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The noise in the hen house this morning is the flutter and cackle of the chickens from Benghazi, scuttling home to roost. The House committee opening hearings Wednesday on what happened there is likely to serve up chicken surprise. The four whistleblowing witnesses scheduled to testify to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are said to be eager to tell a story far different from the various accounts, all confused and all contradictory, peddled by the Obama administration. Someone at the White House should have remembered that old Washington chestnut, as true now as ever,

In response to Gawker’s controversial decision to publish the names of every registered handgun owner in New York City on Tuesday afternoon, Fox’s The Five retaliated by publishing the phone number and email address of Gawker founder Nick Denton for its audience. Give the dude a ring and give him a piece of your mind. 646-470-4295 nick@gawker.com

The taxes Israel collected for the Palestinian Authority but did not pass on should go to Israel anyway to cover the PA’s debts, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday, speaking at a Hanukkah event for Yisrael Beytenu party activists. “I hear they’re saying that Israel froze the Palestinians’ tax money. We didn’t freeze any Palestinian money,” he said. “To this point we paid 700 million shekels advance salaries for PA workers and we paid another 900 million when we absorbed the cost of water and electricity that the Palestinians were supposed to pay for but did not… What we’re doing...

I have an uncle in Wisconsin. He's slightly mentally handicapped and lives in subsidized housing because of his income level. In tribute to my Grandma (who's been gone a number of years and of whom I still miss), I send my uncle a check every month. The check is only $30.00. I believe he uses it for living expenses that aren't covered by assistance. I rarely get an acknowledgement/thank you from him - unless of course, I'm late in mailing it out. My uncle voted for Obama. Normally, I say "Live and let live" and let it go at that....

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The federal government has denied Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's request for individual assistance to help homeowners hit by a June 29 windstorm, Tomblin said Thursday night.

President Barack Obama’s former auto industry adviser and two former Treasury Department officials cracked at the last minute before a House oversight committee subcommittee hearing and agreed to stop stonewalling an investigation into alleged union favoritism during the administration’s General Motors bailout. Ron Bloom, Obama’s former auto czar, and former Treasury officials Matt Feldman and Harry Wilson have refused to give interviews to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) about their roles in topping up pensions for union workers while non-union workers lost nearly their entire pensions. The Treasury Department’s actions during the auto bailout...

The Supreme Court says a union must give nonmembers an immediate chance to object to unexpected fee increases that all workers are required to pay in closed-shop situations. The court on Thursday ruled for Dianne Knox and other nonmembers of the Service Employees International Union's Local 1000, who wanted to object and opt out of a $12 million special assessment the union required from its California public sector members. Knox and others said the union did not give them a legally required notice that the increase was coming.

Houston Gets Lame Space Shuttle Replica Delivered In Lamest Way Possible The deliveries of the real Space Shuttles to their final resting places were grand events that created amazing images. Houston, which deserved a real d@mn shuttle, is getting a replica. And just in case Houstonians didn't know they were getting shortchanged, it was delivered on a plane but instead on a d@mn barge. Thanks, NASA. I'm not going to get into all the reasons why Houston didn't get a Space Shuttle as it might be mistaken as saying someone else doesn't deserve one. Clearly, both D.C. and Los Angeles...

Say, isn’t this starting to resemble a certain reality-game show on television? Or would I be fired for pointing that out? Last night, reports surfaced that casino and real-estate tycoon Donald Trump would endorse Newt Gingrich in Nevada today, just two days before the binding caucuses. This morning, both CNN and ABC say that Trump will now endorse … Mitt Romney: Mitt Romney will receive Donald Trump’s presidential endorsement Thursday, sources with knowledge of the endorsement told CNN. Trump will make the announcement in Las Vegas, two days before the Nevada caucuses. ABC is a little more specific about its...

Obama’s National Labor Relations Board has put out another new rule that just happens to have potential benefits for Big Labor. The National Labor Relations Board has approved a new rule that requires private employers to display posters that tell workers about their right to form a union.The rule requires businesses to prominently display the new posters that explain the right to bargain collectively, distribute union literature and engage in other union activities without reprisal.Union advocates say the rule gives workers information they should know about their legal rights. But business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, say the...

