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Bill Maher and controversial filmmaker Michael Moore defended singer Tony Bennett’s earlier comments this week that America “caused” the Sept. 11 attacks.

US President Obama sent a letter Wednesday to Chairman of the house of Representatives John Boehner and to the leader of the Democrat majority in the Senate Harry Reid, in which he proposes a rehabilitation plan for the American economy. The president recommends strengthening small businesses, reintroducing American citizens into the work circle, increasing the wages of the middle class, and reducing the government deficit.

I don't mean this as derogatory or to start a negative debate but there is something I have noticed over the last year and I am more curious than anything. In my area I have noticed an abundance increase in the black culture.When I go to Pizza parlors, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Lowes, Ruby Tuesdays,Pei Wei, Furniture stores, etc. We live about 20 miles outside of Philadelphia and until two years ago you would see very, very few black people at any of these places now it is about 1/3 or more. Now sporting Mercedes', Lexus' and Hummers. Like I...

(CNSNews.com) – Congressional investigators plan to seek information from the White House National Security Council staff regarding communications about the botched gunrunning sting known as Operation Fast and Furious, which now has a publicized connection to the White House. “Very clearly, part of the problem is there has been political interference at the highest level,” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) told CNSNews.com during a conference call Wednesday. “We are going to be asking the National Security Council what occurred.”

The Hamas-run Al-Risala newspaper reported on its website on Sunday that Palestinian Authority-based terrorist groups may carry out another operation like the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Abu Ataya, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the three terrorist organizations which joined together to kidnap Shalit in June 2006, was quoted by the newspaper as saying the PA terror organizations have the ability to carry out a similar operation if they wish. “Shalit’s kidnapping was not the first nor will it be the last,” he said. “We will return the ball to our court when and where...

Goshen - A small northern Indiana college has decided to stop playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at sporting events after starting to do so for the first time last year. Goshen College's board of directors says it will find an alternative that honors the country and the Mennonite Church-affiliated school's pacifist traditions. The 1,000-student college has been playing an instrumental version of the national anthem, followed by a peace prayer, before games and other events. Some were upset with the school's decision last year because the song's lyrics contain references to using war and military might to defend the country.

As of May 30, 2011, America has 600 days more of rule by President Barack Hussein Obama.He is the 44th President and, while we have had incompetent Presidents in the past, we have never had one determined to destroy the nation. It has taken more than two years for most sentient Americans to grasp this extraordinary threat. He has not solved problems. He has exacerbated them. Granted the financial crisis began in 2008 as President George W. Bush was finishing his second term, but President Obama—aside from blaming Bush for everything

While University of Missouri – Kansas City Professor Judy Ancel has yet to explain her false and misleading defense of classroom statements suggesting violence is an acceptable tactic with an appropriate place in advancing the labor movement, new video reveals Ancel giving students insight into how to put non-union companies out of business. The tactic Ancel recommends to students is based upon deception and designed to burden a non-union company with a costly labor action under false pretenses.

In a new effort to adulterate Catholic moral teaching, a group of dissident Catholic intellectuals, activists and students plan to gather this Fall for a four-part lecture series themed: “More than a monologue: Sexual diversity and the Catholic Church.” Two Catholic universities, Fordham University and Fairfield University, together with Yale Divinity School and Union Theological Seminary are sponsoring the event, which will feature speakers who oppose basic Catholic moral values.  According to the invitation, “post-Catholics” will be in attendance. Register your peaceful protest nowDetails on the four events: Fordham University, New York (Sept. 16)Learning to Listen:  Voices of Sexual Diversity...

In 2009, James O’ Keefe and Hannah Giles released an undercover video investigation showing ACORN (The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) employees giving the ‘couple’, dressed as a pimp and prostitute, guidance on tax evasion, child prostitution and human smuggling. The result: the Census Bureau immediately cut its ties– as they were scheduled to help conduct the 2010 Census– and Congress cut funding from the Housing and Urban Development Department. Ultimately, they were forced to shut down. Many speculated ACORN would simply start up other organizations and conduct the same business under different names. Now, in Missouri, MORE...

