Big U.S. Fleet Nears Disputed Islands, But What For?

/1 Comment/in , /by

It’s probably just a coincidence; no need to worry yet. But the U.S. has quietly assembled a powerful air, land and sea armada not far from where Japan and China are squaring off over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Two Navy aircraft carrier battle groups and a Marine Corps air-ground task force have begun operating in the Western Pacific, within easy reach of the Senkaku Islands. That’s where Japanese and Chinese patrol boats are engaged in an increasingly tense standoff.

Chinese vessels have repeatedly entered territorial waters around the small islands in recent weeks and Coast Guard vessels from Japan and Taiwan fired water cannons at each other last week. The islands are controlled and administered by Japan, but claimed by both China and Taiwan.

No warships have been directly involved in the confrontations, so far. But China has vowed to continue sending patrol vessels into territorial waters and Japan has assembled scores of Coast Guard vessels to “defend” the islands.

The U.S. hasn’t taken sides in the ownership dispute, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for “cooler heads” to prevail. Nonetheless, U.S. officials have stated clearly that the Senkakus fall under the U.S.-Japan security treaty, which would require the U.S. to come to Japan’s aid in case of attack.

Read more from this story HERE.

CBO: Fourth Straight Annual Deficit of Over $1 Trillion

/0 Comments/in , /by

A new estimate puts the deficit for the just-completed 2012 budget year at $1.1 trillion, the fourth straight year of trillion dollar deficits on President Barack Obama’s watch.

The result was a slight improvement from the 2011 deficit of $1.3 trillion.

The bleak figures from the Congressional Budget Office, while expected, add fodder for the heated presidential campaign, in which Obama’s handling of the economy and the budget is a main topic. Friday’s release came as the government announced that the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent last month, matching the rate when Obama took office.

The administration will release the official deficit numbers around mid-October, but they should line up closely with the CBO estimate, which showed that the government borrowed 31 cents for every dollar it spent.

The CBO estimate predicts a modest 3 percent increase over 2011 in both income tax and payroll tax receipts, reflecting the sluggish economic recovery. Corporate income tax receipts are way up — almost 34 percent — but most of that is a result of tax rules governing write-offs of business equipment.

Read more from this story HERE.

Anti-Obama NAACP Leader: Obama Campaign Director Threatened Me Personally; Police Notified

/5 Comments/in , /by

The President of the South Suburban Branch of the NAACP alleges a director of the re-election campaign of Barack Obama has threatened and intimidated him because he doesn’t support the president.

David Lowery says he believes he was threatened during a phone conversation with Louis Raymond, the Illinois political director for Obama for America.

Lowery says he doesn’t personally support the president because he’s not addressing issues important to the black community. He said he was explaining that to Raymond when the Obama campaign official told him, “You know what? I know everything about you.”

Lowery says Raymond added, “We’ve been watching you, and since you don’t support Obama, we’ll deal with you,” before hanging up.

Lowery filed a report with the Oak Forest police report, he says, “in case something happens.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Osama bin Laden Movie Produced by Obama Fundraiser Set to Air Nationally Two Days Before Election

/8 Comments/in , /by

A film dramatizing the death of Osama bin Laden is set to debut next month on the National Geographic Channel, two days before the US presidential election.

“Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden,” from The Weinstein Co. and Voltage Pictures, will air Sunday, Nov. 4, the channel said Thursday. President Barack Obama faces Republican challenger Mitt Romney at the polls two days later.

Weinstein co-chairman Harvey Weinstein is a prominent fundraiser for Obama’s re-election campaign, which has touted bin Laden’s death as an example of the president’s leadership.

National Geographic Channel chose the film’s debut date to help promote the start of its fall season, channel President Howard T. Owens said Thursday.

“Harvey obviously doesn’t schedule our network,” Owens said. He added that the channel is “not political. We are opportunistic from a programming perspective.”

Read more from this story HERE.

If Tax Cuts Expire, We’ll All Feel the Pinch (Not Just Trump)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo credit: AllenWestForCongress.comA typical middle-income family making $40,000 to $64,000 a year could see its taxes go up by $2,000 next year if lawmakers fail to renew a lengthy roster of tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, according to a new report Monday.

Taxpayers across the income spectrum would be hit with large tax hikes, the Tax Policy Center said in its study, with households in the top 1 percent income range seeing an average tax increase of more than $120,000, while a family making between $110,000 to $140,000 could see a tax hike in the $6,000 range.

