The Great Green Car Fleet Pentagon buying Chevy Volts to ‘green up’ military

The Pentagon is buying Chevrolet Volts to help “green up” the military—while propping up sales of the bailed-out automaker’s most politicized car.

The Department of Defense began purchasing the struggling luxury electric car, which retails at $40,000, this summer as part of its goal to purchase 1,500 such green vehicles. The Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, Calif. purchased its first two Volts in July, and 18 more vehicles will come shortly to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Air Force One is based, according to military magazine Stars and Stripes.

The Obama administration championed the production of the Volt. Along with the president’s pledge this year to “buy one and drive it myself … five years from now when I’m not president anymore,” the government offers a $7,500 tax break to encourage sales.

Such perks, however, have failed to drive consumers to GM car lots. The vehicle has been forced to suspend production twice this year after the Volt failed to gain a foothold in the marketplace.

GM is now offering the vehicle for as low as $169 per month, a financing deal that is generally reserved for $15,000 cars—a price so low that GM is reportedly losing nearly $50,000 per vehicle. The struggling automaker will again suspend production later this month after only 2,500 Volts drove off the lots last month.

GM has spent $1.2 billion developing the electric car and is still working out kinks, such as the Volt’s tendency to electrocute firefighters and first responders to accidents. The Department of Defense has been involved in that process, helping to test the Volt’s battery safety and capabilities.

Via: WFB

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Chesterfield rejects Michelle Obama's bid to speak at county school

First Lady Michelle Obama had sought to speak at a Chesterfield County elementary school during her campaign swing through Virginia today, but county school leaders rejected her request, citing school policy, a Chesterfield supervisor has confirmed.

“I do believe and think that Mrs. Obama, the first lady, should be allowed to attend a Chesterfield school,” said Dale District Supervisor Jim Holland, who confirmed the Obama campaign request. “I know it’s not school policy. However, I just do not agree with that, because I think it’s an honor for the first lady to visit a school. That’s just my personal opinion as supervisor."

Chesterfield schools officials refused to discuss the Obama campaign’s request or even confirm whether a request had been made. School system spokesman Shawn Smith did not reply to two email inquiries about the matter Wednesday until after the Times-Dispatch contacted School Board Chairman Patricia M. Carpenter.

“We respectfully decline to comment,” Smith said in an email.

Holland, the only Democrat on the five-member Chesterfield board, was unaware of the Obama campaign request until contacted by a reporter. He then confirmed it after contacting the county administration.

“It was confirmed that (Mrs. Obama) did in fact ask to come to a Chesterfield school,”Holland said. “I don’t know the extent of what their request was, whether it was a political request or whether it was an educational request.”

“If it was official, that would be appropriate,” Holland added. “If it was political, that would be inappropriate.”

Wednesday evening, the school division’s community relations director, Tim Bullis, sent by email a statement regarding the school board’s policy in response to the newspaper’s inquiry.

“If a political campaign were to inquire about the use of a school facility during the school day, the campaign would be referred to a School Board policy 6100, which prohibits the use of school facilities during the school day for political purposes,” Bullis wrote.

Holland said school officials felt that making their denial public would potentially embarrass the Obama campaign.

Via: Richmond Times-Dispatch

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US median household income in 2011 lowest since 1995

The median income of US households in 2011 dropped to its lowest level since 1995, highlighting the income pressure on Americans on middle to lower steps of the economic pyramid.

The median level is the mid point where half the population sample are above and half below. It avoids the distortions caused by top earners in average income data.

Real median household income in the United States in 2011 was $50,054, a 1.5% decline from the 2010 median and the second consecutive annual drop.

The nation's official poverty rate in 2011 was 15.0%, with 46.2m people in poverty. After three consecutive years of increases, neither the poverty rate nor the number of people in poverty were statistically different from the 2010 estimates.

As defined by the Office of Management and Budget and updated for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, the weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2011 was $23,021.


The number of people without health insurance coverage declined from 50.0m in 2010 to 48.6m in 2011, as did the percentage without coverage - - from 16.3% in 2010 to 15.7% in 2011.

In 2011, real median household income was 8.1% lower than in 2007, the year before the most recent recession, and was 8.9% lower than the median household income peak that occurred in 1999.

