The Golden Report

The Evening Report for Monday December 12

22 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

TOP STORY: NEARING A DEAL- Reports from Capitol Hill that Congressional appropriators have reached a deal- barring technical corrections- on a $1+ trillion spending measure to fund the federal government into next fiscal year, a key item on Congress’ to-do list before the holiday recess.

From The Hill:

“Congress must approve the omnibus or a temporary spending measure by the end of the day Friday to prevent a government shutdown.

Though they are still working out details, negotiators have been able to agree on a full nine-bill package that they plan to file with the House Rules Committee on Tuesday.

The package will include the Labor-Health and Interior-Environment bills, despite worries late last week that the two parties would be unable to resolve differences over those two spending packages. Aides said compromises had been worked out on controversial environmental, union and healthcare riders.

Another key compromise on the overall omnibus is an agreement to put disaster aid in a separate bill.

The August debt-ceiling deal set a top-line spending limit in 2012 of $1.043 trillion for all 12 appropriations bills, but also permits additional disaster spending of up to $11.3 billion.   “

The bill is expected to be filed in the House of Representatives tomorrow.

TO-DO LIST: Congress must act on the following items before recessing for the year:

Payroll tax extension
Unemployment insurance extension
Medicare “doc fix” and other tax provisions due to expire on 12/31

ENDING A WAR: President Obama met today with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Washington, three weeks before the last remaining United States troops are scheduled to leave that country, ending the 7-year long US war in Iraq.

From National Journal:

“This is a historic moment,” Obama said Monday during a visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “A war is ending. A new day is upon us and let us never forget those who gave us this chance.”

Speaking to reporters alongside Maliki, Obama said the Iraqi premier’s decisions regarding the region were motivated by his sense of nationalism rather than any loyalty to his Shiite neighbor, Iran.

“Prime Minister Maliki has been explicit here in the United States, he’s been explicit back in Iraq that his interest is in maintaining Iraqi sovereignty and preventing meddling by anybody inside of Iraq, and I believe him,” Obama said. “He has shown himself to make very tough decisions in the interest of Iraqi nationalism, even if they cause problems with his neighbor.”

SOUNDBITE: In response to a reporter’s question on whether the invasion of Iraq was a “dumb war” “the President said “History will judge the original decision to go into Iraq.”

RNC ATTACKS OBAMA ON 60 MINUTES- Last night, the President said it was his job to “put forward a vision for the country that benefits the vast majority of Americans.” Today, the RNC is up with a new ad that says “America needs jobs, not a vision” Expect this to be a continued line of attack next year

THE LONG ROAD: In an interview today with POLITICO’s Mike Allen in New Hampshire, Mitt Romney suggested that the primary season, that he had once wanted to finish swiftly with victories in the early states, could last well into the spring.

“You see how dramatically the numbers have moved and how quickly they have over the last year?” he replied Monday during a video interview at a grubby French-Canadian diner, Chez Vachon, a storied campaign stop that has hosted George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

“It’s a very fluid electorate. I think I’ll get the nomination. I can’t predict when. … I’ve got — what? — five or six more months to go to make that a reality.”

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS MEET GINGRICH-HUNTSMAN today in New Hampshire during a meeting between the candidates at opposite ends of national public opinion polling.

From the AP’s Steve Peoples:

“There were no time limits, formal rules or reporters asking questions.

And if you ask Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman, they would say there were no clear winners or losers Monday night in what was billed as a “Lincoln-Douglas” presidential debate modeled after the 1858 meetings of Illinois Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.

In fact, after a 90-minute free-flowing discussion about foreign policy and national security, it was difficult to discern a single area where the Republican presidential contenders disagreed. There were no rhetorical bombs thrown. And what criticism surfaced was aimed at President Barack Obama and America’s threats abroad.

Yet Gingrich was absolutely thrilled.

“This is what we should have a lot more of, because this is substantive,” said Gingrich, the former House speaker. “This is not a Hollywood game. This is not a reality show. This is reality.”

In some ways, the format was a dream come true for Gingrich, a self-proclaimed historian and former college professor, whose intellect and willingness to challenge his rivals has aided a sudden rise in the polls. Having lost most of his campaign cash and staffers over the summer, he bet his presidential ambitions almost exclusively on national media interviews and debates.”

