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The Senate is seriously considering a bill by Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown that would increase foreign worker importation, even as millions of Americans remain unemployed. The legislation would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to add the Republic of Ireland to the E-3 visa program. If passed, an additional 10,500 visas would be available to workers from Ireland to compete for U.S. jobs. The two-year visas can be renewed indefinitely. Senator Brown's bill (also sponsored by Mark Kirk of Illinois) is very similar to a bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. Schumer's bill has been temporarily blocked...

FDA Drug Safety Communication: Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea can be associated with stomach acid drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs)  Safety AnnouncementAdditional Information for Patients and ConsumersAdditional Information for Healthcare ProfessionalsData Summary (Tables) Safety Announcement [02-08-2012] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is informing the public that the use of stomach acid drugs known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) may be associated with an increased risk of Clostridium difficile–associated diarrhea (CDAD). A diagnosis of CDAD should be considered for patients taking PPIs who develop diarrhea that does not improve. .benefit { font-size: medium; font-weight: bold; color: #f9e4bb; }Patients should immediately...

Feb. 10 -- Rick Santorum, fresh off victories in three states, will use a speech to Republican activists to attempt to solidify his position as the prime alternative to Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential race. Santorum, Romney and rival Newt Gingrich will each make their case today in Washington at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, a group whose gatherings attract Republicans motivated by cutting taxes and ending abortion rights. This bloc has resisted Romney’s candidacy, questioning his commitment to their causes. “Santorum and Newt are the last two standing” among alternatives to Romney, said Jeffrey Lord, a contributing...

1. Congressional Budget Office (January 31, 2012) “The unemployment rate would be even higher than it is now had participation in the labor force not declined as much as it has over the past few years….Had that portion of the decline in the labor force participation rate since 2007 that is attributable to neither the aging of the baby boomers nor the downturn in the business cycle (on the basis of the experience in previous downturns) not occurred, the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2011 would have been about 11�4 percentage points higher than the actual rate of...

Tim Graham's picture CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson has distinguished herself by reporting on the "Fast & Furious" gunwalking scandal in the Obama Justice Department. The conservative media watchdog group Accuracy in Media awarded her their Reid Irvine Award for investigative reporting at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday -- only Attkisson failed to appear. Instead, Michael Calderone at The Huffington Post wrote CBS Washington bureau chief Christopher Isham accepted the award in Atkisson's honor and said that the network "is very proud of Sharyl's groundbreaking reporting." Attkisson is the first reporter from a non-conservative media organization to receive...

A 32-year-old model who held the record for the world's largest implants has walked away from a car crash after her breasts acted as an airbag. Sheyla Hershey, who has 38KKK breasts, was driving home near Houston, Texas, after a Super Bowl party on Sunday when she crashed into a tree.

TACOMA, Wash. - A rabidly anti-gay church known for its loud protests is planning to picket Saturday's funeral for the two sons of missing mom Susan Powell, who died in a raging house fire Sunday. Margie Phelps of the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church sent out a tweet saying the church will attend the boys' memorial service as a protest against the pending legalization of gay marriage in Washington state. The two boys, Charlie and Braden Powell, were killed Sunday in a gasoline-fueled house fire set by their father Josh Powell after they arrived for a supervised visit. Powell himself...

Rick Santorum's campaign manager Mike Biundo tweeted earlier that the former Senator has raked in more than $2 million in donations since his wins on Tuesday night. Santorum is going to need resources to fend off the attacks that Team Romney has already previewed over earmarks, which will almost certainly show up on the air in the coming round of states.

[Vo]: MIT suggest new physical model for condensed matter The Vorts have some great comments about this theory. http://www.mail-archive.com/vortex-l@eskimo.com/msg63015.html David ledin Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:40:12 -0800 MIT suggest new physical model for condensed matter to explain many observations of anomalies in condensed matter systems. they named Fleischmann , Pons and Piantelli but not rossi . http://arxiv.org/pdf/1201.4377.pdf ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.mail-archive.com/vortex-l@eskimo.com/msg63024.html Mark Iverson-ZeroPoint Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:07:44 -0800 The key phrase in the abstract is: "In the resulting model, there appears a new term in which nuclear transitions are coupled to lattice vibrations." I wonder if Hagelstein has been reading...

The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee over possible violations of insider-trading laws, according to individuals familiar with the case. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who holds one of the most influential positions in the House, has been a frequent trader on Capitol Hill, buying stock options while overseeing the nation’s banking and financial services industries.

