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Note: The following text is a quote: Obama to Nominate Deputy Secretary, Three Other Top Defense Officials By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2009 – President-elect Barack Obama today announced his choices for four key Defense Department positions: deputy defense secretary, two undersecretary positions and general counsel. William J. Lynn III was named as Obama’s nominee for deputy defense secretary. The president-elect also announced his intention to nominate: -- Robert F. Hale as undersecretary of defense (comptroller); -- Michèle Flournoy as undersecretary of defense for policy; and -- Jeh Charles Johnson as general counsel. “I am...

COLONIE-- Roughly 20 percent of worship sites in the 164-parish Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany will close or merge in an unprecedented restructuring plan expected to be released this month, Bishop Howard Hubbard said Wednesday. But Hubbard said his decisions will largely hew to the recommendations of 38 local planning groups from across the 14-county diocese. Those panels of lay Catholics and priests analyzed parish resources and made suggestions to Hubbard in June as to which churches should merge or close."There will be some surprises," Hubbard said. "There will be some places that were recommended for closure that won't close....

"THE BRIEF LIFE AND EXQUISITE MARTYRDOM OF A HAMAS MORTAR CREW" Snippet: "Via Hamas' al-Aqsa TV station, said to be filmed in Jabaliya on 06 January 2008. At about 1'15" the crew is hit by an apparent Israeli counter-strike."

Albert P. Carey, President and CEO Frito-Lay North America 7701 Legacy Drive Plano, Texas 75024 Dear Mr. Carey, I would like to make a proposal for Frito Lay to consider. Please bear with me as I 'Lays' the ground work. If your not aware, New York State is offering 1.2 Billion dollar subsidy for a chip fabrication plant to be located in Saratoga New York. We the citizens of New York, are led to believe this is an effort to bring new jobs to the State –roughly 1,400 jobs. The State has been in lengthy discussions with Advanced Micro Devices...

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Residents of a close-knit Queens [New York City] community are living in fear after a grandmother was attacked during a home invasion. In the early hours of the morning, before it was light, a man broke into a home on 134th Avenue. Once inside, he stabbed and slashed 86-year-old Vivian Squire in the neck and throat. "She's neighborly, good friend," friend Maudise Cornwall says. "She lives there basically alone." "People around here are pretty close-knit; all the neighbors pretty much know each other, watch out for each other," neighbor Eric Cans says. "This is pretty tragic,...

<p>A judge in New York has ruled against a Liberian woman who cited religious reasons for smuggling meat from an endangered species of monkey into the United States.</p> <p>Raymond J Dearie, a federal US district judge, said that Mamie Manneh was wrong when she claimed that her faith - a sect of Christianity - meant that she did not need to apply for permits to import exotic food stuffs.</p>

Cheney stressed the US support for the Gaza operation, saying the rocket fire on Israel must stop.

Rep. Charles Rangel denies he made inappropriate pitch for fundsBY MICHAEL SAUL DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Sunday, January 4th 2009, 4:00 AM Rep. Charles Rangel vehemently denied any impropriety Saturday following a newspaper report chronicling how he sought a donation for a public service center built in his honor from a firm with business before his committee. "I would never do anything to embarrass my committee, the Congress or my country," Rangel (D-Harlem) told the Daily News. "It's really painful to make the front page of The New York Times with a nothing story because clearly I was supporting expanding...

Governors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country's 50 states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession. The governors of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and Wisconsin -- all Democrats -- said the initiative for the two-year aid package was backed by other governors and follows a meeting in December where governors called on President-elect Barack Obama to help them maintain services in the face of slumping revenues. Gov. David Paterson of New York said 43 states...

ALBANY, N.Y. — Despite early reservations, New York state’s most powerful legislative leader now says he’ll support Caroline Kennedy for the U.S. Senate if the governor names her to the seat expected to be vacated by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=52517 New York Guard Readies for New Year's Eve By Eric Durr Special to American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 31, 2008 – As New Yorkers and visitors gear up today for New Year's Eve celebrations, the citizen soldiers and airmen of the New York National Guard are ready to support homeland security missions throughout the state, officials said. At the direction of Gov. David Paterson, members of the New York Army and Air National Guard will conduct additional security missions and stand ready to respond to local civil authorities if an emergency...

