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Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said on Wednesday that the threats facing Israel have increased and intensified in recent years due to regional instability. He also said that Iran's attempts to acquire nuclear weapons must continue to be disrupted. Speaking to the Herzliya Conference, Gantz said that Iran's nuclear program is a "global problem and a regional problem". He added that Iran could cross the nuclear threshold within a year, if it decides to do so. "There is no doubt that Iran is seeking military nuclear capability," Gantz said. Gantz said that Gulf states are...

Iran's "evil" leaders cannot be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, President Shimon Peres said on Tuesday, calling the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions the world's single most important issue. Peres' comments came at the opening of the Herzliya Conference, which was attended by World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, and former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou. Referring to Iran's contentious nuclear program, the president called the issue "ours and the world's central problem at this time, accusing Iran of attempting to achieve regional and "even global hegemony." "Nuclear weapons mustn't be allowed to fall into the hands...

Mossad chief Tamir Pardo held secret talks with top U.S. officials in recent days, cursory comments made during a public Senate hearing indicated on Tuesday. The clandestine Washington visit was exposed during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was participated by CIA Director David Petraeus, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate panel. During the meeting, Feinstein asked Clapper whether or not Israel intended to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, with the top U.S. intelligence official answering that he would rather discuss the issue behind closed doors. Feinstein then indicated that...

Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice dumped documents related to Operation Fast and Furious on congressional officials late Friday night. Central to this document dump is a series of emails showing Holder was informed of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder on the day it happened – December 15, 2010 – and that he was informed the weapons used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious on the same day. An email from one official, whose name has been redacted from the document, to now-former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke reads: “On December 14, 2010,

Barack Obama’s 2008 Iowa New Media Director was arrested Friday for attempting to use the identities of Secretary of State Matt Schultz, and/or his brother Thomas, with the intent to falsely implicate the Secretary Schultz in illegal or unethical behavior. Zach Edwards, 29, of Des Moines, currently works for Link Strategies, a Democrat-affiliated organization with ties to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. Edwards is the Director of New Media for Link Strategies. The Secretary of State’s office discovered the alleged crime and reported it to authorities. Edwards turned himself in to the Iowa DCI agents Friday afternoon. He was charged with...

Standard & Poor's ratings agency has downgraded France's credit rating, French television channels reported on Friday, citing a government source. EU building flags brussels EyesWideOpen | Getty Images The channels did not provide further details. S&P warned in December that it could downgrade the credit ratings of several euro zone nations if European leaders failed to find a lasting solution to the debt crisis at a meeting of EU leaders that month. Several euro zone countries including France face an “imminent” downgrade by ratings agency S&P, Reuters and Dow Jones news agencies reported, sending the euro to a session low...

The House Republican leading the investigation into the Obama administration’s $535 million Solyndra loan guarantee alleged Tuesday that White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley resigned in part because of the GOP probe into the failed solar company. “I understand his desire to leave the White House given the seriousness of this and other investigations marring the integrity and credibility of this Administration,” Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative panel, said in a statement. Stearns, who is heading up a months-long Republican investigation

A New Hampshire surrogate for Mitt Romney said at a local political event that it's evident he will be the Republican presidential nominee and suggested that "beliefs and principles" should not be the deciding factor for voters. State Sen. Gary Lambert said the most important thing is to nominate somebody who can defeat President Obama. "I don't get it. This is not about picking a favorite, it's not about picking someone you like," Lambert said. "It's not about picking someone even with your own beliefs and principles. This is about picking a person who can beat Barack Obama, period."

Bill Gertz of the Washington Times reports that President Barack Obama has indicated he is prepared to convey information about secret American missile defense technology to Russia: In the president’s signing statement issued Saturday in passing into law the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill, Mr. Obama said restrictions aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on U.S. Standard Missile-3 velocity burnout parameters might impinge on his constitutional foreign policy authority. As first disclosed in this space several weeks ago, U.S. officials are planning to provide Moscow with the SM-3 data, despite reservations from security officials who say that doing so could...

