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**SNIP** According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, sequestration will slash $2 billion from housing assistance and community development programs funded through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Blacks received 43 percent of housing vouchers to supplement housing costs. Whites received 36 percent of housing vouchers. Without the vouchers, these families would see those costs skyrocket. Other families will lose counseling services that help distressed homeowners navigate foreclosure proceedings. **SNIP** “Due to sequestration, 337,000 victims of domestic violence, child sexual abuse, adult sexual assault, and other crimes will lose critical support and services they receive through the...

The White House sought to pressure House Republicans into a budget conference with the Senate on Monday, warning President Obama would veto any 2014 spending bills based on the House GOP budget. In Statements of Administration Policy, the White House said Obama would veto all spending bills unless they pass Congress "in the context of an overall budget framework that supports our recovery and enables sufficient investments in education, infrastructure, innovation and national security for our economy to compete in the future." That language suggests the administration, like congressional Democrats, wants to use the conference to turn off the automatic...

Two months after the sequester slashed spending across the federal government, the latest jobs report shows the economy is still adding jobs and unemployment is going down. When asked aboard Air Force One Friday if that indicates the economy can withstand the cuts or if it is too soon to tell, White House press secretary Jay Carney maintained the cuts are harming the economy, despite the jobs numbers. "You know, what we know as a general principle going forward, is that every time we get data, no matter what it says, we will know that it would have been better...

The CIA asked the main U.S. counterterrorism agency to add the name of one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers to a watch list more than a year before the attack, according to U.S. officials.

MOORHEAD – Minnesota State University Moorhead is stepping up security as fallout builds two months after a controversial guest speaker visited campus in February. President Edna Szymanski said the university has lost a “significant amount” of donor money since William Ayers was there for a Feb. 26 speech and three days of meetings with faculty and students on how to incorporate social justice issues into curricula. But she said the tone of recent feedback turned from alumni threats of cutting off funding to “institutional and personal threats” after conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh mentioned the visit last week while discussing...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "Who's Bill Ayers?" It's a good question. People may not know who Bill Ayers is. Bill Ayers is a resident of Chicago. Bill Ayers is widely thought to have introduced Barack Obama to the powers that be in Chicago that enabled his political career to begin. Such introductions, parties, took place at Bill Ayers' house, which was in Obama's neighborhood. I think Ayers and his wife babysat the Obama crumb crunchers. Bill Ayers' one-time girlfriend, Diana Oughton, "and one other member in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, while constructing anti-personnel bombs intended for a non-commissioned officer dance...

Bill Ayers is one strange guy. Ayers was one of the founders of the radical 1960's group the Weather Underground. His group was responsible for bombing the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol and a New York police station as a way of protesting American involvement in the Vietnam War. He is also credited with launching the political career of President Barack Obama. They lived in the same neighborhood, their wives worked together, and Ayers hosted a fundraiser for a young Obama back in 1995. Ayers has long been unrepentant about his anti government activities during the 1960’s, despite the fact that...

It has long been observed that you can usually tell what a Democrat is up to, generally, by what they accuse the opposition of specifically doing. This phenomenon is much more clearly manifested in Obama -- so much so, that you might be able to write a predictive activity log for him, simply by seeing what he accuses Republicans of doing. On April 9th, it was reported that Obama accused the Republicans of using 'political stunts' to block gun control. Wait... what? Where did he make this accusation? Near Sandy Hook, Connecticut. What did he do the day before? Used...

**SNIP** Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, one of Congress' most outspoken liberals and a vehement opponent of chained CPI, warned Obama on Friday morning not to renege on his promise to avoid cuts to entitlement programs and veterans benefits as a way to reduce the deficit. “Millions of working people, seniors, disabled veterans, those who have lost a loved one in combat, and women will be extremely disappointed if President Obama caves into the long standing Republican effort to cut Social Security and benefits for disabled veterans and their survivors through a so-called chained CPI,” he said in a...

Washington: US President Barack Obama will unveil his long-awaited budget for the fiscal year 2014 on April 10, two months after he was required by law to do so, the White House said on Thursday. Obama's fiscal blueprint has been held up by successive showdowns between the White House and Republicans in Congress on taxation and spending. House of Representatives Republicans and Senate Democrats have passed dueling budgets in their respective chambers, and Obama's version will set off a new round of wrangling on how best to cut the deficit.

