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Obama Calls Cambridge Police Officer, Invites him for a Beer with Gates at the White House July 24, 2009 3:29 PM ABC News' Yunji de Nies, Sunlen Miller and Sarah Tobianski report: President Obama made his second surprise appearance before press in the briefing room to address what he called the “media frenzy” over his comments on the Skip Gates case. “The fact that it has garnered so much attention, I think, is a testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America,” The President said, “And, you know, so to the extent...

Could a White House spell-off be in the works between President Obama and former Vice President Dan Quayle? In a throwback to the latter's infamous misspelling of the word "potato," Obama accidentally misspelled "respect" while introducing singer Aretha Franklin during a tribute to "Women of Soul" at the White House Thursday. “When Aretha first told us what … R-S-P-E-C-T meant to her,” Obama said, pausing briefly before the audience began laughing, apparently realizing his mistake. “She had no idea it would become a rallying cry for African Americans and women and anyone else who felt marginalized because of what they...

Darrell Issa seen plowing ahead with IRS probe amid new evidence By JOHN BRESNAHAN and LAUREN FRENCH | 3/7/14 2:00 PM EST Updated: 3/7/14 3:53 PM EST Not even a trove of new evidence will stop Darrell Issa from going after Lois Lerner’s testimony. The House Oversight Committee Chairman is plowing forward with plans to hold the former IRS official in contempt of Congress - possibly as early as next week - despite word from the tax agency that it plans to hand over a broad set of documents spanning Lerner’s entire career at the IRS. Republicans have long sought...

Over the course of the three-day AIPAC conference in Washington, politicians delivered speeches overwhelmed by audience skepticism over the Obama administration’s Iran deal and what the White House’s Middle East peace process framework might look like in the end. But one issue that took on a new life proved to be the glue that brought politics and the 14,000 AIPACers together: the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns. Like the fizzy fruits of a SodaStream, BDS bubbled to the top of the one-liners that consistently brought the crowd to its feet and helped some political figures during addresses that were otherwise...

President Obama entered office promising to restore the sanctity of science. Instead, a fresh war against science, statistics and reason is being waged on behalf of politically correct politics. After the Sandy Hook tragedy, the president attempted to convert national outrage into new gun-control legislation. Specifically, he focused on curtailing semi-automatic "assault" rifles. But there is no statistical evidence that such guns -- semi-automatic rifles that have mostly cosmetic changes to appear similar to banned military-style fully automatic assault weapons -- lead to increased gun-related crimes. The promiscuous availability of illegal handguns does. They're used in the vast majority of...

<p>“I was horrified,” said John Stemberger, chairman of the board of Trail Life USA, a new, rapidly-growing scouting organization that doesn’t allow openly gay members.</p> <p>Stemberger was referring to an Associated Press photograph that accompanied an in-depth story about Trail Life. The image showed a group of young boys gathered in a circle with their hands raised at an unusual angle. The AP’s original caption on the photo said they were reciting the organization’s “creed” during a meeting in North Richland Hills, Texas.</p>

The journalists at Good Morning America on Thursday were sufficiently provoked by a pro-American Cadillac commercial that they devoted a whole segment to wondering if the spot was "arrogant" and "xenophobic." GMA's reporters, who couldn't find any time to cover former IRS head Lois Lerner pleading the Fifth on Capitol Hill, devoted almost three minutes to the "backlash" against the car commercial. The ad features a man strolling around his large house, praising the free enterprise system and the work ethic of Americans: "Other countries, they work. They stroll home. They stop by the café. They take August off. Off!"...

SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) – Supporters of a plan to divide California into six sates can begin collecting signatures to get the proposal on the ballot. Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced that the proposed ballot initiative – known as Six Californias – could move forward Tuesday. Under the plan, from venture capitalist Tim Draper, most of the Bay Area would be considered “Silicon Valley.” Napa, Sonoma and Marin Counties would become part of “North California.”

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow charged Monday that the George W. Bush administration's Middle East policy has steered America's current security policy and response to global crises — including the one in Ukraine. Talking about her new documentary, "Why We Did It," involving circumstances leading to the Iraq War, Maddow told MSNBC colleague Andrea Mitchell that the Bush administration is largely responsible for the nation's current course overseas. “The decisions of our generation on national security are determined more than anything by what the George W. Bush administration did with that nine-year war in Iraq and, alongside it, a 13-year war...

A senior administration official says Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev Tuesday to meet with government officials.

