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Update 9:09AM: As of very recently, NBC Washington has taken DOWN this post in response. Thank you NBC for this first step. We anxiously await your written response as well. Thanks to everyone for your action. As a DC area resident and WV native, I am outraged at the recent insulting and downright offensive “news” article from NBC Washington titled “West Virginia Discovers the Internet“. In this not even remotely humorous piece, Chris Needham mocks WV in over-the-top obnoxious terms for putting all of their vital public records online. In fact, WV is actually one of very few states in...

"I worked with him on many issues across party lines. There has never a major reform accomplished in the history of this country that hasn't been bipartisan, and he certainly, uh...all of the negotiations and efforts that I made with him, we never engaged in this kind of unsavory process of offering people different deals, which in the end cost people from other states lots of money and put burdens on them."

President Obama reportedly was re luctant to attend the final day of the UN's Copenhagen climate-change summit unless it was front-end wired to be a major political success. But he went anyway, was twice humiliated in public by the Chinese premier and then finally settled for what the White House hailed as a "meaningful agreement." Really? A top aide admitted that the deal was basically just "an important first step" that was "not sufficient to combat the threat of climate change." Then Obama himself dropped the other shoe: The agreement contains no specific commitments on carbon emissions, only pledges that...

TRENTON -- Gov.-elect Chris Christie is to begin introducing his cabinet today by announcing Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow as the state's next attorney general, according to an official familiar with Christie's decision.

"My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery." -- Sarah Palin Since he has been elected, Barack Obama has been like a four year old wearing water wings and desperately trying to reach the edge of the pool. In other words, he has been completely out of his depth. Who could have known that giving soaring speeches about "hope" and "change" while voting "present" on the tough issues wouldn't be enough preparation for the most important job on Planet Earth -- oh wait, millions of Americans knew that and pointed it out...

Obama's crashing poll number...

ABC’s Good Morning America finally picked up on the deep bow President Obama performed for the Emperor of Japan over the weekend. Co-host Diane Sawyer ran through how other U.S. Presidents have greeted either Emperor Akhito or his father, the late Emperor Hirohito over the years — some bowing, some not. Sawyer claimed that Americans are “not trained to greet royalty” and “it’s just too confusing.” Actually, the government employs lots of experts on culture and protocol to make sure that our presidents are fully “trained” on what to do when they represent our government overseas — which is not...

So much of an idiot, in fact, that according to Tapper’s source, at least one Japanese paper isn’t running the photo out of embarrassment. This tool actually groveled himself into a minor international incident. The good news for O-bots? It wasn’t unprecedented. Nixon evidently made a modest bow to Hirohito in the early 70s. The bad news? “Obama’s handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate it recalls Bush’s back-rub of Merkel. “Kyodo News is running his appropriate and reciprocated nod and shake with the Empress, certainly to show the president as dignified, and not in the form of a first...

Washington, November 11: Falling short of calling it a "mistake", top Republican Senator John McCain today said he would have met Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama if he were the president of the United States. McCain, who lost to President Barack Obama in the last year's presidential elections, said this in an interview to CNN, wherein he was critical of the Obama Administration adopting a softer approach on human rights in China and not meeting the Dalai Lama, when he was here last month. "I can't say it was a mistake. I have to give the President the benefit...

Geraldo resists labeling Hasan a terrorists. Speculates it could have been a toothache that set him off. VIDEO

TAMPA, Florida - A Marine reservist accused of attacking a Greek Orthodox priest with a tire iron after apparently calling him a terrorist and a robber now says he was sexually attacked by the cleric, his defense attorney said Tuesday. Jeff Brown said Lance Cpl. Jasen Bruce, 28, had been followed into the parking garage of his Tampa apartment building about 6:30 p.m. Monday by the Rev. Alexios Marakis, who then made sexual comments and grabbed the reservist's genitals. Brown denounced the Tampa Police Department's account of the incident as "one-sided" and "tainted." "We are confident that the surveillance videos,...

TAMPA - A U.S. Marine reservist attacked a visiting Greek Orthodox priest he believed to be a terrorist, Tampa police say. When the priest tried seeking directions from Jasen D. Bruce, 28, of Tampa, on Monday, Bruce struck the priest with a tire iron and chased him. Police say he attacked the Rev. Alexios Marakis, 29, of Crete, Greece, who was visiting St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs and wound up lost in Tampa. Marakis had performed a blessing of another retired Greek priest in the West Shore area and then accidentally exited Interstate 275 north into downtown...