Kennedy camp reigns in Bloomberg adviser Kevin Sheekey’s Senate seat lobbying efforts BY KENNETH LOVETT, ELIZABETH BENJAMIN and ADAM LISBERG DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Wednesday, December 31st 2008, 12:47 AM Caroline Kennedy's advisers have told Mayor Bloomberg's political pit bull to tone down his lobbying efforts for her for fear it will kill her chances to be named to the Senate. "There had been huge missteps in the way [City Hall] constructed this," said a source involved in the Kennedy effort to muzzle Bloomberg operative Kevin Sheekey. "It's just a dialing down of anything that would be harmful to her,"...

Caroline Kennedy, you know, might need, you know, a speech coach, um, if she, you know, wants, um, to be a senator. Um, you know? Kennedy, who gave a flurry of media interviews on Friday and Saturday, revealed some cringing verbal tics that showed her inexperience as a speaker, experts told the Daily News. In a 30-minute session with The News on Saturday, Kennedy punctuated her answers with "you know" more than 200 times. "Um" was fairly constant, too.

Of all the names floated around out there, Suozzi is the least radically left. Of course, I'd like Paterson to pick someone like John Faso, but I know that's not going to happen. When Tom Suozzi ran against Eliott Spitzer in the gubernatorial primaries, cutting property taxes was high on his list, Suozzzi opposed gay marriage, and backed a ban on late-term abortion.

Caroline Kennedy said she was "surprised and dismayed" by her own voting record, after failing to cast her pick for the very Senate seat she now hopes to take over.

(H/T: Instapundit) It’s been obscured by the Christmas season, but it looks like that incoming State Senator Hiram Monserrate’s (D) recent attack… What? Oh, you missed it? Well, as I noted, it was obscured by Christmas. They arrested the guy after he broke a beer bottle (deliberately broken so that it’d scar more*) and then carved up his girlfriend’s face with it*. Twenty stitches around the woman’s eye, but hey: Monserrate’s supposed to be “hot-tempered” and the woman had another guy’s business card in her purse*. You could hardly expect him to excuse that, right?Anyway, the New York Democratic organization’s...

U.K.: Mosque "committed to peace, diversity and interfaith dialogue" hosts conference featuring "spiritual advisor" to 9/11 jihadists A spokesman for the mosque insists the conference organizers are just using their facilities. But no one seems perturbed enough about this "misunderstanding" and "hijacking" of Islam to cancel the conference or appearances by speakers like Anwar al-Awlaki and others named below. The full schedule of festivities can be found here.

Forget the Profiles in Courage award. For this interview yesterday Caroline Kennedy deserves the Profiles in Chutzpah Award. See, JFK’s only surviving child wants Hillary Clinton’s seat in the U.S. Senate, although she has absolutely no qualifications for the position other than her last name, which by the way used to be Schlossberg until last summer. Now all these dreadful, sweaty Albany and D.C. parvenus who actually had to run for political office are complaining about Ms. Kennedy’s ever-so-Kennedy-esque attempt to cut in line ahead of them. So Caroline grants - or should I say, grahhhhnts - an interview to...

Lack of donations to city, state Dems may hurt Caroline Kennedy's bid for Senate BY MICHAEL SAUL DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Friday, December 26th 2008, 1:20 AM President-elect Barack Obama and Caroline Kennedy during the presidential campaign. Dunand/Getty President-elect Barack Obama and Caroline Kennedy during the presidential campaign. Related News Articles Caroline Kennedy's supporters say she could raise tons of money as a senator, but when it comes to writing checks to New York Democrats, she's been largely AWOL. This decade, other than a $1,000 donation to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Camelot heiress has not financially supported any...

December 23, 2008 Note: The following text is a quote: http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel08/nyfo122308a.htm STATEN ISLAND SATELLITE TV OPERATOR PLEADS GUILTY TO PROVIDING MATERIAL SUPPORT TO HIZBALLAH TV STATION LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that JAVED IQBAL, a/k/a "John Iqbal," 45, of Staten Island, New York, pleaded guilty today in Manhattan federal court to providing material support to Hizballah, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. According to the criminal Complaint, the count (Count Two) of the Superseding Indictment to which IQBAL pleaded guilty, and statements during the guilty plea proceeding before United States...

Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times Kimberly Lane, a teacher at Heritage High School, expressed dismay after the arrest. At Heritage High School in East Harlem, where the student idiom is hip-hop and salsa, the 16-year-old Guinean girl stood out, but not just because she wore Islamic dress. She was so well liked that when she ran for student body president, she came in second to one of her best friends - the Christian daughter of the president of the parent-teacher association, Deleen P. Carr. Now Ms. Carr, a speech pathologist who calls herself "a typical American citizen," is as outraged...

