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SULAYMANIYAH, Northern Iraq – The bald eagle, Old Glory and the almighty dollar are king in this portion of Iraq, where ethnic Kurds don’t hide their affection for the U.S. Shops peddle American flags, U.S. military gear is prized and the locals speak glowingly of the nation they credit with removing Saddam Hussein, the dictator whose heavy hand so often came down on the minority clustered in Iraq’s northern regions. "Imagine if America didn't exist,” said Kurdo Amin Agha, an accountant whose home is adorned with Israeli, American and Kurdistan flags, and who wears a U.S. Army shirt and Navy...

Following the return of Alan Gross to the U.S., Sen. Ted Cruz slammed the “Obama, Clinton, Kerry foreign policy,” saying the Castro brothers are “state sponsors of terrorism” and that President Barack Obama “does not understand the difference between our friends and our enemies.”Cruz, one of three Cuban American members of the upper chamber in Congress, also called the normalization of relations between the two nations “a tragic mistake” made the comments to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto Wednesday afternoon. TED CRUZ: “This is yet another manifestation of the failures of the Obama, Clinton, Kerry foreign policy. For six years we followed...

For more than 50 years, Cuba has refused to cash the checks because it hasn't recognized the legitimacy of the lease the US entered into with the country in 1901, which the Cuban Constitution says gives the US "complete jurisdiction and control" over Guantanamo. Now, with today's historic announcement by President Barack Obama that relations between the US and Cuba are on the mend, there are questions about whether Guantanamo came up during the discussions between Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro. State Department documents that include copies of uncashed rent checks — they were recently released in response to a...

Ebola toll rises to more than 6,900: WHO"More than 6,900 people have now died from the Ebola virus, almost all of them in west Africa, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. As of December 14, there were 18,569 cases of infection of the deadly … Yahoo! · 1 minute ago *****

In response to a wave of bad behavior by the popular ride-sharing service Uber—with one executive suggesting digging up dirt on journalists who write negative articles about the company—many advocated a switch to Uber’s competitor, Lyft. But this approach ignores the fact that Uber’s abuses are baked into how “sharing” companies operate, a way of doing business that is shared by its competitors. More important, it misses a way to transform these companies that is right there in front of us: by socializing ownership among their workers. Cutting through the marketing BS of Silicon Valley is a good goal for...

"Russia is at a critical juncture and given the sanctions placed upon them and the rapid decline in oil prices, they may be forced to dip into their gold reserves, if it happens it will push gold lower." That is what, according to some people Bloomberg has quoted, is in the cards.

"Most people would have thought the interstellar medium would have been smooth and quiet," study researcher Don Gurnett, professor of physics at the University of Iowa, and the principal investigator of Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument, said in a statement from NASA. "But these shock waves seem to be more common than we thought."

Gov. Scott Walker firmly denounced President Barack Obama's move to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba after more than 50 years of severed ties between the countries. "I think it's a bad idea," Walker told reporters Wednesday. "I don’t think there’s been any noticeable change towards making that a more free and prosperous country. There’s a reason why we had the policy in the first place." Walker said he hasn't seen solid evidence that Cuba has made changes that would warrant a shift in U.S. policy, which has remained in place through administrations of both parties. "These 50 years have shown,...

A settlement agreement announced Tuesday calls for St. Anthony Village to allow an Islamic group to use a portion of a building the group owns for worship and other religious activities. The U.S. government reached the settlement with the city over its 2012 rejection of a proposed Islamic center. Since the Islamic center bought the St. Anthony Business Center in 2011, its leaders have wanted to maintain office space for the current tenants and to hold its religious gatherings in the building's basement level. U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger announced the results of settlement negotiations agreed upon Dec. 11 at a...

MICHELLE MALKIN Allow me to unite America’s left, right, and center in just three words: No, Jeb, No. Florida’s former GOP governor Jeb Bush made the obvious official this week when he announced on Facebook that he’s “actively exploring” a 2016 White House run. Of course he’s running. That’s what inveterate politicians do. Well, I hate to break it to Jeb Inc. There’s no popular groundswell for Bush Part III. None, zip, nada. Independents, progressives, and conservatives are all weary of the entrenched bipartisan dynasties that rule Washington and ruin America. Only in the hallowed bubble of D.C. and New...

