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The Obama administration is sending the head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey to Israel this Thursday to try to change what it sees as Israel’s increasing readiness to attack Iran. Both Israel and the United States have stated they would not rule out a military strike on Tehran to prevent the Islamic Republic from reaching the capability of attacking Israel, or elsewhere, with a nuclear weapon. However, American officials are worried that Israel is closer to concluding that the “point of no return” is at hand, after which it may be too late to stop Iran....

Title (R) Primary-Iowa (Caucus) When Tue 3 Jan 2012 Title (R) Primary-New Hampshire When Tue 10 Jan 2012 Title (R) Primary-South Carolina When Sat 21 Jan 2012 Title (R) Primary-Florida When Tue 31 Jan 2012 Title (R) Primary-Maine (Caucus) When Sat 4 Feb 2012 08:00 AM – Sat 11 Feb 2012 08:30 PM Title (R) Primary-Nevada (Caucus) When Sat 4 Feb 2012 Title (R) Primary-Minnesota-(Caucus) When Tue 7 Feb 2012 Title (R) Primary-Colorado-(Caucus) When Tue 7 Feb 2012 Title (R) Primary-Arizona When Tue 28 Feb 2012 Title (R) Primary-Michigan When Tue 28 Feb 2012 Title (R) Primary-Washington-(Caucus) When Sat...

General Motors Co. (GM) has hired management consultant Hackett Group (HCKT) to help identify areas to cut an undetermined number of white-collar jobs, said two people familiar with the matter. Hackett Group, based in Miami, will help identify opportunities for cuts and efficiency improvements at headquarters and elsewhere in North America, said the people, who asked not to be identified revealing private plans. GM has been trimming engineers and other white-collar staff, said Jay Cooney, a spokesman, who declined to comment on whether the Detroit-based automaker had hired Hackett Group.

Opposition sources in Syria said Thursday that a top Syrian army general, Mustapha a-Sheikh, has abandoned his post. A-Sheikh is in charge of chemical weapons deployment in eastern Syria. According to the sources, a-Sheikh escaped over the border into Turkey in recent days. A-Sheikh's defection came on the background of what opposition activists said was an increasing frustration among many army soldiers at being deployed to fight against Syrian citizens. Weeks ago, soldiers were subjected to intense propaganda stressing that the protests were being organized by groups seeking to plunge Syria into anarchy, who were funded by “foreign governments,” but...

WASHINGTON — A top U.S. general in Afghanistan was relieved of duty Friday for "inappropriate public comments" after calling the Afghan government "isolated from reality" and President Hamid Karzai "erratic." Maj. Gen. Peter Fuller, deputy commander for training Afghan security forces, blasted the Afghan government, military and Karzai in an interview with POLITICO published on Thursday. He called Karzai "erratic" for recently saying Afghanistan would side with Pakistan if the latter declared war on the U.S. "Why don’t you just poke me in the eye with a needle!," Fuller was quoted as saying. "You’ve got to be kidding me …...

We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%. We propose a city wide general strike and we propose we invite all students to walk out of school. Instead of workers going to work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city. All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them. While we are calling for a general strike, we are also calling for much more. People who organize out...

How's this for a doctrine of applying the General Welfare clause in justifying any control or money being spent by the Federal government ? If the effort in question can be done at the local or State level, then it must be done at the local or State level - and must NOT be done at all by the Federal government. Basically, if localities or States are doing it then the Federal government need not - and must not - do it. Quite simply because the fact that localities or States are doing something proves that they can. For roads,...

Attorney General Eric Holder to hold a press conference at 2pm

Breaking on Fox ...

WASHINGTON - Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder used to shoot hoops for Stuyvesant High in New York City, but these days, he tosses a blue "stress ball" at wood-paneled office walls. As Attorney General Janet Reno's top deputy in charge of the day-to-day operations of the Justice Department, Holder also is juggling political time bombs. He's at the helm of the campaign finance investigation and the potentially explosive review of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. assassination files. He's also quietly reviewing the independent counsel law.

In a conference call this morning with Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, reporters were told the Attorney General in Mexico has confirmed at least 200 murders south of the border happened as a result of Operation Fast and Furious. Eleven crimes in the United States have been linked to Operation Fast and Furious up to this point. Issa said he expects as the investigation in the operation continues, more crimes connected to Fast and Furious will come to light and be exposed. This is not surprising, considering out of 2500 weapons the Obama Justice Department allowed to...

Readers want to know who I thought “won” the GOP debate at the Reagan Library last night. My answer: Twitter. It’s where quick-fingered conservatives who actually care about conservatism freely debated and dissected the bone-headed questions and condescension of liberal D.C./N.Y. “moderator” Brian Williams, Politico staffer John Harris, and ethnic representative Jose Diaz-Balart of Telemundo throughout the MSNBC telecast. (Why not a minority journalist representing every race and ethnicity in the U.S. next time for a full Identity Politics-palooza!) The questions ranged from the predictable (querying Perry about “low-wage” jobs created in Texas) to the hostile (Williams asking Perry how...

