India’s Supreme Court Upholds Law Against Homosexual Conduct

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal

India’s Supreme Court struck down a 2009 lower court decision to decriminalize homosexual conduct, dealing a blow Wednesday to gay activists who have fought for years for the chance to live openly in India’s deeply conservative society.

The judges said only lawmakers and not the courts could change a colonial-era law that bans homosexual acts and makes them punishable by up to a decade in prison.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community across India reacted to the surprise decision with defiance.

“We cannot be forced back into the closet. We are not backing off from our fight against discrimination,” said Gautam Bhan, an activist who had petitioned the court.

After the ruling, dozens of activists outside the court began crying and hugging each other in consolation.

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Poll: 2/3rd’s Would Like to See Their Member of Congress Replaced

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Photo Credit: AP/J.Scott Applewhite

Photo Credit: AP/J.Scott Applewhite

Heading into a congressional election year, Americans hold Congress in strikingly low regard, and nearly two-thirds say they would like to see their House member replaced, a new poll finds.

Even though Americans are feeling somewhat better about the economy — and their personal finances — elected officials in Washington aren’t benefiting from the improved mood, the Associated Press-GfK poll found.

President Barack Obama’s approval rating was negative: 58 percent disapprove of the job he’s doing as president, while 42 percent approve.

Obama isn’t running for office again, however, whereas all 435 House seats and one-third of the Senate’s seats are on the ballot next November. And nearly 9 in 10 adults disapprove of the way lawmakers are handling their jobs.

The low opinions of Congress don’t necessarily signal major power shifts next year in the Republican-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate. House Democrats need to gain at least 17 net seats to claim the majority. But many House districts are so solidly liberal or conservative that incumbents can withstand notable drops in popularity and keep their seats.

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Lawmakers Unveil Tentative Budget Deal, Call for Rolling Back Sequester

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

By Fox News.

Congressional negotiators on Tuesday announced a tentative budget deal that would avoid a partial government shutdown, but also begin to unravel hard-fought spending cuts.

The lead negotiators — Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. — detailed the specifics of the proposal at an evening press conference.

“I’m proud of this agreement,” Ryan said. “It reduces the deficit—without raising taxes. And it cuts spending in a smarter way. It’s a firm step in the right direction, and I ask all my colleagues in the House to support it.”

But the measure could face a tough climb, particularly in the House which is expected to take up the bill first. Ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, fiscal conservatives raised alarm that lawmakers were proposing to roll back sequester cuts.

The proposal would restore about $63 billion in funding that had been cut by the so-called sequester. Officials said the increases would be offset by a variety of spending reductions and increased fees elsewhere in the budget totaling about $85 billion over a decade, leaving enough for a largely symbolic deficit cut of $23 billion over the next decade.

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capital-buildingdome-insideBudget Deal A “Significant Step Backwards” In Efforts To Rein In Overspending

By Steve Foley.

Today, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced a budget deal that would abandon the bipartisan spending limits agreed to in the 2011 Budget Control Act for two years, while seeking to offset that new spending with tens of billions in additional revenue.

Gretchen Hamel, executive director of Public Notice, issued the following statement:

“This deal amounts to a significant step backwards in the effort to rein in overspending and a complete abdication of responsibility in Washington to set priorities and make responsible decisions with our tax dollars. Given the opportunity to make the smart cuts and reforms we need, Washington instead focused on a short-term political fix that opens the door to more spending increases down the road. Members of Congress should listen to their constituents, live up to their promises and do better than this deal. The last thing Americans wanted to see from Washington was more money for more spending.”

Key Findings From Public Notice’s Latest Poll On Government Spending:

As Washington nears its Dec. 13 deadline for a budget deal, Public Notice recently released the results of a national survey of registered voters focusing on the key fiscal issues currently being debated. The survey was conducted by the Tarrance Group via landline and cell phone from Dec. 1-5, 2013, among 803 voters with a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percent.

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We Are Drilling, Baby! U.S. Passing Saudi Arabia in Oil Production

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Photo Credit: Glen Stubbe/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT

Photo Credit: Glen Stubbe/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT

What do you know—“Drill, baby, drill” is working.

Thanks to new smart-drilling and production technologies (including hydraulic fracturing), the U.S. is the leading liquid fuels producer in the world and will soon be the world’s largest producer of petroleum. And we would be even further in the lead if we had pro-growth federal energy policies.

The latest news shows that Texas oil production doubled in just the last three years and is the highest it’s been since at least 1981. North Dakota is now the second-largest oil-producing state and sets a new production record virtually every day, and the U.S. is set to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest petroleum producer. This new production provides a cushion that helps insulate oil markets from the price spikes we might have seen with the continuing turmoil in the Middle East—from the Arab Spring to the nonstop threats from Iran.

According to President Obama, our newfound oil leadership must be a mirage, since he has consistently downplayed the benefit of increased domestic oil production.

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Proposed State Law Aims to Nullify Obamacare

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

South Carolina lawmakers have a proposal in their legislative pipeline that would nullify the federal Obamacare law.

