Chinese Engaged in Major Nuclear Arms Buildup; New Mobile ICBM Tested Last Week

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China’s military carried out a fourth flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile last week, firing off a new road-mobile ICBM on Thursday, according to U.S. officials.

U.S. intelligence agencies monitored the flight test of the DF-31A missile from China’s Wuzhai Space and Missile Test Center to an impact range in western China.

Thursday’s DF-31A test came 10 days after the flight test at Wuzhai of a silo-based CSS-4 Mod 2 long-range missile, and several weeks after flight tests of a new road-mobile DF-41 ICBM, on July 24, and a submarine-launched JL-2 missile on Aug. 16.

U.S. intelligence officials believe the DF-41 will eventually be outfitted with between three and ten warheads. It would be the first time China’s strategic missiles were outfitted with multiple, independently-targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRVs.

China is currently in the middle of a major strategic nuclear forces buildup that includes four new ICBMs – the DF-41, JL-2, DF-31A, and another road-mobile missile called the DF-31 that is assessed to have less range than the DF-31A.

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Dinesh D’Souza’s Response to AP’s Fact Check on “2016: Obama’s America”

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A few days ago the Associated Press ran a news article by reporter Beth Fouhy charging that my film “2016” contains serious factual errors. Remarkably, for a news article, the reporter didn’t bother to check with me or anyone else at the film. This was my first indication that something was deeply wrong with this article. Let’s look at the specific charges raised in the AP article.

First, it claims that I “never mention the explosion of debt that occurred under Obama’s predecessor, Republican George Bush.” This is simply false. The film quotes former Comptroller David Walker saying that the national debt exploded under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The film shows a clear graphic depicting the actual debt increase under both presidents, so that the viewer can compare them. The simple truth is that Bush’s largest annual deficits were below $500 billion and Obama’s lowest annual deficit was above $1 trillion. So Bush was a big spender and Obama an even bigger spender. This is made crystal-clear in the film.

Second, the AP article quotes me as saying that Obama has “done nothing” to prevent Iran from getting nuclear bombs. This is a deliberate misquotation. Actually in the film I recall a prediction that I made in my book The Roots of Obama’s Rage. The prediction was that Obama “would do nothing significant” to prevent Iran from getting nuclear bombs. By omitting the word “significant,” AP can then claim that Obama has taken some measures, including some modest sanctions, against Iran. But my point is that these measures are so weak that they cannot be expected to–and in fact haven’t–deterred the mullahs in the slightest.

Third, the AP article “refutes” my contention that Obama is weirdly sympathetic to Muslim jihadis fighting against America by pointing out that Obama ordered the killing of Osama Bin Laden and has also approved drone strikes against Al Qaeda. My argument was based on the premise that Obama wants to close down Guantanamo and to extend constitutional rights to jihadis captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. I explained Obama’s peculiar position by saying that he views these jihadis as freedom fighters seeking to liberate their countries from American occupation. As Obama has made clear, he views Bin Laden and Al Qaeda quite differently, as international gangsters who go abroad to kill innocent people. So my argument about Obama is quite consistent with his actions against Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

Fourth, the AP article claims that I misrepresent Obama’s position on the Falkland Islands. Not true. The British position on the Falklands is that the islands belong to the U.K. The Argentine position supports negotiations over the control of the islands. Despite the special relationship between America and Britain, and despite the fact that Republican and Democratic presidents have supported the British position, the Obama administration has switched sides and now supports the Argentine position calling for negotiations. This is reflected in resolutions passed by the Organization of American States and backed by the United States.

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Return to Normal Interest Rates, not the “Fiscal Cliff,” is the Clear & Present Danger to US Budget/Economy

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Photo credit: 401(K) 2012

As we head toward the end of the year, the media’s fixation with the congressionally imposed “fiscal cliff” will reach a fever pitch and no doubt become a major factor in the presidential campaign. The danger is supposed to arise from the simultaneous implementation of $2 trillion in automatic spending “cuts” (in reality, just reductions in the rate by which federal spending increases) and the expiration of the George W. Bush-era tax rates. Most economists fear that higher taxes and slower increases in federal spending will combine to send us back into recession. Despite the hand-wringing, it is certain that the lame-duck Congress will slap together a late-December, last-minute, can-kicking compromise that will buy time at the expense of long-term solvency. Any success in wriggling out of this particular budgetary straitjacket will just make it more certain that we head straight for another, larger, fiscal cliff that is hiding in plain sight.

As it is constructed currently, the U.S. budget will be completely and thoroughly upended when interest rates approach levels that would be considered normal by historical standards. A mere 5 percent rate portends a clear and present danger to the budgetary priories of the United States.

