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WASHINGTON — The glow is off the rose. The euphoria is gone. The thrilled, awe-inspired crowds are no longer there. No, that's not a reflection on the recent Michael Jackson media madness. Instead, it's a summary of the Obama family outing to Russia, Italy and Africa. Other than a week's respite from the deepening U.S. financial crisis, the collapse of constitutional government in Honduras, and staged photo ops, the trip yielded little to give the American people hope that the O-Team comprehends the dangers we face in this world — or what to do about them. The trip to Chad...

CNN) -- More than 10,000 homes have been destroyed from an earthquake that struck southwest China, state media reported. The quake hit Yunnan province in southwest China Thursday evening, leaving more than 300 people injured, the Xinhua news service reported. Xinhua reported the quake as having a 6.0-magnitude, while the U.S. Geological Survey gave a figure of 5.7. The quake happened at 7:19 p.m. (11:19 a.m. GMT) Thursday, at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), Xinhua reported. Thirty people suffered severe injuries, and another 305 were slightly injured as of 1 a.m., relief officials in Yao'an County said.

Link only - ICE won't detain non-U.S. drivers in Nashville

El Nino bad news for winter sports outlookStory Published: Jul 9, 2009 at 3:35 PM PDT By Scott Sistek It's official. El Nino is here. Pardon us while we blow our party horn. Toot. It's news snow fans and skiers probably do not want to hear -- climate forecasters say El Nino conditions have developed in the Pacific Ocean. El Nino is a warming of ocean temperatures in the tropical region of the Pacific -- part of a typical 3-5 year cycle where the temperatures drift from warm (El Nino) to normal (neutral) to cold (La Nina) then back again....

Your chance to query President Obama about Africa: What do you want to ask President Obama as he prepares to visit sub-Saharan Africa for the first time as leader of the United States - a stop in Ghana on 10-11 July? Write your question here, and we will compile your submissions. Please, if you would, include your age and your occupation.

GOP zeroes in on Al Franken in new ad View article...

The Iranian regime warned that any demonstrations would be mercilessly crushed, and meant it. As darkness fell on baking, dust-shrouded Tehran last night an army of riot police and hardline basiji militiamen used batons, gun butts and tear gas to beat back thousands of Iranians converging on the city centre. "The security presence was massive. It was like a military occupation," one witness told The Times. "They were clubbing the hell out of people." The greater victory belonged to the demonstrators, however. Male and female, some quite old, they came armed with nothing more than a burning sense of injustice....

In a July 7 New York Times Magazine article ("The Place of Women on the Court"; HT to an e-mailer) apparently scheduled to appear in its July 12 print edition (based on its URL), Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told the Times's Emily Bazelon that "at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of." Who is this "we" Ginsburg refers to? Alleged reporter Bazelon did not follow up on this astounding admission. Here, in full context of the Q&A discussion about women's...

Max Keiser: "Does the US Secretary of the Treasury work for the people or does he work for the banking system on Wall Street?" Dr. Paul Craig Reports: "He works for Goldman Sachs." Video at site

Jared Bernstein, chief economist for the office of Vice President Joe Biden (who knew that the Vice President needed a chief economist?), is quoted as saying "We're hitting the right balance between speed and oversight." Unfortunately for the American public, sound economics teaches that, regardless of how fast the money is spent or how much oversight is provided by bureaucrats, the money doled out by the stimulus plan will be wasted and will have a detrimental impact on the economy in the long term, because that is the nature of profligate government spending. From an economic perspective, Obama's stimulus plan...

The federal Defense of Marriage Act which protects the traditional definition of marriage may be facing its biggest challenge yet. Massachusetts filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the federal law. "We're taking this action today because, first, we believe that [DOMA] directly interferes with Massachusetts' long-standing sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents," said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. Massachusetts was the first state in the country in 2003 to legalize marriage for same-sex couples. It is now also the first state to challenge DOMA, the 1996 law that defines marriage as between one man and...

Everyone wants to write their congressman (person) when they are displeased with the way things are going. When that does not work (and it won't) many choose to demonstrate at their local city offices or state capital. Others take the time to actually travel to the seat of the real problem - Washington DC. When that does not work (and it never does) what is left to do. Just do it all over again and again and again........ Let me tell you a tale of Bill Clinton, an ambassador buddy of his (that was one of his anti-Vietnam war buddies)...