A Fox NFL Sunday skit made vicious fun of Jessica Simpson’s weight. Meghan McCain says cheap shots like that are harmful to women of all shapes and sizes. BY MEGHAN MCCAIN Last weekend’s Fox NFL Sunday broadcast featured an offensive animated segment making fun of Jessica Simpson’s weight. Yet again. The cartoon, which was set in the Dallas Cowboys' locker room featured several players joking about the singer in front of her ex-boyfriend, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. "Man, I still can’t believe Tony dated Jessica Simpson, even after she blew up bigger than Flozell Adams!" (Adams is the team’s 340-pound...

FLORISSANT, Colo. -- A 63-year-old woman trying to pet a male mule deer, or buck, was gored by it near Florissant on Monday, the Department of Wildlife said. Joan Nutt was at her sister's home at 893 County Road 31, around 5 p.m., when the attack occurred. Nutt was transported to the Pikes Peak Regional Medical Center in Woodland Park where she was treated for large cuts caused by the buck's antlers and hooves. Most injuries were to her elbow and lower arm, but she also had cuts and bruises on her hands, upper leg, stomach, and hip, the DOW...

Huckabee warns Republicans on Nobel reaction Posted: October 9th, 2009 12:20 PM ET From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney (CNN) – Mike Huckabee is advising his fellow Republicans to temper their criticism of President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award. In a posting on his blog, the former GOP presidential candidate writes that members of his party must be careful their comments don't sound like "right-wing whining." "There will be an outcry from those on the right who will say that Obama's nomination, made two weeks into his presidency, is impossible to justify, but I think such an outcry will...

(CNN) — Arizona Sen. John McCain said Friday the Nobel Committee's decision to award President Obama the Peace Prize was likely based on expectations, not accomplishments. "I can't divine all their intentions, but I think part of their decision-making was expectations," McCain told CNN's John King. "And I'm sure the president understands that he now has even more to live up to." But Obama's former rival for the White House said he was happy with the decision.

In the Long Run, the GOP Must Be Inclusive. BY MICHAEL GERSON Mel Martinez's recent resignation from the U.S. Senate was for personal and family reasons. But the departure of the Republican Party's most visible Hispanic leader crackles with political symbolism. Martinez does not consider himself disillusioned, but he is "frustrated." "There are lots of Hispanics to the right of you and me on immigration," he told me, "but they think, 'Republicans just don't like us.' " Martinez makes clear that a number of his Senate colleagues were "conservative, but not inflammatory." Other elected Republicans, however, made "pretty divisive use...

Letterman is target of the kind of jokes he tells By DAVID BAUDER (AP) – 1 hour ago NEW YORK — Late-night hosts didn't waste a moment poking fun at the troubles of one of their own, after a CBS newsman was charged with trying to blackmail David Letterman for $2 million in a plot that forced the late-night comic to acknowledge having sex with some of the women who have worked for him. The bizarre case has created a messy legal and professional problem for one of CBS' most valuable personalities. Commentators and bloggers quickly accused Letterman of hypocrisy...

An almost poignant moment here as one of the many leftists who spent the past six years wrestling with his schadenfreude over setbacks in Iraq finally gets an outlet to project his guilt onto conservatives. Truly, celebrating the fact that the Daley machine will have to find another trough of taxpayer money from which to feed is precisely the same as Hanoi Jane sitting on a VC cannon and mimicking shooting down American aircraft. Thanks for confirming every last horrible conservative stereotype about MSNBC, Ed. If they ever move the modern-day Murrow out of the anchor spot, you’re a shoo...

Senator Rowland Burris of Illinois, the Senator who was appointed to fill President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, blames George Bush for Chicago not getting the Olympics in 2016. Burris stated in an interview, shortly after the announcement, that the image of the U. S. has been so tarnished in the last 8 years that, even Barack Obama making an unprecedented pitch for the games could not overcome the hatred the world has for us as a result of George Bush.

