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U.S. Border Patrol agents have arrested 57 people discovered packed into a Pirtleville house they believe was used by smugglers to hide undocumented immigrants. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Monday that the stash house was discovered Friday. The federal agency says 56 people are Mexicans and one person is from El Salvador. The group consists of 19 females and 38 males. The group was taken to the Douglas Border Patrol Station for further processing. The agency says stash houses are used by smugglers to hold undocumented immigrants while they wait for a chance to transport them farther into the...

Just hours after Sen. Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa released a report Friday on their investigation into the abrupt firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin, the Obama White House gave the lawmakers a trove of new, previously-withheld documents on the affair. It was a twist on the now-familiar White House late-Friday release of bad news; this time, the new evidence was put out not only at the start of a weekend but also hours too late for inclusion in the report.

A top federal health official said Wednesday that the controversial new guidelines for breast cancer screening do not represent government policy, as the Obama administration sought to keep the debate over mammograms from undermining the prospects for health-care reform. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in a written statement, said the new guidelines had "caused a great deal of confusion and worry among women and their families across this country," and she stressed that they were issued by "an outside independent panel of doctors and scientists who . . . do not set federal policy and . . ....

Congressional panels in both chambers will look into the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, which left 13 dead and at least 30 wounded. Military prosecutors on Thursday charged Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, with 13 initial counts of premeditated murder. Hasan opened fire on a soldier processing center on the Texas base on Nov. 6.

Health Care Reform: Failure to buy health insurance in the just-passed health care bill could get you five years in jail with a $250,000 fine. How can violating a law that's unconstitutional be a felony? The passage last Saturday night of the House health care measure by a fragile 220-215 margin may well prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. In polls, townhall meetings and tea parties, Americans have shown they don't want a "reform" that costs a staggering $1.2 trillion yet fails to meet the left's desire of insuring all the uninsured. And they certainly don't want a bill that...

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...

Democrat's Winning Margin in Upstate New York House Race in DoubtUpdated November 12, 2009 by AP Though Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman conceded and Democrat Bill Owens was sworn into Congress last week, the routine recanvassing of votes shows Owens' lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes, with about 5,800 absentee ballots received so far that have yet to be counted. The special election last week for the 23rd Congressional District seat in New York may not be over after all. Though Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman conceded and Democrat Bill Owens was sworn into Congress last week, the routine recanvassing of votes...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison by Jan. 22 was followed by a series of mistakes and missteps by his administration that will delay the prison's closure for months, according to a report from a policy organization with close ties to the White House. Those mistakes — which ranged from initially having too few people on board to handle the workload to misreading Congress — have put the timetable months behind schedule and will push the prison's closure well beyond the January deadline, which Obama announced with great fanfare two days after...

Obamacare, the bill that jut got voted for in the House last Saturday, is a brand new can of worms. It has occurred to me after thinking some more about Saturday evening’s vote in the House to approve the Pelosi version of Obamacare, that there is far more to what happened than appears. The polls clearly show that the American public is not overwhelming in favor of Obamacare. Most Americans are relatively happy with their insurance, and, even those who are not, believe that Obamacare will not lower costs, will, in fact, increase costs, and will, more than likely, decrease...

WASHINGTON - Prodded by labor unions, the Obama administration is taking its first step toward trying to fix the ailing airline industry, which could lead to a partial return to economic regulation. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is holding a forum with aviation stakeholders on Thursday to discuss the state of the industry and ways government can help provide economic stability for air carriers. The industry has been rocked by repeated crises in recent years, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States; the global SARS virus in 2003; skyrocketing oil prices in recent years; and the current economic...

Cannot post article.

Republicans Jump to Six-Point Lead on Generic Ballot Republican candidates have stretched their lead over Democrats to six points in the Generic Congressional Ballot. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 43% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 37% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Republicans have held the lead for over four months now. Voters not affiliated with either party continue to heavily favor Republicans, 43% to 20%.

Cost The CBO now estimates health bill spending at $3 trillion over 10 years. Since the CBO historically underestimates expenses, assume massive new deficits for a country that can ill afford them. Personal Requirements You'll be required to buy a 'qualified' health plan. A family earning $102K a year will pay $1,700 a month in premium and out-of-pocket expenses. 'Willful' failure to buy a plan will result in a fine of up to $250,000 and 'imprisonment of up to five years'. Illegal immigrants are exempt from fines and imprisonment.

