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The moment that made Gingrich was when he got Tip O'Neill so all fire mad that Tip made statements in violation of House rules and had his words "taken down," a major parliamentary slap on the hindquarters. You can watch the C-SPAN video here: Tip O'Neill's words taken down. Now, this week we've heard the RINOs try to slam Gingrich's attitude to Reagan's foreign policy vis-a-vis the communists, trying to claim that when the liberals in the House were criticizing Reagan's policy and threatening to cut off funding for the Contras, Gingrich was right along them agreeing with it. How...

Prosecutors in Honduras say a decomposed, bullet-riddled body found near the border with Nicaragua has been identified as the purported leader of a shadowy Nicaraguan resistance group.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended his country's nuclear program as he began a four-nation tour of Latin America, joining his ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in accusing the U.S. and its allies of using the dispute to unjustly threaten Iran.[snip] Both leaders planned to travel to Nicaragua on Tuesday for the inauguration of newly re-elected President Daniel Ortega, and then Ahmadinejad will also visit Cuba and Ecuador.

The Secret Service searched Occupy D.C. on Monday for a man suspected of firing bullets at the White House on Friday, one of which was stopped by the building’s ballistic glass. Protestor Ralph Wittenberg told TPM on Tuesday evening that authorities came through “searching for a so-called terrorist who shot at the White House, with no warrant, they went into everybody’s tents.” A person handling media requests for Occupy DC confirmed the searches and said they were led by the Secret Service. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Police have been trying to locate 21-year-old...

During the height of the Tea Party protests, the liberal media sought to hype any hint that the movement may turn violent against Democrats in general and President Obama in particular. For example, Hardball's Chris Matthews famously blew up in August 2009 at a libertarian protester who legally carried a gun to a presidential townhall meeting in New Hampshire, suggesting it was wildly inappropriate "given the violent history of this country with regard to presidents and assassinations." So it should be interesting to see what attention, if any, the mainstream media pays to Occupy San Diego honoring suspected White House...

PITTSBURGH – An Idaho man accused of firing two shots at the White House last week has been charged with attempting to assassinate President Barack Obama or his staff. Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, made his first court appearance before a federal magistrate in Pittsburgh on Thursday, one day after he was arrested at a western Pennsylvania hotel...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, serving humanity simply by showing up, and he’s not retiring until every American agrees with him, do NOT doubt him, with shrieks of joy at the mere mention of his name...

On Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement captured a man suspected in a shooting incident near the White House. Police took 21-year-old Oscar Ortega into custody at a hotel near Indiana, Pa. Using information provided by the Secret Service, Pennsylvania State Police made the arrest at 12:35 p.m. [..]

Headline only.

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla leader, looks likely to win re-election on Sunday after heavy social spending won him strong support among the country's poor. Ortega has overseen a period of economic progress in his five years in power, backed by financial aid from his socialist ally in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez.

Back in February, weeks before NATO launched its Libyan bombing campaign but after the Tripoli regime had slaughtered hundreds of civilians, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega phoned Muammar Qaddafi multiple times to express his support. Speaking publicly, Ortega declared that the bloodstained despot was “waging a great battle.” Then, in late March, with the NATO war well underway, Qaddafi tapped former Nicaraguan foreign minister Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann (who served under Ortega’s Sandinista dictatorship during the 1980s) to be Libya’s new ambassador to the United Nations. So it wasn’t terribly surprising last month when WikiLeaks released a pair of U.S. diplomatic cables...

Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is well known now for the abuses he has inflicted on his own people during more than four decades of brutal rule in Libya, but few remember the vast campaign of carnage and terrorism he orchestrated across West Africa and Europe when he was at the height of his powers. Nor are his more recent alliance with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and his long-standing relationship with Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua -- both of whom are busy trampling their constitutions and moving toward dictatorship -- well understood. And the fact that all three governments support the Revolutionary Armed...

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega says he has telephoned Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to express his solidarity. Ortega says he has called several times this week because Gadhafi "is again waging a great battle" to defend the unity of his nation. Human rights groups say more than 200 people have died as Libyan security forces crack down on protesters. Ortega has long been an ally of the Libyan leader, based in part on a shared distrust of the United States. Ortega says that "it's at difficult times that loyalty and resolve are put to the test."

