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A suspicious package at the mail center of an Illinois Air Force base prompted the evacuation of several buildings, officials said Wednesday, and three people were taken to a hospital. The report of the package at Scott Air Force Base came in at 9:26 a.m. (10:26 a.m. ET), said Lt. Benjamin Garland, base spokesman. The building containing the mail center was evacuated, along with surrounding buildings (Snip) The three people were taken to the hospital as a result of possible chemical exposure, said another base spokesman, Thomas Kistler. Thirteen people were being decontaminated on the scene as a precaution, Garland

With all of the spotlights on the high-stakes debt maneuverings by President Obama and Speaker John Boehner the last few days, few people noticed what Vermont's Sen. Bernie Sanders said: "I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition." This is political treason 469 days before a presidential election. Now, comes a new ABC News/Washington Post poll with a whole harvest of revelations, among them, strong indications that Obama's liberal base is starting to crumble. Among the nuggets: Despite those hundreds of billions of blown stimulus dollars and almost as many upturn promises from...

RUSH: I asked the question last hour: "Where in the world are the Republicans feeling this pressure to do a deal with Obama? Where is the pressure to cave to Obama on raising the debt ceiling? Where's the pressure coming from?" P at Buchanan has the answer in a recent post at the Drudge Report. "By refusing to accept..." By the way, the title of his piece is: "An Establishment in Panic -- By refusing to accept tax increases in a deal to raise the debt ceiling, Republicans are behaving like 'fanatics,' writes David Brooks of The New York Times,"...

Obama reaches out to liberal groups to shore up Democratic base after tax dealBy Peter Wallsten Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 19, 2010; 8:01 PM In the wake of President Obama's tax-cut deal with Republicans, the White House is moving quickly to mend its strained relationship with the Democratic base, reassuring liberal groups, black leaders and labor union officials who opposed the tax compromise that Obama has not abandoned them. On Friday morning, hours before the president signed into law the $858 billion package extending George W. Bush-era tax cuts as well as jobless benefits, White House aides e-mailed...

Rachel Maddow’s Anger At U.S. Senate: ‘Game Over’ For Support From Obama Base?by Colby Hall | 10:22 am, December 17th, 2010 Last night the U.S. Senate voted on a bill that will extend the current Tax Cuts first put into place by President Bush after Senator Harry Reid appeared to capitulate to the threat of a Republican filibuster. This appeared to frustrate, if not anger MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last night, and not only because it messed up the rundown of her show. It understandably irked the self-described progressive because it was just another example of, as she put it, “this...

Obama’s job approval rating hits a new lowBy Holly Bailey Mon Dec 13, 10:44 am ET Is President Obama in serious danger of losing re-election in 2012? A new McClatchy/Marist Poll released over the weekend found Obama's job approval rating at just 42 percent — the lowest number of his presidency. One reason Obama's numbers have taken a turn for the worse: The president has lost ground with Democrats in recent weeks. According to the poll, 74 percent of Democrats approve of the job Obama is doing — a sign that he remains enormously popular with his base. But that...

Dean tells AP Obama must reclaim progressive baseBy Beth Fouhy, Associated Press Tue Nov 30, 2:47 pm ET NEW YORK – Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has a message for President Barack Obama: Reclaim progressive voters or risk both re-election and the future of the Democratic Party for years to come. **SNIP** He dismissed Obama's efforts to court conservatives as "a waste of time" even as the president was meeting with Republican congressional leaders at the White House for the first time since the midterm elections. Dean noted that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to make Obama a...

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has overseen the signing of an amendment to a US-Polish agreement on the basing of missile interceptors in Poland. Repeating a theme the Russians have consistently rejected, Mrs Clinton said Moscow has nothing to fear from a Nato-endorsed missile defence system based in Europe because it will be aimed at Iran's missile arsenal. "This is a purely defensive system," she said, with her Polish counterpart, Radek Sikorski, at her side. "It does not threaten Russia." Moscow views the project as a potential threat to its own missile arsenal. Mr Sikorski said his country fully...

Japan's parliament elected outspoken populist Naoto Kan as prime minister Friday, handing the political veteran the immediate task of rallying his party and reclaiming its mandate for change before elections next month. Kan succeeds Yukio Hatoyama, who stepped down Wednesday after squandering the public's high hopes with broken campaign promises, including moving a U.S. Marine base off Okinawa island, and financial scandals.

