Fox News Poll: Voters worry about checks and balances after Obama immigration action

Majorities of American voters think President Barack Obama exceeded his authority with recent executive actions on immigration -- and are worried he may be permanently altering the system of checks and balances established by the Constitution. 
That’s according to a new Fox News poll released Wednesday.
Click here for the poll results.
By an 8-point margin, more voters disapprove (51 percent) than approve (43 percent) of the specific policy changes Obama made that will, among other things, allow millions of illegal immigrants to remain temporarily in the United States to work. 
Meanwhile, nearly three quarters think this easing of immigration laws will encourage more people to enter the country illegally (74 percent).  That includes 50 percent who believe Obama’s actions are “very likely” to result in more people illegally entering the U.S. 
Even more voters are unhappy with how Obama made these changes.  By a 60-38 percent margin, voters disapprove of the president bypassing Congress to change how the government deals with illegal immigration. 
In addition, a 54-percent majority thinks Obama “exceeded his authority” under the Constitution by making the immigration changes unilaterally.  Thirty-eight percent say he “acted within his authority.” 
The poll goes on to ask what such actions mean for the country in the long term and finds more than two-thirds -- 68 percent of voters -- are concerned Obama’s use of executive orders and unilateral actions may be “permanently altering” our country’s system of checks and balances. That includes 42 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of independents and 93 percent of Republicans.
Hispanic voters -- who are almost twice as likely as white voters to approve of the recent changes Obama made on immigration (66 percent vs. 34 percent) -- like how the president went about making the changes as well.  Fifty-six percent of Hispanics approve of Obama bypassing Congress compared to 29 percent of whites.  Even so, views among Hispanics are about evenly divided over Obama’s authority under the Constitution: 48 percent say he acted within his authority, while 44 percent say he exceeded it.  By two-to-one white voters say Obama exceeded his authority under the Constitution (62 percent-31 percent). 
In general, a 63-percent majority wants the government to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. and eventually qualify for citizenship after meeting certain requirements.  Some 16 percent favor a guest-worker program, while 17 percent say deport all illegal immigrants.  Despite the president’s recent actions and the reactions they have sparked, these sentiments are mostly unchanged since 2011. 
While Hispanic voters (77 percent) are more likely than white voters (59 percent) to think the government should allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country, majorities of both groups favor that option. 
Many lawmakers and commentators questioned the timing of Obama’s actions on immigration -- especially given the thumping his party received during the midterms. And voters certainly don’t think immigration should be at the top of the president’s to-do list.
The economy is the priority at 38 percent, followed by terrorism from groups like ISIS at 21 percent.  Next on the list is health care at 12 percent, immigration comes in fourth for voters at 10 percent and race relations follows at 9 percent.
Those voters saying immigration should be the president’s top priority are split on the changes Obama made:  48 percent approve and 48 percent disapprove. 
Thirty-six percent of voters approve of the job Obama is doing on immigration, while 60 percent disapprove. Obama’s record-high approval on immigration was 47 percent in February 2013, around the time he was proposing a comprehensive immigration reform plan.
Hispanic voters (55 percent) are twice as likely as white voters (27 percent) to approve of Obama’s job performance on immigration.
Obama’s overall job rating held steady this week: 42 percent of voters approve and 53 percent disapprove.  Just before the midterms it was 41 approve - 54 disapprove. 
The average for Obama’s ratings since becoming president is now split: 46 approve - 46 disapprove. 
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,043 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from December 7-9, 2014. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. The poll includes additional interviews (an oversample) of randomly selected Hispanics to allow analysis of the subgroup.

State Department 'stonewalling' requests for Hillary Clinton's files

The State Department has failed to turn over government documents covering Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state that The Associated Press and others requested under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act ahead of her presumptive presidential campaign. They include one request AP made four years ago and others pending for more than one year. 
The agency already has missed deadlines it set for itself to turn over the material. 
The State Department denied the AP's requests, and rejected the AP's subsequent appeals, to release the records sought quickly under a provision in the law reserved for journalists requesting federal records about especially newsworthy topics. 
In its requests, the AP cited the likely prospect of Clinton entering the 2016 race. The former first lady is widely considered the leading Democratic contender hoping to succeed President Obama. She has made scores of recent high-profile speeches and public appearances. 
On Wednesday, the conservative political advocacy group Citizens United sued the State Department for failing to disclose flight records showing who accompanied Clinton on overseas trips. 
Citizens United, which in 2009 mounted a legal battle that led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning campaign finance limits, said the department unlawfully was withholding the records it sought nearly five months ago. 
The State Department is among the U.S. government's worst-performing federal agencies under the Freedom of Information Act. There is no direct evidence that political considerations in a Democratic presidential administration have delayed the release of files about the party's leading contender for 2016. But the agency's delays, unusual even by government standards, have stoked perceptions about what could be taking so long. 
"There may not necessarily be political interference, but if the department went out of its way to speed these documents there would be no way for people to accuse them of it," said Thomas Blanton, who has previously sued the State Department for access to records as director of George Washington University's National Security Archive, a research organization. 
The department "is stonewalling us," said Citizen United's president, David Bossie. He asserted that "these decisions are being made with Hillary Clinton's intentions at heart," but acknowledged he could provide no evidence of political interference. 
Bossie, a former Republican congressional investigator who researched figures in the Clinton administration, said his group's film unit wants the records for a sequel to its documentary about Clinton, which spurred the Citizens United court decision. 
The group first asked Air Force officials for passenger lists from Clinton's overseas trips but was told all flight records were under the State Department's control. "These were Air Force flights and crews but State has the records?" he said, adding that his group has submitted 15 Clinton-related requests in the past six months. 
The AP's requests go further back. 
The AP requested copies of Clinton's full schedules and calendars from her four years as secretary of state; her department's decision to grant a special position for longtime aide Huma Abedin; Clinton's and the agency's roles in the Osama bin Laden raid and National Security Agency surveillance practices; and her role overseeing a major Defense Department contractor. The AP made most of its requests last summer, although one was filed in March 2010. 
State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach cited the department's heavy annual load of FOIA requests -- 19,000 last year -- in saying that the department "does its best to meet its FOIA responsibilities." He said the department takes requests "first in, first out," but noted that timing depends on "the complexity of the request." He declined to comment on Citizen United's suit. 
In a previous communication, a State Department official apologized for its own delays responding to AP's records requests without offering any explanation for the delays. 
"We sincerely regret the delay," said Lela H. Ross of the Office of Information Programs and Services, which administers the agency's requests. The official did not explain the delays but cited the agency's "complex and lengthy administrative FOIA process." 
Last May, the State Department told the AP that its search for records pertaining to Clinton and the defense contractor would be completed by August. The agency said it now expects the files to be available later this month. Similarly, the agency said the Clinton and Abedin records would likely be completed in September. Now it says it will not finish until next April. The 4-year-old FOIA request still has no estimated completion date. 
The agency's pace responding to requests for Clinton-related files has frustrated news organizations, archivists and political groups trying to research her role at the State Department in the months before Clinton decides whether to formally enter the 2016 race. 
At stake is the public's access to thousands of documents that could help understand and define her activities as the nation's chief diplomat under Obama. 
Other major document repositories have released thousands of pages of files about Clinton's private and public life. 
Since February, lots of previously restricted records from her years as first lady to President Bill Clinton have been made public by the Clinton Presidential Library. Last month, the University of Virginia's Miller Center presidential oral history collection unveiled dozens of interviews with key players from the Clinton White House. 
The State Department generally takes about 450 days to turn over records it considers to be part of complex requests under the Freedom of Information Act. That is seven times longer than the Justice Department and CIA, and 30 times longer than the Treasury Department. 
An inspector general's report in 2012 criticized the State Department's practices as "inefficient and ineffective," citing a heavy workload, small staff and interagency problems. A study in March by the nonpartisan Center for Effective Government said the State Department was the worst-performing agency because of its delays and frequent failure to deliver the full number of files that people requested.

