Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is signaling to Congress that the president could support taxing some employee health benefits, as several influential lawmakers and many economists favor, to help pay for overhauling the health care system. The proposal is politically problematic for President Obama, however, since it is similar to one he denounced in the presidential campaign as “the largest middle-class tax increase in history.” Most Americans with insurance get it from their employers, and taxing workers for the benefit is opposed by union leaders and some businesses. In television advertisements last fall, Mr. Obama criticized his Republican rival for...

Renato Brunetta, minister of public administration and innovation, has won unusual bipartisan support for a bill that promotes principles of transparency, standards and meritocracy in the public sector. Italy's bitterly divided government and opposition don't often see eye to eye, but they have united in declared determination to make the country's deeply entrenched, sclerotic bureaucracy a tad more 21st century. Renato Brunetta, minister of public administration and innovation, has won unusual bipartisan support for a bill that promotes principles of transparency, standards and meritocracy in the public sector. It is, he trumpeted last week, an "epoch-making reform." The extraordinary bipartisan...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrat Barack Obama says he would delay rescinding President Bush's tax cuts on wealthy Americans if he becomes the next president and the economy is in a recession, suggesting such an increase would further hurt the economy. Nevertheless, Obama has no plans to extend the Bush tax cuts beyond their expiration date, as Republican John McCain advocates. Instead, Obama wants to push for his promised tax cuts for the middle class, he said in a broadcast interview aired Sunday. "Even if we're still in a recession, I'm going to go through with my tax cuts," Obama said....

Airport officials said Friday they will consider setting aside a private area for prayer and meditation at the request of imams concerned about the removal of six Muslim clerics from a US Airways flight last week. Steve Wareham, director of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, said other airports have "meditation rooms" used for prayers or by passengers who simply need quiet time. A group of Somali clerics met with airport officials Friday and said they would attract less attention if they had a private area for prayer. Devout Muslims pray five times daily, facing the holy city of Mecca. "When we...

Google Inc.'s stock price surpassed $500 for the first time Tuesday, marking another milestone in a rapid rise that has catapulted the Internet search leader into the corporate elite. Continuing a recent surge driven by Wall Street's high expectations for the company, Google's shares rose $9.67, or nearly 2 percent, to $504.72 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. That left Google with a market value of about $154 billion just eight years after former Stanford University graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the business in a Silicon Valley garage. The Mountain View-based company is now Silicon...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a study that sheds light on the biology of aggression, scientists swapped genes in gender-bending fruit flies to make boys fight like girls and girls fight like boys. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna focused on a gene in fruit flies dubbed "fruitless," an important player in behavioral differences between the sexes of these insects. The gene is known for its role in male courtship, but also controls another sex-specific behavior -- how flies fight, according to the research appearing on Sunday in the journal Nature Neuroscience. When they...

I have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to keep up with the news or blogs. Something occurred to me today. The republicans, with the help of a few Dems, could manage to elect someone OTHER than Pelosi as Speaker. The right needs to make a concerted effort to support a more moderate Dem as Speaker. There are enough centrist Dems out there to deny her the chance to be speaker. I calculate that the right only needs about 15 Dems to side with a second candidate. How about Speaker Hoyer? While it sickens me to support...

Arizona voters will have to present identification at the polls on Nov. 7 after all. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that Arizona can go ahead with requiring voters to present a photo ID, starting with next month's general election, as part of the Proposition 200 that voters passed in 2004. The ruling overturns an Oct. 5 decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which put the voter ID rules on hold this election cycle. The Supreme Court on Friday did not decide whether the new voter ID rules are constitutional. That decision is still pending in federal district...

Democrats say the Republican head of the House Intelligence Committee had no grounds to suspend a staff member who's come under scrutiny for the leak of a secret intelligence assessment. The unidentified staff member, a Democrat, was suspended this week by Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., and is being denied access to classified information pending the outcome of a review, Hoekstra's spokesman, Jamal Ware, said Thursday. The Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, Jane Harman of California, wrote to Hoekstra that she was "appalled" by his action, which was "without basis." The leak to The New York Times of a National Intelligence Estimate...

Swiss Banks Broke Law by Passing Banking Data to CIA, Data Protection Chief Says BERN, Switzerland (AP) -- Swiss banks violated the law by passing banking information on to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the country's top data protection official said Friday. The banks, usually known for safeguarding the privacy of their clients, should have informed customers making international money transfers via the Belgium-based SWIFT money-transfer service that their data could be passed on to third parties, Hanspeter Thuer said. Just the possibility of the data being leaked should have been grounds enough to warn customers, he said. After the...

