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Latest Articles: United States News
Constellation Energy Nuclear Project Snags
Post Date: 2010-10-09 22:04:45 by go65
1 Comments
Constellation Energy Group Inc. has pulled out of a government program essential to its plans to build a new nuclear reactor in Maryland, all but killing the project and further straining relations with its French partner, Electricité de France SA. The Baltimore power and utility company said early Saturday it won't move forward with an application for a federal loan guarantee, finding the government's terms "unworkable." "We no longer see a timely path to reaching a workable set of terms and conditions," Constellation said in a statement. Constellation has been developing the project planned for its Calvert Cliffsplant in Calvert County, Md., for the ...
Calif man admits illegally working as Yemeni agent
Post Date: 2010-10-09 21:36:32 by WhiteSands
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A California man has admitted to working illegally as a Yemeni agent. Amen Ahmed Ali of Bakersfield pleaded guilty Thursday to illegally exporting military equipment, possession of stolen U.S. property and conspiracy to act as an illegal agent for a foreign country. In his plea agreement, Ali admitted to working for the Yemeni government between 1997 and 2006 without notfiying the U.S. attorney general. Prosecutors say he shipped military equipment such as bulletproof vests, chemical protective suits and other equipment. Ali also bought and shipped off night-vision goggles, laptop computers and satellite phones sold to him by an undercover FBI agent posing as a U.S. Army soldier. Ali ...
Why is This GOP House Candidate Dressed as a Nazi?
Post Date: 2010-10-09 21:20:39 by go65
8 Comments
An election year already notable for its menagerie of extreme and unusual candidates can add another one: Rich Iott, the Republican nominee for Congress from Ohio's 9th District, and a Tea Party favorite, who for years donned a German Waffen SS uniform and participated in Nazi re-enactments. Rich Iott, second from right, in a Nazi SS Waffen uniform. Iott, whose district lies in Northwest Ohio, was involved with a group that calls itself Wiking, whose members are devoted to re-enacting the exploits of an actual Nazi division, the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, which fought mainly on the Eastern Front during World War II. Iott's participation in the Wiking group is not mentioned ...
Americans on a deadly pace in Mexico [ First Lady Said Mexico Still Safe ]
Post Date: 2010-10-09 19:02:08 by WhiteSands
3 Comments
Forty-eight Americans were killed in Mexico during the first six months of 2010 — a deadly pace that appears likely to exceed any previous year of homicides on record, according to the Houston Chronicle's analysis of the U.S. State Department's death registry. The tally doesn't include two Texans reported killed Sept. 30 in separate incidents in isolated areas of Tamaulipas, where the terrorist group known as the Zetas has been warring with their Gulf Cartel rivals in communities all along the Southeast Texas border. A college freshman from Brownsville, Jonathon William Torres Cazares, was shot and killed after authorities say his public bus got hijacked on a highway in ...
Projected Republican Gains Approach 50 House Seats
Post Date: 2010-10-09 18:24:11 by WhiteSands
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It has become fashionable to speak of a Democratic comeback, but we’re not really seeing one in our forecasting models. Certainly there are some individual races — particularly on the East and West Coasts, as well as some gubernatorial contests outside these regions — that look better for Democrats than they did a few weeks ago. But we’re showing Republicans gaining ground where they need to gain it to maintain decent chances of taking over the Senate. We also show improvement for them in the House forecast this week. Our model now estimates that the Republicans have a 72 percent chance of taking over the House, up from 67 percent last week. Moreover, they have nearly ...
U.S. Won’t Recover Lost Jobs Until March 2020 At Current Pace [The U.S. economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, far worse than expectations]
Post Date: 2010-10-09 18:05:08 by WhiteSands
1 Comments
The U.S. economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, far worse than expectations for no change in employment. More Census-related temp jobs ended, as expected, but state and local governments slashed staff far more than predicted. So far in 2010, the U.S. has added just 613,000 jobs — for a monthly average of 68,111. Employment bottomed in December 2009 at 129.588 million — two years after peaking at 137.951 million. At this year’s pace, the U.S. won’t recoup all those 8.36 million lost jobs* until March 2020 — 147 months after the December 2007 high. That would obliterate the old post-World War II record of 47 months set in the wake of the 2001 recession. The ...
