Miller and Begich in Dead Heat According Facebook Modeling Used to Predict Election Outcomes

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Photo Credit: InTheCapital

Photo Credit: InTheCapital

Thanks to Facebook’s prominence (there are over 128 million active monthly users in the U.S.) it has become the perfect sample pool for researchers conducting large scale studies. Particularly the social media platform has given political strategists a fascinating glimpse on how political campaigns are being perceived in real time, as well as the ability to predict election outcomes with startling accuracy. Campaigns themselves are also starting to better understand this correlation, with 12 percent of campaign communication budgets going to social media in 2012. So what is Facebook so far telling us about the critical 2014 elections?

In a piece published by POLITICO Magazine, Ph.D. candidates Matthew MacWilliams and Edward Erickson, along with research assistant Nicole Berns, took a look at what Facebook reveals about the political changes to come in 2014. These scholars studied three major variables to make their predictions. First, the growth of a candidate’s fan base, measured by the number of “likes” over time on their page. Next they look at the growth of engagement, measured by the shares and comments on the candidates content that users share with their friends. Lastly, they divide these two factors to discover the candidate’s effectiveness in mobilizing voters, by seeing how many of those that “like” the candidate actually engage with others about it.

Based on this formula, the researchers predicted the outcome of four Senate races in 2014, taking place in North Carolina, Alaska, Kentucky and Michigan, and conclude that the Republicans will likely pick up a seat this year…

The big upset could happen in Alaska, where this Facebook model has incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Begich dead even with both of his Republican challengers, Joe Miller and Mead Treadwell.

Read more from this story HERE.

Without Protecting This Most Fundamental Right, None of the Others Matter

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Screen Shot 2014-01-22 at 3.51.46 AMDear Friend of Liberty,

The intolerance and bigotry of the hard political Left has raised its ugly head yet again.

Earlier this week, the Washington Examiner reported: “New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo believes that pro-life activists, along with anti-gay activists and supporters of the Second Amendment, are not welcome in his state.”

Could this happen in Alaska? If Mark Begich and Barack Obama get their way, this brand of left-wing zealotry is just around the corner.

After all, Mr. Begich was the 60th and deciding vote for an Obamacare law that imposes a kind of ideological hegemony that shows no respect for Alaskans whose religious convictions compel them to stand in opposition to abortion or contraception.

Mark Begich has been a rubber stamp for Obama’s radical anti-gun appointees.

And, you guessed it, he’s also been a strong backer of measures like Anchorage Prop. 5 and federal ENDA legislation that would force people of faith to either compromise their religious convictions, or abandon the public square.

It is noteworthy that Wednesday will mark the 41st Anniversary of the Supreme Court’s dreadful Roe v. Wade. In four short decades more than 56 million American lives have been snuffed out by abortion.

Make no mistake about it, Mark Begich strongly supports legal protection for the taking of innocent human life. It’s time for a senator who respects our First Liberty, the Constitutional Right to life!

When I am elected to the United States Senate, I will co-Sponsor Senator Rand Paul’s “Life at Conception Act” to ensure that every Alaskan’s First Liberty is protected, even those too young to speak for themselves.

If you agree that it’s time to stand up for Constitutional liberty, I need your help today.

Thanks for standing with me in the battle for life and liberty!

In the Fight,

Joe Miller, Candidate
United States Senate

Bachmann: Obama’s Legacy Is ‘Establishment of Lawlessness in United States’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

Because he did not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and now unilaterally adjusts the Obamacare law as it unfolds, President Barack Obama is sending a signal to liberal federal judges to mirror him and, as a result, the president’s long-term legacy will be “the establishment of lawlessness in the United States,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

Bachmann also compared Obama’s actions to those of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi – “whatever he said was law.”

The congresswoman made her remarks during a Jan. 15 “Conversations with Conservatives” meeting at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. In response to a question about federal judges in several recent cases ruling that state bans against homosexual “marriage” were unconstitutional, Bachmann said this was part of a pattern set by the White House and the U.S. attorney general, which liberal federal judges were copying.

“The president and [Attorney General] Eric Holder were very clear when the president came in,” said Rep. Bachmann. “He said that he believes that the DOMA law [Defense of Marriage Act] was unconstitutional and he wouldn’t enforce it. That’s one example of the lawlessness of this president. He’s violating his obligation under the Constitution to faithfully execute the laws of the land.”

She continued, “He announced to the nation he wasn’t going to faithfully execute the laws of the land. And what’s interesting is that, essentially, you have judges citing an unconstitutional act of the president [ignoring DOMA] as the precedent for their lawless decision for activism.”

Read more from this story HERE.

The Real Scandal: Why are the Benghazi Killers Still at Large?

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Photo Credit: NEWSCOM

Photo Credit: NEWSCOM

Months and months ago, when Barack Obama could be bothered to say anything at all about the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, the president promised to bring the perpetrators to justice. That was before White House spokesman Jay Carney dismissed the attacks as something that “happened a long time ago.”

It’s been 16 months. The U.S. government has neither captured nor killed a single participant in those attacks, which left Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead.

Why? A new report on the attacks from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, along with more than 400 pages of newly declassified congressional testimony from senior military officials, provides fresh insight. The explanation for this failure—a lack of will, combined with a shameless mischaracterization of intelligence—is almost as outrageous as the failure itself.

Since the attack in Benghazi, the Obama administration has refused to publicly identify the parties responsible. But the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report confirms that the U.S. government’s investigation has turned up more and more ties to al Qaeda.

