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‘God, Please Take Care of My Kids’: Unbelievable Stories of Heroism Emerge Out of Okla. Tragedy

The Blaze - 2 hours 50 min ago
Heroism in Moore, Oklahoma Schools After Devastating Tornado

Workers continue to dig through the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School after a tornado moved through Moore, Okla. , Monday, May 20, 2013. (Photo: AP)

No matter how terrible things may be, there are always those who act with extraordinary heroism in the face of unthinkable tragedy.

Amid the devastating tornado yesterday in Oklahoma, countless men and women stood strong against absolute hell, many risking their own lives to protect their families, friends, and neighbors.

One of the most tragic aspects was that two schools were in the path of the tornado that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma.  Of the 24 killed, seven were children according to current estimates.

But that number could have been much higher if not for the children’s teachers, and those who rushed to the school at the first sign of danger.

ABC News interviewed two of the teachers from Briarwood Elementary, Sherri Bittle and Cindy Lowe, who may have saved dozens of lives with their quick thinking.  They rushed the children to the most secure areas of the school and asked them to hold their backpacks on top of their heads for any extra protection from the falling debris.  As the walls started caving in, Lowe said she used her body to try to protect as many children as she could.

The TODAY Show spoke with another teacher from Plaza Tower Elementary who tried to comfort the children while using her body as a human shield:

Sixth-grade teacher Rhonda Crosswhite never feared for her own life as she draped her body across six students inside a Plaza Towers Elementary School bathroom stall. Instead, she focused on providing what little comfort she could to the screaming and sobbing children beneath her.

“I never thought I was going to die. The whole time I just kept screaming to them, ‘Quit worrying, we’re fine, we’re fine, we’re fine,’” Crosswhite told TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie Tuesday.

“One of my little boys just said, he just kept saying, ‘I love you, I love you, please don’t die with me, please don’t die with me,’” she said.

The teacher said she has a loud voice, but she feared she wouldn’t be heard over the storm and the screams of the students beneath her.

“’We’re going to be fine. I am protecting you,’” Crosswhite said she told one girl. “And then I said a few prayers. ‘God, please take care of my kids.’ And we’re fine.”  [Emphasis added]

One survivor told KOFR-TV that when he entered one of the schools, he found a mangled car in the middle of a hallway.  Underneath it was a teacher, with three little children beneath her.

“Good job, teach,” he said, unable to hold back the tears.

Second-grade Briarwood Elementary teacher Tammy Glasgow is another teacher who exhibited incredible bravery.  She said the whole morning the weather seemed “ominous,” and that she just had a “bad feeling.”

During the National Anthem, she said “you could just see” the tornado out the window.  At that moment, the alarm went off to seek shelter.

Heroism in Moore, Oklahoma Schools After Devastating Tornado

Teachers carry children away from Briarwood Elementary school after a tornado destroyed the school in south Oklahoma City, Monday, May 20, 2013. (Photo: AP)

Heroism in Moore, Oklahoma Schools After Devastating Tornado

A teacher hugs a child at Briarwood Elementary school after a tornado destroyed the school in south Oklahoma City, Monday, May 20, 2013. (Photo: AP)

CNN has the rest of the story:

She quickly hustled 12 girls into a girls’ bathroom. A worried father who’d already shown up to the school helped get boys into the boys’ bathroom. Another teacher, a counselor and three other kids got in a closet, Glasgow said.

“Before I shut the doors [to the boys' bathroom], I said, ‘I’m gonna shut these doors. I love you.’” The boys looked at me a little strange.”

Glasgow’s own son was in the bathroom. She looked at him for a moment.

“I just said, ‘Watch over them. Take care of them.’”

Then she told the girls she loved them.

“We love you back!” they chimed.

The twister was on top of them.

“It was so loud you couldn’t hear anything and it was forever and ever,” Glasgow said. “I just assumed that it would be quick but it stayed and stayed. Stuff was falling on us. We had books on our heads.”

She looked up and apparently through the roof and saw the tornado. “It was just brown, huge, never ending … all the way up to the heavens.”  [Emphasis added]

Those on the ground say the second it was possible to walk outside, crowds of people began the dangerous trek to the schools, mostly running on foot.  Many were parents, frantic about the safety of their children, but some who lived in the neighborhood explained that the second the air cleared, they thought of all the children trapped inside the school, and wanted to do whatever they could to help.

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Report: More Benghazi Whistleblowers to Reveal ‘Devastating’ Details About Attack, Including WHY Chris Stevens Was in Libya

The Blaze - 3 hours 20 min ago
 More Benghazi Whistleblowers to Reveal Devastating Details on Terror Attack

Amb. Chris Stevens (Photo Credit: AP)

New Benghazi whistleblowers are prepared to reveal shocking details about the Sept. 11 terror attack, including why U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was in Libya to begin with, two former U.S. diplomats reportedly told PJ Media on Monday.

The unidentified whistleblowers are reportedly colleagues of former diplomats and are seeking legal counsel because they “work in areas not fully protected by whistleblower law,” the report adds.

