Mississippi Bloodbath: 76 Year-Old Cochran Seeks Reelection Against Tea Party

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) announced Friday he would seek reelection to a seventh term in the U.S. Senate.

“I’m comfortable with my decision,” Cochran, who turns 76 years old this weekend, told Gannett on Friday. “I’m looking forward to it. People have been very generous and expressed appreciation. Some have even started sending contributions and helping in that way.”

Tea Party-backed State Sen. Chris McDaniel has already launched a bid for the GOP nomination for Cochran’s seat. In response to Cochran’s announcement, one that surprised most in GOP politics who expected him to retire, McDaniel said he is undeterred. “Sen. Cochran has had a long and distinguished career representing the people of Mississippi,” McDaniel said. “I look forward to a positive campaign based on the future of our state, our country, and the Republican Party. As a strong conservative, I will fight to bring those values to Washington.”

McDaniel has the support of an amalgam of state lawmakers in Mississippi, as several of his state senate colleagues have joined his campaign. He also has the support of conservative organizations throughout the state, plus national conservative support from groups like the Tea Party Express, Club for Growth, Madison Project, FreedomWorks, the Senate Conservatives Fund, and others.

In response to Cochran’s announcement he would be seeking reelection, Club for Growth president Chris Chocola said voters in Mississippi have a “real choice” between someone who is conservative and someone who is not.

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Immigrant Students Seek Georgia’s In-State Tuition Rates

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Photo Credit: stephenhanafin

Photo Credit: stephenhanafin

A judge said Thursday that he needs more information and time to decide the case of a group of young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and want the Georgia university system to grant them in-state tuition.

The roughly three dozen young immigrants have been granted temporary permission to stay in the U.S. under an Obama administration policy introduced last year. They filed a lawsuit in August asking a judge to instruct the university system’s Board of Regents to allow them to qualify for in-state tuition.

At a hearing Thursday, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Mark Anthony Scott heard arguments on the state’s request to move the case to Fulton County Superior Court because that’s where the Board of Regents is located. Charles Kuck, a lawyer for the young immigrants, argued that the board can be sued in any county where it has a school.

Scott said the arguments were complex and asked both lawyers to submit an additional filing within 60 days.

The Board of Regents has repeatedly said it does not comment on pending litigation.

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Obama Gives Green Energy Cronies Green Light to Kill Eagles for Thirty Years

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Wind EagleThe Obama administration said Friday it will allow some companies to kill or injure bald and golden eagles for up to 30 years without penalty, an effort to spur development and investment in green energy while balancing its environmental consequences.

The change, requested by the wind energy industry, will provide legal protection for the lifespan of wind farms and other projects for which companies obtain a permit and make efforts to avoid killing the birds.

An investigation by The Associated Press earlier this year documented the illegal killing of eagles around wind farms, the Obama administration’s reluctance to prosecute such cases and its willingness to help keep the scope of the eagle deaths secret. The White House has championed wind power, a pollution-free energy intended to ease global warming, as a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s energy plan.

In other areas, too, such as the government’s support for corn-based ethanol to reduce U.S. dependence on gasoline, the White House has allowed the green industry to do not-so-green things. Another AP investigation recently showed that ethanol has proven far more damaging to the environment than politicians promised and much worse than the government admits today.

Under the change announced Friday, companies would have to commit to take additional measures if they kill or injure more eagles than they have estimated they would, or if new information suggests that eagle populations are being affected. The permits would be reviewed every five years, and companies would have to submit reports of how many eagles they kill. Now such reporting is voluntarily, and the Interior Department refuses to release the information.

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Ted Cruz: Obama Disregards the Law Like in ‘Dictatorial Societies’ (+video)

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U.S. Senator Cruz speaks during the fifth annual Washington Ideas Forum at the Newseum in WashingtonBy Patrick Howley

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said that President Barack Obama disregards the law and behaves like the leader of “dictatorial societies.”

The conservative senator, who proudly calls himself a “Wacko Bird” to poke fun at establishment Republican criticisms of him, appeared on Fusion TV’s “America with Jorge Ramos” to accuse the president of outright law-breaking — on his own health-care law.

“One of the most disturbing aspects of the Obama presidency is the willingness of this president to disregard the law, to ignore the law,” Cruz said.

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Ted Rafael Caroline Cruz By Tal Kopan

Sen. Ted Cruz said while there are some differences between President Barack Obama and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Obama is displaying “dictatorial” tendencies as president.

During an interview by Jorge Ramos on Fusion, the Texas Republican was asked about comments his father has made comparing Obama to Castro and whether the analogy was “fair” and if he’d like to draw a distinction between the two.

“Obviously, there are enormous differences; the United States is not imprisoning and torturing political dissidents,” Cruz said on Wednesday. “But the point my father was making, he was focusing on a sentence that President Obama used in the last two State of the Union addresses where he said, ‘If Congress doesn’t act, I will.’”

Cruz said the line shows how the Obama administration has displayed “disturbing” tendencies similar to a dictatorship.

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Cruz’s Dad, Son Destined by God

Polls Show Increasing Majority of Americans Oppose HHS Abortion Mandate

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Photo Credit: APAs Obama administration supporters struggle to cast religious opponents of Obamacare’s HHS Mandate as waging a war on women ahead of the Supreme Court deciding that controversy next year, polls show Americans support the rights of conscience for business owners who do not want to be complicit in abortion due to their religious faith.