American International Group is preparing to pay millions of dollars more in bonuses to several dozen top corporate executives after an earlier round of payments four months ago set off a national furor. The troubled insurance giant has been pressing the federal government to bless the payments in hopes of shielding itself from renewed public outrage. The request puts the administration's new compensation czar on the spot by seeking his opinion about bonuses that were promised long before he took his post. AIG doesn't actually need the permission of Kenneth R. Feinberg, who President Obama appointed last month to oversee...

OTTAWA -- In a clear indication that Canada is starting to be considered a low-tax place to do business, Tim Hortons Inc. announced Monday plans to shift its base of operations from Delaware to Canada for tax purposes. Further, analysts indicate this is also a sign of unease among corporations regarding the U.S. business environment, where taxes are likely heading upward to deal with trillion-dollar deficits and proposed health-care reforms; and the White House is looking to crack down on companies that invest abroad.

Reporters from roughly 30 television networks, newspapers, magazines, and web sites celebrated the Fourth of July with Barack Obama at the White House last weekend. Why didn't you know that? Because they were sworn to secrecy. We reported yesterday that Politico's Mike Allen was spotted milling about as a guest at the White House's "backyard bash" by the pool reporter, who was allowed into the event for 40 minutes and kept in a pen before being ushered out. When Allen quoted from the pool report in his Playbook column the next day, he deleted a reference to his own name...

Hello old friend. Realtor.org: No-doc loans are particularly hard to get, locking out people whose incomes are derived from investments or who are able to tax-shelter significant dollars. The California Mortgage Bankers Association spokesman Dustin Hobbs says the industry understands that banning most alternative financing isn’t the long-term answer. "It's a reaction to the current environment," he says. "There's such a lack of appetite for risk right now in general that any product viewed as having any sort of risk at all has a tough hill to climb." Chris George, president of CMG Mortgage, predicts that no-docs and other nontraditional...

Republicans on Thursday lashed out in opposition to legislation that would require more than $6.5 billion of funds from the federal government's bank-bailout package to be used to help troubled homeowners and neighborhoods on Main Street. House Financial Services Committee chief Barney Frank, D-Mass. "We need to restore fiscal discipline," said Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, during a hearing of the panel. "Treasury needs flexibility and this won't give it to the agency." The legislation, introduced by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., would require that some remaining funds from the Troubled Asset Relief...

LOS ANGELES – Scientists have detected a spike in underground rumblings on a section of California's San Andreas Fault that produced a magnitude-7.8 earthquake in 1857. What these mysterious vibrations say about future earthquakes is far from certain. But some think the deep tremors suggest underground stress may be building up faster than expected and may indicate an increased risk of a major temblor. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, monitored seismic activity on the fault's central section between July 2001 and February 2009 and recorded more than 2,000 tremors. The tremors lasted mere minutes to nearly half an...

Will the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) be “Lethal, Survivable, Supportable, and Affordable” like what it says on the patch? Many say “yes” and some aren’t so sure. The program progress should be brought into question. In order for the F-35 to be survivable it first has to survive. We are told that new ways of modeling and simulating will reduce the need for flight testing. Only 17 percent of the test evaluation of the F-35 will involve flight test discovery. The rest will depend on a variety of studies and analysis in order to qualify the design. So far,...

Wealthy nations agree on temperature cap in fight against global warming.... leaders of the world's richest industrial countries pledged Wednesday to seek dramatic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to slow dangerous climate change. They agreed for the first time that worldwide temperatures must not rise more than a few degrees. However, their goals are nonbinding, and it's far from clear they will be met. The wealthy nations failed to persuade the leaders of big developing countries to promise to cut their own fast-spreading pollution, unable to overcome arguments that the well-established industrial giants aren't doing enough in the...

As Jim Geraghty notes over at the Campaign Spot, the race for Massachusetts governor is heating up. Yesterday, Charlie Baker, the relatively unknown CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, announced his plans to face off against Christy Mihos in the Republican primary, in hopes of challenging incumbent Democrat Deval Patrick in the general election. As the CEO of a major regional insurance company, Baker’s a health-care guy, and that’s very important in Massachusetts. Under Patrick, the Bay State has struggled to effectively institute the comprehensive health-care plan devised by former governor Mitt Romney. Though Massachusetts has achieved nearly universal health-care...

