Ex-EPA Official Told Lawmakers of Project to ‘Modify the DNA’ of Capitalism

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

A former high-ranking EPA official who recently was sentenced to prison for fraud told lawmakers last month that, before he left the agency, he was working on a “project” examining ways to “modify the DNA of the capitalist system.”

The startlingly blunt comment was included in newly released transcripts of John Beale’s deposition before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. One group that is frequently critical of the Obama administration’s energy policy, the Institute for Energy Research, said the claim is a “smoking gun” that reveals the administration’s true intentions.

Beale’s credibility is not exactly ironclad. He was sentenced last month to 32 months in prison for bilking taxpayers out of nearly $1 million by pretending to be a CIA agent.

But, in the transcripts, he spoke in great detail about meetings he supposedly had with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, back when she was heading the Office of Air and Radiation.

Beale said they started meeting in mid-2009. At a lunch, he claimed his “fabricated story about working at CIA came up,” but that they also discussed various projects. Beale recalled telling her about a project he wanted to work on, which he described as “green economics.”

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Administration Fears Part of Health Care System so Flawed it Could Bankrupt Insurance Companies

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

While the administration publicly expresses full confidence in its health care law, privately it fears one part of the system is so flawed it could bankrupt insurance companies and cripple ObamaCare itself.

“Week after week, month after month,” says John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis, “the Obama administration kept telling us everything’s working fine, there’s no problem and then they turn on a dime and fire their contractor.”

To justify a no-bid contract with Accenture after firing CGI as the lead contractor, the administration released documents from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services that offered a rare glimpse of its worst fears, saying the problems with the website puts “the entire health insurance industry at risk” … “potentially leading to their default and disrupting continued services and coverage to consumers.”

Then it went even further, saying if the problems were not fixed by mid-March, “they will result in financial harm to the government.”

It even added that without the fixes “the entire health care reform program is jeopardized.”

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Pentagon to Relax Rules On Personal Religious Wear — Including Beards, Turbans

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Photo Credit: Brett Flashnick / AP file

Photo Credit: Brett Flashnick / AP file

The Pentagon on Wednesday is expected to announce widespread changes to rules governing religious items and religion-based physical attributes that service members can maintain while in uniform — including beards, some religious tattoos, and turbans.

NBC News obtained an early draft of the new Department of Defense instruction which states that the military will make every effort to accommodate “individual expressions of sincerely held beliefs” (conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs) of service members.

It goes on to say that unless doing so could have an adverse impact on military readiness, unit cohesion, good order and discipline, health and safety, or any other military requirement, commanders can grant service members special permission to display their religious articles while in uniform.

Requests for religious accommodation can be denied when the “needs of mission accomplishment outweigh the needs of the service member,” the directive will explain.

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Report: Tea Party Expands Influence Even in Democratic-Leaning Districts

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Photo Credit: fibonacci blue

Photo Credit: fibonacci blue

Despite national polls showing dwindling voter support for the Tea Party, House Republicans are embracing the movement’s issues tighter than ever, setting up a potential clash with voters in districts that lean Democratic, according to a new study of key House votes.

On average, said the study provided in advance to Secrets, House Republicans in Democratic-leaning districts or those that voted for President Obama over Republican Mitt Romney in 2012 sided with the Tea Party about 81 percent of the time on key votes like defunding Obamacare, blocking an increase of the debt limit and supporting a government shutdown.


“When swing Republicans grumble that [House Speaker John] Boehner should stand up to the Tea Party caucus they should be looking in the mirror,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of the progressive group Americans United for Change, which sponsored the study.

“The beauty of this report,” he added, “is that it doesn’t take an ounce of spin — it comes straight from their own votes and those scored by what are undoubtedly Tea Party groups.”

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EPA Decree Shrinks Size of Wyoming by a Million Acres

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Photo Credit: dantekgeek

Photo Credit: dantekgeek

Why is the EPA altering state boundaries in Wyoming – and reversing over 100 years of established law? Well, apparently the city of Riverton now falls under the jurisdiction of the Wind River Indian Reservation. This, obviously, isn’t sitting well with the governor’s office – which is urging the EPA to reconsider its ruling and respect the rule of law.

Reacting to the decision to reduce the size of Wyoming by about a million acres, Wyoming Governor Matt Mead warned of the dangers to all Americans of this type of unilateral land redistribution by the EPA:

“I understand that the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes have a different opinion about the Wind River Reservation Boundary. My deep concern is about an administrative agency of the federal government altering a state’s boundary and going against over 100 years of history and law.

“This should be a concern to all citizens because, if the EPA can unilaterally take land away from a state, where will it stop?” Governor Matt Mead said in a press release on January 6.


