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The IDF early Thursday morning caught three Arab terrorists, one of whom was carrying an eight-inch knife, approaching Meitzad in eastern Gush Etzion, located southeast of Jerusalem. No one was injured, and the security personnel are interrogating the terrorists, who admitted they intended to carry out a stabbing attack in Meitzad. The attempted attack came less than 24 hours after Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the removal of 100 security checkpoints and dirt roadblocks in Judea and Samaria. No one was injured in the attack, and no damage was reported. All right, maybe some Israelis were a bit frightened for...

California Attorney General Edmund Brown launched an investigation Thursday into the largest rating agencies to see if they broke state law by slapping top ratings on toxic mortgage securities during the credit boom. Brown said that his office subpoenaed Moody's Corp. , Standard & Poor's, owned by McGraw-Hill , and Fitch, owned by France's Fimalac . "Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch put their seal of approval on high risk mortgage-backed securities, recklessly giving stellar ratings to shaky assets that proved toxic to the entire financial system," Brown said in a statement. "This investigation is meant to determine how these...

President Obama was accused of caving in to pressure from Russia tonight after announcing he was abandoning plans for a US missile shield in Eastern Europe. The president’s decision to scrap George Bush’s controversial (pounds) 2.5 billion shield system in Poland and the Czech Republic was immediately welcomed in Moscow. But it left countries in the former Soviet sphere concerned that Mr Obama was less willing to stand up to Russia than his predecessors in the White House. Coming on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War Two, the timing of the...

Jesse Washington covers race for The Associated Press Everybody's racist, it seems. But if everybody's racist, is anyone? "It gets to the point where we don't have a word that we use to call people racist who actually are," said John McWhorter, who studies race and language at the conservative Manhattan Institute. Webster's Dictionary: someone who believes in the inherent superiority of a particular race or is prejudiced against others. "I think (Wilson's outburst) is based on racism," Jimmy Carter said. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president." "A racist...

He stood in the well of the House a week ago, looked right into the camera at the American people and lied. No, not that lie. Not the laughable notion that illegals will be unable to buy into Obamacare. This is a lie where he indicted the entire US healthcare system by claiming someone died because private insurance companies are too greedy. Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal has uncovered the real story of what happened to the man Obama claimed was dropped by his insurance company during chemo treatment because of an unreported gallstone: President Barack Obama, seeking...

WASHINGTON — The House has voted in favor of the biggest overhaul of college aid programs since their creation in the 1960s — a bill to oust private lenders from the student loan business and put the government in charge. Thursday's vote was 253-171 in favor of a bill that fulfills an array of President Barack Obama's campaign promises, ending subsidies for private lenders, boosting Pell Grants for needy students and paying for community college reforms, among other things.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the anti-government rhetoric over President Barack Obama's health care reform effort is concerning because it reminds her of the violent debate over gay rights that roiled San Francisco in the 1970s. Anyone voicing hateful or violent rhetoric, she told reporters, must take responsibility for the results. "I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco," Pelosi said, suddenly speaking quietly. "This kind of rhetoric was very frightening" and created a climate in which violence took place, she said.

Survey of 500 Likely Voters in NC September 15, 2009 Burr (R) 48% Marshall (D) 38% Other 3% Not sure 11% Burr (R) 48% Lewis (D) 32% Other 7% Not sure 14% Burr (R) 48% Etheridge (D) 34% Other 3% Not sure 15% Richard Burr’s U.S. Senate seat has a recent history of high turnover, but the incumbent Republican holds double-digit leads over three Democratic challengers in an early look at North Carolina’s 2010 Senate contest. [snip] Despite Burr’s early lead, however, incumbents who poll under 50% are generally considered vulnerable. Burr, first elected in 2004, is expected to seek...

Navy Reserve commander and local lawyer was nominated in June by President Barack Obama WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate late Wednesday confirmed former state Rep. Juan Garcia as assistant secretary of the Navy. Garcia, a Navy Reserve commander and local lawyer, was nominated for the job in June by President Barack Obama, his Harvard Law School classmate. “I’m honored to be entrusted with this role in helping to shape history’s finest sea service: the United States Navy and Marine Corps team,” said Garcia, 43. “I grew up in a Navy family and have spent my entire adult life in it....

