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WASHINGTON -- Strong support for health care reform comes from Americans from all walks of life. Thousands of doctors and nurses are on board in support of broad-ranging reform that would bring the security of health coverage to millions of people who lack it. A new Gallup Poll released Wednesday shows that 44 percent of Americans believe a new reform law would improve medical care in the U.S., while 26 percent said it would improve their personal medical care. The insurance industry and some of the medical moguls continue to demonize health care reform as "socialism." The broadcast wing of...

Last week I wrote Carol Che-Porter, Rat New Hampshire, if she was going to drop the Congressional Health plan and join the peons if the Goverment Takeover passed. After waithing a week and getting no answer I wrote this follow up letter Dear Congressman: I wrote you over a week ago on the issue of whether you were going to foregoe the Congressional health plan and accept coverage under the Obamma plan if it is voted in. I have not heard from you, so I think that you are going with the former rather than the latter. I am going...

Pelosi vows to press on despite bad news on health billBy: Susan Ferrechio Chief Congressional Correspondent July 27, 2009 Even with the latest Democratic plan to control costs in a proposed expansion of health coverage getting low marks from independent analysts, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., still says she has the votes to pass a health bill. “When I take this bill to the floor, it will win,” Pelosi declared on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This will happen.” Talks broke down Friday between the House Democratic leadership and the fiscally conservative Democratic Blue Dog coalition over costs. With 52...

Children baffled by aunt's disposal of rat tails By Bryce Coggins Ladysmith (Rusk County) Rats have been the nemesis of man since both were put on this planet. Having lived on a farm all my life, I am acquainted with rats. On my farm we had little trouble with rats because we kept cats and a dog that were constantly hunting them down. Being on Grade A required us to eliminate rodent harborages and that was a big help. Newer buildings were built to make it harder for rats and mice to get in. But the log house that was...

Dr. Howard Dean’s fans come out for the big Democratic summer shindig As Tom Andrews, the director of the leading national antiwar coalition, began his speech at the Maine Democrats’ big outdoor summer shindig in Falmouth, John Baldacci signaled his bodyguard/driver to move the large, dark SUV up the driveway. The vehicle soon hid in the trees, its engine quietly humming. At first, the governor seemed to be paying attention as Andrews, the former First District congressman, launched into rousing tales of how the country, under President George W. Bush, had gone "from peace and prosperity to war and recession."...

WASHINGTON -- Secrecy is endemic in all governments. It goes with the turf, especially if their leaders hope to hide illegal or immoral behavior, such as torture of foreign prisoners. Many Americans heaved a sigh of relief last January when President Barack Obama banned the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Image-wise, it made the administration look more humane than the Bush-Cheney team. But that is not the whole story. Obama left unaddressed the possibility of torture in secret foreign prisons under our control as in Abu Ghraib in Iraq or Bagram in Afghanistan, not to mention the "black...

Federal agents swept into northern New Jersey towns Thursday morning, arresting about 30 people including several mayors, in a federal investigation into alleged public corruption and a high-volume, international money-laundering conspiracy. According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's office in Newark, the arrests related to the public-corruption probe included Peter Cammarano III, the newly elected Democratic mayor of Hoboken; Dennis Elwell, mayor of Secaucus, also a Democrat; state Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, a Republican; and Democrat Leona Beldini, the deputy mayor of Jersey City, the state's second-largest city after Newark.

(snip) Since Democrats have enough votes to shove almost anything they want through the Senate, why suddenly all this talk about seeking "bipartisan reform"? Because Democrats can't tell the truth. They know socialized medicine will cost enough billions to lower the standard of living for millions of Americans, but they have to pretend they believe otherwise, that it will somehow "save money." They can't run for re-election in 2010 -- any more than they could run in 2008 -- on an honest platform of, "We'll raise your taxes to the sky and borrow the nation into bankruptcy to get to...

Last weekend, the New York Times reported that after 9/11, the CIA developed a "secret counterterrorism program" to train hit squads to kill top al-Qaida leaders. It seemed like good news to me. After all, why bankroll an intelligence agency if you can't use it to kill an enemy against whom America has declared war? The news hooks: CIA director Leon Panetta killed the program last month after he told Senate and House Intelligence committees about the program. And: Congress allegedly did not know about the nonoperational operation because, according to unnamed sources, former Veep Dick Cheney told the agency...

A 3-month-old Westwego girl covered in rat bites was found dead in her home Thursday, and authorities were trying to determine whether they played a role in her death. Natalie Hill was found shortly after 7:30 a.m. in her crib by paramedics responding to an emergency call. When paramedics and police officers arrived, they found the child's father standing in front of the house in the 700 block of Central Avenue, yelling that his daughter was dead inside, said Westwego Police Chief Dwayne Munch Sr. The parents were identified by neighbors as Robby Hill and Casey Laine. Munch said the...

