Obama Not Bluffing Over Iran Military Threat, Biden Tells AIPAC

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Photo Credit: Chip SomodevillaBarack Obama’s threats to use military force to prevent Iran securing a nuclear weapon are more than idle bluffs, vice-president Joe Biden told the biggest pro-Israeli lobbying group Aipac on Monday.

Biden said that while the US preferred a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Iran, a military option remained on the table.

“The president of the United States cannot, and does not, bluff. President Barack Obama is not bluffing,” Biden told the audience in Washington. Israel is seeking assurances of support from the US, should it decide to launch air strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

There has been scepticism about Obama’s commitment to a military option against Iran, given the administration’s general unwillingness to be drawn into new conflicts after the experience of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Some observers feel that Obama’s threat is aimed purely at putting pressure on Iran to resolve the standoff diplomatically and not embark on another conflict.

Pro-Israel supporters of the military option, speaking at Aipac’s annual conference, attempted to counter Obama’s reticence by insisting the military option would only require an overnight air strike, rather than a prolonged conflict.

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Fed Preparing For Future PR Nightmare

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photo credit: medill dcEveryone wants the Federal Reserve to say how it will unwind the $3 trillion balance sheet amassed from years of quantitative easing.

Indeed, this was something of a hot topic in Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s testimony before Congress last week.

One of the big issues the central bank faces is the inevitable loss it will have to take when interest rates rise and the value of the Fed’s bond portfolio declines.

Although not an economic problem — as “losses” for a central bank are pretty meaningless — there could be a PR problem when the Fed stops making payments to the Treasury from the interest income it receives on its bond portfolio.

Deutsche Bank strategist Stephen Abrahams recently explained why this could be such a nightmare:

The possibility of suspending remittances and carrying unrealized losses could complicate the Fed’s relationships with the rest of Washington and the public. While remittances help the federal government pay down debt, any shortfall in operating income leading to a suspension of remittances would require the Fed to borrow from Treasury.

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DOJ: Children Do Not Need- and Have No Right to- Mothers

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Photo Credit: APThe Obama Justice Department is arguing in the United States Supreme Court that children do not need mothers.

The Justice Department’s argument on the superfluity of motherhood is presented in a brief the Obama administration filed in the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that amended California’s Constitution to say that marriage involves only one man and one woman.

The Justice Department presented its conclusions about parenthood in rebutting an argument made by proponents of Proposition 8 that the traditional two-parent family, led by both a mother and a father, was the ideal place, determined even by nature itself, to raise a child.

The Obama administration argues this is not true. It argues that children need neither a father nor a mother and that having two fathers or two mothers is just as good as having one of each.

“The [California] Voter Guide arguably offered a distinct but related child-rearing justification for Proposition 8: ‘the best situation for a child is to be raised by a married mother and father,’” said the administration’s brief submitted to the court by Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr.

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Proven: TSA Hires Murderers, Rapists, Thieves

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Photo Credit: Bucky TurcoSome might consider it one of the most important jobs in America after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks: Protecting the nation’s airports, airplanes and citizens from would-be terrorists hell-bent on mass murder.

But the TSA screeners patting you down and combing through your belongings don’t have federal law-enforcement training, may earn about as much as a McDonald’s shift manager and are not required to possess a high-school diploma or GED.

In fact, they might even be criminals. If recent news reports are any indication, many Americans can’t even trust that TSA’s screeners won’t steal their laptops, money or jewelry. What does it take to work for the TSA?

In May 2012, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., released a report titled, “‘Not on My Watch’: 50 Failures of TSA’s Transportation Security Officers.”

“While in the last decade TSA has employed many dedicated public servants who truly have a deep desire to serve our country, they have also hired an alarming number of individuals who in many cases would never have passed a simple background check,” Blackburn’s report stated.

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Robert Reich Accuses Tea Party Of ‘Plot To Undermine’ U.S. Government

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Photo Credit: Getty Images In a column posted Friday at Salon.com, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich accused the Tea Party of engaging in a plot to “undermine the government of the United States, to destroy much of its capacity to do the public’s business, and to sow distrust among the population,” Breitbart.com reported Saturday.

According to Reich, sequestration is “only the start.”

“What they set out to do was not simply change Washington but eviscerate the U.S. government — ‘drown it in the bathtub,’ in the words of their guru Grover Norquist – slashing Social Security and Medicare, ending worker protections we’ve had since the 1930s, eroding civil rights and voting rights, terminating programs that have helped the poor for generations, and making it impossible for the government to invest in our future,” he added.

Joel B. Pollack reminded readers that sequestration was Obama’s idea — something he said Reich downplayed. Pollack then asked if, in Reich’s view, Obama is “some kind of Manchurian Tea Party candidate designed to demonstrate the failure of liberalism?”

Pollack also observed that it was Obama who tried to stir up fear and anger among the American people with dire predictions of gloom and doom. “And,” Pollack added, “perhaps Reich should be reminded that it was Democrats who consciously chose a strategy of fear in selling Obamacare to the public.”

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Bizarre Sex Games In Today’s Army Training

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Photo Credit: WND(Warning: The following report contains details of a sexually graphic nature that may offend some readers.)

It’s a case of soldiers gone wild: An eyewitness tells WND a U.S. Army installation in Hawaii held a Valentine’s Day official “training” event in which male and female soldiers were offered prizes in a race to put condoms on sex toys.

WND confirmed a presentation on sexually transmitted diseases had taken place at the Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawaii, on Feb. 14. The source, who asked to remain nameless due to the nature of the source’s job – told WND the training event began with a presentation on substance abuse and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.

