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World NATO says Russian convoy move 'only deepens crisis' BRUSSELS: NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen sharply criticised the Russian decision to advance a "so-called" aid convoy into Ukraine on Friday (Aug 22) as a "blatant breach" of international commitments that "only deepens the crisis". "This is a blatant breach of Russia's international commitments... and a further violation of Ukraine's sovereignty by Russia," Rasmussen said in a statement. "It can only deepen the crisis in the region, which Russia itself has created and has continued to fuel," he said. Rasmussen poured doubt on Moscow's claim that the convoy, which had been...

The "recovery" news in Spain keeps piling up. Via translation from El Economista, Government has already taken 37% of the total 'pensions piggy bank'. If extractions continue at the current rate, the fund would be exhausted in 4 years. The Government of Mariano Rajoy has released 24.65 billion euros of the Social Security Reserve Fund in less than two years. Such amount represents nearly 37% of the total 66.815 billion fund accumulation. That figure marks the highest cumulative piggy bank draw-down in history, following its commissioning in 2000 and after eleven years in which successive governments did not need to...

State officials are moving ahead with plans to construct a $10 million extension of Jersey Avenue into Liberty State Park in Jersey City. The proposed roadway would cross the Morris Canal, giving motorists a shortcut to Liberty State Park from Downtown Jersey City.

The law violated by the Obama administration when it secretly exchanged five Guantanamo terrorists for an Army solider captured by the Taliban after deserting his post is punishable by jail, suspension and removal of office, according to written White House rules. The nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), confirmed this week that the president broke a “clear and unambiguous” law when he swapped the high-level terrorists for Bowe Bergdahl, an Army sergeant who went AWOL in Afghanistan in 2009. According to rules issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the violation is...

Elections: The city of Los Angeles is considering paying voters to encourage turnout. Needless to say, it's a ridiculous idea that will reward low-information voting, foster political demagogues and breed corruption.Sure, some in the political class will say what's not to like? Higher voter turnout sounds good and, more to the point, the political left likely will benefit from paying people to vote.This is what's done, officially or not, in places like Venezuela, Central America and southern Mexico, where the political class doles the goodies and subliterate voters sell their votes for bags of beans. Lots of left-wing demagogues have...

Calm has come to Ferguson, Missouri, after nights of violent unrest over the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. But a crucial question lingers: What happens if the grand jury considering the case doesn't return a charge against the officer?

A few days after 18-year-old Mike Brown was gunned down in Ferguson, Missouri, White House officials enlisted an unusual source for on-the-ground intelligence amid the chaos and tear gas: the Rev. Al Sharpton, a fiery activist who became a household name by provoking rather than pacifying. Sharpton—once such a pariah that Clinton administration officials rushed through their ribbon-cuttings in Harlem for fear he’d show up and force them to, gasp, shake his hand—arrived on the scene 72 hours after the shooting at the request of Brown’s grandfather, who had admired his advocacy on behalf of the family of slain Florida...

<p>Well, I have been trying to lay low on this thing for a while, because I knew as soon as all of the breathless reports started about Michael Brown’s death, more facts – and let’s stress that, FACTS – would come to light that would blow the immediate narrative right out of the water.</p>

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) As the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson calmed early Friday after nights of protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teen, the question remains: Where's the police officer who pulled the trigger? Officer Darren Wilson, 28, shot Michael Brown on August 9. The shooting sparked days of violent protests in Ferguson as residents demanded his arrest. Separate federal and local investigations are under way, and Wilson -- who has received death threats -- has disappeared from public view. Here's what is known about his whereabouts. Where is he now? Few outside Wilson's family and authorities know for...

After losing to Hobby Lobby at the Supreme Court in a case about whether certain businesses who object to paying for abortion-causing drugs for their employees must follow the HHS mandate, the Obama administration has revised the HHS mandate rules.The revisions target religious nonprofits and those pro-life companies like Hobby Lobby.The Obama administration released a fact sheet on the newly-proposed HHS mandate rule pertaining to non-profit organizations and closely held for-profit entities, like Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties. The factsheet on the new rules makes it clear that the HHS mandate violates the conscience rights of non-profit organizations and...

“They are beyond just a terrorist group,” Hagel said. “They marry ideology, a sophistication of ... military prowess. They are tremendously well-funded. This is beyond anything we’ve seen.” But Jim Walsh with the MIT Security Studies Program said ISIS has also suffered a series of setbacks at the hands of Kurdish and U.S. forces and said the Islamic militants are more concerned with the immediate threats in their region than attacking the U.S. “The theory is that they have a safe haven and if you have a safe haven you can carry out an attack. That’s true. Unfortunately there’s no...