More from PJ Media’s exclusive:

According to the diplomats, what these whistleblowers will say will be at least as explosive as what we have already learned about the scandal, including details about what really transpired in Benghazi that are potentially devastating to both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The former diplomats inform PJM the new revelations concentrate in two areas — what Ambassador Chris Stevens was actually doing in Benghazi and the pressure put on General Carter Ham, then in command of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and therefore responsible for Libya, not to act to protect jeopardized U.S. personnel.

Stevens’ mission in Benghazi, they will say, was to buy back Stinger missiles from al-Qaeda groups issued to them by the State Department, not by the CIA. Such a mission would usually be a CIA effort, but the intelligence agency had opposed the idea because of the high risk involved in arming “insurgents” with powerful weapons that endanger civilian aircraft.

Hillary Clinton still wanted to proceed because, in part, as one of the diplomats said, she wanted “to overthrow Gaddafi on the cheap.”

One of the most important unanswered questions about the Benghazi attack has been why Stevens was in Benghazi on the anniversary of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. If the whistleblowers’ information turns out to be credible, it could be a huge break in the investigation into what really happened.

According to PJ Media’s report, Clinton’s plan to reaquire the stinger missiles left Stevens with the responsibility to handle the aftermath of the alleged gun-running operation after it was clear that the “insurgents” in Libya were really radical Islamists aligned with al-Qaeda.

The former diplomat who reportedly talked exclusively with PJ Media, likened the Obama administration’s plan in Libya to the amateurish covert war depicted in the Mike Nochols film, “Charlie Wilson’s War.” The movie tells the story of an arrogant Texas congressman, Charlie Wilson, who supplies Stinger missiles to the Afghan guerillas to help them fight the Soviets.

“It’s as if Hillary and the others just watched that movie and said ‘Hey, let’s do that!’” the diplomat reportedly said.

Here’s the trailer for Charlie Wilson’s War” for context:

“He added that he and his colleagues think the leaking of General David Petraeus’ affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell was timed to silence the former CIA chief on these matters,” PJ Media reports.

It is unclear at this point if the unidentified “whisteblowers” are credible, however, TheBlaze will continue monitoring this developing story.

“PJ Media recognizes this is largely hearsay, but the two diplomats sounded quite credible. One of them was in a position of responsibility in a dangerous area of Iraq in 2004,” PJM’s report concludes.

 

Read on TheBlaze blog: Report: More Benghazi whistleblowers to come forward?

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Tech Company Demonstrates Remote Disabling of a ‘Smart Gun’

The Blaze - 3 hours 35 min ago
Yardarm Technologies Demonstrates Remote Disabling Technology for Firarms

(Photo: Shutterstock.com)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (TheBlaze/AP) — A high-tech startup is wading into the gun control debate with a wireless controller that would allow gun owners to know when their weapon is being moved – and disable it remotely. TheBlaze has covered the topic of such “smart guns” before and the concern by some in the industry that the technology is not quite there yet to function as it claims.

But this idea is something that Yardarm Technologies LLC would like to change.

The technology, but not an actual gun, was demonstrated Tuesday at a wireless technology conference in Las Vegas and was shown to The Associated Press in advance. It comes at a time when lawmakers around the U.S. are considering contentious smart gun laws that would require new guns to include high-tech devices that limit who can fire them.

The new Yardarm Technologies system would trigger an alarm on an owner’s cellphone if a gun is moved, and the owner could then hit a button to activate the safety and disable the weapon. New guns would come with a microchip on the body and antennas winding around the grip. It would add about $50 to the cost of a gun, and about $12 a year for the service.

“The idea is to connect gun owners more directly with their guns, no matter what the circumstance,” said Yardarm CEO Robert Stewart.

Yardarm Technologies Demonstrates Remote Disabling Technology for Firarms

(Image: Yardarm Technologies)

“Suppose you and your family are on vacation, and your firearm is back at home. Wouldn’t you want to know in real time if an intruder or worse, a child is handling your gun?”  Stewart explained further of the idea in a statement. “With Yardarm, you could immediately disable the firearm, notify local law enforcement and maintain location awareness. We want the gun owner to stay connected to their firearm, no matter what the circumstance.”

The Yardarm system is one of several recently introduced high-tech offerings: the iGun only fires if it recognizes a ring on a finger, the Intelligun uses a fingerprint locking system and TriggerSmart uses radio frequency identification.

The first smart guns were proposed more than 20 years ago, but they failed to take off for several reasons: questionable technology, added costs and concerns from some gun rights about limitations on Second Amendment rights.

Recent high-profile shootings, combined with new technologies, have revived interest. Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit created by Newtown, Conn., community members, is offering venture capital for new gun safety technologies, and President Barack Obama included smart guns as part of his plan to reduce gun violence.

Stewart said his company has addressed privacy concerns about its system, which would not only include live tracking but also a history of where a gun has been. Yardarm has an exclusive telephony network to avoid hackers and spotty wireless systems, and gun owners could “self-destruct” the technology on the guns themselves if they wish, he said.

National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said his organization is concerned about added costs and the reliability of smart guns in general.

“We believe that the technology does not exist today where a so-called smart gun can operate with 100 percent or close to it reliability,” he said, “and a firearm that does not function when it is required to is not a smart gun.”

