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SNIPPET: "“The time has come for the United States to reclaim its rightful role as a diplomatic leader within the U.N. framework of climate change,” Kerry said. At the end of the first panel, Kerry defended the lack of detail in Stern’s testimony. “In fairness – I said this to Sen. Corker – Todd Stern made it clear to me prior to coming up here that not all of the T’s were crossed and I’s dotted,” the Massachusetts senator said. “I knew he was coming here today without the ability to fully flesh out every single component,” Kerry said. “I...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cautioned Israel's right-wing government on Thursday that it risked losing Arab support for fighting any threats from Iran if it shuns Palestinian peace talks. Signaling U.S. impatience with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reticence over peace talks, Clinton said Arab nations had made clear to her that Israel must be committed to the Palestinian peace process if it wants help countering Iran. "For Israel to get the kind of strong support it is looking for vis-a-vis Iran, it can't stay on the sidelines with respect to the Palestinians and the peace efforts. They go hand...

WASHINGTON (AFP)--The United States risks losing influence to China because it is too slow to deliver aid to needy nations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Thursday. Speaking to a congressional committee, Clinton cited the example of an emergency deal signed by China last month to help bail Jamaica out of its financial crisis. "They (Jamaica) have just signed a memorandum of understanding with China...and now they have got a government-to-government relationship with China," Clinton said. "We have to be sure we have in place the safeguards so that the money goes where we intend it to go," Clinton told...

Meghan McCain says we need to take back Twitter from the creepy people—like Karl Rove, "America’s Toughest Sheriff," and the other undesirables who now follow her every Tweet. Karl Rove follows me on Twitter. That’s creepy. I joined Twitter a few months ago; so far, it has been a liberating way to transition from political to personal blogging. It’s allowed me to share the less-serious aspects and humorously uncensored moments of my life. But there’s also been a downside: I am now being followed by Karl Rove, and my local sheriff, and God knows how many other political pundits. We...

The eldest child of John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate during last year's US election, has launched a foul-mouthed and extended defence of herself on the "microblogging" service Twitter after she was accused of having accomplished nothing in her life. Meghan McCain, 24, used her Twitter account, which limits users to messages of no more than 140 characters, to send out a long string of "tweets" in which she listed her achievements. The curriculum vitae apparently includes teaching children at church, delivering flowers to hospital patients, and writing a best-selling children's book about her father's life.

There's a new bogeyman lurking in the closet, and this one isn't imaginary. Us. One out of three children aged 6 to 11 fears that Ma Earth won't exist when they grow up, while more than half—56 percent—worry that the planet will be a blasted heath (or at least a very unpleasant place to live), according to a new survey. Commissioned by Habitat Heroes and conducted by Opinion Research, the telephone survey polled a national sample of 500 American preteens—250 males and 250 females. On a sliding scale of anxieties, minority kids have it worst; 75 percent of black children...

GOP strategist Karl Rove gives Meghan McCain the creeps. The daughter of 2008 GOP presidential candidate John McCain called President Bush's political mastermind "creepy" today because he follows her on Twitter. "Karl Rove follows me on Twitter. That's creepy," McCain, 24, wrote on her blog posted on the DailyBeast Web site.

WASHINGTON -- Damn the tea bags. A top adviser to President Barack Obama takes a dim view of last week's anti-tax "tea parties," promoted by organizers in the spirit of the Boston Tea Party. "The thing that bewilders me is this president just cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people. So I think the tea bags should be directed elsewhere because he certainly understands the burden that people face," David Axelrod said Sunday. The rallies coincided with the deadline to file income taxes, and gave people a chance also to voice frustrations about government spending and corporate bailouts....

Here is video of chief Obama adviser David Axelrod today on CBS News' Face the Nation where he described the "Tea Party" movement as "unhealthy," as if it is made up of just a bunch of disaffected oddballs. He defends Obama as having just cut taxes on 95% of Americans, saying the "teabags should be directed elsewhere." What neither the media or the Obama people want to address is that one of the real drivers behind the movement is not the level of taxes today, but what Obama's spending is going to mean for taxes in the years ahead. His...

