Romney: Putin a Better President than Obama

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Mitt Romney thinks Vladimir Putin is better at being president than Barack Obama.

Romney, who lost the presidential race to Obama, told NBC that the Russian leader “outperformed” the president “time and time again on the world stage.”

The former GOP nominee called the US and Russia “geopolitical adversaries,” blamed Putin for giving cover to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and said fugitive leaker Edward Snowden’s asylum in Russia was a “bit of a stick in the eye of America.”

But Romney gave Putin grudging respect as his nation prepares to host the Winter Olympics.

Read more from this story HERE.

Afghan President Says U.S. Should Start Talks With Taliban or Leave

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/MOHAMMAD ISMAIL

Photo Credit: REUTERS/MOHAMMAD ISMAIL

President Hamid Karzai appeared to stiffen his resolve on Saturday not to sign a security pact with Washington, saying the United States should leave Afghanistan unless it could restart peace talks with the Taliban.

“In exchange for this agreement, we want peace for the people of Afghanistan. Otherwise, it’s better for them to leave and our country will find its own way,” Karzai told a news conference.

The president said pressing ahead with talks with the Taliban, in power from 1996-2001, was critical to ensure that Afghanistan was not left with a weak central government.

“Starting peace talks is a condition because we want to be confident that after the signing of the security agreement, Afghanistan will not be divided into fiefdoms,” he said.

Most diplomats now agree that Karzai is unlikely to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that would allow for some form of U.S. military presence in Afghanistan after the end of 2014, when most troops are due to leave.

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Poll: Only 25% of Americans Believe Feds Will Secure the Border if ‘Immigration Reform’ is Passed

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Photo Credit: Top Right News

Photo Credit: Top Right News

While most respondents said they want border security to play a prominent role in any type of immigration reform, few believe the federal government will actually enforce it.

The Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 25 percent of “likely” U.S. voters think it is even somewhat likely that the federal government will actually secure the border and prevent further illegal immigration if that’s part of new legislation.

Further, 65 percent said they consider it unlikely. Just 5 percent said the government is “very likely” to secure the border if it’s part of comprehensive legislation to give legal status to illegal aliens already in the country.

The survey stated that “confidence in the likelihood of the federal government actually securing the border fell to a previous low of 28 percent, from a high of 45 percent in January 2013.”

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Pentagon: U.S. Not Capable of Detecting Foreign Nuke Threats

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

American intelligence and security agencies are not currently capable of detecting when foreign nations are building nuclear weapons or ramping up their existing programs, according to a newly released Pentagon report that faults a range of U.S. agencies.

“The nation is not yet organized or fully equipped” to detect clandestine nuclear activities across the globe, and in most cases “current solutions are either inadequate, or more often, do not exist,” according to the report, which was compiled over three years by the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board.

More nations than ever are pursuing nuclear arms. However, the United States does not have the mechanisms to detect and track these programs, according to the report.

Moreover, U.S. intelligence agencies are not doing enough to rectify the issue, according to the report, which called for a full-scale revamp in how agencies approach the issue of nuclear detection.

The United States “lacks a cohesive, long term, international engagement plan aimed at building cooperation and transparency,” the report warns.

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Alaska Sled-Dog Race Organizers Tell NY’s Idiotarod ‘Cease and Desist’

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Photo Credit: mypubliclands

Photo Credit: mypubliclands

The Iditarod, a grueling multi-day sled dog race across Alaska, is not – not! – to be confused with the Idiotarod, a pointedly sillier affair due to take place this weekend with costumed participants racing modified shopping carts through New York City.

The organizers of the Alaska race, however, are taking no chances. This week, they got their lawyer to send a cease-and-desist letter to the organizers of the Idiotarod.

The letter, which Idiotarod organizers shared on their Facebook page on Friday, says the New York race, with its “slight variation” in name, is breaching the Iditarod Trail Committee’s trademark rights, and said Idiotarod organizers risked a lawsuit to seek damages.

Jon Dawson, the Iditarod committee’s lawyer, wrote that the Idiotarod organizers were causing the public to associate the name “with an event that celebrates wacky costumes and antics over one that honors the endurance and athleticism of champion sled dogs and the courage and skill of the men and women that run them.”

On Friday, Idiotarod organizers called the letter frivolous, and said its 10th anniversary race, described on its website as an “urban spoof” of the Alaskan race, would proceed virtually as planned this weekend.

