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Sen. Rand Paul ended his self-described filibuster against the confirmation of President Obama's nominee to lead the CIA early Thursday - at 12:39 EST -- just short of thirteen hours after the Kentucky Republican and tea party favorite began speaking. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, also a Kentucky Republican, said he would continue to oppose Brennan's confirmation and try to keep the debate going. After Paul yielded the floor, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., filed a motion to cut off debate on Brennan's nomination and bring it up for a vote....

Identical twins have been killed by Belgian doctors in a unique case under the country’s euthanasia laws. The 45-year-old brothers from the Antwerp region were born deaf and sought euthanasia after finding out that they would soon go blind. They told doctors that they were unable to bear the thought of not being able to see each other again. The twins, who have not been named but have been pictured on Belgian television, had spent their entire lives together, sharing a flat and working as cobblers. Belgium’s Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper reported on the weekend that doctors at Brussels University...

Instead of blaming guns, Why not address the clear warning signs of the mentally disturbed - BEFORE they snap. Here is at least one who is a walking portent...

Fever Dreams From My Real Father #7: Gilbert's "Mockumentaries" Dreams From My Real Father is not Joel Gilbert's first DVD documentary to present a wild conspiracy theory that attempts to completely rewrite the life of a world-famous individual with stories of cover-ups that extended over whole decades, and claims of astonishing new evidence that Gilbert says he uncovered. In 2010, Gilbert wrote and produced Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison, and in January 2012 he released Elvis Found Alive. Both were projects of Gilbert's production company, Highway 61 Entertainment. Paul (available on Netflix streaming) makes...

NEW YORK – Immigration documents filed in 1961 cast doubt on whether Barack Hussein Obama Sr. was the president’s biological father and indicate federal officers were prepared to investigate whether the Kenyan was married to the president’s mother, Ann Dunham. Aside from the image of a long-form birth certificate released by the White House April 27, 2011 – a document Sheriff Arpaio’s law enforcement investigation has found probable cause to believe is a forgery – what documentary evidence is there that Barack Obama was the biological father? In the third sentence of the third paragraph, the Dahlin memo adds the...

In my previously published article "Secrets Revealed," I concluded that what President Obama is concealing on his genuine long-form birth certificate (not the digital PDF forgery released to the public) is that his mother signed her maiden name. snip Personally, I think the preponderance of evidence shows that Obama's marriage to Ann Dunham was a legal contrivance that suited both their purposes -- Obama's as a means to maintain residency in the U.S. until he completed his studies, and Ann's (and maybe also her parents') to provide legitimacy to the baby's birth. In no way was this a meaningful marital...

Attorney General Eric Holder, along with Department of Justice senior officials, employees and invited guests, celebrated the accomplishments of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender...

The Obama Record: In a campaign infomercial, the president suggests his late mother's health insurer denied her coverage in her cancer battle. It's a heart-breaking story. Only it's not true. About midway through the slick 17-minute video, "The Road We've Traveled," narrator Tom Hanks explains that Obama made enacting his health care reforms a top priority because "he knew from experience the cost of waiting." "He remembered the millions of families like his who feel the pressure of rising costs and the fear of being denied or dropped from coverage," Hanks says, as photos of Obama and his late mother,...

Barack Obama's mother was secretly in contact with his estranged father during his entire childhood without the future president's knowledge, a new book claims. Ann Dunham gave Barack Obama Sr regular updates about his life during the 1960s and 70s and even sent him school reports. It was not until the 1980s that Mr Obama became aware of the contact between the two - but he still did not forgive his father for being an absent dad. The claims are made in a new book by Mr Obama's half sister Auma in which she reveals that their father was routinely...

For 51-year-old Faron Butler, the thing he cherished most after his daughter's death was being able to hear her voice. "Every time I had a bad day or just wanted to listen to her I'd go through my old voicemails," Butler told ABCNews.com through tears. "I had one that I'd play over and over again. She'd be saying 'Daddy, I love you and I miss you.'" He said he was shocked when a few weeks ago he went to hear that familiar voice, only to find out the voicemail had been erased

A Boston Globe reporter sympathetic to Barack Obama apparently received favored access to the immigration file of the president's father. In writing her biography of Barack Obama's father, Boston Globe reporter Sally H. Jacobs had access to what appears to be the father's unredacted Immigration and Naturalization Service file. The documents cover the time Barack Obama Sr. arrived in Honolulu in 1959 until he was forced to leave the United States in 1964. However, the redacted file the Department of Homeland Security provided in an Freedom of Information Act request to independent reporter Heather Smathers whited-out key facts about the...

