CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY – FRIDAY MORNING EDITION – February 28, 2014

CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY

A free service of Jesus Christ is Lord Ministries

News selected and edited by Ray Mossholder

 FRIDAY MORNING EDITION, February 28, 2014

“SON OF GOD” BEGINS ACROSS AMERICA TODAY. PRAY.

 “It’s like opening the pages of the Gospels and seeing them come alive for every one who sees it.” The long awaited motion picture “Son of God” opened in hundreds of theaters throughout America yesterday. However, the official opening of the movie is today. Yesterday it was nearly impossible to get a ticket to see it if a person didn’t already have one. That’s because many churches throughout this nation bought out theaters for Thursday’s showings so that their people could see “Son of God” first. The reason most pastors gave for letting their own people go first was so that the power of the film would motivate them to bring their unsaved friends to see it too. The movie is said to present Christ in the most realistic way any film in the history of movies has ever done.

 A Fort Worth pastor who didn’t have tickets for his congregation told them last Sunday that it is important for them to try to get in to see this movie this weekend because Hollywood will be watching to see how popular this film is really going to be and how much money it will bring in at the box office. “The first weekend of any movie is the one the studios watch most carefully for profit and how it ranks with other competing films. After that it will continue watching only if the movie remains in the top five, and especially if it remains number one.” He urged them to see the film several times and to pay full price for it at the box office each time. “It’s absolutely like voting every time a person buys a ticket to see it, though in this case you can legally vote many more times than once. Don’t go without bringing unsaved friends with you. We need to pray at least 1 million people will be brought to salvation in Christ after seeing “’Son of God.’”

ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL

 Attorney General Eric Holder has been discharged from a Washington, D.C. hospital after being taken there via ambulance as a precaution Thursday morning. The Department of Justice said Holder had been feeling faint and was short of breath, and had an elevated heart rate when he arrived at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

Holder had been meeting with his senior staff at 9:30 a.m. when he said he wasn’t feeling well. He excused himself and went into his office, where he decided he should go to a hospital. “It was nothing sudden or traumatic,” said an official.

Holder, 63, was taken to the hospital by ambulance, according to a Department of Justice official, and was there a little less than three hours. He was released around 1:15 p.m. Thursday and went home to rest after receiving a full range of tests.

A Justice Department official said Holder was joking with paramedics on the way to the hospital, and told them he walks five flights of stairs to his office every morning. An avid basketball player, Holder has been in good health. However, the DOJ said Holder had experienced similar symptoms several years ago, but in a milder form that didn’t require serious medical attention.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

POPE FRANCIS WELCOMES AND ENDORSES THE FOUNDER OF

BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY

 Editor’s Note: I’ve placed the following article near the top of this news report because this day could be the beginning of a major prophesied change in the leadership of Catholicism. Many biblical scholars have predicted this kind of thing would happen towards the end of time. The greater significance of the events surrounding this article – which has been totally neglected by the vast majority of the media probably due to its not understanding the significance– can’t be overstated. You will see why when you read further. – Ray

 VATICAN CITY – The founder of Black Liberation Theology, the Latin American-inspired Catholic theology advocating for the poor, has received a hero’s welcome at the Vatican as the once-criticized movement continues its rehabilitation under Pope Francis. The Reverend Gustavo Gutierrez was the surprise speaker Tuesday at a book launch featuring the head of the Vatican’s orthodoxy office, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller; one of Francis’ top advisers, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga; and the Vatican spokesman.

 The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger spent much of his tenure at Mueller’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith battling liberation theology, arguing that it misinterpreted Jesus’ preference for the poor into a Marxist call for armed rebellion. Guttierez insists true liberation theology was always perfectly in line with the church’s social teaching about the poor that Francis widely embraces.

Black Liberation Theology is closely related to the broader phenomenon of liberation theology, which calls for social activism, class struggle, and even violent revolution aimed at overturning the “capitalist oppressors of the poor” and installing, in its place, a socialist utopia that will finally enfranchise the poor and downtrodden. As an extension of this movement, Black Liberation Theology similarly seeks to foment Marxist revolutionary fervor but one founded on racial rather than class solidarity.

 

WHAT IS “BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY?”

 A clear definition of Black Liberation Theology was first given formulation in 1969 by the National Committee of Black Church Men: “Black theology is a theology of black liberation. It seeks to plumb the black condition in the light of God’s revelation in Jesus Christ so that the black community can see that the gospel is commensurate with the achievements of black humanity. Black theology is a theology of ‘blackness.’ It is the affirmation of black humanity that emancipates black people from White racism, thus providing authentic freedom for both white and black people. It affirms the humanity of white people in that it says ‘No’ to the encroachment of white oppression.”

 The chief architect of Black Liberation Theology was James Cone, author of Black Theology and Black Power. One of the tasks of this movement, according to Cone, is to analyze the nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ in light of the experience of blacks who have long been victimized by white oppressors. According to black liberation theology, the inherent racism of white people precludes them from being able to recognize the humanity of nonwhites; moreover, their white supremacist orientation allegedly results in the establishment of a “white theology” that is irrevocably disconnected from the black experience. Consequently, liberation theologians contend that blacks need their own, race-specific theology to affirm their identity and their worth.

“What we need,” says Cone, “is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of Black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.” Observing that America was founded for white people, Cone calls for “the destruction of whiteness, which is the source of human misery in the world.” He advocates the use of Marxism as a tool of social analysis to help Christians to see “how things really are.”

Another prominent exponent of Black Liberation Theology is the Ivy League professor Cornel West, who calls for “a serious dialogue between Black theologians and Marxist thinkers” — a dialogue that centers on the possibility of “mutually arrived-at political action.”

Black liberation theology entered the public consciousness in 2008 when the media focused on the racist sermons of Barack Obama’s minister Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a strong adherent of the movement. 20 years of sitting under Jeremiah Wright, the man Barack calls his “mentor,” just before becoming president, hasn’t changed President Obama’s beliefs even though he publicly parted company with him. President Obama and Michelle are training their children in Black Liberation Theology.

Adapted from “Marxist Roots of Black Liberation Theology,” by Anthony B. Bradley (April 6, 2008).

PRESIDENT OBAMA LAUNCHES NATIONWIDE EFFORT

TO HELP MINORITY YOUTH

WASHINGTON – President Obama on Thursday launched his “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative, calling on public and private entities to create more opportunities for young minority men, and break down social conditions that keep them impoverished and imprisoned in disproportionate numbers.

Under Obama’s initiative, businesses, foundations and community groups would coordinate their investments to come up with, or support, programs that keep youths in school and out of the criminal justice system, while improving their access to higher education. Several foundations pledged at least $200 million over five years to promote that goal.

Meanwhile, Obama signed a presidential memorandum creating a government-wide task force to evaluate the effectiveness of various approaches, so that federal and local governments, community groups and businesses will have best practices to follow in the future. An online “What Works” portal will provide public access to data about programs that improve outcomes for young minority men.

