Iran’s supreme leader Thursday strongly rejected proposals for direct talks with the United States, effectively quashing suggestions for a breakthrough one-on-one dialogue on the nuclear standoff and potentially other issues. The statement posted on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s website echoes previous remarks opposing bilateral talks with Washington in parallel with stop-and-start nuclear negotiations with world powers, including the U.S., which are scheduled to resume later this month. But the latest comments marked Khamenei’s first reaction since the idea of direct talks received a high-profile boost earlier this week from U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during a security summit in Munich attended by Iran’s foreign minister. Khamenei’s statement also could spill over into the negotiations in Kazakhstan later this month between Iran and a six-nation group comprising the permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany. His apparent references to U.S. sanctions — saying Washington was “holding a gun” to Iran — suggests Iranian envoys will likely stick to demands for relief from the economic pressures before considering any nuclear concessions.Tweet
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Iran's Ayatollah Dismisses Talks With U.S. After Joe Biden Brings Up The Possibility
Sequestration Cuts Amount To A 5% Reduction In Discretionary Spending – After 14% Increase Since 2008
From the Wall Street Journal:
Republicans have rightly concluded after two years of being sucker-punched that the sequester is the main negotiating leverage they have and may be the only way to restrain spending. So now Democrats and a gaggle of interest groups are denouncing Mr. Obama’s fiscal brainchild because the programs they cherish—from job training to education, to the EPA and energy subsidies, to money for Planned Parenthood—are about to get chopped too. Fear not. As always in Washington when there is talk of cutting spending, most of the hysteria is baseless. The nearby table from the House Budget Committee shows that programs are hardly starved for money. In Mr. Obama’s first two years, while private businesses and households were spending less and deleveraging, federal domestic discretionary spending soared by 84% with some agencies doubling and tripling their budgets. Spending growth has slowed since Republicans took the House in 2011. Still, from 2008-2013 federal discretionary spending has climbed to $1.062 trillion from $933 billion—an increase of 13.9%. Domestic programs grew by 16.6%, much faster than the 11.6% for national security.Tweet
Dr. Benjamin Carson Delivers Terrific Speech At The National Prayer Breakfast
Here is an excerpt:
CARSON: Well, some people say, they say, "Well, that's not fair because it doesn't hurt the guy who made $10 billion as much as the guy who made ten." Where does it say you have to hurt the guy? He just put a billion dollars in the pot! You know, we don't need to hurt him. It's that kind of thinking that has resulted in 602 banks in the Cayman Islands. That money needs to be back here, building our infrastructure and creating jobs.Here's another:
CARSON: Here's my solution: When a person is born, give him a birth certificate, an electronic medical record, and a health savings account to which money can be contributed -- pretax -- from the time you're born 'til the time you die. When you die, you can pass it on to your family members, so that when you're 85 years old and you got six diseases, you're not trying to spend up everything. You're happy to pass it on and there's nobody talking about death panels. Number one. And also, for the people who were indigent who don't have any money we can make contributions to their HSA each month because we already have this huge pot of money. Instead of sending it to some bureaucracy, let's put it in their HSAs. Now they have some control over their own health care.Tweet
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli: View Of Marijuana Legalization "Evolving"
Via Reason:
“I’m not sure about Virginia’s future [in terms of marijuana legalization],” the newspaper quoted Cuccinelli saying. “But I and a lot of people are watching Colorado and Washington to see how it plays out.” Cuccinelli’s marijuana comments surprised U.Va. political science professor Larry Sabato, whose class Cuccinelli address.
Sabato noted “Cuccinelli stressed he wouldn’t be recommending changes anytime soon. But he praised states such as Colorado for experimenting with marihuana legalization, saying this was federalism in action. He said twice his views were ‘evolving” on the subject.”
“The students were as surprised as I was,” Sabato added, observing that based on their reactions “his views made him more appealing to them.”Tweet
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Defending Obama's Drone Policy Against Americans
We know that a lot of libertarian and progressive critics of a hawkish foreign policy believe that the only real threat to peace and security in this world is the United States, but if anyone thinks that al-Qaida is some kind of dissident political club — rather than a “terrorist organization engaged in constant plotting against the United States” — we’d like to see the research.
And if anyone thinks that this organization’s commitment to “engage in such attacks regularly to the extent it were able to do so” does not pose “an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States” and her just interests, we’d like to know why.
And if anyone thinks that apprehension and trial of these combatants in a “host nation [that] is unable or unwilling to suppress the threat posed by the individual” is feasible, we’d like to understand how.
