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DEBATEGATE: LEAKED CBS MEMO SHOWS BIAS AGAINST BACHMANN

Wow.

In response to the leaked email, Bachmann’s campaign released this statement:

“The liberal mainstream media elites are manipulating the Republican debates by purposely suppressing our conservative message and limiting Michele’s questions,” said campaign manager Keith Nahigian. “We need to show the liberal media elite that we won’t stand for this outrageous manipulation. Help us fight this affront by sharing this with your friends.”

A CBS spokesperson released a statement to Fox News stating: “It was a candid exchange about the reality of the circumstances — Bachmann remains at 4% in the polls.”

Congressman Ron Paul’s team was also upset with the lack of air time during the CBS debate.

“CBS’s treatment of Congressman Paul is disgraceful, especially given that tonight’s debate centered on foreign policy and national security,” wrote Gary Howard, Paul’s national campaign chairman. “Congressman Paul was only allocated 90 seconds of speaking in one televised hour.”

“CBS News, in their arrogance, may think they can choose the next president,” Howard said. “Fortunately, the people of Iowa, New Hampshire and across America get to vote and not the media elites.”

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GOP Candidates Talk Tough on Iran

Republican presidential candidates said on Saturday they would stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb but differed over how to do it in a debate that tested their knowledge of world hotspots.

The economy has been the No. 1 issue for the 2012 election campaign, so the CBS News/National Journal debate offered a rare opportunity to hear the candidates explain how they would handle the job as commander-in-chief.

The candidates made no major stumbles during the first hour of the 90-minute gathering, but Texas Governor Rick Perry’s belief that the United States should consider eliminating foreign aid to Pakistan stirred debate among the candidates.

Newt Gingrich, who came to Spartanburg, South Carolina, riding a new wave of support as the conservative alternative to the more moderate Mitt Romney, declared he would launch covert operations within Iran in order to be able to deny them later.

Romney, who for months has been a front-runner to win the right to challenge President Barack Obama in the election next year, vowed in the debate at Wofford College to prevent Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

“One thing you can know is if we elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon,” said Romney, a former Massachusetts governor. “If you elect me … as the next president they will not have a nuclear weapon.”

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Tuesday reported that Iran appears to have worked on designing an atomic bomb and may still be conducting secret research related to building such weapons.

Businessman Herman Cain, who has been dogged by sexual harassment allegations recently, said the only way to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon was through economic means, squeezing Tehran through sanctions and boosting Iran’s opposition movement.

Perry, hurt by a string of poor debate performances, including an embarrassing gaffe Wednesday night that some observers say might have crippled his campaign, was insistent that Washington should consider cutting aid to Pakistan.

While Gingrich agreed, Rick Santorum was adamantly opposed.

“Pakistan is a nuclear power,” Santorum said. “We cannot be indecisive about whether Pakistan is our friend. They must be a friend.”

None of the eight candidates on the stage have much in the way of foreign policy experience, save for former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, but they all criticized Obama for mishandling U.S. relations abroad..

SOURCE 

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Italy Closer to National Unity Government

Italy moved closer to a national unity government on Thursday, following Greece’s lead in seeking a respected veteran European technocrat to pilot painful economic reforms in an effort to avert a euro zone bond market meltdown.

After four days of chaotic haggling, former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos was appointed to head an interim crisis cabinet charged with saving Greece from default, bankruptcy and an exit from the euro zone.

In Rome, former European Commissioner Mario Monti emerged as favorite to replace Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi within days and lead an emergency government that would implement long delayed reforms of pensions, labor markets and business regulation.

Political and economic turmoil in Italy has spurred fears of a possible break-up of the euro zone with borrowing costs for Europe’s third biggest economy at unsustainable levels and the 17-nation currency bloc unable to afford a bailout.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe’s main paymaster, called for broad political support for reforms in Greece and said she believed Italy was winning back confidence, but political clarity was still needed in Rome.

She rejected talk of a possible shrinking of the currency area, saying: “We only have one goal, that is to bring about a stabilization of the euro zone in its current form.”

European Union officials continued to dither and pass the buck on how best to fight the worsening sovereign debt crisis.

Three senior ECB policymakers rebuffed pressure from investors and foreign governments to intervene massively as a lender of last resort on bond markets to shield Italy and Spain from rapidly spreading financial contagion.

