Free Republic

Marc Armbinder of The Atlantic is reporting that President Obama will be unveiling his own healthcare plan in the coming week as a way to kick start the debate back in his favor. One of the easy digs against Obama until this time has been that he not only had nothing to do with the various plans floating around Congress (at least three bills thus far) and, worse, that he hasn't seemed to really know what is in any of them. Now Obama is about to offer his own plan. Some of it will be ideas already in play and...

"When those things happen you just have to stand back and let them do their thing," said Chuck Redman, a fire weather meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Boise. "They'll send spots everywhere, across fire lines."

Exasperated watchdog groups are calling for a special counsel to intervene in the ethics committee probe of Rep. Charles Rangel. * * * The good-government officials say they are astounded by Rangel’s (D-N.Y.) disclosure last week of at least $650,000 in assets that he previously had failed to list on his House financial disclosure forms. * * * Some in the watchdog community are tired of waiting for the ethics committee. "Appointing a special counsel is a step the committee could and should take," said Lisa Gilbert, democracy advocate for U.S. PIRG. "There really couldn’t be a situation where there...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Authorities say a man who shot and killed two men and wounded another in a Sacramento apartment early Monday was acting in self-defense. Sacramento County Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Curran says authorities declined to arrest the 26-year-old man after witnesses reported that the three men confronted the man outside his apartment, then broke in and continued the attack after he had retreated inside. Investigators say during the attack, the man retrieved a handgun and shot all three attackers. Two of the attackers died at the scene. The third, a 23-year-old, was taken to a hospital. He is expected...

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's top nuclear negotiator said his country is ready to hold talks with world powers to ease fears over its nuclear activities and has prepared a revised package of proposals for Western countries, state TV reported Tuesday. Despite the suggestion of possible international cooperation, parliament sent a defiant message to the world by supporting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's nominee for defense minister, who is under an international arrest warrant for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Argentina that killed 85 people.

First, he tackled the Bank of America security guard. Then, he punched the manager in the face. And before fleeing with $9,000, the armed robber asked a teller for a kiss, authorities say. He forced one of the tellers at gunpoint to open the cash drawers for him. Before fleeing with $9,000, Daniel took the teller into the breakroom and asked her to kiss him. The complaint didn't mention whether she did. The bank guard, manager and a customer followed Daniel and told police he went into a neighborhood nearby. Police found him about 50 yards away hiding

Here's the figure: $2.878 billion. That's how much money the government owes car dealers for the "Cash for Clunkers" program. More than $200 million of that is owed to dealers in Illinois and Indiana, so CBS 2's Mai Martinez checked with some of them to see how much money they've collected from Uncle Sam. Now that the popular program has ended, many dealerships are asking the federal government to "show me the money." CAPTURE MY CHICAGO: Send us your pictures of Chicagoland. You could get published in a book. "Out of 142 deals they owe us for, we've gotten paid...

President Barack Obama will review a new U.S. military report on Afghanistan this week and any decision on changing the U.S. presence there is weeks away, Obama's spokesman said on Tuesday. Obama would take some form of the report by U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal with him when he leaves on Wednesday for Camp David, where he will spend the rest of the week on vacation, spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. The confidential report by the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has been described by officials as an assessment of the situation on the ground and does...

In the 2006 campaign season the Washington Post ran more than a dozen front-page stories on Senator George Allen’s reference, at an August 11 campaign stop almost 400 miles from Washington, to an opposition campaign staffer as “Macaca.” One of these stories, perhaps, had enough news value to be worthy of the front page; the others were placed there with the obvious intent of defeating Allen and electing his Democratic opponent Jim Webb, who did indeed win by a 50%-49% margin. Now there’s a campaign on for governor of Virginia, and the news editors of the Post seem to be...

A Nashville, TN man used his gun to fend off two robbers who broke into his home Saturday night. Police say that two robbers broke in to the man's home on Lindy Murff Ct. The homeowner grabbed his self defense gun and shot one of the home invaders in the chest. Both criminals then fled to a nearby gas station, and tried to claim that they were themselves the victims of a robbery. The wounded criminal was taken to a local hospital, and is expected to survive and face charges. The unwounded criminal has been arrested. The homeowner was unharmed....