Obama Administration Grants Health Care Waivers to Big Companies, Unions
Post Date: 2010-10-09 17:55:00 by WhiteSands
1 Comments
McDonalds got a break Thursday -- as did the 351,000 members of the United Federation of Teachers -- when the federal government gave waivers to high-profile companies and organizations letting them opt out of a key mandate in the new health care law. The one-year waiver to 30 employers, insurers and union plans, covers about 1 million people and allows the groups to maintain minimal coverage below the new law's standards. Administration officials defend the move as a means to protect lower wage workers wanting coverage. It makes sure a new class of of uninsured Americans is not created before other options are available. "The waivers are about ensuring and protecting the ...
Waivers reflect growing backlash to ‘Obamacare'
Post Date: 2010-10-09 16:22:19 by WhiteSands
2 Comments
According to a recent poll, 56 percent of voters in key battleground districts want to repeal “Obamacare.” That includes 49 percent of independents, 23 percent of Democrats and, presumably, key inhabitants of the White House. Why else would the Obama administration have just exempted 30 companies from complying with a law the president promised would allow everyone to keep their health care plan? OK, I'm joking. Sort of. Obama probably doesn't want to repeal his signature legislative achievement; a one-year waiver would simply delay its impact on those companies' nearly 1 million workers until well after the November elections. Even so, this week's tragicomic ...
White House defends waivers from new health law
Post Date: 2010-10-09 16:15:56 by WhiteSands
1 Comments
The White House says it's looking out for consumers in waiving a provision of the new health care law for some employers. Press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked Thursday about waivers given to 30 companies, including Jack in the Box and Cigna. The companies won't be required for now to comply with a new rule that lifts annual caps on benefits. Gibbs says the waivers are meant to allow the companies to keep providing insurance to workers until 2014, when the health care law fully kicks in. The insurance plans in question are typically low-cost, but also provide limited benefits. Once the health law takes effect fully, workers should have a wider range of options. But until then ...
California’s Rogue Air Resources Board… Anti-California, Anti-Business, Anti-American.
Post Date: 2010-10-09 13:23:42 by Skip MacLure
19 Comments
Brian Sussman, KSFO’s morning anchor here in the San Francisco Bay Area, variously known as Babylon-by-the-Bay and the belly of the liberal beast, really went on a tear over the California Air Resources Board. I can’t repeat it here, or even much of it, because I was so transfixed when I heard it that I didn’t take notes. It’s worth listening to and if you go to Brian’s section on KSFO’s website, it is there to listen to on demand. Alternatively, click on this link to hear that portion of the show: Brian Sussman, Oct. 8, 6-7am. Between the Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board and its distaff offspring here in the nine-county Bay ...
This is so Gay!
Post Date: 2010-10-09 08:46:30 by A K A Stone
2 Comments
2ND UPDATE 10:40 AM: In Hollywood, so the saying goes, you can know that someone is lying because their lips are moving. Universal has now told me twice this morning that it sent an advance copy of the trailer for director Ron Howard's Vince Vaughn-starring comedy The Dilemma to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for vetting, claiming the organization didn't object to it. But GLAAD just issued a news release strenuously disputing that: "Last month, Universal shared a link to the trailer for the film The Dilemma with GLAAD. After reviewing, GLAAD called on Universal to remove the scene where the word ‘gay’ was used as a pejorative from the trailer. ...
Ozzie Osbourne Rips Phelps Clan for Appropriating His Song
Post Date: 2010-10-08 19:56:15 by Ferret Mike
10 Comments
Ozzy Osbourne Ozzy Osbourne expressed his displeasure with an anti-gay church that demonstrates outside of the funerals of fallen U. S. soldiers after they picketed the funeral of a fellow musician, Ronnie James Dio. Osbourne and Dio had both belonged to the group Black Sabbath. The Westboro Baptist Church earned Osborne’s wrath anew after singing his song "Crazy Train" on the steps before the U.S, Supreme Court. The church has a case before the court, stemming from a street preaching action in which Westboro picketed the funeral of a U.S. servicemember killed in action in Iraq. The father of the fallen soldier, Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, sued Westboro for ...
Teachers union gets a pass on ObamaCare rule
Post Date: 2010-10-08 19:01:41 by WhiteSands
3 Comments
The United Federation of Teachers -- one of President Obama's key political backers -- is the biggest beneficiary of a White House sweetheart deal that will exempt certain outfits from complying with new health-care rules, officials revealed yesterday. The quietly approved federal waivers for 30 companies, health insurers, unions and other groups across the country means the UFT doesn't have to gradually phase out caps on annual health coverage like everyone else. The UFT was concerned that could have been a major financial hit on the union. The one-year waiver, approved last month by the Department of Health and Human Services, covers all 351,000 members of the UFT's ...
