Free Republic

The three Republican senators supporting President Barack Obama’s $827 billion stimulus bill are drawing the wrath of many conservatives who say the massive spending in the plan could tip the country into depression. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Pennsylvania's Sen. Arlen Specter were lambasted on conservative Web sites throughout the weekend, and were the subjects of angry calls by many of their constituents, according to reports. “Arlen Specter is DONE,” wrote a blogger named steelfish on the FreeRepublic Web site. “He won his last primary by less than 1 percent against a real conservative of Pat...

Representatives Lucille Roybal-Allard of California and Ted Poe of Texas have recently introduced their own version of the economic stimulus plan. The money will go straight into the pockets of working Americans, and it won’t cost taxpayers a dime. Want to hear more? Frustrated over the endless haggling over the stimulus package, Roybal-Allard and Poe decided to introduce their own bill: H.R. 739, the Security and Financial Empowerment Act – SAFE for short. Under the SAFE bill, employees will have an iron-clad guarantee of lifelong job security, health insurance, as well as 30 days emergency leave each year. Former workers...

Here is Sen. John McCain on Face the Nation today, where he talked with Bob Schieffer about the Obama Stimulus Plan, which he called "Generational Theft." He says he will not support the current plan, and that he believes there are many aspects of it that are fundamentally wrong for America. McCain was appearing on Face the Nation for a record 68th time. . . . . (Watch Video)

President Barack Obama has signed an executive order presidential determination allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to resettle in the United States. Sure, what can go wrong when we allow hundreds of thousands of people who have been, as Mark Steyn memorably described, "marinated" in a "sick death cult," who voted for Hamas, and 55% of whom support suicide bombings live here and at the American taxpayers' expense: By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million in migration assistance to the Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza. The "presidential determination" which allows hundreds of...

If the agency responsible for reporting economic data to Congress as well as commenting on budget proposals concluded the Senate's stimulus plan not only won't have much positive impact, but will actually hinder output in years to come, shouldn't the American people be informed about this? On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office issued a rather pessimistic view of the stimulus bill in front of the Senate, and virtually no major media outlets reported it. Not the New York Times. Not the Washington Post. Not USA Today. Not ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, or MSNBC. What were they hiding from the public?...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is crafting a mortgage-rescue program that would see Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ease payments for hundreds of thousands of borrowers and offer a model for Wall Street to do the same, sources familiar with the plan said. Late last week, officials from the Treasury Department and Department of Housing and Urban Development worked with the companies' regulator to agree on standards for who could get relief and how they might coax other finance companies to follow their lead, said two industry sources familiar with the deliberations. Those discussions were still going on over...

In recent months, we have witnessed billions of dollars pumped into the financial institutions WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED. Reckless behavior and greed have been graced with the most extravagant rewards, allowing the rich to get even richer. After receiving their bailout, A.I.G. executives resumed their plans for a retreat at a lavish resort. Meanwhile, foreclosures have risen, unemployment has soared, and misery has spread with virtually nothing being done for the millions of workers suffering from these afflictions. We cannot sit back and simply hope that things will get better. The financial executives have organized themselves and lobbied for bailouts....

Speaking to Stepalloverus.

BOPO-Napolitano

...The true currency of free and fair markets is confidence.The real currency of collectivism is coercion. Confidence has a higher multiplier than coercion. Confidence leads to enthusiastic innovation; coercion to sullen compliance....

Following Leon Panetta’s confirmation hearing Thursday, several reporters approached the CIA director-designate in the hallway outside room G-50 in the Dirksen Building. There, CongressDaily reporter Chris Strohm — upon asking a question — was physically restrained by a man who accompanied Panetta at hearings both days. Strohm, when reached by phone Friday, said he was unsure of the man’s role. “I felt this hand grab my right arm and push me aside,” Strohm said. By his account, Strohm told the man, “Please don’t touch me” more than once. Eventually, the man let him go. Tim Starks, a reporter for Congressional...

