Report: Al Qaeda Planning Five-Plane Terrorist 'Spectacular' For Christmas

Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Al Qaeda jihadists, possibly using plans organized by a Khorasan group bomb-maker, are planning what the Sunday Express called a Christmas “spectacular” in a report released by the British newspaper this week.

Citing anonymous sources including a “well-placed security insider,” the report suggests that European officials are preparing to enhance their security at airports to prevent what many see as an “almost inevitable” attempt at a terrorist attack by sleeper cells in the UK and elsewhere. One source working within the airport security industry told the paper that officials have “been waiting for the big one” and described the threat as “real and alive”: “We’ve been told that five planes are being targeted in a high profile hit before Christmas.”

As officials decide how to handle the threat, it is possible that multiple European flights may ban electronic devices and, possibly, all hand luggage, though such decisions have yet to be taken. Express cites one source as explaining that major European cities will likely be the targets, and those used to carry on the attacks may be members of sleeper cells that would not arouse suspicion. Targeting Europe rather than America seems a deliberate choice, said one source, because “the U.S has improved their security over the summer but we have not.”

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Gorbachev Accuses US of Stoking ‘New Cold War’

Photo Credit: VASILY MAXIMOV / AFP

Photo Credit: VASILY MAXIMOV / AFP

Mikhail Gorbachev has claimed that American “triumphalism” is stoking a new Cold War and called for “avid militarists” to stop dragging Europe into conflict.

The former Soviet leader spoke out as Ukrainian forces and separatist rebels agreed to a partial ceasefire in the civil war in the east of the country, which has killed at least 4,300 people since a Moscow-backed uprising broke out in April.

Mr Gorbachev said there was still time to defuse the standoff between Moscow and the West, as he and his western counterparts had done during the Perestroika period.

“Now there are once again signs of a Cold War,” he said in an interview with Tass, the state-owned news agency. “This process can and must be stopped. After all, we did it in the 1980s. We opted for de-escalation, for the reunification (of Germany). And back then it was a lot tougher than now. So we could do it again.”

Mr Gorbachev, 83, who has run a civil society foundation since he retired from politics, said he thought the United States was largely to blame for the confrontation today. “I don’t want to praise our government too much,” he said. “It has also made quite a few errors, but today the danger comes from the American position. They are tortured by triumphalism.”

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Obama's Dangerous Legacy for Democrats

Photo Credit: Getty / John Gres

Photo Credit: Getty / John Gres

Now that the 2014 elections are over and national politics is all about 2016, Democrats have good reason to worry that, for all his success at the polls, President Obama will leave his party with a toxic legacy.

The Obama damage is two-fold. First, his success relied on a coalition that likely will not survive, or at least survive at full strength, without Obama himself on the ticket. Secondly, Obama drove a significant portion of white voters away from the Democratic Party.

Put those two things together — smaller Obama coalition and more alienated whites — and the result could be huge trouble for whoever the Democratic presidential nominee is in 2016.

First the coalition: Obama’s powerful appeal to minorities, women, and young people propelled his decisive wins in 2008 and 2012. But those voters didn’t show up at the polls in 2010 and 2014.

Some Democrats are confident the coalition will be back in 2016, when interest in a presidential race is far greater than during midterms. But will it return in the strength it showed in ’08 and ’12? Or will Democratic voting return to pre-Obama patterns?

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Obama Calls for $263M Federal Spending in Response to Ferguson

Photo Credit: NY Post

Photo Credit: NY Post

Spurred by the Ferguson, Missouri, shooting, President Barack Obama is calling for $75 million in federal spending to get 50,000 more police to wear body cameras that record their interactions with civilians. However, Obama is not seeking to pull back federal programs that provide military-style equipment to local law enforcement.

The president made the announcement Monday from the White House during a series of meetings with his cabinet, civil rights leaders, law enforcement officials and others. At least for now, Obama is staying away from Ferguson in the wake of a racially charged uproar over a grand jury’s decision last week not to charge the police offer who fatally shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Obama is proposing a three-year, $263 million spending package to increase use of body-worn cameras, expand training for law enforcement and add more resources for police department reform. The package includes $75 million for the small, lapel-mounted cameras to record police on the job.

The White House has said the cameras could help bridge deep mistrust between law enforcement and the public. It also potentially could help resolve the type of disputes between police and witnesses that arose in the Ferguson shooting.

After the shooting and resulting protests in August, Obama ordered a review of federal programs that fund military gear for local police after critics questioned why police in full body armor with armored trucks responded to dispel demonstrators. Obama seemed to sympathize when announcing the review over the summer.

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Lawsuit Claims ICE Mounted Campaign to ‘Purge’ Senior Officials Amid Immigration Changes

Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

A longtime federal immigration attorney claims Immigration and Customs Enforcement managers mounted a campaign of “humiliation” and “brutal scape-goating” to purge officials they didn’t want, raising concerns from a top GOP lawmaker that the administration was trying to “force compliance” with its controversial policies.

The attorney, Patricia Vroom, made the allegations in a lawsuit filed last month. The lawsuit is getting renewed attention in the wake of President Obama’s executive actions to let potentially millions of illegal immigrants stay in the country and work.

In the suit, Vroom claimed she was rebuked for her “push-back” on a prior effort to drop cases against illegal immigrants with identity theft convictions, and received a low performance rating at the time.

“It was part of an orchestrated, coordinated effort … to purge [the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, OPLA] of senior Chief Counsel so that much younger, much less experienced, and thus much more impressionable individuals who were beholden to them, could be installed in their place,” the lawsuit alleges.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., cited the lawsuit in a letter on Monday to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and the acting ICE director. He said the suit shows the administration “bullied career lawyers” to “force compliance” with its policies, and ultimately replace them with “favored individuals.”

