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(IsraelNN.com) International travelers in and out Israel may find themselves in the Negev instead of at the venerable Ben Gurion Airport in a few years. Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, who also is Minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, has proposed a new international facility to boost growth in the Negev and take the load off the Ben Gurion airport, located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Glenn Beck, as even Jon Stewart admitted in his TV interview with Bill O’Reilly, is a talented guy. A week ago, I reviewed and praised Beck’s first documentary on Communism, although I did note a few shortcomings. I have also given him credit for his role in bringing to light the appointment by the Obama administration of people like Van Jones, who largely because of the exposure Beck gave to Jones’ largely unknown Communist views and belief in a 9/11 conspiracy theory, was forced by the administration to resign from his position as the “green jobs czar.” But when it...

When Republicans take President Obama up on his invitation to hash out their differences over health care this month, they will carry with them a fairly well-developed set of ideas intended to make health insurance more widely available and affordable, by emphasizing tax incentives and state innovations, with no new federal mandates and only a modest expansion of the federal safety net. It is not clear that Republicans and the White House are willing to negotiate seriously with each other, and Mr. Obama has rejected Republican demands that he start from scratch in developing health care legislation. But Congressional Republicans...

If future generations of Americans are going to have a bright future, we're going to have to get a handle on spending. Either we get these deficits under control and start paying off our debt or we're not going to remain a great nation. Moreover, given that Social Security went into the red last year and that program, combined with Medicare, represents a 100 trillion dollar unfunded liability that’s going to be coming due over the next few decades, this is an issue that’s not going away for the foreseeable future. So, with that in mind, fiscal conservatives in DC...

Judging by recent Washington Times coverage, the Republican National Committee is a hotbed of dissension — even after big GOP wins in Virginia, New Jersey, and most recently Massachusetts. But at the RNC winter meeting in Honolulu, in a series of key RNC ballots on party fundraising and candidate selection, there was not a single dissenting vote. Read more: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/washington-times-trolls-gutter-for-rnc-critics/

As Texas’ gubernatorial primary approaches, Governor Rick Perry’s main challenger, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, is doing her best to pawn herself off as a conservative. But there’s an elephant in the room that’s hard to conceal, an elephant that keeps reminding Texans that no matter what Hutchison says about her so-called conservatism, she’s a pro-choice senator who believes “Roe v. Wade is working very well.” And the cold hard facts are that Hutchison has a lot more than her pro-choice viewpoints to hide. In truth, she has a Senate voting record that spans seventeen years and makes her look less...

Asian-American activists offended that MARTA re-named the train line into the heart of Atlanta's Asian community the "yellow line" will take their objections to the transit agency's chief on Friday. “Yellow,” as a term for skin color, carries a generally negative, racist connotation among Asians. MARTA officials were warned by an employee before the name change last October that Atlanta’s burgeoning Asian community would find the term for the line to Doraville offensive. “Historically, it has had a derogatory intent,” said John Park, an attorney with the nonprofit Center for Pan Asian Community Services in Doraville, just down the hill...

With national scrutiny on ACORN and local scrutiny on the Working Families Party, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis quietly departed as state co-chair of the Working Families Party. Lewis was a founding co-chair of the Party. According to Working Families spokesman Dan Levitan, Lewis stopped serving as co-chair “about a year ago,” though many people familiar with the Party were unaware of that change and Lewis was identified as a current co-chair in an interview on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show as recently as September. The change in leadership comes as the Working Families Party and many of its endorsed candidates...

We all know liberal condescension. "Why are Americans so anti-intellectual?" your liberal friend might ask. But Gerard Alexander has written about it -- in the Washington Post. "Why are liberals so condescending?" he asks. Why indeed? Your average liberal exhibits four kinds of condescension, according to Alexander. There's the notion that conservatives win elections and policy debates not because of the power of ideas, but "because they deploy brilliant and sinister campaign tactics." Obviously this leads into the second notion that "if conservative leaders are crass manipulators, then the rank-and-file Americans who support them must be manipulated at best, or...

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- The group of American missionaries in Haiti facing kidnapping charges for trying to take 33 children out of the country last week made an earlier, unsuccessful attempt at taking dozens of other children, a Haitian police officer said Monday. Laura Silsby, left, and two other members of her missionary group are seen after a recent court hearing in Haiti. The officer did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals. He told CNN that he had stopped the 10 Baptist missionaries, including group leader Laura Silsby, on January 26 as they tried to transport 40...

SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – With a message to Beijing to “stop sending your spies here,” a U.S. judge on Monday sentenced a Chinese-born former Boeing engineer to more than 15 years in prison for economic espionage and acting as an agent for China. Although former Boeing engineer Dongfan Chung was convicted last July, his sentencing in the District Court in the Central District of California coincides with a rocky period in U.S.-China relations, amid disputes over Tibet, arms sales to Taiwan, Internet surveillance, and trade and climate change issues. Sentencing Chung, 73, to 188 months in prison, Judge Cormac Carney said...

Iran says it has begun enriching uranium to a higher level, defying international efforts to curb its nuclear activity. Iranian state television quoted officials who said the process started Tuesday at Iran's Natanz facility in the presence of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors. Iran told the IAEA Monday of its plans to enrich uranium to 20 percent in order to fuel a medical nuclear reactor. Western powers are concerned that if Iran is able to enrich uranium to 20 percent, it could eventually produce weapons-grade uranium through the same process.

Conservatism is about being not obstructionist, but principled. Imagine if someone told you that even though you are a Christian, in order to get along better with others, you need to put your religious beliefs on hold until 2012. Don't worry about that "salvation" thing for a couple of years. Or imagine if you were asked to love your parents a little less because your full-hearted devotion to them is getting in the way of showing your affection for others. Wait until the next election to prove your respect for your family. Diminishing these deeply held beliefs and feelings would...

Both the White House and congressional Republicans see opportunity in an upcoming bipartisan summit on health care, with the GOP given a chance to spotlight its ideas and President Barack Obama having a fresh chance to invigorate the languishing legislation. It's clear a major gulf remains between the parties. On Monday, Republicans rejected outright any health legislation that doesn't start from scratch. The White House reiterated it has no intention of changing its fundamental approach. Still, the White House hopes the televised meeting, set for Feb. 25, will change the tone of the health-care debate by showing Democrats are open...

No one has vested more hope in the tea-party move ment than the Democrats. For all the scorn and abuse they've heaped on the tea-partiers, they've counted on them for salvation. The tea-partiers would push the GOP out of the mainstream. They'd tar the party with their bumptious extremism. They'd stoke a Republican civil war. The tea-partiers would, in short, redeem the Obama administration's political fortunes no matter what. This was the oft-repeated theory, shot through with a perverse hopefulness and woeful misunderstanding. One wonders if Democrats can overcome their contempt for the tea-partiers -- whom they call "tea baggers,"...

In a breathtakingly cynical example of playing politics, the White House just accused Republicans of playing politics over its Miranda-rights Christmas gift to the crotch bomber. With fumbling terrorism czar John Brennan walking point, administration spokesmen attacked those who believe that treating would-be suicide-bomber Umar Abdulmutallab the way we handle shoplifters harms our national security. The White House position is a PR blend of lies, half-truths and ignorance. Let's strip out the politics and lay out the facts from an intelligence professional's perspective:

Whoopee! There was a big drop in the unemployment rate for January. But if you look at the numbers closely the sound you'd hear is more Whoopee Cushion than cheering. According to the official Labor Department numbers, the jobless rate in the US dipped impressively from 10.0 percent in December to 9.7 percent in January. Since I have kids who need jobs, there is nobody in this country who'd be more happy to leave it just like that -- the recession is over, employment is on the way up. But I'll share with you some discoveries that a few inquisitive...

France defended on Monday its decision to sell an advanced warship to Russia, shrugging off concerns that the helicopter carrier could threaten Georgia and arguing that Moscow had to be treated with respect. Russia asked to buy the 21,300-tonne, Mistral class warship to modernise hardware that was exposed as outdated during its five-day war against Georgia in 2008. After months of debate, France finally announced on Monday it would sell the vessel to Russia for an undisclosed sum. President Nicolas Sarkozy defended the decision during a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was paying a flying visit to...

DETROIT, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Part of a Detroit airport terminal was shut down Monday after an Arabic man ignored instructions from security guards, police said.

Democrat David Paterson, who is battling the legislature over budget deficits and has been asked not to run again by President Obama, now is denying Internet rumors involving sex and drugs. --- This is how bad it is for David Paterson, Democratic governor of New York: His major opponent in the primary is ahead of him in the polls and has six times more money in his war chest. The president of the United States has made it clear that he doesn't want him to run. Even friends are discouraging him. The state's $8.2-billion budget deficit keeps ratcheting up, and...

Dramatic new evidence that abstinence-only sex education can succeed in public schools ought to be good news for Texas, right? After all, state law requires an emphasis on abstinence, and most school districts stop there. But education experts caution that the program tested is very different from the curriculum offered in many Texas schools. And while elements can be found in some North Texas classrooms, not even the researchers can say for certain which parts of their specially designed program made it work. Advocates of abstinence-only classes praised the study, published last week in the latest issue of the Archives...

