Ben Carson apologize for comments against Gay Americans

Washington (CNN)Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson apologized for commenting Wednesday that prisoners' changes after they leave jail proves being gay is a choice, but said that the science is still murky on the issue.

In a statement, Carson said he "realized that my choice of language does not reflect fully my heart on gay issues."

"I do not pretend to know how every individual came to their sexual orientation. I regret that my words to express that concept were hurtful and divisive. For that I apologize unreservedly to all that were offended," he added.

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Carson referenced his medical education and his work at Johns Hopkins Hospital and asserted that the verdict is still out on whether people are born either gay or straight.

"Some of our brightest minds have looked at this debate, and up until this point there have been no definitive studies that people are born into a specific sexuality," he said.

The statement was an attempt to walk back comments Carson made earlier Wednesday morning on CNN's "New Day." Asked by Chris Cuomo whether being gay was a choice, Carson replied: "Absolutely."

"Because a lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight -- and when they come out, they're gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question," Carson said.

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That argument, Carson said, "thwarts" the notion that homosexuality isn't a choice, which is at odds with the majority of the medical community, including the American Psychological Association, who says "most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation." Slate's Mark Joseph Stern also outlined the scientific arguments against this particular belief last year. 

Carson's comment comes as Republicans try to avoid the kinds of incendiary comments on cultural issues that cost the party two Senate races -- when Missouri's Todd Akin and Indiana's Richard Mourdock drew national attention for their remarks on rape -- and hurt Mitt Romney in 2012.

Other Republicans who are considering 2016 campaigns were silent on Carson's comments Wednesday, with several failing to respond to requests for comment from CNN.

Carson also said he believes the issue of allowing or restricting same-sex marriage should be decided on the state level, rather than by federal courts -- even as the Supreme Court prepares to take up a case this spring that could legalize gay marriage nationwide.

He said it's possible to grant the legal rights that accompany marriage to same-sex couples -- or to any two people at all -- without applying the word "marriage" to their relationships.

"Why do gay people want to get married? Why do they say they want to get married? Because they want to have various rights -- property rights, visitation rights," he said. "Why can't any two human beings, I don't care what their sexual orientation is, why can't they have the legal right to do those things? That does not require changing the definition of marriage."

CNN's Ashley Killough contributed to this repo

Hillary Clinton e-mail coverup the end of America

On Monday, The New York Times reported that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton never -- not once -- used her official State Department email address for her official communications. Instead, she utilized a private email account, effectively protecting her emails from public scrutiny. The Washington Post then broke the news that Hillary had registered her email address the same day her confirmation hearings for secretary of state began. In other words, Hillary knew she would be secretary of state conducting official business, and coincidentally opened a private email account at the same time to guard her from Freedom of Information Act requests.

Sure, Hillary Clinton has a nasty history with crucial documents going missing -- she is the only first lady in American history fingerprinted by the FBI, and the FBI found missing documents with her fingerprints on them in the White House personal quarters. But the media SuperFriends quickly activated to protect Hillary. Glenn Thrush of Politico tweeted that Hillary must have relied on incompetent staffers and lawyers. Ron Fournier of National Journal tut-tutted that this made her "no better" than Republicans. Of course, the media also ignored Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman handing millions to the Clinton charity just before Hillary's big run.

Clinton is hardly the first Obama administration official to utilize a private email account to shield herself. Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency used a private email address under the name "Richard Windsor" to conduct official business. According to Vice News' Jason Leopold, the Department of Defense told him that they would not release any emails from former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, since "SecDef does not maintain an official email account." Other Obama administration officials using unofficial email accounts include former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Donald Berwick, the former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Welcome to the most transparent administration in American history, where the Federal Communications Commission can regulate the Internet and keep those regulations secret before a vote, where top government officials can deliberately hide their emails from the public, but where your health records, income and emails are all government business.

The public and private spheres have now been completely reversed. The federal government can punish its own employees for enforcing federal immigration law; if you oppose this, you are a racist, but if you hire an illegal immigrant, you will be fined or imprisoned. The feds can monitor your electronic metadata, but they can hide their own correspondence from records requests. After all, they are our betters, and we must kneel before Zod.

What possible violations of the Constitutional system will Americans actually fight? The list of possibilities grows short. Reports emerged this week suggesting that President Obama will consider banning bullets by executive order, effectively castrating the Second Amendment by fiat. Shrug. The Obama White House announced this week that Obama was "very interested" in unilaterally raising taxes. Shrug.

Democracies die not with a whimper or a bang but with a shrug. When we don't care enough about the system to stop its breakdown -- when we're happy with our dictators so long as we agree with them -- the constitutional order collapses. But so what? By electing Hillary Clinton the presidency, we'll strike a blow against non-existent generalized sexism in American society. And that's far more important than having an answerable, accountable government.

Ben Carson Being Gay Is A Choice

Carson's hard-right politics and bold stances like this have made him a darling of the far right. His stance on gay marriage isn't new (previously he's aligned homosexuality with bestiality, pedophilia and murder) but it highlights why his presidential ambitions put the GOP in such a pickle: With a majority of Americans supporting gay marriage, fielding a Republican candidate who is so blatantly hostile to homosexuality is a great way to send swing voters packing.