21st Century SocialismThe attempt to destroy democracy in Latin America.  The Obama administration started out on the wrong foot in world affairs. It used techniques better suited for domestic political campaigns — popularity contests — in its foreign policy. In our own hemisphere, the result was confusion for our allies and our enemies alike. The overriding objective of U.S. policy — in Latin America and elsewhere — should be to advance U.S. national interests, not to curry favor with foreign leaders. If we can be liked while advancing our interests, so much the better. But when we try to befriend...

Will the Obama administration ever start standing up to the Latin axis of caudillos? Nicaragua invaded Costa Rica last month -- yet the State Department is all but AWOL. State is taking a carefully worded, almost neutral stand in the dispute between Costa Rica -- our ally, and the world's most pacifist country -- and Nicaragua, a key player in Hugo Chavez's group of Latin strongmen. Last month, Nicaragua sent troops into a jungle area at the mouth of the San Juan River, which has long been determined by mediators to be on Costa Rica's side of the border.

With the world distracted by currency fights, European debt problems, and other economic challenges, Nicaragua has quietly invaded and occupied the sovereign territory of Costa Rica. It is an act of naked aggression that deserves to be condemned and resisted by governments everywhere, yet most Americans have probably read little or nothing about it. Here’s a brief synopsis of what happened. At the direction of their government, Nicaraguans were dredging the San Juan River, which forms a section of their southern border with Costa Rica. They were doing so in a manner that was damaging many Costa Rican properties, which...

War arsenal seized in Boquete   la prensa This massive confiscation of weapons shows that the region continues to be a bridge for the transfer of weapons.   A ton and a half of military weapons was confiscated yesterday morning in what is being considered the largest seizure executed in the country.  The bust took place in the El Francés sector of the district of Boquete, where police uncovered the weapons in a private residence, whose occupant is a sociology professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí.  Experts estimate that the arsenal, which may have originated from Central America, is...

With U.S. policymakers distracted by the situation in Honduras, Nicaragua continues to move toward authoritarianism. On October 19, a Nicaraguan Supreme Court panel overturned a constitutional provision limiting presidents to two non-consecutive terms in office. The ruling will allow incumbent Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega--the Sandinista party leader, former Soviet client, vociferous critic of the United States, and current Hugo Chávez acolyte--to run for another term in 2011. If there were any doubts that Nicaraguan democracy is slowly being extinguished, this latest development should remove them. The Nicaraguan Supreme Court is composed of 16 members. Thanks to a political deal made...

Around 50,000 people took to the streets of the Nicaraguan capital Managua to protest against President Daniel Ortega's plans to seek reelection. Last month, the Supreme Court revoked a constitutional clause prohibiting presidential candidates running for office consecutively and banning presidents from serving more than two terms. The ruling allows the Daniel Ortega to run for a third term in office in the 2011 elections. After a popular revolution overthrew the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, Mr Ortega joined a five-member junta of national reconciliation. He won the 1984 elections and served as president from January 1985 until 1990. He lost...

Little attention has been paid recently to Nicaragua. "Only right," you may well respond. "After all, that tiny, troubled country in Central America became only relatively important when the Marxist Sandinistas took over in 1979 -- becoming temporarily the 'second Cuba' in the hemisphere." But recently, despite the dearth of news coverage, Nicaragua has become pivotal again. Recent events there confirm that there is indeed a new pattern emerging in the hemisphere that is certainly cause for alarm.

Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega (R) and his wife Rosario Murillo gesture during a meeting in Managua October 20, 2009. REUTERS/Cesar Perez/Nicaragua Presidency/Handout WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Thursday expressed concern about a Nicaraguan court ruling that opens the way for leftist President Daniel Ortega to seek re-election in the 2011 election. Nicaragua's Supreme Court on Monday issued a ruling that helped to clear the way for Ortega to run for another term, following a petition from him and a group of mayors last week. The country's electoral court said it would comply with the ruling. The U.S. State...