In January, the Common Application decided not to include a question about college applicant’s sexual orientation or gender identity in its widely used application. Last week, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 told The Crimson that despite that decision, Harvard College is considering giving applicants that option on its supplement in order to show prospective students that the College is a welcoming space for them. If it does, Harvard will join Elmhurst College, which was the first college in the country to pose such a question this year. Peer institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania...

WASHINGTON — Eighty-three victims and family members in the worst-ever mass shooting at a U.S. military installation are seeking $750 million in compensation from the Army, alleging that willful negligence enabled psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan to carry out a terrorist attack at Fort Hood, Texas. The administrative claims filed last week said the government had clear warnings that Hasan, who is scheduled to go on trial in March, posed a grave danger to the lives of soldiers and civilians.

So just who are those top 1 percent of Americans that we're all supposed to hate? If you listen to President Obama, the protesters at Occupy Wall Street, and much of the media, it's obvious. They're either "trust-fund babies" who inherited their money, or greedy bankers and hedge-fund managers. Certainly, they haven't worked especially hard for their money. While the recession has thrown millions of Americans out of work, they've been getting even richer. Worse, they don't even pay their fair share in taxes: Millionaires and billionaires are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries. In reality, each of...

Senate Republicans blocked a $60 billion infrastructure bill Thursday, making the bill the second piece of President Obama’s jobs proposal to be voted down in the Senate. Republicans and a few Democrats filibustered the broader $447 billion jobs bill last month. The vote came is a scripted floor exchange, with Democrats expected to quickly defeat an alternative GOP infrastructure funding bill. The bill garnered 51 votes--not enough to overcome the 60-vote cloture threshold. The Democratic bill, which includes a $10 billion national infrastructure bank, is funded by a 0.7 percent surtax on incomes of more than $1 million a year....

In an interview this evening with a local NBC affiliate in Orlando, President Obama claimed that America has "gotten a little soft." "I mean, there are a lot of things we can do," Obama said. "The way I think about it is, you know, this is a great, great country that had gotten a little soft and, you know, we didn't have that same competitive edge that we needed over the last couple of decades. We need to get back on track."

FRAMINGHAM - The uncle of President Obama did not speak today when he appeared in district court for a routine hearing on a drunken driving charge. In a hearing that lasted just about two minutes, the attorney for Onyango Obama and Middlesex prosecutors agreed to continue the case until Nov. 17. Obama, a 67-year-old Framingham resident was arrested by Framingham police Aug. 24 on drunken driving and other charges. Obama has pleaded not guilty. Framingham District Court Judge Robert V. Greco released him on personal recognizance today. Before his case was called, Obama sat quietly in the front row of...

Full Title: Valerie Jarret: ‘Pass This Plan Right This Minute’, Details to Follow The White House continues to press the message that congress should pass President Obama's jobs bill immediately despite the fact that there is no actual bill yet and the details on how the president expects to pay for the bill won't be revealed for over a week. Discrimination etc. http://www.breitbart.tv/valerie-jarret-pass-this-plan-right-this-minute-details-to-follow/

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana Supreme Court ruling this week is a timely, cautionary reminder for Hoosiers who plan to consume alcohol over the holiday weekend. It is possible to be charged with public intoxication, even while in a vehicle with a designated driver. Police had arrested an Indiana woman who was drunk in the passenger seat of a car. The Supreme Court ruled that a public intoxication charge can stand against people in a car on a public street...

The pro-Hamas flotilla of international ships planning to defy Israel’s lawful naval blockade of Gaza is getting underway, despite some delays caused by insurance and mechanical problems. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was spot on when he told Israel Radio that the so-called Freedom Flotilla II participants are nothing more than “terror activists, seeking to create provocation and looking for blood.” The merchant ships of Hamas propaganda are supporting the terrorist organization that is the governing authority in Gaza and whose covenant calls for the killing of all Jews, the destruction of Israel, and the replacement of Israel with an...

Last week, during Memorial Day weekend, we had fun telling of our favorite WWII movies .On this solemn day, what are you're favorite D-Day movies?