Valerie Jarrett, a senior White House adviser, said Thursday marks the start of an effort that the president and first lady Michelle Obama plan to undertake “for the rest of their lives. That’s a moral, social responsibility that they feel will transcend the time that he’s president,” Jarrett said.

Obama’s pledge to take action came during his State of the Union address last month, when he warned that young, black men face “especially tough odds to stay on track and reach their full potential. Obama himself grew up in a single-parent household, and has said he and some members of his staff were challenged and tempted by the same societal ills plaguing younger generations of minority males.

The White House listed a litany of facts showing the need for the effort: The unemployment rate for African-American men over the age of 20 was 12 percent last month, compared with 5.4 percent for white men. Hispanic men over the age of 20 faced an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent. The U.S. Census Bureau showed a poverty rate of 27.2 percent in black households and 25.6 percent for Hispanic households in 2012, compared with 12.7 percent in white and 11.7 percent in Asian households.

Those already working to better the lives of young minority men called Thursday’s announcement an “unprecedented moment,” to have the White House publicly allied with their cause. “The president of the United States has never taken a stand suggesting that our nation mobilize its resources to improve opportunity for this population,” said Gail C. Christopher, vice president of program strategy at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which focuses its resources on vulnerable children who face poverty and discrimination.

The phrase “my brother’s keeper” comes from the book of Genesis in the Bible, where God asks Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, for the location of his brother Abel, who Cain had killed. In some versions, Cain replies: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Obama has quoted those Bible verses several times during his presidency, saying Americans should look out for each other.

Freed from the pressure of seeking re-election, Obama also has taken a more visible role on issues affecting minorities. The president, who famously said — “I’m not the president of black America. I’m the president of the United States of America” — has moved to commute sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, hoping to combat sentencing disparities that disproportionately imprison minorities. His attorney general, Eric Holder, this month encouraged states to repeal laws that permanently bar felons from voting even after they have served their sentences. And Obama identified personally with the issue last year when he declared, after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, that Trayvon Martin, the black teenager killed in an encounter with Zimmerman in Florida, “could have been me 35 years ago.”

The White House has been strongly criticized by some civil rights leaders for not using the presidential bully pulpit to do enough to address generations of disadvantage borne by the African-American community. But things are changing, said NAACP Interim President Lorraine Miller, who along with other civil rights groups met with the president in the White House last week.

“I think he’s looking at a more strategic way how he can make an impact in the African-American community (not only) with employment but with health care and all the kind of issues we face every day,” said NAACP Interim President Lorraine Miller in response to a question from The Associated Press on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.”

MUSLIMS CAN CONTINUE BEING TARGETED IN NEW YORK

(CNN)– Muslims in America just lost their right to privacy. Last week, a federal judge in New Jersey ruled that blanket, suspicion-less surveillance of Muslims is permissible under the U.S. Constitution. Since September 11, 2001, the New York Police Department has used community mapping, video surveillance, photography and confidential informants to map Muslim life in and around New York. Mosques, student groups, restaurants, even grade schools, have all been surveilled.

 In 2012, a group of New Jersey plaintiffs sued the NYPD, alleging that the spying program chills religious expression and stigmatizes Islam. The plaintiffs include an Iraq war veteran, a prominent mosque and a math teacher. Each was monitored by the NYPD absent any evidence of wrongdoing.

 The judge, however, ruled that plaintiff’s failed to prove discrimination, and found that monitoring Muslims was the only way to stop terrorism arising from the Muslim community. The court also dealt a damaging blow to whistle-blowers, ruling that The Associated Press revelations about the program caused the plaintiffs’ injury, not the NYPD. According to the judge, the harm to Muslim communities was caused by overzealous journalists, not snooping cops.

 OUR GOVERNMENT BARKS AT RUSSIA BUT WON’T BITE

The Kremlin ordered 150,000 troops to test their combat readiness and armed men seized government buildings in Ukraine’s Crimea region and raised a Russian flag over a barricade where the majority of the population are speaking Russian. The large-scale military exercises are what many see as a show of force or possible prelude to intervention in Ukraine. “Any kind of military intervention that would violate the sovereign territorial integrity of Ukraine would be a huge, a grave mistake,” Kerry told reporters in Washington. “The territorial integrity of Ukraine needs to be respected.”

Kerry announced that the Obama administration was planning $1 billion in loan guarantees for Ukraine and would consider additional direct assistance for the former Soviet republic.

Kerry also renewed U.S. demands that Moscow withdraw troops from disputed enclaves in another former Soviet republic, Georgia, and urged Georgia to further integrate with Europe and NATO.

The warning, aid announcement and nudge westward for Georgia all came amid growing tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine and were likely to fuel already-heightened Russian suspicions over Western intentions in its backyard.

Kerry insisted, however, that that U.S. policy toward Ukraine, Georgia and the other states that once made up the Soviet Union was not aimed at reducing Russia’s influence in its neighborhood. Instead, he maintained that U.S. encouragement for former Soviet states to integrate with the West was driven by America’s desire to see their people realize aspirations for freedom in robust democracies with strong economies.

“This is not `Rocky IV’,” Kerry said, referring to the iconic 1985 Sylvester Stallone film in which an aging American boxer takes on a daunting Soviet muscleman. “It is not a zero-sum game. We do not view it through the lens of East-West, Russia-U.S. or anything else. We view it as an example of people within a sovereign nation who are expressing their desire to choose their future. And that’s a very powerful force.”

Ukraine’s new government was expected to be formally approved by parliament Thursday. It will face the hugely complicated task of restoring stability in a country that is not only deeply divided politically but on the verge of financial collapse.

Elsewhere, Russian news organization RBK reported Wednesday that Ukraine’s fugitive president, Viktor Yanukovych, is staying in Barvikha sanatorium just outside Moscow which is run by the presidential administration’s property department. Yanukovych has not been seen publicly since Saturday. While the West has recognized the new Ukrainian government, whose forces drove Yanukovych from the capital, Russia still considers him the legitimate president.

In addition to Putin ordering the military exercises, Russia’s defense ministry said it would take steps to strengthen security at facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, where there have been clashes between pro- and anti-Russian demonstrators. Pro-Russian protesters have spoken of secession, and a Russian lawmaker has stoked their passions by promising that Russia will protect them.

Those steps have raised fears of possible Russian military intervention in Ukraine along the lines of its 2008 operation in Georgia, which led to the occupations of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and was roundly condemned by the United States and its European allies who did nothing more about it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SOUTH KOREAN PASTOR ASKS NORTH KOREA FOR MERCY

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA – A South Korean Baptist missionary who was arrested more than four months ago for allegedly trying to establish underground Christian churches in North Korea told reporters Thursday he is sorry for his “anti-state” crimes and appealed to North Korean authorities to show him mercy by releasing him from their custody.

