eBay Yanks Beck’s ‘Obama in Pee Pee’ Art Project Meant to Raise Money for Charity (+video)

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The popular online auction site eBay has yanked a piece of artwork done by Glenn Beck citing its belief that the project featured an Obama figurine floating in actual urine (it was not, however).

On Tuesday evening, Glenn Beck featured an Obama bobble head doll in a jar of yellow liquid, catalyzed by Michael D’Anouto’s painting titled, “Truth,” which features a crucified Obama and also parodies the controversial “artwork” dubbed “Piss Christ” that defaced a crucifix in a glass of urine.

Beck’s piece was meant to underscore the importance of adhering to the First Amendment and highlight the hypocrisy of those who adhere to it only when it suits them. Often, members of the Left will rail against the disparaging of figures they hold dear, but do not hold themselves to the same standard when disparaging figures others hold dear.

Beck was auctioning the jar, complete with the Obama doll, on the auction site, with all the proceeds set to go to Beck’s Mercury One charity. At the last entry its bid was up to $11,300. On Wednesday morning, however, eBay removed the auction page.

Listen to Beck’s radio team discuss:

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Russian Mafia Whistleblower Found Dead

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photo credit: sergio vassio

WEYBRIDGE/LONDON – A Russian businessman helping Swiss prosecutors to uncover a powerful fraud syndicate has died in unexplained circumstances near his mansion in Britain, in a twist to a Russian mafia scandal that has strained Moscow’s ties with the West.

Alexander Perepilichny, 44, sought refuge in Britain three years ago and had been helping a Swiss investigation into a Russian money-laundering scheme by providing evidence against corrupt officials, his colleagues and media reports said.

He has also provided evidence against those linked to the 2009 death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, a case that caused an international outcry and prompted the US to push for a bill cracking down on Russian corruption.

Perepilichny, a Russian citizen, collapsed and died not far from his home on an upmarket, heavily protected estate in the county of Surrey, south of London, on November 10.

He is now the fourth person linked to the Magnitsky case to have died in strange circumstances.

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Mitt Romney: A good man. The right fight.

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Over the years, one of the more troubling characteristics of the Democratic Party and the left in general has been a shortage of loyalty and an abundance of self-loathing. It would be a shame if we Republicans took a narrow presidential loss as a signal that those are traits we should emulate.

I appreciate that Mitt Romney was never a favorite of D.C.’s green-room crowd or, frankly, of many politicians. That’s why, a year ago, so few of those people thought that he would win the Republican nomination. But that was indicative not of any failing of Romney’s but of how out of touch so many were in Washington and in the professional political class. Nobody liked Romney except voters. What began in a small field in New Hampshire grew into a national movement. It wasn’t our campaign, it was Romney. He bested the competition in debates, and though he was behind almost every candidate in the GOP primary at one time or the other, he won the nomination and came very close to winning the presidency.

In doing so, he raised more money for the Republican Party than the party did. He trounced Barack Obama in debate. He defended the free-enterprise system and, more than any figure in recent history, drew attention to the moral case for free enterprise and conservative economics.

When much of what passes for a political intelligentsia these days predicted that the selection of Rep. Paul Ryan meant certain death on the third rail of Medicare and Social Security, Romney brought the fight to the Democrats and made the rational, persuasive case for entitlement reform that conservatives have so desperately needed. The nation listened, thought about it — and on Election Day, Romney carried seniors by a wide margin. It’s safe to say that the entitlement discussion will never be the same.

On Nov. 6, Romney carried the majority of every economic group except those with less than $50,000 a year in household income. That means he carried the majority of middle-class voters. While John McCain lost white voters younger than 30 by 10 points, Romney won those voters by seven points, a 17-point shift. Obama received 4½million fewer voters in 2012 than 2008, and Romney got more votes than McCain.

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Stuart Stevens was the chief strategist for the Romney presidential campaign.

After Growing Up in Household Where Married Gays Can’t Go to Heaven, Brad Pitt Says He’s Glad Obama Won

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Brad Pitt says that even though his mother came out against President Obama and same-sex marriage, he is very happy about the election and feels that the country is headed in the right direction by allowing equal rights to all couples.

In an interview with People magazine, Pitt said that he respectfully disagrees with his mother’s position and has been an outspoken advocate for legalizing gay marriage throughout the U.S. ‘Sure, I believe in it. I believe in the idea of fairness and equality in our country. I truly believe it’s a matter of time. The next generation isn’t frightened by anything,’ Pitt said.

He explained that while he and partner Angelina Jolie, who he called ‘Mama’ throughout the interview, are planning to get married in the near future, they believe that it is a right that should be extended to everyone. ‘I come from a Christian family, and (gay marriage) goes against Christian beliefs, as far as what’s going to get you into heaven or not. My argument is, that you may be as you believe, and it may be true in the end I don’t think so- but let your God make that call, and in the meantime we live in a country where everyone should be treated equally, so let’s treat everyone equally,’ he said.

Pitt’s political beliefs were called into question when his mother Jane wrote a letter to her local paper claiming that Mr Obama should not serve a second term because he lacks moral conviction and backs gay marriage and ‘the killing of unborn babies’. Mrs Pitt wrote in her letter to the Springfield News-Leader, in Missouri: ‘I hope all Christians give their vote prayerful consideration because voting is a sacred privilege and a serious responsibility’.

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Lawsuit: CIA Killed Its Own Operative When He Got Cold Feet Over Mind Control Programs

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A new lawsuit has dredged up a 60-year-old Cold War mystery surrounding the death of an Army bioweapons researcher who was given LSD by the CIA.

The government says Frank Olson jumped to his death in 1959 after he was given the hallucinatory drug as part of a top-secret CIA mind control program codenamed MK-ULTRA.

