Fisker issues big layoff, employees hire firm that sued Solyndra
[FoxNews.com]
Published April 06, 2013
FILE: Nov. 18, 2010: In this file photo, Fisker Automotive’s Fisker Karma, a sports luxury plug-in hybrid car, sits on display at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles. (AP)
Fisker Automotive — the electric-car maker that was granted a half-billion-dollar federal loan and on Friday dismissed about 75 percent of its remaining workforce — is purportedly facing a lawsuit from the same firm that sued the government-funded Solyndra company.
Fisker laid off 160 of its roughly 210 employees Friday morning from its Anaheim, Calif., location, according to Automotive News.
Obama meets with House Republicans, downplays ‘immediate’ debt crisis
[FoxNews.com]
Published March 13, 2013
Pro-Obama group picks up president’s sequester…
President plays defense on the sequester
President Obama met Wednesday with House Republicans in an apparent bid to find consensus on fiscal policy, even as he seemed to antagonize the other side by claiming there’s no “immediate crisis in terms of debt.”
His statement would be sharply at odds with a core Republican principle that the debt must be addressed soon — and which underpinned the cost-cutting GOP budget released Tuesday. The president also acknowledged, in an interview aired earlier in the day, that differences with the GOP might be “too wide” to bridge.
Still, the president made the rare visit with House Republicans on Capitol Hill as part of what some are calling his charm offensive. The president is making a renewed effort to meet with Republican leaders and rank-and-file lawmakers amid overlapping budget battles and a series of deadlines on the horizon.
The president is trying to find common ground with Congress in order to halt the sequester spending cuts, which have already taken effect — as well as pass a stopgap budget bill in order to avert an end-of-the-month government shutdown, pass a bona fide budget for next year and once again raise the debt ceiling.
A source in the room during the meeting with Republicans told Fox News that Obama told them he’s looking for bipartisanship on a range of issues, including fiscal matters, immigration, gun regulation and foreign policy.
One skeptical source told Fox News, “we shall see.” Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., though, later emerged saying the president “did himself some good.”
Obama went into the meeting with his aides and allies ripping House Republicans for their newly introduced budget, which aims to balance the country’s finances in 10 years. In an interview with ABC News, the president declared that there is no “immediate” debt crisis and that “for the next 10 years, it’s going to be in a sustainable place.”
That message is likely to rile Republicans, who cite widespread economic warnings in saying the debt — which is nearing $17 trillion — must be addressed.
“We are addressing the most predictable debt crisis in this country’s history,” Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said Tuesday while introducing his budget plan.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that “everybody” recognizes there is a “long-term debt challenge.”
And he said the president “believes that bipartisan cooperation is possible.”
Senate Democrats were unveiling their budget proposal Wednesday afternoon, in response to the House Republican plan introduced Tuesday.
The Republican plan touts longstanding party proposals to cut funding for domestic programs, repeal Obama’s health care reform law and overhaul the Medicare health care program for the elderly. It would balance the federal budget in 10 years with steep spending cuts alone — a nonstarter with Democrats.
“Ultimately, it may be that the differences are just too wide,” Obama said in the interview broadcast Wednesday.
If Republicans insist that their only solution is to avoid tax hikes and “gut” entitlement programs, “then we’re probably not going to be able to get a deal,” he said.
Obama has continued reaching out to lawmakers in hopes that he can somehow reach a “grand bargain” that reins in deficit spending without hurting the economy and stops Washington from lurching from one self-induced fiscal crisis to another.
The fence-mending campaign started with an unusual dinner Obama hosted last week at a hotel near the White House for a dozen Senate Republicans and continues Wednesday with his meeting with House Republicans.
Obama, who also will meet with Senate Republicans and House Democrats on Thursday, has shown a willingness to reduce spending on big entitlement programs but has not agreed to the kinds of changes Ryan and other Republicans have sought.
Republicans, however, object to any more tax increases, insisting that Obama got his way with tax hikes on top earners in the New Year’s Day deal that averted the “fiscal cliff.” That last-minute deal prevented automatic tax hikes for all federal income tax payers, but merely delayed $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts.