"Obama doesn't know what he's doing!" snapped Honduran foreign minister Enrique Ortez this July, 4. "He doesn't know anything about anything!" continued Ortez. "He probably can't even find Tegucigalpa on a map."   The U.S. was then (as now) denouncing the democratic Honduran government's actions to uphold their constitution and thwart a Chavez/Castro satrap hell-bent on converting their nation into a client narco-state for Hugo Chavez. Honduras' Supreme Court voted unanimously to oust Zelaya, and her legislature voted the 125- 5 for same. The five contrarian legislators belong to Honduras' Communist party, long known for dutifully carrying water for papa Fidel....

A few weeks ago, at a public celebration to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista revolution, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega moved one step closer to creating an autocracy. Speaking to a large crowd, Ortega called for changing the Nicaraguan constitution to allow his own reelection. Under current law, Nicaraguan presidents are prohibited from serving consecutive terms and are limited to two five-year terms overall. In order to be "just and fair," said Ortega, whose term ends in 2012, the country should amend its constitution to let presidents seek reelection. His timing was impeccable. The ongoing political crisis in...

It's good, occasionally, to take a trip down memory lane. It helps to put things into perspective. Hugo Chavez ought never to have been elected president. By rights, he ought to be growing old in a jail cell somewhere. Well, it's been seventeen years, maybe he’d be in a half-way house by now. As an army officer in 1992, he led a military revolt against the legal, constitutional government of Venezuela, and attempted to overthrow the democratically elected president of the time, Carlos Andres Perez. He gambled that once the shooting started, the minister of defense and the rest of...

MANAGUA, NICARAGUA -- While the second round of dialogue (regarding Honduras) ended without an accord in Costa Rica, the deposed president of Honduras, Manual Zelaya, announced he has begun organizing resistance to the new Honduran government after the failure of negotiations in San Joe, while the mediator of the crisis (Oscar Arias) asked for more time to avoid a civil war in Honduras. "As of now, we have begun to do everything to organize the internal resistance so I can return to the county," Zelaya said in a press conference in Managua. The former president made these declaration just hours...

MANAGUA, July 19 (Reuters) - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former guerrilla fighter, said on Sunday his country should extend presidential term limits after neighboring Honduras toppled its leftist president in a coup over the same issue. Ortega, a U.S. foe during the Cold War, first ruled Nicaragua after taking power in a 1979 Marxist revolution.

Edén Pastora threatened to attack Honduras According to the former military, the Honduran conflict could only be resolved by guns. 18.07.09 - Updated: 18.07.09 06:56 pm - Writing: redaccion@elheraldo.hn Tegucigalpa, Honduras . Former Nicaraguan guerrilla Eden Pastora, threatened to take up arms if there is no agreement in Costa Rica on the return of Manuel Zelaya as president. Pastora, a former Sandinista commander, is known for having led the command that took the National Palace, in the late 70s, during the Somoza dictatorship. See the biography of Eden Pastora According to El Universal of Venezuela, "Commander Zero," he told the...

Suddenly, size matters. That’s the central conclusion of a lengthy Washington Post article Monday that sought to assess the national security implications of Iran’s 2007 move into leftist Sandinista President Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua. The newspaper’s badly belated first weigh-in on the Islamic Republic’s most northern presence in the Americas wound up fixating on a curious detail: the physical size of the Iranian embassy there. Was it a huge mega-embassy, as some U.S. officials have said? A smallish embassy? Something mid-range but perhaps aspiring to be architecturally grandiose? The Post’s writers, offering no basis for such a wacky thesis, seem to...

The Obama administration jumped quickly into the fray over the removal and expulsion of president Manuel Zelaya from Honduras, calling the action a “coup” and demanding his reinstatement. Fellow Democrats in Congress followed suit, but The Hill reports that they may be changing their minds. Suddenly, they have begun acknowledging the crimes Zelaya committed and stopped calling for his return to office: Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), chairman of a key House subcommittee with jurisdiction over Honduras, roundly criticized both factions at a Friday hearing. But he also stopped short of calling for Zelaya’s immediate reinstatement, which he’d done in previous...