Lohan has lined up a new gig -- as a Playboy girl. LiLo is posing for Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine, a source told Access Hollywood. The source told Access that Lohan is disrobing for the spread, which is being shot this week in LA. When contacted by Access, a rep for the actress said, "I cannot confirm at this time."

A new book by New York Times reporter Janny Scott sheds new light on the life of Barack Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, including her final years. Scott found while assembling information for “A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother,” that Dunham in fact did have health coverage for her ovarian cancer, based off Dunham’s own past correspondence. Washington Examiner’s Byron York: “Dunham decided to stay in Jakarta, where she underwent an appendectomy. But the pain did not go away, and Dunham feared, correctly, that she was terribly ill. In January 1995 she left Indonesia to go home...

Some people who need medical care but can't afford it go to the emergency room. Others just hope they'll get better. James Richard Verone robbed a bank. Earlier this month, Verone (pictured), a 59-year-old convenience store clerk, walked into a Gaston, N.C., bank and handed the cashier a note demanding $1 and medical attention. Then he waited calmly for police to show up. He's now in jail and has an appointment with a doctor this week. Verone's problems started when he lost the job he'd held for 17 years as a Coca Cola deliveryman, amid the economic downturn. He found...

Three and a half years ago, Terry Pratchett, the beloved author of the Discworld series, announced that he has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Now he's made an even more startling announcement. Pratchett, who has campaigned in his native United Kingdom for the right of assisted suicide, has begun the formal process of assisted suicide in Switzerland, one of the few countries in the world to legalize euthanasia. Specifically, this would take place at Dignitas, a clinic that provides qualified doctors and nurses to assist with the patients' suicides. Dignitas has sent Pratchett the paperwork he needs to sign to begin the...

As a tornado tore his Joplin, Mo., home apart, Don Lansaw did what came naturally: He threw himself on top of his wife Bethany to protect her. And in doing so, he gave his life for her. Lansaw's is just one of several tales of heroism, heartbreak, and amazing escapes that have emerged from the spate of violent weather events that swept the center of the country this week. As many as 125 people are thought to have been killed by the Joplin tornado alone. "The house was ripping apart, it all happened so fast," Bethany Lansaw told NBC News....

In most high schools, drugs, drinking, profanity and promiscuity pose significant challenges. Sadly these challenges now likewise present themselves in our diocesan high schools today. Studies show that teens exposed to R-rated movies become more likely to engage in smoking, drinking, drugs and promiscuity....

Sir Elton John’s new baby son Zachary is ‘living like royalty’ in his own £1.3 million apartment adjoining the singer’s exclusive Los Angeles pad. The Mail on Sunday has learned that Sir Elton, 63, and his partner David Furnish have appointed a top Hollywood interior designer to turn the flat beside their luxury home into a dream nursery. Although the work is not yet finished, several months after it started, eight-day-old Zachary is already installed there, and looked after by round-the-clock nannies. A New York television star who is a long-time friend of the couple said: ‘Elton and David have...

A New Jersey woman who hopes to become the fattest woman in world got 30,000 calories closer to her 1,000lb goal with a festive feast that could have fed dozens of revelers. 46-stone Donna Simpson, sitting in a reinforced metal chair, chowed down on the world's biggest Christmas dinner as she ate for two straight hours on Saturday. The single mum-of-two tucked into two 25lb turkeys, two maple-glazed hams, 15lbs of potatoes (10lbs roast, 5lbs mashed), five loaves of bread, five pounds of herb stuffing, four pints of gravy, four pints of cranberry dressing and an astonishing 20lbs of vegetables....

Snitch editor Joe Eskenazi has the word on today's vote by the Board of Supervisors to end toy giveaways for fast-food meals that fail to rate as nutritious. Eskenazi: The supes today passed an ordinance that will require meals to meet nutritional guidelines if restaurants wish to include a toy with the food purchase. More importantly, the supes passed the so-called "Happy Meal Ban" by an 8-3 vote ― meaning it can survive a promised veto from Mayor Gavin Newsom. That's right: San Francisco done banned the Happy Meal. Robble robble. Sponsored by Supervisor Eric Mar, the ban turned on...

