will be transferred from the attorney general's regional office in Cuernavaca, the capital of the state of Morelos, to a provisional detention center in Mexico City.

Relatives of the officers protested outside the federal prosecutor's office in Cuernavaca, holding signs saying "Deprived of their freedom for doing their jobs" and "Mr. President, we ask for your support and justice."

The Mexican navy and public security ministry say the officers were hunting for criminals south of the capital when they shot at the diplomatic car. A Mexican navy captain traveling with the US employees was slightly injured.

The US government employees and the Mexican navy captain were heading to a military facility when a carload of gunmen chased and fired at them on a dirt road, the navy and public security ministry said in a statement.

When the US vehicle veered back onto a highway, three more cars joined the chase and shot at the SUV, which was riddled with bullets near Tres Marias, a town 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital.

The US embassy has not identified the two wounded employees or the nature of their work in Mexico, which is in the throes of a drug war that has left some 50,000 people dead since 2006.

Mexico's ombudsman, Raul Plascencia, said the shooting was an "extremely serious mistake by the officers, which could be an orchestrated action."

"There is no justification for such an excessive use of force," the head of the National Human Rights Commission told a news conference.

Top 5 possibilities for the RNC’s mystery speaker

By Jamie Weinstein

TAMPA, Fla. — On Thursday night, the Republican convention schedule has a mystery hole just before Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Mitt Romney’s speeches. The space is scheduled for “remarks” but simply lists “To be Announced” where the name of the speaker should be.

The Wall Street Journal speculated, and The Drudge Report highlighted, that the mysterious speaker could be former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

But that’s almost entirely implausible. Palin is popular with some conservatives, but toxic to the nation at large. There is no way she would be the mystery speaker in a prime time slot. Plus, she is vocally siding against Team Romney on Republican convention rules changes. That’s not something a special mystery speaker for Romney would do.

But since people are speculating who this mystery speaker could be, here are the top 5 possibilities:

1.)  Joe Liebermann

A high profile Democrat endorsing Romney on national television would obviously be seen as a boon for the Romney campaign. Yes, Lieberman is officially an “independent Democrat” in the Senate now and, yes, he endorsed Arizona Sen. John McCain’s presidential candidacy at the convention in 2008. But getting Lieberman to speak would still be a pretty big coup for Romney. Lieberman was, after all, a Democratic vice presidential nominee just over a decade ago.

Lieberman has yet to endorse anyone this cycle and said in April that he wasn’t planning on endorsing President Obama or the Republican nominee. But like the speaker he would precede, Marco Rubio, Liebermann has been a critic of President Obama’s foreign policy. He is also seen as a possible cabinet member in a Republican administration, especially since he is leaving the Senate. It seems quite possible that if there is indeed a mystery speaker, it could be Joe.

2.) Colin Powell

Sure, a lot of conservatives aren’t big fans of Colin Powell, but that’s not the point of the convention. Romney excited the base by picking Paul Ryan, now he needs to reach out to the undecided independents who will decide the election. And retired Gen. Powell, who switched party lines to endorse Barack Obama in 2008, remains popular nationally. People see him, fairly or unfairly, as an honest broker. If he were to reverse course and drop his support for Obama and endorse Romney in a prime time mystery convention speech Thursday, that would be a major get for Romney.

3.)  Nancy Reagan

Nancy endorsed Romney’s presidential bid at the end of May, but it would be high drama for the 91-year-old widow of the most revered conservative leader of the 20th century to come on stage and give Romney her husband’s imprimatur in a prime time address. Reagan was loved by independents as well, and spinning the narrative that that this election is like that of 1980 when Reagan came to the rescue to save the economy from Jimmy Carter seems like something Team Romney would relish.

4.)  Clint Eastwood

The 82-year old actor known for his toughness and grit has already endorsed Romney. While many Hollywood actors are prone to scorn for being out of touch elitists, Eastwood doesn’t carry that image. He isn’t the Hollywood-type most Americans would recoil from for injecting himself into politics. An endorsement from Eastwood, who served as mayor of a California city and who George H.W. Bush reportedly considered for his vice presidential nominee, would seem to fit the bill as someone who would work as a high-profile mystery prime time speaker.

