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We’re a month short of a year since Barack Obama took office with sky-high approval ratings and the people prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt on a range of issues from the economy, to health care reform, to the environment. I think in order to be fair, we should acknowledge that unlike George Bush, Barack Obama has tackled head on some very difficult, and divisive problems at the outset of his presidency. In contrast, looking at Bush’s situation prosaically, he got some popular legislation passed prior to 9/11 (tax cuts and No Child Left Behind) after which...

Illinois Family Institute has come out with their voter guide for 2010 Primary's in Illinois, see how how canditate will vote on key issues. 2010 Voter Guide | Senate & U.S. Congressional Candidate Survey Questions U.S. Congressional candidates were asked if they Support or Oppose: 1 | Tax Increase/Cap and Trade — will tax energy consumption to combat “global warming.” (American Clean Energy and Security Act - 2009) 2 | “Hate Crimes” legislation — allows 2 identical crimes to be prosecuted differently if one victim is homosexual, a cross dresser or transsexual. (H.R.1913 - 2009) 3 | Employment Non-Discrimination Act...

Our president is quite the angry man these days. Perhaps his heart is two sizes too small, or maybe he just hates the residents of Who-ville (and “bitter Americans clinging to guns and religion” here in America.) Perhaps being forced by public opinion to retain the “religious” aspect of White House Christmas decorations has placed our man in Washington in a foul mood. Perhaps, it is the fact that he is now the most unpopular president ever recorded this early into a first term. Perhaps it’s because his “stimulus bill” that in his mind has been so successful it calls...

L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas is spending more than $700,000 in taxpayer money to renovate his office. This is criminal! Call his office and tell him he should be ashamed! Mark Ridley-Thomas was planning on a Million Dollar upgrade to his office (including furniture) until KFI radio's John and Ken, and Doug McIntire of the Daily News, exposed this.

Reid scrambles as deadline looms By: Carrie Budoff Brown and Meredith Shiner December 18, 2009 06:54 PM EST Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid led a marathon negotiating session Friday with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) in a hectic bid to persuade the last holdout to sign onto the health care reform bill ahead of a key deadline Saturday morning. Nelson was huddling into the evening with Reid, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and a circle of top White House officials that included deputy chief of staff Jim Messina and senior adviser Pete Rouse. Nelson was seeking stronger language to prohibit federal financing...

President Barack Obama said the United States, China and several other countries reached an "unprecedented breakthrough" Friday to curb greenhouse gas emissions—including a mechanism to verify compliance—after a frenzied day of diplomacy at the U.N. climate talks. Obama may eventually become known as "the man who killed Copenhagen," said Greenpeace U.S. Executive Director Phil Radford.

On Today's Show... December 18, 2009   Obama Fails Again in Copenhagen! Chavez, Euro Kooks are Disappointed by Messiah The magic is gone -- and so is the godlike reverb. (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen) » UKG: Barack Obama's Speech Disappoints and Fuels Frustration at Copenhagen » Fox News: Hugo Chavez ''Still'' Smells Sulfur After Obama Speech   "The magic that was Barack Obama is gone. The world will soon realize that they have been hoaxed on who he is, just as they have hoaxed us on the whole notion of climate change." -Rush   Prediction: Obama to Undergo His Own Tiger Woods-Type Unmasking Someday, people...

WASHINGTON — Not everyone thinks imitation is the best form of flattery. In fact, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson of Orlando took such offense at a parody website aimed at unseating him that the freshman Democrat has asked that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder investigate the Lake County activist who started the anti-Grayson website “mycongressmanisnuts.com.” Specifically, Grayson accuses Republican activist Angie Langley of lying to federal elections. His four-page complaint highlights the fact that the Clermont resident lives outside his district, but that Langley still uses the term “my” in “mycongressmanisnuts.com.”“Ms. Langley has deliberately masqueraded as a constituent of mine, in...