In 2011, the median earnings of women who worked full time, year-round ($37,118) was 77% of that for men working full time, year-round ($48,202) - - not statistically different from the 2010 ratio. Real median earnings of both men and women who worked full time, year-round declined by 2.5% between 2010 and 2011. The rates of decline for men and women were not statistically different from one another.

Via: FinFacts

More Americans opting out of banking system

In the aftermath of one of the worst recessions in history,        more Americans have limited or no interaction with banks,       instead relying on check cashers and payday lenders to          manage their finances, according to a new federal report.       

Not only are these Americans more vulnerable to high fees and interest rates, but they are also cut off from credit to buy a car or a home or pay for college, the report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.

Released Wednesday, the study found that 821,000 households opted out of the banking system from 2009 to 2011 and that the so-called unbanked population grew to 8.2 percent of U.S. households.

That means that roughly 17 million adults are without a checking or savings account. Another 51 million adults have a bank account, but use pawnshops, payday lenders or rent-to-own services, the FDIC said. This underbanked population has grown from 18.2 percent to 20.1 percent of households nationwide.

The study also found that one in four households, or 28.3 percent, either had one or no bank account. A third of these households said they do not have enough money to open and fund an account. Minorities, the unemployed, young people and lower-income households are least likely to have accounts.

Via: Washington Post

Benjamin Netanyahu vs. Barack Obama

NO LOVE LOSS BETWEEN THEM

Earlier this year, U.S. and Israeli officials had informally agreed to stop airing their well-documented disagreements over how to halt Iran’s nuclear program, according to two people familiar with the situation.

But on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke the tacit détente. He accused the Obama administration, albeit not by name, of going squishy on Tehran by not creating concrete benchmarks — “red lines,” he called them — for a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities

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The latest flare-up in the tempestuous Obama-Netanyahu relationship was overshadowed Wednesday by the carnage at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. But U.S. officials believe the intense debate over the allied response to Iran’s nuclear program — and the sharp personal, policy and political differences between the two leaders — rivals the perils posed by the excesses of the Arab Spring.

Diplomacy is, ultimately, about relationships. Obama and Netanyahu don’t really have one. And that’s created an odd and unwelcome rivalry among allies — a testy liberal-vs.-conservative chess match that mirrors Obama’s contest with Mitt Romney, who has known Netanyahu for years.

“There is a lack of rapport between these two men — they don’t like each other very much. Plus, there are serious differences between our interests and Israel’s own security interests,” said former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, who was present for several of Obama’s nine face-to-face meetings with Netanyahu.

“I don’t think that Netanyahu is trying to influence the outcome of our election, though a lot of people see it that way,” Crowley said. “It’s about agenda-setting. He just watched two conventions where Israel and Iran were mentioned, but not significantly discussed, even with the whole rigmarole [at the Democratic convention] about Jerusalem in the platform. He’s trying to get it onto the front burner.”

Via: Politico

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OBAMACARE REDEFINES 'FULL TIME' EMPLOYMENT AS 30 HOURS A WEEK

A year and a half after the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, bureaucrats at the IRS and Health and Human Services issued an 18-page report outlining new regulations that will dramatically increase health care costs for small and large businesses alike. 

The regulations, written by an IRS attorney, arbitrarily redefine "full time employee" as someone who works 30 hours a week for a business. Traditionally, most private businesses have defined "full time employee" as someone who works 40 hours a week. With this new regulation, the federal government is now removing the right of businesses to define "full time employee" as they deem appropriate for their unique conditions.

Kevin Kuhlman, Manager of Legislative Affairs at the National Federal of Independent Business, the plaintiff in the NFIB v. Sebelius Supreme Court decision, was not pleased with the new regulations:

This is the latest in what promises to be a nearly-endless amount of regulatory duct-tape, struggling to hold together a bad law that is nearly impossible to administer. The new regulation attempting to define a full-time employee is a classic by-product of the health-care law – more regulation, more red tape, more paperwork. The repercussions of this law and its regulatory jerry-rigging, for the small-business community, are endless.

