Free Republic

I, like millions of other Pro-Life people, am sincerely hoping that the Lord will use Pope Benedict XVI to help the American President see the conflict between his claim to respect the Social Teaching of the Catholic Church, most especially as it relates to our obligations in solidarity to give the poor a love of preference. As Blessed Teresa of Calcutta reminded us so clearly, children in the womb are the “poorest of the poor.” Yet, he has stopped his ears to their cry. Throughout his campaign Barack Obama reminded us of our obligation to love our neighbor. He told...

Obama Shakes Hands With Libya's Qaddafi President Obama's gesture was his latest effort to reach out to controversial world leaders in an attempt to improve the United States' standing around the world that he says was damaged by former President Bush's unilateral diplomacy. [Pic in URL: US President Barack Obama, right,and Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi pictured during the G8/G5 summit in L'Aquila, Italy Thursday July 9, 2009. (AP) President Obama shook hands with Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi Thursday, a sign that relations have improved considerably between the U.S. and the North African nation. The two met as they posed for...

Sen. Roland Burris has decided not to run for President Obama's former seat that he was appointed to under a cloud of controversy, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Thursday. Burris plans to announce his decision Friday by issuing a statement to the press, the newspaper said. Burris reached his decision after struggling to raise campaign funds. He reportedly only raised about $20,000, but campaign disclosures with the Federal Election Commission are expected to be filed next week. A source told the newspaper that Burris has been very concerned about his legacy. "After 20 years in government service, Burris didn't want the...

Reminiscent of the no-bid, cost-plus contracts awarded in the Bush administration to defense contractors, ABC News reported last night the Obama Administration awarded a 5 year $18 million contract to Smartronix, a Maryland-based IT firm with connections to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, for the redesign of Recovery.gov. Launched in February to track the expenditures of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Recovery.gov was to be the pinnacle of web-enabled transparency, according to President Barack Obama. “The site is the tip of the iceberg for the effort that will go into taking spending tracking and accountability to the...

Two more members of the U.S. House of Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of a proposal to require presidential candidates to document their eligibility for the office under the U.S. Constitution, which requires Oval Office occupants to be among other things, a "natural born citizen" of the United States. The bill's provisions are simple: "To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of President to include with the committee's statement of organization a copy of the candidate's birth certificate, together with such other documentation...

Here is video of Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio and Joe Brocato discussing which NFL Quarterbacks are on the "hot seat" as the NFL season draws closer. . . . . . (Watch Video)

Is Hawaii self-conscious about its unusual "certification of live birth" document because of attention focused on it over questions about Barack Obama's eligibility for the presidency? The state, which had excluded the controversial document as proof of native Hawaiian status, has changed its policy and now makes a point of including it stating in its qualifications that they are now accepted "because they are official government records documenting an individual's birth." It was just one month ago that WND pointed out that the document Barack Obama has released as proof of a Hawaiian birth was not accepted by the Hawaiian...

must go to site to read.

Over the course of his tenure, President Obama has not only shown a disdain for the War Against Islamic Terrorists (also known as the War Against People Who Create Man-Made Disasters), but Obama has shown a total disregard for those who lost family members to acts of terror. Back in February, Obama upset the families of the USS Cole victims when he stopped the military commissions that were going to try the terrorists: ..The Cole's commanding officer when it was bombed in Yemen in 2000 - was among a dozen people who met with Obama and have been angered by...

Another Whale Spotted Near Orange Beach July 9, 2009 - Orange Beach, AL (OBA) - It was another beautiful day on the Alabama Gulf Coast. Local angler Lea Scruggs and his friends Jessica Simpson, Melvin Lowdermilk and Shelby Wolven headed out on Scruggs boat, the Wahooter, for a day of offshore fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. When the Wahooter Fishing Team started out that morning, they didn't expect to have such an exciting tale to tell, especially not another Whale Tale from the Gulf of Mexico story originating from Orange Beach, Alabama.

President Barack Obama said Thursday the global recession makes it harder to strike an international agreement to battle dangerous temperature increases, but he urged the poor emerging economies that rejected specific clean-energy goals to "fight the temptation toward cynicism" and embrace them soon. "There is no contradiction between environmentally sustainable growth and robust economic growth," Obama said at the conclusion of a forum of the world's 17 major economies, which account for about 80 percent of emissions of heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. "We can either shape our future or we can let events shape it for us." The...

