Firing back at Glenn Beck's accusation that Barack Obama is a follower of liberation theology, Robert Gibbs asserted Thursday that the president is a mainstream Christian. Meanwhile, Beck's Mormon faith has also come under fire by some evangelical leaders.
Maybe people in glass houses should not...more
Is mainstream American persuaded by Glenn Beck's claim that Pres. Obama's Christianity is not to be trusted?
"If you pay attention only to politics, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the current debate about immigration in America is limited to how severely it should be restricted—whether we need only to seal the border or actually change the birthright citizenship clause in the Constitution.
But...more
Economists are making the case politicians are afraid to: Immigration is great for the U.S.
George Packer at the New Yorker doesn't mince words: "What President Obama called the end of the combat mission in Iraq is a meaningless milestone, constructed almost entirely out of thin air," Packer says, and notes that Obama's second Oval Office speech marked a rare moment of dishonesty....more
Has the combat mission in Iraq ended only on paper?
LONDON (Reuters) - God did not create the universe and the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book....more
The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday sued outspoken Arizona sheriff for refusing to cooperate with its investigation into allegations the sheriff discriminates against Hispanics in his program to crack down on illegal immigrants....more
Is the federal government unfairly targeting the sheriff for his criticism of the feds?
Somerset, Ky., apparently an upwardly mobile town, wants to rid its streets of undesirables like the homeless, and the disabled. During a recent council meeting, councilor Jim Mitchell said he doesn’t think homeless families should be allowed to walk along the city’s roadways....more
Is the American middle-class insecure about its social status?
"Almost 50 years ago, the Republican Party made a decision to embrace the backlash generated by civil rights among white Southerners.
Traditionally, they had been staunch Democrats, but they were also culturally conservative, and as Lyndon Johnson and the Democratic Party embraced civil rights once...more
Will this revisionist history of the Republican party ringtrue with the voters?
Church protestors in Kansas can continue trampling on the US flag when they protest at military funerals. Richard Kopf, a federal judge, overturned Nebraska’s ban on flag mutilation Thursday but it was unclear whether the ruling applied only to the church members or to everyone in Nebraska....more
Should church members be allowed to desecrate the American flag?
Two months to go for the November midterms, but we have our first TV commercial of the 2012 presidential campaign. The ad, paid for by a Chicago dentist named William DeJean, advocates for Hillary Clinton who says she has no intention of running for the White House. The ad campaign that concludes...more
Should Hillary Clinton challenge President Obama in 2012?
The U.S. military's effort in Afghanistan has been hampered by a poor understanding of individual tribes and local leaders, Gen. David A. Petraeus says. Unlike in Iraq, the U.S. has long lacked a detailed knowledge of the allegiances of various Afghan tribes, he says....more
Did the U.S. military make a mistake by failing to study tribal politics?
Republicans act as if Obama's inauguration ranks with Pearl Harbor and 9/11 as a national tragedy, Rep. Barney Frank said this week. He went on to lambast the GOP for thinking that the nation's problems began with Obama, and not under his predecessor, George W. Bush....more
Are Republicans criticizing Obama beyond reasonable limits?
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a panel examining the U.S. financial crisis that he had no options to prevent Lehman Brothers' failure in September 2008 even though he knew its downfall would be "catastrophic" to the financial system and economy....more
Is Bernanke trying to cover the Fed's tracks leading into the financial crisis?
The Tea Party has taken hold in the Grand Old Party, unseating lawmakers, capturing nominations for open seats and forcing Republicans to recalibrate both their campaign strategy and issues agenda. Out is talk of delivering federal dollars back home. In is talk of fiscal discipline....more
Will the Tea Party last beyond the recession years?
For the first time in nearly a decade, Republicans could face a leadership gender gap. The Senate GOP will be without women on its leadership team, though Republicans have declared 2010 as their “Year of the Woman.” With Sen. Lisa Murkowski conceding to Joe Miller in the Alaska...more
Some of the most senior Democrats in conservative districts are facing what could be their most difficult races. Even Democrats who voted against the health care and climate change bills are locked in tough races because they are being linked to Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi....more
Will Obama's touch prove toxic for candidates in this year's midterm elections?
