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Democrats will pay at the polls for their vote in favor of a sweeping health care reform package Saturday night, a top House Republican warned, while Democrats cheered the bill's narrow approval as a historic achievement. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., chairman of the House Republican Conference, told "Fox News Sunday" that the vote proved Democrats have not listened to American concerns about over-spending, bailouts and government takeovers. "The message from last night is that the Democrats didn't get the message in August or last Tuesday," Pence said, referring to the town hall meetings over the summer where members of the...

I kind of feel sorry for Obama. The Nobel committee ripped him off. As is always the case when something is given undeserved and unearned, he has lost the opportunity to prove himself. The Nobel Peace Prize is probably something Barack Obama has daydreamed about. His astounding sense of entitlement and self no doubt had led him to believe that one day he would receive the Nobel prize. And who knows, maybe someday he would have earned it. He certainly has a global view of himself, as a leader whose abilities and charms know no limit. And maybe after a...

Here is a video montage from the Values Voters Summit in Washington this weekend, of Gov. Mitt Romney and House Minority Leader John Boehner speaking there. Romney told the crowd about Obama's leadership as President - "I'll bet you never dreamed you would look back at Jimmy Carter as the good old days." . . . (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said he is confident Congress will pass "a good health care bill," as months of rancor over reforming the nation's health care system seemed to be easing Sunday, with the White House playing down an immediate role for a government insurance option. At the same time, Obama was critical of Republican opponents who he said were trying to block an overhaul of the nation's heath care system for political gain. "I believe that we will have enough votes to pass not just any health care bill, but a good health care bill that helps the...

Cancer-stricken Sen. Kennedy asks state leaders for speedy process to replace him in Congress BOSTON (AP) — A cancer-stricken Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has written a poignant letter to Massachusetts leaders asking that they change state law to allow a speedy replacement of him in Congress. The note to Gov. Deval Patrick and the state's Senate president and House speaker acknowledges the state changed its succession law in 2004 to require a special election to fill any vacancy. At the time, legislative Democrats were concerned Republican Gov. Mitt Romney would be able to fill any vacancy created as Sen. John...

CNSNews.com) - The bill meant to combat global warming that passed the U.S. House of Representatives in June would decrease the Gross Domestic Product of the United States by $2 trillion to $3 trillion between 2012 and 2030, a study shows. The study on the economic impact of the American Clean Energy and Security Act was commissioned by the American Council for Capitol Formation (ACCF), a non-profit that examines tax and environmental policy, and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the nation’s largest manufacturing trade organization.

Congressman Mike Rogers on Fox News counters Obama, that you will not be able to keep your plan as is under the proposed Obamacare.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's health care overhaul cleared its first hurdle in Congress on a partisan vote Wednesday as his campaign organization rolled out television ads to build support for his top domestic priority. Obama met with Republicans at the White House in search of an elusive bipartisan compromise on his call to expand coverage to the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans as well as restrain spending increases in health care. But the 13-10 party-line vote in the Senate health committee signaled a deepening rift in Congress. While Democrats respond to Obama's call for action with renewed determination, Republicans...

WASHINGTON – Sonia Sotomayor has decided advantages as she begins the most important trial of her long legal career, a nationally televised consideration of her nomination to be the first Hispanic and just the third woman on the Supreme Court. Beginning Monday, she will tell her compelling up-from-poverty personal story to a jury tilted strongly in her favor — Democrats hold a comfortable majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee and a filibuster-resistant 60 votes in the Senate. Still, Republicans signaled that they will press the 55-year-old New Yorker and veteran federal judge to explain past rulings involving discrimination complaints and...

DETROIT – General Motors completed an unusually quick exit from bankruptcy protection on Friday with ambitions of making money and building cars people are eager to buy. Once the world's largest and most powerful automaker, new GM is now leaner, cleansed of massive debt and burdensome contracts that would have sunk it without federal loans. But GM, whose 40 days under court supervision was far shorter than anyone predicted, faces the worst auto sales slump in a quarter-century. At a news conference, CEO Fritz Henderson said the revamped automaker will be faster and more responsive to customers than the old...