The added costs are “a luxury tax on self-defense,” Arulanandam said.

At this point, there are no guns that can be wirelessly tracked or disabled, but there are systems that can locate and disable stolen cars. In 2011, one such company, OnStar LLC, came under fire for continuing to track customers’ locations even after they discontinued their service. The company reversed the policy after a barrage of privacy complaints.

Last week, lawmakers in California and Massachusetts considered proposals to require gun makers to add high tech safety devices that allow only their owners to fire them. New Jersey has adopted a similar law.

Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the nonprofit Violence Policy Center, said his organization has no position on smart guns. However, he said he does oppose federal tax dollars for their research because they wouldn’t impact the 310 million firearms already circulating in the U.S. today.

Donald Sebastian, a senior vice president at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, is developing a smart gun aftermarket conversion that would work on semi-automatic weapons, and he said the public may be ready for widespread adoption of smart guns.

“It’s been a long, tough battle to get any acceptance of technologies in weapons, but today there’s just more general acceptance of electronics in our lives, more than even five years ago,” he said. “Also, frankly, this whole stream of mass killings is really making people recognize the need for something to change.”

Featured image via Shutterstock.com.

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Jay Carney Shifts IRS Timeline (Again!)

The Blaze - 4 hours 7 min ago
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Makes Startling Revelations During Press Briefing

White House press secretary Jay Carney speaks during his daily news briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, May, 21, 2013. Carney announced that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will travel to Oklahoma Wednesday to inspect damage from the deadly tornado that struck there. Credit: AP

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday revealed some rather startling details about how the Obama White House operates.

First, Carney defended Kathryn Ruemmler’s alleged decision to not inform the Commander-in-Chief about the impending Internal Revenue Service scandal because – well, she simply decided that the president shouldn’t be informed about it.

“People in the know and people who understand why it’s important to maintain distance from these kinds of things for the White House understand that that was the right call,” Carney said.

Second, according to Carney, the president is aware pretty much everyone in his administration knew about the IG’s report before him – and he’s okay with that.

Third, the White House knew well in advance of the release of the IG report that things weren’t going to go over so well and they actually coordinated with the IRS on how to present the public with the IG’s findings.

“There was ‘discussion about the possibility of a speech’ by Lois Lerner, who oversaw the IRS’s work on tax-exempt groups,” Politico explains, citing Carney, “and conversation about testimony by the acting commissioner of the agency and ‘what he would say’ if asked about the issue.”

Now the first two points raise serious questions about the president’s leadership style (just who’s running this country anyway?). But the third point is equally troubling because it calls into question the White House’s account of events.

The Treasury Department, according to the press secretary, worked with deputy White House chief of staff Mark Childress to coordinate the release of the IRS news.

Carney, however, was careful to note that he was among those who were not informed of White House’s attempts to contain the story.

But whether he knew the exact details or not, Carney knew of the report and of the upcoming scandal. Why didn’t he say anything?

“He also said he didn’t inform reporters about the discussions earlier because he hadn’t been asked ‘precise’ enough questions,” Politico notes.

“I gave you the information in response to the questions and we have provided an enormous amount of information about the communication we’ve had, who learned what about this and when, the fact that the president was not informed,” he said.

But, again, the words coming out of Carney’s mouth raise serious questions about the White House’s supposedly honesty account of events.

From Politico:

On Monday, a senior White House official confirmed to POLITICO that Treasury Department staffers told White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler the inspector general report was nearing completion during the week of April 22.

Carney had originally acknowledged that the counsel’s office had been told of the investigation during a press briefing the previous week. But he hadn’t explicitly said Ruemmler had learned that conservative groups were targeted and how they were singled out.

Later, during Monday’s White House briefing, Carney told reporters that some staff in the counsel’s office were told of the report — and others nearing completion — a week earlier, on April 16.

Ruemmler did inform chief of staff Denis McDonough’s office of the investigation, Carney said then, and other senior staff were also told of the report. Carney wouldn’t say Monday who those other staffers were, but did say there were communications between White House and Treasury Department staff ahead of the first news reports of the IRS investigation 10 days ago.

Though senior staff knew of the probe, Carney said Ruemmler had concluded that the investigation was “not a matter she should convey to the president” until the report was finalized.

Carney’s defense?

“I said that I didn’t know (these details) until Friday, but I’m getting this information to you now,” he said.

BONUS: CBS New’s Major Garrett during Tuesday’s press briefing asked Carney if the White House believes Republican inquiries about recent scandals (i.e. the IRS, the DOJ snooping on the AP and Fox News, Sebelius’ fundraising efforts, and the administration’s handling of the Benghazi debacle) are “legitimate.”

“We could go down the list of questions — we could say, ‘What about the president’s birth certificate? Was that legitimate?’” Carney said.

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Featured image Getty Images. This post has been updated.

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Top IRS Official at Center of Political Targeting Scandal Will Plead the Fifth

The Blaze - 4 hours 23 min ago

Lois Lerner, the top IRS official who acknowledged two weeks while “apologizing” to a planted question that the Internal Revenue Service had been targeting conservative groups, has invoked her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, according to a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

From the report:

A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups.

Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won’t answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening – or why she didn’t reveal it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor 3rd.

Lerner was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight committee Wednesday.

“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” Taylor said in a letter addressed to committee Chairman Darrell E. Issa, R-Calif.

Her lawyer said that the DOJ has “launched a criminal investigation,” and that the House committee has asked Lerner to explain why she provided “false or misleading information” to the committee four times last year, the L.A. Times notes.

But because Lerner has decided to remain silent on the subject, her lawyer has asked that she be excused from Wednesday’s hearing because it would “have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.”

As of this writing, it’s not clear whether the committee will agree to Lerner’s request.

Lerner discovered in June 2011 that the IRS was targeting groups that used terms like “Tea Party” and “Patriots,” according to the IG’s report.

However, Lerner failed to mention the political intimidation in 2012 when she participated in several Congressional hearings.

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Featured image Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP/IRS.gov

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AP: 5 Benghazi Suspects Not Being Seized Militarily as Terror Suspects Because Obama Admin. Wants More Evidence

The Blaze - 4 hours 55 min ago
 5 Benghazi Suspects Not Being Seized Militarily as Terror Suspects Because Obama Admin. Wants More Evidence

This file photo taken on September 12, 2012 shows a burnt house and a car inside the US embassy compound in Benghazi following an overnight attack on the building. A long-awaited inquiry into a deadly militant attack on the US mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi late on December 18, 2012 slammed State Department security arrangements there as ‘grossly inadequate.’ But the months-long probe also found there had been ‘no immediate, specific’ intelligence of a threat against the mission, which was overrun on September 11 by dozens of heavily armed militants who killed four Americans. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — U.S. officials say they have identified five men they believe might be behind the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year. The officials say they have enough evidence to justify seizing them by military force as suspected terrorists — but not enough proof to try them in a U.S. civilian court as the Obama administration prefers.

So the officials say the men remain at large while the FBI gathers more evidence.

“The decision not to seize the men militarily underscores the White House’s aim to move away from hunting terrorists as enemy combatants and toward trying them as criminals in a civilian justice system,” the Associated Press reports.

The officials spoke to the AP only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive briefings publicly.

Featured image via AFP/Getty

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Have You Seen the Surprise This Army Wife Had for Husband Returning From Afghanistan That Left Him ‘Speechless’?

The Blaze - 5 hours 20 min ago

For the months that Misty Shaffer’s husband was deployed in Iraq with the U.S. Army, she was plotting a big surprise with him.

When she would communicate with her husband overseas for more than a year, she would tell him about her effort to lose a few pounds and sent him a few pictures of her progress showing herself only from the shoulders up.

But when Specialist Larry Shaffer stepped off the plane in his hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina, last week and was greeted by a large crowd, he told Yahoo! Shine he was “speechless” when he spotted his wife.

Misty had lost 100 pounds.

Army Wife Misty Shaffer Loses 100 Pounds and Surprises Husband Returning Home From Afghanistan

(Image: WECT screenshot)

Larry, 27, described his 24-year-old wife as “half the person she used to be.”

Misty, who had weighed around 250 pounds before, said her high school sweetheart had never asked her to lose weight but it had been a goal of hers. Yahoo! Shine has more on how Misty accomplished the weight loss:

Although she barely exercised, Misty lost the weight by eating smaller portions, drinking lots of water, not eating three to four hours before bedtime and avoiding her biggest craving—potato chips. It also helped that her husband, who usually did the cooking, wasn’t there to tempt her. “Misty has always struggled with her weight and my ice cream and large home-cooked meals probably contributed to that,” said Larry. “With me gone, she was able to make smaller, lighter portions. Now we compromise: A few times a week I’ll make what I want if I agree to try her healthier food.”

In addition to the changes in his wife, Larry also came home to a different house and to his 3-year-old daughter who had grown a lot in the time since he had been gone.

Army Wife Misty Shaffer Loses 100 Pounds and Surprises Husband Returning Home From Afghanistan

Larry Shaffer saying hello to his daughter after being gone for more than a year. (Image: WECT screenshot)

“Everything’s new,” Shaffer told WECT. “I pretty much have a new wife. My daughter’s three times the size she was and we have our own home now.”

Watch WECT’s report of the soldier’s homecoming and his surprises:

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Howard Dean: Benghazi Controversy ‘Silly’ and a ‘Laughable Joke’

The Blaze - 5 hours 40 min ago
Howard Dean Calls Benghazi Controversy Silly and a Laughable Joke on CNBCs Kudlow Report

Bloodstains at the main gate believed to be from one of the American staff members of the U.S. Consulate, after an attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens on the night of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya. (AP)

On CNBC’s “Kudlow Report” with Larry Kudlow, former Democratic presidential candidate and DNC chairman Howard Dean called controversy over Benghazi “silly” and a “laughable joke.”

Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, were murdered in the September 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi.  Since then, there has been an exhaustive effort underway to determine what exactly happened, though many questions — including where President Obama was throughout the hours-long attack — remain unanswered.

