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Defense: The administration announces a leaner version of our military involving the cutting of tens of thousands of ground troops as a leading defense contractor closes a major plant due to budget cuts. In an unusual appearance at the Pentagon on Thursday, President Obama laid out his plans for a "leaner" military based on the need "to renew our economic strength here at home, which is the foundation of our strength in the world." In other words, failed domestic policies require us to cut our military in a dangerous world. Obama insisted that even after the currently budgeted $460 billion...

National Security: Portrayed as just a shuffling of priorities, the president's defense cuts reduce our two-war strategy to maybe one war and cross your fingers. Champagne corks are popping from Beijing to Tehran. Imagine a scenario in the not-too-distant future when an Iranian Shahab missile mated with an unexpectedly ready nuclear warhead is test-fired and detonates somewhere over the Indian Ocean. The next day Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz as China announces a blockade of Taiwan. The administration's defense cuts, or shifts in priorities as President Obama would have us believe, leaves us woefully unprepared for the unexpected in...

This goes hand-in-hand with Biden’s comments last week that the Taliban aren’t our enemy “per se.” As I mentioned at the time, his remarks weren’t a “gaffe,” they were prepping the way for a complete surrender by our Golfer-in-Chief. Truly, there seems to be nothing Obama and his lackeys won’t do to damage this nation. Outrageous. The Unites States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has removed the name of Afghan Taliban supreme commander Mullah Muhammad Omar from its list of “most wanted terrorists”. Earlier, reports about the US establishing contacts with Omar had surfaced. The reports said that the US...

I'm James Kvaal, the new policy director for President Obama's 2012 campaign. You'll be hearing from me occasionally about the President's policies and those of our opponents, and how we can all help bring about change for our country. Yesterday, we accomplished one major change when President Obama announced that all American troops in Iraq will be home before the holidays. With that action, the Iraq war will end. And one of the President's central promises will have been kept. Both as Americans and as supporters of President Obama, this is something for us to reflect on, and be proud...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Sunday called for President Barack Obama to "sit down" with Republicans to find solutions to the nation's struggling economy.

Increase in critical habitat for a rare spotted frog ...

After pumping $2 trillion into the system, pushing interest rates to the floor and making a bold promise to keep rates low for two years, the Federal Reserve is running out of options.<snip>“It's a pretty critical meeting for the Fed,” said Jeffries market strategist David Zervos, a former Fed adviser. “It's one of those meetings where we know there's going to be a change. It's not just the perfunctory ‘Let's meet and greet and let's make a statement that we're vigilant and we know what we're doing.”<snip>As the U.S. economy falters, Europe has presented Fed officials with an even greater...

The rebel military leader of Tripoli, Abdelhakim Belhaj, has said that one of Gaddafi's son al Saddi called him two hours ago and asked if he can surrender. Al Jazzera's James Bays, reporting from Tripoli said: “We asked him [Abdelhakim Belhaj] about the military situation, remaining members of the Gaddafi family, and he said that he believes one of Gaddafi's sons, al Saddi, is preparing to surrender. "According to Belhaj, Saddi doesn't want to leave Libya, he wants to talk to the national council and negotiate his surrender. He thinks he knows the whereabouts of Saddi Gaddafi from the phone...

Some of France's richest people, including the billionaire heiress of L'Oreal and the head of oil giant Total, urged the government on Tuesday to tax them more to help to solve the country's financial problems. In a petition published on the website of weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, 16 company executives, business leaders and super-rich individuals called for the creation of "a special contribution" that would target wealth without hurting capital flows.

Panetta Says Defeat of Al Qaeda ‘Within Reach’ By ELISABETH BUMILLER KABUL, Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who arrived in Kabul on Saturday, said that the United States was “within reach of strategically defeating Al Qaeda” and that the American focus had narrowed to capturing or killing 10 to 20 crucial leaders of the terrorist group in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. Mr. Panetta, who took over as defense secretary from Robert M. Gates on July 1, made his comments aboard his plane before arriving on an unannounced trip to Kabul, the Afghan capital. They were Mr. Panetta’s first...

Vanessa Perez was a homework scofflaw. The Marshall High School senior didn't finish all of it — largely because she worked 24 hours a week at a Subway sandwich shop. Alvaro Ramirez, a junior at the Santee Education Complex, doesn't have his own room and his mother baby-sits young children at night. "They're always there and they're always loud," he said, explaining his challenges with homework. The nation's second-largest school system has decided to give students like these a break. A new policy decrees that homework can count for only 10% of a student's grade. Critics — mostly teachers —...

