Top Dems: Obama Won't Get Health Care Bill in 2009 Catch a Clue Time: Obama on Oct. "I am absolutely confident that we are going to get health care done by the end of this year, and Nancy Pelosi is just as confident."
CUBA has announced that it has had to defer payments to its international suppliers due to the harsh global economic and financial reality compounded by the US-unilateral embargo. (Snip) He said due to the complex circumstances arising from the global crisis compounded by the harsh US-imposed commercial, financial and economic blockade, Cuba was unable to pay its debts.
ABC’s Jordyn Phelps and Sunlen Miller report: President Obama will not travel to Germany to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9. White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said today that President Obama’s schedule will not allow for a visit to Germany. “Obviously, we have a lot to work on here and we have commitments for an upcoming Asia trip,” Gibbs said.
Havana -- The habanero peppers, oranges and peanuts cost more at Cuba's free-market "agros" -- farmers markets where vendors, not the government, set prices. But food stalls overflow with abundance not seen elsewhere on the shortage-plagued island. So when the Communist Party served notice that it plans to impose price controls at those agros -- ending one of Cuba's few capitalist experiments -- angry shoppers fearing yet more shortages turned on state inspectors
A Honduran legislative committee voted not to convene a special session of Congress to consider returning the country's ousted leader, in a move likely to dash chances of Manuel Zelaya's returning to power even temporarily under a deal brokered last week by the U.S. On Tuesday, a committee of 13 legislators voted to not convene the special session, opting instead to wait until Congress receives nonbinding legal opinions
After months of ill-advised interference by the United States, two Honduran presidents are back on speaking terms. Interim leader Roberto Micheletti and the ousted Manuel Zelaya have reportedly reached an agreement that could return Zelaya to power as a lame duck for roughly one month, before a newly elected president takes office. President Obama may spin this as a U.S. victory, but in fact it's the culmination of the administration's mystifying diplomacy.
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama used the 30th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis to urge Tehran to make concessions over its nuclear program, saying it needs to turn the page on the past and forge a new relationship with the United States. "It is time for the Iranian government to decide whether it will make the choices that will open the door to greater opportunity, prosperity and justice for its people," Obama said
Rallies marking the 30th anniversary of the US Embassy takeover in Tehran have started in capital Tehran as well as other cities across the country. Tens of thousands of people from all walks of life and many political persuasions have staged a rally at the site of the former US embassy in Tehran, better known in Iranian history as the 'Den of Spies'.
The infamous cocaine baron is said to have lit a bonfire using wads of US dollars at a mountain hideout while he was being hunted by authorities. Sebastian Marroquin, who has changed his name from Juan Pablo Escobar, claimed his father burnt the notes when he realised his daughter Manuela was suffering from hypothermia.
SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. — Democrats won a special election in New York State’s northernmost Congressional district Tuesday, a setback for national conservatives who heavily promoted a third candidate in what became an intense debate over the direction of the Republican Party. The Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, led with 49 percent of the vote, while the Conservative Party candidate, Douglas L. Hoffman, had 46 percent.
