Earth Barely Escapes an EMP Mass Catastrophe From Coronal Mass Ejection (+video)

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The earth barely missed taking a massive solar punch in the teeth two weeks ago, an “electromagnetic pulse” so big that it could have knocked out power, cars and iPhones throughout the United States.

Two EMP experts told Secrets that the EMP flashed through earth’s typical orbit around the sun about two weeks before the planet got there.

“The world escaped an EMP catastrophe,” said Henry Cooper, who led strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union under President Reagan, and who now heads High Frontier, a group pushing for missile defense.

“There had been a near miss about two weeks ago, a Carrington-class coronal mass ejection crossed the orbit of the Earth and basically just missed us,” said Peter Vincent Pry, who served on the Congressional EMP Threat Commission from 2001-2008. He was referring to the 1859 EMP named after astronomer Richard Carrington that melted telegraph lines in Europe and North America.

“Basically this is a Russian roulette thing,” added Pry. “We narrowly escape from a Carrington-class disaster.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Media Going Wild Over New Revisionist History of Christ Written by Muslim (+video)

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The media is in love with Reza Aslan’s new book Zealot, which claims to provide a ‘historical’ look at the life of Jesus. NPR called it ‘Christ in context,’ while the Seattle Times wrote, ‘Zealot looks at the age Jesus lived in to expand what’s known about this historic figure.’

Over the last week or so, the book shot from obscurity to number one on the Amazon bestseller list. It is always curious when the media decides to trumpet a book based on Jesus, and the situation becomes even more suspect when you begin to uncover who Aslan really is.

“The name of the book is Zealot. The guy who has written it – in no way controversial. There’s no controversy attached to this at all in the mainstream media, which is strange,” Glenn said on radio this morning.

Aslan is Muslim, and while that has little to no impact on his ability to write a book about Jesus, the media and Aslan have sought to minimize that fact…

“Zealot is the latest in the progressive attempt to rewrite history,” Glenn said. “The amazing thing is, it’s working. It’s working… It’s not that he’s a Muslim. It’s the fact he’s a liar and a progressive.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Homosexual Athletes, Fans may be Prosecuted at Russia’s 2014 Winter Olympics

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Photo Credit: Cane KongIn Russia it is now illegal to even speak about homosexuality around minors, much less openly display gay pride. Technically the ban is against “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” around minors, but the implication for openly gay individuals is clear. Public displays of affection by gays, including holding hands or displaying symbols like a rainbow flag, are now banned. Violators face steep fines and jail time; foreigners face similar penalties plus deportation.

So what will happen to openly gay athletes and fans, as well as any vocal supporters or protestors, when Russia hosts the Winter Olympics next year in Sochi?

This week, comments by a lawmaker from St. Petersburg set off a firestorm online when he said that fans and athletes would not be immune from prosecution during the games.

Vitaly Milonov, who sponsored legislation in St. Petersburg last year that became the basis for a national law signed by President Vladimir Putin in June, was quoted telling the Interfax news agency that the law will remain in place during the Olympics and will be applied to foreigners.

“If a law has been approved by the federal legislature and signed by the president, then the government has no right to suspend it. It doesn’t have the authority,” he reportedly said, stressing that he has not heard anything different from Russian officials.

Read more from this story HERE.

Scientists Grow New Teeth Out of Urine

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Photo Credit: MSNWhatever the reason, you may be missing a tooth. But a typical dental implant costs several thousand dollars — and as much as $10,000 if there are complications or bone grafts are needed. And most dental insurance policies don’t cover the bulk of implant costs.

So, the news from China about new research showing that new teeth can actually be grown is nothing short of astounding, and such a process could remake dentistry as we currently know it. As Medical News Today reports, Chinese scientists have successfully used stem cells to grow solid organs, including teeth, from stem cells. The study, first published in the journal Cell Regeneration, also details just how the organs and teeth were regrown: Using stem cells from . . . urine.

The scientists mixed mouse cells and human cells to create the different types of cells that make up a human tooth: pulp, dentin and enamel. The little creations were physically and structurally “quite similar” to human teeth, the study says, though they are not as strong — yet — as natural human teeth.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrats Successfully Lobby Murkowski to Change Vote on “Explosive” ATF Nominee

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By Meredith Shiner. Democrats and their allies lobbied Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for more than an hour Wednesday to change her vote on the nominee to head up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the pressure worked.

Murkowski flipped and voted to advance the nomination of B. Todd Jones to be the ATF’s new director. With her vote change, Murkowski both averted a filibuster, and perhaps more importantly, staved off Democratic threats to end the minority’s ability to filibuster executive branch nominees. Just weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., backed away from using the “nuclear option” after a number of Republicans, including Murkowski, began voting to beat back filibuster attempts led by their own party.

