KSBY
Congressman honored for his work getting military photos back on display at the Paso Robles Post Office
Posted: Nov 20, 2007 10:58 AM EST
Monday, November 19, 2007
Reported by: Kory Raftery
PASO ...
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Wounded Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back
Marty Griffin PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.
To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.
Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.
One of them is Jordan Fox, a young soldier from the South Hills.
He finds solace in the hundreds of boxes he loads onto a truck in Carnegie. ...
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Father of fallen Texas soldier fulfills son's last wish
(11/19/07 - GALVESTON, TX) - A pair of flags has helped the father of a Texas soldier killed in Iraq fulfill his son's final wish.
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Town Raises Money For Fallen Soldier's Family
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Wisconsin Soldier Adopts Iraqi Boy
Port protest cases could swamp Olympia municipal court
Associated Press
Last updated: Monday, November 19th, 2007 09:40:59 AM
OLYMPIA -- The Olympia city attorney's office has charged two anti-war demonstrators with misdemeanors for blocking military equipment at the Port of Olympia.
The two pleaded not guilty last week to charges of pedestrian interference, resisting arrest or obstructing a peace officer. If convicted they could face up to 90 days in jail.
City Attorney Tom Morrill says it remains to be seen whether all the people who were arrested will be charged in Olympia Municipal Court. The court only has two prosecutors and one judge.
Demonstrators didn't stop military equipment from Iraq from returning to Fort ...
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Analysis: Iran's secret Syrian plan
By OLIVIER GUITTAPublished: November 19, 2007
Syria's President Bashar Assad: Syria's President Bashar Assad. KRT
Print StoryIsrael has been providing intelligence and satellite images to the U.S. about a secret Syrian nuclear program for several months, according to media reports. Discussions between Israel and the United States took place last summer regarding a possible strike. But when Israel found the matter so pressing that when they realized the U.S. was not ready to act, on September 6 they attacked a Syrian nuclear site. Hence the question: what is Syria really up to or more to the point what is Iran up to?
First, let's start with an underreported explosion that occurred in a Syrian military base outside Aleppo on July 26. Jane's Defense Weekly reported, citing Syrian ...
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'60 Minutes' airs video of Omar Khadr
COLIN FREEZE
From Monday's Globe and Mail
November 19, 2007 at 12:33 AM EST
CBS News has broadcast shocking new footage of a Canadian terrorism suspect allegedly building bomb timers and planting land mines while he was a 15-year-old militant hoping to take on American soldiers in Afghanistan.
The footage, some of it shot on a night-vision camera by alleged al-Qaeda fighters before it was seized by U.S. forces after a deadly ...
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Websites That Spread Misinformation About Islamic Teachings
Adil Salahi, Arab News
Q. I read on a website that answers queries about Islam that it is right to force non-Muslims to accept Islam, even through war. The person who answered the question says that the verse stating that ‘there is no compulsion in religion’ has been abrogated by verses 8: 39 and 9: 5. Please comment.
A. Taqui
A. We need to be wary when we read something on the Internet. Cyber space is open to all and no one can have control over what is written. There are many sites that are hostile to Islam, but there are several which manage their hostility in a subtle way. They try to appear objective, or indeed Islamic, but they often resort to half-truths, or ...
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Bombs strike children, US troops in Iraq By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber detonated his explosives as American soldiers were handing out toys to children northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least three children and three of the troopers, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said.
Seven children were wounded in the attack in Baqouba, where U.S. soldiers wrested control from al-Qaida in Iraq last summer.
The attack, along with a series of other blasts in the capital and to the north, underlined the uncertainty of security in Iraq even as the American military said overall violence is down 55 percent since a troop buildup began this year.
Police said the attack occurred as U.S. soldiers were handing out toys, sports equipment and other treats in a playground near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. ...
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Racist e-mail via Obama site: suit
'TELL A FRIEND' | Firm says notes claimed to be from CEO
November 18, 2007
BY STEVE PATTERSON Staff Reporter spatterson@suntimes.com
An unknown person used Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign Web site to send out threatening and derogatory e-mails to employees at a Texas-based company, according to a lawsuit filed by the company Friday in Cook County Circuit Court.
Like many Web sites, Obama's has a function to "tell a friend" or "pass the word," allowing a visitor to fill in e-mail addresses in the "to" and "from" lines.
The suit, filed against a John Doe and seeking in excess of $30,000, claims someone sent e-mails to all employees of CCR Technologies in September, each time claiming they were from the CEO. ...
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The event had all the makings of a celebration: A large crowd of dignitaries, medical personnel, and civilians gathered for the opening of an emergency room at Khost City Hospital in Afghanistan. It was a scene that would not have taken place during the reign of the Taliban – and a scene the enemies of a free Afghanistan try to prevent at all costs. On February 20, 2007, Staff Sgt. Jason Fetty, at great personal risk, thwarted a suicide attack at the hospital, and saved countless people. For his actions, he was given the Silver Star, the first ...
