Dec 30, 2011  “Let’s be real clear. Let’s be real clear. President Barack Obama came out to Iowa three years ago, and he talked to you about hope and change. Well, let me tell you, after three years of Obama, we are hopeless and changeless, and we need Mitt Romney to bring us back, to [...]

By Richard Benedetto – December 30, 2011 Over the past five months, the Republican presidential candidates participated in 13 debates where they fielded dozens of penetrating questions on every major issue facing the nation, and some not so major. The nationally televised and/or Internet-streamed forums each drew an average of 5 million to 6 million [...]

Dec 30, 2011 By Ron Lee, Reporter – bio | email By Chris Dyches, Web Content Producer – email  CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – Four protesters, including the spokesman of Occupy Charlotte, were charged after setting fire to two American flags early Friday near the Occupy camp in Center City, police said. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police weren’t sure [...]

Dec 31, 2011 Syrian forces are reported to have made further killings as what are thought to be some of the biggest anti-government protests so far have erupted around the country.  The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that crowds were largest in Idlib and Hama provinces, where 250,000 people hit the streets in both [...]

Dec 30, 2011 US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta conveyed his “deep concern” Friday to Egypt’s military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi over police raids on pro-democracy groups, the Pentagon said. In a phone call to Tantawi that underscored Washington’s dismay over the issue, Panetta also thanked the military chief for his “prompt decision to halt [...]

Dec 30 11:26 AM US/Eastern Tehran said it will test-fire missiles in the Strait of Hormuzon Saturday, a move likely to stoke tensions with Washington already running high over Iran’s threats to close the strategic oil waterway if sanctions are enforced. “Shorter- and longer-range, ground-to-sea, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles will be tested on Saturday,” the [...]

Wonder of wonders, the tax subsidy and tariff expire. Dec 30, 2011 WSJ Congress created ethanol subsidies in 1978, expanded them in a 1980 bill, and then rinsed and repeated in 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1998, 2004, 2005 and 2007. But now, wonderful to relate, this 30-year adventure in corporate welfare may finally be [...]

A new tax on jet carbon emissions invites retaliation. Dec 30, 2011 WSJ Europe’s anticarbon crusade failed to extend the Kyoto Protocol this month, but the boys in Brussels don’t give up easily. Now Europe may kick off a trade war with its new scheme to tax airlines on carbon emissions. The rule, which goes [...]

The AG’s attack on voter ID laws may backfire legally and politically. Dec 30, 2011 WSJ Eric Holder must be amazed that President Obama was elected and he could become Attorney General. That’s a fair inference after the Attorney General last Friday blocked South Carolina’s voter ID law on grounds that it would hurt minorities. [...]

FDR’s support of the UAW sit-down strikes in 1936 helped bring his domestic agenda to a halt. Dec 30, 2011 WSJ By PAUL MORENO Today, Dec. 30, marks the 75th anniversary of the start of the original “occupy” movement—the “sit-down strike” in the General Motors plant in Flint, Mich. It had dramatic consequences, helping to [...]