Russia Skewers US Election as Undemocratic, ‘The Worst in the World’

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photo credit: Mitya AleshkovskyThe Russian government is lambasting the U.S. presidential race as an undemocratic spectacle amid growing concerns about the country’s own commitment to free and fair elections.

The Foreign Ministry this week accused America of hypocrisy following reports that some U.S. states would turn away international election monitors at the polls.

The Kremlin-funded Russia Today television station, meanwhile, is serving up a steady stream of outraged U.S. election coverage, reporting on topics such as the lack of polling places in Indian country and the short-shift given to third-party candidates by the American media.

The U.S. electoral system, Russian elections chief Vladimir Churov declared this week, “is the worst in the world.”

Observers say the attacks against America’s election system are largely fueled by domestic politics in Russia.

Read more from this story HERE.

Conservatives’ Opening Salvo: Senator Vitter Vows to Block Potential Romney EPA Chief

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photo credit: RETECH Conference and ExhibitionIf Mitt Romney wins the election on Tuesday, he can expect another battle to begin almost immediately: The fight to block his moderate allies from key administration positions.

Conservatives are quietly making preparations to begin lobbying for these posts to be filled by reliable conservatives. Of course, this may also entail opposing some of Romney’s first choices — a fight whose opening salvo has already begun.

Sen. David Vitter is already sending signals he would attempt to block James Connaughton – Romney’s likely choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (This is significant; Vitter is in line to become ranking member in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.)

According to The Hill, Vitter cited “emissions limits, potential restriction of offshore drilling and green energy funding — reflect an increasingly uniform GOP energy platform that Romney also has embraced,” as concerns about Connaughton.

Vitter also said “he could not support Connaughton’s previous backing for cap-and-trade rules for various types of emissions.”

Read more from this article HERE.

Obama Demonizes Tea Party in Final Days of Campaign

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After failing to mention the Tea Party by name on the stump in 2012, President Barack Obama mentioned the movement during at least five stump speeches on Thursday and Friday.

Running against the Tea Party movement that successfully stymied his grassroots agenda and energized conservatives and independents to give Republicans in the House a majority, Obama said Mitt Romney would “rubber-stamp the Tea Party agenda in Congress.”

Jenny Beth Martin, National Coordinator of Tea Party Patriots, said Obama was continuing to divide Americans by badmouthing “millions of grassroots” Tea Party activists across the nation.

“In a single speech today, our current President demonized Americans who have achieved the American Dream and badmouthed millions of grassroots Tea Party activists in every state in the nation,” Martin said on Thursday. “If he spent as much time uniting Americans as he does dividing Americans and attacking them, his presidency might have been a success.”

Politico reviewed a transcript of all of Obama’s speeches and found Obama had only mentioned “tea party” once — in a campaign appearance in Virginia in October — on the stump in 2012 before this week.

Read more from this story HERE.

Merkel: Euro Crisis Will Last at Least Another 5 Years; Shipments of Life-Saving Drugs to Greece Halted

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Merkel: Euro Debt Crisis to Last at Least Five More Years

By Associated Press. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Europe’s sovereign debt crisis will last at least five more years.

Merkel says the continent is on the right path to overcome the crisis but “whoever thinks this can be fixed in one or two years is wrong.”

Two years ago some heavily indebted European countries were dragged into the turmoil that first gripped global financial markets in 2007.

Greece in particular has been struggling with the austerity conditions imposed on it by countries such as Germany. Read more from this story HERE.

Germans stop shipment of life-saving cancer drug to Greece as Euro crisis deepens

By the Daily Mail Reporter. The spiralling decline of the Greek economy took an even more brutal turn today with the news that German pharmaceuticals firm Merck KGaA has ceased deliveries of a life-saving cancer drug to Greek hospitals.

The drug, Erbitux, is an effective treatment for both colorectal cancers and head and neck cancers

A number of industrial giants have shied away from accepting orders from the crisis-hit Greeks.

Another German-based pharma giant, Biotest, suspended shipments to Greece because of unpaid bills in in June of this year.

Matthias Zachert, Merck’s chief financial officer, told the German newspaper paper Boersen-Zeitung that publicly-owned hospitals in several euro-zone countries had been struggling to pay their bills. Read more from this story HERE.

Another Pedophile Ring Involving Top Political Leader Alleged

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Yet another allegation of a pedophile ring involving a top political leader was made, this time in England. Allegedly, one of the top conservatives in the Tory Party, closely linked to Thatcher, was involved in the violent rapes of young boys over a number of years. This allegation follows the recent reports about the current Dutch Minister of Justice — defended by the US State Department — who ostensibly was involved in an international child sex ring, as well as similar allegations made about top political officials in the United States in the 1990’s. Additionally, the new head of the New York Times allegedly covered for another child rapist who worked for the BBC years before.

Regarding the Tory politician, the Daily Mail reports:

BBC’s Newsnight has sensationally claimed that a ‘leading politician from the Thatcher years’ was embroiled in a widespread paedophile ring – and repeatedly raped boys from a children’s home.

Alleged victim Steven Messham told reporters he was raped ‘more than a dozen times’ by the man, described on the programme as a ‘shadowy figure of high public standing’.

