Free Republic

FORT WORTH, Texas - The Army psychiatrist charged in last month's deadly shooting at Fort Hood has been moved from a hospital's intensive care unit to a private room, his attorney said Wednesday. Maj. Nidal Hasan remains under guard at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and is rehabilitating from wounds that left him paralyzed from the waist down, said attorney John Galligan. He said he was notified about the transfer on Tuesday. Doctors have said Hasan needs to be hospitalized at least two more months while he learns to care for himself, Galligan said.

For Democrats like Harry Reid, who called them "evil-mongers," and Nancy Pelosi, who called them "un-American," the NBC News poll must have hit like a sucker punch at a Georgetown wine-and-cheese. The Tea Party movement, those folks rallying against spending last spring and Obamacare in the summer town halls, are viewed more favorably than the Democratic Party. Forty-one percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement, to 35 percent for Obama's party. Only 24 percent view Tea Party activists unfavorably, while 45 percent hold a negative view of the Democrats. While Tea Party types played a...

Republicans are trying to woo U.S. Rep. Chris Carney to switch parties, with Sen. John McCain among several GOP leaders making pitches to the Susquehanna County Democrat. Mr. McCain on Wednesday called Mr. Carney at his home in Dimock Twp. to ask whether he would consider joining the GOP, a Carney spokesman confirmed. The effort to persuade Mr. Carney was first reported by Politico, which quoted a GOP aide who said the party received "a nibble" from Mr. Carney. But Mr. Carney's spokesman, press secretary Joshua Drobnyk, rebutted that part of the report. Mr. Carney in a statement late Wednesday...

Sens. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) are questioning the constitutionality of the Democrats’ Senate version of the healthcare bill.  On behalf of the Republican Steering Committee, the official caucus of conservative senators, the two raised on the Senate floor yesterday a Constitutional point of order that will compel a vote by the full Senate today on the bill’s constitutionality.   The point of order will either be waived -- by Democrats who don’t care about the constitutionality or are willing to ignore the issue -- or it will stand and the healthcare bill will be dead until the...

<p>Changes to Medicare will give the feds control of surgical decisions.Changes to Medicare will give the feds control of surgical decisions.</p> <p>Democrats are touting the American Medical Association's endorsement of President Obama's health plan. But there's an important reason why the American College of Surgeons and 18 other specialty groups are opposed.</p>

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has won the dubious honour of telling the biggest political lie of the year. A panel of experts ruled her claim the Obama administration was planning to introduce "death panels" was chosen as the most misleading statement of 2009. Palin, 45, made the claim on her Facebook page at the height of the debate over President Obama's plans to reform the US health care system. She wrote: "My parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide whether they are worthy...

    For Immediate Release December 19, 2009 Contact:  Michelle Begnoche(202) 225-4735 STUPAK STATEMENT ON SENATE ABORTION LANGUAGE WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) issued the following statement regarding to the abortion language provisions in the Senate health care bill: “While I appreciate the efforts of all the parties involved, especially Senator Ben Nelson, the Senate abortion language is not acceptable.  I will continue to work with my colleagues on this issue as the process moves forward.  A review of the Senate language indicates a dramatic shift in federal policy that would allow the federal government to subsidize insurance policies...

The health care legislation about to be passed by the U.S. Senate requires all Americans to purchase health insurance. All Americans, that is, except for the Senate, other members of Congress and their staff. The Democrats refuse to even allow vote on the matter.....

Former President Bill Clinton came within minutes of being assassinated in the Philippines by terrorists controlled by Osama bin Laden, a new book has revealed. ...Marisa Porges, a former government counter-terrorism advisor and an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, said the assassination plot, if true, would suggest al Qaeda was more developed than some thought it was prior to 9/11”.

This nails it on the head! Typical Ray Stevens. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc_-L4fyLUo

Schwarzenegger To Seek Federal Help For California Budget Facing another huge deficit, the governor wants $8 billion or threatens massive cuts in social services. He also plans to renew push for offshore oil drilling. By Shane Goldmacher and Evan Halper December 23, 2009 Reporting from Sacramento - Facing a budget deficit of more than $20 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for deep reductions in already suffering local mass transit programs, renew his push to expand oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast and appeal to Washington for billions of dollars in federal help, according to state officials...

The economy grew at a 2.2 percent pace in the third quarter, as the recovery got off to a weaker start than previously thought. However, all signs suggest the economy will end the year on stronger footing. The Commerce Department's new reading on gross domestic product for the July-to-September quarter was slower than the 2.8 percent growth rate estimated just a month ago. Economists were predicting that figure wouldn't be revised in the government's final estimate on third-quarter GDP. The main factors behind the downgrade: consumers didn't spend as much, commercial construction was weaker, business investment in equipment and software...