“This is about issues that are important to the American people,” Sean Spicer, the communications director of the Republican National Committee, said.  “Benghazi isn’t about scoring political points, it’s about making sure we do right by our foreign policy.  The IRS is about making sure that we don’t target American citizens…”

But Spicer had to stop talking because of Dean’s interruptions.

“Benghazi is a laughable joke,” Dean declared, repeating the statement once more for emphasis.

“With all due respect, governor, when four Americans die serving this country, that’s not a joke, sir.  That’s not a joke,” Spicer calmly replied.

“Oh stop it,” Dean retorted.  “The blaming the president for that is a ridiculous joke, the American people — you’ve been beating on this for a year.  I don’t understand why you don’t give up on it…!”

After the two argued a bit, Dean added: “There are no serious questions being asked about Benghazi, none…It’s totally made up nonsense.  It’s totally clear what happened in Benghazi.  It’s ridiculous.”

Watch the entire interview via CNBC, below:

(H/T: National Review)

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Here’s What You Can Do to Prepare Yourself Before a Tornado Hits

The Blaze - 6 hours 4 min ago

You hear the roar of sirens, see hail pelting the ground — and you take cover. This is exactly what thousands in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area did Monday afternoon when a EF4 tornado ripped through their area, hitting the town of Moore the hardest.

But what can those in tornado-prone areas do before and after such a disaster hits? Can they even do anything to prepare for such a tragic event where homes and businesses were leveled in a matter of seconds?

How to Prepare for Before and After a Tornado Disaster

A tornado moves past homes in Moore, Okla. on Monday, May 20, 2013. (Photo: AP/Alonzo Adams)

The president of the American Preppers Network Phil Burns told TheBlaze natural disasters like this are difficult to prepare for, outside of the general prepardness staples. Still there are steps you can take.

“It’s hard to prepare to survive a hit but in a community it’s pretty much the same general preparedness that you would do for any disaster” whether it be a tornado, hurricane, earthquake or massive snow storm, Burns said.

Burns, who lives in an area of the country not likely to see a tornado any time soon, was no stranger to twisters growing up in Missouri. From age 8 to 16, Burns said he remembers what it was like to see tornadoes not far from the house.

He recalled once seeing three smaller tornadoes touch down near his home in the 1980s.

“Your first thought is ‘wow’ and then ‘oh crap, I need to go somewhere,’” he said.

Having a plan in place and knowing where to go and what to do, as per any disaster, is the first step in being prepared for it.

“Know your surroundings. Know where you can go that is going to be the safest,” Burns said.

How to Prepare for Before and After a Tornado Disaster

Aftermath of the May 20, 2013 tornado in Oklahoma. (Photo: TheBlaze)

Where to go varies based on where you are at the time when a tornado strikes:

  • At home: Burns said of course an underground structure is the safest bet, but as TheBlaze pointed out earlier, cost and soil conditions in Oklahoma means many people don’t have basements or cellars. The next safest place is the bathroom or the bathtub. Burns said the logic here is that the walls of the bathroom are taller than the room is wide, so if they’re going to collapse, they are less likely to flatten out around you and bury you.
  • In school: Much of the same logic for at home applies, although bathtubs might not be possible. School children are often told to get under desks or will line up in a window-less hallway against the wall with heads down and hands covering their necks.
  • On the road: Burns said the best thing to do if a tornado is headed toward you on the road is to get out of the car — just look at any of the pictures of vehicles after Oklahoma’s tornado and you’ll see why — and lay flat in a roadside ditch where flying debris is less likely to hit you.
How to Prepare for Before and After a Tornado Disaster

A vehicle lies upside down in the road after a powerful tornado ripped through the area on May 20, 2013 in Moore, Oklahoma. (Photo: Brett Deering/Getty Images)

Having an underground structure with general preparedness supplies — food, water, medical kits, a battery-powered or crank-operated radio, etc. — would be ideal, but Burns noted that for it to be used as protection, one would have to be near it at the time when the tornado hits.

As with any natural disaster, there is no way to control a tornado’s path, but you can prepare for what to do in the aftermath, whether you’re directly affected or if it hit your neighbor’s house 100 yards away.

One thing that could be useful prior to the natural disaster is getting some sort of mass casualty training where you would learn triage and how to get people out of rubble. Urban rescue, such as what we’re seeing in Moore, is a “technical undertaking,” according to Burns, and training is important because trying to remove someone from rubble could potentially put the untrained or the person being rescued in more danger.

