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We have no choice! Let them come over to our side, it is futile to get these twits to do the right thing, they are entrenched, the don't give a wit about the future of the country, Now is the time for a third party, all arguments against are nothing but whistling past the graveyard! The GOP is just a faction of the DNC but the DNC has balls!

Yes and no. Yes, as in, it is possible, and no, as in, it’s not normal in the soul sense. Of course, one immediately thinks of famous, mysteriously married, bi-partisan power-couples such as top republican consultant Mary Matalin and top democrat strategist James Carville. They’ve been happily wedded for twenty years. Amazingly, they actually met (in 1991) while each was about to be hired to manage opposing presidential campaigns; Matalin for George H. W. Bush, and Carville for Bill Clinton. They claim publicly that they don’t talk politics at home. When they appear on TV together, it’s actually pretty amusing...

Twofer: MAIG Mayors going to prison (Don’t drop the soap, boys) October 15, 2013 It’s been a busy week for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) group of gun-grabbing mayors. First up, Filthy Filner, the San Diego Mayor who had a reputation for sexually harassing lots of lots of ladies, pled guilty to some reduced charges. Rumor had it his plea was to avoid convictions with the word “sexual” in them.

any suggestions? my idea was to use Dem quotes, who made the quote, where and the date on page one and fun debt facts on the reverse side. put your suggestions and fun facts below...no internet links please-this is for print only . I plan to leave them at places where people sit alone and think- bathrooms, bus stops, etc.

Britain has relaxed stringent rules for Chinese banks willing to set up in London. Beijing in turn opened up its markets to British-based investors, marking the latest move to establish the yuan as one of the world’s key currencies. “A great nation like China should have a global currency,” said UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, during his official five day visit to China. And the UK is gladly willing to contribute “through the international center of finance: London”. Under the agreed pilot program, China sanctioned London-based investors to buy up to 80 billion yuan ($13.1 billion) of stocks,...

The Netherlands is seeking answers from Russia after a Dutch diplomat was beaten by unidentified assailants in his apartment in Moscow. The diplomat — identified by Russian media as Onno Elderenbosch, deputy chief of the Dutch embassy in Moscow — was returning home on Tuesday when he saw that the elevator in his building was out of order, Life News reported. After walking up to his fourth-floor apartment, he spotted two men dressed as electricians who were working on a fuse box. The men told him that the electricity seemed to be out in the whole building and said that...

China has seen a surge in the number of lawsuits against government agencies for their failure to disclose information, according to a report released Tuesday. Administrative cases about government information disclosure in Beijing increased to 551 in 2012 from 10 in 2008 when a regulation came into force, said the report, adding similar growth occurred in other Chinese cities. The report was carried out by the center for public participation studies at Peking University and was based on research in cities including Beijing, Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong Province and Cangzhou in northern China's Hebei Province. The surge in the...

London mayor Boris Johnson rides the Beijing subway Line 1 on Tuesday, October 15, 2013. [Photo: CFP]

Despite the rise in China's consumer prices to a seven-month high in September, economists say inflation doesn't pose a risk for the world's second-largest economy. The CPI rose 3.1 percent in September, well above expectations for a 2.8 percent rise. The outlook for China's economy was called into question again this weekend after trade data showed exports unexpectedly contracted by 0.3 percent in September. Macro-economic data due out on October 18th, including third quarter GDP and industrial production, will provide further insights into the health of the economy.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani super model Fehmina Chaudhry, who recently came from Singapore, has been found dead in a ditch from Bara Kahu area Islamabad on Monday. The 27-year-old model and beauty queen went missing last Thursday while visiting Islamabad to buy property, police said. ASP Yasir Afridi said the dead body of a woman has been identified as Fehmina Chaudhry, who was also a mother of two and was a successful model in Singapore with numerous awards on her credit. Fehmina, a Singapore-based model originally from the Pakistani port city of Karachi, was settled in Singapore and wanted to open a...

TOKYO - A senior Chinese government official has secretly visited Japan for talks with Japanese officials aimed at improving bilateral relations damaged by an ongoing territorial row, reports said Tuesday. The talks involving a high-ranking official from the Chinese foreign ministry's Asian division were thought to have been held in early October, Japanese news agency Jiji Press reported from Beijing quoting Chinese government sources. A high-ranking official from the Japanese foreign ministry attended the meeting, the report said. A Japanese foreign ministry official declined comment on the content of the report, saying: "Japan and China have been making various exchanges...