5.) Tim Tebow 

Okay, this is by far the least likely of the five. You might call it a Hail Mary. But immediately before the mystery speaker, the convention will feature Olympians lending their support to Romney. What if immediately after, another great athlete with national appeal strode on stage to endorse Romney? Tebow-mania is electric and the son of missionaries would seem to fit in well in the Republican Party. Probably won’t happen, but it is more likely than Sarah Palin being the mystery speaker.

This, of course, is all speculation. Perhaps there won’t even be a big-name mystery speaker. But if there is as the schedule suggests their might be, these are five names that immediately come to mind as making sense for what Romney is trying to accomplish with the convention.

New Orleans braces for hurricane Isaac

New Orleans, Louisiana: New Orleans on Tuesday braced for another hurricane as a strengthening Tropical Storm Isaac drew near, seven years after Hurricane Katrina left 1,800 dead in the fabled jazz city.

President Barack Obama, no doubt mindful of the bungled handling of that tragedy by his predecessor George W Bush, declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, allowing federal funds and aid to flow to local authorities.

The president also convened a briefing with officials, including Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) administrator Craig Fugate, hours before Isaac was expected to become a Category One hurricane.

Katrina left behind a devastating sprawl of destruction and death when it hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005, and a halting emergency response from the Bush administration was a black mark on his second term in office.

The National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said in its 0600 GMT bulletin that Isaac was about 355 kilometres southeast of Biloxi, Mississippi and packing maximum sustained winds of 112 kilometres.

A hurricane warning was issued earlier for New Orleans and nearby areas as Isaac churned toward the US Gulf coast, and the NHC said the storm would likely become a hurricane before making landfall Tuesday afternoon or evening.

Alabama governor Robert Bentley has ordered mandatory evacuations in Mobile and Baldwin, counties that sit on the Gulf Coast.

In New Orleans, the normally bustling French Quarter was eerily quiet late Monday as the first rain drops fell and winds picked up.

Bored bouncers peered out of empty bars and strip clubs along Bourbon Street as the few die-hard tourists staggered down the cobblestones. Many restaurants had closed, and some hotels told guests to check out by midday Tuesday.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who has recommended voluntary evacuations, urged people to prepare for the worst.

“If you are in low-lying areas and are thinking about evacuating, today is the day to do that,” he said Monday.

“If you plan on hunkering down at home, today is the day to get supplies. I strongly encourage people not to wait,” added Jindal, who stayed away from the weather-delayed Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.

Those heeding the call included Tammy Edmondson, who looked anxious as she picked through the grocery shelves at a Target store with her daughter and a friend in tow.

Edmondson said she left town ahead of Katrina and that it was a month before she could go home. “We had a lot of damage — we’re still fixing some of it,” she said.

FEMA said its National Response Coordination Centre had been activated and would handle eventual requests for aid from affected states.

The emergency management agency has also deployed four disaster response teams to Gulf states and has moved other resources to pre-positioned command locations closer to the potential storm impact areas.

Mississippi activated 1,500 National Guard troops on Monday and Louisiana issued orders to approximately 4,100 soldiers and airmen in preparation of the storm making landfall. Florida called up only a few dozen service personnel.

Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama issued emergency warnings on Sunday, 24 hours after Isaac forced the main programme of the Republican convention to be postponed by one day.

The NHC warned that Isaac could dump up to 45cm of rain along the Gulf coast and spawn “isolated tornadoes” over central and northwestern Florida.

Katrina was the third deadliest US hurricane on record, destroying homes and igniting a human crisis in New Orleans, a city famed for music, an easygoing atmosphere and Creole cuisine.

Seven years ago, 1.4 million residents and visitors were ordered to evacuate New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina approached, but many could not or would not leave and ended up stranded.

A lack of preparation forced residents to take shelter in attics and then break through their roofs to escape rising water, but countless numbers died while the nation’s leaders appeared unwilling to address the disaster.

Isaac brought rain and choppy seas to the Florida Keys after battering impoverished Haiti — where 19 people died — and Cuba over the weekend.

In Tampa, the Republican convention began with a whimper as the bad weather reduced the opening of Mitt Romney’s coronation as the party’s presidential candidate to a muted, symbolic session of less than two minutes.

Party officials have said prime-time speaking slots on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — including speeches by Romney, his wife Ann and running-mate Paul Ryan — remain unchanged.