“We have gone pretty far in what we can do but there is not much more that can be expected from us. It is now up to the governments,” ECB governing council member Klaas Knot told the Dutch parliament.

Knot, who is also Dutch central bank chief, said bond-buying only had a temporary effect. The ECB has bought more than 180 billion euros of peripheral euro zone bonds and traders said it was active again in the market on Thursday, but the purchases have failed to lower borrowing costs durably.

Stepping up the scale of bond-buying would eventually force the ECB to start printing money with the risk of stoking inflation, which was why the EU treaty had excluded such action, Knot said.

ECB executive board member Peter Praet said it was not the task of the central bank to intervene “when there are fundamental doubts about the sustainability of some countries.” Outgoing ECB chief economist Juergen Stark earlier rejected calls for the ECB to act as lender of last resort like the U.S. Federal Reserve or the Bank of England.

In Brussels, a euro zone official said there were no plans to use the bloc’s 440-billion-euro ($600 billion) rescue fund to help Italy, even with a precautionary credit line.

“Financial assistance is not in the cards,” the official said. A second official said: “The ECB will be drawn like every one else by the weight of gravity (to act).

MARKETS STEADIER

Italian 10-year bond yields steadied at around 7 percent, a level seen as unquestionable in the long term, due to signs that the political deadlock may be easing. Rome paid less to sell 1-year treasury bills than many had feared.

Sources in Berlusconi’s conservative PdL party said he was now convinced it would be better not to call elections at the moment, an abrupt reversal. The billionaire media magnate has agreed to resign within days after parliament approves long delayed economic reforms demanded by European partners.

PdL parliamentary floor leader Fabrizio Cicchitto said the party was considering backing a unity government led by Monti, a respected economist favored by the center-left opposition.
Berlusconi’s populist coalition partner, the Northern League, said it would not support a Monti government.

Monti, 68, was appointed a senator for life on Wednesday in a move that appeared to prefigure his possible rise to the premiership, but he has made no public statement and it is unclear what conditions he may set for taking office.

In Athens, Papademos said after agreeing to head a crisis coalition: “The Greek economy is facing huge problems despite the efforts undertaken.

“The choices we will make will be decisive for the Greek people. The path will not be easy but I am convinced the problems will be resolved faster and at a smaller cost if there is unity, understanding and prudence.”

The euro rose from a one-month low and world stocks inched up on hopes that new governments being formed in Italy and Greece could help fend off a euro zone break-up.

SMALLER EURO ZONE DENIED

Merkel, French officials and the EU’s executive Commission all tried to quash talk of a possible shrinking of the euro area, although they raised the possibility last week that Greece might leave the single currency.

EU sources told Reuters that French and German officials had held informal discussions on a two-speed Europe with a more tightly integrated and possibly smaller euro zone and a looser outer circle.

The discussions among senior policymakers, still in the realms of the theoretical, have focused on how to protect the euro zone from breaking up via tighter common policies which some members may by unable or unwilling to live with.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso issued a stark warning of the dangers of a split in the European Union.

“There cannot be peace and prosperity in the North or in the West of Europe, if there is no peace and prosperity in the South or in the East,” Barroso said in a speech in Berlin.

Merkel called on Wednesday for changes in EU treaties after French President Nicolas Sarkozy advocated a two-speed Europe in which euro zone countries accelerate and deepen integration while an expanding group outside the currency bloc stays more loosely connected.

The head of the International Monetary Fund called for political clarity in efforts to tackle Italy’s debt crisis, warning that the world could face a “lost decade” if Europe’s problems were not tackled boldly.

Uncertainty around who would succeed Berlusconi was fuelling market volatility, Christine Lagarde said on a visit to China.

“No one exactly understands who is going to come out as the leader. That confusion is particularly conducive to volatility,” she told a news conference in Beijing. “Political clarity is conducive to more stability and my objective from the Fund’s point of view is better and more stability.”

A senior G20 source said the idea of convening an emergency meeting of finance ministers of the world’s leading economies to discuss support measures for the euro zone before the French presidency ends at the end of the year had been dropped. They would meet next in Mexico in February.

Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Monday on a road map for leveraging the currency bloc’s rescue fund to shield larger economies like Italy and Spain from a possible Greek default.