Cheney defends CIA interrogation techniques, calls Senate report 'deeply flawed'

WASHINGTON –  Former Vice President Dick Cheney slammed the recently released Senate report on CIA interrogation techniques Wednesday, calling it “full of crap,” and a “terrible piece of work” that was “deeply flawed.”
Cheney, speaking on Fox News' “Special Report with Bret Baier,” said some of the controversial techniques used on militants had been previously tested and the interrogations produced results.
Cheney acknowledged he had not read the entire 500-page report summary. He strongly defended the tactics, including waterboarding and rectal hydration.
“What are you prepared to do to get the truth against future attacks against the United States?” Cheney asked.
Cheney also refuted claims that President George W. Bush was kept in the dark about the interrogations.
“I think he knew everything he wanted to know and needed to know,” Cheney told Baier.
A Democrat-led Senate panel released a scathing report Tuesday on CIA interrogation practices amid warnings from lawmakers that the findings could "endanger the lives of Americans" -- a concern the Obama administration apparently shared as it put more than 6,000 Marines overseas on high alert.
The report, from the Senate intelligence committee, claimed the interrogation techniques used were "brutal and far worse" than the CIA represented to lawmakers. Further, the report claimed the tactics were not effective and the spy agency gave "inaccurate" information about it to Congress and the White House.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the head of the intelligence panel who ordered the release of the report, alleged on the Senate floor on Tuesday that the CIA techniques in some cases amounted to "torture."
"History will judge us by our commitment to a just society governed by law and the willingness to face an ugly truth and say 'never again'," she said on the floor. "There may never be the right time to release this report. ... But this report is too important to shelve indefinitely."
The White House and President Obama backed the decision to release the report, despite warnings from lawmakers and some inside the administration that it could lead to a backlash against Americans.

Relation's Cartoon

Israel indicts American over plot to bomb Muslim holy sites

An American Christian is facing charges in Israel of plotting to blow up Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, Israeli authorities said Tuesday.
Adam Everett Livix, 30, was identified by the Israeli Police and the Justice Ministry. Livix faces drug charges in the U.S. and that he once turned down an offer from a Palestinian to assassinate President Obama during a visit to Israel in 2013.
The Justice Ministry said the man they identified as Livix underwent a psychiatric evaluation Tuesday after his indictment Monday on charges of illegal weapon possession and overstaying his visa by more than a year. Operating in cooperation with Israel's Shin Bet security service, police went to arrest Livix last month at his 7th-floor apartment, the ministry said, but he initially tried to escape by leaping down to a patio on the floor below.
Livix, posing as an ex-Navy SEAL, was asked by a Palestinian to assassinate Obama with a sniper rifle in March 2013 when Obama was making a trip to the region, Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfield said. Livix did not go through with it and the FBI ended up investigating the matter.
Later that year, Livix entered Israel, the Justice Ministry said, and told Israeli friends he had strong anti-Arab sentiments. The ministry said Livix later cooperated with his roommate, a serving soldier in the Israeli military, to obtain 3 pounds of explosive material to blow up the unidentified Jerusalem holy sites. The ministry said police discovered the plot in October.
Livix's indictment comes at a time of rising tensions in Jerusalem, mostly over a disputed holy site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and Jews as the Temple Mount. It is the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest in Judaism.
As members of the Israeli government demand that Jews be allowed to pray at the Muslim-run site, Palestinians fear it is a pretext to a Jewish takeover.
This isn't the first time there have been allegations of a foreigner threatening a holy site in Jerusalem. In 1969, an Australian Christian started a fire at the complex's Al-Aqsa Mosque in hopes that it would hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ. The man, Denis Michael Rohan, was subsequently committed to a mental institution.

Senate panel releases scathing report on CIA interrogations amid security warnings

