Obama's Dangerous Legacy for Democrats

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Photo Credit: Getty / John Gres

Photo Credit: Getty / John Gres

Now that the 2014 elections are over and national politics is all about 2016, Democrats have good reason to worry that, for all his success at the polls, President Obama will leave his party with a toxic legacy.

The Obama damage is two-fold. First, his success relied on a coalition that likely will not survive, or at least survive at full strength, without Obama himself on the ticket. Secondly, Obama drove a significant portion of white voters away from the Democratic Party.

Put those two things together — smaller Obama coalition and more alienated whites — and the result could be huge trouble for whoever the Democratic presidential nominee is in 2016.

First the coalition: Obama’s powerful appeal to minorities, women, and young people propelled his decisive wins in 2008 and 2012. But those voters didn’t show up at the polls in 2010 and 2014.

Some Democrats are confident the coalition will be back in 2016, when interest in a presidential race is far greater than during midterms. But will it return in the strength it showed in ’08 and ’12? Or will Democratic voting return to pre-Obama patterns?

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Obama Calls for $263M Federal Spending in Response to Ferguson

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Photo Credit: NY Post

Photo Credit: NY Post

Spurred by the Ferguson, Missouri, shooting, President Barack Obama is calling for $75 million in federal spending to get 50,000 more police to wear body cameras that record their interactions with civilians. However, Obama is not seeking to pull back federal programs that provide military-style equipment to local law enforcement.

The president made the announcement Monday from the White House during a series of meetings with his cabinet, civil rights leaders, law enforcement officials and others. At least for now, Obama is staying away from Ferguson in the wake of a racially charged uproar over a grand jury’s decision last week not to charge the police offer who fatally shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Obama is proposing a three-year, $263 million spending package to increase use of body-worn cameras, expand training for law enforcement and add more resources for police department reform. The package includes $75 million for the small, lapel-mounted cameras to record police on the job.

The White House has said the cameras could help bridge deep mistrust between law enforcement and the public. It also potentially could help resolve the type of disputes between police and witnesses that arose in the Ferguson shooting.

After the shooting and resulting protests in August, Obama ordered a review of federal programs that fund military gear for local police after critics questioned why police in full body armor with armored trucks responded to dispel demonstrators. Obama seemed to sympathize when announcing the review over the summer.

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Lawsuit Claims ICE Mounted Campaign to ‘Purge’ Senior Officials Amid Immigration Changes

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

A longtime federal immigration attorney claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement managers mounted a campaign of “humiliation” and “brutal scape-goating” to purge officials they didn’t want, raising concerns from a top GOP lawmaker that the administration was trying to “force compliance” with its controversial policies.

The attorney, Patricia Vroom, made the allegations in a lawsuit filed last month. The lawsuit is getting renewed attention in the wake of President Obama’s executive actions to let potentially millions of illegal immigrants stay in the country and work.

In the suit, Vroom claimed she was rebuked for her “push-back” on a prior effort to drop cases against illegal immigrants with identity theft convictions, and received a low performance rating at the time.

“It was part of an orchestrated, coordinated effort … to purge [the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, OPLA] of senior Chief Counsel so that much younger, much less experienced, and thus much more impressionable individuals who were beholden to them, could be installed in their place,” the lawsuit alleges.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., cited the lawsuit in a letter on Monday to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and the acting ICE director. He said the suit shows the administration “bullied career lawyers” to “force compliance” with its policies, and ultimately replace them with “favored individuals.”

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Total US Debt Rises Over $18 Trillion; Up 70% Under Barack Obama

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Photo Credit: Human Events

Photo Credit: Human Events

By Tyler Durden.

Last week, total US debt was a meager $17,963,753,617,957.26. Two days later, as updated today, on Black Friday, total outstanding US public debt just hit a new historic level which probably would be better associated with a red color: as of the last work day of November, total US public debt just surpassed $18 trillion for the first time, or $18,005,549,328,561.45 to be precise, of which debt held by the public rose to $12,922,681,725,432.94, an increase of $32 billion in one day.

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Chart from U.S. Department of Treasury Shows Alarming Milestone the National Debt Just Passed

By Pete Kasperowicz.

The U.S. national debt hit $18 trillion for the first time on Friday, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

A website that tracks the national debt said it rose to $18.005 trillion, a jump of more than $40 billion from two days prior. There was no figure given for Thanksgiving, a holiday.

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The milestone is likely to renew Republican scrutiny over the federal government’s spending habits, just as the GOP is set to widen its majority in the House and resume control of the Senate in 2015. While Republicans have made a point of saying they would use their new control of Congress to fight Obamacare and ease federal regulations, they have also made a point of saying debt reduction is critical.

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Abortionist: We Let Babies Born Alive “Expire” (+video)

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Photo Credit: LifeNews

Photo Credit: LifeNews

A while back, I wrote a series on abortions that resulted in the births of live babies. In the instances I wrote about, these babies were left to die or even killed by the abortionist. Also, in almost every case, the abortionist evaded any kind of punishment.

An investigation by Live Action revealed that many clinics are still willing to allow infants born after abortion to die. And a representative of Planned Parenthood gave shocking testimony where sherefused to condemn the killing of babies born alive after abortions and refused to say what Planned Parenthood doctors did in cases of live birth. Sadly, it seems that the killing of born babies, either by neglect or by direct action, goes on in abortion clinics to this day.

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GOP Aide Resigns After Online Digs at Obama Daughters

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120114_gop_aide_640By Fox News.