Kim Jung Wook told a news conference he was arrested in early October after entering the North from China and trying to make his way to Pyongyang with Bibles, Christian instructional materials and movies. He said he had received assistance from South Korea’s intelligence agency.

Kim said he was unsure what punishment he would face. He asked for the mercy of North Korean authorities and said he requested the news conference to show his family he is in good health. He said he was arrested on October 8, the day after he crossed into the North.

Kim, in his first public appearance since his arrest, said he had met numerous times with South Korean intelligence officials before crossing into the North from Dandong, in China, and claimed he had received thousands of dollars from them for his service. He said he wanted to go into North Korea to establish a series of underground churches to spread Christianity there.

“I was thinking of turning North Korea into a religious country, and destroying its present government and political system,” he said. “I received money from the intelligence services and followed instructions from them, and arranged North Koreans to act as their spies. And I also set up an underground church in China, in Dandong, and got the members to talk and write, for me to collect details about the reality of life in North Korea, and I provided this to the intelligence services.”

North Korea’s state media said in November the country had arrested a South Korean spy. South Korea’s main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, denied it had sent such a spy to North Korea.

At Thursday’s news conference, Kim said his actions constitute a crime against North Korea’s state and called himself a “criminal.” He said that he has not been mistreated during his incarceration. Similar statements in the past have been recanted after prisoners have been released.

It was not clear what kind of punishment Kim would receive, or why North Korean officials held the news conference, during which they also showed video-taped confessions of North Koreans Kim had contact with. While North Korea’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the government.

WORLD BANK STRIKES UGANDA HARD

WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Bank has postponed a $90 million loan to Uganda over its anti-gay law that has drawn widespread criticism from Western governments, the United Nations and rights groups.

A bank spokesman said Thursday the loan was intended to help the East African nation strengthen its health systems. He said the bank division that lends to the private sector wants to ensure that the development objectives of the project would not be adversely affected by the enactment of the new law.

President Yoweri Museveni signed the bill on Monday, saying he wanted to deter Western groups from promoting homosexuality in Africa. It calls for life in prison for those convicted of engaging in gay sex.

TEMPORARY NEW PRIME MINISTER IN EGYPT

CAIRO – Egypt’s interim president chose the outgoing housing minister, a construction magnate from the era of ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak, as his new prime minister on Tuesday, some two months ahead of key presidential elections.

The switch from veteran economist Hazem el-Beblawi to Ibrahim Mehlib, who successfully led Egypt’s biggest construction company for a decade, appeared orchestrated to give Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the country’s military chief, a window for quieter possibilities after a spike in labor strikes with the potential of triggering wider unrest.

El-Sissi overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July and backed el-Beblawi’s government through tumultuous times, including a heavy crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, and a nationwide referendum that adopted a new constitution while Islamic militant insurgency and terror attacks surged. With his presidential bid almost certain, el-Sissi must leave the military to run for president. However, a senior government official said the 59-year-old soldier will retain his defense minister’s post in the next Cabinet.

“There is a need for a fresh face to deal with the strikes,” said Mohammed Aboul Ghar, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic party, from which el-Beblawi hails. “El-Beblawi was supposed to stay for two more months but the strikes propelled a speed-up in pushing through the changes.”

A change of government before the presidential vote would also spare el-Sissi the disruption associated with forming a new one if he becomes president, a near certainty given his sweeping popularity and the relative weakness of his rivals — a leftist politician and a retired general.

The surprise resignation of el-Beblawi’s Cabinet and its swift replacement also reflects that the country’ economic woes are enough to daunt anyone who fills the land’s highest office. However since Mubarak’s ouster in a 2011 uprising, persistent turmoil has sapped investment and tourism, draining the country of its main sources of foreign currency. The military’s removal of Morsi and the subsequent street violence have deepened the country’s economic woes.

While the anti-Islamist oil-rich Gulf countries have poured in billions of dollars in grants and loans to keep the country’s economy afloat, tens of thousands of textile workers, doctors, pharmacists and even policemen have gone on strike in recent days. Schools and universities had their mid-year break extended by a month because of concerns over the security situation and the spread of swine flu.

 

Minutes after news broke that he had been chosen prime minister, Mehlib told reporters his cabinet members will be “holy warriors” in the service of Egyptians. He said that his top priority is to improve living standards, combat terrorism and restore security. This, he said, would pave the way for presidential elections.

“God willing, the presidential elections will pass and will take place in proper conditions of safety, security, transparency,” he said, adding, “the priority is to work day and night … anyone in the cabinet will be a holy warrior to achieve the goals of the people.”

When asked about the strikes, Mehlib said that excessive labor demands can “topple the state.” Labor official and activist Kamal Abbas saw a positive sign in the resignation of el-Beblawi’s government “in response to the strikes,” but added that workers will wait and see what the new one will bring. “This is an example of failed response to the strikes. Instead of sending the buses, why don’t you talk to the workers and when negotiations fail, talk again until we reach a solution,” said Abbas.

The military, meanwhile, sought to head off a backlash over the strike by public transport workers, sending its own buses to ferry passengers across the capital. “This is to lighten the suffering of citizens and the harm caused by the strikes,” said a statement posted on the Facebook page of military spokesman Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali.

Mehlib, the prime minister-designate, has a reputation for being a hard worker and a successful chief executive of several large companies. Born in 1949, he is a graduate of Cairo University’s school of engineering. He rose through the ranks of the construction conglomerate Arab Contractors to become its chief executive for 11 years before resigning in 2012. He worked in Saudi Arabia for one year before he returned to become housing minister under el-Beblawi.

Mubarak appointed him to the upper house of parliament, a toothless consultative body called the Shura Council, in 2010. He was also a senior member of Mubarak’s now-dissolved National Democratic Party.

In a separate development, courts on Tuesday sentenced 220 mostly Morsi supporters to up to seven years imprisonment for instigating violence and holding protests without a permit. Three courts in the port city of Alexandria issued the verdicts in separate cases, all related to street protests.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA MAYOR ORDERS INSURANCE COMPANIES TO PAY FOR TRANSGENDER SURGERY

 Insurance companies in the District of Columbia have been ordered to stop denying coverage to transgender residents seeking gender-reassignment surgery. Mayor Vincent Gray says the new rules will end health-care discrimination against the transgender population and put “the district at the forefront of advancing the rights of transgender individuals.”

A bulletin issued Thursday by the city’s Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking says that gender dysphoria is a recognized medical condition. It says the various forms of treatment for that condition, including sex-change procedures, are covered benefits.

Gray says people with gender dysphoria, also known as gender identity disorder, “should not have to pay exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses for medically necessary treatment.” The mayor is a Democrat who is seeking re-election.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO OUR GUARANTEE OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION?

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer announced Wednesday she has vetoed a controversial bill that would have allowed religious beliefs as a defense for denying service to gays and others. Brewer said the bill had “the potential to create more problems than it purports to solve. It could divide Arizona in ways we cannot even imagine and no one would ever want.” Some blame the media for blowing the law out of proportion.