With a shoestring budget and a whole lot of elbow grease, Rick Santorum is going toe-to-toe against a candidate with a dapper brand and piles of money — sounds like the political version of a scrappy startup to me. Forget the horse race. Here are four lessons in entrepreneurship from Rick Santorum: 1.) Hustle Beats Money The politics: Without the cushy budget enjoyed by his opponents, Rick Santorum won Iowa by hopping in a pickup truck and visiting every single county in the state. The lesson: In lieu of cash, engage your customers feverishly. If you’re small and nimble, get...

HOUSTON - A couple of burglars chose the wrong woman to pick on. They came sneaking into her house, and she sent them running out. Perhaps they didn't count on the woman fighting back, but that's just what she did. The mother of two was getting her 10-year-old son ready for school when the two bad guys broke in. She grabbed a gun and came face-to-face with not one but two intruders inside her Huffman home. "It was scary," she said. She's still shaken up, so she doesn't want her identity revealed. It was broad daylight, 7:30 a.m., and the...

Stories involving a Catholic, a Protestant and a Jew typically end with a punch line. We wish that were the case here, but what brings us together is no laughing matter: the threat now posed by government policy to that basic human freedom, religious liberty. Last month the federal Department of Health and Human Services announced that the Affordable Care Act requires employers to pay for insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations and contraception. What made the announcement especially troubling is that HHS specifically declined to exempt religious institutions that serve those outside their own faiths, such as hospitals and...

Fresh from his triple win in Republican presidential contests on Tuesday, and following his Iowa victory last month, this is Santorum's opportunity to lay out his message to thousands of conservative attendees. Presidential candidates don't need dozens of different economic policies that Congress is unlikely to adopt. Voters don't read their white papers. They mostly want to hear, in general terms, what candidates will do to fix the economy, alleviate the debt burden on future generations, and put old-age entitlement programs back on a sustainable trajectory. One of the most carefully crafted proposals for entitlement reform is by House Budget...

“I think that could be a very compromising situation, where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved. It already happens, of course, with the camaraderie of men in combat, but I think it would be even more unique if women were in combat,” Santorum added. “And I think that’s not in the best interests of men, women or the mission.” Such remarks may please some social conservatives who were never that keen on women serving in the military, but this may not sit...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hold the mystery meat: Military bases will soon be serving more fruits, vegetables and low-fat dishes under the first program in 20 years to improve nutrition standards across the armed services. First lady Michelle Obama and Pentagon officials planned to announce the effort Thursday during a visit to Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas, where the military has been experimenting with the idea through a pilot program designed to improve the quality and variety of foods served on base. It's not just about giving members of the armed services a more svelte profile.

PLANO, Tex. — A crowd of well-wishers and autograph-seekers surrounded Rick Santorum at an event hall here this week. The place was packed; dozens of men, women and children stranded outside stood in the cold just to catch a glimpse of him. People approached him with tears in their eyes. They gave him cowboy hats, personal notes, quilts sewn for his seriously ill 3-year-old daughter and envelopes with checks inside. His campaign had raised $1 million online in 24 hours. Earlier, at a nearby hotel, he had to apologize to those hoping to have their pictures taken with him, explaining...

During a CPAC panel discussion on the Obama administration’s controversial contraception mandate, The Heritage Foundation’s Genevieve Wood played a clip of Rachel Maddow saying that “the Republican Party was waging war on contraception.” Turning to columnist Cal Thomas, Wood asked: “Cal, let’s talk about this religious–this is serious, we laugh about it, but this is serious in terms of, if they get away with this, what would happen in a second term? If that outrage doesn’t turn to action in November, what are we looking at here?” To which he pointedly responded: “I’m really glad, Genevieve, that you played the...

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama assured Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Thursday that the United States will do whatever it can to help stabilize the situation in the euro zone. Obama, after White House talks with Monti, also told reporters that he stressed the importance of a strong European financial firewall to contain the euro zone's debt problems.

A study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry has concluded that distrust of the government is a treatable mental disorder. Known as "AGP" or "anti-government phobia," the study claims: "...that unfounded fear of government is a recognizable mental illness, closely related to paranoid schizophrenia. Anti-Government Phobia (AGP) differs from most mental illnesses, however, in that it is highly infectious and has an acute onset. Symptoms include extreme suspiciousness, conspiracy-mongering, delusional thought patterns, staunch 'us against them' mentality, withdrawal from reality, and often religious fanaticism..."

