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"Humanity needs a profound cultural renewal; it needs to rediscover those values which can serve as the solid basis for building a brighter future for all," he said. "Our present crises -- be they economic, food-related, environmental or social -- are ultimately also moral crises, and all of them are interrelated." He called on all people to "move beyond a purely consumerist mentality" so that they could "rethink the path which we are traveling together" and adapt "a lifestyle marked by sobriety and solidarity" between the haves and the have nots. Environmental issues deserved the attention of the world community...

4 to 8 inches of snow may blanket Washington, D.C., areaBy Sholnn Freeman Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 18, 2009 A winter storm is expected to dump significant amounts of snow across much of the Washington region this weekend, with the first flakes starting as early as Friday night. The storm, which developed along the Gulf Coast, is expected to bring four to eight inches or more of snow to the Washington region. Meteorologists said it will reach the area after hammering the western part of Virginia along the Blue Ridge Mountains. In Washington and along the East Coast,...

Democrats in the Senate still face a filibuster threat from within their own party as they try to push health care legislation to a vote, though the key holdout says he's merely interested in "getting it right." Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson said Thursday he was unsatisfied by a proposed compromise on the issue of federal abortion funding in the Senate's health care reform bill -- but even if that is resolved, he still might support a filibuster if other issues he has raised aren't addressed. A spokesman for Nelson told Fox News on Thursday that the Nebraska Democrat also is...

Note: 1 video and photos included. Home » News » Politics "After Covering Up Symbol for Jesus at Georgetown, White House Had Obama Speak in Front of Symbols for AMA, AARP and Human Rights Campaign" Thursday, December 17, 2009 By Nicholas Ballasy and Edwin Mora SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – When President Barack Obama spoke at Gaston Hall at Georgetown University on April 14, the university complied with a White House request to cover up all signs and symbols on the wall of the stage behind where the president spoke. These included the monogram “IHS”-- a symbol for the name of Jesus--which...

A moderate Democrat whose vote could be crucial said Thursday an attempted Senate compromise on abortion is unsatisfactory, raising doubts about whether the chamber can pass President Barack Obama's health care overhaul by Christmas. "As it is, without modifications, the language concerning abortion is not sufficient," Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, a key holdout on the health care bill, said in a statement after first making his concerns known to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Nelson said there were positive improvements dealing with teen pregnancy and adoption, and that he was open to further negotiations. But in a radio interview earlier...

Just in time for Obama to announce it, and it only cost the USA 100 billion dollars. Thanks Hillary. Climate draft deal agreed December 18, 2009 – 1:30PM Leaders and ministers from 28 countries including Australia have outlined a draft accord to fight global warming. The details of the draft are not known yet but the move came hours before some 130 world leaders were set to convene in the dying hours of the climate summit at Copenhagen. Representatives from key blocs, covering both rich and developing countries, embarked on late-night negotiations in a desperate bid to hammer out a...

Gun control proponents often claim that suicide rates are driven by firearms availability. For example, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence promotes the “guns cause suicide” hypothesis. They note that nearly 17,000 people kill themselves with firearms each year, concluding: Without stronger, sensible gun laws, thousands upon thousands of people will continue to die and be injured needlessly each year. The Brady Campaign fights for sensible gun laws to protect you, your family, and your community. If guns cause suicide, international organizations must have some data proving this claim. Or do they? The United Nations (UN) recently reaffirmed its...

MESQUITE, Texas - Joe Mitchell says all he wanted to do was make crosses as gifts for friends when he signed up for a ceramics class at Eastfield Community College in Mesquite.Instead, he says, the ceramics instructor compared the crucifix to a swastika in trying to explain why crosses were not permitted.“I felt humiliated and that my spirituality was being demeaned,” said Mitchell, a retired Dallas resident and student at the public college. “The whole point of art is to express who you are.”Mitchell says he was told on several occasions by instructors and administrative staff that he could...

~ It’s Finally Friday!! ~ TROUBLESHOOTING (FREEPER MEG33’s GRANDSON !) 091122-N-9500T-223 GULF OF ADEN (Nov. 22, 2009) Aviation Electrician's Mate 3rd Class Adam Cook, right, and Aviation Structural Mechanic 3rd Class Oran Hill, assigned to the Easy Riders of Helicopter Anti-Submraine Squadron Light (HSL) 37, embarked aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65), troubleshoot an electrical fault on an SH-60B Sea Hawk helicopter prior to an early morning launch in the Gulf of Aden. Chosin is the flagship of Combined Task Force 151, a multinational task force established to conduct counter-piracy operations under a mission-based mandate to actively...