Iran says its nuclear programme is only for peaceful purposes
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to discuss with Arab nations a plan to enrich uranium outside the region in a neutral country such as Switzerland.
He made the announcement in an interview for Dow Jones Newswires in Saudi Arabia where he is attending a petroleum exporters' summit.
Gulf Arab states recently proposed setting up a consortium to provide nuclear fuel to Iran and others.
The scheme could allay fears Iran is enriching uranium for a nuclear bomb.
Iran has insisted that its right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme is not up for negotiation.
UN sanctions
Mr Ahmadinejad's comments come after moves by Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey to facilitate talks between Iran and the US. ...
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Maryland bill opposes illegals as drivers
By Tom LoBianco
November 17, 2007
ANNAPOLIS — A Republican senator plans to introduce a bill today during the General Assembly's special session that would bar illegal aliens from getting driver's licenses in Maryland.
Sen. E.J. Pipkin, Eastern Shore Republican, said he will introduce the measure with a second bill calling on officials to conduct a study to determine how much the state spends providing services to illegal aliens.
"The Annapolis tax-and-spend crowd has spent the last three weeks raising taxes. I introduced a billion dollars in spending cuts, and the Senate refused to adopt them," Mr. Pipkin said. "I am now asking the legislature to take action concerning illegal aliens and their impact on the ...
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Migrants lose jobs as law nears
Employers verifying status fire hundreds, attorneys say
Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 18, 2007 12:00 AM
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of undocumented workers have been fired as a result of Arizona businesses reviewing the work-eligibility forms of their employees as the state's new employer-sanctions law draws near.
The fired workers couldn't provide missing information uncovered during the reviews or confessed to being in the country illegally, say attorneys involved in the reviews.
The number of firings could grow significantly once the law goes into effect Jan. 1 as employers scramble to make sure they are in compliance. ...
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Sikhs-for-Clinton Fund-Raiser Scuttled for 'Security Reasons'
By JOSH GERSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
November 16, 2007 updated 11/17/07 12:23 am EST
A $1-million fund-raiser Sikhs were planning to hold in Bakersfield, Calif. on Sunday morning for Senator Clinton's presidential campaign has been abruptly canceled, or at least postponed, people familiar with the event said today.
The invitations said both Mrs. Clinton and President Clinton were to attend, a rare occurrence that signals the large sums that were expected and the political pull of the organizers.
"It was canceled for security reasons," a person behind the $1000-a-plate breakfast, Sharnjit Dhaliwal, told The New York Sun today. She initially would not elaborate on the problem, but said they were hoping to stage the event later.
A Democratic Party official in Kern County, Calif. ...
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US and Israel 'face up to' Iran bomb
By Philip Sherwell in New York and Matthew Kalman in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 1:25am GMT 18/11/2007
America and Israel are secretly drawing up plans to deal with an Iran that has acquired nuclear weapons, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.
Teheran's two arch-foes are preparing for what they have long declared is an unacceptable scenario, as the prospects for air strikes to cripple Iran's nuclear network fade, and China and Russia undermine efforts to forge an international sanctions regime.
Israel's air force trains for possible long-range raids, and bombed a suspected nuclear site in Syria recently. But military chiefs face the same intelligence problems as the US as well as refuelling difficulties if they cannot fly over hostile Arab states to reach Iran.
Israel is believed to be ...
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$3 million will restart virtual border watch
El Paso Times Staff
Article Launched: 11/18/2007 12:00:00 AM MST
By Brandi Grissom
Austin Bureau
AUSTIN -- More than a year and a half after Gov. Rick Perry promised to put hundreds of cameras on the border and broadcast live footage of undocumented border crossers on the Web, the project is about to become reality.
Perry has found $3 million to restart his virtual border watch program, and the cameras could be up and running by January, a spokeswoman said. Though, she added, it might take longer to make the footage available online.
"We're going to put these cameras in strategic high-traffic areas along the border," spokeswoman Allison Castle said.
During his re-election campaign in 2006, Perry promised to put hundreds of cameras on the Texas-Mexico border and broadcast the video over the Web so ...
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18 November 07 - 01:12"Son of Sam" Killer to benefit from Spitzer deal ?
Courier life
Stricken family protests murderer’s possible parole
Senator Marty Golden, who stood with the Ryman family Saturday, said that Governor Spitzer’s deal would favor the rights of violent criminals, “even Sam Berkowitz, the ‘Son of Sam.’”
“The effort to provide 1,000 of New York State’s most vicious criminals with another opportunity to be released from prison is an outrageous threat to public safety that must be stopped,” Golden said. “If this policy is approved, we are endangering the welfare of all New Yorkers and challenging the progress made in fighting crime, reducing homicides, and preventing robberies here in the Empire State.”
