Free Republic

U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, D-11, Nanticoke, wants to reform the regulatory structure of the U.S. financial services industry. So he has introduced four pieces of legislation that would reform credit-rating agencies, protect investors, address private funds - such as hedge funds and private equity, which were unregulated in the past - and create a federal insurance office. Mr. Kanjorski, chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, is also the second-ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee. Credit-rating agency Mr. Kanjorski said he introduced the credit-rating agency legislation because of the...

Just in from the Senate Majority Leader’s press shop: Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will hold a press conference this afternoon to give an update on the merger of Senate health insurance reform proposals. Today, Monday, October 26, 2009, at 3:15 p.m. Practically every report agrees that Reid will deliver a bill to the CBO today for scoring, and that it will include a public option with the potential for states to opt out.

Since taking office as the President of the United States, President Obama has encountered crisis after crisis. His next major crisis will be oil prices. Read full article... http://newsflavor.com/politics/international-relations/next-major-obama-crisis/

MEXICO CITY — The United States should reinstate a Clinton-era ban on assault weapons to prevent such guns from reaching Mexican drug cartels, former officials from both countries said in a report released Tuesday. The group, which includes two former U.S. ambassadors to Mexico, also said the U.S. should do more to stop the smuggling of firearms and ammunition into Mexico by stepping up investigations of gun dealers and more strictly regulating gun shows. The Binational Task Force on the United States-Mexico Border listed the assault weapons ban as a step the U.S. should take immediately to improve security in...

Why We Are Going to Hell – Part 3,995 Conservative Protestants Condone Law-Breaking Has the Christian Church Gone Crazy??? byPaul L. Williams, Ph.D. thelastcrusade.org Evangelical Christians this week offered the Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and members of the U.S. Senate Immigration Reform Committee their ringing endorsement of full amnesty for the 20 to 30 million illegal aliens within the country. Open borders and high immigration, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) proclaimed, increases membership in evangelical churches and is good for the economy. Rev. Leith Anderson, president of the NAE, said there was no dissent among the members of...

Throughout last year’s presidential campaign, Barack Obama lambasted the Bush administration for fighting “the wrong war” in Iraq and ignoring the right one in Afghanistan. Iraq was a “war of choice,” Obama claimed, while Afghanistan was a “war of necessity.” Repeatedly, he claimed that, if elected president, he’d unveil a new “stronger, smarter and comprehensive strategy.”

President Obama said this week that his health care plan won't cover illegal immigrants, but argued that's all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage. "Even though I do not believe we can extend coverage to those who are here illegally, I also don't simply believe we can simply ignore the fact that our immigration system is broken," Mr. Obama said Wednesday evening in a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. "That's why I strongly support making sure folks who are here legally have access to affordable, quality health insurance under this plan,...

My NEXT phone call to Senators Voinovich and Brown: Hello, My name is Kimberly ..... and I would like to leave a message for Senator...... “Oh, its you, again” (I’m just waiting for THAT response!) Yes, it’s me...I’d like to know if Senator Voinovich is aware that there are far more than 12 million illegal aliens in this country already and it is clear that our government’s use of that number is entirely meant to mislead the public. “Is that your message?”. Yes, I resent continuing to be treated as if I’m stupid. Apparently our Senators aren’t aware that Homeland...

Compilation of Barack Obama's "No Middle Class Tax Hike" lie in speeches with Geithner's saying a middle class tax hike is possible.

CHICAGO – Activists disappointed that the Obama administration has not given immigration top billing are trying to yank the issue off the back burner by pressing ahead with lobbying and legislation plans they hope will reinvigorate reform efforts. By honing in on national lawmakers they believe are sympathetic or can be swayed to support their cause and drawing on voters who said reform was a top priority, many immigrant rights advocates are striving to make headway at a time when the economy has become the top priority. "We're not going to just be chanting, 'Yes we can! Yes we can!'"...

General Motors is spending more money where it counts: Latin America. The Latin American market has been generous to the struggling automaker despite struggles at home. Today, GM announced a $1 billion plan to expand its vehicle lineup in Brazil. "We believe the Brazilian market will be very strong, will continue to grow at a rate of at least 5 percent a year and we also believe in the prospects for exports of the new models," Jaime Ardila, GM's chief executive for Brazil and the Mercosur region of South America, said in a statement. Ardila added that GM showed record...

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - The U.S. government will get tough with governments that don't live up to trade deals, including those with substandard labor practices, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk was set to announce on Thursday. The USTR and U.S. Labor and State departments will identify and investigate labor violations in countries with which it has free trade agreements and insist problems are fixed, instead of waiting for complaints to initiate enforcement, according to prepared remarks. "If they won't fix their labor problems, we will exercise our legal options," Kirk was set to say in a speech at a U.S. Steel...

