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Regime change. Generally it's a term and tactic reserved for America's enemies. But what if the Obama administration is developing a more nuanced version for one of the United States' closest allies -- Israel? As the brouhaha between Israel and the United States over settlements and Jerusalem continues to simmer, you have to wonder whether President Obama is focused on changing the behavior of Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, or changing prime ministers instead. The absence of a clear strategy to move the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations forward, highlighted by the administration's repeated calls for a settlements freeze -- which neither...

President Obama Sunday seemed to shrug off the brouhaha after he broke with White House tradition and ditched his press pool earlier this weekend to watch one of his daughter’s soccer games. Prior to Obama’s bilateral meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Obama told his colleague, “apparently I caused quite a problem," , adding something about his secretary not telling the Secret Service, according to, ironically enough, the pool report.

Otis McDonald, 76, stands before the Supreme Court, which Tuesday heard arguments in his suit to overturn Chicago's handgun ban Gun Rights: Otis McDonald, 76, an Army vet who lives in a high-crime area of Chicago, thinks the Constitution gives him the right to bear arms to protect himself and his wife as he protected his country. We think so too. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on behalf of four Chicago residents led by homeowner McDonald, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Illinois State Rifle Association to overturn Chicago's three-decade-old ban on owning handguns. In a 5-4...

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on Monday claimed that allegations of wrongdoing surrounding the community group ACORN are bigger than the Watergate scandal that brought down the President Richard Nixon. King, a long-time critic of ACORN, told the conservative American Spectator that the ACORN scandals have been worse because they affect state, local and national politics. THE HILL comment E-mail Print share Rep. Steve King: ACORN scandal bigger than Watergate By Jordan Fabian - 12/21/09 11:14 AM ET Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on Monday claimed that allegations of wrongdoing surrounding the community group ACORN are bigger than the Watergate scandal that...

The Obama administration is planning to repatriate six Yemenis held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a transfer that could be a prelude to the release of dozens more detainees to Yemen, according to sources with independent knowledge of the matter. The release is a significant first step toward dealing with the largest group of detainees at the prison -- there are currently 97 Yemenis there -- and toward meeting President Obama's goal of closing the facility. But Yemen's security problems and lack of resources have spawned fears about its ability to monitor and rehabilitate returnees. Critics...

Americans remain opposed to closing the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and moving some of the terrorist suspects being held there to U.S. prisons: 30% favor such actions, while 64% do not. These attitudes could present a significant roadblock for President Obama at a time when he seeks congressional approval to move terrorist suspects from Guantanamo to a converted state prison in northwestern Illinois. President Obama signed an executive order after his inauguration that called for the closing of Guantanamo, and he recently reiterated his commitment to doing this in his West Point speech on Afghanistan. The plans announced this...

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, frustrated by the Justice Department's failure to explain the dismissal of charges against New Black Panther Party members who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place during last year's elections, has subpoenaed the department demanding records showing how the case was handled. David P. Blackwood, the commission's general counsel, said Tuesday in a letter to the Justice Department that efforts since June to obtain an explanation had proceeded "without any success" and the "dearth of cooperation" had prompted the commission to issue subpoenas. "We are both mindful of the sensitivity of the subject matter involved and...

A White House spokesman dismissed polling that shows President Barack Obama's approval rating at a new low. A Gallup poll released Monday showed Obama’s overall approval rating dropped to 47 percent -- the lowest during his presidency. On Tuesday morning White House press secretary Robert Gibbs compared the poll to a child's art work. Gibbs was specifically referring to the trend line, which shows Obama's approval ratings declining. Gibbs noted "a six year-old with a crayon could do something a lot like that."

In yesterday’s New York Times, there was an article about White House social secretary Desirée Rogers. In it, reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote: “When former social secretaries gave a luncheon to welcome Ms. Rogers earlier this year, one participant said, she surprised them by suggesting the Obamas were planning a ‘non-religious Christmas….’” This same participant said that “the Obamas did not intend to put the manger scene on display” (this was confirmed by the White House). Indeed, as Stolberg wrote, “there had been internal discussions about making Christmas more inclusive and whether to display the crèche.”Catholic League president Bill Donohue...

Nancy-Ann DeParle, one of President Obama's chief advocates for the health care reform bill wending its way through Congress, earned more than $6.6 million as a paid director for health care firms, some of which were targeted in government investigations or whistleblower lawsuits on suspicions of billing fraud and other legal problems.