The parties were unable to reach a compromise on a deficit-cutting plan, so the automatic spending cuts began taking effect March 1 and are set to continue through the decade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Occupiers Arrested With Weapons, Bomb Making Materials
[Breitbart.com]
December 31, 2012
NY Post: The privileged daughter of a prominent city doctor, and her boyfriend — a Harvard grad and Occupy Wall Street activist — have been busted for allegedly having a cache of weapons and a bombmaking explosive in their Greenwich Village apartment.
Morgan Gliedman — who is nine-months pregnant — and her baby daddy, Aaron Greene, 31, also had instructions on making bombs, including a stack of papers with a cover sheet titled, “The Terrorist Encyclopedia,’’ sources told The Post yesterday. People who know Greene say his political views are “extreme,” the sources said. Morgan Gliedman, daughter of Realtor Susyn Schops Gliedman and prominent doctor Paul Gliedman, was busted at this building with her OWS boyfriend. Cops found the stash in the couple’s West Ninth Street home Saturday when they went there to look for Gliedman, 27, who was wanted for alleged credit-card theft.
A detective discovered a plastic container with seven grams of a white chemical powder called HMTD, which is so powerful, cops evacuated several nearby buildings. Police also found a flare launcher, which is a commercial replica of a grenade launcher; a modified 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun; ammo; and nine high-capacity rifle magazines, the sources said. Cops also allegedly uncovered papers about creating homemade booby traps, improvised submachine guns, and various handwritten notebooks containing chemical formulas. The couple’s arrest Saturday was a sharp turn from their privileged backgrounds.
Report: ATF review board recommends firings over Fast and Furious
[INFOWARS.com]
Wall Street Journal
December 5, 2012
Four senior managers who oversaw the ill-fated federal gun-tracking probe called “Fast and Furious” will be fired if recommendations from a disciplinary panel are accepted.
People familiar with the matter said the Professional Review Board of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent notices of its decision in recent days to bureau managers, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
In addition, two lower-level employees face disciplinary actions, short of firing. The move from the ATF’s review board is the first step in what could be a months-long process, including appeals.
GOP Infighting, Tea Party ‘Purges’ Break Out over Fiscal Cliff
[Newsmax.com]
Tuesday, 04 Dec 2012 12:10 PM
- Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolinian with a following among small-government conservatives, lashed out at House Speaker John Boehner, saying his $2.2 trillion deficit plan would cost jobs and mushroom the debt.
- Two first-term Republican Tea Party stalwarts – Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and Justin Amash of Michigan – were removed by party leadership from the powerful budget committee in what Huelskamp called “a vindictive move.”
- A top House conservative, Jim Jordan of Ohio, was scheduled to unveil his own fiscal cliff plan on Tuesday but has backed off in the wake of Boehner’s offer to President Obama.
White House: Obama ‘Will Not Sign’ a Deal Unless It Increases Taxes
[CNSNews.com]
President Barack Obama (AP Photo)(CNSNews.com) – White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said today that no matter what else happens President Barack Obama–who is the only modern president other than Franklin Roosevelt to serve in four years when federal spending topped 24 percent of GDP–will not sign a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff that will arrive at the end of this year unless that deal increases taxes.
“So the President made clear that he is not wedded to every detail of his plan,” said Carney. “The President has also made categorically and abundantly clear that he will not sign an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for top earners. It’s bad economic policy and we cannot afford it. He will not sign that.”
According to official calculations made by the White House Office of Management and Budget that go back to 1930, Barack Obama and Franklin Roosevelt are the only two presidents who have served in four fiscal years when federal spending exceeded 24 percent of GDP. Roosevelt did so in 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1945 (when he died in office). Obama did so in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Thank you to our defenders of freedom
[HumanEvents.com]
November 12, 2012
By: Debbie Lee
It is with great respect, admiration and deep understanding that I write this letter to honor each and every Veteran that has served or is serving our blessed Country! I understand and appreciate all who have given so much for me, so that I could enjoy my daily freedoms.
