Free Republic

Houston - The Texas attorney general has sued the Obama administration, charging the current offshore drilling moratorium is "unjustified" and officials did not contact state officials before issuing the ban.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, a past and probably future foe of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is praising the mayor for his stance on the controversial planned mosque near Ground Zero. For years, Weiner has been one of the mayor’s most persistent critics, but the congressman is now defending him in the politically charged debate over whether a mosque and community center should be allowed blocks from the site of the World Trade Center.

As the November elections draw closer, President Barack Obama seemingly has been spending more time raising money for his fellow Democrats than leading the country. Recently, he has attended fundraisers in California, New York, and Washington. In coming weeks, he will host fundraisers in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Now, even Vice President Joe Biden is getting into the act.

The Federal Reserve's latest report on regional economic activity shows that the U.S. recovery continued in June and early July, but that signs of a slowdown were evident.

The second-floor motel room in Pikesville [Ramada Baltimore West on Reisterstown Road] had been transformed into a print shop, churning out fake currency, a money factory behind closed curtains. But police and federal agents were on to the three men inside room 240, and were keeping watch. Just after midnight Thursday, as a pair of detectives closed in, the men left the room and, when challenged, one pulled a [50 caliber] hand gun. A firefight erupted, police said later, and the gunman went down, fatally wounded. The two other suspects were pursued and arrested nearby, one of them hiding under...

(FOXNEWS.com) - The U.S. Army is holding a retirement ceremony full of military VIPs for Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top commander in Afghanistan who was fired last month for disparaging comments he and his aides made about the Obama administration -- but don’t expect much coverage in the media, FOXNews.com reported Wednesday.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton worries all the time about the possibility that an attack against the US could emanate from Pakistan and has called on Islamabad to take further, specific actions against militant networks.

The Federal Reserve seems to finally understand the true nature of the economic mess in which it finds itself. Now if only the White House would get clued in, we'd take the first step to ward solving our problems. The problem isn't just that the economy is in a recession. It's also broken. That's why the Obama administration's massive stimulus spending and the Fed's near zero interest rates have had little impact.

WASHINGTON — Senator John F. Kerry expressed doubts yesterday about the course of the war in Afghanistan, further complicating the Obama administration’s effort to maintain support for the nearly 9-year-old conflict.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac common stock was removed today from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) directed the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) in June [1] to de-list from the NYSE and any other national securities exchange. The direction came after the price of their common stock hovered near the minimum average closing price of $1 for more than 30 days for most months since the conservatorship took effect in September 2008.

Call it the antidote to Arizona. New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Partnership for a New American Economy promotes the economic case for rational immigration reform. Bloomberg’s idea is to lobby Congress, produce studies and launch a public education campaign. Immigrants bring life, energy and commerce to neighborhoods and institutions that would wither otherwise. The challenge for the Bloomberg coalition will be to help shape a policy that reflects exactly that kind of enlightened self-interest...

Sen. Robert Byrd has returned to the to the chamber where he served more than a half-century for one final visit. A hearse bearing the remains of the late West Virginia Democrat, who served in Congress longer than anyone else in the nation's history, arrived this morning in front of the long marble stairway leading to the Senate chamber. Byrd's body will remain in the Senate chamber today for colleagues and the public to pay respects. The last time the Senate chamber served such a purpose was for North Dakota Republican William Langer in 1959, the year Byrd entered the...

Liberals, we are told, are becoming anxious. They have seen their champion crossed and double crossed; oil rig explosions, Greek tragedies, bank failures, Israeli intransigence, military arrogance, coal mine cave-ins -- all have conspired to throw President Obama’s agenda – the liberal agenda – off center stage.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nearly one out of every three U.S. home sales in the first quarter was a foreclosure property as steep price discounts boosted demand for distressed real estate, RealtyTrac said in a new report on Wednesday. Foreclosure homes accounted for 31 percent of all residential sales in the first quarter of 2010, with the average sales price of properties that sold while in some stage of foreclosure nearly 27 percent below homes that were not in the process, Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac said.

They're close to a deal, they're not close to a deal, they're talking, they're not talking. The final Wall Street reform negotiations have been beset by delays as key members hash out compromises on the two outstanding (and deeply consequential) aspects of financial regulatory reform. First there's the so-called Volcker rule. Then there's the question of derivative regulations. The more difficult fight is over the latter, so let's deal with it first.

President Obama rids himself of a particularly clueless general, but his fundamental problem remains. The clueless general is Stanley A. McChrystal. His fundamental problem is himself.

A shamed General Stanley McChrystal was ordered to meet the President after being quoted as saying his 'real enemy' are 'the wimps in the White House'.

WASHINGTON — Representative Barney Frank, trying to complete intense negotiations between the House and Senate over a massive revision of financial regulations, is coming under significant lobbying pressure from across the political spectrum as he tries this week to come up with a compromise that can win final approval.

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge in New Orleans on Tuesday blocked a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling projects that the Obama administration imposed after the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The White House swiftly vowed to appeal the ruling.

General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander and strategist of the Afghan war, is prepared to offer his resignation Wednesday for mocking and disparaging President Barack Obama and his national security team in a Rolling Stone interview, two military officials said Tuesday.