Obama's historic speech deepens divisions
January 27, 2013

Years from now, historians are likely to look back upon Barack Obama's second inaugural address as a rich treasure trove for understanding his presidency and possibly the course of American politics.

It wasn't as important for his rise to power as his 2004 address to the Democratic National Convention. That one propelled him onto the national stage. It wasn't as elegant as his Philadelphia speech on race relations in the 2008 campaign. That one was his rhetorical masterpiece. But the second inaugural was far more important than either in defining his political philosophy as president.

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Clinton calls for change in law she says blocked discipline of employees over Libya
January 26, 2013

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed this week that several employees who were "removed" from their positions in the wake of the Libya terror attack are still being paid and have not actually left her department.
But she also gave a surprising answer when asked why: Her hands are tied, she said.
Amid complaints from lawmakers that no government official has really been held accountable for missteps in the run-up to the attack, Clinton claimed current federal regulations limit what disciplinary actions can be taken.
The sticking point appears to be what constitutes a "breach of duty," which is the threshold for action. Whether it turns out the secretary has more leeway, lawmakers expressed a keen interest Thursday in changing the law.
"I'm sure that Congress will work on this important issue so that those held responsible for ignoring repeated requests for more security will not continue to enjoy their paid vacations, which is what administrative leave with salary is," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., former chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement to FoxNews.com.
Ros-Lehtinen said her understanding is that department lawyers determined the review board "did not cite the correct causes that would have allowed such disciplinary action."

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Is the GOP plan to withhold congressional pay constitutional?
January 25, 2013

The House of Representatives yesterday passed a Republican debt-ceiling proposal providing that if either chamber of Congress hasn't passed a budget resolution for the upcoming fiscal year by April 15, the congressional payroll office must withhold the paychecks for the members of that body.
In other words, they wouldn't get paid until they act or until the current session of Congress ends in 2015.
But is that provision constitutional?
The 27th Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1992, is intended to prevent members of Congress from giving themselves a raise. But it doesn't merely say that any raise can't take effect until the next Congress. It says members cannot vary their own pay.
Here's the entire text of the amendment: "No law, varying the compensation for the services of the senators and representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened."
The debt limit bill, said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, "was carefully crafted to comply with the requirements of the 27th Amendment."
"The amount that members are paid will not be reduced nor will it be raised," Camp said during Wednesday's House debate. "There is no requirement in the 27th Amendment which states that members have to be paid weekly, biweekly, monthly, or bimonthly, or what have you, only that the pay that they receive will not vary."

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House approves short-term debt ceiling fix, measure goes to Senate
January 24, 2013

The House on Wednesday approved a short-term debt ceiling fix that would extend the country's borrowing authority until May - while also applying a controversial provision that would suspend lawmakers' pay if they don't pass a budget by April.
The measure, if approved by the Senate, would buy lawmakers some breathing room to hammer out details for a more permanent solution.
The bill passed on a 285-144 vote, with 86 Democrats supporting it and 33 Republicans opposing.
The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to approve the debt bill quickly. The White House welcomed the legislation rather than face the threat of a first-ever default at the dawn of the president's second term in the White House, and spokesman Jay Carney pointedly noted a "fundamental change" in strategy by the GOP.
House Republicans cast the bill as a way to force the Senate to draft a budget for the first time in four years, noting that if either house fails to do so, its members' pay would be withheld. They called the bill "no budget, no pay."

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What we learned from the Benghazi hearings
January 24, 2013

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday took on Republican congressional critics of her department's handling of the deadly September terrorist attack in Libya.
Conservative GOP members challenged Clinton on the lack of security at the diplomatic compound in Benghazi as well as the erroneous account that the attack grew spontaneously from a protest over an anti-Islam film produced in the United States.
At two hearings, which together totaled more than five hours, Clinton acknowledged a "systemic breakdown" cited by an independent review of issues leading up to the armed assault and said her department was taking additional steps to increase security at U.S. diplomatic facilities.
Here are five things we learned from the hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees.
1. What Clinton did the day of the Benghazi attack
Clinton spent the better part of last September 11 trying to get a handle on security at several other U.S. embassies in the Middle East where anti-American protests were in full swing over an anti-Muslim film produced in the United States.
She said the U.S. embassy was "under assault" by crowds trying to scale the wall. American embassies in Yemen and Tunisia were also facing a "serious threat. Clinton personally called the president of Tunisia, she said, to "beg him to send reinforcements, which he did, to finally save our embassy."
By 4 p.m. that day, Clinton was notified about the Benghazi attack. In the coming hours, she was in meetings and spoke with staff, the American Embassy in Tripoli and other U.S. officials.
Directing the U.S. response from the State Department, Clinton stayed in touch with officials across the administration and with the Libyan government.
She instructed her staff to "consider every option, to just break down the doors of the Libyan officials to get as much security support as we possibly could."
Clinton said in the hours and days following the attack in Benghazi, there were "no delays in decision-making. No denials of support from Washington or from our military," something an independent board established to review the matter cited in its report.

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Seau lawsuit outlines symptoms dating back to mid-1990s
January 24, 2013

The complaint filed by the estate and four children of linebacker Junior Seau contains claims and allegations typical of the thousands of other concussion lawsuits. For example, the lawsuit refers to the NFL's glorification of violent play via videos sold by NFL Films, quoting Seau from a 1993 offering in which he says, "If I can feel some dizziness, I know that guy is feeling double [that]."
But the lawsuit contains a lengthy and detailed explanation of the symptoms Seau suffered in the years prior to his death. The complaint explains that, as early as the mid-1990s, Seau was demonstrating "dizziness and other symptoms of concussion," with a "noted change in his behavior and functioning." He began, according to the lawsuit, to become "erratic," and he showed "emotional instability." The complaints refers to persistent insomnia dating back to the mid-1990s, and contends that he became "forgetful and unable to concentrate or focus."
"Both at work and at home, people noticed that he could not remember their discussions, he misplaced things and forgot appointments," the complaint alleges.
Seau also began to demonstrate "self-destructive, aggressive and violent behavior," along with "severe depression," during which episodes he became "irrational and unreachable." He "lashed out verbally and physically at his staff, friends, and family," and he "entered a devastating cycle of depression and alcohol abuse."