Tom Jenson of Public Policy Polling has posted a heads up that tomorrow's new national PPP poll will show Santorum in the lead over Romney. Furthermore, he tweets that "What's really scary for Romney is the numbers if Newt dropped out...Newt, by staying in, is all the sudden Mitt's BFF Screenshot:

A festering three-fer for the odious Martin Bashir. Not content to inflict him on the viewing public him during his own slot, MSNBC put Bashir on The Ed Show this evening, where he proceeded to slime, in one fetid fell swoop, Mormons, evangelicals, and Mitt Romney. With Schultz all too quick to agree, Bashir claimed most evangelicals wouldn't support Romney because of his membership in the LDS church. For his purposes, Bashir badly misrepresented a Mark Twain quote. Bashir claimed that "the vast majority" of evangelicals share Twain's view that the Book of Mormon is "chloroform," implying there was something...

Neither Mission nor Prudence in Kim's Expression By Park Seong Guk [2012-02-09 11:12 ] Kim Jong Nam has revealed more about the rule of Kim Jong Eun and his view of the future of North Korea in previously unreleased e-mails between he and Tokyo Shimbun editor Yoji Komi . “In that young man’s expression I can see neither the mission nor the prudence of a man who has become the successor to a troubled country like North Korea, nor the expression of a man worrying about a future vision for the state,” Kim is quoted as saying in one of...

Washington -- A key congressional Republican who had threatened to bring a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder if he did not comply with a demand for "Operation Fast and Furious" documents by 5 p.m. Thursday, has backed off his stated deadline. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-California, who has the backing of the committee's Republican majority, has granted a Justice Department request for an extension. No new deadline was set. The Justice Department did not dispute the committee statement.

"President Obama’s latest policy outrage makes no attempt to hide his contempt for our military, as he is ordering that our troops serving overseas in war zones overseas are not to receive combat pay unless they are being shot at, or at risk of being injured by hostile aggression. A Marine who lives in Florida(also currently serving in Afghanistan) has just posted a note on Facebook which stated that he received a letter from his MyPay account that he would only be receiving his Hazard pay (Imminent Danger Pay) if he is actually in a hostile area and at risk...

Well, that didn’t take long. A major Susan G. Komen for the Cure donor has called for the breast cancer foundation to “clean house” including Komen founder and chief executive Nancy Brinker. In a letter to friends and family, published by The UK Guardian Wednesday, Eve Ellis, who spent six years on Komen NYC’s Board and raised over $250,000 for the group, explained that she does not believe Brinker’s claims that the decision to cut grants to Planned Parenthood were not politically motivated. Ellis wrote, in the letter sent Monday, that in order to restore her trust Komen must replace...

Mystery deepens over high-ranking Chinese deputy mayor and his supposed defection to the U.S. Reuters Feb 9, 2012 – 9:40 AM ET | Last Updated: Feb 9, 2012 9:42 AM ET By Michael Martina The United States said Thursday a former Chinese police chief rumoured to have tried to defect had visited one of its consulates, fuelling a political intrigue analysts say may signal a power struggle in China. The mysterious consular incident in southwest China has cast an unwelcome spotlight on Bo Xilai, a former commerce minister jostling to join the Communist Party’s inner circle, but muted reaction in...

Copts in the village of Kobry-el-Sharbat (El-Ameriya), Alexandria, were attacked on January 27 by a mob of 3000 Muslims led by Salafi leaders, who looted and torched homes and shops belonging to Copts. The violence was prompted by allegations made by a Muslim barber named Toemah that a 34-year-old Coptic tailor, Mourad Samy Guirgis, had on his mobile phone illicit photos of a Muslim woman. Mourad denied the accusation and surrendered to the police for fear for his life.... Three "reconciliation meetings" were held at the El-Ameriya village police headquarters. They were attended by Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood representatives from...

The Marine killed by an Orange County sheriff's deputy during a confrontation this week in San Clemente had received medals for his good conduct, the Marine Corps said. The Marine Corps identified the victim as Sgt. Manuel Loggins Jr., 31, a native of Joliet, Ill. He was assigned to a battalion at Camp Pendleton. Loggins was fatally shot by the deputy at about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in a parking lot near San Clemente High School, officials said. The circumstances of the shooting have not yet been explained publicly by the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Loggins enlisted in the Marine Corps...

"Reizei's [Princeton U.] Blog from America"(My Translation/Summary): "There were three reasons for the stunning Rick Santorum three-state victory which shook the GOP establishment and dented the crown of the presumed frontrunner Mr. Mitt Romney....(snip)........(The) Third explanation is bound up in a very interesting religious development as we speak. At the end of January, the Obama Administration made the following mandate: "Catholic related schools, institutions, and hospitals must be forced to provide birth control (pill), etc. under the health plan of the United States, even to those who are not Catholic believers, otherwise they are in violation."The Obama Administration was...