ALBANY - Being governor may be the top gig in state government, but it certainly doesn't pay that way. Nearly 1,000 state employees made more than the governor's $179,000 salary last year, the Empire Center for New York State Policy found."As a taxpayer, I'd be interested in less people making more than my governor, not more," said Empire Center director Tim Hoefer.SUNY Binghamton basketball coach Kevin Broadus topped the charts with more than $1 million in a settlement with the university to end his scandal-plagued tenure.

Carole Hankin, the superintendent of the Syosset Central School District, earns $506,322 a year – more than the President of the United States. Her salary, paid for by taxpayers, is compensation for running a tiny school district comprised of 10 schools and 6,687 students. Hankin’s total compensation package makes here the highest paid school superintendent in New York. By comparison, the head of New York City’s school system, with more than one million students, only makes $250,000 a year – plus benefits. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to put a cap on extravagant school superintendent salaries. He’s pushing legislation...

CLAYTON -- Six members of a group protesting what they called a bank's slow pace on processing a loan modification for a St. Louis couple were arrested for trespassing this afternoon.

The Obama Administration has quietly granted even more waivers to the new federal health reform law, doubling the number in just the last three weeks to a new total of 222. One of the more recognizable business names included on the newly-expanded list of waivers issued by the feds is that of Waffle House, which received a waiver on November 23 for health coverage that covers 3,947 enrollees. Another familiar name was that of Universal Orlando, which runs a variety of very popular resorts in the Orlando, Florida area. Universal was given a waiver for plans that cover 668 workers....

On September 23, the calendar signaled it was time for a six-month anniversary celebration of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka PPACA. (No similar salute was planned for the end of the month, for the bill’s accompanying reconciliation provisions, which were signed into law a week later, on March 30). Not only did the honeymoon never get started, growing numbers of voters are checking out the terms of the pre-nuptial agreement and considering options ranging from trial separation to annulment. With the Obama administration suffering low approval ratings not just for botched healthcare reform, but also for a...

HealthMarkets, the North Richland Hills-based seller of health insurance, laid off 70 employees this month and expects to trim 180 more positions by the end of the first quarter of 2011, according to a recent federal filing. In the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, HealthMarkets blamed the layoffs on "dropping enrollment levels experienced by the company's insurance subsidiaries," along with national healthcare reform and "related legislative developments." HealthMarkets provides insurance plans to the self-employed, individuals and small businesses. The filing did not disclose where the Aug. 10 layoffs occurred, and the company declined to comment further.

As President Obama signed the financial regulation bill, the remnants of Missouri ACORN, reconstituted as MORE, assault a Chase Bank sales branch in St Louis.

In an urgent attempt to maintain universal health coverage for children in Santa Clara County, community leaders are organizing a campaign to rescue one of the region's landmark programs for working poor families. Their goal is to win broad support for a November ballot measure that would pump $13.5 million per year into the Healthy Kids program through a $29-a-year parcel tax on county property owners. County leaders recognize the challenge: Asking voters in a down economy to assist other families who can't afford insurance for their children. The program — now serving 8,500 children — is a core piece...

David Weigel’s tough week continues. A day after Fishbowl DC published emails he wrote to the off-the-record list serve JournoList disparaging various conservatives, the Daily Caller digs up even more emails from the same source, suggesting a similar pattern of disdain for the people he covers. In them, he wishes for the death of Rush Limbaugh, accuses pundits and Republicans of “racism” and calls Matt Drudge an “amoral shut-in.”

...He could have had his substantial properties restored if he had just sworn that oath, others would say, in order to provide material safety for his beloved family. Instead, this man who loved life, loved his family, loved his career and properly loved the world and all of its goods, loved the Lord first and would not compromise the Truth. He was an ordinary Christian who shows us ordinary Christians the way to living a unity of life in the midst of the creeping darkness and distractions of our own age. He held in harmony his vocation as the father...