D-Day history D-Day: It is hard to conceive the epic scope of this decisive battle that foreshadowed the end of Hitler's dream of Nazi domination. Overlord was the largest air, land, and sea operation undertaken before or since June 6, 1944. The landing included over 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes, and over 150,000 service men. After years of meticulous planning and seemingly endless training, for the Allied Forces, it all came down to this: The boat ramp goes down, then jump, swim, run, and crawl to the cliffs. Many of the first young men (most not yet 20 years old)...

video at link

Yesterday should have been a glorious day around here. There should have been fireworks and celebration. There should have been somber remembrances. There should have been patriotic tributes. There should have been shared joy at the news that our guys had finally gotten Bin Laden. Instead, when I visited the site, what I found was a lot of carping. I found people focused more on the political spin than on the great news. I found people transferring their birther mentality onto this event, talking about Obama faking this news, photoshopping information, etc. It wasn't everybody, but it was a LOT...

TEXAS CITY, Texas (AP) — Three refineries, including a BP unit where a 2005 explosion killed 15 people, and a Dow Chemical plant lost electricity in outages that led to shelter-in-place emergency alerts and the cancellation of public schools Tuesday in Texas City. The source of the power outages was still being sought, emergency officials said. A second shelter-in-place alert, advising residents to stay indoors, was issued around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday after a Valero refinery also lost power, Texas City Homeland Security coordinator Bruce Clawson said. A BP refinery, site of the deadly March 2005 accident that also left 170...

President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, are reporting income of $1.728 million for last year, much of it from the sale of the president's books. They paid federal taxes of $453,770

I think Glenn Beck has it right. American and Global leftists, Marxists, Socialists, Communists, radical labor, Globalists (George Soros) and Islamists unite to create global chaos under the banner of “democracy” (whatever the heck that means, as in “Democratic Republic” or “People’s Republic”). Al Jazeera’s favorite Jihad imam host who preaches that Hitler rightfully punished the Jews for their sins returns to Egypt to declare Islam will retake Jerusalem, Jimmy “I (heart) Palestine” Carter says the Muslim “dominate the world” Brotherhood is secular and harmless, while in a video recommended to me by a Ron Paul supporterDavid Duke says Egyptians...

ROME -- Italian officials said Sunday they would do whatever it takes to free the crew of an Italian tugboat apparently seized by Libyan officials at Tripoli's port as U.S. and European airstrikes enforced a no-fly zone over Libya. The "Asso 22" tug of the Naples-based shipping company Augusta Offshore SrL has eight Italian, two Indian and one Ukrainian crew members aboard, state-run RAI television said. Armed men, including one believed to be the Tripoli port commander, detained the crew as Libyan workers aboard were disembarking Saturday and prevented the vessel from leaving port, the report said. Defense Minister Ignazio...

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says state police must release the name of everyone in the state who is authorized to own a gun.

We are now less than one year away from the Iowa caucuses. Last week we ranked the top ten potential presidential candidates in Iowa. Since that time, we have been able to see all of them share the stage at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, in Washington D.C. Some of the candidates helped themselves, but others didn’t. Before we get started, it’s important to know that the ranking that each candidate received is based on how their performance at CPAC will help or hinder their potential Iowa caucus campaigns. Judging these speeches and everything else that went...

So the question on everyone's mind is: who's next? The Egyptian revolution is a challenge to state led authoritarian capitalism, but it is also a response to rising food costs and soaring unemployment. There is also the social media factor, which has allowed protesters to circumvent traditional state run media sources and organize more efficiently. What countries offer a similar mixture to that found in Egypt? And what investments are at stake?

The Barack Obama administration has decided to lift a ban preventing Muslim Scholar Professor Tariq Ramadan from entering the United States. Ramadan, an Egyptian currently living in Switzerland, is a leading member of Europe’s Muslim Brotherhood branch and the grandson of the movement’s founder Hassan al-Banna. The Muslim Brotherhood is the parent organization for Hamas and some of the groups that recently merged into al-Qaeda, including Ayman al Zawahiri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Ramadan was invited to teach at the University of Notre Dame in 2004 but the George W. Bush administration revoked his visa, citing a statute that applies to...

