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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The CEO of a company whose employee is accused of improperly looking at the passport files of presidential candidates is a consultant to the Barack Obama campaign, a source said Saturday. John O. Brennan, president and CEO of the Analysis Corp., advises the Illinois Democrat on foreign policy and intelligence issues, the source said. Brennan briefed the media on behalf of the campaign this month. The executive is a former senior CIA official and former interim director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He contributed $2,300 to the Obama campaign in January.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The CEO of a company whose employee is accused of improperly looking at the passport files of presidential candidates is a consultant to the Barack Obama campaign, a source said Saturday. John Brennan, president of the Analysis Corp., advises the Illinois Democrat on foreign policy and intelligence issues, the source said. Brennan briefed the media on behalf of the campaign this month. The executive is a former senior CIA official and former interim director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He contributed $2,300 to the Obama campaign in January.

Today's Polls, 9/20 Barack Obama continues to move upward slightly in our electoral projections on the strength of strong national tracking polls. Rasmussen attributes him with a lead -- though it's just one point -- for the first time in ten days, while Gallup has him hitting the 50-percent barrier for just the second time all year, and expanding his lead over John McCain to 6 points overall. Our model has now more or less fully caught up with Obama's "Lehman Leap", and so he cannot expect too many more gains from inertia alone. The state polling out today, however,...

It is fair to say that one or two cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court stand out each term. I think it is evident that this term’s most salient case is District of Columbia v. Heller. In that 5-4 decision, the Court struck down the District of Columbia’s ban on the possession of privately owned handguns within District limits. In so doing, the Court clarified the meaning of the Second Amendment for the first time in almost 70 years by endorsing an individual right to keep and bear arms. Aside from its significance in partially resolving the meaning of...

If the United States had planned to draw Al Qaeda and its adherents out of Pakistan and into Iraq for a battle in the heart of the Islamic region, it is very unlikely that any official would acknowledge that in public; neither verbally nor in writing. In setting the stage for battling Al Qaeda and invading Iraq, to separate the region and the people from supporting either out of any sense of ethnic or religious loyalty, the United States had spoken deliberately. In both cases, insisting that the United States was not interested in making war on Islam, Arabs or...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hillary Clinton is smart and forceful, John McCain is proud but has a volatile temper, and Barack Obama is a diplomat who deals well with different people and situations. At least, that's what graphologists say their handwriting reveals about them. "Handwriting is a reflection of the inner personality. It shows a person's ego strength, how good they feel about themselves, their intellectual, communication and working styles," graphologist Sheila Lowe, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwriting Analysis", told AFP. Graphology -- the study of how we loop our Ls and cross our Ts -- is not...

WASHINGTON - John McCain's latest campaign angst, this time over his ties to lobbyists, is putting the Republican in conflict with his carefully honed, decades-old reformer image. It's also giving Democratic rival Barack Obama an opening to paint him as nothing more than a creature of Washington. "The fact is, John McCain's campaign is being run by Washington lobbyists and paid for by their money," Obama argued Monday in Billings, Mont. — far from the Beltway. "I'm not in this race to continue the special interest-driven politics of the last eight years, I'm in this race to end it." McCain,...

An analysis of recent temperature data by two scientists at the Australia Bureau of Meteorology. Waiting for Global Cooling (PDF)

Study says near extinction threatened people By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP WriterApril 24,2008 (AP) -- Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday. The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age. "This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics...

BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's faltering crackdown on Shiite militants has won the backing of Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties that fear both the powerful sectarian militias and the effects of failure on Iraq's fragile government. The emergence of a common cause could help bridge Iraq's political rifts. The head of the Kurdish self-ruled region, Massoud Barzani, has offered Kurdish troops to help fight anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. More significantly, Sunni Arab Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi signed off on a statement by President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and the Shiite vice president, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, expressing support...

Because critical thinking is so important to a free mind, I thought I would add a little bit of a fun challenge to break up your weekend and divert you from the frustrations of our election process. What can you tell me about this photo?

Because critical thinking is so important to a free mind, I thought I would add a little bit of a fun challenge to break up your weekend and divert you from the frustrations of our election process. What can you tell me about this photo? Whoever can tell me the most accurate details about this photo, including where it was taken and why I was there wins . . . Bragging rights for being the fastest and most accurate at photo analysis. Depending on the interest level this generates I'll post others. This photo is probably fairly easy to do.