NY state loses tax revs on skipped Goldman bonuses By Joan Gralla Fri Dec 19, 5:50 pm ET NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York lost $178 million in tax revenues because six top Goldman Sachs executives decided to skip bonuses, New York Gov. David Paterson said on Friday, underscoring the budget pain inflicted by Wall Street's troubles. The financial sector is the bedrock of New York's economy and it usually pays the state 30 percent of all its tax revenues in the January to March quarter, Paterson said in a telephone call with reporters. The heavy share of taxes paid...

Farmers Panic About a ‘Cow Tax’ By Kate Galbraith Should their greenhouse gases be taxed? (Photo: Steve Ruark for The New York Times) The comment period for the Environmental Protection Agency’s exploration of greenhouse gas regulation ended last Friday, with farmers lobbying furiously against the notion of a “cow tax” on methane, a potent greenhouse gas emitted by livestock. The New York Farm Bureau issued a statement last week (PDF) saying it feared that a tax could reach $175 per cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and upward of $20 for each hog. Such a tax would represent a...

NY officials want older trucks fitted with emission-reducing equipment; cost put at $195M ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York is taking steps to reduce diesel emissions in its construction fleet. The Department of Environmental Conservation is floating proposed regulations requiring trucks made before 2007 to be fitted with emissions-reducing equipment and to use ultra-low-sulfur fuel by 2011. The new regulations would apply only to state-owned trucks or trucks used for state contract work. The DEC estimates it will cost $195 million to retrofit about 30,000 state trucks. The New York State

Hey, Cuomo, stand up and fight. I’m talking to Andrew Cuomo, the attorney general of New York. Stand up and fight. For the last two weeks, as the Caroline Kennedy coronation has been going on, the man whose career she is destroying has been silent. It’s as if he fell off the face of the earth. The story is that Caroline Kennedy has announced that she wants to be a U.S. senator from New York. She has no experience, no preparation, no training. She has never stood before the voters. She has never even visited vast stretches of the state...

Kennedy Takes A Beating From Upstate Media Reporters Jump All Over Mostly Silent Princess Of Camelot; Mayor Of Syracuse Doesn't Offer Endorsement Who Should Get Senate Gig? Siena Poll: Cuomo 26, Kennedy 23 Reporting Marcia Kramer NEW YORK (CBS) Caroline Kennedy took a page from Hillary Clinton's playbook and began an upstate listening tour On Wednesday. The road trip included stops in Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo to help convince Gov. David Paterson and voters she's the one to replace Clinton in the U.S. Senate. But it was a tough crowd. The black SUV pulled up to Syracuse city hall Wednesday...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1330.htm December 17, 2008 HP-1330 Treasury Designates Bank Melli Front Company in New York City Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated ASSA CORP., a front company created and controlled by Iran's Bank Melli and domiciled in New York, and its parent organization, ASSA CO. LTD, located in the Channel Islands. "This scheme to use a front company set up by Bank Melli -- a known proliferator -- to funnel money from the United States to Iran is yet another example of Iran's duplicity," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial...

There’s no “change” when it comes to politics as usual in The Empire State, in fact the Emperor’s latest edict is not being well-received. Gov. Paterson’s proposed $121 billion budget hits New Yorkers in their iPods - and nickels-and-dimes them in lots of other places, too. Trying to close a $15.4 billion budget gap, Paterson called for 88 new fees and a host of other taxes, including an “iPod tax” that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other “digitally delivered entertainment services.” “We’re going to have to take some extreme measures,” Paterson said Tuesday after unveiling the slash-and-burn budget....

I feel sort of cheated - like discovering that your spouse has been sneaking out the back door with a pack of Pall Malls. It doesn't fit the character type either. McCain, yes. The guy was a two-pack-a-day smoker for 25 years and looks like a man desperately in need of a fix. But Obama? Mr. Coolunderfire? I guess part of it is the way we characterize smokers and smoking in this day and age. What was once accepted, if not encouraged - the Flintstones did a commercial for Winstons in the old black-and-white days of television - is now...