<p>Instead of quelling a growing outcry for more information on an alleged political bargain, the White House has raised more questions and calls for an investigation after its shocking revelation on Friday that it recruited former President Bill Clinton to pitch a possible administration role to Rep. Joe Sestak if he would sit out the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary.</p>

A Muslim extremist who earlier warned that TV's "South Park" creators should be "afraid for their lives" for insulting Islam's prophet Muhammad now says that yesterday's car bomb attempt in Times Square will be just the beginning of a new wave of terrorist attacks. Younus Abdullah Muhammad, author of RevolutionMuslim.com, told WND senior reporter Aaron Klein on New York's WABC 770 AM that America should "absolutely" expect more jihadi violence in New York City

A 59-year-old San Francisco man is not expected to survive injuries suffered Friday afternoon when he was punched in the face by a man who had been part of an earlier assault on the victim's son, police said. Authorities said the victim, Tiansheng Yu, was on life support at a hospital Saturday. Yu was critically injured about 3:04 p.m. in the 1800 block of Telegraph Avenue just a few feet from the entrance to the Fox Theater. Police said that moments earlier, Yu and his 27-year-old son, whose name was not released, had parked their car in the 1700 block...

A new book claims the Top Gun star had a tendency to chat to ashtrays, bottles and other inanimate objects Just a teeny tiny amount of space left to say, hey, guess what? Tom Cruise? He's a bit fricking weird! Yuhdoansay. In Blown For Good, the latest book by an escapee from the Galactic Confederacy, AKA Scientology, Marc Headley claims that Cruise would talk to inanimate objects "for hours". No, not Nicole Kidman's face, but ashtrays, bottles, books. "You tell the ashtray, 'Sit in that chair.' Then you actually go over and put the ashtray in that chair. Then you...

HAVANA — President Raul Castro is taking a bold gamble to ease communist Cuba's cash crunch by eliminating a costly government lunch program that feeds almost a third of the nation's population every workday. The Americas' only one-party communist government, held afloat largely by support from its key ally Venezuela, is desperate to improve its budget outlook; the global economy is slack, and Havana is very hard pressed to secure international financing. Raul Castro, 76, officially took over as Cuba's president in February 2008 after his brother, revolutionary icon Fidel Castro, stepped aside with health problems. Though some wondered if...

US Congressional Candidate Cindy Sheehan Calls on Pelosi to Explain Silence on Torture Briefing. US Congressional Candidate Cindy Sheehan today called upon Nancy Pelosi to respond to a story printed in the December 9 Washington Post which claims that the Speaker of the House was present in a 2002 meeting where four members of Congress were given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and torture program. According to the CIA, no objections were raised by any member of Congress present in the meeting, even though waterboarding, the interrogation technique profiled in the meeting, is illegal under international...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told a House panel Wednesday that a government-run health care plan is needed to keep in check the private insurance industry, which she says wields too much power and often fails to best serve the public.

BATON ROUGE -- Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration notified legislative leaders Tuesday that it plans to reject some federal health-care dollars for the poor and uninsured, marking the second time the governor has opposed taking a portion of the economic stimulus package. Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said accepting the new federal financing would require the state to put up matching money that it doesn't have and could create unaffordable obligations in the years ahead.

Most of this as-yet-undiscovered problem, Gober says, lies in the area of reinsurance, whereby one insurance company insures the liabilities of another so that the latter doesn't have to carry all the risk on its books. Most major insurance companies use outside firms to reinsure, but the vast majority of AIG's reinsurance contracts are negotiated internally among its affiliates, Gober says, and these internal balance sheets don't add up. The annual report of one major AIG subsidiary, American Home Assurance, shows that it owes $25 billion to another AIG affiliate, National Union Fire, Gober maintains. But American has only $22...

It looks like 3 times will not be a charm when it comes to getting someone - anyone - honest enough and subservient enough to run the Department of Commerce for President Obama. First, it was Bill Richardson who somehow slipped under the radar of Obama's super sharp vetters, having problems with cronies back in New Mexico. Then it was Judd Gregg who withdrew his name after Obama blindsided him by politicizing the census. Now it's Gary Locke - former Governor of Washington and now lobbyist for a firm that does a lot of business in China - who may...

When a 33-year-old, single woman gives birth to octuplets one thing we can count on is the mainstream media doing what it does best: providing a stream of disinformation in the name of political correctness. As Ann Coulter has pointed out single moms have been elevated to sainthood and are above criticism.