A bipartisan team of Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Ron Paul, R-Texas, will introduce federal legislation that would permit states to legalize, regulate, tax and control marijuana without federal interference. The legislation will be unveiled Thursday by Frank, an outspoken liberal Democrat, and the libertarian Paul, who is running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. The bill would limit the U.S. government role in marijuana enforcement to interdiction of cross-border or inter-state smuggling. Citizens would be able to legally grow, use or sell cannabis in states which have legalized the forbidden weed. The legislation is the first bill to be...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday he wanted his US counterpart Barack Obama to win re-election next year, fearing that the two men's efforts to improve ties may lose steam under a new administration. "I can tell you directly -- I would like Barack Obama to be re-elected president of the United States maybe more than someone else," Medvedev said in an interview with the Financial Times whose full transcript was released by the Kremlin early Monday.

These people disgust me. Absolutely disgust me.President or Former President notwithstanding, the United States of America not only publicly bowing in Asian subservience (their culture) earlier this afternoon to a much less powerful nation, but one with one of the worst human rights records on the face of the earth, complete with concentration camps as we speak.Carter arrived today. And did the deed immediately upon arriving at the airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, to a DPRK official. Go to URL here: LINK and hit the arrow to stream.Do these naive morons honestly believe we can gain the friendship with these...

Defense: As Russia invests in new weapons and China increases military spending by double digits, the administration conducts a new review looking to cut our nuclear arsenal even beyond misguided treaty obligations. The F-15 Eagle that lay smoldering in the Libyan desert was downed not by hostile fire but by "mechanical failure." It's a perfect metaphor for the current administration's downgrading of national defense from a constitutional imperative to an optional budget item. The F-22 Raptor was designed to replace our aging F-15 fleet, which is older than the pilots who fly them and whose wings are almost literally falling...

Supremacy: As Beijing resumes double-digit increases in military spending, a leading think tank projects China will achieve military parity in less than a generation. We'd better practice our bows. Back in 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt sent what became known as the Great White Fleet on a worldwide excursion that lasted almost 14 months. Four U.S. naval squadrons, consisting of four battleships each and their escorts, demonstrated America's arrival as a great power that would soon pass Britain as ruler of the waves. Then, the passing of the torch from one great power to another was peacefully presaged by a seemingly...

These are days of thunder once again for my children of light For I am forcasting bad weather for those that have taken me lightly yet plush fields of plenty for all those that have remained in my will and have waited and not doubted for I AM a God of Wonders both for the righteous and those lost in their own world ! These subject(fleshly) matters are merely the flesh rising up in manifestations as satan's vanity appeared before God for truly there is but one King and Kingdom and nothing else matters or carries any weight or substance...

As Congress prepares for a vital debate over debt, deficits, and government spending, there is reason to be concerned that the GOP is engaging in a bit of unilateral disarmament. Over the weekend, several Republican spokesmen, including House majority leader Eric Cantor and House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, indicated that they would, in fact, support increasing the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit when it comes up for a vote in March. Of course, they also said that they would use the vote as “leverage” to demand spending cuts. But how much leverage is there likely to be if they...

Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton appeared with Tucker Carlson last night on Hannity to discuss his strong disapproval of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Bolton believed the ripple effects of the treaty would cost America “for years to come” and Tucker even described alleged liberal rationale for the treaty as “grotesque.” The START treaty, if ultimately ratified by the Russian parliament, would require the drawing down of nuclear warheads of both the U.S. and Russia over the next seven years from current levels of 2,200 each to 1,550. Tucker was first annoyed that Obama rushed the...

“I postponed the trip twice at the request of the administration,” Richardson said on MSNBC. “They signed off on this last trip.” Richardson later said on CNN that when he spoke with officials before his trip, “the administration said, ‘As long as you say that it’s a private trip, go ahead.’ ” He also added, “While I was in North Korea, I did talk to the State Department.”

The Senate voted 67-28 to pass a cloture motion, seemingly enough to assure final ratification. Eleven Republicans joined with 56 Democrats to pass the cloture motion. It will take 67 votes to ratify the New Start pact, which would give the Obama administration its top foreign policy goal in the lame-duck session. Among Republicans announcing their support were Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, George V. Voinovich of Ohio, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, and...