Technology blogs TechCrunch and AllThingsD reported Thursday that the San Francisco microblogging upstart has raised at least $50 million in a new round of venture capital that values the company at $1 billion. Twitter, which lets you share your thoughts online — but only if they can be kept to 140 characters or less — has generated a lot of buzz, but not a lot of revenue. ($1,000,000,000 — that's 14 characters right there.) Last week, though, Twitter changed its terms of service to open the door to advertising on the site, and co-founder Biz Stone recently said the company...

Not So Grand Alliance by: Allie Winegar Duzett, September 17, 2009 “Those who oppose missile defense are opposed to freedom,” was U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint’s sentiment at a recent Heritage Foundation forum entitled No Grand Bargain With Russia. The forum was held to discuss the need for “Third Site” missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic—and it appears as though the need for Third Site is great. Russian weapons systems pose what is perceived as a great threat to many Eastern European nations, and Third Site missile defense systems would, according to Jim DeMint, intimidate enemies and strengthen...

Ray Clark Was Charged Today In The Murder of Annie Le, Who Was Set to Be Married Last WeekendConflicting images of accused murderer Raymond Clark III are emerging in the wake of his arrest in the strangulation of Yale grad Annie Le. There is the Ray Clark his high school friends remember: competive baseball player who was respectful of authority, volunteered to help the homeless and raised money for cancer stricken patients. He was also a member of the Asian Awareness Club. Others, mostly those from more recent days, saw a darker side of the 24-year-old Clark: withdrawn, officious at...

Sept 16, 2009 — This month finds us two thirds of the way between Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of his Origin of Species. Taking advantage of the extra attention Darwin is getting this year (as if he needed more), three films on his life and ideas are being released from three different companies...

George Jonas: The Tory malady — pussyfoot conservatism {snip} The Tory story rarely varies. Whenever the centre-right wins an election, the centre-left allows that its opponents have the office, but denies they have the mandate. They can govern for a term, yes, but only by consensus, not according to their own lights. They may steer the bus to a mutually agreed destination. Driving it along a route of their choice is out of the question. Majority isn't the issue. The centre-left reminds the centre-right of its inherent lack of mandate as soon as the votes are counted, whether the centre-right's...

Jane Chastain The tea party challenge Posted: September 17, 2009 1:00 am Eastern © 2009 Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people left the comfort of their homes to come to Washington to make a statement to their elected representatives: "We want you to shrink the size of our bloated government. We don't want it increased, not for health care, the environment, education, art, farmers, saving the children, world peace or a thousand and one other excuses politicians have used over the last century to increase the size of the federal government to the point that it has crippled the...

A FILM about Tasmania's cannibal convict Alexander Pearce has caused some audience members to vomit. The Mercury reports Van Diemen's Land follows Pearce's 1822 escape from the penal settlement on Tasmania's Sarah Island with seven other convicts, and the brutal dispatch of his fellow escapees. Director Jonathan Auf Der Heide said he was surprised people had reacted so strongly. "The vomiting thing was a real surprise to me - we had two people vomit in New Zealand, and a couple of people have fainted during the first killing scene," he said.

COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) - Attorney Orly Taitz filed a brief Thursday morning in Columbus' US District Court requesting for a stay of deployment pending her client's motion for a rehearing. This comes just one day after Judge Clay Land denied Captain Connie Rhodes' temporary restraining order, dismissed the entire case and ordered Rhodes to pay the defendant's court costs. Rhodes, a military doctor, is challenging deployment orders to Iraq based on allegations that the Commander in Chief is ineligible to hold the office of president. Rhodes maintains that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and not Hawaii. "This is...

Here is a poll that wants to know who Sarah Palin, or Duncan Hunters's running mate should be for president if either of them win the Republican nomination for President in 20012. Ok, it may be early, but what the heck, it may be good for discussion purposes if nothing else. What Ticket Would Freepers Like to See For President in 2012

Here are the last names of all 75 congressmen who voted to preserve ACORN's stream of funding: Baldwin Becerra Brady (PA) Brown, Corrine Butterfield Capuano........

The Senate voted on Wednesday to allow Amtrak passengers to carry unloaded and locked handguns in checked baggage, even though Amtrak officials had raised concerns that the proposal could present “numerous challenges.” The provision, which was introduced by Senator Roger Wicker, Republican, as an amendment to a housing and transportation spending bill, is the latest in a string of Senate votes aimed at expanding gun rights. It passed 68-30, with a group of 27 Democrats and one independent, mostly from states where gun rights are widely supported, joining all 40 Republicans in voting for the measure. Under the Wicker amendment,...