The Justice Department is investigating whether the nation’s largest credit ratings agency, Standard & Poor’s, improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis, according to two people interviewed by the government and another briefed on such interviews. The investigation began before Standard & Poor’s cut the United States’ AAA credit rating this month, but it is likely to add fuel to the political firestorm that has surrounded that action. Lawmakers and some administration officials have since questioned the agency’s secretive process, its credibility and the competence of its analysts, claiming to have found...

U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan's open defiance of Speaker John Boehner's efforts to solve the debt-ceiling crisis could cost the Urbana Republican his safe seat in next year's election. Two Republican sources deeply involved in configuring new Ohio congressional districts confirmed to The Dispatch today that Jordan's disloyalty to Boehner has put him in jeopardy of being zeroed out of a district.

As Hugo Chávez graces the big screen in a rowdy city center bar in Caracas, Santiago Valledare stands up and salutes, with no hint of irony. After a completely uncharacteristic three-week silence, his president is about to announce that he has received treatment for a tumor while in Cuba. After watching the president’s subdued statement, Valledare stands firm: “My Comandante doesn't have cancer. It’s not true,” he says, still standing. “He is the best president we have ever had.... [He is] a strong man. He is not ill.” Think you know Latin America? Take our geography quiz. Other so-called Chavistas...

While Bungler-in-Chief Obama was in El Paso “getting in their faces” (i.e., of Republicans) at a stage-managed campaign event, the incompetents of his administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF) were doing their best imitation if Jim Carrey’s “Fire Marshall Bill” character in North Texas. As the Plainview Herald reported, a BATF training exercise went awry, and the resulting wildfire scorched another 150 acres of the drought-devastated Texas panhandle. The blazes have been extinguished, but the Herald’s editor writes that the federal fiasco is far from over: Motley County Attorney Tom Edwards said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco...

A bipartisan panel investigating the financial crisis has referred cases of potential wrongdoing by financial industry officials to the Justice Department, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The 2009 law creating the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission instructs the congressionally appointed panel to refer anyone who may have violated the law to the Justice Department and state attorneys general

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has a warning for Democrats seething over his shrewd political tactics: Get used to it. “There’s much for them to be angst-ridden about,” McConnell said with a chuckle. “If they think it’s bad now, wait ‘til next year.” Emboldened by Democrats’ decision to scrap an omnibus funding bill and extend the Bush-era tax cuts for two years, McConnell is ready to deploy his larger Republican minority next year, insisting that Democratic leaders will need to bend to his party’s will – particularly on spending issues. Indeed, McConnell is signaling that the White House should be...

If you can stomach it, check out this rant at the Daily Kos. Here’s the opening: For all y’all rich folks, enjoy that champagne, or whatever fancy ass Scotch you drink. And for y’all a bit lower on the economic scale, enjoy your Pabst Blue Ribbon, or whatever shitty ass beer you favor. Whatever the case, and whatever your economic station, know this… You need to drink up. And quickly. And heavily. Because your time is limited. Real damned limited. So party while you can, but mind the increasingly loud clock ticking away in the corners of your consciousness. The...

Buried in the details of the deal to close California's $19-billion budget deficit is a roughly $30-million tax break crafted to benefit a company owned by members of one of the state's richest and most politically influential families, according to a legislative analysis obtained by The Times. The provision, which will allow the Humboldt Redwood Co. to deduct $20 million in old losses from future taxes, is also expected to cover penalties and interest for the firm co-owned by three sons of Donald G. Fisher, founder of the Gap and Banana Republic, said company Chairman Sandy Dean. The tax break...