The current national debt is about $16 trillion. This is just the funded portion — the unfunded liabilities of the Treasury, such as Social Security and Medicare, and off-budget items, such as guaranteed mortgages and student loans, loom much larger. Our recent era of unprecedented fiscal irresponsibility means we are throwing an additional $1 trillion or more on the pile every year. The only reason this staggering debt load hasn’t crushed us already is that the Treasury has been able to service it through historically low interest rates (now below 2 percent). These easy terms keep debt-service payments to a relatively manageable $300 billion per year.

On the current trajectory, the national debt likely will hit $20 trillion in a few years. If, by that time, interest rates were to return to 5 percent (a low rate by postwar standards) interest payments on the debt could run around $1 trillion per year. Such a sum would represent almost 40 percent of total current federal revenues and likely would constitute the single largest line item in the federal budget. A balance sheet so constructed would create an immediate fiscal crisis in the United States.

In addition to making the debt service unmanageable, a return to normal rates of interest would depress the kind of low-rate-dependent economic activity that characterizes our current economy. A slowing economy would cut down on tax revenue and trigger increased government spending to beleaguered public sectors. Higher rates on government debt also would push up mortgage rates, thereby putting renewed downward pressure on home prices and perhaps leading to another large wave of foreclosures. (My guess is that losses on government-insured mortgages alone could add several hundred billion dollars more to annual budget deficits.) When all of these factors are taken into account, I think annual deficits could quickly approach, and then exceed, $3 trillion. This would double the amount of debt we need to sell annually.

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Gigantic Footprint in Denali Park Sheds Light on Prehistoric Alaska

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Photo credit: Anthony Fiorillo

A recent discovery of an enormous, ancient footprint in Denali National Park is being seen as another indication of how busy the Alaskan landscape was with prehistoric animals coming and going for seasonal food hunting. Anthony Fiorillo is the curator of earth sciences at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas. He says the first dinosaur print in Denali was found in 2005. He says that discovery, now on display at the Murie Science & Learning Center was the tip of the iceberg in terms of realizing how much dinosaur activity Denali once contained.

“Every year we’ve been going up there and every year we’ve been documenting dozens or hundreds of new localities. So at this point it’s safe to say that Denali national park actually has thousands of dinosaur foot prints throughout part of the park,” Fiorillo said.

Fiorillo says the new find, a Therizinosaur track was beyond Fang Mountain.

“Once you cross the sanctuary river and looked to the south side of the road, you would be looking all the way out to Toklat camp and even a little bit beyond that, you would be driving through some of the best dinosaur country, anywhere,” Fiorillo said.

Fiorillo says the feathered Therizinosaur was related to both Tyranasaurus rex and the chickadee, with four forward facing toes and peg like teeth suited for chomping vegetation.

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Liberal actor John Cusack asks, Is the Muslim-Sounding Obama an “A**hole” for Gutting Constitution?

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In an interview with Truthout, liberal Actor John Cusack takes Obama to task for warring against the Constitution:

Mr. Obama, the Christian president with the Muslim-sounding name, would heed the admonitions of neither religion’s prophets about making war and do what no empire or leader, including Alexander the Great, could do: he would, he assured us “get the job done in Afghanistan.” And so we have our democratic president receiving the Nobel Peace Prize as he sends 30,000 more troops to a ten-year-old conflict in a country that’s been war-torn for 5,000 years.

Why? We’ll never fully know. Instead, we got a speech that was stone bullsh*t and an insult to the very idea of peace…

One is forced to asked the question: Is the President just another Ivy League A**hole shredding civil liberties and due process and sending people to die in some sh*thole for purely political reasons? …

Just think about the economic crisis we are in as a country. It could never happen, they said. The American middle class was rock solid. The American dream, home ownership, education, the opportunity to get a good job if you applied yourself… and on and on. Yeah, what happened to that? It’s gone.

The next question must be: “What happened to our civil liberties, to our due process, which are the foundation of any notion of real democracy?” The chickens haven’t come home to roost for the majority but the foundation has been set and the Constitution gutted.

Obama Destroying Black Families

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Photo credit: cheriejoyful

When we assess the President’s post-election performance and the effects of his redistributive and regulatory policies, we find that, like a falling tide, he is sinking everyone. We also find that although Barack Obama has hurt all American families, he has hurt black families most of all.

The metaphor of the economy as a tide is particularly helpful. When the tide rises, our boats rise. When the tide falls, our boats fall. Just as water may not be subdivided to make some boats rise and others fall, our economy cannot be subdivided, either.

Similarly helpful is Democrat Daniel Moynihan’s longstanding observation: “During times when jobs were reasonably plentiful … the Negro family became stronger and more stable. As jobs became more and more difficult to find, the stability of the family became more and more difficult to maintain.”

Black families are faring worse than at any time in the last 25 years, and worse than at this point with President Obama than with Presidents G.W. Bush, Clinton, H.W. Bush, Reagan, and even Carter. These presidential comparisons span a period of almost four decades.