That tentative agreement was imperiled Wednesday by the struggle to get 60 votes for Jones. Murkowski originally voted “no,” but after conferring with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, John McCain, R-Ariz., Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Reid, among others, the Alaska Republican switched to “yes.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Minnesota’s B. Todd Jones is an explosive choice to lead ATF

By Kevin Diaz. The choice of Minnesota U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) made him the face of a national anti-violence agenda growing from the shock of the schoolhouse shooting massacre in Connecticut…

To Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the panel, Jones has a lot to answer for. Grassley has tried unsuccessfully to force Jones to testify about Fast and Furious, a troubled ATF gun-tracking operation on the Mexican border that Jones was brought in to clean up. Grassley also sought to tie Jones to a controversial Justice Department deal to drop two whistleblower cases against St. Paul as a means of averting a civil rights showdown before the Supreme Court over the city’s rental code enforcement…

The criticisms have become personal as well. Republicans have delved into anonymous complaints from lawyers in the Minneapolis U.S. attorney’s office who accuse Jones of an overbearing “militaristic” management style that has fostered a “climate of fear.” An internal ATF video warning of “consequences” for those who go outside of the chain of command was interpreted by some critics as a threat against potential whistleblowers.

Also “disturbing,” Grassley said, was a letter from Donald Oswald, a former head of the Minneapolis FBI office, accusing Jones of “poor leadership” and an “atrocious professional reputation”…

Since 2006, when the agency split off from the U.S. Treasury Department, the gun lobby has objected to every ATF nominee, including the choice of former President George W. Bush. In that sense, some analysts say Jones is as much a symbol as the active head of the ATF. Read more from this story HERE.

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Senate preserves fragile filibuster deal after Murkowski switches her vote to OK ATF nominee

By Susan Ferrechio. The Senate appears to have narrowly avoided blowing up a recent agreement on filibustering executive branch nominees by securing the 60 votes needed to advance the nomination of B. Todd Jones to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“It was close,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said after convincing Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to switch her vote to support Jones. ”The fact that we have this good spirit of bipartisanship to move these nominations forward is what guided us here.”

The Senate advanced Jones’ nomination later Wednesday by a 60-40 vote after Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., flew back to Washington to add her “yes” to the tally. The Senate later formally confirmed him, 53-42 making Jones the first person in seven years to be confirmed by the Senate to fill the ATF position.

The deal to approve Jones nearly fell through earlier in the day, which would have not only left the job vacant but torpedoed a deal struck earlier this month between Democrats and Republicans to move forward on executive branch nominees. Jones was not specifically included in the deal but if the GOP had blocked him Wednesday, it would have re-ignited a years-long fight over the minority’s increasing use of the filibuster and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s threat to change the 60 vote threshold to block a filibuster on executive branch nominees to 51 votes.

The vote on Jones was so close, Democrats held it open for hours to accommodate Heitkamp. She cast the 60th vote. Read more from this story HERE.

Rand Paul Gets Feisty with “King of Bacon” Chris Christie as the War of Words Heats Up (+videos)

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Photo Credit: Reuters By Ashley Killough. The feuding between Republicans Chris Christie and Rand Paul continued Tuesday as the senator from Kentucky cautioned the governor from New Jersey was picking a fight with the wrong guy.

In an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” Paul defended himself against Christie’s most recent allegations that the senator was bringing home too much money for his state.

“This is the king of bacon talking about bacon,” Paul said about Christie. Both are considered potential 2016 contenders for the Republican presidential nomination.

Earlier in the day, the outspoken governor chastised Kentucky for taking more federal money than New Jersey, saying the Blue Grass state gets back $1.51 on every dollar it sends to Washington, while the Garden State receives 61 cents.

“So if Senator Paul wants to start looking at where he’s going to cut spending to afford defense, maybe he should start cutting the pork barrel spending that he brings home to Kentucky,” Christie told reporters Tuesday in Little Ferry.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerThe Christie-Paul battle continues

By Alexis Levinson. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie launched another attack in his ongoing battle with Republican Sen. Rand Paul, dismissing him as a “Washington politician” and criticizing him for taking pork for his home state of Kentucky.

Speaking on a panel in Colorado last week, Christie described the libertarian approach to foreign policy as “dangerous,” and acknowledged that Paul was one of the people engaging in that approach. Since then, the two likely 2016 Republican presidential contenders have lobbed insults back and forth at each other.

“I was asked a question at a forum in Aspen and I gave an answer,” Christie said Tuesday. “Now, I know that for politicians in Washington, DC this a completely foreign concept. They think that there has to be some, like, master plan behind every utterance you make. You’ve covered me long enough to know that there often is not. If you ask me a question, I give an answer. That’s what people expect from people in public life and that’s what I did.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Rand Paul on Christie’s attacks: ‘Not very smart’

By Alec Hill. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul called New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s criticisms of him “not very smart” during an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity Monday night, adding that disrespect for the Bill of Rights is even more dangerous than the “strain of libertarianism” that Christie had criticized.