Sasquatch stunt takes a tragic turn on highway

By JIM MANN/Daily Inter Lake
A man dressed in a military-style “Ghillie suit” who was attempting to provoke a Bigfoot sighting was struck by two vehicles and killed on U.S. 93 South of Kalispell Sunday night.

“He was trying to make people think he was Sasquatch so people would call in a Sasquatch sighting,” Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Jim Schneider said. “You can’t make it up. I haven’t seen or heard of anything like this before. Obviously, his suit made it difficult for people to see him.”

The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office identified the man as Randy Lee Tenley, 44, of Kalispell.

Schneider said Tenley’s motivations were ascertained during interviews with friends who were not in the immediate area but were nearby when the man was struck at about 10:30 p.m.

“Alcohol may have been a factor,” Schneider said. “Impairment is up in the air.”

Tenley was on the southbound side of the highway, about a half mile south of the highway’s intersection with Rocky Point Road.

“He was in the right-hand lane of travel and the vehicle was unable to avoid him and struck him,” Schneider said of the first vehicle driven by a 15-year-old girl from Somers.

A second vehicle driven by a 17-year-old Somers girl also struck Tenley as he laid on the highway.

Ghillie suits are commonly used by military snipers and some that are advertised on the Internet have a Bigfoot-like appearance.

“This one was a store-bought version, just a commercial Ghillie suit that was pre-made,” Schneider said.

Tenley was pronounced dead at the scene.

Penn State riot ends aspiring Army officer's dream

WRLTHD Sports News
Associated Press-
Stints in jail. Hefty fines and restitution. Clouded futures. The consequences of their bad behavior have been steep for the Penn State students who took to the streets and rioted in the chaotic aftermath of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno's firing last November.

Perhaps none have learned a harder lesson than Justin Strine, a young man from central Pennsylvania whose planned career as an Army officer is over before it began — the casualty of his own split-second decision to put his hands on a news van, and a judicial system that considered him as guilty as classmates who did far worse that dark night in State College.

As the fall semester gets under way Monday, Strine has returned to campus, along with 15 other students found to have taken part in a nationally televised riot that caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage and embarrassed Penn State.

As he resumes his studies, nothing's the same for the 21-year-old from Hummelstown. He spent part of his summer in jail. Far worse: He's been kicked out of ROTC, his dream of carrying on his family's proud military tradition now out of reach.

"I'm losing everything I worked my entire life for," Strine said.

Strine's father, a career soldier, questions whether that's a just result.

"I had to stand by and watch my son plead guilty to something he didn't do," said Jim Strine.
Penn State sanctioned 32 students for their involvement in the riot, suspending 10 of them from one to three semesters and giving probation to the rest, university spokeswoman Lisa Powers said. Dozens of students were criminally charged, as well, and the guilty pleas have piled up over the last several months.

Joe Paterno photo by Ray Tharaldson

An estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people poured into downtown State College on Nov. 9 after the Penn State board of trustees abruptly and unexpectedly fired Paterno — the beloved football coach who led Penn State for nearly 46 seasons — and removed President Graham Spanier over the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal.

What began as a peaceful protest of Paterno's unceremonious dismissal quickly turned ugly as a "riotous mob," as State College police would later call it, threw bottles and rocks, damaged cars, and tore down light posts and street signs.

Strine was in his off-campus apartment when he learned of Paterno's firing. He and a few friends decided to head downtown.

It was a rare misstep in what had been a slow, steady climb toward the officer ranks.

Strine's father is a helicopter pilot and instructor whose 28-year career has taken him to Iraq and Afghanistan. His grandfather is a retired Air Force flight surgeon. His brother and sister, aunt and uncle, cousins — all serve or have served. So it wasn't a surprise when Strine began plotting his own military career as an adolescent, reading the autobiographies of famed Army officers like Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell.

At Penn State, Strine threw himself into ROTC as well as his studies, making the dean's list and spending the summer at Fort Benning, Ga., learning to jump out of airplanes. His goal: to be a pilot like his father.
"He was a good cadet," Jim Strine said.

A good cadet who made a bad decision the night of Nov. 9.

Strine had driven himself and a couple friends to the State College commercial district, where they joined thousands of other protesters. At one point Strine and his friend, Christina Assainte, found themselves in a large crowd moving toward a WTAJ-TV news van, where vandals were pelting it with rocks.

