Former Republican presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul is expected to participate in a primary debate in South Carolina on May 5, the state party announced Friday.
“We are thrilled by the overwhelming interest we have seen so far in this debate,” said South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Karen Floyd. “The road to the White House travels through South Carolina, as our Republican electorate has selected every eventual nominee since our primary’s inception in 1980. We are looking forward to our debate as the official kickoff for the presidential primary season.”
Paul has filled out the paperwork for a presidential exploratory committee, a spokesman for Paul’s PAC Campaign for Liberty told The Daily Caller, although he has not official announced his candidacy. PAC spokesman Jesse Benton said they have all the forms prepared so that Paul can “flip the switch” as soon as he decides to run.
“I’d say this is a sign that he’s giving a really strong consideration to [running],” Benton said of the debate. “The money’s been great, the enthusiasm’s been great. … The polling in New Hampshire’s really strong so we’re feeling good.”
Seventeen people were arrested after trying to storm the governor’s office in a third day of protests over state budget cuts Thursday.
In a prelude to what unions say will be a bigger rally today, a protest organized by the Service Employees International Union brought about 500 people to Olympia to call on lawmakers to end corporate tax exemptions before cutting state services.
Most protesters rallied in the Rotunda of the Legislative Building Thursday afternoon. Several were eventually arrested when they tried to push past Washington State Patrol officers guarding the governor’s office and refused to leave.
Protesters pushed against troopers stationed at the governor’s door shouting “let us in” and “we want the governor.”
“They (legislators) need to listen to us,” said Sharon Kitchel-Perdue, a home-care worker from Olympia and one of the protesters arrested.
Sgt. John Sager, one of the troopers on the scene, said that some of the protesters said they wanted to be arrested, and eventually, their actions gave troopers no choice.
“It was getting pretty hairy in here,” Sager said.
People in these communities - a mix of cities, urban and rural areas - will be able to decide the types of development given automatic planning permission through a Neighbourhood Development Order.
If approved by a local referendum, a council will need to adopt a neighbourhood plan providing it is line with wider ambitions for growth in their area.
Greg Clark said:" Planning has increasingly become one of the most contentious issues in Britain, with communities becoming pitted against development. By giving local people a greater say together with new incentives to share in the benefits of growth, our reforms will help to create the conditions where communities begin to welcome development rather than resist it at all costs."
KABUL, Afghanistan — A top Afghan official confirmed on Wednesday that the country’s government had been in peace talks with the Taliban.
“We're in touch, we talk all the time, we've done a lot,” said Mohammad Massoom Stanekzai of the High Peace Council.
The official, Mohammad Massoom Stanekzai, secretary of the High Peace Council and an adviser to the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, said reconciliation talks had been under way with insurgents for some time.
“We’re in touch, we talk all the time, we’ve done a lot, we’ve sent representatives to their sides and they’ve sent representatives to our side,” said Mr. Stanekzai, who advises Mr. Karzai on reconciliation issues.
Operator consortium Isis has selected Salt Lake City as its flagship deployment to show the rest of the USA what NFC can do for them.
The plan will see Salt Lake City's public transport system accepting pay-by-wave from a mobile phone by the middle of next year. Retailers have also been encouraged to adopt Near Field Communications technology at the point of sale, as Salt Lake City strives to become The Place You Can Leave Your Wallet At Home.
The Intel Hub
Dale May
April 8, 2011
The United States is moving backwards… fast. State budget cuts are decimating essential health and social services; public education is being destroyed; the social safety net is in tatters.
Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, has been particularly busy promoting the future cutbacks, repeating that “the country must live within its means” “deficits must be brought down dramatically” — something that will “require very hard choices.”
Update: Emergency Backup Systems Operating at Nuclear Facilities
Via: Forbes:
NHK says power cuts are occurring at the Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi Pref., although radiation levels around the plant remain unchanged so far.
