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In Netanyahu meeting, Obama says 'the United States will always have Israel's back.'

The New York Times reports that President Obama and 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen have not spoken since February. Among the very first foreign leaders President Obama called after entering the Oval Office on Jan. 21, 2009, was the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. The last time the two men spoke was in February, when Mr. Obama failed, in an awkward, 55-minute phone conversation, to persuade Mr. Abbas not to go to the United Nations to condemn Israel for building Jewish settlements. The 25 months between those calls demonstrate how Mr. Obama’s relationship with Mr. Abbas...

On Sean Hannity’s radio show Tuesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry defended himself against attacks that he is “dumb,” claiming what is really dumb is how the U.S. economy has worsened under President Obama. “It’s kind of the same old attacks they made on [Ronald] Reagan and I guess every prominent, effective conservative,” Perry told Hannity’s audience. “And the better we do down here in Texas, the more they are going to attack us. That’s fine.” “I think my record is going to stand the scrutiny of time across the country,” Perry added, noting Texas’ economic strength. His state has created...

In a fit of anti-Tea Party rage, Sen. John McCain tossed a media exposure lifesaver out to former Delaware senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell, insulting the Tea Party for having launched her to the Republican nomination. O’Donnell graciously accepted the opportunity to make headlines once again, releasing as epic a statement as we haven’t seen since the Homeric tribute to Newt Gingrich last May. Needless to say, being dismissed as a crazy candidate did not sit well with the Senate hopeful known mostly for having to clarify whether or not she was a witch. In a short and sweet statement, she...

The Democrats’ upset victory in a special House election this week has stimulated hopes the party can retake the chamber and triggered speculation about what kind of role Pelosi will play in the 2012 elections. During a press conference on Thursday, a beaming and re-energized Pelosi said, “We had a spectacular election in New York-26.” Pelosi was frequently cited as one of the most powerful Speakers until the historic GOP wave of 2010 stripped her of her gavel. As she withdrew from the media’s eye, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s (D-Md.) political stock rose.

LANGLEY, Virginia (AFP) – President Barack Obama warned Friday Al-Qaeda members must watch their backs, as the United States acts on a trove of intelligence seized from Osama bin Laden's compound.((snip))"We're going to pursue every lead. We are going to go wherever it takes us. We're going to finish the job. We're going to defeat Al-Qaeda," Obama said.

President Obama on Thursday endorsed Palestinians' demand for their own state based on borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East war. The move comes ahead of Isreali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech next week to a joint session of Congress. Do you agree with Obama's decision? Share your thoughts, answer our question then click "Leave a Comment." Should Israel Pull Back to '67 Borders to Create Palestinian State?

Obama Campaign Hawks Birth Certificate T-Shirt, Campaign Claims Its A “Mobile Version” of Truth Squad to Refute Birther Book President Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign today started selling “Made in the USA” t-shirts featuring images of both President Obama and the long-form birth certificate he released copies of last month. “Wear your support for this campaign with an official Made in the USA T-shirt,” his website advertises. Donate $25 or more today and we'll send you your limited-edition shirt. Coffee-mugs are also available. “Remember ‘fight the smears’ from the 2008 campaign?” asked campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt. “This is the mobile version...

From The Arizona Republic: Arizona may not wait for the federal government to finish building a fence along its 370-mile border with Mexico. A new law that goes into effect July 20 allows the state to build the fence itself, as long as it can raise enough private donations and get permission to build on federal, Indian, and privately owned land along the border. State Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, who sponsored the legislation, was meeting with Gov. Jan Brewer's staff Tuesday to discuss logistics. Speaking in El Paso, Texas, last week President Obama said the border fence is "now basically...

“Will the unions help keep poor teachers from returning to the classroom?” asked Saturday’s Washington Post, reminding us that union intransigience stretches from Madison,WI to Washington, D.C. An independent arbitrator recently ruled that D.C. Public Schools will be required to hire back 75 teachers fired during Michelle Rhee’s tenure. On top of this, D.C. will also be required to pay two years in back wages, costing the city approximately $7.5 million. Although the dismissed teachers were still in their probationary period, arbitrator Charles Feigenbaum claims that they were

As posted on Twitter: Anthony G. Martin @welshman007 Anthony G. Martin Later, folks--by the way, my news alert is ominous--the man who was banned after Sadat's murder is now back in Cairo!! Islamic EXTREMISM!

