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"They don’t want their great music involved in the impure business of politics.” |
Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are just the latest Republicans to stop using songs at their rallies after songwriters complained that the campaigns had played the pieces without permission. “All these artists are delighted to sell concert tickets to independents and Republicans.” |
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With 2012 decided, looking to 2016 |
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The 2016 Election, Already Upon Us No matter what happens this Election Day, when President Obama wakes up the next morning, he will no longer be the Democrats’ future. Who might run next? "Mr. Obama is a talented speaker, which can allow his detractors to cast him as a talker rather than a doer. The next group of Democratic candidates may not say so, but they presumably would not mind if voters favorably contrasted their backgrounds with Mr. Obama’s" |
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Stocks rose after the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected last month, driving the Nasdaq Composite to an 11-year high and pushing the Dow within reach of its highest reading in almost four years. |
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Taliban leader Mullah Omar 'sent letter to Barack Obama' |
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Taliban leader Mullah Omar 'sent letter to Barack Obama' Taliban leader Mullah Omar purportedly sent a letter to President Barack Obama last year indicating an interest in peace talks, US officials have claimed. |
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An Aggressive Iran Has Decided to Fight |
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Iran 'retaliating for scientists' deaths Head of Israeli security service Shin Bet says three attempted attacks by Iran have been thwarted in the past year |
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Obama Re-elected, NATO Pulls out, Taliban Returns - 15 wasted years |
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Taliban eat into Afghanistan's core Even as several tracks of peace talks with the Taliban open up, Asia Times Online has learned that senior members of the Western-trained and financed Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police plan to defect with vast numbers of their colleagues to the militants once foreign forces start to leave the country. |
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Leading a global effort to combat corruption? |
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Should America Lead the World's Fight Against Corruption? Fighting corruption in emerging markets is surpassingly difficult. It involves displacing those with malign power. It cannot be initiated and led by outsiders. Corruption pervades and distorts society in nations like Russia and China where the U.S. has great interests. It was a primary cause of the popular uprisings in the Middle East and elsewhere. It remains a huge issue in the emerging markets of Africa and Asia and, especially in failed and failing states. It is a pervasive obstacle to legitimate and transparent economic globalization. And it undermines a key goal of current counter-insurgency military strategy -- the building of a civil society. |
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"Mitt Romney is not heartless, he's merely clueless" |
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How does the Romney-Obama contest stack up? |
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An election that hinges on the smallest of errors? The granting of Secret Service protection following Mitt Romney’s decisive Florida victory did not prevent him from immediately shooting himself in the foot. “I’m not concerned about the very poor,” he explained. “My campaign is focused on middle-income Americans.” It is problematic for a politician to declare any group of citizens beneath his attention — either the bottom 1 percent or the top 1 percent. But those in the top 1 percent, at least, can fend for themselves. |
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LATimes: Romney a mixed blessing for Mormons |
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His presidential candidacy could be a breakthrough "JFK moment," but it could also stir up more negative publicity for the church. |
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At a Newt Gingrich event in Florida. Ann Gerhart / WashPost Voter frustration and uncertainty lead to the most turbulent GOP presidential race in a generation. "they are angry and anxious and uncertain, sick of a bunch of elites in Washington who can’t fix their lives and suspicious of all promises" |
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It’s unseemly for someone like Romney, who is running as a serious executive, to associate himself with Trump. It undermines Romney’s message that he is the responsible adult in the GOP presidential race.
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NYT: Secrecy Shrouds ‘Super PAC’ Funds |
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New details of the millions of dollars flowing into political groups highlight the scale of donations, as well as the secrecy surrounding “super PACs.” |
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Newt: "I like hiring people." |
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In a remark that could be construed as a jab at either Trump or Romney, the candidate says at a campaign stop at a Las Vegas manufacturing plant, "I like hiring people." |
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Iran Still Not Afraid of Obama |
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Call for 'more credible' US military threat Iran is "two to six months" from a nuclear bomb and the Barack Obama administration is failing to convince Tehran it will act militarily to prevent this, a task force has complained. Recommending a surgical strike and the deployment of US Special Forces if economic sanctions fail, the report comes amid increasingly contradictory signals from Israel and Washington over the likelihood of an attack |
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AsiaTimes: US tells Israelis it won't join their fight |
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US tells Israelis it won't join their fight In an unexpectedly low-key visit, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey has explicitly warned Israel's leadership that the US won't defend Israel if it unilaterally strikes Iran. However, Israel knows it can count on the US right-wing to pressurize Washington into falling in line over an attack, particularly in an election year. |
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Ron Paul’s Long Game Paul’s game is to trade his supporters for a seat at the Republican table. |
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Who Really Believes This? |
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The crackdown on protests took a toll on journalists this year. "The crackdown on protest movements and the accompanying excesses took their toll on journalists. In the space of two months in the United States, more than 25 were subjected to arrests and beatings at the hands of police who were quick to issue indictments for inappropriate behaviour, public nuisance or even lack of accreditation." |
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Party | Feb 1999 | January 2008 | January 2012 | Democratic | 46.72% | 42.71% | 43.63% | Republican | 35.27% | 33.45% | 30.36% | NPP | 12.89% | 19.38% | 21.24% |
For the last decade, the big winner in party registration has been no party at all. Decline to state, now known as no party preference, has boomed from just under 13% in 1999 to 21.24% in the latest numbers released by the Sec. of State's office today. While Democratic numbers have fluctuated in the lower 40s, Republican numbers continue to creep downwards. If the trend continues, the GOP may fall below 30% in the very near future. It is no surprise that the GOP is rapidly losing adherents, what with the far right extreme becoming dominant within the Party of Reagan (née Lincoln). But with district maps that require Republicans to compete for the middle, the question is whether they really can do that. These numbers certainly don't bode well for that. |
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Obama Doing Big Box Office in Hollywood |
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Obama is a Hollywood heavyweight when it comes to fund-raising Boosted by the cash pipeline from the silver screen set, the President’s “Obama for America” reelection fund took in $39 million over the last three months of 2011 — bringing his war chest to a current total of about $82 million. |
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Have the Democrats Already Destroyed Romney? |
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There's already been an unprecedented effort to tarnish the GOP front-runner. "The groups also police Romney's speeches for potential contradictions, circulating instantly any damaging information and trumpeting every would-be gaffe. When Romney on Wednesday said he was "not concerned with the very poor," the spin machine sprang into action -- though the media by this point was so well-primed for the latest hyperventilating iteration of "Mitt Romney, Out of Touch Rich Guy" that they hardly needed to." |
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LATimes: GOP's free-market pitch may flop in Nevada |
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Presidential candidates will find a new political reality in the recession-battered state, where even prominent Republicans back homeowner assistance. |
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"The New Mitt: Tougher, Shinier, with a Hint of Nixon" |
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When the candidate arrived at the dais, newly restored to his title of “Mr. Inevitable,” he looked as stiff and wooden as ever, raising his left arm in a victory salute that evoked memories of Richard Nixon—which is not exactly what you want to do when you are trying to persuade people you are the man “to restore to America the values that made us the hope of the earth.”
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AsiaTimes: No exit in the Persian Gulf |
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No exit in the Persian Gulf The Strait of Hormuz standoff is not just about oil, with the United States viewing its Gulf dominance as a last expression of its superpower status and Iran's influence in Iraq intensifying its thirst for regional power. Throw in the domestic pressures of President Barack Obama's re-election bid and Tehran's need to distract from economic conditions, and there seems little chance of avoiding war. |
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