WASHINGTON - John McCain sought to minimize damage to his man-of-character image and his presidential hopes Thursday, vigorously denying and denouncing a newspaper report suggesting an improper relationship with a female lobbyist. "It's not true," the likely Republican nominee said of the report that implied a romantic link with telecommunications lobbyist Vicki Iseman and suggested McCain pushed legislation that would have benefited her clients. "At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust," said McCain, a four-term Arizona senator and a hero of the Vietnam War. He described the lobbyist as a friend. McCain and...

WASHINGTON - Florida's presidential primary is the first test of how Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney might fare in a large and hugely diverse battleground state. The outcome sets the stage for the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primaries, a nationwide contest just one week away in which more than 20 states hold elections. The Republican race so far has been a muddle, with McCain winning New Hampshire and South Carolina, Romney winning his home state of Michigan and Mike Huckabee winning Iowa. Florida will do one of two things — thrust McCain into position as the front-runner, or allow...

FLORISSANT, Mo. - Political momentum now shifted her way, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to Missouri, a key Feb. 5 battleground state, while rival Barack Obama hoped to rejuvenate his candidacy with the help of black voters in the South. "Now we're back here in the Midwest, where I'm from. I'm so happy to see all of you," Clinton, a Chicago native, said to cheers at a campaign rally late Saturday in this St. Louis suburb. Nevada's presidential caucuses gave Clinton a big boost, powering her to a second straight win over Obama in the first Western contest of the...

WASHINGTON - In a race against herself in Michigan's renegade primary, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton attracted 55 percent of the vote and strong support from whites, Democrats and women. Blacks and independents were among the 40 percent who said they wanted an alternative. A contest without personal campaigning or television advertising is hardly a leading indicator of future contests. But it offers hints about the primaries and caucuses ahead, when Barack Obama as well as John Edwards will share the ballot with the former first lady in a race morphing from single-state contests to a grind-it-out, marathon competition for convention...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Hillary Rodham Clinton lost the luxury of being polite along with the Iowa caucuses. On the ropes after a third-place finish, Clinton is coming out swinging against new Democratic front-runner Barack Obama with a vigor she hasn't shown before in the contest she used to lead. She says she is the candidate who deserves the mantle of change, not this newcomer Obama. Sunday morning, with the New Hampshire primary in sight, she told supporters here, "There's a big difference between talking and acting, between promising and performing. Over the next three days, I'm going to be making...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Rudy Giuliani has never had a problem getting attention — until now. "We are in good shape," the Republican presidential candidate insists even though he was largely missing in action in Iowa and is struggling in New Hampshire, the two states that are the epicenters of the race. His unconventional road map to the nomination carried this very risk from the start. It called for playing down those states that opened the primary season in favor of spending more time and resources in the delegate-rich ones that vote later this month and on Feb. 5 such as...

WASHINGTON - It wasn't long ago that Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign scoffed at the notion that young voters would deliver an election. How quickly things can change. Just seconds into her speech Friday morning, Clinton was declaring herself the candidate for America's youth — stealing a page from the new Democratic presidential front-runner, Barack Obama. The night before, the under-30 crowd came out in larger numbers than ever in Iowa caucuses normally dominated by the AARP-card set, delivering victory for the Illinois senator who promised to bring change to Washington. That's why after her third-place finish in Iowa, Clinton got...

WASHINGTON - Evangelical Republicans in Iowa chose one of their own in Mike Huckabee. "Wherever it ends — and we know where that's going to be — it started here in Iowa," the emboldened candidate proclaimed as he promised more victories in states to come. But the looming question is whether the Southern Baptist minister turned decade-long Arkansas governor is strong enough to triumph outside friendly Iowa territory, and go the distance to the nomination. That test begins immediately as Huckabee turns to New Hampshire, where he will run head-on into town meetings full of secular voters, and John McCain,...

WASHINGTON - The assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has dealt a severe blow to U.S. efforts to restore stability and democracy in a turbulent, nuclear-armed Islamic nation that has been a critical ally in the war on terror. While not entirely dependent on Bhutto, recent Bush administration policy on Pakistan had focused heavily on promoting reconciliation between the secular opposition leader who has been dogged by corruption allegations and Pakistan's increasingly unpopular president, Pervez Musharraf, ahead of parliamentary elections set for January. In Washington and Islamabad, U.S. diplomats urged that Jan. 8 elections should not be postponed...