President Obama could be crippling his own reelection effort by making a deal with Republicans to extend all of the Bush-era tax cuts, Democratic strategists and liberal groups said Monday. A two-year extension of tax rates ushered in by President George W. Bush nearly a decade ago, would ensure a resumption of today’s fiery debate in 2012, when Obama is expected to reapply for his job, strategists in both parties said.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is playing with fire. And Israel is getting burned. Over the past week, it has been widely reported that the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government are conducting secret negotiations regarding future Israeli land surrenders to the Palestinians in the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem. According to the reports, the Obama administration has presented Netanyahu with a plan whereby Israel will cede its rights to eastern Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley to the Palestinians and then lease the areas from the Palestinians for a limited period. The reports on the length of the lease vary. Some claim...

Columbus, Ohio (CNN) - Retiring Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said Monday that the upcoming lame duck session of Congress should work together on a handful of key issues to demonstrate a commitment to problem-solving rather than partisan bickering. (snip) He suggested that in the lame duck session, the 18-member bipartisan debt commission should endorse recommendations to help repair the country's deep budget deficit. He called on lawmakers to listen to the commission and have "the courage to move forward and do the tough things that need to be done for our country." (snip) "Once we are elected we ought to...

In an article entitled “Iran joins high-level Afghan talks” by AP writer ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Rizzo says the following: “Iran took part in a high-level meeting on Afghanistan on Monday after the United States said it has no problem with its participation. The international “contact group” met in Rome amid a renewed push to end the nine-year-old war in Afghanistan, including bringing Taliban into peace talks. The group gathers the Afghan government, NATO, the EU, U.N. and other key players — including Iran this time — to assess progress in Afghanistan. Representatives attending the talks said Iran was invited as part...

The lesson from these attempted attacks is clear. Islamic radicals are trying to kill us not because of the policies of George W Bush or Tony Blair, or because there aren't enough U.N. or EU resolutions condemning Israel, or any other grievances the left are trying to project upon our enemies. The reason America and Western Europe are being attacked is because radical Islamists hate the Western way of life. They hate that we are not enslaved to their extremist version of Islam, and they hate the freedom and prosperity that we enjoy in the West. The left are dead...

A federal judge ruled Friday that a decorated flight nurse discharged from the Air Force for being gay should be given her job back as soon as possible in the latest legal setback to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The decision by U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton came in a closely watched case as a tense debate has been playing out over the policy. Senate Republicans blocked an effort to lift the ban this week, but two federal judges have ruled against the policy in recent weeks. Maj. Margaret Witt was discharged under the "don't ask, don't tell"...

Nine years after George W. Bush went to a mosque and proclaimed Islam a religion of peace, all too many Muslims worldwide are less peaceful than ever, and the U.S. government is more determined than ever to ignore, deny, minimize, and even accommodate that fact. As we pass the nine-year mark against the “Enemy That Must Not Be Named,” the Obama Administration seems bent on reinforcing for Islamic jihadists everywhere the idea that if they issue threats of violence, we will give them what they want.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf unashamedly told CNN that relocating the Ground Zero Mosque will proximately cause havoc: "The headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack. But if you don't do this right, anger will explode in the Muslim world." He predicted that "the reaction could be more furious than the eruption of violence following the 2005 publication of Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad... Our national security now hinges on how we negotiate this.[emphasis supplied]." The Imam chooses his words carefully. Let's look at the "reaction" he recalled to publication in a Danish newspaper of...

I wrote this column seven years ago, on the 2nd anniversary of the 9/11 jihadi attacks. Sad to say, I could have just as well written it today. Spitting on their graves by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate 9/10/03 Across the nation, public officials will strike somber poses and shed television-friendly tears and bow their blow-dried heads in memory of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. They’ll hold hands, light candles, and pass around a plateful of platitudes: “Never forget,” they’ll intone. “Let’s roll,” they’ll thunder. “God bless America,” they’ll warble in perfect harmony. They’ll assure us that they...

9/11/2010. This is the day that our government surrendered to the radical Muslim hoardes. Those radical muslims threatened our armed forces, if we are to believe General Petraeus. In response, the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, the FBI (3 times), and General Petraeus all responded to the threat against our troops -- by actively and publicly intervening to stop the exercise of free speech (as defined by the Supreme Court) that was objected to by those who threatened us with war. In response to the overwhelming force of government threats and intimidation, the citizen of our...

