Free Republic

UNITED NATIONS — A former Nicaraguan foreign minister who once called President Ronald Reagan “the butcher of my people” has been appointed to represent Libya at the United Nations after its delegate was denied a visa, the Nicaraguan government said on Wednesday. Nicaragua said the former minister, Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, 78, an outspoken critic of the United States and a Catholic priest, would replace the Libyan diplomat Ali Abdussalam Treki, who had been unable to obtain a visa to enter the United States. Libya’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgam, defected in late February after denouncing Col. Muammar...

The last surviving founder of the Sandinista guerrilla movement that overthrew Nicaragua's U.S.-backed right-wing dictatorship in 1979 has died. Tomas Borge Martinez was 81. First Lady Rosario Murillo said in a simultaneous broadcast on Radio Ya and other stations that Borge Martinez died late Monday.

Gannett paper, link only: Obama’s new Iowa campaign HQ opens Sunday – in Romney’s old digs

Newly released FBI memos detail a sensitive investigation into fundraising in the Carter White House that started with a comparison to Watergate but fizzled after uncovering special access for donors but no criminal wrongdoing. The memos were released from the file of Charles Manatt, an Iowa native and former Democratic National Committee Chairman who was interviewed during the investigation. The records became public after Manatt died in July at age 75 in Richmond, Va. Manatt grew up on an Audobon farm and studied rural sociology at Iowa State University before ascending to the top of the fields of law, business...

Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have introduced legislation that would permanently discontinue the $1 dollar note and replace it with a coin. Harkin and McCain penned The Currency Optimization, Innovation and National Savings (COINS) Act in response to reports from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) that indicate that abandoning the note could save around $5.5 billion over the next 30 years. Specifically the COINS Act would require that Federal Reserve Banks discontinue the $1 note four years after enactment or once circulation of $1 coins exceeds 600 million annually.

en. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said that Newt Gingrich would be a "heaven-sent" nominee for President Obama's reelection campaign and that there was "silent cheering" from the Obama campaign about his emergence in the GOP race. The senator went on to dismiss the former Speaker as a "bomb thrower" in a call with reporters Thursday. "I was in the House with Newt, as a matter of fact, years ago. I can remember him being a bomb thrower at that time," Harkin said. "One of those people always lobbing things around - I thought at that time, in his early career in...

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) spoke to a crowd gathered in Washington, D.C., outside of the Capitol and said, "We need some of you probably getting arrested for doing things you shouldn't be doing" to save Medicaid. Also, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), who is a self-avowed socialist, told MRCTV he was at the rally to 'save' Medicaid and that Republicans care more about representing the 'wealthiest people in the country', large campaign contributors and 'hedge fund people' than working and low-income families.

A top aide to Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin supplied an answer last year to a thorny question a friendly witness would face the next day at a pivotal hearing on for-profit colleges, raising questions of witness tampering, an email obtained by The Daily Caller shows. As Harkin prepares for another event on the same subject at 2:00 p.m. today, the email raises fresh concerns about the senator’s committee conduct after he recently faced accusations from Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigators that he pressured them on an error-ridden report unveiled at the very same hearing. That Senate Health, Education, Labor...

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) calls Republicans "dead-beat debtors" among other things during a Democratic press conference on Wednesday morning. "The debate and fight is not between Democrats and Republicans. It's between some Republicans and their sort of cult fringe as I refer to them out there," Harkin said.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) calls Republicans "dead-beat debtors" among other things during a Democratic press conference on Wednesday morning. "The debate and fight is not between Democrats and Republicans. It's between some Republicans and their sort of cult fringe as I refer to them out there," Harkin said. "Democrats are willing to do whatever is necessary to raise the debt ceiling, not for future borrowing but to pay the debts that we racked up in the past. Which, mostly was racked up by a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican President in the last 8 years. Yet, they're...

