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Latest Articles: United States News
White House To Rick Scott: We'll Spend Florida's High-Speed Rail Money Elsewhere
Post Date: 2011-02-16 17:58:43 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON -- In a bit of political hardball, the Obama administration on Wednesday said it would send $2.4 billion in stimulus money to other states should Florida Gov. Rick Scott not back down on his rejection of the federal government's national high-speed rail project. Speaking just hours after Scott announced he was abandoning the project due to cost concerns for the state, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney relayed the president's preparedness to simply send the allocated money to other locales rather than, say, use it to lower the federal deficit. "We think that is an unfortunate decision," Carney said. "This goes right to the essence of what we have been ...
Lawsuit Claims Pentagon Turned Blind Eye To Military Rape Victims
Post Date: 2011-02-16 17:36:46 by Brian S
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Fourteen current and former members of the U.S. military charged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that the Pentagon turned a blind eye when they reported being sexually harassed, assaulted and raped by fellow service members while on active duty. Interviews by NBC News with some of the plaintiffs in the case reveal disturbing and previously unreported allegations of sexual abuse in the military, including some in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition, one of the plaintiffs, identified as a naval aviator, charges in the lawsuit that she was drugged and gang-raped by two of her colleagues while serving at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma just two months ago. Mary Gallagher, a former ...
House Rejects $3.8 Billion In Cuts To 2011 Spending Bill
Post Date: 2011-02-16 17:02:08 by Brian S
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In a series of votes over the last two days, the House has rejected $3.8 billion in proposed cuts to the FY 2011 spending bill, and accepted $485 million during that same period. The House has held more than 20 votes on amendments so far to its 2011 spending bill, including a string of 15 votes Wednesday afternoon on amendments the House debated Tuesday night. The most notable cut so far is a $450 million reduction in funding for an alternative engine for the joint strike fighter. Members on Wednesday also voted to cut $34 million from the National Drug Intelligence Center. On Tuesday, the House agreed to cut $1.9 million from the Bureau of Reclamation. But the rejected spending cuts ...
Setting the Government's Agenda [Why Conservatives Hate Ron Paul]
Post Date: 2011-02-16 16:40:53 by Capitalist Eric
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In this report, I am making a point: the country is headed for a fiscal disaster, and there is no broad-based political movement inside the country to put on the brakes. The train is headed for the collapsed trestle, and it is speeding up. The President as the engineer is talking about slowing the train a little, but he has not yet put on the brakes. No one will put on the brakes. This has enormous consequences for your financial future. You cannot easily get off the train. It is speeding up. The faster it goes, the more expensive it is to get off. The voters are not aware that there is anything really wrong. They are once again running up credit card debt. They figure that happy days ...
Are Republicans Squandering Their Political Capital on Ineffective Budget Cuts?
Post Date: 2011-02-16 15:16:34 by go65
1 Comments
There's a new Harris poll out today that illuminates this question. It shows that support for cutting spending is mostly confined to small programs and that people want to increase some of the big ones. But Table 2 is the one that really caught my attention. It shows that there is considerably less appetite for cutting spending today than there was in 1981. Considering how little spending actually got cut in 1981, this suggests that Republicans may have a lot less political capital to play with than they imagine. It also suggests that their strategy of front-loading spending cuts in the fiscal year 2011 is very ill-conceived. They are using up all the political capital they have for ...
House Votes To Kill Pricey Jet Fighter Engine, A Victory For President Obama In Budget Showdow
Post Date: 2011-02-16 15:12:21 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama won a showdown vote Wednesday in the GOP-controlled House to kill a costly alternative engine for the Pentagon's next-generation fighter jet. The win by Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates is a switch from where the House stood last year under Democratic control. It reflects a sustained administration push to win over the votes of scores of Republican freshmen elected last fall on campaign promises to cut the budget. Many taxpayer watchdog groups also weighed in against the engine program, slated to cost $3 billion over the next few years and $450 million this year alone. The 233-192 tally was a loss for House Speaker John Boehner, ...
