Michael Franc: SCHIP's Path for Illegal Immigrants

By Michael Franc:

Amid all the chaos on Capitol Hill -- a possible vote to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney one day, shenanigans over the annual spending bills the next -- one constant has been the prolonged, backroom negotiation over the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Read more.

A Bonbon for Big Labor

By Robert Bluey:
Free trade has fallen on hard times in America. With commentators such as CNN's Lou Dobbs promoting protectionism and liberal politicians pandering to Big Labor, the tide has clearly turned. Read on.

My Grandson

My 4 year old grandson proudly sitting on a tractor.

The Proactive Tool of Protective Intelligence

On Nov. 4, 46-year-old Spanish businessman Edelmiro Manuel Pérez Merelles was freed from captivity after being held for nearly two weeks by kidnappers who grabbed him from his vehicle in the Mexico City metropolitan area. The fact that a kidnapping occurred in Mexico is not at all unusual. What is unusual is the enormous press coverage the case received, largely because of the audacity and brutality of the attackers.

Pérez Merelles was snatched from his car Oct. 22 after a gang of heavily armed assailants blocked his vehicle and, in full view of witnesses, killed his bodyguard/driver, delivering a coup de grâce shot to the back of his head. The abductors then shoved the driver's body into the trunk of Pérez Merelles' car, which was later found abandoned. After the abduction, when the family balked at the exorbitant amount of ransom demanded by the kidnappers, the criminals reportedly upped the ante by sending two of Pérez Merelles' fingers to his family. A ransom finally was paid and Pérez Merelles was released in good health, though sans the fingers.

In a world in which militants and criminals appear increasingly sophisticated and brutal, this case highlights the need for protective intelligence (PI) to augment traditional security measures.

Action versus Reaction

As any football player knows, action is always faster than reaction. That principle provides offensive players with a slight edge over their opponents on the defense, because the offensive players know the snap count that will signal the beginning of the play. Now, some crafty defensive players will anticipate or jump the snap to get an advantage over the offensive players, but that anticipation is an action in itself and not a true reaction. This same principle of action and reaction is applicable to security operations. For example, when members of an abduction team launch an assault against a target's vehicle, they have the advantage of tactical surprise over the target and any security personnel protecting the target. This advantage can be magnified significantly if the target lacks the proper mindset and freezes in response to the attack.

Even highly trained security officers who have been schooled in attack recognition and in responding under ..... Full article.

“I want to believe that some of our politicians are just blinded to the truth of what we are facing, but reality tells me that there are some in politics who hate everything that this country stands for and want to see us defeated, again, by our enemies. But this enemy is unlike any that we have ever faced. May God help us to stand for what we believe, or we will certainly fall before the onslaught of radical Islam.”

—Sgt. Roger Helle (USMC Ret.)

Nazis and Islamists

The Brussels Journal

During the Second World War, the Nazis worked on plans to build the “Amerikabomber,” an airplane specially devised to fly suicide missions into Manhattan’s skyscrapers.

Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister for Armaments, recalled in his diary: “It was almost as if [Hitler] was in a delirium when he described to us how New York would go up in flames. He imagined how the skyscrapers would turn into huge blazing torches. How they would crumble while the reflection of the flames would light the skyline against the dark sky.” Hitler hated Manhattan. It was, he said, “the center of world Jewry.”

continue reading

America Wake Up! Europe Wants to Be a Superpower

The Brussels Journal

European Union leaders have reached agreement on a new treaty that many Europeans hope will transform the 27-nation bloc into a superpower capable of counter-balancing the United States in global affairs.

The 250-plus page Reform Treaty, which EU leaders will formally sign in Lisbon on December 13, calls for a permanent EU president, a European foreign minister and a European Union diplomatic service. The agreement also calls for EU nations to surrender sovereignty in many areas to centralized decision-making; and it reduces national veto rights to allow more decisions to be made by majority voting instead of by unanimous consent.

continue reading

ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING ABOUT $100 OIL

By Dr. Jack Wheeler

Yesterday (11/08), the Wall Street Journal ran an article giving ten reasons Why $100 Can't Float. They were good, persuasive reasons. Yet taken together, they were not sufficiently persuasive as they ignored the political dimension of the problem.

