Maneuvering on oil drilling, gas prices and industry profits intensified on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. House Republicans pushed through a bill to accelerate offshore oil and gas exploration as Democrats vowed action on measures to rescind billions of dollars in tax breaks for major oil and gas companies.

The drilling bill was approved 263 to 163, with 28 Democrats joining unanimous Republicans, after the majority swatted down several Democratic amendments. The bill would force the Interior Department to act within 60 days on all applications for offshore drilling permits. The House then turned to a second Republican-sponsored bill that would open much of the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic shorelines to new oil and gas exploration. A vote on that measure is expected Thursday.

The Obama administration vigorously opposed both measures, but stopped short of threatening to veto them - in part because it is highly unlikely they will win enough votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster.

Meanwhile, House and Senate Democrats continued their push to repeal a variety of tax breaks enjoyed by the oil industry, some of them a century old and others that apply to all companies, not just petroleum concerns.

The Senate version of the bill would peel back $21 billion in such tax incentives over the next decade and devote the savings to deficit reduction. The House version would yield $31 billion in savings over 10 years and use the money for alternative energy programs and deficit reduction. Both bills apply only to the biggest multinational oil companies: Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.

Poll after US killing of Osama bin Laden shows 60% of Americans say president deserves to be re-elected

Barack Obama's approval rating has hit its highest point in two years - 60% - with more than half of Americans saying he deserves to be re-elected, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll taken after US forces killed the al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden.

In concerning signs for Republicans, the president's standing improved not just on foreign policy but also on the economy, and independent Americans - a key voting bloc in the November 2012 presidential election - caused the overall rise in support by returning to Obama after moving away from him for much of the past two years.

Comfortable majorities of the public now describe Obama as a strong leader who will keep the US safe. Nearly three-quarters - 73% - say they are confident that he can effectively handle terrorist threats.

He also improved his standing on Afghanistan, Iraq and the US's relationships with other countries.

Despite a sluggish recovery from the recession, 52% of Americans approve of Obama's stewardship of the economy, giving him his best rating on that issue since the early days of his presidency.

Document obtained by Haaretz reveals that between 1967 and 1994 many Palestinians traveling abroad were stripped of residency status, allegedly without warning.

Israel has used a covert procedure to cancel the residency status of 140,000 West Bank Palestinians between 1967 and 1994, the legal advisor for the Judea and Samaria Justice Ministry's office admits, in a new document obtained by Haaretz. The document was written after the Center for the Defense of the Individual filed a request under the Freedom of Information Law.

The document states that the procedure was used on Palestinian residents of the West Bank who traveled abroad between 1967 and 1994. From the occupation of the West Bank until the signing of the Oslo Accords, Palestinians who wished to travel abroad via Jordan were ordered to leave their ID cards at the Allenby Bridge border crossing.

They exchanged their ID cards for a card allowing them to cross. The card was valid for three years and could be renewed three times, each time adding another year.

If a Palestinian did not return within six months of the card's expiration, thier documents would be sent to the regional census supervisor. Residents who failed to return on time were registered as NLRs - no longer residents. The document makes no mention of any warning or information that the Palestinians received about the process.

Now That's Chutzpah!

Is there anything more irritating than listening to US officials blabber about "human rights"?

Here's Hillary Clinton bashing China for their "deplorable" human rights record, and meanwhile Bradley Manning sits naked and freezing in a 6' by 8' cinderblock cell in some far-flung American gulag waiting to get fingernails yanked out.

And that's just for starters. What about Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and the myriad other dungeons, concentration camps and black sites the US has scattered across the planet. The United States is the biggest human rights abuser in the world today. Clinton's in no position to be giving other people lectures.

George Orwell, the pen name by which Eric Blair is known, had the gift of prophecy, or else blind luck. In 1949 in his novel, 1984, he described the Amerika of today and, I fear, also his native Great Britain, which is no longer great and follows Washington, licking the jackboot and submitting to Washington's hegemony over England and Europe and exhausting itself financially and morally in order to support Amerikan hegemony over the rest of the world.

In Orwell's prophecy, Big Brother's government rules over unquestioning people, incapable of independent thought, who are constantly spied upon. In 1949 there was no Internet, Facebook, twitter, GPS, etc. Big Brother's spying was done through cameras and microphones in public areas, as in England today, and through television equipped with surveillance devices in homes. As everyone thought what the government intended for them to think, it was easy to identify the few who had suspicions.

