Obamas Greet Troops on Christmas

 In what has become a holiday tradition, President Obama and the first lady spent this Christmas afternoon greeting service members at the Marines Corps base near their Hawaiian vacation home.
Spreading some holiday cheer, the Obamas wished the troops and their families a Merry Christmas and thanked them for their service.
"This looks like it was a nice rather than naughty crowd so I'm sure Santa treated you well," a casually dressed Obama joked as he walked into the mess hall at the base in Kaneohe Bay.
"One of our favorite things is always coming to the base on Christmas Day and having a chance just to meet you, those of you who have families here, and to say thank you for the extraordinary work and service that you guys do each and every day," he said in his brief remarks.
Obama noted that "we're still in a wartime footing" even as troops withdraw from Afghanistan.
"Some of you may have loved ones who are deployed there. Some of you may be about to be deployed there. And so we know that it's not easy," he said.
"But what we also want you to know is that you have the entire country behind you, and that all of us understand that we would be nowhere without the extraordinary service that you guys provide," he said.
After his remarks, the president and first lady, dressed in a black and white sundress, posed for pictures with the troops.

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Fiscal Cliff: Obama Returning to DC

With the country barreling towards the "fiscal cliff," President Obama is interrupting his Hawaiian holiday vacation to return to the gridlock in Washington.
The president will depart Hawaii for Washington late Wednesday, the White House announced today. The first lady and daughters, Malia and Sasha, will remain on their vacation.
Obama told reporters last week that he is a "hopeless optimist" and continues to believe a budget deal can be reached before broad tax increases and steep spending cuts kick in on Jan. 1, threatening to plunge the nation back into a recession. House Speaker John Boehner has admitted "God only knows" the solution to the standoff.
With the deadline less than a week away, lawmakers are also due to be back in Washington on Thursday. Obama's return was expected. He told reporters at the White House Friday that he would "see you next week."
The president spent Christmas with friends and family at his vacation house in Kailua, a cozy beach town on the east coast of Oahu.

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U.S. may expand mortgage refinance program: WSJ

The U.S. government is considering expanding its mortgage refinancing program to include borrowers whose mortgages are not backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the discussions. (http://link.reuters.com/mej84t)
The refinancing program now being considered also seeks to include "underwater" borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth, the Journal said.
The proposal would also transfer potentially riskier loans held by private investors to the government-sponsored mortgage entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the paper said.
Such a move would require congressional authorization to temporarily change the charters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to the Journal.
About 22 percent of all homes with a mortgage, or around 10.8 million homes, down from 12.1 million last year, were worth less than the outstanding balance at the end of June, the Journal said, citing data from CoreLogic.
Under the proposal, Fannie and Freddie would be allowed to charge higher rates to borrowers in order to compensate for the risk of guaranteeing refinanced loans that are underwater and more likely to result in default.
Officials at the U.S. Treasury could not be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours.
Combined with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy loans and repackage them as securities for investors, Washington's footprint in the market has grown to account for nearly nine of every 10 mortgages.

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DC hotels less busy for Obama's 2nd inauguration

