Free Republic

In a speech delivered just earlier today President Obama warned that without serious compromise by both Democrats and Republicans, the U.S. will lose its top-credit rating it if falls into a credit default. It was the second debt-crisis related speech that Obama has delivered today, and comes the day after the House GOP failed to pass a balanced budget bill because of lack of support from representatives viewed as sympathetic to the Tea Party movement. The president pointed out that the possibility of a downgrade are not great developments for either party, though some are suggesting that even if a...

JERUSALEM – The Israeli government on Tuesday appealed to Apple Inc. to remove an application called "ThirdIntifada" from its App Store, saying the program glorifies violence against the Jewish state. Israel's information minister, Yuli Edelstein, sent the request in an email to Steve Jobs, the chief executive of the American iPhone maker. "Intifadah" is the Arabic term for two violent uprisings against Israel over the past two decades. The free application encourages its followers to share opinions and organize protests against Israel. It is linked to a website that, among other things, helped organize violent clashes with Israeli troops recently...

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday questioned why the Obama administration is releasing so much information about the operation that resulted in the death of Usama bin Laden and the intelligence behind it. While Rumsfeld praised President Obama for overseeing and green-lighting the daring raid last weekend, he suggested the White House could be taking a risk in sharing the details it has with the public. "The more information that goes out about intelligence, the greater the risks to our people and the less likelihood we're going to be able to capture and/or kill some of the people who...

FAIRLESS HILLS, PA. — President Obama on Wednesday urged Americans to be patient with higher prices at the gas pump for now and trust that his administration’s energy policies will eventually tamp down on the soaring costs. “We can’t afford to continue this kind of being in shock when gas prices go up,” Obama said from a town hall-style meeting of roughly 500 employees at Gamesa Technology Corp., a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Fairless Hills, Pa. “We’ve got to have a sustained energy policy that is consistent,” he said.

The Obama administration told the Supreme Court on Monday night it should stay away from a high-profile challenge to the 2010 health care law until after a lower court has had a chance to review the case. (Snip) In his filing last month, Cuccinelli said there's a "palpable consensus" that the high court will ultimately have to pass judgment on the merits of President Obama's health care law and should do so without delay. Furthermore, Cuccinelli argues that his case involves "pure issues of constitutional law" that appellate judges on the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will be unable

Sometimes it's necessary to get out on the streets and "get a little bloody," a Massachusetts Democrat said Tuesday in reference to labor battles in Wisconsin. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) fired up a group of union members in Boston with a speech urging them to work down in the trenches to fend off limits to workers' rights like those proposed in Wisconsin. "I’m proud to be here with people who understand that it’s more than just sending an email to get you going," Capuano said, according to the Dorchester Reporter. "Every once and awhile you need to get out on...

A powerful House Republican wants Amtrak's chairman and top lawyer fired. Rep. Darrell Issa of California, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a recent letter to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV that both Amtrak Chairman Thomas Carper and General Counsel Eleanor Acheson "unlawfully interfered" with the independence of the rail agency's Office of Inspector General.

Blaming congressional inaction, the nation's largest doctors' lobby is urging lawmakers this month to block a steep cut scheduled to hit Medicare doctors at the start of December. The American Medical Association (AMA) is warning that a failure to prevent the cut would be "a catastrophe for seniors" because many doctors would stop seeing Medicare patients altogether. Physicians are facing a 23 percent cut on Dec. 1, and an additional 1.9 percent cut is scheduled for Jan. 1. "This is not about doctors," AMA President Cecil Wilson told reporters on a press call Monday. "It's about access to care for...

"Tea party" activists are exhibiting a fervor for budget cuts not seen in years, pushing to slash everything from Social Security to unemployment benefits in their drive to cut the burgeoning federal debt. But while applauding their budget-cutting zeal, economists are divided over whether their prescription is good medicine for a weak economy. Some say it's reminiscent of President Hoover's drive to balance the budget during the Great Depression — and would backfire this time as well. Tea party groups and candidates, while fractious at times, are mostly united

On Monday night, my opponent Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) delivered this speech to Democrats at a restaurant in Chicago–with U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias and Governor Pat Quinn in attendance

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department on Friday urged a federal appeals court to delay a judge's ruling overturning a drilling moratorium in the Gulf. In court papers, the Obama administration said the suspensions in deepwater drilling are crucially important to protect human health and the environment from another disaster. At the same time, the federal government's lawyers argued that the moratorium targets only a small number of deepwater operations that present safety concerns, affecting less than 1 percent of the existing structures in the Gulf dedicated to oil exploration and production.