Sheila Murphy Cockrel, a member of the Detroit city council, has never been afraid to swim against the tide. She opposed proposals to create "Africa Town," a district exclusively for black-owned businesses in the heart of downtown. She regularly sparred with the city's former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, who resigned in 2008 amid enormous legal problems. Just last month, she drew headlines for abruptly leaving the council's chambers to protest a rushed measure, backed by Christian conservatives, to restrict alcohol sales at Detroit's strip clubs. "It was an act of democracy to walk out and not let the process be hijacked...

United Methodist Church Bashes Ben Nelson on Abortion Funding Refusal Washington, DC -- The United Methodist Church has never made a secret of its support for abortion as it regularly participates in a radical national pro-abortion religious group. With one of its members, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, holding up the health care bill over abortion funding, the church is on the attack. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5792.html

The photographer had been booked for midday but as the UN climate summit dragged into overtime Friday, the traditional heads of state portrait fell victim to divisions among the family of leaders. An official statement at the conference said the portrait had been postponed and it was hoped to be rearranged before the leaders leave Copenhagen. "The president (Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen) has made the negotiations and efforts to reach an agreement the priority," it said. But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was already on a plane

Republicans Demand To Read Legislation Before Voting On It WASHINGTON (AP) Republicans threatened to delay Senate business with a health care read-a-thon this weekend as Democrats searched for 60 votes to advance President Barack Obama's signature issue. A forecast of heavy snow added to the list of complications. At a news conference Friday in the Capitol, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., accused Democrats of trying to ram the health care bill through with dozens of changes as yet unseen, and promised to do all they could to prevent it. "I think we've made it...

Looks like traditions of comity are coming apart . . First Al Franken refuses to give Joe Lieberman another minute on the Senate floor. Now Ed Schultz invites a guest on his show for the express purpose of taking shots at fellow MSNBCer Chris Matthews! On yesterday's Hardball, Matthews criticized the netroots who are trashing the watered-down ObamaCare bill. "I don't consider them Democrats," said Matthews, dismissing them as "troublemakers." Concluded Chris: "they get their giggles sitting in the back seat and bitching." On his show this evening, Schultz invited netroot-in-chief Markos Moulitsas on to fire back at Matthews. Not...

The wide racial gap in health is growing in Chicago, a major new study has found. ..."What's happening is that, as advances become available for these different diseases, white people are able to gain access to advances, and black people are not," said Steven Whitman, director of the Sinai Urban Health Institute. "It's absolutely essential to understand the underlying structural issues that are causing these disparities: those are racism and poverty."

Mat-Su Valley and Alaska residents will finally have an opportunity to get their “Going Rogue” books signed. Former Gov. Sarah Palin will be at the Curtis C. Menard Memorial Sports Center Turf Court on Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to autograph copies of her best-selling memoir. According to a release issued early today, books will not be available for purchase at this event. The Curtis C. Menard Memorial Sports Center is at 1001 South Mack Drive in Wasilla.

After barely four weeks in office, President Barack Obama signs into law Tuesday a legislative achievement that eclipses entire terms of some contemporary presidents. The stimulus legislation has the real potential of creating more than 3 million jobs, most in the private sector and many rebuilding an aging public infrastructure. The new law assists those most in need of basic health care, job training, and in the near term, unemployment benefits and food. No one could blame Obama for being a bit chagrined at the GOP’s disengagement from all this, notwithstanding the president’s charm and offers of substantive compromise. Republican...

Copenhagen (CNN) – In a strange twist, a Washington snowstorm is forcing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, to make an early departure from a global warming summit here in Denmark. Pelosi told CNN that military officials leading her Congressional delegation have urged the 21 lawmakers to leave Copenhagen several hours earlier than scheduled on Saturday.

