HILLARY

“[T]he better description of Clintonism is slipperiness. Adaptability. Cynicism, if you like... [Hillary] has no principles. Her liberalism is redeemed by her ambition; her ideology subordinate to her political needs.”

—Charles Krauthammer

BOOK EXAMINES THE CLINTON'S LOVE -- FOR POWER

Excerpt: ‘For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton’
TODAYshow.com
MSNBC.COM

Sally Bedell Smith studied Bill and Hillary’s marriage, shared desire

Author Sally Bedell Smith talks to TODAY’s Ann Curry about Bill and Hillary’s marriage and their fascination with power.

They say politics makes strange bedfellows, and for Bill and Hillary Clinton that could not be more true. In Sally Bedell Smith's new book, “For Love of Politics: Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years,” she examines the Clinton marriage, revealing that their unique relationship is held together by a love of political power. Here's an excerpt:

From Chapter One
TIME: “John Kennedy said that after he was elected, he began to think in terms of who it was he had to have in the room when he made the really big decisions. For him, that was Robert Kennedy. Who is it for you?”
BILL CLINTON: “Hillary.”

With that simple one-word reply in December 1992, Bill Clinton adumbrated the complications that would bedevil his presidency. CONTINUE READING....

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What IS IT with the Clinton-China connection?

Campaign donations for Mrs. Bill Clinton was given one large boost earlier this year from New York's Chinatown according to the Los Angeles Times.

Back in April, $380,000 was raked in, and this is for one event. Contrast that to John Kerry who raised $24,000 for the entire 2004 campaign. Not bad, eh?

The Times tries to spin it as the "saga of marginalized ethnic groups and newly arrived immigrants turning to politics to improve their lot."

Despite the fact that, "census figures for 2000 show the median family income for the area was less than $21,000, and that "about 45% of the population was living below the poverty line, more than double the city average," according to the Times, they were ever so perceptive, noting that "dishwashers, waiters and others whose jobs and dilapidated home addresses seem to make them unpromising targets for political fundraisers are pouring $1,000 and $2,000 contributions into Clinton's campaign treasury."

Some more interesting details on these big donors:

Of 74 residents of New York's Chinatown, Flushing, the Bronx or Brooklyn that The Times called or visited, only 24 could be reached for comment. . . .

The tenement at 44 Henry St. was listed in Clinton's campaign reports as the home of Shu Fang Li, who reportedly gave $1,000.

In a recent visit, a man, apparently drunk, was asleep near the entrance to the neighboring beauty parlor, the Nice Hair Salon.

A tenant living in the apartment listed as Li's address said through a translator that she had not heard of him, although she had lived there for the last 10 years.

A man named Liang Zheng was listed as having contributed $1,000. The address given was a large apartment building on East 194th Street in the Bronx, but no one by that name could be located there.

In the busy heart of East Broadway, beneath the Manhattan Bridge, is a building that is listed as the home of Sang Cheung Lee, also reported to have given $1,000. Trash was piled in the dimly lighted entrance hall. Neighbors said they knew of no one with Lee's name there; they knocked on one another's doors in a futile effort to find him.

Salespeople at a store on Canal Street were similarly baffled when asked about Shih Kan Chang, listed as working there and having given $1,000. The store sells purses, jewelry and novelty Buddha statues. Employees said they had not heard of Chang.

Another listed donor, Yi Min Liu, said he did not make the $1,000 contribution in April that was reported in his name. He said he attended a banquet for Clinton but did not give her money.

BUMPED UP AND UPDATED:

Clinton's Black-Box Candidacy
(Investor's Business Daily)
via CNN Money.com

"Election 2008: An ambitious presidential front-runner. A hot scramble for campaign cash. A corner-cutting past. And now red lights are flashing that she could be in hock to foreign interests. This is going downhill fast.

How else does one explain the cash rolling in to Hillary Clinton's campaign from residents of Manhattan's impoverished Chinatown?

Clinton's campaign is so full of questionable transactions that even the Nation, a left-wing magazine, has dug up a mysterious influence peddler named Alan Quasha who hires Clinton operatives and has links to top Clinton's top fundraisers.

Meanwhile, the online magazine Salon is wondering why the Clintons are not disclosing the identities of donors to the William J. Clinton Foundation as it increases its cash intake just as Hillary becomes the presidential front-runner. Bill Clinton refuses to release their names because he says they gave anonymously. Could they too be foreign and looking to buy influence?

For the mainstream media, and especially those on the left side of the spectrum, to rouse themselves to such reporting is unusual. It points to something very dramatic, like a threat to democracy.

Sen. Clinton knows that enforcing election laws is difficult. When she gets called out, she returns the cash, pleads ignorance, claims a vetting glitch and returns to normal.

Unfortunately, the odds of getting caught are low, the political costs are slight and the sanctions are so light they invite lawbreaking. Most candidates won't go over the line, but a bounder like Hillary may cynically calculate that voters are easily distracted.

But things aren't the same as they were in the days of Whitewater. That Clinton scandal may have been hard for the public to grasp, but the current shenanigans are not. News outlets are picking them up with ease and can describe them in a couple of sentences.

Also, the advent (NYSE:AGC) of FEC databases and political cash Web sites such as campaignmoney.com and opensecrets.com are providing transparency and easy access to financing information. They show who is buying whom in the electoral races, and bloggers and pundits are on it. If Hillary thinks this will dissipate like Whitewater, she is mistaken.

Voters must pay attention to this because for the first time in our history, we could be electing a Manchurian candidate -- someone who is loyal to foreign and unseen donors rather than voters.

What do these hidden interests want in exchange for marshaling the dishwashers of Chinatown to contribute to Clinton's campaign coffers? What has she promised them in exchange?

Knowing that the Chinese seek greater access to U.S. technology, how will this serve their national interests over our own? Will voters find themselves in the situation of watching a President Hillary Clinton sit on her hands after an American aircraft is shot down because of what someone in Beijing knows about cash she accepted?

For now, Sen. Clinton needs to start answering questions about the mysterious patterns in her campaign donations. Better yet, the electoral system needs to be strengthened with far tougher laws and penalties so that this doesn't endanger our democracy."