And if anyone thinks that committing treason by being in a foreign country — as a member of the armed wing of an organization that Congress “has authorized the use of force” against — is a constitutionally-protected place to be, we’d like to get an explanation.
And if anyone thinks that being “a senior operational leader of the enemy forces who is actively engaged in planning operations to kill Americans” is too broad, we’d like entertain a more workable definition.
And if anyone think that the president does not have a constitutional duty to defend the citizens of the United States from attack, we’d like to hear that thought process.
And if anyone has a better solution, we’d like to hear that out too.
From the National Review's David French, "Yes the Military Can and Should Target American Members of Al Qaeda": http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/340008/yes-military-can-and-should-target-american-members-al-qaeda-david-french
Finally, international law professor Michael Lewis writes that drones constitute the best way to combat the Taliban, and argues that "after examining the alternatives, it is clear that drones remain the best option available to minimize the negative effects of the conflict on civilians while continuing to disrupt the Taliban and deny it control of territory in the tribal areas." http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/drones_020713.html?page=all Tweet
Senator Lindsey Graham Urges Support Of U.S. Drone Policy
“Every member of Congress needs to get on board,” Graham said. “It’s not fair to the president to let him, leave him out there alone quite frankly. He’s getting hit from libertarians and the left."
“I think the middle of America understands why you would want a drone program to go after a person like Anwar al-Awlaki,” Graham added. “The process of being targeted I think is legal, quite frankly laborious and should reside in the commander in chief to determine who an enemy combatant is and what kind of force to use. If this ever goes to court I guarantee you it will be a slam dunk support of what the administration is doing. I think one of the highlights of President Obama’s first time and the beginning of his second term is the way he’s been able to use drones against terrorists."Tweet
Democratic Congressmen Seek To Legalize Marijuana
Two Democratic congressmen are tapping into what they call a “groundswell of public opinion” by introducing legislation to legalize marijuana on the federal level, tax it and regulate it like alcohol and tobacco. Colorado Rep. Jared Polis introduced the Ending Marijuana Prohibition Act on Tuesday. The bill would remove marijuana from the schedule of controlled substances and prohibit the Drug Enforcement Administration from regulating it. If passed, it would mean that states would be free to set their own marijuana policies without the threat of federal intervention, which is currently the greatest hurdle to the pot industries in Colorado and Washington, which legalized the adult recreational use of marijuana by wide margins in November... “Americans have increasingly come to the conclusion that the drug war is a failed policy,” Polis said. “Americans are sick and tired of the cost of the war on drugs, whether we’re talking about the financial costs in a time of deficits or whether we’re talking about the human costs.” Polis said there has been an “enormous evolution” in public sentiment toward marijuana and that legalization is “an idea whose time has come.”Tweet
Chris Rock Says President Obama Must Be Supported Because He Is The "Boss," "Dad Of The Country"
During a morning gun control press conference Chris Rock stated:
I am just here to support the President of the United States. President of the United States is our boss, but he is also... you know, the President and the First Lady are kinda like the Mom and the Dad of the country. And when your Dad says something you listen, and when you don't it will usually bite you on the ass later on. So, I’m here to support the President.Tweet
Iran's Ahmadenijad Seeks Strategic Axis With Egypt's Morsi
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on the first visit to Cairo by an Iranian leader in more than three decades, called for a strategic alliance with Egypt and said he had offered the cash-strapped Arab state a loan, but drew a cool response. Ahmadinejad said outside forces were trying to prevent a rapprochement between the Middle East's two most populous nations, at odds since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution and Egypt's signing of a peace treaty with Israel in the same year. "We must all understand that the only option is to set up this alliance because it is in the interests of the Egyptian and Iranian peoples and other nations of the region," the official MENA news agency quoted him in remarks to Egyptian journalists published on Wednesday.Tweet
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Obama Announces He Will Visit Israel This Spring
President Barack Obama plans to visit Israel in the spring, marking his first visit to the nation since becoming president.
The White House says Obama spoke about the visit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Jan. 28. That’s when Obama congratulated Netanyahu on his success in Israel’s recent election.
Obama visited Israel while running for president in 2008, but hasn’t been back since, prompting criticism from some pro-Israel groups.
The White House says the start of Obama’s second term offers an opportunity to reaffirm Israel’s close relationship with the U.S. and to discuss major issues like Syria and Iran.
