Joe Biden clarifies Beau's dying wish on presidential run: It didn't really happen

You know, he really could have clarified this while he was still thought to be in the race for the presidency ... 

Joe Biden told a national television audience his son, Beau, never urged him in a "Hollywood-esque" death-bed moment he ought to run for the presidency – that the whole story had been fueled by rumor and a fictional piece in the New York Times.

Actually, Biden said on "60 Minutes" on CBS News, Beau had been urging him all along to seek the high executive office.

"There was not what was sort of made out as kind of this Hollywood-esque thing that at the last minute Beau grabbed my hand and said, 'Dad, you've got to run, like, win one for the Gipper," he said. "It wasn't anything like that."

Biden also said the main reason he didn't seek the presidency was one of practical assessment.

"I couldn't win. I'll be very blunt. If I thought we could have put togehter the campaign," he said, " I would have gone out and done it."

He explained:  "I said from the beginning I don't know if our ability to deal with the loss of Beau ... everybody grieves at a different pace."

The mantra about Beau's dying wish came from New York Times columnist Maureen Down who wrote in an August 1 column entitled "Joe Biden in 2016: What Would Beau Do?" a fictional scenario.

As Raw Story recounted, she penned:

"When Beau realized he was not going to make it, he asked his father if he had a minute to sit down and talk.

"'Of course, honey," the vice president replied.

"At the table, Beau told his dad he was worried about him.

"My kid's dying, an anguished Joe Biden thought to himself, and he's making sure I'm O.K.

"'Dad, I know you don't give a damn about money,' Biden told him, dismissing the idea that his father would take some sort of cushy job after the vice presidency to cash in.

"Beau was losing his nouns and the right side of his face was partially paralyzed. But he had a mission: He tried to make his father promise to run, arguing that the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.

"Hunter also pushed his father, telling him, 'Dad, it's who you are.'"

Biden told CBS host Noraa O'Donnell that scene was all fabricated.

But his wife, Jill, did push him to run for the White House, even in the weeks after Beau's death when he wanted to come out and annouce he wouldn't campaign, Biden said.

Jill agreed, saying on CBS: 'What about education? What about community college? I felt like we were – everything we had worked so hard for in this administration ... could just all change."

Biden also took time to criticize leading GOP candidate Donald Trump, calling him out for his views on immigration and characterizing them as "beneath the country," he said.

"I don't think it's where the American people are," Biden said. "And I hope he really doesn't believe it."

http://www.wnd.com/2015/10/joe-biden-beau-didnt-have-dying-wish-i-run/?cat_orig=politics

Indiana Sheriff Brad Rogers refuses gun registrations: 'Government shouldn't know who's got weapons'

This is refreshing ...

Sheriff Brad Rogers, the top-ranking law enforcement official for Elkhart County, Indiana, said during a panel appearance on WNIT's "Politically Speaking" segment, that he wouldn't abide government orders to register weapons from private citizens within his jurisdiction, no matter what President Obama presses.

"We've always had this conversation that we need more reasonable gun control put in place," Rogers said, Infowars reported. "Well, we have what is reasonable, in my opinon, and in fact it's probably overdone."

He then said he actually tells residents under his jurisdiction they shouldn't register their firearms.

"I'm from the government, and I don't think the government has any place in gun registration," Rogers said. "The government shouldn't know who's got weapons ... we've seen in other countries what could happen when the government knows who has what guns."

And he went on, saying citizens should always resist the idea of registrations for firearms.

"I always discourage people from ever registering any guns. It's not a law in Indiana, so it's not like I'm asking anyone to break the law," Rogers said. "I'm just saying if someone wants to come into the sheriff's office and register their gun, I will let them do it. But quite frankly, it's not something we push or promote."

Rogers also addressed a scenario in which his law enforcement agency was ordered by the White House – say, via an Obama executive order – to register firearms owned by citizens.