A NEW PAIR OF PANTS

“If Sen. Hillary Clinton is to chart her own course independent of her husband, why did she choose Sandy Berger to give her advice on foreign policy? This suggests reunion time for cronies. In 2003, Mr. Berger took several highly classified documents about the Clinton-era Millennium terror plot from the National Archives while ‘aiding’ the September 11 commission. Mr. Berger successfully negotiated a plea bargain and received only two years probation, along with a security-clearance suspension and a $50,000 fine. Were he anything less than a member of the permanent Clinton establishment, he would be in sitting in a prison cell, with few prospects. But no sooner was his probation time over—it ended last month—than Mrs. Clinton put him back in the game, presumably with a new pair of pants big enough to accommodate purloined documents. This issue is a larger subset of the looming ‘first laddy’ question. In a Hillary Clinton administration, first husband Bill Clinton would inevitably loom large. The Berger news suggests that his old friends and cronies would, too... This could of course be merely a symbolic appointment, with no future for [Berger] at the National Security Council or anywhere else in government. The episode reeks nonetheless... Mrs. Clinton is of course free to fill her foreign-policy ranks with such people, and she is free to open herself to charges of cronyism. She is free to dismiss the fact that Sandy Berger violated the government’s most stringent security rules. But she can’t escape responsibility for it. If the Clintons spend whatever capital they have to help old friends find work, they tell us loud and clear what we’re dealing with.”

—The Washington Times

SOME QUESTIONS HAVE NO ANSWERS

“Why is it that liberals seem to believe that recycling cans is an important issue, but defeating terrorism isn’t? Why do they put so much stock in the blathering of Al Gore and Michael Moore?... What is wrong with these people?”—Burt Prelutsky

“Meanwhile, Gore is now being urged to jump into the presidential race and save Democrats from the allegedly too-hawkish Hillary Clinton. I doubt he will. But you’ll know he’s considering it if he starts slimming down faster than the Antarctic shelf. When Al Gore starts getting carb-neutral, we’re really in trouble.”

—Mark Steyn

“I mean, if we do Hillary-care and socialized medicine in this country, where are the Canadians going to go for health care?”—Rudy Giuliani

Do NASCAR fans have cooties?

High-minded liberals think so little of Southerners that the Demo head of the Homeland Security Committee ordered aides to get immunized before attending a series of NASCAR events in North Carolina and Alabama. There is no evidence to suggest an outbreak or even a higher-than-average number of cases of the flu, hepatitis, diphtheria or tetanus in the South, but elitist Demos acted purely on their prejudices just the same. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) properly noted, “If anything, it’s the NASCAR fans who should get immunized against Washington officials, not the other way around.” Then again, NASCAR fans are probably smart enough to stay away from DC anyway.

--The Patriot Post

“It is hard to say which of Al Gore’s awards seems more improbable: his Academy Award, although he does not possess a single skill required for filmmaking, or his Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming, although he has no technical skills in that area and he has misled the world profoundly as to the danger. It just goes to show how good life can be once you officially are designated a victim of George W. Bush.”

—Tony Blankley

“A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

-- John Adams --

Emmett Tyrrell:
Seven Things To Know About the Clintons

A recent report moves me to list seven issues every American should know about the Clintons before 2008. Journalists should be particularly interested, as well as Democrats intent on avoiding a repeat of the Clinton 1990s.

David Limbaugh:
The Liberal Compassion Mirage

Two recent news items remind us of the disconnect between the Democrats' claimed monopoly on compassion and the effects of their policies.

Michael Medved:
Corporate power blesses, not oppresses, the American people

Why should so many Americans resent and distrust the very institutions that make possible our productivity, pleasure and opportunities?

Congressman Thomas Price:
Fighting to Defend the First Amendment

Two precious rights "free speech and a free press" face a serious threat today in Washington as Congressional Democrats have expressed their desire for a return of the archaic "Fairness Doctrine."

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann:
Huckabee is the right-wing's last survivor

Peel them away and, underneath, you have Mike Huckabee, the last survivor in the elimination tournament of the Christian right. And they could do a whole lot worse!

Victor Davis Hanson:
Congress' New Role: Undermining U.S. Foreign Policy

Recently, hundreds in Congress have decided that they're better suited to handle international affairs than the State Department.

A Choice for Taxpayers

By Robert Novak

Back on their heels in a defensive posture all year while majority Democrats in Congress offered liberal initiatives, reform-minded conservative Republicans this week introduce the most sweeping tax plan since Jack Kemp's three decades ago. It would establish a radically simplified, flatter tax for an estimated 90 percent to 95 percent of all income tax filers.

Those taxpayers presumably would accept this offer: give up all your current deductions, and your annual earnings up to $100,000 would be taxed at 10 percent, with a 25 percent rate on everything above that. But that is not all. The bill would repeal the hated Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), giving up $840 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. Government would have to get leaner. More.

Joint Chiefs: We Can Strike Iran

The new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that despite the commitment of U.S. forces elsewhere, the military is capable of conducting operations against Iran if called on to bomb nuclear facilities and other targets. Read the Full Story

No inconsistencies here......

In San Francisco the Associated Press reports, "city health officials took steps Thursday toward opening the nation's first legal safe-injection room, where addicts could shoot up heroin, cocaine and other drugs under the supervision of nurses."

Meanwhile in Portland, Maine, the AP reports that "school officials on Thursday defended a decision to allow children as young as 11 to obtain birth-control pills at a middle-school health center."

In both San Francisco and Portland, however, smoking in bars is strictly prohibited. It's bad for your health, after all.

-- James Taranto, Best of the Web, Opinion Journal

AN OLD MEME: MAKING AMERICA THE BOOGEYMAN

"Every move the Putin administration makes today is dictated by the desire to shape Russia's future internal power structure and to set the course for the country's foreign and security affairs in general, and its relationship with the United States in particular for years to come.

Keeping the relationship with Washington on the verge of a crisis and inventing an imaginary "American enemy" is creating much needed legitimacy for the current Russian leadership, which now has only Mr. Putin's personal popularity as its political base.

The image of Russia surrounded by enemies is absolutely necessary for today's Russian ruling class of senior secret police officers, as it positions them in the eyes of the people as the saviors and defenders of Mother Russia.

Russia is being Re-Sovietized."

-- Ariel Cohen

Cultural Morass

"One of the more depressing aspects of our current cultural morass is the overwhelming dominance of the Marxist Moonbat Left on our college campuses.

The massive support and sympathy for Islamofascism and what I call Fabian Sharia-ism (constant demands for special consideration for Moslems in accordance with their phony "Sharia" Islamic "law") is seen at universities everywhere.

That's why what's happening at the University of Toronto is interesting. Canada for the most apart is even more wimp-out appeasing to Moslem demands than the US. So it's not surprising that the popular campus restaurant, Bluff's, caved to the Moslem Student Association (MSA) and changed its menu for all chicken and beef dishes to be certified "halal," the Moslem equivalent of kosher.

