What laser capability did Benghazi team have?
[FoxNews.com]
By Jennifer Griffin
CWN Posted: November 06, 2012
Has Libya attack become ‘politicized’?
Senior retired military officer wants answers on…
Sources who have debriefed the team that was at the CIA annex the night of the attack in Benghazi say that the CIA operators from the Global Response Staff, or GRS, were equipped with Mark 48 machine guns and had two types of laser capability. Each weapon had both a “passive” as well as a “visible” laser that could be used against the Libyan attackers.
The presence of laser capability on the roof of the CIA annex confirms what Fox News sources that night in Benghazi originally said, which is that they had laser capability and for 5 hours and 15 minutes were wondering where the usual overhead air support was, especially since, according to this source, they radioed from the annex beginning as early as midnight asking for it.
The presence of lasers raises more questions about why air support was not sent to Benghazi even protectively once it became clear that the fighting had followed the CIA rescue team back to the annex.
U.S. military officials say they “thought the fighting was over” after the team left the consulate and that there was a lull in the fighting.
Voter fraud monitors on high alert for Election Day
[FoxNews.com]
Published November 05, 2012
Nov. 5, 2012: Early voters mark their ballots in Indianapolis. (AP)
With Election Day polls set to open in mere hours, those monitoring the vote for fraud and funny business are already on high alert.
Late last month, the state of Florida raised flags after strange letters started to go out telling voters that their citizenship was being questioned and that voting could expose them to possible jail time.
Then in Ohio, Nevada and other battlegrounds, reports surfaced of voters trying to make their choice for president on touch-screen machines only to see the machine register a different candidate. Typically, they voted for Mitt Romney and the machine marked President Obama.
Among the latest allegations is that NAACP workers showed up at a polling site in Houston “electioneering” for Obama and refused to leave — though the NAACP adamantly denies it.
The incident was detailed by a poll watcher for the group True the Vote. In a written statement, monitor Eve Rockford claimed NAACP representatives arrived at the Houston site Friday afternoon “with probably 50 cases of bottled water” and began handing them out to voters.
Final NPR Poll: Romney Leads By One, Up Big With Independents
[Townhall.com]
Political Editor, Townhall.com
October 30, 2012 01:07 PM EST
__________________________________
National polling is going to be tough to come by over the next few days, as pollsters will struggle to get remotely accurate samples from much of the Eastern seaboard. Indeed, Gallup and a few other firms are suspending their tracking polls until the mess is cleared up. For what it’s worth, Rasmussen’s tracker still has Obama locked in at 47 percent, with Romney ahead by two. The Republican maintains a six-point advantage on the economy, and for the first time, fewer than 50 percent of voters think Obama will win re-election. Meanwhile, NPR has released its final national poll of the cycle, taken before the megastorm swamped the Northeast. Its topline result is Romney 48, Obama 47 — but all other signs point to a more sizable Romney lead. Let’s examine a few of the telling data points:
(1) Sample - The poll surveys 370 Democrats, 306 Republicans and 309 Independents, for a D/R/I of 37/31/31 (D+6). After weighting, the sample is D+4. Obama has a statistically insignificant lead in the “swing states” sub-section, which has a much larger margin of error, and clocks in at D+9. For reasons explained here and here, both partisan splits seem unlikely to reflect this year’s electorate — to say nothing of this.
(2) Enthusiasm - Republicans are more likely than Democrats to rate this election as a “9″ or “10″ in terms of importance, suggesting an intensity gap. Republicans outpace Democrats on the “10″ scale by ten points (76/66). Eighty percent of GOP voters responded with either a 9 or 10, while 72 percent of Democrats did the same.
(3) Independents - Right track/wrong track: 30/64. Obama job approval/disapproval: 42/54, and 39/60 on the economy. On the head-to-head among indies, it’s Romney 51, Obama 39 — a twelve point lead for the GOP ticket.
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.”
CIA’s Hayden: Romney Right On Iran
[Newsmax.com]
By Jim Meyers and John Bachman
October 23, 2012
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden tells Newsmax that Mitt Romney was right — and President Obama wrong — when the GOP candidate said during the Monday debate that a nuclear Iran and not a terrorist attack was the biggest threat to America’s national security.
The retired 4-star Air Force General also says he is “not very hopeful” that negotiations with the Iranians will dissuade them from developing nuclear weapons. And he predicts that a President Romney would “review” Obama’s exemption of some of Iran’s major trading partners from imposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
La Boca Grande [The Big Mouth]
American [Spectator.org]
Political Hay
By George Neumayr on 10.23.12 @ 6:10AM
Obama talks big [boca/mouth] in the final debate in Florida.
