Economic Growth Picks Up, So Why All the Gloom? – CNBC

Fourth quarter gross domestic product was the best in a year and a half, but the economy’s gains look to be short-lived and the first quarter could be slightly more sluggish than expected.

The fourth quarter’s 2.8 percent growth rate was short of the 3 percent expected by economists but better than the third quarter’s 1.8 percent pace.

The report, however, showed surprising weakness in several key areas and comes in the same week that the Federal Reserve shaved its own growth forecasts and signaled it will keep rates low for nearly three years.

“We still had the best growth in a year and a half, but it’s really the devil in the details,” said Jonathan Basile, Credit Suisse economist. “Final sales slowed more than we thought. The inventory was pretty much in line but within the detail…the private sector didn’t [Read full story...]

The U.S. wants to control everything, says Putin | Mail Online

The U.S. wants to control everything, says Putin as he blasts America for interfering in other countries’ affairs

  • Russian Premier brands America ‘uncooperative’
  • Claims ‘sometimes the U.S. seems like it dosn’t want allies’

Vladimir Putin has branded America a nation which ‘wants to control everything’ during a scathing verbal attack on the U.S. The Russian Premier said the USA is seeking to dominate the world and interfere with the internal matters of other countries.

Mr.  Putin also said America was being ‘uncooperative’ with Europe and Russia over Washington plans for a missile defence system.

Speaking during a Russian election campaign stopover in Siberia, Mr Putin said: ‘They want to control [Read full story...]

 

Top Headlines 1-27-12

Is Obama Creating A Nation Of Dependents? Nearly Half Now Get Government Benefits – Investors.com

If the Republican primaries are any indication, one big debate in the upcoming election will be whether President Obama is pushing the country toward a European-style welfare culture.

Mitt Romney, for example, argues that “over the past three years, Barack Obama has been replacing our merit-based society with an entitlement society.”

Newt Gingrich has taken to calling Obama “the best food-stamp president [Read full story...]

Obama to Ignore Order to Appear in Atlanta Court | The Blog on Obama: White House Dossier

Obama to Ignore Order to Appear in Atlanta Court

 

President Obama will ignore an order by an Atlanta judge to appear in court Thursday for a hearing in a case challenging his qualifications under the Constitution to be president.

According to the White House, Obama will continue with his current trip out West, starting the day in Las Vegas and then continuing on to Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado before heading to Detroit where he will spend the night.

The Associated Press reported last week that the judge had denied a motion [Read full story...]

Top Headlines 1-26-12

As Obama demands rich Americans pay more in taxes, the IRS reveals 36 Obama aides are far behind in their taxes by Andrew Malcolm – Investors.com

How embarrassing this must be for President Obama, whose major speech theme so far this campaign season has been that every single American, no matter how rich, should pay their “fair share” of taxes.

Because how unfair — indeed, un-American — it is for an office worker like, say, Warren Buffet’s secretary to dutifully pay her taxes, while some well-to-do people with better educations and higher incomes end up paying a much smaller tax rate.

Or, worse, skipping their taxes altogether.

A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama’s executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for [Read full story...]

Drudge, conservative media criticize Newt Gingrich – Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen – POLITICO.com

Newt Gingrich better hope voters who lapped up his delicious hits on the “elite media” and liberals don’t read the Drudge Report this morning.

Or the National Review. Or the American Spectator. Or Ann Coulter.

If they do, Gingrich comes off looking like a dangerous, anti-Reagan, Clintonian fraud.

It’s as if the conservative media over the past 24 hours decided Gingrich is for real, and they need to come clean about the man they really know before it’s too late. This is just a sampling of what’s hitting Newt:

  • The overnight Drudge Report banner: “Insider: Gingrich repeatedly Insulted Reagan.” The headline linked to a devastating takedown by Elliott Abrams in the National Review, who wrote, among other things, that Gingrich had a [Read full story...]

Ann Coulter – January 25, 2012 – RE-ELECT OBAMA: VOTE NEWT!

RE-ELECT OBAMA: VOTE NEWT!

To talk with Gingrich supporters is to enter a world where words have no meaning. They denounce Mitt Romney as a candidate being pushed on them by “the Establishment” — with “the Establishment” defined as anyone who supports Romney or doesn’t support Newt.

Gingrich may have spent his entire life in Washington and be so much of an insider that, as Jon Stewart says, “when Washington gets its prostate checked, it tickles [Newt],” but he is deemed the rebellious outsider challenging “the Establishment” — because, again, “the Establishment” is anyone who opposes Newt.

This is the sort of circular reasoning one normally associates with Democrats, people whom small-town pharmacists refer to as “drug seekers” and Ron Paul supporters.

Newtons claim Romney is a “moderate,” and Gingrich the true conservative — a feat that can be accomplished only by refusing to believe anything Romney says … and also refusing to believe [Read full story...]