Prince Charles yesterday urged the world to follow Islamic 'spiritual principles' in order to protect the environment. In an hour-long speech, the heir to the throne argued that man's destruction of the world was contrary to the scriptures of all religions - but particularly those of Islam. He said the current 'division' between man and nature had been caused not just by industrialisation, but also by our attitude to the environment - which goes against the grain of 'sacred traditions'.

BRASILIA (AFP) – IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn urged EU countries to coordinate their national crisis recovery plans, notably by using part of a one-trillion-dollar EU-IMF stabilization fund to boost growth. "Part of this money should be used to boost growth, because without growth prospects in the eurozone and European countries it will be difficult to get out of the crisis," he told reporters during a visit to Brasilia. The fund he was referring to is a 750-billion-euro (one trillion dollar) rescue package put together earlier this month in a bid to prop up the euro after markets took fright at...

Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.) called on the White House Monday to detail conversations it allegedly had with Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) to try to convince him to drop his Senate bid. Weiner said allegations that White House officials had offered Sestak an administration job in exchange for his dropping his primary bid against Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) had become a growing political liability. "I think what the White House should do is, to some degree, say, 'Here are the facts,'" Weiner said Monday morning during an appearance on MSNBC. "If there's not a lot [to] what's going on here,...

As the leadership in the House tries to persuade fence-straddling Democrats to push health care reform over the finish line, a "talking points" memo is being widely circulated in Washington that purports to show that those same leaders and the Obama administration are secretly planning to push for an increase in Medicare payments -- an increase that would alter the cost of the bill. As the leadership in the House tries to persuade fence-straddling Democrats to push health care reform over the finish line, a "talking points" memo is being widely circulated in Washington that purports to show that those...

NEW YORK, March 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Jewish Committee (AJC) today urged the Obama Administration to call a halt to its public denunciations of the Israeli government and return to the use of language befitting the close relations between Washington and Jerusalem. "Israel made a serious mistake last week in announcing a controversial Jerusalem housing project during Vice President Biden's visit," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "It should not have happened. We fully understand the White House dismay, but Vice President Biden accepted Prime Minister Netanyahu's apology. The shared values that bind the U.S. and Israel, as the...

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged wealthy Pakistanis to pay a larger share of taxes to reduce their country’s dependence on foreign aid. In a testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the top US diplomat reminded rich Pakistanis that they had a duty to enable their government to fund schools and hospitals and to spend more on other social projects by paying taxes. “The very well-off” in Pakistan “do not pay their fair share for the services that are needed, in health and education primarily,” she observed. Secretary Clinton said the US, along with the International...

BERLIN (AFP) – Germany's environment minister warned on Saturday that if Washington does not go beyond its current greenhouse gas cutting commitments, agreement on a new climate pact this year will prove difficult. So far, the Obama administration has agreed to cut heat-trapping greenhouse gasses only to 1990 levels, far short of European Union commitments. "If the United States isn't ready to go further than that, things are going to be very difficult in Copenhagen," minister Sigmar Gabriel told AFP, referring to a key summit to be held in December which will look to draft a new version of the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Saturday urged nations of the world to unite to resolve the most pressing global challenges -- from extremism to environmental pollution to the economic crisis. In a weekly radio address timed to Easter and Passover celebrations, Obama cautioned that the world remained a dangerous place, and people must be strong and vigilant in the face of multiple threats. "But let us not allow whatever differences we have with other nations to stop us from coming together around those solutions that are essential to our survival and success," he said. The comments came...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a plea to Ireland on Monday to give asylum to Guantanamo prisoners. "It is clear that we will need help" in shutting down the Gitmo terror prison, Clinton said, "because many of the detainees cannot safely, for themselves or others, be sent back to the countries from which they came."