Calif. Discovers Fluorescent Lightbulbs Burning Out Faster Than Predicted State government concludes that it will not realize the savings it expected It was all flowers and roses when the state of California launched its $548M USD program to help promote consumer use of compact fluorescent lamps. Manufacturers and utilities were onboard because they received bonus pay to enact rebate programs. Citizens were happy as they received cheap CFL bulbs, which promised to save them money on power expenses. And the politicians were happy, as they looked sufficiently "green" to satisfy the eco-minded voters. Now that utopian vision of futuristic lighting...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has tasked her aides with quietly gauging her level of support for a potential presidential campaign by making inquiries to a select pool of likely allies and grassroots activists in Iowa, RealClearPolitics has learned. Key Republican officials and operatives in the nation's first voting state had begun to assume that Palin would not run for president in 2012 since most of them have not heard a word from her or from her small circle of aides, even as other likely candidates have begun jockeying more forcefully behind the scenes. But a...

Under the program, Mexicans who have undergone background checks and are deemed low security risks will be able to fly into major U.S. cities and breeze through customs without being questioned by U.S. Customs agents. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and her Mexican counterparts announced their intent to roll out the program two weeks ago, trumpeting it as evidence of increased information sharing and law enforcement collaboration between the countries. The program is an expansion of an existing trusted traveler program, the Global Entry Program, which was launched in 2008 and expedites pre-approved passengers through the airport customs and security...

Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators. The system, by far the largest and most technologically sophisticated in the nation's history, collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing. The government's goal is to have every state and local law enforcement agency in the country feed information to Washington to buttress the work of the FBI,

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that Republicans "made some pretty poor choices" in choosing their Senate candidates this fall. Graham, in a Senate floor speech on Saturday, made an aside comment underscoring the frustration the GOP faced after some Tea Party-aligned nominees fell short in their campaigns. "The House had a dramatic election. We picked up seats in the Senate," Graham said, video of which is posted by C-SPAN. "Some of us thought, maybe we could pick up two or three more, but we made some pretty poor choices when it came to candidates." The South Carolina Republican made...

Rude Democrat Peter Johnson Jr. keeps cutting off Coulter in Hannity debate. On last night’s Hannity, the top story was a discussion of the insanely invasive TSA screening procedures, so what better guest to have on than Ann Coulter to tell it like it is? Her debate opponent? Democrat Peter Johnson Jr., a lawyer and a familiar face to anyone who’s been watching Fox News Channel for the longest time, seeing as how he’s been providing mostly legal analysis for the network since 1997. However, a funny thing occurred—as it does with all Democrats, it seems—when the debate about the...

Dagong Global Credit Rating Co., the Chinese rating company that was recently rejected in its bid to be an officially recognized bond rater in the U.S., just downgraded the entire U.S. The always objective Xinhua has the “scoop.” The United States has lost its double-A credit rating with Dagong Global Credit Rating Co., Ltd., the first domestic rating agency in China, due to its new round of quantitative easing policy.

Kristie Noem (R) was loosing ground consistently in the first 250 precincts counted, but then turned around and has been (mostly) gaining in remaining precincts. NOW MOVES INTO THE LEAD. Go Kristie! pcts pcts Repub Dem Noem's /791 pct Noem Sandlin Lead 32 4.0% 7053 7507 -454 60 7.6% 10731 10248 483 100 12.6% 20064 21438 -1374 124 15.7% 23119 24503 -1384 145 18.3% 26358 27474 -1116 194 24.5% 37547 40129 -2582 215 27.2% 41107 44058 -2951 238 30.1% 46754 50545 -3791 292 36.9% 58202 61425 -3223 333 42.1% 64990 67491 -2501 386 48.8% 76764 78787 -2023 434 54.9% 86721...

The author sounds vindictive and mean-spirited who the reader feels has lost his way in life. Everyone knows that boys don’t kiss and tell, and here we have this clod barking as if he is a Philadelphia Phillies fan heckling the San Francisco Giant’s right fielder. As readers we become simultaneously angry about his callous disparagement of women and sorry for whatever is torturing his psyche. You can read an avalanche of reactions to the Christine O’Donnell one night stand claims here and here and satirically here. So who is this fellow who wrote it? That is a less interesting...

