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General Carter Ham is scheduled to testify to the House Armed Services Committee on June 26 at a classified briefing about his knowledge of events that took place when the attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya happened last September, reports Fox News' Greta Van Susteren: Below is from my FNC colleague Justin Fishel: Subject: Fox First: General Carter Ham to testify on Benghazi for first time next week Fox News has learned that the House Armed Services Committee will hold a classified briefing next Weds June 26 at 9:00 on Benghazi. Briefers will include: Gen....

Nine senators, congressman follow pattern of S&L scandal: contributions and intervention. So here’s the formula. An independent agency of the U.S. government. United States Senators. A powerful campaign contributor to said United States Senators. A powerful campaign contributor who wants something from said independent agency. Add it all together and what you get is — The Keating Five. And the IRS Ten. Let’s start, by way of illustrating how the game worked, with The Keating Five.

(CNSNews.com) – Seven years after Sunni Islam’s foremost institution severed dialogue with the Vatican over remarks by Pope Benedict XVI, the Cairo-based Al-Azhar wants the new pontiff to open the door to resuming interfaith discourse by declaring Islam to be a peaceful religion. The proposal that Pope Francis make such a public declaration prompted Coptic Christian advocates to suggest that Al-Azhar’s grand imam instead denounce Muslim violence against Copts in Egypt. Established in the 10th century, Al-Azhar is regarded as the top seat of learning in Sunni Islam. The suggestion for a papal gesture came from grand imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb’s...

When this last scandal broke, where was Mr. Obama? On a two-day California fundraising trip. It’s business as usual for the Campaigner in Chief — he’s done 15 fundraisers already this year, as many as Mr. Bush did in all of 2005. As the media busies itself with scandals that ultimately will go nowhere, Mr. Obama is forging ahead with his effort to take over the House in 2014 and break the back of the Republican Party. What’s more, the scandals have so far had almost no effect on the president’s popularity rating. “How is it,” a news article said...

For several months, the Benghazi scandal lay dormant, apparently forgiven and forgotten. Then, inexplicably, it reared its ugly head when Congressmen Ron Johnson and Jason Chaffetz smelled Obama's blood in the water. After feigning affliction with the flu, and then ostensibly tumbling down a carpeted stairwell resulting in an unconfirmed concussion, then-Secretary of State Clinton was finally forced to testify before Congress. Clinton's desperate attempt to put the Benghazi scandal to rest with her now-infamous impassioned declaration -- "What difference, at this point, does it make?" -- only fanned the flames of American outrage at the needless deaths of Ambassador...

US Secretary of State John Kerry looks like a bit of an idiot these days. On Monday he announced that he will be returning to Israel and the Palestinian Authority and Jordan for the fifth time since he was sworn into office on February 1. That is an average of more than one visit a month. And aside from frequent flier miles, the only thing he has to show for it is a big black eye from PLO chief and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. When Kerry was here last month he unveiled a stunning plan to bring $4 billion...

Attacks on Christian children, both boys and girls, are on the rise in Egypt. Last week, a six-year-old Coptic Christian boy named Cyril Yusuf Sa‘ad was abducted and held for ransom. After his family paid off the Muslim kidnapper, Ahmed Abdel Moneim Abdel-Salam, he still killed the child and threw his body in the sewer of his house. In the words of the Arabic report, the boy’s “family is in tatters after paying 30,000 pounds to the abductor, who still killed the innocent child and threw his body into the toilet of his home, where the body, swollen and moldy,...

<p>Shulman rallied for Rangel: Jason Furman, Media Matters, Fox News, Jarrett and a job.</p> <p>And the Liberal Dog Whistle Blows.</p> <p>Congressman Charles Rangel of New York.</p> <p>Ex-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman.</p> <p>The new chairman of the president’s Council on Economic Advisors, Jason Furman.</p>

"In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Turkey was often seen as the model for a democracy in the Muslim world. The economic policies of the current government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamic Fundamentalist party AKP have been praised widely in the West, just last week again by star-economist Jeffrey Sachs. So, where is the uprising coming from? To understand what is happening in Turkey, it makes sense to look at neighbouring Iran. In some ways, Iran could be seen as the prototype of the current regime in Turkey.".....

