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On November 7, 2000, during the final hour and a half of voting in Florida's most conservative region, the Panhandle, 13 national television journalists, representing all six major outlets, asserted a total of 39 times that the polls in that region closed an hour earlier than they really did. Not once did anyone on ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, NBC, or MSNBC inform the audience that Florida has two time zones and two poll closing times. They hammered away that there was only one poll-closing time throughout the entire state of Florida: 7 p.m. Eastern. The polls in the...

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. abortion rate declined to its lowest level since 1973, and the number of abortions fell by 13 percent between 2008 and 2011, according the latest national survey of abortion providers conducted by a prominent research institute. The Guttmacher Institute, which supports legal access to abortion, said in a report being issued Monday that there were about 1.06 million abortions in 2011 — down from about 1.2 million in 2008. Guttmacher's figures are of interest

James Goodale defended the New York Times during the Pentagon Papers. But Nixon had nothing on Obama, writes the First Amendment lawyer—and that’s bad news for freedom of the press.President Barack H. Obama’s outrageous seizure of the Associated Press’s phone records, allegedly to discover sources of leaks, should surprise no one. Obama has relentlessly pursued leakers ever since he became president. He is fast becoming the worst national security press president ever, and it may not get any better. It is believed that Obama’s Justice Department sought AP’s records to find the source of a leak that informed an AP...

Can you feel it? The wave, that is. I speak of one that will wash away far more than just a failed presidency. This wave will have the torque to rock the entire liberal bubble -- the political/media/crony bubble -- leaving it forever exposed. Ironically, those inside this bubble will be the last to know -- which is precisely why it will happen. Those who would rule over us, and insult us with outrage over Big Bird, academic debate-scoring, "binders" memes, and specious jobs statistics know nothing about us. This includes those inside the bubble who purport to represent our...

If you or an elderly relative have been hospitalized recently and noticed extra attention when the time came to be discharged, there's more to it than good customer service. Starting Monday, Medicare will fine hospitals that have too many patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge due to complications. The penalties are part of a broader push under President Barack Obama's health care law to improve quality while also trying to cut costs.

President Obama's Roanoke speech was not really an insult to businessmen. No, in fact, it was far worse: it was a threat. Worse still, it was a threat rooted in a long and ugly racial history in the United States. Consider that Obama mentioned, early in his remarks, teachers and urban infrastructure like roads. When Obama says "you didn't build that," he is employing the rhetorical strategies of two subcultures that he remains closely involved with: (1) the urban Democratic political machines that often shake down both businesses and minorities using City Hall's power over permits, union jobs, fines, and...

They are definitely not cheering for it, but some conservatives and libertarians I ordinarily respect are saying oh, ho hum, it is no big deal if President Barack Obama gets re-elected because - listen up, worriers - we have separation of powers. We have divided government. Both houses of Congress are likely to be Republican after November's election, and they will keep this guy in check. Excuse me, but have these fine folks paid any attention whatsoever to the past century or so of American history, to the gradually, then dramatically growing power of the executive? Do they know how...

Pundits and politicians alike praised President Obama's speech at the Tucson memorial service last Wednesday. "A wonderful speech," wrote the New York Times' David Brooks. "A magnificent performance," wrote National Review's Rich Lowry. "A terrific speech," wrote Sen. John McCain.And those were just the voices on the right.Obama's tribute to the victims of the shooting and the heroism of bystanders was appreciated by everyone. But many conservatives particularly admired the speech because the president took care to say, in clear terms, that political rhetoric did not cause the violence in Tucson. "It did not,"

The bullet that passed through Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' brain tore through only one hemisphere before exiting, missing the crucial parts of the brain that control most bodily and cognitive functions. The bullet entered through the back of her head, passed through the left hemisphere of her brain and exited just above her left eye, Dr. Michael Lemole, chief of neurosurgery at University Medical Center in Tucson, said Sunday at a news conference. Giffords is being kept in a medically induced coma and is not able to speak because she is intubated, but when she is periodically awakened, she is able...

DOVER, Del. – TV comedian Bill Maher is taking another jab at Republican Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, who as a conservative Christian activist was a frequent guest on his "Politically Incorrect" show in the 1990s. After O'Donnell won last week's GOP primary in Delaware with the help of tea party activists, Maher played a 1999 tape in which she said she had dabbled in witchcraft while in high school. Maher threatened to show more old clips of O'Donnell unless she appeared on his current cable show, "Real Time with Bill Maher." On Friday night, Maher made good on his...