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After inauguration, political reality returns to Washington
January 23, 2013

The first day of business of President Barack Obama's second term began with a prayer service Tuesday, but it will take more than spiritual guidance to change the divisive culture of Washington politics.
Conservative critics of the president wasted no time ripping into an inaugural address laden with progressive themes such as climate change, gun control, gay rights and immigration reform.
More specifically, they targeted the president's vigorous defense of costly but popular entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
"One thing that is pretty clear from the president's speech yesterday -- the era of liberalism is back," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. "An unabashedly, far left-of-center inauguration speech certainly brings back memories of the Democratic Party of ages past."
If Obama "pursues that kind of agenda, obviously it is not designed to bring us together and certainly not designed to deal with the transcendent issue of our era, which is deficit and debt. Until we fix that problem, we can't fix America."

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Fight led to Texas college shooting, authorities say
January 23, 2013

A fight between two people erupted in gunfire Tuesday at a Houston-area community college, catching a maintenance man in the crossfire and leaving students and others cowering in classrooms.
No one was killed, but the volley of gunshots heard just before 1 p.m. sparked fear of another campus massacre less than a month after 26 people were killed at elementary school in Newtown, Conn.
The shooting happened outside between an academic building and the library where Luis Resendiz, 22, was studying on the second floor. An employee called police and then herded the 30 to 40 people in the library into a small room and told them to crouch down, he said.
Keisha Cohn, 27, was in a building about 50 feet away and began running as soon as she heard the shots.
"To stay where I was wasn't an option," said Cohn, who fled to a building that houses computers and study areas. All the students were eventually evacuated, running out of buildings as police officers led them to safety.
Authorities offered no details on what led to the fight. One of the people involved had a student ID, and both people were wounded and hospitalized, Harris County Sheriff's Maj. Armando Tello said. A fourth person also was taken to a hospital for a medical condition, he said.

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Why Benghazi Hasn't (And Won't) Bring Down Hillary Clinton
January 23, 2013

When Hillary Rodham Clinton marches up to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to testify about the Benghazi attack, it'll be the last "scandal" of her 20-year run in Washington. The quotation marks are there for a reason. Most of what has exorcised the Hill and press corps about Hillary Clinton over the last two decades has rarely turned out to be scandalous.

"Hillary" - what other politician gets called by their first name, "Rahm?" - has survived them every "scandal" to come her way. The mysterious death of White House counsel Vince Foster in 1993? Ken Starr concluded it was a suicide. The Whitewater "scandal"? Whatever there was to it, it's a memory now. Hard to imagine now that Washington was once consumed with how the Mrs. Clinton made $100,000 on commodity futures.
She's endured it all - an exhausting journey from the election of her husband in 1992, the crash of her health care plan in 1993, the impeachment in 1998, the Senate election in 2000, a presidential bid in 2008 that came so close, and her becoming Secretary of State in 2009. Four years and more than a million air miles after joining the team of rivals, she's atop her game. The scandal mongers, like the coterie that suggested she might have faked her concussion to get out of the Benghazi hearings, grew quiet when she was hospitalized for a blood clot.
It's not that Clinton is blameless for the Benghazi disaster. The attack cost the lives of four Americans, including a beloved ambassador. It wrecked the aspirations of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice who withdrew from consideration as Secretary of State. It probably wrecked the aspirations of the president who seemed like he wanted to nominate Rice. But even if it was Clinton's State Department that was unprepared, the word Benghazi is unlikely to chase the 65-year-old into her next life of books, high-end speeches, public service, needed rest, grandmotherhood (should she be so lucky), and perhaps another run for president.
Why is Hillary so invincible now? She prevailed on Benghazi by having taken so many bullets that she became bulletproof, like her husband. At a certain point you're like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, just letting them bounce off you. Perhaps if Clinton wasn't on her way out of office, the debacle might have damaged her more. She's also mastered the art of damage control.

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Armstrong Becomes 'Madoff on a Bike' as Cheating Shatters Lives
January 22, 2013

The fall of Lance Armstrong was as steep as the mountains he climbed en route to the Champs-Elysees and life as a global icon. He left a trail of destruction on the way up and on the way down.
The damage included the careers of teammates and support staff whom he verbally attacked or sued. Millions of dollars invested in cycling's biggest star by corporate sponsors large and small are now gone. Armstrong's Livestrong anti-cancer charity, whose yellow plastic donation bracelets were once ubiquitous, faces questions about whether it can retain support. Some former backers may have millions of dollars in legal bills as litigation over the sports fraud plays out.
"He's Bernie Madoff on a bike," said John Llewellyn, an associate professor of communication at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "The level of self-absorption and mean-spiritedness with which he has defended himself and castigated others over a decade makes an impression that's pretty bleak for the human spirit."
His career as a dominant bicycle racer was "one big lie" built on doping, the 41-year-old Armstrong said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey aired over two nights last week. He was a "bully" to anyone who threatened his secret of cheating with performance-enhancing drugs and banned transfusions, he said.
Madoff, the New York-based mastermind of the biggest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history, was arrested in 2008 and pleaded guilty the following year to cheating investors out of $20 billion in principal. He is serving a 150-year sentence in a federal prison in North Carolina.

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