"Candidates who would like to see the inside of the West Wing," GOP strategist Juleana Glover told msnbc previously, "are gonna find a way to be more inclusive on the issue of marriage."

Carson's views on homosexuality have gotten him in trouble in the past: in 2013, he was forced to cancel a commencement speech at Johns Hopkins-the school where he worked as a pediatric neurosurgeon-and apologize for remarks about gay people.

Carson has formally established a presidential exploratory committee, announcing the step towards a possible run for the GOP nomination with a new web site and video.Carson is right and the progressive loon are wrong. The progressive media will try and destroy Ben Carson.

Obama Opposes Netanyahu speech because he hates Israel

President Obama's National Security Advisor, told TV talk show host Charlie Rose that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming speech before Congress about Iran is "destructive" to the relationship between the United States and Israel.

What is going on? The National SecurityAdvisor is just that – an advisor. It is not a cabinet post, nor a position of authority. It is not an appointment that requires confirmation of Congress. The president picks this individual to serve as a staff advisor on national security affairs.

So who is Susan Rice to be hitting the media and defining the nature of relations between the United States and it's principle friend and ally in the Middle East – the only free nation in that part of the world?

In a new poll from Gallup, 70 percent of Americans express a favorable opinion of Israel, unchanged from where it stood same time last year. Gallup concludes that "the evident friction between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu" has not "affected how each is perceived in the US."

So why is Susan Rice, an unelected, unconfirmed, White House bureaucrat appearing in the media, defining the nature of relations between these two important free world allies? And doing so inaccurately?

To suggest, as Ms. Rice and others have, that somehow the prime minster's acceptance of this invitation to speak from House Speaker John Boehner is partisan, because Boehner is a Republican, is like saying that accepting an invitation from the president for a meeting in the White House is partisan because Barack Obama is a Democrat.

We are talking here about the functioning of the American government.

Last November the American people spoke and delivered decisive victories to Republicans, giving them control of both houses of congress. Americans said boldly and clearly that they want a different point of view than that of the White House controlling congress.

Public approval of President Obama's conducting of foreign affairs has dropped precipitously since the beginning of his presidency. In early 2009, approval of the President's handling of foreign affairs, according to Gallup, was 59 percent. The latest poll puts it at 36 percent.

And, in a new Pew Research Center poll, 48 percent say Republicans do a better job on foreign policy issues compared to 35 percent that prefer Democrats.

So the logic and reasonableness of John Boehner's invitation to the Israeli Prime Minister is clear as a bell.

Couple all this with the issue on the table, the agreement being negotiated with Iran regarding its nuclear capability, that is very complicated and very risky – that the Israeli PM thinks is a bad deal - makes it all the sense in the world for the American people to get another well-informed opinion.

Secretary of State Kerry just testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee saying that "Israel is safer today…." because of the deals this administration is cutting with Iran that Netanyahu opposes.

Can John Kerry really be serious that he knows better what makes Israel safe than Israel's own Prime Minister?"

The President has a bully pulpit waiting for him whenever he wants to use it to explain to the American people why he doesn't want Benjamin Netanyahu to give this speech.

Instead of shooting straight with us, the president is sending out his foot soldiers, his proxies, Democrats in Congress, including the black Caucus, to do his business for him, with flimsy explanations.

What's up with our President? And what's up with the press? Why aren't they asking penetrating questions?

All of us recall as students reading about the tragedies in history and asking how they could have happened, why they weren't prevented.

We should hear the Israeli Prime Minster's concerns.

And our president, himself, should tell the American people why he so opposes this very sensible speech.

Gas prices soaring across America

Gas prices are soaring in California in a classic example of supply and demand after an explosion stopped gasoline production at an Exxon Mobil refinery while another remains offline due to labor unrest.

Average retail gas prices in the state have surged 25 cents a gallon in less than a week, from $2.98 per gallon for regular on Monday to $3.23 per gallon on Friday. That caps a run that saw the price of regular unleaded go up 60 cents per gallon since Jan. 30 as refineries prepare to shift to a summer blend of fuels.

In some areas of Southern California, gas station owners were forced to pass price hikes of 24 cents per gallon along to consumers on Thursday after seeing wholesale prices shoot up. Prices in Northern California lagged a day, but by Friday were also rising; an independent operator with a chain of gas stations around the San Francisco Bay area boosted prices 20 cents a gallon for regular on Friday, to $3.19.

Jeb Bush and liberal media

not? At least that’s what the big media seem to think.

Here’s David Frum, presenting a forward-looking, decent and thoughtful Jeb Bush via the eminent Atlantic:

Both Jeb Bush and Barack Obama are men who have openly and publicly struggled with their ambivalence about their family inheritance. Both responded by leaving the place of their youth to create new identities for themselves: Barack Obama, as an organizer in the poor African-American neighborhoods of Chicago; Jeb Bush in Mexico, Venezuela, and at last in Cuban-influenced Miami. Both are men who have talked a great deal about the feeling of being “between two worlds”: Obama, in his famous autobiography; Bush, in his speeches. Both chose wives who would more deeply connect them to their new chosen identity. Both derived from their new identity a sharp critique of their nation as it is. Both have built their campaign for president upon a deep commitment to fundamental transformation of their nation into what they believe it should be.

Frum, selling the old patriotic snake oil, is identified in the article as a “senior editor at The Atlantic.” Does that name ring a bell?