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Of Course They Would Skip Conference

Posted by Defend America on Monday, January 04, 2010 11:05:43 AM
EXCLUSIVE: Dems 'Almost Certain' to Bypass Conference

Now that both the House and Senate have passed health care reform bills, all Democrats have to do is work out a compromise between the two versions. And it appears they’re not about to let the Republicans gum up the works again.

According to a pair of senior Capitol Hill staffers, one from each chamber, House and Senate Democrats are “almost certain” to negotiate informally rather than convene a formal conference committee. Doing so would allow Democrats to avoid a series of procedural steps--not least among them, a series of special motions in the Senate, each requiring a vote with full debate--that Republicans could use to stall deliberations, just as they did in November and December.

“There will almost certainly be full negotiations but no formal conference,” the House staffer says. “There are too many procedural hurdles to go the formal conference route in the Senate.”

 
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Nonexistent Zip Codes

Posted by Defend America on Monday, January 04, 2010 11:04:33 AM

Stimulus Funds Went to Nonexistent Zip Code Areas [Updated]

By Jim Scarantino on January 3, 2010
 

First it was phantom Congressional districts. Now it’s phantom zip codes.

Last month, we reported on federal stimulus money credited with creating jobs in nonexistent New Mexico Congressional districts. Further examination of the most recent report on the recipients and uses of New Mexico’s share of the $787 billion stimulus shows jobs created and money going to zip codes that do not exist.

New Mexico Watchdog broke what became a national news story, and fodder for Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert. The website launched by the Obama Administration to track the destinations of billions of dollars of stimulus funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act showed billions going to nonexistent Congressional districts. The website, recovery.gov, reported $26.5 million going to ten New Mexico Congressional districts that do not exist. Those millions were credited with creating 61.5 jobs. Spadework by our Watchdog counterparts in other states showed a total of $6.4 billion reported as being allocated to 440 nonexistent, or “phantom,” Congressional districts.

The agency charged with tracking the stimulus funds, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, attempted to eliminate this embarrassment by lumping all the billions reported going to nonexistent Congressional districts into a new category called the “unassigned” Congressional district.

Closer examination of the latest recovery.gov report for New Mexico shows hundreds of thousands of dollars sent to and credited with creating jobs in zip codes that do not exist in New Mexico or anywhere else. Moreover, funds reported as being spent in New Mexico were given zip codes corresponding to areas in Washington and Oregon.

Tags: stimulus  
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'No Rise of Airborne Fraction of Carbon Dioxide in Past 150 Years'

Posted by Defend America on Monday, January 04, 2010 11:03:12 AM
No Rise of Airborne Fraction of Carbon Dioxide in Past 150 Years, New Research Finds

ScienceDaily (Dec. 31, 2009) — Most of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity does not remain in the atmosphere, but is instead absorbed by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. In fact, only about 45 percent of emitted carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere.

However, some studies have suggested that the ability of oceans and plants to absorb carbon dioxide recently may have begun to decline and that the airborne fraction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions is therefore beginning to increase.

Many climate models also assume that the airborne fraction will increase. Because understanding of the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide is important for predicting future climate change, it is essential to have accurate knowledge of whether that fraction is changing or will change as emissions increase.

To assess whether the airborne fraction is indeed increasing, Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol reanalyzed available atmospheric carbon dioxide and emissions data since 1850 and considers the uncertainties in the data.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091230184221.htm 
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What Do Jane Harman, Joe Lieberman, and Dianne Feinstein Have in Common with Republicans?

Posted by Defend America on Monday, January 04, 2010 12:10:44 AM

Some Dems Join GOP Opposition to Gitmo Transfers to Yemen

FOXNews.com

Some Democrats are joining Republican lawmakers in opposing the transfer of suspected terrorists from the Guantanamo Bay prison to Yemen, citing Al Qaeda's increased activity in the poor Arab nation.
 
...
 
But some Democrats, including Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein of California, have urged a halt -- echoing Republicans who oppose plans to close Guantanamo.
Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said Sunday that officials should review the transfers. She does support plans to close the prison and open one in Illinois for terrorism suspects.
 
...
 
Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who has opposed closing Guantanamo, said transferring any of the Yemeni detainees back home would be irresponsible.
"We know from past experience that some of them will be back in the fight against us," Lieberman told ABC's "This Week." 
 
 
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So it was Not "Un-American" or "Traitorous" to Criticize Bush?

