Media Freak Out Over Rubio’s Remarks on Age of the Earth

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The media are in full freak-out mode over Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s comments about the age of the Earth.

“I got a chill when I read Rubio’s statements,” Phil Plait, an astronomy blogger, wrote in a story at Slate.

It all started when GQ magazine published an interview with the Republican senator on Monday that included the question, “How old do you think the Earth is?”

Scientists estimate that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, though Christians cite the Bible in saying the Earth is younger. It’s the sort of question meant to give insight into whether someone believes in evolution or creationism — or both.

“I’m not a scientist, man,” Rubio responded to the question from the GQ reporter, going on to explain that the question is “one of the great mysteries.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Fox News’ ‘Hannity’ to Air One-Hour ‘District of Corruption’ Special on Thanksgiving

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Fox News’ “Hannity” on Thursday at 9 p.m. eastern will air a one-hour special about the “District of Corruption” movie and the permanent political class and crony capitalism on both sides of the aisle the film exposes and indicts.

The film, “District of Corruption,” directed by Stephen K. Bannon and produced by Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton and Victory Film Group, traces the roots of the modern disenchantment with the political system back to the Clinton administration, which shamelessly commercialized government. This continued under George W. Bush’s administration. And the Obama administration has put crony capitalism on steroids.

The Thanksgiving evening special on “Hannity” will have panelists discussing some of the Obama administration’s biggest scandals, such as Fast and Furious, green boondoggles like Solyndra, the politicization of the Department of Justice not limited to voter intimidation cases, and bailouts to Wall Street cronies.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rush Limbaugh Takes On GOP Critics

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Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh hit back hard Monday against Republican critics who say his commentary hurt GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s failed presidential run.

GOP strategist Mike Murphy said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the primaries were “driving the Republican brand right now to disaster” and that Republicans needed to acquire a view of the country “that’s not right out of Rush Limbaugh’s dream journal.”

Limbaugh’s response: “What, folks, did I or any of you have to do with the Republican primary? Did not Murphy get the candidate he wanted? All these consultants, do you realize they get rich no matter who wins or loses? Little-known secret. They get rich no matter who wins or loses,” Limbaugh said on his radio show, according to a show transcript.

“But [in] the Republican primary, as far as he’s concerned, there were too many conservatives in it saying too many stupid things,” Limbaugh added. “We need to get rid of conservatism, is what is he’s saying.”

Next up was GOP strategist Steve Schmidt, who last week at a University of Delaware panel discussion said that Limbaugh’s “white, 65 plus and rural” audience is “not what the country looks like anymore” and that Limbaugh was driving a message of “total ludicrous nonsense.”

Read more from this article HERE.

See transcript of Limbaugh’s program HERE.

GOP Senators Plot To Control State Nominating Processes

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photo credit: dbaronRead their lips: no more Todd Akins.

In the wake of the GOP’s Election Day beatdown, influential Republican senators say enough’s enough: Party leaders need to put the kibosh on the kind of savage primaries that yielded candidates like Akin — and crippled Republican prospects of taking the Senate in two straight election cycles.

It’s time, they say, for Washington bosses to be more assertive about recruiting and then defending promising candidates. They argue that it’s critical to start enlisting local conservative activists as allies and to ease the tea party versus Washington dynamic that’s wreaked havoc on the party.

All easier said than done, of course. Tea party types have relished showing the chosen candidates of the Washington establishment a thing or two — and it’s hard to see them laying down arms overnight. But after a sure-bet election in 2012 turned into an electoral disaster, Republicans say resolving their primary problem is, well, their primary problem.

Now, top Republicans are considering splitting the difference between the heavy hand they wielded in 2010 that prompted sharp blowback from the right and their mostly hands-off approach of 2012. Both strategies produced a handful of unelectable candidates, so senators are gravitating toward a middle ground: engage in primaries so long as they can get some cover on the local level.

Read more from this story HERE.

California Poverty Rate Highest In Nation Based On New Census Department Figures

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California has a poverty rate of 23.5 percent, the highest of any state in the country, according to figures released this week by the United States Census Bureau.

The only other geographic region with an equivalent poverty rate is the District of Columbia, with 23.2 percent. The second most poverty-stricken state was Florida, at 19.5 percent.

The recognition of California’s shockingly high poverty rate comes as a part of a shift in the way the Census Bureau measures its data. When the government began examining poverty back in the early 1960s, the line for determining who fell underneath the threshold was determined solely by looking at food costs.

In the decades since, there’s been increasing criticism this benchmark, as it doesn’t take into account tax rates and assistance programs such as food stamps, child care expenses and medical costs. In examining its most recent data, the Census Bureau considered these previously ignored factors, deemed the “supplemental poverty measure.”

These new metrics have yielded quite different results than in past years. Under the traditional definition of poverty, for example, California’s rate is 16.3 percent.

Read more from this story HERE.