They didn’t get the White House tour they had hoped for, but the group of Iowa students who are pushing the White House to reopen tours to the public made it to the White House gates Saturday morning. The 6th graders from St. Paul’s Lutheran School in Waverly, Iowa posed for photos outside the White House while holding individual paper signs spelling out the phrase, “The White House is our house! Please let us visit!” Onlookers cheered the kids in the efforts, with one may saying, “Way to go kids!” “It’s kind of disappointing, but it’s still kind of fun...

**SNIP** Principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest had been briefed carefully in advance for this question. All White House briefers are briefed carefully in advance for briefings at a cost of what it probably takes to conduct White House tours. Earnest said that it was a “shame” that the “people who come to the White House on a yearly basis to tour” would get stiffed, but that “the people that the president is most concerned about, though, are the 750,000 Americans who stand to lose their job … as a result of the sequester.” But this is like your mother...

On Feb. 26, 2003, President George W. Bush gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, spelling out what he saw as the link between freedom and security in the Middle East. “A liberated Iraq,” he said, “can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region” by serving “as a dramatic and inspiring example … for other nations in the region.”

President Obama’s approval rating dipped slightly after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a deal to avoid the sequester, according to a Gallup survey released Tuesday. Obama’s approval rating had been holding steadily above the 50-percent mark since last October. But over the weekend, following Friday’s sequester deadline, the president’s approval rating fell as low as 46 percent. Obama averaged 49-percent approval for the week ending March 3, down from the previous week’s average of 51 percent, and down from 53 percent, where he started February. Obama’s highest weekly average in 2013 came shortly before his second inauguration in early...

As Democratic leaders push for wealthy families to pay higher taxes as part of a budget deal comes some startling news: The rich are actually paying federal tax bills approaching 30-year highs. The average tax payment for a high-income family has rarely been higher, according to data going back to 1979, when the Congressional Budget Office started tracking the information. The report comes from the Associated Press, which cites projections from the liberal-leaning Tax Policy Center. Families in the top 20% will pay an average of 27.2% of their incomes in federal tax this year, according to the research organization,...

The $85 billion in federal spending cuts triggered by the sequester will hit low-income Americans dependent on government assistance especially hard, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive-leaning think tank. According to organization, about 3.8 million long-term unemployed workers with federally funded benefits will see about an 11% cut in those weekly benefits. The Women, Infants and Children nutrition program will have to turn away as many as 600,000 to 775,000 women and children by the end of the year. More than 100,000 people will lose housing aid. "There is no way to cut $85 billion...

Today, Barack Obama took to the podium and confirmed that the terrifying cuts - cuts which every American should fear as if they were a gun pointed to their heads - will become law. Negotiations have failed, there will be no deal, and the United States will suffer the consequences. He did not mention the fact that the sequester was his idea, nor did he mention his refusal to sign any replacement legislation. Blame was placed squarely upon the Republican members of Congress, and their constant desire to protect the evil, greedy, rich.

Democrats hammered Republicans for voting to go into recess Friday and accused them of willfully avoiding coming up with a plan to avert the sequester. “The Democrats tried to stop the Republicans from leaving, but 220 Republicans voted to adjourn, that means we have four legislative days left to avoid the across the board cuts,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters. “They manufacture a crisis and then instead of trying to avert that crisis they go on a nine day recess. Why?" **SNIP** “The Republicans are poised to shut down government, the Republicans are poised to let sequestration go forward,...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- The Democratic leader in the U.S. House said the nation's budget deficit stems from past emergencies and will take time to whittle down. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on "Fox News Sunday" the freewheeling spending by Washington in recent years addressed the economic stimulus of the Obama administration coupled with big-ticket items from the Bush years, including the Medicare drug benefit, tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It isn't as much you had a spending problem as it was priorities, and that is what the budget is, setting priorities," said Pelosi.

