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Subprime Scandal: Bill Clinton has summoned the media to listen to his take on the never-ending financial crisis. But the man who is now portrayed as an oracle was in fact its chief architect. In an interview for his annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York, the former president blamed the mortgage meltdown and ensuing record poverty on a "30-year anti-government rant." "The American Dream has been under assault for 30 years," Clinton said, lecturing banks to "clean up their financial books" of all the toxic mortgages they made. This is galling even for Bill Clinton. He's the one...

MEXICO CITY -- His voice cracking with emotion, President Felipe Calderon said Friday that the United States bore some blame for "an act of terror" by gangsters who doused a casino with gasoline and set a blaze that killed at least 52 people. The attack Thursday in Monterrey, an industrial city of 4 million barely a two-hour drive from Texas, stunned Mexicans and seemed likely to mark a watershed in the country's intensifying war against criminal syndicates. In a 20-minute televised address to the nation, Calderon gave an unusually blunt assessment of the causes of Mexico's surging violence before flying...

<p>Pakistan allowed Chinese military engineers to photograph and take samples from the top-secret stealth helicopter that US special forces left behind when they killed Osama bin Laden, the Financial Times has learnt.</p> <p>The action is the latest incident to underscore the increasingly complicated relationship and lack of trust between Islamabad and Washington following the raid.</p>

August 6, 2011 Afghan Chopper Crash Kills 22 SEALs; 37 In All PLAY CBS NEWS VIDEO 08.06.11 Taliban claim responsibility for Afghan chopper crash Afghan chopper crash kills 22 SEALs; 37 in all 31 Americans killed in Afghan chopper crash (CBS/AP) KABUL, Afghanistan - Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite unit as the Navy SEALs who killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, U.S. officials said Saturday. It was the deadliest single loss for American forces in the decade-old war against the Taliban....

Twenty-five U.S. special forces killed early Saturday in Afghanistan were on a mission to rescue another team of military personnel pinned down by insurgents, a U.S. military official told CNN. The helicopter that went down in eastern Afghanistan carried 30 U.S. military members, including 22 Navy SEALs and three other special forces. They were part of a "quick reaction force" sent in to pick up others engaged in a fierce firefight, the official said. In the single deadliest incident since the start of the decade-long Afghan war, the Army Chinook carrying a team of U.S. special forces and U.S. and...

A US helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan has killed 31 US special forces and seven Afghan soldiers, President Hamid Karzai's office says. US media reports that many of those killed were from the elite Navy SEALs. Neither the US nor Nato have confirmed the cause, but witnesses, officials and the Taliban say it was shot down. The incident is believed to be the biggest single loss of life for US forces in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001. The Chinook helicopter went down overnight in Wardak province, the statement from President Karzai's office said. It was returning from an operation...

WASHINGTON -- The Associated Press has learned that more than 20 Navy SEALs from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden were among those lost in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/06/afghan-president-31-americans-killed-in-helicopter-crash/#ixzz1UGZcWiEh

A NATO helicopter was shot down in the eastern province of Afghanistan last night, killing 31 U.S. special forces and seven Afghan soldiers. The aircraft, belonging to NATO's International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, went down in the Maidan Wardak province, according to a statement from the office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The helicopter was completely destroyed, shot down by the Taliban, Shahidullah Shahid, a spokesman for the Maidan Wardak province said in a phone interview. The incident marks the biggest single loss of life for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001, Associated Press reported. Establishing...

Unprecedented violence on the opening night of the Wisconsin State Fair by rampaging youths prompted extraordinary measures Friday: The head of the fair implemented new rules to keep unattended teens off the grounds at night, and Gov. Scott Walker ordered the State Patrol to help keep order.Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Police Chief Ed Flynn, meanwhile, promised Friday to beef up policing at this weekend's major public events around the city to limit any chance of the State Fair events being repeated.The violence left workers and patrons of the fair in West Allis shaken and reminded many of the mob-like...

By now, you’ve no-doubt heard that residents in San Francisco want to vote on banning circumcision for male children. As if that was not controversial enough - now the state is getting involved. That’s right… Assembly Bill 768 - would apply to any city or county government. Its being introduced in response to a San Francisco ballot measure. AB 768 is designed to derail the San Francisco measure - if its approved by voters. "To enact an outright ban on an expression of personal, medical and religious freedom is an affront to all who value liberty," said Assemblyman Mike Gatto,...

