Ben Affleck: Raising Money for Democrats Made Me ‘Feel Gross’

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Photo Credit: Reuters/Landov

Photo Credit: Reuters/Landov

Hollywood star Ben Affleck, who has played an active role in Democratic politics, says fundraising for politicians began to “feel gross.”

Speaking to Playboy magazine about helping to campaign for presidential candidates Al Gore, John Kerry, and Barack Obama, Affleck recalled, “Over time I became disillusioned, mostly with the pernicious effect of money in politics. I realized it was about raising $56,000 through a couple of dinners, and those bundlers who bring in $1 million or $2 million.”

He continued, “Those people are dedicated, and they believe in what they’re doing. I believe in why many of them are doing it. What I don’t believe in is that we now have the need to do it. And for me personally, it started to feel gross.”

Asked what part in particular made him feel that way, Affleck responded, “Being used as a prop to schmooze people and try to milk the teat of the donor for money. We’d do it sparingly. Matt and I did a thing for Elizabeth Warren, whom we like and who won. We did a fundraiser for Cory Booker, whom we also like. People now know me as a Democrat, and that will always be the case to some extent.”

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Federal Appeals Court Rules Transsexual’s Firing was Not Discrimination

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Photo Credit: Twitter.com

Photo Credit: Twitter.com

A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s decision dismissing a lawsuit filed by a male-to-female transsexual who claimed his firing was discriminatory.

Jim Stacy, who had a sex change operation in 2005 and now goes by “Janis,” was laid off by Agere Systems in 2008, along with nearly 4,000 colleagues, following a merger with LSI Corporation.

Stacy, who had worked for Agere for ten years as an engineer, sued the company, claiming that he was targeted for elimination on the basis of his sex, disability and gender identity.

But the court rejected his lawsuit, ruling that the company’s explanation for his firing was satisfactory and had nothing to do with his sex change.

According to court documents, when Stacy was hired in 1998, he “had a traditional masculine appearance, wore male clothing, and went by the name ‘Jim.’” But in 2002, he was diagnosed with gender identity disorder, believing he was really a woman trapped in a man’s body. In 2005, he underwent a sex change operation and took hormones to make himself appear more female. All the while, he continued working for Agere.

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Will Airships Revolutionize Development of Alaska?

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Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

Commercial development of the Arctic’s natural resources has so far been near to impossible, but transportation throughout the inhospitable region may soon be revolutionized.

U.S.-based airship company Aeros and Icelandic airline Icelandair Cargo, say they have signed an agreement with hopes of establishing a partnership to develop new air freight service across the Arctic region.

Together they are hoping to deliver standard cargo containers via Iceland to regions with little infrastructure, such as Siberia, Alaska, Greenland and northern Canada.

“It’s a project representing the future of solving the problems of today,” Aeros’ CEO Igor Pasternak told CNN. “The distribution in the Arctic Circle as it is right now is inefficient and not logical.”

Managing Director with Icelandair Cargo, Gunnar Sigurfinnsson, said in a press release that he believes Aeros will help transform Arctic transportation forever.

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PPP: GOP Leads Michigan Senate Race to Replace Democrat, ObamaCare to Blame

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A new poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP) finds the Michigan GOP Senate candidate, Terri Land, taking the lead over Democrat Rep. Gary Peters in the race to replace retiring Sen. Carl Levin. Land trailed Peters by 7 points in October, at the height of the government shutdown. She now leads Peters by two, 42-40, a nine point swing in less than two months.

“The declining popularity of President Obama and the Affordable Care Act seems to be making life harder for Democrats here, as we’re finding in other key Senate races,” the Democrat polling firm writes in a memo. Although Obama won Michigan by 9 points last year, his approval ratings are now underwater. Just 47% of Michiganders approve of the job he is doing, while 51% disapprove. Michigan voters also oppose ObamaCare by a 14-point margin.

The big shift in the Michigan race is due largely to Independents. A few months ago, Land and Peters were basically tied among Independents. In the latest poll, Land has opened a massive 17-point lead with the critical voting block.

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Study: Growing Up Without a Father Transforms Children’s Brains

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Photo Credit: LifeSiteNews

Photo Credit: LifeSiteNews

A new study shows that growing up without a father not only affects behavior – it transforms children’s brain structure.

That’s the verdict reached by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center and recently published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

Researchers studied the behavior and brains of Californian mice who, like humans, are monogamous and raise their children as a unit.

Mice separated from their fathers showed greater aggression, anti-social behavior, and “abnormal social interactions” than those raised with both parents.

“The behavioral deficits we observed are consistent with human studies of children raised without a father,” said Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, the report’s lead author.

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Army May Have Overpaid $3.3M for Communications Devices for Afghan Military, DOD IG Reports

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus

In a Dec. 5 audit report on the U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC), the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General said it found that the ACC “potentially overpaid up to $3.3 million for communications equipment purchased for the Afghan National Security Forces.”