A Democrat-led Senate panel released a scathing report Tuesday on CIA interrogation practices amid warnings from lawmakers that the findings could "endanger the lives of Americans" -- a concern the Obama administration apparently shared as it put more than 6,000 Marines on high alert. 
The report, from the Senate intelligence committee, claimed the interrogation techniques used were "brutal and far worse" than the CIA represented to lawmakers. Further, the report claimed the tactics were not effective and the spy agency gave "inaccurate" information about it to Congress and the White House. The report called CIA management of the program "deeply flawed" -- though agency officials have staunchly defended the program and credited it with helping track down Usama bin Laden and other terror leaders. 
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the head of the intelligence panel who ordered the release of the report, alleged on the Senate floor on Tuesday that the CIA techniques in some cases amounted to "torture." 
"History will judge us by our commitment to a just society governed by law and the willingness to face an ugly truth and say 'never again'," she said on the floor. "There may never be the right time to release this report. ... But this report is too important to shelve indefinitely." 
The White House and President Obama backed the decision to release the report, despite warnings from lawmakers and some inside the administration that it could lead to a backlash against Americans. More than 6,000 U.S. Marines overseas have been put on "high alert" over the report's release, Fox News is told. 
In addition, a official confirmed to Fox News Tuesday that the FBI and the DHS sent out a joint bulletin to law enforcement in the U.S. surrounding the report's release. The bulletin warned that the report could spark violence.
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, called the move a "partisan effort" by Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. They said the report is not "serious or constructive" and "could endanger the lives of Americans overseas." 
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., the top Republican on the intelligence committee, slammed the release in a joint statement on Tuesday. 
"As we have both stated before, we are opposed to this study and believe it will present serious consequences for U.S. national security," they said. "Regardless of what one's opinions may be on these issues, the study by Senate Democrats is an ideologically motivated and distorted recounting of historical events. The fact that the CIA's Detention and Interrogation program developed significant intelligence that helped us identify and capture important al-Qa'ida terrorists, disrupt their ongoing plotting, and take down Usama Bin Ladin is incontrovertible. Claims included in this report that assert the contrary are simply wrong."
The roughly 500-page report, a summary of a still-classified 6,000 page study, amounts to the fullest public accounting from Congress -- at least from Democrats -- of the CIA's alleged use of torture on suspected Al Qaeda detainees held in secret facilities in Europe and Asia in the years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. 
Obama said the Senate report documents a "troubling program" and pledged to make sure "we never resort to those methods again." 
He said in a statement: "We will rely on all elements of our national power, including the power and example of our founding ideals. That is why I have consistently supported the declassification of today's report. No nation is perfect. But one of the strengths that makes America exceptional is our willingness to openly confront our past, face our imperfections, make changes and do better." 
The CIA, in a statement responding to the report, acknowledged the agency made "mistakes" with its detention and interrogation program but disputed claims that the interrogations were not effective.
"Our review indicates that interrogations of detainees on whom [enhanced interrogation techniques] were used did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives," the agency said, also disputing that the agency intentionally misled lawmakers and other officials on the program. 
CIA officials tell Fox News that the interrogation program produced valuable and actionable intelligence. They specifically cite the identification of the courier who led to bin Laden and his compound in Pakistan. CIA officials say the courier's name was first revealed by Amar al-Baluchi while in the CIA interrogation program, though he was not subjected to waterboarding. 
When detainee Hasan Gul was subjected to the enhanced interrogation program, he is said to have provided specific information about the courier -- after initially giving "confusing signals" about the individual. 
After 9/11, CIA officials say the program provided the "bedrock" understanding of Al Qaeda network and it is still being drawn on today. One former CIA officer told Fox News that once accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's will was broken, he generated more than 2,000 intelligence reports. 
In addition, former CIA officers from the program told Fox News they believe the Senate report seeks to minimize intelligence that led the U.S. to bin Laden's courier. 
Another former officer told Fox News that the CIA was encouraged by lawmakers "to do whatever it takes" to prevent another attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001. The former officer said that Hill leadership was briefed more than three dozen times before the program was shuttered. 
According to the report, the CIA tactics included weeks of sleep deprivation, slapping and slamming of detainees against walls, confining them to small boxes, keeping them isolated for prolonged periods and threatening them with death. Three detainees faced the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding. 
The report detailed sleep deprivation that involved keeping detainees awake for up to 180 hours, "usually standing or in stress positions." It claimed many detainees provided "fabricated information, resulting in faulty intelligence" as a result of these methods. 
President George W. Bush approved the program through a covert finding in 2002, but he wasn't briefed by the CIA about the details until 2006. George Tenet, CIA director when the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks occurred, said the program saved "thousands of American lives." 
After Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah was arrested in Pakistan, the CIA received permission to use waterboarding, sleep deprivation, close confinement and other techniques. Agency officials added unauthorized methods into the mix, the report says. 
At least five men in CIA detention received "rectal rehydration," a form of feeding through the rectum. Others received "ice baths" and death threats. At least three in captivity were told their families would suffer, with CIA officers threatening to harm their children, sexually abuse the mother of one man, and cut the throat of another man's mother. 
Zubaydah was held in a secret facility in Thailand, called "detention Site Green" in the report. Early on, with CIA officials believing he had information on an imminent plot, Zubaydah was left isolated for 47 days without questioning, the report says. He wasn't alone. In September 2002, at a facility referred to as COBALT-- understood as the CIA's "Salt Pit" in Afghanistan -- detainees were kept isolated and in darkness. Their cells reportedly had only a bucket for human waste. 
The White House on Monday reiterated its support for the report's release, despite the warnings it could provoke violence. Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the administration has been preparing "for months" for the report's release. 
However, Secretary of State John Kerry last week asked the Senate Intelligence Committee to "consider" the timing of the release. 
The administration's stance was criticized by GOP Sen. Richard Burr, the prospective new chairman of the Senate intelligence committee. Burr, R-N.C., said that Kerry's suggestion that the report be delayed didn't jibe with Earnest's comments. 
"It's dumbfounding they can call and ask for it to be delayed and then say they want it out. You can't have it both ways," Burr told Fox News. 
U.S. officials have confirmed to Fox News that an advisory has been sent urging U.S. personnel overseas to reassess security measures in anticipation of the release. The message directs all overseas posts, including those used by CIA personnel, to "review their security posture" for a "range of reactions that might occur." 
A similar statement was being sent to military combatant commands to assess their readiness. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Tuesday he's ordered all combatant commanders to be on "high alert."

Report reveals flaws in U.S. diplomatic facilities

State Department investigators found problems with five newly opened 2012 U.S. diplomatic facilities, including irregularities in security standards and construction flaws.
Such problems would compromise the safety of personnel and property, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The review was part of seven audits conducted by State Department Inspector General Steve Linick. It was undertaken from April to October 2012 during the end of Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State.
The review best describes the security when Benghazi was attacked in September 2012 leading to the deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, the report says.
Investigators concluded the Benghazi attacks occurred because officials did not step up security despite repeated requests from diplomats in Libya.
The findings pose a serious obstacle for Clinton as she mulls a presidential run in 2016. GOP lawmakers seek to tie Clinton to the security failures.
“The inspector general’s findings reveal that on Secretary Clinton’s watch, security lapses were widely prevalent in the most dangerous posts in the world, not just isolated to the failures that precipitated the attack in Benghazi,” Tim Miller, executive director of America Rising, a group that opposes a potential Clinton candidacy, told the journal.
The report did not reveal the location of the facilities and many deficiencies were fixed after the review started.
In a 2013 report, which had not been made public, investigators said the U.S. Embassy and consulates in Pakistan did not have a solid emergency plan in the event of a terrorist attack or political unrest. Many of the flaws were fixed after the review was underway.
During the Pakistan inspection, secret files were left on the floor because of the shortage of file cabinets, the paper says. The findings were similar to the inspections in Libya and Afghanistan.

Watchdog: IRS paid $6 billion in bogus child tax credits

Your Tax Money at Work.

The IRS paid more than $6 billion in child tax credits in 2013 to people who were not eligible to receive them, a government watchdog said Tuesday.
Payments went to families that mistakenly claimed the tax credit or claimed the wrong amount, as well as taxpayers who committed fraud, according to an audit by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.
The once-championed way to help low-income working families is now facing problems with how it is ran.
The 2009 economic stimulus package temporarily expanded the credit to more families that don't make enough money to pay federal income tax. The expanded credit expires at the end of 2017.
These families receive the $1,000-per-child credit in the form of a tax refund. The report focus on payments to these families.
The IRS has said the risk is low for improper payments related to the child tax credit. The report says that assessment is incorrect.
"It is imperative that the IRS take action to identify and address all of its programs that are at high risk for improper payments," George said in a statement.
In a statement, the IRS aid it "continues to aggressively explore new ways to detect and stop potentially fraudulent claims while maximizing the use of limited compliance resources."
However, the agency said budget cuts are hurting compliance efforts.
"IRS funding limitations severely hamper our efforts on these and other compliance areas," the agency statement said. "Since 2010, the IRS budget has been reduced by $850 million and we have 13,000 fewer employees."
Earlier this year, the IRS said fewer agents are auditing tax returns than at any time since at least the 1980s.
More than 36 million families claimed about $57 billion in child tax credits in 2013, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.
The inspector general's report estimates that taxpayers improperly claimed between $5.9 billion and $7.1 billion in child tax credits that year. The report, however, does distinguish between fraud and credits that were claimed by mistake.

Abandon Ship Cartoon

Abandon Ship!

Don't thank Obama: America's energy independence is almost here

The line for gasoline was several blocks long as I sat behind the wheel of my father’s Chevrolet and cracked open “The Catcher in the Rye”. It was 1973.
I finished the novel by the time I pulled up to the pump hours later, hoping there’d still be gas to put in the empty tank. I read a lot of books that year with my keister stuck to the vinyl front seat of dad’s Chevy. It always happened on odd-numbered days which matched the last digit of his license plate. That’s how it was back then. Odd or even.
If you want to know the truth --as Holden Caulfield was fond of saying-- I hated OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) for holding the U.S. hostage over its need for fuel. Who in this country didn’t? Americans seethed as they waited in long lines to “fill her up”. With transportation crippled, businesses everywhere struggled or folded.
The oil cartel, comprised of 12 partners, was guilty of malevolence and greed. They monopolized the marketplace, restricted access and fixed prices. But America was guilty of myopia and stupidity. We had allowed ourselves to become dependent on, and controlled by, foreign oil. The result was a debilitating embargo that cost this country dearly. Oil prices quadrupled and shortages ensued, triggering recessions and high inflation that persisted for more than a decade.