That of course wasn't good enough for the Moslems, who see, just like the Communists, any offer of accommodation as weakness, thus an invitation to make further demands. They claimed Bluff's changing its menu according to their wishes was actually "offensive" to them, for Bluff's continued to serve them food in an "unsuitable" environment. That is, Bluff's continues to serve beer and play dance music."

-- Dr. Jack Wheeler

(Emphasis added. -- HH)

2008: What's in store?

"Americans are by and large in a sour mood. The only hope for Republicans in 2008, it seems, is that voters will be more soured on Democrats than Republicans for House and Senate seats, and be more turned off by Hillary than whomever the GOP offers up.

It's a slender reed of hope on which to bet the future of America. For if the Dems sweep the White House and Congress, every Republican Bush-hater will soon long for the yesterday of GW. A Socialist-Fascist America run by a criminal political mafia and enforced by hundreds of hyper-liberal judges.

Yet fear of this, fear of Hillary - FOH - will not be sufficient to prevent this. What the voters have to be offered is something so exciting, so electrifying, so positive yet well-grounded, well-thought-out and researched so it is actually achievable, that it sweeps away the sourness.

This is what happened in 1994. The electorate was in this same crummy mood, and the GOP came up with the Contract With America. The CWA was an exciting positive vision that was real and achievable. Voters responded by ending the Democrat Party's monopoly control of 64 years (with two irrelevant interruptions) over the House.

What Republicans need is the CWA's equivalent for 2008."

-- Dr. Jack Wheeler

GOP Slams Hillary for Hypocrisy

The skewering has begun.

In a fundraising e-mail from the Republican National Committee, RNC Chairman Robert M. Duncan writes:

“What is most remarkable about this is that Hillary has spent this year fighting Republican efforts to give our intelligence services the ability to monitor terrorist calls coming into or out of the United States.

“In other words, the Clinton attack machine is apparently fine with listening in on phone calls if it bolsters her political ambitions – but Hillary doesn’t want to give America’s intelligence services the ability to conduct surveillance on terrorists plotting to attack our nation.”

Full article.

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A FUN THING TO TRY: RIGHT BRAIN VS. LEFT BRAIN

THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

"If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it."

I see the dancer going clockwise; so, I guess I am not "like most." Mrs. HH would most likely attest to that. ;0)

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking

Take the test here.

Kids Taken While Mom Is Away On Military Mission

(WCCO) "The United States government is working with a Minnesota couple who are worried they may never see their grandkids again after Italian police took them away and accused their mom of abandoning them.

Bob and Marcia Benson, from White Bear Lake, Minn. said their daughter, Kris Wylie, is a staff sergeant in the Air Force.

Wylie and her two little girls moved to Italy three years ago when she started work at a military base in Aviano, Italy.

While away on a recent Air Force mission in Bulgaria, Wylie said she left her children with her fiancée. However, officers came into the house that she shares with her Italian fiancée, and took the girls.

"Grandma and grandpa are in a really bad spot here with two little kids they love dearly," said Bob Benson, Wylie's Father.

Wylie told her parents she's been charged with abandoning her daughters: Lilly, 5, and Lora, 7.

The two girls remain in custody of Italian police.

"Are they in good hands? Are they being taken care of? Are they going to be shipped off somewhere else and we'll never see them again?" said Bob.

The girls and their mother are all United States citizens.

Senator Norm Coleman's office is investigating the case, as is the State Department. Officials at the Aviano Air Force base said they're also trying to defend this native Minnesotan.

"It's bad enough having them in Italy where we can't see them very often, but then to have this happen, where you're totally helpless in the situation," said Bob.

Now the Minnesota grandparents, and their daughter, are worried that they'll never see Lora and Lilly again.

"You have to understand that the most important things in life are not things. It's who you have," said Bob, while crying.

Kris Wylie will soon go to court to try and prove she did not abandon her children."

‘Journalists’ Explain Why Good News from Iraq Shouldn’t Get Reported

Not only is bad news - news, but bad new is good news. Good news (damn it) is bad news. Or, good news is no news. But most certainly, no news is not good news.

On a recent episode of Sunday's "Reliable Sources," CNN's Howard Kurtz pointed out that very few media outlets had an interest in citing the good news out of Iraq regarding September's sharp decline in casualties.

Kurtz had on the program as guests - Robin Wright (Washington Post) and Barbara Starr (CNN). Both of these "news" reporters had no problem with the drive by media burying the good news not coming out of Iraq.

Kurtz: "Robin Wright, should that decline in Iraq casualties have gotten more media attention?"

Wright: "Not necessarily. The fact is we're at the beginning of a trend -- and it's not even sure that it is a trend yet. There is also an enormous dispute over how to count the numbers. There are different kinds of deaths in Iraq.

There are combat deaths. There are sectarian deaths. And there are the deaths of criminal -- from criminal acts. There are also a lot of numbers that the U.S. frankly is not counting. For example, in southern Iraq, there is Shiite upon Shiite violence, which is not sectarian in the Shiite versus Sunni. And the U.S. also doesn't have much of a capability in the south.

So the numbers themselves are tricky." (Emphasis added - HH)

Soooo..... if the numbers are larger, it's easier to count the deaths and confirm their accuracy, buuuutt.... when the numbers are smaller, they are harder to count and confirm their accuracy ... because.... well, they're ..... tricky.

KURTZ: But let's say that the figures had shown that casualties were going up for U.S. soldiers and going up for Iraqi civilians. I think that would have made some front pages

STARR: Oh, I think inevitably it would have. I mean, that's certainly -- that, by any definition, is news."

And then more recently we have Charlie Gibson on ABC's World News Tonight saying:

"One item from Baghdad today. The news is... that there is no news. The police told us that, to their knowledge, there were no major acts of violence. Attacks are down in Baghdad and today no bombings or roadside explosions were reported."

Proving, finally, that no news is, when all is said and done, and by definition... no news.

No wonder one has to go to journalism school to become a journalist. This is all so confusing.

USA Today:
Most fake bombs missed by screeners
75% not detected at LAX; 60% at O'Hare

Washington Times:
Mexican With TB Crossed Border Multiple Times

Las Vegas SUN: Feds Recommend Closing Saudi School in Va.

McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A private Islamic school supported by the Saudi government should be shut down until the U.S. government can ensure the school is not fostering radical Islam, a federal panel recommends.

In a report released Thursday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom broadly criticized what it calls a lack of religious freedom in Saudi society and promotion of religious extremism at Saudi schools.

Particular criticism is leveled at the.............

