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BT reckons a government plan to put a 50p tax on copper lines in order to fund fibre broadband to the country's hard to get to places can only go so far - and will probably never reach the last fifth of the UK. The plan, unveiled last month in the government's Digital Britain report, is aimed at ensuring superfast broadband is rolled out to areas likely to be ignored by the market. Liv Garfield, BT's director of strategy, said today that she believes the 50p per month levy will still leave a proportion of the UK without fibre. "I...

Alaska will be seeing less of Sarah Palin now that she is resigning as governor, but the lower 48 states will be seeing a lot more of her--not in the media capitals of New York or Los Angeles, but in smaller markets, including towns in New Hampshire, Iowa and other states that can give presidential hopefuls a leg up in a primary race. Palin's support doesn't come from big-city elites, anyway. As one of them, Ann Marlowe, wrote in a column for Forbes.com last year, "Why Elite Women Hate Palin": People who become writers and intellectuals and artists tend not...

So far, there's been very little analysis or speculation over why the June job's report was so bad. That makes some sense for several reasons. First, one month's numbers almost always doesn't give anyone enough data to make any fair determination. Second, it's almost impossible to know exactly what caused the economy to move anyway.

Why did Sarah Palin resign?

Hats off to the New York Times for an inspiring profile of Lt. Ben Vargas, a New Haven firefighter who was one of the plaintiffs--the only Hispanic plaintiff--in the Ricci case. The Hispanic Firefighters' Association sided against him and he was hospitalized after being beaten up in the men's room of a bar in an attack that he believes was orchestrated by pro-race discrimination forces. But the Hispanic firefighters' group eventually came around, and Vargas and his co-plaintiffs were finally vindicated by the Supreme Court.

I am an admirer of Douglas MacArthur and remember a speech he gave to the people of the Philippines on his return. I also admire Palin and think she has the ability to inspire. She is no MacArthur, and she has much to prove, but we need something to fight for. Here is the speech with slight alterations to fit our time and place. I think the General would approve. To People of the United States, I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces will rise again on American soil…. The time of our redemption is here…....

Here is video of former Secretary of State Colin Powell saying - somewhat grudgingly - that he is "concerned" about all the spending and programs being pushed by President Obama. Powell made the statement after pushed by CNN's John King, who played a video of Powell speaking at the 1996 GOP Convention where he explained why he became a Republican. Powell said then he wanted a smaller government and lower taxes with less bureaucracy. King then asked Powell how he felt about Obama's policies in light of that speech. . . . . . (Watch Video)

I sent this website a suggestion for a bumper sticker. They did it! What do you think? http://www.patriotdepot.com/freeloadernation.aspx

Here is video from this afternoon where CNN's Rick Sanchez wondered out loud if Sarah Palin's resignation as Governor of Alaska could be because she is -- pregnant. The media is desperate to know why Palin is stepping down! . . . . (Watch Video)

Chris Cillizza at The Fix has sources that counter what NBC's Andrea Mitchell is reporting about the reason for Gov. Sarah Palin's decision to resign her office. Cillizza reports that a source close to Gov. Sarah Palin says Palin is resigning as Alaska Governor in order to build a team for a 2012 run for the GOP Presidential nomination. Andrea Mitchell is reporting sources who say Palin is quitting politics for good . . . .

With her haute couture on overdrive and flashing some major league stylish sass, Oscar winning French actress Marion Cotillard had an amazing week of looking her best promoting the “Public Enemies� movie. Mais oui, she was pure French elegance… At the London premiere, Marion walked in a red satin Vivienne Westwood dress. She picked out a Stella McCartney clutch and black heels to complete her look.

Here is video of NBC News' Andrea Mitchell reporting that sources tell her that Sarah Palin is resigning as Alaska Governor to leave politics for good. . . . . . (Watch Video)

The Declaration of Independence is the most remarkable legal and political document of all time. It reveals the genius of our founding fathers as well as the deep and abiding love, as well as , jealousy they had for freedom.

In speaking with Fox News, her husband, Todd Palin, said that she will be "concentrating on doing the things for Alaska and the country that she is passionate about and not do as governor."

When She resigned today, Sarah Palin (videos above and below) made either the most impressive political move ever, or ruined her political career. She talked about how the frivolous ethic lawsuits, and how she has to spend too much of her time and her staffs time and money defending herself. Beyond that the unfairness of the press, the Letterman type family attacks, and the Vanity Fair article could not have been morale boosters. Her speech was heartfelt and she talked how she is a maverick and this is a maverick move. She gave the speech like a fighter. This is...