Republican congressional aide Elizabeth Lauten resigned Monday morning after making controversial comments about President Obama’s teenage daughters, Fox News confirms.

Lauten, the communications director for Rep. Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, had posted on Facebook about their casual demeanor during last week’s annual White House turkey pardon. She wrote that Sasha, 13, and Malia, 16, should “try showing a little class.”

“Rise to the occasion. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at the bar,” Lauten wrote. “And certainly don’t make faces during televised, public events.”

Though she wasn’t the first person to comment on the behavior and appearance of the president’s children during the event, Lauten was accused of crossing the line.

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Photo Credit: AP / Todd Williamson

Photo Credit: AP / Todd Williamson

CNN claims politicians’ kids are off limits. What about Bristol Palin?

By T. Becket Adams.

CNN has reported at length on the rise and fall of Elizabeth Lauten, the Republican congressional aide who resigned Monday after criticizing the first daughters in a weekend Facebook post.

But CNN has yet to address one of its own anchor’s gleeful handling of Bristol Palin’s alleged assault earlier this year by a male attacker.

Lauten resigned as communications director for Rep. Steven Fincher, R-Tenn., after she came under fire for criticizing Sasha and Malia Obama for their appearance at the White House’s annual turkey pardon.

“Rise to the occasion,” Lauten wrote in the now-deleted post. “Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar.”

The now-former GOP staffer apologized a few hours later, saying in a subsequent post that she understood “more clearly just how hurtful my words were.”

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Oil Price Plunge: Wide-Ranging Effects for Consumers and the Global Economy

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Tumbling oil prices are draining hundreds of billions of dollars from the coffers of oil-rich exporters and oil companies and injecting a much-needed boost for ailing economies in Europe and Japan — and for American consumers at the start of the peak shopping season.

The result could be one of the biggest transfers of wealth in history, potentially reshaping everything from talks over Iran’s nuclear program to the Federal Reserve’s policies to further rejuvenate the U.S. economy.

The price of oil has declined about 40 percent since its peak in mid-June and plunged last week after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries voted to continue to pump at the same rate. That continued a trend driven by a weak global economy and expanding U.S. domestic energy supplies.

The question facing investors, companies and policymakers is how low oil prices will go — and for how long. Every day, American motorists are saving $630 million on gasoline compared with what they paid at June prices, and they would get a $230 billion windfall if prices were to stay this low for a year. The vast majority of that will flow into the economy, with lower-income households living on tight budgets likely to use money not otherwise spent on gas to buy groceries, clothing and other staples.

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Map Tells Whether Obamacare Makes You Pay for Abortions in Your State (+video)

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141201_ObamacareAbortion

Pro-life Americans long have criticized the Obama administration for failing to disclose coverage of abortion under the Affordable Care Act. Now, taking matters into their own hands, they’ve come up with a solution.

Two leading pro-life organizations, the Charlotte Lozier Institute and the Family Research Council, teamed up to design a state-by-state map that clearly tells Americans whether the Obamacare plan they’re considering covers elective abortions.

The goal? To help individuals and families find abortion-free health insurance options that don’t require them to pay what many pro-life critics of Obamacare call a “hidden” or “secret” abortion fee.

“Federal funding for elective abortion was the most salient issue as the fate of the Affordable Care Act was hanging in early 2010, right up to the day of its passage,” Charles Donovan, president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, said in an interview with The Daily Signal.

After a Sept. 15 report by the Government Accountability Office confirmed what many pro-life individuals had warned—that more than 1,000 Obamacare plans covered abortion while remaining eligible for tax subsidies—pro-lifers called for more transparency.

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Why Legalizing Pot Is a Bad Idea

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

At first blush, it may appear that the fight to thwart marijuana legalization is a lost cause. Pot pushers want you to believe that legalization is inevitable. They point to legalization successes this November in Alaska, Oregon and the District of Columbia.

But Big Pot lost in Florida, and five cities in pot-crazy Colorado outlawed the sale of marijuana, including Lakewood, Canon City, Palisade, Palmer Lake and Ramah. And now comes the latest Gallup poll from Nov. 6, which shows that support for marijuana legalization is down seven points from last year, from 58 percent to 51 percent. Even liberal support for legalization dropped four points from last year.

So why did the pot pushers lose a large state like Florida, and why is support for legalization falling?

That’s a tough question. But perhaps the public is starting to pay attention to scientific data and the actual dangers of marijuana as well as the negative stories coming out of Colorado and Washington State since those states legalized marijuana.

The science is clear and unambiguous – pot is a dangerous substance. It is not like alcohol at all. There is a reason it is classified as a Schedule I controlled dangerous substance, right along with heroin, LSD and ecstasy. The American Medical Association, the American Lung Association and other reputable doctors and scientists all reject legalization.

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Backers of Alaska Gold Mine Win Court Battle with EPA

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

On-again, off-again plans for the world’s largest gold and copper mine could be back on again, after a federal judge in Alaska issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from its ongoing efforts to bury the project.

Pebble Partnership, the Canadian company behind the project, which would take place near Anchorage, claims the regulatory agency has conspired illegally with opponents of the mine to devise scientific and environmental justifications for blocking it. Salmon fishermen in Washington state and Alaska, Native American groups and environmental organizations have opposed the massive project for several years, and had appeared to have gotten it scuttled prior to Tuesday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Russel Holland, in Anchorage.

“We expect the case may take several months to complete,” Pebble Partnership CEO Tom Collier said Tuesday after the U.S. District Court ruling in Anchorage. “This means that, for the first time, EPA’s march to preemptively veto Pebble has been halted.”

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