How to Prepare for Before and After a Tornado Disaster

A child is pulled from the rubble of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., and passed along to rescuers Monday, May 20, 2013. A tornado as much as a mile (1.6 kilometers) wide with winds up to 200 mph (320 kph) roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods, setting buildings on fire and landing a direct blow on an elementary school.(Photo: AP/ Sue Ogrocki)

Here are some other suggestions from Burns that require less training but could still be useful directly after such a disaster:

  • At a triage unit, even if you don’t have medical training, Burns said there might be use for you to help bandage less severe wounds or hand out rations and water. He also noted being on the lookout for the “walking wounded,” those who aren’t in need of as much urgent medical care compared to those accepted into triage. He said you could have simple medical supplies ready to help those with cuts and other wounds and also offer comfort to them.
  • If you’re not training in the technical nature of rescuing people from trapped buildings, Burns said these rescuers might need your help walking those they’ve brought out of the rubble away from the scene. “Technical rescuers get people out and have to get onto the next one,” Burns said, noting you could be on hand to help those in shock get to medical care or away from the site.
How to Prepare for Before and After a Tornado Disaster

Ambulances are parked at Plaza Towers Elementary School as workers continue to dig through the rubble after a tornado moved through Moore, Okla., Monday, May 20, 2013. (Photo: AP/Sue Ogrocki)

After tornadoes roared through Dallas- Fort Worth, Texas, last year, the blog Imminent Threat Solutions also pulled together a good list of lessons learned regarding preparedness. Reminders included:

  • Keeping important documents and records in a waterproof bag, or even better a waterproof and fireproof safe.
  • Having records of what you own in general for insurance purposes as proof after everything is lost in a disaster and you’ve had to “leave it all behind.”
  • Being prepared for utility outages — water, gas and electric.
  • Having a backup form of communication. Text messaging often still works on cellular phones even if voice service is down. Alternatively, CB or HAM radios could be useful.

While rescue continues into Tuesday in Oklahoma, recovery is sure to begin in the coming days as well. This is where a massive amount of debris will first need to be cleared from the area before any sort of rebuilding can begin. This stage is critical for a community, Burns said.

“You see some places where they wait for the government and then some places where they come together and work as a community,” Burns said, noting the latter is what he would prefer.

How to Prepare for Before and After a Tornado Disaster

Workers continue to dig through the rubble of Plaza Towers Elementary School after a tornado moved through Moore, Okla. , Monday, May 20, 2013. (Photo: AP/Sue Ogrocki)

“Be ready to come together to help each other out. What do you do? You pull together and and get through it. That is the key.”

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Watch Tuesday’s BlazeCast Rewind: Obama’s Detachment

The Blaze - 6 hours 27 min ago

This broadcast will begin at 2pm ET.

To join the chat — there is a button on the top right of the player window or you can hover your cursor over the player window for options.

To ask a question — click the button at the bottom.  We’ll be able to display your question or comment in the player window!

And as always you can leave other comments in the regular comment section below!

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Is This Video of Pope Francis Performing an Exorcism?

The Blaze - 6 hours 45 min ago

After Sunday mass at the Vatican, Pope Francis is seen in a recent video shaking hands with several people in wheelchairs and laying his hand on their heads as he spoke with each briefly. But one man in particular received special attention and has some speculating the pope might have performed a quick exorcism.

The video taken by the TV2000, a channel that carries Roman Catholic programming in Italy, shows the man taking the pope’s hand and kissing it. Another man who appears to be a priest leans forward and explains something to the pope, at which point Pope Francis places both of his hands on the man’s head.

Some Claim Pope Francis Performed an Exorcism on Man in St. Peters Square Sunday

(Image: YouTube screenshot)

The man soon appears to become agitated, breaths heavily, twitches slightly and sinks a bit lower in his wheelchair.

Here’s a look at the video which has been posted to YouTube (Note: the voice over is in Italian and we’re not sure what they’re saying. We assume that the sound effects were added to the footage as well):

The television station of the Italian bishops’ conference reported Monday that it had surveyed exorcists, who agreed there was “no doubt” that Francis either performed an exorcism or a prayer to free the man from the devil.

The Vatican was more cautious. In a statement Tuesday, it said Francis “didn’t intend to perform any exorcism. But as he often does for the sick or suffering, he simply intended to pray for someone who was suffering who was presented to him.” This statement isn’t an outright denial that an exorcism might have happened.

Italian newspapers noted that the late Pope John Paul II performed an exorcism in 1982 — near the same spot where Francis prayed over the young disabled man Sunday.

Only a priest authorized by a bishop can perform an exorcism, and canon law specifies that the exorcist must be “endowed with piety, knowledge, prudence and integrity of life.”

While belief in the devil is consistent with church teaching, the Holy See does urge prudence, particularly to ensure that the afflicted person isn’t merely psychologically ill.

The Rev. Giulio Maspero, a Rome-based systematic theologian who has witnessed or participated in more than a dozen exorcisms, says he’s fairly certain that Francis’ prayer on Sunday was either a full-fledged exorcism or a more simple prayer to “liberate” the young man from demonic possession.

He noted that the placement of the pope’s hands on the man’s head was the “typical position” for an exorcist to use.

“When you witness something like that – for me it was shocking – I could feel the power of prayer,” he said in a phone interview, speaking of his own previous experiences.

Sunday also happened to be the Pentacost, when the faithful believe Jesus’ apostles received the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and Maspero noted the symbolism.

“The Holy Spirit is connected to the exorcism because … it is the manifestation of how God is present among us and in our world,” he said.

Late Tuesday, the director of TV2000 went on the air to apologize for the earlier report.

“I don’t want to attribute to him a gesture that he didn’t intend to perform,” said the director, Dino Boffo.

Pope Francis has spoken and written frequently about Satan and evil in the world.