First spotted by USA Today reporter Gregory Korte, the key bit is at the very end of the clip below. No wonder they had a meeting of the minds: Castro and The One are both fans of rule by decree. When I first saw Korte’s tweet, I thought Castro was bringing up executive action on his own initiative, maybe as a way to tweak the Republicans in Congress whom he well knows will try to block normalization with the U.S. “Make ‘em cry again, Barack,” he seemed to be saying, “just like you did last month on illegal immigration.”But...

DECEMBER 17, 2014 Is Jeb Ready for Hillary? By Jim Geraghty Back in 2005, Peggy Noonan wrote about the increasingly public friendship between George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton:

>The conclusion of an agreement to normalize diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba has the White House treading cautiously, especially after bipartisan condemnation from Cuban-American Senators Marco Rubio and Bob Menendez. The latter, who chaired the Foreign Relations Committee until yesterday, accused Barack Obama of “vindicat[ing] the brutal behavior of the Cuban government” and of “set[ting] an extremely dangerous precedent.” Menendez is of course a Democrat and ostensibly an ally of the White House on foreign policy.In anticipation, at least one official in the Obama administration has decided it’s better to share the credit, and preferably with someone whose...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) People without insurance are running out of time to avoid the hefty ObamaCare penalties that the IRS will be handing down in 2016. Consumers face a Feb. 15, 2015, deadline to buy insurance, after which those without coverage could be hit with fines of $325 per adult or 2 percent of family income, whichever is higher. Uninsured people looking to escape the penalties are turning to the exchanges before they close, while insurance companies and tax preparers are seizing on the looming tax hit as a business opportunity. One recent mass mailer from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield obtained by The...

FULL TITLE: Cardinal Burke receives petition signed by 30,000 supporters: says, ‘do not give way to discouragement!’ On Thursday, LifeSiteNews presented Cardinal Raymond Burke with a handsomely bound book signed by over 29,000 people who had expressed their thanks for the cardinal’s Vatican service, and pledged to pray for him and to follow his example.The cardinal expressed his “deepest gratitude” for the show of “support and most of all for your prayers.”An online petition of support for the Cardinal Burke, one of the most unequivocal pro-life and pro-family voices in the Catholic Church, was launched in November by LifeSiteNews after...

Korean Air will be punished with a flight ban or fines after the daughter of its chief executive delayed a flight with a tantrum over being served macadamia nuts she had not asked for. Cho Hyun-Ah, a former senior executive with the carrier, forced the chief cabin crew member off a New York-Seoul flight after she took exception to the snack - and the fact it was served in a bag rather a bowl. The 'nut rage' incident caused a national uproar in South Korea - and triggered sales of macadamia nuts to soar.

Republican leaders are so far refusing to telegraph their strategy for combating President Obama’s unilateral action on immigration. But they’re under enormous pressure from the right to act fast. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) have no shortage of options. The question is whether any of them would stop Obama in his tracks. Aides to GOP leadership say one weapon in their armory would be for Republicans to sue the president, either by expanding the GOP’s current lawsuit against him on ObamaCare or bringing new legal action. Republicans, who will take...

Back around Halloween we once again narrowly missed a chance to drag confessed pedophile and child rapist Roman Polanski back to the United States to face justice for his monstrous crimes when Poland refused to honor our requests. That was undoubtedly a frustrating experience for many observers, but it won’t hold a candle to how most of us will feel if celebrity attorney Alan Dershowitz has his way. He is seeking to throw the case out entirely so that the known sex offender can freely travel back and forth to America. Alan M. Dershowitz, a lawyer whose celebrity clients...

Fourteen states cut taxes in 2014, including six traditionally blue states, according to a new report by the American Legislative Exchange Council. To make the group’s list, a state must substantially lower taxes at the state level in a broad and neutral manner that does not pick winners and losers, and is not offset by other tax increases. 2014 includes the blue states of New York, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Maryland. “The types of tax changes that were passed in 2014 suggest that many states are setting the stage for broader and more fundamental tax changes in the...

Republicans clinched their 247th U.S. House seat on Wednesday when GOP challenger Martha McSally officially unseated Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.), bringing to an end the final unresolved congressional election of the midterms and handing the GOP its largest majority in the chamber since the Great Depression. McSally's narrow win, which came after a recount, means that House Republicans will begin the 114th Congress with a 247-188 advantage over Democrats. It is the largest GOP majority since Republicans claimed 270 seats in the 1928 election.