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A few days ago, President Barack Obama made it clear ``to every man, woman and child who lives under the dark cloud of tyranny, that America will speak out on behalf of their human rights.'' Speaking out against tyrants, international resolutions and sanctions are often used as diplomacy tools. Sanctions are not uncommon when dealing with tyrants, as we have seen in the discussions weighing what to do about North Korea and Iran. The United States levied sanctions against Libya after its terrorists downed a PAM AM flight over Scotland in 1996; the world imposed sanctions on the white supremacist...

The woman who claimed she was raped on the side of a Ladue roadway now says she made the whole story up. Virginia Burns, 50, of Overland, Missouri says she was not raped like she told police nearly two weeks ago. Burns is also not disabled. Burns claimed she was driving on McKnight Road on November 30 when she ran out of gas. She said she got into her wheelchair and began heading down the road when two white males pulled her into a wooded area and raped her. Burns went on to say that she crawled back to her...

'Climategate' demands investigation By FLYNN ESPE The East Oregonian Have y'all heard about this "Climategate" business, the one about the 160 megabytes of e-mails and other information that was either leaked or hacked from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit? This is potentially one of the biggest scandals of the decade, but you sure wouldn't know it by flipping on CNN or from any of the top stories trickling down from the mainstream media. If, in fact, you aren't familiar, this is a news story that broke about three weeks ago. The information that was made public contains,...

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea said Friday that it understands the need to resume the stalled international talks on ending its nuclear programs, and that it agrees to work with the United States to narrow unspecified "remaining differences." The statement from North Korea's Foreign Ministry was the first reaction from the communist nation to three days of high-level talks with President Barack Obama's special envoy. Upon returning from North Korea on Thursday, envoy Stephen Bosworth made similar remarks in Seoul that the two sides reached common understandings on the need to restart the nuclear talks. Though the North stopped...

COPEN­HA­GEN — The top Amer­i­can envoy to cli­mate talks here flat­ly re­ject­ed argu­ments Wednes­day by diplo­mats from poor lands that the Unit­ed States owes a debt to de­vel­op­ing na­tions for decades of Amer­i­can emis­sions that con­tribut­ed to glob­al warm­ing. It was not the first time that the Amer­i­can ne­go­tia­tor, Todd D. Stern, had dis­missed the no­tion. But his words high­light­ed the di­vide that per­sists between the poor and the wealthy as near­ly 200 na­tions try to sketch the out­li­nes of a new pact on cli­mate change here. Asked about argu­ments by diplo­mats and some protesters that the Unit­ed States should...

Unions pressure Democrats on health insurance taxBy Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer Thu Dec 10, 6:15 pm ET WASHINGTON – Union leaders, among the most passionate backers of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, pressed Democratic senators Thursday to drop a tax on high-value insurance plans to pay for remaking the nation's system. Members of several labor unions denounced the proposed tax on so-called "Cadillac plans," arguing it wouldn't just hit CEOs but also middle-class Americans who did without salary increases to negotiate better health benefits. "I support health care reform but I can't afford this tax," Valerie Castle Stanley,...

Speaker Pelosi: We would do 'almost anything' to pass healthcare this yearBy Mike Soraghan - 12/10/09 12:00 PM ET House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) laid out a scenario Thursday in which the massive overhaul of the nation's health system could pass by the end of the year. If the Senate were to pass a bill by next Thursday, Dec. 17, she said, the House and Senate could conduct a conference committee during the next weekend and pass it before New Year's Day. “I think we would do almost anything if it meant we would pass healthcare for all Americans before...

~ It’s Finally Friday!! ~ HORNET REFUELING A U.S. Air Force KC-10 Extender aircraft refuels a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft over Afghanistan, Dec. 7, 2009. The squadron is part of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, which is deployed to the region. The Super Hornet is assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 41. U.S. Navy photo by Lt. j. g. Kyle Terwilliger Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY A member of the joint international security force in Afghanistan eyes...

A visit to North Korea by U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth ended in failure Thursday to convince the North to return to multilateral nuclear disarmament talks. "We identified some common understandings on the need for and the role of the six-party talks and the importance of the implementation of the 2005 Joint Statement," Bosworth told reporters. "It remains to be seen when and how [North Korea] will return to the six-party talks." He added, "This is something that requires further consultations among all six of us." But Bosworth claimed he had "very useful" meetings with senior North Korean officials. Further bilateral...

