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The Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) ray-cannon, mounted in a specially-equipped Hercules transport plane flying above New Mexico, has now succeeded in "putting a hole in the fender" of a ground vehicle driving along beneath it. The not particularly awesome result was announced by Boeing, maker of the ATL, yesterday. "In this test, a directed energy weapon successfully demonstrated direct attack on a moving target," said Gary Fitzmire, Boeing raygun veep. Though that is nothing new; Boeing's Humvee-mounted "Laser Avenger" ray-turret shot down a small flying robot earlier this year

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 30, 2003 20:42:05 ET XXXXX HOLLYWOOD DEMS GATHER FOR 'HATE BUSH' MEETING AT HILTON **Exclusive** Top Hollywood activists and intellectuals are planning to gather this week in Beverly Hills for an event billed as 'Hate Bush,' the DRUDGE REPORT has learned! Laurie David [wife of SEINFELD creator Larry David] has sent out invites to the planned Tuesday evening meeting at the Hilton with the bold heading: 'Hate Bush 12/2 - Event' The message reads: "This is the most important meeting you can attend to prevent the advancement of the current extremist right wing agenda....

Just listening to CNN online and heard Rick Sanchez interview this Media Matters guy and made no mention of MM's affiliations or slant, just that he works for "a media fact check group". I wanted to barf. It's to be expected coming from CNN, but here's the real shocker: they picked apart a Republican congressman's response (forgot his name) to a question. Sanchez asked him about spending and earmarks under the Bush Administration and why he's making a big fuss now instead of back then. The congressman rattled off several bills that Bush supported that he fought Bush on. Enter...

Thankfully, you don't have to make your own haggis; you can get it straight from the chill cabinet at your local Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer - in fact, you can even get a lentil-packed vegetarian version if you so desire. In the run-up to Burns Night, Macsweens of Edinburgh exports up to 800 tonnes around the world, from Canada to Kazakhstan, which is an awful lot of haggis by anyone's standards. And Americans will go to extraordinary lengths to lay their hands on a haggis (importing sheep's lungs is banned in the States), even smuggling them through Customs...

BETHESDA, Md. — Quentin C. Aanenson, a Minnesota-born fighter pilot whose wartime experiences helped millions of television viewers understand World War II, has died. A subject of Ken Burns' documentary "The War" and the producer of his own film a decade earlier, Aanenson died Sunday of cancer at his home in Bethesda, his son, Jerry, said. He was 87. "He lived a magnificent life," Jerry Aanenson said. "He said if he had a chance to be 15 again, he wouldn't take it." The native of Luverne, Minn., flew 75 combat missions in Europe as a captain in P-47 Thunderbolt fighters....

Schweitzer 'joke' may have grain of truth By JENNIFER McKEE Gazette State Bureau UPDATE 3:30 p.m. : HELENA - Gov. Brian Schweitzer said this week he was "just joking" this summer when he suggested he tampered with the hotly-contested 2006 Senate election. However, at least one Big Horn County observer was escorted out of a Crow Indian polling place that election night, (snip) Schweitzer has been criticized this week for remarks he made to a lawyer’s group in Philadelphia this July. In the remarks, Schweitzer insinuates that he tampered with election to secure a victory for Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon...

Really? THE FACTS Aloe vera has been a common skin-care remedy since the Greek physician Dioscorides advocated using it for burns in the first century A.D. But only in recent years have scientists conducted research to determine whether it lives up to its reputation. Some have found that aloe contains certain anti-inflammatory compounds and may act as an antibacterial agent. But studies on its effects on minor and moderate burns have been mixed. In 2007, for example, a study in the journal Burns analyzed data from four controlled clinical trials involving a total of 371 patients, some were treated with...

A federal judge has rejected the appeal of a $24.2 million verdict against two railroad companies for injuries suffered by two teenagers climbing on a train car parked near Lancaster in 2002. U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence F. Stengel, who presided over the trial, handed down a 60-page opinion this week rejecting the arguments raised by the responsible railroad companies, Amtrak and Norfolk Southern Corp., denying the companies' request for a new trial or to reduce the amount of the award. The jury could have divided the blame between the young men and the railroad companies, but after the trial...

