The Myth of '08, Demolished "The misreading of that election -- and of the mandate it allegedly bestowed -- is the fundamental cause of the Democratic debacle of 2009." Dr. Krauthammer.
House Democrats may finally be taking note of voters' fears of ObamaCare. The Dems were planning to pass their bill today, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi & Co. yesterday realized it might fail, and mulled delaying the vote. Here's a better idea: Give it up. There's no reason, after all, for them to follow the White House like lemmings down a path as dangerous to their party's electoral future as it is to the country. Indeed, that their trillion-dollar bill
Reporting from Ft. Hood, Texas - In the end, the shooting rampage at Ft. Hood came down to a gunfight between two civilian base police officers toting standard sidearms and a 39-year-old psychiatrist armed with .357 Magnum and a pistol equipped with laser sighting and extra bullets, officials said. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, disturbed about his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan (not Iraq, contrary to earlier reports), reportedly entered the Soldier Readiness Processing Center just before
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will lead the U.S. delegation to Germany for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the White House has announced The delegation for next week's ceremony will include the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Philip Murphy, and German Marshall Fund President Craig Kennedy, the Associated Press reported. Also traveling with Clinton will be Brett Scowcroft, a top aide to Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush, and President Carter's
Unemployment has hit 10.2 percent, the highest level since the 1983 recession. Obama administration officials will no doubt try to spin this latest bad economic news by noting that unemployment is typically a "lagging indicator." That was true in the old days, but it won't cut it in the age of the global economy and Internet-driven 24/7 news cycle. Unemployment may now be something of a leading indicator because business executives make decisions about whether
President Obama visited with 19 soldiers during a visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center this afternoon, the White House said. He also spent time with three families of soldiers in the Intensive Care Unit and hospital staff. In addition, the president awarded two Purple Hearts, according to the White House. The visit is the president's first to Walter Reed since entering office, though he went as president-elect on January 19th. It was planned before this
Al Gore has sought to inject fresh momentum into the Copenhagen build-up, saying he is certain Barack Obama will attend and predicting a rise in civil disobedience against fossil-fuel polluters unless drastic action is taken over global warming. Amid increasing incidents of climate protesters disrupting the operations of fossil-fuel industries and airports in Britain and elsewhere, Gore suggests the scale of the emergency means non-violent lawbreaking is justified. "Civil disobedience has an honourable history, and when
The Washington Post this afternoon reported "President Obama delivers remarks on Ft. Hood shooting at end of tribal leaders conference." The transcript begins: SPEAKER: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA [*] OBAMA: Please, everybody, have a seat. Let me first of all just thank Ken and the entire Department of the Interior staff for organizing just an extraordinary conference. I want to thank my Cabinet members and senior administration officials who participated today. I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow (ph)
More proof has emerged of White House political director Patrick Gaspard's ties to the radical advocacy group ACORN. Gaspard, a longtime operative for ACORN and one of its partisan arms, New York's Working Families Party, currently holds the title of White House political affairs director, the same title Karl Rove held in President Bush's White House. Internal ACORN documents show that Gaspard gave ACORN $40,000 over the past two years.
For every Sunbelt refugee who has tried to leave high tax bills behind in the cold Northeast, Julian Robertson scored a victory this week. By proving that he was outside New York City for half the days in the year 2000, the former hedge-fund titan avoided $27 million in city taxes, thanks to a ruling by New York's tax court. No thanks are due the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, which had ruled
Even though they may remind you immediately of the worst racists you have known, bigoted bashers of religion often get away with it no matter how shallow, uncomprehending, unfair, overly generalizing, nasty-minded or obviously hostile their attitudes are. Every now and then, however, someone strikes back, such as Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York. On his Web site, I first learned from a New York Post article, he recently took a swing at anti-Catholicism, particularly as
TOKYO – US President Barack Obama has delayed his visit to Japan next week by one day following a deadly shooting at a military base in Texas, according to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. Japanese national broadcaster NHK and Jiji Press reported that Washington had asked Tokyo to change the schedule for the two-day visit to allow Obama to attend a memorial service for the 13 people killed in Thursday's shooting.
