Grenade Attack At U.S. Consulate In Mexico

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Photo Credit: diarioimagen.net Three grenades exploded Thursday evening in Nuevo Laredo, just feet from the U.S. Consulate office, sources in the Mexican border city said.

No injuries were reported, but the explosions rattled the neighborhood, as locals scurried for cover amid a firefight between what’s believed to be members of the Zetas criminal group and their former allies, the Gulf cartel, which is making a push to reclaim the territory.

The two groups appear to be battling, leaving a trail of killings and burned houses. In recent days, sources said, seven people have been killed — three of them Americans — and five homes torched.

The U.S. Consulate issued an alert, and Mexican soldiers were deployed to guard the building.

This is the second time in three years, an explosion has rocked the U.S. facility.

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Massachusetts Governor Declares State Of Emergency, Institutes Travel Ban (+video)

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Photo Credit: Paul and Linda MorrisGov. Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts Friday afternoon for the blizzard that could bring up to 3 feet of snow.

He also announced he has signed an executive order to ban all travel on all roads in the state starting at 4 p.m. Friday.

There are some exceptions to the ban, including emergency workers, those who work in hospitals and media, and others required to be at their jobs.

The governor said rapid snowfall of 2-3 inches per hour will make for, “extremely dangerous conditions,” and will “make safe travel nearly impossible.”

This is the first time that a Massachusetts governor has issued an executive order like this since the Blizzard of 1978.

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Video: Joe Biden Caught on Camera Admitting Gun Control Will Not Stop Mass Shootings

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After pontificating about the government’s ‘moral obligation’ to push for more gun control, the Vice President has now been caught on camera saying that the new measures being pushed by the White House won’t diminish the possibility of more mass shootings.

Wow – a stunning reversal. It makes one wonder whether this was even a good faith effort on the part of the Administration in the first place.

Never mind the fact that the Democrats rolled out their pre-packaged bills as soon as they had a pretext. This latest gaffe by Joe Biden is rather morally problematic, if I may follow the Vice President’s lead in the invocation of categorical imperatives.

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Panetta: Sequestration Would Make U.S. ‘Second-Rate Power’

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Photo Credit: U.S. Army AfricaSecretary of Defense Leon Panetta used a hearing on the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on Benghazi to plead with Congress for a budget agreement that would prevent sequestration cuts to the Department of Defense.

During his testimony before the Senate Armed Forces Committee on Thursday, Panetta said his greatest concern as defense secretary is the fiscal uncertainty hanging over Washington.

“I cannot imagine that people would stand by and deliberately hurt this country, in terms of our national defense, by letting this happen,” he said.

Ultimately, sequestration cuts would erode the military’s capabilities and threaten its world standing, Panetta asserted.

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Oregon Man Claims IRS Agent Coerced Sex By Threatening Tax Penalty (+video)

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Photo Credit: KVALEUGENE, Ore. — A Fall Creek resident filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Government and an IRS agent that he alledges pressured him into sex by threatening a tax penalty.

The law firm representing Vincent Burroughs filed the suit with the U.S. District Court in Eugene on Jan. 25 “as a result to coersive conduct by Defendant (Dora) Abrahamson,” an Internal Revenue Service agent from Cottage Grove.

Burroughs claims that in August of 2011 Abrahamson called him and said he would be audited by the IRS. He claims that at the time he didn’t know her.

Burroughs says that he had not met Abrahamson before those calls, nor had he heard that he was being audited by the IRS.

“She was sending me texts that she wanted to come out, give me massages because she needed to help me relax,” Burroughs said in a phone interview with KVAL News.

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Currency Wars Return, 1930s Style

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As countries try to weaken their currencies to boost exports, the risk of a currency war similar to events seen in the 1930s has heightened, and policymakers are making sure they are on the winning side, according to Morgan Stanley.

