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"So, just in case some of your friends or neighbors or, ya know, Uncle Jim who’s a little stubborn and been watching Fox News and, ya know, he thinks that somehow I raised taxes. Let’s just be clear. We’ve lowered taxes for middle class families since I came in office," President Obama said at a campaign event in Virginia Beach, VA today.

Politicians talk about the burden of taxes incessantly. Now comes a rare chance to check the facts. And the fact is that federal tax rates had fallen to the lowest in 30 years when President Barack Obama took office — and fell again in his first year in office. This news comes from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which just issued the latest update of its invaluable series on “Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes,” this time covering 2008 and 2009. The CBO’s statistical series now covers the 30 years since 1979. The average rate paid by all households...

Driven by a yawning marriage gap, and a 2-1 lead among single women, President Barack Obama gets 46 percent of American voters to 43 percent for Gov. Mitt Romney, largely on the support of singles, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. Married voters back Romney 51 – 38 percent, while unmarried voters back President Obama 54 – 34 percent, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. Among married voters, Romney leads 54 – 35 percent among men and 49 – 42 percent among women. Among single voters, Obama leads 47 – 38 percent among men and 60...

During Sunday’s edition of the long-running syndicated political talk show The McLaughlin Group, the panel discussed the potential for a female presidency in America. Asked specifically when the country would elect its first female president, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan predicted the year “2040 or 2050.” When pressed about the year being so far away, Buchanan quipped “let’s hope so.” No stranger to controversy, Buchanan was recently fired from his contributor post at MSNBC after controversy erupted over his newest book which bemoans “the end of White America.” During a segment asking “Where are the women?” the panel discussed the fact...

A cat spooked a television reporter when it jumped on the woman's back as she did a live shot in front of a camera for a local newscast. Nicole DiDonato, a morning reporter for Fox 17 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, did a live report on Thursday about the day's happenings following the Fourth of July when a gray cat sneaked up from behind and jumped on the journalist's shoulder. Ms DiDonato continued to finish her report before she broke out into laughter as the cat remained on her left shoulder the entire time. Video at source. Cat episode starts at...

Aging rocker and reality TV personality Ted Nugent is emerging, even ahead of Donald Trump, as Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s most embarrassing public supporter. Nugent is at it again, reacting to the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act by writing in the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times that America would have been better off had the South won the Civil War. A full Nugent rant, which might be subtitled “Robe Rage”: “The bottom line is that Chief Justice Roberts’ traitor vote will ensure more monumental spending and wasted taxes and put almost 15 percent of the...

To hear Rupert Murdoch tell it lately, Mitt Romney lacks stomach and heart. He “seems to play everything safe.” And he is not nearly as tough as he needs to be on President Obama. Mr. Murdoch’s thoughts on the Republican presidential candidate’s prospects? “Tough O Chicago pros will be hard to beat unless he drops old friends from the team.” Chances of that? “Doubtful,” he tapped out in a Twitter message from his iPad last weekend. Then, on Thursday, Mr. Murdoch’s flagship newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, published a blistering editorial criticizing Mr. Romney’s campaign, accusing it of being hapless...

For nearly 15 years, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's financial portfolio has included an offshore company that remained invisible to voters as his political star rose. Based in Bermuda, Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd. was not listed on any of Romney's state or federal financial reports. The company is among several Romney holdings that have not been fully disclosed, including one that recently posted a $1.9 million earning -- suggesting he could be wealthier than the nearly $250 million estimated by his campaign. The omissions were permitted by state and federal authorities overseeing Romney's ethics filings, and he has...

Prominent Dems including White House chief of staff Jack Lew and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have repeatedly argued in recent days that the fee for not buying insurance under the health care law is in fact a penalty and not a tax. They got support from an unexpected quarter on Monday: the Romney campaign. Mitt Romney's senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told Chuck Todd on MSNBC's Daily Rundown that he agrees - the fee is a penalty and not a tax, as the Supreme Court ruled last week. "The governor disagreed with the ruling of the court," Fehrnstrom said. "He...

