Justice openly disagrees with Obama in speech
WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito didn’t like hearing President Barack Obama publicly criticize the high court’s ruling removing corporate campaign spending limits — and he didn’t try to hide it.
Alito made a dismissive face, shook his head repeatedly and appeared to mouth the words “not true” or possibly “simply not true” when Obama assailed the decision Wednesday night in his State of the Union address.
The president had taken the unusual step of publicly scolding the high court, with some of its members in robes seated before him in the House. “With all due deference to the separation of powers,” he said, the court last week “reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections.” Read more.
Deal sought with failed Detroit attack suspect
Authorities are inching toward an agreement that would secure cooperation from the suspect in the failed Detroit airliner attack, according to two sources familiar with the case, even as fresh details emerged about the intense and chaotic response to the Christmas Day incident.
Seizing on the near miss, GOP lawmakers have mounted a sustained attack on President Obama and the Justice Department, saying they may have lost out on valuable intelligence by charging Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in a federal court rather than under the military justice system.
But new details complicate that narrative, suggesting that Abdulmutallab, 23, clammed up even before he was informed of his right to remain silent — a warning that could have come later had he been placed in military custody. He continued to speak to authorities before undergoing treatment for second- and third-degree burns below the waist that occurred during a bid to detonate explosives on Northwest Flight 253. Read more.
Ayla Brown – “The Star-Spangled Banner” with the Boston Pops
Watchdog: Bank Bailouts Created More Risk in System
The government’s bailout of financial institutions deemed “too big to fail” has created a risk that the United States could face a worse fiscal meltdown in the future, an independent watchdog assigned to review the program told Congress on Sunday.
The Troubled Assets Relief Program, known as TARP, has not addressed the problems that led to the last crisis and in some case those problems have festered and are a bigger threat than before, warned Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general at the Treasury Department.
“Even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car,” Barofsky wrote. Read more.
Obama’s Amnesty Footnote
t the very end of his State of the Union address, President Obama said, “we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system -– to secure our borders and enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation.”
Like most Americans, I agree with those broad principles, and that is exactly why Obama was so vague in his speech. His claim that “jobs must be our number one focus in 2010” would be exposed as a complete fraud if he promoted giving amnesty for illegal immigration and importing hundreds of thousands of additional legal foreign workers in the same address.
The situation is already bad enough as it is. At least twelve million illegal immigrants are in this country and eight million illegal aliens are in the American workforce. Additionally, our government issues 75,000 permanent work visas and 50,000 temporary work permits to foreign workers every single month. A recent census study found that one out of every six workers in this country is foreign born. Read more.
Burr’s war chest dwarfs Democrats’
RALEIGH — Republican Sen. Richard Burr, benefiting from incumbency and strong business ties, starts the year with at least a 13-1 money advantage over each of his prospective Democratic challengers.
Burr had $4.3 million in his campaign treasury at the end of the year, compared with $303,175 for former state Sen. Cal Cunningham, $211,113 for Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, and $116,456 for Chapel Hill attorney Ken Lewis, according to campaign disclosure reports filed Monday with the Federal Elections Commission.
“There are only two ways to keep score until Election Day,” said Gary Pearce, a veteran Democratic strategist. “One is money, and one is polls. Burr is in a strong position, no doubt about it.” Read more.
Gates Urges Congress to Approve $768 Billion Defense Budget
WASHINGTON (AP) – Defense Secretary Robert Gates is urging Congress to approve the Obama administration’s $768.2 billion Pentagon budget request, saying America needs “a broad portfolio of military capabilities.”
Gates joined Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in outlining fiscal 2011 budget proposals to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Gates said the United States must “prepare for a much broader range of security challenges on the horizon.”
He said a continuing threat of terrorism from “nonstate groups,” is among the challenges. And Gates added that such 21st century threats “transcend the familiar contingencies that dominated U.S. planning after the Cold War.” He said the proposed budget justifiably exempts defense from spending freezes President Obama is seeking for other government agencies and activities.
Inquiries Take Toll on Easley Team
RALEIGH — When a federal grand jury indicted former Gov. Mike Easley’s legal counsel Ruffin Poole Jan. 21, it was just the latest setback for an Easley associate since the state’s media began investigating the former governor’s activities.
Poole’s indictment came nearly four years after Carolina Journal first reported that Easley bought a waterfront lot for a bargain price in the Cannonsgate community on Bogue Sound in Carteret County.
The former gubernatorial legal counsel was charged with 51 counts of corruption related to his involvement with a group of politically active coastal developers behind Cannonsgate. Read more.