To the rippling chants of "Flip it! Flip it!" two young men approached the side of the van, motioning others to join them, a video recording shows. That set off a frenzied rush toward the van, and within seconds a large group started to push.

A second wave of spectators then pressed toward the front of the van, perhaps to get a better view. Strine and Assainte were in the front of that group.

With the vehicle already on two wheels and going over, Strine placed his palms on the hood. Four seconds later, the van was on its side. But that's all it took for police and prosecutors to charge him with felony counts of riot and criminal mischief — the same charges filed against students who did the actual pushing.
"I always felt I was on a good path, and all the sudden I'm being made into a criminal. It was shocking to me they wouldn't even hear me out and let me explain that yes, I was there and shouldn't have been, but I wasn't this person they are making me out to be," Strine said. "No one ever looked at me as an individual. They looked at me as 5,000 Penn State rioters."

Terrified of being branded a felon, Strine agreed to plead guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and criminal mischief. He served 30 days in jail — getting out Aug. 4 — and will either be on parole or probation until 2015.

The consequences didn't end there. Penn State suspended Strine for a semester, and he was booted from ROTC and will have to repay every dime of his scholarship money, a total of $34,000. He also owes $8,500 in court costs, fines and restitution.

Strine said he knows he never should have left his apartment that night, never should have been in the vicinity of the van, never should have laid a finger on its hood.

"The van was already going over. It was so crazy, it was mayhem, and in that moment you stop thinking," Strine said. "I know I wasn't completely blameless. I was there, I touched the van and that was wrong. That's why I was happy to do community service for Penn State. But the criminal justice system went overboard."

His father said he's not seeking to minimize or excuse Justin's involvement, but contended the district attorney's office was far too aggressive — and his son's punishment far too severe.
"He owns something in this," Jim Strine said. "He just doesn't own what he's got."

Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller did not return multiple calls and emails seeking information about her office's handling of Strine's case or the other riot cases.

Messages left with State College police Chief Tom King were not returned.

Lt. Col. Ken Weiland, commander of Penn State's Army ROTC program, declined to comment Monday on Strine's removal from the program, but cited military regulations that list a multitude of reasons why a cadet could be kicked out.

Powers, the Penn State spokeswoman, said any student who goes through the university disciplinary process can contest the charges or sanctions.

"Justin accepted responsibility and the sanctions in the disciplinary conference, and did not contest them through either avenue that was afforded to him," she said, adding that Penn State carefully assessed each student's culpability, the impact of the crime on the community, and other factors before imposing punishment.

Strine said he didn't contest the charges because he wouldn't have been permitted an attorney, and his testimony before the school could have been used against him in the criminal courts. He didn't challenge the sanctions because Penn State warned him that if he did, he could wind up being penalized more severely. And he said he was never told that a suspension would cost him his spot in ROTC.

Assainte, who was with Strine during the riot, said he had no criminal intent that night. She said he got a raw deal.

"I remember him saying, 'All I wanted to do was serve my country, and now I can't because of one little mistake that was caught on tape.' One lapse of judgment and he gets all this thrown at him? I felt so awful," she said. "I just think what happened was really, really unfair."

Rupert Murdock: The empire strikes back

JANE MERRICK  , MATTHEW BELL

Rupert Murdoch delivered an anti-establishment punch with The Sun’s naked photos of Prince Harry

As you walk through the glass double doors on the ninth floor of Rupert Murdoch's Wapping tower, a large banner greets you with the words: "Walk tall, you are now entering Sun country." But for the past year, since the closure of their sister paper News of the World and the arrests of dozens of their own colleagues, journalists at the tabloid have felt barely able to hold their heads up.

On Friday, the shaming of a naked Prince Harry on The Sun's front page may have sent morale plummeting inside the royal palaces, but the spirits of reporters lifted for the first time since the before the phone-hacking scandal erupted in July 2011. Despite criticism from some MPs and peers (but support from other parliamentarians), the splash had a "transformative" effect on The Sun newsroom, said insiders. "It is good to feel that we are working for a paper that gets noticed again," said one staffer.