 Democrats and civil rights groups opposed the measure backed by social conservatives, saying it would allow discriminatory actions by businesses and hurt the state’s economy by driving away business. Several prominent Republicans also had urged Brewer in recent days to reject the bill. Among the first to congratulate Brewer for her decision Wednesday was Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, who had urged her to veto the measure.

McCain said, “I appreciate the decision made by Governor Brewer to veto this legislation. I hope that we can now move on from this controversy and assure the American people that everyone is welcome to live, work and enjoy our beautiful State of Arizona,” McCain said in a statement.

The Arizona Legislature passed the bill last week allowing businesses whose owners cite sincerely held religious beliefs to deny service to gays and others. It allows any business, church or person to cite the law as a defense in any action brought by the government or individual claiming discrimination.

The legislation caused a national uproar, with the business community, the state’s Super Bowl Committee and both Republican U.S. senators calling for a veto. Former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney also weighed in and urged Brewer to veto the bill.

 

Brewer’s announcement came hours after Major League Baseball and the National Football League joined a growing chorus of business organizations denouncing or expressing strong reservations about the legislation.

Echoing calls for Arizona boycotts previously stirred by Brewer’s support for tough measures to clamp down on illegal immigration, the Hispanic National Bar Association also said on Wednesday that its board had voted unanimously to pull its annual convention from Phoenix in light of last week’s passage of the bill.

In her remarks to reporters, Brewer said the bill “does not address a specific and present concern related to religious liberty in Arizona. I have not heard of one example in Arizona where a business owner’s religious liberty has been violated.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report

PRESIDENT OF FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL EXPLAINS WHAT HAPPENED

The president of the Family Research Council said Wednesday on “The Kelly File” that “all sorts of wild claims” led to Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer’s decision.

“Unfortunately, this is how fundamental freedoms are trampled,” Tony Perkins said. “You create a stampede by spooking politicians in public with misinformation.”

He said the law was vetoed despite 11 law professors from across the country sending a letter to Brewer saying the law was legal. Perkins added that the law was needed in order to clarify the state’s legal position on what qualifies as religious objection in places of business.

“This is going to continue to be a major problem and it’s going to spread across the country,” he said. “Who’s going to protect the rights of Christians and religious people? That’s the question that has to be answered.”

 Editor’s Note: In 1999, I had the extreme honor of arguing before the Supreme Court of Texas against “no fault divorce.” My colleague at that moment was Tony Perkins.

TEXAS LAW AGAINST SAME-SEX MARRIAGE CHALLENGED

 A federal judge declared a same-sex marriage ban in deeply conservative Texas unconstitutional on Wednesday, but will allow the nation’s second-most populous state to enforce the law pending an appeal that will likely go to the U.S. Supreme Court next year.

 Judge Orlando Garcia issued the preliminary injunction after two gay couples challenged a state constitutional amendment and a longstanding law. His ruling is the latest in a tangled web of lawsuits across the country expected to end up in the Supreme Court next year.

“Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in our United States Constitution,” Garcia wrote. “These Texas laws deny plaintiffs access to the institution of marriage and its numerous rights, privileges, and responsibilities for the sole reason that Plaintiffs wish to be married to a person of the same sex.”

The fight to pass such laws bannered as religious freedom issues is still on in quite a few other states. “Right behind Arizona are Missouri and Georgia,” said Jay Michaelson, a fellow at Political Research Associates, a progressive political think tank.

 At Fox News Opinion, Juan Williams said money was behind Brewer’s veto: “The real story here is that she was responding to money and politics. On the money front the governor faced pressure from a growing list of major American companies with business interests in a state which countered the right-wing’s social agenda by urging the governor to veto the bill with the implicit threat of pulling out of Arizona… On the political front, she also faced opposition from the national Republican Party’s moderate establishment wing to counter the power of the religious right to define the Republican Party brand.”

U.S. AND BRITISH SPIES STORE EXPLICIT PORNOGRAPHY FROM YAHOO

U.S. and British spy agencies intercepted and stored images from the webcams of millions of likely innocent Yahoo users, including “large quantities” of sexually explicit images, the Guardian reported Thursday, a revelation the web giant described as “a whole new level of violation.”

A secret program called Optic Nerve appears intended to collate a digital mugbook of sorts, snapping screenshots every 5 minutes or so from user feeds. But the program targeted indiscriminately, regardless of whether the webcam owner was an intelligence target or not. More than 1.8 million user accounts from around the world were accessed in one six-month period alone.

Image data from the Yahoo accounts was hoovered up between 2008 and 2012 under the program, which was run by U.K. surveillance agency GCHQ with assistance from the National Security Agency (NSA). The report is based on secret documents taken by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, which have led to international outrage over the stunning extent of oversight of Internet activities.

The secret documents show that sexually explicit material was an issue the spy agencies wrangled with; they estimate that between 3 percent and 11 percent of Yahoo webcam images contained “undesirable nudity.”

“Unfortunately … it would appear that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person,” one document states. “Also, the fact that the Yahoo software allows more than one person to view a webcam stream without necessarily sending a reciprocal stream means that it appears sometimes to be used for broadcasting pornography.”

Yahoo responded “furiously” when informed of the Optic Nerve program, the Guardian reported, denying knowledge of the program and calling it “a whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy that is completely unacceptable. We strongly call on the world’s governments to reform surveillance law consistent with the principles we outlined in December,” a spokeswoman said.

The GCHQ said it would not comment on intelligence matters, according to company policy. But a spokesman did say that “all of GCHQ’s work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorized, necessary and proportionate.”

NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines said, “As we’ve said before, the National Security Agency does not ask its foreign partners to undertake any intelligence activity that the U.S. government would be legally prohibited from undertaking itself,” she told the Guardian.

ICE SKATES ON ONE END OF AMERICA, GALOSHES ON THE OTHER

(CNN)– Mudslides, cold, flooding. The barrage of extreme weather feels relentless. Another arctic blast is bringing subzero temperatures to the Midwest, pushing the mercury below freezing as far south as Florida.

Detroit public schools will be closed Friday because of extreme cold. The National Weather Service warned that in the Detroit area, wind chills are forecast to be between 10 and 25 degrees below zero. Forecasters say Detroit is the hardest-hit this season, with more than 78 inches of snow and 13 days of temperatures below zero. New York, Philadelphia and Chicago also rank high on the misery list for record snowfall and freezing temps.

“We’ve been able to look at this winter and compare it to the record since 1950, and putting this winter in context, it really has been as severe as people think it is,” said Barbara Mayes Boustead, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “This really has been the worst winter in a lot of people’s lifetimes. We haven’t seen winters like this since the 70s in a lot of places.”

 News of more extreme weather got a cold response.

 Yet while most people are cheering in California where an extremely welcome rain is bringing relief, the rain hasn’t come without cost. Thousands of miles away from Detroit, some areas in Southern California are evacuating because of the potential for flash floods Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles County.