Intelligence officials say al-Qaeda will try to attack U.S. in next 6 months
The Obama administration’s top intelligence officials on Tuesday described it as “certain” that al-Qaeda or its allies will try to attack the United States in the next six months, and they called for new flexibility in how U.S. officials detain and question terrorist suspects.
The officials, testifying before the Senate intelligence committee, also warned of increased risk of cyber-attacks in the coming months, saying that the recent China-based hacking of Google’s computers was both a “wake-up call” and a forerunner to future strikes aimed at businesses or intended to cause economic disruption.
“Al-Qaeda maintains its intent to attack the homeland — preferably with a large-scale operation that would cause mass casualties, harm the U.S. economy or both,” Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told the committee in a hearing convened to assess threats against the country. Read more.
Obama Backs Down After Anti-Vegas Remarks
LAS VEGAS — President Barack Obama is known for having a way with words, but some lawmakers from Nevada wish he would pipe down about trips to Sin City.
After sparking a firestorm of criticism from Nevada’s elected officials for suggesting that people saving money for college shouldn’t blow it in Las Vegas, Obama told U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a letter that he wasn’t saying anything negative about Las Vegas.
It was the second time since taking office that Obama singled out Las Vegas as a potential example of spending excessively.
“I was making the simple point that families use vacation dollars, not college tuition money, to have fun,” Obama said, according to the letter released by Reid’s office. “There is no place better to have fun than Vegas, one of our country’s great destinations.” Read more.
Kissell Walks Tightrope on Health Care
RALEIGH — North Carolina Rep. Larry Kissell was one of three Tar Heel Democrats to break ranks with party leaders and vote against the House version of health care reform in November. Political observers say that vote could play a role in Kissell’s bid for re-election this year as he walks the fine line between pleasing Beltway Democrats and his constituents — many of whom are more conservative than his party’s leaders.
“[Kissell] took a position against his sitting president. It was pretty unpopular with the left,” said David McLennan, a political science professor at Peace College in Raleigh, in a telephone interview with Carolina Journal.
Kissell, who represents the state’s 8th Congressional District stretching from Charlotte to Fayetteville, joined 39 House Democrats in voting against the health care reform bill. It passed by five votes Nov. 7. Read More.
House faces tough vote on $1.9 trillion more debt
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a politically excruciating vote, House Democratic leaders are counting on new budget deficit curbs to help smooth the way for a bill allowing the government to go $1.9 trillion deeper into debt over the next year – or about $6,000 more for every U.S. resident.
The debt measure set for a House vote Thursday would raise the cap on federal borrowing to $14.3 trillion. That’s enough to keep Congress from having to vote again before the November elections on an issue that is feeding a sense among voters that the government is spending too much and putting future generations under a mountain of debt to do it.
Already, the accumulated debt amounts to $40,000 per person. And the debt is increasingly held by foreign nations such as China. Read more.
Newt Gingrich: Impeach judges – Crush and Replace the Left – 2012 “Victory or Death!”
ACORN’s Web of Connections in North Carolina
A Single Seed Grows Many Branches: ACORN’s Web of Connections in North Carolina
The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) has woven itself into the fabric of the left in North Carolina. Listed below are short explanations of the ties between the groups.
Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN)
ACORN NC – ACORN’s North Carolina arm – has offices in Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte. ACORN NC is a member of Blueprint NC and partners with NC Housing Coalition, NC Policy Watch and the NC Justice Center, among others. Read more.
Depositions Could Pose Legal Peril for Easley Aides
RALEIGH — Several aides to former Gov. Mike Easley could be in legal jeopardy based on conflicting statements they gave in sworn depositions.
Former Press Secretary Renee Hoffman recalled separate orders from communications directors Cari Boyce and Sherri Johnson for public information officers to delete e-mails to and from Easley — who used a private e-mail account to conduct public business. Under oath, Boyce and Johnson denied such a blanket order was issued.
Raleigh attorney and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Kieran Shanahan says these inconsistencies could pose problems. Read more.
Sen. Larry Shaw Becomes 7th Dem to Not Seek Re-Election for N.C. Senate
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Another veteran Democrat in the state Senate won't return after 2010 as Sen. Larry Shaw announced Thursday he won't seek an eighth two-year term. The decision means the Legislature will lose its only openly practicing Muslim.
Shaw, a Democrat from Cumberland County who also served a term in the House, brings to seven the number of Senate Democrats since last fall who have resigned or said they won't run for re-election. The candidate filing period begins Monday.
Shaw, 60, didn't give a specific reason for stepping aside, and he wasn't immediately available for comment Thursday, according to a person who answered the phone at his Fayetteville home. Shaw said in a news release he plans to keep working with the family business -- he's the owner of a food services company -- and "in the international faith communities." Read more.
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