Our nation’s long awaited energy ascendance has come despite the vigorous actions of President Obama to curtail or shutdown oil and gas production. 

So forgive my glee over the recent implosion of OPEC’s grip on petro power. It only took us four decades to figure out the obvious: energy independence and freedom from foreign extortionists can only be attained by producing it yourself. Allowing others, including hostile and corrupt governments, to dictate supplies and prices is as crazy as Caulfield’s fear of falling out of a field of rye over a cliff.
America has finally backed away from its own energy cliff and is today on the precipice of energy success. Now, roughly 85 % self-sufficient, we are poised to become the world’s top producer of crude oil, having already become the top producer of natural gas. With it, comes the ability to render OPEC enervated and, perhaps someday, irrelevant.
Importantly, it is energizing our economy by reducing fuel prices, lowering transportation costs, and increasing the purchasing power of consumers, while boosting both manufacturers and retailers. Energy independence also impacts long-term economic growth in the form of lower inflation, a stronger dollar, and an improved trade deficit. Increased production here at home created jobs and fostered prosperity. It was the engine that helped drive our economy out of the recent bleak recession.
Our nation’s long awaited energy ascendance has come despite the vigorous actions of President Obama to curtail or shutdown oil and gas production. 
He has waged a six year war onfossil fuels, restricting access and delaying permits. Under his watch, oil and gas leases for federal lands and offshore sites in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have been postponed, rescinded or cancelled. Don’t believe me? Check out the nifty list compiled by Doc Hastings, House Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.
Yet, President Obama brags to audiences that “under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last 8 years.” He implies he had something to do with it. He did not. According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, “all the increases in production since 2007 have taken place on non-federal lands.” In other words, it happened on private and state lands over which the president has little or no authority. Meanwhile, production has decreased significantly on federal lands over which Obama exerts control.
The president seems allergic to the notion of giving credit where credit is due. He had nothing whatsoever to do with opening new opportunities for drilling and increasing production. To the contrary, he fought it every step of the way. Credit is owing entirely to American oil and gas companies which had the ingenuity and tenacity to develop new energy-producing technologies that revolutionized the industry by discovering and recovering fuels that were heretofore unreachable. Their innovations have increased our nation’s oil production by 80 % since 2008.
America is on its way to becoming not only energy independent, but energy dominant. No thanks to President Obama. He didn’t want to hear it. Literally. I sat down with Harold Hamm, the billionaire oilman who opened up the vast Bakken oil and gas fields of the northern plains. He told me the story of meeting with the president at the White House early in his first term.
Question: What happened?
Hamm: I wanted him to know for sure the opportunity that we had. We were creating a whole new renaissance of American oil and gas. And there are a lot of good things that come from that. Good middle-class jobs, for instance. National security. The balance of trade.
Question: And his reaction?
Hamm: He didn’t want to hear it. And he didn’t hear it.
And then, something curious happened. Two weeks later, Obama’s Department of Justice brought criminal charges against Hamm’s oil and gas company. The crime? Killing a single bird. It was found in what’s called a “reserve pit” used to collect the waste and mud from drilling. A federal judge eventually dismissed the charge, but not before lambasting the D-O-J for its frivolous and wrongful use of legal muscle. Hamm had a different term for it –retribution, for trying to tell the president something he did not want to hear.
The incident may speak volumes about a president who appears to surround himself with sycophants, turn a deaf ear to the ideas of others, and castigate those who dare disagree with him. When it comes to energy, he has his own ideas. To wit, supporting neophyte companies like Solyndra which blew a half a billion dollars of taxpayer money on solar panels before going belly-up. It joins a list of 36 Obama-backed green energy companies that have either filed for bankruptcy or are faltering.
This is not to suggest that renewable energy is unwise or foolish. Indeed, it is vital part of our nation’s future if we wish to protect the environment and reduce our reliance on oil and natural gas as diminishing resources. But pervasive use of renewables are, at best, a generation away. Right now, wind, solar and biofuels are inefficient, expensive and intermittent. They account for a mere 6 % of the electricity generated in America.
Jimmy Carter’s answer to the chronic oil crisis of the 70’s was to turn down the thermostat and put on a cardigan sweater. It was a nice look, but didn’t really catch on. Most other presidents since then realized that the most effective strategy to combating domestic scarcity and foreign dependence was to simply drill more and increase production. But President Obama approach has been truly novel: oppose that very strategy while pretending to embrace it.
When you think about it… it’s an astonishing act of temerity for Obama to take credit for the oil boom he tried to block.
It brings to mind Holden Caulfield’s favorite word: “phony.”

St. Louis police allege hate crime in latest attack on Bosnian resident

The St. Louis police chief has asked for the FBI's help investigating what he believes was a hate crime attack against a woman in the same Bosnian neighborhood where a man was beaten to death days earlier by hammer-wielding teens, and where assaults have spiked dramatically in recent months.
The 26-year-old Bosnian-American woman told police she was stopped in her car by three African-American teens early Friday morning in the city's Bevo Mill section, where tens of thousands of Bosnians settled following the civil war in the former Yugoslavia 20 years ago. The incident occurred just blocks from where Zemir Begic, a 32-year-old Bosnian-American, was beaten to death by teenagers with hammers a week earlier.
One of the assailants flashed a gun and ordered the woman out of her vehicle and another hit the woman's windshield with what police believe was a crowbar, authorities said.
"You're Bosnian," one of the suspects allegedly said. "I should just kill you now."
The woman, who was pulled from the car and then beaten, was found unconscious by a passerby, police said. The alleged statement prompted St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson to present the case to the FBI.

"We have been stopped at intersections in Bevo and our car attacked by teens who pound on the car -- laughing at us."- Resident of St. Louis' Bosnian enclave

"As of now, officers are investigating this incident as a bias crime based on the victim's account of the incident," the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said in an email Monday. "The investigation is ongoing."
Authorities said they don't believe the attacks on Begic and the woman are related, but acknowledged a disturbing rise in violent crime in the area in recent months. Although police have not made a connection, the crime spike coincides with the rioting that followed the August police shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson, Mo.
Bevo Mill residents, whose neighborhood has seen a cumulative 24-percent rise in aggravated assaults over the last three months, say assaults and threats by packs of teenagers against Bosnians have become the norm. One who spoke to FoxNews.com on condition of anonymity due to safety reasons claims he and his family experienced a similar attack and said there is a disturbing pattern of violence against white residents in the area.
"It is common for African-American teens to walk in the middle of the street and block in cars at intersections," said the man, who has lived in the neighborhood for half a decade. "We have been stopped at intersections in Bevo and our car attacked by teens who pound on the car -- laughing at us."
"They only do this to white individuals, who they have learned will generally not respond. There is a pattern here and it is racially motivated," he alleged. "Many of us are arming ourselves in order to avoid becoming the next victim to be beaten to death in the streets."
"Overall the whole neighborhood is on alert," Alderman Carol Howard told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "There’s been an uptick in crime since August. I really do believe it has set off a sense of lawlessness."
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, at the urging of Dotson, is working on a plan to put 160 additional officers on the street in response to the recent increase in crime, Slay's office said Monday.
Aggravated assault, for example, was up 19.6 percent in the Bevo Mill neighborhood in September when compared to September 2013, according to crime statistics posted on the St. Louis Police Department website. In October 2014, aggravated assault was up by 24.1 percent and by 29 percent in November when compared to the same month in 2013.

