519. The Fiscal Cliff Hanger

“Fiscal cliff” is the popular shorthand term used to describe the conundrum that the U.S. government will face at the end of 2012, when the terms of the Budget Control Act of 2011 are scheduled to go into effect.
Among the laws set to change at midnight on December 31, 2012, are the end of last year’s temporary payroll tax cuts (resulting in a 2% tax increase for workers), the end of certain tax breaks for businesses, shifts in the alternative minimum tax that would take a larger bite, the end of the tax cuts from 2001-2003, and the beginning of taxes related to President Obama’s health care law. At the same time, the spending cuts agreed upon as part of the debt ceiling deal of 2011 will begin to go into effect. According to Barron's, over 1,000 government programs - including the defense budget and Medicare are in line for "deep, automatic cuts."
(tags: Political Series, economy, president, congress, Barack Obama, Economics, money, taxes, laws, Health Care, House of Representatives, Senate, America, United States)

398. Bin Laden Postmortem

Hours after he was killed in a United States-led operation in Pakistan, Osama bin Laden’s lifeless body -- bathed, wrapped in a sheet and placed in a weighted bag -- was “eased” off the decks of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson into the waters of the north Arabian Sea.

(tags: Osama bin Laden, Terrorism, gwot,  Pakistan, Military, United States, USA, Army, Navy, U.S.S. Orca, sea)

281. Nuclear Security Summit 2010

President Obama hosts foreign delegates in Washington for the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit.

According to this account from the Washington Post; “the only part of the summit, other than a post-meeting news conference, that was visible to the public was Obama's eight-minute opening statement, which ended with the words: ‘I'm going to ask that we take a few moments to allow the press to exit before our first session.’” read more http://alturl.com/znc7

This cARToon might explain why the heightened media secrecy.