Put in a nutshell, we have near $100 oil instead of energy independence at a fraction of the cost because Congress is an obstacle rather than a solution to the problem.

Right here in America, we have enormous energy reserves of coal, natural gas, liquid oil, and oil shale. With foreign oil now so expensive, it should be easy to produce our own energy at far less cost. And it will be easy if Congress does three things: Read more...

Government: If It Ain't Broke, They'll Break It

Larry Elder:
Government agencies like FEMA go from inefficient over-action to inefficient under-action. Their bureaucratic rules pale in comparison to what the private sector is capable of.

Change What?

Cal Thomas:
The country is frustrated. Democrats say Americans want change from Bush administration policies. That much of the country was also frustrated when Democrats were in charge apparently has escaped them.

Rangel Tax Gaffe Could Give Republicans Huge Boost in 2008

Donald Lambro:
Republican strategists expect to gain Congressional seats and GOP favor in 2008, predicting that Charlie Rangel's, D-N.Y., new tax bill will be a bust with the American public.

The Oil Hydra
Victor Davis Hanson:

Oil is nearly $100 a barrel. Gas may soon reach $4 a gallon. And Americans are being bitten in almost every way imaginable by this insidious oil hydra. The Middle East is raking in billions each week. At best, our so-called friends in cash-laden Saudi Arabia subsidize fundamentalist mosques and hate-filled madrassas worldwide.

Court Sides With Pro-Life Pharmacists

Las Vegas Sun

SEATTLE (AP) - A federal judge has suspended Washington state's requirement that pharmacists sell "morning-after" birth control pills, a victory for druggists who claim their moral objections to the drug are being bulldozed by the government. Full article.

Rank-and-File Democrats Blast Driver's Licenses for Illegals

CAIR Targets Another Conservative Talk Show Host

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is pressing advertisers to withdraw their sponsorship of Michael Savage’s nationally syndicated radio program because of Savage’s alleged “anti-Muslim bigotry.” Savage, on his Web site, is fighting back...

Iraq Vets Knock War Critics

Three veterans of the Iraq war on Thursday said lawmakers who support a quick end to the conflict should be more patient and wait for political reconciliation to grow out of increased stability in the region...

Danger! Judicial Activists at Work!

By Ken Connor:
Like termites gnawing away at the foundation of a building, judicial activists are eating away at the foundations of representative government in America.

The Struggle for Pakistan's Future

By Charles Krauthammer:
Islamist barbarians are at the gates. The president declares de facto martial law. The country's democratic forces of the center and left, led by well-dressed lawyers and a former prime minister, take to the streets. What is America to do about Pakistan?

Speculation Bubbles Over Bloomberg WH Bid

Lieberman Bashes 'Paranoid' Democrats

Iraqi passengers sue airline, claim discrimination

Police reports indicate they may have been intoxicated, belligerent and unruly.

Weather Channel founder: Warming 'greatest scam in history'

Takes aim at Gore, scientists for manipulating data for political, financial gain

Mukasey confirmed as attorney general

Sen. Specter: 'He's strong, ethical, honest beyond any question'

Will falling dollar bring about NAU?

Hal Lindsey sees globalist types using crisis as excuse for N. American Union

Expert says feds stealing half of seniors' paychecks

Contends government manipulating data to keep cost-of-living index low

Bhutto Under House Arrest in Pakistan

Thousands of supporters rounded up to block mass protest

COMMENTARY: Investigating our soldiers to death

The 'insanity' of second-guessing our warriors
By David Bolgiano and Jim Patterson

Students who 'desecrated' terrorist flags vindicated

Federal judge nixes university policies protecting Hezbollah, Hamas banners.

If tax-cut strategies don't work, why are they so popular abroad?

BY STEPHEN MOORE
Opinion Journal

Things are tough all over, but Mrs. Clinton is no Iron Lady.

By Peggy Noonan
Opinion Journal

The Democratic Congress is more interested in acting out than in taking positive action.