Observers of the New Jersey gubernatorial race have been waiting to see whether the tough news cycle Republican Chris Christie found himself in through much of August would shake up the race. But two new public polls out today give two different answers

Here is video of the Duggars family from Arkansas telling The Today Show this morning that they are expecting their 19th child in November. The whole family gathered to appear on The Today Show together for the interview and announcement. Mrs. Duggars said she is feeling "sick and tired" right now, which is exactly how she should feel, she said. . . . . (Watch Today Show Video)

Say "NO" to Dr. Obama and socialized medicine Help spread the word about the campaign to pressure Congress into saying "NO" to Obama's prescription for a government takeover of our nation's healthcare system.Over the past several weeks conservatives have gained momentum and public support for Obama's plan has begun to fall.Click here to join the campaign today!We can't afford to let up.  The stakes are simply too high!Visit our campaign homepage to get the tools you can use to help spread the word.  Tools such as custom posting to your Twitter or Facebook account, plus the newest tool, our campaign widget.You can...

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley appears to be the first candidate in a special election for the Senate seat left open by the death of Edward Kennedy.

WASHINGTON — Seven months after taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is reshaping the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division by pushing it back into some of the most important areas of American political life, including voting rights, housing, employment, bank lending practices and redistricting after the 2010 census. As part of this shift, the Obama administration is planning a major revival of high-impact civil rights enforcement against policies, in areas ranging from housing to hiring, where statistics show that minorities fare disproportionately poorly. President George W. Bush’s appointees had discouraged such tactics, preferring to focus on individual cases...

It never ceases to amaze how people who should know better, erudite intellectuals who write with precision, flair, and lucidity and are capable of acute reflectiveness, can nevertheless lend their support to Barack Obama. Alan Dershowitz comes immediately to mind. In such important books as The Case for Israel, The Case for Peace, and The Case Against Israel’s Enemies, Dershowitz has done yeoman service on behalf of the beleaguered and universally misprized Jewish state. And yet, when it comes to the international figure who may well represent the most serious threat to Israel’s well-being and perhaps even to its survival...

Yes, I know Al Gore didn't really invent the Internet, and it's not that I'm against cyber security in any way, shape or form, but I find the latest Senate bill currently making the rounds (excerpt here), in which the President would be given authority to shut down all or part of the entity we call the Internet "in an emergency," to be a little worrisome. Let me say right up front that I'm not (yet) one-hundred percent suspicious of everything that Barack Obama and his enablers in the Congress get up to. For example, I'm fine with them occasionally...

AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin is pulling out of the National Merit Scholarship Program to focus on needs-based financial assistance. The university — second only to Harvard in the number of merit scholars enrolled — said budget pressures were causing it to end its participation in the merit-based program, which awards scholarships to top high school achievers. Colleges nationwide are struggling to meet higher demand for financial aid amid fewer resources from states and their own endowed scholarship funds. “The financial constraints brought about by the economy on families and the university require the redirection of...

A second Obama Zero dollar is out. Focused on the intrusion Obamacare (or HR 3200 if you believe it's not Obama's plan) will be into our private lives and information. Please download it, print out both sides if you like it, and pass it out at opportune moments to like-minded folks, or leave it in places that anyone can find. Get them out there exposing the lies of Obamacare. Keep fighting it any way you can. Front of it is first, then the back image. For the whole series of Zero dollar bills, go here: "Flickr Archive of Zero Bills"

One is a pop icon and the other a former contender for the post of Israel's prime minister — but Madonna and Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni appear to have found a lot to talk about. Madonna is in Israel for concerts on Tuesday and Wednesday. Livni's spokesman Gil Messing says the two women dined for more than two hours late Monday at the singer's request. Both wore short-sleeved black dresses and embraced as they emerged from a Tel Aviv restaurant. Messing says the pair decided to keep the content of the conversation private. He said Livni "was very impressed...