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Panetta orders internal probe of secret spy program after some members of Congress say CIA misled them. ### CIA Director Leon Panetta has ordered an internal inquiry into the agency's handling of a contentious and still highly classified intelligence program that has caused a heated dispute between the CIA and Democrats on the House intelligence committee. The move by Panetta appears to be an implicit acknowledgment by the agency that it should have disclosed information about the post-9/11 secret program to Congress much earlier than it did. *snip* CIA and congressional officials have refused to describe the nature of the...

Soldiers 'dying because of cuts': Brown starved forces of cash, says ex-defence chief MATTHEW HICKLEY 10th July 2009 Attack: Lord Guthrie said the lives of British troops in Afghanistan were endangered because of cash shortages A former head of the armed forces yesterday accused Gordon Brown of endangering the lives of British troops in Afghanistan by starving the military of funds. In a devastating personal attack, Lord Guthrie said that under Mr Brown the Treasury had spent 'the minimum they could get away with' on defence. The resulting shortage of helicopters in Afghanistan has led to more British soldiers being...

Americans adore irresponsible, flashy celebrities. But they do not vote for them. Michael Jackson’s funeral crashed the Internet. Had he ever tried to run for dog-catcher, it would have been a very different story. Sarah Palin is about to experience the weight of this rule. Between her speeches and her book deal, she can reasonably hope to earn $10 million over the next two years. She’ll fly in private jets, sleep in sumptuous hotel suites, receive rhapsodic applause. Yet there will be no escaping another story line. Faced with exasperating criticism and the accumulating cares of public office—she quit to...

The Truth About Sarah Palin’s Resignation by John Ziegler

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The former fiance of Gov. Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter says he thinks he knows why the Alaska governor is resigning — concerns over money. Levi Johnston, 19, whose wedding to Bristol Palin was called off earlier this year, says he believes the governor is resigning over personal finances.

GOP zeroes in on Al Franken in new ad View article...

Ever-vigilant for opportunities to quash anything contrary to the liberal worldview, Leftists in Congress are working on new ways to silence any dissent. Most of us know about the “Fairness Doctrine” that they got away with for years to harass and control the opposition. Most of us also know the liberals have been trying for years to bring it back. Their latest attempt is HR 1966, ostensibly to fight “cyber bullying,” but it could very easily be used to prosecute “hate crimes,” or essentially any electronic communication that hurt someone’s feelings. David Rittgers of the Cato Institute discusses this Orwellian...

Gov. Sarah Palin is the political train wreck that keeps on giving. First, she was an awful choice last year as John McCain's running mate. I came to this conclusion with regret - I am one of McCain's biggest admirers. But facts are facts. An inexperienced governor of a small state, she lacked the experience to be President and brought nothing to the ticket except a surefire knack for exciting voters who were already reliably Republican. It was a strategically awful choice, and I said so - both on and off microphone - at the time. Most pundits thought I...

Tomorrow Pope Benedict XVI and President Barack Obama meet for the first time, an affair much anticipated and in some circles frowned upon by American Catholics in the wake of Obama's controversial Notre Dame commencement speech in May. Conservatives in the church denounced Obama's appearance as a nod by the premier Catholic university to a conciliatory politics that heralds the start of a slippery moral slope. In truth, though, Obama's pragmatic approach to divisive policy (his notion that we should acknowledge the good faith underlying opposing viewpoints) and his social-justice agenda reflect the views of American Catholic laity much more...

[...] To me, one of the most interesting aspects of the story is how vehemently the Palin camp blames Barack Obama. From the story: For Palin, however, these aren't isolated incidents. She believes they grow from the same root, which is too big and too formidable to ignore. "A lot of this comes from Washington, D.C. The trail is pretty direct and pretty obvious to us," says Meg Stapleton, a close Palin adviser in Alaska. Awaiting a flight back to Anchorage from distant Dillingham, Stapleton adds that the anti-Palin offensive seems lifted straight from The Thumpin', which describes the political...

