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As the Senate prepares to hold a January 31 confirmation hearing for their former colleague Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense, an alarming paradox has emerged.  Iran – the "Death to America" Islamic regime – is effusive with praise, while a large group of retired U.S. military commanders have "deep concerns" and have taken a highly unusual public position in opposition to Hagel's nomination.   The Washington Times cites an Iranian source that received the news of Hagel's nomination as "a message of peace from the Obama administration to the Islamic Republic of Iran" and admiringly quoted...

Today's report of a 0.1 percent GDP decline for the fourth quarter came as a surprise to most forecasters. But it actually masks considerable strength in the private economy. Namely, housing investment in the fourth quarter jumped 15.3 percent annually, business equipment and software spiked 12.4 percent, and real private final sales rose 2.6 percent. All in, the domestic private sector of the economy increased 3.4 percent annually -- a very respectable gain. And here's one for the record books: Working ahead of year-end tax hikes, individuals shifted so much money to the fourth quarter at the 35 percent top...

Members of Congress from both parties Wednesday called for an investigation into the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' storefront sting in Milwaukee, an operation plagued by problems such as an agent's machine gun being stolen

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A Republican lawmaker is proposing legislation that would require schools to inform a student's parents if the child is engaging in homosexual activity. Under the measure sponsored by Sen. Stacey Campfield of Knoxville, a school counselor, nurse or principal can inform parents if their children's "circumstances present immediate and urgent safety issues involving human sexuality." Campfield told reporters on Wednesday that he considers the "act of homosexuality" to be dangerous to a child's health and safety. The measure is part of a similar proposal, known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, that Campfield passed in the Senate...

Syria and Iran have threatened to retaliate for an Israeli air raid near the capital Damascus. Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul-Karim Ali said Damascus has "the option and the surprise to retaliate." He said he cannot predict when the retaliation will be, saying it is up to relevant authorities to prepare for it. In Iran, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian on Thursday as saying the raid on Syria will have significant implications for the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

(Reuters) - Arab-American groups have sharply criticized a Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad depicting an Arab walking through the desert with a camel, and one group said it would ask the beverage giant to change it before CBS airs the game on Sunday before an expected audience of more than 100 million U.S. viewers. "Why is it that Arabs are always shown as either oil-rich sheiks, terrorists, or belly dancers?" said Warren David, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC. Coca-Cola released an online teaser of the commercial last week, showing the Arab walking through a desert. He soon sees...

US economic output fell at a 0.1% annualized rate in the fourth quarter, adjusted for inflation. Blame spending cuts, say the Democrats. Blame Republican “austerity.” And one more thing: Stop the sequester. As the Center for American Progress put it: “The economy most certainly would have grown at a faster rate were it not for the ongoing political brinksmanship over the debt ceiling and the risk of sharp fiscal contraction in the form of the pending automatic ‘sequestration’ budget cuts.”If you break down the GDP report, you begin to see the problem with this line of argument. Private-sector GDP...

BEIRUT - Syria's ambassador to Lebanon said on Thursday that Damascus had the option of a "surprise decision" to respond to what it said was an Israeli air strike on a research center on the outskirts of the Syrian capital on Wednesday. Syria could take "a surprise decision to respond to the aggression of the Israeli warplanes," Ali Abdul Karim Ali was quoted as telling a Hezbollah-run news website.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits bounced off five-year lows last week, pulling them back to levels consistent with modest job growth. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week's claims figure was unrevised. Economists polled by Reuters had expected claims to increase to 350,000. Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/2013/01/31/weekly-jobless-claims-rise-more-than-expected/#ixzz2JYwXRXIp

When Mahesh Desai checked his MF Global account 15 months ago, his US$580,000 nest egg was gone. Like thousands of investors and farmers who had their savings with MF Global, Desai lost his money in the brokerage firm's chaotic final days. Regulators discovered US$1.6 billion was trapped in a web of improper wire transfers, a breach that sent federal investigators scrambling to build a case. A bankruptcy court will today review a proposal that would return 93 per cent of the missing money to customers like Desai. And the trustee who has submitted the proposal, James Giddens, has quietly identified...

Today there is a raging debate in our republic about so-called "gun control," which is really just a euphemism for theft of rights. Hopefully, "gun control" will be a phrase that is eventually, "euphemized," and put out of our collective misery. I want to provide a context for several of the arguments which are used in the modern lexicon of those who would attempt to separate you from your rights, but first I want to define a term. Many of us who can read the Constitution and understand it's historical context, have known for a long time that the right...

