Former SecDef Gates: Obama Didn’t Work to Make Troops Believe in their Mission

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President Obama visits Bagram AirfieldFormer Defense Secretary Robert Gates doubled down on criticisms against his former boss on Sunday, claiming that President Barack Obama failed to convince American troops that their sacrifice was worth it and saying that absence of conviction “disturbed” him.

Gates spoke with “CBS This Morning’s” Rita Braver about “Duty,” his new book about his five-year tenure as Secretary of Defense. His unique position as a high-level holdover from a rival administration allows him to compare George Bush and Barack Obama’s handling of the War in Afghanistan. And his conclusion is none-too-flattering for the Oval Office’s current occupant.

“It’s one thing to tell the troops that you support them,” Gates began. “It’s another to work at making them believe that you believe, as president, that their sacrifice is worth it. That the cause is just. That what they are doing is important for the country. And that they must succeed.”

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The Real Unemployment Rate?

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The U.S. Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent in December—but does that rate tell the real story?

A number of economists look past the “main” unemployment rate to a different figure the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls “U-6,” which it defines as “total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of all civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.”

Main-vs-U6-jobs

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‘Impeachment’? Dems Escalate NJ Bridge Probe, While Some Defend Christie

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Democrats sharpened their swords Sunday over the New Jersey bridge scandal, with one state lawmaker suggesting impeachment is an option for Gov. Chris Christie — even as other prominent politicos said they were inclined to believe the governor’s side of the story.

Christie on Thursday apologized for lane closures last fall that snarled traffic on the George Washington Bridge, after emails surfaced showing the closures were pushed by his associates as an apparent act of political revenge. The governor said he was “embarrassed” but insisted he had nothing to do with the incident.

The Republican governor, considered a possible 2016 presidential candidate, on Sunday earned the benefit of the doubt from some unexpected corners. Former Obama White House adviser David Plouffe, on ABC’s “This Week,” said his sense is Christie wouldn’t have been so strong in his denials if he knew what was happening.

But New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski, chairman of the legislative panel probing the closures, cast doubt on the governor’s claims in an interview with Fox News. “It’s hard to believe in the middle of a gubernatorial election that the governor didn’t have a conversation with somebody on his senior staff about a big problem in Fort Lee,” he said.

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Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

N.J. Lawmaker: It Could Be Grounds For Impeachment If Christie Knew About GWB Closures

By CBSNewYork.

The New Jersey lawmaker heading up the state investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closures has raised the possibility of impeachment if the probe uncovers ties to Gov. Chris Christie.

As WCBS 880’s Jim Smith reported Sunday, despite all the e-mails, apologies and firings, state Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) said it is still early in the investigation.

He appeared Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“We’re not only going to need testimony,” he said. “We’re going to need documents, and so we have a lot more work ahead of us.”

Wisniewski said the committee is planning to issue more subpoenas – possibly this week – which could include Christie spokesman Michael Druniac and the now-fired Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Kelly.

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Photo Credit: Rich McCormack/For The Jersey Journal

Photo Credit: Rich McCormack/For The Jersey Journal

‘Christie has blood on his hands,’ ‘Political terrorism’: with protest signs like these, NJ ‘Peace’ Group might have wanted bigger crowd

By Dave Urbanski.

A group that espouses “peace, truth, justice” arrived at the protest site carrying signs that clearly stated their no-holds-barred anger at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: “Political Terrorism” and “Christie Has Blood on His Hands” among others.

As the storm of the “bridgegate” controversy gathered strength, members of the Jersey City Peace Movement rallied in front of the PATH station in Jersey City’s Journal Square Friday evening.

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CNN Chief Jeff Zucker: Fox News is Biased, Shills of GOP

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

CNN Chief Jeff Zucker might not be very good at getting ratings for his Nielsens-challenged network, but he’s great at hurling insults. On Friday, Zucker tried to diminish both the Republican Party and Fox News by alleging that the GOP is being run out of Fox.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was having none of it, firing back at Zucker to let him know that Fox News is not the GOP’s mouthpiece. “Hey Jeff Zucker, we’re the Republican Party and we speak for ourselves, pal,” Priebus tweeted. “Have a great weekend.”

At a Television Critics Association event on Friday, Zucker alleged that “the Republican Party is being run out of News Corp. headquarters masquerading as a cable news channel” without acknowledging that he runs a network that accused former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of being responsible for the attempted murder of Gabby Giffords without any evidence whatsoever. CNN has been repeatedly called out for its left-leaning biases that masquerade as “objective” news, which is why the network’s primetime ratings hit a 20-year low last year.

It’s an interesting strategy Zucker has: trash the Republican Party and, by extension, all Republicans.

Though Zucker tried to paint Fox as a network that shills for Republicans, Americans do not think so, as more Democrats and independents watch Fox News than CNN and MSNBC. In addition, though Americans once went en masse to CNN to get information about breaking news, that is not the case anymore. Fox News regularly outpaced CNN in ratings when breaking news or tragedies–like the Boston Marathon Bombing–consumed the news cycle last year.

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Hillary Clinton Ranks Dead-Last on U.S. ‘Most Admired’ List, Behind Rush Limbaugh, Bush

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Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Photo Credit: Washington Examiner

Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state who leads all 2016 presidential polls, ranks dead last on a new top 10 poll of who Americans admire most, and at the bottom of who the world admires most, behind celebs like Angelina Jolie and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to the new YouGov.com poll conducted for the Times of London, Microsoft’s Bill Gates is the most admired person in the world, ahead of Pope Francis and President Obama, the runner-up on that list. Clinton ranks 27th on YouGov’s world list.

