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BBC LATEST: Headline Only US President Obama Says He Will Not Rush "Solemn Decision" To Commit Troops To Afghanistan

All we're getting is whispers from the press, of course, A raised eyebrow here, a sad shake of the head there. But the picture that is emerging of Barack Obama, the executive, is not very flattering if you look between the lines.

What does the bill, HR 3200, short-titled ‘‘America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,” actually say about major health care issues? I here pose a few questions in no particular order, citing relevant passages and offering a brief evaluation after each set of passages. This bill is 1017 pages long. It is knee-deep in legalese and references to other federal regulations and laws. I have only touched pieces of the bill here. For instance, I have not considered the establishment of (1) “Health Choices Commissio0ner” (Section 141); (2) a “Health Insurance Exchange,” (Section 201), basically a government run insurance scheme...

I am leaving Free Republic. After I post this message I will not come back and most likely ask the moderator to remove my account. You may ask why. Today I posted a copy of a letter I received from an anti-terrorism officer in the United States Air Force. It was received through official channels but was not classified or top secret and I was granted permission to share it. It was an article concerning the possibility of a terrorist attack on American soil and it was pulled because, and I quote "Proven incorrect on snopes." This is one time...

Isn't it time for him to go home yet? It is good, in theory, that the new President of the United States is taking so much time to tour Europe. He arrived in London last Tuesday, has been to Strasbourg, Prague yesterday and now he's off to Turkey. It shows, I suppose, that he cares about the outside world and that is 'A Good Thing'. But his long stay means that we are hearing rather a lot from him, way too much in fact. His speeches have long under-delivered, usually leaving a faintly empty sensation in this listener even though...

While marking the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth last night in Springfield Ill., President Barack Obama made light of Sen. Judd Gregg's decision yesterday to withdraw his nomination as commerce secretary. "In 1854, Lincoln was simply a Springfield lawyer who'd served just a single term in Congress," Mr. Obama told the approximately 900 guests at the 102nd Abraham Lincoln Association Banquet. "Possibly in his law office, his feet on a cluttered desk, his sons playing around him, his clothes a bit too small to fit his uncommon frame, maybe wondering if somebody might call him up and ask him...

HONOLULU – The media glare, the constant security appendage and the sheer production that has become a morning jog or a hankering for an ice cream cone – it’s been closing in on Barack Obama for some time. Now the president-elect appears increasingly conscious of the confines of his new position, bristling at the routine demands of press coverage and beginning to chafe at boundaries that are only going to get smaller. Obama even took the unusual step Friday morning of leaving behind the pool of reporters assigned to follow him, taking his daughters to a nearby water park without...

I have zero doubt that Obama will use his 1/2 hour of network time to lay out a comprehensive economic plan. It will be chock full of lies, promising a chicken in every pot, every conceivable socialist giveaway. But... the most dangerous thing is that it will sound very slick and smooth. Team Pathological Liar does not care whether any of the plan adds up or is possible. They just want to create the last few days of buzz in the gullible sheeple how The Man Child Messiah has the solution to every economic problem. John McCain's team and the...

Obama has a habit of touching people on the shoulder or on the arm when he greets them. There are endless photos of Obama doing this. At first I thought it was his way of drawing people in by being likable and friendly, but now I think there is a more sinister motive. It's all about dominance. Looking at the photos it's easy to see who is in charge. This touching technique makes Obama seem large while at the same time making others look small.McCain will confront this at the debates. If it were me I'd gently take his hand...

He's fired up youth with eloquent oratory and a message of change. He has the pearl-wearing wife and two adorable little kids. He's making plans for a huge speech in Berlin. So ask - or ask not: Is Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama channeling John F. Kennedy? Republicans practically roll their eyes at the Camelot question - and Obama's not even the official nominee yet. "If Michelle starts wearing a pillbox hat, or they get a pony named Macaroni - look out," sighs Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution research fellow. The parlor game of finding comparisons between the young president from...

