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Caption anyone..? U.S. President Barack Obama walks past a statue of a pig in a chef's uniform as he arrives to meet diners at the Countryside Barbecue restaurant in Marion, North Carolina, October 17, 2011. Obama began a three day bus trip to North Carolina and Virginia on Monday to promote his American Jobs Act that faces congressional approval. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS)

SCOTTS VALLEY - Dozens of people turned out Friday to say goodbye to Lintelle Engineering founder Bill Turner, who hosted a picnic for current and former staff in the company parking lot on El Pueblo Road. Lintelle, founded in 1989, was forced to close after its largest customer, Solyndra, filed for bankruptcy owing $1.9 million for equipment built by Lintelle employees. The bankruptcy filing came despite Solyndra receiving a $535 million federal loan guarantee. "It's hard to see this happen," asked Teri Stacher, 47, of Santa Cruz, who worked for Lintelle for 12 years. "We figured with the federal government...

Americans consider President Obama to be the smartest and most honest presidential candidate against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, according to a new poll, but religious groups differ on their views of the candidates' attributes. Among evangelicals, Perry scored the highest and Romney scored the lowest, though Romney tied with Obama on leadership skills. ... Catholics overwhelmingly ranked Obama higher than the other two candidates in all four categories.

Politics: The hippie horde attempting to mob and "occupy" Wall Street this week has a method to its madness. It's all about getting President Obama re-elected by employing classic Alinskyite tactics. At first glance, the latest protests staged by left-wing rent-a-mobs in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and elsewhere don't look terribly different from the World Trade Organization and global debt-amnesty spectaculars of a decade ago. Radicals swarm against some hated totem, chant, break a few Starbucks windows and leave scads of garbage for someone else to clean up. But the "Occupy Wall Street" mob that shut down the Brooklyn...

Senate Republicans tried to make Democrats hold a quick vote on President Obama's jobs-stimulus bill Tuesday, but were blocked by Senate Majority Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is sponsoring Mr. Obama's bill but who said other matters take priority.

(Reuters) - U.S. officials have met members of the Muslim Brotherhood's political party, a U.S. diplomat said, after Washington announced it would have direct contacts with Egypt's biggest Islamist group whose role has grown since U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak was ousted.

First lady Michelle Obama says her husband deserves re-election not only for his first term accomplishments and vision for the future, but because of his genuine empathy for families dealing with tough economic times. “He understands these issues, not just because he’s smart but because he’s lived them,” Obama told a group of 100 campaign donors at a $2,500-a-plate luncheon in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. “He was raised by a single mother who struggled to put herself through school and pay the bills. And when she needed help, who stepped in? His grandmother, waking up early every morning to take a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a sharp rebuke of his Republican rivals, President Barack Obama said anyone who wants to be commander in chief must support the entire U.S. military, including gay service members. A combative Obama criticized GOP presidential candidates for staying silent when the crowd at a recent debate booed a gay soldier who asked a question of the contenders via videotape. "You want to be commander in chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it's not politically convenient," Obama said during remarks at...

Megan McArdle writes in the Atlantic about the difference between government venture capital and private venture capital. By far the biggest difference is not even mentioned. There is a dramatic and critical difference between government loan guarantees and private venture capital (PVC). The PVC investor expects to make a bundle from his investment, typically by getting an equity stake and cashing out when the successful firm goes public. That’s the best case scenario for PVC. If the company fails, they’re out their seed capital. When the government gets into the venture capital business, risking your money and mine, what’s the...

With absolutely no proof of any kind of who he really is, Barack Obama made it to the Oval Office in 2008. There was no media vetting of the largely absentee senator from Illinois, who even back then had the temerity to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln. All anyone ever had to go on was an autobiographical book suspected of being ghost-written by an unrepentant domestic terrorist. We all know how it goes with politicians and autobiographical books.

A state lawmaker and a group of Democratic political donors with ties to Gov. Beverly Perdue are poised to sell land at a handsome profit for a tire plant that's being lured with $100 million in state and local incentives, according to public records reviewed by The Associated Press. As North Carolina's chief executive, the governor is a key decision maker in large incentives deals involving state money. She also helps appoint the board members of a foundation that's been asked to provide part of the tire plant's package. Perdue's campaign has received more than $52,000 from five men with...

Bloomberg reports that the FBI is investigating Solyndra for accounting fraud, according to a source close to the solar panel company. The report confirms assumptions that the Department of Justice has been looking into whether Solyndra misrepresented the company's financial situation in order to obtain — and then refinance — a $534 million loan from the federal government. We've previously written that Solyndra executives assured the administration that the company's future was bright, even as the company's internal audits showed its finances deteriorating. The company declared bankruptcy earlier this month, prompting the FBI probe, as well as two Congressional investigations.

New applications for unemployment benefits sank by 37,000 last week to 391,000 to mark the lowest level since April, but a government official suggested the surprising drop may have stemmed from a variety of "technical" issues...

Obama’s Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett: The Point of Government Is to Give People a Livelihood so They Can Provide for Their Families (With Video)

Two men of Bangladeshi origin were caught by Customs and Border Protection illegally crossing the US-Mexico border last June and admitted they were members of a terrorist organization that allied with Bin Laden against America. Now, it appears at least one of those men is free after posting bail and claiming asylum. And the Department of Homeland security has no idea where he is. The information is according to a report this week by Pajamas Media, which gives some background on these suspected terrorists: “The two men, Muhammad Nazmul Hasan and Mirza Muhammad Saifuddin, were intercepted near Naco, Arizona, not...

GOP's Solyndra probe threatens to ensnare Energy Secretary ChuBy Andrew Restuccia - 09/29/11 05:00 AM ET The controversy over a $535 million loan guarantee to the now-bankrupt California solar firm Solyndra is threatening to dim the star of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a physicist and Nobel Prize winner who has rarely been thrust into the political spotlight. Republican lawmakers have set their sites on Chu, who for three years has managed to avoid being dragged into a litany of political battles waged by Republicans and the White House on energy and environmental issues. The GOP has for weeks lobbed a...

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As a way to solve the national debt crisis, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue recommends suspending Congressional elections for the next couple of years. “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.” Perdue said she thinks that temporarily halting elections would allow members...

Another Hawaii source with inside knowledge has asserted that Obama supporters placed a forged 1961 long-form birth certificate in the vault of the Hawaii Department of Health. Talk-radio host and former Nixon White House operative G. Gordon Liddy told WND that one of his trusted informants in Hawaii reported to him that while the document was forged recently, there may have been tampering with official Obama birth records as far back as 1978. Liddy's warning came in response to WND reports that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is mobilizing a law enforcement unit with the authority to investigate allegations that...

<p>Supposed to commemorate this?</p>