Free Republic

Estimates price tag of bill at 849 billion. Raised taxes on cadillac plan Should cover 31 MILLION AMERICANS after 10 years continues to break

Reid scrambles for 60 health votes With an assist from Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scrambled Wednesday to pull together 60 votes for his health reform bill, awaiting all-important cost estimates in hopes of getting the bill to the floor by the weekend. At around 2:15 p.m., the three moderate Democratic holdouts - Blanche Lincoln, Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson - entered Reid's office for a briefing. "He is walking through the particulars with them," said Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley. "We need 60 votes to get this bill to the floor." Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the...

Sen. Joe Lieberman said Wednesday he would hold a hearing this week on the Fort Hood shooting and may use his subpoena power to force government officials to testify. The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee is moving ahead with the Thursday hearing despite the Obama administration’s request to delay congressional inquiries until the federal investigation is complete. Sen. Lieberman (I-Conn.) said he feels compelled to probe the Nov. 5 shootings that killed 13 people at the Texas army base. Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the committee’s ranking Republican, said they want answers to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's choice for a top job with the Treasury Department is having tax problems. A congressional report says Obama's nominee for undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, Lael Brainard, was late in paying real estate taxes in 2005, 2006 and 2007. The report by the Senate Finance Committee staff also challenges the accuracy of a deduction Brainard claimed for running an office from her home. The challenge led Brainard to reduce the deduction on her 2008 return. The committee's top Republican is unhappy that the committee staff had to submit 10 sets of questions...

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says the Islamic Republic is considering to exchange its enriched uranium with nuclear fuel inside the country. "Iran will not send its 3.5-percent-enriched uranium out of the country," ISNA quoted Mottaki as saying on Wednesday. "That means we are considering to exchange the enriched uranium inside Iran," he went on to explain. Under a mid-October proposal discussed in Vienna, Iran is asked to send most of its domestically produced low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad to be converted into more highly enriched fuel rods for the Tehran reactor, which produces medical isotopes.

Live Senate Hearing on holding terrorism trials in NY. Erik Holder being brought in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee

BEIJING (Reuters) - President Barack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession. With the U.S. unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, Obama told Fox News his administration faces a delicate balance of trying to boost the economy and spur job creation while putting the economy on a path toward long-term deficit reduction.

NAIROBI, Kenya — The EU's anti-piracy force says that Somali pirates have again attacked the Maersk Alabama, the U.S.-flagged ship hijacked last spring. The EU Naval Force says pirates fired automatic weapons at the ship, but that guards on board the craft fired back and thwarted Tuesday's attack.

(IsraelNN.com) White House officials told the New Republic magazine this week that the Obama administration has been embarrassed at least twice by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for revealing in public information and policies that the State Department was supposed to keep private between Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the U.S. According to the sources, Clinton was not supposed to reveal publicly the U.S. demand that Israel institute a total building freeze in Judea and Samaria, fearing that it would lead to a confrontation with Israel – which it did, after U.S. President Barack Obama publicly backed Clinton. The second...

Top Obama donor and fundraiser Jodie Evans met with the Taliban in Afghanistan on a recent trip there, according to a report by Jane Fonda of a discussion she had with Evans last month. The meeting with the Taliban took place just weeks before Evans was videotaped directly handing to President Barack Obama a package of information about her trip to Afghanistan at a high dollar fundraiser in San Francisco.The meeting with the Taliban was kept secret by Evans and her group Code Pink in reports she and the group posted from Kabul and in interviews with the media and...

Nov 17, 2009 (CIDRAP News) – Making paid sick leave a national standard is crucial to controlling the H1N1 pandemic and future epidemics, public health and business experts told Congress Tuesday. But others cautioned that forcing businesses to follow federal mandates will make them pay extra costs in a recession and could depress future hiring and investment. The experts made their remarks at a hearing of the US House of Representatives' Education and Labor Committee. The committee's chairman, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., 2 weeks ago introduced the Emergency Influenza Containment Act (HR 3991), which would guarantee any worker who is...

Sarah Palin opines on the economy, NY-23, a third party movement, immigration and her book. Palin says we should cut taxes for job creators. Palin says NY-23 was "encouraging" and "exciting." She says Americans are seeking a conservative, common sense approach to doing things. Palin says she is trying to reach hard-working Americans in her book. Palin also responds to a jab from Vice President Joe Biden. She says we are "dithering" in sending a message to terrorists.