"In fact, if President Obama today said, 'I'm creating an executive order that all sheriffs and police chiefs around this nation need to start registering firearms,' I will disregard it," Rogers said.

His comments come as Obama has vowed, once again, to crack down on Second Amendment rights as a means of preventing further mass shootings, like the recent killings at an Oregon community college.

Second Amendment shockwave: Wisconsin gun shop ordered to pay $6 million to shot cops

Gun control through the back door ...

Jurors in Wisconsin ruled a gun shop must pay $6 million to two Milwaukee police officers who were shot by firearms sold at the store – a historic decision that legal analysts say will have a ripple effect on Second Amendment rights around the nation.

As one legal mind said on Fox & Friends on Wednesday: "For the first time, a retailer is being held responsible for a gun-related crime."

The ruling was against Badger Guns, and came after two officers, Bryan Norberg and Graham Kunisch, the latter of whom is nonw retired, were shot in the face after stopping a suspect from riding a bike on the sidewalk in 2009. The suspect, Julius Burton, has since been sentenced to serve 80 years in prison.

But further investigation revealed he bought the gun about a month before the shooting for $40 from another man names Jacob Collins. Collins, who's since served two years in prison, had purchased the firearm at Badger Guns, Fox News reported.

Norberg was wounded in his cheek and shoulder, and struggles to perform his police officer duties, Fox said. Kunisch, who was shot several times, actually lost one eye and part of his brain and was forced into early retirement.

The officers sued, alleging Badger Guns failed to take necessary precautions in preventing straw purchases – or, those made by legal buyers on behalf of those who aren't legally allowed to own or possess firearms.

Their suit in part relied on statistics that showed Badger Guns' firearms have been traced to more than 500 crime scenes, making it "the No. 1 crime gun dealer in America," according to court documents, Fox News reported.

Attorneys for the gun shop owner, Adam Allan, said their client couldn't legally be held responsible for crimes committed by those who properly purchased firearms. But jurors found otherwise.

In their ruling, they ordered the shop to pay Norberg $1.5 million and Kunisch $3.6 million, as well as $730,000 in punitive fees for both.

Ben Carson says end times are likely upon us: 'You could guess that we are getting closer to that'

Ben Carson, who's coming in second in polls for the Republican candidate for president, told investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson during an SBG "Frontline" interview he thought the apocalypse could be right around the corner.

"You could guess that we are getting closer to that," Carson said, the Hill reported. "You do have people that have a belief system that sees this apocalyptic phenomenon occurring and that they're a part of it. [They] would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons if they could gain possession of them."

His words seemed more aimed at the type of scenario envisioned by radical Islamists and ISIS terrorists who want to hasten the end of times by ushering in world-wide jihad, than at the more Christian-based descriptions found in the biblical books of Revelation and Daniel.

Carson went on: "I think we have a chance to certainly ameliorate the situation. I would always be shooting for peace. I wouldn't just take a fatalistic view of things."

Carson, who's a Seventh Day Adventist, said he was a Christian and "believe[s] on godly principles."

Among them: "Loving your fellow man, caring about your neighbor, developing your God-given talents to the utmost so that you become valuable to the people around you."

He also said he believed in boundaries between the church and state, and accused President Obama of putting Americans at risk with his failures to properly address the Syrian refugees crisis.

"I don't think that our policies make a whole lot of sense," Carson said, the Hill reported. "If you have people coming out of a region of the world where you're likely to have infiltration by jihadists, why would you bring them to a country they are dedicated to destroying?"

Obama on Putin's aggression into Syria: Climate change more important

This is unbelievable ...

President Obama said during a nationally televised interview on "60 Minutes" on CBS News he didn't think Hillary Clinton's private email server was a threat to America's security – that she simply made a mistake.

He also made somewhat shocking statements about his perception of climate change and its importance on the international stage when compared to Russia's aggression into Syria.