The House Ethics Committee Has Spent Too Much Time Sniping At Its Own Investigative Arm A simmering conflict between the House ethics committee and its fledgling investigative arm has escalated into open combat, prompting watchdogs to warn that lawmakers may be gearing up to kill the new Office of Congressional Ethics.Following the accidental leak on Oct. 29 of a 22-page ethics panel activity report, most news stories have trumpeted the more than 30 House members identified as apparently under investigation. These include at least seven lawmakers caught up in the panel's ongoing probe of defense earmarks and the now-defunct lobbying...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said today it was time for the Senate to "take the baton" on health care reform after the House passed its plan for overhauling the nation's health care system. "For years we've been told that this couldn't be done," Obama said in a brief statement from the Rose Garden. "But last night the House proved different." The Democratic-controlled House on Saturday narrowly passed the far-reaching legislation, 220-215, but the road ahead in the Senate promises to be rocky. The president said the House vote took courage for many lawmakers because of the heated and often...

Nancy Pelosi's Democrats operated under a moral and ideological compul sion to pass ObamaCare -- consequences be damned. The late conservative columnist Robert Novak liked to say that God had put Republicans on the Earth to cut taxes. Democrats believe they were put on Earth to nationalize health care. It doesn't matter if the legislation to do so is unpopular; if it is fiscally unsustainable and will increase insurance premiums; if it can only pass on a party-line vote, in contrast to other major pieces of social legislation like Social Security and Medicare.

WASHINGTON - The glow from a health care triumph faded quickly for President Barack Obama on Sunday as Democrats realized the bill they fought so hard to pass in the House has nowhere to go in the Senate. .................. The problem is that the Senate won't run with it. The government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate.

Democrats are certainly jubilant over the passage of PelosiCare last night by a vote of 220-215, a margin of just 5 votes. But one wonders how comfortable supporters of the bill are with such a razor-thin victory. After all, Cap and Tax passed the House by 7 votes and that is, in all likelihood, dead in the Senate.

The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a massive overhaul of the American health care system Saturday night by a vote of 220 to 215. One Republican, Rep. Joseph Cao of Louisiana, crossed the aisle, while 39 Democrats joined the Republicans in opposing the measure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called passage of the bill "an historic moment for our nation and for America's families," while Republicans warned that the bill will raise taxes, increase insurance premiums and make cuts to Medicare. An enormous round of applause broke out throughout the House chamber when the crucial 218th vote was cast to...

Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has regularly accused the Republicans in the House of displaying “a culture of corruption.” Yet the critical vote to get the House version of the health bill out of the House, demonstrates that Speaker Pelosi not only likes corruption, she counts on it. Remember her middle name because it figures in the proof. On 7 November at 11:15 pm House bill 3962 passed by a vote of 220-215. Votes in favor of that bill included the following: Norm Dicks (D-Wash), Jane Harman (D-Cal), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Alan Mollohan (D-WVa). Jim Moran...

After months of Tea Parties, town hall meetings, marches on Washington, and millions of calls, letters, and faxes, the Pelosi House of Representatives still passed the most comprehensive control of American lives to date. On the C-SPAN broadcast of the live vote, several citizens who supported the bill called in to tell their stories. Some had pre-existing conditions. Some were elderly and on Medicare. Some just wanted things to be “fair.” All of them, whether they believe it or not, were simply making the statement that they were willing to trade their freedom for financial security. I, on the other...

At this moment, Democratic sources say their internal head counts have them breaking through the 218 mark this afternoon. Whether that will mean that more Democrats will come on board, or that Pelosi is going to cut other members lose, is still unclear. But Dems are confident they have won. By John Bresnahan

During a debate on the house floor numerous Republicans continously object while the democrats are speaking. It appears they are doing this in protests of the dems holding up procedure. Because of the back and forth and interupting I'm not going to attempt a transcript. Here's the video link.

Here is video of GOP Members of the House objecting as Democrats begin trying to ram the Health Care Bill through today. Democrats set only four hours for debate. . . . (VIDEO)

Audio runs about 20 minutes. The main points were that dems are peeling away from "yes" votes on a daily basis, although the consensus was that it would pass - but this varied a lot in the conversation. Dems are feeling heat both directly from constituents and indirectly from Tuesday's election returns. Speaker Pelosi is pushing this vote at this time, they suggested, because the closer the 2010 mid-terms come, the harder it will be to keep votes. Rep. Capito suggested that there is a lot of pressure from the White House - President Obama will have no momentum whatsoever...

Paul Singer of Roll Call is reporting: The House ethics committee is likely to exonerate five members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) who were accused of taking an improper trip to the Caribbean, according to sources familiar with the case. If this is true, we are not surprised. When we provided photographs and audio recordings from the trip at the request of the Committee in May, we made clear that our willingness to do so was not an endorsement of the Ethics Committee process, which has again proven to be a joke.Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-NC), a member of...