A former government contractor says that the FBI installed a number of back doors into the encryption software used by the OpenBSD operating system. The allegations were made public Tuesday by Theo de Raadt, the lead developer in the OpenBSD project. DeRaadt posted an e-mail sent by the former contractor, Gregory Perry, so that the matter could be publicly scrutinized. "The mail came in privately from a person I have not talked to for nearly 10 years," he wrote in his a posting to an OpenBSD discussion list. "I refuse to become part of such a conspiracy, and will not...

This guy (Obama) is really sick...as our "elected" president...I haven't heard that phrase (sit in the back) since I was a kid...at least never heard it as a direct and meaningful statement...but there he goes...pouring gas on a fire that we have been honestly trying to but out since the '40s...well, Mr president...you have exposed yourself (and I knew it would only be a matter of time)... I typed a lot more but stopped and erased...I'll keep it simple...you (Mr President) have drawn the line in the sand...it appears because I'm Independent and lean Republican I might be able to...

The nation's epidemic unemployment knocked nearly 4 million more Americans into poverty last year, swelling the ranks of the poor to the largest number in at least half a century. And if the depth of the pain wrought by the financial crisis is already familiar, what's emerging is a new picture of how that pain has undermined the economic recovery and complicated government efforts to get the country back on track.

It was a great day. First of all, I'm no expert at crowd estimates, but one thing to bear in mind when looking at the aerial photos is that under the dense trees all along the reflecting pool, there were wall-to-wall people sitting in the shade; if you wanted to go to the head (the portable johns were along the walkway), you needed to pick your way through the densely packed crowd. None of those people are visible from the aerial photos. Here's a capsule of the crowd: A young couple from Pittsburgh behind us with their 4 well-behaved kids...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – President Barack Obama on Thursday cast upcoming elections as a choice between the party that caused the economic meltdown and the one that's fixing it, seizing on a populist, sharply partisan theme for the critical November midterms. "We don't have to guess how the other party will govern because we're still living with the results from the last time they governed," Obama said at a fundraiser for Missouri Democratic Senate hopeful Robin Carnahan in Kansas City. "It's a choice between falling backward and moving forward." Helped by recent gaffes by Republicans, Obama has arrived at the...

government admits it lost control when protesters set fire to key buildings in the city following a day of running battles with troops which left 12 dead and 60 injured. Flames rise from the burning city hall which was set on fire by red shirt protesters Rioters set fires at the stock exchange, electricity headquarters, banks and government offices. Siam Theatre, a much loved city institution, collapsed in flames. Hundreds of people had to be rescued from the burning headquarters of Channel 3 television. The death toll since fresh outbreaks of violence on Thursday now stands at 51. The government...

If Elena Kagan had her way, Barack Obama might never have become president. The current Solicitor General and soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice tried her best to woo Obama to a life in academia when the two worked at the University of Chicago, according to MSNBC's First Read. Kagan joined the staff there in 1991 and won tenure in 1995. Obama was a part-time lecturer there between 1992 and 2004, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate, but according to reports she tried to convice him to pursue a tenure track.

A sudden uprising from the moguls of enterprise threatens to disrupt, if not demolish, Obama’s fake green plans for the world. The Sierra Club and other socialist despots have been bringing ‘vexatious and frivolous’ law cases against normal businesses for a long time, with Democratic approval. Al Gore used the same tactic in his run-up to the vice presidential elections. The Democrat rat-pack did the same recently to Sarah Palin, bringing malicious and unfounded accusations against her. The idea is to weaken opposition with continuous litigation, even though their cases are flimsy and stupid. The idea is not to win,...