Speaking of Young, Golden said: “Those who kill police officers, and all citizens, do not deserve another chance to be a free member of our society.”
King of the road? Soldiers dig the MRAP
Troops learning fast the benefits of new vehicles
By Scott Schonauer, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, November 18, 2007
BAGHDAD — As the convoy rumbles down the dust-and-gravel road on Camp Liberty, heads turn and cars stop. Some people whip out digital cameras to steal a snapshot, while others strain their necks to get a glimpse.
Among military machines, the new MRAP — a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle — is a celebrity and everybody wants a look.
“When we go by, it’s like everybody comes out,” said Dimethus Thompson, a former soldier who is now training soldiers to drive the ...
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Tehran, Nov 17, IRNA
Canada-Human Rights Violations
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini on Saturday expressed outrage over alarming human rights violations in Canada.
Canada's treatment of immigrants and workers has gone on spotlight of the international organizations expressing alarm over violation of human rights by Canada.
International Workers' Rights Advocate, Director of Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Janek Kuczkiewicz protested to Canadian authorities against violations of rights of immigrant workers.
International organizations also have expressed abhorrence over violation of human rights by the Canadian police.
Citing murders of Iranian expatriates Keyvan Tabesh and Barghi as well as Polish immigrant, Zaniewska, as examples of human rights violations, ...
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Three U.S. Agencies Reviewing Decision to Export High-Tech Support to Syria
Last Edited: Saturday, 17 Nov 2007, 3:43 PM MST
Created: Saturday, 17 Nov 2007, 2:13 PM MST
By George Russell
Officials from three U.S. agencies are now reviewing their records over the past three years to see if permission should have been granted for a major American computer company to ship "sensitive" technology to Syria, a state sponsor of terrorism.
The gap between the Bush Administration’s anti-Syrian rhetoric and reality emerges in the book-keeping of the $5.2 billion United Nations Development Program, the U.N.’s flagship development agency, which has come under heavy fire for its improper funneling of cash to the regime of North Korean dictator and nuclear proliferator Kim Jong Il.
...
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Rep. John Murtha|
Two Years after I Called for a Redeployment of U.S. Forces from Iraq, Bush Refuses to Provide the American People with a Responsible Exit Strategy
It requires the redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq to begin within 30 days, with a target for completion of December 15, 2008. It ensures that our troops are fully trained and equipped before they are sent to Iraq. It extends the Army Field Manual to all personnel, making torture not only unacceptable but also unlawful. And it transitions our forces from a combat roll to specifically supporting and training Iraqi Security Forces and counterterrorism operations.
Analysis: Richardson defends undocumented immigrants licenses
Barry Massey, Associated Press
Saturday, November 17, 2007
About 45,000 licenses have been issued to people without a Social Security number. That's about 3.6 percent of all the licensed drivers in New Mexico. Ortiz assumes most of the 45,000 are foreign nationals, but the state doesn't know how many are illegal immigrants because immigration status information isn't collected by MVD.
So will Bush nuke Iran?
By MICHAEL BURLEIGH - More by this author »
Last updated at 11:38am on 17th November 2007
Ignoring the West's requests: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Increasingly powerful voices in the U.S. are urging war against Iran to stop the country acquiring nuclear weapons. This week, in his Mansion House foreign policy speech, Gordon Brown declared the U.S. to be Britain's greatest ally and stressed that Iran's nuclear programme was a matter of concern. But how could the ...
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Anti-war demonstrators protest military ship unloading in Olympia
Nov 6, 9:57 AM EST
Nearly 40 people were arrested at the port during protests in late May 2006 when the same unit's equipment was loaded onto a ship bound for the Middle East. All charges were dropped because of document-handling problems and errors by prosecutors and sheriff's deputies. Last week, Port Commission President Paul Telford contacted two peace activists, City Council member TJ Johnson and Lawrence Mosqueda, a professor at The Evergreen State College, to inform them of the impending arrival of the Brittin and to seek their aid in avoiding trouble this time.A private security firm has been hired, Telford added.
...
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“I’m going to be like Dan Rather on YouTube,” joked Couric in her video, alluding to Rather by fiddling with her coat. “Geez, don’t you think he deserves a little payback?”
She then added, laughing: “This tart is ready to go!”
Brazil eyes nuclear sub to defend oil By ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press Writer
Fri Nov 16, 12:36 PM ET
SAO PAULO, Brazil - This month's discovery of a monster offshore oil reserve justifies Brazil's plan to build a nuclear submarine because it would be used to protect the find, the defense minister said.
"When you have a large natural source of wealth discovered in the Atlantic, it's obvious you need the means to protect it," Nelson Jobim said Thursday at a defense conference in Rio de Janeiro.
Jobim said Brazil must safeguard the Tupi field and its 5 billion to 8 billion barrels of oil reserves from other nations and from "actions that could come from the area of terror," the government's Agencia Brasil news service reported.
