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The United States has started engaging the Taliban in negotiations through Saudi and Pakistani intelligence agencies, highly-placed sources told Dawn on Monday. He said that four “major neutral players” were engaged with the Afghan Taliban on behalf of the Saudi leadership and the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) of Saudi Arabia and the Pakistani leadership and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).The GID and ISI have been doing the job on behalf of the US government and CIA. The source said that one of the main objectives of the recent visit to Pakistan by CIA chief Leon Panetta was to assess progress in...

SNIPPET: "Iraqi soldiers foiled a potentially deadly suicide attack today at the border crossing at Al Qaim in western Anbar province. From Aswat al-Iraq (Voices of Iraq): “A force from the 28th infantry division managed to defuse a car bomb and to kill its driver in al-Qaim, Anbar province,” said the statement received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The suicide driver carries the Kuwaiti nationality, and had on his possession a fake ID issued from Baiji,” the statement added. “The car was loaded with three tons of Chlorine and C4 as well as other chemical materials,” it added. Having closely...

Foreign Ministry director-general Yossi Gal has held secret state-level meetings in Oman's capital Muscat, a senior official in Jerusalem told Haaretz. Diplomatic relations between Israel and Oman were cut off in 2000 at the start of the second intifada. The official said that Gal had left for Muscat with the ministry's deputy director for Middle East affairs, Yaakov Hadas, and other high-ranking officials. The Israeli delegation left on Sunday and will return Tuesday. The formal reason for the visit was participation in the annual conference of the Middle East Desalination Research Center, in which Israel is a member. However, Gal...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683 State Legislators File Amicus Brief Supporting NRA's Stance in Pivotal Supreme Court Case Monday, November 23, 2009 Fairfax, Va. -- A large bipartisan group of state legislators and other elected officials from all 50 states have signed an amicus curiae, or "friend of the court," brief supporting the NRA’s position that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The amicus brief, bearing the signatures of 891 state legislators and other elected officials -- including two governors and three lieutenant governors -- was filed with the U.S. Supreme...

A special council created by the governor of Massachusetts to help illegal immigrants integrate into society has come up with more than 100 recommendations, including a costly idea that was solidly rejected by the legislature a few years ago. Among the suggestions offered by Governor Deval Patrick’s advisory council are granting illegal immigrants driver’s licenses and discounted, in-state tuition at public colleges. In 2006 the Massachusetts legislature rejected a measure that would have given the heavily reduced tuition perk to illegal aliens who had graduated from a state high school. In all, the governor’s council offered 131 policy recommendations—labeled New...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683 Bipartisan Majority of U.S. Congress Signs Amicus Brief Supporting NRA's Position in Pivotal Supreme Court Case Monday, November 23, 2009 Fairfax, Va. -- An overwhelming, bipartisan majority of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have signed an amicus curiae, or "friend of the court," brief supporting the NRA’s position that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The amicus brief, bearing the signatures of 251 Members of Congress and 58 Senators, was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court today in the case...

Sarah Palin, the hottest name in the Republican Party, took a detour from her book-signing tour Sunday to dine with Billy Graham at his mountaintop home in Montreat."He's followed her career and likes her strong stand on faith," said son Franklin Graham, who was present for the 2 1/2-hour get-together. "Daddy feels God was using her to wake America up."The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate told Billy Graham about how she came to faith in God as a girl in Bible camp.She quizzed him on the presidents he's known and wanted his take on what the...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Thousands of people braved a cold, drizzly Monday for a chance to meet former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who was signing copies of her memoir at a Fort Bragg store. Some people camped out overnight, and the line snaked around the North Post-Exchange by the time Palin arrived at 11:15 a.m. The crowd chanted Palin's name when her "Going Rogue" tour bus pulled up outside the PX. "We love Sarah because she's a woman and she's smart," Sandra Harvath said. "She loves this country. I voted for her last time, and I'd vote for...

From Bloomberg: Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian who faces terrorism charges for his role in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies, asked a judge to order U.S. prosecutors to surrender information about “black sites” where he was held. Ghailani faces federal charges over the bombings of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. Ghailani had been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2006, before being transferred to the U.S. in June. He is the first detainee from Guantanamo Bay to be tried in a U.S. civilian court. In a...