The United States and Japan agreed yesterday to relocate a controversial U.S. air base to a less densely populated area on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The future of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma had been a subject of intense political debate in Japan that led to the possibility of the base being moved off the island entirely, despite a 2006 agreement to relocate it on Okinawa. Talks between Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates for the United States and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa for Japan addressed a range...

TOKYO, June 1 (UPI) -- Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced his decision to step down Wednesday after only eight months in office. The leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, which he helped come to power last September after the August elections, announced his decision at a general assembly of party lawmakers, Kyodo News reported. The prime minister's ruling coalition has seen its public approval ratings plunge in recent months. Things came to a head after the Social Democratic Party, a coalition partner, decided to leave over the government's accord allowing the U.S. Marine base's air station to...

TOKYO - Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama has said he intends to resign, a media report said Wednesday. Public broadcaster NHK said that Hatoyama told his party executives he intended to step down over his broken campaign promise to move a U.S. Marine base off the southern island of Okinawa.

Japan's base dispute with America Futenma farce There is little to cheer in a shoddily executed about-face on Okinawa May 6th 2010 | TOKYO | From The Economist print edition Hatoyama loses another future voter YUKIO HATOYAMA, Japan’s leader, does not exude political gravitas. So it was dispiritingly in-character that when he made an announcement on May 4th that could make or break his premiership, he did so on a national holiday, speaking unpersuasively to the very people most likely to disapprove of what he said. The bombshell he dropped on his first visit as prime minister to the island...

I have just watched the special video on YouTube of a speech given by President Barak Obama, making another campaign speech not only for a young Democratic canidate by the name of Claudia Schulz. I SEE signs of desperation on the part of President Obama, KNOWING FULL WELL that November 2010 is SHAPING UP to be a replay of one November “1994″.

Russia to help Vietnam build submarine base Tuoi Tre Russia will provide technical assistance to build a base for the six diesel-electric Kilo-class submarines Vietnam has ordered, the Voice of Russia quoted Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying Thursday. Russia would also help Vietnam build a repair dockyard for Russian ships, he said after returning from a three-day trip to Hanoi March 25. He pledged Russian support to modernize Vietnam’s Air Force, including multibillion-dollar contracts for military equipment, he told the radio station. Military cooperation between Moscow and Hanoi has increased in recent years along with Vietnam's arms purchases from...

Link only - Obama's liberal base 'disengaged'

3/2/2010 - HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFNS) -- Holloman Air Force Base Airmen began the movement of approximately 150 truckloads of assets that will directly support joint and coalition forces in Afghanistan Feb. 24 here. Members of the 49th Materiel Maintenance Group, the Air Force's only Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resources base, have been working countless hours to prepare the equipment for movement since they were notified of the tasking in December 2009. BEAR base is supplying 480,000 square feet of AM-2 matting that will be used to expand the expeditionary aircraft operations throughout Afghanistan. The amount of AM-2 matting...

Courtesy UK Ministry of DefenceHaving launched an airborne assault into a Taliban-controlled area, Royal Welsh and Afghan soldiers have held shuras with the local population and set up a new patrol base to ensure enduring security. This particular offensive by soldiers from Fire Support Company, 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh (1 Royal Welsh), and their partner troops from the Afghan National Army, was one of many which took place this weekend as part of Operation MOSHTARAK.The soldiers from Fire Support Company, 1 Royal Welsh, launched an airborne assault on Saturday morning from Camp Bastion, landing in three waves of...

Here is video of Michael Goldfarb, of The Weekly Standard, talking with Glenn Beck yesterday about a source who told him that President Obama's team has threatened Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska to get him to support the Senate Health Care Bill. Goldfarb said a source told him they threatened to put Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska on the Base closing review list if Nelson does not support ObamaCare. Twenty GOP Senators are now reportedly calling for an investigation into the threat. Goldfarb says it is not a credible threat, and shows the White House does not even...

A forklift pushes the remains of several Hesco barriers onto the back of a 7-ton truck aboard Al Asad Air Base, Nov. 20. The base-wide cleanup effort is dubbed “Operation Blue Spoon,” and the goal is for Marines with Multi National Force - West to leave the base in good order as they wind down their role in Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Marine Corps photograph by Cpl. Meg Murray. AL ASAD AIR BASE — As the clouds and drizzle of the rainy winter season roll into Iraq, many Marines with Multi National Force - West are rolling out. The gradual...