Brazil has been talking about building a nuclear submarine for decades, but the project got a boost in July ...
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Iran has been blocked many times from buying nuclear materials
By Warren Hoge Published: November 16, 2007
UNITED NATIONS, New York: Iran has been denied purchases of nuclear-related materials at least 75 times over the past nine years because of suspicions the purchases could have been used for building bombs, an international monitoring group says.
The denials, most of which have occurred since 2002, have resulted from interventions by members of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, an offshoot of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The suppliers group is charged with monitoring trade to make sure that nuclear technology transferred for peaceful purposes is not directed to military use. Iran is a signatory to the treaty but not a member of the suppliers group.
Made up of representatives of technologically ...
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Fake gold and silver Ron Paul coins seized
Federal agents raid 'Liberty Dollar' headquarters in Indiana
updated 12:28 p.m. ET, Fri., Nov. 16, 2007
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Federal agents raided the headquarters of a group that produces illegal currency and puts it in circulation, seizing gold, silver and two tons of copper coins featuring Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.
Agents also took records, computers and froze the bank accounts at the "Liberty Dollar" headquarters during the Thursday raid, Bernard von NotHaus, founder of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act & Internal Revenue Code, said in a posting on the group's Web site.
The organization, which is critical of the Federal Reserve, has repeatedly clashed with the federal government, which contends that the gold, silver and copper coins it ...
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Gov. Spitzer eyes deal in suit to spring heinous killers
BY JOE MAHONEY in Albany and THOMAS ZAMBITO in New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Thursday, November 8th 2007, 9:43 AM
A rogue's gallery of cop killers, arsonists and rapists would win new parole hearings under a deal being worked out with the Spitzer administration.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer will fight felons' lawsuit
Thursday, November 15th 2007, 4:00 AM
ALBANY - Gov. Spitzer has opted to fight a lawsuit that ultimately could have speeded up ...
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Afghanistan: Bin Laden hiding in border mountains, claims ex-Taliban militant
Swat Valley, 15 Nov. (AKI) - Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was hiding in the remote mountains on the Afghani-Pakistani border and moving constantly to avoid detection by intelligence agencies, according to a Taliban sympathiser.
Ahmad Farooq, a Pakistani Pashtun has told the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, that bin Laden had been moving from village to village in the area from Chitral to the "corridor of Waqan", the mountainous Hindu Kush region of Pakistan bordering Tajikstan and China.
It is a rare account of bin Laden's life since he ...
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Taliban kill Afghan boy for teaching English: police By Elyas Wahdat
Thu Nov 15, 7:22 AM ET
KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban militants shot dead a teenage boy in southeastern Afghanistan for teaching English to his classmates, police said on Thursday.
Taliban militants have killed a number of teachers and students in recent years for attending government-run schools, taking part in classes for girls or what the hardline Islamist militants consider un-Islamic subjects.
Armed men arrived at the school in the Sayed Karam district of Paktia province and grabbed a 16-year-old student and dragged him outside.
"Taliban militants took the boy out and killed him outside the school just because he was teaching English to his classmates," said General Esmatullah Alizai, the police chief of Paktia ...
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UK court agrees radical cleric's U.S. extradition
Thu Nov 15, 2007 11:22am ET
LONDON (Reuters) - A British court ruled Thursday that radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri could be extradited to the United States to face terrorism charges including trying to set up an al Qaeda training camp in Oregon.
Egyptian-born Hamza, 49, serving a seven-year jail term in Britain for inciting his followers to murder nonbelievers, is wanted by U.S. authorities on 11 charges.
The U.S. indictment accuses Hamza -- who had a hook in place of a missing hand -- of attempting to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, ...
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15 November 07 - 00:15Become a Volunteer at the Cindy Sheehan Peace Award !
The mind boggles at the potential
http://www.cranbrookpeace.org/
Want to attend the Annual Lecture, but can't afford it? Consider volunteering!
We have a number of volunteer needs for the Annual Lecture, and in return for your services we'll give you a complimentary ticket. We will have volunteer trainings at Cobo Hall in Detroit on Tues. Nov. 6, 6-8:30 pm and Thurs. Nov. 15, 6-8:30 pm at which you will receive your complimentary ticket. In both cases we'll meet in lower atrium area just behind the statue of Joe Louis. The Michigan Peace Team will also be joining us on Nov. 15 to train those interested in being security volunteers in nonviolent conflict prevention tactics. Our special thanks to Michigan Peace Team and Veterans for Peace for their assistance.
Click on the following links to volunteer:
- Youth & Sheehan Dialogue Assistant
- Youth & Sheehan Greeters
Boston Common visitors get line to Iran
By GLEN JOHNSON ~ The Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) -- It was a diplomatic hot line for the people: a red phone in Boston Common with a sign inviting passers-by to speak directly to someone in Iran.
