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President Barack Obama will leave the country for a four-nation tour of Asia starting Wednesday despite a host of domestic concerns, including the massacre at Fort Hood, a sharply rising jobless rate, his health care legislation stalled in the Senate and his Afghanistan troop decision still pending. He planned his Nov. 11-19 trip around the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Singapore, but added stops in Japan, China and South Korea. The itinerary reflects the growing importance of East Asia — especially China — to everything from financing U.S. debt and powering the global economic recovery to climate change, disease...

GRAND RAPIDS-- Sarah Palin will be coming to the Woodland Mall Barnes & Noble store in Grand Rapids Nov. 18, her first stop on a tour promoting her book "Going Rogue." The Associated Press reports Palin's tour will begin the day after the book is released and two days after she is interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. A local Barnes & Noble spokesperson confirmed Palin will be at the Woodland store at 3670 28th St SE. Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, will make appearances around the country. HarperCollins spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said Wednesday that the tour will...

The 10th Mountain Division has been to Afghanistan four times since 2001 and twice to Iraq. It is common to meet senior NCOs and captains with three combat tours behind them, an experience unmatched by any generation of US soldiers since Vietnam. But that experience comes at a cost. British soldiers do six-month tours with 18 months off. America’s overstretched soldiers have been doing 12-month tours — and, in the case of 10th Mountain, a 15-month extended tour in 2006-07 — followed by nine months off. When soldiers talk about soaring rates of family breakdown, suicide and PTSD, there is...

Here's a quick video of a tour at the National Museum of American History. The guide talks about the influence of television during the Vietnam war. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7v30EujEnQ

North Carolina Bus Tour To Focus on Putting Patients First in Health Care DebateTour Will Encourage Citizens to Support Free Market Health Care Solutions Tour Begins Sunday in Raleigh, Continues All Week Bus to meet activists in cities and towns all over North Carolina as Patients First tour urges constituent action against a government takeover of health care As members of the North Carolina Congressional Delegation travel to their home districts over the legislative recess to hear from their constituents, Americans for Prosperity’s Patients First Bus Tour will hit the road, too. The tour will urge grassroots activists to speak...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Hip-hop outfit the Beastie Boys have delayed their upcoming tour and album release after founding member Adam Yauch was diagnosed with cancer, the band said Monday. In a video message posted on the band's website, Yauch, better known by his stage name MCA, told fans he was to undergo an operation next week after being diagnosed with cancer in a salivary gland. The 44-year-old musician, who appeared alongside fellow member Adam Horowitz, said in the statement he had noticed a "little lump" in his throat around two months ago which he recently reported to his doctor....

Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin is expected to travel widely, campaigning for Republican candidates after startling America by suddenly quitting her job. One of America's most unconventional politicians, she left the country reeling on Friday evening by declaring that she is resigning her office this month and deriding the "superficial political blood sport." Almost a year after bursting on to the national scene as John McCain's presidential running mate, Mrs Palin, 45, has now made an unpredictable leap into the unknown. Speculation is at fever pitch that she will seek her party's nomination for the 2012 presidential race. Mrs Palin offered...

Today is day one! Armstrong riding. Astana is back! Predictions? Other comments? Does someone have the ping list from last year?

(IsraelNN.com) US President Barack Hussein Obama will tour the German slave labor camp Buchenwald with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later this week, as part of a world outreach tour which will focus on building ties with the Arab world. Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany and made an official visit to Israel in 2007, will accompany the US's left-leaning president through the camp, in which over 56,000 Jews and other prisoners were murdered prior to liberation in 1945. Famed Jewish writer and Buchenwald survivor Elie Wiesel will also accompany the dignitaries.

The radical populus/socialist element in the US seized the opportunity to not "let a crisis go to waste" by opting to harass and demonize fellow US citizens Saturday - AIG families (including those who had already returned their legal bonuses)... So they loaded up a busload of ACORN activists and members of the socialist ACORN/New Party derivative, Working Family Party to tour private residences in protest, and posture for the press. Their agenda was plainly stated by 24 year old musician/activist, Asaad Jackson, then piled on by the Connecticut chapter of the WFP, Jon Green (organizers of the harassment tour)....

Countdown to MAF Heroes’ tour!!!! Tomorrow is the BIG day as we kickstart our nationwide tour that will culminate in a huge surprise for our troops! We at Move America Foward are proud of this year’s venture and we invite all of you to come out and support our troops in our Honoring Heroes at the Holidays II tour. OUr aim is to ship more packages than MAF has ever shipped to our troops over the holidays. Saturday at 9:00 AM sharp we will participate in Sacramento, California’s Vietnam Memorial/Parade. You can find us at 216 O St., Sacramento, Calif.We...

Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1 3rd Infantry’s 1st BCT trains for a new dwell-time mission. Helping ‘people at home’ may become a permanent part of the active Army By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer Posted : Monday Sep 8, 2008 6:15:06 EDT The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys. Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home. Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under...

Barack Obama may have quelled a self-described political "firestorm" by quitting Rev. Jeremiah Wright's controversial "black liberation" church, but the bombastic pastor is preparing to set off a bomb in the homestretch of the Democratic candidate's campaign.

The final chance (most likely) for the riders to shake up the GC. A 32 mile Individual Time Trial. Nice and flat:

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness. The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow....

I can understand Obama traveling to Iraq and Afghanistan to meet with the troops, talk to military leaders, a listen and learn trip – so to speak, as the presumptive Democratic nominee and as Illinois Senator. Sure it is odd that he laid out his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan in an op-ed piece in the New York Times one week before he left, but I will not criticize him for that. I also do not mind his traveling to Israel, our closest ally in the region, knowing full well that he must garnish more support from the Jewish community...

Bwaaa Haaa Haaa Haaa Haaa!!!I love this stage!At least it's not steep.

Fresh off his tour of heart clinics throughout America, Barak Obama has announced his intention to perform a heart transplant at Johns Hopkins within days. "I have seen the clinics, I've spoken to doctors, nurses, and assistants, and my skill with scalpel and suction has now been tried and tested through careful observation." "I also remind you that for 143 days I was intimately involved in the health care debate in the Senate and for another year on the campaign trail." "What more experience could anyone demand?" asked an incredulous Obama. My heart surgery tour should put to rest any...

Barack Obama is going on a five nation middle east tour accompanied by all three network news anchors, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Kouric. This is effectively an around the clock campaign commercial designed to play him in the best light to all of America on the 6:00 o'clock news. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

Another day in the Massif Central with a nice, fast finish.

Tour de France Stage 6

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Jan. 28, 2008 – When the “Legends of Wrestling” tour rolled in here Jan. 26, servicemembers and civilians gathered at the Morale, Welfare and Recreation clamshell to take part in the festivities. Army Pfc. Michael Grandi Jr., Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, holds the WCW Championship belt with wrestling greats (from left to right) Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart, Diamond Dallas Page, and Nicholai Volkoff during the "Legends of Wrestling" tour that came to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, Jan. 26, 2008. Photo by Spc. George Welcome,...

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Dec. 17, 2007 – Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael G. Mullen is bringing United Service Organizations entertainers to visit with troops in seven countries in the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe through the next week. Airmen at a Southwest Asia air base enjoy the comedy of Robin Williams during the first stop of the 2007 USO holiday tour, Dec. 17, 2007. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, USN  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “We want to thank as many servicemembers as we can,” Mullen said. “The holidays are...

As security improves in Iraq, pressure is building to reverse one of the most onerous decisions Defense Secretary Robert Gates made to enable President Bush's troop buildup to go forward this year: extending the tours of active-duty soldiers from 12 months to 15 months. The extra three months is a weighty burden, both physically and psychologically, for soldiers already stressed by multiple tours, and on families coping with strains that have mounted since the war began in 2003. "We can't sustain that," Gen. George Casey, who was the top U.S. commander in Iraq before becoming the Army chief of staff...

It appears that Page, Plant and Jones are planning a reunion with Bonham's son, Jason, on drums.

Spc. Mollie Bixler, a cook assigned to 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, attached to the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, poses in front of a flag at the unit’s headquarters building at Forward Operating Base Falcon, Aug. 30, 2007. Bixler is the only female in the battalion’s tactical operations center. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Robert Timmons U.S. Army Spc. Mollie Bixler Soldier From Michigan Embraces Change in Second Iraq Tour By Sgt. 1st Class Robert Timmons 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.1st Infantry Division CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq, Sept. 6, 2007 —...

Rest day today.

NEW ORLEANS - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards blamed President Bush and the federal government for this city's slow recovery from Hurricane Katrina as he launched an eight-state campaign tour focused on alleviating poverty. "He made the people of New Orleans a very specific promise that has not been met," Edwards said, referring to Bush's promise soon after the August 2005 storm that the city would be rebuilt. Edwards, who formally kicked off his race for the Democratic nomination in New Orleans in December, returned to the city Sunday for a tour of the Lower 9th Ward, a low-income area...

No racing today.