WALL STREET: “An aggressive two-week rally came to a quiet thud Monday on Wall Street, in a light-volume selloff triggered by the familiar fears that Europe was far from solving its sovereign debt crisis,” CNBC reports

DOW down 163
NASDAQ down 35
S&P 500 down 19

“STRONG” PARODIES: Last week, we brought you Rick Perry’s campaign ad “Strong” in which he says “You don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”

It now has more dislikes on YouTube than Rebecca Black’s “Friday” and has drawn rebukes and criticism despite being widely viewed and discussed.

The AP ran a story today on the several video parodies that have been posted as replies to Perry’s ad.

“First, there’s the jacket. Many videos have noted that it’s the same type worn by actor Heath Ledger in the 2005 movie “Brokeback Mountain,” which centers on a long love affair between two cowboys.

Many of the video parodies feature actors wearing the shirt and jacket combo, including video satirist Andy Cobb.

“I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m an atheist,” Cobb says, “but you know there’s something wrong with this country when politicians think it’s OK to hate on gays and nonbelievers in ads.”

Another video shows a brown-jacketed rabbi, Jason Miller.

“I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a Jew,” Miller says. “There’s something wrong in our country when gays can serve openly in the military but still can’t marry each other in most U.S. states.”

FOR PROFESSIONAL COMMENT: Stephen Farnsworth, an associate professor of communications at George Mason University, said the ad may well help Perry in Iowa, where polls are starting to show him inch up a bit. But Farnsworth said the ad’s message — and the parodies it has spawned — won’t help in the long run, particularly when it comes to connecting with moderate and swing voters.

“The worst thing to be in American politics is a joke,” Farnsworth said.

The Huffington Post is running a contest where you can vote for your favorite parody video, including one that has nearly 100,00 views by THE EVENING REPORT’s resident video blogger JAMES KOTECKI.

FINALLY: RETHINKING THE INK- The Washington Post-

“If tattoos are the marks of an era — declarations of love, of loss, of triumph, of youthful exuberance or youthful foolishness — then tattoo removals are about regret, confessions that those landmarks are in the past. They’re about the realization that whatever you believed in with such force that you wanted it eternally branded on your skin is now foreign to you.

According to the Pew Research Center, more than 40 percent of Americans between the ages of 26 and 40 have at least one tattoo. Getting a tattoo, once the province of sailors rather than suburbanites, is so mainstream that tats are inked at the mall and seen on everyone from Middle American mothers to H Street hipsters to Hollywood starlets.

Perhaps not surprisingly, a parallel trend is emerging: tattoo removal, with dozens of businesses and training schools opening across the country.”

The Evening Report for Thursday December 08

26 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

TOP STORY: Shooting at Virginia Tech- A VT campus police officer on a routine traffic stop was shot dead today by a gunmen, who police believe later shot himself on the campus of the Blacksburg, Virginia university that is the site of the worst school shooting in American history, on April 16, 2007.

JUST IN: Police have identifed the slain police officer as 39-year old Deriek Crouse. He is survived by his wife and five children.

From The Washington Post:

“A routine traffic stop at Virginia Tech turned violent Thursday, leaving a police officer and his assailant dead and the campus on lockdown, a scenario reminiscent of the 2007 massacre that claimed 33 lives and redefined how universities respond to emergencies.

The mayhem began about 12:15 p.m., when a Virginia Tech patrol officer stopped a driver at the university’s coliseum parking lot. Someone — not the person who was pulled over — walked up to the officer and shot him. The shooter then ran.

The officer’s body was found in a sprawling parking lot near the Virginia Tech stadium. The gunman’s body, along with a weapon, were found in another parking lot nearby, law enforcement and government officials said. Authorities say they think he killed himself as police closed in. They would not say whether he was a student.”

TONIGHT normal operations have resumed on the Virginia Tech with the most recent message from the University reading:

“Virginia Tech Police, in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, have determined that there is no longer an active threat or a need to secure in place. Resume normal activities.”

SENATE BLOCKS CORDRAY NOMINATION: Voting 53-47 and failing to reach the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican-led filibuster, the Senate today refused to move forward with the nomination of Richard Cordray to be the first commissioner of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The vote, while expected, was used as leverage by the President, who went into the Press Briefing Room of The White House at 11:30am- minutes after the vote- to lambast Senate Republicans. Many expect that the President may move to nominate Cordray via recess appointment over the holidays, if the Senate adjourns.

FROM THE PRESIDENTS REMARKS:

“This morning, Senate Republicans blocked his nomination, refusing to let the Senate even go forward with an up or down vote on Mr. Cordray. This makes absolutely no sense.

There is no reason why Mr. Cordray should not be nominated, and should not be confirmed by the Senate, and should not be doing his job right away in order to carry out his mandate and his mission.