“I think what is dangerous in our country is to forget that we have a Bill of Rights,” Paul said, “to forget about privacy, to give up on all of our liberty to say, We’re going to catch terrorism, but you have to live in a police state.”

The two have been engaged in a war of words ever since Christie disparaged “a strain of libertarianism that is going through both parties right now and making big headlines” as “a very dangerous thought” at a forum of the Aspen Institute in Colorado on July 25.

Read more from this story HERE.

Must See Video: ‘There’s No Way We Can be a Free Country When the Government has a Dossier on Every Citizen’

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Photo Credit: APSenators strongly criticise intelligence chiefs over NSA data collection

By Spencer Ackerman. On the eve of a major US Senate hearing on the National Security Agency’s bulk surveillance, two senators called for major reforms of the NSA’s collection of phone records and accused US intelligence leaders of misleading the public about its impact on privacy.

A letter sent by the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, to Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator for Oregon, on Friday said that there had been “a number of compliance problems” with the NSA’s bulk, ongoing collection of millions of Americans’ phone records, but “no findings of any intentional or bad-faith violations”.

On the Senate floor late on Tuesday afternoon, Wyden, a member of the Senate intelligence committee, all but accused Clapper of lying.

Citing classified documents that he did not specify, but referring to “violations of court orders”, Wyden said that “these violations are more serious than those stated by the intelligence community, and are troubling”. Wyden urged senators to read classified intelligence documents about the bulk surveillance for themselves.

“Any policymaker who simply defers to intelligence officials without asking to see their evidence is making a mistake,” Wyden warned. Read more from this story HERE.

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Effort to get NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s father to Moscow collapses

By Jerry Markon. The FBI tried to enlist the father of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden to fly to Moscow to try to persuade his son to return to the United States, but the effort collapsed when agents could not establish a way for the two to speak once he arrived, Snowden’s father said Tuesday.

“I said, ‘I want to be able to speak with my son. . . . Can you set up communications?’ And it was, ‘Well, we’re not sure,’ ” Lon Snowden told The Washington Post. “I said, ‘Wait a minute, folks, I’m not going to sit on the tarmac to be an emotional tool for you.’ ”

In a wide-ranging interview, the elder Snowden offered a vehement defense of the young man some have labeled a traitor. He said that Edward, who is holed up at an airport in Moscow, grew up in a patriotic family in suburban Maryland, filled with federal agents and police officers, and that he “loves this nation.’’

Asked what triggered his son’s decision to leak top-secret intelligence documents, Snowden, a retired Coast Guard officer, said he didn’t know. Although Edward had seemed troubled in April during their final dinner together, he said his son had recently put up a “firewall between himself and his family.”

“We had no idea what was coming,’’ he said. Read more from this story HERE.

Top Weiner Aide Goes on Four-Letter Tirade After Intern Gives “Tell-All” Interview (+video)

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Photo Credit: TPMTop Weiner Aide Trashes Intern Who Wrote Campaign Tell-All

By Hunter Walker. Tuesday was an angry day in Weinerland.

The campaign staff awoke to see their former intern, Olivia Nuzzi, on the front cover of the Daily News. Inside the paper was an article bylined by Nuzzi in which she told a rather unflattering tale of her experience working on Anthony Weiner’s mayoral bid.

Now, Team Weiner is firing back. TPM called Weiner’s communications director Barbara Morgan to discuss an unrelated story Tuesday and she went off on a curse-filled rant about Nuzzi, describing her as a fame hungry “b**ch” who “sucked” at her job. Morgan also called Nuzzi a “slutbag,” “t**t,” and “c**t” while threatening to sue her.

On Monday, Nuzzi, a college student and writer, published a story on the blog NSFWCORP that claimed multiple sources on the campaign told her there had been “six departures” from Weiner’s team, more than had been previously disclosed. She also claimed that staffers had been underpaid and that the former campaign manager, Danny Kedem, left over the weekend because Weiner “lied to him about the timing of his sexting scandal.”

Nuzzi’s post on NSFWCORP was followed up by Tuesday’s Daily News cover story in which she claimed Weiner incorrectly called multiple interns “Monica” and said people only joined Weiner’s campaign to curry favor with his wife, Huma Abedin, a close aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Along with these allegations, Nuzzi wrote in the Daily News that “a lot” of Weiner’s staff had “short résumés,” including Morgan, who Nuzzi derisively noted “last worked as the press secretary for the New Jersey state education commissioner.” Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: CNNWeiner spokesperson apologizes for trash-talking about ex-intern

By Ashley Killough. Anthony Weiner¹s communications director apologized Tuesday night for bashing a former intern in a scathing interview laced with four-letter words.

