Republic Broadcasting Network

Rash of retirements push Social Security to brink

(USA Today) Social Security's annual surplus nearly evaporated in 2009 for the first time in 25 years as the recession led hundreds of thousands of workers to retire or claim disability. The impact of the recession is likely to hit the giant retirement system even harder this year and next. The Congressional Budget Office had projected it would operate in the red in 2010 and 2011, but a deeper economic slump could make those losses larger than anticipated. "Things are a little bit worse than had been expected," says Stephen Goss, chief actuary for the Social Security ...

‘Reality’ Show Lets You Decide If Women Get Abortions?

(AlterNet) A new web show called "BUMP+" is stirring up controversy and conversation about abortion. It's a "fake" reality show in which three actresses portray women facing unintended pregnancies. These characters, entirely fictional, have agreed to appear on a reality TV show and let the public weigh in on what they should do about their pregnancies: keep it, terminate it, adoption? The creators of the web series say they will pick what happens to "contestants'" pregnancies based on viewer response. It's not exactly what we pro-choicers have always dreamed about: a decision left up to ...

U.S. soldier ‘waterboarded daughter, because she couldn’t recite alphabet’

(Daily Mail) A soldier waterboarded his four-year-old daughter because she was unable to recite her alphabet. Joshua Tabor admitted to police he had used the CIA torture technique because he was so angry. As his daughter 'squirmed' to get away, Tabor said he submerged her face three or four times until the water was lapping around her forehead and jawline. Tabor, 27, who had won custody of his daughter only four weeks earlier, admitted choosing the punishment because the girl was terrified of water. The practice of waterboarding was used by the CIA to break Al Qaeda suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Detainees ...

Iran detains 7 ’spies’ tied to US-funded radio station

(Raw Story) Iran has arrested seven people linked to a Farsi-language radio station funded in part by the United States, accusing them of fomenting unrest. According to the Associated Press, the Official Iranian News Agency and state radio both cited a statement by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry which claimed the seven individuals were trained outside of Iran in sabotage, spreading rumors and overthrowing a government by soft means. The suspects were not identified and it is unclear exactly when they were arrested. Iran may be merely trying to discredit the opposition, as opposition protests are ...

Israeli warships on way to Persian Gulf

(Press TV) As Israel keeps threatening the regional countries with war, Egyptian maritime sources say the Israeli navy has deployed two missile ships to the Persian Gulf. Citing the sources, Yediot Ahronot reported Saturday that two Israeli missile ships passed through the Suez Canal en rout to the Red Sea on Thursday morning. The sources said the ships are expected to reach the Persian Gulf within the next four days. According to the report, Cairo adopted tight security measures to ensure the safe passage of the Israeli ships through the canal. The waterway, which had not previously been used by Israeli vessels for intelligence reasons, ...

Europeans say Jews exploit past to extort money

(Press TV) Nearly half of western Europeans believe jews exploit their 'past persecution' in order to extort money, a new Israeli report says. The report, which the Jewish Agency conducted jointly with Israel's Information and Diaspora Ministry, found that 42 percent of those polled by the University of Bielefeld in Germany agreed that "jews exploit the past to extort money," Haaretz reported on Monday. The countries in which the highest percentage of the population agreed with that statement were Poland and Spain. There were more anti-Israeli incidents in 2009 than in any year since World War II, according to the annual Jewish Agency report ...

Reality takes a bite out of Obama recovery plan

(Times Online) Reality bites. President Barack Obama’s economic policy has run smack into reality. Nobody believes he can keep spending to the huge levels he projects, or eventually lower the deficit, or persuade Congress to switch from profligacy to prudence, or ... well, you get the idea. Worse still, even if you believe all of these things, the deficits projected by the president are simply unsustainable, and would drive the combination of federal, state and local government debt to well over 100% of GDP in 2020 — a level that most observers believe will stifle economic growth. A new paper by Carmen Reinhart ...

Lieberman: Impose sanctions on Iran or attack it

(Haaretz) The world faces a stark choice between imposing tough sanctions on Iran to stop its nuclear program, or attacking it, United States Senator Joe Lieberman said Saturday. Lieberman is the influential chairman of the Senate committee on homeland security. He was speaking a day after Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that his country was ready to accept an international swap of uranium, but only under certain conditions. "We have a choice here: to go to tough economic sanctions to make diplomacy work or we will face the prospect of military action against Iran," Lieberman told the annual Munich Security Conference. Top U.S. ...

US Intel Asked State Department to NOT Revoke Crotch Bomber’s Visa

(Detroit News) U.S. Intelligence Officials Asked State Department to NOT Revoke Crotch Bomber’s Visa The State Department didn't revoke the visa of foiled terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab because federal counterterrorism officials had begged off revocation, a top State Department official revealed Wednesday. Patrick F. Kennedy, an undersecretary for management at the State Department, said Abdulmutallab's visa wasn't taken away because intelligence officials asked his agency not to deny a visa to the suspected terrorist over concerns that a denial would've foiled a larger investigation into al-Qaida threats against the United States. "Revocation action would've disclosed what they were doing," Kennedy said in testimony ...

No joke: South Carolina now requires ’subversives’ to register

(Raw Story) Five-dollar registration fee for persons planning to overthrow US government Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions -- or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. The state's "Subversive Activities Registration Act," passed last year and now officially on the books, states that "every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety ...