Establishment Groups on Retreat Against Tea Party Incumbents

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Photo Credit: Getty Images Big-business and establishment groups vowed they would wage war on conservatives and Tea Party candidates, particularly incumbents, in 2014, but they are backing off after realizing they may not want to throw money at losers.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce vowed to spend $50 million taking sides in GOP primaries for establishment-friendly candidates, and other GOP establishment front-groups vowed to raise and spend millions more dollars against conservative and Tea Party candidates.

“Big Business swore this would be the year it would wrestle back the soul of the Republican Party from the grip of the tea party,” Politico writes. “But with primary season looming, the big threats from Big Business appear to be just that.”

Politico notes that the big-business groups are not backing many candidates early and have not “cowed conservative groups fueling challenges to incumbent senators.”

The Republican party has shifted to the right for at least the last thirteen years, according to Gallup polls, and on issues like amnesty, grassroots have mobilized against it even without big-money being spent by amnesty opponents. For instance, after the House GOP released its so-called “immigration principles,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed the document as “amnesty.” That was enough to stall whatever momentum there may have been as the grassroots galvanized against amnesty, forcing GOP leaders to declare that they would not go forward on amnesty until they can trust President Barack Obama to actually enforce any new law that may be passed.

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Immigration Change Gives Legal Status to Undocumented Relatives of US Military

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Photo Credit: Fox News Immigration reform may be stalled in Congress, but a new Obama administration policy is extending legal status and military benefits to thousands of illegal immigrants who are the spouses, parents and children of American military members.

Supporters say the policy — which applies to active-duty military, reservists and veterans — is long overdue.

“Those veterans and those men and women who serve in the National Guard certainly deserve the peace of mind that their family members will not be deported,” immigration attorney Faye Kolly said.

But critics say the policy is tantamount to backdoor amnesty.

“A whole class of aliens with no right to be in the United States are suddenly going to be allowed to live and work here on the basis of their relationship with military and veterans,” said Dan Cadman, with the Center for Immigration Studies.

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Where in the World is Malaysia Airlines Flight 370? Conspiracy Theorists Take to the Internet (+video)

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Photo Credit: BJÖRN WYLEZICH
Details concerning the sudden, Saturday disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 continue to trickle in. Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia’s Civil Aviation Authority, said the missing Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers presents an “unprecedented mystery.”

Here’s what we do know: The flight disappeared on Friday night/Saturday morning en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The plane was at cruising altitude (35,000 feet) and weather was more or less clear. Air traffic controllers in Vietnam say contact with the crew disappeared about 120 nautical miles east of the Malaysian town of Kota Bharu, and radar signals suggest the plane may have turned around before losing contact.

And yet, nearly three whole days later, there are still no signs of the jet or its passengers. And an oil slick spotted in the South China sea originally thought to be a clue turned out to be a false lead:

Two Italian passengers said to be aboard the flight turned out to be safe on the ground, when they told authorities that their passports had, in fact, been stolen earlier. Someone aboard the flight was said to be using them, one of whom resembled a famous soccer player:

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Lindsey Graham Hopes ‘We Don’t Lose Alaska’

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesFirst Ukraine, then the Bering Strait?

Sen. Lindsey Graham joked Monday that the U.S. might need to watch out for Russian President Vladimir Putin on our own turf if things continue.

“I just hope we don’t lose Alaska. The more [President Barack] Obama talks to Putin the worse we do,” the South Carolina Republican cracked on “Kilmeade and Friends” on Fox News Radio.

Appearing on the show with his frequent partner in foreign policy, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Graham said the situation in Ukraine is a “defining moment” for Obama and he needs to rally Europe to stand up to Putin.

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Hamas Unveils Rocket Statue in Gaza City

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Photo Credit: AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams Hamas unveiled a rocket-shaped statue Monday showcasing its capacity to strike arch-enemy Israel, as the Jewish state boasted its own haul of captured weapons it claims were bound for Gaza.

“Hamas managed to take the battle to the heart of the Zionist entity (Israel) after developing its rocket system, succeeding where many Arab armies had failed,” said a leader of Hamas armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, flanked by masked fighters at the statue’s unveiling.

The monument in Gaza City features a life-size model of a large M75 rocket, named in honour of Qassam Brigades founding member Ibrahim al-Maqadma — who was assassinated by Israel in 2003 — and alluding to its range of 75 kilometres.

M75 rockets fired from Gaza during the last major war with Israel in November 2012 struck areas around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, almost 70 kilometres (40 miles) away.

The unveiling of the black-and-red rocket that points skywards on a stone pedestal came as Israel was showcasing a shipment of arms it claims to have captured on its way from Iran to Gaza.

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Barber Shop Refuses Customers Who Smell Like Pot (+video)

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Photo Credit: CBSA barber shop in Greeley refuses service to people who smell like marijuana.

The owner of Hugo’s Barber Shop said he felt he had to step in when it got bad.

“I feel that it’s my right to make the statement. It’s the same thing as no shoes no service,” said shop owner Hugo Corral.

His policy has to do with people who come in reeking of marijuana.

Corral said he has no problem with those who chose to use marijuana and even calls himself a supporter of the industry.