Sam Walton said by enriching others, I enrich myself…which is in essence the same as “help enough people get what they want, and you will inevitably get what you want.” This is a key principle that as a internet marketer we hear over and over, but I don’t think many people really understand it. I was listening to my boy again, Zig Ziglar and he spoke on this very same topic. Zig talked and explained what EVERY one wants in life. Everyone! Everyone wants to be happy, healthy, wants friends, peace of mind, security, to be reasonably prosperous, wants good...

SALT LAKE CITY -- Former Massachusetts governor and head of the 2002 Olympic Organizing Committee Mitt Romney says President Obama is doing exactly what needs to be done by flying to Denmark to lobby for the Olympics to come to Chicago in 2016. Romney tells ABC News that having a sitting president make a personal pitch can make an enormous difference to the 106 members of the International Olympic Committee. "I think the people in the IOC want to understand the level of the commitment of the host country," Romney said. "Does the host country really care? Is this going...

(SNIP) Looney was demonstrating how to use the different safety mechanisms on several guns. Witnesses told authorities that Looney would put the guns to his head, ask his girlfriend if she thought the gun would go off, then pull the trigger.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said she worries that the protests of President Obama's health-care legislation may be of a similar nature to anti-gay rhetoric in the late 1970s in San Francisco, which culminated in the assassinations of two of her home town's political leaders. Pelosi, responding to a question about anti-Obama sentiment, said that partisans on all sides of an issue have the right to voice their opinion. But after pausing, she added: "I have concerns about some of the language that is being used, because I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco....

Once again, a NASA space probe is supporting the 6,000-year biblical age of the solar system...

Aug. 30, 2009 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal SHERMAN FREDERICK: Enough is enough, Harry Stop the childish bullying This newspaper traces its roots to before Las Vegas was Las Vegas. We've seen cattle ranches give way to railroads. We chronicled the construction of Hoover Dam. We reported on the first day of legalized gambling. The first hospital. The first school. The first church. We survived the mob, Howard Hughes, the Great Depression, several recessions, two world wars, dozens of news competitors and any number of two-bit politicians who couldn't stand scrutiny, much less criticism. We're still here doing what we...

Sarah Palin takes to the digital pages of Facebook in praise of embattled and boycotted TV host Glenn Beck: FOX News' Glenn Beck is doing an extraordinary job this week walking America behind the scenes of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and outlining who is actually running the White House. Monday night he asked us to invite one friend to watch; tonight I invite all my friends to watch. Palin thus ensures that the current Beck controversy will continue for at least another week. And I continue to be impressed and befuddled by two features of this controversy. The first is the...

President Barack Obama, right, gestures as he stands next to Mexico's President Felipe Calderon during a joint press conference with Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, not shown, in Guadalajara, Mexico, Monday Aug. 10, 2009. President Obama huddled Monday with Calderon, and Harper, for a North American summit, where the swine flu epidemic and knotty disputes over cross-border trade dominated a lengthy agenda President Barack Obama, right, and Mexico's President Felipe Calderon talk during a photo session in Guadalajara, Mexico, Monday Aug. 10, 2009.

First, I want to make a quick statement that we will also issue. The Department of State is currently reviewing the diplomatic visas or A visas of individuals who are members of the de facto regime in Honduras, as well as the derivative visas for family members of these individuals. We have already revoked diplomatic visas issued to four such individuals. These individuals received their diplomatic visas in connection with positions held prior to June 28th under the Zelaya Administration, but who now serve the de facto regime. And with that – well, I’ll just also there is a press...

Vice President Biden on Thursday urged Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgian territory in one of the Obama administration's toughest criticisms of the Kremlin, telling a room of Georgian refugee children that Russia "used a pretext to invade your country" and had "isolated itself more" by doing so. "What we can do is make clear to the whole world, and to the Russians particularly, that we stand with you, and that if they fail to meet their commitments, that it is a problem for them," Biden told the children, referring to a ceasefire agreement that the Georgia and the...

I've been hearing that some groups of people are not welcome at Free Republic anymore, but I didn't believe what I was hearing because that seems like the complete opposite of "Free". I've heard that supporters of Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and more are no longer welcome to post at this site. This site is about uniting people together against the liberal onslaught that is ruining our country and we could use all the help we can get right? Please correct me so I can correct others who have told me that this is...