You drink diet soda, so you must be healthier. Right? That's what New York Gov. David Paterson is talking about with his proposal for an "obesity tax" — a 15 percent slap on non-diet sugary soft drinks. Think $1 for a Diet Coke, $1.15 for a Coke. There's just one problem: Studies have found links between drinking diet sodas and obesity and diabetes. A 2005 study at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, and separate studies released in 2007 at the University of Alberta in Canada and the University of Massachusetts found that diet soda drinkers were...

ALBANY - Gov. Paterson released a $121 billion slash-and-burn budget Tuesday morning that slams New Yorkers with 88 new fees and taxes - even on their iPods. Calling the budget the "greatest economic and fiscal challenge of our lifetimes," Paterson acknowledged his spending plan cuts deep. But he said the pain must be shared to deal with the fallout from the Wall Street collapse. The budget will cost the city an estimated $650 million in aid. But it's the $4 billion in new fees and taxes that are sure to aggravate everyday New Yorkers, who would be

--snip-- Senator Schumer plays an unrivaled role in Washington as beneficiary, advocate and overseer of an industry that is his hometown’s most important business. An exceptional fund raiser — a “jackhammer,” someone who knows him says, for whom “ ‘no’ is the first step to ‘yes,’ ” — Mr. Schumer led the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the last four years, raising a record $240 million while increasing donations from Wall Street by 50 percent. That money helped the Democrats gain power in Congress, elevated Mr. Schumer’s standing in his party and increased the industry’s clout in the capital

Gov. David Paterson is heading near Indian Country to sign a bill that would call for the state to collect taxes on sales by Indian retailers. Despite urgings by the Seneca Nation for the governor to veto the measure, he is traveling to Oneida County to sign the legislation in Utica on Monday

New taxes, deep cuts to education and health care, and a restructuring of the state's economic development programs will be hallmarks of Gov. David Paterson's first budget plan to be released in two days, according to interviews of people briefed on components. The plan will come with a host of revenue raisers — increased taxes on hospitals and insurance policies, for instance — and at least one new assessment, a so-called obesity tax on non-diet soda to raise $404 million. The governor also is contemplating requiring new license plates to raise cash, reviving sales tax on clothing purchases, removing the...

COLONIE — God works in mysterious ways apparently, especially during ice storms. Without power since 2 a.m. the indoor temperature dropped by the hour and evacuation was imminent at Our Lady of Hope retirement facility run by the Little Sisters of the Poor.Against this natural disaster, they offered prayers, fingered rosary beads and heard Mass celebrated.Just as the 86 elderly, low-income residents and the 10 nuns who care for them had packed suitcases and were about to begin loading into ambulances and buses for a temporary placement in a nursing home across town, the lights flickered on and the furnace...

It's been quite an ordeal here in upstate NY, following Friday's ice storm. Many communities are still without power and temperatures have dipped down into the teens and single digits for 2 nights in a row. Outside, EVERYTHING is covered with ice, creating a beautiful but perilous landscape. The weight of the 3/4" ice pulls down branches and limbs on deciduous trees. Pines and evergreens split or totally tip over. Roads are covered with tree debris and live wires. The major roads have been cleared but icicles continue to fall from branches. This has been exacerbated by this afternoon's increased...

Anyone else see it? Went below tree line west of Saratoga NY - Might have gone to ground toward Utica??

Winter Storm Warning remains in effect from 10 am Thursday to 1 PM EST Friday... A Winter Storm Warning for heavy snow... sleet and freezing rain remains in effect from 10 am Thursday to 1 PM EST Friday. A significant winter storm will affect the central and eastern Mohawk Valley... Schoharie valley... greater capital district... Lake George Saratoga region... northern Taconics and all of southern Vermont from late Thursday morning to Friday afternoon. 4 to 12 inches of snow... along with additional accumulation of sleet possibly totaling one half to one inch or greater is expected. In addition... one quarter...

For the last few months, St. James Roman Catholic Church in Johnson City has seen a decline in weekly donations. About two out of four weeks the parish fails to meet its weekly budget of $14,000, said the Rev. John Donovan. A bequest from the late Robert L. and Catherine H. McDevitt - part of more than $30 million the Binghamton couple left to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse and three Southern Tier parishes - will provide a cushion for St. James, Donovan said. It should have similar benefits for other initiatives and programs across the diocese. "It's...

