Free Republic

President Barack Obama plans to get much more assertive when he addresses a joint session of Congress Wednesday night at a critical stage in the health-care debate. Top aides say his fiery Labor Day speech to an organized-labor crowd in Ohio was a preview of a more passionate case for reform that's coming later this week. The top aides say the president is putting his own strong imprint on the speech to Congress. After advisers last week submitted various thoughts on what the speech should say, Obama spent much of the weekend at Camp David crafting the actual address, which...

A WAR of words of almost biblical proportions has broken out between Australia's most senior Catholic and a Muslim leader. Islamic Information and Services Network president Abu Hamza, of Coburg, wants the Bible banned because it incites violence. He called Archbishop George Pell a "clown" for his comments this year that the Koran was full of "invocations to violence". Mr Hamza told his followers the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, was full of murder and seemed to condone rape. Dr Pell replied from the Vatican this week: "I am not sure how much Mr Hamza's comments improve the situation, but...