Free Republic

Republican Members of the in the House Ways and Means Committee will have three days to read a health care reform bill that is being penned by Democratic staffers behind closed doors before a vote will be called. The bill will then be shuttled off to the House Rules Committee and sent to the floor for a full House vote. "It has been a study in frustration watching this legislation being crafted on the House side," said Texan Rep. Michael Burgess, M.D., at a town hall-style meeting with six other Republican lawmakers who were also doctors, held Tuesday by the...

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch urged the Justice Department on Tuesday to investigate college football's Bowl Championship Series for what he views as violations of antitrust laws. Hatch made the comment after conducting a standing-room-only hearing in the Senate subcommittee with antitrust oversight, where he serves as the top Republican. "Frankly, there's an arrogance about the BCS that just drives me nuts," he told reporters. "Hopefully this hearing will open the door to have some people reconsider their positions. And if nothing else, the Justice Department ought to be looking at this."

Al Qaeda Leader Spent Weeks in USA ByPaul L. Williams, Ph.D.thelastcrusade.org. After years of speculation, the rumors finally have been confirmed. Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were not the only top al Qaeda operatives to spend some time in the U.S.A. Osama bin Laden made the trek from Saudi Arabia to the land of the free and the home of the brave in 1978 with his first wife Najwa and his son Omar. The account of the trip is reported by Najwa bin Laden, Osama’s first wife, in Growing Up Bin Laden, soon to be published by St....

An Idaho community had secured an Air Force flyover for its local festival every year for more than 40 years, organizers say, but this year, the Air Force turned the request down over the festival's religious focus. The God and Country Family Festival in Nampa, Idaho, applied to the Pentagon for the flyover but was denied in an e-mail, board member Patti Syme told KTBV. Syme said the e-mail from a defense official informed her the Pentagon prohibited support of special interest groups. "I called him immediately and just said, you know hey we've been doing this for 42 years,...

Here is video of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour talking with Sean Hannity last night about the possibility he will run for President in 2012. Barbour was very non-commital, but he clearly did not close the door to the possibility he could run. He recently traveled to both Iowa and New Hampshire, traditionally the first two major tests in the Presidential Campaign. Barbour said while President Obama is a charming person, his policies are disastrous for the economy. . . . . (Watch Video)

Crowned With Goodness Today's Scripture "You crown the year with Your bounty and goodness…" (Psalm 65:11, AMP) Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Are you seeing the goodness of God overflowing in your life today? If you´ll look with your eyes of faith, you´ll see that He´s already crowned your year with His goodness. In other words, you have been especially chosen; you are marked to receive His goodness. And when God crowns you with His goodness, it doesn´t matter what´s going on around you. It doesn´t matter what´s happening in the economy, in the job market, or the...

Was president citizen of world's most populous Muslim nation? President Obama removes his shoes before entering the Blue Mosque in Istanbul in April (White House photo) JERUSALEM – In a recent small roundtable press briefing, President Obama referred to Jakarta, Indonesia, as his old home town while he reminisced about his schoolboy days in the world's most populous Muslim country. During the presidential campaign last year, questions were raised as to whether Obama ever possessed Indonesian citizenship, with the subject first being broached last summer by WND after a photograph emerged of Obama's school registration papers as a child in...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Tony Fernandes, the chief executive of Malaysia's upstart AirAsia airline, seldom shies away from a fight. A former executive at Time Warner Inc.'s music division, Mr. Fernandes bought the debt-laden carrier in 2001 for 27 cents and turned it into Asia's biggest budget airline with $754 million in annual revenues. It hasn't been easy. To expand AirAsia Bhd., he's battled reluctant governments for landing rights and routes and has endured price wars with regional competitors. A Delicate EquationView Interactive .See a timeline of AirAsia expansion and Malaysian affirmative action policies. . Now, as Mr. Fernandes pushes...

"Among other allegations, Ranghelli and Napper said that unembalmed bodies awaiting cremation were left to decompose in unrefrigerated areas of the funeral home and that bodies of military veterans awaiting burial at Arlington National Cemetery were stored for months on racks in the garage.

SOUTH WINDSOR - Bomb technicians and other investigators are expected this morning at the charred remains of 96 Tumblebrook Drive to examine wires, tubing, other devices that police say could be explosives that were installed by Richard Shenkman in the days leading up to a court-ordered transfer of the home to his ex-wife as part of a divorce settlement. Shenkman, if he is not hospitalized, is to be arraigned this morning in Superior Court in Manchester on a host of charges, including kidnapping, arson, reckless endangerment, unlawful discharge of a firearm, interfering with police and other charges. Police say that...

