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"I apologize for the offensive words I chose to use during that speech," Jones said in a written statement to Politico. "They do not reflect the views of this administration, which has made every effort to work in a bipartisan fashion, and they do not reflect the experience I have had since I joined the administration."

`We just can't afford it!'' Not long ago, every America child heard that, at one time or another, in the home in which he or she was raised. ``We just can't afford it!'' It may have been a new car, or two weeks at the beach, or the new flat-panel TV screen. Every family knew there were times you had to do without. Every father and mother has had to disappoint their kids with those words. Why is it that what parents do many times a year politicians seem incapable of doing: saying no. How many times in the last...

The Federal Reserve will have to raise interest rates as aggressively as it cut them when it becomes clear the economic recovery has taken hold, to avoid flaring up inflation, Charles Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Fed, told CNBC in an interview. Analysts have been worried that the various stimulus programmes and money-printing around the world will cause devaluation and price rises, and some European officials have suggested that all stimulus measures be pulled out at once to prevent that. The Fed has an exit strategy, which it will apply when needed, Plosser said. "Our exit strategy is really quite...

The global recession is coming to an end faster than thought just a few months ago and may already be over, according to forecasts published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on Thursday. The recovery may even prove a little stronger than previously predicted, OECD chief economist Jorgen Elmeskov told Reuters in an interview where he elaborated on the forecasts for several key economies.

WASHINGTON -- Why is the governor of South Carolina still a national news story? This past week, Gov. Mark Sanford was again in the news, and neither sex nor romance had anything to do with it. I can understand his first great news splash, after he completely vanished from the face of the earth. Then he duped his staff into announcing that he was communing with the birds and the bees along the Appalachian Trail. Then it was discovered that he had actually been emulating the birds and the bees down in Argentina with a secret Argentine inamorata. She is...

An Ohio man opted to plead guilty in a Miami-Dade court to charges he arranged a sexual tryst that involved dunking young girls underwater. Midway through his trial, an Ohio man on Wednesday pleaded guilty to trying to violently dunk two young girls underwater in Miami for his own sexual pleasure. Jeffrey Doland, 47, agreed to a prison term of 20 years, to be followed by 10 years of probation. ``He started to realize the evidence against him was overwhelming,'' said defense attorney Terrence O'Sullivan. ``I think he saw the writing on the wall.'' To satisfy his sexual perversion, Jeffrey...

An unusual and yet strangely familiar image of life intruding into the Oval Office has been captured by a White House photographer. --- As Barack Obama looks through papers, his eight-year-old daughter, Sasha, spies on him from behind a sofa. The photograph, released by the White House, was taken by Peter Souza, whose brief is to document the Obama presidency. Mr Obama has said that one of the greatest benefits of working in the White House is having his family living in the same building. Despite its spontaneous feel, the image evokes obvious – and possibly intentional - comparisons with...

President Obama's plan to inspire the nation's schoolchildren with a video address next week erupted into controversy Wednesday, forcing the White House to pull out its eraser and rewrite a government recommendation that teachers nationwide assign students a paper on how to "help the president," the Washington Times reported. Presidential aides acknowledged the White House helped the U.S. Education Department craft the proposal, which immediately was met by fierce criticism from Republicans and conservative organizations who accused Obama of trying to politicize the education system. White House aides said the language was an honest misunderstanding in what was supposed to...

Winnipeg not pursuing Pacman Associated Press WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Adam "Pacman" Jones won't be playing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers after all. The CFL team announced Wednesday it has ended its pursuit of the controversial ex-NFL cornerback, one day after multiple reports said Jones would play for the team. "It is unfortunate that this situation became public; however, our position has remained consistent," Blue Bombers coach Mike Kelly said in a statement. "We will pursue athletes that we believe will contribute to our organization on and off the field. "We have completed our assessment and due diligence and at this...

Does Glenn Beck really mean to incite the assassination of the president of the United States or is it that he just doesn't care much one way or another? Hey, it's TV, and ratings matter, you know. In case you've been lucky enough lately to be passing time in one of our meager groves of sanity, know that Beck is the latest Fox News cable sensation, a right-wing near lunatic of such inspired loopiness that his ratings are challenging even the network's reigning act, Bill O'Reilly. Could it be that O'Reilly, with his hoary shtick of bullying arrogance and mewling...

Despite their control of all three branches of government, this has not been a good summer for liberal Democrats. Their health care "reform" bill, which has yet to be fully written, much less fully funded, has been exposed at town hall meetings as a power grab over life and death with the strong possibility that "do no harm" will be replaced by a utilitarian approach to treatment. The cap-and-trade measure (dubbed "cap and tax" by the Wall Street Journal) appears in trouble. Closer scrutiny has revealed it as one more reach into our pockets by politicians who never have enough...