Read it and weep all of you MSM talking heads..

Washington (CNN) -- Military victims of the Fort Hood massacre will be eligible to receive the Purple Heart if Congress passes a bill introduced Tuesday. Non-military victims could receive the Secretary of Defense Medal of Freedom -- the civilian equivalent of the Purple Heart. Both military and civilian personnel killed or wounded in the November 5 attack would be granted the same legal status as combatant casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bill was introduced by Texas GOP Rep. John Carter, who represents Fort Hood in the House of Representatives.

A federal appeals court has ordered a civil rights lawyer convicted in a terrorism case that originated in Minnesota to begin serving her prison sentence. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan today also upheld Lynne Stewart's conviction, which was based in part on illegally aiding her client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, during a visit with him at the federal prison in Rochester, Minn., in May 2000. She was convicted of smuggling messages between Abdel-Rahman and a terrorist group. Stewart was sentenced to a little more than two years in prison.

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says. There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts...

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 Email to a Friend ShareThis Advertisement The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -12 (see trends). Just 29% agree with the decision to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and five other terrorists suspects in a New York city courtroom. Fifty-one percent (51%) disagree. Support for the health care plan working its way through Congress is up to 47%, but 49% remain...

Fifty-one percent (51%) of U.S. voters oppose the Obama administration’s decision to try the confessed chief planner of the 9/11 attacks and other suspected terrorists in a civilian court in New York City. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 29% of voters favor the president’s decision not to try the suspects by military tribunal at the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba where they are now imprisoned. Nineteen percent (19%) are not sure whether it was the right decision or not. Only 30% of Americans said suspected terrorists should have access to U.S. courts, while 54% favored...

US President Barack Obama came to office promising hope and change. But on climate change, he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush. Now, should the climate summit in Copenhagen fail, the blame will lie squarely with Obama.

House Democrats are looking to tweak financial overhaul legislation so that the largest firms will pay for future failures. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) had originally proposed that only firms with assets of $10 billion or more would pay fees to cover the costs of future government efforts to wind down failing financial firms. An amendment circulated on Monday by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) would significantly raise that threshold to $75 billion in assets, adjusted each year to inflation. "There is substantial support for my amendment or something that achieves its objective -- ensuring that medium-sized...

Gov. David Paterson openly criticized the White House on Monday, saying he thought it was a terrible idea to move alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists to New York for trial.

CHIANG MAI, Thailand (Nov. 16) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Monday that he had no regrets about his handling of the Iran hostage crisis more than 30 years ago, saying he didn't attack the country as his advisers proposed because thousands of people would have died. Islamic militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, and seized its occupants. Fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days. Carter acknowledged that his failure to bring the hostages home — including a botched rescue mission in which eight U.S. servicemen died — led to his election defeat...

Check out the outtakes from Sarah's interview with Oprah...they are great.

The Obama administration, under fire for inflating job growth from the $787 billion stimulus plan, slashed over 60,000 jobs from its most recent report on the program because the reporting outlets had submitted "unrealistic data," according to a document obtained by ABC News. The Office of Management and Budget document shows that before an Oct. 30 progress report on the program the administration asked the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to remove information from 12 stimulus recipients that contained "unrealistic data," including "unrealistic job data." One recipient, Talladega County of Alabama, claimed that 5,000 jobs had been saved or created...

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Republican voters say former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin shares the values of most GOP voters throughout the nation. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 21% of Republican voters disagree and think the 2008 vice presidential candidate does not share their values. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided. By contrast, 74% of Republicans say their party’s representatives in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters nationwide over the past several years. Only 18% of Republican voters believe their elected officials have done a good job representing the base.

Doug Hoffman just told Glenn Beck they are 2000 votes behind in NY 23with 10,000 absentee votes left to count. This is NOT over.

A body discovered floating in the Chicago River near Merchandise Mart this morning is believed to be that of Chicago Public Schools Board President Michael Scott, police said. Police have not positively identified the man, but Scott’s Cadillac was found nearby and Scott’s family had reported him missing earlier in the day....