Friend and foe alike have wondered how Barack Obama wangled a seat next to Edward Said (pronounced sigh-EED), at an Arab-American community dinner in Chicago in 1998 on the fiftieth anniversary of the Palestinian nakbah, or disaster. At the time, Obama was an obscure state senator and Said, according to the Nation, was 'probably the best-known intellectual in the world.'' (Snip) It is possible, too, that Said and Obama ran in the same radical New
Gay-marriage opponents are claiming victory in a closely watched referendum in Maine on a new state law that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed. The law in question was passed by the Legislature in May but never took effect because of a petition drive by conservatives. With more than 84 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday, the side seeking to repeal the law had 53 percent of the vote.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that the ''Obama administration, leading Senate Democrats and a coalition of news organizations have reached tentative agreement on legislation providing greater protections against the fining or imprisonment of reporters who refuse to identify confidential sources.'' The 'Free Flow of Information Act'' would allow federal courts the power to stifle subpoenas for information from reporters or privileged "covered" persons if the judge determines the public interest is better served
Here is one of the loudest messages of the 2009 off-off-year elections: Conservatives in America will no longer let their opponents define them as outside of the mainstream. They will not submit to Democrats. Or to the media. Or to Beltway Republican capitulationists. They will not ''rebrand.'' They will not sit down. They will not shut up. (Snip) New York Times columnist Frank Rich decried the right's ''Jacobins'' and ''Stalinists'' who he said joined a
I made The New York Times last week. It even ran my picture. My mother would be proud. Unfortunately, the story was critical. It said, ''Critics have leaped on Mr. Stossel's speaking engagements as the latest evidence of conservative bias on the part of Fox.' Which ''critics'' had ''leaped''? The reporter mentioned Rachel Maddow. (Snip) In August, AFP hired me to do the very same thing. I give the money to charity. The Times didn't
President Obama says he is a fan of the free market. Back in September, Obama spoke to Wall Street. He stated, ''I have always been a strong believer in the power of the free market.'' (Snip) To paraphrase Spanish dueler Inigo Montoya from ''The Princess Bride'': President Obama, you keep using the phrase ''free markets.'' I do not think it means what you think it means.Here is how the free market works: open competition among
Down-ballot Republicans, riding a sweep at the top of the Virginia ticket, maintained their majority in the Virginia House of Delegates, and appeared poised to widen that margin. The GOP managed to stanch a recent Democratic tide in the state legislature. Democrats had gained 11 seats in the past three elections, leaving Republicans with a six-seat working majority after holding 64 seats in 2001.
Democrat Bill Owens is up by just 2,500 votes or about 2%, and there are still about 11,000 absentee ballots that have to be counted. They won't start counting those until the morning, our Elections Unit tells us. So, we're calling it a night. See you in the morning.
An analysis of more than 1,000 California patients hospitalized with H1N1 flu during the first four months of the pandemic found that infants were most likely to be admitted, and patients 50 and older were most likely to die once admitted. In the first four months of the pandemic, H1N1, like the seasonal flu, was especially severe in older people, who are more likely to have underlying health conditions
Sacramento - The radio ads have aired daily across the state since she declared her bid for governor in September. ''I'm Meg Whitman,'' one begins, ''and I want to talk to you about California. . . .'' The costly airtime -- with the primary election still seven months away -- is just one way the former eBay chief is spending the $19 million of her personal fortune that she has plowed into the race.
Washington - Republicans today boycotted the start of a Senate hearing on climate-change legislation. The Republican members of the Environment and Public Works Committee are demanding a full Environmental Protection Agency analysis of the climate bill. But despite the boycott, committee Chairwoman Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) still held the meeting, arguing that the EPA's partial analysis, based on a similar bill passed by the House of Representatives in June, was sufficient.
Harvey, La. - Mindful that the suburban West Bank of New Orleans has regained its pre-Hurricane Katrina population and is primed for growth, the Army Corps of Engineers is launching a $1 billion effort to keep the next storm at bay. The new flood protection is already having a potentially dangerous consequence, though: It's encouraging more people to move into another bowl-shaped area that experts consider perhaps the city's most vulnerable flank.
To appreciate the extent to which the Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama is a regulator reborn, consider this: EPA officials have begun to cut air pollution by invoking the Clean Water Act. Long quiescent under President George W. Bush, the agency is churning out initiatives and regulations at a pace that pleases its friends in the environmental movement and frightens many in the business community.
In the last few years, Jeff Dunham has become something akin to a rock star. The 47-year-old entertainer routinely sells out concert halls and arenas at home and abroad, travels in a decked-out touring bus and just launched a new weekly cable television show. He can thank a bunch of dummies with names including Bubba J, Walter and Achmed the Dead Terrorist for his astonishing success.
Conservatives, energized by their role in shaping Tuesday's New York congressional election, have set Florida in their sights as the big battleground for 2010. That state's Republican Senate primary in August is emerging as a focal point in the wider debate over the future course of the Republican Party. Gov. Charlie Crist, who is supported by party leaders in Washington, backed President Barack Obama's stimulus package and has expressed openness to cap-and-trade legislation to curb
A Microsoft security report released on Monday warns that cyber crooks are digging into computers for weak spots to penetrate with worms - malicious software that steals control or data. Rogue security software remained the top hacker threat to computers during the first half of this year, but the number of infections was dropping while penetrations by worms doubled