Pakistani Taliban confirms Hakimullah Mehsud's death PTI, 9 February 2010, 01:11pm IST ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday confirmed that its chief Hakimullah Mehsud had died of injuries sustained in a US drone strike, ending weeks of speculation over his fate. Taliban sources based in the Aurakzai tribal region told TV news channels that 28-year-old Mehsud was severely injured in a drone attack in Shaktoi area of North Waziristan Agency on January 14. The sources claimed Mehsud died recently near Multan city in Punjab province while being taken to Karachi for treatment. His body was taken back to the tribal belt,...

The Iranian government on Monday stepped up military threats in advance of an anniversary celebration as major powers continued talks on a new round of sanctions. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in Tehran that his country would stun the Western world on Thursday, the 31st anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution. Iran's defense minister announced on Monday that its forces had conducted successful tests on new armed unmanned aircraft and advanced air defenses. "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance [Western powers] on the 22nd of Bahman [Feb. 11] in a way that...

A Delta Airlines flight 59 from New York landed in Tokyo was undergoing maintenance when a body was found in the landing gear. The body of a man was discovered by a mechanic during a routine maintenance check. The Boeing 777-200 landing gear compartment only accessible just before take off. Japanese authorities suspect the man was a stowaway and looks to have died of hypothermia and frostbite. There didn't appear to be any other injuries to the body. Experts explain that during flight the landing gear and luggage compartments temperatures can fall to as low as minus 58 degrees on...

On Wednesday, Sen. Jim DeMint ’s Senate Conservatives Fund will be a major contributor to a “money bomb” fundraiser for the GOP Senate campaign of former Florida Speaker Marco Rubio with a goal of raising $200,000 in 24 hours. The South Carolina Republican had already gathered $115,000 in pledged donations for Rubio as of Monday and it probably would be unwise to bet against him reaching his goal. After raising just over $300,000 during the 2008 cycle, DeMint reported over $1.3 million in receipts for the Senate Conservative Fund in 2009. What those reports don’t show is that the political...

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Democratic postmortems on Barack Obama’s disappointing first year in the Oval Office have emphasized, as the president himself did, difficulties inherited from “the last eight years.” Republicans, for their part, credit public opposition to Obama’s overreaching policies. But a full explanation goes much deeper. Obama is failing because he has turned the constitutional functions of the presidency upside down. The 2010 State of the Union address nicely summed up Obama’s topsy-turvy approach to the presidency. He pressed for a new jobs bill, more domestic spending, and health care nationalization. He attributed his political setbacks not to broad opposition to his...

Geert Wilders’s “hate speech” trial in the Netherlands began just a few weeks ago, but the outcome already seems determined. As Robert Spencer discusses in our lead story today, the Amsterdam District Court has refused to allow Wilders to call fifteen of the eighteen witnesses he had hoped to bring forward in his defense. It is also highly unlikely that the three remaining witnesses will be able to defend Wilders in the manner he desired, because the court has decided that the three witnesses will only be heard behind closed doors. With Wilders denied the opportunity to mount a forceful...

Forget “Snowmageddon”. Washington may be deluged under nearly three feet of snow, but Barack Obama is experiencing a sinking feeling of another kind. The latest US polls, highlighted here by Daniel Foster at The Corner at NRO, are stunningly bad for the president. Frankly, the Titanic’s prospects looked better than Obama’s do today, even after it hit the iceberg. As Foster points out, three major new polls show the president in serious trouble in the wake of the stunning Massachusetts Senate special election win by Scott Brown. According to the latest Marist survey of registered voters, 47 percent disapprove of...

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration on Monday proposed a new agency to study and report on the changing climate. Also known as global warming, climate change has drawn widespread concern in recent years as temperatures around the world rise, threatening to harm crops, spread disease, increase sea levels, change storm and drought patterns and cause polar melting. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, announced NOAA will set up the new Climate Service to operate in tandem with NOAA's National Weather Service and National Ocean Service. "Whether we like it or not, climate change...

Is Kim Jong Il Avoiding Visiting Chinese Official? FEBRUARY 09, 2010 07:53 North Korean leader Kim Jong Il could be avoiding talking to Chinese envoy Wang Jiarui, who arrived in Pyongyang for a three-day visit Saturday. No confirmation came late yesterday afternoon that Wang, director of the international liaison department of the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party, held talks with Kim. North Korean media said after midnight yesterday that Kim visited a company in Hamhung, South Hamkyong Province. The report failed to mention when he went to the city. Considering that North Korea’s media usually reports on Kim...