Scientific findings at odds with the Obama Administration’s views on carbon dioxide and climate change are being suppressed as a result of political pressure, officials at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) charge. “This suppression of valid science for political reasons is beyond belief,” said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman. “EPA’s conduct is even more outlandish because it flies in the face of the president’s widely-touted claim that ‘the days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over.’” The agency has never made the study public or included it in official reference materials, according to CEI. As part of...

Climate Change: He's a NASA scientist, the world's top climate researcher, we're told. Of course he's apolitical, nonpartisan, unbiased. Then why was the man who began the global warming scare arrested as an activist?Climatologist James Hansen was one of 30 people arrested Tuesday in West Virginia while protesting mountaintop coal removal. Though not the most famous person taken into custody — that would be actress Daryl Hannah — he has some renown as the person primarily responsible for fomenting the global warming scare. In a statement distributed by the Rainforest Action Network at the protest, Hansen tried to cover himself,...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he is committed to a comprehensive immigration overhaul that includes a way that illegal immigrants can become U.S. citizens. Obama told a gathering of Hispanics on Friday that U.S. borders must be strengthened to thwart illegal immigration. He said the millions of people who are now in the U.S. illegally should have the chance to become citizens. He said they must pay a fine and taxes, learn English and "go to the back of the line" of people trying to enter the United States from their home country.

Harry Reid Vows Action on ‘Comprehensive’ Immigration Bill That Includes Amnesty Wednesday, June 17, 2009 By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief (CNSNews.com) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) vowed Monday that the Senate would consider a “comprehensive” immigration reform bill that would include giving amnesty to illegal aliens—an item he referred to as “bringing the 11 million people out of the shadows.” Reid said that Senate consideration of a massive new immigration bill would come after the Senate dealt with the health-care issue and energy. The Senate is now looking at a national health-care plan being promoted by President Obama...

No excerpt allowed, story here .

• Salmon, sturgeon being killed by pumping, says new report • ‘Chips away at our ability to provide a reliable water supply for California’ The National Marine Fisheries Service has ruled that the operation of both the federal and state water projects in California are contributing to the possible extinction of salmon, sturgeon, southern resident killer whale, and steelhead. In a briefing for Congressional offices held earlier Thursday, NMFS announced exports from the Delta would be reduced 330,000 acre feet. The state has an even grimmer view. “The new opinion, which could reduce Delta export on average by about 300,000...

Reid wants immigration bill this year By: Manu Raju June 4, 2009 02:12 PM EST Just in case you thought the Senate’s schedule was already stuffed with fierce battles, the chamber’s top Democrat said he wants to take up comprehensive immigration reform this year, opening a new front on a divisive issue that sparked a roiling national debate two summers ago. Passing immigration reform is “going to happen this session,” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), referring to the 111th Congress. “But I want it this year if at all possible.” At a press conference with Hispanic leaders touting the Supreme...

Building a fence along the Mexican border and fighting over proposed immigration restrictions in Fremont are a lot more visible right now than any new paths to citizenship. But that didn’t stop Nebraska advocates of a more welcoming attitude from stepping forward to make their case in Lincoln and Omaha Monday. “I can’t tell you how devastating it is to me to see that fence as an American citizen,” the Rev. Chuck Bentjen said at the Lincoln launch of the National Campaign to Reform Immigration for America. Bentjen, based in Lincoln with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was one...

'No Fly, No Buy' for Guns Bill Proposed by Rep. McCarthy User Rating: / 19 PoorBest Politics - Capitol Hill Written by Timothy Robertson Wednesday, 13 May 2009 13:32 Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) is co-sponsoring a House of Representatives bill preventing people on the government's no-fly list from purchasing guns. House representatives will introcude a bill Wednesday that would ban anyone on the controversial no-fly list from purchasing a gun in the U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), a strong gun control advocate, is co-sponsoring the legislation that would apply to the nearly 1 million people that make up the government’s no-fly...

During last year’s presidential campaign, gun-owners’ groups like the National Rifle Association said Barack Obama, if he were elected, would be the most anti-gun president in the history of the United States. That claim and similar statements sparked a buying spree on guns and ammunition immediately following the election, which continued well into this year. I bought some shells last week, and told I was limited to two boxes. There is nothing to indicate that this shortage is the result of Obama administration actions, however. I’m not here to proclaim that President Obama is really a great friend to gun...

FRIDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- While the official tally of confirmed U.S. swine flu cases topped 4,700 on Friday, experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimate the true number of infections at more than 100,000 nationwide. [snip] In fact, "estimates of the confirmed and probable cases in the United States is probably not the best indicator of transmission at this point," the CDC's Jernigan said. "The outbreak is not localized, but is spreading and appears to be expanding throughout the United States. This is an ongoing public health threat," he said. It's a little hard...

