Sen. Inhofe: Christie Responsible for Re-Election of Obama

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Photo Credit: APThere are at least a few Republicans who aren’t quite ready to throw in with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as a savior of the party — including Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, who says he blames Mr. Christie for President Obama’s re-election last year.

“I’d have a hard time supporting Chris Christie,” Mr. Inhofe told The Oklahoman. “Christie I still hold responsible for … the re-election of Obama.”

Mr. Christie was criticized in some Republican circles for publicly embracing Mr. Obama following the devastation Hurricane Sandy brought upon New Jersey and the Northeast last year right before the president defeated Republican Mitt Romney in the November election.

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Obama Warns GOP: There Will Be a ‘Price to Pay’ for Defying ‘American People’

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Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesIn a stunning bit of hubris, President Obama told attendees at a Miami fundraiser that Republicans will pay a price for defying the will of the American people, which, Keith Koffler wrote at the White House Dossier Saturday, Obama himself embodies.

“So he’s pushing the line that in defying The Leader, it must be that Republicans are defying America itself,” Koffler wrote.

“The only way we can continue to place pressure to get that bill done is by making sure that the other side — or at least that small faction on the other side — understands there’s a price to pay when you don’t act on the basis of the interests of the American people. And so that’s something that I hope we can still get done by the end of this year,” Obama said, centering on his failed immigration bill.

Koffler called it “typical Obama.”

“Conservatives – forget for a moment he’s supposed to be their president too – are just a faction of heartless bastards who hate the ‘American values’ Obama thinks he represents,” he added.

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Yet Another Victim of Anal Probing Comes Forward in New Mexico (+video)

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Photo Credit: KOB.comBy Chris Ramirez.

It may be hard to believe that this could happen to yet another New Mexican. KOB’s 4 On Your Side team found a woman who claims she was violated by federal agents and doctors.

Laura Schaur Ives, Legal Director for the New Mexico Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, is representing the woman.

Schaur Ives said the woman doesn’t wish to be identified because she considers herself to be a victim of sexual assault. Schaur Ives said the woman crossed the border at a Port of Entry from Juarez, Mexico into El Paso.

A dog alerted to the woman, and Schaur Ives said federal agents stripped searched her at the facility, asked her to undress, to spread her genitalia and to cough. Female agents also allegedly pressed their fingers into her vagina looking for drugs.

The woman claims they didn’t discover anything during the on-site strip search, so they took her to University Medical Center of El Paso.

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Photo Credit: ABC NewsCops Going Too Far in Videotaping DUI Suspects Changing Clothes?

By Christina Lopez.

In Puyallup, Wash., all eyes are on the city jail. The jail is equipped with video cameras, and police have been using them to take long, and some are claiming illegal, looks at some DUI — driving under the influence — suspects.

Early this year, defense attorney James Egan of Seattle was searching through public records for one of his DUI cases.

Egan discovered that police officers had been recording videos of mostly young women — the majority detained for DUIs — as they changed clothes and used the toilet.

“I’ve represented 1,000 people in DUIs, and I’ve never seen this,” Egan told ABC News’ “20/20.” “This practice appears to be a peep show.”

This May, Egan contacted 11 women and one male he found in his research, who were worried that the videos, which are public records, could go viral around the Internet. They have since taken the matter to court.

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Three 20-Year-Old Programmers Build a Working Obamacare Website in Just Days

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Photo Credit: CBSWhile the Obamacare website still remains broken, three 20-year-old programmers have shown the government how it should be done.

Ning Liang, George Kalogeropoulos and Michael Wasser developed a site in matter of days – and it does things the expensive and faltering healthcare.gov can’t do.

From a San Francisco office the men have built HealthSherpa.com, which presents the Affordable Health Care Act data in a much simpler way to the government website.

‘They got it completely backwards in terms of what people want up front,’ Liang told CBS News. The programmer continued: ‘They want prices and benefits, so that they could make the decision.’

HealthSherpa.com, which is just two weeks old, allows a user to simply input their zip code and view all the health plans available to them.

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DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz: Democrats Will Win in 2014 Running on Obamacare

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Photo Credit: AP/J. Scott ApplewhiteRep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that Democratic congressional candidates would win by running on Obamacare in the 2014 midterm elections.

“I think, actually, Candy, that Democratic candidates will be able to run on ObamaCare as an advantage leading into the 2014 election,” Wasserman Schultz told host Candy Crowley.

Crowley had been asking Wasserman Schultz about the common perception that the Obamacare issue had made the Virginia governor’s race closer than expected, causing Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe to lose ground in the final days of the raise, ultimately eeking out a narrow victory over Republican Ken Cuccinelli,

“I think Obamacare, because Americans have been feeling the benefits since 2010, where young adults can stay on their parents’ insurance until they’re 26, where on January 1 if you have a preexisting condition, like I do, as you know, as a breast cancer survivor, the peace of mind … that those Americans are going to have knowing that they can never be dropped or denied coverage for that preexisting condition, the preventative care that’s available without a co-pay or a deductible, those are benefits that Americans have already been feeling and will increasingly feel as Obamacare is fully implemented,” said Wasserman Schultz.

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No Worries! Obama Golfs 150th Round as Superstorm Devastates Philippines, Iran Deal Enrages

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Photo Credit: AP/Jacquelyn MartinPresident Obama’s approval ratings may be stuck in a sand trap, but that has not deterred him from sticking to his weekly round of golf.

After teeing off Saturday at the private course in Florida where the movie “Caddyshack” was filmed, Mr. Obama hit the milestone number of 150 golf rounds in less than five years in the White House.