Apparently so, via Kyle Hopkins at the Anchorage Daily News: I'm sitting at the Division of Elections office here in Midtown, where more than a dozen people have filed this afternoon to run as write-in candidates for U.S. Senate. KFQD 750 AM radio host Dan Fagan, a backer of Republican nominee Joe Miller, has been urging voters to sign up in an act of "civil disobedience" -- defying what he calls the courts' illegal decision to allow a list of write-in candidates at polling places. The ruling is expected to aid Sen. Lisa Murkowski's write-in bid. The idea of the...

The US dollar has hit a 15-year low against the yen after the G20 nations agreed to avoid a currency war. The weekend talks, in South Korea, saw the group of 20 major advanced and developing nations, agree to avoid competing to lower their currencies.

For the Obama administration, the prospect of a nuclearized Iran is dismal to contemplate— it would create major new national-security challenges and crush the president’s dream of ending nuclear proliferation. But the view from Jerusalem is still more dire: a nuclearized Iran represents, among other things, a threat to Israel’s very existence.

In February, allegations that someone inside the Obama White House offered Pennsylvania Senate Democratic nominee and three-star Navy Admiral Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) a job in exchange for his withdrawal from the PA Senate Primary race were made by Sestak himself. In late-May, White House Counsel Robert Bauer released a memo claiming that “The White House Chief of Staff enlisted the support of former President Clinton who agreed to raise with Congressman Sestak options of service on a Presidential or other Senior Executive Branch Advisory Board. Congressman Sestak declined the suggested alternatives, remaining committed to his Senate candidacy.” House Committee...

Michelle Obama today faced a fresh wave of attacks over her lavish break in Spain with 40 friends, which could easily cost U.S. taxpayers a staggering £50,000 a day. The First Lady has been lambasted for her extravagance at a time when the economy is still struggling. One blogger went so far as to brand her a modern-day Marie Antoinette. And her critics will be further annoyed when they learn that the president's wife had a Spanish beach closed off today so that she, her daughter and their entourage could go for a swim. Spanish police cleared off a stretch...

Dianne Wilkerson asked me to do it U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said yesterday he has “no regrets” about his role in helping a troubled Boston bank qualify for a $12 million federal bailout now at the center of ethics charges against California Rep. Maxine Waters. In fact, Frank - chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee - says he never helped OneUnited at the behest of Waters, whose husband had served on the bank’s board. Instead, the Bay State congressman said he worked to promote the bailout at the request of scandal-plagued then-state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson. “I was already...

In 1970, nine percent of California's population was comprised of immigrants; by 2008 it was 27 percent. A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds that as a result of immigration, California now has the least-educated labor force of any state. Historically, California was not a state with a disproportionately large unskilled population, like Appalachia or parts of the South. However, immigration has transformed the state. Absent a change in immigration policy, other parts of the country may be transformed in a similar fashion. The report, "A State Transformed: Immigration and the New California," can be found...

Elena Kagan has kept her cards so close to the vest that in the days after President Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court, some on the left worried she was too moderate to replace liberal Justice John Paul Stevens. But in documents obtained by CBS News, Kagan--while working as a law clerk to the late Justice Thurgood Marshall - made her positions clear on some of the nation's most contentious social issues. The documents, buried in Marshall's papers in the Library of Congress, show Kagan standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the liberal left, at a time when the Rehnquist Supreme Court...

Meet the Anti-Obama, Les Phillip. ICAUCUS endorsed American Patriot running for Congress AL Congressional District 05. "This is the story of two young men. One fell in with left wing radicals. The other immigrated to America. While one played with terrorists and allowed his America-hating pastor to baptize his children, the other joined the Navy to defend his country. I love America, but President Obama is ashamed of it. I’m going to Congress to help stop him from destroying our nation. And they’re not going to call me a racist. I’m Les Phillip and I took an oath to defend...

Jason Levin, the middle school teacher behind the Crash The Tea Party project, is dismissing claims that he misused his position to organize the scheme. Levin is currently on a paid leave from the Beaverton, Oregon school district where he works while school officials investigate charges that he used school time and equipment to create the website CrashTheTeaParty.org. He told me his attorneys have advised him not to do any interviews while the investigation runs its course. But in a written statement he emailed me this morning, Levin said the charges are without merit. "Any allegation that I used school...