The sitting Speaker of the House of Representatives has accused the CIA of lying to Congress. She is ensnared in a web of conflicting accounts. Her very hold on power could be under a cloud. Meh. Guess we can find some room on A20. But pot pies need to be heated to 165 degrees to be safe? Hold the presses: put it on the front page! Such is the news judgment of the New York Times. The Morning Joe crowd had a field day with Gray Lady and Pelosi’s travails during the show’s opening half-hour today, Joe Scarborough having great...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's extraordinary accusation that the Bush administration lied to Congress about the use of harsh interrogation techniques dramatically raised the stakes in the growing debate over the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies even as it raised some questions about the speaker's credibility. Pelosi's performance in the Capitol was either a calculated escalation of a long-running feud with the Bush administration or a reckless act by a politician whose word had been called into question. Perhaps it was both.

President Barack Obama has given permission for military trials to restart at Guantanamo Bay in an announcement that effectively repudiated one of his first decisions in office. The White House attempted to forestall criticism from President Obama's liberal supporters by promising improved legal safeguards. President Obama stopped military commissions, which were trying suspects in the September 11, 2001 attacks on America by al-Qaeda as soon as he took over from George W Bush. President Obama ordered a review of the procedures, declaring the system did not work. But he was careful not to rule out the use of a modified...

CIA Offers to Determine When Pelosi Knew by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace (2009-05-12) — In an effort to clarify exactly when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew that the U.S. employed enhanced interrogation techniques, like waterboarding, on terrorists, the CIA today offered to question the California Democrat. “With the passage of time, memory gets clouded,” said a CIA source who spoke on condition of anonymity. “But we have learned how to clear away the clouds, and bring into sharp focus the relevant details.” Rep. Pelosi initially said she had not been briefed on the harsh interrogation methods, then said she thought...

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Barack Obama and his immigration-policy team are ready to give amnesty another chance. This month, President Obama begins his push for "comprehensive immigration reform," an effort at which both his predecessor and his 2008 general election opponent failed repeatedly. Despite the support of liberals like Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) both saw their efforts founder on the questions of border security and what to do with the 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants already in the United States. Try as they might, neither Bush...

Nancy Pelosi’s attempt to evade responsibility for her role in approving the use of waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques took another hit today in the Washington Post — and this time the fire comes from her side of the aisle. Pete Hoekstra upped the ante as well, demanding the release of precise minutes of Congressional briefings, and Leon Panetta has promised to make them available, at least to Capitol Hill:

Behold one of the new "Fairness" Doctrines - "media diversity" - coming soon to a radio station near you. President Barack Obama's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released the names of the thirty-one members of their Advisory Committee On Diversity For Communications In The Digital Age. This May 7 gathering is made up of a laundry list of left-wing grievance groups, with a smattering of radio and television companies included to break up the monotony. Not a single conservative organization is taking part in this Commission - more than a dozen Leftist groups are. A little ironic for a "diversity"...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Actress Ashley Judd and TV personality Jeff Corwin are urging Congress to spend $7 billion a year to help safeguard America's wildlife from the impact of global warming. Judd is a longtime environmental activist. The actress told a House subcommittee on Thursday that climate legislation should not just address the causes of global warming, but also the effects already being seen on the ground. Judd says evidence of global warming is already being felt on her farm in Tennessee.

OLYMPIA — Senate Democrats introduced a bill today that would impose a 1 percent income tax on people making more than $500,000 a year. The bill sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, comes shortly after Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, began pondering the possibility of a state income tax on her blog. On Tuesday, Brown noted that New York is considering a similar measure. Brown wrote that New York's plan to increase existing state income tax rates on top earners would be "a fair and stable way" of dealing with that state's declining revenue. Brown's staff, however, said the...

MIAMI (Reuters) – Health workers violated medical ethics when they helped interrogate terrorism suspects who were tortured at secret CIA prisons overseas, the International Committee of the Red Cross said. The medical workers, thought to be doctors and psychologists, monitored prisoners while they were mistreated at CIA prisons and advised interrogators whether to continue, adjust or halt the abuse, the ICRC said in a report based on interviews with 14 prisoners in 2007. One prisoner alleged that medical personnel monitored his blood oxygen levels while he was subjected to waterboarding, a simulated drowning designed to induce panic and widely considered...

The basic bargain is sound: countries with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament, countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them.” -- President Barack Obama, Prague, April 6, 2009 As far as nuclear weapons are concerned, the President of the United States wants America to disarm: “Countries with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament.” It is hard to imagine a more destructive goal. A nuclear disarmed America would lead to massive and widespread killing, more genocide, and very possibly the nuclear holocaust worldwide nuclear disarmament is meant to prevent. There is nothing moral, let alone realistic, about this goal. Here...