Secretary of State John Kerry warned Wednesday that Russia must be “very careful” in judgments it makes about Ukraine and that it must keep its commitment to respect the sovereignty of the nation. “I think Russia needs to be very careful in the judgments that it makes going forward here,” he said in an exclusive interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell. “We are not looking for confrontation. But we are making it clear that every country should respect the territorial integrity here, the sovereignty of Ukraine. Russia has said it would do that and we think it’s important that Russia keeps...

In a Wednesday interview with Andrea Mitchell, Secretary of State John Kerry resisted Mitchell's assertion that "genocide" was taking place in Syria: QUESTION: I want to ask you about Syria. For three years, we have watched horrific pictures. You spoke of this when you were a senator. Obviously, now you’ve got the lead role on it. Horrible pictures. I looked at video of a child weeping over his mother’s body after a barrel bomb was dropped on her and other civilians by the regime. Just today, this picture on the wires from Yarmouk, from the refugee camp in southern Damascus....

Washington (AFP) - Russia is ready to help Ukraine as it seeks to stave off economic collapse, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday after talking with his Russian counterpart.

Maybe the Obama administration is taking the Budapest Memorandum more seriously than we imagined — or at least want Russia to think we are. Secretary of State John Kerry told ABC’s This Week that “all options are on the table” for a response to Vladimir Putin’s Crimean invasion, including military options: Secretary of State John Kerry said that “all options are on the table” when it comes to steps the U.S. can take to hold Russia accountable for its military movements in Ukraine, including economic sanctions and potentially military action. In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos today on “This...

Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “stunning, willful” choice to invade Ukrainian territory and warned of possible sanctions. “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country,” Kerry said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” one of several appearances on network interview shows. “It’s serious in terms of the modern manner in which countries resolve problems,” Kerry said. “That’s not the act of somebody who’s strong, “ Kerry added, saying Putin is acting out of “weakness” and “desperation.” On ABC’s “This Week,” Kerry called Putin’s move a “brazen...

Sarah Palin warned in 2008 that if Obama were elected, Putin would be encouraged to invade Ukraine. At the time, she was mocked.Did former Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin predict six years ago the current situation in Ukraine? It appears as though she did. On Friday, hours before Russia’s parliament gave President Vladimir Putin the formal go ahead to send forces to Ukraine, the Breitbart website reminded those who may have forgotten that during the 2008 presidential campaign, Palin warned that if then-Senator Barack Obama were elected president, his "indecision" and "moral equivalence" may encourage Russia's Vladimir Putin to...

Americans should focus their ire on Russian President Vladimir Putin and not offer partisan attacks on President Barack Obama, Rep. Chris Van Hollen said Sunday. "We’re 48 hours from an international crisis, I would hope Americans would focus on condemning the actions of Putin rather than in a knee-jerk way, again, criticizing the president of the United States," the Maryland Democrat said on “Fox News Sunday.” Van Hollen appeared on the program after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) blasted Obama for being outmaneuvered...

If Russian forces do start to act in the Crimea region, it would be only to stabilize the situation in the region and prevent any guerrilla warfare from developing into confrontations of a larger scale, Mark Sleboda, senior lecturer at the department of international relations at Moscow State University told the Voice of Russia in an exclusive interview.

The incoming Ukrainian president will have to turn some attention to history, because the outgoing one has just made a hero of a long-dead Ukrainian fascist. By conferring the highest state honor of “Hero of Ukraine” upon Stepan Bandera (1909-1959) on January 22, Viktor Yushchenko provoked protests from the chief rabbi of Ukraine, the president of Poland, and many of his own citizens. It is no wonder. Bandera aimed to make of Ukraine a one-party fascist dictatorship without national minorities. During World War II, his followers killed many Poles and Jews. Why would President Yushchenko, the leader of the democratic...

For Politico and others, “sorry” seems to be the hardest word.. As Brian and Neo have previously posted, during the 2012 campaign Mitt Romney was mocked by President Obama and his cheerleaders for highlighting the Russian threat to American interests. Romney wasn’t the first Republican mocked for suggesting that Obama wasn’t ready or willing to stand up to Russia’s leader. In 2008, vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin warned of Russian troops invading the Ukraine. In October 2008, after Russia’s invasion of neighboring Georgia emerged as a foreign policy flashpoint in the homestretch of a heated campaign, Palin told an audience...