The European leg of Barack Obama's overseas tour is a deliberate effort to wrap himelf in the mantle of John F.Kennedy, widely regarded as one of the most inspirational American presidents in history. The Democrat candidate has picked Germany, the country where the Iraq war most strained relations with America, for what is billed as a major address on transatlantic relations. That choice is also deliberately reminiscent of Kennedy's address in West Berlin during one of the bleakest periods of the Cold War in 1963, when he declared "Ich bin ein Berliner" - I am a Berliner. The Democratic nominee...

Oprah Winfrey may have gone too far in exploiting and distributing the teachings of a questionable New Age writer. On Monday night, Winfrey conducted her weekly Web "event" seminar with New Age writer Eckhart Tolle. His message: "Life is the dancer and you are the dance." Got that?

Since 1962, Scranton, Pennsylvania has hosted the second largest Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the country. This year was no exception! Thousands of people lined the streets, watching the 9,000 participants of all ages! The Obama campaign was present in all parts of the parade as surrogate speaker Max Kennedy met parade watchers and encouraged them to vote for Barack Obama. Scranton residents rallied for Obama by wearing special Saint Patrick’s Day Obama stickers, holding signs and carrying around balloons. Jennifer, Marissa and Debbie are excited to vote on April 22 for Barack. Jennifer, a teacher, supports Barack’s education...

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

Washington, D.C. (CNSNews.com) - U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts on Tuesday told an audience at the liberal Take Back America conference that he was sorry for voting to authorize the war in Iraq, calling the entire mission "a mistake." "We were misled, we were given evidence that was not true," Kerry said. "It was wrong, and I was wrong to vote [for it]." Kerry, who led an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2004, said it was necessary to admit mistakes because "you cannot change the future if you''re not honest about the past." He criticized supporters of the...

BAM Curator Quits Over Exhibit Dispute By Riya Bhattacharjee (05-23-06) After serving as a curator at the Berkeley Art Museum since September 2005, Chris Gilbert abruptly resigned because of rising conflicts with museum administrators over his controversial project “Now Time: Media Along the Path of the Bolivarian Process,” part two of which is currently showing at the UC Berkeley museum. Gilbert is now in South Korea, where he is currently curator for the Gwangin ju Biennale exhibit, but he explained the reason for his April 28 resignation in an e-mail to the Daily Planet. “My struggles with the museum over...

You have perhaps heard of the charges against the US troops in Iraq made by the self-proclaimed "Army Ranger" Jesse MacBeth. If not, click here for a video presenting his ludicrous claims: Jesse MacBeth It would seem that before Mr. MacBeth began to decry the Genghis Khan-like atrocities of our soldiers, he busied himself with other weighty issues, such as protesting the service at the local coffee shop.From the Arizona State University's campus paper, the Devil:Jesse MacBeth, right, protests near the Mill Avenue Coffee Plantation on Saturday night. The Free to Camp Coalition organized the protest because it alleges that...

Blackfive already has a good start on this and Protein Wisdom is all over it as well, but any help Freepers can give in outing this wannabe would be much appreciated.

John McCain is running for President 2008. As a republican candidate, John McCain could win the republican nomination. Many feel if John McCain runs against Hillary Clinton, he would win the presidential election in 2008. John McCain graduated from the Naval Academy in 1958. After graduation, John McCain became a Naval Avaitor. For over 5 years, John McCain was a Vietnam captive. John McCain became a US Senator for Arizona in 1986. Senator John McCain is now Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and is known for his successful passing of Campaign Finance Reform. Express your...

Nov. 19, 2005 — - Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., believes U.S. troops do not necessarily need to be pulled out of Iraq right away, as a senior Democrat suggested this week, but they need more leadership from the Bush administration. "What we need is a little more commander-in-chief, and a little less campaigner-in-chief," Kerry said in an exclusive interview on "Good Morning America Weekend Edition." The question of whether or not troops should be withdrawn from Iraq moved to the front burner Thursday when Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., called for all the troops to be withdrawn immediately -- a call...

