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“These decisions undermine Niger’s efforts over the last ten years to advance good governance and the rule of law,” said Robert Gibbs in a statement Thursday. The “decisions” he was referring to have been made by Niger president Mamadou Tandja in an effort to extend his rule over that nation. When Niger’s high court ruled against Tandja’s attempt to rule for three more years, the president removed the entire court, then named an entirely new cabinet. “We are encouraged that the African Union has sent a delegation to Niger to attempt to find resolution to this political crisis,” Gibbs said...

On June 25, the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate stabilization act, which would institute a cap-and-trade system to restrict Americans’ carbon emissions. While proponents of the bill have sought to argue that the costs of such a system would be negligible, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the bill proposes a massive and highly regressive tax on the U.S. economy, and could potentially cause not only extensive business failures, unemployment and privation within our borders, but starvation among poorer populations elsewhere. To understand this, it is only necessary to look at the numbers. According to a report...

I'm in the studio recording my next song for the Tea Party movement titled, “Feet To The Fire”. In it, I chastise politicians for not keeping their promises. A line says, “they go to DC...seek approval from liberals...” An adviser cautioned, “Lloyd, please change that lyric. You will loose half of your marketing audience. I played the rough mix for a liberal and that line infuriated him. Also, you're a Christian and Jesus would never point a finger at anyone”. I appreciated my adviser's concerns and did a little research. Jesus did call out people who were wrong. Matthews 12:24...

Today's disappointing jobs number is certain to trigger a serious push for a second stimulus bill. The talk was already happening. Earlier this wek, John Judis at The New Republic argued that one was needed. Also this week, Obama responded to a question about a possible second stimulus by saying it was "too soon" to know whether one would be needed, suggesting that it's certainly on the table. Of course, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in favor of a second stimulus before the ink even dried on the first one, so it shouldn't be much of a stretch to get...

The main characteristic of the so called W shaped economic is that the economy shows signs of recovery for a while and then suddenly begins to pull back. This can happen over and over. As such, words like choppy, stop start, and uneven are often used during a W shaped recovery. That's exactly the language used by George Soros earlier this week.

TORRINGTON -- Four teens were arraigned in Bantam Superior Court on Wednesday, three of them behind closed doors because of their young ages, on charges related to the beating of a Torrington man they thought was harming a woman who was heard screaming in her bedroom June 6. The alleged victim, 25-year-old Roger Swanson, was in the same room with 34-year-old Melanie Arnold when a 16-year-old girl who was elsewhere in the house overheard sounds at 26 Maud St. Police say the girl, who also lived in the house, believed Arnold was being attacked, and decided to take the law...

Obama Stimulus Plan Saves or Creates 467,000 More Jobs Oh, wait...did I say "saves or creates," as in, the imaginary voodoo number crunching the Obama Administration mistakes for "measuring job creation?" Oops! I guess I did. In reality, which bears little resemblance to the utopian, unicorn-populated, sunshine-laden rainbow smiles of Obamaworld, we're down another 467,000 more jobs in June. The stimulus is working so well that government jobs are increasing as the private sector burns (adding to the cost of running the government, by the way, which will have to be paid for by...the private sector).

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers cut far more jobs than expected last month and the unemployment rate hit a nearly 26-year high of 9.5 percent, underscoring the likelihood of a long and slow recovery from recession. The loss of 467,000 jobs reported by the Labor Department on Thursday was 100,000 more than Wall Street economists had expected and was spread widely across economic sectors. The economy has lost 6.5 million nonfarm jobs since the recession began in December 2007 and the unemployment rate has nearly doubled in that time. "It looks like the economy was still losing substantial momentum as...

you've seen it but it's still a classic...

Children in Britain are being failed by a culture that gives them low priority, exposing them to poor healthcare, knife crime and sexually transmitted diseases, according to the outgoing head of the Healthcare Commission. Sir Ian Kennedy, appointed to lead the watchdog after his 2001 report into child deaths after heart surgery in Bristol, said that despite the regulatory body's successes, progress on the care of children had not been as great as he would have liked. "What is getting in the way of doing what almost all right-minded people would think was a fundamental social obligation to its next...

The farm where Saddam Hussein hid from U.S. forces before he was captured in December 2003 was familiar ground for the Iraqi dictator: It was the same place, he told an FBI agent, where he sought refuge 44 years earlier after taking part in a failed attempt to kill Iraq's president. Saddam also told the U.S. official that he had used telephones only twice in the last 14 years, and moved his locations daily. With troops closing in on him, Saddam returned to the farm outside Tikrit where he hid in 1959 after joining in a failed bid to assassinate...

