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SAN DIEGO – A conflict between passengers at Lindbergh Field Tuesday night caused the overnight delay of an American Airlines flight headed to Chicago. Flight 590 was scheduled to depart at 11 p.m. for Chicago O'Hare International Airport but was rescheduled for Wednesday at 10:15 a.m. after some kind of dispute among customers started at the gate and continued onto the plane, said American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner. While Wagner said it is the airlines policy not to disclose any information about their passengers, televised reports claimed that the incident involved a group of six to seven Iraqi Americans and...

Biden Says Bush Wants to Delay Chaos Wednesday August 29, 2007 12:01 AM By MIKE GLOVER Associated Press Writer DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) - Democrat Joe Biden charged Tuesday that President Bush's policies in Iraq are designed to confuse voters and ensure that a chaotic end to the war is delayed until after he leaves office. Biden pointed to the turmoil that accompanied the end of the Vietnam War, with Americans plucked from the roof of the U.S. Embassy as enemy troops poured into Saigon. He said Bush wants to avoid such a stain on the end of his presidency. ``They...

Denny Hastert never met a problem he couldn’t solve. He was so good at legislating that it’s possible he would have been just as successful in his career had he never been Speaker at all. That is to say, Denny didn’t need the gavel to lead, but to a greater degree than many know, Congress needed him to govern. He was as committed a conservative and as loyal a Republican as I ever met, and yet principled liberals and partisan Democrats never had a harsh word for him. Whether as a back-bencher, as my chief deputy whip, or as Speaker...

Two Koreas agree to postpone summit until early October: presidential office By Yoo Cheong-mo SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Saturday asked South Korea to postpone the inter-Korean summit slated for Aug. 28-30 in Pyongyang until early October, citing severe flood damage sustained by the North, presidential spokesman Cheon Ho-seon said. In response, South Korea accepted the North's request and proposed holding the summit on Oct. 2-4 in the North Korean capital, Cheon said.

Holocaust survivors are dying off, yet the most complete records of the genocide remain difficult for them to see A bitter, public war has erupted between grass-roots Holocaust survivor organizations and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum over some 16 miles of Holocaust-era records held by the International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen, Germany. The archive contains some 42 million records of the incarceration and enslavement of 17 million Nazi victims, about 70 percent of which are digitized. Until recently, the files were secret. A 2006 treaty negotiated among the 11 nations of the International Tracing Commission that control the...

Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News Canadian Lindsay McCreith came to Buffalo for an MRI after being told he would have to wait over four months for one at home. After battling brain cancer, Lindsay McCreith is ready for his next fight: He’s taking on the Canadian health care system. His case has potential repercussions on both sides of the border as pressure grows for health reform. It started when McCreith, a resident of Newmarket, north of Toronto, suffered a seizure last year. He was told in Canada he would have to wait more than four months for an MRI to rule...

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told a gathering that legalized abortion is in large part responsible for illegal immigration in the United States. . .(he)said: "I contend [abortion] affects you in immigration. If we had those 40 million children that were killed over the last 30 years, we wouldn’t need the illegal immigrants to fill the jobs that they are doing today.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay finally won one Wednesday in his effort to beat back a campaign-related indictment in Texas. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided not to reinstate one charge of conspiracy to violate a state election law that had already been thrown out by a lower court judge.

Texas High Court Dismisses Charge Against DeLay, Big Three Ignore It Posted by Matthew Sheffield on June 28, 2007 - 00:37. After immediately jumping on the news that then-House majority leader Tom DeLay was indicted by a Democratic Texas prosecutor, the big three networks refused to mention the Wednesday news that the Texas supreme court has approved the dismissal of one of the charges against him.The charges were originally dismissed by a lower court judge (an event which the big three just barely covered) who ruled that the laws under which the former congressman was indicted did not exist during...

AUSTIN, Texas - The state's highest criminal court on Wednesday refused to reinstate a dropped conspiracy charge against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

“The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today ruled that I was wrongfully indicted by Ronnie Earle, the Mike Nifong of Texas, on laws that didn’t even exist. The court affirmed the decision to throw out the conspiracy indictments because they were based on laws that weren’t even on the books. What Ronnie Earle accomplished is no rookie error – it’s a political attack using our legal system as the primary weapon. “Ronnie Earle’s politically motivated indictments cost Republicans the leader of their choice, and my family hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. The damage he has done to...

