Paul Ryan: QE3 is a bailout for Obama

◼ Rep. Ryan: New Fed policy a ‘bailout’ for Obama economy - Peter Schroeder/The Hill

Speaking at a campaign event in Oldsmar, Fla., Mitt Romney's vice presidential candidate lambasted the Fed's recent decision to try and do more to boost the economy as "sugar high economics."

"We don't need synthetic money creation. We need economic growth. We want wealth creation," he said. "We don't want to print money. We want opportunity and growth.”

◼ There has been no end of distracting topics for the media to focus on over the last week, but under the covers, the economy is still there and the cliff lying ahead of us hasn’t gone away. - Jazz Shaw/HotAir

CNN Reporter Tweets Obama Donation Request

◼ link - Ed Driscoll/PJM
◼ This appears to be the height of journalistic malpractice. - Noel Sheppard/Newsbusters
◼ CNN reporter Peter Hamby sends Obama donation request form to Twitter followers - Howard Portnoy/HotAir

Imagine that you were a broadcast journalist and wanted to alert viewers who follow you online that the president was making a campaign stop in a particular battleground state. You might send out a message on a social network, say Twitter, reading, “President headed to battleground state of Wisconsin: Will be in Milwaukee next weekend.” You’d still be well under the 140-character limit on Twitter.

If you wanted to provide more information—one, say, that gave the date of the visit and cost to attend a fund-raising reception—you might link to as Associated Press dispatch with that information.

Or, if you’re CNN’s Peter Hamby, you could link to a page on the Obama campaign website that contains an interactive donation form so that readers could not only plan to attend but part with a little cash to help advance “the cause” while they’re at it.

MITT ROMNEY: WEEKLY PODCAST ON THE NEED FOR STRONG AMERICAN LEADERSHIP

◼ Romney: Libya deaths a ‘tragic reminder’ of need for US leadership - The Hill

GOP nominee Mitt Romney said Saturday that the deaths of four American diplomats in Libya was a “tragic reminder” that the world needed “strong leadership” from Washington and focused on the Obama administration’s relations with China to accuse the president of falling short on that score.

“The attacks on our diplomatic outposts are, of course, a tragic reminder that the world remains a dangerous place, and that America’s leadership is needed,” said the GOP nominee in his weekly podcast. “And for America to be able to provide strong leadership in the world, we have to have a strong economy here at home.”

◼ LISTEN HERE

NETANYAHU BLASTS THOSE WHO THINK MILITARY STRIKE WORSE THAN NUCLEAR IRAN: ‘NEW STANDARD FOR HUMAN STUPIDITY’

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

◼ Netanyahu on MTP: Iran guided by 'unbelievable fanaticism' - MSNBC ◼ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed Iran’s nuclear ambitions during an interview with NBC’s David Gregory recently, and had some harsh words for those who don’t recognize the threat a nuclear Iran poses. - Erica Ritz/The Blaze

When Gregory asked Netanyahu why a policy of containment won’t work on Iran the way it did on the Soviet Union, the prime minister explained:

“I think Iran is very different. They put their zealotry above their survival. They have suicide bombers all over the place– I wouldn’t rely on their rationality. Since the advent of nuclear weapons, you had countries that had access [that] always made a careful calculation of costs and benefits. But Iran is guided by a leadership with an unbelievable fanaticism. It’s the same fanaticism that you see swarming your embassies…You want these fanatics to have nuclear weapons?

“I mean I heard some people suggest, David– I actually read this in the American press– they said, ‘Well, you know, if you take action, that’s a lot worse than having Iran with nuclear weapons.’ Some have even said that Iran with nuclear weapons would stabilize the Middle East…I think the people who say this have set a new standard for human stupidity.”

But you will excuse me if, in the process, I think of you as the deepest of reactionaries. I knew you were a big time liar when you blamed the “right-wing conspiracy” for your husband’s obvious serial adultery. That was nothing compared to this, however. By blaming filmmakers, even the most amateurish ones, for the murderous actions of fanatical Islamists, you have placed yourself in complete opposition to everything our country ever stood for and to the essence of the U.S. Constitution.

◼ I Demand to be Arrested! - Roger L. Simon/PJM

Hillary Clinton, I insist that you have me arrested. I am thinking of making a movie about Mohammed.

I don’t want to brag, but as a film professional with an Academy Award nomination in screenwriting, I may do a better job than Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, alleged creator of the Innocence of Muslims.

But I have to admit one thing. Hopeless and inept as Nakoula may be as a filmmaker, I agree with the intentions of his movie. I too detest Islam because I happen to abhor misogyny and homophobia, both mainstays of that faith. And, like most Americans, I prefer freedom of religion to jihad, Sharia law, and a global caliphate.

Don’t let me criticize any of that.

I also happen to agree with Nakoula that making a movie about a faith whose prophet married a six year old and deflowered her at nine is of thematic and dramatic relevance. As a father, I am seriously concerned about child abuse, as is most of our film-going public, I would imagine.

Indeed, the beginnings of Islam are the very stuff of great theatre and cinema, reprehensible as the actions of the protagonist may be. In fact, it may be great because of those actions. After all, Richard III is not a classic for nothing.

So I am very tempted by the subject of Mohammed.

Arrest me, Hillary Clinton, before I start. Call Eric Holder!

And while you are at it, tell him to round up Salman Rushdie. His novel about Mohammed is obviously blasphemous. He was lucky to escape that fatwa. We should have one of our own.