Green pacifict geeks should do as hypocrite high-rollers AlGore and Arianna say, not as they do. Both were in San Franciso last weekend at a Green vehicle event pitching hybrid cars (gas/electric combination) yet both were chauffered in BIG GAS-GUZZLING, GLOBAL-WARMING SUVs. They really stepped in this one and DFU has documented it well--and got the word out to MANY talk shows in addition to Mr. KABC including Tony Snow, Mark Levin, Michael Graham, Melanie Morgan, Roger Hedgecock and Al Rantel. And, a major syndicated Conservative columnist has responded to DFU's email and is trying to get some answers from...

Twenty years ago, David Lange trashed New Zealand's defence relationship with the United States, on the back of his totemic "no nuclear ship visits" policy. It had the effect of shuffling the Kiwis into the neutral corner, and off the winner's podium, just five years before the Western alliance triumphed in the great ideological rivalry of the 20th century. Yet, in the mythology of his own nation, Lange continues to be celebrated as a brave visionary, rather than as a poseur and dilettante who misread badly the pulse of history. Following his death at the weekend, there have been many...

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Police have flagged a man for an illegal quarterback sneak. Authorities said Brian Jackson, 31, dated two women by pretending to be Pittsburgh Steelers quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger and Brian St. Pierre. Jackson, arrested Friday, was charged with harassment for allegedly continuing to contact both women after they learned of the ruses. He was also charged with criminal mischief for allegedly ruining a Steelers jersey owned by one of the women's neighbors when he signed his worthless rendition of Roethlisberger's autograph on it. The jersey was worth $75 before it was signed, police said.

The New York Times last week offered a specious attack on Lynne Stewart's conviction in an embarrassingly ill-informed op-ed by Andrew Napolitano, Fox News's "Senior Judicial Analyst." A little background before we examine this commentator's latest wade out of his depth. Napolitano was once a midlevel state-court judge in New Jersey. Assuming for argument's sake that this experience is a sure sign of actual legal expertise, it would be an exceedingly narrow one: to wit, he might be thought an authority on the constitution and laws of the Garden State. Fox, however, has opportunistically chosen to ignore the "New Jersey"...

"US soldiers traumatized by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares. The US food and drug administration has given the go-ahead for the soldiers to be included in an experiment to see if MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, can treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Scientists behind the trial in South Carolina think the feelings of emotional closeness reported by those taking the drug could help the soldiers talk about their experiences to therapists."Full Story

A collection of pretty funny photoshops of our "pal" Michael Moore.

"John Kerry claims that he and other three men with him each killed a goose, yet we see in the above photo that he as failed to maintain field possession of the goose. That’s an offence that he can be ticketed for....." Click Link above.

October 6, 2004 -- LAST night John Edwards went from seeming to be like JFK to emulating Dan Quayle in the space of 90 minutes. Confronted with Dick Cheney's obvious competence, incisive parries to his charges and devastating rebuttal of his phony statistics, Edwards looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights. Normally, vice presidential debates are not significant. But this confrontation should serve President Bush well. With Edwards parroting Sen. John Kerry's line in last week's presidential debate, Cheney gave the answers Bush should have offered but failed to articulate. If the first presidential debate was a contrast of...

Susan Lampert Smith, a columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, was sprawled on her couch in Mount Horeb on Sunday afternoon, like so many others in her state, watching the Green Bay Packers and looking forward to a nap. Suddenly, as she tells it, the phone rang and her friend Mary was on the line. "John Kerry's at the Main Street Pub watching the Packers," Mary told her. "I just thought she was pulling my leg," Smith told E&P Monday. Smith had written a column for that day's State Journal challenging the pointy-headed Kerry to visit a small-town...

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby is the fictional hero of the Great American novel. He is the archetypal American self-creator. He was born Jay Gatz but repudiated his origins and background while inventing a grand new persona. He was the perfect hero for a country born by casting off its European origins and creating a new world wherein success was determined, not by background, but by individual talent. Fitzgerald's tale is, however, a cautionary one, because he warns against the inescapability of the past, the dangers of trying too hard to escape from history. In the novel, Gatsby comes to...