The state’s highest criminal court today affirmed the 2005 dismissal of a felony indictment against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two associates. In the 5-4 decision, the court affirmed Judge Pat Priest’s decision to throw out an indictment accusing DeLay and his associates, Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, of conspiring to violate state election laws. The Sugar Land Republican, who retired from Congress in 2006 because of the indictments arising from the 2002 elections, still faces a charge of conspiring to launder corporate money into campaign donations. In 2005, just months after the indictments, Priest ruled that...

NewYorker article. Only link allowed by Excerpt and Link rules. Interesting material inside. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/04/070604fa_fact_goldberg?printable=true

This picture shows Pope Benedict XVI meeting Alice von Hildebrand in a private audience at the Vatican on 26 March. That was when he indicated, as we report today, that the indult, or permission, for universal celebration of the Tridentine Mass could be published this month. That meeting did however take place before the German bishops sent a seven-page letter outlining their objections. Another person who witnessed the audience tells me that when she asked Pope Benedict XVI to grant the indult, his precise reponse to her was: 'Something is coming in May.' Another extremely senior clerical source tells me...

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is calling on the Justice Department either to drop its investigation of his wife and former political associates or else to bring charges quickly. DeLay said he has given the FBI documents exonerating his wife, but an associate of the former lawmaker said that agents have followed up with a fresh round of subpoenas. The inquiry appears to be focused on determining whether DeLay’s wife, Christine, earned her pay from two organizations controlled by Ed Buckham, a lobbyist once closely affiliated with the former Republican leader, according to sources interviewed by federal investigators....

Democratic leaders are acting like traitors by opposing the Iraq war, and President Bush must answer with a toughened stance, former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Monday. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "are getting very, very close to treason," DeLay said in a meeting with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "We have people dying," he said. "Not just our soldiers, but innocent citizens dying in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hands of these evil people, and you have your elected leaders making these kinds of statements that embolden the enemy. It's unbelievable." [Snip] Bush...

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2007 – President Bush yesterday once again called for Congress to send him a clean emergency war-spending bill that does not include tacked on funding measures and a timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. Without the supplemental funds requested by the White House in early February, military officials will be compelled to shift money around to fill expenditure disparities, Bush said during his weekly radio address to the nation. “In the next few days, our military leaders will notify Congress that they will be forced to transfer $1.6 billion from other military accounts to make...

After Imus, DeLay Calls for Rosie to Be Fired Wants Conservatives to Lead Anti-O'Donnell Push AOL (April 13) -- Fanning the flames of discontent sparked by the Imus controversy, former congressman Tom DeLay is making a plea for his fellow conservatives to get Rosie O'Donnell fired for recent remarks she made. Is Rosie the Next Imus? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rosie vs. O'Reilly: The Feud Behind the Firing Calls? Rosie's Rant O'Reilly's Response -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sound Off at the Cooler: Did Rosie Cross the Line? "I'm calling for conservatives to take on Rosie O'Donnell," DeLay said during an interview with CNN. "She criticized...

After Imus, DeLay Calls for Rosie to Be Fired Wants Conservatives to Lead Anti-O'Donnell Push (April 13) -- Fanning the flames of discontent sparked by the Imus controversy, former congressman Tom DeLay is making a plea for his fellow conservatives to get Rosie O'Donnell fired for recent remarks she made. "I'm calling for conservatives to take on Rosie O'Donnell," DeLay said during an interview with CNN. "She criticized and ridiculed Chinese-Americans, she accused the president of being responsible for 9/11. Let's now start calling for her resignation." He also recently penned an article on TownHall.com titled "If the Left Takes...

Don Imus was recently fired from his nationally syndicated radio show and television simulcast. He has become that radio guy who got fired for saying something racist. But that wasn't be the real reason. Yes, his comments were deplorable, and, especially for a broadcaster of his experience, truly odd. He says it was a misfired joke, and he has apologized, several times, and seems genuinely sorry for letting such a joke cross his lips. But that’s not enough – the Left, true to form, wants him publicly and professionally destroyed. The message of the ongoing Imus scandal is simple: Verbal...

ABC's Jake Tapper Reports: In his new book "No Retreat, No Surrender," former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, compares liberals to Adolph Hitler. “I believe it was Adolf Hitler who first acknowledged that the big lie is more effective than the little lie, because the big lie is so audacious, such an astonishing immorality, that people have a hard time believing anyone would say it if it wasn’t true. You know, the big lie — like the Holocaust never happened or dark-skinned people are less intelligent than light-skinned people. Well, by charging this big lie” — that DeLay broke...