Only two and a half hours away from the business hub of Shanghai is an outlet from the urban pressure. Naked Stables Private Reserve is set in a valley in the rolling Moganshan (“Mount Mogan”) area of Zhejiang Province that was a getaway for expats before China’s Communist revolution. Today the region illustrates how well-off Chinese themselves enjoy the good life. A quirky blend of kid- and eco-friendliness and Chinese-African themes yields a boutique resort that doesn’t need an internationally known brand name such as Aman or Banyan Tree. “There is a shift in toward lifestyle spending in China, but...

China has sealed a deal with the U.K. allowing investors around the world to trade directly in Chinese shares and bonds through London's banks and financial institutions. The agreement is the first of its kind in the western world and will allow as much as 80 billion yuan ($13 billion) to be invested in Chinese securities via approved London institutions. Previously, foreigners could only make these kinds of investments through Hong Kong, where a similar arrangement allows investors to buy up to 270 billion yuan ($44 billion) in securities in mainland China. The agreement should shore up London's dominant role...

The Chinese sure are doing a lot of worrying these days about the stalemate in Washington. Li Keqiang, China’s Premier, told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that he was watching the tussle over raising the government’s debt ceiling with “great attention” in a meeting last week. He has good reason to be concerned. With a stash of nearly $1.3 trillion in Treasury securities, China is the world’s largest foreign owner of U.S. government debt. If the U.S. Congress fails to lift the ceiling to allow the government to borrow more by Thursday, Washington may not have enough money to...

Ever since China emerged as the world’s rising economic power, Western governments have been wrestling with how to approach the last major state on earth still ruled by a Communist party. George Osborne and Boris Johnson, visiting the People’s Republic this week, have demonstrated their answer: forget about political issues, let alone human rights, and go for the money. By all means, is their clear message, increase your already extensive investments in our country. It is an approach that Beijing is very much in favour of, and the Osborne-Johnson trip has been crammed with smiling photo opportunities and expressions of...

North Korea has drastically increased the import of luxury items under the rule of new leader Kim Jong-un, according to an analysis released by Yoon Sang-hyun, a ruling party lawmaker. The report examines North Korea’s import of luxury items between 2010 and 2012. “A relevant organization in the country analyzed the circumstance of North Korea’s import of luxury items,” Yoon, a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, said at a parliamentary inspection yesterday. “The analysis says even under the rule of Kim Jong-un, the import of North Korea’s luxury items is surging every year, reaching record-breaking...

Officials, clad in tidy uniform and beret, have name tags reading “English, “Chinese V” and “Japanese” in the chest section of their jacket. This is the image of tourism police who will appear at major tourist attractions in Seoul starting from Wednesday. Tourism police is a police organization that will be exclusively in charge of handling illegal activities targeting foreign tourists, including overcharging of service fees. The Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry and the National Police Agency said on Monday that 101 tourism police officers will start activities at major tourism hotspots across Seoul from Wednesday. The tourism police will...

CHICAGO, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange bottomed out of a three-month low Monday. The most active gold contract for December delivery increased 8. 4 dollars, or 0.66 percent, to settle at 1,276.6 dollars per ounce. The weakening dollar against other major currencies as well as the rebound of the U.S. stock market Monday lent certain support to gold. Nevertheless, gold's growth was limited on news that President Barack Obama will meet with congressional leaders of both parties Monday afternoon. Over the weekend, talks in the Senate aiming to avoid...

According to a report in the Yangtse Evening Post, a Nanjing-based Chinese language newspaper, the authorities in East China's Jiangsu Province are considering reforming college entrance examinations, also known as gaokao, in 2016. It is possible that English tests will be excluded from the rating system for the overall mark. Instead, there will be two English tests every year and a grading system will be introduced. Universities can then make their own requirements of English proficiency for applicants. Although the plan is still a draft, the reform lowering the importance of English should be applauded. Gaokao is a prerequisite for...

A Chinese grassroots official in flood-hit Zhejiang Province was removed from his post on Monday after a picture of him being given a piggyback sparked public uproar online. A post with the picture on Twitter-like Sina Weibo said an official in the city of Yuyao was carried on a villager's back while visiting flood victims because he was wearing a pair of top brand shoes. The Sanqishi Township government, for which the official surnamed Wang worked, said he had been removed from his post -- director of the town's construction office. The government said Wang was wearing cloth material shoes...