US President Barack Obama faced a host of personnel problems this week, as two top appointees bowed out because of unpaid income taxes and another pick distressed some in the Jewish community. Slideshow: Pictures of the week Samantha Power, a Harvard University genocide expert and former Obama campaign adviser, has been appointed to the the National Security Council's multilateral institutions office. She has been criticized in the past for making statements critical of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians. In one clip making the rounds courtesy of YouTube, Power accuses Israel of "major human rights abuses," though she distinguishes...

President Barack Obama has said he regards Karzai as unreliable and ineffective. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said he presided over a "narco-state." The Americans making Afghan policy, worried that the war is being lost, are vowing to bypass Karzai and deal directly with the governors in the countryside. At home, Karzai faces a widening insurgency and a population that blames him for the lack of economic progress and the corrupt officials that seem to stand at every doorway of his government. His face, which once adorned the walls of tea shops across the country, is today much less...

Russia may face a grim economic downturn but one would scarcely think so to judge by the sound of sabre-rattling emerging from the Kremlin. Unless, of course, it is intended as a domestic distraction from the gathering gloom. The double-act of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin has come up with a series of security initiatives that seem designed to provoke, or at least irritate, the new administration in Washington. Without even waiting to hear how President Barack Obama intends to conduct his relations with Moscow – something that Joe Biden, his vice-president, may well address on Saturday at the annual...

It began as a subprime surprise, became a credit crunch and then a global financial crisis. At last week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Russia and China blamed America, everyone blamed the bankers and the bankers blamed you and me. From where I sat, the majority of the attendees were stuck in the Great Repression: deeply anxious but fundamentally in denial about the nature and magnitude of the problem. Some foretold the bottom of the recession by the middle of this year. Others claimed that India and China would be the engines of recovery. But mostly the wise and...

Senators are pressuring Speaker Nancy Pelosi to embrace most of the stimulus bill they hope to pass early next week, claiming that adopting too many House provisions will doom the measure in the upper chamber. After two years of showdowns with then President Bush on the budget and the Iraq war during the last Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Pelosi (D-Calif.) will engage in a policy battle over the next week on President Obama’s top priority. Obama and his senior White House aides will play a large and delicate role in the hopes of striking a deal...

SAN'A, Yemen — Yemen released 170 men it had arrested on suspicion of having ties to Al Qaeda, security officials said Sunday, two weeks after the terror group announced that Yemen had become the base of its activities for the whole Arabian peninsula. In the past, such releases have raised concern in the United States and increased its reluctance to release Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Yemen has said it expects most of the 100 remaining Yemenis at Guantanamo to be sent home after President Barack Obama ordered the prison shut within a year.

President Barack Obama woos ordinary Americans with economic stimulus package President Barack Obama will take his campaign for his nearly trillion dollar economic stimulus package to Middle America on Monday, flying in Air Force One to suburban Indiana to take questions from ordinary citizens. By Toby Harnden in Washington 08 Feb 2009 Mr Obama will travel to the town of Elkhart, which has seen its unemployment leap from under five per cent to more than 15 per cent in the past year, before heading back to Washington for a prime-time press conference. On Tuesday, he will make another campaign-style trip...

The Obama administration is ending the Census Bureau's traditional autonomy – a move that has Republicans outraged over the White House's politicization of counting Americans. Last week, an administration official revealed that the yet-to-be-named director of the Census Bureau will report to the White House rather than Commerce Secretary nominee Judd Gregg, a Republican. That prompted a blistering response from two key Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "Any attempt by the Obama administration to circumvent the census process for their political benefit will be met with fierce opposition as this ill-conceived proposal undermines a constitutionally obligated...

<p>“President Obama’s executive order will drive up the cost of government at a time when we should be doing everything possible to save taxpayer dollars. Federal contracts should go to the businesses that can offer taxpayers the best value – not just the unions who supported the Democrats’ campaigns last year. Quietly signing executive orders to payback campaign backers undermines Obama promise to change Washington. It is a disappointment for Americans hoping for more transparency and less politics as usual in Washington.”</p>