The Air National Guard is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the battle over whether to terminate or keep building the 5th generation F-22 fighter. In a June 19 letter to Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Air National Guard Director Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt advocates the purchase of F-22 fighters to secure the Guard's homeland defense mission in the future. According to Wyatt the ANG is facing a serious risk of becoming unable to fulfill the Nations highest strategic priority: defending the Homeland. Wyatts concern is well founded. Within about eight years 80 percent of the ANG's F-16 inventory,...

Climate Change: Channeling King Canute, G-8 leaders agree to wreck the world's economy, and ours, by pledging to prevent temperatures from rising more than 4 degrees by 2050. What if the Earth has other plans?Canute was the legendary king whose sycophantic followers praised his power and wisdom. He was The One of his time. He once stood on the shore and commanded the waves to halt. As the story goes, he was exercising his ego when in fact he was giving his followers a dose of reality — the power of man over nature is finite and inconsequential. We were...

Former GOP Governor Helped Make 2006 Reform Reality. BOSTON -- Three years after the inception of Massachusetts’ landmark health reform legislation, which required every citizen to buy insurance, NewsCenter 5’s Ed Harding wondered what former Gov. Mitt Romney, a key political architect of the plan, thought of its progress. Call it protecting his legacy, well-earned pride, or seeing the glass as half-full, but Romney says Massachusetts deserves an ‘A.’ “It’s working like we had hoped it would work,” the one-time republic presidential candidate said. “We got nearly everybody in Massachusetts health insurance, which really, something people didn't think was possible.”...

The map, touted as a way for residents to monitor the safety of their neighborhoods, doesn't include about 19,000 serious crimes reported in other LAPD data. Officials say they're looking into it. The Los Angeles Police Department's online crime map intended for public use has failed to include nearly 40% of serious crimes reported in the city. In one of those rapes, a man hid in the back of a woman's car, forced her to drive to an abandoned North Hollywood apartment and assaulted her. It was the kind of incident that residents of the neighborhood around Sherman Way and...

National Security: If CIA Director Leon Panetta really has claimed to his old friends in Congress that the agency was lying to them, the impact will be unprecedented. Do we have a mole running Langley?Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee on June 26 fired off a nasty letter to CIA head and former high-ranking Democratic Rep. Leon Panetta. The thrust was that their former House Democratic colleague is a liar. Signed by Reps. Anna Eshoo, Alcee Hastings, Rush Holt, Jan Schakowsky, Adam Smith, Mike Thompson and John Tierney, the curt message said: "Recently you have testified that you have...

Plans for a new coal-fired power plant in central Utah were canceled after the city of Los Angeles -- the plant's biggest power purchaser -- signaled its intention to be "coal free" by 2020. The Intermountain Power Agency -- a political subdivision of the state of Utah co-owned by municipal and rural electric cooperatives -- has dropped plans to build a proposed third 900-megawatt coal-fired generating unit at the Intermountain Power Plant near Delta, Utah. "The project has been abandoned," IPA spokesman John Ward said yesterday. The decision came after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced last week that the...

Yesterday we mentioned that poll out of Ohio showing Obama's support collapsing in the uber-important swing state. Turns out that's not a one-state phenomenon. Both Gallup and Rasmussen have new polls out showing big slippage in support for the administration Everything seems to have changed since that last jobs report, since it viciously undercut the green shoots claims. Here's Rasmussen: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 32% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-seven percent (37%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential...

Liquid nitrogen, vegetable steamers, Macintosh workstations and old, refrigerator-size tape drives. These are just some of the tools a new breed of Space Age archeologists is using to sift through the digital debris from the early days of NASA, mining the information in ways unimaginable when it was first gathered four decades ago. At stake is data that could show Earth's risk of an asteroid strike, shed light on global warming and -- perhaps -- even satisfy those who think the moon landings were a hoax. The most visible of the archeologists is arguably Dennis Wingo, head of Skycorp Inc.,...

Is America a Christian Nation? Many people don't think so today. The truth is, however, that our great nation was founded on principles that are all throughout the Bible. Author and historian David Barton highlights our christian heritage in this eye opening message.

A leading Republican on Thursday said lawmakers should be forced to take lie detector tests before receiving classified briefings, as debate intensified over lying between the intelligence community and Congress. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), a member of the Intelligence Committee and the ranking Republican on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said requiring polygraph tests would safeguard the information and clear up who is being told what. This comes as Democrats have accused the CIA of lying to members of Congress over the years, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has faced her own questions about what she knew about...