The president's most vocal critic against the war in Iraq was in the Capitol City Wednesday night. Cindy Sheehan was at BookPeople on Lamar & 6th Street signing autographs for her new book entitled "Peace Mom". Sheehan's son, Casey Sheehan died while on patrol in Iraq on April 4th, 2005. “Whether you agree with it or not I think we should all be reading books by the families of people who've loss their sons and daughters in this war,” said Turk Pipkin who was buying one of Sheehan’s books. His mother bought a house in Crawford where she and her...

DETROIT (Reuters) - The president of the United Auto Workers union on Tuesday said U.S. President George W. Bush's failure to address the challenges facing the nation's domestic automakers would come back to haunt his Republican Party in the fall elections. UAW chief Ron Gettelfinger said he believed Bush's decision to postpone a meeting with auto executives until after the November elections -- despite being in Michigan recently at a fund-raiser for the Republican challenger to incumbent Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow -- was an example of the president putting party politics above national economics. The union has historically supported Democratic...

On the ride home today a man called on the radio to talk about the slow and methodical move toward a socialist/communist political system in America. He referenced a book that every communist infiltrator in the country is given to follow. The Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics. The link is: http://www.geocities.com/heartland/7006/psychopolitics.html Part 8 is entitled, DEGRADATION, SHOCK AND ENDURANCE. The chapter explicitly illustrates how the process should be undertaken. "In order to be conquered, a nation must be degraded, either by acts of war, by being overrun, by being forced into humiliating treaties of peace, or by the treatment of her...

Liberal politics will prove fruitless as long as liberals refuse to multiply. The midterm election looms, and once again efforts begin afresh to increase voter participation. It has become standard wisdom in American politics that voter turnout is synonymous with good citizenship, justifying just about any scheme to get people to the polls. Arizona is even considering a voter lottery, in which all voters are automatically registered for a $1 million giveaway. Polling places and liquor stores in Arizona will now have something in common. On the political left, raising the youth vote is one of the most common goals....

"The US and Israel Stand Alone" Former US president Jimmy Carter speaks with DER SPIEGEL about the danger posed to American values by George W. Bush, the difficult situation in the Middle East and Cuba's ailing Fidel Castro. SPIEGEL: Mr. Carter, in your new book you write that only the American people can ensure that the US government returns to the country's old moral principles. Are you suggesting that the current US administration of George W. Bush of acting immorally? Carter: There's no doubt that this administration has made a radical and unpressured departure from the basic policies of all...

The Democrats have launched a new site called fudgereport.net, that mocks the Drudge Report. One of the interesting features is the ability for readers to submit 'tips'. I already posted my secret that Senator Rockefeller is the real leaker behind all of the secret program leaks. Also, Hillary is really a commie and runs Communist Party meetings in her basement. Feel free to post all of your tips to the Democrats. They need this valuable information!!

STAFFORD, Texas — They are not the words one expects to hear from a politician or a Southerner, and Leonard Scarcella is both: "Our city has an excessive number of churches." Scarcella is mayor of this Houston-area community, which has 51 churches and other religious institutions packed into its 7 square miles. With some 300 undeveloped, potentially revenue-producing acres left in Stafford, officials are scrambling to find a legal way to keep more tax-exempt churches from building here. "With federal laws, you can't just say, 'We're not going to have any more churches,' " Scarcella said. "We respect the Constitution,...

Witnessing the impact of global warming in your life? ABC News wants to hear from you. We're currently producing a report on the increasing changes in our physical environment, and are looking for interesting examples of people coping with the differences in their daily lives. Has your life been directly affected by global warming? We want to hear and see your stories. Have you noticed changes in your own backyard or hometown? The differences can be large or small — altered blooming schedules, unusual animals that have arrived in your community, higher water levels encroaching on your property. Show us...

TAMPA - Customers can pay with cash, plastic or their index finger at a new Coast to Coast Family Convenience store here. Taking a big step beyond the ease of the Mobil SpeedPass, Coast to Coast has installed what's claimed as Florida's first biometric payment system. There are no cards or PIN numbers to remember. Just stick your finger in the scanner and be on your way. While applications are available to process credit and store loyalty card transactions by fingerprint, this one is limited to processing only debit account transactions. "People either love it or think it's a sign...

Was trolling through truthout for a laugh and came across this analysis by one of their brilliant scholars. Even though I know my history, to have it put down in such a concise manner, I couldn't help but appreciate how the right has always done what is right, even though it wasn't popular. Always thanks to the men and women who serve our country. Please note the comment about the current Iraq situation. Notice he didn't call it regime change. They can't stand the truth at truthout. (1) Regime Change in Iran (1953) the Shah replacing democratically elected Mossadegh; Eisenhower...