BASRA, Iraq, Dec. 18, 2009 – Discussions about upcoming elections and the withdrawal of American troops are highlighting Navy Adm. Mike Mullen’s visit to Iraq today. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff spoke to reporters traveling with him aboard a C-17 Globemaster III transport. He said he looks forward to discussions with Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, Multinational Force Iraq commander, and meeting with troops in here and in Talil and Baghdad. The chairman arrived in Iraq after a four-day trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan. A USO troupe is traveling with him. Singer and actor Billy Ray Cyrus,...

Rick Perry, where are you? In Texas, and across the Nation, we are watching the inexorable advance of unconstitutional federal legislation across our borders. What recourse do Texas citizens have when the federal checks and balances established by our Founding Fathers are overrun? We will be looking as we vote for our next Governor for strong, principled leadership.

Yes, Apartheid was wrong and oppressive, but does anyone think South Africa and Rhodesia would have been nearly as prosperous had they always had such 'enlightened' rulers like Robert Mugabe? Fact is, before Mugabe, Rhodesia was one of the most prosperous countries in Africa. It was known as the "breadbasket of Africa". South Africa was run by highly educated and industrious Dutch/German immigrants. They had a very advanced and wealthy economy, one of the finest Navies of a country of that size, and they were stridently anti-Communist. Today, they are a fraction of they once were, and have been slipping...

According to Fox, Russia has left Obama dangling over the new treaty Obama wants to "eliminate nuclear weapons." Obama expected something to happen today after Copenhganen. Instead, Russia told him they'd "get to it sooner or later." The rest of the world is laughing at Obama, a man they've clearly decided is a gutless doofus. Next year's election campaigns promise to be unforgettable. If we haven't already been conquered by someone else.

I am not making this up. Obama got his tuchis handed to him at Copenhagen. Large nations told him to get bent. "Developing nations" -- countries run by homicidal Marxist lunatics -- demanded hundreds of millions of dollars. Obama promised $100M a year -- he has no authority to do so. Next year's political ads should show taxpayers being forced to write checks that are seen being handed to foreign firing squads. China told him to go, ah, make love to himself. Delegation then flew home. Obama reported to be "angry." This has beenn a total disaster for Obama and...

Democratic Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is running even with relatively unknown Republican challenger Pat Toomey for a 2010 race that could help determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, according to a poll released on Friday. Specter, 79, is a longtime Republican who broke with the party in April and joined the Democrats, helping them reach the 60-vote threshold in the 100-member Senate, a super majority crucial for overcoming Republican opposition to legislation. The Quinnipiac University survey found voters split 44-44 percent between the two candidates when asked who they would elect if they were to...

AMAC vs. AARP - David vs. Goliath There are two organizations representing citizens 50 plus. AMAC, the Association of Mature American Citizens has 10's of thousands of members AARP has 26 million Members. The leadership of AARP has proven themselves to be a liberal leaning group that endorsed expensive Obamacare, without the consent of their members. AMAC (pronounced A- Mack) is one of the leading groups fighting against President Obama's health care initiative. AMAC has organized "Tea Parties" and participated in rallies against expanding government and raising taxes. AMAC is pro-life, pro Second Amendment, and thinks government has grown too...

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Florida finds former state House Speaker Marco Rubio leading Democrat Kendrick Meek 49% to 35%. Governor Charlie Crist leads Meek 42% to 36%.

Rielle Hunter wants John Edwards to pay $17,910 a month in child support for her daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, according to the National Enquirer. Private financial negotiations between Hunter and Edwards reportedly broke down last week when her demands for the 22-month-old child were more than the former senator and presidential candidate was willing to pay. Edwards has never publicly acknowledged that he is the girl's father, but did admit to an affair with Hunter at a time when his wife, Elizabeth, was battling cancer. Now, legal documents obtained by Radaronline.com appear to show communication between Hunter and her attorney,...