Quick post while at work….Sarah Palin is resigning as Governor. Guess that’s it for her. UPDATE “Todd to FNC: Sarah to concentrate on doing things for Alaska and the country she can’t do as governor.” UPDATE She brings up the slams against Trig as being a reason her kids wanted her to do something. “It’s been in the works for awhile.” Said that her trips to visit the troops was a factor. Nice finish. “Don’t explain - your friends don’t need it, and your enemies won’t believe it anyway.” Not sure I get it. She could be planning to spend...

Here is video of Sarah Palin's announcement today that she is resigning as Governor of Alaska, effective July 26, 2009. . . . . (Watch Video)

Video of Sarah Palin from KTUU Alaska via CNN

This whole cap and trade thing reminds me of a discussion I took part in as part of our city’s Master Plan Rewrite Committee. As part of the Master Plan Rewrite we filled out an SGRAT survey (Smart Growth Readiness Assessment Tool, a product of Michigan State University). It allows you to evaluate your city by SMART growth standards. The intent of SMART growth is to stress the reuse of property and so inhibit urban sprawl. If I am not boring you yet, here are the ten tenets of SMART growth. 1. Create a range of housing opportunities and choices—(...

Breaking News from CNN and other sources this afternoon says that Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska has decided to not run for reelection as Alaska governor, and furthermore, has decided to resign as Governor effective July 26 . . . . (MORE)

As much as Republican gubernatorial challenger, former State Senator Dr. Joe Heck, would hate to be compared to President Obama … I couldn’t resist. While at the Las Vegas Independence Day Tea Party today, of which Dr. Heck was a speaker, a man had some sort of seizure that I believe was heat induced. The man collapsed, and without hesitation Dr. Heck (a doctor) sprung into action to provide medical aid to the man … who will be ok. You couldn’t have written a better script for Dr. Heck to assist in his quest to unseat a RINO in Gov....

The Washington Examiner’s Freeman Klopott is reporting that dozens of wealthy Beltway families have employed illegal immigrants as domestic employees in what Federal prosecutors have said amounts to slave labor. Sentencing was scheduled to be held for naturalized citizen and Indonesian native Soripada Lubis for harboring up to 24 Indonesian women, and profiting from their labor. Lubis’ wife, Siti Chadidjah Siregar, an Indonesian citizen, has also entered a guilty plea to making false statements, and faces up to 5 years in prison. This is interesting: Klopot says, “The list of Lubis’ 50 clients divulged in court filings by federal prosecutors...

Shock waves were sent through both our economy and our political apparatus yesterday. They were swift and significant and in fact, no one has yet fully determined these shock waves. These shock waves occurred after the release of June's employment data. The June numbers showed job losses of 467,000. This number is important on several different levels. First, the number is awful in its own vacuum. Second, the jobs numbers were improving for four months in a row. June broke that mini streak. So, where is our economy? Not only are we losing an extraordinary amount of jobs but it's...

After nine months of explosive monetary and fiscal stimulus, you'd think economic recovery would be upon us. But the June jobs report tells a much different story.

It took the Obama administration eight days to figure out whether Iranians being gunned down for protesting a fraudulent election and demanding basic civil liberties deserved to be acknowledged by the President of the United States. It took the O-Team less than eight hours to side with Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega over the ouster of Manuel Zelaya in Honduras.

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Update by Mel: Fred Malek writing at RedState: I have known many political leaders over four decades including all Republican presidents and VPs. I have come to know Sarah Palin over the past year and can state unequivocally that she is smart, curious, hard working, charming, and effective. She also has something her detractors clearly lack – a sense of honor and loyalty.

Last week, I came across this nauseating item while perusing one of my favorite blogs, Gateway Pundit. The fact that it was posted by a Democratic party operative speaks volumes about the character (or lack thereof) of today’s Donkeys, for whom Palin Derangement Syndrome is apparently an incurable affliction. The self-proclaimed champions of “choice” sure are angry with Sarah Palin for going with the “life” option, thus the superimposition of the face of pro-life talk radio host Eddie Burke on baby Trig’s body. As a commenter explains: “He (Eddie Burke) once called pro-choice women ‘baby killing maggots’, so his face...