It is time for Obama to switch from hope to fear
Post Date: 2010-10-08 18:59:12 by Rudgear
11 Comments
Sarah Palin, America’s most high-profile conservative, attracted some opprobrium earlier this year when she posed the following rhetorical question to Barack Obama’s supporters: “How’s that hopey-changey thing working out for ya?” In addition to the sarcasm, opposing hope is rarely an advisable path to American hearts. Such traits may explain why Ms Palin got a 22 per cent approval rating in a recent CBS poll. Yet, the more Mr Obama soldiers on, the clearer it is that Ms Palin’s scorn contained an authentic sting. Having been elected partly on the basis of hope, Mr Obama may have to put the accent on fear in 2012 if he wants to be re-elected – fear, that ...
Stimulating Stuff!
Post Date: 2010-10-08 18:23:01 by Skip MacLure
2 Comments
Some years ago, there was a television ad for a well-known brand of Dutch beer that claimed it “reached parts other beers cannot reach”. It could be a good election slogan for the Democrats. Historically, the party has appealed to the dead voter, with great numbers of the deceased temporarily slipping out of the sarcophagus to visit the polling place. One would think that they would have had enough of politics while in the mortal world. Perhaps they can see a kindred spirit in the Democrats, the difference being that they refuse to lie down despite being dead in the water. In gratitude for this electoral service, the government has given them $18 million of stimulus money, with ...
O'Donnell Won't Say Whether Sarah Palin Is Ready For Presidency
Post Date: 2010-10-08 17:04:27 by go65
4 Comments
Alaska Republican Senate hopeful Joe Miller already got into a heap of trouble this week for not going to bat for Sarah Palin. And now Palin's other protégé, Christine O'Donnell, has also refused to answer, when asked, whether Palin is qualified to be president. The fateful moment came deep in an interview with CNN yesterday. "Is Sarah Palin qualified to be president?" ""Is she running for president?" O'Donnell asked back. "Again, hypothetical." Oh snap. When Miller slipped up this week, he got an angry email from would-be first dude Todd Palin, and reluctantly got back on point. It's still unclear whether the Palins ...
Economy Sheds 95,000 Jobs; Rate at 9.6% as Easing Looms [ unexpectedly shed jobs ]
Post Date: 2010-10-08 16:31:29 by WhiteSands
5 Comments
The U.S. economy unexpectedly shed jobs in September for a fourth straight month as government payrolls fell and private hiring was less than expected, hardening expectations of further Federal Reserve action to spur the recovery. Nonfarm payrolls dropped 95,000, the Labor Department said on Friday. Private employment, a better gauge of labor market health, increased 64,000 after rising 93,000 in August. A total of 77,000 temporary jobs for the decennial census were terminated last month. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected overall payrolls would be unchanged, with private-sector hiring gaining 75,000. The government revised data for July and August to show 15,000 more jobs lost that ...
Obama transition adviser undermined Fannie Mae oversight as lobbyist
Post Date: 2010-10-08 16:09:17 by WhiteSands
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Thomas Donilon, named by Barack Obama as an adviser to his transition team, oversaw lobbyist efforts to undermine OFHEO’s regulatory efforts over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ABC News reports on Donilon’s history and his participation in painting a much rosier picture than reality provided for Fannie Mae’s board. The Obama rebuttal will sound familiar to those who recall Jim Johnson’s involvement with Obama’s campaign: One of Obama’s top transition team members, Thomas Donilon, oversaw an aggressive, backdoor lobbying campaign by mortgage giant Fannie Mae to undermine the credibility of a probe into the firm’s accounting irregularities, according to a 2006 ...
White House exodus continues as National Security Adviser resigns
Post Date: 2010-10-08 16:02:38 by WhiteSands
3 Comments
The exodus of senior aides from the White House continued as Gen James Jones, Barack Obama’s head of National Security, resigned. His departure, which comes a week after Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff, resigned, removes one of the few senior officials not belonging to the US president’s coterie of long-time advisers. Brought in originally for his vast experience and independent voice, it had been clear for some time that the former Nato supreme commander had failed to gel with the president’s inner circle. Gen Jones is being replaced by one of those close aides, his former deputy Thomas Donilon. Announcing the change in the White House Rose Garden, Mr Obama paid tribute ...