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Al-Qaeda's operational chief for Afghanistan and Pakistan has been killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan's lawless tribal border areas, Pakistani security officials said Tuesday. A covert American drone campaign has this month ramped up attacks on Al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives in the region as part of efforts to bring an end to a nine-year war in Afghanistan so that US troops can return home. Sheikh Fateh was reportedly made Al-Qaeda chief in Afghanistan and Pakistan after Al-Qaeda's purported number three and former Osama bin Laden treasurer Mustafa Abu al-Yazid was killed on May 21, in...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: At Andrews Air Force Base today, President Obama cast his state of the economy in upbeat terms and we're working right now on an audio sound bite from last November of me reacting to Obama, basically saying identically word-for-word what he said today about the economy. It's pretty illustrative. "To every American who's looking for work, I promise you we're going to keep on doing everything we can. I'll do everything in my power to help our economy create jobs and opportunities for all people." So he's talking to you personally, whatever you are, wherever you are....

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A Rhode Island boy whose school banned a hat he made because the toy soldiers on it carried tiny guns was awarded a medal on Friday for his patriotic efforts. Lt. Gen. Reginald Centracchio, the retired head of the Rhode Island National Guard, gave 8-year-old David Morales a medal called a challenge coin during an appearance on WPRO-AM's John DePetro show. Centracchio said the second-grader should be thanked for recognizing veterans and soldiers."You did nothing wrong, and you did an outstanding job," he said. "We can only hope that kids of your caliber will continue to...

The expansion of passenger, high-speed and freight rail is critical to the economic growth of the United States. As chairman of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, my goal is to have high-speed, intercity passenger and commuter rail lines connecting nationwide to enhance and improve our systems of transportation. A robust passenger rail system in America will go a long way toward solving some of our nation’s economic, energy, environmental and transportation challenges, as well as create thousands of jobs. These benefits, however, do not come without a price tag, and experience in other countries makes it clear...

PHOENIX (AP) -- An Arizona utility regulator suggests there could be payback for the Los Angeles City Council's vote to boycott Arizona businesses because of the state's new law targeting illegal immigration.

What do you get when tea party activists team up with Ron Paulbots? A nightmare: The official platform for the Republican Party of Maine is now a mix of right-wing fringe policies, libertarian buzzwords and outright conspiracy theories. The document calls for the elimination of the Department of Education and the Federal Reserve, demands an investigation of “collusion between government and industry in the global warming myth,” suggests the adoption of “Austrian Economics,” declares that “‘Freedom of Religion’ does not mean ‘freedom from religion’” (which I guess makes atheism illegal), insists that “healthcare is not a right,” calls for the...

Evidence continues to mount that GM and its government enablers are just full of malarkey when claiming that the taxpayer-owned automaker has paid back its bailout "in full and ahead of schedule." Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), along with Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), contacted Treasury officials to find out why they had claimed GM had repaid its debt in full. To which Treasury responded: "Treasury has never suggested that the loan repayment represented a full return of all government assistance." Which, among other things, is belied by an official Treasury press release titled, "GM REPAYS TREASURY LOAN...

The left and the media knee-capped the Bush presidency for not making Hurricane Katrina go away fast enough. So now, like a village feud in ancient Sicily, the right and its media are knee-capping the Obama presidency for not making the Gulf's spilled oil go away fast enough. Boo hoo. Are we supposed to say that the criticism of Mr. Obama is unfair? Sorry. The permanent smackdown that is now U.S. politics has devolved into a zero-sum proposition whenever anything bad happens in American life—an oil spill, a terrorist bomb in Times Square, a financial meltdown. *SNIP* It is obvious...

Obama May Send Millions to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz for HIV Testing Washington, DC -- President Barack Obama may have found another way to thank the Planned Parenthood abortion business for supporting him in the 2008 presidential elections. The Obama administration has announced funding for a multi-million dollar HIV testing program that could direct big bucks to his pro-abortion ally. http://LifeNews.com/nat6231.html

Few combinations are more poisonous than race and politics. That combination has torn whole nations apart and led to the slaughters of millions in countries around the world. You might think we would have learned a lesson from that and stay away from injecting race into political issues. Yet playing the race card has become an increasingly common response to growing public anger at the policies of the Obama administration and the way those policies have been imposed. When the triumphant Democrats made their widely televised walk up Capitol Hill after passing the health care bill, led by a smirking...