HHS Nominee Vows To Improve Medicare, Medicaid WASHINGTON (AP) ― Health secretary nominee Kathleen Sebelius said Thursday that all Americans should have health coverage but she didn't say how they would get it. During her confirmation hearing, Sebelius avoided endorsing a plan to make people legally responsible for seeing that they're insured. She was responding to questions from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, who has proposed a so-called individual mandate in his own health reform plan. Baucus, D-Mont., noted that during the presidential campaign Barack Obama proposed mandating that all children be insured -- but not all adults. He...

The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document. Giving the Treasury secretary authority over a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process. The Treasury secretary, a member of the president's Cabinet, would exercise the new powers in consultation with the White House, the Federal...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance.

Amongst the several revenue-raising proposals in President Obama’s $3.9-trillion budget proposal is a carbon tax that will impact all American families. His budget aims to raise $646 billion through a cap-and-trade tax on energy. Last year, Peter Orszag, who was then Director of the Congressional Budget Office and is now President Obama’s Director for the Office of Management and Budget, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on a similar proposal. Speaking about a cap-and-trade proposal to cut carbon emissions by 15%, he said it would cost the average household about $1,300 a year through higher energy costs. He...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined hundreds of families Saturday evening at a church in San Francisco's Mission District demanding an end to the immigration raids and deportations that separate parents from children across the United States.

To my Conservative Friends: The brain dead socialists in the House of Representatives have unveiled yet another massive spending bill today to "make up" for the cuts in Education, Health care, etc that President Bush made during the last 8 years.. And we all know W was not much of a cost-cutter!!! Where does it end??? Now let's add this up... The TARP abomination was $750B, the Auto Bailout was $100B, the Stimu-less death sentence was $787B, today's bill is $410B and Barry has proposed God knows how many more Billions in his speech last night.Where does it end???And this...

Backers of sweeping immigration policy changes, bolstered by the growing importance of the Hispanic voting bloc, are urging lawmakers to tackle the touchy subject this year despite rising unemployment levels among legal residents. “One lesson of the Bush administration is if you don’t move early, it becomes harder, not easier, to do,” said Frank Sharry, the executive director of America’s Voice, a group that supports offering a path to citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants. “You need a president with political capital to make the case to the American people.” Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.), a member of the Congressional Hispanic...

At the signing. NS.

Associated Press. Link only

each Rep allowed one minute to speak.

(sigh) Time to bend over and grab the Vaseline.

Various Left-Wingery: 1. $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts... 5. $6 billion for university building projects... 9. $4.2 billion for "neighborhood stabilization activities" 10. $650 million for digital TV coupons, including $90 million to educate "vulnerable population"... Stimulus For The Government: 14. $150 million for the Smithsonian 15. $34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce headquarters [new furniture and so on] 16. $500 million for improvements projects for National Institutes of Health facilities... Income Transfers: 28. $20 billion for food stamps... 30. $850 million for Amtrak 31. $87 million for a polar icebreaking ship ...

If enacted, the Senate stimulus bill would fund over $100 billion in new government construction projects with the goal of providing additional jobs to unemployed Americans. The House-passed stimulus bill contains explicit language to bar employment of illegal immigrants in these construction projects. However, the Senate bill deliberately omits this language. If the Senate version of the bill becomes law, a great number of the workers employed in government construction programs will, in fact, be illegal immigrants. About one out of seven (or 15 percent) of workers employed in construction in the U.S. is an illegal immigrant.[1] Unless strong mechanisms...

Michael Steele, the new chairman of the Republican National Committee wants the GOP to reach out to candidates who support gay marriage and are pro-choice. Steele told Fox's Chris Wallace that it was "important" to reach out to those voters. WALLACE: You are one of the co-founders of something called the Republican Leadership Council which supports candidates who favor abortion and gay rights. STEELE: Yes. (watch video) WALLACE: Does the GOP needs to do a better job of reaching out to people who hold those views? STEELE: I think -- I think that's an important opportunity for us, absolutely. Within...

About 15 years ago, Don and Roxanne Carpenter went into business after buying what they said wasn't much more than a shack at Taylor and Morris streets. They installed ice cream machines, pop machines and cooking equipment and set up shop as the Dog-Out, a walk-up hot dog stand. To be honest, it wouldn't strike people as the best place to open a business. It's a little out of the way. But there were 500 people living within walking distance, Don Carpenter says, and several large factories were nearby, and business flourished. Word of mouth brought customers to the little...

Syracuse, New York (WSYR-TV) - Families who depend on thrift stores and consignment shops for kid's clothing could lose that option in a few weeks. That’s because a new federal safety law is written so broadly, it could force these stores to stop selling kids clothes entirely. The new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act takes effect February 10. It requires any store to certify that clothing sold for children 12 and under is free of dye laced with lead or other chemicals. Beth green smith owns the golden hangers consignment store in western lights: “When you're talking about consignment, it's...