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TEL AVIV – President Barack Obama's father was abusive and hit at least one of his American wives, Obama's half-brother disclosed at a press conference in China today. The relationship that Barack Obama Sr. had with his third wife might shed some light into the mysterious relationship between Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, and Barack Obama Sr. It also may provide some background into why Dunham sought a divorce from Obama Sr., although there is actually no record of their marriage. Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo – who had the same, late, father as the U.S. president – spoke to reporters as...

Highlighting even further the ratings erosion at CNN in prime time, the “Most Trusted Name in News” finished in fourth place among cable news outlets during election coverage last night. Fox News was #1 by a mile, followed by MSNBC, then CNN sister network HLN and CNN in 4th place. They were fourth in both total viewers and the A25-54 demographic. CNN’s 4th place finish last night was only made more glaring because last year’s election coverage on the network was their best night of all time. They didn’t just have more viewers than every other cable news network last...

A powerful subcommittee chairman working on financial regulations didn't appreciate Rahm Emanuel's role in trying to change his bill — and he pointedly reminded members of his panel that President Barack Obama's chief of staff isn't in the House anymore. Rep. Paul Kanjorski sounded annoyed when freshman New Jersey Democrat John Adler invoked Emanuel's name while pushing a controversial amendment to Kanjorski's investor protection bill. “What seat does he occupy here?” Kanjorski demanded about freshman Rep. John Adler (D-N.J.), pointing around the half-empty Financial Services Committee room. Kanjorski is chairman of the capital markets subcommittee, and he didn't like the...

America has been greatly blessed by God and has stood as the greatest country in the history of the world for over 200 years. America has many foreign and domestic enemies that are seeking her destruction.This thread is a daily call and reminder for people of faith who believe in God and in the power of prayer to make a commitment to intercede for America at this critical time in her history2 Chronicles 7:14If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I...

It's not too late to RSVP for Hillsdale College's next "First Principles on First Fridays" lecture, featuring Dr. Paul Rahe, the Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College. "America's Finest Hour: The 20th Century's 75-Year War" November 6, 2009 7:30 - 8:45 AM The Heritage Foundation's Allison Auditorium 214 Massachussetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 The First World War broke out at the beginning of August, 1914. The Cold War came to an end with the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989. The seventy-five years that passed between these...

Cold War: The White House has announced our absence at ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Meanwhile, Russia has been practicing a nuclear invasion of an abandoned Poland. The Berlin Wall has been a famous backdrop for American presidents sounding the battle cry of liberty in the struggle against tyranny. It was there that John F. Kennedy expressed our solidarity with the encircled residents of that outpost of freedom with his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner." And it was there that Ronald Reagan, with a defiant "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," voiced our...

PRINCETON, NJ -- A majority of Americans now see President Barack Obama as governing from the left. Specifically, 54% say his policies as president have been mostly liberal while 34% call them mostly moderate. This contrasts with public expectations right after Obama's election a year ago, when as many expected him to be moderate as to be liberal. This finding comes from a USA Today/Gallup survey, conducted Oct. 16-19, which offers several indications that Obama's public image has changed since his election last November. Much of that change is inauspicious for Obama. Perhaps related to the re-evaluation of Obama's ideological...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate late Wednesday unanimously passed legislation extending unemployment benefits and also significantly expanding a homebuyer tax credit that was championed by Republican U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia. The Senate voted 98-0 to extend unemployment benefits for the jobless by up to 20 weeks. In states with unemployment rates of 8.5 percent and above -- in Georgia the unemployment rate is 10.1 percent -- the jobless could receive up to 99 weeks of benefits, which average about $300 per week...

An executive has won the right to sue his employer on the basis that he was unfairly dismissed for his green views after a judge ruled that environmentalism had the same weight in law as religious and philosophical beliefs. In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that "a belief in man-made climate change ... is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations". The ruling could open the door for employees to sue their companies for failing to account for their green lifestyles, such as providing recycling...

WASHINGTON — Far from chastened by off-year election setbacks, congressional Democrats vowed no let-up in the drive to pass controversial health care Wednesday, arguing that the way to regain voter trust was to complete what they started in more prosperous political times. Any suggestion that "we ought to run like scalded dogs from trying to fix health care for this country is wrong. I believe the judgment might be more punishing if we throw in the towel because it's difficult," said North Dakota Rep. Earl Pomeroy, a political moderate and supporter of the legislation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes to have...

