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President Obama has shattered the budget record for first-year presidents -- spending nearly double what his predecessor did when he came into office and far exceeding the first-year tabs for any other U.S. president in history. In fiscal 2009 the federal government spent $3.52 trillion -- $2.8 trillion in 2000 dollars, which sets a benchmark for comparison. That fiscal year covered the last three-and-a-half months of George W. Bush's term and the first eight-and-a-half months of Obama's. That price tag came with a $1.4 trillion deficit, nearly $1 trillion more than last year. The overall budget was about a half-trillion...

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The Maersk Alabama, the American-flagged ship captured briefly by pirates in April, came under fire again early Tuesday morning off Somalia's coast, but evaded the attackers...

Read it and weep all of you MSM talking heads..

WASHINGTON -- In courtrooms barred to the public, dozens of terror suspects are pleading for their freedom from the Guantanamo Bay prison, sometimes even testifying on their own behalf by video from the U.S. naval base in Cuba. Complying with a Supreme Court ruling last year, 15 federal judges in the U.S. courthouse here are giving detainees their day in court after years behind bars half a world away from their homelands. The judges have found the government's evidence against 30 detainees wanting and ordered their release. That number could rise significantly because the judges are on track to hear...

Axelrod Signals Obama Will Try to Strip Abortion Language From Health Care Bill by FOXNews.com The amendment, authored by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., went beyond preventing the proposed government-run plan from covering abortion to restrict federal subsidies from going toward private plans that offer abortion coverage. David Axelrod says the amendment changes the 'status quo,' something the president cannot abide. White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod suggested Sunday that President Obama will intervene to make sure a controversial amendment restricting federal funding for abortion coverage is stripped from final health care reform legislation.

Morale has fallen among soldiers in Afghanistan, where troops are seeing record violence in the 8-year-old war

Democrat Bill Owens delivers his victory speech at his headquarters in Plattsburgh last week. Owens declared victory after Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman conceded the 23rd Congressional District race election night. Now recanvassing shows the special election has narrowed to a 3,000-vote difference, and will be decided by a count of absentee ballots. The Associated PressDemocrat Bill Owens delivers his victory speech at his headquarters in Plattsburgh last week. Owens declared victory after Conservative nominee Doug Hoffman conceded the 23rd Congressional District race election night. Now recanvassing shows the special election has narrowed to a 3,000-vote difference, and will be decided...

Remember how the Democrats reacted when the Bush Administration started replacing U.S. Attorneys? At least they were actually political appointees employed at the will and whim of the President.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison by Jan. 22 was followed by a series of mistakes and missteps by his administration that will delay the prison's closure for months, according to a report from a policy organization with close ties to the White House. Those mistakes — which ranged from initially having too few people on board to handle the workload to misreading Congress — have put the timetable months behind schedule and will push the prison's closure well beyond the January deadline, which Obama announced with great fanfare two days after...

PRESIDENT OBAMA: "Well, look, we -- we have seen, in the past, rampages of this sort. And in a country of 300 million people, there are going to be acts of violence that are inexplicable. Even within the extraordinary military that we have -- and I think everybody understands how outstanding the young men and women in uniform are under the most severe stress -- there are going to be instances in which an individual cracks. I think the questions that we're asking now and we don't have yet complete answers to is, is this an individual who's acting in...

A senior U.S. senator on Sunday said the shootings at Fort Hood could have been a terrorist attack, and that he would launch a congressional investigation into whether the U.S. military could have prevented it. Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who heads the Senate's Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said initial evidence suggested that the alleged shooter, Army Major Nidal Hasan, was a "self-radicalized, home-grown terrorist" who had turned to Islamic extremism while under personal stress.

It's billed as "The Hottest Ticket in Political History:" A debate between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush at Radio City Music Hall. The event will happen in February as part of MSG Entertainment's third annual "Minds That Move The World" speakers series. The former presidents will debate topics "ranging from the economy, to foreign policy, to the current administration." From the press release: The series will be formatted to allow for President Clinton and President Bush to each present their thoughts on a wide range of important current events and national issues through a moderated question and answer period...