The Washington Examiner noted that the new regulations will hit small businesses especially hard: 

The IRS rule is key because companies with more than 50 full-time employees must provide health insurance under Obamacare, or be fined. Business groups have been warning that small companies might try to replace full-time workers with part-time help to avoid being forced to offer health insurance in 2014, but the 30-hour full-time definition is likely to undermine those plans.

Via: Breitbart

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U.S. Poverty Rate At Record 15 Percent

U.S. Poverty Rate 15 Percent; Record Numbers Persist

WASHINGTON — The ranks of America’s poor remain stuck at a record 15 percent, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

Roughly 46.2 million people remained below the poverty line in 2011, unchanged from 2010. The figure is the highest in more than a half-century.

And while joblessness is 

persistently high, the gap between rich and poor increased in the last year. The top 1 percent of wage earners had a 6 percent increase in income, while income at the bottom 40 percent of earners was basically unchanged, said David Johnson, the chief of the Census Bureau’s household economics division.

“A lot of the increase is driven by changes at the very top of the distribution,” Mr. Johnson said.

The report comes less than two months before the November presidential election, and the still-weak U.S. economy is the top issue for voters deciding between the leading candidates, President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.

Experts earlier predicted a fourth straight annual rise in the poverty rate, but dwindling unemployment benefits and modest job gains helped to keep that from happening.

“This is good news and a surprise,” said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan economist who closely tracks poverty. He pointed to a continuing boost from new unemployment benefits passed in 2009 that gave workers up to 99 weeks of payments after layoffs and didn’t run out for many people until late 2011. Also, job gains in the private sector helped offset cuts in state and local government workers.

Via: The Washington Times

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HUD Secretary: Without tax hikes, Latinos will go to the 'back of the line'

MORE HANDOUTS

Congress must raise taxes on the wealthy "because there just isn't enough to go around," Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute today. 

"Latino growth has meant that often they're at the back of the line for housing assistance or other things," Donovan said during CHCI's annual Public Policy Conference this morning at the Ronald Reagan Building in D.C. "And the fundamental problem here (in part) is, are we going to continue to invest in those things? And if we continue to cut the budget for Section 8 housing and public housing and a whole range of other things -- if we don't fix this fiscal cliff in a fair way that actually asks higher-income Americans to pay their fair share -- Latinos are going to have to continue to wait in the back of the line, because there just isn't enough to go around. And that's a fundamental problem in our housing system, but it's a much bigger problem that is a huge issue when we make a decision about what our investments are going to be in Congress."

Donovan's remarks should play well among the Latino community if the polling data provided before he spoke holds true about how Latinos believe the deficit and economic crises should be addressed.

"We see an overwhelming percentage of Latinos want to see some amount of tax increases along with cuts," Dr. Matt Barreto of Latino Decisions told CHCI. "The most popular answer [46 percent] was just saying increasing taxes on the wealthy, that they need to pay a little bit more, rejecting the idea that we should only focus on cuts. And another large percentage -- 37 percent -- saying 'yes, tax increases should be part of the solution with cuts.'"

Barreto added that 56 percent of Latinos surveyed said "that government should invest in projects -- that's the way you stimulate the economy." He noted that only about 29 or 30 percent of Latinos believe that tax cuts can fix the economy.

Donovan emphasized his call for tax increases. "This is a fundamental choice," he said. "Is everyone going to pay their fair share? Or are we going to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable and our most recent Americans? And, it's simply unfair."

Via: The Examiner

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GOP Rep. on Egypt, Libya Situation: Obama ‘Built That’

(CNSNews.com) – Representative Jeff Landry (R-La.) suggested the Obama administration bears some of the blame for the current crises in Egypt and Libya because it pursued policies that helped both regimes rise to power, adding that President Barack Obama had “built that.”