Alexa Longueira Suffers Deep Cuts, Bruises After Landing In Raw Sewage, Blames DEP For Leaving Hole Unattended: Alexa Longueira, a high school sophomore, was walking along Victory Boulevard near Travis Avenue on Staten Island Wednesday evening when she felt the earth move and was plunged into smelly darkness. She said the manhole she fell in to was left open and unattended with no warning signs or orange cones. She said two workers with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection failed to secure the area as they prepared to flush the sewer. "It was just really gross and it...

Seven days after the new fiscal year began, the state of California still appears to be far from a budget solution. Disabled protesters, angry over cuts to vital services, were arrested outside the Capitol on Tuesday; inside, lawmakers bickered about fruits and juices. A war of words developed between Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers over the fruit-related focus of three new bills. "The governor is not against condiments. The governor's not against fruits of any kind," said spokesman Aaron McLear. "But he believes we ought to be focused on solving our budget crisis first and foremost." Assembly bill 606 creates...

WASHINGTON'S traditional means of projecting power abroad was growing "increasingly obsolete" and its billion-dollar military hardware could be as ineffectual against future threats as the heavily fortified Maginot line was in defending France against the Nazis, a senior Pentagon adviser has warned. In a wake-up call to US military chiefs, Andrew Krepinevich, a leading architect of the counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan, argued that the Pentagon was ill-equipped to counter rising powers such as China, hostile states such as Iran, the threat from irregular forces such as Hezbollah, and terrorists such as al-Qa'ida. It was also wasting billions on...

A Columbus firefighter admits that he took his two dogs to the basement, tied them up and blasted them with a rifle so he and a girlfriend could vacation without paying to board the animals. "He said chunks of concrete were flying everywhere," Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Heather Robinson said. "I think it was the thrill of the kill for him. He has shown no remorse for this." Firefighter David P. Santuomo, 43, pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of animal cruelty and one count of possession of a criminal tool -- for taping a 2-liter plastic bottle onto the...

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford wipes his tears as he admitted to having an affair during a news conference in Columbia, S.C Wednesday, June 24, 2009, and said he is resigning as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. 'I spent the last five days crying in Argentina,' Sanford said.

MINNEAPOLIS - The city of Minneapolis is spending nearly $200,000 to sell something that would seem to sell itself: tap water. With her bottle of water in hand, Susan Davis was feeling hot and a little guilty. “It would be great if everyone did drink the tap water,” said Davis. “I think the tap water in Minneapolis is just fine.” Tap Minneapolis is the city's new web site, and PR campaign to promote the city's tap water. But unlike tap water, it's not cheap. The web site costs $75,000. The total cost paid to the PR firm was $180,000.

"Controversy still swirls after some say a co-founder of the United Farm Workers union hijacked a commencement address at Cal State Bakersfield." "She also slammed America's most-listened-to talk radio host, Rush Limbaugh."

Senator John McCain, hurt during the presidential campaign by his differences with President Obama on healthcare, is trying to turn the tables. McCain today criticized Obama's insistence on a public insurance option to compete directly with private insurers. “State run plans have driven the private insurers out…it ends up being more and in some cases prohibitively expensive,” the former GOP presidential nominee said on Fox News Channel. McCain also pointed out that Obama is at least open to considering a tax on employer-paid healthcare benefits to pay for expanding access -- an idea that the president eviscerated McCain about during...

I don't know where the source picture came from, it was e-mailed to me. I figured it was ripe for adding a few things.

Obama: What do you do Walter? Walter: I work at, uh, NGA, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Obama: Outstanding, how long you been doing [sic] that? Walter: About six years Obama: Yea? Walter: Yes. Obama: You like it? Walter: I do, keeps me... Obama: So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial...uh... Walter: Uh, we work with, uh, satellite imagery.. Obama: Right Walter: [unintelligible] ...support systems, so... Obama: Sounds like good work. Walter: Enjoy the weekend. Obama: Appreciate it.