GOP Cuts Target Clean Energy
Post Date: 2011-02-16 15:11:24 by go65
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Business heavyweights, think tank thinkers on the right and left, and even climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg spent the better part of 2010 calling for significant increases in energy research R&D to stir up the fires of technological innovation, drive economic growth, and reduce pollution. Now, along come House Republicans, lumbering into the budget china shop and battering the crockery in a ham-handed attempt to appear fiscally responsible. Their proposed budget resolution, setting spending levels for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, has knives out for energy science and technology research – for example, a 35 percent chop from 2010 levels for energy efficiency and renewables, ...
The GOP’s Budget Challenge
Post Date: 2011-02-16 15:09:15 by go65
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Money troubles can ruin even the happiest relationships. No wonder that the conservative coalition is experiencing so much strain. Conservatism could once be described as a three-cornered stool: social, economic and national security conservatives. Today though it’s more relevant to think of conservatism as an attempt to draw a line connecting four points: 1) No tax increase 2) No defense cuts 3) No Medicare cuts 4) Rapid move to a balanced budget. Obviously it’s impossible to meet all four of those commitments. It would be difficult enough to combine #4 with even two of the first three. Much of the struggle within the conservative world can be understood as a quiet debate ...
Barack Obama is Also a Drug Addict
Post Date: 2011-02-16 14:09:36 by no gnu taxes
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BARACK Obama has a drug problem — according to a bombshell new report. America’s Globe magazine claims the President is hooked on prescription pills. The tabloid says Obama’s addiction nightmare is the real reason for the Commander-in-Chief’s shocking weight loss. The drugs — apparently used to help Barack battle depression — are a “cocaine-like” stimulant, according to Globe.
Lara Logan Now Knows First hand What The Worthless, Souless Animals Known as Muslims Are Really Like
Post Date: 2011-02-16 13:34:28 by no gnu taxes
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On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a “60 Minutes” story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy. In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. ...
Congress Prepares “Middle East Stability” Funding Package
Post Date: 2011-02-16 12:27:13 by Brian S
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There's a raging debate on Capitol Hill surrounding huge cuts to foreign aid funding proposed in the House Republicans' latest spending bill. But several senators are looking to add a generous foreign aid package for Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and other Middle Eastern countries when the bill comes over from the House. "A [continuing resolution] that had full year funding for the troops plus an Egypt, Israel, and Middle East stability package of full year funding would send the right signal from the United States," Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) told The Cable in an exclusive interview. The current version of the continuing resolution, which is needed to keep the government running ...
America Accepts Defeat in NYSE Takeover
Post Date: 2011-02-16 11:54:30 by Godwinson
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America Accepts Defeat in NYSE Takeover By Gary Weiss 02/16/11 - 06:30 AM EST NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- I'm really surprised by the blase attitude that I've noticed in the financial press concerning the merger of NYSE-Euronext and the Deutsche Borse. It's been treated, so far at least, as just another financial combination, as if Bank of America(BAC_) was buying yet another failed mortgage company. But it's actually a symbol of Wall Street's self-inflicted decline. The boards of the two exchanges approved the merger yesterday, which means an icon of American capitalism falls under non-U.S. control for the first time since traders gathered under a buttonwood tree in ...
Mullen, Gates Implore Congress Not To Cut Defense Too Deeply
Post Date: 2011-02-16 11:32:54 by Brian S
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The Pentagon's top civilian and military leaders implored Congress on Wednesday not to cut too deeply into military spending, plunging into a heated political debate over how to curtail defense costs without imperiling U.S. strategic interests at a time the military is fighting two wars. "We shrink from our global security responsibilities at our peril," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the House Armed Services Committee. "Retrenchment brought about by short-sighted cuts could well lead to costlier and more tragic consequences later -- indeed as they always have in the past." Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are trying to strike ...