“In a moment of frustration, I used inappropriate language in what I thought was an off the record conversation,” Barbara Morgan said in a statement to CNN. “It was wrong and I am very sorry.”

Morgan added that she called and apologized Tuesday night to the former intern, Olivia Nuzzi.

Talking Points Memo, a left-leaning news organization, published a report late Tuesday night, quoting Morgan as she responded to a New York Daily News article written by Nuzzi, who described an unflattering account of Weiner¹s New York City mayoral campaign.

“(Morgan) went off on a curse-filled rant about Nuzzi, describing her as a fame hungry ‘b**ch’ who ‘sucked’ at her job. Morgan also called Nuzzi a ‘sl*tb*g,’ ‘tw*t,’ and ‘c**t’ while threatening to sue her,” the TPM article stated. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APHuma Abedin to take break from job with Hillary Clinton

By Maggie Haberman. Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s transition office chief and the wife of embattled New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, is expected to take extended vacation time from her job with the former first lady in the coming days, sources told POLITICO.

The move is not a leave of absence, two sources familiar with the move insisted, and it’s not precisely clear when she will depart for her vacation time from her day job.

It was a loose plan she’d had for weeks, since Hillary Clinton has close to no schedule next month – the Clintons are expected to vacation in the monied East Hampton enclave on Long Island – and Abedin had been expected to take the final few weeks leading up to the mayoral primary to be with her husband.

But she decided to stick to it as current events in her husband’s campaign have unfolded, the sources said. Weiner has spent the last week answering questions about fresh sexting incidents after he left Congress in 2011, and Abedin has been the subject of a string of rough headlines since she spoke at a press conference with her husband and said she loved and believed in him.

“Huma is not taking a leave of absence, but she will be taking vacation time in August to support her family during Anthony’s campaign,” said a Weiner campaign source. “She had always intended to do this.” Read more from this story HERE.

Rush Limbaugh: We Must Take the GOP Over (+video)

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsBy Jason Howerton. Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh sees a “battle” for the Republican Party happening right now between “mainstream” Republicans and true conservatives who rely on principle over politics. Meanwhile, he says that President Barack Obama is “relishing the opportunity to put into play what the leftists have only dreamed about in faculty lounges for 50 to 75 years.”

“I mean — there’s a battle for the [Republican] party going on,” Limbaugh told Greta Van Susteren in a rare and wide-ranging TV interview. “And sure, it — it’s — it would be a tough battle. But there’s no other option. I mean you don’t want to go third party. That’s just — that — that just ensures the Democrats are a majority party forever. You don’t want to do that.”

So what’s the solution, according to Limbaugh?

“[Y]ou have to do what you can to work within the Republican Party and take it over,” he said.

When asked about who he admires within Republican politics, Limbaugh named Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. However, he also said he respects all politicians who are “fearless and have the courage of their convictions and have no compunction about saying it.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Limbaugh: Republicans Want a New Base Without Tea Party

By Greg Richter. The Republican Party wishes the tea party would go away, and would prefer a new base altogether, says conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

In an hourlong interview with Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren Tuesday, Limbaugh said the Republican leadership isn’t conservative.

“They’re not particularly crazy about conservatives,” he said, adding that members of the tea party can’t be controlled by the GOP leadership. In 2010, the grassroots movement rose up in opposition to President Barack Obama, but the Republican establishment didn’t embrace them.

Tea party members sensed that rejection and sat home in the 2012 presidential election, Limbaugh said, handing defeat to GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

And Limbaugh says the GOP establishment isn’t too enamored of him either. Read more from this story HERE.

Obama on Stupid: “More Government Workers Mean More Tax Revenue”

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Photo Credit: APPresident Barack Obama – citing the job losses since he took office — said “the economy would be much better off,” unemployment would be 6.5 percent and the national deficit would be in decline if there were more federal, state and local government workers.

“If those layoffs had not happened, if public sector employees grew like they did in the past two recessions, the unemployment rate would be 6.5 instead of 7.5,” Obama said. “Our economy would be much better off, and the deficit would still be going down because we would be getting more tax revenue.”

Obama spoke Tuesday at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he promoted plans he said would help the middle class such as corporate tax reform, increased federal spending on infrastructure, more education spending, public-private partnerships and rolling back the sequester.

“Instead of using a scalpel to get rid of programs we don’t need and keep vital investments that we do, the same group has kept in place this meat cleaver called the sequester that is just slashing all kinds of investments in education and research and our military,” Obama said.

Read more from this story HERE.