I should NOT watch pbs but I did :( Full Show: Confronting the Contradictions of America’s Past June 29, 2012 Bill opens this weekend’s Moyers & Company with a reminder that behind this Fourth of July holiday are human beings, like Thomas Jefferson, who were as flawed and conflicted as they were inspired, who espoused great humanistic ideals while behaving with reprehensible racial discrimination. That conflict – between what we know and how we live – is still a struggle in contemporary politics and society. No stranger to the contradictions of history and their racial touchpoints is Bill’s studio guest...

Sarah Palin slaps around Bob Beckel. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin appeared on Fox News Channel’s The Five on Friday where she gave a wide ranging interview about the Supreme Court decision on health care on Thursday as well as her objections to health care reform legislation. Towards the end of the interview, Palin challenged ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos to call out President Barack Obama for lying to him in an interview where he famously claimed that the individual mandate in health care reform was not a tax.

I never will forget when I persuaded my husband to vote for Obama as I just knew he was THE man. Now, I feel guilty and cannot believe that I was so taken in by his smoothe personality and the moment. When I hear comments that our country is spiraling out of control I now connect the dots and think of it as a battle already lost to one that doesn’t deserve it. We’ve become a gullible people and are deceived by a selfish and materialistic world. We look over the rough spots because we cannot look upon the truth...

BELGRADE, Serbia – Socialist leader Ivica Dacic won a mandate Thursday to form a new Serbian government, marking a full-scale return of the late Slobodan Milosevic's former allies to power for the first time since the autocrat's ouster in a popular revolt in 2000. President Tomislav Nikolic formally approved Dacic as prime minister designate to lead the new coalition government that would include the Socialists, Nikolic's nationalists and a small center-right party. Although Nikolic and his nationalists claim to have shifted from being staunchly anti-Western to pro-European Union, a new nationalist-dominated government is likely to stall Serbia's proclaimed EU membership...

Quinnipiac University's latest three-state poll of 2012 battlegrounds shows modest improvement for President Barack Obama, after what's been perceived as a rough political month: Voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania support President Barack Obama’s new immigration policy and are divided on whether the president or Gov. Mitt Romney would be better for their personal economic future, as they give Obama leads in these three critical swing states, a razor thin 4 points in Florida, a healthy 9 points in Ohio and 6 points in Pennsylvania, according to a Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll released today. This compares to the results...

Vatican flag. Credit: Mazur. Vatican City, Jun 24, 2012 / 01:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Fox News Rome correspondent and former National Catholic Register journalist Greg Burke has been praised as the ideal choice for the Vatican's new media adviser post. “It's an incredible challenge,” Burke told CNA on June 24. “I didn't want to leave the job at Fox, which has been a wonderful gig.” “But I think if I didn't take it, I would always be wondering if I could have made a difference,” he said. “I guess now I'll get to find out.” Burke's newly created position...

NBC News' Thomas Roberts accuses Rep. John Mica (R-FL) of "sour grapes" and having "an axe to grind" for requesting Fast and Furious documents that, according to Roberts, Congress is "not entitled to." s

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Hypothetically, if Marco Rubio were not an American citizen and could not provide food for his family, he says he would cross the border illegally to come to the United States. While discussing immigration policy in his new memoir, An American Son, Rubio called for "common decency" in dealing with undocumented immigrants and said that if put in a similar position as those who are fleeing destitution, he would break the law, too. "Many people who come here illegally are doing exactly what we would do if we lived in a country where we couldn't feed our families," Rubio writes...

President Obama has tapped Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, to play Republican Mitt Romney in mock debate rehearsals, Obama campaign officials and the senator’s office confirmed Monday. Kerry will help Obama prepare for among the most consequential events of his reelection campaign — the three fall debates against Romney. As the senior senator from Massachusetts, Kerry has studied Romney’s career and campaign style for nearly two decades and has first-hand knowledge of his record as governor

Claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly climbed by 6,000 to 386,000 in the week ended June 9 from a revised 380,000 the prior week that was more than first estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists projected claims would fall to 375,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Really? Unexpected? Again?! Who exactly are these economists that keep getting surveyed who it seems really couldn't forecast their way out of a wet paper bag? Let's try something - let's take our statistics-based analytical method and find out just how far back in time we could...