First lady Michelle Obama thought about sending her daughters away to summer camp, she said recently, but instead decided on another program -- the "Camp Obama" world tour. "This has been such a, you know, busy year for them," she said, "We're having 'Camp Obama' and, you know, they're going to travel a little more with us, and we're going to do some historic things." It's not your everyday sleepaway camp, but a world-class adventure: This week, the first tweens have toured Rome's Coliseum and Russia's Kremlin -- exotic locations for sure, but the president said his daughters haven't skipped...

The uber-establishment Council on Foreign Relations said Wednesday it favors granting legal status to many of the roughly 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., creating a guest worker program for low-skilled foreign workers to come and work in the U.S and opposes local police getting to conduct immigration raids. The CFR issued an immigration policy report Wednesday that looks to lift caps on foreign university students in the U.S. and allow skilled foreign graduates to get more work visas. The international policy group also wants to create legal paths to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already...

The Iraqi National Police take the lead and escort a U.S convoy through Baghdad, July 6. Photo by Capt. Tommy Avilucea. Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq. BAGHDAD — The Iraqi National Police (NP) and Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq (MNSTC-I) joined forces for convoy operations July 5 - 6, to comply with U.S./Iraq Security Agreement articles. The NP led a convoy through the streets of the Iraqi capital, supporting a U.S. Army mission to transport Americans to various locations. The well-coordinated movement took the convoy through city streets and on highways. The convoy aggressively moved through the traffic...

I have often thought that a basic problem with health care is insurance. That insurance, promising full coverage for those with the right employer, motivates bad behavior from customers and doctors. Why be a savvy shopper when all health care is free? This is often referred to as moral hazard, one abuses a resource if there are no repercussions. Conversely, the need to mitigate health care cost (counter moral hazard) has been regulating price, not paying more than $X for a given procedure. Now in most other markets this combination of moral hazard and cost constraint, constrains innovation. Why innovate...

.S. lawmakers rang alarm bells about the troubled commercial real estate industry, which has been walloped by the credit crunch and an implosion of property values. "The commercial real estate time bomb is ticking," Joint Economic Committee Chairman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said in opening remarks to a hearing before her panel Thursday. U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, said he was distressed about the situation the industry is facing. Banks have yanked back on lending to developers of shopping malls, apartment complexes, hotels and office parks. Meanwhile, the securitization market - a key source of funding for the commercial real...

There is still time to stop the legislative monstrosity known as the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill before the Senate approves it. But for that to happen, Americans must learn how bad it is. Let's briefly review the basics: The bill is ostensibly designed to curb man-caused carbon emissions (presumably without outlawing breathing) to retard global warming. Even if we accept, for purposes of argument, the assumptions of radical, hysterical leftist environmentalists that man-caused global warming will destroy the planet if evil, rich capitalists don't radically curtail their own contributions to the catastrophe, Waxman-Markey would not prevent this Armageddon. Climate scientist Chip...

Britain is ready to cut its number of nuclear warheads as part of global deal to persuade Iran and North Korea to give up the arms race, PM Gordon Brown has said. The Prime Minister said US-brokered talks next year could pave the way for the UK to reduce its 160-warhead arsenal in return for proof from would-be nuclear states they had stopped their weapons programmes. Speaking at a G8 summit in Italy, Mr Brown insisted there was no question of abandoning plans to replace the Trident weapons system. UK Trident Missile But he signalled the number of British warheads...

Most economists believe the U.S. doesn't need another round of stimulus now despite expectations of continued severe job losses. Just eight of 51 economists in The Wall Street Journal's latest forecasting survey said more stimulus is necessary, suggesting an average of about $600 billion in additional spending. On average, the economists forecast an unemployment rate of at least 10% through next June, with a decline to 9.5% by December 2010. "The mother of all jobless recoveries is coming down the pike," said Allen Sinai of Decision Economics. But he doesn't favor more stimulus now, saying "lags in monetary and fiscal...

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2009 – A key measurement of success in Afghanistan will be the attitude of Afghans affected by U.S.-led operations, the military’s second-ranking military officer said today. Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the counterinsurgency mission in Afghanistan elevates the civilian population as a main determinant of success or failure, much as it did in Iraq. “I believe personally that one of our key metrics for success will be over the next few months to see whether or not there is a shift...

