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U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, was released from a Washington, D.C.-area hospital this morning. Murtha had been admitted to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Sunday evening for treatment of abdominal pain. He was diagnosed with a gallbladder problem, a spokesman has said. Murtha, 77, appeared on the House floor this afternoon during discussion of defense spending for fiscal year 2010.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday praised President Barack Obama for heeding his advice to bypass the naval brig in Charleston, S.C., and transfer terror suspects instead to an Illinois prison from the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he spoke with Obama recently and reiterated his strong opposition to moving the Guantanamo detainees to the medium-security brig at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston. "I spoke to the president about Charleston a couple weeks ago," Graham told McClatchy. "He listened intently as I said I thought Charleston is not an appropriate...

Quite an explosive leak! I wonder how this will affect things? It is certainly a thuggish and dangerous thing for Obama to play with National Security over this craptacular idea of socialized medicine. Quite a desperate move. According to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn’t fall into line. Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a “naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson’s vote.”...

With Afghanistan hearings Tuesday and the annual Pentagon budget bill due on the House floor this week, a familiar face may be missing. Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the House Appropriations defense panel, was hospitalized Sunday night because of abdominal pains. The 77-year old Pennsylvania Democrat had been feeling ill with what he thought last week was swine flu but the hospitalization appears related to his gall bladder. “He’s currently resting and doing well,” his office said.

WASHINGTON — Senators negotiating a bipartisan climate change bill on Thursday unveiled the broad outlines of their plan to combine greenhouse gas limits with expanded offshore drilling, more nuclear power and protections for refiners in a bid to attract support from wary lawmakers. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., announced their proposal as international leaders at a summit in Copenhagen were trying to devise a plan to combat global warming. President Barack Obama is set to attend the Copenhagen meeting next week. Graham said the group “did this just for Copenhagen … to give the...

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Barack Obama began his presidency with an open hand toward the man he had just defeated in a race that was at times bitter. "There are few Americans who understand this need for common purpose and common effort better than John McCain," said Obama at an inauguration-eve tribute dinner to his former foe. But in the year since that evening of comity and collegiality, McCain has emerged as one of the leading critics of the new president. On foreign policy, his traditional area of expertise, and domestic affairs, where McCain has shown new passion, the 72-year-old Arizonan is making it...

Three Senators released a broadly-worded blueprint of a climate change and energy bill on Thursday afternoon that they believe can win the 60 votes needed to push the bill through next year. The proposal was timed to help persuade delegates to the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen that the Senate is serious about passing a climate bill and not mired in a partisan morass. Senators John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and Joseph I. Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut, sent President Obama a letter on Thursday outlining their plan.

Obama bashes US at Nobel speech: PRESIDENT OBAMA: "Furthermore, America cannot insist that others follow the rules of the road if we refuse to follow them ourselves. For when we dont, our action can appear arbitrary, and undercut the legitimacy of future intervention — no matter how justified."

When President Obama spoke to troops at Alaska's Elmendorf Air Force Base last month, the unit there parked a shiny new F-22 fighter plane in the hanger. But according to multiple sources, White House aides demanded the plane be changed to an older F-15 fighter because they didn't want Obama speaking in front of the F-22, a controversial program he fought hard to end. "White House aides actually made them remove the F-22-said they would not allow POTUS to be pictured with the F-22 in any way, shape, or form," one source close to the unit relayed. Stephen Lee, a...

A senior Army strategist says President Barack Obama plans to conduct nothing more than an "ink spot" strategy in the war in Afghanistan. Speaking last night to the nation from the U.S. Military Academy, President Barack Obama said the war in Afghanistan is not lost and officially announced that he will send another 30,000 U.S. troops to fight it. The first new U.S. forces will join the fight by Christmas, he said, adding that U.S. forces will begin coming home in July 2011. Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis (USA-Ret.) disagrees with the administration's plan, arguing that a counterinsurgency operation cannot be...