Self-Evident Truths: Sen. Dianne Feinstein says it comes under the Commerce Clause. Rep. Steny Hoyer says it's mandated by the "general welfare" clause. Despite liberal wishes, health care is not a right. The "living Constitution" that Democrats and their court appointees have given us may be the death of our freedoms. Their constitution adapts to the times and serves the whims of the elitists. The Constitution is supposed to limit government powers. It does not allow government to do anything it feels like doing. Cass Sunstein, the head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is the author of...

Kerry Floats Plan to Visit Tehran White House Wouldn't Oppose Trip, First by Top U.S. Official in 30 Years, to Chagrin of Iran's Opposition By JAY SOLOMON WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Kerry has suggested becoming the first high-level U.S. emissary to make a public visit to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, a move White House officials say they won't oppose. View Full Image Mourners attend the funeral procession of Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri on Monday. Demotix Images Mourners attend the funeral procession of Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri on Monday. Mourners attend the funeral...

Obama 'entirely dissatisfied' with jobless rate 15 mins ago WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama said Wednesday he is "entirely dissatisfied" with the level of US unemployment and cannot congratulate himself on his first year in office between the jobless rate is so high. "I am entirely dissatisfied with where we are right now in terms of jobs, and the fact that families out there on the eve of Christmas are still really worried," Obama said in an interview with public television station PBS. "And so I don't pat myself on the back at the end of this year,"...

Services were pending Wednesday for a retired Army colonel who, at the time of his death in Waco, was believed to be the most-decorated living American soldier. Retired Army Col. Robert L. Howard, 70, who died Wednesday in Waco, was a Medal of Honor winner who at the time of his death was believed to be the most-decorated living American soldier. Howard will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Services were pending Wednesday through OakCrest Funeral Home in Waco. Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a statement late Wednesday afternoon in which he said Howard “was the bravest soldier I...

Heavy clashes have been reported outside an Isfahan mosque where a memorial ceremony was due to be held in honor of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a founding architect of the Iranian Revolution and spiritual father of Iran's opposition Green Movement. The clashes come two days after a funeral ceremony for the 87-year-old Montazeri, who died on December 19 in his home in Qom, turned into a huge antigovernment protest in the holy city located southwest of the capital. Eyewitnesses tell RFE/RL that as mourners and opposition supporters arrived for today's memorial service, they found security forces and plainclothes agents...

Republicans are stepping up their efforts to persuade more House Democrats to switch parties and are zeroing in on a second-term Pennsylvanian who is not ruling out such a move. Democratic Rep. Chris Carney received a phone call Wednesday from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asking him to consider becoming a Republican, a top GOP official told POLITICO. A spokesman for Carney declined to say if the congressman was considering such a switch. “No further comment at this time,” said Carney spokesman Josh Drobnyk, who would only confirm that the call took place. In a brief interview, McCain declined to offer...

Hard-up shoppers looking for bargains in a second-hand store had their faith in Father Christmas restored after a man in a Santa suit started handing out cash. A hundred envelopes each containing a $100 bill were distributed at the store in Portland, Maine. People in the shop gasped as they opened the envelopes and one grateful woman, 46-year-old Aurea Parker, even hugged the mystery donor. Ms Parker said she was seriously injured in a car accident 11 years ago and had been on disability benefits ever since. The $100 meant she was now able to mail a Christmas present to...

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Jimmy Carter is asking the Jewish community for forgiveness -- and insists it’s not simply because his grandson has decided to launch a political career with a run for the Georgia state Senate. Jason Carter, 34, an Atlanta-area lawyer, is considering a run to fill a seat covering suburban DeKalb County should the incumbent, David Adelman, win confirmation as President Obama's designated ambassador to Singapore. The seat, which is university heavy -- Emory, among others, is situated there -- also has a substantial Jewish community. The senior Carter outraged Jewish leaders with his book “Palestine: Peace not...