So I just want to send a message to the Senate: We are not giving up on this. We’re going to keep on going at it. We are not going to allow politics as usual on Capitol Hill to stand in the way of American consumers being protected by unscrupulous financial operators. And we’re going to keep on pushing on this issue.”

ON TAX CUTS

The President also continued his pitch for Congress to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut, an issue that many political analysts say he has a leading position on.

“And I just want to make clear: This is not about me. They shouldn’t extend the payroll tax cut for me. They shouldn’t extend unemployment insurance for me. This is for 160 million people who, in 23 days, are going to see their taxes go up if Congress doesn’t act. This is for 5 million individuals who are out there looking for a job and can’t find a job right now in a tough economy who could end up not being able to pay their bills or keep their house if Congress doesn’t act.

So rather than trying to figure out what can they extract politically from me in order to get this thing done, what they need to do is be focused on what’s good for the economy, what’s good for jobs and what’s good for the American people.

And I made very clear I do not expect Congress to go home unless the payroll tax cut is extended and unless unemployment insurance is extended. It would be wrong for families, but it would also be wrong for the economy as a whole”

ON KEEPING CONGRESS IN SESSION THROUGH CHRISTMAS

“With respect to my vacation, I would not ask anybody to do something I’m not willing to do myself. So I know some of you might have been looking forward to a little sun and sand — but the bottom line is, is that we are going to stay here as long as it takes to make sure that the American people’s taxes don’t go up on January 1st, and to make sure that folks who desperately need unemployment insurance get that help. And there’s absolutely no excuse for us not getting it done.”

ON PLAN B

In his press conference, the President also affirmed support for Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and her decision yesterday to overrule a FDA recommendation and restrict access to the Morning After Pill, also known as “Plan B”

THE OSAMA CARD

But this morning’s press conference might be remembered most because the President responded to his Republican rivals who have questioned his foreign policy credentials by referencing his Administration’s successful killing of Osama bin Laden. The President has only referenced the killing a few times, and never so explicitly in this political context.

“Ask Osama bin Laden, and the 22 out of 30 top Al Qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement — or whoever is left out there, ask them about that.”

WALL STREET:

DOW down 198
NASDAQ down 53
S&P 500 down 27

CAMPAIGN 2012:

SANTORUM NABS BIG ENDORSEMENT- Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz is set to endorse Santorum on Friday

RICK PERRY is beginning a bus tour on Saturday across the state of Iowa, leading up to the January 3rd caucuses

As MITT ROMNEY sharpens his attack against frontrunner NEWT GINGRICH, Gingrich is trying to stay above the fray, telling reporters in South Carolina today, “We’re gonna stay positive. All I’m gonna say is, we’re gonna stay positive. We’re gonna stay solution-oriented and talk about what America needs to do. And the only opponent I have is Barack Obama.”

THE NEXT DEBATE is Saturday, 9pm ET, nationally televised on ABC News and sponsored by the Iowa Republican Party.

In next week’s edition, TIME Magazine goes behind the scenes of the Obama Campaign’s war room, including this passage:

“Obama’s guerrilla war on Republicans is being waged on three fronts. At the White House, senior aides including David Plouffe oversee a master strategy and communicate most often with the President, while the growing Chicago operation focuses on rapid responses to candidate attacks on Obama.

The Dems’ attacks come from the second floor of the DNC headquarters, a few blocks south of the Capitol, where communications director Brad Woodhouse oversees a daily flood of biting e-mails, ads and Web videos.

A sign of his instincts: his glass-walled office is plastered with a half-dozen images of kittens in fields, kittens purring for the camera, kittens pawing each other. Look closely and one of the images stands out: a Photoshopped picture of George W. Bush biting into a kitten like a cob of corn, a clear sign that this is not the workplace for the faint of heart. It is an oft repeated maxim of Obamaland’s that the country is closely divided and the final count next November is likely to be so too. “

FINALLY...HOW TO GET FIRED, QUICKLY…From the Hill’s Justin Sink

“Three staffers for Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) were fired Thursday after a series of tweets in which they insulted the congressman, complained about their work and described drinking on the job.

“We became aware of the issue through a tweet referencing an article about the incident. Congressman Larsen immediately decided to fire the three staff members involved in the incident,” Larsen spokesman Bryan Thomas said in a statement.

“Congressman Larsen is disappointed by their actions and takes this very seriously. He has made it clear that he will not tolerate this kind of behavior.”