Barack Obama came to the last presidential debate ready for a fight. But he didn’t get one. Romney seemed more interested in talking to moderator Bob Schieffer than engaging Obama in a scuffle.
That relaxed strategy didn’t hurt Romney very much. At worst, the debate was a draw, which will only serve to seal the tightness of the race.
Though Romney kept stepping back from his punches, Obama didn’t tire of throwing them. Apparently Romney not only kills his sacked employees’ wives he also takes glee in outsourcing jobs to China and (in a new line of attack from Obama) invests in an Iranian company. Obama was unloading all the opposition research that he couldn’t cram into the previous debates.
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:
Romney Just Got Another Endorsement From a Popular Hollywood Actress — See Which One
[TheBlaze.com]
- Posted on October 12, 2012 at 8:50am by
Billy Hallowell
Actress Lindsay Lohan (Photo Credit: Getty Images)
When it comes to Hollywood endorsements, Republicans usually have to take what they can get. The big names generally tend to swing left-of-center, as Tinseltown’s elite regularly host fundraisers and head out on the campaign trail in support of Democratic candidates.
This electoral cycle is no different, however it appears that a few, more prevalent actors and performers are stepping up to the plate to endorse GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Clint Eastwood, Stacey Dash, and now — Lindsay Lohan
Despite recently getting into an alleged altercation with a Republican congressional staffer, Lohan is anything but turned off by the Grand Old Party’s messaging.
Labor report reflecting falling jobless rate stirs campaign firestorm
[FoxNews.com]
Published October 05, 2012
Sept. 28, 2012: Job-seekers hand in resumes during a job fair at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. (AP)
In the homestretch of a presidential race where every minute shift in the economy can translate into potential votes, both campaigns took aim Friday at the Labor Department’s estimate that the jobless rate fell below 8 percent for the first time in nearly four years.
President Obama’s team touted the numbers as a sign the economy is improving. Mitt Romney, along with several economists, expressed deep skepticism about the report.
The data even elicited a conspiracy theory from former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, who tweeted: “Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers.”
The Labor Department reported that the rate dipped in September from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent. It was a glimmer of good news for Obama, who’s trying to recover from a disappointing debate performance and whose central argument is that the economy is moving in the right direction.
“This morning, we found out that the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since I took office,” Obama said at a Virginia rally Friday. “It’s a reminder that this country has come too far to turn back now. … We’ve made too much progress to return to the policies that led to the crisis in the first place.”
But skeptics pointed out that not only is 7.8 percent unemployment hardly a “real recovery,” but the report reflected an uptick in part-time jobs and the number of self-employed. Further, they stressed that there appeared to be a huge disconnect between the modest number of new jobs reported and the significant decrease in the unemployment rate.
The Labor Department, based on a broad survey of employers, said 114,000 jobs were added in September.
But the unemployment rate itself is based on a separate “household survey,” which showed a whopping 873,000 new jobs in September.
“This must be an anomaly,” former Congressional Budget Office director Doug Holtz-Eakin said in a snap analysis of the numbers. “It is out of line with any of the other data..”
Holtz-Eakin noted the household survey is smaller, suggesting it is not as reliable. He called estimate of 873,000 new jobs “implausible.”
He said the report was otherwise “solid,” but reflected “the economy is merely moving sideways.”
Liberal economist Dean Baker, with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, called the September rate drop “almost certainly a statistical fluke.”
“It is common to have large monthly changes in the employment numbers that are not consistent with other economic data. For example, employment reportedly rose by 649,000 in November of 2007, the month before the recession began,” he said in a statement. “Still, this month’s numbers almost certainly indicate that the unemployment rate is moving downward, even if the speed is considerably slower than the latest data indicate.”
Romney’s campaign quickly pointed out the number of people who have left the workforce has also helped keep the jobless rate down.
“This is not what a real recovery looks like. We created fewer jobs in September than in August, and fewer jobs in August than in July, and we’ve lost over 600,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office,” Romney said in a statement. “If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent.”
The recovery has been tepid, but the president is trying to show that it’s at least improving. The Labor Department report showed the economy created 86,000 more jobs in July and August than first estimated. Wages rose in September and more people started looking for work.
The revisions also show employers added 146,000 jobs per month from July through September, up from 67,000 in the previous three months. Still, the 2012 average of 146,000 jobs per month remains lower than last year’s average of 153,000 jobs per month.
The monthly numbers are subject to change. Voters will see one final jobless report on Nov. 2, just days before the election.
The increase in September was due in part to employment growth in the health care and transportation sectors. The unemployment rate fell from 8.1 percent in August, matching its level in January 2009, when Obama took office.