ANNANDALE, Va. (AP) -- President Barack Obama wanted to put a human face on his plans to overhaul health care, and a Virginia supporter did just that Wednesday. Fighting back tears, Debby Smith, 53, told Obama of her kidney cancer and her inability to obtain health insurance or hold a job. The president hugged her -- she's a volunteer for his political operation -- and called her "exhibit A" in an unsustainable system that is too expensive and complex for millions of Americans. Smith, of Appalachia, Va., is a volunteer for Organizing for America, Obama's political operation within the Democratic...

WASHINGTON – Hours after the House passed landmark legislation meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions and create an energy-efficient economy, President Barack Obama on Saturday urged senators to show courage and follow suit. The sharply debated bill's fate is unclear in the Senate, and Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address to ratchet up pressure on the 100-seat chamber. "My call to every senator, as well as to every American, is this," he said. "We cannot be afraid of the future. And we must not be prisoners of the past. Don't believe the misinformation out there that suggests there...

The House churned toward a showdown vote Friday on historic legislation to reduce pollution linked to global warming and power the nation with cleaner but more expensive energy. Democrats struggled to solidify a fragile coalition needed to pass the bill -- firmly opposed by Republicans who called the measure a "job killer" that would push families' energy bills higher and drive businesses overseas. The White House and congressional Democrats argued the bill would create millions of "green jobs" as the nation shifts to greater reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar and development of more fuel efficient...

One doesn't have to look much further than that to see that this is nothing but another ObamaBoondoggle that we cannot afford and do not need. There is NOTHING, I repeat "NOTHING" in our constitution or the bible for that matter that says anyone anywhere is entitled to health insurance, especially FREE health insurance for people who smoke all day and night, slop up next to bars day in and day out, shove fast food down their fat gullets everyday of the week and refuse to take care of themselves as most of America does or has done. Like this...

MANADO, Indonesia (AFP) - Rising sea levels that could wipe whole nations off the map and displace scores of millions of people are being overlooked in global climate change talks, island countries said Tuesday. Major emitters are pushing for greenhouse gas emissions cuts that are too low to prevent devastating sea rises, representatives said at the World Ocean Conference in Indonesia's Manado city. "Dealing with environmental refugees will have a much more serious impact on the global economy and global security in fact than what wars have ever done to this planet," said Rolph Payet, a presidential adviser from the...

LONDON -- On the eve of a global economic summit, President Barack Obama promised world leaders he would listen, not lecture, as they seek a common fix to the financial crisis. "We can only meet this challenge together," he said Wednesday as the U.S. and Russia spoke on the summit sidelines about nuclear warhead reduction. The flurry of diplomacy came as Obama stepped on the world stage for the first time as president, aiming to shore up both America's economy and its reputation across the globe. He met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese...

Vince Shlomi, an infomercial salesman with a penchant for slanging in the vain of Ginsu, The Clapper, Life Alert and other such time and money (or life) saving multi-purpose device slicksters was involved in an incident involving a hooker he courted at a nightclub in Florida, February 7th. The Smoking Gun was first to report this story March 27th. Best known for his sales pitch for the Shamwow, the product which claims to be able extract large quantities of liquid spills created by common accidents around the home (or wherever accidental spills occur), Shlomi has created a dubious reputation promoting...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday offered a fresh package of aid to small businesses — "the heart of the American economy" — in an aggressive push to get big banks that got federal bailout money to do more lending to these struggling entrepreneurs. "You deserve a chance. America needs you to have that chance," Obama told small business owners gathered in the White House East Room as the administration detailed various steps to get credit flowing to small businesses. With Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner by his side, Obama said the nation has small businesses to thank for many...

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — A fired-up Barack Obama ditched his TelePrompter to rally House Democrats and rip Republican opponents of his recovery package Thursday night – at one point openly mocking the GOP for failing to follow through on promises of bipartisanship. In what was the most pointedly partisan speech of his young presidency, Obama rejected Republican arguments that massive spending in the $819 billion stimulus bill that passed the House should be replaced by a new round of massive tax cuts. “I welcome this debate, but we are not going to get relief by turning back to the same policies...

The Democrats’ stimulus bill is a “sham” that could pass unless enough angry voters besiege Congress with calls and e-mails, Sen. Jim DeMint, chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, tells Newsmax. Citing a new Gallup poll showing that three out of four Americans oppose the stimulus in its present form, the South Carolina Republican says Americans are beginning to understand what the stimulus bill is: a grab bag of spending measures that Democrats lusted after for years and will do little to stimulate the economy. “When people see bike trails and hiking trails and golf courses, they know this is...

