Liz Cheney Blasted by Older Sister Over Anti-Gay Marriage Stance

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of one of ex-Vice President Dick Cheney’s two daughters, has taken to Facebook to blast her older sibling, Elizabeth.

Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Senate candidate, aired her views on gay marriage on Friday by saying it should be something for voters to decide on a state-by-state basis, and not a matter for ‘judges’ or ‘legislators.’

Mary Cheney, openly lesbian and married to Heather Poe since 2012, responded by posting on her personal Facebook page: ‘For the record, I love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage.’

She continued: “Freedom means freedom for everyone. That means that all families — regardless of how they look or how they are made — all families are entitled to the same rights, privileges and protections as every other.”

‘For the record, I love my sister, but she is dead wrong on the issue of marriage.’

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President Obama Turns to Congress to OK Strike Against Syria

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

President Obama said Saturday the United States should take military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons on civilians but also turned to Congress for approval — dealing a potential setback to America’s foreign policy and setting up what will likely be a hard-fought Washington debate on the issue.

“This menace must be confronted,” Obama said of the Assad regime’s alleged chemical attack, speaking from the Rose Garden.

However, the announcement also raised the question about whether the president put the burden on Congress to act.

“President Obama is abdicating his responsibility as commander in chief and undermining the authority of future presidents,” said New York Rep. Peter King, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “The president doesn’t need 535 members of Congress to enforce his own red line.”

The president was driven to make a decision following an Aug. 21 chemical attack outside Damascus that killed more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children. The attack was just one of several allegedly carried out by the Assad regime after Obama said about 12 months ago that the regime using a chemical weapon would “cross a red line.”

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Biden: We’ll Target Congressmen Who Oppose Gun Control Efforts

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images (1)The White House will continue its push to strengthen gun control laws, even if it means targeting members of Congress who oppose its agenda, Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday.

“If Congress doesn’t act, we’ll fight for a new Congress,” Biden said in the Roosevelt Room of the White House as he swore in B. Todd Jones as the new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It’s that simple. But we’re going to get this done.”

In April, a bipartisan gun-control plan that would have expanded background checks and banned assault weapons failed to garner support in the Senate and was killed off, despite polls that showed massive public support in the wake of the Newtown, Conn. school massacre last Dec..

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Four Historians Take On ‘The Butler’s’ Racist Depiction of Reagan

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Four Ronald Reagan historians have slammed the portrayal of former President Reagan in the movie “The Butler,” saying that the 40th president’s “attitudes toward race” as shown in the movie are inaccurate.

They begin the article, “What ‘The Butler’ gets wrong about Ronald Reagan and race,” published in The Washington Post, by recounting instances in Reagan’s life when he decried racism and took a stand for the African-American community.

While serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild, for example, “Ronald Reagan called upon the entertainment industry to provide greater employment for black actors.” That position was controversial at the time.

When giving his infamous “evil empire” speech in March 1983 against the Soviet Union, Reagan also attacked the “the resurgence of some hate groups preaching bigotry and prejudice” in America.

These examples came after the historians recount the time when young Reagan brought two African American football teammates home from college to spend the night with his family.

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HHS Awards $556K to Train Med School Students on LGBT Mental Health Care

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $556,000 to Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine for an LGBT mental health internship program.

“Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals experience unique health disparities. As a group, LGBT adults experience more mood and anxiety disorders, an elevated risk for suicide, and substance use as compared with heterosexual adults. LGBT people are more frequently the targets of stigma, discrimination, and violence because of their sexual- and gender-minority status,” the grant abstract said.

“LGBT adults have higher rates of smoking, alcohol use, and substance use than heterosexual adults, which leads to long-lasting effects on both the individual and the community. Health professionals with greater exposure to LGBT patients and formal education in LGBT Psychology are better able to provide competent care,” it said.

The program is considered to be the first of its kind to focus on pre-doctoral LGBT psychology training, according to the grant abstract.

“Health professionals with greater exposure to LGBT patients and formal education in LGBT Psychology are better able to provide competent care that improves long-term mental health outcomes, reducing the risk of suicide and substance abuse,” HHS spokesperson Martin Kramer told CNSNews.com.