The tweets — which belonged to legislative assistants Seth Burroughs and Elizabeth Robbee and legislative correspondent Ben Byers — repeatedly referenced “December to Remember,” a campaign devised by the staffers to spend the final month of the legislative session in what the Daily Marker called “a state of perpetual debauchery.”

According to the tweets, the “December to Remember” began with a round of shots on the steps of the Cannon House Office building. From there, staffers sneaked drinks throughout the workday, watched music videos on YouTube, and lobbed insults at their bosses.

Burroughs, in tweets that spanned multiple months, referred to Larsen as an “idiot” and a “selfish a———.” He also described sneaking shots of Jack Daniels in his coffee and destroying his work Blackberry.”

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The Evening Report for Thursday November 17

TOP STORY: Tonight, Congress has averted a potential government shutdown with the passage of a continuing appropriations bill for most of the federal government, and a spending package dubbed the “minibus” that funds five agencies for the rest of this year.

Earlier, the House voted 298-121 to approve the bill, with 101 Republicans breaking ranks with their party and voting against the bill. Tonight, the Senate voted 70-30 to send the bill to the President, with all Democrats voting in favor and most Republicans voting against.

Interestingly, with the President out of the country and the current continuing resolution lapsing at midnight, it is very likely that the bill Congress passed tonight, H.R. 2112, will be signed with an auto pen, only the second time in history when this procedure has been used (The previous time, earlier this year, occurred with the President was also out of the country and Congress passed a continuation of the USA PATRIOT Act).

The passage of tonight’s CR is a rare moment of bi-partisanship for a bitterly divided Congress, but there are no signs that the apparent goodwill will extend to the major issue Congress is considering: the Supercommittee’s deficit reduction charge.

POLITICO’s HEADLINE TONIGHT: “Supercommittee talks on brink of collapse.” From lead reporter Jake Sherman:

“Democrats appeared to be working on a new offer Thursday evening, but Republicans said they were not working on a fresh proposal. Staff level discussions were ongoing, aides said, but there was not much optimism.

With less than a week until the deadline, both parties appear ready to rally around their competing proposals — setting up a partisan showdown in the days before Thanksgiving.

Both proposals are like to fail in the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Wednesday.”

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

All members of the Committee are scheduled to be in Washington this weekend though it is not clear if the full Committee will meet or if work will continue in smaller groups. It is also unclear at what point, if ever, Congressional leadership may be called in to break any impasse. The Committee now has less than one week, until Wednesday November 23rd, to produce its final proposal.

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL TODAY:

NEWT GINGRICH continued to face questions about his consulting contract with Freddie Mac. As Gingrich’s standing has risen in the poll numbers, so too has the media questions about his long record of public service, which conflicts with his campaign’s message of being a fresh face and not a creature of Washington.

HERMAN CAIN turned down an opportunity to meet with the editorial board of the New Hampshire Union-Leader today, an almost unheard of decision less than 60 days before the New Hampshire primary.

The paper’s endorsement is seen as one of the most coveted, and important, in the run up to the primary and Cain’s apparent dissing is not likely to go over well. Of course, Cain did not have a good experience earlier this week with the editorial board of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, when he gave a long and waffling answer on US military policy in Africa.

Cain did, however, find time to make a visit to New York City tonight to tape the Late Show with David Letterman.

As of today, Cain is also receiving Secret Service protection, the agency reported today.

As Mike Allen reports tonight:

“We are protecting Herman Cain,” Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said. He said the decision was made by Homeland Security “Secretary Napolitano, at the request of the Cain campaign and in consultation with the Congressional advisory committee.”

“The authority was given to the Service to protect Herman Cain [beginning] today,” Donovan said.

Asked about the decision to protect Cain about a year before the general election, Donovan said: “Historically, it’s not that unusual.” The Secret Service spokesman noted protection was granted to Jesse Jackson at a similar point during his two campaigns, to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) in October 1979 and to a variety of candidates at a similar point in the 1976 cycle.

Donovan declined to say whether any threats prompted the decision to protect Cain, who at this point is the only candidate under protection other than President Barack Obama. “We don’t discuss the deliberations on which an assessment is made,” the spokesman said.”

WHITE HOUSE SHOOTING SUSPECT Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez was charged today by federal officials with attempting to assassinate the president or his staff, stemming from Friday night’s bullet exchange close to the White House that ended up reaching a glass window on the Truman Balcony. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Meanwhile, new details are emerging about Ortega and his evidently makeshift plot, as The Washington Post reports,

“Authorities said Ortega was clad in black when he pulled his car within view of the White House on Friday night, fired shots and then sped away. The White House has not said whether the Obamas’ daughters, Sasha and Malia, were there at the time or commented on the shooting.