As you read the press clips, what we have heard is there was a coup. That, in fact, is not true. The Supreme Court of Honduras, under the direction of the Congress, asked the military to intercede because the President of Honduras had violated their own laws. Yet our State Department and our foreign policy sided with Hugo Chavez, Raoul Castro, and the former President. There is no question that improvements have been made in the past in Central and South America, but tonight we find ourselves supporting an anticonstitutional President of Honduras when, in fact, the Congress of Honduras...

(July 7) - The cash-strapped state of California will shell out $335,000 to settle a lawsuit filed over a former lawmaker's crazy driving, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Tuesday. Carole Migden, then a state senator from San Francisco, rear-ended another motorist following a wild drive on May 18, 2007, the newspaper said.

Will To Be Faithful ". . . choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . ." —Joshua 24:15 A person’s will is embodied in the actions of the whole person. I cannot give up my will— I must exercise it, putting it into action. I must will to obey, and I must will to receive God’s Spirit. When God gives me a vision of truth, there is never a question of what He will do, but only of what I will do. The Lord has been placing in front of each of us some big proposals...

NEW YORK (AP) — Sarah Palin's decision to step down as Alaska governor was driven in part by her wish to help Republican candidates across the country, associates say. But in New Jersey and Virginia, both of which have competitive governors' races this year, the prospect of a visit from the party's 2008 vice presidential nominee has so far drawn a muted response from the GOP contenders in both states. In Virginia, a historically conservative state where Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 to win, Republican Bob McDonnell said Tuesday his campaign had had conversations with the...

HURLEY — The Cochran quadruplets have more than quadrupled in size. And they’re nearing their first birthday in a new house, where each eventually will have his and her own bedrooms. Mom Sandra and Dad Matt have been scrimping and saving since pregnancy to build the new home on a high school coach’s salary. They got it finished just in the nick of time, Sandra said, because the Cochran family, with a 4-year-old and four 10-month-olds, has outgrown the house trailer. The quads were born in August, and since they arrived home in the fall, they have slept in...

As President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans his second term activities, an Iranian parliamentary commission finishes work on a controversial bill to redistribute energy subsidies among various income groups. "The parliament's special commission will pass the subsidy redistribution bill by the end of the week," the panel's spokesman, Kazem Delkhosh, said Tuesday. The move, which comes shortly after the re-election of President Ahmadinejad, will pave the way for Iranian lawmakers to vote on the bill in the near future. The bill is part of a reform plan the government seeks to execute to generate economic growth by lowering the lofty annual sums...

Thanks, but no thanks.....was the conclusion of one participant at a sit-down with FDIC chief Bair to learn how bank execs could buy fallen banks.......several at the FDIC's Washington office were banking executives.....just three participants were from the private-equity world -- even though PE firms have been the most active buyers of banks in receivership. Others present included hedge-fund king John Paulson, lawyers, and officials from public pensions and mutual funds.....The meeting followed last week's FDIC proposal to establish guidelines that some argue would limit PE firms' ability to buy banks.....requiring PE-owned banks to have capital ratios of 15%, well...

When rallying in the streets of Tegucigalpa for the ousted President Manuel Zelaya, Alejandra Fernandez, a 23-year-old university student told a journalist why she supported Zelaya: "He raised the minimum wage, gave out free school lunches, provided milk for the babies and pensions for the elderly, distributed energy-saving light bulbs, decreased the price of public transportation, made more scholarships available for students." "That's why the elite classes can't stand him and why we want him back," Alejandra explained. "This is really a class struggle."

Armed with handguns and posing as police, a group of men yesterday invaded three homes in Prince George's County, binding the occupants and demanding money and in one case a flat-screen TV, police said. The intruders first hit a red brick apartment building in District Heights, cuffing a woman with plastic bindings and asking her where she kept her money, according to the woman's account. Next they moved to a two-story home in Glenarden, disregarding the alarm company security sign in the front yard as they broke in, police said.

The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it will grant asylum to 1,350 Arabs in Iraq who claim to have the right to live in Israel based on ancestry. The unprecedented numbers to be allowed to resettle in the United States may anger Israel, the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) reported. Most of them lived well in Iraq under former dictator Saddam Hussein but then were thrown out of their homes after his downfall.