Advisers manning the “Frank” helpline are informing callers they believed to be children as young as 13 that alcohol is a “much more powerful drug than cannabis” and that using the illegal drug recreationally is not harmful because it “doesn’t get you that high”. Callers are also being told that taking ecstasy will not lead to long-term damage and that if they are in doubt, to “just take half a pill and if you are handling that OK, you can take the other half.” The advice, given to reporters who rang the helpline posing as young people, has alarmed anti-drugs...

Yedioth Achronoth, the largest circulation daily in Israel, reports today that President Obama intends to see the two-state solution signed, sealed and delivered during his first term. Rahm Emanuel told an (unnamed) Jewish leader; "In the next four years there is going to be a permanent status arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of two states for two peoples, and it doesn't matter to us at all who is prime minister." He also said that the United States will exert pressure to see that deal is put into place. "Any treatment of the Iranian nuclear problem will...

During last year's election campaign, liberal media members treated Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin with a hatred most Americans had never witnessed from the press. On Thursday's "Countdown," MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and his guest Janeane Garofalo defamed fellow citizens who attended the prior day's Tea Parties with the same vitriolic contempt. Garofalo actually called Party-goers "a bunch of teabagging rednecks," adding "this is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up."But that's just the beginning, for what Olbermann and Garofalo engaged in Thursday evening is amongst the most vile, hate-filled attacks on average...

Great, great stuff, even better than her last racist appearance. Garofalo’s a nonentity but Olby’s a bit of a player in cable news, which makes it all the more gratifying that he insists on yes-ing this nutjob to death every time she’s on his show. Stick around for the end of the clip, where she tries to minimize Fox’s ratings — notwithstanding the fact that they’re crushing Kayo into dust. Please, Keith, more of this loon. It makes discrediting your show even easier than usual.

Finance: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants a broad "probe" of Wall Street, much like the 1932 Pecora Commission that led to sweeping bank reforms. Good idea. Let the probing begin — with Pelosi's Congress.Named for its chief counsel, Ferdinand Pecora, the 1932 congressional commission dragged influential bankers and stockbrokers before its members for rough questioning — both of their business practices and private lives. The Pecora Commission led directly to the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the creation of the Securities Exchange Commission in 1935 to oversee Wall Street. Now Pelosi's calling for an...

A reportedly corporate-financed grassroots" anti-tax movement, paid for, planned and promoted by right wing think tanks, corporate lobbyists and Fox News Channel, has failed to bring about the "popular uprising" against the Obama administration its creators had hoped for. The day of "tea parties" pushed by Republican operatives and partisan advocacy groups such as FreedomWorks, that sought to protest the Obama government's tax and stimulus policies by encouraging people to 'wave tea bags' brought about only a few hundred "tea-baggers" in most parts of the U.S., despite relentless promotion by Fox News TV hosts. Participants had hoped to rally hundreds...

In news that will be bad for activists hoping to start another American Revolution with a series of protests modeled on the Boston Tea Party, a new Gallup Poll finds that a solid majority of American say the income tax they pay is “fair,” and that slightly more than half classify their own tax burden as either “about right” or “too low.” According to Gallup, their annual April poll on taxes found this year that 48 percent of Americans said the amount of federal income tax they pay is “about right,” 3 percent say it is “too low,” and...

The recent meeting between a deputy of Richard Holbrooke, the United States special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and an emissary of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), is by all accounts a landmark move in the United States' stated aim of involving militant groups in ending the conflict in Afghanistan. The choice of Hekmatyar also indicates just how desperate the US is in finding an escape route from the escalating crisis in Afghanistan. Hekmatyar is a declared terrorist with a reported $25 million price on his head. The 61-year-old engineer from Kunduz province and his anti-government fighters are...