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A few days ago, my wife suddenly, without forewarning that I ever detected, told me she is leaving me. The details are not important, only that I recognize it was mostly my fault. Our grown daughter is leaving home about the same time. Within three weeks, I will be alone, with only my Golden Retriever as a companion. I'm calling on God, and he is answering, but in this physical world, it's only my Golden. Heartbroken, deeply wounded, ashamed. That's me. I'm hoping to receive words of advice and counsel. I'm a born again, spirit filled Christian, so I'll respond...

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told the Signorile Show that she is still “very optimistic” ENDA will get its vote in committee in the next two weeks, but that “we have to be marching in the streets.” And things are looking a little tough for ENDA these days. The right-wing has stepped up its rhetoric considerably in recent days, sounding an alarm. An editorial in the conservative Washington Times in D.C. on April 23 said: “First-graders should not be forced into the classrooms of teachers undergoing sex changes. Religious broadcasters and faith-based summer camps...

Romano Guardini wrote in his book on the Rosary, “To linger in the domain of Mary is a divinely great thing. One does not ask about the utility of truly noble things, because they have their meaning within themselves. So it is of infinite meaning to draw a deep breath of this purity, to be secure in the peace of this union with God.” Guardini was speaking of spending time with Mary in praying the Rosary, but David Mills, in his latest book, Discovering Mary, helps us linger in the domain of Mary by opening up to us the...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 @ 11:24am Dori writes... People asked me why I didn't talk about the governor signing the "everything but marriage" bill yesterday. I didn't address it on the air because to me, there's nothing controversial about the bill. I think homosexuals should have the same legal rights as heteros - but I do not think we should redefine marriage. I am perfectly fine with this bill. But I am NOT fine with the outrageous use of children in the photo-op of the governor signing the bill. Gregoire surrounded herself with a group of four year olds as...

Fifty Years of Math 1959 - 2009 (in the USA ) Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help...while he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this? Because...

A lack of Vitamin D, due to reduced sunlight, has been linked to depression and the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but research by the University of Warwick shows there is no clear link between the levels of vitamin D in the blood and depression. Exposure to sunlight stimulates vitamin D in the skin and a shortage of sunlight in the winter has been put forward as one possible cause of SAD. However Warwick Medical School researchers, led by Dr Oscar Franco, have discovered low levels of vitamin D in the blood may not be connected to depression. The...

HYANNIS, Mass. -- Police have accused a 13-year-old of masterminding the slaying of his 16-year-old half brother so he could take over a drug operation they are alleged to have inherited from their father. Jordan Mendes was found shot, stabbed 27 times and dumped into a pit, where his body was torched. District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said Mendes was a "significant drug dealer." Authorities said Mykel Mendes, a seventh-grader, was jealous of the money his half brother was making selling OxyContin and cocaine and wanted to take over. A 13-year-old friend and a 20-year-old cousin also are charged with murder.

Dear Elected Representative, TEACHING POINTS PORKULUS 101: 1. GOVERNMENT DOESN’T CREATE JOBS IT CREATES MORE GOVERNMENT. 2. LEAVE JOB CREATION TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR, STIMULATE WITH TAX CUTS. 3. GOVERNMENT JOBS FOR THE UNEMPLOYED ARE UNSUSTAINABLE TAX BURDENS FOR THE REST OF US. 4. IF YOU WANT MEN TO FEED THEMSELVES THEN TEACH MEN TO FARM, DON’T GROW GOVERMENT. 5. IT’S GETTING WAY PAST TIME TO THROW SOME MORE TEA IN THE HARBOR. 6. ONE TRILLION TAX DOLLARS CREATE 1.5 MILLION HOLE DIGGERS AND 1.5 MILLION HOLE FILLERS FOR 5 YEARS @ 50K PER YEAR PLUS THE COST OF SHOVELS....

THERE can be only one thing worse than not getting the present you want this Christmas – and that’s finding your most wanted gift is just an empty box. But that’s exactly what happened to this young lad – who thought he was unwrapping the Xbox360 console he had been dreaming of all year.