Dutch newspapers and news channels report today that a bomb was found in a train at the train station of the city of Den Bosch, in the South of the Netherlands. Experts are supposedly trying to dismantle the explosive device at this moment. Dutch news channel the NOS says that the bomb was found after passengers alerted railroad personnel that a suspicious man was moving in and around the train. When personnel tried to talk to the men he said he had planted a bomb in the train. One witness said: “First, he suddenly asked for a cigarette. ‘Excuse me,’...

While the liberal mainstream media sings John Murtha's praises, his legacy is nonetheless tainted ad infinitum by his Abscam involvement and his slanderous Iraq war criticism. Dying yesterday at Virginia Hospital Center from complications arising from gallbladder surgery, John Murtha was the exorbitantly long-serving congressman from Pennsylvania's 12th district, having been in Congress for a whopping, almost 40 years. To hear the liberal media tell it, Murtha was a stout defender of the military and noble, yet that conveniently glosses over many episodes in his too-long career that can only bring to mind the word "unethical" at best, or "misconduct"...

Like the president, I am part of that black generation whose lifetime spans pretty much all of the above. I was born a Negro in 1962 -- it's on my birth certificate -- and in short order became black, Afro-American and African American.

The presidential eligibility issue reached critical mass last week when Barack Obama addressed it in his National Prayer Breakfast speech and I hit it hard at the nationally televised tea-party convention, representing the first time the importance and legitimacy of the birth-certificate controversy has been dealt with in such a media forum. From the beginning, this issue has separated the wheat from the chaff, the men from the boys, the constitutionalists from the political pragmatists. It's an issue that makes many weak in the knees. I keep hearing how it is not a "winning issue." How do I put this...

National columnist and founder of the popular blog Atlas Shrugs, Pamela Geller, appeared on 'The View's' Joy Behar's new show on Monday to discuss Sarah Palin. As expected, the Behar take on Palin is, as usual, disrespectful and vitriolic. The entire portion of the show featuring Behar's Palin-bash and Geller's response can be viewed on video. It is interesting that Leftwing Hollywood types such as Behar will quickly harp on Palin's 'prompt-words' written on her hand while totally ignoring Barack Obama's constant reliance on the teleprompter, even when addressing elementary school children. For going on 36 hours now, following Palin's...

Several hundred area residents attended a Saturday Burleson Tea Party rally held at Forrest Auto Group in Cleburne. Republican candidates competing in local, state and congressional races shared the stage with other conservative speakers. Signs critical of President Obama’s administration and the Democratic agenda dotted the crowd, although two women displayed signs denouncing Republicans and the Tea Party movement. Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina promised to fight to eliminate property tax and fight eminent domain abuses if elected. “Private property and gun ownership are essential elements of freedom,” Medina said. “If the national government or state takes from people what...

Voters are deeply pessimistic about the state of Britain today, believing that society is broken and heading in the wrong direction, a Populus poll for The Times has found. Nearly three fifths of voters say that they hardly recognise the country they are living in, while 42 per cent say they would emigrate if they could. But worries over the pace of social change and dislocation are balanced by the belief that life will get better, according to the survey undertaken at the weekend. It suggests that 70 per cent believe that society is now broken, echoing a Conservative campaign...

A Christian teacher yesterday claimed he was forced out of his job after complaining that Muslim pupils as young as eight hailed the September 11 hijackers as heroes. Nicholas Kafouris, 52, is suing his former school for racial discrimination. He told a tribunal that he had to leave his £30,000-a-year post because he would not tolerate the 'racist' and 'anti-Semitic' behaviour of Year 4 pupils. The predominantly Muslim youngsters openly praised Islamic extremists in class and described the September 11 terrorists as 'heroes and martyrs'. One pupil said: 'Don't touch me, you're a Christian' when he brushed against him. Others...

Take a break from a hectic day and enjoy the peaceful awe of our universe. “Things That Float” by Stephen Nowlin is the first monthly Guest Showcase in Internet Archive’s collaboration with NASA images. Mr. Nowlin wrote: “We’re charmed by heavy things that float in thin air, because we’re products of a gravity environment where weight is pinned to the planet’s surface. When something does otherwise, it arouses the pleasure of our curiosity – it’s a spectacle, and inspiring." All the images are spectacular. I think we often forget the remarkable work that goes into the NASA programs that allows...