“In light of the recent developments, if the president were to come back and demand that the amount of money that's in that CR [continuing resolution] for Libya and Egypt be stripped out, that would be tremendous leadership because,  remember, the regimes that are in place in those two countries came under his policies – he built that, okay,” Landry said at a press conference on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the anniversary of 9/11, there were violent demonstrations at the U.S. embassies in Egypt and in Libya where, in the latter, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three embassy personnel were killed

Via: The Daily Caller

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AMBASSADOR MURDERED, OBAMA GOING TO VEGAS FOR FUNDRAISER

Let's recap. Yesterday, riots broke out at American embassies in Egypt and Libya. The American ambassador and three other American officials were murdered. Their bodies were dragged through the streets to a cheering mob. This all happened on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, with the ridiculous pretext that throngs of muslims in two different countries were simultaneously offended over a stupid film no one knew existed. In Libya, at least, the murder of our diplomatic personnel is tantamount to an act of war. Yet, for Obama, the campaign must go on. 

This morning, the White House announced that Obama will continue with today's campaign schedule. He leaves this afternoon for Vegas, to attend a fundraiser for his reelection. Those mourning the loss of their loved ones, who died in service to their country, will take little comfort in the knowledge that, as President, Obama is so committed...to his own reelection. 

I realize there are less than 60 days to the election and that the race remains extraordinarily close. No campaign wants to cancel events in the final sprint of a very competitive election. But, the job of President has responsibilities that sometimes mandate that you have to suspend campaigning while the nation recovers from such a shocking attack. 

It is simply unseemly to carry on with a glitzy fundraiser in Vegas, of all places, while the crisis is still unfolding and before we've even fully notified the families of the Americans who died. America deserves better from its leaders. 

Via: Breitbart

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Obama administration acknowledged releasing illegals who didn’t fit ‘priority’ for deportation

Letters obtained by The Daily Caller show the Obama administration has acknowledged releasing illegal immigrants from law enforcement custody and back into the general U.S. population even when they are outside the qualifications outlined in the president’s new immigration policy.

In March, the administration released an illegal alien from law enforcement custody for the reason that he did not “fit” any administrative “priority” for deportation.

On March 27, according to the Fox News Channel, a “veteran” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer and one of his colleagues “were conducting surveillance on a vehicle in Newark, Del. with [license] plates that were registered to a criminal alien target.”

“During the surveillance, they observed an individual get into the vehicle. The person was detained, questioned and taken to an ICE office so that his fingerprints could be run through a federal database,” Fox News’ Todd Starnes reported in August. “The individual was not their criminal alien target. However, he was a 35-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico who had ten previous traffic violations — including driving without a license.”

When that Fox story broke, National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council president Chris Crane said the ICE agent had exercised “prosecutorial discretion” and decided to “charge [the suspect] as being in the United States illegally and let the judge sort it out.”

That National ICE Council is a subset of the American Federation of Government Employees, an AFL-CIO member labor union. (RELATED: Immigrants don’t have to prove they meet DREAM Act criteria to avoid charges, ICE union chief says)

Political leaders inside ICE ordered the agent to release that criminal alien suspect, however. Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions wrote in a letter to ICE director John Morton on Aug. 3 that the suspect was released because he wasn’t a “presidential priority.”

Via: The Daily Caller

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US Ambassador to Libya, 3 Embassy Staffers Killed in Attack

 US ambassador to Libya and 3 embassy staff members killed in attack

Published September 12, 2012 | FoxNews.com

The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other embassy staff members were killed Tuesday in an attack on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, the White House confirmed. President Obama, in a written statement issued Tuesday morning, called the attack "outrageous" and "senseless."

Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff. The protesters, angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad, were firing gunshots and rocket propelled grenades. All of the other officials -- three in all -- hold senior security positions in Benghazi.

Via: Fox News

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FAST & FURIOUS GUNS FOUND IN COLOMBIA

Authorities have found guns from Operation Fast and Furious in Columbia in August. They were confiscated in a raid on “Oficina de Envigado” leader Ericson Vargas, known as "Sebastian."

"Two rifles that were seized in February with 'Frank', the brother of Sebastian also are part of the tracking operations of the ATF, the same as 14 Five-seven guns we have found in several raids," an anonymous high-ranking source within Colombia's National Police said (translated from Spanish).

Fast & Furious was a government gun walking scheme that allowed over 2,000 guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. These guns are connected to the deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and over 300 Mexican citizens. They have been found at twelve crime scenes across America and thousands are still missing.