Who needs tanks on the lawn when you have the Environmental Protection Agency? Barack Obama’s use of the EPA to pressurise the Senate to pass his climate change Nuremberg Decrees shows his dictatorial mentality. He wants to override Congress, which is hostile to his climate gobbledegook because it is representative of the American electorate, and sideline the nation’s elected Senators by ruling by decree, courtesy of the EPA. This is a coup d’état. And what is the justification for this undemocratic action? The allegedly imminent threat from “Anthropogenic Global Warming”. There is always a supposed threat, when tyrants take the...

[Note: This is the latest segment in an ongoing series about Code Pink and its co-founder Jodie Evans.  Click [1]here [1] to read earlier articles.]In a move by the Obama administration that is gallingly cynical and would be considered treasonous in a less progressive era, a message sent by Code Pink [2] and an article published [3] by the left wing online publication AlertNet indicates the White House is working with the left wing terrorist support group Code Pink to agitate the public and undermine President Barack Obama’s newly announced Afghanistan war policy. Top Obama funder, Code Pink co-founder and...

When President Obama entered office in January, the greatest problem America faced was neither the war in Afghanistan nor the recession. It was the imminent crisis of the welfare state. Not only has Mr. Obama failed to deal with this crisis, he is pursuing policies that will bankrupt America. In March, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, led by former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, calculated the total value of the federal government's "unfunded liabilities" as they stood at the end of fiscal 2008. These liabilities include the publicly held portion of the national debt plus the amount the government must...

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters in his West Wing office Friday that the Republican Party's approval rating is "only slightly above the national drinking age." Gibbs was criticizing GOP efforts to delay Senate passage of the healthcare bill. With only two amendments being voted on so far, Gibbs was asked if a more realistic deadline for the healthcare bill is somewhere around the State of the Union address in late January. "I'm not going to wiggle on the date," Gibbs said. He said the president still wants a bill he can sign this year, and Obama "would...

The Bush administration was repeatedly accused of “politicizing” federal agencies. So it’s interesting to note a press release by the Office of Special Counsel, the independent agency that investigates prohibited political activity by federal employees. The press release announces the settlement of a discrimination complaint against the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) filed by a job applicant for the general-counsel position, a career civil-service job. The EAC is a relatively new federal agency created by Congress in 2002. It was tasked with (1) distributing grant funding under the Help America Vote Act to improve state election administration, and (2) serving...

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, fell three points on Wednesday to a four month low. At 69.0, the Consumer Index is down five points from a week ago and down seven points from a month ago. Confidence is now at the lowest level since July 24 and is up only nine points from the beginning of the year. Just 8% of adults rate the economy as good or excellent while 58% say it is in poor shape. Just 24% say the economy is getting better while 51% say it is...

Lots and lots of half-hearted, slow-motion clapping out there for the president's speech. Lots of "yes...but...." It's a war no one loves. Obama says it's not a quagmire, just, well, a steaming morass of boot-sucking muck that we will endeavor to escape as soon as humanly possible. He assured us that this escalator leads right to the Exit. We're surgin' on out of that place. Lurking in this speech was something that might be called the Obama doctrine. I'm no expert on this sort of thing and will eagerly await the analysis of those who crunch doctrines for a living....

House Republicans accused the Obama administration Tuesday of covering up criminal activities committed by the embattled community activist group ACORN, saying that the president has used the group as an illegal political tool to help himself and other Democrats get elected. "The current administration is fast becoming, in reality, the war room of ACORN's political machine," said Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican. "I am concerned that the era of corruption promulgated by ACORN and protected by the White House is just the beginning." The top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said ACORN has engaged in "illegal,...

Nonfarm private employment decreased 169,000 from October to November 2009 on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the ADP National Employment Report®. The estimated change of employment from September to October was revised by 8,000, from a decline of 203,000 to a decline of 195,000. November was the eighth consecutive month during which the decline in employment was less than in the previous month. Although overall economic activity is stabilizing, employment usually trails economic activity, so it is likely to decline for at least a few more months. November’s ADP Report estimates nonfarm private employment in the service-providing sector fell...

Jerry Crawford, an Iowa lawyer and lobbyist with deep ties to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, recently registered as the Washington representative for Monsanto, a biotechnology and agrichemical giant that embodies the "special interests" President Obama planned to drive from the temple of federal government. The Des Moines Register calls Crawford a "well-connected, high-profile Des Moines lawyer" and "Democratic power broker." Examine his record, and you see what the paper means. Crawford was once chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party. He was the Iowa chairman for the presidential campaigns of Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry. In 2008,...