But despite a string of damning allegations, Newsnight reporters said it didn’t have ‘enough evidence’ to name the politician, sparking angry claims on Twitter that the Beeb ‘bottled it’.

The revelation came just hours after MPs suggested the Corporation aired the controversial programme to act as a ‘smokescreen’ after it failed to broadcast allegations that Jimmy Savile was a paedophile last year.

Mr Messham, now 49, was one of hundreds of children horrifically abused in children’s homes in North Wales during the 1970s and 1980s

Read more from this story HERE.

Washington Post: October’s Higher Unemployment Shows ‘Job Growth’

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Just before Election Day, the Washington Post is super excited about Friday’s unemployment numbers showing “job growth” for October, despite unemployment increasing from 7.8% in September to 7.9%. The paper describes this change as the unemployment rate staying “flat.”

The Post tries to give Obama cover even as it ultimately notes that there really wasn’t much improvement in jobless figures for October. In fact, the Post almost admits that its report is intended to help Obama right in its first paragraph.

The U.S. jobs market in October sustained its slow trudge toward better times, the government reported on Friday, in the last major report card on the economy before the presidential election.

Despite all the happy talk sprinkled through the article, the Post is forced to note that much of this “good news” is closer to treading water as opposed to any “slow trudge toward better times.”

Absurdly, the Post tried hard to spin the actual increase in unemployment as a good thing.

The unemployment rate in October did rise to 7.9 percent, up from 7.8 percent, but the reason behind the uptick suggested an improved job market: More Americans decided to look for work, though not all of them found jobs.

Read more from this story HERE.

Study: 83% of Retirees Believe They’ll Lose Their Social Security

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photo credit: 401(K) 2012A recent survey by BMO Retirement Institute found 83 percent of retirees were influenced to start their benefits because they were concerned about the viability of the program.

But for Americans nearing retirement age, knowing when to pull the trigger on government retirement benefits is more complicated—or should be.

“People believe that Social Security is something they get when they turn 65. They think there’s only one calculation: I’ll apply when I stop working,” said Rebecca Hall, a private wealth adviser with Ameriprise Financial in Reston, Va., in a recent interview.

How and when you take your benefits, however, can make a difference of thousands of dollars in how much money you draw from the system over the course of your retirement.

And for many Americans, that difference can be crucial. Some 60 percent of Americans 65 and older depend on Social Security for the majority of income, according to an Economic Policy Institute study published last year.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senator Inhofe Says Obama Won’t Release Regulatory Agenda Because of ‘Terrible’ Impact on Jobs

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President Obama will not comply with a federal law requiring him to release his regulatory agenda because he doesn’t want Americans voters to know the “terrible cost” it would have on the economy should he win re-election — include the loss of an estimated 887,000 jobs annually, says Sen. James Inhofe, ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Inhofe cites the Regulatory Flexibility Act that requires federal agencies to assess the impact of their regulations on small businesses. He says Obama failed to comply with the law twice over the past year – specifically the April and October deadlines.

“President Obama is refusing to comply with the law that requires him to publish forthcoming regulations because he doesn’t want the American public to know the terrible cost of the regulatory barrage he plans to unleash in a second term,” Inhofe said. “So instead of being honest with the American people about what’s in store if he wins, he’s been trying to hide the fact that he intends to move forward with a slew of rules that will destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs and dramatically raise the cost of energy on American families.”

The Oklahoma senator sent a letter to the president Sunday asking him to publish the administration’s agenda before Oct. 31.“Businesses and communities need to understand the future regulatory landscape,” he wrote.

The projected loss of 887,000 jobs annually is from a National Economic Research Associates report last month. The international economic firm in its 129-page report states the coal industry would be hit hard and the job losses would continue through 2034.

Read more from this story HERE.

Union Members Caught with Truckload of Stolen Romney Signs in Ohio

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Four men caught in a Sheet Metal Workers International Association (SMWIA) truck full of Romney/Ryan signs were issued summons for receiving stolen property early Friday morning in Perrysburg, OH.

Local police responded after residents reported seeing men stealing Romney signs in the middle of the night.

A Perrysburg Police Division incident report published by the Ohio Liberty Coalition listed four adult males in connection with the incident: Corey Beaubien, Christopher Monaghan, Sean Bresler, and John Russell. The police report indicated the vehicle in question was registered to SMWIA Local 33 of Parma.

John Russell and Chris Monaghan are listed as Business Agents for the union’s Toledo district on the SMWIA Local 33 website.

Additionally, Facebook accounts appearing to belong to Beaubien, Monaghan, and Russell identify the three as employees of SMWIA Local 33.

Read more from this story HERE.

Veteran California Poll Worker Fired Over Protest Against United Nations Observers (+video)

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photo credit: zhenxing88SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – A poll worker is out of a job, and she says it’s all because of an email she sent her supervisor.

The woman says she was concerned about poll inspectors coming to Sacramento for Tuesday’s election.

Shannon Lewis has been a poll worker in Sacramento for 15 years. She said she sent that email and was fired 10 minutes later.

“I just tapped out a really fast email,” said Lewis.

But that quick email ended Lewis’ 15 year job as a Sacramento County pollster. “I just wanted to get my feelings known and get an answer to the question before polling day,” said Lewis.

Lewis’ email inquired about something she saw on the internet, United Nations observers coming to local polling stations. Read more from this story HERE.