El Tiempo claims an estimated 200 guns are in Medellin, Colombia in the hands of “Oficina de Envigado” and criminals “Calatrava” and “Pacheli,” and these guns were supplied by the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico. 

Via: Breitbart

Obama ad: Romney 'dangerous' for women's health

A new Obama campaign television ad accuses Mitt Romney of being "dangerous" for women's health.

"Mitt Romney's position on women's health — it's dangerous," one woman says in the ad.

"We can't afford to let him take away our choices, to take away basic health care," she says.

UPDATE: The Obama campaign says the ad has been airing since September 4th in Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia. The campaign also says that the spot, along will all other ads, it is not airing Tuesday, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

UPDATE II: “This misleading, tasteless ad released today says more about the President’s failure to change the tone in Washington than words ever could. It also serves as a stark reminder that the President’s policies on the most important issues facing our country have been an abject failure. Fortunately, the American people will have the chance in November to judge President Obama on his record,” Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said.

Via: Politico

Debbie Wasserman Shultz Is Rolling In It

Wasserman Schultz’s Luxury Cars and Growing Net Worth Raise Questions

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has famously stated that she is a “middle class American,” and it was this very claim that prompted many of her critics to openly question whether or not it was a realistic assessment of her personal income and assets.  Wasserman Schultz’ Republican congressional opponent Karen Harrington has called on her to release her personal tax income tax returns in response to her repeated calls for Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney to do the same.

Subsequent reviews of Wasserman Schultz’ congressional financial disclosures revealed a not widely known fact that she owns a second home in New Hampshire and is also not required to disclose her husband’s salary, which could very easily put her family among the top 1% of income earners in the country.  In addition, the Shark Tank recently reported that the Congresswoman splurged on a one-week luxury cruise ship vacation that cost tens of thousands of dollars- hardly an expenditure that ‘middle-class’ Americans can avail themselves of.  (Source -N.H Home/Cruise Ship)

According to those financial disclosure forms, Mr. and Mrs. Schultz of Weston, Florida have seen their assets almost  double since she was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2005.  When comparing Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz’s 2005 disclosure form with her 2011 form, the only other salary she drew besides her congressional salary was $26,320 she received from the Democrat National Committee (see images below).

2011 Financial Disclosure (Salary)

 2005 Financial Disclosure (Salary)

Via: Shark-Tank

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In Chicago, a Democratic civil war

So much for Democratic Party harmony.

Just a few days after a convention that displayed the party as one big happy family, a civil war has erupted in Chicago between the Democrats’ disparate wings.

Rahm Emanuel, the volatile, far-from-union-friendly mayor who is a mainstay of the national Democratic Party, and the almost-as-volatile Chicago local of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), itself a mainstay of the national Democratic Party, are at loggerheads over the future of Chicago’s schools and teachers. The school strike that began Monday should be an alarm bell in the night for Democrats everywhere.

At stake in the conflict is not only the future of education reform but also the role of unions within the party and, by extension, the nation. Emanuel’s clear desire to reduce the teachers union’s role in the city’s schools is hardly his alone. It’s shared by other Democratic mayors such as Los Angeles’sAntonio Villaraigosa. Still other heavily Democratic cities, such as San Jose, Calif., have reduced their employees’ pension benefits. What’s brewing is a battle between Democratic Party management (chiefly mayors, backed by a significant portion of the public) and Democratic Party labor, also backed by a significant portion of the public. If there’s a win-win scenario out there, the party and its publics would do well to find it.

Via: Washington Post

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Bureau of Economic Analysis: Debt Is Now Approximately 103 Percent of GDP

(CNSNews.com) - According to the most recent official estimate by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Gross Domestic Product for 2012 will be $15.6061 trillion--or about $440.5 billion less than the $16.0466 in debt that the federal government had accumulated as of the close of business on Monday.

In other words, the debt is now approximately 103 percent of GDP.

The BEA, which is part of the Department of Commerce and which officially calculates GDP, based its current estimate of this year's GDP, published on Aug. 29, on economic data available through the end of the second quarter of this calender year.

If that current estimate is correct, the debt of the United States government eclipsed the value of the Gross Domestic Product of the United States on April 2 of this year.