Police are routinely arresting people simply to record their DNA profiles on the national database, according to a report published today. It also states that three quarters of young black men are on the database. The finding risks stigmatising a whole section of society, the equality watchdog has warned. The revelations will fuel the debate about the DNA database, the world’s largest. They are included in a report by the Human Genetics Commission, an independent government advisory body. It criticises the piecemeal development of the database and questions how effective it is in helping the police to investigate and solve...

This is what they did — these climate “scientists” on whose unsupported word the world’s classe politique proposes to set up an unelected global government this December in Copenhagen, with vast and unprecedented powers to control all formerly free markets, to tax wealthy nations and all of their financial transactions, to regulate the economic and environmental affairs of all nations, and to confiscate and extinguish all patent and intellectual property rights. The tiny, close-knit clique of climate scientists who invented and now drive the “global warming” fraud — for fraud is what we now know it to be — tampered...

Wave of Debt Payments Facing U.S. Government EDMUND L. ANDREWS November 22, 2009 WASHINGTON — The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.’s on terms that seem too good to be true. Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed. Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today’s low rates by exchanging short-term...

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named Senator Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County) as his pick for lieutenant governor Monday, making the announcement on a late night show. Maldonado, a Latino and moderate Republican, gave the governor a crucial vote on the budget this year - which included tax hikes- angering the party's base. It's not the first time he's stuck his neck out for the governor.

Junk Science: Hacked e-mails from Britain's Climate Research Unit are only the latest evidence of climate fraud. Just ask NASA's James Hansen about the faking of climate data or EPA employees about the suppression of climate fact. For years, noted scientists and other global warming skeptics have been accused of being on the take, their research tainted and funded by grants from Big Oil and other fossil-fuel interests. Now, it turns out, it's the warm-mongers who are fudging the numbers and concealing the inconvenient truth. We don't know who "Deep Throat" is. But according to an interview in Investigate Magazine's...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683 Bipartisan Majority of Attorneys General File Amicus Brief Supporting NRA's Stance in Pivotal Supreme Court Case Monday, November 23, 2009 Fairfax, Va. -- An overwhelming, bipartisan majority of attorneys general have signed an amicus curiae, or "friend of the court," brief supporting the NRA’s position that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The amicus brief, prepared by the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and bearing the signatures of attorneys general from 38 states, was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court today in the case...

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, speaking in that trademark sonorous baritone, utters a simple statement that translates into real trouble for Democratic leaders: "I'm going to be stubborn on this." Stubborn, he means, in opposing any health-care overhaul that includes a "public option," or government-run health-insurance plan, as the current bill does. His opposition is strong enough that Mr. Lieberman says he won't vote to let a bill come to a final vote if a public option is included. Probe for a catch or caveat in that opposition, and none is visible. Can he support a public option if states could opt...

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Republican National Committee will announce Monday that veteran political strategist Alex Castellanos will assume a senior communications role at the committee, an RNC official tells CNN. (snip) "Now the RNC has a new focus and direction - the 2010 elections," Castellanos said when reached by telephone. "And I am happy to help."

YouTube - Adam Lambert - AMA via kwout

Washington - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives at the White House Tuesday wondering if his country remains the US priority under President Obama that it became under President Bush. The Obama administration thought it had answered that question months ago when it announced that Mr. Singh's day of meetings would constitute the first state visit of Mr. Obama's presidency – a distinction meant to convey the importance of the occasion. But Obama's week-long trip to Asia that ended last Thursday has India questioning anew the value of a US partnership. In particular, the tenor of Obama's three days in...

Following the release by Breitbart's Big Government website of a video showing employees at ACORN's San Diego County office offering to assist in the transportation and exploitation of underage prostitutes from abroad, the Attorney General of California announced an investigation into ACORN's operations. Nights before the visit, ACORN dumped thousands of documents in a dumpster. Breitbart obtained them, says they are shocking evidence of ACORN's illegality and promises to release them bit by bit over time: Documents shared with BigGovernment.com include information exposing not only the inner workings of ACORN in California, but also personal, sensitive information belonging to employees,...