I spent the better part of an hour earlier today scanning the various sites and blogs to try and understand what specifically the Fox-Pajamas tea parties are about. Having absorbed about as much of the literature as I can, I have to say I'm still befuddled. Option 1: It's a protest of the bank bailouts orchestrated by Bush and now Obama. But surely these tea-partiers understand what would happen if we didn't bail the banks out. Are they advocating letting major banks fail? Or are they advocating a Krugman-style government take-over? No idea. Option 2: It's a protest against tax...

WASHINGTON — Tinkering with Earth’s climate to chill runaway global warming — a radical idea once dismissed out of hand — is being discussed by the White House as a potential emergency option, the president’s new science adviser said Wednesday.

I have been a financial adviser for more than 25 years. I didn't vote for President-elect Barack Obama, but I wish to go on record as saying that this man will be our greatest president. He will accomplish the improbable. Mr. Obama will unite the disenchanted with the optimists. He will be a servant to all the people and teach us the basic reasons why this is the greatest country in the world. Mr. Obama won't be described as left, right or center. He will be a president who holds his morals in honor of his love of family to...

Often, after victories, athletes like to take a moment to thank God, Jesus, or even the occasional shout out to Allah. But one NMU hockey player stirred up controversy after thanking Our Dark Lord Satan. Melvin Schwarz, a sophomore wood technology major and forward for the Wildcats, thanked Satan for imbuing him with "the strength of the Dark Prince himself." Schwarz has been a self professed Satanist for the past three weeks. According to Schwarz, the conversion has not affected his game play, except for the occasional possession. "As a Satanic-American, I'm entitled to all the rights that Christians are,"...

The RedEye gang has some fun with it.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Beverly in East Texas, nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hello. CALLER: East Texas blessings to you, Mr. Limbaugh. RUSH: Thank you very much. CALLER: From a military mother of two, I'm wondering, sir, if I might shift your focus from the war on economy to the war that we are also fighting on another front. Might I do that, sir? RUSH: You mean the war that Joe Biden says we're losing? CALLER: Yes, sir. RUSH: That would be the war in Afghanistan? CALLER: On Saturday our president said we aren't winning which I would...

CNN Contributor: 'Listening to Obama Give a Speech is Like Sex' By Noel Sheppard Created 2009-03-01 19:30 Did you think listening to President Obama give his address before Congress on Tuesday evening was "like sex?" Republican strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos did, or at least that's what he admitted to John King on Sunday's "State of the Union" a friend said: I think, as a friend told me once, that -- listening to Barack Obama give a speech is like sex. The worse there ever was, was excellent. Honestly, when GOP strategists in the media begin talking this way,...

Libyan President Muammar Gadhafi said Israel is to blame for the crisis in Darfur. Gadhafi, president of the African Union, said Tuesday that "foreign forces," including Israel, are to blame for the genocide in the Sudan region. "We discovered that some of the main leaders of the Darfur rebels have opened offices in Tel Aviv and hold meetings with the military there to add fuel to the conflict fire," the Libyan state news agency Jana quoted Gadhafi as saying, Ha'aretz reported. Gadhafi urged the International Criminal Court to stop proceedings to decide whether to issue a warrant for the arrest...

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska SNIPPET: "Meanwhile, North Korea suggested Monday that it is preparing a rocket launch, saying it has the right to "space development," a term Pyongyang has used in the past to disguise a long-range missile test as a satellite launch, the Associated Press reported."

Dear Mr. President: Kids Share Hopes for Obama in New Book Thousands of kids detailed their hopes and expectations for President Obama in letters and drawings as part of a worldwide project. AP Sunday, February 15, 2009 NEW YORK -- End war, forever. Make the planet greener. Please help my dad find work. Make it rain candy! Thousands of kids detailed their hopes and expectations for President Barack Obama in letters and drawings as part of a worldwide project, with 150 chosen for a free e-book being released on Presidents Day. Most had tall orders for the new guy in...

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 02/13/2009 Pelosi: ‘After All the Debate, This Legislation Can Be Summed Up in One Word: Jobs’ Washington, D.C. — Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor this afternoon in strong support of the joint House-Senate conference report on HR 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The House approved the measure this afternoon by a vote of 246 to 183. The Senate is expected to pass the legislation later today and President Obama will sign it into law next week. “Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, I...