While New Jersey Residents Suffer, Governor Christie Goes on Saturday Night Live

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Tens of thousands of New Jersey residents are without power. Many have lost homes and everything else that they have. Some don’t have enough to eat and others are struggling to stay warm.

This is not the time for a responsible leader to go do his self-promoting shtick on Saturday Night Live. But Christie seems so tone deaf that he puts his self-promotion ahead of anything else.

Yes Giuliani went on Saturday Night Live a few weeks after September 11, but that wasn’t a series of gags, it was a serious tribute to those who died in the attacks. It had very little in common with Christie showing off the same routine that he does every time he’s in the vicinity of a video camera. And at a time when New Jersey residents still need help, why is their Governor spending time on a comedy show cracking jokes about what people have been going through?

We’ve got people from Louisiana and North Carolina coming in to help New Jersey, while Christie hops from one photo op to another. Sandy, like everything else, has turned out to be all about the monumental ego of a big man who wants to be an even bigger man.

Read more from this story HERE.

Huh? Teamsters Called For Secret-Ballot At Hostess While Pushing To Eliminate Secret-Ballots

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For the last several years, union bosses have been fighting to effectively eliminate workers’ right to vote through secret-ballot elections on whether or not to become unionized. Yet, with 6700 members’ jobs about to be wiped out, when push came to shove last week—knowing how unions can manipulate other methods of voting—the Teamsters called for the bakers’ union to hold a secret-ballot vote to let members determine whether or not to continue the strike that would close Hostess.

After buying a Democrat-controlled Congress in 2006, the union-bought House of Representatives passed the delusionally-dubbed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) on March 1, 2007.

EFCA, which gives unions the ability to do away with secret-ballot elections by replacing the secret ballot with so-called ”card-check,” is union bosses’ end game for slowing their 60-year old slide into oblivion.

Over the last seven years, union bosses have spent billions on buying politicians to enact the union-friendly legislation and make workers’ secret-ballots irrelevant.

Read more from this story HERE.

Outrage: Homeland Security Promotes Welfare to Ineligible Immigrants in Government ‘Welcome’ Materials

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photo credit: jim.greenhillAsk not what you can do for your country, but what your new country can do for you.

“Welcome to USA.gov,” a website maintained by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), bills itself as the “primary gateway for new immigrants to find basic information on how to settle in the United States” — featuring a prominent section for new immigrants about how to access government benefits.

“Depending on your immigration status, length of time in the United States, and income, you may be eligible for some federal benefit programs,” the Web page reads.

“Government assistance programs can be critically important to the well-being of some immigrants and their families. Frequently, however, there is a lack of information about how to access such benefits. Benefit programs can be complicated and you may be given misleading information about how they operate.”

The DHS page offers links to government websites that explain how to access benefits including food stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, Medicare, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the “official website with information on all available federal benefit programs,” with a nonworking link to Benefits.gov.

Read more from this story HERE.

Public Nudity Ban Eyed in Fed-up San Francisco

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photo credit: APSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco may be getting ready to shed its image as a city where anything goes, including clothing.

City lawmakers are scheduled to vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would prohibit nudity in most public places, a blanket ban that represents an escalation of a two-year tiff between a devoted group of men who strut their stuff through the city’s famously gay Castro District and the supervisor who represents the area.

Supervisor Scott Wiener’s proposal would make it illegal for a person over the age of 5 to “expose his or her genitals, perineum or anal region on any public street, sidewalk, street median, parklet or plaza” or while using public transit.

A first offense would carry a maximum penalty of a $100 fine, but prosecutors would have authority to charge a third violation as a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine and a year in jail. Exemptions would be made for participants at permitted street fairs and parades, such as the city’s annual gay pride event and the Folsom Street Fair, which celebrates sadomasochism and other sexual subcultures.

Wiener said he resisted introducing the ordinance, but felt compelled to act after constituents complained about the naked men who gather in a small Castro plaza most days and sometimes walk the streets au naturel. He persuaded his colleagues last year to pass a law requiring a cloth to be placed between public seating and bare rears, yet the complaints have continued.

Read more from this story HERE.

Retiring Ron Paul to Make His Case for Liberty on College Campuses Next Year

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photo credit: gage skidmoreRetiring Rep. Ron Paul plans to deliver speeches on college campuses next year and beyond, continuing his message of liberty and reducing the size of the federal government.

In an interview with The Hill, the Texas Republican clearly indicated that he isn’t ready for the rocking chair.

The 77-year-old physician-politician said, “I’m excited about spending more time on college campuses, not less. College campuses will still be on my agenda. That’s where the action is.”

He added, “The young people don’t like the debt they are inheriting, the violation of their civil liberties. They don’t like the war and it’s a fertile field. The people up here sort of ignore them.”

During the 2012 GOP presidential primary campaign, Paul said that he visited at least 36 college campuses. He was surprised that the best turnout occurred at the historically liberal bastion, U.C. Berkeley, where 8,500 students attended his event.

Read more from this story HERE.