Majority leader: House will pass health bill By ERICA WERNER and RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writers WASHINGTON – The second-ranking House Democrat predicted that historic health care legislation will be passed Saturday as the AARP, the nation's premier lobbying group for the elderly, announced it was signing on to the bill. Rep. Steny Hoyer said House leaders expect to have the 218 votes needed to pass the sweeping bill, which would extend coverage to tens of millions of uninsured people and ban insurance companies from turning people away. President Barack Obama has the health care overhaul the defining social goal...

Need some help. Was there a Health Care bill voted on in the House a few months back? Or are all health care bills still in the planning stages with no votes on any of them? What was the bill a few months back that about 20 Repubicans voted for? Was that the stimulus bill?

President Barack Obama plans a trip to Capitol Hill this week to meet with lawmakers as his push for healthcare legislation moves forward. Congressional officials say Obama plans to visit the Capitol on Friday. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the meetings have not been announced. The White House declined to confirm details of the president's schedule for Friday. Obama's fellow Democrats are pushing a healthcare overhaul that remains the president's top domestic priority. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes to have legislation on the House floor for a vote on Saturday.

House Will Vote on Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill on Saturday Washington, DC -- The House of Representatives will finally cast its first votes on the pro-abortion health care reform bill this weekend. After a fluid process that saw dates repeatedly pushed back, the first chance pro-life advocates will have to stop the abortion funding bill will come Saturday night. ACTION NEEDED! This is it, the House will finally vote on the pro-abortion health care bill. Please pass this on and then call or email NOW and urge NO votes on the rule and the bill. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5615.html

Congressional Phone/Office Directory HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 111th CONGRESS Phone# & Room# (alpha by State & Name) 40094 Representative State District Phone Room Young, Don AK At Large 202-225-5765 2111 * Aderholt, Robert B. AL 4th 202-225-4876 1433 Bachus, Spencer AL 6th 202-225-4921 2246 Bonner, Jo AL 1st 202-225-4931 2236 Bright, Bobby AL 2nd 202-225-2901 1205 Davis, Artur AL 7th 202-225-2665 208 Griffith, Parker AL 5th 202-225-4801 417 Rogers, Mike AL 3rd 202-225-3261 324 * Berry, Marion AR 1st 202-225-4076 2305 Boozman, John AR 3rd 202-225-4301 1519 Ross, Mike AR 4th 202-225-3772 2436 Snyder, Vic AR 2nd 202-225-2506 2210 *...

Expect GOP to Pickup 1 to 4 seats in Virginia House of Delegates.

While press and pundits focus almost ad nauseum on what will happen Tuesday in New York's 23rd Congressional District, as well as the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, everyone has forgotten the battle being waged for the California congressional seat vacated by Ellen Tauscher when she resigned to become a member of President Obama's State Department. To be sure, the 10th Congressional District of the Golden State is a Democratic stronghold, especially after some recent gerrymandering. The latest poll shows Democratic candidate and current Lt. Gov. John Garamendi with a commanding 10-point lead over Republican challenger David Harmer,...

Republican House members will be joined by actor Jon Voight and nationally-syndicated radio talk show host Mark Levin to host a “House Call on Congress” this Thursday. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has led the charge announcing the event last week. Bachmann spoke with HUMAN EVENTS yesterday about the effort to lobby members of Congress in person on their health care vote. “We’re billing this as an emergency house call on Congress. We want to bring all of the town halls of August here to Washington, D.C. because in two months, they’ve forgotten the message that the American people sent loud...

House Health Care Bill Would Fund Abortions "For Years to Come" Washington, DC -- The pro-life movement is unified in its opposition to the House health care reform bill Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled last week because of its abortion funding. In a new letter to members of Congress, the National Right to Life more exactly spells out what is at stake in the votes expected later this week. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5606.html

House Health Care Bill Has Death Panels, Assisted Suicide Promotion Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The new House health care reform bill unveiled last week by Speaker Nancy Pelosi contains more than the controversial "death panels" panned in the previous legislation. The new bill, H.R. 3962, contains direct taxpayer-funded promotion of assisted suicide in the states where it is currently legal. http://www.lifenews.com/bio2988.html

As part of President Obama's commitment to government transparency, we are providing records of White House visitors on an ongoing basis online. In December 2009, we will begin posting all White House visitor records for the period from September 15th onwards under the terms of our new voluntary disclosure policy. In addition, as part of our new policy, we will post records dating from January 20th that are specifically requested on an ongoing basis. For more information, read the White House blog post announcing the new policy.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Fighting plunging support, Republican Dierdre Scozzafava abruptly suspended her campaign Saturday in a special election for a U.S. House seat that has exposed a rift among national factions of the party. Campaign spokesman Matt Burns said Scozzafava is essentially withdrawing from the race, although her name will remain on Tuesday's ballot. She thinks stepping aside is best for the party, he said. "It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support," Scozzafava said in a written statement. "Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported...