If President Obama does not reauthorize his job council this week, the move will likely spark criticism from Republicans and could disquiet some Democrats. Obama has a lot on his legislative wish list, and Democrats on Capitol Hill do not want the White House to get distracted from the top issue on voters’ minds: jobs and the economy. The Jobs Council has met in full only four times in its two-year existence, according to its own website, though it also held 18 “listening and action sessions” around the nation. Obama last year praised it as “a work council” rather than...

WASHINGTON -- Four years after making history by becoming the first African-American president, Barack Obama will kick off his second term on Monday with a scaled-back inauguration that reflects the tempered expectations for his next four years in office. Lingering high unemployment, bitter political battles and a divisive re-election campaign have punctured the mood of optimism and hope that infused Obama's 2009 inauguration after a sweeping election win. This time, Obama's inauguration will feature smaller crowds and a reduced slate of inaugural balls and parties to match the more subdued tenor of the times. When Obama raises his right hand...

"IRI recruitment and support activities in Latin America - the Uruguay connection" SNIPPET: "You can add Uruguay to the countries in Latin America where the Islamic Republic of Iran is well-represented by indigenous supporters. What brings these folks to my attention in the first place is their support for Suhail Assad, the IRI's point man in Latin America, and their connection to the IRI's recruiter in Peru, Edwar "Hussein" Quiroga Vargas. I'll get back to that, but first, the websites."

So after a long bout of mocking Mitt Romney for saying that he sought out binders full of qualified female appointees, complete with protesters outside one of his campaign offices dressed in binders, the appointed hour came and the new cabinet of the man who was too good for binders of women was white and male. There was some awkward fidgeting in the media. A few suggestions that maybe there should be a little more diversity. And that was followed by the new official talking point that diversity doesn't matter, it's all about the impact of the policies. Suddenly the...

**SNIP** The president's campaign advice? "Have thick skin, be honest and sincere," Malik Obama told CNN. Malik Obama will run as an independent candidate in Kenya's election in March. The county of Siaya, in the western part of the country, has a population of about 842,000. Malik Obama, who studied accounting at the University of Nairobi, and his half brother met for the first time in 1985 and have reportedly kept in close contact ever since. Each served as the other's best man at their weddings.

President Barack Obama won’t be able to enjoy much of a victory lap from his win over congressional Republicans on the fiscal cliff fight. There are about 16.4 trillion reasons why. **SNIP** Former Clinton administration official Alice Rivlin, a member of Obama’s defunct deficit commission, says Obama “understands the [deficit-reduction] issue” but “he’s got to deal with his own left wing, which is not enthusiastic about doing it. The real problem … is that Social Security has become kind of [a] no-no” to liberals. In a video message to his 2012 campaign supporters released Wednesday, Obama offered few specifics on...

**SNIP** The main driving force in the movement has been a hatred of President Obama, a virulent hatred indeed. Now that the president has been resoundingly given another four years, the tea party’s leaders need new objects of scorn. And there’s the rub. Movements built on antagonism toward one individual tend to be short-lived, and when that individual triumphs despite loud opponents, it’s frustrating for the losers. But if the party’s over, the hangover remains. No place may have a bigger headache than North Carolina. The tea party’s push helped Republicans win control of the General Assembly, led to a...

Democrats: Put Obama's Medicare board on the tableBy Elise Viebeck - 12/15/12 10:05 AM ET The healthcare law's controversial Medicare board should be on the table in deficit-reduction talks, House Democrats said this week. Killing the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which Sarah Palin decried as a "death panel" in June, could ease Republican concessions as part of a year-end deficit deal, Dems said. "I think everything has to be on the table," said Rep. Dan Boren (Okla.), one of healthcare reform's most consistent Democratic opponents. "Anything that could help along the way to get some agreement," said Rep. David...

A few to get you started... A Bohemian Arab sucks As Human Babies Croak Bab's Marihuana Cokes Babushka Americanos Babushka Macaronies Bob's Marihuana Cakes Bohemian Abacus Arks Chimaera Anus Kabobs Heck USA I'm An Arab SOB I Am A Hack Abuser Snob I Ambush A Cobra Snake I Arab Sham Beckon USA Nab Bush Soak America

Right-wing hysteria over Benghazi feeds upon itself4:25 pm October 29, 2012, by Jay Bookman Fox New anchors, right-wing websites and talk-radio hosts around the country are ginning up a wave of mass hysteria about the decision by the Obama administration not to attempt a military rescue of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya. (Glenn Beck is even telling listeners that the treason is more widespread, and that Stevens was acting as a gunrunner for al Qaida in Libya and Syria. I kid you not.) Obama’s crime is said to be so heinous that mere impeachment for refusing to intervene would be...