A Russian court has rejected bail requests from the American captain of a Greenpeace ship and two other foreign activists involved in a protest against oil drilling in the Arctic. Skipper Pete Wilcox, 60, and campaigners David John Haussmann, 49, and Camila Speziale, 21, had appealed against a pre-trial detention order. They are among 30 people being held in the city of Murmansk on piracy charges. A bail hearing is due to take place on Tuesday for Briton Frank Hewetson. Mr Hewetson, 45, who was a logistics co-ordinator on the ship, will appear alongside Swiss activist Marco Weber and Cristian...

More than 1.5 million people converged on the Philippine capital on Monday for a powerful Christian sect's evangelical event, causing traffic chaos that shut down large parts of the megacity. The gathering of the secretive and politically influential Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) in the historic district of Manila forced all schools and some government offices to close. The Supreme Court, as well as some basketball games in the highly popular college league, were also suspended, while Manila's governing authority urged private employers to give their staff a paid day off to avoid the traffic. "We really apologise for...

“As U.S. politicians of both political parties are still shuffling back and forth between the White House and the Capitol Hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world,” writes Liu Chang in Xinhua, China’s official news outlet. But can China build a de-Americanized world? Can China lead the global economy? As we wrote in previous pieces, the answer is most likely not, as China lacks four conditions that make its economic growth sustainable. First, China...

One day, the rupee and the renminbi could displace the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency—the most-used means of exchange between countries. And that day is coming closer as emerging markets move to insulate their economies from the dollar’s volatility. The dollar spent the summer riding high as investors pulled money from emerging markets on expectations that the Fed’s bond-buying program would begin slowing in September. When that didn’t happen, many emerging-market policymakers saw an opportunity to prepare for the eventual unwinding, which the IMF warns could cost trillions if handled poorly. Now, as investors come to grips with...

This weekend, new state law enforcement officers to completed training in Islam that they were compelled to attend by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The new recruits were in training from October 8 through the 11th; experienced recruits are expected to have similar training at their regularly scheduled in-service. This sensitivity training is aimed at helping “bridge the understanding” of Islamic culture to law enforcement. However, some think this is more of “be a good dhimmy” on the part of Governor Christie. New Jersey.com reports that the training is a min-version of a 10 week course on Cultural Understand taught...

How Does the Tea Party Affect the Republican Party? There is an opinion that the Tea Party Movement diminishes the Republican Party. The most important opinion is the Tea Party Patriots’ opinion. The Republican Party’s direction must weaken before achieving the Tea Party’s objective of a constitutional government. My motto if you will, “Tea Party Patriots don't make the Republican Party weaker, Tea Party Patriots make the Republican Party Conservative. The grass roots Tea Party Movement is unique because all they ask for in exchange for their vote is a constitutional government. I would love to hear every American demand...

Here are some photos from the Tea Party Express event for Steve Lonegan. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200836689423023.1073741841.1337520026&type=1&l=cd0cea750c

Got my surgery date today, in just 2 weeks. I am a bit scared by all this.

Visa applications for Chinese visitors entering the UK will be simplified, Chancellor George Osborne has announced during his trade trip to China. Under the plan, Chinese nationals visiting the EU will not need to submit separate UK visa applications if they book with selected travel agents. Mr Osborne is trying to persuade more Chinese companies to invest in the UK. But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that his trip was also about changing British attitudes to China. "Many people think of China as a sweat shop on the Pearl River. Yet it is at the forefront of medicine,...

Both tourists and tourism industry insiders are expressing optimism about the possibility of bilateral visa exemptions between Thailand and China. CRI's Jordan Lee has more. On the heels of the original proposal by Thai authorities, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has told the Thai Parliament in Bangkok his government is willing to hold talks about bilateral visa exemptions for tourists from the two countries. Li Keqiang says visa exemptions for regular passport holders will offer Chinese and Thai tourists more convenience and promote more people-to-people exchanges. Thailand is the first country within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to enter discussions...