In a tweet yesterday, Amanda Carpenter alerted us to another example of the close relationship between Democrats and leftwing bloggers intent on destroying Governor Palin: "Anti-Palin blogger cites close ties with "Dem leadership in AK" while angling for a Netroots scholarship." The Anti-Palin blogger is Shannyn Moore, and here's what she wrote: " I am in contact daily with Democratic leadership in Juneau."

WASHINGTON -- I had an historical flashback recently when I read a Washington Post news story about how the U.S. commander in Afghanistan thinks he may need many thousands more troops to win the war. Shades of Vietnam. Do we ever learn? It brought back memories of the late Gen. William C. Westmoreland, the U.S. commander in Southeast Asia, who kept escalating the troop numbers after the 1967 Tet offensive in Vietnam. His strategy produced a debacle for us. When the besieged Westmoreland requested 240,000 more troops, President Lyndon B. Johnson was shocked. The command in Vietnam had been giving...

DNC targeting centrist Dems in health adsBy Reid Wilson Posted: 07/15/09 10:39 AM [ET] Reflecting the troubles President Obama will have wrangling his own party into line, a wing of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is launching a new television advertisement targeting nine of its own senators on healthcare. The advertisement, funded by Organizing for America (OFA), will urge senators to back a major healthcare overhaul by spotlighting five Americans affected by high costs. Earlier advertisements from arms of the Democratic Party have pressured centrist Republicans to support Obama's economic stimulus package and cap-and-trade legislation, albeit with mixed success. But...

WASHINGTON -- It’s not news when the White House tries to manage the news. That has always been the case. But it is news when Obama administration officials -- the folks who proclaimed that they would bring unprecedented openness and transparency to government -- fall all over themselves trying to manipulate news briefings and attempting amateurish stagecraft at public meetings. The president relies on a list of handpicked reporters to call on at his formal news conferences -- and the fortunate few are not necessarily accredited reporters but include new age self-appointed journalists or anyone with a laptop. The White...

You Obama supporters, be honest now. Read the following and tell me how you would have reacted: If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved? If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved? If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky? If George W. Bush had bowed...

Dems to reveal how they'll pay for healthcareBy Mike Soraghan Posted: 07/06/09 05:17 PM [ET] By the end of this week, House Democrats may have answered the biggest question looming in the healthcare debate – how they plan to pay for their overhaul. Leadership aides say they will introduce a bill by Thursday or Friday, in preparation for votes in committee next week. And that bill, they say, will include a way to pay for the bill. “It is premature to point to any specific provision, but the House is committed to ensure that healthcare reform is paid for,” said...

CBS' Chip Reid and Helen Thomas double teamed Robert Gibbs today at the daily press briefing on the "tightly controlled" town hall meeting President Obama will hold on health care. Gibbs kept saying lets have this discussion AFTER the meeting. Helen Thomas accused the White House of "controlling the press." She said almost all White House/Obama events are "prepackaged." She accused the White House of not "having any answers."

Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years, Waxman and Markey Remain FreeJune 29, 2009 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Bernie Madoff, 150 years. One-hundred-fifty years for Bernie Madoff means he'll be out by next spring, probably. While Bernie Madoff gets 150 years, Waxman and Markey weren't even cited in their scheme, their rip-off, this climate bill. Do you realize there was not even a bill? There was not even a copy of the bill in the well of the House, which is standard. It wasn't even written. These people voted on this bill -- not read it, it wasn't written, they couldn't have read...

Candidate Palin has character problemGREGG ERICKSON Last Modified: June 27th, 2009 06:42 PM **SNIP** That's why it was so refreshing when Sarah Palin, a woman who had stood up against corruption in the Murkowski administration, made openness and transparency in state government a central theme in her 2006 campaign for governor. In November 2006 Palin defeated Murkowski. As Palin's first Juneau press conference as governor was breaking up, she called my wife and me aside. With apparent sincerity she asked us why we had had so much trouble getting public records from previous governors: "Why wouldn't they want you to...