The Secret Service loaded Mr. Obama’s golf bag emblazoned with the presidential seal into the motorcade Saturday morning to head to the private Grande Oaks Golf Club in Davie. Sporting a blue polo shirt, tan slacks and a cap, Mr. Obama spent five hours on the private course with former NBA star Alonzo Mourning, friend Cyrus Walker and former U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

Mr. Obama wasn’t much of a golfer before he ran for president. His regularity on the greens started April 26, 2009. He played 27 times that first year in office, including seven rounds during his vacations on Martha’s Vineyard and Hawaii.

In his second year as president, Mr. Obama played a little more — 30 rounds. He included a woman for only the second time when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius joined on Oct. 10, 2010.

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Are Millennials Turning Their Backs on the American Dream?

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Photo Credit: The Daily BeastIn his classic 1893 essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” historian Frederick Jackson Turner spoke of “the expansive character of American life.” Even though the frontier was closing, Turner argued, the fundamental nature of Americans was still defined by their incessant probing for “a new field of opportunity.” Turner’s claim held true for at least a century—during that time, the American spirit generated relentless technological improvement, the gradual creation of a mass middle class, and the integration of ever more diverse immigrants into the national narrative.

Yet today, many consider this modern period of “expansiveness” to be as doomed as the prairie frontier culture whose denouement Turner portrayed. Nothing makes this clearer than the perception of a majority of middle class Americans that their children will not do better than them, with as many as pessimistic about the future as are optimistic. Almost one-third of the public, according to Pew, consider themselves “lower” class , as opposed to middle class, up from barely one quarter in 2008.

Are Young Americans Becoming Herbivores?

To some, this dismal outlook is either inevitable, or even positive, as Americans shift from their historically “expansive” view and embrace a more modest déclassé future. Rather than seek new worlds to conquer, or even hope to retain the accomplishments of prior generations, contemporary young Americans seem destined to confront a world stamped by ever narrowing opportunity, class distinction, and societal stagnation. Once a nation of competitive omnivores and carnivores, America could be turning more docile—a country of content, grazing herbivores.

Just such a diminished world view has already taken root in Japan, particularly among that country’s younger males. Growing up in a period of tepid economic growth, a declining labor market, and a loss of overall competitiveness, Japan’s male “herbivores” are more interested in comics, computer games, and Internet socializing than building a career or even the opposite sex. Marriage and family have increasingly little appeal to them, sentiments they share with most women their age.

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Conservative U.S. Catholics Feel Left Out of the Pope’s Embrace

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Photo Credit: Kendrick Brinson for NYTWhen Pope Francis was elected in March, Bridget Kurt received a small prayer card with his picture at her church and put it up on her refrigerator at home, next to pictures of her friends and her favorite saints.

She is a regular attender of Mass, a longtime stalwart in her church’s anti-abortion movement and a believer that all the church’s doctrines are true and beautiful and should be obeyed. She loved the last two popes, and keeps a scrapbook with memorabilia from her road trip to Denver in 1993 to see Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day.

But Ms. Kurt recently took the Pope Francis prayer card down and threw it away.

“It seems he’s focusing on bringing back the left that’s fallen away, but what about the conservatives?” said Ms. Kurt, a hospice community educator. “Even when it was discouraging working in pro-life, you always felt like Mother Teresa was on your side and the popes were encouraging you. Now I feel kind of thrown under the bus.”

In the eight months since he became pope, Francis has won affection worldwide for his humble mien and common touch. His approval numbers are skyrocketing. Even atheists are applauding.

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Atheist ‘Mega-Churches’ Take Root Across US, World

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Photo Credit: AP/Jae C. HongIt looked like a typical Sunday morning at any mega-church. Several hundred people, including families with small children, packed in for more than an hour of rousing music, an inspirational sermon, a reading and some quiet reflection. The only thing missing was God.

Nearly three dozen gatherings dubbed “atheist mega-churches” by supporters and detractors have sprung up around the U.S. and Australia – with more to come – after finding success in Great Britain earlier this year. The movement fueled by social media and spearheaded by two prominent British comedians is no joke.

On Sunday, the inaugural Sunday Assembly in Los Angeles attracted several hundred people bound by their belief in non-belief. Similar gatherings in San Diego, Nashville, New York and other U.S. cities have drawn hundreds of atheists seeking the camaraderie of a congregation without religion or ritual.

The founders, British duo Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, are currently on a tongue-in-cheek “40 Dates, 40 Nights” tour around the U.S. and Australia to drum up donations and help launch new Sunday Assemblies. They hope to raise more than $800,000 that will help atheists launch their pop-up congregations around the world. So far, they have raised about $50,000.

They don’t bash believers but want to find a new way to meet likeminded people, engage in the community and make their presence more visible in a landscape dominated by faith.

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CAIR Discussing Establishment of Shariah Divorce System in Michigan

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Photo Credit: WND A leader in a front group for the movement that aims to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state is among the Muslims in the Detroit area talking about establishing religious courts that would grant women a divorce under Islamic law, or Shariah.

About 15 Muslim leaders – including Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter – discussed the issue at a monthly gathering Sept. 25.

The discussion was prompted by a story in the Arab American News that described the difficulties that Muslim women experience when their husbands refuse to grant them a religious divorce, noted the blog Creeping Sharia.

The Arab American News article said many are forced to go “imam shopping” and travel across the U.S. to find an imam willing to grant them an Islamic divorce.

The publication commented that many Muslim women are denied a divorce, even when their husbands are physically abusive.

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