With the Obama White House’s approval, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a regulation interpreting the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employer policies cover “preventive care” to include birth control and abortion-related services. Religious organizations and business owners object to this regulation as a violation of their rights of faith-based conscience, and the Supreme Court will decide the issue early next year in two cases consolidated under the name Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores.


Two new polls reveal growing opposition to the mandate. First is a WPA poll of 801 likely voters commissioned by the Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom, showing that 59 percent of likely voters oppose the mandate, while only 35 percent support the mandate. Second is a Rasmussen poll of 1,000 likely voters, showing 51 percent opposition to the mandate with 38 percent supporting.

The higher number showcasing the unpopularity of this Obamacare regulation in the first poll could be revealing. The wording of the Rasmussen question (the second poll) is: “Should businesses be required by law to provide health insurance that covers all government-approved contraceptives for women without co-payments or other charges to the patient?”

The wording in the Wilson Research (WPA) poll asks essentially the same question, but adds the information that insurance plans must “includ[e] drugs that can destroy a human embryo.” This is because some drugs required by the mandate prevent a human embryo from implanting in the uterus up to 10 days after an egg is fertilized, thereby resulting in its death.

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White House Admits Fabricating Story about Obama Meeting his Kenyan Uncle

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Photo Credit: AP/MetroWest Daily News, Allan JungThe White House on Thursday admitted fabricating an earlier claim that President Obama had never met his Kenyan uncle, Onyango “Omar” Obama.

Approximately 3 years ago, as Uncle Omar was fighting deportation following a DUI charge, the White House asserted to The Boston Globe without any apparent qualification that Onyango Obama “has never met his famous nephew.”

That statement was untrue.

Uncle Omar testified at an immigration hearing earlier this week that the younger Obama had briefly lived with him for several weeks in the 1970s.

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Report: NSA Tracks Billions Of Cellphones Daily

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Photo credit: from_koThe National Security Agency tracks the locations of nearly 5 billion cellphones every day overseas, including those belonging to Americans abroad, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The NSA inadvertently gathers the location records of “tens of millions of Americans who travel abroad” annually, along with the billions of other records it collects by tapping into worldwide mobile network cables, the newspaper said in a report on its website.

Such data means the NSA can track the movements of almost any cellphone around the world, and map the relationships of the cellphone user. The Post said a powerful analytic computer program called CO-TRAVELER crunches the data of billions of unsuspecting people, building patterns of relationships between them by where their phones go. That can reveal a previously unknown terrorist suspect, in guilt by cellphone-location association, for instance.

As the NSA doesn’t know which part of the data it might need, the agency keeps up to 27 terabytes, or more than double the text content of the Library of Congress’ print collection, the Post said. A 2012 internal NSA document said the volumes of data from the location program were “outpacing our ability to ingest, process and store” it, the newspaper said.

The program is detailed in documents given to the newspaper by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden. The Post also quotes unidentified NSA officials, saying they spoke with the permission of their agency.

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FBI Lists Southern Poverty Law Center As ‘Resource’ for Hate Crimes (+video)

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Photo Credit: Web screenshotThe Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says listing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a resource on its “Hate Crimes” website page and linking to the organization is “not an endorsement” of the group or its research materials on hate crimes.

“The Resource link to SPLC is for informational purposes and not an endorsement of the organization or the information on their website,” an FBI spokesman told CNSNews.com.

On the FBI’s “Hate Crimes” page, it gives a general description of hate crimes and then includes a section headlined “In Depth,” which includes a prominent sub-head, “Resources.” Listed there under the Resources with a hyperlink is “Southern Poverty Law Center.”

CNSNews.com asked about the link to the SPLC because the man convicted of domestic terrorism this year for the shooting attack at the Family Research Council (FRC) told FBI investigators that he targeted the FRC after finding their name on the SPLC’s own “Hate Map,” where the pro-family and Christian organization is labeled as “anti-gay.”

“I find it incredible that a federal agency charged with protecting the American people allows itself to be connected to a group that was certified in court as the source that inspired an act of terrorism,” Lt. Gen Jerry Boykin, executive vice president of FRC, told CNSNews.com.

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Newtown Massacre Recordings Reveal Calm, Anguish and Gunshots (+audio)

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Photo Credit: APA teacher calmly explains she has been shot in the foot. Another woman, sounding anguished, pleads for help. A custodian relays information from officers at the scene to a police operator.

There is also the booming echo of gunshots.

Officials in Newtown, Connecticut, on Wednesday released audio recordings of emergency 911 phone calls from the Connecticut school shooting that killed 20 children and six educators almost a year ago, revealing raw emotion in the voice of the callers.

The audio files may be the final pieces of evidence released about the tragedy that rocked the United States on December 14, 2012, when gunman Adam Lanza, 20, shot dead his mother at home and then went to Sandy Hook Elementary school, where he massacred 26 people before killing himself.

“They’re still running, they’re still shooting,” pleaded one woman, sounding increasingly distraught over the course of the 24-second call. In the final seconds, she grows more insistent, pleading with the 911 operator for help.

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Audit: IRS Loses Billions Due to Stolen ID Numbers

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Photo Credit: APTax cheats armed with stolen identification numbers are costing the Treasury billions of dollars a year, according to a new audit.

Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration says that, in 2011 alone, tax cheats were able to steal or falsely obtain some 285,000 employee identification numbers, which the IRS uses to identify a taxpayer’s business account.

In all, the IRS could be issuing around $2.3 billion a year in these sorts of false payments — or around $11.4 billion over a five-year span.

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