Cincinnati Tea Party meets downtown Cincinnati, to hold candlelight vigil and send a massage to U.S.Rep.Steve Driehaus-DWest Price Hill,to vote no on the Obama Insurance Bill. My final headcount was nearly 400, counting teenagers and children too.

Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., under investigation for alleged sexual harassment of a male staffer, accused House Democratic leaders of lying about the charges against him and using them to run him out of Congress because he voted against health care reform when it last came before the House. Roll Call reports this morning that on the local radio show he hosts in his district, Massa said he had not been informed of the sexual harassment allegations before they became public. He claimed that Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., spoke falsely when he said he had brought the matter to him...

Just before Thanksgiving of this year, a report was issued by Congressman Issa and Senator Grassley contending that the Obama White House was politically motivated when it fired AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin after his 2008 investigation of Kevin Johnson, friend of the Obamas, and now Sacramento's mayor. The report criticizes the White House ethics counsel for not examining what Walpin had been investigating at the time of his dismissal, including the allegations of sexual misconduct by Johnson and hush-money used to cover up the misconduct. The report asserted that Michelle Rhee, now Johnson's fiancee, made the payoffs. The firing...

"If we can't, then I think we've got to go ahead and make some decisions, and then that's what elections are for." - Barack Obama Translation: Every democrat in the House and a few in the Senate are expected to make me look good and fall on your sword for me. Even if you lose your job this November. I'll keep my job for a couple more years. I appreciate your sacrifice.

Go Scott go. This election is payback, for everyone in Massachusetts who has to work for a living, who isn’t on the dole, or a trust fund. It’s for everyone who hates getting dozens of robo-calls from clueless pols pushing “Marsha” Coakley and from union thugs living large off your union dues. Vote for Brown if you’re tired of the 25 percent increase in the sales tax, and the brand new 6.25 percent sales tax on alcohol, on top of the 37 percent excise tax. Send the hacks a message. Vote for Brown if they ignored you when you voted...

Of all the most dangerous aspects of the constitutionally ineligible Obama usurping the office of the Presidency, the prospect of blackmail is one of the most frightening. When a person owes his job to a cover-up and election fraud, he will do anything to keep it. And remember, if it wasn’t for the fraud, he would not have been on the ballot, and we would not be facing this prospect of treason from within. In my view, Obama has now crossed that line definitively.... Under this scenario, the United States is dragged into one conflict after another, or the resources...

The health care debate began for real in June when ABC devoted an entire hour to Obamacare in a special edition of ABC's Prime time hosted anchor Charlie Gibson and (now incoming anchor) Diane Sawyer. Called "Questions for the President: Prescription for America" the special aired on June 24, 2009, from the East Room of the White House. Basically Obama was given solo airtime to pitch his health care agenda both in prime time and later that evening on Nightline. To make matters worse, Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR) a group that opposes Obamacare tried to air commercials giving the...

There is a feeling that permeates throughout the law enforcement community that organized crime gangs are getting a free ride during the Obama Administration. While most of the focus of federal law enforcement is on counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cyber crime, federal police agencies must still contend with more traditional anti-crime operations including emerging organized crime gangs. "I may sound cynical, but I believe because [President Barack Obama] is from Chicago -- a city noted for it's history of organized crime -- he may be used to what's known as 'the Chicago way' and the casual relationship between organized crime and...

Tiger Woods’ devastated wife has called in California’s top celebrity divorce lawyer, say her friends. And Elin Nordegren – rocked by her husband’s string of alleged affairs – could get half the £337.5million he has earned in the five years they have been married. The 29-year-old Swedish model, seen out in Florida yesterday minus her wedding ring, is believed to be meeting celebrity lawyer Sorrell Trope next week. Trope, 82, a partner in Californian law firm Trope and Trope, has represented big-name stars including Cary Grant, Nicole Kidman, Nicolas Cage and Britney Spears in a 60-year career. And in another...

