Is The U.S. About To Face A Financial Armageddon?

'It's All Fallen Apart': Senior Democrat Blasts Shutdown Chaos As Republicans Put Forward Surprise Rival Proposal To Senate Plan To End Stand-Off .... With Just Two Days Left To 'Armageddon' -- Daily Mail

* California Senator Dianne Feinstein hit out after Senate talks were thrown into disarray
* Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ended talks with his opposition after House Republicans unveiled their own rival plan
* House members are now set to vote tonight on their own last-minute debt-limit package
* 'The House legislation will not pass the Senate,' countered a furious top Senate Democrat Harry Reid
* Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has warned of dire economic consequences if a deal isn't reached by October 17
* Fitch Ratings put U.S. debt on 'ratings negative watch' over the 'political brinkmanship' that risks the strength of the dollar as the 'preeminent global reserve currency'
* Blackstone CEO Tony James warned of 'Armageddon' in the markets if the U.S. defaults on its debts, predicting 'the stock market would plummet'
* The White House cancelled a Monday bipartisan Oval Office meeting, replacing it with a House-Democrats-only huddle Tuesday afternoon
* 'It looks like we're going to hold our ground, at least for now,' says one GOP staffer on Capitol Hill

Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to hold a vote tonight on a bill aimed at ending the debt-ceiling showdown and reopening the federal government in a surprise move that led Senate Democrats stunned and furious. California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein is telling reporters that bipartisan talks in the Senate are in disarray.

'It's all fallen apart,' Californian Democratic Sen Dianne Feinstein told Bloomberg News this afternoon. She hit out as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell broke off negotiations with Majority Leader Harry Reid while his House GOP counterparts work to pass their bill.

The Democrat-led Senate was inching toward a package that they thought would be agreed by the Senate and Congress before House Speaker John Boehner threw a spanner in the works.

Read more ....

Update #1: House GOP budget bill collapses before getting a vote -- CBS
Update #2: Senate Takes Reins of Fiscal Deal After House Fails to Take Up Plan -- ABC News

My Comment: Thank God I do not have a penny invested in the U.S.. As to what is my take on what is going to happen this Thursday .... I do not care .... my priority that afternoon will be to barbeque spare ribs using my special recipe .... and (of course) to blog on a few war/defense/intelligence stories.

Are Certain U.S. Politicians ‘Reinventing The Truth’ About Waterboarding

Ex-CIA Counterterror Chief Says Pelosi ‘Reinventing the Truth’ About Waterboarding -- Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post

In an explosive memoir released today, former CIA counterterrorism chief Jose Rodriguez provides new evidence that Rep. Nancy Pelosi lied when she declared she had not been briefed about the use of waterboarding.

Recall that in a Capitol Hill news conference three years ago, Pelosi (D-Calif.) vehemently denied being told about the use of waterboarding at a CIA briefing in September 2002. “We were not — I repeat — were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used,” Pelosi said. She later changed her story, telling reporters, “We were told explicitly that waterboarding was not being used.” She claimed she learned about the use of waterboarding the following year, only after other lawmakers were told by the CIA. “I wasn’t briefed, I was informed that somebody else had been briefed about it,” she said.

Read more ....

My Comment: To resolve this dispute is simple ....

.... There is a simple way to settle this once and for all. Pelosi should formally request that the Obama administration declassify the cable that was sent from headquarters to the field reporting on the details of her Sept. 4, 2002, briefing. If she refuses to do so, it should be taken as an admission by Pelosi that her account of events is a fabrication.

Not surprising .... since this story first broke out 3 years ago .... Pelosi's office has been silent on pushing for the declassification of this cable.

Update: Jose Rodriguez is now being criticized and vilified by many in the main stream media and by many Democrat senators for what he has publicized in his book .... I call this a convenient distraction for those politicians (like Rep. Nancy Pelosi) who are uncomfortable with the media spotlight being put on them over this issue.

Is The Pentagon Lying To Congress About It's Budget?

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta smiles as he prepares to testify on the Defense Department's budget proposal before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee in Washington, D.C., Feb. 16, 2012. Robert R. Hale, undersecretary of defense (comptroller) and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also testified. DOD photo by D. Myles Cullen

Top Congressman: Generals Are Lying to Me; I Just Can’t Prove It -- Danger Room

One of Congress’ top Republicans says that the Pentagon’s top generals are lying to his colleagues. His evidence: a refusal to believe that they actually support the Obama administration’s defense budget. The Pentagon is, as you might expect, displeased by the implication.

“We don’t believe the generals are giving us their true budget,” Rep. Paul Ryan, the House of Representative’s budget chairman, told a National Journal forum in Washington on Thursday.

Read more ....

My Comment: What does not help the situation is when the top general in the U.S. makes comments like this.

