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You let a dude from a Muslim country and no luggage on a U.S.-bound plane with NO passport?! Hellooooo . . .?: While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, ‘He’s from Sudan and we do this all the time.’” Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab’s lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee. The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to...

If you are under 30, you really need to read this column and pass it on to your friends. Your elected officials are dooming you to a new sort of bondage, a form of 21st Century slavery, if you will. First, some background. On October 16, 1854, Abraham Lincoln, then a former one-term Congressman, gave a three hour speech in Peoria, Illinois in which he decried the extension of slavery into the territories. The Republican Party was barely three months old. Lincoln warned that slavery was a “monstrous injustice” based on the raw principle of “self-interest” at odds with the...

"I worked with him on many issues across party lines. There has never a major reform accomplished in the history of this country that hasn't been bipartisan, and he certainly, uh...all of the negotiations and efforts that I made with him, we never engaged in this kind of unsavory process of offering people different deals, which in the end cost people from other states lots of money and put burdens on them."

WASHINGTON -- Slumping in the polls and struggling to pass climate and financial legislation, President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders are counting on an historic health care victory to buoy their electoral prospects in 2010. But Republicans argued Sunday that the issue is breaking their way, and liberal infighting indicates the party leadership has to win back its base along with the larger electorate. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been telling Democrats a win on the health issue will reverse the slide in public opinion, just as passage of another controversial proposal, the North American Free Trade...

Barack Obama's quest for historic health-care legislation has turned into a parody of leadership. We usually associate presidential leadership with the pursuit of goals that, though initially unpopular, serve America's long-term interests. Obama has reversed this. He's championing increasingly unpopular legislation that threatens the country's long-term interests. "This isn't about me," he likes to say, "I have great health insurance." But of course, it is about him: about the legacy he covets as the president who achieved "universal" health insurance. He'll be disappointed. Even if Congress passes legislation -- a good bet -- the finished product will fall far short...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says that Republicans will "probably not" be able to stop the passage of health care this week, but that his party will continue to "win the battle of American public opinion." "We’ll fight the good fight, we will fight until the last vote," he said on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. "We must look back and say that we did everything we could to prevent this terrible mistake from taking place."

Barack Obama came, he spoke, and no one concurred: India and China have taken a united stand and walked out of the climate summit as Copenhagen talks fail.Tensions prevailed at the climate talks at Copenhagen today, as Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and China premier Wen Jiabao walked out of the summit along with their respective delegations, as talks failed. Obama feted Singh just this month, saying that they should be impressed that India got first crack at Obama’s state dinner agenda.  Apparently, Singh was less impressed than Obama presumed.Meanwhile, Obama is getting some pretty bad reviews for his intervention...

Harder to buy US Treasuries Created: 2009-12-18 0:13:35 Author:Zhou Xin and Jason Subler IT is getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said yesterday. The comments by Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, referred to the overall situation globally, not specifically to China, the biggest foreign holder of US government bonds. Chinese officials generally are very careful about commenting on the dollar and Treasuries, given that so much of its US$2.3 trillion reserves are tied to their...

Dear Mr. President, We don't need no steenking socialism and if the federal government goes bankrupt, good! We got along just fine before the federal behemoth came along and we'll get along even better after its demise. I got your healthcare right here! Signed, A FREE American

Declaring that she “was honored and proud to run with him,” former Alaska governor Sarah Palin pushed back hard Wednesday against a report that she had disrespected Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) by blacking out his name on a sun visor she wore on vacation. The website TMZ accused Palin of “a frontal attack on Sen. John McCain” during a Hawaii vacation this week: “Sarah chose to wear a visor from her campaign -- a visor that was emblazoned with the former presidential candidate's name ... that is, until Palin redacted McCain's name with a black marker.” But Palin said in...