US Senate climate bill to be unveiled April 26 15 Apr 2010 22:04:19 GMT * Backers hope for Senate vote in June or July * Measure could affect states' climate control activities (Adds reaction from American Petroleum Institute) By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) - A long-awaited compromise bill to reduce U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming will be unveiled by a group of senators on April 26, sources said on Thursday. The legislative language to be sketched out in 11 days, according to government and environmental sources, is being drafted by Democratic...

http://www.youtube.com/user/DCCRA

56-Year-Old Man Brought Back To Life After 47 Minutes, 4,500 Chest Compressions And 8 Zaps With Defibrillator Staff At New York Presbyterian Hospital Pulls Off True Medical Miracle Joe Tiralosi came back to life after being dead for 47 minutes thanks to a tireless effort from a team of physicians at New York Presbyterian Hospital. CBS 2 HD recently met a Brooklyn man who lived after his heart quit for 47 minutes, and it's all thanks to a team of doctors who refused to give up until they brought him back from the dead. "These doctors did not stop," Joe...

(CNN) – Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-New York, is making it known he's not happy with President Obama's recent meddling in the state's 2010 gubernatorial race. "The whole thing to me was not presidential," Rangel told the New York Daily News over the weekend. "It wasn't good for the president, and it wasn't good for the governor." The comments came a week after the New York Times reported that administration officials had asked New York Rep. Gregory Meeks to convey to embattled Gov. David Paterson that Obama would prefer he not run for re-election next year.

The White House on Monday fired back after former Vice President Dick Cheney called the Obama administration's decision to open a probe into alleged CIA abuses an "outrageous political act." White House Press Secretary Roberts Gibbs broadly dismissed Cheney's comments on "FOX News Sunday" as typical and unfounded.

A Swedish newspaper provoked outrage in Israel and drew condemnation from Sweden's ambassador on Wednesday after it ran a story on transplant organ theft, a report an Israeli official branded anti-Semitic "hate porn". The editor of Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest daily newspaper, hit back hard, at both Israel and at the Swedish envoy for attacking his paper's coverage.

I'm in the midst of my first bout with sciatica and would enjoy hearing from any Freepers that have been through it and have some home remedy tips. A bit of background...I've suffered broken bones, had plates and screws and even a bone graft, but the pain from the sciatica matches any of that. It travels across my right buttock, down my thigh, encircles my knees and deadens my leg from the knee down. I can't lie on my back, sitting is difficult. Lying on my left side provides the best relief. The doctor prescribed prednisone for inflammation, tiazidine as...

It's Ilham Anas, an Indonesian magazine photographer who bears a striking resemblance to the president-elect. The 34-year-old is now collecting paychecks as an Obama look-alike. "At first my nose and eyes made me self-conscious, but now I think they are God's blessing," Ilham Anas told the Associated Press. Like Obama, Anas is of American and Kenyan descent. His new life as an Obama double started after the November 2008 election. "My colleagues played a practical joke on me -- they made me wear a suit, a tie, and took pictures of me posing as Obama," Anas told Reuters. ... Now,...

Republican John McCain boldly declared "Mac is Back" as he predicted victory in his election race with Democrat Barack Obama at a rally in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. The fired-up 72-year-old Arizona senator, who is trailing Senator Obama in polls, renewed his attacks on his opponent's patriotism and tax plans in a rally before several hundred supporters crammed into a school gymnasium. "I've been in a lot of campaigns, I know when momentum is there. We're going to win Pennsylvania, we're going to win this election," Senator McCain said. "I sense it, I feel it, I know it. "I...

(IsraelNN.com) The king of Bahrain, King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, called this week for the Jews who emigrated from the Gulf nation to return. Natan Aloof, one of the veteran immigrants to Israel from Bahrain, responds to the royal call. Last week, King Al-Khalifa and Bahraini Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa met in London with a group of expatriate Bahraini Jews who currently live in the United Kingdom. The meeting was highly unusual for an Arab monarch, although, in May of this year, King Al-Khalifa became the only Arab ruler to appoint a Jewish woman as an...

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OZARK, Mo. -- A family wants answers about what happened to their son that left him hospitalized. Early Saturday morning, police found Mace Hutchinson, 16, underneath the Highway F overpass over U.S. 65. Mace ended up in intensive care at a hospital. His parents believe the actions of Ozark police officers contributed to his injuries and slowed doctors’ abilities to speed his recovery. “We called the police. My wife was afraid he was going to get ran over or hit,” said witness Doug Messersmith. Messersmith and his wife were the last known people to see 16-year-old boy walking, shortly before...

