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It may have been the most expensive haircut in history. Two of Los Angeles International Airport's four runways were shut down for nearly an hour on Tuesday, some incoming flights were delayed and Air Force One sat on the tarmac with engines running -- all so that President Clinton's Beverly Hills hairstylist, Chistophe, could come aboard and give Mr. Clinton a high-price trim before he took off for Washington. Questions about Mr. Clinton's runway razor cut dominated the White House news briefing today, with the communications director, George Stephanopoulos, scrambling to explain why the populist President tied up one of...

Legislation to resurrect long-term jobless legislation stalled in the Senate on Thursday, triggering recriminations from both sides of the political aisle despite earlier expressions of optimism that benefits might soon be restored for more than 1 million victims of the recession. Gridlock asserted itself after majority Democrats offered to pay for a 10-month extension of a scaled-back program of benefits—then refused to permit Republicans even to seek any changes.Instead, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans of “continually denigrating our economy, our president and frankly, I believe, our country.” …

Five years have passed since the onset of what is sometimes called the Great Recession. While the economy has slowly improved, there are still millions of Americans leading lives of quiet desperation: without jobs, without resources, without hope. Who was to blame? Was it simply a result of negligence, of the kind of inordinate risk-taking commonly called a “bubble,” of an imprudent but innocent failure to maintain adequate reserves for a rainy day? Or was it the result, at least in part, of fraudulent practices, of dubious mortgages portrayed as sound risks and packaged into ever more esoteric financial instruments,...

Legislation key to President Barack Obama’s agenda to boost exports to the fast-growing economies of the Asia-Pacific is being welcomed by business but faces stiff opposition from Obama’s fellow Democrats. A bill to grant the president “fast track” authority for negotiating trade deals was introduced Thursday, co-sponsored by a senior Democrat and two leading Republicans. Fast track, which was last approved in 2002 and expired in 2007, assures that the administration can negotiate trade deals that Congress can accept or reject but cannot change.The administration will be counting on strong support from Republicans, who traditionally are more supportive of free...

These days, coincidences in the political world are very rare. So, it is curious that the news of Chris Christie's "bridgegate" seems to have emerged at just the right time to give the MSM an excuse (as if they needed one) to chase something other than the revelations in Bob Gates' book. Does anyone know how the incriminating email(s) became public? Who was the source of the leak? THE NSA? The timing is suspicious, this is the kind of thing the Dan Rathers of the world use in October surprises...

When her mind is clear, Gong Qifeng can recall how she begged for mercy. Several people pinned her head, arms, knees and ankles to a hospital bed before driving a syringe of labor-inducing drugs into her stomach. She was seven months pregnant with what would have been her second boy. The drugs caused her to have a stillborn baby after 35 hours of excruciating pain. She was forced to have the abortion by officials in China’s southern province of Hunan in the name of complying with national limits on family size. […] Since the abortion more than two years ago,...

Obama said the same thing about the IRS targeting tea partiers, of course. To which conservatives replied: That’s no excuse. Even if he didn’t order the targeting, bad behavior coordinated by multiple subordinates typically doesn’t happen unless they have reason to believe it’ll be tolerated up the chain. Usually, when they play dirty, they’re taking some sort of cue from their boss to do so, whether in broad ideological terms or direct marching orders.

Government spending will come under the microscope in the coming weeks as we approach the debt limit and our elected officials try to figure out how to keep the government open for business. In all of these negotiations, the topics of revenue (taxes) and spending (expenses) will surely rise. One thing has been very obvious over the past many years: Politicians love to spend our tax dollars—and spend and spend and spend. This disease is not limited to one party over the other. During the eight years under George W. Bush, gross domestic product grew by about 15 percent, and...

Hoping to boost sagging morale, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made a rare visit Thursday to an Air Force nuclear missile base and the men and women who operate and safeguard the nation's Minuteman 3 missiles. But his attempt to cheer the troops was tempered by news that launch officers at another base had been implicated in an illegal-narcotics investigation.... Two officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana are being investigated for allegations of drug possession, said Lt. Col. Brett Ashworth, a service spokesman in Washington. Both of those being investigated are ICBM launch officers with responsibility for operating intercontinental...

