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The Obama administration, attempting to salvage a faltering nuclear deal with Iran, has told Iran’s leaders in back-channel messages that it is willing to allow the country to send its stockpile of enriched uranium to any of several nations, including Turkey, for temporary safekeeping, according to administration officials and diplomats involved in the exchanges. But the overtures, made through the International Atomic Energy Agency over the past two weeks, have all been ignored, the officials said. Instead, they said, the Iranians have revived an old counterproposal: that international arms inspectors take custody of much of Iran’s fuel, but keep it...

The Treasury recently reported that the federal government recorded a total budget deficit of $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2009, about $960 billion more than the deficit incurred in 2008. CBO notes, in its latest Monthly Budget Review, that the federal deficit rose as a share of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) from 3.1 percent in 2008 to 9.9 percent in 2009—the highest deficit as a share of GDP since 1945.As shown in the figure below, federal spending and receipts diverged dramatically in 2009, reflecting the weakening economy and the federal response. The increase in the deficit of...

The White House will today issue a Statement of Administration Policy today endorsing the health care reform legislation from House Democrats. It will not be a signal that the president favors the House bill over the one from Senate Democrats, officials say. The president will go to Capitol Hill to speak to House Democrats, likely on Saturday, to rally support for the bill.

For all that's transpired since his election as president, public opinion has not moved on the big issue, the current economy. The question a year later is how long Obama's got until it goes up, or he goes down – possibly with his party in tow. Health care reform draws a divided public response as well, with support for a variety of initiatives coupled with significant concern that they could do more harm than good. Some of Obama's best ratings lately have been in handling international affairs, contrary to questions during the 2008 campaign about his readiness for the global...

The UN's nuclear watchdog has asked Iran to explain evidence suggesting that Iranian scientists have experimented with an advanced nuclear warhead design, the Guardian has learned. The very existence of the technology, known as a "two-point implosion" device, is officially secret in both the US and Britain, but according to previously unpublished documentation in a dossier compiled by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iranian scientists may have tested high-explosive components of the design. The development was today described by nuclear experts as "breathtaking" and has added urgency ...

GUANGZHOU, China, Nov 4 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's half-brother made a rare appearance on Wednesday in southern China, his home for seven years, to launch a novel he says draws on his painful childhood under an abusive father. Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo -- who had the same, late, father as the U.S. President -- has kept a low public profile since reports surfaced last year that he was living and working in the southern Chinese capitalist and manufacturing haven of Shenzhen, around an hour's train ride from Hong Kong. After repeatedly shunning media attention, Ndesandjo's first major public...

The pace of layoffs eased in October, but progress in the labor markets remains painfully slow. Private-sector jobs in the U.S. fell 203,000 last month, according to a national employment report published Wednesday by payroll giant Automatic Data Processing Inc. and consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers. The ADP loss is right on par with the drop projected by economists in a Dow Jones Newswires survey. The estimated change of employment from August to September was revised by 27,000 from a decline of 254,000 to a decline of 227,000. The ADP survey tallies only private-sector jobs, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics' nonfarm...

WASHINGTON: European nations are unlikely to contribute more troops to Afghanistan, the head of the European Commission said on Tuesday, as President Barack Obama weighs boosting US forces there. Opinion polls in many European countries show clear majorities in favor of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. There are some 67,000 US troops and 42,000 from allied nations there. "Honestly in Europe there is not great enthusiasm for sending more troops to Afghanistan. That is the public opinion situation in Europe," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Washington.

NEWARK — In the final hours of this intensely fought campaign, supporters of Gov. Jon S. Corzine are knocking on doors here with a message for people who voted for Barack Obama: Your president needs you. In an effort they are calling “Yes We Can 2.0,” Corzine campaign officials are devoting millions of dollars and thousands of volunteers to try to bring back to the polls those 442,000 New Jersey residents who had never voted before Mr. Obama’s election last November. They are flooding them with phone calls, mail and text messages, hoping to contact each of them at least...

Long lines at public flu clinics -- initially intended to primarily serve the uninsured -- are now commonplace nationwide as doses of the vaccine remain scarce. Many clinics report seeing large numbers of people who have insurance but have been unable to get H1N1 vaccines from private doctors, who say they have either already run out or have yet to get any. The line at the Glendale clinic, the first to be held in that city since Los Angeles County received doses late last month, was the longest yet, county Department of Public Health officials said. And the stakes were...