Ortega was questioned by police on Friday morning, before the shootings, just across the Potomac River from Washington in Arlington, Va. Police said they stopped him after a report of suspicious behavior, but let him go after photographing him because they had no reason to make an arrest.”

WALL STREET: After some traders were inconvenienced on their way into work today because of the Occupy Wall Street protests that declared today a day of mobilization, on the two month anniversary of the protests, anxiety from both Europe and Washington contributed to another down day. European stocks reported six-month lows today.

DOW down 135
NASDAQ down 52
S&P 500 down 21

SYRIA UPDATE: For a second day, Syrian Army defectors engaged in attacks on government buildings and other landmarks today, a striking demonstration of the sectarian strife now turning violent in a country that is at risk of descending into civil war.

As The New York Times reports:

“The attacks may have been more symbolic than effective, but could mark the increased ability of a growing number of defectors to publicize their exploits. Attacks on government installations — in the southern town of Dara’a and the central city of Homs, for instance — have been reported since the start of the uprising.

The attacks themselves paled before the bloodiest episodes of Syria’s last uprising in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Then, insurgents stormed the office of the Aleppo Artillery School, killing 32 cadets. It was unclear whether anyone was killed or wounded in these attacks, but the constituency of armed strikes and the bold choice of targets has heightened the profile of Syria’s armed insurgency.”

FINALLY: Demi Moore and Ashton Kucher are getting divorced.

Today, Moore told the Associated Press, “As a woman, a mother and a wife, there are certain values and vows that I hold sacred, and it is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life,” indicating that the reason for the divorce was Kucher cheating on Moore with Sara Leal in Las Vegas earlier this year.

Tonight, Kucher tweeted, “I will forever cherish the time I spent with Demi. Marriage is one of the most difficult things in the world and unfortunately sometimes they fail. Love and Light, AK.”

THE EVENING REPORT will next publish on Monday November 21 after your editor returns from a Caribbean cruise.

The Golden Report for Wednesday October 12

TOP STORY: The House of Representatives earlier tonight approved three trade agreements- with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. The Senate is currently in session and expected to also approve the free trade agreements by later tonight. The passage of the FTAs marks a rare occurrence in present-day Washington, bi-partisan consensus. The vote on the Colombian deal, the most contentious of the three, was 262-167, including 32 Democrats. Panama was approved 300-129. South Korea was approved by a 278-151 vote. In addition, the House approved an extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance legislation, with about half of the Republican caucus voting for the separate bill. Tomorrow, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak address a joint session of Congress and attends a State Dinner at The White House. Today’s action in Congress is the most significant on trade issues since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993.

NEW NBC NEWS/WALL STREET JOURNAL POLL out tonight:

CAIN 27%

ROMNEY 23%

PERRY 16%

PAUL 11%

GINGRICH 8%

BACHMANN 5%

HUNTSMAN 3%

SANTORUM 1%

President Obama Job Approval Rating: 44%, Disapprove: 51%

The surge of Herman Cain to the top of the NBC/WSJ poll, conducted last Thursday through Monday (over the Columbus Day Weekend) is both surprising and clearly short-lived. After Cain’s performance in last night’s New Hampshire Debate, the media is not taking a serious examination of his “9-9-9” economic and tax plan and asking more critical questions.

HEAD TO HEADS:

Obama 46%

Romney 44%

Obama 49%

Cain 38%

Obama 51%

Perry 39%

Obama 44%

Generic Republican 42%

NEW HAMPSHIRE Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who has the sole authority under New Hampshire law to schedule the date of the state’s traditional “First in the Nation” presidential primary, today threatened to hold the primary in December of this year if Nevada does not change the date of their caucuses, currently scheduled for Saturday 01/14/2012.

From Gardner’s extraordinary statement, “Why New Hampshire’s Primary Tradition is Important”:

DEMOCRACY IS HARD WORK. Protecting American democracy has been a

cause of freedom in our nation for over two centuries, and our fellow citizens who

have gone before us dedicated their lives, and in some cases lost their lives, in that

fight. The principles of democracy and freedom are worth every bit of that fight.

For nearly 100 years, the New Hampshire First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary

has had meaning and relevance to American politics.

NEW HAMSHIRE IS FIRST FOR A REASON

IT’S REALLY UP TO NEVADA. If Nevada does not accept a date of Tuesday,

January 17 th or later for its caucus, it leaves New Hampshire no choice but to

consider December of this year. The dates of Tuesday, December 13th and

Tuesday, December 6th are realistic options, and we have logistics in place to

make either date happen if needed.