I was able to sleep well in the safety of my bed last night, because you served.
I was able to pray before my meal this morning in a public place without fearing arrest, because you gave.
I am able to freely speak my mind and voice my opinion without fear of retaliation against me or my family, because you cared.
I am able to stand up for what I believe in and not have a Dictators thoughts and opinions forced down my throat, because you stood up to the call to defend.
I am free to worship the one true God who created me in His image, because you were selfless in your actions.
To each one of you I speak from the bottom of my heart when I say Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are my heroes and I want to remember and honor you this Veterans Day. Not a single day goes by that I don’t think of the sacrifices you and your families have given!
U.S. Piled Up More Debt Since Election Day ’08 Than Under All Presidents From Washington Through Clinton
[CNSNews.com]
November 6, 2012
(CNSNews.com) – The federal government has now piled up more debt since Election Day 2008 than it did under all presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton, according to official debt numbers published by the U.S. Treasury.
When the polls opened on the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, the total debt of the U.S. government stood at $10,556,177,748,045.21 (the number it had reached by the close of business on Nov. 3, 2008). As of the close of business on Friday, Nov. 2, 2012, the most recent day reported by the Treasury, the total debt of the U.S. government stood at $16,206,129,028,709.29.
Shock poll: Obama could lose Illinois, Romney leads in Chicago suburbs
[DailyCaller.com]
Political Reporter
President Barack Obama could lose his home state of Illinois in November, a new poll shows.
A poll conducted by Illinois-based pollster and political strategist Michael McKeon found Obama leading Republican Mitt Romney by 49 percent to 37 percent in Cook County, the home of Chicago. That puts him ahead by a far thinner margin than expected in a county he should be winning handsomely.
Cook is the most Democratic leaning county in the state. It is also the most populous.
Those numbers do not bode well for the president.
“He has to come out of Cook County with a big lead or he’s gonna have problems downstate,” explained McKeon, who said that based on the numbers he had seen, Obama polled only in the forties in downstate Illinois.
‘Politics of insult’ alive and well despite Obama’s 2008 lament
[FoxNews.com]
Published October 29, 2012
Four years ago, then-candidate Barack Obama decried what he described as [childish lies and] “the politics of insult.”
“You don’t deserve a bunch of name-calling,” he told a Virginia crowd in the summer of 2008. “You don’t deserve a bunch of mudslinging.”
But lately, there have been more than a few insults flying on the 2012 campaign trail. Whether it’s with cute turns of phrase like “Romnesia” or more serious invective, the president’s campaign has gotten increasingly aggressive over the last few weeks in its denunciation of Mitt Romney.
The tone likely reflects the polls, which have been tightening ever since the Republican nominee’s opening debate performance. Whatever the reason, it’s evident that the “politics of insult” have not faded.
The following were overheard on the 2012 campaign trail:
“Bullsh–ter”
The president took a rip at Romney after a recent interview with Rolling Stone. In the article, published over the weekend, writer and historian Douglas Brinkley said that editor Eric Bates told the president that when he asked his six-year-old daughter if she wanted to say anything to Obama, she said: “Tell him: You can do it.”
WHITE HOUSE INSIDER: The Only Way Obama Wins This Election Is To Steal It
[TheUlstermanReport.com]
by Ulsterman on October 24, 2012
(The sound of ominous thunder now hangs over the Obama White House)
As Benghazi news reports now pummel down upon the head of President Barack Obama, a longtime D.C. political operative who has spent the past three years attempting to correct the mistake that was the 2008 election, declares in this brief communication that the only way Obama can now be allowed a second term is if he steals the 2012 election.
Ulsterman: Can you confirm the Benghanzi news reports? The emails? Was this the breaking story you referenced earlier? Is momentum still with Romney? How does Obama try to win this? Or does he? Please respond ASAP. I’ve kept quiet as requested. Now with media openly reporting on the emails I am hoping to get feedback directly from you again. -UM
WHI: Which question you want answered? You got a list there.
