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An Israeli submarine crossed through the Suez Canal last month as a part of a military training exercise, defense officials said on Saturday. The move is believed to have been made as a warning to Iran of the Jewish state's capabilities and and to show that Israel and Egypt, are cooperating against a shared threat. The two countries share a peace agreement but have had cool relations for years. By using the Suez, an Israeli submarine could reach the Persian Gulf off Iran in a matter of days, compared wiith weeks to sail around the southern tip of Africa. The...

Sarah Palin Is Running A Marathon. It's called life. It was quite a news day to be off in the canyons and away from cell signal or wifi. Although I might be the last person to comment on the Alaskan Governor’s announcement today, please indulge my being late to the pity party, because I still love me some Sarah Palin. By the time I heard, the spin had already begun, but I didn’t want to hear any of it. I just felt that this must be a terrible move on her part, or a really unfortunate choice she felt compelled...

Now, America's first black President has made clear that he wishes to add a splash of colour to the walls of Washington's First House. Barack Obama is extending his push for diversity to the White House's art collection, The Art Newspaper revealed this week, with the launch of a campaign that will replace the fustiness of the existing collection with works by "more diverse" artists. Discreet approaches have been made to dealers and collectors who represent black, Hispanic and Asian artists as well as female painters to redress the current dearth; of the 400 pieces in the White House's permanent...

Jul 4 2009 Lynn Davidson A LONELY old lady lay dead in her flat for five years because no one bothered to check on her. Isabella Purves, who would have been 90 this year, was last seen in 2004. But local residents who used to see her every day assumed she had simply moved away or gone into a home. Isabella was only found after people living below her top-floor flat complained to the council that water was dripping through their ceiling. Police were sent to investigate the leak. They discovered Isabella's remains after wading through a three-foot high pile...

Opponents of the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor believe Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry is proceeding with toll road plans under the cover of a special session of the legislature. Perry's stated goals include extending the authority of the Texas Department of Transportation, TxDOT, to operate for two more years with an allocation of $2 billion in state funds that could be targeted for building toll roads along Interstate Highways 35 and 69 in what was previously called TTC-35 and TTC-69 under the Trans-Texas Corridor plan. The Houston Chronicle acknowledged transportation would the main focus of the special session and that an...

Iranian newspaper says opposition figure should stand trial The state-owned paper says Mir-Hossein Mousavi is a foreign agent on 'a mission directed from abroad.' Meanwhile, a military commander says Iran may take over the British Embassy residence. By Borzou Daragahi July 4, 2009 Reporting from Beirut -- A right-wing newspaper close to Iran's supreme leader today accused the country's main opposition figure of being a dupe for Iran's foreign enemies who should face trial, as an military official said the "ground has been set" for a takeover of the British Embassy residence in north Tehran. A crackdown continues against supporters...

If you're a teen in California, want to know about your "right to privacy" and "reproductive health care"? Do you need your parents' permission to get birth control pills? Can you get a pregnancy test without your parents knowing? These are the messages the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is giving teens on its Web site - assuring them of their "right" to unbridled sexual "freedom." Yet the consequences of this libertine philosophy are never mentioned. Sexually transmitted diseases are now so rampant, especially among 15- to 24-year-olds, that Los Angeles County just launched a textmessaging program to...

9 women, 4 children injured by rampage Muslims apparently angered because a Christian man driving a tractor reportedly tried to pass a Muslim on a motorcycle have rampaged in one village in Pakistan, destroying Christians' homes and throwing acid on women and children as they fled, according to a new report from Barnabas Aid. The ministry reported that the violence this week happened in the village of Bahmani Walla in Punjab state in Pakistan, which is dominated by Islamic influences.

Link only due to copyright. Our Foreign Policy Expert Veep dictates policy to the Iraqis.

Nothing! No news about Cobb Tea Party with 5000+ people.

Planned Parenthood is facing criticism for alleged false advertising. The organization has been running ads in Washington, DC, claiming that 90 percent of its services are preventive and primary care, just like going to a doctor's office. Jim Sedlak of American Life League disagrees. With Obama's healthcare program, Sedlak contends Planned Parenthood is just trying to position itself to be in the mainstream of healthcare. "The problem is that according to its last annual report, Planned Parenthood...primary care patients account for only seven-tenths of one percent of its total number of customers," he says. Sedlak was asked if Planned Parenthood's recent report was...

Well, we've had a day to digest the Sarah Palin resignation and her reasons why. Looking through the blogosphere it runs the gamet from her being run from office, to a impending scandal, to preparing for a 2012 run. Mark Steyn believes she was run from office: So Occam’s Razor leaves us with: Who needs this? In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You’re a mayor or a state senator or even the governor, but you lead a normal life. The local media are tough on you, but they know you, they live where you...