Live from New York...it's Barack Obama!On the banks of the Hudson River at West Point, Obama will give his military strategy for Afghanistan, based on the tactical genius of Capt. Spaulding, aka Groucho Marx:Hello, I Must Be GoingOh dear, he is coming, At last he's here. (Spaulding) Hello, I must be going, I cannot stay, I came to say, I must be going. I'm glad I came, but just the same I must be going. La La. (Mrs. Rittenhouse) For my sake you must stay. If you should go away, You'd spoil this party I am throwing. (Spaulding) I'll stay...

(Reason #)8. A right-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech (see: Hot Air, Free Republic, Ace of Spades, etc.)

<p>Why wouldn’t the Post-American President allow this? After all, he already plans to try the CIA members who interrogated jihadis at Gitmo, and Navy Seals who captured a top jihadist. Why should he have any problem with this?</p> <p>Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “great regret” in August that the U.S. is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This has fueled speculation that the Obama administration may reverse another Bush policy and sign up for what could lead to the trial of Americans for war crimes in The Hague.</p>

A new one from CNS featuring Kent Conrad, who’ll be spared a “worst person in the world” award on Olbermann’s show for this bit o’ demagoguery solely by virtue of his party affiliation. Consider this a sequel to Lindsey Graham’s grilling of Holder last week: In both cases, we’ve got a Democrat who’s (a) absolutely confident that civilian trials are the way to go and (b) plainly unprepared to address the rather significant constitutional implications of his preference. The search warrant question here is bait but the underlying point isn’t: FrumForum interviewed former FBI and CIA agents to get their...

We hold these truths to be self evident, that when a free and just people are enslaved by the governments national spending, their freedoms are stripped by Un-Constitutional legislation, and a self admission that Congress has no intention of following the Constitution, then the people have no choice but to remove from service, those that have failed them, both in violation of their oath of office and by not representing the expressed desires of the American people. Congress has intentionally elected to not serve the American people, not serve the Constitution, thus, having made that decision, they are no longer...

After more than five months of going it alone, Iran's opposition Green Movement is reaching out to the United States for help. Via public and private channels, the Obama Administration has received several appeals in recent weeks to take a stronger stand against human-rights abuses in Iran, avoid military action and impose more aggressive and rapid-fire sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards and its vast business interests. [snip] Washington has struggled since the disputed June 12 presidential election to figure out how to engage the regime without undermining the opposition. Now it has begun to hear answers from the Green Movement...

Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) is unlikely to run in a GOP primary against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), let alone win, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Monday. Kyl, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said he expects the former congressman, who's been mulling a primary challenge to McCain's right next year, to carry on his activities as host of a radio show, and not as a candidate.

Cannot Defend Terror Trial in NYC thelastcrusade.com “Startling!” That’s how one legal expert describes a recent exchange between a Republican senator and the U.S. attorney general regarding the prosecution of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and suspected terrorists in federal court.Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) in a Judiciary Committee hearing last week asked Attorney General Eric Holder a question that befuddled the nation's top cop could not answer. Sen. Graham asked: "Can you give me a case in United States history where a[n] enemy combatant caught on a battlefield was tried in civilian court?"The inquiry was followed by an extensive silence...

It should be obvious by now that Barack Obama’s disastrous Cloward-Piven economic policies were not meant to lift the economy. After all, ask yourself, what would Obama be doing differently today if he intentionally set out to destroy the American economy? He’s tripled the national deficit in less than one year. He’s increased the national debt to $12 Trillion. And he’s nearly doubled the unemployment rate since the Bush years. Even Saturday Night Live and Chris Matthews can’t ignore it any longer. Jim Simpson at The American Thinker reported today on Obama’s Cloward-Piven economic plan: It is time to cast...

/begin my translation 11/23/09 Lee Jun-woon U.S. Wants to Open its Liaison Office; N. Koreans are Reviewing - N. Koreans weigh pros and cons of having U.S. liaison office inside their country - worry that its opening would undermine anti-American sentiment among N. Korean citizens - would probably delay the opening until they come up with measures to counter such a trend According to high level sources in N. Korea, U.S. proposed in late October to N. Koreans that U.S. wants to open a diplomatic liaison office(in NK.) U.S. showed its willingness to open the office even before denuclearization of...

