Jeb Bush (Thankfully) has Only a 25 Percent Chance of Winning the Nomination

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Photo Credit: APBy Matt Vespa. As Jeb Bush makes moves that could signal a 2016 presidential run, he has the conservative wing of the Republican Party either rolling their eyes or seething in anger. Besides policy, I can see why some voters think that it’s getting a bit old that only a Bush or a Clinton are seen as the only options to win the presidency. Moreover, both of their respective political parties have moved either more conservative or progressive since the last time a member of their families occupied the White House. Right now, Bush has a 25 percent chance of winning the GOP nomination.

Nate Silver asked if Bush was too liberal to win. In short, he found that Jeb’s more conservative than Jon Huntsman, but not as conservative as his brother, former President George W. Bush; he’s more like Bush 41. (Read more about Jeb Bush’s chances of winning the nomination HERE)

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A Tricky Problem for Jeb Bush

By Philip Klein. In 2007, during a Democratic presidential debate in Iowa, candidate Barack Obama was asked how he would be able to deliver change when so many of his former advisers came from the Clinton administration. The moment became famous because the question prompted a loud and sustained cackle from his rival for the nomination, Hillary Clinton, who teased, “I wanna hear that.”

In the end, Obama got the best of the exchange, by quickly shooting back, “Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me as well.” The clip, which went viral at the time, enjoyed new life when Clinton was named as Obama’s secretary of state.

I was reminded of the moment when reflecting on how former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush could confront a tricky problem should he run for president (which is looking increasingly likely).

The issue that Obama faced when he was running for president was that if he wanted experienced advisers, especially on foreign policy, it was only natural that he’d have to dip into the talent pool of seasoned veterans who served in a prior Democratic administration — and Bill Clinton was the only Democratic president since Jimmy Carter left office in 1981.

Similarly, on the Republican side heading into the next presidential election, candidates will look to former staffers in the George W. Bush administration to fill out their teams. But this creates an especially thorny issue for Jeb. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Hundreds of Babies Euthanized Each Year in Netherlands

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photo credit: o5comBy Donna Rachel Edmunds. Just over a decade on from assisted dying being legalised in the Netherlands, as many as 1 in 33 Dutch people are thought to have died this way, including 650 babies a year, euthanized so that their parents don’t have to witness them struggle with disability or disease. The escalation in death by euthanasia over the last six years has led one Dutch ethicist, who had been in favour of the law when it was first passed, to warn “some slopes truly are slippery.”

Earlier this week, eighty prominent Britons wrote to the Telegraph calling for a commitment from all the political parties to revisit the question of assisted dying in the next Parliament, if a vote is not taken on the matter before the general election in May.

They wrote: “If there is not enough time for the Bill to complete its stages before the general election then it is imperative that Parliament continues this important debate afterwards.

“We are closer than ever to allowing dying people to have safeguarded choice in how they approach their deaths. Whoever forms the next government must allow time for Parliament to reach consensus on a safeguarded law.” (Read more about the babies euthanized each year in the Netherlands HERE)

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Pregnant 16 Year Old Killed by Mother and Brother for ‘Family Honor’

By Express News Service. In another case of honour killing, the mother and brother of the pregnant minor girl, whose body was found in the bushes near her home on December 23 under Kandhai police station area in Pratapgarh district, were arrested on Monday for allegedly killing her.

The police said the victim’s brother had come to know about her pregnancy and caught her trying to get in touch with her boyfriend on the night of December 22.

According to the police, ever since the incident came to light they suspected that the teenage girl may have been killed by her own family members in the name of honour.

Following investigations, the police arrested her mother, aged 50, and her 24-year-old brother, who used to run a bicycle repair shop near his house. The girl’s father was, however, not involved in the incident, police said. (Read more from this story HERE)

Obama Doubles Down: More Sanctions On North Korea After Sony Hack

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Photo Credit: APBy David E. Sanger and Michael S. Schmidt. The Obama administration doubled down on Friday on its allegation that North Korea’s leadership was behind the hacking of Sony Pictures, announcing new, if largely symbolic, economic sanctions against 10 senior North Korean officials and the intelligence agency it said was the source of “many of North Korea’s major cyberoperations.”

The actions were based on an executive order President Obama signed on vacation in Hawaii, as part of what he had promised would be a “proportional response” against the country. But in briefings for reporters, officials said they could not establish that any of the 10 officials had been directly involved in the destruction of much of the studio’s computing infrastructure.

In fact, most seemed linked to the North’s missile and weapons sales. Two are senior North Korean representatives in Iran, a major buyer of North Korean military technology, and five others are representatives in Syria, Russia, China and Namibia. (Read about more sanctions on North Korea HERE)

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Krauthammer: North Korea Already ‘Sanctioned Up the Wazoo’

By Fox News. Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said Friday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that President Obama’s sanctioning of North Korea is “a farce from beginning to end.