An opinion poll shows a majority of Americans against handing out money for developing country climate mitigation. As President Obama begins his discussions at the COP15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen, a new opinion poll for the Washington Post and ABC News shows that his approval rating on how he is handling climate issues is dropping considerably. At the same time, the number of Americans opposed to contributions of USD 10 billion per year to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gases, is at 57 percent. SEE POLL (External link)

FYI, The NASA press release below refers to 'holiday' or 'seasons' greetings six times. No mention of Christmas, of course. [comment deleted]! In a bizarre historical turnabout, religious activity on the space station has now become almost entirely dominated by the Russians. They fly icons blessed by priests (http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=6673) Photos: http://hochu.vkosmos.ru/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/ikona.jpeg and http://www.svet-valaama.ru/photoalbom/2006_05_icon_from_space/2006_05_icon_from_space_01.jpg Also http://www.interfax-religion.ru/img/2308.jpg I haven't seen anything remotely similar from the American side. What have I missed? For the next manned launch this Sunday, also expect Russian Orthodox priests from the newly-built church in Baykonur (news story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10729300) to bless the rocket and the crew. File photo: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Mp59h1-TVgE/SsKiot99hvI/AAAAAAAAAnA/1QV6t9vIfrs/s400/Best+Soyuz+Bless.jpg...

Friend -- As we celebrate the holiday season, I wanted to say thank you for making 2009 a year for the history books when it comes to America's progress. This holiday season, let's show President Obama that we support him just as strongly as we did on Inauguration Day. Please sign our Holiday Card to President Obama and the First Family and forward it to five of your friends. You can also include a personal message and upload a photograph of your own family. Send a card to the President! Our extraordinary progress this year would not be possible without...

Copenhagen, Denmark (CNN) -- President Obama will land in Copenhagen, Denmark, Friday morning hoping he can help bridge the divide that has hampered a climate change agreement. Obama is expected to begin meeting with world leaders with an hour of his arrival. He is scheduled to have an important meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao of China, and will also meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Obama's arrival was preceded by a warning from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. On Thursday, Clinton warned conference participants that they were "running out of time" to...

A new poll from the Tarrance Group (R) commissioned by the American Future Fund aims to put the squeeze on Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson (D) over health care. In the survey (500 LVs, 12/14-15, MoE +/- 4.5%), respondents were asked: "In general, do you favor or oppose President Obama's plan to expand health care coverage to most Americans even if this plan increases the role of the federal government in health care and increases the cost of the deficit." Two-thirds responded that they oppose it, compared to 26 percent who favor it.

John Edwards has never admitted to fathering a love child with a one-time staffer, but new legal documents suggest the failed presidential hopeful is the baby's daddy - and may soon have to pay up big-time....

Video Linky Clicky Here CHATTANOOGA (RCB) - "I don't know how four year old could think of this," said Logan Pugh. Pugh was sleeping inside a friend's home on Blue Spruce Drive on Monday night, little did he know, he wasn't the only guest. "He got in an out of the house without waking anybody up," Pugh told Eyewitness News. Pugh slept soundly until deputies with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office knocked on the door looking for a missing four year old boy. "They found him at the end of the street drinking a beer, walking around like it...

The most detailed seismic images yet published of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles, contradicting claims that there is no deep plume, only shallow hot rock moving like slowly boiling soup. A related University of Utah study used gravity measurements to indicate the banana-shaped magma chamber of hot and molten rock a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20 percent larger than previously believed, so a future cataclysmic eruption could be even larger than thought.

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WASHINGTON: More than 11 years after their affair rocked America, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky has claimed the then US President Bill Clinton lied under oath when he described their romantic encounters during his impeachment trial, according to a new book. In an email to law professor Ken Gormley, who penned 'The Death of American Virtue', Lewinsky has made it clear she believes President Clinton had lied about their liaison during his testimony to the grand jury. "There was no leeway (there) on the veracity of his statements because they asked him detailed and specific questions to which he...

