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President Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported adjusted gross income of $789,674 in 2011 and paid just over 20 percent of it to the federal government in taxes. Their income declined nearly $1 million from the previous year, when the president was reaping larger amounts from sales of his bestselling books. The numbers were disclosed in the Obamas’ federal income tax return and gift-tax return, released Friday by the White House, along with those of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Obama paid $162,074 in income taxes, an effective tax rate of 20.5 percent. In a statement,...

The malady is far more serious than a mere affinity for mandates. When I read that Donald Berwick had resigned from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), I nearly shouted for joy. The cheer died on my lips, however, when my eye caught the following headline among those retrieved when I sent my search engine after more information: "Gingrich-Endorsed Health Care Expert Don Berwick Forced to Resign." Surely, I thought, the gods cannot be this cruel. But they are, of course, as another search confirmed. Newt has indeed lauded Berwick as a pioneer in the quest to improve...

In my Weekend Interview with Rand Paul last Saturday, the new Senator-elect from Kentucky appeared to soften his fervent opposition during the campaign to earmarks and pork-barrel spending. I reported the shift, while noting his continued distaste for earmarks as a symbol of runaway spending and his eagerness to change the way such spending gets appropriated. His comments have since attracted attention and criticism, and his aides now say that I misunderstood his comments. I stand by the story as written, but in the interest of full disclosure we are posting the full transcript of the relevant section of the...

The Mojave Desert—last seen on our virtual pages when the SpaceShipTwo was unveiled—has leapt into the news again today, thanks to Senator Dianne Feinstein's legislation which will stop 13 solar plants and wind turbines from moving in. It'll certainly be a hindrance to California's plans of generating a third of their electricity from the renewable energy made from the million acres that had been slated for the eco-friendly wind-traps. Feinstein's reason for blocking the move is due to the national monuments which were promised to the area a decade ago, the land having been donated by an environmental group. Sure,...

It was a campaign pledge that Barack Obama didn't dare break - a promise to take his wife out for dinner and a show once the election was over. So on the weekend he booked a babysitter, asked Michelle to put on a little black dress and swept her off for a date. The President picked up the tab for a meal at a low-key restaurant, Blue Hill, that specialises in locally grown dishes. He had also paid £60 apiece for two tickets to Joe Turner's Come And Gone, a play about a man coming to terms with the history...

Even during Earth Hour. President of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research Drew Johnson takes a Saturday drive by Al Gore’s during the time most environmentalists went dark: I pulled up to Al’s house, located in the posh Belle Meade section of Nashville, at 8:48pm – right in the middle of Earth Hour. I found that the main spotlights that usually illuminate his 9,000 square foot mansion were dark, but several of the lights inside the house were on. In fact, most of the windows were lit by the familiar blue-ish hue indicating that floor lamps and ceiling fixtures were...

Barack Obama preens, and garners this sort of headline: "Sources: Obama ready to ban harsh interrogations": President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to prohibit the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques by ordering the CIA to follow military rules for questioning prisoners, according to two U.S. officials familiar with drafts of the plans. Of course, there is one very big catch: However, Obama's changes may not be absolute. His advisers are considering adding a classified loophole to the rules that could allow the CIA to use some interrogation methods not specifically authorized by the Pentagon, the officials said. ......

In an effort to cast himself as independent of the influence of money on politics, Senator Barack Obama often highlights the campaign contributions of $200 or less that have amounted to fully half of the $340 million he has collected so far. But records show that a third of his record-breaking haul has come from donations of $1,000 or more - a total of $112 million, more than the total of contributions in that category taken in by either Senator John McCain, his Republican rival, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his opponent in the Democratic primaries. Behind those large donations...

Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. President, as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I firmly believe that the issue of Iraq is not about politics. It's about national security. We know that for at least 20 years, Saddam Hussein has aggressively and obsessively sought weapons of mass destruction through every means available. We [Page: S8554] GPO's PDF know that he has chemical and biological weapons today. He has used them in the past, and he is doing everything he can to build more. Each day he inches closer to his longtime goal of nuclear capability--a capability that could be less than...

Presidential wannabe Barack Obama came to Detroit earlier this week and hammered on Detroit automakers for spending too much time focusing on horsepower rather than fuel efficiency. Here's an example of his lovely comments: "For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars..."-SNIP-That must explain why the Illinois Senator and Presidential candidate owns a HEMI-powered V8 Chrysler 300C. Obviously it's Chrysler's fault Obama bought a big 5.7-liter engine from them -- he just didn't have a choice.

