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Early in the morning of 6 May 1945, American soldiers from the 2d Cavalry Group, Third Army, under the command of General George S. Patton, reached south-western Bohemia and decisively helped in the liberation of the city of Pilsen in what is now the Czech Republic. It wasn't until the fall of Communism that the citizens of Pilsen finally learned who it was that liberated their city and so every year since 1990 the city has held a "Liberation Festival" to honor American soldiers. The festival has become a local tradition and many American and Allied veterans make it a...

The protests in Egypt are proving that former President George Bush was right in his push for democracy in the Arab world, a leading Yale professor and best-selling author wrote Wednesday. Stephen Carter, a left-leaning author, wrote in The Daily Beast that now it’s up to Obama to build on Bush’s legacy. “Not long ago, President George W. Bush was considered naive for suggesting that the promotion of democracy in the Arab world should be a staple of American foreign policy,” Carter writes. “Two years ago, the same charge was whispered against President Barack Obama, when he suggested, in his...

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<p>NEW YORK -- Keith Olbermann is leaving MSNBC and has announced that Friday's "Countdown" show will be his last.</p> <p>MSNBC issued a statement Friday that it had ended its contract with the the controversial host, with no further explanation. Olbermann hosted the network's top-rated show, but his combative liberal opinions often made him a target of critics.</p>

It's taken 41 years, but a previously unseen set of photos of the mighty Niagara Falls reduced to nothing more than a barren cliff-top have finally surfaced. The stark images reveal North America's iconic - and most powerful - waterfall to be almost as dry as a desert. In June 1969, U.S. engineers diverted the flow of the Niagara River away from the American side of the falls for several months.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A San Francisco man upset with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's support of health care reform will spend 21 months in prison for threatening the Democratic congresswoman and her family. Federal prosecutors say U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White sentenced 49-year-old Gregory Lee Giusti on Thursday. The sentence was the result of a plea agreement Giusti reached with prosecutors in September when he admitted making more than 30 abusive and harassing phone calls to Pelosi's homes and offices. He pleaded guilty to a reduced count of threatening an elected U.S. official's family. Giusti also was given...

A TSA employee remained hospitalized today after being accused of kidnapping a young female in Atlanta, then taking her to his Hogansville residence and sexually assaulting her. Randall Scott King, whose age and street address were not given, abducted the woman Wednesday evening from a MARTA parking lot at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, police said. The alleged victim said after the assault, she was released by her captor, who gave her a suicide note and instructions on where to deliver it. Union City police alerted Hogansville police about the incident early Thursday. Hogansville officers obtained search warrants and found King...

<p>Traditionally, the American people have cared very little about foreign policy. In part, that's because they assume that the experts that are handling it know exactly what they're doing. Tragically, this is all too often a completely erroneous assumption.</p> <p>Traditionally, the American people have cared very little about foreign policy. In part, that's because they assume that the experts that are handling it know exactly what they're doing. Tragically, this is all too often a completely erroneous assumption.</p>

I don’t know about anybody else, but I am totally against the TSA body scanners for civil libertarian reasons. We know who it is that causes these security failures in our airports. Either we be realistic about the issue, or we continue to create inconveniences for ourselves. We can’t bring a certain amount of liquid in planes, we have to through so many checks and searches. Melissa Clouthier of @MelissaTweets on Twitter said: “I think people should protest the #TSA by stripping naked.” The tweet heard around the world! The Pirate Party of Germany has had enough. They took it...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking a state constitutional amendment that prohibits state courts from considering international or Islamic law when deciding cases. U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange ruled Monday morning in Oklahoma City following a brief hearing. It prevents the state election board from certifying the results of Tuesday's general election in which the amendment was approved by 70 percent of the voters.