Congress Getting Ready To Rebuke President Obama On Libya

Boehner said the president's logic on Libya didn’t pass the 'straight-face test.'John Shinkle/POLITICO

House Set To Rebuke Obama On Libya Mission -- CNN

Washington (CNN) -- The House of Representatives is expected to officially register its disapproval of U.S. involvement in the NATO-led Libya campaign Friday, voting to restrict funding for America's role in the mission.

The Republican-sponsored bill, which would effectively prohibit any U.S. role in offensive operations, is seen as a sharp rebuke of President Barack Obama's policy in the war-torn North African country.

Read more ....

More News On Congress Getting Ready To Rebuke President Obama On Libya

House Heads Toward Votes Challenging US Intervention In Libya -- Wall Street Journal
US House weighs cutting funds for Libya mission -- AP
House weighs cutting off funds for Libya mission -- CBS News
House Takes Up a Rebuke to Obama’s Libya Policy -- New York Times
US Lawmakers Consider Cutting Funds for Libya Operations -- Voice of America
House may cut some Libya funding -- UPI

My Comment: I will be shocked .... shocked I tell you .... if they completely cut Libya's funding today.

9 Vets Of Current Wars Win In Tuesday's Elections

9 Vets Of Current Wars Win Seats On Capitol Hill -- Stars And Stripes

WASHINGTON — The number of veterans in Congress with first-hand experience of the current wars will more than double next year, after voters backed a slate of new Republican veteran candidates Tuesday night.

In all, at least eight Republican veteran candidates won House seats, and Illinois Republican Mark Kirk — who served briefly in Iraq and Afghanistan — grabbed the Senate seat formerly held by President Barack Obama.

Read more ....

My Comment: Being a vet did not help candidates to be in a position to win in Tuesday's election. This was a Republican sweep, and the economy was the number one issue.

Washington Post Criticizes Sen. Obama's Stance On Iraq And Afghanistan

A handout picture from the Multi National Force-Iraq shows US General David Petraeus (R) talking with US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (L) as they fly over Baghdad during a helicopter tour on July 21. Obama said on Tuesday after a high-profile tour to Iraq that he wanted US troops out in 2010 but stressed that the country also need a political solution to the conflict. (AFP/MNFI/Staff Sgt Lorie Jewell)

A number of conservative pundits have been criticizing the main stream media for bias in favor of Senator Obama. Todays Washington Post goes a big way to disprove this perception:

From The Washington Post

Mr. Obama in Iraq: Did he really find support for his withdrawal plan?

THE INITIAL MEDIA coverage of Barack Obama's visit to Iraq suggested that the Democratic candidate found agreement with his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat forces on a 16-month timetable. So it seems worthwhile to point out that, by Mr. Obama's own account, neither U.S. commanders nor Iraq's principal political leaders actually support his strategy.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the architect of the dramatic turnaround in U.S. fortunes, "does not want a timetable," Mr. Obama reported with welcome candor during a news conference yesterday. In an interview with ABC, he explained that "there are deep concerns about . . . a timetable that doesn't take into account what [American commanders] anticipate might be some sort of change in conditions."

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has a history of tailoring his public statements for political purposes, made headlines by saying he would support a withdrawal of American forces by 2010. But an Iraqi government statement made clear that Mr. Maliki's timetable would extend at least seven months beyond Mr. Obama's. More significant, it would be "a timetable which Iraqis set" -- not the Washington-imposed schedule that Mr. Obama has in mind. It would also be conditioned on the readiness of Iraqi forces, the same linkage that Gen. Petraeus seeks. As Mr. Obama put it, Mr. Maliki "wants some flexibility in terms of how that's carried out."

Read more ....

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Behind Maliki's Games By Max Boot -- Washington Post

There is some irony in the fact that Democrats, after years of deriding Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as a hopeless bungler and conniving Shiite sectarian, are now treating as sacrosanct his suggestion that Iraq will be ready to assume responsibility for its own security by 2010. Naturally this is because his position seems to support that of Barack Obama.

A little skepticism is in order here. The prime minister has political motives for what he's saying -- whatever that is. An anonymous Iraqi official told the state-owned Al-Sabah newspaper, "Maliki thinks that Obama is most likely to win in the presidential election" and that "he's got to take preemptive steps before Obama gets to the White House." By smoothing Obama's maiden voyage abroad as the Democratic nominee, Maliki may figure that he will collect chits that he can call in later.

Read more ....

My Comment: Sen. Obama's election team have been touting Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki's support of Sen. Obama's Iraq withdrawl plan. But The Washington Post demolishes P.M. Maliki's track record in this regard. That if there is anyone who has been consistently right when it comes to Iraq .... it has and is Gen. Petraeus.