How Carney can repeatedly look people in the eyes and say this isn’t related to his reelection campaign and therefore should be taxpayer funded proves he is devoid of a soul.

WASHINGTON (AP) — One trip, two money pitches. President Barack Obama wants more money in the pockets of U.S. workers — and in his campaign treasury.

With both goals in mind, the president was to travel Wednesday to swing-state Pennsylvania to press his case for a bigger temporary payroll tax cut that will boost paychecks. He then will descend on donor-rich New York City to raise money for his already flush re-election bid.

White House spokesman Jay Carney, while conceding that the re-election effort is under way, played down politics as a factor in Obama’s Scranton visit.

“It’s part of his responsibility, serving the American people, to get out and be among them and to speak with them about his agenda or her agenda,” he said.

In New York, Obama will attend three fundraisers: one at a private residence where tickets begin at $10,000; one at the Greenwich Village restaurant Gotham Bar and Grill at $35,800 per ticket; and a reception at the Sheraton Hotel, where tickets begin at $1,000. The money will be split between the Democratic National Committee and the Obama re-election campaign.

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I’ll give Tapper credit, he’s one of the few network news reporters who at least attempts to play it down the middle.

Why did the DNC scrub it? Because Tapper was right according to PolitiFact.

Via Politico:

UPDATE: The DNC has removed an attack on ABC’s Jake Tapper from its website.

ORIGINAL POST: The Democratic National Committee has dispatched a harsh open letter to ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper over his doubting one in a series of alleged Mitt Romney flip-flops.

In the course of an article on the DNC’s recent ad attacking Romney, Tapper wrote, “Most of the hits are clean. Some are nuanced and arguable. One is just plain false: whether Romney flip-flopped on President Obama’s stimulus bill.”

“Romney saying he supports the concept of stimulus is not the same thing as saying he supports President Obama’s stimulus bill. The DNC got greedy here. The use of that Romney quote is deceptive and false,” Tapper wrote.

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Update to this story.

(Ynet) — The Times reported on Wednesday that the mysterious explosion that rocked the city of Isfahan two days ago struck the uranium conversion facility located just outside Iran’s third-largest city. According to the British newspaper, satellite images clearly show billowing smoke and destruction, despite Iran’s claim that no such blast had taken place.

The Times quoted Israeli intelligence officials as saying there was “no doubt” that the blast struck the nuclear facilities at Isfahan and that it was “no accident.”

The uranium conversion plant is an integral part of Iran’s nuclear program, where urania, also known as Yellowcake, is processed into uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6).

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According to the Obama regime, this is a good thing.

(ANSAmed) — CAIRO — The Muslim Brotherhood are the top party in Egypt according to the first reports by local press outlets. While vote counting continues for the uninominal part of the first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections, indications show that the Freedom and Justice party, which is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Salafi party coalition Al Nour are in the lead in six governorates, according to the daily paper Al Ahram. According to the daily Al Shouruk, Freedom and Justice raked in 47% of the votes while the secular and moderate Egyptian Bloc coalition received 22%. In the first round of voting, which ended yesterday, the residents of nine governorates cast their votes, including those in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Asyut and Port Said.

Just like the Tea Party, eh?

LOS ANGELES, CA — NOVEMBER 30: An Occupy Los Angeles protester is arrested by Los Angeles Police Department officers after LAPD raided the protest campsite in the early hours of November 30, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. Protesters remained on the City Hall lawn despite a deadline, set by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, to dismantle their campsite and leave the park which the city declared closed as of 12:01 am November 28th. (Photo by Mark Boster-Pool/Getty Images)

About time.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia stormed Occupy Wall Street encampments under darkness Wednesday to arrest or drive out some of the longest-lasting protesters since crackdowns ended similar occupations across the country.

Dozens of officers in riot gear flooded down the steps of Los Angeles City Hall just after midnight and started dismantling the two-month-old camp two days after a deadline passed for campers to leave the park. Officers in helmets and wielding batons and guns with rubber bullets converged on the park from all directions with military precision and began making arrests after several orders were given to leave.

The raid in Los Angeles came after demonstrators with the movement in Philadelphia marched through the streets after being evicted from their site. About 40 protesters were arrested after refusing to clear a street several blocks northeast of City Hall, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. They were lined up in cuffs and loaded on to buses by officers. Six others were arrested earlier after remaining on a street police that police tried to clear.

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Update:

(Fox News) — Los Angeles police said more than 200 people were arrested during a raid of the Occupy Los Angeles encampment early Wednesday.