But first, the Clinton email scandal.
Obama said: "We don't get an impression that here there was purposely efforts ... to hide something or to squirrel away information," he said, explaining Clinton's set-up of a private server in her New York home to send secretary of State-related messages was different from those who've been caught in the past storing classified information on their personal computers.

Senate investigators, meanwhile, have found Clinton's private server had been under cyberattack several times by sources in China, South Korea and Germany, the Associated Press reported. The FBI is still looking into her server, trying to determine what information, if any, was compromised.

Obama then said the controversies surrounding her use of the server have been "ginned up" by political opponents for campaign season.

Obama also spoke briefly of Russia and Syria. When CBS host Steve Kroft questioned Obama about Russia president Vladimir Putin, the topic quickly turned to climate change.

"He's challenging your leadership, Mr. President," Kroft said, of Putin.

And Obama's reply: "I got to tell you, if you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in, in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we've got a different definition of leadership. My definition of leadership would be leading on climate change and [an] international accord that potentially would get in Paris."

Obama also said: "America is a safer place ... than when I came in office. In terms of protecting ourselves against terrorism, in terms of us making sure that we are strengthening our alliances, in terms of our reputation around the world, absolutely we are stronger."

Obama prepping more executive gun controls, as Josh Earnest vows: 'It's a high priority and will continue'

Go to a gun show, and what's the first thing you have to do to buy? Fill out background check paperwork ... Obama is Clueless.

From podium to pen, President Obama has taken his nationally broadcast rant against gun right after the Oregon community college shooting to his White House desk, and is now preparing a series of Second Amendment crackdowns via executive order.

"It's a high priority," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest at a press conference, Breitbart reported, "and will continue to be until we start to see more progress on this issue in this town."

Earnest vowed to "quibble" with those who accused Obama of going behind closed doors to create more controls, rather than announcing his specific policy recommendations in public.

"I can tell you that they're not stumped, they're continuing to review the law that's on the books and continuing to consult with legal authorities but also others who may have ideas about what steps that can be taken to keep guns out of the hands of criminals," Earnest said, Breitbart reported.

At the same time, Earnest couldn't provide the sought-after details to members of the media.

He did, however, criticize what he called was a "gun show loophole" that allowed criminals buy guns. The so-called "loophole" doesn't exist at actual gun shows, however. The reference is to private sales, conducted outside the purview of official gun shows where buyers are actually required to fill out background check paperwork on scene.

Earnest also faulted the National Rifle Association for blocking Congress from watering the Second Amendment.

Experian hack lifts 15 million T-Mobile files: CEO John Legere 'incredibly angry'

A two-year data hack of Experian credit agency has left an estimated 15 million T-Mobile customers in the lurch, their personal and private information compromised and stolen.

"Obviously, I am incredibly angry about this data breach and we will institute a thorough review of our relationship with Experian," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a letter to consumers. "I take our customer and prospective customer privacy VERY seriously."

Legere said the data breach hit at both existing and newly enrolled T-Mobile customers who filled out applications for service – and who then received credit checks through Experian – between September 1, 2013, and September 16, 2015.

The stolen information includes names, addresses and birth dates, as well as encrypted data collected for identification purposes, like Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and passport numbers.

"Experian has determined that this encryption may have been compromised," Legere wrote.

He also said his "top concern and first focus is assisting any and all consumers affected" and to "assure our customers that neither T-Mobile's systems nor network were part of this intrusion."

Legere also said the hack didn't steal payment card numbers of bank account information.

"Experian has assured us that they have taken aggressive steps to improve the protection of their system and of our data," Legere said.

He also offered those with concerns the option to receive two years worth of free credit monitoring at www.protectmyID.com/securityincident.

Experian, meanwhile, said in its own company press release its agents were "in the process of notifying consumers that may be affected" and so far, "there is not evidence to date that the data has been used inappropriately."

Chief executive Craig Boundy said: "We take privacy very seriously and we understand that this news is both stressful and frustrating. We sincerely apologize for the concern and stress that this event may cause."