Jonathan Gruber on the hot seat heading into hearing

Republicans in Congress plan to launch its final assault on ObamaCare as consultant Jonathan Gruber will face questions about possible deceptions and a lack of transparency in the 2010 Affordable Care Act Monday.
Lawmakers have obtained videos that show Gruber saying the act was written in a “very tortured way” to hide taxes and it passed because of the “stupidity of the American voter.”
Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee told Reuters the public deserves an explanation from Gruber. Issa has used his position to attack the administration on issues such as the IRS scandal, misplaced guns and U.S. deaths in Benghazi.
"If you can't trust what he says, and what he says he'll do, to get votes and trick the American people into voting for something, then can you trust his analytics?" Issa said of Gruber.
"It is our job to see that the administration is working to run the country and that they are reporting honestly their successes and their failures,” he told Reuters.
Like many congressional hearings, Tuesday's session may provide partisan fireworks while doing little or nothing to change government policy. The president says he will veto any effort to overturn what Republicans call "Obamacare," should such a bill reach his desk after Republicans add Senate control to their House majority next year.
Gruber has served as health care adviser to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and has been dubbed “architect” of Obamacare by some Republicans. The government paid Gruber nearly $400,000 for his work.
Also testifying Tuesday will be Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In an effort to distance Tavenner from Gruber's remarks, the administration asked Issa to put her on a different witness panel. Issa's staff said it was weighing the request.
Issa calls the health care law "the poster child for this administration's broken transparency promises."
Issa's bare-knuckled inquiries into administration policies and missteps have often infuriated Democrats while providing welcome fodder for conservative talk shows, speeches and campaigns.
Issa has clashed with the administration on numerous topics. When he accused it of improper campaigning, he tried to bring two former Cabinet members — former Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis — before his committee. They declined.

'Unconscionable': Top Republicans lash out ahead of release of CIA report

The Three Stooges.

Top Republicans are lashing out ahead of the release of a long-anticipated report on the CIA's interrogation techniques, calling the decision to disclose the documents “unconscionable.”
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, spoke out in a statement Monday after lawmakers and Obama administration officials warned that releasing the report could lead to a backlash against Americans around the world.
Rubio and Risch called the choice to release the report a “partisan effort” by Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, saying the report is not “serious or constructive.”
“We are concerned that this release could endanger the lives of Americans overseas, jeopardize U.S. relations with foreign partners, potentially incite violence, create political problems for our allies, and be used as a recruitment tool for our enemies,” the senators said. “Simply put, this release is reckless and irresponsible.”
The lawmakers spoke out as alleged new details of the report, which is expected to be released Tuesday, began to emerge. The 480-page report, a summary of a still-classified 6,000 page study, amounts to the first public accounting of the CIA's alleged use of torture on suspected Al Qaeda detainees held in secret facilities in Europe and Asia in the years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Reuters reported Monday night that the report contains graphic details about the techniques, including sexual threats made to detainees.
According to Reuters, the report describes how at least one detainee was threatened in a sexual manner with a broomstick. In another example, Reuters reported, a detained Al Qaeda operative was threatened with a buzzing power drill.
U.S. officials who have read the report say it includes disturbing new details about the CIA's use of such techniques as sleep deprivation, confinement in small spaces, humiliation and the simulated drowning process known as waterboarding.
A former CIA officer told Fox News Monday that the agency's techniques led to helpful intelligence. The former officer noted that once accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's will was broken, he generated more than 2,000 intelligence reports.
In addition, three former CIA officers from the program told Fox News that they believe the Senate report seeks to minimize intelligence that led the U.S. to Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti-- Usama bin Laden's trusted courier.
Another former officer told Fox News that the CIA was encouraged by lawmakers "to do whatever it takes" to prevent another attack on the scale of Sept. 2001.  The former officer said that Hill leadership was briefed more than three dozen times before the program was shuttered.
The White House on Monday reiterated its support for the report’s release, despite the warnings it could provoke violence. Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the administration has been preparing "for months" for the report's release.
However, Secretary of State John Kerry last week asked the Senate Intelligence Committee to "consider" the timing of the release.
The administration's stance was criticized by GOP Sen. Richard Burr, the prospective new chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Burr, R-N.C., said that Kerry's request that the report be delayed didn't jibe with Earnest's comments.
“It’s dumbfounding they can call and ask for it to be delayed and then say they want it out. You can’t have it both ways,” Burr told Fox News.
U.S. officials have confirmed to Fox News that an advisory has been sent urging U.S. personnel overseas to reassess security measures in anticipation of the release. The message directs all overseas posts, including those used by CIA personnel, to "review their security posture" for a "range of reactions that might occur."
A similar statement was being sent to military combatant commands to assess their readiness. Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said Monday the combatant commands have been urged to "take appropriate force protection measures within their areas of responsibility."
In Washington, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said America's allies are predicting "this will cause violence and deaths." He said U.S. intelligence agencies and foreign governments have said privately that the release of the Senate intelligence panel report on CIA interrogations a decade ago will be used by extremists to incite violence that is likely to cost lives.

Black & Blue Cartoon

With new majorities, GOP prepares for veto showdowns with Obama

After taking control of the Senate and widening their majority in the House of Representatives in the recent midterm elections, Republicans are preparing for new battles with the Obama administration, this time over vetoes. 
Until now, controversial Republican-backed legislation rarely reached the president's desk because Senate Democrats blocked it. Starting in January, however, Obama may have to decide more often whether to sign or veto GOP-crafted bills.
Obama gave lawmakers an early taste of veto politics recently when he forced congressional leaders to drop a proposed package of tax breaks that were popular with many Republican constituents. Some Democrats did support the plan, but liberals and the White House said it tilted too heavily toward corporations, not lower-income workers.
The White House also has promised to veto any bills restricting the president's major changes to immigration policies, setting up likely showdowns early next year.
Obama's threats present the type of bind that Republicans may face repeatedly in the next two years. They can agree to many or all of the changes he demands in legislation, or they can let him use his veto and hope Americans will blame him more than them.
It's a gamble, especially with critical spending bills Congress soon must address. Some Republicans want to amend these must-pass bills to thwart Obama's bid to protect millions of immigrants, now in the country illegally, from deportation.
Assuming Obama keeps his veto promise, Republican lawmakers would have to decide whether to drop their demands or let parts of the federal government close for lack of money. GOP leaders have vowed there will be no shutdowns over the next two years, but they have yet to explain how they can force Obama to back off on immigration.
The 2013 partial government shutdown occurred under similar partisan circumstances. Polls show the public blamed congressional Republicans more than the Democratic president.
It's unclear how often Obama will face a veto decision. Even in the minority, Democratic senators can use the filibuster, the name for unlimited debate, to block many measures that break strictly along party lines.
But some proposals, such as building the Keystone XL pipeline, enjoy significant bipartisan support. They might attract enough Democratic backing to reach 60 Senate votes, overcoming a filibuster and sending the measure to Obama.
White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said if Congress assembles legislation that Obama opposes, the White House will threaten vetoes and "if Congress decides to pass them anyway, then we'll veto them."
"We're not going to go out looking for them, but we're not going to run from them either," he said.
Should Obama veto a proposal such as the Keystone project, the question would be whether two-thirds of the Senate and two-thirds of the House would vote to defy him. That's the constitutional threshold for overriding a veto.
It will be critical for Republicans to put together veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate. Because any bill would require 60 Senate votes to overcome filibusters, the Senate vote would always be bipartisan and closer to the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
But the House would be harder, giving House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California greater sway in the end over the outcome of legislation.
Vetoes have existed since George Washington's day, but Obama issued only two fairly minor ones in his first six years as president. His two predecessors also went light on vetoes in their early years.
Democrat Bill Clinton vetoed 37 bills, all during his last six years in office, when Republicans controlled the House and Senate. Republican George W. Bush issued no vetoes during his first four-year term. After that he vetoed eight bills when Republicans controlled both congressional chambers and four bills when Democrats held both.
Starting next month, lawmakers say, veto clashes are inevitable.
"You're destined to see it," said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.
Lawmakers say veto politics will put pressure on both parties. A veto of any bill that makes it through the Senate will frustrate some Democrats from competitive states, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.. For instance, he said, a Keystone veto "splashes over on Democrats with a political future."
Throughout the next presidential campaign, Graham said, likely Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton "will always have to answer, 'Would you have vetoed that?'"
At the same time, he said, Republicans must find a way to express their anger over Obama's executive actions on immigration without closing the government. "The politics of dealing with Obama's overreach is tough politics for Republicans," Graham said.
Some Democrats want Obama to use his veto powers on important issues.
"The fact that the president, I think, is determined to use the veto pen when necessary will help protect his legacy," said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.