Posted by Defend America on Monday, January 04, 2010 12:03:52 AM

Hardball: Joan Walsh Calls Republican Critics of Obama 'Un-American' and 'Traitorous'

By P.J. Gladnick
January 1, 2010 - 12:02 ET
 
Remember when dissent was supposed to be patriotic? Well, it seems that only applies when a Republican is president. Now that Barack Obama is in the White House, criticism of him is "un-American" and "traitorous." This new "tolerant" view of dissent comes from Joan Walsh of Salon.Com as you can see in this Hardball video from Wednesday. Below is the Walsh money quote but please be sure to also watch the video since it is important to watch as she drops any facade of liberal tolerance and lets her true dogmatic soul reveal itself in both her face and voice which seems to border on dementia:
 
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2010/01/01/hardball-joan-walsh-calls-republican-critics-obama-un-american-traitor 
 
Tags: Media   obama  
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I Wouldn't Expect Anything Different

Posted by Defend America on Sunday, January 03, 2010 10:51:37 AM

Report: British Spy Agency Knew of Detroit Plane Suspect's Extremist Links

Sunday, January 03, 2010
   

Security services in Great Britain knew three years ago that the Detroit plane bomber had "multiple communications" with Islamic extremists in the U.K., according to officials.

Counterterrorism officials said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was "reaching out" to extremists whom MI5 had under surveillance while he was studying at University College London.

Officials said the 23-year-old Nigerian was "starting out on a journey" in Britain that culminated in his attempt to bring down Flight 253 as it prepared to land in Detroit on Christmas Day.

None of the information was passed to American officials.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581811,00.html
 
Tags: Terrorism  
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Democrats Attacking Rasmussen

Posted by Defend America on Sunday, January 03, 2010 10:51:01 AM
Low favorables: Dems rip Rasmussen
By ALEX ISENSTADT | 1/2/10 5:53 PM EST


Democrats are turning their fire on Scott Rasmussen, the prolific independent pollster whose surveys on elections, President Obama’s popularity and a host of other issues are surfacing in the media with increasing frequency.

 

The pointed attacks reflect a hardening conventional wisdom among prominent liberal bloggers and many Democrats that Rasmussen Reports polls are, at best, the result of a flawed polling model and, at worst, designed to undermine Democratic politicians and the party’s national agenda.

 

On progressive-oriented websites, anti-Rasmussen sentiment is an article of faith. “Rasmussen Caught With Their Thumb on the Scale,” blared the Daily Kos this summer. “Rasmussen Reports, You Decide,” the blog Swing State Project recently headlined in a play on the Fox News motto.

 

“I don’t think there are Republican polling firms that get as good a result as Rasmussen does,” said Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow with Media Matters, a progressive research center. “His data looks like it all comes out of the RNC [Republican National Committee].”


 
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'The Joke's on Us'

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, January 02, 2010 1:34:57 PM
The Joke’s on Us
The Pantybomber wasn’t the big joke. We are.

By Mark Steyn

On Christmas Day, a gentleman from Nigeria succeeded (effortlessly) in boarding a flight to Detroit with a bomb in his underwear. Pretty funny, huh?

But the Pantybomber wasn’t the big joke. The real laugh was the United States government. The global hyperpower spent the next week making itself a laughingstock to the entire planet. First, the bureaucrats at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) swung into action with a whole new range of restrictions.

Against radical Yemen-trained Muslims wearing weaponized briefs? Of course not. That would be too obvious. So instead they imposed a slew of constraints against you. At Heathrow last week, they were permitting only one item of carry-on on U.S. flights. In Toronto, no large purses.

Um, the Pantybomber didn’t have a purse. He brought the bomb on board under his private parts, and his private parts weren’t part of his carry-on (although, if reports of injuries sustained in his failed mission are correct, they may well have been part of his carry-off). But no matter. If in doubt, blame the victim. The TSA announced that for the last hour of the flight no passenger can use the toilets or have anything on his lap — not a laptop, not a blanket, not a stewardess, not even a paperback book. I can’t wait for the first lawsuit after an infidel flight attendant confiscates a litigious imam’s Koran as they’re coming into LAX.
 
 
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Let's See if Obama Gets Blamed as Bush Did After 9/11, I Think We All Know the Answer to That

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, January 02, 2010 12:49:59 AM

EXCLUSIVE: Obama Got Pre-Christmas Intelligence Briefing About Terror Threats to "Homeland"

Mark Hosenball
President Barack Obama received a high-level briefing only three days before Christmas about possible holiday-period terrorist threats against the US, Newsweek has learned. The briefing was centered on a written report, produced by US intelligence agencies, entitled "Key Homeland Threats", a senior US official said.