Tweet
Monday, February 4, 2013
New York City Schools Hand Out 12,721 "Morning-After Pills," Ignores Parents
New York City schools are offering young girls a full menu of birth control options, free of parental counsel, thanks to an unpublicized project by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration. School nurses handed out 12,721 doses of the Plan B One-Step “morning-after” pill in 2011-12, up from 10,720 in 2010-11 and 5,039 in 2009-10, the New York Post reports. Mona Davids, president of the NYC Parents Union, was stunned by the report. “I’m in shock,” she said. “What gives the mayor the right to decide, without adequate notice, to give our children drugs that will impact their bodies and their psyches? He has purposely kept the public and parents in the dark with his agenda.” Besides “emergency contraception,” about 40 school-based clinics have dispensed prescriptions for contraception, intrauterine devices and hormone-delivering injections, the Post reports. Officials refused to discuss the project.Tweet
Premiums To Rise As A Result Of ObamaCare Tax On Insurance Industry
While the most sweeping provisions of the health care overhaul have not yet gone into effect, plenty of Americans will still be paying higher insurance premiums this year -- as insurance companies try to preemptively cover the cost of a tax increase included in President Obama's Affordable Care Act. That tax doesn't take effect until next year, when other major provisions like the so-called "individual mandate" and insurance subsidies also kick in. But that hasn't stopped insurance companies from charging higher premiums this year to cover the hike, as well as the cost of ObamaCare benefits such as free birth control and preventive care. Premiums for individuals and small businesses are projected to increase due to the tax by roughly 2 percent this year and by as much as 3.7 percent in 2023, according to a widely cited analysis by the insurance industry.Tweet
Yale Law Professor On Iraq War WMD Intelligence: Nobody "Lied" Or "Spun" The Intelligence
A bracing challenge to this view is provided by “The Art of Betrayal,” Gordon Corera’s enthralling history of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, popularly known as MI6. Corera, a widely respected British Broadcasting Corp. journalist with impeccable sources in the clandestine world, devotes a good deal of his narrative to the question of what went wrong in Iraq. But the wider focus is on the shadowy, yet colorful, figures who have populated the agency since the dawn of the Cold War. The book is worth reading for Corera’s detailed recounting of largely unexamined swaths of secret history, which I will discuss in a future column. For the present, let us consider only what he has to say about Iraq -- and, in particular, about the notion that U.S. President George W. Bush and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and their staffs fabricated the evidence of weapons of mass destruction... Corera has combed available public sources, both official investigations and various memoirs, and added to it his own reporting, most of it from anonymous intelligence sources. His ironic conclusion: “Everyone, including the spies, was convinced by the intelligence that said Saddam had the weapons,” he writes. Yet “they were not sure it looked strong enough to win the argument.” By everyone, Corera means everyone. As he reminds us, even Hans Blix, the chief United Nations arms inspector before the war, believed that Saddam Hussein had hidden weapons of mass destruction. David Kay, who led the postwar Iraq Survey Group that found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, went into his search expecting to find the opposite. In this sense, Bush and Blair were just along for the ride... Overall, Corera agrees with the conclusion of the British investigators: With a single exception, the intelligence wasn’t spun by the politicians. It was “simply wrong.” From the point of view of the spies, he points out, this realization is far more damaging. It means they didn’t do their jobs. And the political leaders, says Corera, “believed the intelligence they had been told about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”... In the case of Iraq, one issue is that there was, in effect, a deadline: It was increasingly clear that Bush and Blair meant to go to war by early 2003. Thus the intelligence agencies were faced with the need to find a way to document what they believed to be true but couldn’t quite prove. As Corera points out, the enemy of good intelligence work is often time. It can take months or years to determine whether a bit of information is even true -- longer still to figure out what it means. The faster the spies have to work, the greater the likelihood of error.Tweet
Christian Bakery Owner Being Investigated In Oregon For Refusing To Sell Gay Wedding Cake
KGW reports:
It started on Jan. 17 when a mother and daughter showed up at Sweet Cakes by Melissa looking for the perfect wedding cake. “My first question is what’s the wedding date,” said owner Aaron Klein. “My next question is bride and groom’s name … the girl giggled a little bit and said it’s two brides.” Klein apologized to the women and told them he and his wife do not make cakes for same-sex marriages. Klein said the women were disgusted and walked out. “I believe that marriage is a religious institution ordained by God,” said Klein. “A man should leave his mother and father and cling to his wife … that to me is the beginning of marriage.”... “I’d rather have my kids see their dad stand up for what he believes in then to see him bow down because one person complained.”Klein told KATU: "I apologized for wasting their time and said we don’t do same-sex marriages. honestly did not mean to hurt anybody, didn’t mean to make anybody upset, (it’s) just something I believe in very strongly." Tweet
Sunday, February 3, 2013
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