<p>The man entered the Wytheville, Virginia, post office about 2:30 p.m. and fired a shot, Mayor Trent Crewe said. No one has been hurt, but three postal workers and two customers are being held hostage, he said.</p> <p>There also are reports that the man has a "device" and it appears the man's car, parked outside the office, is equipped with some type of device, Crewe said. He did not elaborate on what the device could be.</p>

Microsoft Word is now scheduled to be prohibited from sale beginning January 11, 2010. That's less than three weeks away. The good news: Microsoft has promised a fix, one which will be rolled out before the deadline arrives. If you don't understand, you might have simply missed this story, or dismissed it as something that Microsoft would ultimately use its considerable clout to have pushed under a legal rug. But it's no joke. In August of this year, a court sided with a small Canadian company called i4i that holds a 1998 patent on the way the XML language is...

A few weeks ago, at the end of a 40-minute Oval Office huddle on climate change between President Barack Obama and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham — one of many tête-è-têtes on various subjects between the two this year — Obama leaned forward. "Look Lindsey, I'm ready to play," he said. "I'm for nuclear power. I'm for responsible offshore drilling. I'm for clean coal. I just need a reasonable emissions standard." "Count me in," Graham replied. "Let's see if we can do it." Wait, you may ask, a conservative Republican is seriously negotiating with the President? And on global warming, of...

You may not have noticed because most of the plots were foiled, but 2009 saw an unprecedented surge in terror "events" on U.S. soil. When analysts tally these events, they refer to anything from a disrupted plot to U.S. citizens traveling abroad to seek terror training or a lone gunman running amok in the U.S. And by the calculations of Rand Corporation expert Brian Jenkins, more terrorist threats were uncovered in the U.S. during 2009 than in any year since 2001.

The Obama administration's new plan to give a boost to small businesses reflects continued trouble in that sector, which is facing new failures even as much of the nation's economy is stabilizing. As credit lines have shrunk and consumers have cut back on spending, thousands of small businesses have closed their doors over the last year. The plight of struggling firms has been aggravated by the reluctance of banks to lend money, said Brian Headd, an economist at the Small Business Administration's office of advocacy. "While bankruptcies are up, overall, small-business closures are up even more," Headd said. California has...

At least 10 states are now raising questions about the legality of the deal that Senator Ben Nelson, a Democrat, cut for his home state of Nebraska during the health care negotiations. Under the agreement, which is on the verge of being approved Thursday by the Senate, Nebraska is permanently exempt from paying for its expansion of Medicaid, shoving that cost onto taxpayers in every other state. Mr. Nelson was able to exercise such leverage because in exchange, he was providing the magical 60th vote that Democrats needed to advance their health care bill. The deal has enraged other Senators,...

Rebuffed this month by skeptical lawmakers when it sought finances to buy a prison in rural Illinois, the Obama administration is struggling to come up with the money to replace the Guantánamo Bay prison. As a result, officials now believe that they are unlikely to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and transfer its population of terrorism suspects until 2011 at the earliest — a far slower timeline for achieving one of President Obama’s signature national security policies than they had previously hinted. While Mr. Obama has acknowledged that he would miss the Jan. 22 deadline for closing the...

Dems Refuse GOP Efforts to Strip Bribes From Health Care Bill December 23, 2009 Jim Hoft Senator Mike Johanns asked consent today to strike the special carve-outs from the Senate health care bill. Democrats immediately objected, thwarting the effort. “There should be no special deals, no carve-outs for anyone in this health care bill; not for states, not for insurance companies, not for individual senators. “All of the special deals should be removed. If the bill cannot pass without carve-outs, what further evidence is needed that it is bad policy? No senator should vote for the final cloture vote until...

She took on a corrupt mayor of Wasilla. And won. She took on a corrupt governor of Alaska. And won. Now she takes on a corrupt Speaker of the House, a corrupt Senate Majority Leader and as corrupt president. My money is on Sarah Palin. On her Facebook this morning was this post: Last weekend while you were preparing for the holidays with your family, Harry Reid’s Senate was making shady backroom deals to ram through the Democrat health care take-over. The Senate ended debate on this bill without even reading it. That and midnight weekend votes seem to be...

Conservative primary voters "have to yield" to reality, Senate Republicans' campaign chairman said Wednesday. Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), suggested that conservatives need to have a more realistic sense of which races are winnable and with which candidates. "Folks on the right, and frankly I'm one of them in terms of voting record, have to yield to the world as it is and not necessarily how they wish it would be," Cornyn told Reuters for a story about centrist Rep. Mike Castle's (R) bid for Senate next year in Delaware. Belying Cornyn's...

With their procedural options in the Senate exhausted, Republicans are looking to the Constitution for a way to fight the Democrats' health care reform bill. South Carolina's attorney general said Tuesday his office was exploring whether the horse-trading used to secure the last few Democratic votes for the bill violates the Constitution; now a separate challenge is headed for a vote on the Senate floor on Wednesday. Sen. John Ensign, Nevada Republican, has raised a constitutional point of order, arguing that the founding document does not give Congress the right to insist that Americans buy health insurance, nor to punish...