(snip) MCCAIN: Let me say I have great admiration and respect for Senator Durbin... (snip) MCCAIN: Let me give you a couple of points of straight talk. I resent it enormously when Senator Reid comes to the floor and accuses Republicans or compares Republicans to those who fought against the abolition of slavery. He said that. That's -- that's unacceptable. As far as the president's commitments are concerned, he made that commitment to the American people, so he didn't tell the American people the truth when he was campaigning for president. How's that?(snip)

EMPEROR ZEROZERO POSSUMUS ARUGULA So it seems Emperor Zero was on with Oprah Windbag last night, and she asked him to give himself a grade for this, his first year in office. Mr. Modest gave himself a "good solid B plus." He added that if ObamaCare passes, he would tip that up to an "A minus." What kind of a report card do the DUmmies give Dear Leader? Now you would think at a place called DEMOCRATIC Underground, the Democrat President would score very high. Think again, Einstein! The DUmmies give Zero an "EPIC FAIL"! At least a lot of...

WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. government must craft a plan next year to get its ballooning debt under control or face possible panic in financial markets, a bipartisan panel of budget experts said in a report on Monday. Though the government should hold off on immediate tax hikes and spending cuts to avoid harming the fragile economic recovery, it will need to make such painful changes by 2012 in order to keep debt at a manageable 60 percent of GDP by 2018, according to the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform. Without action, investors could lose confidence in the...

Some of the nation's top political commentators, legislators and intellectuals offer some insight into the biggest question burning up the blogosphere today. Today's question: In an interview that aired Sunday night, President Barack Obama graded his presidency so far as a "good, solid B-plus." How would you grade the first 11 months of Barack Obama's presidency? Cheri Jacobus, Pundits blog contributor, said: With poll after poll indicating Obama's standing with the American public is lower in his first year than any president since they started this type of polling, it really doesn't matter what grade any pundits, the media, or...

If anyone had any doubts whatsoever that the Republican Party has lost its way and is no longer a true friend to the core conservative values of individual liberty and limited government, those doubts should be put firmly to rest considering the current debate in Washington over the proposal for socialized health care coming out of the far left. It is no wonder that conservatives, people who actually believe in the Constitution, are upset with Republicans who time and again run out to stand before the cameras and at Tea Parties to proudly proclaim how much they understand us and...

Activists are expressing disappointment with President Barack Obama’s plans for the Aids treatment programme in Africa, charging that he has fallen short of the achievements of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Obama pledged to increase Pepfar spending by $1b a year, but in his first budget, called for only $165m in new funds. Gregg Gonsalves, a leading US anti-Aids campaigner, warned an audience in New York last week, “I am about to say something shocking: I miss George W Bush.” “President Obama has all but failed to fulfil his commitments to wage an aggressive battle against global Aids,” a coalition...

George W. Bush's State of the Union address must have baffled anyone who voted for him based on his pledge to cut the size of government. That speech has been properly and efficiently pilloried by Joseph Stromberg, Alan Bock, and others. The speech was both Wilsonian and Clintonian, which is to say that it proposed a political solution for all human problems and backed this idea with a promise of massive increases in federal spending on just about everything. But should we really be so surprised? Contrary to popular myth, every Republican president since and including Herbert Hoover has increased...

Barack Obama began his presidency with an open hand toward the man he had just defeated in a race that was at times bitter. "There are few Americans who understand this need for common purpose and common effort better than John McCain," said Obama at an inauguration-eve tribute dinner to his former foe. But in the year since that evening of comity and collegiality, McCain has emerged as one of the leading critics of the new president. On foreign policy, his traditional area of expertise, and domestic affairs, where McCain has shown new passion, the 72-year-old Arizonan is making it...

I remember my anger and confusion. Thinking to myself, "how could any rational, educated person support a man who has no executive experience? Who worked with the Democrat Socialists of America? Who represented ACORN as an attorney? ACORN! The antithesis of all things American, undermining the integrity of our very voting system! After the election, I recall a bitter taste in my mouth. Scrutinizing my neighbors. Questioning them, mentally, as to their motives. More than a year later, the Obama bumper stickers and signs have all but disappeared. The economic disaster, endemic to any Socialist strategy -- and especially that...

The Libertarian Party is stuck in a loop that sustains its electoral irrelevance. Now is the perfect time for a strategy change. America has long used third parties as forums for statements of dissatisfaction with the big two. But while Theodore Roosevelt, Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, and Ross Perot generated considerable heat, they were populist flares who soon burned out. Every four, years the Libertarian Party picks a presidential candidate who tallies meager vote totals. In 2008, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr received 523,686 votes -- 0.4% of the national total. Clearly, the purpose of the exercise isn't to win....