In a bit of dubious cherry-picking, a new Bloomberg article concludes that the Affordable Care Act is losing its effectiveness as a political issue for Republicans and is diminishing as a major issue. How do we know the end is near-ish? Well, so many Americans are "benefiting from the law," theorizes Heidi Przybyla, that political ads are simply not doing the job anymore. This news is somewhat unexpected -- and unpersuasive -- when you consider that a Kaiser Family Foundation poll recently found that only 15 percent of Americans believe Obamacare has directly helped them, whereas 28 percent say it...

BERLIN/KIEV (Reuters) - After months of ratcheting up pressure on Vladimir Putin, concern is mounting in Berlin and other European capitals that an emboldened Ukraine's military successes in the east are reducing the chances of a face-saving way out of the crisis for the Russian leader. As a result, the focus of German-led diplomatic efforts has shifted, according to senior officials, towards urging restraint from Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and averting a humiliating defeat for pro-Russian rebels, a development that Berlin fears could elicit a strong response from Putin. Chancellor Angela Merkel's planned visit to Kiev on Saturday, her first...

1,461 Days of Summer The headline was brutal. “Bam’s Golf War: Prez tees off as Foley’s parents grieve,” read the cover of Thursday’s New York Daily News. Obama’s gaffe was this: He had denounced the beheading of James Foley from a vacation spot in Martha’s Vineyard, then went to the golf course. Seems like he had a great time. Such a great time that he returned to the Farm Neck Golf Club—sorry, membership is full—the next day. Technically, Obama’s vacation began on August 9. It is scheduled to end on Sunday, August 24. With the exception of a two-day interlude...

The one-sided media and the mob aim to beat doubters into silence, but striking back is not the answer. I stayed silent, like a lot of white folks, while events unfolded in Ferguson, Mo. I was flabbergasted at the anger of the protesters and their certainty, which seemed to doubt any narrative but the one presented by the family attorney, who replayed his Trayvon Martin appearance: Brown was “executed in broad daylight.” A young man — not a boy — lay dead in the streets of a quiet suburb that, whatever its flaws, does not fit our usual image of...

We are on a bad path and we need to stop before it goes too far. Our government agencies have become rogue governments-within-a-government, they are now arming themselves and our domestic police forces. At the same time, Mr. Obama is decimating the military. The Business Insider reported that …we produce so much military equipment that inventories of military robots, M-16 assault rifles, helicopters, armored vehicles, and grenade launchers eventually start to pile up and it turns out a lot of these weapons are going straight to American police forces to be used against US citizens. The program Paul is talking...

In another heated exchange between State Department spokesman Marie Harf and AP reporter Matt Lee, the issue of whether any governments are funding ISIS / ISIL is proving to be a hot button issue. In this particular exchange, Qatar is the focus but other countries – specifically Turkey – should start getting spotlighted soon. Harf contends that there is “no evidence” of governments funding ISIL but Lee calls her on that assertion based on a quote from President Obama. To say there is “no evidence” that any government is “supporting this group (ISIS)” is a major lie ... Let’s go...

It was quite a spectacle. In November 2013, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City had an enormous, spiky display of tons and tons of elephant tusks and ornately carved ivory icons and knickknacks. Some were aged and discolored; others gleamed exquisitely, fit for long-ago king. Then, the feds smashed the whole pile — six tons in total — into bits. From the tusks to the trinkets, the ivory had been seized over the past two decades by U.S. customs and other authorities and piled up here in Colorado. The pulverizing of the stockpile was to draw attention...

EXCERPT While in Ferguson, Sharpton met with the Brown family and reported back directly to Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s closest aides. Sharpton was directed to find out specific information including what the Brown family wanted from the White House, Politico reports. The veteran activist, who is also leading Saturday’s march on Staten Island against police brutality in New York, even suggested Jarrett turn up the heat on Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, and appoint a special prosecutor to replace St. Louis prosecutor Bob McCulloch in the Brown case.

The brother of American journalist James Foley said Friday morning that the U.S. government could have done more to attempt to free his brother and other American hostages from the Islamic militant group ISIL. “There’s more that could have been done directly on Jim’s behalf,” Michael Foley, 38, told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric in an exclusive interview from his parents’ home in New Hampshire. “I really, really hope that Jim’s death pushes us to take anther look at our approach to terrorist and hostage negotiation.” Foley, a 40-year-old journalist who was covering the Syrian conflict for GlobalPost, was...