Top Obama donor and fundraiser Jodie Evans met with the Taliban in Afghanistan on a recent trip there, according to a report by Jane Fonda of a discussion she had with Evans last month. The meeting with the Taliban took place just weeks before Evans was videotaped directly handing to President Barack Obama a package of information about her trip to Afghanistan at a high dollar fundraiser in San Francisco.The meeting with the Taliban was kept secret by Evans and her group Code Pink in reports she and the group posted from Kabul and in interviews with the media and...

MIDI - HOTEL CALIFORNIA - use the first version without the number (I hope this tracks okay; the old MIDI was removed from the net) She would proudly help clients who were lower than scum She thought she was so brilliant...prosecutors so dumb It caught up with her finally...and she got her just desserts And we can tell as we all watch her cry...that this loss really does hurt She had helped Omar Rahman...the man she chose to defend But little did we then realize she was becoming the evil sheik's friend She denied in the courtroom but the...

A disbarred New York lawyer convicted in 2005 on charges of supporting terrorism by helping an imprisoned blind Egyptian cleric smuggle messages to militant followers was ordered to prison by a U.S. federal appeals court that upheld her conviction on Tuesday.

(IsraelNN.com) U.S. President Barack Obama continues to “reach out to Muslims” by appointing them to key security posts amid charges he wrongly ignored internal Muslim terror. One recent appointee was harshly criticized for appearing on a British-based television station whose host is a member of a radical Muslim group. President Obama has continued to “reach out Muslims,” as he said in his keynote speech in Cairo last June, and this past week he swore in a Muslim rights advocate to the Homeland Security Advisory Council, shortly after the Fort Hood massacre. HSAC members are involved in expertise on national security.

A federal appeals court has ordered a civil rights lawyer convicted in a terrorism case that originated in Minnesota to begin serving her prison sentence. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan today also upheld Lynne Stewart's conviction, which was based in part on illegally aiding her client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, during a visit with him at the federal prison in Rochester, Minn., in May 2000. She was convicted of smuggling messages between Abdel-Rahman and a terrorist group. Stewart was sentenced to a little more than two years in prison.

Attorney General Holder has announced that he intends to bring the 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to trial in Federal Court in New York City. AG Holder made this decision in part becasue he believes the 9/11 attacks were primarily against citizens, and therefore should be held in a federal court. 9/11 was an act of war by a non state actor, typically defined as terrorism. The purpose of the attack was not to kill American citizens. The attack was designed to weaken the United States ability to respond to the longer term efforts efforts by Osama bin Laden and...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney delivered a scathing criticism of President Obama's Afghanistan strategy Friday night, accusing the president of delivering rhetoric and not action in the war-torn country. Quoting from a speech Obama delivered in March, Romney agreed with the president "that 'we are in Afghanistan to confront a common enemy that threatens the United States, our friends and allies."' Romney continued on seconding the president: "I believe 'that to succeed, we and our friends and allies must reverse the Taliban's gains, and promote a more capable and accountable Afghan government.'"

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who led an effort last week to prevent the Obama Administration from doing just what it did today in directing prosecution of the alleged Sept. 11 plotters into federal court, says he's keeping mum about that decision for now at the request of the White House. "I have been asked by the White House to withhold comment about today’s Guantanamo decision until I can meet face-to-face with the President after he returns from Asia," Graham said in a statement released by his office. "As our Commander in Chief, I will honor his request. I look forward...

U.S. President Barack Obama bows as he is greeted by Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko as he arrives at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. You know, he is getting better at this sort of thing. Practice makes perfect. This one has to go straight into the Obama Scrapbook section, "My Greatest Achievements." While a normal, well-brought-up American knows that free men do not bow to monarchs, it is interesting to read Miss Manners on the subject of bowing to foreign monarchs, not that manners is what we expect to see in this case.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is pushing back against home-state conservative critics who have sought to censure the independent-minded lawmaker, arguing that he will not allow the criticism to block his efforts to find common ground with others in the Senate. The Charleston County Republican Party this week formally censured Graham over his repeated efforts to work across the aisle on the economy, climate change and immigration. The county party also asked the state party to rescind a resolution commending Graham. Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop issued a statement defending the Senator’s legislative work and his track record on conservative issues. “Senator...