When it comes to climate change, just have a little faith!In an unusual case in the United Kingdom, it has been ruled that climate change beliefs should be afforded the same legal protections as religious freedoms. The bizarre ruling sets a landmark legal precedent and could have broad implications both in Britain and abroad. The case began when Tim Nicholson, former head of sustainability at property firm Grainger PLC was laid off in July 2008 for his criticism of management on the basis of climate change beliefs. Mr. Nicholson, who renovated his house to be greener and refuses to fly...

Leaked copies of two speeches Sarah Palin prepared for last year's US election night have revealed she planned to salute her husband Todd as the nation's "first ever Second Dude" in the event of victory. In defeat, which she suffered with Senator John McCain at the hands of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the Republican vice-presidential candidate wanted to tell Todd to "get ready for the Iron Dog snow machine race!". A new book, Sarah from Alaska, details how the then state governor fought tooth and nail to introduce Sen McCain on stage in his home town of Phoenix, Arizona,...

Blue skies, warm weather and a crowd estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 people greeted the "Tea Party Express" bus tour in the parking lot of Lawrence-Dumont Stadium this afternoon. Members of the tour, titled "Countdown to Judgment Day," entertained the crowd with songs and speeches calling for change in Washington D.C., less government spending, less government intrusion, and an end to bailouts and President Obama's health care reform plans.The fourth tea party in Wichita lasted about two hours.Most in the crowd held signs proclaiming sentiments such as "We Want Our Country Back," "Wake Up America" and "Nobama Death Care."Fifteen people...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq, Nov. 4, 2009 – The game is dominoes on this autumnal night on Camp Savage. Army Maj. Joan Carrick shuffles the small spotted tiles, then sends them skidding around the card table. Across the table sits Carrick’s dominoes partner, Army Staff Sgt. Larry Saunders. To her left and right sit her opponents for the night, Army Capt. Timothy Vandewalle and an Iraqi interpreter known as Denzel. Army Maj. Joan Carrick, Army Capt. Timothy Vandewalle, Army Staff Sgt. Larry Saunders, and an Iraqi interpreter known only as Denzel play dominoes on Camp Savage, Iraq, Oct. 14,...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 4, 2009 – Iraqi security forces arrested 21 suspects today during operations targeting vehicle-borne bomb network members in Baghdad and Bayji, Iraq, military officials reported. Iraqi security forces in western Baghdad arrested 17 suspects while serving a warrant for a man charged with being involved in vehicle-borne bomb attacks. The security team searched several buildings and sequestered several people for questioning. Based on information gathered, 17 were determined to be suspected associates of the warranted man, who was not apprehended in the operation. In Bayji, southwest of Kirkuk, Iraqi police and U.S. advisors searched with a warrant for...

Does the National Journal's Hotline inhabit the same universe as the rest of us? Republicans went two-for-three in last night's big races. But in declaring Winners and Losers among non-candidates involved with the campaigns, the only Losers Hotline saw were . . . Republicans and conservatives, with nary a Dem in sight! Chris Matthews was only too happy to seize on the Hotline hitlist during his Sideshow segment on this evening's Hardball. Here were Hotline's three Losers: * Sarah Palin: for jumping into Hoffman's losing cause, whereas McDonell and Christie didn't invite her in and won. * Pete Sessions: the...

KABUL, Nov. 4, 2009 – Combined Afghan and international security forces killed or detained several militants and recovered multiple weapons and explosives in operations in Afghanistan yesterday, military officials reported. A combined security force detained a group of suspects in Khowst province, including a Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin militant group commander believed to be responsible for managing a homemade-bomb network and working with Haqqani terrorist network elements in the area. Recent media reports profile the Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin as one of the three main militant groups in Afghanistan, officials said. The group keeps a low profile by cooperating with Taliban and Haqqani elements...

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2009 – Many U.S. servicemembers working and living alongside Afghan soldiers here find they have much in common with their Afghan counterparts. Army Capt. Jacob White discusses planning with Afghan soldiers Maj. Mohammed Ahmen and Capt. Zalmay at Forward Operating Base Bullard in Afghanistan’s Zabul province, Sept. 29, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Stephen Decatur  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team live on the same bases with their Afghan counterparts and work side by side with them during combat operations. The U.S. soldiers advise and...