Hours before he died, "Ötzi" the Iceman gorged on the fatty meat of a wild goat, according to a new analysis of the famous mummy's stomach contents. The frozen body of the Copper Age hunter was discovered in 1991 in the Alps of northern Italy, where he died some 5,000 years ago. The circumstances surrounding Ötzi's death are not fully known, but the most popular theory—based in part on the discovery of an arrowhead in his back—is that he was murdered by other hunters while fleeing through the mountains. Scientists previously analyzed the contents of Ötzi's lower intestine and determined...

According to House expense reports, Bachmann and three conservative GOP colleagues — Reps. Tom Price (Ga.), Steve King (Iowa) and Todd Akin (Mo.) — each paid $3,407.50 that day, a total of $13,630, to a sound and stage company called National Events, apparently for the sound system used at the rally. The money came from the Members' taxpayer-funded office accounts, despite House rules prohibiting the use of these funds for political activities.

The New York Times and Washington Post raised eyebrows this week by hiring a bunch of additional staff to go through every snippet of Sarah Palin's emails as Governor - even asking the public to help them sift through every last syllable: More than 24,000 e-mail messages sent to and from Sarah Palin during her tenure as Alaska's governor will be released Friday. Join The Post in digging through them. We are looking for 100 organized and dilligent readers who will work alongside Post reporters to analyze, contextualize, and research the emails. Think of it as spending some time...

After the tumult of the First World War, noted Winston Churchill, only the intractability of the Irish Question had emerged unscathed. “Great Empires have been overturned. The whole map of Europe has been changed,” he told the House of Commons. “But as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short, we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again.” And so it goes after another tumultuous week in American politics. Nearly a third of homeowners are “underwater” — that’s to say, they owe more on their mortgages than the property is worth. Private-sector job growth has all...

After the tumult of the First World War, noted Winston Churchill, only the intractability of the Irish Question had emerged unscathed: "Great Empires have been overturned. The whole map of Europe has been changed," he told the House of Commons. "But as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short, we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again." Article Tab : Lisa Benson / Washington Post Writers Group Lisa Benson / Washington Post Writers Group MORE PHOTOS » ADVERTISEMENT More from National Columnists Charles Krauthammer: Debt-ceiling sky not falling Bonnie Erbe: Are Christians giving up opposing...

A series of messages forwarded to The Daily Caller show a top aide to former Alaska Gov. and possible presidential candidate Sarah Palin mocking top political figures and even her boss’s own daughter, Bristol Palin. RedState.com founder and CNN contributor Erick Erickson is “a total douchebag,” wrote Palin speechwriter and domestic policy adviser Rebecca Mansour in a May 22, 2010, message. “Greasy dumb ass with a talent for self-promotion. He threw himself in at the Gov’s SC rally. Self-promotion.” (Erickson said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley invited him to the rally). Mitt Romney supporters are “wacky as hell,” Mansour wrote,...

CLEARWATER, Fla. Randy "Macho Man" Savage, the professional wrestler known for his raspy voice, the sunglasses and bandanas he wore in the ring and the young woman named Miss Elizabeth who often accompanied him, died in a car crash Friday in Florida. He was 58

"3.) The prosecutors say that Mr. Strauss-Kahn "forced" the complainant to have oral and other sex with him. How? Did he have a gun? Did he have a knife? He's a short fat old man. They were in a hotel with people passing by the room constantly, if it's anything like the many hotels I am in. How did he intimidate her in that situation? And if he was so intimidating, why did she immediately feel un-intimidated enough to alert the authorities as to her story? 6.) People accuse other people of crimes all of the time. What do we...

I know, I know, granted you will be even busier very soon. After all, golf season kicks into high gear shortly. NBA and NHL brackets await. Summer vacations and that all-consuming campaign whistle stop tour will no doubt slam you. But I would ask, while the rest of us are also busy working, saving, planning ahead, fighting to protect our Constitution, and trying to keep up with where and why you're spending our Department of Defense funds - I'd ask that you find time to tell Americans the truth about the state of our union and what you are doing...

Governor Palin posted the following Facebook note this morning: Please make up your mind, Mr. President. You can’t vacillate when spending America’s human and fiscal resources in yet another foreign country without good reason. You said that Libyan leader Gaddafi has got to go. Many of us heard that as your call to action and agreed, “Okay, you’re right. He’s an evil dictator who kills his own innocent people, so enforce a no-fly zone so he can’t continue an aerial slaughter.” But then you said our mission in Libya isn’t to oust Gaddafi after all. (Or vice versa on the...