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President Obama offered cautious optimism Friday about a newly announced cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia and suggested that European leaders should proceed with plans to impose new sanctions against Russia until they've tested that the agreement holds.

We are hopeful but based on past experience also skeptical, Obama told reporters at a news conference as the NATO summit wrapped up. It has to be tested.

NATO Secretary-GeneralAndersFoghRasmussenechoed Obama's wariness about the cease-fire announcement.

We know that one thing is a declaration, another thing is implementation," he said. "Nevertheless, I would welcome, of course, if the new announcement of the cease-fire represents a sincere attempt to stop the violence and initiation of a constructive political process.

Obama noted that European leaders were finalizing details of a new package of economic penalties aimed punishing Moscow for its involvement in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. Obama said he believes the sanctions are working to shift Russian President Vladmir Putins strategy and that it was too soon to ease up on them.

The only reason that were seeing this cease-fire at this moment is because of the sanctions already applied and the threat of further sanctions, Obama said.

Still, he suggested that if Russia de-escalates the conflict, the West could roll back sanctions.

White House officials say the new round of economic penalties, which have been in the pipeline since last week, could be announced in the coming days. Meanwhile, NATO leaders pledged new support for the Ukrainian military before concluding the two-day summit.

Russia must continue to face costs for its own escalation, deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes said. If Russia escalates, we stand prepared to escalate our pressure."

The expected sanctions are a response to what Ukraines leaders have called a Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine, although Obama has not used that word. The conflict consumed much of the discussion at the biennial summit, overshadowing the long-planned talks on winding down the NATO presence in Afghanistan.

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Obama offers cautious optimism on announced cease-fire in Ukraine

The United States and its allies aim to degrade and ultimately destroy the militant group Islamic State, President Obama said Friday as he began to outline a U.S. strategy focused on gathering partners from Sunni Arab states and aiding fighters on the region's front lines.

Our goal is to act with urgency but also make sure that we're doing it right, that we have the right targets, that there's support on the ground that we have a strong political coalition, Obama said at a news conference as a NATO summit wrapped up in Wales.

In one respect, his remarks were a damage-control effort aimed at undoing the political problems he caused last week by saying that his administration did not yet have a strategy to combat the militant group, at least in the territory it controls in Syria. They also served as a rebuttal to a growing chorus of critics who've described Obama's foreign policy as deliberative to the point of dithering.

Obama provided a window on what he described as his developing strategy, one that has expanded far beyond the initial goals of protecting U.S. personnel and reaching stranded refugees.

One major piece of the strategy for weakening the threat from Islamic State, Obama and aides said, will be the support and participation of the neighbors of Syria and Iraq.

It is absolutely critical that we have Arab states, and specifically Sunni-majority states, that are rejecting the kind of extremist nihilism that we're seeing out of ISIL, that say, That is not what Islam is about,' and are prepared to join us actively in the fight, Obama said, using one of the acronyms for Islamic State.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel are to fly to the Middle East in coming days to line up regional partners, a push for a Middle Eastern coalition that recalled the Sunni Awakening movement a decade ago that brought some stabilization to Iraq during the war there.

Jordan and Saudi Arabia remain top targets for financial assistance and intelligence help, as well as the United Arab Emirates, which has already expressed support for Obama's aims.

Obama said the approach he outlined allowed him to be deliberate in taking on Islamic State.

You initially push them back. You systematically degrade their capabilities. You narrow their scope of action. You slowly shrink the space, the territory that they may control. You take out their leadership, he said. And over time, they are not able to conduct the same kinds of terrorist attacks as they once could.

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Obama outlines strategy to 'ultimately destroy' Islamic State

Jimmy #39;s Joint: Rand Paul

By: Blue-Nation Review

Continued here:
Jimmy's Joint: Rand Paul - Video

The five candidates for governor of South Carolina are, (left to right, top) IndependentTom Ervin, Libertarian Steve French, Republican incumbent Gov. Nikki Haley, (left to right, bottom) United Citizens Party candidate Morgan Bruce Reeves and Democrat S.C. Sen. Vincent Sheheen.

Libertarian candidate for governor Steve French today committed to taking part in both of the political debates being sponsored this election season by The Post and Courier and its media partners.

The addition means all five candidates for governor will be on the stage for the first go-round, to be held Oct. 14 in the Charleston area.

Four of the candidates have also committed to the second debate date, Oct. 21, to be held in the Upstate.

Democrat Vincent Sheheen has cited a potential scheduling conflict.

Gov. Nikki Haley, independent Tom Ervin and United Citizens Party candidate Morgan Bruce Reeves on Thursday all agreed to take part.

The debates are being put together as part of a cooperative between The Post and Courier, WCIV-TV in Charleston, WACH-TV in Columbia, WPDE-TV in Myrtle Beach and WLOS-TV/WMYA-TV in the Greenville market.

Ticketing information and venues will be announced at a later date.

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Libertarian for governor commits to Post and Courier gubernatorial debates

WASHINGTON (AP) A pizza deliveryman in North Carolina, a "libertarian cop" in Kentucky and an Alaska candidate but not the one who was expected hope to do what a Kansas businessman did this week: shake up Senate races as third-party candidates, an often-dismissed lot.

Greg Orman isn't a household name, but he's getting attention now. The independent Senate candidate in Kansas fared so well in his third-party bid to unseat three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts that the Democrat in the race, Chad Taylor, abruptly canceled his candidacy on Wednesday. With that, conservative Kansas landed on the list of conceivable, if improbable, Democratic gains in the national battle for Senate control.

Republicans must pick up six seats in November to win the majority, and the new uncertainty over Roberts' fate complicates their drive.

Kansas Republicans, worried about Orman possibly consolidating anti-Roberts sentiment, challenged the legality of Taylor's withdrawal. The Kansas secretary of state said Thursday that Taylor's name must remain on the ballot.

Orman's case is unusual. Most third-party candidates have no chance of being elected themselves. But in a handful of extremely tight races, including North Carolina, Alaska, Georgia and Kentucky, third-party candidates could help decide who wins and which party controls the Senate in the final two years of Barack Obama's presidency.

Third-party candidates are chiefly a worry for Republicans. Many of these long-shot hopefuls are libertarians who tend to appeal to conservative voters, who otherwise might lean GOP.

The biggest impact by a third-party Senate candidate thus far came in Kansas. As Roberts was fighting a bitter GOP primary against Milton Wolf, Orman aired ads that declared "something has to change." In one, he looked over at a muddy tug of war between Republicans and Democrats and asks: "You guys accomplishing anything? Didn't think so."

Orman briefly ran for the Senate as a Democrat in 2008, when he says he voted for Obama. And he says he might caucus with Democrats in Washington if elected this fall. These details could help Roberts in a state that has elected only Republicans to the Senate since 1932.

Established Republicans are quick to note that most third-party candidates become nonfactors, winning minuscule portions of the vote.

The notion that Libertarian candidate Sean Haugh could cost Republican nominee Thom Tillis the Senate seat in North Carolina, for instance, "is a story line being created by the media," said Paul Shumaker, a top Tillis adviser. He said Haugh, a pizza deliveryman, doesn't have enough campaign money to identify and turn out his potential supporters on Nov. 4.

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Third-party Senate Candidates Worry GOP