The New Culture of CorruptionDemocrats step up their corruption game By ROBERT A. GEORGE Updated 7:45 PM EDT, Fri, Jun 26, 2009 New joke going around Washington: "Republicans hike the Appalachian Trail; Democrats hike your taxes. Either way, someone's getting screwed." As, the old saying goes -- some of the truest things are said in jest. Washington Republicans -- more in the minority than they have been in decades -- are somewhat haplessly hoping that the Democrats mess up their own policies, rather than figure out how to stop them themselves. So, in the meantime, they keep themselves busy by...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama had been playing his cards cautiously on the political turmoil in Iran -- until conservatives goaded him to escalate his rhetorical condemnation of the uprising. Obama had tried to steer clear of any public comment about the disputed reelection of Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the massive protests by supporters of the opposition candidate and the government crackdown on the protesters. At a news conference Tuesday, Obama caved in to those right-wing columnists and political hawks who wanted him to hit the Iranian mullahs harder. These are the same critics who pushed the American people into...

Democratic congressional leaders are vowing to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year that would give amnesty to an estimated 11 million immigrants living and working the United States illegally. The votes are there, they say. All they need now is time to push it through. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that he has the votes to pass such legislation, which also would create a new guest-worker program for employers. The stumbling block is persuading senators to deal with such a politically charged issue, he told reporters.

The Legislature is poised to vote today on a nearly $24 billion budget-balancing plan that Republicans vow not to support and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pledges not to sign. The Democratic proposal appears dead on arrival, setting the stage for tense negotiations as the state wrestles with a huge budget hole that threatens to leave it unable to pay its bills next month. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg hailed his party's budget plan as a compromise that would ease the fiscal emergency without devastating the safety net for vulnerable Californians. "I cannot say that we have a deal," Steinberg said....

WASHINGTON -- A universal health-care system based on the single-payer model appears to be a bridge too far for politically attuned President Barack Obama. A single-payer system -- such as Medicare for everyone -- would solve the problem of out-of-control costs and would provide health care for all. President Lyndon B. Johnson had the courage to weigh in with all his political clout to win passage of Medicare and Medicaid, star accomplishments of the Great Society. President Franklin D. Roosevelt put all his chips on the table to win passage of the Social Security Act that makes the elderly more...

Byrd aides studying mountaintop removal miningby The Associated Press Tuesday June 16, 2009 CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Aides to Sen. Robert C. Byrd are in southern West Virginia for what they call a three-day fact-finding tour about mountaintop removal mining. **SNIP** But the West Virginia Democrat issued a statement Tuesday saying his aides will see mountaintop mining operations firsthand. They will meet with coal industry officials, environmentalists and citizens. They'll also inspect flood recovery efforts and talk to people about fears that mining may have made the damage from the spring floods worse. Byrd says the Obama administration's plan to increase...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 30, 2003 20:42:05 ET XXXXX HOLLYWOOD DEMS GATHER FOR 'HATE BUSH' MEETING AT HILTON **Exclusive** Top Hollywood activists and intellectuals are planning to gather this week in Beverly Hills for an event billed as 'Hate Bush,' the DRUDGE REPORT has learned! Laurie David [wife of SEINFELD creator Larry David] has sent out invites to the planned Tuesday evening meeting at the Hilton with the bold heading: 'Hate Bush 12/2 - Event' The message reads: "This is the most important meeting you can attend to prevent the advancement of the current extremist right wing agenda....

Your tax dollars paid the salaries of Cuyahoga County officials who prosecutors say swapped government contracts for a free gambling junket to Las Vegas. Your tax dollars paid for government leaders to lounge at a secret Flats condo and rake in tens of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts from contractors looking to land county business, according to prosecutors. And that tax levy you passed last year for the poor, elderly and sick? Prosecutors say one of your leaders suggested using some of it to reward a halfway house that flew him first-class to Las Vegas. The first major...

Obama tells GOP to offer a better health care planBy PHILIP ELLIOTT Originally published Friday, June 12, 2009 at 12:00 AM The Associated Press GREEN BAY, Wis. — President Obama challenged Republican critics Thursday to offer alternative plans for overhauling U.S. health care, saying he's "happy to steal people's ideas" but doing nothing about out-of-reach costs and uninsured Americans is not an option. "What else do we say to all those families who spend more on health care than on housing or on food?" Obama said at a town hall-style meeting. "What do we tell those businesses that are choosing...

The "O" in SocialismThe Nation – Fri Jun 12, 3:48 pm ET Just recently, things were looking up for socialism. In April, a much-discussed Rasmussen poll reported that only 53 percent of Americans expressed a preference for capitalism. The poll didn't define either system, so one could surmise that the right's desperate strategy of branding a popular Democratic president as a "socialist" had backfired: If Obama's a socialist, then a good number of the 69 percent of Americans who viewed the President favorably were apparently ready to sign up. Perhaps this new openness to alternatives wasn't deep, but it seemed...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama scored big with his eloquent speech to the Muslim world last week. Now he has to put up or shut up. That’s the price of raising hopes that solutions can be found to tough issues, including the long festering Israeli-Palestinian crisis. His task there is complicated by the new hard-line Israeli leadership personified by Benjamin Netanyahu. Of course, Obama also has several critical foreign policy problems bequeathed by his predecessor. Among them are the deteriorating Pakistani-Afghanistan turmoil and nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea. Obama’s uplifting rhetoric has raised expectations that he is a...

