Source: NBC News

Audiotapes of several 911 calls placed by Florida socialite Jill Kelley as the media descended on her Tampa home show she complained about what she considered trespassing on her property and attempted to invoke diplomatic-type privileges.

“I am an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability,” Kelley told a 911 dispatcher. “They should not be able to cross my property. I don’t know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well?”

A South Korean official confirmed to NBC News that Kelley is an honorary consul for South Korea, but said she has no diplomatic immunity. He said Kelley assists the consulate based in Atlanta on occasion with things like passports and visas but is not an employee.

The U.S. State Department said Kelley has no formal affiliation with that U.S. agency.

“I can assure you that she does not work for the State Department and has no formal affiliation with the State Department,” State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said.

Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/14/15162122-in-911-calls-kelley-tried-to-invoke-diplomatic-immunity?lite

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/11/how-rove-fought-with-fox-over-ohio.html

How Karl Rove Fought With Fox News Over the Ohio Call


Shortly before 5 p.m. yesterday, Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes assembled his network's election team in a second floor conference room at Fox’s midtown headquarters to discuss the night’s coverage. He prepared them for the worst. “Guys," he told them according to a source familiar with the exchange, "if things don’t go your way tonight, don’t go out there looking like someone ran over your dog."

Six hours later, American Crossroads co-founder and Fox News contributor Karl Rove was on-camera seeming to ignore his boss’s orders. Shortly after 11 p.m., Bret Baier went on-camera to read a script written by Fox’s Washington managing editor Bill Sammon, based on an analysis by the network's decision desk, announcing Ohio for Obama. “That’s the presidency, essentially," Baier said.

Instantly, Fox phones lit up with angry phone calls and e-mails from the Romney campaign, who believed that the call was premature, since tallies in several Republican-leaning Southern counties hadn't been been fully tabulated. "The Romney people were totally screaming that we’re totally wrong," one Fox source said. "To various people, they were saying, 'your decision team is wrong.'" According to a Fox insider, Rove had been in contact with the Romney people all night. After the Ohio call, Rove — whose super-PAC had spent as much as $300 million on the election, to little avail — took their complaints public, conducting an on-air primer on Ohio's electoral math in disputing the call.

The episode "speaks for itself. It was live television," said a Fox News spokesperson. "Karl was in touch with the Romney people after he and Joe Trippi became concerned the call might be premature," said a Rove spokesperson. "It was then he found the Ohio Secretary of State website had roughly 7 percent more of the vote in and the two candidates separated first by 1,995 votes and then by 911." Hovering behind the dispute was Rove’s history as George W. Bush’s strategist in two close elections: In 2000, Fox had called Florida for Al Gore early, and then was forced to rescind the call later. At 2:16 a.m., they again called the race, this time for George Bush — that call, too, they'd had to rescind. (Adding to the controversy, Bush’s cousin, John Ellis, was leading the team of statisticians that made the call.)

This time, it was the network divided against itself, and Fox News' top producers held a meeting to adjudicate. The decision desk stood their ground. They knew how momentous the call was. Earlier in the night, according to a source, before making the call, Arnon Mishkin, who heads the decision desk, told Fox brass, “let’s remember this is Fox News calling Ohio. This will say something beyond Ohio going for Obama.” Fox brass told Mishkin to get the numbers right and ignore the politics: "If we think Ohio has gone Obama, we call Ohio," said a Fox News executive.

Source: NBC News

NBC News projects Obama to win re-election

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/

Source: Christian Science Monitor

Seldom do you find Arabs anywhere in the Middle East who have warm feelings about America’s most recent war with Iraq, especially in Syria where many people were actively involved in supporting the Iraqi insurgency.

Yet as Syria’s upheaval nears the two-year mark, many of those who are increasingly desperate for a foreign intervention to end the conflict now reference Iraq as a seemingly positive example of why America might decide to help. With an eye on the US elections, they say they hope the party that brought them the Iraq war might also bring America to Syria.

“The Republicans prefer using the military. Like Bush, he entered Iraq and Afghanistan. They use the military in all cases so maybe they will try to intervene here,” says Mustafa Abu Abdu, who used to be a psychology student before the war. “Obama will keep saying that [President Bashar] Assad must stop and that America is sorry about civilian deaths, but he will not do anything to help here.”

A number of Syrians like Mr. Abdu say they hope Tuesday’s election in America will bring Mitt Romney into the Oval Office because they say he is more likely to change the US policy in favor an intervention in Syria.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-root-romney-hopes-us-military-intervention-212532573.html

Source: AFP

LONDON — The Economist, the respected weekly current affairs magazine, on Thursday said it was backing US President Barack Obama for re-election, although with less enthusiasm than four years ago.

The London-based publication said in its leader that while the United States faced a tougher decision and a more negative campaign than in 2008, Obama's Republican rival Mitt Romney "does not fit the bill".

"This choice turns on two questions: how good a president has Mr Obama been, especially on the main issues of the economy and foreign policy? And can America really trust the ever-changing Mitt Romney to do a better job?" it said.

"On that basis, the Democrat narrowly deserves to be re-elected."

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5glJ4vP6AWtXeA0lUnHrU_HYZB7Jw?docId=CNG.c652cad0d3f6a3dd9c80e6d08c946b36.291