The Founding Fathers created a Republic, but 60 Senators are poised to take it away. With the pending disaster of the passage in the Senate of a bill nationalizing one sixth of the U.S. economy and our entire healthcare system at a cost of over $2.5 trillion, we are faced with a crucial question: are the Republican senators using every means at their disposal to stop this looming, tyrannical abuse of power? Unfortunately, the answer appears to be “no.” The Senate, unlike the House of Representatives, has parliamentary rules and procedures that give the minority the ability to stall legislation....

Last year’s landmark Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller definitively settled the fact that the Second Amendment secures an individual right—not a collective one—to keep and bear arms. Yet that ruling applied only to the federal government (which oversees Washington, D.C.). Does the Second Amendment apply against state and local governments as well? Through a series of legal decisions handed down over the past century, the Supreme Court has gradually held that most of the protections in the Bill of Rights apply to the states via the 14th Amendment, which declares, “No State shall make or enforce...

PHOENIX -- A man who strangled to death an attacking bobcat said Wednesday he's seen his share of those animals near his quiet, secluded home, reported KPHO-TV in Phoenix. James Gruver, 61, lives about 10 miles north of Lake Pleasant, Ariz. He said the growling cat hiding under his trailer Monday afternoon was unlike any he'd ever seen. "I bent down and looked under the trailer, and right there about 5 feet from me, was this bobcat," Gruver said. A second later, the cat lunged. "I didn't even have time to snap my fingers, it happened so quick," Gruver said....

HOLIDAY EATING TIPS 1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Holiday spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls. 2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. It's rare.. You cannot find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's...

Mysterious Group Buys Building Next to Ground Zero For Mosque Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Jim Hoft A mysterous Muslim group with unknown sponsors has purchased a building steps away from Ground Zero. Hudson New York reported: An identified group with unknown sponsors has purchased building steps away from where the WorldTrade Center once stood — to turn it into potentially one of the largest New York City mosques. At the moment the building, the old Burlington Coat Factory, already serves as a mini-mosque: an iron grill lifts every Friday afternoon for a little known Imam leading prayers a few yards...

While the Pentagon may not have been listening to the increasing calls, from the troops, for a militarized smart phone, one defense supplier (Raytheon) has, and resulted in RATS (Raytheon Android Tactical System). Taking advantage of the open source Android operating system (think of it as mobile Linux), and the thousands of applications already available for it, RATS combines this with increasingly powerful, and inexpensive smart phone hardware, to produce something the troops want. Actually, RATS isn't a phone, it's a wi-fi device that looks like one (as does the Ipod Touch). RATS has GPS, a compass, vidcam and software...

The decision by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority to sharply cut services to close a nearly $383 million deficit is the latest sign that the state will operate under harsh fiscal constraints in the coming year. The proposed cuts, which would include shutting down two subway lines and slashing night and weekend hours on a system that operates around the clock, will be aired at several public hearings this winter. A final vote is planned in the spring by the board of the MTA, which manages transit systems in New York City and surrounding areas, including Long Island. The measures...

Manchester – Potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty came to the leadoff-primary state today urging the GOP to return to its conservative base and then practice what it preaches if it hopes to regain the lost trust of Americans. "We've got to explain using conservative principles, conservative ideas and values, why our approach, even if it may not be instant gratification, is better for families and individuals and regular working people all across this country on those kind of issues, those bread and butter, meat and potatoes issues," he told the New Hampshire Union Leader in an...

Democrats accuse Gore's former running mate of bitterness and vanity after he uses his deciding vote in Congress to water down president's reforms Joe Lieberman has long gone rogue in his own way. The senator from Connecticut and former Democratic vice-presidential candidate may not be quite out there with that other contender for high office, Sarah Palin. But Lieberman – a professed liberal who supports access to abortion, gun control and some gay rights – infuriated former allies and Democratic voters in his own state with support for George Bush's war in Iraq, and astonished them by campaigning for...