In October 2013, House Republicans shut down the federal government in a last-ditch effort to thwart Obamacare. Benefits and downsides of such a shutdown aside, one of the most interesting aspects of it was the way the Obama administration chose to handle what kept operating and what didn’t.Some 80 percent of federal employees continued to work during the shutdown. Grocery stores on Army bases in the U.S. were closed. The golf course at Andrews Air Force base was kept open. The World War II Memorial, which is an open-air memorial, was blockaded and staffed with security. The feds shuttered...

Caleb Jacoby, the missing 16-year-old student from Brookline, was found on Thursday evening, said police. The teen, who attends the Maimonides School, is safe and well, according to a tweet from Brookline police. Jacoby disappeared on Monday afternoon and has been the subject of a wide community search aided by social media outreach. He is the son of Boston Globe OpEd columnist Jeff Jacoby.

Now that we have your attention, allow us to explain. Governor Chris Christie apologized to New Jersey on Thursday for aides who closed traffic lanes in order to punish a Democratic mayor, and he fired a deputy chief of staff. We mention the IRS because Mr. Christie's contrition contrasts so sharply with President Obama's handling of the tax agency's abuse of political opponents and his reluctance to fire anyone other than a military general for anything.

<p>Caleb Jacoby has been found safe in NYC. Few other details are available.</p>

TheMilitary Court of Appeals has accepted an appeal against the leniency of the sentence handed to Muhammed Awad by the Samaria Military Court, over his part in the brutal murder of five members of the Fogel family in March 2011. Muhammed Awad was originally found guilty of accessory to voluntary manslaughter (the military court's equivalent to murder), failing to prevent a crime, weapons trafficking and conspiracy to carry out a shooting. The military court acquitted Muhammed of the first, most serious charge, finding him guilty only for failing to prevent a crime, as well as the latter two charges, which...

January 9, 2014 Understanding the Benghazi/Chappaquiddick connection Chris Adamo On July 18, 1969, while most Americans were feverishly devouring the unfolding events of America's first manned moon landing, the late Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy was doing what cretins typically do. He was tooling around in the backwaters of coastal Massachusetts with Mary Jo Kopechne, a young political aid, who was not his wife. This was after throwing a reunion party for the "Boiler Room Girls" a group of women (including Kopechne) who had participated in the presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy. Most of the tragic events that followed are well...

China has fined director Zhang Yimou $1.2 million for violating the country's one-child policy. In December, Zhang publicly admitted to fathering three children with his wife, actress Chen Ting. The family planning bureau in Wuxi city of Jiangsu province sent Zhang a letter mandating the "social maintenance fee," according to a post on the office's Weibo account. The fine for breaking China's one-child law, instituted in the 1970s to control China's booming population, is pegged according to the parents' income. According to the family planning office, the couple made $580,000 in 2000, 2003 and 2005, the years their children were...

It’s not easy to pile up more than 20,000 sheets of paper — the number of pages of regulations associated with Obamacare, according to some estimates. Yet it’s an effective prop for Ben Sasse, a Republican running for Senate in Nebraska. “This is a picture of what government can’t do well, wasn’t built to do, and inevitably fails at,” he says, gesturing toward the tower of paper. At full height, the pages stand more than nine feet tall. On the evening of December 17, in the First National Bank of Holdrege with its eight-foot ceiling, the top segment has to...

It is as certain as the sun coming up in the morning. Whenever I (or any other political analyst) begin to describe potential dynamics in an upcoming election cycle by citing historical patterns and tendencies, “the look” appears. With some it is eye-rolling. Others shake their heads or suddenly just look bored. But it almost always happens.

Would anyone be interested in posting the daily Savage Nation thread? The show runs 3-6 EST I can no longer put up the thready everyday Please PM me if you would like to post it. Thank

Chris Christie to 81% of voters: "♪You're a cold-hearted snake♫..."- by John Urban | Top Right NewsJust hours before he became embroiled in a mega-scandal over political dirty tricks in Fort Lee by his office and staff that threatens to derail his presidential ambitions, NJ Gov. Chis Christie made a well-publicized appearance to promote his signing of in-state tuition for illegal aliens. As unpopular and controversial as was that decision, Christie as usual couldn't help but throw his (ample) weight around, accusing of heartlessness those who opposed giving a tax-payer funded handout to those breaking our laws just to be...