A man was arrested for throwing tomatoes at Sarah Palin during her book signing on Monday at the Mall of America. Jeremy Olson, 33, allegedly threw two tomatoes from the second balcony, however did not come close to hitting Palin. Bloomington Police report that Bloomington Commander Mark Stehlik was struck in the face with one of the tomatoes and may face charges for assaulting a police officer. Olson was booked at the Bloomington jail. He was arrested for suspicion of assault and disorderly conduct. More than 1,000 people turned out at the Mall of America Rotunda on Monday for Sarah...

Stuart Varney was just on Fox and said Moody's will lower the United States bond rating for the first time ever in 2013 with current spending plans.

The CEO of General Motors, is set to resign. Chairman Ed Whitacre will serve as interim CEO. Update: According to Whitacre, the GM board has accepted Henderson's resignation.

A moment of fun here for Senator James Inhofe, who declared victory over the global-warming hysterics this week in a speech covered by the Tulsa World. Inhofe got a few laughs from a nearly-empty room by telling Barbara Boxer that the failure of the dire predictions of disaster from last decade to come to pass showed that he had been right all along, and that they could now “stick a fork” in the effort to hobble American productivity through the restriction of carbon emissions: You Tube video U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, perhaps Congress’ most vocal skeptic of man-made global warming,...

Rudy Giulani has told associates he's not going to make a play for governor in 2010, avoiding a potentially bruising election fight in a race where Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is seen as the Democratic frontrunner, several sources told The Post. Several sources said the US Senate is seen as a strong possibility for Giuliani, as a challenge to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The sources said it was seen as an office in which he could do well, and which could be a stepping stone should he run for president again. Giuliani started signaling to advisers and friends in the past...

Gay newspapers in several U.S. cities, including the Washington Blade, shut down on Monday, as the company that owned them, Window Media, abruptly went out of business. Window Media had been in serious financial trouble, but employees said they had expected a reorganization or sale, not a liquidation. “We found out when two of the corporate officers were waiting for us when we got to work this morning,” said Kevin Naff, editor of the Blade, a 40-year-old paper that was one of the most important publications written for a gay audience. “It’s not a complete surprise. The abruptness of it...

Copenhagen climate change agreement is impossible World leaders have finally accepted that it will be impossible to come to a deal on climate change this year and have moved their attention to setting new deadlines for a global agreement. By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent Published: 2:10PM GMT 15 Nov 2009 The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December has been billed as the world's last chance to stop global warming. But negotiations to forge a binding agreement have been hampered by a US refusal to sign up to targets on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The deadlock forced world...

Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE - News; NYSE:FRE - News), the second largest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funding, on Friday posted a loss of $5 billion in the third quarter and predicted it would need more government support amid a "prolonged deterioration" in housing. Increases in the value of securities Freddie Mac held over the period helped buoy its net worth, however, erasing its need to tap government funds for a second straight quarter to stay solvent while continuing to buy and guarantee home loans. Including a $1.3 billion dividend payment on senior preferred stock bought by the Treasury in previous...

White House spokesman Bill Burton told Fox News that President Obama's visit to the Army's top medical facility was planned before Thursday's shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded. In the wake of the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. base, President Obama plans to visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center Friday. White House spokesman Bill Burton told Fox News that Obama's visit to the Army's top medical facility was planned before Thursday's shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded. Although it didn't appear on the White Houses'...

It is no coincidence that Barack Obama held a key campaign rally last year in front of hundreds of thousands of adoring Germans, as though he were running for Mayor of Berlin. Obama remains in many ways a quintessentially European politician, a firm believer in big government, large-scale state intervention, social liberalism, supranational institutions, and the projection of soft power abroad. His political philosophy is frequently more attuned to Brussels or Strasbourg than it is to Washington. For a host of reasons however, President Obama is increasingly viewed by his natural allies in Europe- the left-wing intelligentsia in particular –...

Washington (CNN) -- Victories in New Jersey and Virginia Tuesday provided a major shot in the arm for the Republican Party heading into the 2010 elections, but the Democratic losses of these two governorships should not be interpreted as a significant blow to President Obama. While the economy and jobs were the chief concern for voters in both states, 26 percent of New Jersey residents said property taxes was also a major issue, while another 20 percent mentioned corruption, according to CNN exit polling. In a similar CNN survey taken in Virginia, health care was the most important issue for...