Will GOP's control of the South play significant role in 2016 races?

The defeat Saturday of Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu was essentially the final act in the Republican Party’s control this fall of the South -- a transition expected to have a significant impact on the 2016 White House races.  
The victory by Republican challenger and Louisiana Rep. Bill Cassidy means that Democrats in January will be left without a single U.S. senator or governor across nine states -- stretching from the Carolinas to Texas.
And GOP runoff victories Saturday in two Louisiana House districts ensure the party of at least 246 seats, the largest Republican advantage since the Truman administration after World War II.
Furthermore, Republicans in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas will control nearly every majority-white congressional district and both state legislative chambers.
But will the conservative-leaning voters who appeared this year to have written a closing chapter for the white Southern Democrat have the same impact on the 2016 presidential races?
"The Republican presidential nomination will run through the South," says Ferrell Guillory, a Southern politics expert based at the University of North Carolina. "As Mitt Romney found (in 2012), that...makes it harder to build a national coalition once you are the nominee."
Democrats on Sunday argued that the GOP’s control of the South is not an insurmountable problem for Hillary Clinton, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren or any other liberal member of their party who makes a 2016 presidential run.
“Right now, there are really two electorates -- the midterm and the presidential. It’s a different math,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Michael Czin told FoxNews.com, pointing out that voter-turnout within his party is expected to be significantly higher in 2016.
Democratic strategist and pollster Ben Tulchin said the 2008 and 2012 elections prove that “Democrats don’t need the Deep South to win.”
In 1976, former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter became one of the last true Southern Democrats to win the White House. He won every Southern state except Oklahoma and Virginia. In 1992 and 1996, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, considered a more conservative Democrat, won only a handful of Southern states in winning the presidency.  
Tulchin also argued a moderate Republican will likely have more problems in 2016 in the Deep South than a liberal Democrat, considering the early South Carolina primary, followed by those in other states across the region, could hurt somebody like New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie.
“His best hope there is the conservative candidates split that vote,” said Tulchin, president of San Francisco-based Tulchin Research.
The region also is home to GOP Sens. Ted Cruz, of Texas, and Kentucky's Rand Paul, both Tea Party favorites and popular presidential hopefuls.
Other Democrats argue that an election without Obama and his widely unpopular agenda in that region also improves their chances.
“The No. 1 thing to be competitive in the South is to have Barack Obama not be president anymore,” North Carolina pollster Tom Jensen, who runs the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, told Politico. “It’s just a simple reality that Southern whites really, really despise him in a way they have not despised any other president.”
Democrats also argue that changing demographics, such as the growing minority populations in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, will help.
Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere rejects the notion that Southerners could complicate Republican electoral fortunes in the long-term.
"Whether it was the old Southern Democrats or Republicans now, we've pushed the liberal wings of the parties for a long time," he said. "I think it's good for the party and for the country."

Violence erupts at Berkeley protest for second straight night

These people need to get off their asses and get jobs and go to work.

A protest against police-involved killings spun out of control for the second straight night in Berkeley, Calif. Sunday, as demonstrators threw rocks and explosives at officers, turned on each other, and shut down a highway. 
Sunday's protest began peacefully on the University of California, Berkeley campus. But as protesters marched through downtown Berkeley toward the neighboring city of Oakland, someone smashed the window of a Radio Shack. When a protester tried to stop the vandalism, he was hit with a hammer, Berkeley Police Officer Jennifer Coats said. Coats told KTVU that the man was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Sunday's demonstrations began with approximately 50 protesters, but soon swelled to at least 500 people, according to estimates by police and protesters alike. Demonstrator Alessandro Tiberio told KTVU that the crowd had "very positive energy" when the march started.
"I'm an ally," Tiberio said. "It's important to stay focused on the fact that black lives matter. It's not that all lives don't matter but I'm here to support especially the black people who are most often the ones victimized by the police."
Some of the protesters made their way to State Highway 24 in Oakland and blocked traffic. The California Highway Patrol said some tried to light a patrol vehicle on fire and threw rocks, bottles and an explosive at officers. Highway patrol officers responded with tear gas. KTVU cited additional reports of CHP and police patrol cars being vandalized with windows smashed.  
The highway patrol said it was making arrests but no figures were immediately available.
The demonstrations were the latest of several in the Bay Area in recent days to protest grand jury decisions in Missouri and New York not to indict while police officers in the deaths of two black men. The unrest in Berkeley follows violent disruptions of demonstrations in San Francisco and Oakland in recent days. Five San Francisco police officers sought medical treatment after sustaining injuries during a protest in downtown San Francisco on Black Friday.
On Saturday night, three officers and a technician were hurt and six people were arrested when a similar protest turned unruly. The most serious injury was a dislocated shoulder, Berkeley police said. Coats said no police officers were hurt Sunday evening.

Tax Cartoon

All starts with the government's hunger for more tax money.

Netanyahu: Israel to face threats in same way it did before elections were called

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his first “lame duck” weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, and said Israel will deal with the challenges and threats around it in the same way that it did before new elections were called.

The cabinet table was much less crowded on Sunday than it was for the last 18 months, as the seven Yesh Atid and Hatnua ministers who were either fired or quit in recent weeks were absent.

The cabinet heard a briefing from National Security Council head Yoram Cohen, and Netanyahu said that Israel was following developments in the Middle East with great interest, because “a great deal is happening.”

“We will remain constantly with our hand on the pulse, and we will deal with these threats and challenges because they do not take a time-out,” Netanyahu said. “We will deal with them with the same degree of responsibility that we have done up until now.”

Netanyahu also addressed the hospitalization over the weekend of Jonathan Pollard, saying that he spoke with US Secretary of State John Kerry and said that Pollard's bad health was an additional reason to set him free.”

“Jonathan lost consciousness, was hospitalized, and is not healthy,” Netanyahu said. “He is suffering simultaneously from a number of diseases. The time has come, for all the reasons, after 30 years that Jonathan Pollard is released and becomes a free man.”

Netanyahu said Pollard has paid his debt and should get at least the same treatment as others in his position. “We will not stop working until he is returned home, to the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said.