Fear and war were used to keep everyone in line, but not even Orwell anticipated Homeland Security feeling up the genitals of air travelers and shopping center customers. Every day in people's lives, there came over the TV the Two Minutes of Hate. An image of Emmanuel Goldstein, a propaganda creation of the Ministry of Truth, who is designated as Oceania's Number One Enemy, appeared on the screen. Goldstein was the non-existent "enemy of the state" whose non-existent organization, "The Brotherhood," was Oceania's terrorist enemy. The Goldstein Threat justified the "Homeland Security" that violated all known Rights of Englishmen and kept Oceania's subjects "safe."

Osama bin Laden's family is taking center stage in the fallout over his death.

Yesterday, the al Qaeda leader's sons denounced what they called their father's "arbitrary killing." Meanwhile, Pakistani officials believe one of bin Laden's sons--perhaps one known as "the Crown Prince of Terror"--may be missing after escaping from the U.S. raid.

In a statement, bin Laden's sons questioned why their father "was not arrested and tried in a court of law so that the truth is revealed to the people of the world." It is not known how many of bin Laden's numerous sons (there are believed to be as many as 17) endorsed the statement.

"We maintain that arbitrary killing is not a solution to political problems," the statement continued, adding that "justice must be seen to be done."

President Obama has rejected suggestions that the killing was improper, telling 60 Minutes that anyone who questioned whether bin Laden deserved his fate "needs to have their head examined."

There's a big surprise in Google's just-released quarterly SEC filing. In one short paragraph, the company discloses that it may soon be dealing with a $500 million fine due to a Department of Justice investigation.

The filing says almost nothing about what the investigation is about - just that it relates to "the use of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) advertising by certain advertisers." A Google spokesman said only: "As this is a legal matter, we're not going to comment on it."

Thousands of Palestinians who left the West Bank to work or study between 1967 and 1994 had residency rights revoked

Israel stripped thousands of Palestinians of their right to live in the West Bank over a 27-year period, forcing most of them into permanent exile abroad, a document obtained under freedom of information laws has disclosed.

Around 140,000 Palestinians who left to study or work had their residency rights revoked between 1967 and 1994.

Those leaving the West Bank across the Allenby bridge border crossing to Jordan were required to deposit their identity documents with Israeli officials. In return they were given a card, valid for three years, which could be extended three times for an additional year.

If they stayed abroad more than six months beyond the expiration of the card, Israel deemed them "NLRs" - no longer resident - and their right to return was revoked.

Over the course of the past year, you've most likely come across strange stories regarding the tragic fates of those connected with the BP oil disaster. When compiled, the stories are all together shocking and disturbing. Is it possible that the nine deaths and others affected who were involved in different areas of disaster knowledge are just random coincidences? Check into the details and decide for yourself.

Of the 12 high profile people in question, 9 are mysteriously dead, 1 nearly died in a brutal assassination attempt, 1 is imprisoned under questionable charges, and another has simply disappeared. You can watch a video tutorial of the cases while you read the segments. Below that, you can follow the links to all the cases.

Not all of the people listed are directly related to the disaster, however, they are high profile truth tellers with different areas of expertise. Statistically speaking, it is unlikely that this many experts and activists would suddenly wind up dead within a year of the disaster. It is suspected that those who were indirectly connected with the event, may have had more knowledge or pull than originally thought.

If you know of any others, or updates in the current cases, please send them, along with a source to tips@healthfreedoms.org.

The Polish Resistance fighter nervously crawled through the dank underground tunnel in desperate wartime Warsaw. But Jan Karski was not an escaper on his way to freedom. Quite the opposite.

When he emerged into the sunlight of a summer's day in August 1942, he was inside an unimaginable hell-hole - the walled-up Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland's capital.

He had crossed, he would recall with horror, from 'the world of the living to the world of the dead'.

The patrician young man - a devout Catholic and a high-flying diplomat before the war - had gone there of his own free will. He was smuggled inside to see the Warsaw Ghetto for himself, an eyewitness to the Holocaust long before that epithet was widely used or the full extent of Hitler's genocidal ambitions grasped.

What he saw that day would make him one of the first outside observers to witness Hitler's evil plan to exterminate the Jews in action.

His intention was to report his findings to a world that was sceptical of rumours that such a massive atrocity was really happening under its nose.

Sadly, not much notice was taken. When the brave and resourceful Karski escaped to the West and, drawing on his photographic memory, told his gruesome story in London and Washington, he was greeted with polite interest . . . but also disbelief.

There was none of the outrage he expected his account to stir up. His pleas that the Allies should take strong action - such as warning the German people that they would collectively be held responsible for the atrocities sanctioned by their leaders - were ignored.

Saving the Jews from genocide was not made an official Allied war aim. A moment in history when something just might have been done to halt or at least slow a massive crime against humanity came and went.