http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/government-news/ en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:17:46 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418185/posts Wednesday, December 30, 2009 Democrats to Euro-Socialists: Obama thwarted by anti-government culture in U.S. By Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media Former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean said on Dec. 8 that “cooperation” between European socialists and the Democratic Party has “intensified significantly” over the last several years and involves “regular contact” at “Congress, Senate, party and foundation levels.” He added that “efforts have been remarkable from both sides.” But at a “Global Progress Conference” in October, President Barack Obama’s pollster, Joel Benenson, acknowledged that socialized medicine in the U.S. faces a serious obstacle. He said that while Europeans are receptive... World Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418185/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:17:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418183/posts WASHINGTON - The punishing battle over healthcare is still unresolved, but the Obama administration is quietly laying plans to take up another issue that could generate even more controversy and political division--a major overhaul of the nation's immigration system. Already, senior White House aides have privately assured Latino activists that the president will back legislation in 2010 to provide a road to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented workers now living in the United States. In a conference call with proponents, White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, political director Patrick Gaspard and others recently delivered the message... Baltimore Sun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418183/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:10:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418178/posts CHARLOTTE — U.S. Census Bureau officials are trying to encourage Hispanics to participate in the 2010 Census, which will help shape politics and help determine how much federal money is given to North Carolina and South Carolina. Roberto Belen, a Census Bureau specialist, is broadcasting from a Charlotte radio booth in an effort to reach the Hispanic population, the Charlotte Observer reported Tuesday. Belen's job is difficult because some Hispanics fear being deported if the government knows they're in the United States. And some Hispanic groups are urging a boycott of the census until Congress passes comprehensive immigration reform. “The... The Daily Reflector http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418178/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:56:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418176/posts So naturally, Dems try and blame him for Obama's failure to connect the dots in the Detroit underwear attack!Speaking of the failed underwear bomber Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) focused his criticism on the heart of the matter: "Soft talk about engagement, closing Gitmo, these things are not going to appease the terrorists,” said Jim DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina.“They’re going to keep coming after us, and we can’t have politics as usual in Washington, and I’m afraid that’s what we’ve got right now with airport security,”So naturally, Sen. DeMint becomes a target of the Chicago attack machine which... Flopping Aces http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418176/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:46:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418173/posts HONOLULU (AP) -- President Barack Obama has rejected his first piece of legislation from Congress, a stopgap spending bill that never had to take effect. The White House on Wednesday said Obama exercised his right to send back to the Capitol a temporary appropriations bill that lawmakers passed in case a winter storm about two weeks ago would have prevented them from approving a final measure to fund the Pentagon next year. The Dec. 19 blizzard didn't keep them away from the Capitol and they approved the $626 billion defense spending bill before the previous budget expired. The White House... NYT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418173/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:35:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418172/posts No despot fears the president, and no demonstrator in Tehran expects him to ride to the rescue. With year one drawing to a close, the truth of the Obama presidency is laid bare: retrenchment abroad, and redistribution and the intrusive regulatory state at home. This is the genuine calling of Barack Obama, and of the "progressives" holding him to account. The false dichotomy has taken hold—either we care for our own, or we go abroad in search of monsters to destroy or of broken nations to build. The decision to withdraw missile defense for Poland and the Czech Republic was... WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418172/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:34:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418170/posts KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest killed at least eight American civilians, most of them C.I.A. officers, at a remote base in southeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, according to NATO officials and former American intelligence officials. The attack at the C.I.A. base, Forward Operating Base Chapman, in Khost Province appeared to be the single deadliest episode for the spy agency in the eight years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It also dealt a significant blow to the often insular, tight-knit organization, which has lost only 90 officers in the line of duty since its founding in... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418170/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:27:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418169/posts The British hostage Peter Moore was dramatically set free yesterday after the United States handed over an Iraqi insurgent suspected of planning the deaths of five American servicemen. Mr Moore, an IT consultant, was freed by League of the Righteous, or Asaib al-Haq (AAH) — an extremist Shia group allied to Iran — after 31 months and spent his first night of freedom at the British Embassy in Baghdad. He is expected to fly home today. Times on line http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418169/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:24:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418157/posts American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent children from their beds and shooting them during a night raid that left ten people dead. Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were killed, all but one of them from the same family. Locals said that some victims were handcuffed before being killed. Western military sources said that the dead were all part of an Afghan terrorist cell responsible for manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have claimed the lives of countless soldiers and civilians. Times on line http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418157/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:59:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418153/posts Files released to the National Archives show that soon after becoming prime minister, Lady Thatcher privately complained that too many Asian immigrants were being allowed into Britain. The prime minister, who had publicly said that she sympathised with fears that Britain was being “swamped” by immigrant cultures, reacted sharply to the ministers’ suggestions that thousands of the Vietnamese refugees should be welcomed.She said that "with some exceptions there had been no humanitarian case for accepting 1.5 million immigrants from south Asia and elsewhere. It was essential to draw a line somewhere". Telegraph UK http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418153/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:49:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418152/posts Love 'em or loathe 'em, and there seems to be little in between, 2009 was a remarkable year for Fox News Channel. Despite being ensnared in seemingly weekly controversies involving accusations that its coverage of the Obama administration was laced with right-wing political bias, the year-end numbers are in, and they show Fox News establishing dominance over rivals CNN and MSNBC. In short, 2009 was the best year in the network's 13-year history. According to Nielsen, the ten-most-watched cable news shows in 2009 were all Fox News programs. With conservative-leaning opinion shows like "The O'Reilly Factor," "Hannity," and "Glenn Beck"... Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418152/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:49:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418148/posts WASHINGTON - If the nation ever faces a large-scale attack by a biological weapon like anthrax, the U.S. Postal Service will be in charge of delivering whatever drugs and other medical aid Americans would need to survive. In an executive order released Wednesday, President Barack Obama put the Postal Service in charge of dispensing "medical countermeasures" to biological weapons because of its "capacity for rapid residential delivery." While most likely unrelated, the release of the executive order comes less than a week after a man with alleged ties to al-Qaida tried to bring down a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner. In recent... NBC News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418148/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:36:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418138/posts They’ll love him as the messiah. They and their next generations will vote for him and his party. Whatever, Barack Hussein ObamaHussein Obama is for votes. He got them when mob hysteriacs kissed him into office. Then he declared, “I won.” Allvoices http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418138/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:21:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418137/posts Forbes President & CEO Steve Forbes join the Washington journal to discuss his new book "How Capitalism Will Save Us" and critique President Obama's handling of the economy and health care reform. video 57:33 minutes C-Span http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418137/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 04:07:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418128/posts No institution of modern life commands as much veneration as democracy. It comes closer than anything else to being the supreme object of adoration in a global religion. Anyone who denies its righteousness and desirability soon finds himself a pariah. One may get away with denouncing motherhood and apple pie, but not with speaking ill of democracy, which is now the principal icon of political and social life throughout the world. Many people are atheists, but few are antidemocrats. Worship of this particular political arrangement has emerged relatively recently, however, and in earlier ages political philosophers were more apt to... Mises Institute http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418128/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:35:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418123/posts The good news for Senator Ben Nelson is that he doesn't have to face Nebraska voters until 2012. If Governor Dave Heineman challenges Nelson for the Senate job, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows the Republican would get 61% of the vote while Nelson would get just 30%. Nelson was reelected to a second Senate term in 2006 with 64% of the vote. Nelson's health care vote is clearly dragging his numbers down. Just 17% of Nebraska voters approve of the deal their senator made on Medicaid in exchange for his vote in support of the plan. Overall, 64%... Rasmussen Reports http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418123/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:25:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418109/posts This afternoon, on arguably one of the slowest news day of the year, the Obama White House released another document dump of “visitor records.” According to the White House, today’s batch total more than 25,000 records, covering meetings between September 16-September 30th. You