October 1, 2007 A Californian based company has produced the world’s first disposable photonic lab-on-a-chip solution for next-generation water and food analysis, chemical and biological agent detection, and point-of-care diagnostics. The PhotonicLab Platform from Bioident Technology Inc. enables rapid in-vitro diagnostics, chemical and biological threat detection, and environmental testing without the need for off-site lab analysis. This offers greater mobility and sensitivity compared to existing biological and chemical assays and delivers a cost-effective disposable lab-on-a-chip solution by eliminating the need for complex and expensive readout systems. To produce the device Bioident utilized the latest breakthroughs in nanotechnology and leveraged...

WASHINGTON - Question: If government and business leaders do their part to lower the cost of health insurance, should people be required to sign up? Republican Mitt Romney used to answer yes. Now he says no. Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton says yes, but this time promises no new bureaucracies. The way these and other 2008 presidential candidates answer the "individual mandate" question says as much about their characters, their strategies and the tricky politics of health care reform as it does about the actual policies. "Individual mandate" is the jargon politicians use to describe health care plans that assume every...

LOS ANGELES - In a year when Republicans are slouching toward a post-Bush era, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he has a winning strategy for his party — be like me. California's popular governor is known for his kaleidoscopic political stripes, and that's his point. He said Republicans could face a future of Election Day misery unless the party makes a decisive shift to the political center and claims issues usually associated with the Democratic agenda, like global warming and health-care reform. "We are dying at the box office," the actor-politician told party activists, lamenting a decline in Republican registration that...

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY (RECORDING): "... could lead to the violent death of Americans. We need to know about that, track them, follow them and make sure that in every way we can we know what they're doing and where they're doing it. And if it means we have to go into a mosque to wiretap or a church then that's exactly where we're going to go. Because we're going to do whatever it takes to protect the American people. And I hear from time to time people say 'Hey, wait a second. We have civil liberties we have to worry...

Minneapolis I-35 bridge collapse: Failure Analysis The I-35 West bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, consisted of three trussed spans and several beam and post spans typical of 1960's era freeway construction. Analysis to date here at Free Republic has centered on looking for the triggering cause in the bridge collapse, and the sequence of failure, as determined by available pre- and post-collapse imagery and video. Efforts so far have been hampered by uncertainty regarding the condition and disposition of the eastern truss panels originally located above and near pier 6. I hope to rectify this uncertainty and...

(AP) Karl Rove deserves as much credit for spoiling George W. Bush's presidency as he does for creating it _ which is to say he had a lot to do with both. The strategist's political genius helped make Bush president. His arrogance helped make Bush a lame duck. "Rove is the model for all future presidential advisers _ disciplined, smart and personally tight with the commander in chief. With that power comes all of the negative baggage when policy and governing failures erupt out of control," said Republican consultant Scott Reed. "He has kept remarkably cool as the GOP has...

Focusing on Focus Groups: Why Opposing Forces REALLY Fear Romney posted by: Jeff Fuller | posted at: 2:23 PM | permalink here Focus Groups, in my opinion, are the untold story of this campaign so far . . . and help explain the motives behind the early, constant, and repeated attacks on Romney by rival campaigns and the mainstream media (MSM). I'll argue this claim below after presenting some of the focus group findings from the most recent debate. Focus Group #1 run by Frank Luntz (results generally shared on various Fox News programs): Click for video. While the...

With Fred Thompson expected to enter the race next month, and the Ames straw poll next week, you’re going to see real pressure to start trimming the field in these debates. I can't imagine that too many people are happy with the current nine-soon-to-be-ten guys on stage format. Right now, I only want to see more of about half these guys. First, George Stephanopolous was almost as bad as Chris Matthews, and that’s a high bar to clear. Steph was snippy, too obsessed with time and cutting off candidates. Almost all of his questions came from the mindset of a...

WASHINGTON - In seven tumultuous months in power, congressional Democrats have learned to compromise with President Bush as well as confront him. The first minimum wage increase in a decade and expanded power to eavesdrop are early fruit of the Congress that convened in January. So are the historic clash over the Iraq war and a veto on stem cell research. "We've done a lot of heavy lifting," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said last week as Congress lumbered toward its month-long summer vacation. Across the Capitol, House Democrats offered evidence that they had already accomplished more of...

CHICAGO - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is running for president on her husband's White House record, and it's a strategy that cuts both ways. The New York senator and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, constantly remind voters of the nation's economic prosperity in the 1990s and his record on the environment, college aid and family medial leave. Press releases from the campaign often include sentences that start , "Under the Clinton administration ..." "Yesterday's news was pretty good," Bill Clinton said last month in Iowa while campaigning with his wife. But yesterdays' news isn't always easy to explain today....

