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By Sue Pleming ( <---- LIBERAL ALERT!) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush indicated in interviews secretly taped by a friend before he became president that he had used marijuana but would not admit it for fear of setting a bad example for children. Portions of the tapes, recorded from 1998 to 2000 by author Doug Wead without Bush's knowledge, were aired on ABC News on Sunday and published by The New York Times. Their authenticity was verified by the media outlets but has not been independently checked by Reuters. "I wouldn't answer the marijuana question. You know why? Because I...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A California lawmaker said on Wednesday he would introduce a bill this week to ban sales of cloned pets, a move that could end a California company's plans to replicate beloved domestic animals. A ban is necessary because the technology is unregulated and animal shelters are filled to capacity with potential pets, Assembly Member Lloyd Levine said in an interview. "If you were to use animals for experiments, for agriculture, for all sorts of things, there are all sorts of regulations ... Who knows what's going to happen if these things get released into the wild?"...

You and your fascist co-horts will all be sorry when the Bush* administration is charged with stealing this election. His administration and this website is nothing more then propaganda for a fascist regime. We are watching you, and we will be there when you slip up and your face down on the ground because you slipped on your own Nazi style propaganda. John Kerry won this election and you know it! Everyone knows it!

Johnny, Johnny, Johnny . . . what great fun you are to watch. Sincerely, I thank you for all the great belly-laughs these past weeks. Y'know, Johnny, I've been watching political campaigns for well over 40 years and I've seen some really stupid ones. Yours is quickly rising right up there with the top four or five silliest, too. Of course, you don't realize that yet, do you Johnny. But, Johnny, it's really your own fault. It's a leadership thing and leadership is something you know very, very little about. That will become rather obvious if you just look around...

The nine Democratic presidential contenders have been swarming all over Iowa for the past several weeks, and we can expect to see even more of them between now and the caucuses on January 19. At diners and county fairs and union halls they will be talking about their views on Iraq, jobs, tax cuts and terrorism. But on one issue of great importance to the people of Iowa -- Social Security -- they are likely to remain curiously quiet. Social Security is not only the largest U.S. government program, accounting for 23 percent of federal spending, it is the largest...

America's most obnoxious corporate critic, Michael Moore, is living high on the hog thanks to the perks two corporations have provided him for the West Coast leg of his book tour. Moore was flown around California aboard a private jet, reports the San Francisco Chronicle, courtesy of media mega-corporation Time Warner. And while he wasn't enjoying the corporate high-life at 30,000 feet, he was tooling around the Golden State in the kind of vehicle anti-corporate environmentalists routinely decry as public enemy No. 1 - an SUV paid for by his publisher's corporation, Warner Books. Moore's man-of-the-people image was further dented...

US Secretary of State Colin Powell called on all sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict on Thursday to stick to the road map despite the latest wave of violence. In remarks to reporters in Washington aired on Fox Television, Powell called on the parties to "act with determination to punch through this wave of violence to make sure it will not stop us on the way to the road map."

President Bush has criticised an Israeli assassination attempt on a senior member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Bush said he was concerned the attack would undermine the latest peace talks between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders which took place last week. Israeli troops injured Abdel Aziz al Rantissi and killed two others when they fired on Rantissi's car from a helicopter gunship. The Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned the attack, while Hamas has threatened revenge.

Sen. Byrd, Confederate General It's a good thing Trent Lott didn't take this role: America's most famous former Klansman, Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd, eagerly awaits his big-screen debut as a Confederate leader. "My role is small, admittedly, and probably won't earn me an Academy Award," West Virginia's "Senator Pork" told the Charleston Daily Mail. "But it was exciting to participate in a project that is helping to promote our nation's history." Plantation Owner: Is This Typecasting? In the Civil War movie "Gods and Generals," Byrd has a cameo as Confederate Gen. Paul J. Semmes, a Georgia plantation owner and banker....

Sen. Byrd, Confederate General It's a good thing Trent Lott didn't take this role: America's most famous former Klansman, Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd, eagerly awaits his big-screen debut as a Confederate leader. "My role is small, admittedly, and probably won't earn me an Academy Award," West Virginia's "Senator Pork" told the Charleston Daily Mail. "But it was exciting to participate in a project that is helping to promote our nation's history." Plantation Owner: Is This Typecasting? In the Civil War movie "Gods and Generals," Byrd has a cameo as Confederate Gen. Paul J. Semmes, a Georgia plantation owner and banker....

Senate Democrats, who have frequently criticized President Bush for using excess Social Security receipts to fund other programs, yesterday unveiled a budget plan that would tap Social Security every year for the rest of the decade. They called on the next Congress to solve the problem. The Democratic plan, likely to be approved by the Senate Budget Committee today, was released as Republicans and Democrats in the House engaged in a furious debate over a competing $2.1 trillion GOP budget blueprint that largely follows Bush's recommendations for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. The House approved the plan, 221...