Karl Rove takes on Maureen Dowd.

WASHINGTON -- Is Supreme Court justice-designate Sonia Sotomayor going to have to eat her words and forget her past to win a seat on the high bench? That would apparently appease some of her right-wing critics, who are grasping at straws in their campaign to try to derail the Hispanic woman’s nomination -- or, at least, try to rough her up a bit. Does she have to be a narrow constructionist and interpret the law their way? Let’s hope not -- conservative jurists have had their way for too long on the high court. If she wins Senate confirmation, Sotomayor...

Top 10 Cities for New GradsAs Class of 2009 feels pinch, job searches expand By Kate Lorenz, CareerBuilder.com editor Nate Torvik has mixed feelings about his upcoming graduation from Purdue University. While there's relief that classes are over, exams have been taken and term papers turned in, what lies ahead is an extremely challenging and competitive job market. "I feel like the wind has been taken out of my sails," says Torvik, who received a bachelor's degree in mass communication. "There is so much pride and happiness that comes with graduation, but as soon as I step off that stage...

The female brain reacts differently to stressful situations, distress and depression than the male brain. Research in psycho-pharmacology - the study of drug-induced changes in mood and behaviour - however, is primarily done with male lab animals and therefore provides a distorted picture, Dutch researchers say. Gert ter Horst, a professor of neurobiology at the University Medical Centre in Groningen , and his colleagues have examined the way male and female rats deal with stress. They published their findings in the scientific magazine Physiology & Behavior. "Gender differences have become a booming �eld of research only recently," they write. "We...

LOS ANGELES — Even as he conceded there is still much hard work to do, President Obama was in a boastful mood Wednesday night, telling a star-studded crowd at a fundraising dinner that he "would put these first four months up against any prior administration since FDR." The president, speaking to a dinner that included Hollywood A-listers like Kiefer Sutherland, Marisa Tomei, Jamie Foxx, Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg, lauded the legislation he has signed since taking office but added that he is "not satisfied."

WASHINGTON -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney is tossing verbal grenades at his successors. Maybe he just can’t stand the loss of power. Pitiful. He is acting like a man who is one step ahead of the sheriff. Actually, that could be the case. The true story of Cheney’s manipulations and deceptions during his eight years in the White House is yet to be told. Right now he sees that his best defense is offense. He has accused President Barack Obama of "recklessness" and weakening national security. Cheney should be grateful to Obama for not throwing the book at him...

WASHINGTON – The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Wednesday he can't imagine a filibuster against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, even though GOP lawmakers want to closely scrutinize her legal philosophy. "The nominee has serious problems," Sen. Jeff Sessions said in a nationally broadcast interview. "But I would think that we would all have a good hearing, take our time, and do it right. And then the senators cast their vote up or down based on whether or not they think this is the kind of judge that should be on the court." "I don't sense a...

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, who switched from the GOP to the Democratic Party two months ago, praised President Barack Obama’s selection Tuesday of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. Specter not only praised Obama's choice of Sotomayor, but also urged the Senate to give her a full and fair confirmation process, according to a statement on his Web site. "I applaud the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court,” Specter writes. “Her confirmation would add needed diversity in two ways: the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the high court." Specter added: "While [Sotomayor’s] record...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got together officially this week for the first time, but their talks failed to win agreement on how to solve perennial Middle East problems. They managed to agree on a common concern that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons. In meeting with the hawkish Netanyahu, Obama agreed that a nuclear-armed Iran was unacceptable. He warned that the diplomatic talks he was initiating to halt Iran’s program would not continue forever, and he roughly set a one-year deadline for the dialogue. The president also said he wouldn’t foreclose "a range...

Contending that U.S. borders are more secure than ever, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said Wednesday it's time for the White House and Congress to overhaul immigration laws to stem the number of people coming into and living illegally in the U.S. "We can pass strong, fair, practical and effective immigration reform this year," said Schumer, D-N.Y. President Barack Obama plans next month to meet with a small bipartisan group of Senate and House leaders to discuss immigration with the intention of beginning debate on the issue later this year, according to an administration official who requested anonymity because the White...

