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Arizona Sen. John McCain said Sunday this fall's midterm elections could be "seismic," but that Republicans need to make a better direct appeal to the American people in order to sweep their votes. "We need to give voters a reason to be for us, not just against the Democrats," the 2008 Republican presidential nominee said on "Fox News Sunday." McCain said the GOP needs to create another "Contract with America" — the electoral and policy blueprint put forth by Republicans in 1994, the last time the GOP swept Congress. "We need to make a short list of promises to the...

Next week, President Obama is scheduled to propose new measures to boost the economy. I hope they’re bold and substantive, since the Republicans will oppose him regardless — if he came out for motherhood, the G.O.P. would declare motherhood un-American. So he should put them on the spot for standing in the way of real action. But let’s put politics aside and talk about what we’ve actually learned about economic policy over the past 20 months. When Mr. Obama first proposed $800 billion in fiscal stimulus, there were two groups of critics. Both argued that unemployment would stay high —...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, called for an investigation of those who are protesting the building of the Ground Zero Mosque on Tuesday. She told San Francisco's KCBS radio: Link to audio

A new State Department report designating terrorist organizations notably excludes one group: the Taliban. The U.S. has been fighting a war in Afghanistan for almost a decade aimed at “defeating the Taliban,” Taliban members repeatedly have threatened and killed American citizens and lawmakers have increased pressure on State to add the Taliban to the list. Earlier this summer, a group of congressional Democrats sent a letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton urging her to begin the process of categorizing the Taliban as a terrorist group. In June, Sens. Charles Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand of New York and Frank Lautenberg...

What I learned about Hugo Chávez's mental health when I visited Venezuela with Sean Penn.Recent accounts of Hugo Chávez's politicized necrophilia may seem almost too lurid to believe, but I can testify from personal experience that they may well be an understatement. In the early hours of July 16—just at the midnight hour, to be precise—Venezuela's capo officiated at a grisly ceremony. This involved the exhumation of the mortal remains of Simón Bolívar, leader of Latin America's rebellion against Spain, who died in 1830. According to a vividly written article by Thor Halvorssen in the July 25 Washington Post, the...

Anybody else ?

President Obama ranks 15th out of 44 in a poll of the best and worst presidents while former President George W. Bush earns a place in the bottom five, according to the Siena College Research Institute's recent survey of 238 presidential scholars released Thursday. Obama secured a top ten place in two skill set categories, communication ability (7th) and ability to compromise (10th), and in two personality trait categories, imagination (6th) and intelligence (8th). Background, described as family, education, and experience, proved his lowest score at 32nd. This is the 5th time the institute has conducted the survey of U.S....

This guy is nuttier than squirrel turd....

For the last month, Arizona Sen. John McCain has been running his primary campaign against former Rep. J.D. Hayworth as if it was the final weekend of the 2008 presidential campaign. On a daily basis, McCain's team bashes Hayworth while simultaneously working to shore up the Senator's right flank through a series of symbolic acts ranging from the rejection of the "maverick" title he wore proudly during both of his presidential campaigns to his forceful support of Arizona's controversial new immigration law. (McCain released an ad recently in which he urges the federal government to "complete the danged fence", a...

Perfect opportunity to post what I consider to be the hands-down, greatest video of all-time, ‘Hippies Crying Over Dead Trees”…***Already posted on FR but a great pick me up when your feeling down***

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has let stand a ruling saying the Boy Scouts cannot lease city park land in San Diego because the group is a religious organization. The high court refused to hear an appeal from San Diego-area Boy Scouts.

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) threatened to abandon his effort to push a climate and energy bill Saturday, saying he will only continue if Democratic leaders promise to relinquish plans to bring up immigration legislation first. Graham's departure, if he follows through on his ultimatum, would likely doom any chance of passing a climate bill this year. He is the sole Republican working with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a compromise proposal which they had planned to unveil Monday. In a letter to leaders of the effort to enact climate and energy legislation, Graham wrote,...

TORONTO - Ontario's Catholic schools can't opt out of a revamped sex ed curriculum even if it goes against their religious beliefs to teach kids about masturbation and homosexuality, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday. Several conservative and religious groups claim the changes coming this fall will corrupt young minds with "explicit" topics like anal sex. But Ontario's Catholic premier made it clear that all public schools must teach the lessons that will start as early as age six. The first changes to Ontario's curriculum in a dozen years will see students learning about masturbation in Grade 6 and oral and...

Washington - Senator John McCain says the United States has been backing away from a brewing fight with Iran, while that country moves ever closer to having nuclear weapons.McCain opened a Senate hearing Wednesday by saying that Iran will get the bomb unless the United States acts more boldly. Speaking figuratively, the Arizona Republican says the U.S. keeps pointing a loaded gun at Iran but failing to "pull the trigger."

CNN said that it's in a "category of one" among television news networks in how it delivers non-biased news, and promised to continue emphasizing its journalism despite a ratings free-fall on its flagship network. The network's sales pitch to advertisers on Tuesday came two weeks after the Nielsen Co. revealed that CNN's weekday prime-time viewership during the first three months of the year was down 42 percent from 2009.

Political correctness is on everyone's mind these days. We over emphasize the need to not offend anyone based on race, religion, gender, and a host of other reasons. We never wish to make fun of anyone related to appearance or behavior, and to be socially bereft of feelings will make you an outcast quicker than a snowball's chance of survival in summer. But have you ever been called "crazy" or "nuts" or "insane" even in jest? However, there are plenty of people that truly are.

Obama: the Creed that Defines the Character of This Country is YES WE CAN. Yes he really said it in Iowa at the end of his campaign speech.

In March 2008, retired teacher Charles Johnson opened fire at a hospital in Georgia, killing three employees; police said he sought revenge against staffers who cared for his mother before she died in 2004. Last April, Mario Ramirez, a pharmacy technician at California's Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, shot and killed two supervisors before committing suicide; his motive may never be known. Last December, Robert Yagi, driven by love and compassion, shot his terminally ill wife as she lay in her hospital bed in Hawaii; she survived, but he later committed suicide. On March 2, Stanley Lupienski, an elderly patient...

Pelosi and the Tea Party 'Share Views' February 28, 2010 8:15 AM House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has much in common with the Tea Party. The speaker now says she shares views with movement she dismissed last summer as being “Astroturf” -- her suggestion that the grassroots of the Tea Party were a creation of the Republican Party. In a “This Week” interview with ABC’s Elizabeth Vargas, Pelosi said, “We share some of the views of the Tea Partiers in terms of the role of special interest in Washington, D.C., as -- it just has to stop. And that's...

VP Biden went on CNN to chat with Larry King Wednesday. Many recall Biden's plans to give in to Iraq's fractious factions and carve the country into three territories. And even more probably recall Biden's boss' plan to halt the Iraq war years ago. Plus, of course, Obama's vehement opposition to the 2007 troop surge of you-know-who from Texas that Obama knew for certain was only going to worsen sectarian strife there. Well, of course, it didn't turn out that way, thanks in large measure to the brave service of U.S. troops who served and helped peace to break out...