The House health-care reform plan unveiled last week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would do more than regulate insurance companies – it would even regulate vending machines. The bill, which is posted online, would require that vending machine operators either create new machines that allow the customer to view nutrition facts or post nutritional information for each product near “each article of food or the selection button.” The regulation could wind up costing vendors millions of dollars to make the changes, according to industry estimates. Section 2572 of the bill (H.R. 3962) says, “In the case of an article...

Divisions in the majority party in the House and Senate could delay legislation into the new year. Abortion funding in particular shows a chasm between party liberals and moderates. Reporting from Washington - House Democratic leaders, while insisting that the finish line is in sight on their overhaul of the nation's healthcare system, have hit a last-minute snag over the abortion issue. Senate Democratic leaders, meanwhile, are continuing to have problems winning over moderates in their own party -- raising the possibility that the climactic votes on healthcare might be pushed into next year. The delays in both houses reflect...

By seizing gubernatorial seats in Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans on Tuesday dispelled any notion of President Obama's electoral invincibility, giving the GOP a lift and offering warning signs to Democrats ahead of the 2010 midterm elections. With Obama slipping in polls and many voters unhappy with the Democratic-run Congress, "it's been increasingly clear over the last few months that Democrats were likely to have a tough midterm next year," said Charlie Cook, who handicaps races nationwide for his nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "What we've seen tonight doesn't dispute that assumption." Tuesday's gubernatorial results certainly won't help Democrats. Perceptions are...

Washington (CNN) -- Victories in New Jersey and Virginia Tuesday provided a major shot in the arm for the Republican Party heading into the 2010 elections, but the Democratic losses of these two governorships should not be interpreted as a significant blow to President Obama. While the economy and jobs were the chief concern for voters in both states, 26 percent of New Jersey residents said property taxes was also a major issue, while another 20 percent mentioned corruption, according to CNN exit polling. In a similar CNN survey taken in Virginia, health care was the most important issue for...

You can tell that the White House isn't expecting such a great election day -- Democrats are down in recent polls in the governor's races in both Virginia and New Jersey -- both by how much officials are insisting the outcomes have no relevance to the President and how much they're trying to change focus to the conservative in-fighting in the special election for an upstate New York congressional seat. The White House is setting the stage for a bad day tomorrow, pre-spinning any losses as irrelevant. On Friday White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, “Whatever the results are,...

More than 1.4 million Californians were working part-time in September, not out of choice but because their hours had been cut or it was the only job they could find and they needed the money, reports the state Employment Development Department. That's a nearly 72% increase from a year ago when 840,000 Californians settled for part-time work. The biggest jump has been in workers who have settled for part-time jobs because they can't find full-time work. Their numbers have soared 83.3% since September 2008.

Trying to appeal to voters in New Jersey’s urban centers, President Obama made his second campaign stop of the day for Democratic Governor Jon Corzine at Newark’s Prudential Center. The President began by describing the economic challenges facing American families, but he took pains to remind the audience that the worst recession since the Great Depression “didn’t start on Jon’s watch…didn’t start on my watch…[there’s] a little amnesia about how we got into this mess.” He then went into a drawn-out mopping metaphor that drew laughs: “I’m more than happy to go ahead and do the work required to get...

A year ago I argued that to repair America's ripped social fabric, Barack Obama had to move forward on healthcare, a higher minimum wage, imaginative ways to keep families in homes that were being foreclosed and investments in public works on a vast scale to stem the tide of unemployment that would inevitably follow a financial collapse. And that he had to juggle many of these reforms simultaneously. Such transformations couldn't occur overnight, but the impetus for them had to come in the first months of the new administration – when Obama's popularity was high, when the calamitous malfunctioning in...

In October, for the third straight month, 39% Strongly Disapproved of the president’s performance. The number who Strongly Approved fell two percentage points to 29%, the president’s lowest full-month total to date. That leads to a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10, also a new low for Obama. Also in October, the president’s total approval slipped a point to 48%. His total disapproval remained stable at 51%. During October, 55% of Democrats Strongly Approved of the president’s performance while 64% of Republicans Strongly Disapproved. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 21% offered Strong Approval while 44% Strongly Disapproved....

