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Obama Offices Different, Separate and Apart From Democrat Party Offices Does Obama Campaign Not Trust the Democrats? Or is it the Clintons? Will Election 2008 be remembered as the first contest between Republicans and Obamacrats–or the first between the Obamacrats and the Democrats? Senator Barack Obama is building a national organization separate and apart from the national Democrat Party apparatus–at least in any state where the outcome of the November election is at all in doubt. In state after state, the Obama campaign, in a break with tradition, has opened up its own offices–which largely push Barack Obama, and only...

JERUSALEM - Police raided more than 20 government buildings and private offices Sunday, searching for evidence in a series of criminal investigations of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The probes — all related to actions that took place before Olmert became prime minister — have threatened to weaken the Israeli leader at a time of growing momentum in peace efforts with the Palestinians. Among the places raided were the Industry and Trade Ministry, the Postal Authority and Jerusalem's City Hall, said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld. "Police investigators are searching a number of government and private offices in connection with three ongoing...

BALTIMORE - The NAACP said it is cutting about 40 percent of its national staff and closing, at least temporarily, its seven regional offices to cover three years of budget shortfalls. The civil rights group will reduce its staff from 119 to 70 through layoffs and attrition to avoid draining more of its shrinking reserves, interim president and chief executive officer Dennis Hayes said. The Baltimore headquarters will remain open and still offer services provided by the regional offices, he said. "We are right-sizing our organization to meet present circumstances," Hayes told The Baltimore Sun for an article published Thursday....

ALBANY, N.Y. - They were young and eager in the 1990s, these midlevel functionaries, hotshot lawyers and one Cabinet secretary in his father's shadow, all inspired by the same boss: President Clinton. Today, Clinton administration alumni are taking their turn in the political spotlight while their former leader cheers from the sidelines. "I am pleased and proud that so many of them have run or are running for office," the former president said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "Their dedication and enthusiasm are part of the reason why we were able to accomplish as much good as we...

"Dog owners would be willing to work longer hours, commute a greater distance and even switch jobs or consider a salary reduction if their four-legged friends could accompany them to work," Kathy Gurchiek writes in HR MAGAZINE. She adds that 70 percent of those surveyed by the dog-obsessed Web site Dogster.com and the job search engine Simply Hired said a dog-friendly workplace was an important benefit. There is no mention of how the dogs would feel about going to work every day.

Palestinian gunmen storm and loot election commission offices, may delay vote By Israel Insider staff and partners December 14, 2005 The Palestinian central election commission shut its doors Tuesday in protest after masked gunmen burst into its Judean, Samarian and Gaza offices, firing in the air and hauling off computers - jeopardizing next month's parliamentary election, the first in a decade. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ordered his security forces to protect election workers, but officials privately conceded that violence could endanger the Jan. 25 vote - seen as a key to establishing a credible government that could conduct peace talks...

CHICAGO (AP) - The federal investigation into the state's hiring practices under Gov. Rod Blagojevich has widened with a subpoena seeking personnel records from the transportation department, an agency spokesman said Wednesday. Two other subpoenas issued earlier this month seek records from the governor's office and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The subpoenas seek personnel records from March 2002 - nine months before Blagojevich took office - to the present. The Illinois Department of Transportation plans to fully comply with the request, agency spokesman Matt Vanover said. Blagojevich has denied any wrongdoing. The governor's father-in-law, Chicago Alderman...

In a confidential report, Young Muslims and Extremism, prepared jointly by the Home and Foreign offices in mid-2004 and presented to Prime Minister Tony Blair, we learn something about the inner thinking of the British government. Leaked to the Sunday Times of London, the report is now available in four parts in .pdf format at the newspaper's site.Its goal is "to encourage moderate Muslim opinion to the detriment of extremism" and to that end proposes an "Operation Contest." Along the way, it contains much of interest in it, including these points: "A number of extremist groups are actively recruiting young...

In April 2004, followers of Iraqi Shi‘ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr launched a well-coordinated uprising across southern Iraq. While Western media focused on events in Sadr City, Najaf, and Karbala, violence occurred elsewhere as well. A Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) source forwarded the following after-action report regarding violence in the town of Al-Kut, the capital of the Wassit governorate and home to the Ukrainian contingent.The unclassified report, written by a coalition security contractor, highlights dysfunction between regional coalition offices and the Coalition Provisional Authority headquarters in Baghdad, as well as tension between diplomats and security officers. The summary faulted a British...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Some 50 gunmen belonging to Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, raided the offices of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation in Khan Yunis Saturday night, demanding that they be employed by the Palestinian Authority security forces. This is the fourth incident of its kind in Khan Yunis in recent months. The Fatah gunmen have on previous occasions gone on a rampage inside the headquarters of PA Governor Hosni Zu'rub. Witnesses said the armed activists who stormed the offices of the PBC ordered all the employees to leave, demanding that Zu'rub fulfill his promise to absorb them in various branches of...

Clinton Did Diddlysquat on Crime, AIDS December 3, 2003 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT 1:33 PM EST The Washington Post: "Washington - District of Columbia health officials, who every day confront the nation's highest incidence of AIDS, will soon install plain white condom dispensers in select government offices and begin distributing the contraceptives for free. The goal is to place more than 50 condom dispensers in offices frequented by the public, including the D.C. Housing Authority and the departments of human services, motor vehicles and public works, among others. 'They're going to be as common as water fountains,' Ivan O. Torres, interim director...

Republican party to rip apart Dems' old offices By JOHN WILLIAMS Aug. 20, 2003, 9:52PM Republicans in Harris County have pounded their Democratic opponents time and time again at the ballot box during the past decade. Sunday, they intend to throw a grand old party to batter the Democrats' former headquarters in Midtown. Harris County GOP Chairman Jared Woodfill is asking local Republicans to bring sledgehammers and other implements of destruction to help level the building the Democrats vacated three months ago. "You bring the muscle, we'll bring the refreshments and we will have a party as we tear down...

US President George W. Bush invoked a national security waiver on Wednesday to prevent sanctions from being levied on the PLO for a period of six months. Under the Foreign Relations Act of 2003, PLO non-compliance with signed peace accords and continued use of terror and violence would force the president to impose at least one of a menu of sanctions unless he invokes a waiver contained in the law. President Bush's decision to waive sanctions on the PLO comes as his administration plans to try to jumpstart the dormant Middle East peace process.

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - The Department of Motor Vehicles could cut costs by eliminating Saturday office hours and toll-free numbers or by charging customers for coming to the DMV offices when they could use mail or online services, several senators proposed Wednesday.</p>