THE NEXT STEPS are not clear. Presumably, there will be negotiations between New Hampshire and Nevada, perhaps coordinated by the national Republican Party. It still seems very unlikely that, despite Gardner’s threats to the contrary, that the New Hampshire Primary will be held this year. the dates he mentioned are nearly (and less than) two months away.

THE EVENING REPORT predicts that Gardner will eventually relent and schedule his state’s primary on Tuesday January 10th, eight days after Iowa and four days before Nevada.

IN DETROIT today, the accused “underwear bomber,” Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab pleaded guilty to terrorism charges stemming from the attempted 2009 terrorist attack to bring down a Northwest Airlines plane on Christmas Day. Abdul Muttalab had been acting in his own defense at his trial, which began this week. His guilty plea was an unexpected development.

“I carried with me an explosive device to avenge the killing of innocent Muslims,” Abdul Mutallab said, according to a CNN report, adding that the failed plot was in retaliation for “U.S. tyranny and oppression of Muslims. I am guilty of this by U.S. law, but not in the Koran,” he added. “If you laugh at us now, we will laugh to you later.”

STATEMENT from Attorney General Eric Holder “Contrary to what some have claimed, today’s plea removes any doubt that our courts are one of the most effective tools we have to fight terrorism and keep the American people safe. Our priority in this case was to ensure that we arrested a man who tried to do us harm, that we collected actionable intelligence from him and that we prosecuted him in a way that was consistent with the rule of law. We will continue to be aggressive in our fight against terrorism and those who target us, and we will let results, not rhetoric, guide our actions.”

Abdul Muttalab’s most serious of eight charges, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He is expected to be formally sentenced in early January next year.

WALL STREET TODAY:

Dow up 103

NASDAQ up 21

S&P 500 up 12

IN EUROPE, Slovakian leaders have reached an agreement between the opposition party and the party of the outgoing government (dissolved yesterday in a no-confidence vote) to bring the Eurozone bailout fund back to parliament for a second vote by Friday, when it is expected to pass. Slovakia would then become the 17th and final European Union nation to approve the bailout, setting into motion the next steps in attempts by European leaders to save off a serious debt crisis.

The Dow is now hovering around the unchanged mark, year to date.

FINALLY…it was a tough day for those who are still using the Blackberry, manufactured by the Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM). An international outage entered its third day today and spread through North America, causing messages, including SMS and the device’s popular Blackberry Messenger (BBM) feature to be delayed. RIM offered periodic updates throughout the day through their Twitter account and on their corporate web site.

Here’s how the Wall Street Journal reports on the story tonight:

“RIM blamed the outages, affecting customers on at least five continents, on an internal technical glitch—a failed switch and an inoperable backup. But even as the company promised customers a day earlier that it had fixed that problem—and expected customer service to quickly return—disruptions spread.

In a hastily organized conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon, RIM’s chief technology officer for software, David Yach, said the company didn’t see any signs of hacking or other security breach, but industry analysts didn’t rule out sabotage.

RIM has seen its share price plummet this year—down about 60% since January—as competitors Apple Inc. and Google Inc.’s Android operating system snap up smartphone market share in North America and beyond.”

The Golden Report for Thursday September 29

TOP STORY: Bank of America announced today that they will begin charging a $5 per month fee to debit card users on the bank’s popular “Basic Checking Account.” The move comes as banks around the country adjust to new financial regulations signed into law over a year ago in the Dodd/Frank legislation, that capped credit and debit card interchange fees at about half what the industry had been charging. The decision by the nation’s second-largest bank will likely mean Wells Fargo, Chase and other mid-size and smaller banks will soon follow suit

EUROPEAN BAILOUT: The German Parliament gave approval this morning to a measure to create a Eurozone bailout fund- a vote in the upper parliament is expected tomorrow and it is expected to pass. German support is critical to the eventual creation of the fund and give it significant momentum.

COOL CHART: List of Countries in the World by Credit Rating. S&P has GREECE at CC Negative- the lowest ranking of any other nation in the world, according to the agency.

WALL STREET: In continuing volatile Thursday trading-

Dow up 143
NASDAQ down 11
S&P 500 up 9

CONGRESS RECAP:

The House today approved via a unanimous consent agreement a bill to keep the government funded through Tuesday, averting a potential government shutdown tomorrow night as part of a Senate-brokered agreement earlier this week. Next week, the House will vote on a six week continuing resolution.

