Free Republic

Another poll -- this one by McClatchy/Marist Institute -- has weighed in on President Obama's 2012 re-election prospects and found that 48 percent of registered voters say they'd cast their ballots against him while 36 percent would support him for another term, with 16 percent undecided. As with the Quinnipiac poll, one of Obama's major weaknesses right now is with independents. They oppose his re-election by 50 percent to 30 percent, with 20 percent undecided.

In another election year and under different economic circumstances, Republican Rep.-elect James Lankford of Oklahoma's 5th District might have arrived in Washington with a to-do list highlighting social issues at the very top. Before launching his House campaign, Lankford was the director of the largest Christian youth camp in America, and his socially conservative positions helped attract the high-profile endorsements of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts. Although he made his leadership of Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center a focal point of his campaign biography and did not shy away from talking about social issues...

While the Transportation Security Administration is groping for an answer to air safety, al Qaeda is laughing. This week, the terror group publicly detailed its plans to circumvent the latest government security measures and bleed America to death. The magazine includes technical details of how to construct weapons that will avoid X-ray and chemical sniffer detection, enabling other jihadist groups to try them out. An al Qaeda press release stated, "It is our plan to disseminate the idea to the mujahidin worldwide and to expand its deployment onto both civilian aircraft in the West as well as cargo aircraft."

In his closing arguments to a Manhattan jury, the lawyer for a Tanzanian national - a former Islamic cleric brought to trial on 285 terrorism charges - called his client a "dupe," a hapless innocent fooled by Al Qaeda conspirators into buying a truck and gas tanks used in the 1998 bombing of American embassies in East Africa. After five days of deliberation, the jury convicted Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani on only one of those charges: conspiracy to damage or destroy U.S. property, which carries a minimum 20-year-sentence. As Ghailani hugged his defence team in celebration, the question immediately arose: Who...

The U.S. Travel Association set up the website, YourTravelVoice.org, after it received more than 1,000 unsolicited comments from travellers about the increased security following recently foiled bomb plots involving U.S. bound parcels. "It was clear to us that there was some national concern about this issue. We are hoping that this website can help people express those views so we can all work together," said Geoff Freeman, the executive vice president of the trade group. He added that he hopes feedback from the website can provide a platform through which travellers can share their opinions with policy makers in Washington.

"The denial of a second presidential term to Barack Obama should be a paramount objective of America's 100 million firearm owners," says gun rights expert John Snyder. "Obama's presidential record on Second Amendment related issues warrants a concerted effort by the Second Amendment community to terminate Obama's presidency with the 2012 election," he said here today. A former National Rifle Association editor, Snyder of Telum Associates, LLC is Public Affairs Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and Treasurer of the Second Amendment Foundation, and serves on the boards of the National Association of...

A group of al-Qaeda terrorists trained in Pakistani camps and assisted by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim are planning to storm Germany's Parliament in a Mumbai-style attack, a media report has said, prompting authorities to step up security of the building. Police have cordoned off the area around the historic Reichstag building housing Parliament here and heightened security after authorities received a tip-off that a group of militants were on their way to stage a Mumbai-style attack. Hundreds of extra police have been pressed into service to protect other possible targets as well such as airports, railway stations and places of...

Stepped-up security screening at airports in the wake of foiled terrorism plots has provoked an outcry from airline pilots and travelers, including parents of children who say they are too intrusive. Are you less likely to fly because of stepped-up security procedures such as full-body scans and patdowns? Yes - I will make alternate travel plans to avoid intrusive security scans and patdowns No - It is a necessary procedure to ensure terror plots are thwarted Undecided

A growing pilot and passenger revolt over full-body scans and what many consider intrusive pat-downs couldn't have come at a worse time for the nation's air travel system. Thanksgiving, the busiest travel time of the year, is less than two weeks away. Grassroots groups are urging travelers to either not fly or to protest by opting out of the full-body scanners and undergo time-consuming pat-downs instead. Such concerns prompted a meeting Friday of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano with leaders of travel industry groups.