WASHINGTON – For months he had warned it was coming but that didn't ease the political shockwaves for President Barack Obama when unemployment topped 10 percent. A year after his election Obama finds it increasingly difficult to blame the sour economy on George W. Bush or offer reassurances that jobless Americans will soon find work. Never mind that the economy itself grew in the last quarter, that the recession, as measured by the precise formulas used by
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is traveling to Capitol Hill on Saturday to try to close the sale on his signature health care overhaul, facing a make-or-break vote in the House certain to be seen as a test of his presidency. Obama scheduled a late-morning visit with House Democrats convening a rare Saturday session on legislation to remake the U.S. health care system, extending coverage to tens of millions now uninsured and banning insurance company practices
FORT HOOD, Texas – A chaplain exhorted hundreds of mourners gathered at a candlelight vigil to not give up hope as Fort Hood and its surrounding community looked to each other for comfort after an Army psychiatrist allegedly went on a deadly shooting spree at the military base. A grief counseling center was set up Friday at the Killeen Community Center to help residents struggling to make sense of one of the worst mass shootings ever
Neighbors aim to silence Old Ironsides’ cannons Old Ironsides’ upscale Charlestown neighbors are trying to pull off what British, French and Barbary pirate guns failed to accomplish in more than two centuries - silencing the cannons of the nation’s oldest commissioned naval vessel. Miffed residents of a posh condo complex have invited the commanding officer of the USS Constitution over for a glass of wine so he can hear for himself that the frigate’s twice-daily cannon blasts
Senator George LeMieux of Florida is using Senate rules to block a vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee for ambassador to Brazil, U.S. Senate Republican and Democratic aides said. The Republican aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said LeMieux, a Republican, was delaying a vote to confirm Thomas Shannon, currently the State Department’s top diplomat for Latin America, over the administration’s decision to initiate talks with Cuba on migration and direct mail service.
If congressional Democrats want to dispel the impression that they are wholly owned subsidiaries of Trial Lawyers Inc., they need to do a much cleverer job at hiding the evidence. In the weak guise of offering incentives to states to create "alternative medical liability" laws, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's big-government health plan actually discourages the most widely used and effective means of reining in lawsuit abuse. The legislative provision isn't just a bait-and-switch, it's more like
A bad week for Democrats compounded by an awful moment for Barack Obama. President Obama didn't wait long after Tuesday's devastating elections to give critics another reason to question his leadership, but this time the subject matter was more grim than a pair of governorships.
Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay
TIJUANA, Mexico — Mexican police caught a prison official who spent a year on the run from charges of killing a 19-year-old inmate, whose beating death sparked riots that left nearly two dozen dead, including two American prisoners. Marco Antonio Ibarra, the chief guard at Tijuana's La Mesa State Penitentiary, was arrested in the northern city of Culiacan, where he was born and had been hiding for a year, said Martha Almaza, deputy attorney general
A civilian police officer at Fort Hood whose shots stopped a killer’s rampage is a member of a special reaction team and a weapons expert who probably saved lives with her response, officials say. The officer, Kimberly Munley, 35, was hospitalized and in stable condition yesterday after suffering gunshots to the wrist and legs when she exchanged fire Nov. 5 with the suspect, U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan.(Snip) “She eliminated the threat. She did
Capping months of months of struggle, House Democrats cleared an abortion-related impasse blocking a vote on sweeping health care legislation late Friday and officials expressed optimism they had finally lined up the support needed to pass President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. A vote was expected on the legislation on Saturday, after Obama's scheduled midmorning trip to the Capitol complex to make one final pitch for its approval.
Republican conservatives and moderates are at each other's throats. Tea party populists are furious at President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and aren't crazy about Republicans either. Democrats haven't got a clue. There's talk of a third party. The economy is stagnant as unemployment, now 10.2 percent, climbs. It's beginning to look like the late 1970s. This is good news for Republicans--extremely good news.
Can anything else possibly go wrong for the Obama administration's Middle East policy? In the past ten days, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has twice reversed herself publicly on her attitude toward the Israeli settlements. Palestinians have refused her direct request to rejoin peace talks with Israel, and Palestinian Authority president Abbas has said he will not run for reelection. U.S.-Israel relations are in
Famed Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez said Friday she and another blogger were punched and thrown violently into a car by presumed state security agents as they walked to participate in a peaceful march in downtown Havana. ``No blood, but black and blues, punches, pulled hairs, blows to the head, kidneys, knee and chest,'' Sánchez told El Nuevo Herald shortly after she and Orlando Luis Pardo were freed. ``In sum, professional violence.''
If Sarah Palin visits Nashville on her book tour, she really ought to stop by the Hermitage. Andrew Jackson's plantation is a lot more than a beautifully restored example of Greek Revival architecture and design. It's also a monument to the seventh president's democratic legacy--of rule by the people, of competitive commercial markets, of entrepreneurial individuals lighting out to the territories. It's a legacy