House appropriators released their markup of the FY2012 Labor, HHS, Education Appropriation Bill today- one of the largest and most sweeping of the annual appropriation bills. It contains significant cuts to public broadcasting (including NPR), food stamps and national service, blocks all funding for implementation of the Affordable Car Act, and eliminates federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Although only a proposal at this stage, it signals the fight ahead as Congress seeks to pass a yearlong omnibus appropriations act by mid-November

Capitol Police are investing The Onion after a tweet this morning that said there were ““screams and gunfire heard inside Capitol building”. The USCP quickly put out a statement that said there was no incident.

WATCH YOUR E-MAIL: Tomorrow is the final day of the third quarter and a federal election reporting deadline. Candidates, campaigns and party committees, who have been jamming e-mail inboxes all the week, will up their ante over the next twenty-four hours. Watching the Third Quarter political fundraising numbers in the presidential race will give us a sense of how strong Mitt Romney is, how quickly Rick Perry was able to pull together a finance operation, how much President Obama was hurt by having to suspend fundraising during the debt ceiling negotiations, and show if there are any surprises by mid or lower tier candidates

SPACEX announced today that they are building a fully reusable rocket a lofty goal that has long been a challenge for international aviation and aeronautics engineers. At an announcement at the National Press Club, the company released a video demonstration for how the rocket would work. Earlier this month, SpaceX said they are working on a system to dock with the International Space Station. With the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet, the United States no longer has a manned vehicle capable of such a maneuver.

JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Today is the final day on the job for Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen. Tomorrow, Mullen will retire and U.S. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, who was confirmed unanimously by the Senate last month, will become the new Chairman during a ceremony at Ft. Meyer, Va. Mullen is the nation’s 17th JCOS Chairman and began his term on October 01, 2007. The Chairman is the highest ranking official in the US military. Previously, Dempsey was Chief of Staff of the Army, a post he transfered earlier this month to former Joint Chiefs Command General Ray Odierno

FINALLY: First Lady Michelle Obama went to Target today. According to a White House Pool Report, “the First Lady wore grey Nike baseball cap and sunglasses, and was pushing a red shopping cart inside the retailer’s Alexandria, Va., store” POLITICO has a picture.

The Evening Report for Wednesday September 21

BREAKING NEWS- SUPREME COURT DENIES STAY OF EXECUTION FOR TROY DAVIS- Within the past few minutes, the Supreme Court has issued a decision in the case of Troy Davis, the Georgia inmate who is scheduled to be put to death tonight by lethal injection for the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer. The Court has refused to issue a stay of the execution. Prison officials have not yet said whether the execution will go forward as planned tonight, but that is expected. CBS is reporting there were no dissents in the decision, which was issued by Justice Clarence Thomas, of Georgia. For the past few days public attention has been focused on the Davis case- it increased through the day as first a Circuit Court, then the State Supreme Court and now the US Supreme Court have rejected emergency appeals.

TOP STORY- The House of Representatives failed this afternoon to adopt a continuing resolution that would keep the government funded beyond next Saturday’s end of the fiscal year. 48 Republicans joined a majority of Democrats in voting against the CR. Opposition came from Democrats for two reasons: a lower level of funding for FEMA than the Senate has proposed- and an offset that would pay for that increased funding by scrapping grants for a renewable energy program. Conservative Republican opposition came because the CR actually sets a higher level of annual spending than the original House passed FY2012 budget, but is consistent with the bi-partisan discretionary spending caps agreed to in the Budget Control Act of August. Congressional leaders still have over a week to come to a resolution on the funding dispute to prevent a shutdown- but today’s vote was a rare public defeat for the House Speaker, John Boehner

FREE AT LAST- Americans Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, jailed in 2009 after hiking across the Iranian border, were released from Iranian custody this morning and have now been reunited with their families in the Arab nation of Oman. They were detained on July 31, 2009; a third hiker, Sarah Shroud, Bauer’s fiance, was also detained in 2009 and released almost a year ago. Eight days ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told NBC’s Ann Curry in an interview that the hikers would be released “in a mater of days,” and this action comes one day before Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the Untied Nations General Assembly in New York. Bauer and Fatel, now both 29, first met and became friends at the University of California Berkeley

STATEMENT FROM THE PRESIDENT: “I welcome the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal from detention in Iran and am very pleased that they are being reunited with their loved ones. The tireless advocacy of their families over these two years has won my admiration, and is now coming to an end with Josh and Shane back in their arms. All Americans join their families and friends in celebrating their long-awaited return home.”