WASHINGTON – Fifty-seven people in northeast Indiana got a job – or were spared a pink slip – so far this year because of the government’s stimulus program, the government reported Friday. It was the smallest job gain or employment preservation reported in the state’s nine congressional districts. Vice President Biden said the program created or saved an additional 400,000 jobs – the harder-to-count jobs created as a result of extra economic activity – putting the total more than 1 million. The government does not distinguish between jobs that were created because of the program and the jobs people didn’t...

The White House said Friday that the $787-billion stimulus package had created or saved about 1 million jobs so far -- a number that is hard to verify because of the guesswork involved in determining whether businesses had retained workers due to the stimulus who otherwise would have been laid off. Peter Morici, an economist and professor at the University of Maryland, said that claims of jobs saved were "not verifiable. It's only verifiable in the loosest sense." Morici added: "The impact of the stimulus is less than the president is claiming and more than the Republicans will admit. It...

It's now Obama's war, his jobless rate, his debt, etc. Valerie Jarrett announced the other day that "we're going to speak truth to power." Who's Valerie Jarrett? She's "Senior Adviser" to the president of the United States – i.e., the leader of the most powerful nation on the face of the Earth. You would think the most powerful man in the most powerful nation would find a hard job finding anyone on the planet to "speak truth to power" to. But I suppose if you're as eager to do so as his Senior Adviser, there's always somebody out there: The...

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says Congress’ federal stimulus program has saved or created 8,356 jobs in the University of California system, a claim that comes as a surprise at UC Irvine, Orange County’s largest employer. “We can’t figure out where the governor’s office got the data to support saying 34,000 jobs have been saved in the CSU and UC systems. No such data has been forwarded by our campus to the state,” said Cathy Lawhon, director of media relations at UCI. “Basically, the state cut to the UC system was $815 million. The stimulus money totaled about $700 million, which didn’t...

With Democrats poised to lose the governor's race in Virginia, and to possibly lose the governor's race in New Jersey and a special election for a House seat in New York, the White House has started insisting any pending losses will not have any significance. "Whatever the results are I don't think they portend a lot in dealing with the future," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Friday, pointing to the fact that Democrats won the Virginia and New Jersey governors' races in 2001 despite a very popular President Bush, with Republicans picking up seats in Congress...

Forget our babble. Here's the data. Won't you please give to UNICEF the FDIC fund this Halloween? Failed Bank City State Deposits (in millions) Assets (in millions) Branches Bank USA, National Assoc. Phoenix AZ $212.8 $117.1 2 California National Bank Los Angeles CA $7,792.2 $6,160.4 68 San Diego National Bank San Diego CA $3,608.1 $2,892.4 29 Pacific National Bank San Francisco CA $2,335.3 $1,762.8 18 Park National Bank Chicago IL $4,706.1 $3,730.9 30 Community Bank of Lemont Lemont IL $81.8 $81.2 1 North Houston Bank Houston TX $326.2 $308.0 2 Madisonville State Bank Madisonville TX $256.7 $225.2 1 Citizens National...

"Today, I again seek to act for the good of our community," "It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support. Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so. I am and have always been a proud Republican. It is my hope that with my actions today, my party will emerge stronger and our district and our nation can take an important step towards restoring the enduring strength and economic prosperity that has defined us for...

(IsraelNN.com) Former minister Rafi Eitan, who recruited Jonathan Pollard as a spy for Israel in the US, expressed regret over the espionage debacle in an interview on Channel 2. "I admit the failure and I regret it,” he said. In an interview to Maariv in 2008, Eitan said that the US intelligence services made a joint decision not to permit Pollard ever to be released until the end of his life. “The reason isn't Pollard. It's Israel... It's connected to the relationship system between the American intelligence services and the state of Israel.” Eitan went on to confirm that the...

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's said on Thursday it was "hard to believe" that no one in Pakistan's government knew where al Qaeda leaders were hiding, striking a new tone on a trip where Washington's credibility has come under attack. Scores of al Qaeda leaders and their operatives, including Osama bin Laden, are believed to be in hiding in the rugged border territory that divides Pakistan and Afghanistan, but both countries routinely accuse the other of being the main sanctuary "I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are...