There is a troubling hint of something very un-American about the American president. I am not alluding to the birther controversy but rather to something in the presidentÂ’s character, attitudes, personal aura, and worldview. He could just as well have been born in Podunk or Dogpatch and yet an un-American flavor would still cling about him. A little while back I tried a thought experiment with an American friend still partly dazzled by the presidentÂ’s populist dexterity and acclaim. I asked him to recite the names of a dozen presidents at random, ending with POTUS 43. He proceeded: George...

SNIPPET: "Actually, two have been convicted by a jury for using their nightclubs to launder the proceeds of drug and weapons deals, one was acquitted of money laundering but has pled guilty to a drug trafficking charge, and one of those convicted of money laundering has now been charged with tax evasion. And that's not to mention the failure to pay state liquor taxes and fees, the unsolved murder of a one-time business partner, and various immigration-related issues. Money was transferred in to a relative and known Hizballah operative in Lebanon, and there are strong ties to the Lebanese expat...

Email forward begins: Not exactly correct, Barry! 39 truths about "Obama" Terry Anderson, A Black Los Angeles Talk Radio Host, Went Down A List Of Things Senator Obama Has Said That Aren't Exactly Correct. 1. Selma March Got Me Born - NOT EXACTLY, your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961 - Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965. (Google 'Obama Selma ' for his full March 4, 2007 speech and articles a bout its various untruths. ! ! 2. Father Was A Goat Herder - NOT EXACTLY, he was a privileged, well...

Early voting: Half of U.S. begins voting by tomorrowBy NBC's Kyle Inskeep 1 day ago Election Day may be Nov. 6th, but with President Obama grabbing a lead nationally and in key swing states, Americans are already starting to vote. Idaho, South Dakota, and the crucial swing state of Virginia are the first states to begin early, in-person voting today. Also today, absentee voting begins in Minnesota, West Virginia, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Georgia, Arkansas, Idaho, and Maryland, bringing the total number of states already accepting ballots to 13. Twelve others -- South Carolina, New Jersey, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire,...

Obama gives props to Jay-ZBy CAITLIN MCDEVITT | 9/2/12 10:24 AM EDT **SNIP** Obama urged the crowd to vote this fall. He also said Jay-Z's story is "what Made In America means" and added that he enjoys listening to the rapper's music on his iPod.

David Brooks of the New York Times has written an alternative biography of Mitt Romney that makes for witty reading (“He was sent to a private school, where he was saddened to find there are people in America who summer where they winter.”) But in the course of doing some internet research about this Romney fella, I found out he’s running against someone called Barack Obama. Obama’s biography makes for fascinating reading, too. Barack Obama was born in 1961, the location marked by the appearance of a new star in the East. His mother lived on food stamps and his...

Republicans knock Obama for avoiding questions from the pressBy Sterling C. Beard - 08/17/12 05:12 PM ET Republicans are hammering President Obama for not talking to the press. In a new Web ad released Friday, the Republican National Committee criticizes the president for finding the time to sit down with soft-news outlets like People magazine and "Entertainment Tonight" while not holding a press conference with Washington reporters. “Why is Obama avoiding the White House press corps,” the ad begins. It then mocks the president for finding the time to talk to reporters who ask Obama about his favorite soul food...

Wanna pic with Hussein's Kenyan step-"Granny"? Please, bring a goat... Great audio from today's radio show. Hussein's step-brother - #8 from a fourth wife - fegetaboudit. He'll live in that 6 foot by 10 foot hut forever. (Ahem, the war on the poor?) And Hussein's grandfather wedded five times - as far as we know.