I want to personally thank Republican Dede Scozzafava for acting so selflessly today in the NY District 23 race. Now it's time to cross the finish line with Doug Hoffman so that he can get to work for District 23 and the rest of America. With Congress poised to overhaul one-sixth of our economy with so-called health care “reform” (which is really a government takeover of health care) and with plans to enact a cap-and-tax bill just as our economy struggles to recover, Doug Hoffman will be a voice for fiscal responsibility and common sense in Washington. We need candidates...

The leader of a Detroit mosque was killed Wednesday in a shootout with the FBI, which had charged him and 11 of his followers with arms violations and conspiracy to commit federal crimes. The shootout followed a raid by the FBI on a Dearborn warehouse in which the imam refused to surrender and opened fire on agents.

Monday, October 26, 2009 Email to a Friend ShareThisAdvertisement The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 29% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -12 (see trends). Thirty-three percent (33%) say the stimulus package enacted earlier this year has helped the economy.Thirty-one percent (31%) say it hurt. This week’s tracking poll data on the proposed health care reform will be released at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. Premium Members can get an advance look...

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) - Fourteen Americans died in a pair of helicopter crashes in Afghanistan on Monday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said. In the deadlier crash, a helicopter went down in the country's west. "Seven U.S. service members and three U.S. civilians were killed," an ISAF statement said. "Those injured include 14 Afghan service members, 11 U.S. service members and one U.S. civilian."

A Somalian Islamic group reportedly has started whipping women in public for wearing bras that violate Islam, the Daily Mail reports. Residents claim insurgent group Al Shabaab sent gunmen into the streets to round up women who appeared to have a firm bust. The women are inspected to see if their suspected firmness is natural or from a bra. Officials reportedly make the women shake their breasts after removing their bras. "Al Shabaab forced us to wear their type of full veil and now they order us to shake our breasts," a resident, Halima, told Reuters, adding that her daughters...

KUSA is reporting boy is safe at home. Will try and track down a link.

Orly Taitz gets Joy Behar very nervous about the Obama Eligibility case.

“They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” Isaiah 2:4 The verse is well known and quoted by Jews and Christians alike; a maxim that is the hope of all humankind that we eventually have world peace and live in harmony. The message is very indicative of the ideal the world strives for and what reality would be, if, and only if, the world can afford to beat the swords into plowshares--into prosperity instead bloodshed. But reality, since it is cruel and unjust, requires us sometimes to reverse that verse and turn our plowshares into some fantastic and uncompromising...

This Sunday Fox news, is going to air a very important documentary about Barack Obama, Sunday night at 8:00 PM central / 9 PM Eastern.The report will go back to Obama's earlier days, showing even then his close ties to radical Marxist professors, friends, spiritual advisers, etc. It will also detail his ties to Rev. Wright for 20+ yrs. How he was participating with this man, and not for the reasons he states! The report has uncovered more of Obama's radical past, and we will see things that no one in the media is willing to put out there. It...

Loveland Ski Resort opens today!

Raleigh, N.C. — Wake County voters gave a thumbs-down Tuesday to assigning local students based on socioeconomic factors by electing candidates to the Board of Education who oppose the controversial policy. Chris Malone won the District 1 seat on the school board, while Deborah Pickett won in District 7 and Debra Goldman took District 9. John Tedesco was leading in the District 2 race, with incumbent Horace Tart a distant third. But Tedesco lacked the majority of votes that would preclude a runoff next month. All four candidates were endorsed by community groups like WakeCARES and the Wake Schools Community...

The relationship between President Barack Obama and the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan has been put under severe strain by Gen Stanley McChrystal's comments on strategy for the war. According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week. The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where the president had arrived to tout Chicago's unsuccessful Olympic bi

Beck said at the signing that it was “weird, weird and nice,” to be back in Connecticut. He said the beginning of his career, spent here, were the “ugly days” of his life, when he was a self-hating egomaniac. But, he also said it was nice “because this is where I turned my life around.”