Dr Olson’s sons now claim they have evidence that he did not commit suicide, but was instead pushed out of a 13th story New York City highrise window by CIA operatives who feared he was getting cold feet about the intelligence agency’s tactics.

Eric and Nils Olson, of Frederick, Maryland, are seeking unspecified compensatory damages in the lawsuit filed in federal court on Wednesday.

Their lawyer, Scott D Gilbert, said the brothers also want to see a broad range of documents related to Dr Olson’s death and other matters that they say the CIA has withheld from them since the death.

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GOP Civil War Brewing Over Abortion; Pro-Life Leader Warns of Third Party

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If the Republican Party closes itself to passing pro-life legislation, it will signal the end of the GOP and the formation of a new, pro-life third party, a leader in one of the fastest growing pro-life ministries has warned.

“There is a Civil War brewing in the GOP, and it’s not pretty,” said Jennifer Mason, communications director of Personhood USA.

Over the weekend, 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain said pro-life conservatives should state their position on abortion, then “leave the issue alone.” Elected officials, he indicated, should enact no new legislation to protect the unborn.

He and a host of GOP consultants have suggested the party downplay or abandon social issues in light of the 2012 electoral loss.

Mason said his comments “made me wonder: instead of dropping the abortion issue, why not drop John McCain?”

“If McCain and his ilk are successful, we are looking at a major defection to a third party, and the ultimate death of the Republican Party,” she added.

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‘You Also Have to Give Back’: Retiring Minn. Man Gives Away Business to His Employees

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After spending nearly 46 years building and running his successful Lueken’s Village Foods chain of grocery stores, Joe Lueken, 70, announced earlier this month that he is giving away his business to his nearly 400 employees.

“My employees are largely responsible for any success I’ve had, and they deserve to get some of the benefits of that,” said Lueken. “You can’t always take. You also have to give back.”

Yup, he’s literally giving away his three stores (two in Bemidji, Minn., and a third in Wahpeton, N.D.) to his staff.

“[H]e and his family will start transferring ownership of the three-store chain on January 1 to an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Program), in which each employee will own stock. The number of shares will be based on their salary and years of service,” ABC News reports.

When Lueken, the son of a baker, was asked why he chose to give away his business rather than sell it, he answered by saying it “was the right thing to do.”

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GOP Must Fight Corporate Welfare

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No one accuses establishment Republicans of being terribly brave or bright, but this insanity has got to stop: Democrats repeatedly frighten Republicans into accepting their statist agenda and then blame them for behaving like, well, Democrats. Republicans just keep falling for it.

Consider the president’s most vulnerable issue: Obamacare. During the election, Democrats didn’t bother to defend their horrible law so much as to delight in the fact that Mitt Romney authored it. When Republicans correctly said we couldn’t afford it, Democrats just as correctly responded that we couldn’t afford President George W. Bush’s massive Medicare expansion. Lost was the far more consequential fact that government-run health care is lousy and, worse still, incompatible with freedom.

It’s time for Republicans to stop playing checkers and start playing chess.

First, we must face the reality that conservatives are in the minority. Forget the perennial Gallup polls showing that self-identified conservatives outnumber liberals 2-1. This is in name only. It’s a reflection that we have successfully promoted a brand but have failed to explain its benefits. Meanwhile, the Democrats have established an actual majority voting alliance of beneficiaries of government largesse.

The implications are staggering. Our Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton rarely agreed on anything except this: Once the voters turn the public treasury into a public trough, the republic is lost. From the ashes of our failed American experiment, a dictatorship likely will arise.

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Photos: Secret Plant Feeding Iran Nuke Plans: Sources Confirm Facilities ‘Actively Engaged in Weaponization’

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Just as the latest International Atomic Energy Agency report increased alarm about Iran’s illicit nuclear program, now comes word that the Islamic regime has created even more secret nuclear sites.

The IAEA report indicated that not only has Iran completed installation of 2,784 centrifuges at Fordow, the previous secret site deep in a mountain believed to be immune to air strikes, but also could within days increase output of highly enriched uranium to the 20-percent level, well on the way to nuclear weapons.

Iran has started to feed uranium hexafluoride gas into four new cascades, increasing the number of centrifuges at Fordow from 700 to 1,400, therefore doubling its output of highly enriched uranium and cutting the time needed for having enough high-enriched material for one nuclear bomb. The regime already has enough low-enriched uranium for six nuclear bombs if further enriched.

However, according to a source within the engineering department of the Revolutionary Guards, the regime is working on its nuclear bomb program from several secret sites unknown to the world.

One such site, the source said, is in the outskirts of the small city of Shahrokhabad in Kerman Province.

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For New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, it’s God, family and Yahoo

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photo credit: adam tinworth

“The baby’s been easy!” Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer told an invite-only crowd at a Fortune “Most Powerful Women” event on Tuesday evening in Palo Alto, Calif.

“The baby’s been way easier than everyone made it out to be. I think I’ve been really lucky that way but I had a very easy, healthy pregnancy. He’s been easy. So those have been the two really terrific surprises: the kid has been easier and the job has been fun!” Mayer said, referring to her son, Macallister. The crowd chuckled along with her.

It turns out the former Google executive, known for her planning skills and extensive use of spreadsheets to make major life decisions (and determine the perfect cupcake recipe), can still be surprised when it comes to both motherhood and corporate leadership.

“I think that there’s two surprising things,” Mayer told the audience, comprised mostly of women, “I knew that the job would be hard and I knew that the baby would be fun. And the thing that surprised me, and really puzzlingly so, is that the job is really fun! Yahoo is a really fun place to work.”

In a television exclusive, TODAY aired excerpts of the interview this morning, which may be her last public interview for some time.

See video below:

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