Authorities are warning that torrential rain will finally put a dent in the state’s severe drought — its worst in 100 years — but at a price. “A very strong and dynamic storm will bring a significant amount of rain to much of southwestern California,” the National Weather Service said. 6 inches of rain are forecast for some area with rain rates at times expected to range from a half to 1 inch per hour,.

“A flash flood watch has been issued for several recent burn areas in Los Angeles County due to the abundant rainfall expected,” the weather service said. “There will be isolated thunderstorms … rain rates at times are expected to range from a half to 1 inch per hour, which could cause significant mud and debris flows.”

 A flash flood watch remains in effect until Saturday evening for Colby, Madison and Madre burn areas in Los Angeles County. Most of those areas are at risk because recent wildfires have razed vegetation and left hillsides bare. Affected areas under mandatory evacuation orders include Azusa and Glendora, which have the highest risk of flooding due to loss of vegetation.

CO–FOUNDER OF GREENPEACE SAYS CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT MAN-MADE

A co-founder of Greenpeace told lawmakers there is no evidence man is contributing to climate change, and said he left the group when it became more interested in politics than the environment.

Patrick Moore, a Canadian ecologist and business consultant who was a member of Greenpeace from 1971-86, told members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee environmental groups like the one he helped establish use faulty computer models and scare tactics in promoting claims man-made gases are heating up the planet. “There is no scientific proof that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the dominant cause of the minor warming of the Earth’s atmosphere over the past 100 years,” he said. Even if the planet is warming up, Moore claimed it would not be calamitous for men, which he described as a “subtropical species.”

Skeptics of manmade climate change say there is no evidence the Earth is warming. A UN report on the scientific data behind global warming released in September indicated that global surface temperatures have not increased for the past 15 years, but scientists who believe climate change due to man is occurring say it has merely paused because of several factors and will soon resume.

The 2,200-page new Technical Report attributes any warming of the Earth’s atmosphere to a combination of several factors, including natural variability, reduced heating from the sun, and the ocean acting like a “heat sink” to suck up extra warmth in the atmosphere.

Moore said he left Greenpeace in the 1980s because he believed it became more interested in politics than science. “After 15 years in the top committee I had to leave as Greenpeace took a sharp turn to the political left, and began to adopt policies that I could not accept from my scientific perspective,” he said. “Climate change was not an issue when I abandoned Greenpeace, but it certainly is now.”

OFFICIALS OF THE EPA ARE SILENCING THEIR EMPLOYEES

The chief watchdog overseeing the Environmental Protection Agency is accusing agency officials of obstructing investigations by refusing to cooperate, using bully tactics to silence lower-level workers and, in at least one instance, threatening an agent.

EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins Jr. made the allegations in a letter sent this week to Senator David Vitter, R-La. The senator earlier had questioned both the objectivity of the IG office and whether EPA officials had interfered with investigations — specifically asking about the case of John Beale, a former high-ranking official who was sentenced in December to 32 months in prison for bilking taxpayers of nearly $1 million by pretending to be a CIA agent. The IG’s office formally exposed the Beale fraud last year, but revealed to Vitter that, in this and other cases, its agents ran into resistance and even “intimidation” from the EPA ranks. 

“Over the past 12 months, there have been several EPA officials who have taken action to prevent [the Office of Investigations] from conducting investigations or have attempted to obstruct investigations through intimidation,” Elkins wrote.

In the Beale probe, Elkins confirmed that a staff attorney refused to be interviewed on a related audit following Beale’s prosecution. Elkins wrote that auditors found indications she may have been aware of concerns about Beale’s pay months earlier than she let on.

Separately, Elkins said an official in the agency’s Office of Homeland Security approached one of their agents “in a threatening manner” during an investigation, preventing the agent from doing her job. The same official allegedly “issued non-disclosure agreements to EPA employees that prevented these employees from cooperating.” The case was apparently reported to the Justice Department, but it was never prosecuted, according to the letter.

Elkins said that yet another employee in the same office also refused to cooperate in an IG probe, and pulled the same move — issuing non-disclosure agreements to employees to prevent them from cooperating as well.

Vitter is the top Republican on that committee, which has been digging into how Beale was allowed to get away with his deception for so many years. Previously released documents have shown that some agency employees had suspicions about Beale for a long time, yet he kept receiving improper bonuses until 2013. Those bonuses totaled about $500,000.

“We are starting to see proof of what we had already suspected — John Beale’s time and attendance fraud was the tip of the iceberg at the EPA,” Vitter said in a statement. “The whole agency seems to be in complete disarray, which is exactly why we need to have a full [Environment and Public Works] Committee hearing on the fraud surrounding this case and other prevalent problems.”

OBAMA FREELY SPENDING THE MONEY THAT USED TO GO TO OUR MILITARY

As the Obama administration announces proposed sweeping defense cuts, a Congressional Budget Office report documents how increases in other areas of domestic spending may be forcing the White House to reduce money for the military. The CBO report finds that mandatory spending, which includes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, is projected to rise $85 billion, or 4 percent, to $2.1 trillion this year.

Interest on the debt is worse. It is projected to increase 14 percent per year, almost quadrupling in dollar terms between 2014 and 2024. “We are going to be spending more in interest in a couple of years then we do on national defense,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., told Fox News.

The Obama administration acknowledges the defense cuts are controversial but maintains they are being done with a specific intention:”…in order to sustain our readiness and technological superiority and to protect critical capabilities like special operations forces and cyber resources,” Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told reporters Monday.

Representative Chris Van Hollen , D-Md., told Fox News the draw down from two wars is a logical time to save defense money. “We do not need for the defense of our country to be able to have a defense doctrine that calls for fighting two land wars at the same time,” he said.

But history is filled with hard lessons in disarmament. Churchill warned a pacifist Britain, worn out from massive loss of life in World War I, of its unpreparedness for war with Germany as early as 1934. In 1936, he said in a speech to a disinterested Parliament, “A lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes… until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong… these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”

McKeon offers a contemporary reprise of Churchill’s words. “The price is going to be paid for this whether it’s in the Middle East, whether it’s in the Pacific, whether it’s in Europe,” he said. “I don’t know where. I don’t know when. I don’t know how, but some bad actor is going to challenge us.”

House Republicans may have some leverage over the cuts and they can appropriate money for defense programs at higher amounts than the Pentagon calls for. And while Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told the Washington Examiner late Tuesday the defense cuts are “dead on arrival,” the Senate Majority leader deferred judgment. “I’m running the Senate…we’ll weigh it when it gets here,”Harry Reid told reporters.

It’s not just Republicans who have concerns about the defense cuts. When and if military assembly lines slow and bases potentially close in Democratic districts, the cuts may find greater bi-partisan opposition.

ILLEGAL? HAVE SOME MONEY

A congressional crackdown on illegal immigrants getting checks from the IRS has some cracks in it. The proposed legislation doesn’t stop illegals from obtaining Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers and receiving more $1,000 child tax-credit checks.