Someone please tell me that my eyes are decieving me! Jaime Gorelick? For A.G.? Just when I thought that the pestialential swamp that is Washington D.C. could not get any murkier, this comes out. This woman, arguably, is at least partially responsible for 9/11, as well as being intimately involved in the pardon of all sorts shady, or downright criminal, Clinton era miscreants, including our all time favorite Marc Rich who, once safely out from under the thumb of the IRS, went on to bigger and better things like the UNs' oil for food program. And then, a nice cushy,...

This poll asks if you think Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as VP of the US.

A majority of Indonesians would like to see Sharia law implemented in their country, a new poll shows, although only a minority favour the harsh measures sometimes associated with the system. The poll of 8,000 people in the world's most populous Muslim country, home to 200 million Muslims, found that 52 per cent favoured some form of Islamic legal code, such as religious arbitration in family disputes. Asked if women should be made to wear a head scarf 45 per cent said yes, while 40 per cent favoured chopping off the hands of thieves. "A lot of people think the...

You could have heard a pin drop at the Hong Kong conference designed to persuade the airline industry to cut back on its production of so-called greenhouse gases to fight "global warming." The "Greener Skies 2008" conference had just heard from David Archibald, a solar scientist asserting that climate change is mostly dictated by solar cycles, not carbon dioxide levels, as conventional wisdom suggests. Archibald didn't just tell the group not to worry about carbon dioxide emissions. He told those gathered they should figure out ways of increasing CO2 output. "In a few short years, we will have a reversal...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, March 30, 2007 – While NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan is a success, more help is needed from the international community, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during a speech here yesterday. Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani spoke to about 60 members of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association, Euro-Atlantic Center, and Center for European and North Atlantic Affairs about NATO efforts in Afghanistan. Giambastiani said NATO has a Combined Joint Statement of Requirements, or CJSOR, to fill military missions. “The inability of NATO to fill all of these CJSOR requirements is...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2007 – More than 600 Texas National Guardsmen were activated by the state’s governor Jan. 22 to support a surge operation targeting crime and international drug and human trafficking along the state’s 1,200-mile border with Mexico. The soldiers are activated in support of Operation Wrangler, an interagency law enforcement operation that involves 6,800 federal, state and local officials, according to a release by Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s office. These soldiers are in addition to the 1,700 Texas Guardsmen federally activated in support Operation Jump Start, a beef-up of National Guard troops along the U.S.-Mexico border aimed...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2007 – The Fisher House Foundation will expand its efforts to help injured U.S. troops and their families by building five new comfort homes per year until 2010, the foundation’s chairman said last night on CNN's "Larry King Live." “These are families that make sacrifices. This program is designed to help them,” Ken Fisher said. The foundation builds homes on and near active military and Veterans Affairs medical facilities. The houses provide free lodging for servicemembers who must stay near a hospital for continuing treatment, as well as families visiting wounded loved ones. The work done...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2007 – Sending additional U.S. troops to Iraq will not only improve the security situation there, it will further the country’s democratic and economic progress, Vice President Dick Cheney said today during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’ve made the decision and came to the conclusion that until we got a handle on the security situation in Baghdad, the Iraqis were not going to be able to make the progress they need to make on the economic front, on the political front and so forth,” Cheney said. President Bush laid out a new strategy last...

Questions for Dr. Louann Brizendine Q: As a professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, you’ve drawn some strange conclusions about “The Female Brain,” to borrow the title of your debut book, which argues that a woman’s brain structure explains a good deal of her behavior, including a penchant for gossiping and talking on the phone. The hormone of intimacy is oxytocin, and when women talk to each other, they get a rush of it. For teen girls especially, when they’re talking about who’s hooking up with whom, who’s not talking to whom, who you like and...

THE BATTLE FOR BAGHDAD BAGHDAD Determined though scared, I walk my beat, On the deadly streets of Baghdad. Searching for any who plot our harm, Or by our death are joyous and glad. Standing in shadows caused by the moon, I’m reminded of my nights back home. I wonder if the woman I love Is growing tired of sleeping alone? I feel remorse for all who live here, For this place is a madman’s hell. And those who wish to keep it that way Must be killed or locked away in jail. My greatest fear is not my death, But...