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a McDonald’s manager who punched a customer in the face for bringing a service dog into the restaurant.

n this video entitled "Marxism in America" General Jerry Boykin discusses his background and training in understanding Marxist insurgencies and how current government actions parallel Marxist tactics.

IDF Home Front Command chief Maj. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg says the 'Arab Spring' may bring an 'Islamic Winter' - and War. 'Arab Spring' revolutions have destabilized the region and raised the likelihood of war, top general says. "It looks like the Arab Spring, but it can also be a radical Islamic winter," IDF Home Front Command chief Major General Eyal Eisenberg said during a speech at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv on Monday. "This leads us to the conclusion that through a long-term process, the likelihood of an all-out war is increasingly growing," Eisenberg said. "Iran...

As DB readers know, NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, along with AGs Beau Biden of Delaware and Catherine Cortez of Nevada, have been opposed to the nationwide foreclosure fraud settlement being led by Iowa AG Tom Miller (read: Once Upon A Time In Foreclosure Fraud), who as Matt Taibbi pointed out has not-so-conincidentally increased his campaign contributions from the finance sector this year by a factor of 88! Today, NY Times reporter Gretchen Morgenson reports Schneiderman has been getting heavy pressure from the Obama administration (read: Geithner's Foreclosure Fraud Whitewash) to drop his opposition to the deal, which many experts...

Obama had his top General fly to Afghanistan to tell the troops serving there that their families may not get paid if a debt agreement is not reached.

We are screwed. I was watching C-span and the House had a vote on an amendment to cut 11 million from the National Endowment for the Arts. It failed because 55 Republicans joined all the Democrats in voting against it. If we can't cut 11 million from a worthless program, what hope do we have?

Truly that’s no surprise, Obama is a failure all across the board. What Obama fails to realize, is that he needs to listen to the commanders on the ground. He cannot make a decision from Washington and expect it to go well over seas. Petraeus has experience, Obama doesn’t. The NY Times reported: The president is scheduled to speak about the Afghanistan war from the White House at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Mr. Obama’s decision is a victory for Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has long argued for curtailing the American military engagement in Afghanistan. But it is...

President Obama's solicitor general, defending the national health care law on Wednesday, told a federal appeals court that Americans who didn't like the individual mandate could always avoid it by choosing to earn less money. Neal Kumar Katyal, the acting solicitor general, made the argument under questioning before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati. The three-judge panel, which was comprised of two Republican-appointed judges and a Democratic-appointed judge, expressed more skepticism about the government's defense of the health care law than the Fourth Circuit panel that heard the Virginia-based Obamacare challenge last

A senior Egyptian general admits that "virginity checks" were performed on women arrested at a demonstration this spring, the first such admission after previous denials by military authorities. The allegations arose in an Amnesty International report, published weeks after the March 9 protest. It claimed female demonstrators were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges and forced to submit to virginity checks. At that time, Maj. Amr Imam said 17 women had been arrested but denied allegations of torture or "virginity tests."

Two German soldiers also killed in a blast that took the life of a powerful Afghan police chief. The Guardian: Major General Markus Kneip, who commands Nato forces in the northern part of Afghanistan, received wounds that were severe but not life-threatening. Very few high-ranking international military officers have become casualties in Afghanistan since the conflict there began in 2001. General Mohammed Daoud Daoud was a controversial and powerful figure who had served as deputy minister of the interior for narcotics before being posted as police chief in the north. He was a former bodyguard of the guerrilla leader Ahmed...

I heard on Fox we have a replacement for Adm Mullen? found no thread here.

Take a look at this picture from Friday, April 29th. President Obama is greeting Brig. Gen. Ed Wilson after Air Force One landed at Cape Canaveral: Seems pretty ordinary, right? A typical tarmac greet for the Commander-in-Chief. But there may be a little more to the brief moment at the bottom of the airstairs. The state-owned Italian television channel Rai News has posted a video that highlights a curious exchange between the two men:

During a Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) grills Attorney General Eric Holder on the Justice Department's Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunrunner. As Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Issa has issued a subpoena to the Department of Justices' Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for documents related to the highly controversial "Project Gunrunner."