It isn’t so much that Dick and Rummy are back. It’s that they never left. They had no intention of turning America’s national security over to the Boy Wonder. The two best infighters in Washington history weren’t yielding turf to a bunch of peach-fuzz pinkos who side with terrorists. Let W. work out at the S.M.U. gym in Dallas, waiting for history to redeem him; Dick and Rummy are leaning forward into history, as they always do. Cheney is tawny with TV makeup; there’s no point taking it off. The gigs are nonstop, and he has a big Obama-bashing speech...

New York (AP) -- Longtime fundraiser Norman Hsu was convicted Tuesday of violating campaign finance laws in a case that became an embarrassment to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other prominent Democrats. Prosecutors had argued that Hsu, 58, used straw donors to make thousands of dollars in campaign donations to bypass rules limiting the amount any single individual or group can donate. Hsu's defense argued he was framed by investors who cut deals with the government to avoid prosecution.

WASHINGTON -- A former executive assistant to California Rep. Loretta Sanchez has pleaded guilty to stealing from office funds. Caroline Valdez admitted in federal court Monday that she used Sanchez's House credit card to buy airline tickets for herself and a family member and get pizza and groceries delivered.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama should appoint a woman to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice David Souter. And she should be a liberal. The high court is top heavy with conservative justices. And there is only one woman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, on the high bench. Obama’s choice will say a lot because Supreme Court’s decisions are the ultimate in our national life. Republicans are itching for a fight over the nominee, despite the fact that they had their way for too many years and worked to tip the court to the...

Elizabeth Edwards always seemed like the yin - a genuine human being - to her smarmy husband's too-slick yang. No more. With the release of her memoir "Resilience" and self-flagellation book tour about her life with her cheating hubby, Mrs. E now seems about as believable as her husband. That is: Add the prefix "un." No one should expect the wife of a man with Edwards' hobbies to be completely forthcoming - which is why she never should have written the book. Unless she had decided to show him the door - or if she had come out and said...

Doublespeak is alive as Democrats pull the strings in the White House and Congress 25 years after 1984. What do they mean when they engage in Democrat-speak? I know I'm not worthy, but I've got an assignment, so I shall borrow a page from Ambrose Bierce, not with a Devil's Dictionary, but a Democrats' Dictionary. The easy part: There's no dif.Academic freedom: Full license to espouse liberal thought to unformed minds.Bailout: Billions upon billions - trillions really - of government aid doled out to financial institutions to remind voters of the need for strong regulation.Biden, Joe: Running-at-the-mouth politician, but, hey,...

Obama, Clinton play silent role in Virginia’s gubernatorial raceBy Reid Wilson Posted: 05/05/09 07:11 PM [ET] The Democratic primary for the Virginia gubernatorial nomination is being haunted by one of the most contentious primary battles in history — the 2008 fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. For former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe (D), former state Rep. Brian Moran (D) and state Sen. Creigh Deeds (D), the race to replace outgoing Gov. Tim Kaine (D) offers the opportunity to associate themselves with the presidential candidates of their choice, as well as the chance to borrow a page...

Two towns in Berkshire are suffering a rise in the rat population because vermin have developed near-immunity to standard poisons, pest control experts have warned. The British Pest Control Association (BPCA) is calling on the Government to allow the use of more powerful pesticides to contain Britain's growing rodent population. It is estimated that their numbers have swelled by 13 per cent in the past year to more than 50 million, one for every person living in England. doubled in the past 12 months. Exeter council has seen a 66 per cent rise in vermin call-outs in 2008, while there...

Overall, "read my lips" was the first feckless President Bush's biggest mistake because of its unintended consequences on the culture, foreign policy and the national discourse. Among other things, it opened the door to the politics of personal destruction of Bill Clinton and all that entailed, which begat the Republican Revolution of 1994. The second feckless President Bush and moderate congressional Republicans ended up hijacking the revolution, and their borrow-and-spend policies breathed new life into long-ago-discredited liberalism. That led the Democrats back to the White House and gave them solid liberal majorities on Capitol Hill, including very soon a filibuster-proof...

As counsel for the Warren Commission, Arlen Specter described a "magic bullet" that changed America. Four decades later as a U.S. senator, Specter is providing another history-altering magic bullet - one Democrats will either fire off in a starting gun, or use in their suicide. By leaving the Republican Party this week, the five-term Pennsylvania lawmaker eliminated the last Democratic rationale for inaction: the Senate filibuster. With Minnesota Democrat Al Franken expected to be seated soon, and now with Specter, Democrats will have the 60 Senate votes needed to overcome all parliamentary obstructions. This legislative magic bullet will force Democrats...