Obamanomics in Action: Feds Spend $2.5 Million per Stimulus Job

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: APIt’s more than a little disheartening when the chief executive officer of one of America’s most storied Fortune 500 corporations is “comfortable” with the fact that his company created a mere 10 jobs with a $25 million grant under President Obama’s economic stimulus program in 2010. The CEO in question is Honeywell’s David Cote, and the stimulus grant involved came from the Department of Energy to advance Obama’s green energy agenda. The funds were to be used by Honeywell’s UOP subsidiary to build a biofuels technology demonstration plant in Oahu, Hawaii, supposedly creating 85 construction jobs and 40 permanent positions in each succeeding year.

The Energy Department further envisioned a facility producing biomass fuels “on a commercial scale … with the potential to create approximately 800 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs, including in biomass production.”

The problem now is that it appears to be all but impossible to determine whether those rosy projections will come to pass. An April 2012 news report by Honolulu Civil Beat, a trade publication, quoted James Rekoske, Honeywell UOP’s vice president for renewable energy, saying only “about 10 jobs” had been created at that point. (The Energy Department refused to provide Civil Beat with a copy of Honeywell’s grant application.)

Read more from this story HERE.

Bob Beckel: Cut off Muslim Students from U.S. (+video)

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox NewsOne of the most famous liberal voices in America is now suggesting the U.S. cut off Muslim students from coming to America, as well as deporting some of those already here and even sending them to prison.

Bob Beckel, the former campaign director for Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale and current co-host of “The Five” on the Fox News Channel, made the bold statement on his show Monday while discussing the Boston bombing suspects, who are Muslim.

“We know that, bottom line, in the Muslim communities around the world, they do not like us. They recruit people from poor areas and turn them into terrorists,” Beckel explained. “It’s not hard to recruit, though, because the hatred for the United States runs deep.”

“I think we really have to consider, that given the fact that so many people hate us, that we’re gonna have to cut off Muslim students from coming to this country for some period of time so that we can at least absorb what we’ve got, look at what we’ve got and decide whether some of the people here should be sent back home or sent to prison,” he continued.

Watch video here:

Read more from this story HERE.

With Ricin Case Crumbling, FBI Finds a New Target, Former GOP Candidate (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Smoking Gun Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, was arrested last week for allegedly sending the threatening letters to Obama, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, and a Mississippi county judge. But Curtis has been released from custody amid signs that the case against him has collapsed.

During a court hearing yesterday, lawyers for Curtis contended that he had been framed and pointed investigators toward James Everett Dutschke, a 41-year-old Tupelo man with whom Curtis has feuded. Like Curtis, Dutschke is a martial arts expert, a musician, and a Mensa member.

Dutschke was arrested in January on a child molestation charge in connection with the alleged assault of a seven-year-old girl at the tae kwon do studio he operates. In March, he was named in a three-count felony indictment accusing him of fondling a victim under the age of 16 (each count carries a maximum 15-year prison term). Dutschke, now free on bond, has previously been convicted of indecent exposure…

In 2007, Dutschke was the unsuccessful Republican candidate against Stephen Holland, the incumbent Democratic state representative from the Tupelo area. Holland’s mother Sadie is the judge to whom one of the ricin-tainted letters was sent.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Benghazi Report: Obama Admin. Lied, Set-Up Military for Failure

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APHouse Republicans have concluded that the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies bear no blame for failing to halt the terrorist assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year, releasing a report Tuesday that said President Obama and the State Department set up the military for failure.

The report also found that plenty of intelligence presaged the attack, but the White House and State Department — including the secretary at the time, Hillary Rodham Clinton — failed to heed the warnings.

In the most damning conclusion, House Republicans said Mr. Obama’s team lied about the attacks afterward, first by blaming mob violence spawned by an anti-Muslim video, and then wrongly saying it had misled the public because it was trying to protect an FBI investigation.

“This progress report reveals a fundamental lack of understanding at the highest levels of the State Department as to the dangers presented in Benghazi, Libya, as well as a concerted attempt to insulate the Department of State from blame following the terrorist attacks,” the GOP investigation concluded in its 46-page report.

The White House dismissed the report as a rehash of questions the administration has answered, and said it has provided extraordinary cooperation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mitt Romney Invites Axelrod, Former Chair of DNC, Chris Christie, Others to His Summer Retreat

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Politico The guest list for Mitt Romney’s June retreat has a few surprising names not traditionally seen together with the former GOP presidential nominee.

The list of high-profile speakers include Democratic political consultant David Axelrod, who was President Barack Obama’s campaign adviser in 2008 and an Obama senior strategist in 2012, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday. During the 2012 campaign, Axelrod was openly critical of Romney, often slamming the Republican for his political stances.