WAITING times for cancer treatment need to be cut, the Scottish Government was told yesterday. The Scotland Against Cancer conference in Glasgow heard Nicola Sturgeon, the health secretary, setting out what was being done to improve cancer care for Scottish patients. But one cancer survivor, who spoke at the Cancer Research UK event, challenged ministers to be more ambitious in reducing the time patients have to wait before starting treatment. Cancer experts later said that patients elsewhere in Europe would be "outraged" by having to wait two months to start treatment, with most being seen within two weeks. The current...

After 12 years cleaning care homes and private houses, no one is better qualified than Tereza Tosbell to say whether a room is spotless. So hospital bosses should take heed of her opinion after she spent four days on a 'filthy' ward. The mother-of-one said during her stay there was a single, brief visit from a cleaner who left dusty curtains, dirty bedframes and a messy floor. Disgusted at the conditions, she grabbed the antibacterial fluid dispenser at the end of her bed and some hand towels from the bathroom. She then set about cleaning her four-bed ward, at one...

Harry Potter fans are looking forward to the boy wizard’s next screen adventure, when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens this month. Pottermania broke loose when J. K. Rowling’s first book appeared on bookstands in 1997, prompting the creation of films, fan websites, and dozens of similarly themed books. Rowling’s world of wizardry has even inspired the name of a dinosaur fossil, Dracorex hogwartsia. But serious researchers are seeing evidence that dragons were more than just fantastical creatures...

with an observation from Hilaire Belloc and an admonition from Friedrich Hayek A robust challenge to Obama's health care plan appears ... in the Times. Written by a Harvard professor. Let me start with the observation from Hilaire Belloc. In his book The Servile State, Belloc writes that “The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.”I rather doubt that President Obama or any of his inner circle is a student of Hilaire Belloc. But they have demonstrated again and again their intuitive grasp of Belloc’s insight. If only, they reason, they can turn over...

Editor's note: Leah Ward Sears stepped down this week as Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. In 1992, she became the first woman -- and youngest person -- appointed to Georgia's highest court. ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- After Tommy's sudden death, we found among my brother's personal effects a questionnaire he had completed in 2005 for a church class. The very first question was a fill-in-the-blank that went like this: "At the end of my life, I'd love to be able to look back and know I'd done something about ....." "Fathers," Tommy wrote. When asked to identify something...

A three-year-old girl awaiting heart surgery has had her operation cancelled three times this month because of a shortage of beds. Ella Cotterell was due to have aorta-widening surgery on Monday at the Children’s Hospital, Bristol. But 48 hours beforehand, the operation was cancelled for the third time as all 15 beds in the intensive care unit were occupied, her parents said. A hospital spokesman said that procedures would be reviewed, but the case highlights a growing problem of cancelled operations in the NHS. More than 57,000 surgeries were postponed for non-clinical reasons, including a lack of beds, last...

The Law of Punishment and Reward Anyone who captures a free person, brings them to another country against their will, forces them to do manual labor without pay, while physically and psychologically abusing them – denying them equal rights to resources are creating a moral and ethical system by which redress is inevitable. Although the era supported this type of behavior and it was acceptable by the legitimate government one could argue that no wrong was committed – except the one who was subjected to the treatment. For them, it was not consensual therefore it's illegal and degrading. Let’s say...

It has been confirmed across the board that 18-wheelers were seen going into Syria before the war, crossing the border soon after Iraqi intelligence replaced the border guards and cleared nearby areas for their passage. There are also eyewitness reports of the trucks going into Syria, and eyewitness reports of their burial in Lebanon. The trucks with the weapons were tracked to three locations in Syria and Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, currently controlled by the Syrians, Iranians, and Hezbollah. Sources I've spoken with that have seen satellite photos of the movements confirm that the WMD in Syria are at military bases,...

CANTON, Ohio — The police chief of a northeast Ohio township has retired after a video became public showing him and a female office kissing and caressing in the front of a police cruiser while a prisoner was in the back seat. Timothy Escola retired Tuesday night after four years with the Perry Township police department about 50 miles south of Cleveland. Law Director Charles Hall says Escola's retirement closes an internal investigation. Hall says no charges are being considered against part-time officer Janine England, who was with Escola in the cruiser June 2.