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Dozens of Coal Plant Proposals Scrapped Due to Global Warming Concerns
Fox News/AP

Map of Israel Shown in Palestinian Colors
At a time when Israel and the Palestinians are discussing their respective visions for the creation of a Palestinian state, the official Palestinian Authority television station has broadcast images of an Israeli map draped with a Palestinian flag..

TCS Daily - Gore's Next Act

Mr. Gore asserts climate change is a moral and spiritual issue. In order to make responsible decisions on these dimensions, Mr.
Gore's next mission should be to focus on the tradeoffs his policy choices necessarily imply.

I suggest when flying to Stockholm, he prepare by reading an important book by the late Reverend Paul Heyne. Paul was an unusual economist, an ordained Lutheran minister with a Ph.D. in ethics and social thought from the University of Chicago. He spoke at several FREE programs on environmental policy and we use selections from his book, The Economic Way of Thinking, in FREE's conferences.

Paul explained that all policy questions require choosing among competing values. Good intentions alone will not suffice. Global warming is no
exception. Does climate change demand drastic and dramatic action now? If so, at what cost? For example, will we accept a $6.00 per gallon tax on gas? Such questions are also the message of another book Mr. Gore might consider, Bjorn Lomborg's Cool It.

Read more.

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The Freedom to Spend Your Own Money on Medical Care: A Common Casualty of Universal Coverage

Most people would agree that a patient should always be able to spend his own money on the health care services he desires. Yet that freedom is often threatened or denied when government tries to provide universal health insurance coverage, as in the U.S. Medicare program, which provides health insurance to seniors and people with disabilities. Over the past 20 years, the Medicare bureaucracy—and to a lesser extent Congress itself—has limited the freedom of Medicare beneficiaries to purchase medical services with their own money. Those limitations violate beneficiaries' right to privacy, undermine a tool that could reduce the burden Medicare imposes on taxpayers, and may deny care to Medicare beneficiaries outright, or deny them access to the highest quality care available.

Ironically, as the U.S. government has restricted the ability of patients to spend their own money on medical care, Canada's socialized health care system is moving in the opposite direction. In a landmark case handed down in 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the province of Quebec could not prohibit its citizens from purchasing covered services through private health insurance. That ruling recognized that imposing limits on a patient's freedom to spend his own money can result in his being denied crucial and even life-saving medical services.

This threat to patients' rights would grow under many proposals to have the federal or state governments provide universal coverage. Congress and the state legislatures should avoid universal coverage schemes that would undermine this fundamental human right, or tempt future legislatures and bureaucrats to do so. Instead, Congress should restore to American seniors the unfettered right to spend their own money on medical care.

Full article at Cato Institute.

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Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference.

Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D- Cal) Smears Troops

John Stossel Exposes Global Warming Myths

Stossel said it’s “nonsense” for Gore to suggest that we can stop global warming by doing things like changing light bulbs and driving less.

“The only practical thing we can do today that would make a difference in CO2 output is to launch a major shift toward nuclear energy. But the environmental movement rarely utters the word nuclear.

“I suspect that next year's government boondoggle will be massive spending on carbon-reducing technology.

Read more.

You know. I don't doubt that one bit. Should that happen, it would be interesting to "follow the money" and see how many pols have a financial investment in this new "cottage industry."

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Brownback May Drop Out of Race Tomorrow

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Giuliani Snares Support of Jeb Bush Jr.

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Murdoch: Nice to Kill NY Times

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Hillary Ensnared in Bloggergate

Call it "Bloggergate" — the subversion of the blogosphere by Democrat money.

To be more precise, Bloggergate is the subsidizing of left-wing bloggers with illegal Democrat campaign contributions, laundered through ostensibly “non-partisan” non-profit groups.

At a convention of left-wing bloggers last summer, Hillary Clinton announced, “We are . . . putting together a network in the blogosphere.”

Her remarks became public only three weeks ago, on Oct. 2, when an anonymous person posted a shaky, hand-held videotape of her speech on YouTube. In it, Hillary bragged that she had helped create “institutions” which had produced a left-wing “network in the blogosphere” capable of “matching” the alleged “advantage of the other side.”

Hillary’s claim raises troubling questions. On a practical level, just how exactly does a U.S. senator go about exerting her power to stack the blogosphere in her favor?

One obvious method is to buy favorable coverage. Hillary's boast carries a strong implication that she has subsidized bloggers.

The first evidence of Bloggergate emerged in January 2005 when the two most prominent left-wing bloggers on the Internet — Jerome “The Blogfather” Armstrong of MyDD and DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuñiga — both admitted to getting cash from Howard Dean's presidential campaign.

The scandal heated up in October 2006, when ...... Read on.

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The World Bank responds on Cambodian corruption.

By BY MARWAN MUASHER
Opinion Journal

Gen. Sanchez indicted everyone involved in Iraq, including the media and Congress.

By DANIEL HENNINGER
Opinion Journal

EDITORIAL

World Bank runaround: A case study in downplaying corruption.

"If there is a form of government, then, whose principle and foundation is virtue, will not every sober man acknowledge it better calculated to promote the general happiness than any other form?"

-- John Adams --

Global Warming: The Conservatives' Opportunity

Cal Thomas wrote a column entitled, "Global Warming: The Conservatives' Opportunity.

His column brings to mind several things. Conservatives have nothing to be defensive or apologetic about when it comes to conservation. If we can just be intellectually honest here on this matter, we should all realize that neither conservatives, nor liberals, want to destroy the earth. No one wants to drink dirty water or breathe polluted air. And, we certainly do not want our children or grandchildren to be forced to either.

The U.S citizen from fly over country - the ones that are often looked on as hicks, are often portrayed as conservatives with big spaces between their front teeth (if they have any at all) and with a gun rack in their pickup, the ones who like to hunt - are just as much, if not more, appreciative of good ol' mother earth and want to preserve it as much as anyone else.

It has been recently pointed out to me, by a reader and someone who has in the past contributed some opinion pieces to this blog, that the latest edition of Scientific American contained an article on environmentalism headlined 'Saving Nature that Works for People' which reflected his view that we should be saving the environment for mankind rather than from mankind. Apparently, the Scientific American article makes the same point; and that is to say, we shouldn't be concerned with saving bio-diversity for its own sake but for ours. (HH)

Cal Thomas writes:

This is a two-part column. Part one is what you might expect from a politically conservative person who believes “global warming” is a secular religion and that Al Gore deserved the Nobel Peace Prize as much as Yasser Arafat, Le Duc Tho and a myriad of other low-wattage lights, which is to say not at all. The second part may surprise my liberal friends.

