Free Republic

The House has officially failed to pass legislation raising the Federal Debt limit to $16.7 trillion. The vote was not even close, with 288 Nays to 74 Yeas. Only 1 Republican voted to increase the debt limit, with 228 voting against the increase. Don't worry Turbo Tim, The Bernank can just turn on the printers if you run low on federal employee pension funds. Now that Republicans have made their symbolic vote against the increase, we'll see how long it takes them to cave and agree on $30-$50 million in budget deductions and pass the debt increase.

President Obama failed to release a statement or a proclamation recognizing the national observance of Easter Sunday, Christianity's most sacred holiday. By comparison, the White House has released statements recognizing the observance of major Muslim holidays and released statements in 2010 on Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha. The White House also failed to release a statement marking Good Friday. However, they did release an eight-paragraph statement heralding Earth Day. Likewise, the president's weekend address mentioned neither Good Friday or Easter. However, the First Family did attend an Easter Sunday worship service at a Baptist church and last week, the president...

Shortly after the Green Bay Packers turned the nation’s attention to the Midwestern state, Wisconsin once again has garnered the nation’s attention. At stake this time is not a trophy, but a prized retirement package promised to public employees. Throngs of protesters have taken to Madison, Wisconsin to either show their support or disdain for Governor Scott Walker’s plan to require public employees to pay 5.8 percent (the national average is roughly 12 percent) of their salary as a contribution to their pension. The looming issue of funding public pensions is not unique to Wisconsin. Governor Walker’s stand, however, has...

A new ABC-Washington Post poll found ObamaCare sunk to its lowest popularity yet: 52 percent opposed, and only 43 percent in favor. ABC mentioned the poll without fanfare at the end of a Jake Tapper report on Monday’s World News, and Tapper added this was the health law's "lowest level of popularity ever." But Tuesday’s Washington Post reported not one sentence on the poll in the paper – even as they reported in the paper that the same survey found Obama’s tax-and-unemployment-compensation deal has “broad bipartisan support.

A much anticipated meeting between Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and executives from the oil and gas industries failed to lead to much progress, as both sides expressed frustration with the outcome of Monday's meeting aimed at diffusing simmering tensions in the wake of the BP oil spill. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La) set up the meeting with Salazar, industry executives, and regional lawmakers in order to address frustrations the industry has with the Obama administration's new rules and regulations for offshore oil and natural gas drilling - rules that were put in place after the BP oil spill earlier this year....

Thousands of US sex offenders, prisoners on parole and other convicts were left unmonitored after an electronic tagging system shut down because of data overload. BI Incorporated, which runs the system, reached its data threshold - more than two billion records - on Tuesday. This left authorities across 49 states unaware of offenders' movement for about 12 hours.

Horizon Bank Fails; 2010 Total at 119By Philip van Doorn 09/11/10 - 10:42 AM EDT BRADENTON, Fla. (TheStreet) - Florida regulators on Friday shut down Horizon Bank of Bradenton, bringing the total number of bank failures for 2010 to 119. The failed bank was included in TheStreet's Bank Watch List of undercapitalized institutions, based on second-quarter regulatory data provided by SNL Financial. Horizon Bank was undercapitalized since the second quarter of 2009, when a $6.9 million net loss pushed the institution's Tier 1 leverage ratio down to 4.04% and its total risk-based capital ratio to 6.66%. These ratios need to...

The High Court in Penang state ruled that 28-year-old S. Banggarma, whose Muslim name is Siti Hasnah Vangarama Abdullah, was a Muslim because her parents converted the whole family in 1983. "Parents have the right to determine the faiths of children who are below 18. It is a universal right, irrespective of religion," said judicial commissioner Yaacob Sam. Banggarma, who has argued that she was made to convert to Islam at the age of seven when she was placed in a children's home, vowed to continue to fight the case.

WASHINGTON – The Senate passed legislation Friday to spare doctors a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments — but the last-ditch effort did not come in time. Moments after the Senate acted, Medicare announced it would begin processing claims it has already received for June at the lower rate. The reason: the House cannot act on the fix until next week.

The Obama administration’s six-month delay in approving new offshore drilling leases in federal waters will become a new three-year ban, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar quietly told reporters last Friday. Which means that no new oil and gas leases will be approved during President Obama’s term even though two –thirds of the American public supports such activity, according to a December 2009 Rasmussen poll. Sixty percent also believe that gas and oil prices will drop if the government allows offshore drilling, opening up an estimate 14 billion barrels of oil and 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas On July 14,...

