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Elizabeth Warren to challenge Hillary Clinton for White House?

WASHINGTON - Like Tea Party Republicans on the opposite end of the political spectrum, progressive US Democrats are riding a populist anti-establishment wave, hoping their champion Elizabeth Warren challenges Hillary Clinton for the White House.

First-term US Senator Warren, a provocative anti-Wall-Street crusader, led a revolt last week against must-pass federal spending legislation weighed down with what she and other Democrats described as giveaways to big banks and wealthy political donors.

They bucked President Barack Obama, who backed the bill. They frustrated Democratic leaders, although the measure ultimately passed.

And they insisted their cause was one Americans would be eager to join.

One year before the 2016 presidential race kicks into full swing, this is Warren's moment.

But the question remained whether the 65-year-old can, or will, translate grassroots support for her positions into a viable presidential run against a woman widely seen as the Democratic frontrunner.

"I'm not running for president," Warren insisted to NPR in a radio interview Monday.

Pressed on how she routinely uses the present tense when describing her lack of White House ambition, Warren repeated: "I am not running for president. You want me to put an exclamation point at the end?"

A handful of grassroots Democratic groups are already hoping to prod her into a change of heart.

MoveOn.org announced last week it was launching a pre-campaign Warren-for-president movement. It has 10 full-time employees, and $1 million to spend to recruit staff in New Hampshire and Iowa, the states that vote earliest in the primary contests to decide the parties' nominees.

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Elizabeth Warren to challenge Hillary Clinton for White House?

Firebrand Senator Ted Cruz apologises for US spending bill ruckus

US Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Tea Party firebrand who nearly provoked the second government shutdown in a little over a year, on Tuesday apologised to his fellow Republicans for a strategy that backfired.

A Cruz spokeswoman said the senator apologised to colleagues "for inconveniencing their personal schedules" over the weekend. Cruz still believes, the spokeswoman said, that fighting to stop President Barack Obama's new programme easing deportations for millions of illegal immigrants "was critically important."

The apology to Republican senators came at a closed-door lunch when Cruz, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, "was contrite and made an effort to explain to people he wished he hadn't done it," said a source familiar with the meeting.

Cruz sparked a public rebuke by fellow Republican senators. They criticised the Texan for forcing the Senate to be in session Friday night and through Saturday because he refused to allow quick passage of a US$1.1 trillion (S$1.43 trillion) bill keeping the government running beyond midnight Saturday.

Cruz's actions inadvertently allowed Democratic leaders to advance nearly two dozen Obama nominees. These included Sarah Saldana, chosen to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Republicans had been trying to block some of those nominations.

Some Republican senators had been privately talking up the need to punish Cruz, according to Senate Republican aides.

Among ideas were possibly denying Cruz committee assignments or "blocking him from being able to offer things," one aide said.

Senator John Cornyn, second-ranking Senate Republican and Cruz's fellow Texan, noted "persuasion," rather than punishment, was the coin of the realm.

"One of the good things about being a United States senator is that any individual senator can pursue any tactics that they choose to pursue and there's not much anybody else can do about it," Cornyn said.

Republicans won big in Nov. 4 elections, gaining control of the Senate and expanding their majority in the House of Representatives. The party appeared to be coming together after a series of election cycles pitting Tea Party activists against mainstream Republicans.

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Firebrand Senator Ted Cruz apologises for US spending bill ruckus

Ukraine War Witness this war crime + understand why Ukr Army must shoot back at residential areas – Video


Ukraine War Witness this war crime + understand why Ukr Army must shoot back at residential areas
17.12.2014 URGENT.

By: Hollybats

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Ukraine War Witness this war crime + understand why Ukr Army must shoot back at residential areas - Video

Ukraine War Another video firing GRAD next to homes Donetsk – Video


Ukraine War Another video firing GRAD next to homes Donetsk
17.12.2014 URGENT.

By: Hollybats

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Ukraine War Another video firing GRAD next to homes Donetsk - Video

Ukraine War Exchange of fire between militants DNR and Ukrainian Army in Avdeyevka – Video


Ukraine War Exchange of fire between militants DNR and Ukrainian Army in Avdeyevka
17.12.2014 URGENT.

By: Hollybats

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Ukraine War Exchange of fire between militants DNR and Ukrainian Army in Avdeyevka - Video