On Friday, March 30, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, the federal debt was $15,582,078,681,188.69. By the close of business on Monday, April 2, it was $15,620,325,998,403.96.

The BEA defines GDP as: "The market value of goods and services produced by labor and property in the United States, regardless of nationality."

Via: CNS News

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2016: Obama's America' Filmmaker Calls White House Attack 'Clumsy,' 'Bizarre' (Exclusive Audio)

AP

'2016: Obama's America' Filmmaker Calls White House Attack 'Clumsy,' 'Bizarre'

by Paul Bond

Filmmaker and author Dinesh D’Souza has responded to a White House assertion that his documentary, 2016: Obama’s America, is packed with lies and conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama.

“Their original strategy was to lie low and hope this goes away, but now they’re launching a full-scale attack,” D’Souza told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. “And this is one of the most bizarre, clumsy and ineffective attacks I have seen in politics. Half of the stuff they talk about isn’t even in the film, like the Lockerbie bomber. These guys are referencing a Columbia Journalism Review article that’s two years old and is about my book, not about the film.”

The president, through his Barack Obama.com campaign website, challenges D’Souza’s credibility by saying he has a “long history of attempting to add a veneer of intellectual respectability to fringe theories, conspiratorial fear-mongering and flat-out falsehoods.”

 Via: The Hollywood Reporter

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Netanyahu To Obama: ‘Wait For What? Wait Until When?’

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making it clear that Israel will not wait to take out Iranian nuclear facilities.

In heated comments toward the United States, the Israeli prime minister said that it’s becoming clear that diplomacy will not work with Iran.

“The world tells Israel, `Wait. There’s still time,’” Netanyahu said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. “And I say: `Wait for what? Wait until when?’ Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”

The Obama administration has consistently stated that they don’t want to go the military route against Iran and give more time for the sanctions to force Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Netanyahu worries Iran will continue developing nuclear technology without giving the Islamic nation a firm timeline to stop.

“If Iran knows that there is no deadline, what will it do? Exactly what it’s doing. It’s continuing, without any interference, towards obtaining nuclear weapons capability and from there, nuclear bombs,” he said, according to Haaertz.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak tried to downplay the harsh rhetoric, saying in a statement to Haaertz that the tension between the U.S. and Israel should be ironed out “behind closed doors.”

The Israeli paper also reports that the White House denied Netanyahu’s request to visit President Obama at the end of this monDCth.

Via: CBS DC

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Unemployment would be 11.2 percent if labor force same as when Obama took office

Last Friday’s jobs report does not tell the whole unemployment story, according to American Enterprise Institute blogger and CNBC contributor James Pethokoukis.

He writes, “If the labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate would be 11.2%.”

Had the participation rate remained the same as the previous month, Pethokoukis points out, “the unemployment rate would be 8.4 percent” — higher than the 8.1 percent in the August report.

Those who have returned to work amidst the meager recovery are often only finding jobs that are part-time and pay less than what they formerly earned.

“The broader U-6 unemployment rate, which includes part-time workers who want full-time work, is at 14.7 percent.”

Today, one in two are considered low income or below the poverty line, according to the Census Bureau, sparking fears of a shrinking middle class.

Record numbers of Americans receive food stamps and Social Security disability insurance, instead of seeking jobs that seem to be non-existent.

Via: The Daily Caller

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Obama Regime Throws Itself Under The Bus, Disavows Apology For Mohammed Film…

The White House is disavowing a statement from its own Cairo embassy that apologized for anti-Muslim activity in the United States.

"The statement by Embassy Cairo was not cleared by Washington and does not reflect the views of the United States government," a senior administration official told POLITICO.

The U.S. embassy in Cairo put out a statement early Tuesday that apologized for an anti-Muslim film being circulated by an Israeli-American real estate developer.

"The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions," the embassy said in a statement published online.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the film depicts the Muslim prophet Muhammed as a "womanizer, pedophile and fraud" — a depiction bound to offend many Muslims.

The embassy came under widespread criticism for failing to defend free speech in the face of threats of violence. Egyptian protesters rioted anyway, breaching the embassy walls and tearing down the American flag.

"Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet.  The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.  Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation.  But let me be clear:  There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a Tuesday statement.

Via: Politico

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