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President Obama announcing his run for President in 2007 in Springfield, IL: "And as people have looked away in disillusionment and frustration, we know what's filled the void. The cynics, and the lobbyists, and the special interests who've turned our government into a game only they can afford to play. They write the checks and you get stuck with the bills, they get the access while you get to write a letter, they think they own this government, but we're here today to take it back. The time for that politics is over. It's time to turn the page."

RYE, N.H. - Presidential hopeful Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) opened a two-day offensive against Republican Sens. John Sununu (news, bio, voting record) and Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record), telling New Hampshire voters on Friday their senators should do more to end the war. Obama, an Illinois Democrat, told a town hall audience in Rye that Sununu, Gregg and 14 other Republican senators are the main roadblocks to ending the unpopular war in Iraq. Obama backs a plan that would give the Democratic-controlled Congress more control over the war's finances and begin a troop redeployment before President Bush...

US Laments Sudanese Inflexibility Over Darfur Force By David Gollust State Department 29 September 2006 The United States said Friday it is not abandoning its drive for a U.N. peacekeeping force to replace the African Union force in Darfur despite what it says is Sudanese intransigence on the issue. Sudan is also blocking a visit by the Bush administration's new envoy for Darfur, Andrew Natsios. Head of AU Commission Alpha Oumar Konare, right, inspects an honor guard during an arrival ceremony at AU headquarters at Darfur town of Al-Fasher (File photo - June 20, 2006) The Sudanese government has been...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The Ku Klux Klan is the central paradox of Robert C. Byrd's life — "an extraordinarily foolish mistake" that has haunted him for 40 years but the very thing that launched one of the longest careers in the U.S. Senate. "It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me, and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one's life, career and reputation," the West Virginia Democrat says in an autobiography being released Monday. "I displayed very bad judgment, due to immaturity and a lack of seasoned reasoning."...

PHILADELPHIA - One of the military's new wartime challenges is dealing with global media that can instantly spread around the word information that may be false or damaging to U.S. interests, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday. The United States needs to respond to anti-American messages with greater agility and speed if it is to win the ideological struggle with Islamic extremists, Rumsfeld said in a speech to members of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. "We'll need to develop considerably more sophisticated ways of using these new means of communication that are now available to reach the many and...