Last year, those “illegal” payouts totaled more than $4.2 billion.

U.S. Representative Sam Johnson and U.S. Senator John Cornyn, both Texas Republicans, insist their ITIN Reform Act “will go a long way toward putting in place the necessary safeguards. Instead of aiding and abetting fraud, the IRS needs to prevent fraud from happening in the first place,” the lawmakers said.

“OBAMA COULD BECOME A GOVERNMENT UNTO HIMSELF”

Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley issued a dire warning Thursday about the growth of executive power under President Obama, saying if left unchecked the U.S. president could “effectively become a government unto himself.” “It didn’t begin with President Obama, but it certainly accelerated under President Obama …and we are at a point that I consider quite dangerous,” Turley told Fox News.

The George Washington University Law School professor spoke with Fox News a day after testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on the same topic. During the hearing, he warned that the nation is at a “constitutional tipping point” as the White House concentrates more and more power.

But he laid the blame at the feet of Congress as well, expressing shock that lawmakers have not fought back harder. “There’s not been a whimper of regret or opposition of any substance coming from Congress,” he said, adding: “To watch their power usurped by another branch, you would think would concentrate the minds of all members.”

The president has been accused of inappropriately circumventing Congress on several occasions over the past few years, including by making unilateral changes to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and by giving U.S. immigration officers leeway to ignore violations of U.S. immigration law.

Turley said he actually agrees with some of those policies but nevertheless thinks the “means are wrong.” He noted that some of these changes were made unilaterally after the president failed to convince Congress to approve them via legislation.

“It’s not that President Obama is a dictator,” he said. “I’m not questioning his motivations, what I’m questioning is his means.”

Obama has vowed to use his “pen and phone” this year to accomplish some of his objectives and he is doing it. He has acknowledged he needs Congress for certain items, like comprehensive immigration reform, but claims he has the authority to act on his own in other areas.

THE FBI KNEW ABOUT BIN LADEN’S PLANS FOR U.S TERROR IN 1993

The FBI placed a source in contact with Usama bin Laden in 1993 and established that the Al Qaeda leader was attempting to finance terror attacks in the United States, according to a new report by the Washington Times. The Times report is based on testimony in an employment discrimination lawsuit brought against the FBI in 2010 by an agent in the bureau’s Los Angeles office. It also contradicts the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission that there is no evidence that bin Laden was plotting or seeking to finance terror attacks inside the U.S. in the early 1990s.

According to Edward J. Curran, a former top official in the Los Angeles office, FBI agent Bassem Youssef had developed a confidential source close to Omar Abdel-Rahman, the so-called “Blind Sheik” who masterminded the 1993 bombing of New York’s World Trade Center. The source was able to go overseas and meet with bin Laden. When he returned to the United States, the source indicated to Youssef that bin Laden had already selected a Masonic lodge in the Los Angeles area as an attack target. The source, whose identity and whereabouts are not accounted for after 1994, also revealed that two terror cells were operating in Los Angeles and San Diego. The planned Los Angeles attack never took place, thanks in part to the information provided by the source.

“It was the only source I know in the bureau where we had a source right in Al Qaeda, directly involved,” Curran said, according to court documents. According to the Times, Youssef’s lawsuit stemmed from an admission by FBI supervisors that the agent was “blocked from his job” on the mistaken belief that he was a Muslim whose loyalty was in doubt after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In fact, Youssef is a Coptic Christian. According to the Times, he remains with the FBI as a telephone intercept analysis supervisor.

The court case appears to have been the first public disclosure of FBI contact with bin Laden at such an early date. Attorney Stephen Kohn, who represented Youssef in the case, told the Times that he did not know about the contact until it was revealed during testimony because the information had been kept classified. Kohn claims that the FBI censored the information about Youssef’s source to keep the information from the public.

According to the Times, there is also no mention of the source in either the 9/11 Commission’s official report, published in 2004, or in any other report produced by congressional intelligence committees or by the CIA’s Inspector General. An FBI official told the paper that the bureau gave the commission access to “all relevant information,” “pertinent documents,” and “knowledgeable personnel.” It is not clear that Youssef was ever contacted by the commission.

OBAMA DOING THE TWO-STEP WITH AFGHANISTAN

WASHINGTON – President Obama has asked the Pentagon to plan for a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year amid a dispute over a security pact, but continues to leave open the possibility that some troops could remain after 2014 — options he discussed Tuesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The White House detailed the “contingency planning” in a statement following the phone call between Obama and Karzai.

The two leaders spoke amid an ongoing dispute over a vital security agreement. That agreement would allow the U.S. to keep troops in Afghanistan after 2014, but Karzai is refusing to sign it, saying he wants his successor to sign the pact after elections this spring. Obama and Karzai have rarely spoken in recent months, a reflection of the White House’s frustration with the Afghan leader.

The White House said that Obama, in his talk with the Afghan leader, affirmed U.S. support for a “fair, credible, timely and Afghan-led” election process and vowed not to support any particular candidate. But Obama also told Karzai “that because he has demonstrated that it is unlikely that he will sign” the security pact, the U.S. is making other plans.

“Specifically, President Obama has asked the Pentagon to ensure that it has adequate plans in place to accomplish an orderly withdrawal by the end of the year should the United States not keep any troops in Afghanistan after 2014,” the White House said. “At the same time, should we have [a Bilateral Security Agreement] and a willing and committed partner in the Afghan government, a limited post-2014 mission focused on training, advising, and assisting Afghan forces and going after the remnants of core Al Qaeda could be in the interests of the United States and Afghanistan.”

The White House said the administration would leave open that possibility, but added: “However, the longer we go without a BSA, the more challenging it will be to plan and execute any U.S. mission. Furthermore, the longer we go without a BSA, the more likely it will be that any post-2014 U.S. mission will be smaller in scale and ambition.”

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said afterward that the Pentagon is indeed moving ahead, “with my strong support,” with plans for a complete withdrawal.”This is a prudent step given that President Karzai has demonstrated that it is unlikely that he will sign the Bilateral Security Agreement, which would provide DoD personnel with critical protections and authorities after 2014.”

The White House repeatedly has said that without a security agreement, the U.S. and international allies will have to withdraw all troops after the war formally concludes at the end of this year.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says withdrawing all U.S. military advisers from Afghanistan after the combat mission ends in December would risk an “erosion of confidence” among Afghan security forces. Hagel made the comment at a news conference in Brussels after a NATO defense ministers meeting at which the Afghan war was a central topic.

Hagel said the future reliability of Afghan security forces is at the core of US desires to keep forces there to continue advising and mentoring. But he said that follow-up mission cannot be performed unless Afghan authorities agree to it.

