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White House Press Secretary Jay Carney made the unusual move of encouraging Republican senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul to pursue the presidential nomination during his daily briefing Friday, even if his words were in jest. Carney was deflecting questions about the 2016 Democratic field when he volunteered that he thinks it would be “awesome” if those two Republicans entered the race. Carney was avoiding a question from Fox News’ Ed Henry about Joe Biden’s chances in 2016, given the revelation from the new book Double Down: Game Change 2012 suggesting President Obama considered replacing Biden with Hillary Clinton as...

But I wonder how many Americans know the other side of the coin. There are already numerous success stories out there. And then there’s the side of the story that has certainly received coverage but not nearly as much as it deserves to, which is the way—did I say way? Ways—the Republican Party is trying to make sure it fails. Todd Purdum wrote a piece for Politico yesterday on the GOP’s “sabotage” of the law. It was a terrific article, but he didn’t say the half of it. All across the country, Republican governors and insurance commissioners have actively and...

Dems Blast GOP for Letting Stimulus-Era Food Stamp Hike Expire Program is tied up in the Farm Bill currently in conference; Jackson Lee wants a standalone bill to bump assistance levels back up. November 1, 2013 - 7:32 pm WASHINGTON — Democrats lashed out at the GOP on Friday for the expiration of a stimulus-era extension of food stamp benefits as a family of four recipients began receiving about $36 less per month. The Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program is tied up in a congressional conference that began this week to hash out the House and Senate differences over the...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- A drive-by shooting killed two members of Greece's Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn party and wounded one outside a party office in Athens on Friday night, in what officials are treating as a likely far-left domestic terrorist attack. The government and opposition parties - all who have long ostracized Golden Dawn as a group of neo-Nazis - quickly condemned the attack, which the left-wing main opposition Syriza said "targets democracy" in Greece. The two victims, aged 22 and 27, were shot at close range from a motorcycle carrying two men, Golden Dawn lawmaker Georgios Germenis told The Associated...

MCLEAN, Va.,- A Virginia cocoa extract supplement company said its survey of members of the baby boomer generation indicates 63 percent feel younger than their age. The CocoaVia National Healthy Aging Outlook Survey, conducted online by Toluna on half of Cocoavia, owned by Mars Inc. of McLean, Va., found 63 percent of the 2,200 adults ages 40-to-65 felt an average of 13 years younger than their age. The Sept. 22-27 poll indicated 13 percent of women in the boomer generation feel 30 years old or younger. The survey indicates 68 percent of boomers are enjoying the current phase of their...

Bill Maher has no qualms about saying that President Obama clearly lied about people being able to keep their health care plans if they liked them, and clashed with DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz over exactly how significant that lie was to the health care debate and whether Obamacare would have been passed in the first place without it. Maher wondered if Obamacare had been passed in the first place if he was more honest about insurance plans. Wasserman-Schultz insisted “it was not a lie,” but Maher shot back, “Because of Obamacare, they are not able to keep [insurance plans]. To...

National parliaments opposed to creating an EU-wide prosecutor want the European Commission to rework its flagship proposal, but EU officials say it is likely to go ahead. Chambers in 11 national parliaments got enough votes to trigger a so-called “yellow card” procedure when they filed their complaints to Brussels earlier this week. They are against the creation of a new European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), saying that national authorities or existing EU bodies, such as the OLAF anti-fraud agency or the joint judicial office, Eurojust, are sufficient. …

On the list of Pentagon weapons programs gone awry, the Navy's A-12 Avenger attack jet stands out. The radar-evading, carrier-based McDonnell Douglas plane was 18 months behind schedule and about $1.4 billion over cost when then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney canceled the $57 billion program back in 1991. The case over the triangular-shaped A-12 Avenger, which was dubbed the "Flying Dorito," has been in legal limbo ever since, going all the way to the Supreme Court in 2011 before being referred back to a lower court. Now, after 22 years, a settlement is on the horizon. Senator Susan Collins told the...

I am not a huge fan of Utopian visions, but I have always had a fond place in my heart for the dreamers who have invested time and money in the movement known as New Urbanism. I love older neighborhoods that are close to shopping areas, especially those that have retained their old trees, wide sidewalks and other evidence that human life existed before automobiles.So I read with great interest that recent news feature on the front page of the newspaper that lands in my front yard (here in a classic blue-collar community well inside the vast ring of Baltimore...