Text from above website: ....Join Senator John Kerry and discuss the issues at an open Town Hall in Somerville, MA. The seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis, so arrive early to make sure you get in! With so much interest in the health care debate, we’re sure there will be many questions on that, but you are welcome to ask about any issue you would like. Our economy still needs to work better for all Americans, the Senate will take on the issue of energy reform and global climate change in the fall, and our foreign policy still...

Alaskans for Parental Rights is looking forward to having former Governor Sarah Palin join us this evening for the kick-off event for our initiative to protect the right of parents to be involved in the abortion decisions of their teenage daughters. Media reports in the last 24 hours have quoted the Governor’s spokeswoman as saying that Mrs. Palin never committed to attend the event, and that she will not be present this evening. We have been in regular communications with the Governor’s staff over the last several weeks. We were assured that Governor Palin was personally aware of this evening’s...

Rep. Dent to Hold Open Office Hours Tomorrow, August 7th, Rep. Dent will be hosting open office hours in the New Tripoli/Lynn Township area: 10 - 11 am New Tripoli Fire Company 7242 Decatur Street New Tripoli, PA 18066 In his words in his newsletter, Dent says, "I hope that you will be able to join me for this event. I sincerely value the opportunity to speak to you and your neighbors about federal issues of importance to you. The input that I receive at these open office hours helps me better serve you as your Representative in Washington, DC."

Yesterday, James McGovern, Representing the Massachusetts 3rd District and Richard Neal, (Hampden 2nd) attempted to sell the administration’s health care program to individuals attending a town hall meeting at the University of Massachusetts campus in Worcester – it did not go well. The Worcester Telegram and Gazette’sarticle (here) , describes a “packed town hall meeting” where Neal and McGovern were met by a hostile crowd. Town hall meetings are being held across the nation in a last-ditch attempt to sell the government run health care program, and one would expect, that those held in a blue state such as Massachusetts...

<p>Please check out if your Senator or Representative is holding a public forum or Townhall in your area. So far I have found this list of upcoming Townhalls.</p>

In his 1835 masterpiece, Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville, reported on his observations of the American scene after an extensive tour of the new Republic. One of his most profound insights had to do with the genius of Americans in the formation of institutions that mediate between large, distant government and the solitary, insular individual: Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations. They have not only commercial and manufacturing companies, in which all take part, but associations of a thousand other kinds, religious, moral serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminutive. The Americans...

Interestingly enough an important amendment brought to the floor today was not in the H.R. 1388 when it passed the Senate today. The first presented by Sen Vitter (LA) wanted to insure that no money be made available to ACORN and its affiliates, on the grounds that it is a organization with possibly suspect behaviour and that including it in the bill would not be able to politicize charitable giving and activities. Saying that the bill doesn’t allow politicized does not necessarily protect the country from ACORN’s “so-called” charitable activities. ACORN has already received considerable funding from the government, for...

With all the focus and attention on the TARP, the so-called “stimulus” bill, the nationalization of huge chunks of our economy and the various issues economic – lost in the weeds have been a host of destructive “programs” being developed and passed by the Obama-Democrat machine. Right now on the floor of the United States Senate is one of the most disturbing pieces of legislation I have seen in a long time. HR 1388, the “Serve America Act” is cloaked in feel-good rhetoric and supposedly noble goals, but it is nothing more than another Washington power-grab – this time targeted...

The Senate Finance Committee’s top two members — Democrat Max Baucus and Republican Charles E. Grassley — teamed up today to introduce legislation that would provide money to help small and medium-sized charities get training and management assistance. The legislation, introduced as an amendment to a national-service bill now being debated by the Senate, would provide $25-million over five years to a “Nonprofit Capacity Building Program” within the Corporation for National and Community Service. The amendment would “strengthen small charities around our country, especially where resources are scarce,” Senator Baucus of Montana, who chairs the finance committee, told his colleagues...

HOT off the press! The Congressional Budget Office just released the cost estimates for S. 277 Serve America Act.(Senate’s version of HR 1388, Give Act) CBO estimates S 277 would cost over $6.1 billion dollars over the 2010-2014 period. Programs funded under National Community Service Act of 1990 (NCSA) and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973 (DVSA) received appropriations of $1.1 billion for fiscal year 2009, including $200 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009...otherwise known as the PORKULUS/SPENDULUS Bill that passed that NO ONE in Congress read. Just lovely. Taxpayers would fund international...