Everyone wants to write their congressman (person) when they are displeased with the way things are going. When that does not work (and it won't) many choose to demonstrate at their local city offices or state capital. Others take the time to actually travel to the seat of the real problem - Washington DC. When that does not work (and it never does) what is left to do. Just do it all over again and again and again........ Let me tell you a tale of Bill Clinton, an ambassador buddy of his (that was one of his anti-Vietnam war buddies)...

Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009.

ALBANY - Bronx state Sen. Pedro Espada, whose defection to the Republican camp helped trigger the current Senate crisis, will return to the Democratic fold and end the month-long Senate stalemate, The Post has learned. Espada, whose defection to the Republicans was the main reason for Gov. Paterson's controversial action yesterday "naming" Richard Ravitch as lieutenant governor, revealed his startling plans to The Post.

We’ve already seen this trend coming from the Rasmussen national polls, and now Politico reports that Rasmussen has substantial corroboration of their reports. Independent voters have begun rejecting the big-spending programs of Barack Obama, especially as they show little return on the vast fortunes he’s spent thus far. That means trouble for Obama in swing states that he carried relatively easily just eight months ago: Obama retains extremely strong support from Democrats, and earlier this year lost much of the Republican support that followed a giddy Inauguration. It is the independents who appear to be currently on the move: Obama...

As Jim Geraghty notes over at the Campaign Spot, the race for Massachusetts governor is heating up. Yesterday, Charlie Baker, the relatively unknown CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, announced his plans to face off against Christy Mihos in the Republican primary, in hopes of challenging incumbent Democrat Deval Patrick in the general election. As the CEO of a major regional insurance company, Baker’s a health-care guy, and that’s very important in Massachusetts. Under Patrick, the Bay State has struggled to effectively institute the comprehensive health-care plan devised by former governor Mitt Romney. Though Massachusetts has achieved nearly universal health-care...

Former GOP Governor Helped Make 2006 Reform Reality. BOSTON -- Three years after the inception of Massachusetts’ landmark health reform legislation, which required every citizen to buy insurance, NewsCenter 5’s Ed Harding wondered what former Gov. Mitt Romney, a key political architect of the plan, thought of its progress. Call it protecting his legacy, well-earned pride, or seeing the glass as half-full, but Romney says Massachusetts deserves an ‘A.’ “It’s working like we had hoped it would work,” the one-time republic presidential candidate said. “We got nearly everybody in Massachusetts health insurance, which really, something people didn't think was possible.”...

Columnist Margaret Carlson says Sarah Palin is "very good at stringing words together" that make "no sense."

First lady Michelle Obama thought about sending her daughters away to summer camp, she said recently, but instead decided on another program -- the "Camp Obama" world tour. "This has been such a, you know, busy year for them," she said, "We're having 'Camp Obama' and, you know, they're going to travel a little more with us, and we're going to do some historic things." It's not your everyday sleepaway camp, but a world-class adventure: This week, the first tweens have toured Rome's Coliseum and Russia's Kremlin -- exotic locations for sure, but the president said his daughters haven't skipped...

Republicans facing tough elections in 2010 don’t want Sarah Palin campaigning with them. Though the soon-to-be-former Alaska governor is seen as popular with the conservative grass roots, several Republicans said she’d help them by staying home in Wasilla. Several of these Republicans hail from districts or states carried in 2008 by President Obama, a frequent target of Palin’s criticism. Republicans must keep these districts and win others where Obama is popular if they are to gain seats next year. GOP Rep. Lee Terry (Neb.), who squeaked out a victory despite his district’s overwhelming turnout for Obama, said he’d rather have...

The Obama Doctrine is finally coming into focus. It’s been hard to glean its form because for so long it seemed the president’s most obvious guiding principle was “not Bush,� particularly when it came to the Iraq War. Indeed, his anti-Bush stance has led him to stubbornly refuse to say the war has been won or to admit that he was wrong to oppose the surge. In the past, this unthinking reflex has caused Obama to take some truly repugnant positions. In July 2007, Obama said that he would order U.S. forces out of Iraq as quickly as possible, even...