The Church of Global Warming (CGW) is a cult. A cult has a number of definitions, among them this one from dictionary.com: “A religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.” Cults wish to control others. Global warming fundamentalists wish to do the same through the power of government.

CGW members would reject cult status — which all cult members do — and Al Gore has never been accused of displaying charisma. But the CGW confers charismatic status on him because he tells them what they want to hear: salvation is available through the reduction of one’s carbon footprint. Gore regularly violates his own doctrines by flying on big polluting jets, leaving tracks the size of Bigfoot.

Cultists never allow contrary evidence to challenge their beliefs. Last week, a British judge found.....

Read more from Cal Thomas.

I am going to re-post the opinion piece that was contributed by Anotmo and posted here on January 17, 2006

Environmentalism
By Anotmo

1/17/06 original post date

"It has always seemed curious to me that environmentalism is perceived to be so exclusively a concern of the left. After all, some significant portion of environmentalism is ‘conservation’ and one would think that would be of concern to ‘conservatives’. (By the way, why are leftist environmentalist never accused of wanting to ‘turn back the clock?) In fact, environmentalism is of concern to conservatives, but conservatives are not so vocal and obnoxiously self-aggrandizing about it. Also, as is so often the case, conservatives take a slightly different view on the matter that puts them at odds, not so much with the goals that the left presumes to champion, as they so habitually and self-righteously charge, but with the methods by which they propose to advance those goals.

The left, true to form, sees people as the villainous cause of the problem and the environment as the righteous victim. Therefore, to them, (1.) environmentalism means isolating the environment from any and all effects of mankind, (see “pristine” in the dictionary), and (2.) any action they may propose need not consider any ill effects on or cost to people. Indeed, any such ill effects and costs serves people right for being such malicious little despoilers of nature in the first place. Kind of a secular leftist version of ‘original sin’.

The right acknowledges that people can and do alter the environment but so do all species and so do naturally occurring events. More importantly, the right sees people as the victims of an unhealthy environment, not the other way around. Therefore, to them, (1.) environmentalism means maintaining a healthy environment for the benefit of people and so, (2.) any actions to improve or maintain the environment must be weighed against its effects on and costs to people.

These are very different mindsets. The left has been promoting theirs for years, so I will attempt to make the case for, at least this conservatives, a view from the right. Every species that ever was, is or ever will be has an effect on the environment. That is inescapable according to the lefts own otherwise sacred embrace of ‘Darwin’s Theory of Evolution’. ‘Survival of the fittest’ means best adapting to/exploiting the environment, whatever that environment is or may become. Nature does not distinguish between the effects of the Valdez oil spill and the existence of the California tar pits. That is a human esthetic distinction indiscernible to nature. Nature will deal with both in the same way. It will incorporate it, adapt to it and continue on.

The danger we face is not destroying all life on earth; the danger we face is destroying our own species. Leftist environmentalists are fond of characterizing the environment as being fragile. That is nonsense. The environment and the life within it are robust and virtually indestructible. The particular form the environment takes at any point in time may be fragile but this very fragility of form, this adaptability, is the environments strength, not its weakness. It is the beauty of nature that some forms of some species will survive no matter what changes transpire in the environment; currently perhaps short only of some cosmic catastrophe that literally destroys earth itself. Even then, the remaining debris may contain life forms that will eventually colonize elsewhere. In theory, that may be how life got to earth in the first place. Anyway, as we proceed toward populating other celestial bodies even this potential qualification will be overcome.

Contrary to the lefts view, I do not believe that humans could destroy all life on earth even if we set about specifically to do so. We could explode all of our weapons; nuclear and conventional alike, release all of our toxic agents, set fire to everything in sight and emit clouds of carbon dioxide and other forms of ‘pollution’ yet some forms of life will adapt and survive. Far greater calamities than we could impose have already occurred countless times in the history of the earth and still life goes on. We could, to be sure, destroy many species including our own, but not all life. In the first place, we would be extinct ourselves long before the job was done and the remains of the last human to die will still be consumed by the microorganisms within. In the second place, we could never complete the task anyway. Life is simply too adaptable.

Nature imposes a natural duty and compulsion on all living things to survive, both as individuals and as species. That is the key to the process. The only difference between us and any other life form on earth is that we alone now understand this and we alone now understand that our species cannot survive alone. It is, therefore, our responsibility to maintain an environment, complete with the other necessary life forms, that is viable for continued human existence, not one bereft of it. The tragedy of Easter Island is not that life on it was destroyed. It was not. The tragedy of Easter Island was that one species, humans, altered their environment so that their own life on it was rendered unviable.

Tree huggers may argue that the preceding destruction of the trees that led to the demise of human life was the real or at least equal tragedy of Easter Island. I would, perhaps, grant that point from the trees perspective, but I am a human. From my perspective it was the trees failure to adapt to this new environment, the one that included humans that precipitated the trees demise. In a do over perhaps some random genetic mutation would have led to trees that no longer served humans purposes and those trees would then have survived. If that notion strikes you as cold and heartless then you may be getting the point. The strength of nature is that it does not care which of its creatures survives, only that some do. Successful species often render other species extent. That is not tragedy, it is evolution. A species that does or at least can understand this but still renders itself extinct, that is tragedy.

The left’s view on the environment specifically, and I believe purposefully, isolates their proposals from consideration of its effects on and costs to people while the right’s view on the environment specifically demands it. That does not mean that the right would only include material values in such considerations. National parks are wonderful things and I am happy we have them. Eagles are lovely creatures and I am thrilled to see one in the wild, a prospect that is much more likely today than it was when I grew up. Spotted owls are another matter but different people have different tastes and values. I can live with that. Humans are an esthetically conscious species and I am quite happy to the extent that maintaining some portions of nature untouched by human hands and/or of no material value to humans satisfies those esthetics but only if it is without undue costs to humans. The point is that I am willing to argue as to what undue costs are. The left is not. The left seeks to avoid that argument altogether least they then need to define, qualify and quantify such things as the real potential impact on ANWR’s caribou heard of drilling for oil there versus the cost of Mideast oil.

In truth, the lefts environmentalism is not about the physical environment at all; it is about the cultural environment. Its’ movers and shakers, as opposed to its lay supporters, are more concerned with constraining the evil United State’s influence and power and advancing globalization than they are concerned with constraining the United States’ impact on the environment. The latter is just the current vehicle by which to advance the former. That is why they must avoid the environmental cost/benefit argument. Not so much because they would lose that argument, although they mostly would, but because it simply does not lead to where they really want to go. That whole topic is grist for another word mill that I may sometime get to.