Over ONE MILLION copies sold! On the NYTimes Bestseller List for 19 weeks, 12 weeks at #1!Buy it… read it… live it!“Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Updated December 18, 2009Democratic Holdout Controls Fate of Senate Health Care Bill FOXNews.com Saturday: Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska is a Democratic moderate who voted to begin debate on health care legislation. (AP Photo) As Democrats race against the clock to pass a sweeping health care bill before Christmas, Sen. Ben Nelson, the only known Democratic holdout, has positioned himself to play Santa or the Grinch.The Nebraska Democrat is pushing to include air-tight restrictions on abortion funding in the bill, but that's not all he wants.Because of the $465 billion in Medicare cuts included in the Senate bill, Nelson wants...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will make his final offer on healthcare legislation on Saturday morning, unveiling a highly-anticipated amendment to the Senate healthcare bill. Reid will unveil his amendment with a cost analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shortly after the Senate votes at around 7:30 Saturday morning to clear a Defense spending bill.

You will not understand it until you watch it through to the very end. It is an incredible Palindrome, but this one does not mean the same backwards and forwards; it means the opposite.

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) will deliver the weekly Republican address Saturday, December 19, 2009. WHO: U.S. Senator John McCain WHAT: Weekly Republican Address WHEN: Saturday, December 19, 2009, 6:00 a.m. ET

Shedding jobs that once reliably attracted new residents, California grew at a slower pace this year than all but two other years since 1900, according to state Department of Finance figures released Thursday. The number of new births dropped. The number of new immigrants dropped. And more residents left California for other states than came here. The end result: Statewide growth from July 2008 to July 2009 was 350,000 people, or less than 1 percent. During the rest of the decade, California averaged 525,000 new residents each year. The four-county Sacramento region posted even more striking numbers, adding just 21,000...

You have to string together a series of seemingly unrelated events to see it, but this week painted a powerful picture of California's chronic inability to govern itself. As the week began, a legislative committee heard state Treasurer Bill Lockyer describe, in blunt terms, why the state finds it increasingly difficult to market its bonds. Briefly, its budget is chronically unbalanced, it has floated too much debt, and it's now forced to pay higher interest rates on its debts than many Third World nations. Counterintuitively, state schools chief Jack O'Connell a day later urged the Legislature to approve a big...

Kay Bailey Hutchison votes with Democrats to speed up process to healthcare vote.

Per Fox, Chinese giving Obama the bum's rush. Premiere leaves for home. WH desperately trying to find some Chinese official to meet with an angry Obama. LOL!

Welcome to the Quinn and Rose thread to tie us over till sneakers posts her ever popular live thread. You can visit them at www.warroom.com Check out their podcast at www.wpgb.com

HAMILTON, Ont. - Sarah Palin has been given the boot as a celebrity fundraiser for hospitals in Hamilton, Ont., but she will come to town raise money for a local children’s charity instead. Palin has brought the American health care debate to Canada and it is causing a storm of controversy as concerned hospital supporters have protested her appearance to raise money for two local institutions in April. The former vice-presidential candidate was supposed to speak at a fund-raising event for the Juravinski Cancer Centre and St. Peter’s Hospital in Hamilton. But a backlash of negative publicity cancelled those plans....

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) was in D.C. Thursday meeting with supporters of a possible primary challenge to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Hayworth, who lost his 5th district seat to Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.) in 2006, told CQ-Roll Call he was "taking a very, very serious look" at the race but had made no decision. "We're just doing our due diligence," he said. Hayworth was spotted with House Minority Leader John Boehner Thursday but said it was not a scheduled meeting. "I just bumped into John," he explained. He declined to say with whom he formal meetings during his swing...

Still burning over Rep. Larry Kissell's health care vote, some Democrats in North Carolina's 8th Congressional District are courting a Charlotte attorney to mount a primary challenge. The courtee is Chris Kouri, a former Ivy League football player who ran for the seat in 2002, upsetting a better known Democrat in the primary before losing to Republican Robin Hayes, Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer reports. "I think it’s a legitimate groundswell," said Mecklenburg County Democratic chairman Joel Ford. "Chris Kouri is entertaining it. And I believe that if Chris gets enough grassroots support he’ll run." Kouri, general counsel and...