DUBLIN: Irish rock star and rights campaigner Bono received an honorary British knighthood yesterday in recognition of his services to the music industry and for his humanitarian work. "I couldn't be more proud," the U2 singer said at a ceremony at the British ambassador's residence in Dublin. "I would like to thank Her Majesty's ambassador for pinning this award on me in my hometown, and the band for not bursting my balloon,'' he said in remarks carried on U2's website (www.u2.com). Bono is now a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, or KBE, but as...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Al Gore is garnering wide praise following his documentary's win at last night's Academy Awards -- even from White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. Asked in a press briefing Monday what he thought about Al Gore's documentary film, "An Inconvenient Truth," winning an Oscar, Snow said, "I'm happy for him," and mused, "It's good to have a second career."

I heard that Al Gore people are saying that he buys Carbon offsets to cover his carbon footprint caused by his 4 homes, private jet travel and other travel. This raises a question: Are the purchase of carbon offsets tax deductible? To what extent? Is he using the taxpayers to fund his carbon footprint reduction or is he doing this on his own?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is proving once again that the Democrat label of “party of the people” is simply that: a label. Now, the San Francisco liberal is complaining about the size of the House speaker’s jet and requesting one much larger than Republican Dennis Hastert was provided. As noted in a FOX News story, following the attacks of September 11, 2001, “the Pentagon agreed to provide the House speaker, who is second in the line of presidential succession, with a military plane for added security during trips back home.” C-20 twin-engine aircraft Republican Dennis Hastert was the first speaker...

Monday, May 22, 2006 12:44 a.m. EDT Mel Gibson Slams 'Da Vinci Code' Catholic actor Mel Gibson has slammed "The Da Vinci Code" book and movie for attacking the beliefs that he holds sacred, World Entertainment Network reported. "The Passion of the Christ" star has been outraged about the thriller's controversial plot concerning Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. [Editor's Note: Get NewsMax's special report "The Da Vinci Con" FREE with Ann Coulter's book, "Godless" – CLICK HERE NOW!] Gibson says, "What worries me is that people will take this as fact. "I'm not angry, per se, that it refutes everything...

On CNN today, Bill Bennett hit back at the American media, especially CNN, for refusing to show the Danish cartoons that sparked the current controversy. During the lead-in, CNN showed a number of anti-Semitic cartoons from Middle Eastern newspapers as part of a feature story on double standards in the Arab world. But when the segment turned to a debate between Bennett and Arab American Institute president James Zogby, Bennett criticized CNN for its own double standard — showing the anti-Semitic cartoons as part of a news story, but refusing to show the Danish cartoons:

CAIRO, Egypt — Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a videotape aired Monday that President Bush was a "butcher" and a "failure" because of a deadly U.S. airstrike in Pakistan targeting the bin Laden deputy, and he threatened a new attack on the United States.

Ethics In Government: Hillary Clinton is on a personal jihad against what she calls the Republican-led "culture of corruption and cronyism" in Washington. Corruption? Cronyism? She's one to talk. It's hard to think of a more unqualified candidate for Girl Scout of Washington. But Hillary, queen of the Arkansas mafia, has appointed herself to that role in this, the next stage of her pre-2008 media makeover. The rehabilitation is complete: Meet St. Hillary, defender of all that is right and decent. Yes, she's almost ready to seize power again — if, that is, she can get away with the con....

Former vice president Al Gore has turned himself into a one-man grand jury, ready to indict the Bush administration for any number of crimes against the Constitution. Whether you agree with Gore's conclusions or not, the speech that the 2000 Democratic nominee for president gave this week in Washington was as comprehensive a rundown of George W. Bush's ventures to the limits of executive authority as anyone could hope to find. Gore is hardly an objective observer. Having outpolled Bush in the popular vote only to see his apparent victory taken from him by a divided Supreme Court, Gore cannot...

Today on NBC News' "Meet the Press," host Tim Russert boxed liberal Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) into a corner over Schumer's opposition to Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. Russert reminded Schumer of a letter he wrote to President Bush in 2001 that said: "The ABA evaluation has been the gold standard by which judicial candidates are judged..." He then said to Schumer: "And now we have this from the ABA: 'Samuel A. Alito Jr. (nominated 11/10/05), to be an associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rating: `Well qualified' by unanimous vote of the standing committee' of the ABA. It's...

Mel Gibson will appear on second hour of ABC's "Good Morning America" program tomorrow morning. The man who produced and directed the most awesome, the most moving motion picture of 2004, will have a surprise announcement that FReepers will NOT want to miss!!!PLEASE TUNE IN! TELL A FRIEND OR LOVED ONE AND HAVE THEM TUNE IN!!!