GE Healthcare, the medical research subsidiary of General Electric, has formed a partnership with a leading U.S. biotech company to develop products based on human embryonic stem cells that can be used to develop new drugs. On June 30, GE Healthcare and Geron Corporation announced a multi-year alliance where Geron will provide GE scientists with an undisclosed amount of human embryonic stem cells. The human cells will be used “to develop and commercialize cellular assay products derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) for use in drug discovery, development and toxicity screening,” according to a news release. GE Healthcare, which...

Gracie, a 12-pound Parsons Jack Russell terrier, has come to Milwaukee with a mission. Sure, a lot of canines are trained to sniff out bombs, drugs or dead bodies. But as the newest member of the Housing Authority's environmental services department, Gracie's job can literally be described as: Don't let the bedbugs bite.Acquired from a specialized canine training center in Florida for $10,000, Gracie can go to an apartment door and smell if there's a bedbug or live bedbug eggs inside, said Bill Klein, the supervisor of the Housing Authority's environmental services. He introduced the dog Wednesday at the annual...

Here is a video interview with the CEO of Activision Blizzard Inc., Robert Kotick, whose company owns such huge names in the video game industry as Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and World of Warcraft. He discusses how the economy is impacting the video game industry. He says video games are actually doing very well since it is a relatively cheap form of entertainment. . . . . . (Watch Video)

(Moderator note: comments for www.regimeofterror.com are now activated at the end of each post)During a series of email and telephone exchanges Matthew Degn relayed to www.regimeofterror.com his vast array of experiences working with intelligence issues relating to the current and former situation in Iraq. Among his responsibilities during his years in Iraq Degn worked as a civilian interrogator attached to the U.S. Army in Iraq before working as a Senior Policy/Intelligence Adviser to Deputy General Kamal and other top intelligence officials with the Iraq's Ministry of Interior. Degn, currently working on a book about his experiences in Iraq (personal website...

State can't cut Medi-Cal fees, court rules SAN FRANCISCO -- California acted illegally by trying to cut Medi-Cal fees by 10 percent last year for doctors, pharmacists and others who treat 7.1 million poor people, a federal appeals court ruled today. The decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was a victory for health professionals and their patients but a blow to the state, which is mired in a $26.3 billion budget deficit. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislators have imposed further Medi-Cal reductions this year, which could be thwarted by the ruling. "The cuts...

Yesterday, authorities seized more than 400 dogs and charged 26 people from seven states in what Humane Society officials are calling one of the largest crackdowns on dogfighting in the United States. State and federal agents staged raids in several states, charging individuals in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas following a more-than-year-long investigation originally tipped off by the Humane Society of Missouri. In Missouri, prosecutors said members of a multistate ring routinely denied the dogs medical treatment and "destroyed" injured dogs who were no longer able to fight by shooting them "in the head, throwing them into...

   U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009. Leaders of the Group of Eight major industrial nations and the main developing economies are meeting in the central Italian city of L'Aquila until Friday to discuss issues ranging from global economic stimulus to climate change and oil prices.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department would be given the power to regulate all food sold in schools -- including vending machine snacks -- when Congress renews child nutrition programs, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee said on Tuesday. Chairman Tom Harkin said he hopes the committee will start work on legislation to reauthorize school lunch programs in October or November, with a goal to conclude the work by the end of the year. "I can tell you it won't be this month," Harkin told reporters who asked when work would begin. He said precedence must go, for...

A 350ft crop circle of an ancient Mayan symbol, said to be a sign of an impending apocalypse, has appeared next to Silbury Hill in Wiltshire. The giant pattern - thought to represent a traditional Mayan head-dress - appeared next to the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe last week. Members of the crop circle community believe the mystic symbol is a signal of the end of the 5,126-year Mayan 'Long Count' calendar on December 21, 2012 Karen Alexander, a crop circle enthusiast, said: "This is one of the most interesting crop circles I have ever seen. It is definitely...