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats postponed on Thursday Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' first chance to testify in his own defense over the firings of eight federal prosecutors. The decision to shelve next week's Senate Appropriations hearing frustrated the White House, which wants Gonzales to quickly give lawmakers his side of the story amid calls for his resignation. But Sen. Barbara Mikulski (news, bio, voting record), D-Md, said the political firestorm should be resolved before Gonzales talks about the Justice Department's spending plan for next year. "It would be very difficult in this environment to give the department's budget request the attention...

Conservatives need to stop "pointing fingers at each other" and unite or Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the U.S., former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said in an exclusive NewsMax interview. The Texas Republican also admitted he was a "self-centered jerk" before he was born again, called Nancy Pelosi "dangerous" – and said he spent five weeks "on my knees" praying before deciding to resign from congress last June. DeLay, whose new book is "No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight" – spoke with Paul Crespo. [snip] NewsMax: I'm switching gears. How was the left able to...

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2007 – Further congressional delay in forwarding an appropriate emergency war spending bill to the White House will damage military readiness and morale as well as endanger the nation, President Bush told reporters today at a White House news conference. “Congress’s failure to fund our troops on the front lines will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines, and others could see their loved ones headed back to the war sooner than they need to,” Bush said. That scenario is “unacceptable,” Bush said,...

March 21, 2007 Editorial Tom DeLay Looks Back Since his forced retreat from power in a corruption scandal, Tom DeLay, the former House Republican majority leader, must have been watching re-runs of “Cool Hand Luke.” That film’s cynical rationalization of life’s conflicts as merely a “failure to communicate” is Mr. DeLay’s approach to explaining the Republicans’ loss of Congress last year. No, no, he insists in a new memoir, it wasn’t voters revolting against the quid pro quo corruption that Mr. DeLay turned into a dark art. Rather, Republicans “did not communicate their message” and overcome “short-term, media-fed issues.”...

State regulators are exploring whether to ask the federal government for a waiver that would allow California more time to meet air quality standards in heavily polluted areas. At issue is a federal requirement that the California Air Resources Board reduce tiny particles of pollution by the year 2015. The microscopic specs, known as PM 2.5, come primarily from diesel engine exhaust and can lodge in the lungs. Studies have linked the particles to lung disease and heart problems. In a March 12 letter that was made public Monday, board executive director Catherine Witherspoon suggested that the San Joaquin Valley...

WASHINGTON, March 17 — Tom DeLay, the fiery former House majority leader, knows why his party lost control of Congress last year. And he is not to blame. Skip to next paragraph Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Tom DeLay has a new book out. In his new book, Mr. DeLay, a polarizing figure whom Democrats sought to make a symbol of Republican corruption, attributes the Republican defeat in November to frustration with President Bush, the war and “a general perception of Republican incompetence and lack of principles.” “I would suggest that Republicans lost because they did not communicate their message and their...

WASHINGTON — Tom DeLay, the fiery former House majority leader and longtime congressman from Sugar Land, knows why his party lost control of Congress last year. And he is not to blame. [snip]...... In typical take-no-prisoners fashion, DeLay, who left Congress last year after his indictment in Texas on charges related to campaign financing, lashes out at Newt Gingrich, the former speaker, and other fellow leaders of the 1994 Republican revolution. He criticizes the Republican leader of the ethics panel that admonished him, calls former President Clinton "slimy" and portrays leading Democrats as his evil liberal tormentors. [snip]......"I consider...

DeLay's Wrath By Robert Novak WASHINGTON -- Newt Gingrich's attempted phoenix-like rise from his own political ashes to a presidential candidacy next week will run into a harsh assessment by his former House Republican colleague, Tom DeLay. The former majority leader's memoir assails Gingrich as an "ineffective" House speaker with a flawed moral compass. Gingrich is not the only erstwhile political ally to feel DeLay's wrath. In "No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight," DeLay is even more critical of his predecessor as majority leader, Dick Armey, and assails George W. Bush for being more compassionate than conservative.

DeLay Gives Secrets of His Success – and Fall By: Mike Allen March 15, 2007 02:53 PM EST Guess the writer: "Liberals blaming me for corruption in Washington is like the KKK blaming Martin Luther King, Jr. for an epidemic of burning crosses." It's Tom DeLay – unrepentant, but hoping to give history a hand by telling his side of one of the most astonishing rise-and-fall stories in American politics. His book, out Monday, is called "No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight." He wrote it with Stephen Mansfield, a former Texas pastor whose works include the New York Times...