The senior Administration official, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive information, said that nowhere in this document was there any mention of Yemen, whose Al-Qaeda affiliate is now believed to have been behind the unsuccessful Christmas Day attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down a transatlantic airliner with a bomb hidden in his underpants. However, the official declined to disclose any other information about the substance of the briefing, including what kind of specific warnings, if any, the President was given about possibly holiday attacks and whether Yemen came up during oral discussions.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/01/exclusive-obama-got-pre-christmas-intelligence-briefing-about-terror-threats-to-homeland.aspx
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Tolerance Doesn't Exist in their Vocabulary

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, January 02, 2010 12:48:17 AM
Danish police arrest man trying to kill cartoonist

(AFP) – 5 hours ago

COPENHAGEN — Danish police said Saturday they shot and arrested an axe-wielding Somali man who tried to kill a cartoonist whose depictions of the prophet Mohammed infuriated Muslims.

The 28-year-old who lives in Denmark but was not identified broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard in the western city of Aarhus late Friday. Police guards shot and wounded the intruder before arresting him.

The Somali national had terrorist intent and was close to the radical Somali Shebab movement and leaders of Al-Qaeda in East Africa, the internal security service PET said in a statement.

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Last Call to His Father

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, January 02, 2010 12:28:50 AM

'Underwear Bomber's' Alarming Last Phone Call

Abdulmutallab Called His Father to Say It Would Be Their Last Contact

By DANA HUGHES and KIRIT RADIA
ABUJA, Nigeria, Dec. 31, 2009
 

The accused "underwear bomber" made a dramatic final call to his father that he found so alarming, the father approached Nigerian officials who took him directly to the CIA's station chief in the Nigerian capital, sources told ABC News.

Current and former officials of the Nigerian government, including a source close to the suspect's family, say Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, called his father from Yemen with the warning that it would be his last contact.

It has previously been reported that the man's father, prominent Nigerian banker Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, went to Nigerian and American officials Nov. 19 to warn them that his son had been radicalized by Islamic militants in Yemen.
 

The accused "underwear bomber" made a dramatic final call to his father that he found so alarming, the father approached Nigerian officials who took him directly to the CIA's station chief in the Nigerian capital, sources told ABC News.

Tags: Terrorism  
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December is the First Month in Iraq without US Combat-Related Deaths

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, January 02, 2010 12:27:00 AM
December first month without US combat-related deaths in Iraq
 
BAGHDAD (AP) — December was the first month since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq nearly seven years ago in which no U.S. forces died in combat in the country.

Gen. Ray Odierno called it a significant milestone and said it speaks to how the violence in Iraq has diminished. Odierno is the commanding general in Iraq.

There were three U.S. troops who died in December as a result of non-combat related incidents.
 
Tags: Iraq  
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Some Democrats are Now Saying that Napolitano Should Go

Posted by Defend America on Saturday, January 02, 2010 12:24:57 AM

Democrats Join Calls for Napolitano to Step Down Following Failed Attack

FOXNews.com

Democrats have joined the ranks of those calling for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to step down following the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight a week ago. 

Some Democrats have joined in calling for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to step down following the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight a week ago.

Though the CIA and an agency under the Director of National Intelligence have been under particular scrutiny in the preliminary review of possible missteps, Napolitano so far has taken the most heat from lawmakers. Not only does her department oversee the Transportation Security Administration, but her initial claim Sunday that "the system worked" was widely ridiculed and interpreted by critics as a sign that she's in over her head. 

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More Americans Disapprove than Approve of Obama

Posted by Defend America on Friday, January 01, 2010 11:44:25 AM

This week's Economist/YouGov poll

  • Dec 31st 2009, 5:00 by The Economist | NEW YORK
SOME highlights from this week's Economist/YouGov poll:
• Barack Obama's approval rating at the end of 2009 marks an all-time low for him in the Economist/YouGov poll, and it is the first time more Americans disapprove than approve of the way he is handling his job. Mr Obama began his term with a 61% approval rating, while only 17% of Americans disapproved. As 2009 ends, only 45% approve of the way Mr Obama is handling his job, while 47% now disapprove. 
 
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/12/this_weeks_economistyougov_pol_25 
Tags: obama   poll  
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Mousavi "Not Afraid to Die"

Posted by Defend America on Friday, January 01, 2010 11:42:26 AM
Iran: opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi 'ready to die' for the cause
Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi said the country is in 'serious crisis' and he is 'not afraid to die' for his cause.

In a statement posted on his website on Friday , Mr Mousavi called for the immediate release of his supporters arrested after the disputed presidential vote in June and during protests earlier this week.

"Arresting or killing Mousavi, [and another opposition leader Mehdi] Karoubi ... will not calm the situation," he said.

"I am not afraid to die for people's demands ... Iran is in serious crisis.

"Harsh remarks ... will create internal uprising. The election law should be changed. Political prisoners should be freed."

He added: "I am not unwilling to become a martyr like those who made that sacrifice after the election for their rightful national and religious demands.

"My blood is no redder than theirs."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/6920246/Iran-opposition-leader-Mirhossein-Mousavi-ready-to-die-for-the-cause.html 
Tags: Iran  
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