On Wednesday, November 18, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder will attempt to explain his decision to bring war criminal Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to trial in Manhattan's federal courtroom six blocks from Ground Zero. This is our Action Alert to you: Americans, it is time to unite, not as Republicans or Democrats, not as Conservatives or Liberals or Progressives. It is time to unite as CITIZENS. President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have forgotten that their chief duty is the safety and the security of the American people. IT IS TIME FOR US TO REMIND THEM. AG Eric Holder...

WASHINGTON -- In courtrooms barred to the public, dozens of terror suspects are pleading for their freedom from the Guantanamo Bay prison, sometimes even testifying on their own behalf by video from the U.S. naval base in Cuba. Complying with a Supreme Court ruling last year, 15 federal judges in the U.S. courthouse here are giving detainees their day in court after years behind bars half a world away from their homelands. The judges have found the government's evidence against 30 detainees wanting and ordered their release. That number could rise significantly because the judges are on track to hear...

The annual CCHD (Catholic Campaign For Human Development) collection will be held in churches this coming weekend-November 21 and 22. This is the same group that was giving money for years to the Saul Alinsky-style group called ACORN before ending its relationship with the controversial group. After much criticism for its leftwing funding, the CCHD has supposedly tightened up their standards. Unfortunately these new standards are not working because the CCHD is still funding groups that: -Have a registered sex offender (child porn) on the staff -Are working to change laws so you can not refuse to rent to convicted...

Obama Proposes Federal Takeover Of Mass Transit White House Hopes For Federal Oversight Of Safety Regulations On All Local Subways, Light Rails In US Reporting Hazel Sanchez Who should run mass transportation? If the White House has its way, New York and other subway systems nationwide could be in for a federal safety takeover. It comes as a surprise to many straphangers. Unlike airplanes and highways, the nation's subways systems operate with no federal oversight. "That makes me uncomfortable to hear that," subway rider Rhonda Jordan said. "I do take the subway quite often." One City College transportation expert says...

Politico: A senior administration official said President Barack Obama was simply observing protocol when he bowed to Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko upon arriving at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Saturday.

President Barack Obama has promised Asia's creditor nations that Washington will not let US borrowing spiral out of control, vowing a major drive to cut the budget deficit and restore global confidence in the US dollar. "As the economy recovers, I intend to take serious steps to reduce America's long-term deficit," he told the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum in Singapore. "Debt-driven growth cannot fuel America's long-term prosperity." The assurance comes amid growing doubts across the world over the wisdom of White House spending plans. The US Congressional Budget Office expects the deficit to remain around $1.8 trillion (£600bn) as...

Axelrod Signals Obama Will Try to Strip Abortion Language From Health Care Bill by FOXNews.com The amendment, authored by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., went beyond preventing the proposed government-run plan from covering abortion to restrict federal subsidies from going toward private plans that offer abortion coverage. David Axelrod says the amendment changes the 'status quo,' something the president cannot abide. White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod suggested Sunday that President Obama will intervene to make sure a controversial amendment restricting federal funding for abortion coverage is stripped from final health care reform legislation.

2009 D.C. Convention DVD's Are Finally Here! Just in Time for Christmas! Presented by Free Republic and Zot Productions Couldn't make it to D.C.? Made it to the convention and want a great souvenir? Get the DVD!! Featuring the musical talents of our very own Lloyd Marcus and Lisa Mei Norton! Also featuring: Freep of Walter Reed Army Hospital with the D.C. Chapter to support our troops!9/11 Candlelight Vigil overlooking the Pentagon.Freeper John Manning, winner of WorldNetDaily's Independence Day Tea Party national speech contest!Videos "An American Anthem" by Justin Holcomb, and "The Second American Revolution" by Dr. Bob Basso!A...

Mayhem spreads throughout city overnight after meetings to end violence November 15, 2009 7:51 AM After community activists pleaded Saturday for a day without killing, violence erupted throughout the city after the stroke of midnight on Sunday, leaving at least two people dead and several injured. At about 12:06 a.m., Frederick Evans, 20, of the 6800 block of South Ada Street was found shot to death in an alley in the 500 block of West 58th Street. He was shot in his back and chest. Witnesses told police Evans was involved in a dice game shortly before midnight, according to...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders on Sunday supported delaying a legally binding climate pact until 2010 or even later, under a compromise deal for next month's Copenhagen summit."Given the time factor and the situation of individual countries we must, in the coming weeks, focus on what is possible and not let ourselves be distracted by what is not possible," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told the leaders."The Copenhagen Agreement should finally mandate continued legal negotiations and set a deadline for their conclusion," said the Copenhagen talks host, who flew into Singapore to lay...