“Now I’m not criticizing the administration, because there are no choices,” he said. “North Korea doesn’t have anything, doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t export anything except illegal stuff which is obviously sanctioned. It’s been sanctioned up the wazoo.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Grandpa of Toddler Who Shot Mother Says to Quit Using Accident to Push Gun Control

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Veronica Rutledge and her husband loved everything about guns. They practiced at shooting ranges. They hunted. And both of them, relatives and friends say, had permits to carry concealed firearms. Veronica typically left her Blackfoot, Idaho, home with her gun nestled at her side. So on Christmas morning last week, her husband gave her a present he hoped would make her life more comfortable: a purse with a special pocket for a concealed weapon. . .

On Tuesday morning . . . Veronica, 29, arrived at a nearby Wal-Mart in Hayden with her three nieces and son, her gun “zippered closed” inside her new purse, her father-in-law said. Then, in the back of the store, near the electronics section, the purse was left unattended for a moment.

“An inquisitive 2-year-old boy reached into the purse, unzipped the compartment, found the gun and shot his mother in the head,” Rutledge said. “It’s a terrible, terrible incident.”

The aftermath has been crushing, he said. His son went to the Wal-Mart to collect his nieces and son, and no one now is sure what to say to the boy, who is not doing well. . .

Rutledge isn’t just sad — he’s angry. Not at his grandson. Nor at his dead daughter-in-law, “who didn’t have a malicious fiber in her body,” he said. He’s angry at the observers already using the accident as an excuse to grandstand on gun rights. (Read more about how this tragedy is beings used to push gun control HERE).

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Braindead Canadian ISIS Follower Tweets Location of Safe Houses

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Photo Credit: WNDBy Oliver Lane. The terrorist, who changed his name to the more appropriate-sounding ‘Abu Abdul-Rahman’ uploaded a series of tweets during his travels across the Islamic State, updating his twitter following on his progress with ISIS. The Daily Mail reports a Canadian jihad-monitoring group recorded 45 of these tweets containing geo-location data and passed the information on to intelligence agencies.

Describing the blunder, Canadian monitoring group IBRABO said: “It’s a rookie social media mistake and one that intelligence and law enforcement agencies pray for when tracking criminals. This week one of New Zealand’s well known jihadists, Mark Taylor removed 45 tweets after he discovered that he was broadcasting his twitter location to every intelligence agency… Unfortunately for him we captured all of them prior to him removing the tweets”.

“Taylor isn’t the first jihadist to broadcast his whereabouts via social media and in fact looking at the battlefield in Syria we see fighters from Canada, France, and other western countries making the same mistake”. (Read more on the ISIS follower tweets HERE)

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Peshmerga Desperate for US Arms in Battle Against ISIS

By Hollie McKay. Under a gloomy late November sky that dumped cold rain on their frontline fighting position overlooking Mosul Dam, some 16 Peshmerga fighters mustered around a small hut – the only visible means of protection from enemy fire – while others hovered around a small campfire for warmth.

Just hours earlier, the road leading into the Kurdish army’s base was hit by artillery from Islamic State – or “Daesh” as it is known in the Middle East, forcing some closures. But the fighters were calm and collected – sharing jokes and cigarettes ahead of another long and cold night protecting their cherished land in the northern part of this embattled land. . .

Much of the Kurdish population now view the United States of America as their only dependable ally in the ongoing war against the terrorist organization – and their desperation to be supplied with American equipment and weapons remains the eclipsing message.

“The airstrikes are good, but we need weapons,” stressed the official, dismissing the notion that U.S. ground troops are the ultimate answer. “We already have military on the ground, but we’re fighting an enemy that has acquired all the sophisticated U.S. weapons that went to the Iraqis and now ISIS has them. This isn’t a balanced fight.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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New Years Celebrations: Man Shoots Off Champagne Bottle Cork with .50 BMG, Another Recreates Cup Song with Guns (+videos)

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Jim Huish of Amber’s Drive performed The Cup Song using guns instead of cups. The guns used were an AR15, an AK47, a CZ75 and a Walther P22.

He performed The Cup Song on a ridiculously cold Utah winter day. Aside from the difficulty of manipulating the guns with frozen fingers, the guns were malfunctioning because of the cold as well. . .

Jim burned through a fair bit of ammo and battled through some tough conditions to pull it off. In the end he came up with a rendition that any Pitch Perfect fan, Amber’s Drive fan, or gun nut would be proud of. The Cup Song, Pitch Perfect, Pitch Perfect 2.