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‘Girls’ Star Lena Dunham Dresses Like Eve, Mocks Bible on SNL

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Photo Credit: david_shankboneAs expected, Girls creator/star Lena Dunham got nude on Saturday Night Live this weekend, in one scene mocking the Genesis Eden story, where a partly blurred-out nude Dunham and leaf-covered co-star Taran Killam poked fun at the biblical narrative. Saturday’s episode earned SNL’s second lowest ratings of the year.

“Son of God. Noah,” says the narrator. “And now, another extraordinary Biblical film that tells the astonishing story of the Garden of Eden and the Garden of Life itself.” Dunham then appears naked. “Adam, Adam, a snake just talked to me. Is that normal?” Dunham says. “Before there were Girls,” the narrator says, “there was the first Girl.” Taran Killam appears as Adam, and Dunham says, “I just like want to know what we’re even doing here. Are we like man and wife?” When Killam responds that Eve was made from his rib, Dunham says, “Oh my God, that is like so sexist, I can’t believe you would even bring that up right now. Take a gender and women’s studies class!”

When God catches her after eating the apple, she says, “Can you please not apple shame me right now? I know I committed original sin, but at least it’s original! I think I deserve some credit for that, or at least a publishing deal!” God says she’s old enough to be on her own, to which Dunham says she doesn’t even have health insurance.

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Provocative Weakness and Phony Promises

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Photo Credit: National Review Sixty-nine years after the American president traveled to the Crimean peninsula to capitulate to a Russian strongman, Barack Obama’s weakness is pushing the United States to another generational conflict with Moscow.

In exchange for some phony promises of future, multilateral cooperation, Franklin Roosevelt in 1945 sated Joseph Stalin’s appetite to expand the population of subjugates under Moscow’s thumb. Eastern European innocents would pay for that mistake in the cold, dark shadow of totalitarianism for nearly half a century. And Americans paid for it with a multibillion-dollar cold war that strained our budgets, dragged our economy, and posed an ever-present threat to the national psyche.

Roosevelt’s failure was to believe a land-grabber could be coaxed, instead of confronted, into submission. Of Stalin, he said, “I think that if I give him everything that I possibly can and ask nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won’t try to annex anything and will work for a world of democracy and peace.” Sound familiar? President Obama’s performance in the current Crimean crisis bears all the marks of that same naïveté.

Obama seems to believe or, at a minimum, to hold out hope that multilateral shame can make a tyrant blush. Roosevelt, similarly, conceded Russian domination of Eastern Europe in exchange for Stalin’s agreement to become a member of the United Nations, where, Roosevelt presumably thought, Stalin would sit around the international family table and play nice.

Since Russian troops began massing on the border of Crimea, and then surrounding Ukrainian military assets, President Obama has couched his response only in terms of what the United States is doing to consult its allies. This leader of the free world, when put under pressure that only his office can address, resorts to speaking about process instead of principle. And as is ever the case, this president confuses talking with doing, and consultation with commitment.

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A World-Famous Chemist Tells the Truth: There’s No Scientist Alive Today Who Understands Macroevolution

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Photo Credit: Uncommon Descent Professor James M. Tour is one of the ten most cited chemists in the world. He is famous for his work on nanocars (pictured above, courtesy of Wikipedia), nanoelectronics, graphene nanostructures, carbon nanovectors in medicine, and green carbon research for enhanced oil recovery and environmentally friendly oil and gas extraction. He is currently a Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Computer Science, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Rice University. He has authored or co-authored 489 scientific publications and his name is on 36 patents. Although he does not regard himself as an Intelligent Design theorist, Professor Tour, along with over 700 other scientists, took the courageous step back in 2001 of signing the Discovery Institute’s “A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism”, which read: “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.”

On Professor Tour’s Website, there’s a very revealing article on evolution and creation, in which Tour bluntly states that he does not understand how macroevolution could have happened, from a chemical standpoint (all bold emphases below are mine – VJT):

Although most scientists leave few stones unturned in their quest to discern mechanisms before wholeheartedly accepting them, when it comes to the often gross extrapolations between observations and conclusions on macroevolution, scientists, it seems to me, permit unhealthy leeway. When hearing such extrapolations in the academy, when will we cry out, “The emperor has no clothes!”?

…I simply do not understand, chemically, how macroevolution could have happened. Hence, am I not free to join the ranks of the skeptical and to sign such a statement without reprisals from those that disagree with me? … Does anyone understand the chemical details behind macroevolution? If so, I would like to sit with that person and be taught, so I invite them to meet with me.

In a more recent talk, entitled, Nanotech and Jesus Christ, given on 1 November 2012 at Georgia Tech, Professor Tour went further, and declared that no scientist that he has spoken to understands macroevolution – and that includes Nobel Prize winners!…

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Rand Paul: GOP has ‘Real Opportunity’ to Attract Youth Voters

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Photo Credit: AP / Susan WalshSen. Rand Paul says his Republican Party is posed to attract more youth voters, a demographic the GOP has struggled to make inroads with in recent presidential elections.

The Kentucky lawmaker told “Fox News Sunday” that while President Obama won the youth vote by a 3-to-1 ratio, young Americans increasingly are disillusioned with the president.

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