MIDLAND CITY, Ala. (AP) — Jimmy Lee Dykes moved to a rural Alabama neighborhood on a rutted red clay road more than a year ago. It didn't take long before he had developed a frightening reputation as a volatile man who threatened his neighbors at gunpoint and was viciously violent to wandering pets. Multiple neighbors said Dykes, a 65-year-old retired truck driver, was the man suspected of boarding a school bus full of children near his home, killing the driver and taking one 5-year-old boy hostage to open a standoff that entered its second full day Thursday. The neighborhood near...

Foreign investment in Nigeria Nation's dangerously rising foreign investment - 'Let me...control a nation's money and I care not who writes [its] laws' Mayer Amschel Rothschild. According to neoliberal economists, besides closing savings gap, technological leapfrogging, spreading corporate governance 'best practice,' freeing the flow of international capital is critical to economic development as it flows into areas of the economy with the highest possible returns on a global scale. In ensuring that international capital flows encounters no obstacles, developed countries have restricted developing countries from regulating foreign investments. But economists like Jagdish Bhagwati, fiercely disagreed. Warning developing countries about what...

With all feel-good talk about immigration reform, fans of conflict and dysfunction may fear the arrival of genuine bipartisanship in Washington. Not to worry! Another budget crisis is almost upon us! This time it’s not the dread fiscal cliff or the debt ceiling, but rather the “sequester”—the extremely crude cutting mechanism that essentially nobody favors but that seems likely to happen anyway. It’ll drag down the economy, impair the functioning of the government across the board, and do nothing to improve America’s fiscal sustainability over the long run. Here’s what you need to know. What is it? Sequestration is broad,...

I’m at Hillsdale College in Michigan for a conference on taxation. The event is called “The Federal Income Tax: A Centenary Consideration,” though I would have called it something like “100 Years of Misery from the IRS.” I’m glad to be here, both because Hillsdale proudly refuses to take government money (which would mean being ensnared by government rules) and also because I’ve heard superb speeches by scholars such as Amity Shlaes (author of The Forgotten Man, as well as a new book on Calvin Coolidge that is now on my must-read list) and George Gilder (author of Wealth and...

The United Nations says Israel must withdraw all of its citizens from the regions of Judea and Samaria. The recommendation came in a report issued Thursday by the U.N. Human Rights Council, which has a history of passing numerous biased resolutions condemning Israel for various alleged ‘crimes’ each year.

“THE conventional army loses if it does not win. The guerrilla wins if he does not lose.” Henry Kissinger’s observation, made during the Vietnam War, should be haunting Hezbollah, the Middle East’s most capable guerrilla force, as it becomes embroiled in an increasingly costly effort to save the Assad regime. ... Hezbollah’s military commitment in Syria is no less obvious. Since the conflict’s outset, Hezbollah commanders have joined their counterparts in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in advising the Syrian military in its crackdown on opposition strongholds, in addition to training a reported 60,000-member militia to protect Alawite communities in Syria’s...

History Lesson: Under 'Fascist' Bush, Democrats Feared Tyranny By Larry Elder · January 31, 2013 2 Comments Once upon a time, a group of people known as the "Democrats" expressed great fear of tyranny by government. This was a time long, long ago, when a man from a place called Texas, representing a people known as the Republicans, occupied the White House. Leaders of the Democrats feared tyranny by the Republicans and called the man from Texas racist, oppressive and tyrannical. To refresh your recollection, we offer a few examples from the distant past: Billionaire Democratic contributor George Soros. He...

This story was corrected on Jan. 29, 2013. An explanation follows the story. The speed limit on the Intercounty Connector could reach 70 miles per hour if a bill, introduced during the General Assembly's current session, passes. Del. Aruna Miller (D-Dist. 15) of Darnestown and Del. Neil Parrott (R-Dist. 2B) of Hagerstown are co-sponsoring the bill that would raise the maximum speed limit on interstates and expressways statewide from 65 to 70 miles per hour. The speed limit on the ICC would automatically increase from 55 to 70 miles per hour if the bill is passed. The Maryland Transportation Authority...

RS MEMBER DIARY So Now It’s Sexist for Wanting Women to Own A Gun…Even If It’s A Woman Advocating For Women To Own A Gun Alex Wagner, Though Pretty, and Sincere in Her Liberalism, Is Headcrushingly Ignorant By: tomjeffersonsghost (Diary) | January 30th, 2013 at Alex Wagner on tweeted that Gail Trotter’s testimony during the hearing on gun violence was sexist, no breathtakingly sexist because of her advocating for women to own guns. At which time, upon my reading the tweet, I had to un-follow her. It was difficult I must admit because she’s on my top twenty most attractive...