“Individuals affiliated with terrorist groups, including AQIM [Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb], Ansar al-Sharia, AQAP [Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula], and the Mohammad Jamal Network, participated in the September 11, 2012, attacks,” according to the Senate Benghazi report, prepared under the supervision of Chairman Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and signed by every Democrat on the panel.

Read more from this story HERE.

Benghazi Guards Refused to Protect Fleeing Americans

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

The Senate’s 88-page report on the Benghazi assault provides a new detail about the role of an al-Qaida-linked organization that provided external security to the fated U.S. special mission.

According to the report, the Libyan 17th of February Brigade militia refused to “provide cover” for the U.S. security team that was trapped inside the compound.

The detail was not mentioned in the State Department-sanctioned Accountability Review Board, or ARB, investigating the Benghazi attack. The ARB paints a picture of the 17th of February Brigade as largely aiding in the evacuation of the U.S. personnel at the mission.

The 17th of February Brigade, which was hired by the State Department to protect the U.S. facility in Benghazi, operates under the Ansar-Al-Sharia banner.

Ansar al-Sharia, tied to al-Qaida, has been implicated in carrying out the attack.

Read more from this story HERE.

When a Democrat Lies, it’s Never an Actual Lie

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Ever notice that? When a Dem gets caught red-handed telling a lie, it’s very, very rare for the media to actually call it a lie. Even Obama’s monumental whopper — “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” — still has its diehard defenders.

This week’s example is Texas state senator, gubernatorial candidate, and heroine of abortion enthusiasts across the country: Wendy Davis. As it turns out, she’s said a bunch of stuff about her past that isn’t true.

Well, she’s a politician. It’s to be expected. But she’s also a Democrat who’s championing one of the left’s most treasured policy goals, abortion on demand, so she must be protected.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Takes Phony Route Once Again

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

In the New Yorker interview published over the weekend, President Obama misrepresented his actions when he stated he vetoed a plan for the U.S. to intervene militarily on behalf of the rebel forces in Syria fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

Interviewer David Remnick failed to challenge Obama with evidence the United States is supplying the rebels in Syria with arms after pressing Congress to approve military intervention. The congressional lobbying effort failed after the United Nations was unable to corroborate Obama administration claims that the Assad regime was responsible for chemical attacks against Syrian civilians.

“I am not haunted by my decision not to engage in another Middle Eastern War,” Obama told Remnick.

“It is very difficult to imagine a scenario in which our involvement in Syria would have led to a better outcome, short of us being willing to undertake an effort in size and scope similar to what we did in Iraq.”

Obama, however, went on to affirm that the U.S. was financing and arming the opposition to Assad.

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Drug Czar Contradicts Obama on Impact of Marijuana Use

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Photo Credit: Washington Times

Photo Credit: AP

President Obama’s latest claims about marijuana are contradicted by research and official positions of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is part of the White House. And Mr. Obama’s words have anti-drug leaders worried about negative repercussions among youth.

Mr. Obama claimed to The New Yorker magazine that marijuana is no worse than cigarettes or alcohol and he promoted state efforts by Colorado and Washington to legalize marijuana, which remains illegal under federal law.

The National Drug Control Policy’s official stance, posted on the whitehouse.gov website, says the opposite of Mr. Obama on all counts.

For example, as documented in agency reports, marijuana smoke has significantly more carcinogens than tobacco smoke.

And as reported by the government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, adolescent use of marijuana does something that alcohol does not; it causes permanent brain damage, including lowering of I.Q.

Read more from this story HERE.

UN: Global Prosperity is Causing Global Warming

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Ali al-Saadi/Pool

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Ali al-Saadi/Pool

Growing global economies through expanded trade between rich and poor countries is driving global warming, according to a draft report from the United Nation’s climate bureaucracy. The international agency said that rich countries are “outsourcing” carbon dioxide emissions to poor countries through increasing international trade.

The draft report, obtained by the U.K.’s Guardian, argues that these “outsourced” emissions come “in the form of electronic devices such as smartphones, cheap clothes and other goods manufactured in China and other rising economies but consumed in the U.S. and Europe.”

Much of those increased emissions came from coal plants in China and other developing economies that are used to power factories that produce goods for U.S. and European consumers, the U.N. report says.

“A growing share of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion in developing countries is released in the production of goods and services exported, notably from upper-middle-income countries to high-income countries,” the draft report reads. “A growing share of global emissions is released in the manufacture of products that are traded across international borders.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Wendy Davis Slams Pro-Life Paraplegic Opponent: He’s “Never Walked In My Shoes”

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Photo Credit: LifeNews

Photo Credit: LifeNews

It’s just getting worse and worse for abortion activist Wendy Davis, who is falling on her own sword in the Texas gubernatorial race.

First, Davis was caught by a Dallas newspaper lying about her story of being a single mom who overcame adversity. Then, she sought to blame her problems on pro-life candidate for governor Greg Abbott. Now, in attacking Abbot, she’s stuck her foot in her mouth saying he’s “never walked a mile in my shoes.”

Problem is, Abbott can’t. He’s a paraplegic who is confined to a wheelchair. As a conservative blog notes:

There’s a lot in the Wendy Davis story besides Davis and her constructed and false “narrative.” Here is one of Davis’ most recent official statements on the matter, a little masterpiece of accusing the accusers:

We’re not surprised by Greg Abbott’s [her Texas governorship opponent] campaign attacks on the personal story of my life as a single mother who worked hard to get ahead. But they won’t work, because my story is the story of millions of Texas women who know the strength it takes when you’re young, alone and a mother. I’ve always been open about my life not because my story is unique, but because it isn’t.

Read more from this story HERE.