Free Republic

WASHINGTON - President Obama will allow insurance companies to continue offering individual health plans that do not meet the standards of the Affordable Care Act through next year, according to a Democratic source on Capitol Hill familiar with the plans. The plan, which the president will announce Thursday morning, is intended to placate millions of consumers who have received cancellation notices from insurers in recent weeks. Obama had repeatedly promised that consumers would be able to keep plans that they liked. The president was under intense pressure from Democrats on Capitol Hill to find a fix. House Democrats have increasingly...

President Barack Obama is proposing a new investment into research to map the human brain in hopes of unlocking some of its mysteries, a senior administration official says. The president planned to propose a $100 million investment for next year during remarks Tuesday morning, the White House said. Obama mentioned the idea in his State of the Union address, comparing the potential to the Human Genome Project that mapped DNA. "Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy. Every dollar," Obama said in the address to Congress in February. "Today, our scientists are mapping...

"Let's face it, a mixed kid from Hawaii born to a single mom is not likely to become President of the United States. But in America it can happen because of education, because somebody gave me opportunity. "You know, a little black girl from the South Side of Chicago, whose mom is a secretary and dad is a blue-collar worker—not likely to become First Lady of the United States. But it happens because she got a great education, even though her folks didn’t have a lot of money. "It's the gateway of opportunity for middle-class families, for those who are...

The video of today’s hearing ...

A hearing is scheduled in front of the New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission on Friday to hear a complaint filed by Orly Taitz, with the apparent support of two state lawmakers, that raises allegations of fraudulent documents and fraudulent Social Security Number use on the part of Barack Obama. The hearing is scheduled Friday at 2 p.m. in Room 307 of the New Hampshire Legislative Office Building and Taitz is encouraging the public to be present. The state holds the first primary for presidential elections, and that is scheduled for Jan. 10, 2012.

Gov. Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have signed off on $1.50 toll hikes for all Port Authority crossings that’ll go into effect next month, sources said. The final fare hikes are far lower than the ones the Port Authority rolled out last month, which called for a $4 increase on most crossings and were met with widespread disgust by politicians and the public. Christie and Cuomo are also calling for an audit of the agency. The new $1.50 hikes will apply to cash and EZ-Pass customers on all the Port Authority’s bridges and tunnels. Cash payers will also...

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America's Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats. He also told colleagues at America's top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at...

MISSION VIEJO, Calif., Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A California lawyer who has filed a lawsuit alleging President Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen says she has a copy of his Kenyan birth certificate. Orly Taitz of Mission Viejo, a leading "birther," filed a motion over the weekend for quick action on her lawsuit, The Orange County Register reported. She acknowledged the Kenyan document might be a forgery and asked U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to request verification from the Kenyan government. "There are no ready means of authentication except by recovery of the original document," she said in...

<p>FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: 'At least I tried. That's the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed'...</p>