| | December 14, 2012 | | Fiscal Cliff This is starting to get old. President Obama invited House Speaker John Boehner to the White House on Thursday to discuss the looming fiscal cliff, but failed to come to an agreement. The two met for 50 minutes in what aides described as a “frank” meeting, which Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also attended. White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “What we have not seen from the Republicans is any movement at all on the fundamental issue. Republicans need to accept the fact that the rates will go up on the top 2 percent.” Earlier on Thursday, Boehner had criticized Obama for putting economic recovery at risk by insisting on tax increases on the top 2 percent. OFF THE RAILs He’s been off the rails for years, but the justice’s latest outburst regarding homosexuality should be the last straw: it’s time for Congress to kick him out, writes The Daily Beast’s David Dow. Escalating Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has ordered that two batteries of Patriot air-defense systems be deployed to Turkey as part of an effort to strengthen Turkey’s defenses against Syria. He also ordered the deployment of roughly 400 American troops to man them. Panetta said that the batteries will “help Turkey have the kind of missile defense it might very well need in dealing with threats that come out of Syria,” adding that the al-Assad regime had “moved to begin to arm weapons that would involve the use of chemical and biological materials.” Although the Netherlands and Germany will be sending similar deployments, NATO officials say the weapons are defensive and not part of a no-fly zone over Syria. Rumble A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of California on Friday morning according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake hit 88 miles southwest of Avalon, CA at 2:36 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Some shaking was reported in southern California, including in Newport Beach and Long Beach, but there were no reports of any injuries or damage and no tsunami warning has been issued. It was first reported that two quakes had hit, with magnitudes of 6.4 and 6.1 respectively, but scientists concluded it was actually just one. | |
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