HotAir Daily Express 12/07/2012

NYT: Obama retreating on “red line” for Syrian chemical weapons 12/7/2012 9:41:28 AM  Ed Morrissey 38 Comments In the summer of 2012, Barack Obama talked tough about “red lines” for Syria and the regime’s chemical weapons.  In a rare press conference on August 20th, the President warned Bashar Assad that the US was prepared to act if Assad began More... November jobs report: 146,000 jobs added, jobless rate drops to 7.7%, workforce declines again 12/7/2012 8:36:21 AM  Ed Morrissey 84 Comments The US got a better November than some had expected in the job markets — but only in the top line numbers.  The economy added 146,000 jobs, better than expected if still a status quo result, and the jobless rate declined to 7.7%.  The Bureau of More... Video: Morsi defiant in speech, protests erupt again in Cairo 12/7/2012 8:01:18 AM  Ed Morrissey 45 Comments Perhaps Mohamed Morsi thought that a show of strength and resolve in a nationally-televised speech to his Egyptian subjects would impress them enough to stop protesting his “temporary” seizure of dictatorial power.  If so, the More... Quotes of the day 12/6/2012 10:01:15 PM  Erika Johnsen 436 Comments House Speaker John Boehner is under pressure to defy Republican Party orthodoxy on income taxes to rein in the U.S. deficit, with an increasing number of his rank- and-file members saying they’re willing to discuss raising rates for top earners. A few More... PolitiFact’s “Lie of the Year” nominees left out 2012′s biggest lie 12/6/2012 9:01:41 PM  Dustin Siggins 70 Comments This week, PolitiFact came out with its list of “Lie of the Year” candidates. They include the following: Largest tax increase: “Obamacare is . . . the largest tax increase in the history of the world.” – Rush Limbaugh on Thursday, June More... Expect the LNG-export battle to continue, despite the economically obvious 12/6/2012 8:01:36 PM  Erika Johnsen 34 Comments Yesterday, the Department of Energy finally released an economic-impact report they commissioned that found that, why yes — allowing American companies to export natural gas would in fact be an economic boon. As Mark Mills writes for Forbes, More... There may not always be an England 12/6/2012 7:11:59 PM  J.E. Dyer 129 Comments Q.  When does the British government subsidize a TV channel that carries the rants of anti-gay religious fanatics? A.  When the TV channel is run by Islamist extremists. OK, that one was a softball.  But it’s worth pointing out a telling contrast in the More... Bobby Jindal: Ideas for staving off the fiscal Armageddon 12/6/2012 6:21:11 PM  Erika Johnsen 148 Comments Congressional Republicans are in a pretty rough position right now, to put it lightly; at every turn, the Democrats and the media are painting the GOP as the party merely trying to preserve tax loopholes for their billionaire buddies (nevermind that More... Michigan, the next right-to-work state? 12/6/2012 5:31:19 PM  Erika Johnsen 59 Comments The Republican majority in the Michigan legislature is using their lame-duck to make moves on joining the ranks of the 23 already right-to-work states by passing measures that would put an end to mandatory dues in union shops in both the private and More... Christie: Nope, we won’t be building a state exchange in New Jersey 12/6/2012 4:31:18 PM  Mary Katharine Ham 91 Comments Oh, the fall from Beltway media grace shall be sharp and swift for the country’s most popular Republican. Christie’s decision comes in ahead of the Health and Human Services already postponed deadline of Dec. 14. It also comes on the same More... Gee, whiz: Federal agencies lagging way behind on Obama’s transparency promises 12/6/2012 3:41:23 PM  Erika Johnsen 31 Comments We’re totally committed to “creating an unprecedented level an openness in government,” he said. “In the face of doubt, openness prevails,” he assured us. “Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of More... Why Rush Limbaugh should back ginormous tax increases now 12/6/2012 2:51:04 PM  Karl 157 Comments One of Rush Limbaugh’s favored rhetorical devices is demonstrating absurdity by being absurd, perhaps most infamously with his 1992 endorsement of Bill Clinton for president. One of his occasional guest hosts, Mark Steyn, recently mused that House More... Tapper to Carney: Has Obama seen The Devil Wears Prada? 12/6/2012 2:01:07 PM  Ed Morrissey 63 Comments I admit, I haven’t paid much attention to the controversy over reports that Barack Obama might appoint Vogue editor Anna Wintour as US Ambassador to the UK or France.  The primary qualification for ambassadorial posts in the US has traditionally More... The Ed Morrissey Show: Steven Crowder, Kerry Picket 12/6/2012 1:45:13 PM  Ed Morrissey 3 Comments Today on The Ed Morrissey Show (3 pm ET), Kerry Picket brings us up to date on the goings-on inside the nation’s capital, and Steven Crowder returns to discuss his latest video efforts. The Ed Morrissey Show and its dynamic chatroom can be seen on More... Egyptian army orders protesters away from presidential palace 12/6/2012 1:11:30 PM  Ed Morrissey 46 Comments The protests in Egypt have turned violent, but so far the Egyptian army has remained mainly on the sidelines.  The Republican Guard deployed armored vehicles and elite troops to the presidential palace yesterday, but stood by while opponents to Mohamed More... Just a reminder: this is a spending crisis, not a revenue crisis 12/6/2012 12:21:43 PM  Ed Morrissey 45 Comments We’re hearing a lot of nostalgia for the Clinton era in this debate over the upcoming fiscal cliff.  Democrats argue that we need to return to the Clinton-era tax rates in order to get back to Clinton-era budget stability, but that argument utterly More... NYT: Obama admin approved secret weapons deals that ended up arming Islamists in Libya 12/6/2012 11:31:27 AM  Ed Morrissey 171 Comments Oopsie! In what has to be one of the least-shocking outcomes of Barack Obama’s Libyan adventure, the New York Times reports that his administration secretly gave approval of weapons shipments to Libyan resistance fighters, only to learn that the More... Breaking: DeMint retiring from Senate 12/6/2012 10:46:51 AM  Ed Morrissey 549 Comments Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), who has led conservatives in the upper chamber for years, will resign his office next month, according to a statement from his office earlier this morning.  DeMint will move across town to the Heritage Foundation and will More... Darden Restaurants to stick with full-time employment 12/6/2012 10:31:24 AM  Ed Morrissey 71 Comments Two months ago, I wrote about a pilot program launched by the parent company of the Red Lobster and Olive Garden chains to test whether the firm could avoid incurring the costs of ObamaCare by switching their staffs to part-time employment.  This More...