The federal government is sending $5 billion to states to weatherize the homes for low-income families, nearly as much as it has spent on weatherization since the government stepped in to cut heating bills for low-income people in the 1970s. Illinois is flush with $97 million awarded over the summer -- nearly half the $242 million in stimulus weatherization money promised to the state -- and is taking applications from low-income families for free weatherization upgrades to their homes. With that money, Illinois expects to weatherize 22,000 homes this year, more than doubling the 7,800 homes weatherized under energy grants...

Swiss arrest Polanski on US request in sex case AP 8 mins ago OK, can you do some more probing? New York will want to know frank's out today. i checked already, and so did zurich. they say the question is irrelevant. he answered me with the quote i used, about we knew when he was coming this time. he's been here many times in the past, we think. thx brad. aptn is aware, but unfortunately won't make it in time, but is hoping to catch tail end. i'm pushing out another writethru with some more background details before press...

In his new book, "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage," Best-selling celebrity journalist, Christopher Andersen, has blown a huge hole in the Obama genius myth without intending to do so. Relying on inside sources, quite possibly Michelle Obama herself, Andersen describes how Dreams came to be published -- just as I had envisioned it in my articles on the authorship of Dreams.  With the deadline pressing, Michelle recommended that Barack seek advice from "his friend and Hyde Park neighbor Bill Ayers." To flesh out his family history, Obama had taped interviews with various family members. Andersen writes, "These...

On August 25th 2009, Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche broke the story of a conference call he attended with other “rising artist and art community luminaries”: On Thursday August 6th, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to attend a conference call scheduled for Monday August 10th hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve. The call would include “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how...

video hosted at Fox site

September 11, 2009 Set aside Joe Wilson's bad manners what about the substance of his accusation? Mr. Wilson claims that various Democratic proposals wending their way through Congress will use U.S. taxpayer dollars to further subsidize health care for illegal immigrants. Democrats say this is not true, and the back-and-forth continues like this: .....

The pushback after the resignation of Racist, Radical Marxist Van Jones is beginning... Kieth Olberman posted a diary on Daily KOS at 1PM today asking KOS'rs to send him EVERYTHING THEY HAVE on Glenn Beck,, Stu Burguiere, and Roger Ailes. QUOTE: Tuesday we will expand this to the television audience and have a dedicated email address to accept leads, tips, contacts, on Beck, his radio producer Burguiere, and the chief of his tv enablers, Ailes (even though Ailes' power was desperately undercut when he failed to pull off his phony "truce" push). This becomes necessary after this in order to...

Van Jones quits... see article at this link

Police: Wanted reality TV star found dead Jenkins was accused of killing ex-wife before fleeing to Canada VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A reality show contestant wanted for murder in the gruesome death and mutilation of his ex-wife was found dead Sunday of an apparent suicide after hanging himself in a secluded Canadian motel, authorities said. Sgt. Duncan Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police border integrity unit says police responded to a call about a dead person in Hope, east of Vancouver, and then called investigators who were part of the massive manhunt for Jenkins. The real estate developer and...

WASHINGTON -- The CIA's internal investigator found that interrogators conducted mock executions of terror suspects and in one case threatened a detainee suspected in the USS Cole bombing with a gun and power drill, congressional officials said late Friday. The disclosure is contained in a 2004 report by the CIA's inspector general, which has keep secret and is to be released next week, two officials told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not yet been cleared for release. The report's findings were first reported by Newsweek on its Web site Friday night. In...