"May I ask how the U.S. is portrayed in the media?" said Sarah Shugars, 24, an Emerson College master's student who was the first to take the phone. Organizers said a 25-year-old artist was on the other end in Iran, though they wouldn't give her name or hometown for fear of Iranian reprisals.
The translator, a 29-year-old MIT student from Iran, also would only provide her first name, Rana, for fear of fallout from her home government.
Islam links Saudi - Iran ties: Saudi official
Saudi Arabia-Iran, Politics, 11/14/2007
Saudi Prosecutor General Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Fahd Abdullah said today that close ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia would be to the benefit of Muslim World.
The Saudi official made the remarks in a meeting with Iran's Ambassador to Riyadh Muhammad Hosseini.
Referring to the current good ties between the two countries, the Saudi official expressed pleasure with the current level of ties between the two countries.
Given the cultural, historical and religious bonds, there is no reason for any rift between the two countries, he said. "We are happy to see that Iran's governing rules are based on Islamic Sharia," he said. The Iranian ambassador, for his part, referred to "plots hatched by the enemies of Islam" who try to ...
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Washington, Spitzer directed blame toward a federal government that "has lost control of its borders," let millions of illegal immigrants into the country, "and now has no solution to deal with it."
While he said he continued to believe the licensing plan was a practical way to increase security and make roads safer, "fear-mongering" forces who equated immigrant dishwashers with Osama Bin Laden and a driver's license with "a passport to terror and a license to kill" were too strong.
Democratic presidential-nomination hopeful and Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich railed against President Bush's administration and an overall mindset promoting war on Monday at the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Islamic Center.
Approximately 70 people saw Kucinich speak mostly on foreign policy, calling for a new "era of diplomacy."
Kucinich, a two-time long-shot, ran for president unsuccessfully in 2004, and he currently has nearly 1-percent support among likely Iowa caucus attendees in most polls.
He has been a vocal critic of the Bush White House, and he recently attempted to bring articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. ...
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Obama says he has no Illinois records By MIKE BAKER and CHRISTOPHER WILLS, Associated Press Writers
RALEIGH, N.C. - Barack Obama, who's been scolding Hillary Rodham Clinton for not hastening the release of records from her time as first lady, says he can't step up and produce his own records from his days in the Illinois state Senate. He says he hasn't got any.
"I don't have — I don't maintain — a file of eight years of work in the state Senate because I didn't have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records," he said at a recent campaign stop in Iowa. He said he wasn't sure where any cache of records might have gone, adding, "It could have been ...
Voters May Dump Spitzer Because Of License Plan
ALBANY (AP) ― Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to provide illegal immigrants with driver's licenses has sunk his favorability rating to an all-time low of 41 percent, and has left only 25 percent of voters planning to re-elect him, according to a poll the Siena Research Institute released Tuesday.
Forty-six percent had an unfavorable opinion of Spitzer, and 49 percent said they would "prefer someone else" as the next governor. Last month, 54 percent of voters had a favorable opinion of the governor.
Swiss gunman injures one
Nov 13, 2007 10:01 PM
A lone gunman used a military assault rifle to fire on a dozen worshipers at an Islamic centre in French-speaking Switzerland, injuring one seriously, police said.
A 23-year-old local man, described by police as a practicing Swiss Muslim, was detained in connection with the attack.
Police had scrambled to intercept a man carrying a weapon openly on the streets of Bussigny-pres-Lausanne near the lakeside city of Lausanne, according to a police statement.
The man entered the centre and fired over a dozen rounds toward a prayer room, police spokesman Jean-Christophe Sauterel said.
"He injured one person seriously before worshipers immobilised him on the ground," police said.
Sauterel said a possible motive for the shooting had not been established and that the man had acted alone. ...
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Spitzer Could Soon Seek To Nationalize License Debate
By JACOB GERSHMAN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
November 13, 2007
Governor Spitzer is considering a new strategy to redirect the flood of criticism of his plan to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, administration sources said.
Members of the governor's administration are debating whether to nationalize the issue by drawing attention away from the controversy over New York licenses and pushing it toward other issues — what they see as the failure of the federal government to determine a proper path to legal citizenship for millions of illegal aliens or develop a better way to tighten border enforcement.
In doing so, Mr. Spitzer would be seeking to change the perception that his policy is a rogue attempt to treat illegal aliens as legal residents, and to insist that it's ...
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Top militant’ seized for harbouring Al QaedaPublished: Tuesday, 13 November, 2007, 01:27 AM Doha Time
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces yesterday seized a top militant accused of harbouring Al Qaeda insurgents, beheading troops and supplying arms to a rebel cleric in the country’s northwest, officials said.
The man was captured in the northwestern Swat Valley, a former tourist spot where Pakistani troops are battling pro-Taliban Islamists seeking to impose Shariah law, security officials said.
Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad confirmed that security forces had arrested a “top suspect involved in militancy.”
“He is under interrogation. The man identified himself as Parwant and says he is local,” Arshad said, adding the man’s real name was not yet known. ...
Gays should be hanged, says Iranian ministerDominic Kennedy
Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference, The Times has learnt.
Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest-ranked politician to admit that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality after a spate of reports that gay youths were being hanged.
Britain regularly challenges Iran about its gay hangings, stonings and executions of adulterers and perceived moral criminals, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) papers show.
The latest row involves a woman hanged this June in the town of Gorgan after becoming pregnant by her brother. He was absolved after expressing his remorse. ...
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This week, Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, plans to introduce legislation to bar states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington offer driving privileges to illegal immigrants, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
"It gives identification to people here illegally and people who could be terrorists," King says. "It encourages or rewards illegal immigrants.
British forces to capitalise on Taliban 'split'
By Tom Coghlan in Sangin, Helmand province
Last Updated: 1:39am GMT 13/11/2007
British commanders have pushed an armoured column deep into Taliban-held territory in southern Afghanistan, threatening the stronghold of Musa Qala as commanders seek to capitalise on a rift within enemy ranks.
Senior British officers told The Daily Telegraph that the convoy of more than 50 armoured vehicles from the Scots Guards is designed to "disrupt and confuse" the Taliban.
Activists Already Planning RNC Disruptions
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ― Shrouded in black, with a bandanna masking her face, the self-proclaimed anarchist slips into her combat boots and dashes through town, tossing a Molotov cocktail here, launching a bowling ball there.
The YouTube video is more parody than threat: The flaming cocktail ignites a charcoal grill, and the bowling ball knocks down pins instead of crashing through a Navy recruiting office window.
71% Have Favorable Opinion of U.S. Military
Friday, November 09, 2007
This Veterans Day, 71% of adults have a favorable opinion of the U.S. military. A Rasmussen Reports
national telephone survey found that just 11% hold an unfavorable view while 18% who are not sure.
Those with a favorable opinion of the military include 76% of men and 67% of women. From a generational
perspective, 65% of those under 40 have a positive opinion of the military along with 76% of those over
40. On a partisan basis, 81% of Republicans offer a favorable opinion along with 60% of Democrats and 70%
of unaffiliateds.
This action figure represents Real Hero Sgt. Tommy Rieman, who is literally the face of America's Army's new "True Soldiers" for X-Box 360. The program is scheduled to release four action figures in Toys "R" Us stores by the end of August and two more later this year. Photo by Don Wagner
Click below to see his picture and read more about him
Sgt. Rieman and his team were sent on a reconnaissance mission near the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq on Dec. 3, 2003. Before reaching its destination, the three-vehicle convoy came under heavy enemy fire. ...
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Parole for criminals sees big boost under Gov. Eliot Spitzer
BY JOE MAHONEY and CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Sunday, November 11th 2007, 4:44 AM
Harry Morrison free after serving 27 years.
Maurice Murrell free after serving 23 years.
Gerald Balone free after serving 30+ years.
New York parole officials are speeding up the release of hard-core criminals who spent decades behind bars - including violent murderers and cop killers.
Parole boards under Gov. Spitzer are springing jailbirds at a far higher rate than they did during Gov. George Pataki's administration, state Division of Parole ...
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Al Qaeda Loses Its Tail
November 9, 2007: The various terrorist groups in Iraq, especially the Sunni Arabs and al Qaeda, appear to be having supply problems. In a word, the enemy is running out of ammunition. Their logistical "tail" is being chopped to bits. Captured documents and prisoner interrogations mention these shortages. There are other signs as well. Many of the bomb factories, or bomb storage sites, are full of homemade explosives. Apparently most of the Saddam era, ready-made stuff, is gone. Most of the pre-2003 military explosives have been found and destroyed by American combat engineers over the last four years.
"Fatal Error" Changed Nuclear History
New Book Claims That The U.S. Turned A Blind Eye To Pakistan's Black Market Dealings
NEW YORK, Nov. 9, 2007
(CBS) By CBS News producer Wendy Krantz.
As searing images of Pakistani policemen with automatic weapons and riot gear appeared this week on our network and elsewhere, hours after Gen. Pervez Musharraf imposed martial law, two dogged investigators for the National Security News Service suggest in a new book that we may be one step away from a catastrophic meltdown in a country where the Taliban, al Qaeda and nuclear weapons are all in play.
Bush's loyal 'families of the fallen'
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg Published: November 9, 2007
WASHINGTON: Late one night last year, while her husband was a U.S. Army scout in Iraq, Melissa Storey sat in the quiet of her bedroom to write President George W. Bush a letter. She wanted him to know that "we believed in him." And after Staff Sergeant Clint Storey, 30, was killed by a roadside bomb, his widow put pen to paper again.