And arrest those Danish cartoonists too – ink-stained wretches!...

◼ Alleged 'Innocence of Muslims' filmmaker taken in for interview - LA Times

LIBYAN OFFICIAL WARNED USA '3 DAYS BEFORE ATTACK' | NBC Ignores Libyan President’s Denial of Anti-Islam Film Blame: State Depart Scrubs Website

◼ Jake Tapper Grills Ambassador Rice Over Foreign Policy: ‘Why Does The U.S. Seem So Impotent?’ - Mediaite

Tapper then challenged Rice over why there was “not substantial enough” security presence at the Libyan consulate prior to the attacks. “Tragically two of the four Americans there killed were providing security,” she responded. “That was their function. It obviously didn’t prove sufficient to the nature of the attack and sufficient in that moment,” she continued.

“Why were there not marines there to begin with?” Tapper challenged.

“That depends on the circumstances and the requirements. Our presence in Tripoli, as in Benghazi, is relatively new as you’ll recall. We have been back post-revolution, only for a matter of months,” she said before adding that “the protection of American personnel is and will remain our top priority. That’s why we have reinforced our presence in Tripoli and elsewhere.”

Tapper then showed Rice a map of the 33 countries where anti-American protests have recently taken place. “Why does the U.S. seem so impotent, and why is the U.S. even less popular today in some of these Muslim and Arab countries than it was four years ago?”

“Jake, we’re not impotent,” Rice fired back. “We’re not even less popular. I don’t know on what basis you make that judgment.”

“It just seems that the U.S. government is powerless as this maelstrom erupts,” he defended his characterization.

◼ Rice: Benghazi attack was spontaneous; Libya: No, it wasn’t - Ed Morrissey/HotAir
◼ Conflicting Accounts: Was Attack in Libya Coordinated or Spontaneous? - Matt Vasilogambros/National Journal
◼ Ambassador Susan Rice insists Libya Attack Not Premeditated, was "spontaneous" - ABC

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi was not premeditated, directly contradicting top Libyan officials who say the attack was planned in advance.

◼ Libyan president: 'No doubt' consulate attack was 'preplanned' starting months ago... - Politico

"It was planned, definitely. It was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago. And they were planning this criminal act since their arrival," Magariaf said.

◼ More details emerge on U.S. ambassador's last moments - Arwa Damon/CNN

◼ #EPICFAIL: OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IGNORED ISLAMIC RADICALIZATION "WE KNEW WHAT WAS HAPPENING, BUT THE AMERICANS PREFERRED TO FIND EXCUSES" - Atlas Shrugs

"The Americans were constantly trying to supply explanations and excuses for events in the post-revolution Arab states, and simply ignored the problems," one senior Israeli official said, adding, "In practice the administration's ability to affect events in the Arab world has decreased immensely."

◼ NBC Ignores Libyan President’s Denial of Anti-Islam Film Blame: State Depart Scrubs Website - Maggie's Notebook

An NBC video interview with Libya’s President Mohamed Magariaf begins with the narrator saying Magariaf does not believe “the film is responsible for the attack,” in Benghazi, but the print report that went along with the video doesn’t come close to clarifying Magariaf’s position. The fantasy of blaming the film continues and the filmmaker has been picked up by FBI. In the meantime, the Government cover-up continues as the State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security scrubs history.

In this NBC video, the President of Libya is quoted saying the film is not responsible for the attack, but you wouldn’t know that from print reports, and assuming Magariaf actually said it, as the narrator quotes him, it has apparently been cut from the video... More, at the link.

On Drudge:
LIBYANS BLAME AL QAEDA IN ATTACK...
Al Qaeda says attack 'revenge' for death of its No. 2 man...
Al Qaeda urges Muslims to kill U.S. diplomats...
White House Preparing for Long Siege of Arab Unrest...
Orders embassy staff to leave Tunis, Khartoum...
Egyptian police clear protesters...
Sudan rejects U.S. request to send Marines to guard embassy...
Israel: America ignored Arab wrath...
__________________Who is Susan Rice?
◼ Susan Rice: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations - Discover The Networks

In 1996 Rice helped persuade President Clinton to rebuff Sudan’s offer to turn Osama bin Laden, who was then living there, over to U.S. authorities.

◼ The Misguided Tenure of Susan Rice
- Rick Moran/FrontPageMagazine.com | Apr 18th, 2011

President Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, has long been an advocate for weakening American sovereignty in order to benefit the UN and its anti-American agenda. It is a policy known as “engagement,” where the United States subsumes its own vital interests, abandons its traditional role of leadership in the world community, and, as Anne Bayefsky writes, pushes the process of “subcontracting American national security” to the UN.

◼ Bad Rice After Good
- Joseph Klein/FrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, December 18, 2008

Not only does Susan Rice want American taxpayers to become the ATM for corrupt African leaders. Rice also wants to use American military power to directly intervene in African conflicts, including in the Darfur region of Sudan, as part of a large well-funded UN peacekeeping force. She has publicly derided the current idea of a hybrid UN-African Union force as “an ill-conceived, short-sighted and failed expedient to appease, yet again, the perpetrators of genocide”.

◼ U.N.-Ambassador-Designate Susan Rice’s Greatest Hits
- Jim Geraghty/National Review December 1, 2008
◼ Susan Rice, 'Bystander to Genocide'
- Michael Goldfarb/Weekly Standard December 1, 2008