In the meantime the above exculpated and naïve lay supporters of environmentalism would do well to carefully reconsider their position. The left seeks to save the environment from mankind while the right seeks to save the environment for mankind."

AIDING AND ABETTING?

“What is clear to me, is that [the media is] perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that’s destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war.”

—retired Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez

I AM SO PROUD TO SAY:

“I believe that these newscasts in 2005 and 2006 played the biggest single role in helping to turn public opinion against the war.”

—media critic Howard Kurtz

ONE SHORT

Methinks Jimmy is one helicopter short of a full fleet:

“I have a specific regret [from my presidency] in not having one more helicopter when I wanted to rescue our hostages [in Iran]. If I had had one more helicopter, they would have been rescued. I might have been reelected president.”—Jimmy Carter

ANOTHER HEAVY DOSE OF SOCIALISM

This time, by Algore:

“I strongly support universal single-payer government-provided or government-funded healthcare.”

FREEDOM

“Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.”

-- Thomas Paine --

Dems Threaten U.S. Safety

If House Democrats and a large portion of the media have their way, American intelligence targeting terrorists would become “deaf and blind,” Sen. Kit Bond said.

As vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Bond has an inside track to that secret world. Yet when the ranking minority member of the intelligence committee tries to correct misimpressions created by the media, he is usually ignored.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY

African Missions in America

By Albert Mohler

We are now seeing a remarkable development. For two hundred years and more, Western nations have sent Christian missionaries to the continent of Africa. Now, in a remarkable turn of events, the Africans are sending missionaries to us.

Take what is happening in the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church. The stalwart defenders of orthodoxy are a group of Anglican archbishops from Africa--representatives of the so-called Global South. These archbishops are so concerned that they are offering oversight to American congregations who are deeply concerned about the Episcopal Church.

History abounds with ironies, and this one is rich. Even as so many of the more liberal churches stopped sending missionaries to Africa, the churches in Africa started sending missionaries to the United States. This is a development worth watching and a sign that the center of gravity in world Christianity is shifting to places like Africa, and away from Europe and North America. We have become mission fields.

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Phyllis Schlafly:
Time to Bring an End to the DREAM Act

The American people rose up out of their usual apathy and soundly defeated the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 that would have given amnesty to illegal immigrants. Now, some senators are trying to get Congress to pass a backdoor amnesty by calling it the DREAM Act, and it's really a nightmare for Americans.

Thomas Sowell:
Sabotage in Wartime

With all the problems facing this country, both in Iraq and at home, why is Congress spending time trying to pass a resolution condemning the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago?

Lisa De Pasquale:
Progressives Agree: "God's Chosen People" Are Racist

Following the outrage over Ann Coulter's interview with CNBC's Donny Deutsch, members of the media used it as an opportunity to tell the American people that they should be offended by her restatement of Christian doctrine and the New Testament.

Ann Coulter Wants Jews to Become Christian -- So What?

By Dennis Prager

Those who label Ann Coulter an anti-Semite do damage to the battle against anti-Semitism.

I say this as a committed Jew, a religious Jew, a Jewish writer and lecturer, a past college instructor in Jewish history, co-author of a widely read book on anti-Semitism, recipient of the American Jewish Press Association's Prize for Excellence in Jewish Commentary, instructor in Torah at the American Jewish University, and a man who has fought anti-Semitism all his life.

There is nothing in what Ann Coulter said to a Jewish interviewer on CNBC that indicates she hates Jews or wishes them ill, or does damage to the Jewish people or the Jewish state. And if none of those criteria is present, how can someone be labeled anti-Semitic?

What damage has she ever done to Jews? What is wrong with a person believing that it would be better if another person adopted their faith? Is there one liberal who doesn't believe that a conservative would be better -- "perfected," if you will -- by embracing liberal beliefs and values? Why is it laudable for ....... Read on.

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COMMENTARY

Lots More Oil
By Alan Caruba

With the price of oil hitting more than $80 per barrel, Congress still is not inclined to allow access to the billions of barrels in the Arctic region. In fact, the current Democrat-controlled Congress is more concerned about bogus global warming than it is about ensuring that Americans can drive their cars and trucks, heat their homes, and process oil for the countless products our country produces. The world is not running out of oil, but neither is it running out of religious fanatics, dictators, and communist thugs who want to line their own pockets, while holding us hostage and enslaving vast portions of the world’s population...

Bush Ally Howard Faces Uphill Re-Election Battle

Lagging in opinion polls behind a resurgent center-left opposition,conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard has opened a six-week election campaign by announcing tax cuts and stressing to voters that he is a known quantity.

"Love me or loathe me, people know where I stand on all the major issues of importance," he told a press conference in Canberra as he announced that a federal election would be held on Nov. 24.

Howard, 68, was first elected in 1996 and is seeking .......

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Shhhhhhhh.... Must ... Not ...Let.... This ...Information....Out

Iraq Casualties Continue Decline in First Half of October
Through October 15, the Defense Department reported that 14 U.S. military personal had been killed in Iraq since October 1. Twelve of these were combat-related, while the other two were not. This indicates a downward trend in the number of U.S. troops being killed in Iraq...

Abortion Consent Laws Also Cut Teen STD Rates
State parental involvement laws are effective in reducing the incidence of risky sexual behavior among teenagers, according to a new study...

Pelosi’s Most Dangerous Ploy

Congressional Democrats anxious to force a withdrawal of American forces from Iraq are frustrated by their inability to muster a veto-proof majority for legislation that would establish a firm date for retreat. But what they cannot do directly they are now working hard to do indirectly.

According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Incirlik Air Base near Adana, Turkey is the trans-shipment point for about 70% of all air cargo (including 33% of the fuel) going to supply US forces in Iraq. Included are about 95% of the new “MRAP” --mine-resistant, ambush-protected -- vehicles designed to save the lives of American troops. Turkey wasn’t always this helpful. In 2003, theTurks refused permission for the 4th Infantry Division to enter Iraq through Turkey.

Turkey’s Erdogan government has indicated that if the House of Representatives takes action on a non-binding resolution being pushed by Speaker Pelosi, Turkey might revoke our ability to use Incirlik as a waypoint for Iraq supplies.

At issue is the non-binding resolution passed on October 10 by the House Foreign Affairs Committee that labels the 1915-1923 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire a genocide. Such resolutions can be passed by either or both houses of Congress and are not subject to presidential veto.  Read on.