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The Nuclear Option: Republic to Lose True Public Servant, Sen. Tom Coburn

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

It is a safe bet that Tom Coburn will not have a big federal building named for him. He is not likely to get a monument erected around here honoring him. He won’t be sitting for an official portrait — striking that generous pose of the longtime, greasy politicians — anytime soon.

No. The news from Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, that he is retiring and will not finish his second term, will come as a huge relief to people around here and all across the sprawling federal bureaucracy.

But for America, those who cherish freedom and voters who believe in responsible, honest and limited government, one can scarcely think of a greater blow to the republic.

Mr. Coburn’s good constituents back home surely will find a satisfactory new senator. But, simply put, Tom Coburn is irreplaceable.

He is not the most visible politician in Washington. You would never catch him between Chuck Schumer and a television camera. There isn’t much pretty or flashy about the guy. He doesn’t hold forth for hours on end waxing poetic on the Senate floor about humble beginnings or overcoming personal strife or foolishness like that.

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Ship of Warmist Fools to Get Bill for Rescue

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Pauline Askin

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Pauline Askin

The Federal Government of Australia laid out $2.4 million (Australian dollars) to help rescue the ship full of global warming true believers, who got ice-bound in Antarctic waters they were dead certain had to be melting. And now it wants to paid back for that needless expense. Watt’s Up With That cites this Australian news report:

Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt yesterday said costs, estimated at about $2.4 million, would be sought from the insurer of the operators of the vessel.

The MV Akademik Shokalskiy, chartered by the University of NSW-associated Australasian Antarctic Expedition to retrace the steps of explorer Sir Douglas Mawson, became stuck in thick sea ice on Christmas Eve.

The 52 passengers were rescued by the Aurora Australis on January 2.

Read more from this story HERE.

Bloomberg Gave $10M Contract to Company Behind Botched ObamaCare Rollout

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration awarded a $10-million-plus contract to update the city’s non-emergency call system to the same company fired for the botched ObamaCare rollout, according to The New York Daily News.

The administration awarded the contract to Montreal-based CGI on Dec. 31, just hours before Democrat Bill de Blasio was sworn in as mayor.

The contract was approved because Bloomberg considers the 311 hotline one of the legacies of his three terms, the newspaper said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Michigan Gov. Wants Visas for Immigrants Who’ll ‘Stay for 5 Years’ in Detroit

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Paul Sancya

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Paul Sancya

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder asked the federal government Thursday to set aside thousands of work visas for bankrupt Detroit, a bid to revive the decaying city by attracting talented immigrants who are willing to move there and stay for five years.

The Republican governor has routinely touted immigration as a powerful potential force for growing Detroit’s economy, saying immigrant entrepreneurs start many small businesses and file patents at twice the rate of U.S.-born citizens.

“Let’s send a message to the entire world: Detroit, Michigan, is open to the world,” Snyder said at a news conference.

The proposal involves EB-2 visas, which are offered every year to legal immigrants who have advanced degrees or show exceptional ability in certain fields.

But the governor’s ambitious plan faces significant hurdles: The visas are not currently allocated by region or state. And the number he is seeking — 50,000 over five years — would be a quarter of the total EB-2 visas offered.

Read more from this story HERE.

Swarms of Drones Could Be the Next Frontier in Emergency Response (+video)

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Photo Credit: Carnegie Mellon University

Photo Credit: Carnegie Mellon University

Robots that can buzz, whir, and clamber into some of the most dangerous crime scenes and disaster zones are coming to the aid of police officers and other first responders who put themselves in harm’s way.

In October 2013, a parolee barricaded himself in a Roseville, Calif., suburban home of a young couple and their toddler, taking mother and child hostage. A SWAT team from the local police station captured the alleged offender and took him in, but not before gunfire ripped through the one-story home and injured officers.

Law enforcement officers on the ground had help from bomb squad robots, that helped push aside the furniture the suspect had piled up as a barricade. But two detectives believe that a bit of unmanned aerial backup would have made a big difference.

“Just knowing what’s going on inside a house that we would go into cold — [we could] potentially save officers’ lives and victims’ lives,” Phil Mancini, a detective on the Roseville police desk, told NBC News. Mancini has been advising a group at Carnegie Mellon University that is building a swarm of cheap, small flying helicopters that could come to the aid of officers across the country who find themselves facing off against suspects they can’t always see.

Read more from this story HERE.