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Lew: US Will Hit Debt Ceiling Late February

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

On Wednesday, Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew said that America would once again hit the debt ceiling by late February, despite Congress’ temporary debt limit increase back in October 2013. That agreement suspended the debt ceiling and funded the federal government, as well as creating a committee with an eye toward a deficit reduction plan. The deal did contemplate that the debt ceiling would run out by February 7.

Lew wrote, “I respectfully urge Congress to provide certainty and stability to the economy and financial markets by acting to raise the debt limit before February 7, 2014, and certainly before late February.”

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BART Police Mourn Officer Killed in Accidental Shooting by Partner

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Photo Credit: Eric Risberg / Associated Press

Photo Credit: Eric Risberg / Associated Press

A day after the first Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer was killed in the line of duty in the agency’s 42-year history — gunned down accidentally by a fellow officer — the department struggled to come to terms with the loss of Det. Sgt. Tommy Smith.

“We’re in shock, disbelief, we’re numb, we’re grieving,” BART Police Chief Kenton Rainey told reporters at BART’s Oakland headquarters, describing the 23-year veteran who headed the detective unit as “very supportive of his personnel, just a really really happy guy, a family man.”

Smith, 42, is survived by his wife, Kellie, a BART police officer who heads the department’s K-9 unit, and their 6-year-old daughter. Rainey said he had also met with Smith’s mother and two brothers, both in local law enforcement, at the Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, where he thanked the medical staff for “everything they did to try to save Tommy’s life.”

“Tommy was a great law enforcement officer but an even better son, brother, husband, father and friend,” said Rainey, who choked back tears. “He touched many lives.”

Investigators provided few details of what took place inside the Dublin apartment where Smith and his team were conducting a probation search Tuesday afternoon.

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Miller and Begich in Dead Heat According Facebook Modeling Used to Predict Election Outcomes

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Photo Credit: InTheCapital

Photo Credit: InTheCapital

Thanks to Facebook’s prominence (there are over 128 million active monthly users in the U.S.) it has become the perfect sample pool for researchers conducting large scale studies. Particularly the social media platform has given political strategists a fascinating glimpse on how political campaigns are being perceived in real time, as well as the ability to predict election outcomes with startling accuracy. Campaigns themselves are also starting to better understand this correlation, with 12 percent of campaign communication budgets going to social media in 2012. So what is Facebook so far telling us about the critical 2014 elections?

In a piece published by POLITICO Magazine, Ph.D. candidates Matthew MacWilliams and Edward Erickson, along with research assistant Nicole Berns, took a look at what Facebook reveals about the political changes to come in 2014. These scholars studied three major variables to make their predictions. First, the growth of a candidate’s fan base, measured by the number of “likes” over time on their page. Next they look at the growth of engagement, measured by the shares and comments on the candidates content that users share with their friends. Lastly, they divide these two factors to discover the candidate’s effectiveness in mobilizing voters, by seeing how many of those that “like” the candidate actually engage with others about it.

Based on this formula, the researchers predicted the outcome of four Senate races in 2014, taking place in North Carolina, Alaska, Kentucky and Michigan, and conclude that the Republicans will likely pick up a seat this year…

The big upset could happen in Alaska, where this Facebook model has incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Begich dead even with both of his Republican challengers, Joe Miller and Mead Treadwell.

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When a Democrat Lies, it’s Never an Actual Lie

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Ever notice that? When a Dem gets caught red-handed telling a lie, it’s very, very rare for the media to actually call it a lie. Even Obama’s monumental whopper — “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” — still has its diehard defenders.

This week’s example is Texas state senator, gubernatorial candidate, and heroine of abortion enthusiasts across the country: Wendy Davis. As it turns out, she’s said a bunch of stuff about her past that isn’t true.

Well, she’s a politician. It’s to be expected. But she’s also a Democrat who’s championing one of the left’s most treasured policy goals, abortion on demand, so she must be protected.

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White House Drug Czar Contradicts Obama on Impact of Marijuana Use

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Photo Credit: Washington Times

Photo Credit: AP

President Obama’s latest claims about marijuana are contradicted by research and official positions of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is part of the White House. And Mr. Obama’s words have anti-drug leaders worried about negative repercussions among youth.

Mr. Obama claimed to The New Yorker magazine that marijuana is no worse than cigarettes or alcohol and he promoted state efforts by Colorado and Washington to legalize marijuana, which remains illegal under federal law.

The National Drug Control Policy’s official stance, posted on the whitehouse.gov website, says the opposite of Mr. Obama on all counts.

For example, as documented in agency reports, marijuana smoke has significantly more carcinogens than tobacco smoke.

And as reported by the government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, adolescent use of marijuana does something that alcohol does not; it causes permanent brain damage, including lowering of I.Q.

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