HELENA - Republicans say John McCain now has a better chance in Montana's unique GOP caucus - open to only about 2,000 party volunteers and officeholders - after getting rid of a state chairman many in that group saw as a traitor. McCain dumped Montana's maverick lieutenant governor recently in favor of former U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, much more popular with GOP insiders despite losing his re-election bid in 2006 amid suspicions over connections to a Washington, D.C., lobbying scandal. The move comes as McCain has spent time and money nailing down his conservative credentials in other states. In Montana,...

Scots ask US to lift haggis ban   Haggis, traditionally eaten on Burns night, is banned in the US The Scottish Government is considering asking the United States to rethink its ban on haggis imports. Imports of Scotland's iconic dish were banned by the US in 1989 in the wake of the BSE scare because it contains offal ingredients such as sheep lungs. Only an offal-free version of haggis is available in the US. The move would be backed by renowned haggis maker Macsween, which believes the American market could be a very lucrative one. A Scottish Government spokeswoman...

Ode Tae A Fart Oh whit a sleekit horrible beastie lurks in your belly after the feastie Jist as you sit doon amang yer kin There starts tae stir an enormous win’ ***************************** The neeps ‘n’tatties ‘n’ mushy peas Start workin’ like a gentle breeze But soon the puddin’ wi the sauncie face Will hae ye blowin ‘a’ ower the place ****************************** Nae matter whit the hell ye dae A’bodys gonny huv tae pay Even when ye try tae stifle It’s like a bullet oot a rifle ************************* Ye hawd yer bum ticht tae the chair An try tae stop...

Keith Weissman and Steven Rosen Are PhDs and Middle East Experts Who Did Some Lobbying. They Thought They Were Doing What Washington Insiders Always Do. Thomas O’Donnell didn’t reveal his job when he phoned Keith Weissman in 2004 and got the policy analyst’s wife. He says he didn’t want to scare her. When Weissman returned the call and found out O’Donnell was an FBI agent, his first reaction was to attempt a joke: “What did I do?” “I’m sure you didn’t do anything,” O’Donnell told him. He wanted to meet that day, for five or ten minutes, and get Weissman’s...

A new surgical technique pioneered at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy in Leipzig may allow for patients to receive grafted ‘artificial’ skin grown using their own cells. The procedure, called the EpiDex® technique, has been developed with euroderm GmbH, and could replace traditional treatments which involve taking skin from another part of the patient’s body. If successful, the new process would eliminate the additional scarring, with which patients suffer at the donor area (usually the thigh), but would still have the same chances of success for the graft taking. “If we produce this skin using the recently approved EpiDex®...

WATERLOO --- The first installment of Ken Burns' long awaited seven-part World War II documentary, "The War," which aired on PBS Sunday night, captivated many but contained one error that caught the attention of some Cedar Valley residents. Local viewers noted that the show' first installment, "A Necessary War," mistakenly stated that the five Sullivan Brothers, who enlisted in 1941 and were killed Nov. 13, 1942, were from Fredericksburg, Iowa, and not Waterloo. The confusion probably arose because Bill Ball of Fredericksburg, a good friend of the Sullivans, was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor. His death, according to...

The US marine Ty Ziegel suffered horrific burns in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq. After months in hospital, he was eventually able to return home — and marry his childhood sweetheart. By Sarah Baxter. Photographs by Nina Berman When Marine Sergeant Ty Ziegel woke up from his coma, he was still in a fog of drugs. He knew his fiancée, Renee, was there and sensed her love for him. She had been playing with his feet because there was so little of him she could touch. He was told of his injuries but was so out of it, he...