House Begins Debate Over Plan to Chop Spending for Remainder of 2011 [Including the Teleprompter- LOL]
Post Date: 2011-02-16 11:26:12 by Capitalist Eric
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Republicans have kicked off what is expected to be a weeklong debate on the House floor over their controversial blueprint for reducing spending by $100 billion over the rest of the 2011 budget year. The Democratic majority in Congress last year never passed a budget to manage spending for the federal government for the fiscal year that runs Oct. 1-Sept. 30. As a result, Congress has been approving short-term extensions of 2010's budget. Congress has approved a continuation of that budget to keep government operating until March 4. If the House, Senate and President Obama cannot come to an agreement before March 4 for the rest of the year, that could trigger a government shutdown. ...
F-35 Engine Battle Breaks Out On GOP Spending Bill
Post Date: 2011-02-16 11:13:47 by Brian S
1 Comments
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration's campaign against a costly alternative engine for the Pentagon's next-generation fighter jet faces a critical vote in the GOP-controlled House, its fate to be decided by more than 90 freshmen lawmakers who previously haven't had to choose sides between two major defense companies. The expected vote Wednesday comes as the House enters its second day of debate on a $1.2 trillion spending bill that would make deep cuts while wrapping up the unfinished business lawmakers inherited after last year's collapse of the budget process. That includes $1.03 trillion for agency operating budgets that need annual approval by Congress and $158 ...
Rep. Peter King Introduces Anti-WikiLeaks Legislation
Post Date: 2011-02-16 11:11:33 by Brian S
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Legislation aimed at helping the United States prosecute WikiLeaks and other sources of leaked information was introduced to the House of Representatives by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) Tuesday. "Julian Assange and his associates who have operated and supported WikiLeaks not only damaged US national security with their releases of classified documents, but also placed at risk countless lives, including those of our Nation’s intelligence sources around the world," Rep. King, the chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement. "As international pressure has held back Assange, we now find that his colleagues are planning to spin off a new website called ...
The Stupid Kenyan White House Resident -- Obama's unrelenting blunders and lies
Post Date: 2011-02-16 11:00:20 by no gnu taxes
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Remember when everyone was calling George W. Bush stupid? I do. Since then, his published memoir of his years in the White House has been on the bestseller lists following two years of Barack Obama unrelenting blunders and lies. From the beginning of the Obama administration, there were all manner of evidence that a group of hapless, moronic ideologues had been handed the reins of power. Early nominees for key posts were jettisoned or withdrew from consideration for a variety of reasons. This was followed by a huge overlay of “czars” for everything, with undefined power over and above the Cabinet Secretaries in charge of various departments. Two years later, the candidate who ...
A Budget Deadlock Will Defeat the Kenyan White House Resident, But a Compromise Might Save Him
Post Date: 2011-02-16 10:48:58 by no gnu taxes
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So what happens if the cuts proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., prove unacceptable to the Senate and the president? What if there is no compromise? What if nobody gives in? A budget deadlock, played out over months, will doom President Obama and assure his defeat. But an easily won compromise will help him get re-elected. The central question in Obama's bid for a second term is: Will the issues that doomed his party in 2010 still be the key questions in 2012? If they are, we already know how the election will come out. If they are not, Obama can win. When the president says he does not ...
Obama to Egyptian Christians: EFF YOU!
Post Date: 2011-02-16 09:36:18 by no gnu taxes
2 Comments
Obama has not handled the Muslim Brotherhood issue to my liking. He wants them to be part of the new Egyptian government. But why did he not include the Coptic Christians, who are native Egyptians? Why did he not OBJECT the persecution of 8 million Coptic Christians (10 % of population) who fear now that they are in greater danger than before? Pray for Egypt! READER RESPONSE He doesn’t even know who these people are and is clueless about the whole MiddleEast. Now there’s “democracy” in Egypt; the military is running the country and that isn’t democracy it’s MARTIAL Law. He threw PresMubarak under the bus just like he did to everyone else. Now the ...