Just reported on NBC News

"John Kerry is the number one Senate recipient of banker donations over the past 15 years, and his attacks today are completely hypocritical. This is another example of Kerry’s willingness to say one thing and do another. If John Kerry really cared about bank customers, he wouldn’t have skipped the vote on the fair credit legislation that the President signed to ensure fair treatment of credit applicants and to prevent identity theft." -Steve Schmidt, Bush-Cheney '04 Spokesman Kerry On The FACT Act:Kerry Skipped The Vote On The Fair And Accurate Credit Transactions Act Of 2003. (H.R. 2622, Roll Call...

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LOS ANGELES - Distributors of Michael Moore (news)'s documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" are appealing to get a PG-13 rating, instead of R. A screening by the Motion Picture Association of America's appeals board has been set for June 22, just three days before "Fahrenheit 9/11" hits theaters. But the film's distributors are trying to move that screening up to this week to expedite a decision, said Tom Ortenberg, president of Lions Gate Films, one of the companies releasing the film. An R rating means those younger than 17 cant' see the movie unless accompanied by an adult. The MPAA ratings board...

$1000 dollar Haircut? Not By My Calculations I did a little research. Then I went to an independent source to confirm that research. Here is what I found about the $1000 dollar haircut cost. Corroborated by a phone call to Signature Flight Support in San Francisco [also located in DC], the Flying Squirrel [Gulfstream V] would consume approximately 660-700 Gallons [5500-5700 pounds] of Kerosene to fly from Washington DC to Pittsburgh. Also Corroborated by Signature Flight Support was my calculated mileage including pattern approach and departure[300 nm x 2]. To fly a Gulfstream V to Pittsburgh, and back, from Reagan...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) accused President George W. Bush of withholding information from the American people in remarks at a gathering of newspaper editors in Washington on Tuesday. Clinton said in a one-hour interview before a group of newspaper industry insiders attending the annual American Society of Newspaper Editors Convention that Bush has roadblocked the necessary information that editors need to write accurate stories. "It's difficult for editors and publishers here to get to the bottom of stories," Clinton said in Editor & Publisher. "This administration, to an extent I haven't seen before, tells the...

Recently a letter writen to then President Clinton by then Govenor Dean asked Clinton to act decisevly in Europe; Howard Dean letter to President Clinton (Unilateratal action w/o UN is OK) USA Today ^ | 1/14/04 | Howard Dean Posted on 01/14/2004 6:47:51 AM PST by finnman69 Below is the text of Howard Dean's letter to President Clinton on the conflict in Bosnia, dated July 19, 1995. The Honorable William J. Clinton President of the United States The White House Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President: After long and careful thought, and after several years of watching the gross atrocities...

Democratic presidential hopeful Gen. Wesley Clark is promising that if he's elected president he'll guarantee that America won't be attacked again the way it was on Sept. 11, 2001 - even though he recently admitted that when he was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO he did nothing to stop the first 9/11 attack. "If I'm president of the United States, I'm going to take care of the American people," Clark told the Concord Monitor on Friday. "Nothing is going to hurt this country, not bioweapons, not a nuclear weapon, not a terrorist strike - there is nothing that can hurt...

Candidate: Howard Dean Category: Intellectual Honesty Grade: F It has hard for strategically-minded Democrats not to be relieved when Howard Dean abruptly recognized his vulnerability on religion (though it was a bit worrying that he did so almost certainly in response to this article by Franklin Foer). But Dean's most recent tactic is either brazen, or astonishingly ignorant. In his clumsy effort to neutralize the religion issue, Dean has announced that his Christianity informed his decision to sign the bill legalizing civil unions. Come on! A guy who, up through yesterday, told people he didn't let religion influence any of...

In her recently published memoir, "Living History," Hillary Rodham Clinton describes how deeply opposed she was to the appointment of an independent counsel to look into the failed Whitewater land deal involving her and President Clinton. "The idea of hard-core Republican partisans rummaging through our lives, looking at every check we had written in 20 years, and harassing our friends on the flimsiest of excuses infuriated me," Senator Clinton wrote in one section. But she is now saying she supports the appointment of a special counsel to determine whether someone in the Bush administration illegally disclosed the identity of an...