Taxpayers across the income spectrum will get slammed with increases totaling more than $500 billion — a more than 20 percent increase — with nine out of 10 households being affected by the expiration of tax cuts enacted under both President Barack Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush.

The expiring provisions include Bush-era cuts on wage and investment income and cuts for married couples and families with children, among others. Also expiring is a 2 percentage-point temporary payroll tax cut championed by Obama.

The looming expiration of the large roster of tax cuts is one of the issues confronting voters in November, with the chief difference between Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney being the tax treatment of wealthier earners. Obama is calling for permitting rates on individual income exceeding $200,000 and family income over $250,000 to go back to Clinton-era rates of as much as 39.6 percent.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gore on Obama’s Terrible Debate Performance: “An Inconvenient Altitude”

/1 Comment/in , /by

Former Vice President Al Gore, no stranger to disappointing debate performances, took to the airwaves to offer his own inconvenient excuse for President Obama’s shaky effort Wednesday night in Denver: Gore blamed it on the altitude.

“I’m going to say something controversial here,” Gore said on his Current TV network’s post-debate analysis. “Obama arrived in Denver at 2:00 p.m. today, just a few hours before the debate started.
“Romney did his debate prep in Denver. When you go to 5,000 feet and you only have a few hours to adjust — I don’t know, maybe ….”

Gore’s rationale for Obama’s inexplicable muff elevated the alibis from the left – which already include complaints about left-leaning PBS moderator Jim Lehrer, as well as the format of the debate – to dizzying new heights.

Read more from this story HERE.

US Military: You May Be a Terrorist if You Use Facebook, Are Young, and Don’t Like “Mainstream Ideologies”

/3 Comments/in , /by

You’ve recently changed your “choices in entertainment.” You have “peculiar discussions.” You “complain about bias,” you’re “socially withdrawn” and you’re frustrated with “mainstream ideologies.” Your “Risk Factors for Radicalization” include “Social Networks” and “Youth.”

These are some other signs that one of your co-workers has become a terrorist, according to the U.S. military. He “shows a sudden shift from radical to ‘normal’ behavior to conceal radical behavior.” He “inquires about weapons of mass effects.” He “stores or collects mass weapons or hazardous materials.”

That was the assessment of a terrorism advisory organization inside the U.S. Army called the Asymmetric Warfare Group in 2011, acquired by Danger Room. Its concern about the warning signs of internal radicalization reflects how urgent the Army considers that threat after Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan shot and killed 13 people at Ford Hood in 2009. But its “indicators” of radicalization are vague enough to include both benign behaviors that lots of people safely exhibit and, on the other end of the spectrum, signs that someone is so obviously a terrorist they shouldn’t need to be pointed out. It’s hard to tell if the group is being politically correct or euphemistic.

Around the same time, the Asymmetric Warfare Group tried to understand a related problem that now threatens to undermine the U.S. war in Afghanistan: “insider threats” from Afghan troops who kill their U.S. mentors. In another chart, also acquired by Danger Room, an Afghan soldier or policeman ready to snap could be someone who “appears frustrated with partnered nations”; reads “questionable reading materials”; or who has “strange habits.” Admittedly, the U.S. military command isn’t sure what’s causing the insider attacks, but it’ll be difficult for an American soldier who doesn’t speak Pashto or Dari to identify “strange habits” among people from an unfamiliar culture.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mitt Romney Delivers Dynamic, Reaganesque Performance in First Debate

/18 Comments/in , /by

Republicans have good reason to be proud of Mitt Romney tonight. Though heavily derided throughout his campaign as a weak, flip-flopping conservative likely to flounder in the storm of a debate against President Obama, the Republican nominee delivered a solid, confident and dashing performance in tonight’s debate reminiscent of the days of Ronald Reagan.

Tonight’s first debate covered domestic fiscal policy, economics and public administration. Sharp contrasts, both in delivery bearing and ideas of the right and proper role of government were clearly defined.

President Obama – once the energetic, youthful and unstoppable Democrat of 2008 – was a different candidate tonight, looking tired, hesitant, easily agitated and on the defensive against both Romney and the moderator, Jim Lehrer. Romney, however, was in a rare form, maintaining a steady smile and not easily moved by his opponent.

Predictably, Obama had to defend the actions of his administration while Romney benefited from the challenger’s advantage of being an outsider looking in. Obama continued in his tendency to use the word “investment” to describe compulsory use of taxpayer dollars while Romney took a strict line and called for cuts in spending and brought the president back to 2007 when candidate Obama promised not to raise taxes in a recession.