The decline could help Obama, who is coming off a disappointing debate performance against Romney. Stock futures rose modestly after the report. Dow Jones industrial average futures, up 30 points just before the report came out, were up 45 points after it was released.
The job market has been improving, sluggishly but steadily. Jobs have been added for 24 straight months. There are now 325,000 more than when Obama took office.
Still, many of the jobs added last month were part time. The number of people with part-time jobs who wanted full-time work rose 7.5 percent to 8.6 million.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Romney paid extra taxes in 2011, Democrats complain
[DailyCaller.com]
Get Neil Munro Feed 
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign fundraising event in Sarasota, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Democrats complained Friday that Gov. Mitt Romney boosted his federal income bill to fend off criticisms about the low tax-rate owed on income earned from investments.
“Romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he’s seen fit to show the American people — and then only to ‘conform’ with his public statements,” said a statement from Sen Harry Reid, the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate.
“Had he not limited his [charitable] deductions … what would Gov. Romney’s effective tax rate have been?” asked an afternoon email from Obama’s campaign staff.
In 2011, Romney choose to deduct from his taxable income only $2.2 million of the $4 million he donated to charity. By limiting that deduction, he increased his own federal tax rate to 14.1 percent, and deflated Democratic allegations that he paid little or no taxes in some years.
Romney says latest jobs report shows Obama’s out of ideas
[FoxNews.com]
Published September 07, 2012
The latest Labor Department report showing a continuing decline in job growth in America shows President Obama has run out of ideas, Mitt Romney told Fox News Channel in an exclusive interview a day after the president wrapped up the Democratic National Convention.
The GOP presidential nominee’s comments came hours after the Department of Labor report showed only 96,000 new jobs created in August — and hundreds of thousands have given up looking for jobs altogether.
“It’s another disappointing monthly figure. If you look over the last several quarters, last several years, there’s a pattern of not creating the jobs we need to create.”
- Mitt Romney
“It’s another disappointing monthly figure,” Romney told Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier in Sioux City, Iowa, a day after President Obama wrapped up the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. “If you look over the last several quarters, last several years, you see the continued pattern which is that we are not creating the jobs we need to create to put Americans back to work. For every net new job created, about four people dropped out of the workforce. So we’re going in the wrong direction.”
Convention floor erupts as Dems restore references to God, Jerusalem in platform
[FoxNews.com]
Published September 05, 2012
The floor of the Democratic National Convention erupted Wednesday over a sudden move to restore to the platform a reference to “God” and recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — after heavy criticism from Republicans for initially omitting them.
Democrats, though, were hardly in agreement over the reversal.
A large and loud group of delegates shouted “no” as convention chairman, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, called for the vote late Wednesday afternoon. Villaraigosa had to call for the vote three times before ruling that the “ayes” had it. Many in the crowd booed after he determined the language would be restored.
Obama follows Romney to Louisiana
[DailyCaller.com]
Published: 2:03 PM 08/31/2012
President Barack Obama announced Friday that he’s heading to Louisiana, but he’ll arrive after Mitt Romney has toured the storm-damage state in company with the state’s popular Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal.
The president’s Sept. 3 visit was announced via a 11:54 a.m. tweet from White House communications director Daniel Pfeiffer. “President Obama will head to Louisiana on Monday to visit damage from Hurricane Isaac,” he tweeted.
Romney’s visit to the storm-damaged state the day after his successful convention speech highlights his aggressive campaign strategy, which seeks to preempts Democratic p.r. offensives. For example, Romney and his vice presidential pick, Rep. Paul Ryan, have aggressively criticized Obama for damaging Medicare in advance of Democratic efforts to “Mediscare” retirees into voting for Obama.
Ryan on tap to deliver ‘hard truths’ in VP nomination speech
[FoxNews.com]
Published August 29, 2012
If Chris Christie lit a fire under Republicans last night, it’s now up to Paul Ryan to provide the fuel to keep it burning for what promises to be a hard-fought two-month battle to win the White House.
The Republican vice presidential candidate is teed up Wednesday to deliver the “hard truths” Christie talked about in his rousing keynote address on opening night. While Christie is known as the GOP fighter, Ryan is the point-man for budget-balancing solutions the party claims to represent.
The Wisconsin congressman has been quietly preparing his speech for days. Members of Ryan’s staff contacted by Fox News earlier this week said they couldn’t say precisely how long it would be, but that he has “teased” some of the ideas in it before.
Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is best known for his controversial plans to overhaul Medicare and the tax system. They are likely the kinds of “hard truths” Christie raised Tuesday night, as the New Jersey governor claimed Mitt Romney and Ryan would lead a “new era of truth-telling” in Washington.