There is still time to stop the legislative monstrosity known as the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill before the Senate approves it. But for that to happen, Americans must learn how bad it is. Let's briefly review the basics: The bill is ostensibly designed to curb man-caused carbon emissions (presumably without outlawing breathing) to retard global warming. Even if we accept, for purposes of argument, the assumptions of radical, hysterical leftist environmentalists that man-caused global warming will destroy the planet if evil, rich capitalists don't radically curtail their own contributions to the catastrophe, Waxman-Markey would not prevent this Armageddon. Climate scientist Chip...

Mike Cox Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox today threw his support behind the National Rifle Association's challenge of a City of Chicago ordinance banning possession of most handguns by filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court. Cox's amicus brief -- a document filed in court by someone not directly related to a case -- supports the request by the NRA to the Supreme Court for an appeal of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in June favoring the City of Chicago.At least 33 other states support the NRA's request for the court to hear an appeal in...

Despite announcing her resignation as Alaskan governor with 18 months to spare, Sarah Palin is still a sought-after asset in the Republican Party. The Des Moines Register is reporting that Iowan Republicans have extended a hand to Palin to headline the annual Reagan Day Dinner, set for this fall. Iowa GOP Executive Director Jeff Boeyink told the Register that the party had been pursuing Palin since January and that her resignation has increased the effort to secure her at the fundraising event. Boeyink's confirmation came after Senator Chuck Grassley told the The Des Moines Register Wednesday that he believes Palin...

Burris Won't Run in 2010 By Emily Pierce Roll Call Staff July 9, 2009, 6:14 p.m. Burris Won't Run in 2010 House Chairmen Thumb Noses at White House Health Care Deal Updated: 6:48 p.m. Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) will announce Friday that he will not seek election to a full term in 2010, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Burris’ office issued a press release Thursday evening saying the Senator would make a “major announcement” Friday during a scheduled speech at the Chicago South Loop Hotel. However, his spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. Burris’ decision is likely based on...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic official says Roland Burris will not run for a full Senate term in 2010. The source says Burris has begun informing Democratic officials about his decision. The official spoke anonymously because Burris had yet to announce his decision publicly.

Most Republicans have just finished what might be called the spring of their discontent. Not much went right in the first half of the year; not much to cheer about. Let us count the ways that the world has conspired to help Mr. Romney. At a time when the Republican Party is straining to find new leaders, other prominent party members who aspire to that role -- Govs. Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and Mark Sanford, and Sen. John Ensign -- have stumbled or, in the case of Gov. Sanford, flamed out in spectacular fashion. Mitt Romney now looks by comparison...

The prospects for conservatism as a political force in the United States are arguably grim. The GOP's electoral prospects may be on the verge of drying up due to demographic shifts, particularly the growth of the Hispanic vote -- the kind of shifts that, in the past, have driven major political parties into extinction.   There are serious problems with the youth vote as well. Some commentators insist that the GOP must begin distancing itself from moral issues such as abortion and gay marriage, that it must put on a more "socially progressive" face if it is to win this...

Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. has returned to the fold, giving the Democrats a 32-30 majority in the state Senate—again—and taking the title majority leader. Espada (D-Bronx) said during a news conference this afternoon that his disagreement with fellow Democrats on June 8, which led to a Republican-led coup, “has never been about titles,” though he received the title of temporary president as a result of the coup. “Today I stand here with another title,” he said. “I tell you very clearly, I have always been a Democrat. I will continue to be a Democrat. I never left home. I had...

Hunters in New Jersey usually have their hands full keeping tabs on Trenton politicians with anti-hunting agendas. That doesn't mean they should take their eyes off public officials in Washington who might have similar mindsets. The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance (USSA) suggests one current example is President Barack Obama's choice of prolific law professor Cass Sunstein to head an important regulatory body. The president selected Sunstein - a friend and adviser who has expressed positions seen by USSA to be anti-hunting - to be in charge of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Sunstein, who teaches at Harvard, could...