Note: The following text is a quote: Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMonday, November 23, 2009 Arrests Made in Case Involving Conspiracy to Procure Weapons, Including Anti-Aircraft Missiles Arrests were made today in a case involving a conspiracy to procure weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles. A criminal complaint, unsealed today, charged Dani Nemr Tarraf with conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles (FIM-92 Stingers) and conspiring to possess machine guns (approximately 10,000 Colt M4 Carbines). In addition, Tarraf and other defendants — including Douri Nemr Tarraf, Hassan Mohamad Komeiha, and Hussein Ali Asfour — were charged with conspiring to...

Note: The following text is a quote: Terror Charges Unsealed in Minnesota Against Eight Defendants, Justice Department Announces The Justice Department announced that terrorism charges have been unsealed today in the District of Minnesota against eight defendants. According to the charging documents, the offenses include providing financial support to those who traveled to Somalia to fight on behalf of al-Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization; attending terrorist training camps operated by al-Shabaab; and fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab. Thus far, 14 defendants have been charged in the District of Minnesota in indictments or criminal complaints that have been unsealed and...

37 ethics charges dropped on Sanford By: Andy Barr November 23, 2009 04:01 PM EST Gov. Mark Sanford could face 37 charges that he violated South Carolina ethics law if the state attorney general decides to proceed, according to a report by the state’s Ethics Commission. The report, released Monday, accuses the two-term Republican governor of having used state money to purchase business-class airline tickets to travel in Europe, South America and Asia. Four of the flights include his 2008 trip to Brazil that the governor extended in order to travel in Argentina to see his mistress. Additionally, Sanford is...

A few weeks ago seven of the eight incumbent Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates who lost their seat to a Republican had one other thing in common - a lower National Rifle Association (NRA) rating that their opponent . . . [and] the disparity in support for gun rights between the parties seems to have sharpened.

A new Rasmussen poll shows the Arizona Senator in a dead heat with potential GOP primary challenger J.D. Hayworth. BY ALYSSIA FINLEY John McCain may have been the GOP's national standard-bearer just a year ago, but now he's in electoral trouble at home. And this time no one can claim it's because of Sarah Palin. A new Rasmussen poll shows the Arizona Senator in a dead heat with potential GOP primary challenger J.D. Hayworth. Mr. Hayworth served as a congressman from 1995 to 2006, when he lost in a squeaker to Democratic Tempe Mayor Harry Mitchell, who prevailed by hounding...

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s campaign took money from law firms that represent clients his office investigated or accused of wrongdoing... Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP contributed $35,000 this year to Cuomo’s campaign. The firm, led by David Boies, represents Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, the former AIG CEO, who is fighting a civil fraud case the attorney general filed. Attorneys for Dell Inc., Deutsche Bank and former Liberal Party chief Raymond Harding also contributed to Cuomo. The AG’s office has been involved with disputes with each of them.... Cuomo is expected to run for governor. His campaign has raised $16 million...

FORT WORTH -- Nine men, all thought to be illegal immigrants, were arrested last week after a six-month investigation into an operation making fake government documents, a police spokesman said Monday. Investigators found that the men were making the documents -- mainly resident alien cards, drivers’ licenses and Social Security cards -- using low-end computer equipment. SNIP They face charges of engaging in organized crime/tampering with government records. They were in the Mansfield jail Monday with bail set at $25,000 each. But all were also on immigration holds, which means they will not be allowed to post bail and leave...

Last week had to be a bit awkward for Democrats. They labored to pass a health care bill that, among other things, establishes a government advisory panel to curb health care costs with industrywide medical recommendations. And at just the wrong moment, a similar government advisory panel provoked outrage by recommending that women stop getting so many breast cancer screenings. Unruffled, the Democrats pressed on with their 2,000-page health care bill, going so far as to hold a rare Saturday night vote on whether to proceed to debate. There's a good reason they are in such a rush to pass...

The truth is out. Illegal immigrants commit crimes at a much higher rate than Americans and legal immigrants. A new Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) report nails it. It proves the lies and smashes the myths of the “noble” illegal immigrant who only wants to “do the jobs Americans won’t do.” Using Freedom of Information Act requests to access otherwise embargoed government data on immigrant crime, the CIS establishes the fact that illegals commit “relatively high rates of crime.” The phony “academics” that’ve made careers of lying about the destructive impact of illegal aliens on our society are proved wrong....