WASHINGTON - World Bank president Jim Kim has formally put forward a major new proposal to refocus both the bank's priorities and how it pursues those aims. The new strategy, which would reorganize and harmonize the World Bank's sprawling global operations, offers the first major realignment of the Washington-based development lender in nearly two decades. It also embodies the most significant move yet by Kim, who took over the top job in July 2012, to put his mark on the bank's operations. The strategy will be formally discussed by the bank's Development Committee, made up of 25 foreign and development...

Reports are that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is engaged in a massive, covert military buildup. An article in the Associated Press in February confirmed an open purchase order by DHS for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. According to an op-ed in Forbes, that’s enough to sustain an Iraq-sized war for over 20 years. DHS has also acquired heavily armored tanks, which have been seen roaming the streets. Evidently somebody in government is expecting some serious civil unrest. The question is, why? Recently revealed statements by former UK prime minister Gordon Brown at the height of the banking crisis...

Thailand has the highest number of political dynasties in the world, according to a report released Sunday. The report by King Prajadhipok's Institute shows the extent of certain families' influence on...

Forget yoga retreats. If you want to find yourself in south-east Asia, says Susan Smillie, try learning to dive in Thailand, jumping on a motorbike in Vietnam or just chilling in Cambodia I've been sitting still for an hour, watching, listening, in the dark. Macaques swing through the cliff-top trees opposite, the drilling of cicadas has begun. Frogs take up the chorus below, the river rushes ahead, gibbons whoop in the distance. Even the leaves are noisy, falling around the deck of my beautiful treehouse with a thud. Stars appear to rush towards me; fireflies twinkling in the Takian trees....

If you ever wanted to know what the United States might look like and how people will react should the EBT system fail, then pay close attention I go to the register and they ask me “how you going to pay.” I said with food stamps. “Oh, we’re shut down, you can’t pay with food stamps.” I got kids to feed. You know? And because the government’s down I can’t feed my family? … What’s going on with America? Now they trying to starve us to death? …This is crazy …I got six kids I have to feed. … I’m...

Bob Woodward said that sequestration was Obama's & Lew's idea. Why now is Obama againt it? Why was he for it before he was against it? Why does he flip-flop on his CORE beliefs (raising the debt ceiling, the individual mandate, sequestration, etc)? Not secondary or tertiary beliefs...core beliefs. And why is Lew fearmongering over the debt ceiling? What he has said about it recently has been debunked by Moody's.

The federal government wants to reduce the number of Americans diagnosed each year with cancer. But not by better preventive care or healthier living. Instead, the government wants to redefinethe term “cancer” so that fewer conditions qualify as a true cancer. What does this mean for ordinary Americans — and should we be concerned? On July 29, 2013, a working group for the National Cancer Institute (the main government agency for cancer research) published a paper proposing that the term “cancer” be reserved for lesions with a reasonable likelihood of killing the patient if left untreated. Slower growing tumors would...

Situational awareness was key to taking the right course of action. During the rains, after the 2nd bridge washed out, those of us on one of the "islands" that now define Jamestown got together at the 1-room schoolhouse. Most folks didn't understand what was happening, and thought that we'd be back up and running in a week or two, and that between the individual preppers and the government, we'd be up and running in a couple weeks. I had a talk with a friend that I regard as bright, and he simply said "I was in Katrina, and I can...

Okay so we all just read this claim by a "supposedly" ex-CIA guy named Dr. Jim Garrow who makes a claim that he is ex-CIA and that he knows that Obama had Andrew Breitbart and Tom Clancy killed. It doesn't have a ring of truth to it if you've ever worked in an intelligence related capacity for the following reasons: (1) people in the intel industries compartmentalize information to such an extent that he would never know that information unless the president himself or the assassin told him directly and I don't see that happening, (2) real CIA guys wouldn't...

The leaders of Korea, China and Japan sat side-by-side at the ASEAN+3 conference in Brunei on Thursday, but no three-way communication took place and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was left out in cold. President Park Geun-hye sat flanked by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Abe, since Korea is the chair country of the "plus three" countries. They arrived at the conference hall separately. At a joint photo session of the 13 leaders of the ASEAN+3 member nations just before the start of the conference, Park was flanked by the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah and again Abe. But a...