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The Russia Problem

By Peter Zeihan
STRATFOR GEOPOLITICAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT

For the past several days, high-level Russian and American policymakers, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Russian President Vladimir Putin's right-hand man, Sergei Ivanov, have been meeting in Moscow to discuss the grand scope of U.S.-Russian relations. These talks would be of critical importance to both countries under any circumstances, as they center on the network of treaties that have governed Europe since the closing days of the Cold War.

Against the backdrop of the Iraq war, however, they have taken on far greater significance. Both Russia and the United States are attempting to rewire the security paradigms of key regions, with Washington taking aim at the Middle East and Russia more concerned about its former imperial territory. The two countries' visions are mutually incompatible, and American preoccupation with Iraq is allowing Moscow to overturn the geopolitics of its backyard.

After years of organizational chaos, the United States has simplified its plan for Iraq: Prevent Iran from becoming a regional hegemon. Once-lofty thoughts of forging a democracy in general or supporting a particular government were abandoned in Washington well before the congressional testimony of Gen. David Petraeus. Reconstruction is on the back burner and even oil is now an afterthought at best. The entirety of American policy has been stripped down to a single thought: Iran.

That thought is now broadly held throughout not only the Bush administration but also the American intelligence and defense communities. It is not an unreasonable position. An American exodus from Iraq would allow Iran to leverage its allies in Iraq's Shiite South to eventually gain control of most of Iraq. Iran's influence also extends to significant Shiite communities on the Persian Gulf's western oil-rich shore. Without U.S. forces blocking the Iranians, the military incompetence of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar could be perceived by the Iranians as an invitation to conquer that shore. That would land roughly 20 million barrels per day of global oil output -- about one-quarter of the global total -- under Tehran's control. Rhetoric aside, an outcome such as this would push any U.S. president into a broad regional war to prevent a hostile power from shutting off the global economic pulse.

So the United States, for better or worse, is in Iraq for the long haul......

Read full article here.

The rise of mosques becomes catalyst for conflict across Europe

Ian Traynor in Wangen, Switzerland writes for The Guardian about a minaret being planned for a Swiss village and how it has prompted the most recent of several disputes over new places of worship.

"If Ulrich Schlüer has his way the Wangen minaret will be toppled. An MP from the rightwing Swiss People's party (SVP), the country's strongest, Mr Schlüer has launched a crusade to keep his country culturally Christian.

Switzerland’s direct democracy rules require referendums if there is enough public support. Mr [Ulrich] Schlüer [of the Swiss People’s party] has launched a petition demanding a new clause in the Swiss constitution stating: 'The building of minarets in Switzerland is forbidden.' He already has 40,000 signatures. If, as expected, he reaches 100,000 by this time next year a referendum is automatically triggered."

Schlüer added:

“Unlike other religions, Islam is not only a religion. It’s an ideology aiming to create a different legal system. That’s sharia. That's a big problem and in a proper democracy it has to be tackled. If the politicians don't, the people will.”

Read more from The Guardian.

Israel Minister: War is Inevitable

An Israeli mission to destroy the terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip is inevitable, an Israeli official said Monday.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Israel should .........

Read more.

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Poll: No Spike in Interest in Gore -

Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize hasn't translated into an increase in support for a presidential bid, a poll found Tuesday.

Asked if they would like to see the former vice president runfor president in 2008, people said no by a 54 percent to 41 percentmargin, according to a Gallup Poll. That was about the same as lastMarch, when people opposed his running 57 percent to 38 percent.

Even among Democrats there was no visible surge of interest in Gore. In the new ......

Read more.

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Oregon Officials Won’t Allow Petition On Constitutional Amendment To End Abortion: Thomas More Law Center Sues

ANN ARBOR, MI— The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, today announced it has filed a lawsuit against the Oregon Secretary of State and the Attorney General, alleging they improperly denied a citizen’s request to circulate a state initiative petition that would amend the Oregon Constitution to end abortion in that state.

Read More

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"But if we are to be told by a foreign Power ... what we shall do, and what we shall not do, we have Independence yet to seek, and have contended hitherto for very little."

-- George Washington --

If Iran's Revolutionary Guards aren't terrorists, who is?

BY BRET STEPHENS
Opinion Journal

The Armenian genocide doesn't belong in U.S. foreign policy right now.

Opinion Journal

Carter's Angry Insults

By David Aikman

Does winning the Nobel Prize entitle a former American president to mouth off indefinitely against politicians he doesn't happen to like? Jimmy Carter seems to think so. Having previously labeled the Bush administration "the worst in history," Carter recently decided that Vice President Dick Cheney is "a disaster" and "a militant."

Now, when President Bush leaves office will he call President Carter "a wimp" or "a peacenik," because Carter failed to deal with the hostage crisis in Iran or underestimated the Soviet Union? I don't think he will.

Throughout modern times there has been a gentleman's agreement that former presidents do not harshly criticize their successors in public. Reagan didn't criticize Carter, and Clinton didn't criticize Bush. So why the angry insults from former president Jimmy Carter?

One possibility: Jimmy Carter may be a Nobel laureate, but he is not yet a gentleman.

This type of thing happens time and time again whether it's Carter, Bill Clinton, John Kerry - the list is endless - and then you have the left say we have lost our respect around the world. Gee, how can this be?

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GOP targeting Clinton on phone-call snooping

TheHill.com

Republicans plan to seize on an allegation from the 1992 presidential campaign to tarnish Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on the red-hot issue of government surveillance.

Government surveillance will be at the forefront of the political debate this fall as congressional Democrats and President Bush square off over legislation allowing electronic spying on U.S. soil without a warrant.

Republicans are focusing on an allegation in a recent book by two Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters, which suggests Clinton listened to a secretly recorded conversation between political opponents. In their book about Clinton’s ...... Continue reading.

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Prescribe 'the pill' at middle school?

Portland Press Herald

Students who have parental permission to be treated at King Middle School's health center would be able to get birth control prescriptions under a proposal that the Portland School Committee will consider Wednesday.

The proposal would build on the King Student Health Center's practice of providing condoms as part of its.......

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West Side woman faces jail time for swearing at toilet

The Times-Tribune

A West Scranton woman could face up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $300 for allegedly shouting profanities at an overflowing toilet while inside her Luzerne Street home.

Dawn Herb, whose potty mouth caught the attention of an off-duty police officer, was charged with disorderly conduct recently, prompting her to fire off a letter to the editor and vow to fight the charge.