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The war over "The War" is over and a truce has been declared. After pointed criticism by Latino groups that the much-awaited documentary on America during World War II made too little mention of Latino contributions, executive producer Ken Burns added nearly a half-hour of new material. "We honored what was legitimate about their concerns," Burns said during the PBS portion of the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. "We've done more than we were asked or expected to," he said. "We were planning to add additional stories...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - A blaze in southwestern South Dakota killed one person and destroyed 20 homes Sunday, and hundreds of people have evacuated homes in the paths of fires in Nevada and Washington state. Residents of about 50 homes had fled the wildfire burning near Hot Springs that also had injured two firefighters, state and federal officials said. Roughly 8 square miles had burned since the fire started Saturday. The 8,000-acre wildfire in northern Nevada was threating up to eight blocks of homes in the town of Winnemucca, about 170 miles east of Reno. "It's right up to the...

A wildfire is raging out of control near South Lake Tahoe. The Angora Fire is burning near North Upper Truckee Road. That is near the Tahoe Paradise Subdivision. So far, the fire has burned more than 500 acres and is spreading rapidly due to strong winds. 50 homes have been burned by the fire so far and more are threatened. An evacuation center has been set up at the South Lake Tahoe Recreation Center. That's near the ice arena. The whole area along Upper Truckee Road is evacuated. Highway 50 is closed at Lake Tahoe Boulevard. Firefighters are attacking this...

SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. - Firefighters were trying to contain a wildfire that had burned about 2,400 acres of grass and brush in Sequoia National Forest and was spreading into wooded areas Monday. Officials asked residents in a recreation area called Horse Meadow to evacuate their cabins and trailers after the Goldledge Fire inched about a mile away from the private property, said Geri Adams, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman. "We're getting some really strong winds and the humidity is low, so the fire is really active," she said. The fire started across the street from the Goldledge Campgrounds on...

Pakistan on brink of disaster as Karachi burns By Isambard Wilkinson and Massoud Ansari in Karachi, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 11:37pm BST 12/05/2007 Chaos gripped the streets of Karachi yesterday as gun battles left at least 31 people dead and hundreds more injured, threatening a complete breakdown of law and order in Pakistan's largest and most volatile city. With plumes of black smoke billowing over the city of 12 million people, there were extraordinary scenes as gunmen on motorbikes pumped bullets into crowds demonstrating against Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, while police stood by and watched. Gun battles left at least...

Attempts to duplicate a movie stunt landed one man in the hospital with burned genitals and another facing criminal charges. The men were trying to do a stunt from one of the "Jackass'' movies, in which a character lights his genitals on fire. Jared W. Anderson, 20, suffered serious burns to his hands and genitals, according to the criminal complaint. Randell D. Peterson, 43, who sprayed lighter fluid on Anderson and lit him on fire, was charged with felony battery and first-degree reckless endangerment Tuesday in Eau Claire County Court. Witnesses told police that Anderson, who was drunk, volunteered to...

I just wanted to let anyone who reads this know that: NYT Bureau Chief John Burns, who has seen more of Iraq than any other reporter, and is described by Ed Koch as, “ The most respected war correspondent in Iraq ........................ who seems to discuss the war in Iraq nightly on New York City television stations. You can’t mistake him. While the U.S. soldiers he regularly describes have G.I. haircuts, his hair has the look of an unshorn Merino sheep.”Anyhow, and I didn’t see it (apparently the video is available) but Mr. Burns was on The Charlie Rose Show...

Burns: We have to confront Iran By HAVIV RETTIG Jan. 21, 2007 Iran must be confronted, the No. 2 official in the State Department said at the Herzliya Conference on Sunday, shortly after a five-hour meeting with Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, in charge of Israel's strategic dialogue with the US. US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said, "We have to confront Iran." Iran, Burns said on the first day of the conference, "is our most important challenge, a country with a radical agenda, a president that asserts that the Holocaust did not occur." Live video feed from...