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2009 – A detainee transfer and two base renaming ceremonies recently signified the changing role of U.S. forces in Iraq. Soldiers salute behind a tribute to Army Staff Sgt. Todd Olson during a base renaming ceremony in Samarra, Iraq, June 30, 2009. The base had been named in honor of Olson, who was killed in an attack in Samarra in 2006. It is now called Fond'k Abo Hera. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jazz Burney   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Iraqi officials traveled to the Remembrance II theater internment facility on Camp Cropper in Baghdad...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the chief culprits in the housing crisis because they encouraged people who could not afford payments to borrow money, according to a congressional report released Tuesday. The claims in the report have long been advanced by conservatives, who argue that the Community Reinvestment Act and other federal programs fed the housing bubble that burst in 2007 and led to the economic downfall in 2008. But the report explains in detail how Fannie and Freddie -- government sponsored enterprises (GSE) that were not subject to the same oversight as other publicly traded firms -- “privatized...

Burris Won't Run in 2010 By Emily Pierce Roll Call Staff July 9, 2009, 6:14 p.m. Burris Won't Run in 2010 House Chairmen Thumb Noses at White House Health Care Deal Updated: 6:48 p.m. Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) will announce Friday that he will not seek election to a full term in 2010, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Burris’ office issued a press release Thursday evening saying the Senator would make a “major announcement” Friday during a scheduled speech at the Chicago South Loop Hotel. However, his spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. Burris’ decision is likely based on...

The world's most powerful media moguls are "very bearish" on the economy, but they don't seem to be blaming President Obama for the tough times, Rupert Murdoch says. Apart from Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, both owned by News Corp., the media "remains very supportive of him, perhaps not of all of his policies," Murdoch told Stuart Varney of Fox Business Network. Speaking during an interview with Varney on Thursday at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, the News Corp. chairman and CEO also criticized the stimulus bill that was supposed to have juiced the...

The dream of self-sufficiency popularised in the 1970s comedy is not beyond the reach of people living in Britain's five million flats, the organisation says. Lettuce, tomatoes, beetroot and a variety of herbs can all thrive on windox sills – allowing those without gardens and allotments to join the "grow your own" trend. Kingston Lacy, a country mansion in Dorset, is one of the Trust properties where windox boxes have been installed. At other properties, hanging baskets have been converted to grow vegetables. The National Trust has calculated that the nation's windowsills could provide the equivalent of 600 acres of...

U.S. Postal Service officials are considering closing 33 post office branches in the Columbus area in an effort to control costs. Nationwide, more than 3,000 branches in 396 cities -- including Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland -- are on the list. The Postal Service is bleeding $20 million a day. "That's unprecedented; that's almost unheard of," said Kathy Lucas, spokeswoman for the Postal Service's Columbus district. "We have not had to do any layoffs, and that's why we are taking every possible step we can." Postal Service officials say nothing is etched in stone. "Everything is preliminary now," Lucas said. In...

After being closely followed by the U.S.S. John McCain, a vessel on its way to Burma believed to be carrying missile parts turned back to return to North Korea. The ties between the two dictatorships are worrisome, as Burma’s purchases help sustain the DPRK regime and their close military cooperation will make the Southeast Asian country the North Korea of its region. A secret Burmese government report has leaked out revealing that 17 officials visited North Korea from November 22-29, 2008, including the chief of staff of the armed forces. An agreement for close military cooperation was signed on November...

In an interview with private TV network Globovision that was broadcast Tuesday in Venezuela, Secretary Clinton got tough on Iran, calling for "even stricter" sanctions and saying its "pursuit of nuclear weapons" would "be very destabilizing in the Middle East and beyond."

The prospects for conservatism as a political force in the United States are arguably grim. The GOP's electoral prospects may be on the verge of drying up due to demographic shifts, particularly the growth of the Hispanic vote -- the kind of shifts that, in the past, have driven major political parties into extinction.   There are serious problems with the youth vote as well. Some commentators insist that the GOP must begin distancing itself from moral issues such as abortion and gay marriage, that it must put on a more "socially progressive" face if it is to win this...

QUESTION: In Costa Rica, Zelaya, I think that he’s already there for the process. I don’t know if Micheletti is going to participate or not. I don’t know if he confirmed yet. And I want to know if the U.S. is in some way monitoring this process with Oscar Arias. MR. KELLY: Yeah. QUESTION: If you were getting any updates. MR. KELLY: Yeah. QUESTION: Or this process will continue. MR. KELLY: Yes, I do have an update. We understand that the mediation talks were supposed to have started about 20 minutes ago. I understand that President Zelaya is already there....