Sarah Palin knows what's wrong with President Obama's approach to Ukraine. In a Facebook post, she said that she had predicted that after Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, Obama's "moral indecision" would prompt Vladimir Putin to tackle Ukraine next: "Yes, I could see this one from Alaska. I’m usually not one to Told-Ya-So, but I did." The Washington Post editorial page also knows what's wrong. "Mr. Obama," it says, "has been vague about the consequences of continued Russian aggression." An aggression that is taking place, we are told, in "the center of Europe." It suggests that the most forceful measure...

RUSH: Salon.com. This is a huge piece here. This prints out to six pages. "Why You're Wrong About Communism: 7 Huge Misconceptions About It (and Capitalism) -- Most of what Americans think they know about capitalism and communism is total nonsense," and as I read through this... I'm not gonna read the whole thing to you, but we will link to it at RushLimbaugh.com. As you read through this, if you take the time to do it, this could very easily be the kind of gobbledygook that's being taught in college. "As the commentary around the recent deaths of Nelson...

When Sarah Palin became the surprising vice presidential choice for the Republican ticket in 2008, a lot of people thought she was kind of loony. When Palin said she could see Russia from her house and couldn't name a single newspaper in a Katie Couric interview, some people were quick to write her and her opinions off. So when she made a few remarks about the Russia-Ukraine situation in the fall of 2008, a lot of people ignored her. Specifically she said, "After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral...

Attorney General Eric Holder’s call to restore voting rights to felons after they’ve served their time in prison has split Senate Democrats. Liberal Democrats who are not facing tough re-elections this year say it’s the right thing to do, but vulnerable incumbents are steering clear of the proposal. ADVERTISEMENT Holder has become increasingly outspoken recently. This week he declared that state attorneys general are not obligated to defend laws that are discriminatory. Political experts say barring ex-felons from voting impacts African Americans disproportionately.

News organizations often disagree about what Americans need to know. MSNBC, for example, apparently believes that traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., is the crisis of our time. Fox News, on the other hand, chooses to cover the September 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi more heavily than other networks. The American people, for their part, disagree about what they want to watch. But everyone should agree on this: The government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories. Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission, where I am a commissioner, does not agree. Last May the FCC...

Rapper Da Brat was ordered yesterday to pay $6.4 million (€4.6 million) in damages to a former Atlanta Falcons cheerleader turned hostess she attacked in 2007, smashing a bottle of rum in her face. However, Da Brat says, Stevens would better get in line because she can’t “afford” to pay this kind of money.

Conservatives appear to be really upset that liberals are actually taking on the facts in the anti-Obamacare ads they’ve been running. How dare you question whether the people in these ads are giving an accurate picture — they’re suffering! --SNIP-- So here’s what you need to understand. The Affordable Care Act isn’t magic — it produces losers as well as winners. But it’s not black magic either, turning everyone into a loser. What the Act does is in effect to increase the burden on fortunate people — the healthy and wealthy — to lift some burdens on the less fortunate:...

This short book rewrites the history of modern American liberalism. It shows that what we think of liberalism today – the top and bottom coalition we associate with President Obama - began not with Progressivism or the New Deal but rather in the wake of the post-WWI disillusionment with American society. In the twenties, the first writers and thinkers to call themselves liberals adopted the hostility to bourgeois life that had long characterized European intellectuals of both the left and the right. The aim of liberalism’s foundational writers and thinkers such as Herbert Croly, Randolph Bourne, H.G. Wells, Sinclair Lewis...

Who’s likely to do well in New Hampshire’s 2016 first-in-the-nation presidential primary? It’s a preposterous question, here in 2014, but what the heck? We asked six experts to weigh in on some of the biggest political players. Our analysts are Wayne Lesperance, political science professor at New England College; Phil Boynton, president of the University of New Hampshire College Republicans; Peter Burling, Democratic national committeeman; Dante Scala, professor of political science at UNH; Jess Steever, vice president of the Plymouth State University Democrats; and Brandon Lemay, public relations officer for the PSU Democrats. Today, our panelists consider the Republicans. Tomorrow,...

We’re beginning to see more and more discussions about how the laws, policies and regulations of our federal, state and local governments are working to impoverish the people of this country and restrict their liberties. So much so that even the taboo topic of a potential Ukraine-style collapse right here in America is now being openly discussed in mainstream circles. In a recent panel discussion on Fox News the question of whether or not Ukraine rioting is the future of America came to the forefront and long-time political operative and former Presidential adviser Pat Caddell weighed in. Like many of...