At 12:23 a.m. the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, an arm of the Japanese government, began holding an emergency press conference. An official said external sources of electricity have been cut to both the Higashi-Dori nuclear power plant in Aomori Pref., in northern Japan and the Rokkasho nuclear recycling plant, which I wrote in the latest issue of Forbes magazine . Both plants are reportedly operating normally via on-site emergency generators.
—End Update—
Via: Forbes:
Several other nuclear power plants in the area have lost external power and are relying on backup generators, said a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) at a press conference currently in progress.
Iranian refugees have called for international help to prevent a massacre at Camp Ashraf after Iraqi forces invaded the compound and killed at least 25 people.
Kurt Nimmo
Prisonplanet.com
April 8, 2011
It is more evidence the antiwar movement is largely a left-vs-right distraction. A new studyby U-M’s Michael Heaney and colleague Fabio Rojas of Indiana University shows that the antiwar movement in the United States demobilized as Democrats took over Congress and the White House.
A small, dedicated core of people protest against Obama’s third war.
“As president, Obama has maintained the occupation of Iraq and escalated the war in Afghanistan,” said Heaney. “The antiwar movement should have been furious at Obama’s ‘betrayal’ and reinvigorated its protest activity.”
“Instead, attendance at antiwar rallies declined precipitously and financial resources available to the movement have dissipated. The election of Obama appeared to be a demobilizing force on the antiwar movement, even in the face of his pro-war decisions.”
“Since Democrats are more numerous in the population at large than are members of third parties, the withdrawal of Democrats from the movement in 2009 appears to be a significant explanation for the falling size of antiwar protests,” Heaney said. “Thus, we have identified the kernel of the linkage between Democratic partisanship and the demobilization of the antiwar movement.”
“Overall, our results convincingly demonstrate a strong relationship between partisanship and the dynamics of the antiwar movement. While Obama’s election was heralded as a victory for the antiwar movement, Obama’s election, in fact, thwarted the ability of the movement to achieve critical mass.”
Democrats and other liberal supporters of the establishment are not opposed to mass murder and wanton slaughter by the state – they merely oppose it when Republicans do it. Opposition is a partisan formality.
A corporate media poll conducted in late March on Obama’s handling of the unconstitutional attack on Libya shows that two-thirds of Democrat respondents support violating international law and pummeling the oil-rich north African country with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Congress Democrats often howled about “Bush’s Wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan, but supported them – including the mass murder of 1.5 million Iraqis, a war criminal of immense proportion – by continuing to fund them. The number of anti-war Democrats in Congress who worked to defund the illegal occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq was miniscule.
Obama duped the so-called anti-war faction of his party during the election. He said he’d bring home the troops and close down Gitmo. During the primaries, he tried to make Hillary Clinton look like the war candidate.
Updated at 1:05 p.m. ET
House Speaker John Boehner and the GOP leadership team just emerged from a meeting with their Republican members. Boehner insists the fight is about spending cuts, not policy issues such as funding for women's health clinics.
"The big fight is over spending. ...We're not going to roll over and sell out the American people," Boehner said. "We say we're serious about cutting spending. We're damn serious."
"Almost all of the policy issues have been dealt with. We're working on the spending," he said.
(CBS) Will the debate over abortion bring a shutdown of the U.S. government? As Congressional budget negotiations continue in Washington, lawmakers were reportedly wrangling over funding for Planned Parenthood, a major provider of abortion and family planning services.
"This all deals with women's health," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters in an exchange broadcast on CNN, theNew York Times reported.
By MYFOXDC
WASHINGTON - Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D -DC) was on fire when she spoke to FOX 5 Morning News Thursday about how Washington, D.C. residents are being treated as work to avoid a government shutdown continues.
“We are absolutely outraged. This is the functional equivalent of bombing innocent civilians,” she said.
A 1787 Network Exclusive - by Adrian Wyllie
DUNEDIN, FLORIDA – The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed this week that images taken from Florida drivers’ licenses have now been integrated into a multi-jurisdictional facial recognition database used by law enforcement agencies throughout Florida.
Once again, White House and congressional aides worked through the night on a new budget deal -- and they still couldn't nail one down.