<p>French police are investigating a car crash involving a billionaire Russian parliamentarian who was critically injured when his Ferrari slammed into a tree on the Mediterranean seafront in Nice.</p> <p>Suleyman Kerimov, 40, a far rightwing member of the State Duma from Dagestan, was said by police to have lost control of the car as he sped on Saturday in rain along the Promenade des Anglais, the Riviera’s most celebrated thoroughfare.</p>

US diplomat calls for Iran action Iran insists that it nuclear programme aims to provide energy A senior US diplomat has hit out at Iran and called on members of the UN Security Council to agree on economic sanctions against Tehran.At a summit in Brussels, Nicholas Burns called Iran "the major disruptive, negative force in the Middle East". The five permanent Security Council members plus Germany are to meet on Tuesday to discuss a sanctions package. The council recommended sanctions after Iran failed to comply with a deadline for refusing to end uranium enrichment. However, France indicated that the...

Defeated U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., refused to concede Wednesday saying there remain votes yet to be counted in his tight race against the declared winner, Democrat Jon Tester. Burns, who has not commented to reporters on the race since the votes were counted Tuesday night, released a statement at 1:47 p.m. “Jon Tester ran a good race and has the lead right now, but it is extremely close,” Burns said. “The state of Montana has a process in place, and it is our obligation to see it through. There are still votes out there that deserve to be counted....

MT Senate Race seems to be still in play

Yellowstone provided 1100 votes for Burns, leaving Tester 3100 votes ahead. Two counties are still out ... Maegher which gave Bush a 500 vote margin in 2004, and Beaverhead which gave Bush a 1900 vote margin. I don't think Burns will catch up when these two counties are added in. Funny isn't it, how one or the other party seems to win all the close ones in Senate races.

Burns's campaign is saying the uncounted votes are from their strenth areas. This could still go either way!

About to get out and doing whatever is to be done to help out today, but before going, I wanted to pass this along to those in the close Senate states that don't know it. Justice Stevens is NOT in good health. Check this thread out here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1733273/posts . Someone in his family has reported that his health is bad, and has some kind of illness, and at 86 that's very serious. The Senate races in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, Montana, Rhode Island are even more important with this news. Justice Stevens WILL NOT BE ON THE SUPREME COURT...

HELENA - Republican Sen. Conrad Burns may be facing the political fight of his life, but calm GOP operatives believe they have a secret weapon that will push him over the top in Tuesday's vote. For the first time, Republicans in Montana are putting into place the national party's vaunted 72-Hour Task Force for the final three days of the campaign, state GOP executive director Chuck Denowh said. It may be the party's ace in the hole. The highly sophisticated targeting, voter identification and get-out-the-vote program, or GOTV, was developed in the wake of the extremely tight 2000 presidential race....

HELENA - Montanans say they are slightly more likely to vote for Republicans than Democrats in the state's legislative races, a new Gazette State Poll shows. By a margin of five points, 47 percent to 42 percent, voters said they were more likely to vote for Republicans. That edge is greater than the poll's margin of error - plus- or minus-4 points - but not so large that Republicans have a clear lead. Only 11 percent of those surveyed said they weren't sure which party they would support. The split reflects the makeup of the Montana Legislature. Currently, the state's...

HELENA - After months of campaigning and millions of dollars of advertising, it all comes down to this: Republican Sen. Conrad Burns and Democratic challenger Jon Tester are running dead even, a new Gazette State Poll shows. A telephone poll of 625 registered and likely Montana voters shows each man favored by 47 percent of respondents. Five percent of the voters are undecided, while Libertar-ian Stan Jones was the pick of 1 percent. The poll was taken from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C, for the Gazette State Bureau. It has a...

Remarks by the President at Montana Victory 2006 Rally MetraPark Arena Billings, Montana 11:27 A.M. MDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you for the warm welcome. It's good to be in a part of the world where the cowboy hats outnumber the ties. (Applause.) And I'm proud to be here in Big Sky country, with a fine United States Senator in Conrad Burns. (Applause.) You might call him a plain-spoken fellow. (Laughter.) As a matter of fact, I've heard some of them say that he's a little rough on the English language. (Laughter.) Where have I heard that before? (Laughter.) Conrad, I'm...