Pentagon says six Guantanamo Bay detainees transferred to Uruguay

The U.S. government said early Sunday that it had transferred six detainees held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for over 12 years to Uruguay for resettlement as refugees. 
All six men had been detained as suspected militants with ties to Al Qaeda, but had never been charged. A Pentagon statement on Sunday identified the men as four Syrians, a Tunisian and a Palestinian. They are the first Guantanamo Bay prisoners to be sent to South America. 
They had been cleared for release since at least 2010 but they could not be sent home and languished as the U.S. struggled to find countries willing to take them.
Among those transferred is 43-year-old Syrian Abu Wa'el Dhiab, who was on a long-term hunger strike at Guantanamo to protest his confinement. He was at the center of a legal battle in U.S. courts over the military's force-feeding of prisoners who refuse to eat.
The other Syrians sent to Uruguay on Saturday were identified by the Pentagon as Ali Husain Shaaban, 32; Ahmed Adnan Ajuri, 37; and Abdelahdi Faraj, 39. Also released were Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Abdullah Taha Mattan, 35, and 49-year-old Adel bin Muhammad El Ouerghi of Tunisia.
The latest release brings the total number of prisoners at Guantanamo to 136 -- the lowest number since the first month the prison opened in January 2002. The U.S. has said that the men pose no threat, but cannot be allowed to return to their countries of origin. 
"We are very grateful to Uruguay for this important humanitarian action, and to President Mujica for his strong leadership in providing a home for individuals who cannot return to their own countries," U.S. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan said.
Mujica had agreed to take the men in January, but the Pentagon didn't notify Congress of its intent to transfer the detainees to Uruguay until July. The Associated Press reported that administration officials have been frustrated that the transfer took so long and blame outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for not approving the move sooner. 
The handoff was further delayed until after Uruguay's October presidential election and late-November runoff when the transfer became a campaign issue. On Friday, Mujica reiterated his willingness to accept the detainees in an open letter to President Barack Obama that appeared on the Uruguay leader's official website. 
Obama pledged to close the prison upon taking office but was blocked by Congress, which banned sending prisoners to the U.S. for any reason, including trial, and placed restrictions on sending them abroad.
The slow pace of releases has created a tense atmosphere inside the prison. A hunger strike that began in February 2013 totaled about 100 prisoners at its peak, including Dhiab and Faraj.
The restrictions on sending them overseas have been eased and the U.S. has released 19 prisoners so far this year. Officials say several more are expected by the end of the year.
Prisoners have been sent to countries around the world but this is this largest to the Western Hemisphere. Four were sent to Bermuda in 2009 and two to El Salvador in 2012.

More municipal bans on fracking pose setback to domestic energy boom

The surge in domestic-energy production that has created millions of new jobs and abundant natural gas and oil is now facing a potential setback, cities across the country imposing bans on the widely-used deep-drilling process known as fracking.
At least three U.S. cities and two counties in the November elections voted in favor of such a ban. And courts in Pennsylvania and New York have recently ruled in favor of letting cities have some control over the drilling.
There is little surprise that Texas is at the forefront of the fight between energy companies and other fracking supporters and critics who say the drilling process is noisy, pollutes water supplies and triggers earthquakes.
Most of the attention in Texas is now on Denton, a college town near Dallas that sits on the Barnett shale formation that is full of natural gas.
The city became the first in Texas to impose the ban and has emerged as a test case for municipalities across the state trying to halt the drilling -- particularly in the face of the powerful energy industry and the Texas General Land Office, which owns 13 million acres of land across Texas and uses revenue from the mineral rights to fund public education.
Denton residents approved the ban in a Nov. 4 referendum that promptly resulted in at least two lawsuits including one by the land office and the Texas Oil & Gas Association, an industry group.
The ban on fracking went into effect Tuesday, but the situation appears headed for a lengthy legal battle.
"Whatever happens next will take place in a courtroom," Ed Ireland, executive director of the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council, a group aligned with producers, told Reuters.
Property rights are a part of Texas' cultural fabric. But the desire to develop hydrocarbons such as oil and gas is equally powerful.
Another factor is that property rights are separate under state law from mineral rights, making it possible to own one but not the other.
The process of fracking involves shooting a mix of pressurized water, sand and chemicals to split rock formations and release the gas and so-called tight oil.
Fracking supporters say the industry in 2012 supported 2.1 million jobs across the country and contributed nearly $284 billion to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, according to most recent figures.
In Ohio, which is home to the Utica shale gas field and is enjoying a manufacturing renaissance as a result of fracking, the cities of Youngstown, Gates Mills and Kent on election day rejected proposed bans. However, the city of Athens approved one. They join the Ohio cities of Broadview Heights, Mansfield, Oberlin and Yellow Springs in the banning of fracking within city limits.
California voters in San Benito and Mendocino counties passed bans, while those in Santa Barbara defeated one. Santa Cruz County had already enacted one, and Los Angeles was already in the process of imposing a temporary ban. At least on local referendum has passed in Colorado, but the courts have ruled against it.
In Texas, the fight against fracking also pits municipalities against the Texas Railroad Commission, which governs the oil and gas industry.
"Regulation doesn't work very well in the state of Texas because the Railroad Commission doesn't work on the public's behalf," said Dan Dowdey, who is asking Alpine city commissioners to ban fracking in the nearby Permian Basin and Eagle Ford shale formations, though the closest drilling is more than 100 miles away.
And residents of Reno, which had its first recorded earthquake last year and hundreds since then, took their first step this past spring toward a ban. The ban limits fracking activities to operators who can prove the injections won't cause earthquakes.
Cities might never be able to prove definitively that fracking causes earthquakes.
Texas hired its first seismologist to investigate the potential link after Reno Mayor Lyndamyrth Stokes led an effort to get the Railroad Commission to halt the drilling in her area. Stokes say the seismologist told her that making such a definitive connection would be impossible.
On Monday, potential 2016 Democratic White House Candidate Hillary Clinton, who will need a domestic-energy platform, tried walking the narrow line between fracking supporters and critics.
“It is crucial we put in place smart regulations and enforce them including deciding not to drill when the risks to local communities, landscapes and ecosystems are just too high,” she told the League of Conservation Voters in New York. But “natural gas can play an important bridge role in the transition to a cleaner, greener economy.”

South African hostage killed during US raid was to have been released, aid group says