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) - Police say a Maryland man accused of firing a high-powered rifle at his ex-girlfriend in a suburban Washington, D.C., apartment complex garage has surrendered to authorities in Pennsylvania. Montgomery County, Md., police say the man fired at least one shot Tuesday morning at the woman as she left for work. The woman was not hit and fled to a nearby apartment in Bethesda.

Recently, Senator John Kerry introduced a bill in the Senate intended to create a two-way professional exchange program that would allow young Americans to work in Muslim countries and citizens of those countries to live in the US. Forgive my cynicism but our government has expended massive resources in the form of money, manpower, and bureaucracy in order to track down terrorists. Multiple arrests recently of homegrown terrorists illustrate the dangers of shipping young Americans off to Muslim countries. Furthermore, many of the 9/11 terrorists were in the US on student visas. Does the Department of Homeland Security really need...

KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait -- As their convoy reached the barbed wire at the border crossing out of Iraq on Wednesday, the soldiers whooped and cheered. Then they scrambled out of their stifling hot armored vehicles, unfurled an American flag and posed for group photos. For these troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism. Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, well ahead of President Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there. ------

Federal agents guarding the U.S.-Mexico border have been ordered to stay away from the most crime-infested stretches because they’re “too dangerous” and patrolling them could result in an “international incident” of cross border shooting.This unbelievable development was made public this week by a veteran law enforcement official in an Arizona county located along the Mexican border. In a video taped interview with a conservative newspaper, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever reveals firsthand accounts from U.S. Border Patrol supervisors stationed in his southeastern Arizona county. Middle and upper management won’t allow agents to work in certain violent portions of the border...

Federal Spending: The secretary of defense announces that due to economic conditions, the military must be slashed by $100 billion. Since when did defending the United States become an optional budget item? As Chinese warships tour the Mediterranean and Iran adds four submarines to its navy, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced this week the closing of the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) in Norfolk, Va., the first step toward finding $100 billion in savings over the next five years. The command was just formed in 1999 to improve the ability of the various services to work together and find efficiencies. It...

Military Superiority: By the end of the year, China could deploy an anti-ship missile capable of hitting U.S. aircraft carriers at long range. The naval dominance that American foreign policy depended on may be at an end. When the naval planners of Imperial Japan were laying out the attack on Pearl Harbor, the major question on their mind was — where are the American carriers? In the end, their failure to find them doomed Imperial Japan to defeat. Since World War II, every president alerted to a crisis has asked the same question — where are the carriers? These floating...

The Obama Administration is pushing for a nuclear-free world to prevent what happened in Japan from ever happening again.. A top Department of Defense official says the U.S. is committed to reducing nuclear weapons but will also counter any nuclear threats from terrorists. The Obama Administration says it will not be conducting underground nuclear tests or developing new nuclear warheads, because it does not want a repetition of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

National Security: Think Moscow will violate the New START arms limitation treaty? A just-issued report says it never obeyed the first one. The motto of the Obama administration is blindly trust, don't verify and unilaterally disarm. You can forget about peace through strength, the Reagan doctrine that won the Cold War. Our policy is now peace through wishful thinking. If Neville Chamberlain and Jimmy Carter had a child, his name would be Barack Obama. The president is pushing ahead with what is called the New START Treaty to rid the world of nuclear weapons, but not those who would use...

Terrorism: The administration says it was surprised and angry at the Lockerbie bomber's "compassionate" release. Now a letter reveals that it actually lobbied for it. Was this malicious intent or mere incompetence? Last week, at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, President Obama was asked what he thought about a possible Senate investigation into the "Lockerbie bomber stuff" — namely that British Petroleum, among its other sins, lobbied the British government to release convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi in order to win oil contracts from the Libyan government. Obama replied: "I think all of us...

It is another dismal capitulation on Europe’s sad road to dhimmitude. The police union for the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) [1] stunned Germans this week when it announced it would bring policemen from Turkey to help patrol the turbulent streets of some immigrant neighbourhoods in NRW cities. With this announcement, the state’s police administration is admitting domestic police forces can no longer handle violent Turkish and other youths of immigrant backgrounds inhabiting these quarters. “It can’t go on like this any longer,” said the union’s chairman, Erich Rettinghaus, in the German national newspaper, Die Welt. “Perhaps it is...