The object of the IG’s investigation “determined whether the U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC) obtained fair and reasonable prices for communications equipment procured from Datron World Communications, Inc. (Datron),” the audit report summary states. “Specifically, we reviewed 37 contract actions, valued at approximately $328 million for 127 items, on contract W15P7T-09-D-D212 and identified 75 items with associated commercial sales, valued at approximately $219 million.”

The audit report — which is not available unless a Freedom of Information Act request is successful — states that the IG found that “contracting officers did not obtain fair and reasonable prices for communications equipment procured from Datron to support the Afghan National Security Forces.

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Tea Party Favorite Taking on Cornyn in Texas-Sized Showdown

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SteveStockmanOne of Washington’s most reliably conservative lawmakers is breaking the news that he will challenge a mainstay of the Republican establishment – all because the incumbent GOP senator “undermined Sen. Ted Cruz’s fight to stop Obamacare.”

Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, told WND exclusively that he will run against against Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in the state’s primary race. Cornyn is running for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2014.

With his campaign little more than an hour old, Stockman had already picked up some major support.

Jenny Beth Martin, president and co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, told WND, “Congressman Stockman has proven himself to be a fighter for freedom who votes in the House of Representatives based on constitutional principles. We need more senators who will do the same.”

Martin added, “The campaign will be interesting to watch unfold over the next few months as Stockman campaigns on these values, reminding Texans why they value their freedom and independence and why they need to change Washington, D.C., where the government has grown too big and too powerful.”

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NBC, ABC News Press White House on Secret Sebelius Meetings (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

During Friday’s White House briefing, Jonathan Karl of ABC News and Peter Alexander of NBC News both pressed White House spokesman Jay Carney on a Government Accountability Institute (GAI) report that found President Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had met only once during the three and half years after the passage of ObamaCare.

After Alexander asked about the GAI report, Carney bizarrely suggested that Alexander should have called him to ask the question. Apparently, Carney would have preferred not to have to answer the question on camera — and for good reason; his answer only opened the door to more questions.

Alexander got to the heart of the matter by pointing out that President Obama’s calendar lists all kinds of meetings with other cabinet secretaries, including 277 with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And yet, although she is in charge of Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment, this calendar shows no meetings with Sebelius.

“That draws some questions about the president’s leadership skills as the chief executive,” Alexander said. “And I’m curious–” A visibly agitated Carney interrupted. “Peter, I wish you had called me beforehand,” Carney scolded. “Because I am in a very terrible charitable mood today, I won’t go too strong on this.”

Carney went on to claim that Sebelius met “often” with the president, but that those meetings were not recorded on the visitors logs or any public calendars. Carney didn’t know how many times the two had met, and did not bother to explain why these calendars record numerous other cabinet officials meeting dozens, and in some cases, hundreds of times with the president.

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Leading Authors: State Surveillance of Personal Data is Theft

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Photo Credit: The Guardian

Photo Credit: The Guardian

More than 500 of the world’s leading authors, including five Nobel prize winners, have condemned the scale of state surveillance revealed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden and warned that spy agencies are undermining democracy and must be curbed by a new international charter.

The signatories, who come from 81 different countries and include Margaret Atwood, Don DeLillo, Orhan Pamuk, Günter Grass and Arundhati Roy, say the capacity of intelligence agencies to spy on millions of people’s digital communications is turning everyone into potential suspects, with worrying implications for the way societies work.

They have urged the United Nations to create an international bill of digital rights that would enshrine the protection of civil rights in the internet age.

Their call comes a day after the heads of the world’s leading technology companies demanded sweeping changes to surveillance laws to help preserve the public’s trust in the internet – reflecting the growing global momentum for a proper review of mass snooping capabilities in countries such as the US and UK, which have been the pioneers in the field.

The open letter to the US president, Barack Obama, from firms including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook, will be followed by the petition, which has drawn together a remarkable list of the world’s most respected and widely-read authors, who have accused states of systematically abusing their powers by conducting intrusive mass surveillance.

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Levin: ‘If This Were 1776…Chris Matthews Would Be Siding With the Crown’ Like Arnold (+audio)

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Photo Credit: markn3tel/flickr

Photo Credit: markn3tel/flickr

On his program Friday, Mark Levin said that “if this were 1775-1776 the likes of Chris Matthews would be siding with the crown.”

“He’d ultimately be the Benedict Arnold. He and his ilk,” said Levin.

Levin was discussing an interview Matthews gave earlier in the day on MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner in which Matthews compared Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to the last South African Apartheid-era leader, F.W. de Klerk.

Matthews said: “To set it up that way, the juxtaposition, they were willing, the McConnell people on to the far right, were willing to destroy the country in order to destroy Obama, whereas to succeed in a country he loved, F.W. de Klerk was willing to see it transformed to black rule so that it could be done successfully so that he would have his country have a better future.

“Reverend [Al Sharpton], I just, I owe it to you. I think that is the key statement about what happened yesterday, the loss of Mandela, and what his history was about, and the key statement of why this has been so poisonous the last five years. We have real people in this country with real power and status who have used that status of power to hurt the country so they could hurt the president. That’s the most damning assessment I’ve heard and I think the truest.”

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