Biden, the nation’s first Catholic vice president, was among the top aides who had warned President Barack Obama that the decision could be politically explosive, particularly with Catholics, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. “As a practicing Catholic, I am of the view that this can be worked out and should be worked out. And I know the president feels the same way,” Biden said. As the issue has heated up in recent days, Obama has stayed quiet. When reporters shouted questions to him Thursday, he declined to answer. “Come on, guys,” Obama said. Biden said there has been “a lot of misunderstanding”...

We need your help in calling on the Air Force to reverse its decision to remove a Latin reference to "God" from a logo after an atheist group complained. But after the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers complained, the line was rewritten in Latin to read, "Doing Miracles with Other People's Money."

Just a few months ago, FOX News reported on polling data which suggested that "[i]f Americans could cast a 'confidence' vote in the style of European parliaments, President Barack Obama would not fare well. A 56-percent majority would give his administration a vote of 'no confidence.'" Ample evidence abounds for Americans to have no confidence that the economic justice activist-turned-politician is working out for the good of the country. Even at the most fundamental level, doubt remains as to whether the man occupying the White House is constitutionally eligible for the job.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -Under a just passed law, Illinois SWAT units can now attach silencers to their weapons. The silencer is designed to give police special operations teams the advantage if they find themselves in a firefight . The sponsor of the measure, state senator Dave Koehler says if police have to enter a room and fire their weapons the silencer allows them to concentrate on their target. “Hearing loss of up to 15 seconds can make a big difference between whether hostages are killed or not.”

<p>Going on a year, Republican primary voters have been resisting the Mitt-Romney-as-front-runner narrative. They haven't been picky, Lord knows. If you are somewhat conservative, and you have a pulse, this audience has been willing to listen.</p> <p>Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul—every one has been given a moment in the sun. And every one—through his or her own ineptitude or unpreparedness or baggage—has blown it.</p>

IT started with an unexpected phone call. Moree mayor Katrina Humphries said she received the call from a Qantaslink manager last week as her town was suffering from the worst floods to devastate the region in 36 years. The northern NSW town had suffered 10 days without sunshine – flooding more than 300 homes and causing serious damage to many others. Ms Humphries said Qantaslink called last Saturday to ask how they could help the flood victims. “I said flippantly, unless you can get a plane in here loaded fresh fruit for our kids, bread and milk, well there's not...

The Collapse Of America In Raw Numbers *Video* Mac Slavo February 9th, 2012 Looking at the numbers behind our federal budgets reveals that the majority of our government’s spending goes not to running the day to day operations of government, but rather, to social safety net programs like Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, welfare, food assistance, rental stipends and a host of other entitlement programs. In many cases, the programs themselves are used as a marketing tool during election campaigns, with the winner of an election often being the candidate who promises the most benefits to their constituents. While this strategy...

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held in Washington, D.C. at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel for three days, beginning today. It will feature a number of conservative speakers, from politicians (including three of the four presidential candidates) to columnists and conservative celebrities. Yet it may also “feature” something else as well: according to the Heritage Foundation’s Lachlan Markay, the “Occupy DC” offshoot of the OWS movement is planning to disrupt the meetings. How far will they go? “Speakers will be physically assaulted, not just verbally confronted,” a source told Heritage in an email. Apparently the information...

What I personally find most offensive about the HHS mandate is the shock with which it has been met. Why? This is who Barack Obama is. There is no reason to be surprised by this. He is not being pulled to extremes by his base — he is the one doing the pulling. Obama’s abortion extremism is such that, as a state legislator, he opposed protection for — I’ll use his words here — “that fetus, or child — however way you want to say describe it” when, contrary to the wishes of the women involved and their abortionists, there...

Steve Jobs, being considered in 1991 for an appointment under President George H.W. Bush, underwent a thorough background investigation by the FBI, according to newly released files from the agency. The FBI amassed a lengthy and often unflattering file on Apple’s co-founder, with more than 30 interviews of friends, neighbors, family, former business associates and Jobs, that revealed his early drug use and concerns that the then-head of NeXT was neglecting his daughter born out of wedlock with his high school girlfriend.