Clinton's Pakistan charm offensive rolled into a wall of suspicion at one of the country's top universities on Thursday as students drilled her on whether America was truly ready to be a steadfast partner in a time of crisis.... Some of the toughest questions centered on the Kerry-Lugar bill, a recent piece of U.S. legislation which aims to triple U.S. assistance to Pakistan to some $7 billion over the next five years, but which contains conditions which many Pakistanis regard as an affront to their sovereignty

* Bloodiest month for U.S. troops in eight years of war * Security tight ahead of Nov. 7 presidential run-off * Speculation of Abdullah pullout continues * Obama to meet military chiefs on Friday * U.S. troops decision expected in "coming weeks" (Adds U.S. poll on whether to send more troops) By Maria Golovnina KABUL, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Eight U.S. troops were killed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday ahead of a run-off presidential election, the NATO-led alliance said, in the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the start of the war eight years ago.

Widespread public disdain for a dysfunctional Legislature – just 13 percent of voters approved of the job it was doing in a recent poll – has spawned a rhetorical game in political, academic and media circles that goes something like this: "Everything would be OK if only they would just (fill in the blank)." Of course, the phrases offered to fill in that blank vary widely, depending on the player's ideological or cultural orientation. And that's why reforming the Capitol in any meaningful way is, at least so far, as elusive as balancing the horribly imbalanced state budget. Thursday's joint...

From the Obama government website—- The Obama Stimulus “created or saved” 20 jobs in Connecticut. The Obama Stimulus created 28 jobs in Vermont. The Obama Stimulus created 22 jobs in New Hampshire.

Three years ago, Massachusetts passed the most sweeping healthcare bill in the country, adopting a plan that closely resembles the proposals being considered by Congress. It is a plan that now offers powerful lessons for the whole nation. The state's system, like the proposals moving toward votes in the House and Senate, focused on three goals: making medical insurance almost universal, fostering competition through a regulated insurance exchange, and helping low-income workers pay for coverage. Today, Massachusetts leads the nation with 96% of its residents covered by insurance -- an even larger share than some of the plans before Congress...

Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson. In the modern era, we've seen several failed presidencies--led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait-- they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China.

Controlling Healthcare Costs The American Way: Not Doing It 08 Oct 2009 In the comments to an earlier post, KennyBoy asks: And Megan, no one on your side of the argument seems willing to answer two simple questions. If every other country (don't split hairs, you know what I mean) can cover ALL of their citizens for LESS than the US does, with better outcomes, why can't we do that? This is a favorite question of would-be reformers. There are two answers, one theoretical, and one empirical. We'll start with the theory, which won't be new to regular readers; I've...

There comes a time when big things should be considered rather than tinkering at the edges. It is certainly what the Left – as embodied in the Obama administration – thinks. It is certainly worth considering by those of us on the Right. So let’s look at the CIA; an agency that has – at the highest levels – individuals who pursue their own foreign policy. That may be forgivable if the result is improved intelligence and improved safety for the US. Unfortunately, the list of intelligence and judgment failures is piling up to such an extent that it now...

Telegraph reporter Stephanie Gutmann describes her reaction to Obama’s appearance in Berlin: “After it was over I picked up the phone and called a friend back home. “It’s worse than we thought,” I told him. “The guy’s actually crazy.’” Gutman was talking about candidate Obama’s agenda as he presented it that day, in which he promised to take on the terrorists in Afghanistan, take on the drug dealers, rebuild Afghanistan, eliminate the building nuclear threat, secure all loose nukes, decrease arsenals from another era, form a new global partnership that will end terror networks, redistribute wealth, save the planet, withdraw...

Another epic failure? President Obama never had a plan to close Camp Delta, the detainee facility for the worst of the worst terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Like many liberals, he felt it was the right thing to do, made a big deal about the issue during the campaign, and kicked off his term by committing to close the facility in one year. Epic Fail.

he head of the British Army, General Sir David Richards, has issued a wake-up call to the public by warning of the "terrifying prospect" of a defeat in Afghanistan. n an unprecedented intervention, the chief of the general staff described the conflict as "this generation's war" and added that failure by Nato would have an "intoxicating effect" on militant Islam. In his first interview as the head of the Army, Sir David told The Sunday Telegraph that if Britain and Nato failed in Afghanistan the risks to the western world would be "enormous" and "unimaginable". He said: "If al-Qaeda and...