Over the past few months, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has witnessed the nation's energy secretary applauding companies for leaving the group, activists masquerading as its officials to hold a mock press conference, and now, protesters attempting to take over its building. And this is all because the group doesn't agree that global warming is man-made and that federal cap-and-trade policies are the answer to stopping it. Last Thursday, Greenpeace brought ladders to the chamber's D.C. headquarters, located directly across from the White House, to wrap yellow "crime scene" tape around the building. Roughly a dozen protesters descended on the...

MIAMI -- Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has had a tough time lately in his bid for U.S. Senate, and things just got worse. U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart confirmed Tuesday he and his brother, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, have rescinded their endorsement of Crist for the Republican primary. Mario Diaz-Balart said they notified Crist weeks ago and that he “left them no choice.” He added it was the first endorsement they’ve rescinded. Diaz-Balart recalled how he and his brother backed Bill McCollum’s unsuccessful bid for the 2004 Republican primary over fellow Cuban-American Mel Martinez, and supported Republican presidential candidate John McCain during...

SAN FRANCISCO — It was the week before Christmas when Irv Sutley, a former warehouse worker, first saw the offending ornament in a government building in Sonoma County, just north of here. “I was turning around in the lobby, and I noticed the tree,” Mr. Sutley said. “And then, I noticed the angel.” Mr. Sutley, an atheist, said he then went to the office of the county Board of Supervisors. “And there was a star,” he said. Technically, neither stars nor angels belong to any particular religion. But to the mind of Mr. Sutley, 65, a veteran who has fought...

After 59 years, Army Master Sgt. Silas W. Wilson is coming home tonight, and the fact he will be in a flag-draped casket does not diminish the feeling of anticipation and closure in the heart of a daughter who never knew him. "When I was a child, from the time I had any memory at all, I knew what had hap­pened," Marie Wilson Cleghorn said Tues­day night. "And for 59 years, I've prayed ev­ery day that my daddy would come home one way or another. "It's 22 years too late for my mother to be this happy, and it's eight...

Excepting her bang-up performance at the Gridiron Dinner this month, Sarah Palin has an infamously fraught relationship with the media. On the one hand, frenzied coverage of her memoir ginned up sales. On the other hand, non-stop scrutiny of her clothing choices allegedly ruined a family vacation. There are costs to being constantly in the spotlight. Now she's taken some measures to control the message. Three Alaska bloggers who crossed Palin while she was governor have found themselves banned from attending her book signings. Jesse Gryphen, Dennis Zaki, and Shannyn Moore--plus an unknown fourth--are blacklisted at Palin events. Gryphen tells...

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law?   [Andy McCarthy] You just can't make up how brazen this crowd is. One week ago, President Obama quietly signed an executive order that makes an international police force immune from the restraints of American law.Interpol is the shorthand for the International Criminal Police Organization. It was established in 1923 and operates in about 188 countries. By executive order 12425, issued in 1983, President Reagan recognized Interpol as an international organization and gave it some of the privileges and immunities customarily extended to foreign diplomats. Interpol, however, is also...

HE ASKS CONGRESS FOR BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, LAW RELAXATION - As the U.S. Senate finalized its health care proposal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked Congress on Tuesday to add billions of dollars for California and relax existing laws, warning that the state otherwise may have to slash Medi-Cal benefits or eliminate its in-home care program.The Republican governor connected the long-term health care plan to California's current budget deficit, estimated to be $20.7 billion by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. He suggested in a letter to Congress that the health care plan would lock in current federal reimbursement and eligibility policies that...

CAIRO – A Saudi-owned newspaper says that one of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's daughters has taken refuge in the Saudi Embassy in Tehran after eluding guards who have held her and five brothers under house arrest for eight years.

CAIRO - A Saudi-owned newspaper says that one of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's daughters has taken refuge in the Saudi Embassy in Tehran after eluding guards who have held her and five brothers under house arrest for eight years.

"This is not an administration that takes bad news well," Jennifer Rubin wrote on Commentary's blog, referring to Robert Gibbs' fit when asked to explain the Gallup poll showing the president taking on water, sinking into the high-to-mid 40s, and losing ground fast. Neither apparently does much of the left, which, faced with cratering numbers for both the health care proposals and for global warming, responded with all of the rational discourse and respect for debate and dissenting opinion that has made them so widely beloved. First, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who emerged in the health care debate as the...