The balance of power now rests with Japan, according to the bank, as Japan’s policy-makers’ more dovish approach looks set to bring the world a step closer to a currency war.

The Bank of Japan doubled its inflation target to 2 percent in January and made an open-ended commitment to continue buying assets from next year. This follows a leadership change, with new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe openly calling for aggressive monetary stimulus from the country’s central bank.

This move, Morgan Stanley said, is a “game changer” as Japan tries to invigorate its stagnating economy .

“If a weaker yen is an important pillar of the strategy to make this export-oriented economy more competitive again, it brings into the picture something that was missing from earlier interactions among central banks of the advanced economies – competitive depreciation,” it said in a research note.

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Video: General Says of Benghazi, ‘We Never Received a Request for Support from the State Department’

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General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the State Department never requested “support” in Benghazi:

“Why didn’t you put forces in place to be ready to respond?,” Senator John McCain asked the general.

Dempsey started, “Because we never received a request to do so, number one. And number two, we –“

McCain iterrupted, “You never heard of Ambassador Stevens’s repeated warnings?”

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Pyongyang Provocation: North Korea Set For Test Launch Of New Mobile ICBM With Upcoming Nuclear Test

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Photo Credit: APU.S. intelligence agencies monitoring North Korea for signs of a third underground nuclear test recently reported that the isolated communist state appears set to conduct the first test launch of a new road-mobile ICBM built with Chinese technology.

U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports said the North Koreans are expected to test fire either a new KN-08 road-mobile ICBM—capable of reaching parts of the United States—or a new medium-range advanced missile called the Musudan, also built on hard-to-detect mobile launchers.

New intelligence on the KN-08, which was showcased for the first time last April during a North Korean military parade atop a Chinese-made mobile transporter-launcher, indicates the North Koreans are preparing to launch one or more of the missiles around the time they conduct a future nuclear test.

Six of the missiles were shown during the parade. The range of the missile is not known because it has not yet been flight-tested. However, intelligence agencies believe it can range Alaska and Hawaii and possibly the U.S. West Coast.

The missile test preparations coincide with new intelligence indicating the North Koreans could conduct a third underground nuclear test at a remote facility in the northern part of the country called Kilju. Earlier nuclear tests were conducted in 2006 and 2009.

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Beyonce Dogged By PETA For Showing Too Much (Snake) Skin At The Superbowl

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Photo Credit: Christian PetersonThe animal rights organization PETA was not moved by Beyoncé‘s Super Bowl showing. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) threw a flag on the play for the singer’s wardrobe choice, which included leather, python, and iguana skins.

“We would take a bet that if Beyoncé watched our video exposés, she’d probably not want to be seen again in anything made of snakes, lizards, rabbits, or other animals who died painfully,” PETA’s statement said. “Today’s fashions are trending toward humane vegan options, and Beyoncé’s Super Bowl outfit missed the mark on that score.”

The first video was of Joaquin Phoenix, who lends his voice to a behind-the-scenes clip that shows how the exotic-skins industry brings products to the market.

The other “here” links to a page titled “Project Runway’s Tim Gunn Exposes Fashion Cruelty in New Video.”

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Catholic Bishops Oppose Revisions To Contraception Mandate

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Photo Credit: DougtoneThe U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said Thursday that it remains opposed to the Obama administration’s contraception mandate, arguing Catholic institutions will have “second-class status” under the policy despite recent tweaks to its rules.

The USCCB said the policy will require Catholic institutions to have a hand in healthcare coverage they find immoral.

“Because the stakes are so high, we will not cease from our effort to assure that healthcare for all does not mean freedom for few,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the USCCB, said in a statement.

The group was initially noncommittal last week after the Obama administration released new regulations on the contraception mandate and its “accommodations” for religious-affiliated institutions, such as Catholic hospitals and universities.

But on Thursday, the bishops said last week’s rules ensure that employees of a religious institution would automatically receive contraception coverage through their insurance companies.

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