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Attorney General Eric Holder apparently has enough " gas left in the tank ." He's staying in his position as the head of the Department of Justice for Obama's second term. President Obama is holding on to Eric Holder as the nation’s top law-enforcement official, The Post has learned. The newly re-elected president asked his controversial attorney general to stay for the second term, and Holder has agreed despite enduring a firestorm of criticism from Republican lawmakers. “I don’t know if everyone in the White House wants him [Holder] to stay, but the important guy does, and that’s all that...

A U.N. official said Libya's new rulers had found uranium yellowcake, partly refined uranium ore, that was left over from the former regime's nuclear program, in a southern area. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said Thursday the material was "slightly radioactive" but posed no immediate danger. He didn't know how much had been found. British newspaper The Telegraph reported that at least 10,000 drums were found at the stockpile but they haven't been examined. The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that yellowcake is stored in drums at a...

Yesterday, Dianne Feinstein threatened to subpoena the CIA over a trip report from David Petraeus that he allegedly wrote after a personal trip to Benghazi after the terrorist attack that killed four Americans. Today, ABC News reports that Petraeus' visit to Libya was no mere observational tour. The then-Director of Central Intelligence conducted his own interviews with personnel on the ground in Libya in preparation for testimony that has now been cancelled: In late October, Petraeus traveled to Libya to conduct his own review of the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.While in Tripoli, he...

(I apologize if this has already been posted. I can't get the search function to work.) During an interview last week with Democracy Now, author and activist Cornel West offered harsh criticism of President Barack Obama, calling him a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface” and not someone who is actually looking out for the best interests of the impoverished. The prominent social critic also lashed out at black MSNBC personalities, accusing them of “selling their souls” in support of a president who has been anything but progressive. “I think that it’s morally obscene and spiritually profane to spend $6 billion on...

I've spoken to a U.S. official familiar with the investigation who wasn't willing to be described with any more specificity than that. The short version of the official's comments: General Allen did nothing wrong. As best I can tell, the official is honestly conveying what he or she believes to be true, but I have no idea if he or she is correct. I pass along the comments despite my general aversion to anonymous sourcing because, if nothing else, they provide some potentially significant leads for others reporters to follow as this story advances. According to this official: Although General...

The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index declined by 5.4 points, or 10%, in November, posting 48.6 vs. 54 in October. The index is 0.4 points above its 12-month average of 48.2, 4.2 points above its reading of 44.4 in December 2007 when the economy entered into the recession, and 1.3 points below its all-time average of 49.9. Note: Index readings above 50 indicate optimism; below 50 indicate pessimism. The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index has a good track record of foreshadowing the confidence indicators put out later each month by the University of Michigan and The Conference Board. IBD/TIPP conducted the national...

After a week of election postmortems, one thing is clear: Mitt Romney’s failure to understand America’s changing demographics led to his undoing. But there was another killer: Geography. Deep blue cities and their inner suburbs came out for Barack Obama, pulling the president through in battleground states like Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, and Florida. And they put him so far ahead in places like Wisconsin, Nevada, and Pennsylvania that Romney never really had a chance (not to mention his home base of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, which went 78 percent for the president). Of course, this isn't a new phenomenon. In 2008,...

The futures don’t look so hot this morning before the opening bell. As of 8:50 a.m. EST, Dow futures are down nearly 70 points. S&P and NASDAQ futures look pretty much as bad, down nearly 9 and 20 points respectively. While yesterday’s action seemed relatively benign, it wasn’t, as lots of sectors were getting hammered but, due to low semi-holiday volume, this wasn’t readily apparent. Our utilities got hit so hard we had to exit via percentage stops, and we’ll probably need to pare back what energy and banking issues we still have today. The “fiscal cliff” again is the...

Comments about TCM movie "Gabriel Over the White House" missed the real core issue: totalitarian dictatorship. William Randolph] Hearst believed that the country needed a dictator, but he wasn't sure FDR knew how to fill the role.

If doubts lingered about a major shift in supercomputer technology, the latest ranking Monday of the 500 largest scientific systems should dispel them–as well as any fears that China might claim a lead in the field anytime soon.The latest Top500 list–compiled twice a year based on results of standard speed tests–anoints a machine called Titan at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as the speediest on the planet. This wasn’t too much of a surprise based on the lab’s recent comments about the system.But the Titan’s ascendance nevertheless is a milestone for efforts to popularize system designs that use two varieties of...