KALISPELL - Hoping to help sway Montana's undecided voters in a close Senate election, Vice President Dick Cheney came to the Flathead Valley on Wednesday for the second time since August to stump for Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, considered by many to be one of the most vulnerable incumbents. At a rally for Burns and other Republican candidates, Cheney warned that the loss of party stalwarts like Burns this year could lead to a Democratic-controlled Congress - and that, he said, would mean higher taxes and less security. "The stakes of this campaign are high," Cheney said. "The stakes are...

Vice President's Remarks at a Montana Victory Rally Majestic Valley Arena Kallispell, MT 5:06 P.M. MST THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate that warm welcome to Kalispell, Montana. (Applause.) It's almost enough to make me want to run for office again. Almost. (Laughter.) But it's great to be with you back in Big Sky Country. And I came straight from Washington this afternoon. I bring greetings to the good folks of the Flathead Valley from President George W. Bush. (Applause.) And of course, I'm delighted to be on the stage and share some time with...

President George W. Bush is spending the latter part of this week campaigning in the West for congressional candidates. Thursday, Bush will be at the MetraPark Arena in Billings. Members of the public attending the event will be admitted to the building between 8 and 10:30 a.m., after which the doors will be closed. Bush's touch-and-go on behalf of Sen. Conrad Burns, Rep. Denny Rehberg and local Republican candidates will cost the Montana Republican Party several thousand dollars. "I am not entirely sure" how much, said Chuck Denowh, executive director of the state GOP. "But we will pay for all...

"He was for the joke before he was against it." [Kathryn Jean Lopez] VPOTUS Cheney in Montana, as prepared for delivery: Time and time again, we're seeing examples of Democratic Party leaders apparently having lost their perspective concerning the nature of the enemy we face, and the need to wage this fight aggressively. No sharper example can be found than the Democratic Party chairman himself, Howard Dean, who said the capture of Saddam Hussein didn't make America any safer. And maybe it should be no surprise that such a party would turn its back on a man like Senator Joe...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 — For all the talk about the political baggage that President Bush carries this year, his stop in Indiana on Saturday showed that he could still turn on — and, White House strategists say, turn out — the most faithful party voters. Women screamed his name, men chanted “U.S.A.,” and no one doubted that the 4,000 people packed into a high school gymnasium for a rally in Sellersburg were primed to urge friends and neighbors to vote on Nov. 7 for Representative Mike Sodrel, who won his seat by just 1,300 votes two years ago. The scene...

ATLANTA - With just over a week to go before Election Day, the match-up between U.S. Rep. John Barrow, D-Savannah, and former Congressmen Max Burns remains extremely tight, according to poll results announced Friday. The latest survey in the 12th District congressional race shows Barrow with a slight edge over Burns - 42 percent to 39 percent - among voters who say they will cast ballots on Nov. 7. But considering that the margin of error is 6 percentage points, the poll indicates the two candidates are running neck and neck. A high number of respondents - 19 percent -...

Democrat John Tester The campaign of Republican Senator Conrad Burns has inched forward in recent few weeks. But the third Rasmussen Reports poll this month of Montana's closely watched U.S. Senate race shows that Democrat Jon Tester is still slightly ahead, 51% to 47% (see crosstabs). When leaners are included, it’s Tester by three, 51% to 48%. Montana remains in the Toss-Up category for our Senate Balance of Power summary. Tester led by seven points on October 11, and by just two on October 18. We have polled this race more than a dozen times in 2006 and Senator Burns...

Don't let the flat top haircut fool you. Jon Tester is a much a liberal as Barney Frank. This material is from mt-gop@mailman.montana.com Read this material and you will see why we must support Senator Burns. Send him a donation today. A tour of liberal locales and encounters with left wing lunatics “Tonight Jon Tester was on the road, rolling into San Francisco to be the guest of honor at a fundraiser hosted by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. While Tester was the toast of the town tonight, he was also joined by a certified sweetheart of the liberals -...