A spinal surgeon in Aurora, Colo., recently performed what's being called the first disc surgery in the United States using adult stem cells to help repair a man's injured lower back. "Stem cells have shown great promise over the past three years for treating back pain," Dr. Jeffrey Kleiner said. "In combination with the diskectomy, we hope to offer patients long-term relief from their back pain and to decrease their risk of needing additional surgeries." Adult stem cells have been injected into patients' backs and joints to promote tissue growth, but this is the first time stem cells have been...

Putting the clock back 10,000 years 02/02/2008 12:29:48 AM EST WESTERN DAILY PRESS Chock-full of famous Roman Baths, Celtic kings, Georgian crescents and Jane Austen, the history of Bath already ran to quite a weighty tome. But archaeologists admitted yesterday that two new chapters would have to be written after amazing discoveries made while a new sewer was being dug. At the very depths of the site of a new GBP350 million shopping centre in the heart of the ancient city, archaeologists found new evidence that extends the history of the city thousands of years further back. The archaeologists found...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2007 – A Maryland-based group is out to show severely wounded servicemembers they’ve still got game through the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project. Jason Beakes holds a prosthetic leg for Army Sgt. Brandon Huff at the end of the day’s runs at Dickerson Whitewater Course, in Dickerson, Md., March 12, 2005. Beakes, a champion whitewater kayaker, volunteers with Team River Runner, teaching kayaking to disabled veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Photo by Neil Hermansdorfer  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “The idea for the program is to … get these guys active as soon...

WASHINGTON, June 8, 2007 – For one Connecticut troop-support group, it’s all about giving back to those who sacrifice so much for their country and making sure servicemembers know those at home care. Servicemembers enjoy their Hawaiian luau compliments of Give2TheTroops. The organization sends care packages and letters to troops serving in combat zones around the world, and makes every effort to fulfill special requests, such as the luau. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In fulfilling its mission, “Give2TheTroops” works to support the physical, moral and spiritual well-being of servicemembers deployed to combat zones around the...

US President George W Bush said today a lot of tensions exist between the West and Russia and voiced scepticism about Russia's path to democracy under President Vladimir Putin. "My message to Vladimir Putin is there's a better way forward, and your interests lie in the West, and we ought to be working together in a collaborative way," Mr Bush said. Mr Putin came close to comparing the United States to the Third Reich recently and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to cool the harsh rhetoric in a visit to Moscow.

Ahmed Abdul-Azal (right), an Iraqi national policeman, pounds a new steel post into the ground for concertina wire around Checkpoint 34, an outpost on a major Iraqi highway known as Route Tampa, during reconstruction efforts Feb. 26 after the checkpoint was heavily damaged by a coordinated attack by terrorists two days before. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Chris McCann CAMP STRIKER -- A savage attack on an Iraqi National Police checkpoint on the Iraqi highway known as Route Tampa that left eight policemen dead and wounded several others on Feb. 23 left scars on buildings and Iraqis alike, but did...

Any Radiologists online? Can you read an MRI?

Outback cracks under assault of the Big Dry Five years of drought have left Australian land parched and towns on the verge of economic ruin Phil Mercer in Sydney Sunday December 10, 2006 The Observer (UK) A farmer moves his sheep in search of food in drought-stricken New South Wales, Australia. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters Drought has plunged one of Australia's most famous outback towns to the brink of social and economic collapse. Bourke - heralded as the 'Real Gateway to the Outback' - faces oblivion. Five years of drought has left Bourke facing its worst crisis. Little wonder Australians are...

I may have a blown disk, my L5, sciatic nerve pain is phenominal.

Defying the age-old advice of parents and teachers, a new study shows that you're better off sitting back than sitting up. An Alberta researcher has found that while seated, with feet flat on the ground, leaning back to create a 135-degree angle between the thighs and trunk is much less straining on the spine and will not lead to the potentially chronic back pain associated with sitting in an upright position for extended periods of time. "Up until now it's always been, 'Mum knows best,' and so you sit up straight," said Waseem Amir Bashir, a researcher in radiology and...

