Another Challenge To The Contraception Mandate Brought in Federal Court

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Another challenge to the Health and Human Services contraception mandate landed in federal court Monday in a case brought by the group Priests for Life, along with some individual plaintiffs.

They argue that being forced to provide no-cost access to all forms of contraception, including those they believe actually induce abortions, would violate their religious freedom.

After Monday’s hearing, Father Frank Pavone, National Director of PFL, said, “What we just saw in that courtroom is of Biblical proportions.”

The Obama administration doesn’t see it that way. Government attorneys have argued that there are exemptions for entities that are truly operating as religious organizations and can prove it.

However, the plaintiff’s attorneys argue that even if they are able to qualify, they are still under an unacceptable burden: facilitating employee access to the contraception via a third-party vendor.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rep. McCaul: ‘Drones Alone Are Not Going to Kill an Ideology’ (+video)

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: CNSNews.com/Penny Starr

Photo Credit: CNSNews.com/Penny Starr

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Candy Crowley, said that while drones are good for going after high value targets, “drones alone are not going to kill an ideology.”

“I think drones are a good tool to go after high value targets. I think good intelligence, special forces. I don’t think occupying countries is really the way to go. I do think that the smart ways to do it, but the problem is drones alone are not going to kill an ideology,” McCaul said.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezoz said his company has been working on a secret project to use drones to deliver products to customers in 30 minutes. Amazon “Prime Air” will be available to customers in four to five years, he told CBS’ Charlie Rose.

Read more from this story HERE.

Cruz Releases Report Slamming President’s ‘Lawless Acts’ in Implementation of ObamaCare

/11 Comments/in , /by

U.S. Senator Cruz speaks during the fifth annual Washington Ideas Forum at the Newseum in WashingtonTed Cruz may no longer be the solicitor general of Texas, but the Republican senator has penned a legal memo about the White House’s “lawless acts on Obamacare.”

The Daily Caller was provided an early look at the memo, set for release Monday. This is the second time Cruz has released a report for his “The Legal Limit: The Obama Administration’s Attempts to Expand Federal Power” series.

Senator Cruz on Obamacare

Read more from this story HERE.

Just a PR Problem? ObamaCare Architect Claims ‘Big PR Campaign’ Needed

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The federal health care overhaul was central to President Obama’s two campaigns for the White House, and has been the defining achievement — for better or worse — of his presidency.

But one of the architects of ObamaCare, in a heated interview on “Fox News Sunday,” argued that the reason young people are not signing up in droves for coverage under the law is the administration hasn’t promoted it.

Ezekiel Emanuel, a former health adviser to the president (and the brother of former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel), argued the administration has been too caught up with fixing HealthCare.gov to give the law the proper promotional push.

“No one has launched a big PR campaign to get these people signed up because of the problems with the federal website,” he told “Fox News Sunday.” “We are about to launch a big PR campaign, and that, I think, is going to persuade a lot of people to sign up.”

He noted the administration still has “four more months to go until the end of March,” when penalties kick in for those who haven’t gotten coverage.

Read more from this story HERE.

5 Days Left: Congress Races Against Deadlines as Doc Cuts, Price Spikes Loom

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Payments to doctors, the price of milk, long-term jobless benefits and more are all on the line this week as lawmakers scramble to beat several end-of-year deadlines — and all by Friday.

Though Dec. 31 is still a few weeks away, congressional sources say the House plans to adjourn at the end of this week. With the Senate returning from its latest recess on Monday, that leaves just five days when both chambers are in session.

The chances for resolving any or all of these issues is unclear. After a year in which little was accomplished even by congressional standards, the deadlines are piling up — and lawmakers are also facing a Jan. 15 deadline to pass a budget or risk another partial government shutdown. On top of that, several lawmakers, and President Obama, are rearranging their schedules to attend memorial services this coming week for the late South African leader Nelson Mandela.

Ahead of a very busy week, congressional leaders got to work trading blame for the lack of progress to date.