Newt Gingrich's attempted phoenix-like rise from his own political ashes to a presidential candidacy next week will run into a harsh assessment by his former House Republican colleague, Tom DeLay. The former majority leader's memoir assails Gingrich as an "ineffective" House speaker with a flawed moral compass. Gingrich is not the only erstwhile political ally to feel DeLay's wrath. In No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight, DeLay is even more critical of his predecessor as majority leader, Dick Armey, and assails President Bush for being more compassionate than conservative. Even DeLay's handpicked speaker, J. Dennis Hastert, is accused along...

Newt Gingrich's attempted phoenix-like rise from his own political ashes to a presidential candidacy will run next week into a harsh assessment by his former House Republican colleague Tom DeLay. The former majority leader's forthcoming memoir assails Gingrich as an "ineffective" House speaker with a flawed moral compass. Gingrich is not the only erstwhile political ally to feel DeLay's wrath. In "No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight," DeLay is even more critical of his predecessor as majority leader, Dick Armey, and assails George W. Bush as being more compassionate than conservative. Even the man DeLay handpicked to succeed Gingrich...

Russia nuclear delay angers Iran Iran insists it wants nuclear technology for peaceful purposes Iran has fiercely criticised Russia for a delay in shipments of nuclear fuel which will put back the launch of Iran's first nuclear power station. Chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said the delay was "deplorable". The Russian firm building the plant in the city of Bushehr has blamed the hold-up on a lack of payment. Tehran denies having held back payment. Iran is under pressure over its nuclear programme, after failing to meet a UN deadline to halt uranium enrichment. Western nations believe Tehran is hoping...

AUSTIN — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals heard arguments from prosecutors Wednesday on why criminal conspiracy charges should be reinstated against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two co-defendants. DeLay, Jim Ellis and John Colyandro were accused of conspiring to violate the state's election laws in the 2002 elections for the Texas House. But DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin of Houston, got a state district judge to throw out the indictment on grounds that conspiracy to violate the election code was not a crime until 2003. Dismissive of 2003 law Rick Reed, an assistant to Travis County District...

U.S. Rep-elect Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, was taken to the hospital this evening after eating dinner and complaining to his wife, Susan, that he wasn't feeling well, according to Lampson spokeswoman Carrie Chess. Lampson had not eaten all day and had not had a day off since the election last month, Chess said. He was preparing to start his vacation Friday. He walked into St. John Hospital in Clear Lake on his own and was taking routine tests to make sure he was OK, Chess said late tonight.

Michigan's three top-tier universities will be able to continue their current admissions and financial aid policies through the end of the current cycle, a federal judge decided Tuesday. Under a ballot measure passed by state voters on Nov. 7, public universities and governments no longer can use race and gender in admissions and hiring starting Saturday. U.S. District Judge David Lawson signed a motion filed by the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University seeking more time to implement some of those changes because they've already begun accepting new students for admission next fall.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said today that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.) would be elected president in 2008 and would probably tap Senate colleague Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) as her running mate. DeLay met with conservative bloggers at a weekly lunch meeting hosted by HUMAN EVENTS and the Heritage Foundation. He is making the rounds in Washington to promote his new blog and activism website, TomDeLay.com. DeLay said he was motivated to start the blog and create the Grassroots Action and Information Network after observing the success of liberal organizations such as MoveOn.org, the Media Fund and Americans Coming Together....

Former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) announced the launch of an Internet-based grassroots organization aimed at raising money and uniting Republican activists to take back and hold the GOP majority in Congress, according to a release today. The new organization, comparable to the left’s MoveOn.org, is called GAIN (Grassroots, Action, and Information Network) and will be hosted on www.tomdelay.com, a blog that will feature comments from DeLay and other conservative bloggers and activists.

Seems like just yesterday Republicans were warning Democrats not to count their hicks before they were catched. Democrats said they had a plan to get the guys with the Confederate flags, but Republicans said you can’t con those folks into loving federal overreach. Democrats said they could draw pro-life votes, but Republicans scoffed: “We’re the pros. Get a life!” Democrats said they could attract budget-balancers and Republicans countered: “That is our constituency and you can’t budge it.” Well, bite your tongues, all you RNC guys and gals with the starched collars. Them there rubes done drug you out the door....