The TV and the written press keep referring to the attack on the USS Cole as having been a “terrorist” attack. Any definition of the word “terrorist” insists that the attack described be against a civilian target with an aim of resulting in a political change. I do believe that this word is being used so as to elicit sympathy and, to some, fear and therefore urge the public be skeptical when they come across it in the press. Recently, I came across the use of “victims,” referring to crew members on the Cole that were killed, instead of “casualties”...

Senators are pressuring Speaker Nancy Pelosi to embrace most of the stimulus bill they hope to pass early next week, claiming that adopting too many House provisions will doom the measure in the upper chamber. After two years of showdowns with then President Bush on the budget and the Iraq war during the last Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Pelosi (D-Calif.) will engage in a policy battle over the next week on President Obama’s top priority. Obama and his senior White House aides will play a large and delicate role in the hopes of striking a deal...

Faith forms a bond for a lesbian priest and a Mormon father of three A documentary film about same-sex marriage and theology leads to friendship, admiration and new understanding. By Duke Helfand February 7, 2009 Who could have foreseen what would happen between the Mormon filmmaker and the lesbian priest? Not Douglas Hunter, even after he took a leap of faith and trained his camera on the Rev. Susan Russell.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senators from both parties are announcing that a deal has been reached to advance President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan through the Senate.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration, reversing the Bush administration's limited interest in nuclear disarmament, is gearing up for early negotiations with Russia on a new treaty that would sharply reduce stockpiles of nuclear warheads. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has notified Congress and her staff that she intends to get started quickly on talks with the Russians, who have voiced interest in recent weeks in settling on a new treaty calling for cutbacks in arsenals on both sides. [...] Internal talks on what position the U.S. should take in overall disarmament have begun within the State Department and with...

It’s not the first time Robert Kennedy Jr has said it, either. Thankfully, he confirms it in his appearance today in Congress to gripe about hog producers and some admittedly stupid laws restricting criticism of farmers, so we don’t need to do a Lexis raid to corroborate it. Kennedy manages to amp up the hysteria even further when he accuses Rep. Steve King (R-IA) of being a paid stooge of farmers. Er, who does RFK think a Congressman from Iowa would represent, anyway?

President Obama said he is worried that detainees freed from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay might resume attacks on this country - but argued that its closure had to be done in order to "uphold" what he called "our values."

Four days before President Bush makes his State of the Union address, the Senate's top Democrat mounted a fresh attack Friday on Bush's tax cut plan and offered an alternative that he said would give the sluggish economy a quick boost. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle proposed giving working families tax rebates of up to $1,200, extending benefits to the unemployed, giving businesses new tax breaks and pumping $40 billion to financially distressed cities and states. With Republicans controlling Congress, Daschle's $112 billion proposal was essentially a manifesto of opposition that has almost no chance of becoming law. B ut...

It's going to be interesting to watch House Speaker Nancy Pelosi play bad cop to President Obama's good cop. He's presenting himself as the agent of consensus building; she's swinging the partisan hammer. He invites Republicans up to the White House for talks. She puts together the votes that make the Republicans irrelevant, then announces the results from the floor.She will be the keeper of the Democratic agenda just as Newt Gingrich was the keeper of the Republican agenda. It's a position that will help her with her own party membership, but will play havoc with her image nationally.

Hamas must somehow be brought into the Middle East peace process because the policy of isolating Gaza in the quest for a settlement will not work, Tony Blair has told The Times. The former prime minister implicitly criticises the strategy followed by the Bush Administration and Israel of focusing all peace and reconstruction efforts on the West Bank. “It was half of what we needed,” he said.

Congressman for life Henry Waxman (D-CA) chairman of the house committee on Energy and Commerce has promised that he will move quickly and decisively to move climate legislation out of his committee before memorial day.       The Associated Press quotes Waxman as saying, "Our environment and our economy depend on congressional action to confront the threat of climate change and secure our energy independence." Waxman continued, "U.S. industries want to invest in a clean energy future, but uncertainties about whether, when and how greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced is deterring these vital investments."       Waxman envisions that industries are...