Hollywood poised for record-breaking year at the box office; 2009 set to best 2007's record intakeBy Amy Eisinger DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Thursday, December 10th 2009, 3:26 PM The Hollywood box office is having its best year in history, reports Hollywood.com Box Office. This week the box office grand total for 2009 is expected to hit $9.682 billion -- surpassing previous record holder 2007, when the tally was $9.68 billion. With potential top-grossing holiday films still to come, Hollywood is bracing for their first $10 billion year ever. Movies that are still on the way this year include James Cameron's...

President Obama goes to Copenhagen next week, and he is expected to promise to cut carbon emissions 83 percent by 2050. And John Stossel will have plenty to say about it Thursday night, when his new show, "Stossel," premieres on Fox Business at 8 p.m. EST. Expect Stossel to weigh in on the utter arrogance of the effort. A promise of 83 percent? Not 80 percent? Not 85 percent? And why do the world's leaders wnat to spend trillions on a theortical problem with millions dying from malnutrition, poor hygiene, and malaria.

Accepting Peace Prize, Obama Evokes 'Just War'2009-12-10 16:05:18 (4 hours ago) Posted By: Intellpuke President Obama, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize here in Oslo, Norway, on Thursday, acknowledged the age-old tensions between war and peace but argued that his recent decision to escalate the conflict in Afghanistan was justified to protect the world from terrorism and extremism. “We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth,” said President Obama. “We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations - acting individually or in concert - will find the use of force not only necessary but...

A federal judge on Thursday ruled the Defense Department in contempt of court for failing to videotape the testimony of a Guantanamo Bay detainee so that the public and the news media could see it. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler is demanding a detailed explanation of why the Pentagon failed to conduct the taping, as she had directed, of testimony by Mohammed Al-Adahi of Yemen. He testified June 23 in a challenge to his indefinite detention at the prison in Cuba. In August, Kessler ordered the government to "take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps" to facilitate Al-Adahi's release. The...

Public Policy Polling: Perhaps the greatest measure of Obama's declining support is that just 50% of voters now say they prefer having him as President to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they'd rather have his predecessor. Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that's somewhat of a surprise and an indication that voters are increasingly placing the blame on Obama for the country's difficulties instead of giving him space because of the tough situation he inherited. The closeness in the Obama/Bush numbers also has implications for the 2010 elections. Using the Bush card may not...

The public's overall assessment of the condition of the national economy remains grim; 77 percent of Americans say the economy is in bad shape. The economic stimulus package was supposed to help with that. As of the end of November, the government has spent $217 billion in stimulus, and two Republican Senators say that at least 15 percent of it has been pure waste, as CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports. You probably wouldn't guess that a martini bar and a Brazilian steak house would be on tap for stimulus funds. But in St. Joseph, Missouri the two privately-owned facilities...

Most dropouts leave college because they have trouble going to school while working to support themselves, according to a report released Wednesday by Public Agenda, a nonpartisan research group. The report, “With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them,” was based on a recent survey of more than 600 individuals aged 22 to 30, comparing those who started a college education but did not complete it with those who received a degree or certificate from a two- or four-year institution. With the Obama administration pushing to improve the nation’s competitiveness by doubling the number of college graduates, many educators, foundations and...

Michelle Obama was even more fascinating than her presidential husband in 2009, according to Barbara Walters. Walters named the first lady the year's most fascinating person, in her one-hour special "Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People," which aired last night on ABC.

HAVANA: Fidel Castro is calling President Barack Obama's accepting of the Nobel Peace Prize a "cynical act," given that he is sending 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan. The 83-year-old former Cuban leader initially applauded Obama's selection, but he has backed off that recently. In a column on a government website on Wednesday, Castro wrote: "Why did Obama accept the Nobel Peace Prize when he had already decided to take the war in Afghanistan to its ultimate limit?" Castro said Obama "was not obligated to commit a cynical act" by accepting the prize. He said Obama's Dec. 1 speech during...

Chicago, Ill. - Delegates approved resolutions dealing with election reform, animal welfare and identification and concealed carry at the Illinois Farm Bureau's 95th annual meeting Dec. 5-8 in Chicago. On resolutions related to elections and elected officials, delegates approved new policy language so that IFB now supports: -- Legislative redistricting by an unbiased third party and districts that are compact, contiguous and that follow county, township and municipal boundaries to the degree possible; and -- Caps on pension amounts for retired state legislators. Delegates approved supporting the Illinois Department of Agriculture as the entity having jurisdiction over the care of...