Unemployment Calls Overwhelm Server. Unemployment claims have been flooding into the state Department of Labor, dragging the filing system to a crawl. “Due to the high volume of claim filing, you may experience some difficulty filing your claim via the Web or by telephone. We apologize for any inconvenience,” the Web site says. http://www.ctdol.state.ct.us/ A spokeswoman says the Department of Labor issued 156,673 benefit checks during the week of Dec. 13-19, up nearly 50 percent from 105,431 last year. The agency has been "incredibly busy" with claims and was "flooded with calls," she said.

Iranian security forces armed with batons and teargas clashed with supporters of the late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in two central cities on Wednesday, opposition websites said. (excerpt) Police chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moqadam warned the pro-reform opposition of "fierce" confrontation if it continued its "illegal" activities, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. The reformist Jaras website said many demonstrators were injured and arrests were made during clashes in the city of Isfahan, which occurred when Montazeri supporters gathered for the traditional third day of mourning for him. "Police fired teargas to disperse people ... many people were injured...

Americans' mortgage woes continued to get worse in the third quarter. Just 87.2% of U.S. mortgages were current in the third quarter, a decrease of 1.5% from the previous quarter, according to the OCC and OTS Mortgage Metrics Report released Monday. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision report covers 34 million loans totaling $6 trillion in principal balances, about 65% of the U.S. mortgage market. Serious delinquencies jumped to 6.2% of mortgage-servicing portfolios, an increase of 16.7% from the previous quarter. The number of prime borrowers in trouble continues to mount as...

A writer and environmental activist who was present at the final Copenhagen climate talks says China sabotaged the deal and ensured Barack Obama would shoulder the blame. While China's Premier Wen Jiabao insisted his government had played an "important and constructive" role, the talks in the Danish capital ended with a political accord rather than a binding agreement. Mark Lynas, who was attached to the Maldives delegation, described what he saw at the talks as "profoundly shocking". "I am certain that had the Chinese not been in the room, we would have left Copenhagen with a deal that had environmentalists...

Energy: An oil company wants to invest its profits in clean-burning American natural gas. A Hungarian billionaire and a "green" politician want to stop it. This is the real Climate-gate scandal. While the greenies of the world united in Copenhagen to talk about the weather, emitting a Third World-country-size chunk of greenhouse gases to gather there, the world's largest oil company, Exxon Mobil, was doing something about it. On Dec. 14, Exxon agreed to buy XTO Energy, a natural gas firm, in a deal valued at $41 billion. XTO is one of the leaders in something called "fracking" technology, in...

- View the Preliminary Crime Statistics For the third year in a row, our Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report shows that violent crime, property crime, and arson have decreased. The latest report compares January-June 2009 figures with the same time period in 2008.Crimes reported to our Uniform Crime Program are down collectively: violent crime overall decreased 4.4 percent, property crime is down 6.1 percent, and arson fell 8.2 percent. Individual crimes are also decreasing across the board: Murder (down 10.0 percent);Forcible rape (down 3.3 percent);Robbery (down 6.5 percent); The 2009 crime statistics are preliminary; the final report will be issued...

Angry, frustrated, troubled, disappointed, disgust, disrespect - words not normally associated with holiday season. However, they were words Katie Couric used to describe where she sees the mood of country right now. Couric, the anchor of the "CBS Evening News," in a live Facebook video chat on Dec. 22, took on illustrating her view of the populace - a not very sunny picture (emphasis added). "I think more distant - I hate to say that, but I think, I think the economic situation in this country, I think, when people are struggling, that sometimes they need a place to vent...

ENGLEWOOD, N.J. (CBS) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 David Muneton, an eighth grade honor student, needed reconstructive facial surgery after being savagely beaten by a gang of 11 students on Dec. 18, 2009, in Engelwood, N.J. David Muneton, an eighth grade honor student, needed reconstructive facial surgery after being savagely beaten by a gang of 11 students on Dec. 18, 2009, in Engelwood, N.J. Police said as many as 11 students beat up the eighth-grader leaving him severely injured, and he may even lose his sight. CBS 2 HD spoke with some of his friends about what led to...

MEXICO CITY – Assailants on Tuesday gunned down the mother, aunt and siblings of a marine killed in a raid that took out one of Mexico's most powerful cartel leaders — sending a chilling message to troops battling the drug war: You go after us, we wipe out your families. The brazen pre-dawn slayings came just hours after the navy honored Melquisedet Angulo as a national hero at a memorial service.