<p>Howard Dean is effectively talking himself out of any chance of even a mediocre performance come Election Day.</p> <p>The Democratic presidential front-runner has made some reckless statements over the course of his campaign. The most notable, of course, implied Iraqis were no better off with Saddam Hussein out of power. Tell that to those who lost children, spouses and friends, tortured and executed by Saddam's terrorist regime and dumped into mass graves.</p>

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Sen. Tom Daschle's (D-SD) new Washington home has been giving the Senate minority leader headaches of late. Last week, Club for Growth, the Washington-based, anti-tax group, began airing ads in South Dakota that imply the senator's "very, very, very big house" purchased in April for $1.9 million betrays his down-home image. Now another controversy surrounding the palatial French colonial on Washington's exclusive Foxhall Road has emerged. A Talon News search of DC property records revealed that Daschle is receiving the homestead tax credit. The District of Columbia allows a $30,000 deduction against a property's tax assessment...

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has welcomed Israel’s dismantling of outposts. According to Israel Radio, speaking at the Organization of American States General Assembly in Santiago, Chile, Powell said he was pleased that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is keeping his commitment made at the Aqaba Summit. Powell said he hopes Israel would be able to remove the outposts in a peaceful way, without any violence. “We have to keep moving forward -- even in the presence of violence of the terrible kind we saw over the weekend on the part of Palestinian terrorists, and even in the presence of...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Al Sharpton raised $114,456 for his campaign from January through March, putting him near the bottom in the race for early money. Sharpton filed a first-quarter campaign finance report with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, about two weeks after eight other Democratic hopefuls filed their reports. The deadline was April 15, but Sharpton had maintained that he was merely testing the waters for a possible bid and didn't have to file a report. Sharpton decided to detail his finances to the FEC after drawing criticism from campaign finance watchdog groups who argued his...

MIDI - TELL LAURA I LOVE HER Sarandon heard on the radio…a shrink she said had to go She made the gays mad…so Susan said she's really bad That shrink's offered a brand new gig…and the bucks would be very big But Susan said there's just no way…I'm gonna join the fight today Tell Laura I hate her…tell Laura I'll stop her Tell Laura she's gonna see…she'll never be on the TV Though Susan claims she's compassionate…she is really full of it It is true, a cold wind blows…I guess the whining Tim Robbins knows Free speech is just...

Actor Sean Penn's car was stolen as he lunched at a Downtown Berkeley restaurant yesterday afternoon, police said. The car, a black 1987 Buick Grand National, was taken in broad daylight between 1 and 2:45 p.m. while it was parked on the 2300 block of Shattuck Avenue, said Berkeley police Officer Mary Kusmiss. "It was quite bold," Kusmiss said. Penn, 42, told police he had a loaded 9 mm Glock handgun inside his car in addition to an unloaded .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver in the trunk. It was legal for Penn to have the guns in his car because...

Speaker's Press Office United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Statement of Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert Regarding Senator Daschle's Comments on the War "I'm saddened that the president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we are now forced into war," Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) told union workers yesterday. (Washington D.C.) Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert responded to the above comments of Senator Daschle today: "I was disappointed to see Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle's comments regarding the upcoming military action in Iraq. Those comments may not undermine the...

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Singer Harry Belafonte, long outspoken on civil rights and political issues in the United States, has lashed out at the Bush administration saying it is "possessed of evil" for preparing war against Iraq. The 76-year-old U.S. singer told Finnish television on Tuesday that global leaders who ignored demonstrations against a war in Iraq did so at their own peril. Asked if he thought leaders of his own country were misguided, Belafonte, said: "Absolutely. I not only think that they are misguided, but I think they know exactly what they are doing and I think that they are...

From another thread:Actually, I believe liberalism to be schizophrenia....you can have "CHOICE" in only what they want you to choose, they are the biggest hypocrates in the world...It's like split personality politics...Let me tell ya a recent story... I live in the liberalist enclave known to man...Marin County. We are chocked full of whacko leftists tree huggin baby killing bastages... Around this neck of the woods, the coming disarmament of Sadam is not a popular idea at all. In fact about 1 of every 10 cars is sporting a big Yellow bumper sticker that shrieks: NO WAR ON IRAQWell being...

Michael Moore -Photo by: AP PUDGY pundit Michael Moore had some harsh words for a "former fan" who dared to complain about Moore's piggish behavior. On Tuesday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Moore mistreated a weary janitor at a San Diego school where Moore was signing copies of his book "Stupid White Men." After Moore refused to leave the auditorium long after the signing was over, the janitor called his boss, who summoned police. They got Moore to move along so the janitor could clean up and go home. After reading the article, one offended fellow e-mailed Moore...