UM: You choose.
WHI: Benghazi story now breaking out even bigger. As promised. I was pissed the governor did not push the issue during last debate. Now I understand. I was not in the loop on that but that’s ok. Very smart move by the campiagn. Don’t count on media falling over themselves to make this a headline though. That will be done with them kicking and screaming. And read that first report carefully. And then smile. The Old Man made this happen. At least some of it. It’s pretty much spelled out in first report. He’s got to have logged about 30,000 miles in the last month alone. Don’t know how he’s doing it healthwise. But he is. Thank God.
Which Obama Debate Gaffe Does Krauthammer Think Might ‘Cost the President Dearly’
[TheBlaze.com]
- Posted on October 19, 2012 by
Jason Howerton
HEMPSTEAD, NY – OCTOBER 16: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (L) listens as U.S. President Barack Obama answers a question during a town hall style debate at Hofstra University October 16, 2012 in Hempstead, New York. During the second of three presidential debates, the candidates fielded questions from audience members on a wide variety of issues. (Credit: Getty Images)
While many scored Tuesday night’s contentious presidential debate as a draw, or as a narrow victory for one of the candidates, Washington post columnist Charles Krauthammer thinks President Barack Obama made a gaffe — and a big one. One that will cost him dearly in the final debate on Monday.
In his Thursday column in the Washington Post, Krauthammer predicts this line from the president will come back to haunt him:
“And the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the secretary of state, our U.N. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we’ve lost four of our own, governor, is offensive.”
American Crossroads Ad Appeals to Women’s Brains and Pocketbooks, Not “Ladyparts”
[Townhall.com]
October 17, 2012 02:49 PM EST
Political Editor, Townhall.com
Rattled by recent polling showing Mitt Romney drawing roughly even with President Obama among female voters, Democrats are making yet another hard play over “ladyparts.” American Crossroads is answering back with an ad blitz of their own, also targeting women. It seems conservatives view women as more than just uteruses. Weird, right?
This spot — which focuses on spending and debt — has $11 million behind it, and will air in swing states:
Fraud concerns swirl around Florida’s unregulated absentee ballot brokers ahead of election
[FoxNews.com]
Published September 26, 2012
AP
Recent allegations of absentee ballot fraud in Florida have shined a light on the shadowy work of so-called “boleteros” – absentee ballot brokers who, in some cases, have been accused of cajoling, bribing and even forging the names of unsuspecting voters.
The most recent claim involves Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who hired an alleged “boletero” for his 2010 campaign. In Scott’s case, the campaign claims it did nothing wrong and indeed nobody has been charged. But the claim follows the arrest of a boletero in a separate case, and coincides with a wave of coverage and attention in the Miami-Dade, Fla., area surrounding what for authorities is an illicit practice.
Boleteros — translated roughly to mean ticket-person — assist in collecting absentee ballots and helping primarily elderly and disabled voters in filling them out. This can be entirely lawful, but sometimes these workers walk a fine legal line.
For many boleteros, it can be a profitable enterprise – with some guaranteeing votes in exchange for money, authorities say. They are particularly prominent in heavily Republican Spanish-speaking communities, like Hialeah.
Under Florida law, it is legal to assist voters in ensuring their absentee ballots are properly mailed. But it’s illegal to influence voters, request ballots on behalf of someone else and forge signatures. The state no longer requires witness signatures on absentee ballots, officials note, and many of the boleteros will illegally “follow the ballots all through the process.”
“This is a dirty business and unfortunately it’s become pretty common.”
- Joe Centerino, director of Miami-Dade’s Ethics Commission
Police Consolidation: The End of Local Law Enforcement?
[TheNewAmerican.com]
Tuesday, 25 September 2012 00:00
Written by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.
From Bergen, New Jersey, to St. Louis, Missouri, to Salt Lake City, Utah, the merging of law enforcement moves along, applauded by a coterie of city leaders and well-meaning citizens.
