Holder Tells Cruz He Didn’t Know IRS Investigator Was Obama Contributor (+video)

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Photo Credit: APAt a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder denied knowing that a top Democratic donor is leading the internal investigation into the IRS targeting of conservative groups.

“No, I don’t know anything about the political activities of any of the people who are involved in this investigation,” he said when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) questioned him during a Justice Department oversight hearing.

“I must tell you I find it astonishing that the Department of Justice appointed a major Obama donor to head this investigation, so the first question I want to ask is did you know that the lawyer in charge of this investigation was a major Obama donor?” Cruz asked Holder.

On Jan. 8, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter to Holder, calling Bosserman’s involvement “highly inappropriate” and demanding that she be “immediately” removed from the investigation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Democrats Have Reason to Freak Out

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/Associated PressBy Jennifer Rubin.

Senate Democrats on the 2014 ballot who were sitting in the House chamber last night had reason to worry — a lot.. Here are eight reasons they should be nervous:

1. The president is already a drag on the ticket in 2014 in swing states. Gallup reports that among the twelve states in which Obama is most unpopular (ranging from 22.5 percent to 35 percent approval) there are four hotly contested Senate seats where the Republican can lasso his opponent to the president (e.g. West Virginia, Montana, South Dakota and Alaska). In other competitive states, the president is also a drag. (Arkansas 34.9 percent, Louisiana 40 percent, New Hampshire 44.6 percent, Colorado 42.3). In the top 12 battleground states, his approval averages 36 percent.

2. Whatever you thought of the State of the Union address it was no game changer, and the Democratic candidates will have to defend a “more of the same” message.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsVulnerable Dems avoiding Obama? Itinerary skips over battlegrounds

By Fox News.

His poll numbers are diving, he just gave a State of the Union address that even his own supporters panned as flat, and with three years left to run the country he’s fending off the term “lame duck.”

So as Democrats fight to keep control of the Senate and make gains in the House, are they giving President Obama the cold shoulder?

Over the past six months, the president only has visited two states — North Carolina and Louisiana — where a vulnerable Senate Democrat is facing a tough race. And none of the states Obama was visiting on his latest two-day tour have Senate Democrats up for reelection in the fall.

The president’s itinerary has led to Republican jeers that vulnerable and moderate Democrats are intentionally avoiding him, keeping their distance as they try to hold their seats in November.

Democrats themselves aren’t exactly challenging that narrative.

Read more from this story HERE.

Why Are Anti-Development Environmentalists Funding Begich?

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Fairbanks, Alaska. January 30, 2014 – While Mark Begich professes to be an advocate of off-shore drilling, US Senate candidate Joe Miller isn’t so sure Alaskans are getting the whole story.

“Mark Begich promised to be an advocate for resource development,” said Miller. “But given the results, coupled with his behavior in the senate, Alaskans are having their doubts.”

In his latest radio ad, Begich takes credit for the return of Shell Oil rigs to the Chuckchi Sea. There’s only one problem. Last week’s Ninth Circuit Court decision to suspend permits resulted from litigation brought by some deep-pocketed friends of the junior senator.

Begich has collected nearly $20,000 in campaign cash over the last two cycles from board members, executives, and associates of the plaintiffs who sued to stop drilling in the Arctic Ocean. These plaintiffs included the Alaska Wilderness League, Pacific Environment, Defenders of Wildlife, the Village of Point Hope, Oceana, and EarthJustice.

That doesn’t include other affiliated groups and non-profits who account for thousands more. And who knows what their donors are doing?

“It all adds up to a rather disturbing pattern,” Miller concluded. “When seen through the purview of his party’s stance on development issues, his support for Obama and Reid, votes to confirm radical environmentalists to cabinet-level positions in the Department of Interior and at the EPA . . . I have to scratch my head. Do Mark’s big government friends know something that Alaskans aren’t being told?”

It’s time to send a senator to Washington that folks can trust to put principle over party. Alaskans deserve a leader that they know won’t be cheating on them with Barack Obama and Harry Reid’s environmentalist friends.

Joe Miller is a husband, father, combat veteran, businessman, and advocate for constitutional liberty, who believes in limited government, the Right to life, individual rights, private property, and free markets.

Poll: Sarah Palin Has Highest Favorability Rating Among 2016 GOP Primary Contenders

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Though former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not included in a Public Policy Polling survey of potential 2016 Republican presidential contenders, she was still overwhelmingly the most liked person among Republican primary voters.

According to Public Policy Polling:

The best liked person we tested on this poll with Republican primary voters is actually Sarah Palin who has a 70/20 favorability rating. She’s followed by Huckabee at 64/18, Ryan at 58/18, Paul at 58/21, Bush at 56/18, Cruz at 45/20, and Christie at 40/38. Most of those numbers are similar to what they were a month ago but Christie’s seen a substantial drop from +18 at 47/29 a month ago to his new +2 net favorability.

Read more from this story HERE.

Oil Drilling on US Arctic Coast Put On Ice

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Photo Credit: Alastair Grant / AP

Photo Credit: Alastair Grant / AP

By Toby Sterling.

Oil companies’ rush to find reserves off Alaska’s Arctic shores suffered a setback on Thursday after Shell said it would suspend its operations in the region — and possibly withdraw for good.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC is the main company to have purchased leases for oilfields off Alaska’s Arctic shores, but its attempts to drill have been halting due to technical and legal hurdles.