A state senator is asking the president of the Board of Regents to delay a decision on a proposal to create a public policy institute named for Democratic U.S. Senator Tom Harkin at Iowa State University. State Senator Sandra Greiner, a Republican from Keota, says she has some serious questions about the proposal.“My basic concern is the impropriety of a seated senator…whose organization would be soliciting funds to run their institute from the same people who would possibly be seeking regulation from that senator,” Greiner says. Greiner says this is the same type of thing that was part of the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Susan Collins, along with her colleagues Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Tom Harkin (D-IA), have introduced the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) to finally prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Senator Collins has long been a strong supporter of this legislation. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2011 would prohibit employers, employment agencies, labor organizations and joint labor-management committees from firing, refusing to hire, or discriminating against those employed or seeking employment, on the basis of their perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity. Such protections are already in...

Democrats are looking at the possibility of raising taxes on families below the $250,000-a-year threshold promised by President Barack Obama during the election. The majority party on Capitol Hill does not feel bound by that pledge, saying the threshold for tax hikes will depend on several factors, such as the revenue differences between setting the threshold at $200,000 and setting it at $250,000. “You could go lower, too — why not $200,000?” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “With the debt and deficit we have, you can’t make promises to people. This is a very serious situation.” Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.),...

Democrats, including Rep. Betty McCollum, launched into an assault on incivility Tuesday, saying incendiary words from members of Congress were inflaming tensions that could provoke another incident of Oklahoma City-style domestic terrorism."When Members of Congress compare health-care legislation to ‘government tyranny,’ ‘socialism,’ or ‘totalitarianism’ — in the hopes of scoring political points — it's like pouring gas on the fire of extremism," McCollum said. McCollum's St. Paul office was one of a few that received an envelope containing gasoline-soaked tatters of an American flag and a letter that called her things not fit for print in this or any publication....

Obama's 'Health Care Summit' took place Thursday and shortly after the lunch break, Democratic Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa made a few remarks that were both illogical and inaccurate in regard to insurance premiums. Senator Harkin read a letter from an Iowa farmer whose Blue Cross insurance premiums are going up 14.6%. The farmer is already paying very high premiums for his family of four. The farmer also has unspecified health conditions that prevent him from simply switching companies because other insurance companies will turn him down based upon his pre-existing conditions... Although it may appear to be a bad...

Sen. Tom Harkin compares health care pools to segregation.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top Democrat on the Senate health committee says insurance companies who refuse coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions are engaging in discrimination. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa told participants at the White House's health summit that such refusals are akin to racial discrimination that was legal during parts of the last century. Harkin says it's time to end discrimination based on health in this century. Democrats are pushing a health care overhaul that would make it illegal for insurance companies to refuse coverage to people who have conditions such as asthma or diabetes.

The Senate has the votes to pass a healthcare reform bill including a public option, a key Senate chairman said Tuesday. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said that the Senate "comfortably" has a majority of votes to pass the public plan, and that he believes Democrats can muster 60 votes to break a filibuster. "I have polled senators, and the vast majority of Democrats — maybe approaching 50 — support a public option," Harkin said told the liberal "Bill Press Radio Show." "So why shouldn't we have a public option?...

Midlands lawmakers are back home listening to constituents this August, with health care expected to dominate the discussion. Here's a listing of scheduled events at which the public can tell hear from their elected representatives on the issue. NEBRASKA Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb. Saturday, Aug. 15, 8:30-10 a.m., Coffee with Lee, Homestyle Café, 8807 Maple Street Advertising Tuesday, Aug. 25, 6 p.m., Town Hall Meeting, Millard North High School Auditorium 144th and Pacific Streets Saturday, Aug. 29, 8-9:30 a.m., Coffee with Lee, Vidlacks Café, 156th and Bob Boozer Drive Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb. Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2:15 p.m. MDT, Meet...

these 2 guys in the first video get in each others face, they accuse the guy of being part of a group that sent him there, later Harkin talks about how much CEOs make, and a lady yells out about congress buying new corporate jets...Round One: Town hall protesters...