Obama’s redirects were at best sluggish, slow and at times his tendency to look down to refer to his podium notes for protracted periods of time gave the impression that he was on the defensive, if not unable to keep up with Romney’s tempo.

Read more from this story HERE.

Juan Williams on First Presidential Debate: “Massacre! Massacre!” (+video)

/5 Comments/in , /by

By Glenn Thrush. It had been nearly 1,400 days since Barack Obama strode onto a debate stage — and it showed in a major way Wednesday at the first presidential debate of 2012.

Obama, who has spent most of the past four years speaking to hand-picked interviewers or lecturing audiences required to remain mostly mute while he spoke, struggled to shake off the rust in a jostling debate environment that gave his opponent Mitt Romney parity, equal time — and a new lease on political life.

There were no game-changing gaffes and the debate was a substantive break from months of caustic negative campaigning on both sides, including lengthy discussions over deficit reduction and entitlement reform that seemed to yield hints of common ground — and also seemed to elevate both men.

Yet even that was inherently bad news for Obama, who had hoped to convince voters he was the only possible president onstage.

Romney’s aides and surrogates sprinted into the spin room to offer effusive assessments of their candidate’s performance, and Fox News contributor Juan Williams was caroling “Massacre! Massacre!” to himself as he bounded out of the men’s restroom. Obama’s team didn’t meet the press for a full 10 minutes — and one top Democrat, asked to say the best thing about the president’s performance, said Obama has been “just working to maintain cool and be reassuring” in an email to POLITICO. Read more from this story HERE.

According to Politico, here are Romney’s best five debate lines:

Also according to Politico, here are Obama’s best lines:

Fact Checking the Presidential Debate: Both Candidates Get Failing Grade

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Calvin Woodward. President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney spun one-sided stories in their first presidential debate, not necessarily bogus, but not the whole truth.

Here’s a look at some of their claims and how they stack up with the facts:

OBAMA: “I’ve proposed a specific $4 trillion deficit reduction plan. … The way we do it is $2.50 for every cut, we ask for $1 in additional revenue.”

THE FACTS: In promising $4 trillion, Obama is already banking more than $2 trillion from legislation enacted along with Republicans last year that cut agency operating budgets and capped them for 10 years. He also claims more than $800 billion in war savings that would occur anyway. And he uses creative bookkeeping to hide spending on Medicare reimbursements to doctors. Take those “cuts” away and Obama’s $2.50/$1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases shifts significantly more in the direction of tax increases.

Obama’s February budget offered proposals that would cut deficits over the coming decade by $2 trillion instead of $4 trillion. Of that deficit reduction, tax increases accounted for $1.6 trillion. He promises relatively small spending cuts of $597 billion from big federal benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid. He also proposed higher spending on infrastructure projects. Read more from this story HERE.

Deficit Math Doesn’t Added Up For Either Candidate

By Thomas Eddlem. The first presidential debate of the 2012 post-primary election season revealed that both Democratic incumbent President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, would increase the national budget deficit more than advertised.

Both candidates claim to have put forward tax and spending plans that would bring the federal budget closer to balance. However, according to the independent analysis of the Congressional Budge Office, both candidates’ plans would actually increase the $1 trillion deficits the federal government is expected to run next year.

President Obama criticized Governor Romney’s tax proposal, charging that he would increase deficits through a “$5 trillion tax cut” and a $2 trillion increase in military spending. “It’s math,” Obama charged, echoing the words of former President Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention. “It’s arithmetic.”

But the math applied by Obama was based on Romney’s proposed cumulative tax cuts and military spending increases over the next 10 years. The 10-year figures are deliberately exaggerated figures since much of the money involved would be in the final few years of the 10-year period, when Romney wouldn’t even be eligible to serve as president even if elected to two terms. Romney countered that “I’m not looking for a $5 trillion tax cut. What I’ve said is I would not put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit.” Romney outlined five goals he’d seek if elected as president, the fourth of which is to “get us to a balanced budget.”

Despite Obama’s deceptive exaggerations, Romney’s proposals would not only fail to get the federal government to a balanced budget, it would increase the federal deficit immensely. Romney has failed to propose spending cuts that would match his substantial tax cut proposal (which includes cutting income tax rates 20 percent across the board) and proposed increases in military spending (some $200 billion in 2016 alone). Read more from this story HERE.