Huckabee: Dems Say Women Need Government to ‘Control their Libido’ (+video)

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says that Democrats are pushing women to believe “they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government.”

The onetime presidential candidate made the comments to the Republican National Committee’s Winter Meeting in Washington D.C.

“If the Democrats want to insult women by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it,” he said. “Let us take this discussion all across America because women are far more than the Democrats have played them to be.”

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: Google Chrome Users Exposed To Security Flaw That Allows Snoops To Listen In Undetected

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: gudmundur.bjarni

Photo Credit: gudmundur.bjarni

By exploiting the voice control feature that is standard on many computers, smartphones and tablets, hackers can turn Google Chrome into a listening device to record your conversations without your knowledge, according to a web developer.

The developer, an employee at a start-up in Tel Aviv and an authority in voice recognition technology, explained on his blog how malicious websites could hack your Chrome browser to listen in on your personal moments through your computer’s microphone:

A user visits a site, that uses speech recognition to offer some cool new functionality. The site asks the user for permission to use his mic, the user accepts, and can now control the site with his voice. Chrome shows a clear indication in the browser that speech recognition is on, and once the user turns it off, or leaves that site, Chrome stops listening. So far, so good.

But what if that site is run by someone with malicious intentions?

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: Virginia Attorney General to Fight State’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Virginia’s attorney general announced Thursday that he believes the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and that Virginia will ask a federal court to strike it down, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

A spokeswoman for Democrat Mark R. Herring told the newspaper he thinks the ban is unnecessary and plans to file a brief on behalf of two same-sex couples in Norfolk who are challenging the ban, which was approved by voters in 2006, 57 percent to 43 percent.

“The attorney general has concluded that the ban violates the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution on two grounds — one, marriage is a fundamental right being denied to some Virginians, and two, the ban unlawfully discriminates on a basis of sexual orientation and gender,” spokeswoman Ellen Qualls told the newspaper.

Herring, took office Jan. 11, succeeding Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who opposes same-sex marriage. Herring voted for the ban as a state senator in 2006, but says that he has changed his views on the issue in recent years.

“I talked to a lot of people, I thought a lot about it, talked to my family, and I have seen how I would not want the state to tell my son or my daughter who they can and cannot marry,” Herring said last August, according to the report.

Read more from this story HERE.

Emails Show EPA Ignored Request for More Realistic Cost Ranges for Coal Regulations

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Thinkstock)

Photo Credit: Thinkstock)

Environmental Protection Agency officials ignored requests from the Office of Management and Budget to include a more realistic cost range for implementing stringent coal regulations for new coal plants, according to emails released by regulations.gov.

Prior to the EPA releasing its New Source Performance Standards, which would severely limit the building of new coal-fired power plants due to a requirement for those plants to include carbon capture and storage technology, the OMB raised multiple questions regarding the implementation of the regulations, including cost and feasibility of the technology.

“EPA’s assertion of the technical feasibility of carbon capture relies heavily on literature reviews, pilot projects, and commercial facilities yet to operate,” the OMB wrote. “We believe this cannot form the basis of a finding that CCS on commercial scale power plants is ‘adequately demonstrated’.”

The OMB also suggested the EPA include the full range of costs for implementing the technology instead of the low range, as the draft rule included.

“The commenter believes that it would be appropriate for the proposed rule to consider the full range of cost estimates developed by [the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory], recognizing the level of uncertainty in these estimates,” the OMB wrote.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Conservatives Plot Takedown of GOP Leaders’ Amnesty Plans

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

As House Republican leaders prepare an immigration proposal that could go much further towards amnesty than their prior public stances, conservative lawmakers are quietly plotting to push back.

Aides from over a dozen House offices secretly convened today on the Senate side of the Capitol at a meeting organized by Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a top immigration hawk who has recently involved himself more aggressively in the affairs of the lower chamber.

“Over here in the Senate working for Senator Sessions, we learned a lot last year about the strategies employed by the powerful forces pushing bad immigration policies–and how to counter them,” reads a copy of the invitation to the meeting provided to Breitbart News by a House staffer.

Officials close to the matter say conservative critics of Speaker John Boehner’s planned immigration push are working to issue their own rival immigration principles to vie with the document Boehner is drafting.

“There is definitely a growing mood of confusion and aggravation among conservatives in the House over the immigration issue right now,” one House GOP aide said in an email to Breitbart News, adding that many on the right find the “political logic” of riling up the party’s base so close to a low-turnout midterm election baffling.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Policies Make Income Inequality a Lot Worse

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Income inequality has been growing since the 1970s, but President Obama’s economic policies are making it worse and making it grow much faster than did either Presidents Bush or Clinton.

Globalization is driving the sinking fortunes of many ordinary Americans.

Prior to World War II, the U.S. economy was largely isolated. It traded with the world much less than did rivals like Germany because labor was scarcer and wages were higher for ordinary workers than just about anyplace else.