Today I’m off on the Eurostar to Brussels (”a carbon neutral journey” it boasts on my ticket – which rather makes me wish I were flying instead) to speak at the European Parliament on Climate Change. No, don’t worry. The Goreistas haven’t got to me. It’s a sceptics’ conference – Have Humans Changed Climate? – being staged tomorrow by Tory MEP Roger Helmer. Many of my science and eco-heroes will be there, including Patrick Moore (the co-founder of Greenpeace who subsequently bailed when the charity turned far too red), Prof Fred Singer (who’ll be talking on Can We Trust The...

WASHINGTON — White House spokesman Tony Snow made a startling claim earlier this month, one that shed some light on changing perceptions about the job he's doing.During a briefing, Snow responded to a question about climate change by noting that, "We're talking about nuclear development, which is now championed by, among others, Greenpeace."Beg your pardon?"I think there's some Greenpeace people who are certainly advocates of nuclear power," Snow said.As whoppers go, that was a good one. Certainly, it was news to Greenpeace."Golly, you know, I can't believe the White House would get that wrong," said Jim Riccio, Greenpeace nuclear policy...

WASHINGTON -- National Security Advisor Susan Rice appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday and said that when she had appeared on several news outlets back in September 2012 to state that the attack on an American diplomatic installation in Benghazi was a "spontaneous reaction" to an American-made film that appeared on YouTube she had used "the best information we [the White House] had at the time." Senator John McCain responded to her statement Sunday that it left him "almost speechless." The Arizona Republican said on CBS's "Face the Nation" that "I'm almost speechless, because it's patently obvious, first of...

His parents still live there. He still keeps an office there. But it's not the same neighborhood he grew up in, and his feelings about newcomers now inhabiting once-blighted parts of America's most-populous city like Fort Greene slapped many people in the face after the famed director went into an expletive-laced rant during an African-American History Month lecture on Tuesday. Spike Lee on gentrification "I grew up here in New York. It's changed," Lee said at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute, an art, design, and architecture school. "And why does it take an influx of white New Yorkers in the South Bronx,...

Democrats believe they've hit on the perfect issue to distract from the horror of Obamacare in the 2014 elections: the minimum wage. Apparently, increasing the minimum wage was not important for American workers during the first five years of Obama's presidency -- least of all his first two years, when Democrats controlled Congress and could have passed anything. (And did!) No. The minimum wage did not become a pressing concern until an election year in which the public's hatred of Obamacare is expected to be the central issue. As The New York Times explained, Democrats see the minimum wage as...

Adam Baldwin, an actor best known for his performances in Full Metal Jacket, The Patriot and Firefly, outraged homosexual activists last week by questioning why marriage redefinition should not apply to single fathers who love their sons and want to enjoy all the tax benefits of marriage. “What's wrong, now, with a father marrying his son for love & to avoid tax penalties?” Baldwin wrote on Twitter. The actor has earned a spot on many liberal ‘enemies lists’ by using the micro-blogging site to share his outspokenly conservative opinions on pro-life, family and second amendment issues. Baldwin received an avalanche...

February 25, 2014 Gowdy Slams Rice Benghazi Interview: ‘I Get Tougher Questions in the Bojangles Drive-Thru’ Bridget Johnson Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) blasted Meet the Press host David Gregory for throwing softball questions at National Security Advisor Susan Rice on Benghazi, saying: “I get tougher questions in the Bojangles drive-thru than he asked her.�Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press for the first time since her 2012 post-Benghazi round on the Sunday shows, Rice was asked by Gregory if she had any regrets about that appearance and whether she felt that it cost her the secretary of State job.Rice was also...

DAVID GREENE, HOST: … wealthy donors like Tom Steyer are putting a pistol to someone's head, forcing their pet issues on candidates. Steyer himself sees things very differently. He quit his hedge fund with $1.5 billion and now in his view he's fighting as hard as he can with money and passion to do something very noble - save the planet. .. With plans to pour $100 million into key elections this year, Steyer joins this elite group of wealthy individuals trying to influence politicians and voters. Steyer says he doesn't agree with the growing influence of money in politics...

Some people realized he only needed to be as rude as he was to me if he was wrong.Sunday’s announcement that Piers Morgan had lost his show at CNN was hardly unexpected. The ratings for the coveted 9 p.m. time slot were abysmal, dropping last week to just 270,000 viewers — about one-eighth of what Fox News’s Megyn Kelly got in the same time slot. Some, such as Variety magazine, have speculated that the low ratings are due to Morgan’s single-minded push for gun control. That might have something to do with it, but much more is going on. In...