Pierre Korkie

A South African hostage killed during a U.S.-led raid to free him and an American captive from Al Qaeda militants in Yemen was to have been released Sunday, an aid group has claimed. 
The South Africa-based Gift of the Givers said Saturday that a deal had been reached late last month to free teacher Pierre Korkie, 56, that included a "facilitation fee" paid to his kidnappers. Korkie had been kidnapped along with his wife, Yolande, in the Yemeni city of Tazi 18 months earlier while doing relief work. She had been released in January of this year without ransom. 
"A team of Abyan (Yemeni) leaders met in Aden [Saturday] morning and were preparing the final security and logistical arrangements, related to hostage release mechanisms, to bring Pierre to safety and freedom," Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of Gift of the Givers. "It is even more tragic that the words we used in a conversation with Yolande at 5:59 [Saturday] morning was: 'The wait is almost over.'"
The Associated Press, citing sources close to the negotiations, reported that the militants had initially demanded a $3 million ransom for Korkie's release. Although that demand was dropped, the kidnappers did insist on the "facilitation fee," according to the aid group. The undisclosed amount was raised by Korkie's family and friends, according to the South African Press Agency.
U.S. officials said Korkie and American freelance photographer Luke Somers were apparently shot by an Al Qaeda militant early in a roughly 5-to-10 minute firefight after the team of roughly 40 U.S. commandos were discovered approaching the compound where the men were held. Officials said that based on the location where Somers and Korkie were being held, there was no possibility that they were struck by American gunfire.
U.S. forces pulled Somers and Korkie onto V-22 Ospreys, and medical teams began performing surgery in midair. One hostage died during the short flight; the second died after the Ospreys landed on the USS Makin Island, a Navy ship in the region.
No American forces were killed or sustained serious injuries in the raid. Yemen's government said four of its forces were wounded.
The predawn raid was the second rescue attempt in as many weeks to free Somers following a threat late Wednesday by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, backed by intelligence reports, that he would be killed on Saturday morning unless unspecified demands were met.
President Barack Obama said he ordered the raid because Somers was believed to be in "imminent danger." The president, in a statement, condemned Somers' killing as a "barbaric murder," but did not mention Korkie by name, offering condolences to the family of "a non-U.S. citizen hostage."
"It is my highest responsibility to do everything possible to protect American citizens," Obama said. "As this and previous hostage rescue operations demonstrate, the United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located."
On Nov. 25, American special operations forces and Yemeni soldiers raided a remote Al Qaeda safe haven in a desert region near the Saudi border. Eight captives, including Yemenis, a Saudi and an Ethiopian, were freed, but Somers was not there. He and five other hostages had been moved days earlier, officials later said.
Roughly a dozen people are believed held by Al Qaeda militants in Yemen.
U.S. officials said that threat prompted Obama to move quickly. Using information obtained during the first raid, U.S. officials believed Somers was being held Shabwa province, a stronghold of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist group's Yemeni branch. Officials believed a second hostage was there, too, but did not know it was Korkie.
By Thursday evening, the Pentagon had sent the White House a proposed plan, which Obama approved the following day. Officials alerted Yemen's President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who gave his support.
Hadi has been a critical U.S. partner in seeking to undermine Yemen's dangerous Al Qaeda affiliate. With the permission of Yemen's government, the U.S. has for years launched drone strikes against militant targets in the country and provided Yemen with hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance. Civilian casualties from the drone strikes have stoked anger in the country, however.
When Obama announced U.S. airstrikes this year against militant targets in Syria and Iraq, he held up the Yemen effort as a comparable model.
Yemen's highest security body, the Supreme Security Committee, issued a rare statement Saturday acknowledging that the country's forces had carried out the raid with "American friends." The committee said all the militants holding the hostages were killed in the operation.
Korkie was a dedicated teacher, a family friend said. "Teaching was his life. His heart took him to Yemen. He loved teaching the poor," said Daan Nortier, who is acting as a family spokesman.
Lucy Somers, the photojournalist's sister, told The Associated Press that she and her father learned of her brother's death from FBI agents just after midnight Saturday.
"We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," she said, speaking from Kent, England.
Somers was kidnapped in September 2013 as he left a supermarket in Sanaa, according to Fakhri al-Arashi, chief editor of the National Yemen, where Somers worked as a copy editor and a freelance photographer during the 2011 uprising in Yemen.
Before her brother's death, Lucy Somers released an online video describing him as a romantic who "always believes the best in people." She ended with the plea: "Please let him live."
In a statement, Somers' father, Michael, also called his son "a good friend of Yemen and the Yemeni people" and asked for his safe release.
Fuad Al Kadas, who called Somers one of his best friends, said Somers spent time in Egypt before finding work in Yemen. Somers started teaching English at a Yemen school but quickly established himself as a one of the few foreign photographers in the country, he said.
"He is a great man with a kind heart who really loves the Yemeni people and the country," Al Kadas wrote in an email from Yemen. He said he last saw Somers the day before he was kidnapped.
Al-Arashi, Somers' editor at the National Yemen, recalled a moment when Somers edited a story on other hostages held in the country.
"He looked at me and said, 'I don't want to be a hostage,'" al-Arashi said. "'I don't want to be kidnapped.'"

Landrieu loses reelection bid in Louisiana to Republican challenger Cassidy

Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu lost her reelection bid Saturday in a runoff race with Republican challenger Rep. Bill Cassidy, despite a relentless, against-long-odds effort.
Landrieu, who was seeking a fourth term, trailed by double digits and had lost most of her support going into the election. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting late Saturday, Cassidy had received 56 percent of the vote, to 44 percent for Landrieu.
Landrieu barnstormed the state this week, driving some 1,200 miles in a rented SUV, stopping in little towns and bigger cities, making one last appeal to voters to give her another term in Washington.
“There is no quit,” Landrieu said in her concession speech. “It’s been nothing but a joy to serve this state for over 34 years.”
Cassidy’s win extends the GOP's domination of the 2014 midterm elections that put Republicans in charge of Capitol Hill for the final two years of President Obama's tenure.
Republicans will hold 54 seats when the Senate convenes in January, nine more than they have now.
“Once again, voters have spoken clearly,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said. “They have rejected the Democrat agenda and the Obama-Clinton policies that have produced higher healthcare costs and job-killing regulations.”
The race mirrored contests in other states that Obama lost in 2012, with Landrieu joining Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan and Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor in defeat. Democrats ceded seats in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia after incumbents opted not to run again.
Like victorious Republicans in those races, Cassidy, 57, made his bid more about Obama than about his own vision for the job. An Illinois native and medical doctor, Cassidy made few public appearances during the runoff, seeking to avoid missteps that could change the race.
But in a state where 73 percent of white voters on Nov. 4 told pollsters they "strongly disapproved" of the president, that was enough to prevent Landrieu, 59, from finding her footing. Cassidy also enjoyed a prodigious advertising advantage in the runoff: Of every dollar spent by outside groups during the one-month runoff, 97 cents benefited the congressman.
Landrieu had narrowly led a Nov. 4 primary ballot that included eight candidates from all parties. But at 42 percent, she fell well below her marks in previous races and endured a one-month runoff campaign that Republicans dominated via the airwaves while national Democrats financially abandoned her effort.
In the South, Democrats will be left without a single governor or U.S. senator across nine states stretching from the Carolinas to Texas. The House delegations from the same region are divided almost entirely by race, with white Republicans representing majority-white districts, while majority non-white districts are represented by black or Hispanic Democrats.
Landrieu tried several messages over the course of her losing effort.
Most recently, she had hammered Cassidy as being unfit for the job and interested more in partisanship than helping Louisiana. She directed her most pointed criticism at Cassidy's medical teaching job with the Louisiana State University hospital system. Calling Cassidy "Dr. Double Dip," Landrieu suggested the congressman collected a $20,000, taxpayer-funded salary for little or no work, describing gaps and discrepancies in Cassidy's LSU time sheets. LSU said it's looking into the time sheet questions.
She argued that the race shouldn't be about Obama, but also targeted advertising on radio stations geared to the black community, where the president remains popular.
Her anchor argument was that her senatorial seniority was a boon for Louisiana, particularly her chairmanship of the Senate's energy committee, an important panel for this oil-rich state. But that argument was gutted on Nov. 4 when Republicans won the Senate majority, meaning Landrieu would have lost her post even had she won.
Landrieu, who said a campaign canvasser was fatally struck by a vehicle Saturday, managed last month to get the Democrat-controlled Senate to vote on her bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have helped with voters in oil-rich Louisiana. But the measure failed when she could not get one more Democrat to vote in favor of the plan.

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