Columnist Steve Chapman who bills himself as "solving the world's problems one post as at time", has written this truly ignorant article about the Islamic attack on Fort Hood. Islam and Fort Hood By Steve Chapman Conservatives have been quick to trumpet the fact that the alleged killer at Fort Hood, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is a Muslim--the implication being that Muslims are inherently untrustworthy, hostile to America, at odds with civilized norms of behavior or something. But if that were the case, incidents like this would be common, not rare. It would be absurd and dangerous to anathematize...

Clueless Chris Matthews: "See - we have a problem," Matthews said. "How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al Qaeda. Is that the point at which you say, ‘This guy is dangerous?' That's not a crime to call up al Qaeda, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy?" [VIDEO AT SITE]I love it how Dr. Jasser is trying to...

Jane Fonda Says Sex Is Better Than Ever At 71... Despite Her Metal Hip [Pic in URL] By BEN TODD 10th November 2009 She might not be offering workout tips in a leotard now, but Jane Fonda still has a pointer for ladies keen to stay young - an active love life. At 71, the fitness guru who recently had spinal surgery and boasts an artificial knee and titanium hip said her looks are partly down to having the best sex of her life. Miss Fonda, who became a Hollywood sex symbol in the 1968 film Barbarella, said: 'How do...

North country Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava has resigned from her leadership position in the state Assembly. In a prepared statement, Republican Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb said he accepted her resignation as Minority Leader Pro Tempore. Just before last week's election, Scozzafava dropped out of the Congressional race and backed the Democrat, Bill Owens, who went on to win. Scozzafava met Monday to discuss her actions. Many have argued that Scozzafava's last-minute endorsement of Owens gave him the Congressional win. “Today, I had a thorough and frank discussion with Assemblywoman Scozzafava. As a result, Dede has tendered, and I accepted, her...

<p>MSNBC and Bloomberg are reporting that the Obama administration is denying reports by CBS News and the AP that Obama has decided to send nearly 40,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan.</p> <p>Both outlets report that Obama has not received final recommendations from his advisers and he would then need time to review them.</p>

Fox News can confirm that Fort Hood suspect Army Major Nidal Hasan is awake and speaking to medical staff at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.Hospital spokesperson Maria Gallegos says he's in critical but stable condition. A U.S. Army spokesman says Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspected Fort Hood gunman, is in critical but stable condition three days after he allegedly opened fire on the military base that killed 13 and left 29 wounded. Hasan, 39, was shot during an exchange of gunfire during Thursday's attack. The military moved him on Friday to Brooke Medical Center, where he...

Contact information: Washington, D.C. Office: 2113 Rayburn House Office Building, District of Columbia 20515-1802 Phone: (202) 225-6636 Fax: (202) 225-1988 New Orleans Office: (more district offices) 4640 South Carrollton Avenue, Suite 120 New Orleans, Louisiana 70119 Phone: (504) 483-2325 Fax: (504) 483-7944 New Orleans Office: 4640 South Carrollton Avenue, Suite 120 New Orleans, Louisiana 70119 Phone: (504) 483-2325Fax: (504) 483-7944 web contact formIt would be appropriate to let him know how much we appreciate his vote. Not for the value of the vote, but because he gave the Dhims cover to say that it was "bipartisan."

Even as a Senate global-warming bill remained in limbo with Democrats refusing to delay a committee vote until an economic analysis was completed, hopes rose for a potential bipartisan compromise. The Senate, meanwhile, appears to be moving away from the bill, authored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., which would require a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 and would have the government sell the right to emit carbon dioxide. Even as Boxer conducted an unusual one-sided hearing on her bill in the Environment and Public Works Committee, Kerry, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and...

Even before a Senate committee could begin marking up the "Kerry-Boxer" climate bill, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) himself announced a new "track" of negotiations over climate policy that makes his original bill look somewhat irrelevant. Kerry, appearing at the U.S. Capitol with Sens. Lindsay O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), said the three legislators would work with business groups and the White House to forge a compromise climate measure that could get 60 votes in the Senate. These negotiations would be separate from the work that six different Senate committees are doing on climate legislation, including the...