POLITICO: In a speech in upstate New York, Vice President Biden again took on critics of the Obama administration's stimulus plan. "And I say to those who are our critics who say we're doing too much...is there any possibility that we’re going to be able to lead the 21st Century like we did the 20th?" "It's easier to throw those bombs than to catch them. It’s a lot easier to b

Reminiscent of the no-bid, cost-plus contracts awarded in the Bush administration to defense contractors, ABC News reported last night the Obama Administration awarded a 5 year $18 million contract to Smartronix, a Maryland-based IT firm with connections to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, for the redesign of Recovery.gov. Launched in February to track the expenditures of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Recovery.gov was to be the pinnacle of web-enabled transparency, according to President Barack Obama. “The site is the tip of the iceberg for the effort that will go into taking spending tracking and accountability to the...

   U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009. Leaders of the Group of Eight major industrial nations and the main developing economies are meeting in the central Italian city of L'Aquila until Friday to discuss issues ranging from global economic stimulus to climate change and oil prices.

WASHINGTON – Conservative Democrats in the House rebelled against their party leaders Thursday, raising concerns about the cost of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and seeking to put the brakes on legislation. The fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition planned to present a letter to House Democratic leaders asking for more time, members of the group told The Associated Press. Democratic Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas said that if the Democrats' liberal legislative plan came to the floor as proposed, an "overwhelming majority" of his group would oppose it. The Blue Dogs claim 52 members, so that could endanger the...

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela is taking dozens of radio stations off the air and putting stricter rules on cable and satellite television, a minister said on Thursday, part of President Hugo Chavez's battle with private media firms. Disodado Cabello, the public works minister who also oversees Venezuela's broadcasting watchdog, said 154 FM radio stations will be taken off the air and shifted into public hands in what he called "democratizing the airwaves." He recently said 86 AM radio stations will also be hit as the government steps up efforts to turn Venezuela into a socialist society. "The use of the...

Over 850,000 copies sold! #1 on the NYTimes Bestseller List for 13 out of 14 weeks!Buy it… read it… live it!“Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

Reminds me of Bill Clinton!U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009. Mr. President! Behave! Is this your new theme song?(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net ...

AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry holds a 12-point lead over probable challenger Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in next year's Republican primary, though more than one-third of likely voters are still undecided or would choose someone else, according to a poll conducted last month by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. The statewide poll, coordinated by members of the Department of Government and the Texas Politics Project, also found that Perry and President Barack Obama have nearly identical statewide approval ratings—42 and 43 percent, respectively. Obama's disapproval ratings (46 percent), however, are much higher than Perry's (32 percent)....

With all that’s been said about Governor Sarah Palin’s supposedly “shocking” announcement that she was resigning from office, you might think that everything that needs to be said about this has already been reported. However, as I proved in my documentary which “stars” Palin, when it comes to the most unfairly vilified personality of our time, it is more the rule than the exception that the true story about her gets totally lost in the media translation. Her resignation has been a classic example.----snip----First, let’s make it clear that, despite what MSNBC has implied on numerous occasions, I am NOT...

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Obama has already made sure the Teacher's & Auto Unions and ACORN got a huge payoff! Billions in aid go to areas that backed Obama in '08 By Brad Heath USA TODAYJuly 8, 2009 WASHINGTON — Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year's presidential election. That aid — about $17 billion — is the first piece of the administration's massive stimulus package that can be tracked locally. Much of it has followed a well-worn...

The relentlessly sanctimonious Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now may not deserve its carefully cultivated image as a defender of the poor. That's because the group has become the leading cheerleader for a controversial real estate development that is slated to use eminent domain to remove the poor people it claims to represent. ACORN, which has long prided itself on fighting the so-called gentrification of neighborhoods as rising property values force the poor to move, has also taken money from the project's developer and signed a binding agreement forcing it to stand behind the project no matter what. In...