One must be careful to make too much of a given Senate candidate appearing broke at the 3rd-quarter FEC filing time. After all, the national parties and major donors can rescue a strong candidate’s foundering finances. And certain costs, such as advertising, may even still have been paid up front. But when so many candidates from one party, who have been very strong, are suddenly out of cash, while the other party is cash-rich, something may be afoot. In this case, the Republicans continue to use their strategy which produced surprise wins in 2002 and 2004: They are keeping their...

Rasmussen Reports now has Burns within 3 points of Tester - basically margin-of-error. Although a tie may be too good to be true at this time, this seems to coincide with the slow and slight tweak in Burns' direction seen in recent MT polls. In other words - striking distance. GOTV will have to be perfect, as the Democrats have a pretty damn good GOTV machine in Montana. Also updated - Fleming now has Chafee down just 4 points in RI. This is again a sign of a very small and overcomable deficit. GOTV in RI could also be key....

Poll is located on the right hand column of the front page: Question: Which US Senate candidate would bring more jobs to the state?Choices are: Conrad Burns (R) Jon Tester (D) Stan Jones (I) 

HELENA, Mont. - Democratic Senate candidate Jon Tester said the U.S. needs stronger diplomatic efforts to deal with North Korea and Iran, while incumbent Conrad Burns argued in Thursday's debate that Cold War methods of deterrence work best. Tester, who has a slight edge in the race four weeks before the election, differed sharply with Burns on issues ranging from the federal deficit and the war in Iraq to tax cuts and ethics. Burns, who is seeking a fourth term, said the U.S. can handle the threat of terrorists coming out of Iran and North Korea's apparent development of a...

Democrat targets The President’s approval ratings remain low and generic polls (“which party would you be most likely to vote for?”) give an edge to the Democrats, though perhaps by less than in the summer. So the seats most likely to change hands are ones the Democrats are targeting. Montana ought to be safe for the Republicans, and with another candidate, it would be. But Conrad Burns has been linked to uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, now convicted of corrupting public officials. Burns has been trailing for some time, and Montana now pips Pennsylvania as the Democrats best hope of a pick...

WASHINGTON — Democrats are slightly ahead of Republican incumbents in three election battleground states that will help determine control of the Senate, a series of polls released Sunday showed. In Montana, Democrat Jon Tester had the support of 47 percent of registered voters, while incumbent Republican Sen. Conrad Burns had the support of 40 percent. In Ohio, Democrat Rep. Sherrod Brown had 45 percent of registered voters, while incumbent Republican Sen. Mike DeWine had 43 percent. In Tennessee, Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. had 43 percent, and former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, the Republican Senate nominee, had 42 percent. Democrats...

HELENA - Tom Ridge, the former and first head of the federal Department of Homeland Security, took after Democratic Senate candidate Jon Tester on Wednesday, saying his call to repeal the federal Patriot Act is "ludicrous." Ridge, who said he was asked by former Republican Montana Gov. Marc Racicot to share his views with Montana reporters, said Tester's recent call to repeal the Patriot Act is "unfathomable, almost inexplicable." Tester, a Big Sandy farmer and current president of the Montana Senate, is challenging U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. In a debate with Burns in Butte on Saturday, Tester said he...

HELENA - Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jon Tester's campaign filed a complaint Tuesday charging that a corporate sponsor with close ties to Republican Sen. Conrad Burns received premium reserved seats at a Butte debate in violation of federal election law. Montanans for Tester filed the six-page complaint with the Federal Election Commission over what happened in a debate between Tester and Burns Saturday night in Butte. The Montana Standard, Resodyn Corp. and Rhodia Chemical Co., sponsored the debate, with Resodyn and Rhodia each paying $200 to help rent the theater, while the Standard kicked in the other $100, plus some...