Dede Scozzafava won't even commit to how long she'll support House Minority Leader John Boehner for speaker. Faced with persistent questions from John McCormack, a conservative young reporter from the Weekly Standard, aimed at discerning her predilection for pulling an Arlen Specter, Scozzafava called the cops. Her press secretary later released an e-mail exchange with McCormack they thought would vindicate their position, only to find that even Daily Kos agrees with the Standard on this dust-up. This prompted a virtual stampede of conservative bloggers and activists to come forward and demand that Scozzafava drop out of the race. It has...

You would think by now, Sen. John Kerry would have learned to avoid co-eds packing Instamatics! But nooooo. Our senior senator was captured in yet another embarrassing Kodak moment with a couple of Emerson College students, who popped by his posh Louisburg Square digs to trick or treat on Halloween night.

This video linked here contains 13 sniper shots upon coalition forces.   Specifically at:   :24 1:21 1:50 2:45 3:23 3:47 4:26 5:03 5:28 6:44 7:20 7:45 8:05 There are several other instances where it appears that there may have been a sniper shot, but it's not so clear as the 13 listed above.   Some will say that we can't tell what this video is really saying because we can't translate from Arabic, etc.  The terrorist symbol in the upper left, coupled with the superimposed image of former President Bush over flag draped coffins leaves little to translate.  This...

Hey, how did that six-figure RNC donation to the NRCC plus $85,000 to the New York GOP plus nearly half-million-dollar investment in advertising and other independent expenditures on behalf of radical leftis Dede Scozzafava work out? She repaid the GOP by endorsing Democrat candidate Bill Owens. Some gratitude, eh? “Since beginning my campaign, I have told you that this election is not about me; it’s about the people of this District,” Scozzafava wrote in an e-mail sent to supporters this afternoon. “It is in this spirit that I am writing to let you know I am supporting Bill Owens for...

Republican Dede Scozzafava endorsed her former Democratic opponent Sunday in the race for an upstate New York congressional seat, shaking up the contest for the second day in a row after exiting the race Saturday.

Barbara Boxer apparently holds meetings on the streets of Oakland, according to her companions, who didn’t want to allow a constituent with a camera to question Senator Ma’am on policy in Afghanistan. Boxer finally responds long enough to insist that Congress will not allow more troops to go into Afghanistan, which then prompts the question of whether we should keep troops there at all if we’re not going to fight to win there. Boxer walks away, even though the constituent calls her “Senator” … repeatedly:

Republican Dede Scozzafava endorsed her former Democratic opponent Sunday in the race for an upstate New York congressional seat, one day after Scozzafava dropped out of the contest. Scozzafava dropped out after Conservative Party candidate Dough Hoffman experienced a late-in-the-game surge. But on Sunday, Scozzafava backed Democrat Bill Owens -- the announcement was made in a statement send out by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same," she said. "In Bill Owens, I see a sense of duty and integrity that will guide him beyond political partisanship. He...

(IsraelNN.com) Former minister Rafi Eitan, who recruited Jonathan Pollard as a spy for Israel in the US, expressed regret over the espionage debacle in an interview on Channel 2. "I admit the failure and I regret it,” he said. In an interview to Maariv in 2008, Eitan said that the US intelligence services made a joint decision not to permit Pollard ever to be released until the end of his life. “The reason isn't Pollard. It's Israel... It's connected to the relationship system between the American intelligence services and the state of Israel.” Eitan went on to confirm that the...

The morally ugly nature of actual altruism was on display when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius recently declared that one in ten doses of the Swine Flu vaccine that were purchased with American taxpayer dollars will be given to other countries before there is enough vaccine to cover the health needs of Americans. She explained that “There’s an agreement (on a) ten percent donation that eleven nations have made.” Once 40 million doses have been produced and distributed in the United States, then ten percent of what’s produced will be donated even as the U.S. government waits for...