OPINION JOURNAL

The Senate Should Sink the Law of the Sea Treaty

By Hugh Hewitt

Last week, the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate voted by a large margin to recommend ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty. While some significant voices, including leadership in the United States Navy have endorsed the treaty, many others have warned against ratification, including most recently former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton. The flawed treaty erects a massive new international bureaucracy with the U.S. as just one member among many charged with applying complicated new rules to sea bed mining and access to the world?s waterways.

The U.S. is the mightiest naval power in history, and an unqualified force for freedom of the seas. It ought to retain its unfettered ability to act in its interests and the interests of peace in the world. The Republican leadership in the Senate has announced its opposition to the treaty, and 35 senators should sign a letter saying as much so that the American people can be assured that this unnecessary and potentially damaging boondoggle joins Davey Jones at the bottom of the seas.

CAIR Furious over Robertson Giuliani Endorsement

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW WILL HURT US

“Senator Clinton is determined not to tell us where she stands on anything. Instead, she has come to believe, probably correctly, that if we knew what she really wants to do as president, we would never vote for her.”

-- Dick Morris --

WHAT BALLOT INTEGRITY?

“Despite her muddled comments [last] week, there’s no doubt where Mrs. Clinton stands on ballot integrity. She opposes photo ID laws, even though they enjoy over 80% support in the polls. She has also introduced a bill to force every state to offer no-excuse absentee voting as well as Election Day registration—easy avenues for election chicanery. The bill requires that every state restore voting rights to all criminals who have completed their prison terms, parole or probation.”

-- John Fund --

A MOTTO THAT ALL POLITICIANS CAN LIVE BY

“The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”

-- Groucho Marx --

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

-- Thomas Jefferson --

Pakistan's Ousted Top Judge Urges Revolt

Iran Wants Suspects Off Interpol List

Israeli Warns Iran Could Have Nukes Soon

Defiant Iran Says It’s Reached Bomb-Making Goal

Bush, Sarkozy Oppose Nuclear-armed Iran

Iran Chemical, Bio Weapons Threat Is Real

In response to a U.S. or Israeli attack, analysts maintain that Iran could strike the U.S. with chemical and biological weapons.

Read the Full Story — Go Here Now.

The taxpayer is being stung so this Lord can live in Admiralty House

Mark Malloch-Brown, the minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, was the most prestigious recruit to Gordon Brown’s ministry of all the talents. But this appointment might be about to come back and embarrass the Prime Minister with controversy brewing over the former UN deputy secretary-general’s taxpayer funded accommodation.

Full article.

Econ 101: What Does a Falling Dollar Mean?
What changes our exchange rate, and should we worry about it? BMI adviser Gary Wolfram explains.

A Ho-Hum Christmas Already?

Thanksgiving is still weeks away, and already the media are predicting a not-so-Merry Christmas for retailers and the U.S. economy. Some journalists have even warned that slower consumer spending could result in economic recession. But gloomy holiday sales reporting is a theme in the media, going back to the 2006 and 2005 Christmas shopping seasons. Read on.

Pakistan and its Army

By George Friedman

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency over the weekend, precipitating a wave of arrests, the suspension of certain media operations and the intermittent disruption of communications in and out of Pakistan. As expected, protests erupted throughout Pakistan by Nov. 5, with clashes between protesting lawyers and police reported in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and several other cities. Thus far, however, the army appears to be responding to Musharraf's commands.

The primary issue, as Musharraf framed it, was the Pakistani Supreme Court's decision to release about 60 people the state had charged with terrorism. Musharraf's argument was that the court's action makes the fight against Islamist extremism impossible and that the judiciary overstepped its bounds by urging that the civil rights of the accused be protected.

Musharraf's critics, including the opposition's top leader, former ......

Full article at Stratfor.

GAG ME WITH A SPOON

“I don’t think they’re [other Demo presidential contenders are] piling on because I’m a woman. I think they’re piling on because I’m winning... I anticipate it’s going to get even hotter, and if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen. I’m very much at home in the kitchen.”

—Hillary Robb'em (Blind) Clinton ("I have a million ideas, but we can't afford them all.")