A conservative black pastor and former NFL linebacker says he's highly offended that President Obama would compare the plight of homosexuals to that of blacks during the Civil Rights Era.On Monday, President Obama told a gathering of homosexuals at the White House that he is aware that many of them "don't believe progress has come fast enough," and compared their struggles to those of blacks during the Civil Rights Movement. Ken Hutcherson, the senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland, Washington, says the comments are especially disturbing from an individual who is supposed to be familiar with "the black experience." "But I...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — daughter of Frank Murkowski, who was defeated by Sarah Palin in the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary — released a statement Friday after the governor announced her decision to leave office by the end of the month. Full text: “I am deeply disappointed that the Governor has decided to abandon the State and her constituents before her term has concluded.” Her office added that the senator was traveling "in interior Alaska and communicating via satellite phone and is unavailable for follow up questions" for the rest of the weekend. Last year, shortly after the GOP...

Good turnout for Clearwater Florida Tea Party at the Perkins Restaurant corner of US19 and Gulf-to-Bay. Estimate at 300+ (unofficial) and good spirits for all participants on a hot day. I know that there are/were other Tea Parties in the Tampa Bay area so 300+ is probably a good turnout. Lots of horn honking and thumbs-up signs.

An elderly couple was in a Toledo hospital Friday after being beaten by two or more men who broke into their rural Gibsonburg residence the day before and robbed them of 31 guns, authorities said. James Kohler, 74, was listed in serious condition and Mary Kohler, 76, was listed in good condition at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center early Friday, a hospital spokesman said.

President Obama, strategizing yesterday with congressional leaders about health-care reform, complained that liberal advocacy groups ought to drop their attacks on Democratic lawmakers and devote their energy to promoting passage of comprehensive legislation. In a pre-holiday call with half a dozen top House and Senate Democrats, Obama expressed his concern over advertisements and online campaigns targeting moderate Democrats, whom they criticize for not being fully devoted to "true" health-care reform. "We shouldn't be focusing resources on each other," Obama opined in the call, according to three sources who participated in or listened to the conversation. "We ought to be focused...

Woke up to a cryptic e-mail this morning from Gov. Sarah Palin's office. All it says is she "will make an announcement at her Wasilla home this morning" at 11. On Fourth of July weekend? From her home? Hmm. My question: why did it have to be so cryptic? She's staying another month on guard -- so just wait until after the holiday, why don'tcha? Maybe she thought that if she waited to make the announcement, she'd reconsider. Or maybe she wanted her July 4 weekend to relax without having to worry about throwing such a curve ball on Monday...

Conventional wisdom suggests that short-term the Palin decision was unwise — e.g., "quitter," unpredictable, sulking, etc. But what else are her critics really going to say? It's not like a Letterman can trump laughing at her on late-night television as he puns that a Yankees star had sex in a dugout with her 14-year old daughter. Can Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic website go beyond his slurs that she did not deliver her own child? How much more cleverly can N.Y. feminist pundits tsk-tsk her that she's a Wasilla trailer-park retread? In other words, it doesn't matter that much what...

Today we celebrate that stirring day in history, July 4, 1812, when the first president of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, emerged from the old State House in Boston, held up the new Constitution freshly penned by Thomas Jefferson of New York, and announced to the cheers of the gathered throng that, "These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent of the crown of Spain!" Who would not wish to have been there, joining in the joyous tumult, as the commander of the Continental Army, Ulysses S. Grant, promptly ordered his men to board the...

Russia, China and the US have all called for calm after North Korea test-fired a series of missiles. Seven Scud-type ballistic missiles with a range of about 500km (312 miles) were fired in an apparent act of defiance against the US, on 4 July. Russia and China called on Pyongyang to return to talks, while a US official urged it not to aggravate tensions. North Korea is banned from all ballistic missile-related activities under UN sanctions. The sanctions were strengthened after the communist nation carried out a second underground nuclear test in May. North Korea has launched a number of...

Investigators have recovered the black box of downed “King of Pop” Michael Jackson, just hours before the search was to be called off. The pop singer’s voice and data recorder is designed to emit signals with an infectious beat for 30 days after an accident.

he boss of Steve Perkins, the broker at the heart of a rogue trading scandal that rocked oil markets this week, issued a bullish report suggesting prices could go higher only hours after Mr Perkins made the unauthorised trades that caused prices to spike. The disclosure raises further questions about internal controls at PVM Oil Associates, the world’s largest oil brokerage. The London-based firm, which revealed on Thursday it had lost $10m (€7.1m, £6.1m) as a result of trades by Mr Perkins, one of its senior brokers, said the trading report was sent to clients at 08.44 in London on...