We’re seeing a measure of disenchantment with Barack Obama, even among Democrats. Today the Times has a piece about that sentiment in Iowa, the New York Review of Books has a Gary Wills piece that is admiring but suggests that he become a one-term president, and environmentalists have a full-page ad in the NYT today decrying his interior department’s decision to allow a wolf kill. You see the same thing in the poll numbers and hear it in water cooler conversations.

President Barack Obama has been in office just nine months and already he is defending his legacy, pushing back more aggressively against criticism of his record on health care, climate change, closing Guantanamo, reforming immigration laws and financial regulations and managing the war in Afghanistan. For the past two weeks, as he’s jetted across the country to fill Democrats’ 2010 coffers, Obama has been test driving a new speech that sounds a lot like one he’d be giving if he were on the ballot next year: A line-item defense of his record so far, and a sober reminder to supporters...

Reporting from Kennett Square, Pa. - As he is quick to point out, President Obama is presiding over two wars, a sour economy and an epic fight to rework the nation's healthcare system. Now tack on a trio of state and local political races. With an off-year election fast approaching, Obama is stepping up his commitment to Democratic candidates in hopes that an infusion of campaign charisma might pump up turnout. What the party is finding, though, is that the electricity of 2008 is tough to recapture.

(CNN) -- Nearly a year after the presidential election, the excitement of Barack Obama's campaign has faded into the reality of an Obama White House. As observers try to determine what time it is in American politics, they arrive at opposite conclusions. To some, said Tulane University political scientist Thomas Langston, Obama is like Jimmy Carter, and the nation will soon hammer the nails into the coffin of a dying Democratic coalition just as voters, tired of the Carter "malaise" era, handed the White House to Republicans in 1980. To others, Obama has come to usher in a new understanding...

Pres. Obama has described Fox News as "operating basically as a talk-radio format" rather than as a "news outlet." When NBC's Savannah Guthrie raised [in a segment of her extended interview of the president aired on Today this morning] the issue of White House attacks on Fox News, PBO first tried to play the statesman, resorting to the old dodge about "the American people" being more interested in jobs and the situation in Afghanistan. But when politely pressed on the issue, PBO didn't hesitate to fustigate Fox. View video here.

Not much Hope but a whole lot of Change. ObamaCare plus stagnant unemployment plus dithering on Afghanistan makes for a magical brew indeed, my friends. In fact, the 9-point drop in the most recent quarter is the largest Gallup has ever measured for an elected president between the second and third quarters of his term, dating back to 1953. One president who was not elected to his first term — Harry Truman — had a 13-point drop between his second and third quarters in office in 1945 and 1946… More generally, Obama’s 9-point slide between quarters ranks as one of...

Attending a DNC fundraiser at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City Tuesday evening, President Obama criticized the “collective amnesia” of the nation about the economic circumstances it faced a year ago, pitched a variety of policy proposals and called for Republicans to support his health care reform push, pointedly saying: “What I don’t have a lot of sympathy for are folks who are just sitting on the sidelines and rooting for failure.” “I don’t mind cleaning up the mess that some other folks made, that’s what I signed up to do, but while I’m mopping the floor, I...

Three years ago, Massachusetts passed the most sweeping healthcare bill in the country, adopting a plan that closely resembles the proposals being considered by Congress. It is a plan that now offers powerful lessons for the whole nation. The state's system, like the proposals moving toward votes in the House and Senate, focused on three goals: making medical insurance almost universal, fostering competition through a regulated insurance exchange, and helping low-income workers pay for coverage. Today, Massachusetts leads the nation with 96% of its residents covered by insurance -- an even larger share than some of the plans before Congress...

HAMMOND, La. (AP) - A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist.

Pakistan's powerful military rejected U.S. attempts to link billions of dollars in foreign aid to increased monitoring of its anti-terror efforts, complicating American attempts to strike al-Qaida and Taliban fighters on the Afghan border. Although the U.S.-backed government of President Asif Ali Zardari has the final say on whether to accept the money, the unusual public criticism threatens to force its hand and undermine military cooperation with the Americans just as the Pakistani army prepares for what could be its most important offensive against extremists since the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign began exactly eight years ago. Any breakdown in intelligence sharing...

Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Olympics after the Brazilian city won a landslide victory over Madrid in the final round of voting on Friday. -snip- Chicago went out after polling just 18 votes in the first round, despite the eloquent speeches on their behalf made by Obama, the first sitting U.S. president to address an IOC session, and first lady Michelle Obama.

WASHINGTON — There was no trip to New York and no fancy outing as the Obamas celebrated their first wedding anniversary since they moved to the White House. Instead they kept it simple, with a dinner out Thursday at an elegant, American-fare restaurant near Georgetown. The evening was balmy and the moon almost full. President Barack Obama stayed in all day before taking a motorcade with Michelle Obama to the Blue Duck Tavern to mark their 17th wedding anniversary. Mrs. Obama stepped into the restaurant wearing a backless knee-length dress while the president wore a dark suit.

President Obama, I come from Chicago. I was born in Chicago. Chicago was where I grew up. Mr. President, you are not a Chicagoan. Yes, it's true. I, Charles Henrickson, was born and raised in Chicago, in the city. I was that rarest of creatures there--a registered Republican. And I love my hometown. Even as I detest the corrupt Democratic machine that runs it. The Chicago I grew up in, the Chicago of Hizzoner da Mare, was corrupt, yes. But the Chicago of today, under da Mare's kid, Richie, is both corrupt and radically leftist, fostering the likes of...

(CNN) -- Whenever President Obama has traveled overseas and offered pointed and direct assessments of the United States, some of them critical, Republicans have ripped him for criticizing America, saying a president should always defend the United States. So I want to hear the explanation by these so-called patriots of their giddy behavior over the United States losing the 2016 Olympic Games. Yes, the United States. The bid that was rejected Friday by the International Olympic Committee was not a Chicago, Illinois, bid. It was the official bid submitted by the United States Olympic Committee and was representative of the...

US newspapers offered various takes Saturday on Chicago's spectacular Olympic flameout, but when it came to President Barack Obama's last-minute lobbying bid, the message was loud and clear: What was he thinking? Obama joined his wife Michelle in Copenhagen Thursday just hours before the International Olympic Committee voted out Chicago in the first round, eventually awarding the Games to Rio de Janeiro in a landslide. The White House was quick to downplay suggestions that the snub was a repudiation of Obama himself, and insisted the presidential dash to the Danish capital was "absolutely" the right decision, despite a host of...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama was left with the rare taste of failure when votes were counted on Friday, after his hometown Chicago's hopes of hosting the 2016 Olympics died in Denmark. Chicago's rejection by the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen, dealt a personal blow to Obama, who had put his glowing global prestige on the line, as a favor to the city where he nurtured his own American dream. Obama, who polls show is hugely popular outside the United States, was seen as the trump card in Chicago's pack on decision day at the IOC meeting. But...

One can understand an American president’s lobbying for an American city to obtain the Olympics, but the blitz by the Obamas proved a PR nightmare. Let us count the ways: 1) Obama’s brand is trans-nationalism and an “America is not exceptional” multiculturalism. According to his worldview, it makes sense that a South American country — especially a powerful, ascendant country such as Brazil — should at last have its turn at hosting the Olympics. It did not seem consistent that a politician who had reached out to the Castros, Chávez, Morales, and Ortega, in parochial fashion, would lobby for his...

For Obama, An Unsuccessful Campaign By PETER BAKER October 2, 2009 COPENHAGEN — President Obama not only failed to bring home the gold, he could not even muster the silver or bronze. A dramatic 20-hour mission across the ocean to persuade the International Olympic Committee to give the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago proved such a miscalculation that his adopted hometown finished fourth of four candidate cities. Rarely has a president put his credibility on the line on the world stage in such a personal way and been slapped down so sharply in real time. While Chicago may have lost...

With the stunning news that Olympic officials had swiftly rejected Chicago as host the 2016 Olympics, despite a personal, last-minute appeal from President Obama, the White House was left Friday with the immediate and difficult challenge of explaining what happened. Did the president falter by making remarks that were emotional and personal, rather than giving specifics about his adopted home town? Is the defeat a sign that Obama's global popularity has begun to wane? White House advisers -- many of them Chicago natives, with a personal stake in the bid -- rushed into the back recesses of the West Wing...