Pahleeeeze, this woman probably has never made a pot roast. I even wonder if she knows how to boil water.

Iran's Hezbollah Card

By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
STRATFOR TERRORISM INTELLIGENCE REPORT

As noted by Stratfor CEO George Friedman, news outlets have been rife with speculation about a U.S. attack against Iran, although the frequency and tenor of the leaks have made us question whether the Bush administration intends to order an actual attack or whether the leaks are merely an effort to intimidate Tehran. There is no doubt in our minds, however, that military action is being given at least some consideration, and that U.S. military planners are gathering intelligence and firming up plans to hit a variety of Iranian target sets.

For almost as long as we have been hearing about a pending attack against Iran, we have been receiving source reports regarding Iran's plans for retaliation. Such plans would be directed not only against the U.S. forces delivering the attacks or troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan but also against broader U.S. interests in the region and globally. Indeed, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned in February that any aggression against his country would be.....

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE.

A RISKY POLITICAL STANCE

The Democratic Party will lose the presidential race if it defines itself as soft on terror.

BY ALAN DERSHOWITZ

A Moment of Peril in Pakistan

By Michael Medved

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has declared an emergency and imposed martial law. This sudden lurch back towards full authoritarianism breaches the agreement Musharraf brokered with political opponents and has sent the country into a deep crisis. The U.S., aware of the repressive actions but also worried about radical Islamists who have many times tried to assassinate Musharraf, has adopted a very restrained reaction.

The Bush Administration is right to both mute its criticism while pushing Musharraf towards elections as he promised. The example of Iran in 1978 looms large. The Carter Administration basically abandoned the Shah and hoped it would turn out well, and of course a radical Islamist regime replaced the Shah, a regime that today seeks nukes.

Pakistan already has nukes--at least a couple of dozen and perhaps more than 80. This is a moment of incredible peril to the U.S. and the world. The Bush administration cannot lose Pakistan.

Behind Hillary's Doubletalk

Every time she approaches a microphone, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton labors under the necessity of fudging on her program - offering, instead, an artificial personality and a variety of poll-tested bromides that let her duck key issues.

The resulting circumlocutions were evident in Tuesday night's Democratic debate. Her plans for Social Security? Clearly, she thinks she may need to raise Social Security taxes - but she can't say so. Instead, she repeats the poll-tested mantra of "fiscal responsibility" and a "bipartisan commission."

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY

No bull: Texas plant makes natural gas from cow manure

Houston Chronicle

Poll finds 77% oppose licenses for illegals

Washington Times

New Report Examines Border Security Failures

Washington Post:
GAO Criticizes Staffing, Training

Climate Is a Risky Issue for Democrats

Washington Post:
Candidates Back Costly Proposals

Homeland Security Grants Used to Buy Gym Gear
-Miami Herald

U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works:
Climate Bills Will 'Require a Wholesale Transformation of the Nation's Economy and Society'

Maine School Faces Legal Action Over Birth Control Policy
A conservative legal group demanded on Monday that a school district in Maine abandon its policy of distributing prescription contraceptives to students as young as 11 years old without parental consent -- or become the target of a lawsuit to have the policy struck down...

Stop "Making A Difference"
Thomas Sowell:

"Among the many mindless mantras of our time, 'making a difference' and 'giving back' irritate me like chalk screeching across a blackboard. I would be scared to death to 'make a difference' in the way pilots fly airliners or brain surgeons operate. Any difference I might make could be fatal to many people." Read on.

HeavyHanded suggests that if someone tells you "they want to make a difference," clutch your wallet firmly and run like hell because sure as heck, their idea is to use your money to fund their plan.

Immigration Wars
Cal Thomas:

A federal judge in San Francisco has temporarily prevented the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration from using mismatched Social Security data to penalize employers who hire illegal aliens. The decision came as welcome news to the AFL-CIO, various "immigrants' rights" groups and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who are behind a lawsuit that claims the federal government's actions are a violation of the law.

Dear Senator Dodd: Education Is Not the Answer to Every Problem
Dennis Prager:

There are, of course, links between education and professional success, between education and the ability to read and write. And obviously we need well-educated people in order to be able to compete with other countries. But for at least the few generations in the Western world there has been no link between higher education and human decency.