Obama Holds First Cabinet Meeting Since January9:02 AM, Jul 26, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER According to President Barack Obama's official schedule, "Later in the afternoon, the President will hold a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room. There will be a pool spray at the top of the meeting." By CBS reporter Mark Knoller's account, this cabinet meeting is the first one President Obama has held since January 31: Today at the WH, Pres Obama convenes a Cabinet meeting - 18th of his presidency, first one since Jan 31st. — Mark Knoller (@markknoller) July 26, 2012 **SNIP** So it appears,...

Islam, It is my religion.

Holder says civil rights ‘under renewed threat’By Meghashyam Mali - 07/07/12 06:35 PM ET In an address to the National Council of La Raza convention in Las Vegas on Saturday, Attorney General Eric Holder told the Hispanic advocacy group that the gains of the Civil Rights era were coming “under renewed threat,” and touted the administration’s efforts in protecting the rights of minority groups and immigrants. “Many of you know this firsthand – and have felt the impact of division, and even discrimination, in your own lives,” said Holder in his address, according to prepared remarks released by the Justice...

He’s tried hard at golf – 100 rounds. Barack Obama told an Ohio television station, “Most people would acknowledge that I’ve tried real hard.” Real Clear Politics reported: “I suspect that most people in Cincinnati would acknowledge that I’ve tried real hard, and we haven’t gotten the Republicans to engage on a whole range of issues that, I wish had happened,” Obama said in an interview with WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio. “Part of what I think needs to happen in this election is the voters once again have to send a message, ‘We want common sense ideas. We don’t folks...

US drones kill 15 militants in Pakistan: officialsAFP – 7 hours ago A triple US drone attack on a militant compound in Pakistan's northwestern tribal area killed at least 15 insurgents late Friday, security officials said. Three unmanned aircraft fired a total of six missiles on Datta Khel village, some 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district, near the Afghan border, they said. The initial strike on a house killed nine militants, three more were killed in a second attack when they drove to the site to recover dead bodies, and a...

Obama on jobs: 'We've got to grow the economy even faster'By Bernie Becker - 07/06/12 12:55 PM ET President Obama called the latest jobs numbers “a step in the right direction” on Friday, even as the June figures showed a third consecutive month of sluggish growth. Obama, speaking during a two-day campaign swing via bus through the key swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, acknowledged that the economy still had a ways to go and was not going to fully recover overnight. “I want to get back to a time when middle-class families and those working to get into the...

What’s a Socialist?By STEVEN ERLANGER Published: June 30, 2012 FRANCE has elected its first Socialist president since 1988 and then given the Socialist Party and its closest allies a whopping majority in Parliament. But how Socialist is François Hollande? And what does it mean to be a Socialist these days, anyway? Not very much. Certainly nothing radical. In a sense, socialism was an ideology of the industrialized 19th century, a democratic Marxism, and it succeeded, even in (shh!) the United States. Socialism meant the emancipation of the working class and its transformation into the middle class; it championed social justice...

By Martin Sherman Islam has always been a part of America’s story. The truth is that America and Islam are not exclusive. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings – Barack Obama, Cairo, June 4, 2009 ‘Brotherhood’ invited to Obama’s speech by US….The administration insisted that at least 10 members of the Muslim Brotherhood… be allowed to attend his speech in Cairo – The Atlantic, June 3, 2009 Let me begin with two apparently contradictory statements. First, I must say that I am not one of...

America paralyzed by Obama Obama forgeries are clear, but, submerged in her own sins, America fails to reactBy Julio Severo Who would say: a spider paralyzed the eagle! By the American law, only an individual born in the US is qualified to be a president. Obama was able to “prove” that he was born in the US, with documentation that is considered doubtful by many today. The most serious suspicion came last month, when a promotional booklet produced by Obama, published in 1991, surfaced listing the future US president as “born in Kenya.” Obama defenders allege that publisher Dystel...

President Obama's budget suffered a second embarrassing defeat Wednesday, when senators voted 99-0 to reject it. Coupled with the House's rejection in March, 414-0, that means Mr. Obama's budget has failed to win a single vote in support this year. Republicans forced the vote by offering the president's plan on the Senate floor. Democrats disputed that it was actually the president's plan, arguing that the slim amendment didn't actually match Mr. Obama's budget document, which ran thousands of pages. But Republicans said they used all of the president's numbers in the proposal, so it faithfully represented his plan. Sen. Jeff...