The New Deal strengthened unions and the post-war growth of manufacturing created a thriving middle class. Competition for workers tended to raise wages in service activities too.

Subsequently, the United States championed freer trade through the World Trade Organization. Cheaper ocean freight, then jet travel and now the Internet blurred boundaries between national markets. Combined with the rise of Japan and China, those severely injured U.S. electronics, auto and other manufacturing are now eroding employment in many professional services.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama ‘Threatening Fox News Reporter’s Career’

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren charges that the Obama administration tried to press her to shut down a colleague’s reporting on the jihadist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that cost the lives of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

Van Susteren asserted recently on her blog that the administration made an extensive effort to conceal what happened in Benghazi. She cited U.S. officials’ refusal to include the Fox News Channel in several Benghazi briefings along with a warning that her colleague’s career would be ruined if she persisted in her reporting on the attack.

The Fox News host recalled a “disturbing phone call from a good friend in the Obama administration” shortly after the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, which the administration initially blamed on a protest of an anti-Islam video.

“In this call, my friend told me that my colleague Jennifer Griffin, who was aggressively reporting on Benghazi, was wrong and that, as a favor to me, my friend in the administration was telling me so that I could tell Jennifer so that she did not ruin her career,” Van Susteren wrote.

Van Susteren said that in her 20-plus years in the business, she had never received a call to try to shut down a colleague.

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. Appeals Court Throws Arctic Drilling Into Further Doubt

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Paxson Woelber

Photo Credit: Paxson Woelber

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Interior Department wrongly awarded offshore oil leases in the Chukchi Sea near Alaska in 2008 without considering the full range of environmental risks posed by drilling in the Arctic.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the on-going dispute – pitting environmental groups and Native Alaska tribes against the federal government and energy companies – back to U.S. District in Anchorage, Alaska.

It was not immediately clear what the decision would mean for the oil company Royal Dutch Shell Plc and its plans, revealed in December, to resume exploratory drilling this coming summer in the Chukchi.

Shell is the major lease holder from the sale six years ago. Company spokeswoman Megan Baldino said in an email statement: “We are reviewing the opinion.”

A spokeswoman for the Interior Department declined to comment, saying the agency does not discuss pending legal matters.

Read more from this story HERE.

Chamber of Commerce Reportedly To Spend $50 Million Going After Tea Party

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent more than $50 million on lobbying efforts last year and will surpass that this year as it ramps up its efforts on amnesty, Common Core, and the destruction of the Tea Party that is opposed to both measures.

According to disclosure reports, the Chamber of Commerce spent about $52.7 million last year, and much of that was spent on what has been described as the “top legislative priority for the business community”–amnesty for illegal immigrants. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determined that the pathway to citizenship provision in immigration reform legislation would lower the wages of American workers.

In 2014, Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue said the group would be pulling out “all the stops” to try and pass amnesty. In addition, the group will reportedly spend $50 million to try to crush the Tea Party in the midterm elections, largely because the movement has fiercely been opposed to amnesty. During his “State of American Business” address this month, Donohue also said the Chamber “significantly supports” Common Core, as well, and will be looking to push Common Core programs.

“Of course the states should adopt and implement the Common Core educational standards, which the Chamber significantly supports,” Donohue declared.

Read more from this story HERE.

BEN CARSON: A Physician’s View On the Sanctity of Life

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: CarsonScholars.org

Photo Credit: CarsonScholars.org

Several years ago, I was consulted by a young woman who was 33 weeks pregnant and was on her way to Kansas get an abortion. I informed her of the multiple options available to her outside of abortion and she decided to go through with the pregnancy even though the child had hydrocephalus and required neurosurgical intervention after birth a few weeks later. She kept the baby and loves the beautiful child that has resulted.

A couple of decades ago, I came into the pediatric Intensive Care Unit on morning rounds and was told about a four-year-old girl who had been hit by an ice cream truck, and was comatose and exhibiting little neurological function other than reactive pupils. I tested her pupillary reflexes and both pupils were fixed and dilated. The staff indicated to me that this is something that must have just occurred. I grabbed the bed and with some help, transported her quickly to the operating room for an emergency craniotomy. I was met along the way by a senior neurosurgeon who told me I was wasting my time and that at best, we would end up with someone in a vegetative state.

Nevertheless, we completed the operation and a few days later, her pupils became reactive and she eventually left the hospital. I saw her a few years ago walking through the hospital with her own 4-year-old little girl. She was neurologically fully intact and told me she had become somewhat of a celebrity because of the experience I just related. What do these two stories have in common? They both involve precious lives that could easily have been discarded.

My entire professional life has been devoted to saving and enhancing lives. Thus, the thought of abortion for the sake of convenience does not appeal to me. I have personally met several people who have told me that their mothers had considered abortion, but happily decided against it.

Read more from this story HERE.