Iran announced Sunday that it has started a new production line of highly accurate, short range cruise missiles, which would add a new element to the country’s already imposing arsenal.

Gen. Ahmad Vahidi told Iranian state TV that the cruise missile, called Nasr 1, would be capable of destroying targets up to 3,000 tons in size.  The minister said the missile can be fired from ground-based launchers as well as ships, but would eventually be modified to be fired from helicopters and submarines.

Western powers are already concerned about Iran’s military capabilities, especially the implications of its nuclear program. The U.S. and some of its allies, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency, fear Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons.  [Read More]

American bomb disposal experts in Iraq say few people understood what they did.

Not any more.

Now, the U.S. military’s explosive experts are basking in their job’s newfound fame after the Iraq war drama “The Hurt Locker” took home the best picture prize at Sunday’s Academy Awards in Hollywood.  [Read More]

Five Wisconsin residents have been charged with criminal counts of voter fraud in the November 2008 general election, state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced today.

Two of those charged, Maria Miles and Kevin Clancy, are workers for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the embattled community group.  [Read More]

(H/T The Drudge Report)

In its biggest move yet to repay a $182.3 billion U.S.-government bailout, American International Group Inc. neared an agreement late Sunday to sell its crown-jewel Asian life-insurance business to Prudential PLC for about $35.5 billion, people familiar with the situation said.

The government-controlled insurer’s board approved the sale of American International Assurance Ltd. and was close to signing the deal Sunday night. Federal Reserve and Treasury Department officials also signed off on it.  [Read More]

(H/T The Wall Street Journal)

In a report from the Associated Press, President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the main U.S. counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act.  Provisions in the measure would have expired on Sunday without Obama’s signature Saturday.

Although the President did authorize an extension of the world famous Patriot Act for another year, it is clear the President still lacks the necessary ‘War On Terror’ mindset needed to be successful as Commander In Chief in the midst of two wars.  Our naive ‘Candidate Obama’ (a title he has yet to relinquish) was to “do away with” the evil Patriot Act (as coined by radical leftists) practically when he took office on Day 1, and shortly after he officially clicked the padlock on the prison quarters at Guantanamo Bay.  It looks to me like we should go ahead an chalk-up another mark in the FAILED CAMPAIGN PROMISES column.  Thanks Mr. President!  If we could only get that check book, pen and microphone away from you, maybe your Presidency will actually shape up and look decent, yet you will likely always be compared to “President Peanut” Jimmy Carter as the worst President ever.

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran said on Monday it is considering plans to build two new uranium enrichment plants concealed inside mountains to avert air strikes, drawing condemnation from the United States.

The announcement from Iran’s atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi came soon after top US General David Petraeus warned that Washington would now pursue a “pressure track” against Iran to thwart its galloping nuclear program.

World powers suspect Iran is enriching uranium to make nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.  Enriched uranium can be used as fuel to power nuclear reactors or in a highly refined form to produce the fissile core of an atom bomb.  [Read More]

The Washington Times reports the era of big government has returned with a vengeance, in the form of the largest federal work force in modern history.

The Obama administration says the government will grow to 2.15 million employees this year, topping 2 million for the first time since President Clinton declared that “the era of big government is over” and joined forces with a Republican-led Congress in the 1990s to pare back the federal work force.  [Read More]

According to Townhall, a Senior Intelligence Officials instructed Congress today that Al-Qaeda is expected to attempt an attack on the United States in the next three to six months.

CIA Director Leon Panetta insists the terrorist organization is deploying operatives to the United States to carry out new attacks from inside the country, including “clean” recruits with a negligible trail of terrorist contacts.  [Read More]

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Senate voted 70-30 to reappoint Ben Bernanke for a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Democrats have been running around frantically pushing the ‘necessary’ re-confirmation of Bernanke (just as they did with the Porkulus, Healthcare, Climategate, etc.) while promoting little examination of his effect on the American economy.  Sen. Robert Menendez, (D) New Jersey rambled a fearful message today stating, “”To vote against confirmation could unnerve investors and exacerbate economic uncertainty.”

Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee reminded the American people that “Bernanke fiddled while our markets burned.”  [Read More]

The markets responded quite contrary to Sen. Menendez’ remarks with the dramatic plunge upon news of the Bernanke re-confirmation.  Americans and investors alike understand that a vote for Bernanke is a vote for more Bailouts and further Government intervention into the private sector and their daily lives.  Until midterm elections later this year, one can only wonder how much more destruction the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress will unleash on the American economy and way of life.

From Michelle Malkin at Townhall:

There are more loopholes in President Obama’s proposed “spending freeze” than in an Olympic volleyball net. Gargantuan government entitlements (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) are exempt. A half-trillion in unspent stimulus money is exempt. Foreign aid is exempt. The Democrats’ proposed $154 billion jobs bill (Stimulus II) is exempt.

Pet federal education programs will be exempt (including $4 billion for the White House “Race to the Top” standards initiative and an additional $1.35 billion he just requested in the 2011 budget). Green jobs spending will be exempt. (Obama proposed $10 billion in new clean energy spending earlier this month.) Electorally driven tax-credit expansions will be exempt. The health care takeover plan is not included. As even The New York Times reported, the “estimated $250 billion in savings over 10 years would be less than 3 percent of the roughly $9 trillion in additional deficits the government is expected to accumulate over that time.”  [Read More]