Although Mayor Bloomberg has stated that Islamic holidays will not be added to the NYC school calender, Muslims have not given up. Will the mayor cave in and reverse course?

According to Nassim Taleb, author of "The Black Swan,” the 4th of July fire works are not the only explosives that the U.S. people are going to see. Taleb predicts that all of the steps that the Obama administration has taken regarding economic stimulus and all of the media coverage about recovery are all wrong. Taleb suggests that all of the catastrophic and dire warnings concerning Global Warming should have instead been for the U.S. economy!

Although you have to dig into the statistics to know it, unemployment in the United States is now worse than at any time since the end of the Great Depression.

You know what lead does to the brain? Obama's decisions explained. It was meant to be a show case for healthy living, with the first lady, Michelle Obama, personally putting hand to pitch fork in a crowd of school children to dig up the first White House vegetable garden in more than 50 years. Instead, an embarrassed White House admitted today that the plot - whose lettuce, herbs and other produce have been consumed by the first family, visiting dignitaries, local school children and a women's homeless shelter - had tested positive for elevated levels of lead.

Just in time for America’s Independence Day holiday, Rasmussen has released its analysis of a poll examining the attitudes of Americans regarding the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence.The Declaration of Independence is one of the two crucial founding documents of the US – the other, of course, being the Constitution. The Constitution is the technical document outlining the structure and powers of the national government. The Declaration establishes the rational foundation for the very existence of this country.Rasmussen’s strategy – and I’m not sure that this was the best idea – was to take various famous phrases from...

A couple of months ago, I was doing an on-air interview with KPFA radio about the state budget and found myself saying out loud "I never thought I'd ever say this, but I want Pete Wilson back." The interviewer burst out laughing. Yes, Governor Pete Wilson did things I strongly disagreed with when he vetoed a bill on employment discrimination against gay people and when he frequently chose business over environmental protection - but he knew how to be Governor. If you have to have a Republican Governor, it would at least be nice to have one who didn't have...

Recently, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin traveled to Auburn, New York, and led a parade to celebrate Founder’s Day and help raise money to build a museum to honor William Seward, the secretary of state who was instrumental in acquiring Alaska for the country. Twenty thousand people attended the event chanting, “Run, Sarah, run!” Would Sen. John Kerry attract that many people in Massachusetts for a similar event? Not likely. That’s the rub with Democrats. They see Gov. Palin as a unifying force within the Republican Party who will bring a credible challenge to its power base. Her rock solid conservative...

Are Americans Really This Stupid? Recently, my wife and I were invited to “Grandparents’ Day” at one of our grandkid’s Jewish pre-school. The kids were rounded-up and as a group sang several songs, most pitching the Global Warming Hoax or Multicultural Diversity. Then we were invited back to the classroom for an informal session talking with teachers and watching the kids play. Our grandson stood under a Rainbow Coalition poster for a picture and then joined others around the big Lego box. Our grandkid is talented and builds some impressive stuff with these colorful blocks and shapes. He knows I...

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) inserted a last-minute 310-page amendment into the cap-and-trade climate change bill just hours before the bill reached a House vote last Friday evening, and the amendments included indecipherable provisions for something called a “central procurement state.”

While Christianity is oppressed across the Islamic world, mega-pastor Rick Warren will be spending this Four of July with his Islamist buddies. Buddies who have ties to Hamas. Also on the guest list is Brooklyn Imam Siraj Wahhaj who is no friend of America or non-Muslims. In September 1991 Wahhaj stated the following:

As the Iranian government’s murderous repression of the Iranian people continues, critics right and left agitate over the deafening silence of an American president who, as a candidate, derided the Bush administration’s ambitious democracy promotion as too timid. They speculate as to why Barack Obama won’t speak out: Why won’t he condemn the mullahs? Is he daft enough to believe he can charm the regime into abandoning its nuclear ambitions? Does the self-described realist so prize stability that he thinks it’s worth abandoning the cause of freedom — and the best chance in 30 years of dislodging an implacable American...

It's often a topic of discussion among professors in the field of psychiatry and related fields. There is a growing influence by the pharmaceutical industry on research provided on it by those in academia. Often, junkets and seminars are paid for University psychiatry professors by the drug companies. In fact, the relationship is so close that it's unclear just how much the research these academics do on the drugs that pharmaceuticals develop. In fact, the relationship has gotten so cozy that their role as watchdog over the industry has likely been totally compromised.