With the development of killer drones, it seems like everyone is worrying about killer robots. Now, as if that wasn't bad enough, we need to start worrying about lying, cheating robots as well. In an experiment run at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne, France, robots that were designed to cooperate in searching out a beneficial resource and avoiding a poisonous one learned to lie to each other in an attempt to hoard the resource. Picture a robo-Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

<p>The clunker money's there - allocated, but not much is going anywhere - it's being deliberately held back.  Dealers are on thin ice, unable to pay their debts - many verge on bankruptcy.  But, think about it... the many dealerships that aren't getting their clunker money are competitors of...  Government Motors.</p>

WASHINGTON – Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay pulled no punches on Chris Matthews "Hardball"show on MSNBC today when asked if he is a "birther." "Well, I’d like the president to produce his birth certificate," said DeLay. "I can. Most illegal aliens here in America can. Why can't the president of the United States produce his birth certificate? ... Chris, will you do me a favor? Will you ask the president to show me his gift certificate — I mean, his birth certificate?" DeLay's outspokenness on the subject stands in stark contrast to any current member of Congress. Implying Barack...

Frank Lay, Pace High School principal, and Robert Freeman, the school's athletic director, will appear on criminal contempt charges for offering public prayer in a public school. The administrators face up to 6 months in jail and a $5,000 fine for offering a mealtime prayer. Lay and Freeman go on trial today at a federal district court in Pensacola for breaching the conditions of a lawsuit settlement reached last year with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). By violating the court order, the two are in danger of being found in contempt of court.

[Video transcript] MASSA: I will vote for the single payer bill. PARTICIPANT: Even if it meant you were being voted out of office? MASSA: I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful.

BREAKING...Just Announced on Greta's Show on FOX. The word has been received by FOX from the Wall Street Journal that Congress has scrapped the plans to purchase the eight new jets. You can see the earlier article in the WSJ regarding the dissention in Congress over this planned spending here: Opposition Emerging to House's Jet Spree The news broke about 15 min. ago, and details are not posted on FOX's website as yet. However, Greta congratulated the American Public and the politicians who opposed this spending. The original request was "...for $220 million to buy four passenger jets, including two...

This is the moment our movement was built for. For one month, the fight for health insurance reform leaves the backrooms of Washington, D.C., and returns to communities across America. Throughout August, members of Congress are back home, where the hands they shake and the voices they hear will not belong to lobbyists, but to people like you. Home is where we're strongest. We didn't win last year's election together at a committee hearing in D.C. We won it on the doorsteps and the phone lines, at the softball games and the town meetings, and in every part of this...

Anyone else in Southern Oregon hear the Tsuanmi warning--was just watching HGTV and it appeared across the screen. Just curious if this is a test--or a real warning.

Washington has said it is checking reports that three US tourists were detained by Iranians while hiking along the northern Iraqi border. The three are reported to have gone missing in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region which borders Iran.

<p>Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety — welcome to the new town-hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress.</p> <p>On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control.</p>

FROM EMAIL SENT TO AARP MEMBERS: AARP Activists Descend Upon Washington, D.C. With the health reform debate in Washington heating up, AARP activists from around the country arrived in the capital this week for critical meetings with their members of Congress. Our "Health Action Now Day on the Hill" has brought together over 50 activists from all walks of life to put the pressure on their representatives in Washington. They have come with a singular message: we need health action now. Join them today by calling your member of Congress using our simple click-to-call tool. Click here and enter your...

Michael Schumacher will make a shock return to Formula 1 to replace injured Ferrari driver Felipe Massa. The seven-time world champion retired at the end of 2006 but will drive at the European Grand Prix on 23 August. Ferrari said the 40-year-old will stand in for as long as Massa is sidelined with the serious injuries he sustained in the Hungarian Grand Prix last week.

PHILADELPHIA -- Jim Johnson, whose attacking defenses helped the Philadelphia Eagles to one Super Bowl appearance and five NFC title games, has died. He was 68.

Bill O'Reilly said The Factor debunked the birth certificate theory over a year ago. "It was easy," he said "the State of Hawaii sent us a copy."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A prominent black Harvard University scholar has accepted an invitation to have a beer with President Barack Obama and the white police officer who arrested him in a racially charged case. Professor Henry Louis Gates said Saturday he was willing to have a peace-making beer with Obama and Cambridge, Massachusetts, police Sgt. James Crowley.