Newsmax: Rubio Says Obama Misusing Illegals to Win
[Newsmax.com]
Tuesday, 28 Aug 2012 11:43 AM
By Jim Meyers and John Bachman
(AP Photo)
What’s Wrong With This Anti-Romney Birther Airplane Banner?
[TheBlaze.com]
- Posted on August 25, 2012 at 11:32am by
Madeleine Morgenstern
Image source: CBS News’ Jan Crawford, via Twitter @JanCBS
One day after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney quipped that “no one’s ever ever asked to see” his birth certificate, a plane towed a banner over his Ohio rally declaring “America is better” than “birtherism.”
The problem? The banner contained an elementary grammatical error: It used “then” instead of “than.”
The Obama campaign rolled out similar “birther” accusations Friday, including producing a 16-second web video saying the country doesn’t need a “birther-in-chief.”
While there’s nothing to suggest the Obama campaign had anything to do with the banner, it‘s not the first typo to befall the president’s re-election effort this week:
A photo of him posing with several students to spell out “O-H-I-O” swapped the “H” and the “I” for “O-I-H-O.”
Owner of Liberal Website That Attacked Romney’s Cayman Island ‘Schemes’, Located in The Cayman Islands
[Newsbusters.org]
By Rusty Weiss | August 23, 2012
Earlier today, the liberal website Gawker did a document dump including 950 pages worth of confidential documents affiliated with Bain Capital.
The idea was to expose Mitt Romney’s alleged tax-dodging schemes with offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. Problem being, the parent corporation known as the Gawker Media Group has a little secret of their own.
Today, we are publishing more than 950 pages of internal audits, financial statements, and private investor letters for 21 cryptically named entities in which Romney had invested—at minimum—more than $10 million as of 2011 (that number is based on the low end of ranges he has disclosed—the true number is almost certainly significantly higher). Almost all of them are affiliated with Bain Capital, the secretive private equity firm Romney co-founded in 1984 and ran until his departure in 1999 (or 2002, depending on whom you ask).
Romney: Put Akin on Ice
[Breitbart.com]
Romney To Akin: Step Aside
by John Nolte – August 21, 2012
In a statement just released from the Romney campaign, the new leader of the Republican party has stepped up to lead:
As I said yesterday, Todd Akin’s comments were offensive and wrong and he should very seriously consider what course would be in the best interest of our country. Today, his fellow Missourians urged him to step aside, and I think he should accept their counsel and exit the Senate race.
In Iowa face-off, Ryan hammers jobs message as Obama employs drought politics
[FoxNews.com]
Published August 13, 2012
Paul Ryan used his first solo campaign swing as Mitt Romney’s running mate Monday to hammer President Obama as a jobs killer, forcefully echoing Romney’s message, while Obama used a pair of nearby campaign stops to accuse Ryan of hurting drought-stricken farmers.
Ryan was dispatched to Iowa by team Romney to challenge the president as Obama kicked off a three-day bus tour across the Hawkeye State.
Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, was occasionally interrupted by hecklers during a speech at the Iowa State Fair but stuck to a meat-and-potatoes message of jobs and the deficit.
“As you see the president come through on his bus tour, you might ask him the same question that I’m getting asked from people all around America, and that is, ‘Where are the jobs Mr. President?’” Ryan said in Des Moines.
Ryan Candidacy Puts Debts, Deficits Front and Center
[Breitbart.com]
by Wynton Hall 11 Aug 2012, 4:34 PM PDT
Liberals who are “giddy” at the prospects of Mitt Romney’s selection of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan are in for a rude and sober awakening when they realize the strategic genius behind the decision.
Team Romney’s strategy? Lure the Obama campaign into attacking Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” deficit reduction plan as a means to frame the 2012 election as a battle over the economic consequences of debt and deficits. If Obama strategists David Axelrod and David Plouffe take the bait, Mitt Romney will win.
ABC, NBC Ignore Obama’s ‘Romney Hood’ Barb; Play Up ‘Security Scare’
[Newsbusters.org]
By: Matthew Balan| August 07, 2012 | 17:58
On Tuesday, ABC and NBC’s morning shows omitted covering President Obama Monday night attack on Mitt Romney at a fundraiser in Connecticut, that the GOP presidential candidate is “like Robin Hood in reverse. It’s Romney Hood.” However, Good Morning America and Today both reported on the “security scare” for the President, after two small planes flew into restricted airspace.
The same day, CBS This Morning played the clip of Obama’s “Romney Hood” attack not once, but twice. Correspondent Nancy Cordes did note that the Democrat headlined a $500-a-plate fundraising dinner and how “the President headed to an even pricier fundraiser at the Connecticut home of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.”
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