Note: The following text is a quote: July 09, 2009 IT'S JUST THE STATE DEPARTMENT'S WAY OF MAKING SURE THE FBI KEEPS BUSY... U.S. Takes 1,350 Palestinian Refugees The State Department confirmed Tuesday that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians will be resettled in the U.S., mostly in southern California, starting this fall - the largest-ever resettlement of Palestinian refugees into the U.S. Palestinians were treated well under Saddam Hussein but their presence was resented by many Iraqis. HT: dailyalert.org

Archbishop Charles Chaput Colorado Springs, Colo., Jul 9, 2009 / 01:11 pm (CNA).- At a Wednesday evening gathering of the Catholic business group Legatus, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver analyzed the influence of the media upon American Catholics. The news media, he said, has the important role in our democracy of protecting truth and pursuing reason, but it is failing to deliver. "America’s news media have enormous opinion-shaping power," Chaput explained. "Therefore it’s vital for Catholics to understand how the media work, and especially how they work on us.""The media’s power to shape public thought is why it’s so...

GENEVA (AFP) – Ballooning US demand and the handgun's surge in popularity drove up the global trade in small arms by more than a quarter between 2000 and 2006, a UN-backed study showed Thursday. Those weapons in the hands of civilians, security forces or armed groups were behind the deaths of 450,000 people, said the authors of the Small Arms Survey 2009. Pistols, revolvers, rifles and heavy machine guns accounted for 60 percent of deaths through intentional violence of any kind, including the use of bombs, knives or bare hands, whether in conflicts or crime, the experts said. By 2006,...

In today's Washington Post, Bill Kristol asks tauntingly "[T]he mainstream media and the Republican establishment. … tend not only to dislike and disdain Palin, they also want to bury her chances now as a presidential possibility. What are they afraid of?" That's easy to answer: They -- we! -- are afraid that Palin's distinctive combination of sex appeal, self-pity, and cultural resentment has a following in today's GOP. We are afraid that it is not utterly inconceivable that she could win the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, and we are afraid that if she did so she would lead the...

To win back the White House, Republicans would do well to follow some common-sense guidelines. 1. No drama. We don’t care if the drama is self-inflicted (Mark Sanford) or follows the contender like a magnetic rain cloud (Sarah Palin). If you can’t control yourself, your family, your finances, and your own life, people won’t trust you with the party or the country. Maybe it isn’t fair to penalize those who are victims of a hostile media storm, but if between now and 2012 People magazine has more material on the candidate than the Economist, it really is time to exit....

Allies Sour on Effort as Obama Woos Industry Vice President Biden, with the American Hospital Association's Rich Umbdenstock, discusses a deal with hospitals on health-care reform. (By Ron Edmonds -- Associated Press) The Obama administration, hoping to boost its health-care reform effort with financial concessions from the hospital and pharmaceutical industries, is instead confronting deep dissension on several fronts within Democratic ranks and possible defections among key constituencies. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), lead House architect of the landmark health legislation, warned yesterday that he is not obligated to abide by deals struck recently by the White House, Senate Finance...

It's Sarah Palin's Party By R. A. Mansour Sarah Palin is the Jacksonian "outsider" now. The latest Rasmussen polling numbers were quite instructive. Palin's biggest group of supporters are young, unmarried, and not social conservative evangelicals. Her supporters do not view her as the social conservative candidate. Social conservatives prefer Huckabee as a candidate in 2012; however, they think just as highly of Sarah Palin as they do Huckabee. Sarah Palin's considerable base of supporters are attracted to her because she is the Beltway Outsider. She is the ordinary American who is fed up with the arrogant and incompetent Beltway...

Proft Surprised by Dillard’s Entrance into the [Illinois Governor's] Race as a Republican from Proft for Governor campaign July 8, 2009 In anticipation of State Senator Kirk Dillard’s announcement this morning of his candidacy for Governor, GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Proft issued the following statement: "I want to welcome Sen. Dillard to the race, though I admit to being a bit surprised he decided to run as a Republican. I want to make it clear from the outset, as a point of differentiation, that I will refuse any offer made by President Barack Obama to appear in Dan Proft...

California acted illegally by trying to cut Medi-Cal fees by 10 percent last year for doctors, pharmacists and others who treat 7.1 million poor people, a federal appeals court ruled today. The decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was a victory for health professionals and their patients but a blow to the state, which is mired in a $26.3 billion budget deficit. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislators have imposed further Medi-Cal reductions this year, which could be thwarted by the ruling. "The cuts that the governor is attempting will also be stopped," said...