 Visitors coming to the nation's capital for President Barack Obama's second inauguration can't stay in the one place President Ronald Reagan's family once called an eight-star hotel. That spot is the White House, and it's booked for the next four years. Still, inauguration-goers have a range of lodging options — from crashing on a friend's couch to rooms that cost thousands of dollars a night.
With second inaugurations tending to draw fewer spectators, finding a place to stay in Washington won't be nearly as difficult as in 2009.
City officials are expecting 600,000 to 800,000 visitors for the Jan. 21 inauguration, far less than the 1.8 million people who flooded the National Mall four years ago to witness the inauguration of America's first black president. Back then, some hotels sold out months in advance and city residents rented out their homes for hundreds of dollars a night. This time, hotels say they're filling up more slowly, with rooms still available and prices at or slightly below where they were four years ago.
"Very few hotels are actually sold out at this point, so there's a lot of availability," said Elliott Ferguson, CEO of the tourism bureau Destination DC, who added that he expected demand to pick up after Christmas.
In 2009, hotel occupancy in the city for the night before the inauguration was 98 percent, and visitors paid an average daily rate of more than $600 that night, according to STR, a company that tracks hotel data. This time, some hotels still have half their rooms available. As a result, some establishments have relaxed minimum stays from four nights to three and could drop prices closer to the inauguration if demand does not increase.
Despite the muted enthusiasm, many of the city's posh hotels are still offering pricy packages. Visitors with an unlimited budget can check in to accommodations almost as grand and historic as the White House.
At The Willard hotel, about a block from the White House, rooms were still available starting at more than $1,100 a night with a four-night minimum. That means every guest will pay more than President Abraham Lincoln did when he checked out after his 1861 inauguration and paid $773.75 for a stay of more than a week.
At the Park Hyatt hotel in northwest Washington, where rooms start at $849 a night with a four-night minimum stay, the presidential suite is still available. For the 57th presidential inauguration next month, the hotel is charging $57,000 for a four-night package in the suite that includes butler service. And no one has yet booked $100,000 packages at the Fairmont hotel or the Ritz-Carlton.
A number of the city's luxury hotels plan special treats for guests, some of whom will be paying two to five times as much to stay during the inauguration compared with staying in the same room a week before. At the Ritz-Carlton, for example, where rooms start at about $1,100 per day, guests will get to bring home commemorative pillowcases embroidered with the official inauguration seal and their initials.
There are options for visitors looking to spend less, too, though some wallet-friendly choices have filled quickly.
Rooms at HI-DC, a hostel in downtown Washington, were sold out the day after the Nov. 6 election, with a bed in a dorm room going for $50 a night and private rooms for $150. With all the rooms sold, the hostel is finalizing plans for an election trivia night for guests.
Aunt Bea's Little White House, a six-room bed and breakfast in northeast Washington, still had two rooms available the week before Christmas, with rates starting at $225 a night. Innkeeper Gerald Duval said that included a bottle of champagne and a commemorative coin. There'll also be red-and-white bunting on the home's porch along with cutouts of the president and first lady.
Farther from downtown, the Best Western Plus hotel in Rockville, Md., was about 80 percent full with rooms at about $180 a night, down from a $209 starting rate. Director of Sales Ron Wallach said the hotel targeted some groups before the election, including students, journalists and the Secret Service, in order to fill its rooms.
Other travelers looking for budget-friendly prices may have success with websites like Craigslist or Airbnb, where homeowners offer their places for a price. More than 200 Craigslist housing posts in the area included the word "inauguration." Airbnb said it expected approximately 2,000 people to stay in Washington during the inauguration using its site.
Other travelers have told friends and family living in the area to plan on having guests. Lauren Hines and her husband had three people stay at their small Capitol Hill apartment during the 2009 inauguration, so many that one slept in a hallway. She and her husband now live in nearby Alexandria, Va., and planned to host her father-in-law, and maybe mother-in-law, from Ohio. Hines said they didn't even consider a hotel.

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Explosion in Afghan city of Khost, Taliban say target U.S. base

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A blast in the eastern Afghan city of Khost on Wednesday wounded three people, and the Taliban said they had sent a suicide bomber in a vehicle to attack an American military base.
The area's police chief said the explosion took place near a U.S. base, which is beside a military airport. Hospital officials said three people were wounded and the number of casualties was expected to rise.
The al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, widely regarded as the United States' most dangerous foe in Afghanistan, is active in Khost, which is on the Pakistani border.
Three years ago, an al Qaeda-linked Jordanian double-agent killed seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer in a suicide bombing at a U.S. base in Khost.
Afghan authorities are scrambling to improve security across Afghanistan before the U.S. combat mission ends in 2014.

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Bill Clinton: US ambassador to Ireland? Rumors catch fire