Abdul-Jabbar says NBA entry age should be 21 By ERIC OLSON, AP Sports Writer 11 hours, 25 minutes ago Printable View Return to Original Buzz up! 328 Print Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (AP Photo) OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar says the NBA should raise its minimum age for entry into the league to 21. The NBA’s career scoring leader and center on the Los Angeles Lakers’ 1980s “Showtime” teams said Wednesday there’s a disturbing sense of entitlement among many of today’s young pros. “They get precocious kids from high school who think they’re rock stars— ‘Where’s my $30 million?’ ” said Abdul-Jabbar, who...

GATES MILLS, Ohio -- President George W. Bush made a pit stop on his way back to the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Tuesday evening. After leaving a fundraiser in Gates Mills, his motorcade passed a home with a sign asking the president to stop by -- so he did. Video: Bush Visits Euclid Plant Bush got out of the car and spent a few minutes with Ruth Harris, who was celebrating her 91st birthday with her family. Bush sat in a chair next to Harris and said "91 years old -- how special." When neighbors noticed what was happening, they...

As a drill instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, Luke Mercardante trained more than 1,200 men, turning them from civilians into Marines. Later, at Camp Lejeune, Mercardante visited the Wounded Warriors barracks and was approached by a young man who had been one of his recruits. The man told him that a lesson he learned from Mercardante at boot camp saved his life, said Mercardante's girlfriend, Kimberly Hull. The young man remembered Mercardante yelling at him, telling him not to move, Hull said. So when the time came, he didn't move, and lived.

For John Kanzius it began with a simple idea, some pots and pans and even a hot dog! Now, the Kanzius machine, which generates radio waves, has developed into a possible breakthrough in cancer research. Clinical trials on humans are still years away, but as Lesley Stahl reports, the results thus far have caught the attention of cancer researchers across the country.

American support for the initial invasion of Iraq has risen somewhat as the White House has continued to ask the public to reserve judgment about the war until General David Petraeus files his report in the fall. In a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted over the weekend, 42 percent of Americans said that taking military action in Iraq was the right thing to do, while 51 percent said the United States should have stayed out of Iraq.

Without much notice and even less discussion, “civil war” has become the new abracadabra phrase for American foreign policy. Sen. Joe Biden leads the magicians who’ve seemed to convince everybody that it never makes sense to get involved in a civil war. In March, he screamed from the Senate floor: “I’m so tired of hearing on this floor about courage. Have the courage to tell the administration, ‘Stop this ridiculous policy you have.’ We’re taking sides in a civil war!”

George W. Bush poses a brain-busting Rubik's Cube to the liberals of the land, and it's only right to try to soothe their upset. Why does W talk that way? Why does he say "Noo-kyoo-lrrr" when every good liberal knows it's "Noo-kle-uhr"? Why does he openly practice monogamy, and even love his wife? Why did he name his dog Spot? What you see is what you get with George W. Bush. He has that in common with Ronald Reagan, though W is no Reagan. He is nobody but W. This, for a conservative, is a Good Thing. It's why I...

A front-page story in The Post last week suggested that the Bush administration has no backup plan in case the surge in Iraq doesn't work. I wonder if The Post and other newspapers have a backup plan in case it does. Leading journalists have been reporting for some time that the war was hopeless, a fiasco that could not be salvaged by more troops and a new counterinsurgency strategy. The conventional wisdom in December held that sending more troops was politically impossible after the antiwar tenor of the midterm elections. It was practically impossible because the extra troops didn't exist....

A Camp Lejeune Marine died early Wednesday after being run over while sleeping in a training area, according to a family member. Family members got a call Wednesday afternoon that Joshua Bailey, 18, of Vinemont, Ala., died while in the field doing combat training in the lead-up to a March deployment to Iraq, according to Bailey's cousin, Diane Beesley. Bailey's mother, Fay Kilgo, who lives in Vinemont, confirmed that it was her son who died Wednesday at Camp Lejeune, but declined to comment further. Beesley, of Florida, said she was informed of Bailey's death by his 16-year-old sister Renee. "The...