WASHINGTON – We may never know whether the government's $700 billion bailout of the financial industry worked, according to a new report from congressional auditors. That's because it will be impossible to sort out which of the government's spending and other tinkering has made a difference, according to the report released Friday by the Government Accountability Office. The report covers Treasury's administration of the bailout, called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, through Jan. 23. Nearly $294 billion had been released by that date — almost $200 billion of it through a program to inject capital directly into financial institutions. The...

WASHINGTON – The recession is killing jobs at an alarming pace, with tens of thousands of new layoffs announced Monday by some of the biggest names in American business — Pfizer, Caterpillar and Home Depot. More pink slips, pay freezes and other hits are expected to slam workers in the months ahead as companies desperately look for ways to survive. "We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg — the big firms," said Rebecca Braeu, economist at John Hancock Financial Services. "There's certainly other firms beneath them that will lay off workers as quickly or even quicker." Looking ahead, economists...

Jim Hansen is the 'grandfather of climate change' and one of the world's leading climatologists. In this rare interview in New York, he explains why President Obama's administration is the last chance to avoid flooded cities, species extinction and climate catastropheRobin McKie, science editor The Observer, Sunday 18 January 2009 Article historyAlong one wall of Jim Hansen's wood-panelled office in upper Manhattan, the distinguished climatologist has pinned 10 A4-sized photographs of his three grandchildren: Sophie, Connor and Jake. They are the only personal items on display in an office otherwise dominated by stacks of manila folders, bundles of papers and...

<p>Barack Obama's inauguration address will stress "responsibility" by calling on Americans in government and business to embrace a new era of proper behavior.</p> <p>"Getting our country back on track," is the core theme of the speech, said Obama Press Secretary Rob Gibbs, adding that the president-elect wrote the bulk of it as it is now.</p>

WASHINGTON – The economic crisis that will dominate Barack Obama's first 100 days as president, and beyond, will give him a rare chance to enact big portions of his agenda that otherwise might have languished for months or years. Not since Franklin D. Roosevelt has a new president been poised to pack so many ambitious, costly — and, under more normal circumstances, highly contentious — projects into one fast-moving bill. As in 1933, a frightening economic collapse makes the quick political work possible, choking off longer debates and possible opposition that many of the initiatives would have faced in better...

Slideshow: President-elect Barack Obama Play Video Barack Obama Video: Illinois House impeaches Gov. Rod Blagojevich AP Play Video Barack Obama Video: Web only: Obama names intelligence team WRAL Raleigh Reuters – President-elect Barack Obama arrives to make a speech on the economy at George Mason University in Fairfax, … WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama said Friday that he and Congress will "hone and refine" his nearly $800 billion economic recovery plan, as he seeks to patch fissures with senior Democrats over key features of the still-emerging plan. The job was made more urgent with the release of a Labor Department...

How lame is the energy bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi had her House Democrats pass through the House on Tuesday? Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu said before the vote that Pelosi's handiwork would be "dead on arrival" in the Senate. This from a Democrat who's up for re-election in an oil-and-gas state that would seem to gain from the bill's much-ballyhooed expansion of offshore drilling? What gives? For starters, Landrieu knows that the limited drilling the House leadership allows in principle -- it opens up waters 50 miles from shore with state approval -- is made next to impossible in practice....

GOP candidates, convention steer clear of immigration BY REID J. EPSTEIN reid.epstein@newsday.com September 8, 2008 During the Republican presidential primary, immigration was such an important topic that candidates were tripping over each other to be seen as the toughest defender of the nation's borders. The issue became so hot that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the GOP presidential nominee, was forced to disavow his own immigration reform bill because it was seen by many Republicans as too lenient. But a parade of Republicans came to the convention podium in St. Paul last week with barely a mention of immigration. On Wednesday...

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) pauses during a ceremony in Janusz Korczak Square at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, July 23, 2008. Obama began a visit to Jerusalem on Wednesday pledging staunch support for Israel and saying that if elected, he would work to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process. REUTERS/Jim Young (JERUSALEM) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA

This weblog does not belong to the Media Bloggers Association. This weblog had never heard of the Media Bloggers Association until yesterday, when the Associated Press made an announcement: AP to meet with blogging group to form guidelines The Associated Press, following criticism from bloggers over an AP assertion of copyright, plans to meet this week with a bloggers’ group to help form guidelines under which AP news stories could be quoted online. Jim Kennedy, the AP’s director of strategic planning, said Monday that he planned to meet Thursday with Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, as part...