<p>For almost two years, intelligence services around the world tried to uncover the identity of an Internet hacker who had become a key conduit for al-Qaeda. The savvy, English-speaking, presumably young webmaster taunted his pursuers, calling himself Irhabi -- Terrorist -- 007. He hacked into American university computers, propagandized for the Iraq insurgents led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and taught other online jihadists how to wield their computers for the cause.</p>

President Obama finally makes it back to familiar and frozen Copenhagen, scene of his earlier success in winning the Olympics for Chicago, trying to figure out a way to make zero plus zero amount to something big. His prospects aren't good. He leaves behind a chaotic debate over his health care "reform," a debate awash in irony, confusion and incredulity. The next stop is farce. ObamaCare, which the president promised would be a simple, thrifty, economical cure-all for the health care system, runs to 2,074 pages that a roomful of Philadelphia lawyers (or worse, Washington lawyers) couldn't parse. But...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-nsd-1338.html FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, December 14, 2009 Terrorism Defendants Sentenced in Atlanta Ehsanul Islam Sadequee Receives 17 Years in Prison; Co-defendant Syed Haris Ahmed Receives 13 Years Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, of Roswell, Ga., and Syed Haris Ahmed, 25, of Atlanta, were sentenced today in federal court following their convictions earlier this year in separate but related criminal trials, the Justice Department announced. "With their words and their actions, these defendants supported the wrongheaded but very dangerous idea that armed violence aimed at American interests will force our Government and our people...

President Barack Obama will ask Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans to the Moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars, ScienceInsider has learned. The president chose the new direction for the U.S. human space flight program Wednesday at a White House meeting with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, according to officials familiar with the discussion. NASA would receive an additional $1 billion in 2011 both to get the new launcher on track and to bolster the agency’s fleet of robotic Earth-monitoring spacecraft. The current NASA plan for human exploration is built around the $3.5 billion...

Her parents say a New Jersey elementary school teacher told a third-grader the Bible was inappropriate reading material for quiet time.

Friday, 18 December 2009 09:53 The mood at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen has changed from optimism to uncertainty, after a draft text from a influential group of world leaders went down badly with developing nations. Around 130 world leaders, including the Taoiseach Brian Cowen, have arrived at the Bella Centre for the final day of the marathon talks process. Overnight, a group of 26 influential world leaders had worked on a text, a process which the Danish Prime Minister had described as both fruitful and positive. However this morning, developing nations have reacted negatively to the text,...

Note: Telephone transcript and web posts included. 15 December 2009 "AMF X 2" SNIPPET: "Ehsanul Islam Sadequee and Syed Haris Ahmed were sentenced to prison yesterday in US District Court in Atlanta, Georgia. Sadequee got 17 years, and Ahmed 13 - both are subject to 30 years court supervision upon release. (Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the second link and read some of Judge Duffy's remarks to Sadequee). • Terrorism Defendants Sentenced • Federal Judge Sentences 2 Muslim Americans for Conspiring to Aid Terror Groups Sadequee and Ahmed were part of the global network of jihadis that...

A senior House Republican on Thursday introduced a "resolution of inquiry" that would require the House Judiciary Committee to seek answers on why the Justice Department dismissed a civil complaint against members of the New Black Panther Party who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place in last year's elections. Rep. Frank R. Wolf of Virginia also said he had language inserted in the Justice Department's annual spending bill requiring that its Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) provide to the House Appropriations Committee the results of OPR's investigation surrounding the dismissal of the case. Mr. Wolf, a senior member of the Appropriations...

A leaked UN document emerged last night that shows the current proposals for a deal at Copenhagen will ‘put at risk the very viability of our civilisation on Earth’. The document is an internal briefing paper drawn up by the UN Framework Committee on Climate Change that is in charge of the talks. It says that even the most ambitious emission reduction targets currently offered by developed and developing countries, including the EU and US, would set the world on course for warming of around 5.4F (3C).

WASHINGTON — Negotiations with Russia to replace an expired Cold War-era arms control treaty have bogged down and now appear unlikely to be concluded by the end of the year as the White House had hoped. As the two sides seek a breakthrough, President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, plan to discuss the nuclear negotiations in a meeting Friday on the sidelines of United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark. The two leaders are not expected to seal a deal. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, say negotiations with...

When he earmarked $100,000 in taxpayer spending to go to Jamestown's library, Rep. James E. Clyburn meant for it to go to the library in Jamestown, S.C., which is in his district. But in the bustle to write and pass the $1.1 trillion catchall spending bill, Congress ended up designating the money for Jamestown, Calif. - 2,700 miles away and a town that doesn't even have a library. "That figures for government, doesn't it," said Chris Pipkin, who runs the one-room library in Jamestown, S.C., and earlier this year requested $50,000, not the $100,000 that Congress designated, to buy new...

AUSTIN – Two-thirds of Texas businesses will pay nearly triple the unemployment-benefits tax next year than they paid this year, the Texas Workforce Commission announced Tuesday. Next year's tax rates are the highest since an oil-price and real estate bust stalled the state economy Across the board, unemployment taxes will roughly double next year.