Honduras rebuffed demands by the international community to reinstate President Manuel Zelaya and pulled out of the Organization of American States

Investigators have recovered the black box of downed “King of Pop” Michael Jackson, just hours before the search was to be called off. The pop singer’s voice and data recorder is designed to emit signals with an infectious beat for 30 days after an accident.

"And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family." (Leviticus 25:10)This verse is especially significant in American history as the verse from which the great exhortation was taken on the first Independence Day: "Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof!" It has ever since been associated with the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, as Americans each year thank God for "the land...

"Palin is running for president, get used to it."

Since the publication of Rahmstorf et al 2007, a highly influential comparison of models to observations, David Stockwell has made a concerted effort to figure out how Rahmstorf smoothing worked. I now have a copy of the program and have worked through the linear algebra. It turns out that Rahmstorf has pulled an elaborate practical joke on the Community, as I'll show below. It must have taken all of Rahmstorf's will-power to have kept the joke to himself for so long and the punch-line (see below) is worth savoring.

BRITAIN'S row with Iran deepened last night after the Tehran government threatened to put British Embassy staff on trial. The Muslim clerics who call the shots in Iran accuse local workers at the embassy of fanning the anti-government protests which followed last month's disputed election. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was urgently trying to speak to his counterpart in Tehran over the legal threat to the staff. Earlier, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of Iran's powerful Guardian Council, claimed embassy workers had confessed to involvement in the protests. Jannati said: "In these events, their embassy had a presence. "Some people...

Notable Quotables Flashback: Ten Months of Media Scorn for Sarah Palin By Rich Noyes Created 2009-07-04 11:23 In announcing that she was stepping down as Alaska Governor on Friday, Sarah Palin noted the unrelenting hostility of liberal media elites. In the barely ten months since she burst onto the national scene, Palin has been scorned and mocked by journalists -- including many supposedly objective reporters -- like few other politicians. Here are a few of the choicer attacks, as compiled from MRC's Notable Quotables [1] newsletter: "She is a far-right conservative who supported Pat Buchanan over George W. Bush in...

Read the following news stories and much more by clicking the excerpt link below: 1. New York Times: “Paleontology and Creationism Meet but Don’t Mesh”In covering a visit by paleontologists to our Creation Museum, a New York Times’ article spreads some misunderstanding including in an associated blog by the reporter). 2. Washington Post: “Among Many Peoples, Little Genomic Variety”A new genetic study of 53 human populations shows that each falls into one of three genetic groups—yet that the three groups aren’t as different as was thought. The legacy of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Noah’s three sons), perhaps? 3. BBC News:...

OCRACOKE, N.C. A fireworks truck exploded this morning on Ocracoke Island, N.C., injuring five to seven people, a dispatcher with the Hyde County Sheriff’s Office said. The explosion occurred at about 9 a.m., he said. Paramedics are transporting the injured people to the hospital for treatment. No additional information was immediately available.

Video at site

Sarah Palin's resignation as Governor of Alaska is a brilliant liberating move for her career, and a potential turning point for the national conservative movement. The biggest problem with her responsibility as Governor of Alaska is that the state is so far away from the rest of America. No one hears of the good work she has been doing there, and the left is free to paint their own false caricature of her. ... I am hoping she spends two weeks of every month now touring the states doing fundraisers for a the sweeping Republican revival in 2010 that is...

Biden on Saddam: 'That S.O.B. is rolling over in his grave' @ 11:19 am by Michael O'Brien Vice President Biden took a shot at the deceased former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during a trip to Iraq this weekend, saying Hussein would be "rolling over in his grave" at the naturalization ceremony held in one of his palaces on Saturday. Biden oversaw a ceremony for members of the armed services to be sworn in as American citizens as part of his weekend-long trip to Iraq. "We did it in Saddam's Palace and I can think of nothing better than," Biden said...

s Obama Defending Zelaya's Attempted Coup in Honduras Because He's Planning the Same in the U.S.? June 30, 2009 (LPAC) - American statesman Lyndon LaRouche today asked if President Barack Obama's support for last week's attempted coup d'etat by former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, is a reflection of Obama's own plans to try something similar in the United States. "All indications are that that is the case," LaRouche asserted. "Obama is betraying the mentality of a fascist dictator. Is he headed for a dictatorship? The pattern points in that direction. He is driving feverishly to impose Nazi health reforms on...

After a disputed election and crackdown on protesters, the Iranian president maybe be feted in some anti-U.S. corners, but he faces slights and snubs from other nations. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly greeted Ahmadinejad at a recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but did not grant him a private meeting as he had the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Belarus, the Iranian leader was met not by President Alexander Lukashenko, but by the speaker of the upper house of parliament. A similar pattern has emerged in the Middle East, where Arab regimes have long been wary of Iran's...