A gunman armed with an assault rifle entered a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport today, killed a TSA agent, and penetrated deep into the terminal before he was captured by police. The shooter, initially identified as Paul Ciancia, pulled an assault rifle from a bag and blasted his way past airport screeners, said Los Angeles World Airports Police Chief Patrick Gannon.

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - 4 people have been arrested in connection with the disappearance of more than 60 high-powered semi-automatic guns destined for Shreveport from the manufacturer in Connecticut. http://www.ksla.com/story/23771302/cpso-4-arrested-in-disappearance-of-63-high-powered-guns-shipped-to-shreveport

There will be no ‘Mary I and her People’ exhibitions to match that of Elizabeth I currently showing at the National Gallery. While Elizabeth I is regularly voted our most popular ever monarch her Catholic elder half sister remains associated with her late seventeenth century sobriquet, ‘Bloody Mary’. It is assumed she was hated in her lifetime. In fact she was a popular queen, and one from whom Elizabeth learned much. Mary’s accession to the throne in 1553 was not a smooth one. Her half brother, Edward VI, was a passionate Protestant, and when, aged fifteen, he fell gravely ill...

Secretary of State John Kerry’s remark that some National Security Agency surveillance “reached too far” was the first time a high-ranking Obama administration official acknowledged that U.S. snooping abroad might be seen as overzealous. After launching into a vigorous defense of surveillance as an effective counterterror tool, Kerry acknowledged to a video conference on open government in London that “in some cases, I acknowledge to you, as has the president, that some of these actions have reached too far, and we are going to make sure that does not happen in the future.” …

MOBILE, Alabama – Influential conservative radio talk-show host Mark Levin endorsed Orange Beach businessman Dean Young for Alabama's 1st District congressman during his radio show Thursday. Levin, in making his endorsement, called Young a "wholly decent man" and a "conservative" while blasting former state senator Bradley Byrne for receiving the endorsement and financial backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "If you believe in individual liberty and the Constitution, then we need more men and women to stand up for you," Levin said. "You have an opportunity in the 1st District of Alabama to make a difference." Young strategist Jonathan...

Mother 'tried to sell daughter, FOUR, for sex to a man she had met through online prostitution ad' A Michigan mother has been charged with offering her 4-year-old daughter for sex to a man she had met on a classifieds website. Jennifer Brys, 25, and Edward Reardon, 26, were arraigned Wednesday on charges of child sexually abusive activity and using a computer to commit a crime. According to investigators, Miss Brys, of Warren, placed an ad on Backpage.com last month offering her services as a prostitute.

The president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention's children's services agency has recommended that the organization amend its hiring practices to ban discrimination against homosexuals, according to a PowerPoint presentation posted on the agency's website. "I would rather homosexuals see the love of God through us than be denied employment by us," Bill Smithwick, president of Sunrise Children's Services, said in an Aug. 16 PowerPoint presentation to the agency's trustees. "I would rather see the ministry continue to help kids and share the Gospel than close." Trustees were scheduled to vote on the proposal during their Nov. 8 meeting. One trustee,...

Latinos make up 17 percent of the one in six Americans who use food stamps. According to the National Council of La Raza, Latino families experience food insecurity at a higher rate than non-Hispanic white households (23 percent versus 11 percent). SNAP is often a significant buffer from hunger for children, helping to ensure proper growth and development, the group said. Nearly one in three Latino children in the U.S. lives in a household receiving SNAP, according to NCLR. .... On Friday, White House spokeswoman Katherine Vargas said ”These cuts come at a time when many hardworking American families are...

Friday, November 01, 2013 Friday Afternoon Roundup - Planless in Obamaland Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog > HITTING BOTTOM The Saudis, who had always been noted for being subtle, stopped being subtle when a member of one of their think tanks openly declared, “We are learning from our enemies now how to treat the United States.” There is no better metric of contempt in a region where everyone wears a false face than honesty like that. The Saudis have decided that we are no longer even worth lying to. They believe that we have become so...

Christians can learn from Jews. We can learn how to thrive in the secular world that no longer regards faith as central. So argues Rabbi Jonathan Sacks at the 2013 Erasmus Lecture. Speaking to more than five hundred people on the evening of Monday, October 21st at the Union League Club in New York, Sacks outlined a vision in which religious communities—Jewish and Christian—can function as creative minorities.