...That is why it is so odd that rumors swarm around Washington that the president may be willing to raise taxes as part of a "deal" on entitlement reform. In particular, the rumors suggest the president might be willing to get rid of the provision that caps the income level used to compute Social Security taxes and benefits... ...Doing so would raise the marginal tax rate on the entrepreneurs that Mr. Bush credits for having led the economic recovery by more than 10 percentage points. The new effective rate would be five percentage points above the level when he took...

Sydney warned more beach riots are likely Phil Mercer in Sydney Sunday October 1, 2006 The Observer (UK) Australia's biggest city is bracing itself for more racial violence on its beaches this Christmas. Sydney witnessed a wave of unrest at the seaside suburb of Cronulla last December when 5,000 people - most of them young white men - gathered at the beach to protest at alleged intimidation by Lebanese gangs. The demonstration quickly degenerated into drunken violence, and anyone of Mediterranean or Arabic appearance was forced to hide in hotels or restaurants. The following day groups of men from Middle...

NATO to Provide More Afghanistan Troops Wednesday September 20, 2006 6:46 PM By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - After weeks of prodding, European nations have agreed to provide more troops for the alliance in Afghanistan, where violence has surged and efforts to eradicate the opium crops are floundering, NATO's top commander said Wednesday. U.S. Gen. James L. Jones said that requests for additional military aircraft have not yet been nailed down, but he is optimistic he will get the aircraft he needs. Jones said he is still looking for a commitment to send some helicopters. Earlier...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2006 – Iraqi security forces are becoming more capable every day and are fighting and dying for their country, where the future depends on them and their fellow citizens, the commander of U.S. Central Command said yesterday. “I come to the conclusion that Iraqis are fighting and dying for their country, that the government has pledged their sacred honor and their future to making this work,” Army Gen. John Abizaid said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “Their lives are on the line.” Iraqi forces now number more than 300,000, and while they still have some...

Poland to send more troops to Afghanistan Bonnie Malkin and agencies Thursday September 14, 2006 Guardian Unlimited (UK) British soldiers on patrol in Helmand province. Poland is to contribute 900 more troops to the Nato force. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Poland is to send another 900 troops to bolster the Nato peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, the Polish defence minister announced today. The US and UK yesterday urged Nato nations to send more troops to Afghanistan to help fight the Taliban insurgency after a Nato commander called for reinforcements last week. Poland already has a 100-strong contingent in the country. "As of...

Hundreds more troops are needed to beat Taliban, warns Nato chief By Richard Westmacott in Kabul (Filed: 08/09/2006) Nato's senior military commander yesterday called for hundreds of reinforcements to combat the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, where he said fighting was reaching a "decisive moment". 35 British troops have died since 4,500 began arriving earlier this year US Gen James Jones said that the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, British Lt Gen David Richards, needed more troops soon. "We have to give the commander additional insurance in terms of some forces that can be there, perhaps temporarily, to make sure...

The film of the kidnapping of the 3 IDF soldiers on the Lebanese border in 2000, simulcast in Lebanon and Israel this week, lacks the parts implicating the UN in the affair, says the father of one. Chaim Avraham is the father of Benny Avraham, who was one of the three soldiers kidnapped and murdered by Hizbullah in October 2000. He produced a photograph today further implicating the UN in at least indirect involvement in the violent abduction. Videotapes of the kidnapping, filmed by UNIFIL sources, have long been known to exist, though the UN originally denied it for months....

More tests confirm low-path bird flu in Michigan Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:31pm ET U.S. News WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A second round of tests on swans in Michigan confirmed the birds have a low-pathogenic strain of H5N1 and not the deadly avian influenza virus that has killed more than 141 people in Asia, Europe and Africa, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Monday. Routine tests conducted in a Michigan gaming area earlier this month found two of about 20 swans had what was believed to be a low-pathogenic strain of H5N1. "Genetic testing confirms that these swans were not carrying...