Life is not a defined benefit
Star Parker:

The U.S Comptroller General and head of the GAO, Government Accountability Office, has described the entitlements crisis facing this country as a "tsunami" that approaches while we continue to party on the beach.

A Watershed Moment on Immigration
Michael Barone:

October 2007 may turn out to be the month that immigration became a key issue in presidential politics. It hasn't been, at least in my lifetime.

POVERTY

“Poverty is not static for people willing to work. A University of Michigan study shows that only 5 percent of those in the bottom fifth of the income distribution in 1975 remained there in 1991. What happened to them? They moved up to the top three-fifths of the income distribution—middle class or higher. Moreover, three out of 10 of the lowest income earners in 1975 moved all the way into the top fifth of income earners by 1991. Those who were poor in 1975 had an inflation-adjusted average income gain of $27,745 by 1991. Those workers who were in the top fifth of income earners in 1975 were better off in 1991 by an average of only $4,354. The bottom line is, the richer are getting richer and the poor are getting richer. Poverty in the United States, in an absolute sense, has virtually disappeared. Today, there’s nothing remotely resembling poverty of yesteryear. However, if poverty is defined in the relative sense, the lowest fifth of income-earners, ‘poverty’ will always be with us. No matter how poverty is defined, if I were an unborn spirit, condemned to a life of poverty, but God allowed me to choose which nation I wanted to be poor in, I’d choose the United States. Our poor must be the envy of the world’s poor.”

—Walter Williams

Economic Truths

“Nobel Peace laureate Al Gore believes global warming is ‘an inconvenient truth.’ Here are some economic truths that America’s liberal leadership finds too inconvenient to support. Tax-rate reductions increase tax revenues. This truth has been proved at both state and federal levels, including by President Bush’s 2003 tax cuts on income, capital gains and dividends. Those reductions have raised federal-tax receipts by $785 billion, the largest four-year revenue increase in U.S. history. In fiscal 2007, which ended last month, the government took in 6.7% more tax revenues than in 2006. These increases in tax revenue have substantially reduced the federal-budget deficits.

In 2004 the deficit was $413 billion, or 3.5% of gross domestic product. It narrowed to $318 billion in 2005, $248 billion in 2006 and $163 billion in 2007. That last figure is just 1.2% of GDP, which is half of the average of the past 50 years.

Lower tax rates have be so successful in spurring growth that the percentage of federal income taxes paid by the very wealthy has increased... Finally, another inconvenient truth is that there have been 49 consecutive months of job growth as a result of the economic expansion induced by President Bush’s 2003 tax rate reductions.”

—Pete du Pont

You cannot be trusted ......

“It’s about food. It’s about your home. It’s about your life. The government is worried about all of the above. All I’m saying is you should be worried they’re worried. Here’s why: They’re telling you that you can’t take care of yourself. You can’t be trusted with what you put in your mouth or what you sign on the mortgage dotted line. So they’ll tell you what to put in your mouth and they’ll save you from what you signed on that dotted line. Does anyone see a trend here? Personal responsibility has now become government responsibility.”

—Neil Cavuto

“Conservatives were brought up to hate deficits, and justifiably so. We’ve long thought there are two things in Washington that are unbalanced—the budget and the liberals.”

-- Ronald Reagan --

In China, US Looks for Openness on Military Spending, Goals

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has begun a visit to China where the two sides finalized an agreement on a telephone hotline between the Pentagon and the Chinese military establishment, whose expenditure and agenda have long worried U.S. policymakers... More.

Islamists Vow to Take On Musharraf

A leading Islamist politician in Pakistan is protesting Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s imposition of a state of emergency, likening the campaign against the military ruler to the “obligatory” struggle against “any infidel” or foreign occupier... More.

Iran Sees Venezuela as Doorway to Americas, Republican Says

Top U.S. officials who avoid confrontation with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez must adopt a more forceful Latin American policy, Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) said in an exclusive interview with the Cybercast News Service. “It’s clear Iran is looking to Venezuela to gain a foothold in our hemisphere,” he said... Continue reading.