WASHINGTON — Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson — the moderate Democrat whose opposition is holding up the Senate's health care bill — says new language on abortion doesn't satisfy his concerns.

is similar in size (and appearance) to the American Predator (both weighing about a ton), but the Israeli vehicle is built mainly for endurance. The Hermes can stay in the air for 36 hours, and has a payload of 650 pounds (300kg). This means that, with its cruising speed of 125 kilometers an hour, the Hermes 900 has a max range of 4,500 kilometers. Thus the Hermes 900 could fly to Iran (1,500 kilometers distant), do some reconnaissance, and return. Although the 900 has a quiet engine, it is fairly visible, even at its highest altitude (nearly 10,000 meters/30,000 feet)....

Today, as I lay in the snow with a cut knee, a bruised back, a banged head, a ruined suit, and a written-off coat, I wondered whether the brutality of the New World Order was moving closer than President Klaus – or any of us – had realized.

Leadership: Alaska's ex-governor asks a question we'd like answered: Why is California's current governor pushing the same policies in Copenhagen that helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment? The movie series that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name involved cyborgs traveling through time to alternately try to destroy or save one John Connor, who would grow up to be the leader of the resistance against a race of machines that ruled the planet. Prominent in the series was his tough cookie of a mom, Sarah Connor. Another Sarah has taken the lead in another resistance against another group...

#1. American Saturday Night by Brad Paisley #2. Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors #3. Crack the Skye by Mastodon #4. Revolution by Miranda Lambert #5. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix #6. Love vs. Money by The-Dream #7. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt 2 by Raekwon #8. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear #9. I and Love and You by the Avett Brothers #10. The Fame Monster by Lady Gaga . . .

Hans Christian Andersen would surely have been inspired by the ‘science’ of Copenhagen For a small country, Denmark sure attracts a lot of attention. A Chicago Muslim, David Headley, was recently arrested at O’Hare International Airport en route to Copenhagen to kill the commissioning editor and artists of the Danish Muhammad cartoons. Alas, a far bigger group flying in to Copenhagen for a massive suicide bombing were permitted to board their flights: these were the jet-setting bigwigs of the climate-change circuit en route to Denmark to blow up the global economy and individual liberty in order to get back to...

In counter-insurgency fights, slower aircraft are often better than front-line jet fighters. In April 2007, Flight International reported that the USAF’s Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) had issued a solicitation on behalf of the Iraqi Air Force [IqAF] to buy at least 8 counter-insurgency (COIN) aircraft, with a dual role as intermediate to advanced single-engine turboprop trainers. The solicitation required a single-engine turboprop powered that is in “wide use,� powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 family engine, with an advanced suite of sensors and weapons including electro-optical sensors and guided weapons capability. Indeed, the solicitation went one step further,...

A son in Putin's Yule stocking Last Updated: 1:33 PM, December 16, 2009 Posted: 11:50 PM, December 15, 2009 Vladimir Putin has a lot to celebrate this Christmas. Not only has the Russian strongman consolidated his control over the proletariat -- and all their oil and gas -- he's also been given his first son, sources say. Alina Kabaeva, the gorgeous, 26-year-old rhythmic gymnastics champion, recently gave birth to a boy in Moscow and named the baby Dimitry, a moniker he'll share with Putin's handpicked president, Dimitry Medvedev.

The typical Hollywood action hero skirts death for a living. Time and again, scores of bad guys shoot at him from multiple directions but miss by a hair. Cars explode just a fraction of a second too late for the fireball to catch him before he finds cover. And friends come to the rescue just before a villain’s knife slits his throat. If any one of those things happened just a little differently, the hero would be hasta la vista, baby. Yet even if we have not seen the movie before, something tells us that he will make it to...

A recent exchange of intelligence information between India and the U.S. revealed that an American Moslem (whose father was a Pakistani diplomat) under arrest for plotting Islamic terrorism, admitted that he had witnessed Pakistani Army officers working with Islamic terrorists, while he was undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan. While there have been many such reports, Pakistan always responds by claiming that they are "rogue officers." But American intelligence and military officials, who have worked have worked with the Pakistanis, report encountering many Pakistani officers who were openly favoring Islamic terrorism. Thus the Pakistani protests carry less and less weight. For...