Is Ireland big enough for Bill Clinton ? The chatter about what Mr. Clinton might do next has often tended toward the grandiose. In the past, there was talk of making an exception just this once and nominating President Clinton to serve as United Nations secretary-general. (No American has ever served in that post.) More recently, the former president – who served successfully as unofficial explainer-in-chief in President Obama ’s reelection campaign – has emerged as the darling candidate of some Mideast experts, should Mr. Obama decide to name a special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But now come the Washington rumors that what Clinton may really covet is the US ambassadorship to Ireland. Absent any confirmation of interest from the former president, the question is whether the globe-trotting Clinton, accustomed to addressing Haiti earthquake recovery one day and the AIDS challenge the next – not to mention the annual summit of his Clinton Global Initiative with world leaders in New York – is ready to retire to the relative backwater of Dublin . The speculation stems in part from a recent quip from Clinton, who noted while on his third trip this year to the Emerald Isle in November that “I could run for president of Ireland” if only he owned a home there. (Clinton, born William Jefferson Blythe, is of Irish ancestry, though not direct enough to satisfy Irish law.) Those stoking the rumor fires note that Clinton can probably get just about anything he wants from a grateful Mr. Obama. [Could you be ambassador to Ireland? Take our Foreign Service Exam] Those fires roared with new kindling when Clinton’s wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton , sidestepped an opportunity to douse the rumors while on a stop of her own this week in – where else, Ireland. “I cannot comment on what President Obama might do in the second term, it’s his decision,” Secretary Clinton said Thursday, while in Dublin to attend a European security conference. “But I would think that my husband will be here many times in the future and doing the work that he has been doing without having the title of ambassador.” Thus Secretary Clinton, who is practiced in the artful dodge after facing questions about her own future presidential aspirations at virtually every stop she makes (including in Ireland), answered a question by ruling nothing out. Both Clintons are popular in Ireland. As president, Clinton played an important role in bringing the Northern Ireland conflict to a peace agreement in 1998, and both Clintons have remained active in shepherding the peace process forward. Northern Ireland’s leaders paid tribute to Secretary Clinton and her husband when she visited Belfast Friday. Mr. Clinton was recently named a “Freeman of Limerick,” and a statue of him was erected at a golf course there. Some political observers point out that Ireland would be the perfect place for Secretary Clinton to get the rest she says she longs for after four years of intense diplomacy and international travel. And what better surroundings than the lush Irish countryside for mulling a 2016 White House run, they add. But there’s still that issue of the match between a diminutive Ireland and an outsize Bill. Even Arkansas , the last smallish place where Clinton reigned, is nearly twice the size of Ireland. Could you be ambassador to Ireland? Take our Foreign Service Exam. Related stories Are you smarter than a US diplomat? Take our Foreign Service Exam. New polls fuel speculation about Hillary Clinton in 2016 Hillary Clinton's next job? Surely not the one Mayor Bloomberg floated. Bill Clinton speech: Has he become Obama's defender-in-chief? (+video) Read this story at csmonitor.com Become a part of the Monitor community Become a Facebook fan! Follow us on Twitter! Follow us on Google+ Link up with us! Subscribe to our RSS feeds!

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GOP Senate group aided Akin despite disavowal

