U.S. Missile Defense Plans Will Raise Korea Tensions, Warns China

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Photo Credit: Ahn Young-joon

President Obama’s decision to deploy additional missile interceptors at Alaska’s Fort Greely reverses a decision he made in 2009 to scale back the number of active silos approved by President George W. Bush to blunt long-range nukes.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday announced that the U.S. will deploy 14 additional ground-based missile interceptors at Fort Greely to address threats of a “pre-emptive” nuclear strike from North Korea.

The number of interceptors on the West Coast will increase from 30 to 44 by 2017, as proposed by the Bush administration.

Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said the increase will cost an extra $200 million to reopen mothballed silos, citing a Pentagon estimate.

“Four years ago, the administration determined that the missile threat from countries like North Korea had changed, and, parting with established policy, decided to eliminate missiles from the proposed inventory and mothball the missile field built to house them,” Mr. McKeon, California Republican, said Friday. “At the time, House Republicans disputed the change in the threat and pressed the administration not to … close down vital infrastructure.”

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Conservative House Republicans Propose Balancing Budget In Four Years

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Photo Credit: Jacquelyn Martin

As Republicans and Democrats try to find middle ground between the budgets that each side has proposed, the most conservative members of the House are throwing another budget into the mix, one that would balance the budget in four years.

The Republican Study Committee’s “Back to Basics” budget proposes some of the same things as the budget introduced last week by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, but it proposes to balance the budget by 2017, rather than 2023.

It does so by returning discretionary spending to $950 billion, lower than 2008 levels, cutting non-defense discretionary spending by $6 billion over 10 years and making serious cuts to entitlements.

Under the RSC budget, the retirement age at which people could receive Social Security payments would go up to 70, a change that would “slowly phase in” for people 51 and younger, and it would also adopt the chained CPI cost of living adjustment.

The budget would also raise the age at which people become Medicare eligible for individuals who are currently younger than 55. Like the Ryan budget, it would turn Medicare into a premium support system, but the RSC budget would enact this reform for persons under age 60, while Ryan’s budget changes it for people younger than 55.

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Obama Nominates Leading DOJ Opponent of Voter ID Laws As Labor Secretary

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Photo Credit: AP

New Labor Secretary nominee Thomas Perez was cited by both a federal judge and the Justice Department inspector general for giving incomplete testimony on the controversial handling of the New Black Panther voter intimidation case, but he took the lead in prosecuting federal lawsuits against state voter ID laws as head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

Further, Perez served as a top aide to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and was once disqualified from running for Maryland state attorney general.

President Barack Obama announced Perez for the cabinet post Monday morning in the East Room of the White House in front of an audience that included Attorney General Eric Holder, MSNBC commentator Al Sharpton and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Perez has been the assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Justice Department since 2009 and before that served as the secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulations from 2007 to 2009.

“As a civil rights attorney, a staffer for Sen. Ted Kennedy, a member of the Montgomery, Md., County Council, Tom fought for a level playing field where hard work and responsibility are rewarded and working families can get ahead,” Obama said in his announcement.

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Video: Bill Maher Complains That His Taxes Are Too High

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Photo Credit: Human Events

The whole exchange began with the high-octane stupidity of MSNBC host Rachel Maddow whining that House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget “is a document that says the big problems in America right now are that rich people do not have enough money… They need relief from confiscatory tax rates.”

Because all money is the rightful property of the State, you see. Anything the geniuses in Washington decide to let you keep – rather than seizing and giving to their favorite constituents, or “investing” in debacles like Solyndra – is an “expense.” So is the United States military, the one government program Maddow wants to cut to the bone.

We’ll get back to that business of government “investment” in a moment, but first, savor the irony of hyper-liberal Bill Maher deciding he’s not quite ready to follow Maddow down this particular fork in the Road to Serfdom:

Pointing at Virginia’s former Republican Congressman Tom Davis, Maher said, “You know what? Rich people – I’m sure you’d agree with this – actually do pay the freight in this country.”

“I just saw these statistics,” he continued, “I mean, something like 70 percent. And here in California, I just want to say liberals – you could actually lose me. It’s outrageous what we’re paying – over 50 percent. I’m willing to pay my share, but yeah, it’s ridiculous.”

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Reporter Asks Carney: Will Obama Cut Back On Lavish Vacations, Golf Trips?

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Photo Credit: U.S. Embassy Jakarta, Indonesia

A reporter from Colorado asked White House spokesman Jay Carney how President Obama justifies “lavish vacations” and golf trips, and whether he plans to cut back.

Carney responded, “I can tell you that this president is focused every day on policies that create economic growth and help advance job creation.”

Here’s the full exchange:

Q. All right. I wanted to follow up on this young woman’s question about the high unemployment out in places like Colorado, all around the country, especially in the minority communities — exceptionally high unemployment. And when there is government workers who may be furloughed, millions of Americans unemployed, and family budgets that have been cut, how does the President justify lavish vacations and a golf trip to Florida at taxpayer expense? And does he plan to cut back on his travel?

A.  I can tell you that this President is focused every day on policies that create economic growth and help advance job creation.  We have presided over the past three years over an economy that’s produced over 6.3 million private sector jobs, and we have more work to do.  And this President’s number-one priority is growth and job creation.