Assemblyman John A. Perez's final opponent has bowed out, setting the stage for the first-term Democrat to be selected Assembly speaker today -- the first openly gay man to hold the post. After behind-closed-door talks this week with Perez and other political leaders, . . .

COPENHAGEN — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joined the Obama administration’s charm offensive in Copenhagen on Thursday — and took some shots at the Bush administration in the process. “As much as the world awoke to the dangers of climate change, the political leadership of the United States simply slept,” Salazar said in a briefing at the U.S. center here. “Confronting the impact of climate change was simply not a priority.” He said things have changed since the election of Barack Obama. “I’m here in today in Copenhagen on behalf of President Obama to deliver a simple message: The United States...

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend certain expiring provisions, and for other purposes. [full test of the bill and vote details at link]

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.

Dear fellow pastors in Uganda,I greet you in the name and love of Jesus Christ as I send this encyclical video (http://www.youtube.com/saddlebackchurch) to the pastors of the churches of Uganda with greetings from your fellow pastors around the world. May grace and peace be with you this Christmas season.We are all familiar with Edmund Burke’s insight, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” That is why I’m sharing my heart with you today. As an American pastor, it is not my role to interfere with the politics of other nations, but it...

I have to admit, it was one of the strangest speeches Obama has ever given. In Obama usual grand way, his rhetoric was high flying, and a mixture of pragmatism and nonsense. But it does provide a window into his mind, and it is a shocking view.Obama provided an empassioned defense of America’s wars as ‘just’ wars for humanitarian reasons…something George W. Bush campaigned on worldwide during his presidency. We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations – acting individually or in concert –...

On October 23rd, a reporter asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?” Speaker Pelosi shook her head and before moving on to another question replied: “Are you serious? Are you serious??” Pressed for a more substantive response later, Pelosi’s press spokesman admonished the reporter: “You can put this on the record. That is not a serious question. That is not a serious question.” The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) disagrees. In 1994, the CBO said of an individual mandate to buy health insurance: A mandate...

Congress is fast-tracking legislation to restrict the ability of General Motors and Chrysler to close thousands of auto dealerships as part of their restructuring. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) unveiled legislation late on Tuesday that would expand an arbitration process for dealer closings. The new language has already been added to the financial-services appropriations bill that is part of a broader $447 billion spending package. House Democrats want to pass the bill this week. The Obama administration has been opposed to reversing closures because of the impact that would have on the...

Over 1,700 scientists in Britain have signed a statement defending the evidence for human-made climate change in the wake of hacked e-mails that emboldened climate skeptics. E-mails stolen from an English university appeared to show scientists discussing ways to shield data from public scrutiny and suppress others' work. Climate skeptics — those who deny that human activity is responsible for global warming — have seized on the correspondence as evidence that scientists have conspired to hide the facts. Most scientists say the e-mails do nothing to undermine the evidence for climate change. More than 1,700 signed a statement released Thursday,...

Today, we announced that Nielsen Business Media has reached an agreement with e5 Global Media Holdings, LLC, a new company formed jointly by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners, for the sale of eight brands in the Media and Entertainment Group, including Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, The Clio Awards, Backstage, Billboard, Film Journal International and The Hollywood Reporter. e5 Global Media Holdings has also agreed to acquire our Film Expo business, which includes the ShoWest, ShowEast, Cinema Expo International and CineAsia trade shows. In addition, we’ve made the decision to cease operations for Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews. This move...

The sale of the abortion pill RU486 has been given final approval in Italy, despite protests from the Vatican and the government in the Catholic country. Unlike in other European countries, the pill, also known as mifepristone, will be administered solely in hospitals. The pill was originally approved by the country's pharmaceuticals agency in late July, but the move prompted a parliamentary inquiry. Italy was is one of the last European states to make it available. Side-effects According to the country's pharmaceutical agency, the pill must only be administered in a hospital environment and must be taken within seven weeks...

The California Air Resources Board gave truckers a break Wednesday on the state's tough diesel emissions rules, acknowledging that the bad economy has both improved the state's air quality and made anti-pollution upgrades unaffordable. After a nearly seven-hour public hearing in Sacramento that featured more than 80 speakers including truckers, health and environmental advocates and even high school students from Oakland, the air board ordered modifications to the rules drawn up for consideration in April. Those changes could include significant delays in enforcement of the rules, depending on how quickly the economy recovers. The board also could add new exemptions...