DEVELOPING TONIGHT- The United States continues to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority over their plans to introduce a measure asking for statehood recognition at the UN on Friday. France has joined the United States in pressuring Palestine to drop their proposal and rejoin negotiations with Israel- with France proposing a new one-year negotiation deadline, that the Palestinian Authority has rejected. President Obama met with both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders today- and also addressed the General Assembly, saying, “One year ago, I stood at this podium and I called for an independent Palestine. I believed then, and I believe now, that the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own. But what I also said is that a genuine peace can only be realized between the Israelis and the Palestinians themselves.”

A BUSY DAY FOR THE PRESIDENT- who held meetings with the leaders of ISRAEL, JAPAN, THE UNITED KINGDOM and FRANCE, addressed the UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY, a luncheon hosted by Secretary-General BAN KI-MOON, and went across town to deliver a speech at the CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE. He has just left a UN LEADER RECEPTION with the First Lady at the NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY and was driven my motorcade to JFK Airport because bad weather grounded Marine One. The President will return to the White House overnight.

TOMORROW, the President travels to OHIO to stand on a bridge on the OHIO/KENTUCKY Border to highlight an infrastructure project that would be funded in the American Jobs Act. Ohio is the home state of Speaker Boehner; Kentucky the home state of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The FEDERAL RESERVE announced today a plan to invest $400 billion in long-term Treasury Securities over the next 9 months, a stimulus measure designed to increase economic growth and a sign that the Central Bank does not see another option for the struggling American economy. From the Fed Statement, “Growth remains slow. Recent indicators point to continuing weakness in overall labor market conditions and the unemployment rate remains elevated..Household spending has been increasing at only a modest pace in recent months.” The lower interest rates are meant to spur investments, but, as the New York Times reports, “The new effort is an experiment without a direct precedent, although the Fed tried something similar in the 1960s. Essentially, the Fed hopes to drive down rates not by expanding its portfolio, as it has done twice in recent years, but by shifting its money into riskier long-term investments.”

WALL STREET responded to the move by the Federal Reserve:

DOW down 283 to 11,124
NASDAQ down 52
S&P 500 down 35

WHAT WE MISSED ON TUESDAY- President Obama will travel to Mountain View, CA next week for the First Presidential LinkedIn Town Hall Meeting. Previously, the President has used YouTube, Facebook and Twitter as platforms to answer questions directly from Americans, online

CORRECTION FROM TUESDAY- In last night’s final item on the acquisition of social networking platform Ning, I misstated the terms of an earlier deal- that of MySpace. As an eagle-eyed reader pointed out: “NewsCorp sold MySpace for $35M (and it was actually plus a 5% stake in Specific Media). NewsCorps originally bought MySpace for $580M (although only $327M was attributed to MySpace as the $580M was for its parent company)”

RUMORS- Hewlett Packard may be considered Meg Whitman, the former Chief Executive of eBay- and 2010 California Republican Gubernatorial Candidate, as its next CEO

2012:

A must-watch campaign video released online by the Perry Campaign today (already has nearly 35,000 YouTube views) depicts President Obama as “President Zero”- using Obama’s words, as a candidate and President, against him and overlaid with the recent news of no new jobs created in August and record poverty rates
A McClatchy/Marist Poll that everyone is talking about: Obama 49%/ Palin 44%
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson has cracked 1% in the polls and thus has claimed a spot in tomorrow night’s Republican Presidential Candidates Debate, sponsored by FOX News and Google, in Orlando.

THREE THINGS TO WATCH in the debate, the third in as many weeks:

1/ The Romney attack on Perry. It was more difficult than expected last week because of a Tea Party audience. Will Romney come out swinging at Perry? Which issues he decides to attack on will show the areas he believes Perry remains vulnerable2/ Can any of the other 7 candidates break through what has been deemed a two-man race? Any signs of traction by a second or third tier candidate will attract a lot of attention. 3/ Which candidate will be the first to mention the $16 Muffin?

FINALLY- Facebook unveiled significant changes to its platform today, a move that has sparked anxiety and angst among some users. According the Facebook, the changes come in order to make the News Feed- on the Home Page- continually interesting. “Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper. You won’t have to worry about missing important stuff. All your news will be in a single stream with the most interesting stories featured at the top,” Facebok’s Mark Tonkelowitz blogs. Among the other changes: a real-time ticker of friend updates on the right hand bar, a wider photo display (with higher resolutions) and faster photo upload times.

AND COMING TOMORROW: Watch for Facebook Music to be announced