State Dept. Mired in Bureaucracy

Russians Spying Like Cold War

Russian spying against Britain remains at Cold War levels, diverting intelligence resources that would be better devoted to fighting al Qaeda, the head of the MI5 intelligence agency said on Monday.

Jonathan Evans said espionage by a number of countries, also including China, was a distraction from countering militant Islamists who were growing in number and now targeting children as young as 15 in Britain. Read more.

MI5 Says Kids Groomed for Terror Attacks

LONDON -- Extremists are grooming children and teenagers to plot terrorist attacks against Britain, the director of the domestic spy agency said Monday. Read on.

"If we desire to insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known, that we are at all times ready for War."

-- George Washington --

Blurring Distinctions Between Evil and Innocence

By Michael Medved

On November 1st, HBO presented a new documentary called "To Die in Jerusalem: Two Daughters Lost in Conflict."

According to promotional materials, the film portrays two 17-year-old girls as they "die in a Jerusalem market - revealing a microcosm of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the complexity of reconciliation."

Like the infamous Newsweek cover that inspired it, this documentary treats both girls as joint victims of "faith or fate," blurring the profound distinction between murderer and victim, evil and innocence. The Israeli girl went to the market to buy Sabbath supplies; the Palestinian girl went there to murder strangers in a homicide bombing. The real reason for the "complexity of reconciliation" is that the bomber's mother lives in a society that hails her murderous child as a heroine, and so now feels "pride" in her heinous act.

Ignoring the moral gulf between crazed killer and blameless target doesn't advance peace, but perpetuates the insanity and blindness behind Islamo-Nazi terror.

Deported murderer caught attempting to re-enter U.S.

A convicted murderer who was deported earlier this year after serving more than two decades in prison was arrested Tuesday after trying to come back into the country.

Juan Crisantos-Ramos, 46, a Mexican citizen, was taken in to custody at the .......

Army tests James Bond style tank that is 'invisible'

New technology that can make tanks invisible has been unveiled by the Ministry of Defence.

In secret trials last week, the Army said it had made a vehicle completely disappear and predicted that an invisible tank would be ready for service by 2012.

The new technology uses cameras and projectors to beam images of the surrounding landscape onto a tank.


Read more.

(H/T There's My Two Cents)

Final TB count: 212 test positive at 1 chicken plant

The Decatur Daily

Afghan officials: Better care saves 89,000 kids this year

Close to 90,000 children who would have died before age 5 in Afghanistan during Taliban rule will stay alive this year because of advances in medical care in the country, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday.

The under-5 child mortality rate in Afghanistan has declined from an estimated 257 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2001 to about 191 per 1,000 in 2006, the Ministry of Public Health said, relying on a new study by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.N. and aid agency Save the Children both hailed the advances in health care in Afghanistan.

"This is certainly very positive news," said the U.N. spokesman in Afghanistan, Adrian Edwards. "To come from such low life expectancy to see this improvement does appear to be an indication that the work on the health sector here is beginning to pay off."

Read full article.

(H/T Captain's Quarters)

Fence's presence felt

Residents on both sides of one border crossing say barrier is doing what it was intended to do

Houston Chronicle

PALOMAS, MEXICO — At this fabled border crossing, where the last armed conflict between the United States and Mexico flared, the rancorous debate over the new U.S. anti-immigrant fence has been resolved.

The fence works, residents north and south of it say. At least it works for now on this snippet of the line.

"You hear it all the time: Fences don't work. Fences don't work," said Mark Winder, a transplanted New Englander and part-time deputy sheriff who lives on a small ranch outside Columbus, N.M., where a 3-mile stretch of wall was completed in August. "I live 2½ miles from the border, and the fence is working." Read more.

We MUST cut them ALL down if we want to survive....

It's our only chance.