A GOP supporter waved a broom Tuesday at Rivals Sports Bar and Grill after Republicans swept the competitive Albemarle County Board of Supervisors races. Republican Rodney S. Thomas pulled ahead of Democrat David L. Slutzky, the incumbent, taking the Rio District seat. And Duane Snow, a Republican businessman and grandfather of 13, sailed past a Democrat and an independent for the Samuel Miller seat.... Snow said that his commitments include “looking for wastes and inefficiencies. I’m going to listen to the citizens of Albemarle County.” Snow received more votes than Democrat Madison Cummings and independent John Lowry. The Rio victor,...

LifeNews.com Note: Colleen Raezler is a research assistant at the Culture and Media Institute. This article originally appeared in NewsBusters, the blog of the Media Research Center.   Profits, not the killing of unborn children, are the "real immorality" of abortion, according to "View" panelist Joy Behar. Behar expressed her unique view of morality during the Nov. 3 "Hot Topics" discussion about Abby Johnson, a Texas Planned Parenthood director who resigned from her post last month after seeing an abortion on an ultrasound. Johnson explained to the local Texas CBS affiliate that Planned Parenthood had been pressuring her to focus...

NORFOLK, Va., Nov. 4, 2009 – Army Staff Sgt. Megan Krause’s words come out in a rush, as if she wants everyone to hear and learn from her story. Staff Sgt. Megan Krause, an Army Reserve medic who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, hopes to help other servicemembers by telling her story of seeking help when post-traumatic stress had her spiraling out of control. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Krause, an Army reservist with the 365th Engineer Battalion in Pennsylvania, does want people to hear her story, and she wants to connect with servicemembers so they...

Imagine launching a new restaurant and incurring the scrutiny of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women before it even opens. That’s what happened to the owners of Stoddard’s Fine Food & Ale, a “gastropub” opening this month in Downtown Crossing. Controversy erupted after Stoddard’s sent out a press release last month about its opening that included news of a private, membership-based “gentlemen-only Friday Club” on its lower level. After the plans came under criticism for excluding women - and possibly violating a state law that prohibits discrimination in public places - Stoddard’s “clarified” its policy...

578 Votes Counted for Scozzafava in 3 Election Districts Where Hoffman Received ZERO Counted Votes With 92% of the precincts accounted for and a hefty 5,850 vote differential, news today that Madison County's Board of Election has confirmed that Doug Hoffman received zero counted votes in three of its fifty-five election districts is unlikely to cause the Conservative candidate in yesteday's Special Election in the 23rd Congressional District to rescind his concession speech. But it does raise eyebrows among election watchers who heard numerous accounts of election day malfunctions of a new voting machine system that was in place yesterday....

For Immediate Release November 4, 2009 Health Care Reform Bills will Hurt Oklahoma’s Seniors and Families by U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. Over the past few months I've visited with thousands of Oklahomans who are concerned about how the health care reform bills moving through Congress will affect their lives and their families' lives. Politicians in Washington have talked a good game about pursuing common reform goals, such as reducing costs and improving access and quality. Unfortunately, the plan backed by congressional leaders not only falls far short of the goals of reform, but will place new burdens on families,...

CAMP TAJI — One U.S. Airman deployed here advises four Iraqi life support Airmen, making sure they maintain survival vests, body armor, crash helmets and night vision goggles for more than 200 helicopter air crew members. In addition to advising, Tech. Sgt. Kyle Richardson, 721st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron air crew flight equipment advisor, maintains the crucial equipment for Coalition forces. Previously, both life support offices were co-located on the Iraqi side of Camp Taji. Forty-five days into his deployment, the sergeant recognized the Iraqi's skills and decided they needed independence. "I'm here for anything they need," he said. "Their...

The Obama administration appears to be using fuzzy math to count the number of jobs created by the $787 billion stimulus package, according to two analyses that show counters included pay raises and hours worked as actual jobs. The government's claim that the controversial spending bill led to 640,000 jobs could be overstated by at least 20,000 because recipients of federal grants and contracts appear to have made mistakes when estimating the number of jobs that have been saved or created, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. And an Associated Press review found that more than two-thirds of 14,506...

