Senior State Dept. Climate Official Heads to Department Of Energy

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A State Department official who helped lead international climate talks is moving to the Energy Department (DOE) to head that agency’s climate operations.

Jonathan Pershing will begin his new role as DOE deputy assistant secretary for climate change policy and technology on Tuesday, David Sandalow, DOE secretary for policy and international affairs, said in a Friday email to staff.

Pershing will oversee domestic climate and clean-energy initiatives for that office, Sandalow noted. He replaces Rick Duke, who left the agency in September.

At State Department, Pershing served as deputy special envoy for climate change under special envoy Todd Stern. He helped lead the U.S. envoy in United Nations global warming talks for the past four years.

Pershing defended U.S. and Obama administration efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions during a U.N. climate conference in November.

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West Point: ‘Far Right’ Dangerous to U.S.

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A new West Point study released by the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center is linking opposition to abortion and other “fundamental” positions to terrorism, and pro-life leaders say it’s just a way to paint them in a negative way.

The study, “Challenges from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right,” says the major far right threats are from, “a racist/white supremacy movement, an anti-federalist movement and a fundamentalist movement.”

Author Arie Perliger cites “anti-abortionists” as an active threat for terrorist activity.

“The anti-abortionists have been extremely productive during the last two decades, amassing 227 attacks, many of them perpetrated without the responsible perpetrators identified or caught,” Perliger wrote. “And while, in both cases, the 1990s were more violent than the last decade, in the case of anti-abortion, the trend is much more extreme, as 90 percent of attacks were perpetrated before 2001.”

American Life League President Judie Brown believes this is a smear tactic.

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Poll: 75 Percent Want Congressional Term Limits

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Three out of four Americans support term limits for members of Congress, a new poll finds.

According to a Gallup survey posted Friday, 75 percent of adults nationwide back term limits for members of the House and the Senate, while 21 percent say they would vote against term limits. Term limits received bipartisan support in the poll: Republicans would back such a measure 82 percent-15 percent; independents would do so 79 percent-17 percent and Democrats favored term limits 65 percent-29 percent, even as most incumbents won their races again in November, Gallup noted.

This survey comes at a time when many Americans have a negative opinion of the Hill.

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IRS Loses Lawsuit in Fight Against Tax Preparers

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FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday barred the IRS from imposing a series of new regulations, including a competency exam, on hundreds of thousands of tax preparers.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington ruled against the IRS in favor of three tax preparers who filed suit last year with the help of a libertarian legal group, the Arlington, Va.-based Institute for Justice.

Since 2011, in response to what it says has been a growing problem of poorly done returns, the IRS has sought to impose a series of new regulations on tax preparers. That included a requirement to pass a qualifying exam, paying an annual application fee, and taking 15 hours annually of continuing-education courses.

Attorneys and certified public accountants would have been exempt from the regulations.

The Institute for Justice argued that the IRS lacked the statutory authority to impose the regulations and said they would put tens of thousands of mom-and-pop tax preparers out of business, because the regulations were onerous and create a competitive disadvantage to the attorneys and CPAs who were exempt.

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Environmentalists Versus Workers: Keystone Pipeline Decision Will Shape Obama’s Legacy

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Whether President Obama approves the Keystone XL pipeline or not hinges on one key question: Which is more important to him, creating jobs and promoting energy independence or fighting climate change?

Two reports released Thursday highlight both issues, making even clearer the choice the White House faces. Mr. Obama has delayed for more than a year a final decision on the massive pipeline, which would transport Canadian oil sands through the U.S. to Gulf Coast refineries.

The project’s latest route also must be approved by Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican whose state stands to benefit if the pipeline is built.

A study commissioned by the Consumer Energy Alliance details those benefits: more than 5,500 Nebraska jobs created during the 2013-14 construction period, with nearly 1,000 permanent jobs continuing through 2030; more than $950 million in labor income generated for the life of the project; more than $130 million in property, sales and other taxes for Nebraska coffers; and an estimated $679 million boost to Nebraska’s gross domestic product.

The study, conducted by the Goss Institute for Economic Research, also predicts that the pipeline will increase overall economic activity in Nebraska by about $1.8 billion through 2029.

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Rand Paul to Chris Christie: Cool it With the Temper Tantrums & Grandstanding, Alright? (+audio)

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If it seems like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) have been in the news an awful lot recently, it’s because they have been — the New Jersey governor for his harsh criticism of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the National Rifle Association and the Kentucky senator for his vow to “nullify” the president’s new gun-control measures.