Saying that the British journalist's show had "run its course," CNN president Jeff Zucker told the New York Times earlier today that he was pulling the plug on Piers Morgan's eponymous primetime news program (h/t Politico's Dylan Byers). The staunchly leftist anti-gun Brit is, of course, a frequent target of our criticism and he's still on our radar whether or not he remains with the network. You can read our archive of Morgan's bias by clicking here. Feel free to share your thoughts on the demise of the former tabloid editor's low-rated program in the comments section.

Three years after he launched himself on an unsuspecting American public as a prime-time interrogator of politicians and celebrities, Piers Morgan has admitted defeat in the nightly ratings battle and plans to step down from his CNN show.

**SNIP** “One of the things that does not appear to work, or has had a hard time even getting off the — off the floor, getting started, is the president’s healthcare plan,” Schieffer began. “There’s no other way to look at it: this roll out was a disaster. Where are you on that, and how much do you think that’s going to hurt Democrats?” **SNIP** The reporter later asked whether O’Malley thought many Democrats would ask President Barack Obama to campaign with them this election cycle. “I hear a lot of them don’t want him in their states now,” Schieffer...

There have been times when the CNN host Piers Morgan didn’t seem to like America very much — and American audiences have been more than willing to return the favor. Three years after taking over for Larry King, Mr. Morgan has seen the ratings for “Piers Morgan Live” hit some new lows, drawing a fraction of viewers compared with competitors at Fox News and MSNBC. It’s been an unhappy collision between a British television personality who refuses to assimilate — the only football he cares about is round and his lectures on guns were rife with contempt — and a...

More than 10,000 NBCUniversal-owned Peacock Production employees have signed petitions seeking improved workplace rights, but their bid for better working conditions didn’t seem to faze MSNBC’s five prime-time hosts.

Here's an editorial in the New York Times about the beneficial effects of the $832 billion stimulus bill passed in 2009 that could have been written in the White House: Of all the myths and falsehoods that Republicans have spread about President Obama, the most pernicious and long-lasting is that the $832 billion stimulus package did not work. Since 2009, Republican lawmakers have inextricably linked the words "failed" and "stimulus," and last week, five years after passage of the Recovery Act, they dusted off their old playbook again."The 'stimulus' has turned out to be a classic case of big promises...

“That information turned out, in some respects, not to be 100 percent correct," Rice said. "But the notion that somehow I or anybody else in the administration misled the American people is patently false. And I think that that's been amply demonstrated." She was, at the time, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a top candidate to become secretary of state. However, Rice withdrew herself from consideration in the wake of the attacks on the U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, after the firestorm of criticism she received for her response. Rice said Sunday she didn’t know whether her...

<p>For the first time since her infamous 2012 interview, National Security Advisor Susan Rice appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday February 23 to discuss a variety of foreign policy issues, most noticeably Benghazi.</p> <p>Throughout the interview, which focused primarily on the recent violent protests in Ukraine, host David Gregory provided Rice with a variety of softball questions on Benghazi, and allowed her to push White House talking points without any significant pushback.</p>

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin blasted the mainstream press for only holding President Barack Obama accountable when they are impacted by Obama's overreach and abuses, while not being watchdogs in nearly every other case. "Lamestream calls for empathy, even outrage, for a First Amendment violation that's on par with all the abuse we've brought to your attention as Obama stomps on our Constitution," Palin wrote on her Facebook page after the Obama administration's FCC aborted plans to monitor the country's newsrooms. "You've IGNORED us, you've marginalized us, you've left us for 'destroyed.' But when Obama's boot is on YOUR neck you finally...

The thing I like about most sports are the rules and how the winner is determined are pretty unambiguous. Score more points, cross the finish line first, jump higher, whatever, and you win. Should there be any foul play or skirting of the rules, there’s an official or referee there to cry foul. It’s simple and, to borrow a word from President Obama, fair. Politics, on the other hand, is quite different. Truth used to be the most potent weapon in the game of politics. It was the best tool with which to garner the most votes, and whoever got...

Have you ever seen a four year old kid who is completely closed to any type of reasoning? Typically his hands will cover his ears and he will scream loudly to block out any arguments others might give to the contrary. Well, CNN has become that unreasoning four year old kid. And what type of reasoning is CNN attempting to block out? Anything that might contradict their blind faith in global warming or climate change as they now call it. Yes, CNN has declared that there are no two sides to the climate change debate. Here is the amazing shutdown...