Black Adults. Black unemployment has been persistently high for a long time. Likewise, median weeks unemployed are higher than under any other president. These facts are testaments to the ineffectiveness of the Obama presidency. We are experiencing a 28-year high in black unemployment; but unlike January 1983, when black unemployment spiked but then soon improved, Barack Obama’s black unemployment has hovered in the 14%-16% range for over three years (now 14.1%).

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Celebrating Labor Day: A ‘Jobless Recovery’ On Earth, And The Future Of Workers On Mars

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Photo credit: Robert Couse-Baker

Happy Labor Day! And what better time than this annual celebration of America’s working stiffs to draw attention to our national economic recovery?

As those attached to the Dow Jones Average can attest, the economy is now perking along quite nicely, with the Dow up 57 percent since the dark days of 2009, presently soaring above 13,000. Also, the nation’s pile of wealth has grown impressively, executive paychecks have zoomed back up to Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah levels, and sales at stores like Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue are absolutely crackerjack!

The only little cloud over this otherwise sunshiny recovery is … well, you. You people for whom Labor Day is named, that is.

Not only did Wall Street’s crash knock jobs, wages, benefits, homeownership and middle-class opportunities into the ditch, but they’re still stuck there — and even sinking lower. Yet the financial elites, political establishment and media powers remain rapturously focused on the Dow, uncaring about the precipitous decline in the Doug Jones Average.

If Doug and Donna aren’t prospering, neither is America, no matter how much wealth the privileged few are lavishing on luxury goods or socking away in offshore tax havens.

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US Debt Will Hit $16 Trillion on Day Democratic Convention Begins

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Photo credit: Images_of_Money

Just as Democrats are gaveling in their convention Tuesday, the federal government likely will announce another dubious milestone — $16 trillion in total federal debt.

In an election already focused on domestic issues of jobs, spending and deficits, the $16 trillion number is likely to underscore just how much is at stake in November for both parties, which are offering dramatically different ways to begin to eat away at the deep hole.

Gross federal debt has been flirting with $16 trillion for the past two weeks, and the government ended Thursday $15.991 trillion in debt.

With several debt auctions scheduled for the end of last week, budget analysts think the government probably broached the $16 trillion number on Friday, and it will be reported to the public Tuesday, which, thanks to the Labor Day holiday, is the next business day.

While $16 trillion isn’t a tipping point, it is a stark number that Republicans said will reflect poorly on Mr. Obama, who has overseen the biggest debt explosion in the country’s history.

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60% of All Union Members Disagree With Their Unions’ Political Expenditures

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Photo credit: SEIU Local 1

This election year, millions of Americans will donate to the political candidates and initiatives of their choice at the local, state, and federal levels. But for unionized workers, union dues come out of their paychecks and go to political causes—and they aren’t consulted on where that money will go.

In July, The Wall Street Journal’s Tom McGinty and Brody Mullins published an eye-opening report that “Organized labor spends about four times as much on politics and lobbying as generally thought.”

They broke down the unions’ political spending from 2005 to 2011: $1.1 billion “supporting federal candidates through their political-action committees, which are funded with voluntary contributions, and lobbying Washington, which is a cost borne by the unions’ own coffers.”

But that was only the beginning. Add to that another $3.3 billion for political activity from “polling fees, to money spent persuading union members to vote a certain way, to bratwursts to feed Wisconsin workers protesting at the state capitol last year.” Who pays for this? The workers, McGinty and Mullins report: “Much of this kind of spending comes not from members’ contributions to a PAC but directly from unions’ dues-funded coffers.”

Despite findings that 60 percent of union members object to their dues being spent on political causes, this practice continues. Why?

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Democrat Federal Judge Rules In Favor of Obama’s Demand to Have More Hours to Bus In Democrat Voters

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United States District Court judge Peter Economus, a registered Democrat appointed by President Clinton, ruled in favor of President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign today, instructing Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted to allow early in-person voting the weekend before the November election.

Ohio’s early in-person absentee voting hours begin in less than a month, and all registered voters in Ohio will be mailed absentee ballot applications. The federal court ruling will allow counties to hold weekend in-person voting hours, but only on the weekend immediately prior to Election Day.

Absent Economus’s ruling, the early voting schedule was set to allow military voters to cast early ballots through the day before the election, while non-military voters would be able to cast early ballots until 6:00 PM on Friday, November 2.

“‘In-person early voting’ is a voting term that had included the right to vote in person through the Monday before Election Day, and, now, thousands of voters who would have voted during those three days will not be able to exercise their right to cast a vote in person,” Economus wrote in his decision.

In July, Obama for America, the Ohio Democratic Party, and the Democratic National Committee sued Husted and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine – who are both Republicans – demanding that all Ohioans have the same weekend voting privileges as military voters. Early in-person voting was a key component of Obama’s 2008 election strategy.

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