Beijing prosecutors had approved a police application to arrest Liu Hu, a journalist suspected of fabricating rumors online, Beijing News reported on Oct 10. But prosecutors did not announce what crime Liu is charged with, the report said. Zhou Ze, Liu's lawyer, said on his micro blog that Liu was arrested for defamation, according to the report. Before Liu's detention in August, Liu, working for a newspaper in Guangdong province, used his real-name Sina micro blog account to make corruption allegations against Ma Zhengqi, vice-minister of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has reinvigorated Australian enthusiasm for a free trade agreement ( FTA) in landmark talks last week with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. With a 12 month timeline and a mountain of issues, Australian experts agree that despite the challenges, the view from the top will be well worth the climb. Wallowing in disillusion after almost 20 rounds of roadblocks and missteps, Xi and Abbott's statements of intent for a working FTA has been applauded across industries and party lines in Australia. Abbott was effusive in his approach to bilateral trade "as comprehensive as possible" on Monday...

Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou on Thursday said people in Taiwan and the Chinese mainland all belong to the Chinese nation and the relation between the two sides is not an international one. After five years of endeavor, the Taiwan Strait has become the most peaceful and prosperous channel in Asia, Ma said in an open speech. Based on the "1992 Consensus," the two sides of the Strait have signed 19 agreements over the last five years, and cross-Strait exchanges are being carried out through direct air and shipping links, tourism and cooperation in judicial and economic fields, he said. Ma...

BALI, Indonesia — Viewed from this fabled tropical paradise of dazzling beaches and shimmering rice terraces in the Indonesian archipelago, the so-called Pacific Century is really the Chinese century. As recently as five years ago, the Balinese relied almost entirely on tourists from Australia, Europe and North America. A few Japanese and South Korean travellers washed up here, but visitors from China barely existed. Yet global economic dynamics have been changing so rapidly that one million Chinese tourists are expected to swamp Bali in the next few months. The European manager of a five-star beach resort told me that from...

HANGZHOU, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Al Jazeera Media Network will host the fourth World Media Summit (WMS) in 2016, a presidium meeting of the WMS decided here Thursday.

In an interview with Beijing Review and other media, Abdul Ibrahimi, Speaker of the Lower House of the Afghan Parliament, said that the peace-loving nation of China plays an important role in South Asia and the Asian continent as a whole. The interview was conducted during the International Day of Peace 2013 & China-South Asia Peace and Development Forum, which took place on September 21-22 in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province. Excerpts follow: Beijing Review: What is your view on peace and security in Asia? Abdul Ibrahimi: Peace is one of the needs of human beings for the protection of...

Cambodia, for all its pretensions towards sovereignty and democracy, has yet to free itself from neighboring Vietnam's political and strategic grip 20 years after United Nations-organized elections ended its debilitating civil war. The international community has since invested over US$2 billion on peace initiatives to repair the damage done by Vietnam's 1979 invasion and seizure of power. Yet Hanoi continues to exercise covert power over the country through its proxy ruling Cambodia People's Party (CPP). Most Khmer citizens fail to fathom the depths of the ongoing subterfuge. Many have conveniently chosen ignorance over truth, as is common among traumatized populations...

President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英�) administration’s participation in the APEC summit has restricted Taiwan’s strategic options and international engagement with its sole focus on cross-strait relations at the annual meeting, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday. “The APEC summit, one of several international events that Taiwan takes part in as a full member, was supposed to be a setting where Taiwan could actively expand its international visibility and interaction. Unfortunately the Ma administration only approached the meeting as an arena for cross-strait political dialogue,” DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday. Former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭�長), who represented Ma...

Japan's first lady Akie Abe was distressed by online attacks from Japanese people because of her interest in Korean culture, she told a Korean lawmaker. Abe attended a Korea-Japan festival at Hibiya Park in Tokyo last month and told Saenuri Party lawmaker Kim Tae-hwan that she was upset by online comments targeting her whenever she attends a Korea-related event. Kim quoted her as saying Japanese people did not seem to understand her "true intentions." Her eyes apparently welled up with tears as she spoke. Media reports noted her distress but did not explain what upset her. Akie Abe is known...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday that he hopes to "exchange opinions" with the leaders of Korea and China at the East Asia Summit on Thursday after a trilateral meeting failed to take place at the APEC and ASEAN+3 meetings earlier this week. Relations between Seoul and Tokyo are chilly due to Japan's repeated claim to Korea's Dokdo islets and the Abe administration's lurch to the far right, to the point where President Park Geun-hye and Abe ignored each other as they sat side by side at the APEC Summit in Bali, Indonesia on Monday. Abe told Japanese...