Democrats’ “Blame Bush” and “Go Forward, Not Back” Message Driving Voters to GOP (They Aren't Buying The Bullshit Any More)
Post Date: 2010-10-08 15:49:35 by no gnu taxes
2 Comments
The White House has no plans to give up on its blame-Bush strategy. A White House adviser says that George W. Bush and his policies created “the hole we’re in,” and President Obama will keep reminding the country of the economic “mess” he inherited.” — US News & World Report, February 9, 2010 “We can go backward, or we can keep moving forward. And I don’t know about you, but I want to move forward.” — Barack Obama, June 2, 2010 Forward not backward: That’s the mantra President Obama wants to drill into voters’ heads between now and November. – ABC News, July 9, 2010 Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg has been ...
Feds Issue New Subpoenas in John Edwards' Sex Scandal Investigation
Post Date: 2010-10-08 15:44:57 by WhiteSands
1 Comments
An investigation into whether John Edwards illegally funneled funds from his presidential campaign to cover up an affair with a staffer who bore his love child intensified this week, as federal investigators subpoenaed a host of new witnesses to appear before a grand jury, sources close to the investigation say. The grand jury in Raleigh, North Carolina has been investigating Edwards, accused of providing a love nest for mistress Rielle Hunter for over a year. At the conclusion of an initial investigation into whether Edwards used contributions to hide away Hunter and staffer Andrew Young, Justice Department officials in Washington instructed local investigators to keep digging, ...
Nevada Senate hopeful Sharron Angle: Muslim law takes hold in Dearborn, other U.S. cities Read more: Nevada Senate hopeful Sharron Angle: Muslim law takes hold in Dearborn, other U.S. cities [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2010-10-08 15:44:21 by go65
116 Comments
LAS VEGAS — U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle told a crowd of supporters that the country needs to address a “militant terrorist situation” that has allowed Islamic religious law to take hold in some American cities. Her comments came at a rally of tea party supporters in the Nevada resort town of Mesquite last week after the candidate was asked about Muslims angling to take over the country, and marked the latest of several controversial remarks by the Nevada Republican. In a recording of the rally provided to the Associated Press by the Mesquite Local News, a man is heard asking Angle : “I keep hearing about Muslims wanting to take over the United States ... on a TV ...
Overestimate fueled state's landmark diesel law [ Overestimated the pop by 340% ]
Post Date: 2010-10-08 15:42:30 by WhiteSands
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California grossly miscalculated pollution levels in a scientific analysis used to toughen the state's clean-air standards, and scientists have spent the past several months revising data and planning a significant weakening of the landmark regulation, The Chronicle has found. The pollution estimate in question was too high - by 340 percent, according to the California Air Resources Board, the state agency charged with researching and adopting air quality standards. The estimate was a key part in the creation of a regulation adopted by the Air Resources Board in 2007, a rule that forces businesses to cut diesel emissions by replacing or making costly upgrades to heavy-duty, ...
CNN Poll: Was Bush better president than Obama? [ 45 to 47 percent ]
Post Date: 2010-10-08 15:33:43 by WhiteSands
6 Comments
(CNN) - Americans are divided over whether President Barack Obama or his predecessor has performed better in the White House, according to a new national poll. And a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday also indicates in the battle for Congress, Republicans hold large advantages over the Democrats among independents, men and blue-collar whites. The poll also indicates that Republicans are much more enthusiastic than Democrats to vote. By 47 to 45 percent, Americans say Obama is a better president than George W. Bush. But that two point margin is down from a 23 point advantage one year ago. "Democrats may want to think twice about bringing up former President ...
I really miss President Bush
Post Date: 2010-10-08 14:55:08 by no gnu taxes
2 Comments
Here’s what I hate: When reality overtakes your favorite theory and you look like a blithering moron. It happens to me with some regularity, so I know what I’m talking about. Remember back in 2008 when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama couldn’t wait to answer questions during debates so they could trash George W.? Remember how we were told that once W. was out and Obama was in that the world would be so relieved that we would all be able to live in peace and harm-oh-nee? rich galen logo.jpg That dreaded reality. Barack Obama was going to close Guantanamo. Remember? Still open. Barack Obama was going to change that stupid DHC system of color codes. Remember? Color codes ...
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