LINCOLN, Neb. – An American Indian tribe sued some of the world's largest beer makers Thursday, claiming they knowingly contributed to devastating alcohol-related problems on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota said it is demanding $500 million in damages for the cost of health care, social services and child rehabilitation caused by chronic alcoholism on the reservation, which encompasses some of the nation's most impoverished counties. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court of Nebraska also targets four beer stores in Whiteclay, a Nebraska town near the reservation's border that, despite having only...

TV Network Started by Cloistered Nun Sues Sebelius By Terence P. Jeffrey February 9, 2012 (CNSNews.com) - Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN)--founded in 1981 by Mother M. Angelica, a cloistered Roman Catholic nun belonging to the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration--has filed suit against Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and other senior officials in the Obama administration arguing that a new regulation requiring health-care plans to cover sterilizations and contraceptives—including those that cause abortions—is a violation of the organization’s First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. “EWTN’s sincerely held religious beliefs prohibit it from providing coverage...

The Obama administration is working to help organize a so-called "friends of Syria" meeting as part of what the State Department says is a push to work "outside the U.N. system," after the Security Council shot down a resolution against Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russia and China vetoed the anti-Assad measure despite a new wave of violence in Syria, including a massacre in the city of Homs in which hundreds reportedly were killed. The disappointing weekend session has left the United States and other countries mulling their options to prevent the bloodshed from spreading further. The State Department said Thursday...

In Letter, Reid Tells Chamber CEO That Process Of Developing Legislation Has Been Thorough And Deliberative, Including Extensive Consultation With Leader McConnellBipartisan, Three-Year, Cross-Committee, Process Has Included Extensive Input From Wide Range of Stakeholders, Including IndustryReid to Donohue: “I Look Forward To Working In Close Cooperation With You To Pass The Senate’s Carefully Crafted And Narrowly Tailored Cyber Security Legislation When It Comes To The Senate Floor In The Next Few Weeks” Washington, D.C. – In a letter to U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) outlined a process for bringing urgently-needed legislation to...

Democrats Continue Pursuit of Millionaire Surtax House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi today flatly rejected the Republican suggestion that Democrats give up their quest to raise taxes on millionaires as a way to recoup the cost of a payroll tax cut extension for the middle class. “If this Congress were a reflection of the will of the American people, we would have an extension of the payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans, and it would be paid for by a surcharge,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “They know what is right. They know we should do this, because it’s good for the...

CLEVELAND (AP) — Newt Gingrich, suddenly in danger of losing his perch as Mitt Romney's strongest GOP challenger, is fine-tuning his presidential campaign to place more emphasis on raising money, guarding his home turf and trying to avoid nasty quarrels with the front-runner. >SNIP Gingrich, the former House speaker, again faces a dilemma that has dogged him for much of the election. Should he show his feistier, meaner side at the risk of turning off voters who want pragmatic solutions more than expressions of anger? Or should he use a tamer, high-minded tone and risk losing economically anxious, resentful Republicans...

A young Saudi journalist is facing calls for his execution after tweeting remarks about the Prophet Mohammed, and the kingdom's top clerics are demanding his trial after denouncing him as an "apostate." On the occasion of the Muslim prophet's birthday last week, 23-year-old Hamza Kashgari tweeted: "I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you." "I will not pray for you," he added. The controversial tweet sparked a frenzy of responses -- some 30,000, according to an online service that tracks tweets in the Arab world....

Edwards' campaign spent nearly $900G in 2011 despite FEC complaintPublished February 09, 2012 | FoxNews.com John Edwards' failed presidential campaign racked up close to $900,000 in expenses in 2011, according to newly filed finance reports, dropping thousands of dollars on airfare and hotels despite a ruling from federal election officials that he still owes taxpayers more than $2.1 million. The dozens of pages of filings for the year do not go into detail about where the flights were headed or where the hotels were booked. The purpose of the travel expenses was not clear. But they appeared to criss-cross the...

Democrats are deeply divided over President Barack Obama’s new rule that religious schools and hospitals must provide insurance for free birth control to their employees amid fresh signs that the administration was scrambling for a way out. “This is not only unacceptable, it is un-American,” says Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a Catholic who faces re-election in November in a state where Wednesday nights are reserved for church services. Another Catholic senator, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, has pleaded with the administration “to correct this decision which will erode the conscience rights” that have been protected for decades. His opposition echoes the...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has been attacking former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum for being Washington insiders, hosted a $10,000-a-head event with lobbyists and industry executives today at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C. The Democratic National Committee immediately jumped on the event, using it to paint Romney as a Washington insider himself. The event comes as questions of influence and lobbying are taking a large role in the campaign. Gingrich has been criticized for his work consulting for groups, such as drug companies, with Washington interests. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has...