Strategy: As the U.S. retreats from the world stage, the nation's top military officer is warning us about China's military buildup and intentions. Already, China is telling us to keep off the grass. Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen, visiting U.S. troops at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea on Wednesday, talked about his growing concerns about China. "I've moved from being curious about what they're doing to being concerned about what they're doing," the admiral said. "I see a fairly significant investment in high-end equipment — satellites, ships ... anti-ship missiles, obviously high-end aircraft and all those kinds of things....

Priorities: NASA's chief says his mission is not to return us to space but to help the Muslim world feel good about its scientific contributions. The moon we should be landing on should not be crescent-shaped. At a time when the only missile programs in the Arab world, namely in Syria and Iran, are aimed at hitting Israel with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, NASA administrator Charles Bolden goes on Al Jazeera to tell the Muslim world his "foremost" goal was to make them feel good about their achievements in math, science and engineering.

Reports surfaced Monday night that a missile strike in Pakistan had successfully killed Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, also known as Sheik Saeed al-Masri, who was serving as Al Qaeda’s third in charge. This is just the most recent operation to have targeted terrorist leaders in the Middle East and Central Asia. [Snip] But, as NEWSWEEK recently reported, U.S. law-enforcement officials have seen a recent surge in terrorism plots inside the U.S. In September 2009 three men were arrested for an alleged plot to bomb the New York City subway system. Army Psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is accused of killing...

Leadership: Our commander in chief was to miss the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to go on vacation. Other presidents have missed it, but never at wartime. All presidents deserve a vacation, and no president is ever off the clock. But we are at war, and Memorial Day at Arlington has special significance even in peacetime. Those who defend President Obama's decision to take time off were not so understanding whenever President George W. Bush spent time at his Crawford, Texas, ranch. Obama was to be in his old Chicago-area stomping grounds, and those who attacked Bush for taking...

Engagement: The Obama administration suggests there is an all-or-nothing contest between diplomacy and military action, and claims it favors diplomacy. But it shows very little effort on that front. Saturday, President Obama announced to West Point cadets that the U.S. military role was set to be diminished and "diplomacy and cooperation" would take its place instead. Then on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that the Obama administration's new National Security Strategy would emphasize diplomacy over military action again, with the latter to be used only in concert with U.S. allies and organizations. Diplomacy si, military no. It was silly stuff,...

War On Terror: Attempts to punish the Haditha Marines and Navy SEALs for their courage and bravery under fire failed. Now some would reward timidity and cowardice with a medal for "courageous restraint" under fire. A nonsensical proposal circulating in the Kabul headquarters of the International Security Forces in Afghanistan would give a medal to soldiers in battle who show restraint in the use of deadly force in situations where civilian casualties might result. This will not protect civilians as much as it will endanger the lives of our troops. Our soldiers are already disciplined and trained not to wantonly...

Diplomacy: The administration's apology tour continues with a mea culpa to the world's worst human-rights violator for Arizona's enforcement of U.S. immigration law. You'd think Tiananmen Square was in Phoenix. In talks last week with China on the subject of human rights, the U.S. delegation volunteered how sorry we were for Arizona's decision to protect its citizens and its border against illegal immigration — the operative word being "illegal." You would assume the Chinese broached the subject to blunt any criticism of their policies and record. But our delegates beat them to it by groveling on their own initiative in...

The two presidents -- Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama -- were onstage together in the East Room of the White House for 40 minutes May 12. They each talked about how they had differed in the past and how committed they are to going forward together. Both leaders expressed great hope in their mutual "quest for peace" and the forthcoming "peace jirga," or "reconciliation talks," to be held in Kabul at the end of this month. Neither the leaders nor any of the journalists present mentioned a cease-fire or the unseen skunk at their picnic, Mullah Mohammad Omar. Mullah Omar,...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's weeklong visit to Washington seems intended to ease tension and suspicions. Reporting from Washington President Obama signaled Wednesday that despite his earlier hesitation he may embrace a plan by his counterpart from Afghanistan to reconcile with certain Taliban leaders in hopes of uniting the country and ending a conflict that has stretched nearly nine years. Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, speaking to reporters at a joint White House news conference, downplayed grievances that had flared into public view in recent months. "With respect to perceived tensions between the U.S. government and the Afghan government, let...