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio spoke about the devil in our midst. In the book “Heaven and Earth,” Bergoglio devoted the second chapter to “The Devil” and said in no uncertain terms that he believes in the devil and that Satan’s fruits are “destruction, division, hatred and calumny.”

“Perhaps its greatest success in these times has been to make us think that it doesn’t exist, that everything can be traced to a purely human plan,” he wrote.

In his very first homily as pope on March 14, Francis warned cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel the day after he was elected that “he who doesn’t pray to the Lord prays to the devil.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

(H/T: Drudge Report)

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Meet the Blind Man Nicknamed ‘Midnight Gunslinger’ Who Has 80% Shot Accuracy

The Blaze - 6 hours 51 min ago

We’ve seen how a woman born without arms didn’t let her disability keep her from learning to shoot guns. Now, a Florida man nicknamed “Midnight Gunslinger” is showing that he too hasn’t let his disability stop him from being a fast, accurate shooter either.

Jim Miekka of Citrus County is completely blind.

Jim Miekka Practices Fast Draw and Shoots Targets at 80 Percent Accuracy Even Though Blind

(Image: Bay News 9 video screenshot)

Bay News 9 reported that Miekka has been practicing fast draw shooting for a year now at the Hernando Sportsman’s Club with other Classical Fast Draw Society members.

“When I first started I was hitting about 25 percent of the time. Now I think I’m hitting about 80 percent or something like that,” Miekka told Bay News 9.

Jim Miekka Practices Fast Draw and Shoots Targets at 80 Percent Accuracy Even Though Blind

(Image: Bay News 9 video screenshot)

Not only is he accurate, but he can draw and shoot in about a half a second. Miekka noted that sometimes someone will tap the target so he can use his hearing to hone in on its exact location.

“Not being able to see the target, remember where it is and actually get right on it. He’s done awesome,” Randie “Mad Jack” Rickert said.

Watch Miekka demonstrate his fast draw skills in a Bay News 9 video here.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Miekaa had previously invented a rifle scope that allowed him to shoot targets 100 yards away through a system that used sound signals. He showed off his skills with this system on YouTube a few years ago.

“He has invented a light to sound conversion unit that allows him to shoot as accurately as a skilled sighted person,” the description says.

Here Miekka describes how the system works and demonstrates shooting the targets:

Miekka, a former physics teacher, is also known for creating the “Hindenburg Omen,” which predicts drops in the stock market.

As the Tampa Bay Times explained a couple years ago, Miekka, 52, was not born blind but lost his eyesight in an explosion, which also took two of his fingers, at 26 years old.

(H/T: Yahoo! News)

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Disgraced IRS Interim Chief Now Fully Admits Knowledge of Planted Question (but Did It Reveal a Past Half-Truth?)

The Blaze - 7 hours 14 min ago

Ousted Internal Revenue Service interim head Steven Miller took full responsibility Tuesday for the planted question that kicked off the IRS’s conservative targeting scandal, adding that the question was “an incredibly bad idea.”

“I will take responsibility for that,” Miller said in response to a question from Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. “The thought was to – now that we had the TIGTA [Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration] report, you had all the facts. We had our response.”

“We thought we’d get out an apology,” he added. “The way we did it — we wanted to reach out to Hill staff about the same time … — did not work out. Obviously, the entire thing was an incredibly bad idea.”

Miller is referring to Washington-based tax lawyer Celia Roady asking senior IRS official Lois Lerner at the American Bar Association conference two weeks ago a prepared question involving the agency’s targeting of conservative groups.

Lerner’s answer, and subsequent “apology” to conservative groups, was the first shoe dropped in what has now become a major scandal.

And make no mistake about it, Roady was most definitely a plant. She admitted to it last week [via Talking Points Memo]:

On May 9, I received a call from Lois Lerner, who told me that she wanted to address an issue after her prepared remarks at the ABA Tax Section’s Exempt Organizations Committee Meeting, and asked if I would pose a question to her after her remarks.

I agreed to do so, and she then gave me the question that I asked at the meeting the next day. We had no discussion thereafter on the topic of the question, nor had we spoken about any of this before I received her call. She did not tell me, and I did not know, how she would answer the question.

“The planted question reveals coordination at high levels of the IRS with regard to the disclosure of the sensitive information,” National Review Online notes.

“Lerner and Miller testified before Congress two days before Lerner addressed the ABA, but said nothing about the IRS’s scrutiny of tea-party groups.”

But issues of information coordination aside, let’s go back to Miller taking responsibility for the planted question. Let’s go back and look at what he said last week during his four-hour interrogation by the House Ways and Means Committee.

First, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) had an interesting exchange with Miller regarding this exact topic.

“Did you know that Ms. Lerner was going to appear last Friday, May 10th, on a panel called ‘News From the IRS and Treasury’ at the American Bar Association conference?” the California congressman asked.

“I knew she was appearing; I did not know the topic,” he replied.

“Did you or any of your subordinates direct Lois Lerner to make the public statement at the panel discussion acknowledging the targeting of tax-exempt groups?”

“It was a prepared Q-and-A.”