Obama Veto Threat Of GOP Spending Bill Ratchets Up Talk Of Government Shutdown
Post Date: 2011-02-16 00:06:39 by Murron
5 Comments
COLLISION COURSE Obama Veto Threat Of GOP Spending Bill Ratchets Up Talk Of Government Shutdown WASHINGTON -- Just hours after President Barack Obama insisted, in a rare news conference, that "there should be no reason at all for a government shut down" over budgetary debates, his office issued a veto threat to a Republican spending bill that ratcheted up talk of forthcoming government paralysis. In a statement of administration policy released Tuesday night, the Office of Management and Budget formally announced the president's threat to veto a continuing resolution bill introduced by House Republicans to keep the government funded past March 4. The line in the sand ...
'Minutemen' Vigilante Shawna Forde Guilty in Deadly Arizona Home Invasion
Post Date: 2011-02-15 17:34:05 by Brian S
2 Comments
Shawna Forde, a border vigilante, was convicted today of two counts of murder for orchestrating a home invasion that left a 9-year-old Arizona girl and her father dead. Prosecutors said Forde planned the home invasion to rob Raul "Junior" Flores, who she thought was a drug dealer, to fund her border watch group. There were rumors that Flores, 29, had a stash of $4,000 in cash in the house. Flores and his daughter Bresenia were both killed in the May 2009 attack at their Arivaca, Ariz., home. His wife, Gina Gonzalez, was shot three times, but survived by playing dead. In addition to the first-degree murder charges, Forde, 43, founder of Minutemen American Defense, was found ...
Muslim terrorist accused in soldier's death granted trial delay
Post Date: 2011-02-15 17:32:28 by Happy Quanzaa
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A judge agreed Tuesday to postpone a trial until July for a man who said his desire to avenge the death of Muslims at the hands of U.S. soldiers led him to kill a soldier at a military recruiting center in Arkansas. Abdulhakim Muhammad, 30, is charged with capital murder in the slaying of Army Pvt. William Long in June 2009, a killing that Muhammad said he planned to be the first in a series of attacks. Police arrested him before he could make it out of the city. Muhammad was to have been tried next week, but prosecutors didn't contest defense attorney Patrick Benca's request for more time to gather evidence, which would require overseas travel. Muhammad spent ...
George H.W. Bush Receives Medal of Freedom
Post Date: 2011-02-15 17:21:51 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama recognized a former president, a basketball legend and a civil rights hero Tuesday among the 15 recipients of the Medal of Freedom. During a ceremony at the White House, Obama said the recipients represent, "the best of who we are and who we aspire to be." The Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civilian honor, and is presented to people who have made important contributions to U.S. national security, world peace, culture or other significant public or private endeavors. Among the recipients honored Tuesday were former President George H.W. Bush, former basketball star Bill Russell, businessman Warren Buffett and civil rights ...
Haley Barbour Says He Won't Denounce Confederate License Plates
Post Date: 2011-02-15 17:17:33 by Brian S
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says he won't denounce a Southern heritage group's proposal for a state-issued license plate to honor Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Barbour is a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate. Questioned by reporters Tuesday in Jackson, Barbour said he doesn't think Mississippi legislators will approve the Forrest license plate proposed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The group wants the car tag in 2014 as part of a series of Civil War license plates. Mississippi NAACP president Derrick Johnson has called on Barbour to denounce the license plate idea. Asked ...
US Government Finally Declassifying Pentagon Papers
Post Date: 2011-02-15 17:14:00 by Brian S
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WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon Papers were splashed over U.S. newspapers 40 years ago for the whole world to read. Not much of a secret after that. Except to the U.S. government. The National Declassification Center of the National Archives is now working to declassify the full text of the papers, which lay out the government's history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. T he archives says the center also is declassifying documents on which the Pentagon Papers were based and investigative material about the 1971 leak of the papers by Daniel Ellsberg. The leak led to a major legal victory for press freedom when the Supreme Court upheld the right of newspapers to publish the leaked papers. ...
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