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$5.7M NSF Grant For Card Games, Videos To Teach Public About Global Warming

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Photo Credit: CNS News

Photo Credit: CNS News

A multi-million dollar project funded by the National Science Foundation is developing card games, videos and other educational programs “to engage adult learners and inform public understanding and response to climate change.”

The $5.7 million Polar Learning and Responding (PoLAR) project is just the latest in a series of federally-funded climate change efforts since Congress established the Climate Change Educational Partnership (CCEP) in 2009.

CCEP has already spent $46 million on taxpayer-funded research projects around the country designed to find the most effective ways to convince Americans that the federal government should confront what researchers claim is the threat of global warming.

Stephanie Pfirman, principal investigator and professor of environmental science at Barnard College, told CNSNews.com that one of the games under development by PoLAR is “EcoChains” – a card game in which “players learn the components of an Arctic marine food chain, the reliance of some species on sea ice, and potential impacts of future changes.”

Other games include “Future Coast” – described as “a community-based activity where participants consider the implications of sea level rise coupled with a storm surge, as happened with [Hurricane] Sandy.”

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New Boss at ICE Ineligible for Job, Says Critic

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement—who oversees the nation’s second-largest federal investigative agency—may not be eligible for the permanent position under laws set up to keep politics out of the agency, according to one former high-level employee.

When John Sandweg, a former Arizona criminal defense attorney and associate of outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, was named acting director of ICE, several critics questioned his credentials. Some told FoxNews.com his appointment seemed to be political, and others said the agency needed a leader who had come up through the ranks.

“Given that there are literally dozens of people within ICE who have more experience in management/law enforcement and meet these qualifications, there is no excuse for placing Mr. Sandweg as acting director of ICE,” said Anthony Ho, who was assistant special agent in charge of ICE’s San Francisco division before retiring in December.

Ho noted that the 2002 law which established the agency, then known as Bureau of Border Security, explicitly requires that the director “shall have a minimum of 5 years professional experience in law enforcement, and a minimum of 5 years of management experience.” The law was designed specifically to prevent the agency from becoming politicized, Ho said.

It was not clear if the same requirements apply to an acting director, but one source told FoxNews.com it was likely the intent that they would, otherwise an acting director could be installed indefinitely simply to get around them.

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Father Charged in BB Gun Shooting Death of 18-Month-Old Boy

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Photo Credit: MYFOXATLANTA.COM

Photo Credit: MYFOXATLANTA.COM

An 18-month-old Georgia boy is dead after being shot in the chest with a BB gun and his father has been charged with felony murder, police say.

The toddler’s father, Jesse Sellers, 23, reportedly told police he was playing with the gun when it accidentally went off, MyFoxAtlanta.com reported. Sellers has been charged with second-degree cruelty to children and felony murder.

Police say six people, including three children, were in the home at the time of the shooting.

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NSA to Release Spying Statistics

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Obama administration plans to release statistics that could shed light on the scope of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.

In a blog post late Thursday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he would soon release data on the total number of secret court orders to communications providers and the number of people targeted in those orders.

The government plans to continue releasing the statistics in annual reports, Clapper said.

He explained that he decided to release the reports to comply with President Obama’s directive to declassify as much information as possible about the surveillance programs while protecting national security.

The data will include totals for national security letters and orders under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

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Test Reveals Facebook, Twitter and Google Snoop on Emails’: Study of Net Giants Spurs New Privacy Concerns

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Facebook, Twitter and Google have been caught snooping on messages sent across their networks, new research claims, prompting campaigners to express concerns over privacy.

The findings emerged from an experiment conducted following revelations by US security contractor Edward Snowden about government snooping on internet accounts.

Cyber-security company High-Tech Bridge set out to test the confidentiality of 50 of the biggest internet companies by using their systems to send a unique web address in private messages.

Experts at its Geneva HQ then waited to see which companies clicked on the website.

During the ten-day operation, six of the 50 companies tested were found to have opened the link.

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