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Despite publicly disavowing candidate Todd Akin after his "legitimate rape" remark, the National Republican Senatorial Committee quietly sent $760,000 to Missouri in a last-ditch attempt to aid Akin's unsuccessful bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. The long-suspected money shuffling, which had never previously been confirmed, is detailed in a postelection campaign finance report filed this week by the Missouri Republican State Committee. A spokesman for Senate Democrats asserted Friday that the funding was "underhanded and dishonest." The Republican senatorial committee had said it would no longer support Akin after the suburban St. Louis congressman remarked in August that women's bodies have ways of avoiding pregnancy in what he called "legitimate rape." Although Akin apologized, he refused calls from leading Republicans to drop out of the race so that the Missouri GOP could field a replacement candidate. By remaining in the race, Akin left the Republican senatorial committee with an awkward decision: Reverse course and support Akin, regardless of how it might affect the party's image, or stand pat and further jeopardize Akin's chances of winning and the GOP's chances of taking control of the Senate. It split the difference — publicly standing by its disavowal of Akin while privately funneling money to his campaign. A federal campaign finance report shows that the Missouri Republican State Committee received $760,000 from the NRSC in two payments made Nov. 1 and Nov. 2. About the same time, the state Republican committee made two payments totaling $756,000 for TV ads supporting Akin, according to the finance report. Neither the NRSC nor the state GOP committee would confirm the source of the money at the time of the ad buys. Spokesmen for the two Republican groups did not immediately return messages Friday. Akin's former campaign spokesman, Ryan Hite, said Friday that he always had assumed the money came from the NRSC. "No one actually ever officially told us," Hite said. But "everything tended to be implied of where the state committee got this money. ... It was very quiet." Democrats denounced the secretive payments as deceptive. "It was underhanded and dishonest that they would purposely mislead the public about their actions," said Matt Canter, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. McCaskill campaign manager Adrianne Marsh said it was "insulting to Missourians that the NRSC thought they could get away" with quietly directing money to Akin. "I don't know what's worse, the hypocrisy or the evasion," Marsh said. The money was too little, too late to help Akin. McCaskill solidly defeated him with 55 percent of the vote to his 39 percent — the largest victory margin for a Missouri Senate race in 18 years. Akin had expressed frustration during the campaign that the Republican senatorial group had not publicly supported him as part of their drive to gain the four seats necessary to take control of the Senate away from Democrats. As it turned out, Democrats ended up gaining two additional Senate seats. "I don't know if anyone could pinpoint exactly what won or lost the election for McCaskill or for Akin, but I'm sure that having those expenditures earlier on would definitely have given us a boost — I have no doubt about that," Hite said. One organization that did publicly come to Akin's defense was the Kansas City-based Now or Never Political Action Committee, which launched a $1 million ad buy in the closing days of the campaign. At the time, the source of that money also was unclear. A finance report filed this week by the organization shows it received $800,000 from wealthy Missouri businessman Rex Sinquefield on Nov. 1. That came one day after the organization reported making a similarly sized payment for ads supporting Akin. The committee also had other contributors, and made an additional $200,000 ad buy for Akin on Nov. 2. Since his loss, Akin has sent emails to supporters seeking money to pay off campaign debt. But it's not clear how much he still owes, because his campaign declined to release a summary of its postelection finance report. McCaskill's campaign provided a summary Friday showing she spent nearly $19.3 million on her re-election and has a debt of $238,000. Marsh said the campaign has outstanding invoices for ad production.

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Obama to attend PSY performance despite protests

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will attend a charity concert where PSY is scheduled to perform after reports that the South Korean rapper participated in anti-American protests several years ago. A spokesman says Friday that the Obama family will attend the Dec. 21 Christmas in Washington concert, as is custom. News reports cite two instances of the 34-year-old "Gangnam Style" rapper participating in concerts protesting the U.S. military presence in South Korea during the early stages of the war in Iraq. In a 2004 concert, PSY performs another act's song about killing "Yankees" who have been torturing Iraqi captives and their families "slowly and painfully." PSY's inescapable hit went viral in the U.S. and holds the YouTube record for most watched video. A message left with his spokeswoman was not immediately returned.

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Democrats use jobs report as ammunition in ‘fiscal cliff’ fight

Amid the standoff in Washington, D.C., over a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff," Democrats received a boost when the November jobs report showed a drop in unemployment. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 146,000 in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report released on Friday, and unemployment dropped from 7.9 percent in October to 7.7 percent in November. The chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger, noted in a statement that the unemployment rate was at its "lowest since December 2008." "It is critical that we continue the policies that are building an economy that works for the middle class," Krueger said. At a press conference on Capitol Hill on Friday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi began with what she called the "encouraging news" on jobs, and then launched into an assault on Republicans for failing to support the president's fiscal policies and preventing the economy from "growing at a faster rate." Republicans, she said, "are holding the middle-income tax cuts, as they always have, hostage to tax cuts for the wealthy." Democrats want tax increases for families making $250,000 or more as part of a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff—the automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to go into effect Jan. 1. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid echoed those sentiments in a statement on Friday: "While too many Americans in Nevada and across the country continue to struggle, there is no doubt our economy is moving in the right direction.The only question is whether Republicans will jeopardize the progress made so far by forcing a $2,200 tax hike on middle-class families, or initiating another destructive fight over the debt ceiling." Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who is leading the GOP fight over the fiscal cliff, was asked at a press conference on Friday why, in the face of "improving" jobs numbers, would he take a risk on having Congress fail to reach a deal on the fiscal cliff. Boehner responded, "Because the risk the president wants us to take—increasing tax rates—will hit many small businesses that produce 60 to 70 percent of the new jobs market. That's the whole issue here."

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