Police Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference that the arrests were mainly peaceful and there were no injuries.

Beck said an initial search of the camp turned up no drugs or weapons.

Around 500 helmeted Los Angeles Police Department officers burst out of City Hall doors and raced into the Occupy L.A. encampment early Wednesday, some firing rubber bullets while others began arresting a few of the protesters on the south lawn.

“Please do the right thing,” one protester yelled at police as they began entering the encampment.

All I want for Christmas is someone not named Barack Obama in the White House.

MIDLAND, Mich. (NYT) — Here, at the nation’s oldest, most celebrated, school for would-be Santa Clauses, much has stayed exactly the same over its nearly 75 years. A proper Claus ought to have pleasant breath, his beard curled just so and a hearty laugh that rumbles not from the throat but from deep below the diaphragm.

Yet this year, from the holiday parades, to the cheery carols piping from Main Street loudspeakers, to the “this way to Santa” lines at shopping centers, something more sobering has cast its shadow: the economic slump.

The result is a Christmas season in which Santas — including the 115 of them in this year’s graduating class of the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School — must learn to swiftly size up families’ financial circumstances, gently scale back children’s Christmas gift requests and even how to answer the wish some say they have been hearing with more frequency — “Can you bring my parent a job?”

Santas here tell of children who appear on their laps with lists that include the latest, most expensive toys and their parents, standing off to the side, stealthily but imploringly shaking their heads no. On the flip side, some, like Fred Honerkamp, have been visited by children whose expectations seem to have sunk to match the gloom; not long ago, a boy asked him for only one item — a pair of sneakers that actually fit.

“In the end, Santas have to be sure to never promise anything,” said Mr. Honerkamp, an alumnus of the school who also lectures here. He has devised his own tale about a wayward elf and slowed toy production at the North Pole for children who are requesting a gift clearly beyond their family’s price range. “It’s hard to watch sometimes because the children are like little barometers, mirrors on what the country has been through.”

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Let’s move!

Via Washington Examiner:

First lady Michelle Obama enjoyed a lovely evening at Co Co. Sala on F Street on Monday night. A Yeas & Nays source tells us she dined with seven friends for dinner and, of course, dessert — which featured an edible chocolate sculpture and house-made artisanal chocolates by Chef Santosh Tiptur. We’re told Obama’s favorite savory was Chef Tiptur’s Moroccan Swordfish Sliders with chermoula marinade, fennel salad, aged pecorino and hazelnut coffee dressing.

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They are Democrats after all.

(The Hill) — A top ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee chastised maneuvers to replace Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) as the top Democrat on the panel as “circling a carcass like vultures.”

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), the fourth-ranking Democrat on the committee, said in a terse statement Tuesday that lawmakers should be focused more on helping people, not moving up the committee food chain.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is the second ranking Democrat on the committee, and said shortly after Frank’s announcement that she wants to “continue and expand” his work on the panel, but stopped short of explicitly announcing her intentions to take over as top Democrat, and potentially chairwoman if Democrats take back the House in 2012.

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If this sounds familiar it’s because Obama has already done it twice before.

(CNS News) — In what seems like a page from President Barack Obama’s campaign playbook, GOP hopeful Mitt Romney is auctioning off a meal shared with him on his campaign Web site.

“Donate $5 to enter for a chance to grab a bite with Mitt,” the promotion states. “We don’t know when, where, or what the food will be — if it’s up to Mitt, it will probably be pizza [you know, because he’s such a normal guy — ed.].

For the second time in his bid for reelection, Obama is seeking donations for a chance to dine with the president. This time, the contest is called “Dinner with Barack Plus One,” because the winner or winners can invite a guest.

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Have it your way, Mitt.

Via NRO:

Mitt Romney refused to criticize his Massachusetts health-care program tonight, saying he would prefer to lose the primary rather than renounce it.

“I’m standing by what I did in Massachusetts,” Romney said on Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Bret Baier. “I’m not trying to dust it aside. I’m absolutely firm that it was the right thing for our state. I’ll defend that and I understand it has political implications. And if it keeps me from winning a primary, so be it. But that happens to be the truth.”

“It’s by far, the biggest challenge I have in the primary race,” Romney admitted, before going on to criticize his rivals. “And if I were willing to say anything to get elected, wouldn’t I just say, ‘oh, it was a mistake,’ because I’ve watched other people on the stage when they talk about their cap-and-trade policies, they say, ‘oh, that was a mistake.’ When someone says, ‘oh, I did this ad on global warming,’ that was a mistake. So they’ve just brushed it aside.”

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