In an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen had the following stunning exchange: “Rasmussen: The honest answer is that there is no military solution to this conflict. We need a political solution, and it’s up to the Libyan people to come up with one. We can only call upon the leadership in Tripoli to put an end to its acts of violence, to grant the people their legitimate rights and to permit a peaceful transition to democracy. SPIEGEL: What happens if Gadhafi doesn’t comply with these demands? Wouldn’t NATO at least have

Original title: WI GOP rep. questions state DOJ’s ethics after state attorney advises fleeing Dems, shows political support in private e-mail. Wisconsin state Rep. Steve Nass is calling for an investigation of state Assistant Attorney General Thomas Bellavia after he sent an e-mail offering advice to two of the 14 fleeing Democratic senators on how to avoid getting caught by Wisconsin law enforcement. The e-mail also shows where Bellavia’s political support lies. “I am a political supporter of your current efforts regarding the budget repair bill,” Bellavia wrote in a February 27 e-mail to Democratic state Sens. Joe Erpenbach and...

Back in June and July of 2009, I spotlighted the Obama corruptocrats’ unceremonious removal of respected veteran Amtrak watchdog Fred Weiderhold (see here and here). Flashback: Who railroaded the Amtrak inspector general? by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2009 Watchdogs are an endangered species in the Age of Obama. The latest government ombudsman to get the muzzle: Amtrak inspector general Fred Weiderhold. The longtime veteran employee was abruptly “retired” last month –just as the government-subsidized rail service faces mounting complaints about its meddling in financial audits and probes. Question the timing? Hell, yes. On June 18, Weiderhold met with Amtrak...

Remember that public-sector strikes are illegal in Wisconsin; it’s why a few doctors have been holding open-air clinics in Madison to give out notes excusing protestors from work. Unions in Madison now propose to drop the pretense and declare wildcat strikes if the legislature passes the budget-repair bill that will limit collective bargaining and transform the public sector workplace into open shops: If Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans pass a budget repair bill that restricts union rights, labor groups in Madison said they would endorse the entire of a general strike of unions around the state. The South Central Federation...

Michele Bachman posted this on her Facebook page. Quite remarkable really. Utterly shameless.

CalvaryChurchPO | September 17, 2010 | 0 likes, 0 dislikes Pastor Kevin Lea presents Dr. Walt Brown's Hydroplate Theory, examines the Genesis account of the flood and answers the questions: Where did the water comefrom? Where did it go? Where did the comets come from? ...and many other important questions.

In an age when many Americans do not recognize that we are at war, most Americans still respect the sacrifices that our military men and women make on their behalf. According to a Rasmussen poll last May, the military continues to have the highest favorable and lowest unfavorable ratings of any group or institution in the United States Whether it is on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, on the mean streets of a third-world hell-hole, or as a silent sentinel on the Korean border, the servicemen we place in harm's way perform with dedication and excellence. They do...

DETROIT — General Motors executives have been cleared for takeoff again. The automaker has been given the go-ahead by the federal government to use chartered aircraft as early as Thursday to ferry managers on a “road show” promoting G.M.’s public stock offering, according to government and company officials who declined to be identified. It is believed to be the first time that G.M. will use private jets for business-related purposes since the government demanded that it sell its fleet of corporate aircraft in 2008. As a condition for accepting emergency federal assistance, G.M. has required its executives to travel on...

Remember all that gladhanding about the success of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) earlier this month? Neil Barofsky, TARP’s special inspector general, puts the kabosh on that in his report released today. Just read this: “When Treasury refuses for more than a year to require TARP recipients to account for the use of TARP funds, or claims that Capital Purchase Program participants were “healthy, viable” institutions knowing full well that some are not, or when it provides hundreds of billions of dollars in TARP assistance to institutions, and then relies on those same institutions to self-report any violations of

SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has apparently named his third son as a four-star general in the military ahead of the country's biggest political convention in three decades, making his hereditary succession plan official for the first time.

My friend and CNAS colleague Bob Killebrew nominates the Revolutionary War's Nathaniel Greene as the most under-rated general in American history: Regarded by peers and historians as the second-best American general in the war (after Washington) he would have assumed command if W. had been disabled. A Quaker who learned war from textbooks, he was both a field operator and the commissary-general, a trying position in the best of times. Sent by Washington to take over the Southern campaign after Gates' disaster (and personal cowardice) at Camden, Greene fought a masterly fabian campaign through the South, leading Cornwallis further and...

A retired lieutenant general from the U.S. Air Force who commanded forces armed with nuclear weapons says the disclosure of Barack Obama's documentation proving his eligibility to be commander in chief is critical not just to the defense of an officer challenging the president's status, but to the preservation of the nation itself. The vehement statements came in an affidavit from retired Lt. Gen. Thomas G. McInerney that was disclosed today by an organization generating support for Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin. Lakin had invited his own court-martial because he is unable to follow orders under the chain of command with...