WASHINGTON - Beset by poor approval ratings and internal differences, congressional Democrats hope to give themselves a triumphant send-off when Congress departs on a monthlong summer vacation. "They can't possibly do all the things they want to do," counters Rep. John Boehner, the House Republican leader. Perhaps not. But Democratic leaders, seven months in power, have set an ambitious agenda for themselves for the next 10 days, even momentarily dispatching their efforts to end the Iraq war to the background. They intend to send President Bush bills to counter terrorism and tighten congressional ethics, measures that were among the party's...

Governor Richardson stated that Republicans suppress minority voters. I would like to know the exact information he has access to that states that there have been any convictions of any republicans suppressing minority voters. Tee only evidence of minority voter fraud is the organization that where caught registering multiple voters in households as democrats that didn’t exist. I know that Democrats are for animal and child rights, but to grant dogs, cats, and seven year old girls the right to vote is going a bit to far. The writer is sure that Dogs would be Republicans and cats Democrats. The...

The reaction in Britain to two car bombs in London and a third up north baffles most Israelis, and not only Israelis. There is no rush to the scene by senior politicians; the cabinet doesn't change its agenda but instead goes ahead with a planned debate on constitutional reform; and the new prime minister makes do with a short statement, not mentioning the suspected perpetrators. Indeed, it was only two days after the car bombs were found in central London that Gordon Brown acknowledged to the BBC that it's "clear that we are dealing, in general terms, with people who...

WASHINGTON - The harder President Bush has pushed to win in Iraq, the closer he has come to losing. The question no longer is whether the U.S. military can fully stabilize Iraq. It cannot. That was a possibility four years ago, immediately after Saddam Hussein's government fell. Before the insurgency took hold. Before U.S. occupation authorities lost any chance to avoid the sectarian strife of today's Iraq. Now only the Iraqis can save Iraq. They need the U.S. military's help, no doubt. But the Bush administration has made no secret of the fact that the U.S. troop buildup in Baghdad...

Does Fred Help Mitt? I think he does. Many people are speculating that Thompson could pull from Romney, and it's quite possible. The polls have not shown this in the least, even Yepsen had to use to totally unrelated polls to make a case Thompson might hurt Romney: Here's how it works: The Register's Iowa Poll showed last month that without Thompson in the race, Romney leads McCain 30 percent to 18 percent in the state. But when Thompson is added to the mix in an American Research Group poll of Iowa GOPers taken about the same time, Romney's support...

Images that show how fingerprints can be used to reveal whether you are a smoker, an avid coffee drinker or even a drug addict have been revealed by UK scientists. They were produced using a novel forensic technique that could in future be used on fingerprints collected at a crime scene. If the prints in question are not on file, this would still give police a powerful way to shrink their pool of suspects, by identifying their lifestyle habits. The technique was developed by a team of forensics experts at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, and King's...

On Thursday night, the current crop of Republicans running for president in 2008 met at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, for their first debate. National Review Online asked a group of commentators and politicos for their take on this first venture out together. Yuval Levin In terms of the format and the moderators, this was easily the worst political debate I’ve ever seen. Too many questions, too little time, too much focus on silly Internet questioners, and Chris Matthews was simply a buffoon. Why shouldn’t a Republican host a Republican primary debate? Given that inherent (but...

NEW YORK - Call it the Clinton contradiction. Hillary Rodham Clinton is a political trailblazer, pursuing the precedent-setting achievement of becoming the first female candidate to win the presidency. How, then, did she also become the candidate of the Democratic Party establishment — a title historically attached to less-than-scintillating contenders like John Kerry, Al Gore and Walter Mondale? It's a curious paradox for Clinton, a presidential hopeful who calls herself a feminist and touts her experience as a woman and a "mom." But her long career in Washington, army of political consultants and marriage to a former president have all...

WASHINGTON - Another day, another scandal. The Justice Department's improper and illegal use of the USA Patriot Act puts Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the hot seat, an all-too-familiar place for President Bush's inner circle. The last thing a troubled president needs is another friend in trouble. "This strikes me as another blow for the administration," said Republican consultant Joe Gaylord. He was not the only Republican fretting about the Bush White House after a Justice Department audit criticizing the FBI's use of post-9/11 powers to secretly obtain personal information. "This is, regrettably, part of an ongoing process where the...