Queries on curiosities in the news.... -- In enthusiastically supporting the kooky health-care measure approved by Madame Pelosi's House Democrats, how can the gargantuan AARP - so often cited blandly as an advocate for senior citizens - be anything but a hard-left lobby? -- Which does contemporary American culture value more - merit or celebrity? -- Hugo Chavez' Venezuela has become a center for the transshipment of narcotics throughout the hemisphere. Is it any wonder Chavez seeks the re-installation of his disciple Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president of Honduras, to establish Honduras as Central America's leading narco-state? -- So why...

A lot of attention has been paid in the last few days to US Senate bill S.773 that would give the president emergency powers to control private sector Internet sites. Introduced in the spring by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa) and Olympia Snow (R-Me) the bill gives the president extraordinary powers to control private Internet sites in case of a cyber attack upon the United States. There is much opposition that has emerged recently both to the vagueness of the bill’s second draft and the proposed interference with private property rights, specifically the net.

A study of citizenship and nationality case law, statutes, treatises, and other sources shows that one acquires allegiance and loyalty through citizenship. Obama has admitted that under the British Nationality Act 1948 when he was born, his father was a British subject/citizen and not a U.S. citizen and that he himself was a British subject/citizen by descent from his father. Therefore, what is clear and established by his own factual admissions is that Obama cannot satisfy the definition of an Article II “natural born Citizen,” for he was born with allegiance and loyalty not only to the United States (assuming...

On Oct. 7, 2001, the United States launched one of the most stunningly successful military operations in its history. Just four weeks after terrorists directed from Afghanistan killed nearly 3,000 people on American soil, we struck al-Qaida and Taliban government targets with aircraft, missiles and Special Forces soldiers. By early December, the Taliban was out of power, al-Qaida had fled into the mountains and victory was ours. But that was eight years ago. Did anyone expect back then that we would still be in Afghanistan today, with more troops than ever? The war we thought we had won is not...

[my name] -- Opponents of health insurance reform have power. Some reap huge profits from the status quo. Others take large campaign contributions from those who profit. So they'll do anything to keep the current system in place. When fact-based arguments don't work, they attack President Obama with outlandish lies about a government takeover and euthanizing the elderly. And once that doesn't work, they'll go even further. We don't know what they'll do next. What we do know is that we'll have to be prepared for anything -- ready to set the record straight, ready to make sure the media...

Conservatives are taking too much solace in the precipitous drop in Barack Obama's approval ratings, and too many of us are overconfident that his administration is merely a replay of the hapless presidency of Jimmy Carter that was easily swept out in a landslide election. Today's situation is far different, far more conducive to our political adversary's political power, than that which faced Carter. And Obama is an entirely different breed of cat. He's more ruthless, more tactically savvy, and has far more dangerous objectives... In short, the wonderful conservative success in August should not hide the reality that our...

"Now I'm truly scared." A friend wrote this after she watched Fox News' Glenn Beck's series on the "alarming number of far-left radicals the President is surrounded by" -- referring to some of the President's special advisers and "czars." President Barack Obama, my friend tells me, is "a true left-winger." So, now she knows. She didn't know after the President signed the $800 billion so-called "stimulus program." She didn't know after government takeovers/bailouts of banks, insurance companies and auto companies. She didn't know after Obama campaigned in favor of protectionism by promising to unilaterally change free trade agreements, such as...

Mother upset after 8-year-old daughter is left at wrong bus stop LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- What would you do if your child was forced to get off a school bus at the wrong stop? That is the situation one Las Cruces mother had to grapple with Wednesday, when her 8-year-old daughter was let off on a busy street nearly half a mile from her usual stop. Eight-year-old Destiny Maciel got off the bus at Valley and Tashiro, a busy intersection where there is no place to stop and ask for directions. Destiny's mother Amanda said that didn't stop a bus...

For much of the summer, as approval ratings for President Obama's handling of the economy, health care, the deficit, and other domestic issues declined, the one bright spot in the president's polling was his handling of foreign affairs. No longer. The new CNN/Opinion Research poll, released Tuesday afternoon, shows a sharp decline in the public's approval of Obama's handling of a number of international issues. In March, according to CNN, 67 percent of those surveyed approved of Obama's handling of the situation in Afghanistan. Now, that number is 49 percent -- an 18 percentage-point drop. The number of those who...