D.C. officials Wednesday said they would proceed cautiously if Congress lifts a federal roadblock to implementing a voter initiative approved more than a decade ago that called for legalizing medical marijuana. Congress is poised to pass an omnibus spending bill that will not include a rider known as the Barr Amendment, which has blocked the District from legalizing medical marijuana. The Barr Amendment has banned the city from funding legalization efforts since 1998, when 69 percent of voters cast ballots approving the use of medical marijuana in the District. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray called the removal of the ban...

Hacked emails were from whistleblowers and Eskimos are happy: tales of the expected from climate scepticsChairman of the International Climate Science Coalition, Professor Tim Patterson, speaks at one of the sceptic side events at the Copenhagen summit. Photograph: Jens Dige/APThe only clue I find to where the world's leading climate sceptics are meeting in Copenhagen is a large round sticker on a pavement outside a house down a side street. It depicts a happy-looking Eskimo standing on a clearly melting ice flow with a cheerful sun beaming down on him and his ice-cream under the words "Hurra global warming". Up...

A Satan-loving arsonist on Wednesday torched a Bronx church that had opened a soup kitchen with a generous donation from late Yankees broadcaster Bobby Murcer. The charred sanctuary of Glory of Christ Church bore tell-tale signs of arson - and the pyscho firestarter even defaced the walls with signs of devil worship. A pentagram, "666" and "Hail to Satan" were spray-painted on the walls, along with, "We hate Jews and Christians" and "GET OFF OUR BLOCK."

The reported capturing of a Muslim women in Reus (Tarragona) and the issuing of a stoning sentence for adultery by religious fanatics are a gauge of a phenomenon that has already appeared in Holland and France, and which is now taking root in Catalonia: the creation of Islamic "moral brigades" by fundamentalists, who claim the role of judges and police officers imposing a strict observance of Sharia, or Islamic law. The theatre of the incursions of these Islamic "moral patrols" are the rural towns where the mosques are controlled by Salafists, a fundamentalist sect of Islam, with a substantial presence...

East meets West – Pakistan‘s Fighter Aircraft US-built fighter aircraft operating next to Chinese combat jets 08:02 GMT, December 8, 2009 defpro.com | Not many modern armed forces unite in their inventory, and particularly among their key assets, technology from two – in political terms – entirely opposite origins. It is more common in the countries of the former Soviet bloc where, since the fall of the iron curtain, Western technology slowly but ever increasingly found its way into countries primarily equipped with Russian weapon systems. In the past two decades the Middle East and southern countries of the Asian...

In his third bid for Congress, Republican Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta is counting on a vastly different political climate than in his loss last year. Barletta railed against President Barack Obama's policies in a video on his campaign Web site Wednesday as he launched a third campaign for the seat held by 13-term Democratic Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski of Nanticoke. Barletta lost to Kanjorski in 2002 and 2008, but faces a potentially different race next year. First, unlike his earlier runs, he has a Republican opponent aggressively attacking him. Chris Paige, a Monroe County Republican challenging for the nomination, said...

Chalk up another 500 to the list of jobs President Obama will need to create or save. A Pittsburgh-based coal company, CONSOL Energy, will lay off nearly 500 of its West Virginia workers next year and its CEO blames environmentalists dead-set against mountaintop mining who have waged “nuisance” lawsuits for the job loss. But CONSOL Energy’s political problems are not unique to the mining industry, which has suffered under the Obama Administration. The Environmental Protection Agency is already holding 79 surface mining permits in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. The EPA says these permits could violate the Clean Water...

December 10, 2009 Sarah Palin decries 'hoax' of climate change data Tim Reid in Washington Sarah Palin all but declared global warming a hoax yesterday when she urged President Obama to boycott the Copenhagen climate change conference and to stand up to the “radical environment movement”. The former Alaska Governor and possible 2012 presidential contender seized upon leaked e-mails from climate change scientists at the University of East Anglia. The scientists have been accused by global warming sceptics of falsifying data to make the case that the phenomenon is real and man-made, something they deny. The scandal has become a...

Rush Limbaugh and conservative interest groups are criticizing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for not putting up a strong enough fight to stop the Democratic healthcare legislation. The conservative talk radio host has questioned McConnell’s strategy a few times on his program this week, joining a chorus of growing critics who say the Senate GOP leader is aiding Democrats by allowing the chamber to debate and vote on amendments. The groups, as well as some Senate Republicans, would prefer that McConnell raise any and all procedural hurdles to slow the healthcare debate and push it into the midterm-election year....