The Talk Shows Sunday, November 15th, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Education Secretary Arne Duncan; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.; the Rev. Al Sharpton.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich.; Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.THIS WEEK (ABC): Clinton; Giuliani. STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Giuliani; White House senior adviser David Axelrod; Sens....

Some critics say a civilian trial -- instead of a military tribunal -- for self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his accomplices could end up targeting the Bush administration and its anti-terror policies. The Obama administration, in deciding to try alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in a New York courtroom, has said it is setting its sights on convictions, but some critics say a civilian trial -- instead of a military tribunal -- could end up targeting the Bush administration and its anti-terror policies. One of those five defendants, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has been at the center of the...

WASHINGTON — A nearly empty state prison in northwestern Illinois has emerged as a possible site to house detainees transferred from the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, the Obama White House told the Chicago Sun-Times on Saturday. Gov. Quinn and Obama discussed the federal purchase of the Thomson Correctional Center when Quinn was in Washington on Nov. 4 and visited the White House. Quinn and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) will outline proposals for the future of the prison at press conferences in the Quad Cities, Chicago and Rockford on Sunday. Durbin’s office has been quarterbacking the potential sale of...

The House-approved healthcare overhaul would raise the costs of healthcare by $289 billion over the next 10 years, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan, independent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The long-awaited report sent to lawmakers late Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services should serve as a "stark warning to every Republican, Democrat and Independent worried about the future of this nation," Ways and Means ranking member Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said in a statement on Saturday. Though House Republicans pressed to have this analysis completed before the lower chamber voted on the Democrats' sweeping...

Nov 14, 2009 17:25 | Updated Nov 14, 2009 17:29 Iran has completely rejected a UN-brokered nuclear deal, but US President Barack Obama has postponed the official announcement on Teheran's refusal due to internal political reasons, Israel Radio quoted a senior western official as saying Saturday. The deal would see most of the Islamic Republic's uranium shipped to Russia and France for further processing. The official reportedly told journalists in Paris that Iran has also refused to resume nuclear talks with the six world powers.

Breitbart has uncovered then Senator Obama claiming while discussing that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that 9-11 mastermind KSM will get a MILITARY trial, not a CIVIL trial and that such was good

Ten high-profile Guantanamo Bay detainees are being transferred to face justice in the United States. The five detainees heading to civilian court in New York to face charges they orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks are: -Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who admitted to interrogators that he was the mastermind of the attacks. He allegedly proposed the concept to Osama bin Laden as early as 1996, obtained funding for the attacks from bin Laden, oversaw the operation and trained the hijackers in Afghanistan and Pakistan. -Waleed bin Attash, -Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni, allegedly helped find flight schools for the hijackers. -Ali Abd...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicted disaster for his party if the conservative wing of the GOP continues to field independent candidates to the right of the party’s nominee. “If we get into a cycle where there are tea parties and there are conservative third-party candidates, we will make [Nancy] Pelosi speaker for life,” Gingrich told POLITICO in an interview Thursday, calling the practice “totally destructive.” But Gingrich, who broke with many fellow conservatives by getting behind the liberal Republican who was nominated but ultimately dropped out and backed the Democrat in a New York special congressional election, admitted that...

Suicides reported among active-duty soldiers more than doubled in October, according to Army data released Friday. The Army is investigating 16 potential suicides for October in comparison to the seven suicides reported to Army officials in September of this year. The Army is still investigating four of the suicides reported in September. The newly released October data brings the number of reported suicides in 2009 to 133, 18 more cases than were reported between January 2008 and October 2008. Among soldiers in the Reserve component of the Army, who are not serving on active duty, there were eight potential suicides...

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday that the Obama administration will push for “immigration reform” by giving the estimated 14 million people who are in the United States illegally “fair pathway to earned legal status.” “A tough and fair pathway to earned legal status will mandate that illegal immigrants meet a number of requirements—including registering, paying a fine, passing a criminal background check, fully paying all taxes and learning English,” Napolitano said Friday at a panel discussion at the liberal Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C. “These are substantial requirements that will make sure this population gets right...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The former Louisiana congressman who famously hid $90,000 cash in his freezer and was later convicted of federal bribery charges on Friday was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Glen Beck interviews Black Conservatives.