“It doesn’t make any sense. I was in my house. It’s not like I was outside or drunk,” said Ms. Herb, who resides at 924 Luzerne St. along with her four young children. “A cop can charge you with disorderly conduct for disrespecting them?”

The obscenities hit the fan when she battled her overflowing toilet around 8 p.m. Thursday, she said.

Although Ms. Herb doesn’t recall exactly what she said, she admitted that she was frustrated and let more than a few choice words fly. Unfortunately, it was near an open bathroom window. Read more.

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Ehhhhhhhh.... Probably not.......

Talking Radio: Randi Rhodes is the Victim of a Violent Attack
Morning talk host, Lionel filled in for Rhodes on Monday, but did not say anything about why she wasn’t on hand to do her show. The Randi Rhodes board reports that Sam Seder, who does a Sunday afternoon show for AAR, will be filling on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Elliott was extremely agitated when he reported on the incident. He opened his show by saying "it is with sadness that tonight I inform you that my Air America colleague Randi Rhodes was assaulted last night while walking her dog near her New York City home."

Pointing out that Rhodes was wearing a jogging suit and displayed no purse or jewelry, Elliott speculated that "this does not appear to me to be a standard grab the money and run mugging."

"Is this an attempt by the right wing hate machine to silence one of our own," he asked. "Are we threatening them. Are they afraid that we're winning. Are they trying to silence intimidate us."

Read more.

(Emphasis was added. -HH)

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Putin Visits Iran, Sends Warnings to US

My Way News

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Russian leader Vladimir Putin met his Iranian counterpart Tuesday and implicitly warned the U.S. not to use a former Soviet republic to stage an attack on Iran. He also said nations shouldn't pursue oil pipeline projects in the area if they weren't backed by regional powers.

At a summit of the five nations that border the inland Caspian Sea, Putin said none of the nations' territory should be used by any outside countries for use of military force against any nation in the region. It was a clear reference to long-standing rumors that the U.S. was planning to use Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, as a staging ground for any possible military action against Iran.

"We are saying that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state," Putin said. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also underlined the..... Continue reading.

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Al-Qaeda In Iraq Reported Crippled
Washington Times

Democrats vow new child health bill if veto override fails
Boston Globe

Iraq Casualties Continue Decline in First Half of October

The casualty count from Iraq continues to decline for the first half of October, according to Department of Defense reports. Full Story

Congressmen Want Review of Legal Services Grants

Two California organizations with grants from the Legal Services Corporation may have used the money improperly, said two members of Congress who want an investigation into the entire grant process... Continue reading.

Sean Penn urged to be terrorists' spin doctor

Muslims militants have 'deep respect' for actor, tell Americans to listen to activist immediately.

Sean PennMuslim terror leaders are hailing statements by actor Sean Penn regarding Iran, the war in Iraq and the global war on terror, stating militants have "deep respect" for Penn and urging Americans to listen to the outspoken Hollywood activist immediately.

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Stunning new video of Flight 800 crash site

About a month ago, I received a five-minute long thermal imaging video from a well-placed source, who chooses to remain anonymous. I made copies for a few key people and solicited their interpretation of what we were looking at.

What we concluded, in fact, is that this extraordinary video has the potential to break the TWA Flight 800 case wide open.

The video had been shot from a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion that had been flying almost directly above TWA Flight 800 when it exploded off the coast of Long Island on the night of July 17, 1996. For the record, the P-3 is a long-range, antisubmarine warfare patrol aircraft with advanced submarine detection and avionics equipment.

Read on:WorldNetDaily: Stunning new video of Flight 800 crash site

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BBC NEWS: Putin told of 'assassination bid'

Putin told of 'assassination bid'
Vladimir Putin (L) is greeted by Hessen State Premier Roland Koch upon his arrival in Frankfurt, Germany, on Sunday 14 October 2007
Vladimir Putin is due to visit Iran later this week
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been warned of a plot to assassinate him during a visit to Iran this week, Kremlin officials have said.

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Gore gets a cold shoulder

ONE of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".

Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.

"We're brainwashing our children," said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."

Dr Gray, whose annual forecasts of the number of tropical storms and hurricanes are widely publicised, said a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures - related to the amount of salt in ocean water - was responsible for the global warming that he acknowledges has taken place.

However, he said, that same cycle meant a period of cooling would begin soon and last for several years.

"We'll look back on all of this in 10 or 15 years and realise how foolish it was," Dr Gray said.

During his speech to a crowd of about 300 that included meteorology students and a host of professional meteorologists, Dr Gray also said those who had linked global warming to the increased number of hurricanes in recent years were in error.

He cited statistics showing there were 101 hurricanes from 1900 to 1949, in a period of cooler global temperatures, compared to 83 from 1957 to 2006 when the earth warmed.

"The human impact on the atmosphere is simply too small to have a major effect on global temperatures," Dr Gray said. Read on.

With Tight Grip on Ballot, Putin Is Forcing Foes Out

New York Times

MOSCOW, Oct. 13 — Balloting for Parliament will be held across Russia in December, and this much is already clear: Vladimir A. Ryzhkov, who was first elected in the turbulent yet hopeful days after the Soviet Union’s fall and then blossomed into a fervent advocate for democracy, will lose.

Continue reading.

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MRS. BILL CLINTON

Mrs. Bill and her plan to give $5000 to every baby born in America: was a silly idea; was immediately ridiculed by those on the right side of the political spectrum; was withdrawn by her fairly quickly; and was given a pass by the media without the proper criticism it deserved.

Of course this would come off the backs of taxpayers since the government has no money of its own. It was not a worthy plan to be offered, much less considered, by a serious presidential candidate. But we wouldn't want to chide the front runner of the Democrat presidential hopefuls, now would we?

After her quick withdrawal of her ill-fated plan, she announced a new plan. This new plan would give $1000 tax cuts (“a matching refundable tax credit—dollar for dollar—for the first $1,000 of savings set aside by every married couple making up to $60,000 a year.”) to working class families as in incentive for them to start a 401(k) savings plan. Again this plan would, like her ill-fated "$5000 per baby" plan, will come from the backs of taxpayers.

This puts her in the odd position of being against privatizing (even a partial privatization) of Social Security (where people would have some control of their own money) but is more than comfortable forcing people to use their hard earned money to fund someone else's retirement plan. (HH)

Indoctrination in the Ivory Tower

By George Will

Indoctrination in the Ivory Tower A study prepared by the National Association of Scholars, a group that combats political correctness on campuses, reviews social work education programs at 10 major public universities and comes to this conclusion: Such programs mandate an ideological orthodoxy to which students must subscribe concerning "social justice" and "oppression." Read more.

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