“Do you know Ms. Celia Roady, a member of IRS’s Advisory Council on Tax-Exempt and Government Entities?”

“I do.”

“Was Ms. Roady’s question to Ms. Lerner about targeting conservative groups planned in advance?”

“I believe that we talked about that, yes.”

But that’s not all. There were many more questions where that came from:

“Who told her to ask the question?” Republican Congressman Kenny Marchant asked.

“I don’t know, actually, I’m not sure, might have been Lois Lerner,” Miller answered.

Wait. What?

Lastly, there was this exchange between Miller and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) [via the Wall Street Journal]:

REP. ROSKAM: You admit that you spoke with Ms. Lerner and Celia Roady about the planted question beforehand. Can you tell us more about that conversation?

MR. MILLER: I did not speak to Celia Roady, and I believe I did talk to Lois about the possibility of, now that the TIGTA report was finalized, now that we knew all the facts, now that we had responded in writing and everything was done, did it make sense for us to start talking about this in public.

REP. ROSKAM: Can you walk me through the logic that animated in your mind at that time, where you thought it would be a good idea to make a public disclosure to the American Bar Association rather than coming and following up on your duty to disclose that to the House?

MR. MILLER: So we were going to do it at the same time, I believe; that our intent was to talk to you all at the same time.

REP. ROSKAM: But that didn’t happen, did it?

MR. MILLER: It did not happen, I don’t believe.

Later, he turns his questions to why lawmakers weren’t updated, and if the IRS made any effort to update lawmakers before the disclosure at the ABA conference.

REP. ROSKAM: Now, you’re a lawyer and I’m a lawyer. You know that in the process of discovery, Mr. Miller, that when you find subsequent information, counsel has a duty to disclose that to the opposite party. There’s no Perry Mason moments. There’s no gotcha moments. There’s no litigious situation where somebody comes in and says, oh, we are just showing up, Your Honor, with this information and we haven’t disclosed it to the other side.

Don’t you acknowledge that you had a duty, based on your testimony before this committee, of what your actual knowledge was — didn’t you have a duty, Mr. Miller, to come forward and disclose that to the committee, based on all the cascading inquiries that had happened from the Ways and Means Committee directed to you?

MR. MILLER: So I don’t believe so, sir. What was happening was I was in possession of some facts, was not in possession of all facts. ….

REP. ROSKAM: So you weren’t concerned about the timing of the TIGTA investigation when you and Ms. Lerner made the decision to move forward and do the planted question. Is that right?

MR. MILLER: It was done.

REP. ROSKAM: It was done. And so you had the –

MR. MILLER: We had all the facts, and we had made our written response –

REP. ROSKAM: Right. I understand that. So in other words, you had the actual information. The totality of the information that you’re describing today — you had it all in your possession at the time at which you were under a scheme with Ms. Lerner to go and do a planted question. Is that right?

MR. MILLER: I sort of object to the term “scheme.” We had the information. We were reaching out to the committee at the same time.

[...]REP. ROSKAM: What form did that outreach take?

MR. MILLER: We called to try to get on the calendar.

REP. ROSKAM: You called to try and get on the calendar. Is that all you got?

MR. MILLER: It’s the truth.

You can watch their exchange here:

Now although an argument can be made that Steven Miller didn’t technically state falsehoods during his testimony last week, today’s admission that the planted question was a “terrible idea” that didn’t live up to expectation seems to show that the former interim chief knew much more about the Lerner/Roady plan then he let on last week.

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Featured image Getty Images.

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Was Another Major Reporter Targeted by the DOJ? Hear What a CBS Journalist Revealed About Her Computer

The Blaze - 8 hours 31 sec ago
CBS Benghazi Reporter Sharyl Attkissons Computers Compromised

CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson (Twitter)

Emmy-award winning CBS News investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson, who has been ferociously investigating Benghazi and Fast and Furious, says her personal and work computers have been compromised and the matter is currently under investigation.

“I can confirm that an intrusion of my computers has been under some investigation on my end for some months but I’m not prepared to make an allegation against a specific entity today as I’ve been patient and methodical about this matter,” Attkisson told Politico on Tuesday. “I need to check with my attorney and CBS to get their recommendations on info we make public.”

In a separate interview with WPHT Philadelphia on Tuesday, Attkisson told Chris Stigall that something peculiar had been going on with her computers since Feb. 2011, coincidentally the same time she was reporting on the failed federal gun-walking operation known as Fast and Furious and the Obama administration’s green energy spending.

“They’ve had many reasons to be angry,” Attkisson joked on WPHT.

When asked if the computer tampering could have something to do with what Fox News reporter James Rosen is going through, Attkisson said, “There could be some relationship between these things and what’s happened to James.”

The Justice Department monitored Rosen’s personal emails, tracked his visits to the State Department and labeled him a “co-conspirator” after his reporting on CIA intelligence about North Korea in 2009.

Attkisson said the DOJ’s alleged action taken against Rosen is “unconstitutional” and “illegal.”

Listen to her interview with WPHT below:

(H/T: Hot Air)

————–

On TheBlog: Obama DOJ relied on 1917 Espionage Act to to target Fox News reporter

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