Showdown is playing out across the country in blogs, on the editorial pages of newspapers, and at countless gun clubs NEW YORK, NY November 23, 2009 —Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a known gun control advocate, and has built a national platform to stem the flow of illegal guns into cities and towns. The group he co-founded in 2006, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has grown from 15 to 526 mayors. Its success has raised the ire of gun rights groups, most notably the National Rifle Association. The showdown between the NRA and Mayors Against Illegal Guns is playing out across the...

November 23: Dick Cheney Exclusive Interview

It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact. In September of last year, American Thinker published my article, Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis. Part of a series, it connected then presidential candidate Barack Obama to individuals and organizations practicing a malevolent strategy for destroying our economy and our system of government. Since then the story of that strategy has found its way across the blogosphere, onto the airwaves of radio stations across the country, the Glenn Beck...

Rep. Obey Warns President Obama He Will Ask Taxpayers to Pay for War, Should More Troops Be SentThe powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has a stark message for President Obama about Afghanistan -- sending more troops would be a mistake that could "wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy." "There ain't going to be no money for nothing if we pour it all into Afghanistan," House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "If they ask for an increased troop commitment in Afghanistan, I am going to ask them to...

Democrats moved one step closer to passage of their $2.5 trillion government-run health care boondoggle on a straight party-line vote Saturday night, proving once again that there are no “moderate” Democrats in Washington, D.C. today. The vote for cloture on the Motion to Proceed -- which brings the House-passed health care bill to the floor as a shell to substitute Harrycare -- passed 60-39. Sen. George Voinovitch (R-Ohio) was not in Washington to participate in the vote but was celebrating with his hometown gang the 30th anniversary of first being elected mayor of Cleveland. He said he would have voted...

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford faces 37 ethics charges he broke state laws limiting official use of airplanes and involving campaign money. The details were released Monday by the State Ethics Commission. They came five days after the panel charged the governor without offering any specifics. Sanford's lawyers have claimed the charges involve minor and technical aspects of the law. The charges followed a probe into whether Sanford used state aircraft for personal and political trips, used pricey airline seats despite low-cost travel requirements and reimbursed himself with campaign cash.

An aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that if the Islamic republic is attacked, it will retaliate against the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv, official media reported on Sunday. "If the enemy attacks Iran, our missiles will strike Tel Aviv," the official IRNA news agency quoted Khamenei's representative in the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mojhtaba Zolnoor, as saying late on Saturday. His comments came as Iranian air defence forces were set to carry out five days of manoeuvres involving simulated attacks on the country's nuclear facilities.

Sarah Palin arrived at Fort Bragg this morning to a media mob and cheers from more than 1,000 people lined up for her book-signing event. About a dozen people had been waiting since Sunday. Palin's bus pulled up to the North Post Exchange just after 11:15 a.m. and the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate emerged in a black suit to cheers and whistles. As she passed the collected media, Palin was asked what she was thankful for this holiday season. "I'm thankful for the U.S. military, the best in the world," she said. The line to see Palin extended...

Education is key, and not just for our children. To that end, we will be conducting a series of conventions. These will be full-day experiences where you will be immersed in learning about topics ranging from self-reliance, community organizing, the economy and how to be a political force in your own neighborhood and country. The first one will be in Orlando at UCF Arena on March 27th… All of the above will culminate in The Plan, a book that will provide specific policies, principles and, most importantly, action steps that each of us can take to play a role in...

11/23/2009 US Foreign Policy Obama's Nice Guy Act Gets Him Nowhere on the World Stage By Gabor Steingart AP US President Barack Obama is back in the US after an Asian trip that produced few results. When he entered office, US President Barack Obama promised to inject US foreign policy with a new tone of respect and diplomacy. His recent trip to Asia, however, showed that it's not working. A shift to Bush-style bluntness may be coming. There were only a few hours left before Air Force One was scheduled to depart for the flight home. US President Barack Obama...

Italy's beleaguered prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, will face fresh embarrassment on Tuesday with the publication of a book written by the call girl who claims to have slept with him at his mansion in Rome. Patrizia D'Addario said the 73-year-old premier changed into white silk pyjamas and dressing gown after asking her to spend the night with him at the end of a lavish party at his palatial residence. She felt as though she had entered a "harem" when she attended the soirée, with 20 glamorous young models and starlets competing for the favours of the prime minister, who she...