Proposed by Secretary of Empty Treasury, 14 hours ago
The Obama administration is considering another round of emergency fixes to stimulate the economy before the November polls, according to people familiar with the situation. The ideas being considered include an extension of the research and development tax credit and new infrastructure spending...more
Does America need a second stimulus spending before November?
The Obama administration is working to help everybody vote, whether or not they are eligible (or even alive), which undermines the voting rights of legal American citizens, according to an editorial in the Washington Times. The Justice department has been pressuring Cuyahoga’s election board...more
Is the Department of Justice letting voter fraud to spread by allowing absentee ballot?
Obama and Democratic congressional leaders have been eager to extend the breaks for individuals who earn less than $200,000 annually and joint filers who make less than $250,000. But a small but growing number of moderate Democrats are balking at boosting taxes on the rich....more
Democrat or Republican, lawmakers care less about the deficit than about votes.
Bob Duncan, known on Reddit as Diefex, signed in on August 20 and asked the online community for reasons why he shouldn't kill himself. Some users wrote thoughtful posts on the joys of life. Others were less considerate. One comment, since deleted, read, "DO IT FAGGOT."...more
Online community Web sites must take responsibility to create mechanisms to handle suicide threats.
The same week Tim Pawlenty signed an executive order preventing Minnesota from accepting grant money available under the new health care law, the governor said he would accept $263 million in federal funding for state's Medicaid program....more
Pawlenty is trying to get the federal Medicaid grant, while still maintaining populist criticism of the feds.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) blamed coordinated opposition to Obama and the Democratic agenda in Congress for some of the electoral problems facing Democrats this fall. “A conscious decision was made by certain groups to destroy this presidency the minute it started,” Feingold told the...more
Are Republicans consciously trying to destroy the Obama presidency?
Newt Gingrich believes House Minority leader John Boehner is “exactly right” to demand that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers be fired. “While President Obama cannot be blamed for causing the recession, it was the actions of...more
Did Geithner and Summers extend the recession by their handling of the economy?
Polls find Americans think the Republicans would do a better job than Democrats handling seven of the nine key election issues. Republicans score higher on the issues of handling terrorism, immigration, federal spending, the economy, Afghanistan, jobs and corruption in government. While both parties...more
Would Republicans handle these issues better than Democrats?
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says George W. Bush was a “true idealist” who displayed “genuine integrity and political courage,” in his memoirs. “Right or wrong, it led to decisive leadership... he sincerely believed in spreading freedom and democracy,”...more
Former congressman and one-time presidential candidate Tom Tancredo talked about the Obama’s alleged war on Christmas in an interview with TPM. “I remember a little thing, like Ms. Obama saying she didn’t want any Christian artifacts in the White House during Christmas time,”...more
Is the FLOTUS more pro-Ramadan than pro-Christmas?
A worthwhile effort by curators of over 300 museum curators to use twitter as a Q/A site where people can ask them questions on art has now been taken over by Viagra salesmen and other spammers. If Twitter and other social sites don't find an effective way to battle these guys we'll be drowned by salespeople pushing virtual crap. Soon we'll be back to the rotary phones...
The Tea Party crowd seems convinced that Obama is either a Muslim, fringe Christian and/or a foreigner. Does this belief leech over to the mainstream? If yes, the media to blame for this madness.
A daily diet of these dumb women doing stupid or inane things is giving me a headache. I can't go to any site without reading a bits ofnews of these people. Enough already! Maybe we can send them off to some farm in Montana, sort of like a dude ranch where people who follow them can go vist and maybe even feed them...
Manila Police's Chief Superintendent, Rodolfo Magtibay, meanwhile told the enquiry he had "honestly believed" that his force's Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) team was sufficiently able to deal with the situation.
Unite is calling on RBS to come clean with staff and clarify the impact of the restructuring and end the uncertainty. Unite will hold RBS to account over any compulsory job losses that result
Last month, secret US documents released by the Wikileaks website showed US concern that Pakistan's intelligence agency was supporting the Taliban in its war in Afghanistan.
CapsLock is on.