Moments ago the MTS [Monthly Treasury Statement] released the final October budget report. It was not pretty, although those who read our report on how much debt was added - $195 billion to be precise - in the first month of the 2013 Fiscal Year will know where this is going. The US budget deficit was expected to soar after the September surplus of $75 billion, driven entirely by calendar shifts and pre-election propaganda, to -$113 billion. That was optimistic: the total amount of overspending in October was $120 billion. What is distressing is that this was well above the...

The more than 25,000 Sunshine Patriots who signed the petition to have Texas secede from the United States might get a response from the White House. Yahoo News: ***** Looks like the Obama administration may have to respond to a petition seeking the green light for Texas to secede from the United States-one of 20 such requests filed on the official White House website since Election Day. At the time of the writing of this post, the Texas secession petition had garnered 25,318 signatures-above the White House's self-imposed rules for requiring a reply. (A "Recount the election!" petition filed Nov....

The budget deficit rose in October, the first month of fiscal year 2013, as looming negotiations over expiring tax cuts and imminent spending reductions dominated the post-election political landscape. The Treasury said on Tuesday the October deficit was $120 billion, larger than economist forecasts for a $114 billion gap and up from $98 billion in October of 2011.Growth in expenditures outpaced rising receipts, deepening the deficit. Outlays grew to $304 billion from around $262 billion in the same month last year while receipts rose to $184 billion from $163 billion.Following President Barack Obama's election to a second term last week,...

The inspector general’s report found that [Gen. William ‘‘Kip’’] Ward used military vehicles to shuttle his wife on shopping trips and to a spa and billed the government for a refueling stop overnight in Bermuda, where the couple stayed in a $750 suite. The report detailed lengthy stays at lavish hotels for Ward, his wife and his staff members, and the use of five-vehicle motorcades when he traveled to Washington. It also said Ward and his wife, Joyce, accepted dinner and Broadway show tickets from a government contractor during a trip during which he went backstage to meet actor Denzel...

On November 6, the citizens of the United States re-elected perhaps the most anti-Catholic president in its history to a second term.Even sadder, according to exit polls a majority of Catholics voted in his favor, even after they theoretically had imbibed the bishops’ message, conveyed from the pulpit and in various other media, that no Catholic should vote for a candidate who favors abortion rights and single sex marriage and does not support religious liberty.What is going on here? Clearly, to borrow a line from the film “Cool Hand Luke,” “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”Simply put,...

After Romney's unfortunate, but all too predictable loss, we see the weaker sisters of the GOP now pushing for "moderation." To cut back on the so-called "social issues." They want us to "moderate" our positions on God, Life, Family, Country, Borders, Guns, Constitution and Liberty. They feel we must pander to the godless liberals to get votes. Got news for them. Not only, no, but hell NO! That's exactly the wrong formula. We cannot and do not want to try to out pander the socialist democrats. That's a losing proposition from the git go. That's exactly why they lost with...

Glens Falls Hospital announced Tuesday morning it is eliminating 29 jobs and reducing five other employees to part-time status, as part of a cost-reduction program being blamed on “declining reimbursement levels and other economic challenges.” “We deeply regret the pain and anguish this difficult decision will cause for so many of our co-workers, but sustaining the fiscal health of Glens Falls Hospital so it can and will continue to ensure quality health care for the southeastern Adirondack region is our paramount responsibility,” said Glens Falls Hospital President and CEO David Kruczlnicki, in a prepared statement. Tuesday’s announcement comes less than...

I remember how JFK was assassinated. Then I remember how the US went off the Silver System in 1964 with LBJ. I had a friend who was a Freemason who claimed that at times that the "powers that be" want to be about mischief, they create a diversion. Is this diversion meant to get people not to focus on: election fraud, Bengazi-gate, and the looming fiscal cliff. It is clear that the important Central Banks of Europe are controlled by a few families. And the United States has a central bank thanks to the monster of Jekyll Island, Georgia. Conservatives...

The case of Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash is, as sex scandals sometimes are, poised on the cusp of legally actionable and none of our damn business. (See also Petraeus, David, et al.) Clash, 52, acknowledges having had a relationship with a young man, now 24, while he was over the age of consent. His accuser says it began when he was 16. Clash has taken a leave of absence from Sesame Street while responding to the allegation. If his lover was under the age of consent, that’s a matter for the law. If he was over—whatever you personally think of...

By MANU RAJU 11/13/12 11:23 AM EST It is "absolutely imperative" that Gen. David Petraeus testify about what went wrong in Libya, even as he reels from his sex scandal roiling the intelligence community, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said Tuesday. "I will say that I think it's absolutely imperative that Gen. Petraeus come and testify," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the committee's ranking member, told reporters. "He was CIA director at the time of attack. He visited Libya at the time of attack. He has a great deal of information that we need...