Another staunch Obama supporter, and the former chairman of the Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is also on the list.

New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie is also expected to speak at the retreat. The Republican caught flak from his own party last year when he worked together with the president on Hurricane Sandy relief.

Read more from this story HERE.

Search of Tsarnaevs' Phones, Computers Finds no Indication of Accomplice, Source Says (+video)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: compujerameyA preliminary examination of the cellphones and computers used by the Tsarnaev brothers has found no indication of an accomplice in the Boston Marathon bombing, according to a U.S. counter-terrorism source briefed on the FBI investigation.

The source stressed that the investigation is ongoing, but bureau officials at this point appear increasingly confident that “nobody else was involved,” said the source.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators he and his brother acted alone, learned to build the pressure-cooker bombs over the Internet and were motivated by a desire to defend Islam because of “the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said the source, who has received multiple briefings on the probe.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has also told investigators that he and his brother got instructions on building bombs from an online magazine published by al Qaeda, federal law enforcement officials told NBC News.

He told investigators that the brothers read the instructions in Inspire, an online, English-language magazine that terror monitoring groups say al Qaeda began publishing in 2010.

Watch video here:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read more from this story HERE.

eCurrency Experiment Gone Bad: Bitcoin Crashes

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Agence France PresseMany saw it coming, but that didn’t stop the Bitcoin bubble from bursting: after rising to dizzying heights, the digital currency suffered its first true crash this week.

The price of the virtual “geek” currency had soared through the stratosphere in recent weeks, trading for a high of $266 on Wednesday — only to come hurtling back to Earth in just three days.

By Friday, a single Bitcoin was worth just $54, according to the Mt. Gox platform, which manages 80 percent of the Bitcoin transactions and had to briefly shut down trading Thursday.

“There was a LOT of short-term speculation happening” from people who wanted to earn a buck from the soaring prices and cash out before the fall, Bitcoin Foundation chief scientist Gavin Andresen told AFP.

“Wild price swings are not good for Bitcoin.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Former Reuter's Editor Charged With Hacking Tribune's Computer System

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters Former Reuters.com Deputy Social Media Editor Matthew Keys pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to federal charges that he aided members of the Anonymous hacking collective.

Keys, 26, on Monday said he was fired by Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO), the parent company of Reuters News.

Keys was indicted in March by a federal grand jury in Sacramento on three criminal counts, alleging he entered an Internet chatroom used by members of the hacking collective Anonymous and helped hackers gain access to the computer system of Tribune Co. in December 2010. A story on the Tribune’s Los Angeles Times website was altered by one of those hackers, the indictment said.

The alleged events occurred before he joined Reuters in 2012, the indictment indicated.

Keys was silent during the hearing in federal district court in Sacramento as his lawyer Jay Leiderman entered the plea. A status conference was set for June 12.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Sessions Grills Napolitano on ICE Morale, Enforcement

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreDepartment of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano acknowledged low morale among Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees and tension with ICE union leadership, after being pressed by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) during a Tuesday hearing.

The exchange centered around a lawsuit filed by a group of ICE agents last year, which takes issue with the executive actions taken by the Obama administration on immigration rules:

SESSIONS: [Chris Crane, head of the National ICE Council] testified that agents are prohibited from enforcing the law and that, indeed, ICE Officers have filed a lawsuit… I have never heard of a situation in which a group of law officers sued their supervisor, and you, for blocking them from following the law… [ICE Agents] were saying that the very oath they took to enforce the law is being blocked by rules and regulations and policies established from on high, and that this is undermining their ability to do what they are sworn to do.

See video:

Read more from this story HERE.

Now That Syria Has Crossed Obama's 'Red Line' with Nerve Gas, What Next?

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters Israel’s top military intelligence analyst said in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that Syrian government forces had used chemical weapons – probably the nerve gas sarin – in their fight against rebels trying to force out President Bashar al-Assad.

He cited photographic evidence of victims foaming at the mouth, their pupils contracted.

The Israeli allegations, which came during a week-long visit by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to the Middle East, followed similar concerns of chemical weapons use voiced by Britain and France.

But so far, those assessments appear to lack the concrete proof Washington would need to accept the kind of deeper U.S. involvement in Syria’s civil war that Obama has resisted. That, in turn, raises questions about just how well-defined the president’s “red line” is.

White House spokesman Jay Carney walked a cautious line speaking to reporters, making clear that Washington was taking the Israeli accusations seriously but would require “conclusive evidence” before deciding whether to move forward.

Read more from this story HERE.