More than 30 US politicians, among them seven members of a defence procurement committee, are being investigated in congressional ethics inquiries into influence-peddling, according to a document leaked accidentally on to the internet. The disclosure sheds light on a process by which billions of dollars a year are spent on defence projects that the Pentagon does not want and which limits funds available for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. House Representatives named in the document include John Murtha, the chairman of the House Defence Appropriations Sub-committee, who added so-called “earmarks” worth more than $100 million (£61 million) to...

Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) is criticizing the new ethics office that recommended he be reviewed by the House ethics panel. Graves issues a statement Thursday thanking the House ethics committee for dismissing the charges against him and lashed out at the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). Graves struck early by releasing the statement before the ethics panel publicly announced that it had unanimously dismissed the complaint against him. Graves lashed out at the OCE in his statement, accusing it of investigating an anonymous complaint and looking into a matter that even if true did not violate House ethics rules. “I...

(CNSNews.com) – White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that there is no "veracity" to the argument that the U.S. Constitution does not authorize the federal government to force individuals to buy health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office has said that the federal government has never before in American history forced Americans to purchase any good or service. When the health-care bill was being debated in the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, raised questions about the constitutionality of forcing Americans to buy health insurance, which all congressional versions...

House Democrats blocked the public from attending the unveiling ceremony of their health-care bill Thursday morning, allowing only pre-approved visitors whose names appeared on lists to enter the event at the West side of the Capitol. The audience at the crowded press conference included Hill staffers, union workers, health care providers and students, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who thanked them for attending.

This is the official pdf from the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled by Nancy Pelosi today. It is 1,990 pages.

U.S. President Barack Obama has videotaped a message to be shown Saturday night at the annual memorial ceremony for Yitzhak Rabin in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. The message will relate to the murdered prime minister's legacy and the need to advance the peace process. It was prepared in response to a request from Rabin's daughter, Dalia Rabin. This is another step in Obama's attempt to speak directly to the Israeli public in light of the very low level of support he has among the Israeli public. Several polls over the past few months show the American president has won...

As President Obama contemplates U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, the military operation in the country is facing increasing violence. Eight U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan on Tuesday. October has been the most violent month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war began eight years ago. Today’s violence follows the deaths of 14 U.S. troops killed yesterday in a helicopter collision believed to have been caused by enemy fire. A total of 55 U.S. troops have been killed this month. Overall, 2009 has witnessed the highest number of U.S. and NATO troop deaths in Afghanistan since the war began.

Besides giving advice on avoiding taxes and fraudulently getting home loans for brothels featuring 13-year-old Salvadoran girls illegally smuggled into this country, ACORN officials could soon be helping regulate your local bank, thanks to an amendment adopted by Rep. Barney Frank's House Financial Services Committee. The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, and provided that five slots on the oversight board for the proposed new Consumer Financial Protection Agency be reserved for representatives of "consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly...

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) told CNSNews.com that President Barack Obama told him in a telephone conversation that when he said in his Sept. 9 speech to a joint session of Congress that “under our plan no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions” he was not talking about the actual bill drafted in the House but about the president’s own health care plan—which has never been written. “I don’t know if it is a game of semantics or what,” Stupak said of Obama’s nationally televised declaration to Congress that the health-care plan will not allow federal funding...

Obama's State Department cuts funding for Freedom House to placate Iran "Denying the Green Revolution" (Wall Street Journal, October 23 2009) reports that Barack Obama's State Department has cut funding for Freedom House, the bipartisan organization that reports on freedom and human rights throughout the world, because it publishes material critical of Iran's murderous regime. Freedom House was founded largely by Franklin Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt was its honorary chairman. As reported by the Wall Street Journal article, The Boston Globe reported this month that the Connecticut-based Iran Human Rights Documentation Center recently lost its State Department funding. The Center—a...

Reporting from Washington - The Obama White House, stepping in where other Democrats feared to tread, has launched a potentially risky fight with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- attempting to bypass the nation's most powerful business organization and develop independent ties to corporate America. In recent weeks, President Obama, his Energy secretary and one of his other most senior advisors have begun criticizing the chamber publicly, casting it as a profligate lobbying organization at odds with its members in opposing the administration on such issues as consumer protection and climate change.

Who are the the DIABLOs (Democrats In All But Labels Only)? Who are the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only)? Unfortunately, the American Conservative Union's rankings are pretty useless. In search of being non-partisan and having an even spread of votes, they include many votes which are very lopsided, and so therefore Republicans can fake conservatism without upsetting their media masters and liberal donors. At the same time, a conservative who thinks that a bill is too liberal can get lumped in with all the liberals who thought the bill was too conservative. Combining these two factors, it's impossible to tell...