A military recruiter was stabbed Tuesday at a career center in Illinois, ksdk.com reports. The attack reportedly occurred at the Armed Forces Career Center near St. Clair Square Mall in Fairview Heights, Ill. Lt. John Proffitt of the Fairview Heights Police Department told the station that a man walked into the center Tuesday to inquire about enlisting. The suspect then reportedly used a pair of scissors to stab the recruiter in the back.

Asked if he would attend the State of the Union address next year, after the TV cameras this year caught him objecting to President Obama’s denigration of the country’s highest court, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said, “I doubt that I will be there in January.” Delivering the Manhattan Institute’s prestigious Wriston Lecture on Wednesday evening, Alito noted that other justices, like the recently retired John Paul Stevens and current Justice Antonin Scalia “stopped the practice of attending State of the Union addresses, because they have become very political.” Attendees of the black tie event in New York City told...

<p>RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A federal judge has issued a worldwide injunction stopping enforcement of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, ending the military's 17-year-old ban on openly gay troops.</p> <p>U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips' landmark ruling issued Tuesday was widely cheered by gay rights organizations that credited her with getting accomplished what President Obama and Washington politics could not.</p>

A little bird told me today that the worshipping Muslim collective of the Ground Zero community was having its weekly meeting this Friday at the Cordoba House Mosque, conveniently located next to the remains of the infidel community at Park Place 51 in Manhattan. The bird insisted it had reliable information from "insider" sources about a gathering of protesters, even though it was a day away from the big 9-11 rally. Some of them came to support everyone's human right to say Allahu akbar while ramming planes into skyscrapers, while some others came to oppose it. So I took my...

Two Philadelphia police officers have been charged with criminal conspiracy, robbery, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, theft, and other related charges, according to officials. Sean Alivera, 31, and Christopher Luciano, 23, allegedly robbed a supposed drug dealer of 20 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $24,000 as well as $3,000 in cash. It turns out that the man they thought was a drug dealer was actually an undercover officer. Authorities also believe that the two planned to have the drugs redistributed on the street by an un-named drug dealer. “These two men are a disgrace to their badges,...

Healthcare reform is hurting the reelection chances of freshman Democrats in the House, according to The Hill/ANGA poll. A majority of voters in key battleground districts favor repeal of the legislative overhaul Congress passed this year. President Obama predicted in the spring that the new law would become popular as people learned more about it. But the poll shows Republicans strongly oppose it, independents are wary of it and a surprising number of Democrats also want it overturned. Republicans have vowed to repeal the law if they take control of Congress, and the findings of Mark Penn, who led Penn...

Barack Obama is the best thing that has happened to America in the last 100 years. Truly, he is the savior of America's future. He is the best thing ever. Despite the fact that he has some of the lowest approval ratings among recent presidents, history will see Barack Obama as the source of America's resurrection. Barack Obama has plunged the country into levels of debt that we could not have previously imagined; his efforts to nationalize health care have been met with fierce resistance nationwide; TARP bailouts and stimulus spending have shown little positive effect on the national economy;...

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. – Authorities say an 81-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder for allegedly beating to death his 94-year-old roommate at an Orange County nursing home. Sheriffs spokesman Jim Amormino says William McDougall allegedly took a bar used to hang clothes from a closet to repeatedly strike his roommate, Manh Ban Nguyen, late Friday. Amormino says detectives are still investigating a possible motive for the assault, which occurred at Palm Terrace Healthcare Center, a 99-bed residential facility in Laguna Hills. The Los Angeles Times reports that Nguyen, who was found beaten around the head, was pronounced...

SALISBURY, Md. -- A gunshot shattered a glass door Wednesday at a Salisbury office of the Maryland Republican Party, according to a party statement. The party published the statement on its website, indicating that a single gunshot shattered the front door at the office early in the morning. Salisbury police officers discovered the shattered glass after midnight and reported that the office had been vandalized. The statement indicated that a party staffer found a bullet in the office. If you have any information regarding this continuing investigation, contact Salisbury police by dialing 410-548-3165.