(CNSNews.com) – Neal Katyal, who became the acting U.S. solicitor general when Elena Kagan was nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, previously served as the legal counsel of record for the man who worked as Osama bin Laden’s driver from February 1996 through November 2001. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who underwent training at an al Qaeda camp, was charged with transporting weapons to al Qaeda operatives. The Hamden case culminated in the 2006 Supreme Court ruling that said the Bush administration’s military tribunals violated U.S. law and international conventions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission inspector general has agreed to a request from Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to probe the timing and political motivations of the SEC’s $550 million settlement with Goldman Sachs in a mortgage securities fraud case:m SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz agreed in April to a request from U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, that he probe whether politics prompted the lawsuit against Goldman Sachs. (Snip) Aside from the timing, many observers scoffed at the settlement. The $550 million settlement is pocket change compared to Goldman’s $162 billion in assets

why is it,that in the 21st Century,they still haven't developed a blood test a that you can take WITHOUT STARVING YOURSELF THE NIGHT BEFORE???????

Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Monday he is working with officials in Utah and Mexico to create a Utah-specific guest-worker pilot program that he believes could serve as a more forward-looking course for immigration reform than the path Arizona has followed. “I do feel very strongly that those who are going to be opposed to the Arizona-style law have to have a counterproposal. Just saying ‘no’ isn’t going to cut it,” he said. “Utah can take control of its immigration destiny by having a comprehensive plan in place that addresses things like employment and security.”

June 25, 2010 Friday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 12 Kgs 25:1-12In the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the month,  Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his whole army advanced against Jerusalem, encamped around it, and built siege walls on every side.  The siege of the city continued until the eleventh year of Zedekiah.  On the ninth day of the fourth month, when famine had gripped the city, and the people had no more bread, the city walls were breached.  Then the king and all the...

Now that Gen. McChrystal is officially out and Gen. Petraeus has taken the reins, juicy little tidbits (that, to be honest, might not have otherwise interested prior to the Rolling Stone piece) about McChrystal are making the blogosphere rounds. Buried in a longish post by Marc Ambinder about the aftermath of the McChrystal removal was this little morsel: McChrystal apparently was not a fan of Fox News. Now it can be told. The story about him voting for Obama is not contrived. He is a political liberal. He is a social liberal. He banned Fox News from the television sets...

Jim Rob gets what he deserves... Crappy response time on servers because he shut down those who would dare to question Bush and the epic failure that he was.... I got hosed because I dared pointing out Bush was an epic failure...sorry DAD...I didn't toe the line Free Republic used to be something else....it actually stood for something... Now this is just an echo chamber.... Too damn bad....this from the guy that spent thousands of dollars on Sore Loserman signs, stickers and FR donations.... and pushed that...the guy who pushed back tons of dollars to FR.... Now FR is slowly...

While the media are attempting to grapple with the change in leadership of the Afghanistan war and what that all means, one thing that could be learned from this, which has been ignored, are valid criticisms of President Barack Obama and his ability to command the U.S. military. Michael Hastings, author of the now-famous Rolling Stone magazine article "Runaway General" that captured several gotcha moments resulting in Obama relieving General Stanley McChrystal of his command, appeared on Al Jazeera English on June 23.. He offered some startling insight into Obama's failure to grasp what he was actually getting into with...

Whatever else the storm over General Stanley McChrystal is about, it's not about a bunch of rude remarks from him and his staff in Rolling Stone. The world already knows that military types get drunk and sing stupid songs and make fun of their higher-ups. That's been the stuff of war -- fictional and real -- forever. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin writes this morning about the incredible rudeness President Lincoln tolerated -- for a while -- from Gen. McLellan during the Civil War. The big difference, of course, was that President Lincoln was trying to win the Civil War, a...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says Gen. Stanley McChrystal showed "poor judgment" in a magazine story in which the Afghanistan war commander and his aides disparaged the president and other members of the administration. Asked whether he would fire McChrystal, Obama said he planned to talk McChrystal face-to-face before making any decision. ..

Sacramento -- Attorney General candidate Kamala Harris is battling increasing criticism of her performance as San Francisco district attorney both at home and on the campaign trail with only eight days left before the primary. On May 20, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo ripped into Harris, saying she violated defendants' rights by failing to disclose to defense attorneys damaging information about a police drug lab technician who's under investigation for allegedly skimming cocaine from evidence files. Problems intensified for Harris last week when The Chronicle disclosed that a toxicologist at the San Francisco coroner's office had been labeled...

“We’re going through!” Commander Richard Blumenthal’s voice was like thin ice breaking. He wore his full-dress uniform, with the heavily braided white cap pulled down rakishly over one cold gray eye. “We can’t make it, sir. It’s spoiling for a hurricane, if you ask me.” “I’m not asking you, Lieutenant Berg,” said the Commander. “Throw on the power lights! Rev her up to 8,500! We’re going through!” The pounding of the cylinders increased: ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa. Blumenthal stared at the ice forming on the pilot window. He walked over and twisted a row of complicated dials. “Switch on No. 8 auxiliary!” he...