"I felt like I needed to let him know I don't hate him because my husband is dead," she said, "that I don't blame him for Clint dying over there."
The correspondence did not go unnoticed. In May, Storey received a surprise telephone call from the White House inviting her to a Memorial Day reception there. As she mingled about, too nervous to eat, her 5-year-old ...
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Venezuela's Chavez condemns opposition By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez condemned Venezuela's opposition on Friday for resorting to "fascist violence" in protesting constitutional changes that would greatly expand his power, but he did not respond to accusations that his government is responsible for the upheaval.
Portraying his political foes as anti-democratic right-wingers, Chavez accused opponents of seeking help from Washington and Venezuela's military.
"I urge the people of the right not to go down the fascist path," Chavez told state ...
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Giuliani faults Bill Clinton's military spending
JONATHAN ROOS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Ames, Ia. —Republican Rudy Giuliani, campaigning in Iowa the same day that Bill Clinton was in the Hawkeye State, charged today that the former president had weakened the American military and intelligence services through spending cuts during his administration.
“Our military is too small to deal with the Islamic terrorism threats, but it really is too small to deter would-be aggressors to even think of challenging us. And that’s due to Bill Clinton,” Giuliani told students and others in the audience of about 350 at Iowa State University’s Memorial Union.
“Bill Clinton cut our military and our intelligence budget by such a huge amount that we’ve never made up the difference,” said the former New York ...
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Liberal members warn Dem leaders on SCHIP
By Jonathan E. Kaplan
November 09, 2007
Some liberal House Democrats are warning leadership officials that they are going too far in seeking to strike a deal with Republicans on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Leading black, Hispanic, Asian and progressive lawmakers sent a letter on Tuesday to Democratic leaders objecting to making further compromises that they say would make proof-of-citizenship requirements more stringent and cut funds to minority outreach programs.
“We are deeply concerned by the continued compromises that we may be asked to make on ...
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Stem-cell, tax-relief initiatives defeated
By Maria Panaritis
In a stunning blow to Gov. Corzine's plan to turn New Jersey into a national leader in biomedical research, voters yesterday refused to approve $450 million in grants for stem-cell research.
Voters also defeated a measure favored by the Democratically controlled Legislature to set aside a half-cent of last year's penny sales-tax increase for property-tax relief. It was the first time in 17 years that Garden State voters defeated ballot initiatives.
SEATTLE, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Two U.S.-based e-mail services, Microsoft and Yahoo!, have taken Iran off their country lists.
Yahoo! issued a statement saying it continually reviews its business operations to comply with U.S. restrictions on "conducting business in specified countries, such as Iran."
"Consistent with this policy, our current practice is to not accept registrations from countries subject to these restrictions," the company said.Microsoft had no comment, said The Register, a British Web site covering the online world.
Iran remains an option for Google G-mail users. The company said it did not believe that keeping Iran on its country list violates the sanctions.
Journalist or enemy combatant?
St. Paul, Minn. — Minnesota's 5th District congressman Keith Ellison is calling for a trial for a journalist being detained in Guantanamo. Sami al-Haj was a camera man for the news service Al-Jazeera in 2001 when he was covering the war in Afghanistan.
Anti-Photo ID Legislation Would Promote Election Fraud, Says Group
Washington, D.C. - Legislation introduced by Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) to prohibit photo ID requirements for voting in federal elections would promote election fraud, say members of the black ...
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Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, right, greets representative of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, Ivan Marquez after a meeting at the presidential palace in Caracas, Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Gregorio Marrero)
Political storm hints at Chávez rift with army
By Benedict Mander in Caracas
Published: November 8 2007 21:30 | Last updated: November 8 2007 21:30
President Hugo Chávez caused a stir earlier this year when he ordered members of Venezuela’s armed forces to salute their superiors with the words “Fatherland, Communism or Death!”
It fuelled debate in the military over its ...
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1 arrested at Olympia anti-war protest Thu Nov 8, 10:54 AM ET
OLYMPIA, Wash. - Police made one arrest and used batons to clear roads as demonstrators tried to keep military convoys from leaving the Port of Olympia.
Protesters tried to run in front of the convoys and others dumped garbage on roads Wednesday night to try to halt the transport of gear for an Army Stryker brigade that recently returned to nearby Fort Lewis from Iraq.
The demonstrations began peacefully, with more than 100 protesters chanting slogans, but rose in intensity as the night wore on.
Police kept their use of force to a minimum, said Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad.
"We've had officers spit on tonight," Bjornstad said. "They've had to put up with an awful lot."
Counter-Terrorism
Fatal Jealousy
November 7, 2007: One thing that keeps the Islamic world favorably disposed towards Islamic terrorism is
widespread fear and hatred of the Western world.Opinion surveys continue to show that Moslems hate and
fear the West, more than Westerns hate and fear Moslems (despite the growth of Islamic terrorism.)