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs talks about rough first week in Washington (11/17/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) - She's already served one-seventh of her congressional term. Now, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs is touting what she's accomplished on Capitol Hill. And she tells us why most of her staff walked out on her. Gibbs won an election ten days ago to serve the rest of Tom DeLay's term. But earlier this week, most of her staff quit, saying she was a mean boss. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs has had quite a week. "I knew I would have to get to work and work fast," she said. And she did, already...

WASHINGTON — The turmoil in newly elected Rep. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs' office deepened Thursday with the Houston Republican demanding a congressional investigation of aides who quit in a mass walkout earlier this week. Sekula-Gibbs said the staffers, holdovers from her predecessor Tom DeLay, deleted records from the office's computers Monday, the day before seven of them resigned in apparent protest of their treatment. "As public servants, they have harmed the 22nd Congressional District and they have brought shame to this office," Sekula-Gibbs said in a statement. "I have a duty to investigate." Sekula-Gibbs was elected to complete DeLay's term. Democrat Nick...

HOUSTON - Just three days after being sworn in, U.S. Rep. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs wants Congress to investigate the destruction of files in her office by former staff members of her predecessor, Tom DeLay. Sekula Gibbs said the staffers walked out of her office Tuesday, resigning en masse. A Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, reported the staffers didn't like the way she was treating them. Sekula-Gibbs said in a statement Thursday that seven employees in her Washington office and the district office in Stafford, Texas, outside Houston, "deleted records and files without my knowledge or permission" before quitting. Spokeswoman Lisa Dimond...

DeLay Successor Seeks Inquiry Into Missing Computer Files By Charles Babington Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, November 17, 2006; A04 Just when it seemed things could get no stranger regarding the House seat once held by Texas Republican Tom DeLay, his successor called for an investigation into missing computer records last night, and an aide accused her of "disrespect and unprofessionalism." Rep. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs (R-Tex.), who is warming the 22nd District seat for only a few weeks, said that former DeLay employees apparently deleted the office's computer files shortly before they walked out, en masse, on Tuesday. The records dated...

But it was renegade DeLay who had a surprise. "I'm going to shock you," said he. "I think the real Person of the Year ought to be Nancy Pelosi, the new speaker of the House. She worked for years putting a strategy together, building a huge coalition. She held the Democrats together in the House like I have never seen before. She is going to change America!"

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs was sworn in as a congresswoman Monday night, and already she's a lame duck. Due to a weird electoral quirk, her term in office expires next month. But you couldn't tell that by listening to her. "I'm working hard to accomplish the things I'm working for," she said Tuesday. "For tax cuts. For immigration reform. To make sure we have a good solution for the war in Iraq." All that? In a few weeks? "If there's a way to do it, I'll do it," she said, smiling. "I'll deal with the leadership to get as much done as...

Democrat Nick Lampson won the bitter race to succeed former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Tuesday, overcoming Shelley Sekula-Gibbs' strong write-in effort to save the seat for the Republicans. Lampson said his victory was indicative of the Democratic Party's return and its cohesiveness. He added that the country deserves and will get a "new direction." Democrats regained control of the U.S. House for the first time in 12 years. "There are a lot of things I want to do. I want to make sure we do indeed try to create civility in our Congress," said Lampson, who served in...

President Bush, his collar open and his sleeves rolled up, told 2,000 cheering Republicans in Sugar Land today that they should "bring your pencil" to the polls and write-in the name of Shelley Sekula-Gibbs to succeed Tom DeLay in the U.S. House. "I always feel better when I'm in Texas," Bush said to the crowd packed into a hangar at the Sugar Land airport, before urging them to take the extra steps necessary to vote for Sekula-Gibbs. Most voters won't really need a pencil to cast write-in votes because they'll use electronic voting machines. If they write in the councilwoman's...

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...

On Monday President Bush flies into Houston to campaign for a congressional candidate who — at one point — looked like a long shot. But an exclusive poll indicates that Shelley Sekula-Gibbs may pull off a political upset and win her write-in campaign for Congress.

President George W. Bush will be in Fort Bend County Monday to rally an expected crowd of 5,000 Republican activists, whose support will be needed to keep Congressional District 22 in the party's hands. Monday's rally represents the first time Bush has visited Fort Bend County since becoming president, and possibly the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited the county. The event will be held at 5 p.m. at the Sugar Land Regional Airport, and entrance will be limited to those who have secured tickets in advance. County Republican Party chair Gary Gillen said tickets will not be...