The U.S. has about 33,000 troops in Afghanistan. All are scheduled to leave by year’s end unless a follow-up mission with about 10,000 non-combat troops is approved by the Afghan government.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FORMER CIA DIRECTOR ALLEGEDLY “MISLED CONGRESS” ABOUT BENGHAZI

Republican allegations that former CIA Acting Director Mike Morell misled Congress over the White House’s role in crafting the flawed Benghazi “talking points” took a dramatic turn Thursday, with the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee telling Fox News it’s likely Morell will be recalled to testify. Investigators also are reviewing the testimony of former CIA Director David Petraeus, Morell’s old boss, to assess whether he should be recalled as well.

“We are having some transcript reviews. We’ve been continually doing that through the committee,” Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., told Fox News. “We’re looking at Director Petraeus’ transcripts and reviews — looking at what information we have now available. Sometimes that second interview can be equally important and it is likely we will have Director Morell up to testify before the committee.”

The debate continues to focus on why the talking points did not reflect the best available intelligence, and what influence the administration brought to bear on the flawed public narrative of the attack in the days immediately following September 11, 2012 – that narrative initially claimed the attacks sprung out of protests over an anti-Islam film.

Among the allegations, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a January 2014 Benghazi report that Morell insisted the talking points were sent to the White House for informational purposes, and not for their input — but e-mails, later released by the administration, showed otherwise.

In response to Rogers’ comments, Morell said in an email to Fox News, “I sent him a letter this afternoon saying that I would very much welcome an invitation to testify in open session before the Committee on Benghazi.”

Since retiring from the CIA, Morell has taken on high-profile assignments for the administration, including the NSA review panel and the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. He is now a paid TV commentator for CBS News, has a book deal, and works for Beacon Global Strategies, whose founder Philippe Reines has been described by the New York Times magazine as Hillary Clinton’s “principal gatekeeper.”

Asked if he was leaving the door open for recalling Petraeus, Rogers said: “Absolutely, We’re not going to take any lead off the table. And if there’s some clarifying questions that we can get done that leads to a conclusion, an appropriate conclusion and the finding of fault in this particular event we’ll— everybody is subject to coming back to the committee.”

Immediately after the attack, then-Director Petraeus rankled some lawmakers when they say he characterized Benghazi as consistent with a flash mob, and downplayed the skill needed to fire mortars with deadly accuracy on the CIA annex. CIA personnel on the ground in Benghazi recently testified that five mortars rained down on the annex in under a minute, and three were direct hits, killing former Navy SEALs Ty Woods and Glen Doherty, who were defending the compound. A source close to Petraeus insisted at the time that he knew it was terrorism from day one.

No determination has been made but Rogers said if witnesses are recalled, his preference is for public testimony. “I would prefer to have an open session. I think that would be, I think enlightening to everybody who has concerns about what happened on that September 11th day that took the lives of our Americans.”

Also Thursday, three U.S. senators who met with Morell and then U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice in late 2012 took to the Senate floor, calling for Rice to testify as well. Rice, who stirred controversy in 2012 for blaming the attack on protests, recently told NBC News the talking points were based on the best-available intelligence. Senators Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., want her back on the Hill. “We now have facts that she was absolutely wrong. Of course, the question also remains what in the world was Susan Rice doing speaking that morning?” McCain added.

Ayotte said, “We need to have her testimony before the Congress to get to the bottom of why these representations were made. Mr. Morell needs to be brought before the Congress and ultimately we need a select committee.”

Graham said there was ample intelligence in the days after the attack that there was no protest, citing eyewitness accounts from U.S. personnel on the ground in Benghazi. “Why didn’t the CIA pick up the phone and call the FBI agents interviewing the Benghazi survivors in Germany on the 15th, 16th and 17th of September, days after the attack?”

In a November 2012 meeting, Graham said Morell accused the FBI of refusing to share those accounts. “He said — Mike Morell — the FBI basically would not share that information because it is an ongoing criminal investigation. My mouth dropped. When the meeting was over, I ran back to my office. I called the FBI. … They also denied that their agents ever withheld information from the CIA.”

In an earlier email to Fox News on February 13, Morell said: “I stand behind what I have said to you and testified to Congress about the talking point issue. Neither the Agency, the analysts, nor I cooked the books in any way.”

When asked specific questions on February 20 about Republican allegations that he provided misleading testimony, Morell did not answer the questions, instead referring Fox News to the CIA public affairs office.

Spokesman Dean Boyd provided this statement to Fox News on February 20: “As we have said multiple times, the talking points on Benghazi were written, upon a request from Congress, so that members of Congress could say something preliminary and in an unclassified forum about the attacks. As former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell has stated publicly time and again, the talking points were never meant to be definitive and, in fact, the points themselves noted that the initial assessment may change. He has addressed his role in the talking points numerous times. We don’t have anything further to add to the large body of detail on the talking points that is already in the public domain.”

Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.

FORMER IRS CHIEF REFUSES AGAIN TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS

The attorney for Lois Lerner, a central figure in the IRS scandal, has signaled that his client will not comply with a request to testify on Capitol Hill next week. Attorney William Taylor said Lerner, who resigned last year as the agency’s tax-exempt organizations chief, will return and testify only if compelled by a federal court or if given immunity for her testimony.

Taylor stated his position in a letter to Representative Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He was responding to a letter Tuesday from Issa saying, in part, that Lerner’s testimony remains “critical to the committee’s investigation.” The committee continues to investigate the IRS’ targeting of Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations trying to get tax-exempt status.

Despite Taylor’s letter, staffers with the committee told Fox News they still expect Lerner to show up on March 5. Unclear is whether she would answer any questions. Issa and Lerner’s attorneys continue to argue about whether she is protected under the Fifth Amendment from having to testify.

Last year, Lerner invoked the Fifth Amendment right during her first-and-only appearance before the committee, but only after she professed her innocence during an opening statement. “We understand that the committee voted she had waived her rights,” Taylor wrote Issa. “We continue to respectfully disagree.”

Taylor also argued that he was “surprised” to receive Issa’s letter, considering he told committee staffers a day earlier that his client would assert her constitutional right and because he thought they were considering his offer of testimony under immunity. He also said that he told staffers that calling Lerner would be “dangerous” because she and her family have been the subject of death threats and that he had provided them with evidence of such incidents. “We therefore request that the committee not require Ms. Lerner to attend a hearing solely for the purpose of once again invoking her rights,” he wrote.

Taylor argued calling Lerner to Capitol Hill in the face of such evidence violates the District of Columbia’s lawyers’ code of professional conduct and that “it accomplishes nothing and needlessly embarrasses the witness.”

Fox News’ Mike Emanuel contributed to this report

RAND PAUL IS TRYING TO STOP OBAMA’S CHOICE FOR

SURGEON GENERAL

Senator Rand Paul is trying to block the nomination of President Obama’s surgeon general nominee, Dr. Vivek Murthy, over what he calls “serious concerns” about Murthy’s leadership in a group that promotes ObamaCare and gun control. Paul, R-Ky., told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a letter that he objects to Murthy’s nomination because he questions Murthy’s ability to impartially serve as “America’s Doctor.” The letter marks an escalation in a simmering fight over the nominee.

