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The Obama White House has left the sidelines and jumped in with both feet as Massachusetts lawmakers debate whether to change current law and appoint an interim U.S. Senator to replace the deceased Edward M. Kennedy. FOX News has learned Senior White House adviser David Axelrod called the president of the Massachusetts Senate on Monday to lobby for the law change to fill Kennedy's Senate seat until the Jan. 19 special election is held. Axelrod called Therese Murray to discuss the matter, Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton confirmed to FOX late Tuesday. Burton said Axelrod was "checking in"...

Friday night was a troublesome one for many police forces across Sweden with several reports of arson and unrest. Police fear an escalation in the violence. "It started on August 28th when the police were called to Gottsunda to investigate a car fire, and were then met with stone-throwing youths. It has since gone in waves, escalated, and spread to other neighbourhoods," Christer Nordström at Uppsala police told the news website Svd.se."That which is very serious is that we have noticed how racist tendencies are starting to grow. This prompts some very strong emotions, even if the majority of those...

President Obama gave a corker of a campaign speech yesterday at the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh, promising to deliver on his promise to ease the rules for union organizing. If you want to know what this means in action, consider the current Teamsters play to control California ports. The dispute concerns the Clean Truck Program announced in 2007 by the Port of Los Angeles to ban the dirtiest trucks from carrying port cargo. L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former union organizer, seized on the program as an opportunity to help his Teamster friends. Current law doesn't let the Teamsters organize...

Rep. Charles Rangel took a bizarre shot at President Obama yesterday, saying the president's well-received prime-time health-care speech actually created problems for House Democrats and endangered the passage of legislation. Obama's insistence on trimming the reform price to $900 billion over 10 years would mean slashing House-backed subsidies for the poor, Rangel said. "Nine hundred billion -- well that's $100 billion short," he told reporters (snip) But Rangel, usually one of Obama's cheerleaders on Capitol Hill, seemed miffed that the president backed away from the House's soak-the-rich tax to pay for it.

War clouds over Iran are building rapidly. On Friday night during the 9/11 National Town Hall Meeting, I explained that because Washington and the Western powers are doing nothing decisive to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, there is an increasingly likelihood that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will feel the need to matters into his own hands, and soon. Iran now has enough enriched uranium (that we know about) to build at least two nuclear weapons. If the Russians deliver and install the new S-300 state-of-the-art anti-aircraft missiles in Iran then the Israelis ability to decimate Iran nuclear facilities...

The only colour photographs of the German surrender of World War Two have emerged 64 years after being taken by a lowly clerk who hid behind a tree. Crafty Ronald Playforth covertly captured one of the most historic events of the 20th century after sneaking into a clump of trees overlooking the scene of the surrender. With his camera, he snapped Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery greeting the highest ranking officers of the remains of Hitler's Third Reich outside his HQ tent. Although defeated and just days after the Fuhrer's suicide, the never-seen-before photos show the German officers looking immaculate yet...

The search is on for a Glendale man who has been missing since Saturday. Cornelius Hardy, who often goes by Neil, was last seen Saturday evening at his home near 67th Avenue and Deer Valley Road in Glendale. Hardy's family said the 41-year-old Palo Verde engineer is consistent in his routine and that it's not at all like him to simply disappear. They said they have checked his credit cards and cell-phone records and found no activity since Saturday. Hardy has high security clearance at the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant, where he works. His family said all of his...

...because Obama is in office!"

A stunning collection of photographs taken by a 19th century globetrotter has caused a stir - because he meticulously painted the colours in himself. The amazing images shed new light on the world as it was more than 100 years ago, with vivid images of snake charmers, ships on the Suez Canal and fighting Sikhs, among others.Henry Harrison, a Royal Navy Paymaster General, took the black and white  pictures on his voyages around the globe and, because he was a talented artist, was able to painstakingly colour them in. Stunning imagery: One of Henry Harrison's photographs shows prisoners in China...

A well targeted attack against a small power grid subnetwork might result in a cascading failure across the entire US West Coast electricity grid, according to a Chinese academic. A team led by Jian-Wei Wang, a network analyst at China's Dalian University of Technology, discovered the potential weakness after using publicly available data to model the West Coast US electricity supply networks and its components. Cascading failures led to the August 2003 blackout in the north-east US. The Chinese team expected to discover that attacks against highly loaded networks carried the greater damage potential. The group analysed the power loading...