While other companies are still seeking to exploit deep-water Arctic fields nearby in Canada, Shell’s troubles may indicate that the difficulties outweigh the potential economic benefits.

“We will not drill in Alaska in 2014, and we are reviewing our options there,” Shell CEO Ben van Beurden told reporters in London.

Shell received a negative Federal court decision last week. Environmentalists are still challenging whether the government’s 2008 decision to open the area to exploration was correctly granted in the first place: it is covered by sea ice for much of the year.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Newscast

Photo Credit: Newscast

Shell halts Alaska exploration to focus on performance

By Alistair Osborne.

Royal Dutch Shell will stop its exploration programme in Alaska this year as part of a refocusing of strategic priorities under new chief executive Ben van Beurden.

The oil giant, which stunned the market a fortnight ago with its first profits warning in 10 years, said its new boss was setting “an agenda for sharper performance and rigorous capital discipline”.

One immediate decision is that Mr van Beurden, who took over at the start of the year from predecessor Peter Voser, has called a halt to Shell’s controversial exploration in Alaska – a move that will be seen as a victory for environmental campaigners.

Mr van Beurden said he was responding to a US federal court ruling last week that the full range of environmental risks had not been assessed by the American government.

Shell said the ruling “raises substantial obstacles to Shell’s plans for drilling in offshore Alaska”.

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‘Duck Dynasty’ Star Turns Heads at State of the Union

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Robertson attended the speech as a guest of Louisiana Rep. Vance McAllister, and he stood out in the sea of coats and ties with his long beard, untucked white shirt, and signature American flag bandana around his head.

“It was neat being here,” he told reporters after the speech. “It’s cool to be here. Neat experience.”

From the moment Robertson arrived in the Capitol complex, he was in high demand — multiple lawmakers tweeted pictures of themselves posing with him before the speech.

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House Leaders Sell Immigration Blueprint

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The House Republican leadership is trying to sell their colleagues on a series of broad immigration principles, including a path to legal status for those here illegally.

Speaker John Boehner’s leadership team introduced the principles at their annual policy retreat here. Top Republicans circulated a tightly held one-page memo titled “standards for immigration reform” toward the tail-end of a day that include strategy conversations about Obamacare, the economy and the national debt.

In the private meeting where the language was introduced, Boehner (R-Ohio) told Republicans that the standards are “as far as we are willing to go.”

“Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that for her caucus, it is a special path to citizenship or nothing,” Boehner said, according to a source in the room. “If Democrats insist on that, then we are not going to get anywhere this year.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Unserious Foreign Policy And America’s Permanent War Footing

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Photo Credit: The federalist

Photo Credit: The federalist

Obama’s address on the State Of The Union showed the lack of seriousness about international affairs by which his Administration has been making the world ever more dangerous for Americans. The passages on war and peace, like the rest of the speech, consisted of patent untruths loosely related to Administration programs – the former meant to justify the latter.

Whatever one might think of Obama’s domestic agenda, these couplets reflected a serious intent to advance it. Thus, because ”climate change” is the cause of Western drought and Eastern floods, Obama will impose new restrictions on the use of fossil fuels; and because “reform” of unemployment insurance will get people back to work, Congress must extend the term of current insurance for 1.6 million people. People with an interest in such things know to disregard the nonsense and to take the agenda as seriously as it is meant.

But Obama’s discussion of war and peace verged on abstraction from reality, was not heartfelt, and is certain to call forth disdain. For Obama, the world’s major events might as well be happening on the planet Pluto. Russia is re establishing itself in its “near abroad,” and working with Iran to project a neo-Soviet agenda from Southwest Asia to the Mediterranean. China is inexorably asserting sovereignty over the Western Pacific. As Islam’s Sunni and Shia factions tear at each other’s vitals, they seem to agree only on contempt for America. Obama mentioned none of this.

Rather, as with regard to domestic matters he claimed credit in advance for events that he hopes will take place, and asked for the people’s support on the basis of that claim. He ended the war in Iraq, and is ending the war in Afghanistan. In Syria, he is supporting the good guys. He has put al Qaeda “on the path to defeat, and is doing the same to all similar folk. He is ridding Syria of Chemical weapons, while American diplomacy is at work settling the Arab-Israeli war – the key to a larger peace. He asked Americans to believe that Obama is moving the country “off a permanent war footing.” How, he gave no hint. It is difficult to imagine foreign nations, friend and foe alike, taking any of this seriously. Or Americans for that matter.

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Experts Warn Of ‘Caffeine Use Disorder’

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Photo Credit: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images

Photo Credit: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images

A new study has found that more people are dependent on caffeine to the point experts are issuing a “caffeine use disorder” warning.

The study, coauthored by American University psychology professor Laura Juliano, shows that more people are suffering withdrawl symptoms and are unable to reduce caffeine consumption which is causes the “caffeine use disorder.”

“There is misconception among professionals and lay people alike that caffeine is not difficult to give up. However, in population-based studies, more than 50 percent of regular caffeine consumers report that they have had difficulty quitting or reducing caffeine use,” Juliano said in a press release. ”Through our research, we have observed that people who have been unable to quit or cut back on caffeine on their own would be interested in receiving formal treatment—similar to the outside assistance people can turn to if they want to quit smoking or tobacco use.”

Read more from this story HERE.