But markets are running faster than policy and there are deep doubts about the efficacy of those complex leveraging plans, and with Italy’s debt totaling around 1.9 trillion euros even a larger bailout fund could struggle to cope.
Read more: http://trade.cc/fnmixzz1dKaVeh1k

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Russia Says Iran is Willing to Negotiate a Deal to Calm Fears Over Their Nuclear Program

“Iran has confirmed that it wants to resolve all outstanding issues with the IAEA,” Lukashevich said, referring to the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. “This is incompatible with efforts to impose new sanctions, which will only drive any prospects of negotiations into a dead end.”

Full article

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On the Matter of the CNBC GOP Debate AKA Planet of the Apes

Newt spoke the best. Seems the most experienced among the panelists. He has certainly spent sleepless nights figuring out a clear course of action.

Perry can’t remember what branch of government he wants to eliminate….only after 20 minutes can he recall. Never answers questions directly; hate that !

Romney was to plain vanilla. He likes to throw around the blame. Heck they are all good at that.  Romney was not tough enough on China.

Bachman was well Bachman. She is good at repeating current events.

Cain is 999 and bill 3400. I feel bad he had to defend his character again; but that will never go away. He has no idea about the markets, volatility, and derivatives…..back to 999….

Hunstman was interesting, but a little too shy for me. At least he recognized a trade war with China was possible.

Santorum says he has been a leader on all topics before anyone in the panel had something to say about it. He has good speaking skills, but is still developing…

Ron Paul delivers the same message….i like consistency. For shits and giggles we should let him turn everything upside down.

 

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2bYJQFQMs8&feature=related 450 300]

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Flash: Here Come the Orwellians with First-Ever Nationwide Emergency Test

It’s Only a Test, but What a Test

By BRIAN STELTER

At 2 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday all television channels and radio stations in the United States will be interrupted by a brief test of the nation’s Emergency Alert System.

Viewers and listeners are accustomed to hearing the tones and reminders — “this is just a test” — when the systems are activated locally each week by broadcasters. But government officials say the national system has never been tested before as a whole, nor has it ever been used in an emergency, allowing the president to address the public during a national emergency.

Officials said the nationwide test should last about 30 seconds as it digitally ripples across the country. Government agencies and media companies have sought to spread the word about the test so that it does sneak up on, and potentially scare, the public.

Michael Powell, the head of the Cable and Telecommunications Trade Association, wrote on Twitter, “No one wants a ‘War of the Worlds’ sequel!”

In a blog post, the trade association wrote: “Our message is simple: This is just a test of the system, and no action is required.”

The Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are leading the effort to carry out what is formally called the Presidential Emergency Action Notification. The test “will allow
emergency personnel to assess and improve our alerting capabilities in the event of a crisis,” the White House wrote Tuesday in a blog post.

During the test, the on-screen text set up by the government will say, “This is an Emergency Action Notification.” It will not specify that the notification is only a test because officials want the test to duplicate actual alert conditions “as closely as possible,” according to an F.C.C. planning document. But voiceovers and other on-screen graphics will indicate that there is no need for alarm.

Planning for the test has not been without its hiccups. Last month, the cable trade association asked the government to postpone it because some cable systems appeared to be unable to include their won “this is just a test” graphics. Perhaps to alleviate their concerns, the government shortened the test to 30 seconds, after having planned for it to last for up to three minutes.

Television and radio stations will have to report back to the agency about whether they received the test message and whether they rebroadcast it. “We’re confident that the vast majority of local radio and TV stations will participate in the E.A.S. test, and that those tests will be successful,” a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters said.

Satellite distributors like DirecTV and cable distributors like Comcast will participate along with over-the-air stations. DirecTV said its customer service agents are prepared to answer questions from customers about the interruption, adding, “we expect the test to go smoothly.”

Internet connections are not included in the test.

Notifications about the test have been hard to miss — though some people surely will be surprised by it anyway. Public service announcements and graphics have run on local stations, messages have appeared on cable customer bills and Web sites and news segments have informed people about the plan.

What is now called the emergency alert system was first authorized in 1951 by President Harry Truman. It was first intended to inform Americans about an impending nuclear attack and was called CONELRAD, short for “Control of Electromagnetic Radiation.” The system was superseded by the emergency broadcast system, which was used primarily for local weather alerts and was replaced by the current emergency alert system in 1997.

The current system has never been turned on nationwide. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush addressed the nation through the major television networks without activating the emergency alert system. The networks were able to transmit Mr. Bush’s statements live on their own.

SOURCE 

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