(To see more videos from Jim Huish, click HERE)
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Gun Enthusiast Sets to Start the New Year Off in Style

In this video, Richard Ryan of FullMag shows just how challenging it can be to shoot the cork off of a champagne bottle with a .50 cal. The slow motion videography is outstanding:

(To see more videos from FullMag, click HERE)

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Ben Carson says He’ll have a ‘Big Surprise’ for 2016

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesBen Carson plans to announce his presidential intentions this spring.

“I will announce before March, before May 1,” Carson said in an interview on NewsMaxTV’s America’s Forum on Friday. “I would just say that I am listening extremely carefully. I don’t want to do something that the American people do not want me to do.”

Cason, a retired neurosurgeon and Tea Party darling who has never held political office, said he is studying the issues plaguing the country — much like he does with medicine.

“You have to know a lot of stuff,” he said. “I’m rapidly acquiring that knowledge, listening to people and really finding a tremendous amount of frustration with the status quo, politics as usual, be it Republican or Democrat. Our system was designed for the people. It wasn’t designed for professional politicians. I’m thinking very seriously, listening to people and we’ll make a decision in a few months.” (Read more about what Ben Carson says HERE)

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The Politics that Died With Mario Cuomo

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More than any other politician in recent memory, Mario Cuomo spent a lot of time talking publicly about death, particularly his own. In 1987, Cuomo, who’d been a minor league baseball player in the early ‘50s, fantasized about dying while sliding into home plate, to culminate an inside-the-park home run. “That’s it!” he said, in a conversation captured by Joe Klein. “That would be the way to go.”

The gap between that poetic demise and the prosaic home setting where he died yesterday was emblematic for Mario Cuomo. His ability to inspire liberals (especially white ones) with a New Deal, working-class vision of government was unparalleled for at least a generation. At the same time, his incomplete delivery meant that most conversations about him were about degrees of disappointment.

His landmark speech at the 1984 Democratic convention galvanized millions, with its call for a government that “ought to be able to find work for all who can do it, room at the table, shelter for the homeless, care for the elderly and infirm, and hope for the destitute.” Yet it set voters up for the ultimate disappointment when, in late 1991, he passed up the opportunity to run for president.

Many have offered explanations for that infamous refusal, since the official version – he needed to work on the state budget – was so unsatisfying. There were multiple reasons, but it’s a sure bet that his opponents – even in the primaries – would have sensationalized his Mafia connections. . . (Read more from the story, “New York Governor Dies” HERE)

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Denver Broncos Quarterback Peyton Manning Tracks Down Army Wife in Alaska to Thank Her Combat Vet Husband

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Photo Credit: Conservative PressKristen Patterson was surprised when an Alaska State Trooper called her. She was just as surprised when he asked her if she has written a letter to Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. Then when the trooper told her Peyton Manning had been trying to get in contact with her for three months, Kristen was in absolute shock.

In September, Kristen had sent a letter to Manning explaining that her husband, Army Sgt. Ryan Patterson, was a huge fan. When Ryan was stationed in Afghanistan, he would set his alarm to go off in the middle of the night so he could listen to Manning’s games. After Manning was cut by the Colts and signed by the Broncos, Ryan requested a transfer to Denver so he could watch him play. Instead, Ryan and Kristen ended up in Alaska.

The letter explained that Ryan would be visiting family in the Cincinnati area in December while the Broncos would be in town to play the Bengals. Kristen asked if there was any way she could surprise her husband and possibly set up a meeting.

Kristen had great intentions for her husband; however, there was one major problem with Kristen’s letter; she forgot to include her contact information. . .

Not only had Peyton received and read the letter, he was determined to find Kristen. He asked his public relations team for help and finally tracked the Pattersons to a utility comany in North Pole, Alaska and the team contacted the state trooper’s office. (Read how Peyton Manning tracks down wife of army Sgt. Patterson HERE)

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UPDATE: 21 More Bodies Have Been Found in AirAsia Plane Crash

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Photo Credit: WSJSearch teams hunting for the wreckage of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 have had a breakthrough after discovering two big parts of the aircraft, which crashed into the sea last weekend with 162 people on board, Indonesia’s top search official said on Saturday.

This comes as it was revealed the route taken by the flight flew at a restricted time, the ABC reports.

Just yesterday, recovery teams pulled 21 bodies from the Java Sea but are struggling to locate the plane’s black box recorder.

The total is the largest of the search so far, more than tripling the number of bodies recovered from nine to 30, as dive teams say some were found still strapped into their seats.

The news of further discoveries came as more corpses, including that of an 11-year-old boy, were identified and handed back to their weeping relatives at a police hospital in Surabaya, Indonesia. (Read more about how more bodies have been found in AirAsia plane crash HERE)

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