The boy, known as Georgie Smith, has wanted to be a girl since he was a toddler. He said: "I'm old enough to know what I want. What I want is to be a girl." His mother Carole, 41, has criticised the NHS for preventing treatment until Georgie reaches puberty – meaning that his hormones will give him a manly appearance. She wants him to be given hormone blockers now. She told The Sun: "With his puberty suspended, he wouldn't grow to six foot or have big hands." The mother-of-three said that her son wanted to be a girl from...

Most of Palin's supporters I talked to acknowledged that they had never heard of her until Sen. John McCain plucked her from obscurity last year and made her his running mate. They didn't care that she had quit the governorship of Alaska to personally cash in -- for millions -- with a ghostwritten-book bonanza. Or that the last elected office for which Palin finished her term was mayor of a town smaller than Vinton. When you wade into a pool of Palinmania like the one that collected outside Valley View on Sunday morning, you realize that stuff doesn't matter. Before...

Just hours after Sen. Charles Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa released a report Friday on their investigation into the abrupt firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin, the Obama White House gave the lawmakers a trove of new, previously-withheld documents on the affair. It was a twist on the now-familiar White House late-Friday release of bad news; this time, the new evidence was put out not only at the start of a weekend but also hours too late for inclusion in the report.

The taxpayer is having to fund millions of pounds a year to "bribe" foreign murderers, rapists and other prisoners to go home after a 60 per cent jump in cases. One in four of the foreign criminals who were deported last year only went home after being offered a voluntary return package worth up to £5,000. It means ministers spent £3.4 million of public money encouraging offenders who have no right to be in Britain to leave. It emerged earlier this week that one of those was a Malaysian migrant who killed a 17-month-old baby. Some foreign prisoners can already...

The Service Employees International Union on Sunday reported spending nearly $1 million on an independent expenditure television campaign praising eight House Democrats for backing a health care bill earlier this month. Here's how the SEIU spent $998,000 among the eight districts: Baron P. Hill, Indiana's 9th district ($162,000); Dina Titus, Nevada's 3rd ($157,000);

"At a time when Indian public opinion was looking forward to fruitful results from the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the US, reports from Beijing on Obama's visit to China would strengthen the impression that Obama is not India's cup of tea." .................................................................................... By B.Raman (November 19, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The failure of President Barack Obama to understand the distrust of China in large sections of the Indian civil society has landed the US in a situation in which the considerable goodwill between India and the US created during the administration of his predecessor George...

Global warming alarmists are scrambling to save face after hackers stole hundreds of incriminating e-mails from a British university and published them on the Internet. The messages were pirated from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (UEA) and reveal correspondence between British and American researchers engaged in fraudulent reporting of data to favor their own climate change agenda. UEA officials confirmed one of their servers was hacked, and several of the scientists involved admitted the authenticity of the messages, according to the New York Times. The article opined, "The evidence pointing to a growing human...

ACHIN, Afghanistan — American and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias that have independently taken up arms against insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan, prompting hopes of a large-scale tribal rebellion against the Taliban. The emergence of the militias, which took some leaders in Kabul by surprise, has so encouraged the American and Afghan officials that they are planning to spur the growth of similar armed groups across the Taliban heartland in the southern and eastern parts of the country. The American and Afghan officials say they are hoping the plan, called the Community Defense Initiative,...

What's the hottest ticket in the nation's capital? An engraved invitation to Tuesday's White House state dinner, the first hosted by President Obama. He and the first lady will honor India's prime minister. But in a departure from the traditional venue -- the elegant State Dining Room -- the Obamas will gather with a few hundred VIPs in a huge, heated tent on the South Lawn. The guest list for the black-tie gala remains a closely guarded secret. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will certainly be there. Several notables are good bets, such as Oprah Winfrey and...

Five men facing trial in the 9/11 attacks will plead not guilty so they can voice their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, a lawyer for one of the defendants said Sunday. Scott Fenstermaker, a lawyer representing accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks, but "would explain what happened and why they did it." Ali and four other men face a civilian trial just a few blocks from the World Trade Center site in the coming weeks. The men are accused of murdering nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest terrorist...