The AP reports:
In the second deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic post in five months, a suicide bomber struck the American Embassy in Ankara on Friday, killing a Turkish security guard in what the White House described as a terrorist attack.Tweet
“It’s somewhere between baffling and incomprehensible,” a member of Mr. Obama’s own team of advisers on Iran said on Thursday night when asked about Mr. Hagel’s stumbling performance on the question during the all-day hearing. The worry was evident in the voice of the official, who would not speak on the record while criticizing the performance of the president’s nominee. For those who question whether the no-containment cornerstone of the Obama approach to Tehran is for real, or just diplomatic rhetoric, Mr. Hagel clearly muddled the message, he said.Tweet
The vote against Paul’s bill: 79-19.
Rand Paul’s amendment: “To prohibit the sale, lease, transfer, retransfer, or delivery of F-16 aircraft, M1 tanks, or certain other defense articles or services to the Government of Egypt.”
The 19 Republicans that voted in favor of stopping the shipment of F-16s to Egypt:
Boozman (R-AR) Coats (R-IN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) Cruz (R-TX) Fischer (R-NE) Grassley (R-IA) Heller (R-NV) Lee (R-UT) Moran (R-KS) Paul (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rubio (R-FL) Scott (R-SC) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA)Tweet
4 minutes later he clearly demonstrates that he has no idea what he is talking about: Tweet
The Jerusalem Post reports:
US officials said Wednesday overnight that Israel had bombed a suspected shipment of anti-aircraft missiles in Syria on Tuesday night, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported.
The Wall Street Journal report cited a Western official as saying that the strike targeted a convoy of trucks carrying Russian-made SA-17 missiles to Hezbollah, in a border area west of Damascus .
American officials told the Times that Israel notified the US about the attack.
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A jihadist website posted a new threat by al Qaeda this week that promises to conduct “shocking” attacks on the United States and the West. The posting appeared on the Ansar al Mujahidin network Sunday and carried the headline, “Map of al Qaeda and its future strikes.” The message, in Arabic, asks: “Where will the next strike by al Qaeda be?” A translation was obtained by Inside the Ring. “The answer for it, in short: The coming strikes by al Qaeda, with God’s Might, will be in the heart of the land of nonbelief, America, and in France, Denmark, other countries in Europe, in the countries that helped and are helping France, and in other places that shall be named by al Qaeda at other times,” the threat states. The attacks will be “strong, serious, alarming, earth-shattering, shocking and terrifying.”Tweet
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Israel bombed a suspected shipment of antiaircraft missiles in Syria on Wednesday, according to regional and U.S. officials, in its most ambitious strike inside its neighbor's territory in nearly two chaotic years of civil war there. The early-morning strike in a border area west of Damascus targeted a convoy of trucks carrying Russian-made SA-17 missiles to Hezbollah, the anti-Israel Shiite militant and political group in Lebanon, according to a Western official briefed on the raid.Tweet
The U.S. economy posted a stunning drop of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, defying expectations for slow growth and possibly providing incentive for more Federal Reserve stimulus. The economy shrank from October through December for the first time since the recession ended, hurt by the biggest cut in defense spending in 40 years, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles.Tweet
The fact that wind energy in the United States kills thousands of protected birds every year has not amounted to a single Department of Justice prosecution of a single wind-energy company:
Yet, via The Hill:
Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder why he is “targeting” oil and gas companies by prosecuting them for the unintentional death of birds. … Vitter pointed out that wind energy producers kill far more birds than oil and gas companies, but that all of the bird deaths have been unintended. … “These are important matters,” Alexander said. “The rule of law is one of the fundamental characteristics of this nation and the Department of Justice is enforcing a law against oil and gas companies and not wind energy companies.” … “Please explain the apparent targeting of oil an gas producers for violations under the MBTA,” [the letter to Eric Holder] reads. “Do you believe it is inconsistent to prosecute energy producers for the deaths of several animals among three producers at the same time the Administration condones an energy project that plans to kill between eight and fifteen bald eagles each year?”Tweet
Al Gore definitely cares about being green, it just turns out the green he likes most has Benjamin Franklin's picture on it:
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TweetDisgraced New York City music teacher Aryeh Eller confessed back in 1999 to sexually harassing female students during his one and only year of teaching. He was removed from the classroom and placed in the “rubber room” … a place where faculty deemed “inappropriate” to be around students go to … well … perform no task or function. That has earned Eller $1 million over the 13 years since the sexual harassment admission.Tweet
Paris says it will deport a number of radical religious imams to tackle extremism in Europe and "global jihadism". French Interior Minister warned the eviction would happen "in the coming days". "We will expel all these imams, all these foreign preachers who denigrate women, who hold views that run counter to our values and who say there is a need to combat France,” AFP quoted foreign minister Manuel Valls as saying. Speaking at the conference in Brussels, he stressed that the move will affect “Salafist groupings, who are involved in the political process, whose aim is to monopolize cultural associations, the school system." Radical Islam, the key topic at an international conference in Belgium, is a pressing issue for France especially after Mohamed Merah the al-Qaeda inspired murderer, dubbed the Scooter Killer, shot dead three soldiers, three Jewish schoolchildren, and a rabbi in March 2012. Valls referred to the Toulouse incident, pointing out that Merah did not work alone, but had many contacts in France and abroad and “lived in a [radical] environment”. The minister concluded this “forged the process of radicalization that led him to kill”.Tweet
Fleeing Islamist extremists torched a library containing historic manuscripts in Timbuktu, the mayor said Monday, as French and Malian forces closed in on Mali's fabled desert city. Ousmane Halle said he heard about the burnings early Monday. "It's truly alarming that this has happened," he told The Associated Press by telephone from Mali's capital, Bamako, on Monday. "They torched all the important ancient manuscripts. The ancient books of geography and science. It is the history of Timbuktu, of its people." The mayor said Monday that the radical Islamists had torched his office as well as the Ahmed Baba Institute – a library rich with historical documents – in an act of retaliation before they fled late last week.Tweet
The New York Times reports:
Egypt’s top military officer warned Tuesday of the potential “collapse of the state” if political forces in the country did not reconcile, reflecting growing impatience with the country’s growing unrest.