Trieu Duong was killed Thursday afternoon during a robbery at his Fairfield jewelry store. Edward Morsby III was arrested in Virginia and charged with capital murder Perry Cauthen was arrested in southwest Birmingham and charged with capital murder Trieu Duong and his family arrived in the U.S. on the most American of days. It was the Fourth of July. In 1976. And that made it their adopted nation's bicentennial, and a perfect time to embark on the American Dream.

N. Korea using Malaysian bank to deal weapons with Myanmar: source By Sam Kim SEOUL, July 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea sought payment through a bank in Malaysia for its suspected shipment of weapons to Myanmar that is being carried on a freighter tracked by the U.S. Navy, a source said Saturday. The visit by a U.S. envoy to Malaysia this weekend will focus on ways to cut off the payment transaction for the cargo from the bank in Malaysia to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the source said. "Kim will have a hard time collecting his money," the high-level...

The Big Easy is making a big comeback. New Orleans has steadily won back some of the population it lost in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to a government report released Wednesday. New Orleans lost more than half its residents during the deluge. Few large U.S. cities have ever had to cope with disaster on that scale. Since then, it has been one of the country's fastest growing cities. Only a couple of instances can compare. Galveston, Texas, was also devastated by a hurricane in 1900, a storm that remains the most lethal natural disaster in U.S....

The Miami-Dade schools chief has promised he'll continue to provide educational programs to migrant children, but the head of the housing authority says his agency can do better. A day after two schools for migrant children were padlocked, Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho vowed to do everything in his power to reopen them. ''I have decided that it is not our intention to leave,'' Carvalho said outside The Redland Education Center, surrounded by 100 parents, educators and members of the Florida Farmworkers Association. Turning to the farmworkers who bring their children to The Redland and the South Dade Education Centers after...

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles off its eastern coast Saturday, South Korea said, a violation of U.N. resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day. The launches, which came two days after North Korea fired what were believed to be four short-range cruise missiles, will likely further escalate tensions in the region as the U.S. tries to muster support for tough enforcement of the latest U.N. Security Council resolution imposed on the communist regime for its May nuclear test. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said three missiles...

My childhood friend of 31 years visited my home on base, in Quantico, a few months after I gave birth to my first baby. As we took a leisurely stroll one evening through the lingering humidity of early September, I explained to her how different military life is from the world in which we grew up in San Francisco. We passed rows of colorful houses on the tree-lined, manicured blocks and gazed at the playgrounds around the neighborhood, ready to welcome the children of the officers who live there. American flags hung from virtually every front door. The occasional "My...

British forces on a major operation in Afghanistan say they have encountered little resistance from the Taliban. Troops are moving into a large swathe of territory in Helmand province that had been a stronghold for insurgents.

In 2007, a standoff unfolded between China and several American companies, including W.R. Grace, a major supplier of oil refining products. China was threatening to withhold supplies that keep refiners in business.

Chinese baby girls sold for adoption Published: July 2, 2009 at 11:55 PM As many as 80 newborn baby girls from China's southwest Guizhou Province were sold for adoption by foreign parents since 2001, a newspaper probe found. China Daily, quoting the Southern Metropolis News, said the babies were removed from their families by local officials in the province's Zhenyuan county. Most of them were handed over to foreign adoptive parents as orphans at a price of $3,000 each. The report said one poor farming couple, who are among the affected 80 families, had to hand over their fifth baby,...

China plans to extend its peacekeeping operations worldwide, said a senior military official today, as the nation completed its first joint peacekeeping military exercise with Mongolia in Beijing. Lieutenant-General Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army, said the six-day drill was the first joint peacekeeping exercise China held with a foreign nation.

MICHÈLE A. FLOURNOY, one of the highest-ranking women in the history of the Pentagon, did not have a childhood that would immediately suggest a future as a defense policy intellectual who is rethinking how America fights its wars. Her mother was an actress and singer who performed at the Copacabana, the legendary New York nightclub, and was the understudy to Vivian Blaine in “Oklahoma!” on Broadway. Her father was a cinematography director in television at Paramount Studios. She is a 1979 graduate of Beverly Hills High School who spent her summers playing, she said, “a lot of beach volleyball.” But...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu0-i0OxhME On April 3, 2008, Jenny Sanford spoke at the Robert Dole Institute where the topic of discussion was "First Spouses: Changing Roles & Expectations". In the Q&A section she was asked about the Eliot Spitzer case... here is the audio of that... You can watch the whole video of this by searching for "Sanford" on this page: http://www.doleinstitute.com/video/2008/index.shtml

Recently appointed ambassador to the United States Michael Oren warned over the weekend that an Iranian atomic bomb could "wipe Israel off the map in a matter of seconds," and that the Iranians could "accomplish in a matter of seconds what they denied Hitler did, and kill 6 million Jews, literally."