COPENHAGEN – Chicago's early exit from finalist balloting for the 2016 Olympics was a personal setback for President Barack Obama and a painful defeat for America's most prominent Midwestern city. ... Tokyo was eliminated in the second round, leaving Madrid and odds-on favorite Rio de Janeiro to square off in the final balloting. Chicago had seemed to pick up momentum in the last few days, with many IOC members seemingly charmed by Mrs. Obama, who came to Copenhagen ahead of her husband. But when IOC president Jacques Rogge announced the first vote's results, while the Obamas were flying home on...

After nine months of humiliating, worldwide America-bashing, telling the globe how rotten America was until he became president, Obama hasn't lost an opportunity to apologize to the world for the so-called sins of America...

MUSCATINE, Iowa — At her home on Tom Sawyer Road here the other night, Bonnie Adkins agreed to begin spreading the word that President Obama’s embattled health care plan needed help. In Des Moines, Pat Walters made telephone calls to Democrats to rally support for the Obama health care plan. Ms. Adkins, who for the past two years devoted hundreds of hours helping Mr. Obama get to the White House, hosted a potluck supper that was advertised to Democrats in this eastern Iowa town along the Mississippi River. People were invited to bring a favorite salad or dessert — and...

The Obama administration has failed to name an envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism around the world as mandated by US law since the previous ambassador was relieved of his duties at the start of the president's term more than six months ago, officials said Thursday. The failure to name a new envoy for the post raises questions about the importance the new administration attaches to the fight against anti-Semitism, said Rafael Medoff, director of the Washington DC-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. "Foot-dragging on the selection sends a message that anti-Semitism is not of great importance to...

Yes, President Einstein should be held to his same standards for GM. Anybody with an Economics 101 level knows the Stimulus bill is a failed plan. Combine that with the ‘Green’ legislation and all the other ways Democrats punish achievers, and America will have a Politically Made Disaster, easily predictable, Politically Made Disaster by a Democrat Congress and the media President Øbama. Increasing taxes will actually decrease economic activity, which will result in less federal tax revenues collected. Mix that with the enormous spending bills Congress is writing into law and the eventual outcome is easily predictable, a very unbalanced...

Police Arrest "Insane" Man Who Demanded Commercial Jet Fly To Vienna (CBS/AP) A passenger demanded that a Moscow-bound flight change course and fly to Vienna but the attempted hijacking was thwarted. Russian news media say the hijacker — described in one report as having a history of mental illness — was overpowered by other passengers. The ITAR-Tass news agency quotes a spokesman for Sky Express airline saying that a passenger demanded the plane change course about 20 minutes before it was due to land in Moscow. The incident occurred while the plane with 130 people on board was en route...

(IsraelNN.com) Boris Johnson defeated Ken Livingstone, who was running for a third term of mayor and won wide support from the city's growing Muslim community. Johnson, a member of the Conservative party, was backed by 53.2 percent of the voters. Livingstone frequently has collided with Jewish community in London, previously accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and once refused to apologize for comparing a Jewish reporter with a Nazi concentration camp guard. Johnson has been more favorable towards Israel and opposed last year's movement by academics to boycott the Jewish state

The Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives has failed to overturn the US president's veto of a war-funding bill that would have set a timetable for withdrawing US forces from Iraq. By a vote of 222-203 on Wednesday, the house fell far short of the two-thirds support needed to override George Bush's veto.

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday said his administration will sue the Environmental Protection Agency if it fails to act more quickly on California's request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. Schwarzenegger said he called EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on Wednesday and told him his agency was moving too slowly on California's 2005 request for a waiver to the federal Clean Air Act. The waiver, if granted by the EPA, would allow California to more aggressively regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants. “If we don't see quick action from the government, we will sue the U.S. EPA,” Schwarzenegger...

Sen. Clinton fails to report charity WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's office has amended her Senate financial disclosure reports to include her family's $5.16 million charity. The reports were amended late Monday after receiving inquiries from The Washington Post. The newspaper said Clinton has failed to report the charity five times since it was established in 2001. A Clinton's spokesman said the senator's failure to report the existence of the family foundation was an oversight, the Post said. Clinton serves as treasurer and secretary of the family foundation, which was seeded with $5.16 million of...