Nationwide, towns and cities are jumping on the consolidation bandwagon. According to the latest data, there are about 18,000 state and local law-enforcement agencies in the United States. Of those, more than 150 have undergone some level of consolidation.
Those pushing for the consolidation of police forces into regional or metropolitan agencies typically cite budget shortfalls as the best reason for closing down local forces and combining resources to form a consolidated force.
Networks That Hyped Romney’s ‘Bombshell’ Tax Tape Now Skip ObamaCare ‘Penalties’
[MRC.org]
Subscribe to Scott Whitlock
The same networks that have been hyping secret video of Mitt Romney talking about who pays taxes, hyperventilating about the Republican’s “seismic” bombshell,” have, thus far, completely ignored the revelation from the Congressional Budget Office that “significantly” more Americans will have to pay a “tax penalty” for being uninsured, many in the middle class.
All three evening newscasts on Wednesday and the morning shows on Thursday totally skipped this report. The Associated Press explained, “The new estimate amounts to an inconvenient fact for the administration, a reminder of what critics see as broken promises.” Writer Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar added, “Nonetheless, in his first campaign for the White House, Obama pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000.”
Yet, World News, the NBC Nightly News, the CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and Today all avoided the topic.
GMA opted for more important topics, such as an amusement park mishap that caused several people to be stranded on a roller coaster for hours.
This Is a Recap of Mass Islamist Protests Against the U.S. Over Anti-Islam Film
[TheBlaze.com]
- Posted on September 14, 2012 at 11:34am by
Billy Hallowell
Protests in Tunisia (Photo Credit: AP)
Monitoring the massive protests that continue to spread to various cities and localities in the Middle East is a tough task, as the response continues to grow exponentially. Islamists and others who find themselves immensely offended over a now-infamous anti-Muslim film have taken to the streets to target U.S. interests and defend their faith, sometimes using violent means to do so.
TUNISIA
On Friday, protests in the Middle East hit Tunis, Tunisia, where a large cloud of black smoke has risen around the U.S. embassy there. Outside the building, protesters are throwing stones, as police attempt to stop the activity unfolding.
Thousands of demonstrators massed outside the embassy and several were seen climbing the outer wall of the embassy grounds and raising a flag on which was written the Muslim profession of faith, an Associated Press reporter on the scene says. ”There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet,” the flag purportedly read.
Mobs Attack US Embassies in Egypt, Libya; 4 Americans Dead
[Newsmax.com]
Tuesday, 11 Sep 2012 08:18 PM
Protesters in Egypt and Libya attacked U.S. diplomatic missions on Tuesday, leading to the death of an American staffer at the consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi after fierce clashes at the compound, a Libyan official said. “One American staff member has died and a number have been injured in the clashes,” Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya’s Supreme Security Committee, said, adding he did not know the exact number of injured or what the cause of death was.
The violence in Benghazi followed protests in neighboring Egypt where protesters scaled the walls of the Cairo embassy and tore down the American flag and burned it during protests over what demonstrators said was a U.S. film that insulted the Prophet Mohammad. On Tuesday, Egypt’s prestigious Al-Azhar mosque and seat of Sunni learning condemned a symbolic “trial” of the Prophet organized by a U.S. group including Terry Jones, a Christian pastor who triggered riots in Afghanistan in 2010 by threatening to burn the Koran.
U.S. Department of Education: 79% of Chicago 8th Graders Not Proficient in Reading
[CNSNews.com]
By Terence P. Jeffrey
September 10, 2012
Chicago Public Schools – [Editor: Here's a statistic I just heard from Rush. The average salary for a teacher in Chicago is $76, 000 Per Year excluding bennies. The average citizen in Chicago makes $48,000 Per Year. AND THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT SATISFIED WITH A WHOPPING 16% RAISE! Also, 71 cents out of every new dollar taxes goes towards Public Union Pensions. Is that fair? Is it "social justice" when all this money produces results indicated in this story?]
(AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – Seventy-nine percent of the 8th graders in the Chicago Public Schools are not grade-level proficient in reading, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and 80 percent are not grade-level proficient in math.