Kerry Campaign Explains Bob Kerrey Mixup AP - 1 hour, 16 minutes ago John Kerry, Bob Kerrey. It's easy to get confused. At least that's how the Kerry campaign is explaining claims that Kerry — the Democratic presidential candidate — served as vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Oops. Make that Bob Kerrey — the former Democratic senator from Nebraska who did serve as the panel's vice chairman. (snip) It's difficult to take John Kerry's claims about his intelligence experience seriously when one of his credentials is completely made up," said Republican National Committee (news - web...

KERRY MISSES THE SIGN Sen. John Kerry, attempting to burnish his image as an everyman appeared at Fenway Park on Sunday night and threw out the first pitch at the Yankees-Red Sox game. The appearance was supposed to be a surprise, but Kerry couldn't help touting the event to reporters on the plane from Ohio. "The idea of missing a Yankees-Red Sox series right before a convention week was not acceptable, so we changed the policy," Kerry told reporters. Kerry, though, is apparently no Red Sox fan. Over the past few weeks, Kerry has claimed that his favorite Red Sox...

Kerry plans campaign visit to Cape Canaveral on July 26 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Sen. John Kerry has scheduled a campaign appearance in Cape Canaveral for July 26, the same day the Democratic National Convention officially opens in Boston. Kerry plans to use the Florida stop to discuss how lessons gleaned from science and innovative advances made by the space program can be applied toward making America stronger, his campaign said today. No specific details of the visit, including time and exact location, have been released. Florida is one of the nation’s top electoral battlegrounds, with Republicans and Democrats both...

<p>LOS ANGELES — If it’s not John Kerry tossing a football across an airport tarmac, it’s President Bush stomping around his Texas ranch in denim and cowboy boots. Bush waves the starter’s flag at NASCAR’s Daytona 500. Kerry blasts away at pheasant with a double-barreled shotgun.</p>

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry (D-Ma), a Harley Davidson motorcycle rider and owner himself, checks out the stability of a San Antonio police department Harley Davidson as he talks with the motorcycle officers who rode in his motorcade at the airport in San Antonio, Texas, March 6, 2004. Kerry is campaigning in Texas as he continues his quest for the Democratic presidential nomination on the heels of his Super Tuesday wins and the recent withdrawals of his two top competitors, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and U.S. Senator John Edwards (D-NC). REUTERS/Jim Bourg US ELECTION

In this article on Capitol Hill Blue, there are the following lines:"The report had already been discredited," said Terrance J. Wilkinson, a CIA advisor present at two White House briefings. "This point was clearly made when the President was in the room during at least two of the briefings." Bush's response was anger, Wilkinson said. "He said that if the current operatives working for the CIA couldn't prove the story was true, then the agency had better find some who could," Wilkinson said. "He said he knew the story was true and so would the world after American troops secured...

BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Riding in on a borrowed Harley-Davidson, John Kerry appeared Tuesday on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" as rancor within his presidential campaign continued to boil. The Massachusetts senator, wearing a leather jacket, blue jeans and a denim shirt, rode the motorcycle onto the stage. The Democrat talked mostly politics during the interview with Leno, generating few laughs. He criticized George Bush's handling of the war in Iraq and told the president to "get off his high horse" and involve other countries in postwar efforts. Kerry also said the improving economy wouldn't be a major issue...

Canadian pop rocker Avril Lavigne loves songwriting because it means she can slob around in her pyjamas all day - and she doesn't even need to wash. The Sk8er Boi hitmaker is holed up in a hotel composing new tracks at the moment, and loves being out of the public eye because she can relax as much as she likes. Describing her current days, Avril says, "I'm waking up and writing every single day. (Bandmate) Evan (Taubenfeld) and I wake up and we get breakfast and then we hop into the living room or family room or TV room and...

Column: Greying the Societal Zebra Everyday life losing clear distinctions, constantly gaining contradictions Published on Thursday, April 3, 2003 Illustration by Adam Hayes/Collegian Zach Hauser Kansas State Collegian If you commit a crime, there is a set punishment. When you read a book in English, you read from left to right. It is as straightforward and as black and white as the pages and ink with which it is printed. But that is where the buck stops, consistency vanishes and common sense becomes quite uncommon. In a society where our foundation is built on black and white, where according to...