With all the attention being focused on the Rod Blagojevich scandal involving the attempted selling of the U.S. senate seat vacancy by the Illinois governor, another senate vacancy seems to have been almost forgotten. That is the New York senate seat to be left vacant by Hillary Clinton who will soon become the Secretary of State. So who should New York governor David Paterson appoint to that senate seat? Washington Post writer Ruth Marcus provides excellent reasons why it shouldn't be Caroline Kennedy but then, absurdly, decides she needs to become a senator so as to fulfill the "girly" dream...

ACTRESS Fran Drescher, star of The Nanny, has thrown her hat in the ring to contest the US senate seat being left vacant by Hillary Clinton. "Fran Drescher, actress, women's health advocate and public diplomacy envoy for the US State Department, announced that she is throwing her hat into the ring of contenders for the senate seat being vacated by Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton," Drescher spokesman Jordan Brown said. Drescher, 51, is best known for her starring role in the 1990s TV comedy The Nanny, but since her diagnosis with uterine cancer, she has become a women's health...

Actress Fran Drescher has expressed interest in being appointed to the U.S. Senate seat that New York's Hillary Clinton is giving up to become secretary of state, a spokesman for the actress said. No, seriously.

The Times That Try Men's Souls232nd Anniversary of the Retreat at Fort Lee, NJclick for video

The Mumbai, India terrorist attacks should serve as a reminder that terrorism is real, tangible, and a threat everywhere...waiting only for the right opportunity to explode. And, try as we all do to engage in denial, the reality is that it is only a matter of time before a Mumbai-style event occurs on American soil. Back in 1993, right after the first World Trade Center bombing, I was talking with a friend of mine who was raised in Israel. I opined that it would be a relatively simple matter for terrorists to stage simultaneous attacks on, say, a dozen shopping...

The US State Department announced plans on Monday to promote online youth groups as a new and powerful way to fight crime, political oppression and terrorism. Drawing inspiration from a movement against FARC rebels in Colombia, the State Department is joining forces with Facebook, Google, MTV, Howcast and others in New York City next week to get the "ball rolling." It said 17 groups from South Africa, Britain and the Middle East which have an online presence like the "Million Voices Against the FARC" will attend a conference at Columbia University Law School from December 3-5. Observers from seven organizations...

Nov 26, 2008 5:00 pm US/Eastern "Feds Warn Of Terror Plot Against NYC Subways Homeland Security: Expect Larger Police Presence In NYC And In Major Cities Across U.S. During Holidays" ARTICLE SNIPPET: "NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ― Federal authorities are warning police of a possible terror plot against the New York City subway and train systems during the holiday season, prompting local officials to beef up security at stations. An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system. A...

Some of the nation’s universities are trying to sell chunks of their portfolios privately as their endowments swoon with the markets, The New York Times’s Claire Cain Miller and Geraldine Fabrikant write. Among institutional investors, school endowments aggressively embraced private equity, real estate partnerships, venture capital, commodities, hedge funds and other so-called alternative investments over the last few years. Endowments with more than $1 billion in assets reported 35 percent of their holdings in these types of investments on average last year, a much greater portion than big public pension funds, for example. Now they are balking. The value of...

On Friday November 21st, while strolling through Central Park's Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Commentary Magazine's online editor Abe Greenwald noticed a statue and did a double take. "Is that...Che Guevara?" Indeed! There was no mistaking it: a statue of "El Che" by German artist, Christian Jankowski. Upon investigating the matter, Abe Greenwald learned that, "the sculpture is not intended to depict Che Guevara," but rather a street performer from Barcelona's Las Ramblas who idolizes Che Guevara and makes a living mimimg him. "Which I'm sure makes all the difference in the world to the families of Che's victims," Mr Greenwald...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's team has told the Federal Election Commission that she continued her campaign even after endorsing Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama on June 7, a claim that lets her transfer millions of dollars from her presidential bid to her Senate campaign. The former first lady made the $6.4 million transfer from her White House campaign, which remains more than $7 million in debt, to Friends of Hillary on Aug. 28. That date would fall outside the legal deadline for making such a move if her campaign were to have ended June 7. Her campaign treasurer told federal...

NEW YORK (AP) — It started as a radio program discussion about a taboo subject: child molestation among members of the insular world of Orthodox Jews.Since he broached the subject on his radio show this summer, says a state assemblyman, dozens of people have come forward with stories about children being molested in the Orthodox community, which strictly follows Jewish law.Dov Hikind says as many as four people a day have come to him over the past three months with painful accounts of secrets often kept for decades, accusing more than 60 individuals.Hikind says he would eventually consider unmasking accused...