The difference is that today is deadline day.
The federal government will run out of money at midnight and shut down many operations unless President Obama, Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, can strike some kind of deal in the hours ahead.
So exactly what would happen if there is a government shutdown in 2011? If it does actually happen, the following are 16 things you will need to know....
#1 Hundreds of thousands of "non-essential" federal workers will be told to stay home during a government shutdown.
#2 Those in the military will not receive paychecks during a government shutdown but they will be required to keep performing their duties.
#3 The Obama administration is anticipating "significantly lower staffing levels" at the White House if a shutdown happens.
#4 Barack Obama will continue to be paid during a government shutdown.
#5 Congress will also be paid and will continue to operate at close to normal levels during a government shutdown.
#6 The Federal Reserve will continue to operate normally during a government shutdown. The Federal Reserve is not part of the U.S. government.
#7 In all probability, all government employees will eventually receive any pay that is missed during a government shutdown. During the 5 day U.S. government shutdown back in 1995, approximately 800,000 "non-essential" government employees were told not to come in to work. But eventually they all got paid retroactively anyway.
#8 During a government shutdown, the Department of Homeland Security will suspend operation of its e-Verify system. Employers will be unable to verify the immigration status of job applicants and that could have a substantial negative impact on hiring.
#9 The processing of small business loans and FHA mortgages will be delayed during a government shutdown.
#10 The U.S. Postal Service will not be affected by a government shutdown. You will continue to get your mail.
#11 According to the Social Security Administration, everyone that is currently receiving Social Security benefits will continue to receive those benefitsduring a shutdown. New applications will be delayed however.
#12 Medicare payments will continue during a government shutdown, but there will be a delay in processing new applications.
#13 During a government shutdown, the processing of paper tax returns by the IRS would be delayed.
#14 If there is a government shutdown, the processing of passport and visa applications could be seriously delayed. This could have a negative impact on the tourism industry.
#15 National parks, museums and tourist attractions will be shut down. According to the Washington Post, "about 500,000 visitors could be turned away this weekend alone from the National Zoo and the major Smithsonian museums on the Mall".
#16 The annual Cherry Blossom Festival parade in Washington D.C. that is scheduled for this weekend would be cancelled.
WASHINGTON — The House cast aside a proposal by Rep. William L. Owens Thursday to rescue military pay in the event of a government shutdown, as Republicans insisted on linking that issue to budget cuts in other areas.
Mr. Owens's measure, offered as a Democratic alternative to the GOP's one-week spending extension, fell on a party-line vote. One Republican, Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., supported it.
The Republican measure passed the House easily, although Mr. Owens, D-Plattsburgh, and most Democrats voted against it. It cuts $12 billion and funds the Defense Department through the end of the fiscal year, removing the possibility that defense employees and soldiers would be affected by a shutdown.
(Reuters) - The council ruling rebel-held eastern Libya has won recognition from France, Italy and Qatar as the country's true representative body, but faces pressure to meet the aspirations of a frustrated population.
WASHINGTON – Terror alerts from the government will soon have just two levels of warnings — elevated and imminent — and those will be relayed to the public only under certain circumstances. Color codes are out; Facebook and Twitter will sometimes be in, according to a Homeland Security draft obtained by The Associated Press.
Source: EcommerceTimes
Many economists, including Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini, have argued that the European Monetary Union is in trouble because of the fiscal difficulties of a few of its member countries. Some have predicted that the euro will fail.
Because the prospects for a future single global currency depend upon the continued success of the euro and the currencies of other monetary unions, I discussed the euro with Morrison Bonpasse, president of the Single Global Currency Association, to get his insight into this situation.
WASHINGTON - The United States may consider sending troops into Libya with a possible international ground force that could aid the rebels, according to the general who led the military mission until NATO took over.
Army Gen. Carter Ham also told lawmakers Thursday that added American participation would not be ideal, and ground troops could erode the international coalition and make it more difficult to get Arab support for operations in Libya.