People with ruptured disks in their lower backs usually recover whether or not they have surgery, researchers are reporting today. The study, a large trial, found that surgery appeared to relieve pain more quickly but that most people recovered eventually and that there was no harm in waiting. And that, surgeons said, is likely to change medical practice. The study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, is the only large and well-designed trial to compare surgery for sciatica with waiting. The study was controversial from the start, with many surgeons saying they knew that the operation worked...

Britain to US: we don't want Guantánamo nine back · Documents reveal secret talks in Washington· British residents have no right to return say officials Ian Cobain and Vikram Dodd Tuesday October 3, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The United States has offered to return nearly all British residents held at Guantánamo Bay after months of secret talks in Washington, the Guardian has learned. The British government has refused to accept the men, however, with senior officials saying they have no legal right to return. Documents obtained by the Guardian show US authorities are demanding that the detainees be kept under...

Austrian voters veer back to far-Right By Michael Leidig in Vienna (Filed: 02/10/2006) Austrian voters swung back to the far-Right in elections yesterday with the Freedom Party and a splinter group led by Jorg Haider, the populist hardliner, gaining more than 15 per cent of the vote. Chancellor Schussel: preliminary results looked to have swung to the far-Right and left his party in second place But in the preliminary results, the centre-Left Social Democrats looked to have just edged ahead of the conservative Chancellor, Wolfgang Schussel, and his OeVP party. A grand coalition between the two leading parties is a...

USC should forfeit the 2004 national crown after reports that Reggie Bush and his family appear to have accepted financial benefits from prospective agents. LOS ANGELES – The would-be agents who provided the house, the money for the tricked-out car, the luxury hotel rooms and the tens of thousands in cash used to roll right into the Southern California locker room after the game, right past security, to meet and greet the triumphant Trojans. The marketing agent who provided the cash allowance, the plane flights, the limo rides and the designer suits used to hang around Trojan practices, filed paperwork...

Actress Penelope Cruz plays with her hair while being interviewed on the red carpet as she arrives for the gala screening of her new film 'Volver' during the 31st Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, September 8, 2006. The festival runs from September 7 until the 16. (J.P. Moczulski/Reuters) Penelope Cruz says that when she finished six months of work on "Volver," the new movie directed by Spain's Pedro Almodovar, she was so wrapped up in her character that she faced an emotional crisis. "I couldn't leave the set. I didn't want to take my false ass off. There...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 -- When José Rojas went to pull a badly burned woman from a Pentagon window after Islamic extremists drove a commercial airliner headlong into the building, her skin came off in his hands. “I had to actually take my fingernails and dig into her flesh with her crying and screaming to get her out of the window,” Rojas said, describing his efforts to help the victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Rojas, 43, a police officer with the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, the successor of the Defense Protective Service, was...

MARSEILLE, France, Sept 3, 2006 (AFP) - French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy appeared almost certain to lead the right into next year's presidential election, after a triumphant party congress which concluded Sunday in Marseille with a blistering attack on the "generation of May 1968". Speaking before 7,000 young members of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Sarkozy, 51, said modern France had been betrayed by the left-wing ideals that took root after the 1968 student uprising, and called for a society built around "a reassertion of the value of work". "(The generation of 1968) inculcated everywhere — in...

Analysis: Iran Won't Back Down From U.N. Wednesday August 30, 2006 11:16 PM By LEE KEATH Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Iran isn't blinking in the face of Thursday's U.N. deadline for it to halt uranium enrichment or else finally face the possibility of sanctions the United States has sought for years. Tehran appears confident it can withstand any punishment - if it comes at all. There seems to be no question of Iran's bending to the U.N. demand. It was enriching small amounts of uranium gas at its facility in Natanz as recently as Tuesday, U.N. and...

By Sgt. 1st Class Joe Flores 4th Infantry DivisionCapt. Evan Jones, physician’s assistant, 4th Infantry Division, checks a local boy at a medical operation in Hor al-Bash on Sunday. Department of Defense photo by Army Sgt. 1st Class Joe Flores, 4th ID. CAMP TAJI -- Under the blazing Iraqi sun, Iraqi Army and Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers fought the heat to conduct a community health outreach for the people of Hor al-Bash on Sunday.Soldiers of the 9th Iraqi Army Division and the U.S.' 4th Infantry Division, with the help of medics from the 414th Civil Affairs Battalion, joined together...