In a time when tele-evangelists seem to inundate the airwaves with their own cable channels and are just another stop in an evening's channel surfing, it's easy to forget an earlier time, when revival meetings were as exciting as the circus coming to town, and evangelists were treated like rock stars. For Los Angeles, the premiere evangelist of those days was Aimee Semple McPherson. She was born Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy in 1890 in Ontario, Canada. As a child, she traveled with her mother Minnie, who worked for the Salvation Army. Aimee's first husband, Robert Semple, was a Pentecostal missionary who...

Last night, Al Gore preached to the choir. The polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate, droughts are dragging on, floods are getting stronger and today alone, an additional 170 million tons of carbon dioxide has been dumped into the Earth's atmosphere, he told a crowd of believers at Value City Arena. "The planet has a fever," he said. It needs to be saved, to be fixed immediately. "This is our home. We don't have another planet to go to. Don't let anybody tell you we're going to get on rocket ships and go to a new planet....

Mary Katherine Ham makes a great point about this Obama plagerizing story, which is getting a bit bigger today but I will get to that in a moment. First MKH: [W]hat the story takes a whack at, effectively, is Obama’s authenticity, which is his No. 1 selling point. Hillary’s camp is smart to play up the fact that the supreme orator, the Messiah of American politics, the man of change above all else, could really just be another politician with a flair for speechifying, a calculating player with no compunction about inspiring with rehashed copy if it suits his purposes.This...

NEW YORK - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, elated by a strong collection of Super Tuesday wins, looked past Democratic rival Barack Obama to take aim at President Bush and his Republican allies. "You know tonight we are hearing the voices of people across America, people of all ages, of all colors, all faiths and all walks of life," she told supporters in a crowded Manhattan ballroom. The New York senator is seeking to become the first woman president, while Obama would become the first black president. Appearing onstage with her husband and daughter Chelsea, Clinton did not direct any criticism...

By Michael P. Tremoglie (author of the critically acclaimed novel A Sense of Duty available at Barnesandnoble.com) Liberals, generally, and liberal Democrats specifically, have always used ad hominems against their ideological or political opponents instead of arguing the merits of the issue. Very often they “poison the well” so to speak, by questioning the other person’s credibility either by claiming the other is ignorant (coupled with a veiled insult) or by alleging that their antagonist is motivated purely by a seedy self-interest. The most famous of these is the race baiting of conservatives and Republicans. Routinely liberals and Democrats label...

Saturday, November 17, 2007 CNN's six "undecided voters" were all Democratic operatives    UPDATES BELOW - CNN hits bottom and digs: All six debate questioners appear to be Democratic Party operatives. So much for "ordinary people, undecided voters". To paraphrase Junior Soprano, CNN is so far up the DNC's hind end, Howard Dean can taste hair gel. In a nutshell, CNN's six "undecided voters" were: A Democratic Party bigwigAn antiwar activistA Union officialAn Islamic leaderA Harry Reid stafferA radical Chicano separatist Wow. This looks "rather" like a scandal. Hot Air: ...You’d think the network’s audience might want to know who...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rudy Giuliani assured a conservative legal group Friday that if elected president he would appoint federal judges who adhere to their principles. He also praised a judge who declared the capital city's gun ban unconstitutional and ridiculed efforts to eliminate the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. In a speech marking the 25th anniversary of the Federalist Society, Giuliani spelled out a conservative legal agenda in which he cited Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts as models for the judges he would appoint to the federal...

<p>Nicolas Sarkozy, the aggressively pro-American president of France, has spent two days charming President Bush, but he also has his eye out for the end of the current administration. Between a frenetic round of appearances today in Washington, Sarkozy found 15 minutes to place a call to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), the front-runner for the Democratic nomination.</p>

WASHINGTON -- The final version of the widely celebrated ethics bill, passed by overwhelming margins in both House and Senate a month ago, finally and quietly made its way last week from Capitol Hill to the White House. It surely will soon be signed into law by President Bush. What only a handful of leaders and insiders realize is that this measure, avowedly dedicated to transparency, actually makes it easier for the Senate to pass pet projects without the public -- or many senators -- being aware of it. Until now, one or two senators could block any provision that...