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Israel PM Warns Of ‘Enormous Threats’ In Region On Eve Of Obama Visit

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Photo Credit: Gali Tibbon

The new Israeli government will use Barack Obama’s visit to Jerusalem this week as an opportunity “to show our gratitude to the American people”, said Binyamin Netanyahu before being sworn in for a third term as prime minister on Monday.

“Obama’s visit will be an opportunity to thank him,” Netanyahu said after warning that Israel faced “enormous threats” in the region and pledging to “guarantee the future of the Jewish people by guaranteeing the future of the state of Israel, the root of our existence”.

The government was sworn in almost eight weeks after the election on 22 January, and just two days before Obama is due to arrive in Israel for his first visit as president.

Complex negotiations over the composition of the coalition resulted in a government characterised as more centrist than its predecessor. However, it is still highly resistant to concessions to the Palestinians in order to reach a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict.

The defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon, said he opposed making any gestures to the Palestinians, such as a freeze on settlement construction or the release of prisoners, to encourage a return to talks. The conflict must be “managed” rather than brought to an end by the creation of a Palestinian state, he argued.

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U.S. Contractor Charged With Passing Nuclear Secrets To Chinese Woman

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Photo Credit: Official U.S. Navy Imagery

A U.S. defense contractor in Hawaii has been arrested on charges of passing national defense secrets, including classified information about nuclear weapons, to a Chinese woman with whom he was romantically involved, authorities said on Monday.

Benjamin Pierce Bishop, 59, a former U.S. Army officer who works as a civilian employee of a defense contractor at U.S. Pacific Command in Oahu was arrested on Friday and made his first appearance in federal court on Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii said in a news release.

He is charged with one count of willfully communicating national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it, and one count of unlawfully retaining documents related to national defense. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, asked about the case at a daily news briefing in Beijing, said he did “not understand the relevant situation”, and declined further comment.

China and the United States, the world’s two largest economies, have long engaged in spying against each other. Last year China arrested a Chinese state security official on suspicion of spying for the United States, sources said, a case both countries had kept quiet for several months as they strove to prevent a fresh crisis in relations.

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GOP Road Map: Immigration Reform and Fewer Debates

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Photo Credit: Chris Usher

Republican leaders spent three months studying their 2012 election defeat and on Monday announced they were beat on nearly every aspect of politicking, from money to message to manpower, and said one immediate change should be to embrace immigration reform — a lightning-rod issue that nearly tore the party apart under the George W. Bush administration.

Unveiling a 98-page election post-mortem, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus promised a kinder, gentler GOP that will not write off any voters. That begins, the party said, with Hispanic voters and immigration reform.

“By 2050, we’ll be a majority-minority country, and in both 2008 and 2012, President Obama won a combined 80 percent of the votes of all minority groups,” Mr. Priebus said Monday. “The RNC cannot and will not write off any demographic, community, or region of this country.”

The plan calls for the GOP to become a party that voters believe cares about them, beginning with a $10 million image makeover to attract minorities. The plan also includes nuts-and-bolts suggestions, such as shortening the presidential primary process and trying to take control of the debates, which are currently run by television networks.

Mr. Priebus‘ review shies away from blaming any specific people for the 2012 election, which saw GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney lose a race many in his party thought winnable.

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Russia’s Gazprom Offers Cyprus Restructuring Deal to Avoid EU Bailout in Exchange for Gas Fields

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Photo Credit: Greek Reporter

Representatives of the Russian company submitted the proposal to the office of Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Sunday evening, Sigma TV reported.

The proposal states that Gazprom will fund the restructuring of the country’s crippled financial institutions in exchange for substantial control over the country’s gas resources while Cyprus won’t need to take the harsh bailout package offered by the EU.

EU offered a 10 billion euros rescue package to Cyprus with the condition of raising 5.8 billion euros ($7.5 billion) by taking a piece of every bank account in Cyprus. The originally proposed levies on deposits are 9.9 percent for acounts exceeding 100,000 euros and 6.7 percent on anything below that.

Cypriot President Nicos Anstasiades is not willing to discuss the Russian’s offer according to Newsit who cited an anonymous source close to the President.

“The president is not going to discuss this plan because he wants a solution that will come from the EU,” said the anonymous source.

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Schlafly: GOP Establishment Gave Us Losers Like Dole, McCain And Romney (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Conservative legend Phyllis Schlafly told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday that the Republican establishment had given America a series of losers as presidential candidates over the last two decades–and the last time they picked a winner, George W. Bush, he was a bigger spender than the Democrats.

“Why is it that the establishment has given us this bunch of losers?” Schlafly said. “The establishment has given us a whole series of losers: Bob Dole and John McCain and Mitt Romney.

“And even when they picked a winner–George W. Bush–they picked somebody who spent more than the Democrats,” she said.

“He added new programs that cost the taxpayers money, and he tried to give us open borders, first through the North American Union and through the amnesty that he lined up with Ted Kennedy,” Schlafly said.

Schlafly, who founded Eagle Forum and has been a leader of the Conservative Movement for more than four decades, said the establishment tries to enforce “certain criteria” on their candidates.

Watch video here (our apologies, but this video player is incompatible with some Internet browsers):

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