It took the Obama administration less than eight hours to side with Cuba's Fidel Castro, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega over the ouster of Manuel Zelaya in Honduras. As we have come to expect, Mr. Obama got it wrong again, but this time, nobody noticed. The U.S. news media, preoccupied with the sudden demise of Michael Jackson, ignored the event in Central America. For those who care about things more important than the passing of a "pop music legend," here's the rest of the story: Manuel Zelaya, a wealthy rancher and agribusiness executive but self-described "poor farmer," won...

Honduras says Nicaragua has troops moving on border 05 Jul 2009 20:20:26 GMT Source: Reuters TEGUCIGALPA, July 5 (Reuters) - Honduras' interim President Roberto Micheletti said on Sunday Nicaraguan troops were moving to the mutual frontier and urged Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to respect Honduran sovereignty. He gave no further details about troop movements in Nicaragua which shares a border with Honduras to the southeast of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.

Standing unified with his amigo Hugo Chavez, President Obama appears ready to engage in a spirited defense of another leftist head of state, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who was tossed out of power and out of the country over the weekend. While it took days for Obama to pass judgment on events following Iran's presidential election, he swiftly expressed "deepest concern" over Zelaya's ouster at the hand of the Honduran government. A few hours after the ouster, Obama called on leaders in Tegucigalpa to "respect democratic norms," which would seem to be a call to restore Zelaya to power. There...

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In condemning the removal of Honduran President Mel Zelayaya by the Honduran military, Pesident Obama stands shoulder to shoulder with the Fidel Castro and his thug epigones Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega. Zelaya sought to conduct an illegal referendum to extend his rule. The Honduran military has sought to enforce the rule of law by providing for Zelaya's departure from the scene. Mary Anastasia Grady explains: Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States,...

One of Venezuela's main opposition leaders, who is facing a corruption trial in his own country, has arrived in Peru, Peruvian officials say. Manuel Rosales, who ran against President Hugo Chavez in the 2006 presidential poll, has said the charges against him are politically motivated. He had been in hiding since charges were filed last month. Peruvian officials said Mr Rosales was in Lima as a tourist and had so far not requested asylum. Mr Rosales, who is mayor of Venezuela's second biggest city, Maracaibo, is facing multi-million-dollar corruption charges relating to his time as the governor of Zulia state.

After he sat listening to a 52-minute tirade about America the Fascist Imperialist tyranny, a droll Barack Obama told the media that the rant by Nicaragua’s Daniel C. Ortega “wasn’t about me.” No, it wasn’t. It was about America which evidently didn’t concern the narcissistic U. S. president since it involved John F. Kennedy, not he. And it did not occur to him to defend America since he himself wasn’t named: thus the narcissism. Also the lack of patriotism. Criticism about Obama back here has centered on his spinelessness and unwillingness to defend his country from attack. Yes, that’s part...

The president's critics ought to lighten up. We should give him credit for not knowing any better. (He was "finished" and "polished" at Harvard, after all.) Barack Obama is an accident of history, a street hustler from the South Side of Chicago with the gift of gab who landed on the world stage like a whale beached at the whim of a storm, the wrong man at the right time...The masses...eagerly stepped forward to take the pledge of the cult. This wouldn't be one of Dr. Freud's difficult cases. He was born to a mother obsessed with the pursuit of...

MY president went to Trin idad and Tobago, and all I got was this lousy Che Guevara T-shirt. At a Caribbean resort, Obama grinned through a semi-erotic encounter with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, then failed to answer a "strategic rape" charge lodged against America by ex-Sandinista Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua (who knows plenty about rape). Ignoring America's allies in favor of photo ops with anti-American leftists, such as Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Chavez, Obama blamed the United States for Latin America's problems. Whoa! Plenty of US policies toward Latin America have been misguided and myopic. But the primary causes of...

Daniel Ortega at the Summit had a 50 minutes anti American rant, this, a portion of that speech translated, from the CNN.com webcast. Obama didn't respond to this, being previously made comfortable from sitting in Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years, probably felt right at home..

A summit meeting of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Trinidad has ended without a consensus on a final declaration. Thirty-four countries spent two days in talks on the issues facing the continent, but were unable to agree on a clear statement. In a positive outcome, the United States and Venezuela agreed to work towards improving their frosty relationship. US President Barack Obama says he feels that many countries in the Americas want a more constructive relationship with the United States. "I do not see eye to eye with every regional leader on every regional issue and I do not...