And if you’ve been waiting on a news story that involves both GOP heavyweights, well, you’re in luck: Sen. Paul on Friday publicly reprimanded Gov. Christie for “not standing up for Second Amendment rights in the ongoing gun control debate,” as CNN puts it.

“You have some Republicans backing down like Christie backing down and criticizing the NRA, and I think that doesn’t do us any good,” Sen. Paul told conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham. “So I think Republicans do need to stand more firmly on this issue.”

Asked why he thinks Gov. Christie chose to take such a hard stance against the NRA and its “reprehensible” anti-Obama ad, Sen. Paul said he thinks the governor is merely posturing.

“I think he may be solidifying his support with Democrats in New Jersey and maybe liberal Republicans,” the Kentucky senator said.

Listen to audio:

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Texas Runs Ads Telling New York Gun Owners to Move to the Lone Star

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“Texas is better than New York, and New York just gave us another excuse to say that,” [Attorney General] Abbott, a Republican, said on Thursday, after ads extolling Texas appeared on several media websites.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed sweeping gun-control legislation earlier this week expanding the state’s ban on assault weapons and putting limits on ammunition capacity in the wake of last month’s school shootings in Connecticut.

Abbott, a possible candidate for governor of Texas in next year’s election, used campaign money to buy ads on websites of news organizations in New York City and Albany.

One ad says in classic Western script: “WANTED: Law abiding New York gun owners seeking lower taxes and greater opportunities.”

Clicking on the ad leads to a Facebook page touting the virtues of Texas, including the fact that the state has no income tax so “you’ll be able to keep more of what you earn and use that extra money to buy more ammo.”

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NRA: This is About Banning Guns

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Late Tuesday evening, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre sent an email to supporters as President Obama prepares to sign as many as 19 executive orders on new gun control measures. LaPierre said this isn’t about protecting children, it’s about “banning your guns” . . .

It’s not about protecting children. It’s not about stopping crime. It’s about banning your guns…PERIOD!

Last week, NRA sat in on a White House meeting that was sold to the public as an “open discussion” about how to improve school safety. But that was a dirty lie.

They didn’ listen to gun owners’ concerns…they didn’ consider any real solutions on how we can keep our kids safe…instead Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and their gun ban allies in Congress only want to BLAME you, VILIFY you, BULLY you, and STRIP you of your Second Amendment freedoms.

Right now, they’re steamrolling ahead with legislation that would ban your guns, register your ammunition purchases, and even force you to register the firearms you already own with Obama’s anti-gun bureaucrats.

Read full story HERE.

New York Fires Auditor Who Found Misuse of Sandy Recovery Funds

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No good deed goes unpunished in New York: the state has abruptly cut off a contract with the independent auditor who found that the state had been wasting federal money meant to be spent on Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts.

Thomas Sadowski, the fired consultant, told the Times Union that he was escorted out of the building when he visited the New York Office of Emergency Management shortly after he filed his report on November 17.

The state hired Sadowski for his extensive experience in emergency procurement management with the federal government. The certified public accountant also did similar work for 10 years at the U.S. Department of Interior’s Inspector General’s office. Sadowski also trained the U.S. Forest Service, Alaska Fire Service, National Interagency Fire Center, Colorado Wildfire Academy, and other government agencies.

“I didn’t believe I did anything to be escorted off the premises,” Sadowski told the Times Union. “I wasn’t trying to get back at anybody or get anybody in trouble.” But Sadowski said he believed he was fired for finding the waste. “I was relieved of my duties because I identified these problems,” he said.

In his report, Sadowski found that the state was buying equipment it didn’t need but had wanted for other purposes, had bought equipment that cannot be tracked, and even lost some equipment bought.

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Poll: Future for U.S.? 42% Say Nation Will Collapse; Some See Dictator Soon

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One in seven Americans believes that the nation eventually will be ruled by a dictator, and another one in five says it eventually will break up into several sovereign regions, according to a new poll reflecting the dark shadow the country is facing.

More than one in four respondents believe the United States likely will collapse not just in their lifetime, but in the next decade, meaning the successor to Barack Obama would be unable to finish a second term.

Others believe a new “democracy” will arise from the ashes of the current republican form of government.

The results are from a telephone poll conducted for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies. It was taken Jan. 9-12 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.22 percentage points.

Asked to speculate on what would happen to the U.S. after a hypothetical failure of the current government, a plurality said they think some new sort of democracy would emerge.

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