Chicago public school teachers went on strike on Monday and one of the major issues behind the strike is a new system Chicago plans to use for evaluating public school teachers in which student improvement on standardized tests will count for 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. Until now, the evaluations of Chicago public school teachers have been based on what a Chicago Sun Times editorial called a “meaningless checklist.”
In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education administered National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests in reading and math to students around the country, including in the Chicago Public Schools. The tests were scored on a scale of 0 to 500, with 500 being the best possible score. Based on their scores, the U.S. Department of Education rated students’ skills in reading and math as either “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient” or “advanced.”
Official Accounting: $10T Withdrawn From U.S. Treasury This Fiscal Year Alone
[CNSNews.com]
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)(CNSNews.com) – Although the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal government will spend $3.563 trillion in fiscal year 2012 and the White House Office of Management estimates it will be $3.795 trillion, actual withdrawals from the U.S. Treasury have already exceeded $10 trillion.
In fact, as of the close of business Wednesday, withdrawals from the Treasury equaled $10,201,615,000,000 for fiscal 2012, which began on Oct. 1, 2011 and will end on Sept. 30.
According to the Daily Treasury Statement–the official daily accounting sheet for the federal government—withdrawals from the Treasury exceeded $10 trillion this year on Aug. 30, when they rose from $9.903 trillion to $10.035 trillion.
How can this be?
Budget cuts to silence military buglers, replaced with recorded renditions of Taps at New York funerals
[FoxNews.com]
By Joshua Rhett Miller
Published September 05, 2012
A bugler plays ‘Taps’ during the 2009 funeral for Army Spc. Stephen Mace at Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Due to a looming budget cut on Oct. 1, virtually all military funerals in New York state will use an electronic bugle instead of a live performance. (AP)
As budget cuts are set to silence live performances of Taps at military funerals in New York, one military bugler told FoxNews.com the iconic musical piece should always be performed by an Honor Guard musician.
Jari Villanueva, director of the Maryland National Guard Honor Guard and a bugler at thousands of military funerals, said having a phony hornsman hold up an instrument while a recording plays isn’t befitting of the somber task of burying a veteran. Yet, the piped-in version is what mourners will hear at virtually all New York military funerals beginning Oct. 1, due to a 25 percent reduction in federal funding for the state’s Military Forces Honor Guard.
Michelle Obama leads convention campaign to rekindle the ’08 fire
[FoxNews-AP]
Published September 04, 2012
Michelle Obama will lead a Democratic convention program Tuesday aimed at rekindling that feeling her husband’s supporters had in 2008.
Amid an increasingly bitter presidential campaign and concerns about the state of the economy, a full roster of Democratic officials and activists will take the stage in Charlotte Tuesday evening to make the case for a second President Obama term. Just as in Tampa, the speeches are sure to include plenty of fiery accusations against the other side. And just as with the Republican convention, the speakers’ chief job is to sell their candidate to voters.
The enthusiasm in 2012 is not exactly what it was for the president’s history-making, world-rallying 2008 campaign. The president’s approval rating, according to Gallup, has dropped from nearly 70 percent when he took office to 45 percent at the beginning of September — with more Americans now disapproving than approving of his job performance.
Congress Probes Obama Green Stimulus Funds for MSNBC
[TheNewAmerican.com]
Monday, September 3, 2012
Written by Alex Newman
Lawmakers are investigating the Obama administration’s controversial decision to purchase over 100 advertisements touting so-called “green jobs” on the far-left MSNBC cable television outlet using “stimulus” funds, raising serious questions among analysts about misappropriation of taxpayer money to reward allies of the president who parrot White House talking points. No other TV media channels received similar contracts and no jobs were “created.”
The dubious Obama-friendly commercials touting “green” stimulus schemes ran over 100 times on MSNBC, costing taxpayers about half of a million dollars. But after the administration’s decision became a public scandal in the wake of watchdogs and media reports exposing it, criticism of the plot is growing. And now, members of Congress want answers.
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