WASHINGTON - Lies from the White House. Incompetence in treating wounded veterans. Irrelevance in Congress. Can't anybody do anything right? It's days like these that turn Americans sour on government, stoking a desire for leaders who actually lead. Exhibit A is the perjury conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, whose trial cast unflattering light on the Bush White House and the mainstream media. Exhibit B is the shameful treatment of wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan at Walter Reed Medical Center, and the likelihood that veterans care problems are systemic — a national disgrace. And let's not forget Iraq and...

In the script Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recited this week during his trip to Washington, D.C., California is a nirvana where political parties have put aside their differences for the good of the people. "We reformed prescription drug costs, passed the world's most comprehensive plan to reduce greenhouse gases and began rebuilding the state's infrastructure," the Republican governor told a rapt audience of jaded political reporters at the National Press Club while he was in town for the National Governors Association Conference. "We did this working together." By following California's "post-partisan" model, Schwarzenegger said, President Bush and Congress could stop bickering...

NEW YORK - A Hollywood-style brawl with the campaign of rival Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) is the latest in a series of speed bumps tripping up Hillary Rodham Clinton's early presidential moves. From the Clinton team's decision to criticize — and therefore publicize — producer David Geffen's complaints about both Clintons to increasingly skeptical questions about Sen. Clinton's nuanced explanation of her 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq war, it became apparent even a battle-tested front-runner can fall prey to missteps. On top of that, voters were reminded of the downside of the first Clinton presidency. "Her explanation for...

WASHINGTON - Rep. Joe Donnelly (news, bio, voting record) is one of a clutch of freshmen Democrats who snagged victories over Republican incumbents last fall amid public discontent over the war in Iraq. Now, as his party prepares to register its opposition to President Bush's plan to boost troop levels, Donnelly is on the fence. "The most important part of this to me is standing up for the troops and making sure we have full funding for them," Donnelly said Tuesday, after a weekend meeting with veterans' groups and constituents back home in his conservative north-central Indiana district. "I haven't...

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record)'s visit to Iraq is a clear sign the newly empowered Democratic Congress is not going to abide by the notion that foreign policy is the sole province of the White House. While President Bush met with military leaders in the Oval Office Friday, she and anti-war Rep. Jack Murtha turned up in Baghdad. The timing of the trip, from the Bush administration's point of view, couldn't have been worse. It came just days after the president asked Congress in his State of the Union address to give his revised Iraq...

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton enters the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination with unrivaled political strengths and challenges to match, a former first lady turned senator, soon to be tested in a campaign unlike any other in American history. While Clinton seeks to become the first woman commander in chief, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) is in the early stages of what promises to be the most credible White House campaign ever by a black politician. One year before the first caucus and primary votes are cast, sheer star power sets them apart from the...

Every so often I will present seemingly insoluble problems for the reader to consider and attempt to answer. You are limited in your devising of an acceptable answer only by the boundaries of your imagination, intelligence, intellect, education, and wisdom. Then again your possession of the boundaries of these things may also provide the very substance of your inability to solve these riddles. These riddles are part of a series of problems designed to train Investigators and Intel Analysts in the skills of close observation, deduction, induction, and problem solving, among other things. Enjoy, and resolve. And if you can’t...

When predicting traditional or conventional military threats, the U.S. Army employs analytical methodologies such as intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) and related tools. The terrorist threat, however, is unique in that its nature and survival require it avoid direct engagements with main force units. Terrorists are exceedingly mobile, have mastered the art of blending into the surrounding population, and employ harsh measures to ensure security. On the other hand, our national collection assets provide so much diverse information that making sense of it all is a daunting task. Reports on terrorist activity originate from all intelligence disciplines, to include...

Republicans were spending too much. So we elected Democrats who think government should cost more. Republicans weren't decreasing the size of government. So we elected Democrats who think government should be bigger and do more. Republicans weren't doing anything about illegal immigration. So we elected Democrats who believe in amnesty. Conservatives didn’t think Republicans were conservative enough. So we elected liberal extremists instead. Voters didn’t mean to impeach Bush. Voters didn’t mean to abandon our Iraqi allies. Voters didn’t mean to raise taxes. Voters didn’t mean to give up on conservative judges. Ya, that makes sense guys. This is what...

Two environmental groups say they will sue to stop construction of the intercounty connector, arguing that building the highway would violate sections of the federal Clean Air Act. Environmental Defense and the Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club said the Washington region already fails to meet certain clean-air standards and that building the six-lane, 18-mile highway would increase pollution. The $2.4 billion intercounty connector would link Interstate 270 in Montgomery County with Interstate 95 in Prince George's County. "There are elementary schools and nursing centers close to the ICC, and people who live and work within several hundred yards of...