SNIP (McCain) was in high spirits, and we talked for a while about the Obama Administration's embrace of realpolitik, Pakistan, Iran, the whole nine yards. But first I asked him about Dick Cheney and his defense of Bush Administration torture policies. He told me of his fundamental disagreement with Cheney: "When you have a majority of Americans, seventy-something percent, saying we shouldn't torture, then I'm not sure it helps for the Vice President to go out and continue to espouse that position," he said. "But look, he's free to talk. He's a former Vice President of the United States. I...

Oh-oh, Ocho. The Bengals’ top receiver has yet another name. The NFL had agreed to let the player formerly known as Chad Johnson wear his new name on the back of his jersey this season. There’s one catch for the receiver: It’s not exactly how he wanted it. Instead of Ocho Cinco, he’ll be Ochocinco. The receiver legally changed his name in Florida last August. He asked the league and the media to call him Chad Ocho Cinco, a two-word nickname he had adopted referring to his No. 85. The league has agreed to let him wear his new name...

Despite His Own Flu Warning, Biden Takes Train Home Known for speaking freely, Biden told NBC's "Today" show on Thursday that he had urged family members to avoid airplanes and subways for fear of contracting the H1N1 flu virus FOXNews.com Friday, May 01, 2009 WASHINGTON -- One day after saying he wouldn't travel in tight quarters because of the swine flu scare, Vice President Joe Biden rode a train Friday from Washington to Delaware.

WASHINGTON - Congress should enact "badly needed" immigration reforms to bring in both unskilled and skilled foreign workers if it wants to maintain the nation's economic vitality, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan said Thursday. Greenspan called for both a temporary worker program for low-skilled jobs and for an increase in visas for highly skilled workers...in testimony at the first Senate hearing this year on the prospects of an immigration overhaul. Noting the "very large participation" of undocumented workers in both low- and high-skilled jobs, he said, "if you were to remove either of those groups, the economy would be...

BISMARCK, N.D. — Police in North Dakota say a naked motorist has been charged with driving under the influence after crashing a pickup into a hospital emergency room. No one was hurt. Sgt. Dwight Offerman said 47-year-old Nicholas Krush drove into the admitting area of Bismarck's St. Alexius Hospital emergency room early Wednesday. Offerman says Krush may have overdosed on a prescription drug. He says police were told before the crash to look for a pickup driven by a man who overdosed and was heading to Bismarck for treatment... ...A message left for a Nick Krush in Mandan wasn't returned.

And John McCain’s defeat has been taken as the vindication of this premise. We tried running the maverick reformer, the argument goes, and look what it got us. What Americans want is real conservatism, not some crypto-liberal imitation. “Real conservatism,” in this narrative, means a particular strain of right-wingery: a conservatism of supply-side economics and stress positions, uninterested in social policy and dismissive of libertarian qualms about the national-security state. And Dick Cheney happens to be its diamond-hard distillation. The former vice-president kept his distance from the Bush administration’s attempts at domestic reform, and he had little time for the...

Police in Bloomington say a 23-year-old man is in stable condition after he pretended that he was falling off a bridge over the Minnesota River, then actually fell off the bridge. Police got a call just before 5 a.m. Sunday from a 21-year-old man who said his friend fell off the Highway 77 bridge and into a marshy area about 30 feet below. The caller said he was driving north when his friend, who he said had been drinking, told him to pull into the bridge's emergency lane so he could urinate. The 23-year-old stood eventually climbed to the ledge...

And they are giving Mansourian President credit for the save. The question one must ask oneself is, who was Hussein secretly rooting for in this stand off? President Obama Restricted Navy SEALs From Rescuing Ship Captain With Force (hat tip Larwyn) Now this is interesting if true, and not surprising in the least. (h/t Ex-Liberal In Hollywood) Having spoken to some SEAL pals here in Virginia Beach yesterday and asking why this thing dragged out for 4 days, I got the following: 1. BHO wouldn’t authorize the DEVGRU/NSWC SEAL teams to the scene for 36 hours going against OSC (on...

WASHINGTON – While Barack Obama is basking in praise for his "decisive" handling of the Somali pirate attack on a merchant ship in the India Ocean, reliable military sources close to the scene are painting a much different picture of the incident – accusing the president of employing restrictive rules of engagement that actually hampered the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips and extended the drama at sea for days. Multiple opportunities to free the captain of the Maersk Alabama from three young pirates were missed, these sources say – all because a Navy SEAL team was not immediately ordered to...