Last week had to be a bit awkward for Democrats. They labored to pass a health care bill that, among other things, establishes a government advisory panel to curb health care costs with industrywide medical recommendations. And at just the wrong moment, a similar government advisory panel provoked outrage by recommending that women stop getting so many breast cancer screenings. Unruffled, the Democrats pressed on with their 2,000-page health care bill, going so far as to hold a rare Saturday night vote on whether to proceed to debate. There's a good reason they are in such a rush to pass...

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says. There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts...

A Democrat congressman from Ohio has introduced innovative legislation that would require foreign countries to reimburse American taxpayers for the exorbitant medical expenses of illegal immigrants. Appropriately titled, PAYBACK Act (Preventing All Your Bucks from Aiding non-Citizens is Key), the measure would save the U.S. government billions of dollars annually and ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to fund health care services for illegal immigrants, according to its author, U.S. Representative Zack Space. Medical bills for illegal aliens would be passed along to their country of origin, according to the proposed law, which was introduced in the House this...

The President just finished a rousing speech to the AFL-CIO today and was given a standing ovation for his address on government run health care with a public option. There was no bi-partisan talk here, just plain and simple “Obamaspeak” to a friendly audience. He is speaking to an important core constituency here and must produce for them. Organized Labor is highly in favor of a government takeover of the health care system and wants the public option in the bill. It's one of the main reasons they helped put Obama in office. You would too if you had thousands...

Enjoy their sweet, sweet pain and lamentations. ... and, for those who prefer to watch KOSsacks suffer and writhe in delicious torment: here. ;)

An executive order issued by the Obama administration poses a significant challenge to nonunion contractors, right-to-work advocates and, those groups assert, American taxpayers. Issued in February, it has undergone several months of governmental review and enhancement and it could begin impacting federal contracting policy any day now. Nonunion outfits are weighing their options to oppose it. On February 6, President Barack Obama signed an executive order recommending that federal agencies enter into project labor agreements (PLAs) every time they hire a contractor for a construction project costing at least $25 million. These documents are accords between labor organizations and an...

The Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration will invest $2 billion (or more) in drilling off the shores of Brazil, of all places. The left does all they can to keep us from exploring off our own shores. Yet we’re suddenly investing $2 billion – that we don’t have – in a Brazilian oil company?

Rather than holding their ground, the Obama administration has decided to revise the restriction that did not allow lobbyists to meet with government officials to discuss potential uses for the Federal stimulus money they have been allocated. Under the..

The Department of Defense has compelled a private employer to fire a U.S. Army Reserve major from his civilian job after he had his military deployment orders revoked for arguing he should not be required to serve under a president who has not proven his eligibility for office. According to the CEO of Simtech Inc., a private company contracted by the Defense Security Services, an agency of the Department of Defense, the federal government has compelled the termination of Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook. Cook's attorney, Orly Taitz, wrote in her blog that Simtech CEO Larry Grice said he would try...

Of his Social Security program, Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that the whole thing had nothing to do with helping the aged. "They were politics all the way through," he said of his Social Security payroll withholding taxes. In other words, the So. Sec. program was created solely to give the Democrat Party a permanent majority on the "we care" ticket. FDR knew from the get-go that the program was an unsustainable sham but it was all about politics, not old people anyway. Seventy some years later Barack Obama was praised as a second coming of FDR when he ran...

Is this what Time magazine meant with their July 6th cover, What Barack Obama Can Learn From FDR? Not one to let "a serious crisis to go to waste," Franklin Delano Roosevelt used the onset of the Great Depression as an excuse to immediately begin delivering New Deal dollars in unprecedented amounts - with laser-like political precision to electorally important parts of the country. He sailed to landslide reelection in 1936 on a federally-funded tailwind. The New Deal is now an old one - as direct mail guru Richard Viguerie describes it, "We've got money, you've got votes, let's talk."...

<p>Decades of lawmaking and court decisions restricting the flow of cash into U.S. elections are on the verge of coming undone, placing President Barack Obama in the unexpected position of presiding over the possible demise of the modern campaign finance regime.</p>