ACLU sides with al-Qaeda and terrorists

by Warren Richey

Washington-
A federal judge is set to hear arguments on Monday in a lawsuit challenging an alleged secret Obama administration plan to use lethal force against an American-born Islamic cleric hiding in Yemen.

The cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, is a leader of the Yemen-based group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He has facilitated training camps in Yemen, encouraged new recruits, and helped prepare Umar Abdulmutallab in his attempt to blow up an airliner near Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, government lawyers say.

In July, US authorities listed Mr. Awlaki as a “specially designated global terrorist.” According to press reports, he is on a US government “kill list.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Awlaki’s father by the American Civil Liberties Union, challenges the government’s authority to carry out the intentional killing.

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AARP Hikes Employee Health Care Costs, Blames ObamaCare

by Meredith Jessup

WASHINGTON — AARP‘s endorsement helped pass President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. Now the powerful seniors’ lobby is telling employees their costs will go up as a result.

In an e-mail to employees obtained by the Associated Press, AARP says employees’ health care premiums will increase by 5 percent — from 8 percent to 13 percent — next year because of rapidly rising medical costs.

“Most plan co-pays and deductibles have been modified,” Jennifer Hodges, AARP’s director of compensation and benefits, wrote employees in the Oct. 25 e-mail. “Plan value changes were necessary not only from a cost management standpoint but also to ensure that AARP’s plans fall below the threshold for high-cost group plans under health care reform.”

AARP says it is also changing co-payments and deductibles to avoid a new goverment-mandated 40 percent tax on high cost “Cadillac” health plans that takes effect in 2018 under the law. Shifting costs to employees lowers the value of a health plan; it’s like an escape hatch from the tax.

Last year, the AARP reportedly lost 60,000 members who resigned membership in anger over the group’s support of the Democrats’ health care overhaul.

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Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds

by Madison Park

Twinkies. Nutty bars. Powdered donuts.

For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate one of these sugary cakelets every three hours, instead of meals. To add variety in his steady stream of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Haub munched on Doritos chips, sugary cereals and Oreos, too.

His premise: That in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most -- not the nutritional value of the food.

The premise held up: On his "convenience store diet," he shed 27 pounds in two months.

For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub's pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.

His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal. He now weighs 174 pounds.

But you might expect other indicators of health would have suffered. Not so.

Haub's "bad" cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his "good" cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. He reduced the level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, by 39 percent.

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Bill Maher Stands By Mohammed Remarks

Hitler Finds Out The GOP has retaken the House