Imagine a state in which you must register your name and address with the authorities, just so they can find you in case you break the law. In an age when bills vaunting protections for privacy abound, and when surveys of consumers rank privacy as a top concern, could that happen here? It is already happening. When we rely on the federal government to solve our problems, we invite it to intrude upon our privacy. We are asking Big Brother to come in and make himself at home. — How Big Brother Began, Solveig Singleton, Cato Institute Changes in technology...

Christian Doctrine and how the left twists it politically The issues – There are a lot of issues to be covered in this article such as abortion, so called gay issues, taxes, socialized medicine and other social programs, illegal criminal invaders. (all verses use New King James Version for accuracy and understanding. Other versions of the bible are vague and unclear. KJV is the most accurate that one could use, but it is difficult for anyone to understand, so I struck a balance with something that was with original intent of scripture and the teaching of God, but easier for...

A Rasmussen Report released today, July 3, concludes that Americans in general still hold the ideals reflected in the Declaration of Independence.

Our state-run media has really bit the big one on the Honduras story. Reflexively, they gobbled up what propaganda minister Gibbs fed them and dutifully regurgitated it. Where is the in-depth analysis? Where is the historical context?Instead, we get warmed over professors and analysts talking about Obama's stature in the region and how this affects the US. I haven't been in Honduras in years, but I've got news for you: Obama and the US are not at the forefront of Hondurans' minds right now. And this story is not about us or our dear leader: It is about a...

The controversial climate bill that is set to be taken up by the Senate on Monday after its passage in the House will legislate home inspections by government regulators who will demand to audit every aspect of your property under the threat of substantial and repeated fines if their visits are denied or their demands not satisfied. The climate legislation is written in a manner that automatically assumes that global warming is taking place and that it is attributed to rising CO2 levels, despite the fact that this is a highly contentious question and is being rejected by more and...

The real issue that brought many of the Revolutionary patriots into the fight was a lack of representation. The government was passing laws while remaining deaf to the protests of its constituencies. Is this 1776 or 2009? Our current Congress and administration are the most elitist, most distant governing bodies our nation has yet known. In the midst of the highest unemployment numbers in 26 years, our president exudes confidence. “I’m absolutely confident that we can, at this period of difficulty, prove, once again, what this nation can achieve when challenged,” Obama told reporters Thursday. Attempts to spread confidence in...

Whig Out: Obama won't meddle in American revolutionCiting a new era in wishy-Washington foreign policy, the Obama Administration will not choose sides during this July 4th celebration.President Barack Obama said he neither favors the English, nor the would-be Americans in the War of Independence."He essentially sees this as a battle between colonial powers," said Obama spokesperson Roberto "Glib" Gibbs."Obviously, one is a nascent imperial power, but the difference is negligible."Normally, during July 4th celebrations, the President is expected to back the democratically-minded American side against a monarchy with speeches and press announcements, but feels this insertion into the fracas may...

Our government’s reckless assault on our liberty and way of life continues to threaten our Constitutional system of checks and balances. It’s clear that those in Washington care more about their power offices and positions than they do about the American people. The chief culprit of these assaults is the current commander-in-chief: Barack Hussein Obama. OK fondly remembers old Irwin Allen produced TV shows such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space, sci-fi yarns loaded with bombast and mayhem. Allen was so good at celluloid devastation that [he] was crowned the “master of disaster.” It’s...

Obama…Chavez..and the Ayatollah, star in “Dangerous Liaisons.” By Inez Kratman Miranda While all freedom loving Americans cringed at the site of President Barack Obama’s political spooning of Venezuelan Dictator Hugo Chavez last April, they were repeatedly reassured by their liberal counterparts that the flirtations exchanged between Obamez were nothing more than mere nation- and relation-building tactics, diplomacy in other words, designed by the administration to make the world and its enemies love us again. As embarrassed as we were, we all hoped that was the case. Likewise, when young Iranians were bleeding the streets of Tehran to contest a rigged...

When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence? REALLY READ IT. Understand what it really means, and how our founders thought that government should be empowered. How it starts off by saying that government serves at the will of the people not the other way around: Or that it says freedom doesn't come from government it comes from God and governments primary purpose it to protect these individual freedoms each and every person: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,...