“Historically, the Surgeon General of the United States has been a position with the purpose of educating Americans so that they may lead healthier lives, rather than advancing a political agenda,” Paul wrote. “Dr. Murthy has disqualified himself from being Surgeon General because of his intent to use that position to launch an attack on Americans’ right to own a firearm under the guise of a public health and safety campaign.”

Paul is placing what’s known as a hold on the nomination, a courtesy afforded to senators allowing them to voice their opposition. But Reid could technically still move forward, and a Reid spokesman suggested the majority leader would not sit on Murthy’s nomination simply over Paul’s objections. “This is just one of the many ways Republicans exploit routine matters to impose gridlock on the Senate,” he said in a statement. New Senate rules approved by Democrats could also make it easier to push through nominations like Murthy’s.

Paul was hardly the only conservative raising concerns about Murthy. The doctor is the co-founder and president of Doctors for America, a group of over 16,000 doctors and medical students which heavily lobbied for ObamaCare. The group has participated in ObamaCare rallies, filed an amicus brief in the health law’s Supreme Court case and has promoted the law at the Republican National Convention, among other things. According to Paul, the organization also has close ties to Obama’s political organization, Organizing for America. Paul says he has questions that need to be addressed over who is funding groups like Murthy’s. “It is clear that more transparency is needed from a group whose influence frequently impacts appointments in the Obama administration,” he said.

Paul also voiced concerns over Murthy’s position on gun violence, noting Doctors for America asserts that gun violence should be considered a public health epidemic on par with heart disease and has pushed for gun control legislation to be passed.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz defended the nominee as a “dynamic, entrepreneurial practitioner who has dedicated a lot of time, energy, and passion to health and wellness.” He added: “As Surgeon General he will be a powerful messenger on these issues and each of the tenets of health: nutrition, activity, and resilience.”

WHY DOES THE MEDIA FAVOR RAND PAUL OVER TED CRUZ?

Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are the two freshmen senators who have become media magnets. They are brash brand-builders often at odds with their party as they eye a White House run. But Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are starting to draw very different treatment from the press. Paul is getting positive coverage, sometimes grudgingly, while Cruz is increasingly being portrayed as a difficult loner.

It’s not about their ideology — both Republicans are staunch conservatives — as much as their style. And style counts a great deal with the Beltway pundits.

Take, for instance, this National Journal piece declaring Paul “the GOP’s early front-runner.” However ephemeral the designation, this is remarkable, given that the Kentucky senator was originally viewed as an extension of his father, perennial candidate Ron Paul, whose hard-line libertarianism was often dismissed by the media as part of a fringe movement. But Rand Paul is not his dad. The story begins with a slap that practically casts Paul as unelectable, but gives him his due:

“The Kentuckian scares the living daylights out of many Republicans looking for an electable nominee capable of challenging Hillary Clinton. At the same time, he’s working overtime to broaden the party’s image outside its traditional avenues of support. The 2016 Republican nominating fight will go a long way toward determining whether Paul is the modern version of Barry Goldwater or at the leading edge of a new, more libertarian brand of Republicanism.” Goldwater, you may recall, won only six states in 1964.

National Journal ticks off some of Paul’s possible liabilities: He has some controversial associations, has questioned the ’64 Civil Rights Act, and is outside the party consensus in opposing an interventionist foreign policy. Still, “the politics of the 2016 Republican nomination look increasingly favorable to Paul. He is one of the top fundraisers in the field, has a ready-made base of support from his father’s presidential networks, and has proven his savvy political instincts with a made-for-TV drone filibuster and NSA lawsuit.”

Paul has also roused the base with his constant attacks on Bill Clinton as a sexual predator—which he repeated on Tuesday when the former president visited his state to campaign for Allison Grimes, who is challenging Mitch McConnell. Paul’s anti-Clinton campaign has morphed from a couple of jabs on “Meet the Press” to a sustained attack, and while it may have little impact on Hillary, it never fails to generate headlines.

Contrast Paul’s coverage with this Politico piece on Ted Cruz:

“Cruz said last fall he wouldn’t raise money for a controversial group attacking fellow Republicans. But the Texas senator has since written a fundraising missive for another conservative group that’s backing the primary challengers to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others.”

The so-called Madison Project has targeted a number of Republican senators, and the Cruz letter “asks donors to ‘pull out all the stops’ to elect ‘solid, principled, conservative fighters’ who will ‘not answer to the party bosses in Washington, D.C.’”

Cruz, of course, was the face of the government shutdown, which most establishment Republicans thought was a fiasco for the party. It’s not that they disagreed with his avowed goal of defunding ObamaCare, it’s that they thought his tactics were self-destructive, since in the end the GOP didn’t have the votes.

Cruz was at it again this month, when John Boehner and company had essentially decided to roll over on the debt-ceiling fight and give the White House a “clean” extension. By demanding that the Senate muster 60 votes, Cruz forced McConnell and fellow Texan John Cornyn, both of whom are in primaries, to support the bill, rather than spook the markets with the prospect of a government default.

But Cruz has a passionate following among conservative activists, in part because he refuses to be a team player. And he’s “political gold” in Texas, says one political scientist quoted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about next week’s primaries back home. “His likeness is all over TV and in campaign materials, as a slew of Republican candidates on the primary ballot are using his words and — in rare occasions — his endorsement to reach out to voters.”

Both senators are now a factor in the early presidential chatter. In a CBS/New York Times poll, 39 percent of Republicans said they wanted Paul to run for president, compared with 21 percent who said no and 39 percent who didn’t know enough about him to offer an opinion. Paul was just a tick behind Jeb Bush, who 41 percent want to run.

In the same survey, 24 percent said they hoped Cruz would run, 15 percent did not, and 59 percent did not know enough to say.

By the way, 82 percent of Democrats want Hillary to run, with only 13 percent opposed. So the eventual GOP nominee has his work cut out for him when it comes to unifying the party.

Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of “MediaBuzz” (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington.

ONE OF MY VERY FAVORITE EMAILS

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, ‘If I were any better, I would be twins!’ He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, ‘I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?’ He replied, ‘Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or … you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood.’ Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or… I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

‘Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,’ I protested.

‘Yes, it is,’ he said. ‘Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live your life.’

I reflected on what he said. Soon thereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw him about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, ‘If I were any better, I’d be twins.. Wanna see my scars?’

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

‘The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,’ he replied. ‘Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or…I could choose to die. I chose to live.’

‘Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?’ I asked.

He continued, ‘…the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared.. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man’. I knew I needed to take action.’

‘What did you do?’ I asked.

‘Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,’ said John. ‘She asked if I was allergic to anything ‘Yes, I replied.’ The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Gravity”

Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. If you believe Romans 8:28 that ought to do it for you.

“All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28

******************************

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

If you can’t help worrying, remember that worrying can’t help you either.

 ****************************

CHRISTIAN NEWS FROM RAY – FRIDAY MORNING EDITION – February 28, 2014