You would think that being one of the highest ranking members in the House of Representatives would ensure you of knowing all the documents of America's founding fathers backwards and forwards. Wrong!

John Boehner, the Republican from Ohio serving as Minority Leader of the House, went on a rant at a recent "Tea Party Rally" and stuck his foot in his mouth in a big way. Boehner stated he would read a passage from the Constitution and declared:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!"

Problem is, that passage is from the Declaration of Independence and not the Constitution. And on a partisan note, I think the pursuit of happiness would be a lot easier to achieve if we had universal health care.

Since January, first-time homebuyers have been getting tax credits of up to $8,000 as part of an economic stimulus package put into place earlier this year. That program, which left those who are not first-time home buyers out in the cold, was set to expire at the end of November 2009. On Wednesday, the Senate voted to extend and expand the tax credit to include many buyers who already own homes. Now it just needs to get through Congress, where a vote will take place Thursday.

Buyers owning their current homes at least five years will be eligible for tax credits up to $6,500. First-time homebuyers or those who haven't owned a home in the last three years would get up to $8,000. Both groups would have to sign a purchase agreement by April 30, 2010 and close by June 30, 2010 in order to be eligible.

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia), said, "This is probably the last extension."

Also included in the bill passed in the Senate is a plan to extend unemployment benefits for those without a job for more than a year, and a clause that would allow companies now losing money to recoup taxes paid on profits earned in the previous five years.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said:

A low-level staff made a monumental mistake which ultimately cost them their job: releasing a confidential House report prepared in July which indicated more than 30 lawmakers and several aides are under scrutiny in probles of defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling. Nearly half of the members of a House panel controlling Pentagon spending are now facing investigation by Congressional ethics investigator, reported the Washington post.

Two House ethics offies are investigationg whether Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, and six other lawmakers, funneled millions in federal funds to clients of a very influential lobbying firm in exchange for campaign contributions. The lobbying group in question - PMA Group - was founded by a formal Capitol Hill aide and is under criminal investigation by the Justice Department.

Members of the ethics committee, along with their staffs, had signed oaths not to disclose details of any past or present investigations. However, this 22-page report was released by a low-level staffer working from home via a file-sharing network. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cal.) said that the staff member was fired.

Lofgren also commented:

Former Congressman Louis Stokes, reminds residents of Cuyahoga County of this November 3rd, 2009 General election and the convenience of Voting by Mail. Remember it is important for everybody's voice to be heard. For more information call the Board of Elections at 216.443.3298 or visit them online at http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us Remember to vote this November!

It has been announced that Cleveland area Congressman Dennis Kucinich will be awarded the 37th annual Thomas Merton Award for work in social justice. He will be presented with the award on Sunday, November 1st at The Merton Center's annual banquet at the Churchill Valley Country Club.

Kucinich has a long history of promoting justice throughout his lengthy career in politics, spanning from his stint as Cleveland's mayor through his career in Congress and runs for the presidency in 2004 and 2008. He has bills for national health care, calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and strongly opposes the North American Free Trade Act.

In a big departure from the policies of the George W. Bush era, the Justice Department issued a new policy memo to prosecutors on Monday telling them that pot-smoking patients and their sanctioned suppliers should not be targeted for federal prosecution in states that permit medical marijuana. In the 3-page legal memo, federal prosecutors are told it is not a good use of their time to arrest those who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law.

The guidelines issued by the Justice Department, however, make it quite clear that federal agents can and will go after those who's marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law, and those who use medical marijuana as a cover for other crimes.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

"It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal."

Tell us something we didn't know. Rather than make peace with the conservative-minded network, Barack Obama's White House advisors declined to end their feud with Fox News, and instead decided to fuel the fire on the Sunday talk show circuit.

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told rival cable TV news channel CNN's "State of the Union" that Obama considers Fox News "not a news organization so much as it has a perspective." Compared with other news outlets, "that's a different take", Emanuel added.

Another Obama political advisor, David Axelrod, hit up ABC where he told "This Week" that Fox News "is really not news. It's pushing a point of view."

Last week, White House communications director Anita Dunn claimed:

"Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party."

Fox News, of course, reacted quite strongly to the White House accusations.

Fox News Senior Vice President Michael Clemente said in a statement:

"Surprisingly, the White House continues to declare war on a news organization instead of focusing on the critical issues that Americans are concerned about like jobs, health care and two wars."

According to the Washington Post, President Barack Obama is dispatching an additional 13,000 US troops to Afghanistan beyond the 21,000 announced back in March. The latest surge has not been announced by Obama, and the additional troops primarily consist of support forces including engineers, medical personnel, military police, and intelligence experts.

With the unannounced 13,000, that will bring the increase that Obama has approved to send to Afghanistan to 34,000. It comes at the same time Obama is considering a request from General Stanley McChrystal, a top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, for more combat, training and support troops. There are several options to weigh, including one for 40,000 additional forces.

An unnamed defense official told the paper, "Obama authorized the whole thing. The only thing you saw announced in a press release was the 21,000."

The paper did note, however, that the maximum number of US service members expected in the war-torn country by year's end - 68,000 - would remain the same.

President Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. Nobel observers were shocked by the unexpected choice, especially with it being so early in his presidency, which began just tow weeks before the February 1 nomination deadline.

According to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, Obama woke up to the news a little before 6:00am ET. The administration was taken by surprise with the announcement, and thus far has made no immediate comment on it.

When informed of the decision this morning, one aide queried: "It's not April 1, is it?"

Obama was not informed that he won the award prior to the announcement out of Oslo this morning. The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided not to inform him because they did not want to wake him up. Committee chairman Thorbjoer Jagland said: "Waking up a president in the middle of the night, this isn't really something you do."

The committee applauded the change in the global mood shaped by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation. However, they also recognized several Obama initiatives that have yet to bear any fruit, including easing American conflicts with Muslim nations, reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, and strengthening the U.S. role in fighting climate change.

Jagland added:

On Sept. 17, 2009, President Obama presented the Medal of Honor to the parents of Army Staff Sgt. Jared C. Monti for "conspicuous gallantry." Monti, 30, was serving with the 10th Mountain Division when he was killed in a battle at Gowardesh, Afghanistan.

This was the sixth occasion since Sept. 11, 2001, that the nation's highest award has been presented. Some believe, however, the number of recipients is too low. In the National Defense Authorization Act for 2010, the Department of Defense came under fire for setting decoration standards too high. Still, regardless of political pressure and changing definitions in popular media, the department has held fast to its own definition of the word "hero," which has stood the test of time.