The publication of the pictures, against the wishes of St James's Palace and the Press Complaints Commission, has triggered more than 850 complaints from the public (although none so far from Prince Harry himself). But this number is dwarfed by The Sun's total readership and the millions who have viewed them online, both on the newspaper's website and TMZ.com, the American site that broke the story. And to Mr Murdoch, what matters is not a few hundred readers upset at the invasion of Harry's privacy, but the act of defiance he has carried out against the establishment – including Lord Justice Leveson, the Royal Family and David Cameron.

Mr Murdoch's revenge was played out in an extraordinary transatlantic phone call from the News Corporation chief early on Thursday to News International chief executive Tom Mockridge. The newspaper proprietor had kept himself at arm's length on Wednesday, when editors across Fleet Street held fraught discussions over whether they should publish pictures of the third in line to the throne partying naked in room 2401 of the Encore Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas with young women he had just met. Executives spoke of a "Leveson chill" that had descended across not just The Sun, Daily Mirror and The Star, but also the Daily Mail, whose robust editor, Paul Dacre, was on holiday. Some 18 months ago, newspapers would have published the pictures without debate, but the Leveson inquiry into phone hacking, and Lord Justice Leveson's threat of tighter regulation on newspapers, has left editors and executives terrified.

Insiders said that on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Murdoch was fully aware of the pictures but as unanimity formed across all newspapers that they should abide by the Royal Family and the PCC's wishes, he did not get involved. The Sun's editor, Dominic Mohan, was on holiday; Simon Cousins, a long-standing and experienced Sun staffer, was in charge and, with Mr Mockridge, took the decision not to publish.

Instead, Thursday's edition of The Sun would feature a mock-up of the scene, with a picture desk assistant named Harry Miller and a fashion intern called Sophie Henderson volunteering to be photographed naked for the front of the paper. On Thursday in New York, Mr Murdoch awoke to a growing consensus back in Britain that editors had been cowed by Leveson into not running the pictures. According to those familiar with the fast-moving developments on both sides of the Atlantic, Mr Murdoch was "furious".

The 81-year-old proprietor instructed Mr Mockridge to splash Friday's edition with the real Harry pictures. A source said: "Rupert said, 'There is a principle here. I know this is about Leveson but this is humiliating. We can't carry on like this. We should run them, do it and say to Leveson we are doing it for press freedom.'" The Murdoch empire was striking back.

Mr Murdoch, whose republicanism is well known but often restrained through the pages of The Sun and other News International titles, which are usually sympathetic to the royals, is a "natural iconoclast", said a well-placed source. "He knows when it gets dangerous. This is classic Rupert territory: spoilt rich royals doing what the hell they want and the rest of us not being allowed to know about it. When Rupert is outraged by something, his forehead reddens. This would have got him going."

Sources said it was "liberating" as Sun staff put together the edition they should, they believe, have published 24 hours earlier. They paid Splash News, the agency syndicating the TMZ.com photographs, £10,000. Friday's Sun ran with the headline: "Heir it is! Pic of naked Harry you've already seen on the internet." The explanation was that the pictures were already widely available online and that this was a "crucial test of Britain's free press". Not only was The Sun showing Prince Harry's bottom, but Mr Murdoch was, figuratively speaking, mooning the British establishment, including Lord Justice Leveson. This was also a veiled attack on Mr Cameron, whom Mr Murdoch, it is said, blames for the looming threat of statutory regulation by setting up the Leveson inquiry in the first place.

But, as all dynastic sagas contain twists and turns, Mr Murdoch's muscular anti-establishment assault came as his daughter, Elisabeth, launched her own attack: in the direction of her father and brother, James, the former chairman of News Corporation (Europe & Asia), which controls the Murdoch newspaper empire in Britain. In a sensational speech at the Edinburgh International Television Festival on Thursday, the chief of Shine Television, a subsidiary of her father's company, said News Corp had "significant and difficult questions about how some behaviours fell so far short of its values" during the hacking scandal. Sister and brother have drifted apart since last summer, and Ms Murdoch admitted that she was instrumental in forcing the resignation in July 2011 of her friend Rebekah Brooks as chief executive of News International.

Ms Murdoch's speech was not checked with her father or brother. Murdoch Snr's reaction to his daughter's speech is not known, but her deliberate support for the BBC licence fee – in contradiction to James Murdoch's position – may not have gone down very well, even if it didn't enrage her father enough to cause his forehead to redden.