The fear comes largely from the poor economic, political and scientific performance of the Moslem,
especially the Arab, world when compared to the West. It's a perverse expression of jealousy and resentment.
There are practical reasons for this lack of progress. For example, the Arab world didn't adopt printing
until two centuries after it became common in the West. ...
07 November 07 - 20:29Non Citisens being allowed to vote ?
O kaayyy
Illegal immigration debate extends to voting booth
Allowing non-citizens to cast ballots being considered by more cities
By EUNICE MOSCOSO
Cox News Service
Published on: 11/07/07
Should non-citizens be allowed to vote? Officials in Takoma Park, Md., think so. The city, a liberal enclave near the nation's capital, is one of a few local jurisdictions that encourage non-citizens to vote. Since Takoma Park does not ask for proof of legal residence, it is possible that illegal immigrants were casting ballots this week
November 7, 2007
New York Democrats Say License Issue Had Little Effect
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Democrats declared yesterday that Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants had not proved to be the electoral boon Republicans had hoped for in local elections, despite the Republicans’ aggressive efforts to exploit overwhelming public opposition to the proposal.
07 November 07 - 18:08John Murtha's priority for national defense
I watched part of the clip. Murtha at first defends the defence bill by saying he's "saved" the country a lot of money by getting smaller companies to compete in the system. Then he crows about how Johnston is getting alot of those dollars.
Then he goes a tangent about how Diabetes is high in Johnson and why the DEFENCE bill is good for this too..
07 November 07 - 15:59France Stands with US in WOT
No comment from Democrats if they stand with the US in WOT> Guess their bumper is full of other stickers
Sarkozy hailed the friendship between France and the United States and paid tribute to American sacrifices in World War II, in a rare address Wednesday to the US Congress.(AFP/File/Saul Loeb)
06 November 07 - 21:46Illegal Immigration Dont Ask dont tell
Spitzer on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy
by Azi Paybarah
Published: November 6, 2007
Tags: Politics, Eliot Spitzer
Here's a clip from yesterday's press conference of Eliot Spitzer talking about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that some Latino lawmakers are asking him to sign on to.
Spitzer said he's looking into it, but that it may already be covered by existing state law.
John Kerry: I'm Now Prepared to Fight Off Swift Boat
Veterans
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, perhaps preparing to
get back into the presidential ring one day, claims
he's now armed with materials that will make war
record critics from his 2004 presidential campaign go
running tail between legs.
The 63-year-old Democratic senator told The
Patriot-Ledger on Tuesday that the Swift Boat Veterans
for Truth, a group of Navy servicemen who served with
Kerry and criticized his record in Vietnam, will be
revealed as liars.
US. military in Iraq says to release 9 Iranians By Paul Tait
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Nine Iranians being held in Iraq would be released soon, the U.S. military said on Tuesday, just days after U.S. officials signaled a possible change in approach by noting positive Iranian developments in Iraq.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari hailed the announcement, saying it was a confidence-building measure that would encourage more productive talks between Iran, Iraq and the United States on improving security in Iraq.
Bombs targeting Afghan lawmakers kill 64 By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Two bomb blasts targeted a group of lawmakers touring a factory north of Kabul on Tuesday, killing at least 64 people, including five parliamentarians, the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, officials said.
The bombs went off outside a sugar factory in the northern province of Baghlan as the lawmakers were about to enter. The twin blasts struck school children, Afghan elders and government officials gathered to greet the visiting delegation, officials said.
At least 64 people were killed, said a government minister who asked not to be identified because he was releasing information not yet made ...
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Viewpoint: Hold Dingell accountable
By Mary Sweeters on 11/2/07
Our country is at a turning point. We are at a place where the history books will look back and remind the world how America took on one of the greatest challenges humanity has ever faced: climate change. It's a problem spanning ecology, economics and public health and will undoubtedly affect huge portions of the global population.
UN condemns violence in Afghanistan By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
Mon Nov 5, 9:49 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. General Assembly on Monday strongly condemned the increasing violence and terrorist activity by the Taliban, al-Qaida and other extremist groups in Afghanistan and called for stepped up efforts to help the nation build a stable future after two decades of war. ...
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Friday, Nov 02, 2007 - 11:20 AM
By Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - The state attorney general filed court papers today naming state Senator Bobby Singleton, a Greensboro Democrat, and others as suspects in a voter fraud investigation in west Alabama.
The court papers also accuse Circuit Judge Marvin Wiggins of trying to impede the Hale County investigation to "protect members of his family," ...
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, WND has learned.
The Democrat senator over the past seven months has received $1,000 from M. Yaqub Mirza and another $500 from M. Omar Ashraf, federal campaign records show. Federal agents raided the Virginia homes and offices of the Muslim donors after 9/11 for ties to terrorism.
Others tied to the still-active probe also have contributed money to Clinton, including one Muslim ...