New global warming villain fingered: Trees
Canadian Press

Forests have long been thought of as an ally in the fight against global warming, but a new study suggests that Canada's boreal forest may in fact be releasing more greenhouse gases than it absorbs. “The boreal forest, at least in the north-central part of Manitoba, has gone from a weak carbon sink to a weak carbon source,” said Dr. Tom Gower of the University of Wisconsin, whose paper is being published Thursday in the journal Nature. “It is now contributing to atmospheric (carbon dioxide) concentration.” Dr. Gower and his fellow researchers studied a million-square-kilometre stretch of forest around Thompson,...

Venezuela Congress OKs Lifting Chavez Term Limits

I think you are too late to the party, John

McCain: I've Learned My Lesson on Illegals
John McCain spent months earlier this year arguing that the United States must combine border security efforts with a temporary worker program and an eventual path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants. Now, the Republican presidential candidate emphasizes securing the borders first. FULL STORY

Hillary takes cash from terror suspects

Muslim donors targets of federal investigation

Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has taken thousands of dollars in cash donations from Islamists under federal investigation for terror-financing, money laundering and tax fraud.

Read more @ WND.

Pakistani Police Detain 500 Activists

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Police and soldiers emboldened by state of emergency powers swept up hundreds of activists and opposition members on Sunday, dragged away protesters shouting "Shame on you!", and turned government buildings into barbed-wire compounds.

Read full article.

PetroChina expected to surpass Exxon Mobil as most valuable company

HONG KONG: When the state oil and natural gas company PetroChina makes its debut Monday on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, China's booming stock markets will be on the verge of another milestone. Soon after the Shanghai listing, analysts expect PetroChina to surpass the U.S. energy behemoth Exxon Mobil as the world's largest company by market value.

Read full article.

George Will:
A Leash on the Executive

While legislators try to leash a president by tinkering with a weapon, a sufficient leash -- the Constitution -- is being ignored by them. They are derelict in their sworn duty to uphold it.

Jonah Goldberg:
A Few Questions, Senator Clinton...

People are finally noticing that when Hillary answers tough questions, she follows the example of Yogi Berra, who once said, "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

Read on.

Iranian Nuclear Crisis Addressed by Mideasterners
By Robert Maginnis

Jerusalem, Israel: Media reports about the brewing crisis over the Iranian nuclear weapons program are sobering but it's difficult to know who to believe. So, I traveled to Israel and Jordan to gather insights regarding local perceptions of Tehran's atomic threat.

I spoke with defense and intelligence experts, political figures and average citizens in both countries. Four experts provided especially insightful perspectives. These men agree that Iran is a serious world threat and the United States should take the lead in dealing with Tehran.

Read on.

“My Christian home and education did not teach me what God wanted to do with my life. It taught me that I am to be obedient to His direction and leading in spite of my personal desires. I stayed in the military because I felt God’s call... The Marine Corps still embeds corps values of courage, honor and commitment in the heart of every recruit—that these young men and women understand that the only thing worse than war is believing that there is not anything worth dying for.”

--Maj. Gen. Mastin Robeson--

Hillary a victim? Not!!

Hillary: America's Victim
By Rich Galen

Hillary Clinton, according to the reporting of the New York Times' Adam Nagourney, "came under withering attack from the rest of the Democratic presidential field last night in a pitched two-hour debate that her opponents used to challenge her candor and electability and to portray her as enabling President Bush to prepare for an invasion of Iran"...

Understanding the Wahhabist Infiltration of America
By Frank Salvato

Part of the reason many Americans don't appreciate the significance of Osama bin Laden's declarations of war against the United States and the West is because they are completely oblivious to the in-roads radical Islam has made within the United States...

Memo to Hillary: This makes some sense.

Licenses-for-Illegals Faces Court Challenge in New York

At least two lawsuits aim to strike down the New York state policy of granting driver's license to illegal aliens...

Bahrain: Iran Racing to Build Bomb

“While they don’t have the bomb yet, they are developing it, or the capability for it,” said Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.

Even Harvard Finds The Media Biased

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Journalism: The debate is over. A consensus has been reached. On global warming? No, on how Democrats are favored on television, radio and in the newspapers.

Just like so many reports before it, a joint survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy — hardly a bastion of conservative orthodoxy — found that in covering the current presidential race, the media are sympathetic to Democrats and hostile to Republicans. Read more.