Hitler threw off the shackles of Versailles. In this, he was remarkably successful. The world stood by silently – at first believing the illusion that Hitler was merely correcting an injustice. Today, Iran began enriching its existing nuclear fuel stockpile toward weapons grade strength. Buoyed by Obama’s commitment to appeasement, Iran formally announced the move on al Alam the Iranian state television. "Today we started to make 20 per cent enriched nuclear fuel... in the presence of the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors at Natanz," an unnamed official told al Alam. The move caused international alarm and gave new impetus...

The U.S. Navy has sped up its efforts to ready its X-47B UCAS (Unmanned Combat Aerial System), for carrier operations. This includes an additional $2 billion for development, in an attempt to have the X-47B demonstrating the ability to regularly operate from a carrier, and perform combat (including reconnaissance and surveillance) operations, within five years. Senior admirals see this as a way to solve several problems. One is the dominance of the U.S. Air Force in UAV operations (with their fleet of Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk UAVs). Then there is the growing cost of the new F-35, that is...

When you look back of all the embarrasing live moments on MSNBC,like when Contessa Brewer Called Jesse Jackson Al Sharpton&Accused a white man for toting guns at an Obama rally(and he was black)Chris Matthews referring the crowd at a Palin Book signing as "White Tribals",,The list goes on and on,and yesterday they were beating up on Sarah Palin for having notes on the palm of her hand. But it's ok when Obama's teleprompter crashes to the floor.?

"Bradninch church blaze arson probe" Monday, February 08, 2010, 07:12 SNIPPET: "ARSONISTS are believed to be responsible for a fire that has destroyed part of a church in Bradninch. Church and Scout leaders have expressed their sadness at the blaze that broke out in an annexe at the back of the Bradninch Baptist Church just after 11pm on Friday." SNIPPET: "The fire service said 25 per cent of the roof and 50 per cent of the first floor of the annexe was severely damaged by fire, while half of the ground floor was damaged by smoke. Investigations are on-going but...

Iran will make the political decision to enrich uranium to military-grade levels once it has accumulated enough fissionable material for a small arsenal of three to four nuclear devices, according to latest intelligence assessments. Iran, according to the recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, has already accumulated 1.8 tons of uranium enriched to four percent. Iran has announced plans to begin enriching uranium to 20% levels for use as fuel in a research reactor it has in Teheran, which is expected to exhaust its present stock within the year. Although material for the fissile core of a nuclear warhead...

And now they want to charge you for a blanket&pillow? Maybe charge you to use the restroom?Or maybe charge you $2.00 to speak to an stewardess? Regarding $25.00 to check in baggage, if your going to a private home,may as well ship it UPS{it will probably cost the same}.And can you imagine if the day comes where we will be penalized for not having baggage? or if you weigh over 250 pounds? How do you feel about all these new airline charges?

What a great convention, and it got national coverage on the three major cable news networks. The Tea Parties have moved one step closer to bringing their desired effect in November to fruition. Sarah Palin did a masterful job in her forty five minute inspiring keynote speech. Her call for a voter revolution, "a ground-up call to action", defined the Tea Parties intent. Palin suggested that the party should remain leaderless and cautioned against allowing the movement to be defined by any one person. Had she added the movement should also not be defined by any specific political party it...

USS Freedom (LCS 1), the Navy's first littoral combat ship, is underway off the coast of Florida for final training and certification prior to its maiden deployment to the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) region. Counter-illicit trafficking (CIT), damage control, and systems training began soon after Freedom's arrival at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., on Jan. 25. "This training is extremely important for Freedom and will help us prepare for the CIT mission we expect to perform while in the 4th Fleet area of operations," said Lt. Cmdr. Mark West of Imperial Beach, Calif., operations officer for the Gold Crew, one of...

JERUSALEM: A senior Israeli minister called on Tuesday for the international community to adopt tough sanctions against arch-foe Iran over its controversial nuclear programme. "The coming month is decisive," Silvan Shalom, vice premier, told public radio. "It is time the international community imposes tough sanctions against Iran, even if Russia and China do not go along."

Nicotine residues on indoor surfaces can react with ambient gases to generate cancer-causing compounds, researchers in the US have found. The research is hoped to shed new light on the possible danger of 'third-hand smoke' - where toxins from tobacco fumes can linger on household surfaces. 'Certain compounds - such as ambient nitrous acid, nitrogen dioxide or ozone - are present in higher quantities indoors rather than outdoors,' explains Hugo Destaillats, who led the research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, US. This is because they are generated by combustion from indoor gas supplies, fireplaces or the use of electronic equipment. Destaillats...