can scroll through the list of records on the White House site OR you can download the raw data. Interestingly, the full download uncovers almost 30,000 records, including many from outside the mid-September time-frame detailed on the White House site. In other words, only the records from the specific two week time period are viewable on the... Drudge Report via Big Government http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418109/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:06:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418095/posts Returning Gitmo's detainees to Yemen defies common sense. President Obama has belatedly declared that the near miss above Detroit constituted "a catastrophic breach of security" and ordered a review of America's intelligence efforts. We're glad to hear it, but let's hope the Commander in Chief also rethinks his own approach to counterterrorism.Recent events have exposed the shortcomings of treating terror as a law enforcement problem and rushing to close Guantanamo Bay. A new wave of jihadists is coming of age, inspiring last month's deadly attack at Ft. Hood and nearly bringing down Northwest Flight 253, and next time we may... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418095/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:42:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418091/posts Ambitious Republicans should resolve to run for office next year. President Obama not only left Washington, D.C., for the holidays, but the lower 48 as well. So I thought I'd offer a few New Year's resolutions for him and others to come back to in the coming year.First, to Mr. Obama's staff: The Norwegian Nobel Committee didn't want to wake the president to tell him about his prize earlier this year, but there shouldn't be any reluctance to reassure the nation after a terrorist attack. Also, why not resolve to have a few less "historic" moments? How many can one... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418091/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:36:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418090/posts WASHINGTON, DC, December 30, 2009 (ENS) - President Barack Obama today ordered federal agencies to establish a national system for dispensing medical countermeasures in the event of a large-scale biological attack, "with anthrax as the primary threat consideration." The U.S. Postal Service would be responsible for delivering the medical countermeasures, such as antibiotics, to residents for self administration across all communities in the United States, according to the President's Executive Order issued today. Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which can cause human disease through ingestion, through the skin, and by inhalation. Although... ens-newswire.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418090/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:29:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418085/posts Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A senior U.S. official tells CNN that the attack at a military base in eastern Afghanistan by a suicide bomber Wednesday killed eight Americans believed to be CIA employees. CNN http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418085/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:21:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418083/posts The more pro-abortion leaders attempt to silence opposition to the pro-abortion Senate bill, the more people speak out. Rep. Bart Stupak informed Greta Van Susteren of FOX News that the White House told him to keep silent on abortion until the President had a chance to walk him through the pro-abortion Nelson-Reid Amendment. Stupak responded, "I don't need you to walk me through the amendment. I can read, and this amendment is unacceptable." He went on to explain his objections to the Senate bill: -- It recognizes abortion as a benefit covered under disease prevention (by this logic, the baby... Susan B. Anthony List (SuzyB.org) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418083/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:13:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418071/posts Department of Homeland Security Chief Janet Napoli-tano, the former Arizona governor, is backpedaling after being blistered for her "the system worked" comment after a man carrying explosives boarded a Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. But her revised words aren't silencing her critics. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, got on the flight despite being on a general terror watch list. His own father had warned the U.S. that he suspected his son had been radicalized. He bought a one-way ticket and checked no luggage — a combination that experts say should be a red flag. Here's a deeper look at... Arizona Daily Star http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418071/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:53:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418060/posts The 9/11 attacks spawned far-reaching changes in the government's handling of terrorism tips and related intelligence, but early investigations into the attempted Christmas Day bombing suggest the new system is still having trouble putting the dots together. After Sept. 11, 2001, it became clear that U.S. authorities had failed to share information that could have helped them discover the plot to hijack airliners. The Bush administration's initial attempt to address that shortcoming was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. That was quickly eclipsed by the decision to create an intelligence integration center at the Central Intelligence... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418060/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:34:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418065/posts "Here's to the Heroes," a program sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, provides free admission in 2010 for any active duty, active reserve, National Guardsman or ready reserve servicemember representing any of the five service branches and as many as three of his or her direct dependents Military.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418065/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 01:44:01 GMT