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Seanny.....

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Factor Follow-up" segment tonight: A new Wall Street Journal poll says there is a big political change going on in America right now. Thirty-five percent of Americans see the Democratic Party favorably. Twenty-eight percent say they like the Republican Party. But a whopping 41 percent now say they support the Tea Party, which is stunning when you think about it. So will the Tea Party become America's third political party? Joining us from Washington, Ned Ryun, president of American Majority, an organization that trains Tea Party politicians. And here in the studio, Fox News analyst...

Every time I feel all forgive-and-forget about Bill Clinton, all Happy Warrior and all that, he says something to recall what a hard-core lout lies just beneath the surface. I forget him rushing back to Arkansas to insure the prompt execution of a retarded black man took place before the New Hampshire primary, the better to boost his “comeback” that eventually got him the presidency by showing how “tough on crime” he was. I even remember the name of the man, Ricky Ray Rector. I hope the two of you meet in hell. Yes, I’m a liberal and Clinton supported...

The American Revolutionary War began in Massachusetts with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, on April 19th, 1775. Following what Emerson referred to as the “Shot heard ‘round the world”, a small fledgling colony stood up against the tyranny of the greatest military force on earth… And won. Great men and women stood up in perilous times and prevailed against what appeared to be unconquerable odds. Some have referred to the present day as perilous times, and once again the people of Massachusetts have an opportunity to set into motion a political revolution. On January 19th, a special election will...

If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hasn't secured 60 votes by midnight Saturday, he won't be able to meet the ambitious deadline of passing a health care bill on Christmas Eve.

December 18, 2009 Leaders Cut Safeguards To Salvage Copenhagen Climate Deal Ben Webster and Sam Coates, Copenhagen Key safeguards on climate change were sacrificed today in a desperate attempt by world leaders to achieve a compromise at the Copenhagen summit. Gordon Brown and some other leaders prepared to stay overnight as the final stages of the negotiations were prolonged by a dispute between the US and China over remarks made by President Obama. But reports this evening that President Medvedev of Russia had already left the talks while Japan’s Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, was planning to leave later last night...

Kay Bailey Hutchison, much maligned for campaigning in Texas during the health care debate, boldly announced that she would go to Washington and stay there to fight health care and kill it dead. Instead, today she accelerated it getting to the Senate floor in a bit of Senate gamesmanship.

Sarah Palin announced Thursday night that she ended a Hawaii vacation early because of the ruckus raised after she blacked out "McCain" on her sun visor in an effort to elude paparazzi.~~snip~~"Todd and I have since cut our vacation short because the incognito attempts didn't work and fellow vacationers were bothered for the two days we spent in the sun. So much for trying to go incognito."

From the shores of what was once capitalist America, I’ve been trying to follow on webcast the highlights of of the United Nations climate con — I mean conference — in Copenhagen, featuring eco-messages from some of the world’s top celebrity tyrants. As Roger Simon so neatly put it in a post and PJTV webcast from the scene, “So many despots, so little time!” Thursday alone, the UNFCCC “high-level” speaking lineup included officials of Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Cuba, Laos, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Belarus and the man himself, fixture of any major UN shindig, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. But where are...

President Obama stepped onto the global stage in Copenhagen, but his lackluster speech failed to inspire delegates scrambling to salvage something from the global trade talks.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- A new book quotes one-time White House intern Monica Lewinsky as saying former U.S. President Bill Clinton lied about their relationship under oath. In the upcoming book, "The Death of American Virtue," author Ken Gormley writes that Lewinsky now believes Clinton lied about their relationship during his grand jury testimony, the Washington publication Politico reported Friday. "There was no leeway (there) on the veracity of his statements because they asked him detailed and specific questions to which he answered untruthfully," Lewinsky reportedly wrote to Gormley earlier this year. Clinton on Aug. 17, 1998, testified to...