In a speech to military cadets that was distributed as a statement, Gen. Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, the defense minister, publicly warned Egypt’s new Islamist leaders and their opponents that “their disagreement on running the affairs of the country may lead to the collapse of the state and threatens the future of the coming generations." As such, General Sisi suggested, the polarization of the civilian politics was becoming a concern of the military because “to affect the stability of the state institutions is a dangerous matter that harms Egyptian national security."
His remarks came as violence in Cairo began to escalate. During clashes between riot police and protesters along the Nile Corniche early on Tuesday, the fighting spilled into one of the city’s luxury hotels, leaving the lobby in ruins.
The worst of the turmoil, which has left at least 45 people dead, has been in Port Said at the northern tip of the Suez Canal. Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi, has imposed a monthlong state of emergency in the city and two others in the Suez Canal zone, calling on the army to regain control of security.
General Sisi also said the army would protect the “vital” Suez Canal.
The state of emergency imposed by Mr. Morsi virtually eliminates due process protections against abuse by the police.
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The Hill reports:
The nation's long-term fiscal outlook hasn't significantly improved following the recent agreement between Congress and the White House over tax and spending issues, according to a new analysis.
The "fiscal cliff" deal, combined with the debt-limit agreement of August 2011, only slightly delays the United States reaching debt-to-gross domestic product levels that would damage the economy and risk another fiscal crisis, according to a report from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation released on Tuesday.
The agreement "may have prevented the immediate threats that the fiscal cliff posed to our fragile economic recovery, but we haven’t remotely fixed the nation’s debt problem," said Michael A. Peterson, president and COO of the Peterson Foundation.
"The primary goal of any sustainable fiscal policy is to stabilize the debt as a share of the economy and put it on a downward path, and yet our nation is still heading toward debt levels of 200 percent of GDP and beyond," he said.
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Reuters reports:
Texas Governor Rick Perry on Tuesday called for returning excess tax money to taxpayers and tapping the state's rainy-day fund for water and transportation infrastructure.
Perry, 62, the longest-serving governor in the nation at just over 12 years, touted the success of Texas in creating jobs and luring companies to the state.
The Republican called for changing the constitution of the state, the nation's second most populous, to allow the return of tax money to the people who paid it when the state brings in more than needed.
"We've never bought into the notion that if you collect more, you need to spend more," Perry said in his state of the state address, which he delivered to a joint session of the Texas House and Senate.
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John Kerry has now been confirmed:
The vote was 94 to 3, clearing the way for Kerry to formally take over from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday... Three Republicans voted against Kerry — Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma.
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A man was shot dead and hundreds of people were injured in Egypt's Port Said on Sunday during the funerals of 33 protesters killed at the weekend in the city, part of a wave of violence that has compounded challenges facing President Mohamed Mursi. The 18-year-old victim was killed by a gunshot wound in the chest, Abdel Rahman Farag, the Mediterranean port's head of hospitals told Reuters. More than 416 people suffered from teargas inhalation, while 17 sustained gunshot wounds, he said. Gunshots had killed many of the 33 who died on Saturday when residents went on the rampage after a court sentenced 21 people, mostly from the city, to death for their role in a deadly stadium disaster in Port Said last year. Some in the crowd chanted on Sunday for revenge or shouted anti-Mursi slogans. "Our soul and blood, we sacrifice to Port Said," they said, as coffins were carried through the streets.Tweet
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has warned that a crisis involving a nuclear Iran is in the "foreseeable future". The Nobel Peace laureate, 89, was speaking about prospects in the Middle East at the World Economic Forum. He said nuclear proliferation in the region triggered by an armed Iran would increase the chances of an atomic war - "a turning point in human history".Tweet
Iran’s “hanging judge” convicted and sentenced American-Iranian Pastor Saeed Abedini on Sunday to eight years in Evin Prison because of his Christian faith. Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the Washington-based American Center for Law and Justice, informed The Jerusalem Post on Sunday of the conviction. His organization represents Abedini’s family in the US and is working to secure his release.Tweet
The Islamic Republic News Agency reports:
"World Muslims should forge unity in their struggle with bullying powers and by the time that the Zionist usurpers commit crimes through occupation and vandalism. It is not advisable to sit idle and take no action.'' Elsewhere in his speech, he said that it is not possible to attain unity without having a unique leadership. The only leader who can guide Muslim World is the guidelines of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), he underlined. "All differences and discords among Muslims have roots in our misunderstanding of Holy Quran and guidelines of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Today we need leadership similar to the Prophet to get the Muslim World united."... "Enemies of humanity claim they are administering the world. They claim to be advocates of freedom and democracy around the world but under such circumstances, they should not say that they advocate freedom of Muslims. They must call for liberation of all world nations as well as the US people from rein of Zionists."Tweet
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