A local Iraqi man discusses security in the area with Iraqi Army Capt. Nomas Mohammed Hussein (left), and Lt. Mike Slapik (middle), an infantry platoon leader from Worcester, Mass., during a routine patrol in northwestern Baghdad, Nov. 3. Photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell, MND-B. BAGHDAD — As Sgt. Kegan Cline observes a group of girls walking near Iraqi Army Soldiers on patrol here, Nov. 3, he knows his and the IA Soldiers' presence allows the girls to walk around safely. "It feels great that we're here serving a purpose," said Cline, a Worcester, Mass. native, assigned to Company A,...

HOUSTON — A dog’s sniff helped put Curvis Bickham in jail for eight months. Now that the case against him has been dropped, he wants to tell the world that the investigative technique that justified his arrest smells to high heaven. The police told Mr. Bickham they had tied him to a triple homicide through a dog-scent lineup, in which dogs choose a suspect’s smell out of a group. The dogs are exposed to the scent from items found at crime scene, then walk by a series of containers with samples swabbed from a suspect and from others not involved...

OTTAWA — A long-running effort by the Conservatives to kill the long-gun registry has passed an important hurdle in the House of Commons, with a majority voting for the first time in 14 years to study a bill to repeal it. MPs voted 164-137 to give "second reading" — or "approval-in-principle" - to a private member's bill sponsored by MP Candice Hoeppner (Portage-Lisgar) that calls for the repeal of legal requirements to register long-barrelled rifles and shotguns. The stage was set for the vote to pass hours earlier when Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff declared the current long-gun registry faces a...

Mark Levin announced on his radio program this evening that tomorrow's rally point (at noon, Thursday, November 5) has been moved to the west steps of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

Stunned and angry, national gay rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads — and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement — for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the gay-marriage debate. Conservatives, in contrast, celebrated Maine voters' rejection of a law that would have allowed gay couples to wed, depicting it as a warning shot that should deter politicians in other states from pushing for same-sex marriage. "Every time the citizens have voted on marriage, they have always sided with natural marriage," said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based Christian...

ABC News' Rachel Martin reports: The US intelligence gathering program known as “extraordinary rendition” was essentially put on trial for the first time - in Italy - and this week the court rendered a guilty verdict. Italian Judge Oscar Magi convicted 23 Americans of the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric on a street in Milan, Italy. The cleric, known as Abu Omar, alleged that he was abducted by CIA operatives who then shuttled him between US bases in Europe and then moved him to Egypt where Omar says he was tortured. The Italian judge tried the Americans, all but...

Rome, Italy, Nov 4, 2009 / 10:21 am (CNA).- Italy’s Minister of Education, Mariastella Gelmini, has rejected the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in favor of removing crucifixes from public schools.  She stated, “Nobody, much less a European court that is steeped in ideology, will be allowed to strip our identity away.” The court ruled the presence of crucifixes in classrooms could be a “bother” to students who practice other faiths or who are atheists and that the State should abstain from imposing beliefs in public places. “Religious neutrality should be observed in the context of public...

A source tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the hold has been lifted on Tara O’Toole's nomination to serve as Under Secretary for the Science and Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security. The nomination could move on the floor as early as tonight, I'm told. Background on O'Toole, who has close ties to scandal-plagued Rep. John Murtha and some questionable, Marxist associations.

.SNIPARTnews has reported that the White House has quietly de-listed a painting by Alma W. Thomas that it chose last month, among some 45 pieces borrowed from several Washington museums, to decorate the private White House residence and the West and East Wings. Titled, “Watusi (Hard Edge)” from 1963, the work takes a Matisse collage and, as Holland Cotter wrote in The New York Times, praising the selection, “shifts the pieces around, cools the colors down, and adds a title that refers to a Chubby Checker song.” “But through copying Matisse,” Mr. Cotter added, “she began to work out a...

Republican Rep. Joe Wilson proposed an amendment Wednesday that would force all members of Congress to receive health insurance coverage through the government-run plan proposed in the House's reform bill.

Bryan, TX (LifeNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood is attempting to silence a former abortion center director who quit working for the abortion business after seeing an ultrasound of an abortion procedure. Officials with the group are pushing a request for a restraining order on Abby Johnson and a pro-life group that helped her conversion.Johnson had been the director of the Planned Parenthood center in this southeast Texas city that is home to Texas A&M University.She turned in her resignation on October 6 after years of a local pro-life group helping her see the problem with abortion. After the ultrasound, she decided...