But will Mr Murdoch's strike against the establishment make any difference? By yesterday, St James's Palace had not registered a complaint of breach of privacy with the PCC. The Prime Minister has declined to comment on whether The Sun was right. Which leaves it to Lord Justice Leveson to respond, in due course, with his report in the autumn. It is possible that Lord Justice Leveson has noticed Mr Murdoch's line drawn in the sand and has softened his position on regulation. But what is more likely, and that many in journalism fear, is that the sight of a naked Prince Harry on the front of The Sun will only send the judge further down the road of statutory regulation.

The Deb and Tam Show with guest Dr. Jill Vecchio

Dear Friends, 

Healthcare is definitely a hot topic right now, but one of the most startling aspects affecting women is being completely ignored.  Join us tomorrow, as we talk with Dr. Jill Vecchio, an expert in Women's Health, who will explain what is really going on and what we can do about it.  This is a show that every women should hear!   Most of all we will inspire one another as we learn how we can make a difference for ourselves, our health, our families, our communities and our country!

We invite you to join the conversation! We want to hear from you so call in at: 877-243-7776.  The show is called "Your Voice" because it is all about you!

You can catch the show every Saturday from 8 am to 10 am MT (that's 7 am to 9 am PT) on KRKS 94.7 FM in Denver or streaming live on:
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Blessings,
Deborah Flora and Tamara Colbert

LANCE ARMSTRONG Stripped of ALL Tour De France Wins

WRLTHD Breaking News
Lance Armstrong is no longer a Tour de France champion ... the cyclist has been STRIPPED of his seven titles in the wake of allegations that he used banned performance-enhancers.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency made the announcement this morning ... Armstrong will not only lose his victories, he has also been banned from the sport of cycling for life.

Armstrong has adamantly denied the allegations ... claiming the testing process is "one-sided and unfair."

Lance released a statement responding to a USADA official yesterday saying, "There is zero physical evidence to support his outlandish and heinous claims."

Box Office Report: Anti-Obama Doc Drawing Big Crowds, Even in New York City

by Pamela McClintock

An anti-Barack Obama documentary based on conservative author Dinesh D’Souza’s book The Roots of Obama’s Rage will expand nationwide this weekend after doing notable business in select markets across the country -- including in liberal-minded New York City.

Overall, 2016: Obama's America grossed an impressive $1.2 million last weekend as it upped its theater count from 61 to 169 for a total gross of $2 million, the second-best showing of the year for a documentary after Bully ($3.2 million). That doesn't include nature documentaries Chimpanzee ($29 million) and To the Arctic ($7.6 million).

It's already the No. 12 political documentary of all time -- a market that Michael Moore has cornered -- as well as the No. 2 conservative documentary after Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed ($7.7 million).

On Friday, Obama's America, co-directed by D'Souza and John Sullivan, will be playing in 1,075 theaters in an aggressive expansion that comes on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., which gets underway Aug. 27.

Obama's America, distributed by Rocky Mountain Pictures, first began rolling out in mid-July and has been adding theaters slowly. On Aug. 10, it opened in a number of markets, including New York and Los Angeles (including the conservative Simi Valley).

Some in Hollywood were stumped by the amount of business the documentary did at the Regal Union Square Stadium 14 in Lower Manhattan, situated in a liberal neighborhood where films from the likes of Moore have done huge business.

Obama's America was the No. 3 film of the weekend behind The Dark Knight Rises and Total Recall at Union Square, prompting at least one film executive to joke that people must have thought it was a pro-Obama documentary (New York is the No. 1 city when it comes to the amount of giving to the Obama campaign).

Moreover, Union Square turned in the second-best gross of any theater in the country after a multiplex in Simi Valley.

Last weekend, Obama's America fell only 40 percent at the Union Square theater.

Obama's America intends to show how the country's future will look if President Obama is elected to a second term in the White House and includes an interview with the president's half brother, George Obama.

"I think the reason why the film is doing so well is threefold: We've expanded into good markets, we've been advertising nationally for two weeks on talk radio and television news channels including Fox News Channel, A&E, History and MSNBC," Sullivan told The Hollywood Reporter.

Obama's America also is doing big business in cities including Sacramento, Dallas, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Greenville, N.C., and Tampa, Fla.

For more information these sites:

https://www.facebook.com/ObamasAmerica

http://2016themovie.com/