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Total US Debt Rises Over $18 Trillion; Up 70% Under Barack Obama

Photo Credit: Human Events

Photo Credit: Human Events

By Tyler Durden.

Last week, total US debt was a meager $17,963,753,617,957.26. Two days later, as updated today, on Black Friday, total outstanding US public debt just hit a new historic level which probably would be better associated with a red color: as of the last work day of November, total US public debt just surpassed $18 trillion for the first time, or $18,005,549,328,561.45 to be precise, of which debt held by the public rose to $12,922,681,725,432.94, an increase of $32 billion in one day.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Chart from U.S. Department of Treasury Shows Alarming Milestone the National Debt Just Passed

By Pete Kasperowicz.

The U.S. national debt hit $18 trillion for the first time on Friday, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

A website that tracks the national debt said it rose to $18.005 trillion, a jump of more than $40 billion from two days prior. There was no figure given for Thanksgiving, a holiday.

Screen-Shot-2014-12-01-at-4.54.55-PM-620x258

The milestone is likely to renew Republican scrutiny over the federal government’s spending habits, just as the GOP is set to widen its majority in the House and resume control of the Senate in 2015. While Republicans have made a point of saying they would use their new control of Congress to fight Obamacare and ease federal regulations, they have also made a point of saying debt reduction is critical.

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Abortionist: We Let Babies Born Alive “Expire” (+video)

Photo Credit: LifeNews

Photo Credit: LifeNews

A while back, I wrote a series on abortions that resulted in the births of live babies. In the instances I wrote about, these babies were left to die or even killed by the abortionist. Also, in almost every case, the abortionist evaded any kind of punishment.

An investigation by Live Action revealed that many clinics are still willing to allow infants born after abortion to die. And a representative of Planned Parenthood gave shocking testimony where sherefused to condemn the killing of babies born alive after abortions and refused to say what Planned Parenthood doctors did in cases of live birth. Sadly, it seems that the killing of born babies, either by neglect or by direct action, goes on in abortion clinics to this day.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Aide Resigns After Online Digs at Obama Daughters

120114_gop_aide_640By Fox News.

Republican congressional aide Elizabeth Lauten resigned Monday morning after making controversial comments about President Obama’s teenage daughters, Fox News confirms.

Lauten, the communications director for Rep. Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, had posted on Facebook about their casual demeanor during last week’s annual White House turkey pardon. She wrote that Sasha, 13, and Malia, 16, should “try showing a little class.”

“Rise to the occasion. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at the bar,” Lauten wrote. “And certainly don’t make faces during televised, public events.”

Though she wasn’t the first person to comment on the behavior and appearance of the president’s children during the event, Lauten was accused of crossing the line.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP / Todd Williamson

Photo Credit: AP / Todd Williamson

CNN claims politicians’ kids are off limits. What about Bristol Palin?

By T. Becket Adams.

CNN has reported at length on the rise and fall of Elizabeth Lauten, the Republican congressional aide who resigned Monday after criticizing the first daughters in a weekend Facebook post.

But CNN has yet to address one of its own anchor’s gleeful handling of Bristol Palin’s alleged assault earlier this year by a male attacker.

Lauten resigned as communications director for Rep. Steven Fincher, R-Tenn., after she came under fire for criticizing Sasha and Malia Obama for their appearance at the White House’s annual turkey pardon.

“Rise to the occasion,” Lauten wrote in the now-deleted post. “Act like being in the White House matters to you. Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar.”

The now-former GOP staffer apologized a few hours later, saying in a subsequent post that she understood “more clearly just how hurtful my words were.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Oil Price Plunge: Wide-Ranging Effects for Consumers and the Global Economy

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Tumbling oil prices are draining hundreds of billions of dollars from the coffers of oil-rich exporters and oil companies and injecting a much-needed boost for ailing economies in Europe and Japan — and for American consumers at the start of the peak shopping season.

The result could be one of the biggest transfers of wealth in history, potentially reshaping everything from talks over Iran’s nuclear program to the Federal Reserve’s policies to further rejuvenate the U.S. economy.

The price of oil has declined about 40 percent since its peak in mid-June and plunged last week after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries voted to continue to pump at the same rate. That continued a trend driven by a weak global economy and expanding U.S. domestic energy supplies.

The question facing investors, companies and policymakers is how low oil prices will go — and for how long. Every day, American motorists are saving $630 million on gasoline compared with what they paid at June prices, and they would get a $230 billion windfall if prices were to stay this low for a year. The vast majority of that will flow into the economy, with lower-income households living on tight budgets likely to use money not otherwise spent on gas to buy groceries, clothing and other staples.

Read more from this story HERE.

Map Tells Whether Obamacare Makes You Pay for Abortions in Your State (+video)

141201_ObamacareAbortion

Pro-life Americans long have criticized the Obama administration for failing to disclose coverage of abortion under the Affordable Care Act. Now, taking matters into their own hands, they’ve come up with a solution.

Two leading pro-life organizations, the Charlotte Lozier Institute and the Family Research Council, teamed up to design a state-by-state map that clearly tells Americans whether the Obamacare plan they’re considering covers elective abortions.

The goal? To help individuals and families find abortion-free health insurance options that don’t require them to pay what many pro-life critics of Obamacare call a “hidden” or “secret” abortion fee.

“Federal funding for elective abortion was the most salient issue as the fate of the Affordable Care Act was hanging in early 2010, right up to the day of its passage,” Charles Donovan, president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, said in an interview with The Daily Signal.

After a Sept. 15 report by the Government Accountability Office confirmed what many pro-life individuals had warned—that more than 1,000 Obamacare plans covered abortion while remaining eligible for tax subsidies—pro-lifers called for more transparency.

Read more from this story HERE.