Observers say the state likely will be the first in the nation to exempt citizens and businesses from participation in Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Critics already have declared the bill is racist and argue that federal law trumps state law. They charged that state lawmakers can’t opt out of the law because they don’t like President Obama.

The South Carolina bill prohibits state agencies and officers from implementing any portion of the federal mandate, outlaws state insurance exchanges and directs the state attorney general to sue over selective enforcement of the Affordable Health Care Act.

Supporters of the bill contend it aligns with a Founding Father’s solution for states confronted by an unwarranted federal law.

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Nevada Dad Praised for Using Innovative Ways To Keep Family Safe for 2 Days in -16 Degrees

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

A Nevada father is being credited with keeping his girlfriend and four children alive and well by using innovative methods like heating up rocks and burning tires to help them survive two days trapped in the snow.

The desperate search for the group, who were reported missing after they failed to return from a mountain trip near Lovelock, turned jubilant Tuesday when all six were found in good spirits.

“They stayed together and that was the key that allowed them to live through this experience. You don’t see that that often in search and rescue,” said Paul Burke, search-and-rescue coordinator for the state. “They did some pretty unusual things, heating up rocks and things. Staying together, that was a big deal.”

About 200 people had joined in the rescue effort for James Glanton, 34; his girlfriend, Christina McIntee, 25; their two children, Evan and Chloe Glanton; and Shelby Fitzpatrick and Tate McIntee, a niece and nephew of McIntee’s. The children range in age from 3 to 10.

The family told authorities their Jeep had overturned just off a road. A member of the rescue team said the engine would no longer start, but the group stayed in the upside-down vehicle for shelter, burning the spare tire to keep warm as temperatures dipped to 16 degrees below.

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Wait Until You Hear How Many Farm Subsidies Are Going to Groups in…the City of Chicago — Including One Associated With Louis Farrakhan

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Between 2008 and 2011, the U.S. government awarded roughly $6.12 million in federal farm subsidies to several groups in the Chicago area, including a charity owned by Louis Farrakhan’s The Nation of Islam, according to a report released by government watchdog group Open the Books.

The report, titled “Farm Subsidies and the Big Dogs,” is based on data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture & information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The report examines total farm subsidies that have been paid into selected cities and urban areas.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, federal farm subsidies are being poured into several non-farming metropolitan areas, including New York City and Chicago, according to the report.

Several entities in Chicago, for example, “receive the federal subsidies at their downtown loop office buildings or residential mansions,” the report reads. “Nearly every neighborhood in the city receives federal farm subsidy payments — including the Gold Coast, Downtown — Loop, Lincoln Park, and even the President’s neighbors in Hyde Park.”

A total of 930 entities in the Chicago area received farm subsidies between 2008 and 2011.

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PPP: GOP Leads Michigan Senate Race to Replace Democrat, ObamaCare to Blame

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A new poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP) finds the Michigan GOP Senate candidate, Terri Land, taking the lead over Democrat Rep. Gary Peters in the race to replace retiring Sen. Carl Levin. Land trailed Peters by 7 points in October, at the height of the government shutdown. She now leads Peters by two, 42-40, a nine point swing in less than two months.

“The declining popularity of President Obama and the Affordable Care Act seems to be making life harder for Democrats here, as we’re finding in other key Senate races,” the Democrat polling firm writes in a memo. Although Obama won Michigan by 9 points last year, his approval ratings are now underwater. Just 47% of Michiganders approve of the job he is doing, while 51% disapprove. Michigan voters also oppose ObamaCare by a 14-point margin.

The big shift in the Michigan race is due largely to Independents. A few months ago, Land and Peters were basically tied among Independents. In the latest poll, Land has opened a massive 17-point lead with the critical voting block.

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Study: Growing Up Without a Father Transforms Children’s Brains

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Photo Credit: LifeSiteNews

Photo Credit: LifeSiteNews

A new study shows that growing up without a father not only affects behavior – it transforms children’s brain structure.

That’s the verdict reached by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center and recently published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

Researchers studied the behavior and brains of Californian mice who, like humans, are monogamous and raise their children as a unit.

Mice separated from their fathers showed greater aggression, anti-social behavior, and “abnormal social interactions” than those raised with both parents.

“The behavioral deficits we observed are consistent with human studies of children raised without a father,” said Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, the report’s lead author.

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Army May Have Overpaid $3.3M for Communications Devices for Afghan Military, DOD IG Reports

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus

In a Dec. 5 audit report on the U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC), the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General said it found that the ACC “potentially overpaid up to $3.3 million for communications equipment purchased for the Afghan National Security Forces.”

The object of the IG’s investigation “determined whether the U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC) obtained fair and reasonable prices for communications equipment procured from Datron World Communications, Inc. (Datron),” the audit report summary states. “Specifically, we reviewed 37 contract actions, valued at approximately $328 million for 127 items, on contract W15P7T-09-D-D212 and identified 75 items with associated commercial sales, valued at approximately $219 million.”

The audit report — which is not available unless a Freedom of Information Act request is successful — states that the IG found that “contracting officers did not obtain fair and reasonable prices for communications equipment procured from Datron to support the Afghan National Security Forces.

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