Republicans have “made good faith, serious efforts to Senate Democrats” to resolve differences on year-end issues, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “When will they learn to say `yes’ to common ground?”

Read more from this story HERE.

Iran Announces Refusal to Recognize Israel at United Nations Session

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Screenshot

Photo Credit: Screenshot

As the United Nations General Assembly met to approve the credentials of member states on Thursday, Iran took the floor to announce its refusal to recognize the State of Israel.

The only nation to comment for the record on the routine procedure, Iran’s representative said that although the country voted in favor of the motion, it should not be seen as the Islamic Republic’s acknowledgement of Israel’s existence.

“My delegation has just voted in favor of this report, however, we would like to reiterate my government’s position that our support for this document should in no way be considered as the recognition of the Israeli regime,” she said.

In a statement provided to The Algemeiner, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, said that the statement was typical of Iran.

Read more from this story HERE.

Greenspan: Economic ‘Uncertainty’ Greatest I Have Known

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters/Landov

Photo Credit: Reuters/Landov

Uncertainty now represents the biggest problem plaguing the economy, says former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

While the Fed’s massive easing program has stabilized much of the economy, “the issue goes beyond that, because, even though we have very major expansion of the balance sheets, it has not essentially spilled over in lending by commercial banks into the usual pattern that one sees when reserves go up,” he told CNN’s “GPS” program.

So why aren’t banks lending more?

“The first and most important issue to recognize in the United States — and it’s a problem to an extent in other countries as well — is that the level of uncertainty about the very long-term future is far greater than at any time I particularly remember,” Greenspan said.

And one political argument is that “the extent of government intervention has been so horrendous that businesses cannot basically decide what to do about the future,” Greenspan said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Report: Obama Administration Knew Syrian Rebels Had Access to Chemical Weapons

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Stringer / Reuters

Photo Credit: Stringer / Reuters

The Obama administration knew that a Syrian rebel faction had the ability to make chemical weapons but omitted that knowledge when building their case for a strike on Syria, an explosive new report alleges.

Seymour Hersh reports in the London Review of Books on Sunday that President Obama, while pitching the administration’s case for war, “failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack.”

The report, the thrust of which the Obama Administration denies, calls into question the narrative that the administration has outlined since an August 21 chemical attack on a Damascus suburb that almost led the United States into an air war with Syria. The march toward war was based on what Obama and his top aides have characterized as conclusive evidence that Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian government had carried out the attack.

The Hersh article is based in part on a four-page secret cable given to a top official at the Defense Intelligence Agency on June 20, one of a group of intelligence community documents allegedly stating that jihadi rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra has the ability to make sarin gas. Sarin is the chemical believed to have been used in the Aug 21 chemical attack in Ghouta that crossed Obama’s “red line” and prompted the administration to push for a strike on Assad’s regime. The story is sourced mainly to intelligence and military officers and consultants.

“When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad,” Hersh writes.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul Wary of 2016 Run’s Impact on Family

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) said Sunday he was seriously considering a run for the presidency in 2016, but acknowledged potential opposition from his wife was a complicating factor.

Mr. Paul, a favorite of tea party activists, said he would take the next year to explore further the possibility of running and to discuss the process with his family.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sheriff Defies Obama, Will Not Lower US Flag for Mandela (+video)

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: mrsdkrebs

Photo Credit: mrsdkrebs

The American flag that flies over the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office will be raised high tonight despite an order by President Barack Obama that flags across the country be lowered to half-staff to honor the death of iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela.

Sheriff Rick Clark told The Greenville News that he has ordered the flag be raised at the end of today because he said the honor of lowering flags to half-staff should be reserved for Americans.

“The flag at half-staff is for Americans’ ultimate sacrifice for our country,” Clark said. “We should never stray away from that.”

The flag has flown at half-staff and will continue to during daylight hours today in honor of a Lowcountry law enforcement officer who was killed and in honor of Pearl Harbor Day, Clark said.

However, come tonight, the flag will be raised, he said.

Read more from this story HERE.