Those who are trying so hard to destroy America are upset with the right wingers who are rejoicing because Barack, Michelle and Oprah made asses of themselves in Denmark.

President Obama, I come from Chicago. I was born in Chicago. Chicago was where I grew up. Mr. President, you are not a Chicagoan. Yes, it's true. I, Charles Henrickson, was born and raised in Chicago, in the city. I was that rarest of creatures there--a registered Republican. And I love my hometown. Even as I detest the corrupt Democratic machine that runs it. The Chicago I grew up in, the Chicago of Hizzoner da Mare, was corrupt, yes. But the Chicago of today, under da Mare's kid, Richie, is both corrupt and radically leftist, fostering the likes of...

Obama’s Olympic failure will only add to doubts about his presidency Tim Reid in Washington There has been a growing narrative taking hold about Barack Obama’s presidency in recent weeks: that he is loved by many, but feared by none; that he is full of lofty vision, but is actually achieving nothing with his grandiloquence. Chicago’s dismal showing yesterday, after Mr Obama’s personal, impassioned last-minute pitch, is a stunning humiliation for this President. It cannot be emphasised enough how this will feed the perception that on the world stage he looks good — but carries no heft. It was only...

WASHINGTON — OK, so it wasn't health care, climate change or war. Still, President Barack Obama's high-profile failure to win the Olympics for Chicago could feed negative narratives already nipping at his heels — that he's a better talker than closer, more celebrity than statesman. And this could hamper his efforts on the weightier issues. Despite Obama's fabled charm and powers of persuasion, his in-person plea for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Games fell flat. It was a hugely embarrassing defeat. His adopted hometown — considered a front-runner heading into Friday's voting — didn't just lose, it took last...

09.30.2009 3:35 pm Auto employment in St. Louis shrinks to just 700 By David Nicklaus St. Louis Post-Dispatch After reading STL JobWatch’s update on the unemployment situation in St. Louis, I headed for the Bureau of Labor Statistics website to refresh my knowledge on where the jobs are being lost. There are no surprises in the big industry categories, which I’ll get to in a moment. One number did, however, leap out at me: In August, the metro area had just 700 auto manufacturing jobs. That was down from 3,000 in July, a drop that reflects the shutdown of Chrysler’s...

WASHINGTON – Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s. The deficits — $10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2011 — won't affect payments to retirees because Social Security has accumulated surpluses from previous years totaling $2.5 trillion. But they will add to the overall federal deficit.

The unemployment rate for young Americans has exploded to 52.2 percent -- a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. -- meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time. And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults -- aged 16 to 24, excluding students -- getting a job and moving...

We are, what, only six months into the Obama Administration? No, it is actually nine. Okay, fair enough. Whatever; It feels much longer. It’s only been a short time, considering an American presidential administration lasts 48 months—assuming that it does not get a second run or the president does not have his term ended sooner. But it is scary that, only nine months into a presidential term, America and the world seem to feel like they are spinning out of control. Trust me, I am not an alarmist. And, certainly, not someone that would be considered a blind asshole, conservative...

WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has authorized checks for up to $3,000 to be given to students who have applied for educational benefits and who have not yet received their government payment. The checks will be distributed to eligible students at VA regional benefits offices across the country starting Oct. 2, 2009. “Students should be focusing on their studies, not worrying about financial difficulties,” Secretary Shinseki said. “Education creates life-expanding opportunities for our Veterans.” Starting Friday, Oct. 2, 2009, students can go to one of VA’s 57 regional benefit...

Everybody is saying no to the American president these days. And it's not just that they're saying no, it's also the way they're saying no. The Saudis twice said no to his request for normalization gestures towards Israel (at Barack Obama's meeting with King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, and in Washington at meetings with Hillary Clinton). Who says no to the American president twice? What must they think of Obama in the desert kingdom? The North Koreans said no to repeated attempts at talks, by test-launching long-range missiles in April; Russia and China keep on saying no to tougher sanctions...

Breaking News Alert The New York Times Sun, September 20, 2009 -- 11:57 PM ET ----- The top military commander in Afghanistan warns in a classified assessment of the war there that he needs additional troops within the next year or else the conflict "will likely result in failure." The grim assessment is contained in a 66-page report that the commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, submitted to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Aug. 30, and which is now under review by President Obama and his top national security advisers.