Call me a cynic but I find Al Gore’s emergence as this hundred-millionaire, successful businessman as a bit of a farce. I can understand the Oscar. When considering who gives out those trophies, I believe he would have won the Oscar if his “documentary” were shot by himself on a $300 camcorder. I remember when the 2,000 election was over and officially decided, one of my dear conservative friends (who shall remain nameless) actually said to me that she feels sorry for Al Gore. She felt sorry for him after hearing how after all those years in office, he was...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - When John Edwards pursued his crusade against poverty in 2005, he created a nonprofit center that allowed him to maintain a high profile - and avoid the legal scrutiny of presidential candidates. Not that Edwards was running for the White House at that point. Fresh from his loss as Democratic nominee John Kerry's running mate in 2004, he would not declare himself a candidate for president until late in 2006. However, the nonprofit Center for Promise and Opportunity offered distinct advantages to Edwards, its honorary chairman. The center's five officers all had worked for his previous...

John Edwards ended 2004 with a problem: how to keep alive his public profile without the benefit of a presidential campaign that could finance his travels and pay for his political staff. Mr. Edwards, who reported this year that he had assets of nearly $30 million, came up with a novel solution, creating a nonprofit organization with the stated mission of fighting poverty. The organization, the Center for Promise and Opportunity, raised $1.3 million in 2005, and — unlike a sister charity he created to raise scholarship money for poor students — the main beneficiary of the center’s fund-raising was...

AN DIEGO - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton denounced President Bush on Saturday for his "Mission Accomplished" speech and said his conduct of the Iraq war was "one of the darkest blots on leadership we've ever had." Addressing delegates at the California State Democratic Party convention, Clinton said that if elected president in 2008, she would end the war. The New York senator also promised to "treat all Americans with dignity and equality no matter who you are and who you love." The pledge was clear bow to California's politically active and influential gay community. Taking on Bush's policies, Clinton contended...

In a thought-provoking statistical analysis, Dr. Peter Tsigaris of Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, Canada, concludes that whether or not climate change can be wholly attributed to human factors, it makes strong economic and environmental sense to treat it as human-caused and take action now. Despite the fact that the hundreds of scientists and reviewers on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced Feb. 2 in Paris that global warming is "very likely" caused by human activity, governments and other policy-makers may still justify inaction because of naysayers like Danish weather scientist Henrik Svensmark, who maintains that global climate...

DAMASCUS, Syria - President Bashar Assad on Thursday inaugurated the first stage of a joint Syrian-Iranian auto factory, test-driving one of the new cars and declaring that the project will boost cooperation between the allies. ADVERTISEMENT With Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoodi on hand for the ceremony at the Syrian-Iranian Company for Manufacturing Cars, Assad called the project a testament of their "historic" cooperation. "Our political relations are rooted, old and excellent," he said. "This project comes in the framework of boosting economic cooperation between the two countries. ... We are proud of this project." Marketing of the car —...

WASHINGTON --Four years to the day after voting to authorize war in Iraq, Senator John F. Kerry today asserted that the vote is his greatest regret of his political career, and said all lawmakers who voted for the war should admit that it was a mistake. "There's nothing -- nothing -- in my life in public service I regret more, nothing even close," Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, wrote in a dispatch on the liberal blog HuffingtonPost.com. "We should all be willing to say: I was wrong, I should not have voted for the Iraq War Resolution." snip...... Throughout his 2004...

July 18, 2006 Professor John Peter Maher of North-East Illinois University was scheduled to testify as a witness at the trial of Slobodan Milosevic. Due to the untimely death of President Milosevic, Professor Maher was robbed of an opportunity to show the world what he witnessed in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik. In March of 1992, three months after the old city of Dubrovnik (a UNESCO heritage site) was allegedly "destroyed" by JNA artillery fire, Professor Maher visited Dubrovnik with a cameraman. He arrived to find that the old city was almost completely untouched. Professor Maher documents what little damage...

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan began a hunger strike on Tuesday – and Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and other stars are joining her in her "Troops Home Fast" protest. Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004, had her last meal at 12 a.m. on July 4 in front of the White House and will remain on a diet of water, teas and juices until Sept. 1, International Peace Day. "Everything we do is to get the troops to come home," she told PEOPLE outside the White House on Tuesday. "We want to show the world that there are...

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...