Memory cards in seven voting machines were unintentionally left in Atlanta precincts Tuesday night, in a poll worker error that election officials say is not expected to affect the outcome of any race. Fulton County Board of Elections Director Barry Garner says he expects to gain access to the memory cards Wednesday morning and tally the remaining votes. Garner says poll workers in the seven precincts were in a hurry and did not ensure that all the cards were removed from the machines. He called the oversight unacceptable and said his office would put procedures in place to prevent such...

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The economic situation is proving challenging to “root cause” theorists—those who argue that social pathologies like crime arise from economic inequality and racism, not cultural dysfunction. The regular predictions that crime will go up as self-disciplined burghers lose their jobs continue to be dashed. To be sure, in some cities, youth violence has been bobbing up and down. Chicago, for example, saw a 38 percent spike in homicide victims aged 17 and younger in 2008—to a total of 50 victims—but this year, those youth homicides were down 19 percent by the end of September. Inner-city gangbangers never had jobs to...

The tide is turning. It is time to put fear into organizations that have been or might consider supporting 0bummerCare, and turn them back to the cause of righteousness. Last night's victories are being correctly read as defeats for 0bummer and 0bummerCare. Let's prepare for the counterattack, and our enemies' annihilation in their retreat. Whatever organizations or corporations have supported 0bummerCare, please list them here (with documentation if possible), so that we can hold them to account politically and economically when this pig is dead. If proponents repent quickly and turn against 0bummerCare now, they can be saved from our...

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards Washington D.C., Nov 4, 2009 / 03:44 pm (CNA).- Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, sent an urgent message this week to the group's base asking for pro-abortion Catholics to defy the U.S. bishops, who are campaigning against the current versions of health care legislation on Capitol Hill because they fund abortion.In the email, Richards says that “as I write this, the bishops have asked all the Catholics in the country to contact their legislators, asking them to alter current health care legislation to include anti-choice amendments.” “The bishops have inserted...

November 4, 2009 About Last Night What The Election Results Mean. An NRO Symposium Is the GOP now on top? Are we riding the first wave of the next Reagan Revolution? National Review Online consulted some expert strategists to interpret the results of Tuesday’s vote.

In New York's 23rd Congressional district, Democrat Owens finished with 49% , making him the winner of a plurality of the votes. What's being overlooked by Republicans and conservatives is that Scozzafava, despite having withdrawn from the race, still garnered 6% of votes, with Hoffman getting 45%. I'm guessing that most of Scozzafava's 6% were absentee ballots which had already been mailed before she dropped out. Other votes could have come from die hard fans of hers, or voters who simply didn't know she was no longer in the race. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that Owens won with...

Now these are OUTRAGEOUS stats. The White House has come up with a new spin on jobs created or saved and well … imagine you’re in an economics class and you turn in a paper that says this. Now imagine your Professor laughing (yes, even the liberal ones), and then imagine the “F” you are going to get on your transcript. Hot Air has this covered. I post it only because you must not miss it. Because for sure … if I didn’t point it out you most assuredly would believe it’s made up. Now … your job has been...

Another clip from Hengler, this time catching Axelrod phoning it in. Watch to the end or you’ll miss the requisite flattery from Andrea Mitchell. Consider this a continuation of the last post: If, as Ax lamely insists, NY-23 is a big deal while Virginia and Jersey are mere local races portending nothing for The One’s agenda, why do Blue Dogs seem more fidgety than usual? Ed linked Politico’s piece about center-left anxiety a few hours ago, but this one from The Hill is fun too: Vulnerable House and Senate Democrats want their leaders to skip the party’s controversial legislative agenda...

Heh. No doubt the RNC response was to insist that they were merely local races signifying nothing about the national mood. But Rahm was right that time, wasn’t he? [L]ooking back at First Read’s coverage the day after the 2005 New Jersey and Virginia contests, we had forgotten that Rahm Emanuel — then chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and now White House chief of staff — had called us to argue the very point Republicans are now making: that the two gubernatorial contests say something about the upcoming midterms. Here’s what we wrote then: Democratic House campaign committee...

In a coup for House Democrats, AARP will endorse sweeping health care overhaul legislation headed for a history-making floor vote, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. An endorsement from the seniors' lobby was critical when then-President George W. Bush pushed the Medicare prescription drug benefit through a closely divided Congress in 2003. House Democratic leaders are hoping it will work the same political magic for them as they strive to deliver on President Barack Obama's signature issue. An announcement from the 40-million member group is expected Thursday, said officials with knowledge of the group's decision. They spoke on condition...