The idea that government can spend our way to prosperity doesn't make sense to voters. The rock star Sara Bareilles sang at President Barack Obama's Las Vegas rally for Sen. Harry Reid in October. Her biggest hit, "King of Anything," includes the lyrics, "You've got the talking down/Just not the listening." That pretty well sums up Mr. Obama's reaction to last week's midterm. The president rejects the idea that voters don't like his policies on jobs and the economy.

Former President George W. Bush's new book, "Decision Points," got off to a strong start on Tuesday, selling at least 170,000 hardcover copies plus an estimated 50,000 e-books. The results represent the largest first-day sale of any nonfiction title published by Random House Inc. in the past six years, said Crown Publishers, a unit of Bertelsmann AG's Random House. The figures don't include sales at the nation's independent bookstores or at Kroger Co., the grocery company.

President Barack Obama said he will look for ways to control global warming pollution other than Congress placing a ceiling on it. The new battle over global warming in Congress will target the Environmental Protection Agency, which is poised to regulate greenhouse gases for the first time, after the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that it could treat heat-trapping gases as pollutants.

The American Geophysical Union plans to announce Monday that 700 researchers have agreed to speak out on the issue. The effort is a pushback against congressional conservatives who have vowed to kill regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. "This group feels strongly that science and politics can't be divorced and that we need to take bold measures to not only communicate science but also to aggressively engage the denialists and politicians who attack climate science and its scientists," said Scott Mandia, professor of physical sciences at Suffolk County Community College in New York.

Republicans interviewed on talk shows promised congressional investigations, an all-out effort to repeal health care reform, and steadfast opposition to any form of higher taxes. When asked what they would do with their greater power, GOP legislators offered a hard-line agenda that left little room for middle-ground compromise.

Raising $100 billion a year of climate finance by 2020 is challenging, but possible through mechanisms including carbon markets, domestic carbon taxes and a variety of international transportation taxes, a United Nations advisory group said in a report Friday. Earlier this year, the UN's Ban established the panel, which includes U.S. National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, billionaire financier George Soros and Deutsche Bank vice-chairman Caio Koch-Weser. The financing will be used to support mitigation and adaptation efforts in developing countries--in particular, for the poorest and most vulnerable communities.

The action of Obama, Pelosi, Reid will cost the Democrats dearly in 2012. Democrats and Obama's administration needs to explain why it is so radical for Tea Party movement to want the federal government to tax less, spend less, balance the budget, secure the borders, and leave more authority to American People, local and state governments.

The U.S. Republican Party enjoyed a major victory in last Tuesday's congressional midterm elections, winning back control of the House of Representatives and gaining seats in the Senate. Republicans are giving the conservative Tea Party movement a lot of credit for their success, but political analysts say the Tea Party could turn into a mixed blessing in the months ahead.

"If you get sick at older ages, you will die sooner in England than in the United States," study author James P. Smith, PhD, of the nonprofit RAND corporation in Santa Monica, Calif., says in a news release. "It appears that at least in terms of survival at older ages with chronic disease, the medical system in the United States may be better than the system in England." The researchers speculate that this may be because these same illnesses are more likely to be fatal in England than in America, or that English people may be diagnosed at later stages...

Still, with all due respect to the field of this week's victors, the storyline of one winner stands above the rest: John Kasich is the governor-elect of Ohio. But more telling than just his win is how he did it: by withstanding an Obama onslaught; turning back liberal fear attacks with a message of hope; and offering a leaner, more efficient alternative to big government run amuck. In short, if Barack Obama's spend and tax presidency for the past two years is a question, John Kasich emerged Tuesday night as the logical answer. Kasich took the president's best shot -...

A Democratic governor and a legislative change from two-thirds to majority passage of the state budget means Democrats will control spending. It is true that Brown and Democrats will be able to jam through their own spending plan without GOP votes if they choose to; passage of Proposition 25 allows lawmakers to pass budgets with the simple majority that Democrats command. It will no longer be necessary that two-thirds of the Legislature approve. In that way, Tuesday's vote "is a tectonic shift," said GOP strategist Adam Mendelsohn. "Republicans are going to have to think seriously about how to reestablish their...