On the U.S. list, she does even worse, coming in 10th of 10 listed and most named. Among Americans, Pope Francis is the most admired, followed by the president, evangelist Billy Graham and former President George W. Bush. Even Rush Limbaugh, the nation’s most popular conservative talk radio host, beat Clinton. He came in ninth.

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Conservatives Question US Chamber’s Plan to Spend Millions to Defeat Tea Party-Style Candidates in 2014

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says it will back “pro-business” candidates against Tea Party-styled opponents in this year’s elections, largely in response to conservative lawmakers fueling last year’s partial government shutdown fight.

“In 2014, the chamber will work to protect and expand a pro-business majority in the House and advance our position and our influence in the Senate,” Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue said Wednesday. “We will support candidates who want to work within the legislative process.”

Donohue, in his annual State of American Business speech, didn’t single out the Tea Party specifically but said afterward the chamber’s frustrations are with the movement’s extreme faction and politicians who have linked themselves to the Tea Party.

“It’s people who don’t want to play,” Donohue told Fox Business, referring to last year’s budget stalemate that partially closed the federal government for 16 days and the ensuring debt-ceiling negotiations that almost resulted in the same outcome.

“The Tea Party has lots of good ideas,” Donohue said. “But those people are not helping us.”

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Surprise! Walmart Health Plan is Cheaper, Offers More Coverage than Obamacare

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Nick Ut

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Nick Ut

New Obamacare health insurance enrollees may feel a pang of envy when they eye the coverage plans offered by Walmart to its employees.

For many years, the giant discount retailer has been the target of unions and liberal activists who have harshly criticized the company’s health care plans, calling them “notorious for failing to provide health benefits” and “substandard.”

But a Washington Examiner comparison of the two health insurance programs found that Walmart’s plan is more affordable and provides significantly better access to high-quality medical care than Obamacare.

Independent insurance agents affiliated with the National Association of Health Underwriters and health policy experts compared the two at the request of the Examiner.

Walmart furnished employee benefit information to the Examiner. Neither Obamacare advocate Families USA nor the United Food and Commercial Workers, which backs anti-Walmart campaigns, responded to Examiner requests for comment.

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Video: Open-Carry Gun Advocate’s Confrontation with Grand Rapids Police that Sparked Lawsuit

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Gun Open CarryA police car dash cam video obtained by MLive and The Grand Rapids Press shows the encounter between Grand Rapids Police officers and open-carry advocate Johann Deffert that sparked a federal lawsuit.

Deffert’s suit – filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids – is against the city, Police Chief Kevin Belk, Officer William Moe and two other officers.

In response to request for video of the encounter, the city has released in-car video of the March 3 incident. The camera view shows only a portion of the encounter, but it captures extensive audio from the day in question.

Responding to a report of a man with a holstered handgun, Moe stopped his patrol car on Michigan Street NE near Lakeside Drive.

“It does look like he’s got a handgun on,” Moe told a dispatcher.

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Maryland Officials Were Warned for a Year of Problems with Online Health-Insurance Exchange

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Photo Credit: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post

Photo Credit: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post

More than a year before Maryland launched its health insurance exchange, senior state officials failed to heed warnings that no one was ultimately accountable for the $170 million project and that the state lacked a plausible plan for how it would be ready by Oct. 1.

Over the following months, as political leaders continued to proclaim that the state’s exchange would be a national model, the system went through three different project managers, the feuding between contractors hired to build the online exchange devolved into lawsuits, and key people quit, including a top information technology official because, as he would later say, the project “was a disaster waiting to happen.”

The repeated warnings culminated days before the launch, with one from contractors testing the Web site that said it was “extremely unstable” and another from an outside consultant that urged state officials not to let residents enroll in health plans because there was “no clear picture” of what would happen when the exchange would turn on.

Within moments of its launch at noon Oct. 1, the Web site crashed in a calamitous debut that was supposed to be a crowning moment for Maryland officials who had embraced President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and pledged to build a state-run exchange that would be unparalleled.

Instead, by the next morning only four people had signed up using the Web site — and amazed that anyone had gotten through the system successfully, state officials contacted each of them to make sure they were real. The site’s problems continue to prevent Marylanders from signing up for health insurance. As of Friday, 20,358 people had selected private plans, and state officials have said they do not expect to come close to their initial goal of 150,000 by the end of March.

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Google’s Military Robotics: Humanoid Robots Future of Ground Warfare?

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Google CEO Larry Page has rapidly positioned Google to become an indispensable U.S. military contractor.

Google recently purchased Boston Dynamics, a robotics pioneer that produces amazing humanoid robots for the U.S. Defense Department.

This development invites attention to Google’s broader military contracting ambitions — especially since Boston Dynamics is the eighth robotics company that Google has bought in the last six months.

Just like drones are the future of air warfare, humanoid robots and self-driving vehicles will be the future of ground warfare according to U.S. defense plans.

There are many other reasons why the U.S. military is on path to become Google’s single largest customer. Likewise these reasons indicate Google has a closer working relationship with the NSA than it acknowledges publicly.

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