A political scuffle has broken out about which lawmakers will be allowed to go to Copenhagen, Demark, on a congressional delegation led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Days before legislators are scheduled to discuss global warming at a climate change summit, accusations flew about the politics of who gets a codel invitation. Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), a partisan Republican who has been an outspoken critic of climate change legislation, said Wednesday that even though he was invited by a senior Republican, he may not be allowed to go on the codel to Denmark next week. Pelosi is expected to lead...

Late Tuesday evening it was announced that the group of ten moderate and liberal Democratic senators had reached broad tentative agreement to remove the public option from the Senate health-care bill. But it is important to look at what compromises have been made and what they mean for the health care of all Americans. The two main compromises are the “Medicare Buy-In” for people between 55 and 64 and the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) overseeing a national health-care plan run by non-profit entities where the federal government will negotiate the rates insurance companies can charge. OPM is...

Tough road for Rangel on tax pushBy Ian Swanson - 12/09/09 06:00 AM ET Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) wants to push a tax reform overhaul through Congress in 2010. The question is whether anyone will get behind the proposal offered by the embattled chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Democrats’ agenda for 2010 is already crowded with a number of priorities, and the looming election will have leaders carefully selecting what to take up. There’s also the question of the ethics investigations targeting Rangel, which have weakened the chairman of one of Congress’s most powerful panels. Rangel appears undeterred,...

The US-China Trade War Is Here Vincent Fernando|Dec. 10, 2009, 3:26 AM | 268 | China has slapped protective tariffs on American and Russian steel imports. This is truly a striking development given that its usually China who is accused of dumping steel in other nations. It's also hard to imagine how American and Russian steel could have a lower cost-basis than local Chinese products given their higher transportation and labor costs. XInhua: China said Thursday investigations showed the United States and Russia had dumped oriented electrical steel on the Chinese market, and the United States had subsidized the exports....

David Leuschen, founder of Riverstone Holdings, will avoid further legal problems by paying $20M restitution in a corruption scandal with state pension funds. Riverstone employees poured tens of thousands of dollars into then-state Comptroller Alan Hevesi's campaign......after getting a $150 million pension-fund investment. Leuschen then invested $100,000 in an obscure, low-budget film produced by the brother of the pension fund's chief investment officer.

Most descriptions of the award of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama have been shortened. The Nobel Prize website says it has been awarded to Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." One of the criticisms of this award is that it was decided after Obama was in office for only 9 days. Having actually expended very little effort, other than campaigning for the office, and having actually accomplished nothing seems antithetic to the letter and spirit of Alfred Nobel's desire to reward and acknowledge those who have done the most...

A gigantic storm dumped more than a foot of snow across much of the Midwest and New England as it marched eastward Wednesday, creating blizzard conditions, burying cars under huge drifts and providing ammunition for a massive campus snowball fight in Wisconsin. Even more snow fell in some areas, with 16 inches reported in Des Moines and nearly 19 inches just south of Madison, Wis. Gusts of up to 50 mph created snow drifts between 8 and 15 feet tall and even knocked down a two-story Christmas tree in downtown Champaign, Ill. The storm was blamed for at least 16...

The New York Times '09 Holiday Gift Guide page has some intriguing suggestions. There's the "Holiday Books Guide," the "Personal Tech Holiday Gift Guide," the guide for people of color...Wait. A separate gift page for people of color? Yes. The NYT Picker blog noticed the Times has a special gift section for non-whites: We don't like to throw around words like "racist" in the same sentence as the NYT's name, but there's no other word we can think of to describe this page in the NYT's annual Holiday Gift Guide -- called "Of Color/Stylish Gifts" and aimed exclusively at...

The feds spent stimulus billions on "silly" projects. The dubious projects were unearthed by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK), John McCain (R-AZ). Coburn said: "$217 billion is out the door, and at least 15% is pure waste." Coburn said blame "ultimately rests with VP Joe Biden," whom Obama tasked with oversight. "In his words, he's the sheriff," said McCain. A Biden spokeswoman didn't respond to a request for comment.

* Print * ShareThis A suspected Albanian gangster carrying a loaded pistol and silencer has been arrested outside the home of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, police have said, Sky News reported. There was no threat to Blair's safety, it is understood. The suspect, 56, was stopped in his car as he drove in Connaught Street, central London, on Monday at 11.15 p.m. local time. Officers on patrol became suspicious and arrested him for alleged traffic and documentation offences. About 25 minutes later, a passer-by approached a uniformed officer on guard outside Blair's £3.5m Connaught Square townhouse. He handed the...