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – President Barack Obama offered a spirit of cooperation to America's hemispheric neighbors at a summit Saturday, listening to complaints about past U.S. meddling and even reaching out to Venezuela's leftist leader.

Ortega denounced the U.S.-backed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro's new Communist government in Cuba in 1961, a history of US racism and what he called suffocating U.S. economic policies in the region. In his 17-minute address to the summit, Obama departed from his prepared remarks to mildly rebuke Ortega. "To move forward, we cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements. I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old. Too often, an opportunity to build a fresh partnership of the Americas has been undermined by stale debates. We've all...

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – President Barack Obama offered a spirit of cooperation to America's hemispheric neighbors at a summit Saturday, listening to complaints about past U.S. meddling and even reaching out to Venezuela's leftist leader. While he worked to ease friction between the U.S. and their countries, Obama cautioned leaders at the Summit of the Americas to resist a temptation to blame all their problems on their behemoth neighbor to the north. "I have a lot to learn and I very much look forward to listening and figuring out how we can work together more effectively," Obama said. ... Later, during...

President Obama endured a 50-minute diatribe from socialist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega that lashed out at a century of what he called terroristic U.S. aggression in Central America and included a rambling denunciation of the U.S.-imposed isolation of Cuba's Communist government. Obama sat mostly unmoved during the speech but at times jotted notes. The speech was part of the opening ceremonies at the fifth Summit of the Americas here. Later, at a photo opportunity with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Obama held his tongue when asked what he thought about Ortega's speech.

CAMARILLO, Calif. – A woman tortured by Nicaragua's Sandanista regime is pleading with the United States for asylum, but American immigration officials have shown her little sympathy – even though she faces rape, abuse and possibly death if she returns to her country. Sandinista torture Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega has employed neighborhood committees called Citizens Power Councils, or CPCs, used by his corrupt left-wing Sandinista party to spy on citizens, intimidate and torture them. Auxiliadora Martinez, 23, is a political refugee and campaign organizer for Eduardo Montealegre, Constitutionalist Party candidate for Managua mayor. She told WND the CPCs attacked her...

MANAGUA -- To offset the recent wave of factory closings and work suspensions at U.S. textile and manufacturing plants in Central America, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is asking the U.S. government for an economic bailout plan for Central America. Speaking at Wednesday's extraordinary presidential meeting of the Central American Integration System, Ortega went against the current of other leaders in attendance by criticizing the U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement-Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) as being fickle and unjust. Despite the promises of CAFTA-DR, Ortega said, ``What's happening now is that they are closing U.S. investment linked to the trade agreement in Central...

I am pretty sure that I remain the only American reporter to have traveled to leftist President Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua to find out what the Iranian government is doing there. I apologize if I missed something out there. While I appreciated having the exclusive at the time, more than a year after my travels I continue to wonder why there there is such a persistent lack of curiosity from my mainstream press corps colleagues. The press, quite rightly, has swarmed like migrating wildebeest all over the the Islamic Republic of Iran’s burgeoning economic and diplomatic ties to Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela...

MIAMI, March 16 -- Mauricio Funes, a former TV newsman who was recruited to run for president, declared himself the winner of El Salvador's presidential contest Sunday night, bringing into power a leftist party built by former guerrillas and ending two decades of conservative rule. Funes, a dynamic speaker and political outsider who compares himself to President Obama and pledged to be an agent of change in the small Central American nation, was leading the polls late Sunday night with 51.2 percent of the vote and more than 90 percent of the ballots counted. Turnout was high and election day...

Sounding more like a rebel leader than the president of a democratic republic, Daniel Ortega last week called for a permanent Sandinista insurrection to “struggle constantly” against what he calls “the enemy.” Ortega's inflammatory words came hours after Sandinista mobs clashed violently with anti-government protesters who marched on nine cities Feb. 28 to protest last year's alleged election fraud and what many consider the return to dictatorship here under the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). Sandinista mobs shot mortars and threw rocks at opposition protesters, who responded in kind. Liberal Party lawmaker Luis Callejas – one of several people injured...