“Once the slideshow was complete, the instructors asked for four volunteers,” the source said. ”From those who raised their hands, they selected two male and two female soldiers. The instructors split them into two groups with a male and female in each and had them walk up on stage.

“Two small tables covered with blankets had been on the stage throughout the presentation. The soldiers were told to remove the blankets from the tables. They did, exposing erect male penis devices lit-up and sitting on each table.”

The source said many of the hundreds of soldiers and Defense Department civilians and contractors present “immediately appeared uneasy by what was transpiring.” According to the eyewitness, the age group of the audience ranged from late teens to early 70s, with a median age of around 30. Half of the attendees were reportedly women.

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Conservatives Pushing Boehner, Cantor To Defund ObamaCare In Continuing Resolution

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Photo Credit: breitbartConservative House Republicans are circulating a letter calling on House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to defund Obamacare in the upcoming continuing resolution that funds the government. Oklahoma Republican Rep. Jim Bridenstine, a freshman, and Kansas Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp are leading the charge.

“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (‘ObamaCare’) remains broadly unpopular across America,” the letter to Boehner and Cantor reads. “More and more Americans are now feeling its impact–from job losses and part-time downgrades, to insurance policy changes and violations of religious liberties, to state budget strains from Medicaid expansions. And Americans don’t like these impacts. Most Americans still believe that healthcare should be controlled by patients and doctors, not by the government.”

In the letter, the conservatives note that while they plan to “re-start efforts to repeal ObamaCare in its entirety this year, next year and until we are successful,” that “in the meantime, there is more we can do in Congress.”

The upcoming continuing resolution, which funds the government, is one such place. House Republicans have the power, should they choose to use it, to shut down Obamacare through the appropriations process–the power of the purse laid out in the United States Constitution.

It is unclear if Boehner and Cantor will defund Obamacare this time around. Over the past couple years, they have passed continuing resolutions that actually fund Obamacare. Spokespeople for both Boehner and Cantor have not returned requests for comment from Breitbart News on this matter.

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Scientists Say Baby Born With HIV Apparently Cured

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Photo Credit: APA baby born with the virus that causes AIDS appears to have been cured, scientists announced Sunday, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who’s now 2½ and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.

There’s no guarantee the child will remain healthy, although sophisticated testing uncovered just traces of the virus’ genetic material still lingering. If so, it would mark only the world’s second reported cure.

Specialists say Sunday’s announcement, at a major AIDS meeting in Atlanta, offers promising clues for efforts to eliminate HIV infection in children, especially in AIDS-plagued African countries where too many babies are born with the virus.

“You could call this about as close to a cure, if not a cure, that we’ve seen,” Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, who is familiar with the findings, told The Associated Press.

A doctor gave this baby faster and stronger treatment than is usual, starting a three-drug infusion within 30 hours of birth. That was before tests confirmed the infant was infected and not just at risk from a mother whose HIV wasn’t diagnosed until she was in labor. “I just felt like this baby was at higher-than-normal risk, and deserved our best shot,” Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of Mississippi, said in an interview.

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‘B—h,’ ‘C–t’: Reporters Open Up About Obscenities And Abuse From Obama Spokespeople

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Photo Credit: Weaselzippers)Bob Woodward’s alleged “threat” from the White House has touched off a storm of conservative support for the Washington Post editor, and has forced the Obama administration onto the defense. It also may have opened up a floodgate of information — information that suggests that, even if Woodward himself was not threatened or abused, other less venerable reporters have faced such treatment.

The New York Post reports:

This administration is more skilled and disciplined than any other in controlling the narrative, using social media to circumnavigate the press. On the flip side, our YouTube culture means even the slightest gaffe can be devastating, and so you have an army of aides and staffers helicoptering over reporters.

Finally, this week, reporters are pushing back. Even Jonathan Alter — who frequently appears on the Obama-friendly MSNBC — came forward to say he, too, had been treated horribly by the administration for writing something they didn’t like.

“There is a kind of threatening tone that, from time to time — not all the time — comes out of these guys,” Alter said this week. During the 2008 campaign swing through Berlin, Alter said that future White House press secretary Robert Gibbs disinvited him from a dinner between Obama and the press corps over it.[…]

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‘Know Your Place’: Elite Media Target Herman Cain (+video)

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Photo Credit: breitbartThere is no greater danger to the left (and therefore the media) than minorities who “forget their place” and join the Republican Party. Each time this occurs, it represents a two-part existential threat. First, these apostates undermine the cherished media narrative that portrays Republicans as intolerant of anyone who isn’t white or male. Second, those who think for themselves might give others ideas. And so, in order to terrify others into “knowing their place,” the media targets “runners” for personal destruction.

In order to destroy apostates, the left and the media are merciless and oftentimes willing to cater to the worst kind of racial stereotype. Some twenty years ago, during his confirmation hearing, the left and media attempted to paint Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a not-very-bright sexual predator. Recently, Hispanic Republican Senator Ted Cruz was attacked for being too “uppity.”

Now it’s Herman Cain’s turn.

Born into relative poverty in 1945 (his mother was a domestic worker, his father a chauffeur), Herman Cain is a Stage IV cancer survivor and self-made millionaire who served as Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Omaha Branch, and as the CEO of the National Restaurant Association. Cain has written a syndicated column, hosted a successful talk radio show, and ran for president twice.

Yet, for some odd reason, this resume just isn’t good enough for the media. Ever since Fox News announced the hiring of Cain as a regular contributor, the elite media has coordinated a mocking, demeaning, “othering” attack right out of the playbook wielded against Clarence Thomas:

[A] high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the [elite media] rather than hung from a tree.

Watch video of Howard Kurtz and his Daily Download partner, Lauren Ashburn, pack at least an hour of Mean Girling into only 75 seconds here:

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