BELEM, Brazil (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday urged U.S. President Barack Obama to return the military base of Guantanamo to Cuba after applauding his decision to close the prison for terrorism suspects there. The anti-U.S. Cuba ally has tense relations with the United States and was been one of the most outspoken critics of former President George W. Bush, though he has kept open the possibility of improving ties with Obama. "Now he should return Guantanamo and Guantanamo Bay to the Cubans because that is Cuban territory," he said in a speech at the World Social Forum...

Symbolic gesture gives assurances that US does not want to topple regime. Officials of Barack Obama's have drafted a letter to Iran from the president aimed at unfreezing US-Iranian relations and opening the way to face-to-face talks

Iran's president has welcomed the possibility of a change in US foreign policy but demanded an apology for past US "crimes" committed against Iran. The US "stood against the Iranian people in the past 60 years," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during an address in the western region of Khermenshah. "Those who speak of change must apologise to the Iranian people and try to repair their past crimes," he said.

"Obama, Iran Talks Next? U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice restates President Obama's calls for direct negotiations with Iran." SNIPPET: "Back in the U.S., U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who was confirmed last week for the post, said Monday that Iran's refusal to meet international obligations will increase pressure on Tehran to drop its nuclear ambitions and cooperate with the United States and global community. Besides pursuing nuclear weapons, Iran has called for the destruction of Israel and support for Hamas, a terror group designated by the U.S., Israel and the European Union."

Carter's wording was not new. His 2006 book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," provoked a hail of criticism, particularly from Jewish-Americans who felt it unfairly compared Israeli treatment of Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza to the legalized racial oppression that once existed in South Africa.

PELOSI SAYS BIRTH CONTROL WILL HELP ECONOMY Sun Jan 25 2009 22:13:43 ET Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic "stimulus" package, claiming "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government." Pelosi, the mother of 5 children and 6 grandchildren, who once said, "Nothing in my life will ever, ever compare to being a mom," seemed to imply babies are somehow a burden on the treasury. The revelation came during an exchange Sunday morning on ABC's THIS WEEK. STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars...

On Thursday’s CBS Evening News, Katie Couric incorrectly called one of the munitions reportedly used by the Israeli military a "banned weapon,"and, after ignoring the numerous violations of international law perpetrated by Hamas, relayed charges that Israel may have committed "war crimes."

January 26, 2009 Barack Obama to reverse Bush’s climate change policies President Obama is expected to issue new environmental regulations today, reversing former President George W. Bush's climate change policies by allowing several US states to set tougher car emissions and fuel efficiency standards. The dramatic federal action granting California and 13 other states the right to regulate tailpipe emissions is a sharp departure from the Bush administration’s environmental policy, and has been opposed by auto companies. According to The New York Times, Mr Obama is to issue a directive to the US Environmental Protection Agency to immediately begin work...

There I was, watching all the regalia of the presidential inauguration. The crowds, the dignataries...(snip) Of course, I was also waiting to see just what kind of prayer Rick Warren had co-opted to pray for the new incoming President and his administration.

THIS MAN IS A U.S. SENATOR... In fact he is the Majority Leader THIS HAS GOT TO SEEN AND HEARD TO BE BELIEVED! This interview with Senator Harry Reid on the subject of taxes is incredible...and worth watching for the 4 minutes it takes... How do we elect people this stupid? Because we the people are more stupid and uneducated than people like Reid.

As President Barack Obama gears up to tackle urgent challenges, from the economy to the Middle East, and to reverse the many failed policies of the Bush administration, he should pay special attention to those that have denied women around the world basic reproductive health care. The United States used to lead the way in forging international agreements on women's reproductive health and rights, values that fully reflect fundamental constitutional principles. I am proud to have played a part, along with many others, in building global support for these agreements. But three policies supported by the Bush administration have greatly...