Anyone who cares about the survival of our planet should start praying that Barack Obama gets his way on reforming US healthcare. That probably sounds hyperbolic, if not mildly deranged: even those who are adamant that 45 million uninsured Americans deserve basic medical cover would not claim that the future of the earth depends on it. But think again. Next week, world leaders will attend the first UN summit dedicated entirely to climate change. Their aim will be to plunge a shot of adrenaline into stuttering efforts to draw up a new global agreement on carbon emissions. The plan is...

This is hysterical.

Former President Bill Clinton is returning the favor of an endorsement and putting his name to work for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for governor. Newsom said he is honored to have the former president's endorsement and he thinks it is a "significant thing for our campaign." "I couldn't be more proud and honored to have my boy!" Newsom said Tuesday. The casual reference points to the relationship between the two. Their political relationship goes back to Newsom's mayoral campaign, which Clinton also supported. The move is not that big of a surprise when you consider Newsom's pit bull-like support...

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus came under new pressure Tuesday from Democrats concerned that his health bill could force some middle-income families to take on sizable new costs for health coverage. The Montana Democrat said he will formally unveil the legislation on Wednesday. That would set the stage for Finance Committee action next week, and debate in the full Senate next month. ... But even as Republicans remain unhappy with key aspects of the bill, liberal critics complain that it would force many lower- and middle-income workers to shoulder a greater financial burden when complying with the bill's mandate...

After taking steps towards healing the longstanding rift between the U.S. and Cuban governments, President Barack Obama recently renewed the economic embargo against the island nation. Under the Trading With the Enemy Act, established after World War I, U.S. companies are banned from trading with what are determined to be hostile nations. In a Sept. 11 memo written to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury chief Timothy Geithner, Obama said, "I hereby determine that the continuation for one year of the exercise of those authorities with respect to Cuba is in the national interest of the United States,"...

The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination - and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year The tropical waters that lap the jungle shores of southern Malaysia could not be described as a paradisical shimmering turquoise. They are more of a dark, soupy green. They also carry a suspicious smell. Not that this is of any concern to the lone Indian face...

Gregory Hall, a former employee of scandal-plagued ACORN, labeled the organization “the most corrupt group in the country” on Wednesday’s Fox and Friends on FNC. Hall placed the blame squarely on the national leaders of the left-wing group: “They’re the ones that are constantly giving the orders that say- make the money, no matter what- lie, steal, cheat- and I’ve got the witnesses to prove it” [audio clips from the segement are available here]. Anchor Steve Doocy first asked the ACORN critic if he was surprised by the recently released undercover videos showing employees of the organization trying to abet...

A new Marist poll does not bring good news for Gov. David Paterson, who can't seem to get his approval rating to budge, no matter how hard he tries. Just one-fifth of the electorate thinks the governor is doing a good job, while 34 percent rate his performance as "poor." Paterson was at 21 percent in a June Marist poll and 19 percent one month prior to that. He continues to score poorly with voters across the board - even members of his own party. Only 24 percent of fellow Democrats say he's doing well as governor. As for 2010,...

This Jennifer Flowers couldn't even get the president to look at her. Much less get him to help her find a job. The Westchester resident found herself suddenly unemployed only hours before President Obama was due in lower Manhattan Monday to deliver a speech on the economy. Instead of going home to sulk, Flowers decided to ask for a White House bailout. She went to a drugstore near her downtown office and bought a $3.80 poster board and two $1 markers.

HILLARY THE MOVIE – THE SEQUEL AT THE SUPREME COURT 2009 90 minutes **** (4 stars out of 5) Drama Starring: Theodore B. Olson (for Citizens United) and Floyd Abrams (for Sen. Mitch McConnell) Costarring: Elena Kagan (for the FEC) and Seth P. Waxman (for Sen. John McCain) Supporting Cast: the Justices of the Supreme Court Producer: David N. Bossie Studio: Citizens United Rating: M for Mature Audiences This disturbing, powerful sequel to Wisconsin Right To Life v. FEC (directed and produced by Jim Bopp) and McConnell v. FEC premiered at the Supreme Court on Sept. 9 after the Court...