Gov. Bill Ritter has picked state Rep. Bernie Buescher as Colorado’s next secretary of state. “Thank you for the confidence,” Buescher told the governor. “I will work hard and try to do a good job.” Ritter announced his pick at a news conference in his office this morning. The position came open when Mike Coffman was elected to congress. In all, 20 people applied; that number was whittled to three finalists, including Buescher, as well as outgoing House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon. During the news conference, Ritter thanked all for applying, and said Buescher is...

Enlarge ImageReal effect. Patients with a certain copy of a serotonin gene showed less amygdala activity (left), indicating reduced anxiety, after treatment with placebos. Credit: T. Furmark et al., Journal of Neuroscience To get a drug to market, pharmaceutical companies have to show that it works better than a placebo. But sometimes the placebo is just as powerful as the real thing. Just why our bodies respond so strongly to fake medicine has long been a mystery, but researchers are a step closer to solving that riddle, having picked out a particular gene that may be responsible for one...

PHILADELPHIA — Paul Kanjorski has fought off a nationally known crusader against illegal immigration to keep his northeastern Pennsylvania congressional seat. Kanjorski, a Democrat, beat Republican Lou Barletta in the 11th District.

Below is the list, in alphabetical order, of companies scoring a perfect 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign's 2009 Corporate Equality Index, with policies beneficial toward homosexuals: 3M Co. AAA Northern California, Nevada and Uta Abercrombie & Fitch Accenture Ltd. Aetna Agilent Technologies Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld Alaska Airlines Alcatel-Lucent Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America Allstate Corp.

Why are conservatives happier than liberals?FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty: Conservatives are happier than liberals. A study published in the journal “Psychological Science” says it’s because conservatives are better at rationalizing inequalities. Regardless of someone’s income, marital status or church attendance, people with right-wing ideologies report greater satisfaction with their lives than those with left-wing beliefs. Researchers found that conservatives also score highest when it comes to the ability to justify inequalities. For example, a conservative might support the idea of a meritocracy – that if you work hard and perform well, you’ll move up the economic ladder… and if you...

London, February 4: Mahatma Gandhi never existed while Britain's wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill was a fictional character. Don't fret. This is only what most Britons think about the great leaders. According to a survey carried out in Britain, many believe that Mahatma Gandhi and Churchill are just mythical figures like Florence Nightingale, popularly known as the 'Lady with the Lamp'. In fact, almost a quarter of the population have the popular notion that Churchill, "the greatest Briton of all time", was made up. Moreover, despite his celebrated military reputation, 47 per cent of respondents feel the 12th-century English...

I thought principled politics was supposed to be all about me. And if it doesn't go my way, I'm allowed to throw a tantrum, turn blue, kick my feet, flail my arms, threaten to support and vote for Hillary or Obama just to make my point. I mean, I didn't get my way. This is just like not getting my candy at the checkout counter. I didn't get my toy in the toy department. People took me out of control of my party and I'm mad. If I can't control my party, then I have to play nice and be...

WASHINGTON — Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time. A Justice Department audit released today blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said. In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation "was halted due to untimely payment," the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal investigations,...

LONDON – The fate of the world economy hinges on what happens to house prices in America and that may not be a good thing, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said on Monday. Speaking at the Reuters headquarters in London, the former Fed chair delivered a gloomy prognosis on the state of the global economy – U.S. house prices are likely to fall further and they could drag the rest of the world with them. * * * “The critical variable in this judgement is the price of homes in the United States,” said Greenspan, who ran the U.S....

Source: Loyola University Health System Date: September 30, 2007 Does Your Mood Take A Nosedive Each November? Science Daily — If you notice that your mood, energy level and motivation take a nosedive each November only to return to normal in April, you may have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), according to Loyola University Health System doctors. “This condition, characterized by depression, exhaustion and lack of interest in people and regular activities, interferes with a person’s outlook on life and ability to function properly,” said Dr. Angelos Halaris, chair of Loyola’s department of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences. But people should not...

LIBERAL - Ignacio Rivas stands at his paletas cart chatting with another guy who also pushes frozen fruit treats on a three-wheel cart. It's about 7 p.m. in downtown Liberal, a town proud of its Yellow Brick Road and annual Fat Tuesday pancake race. But as Rivas tilts his straw cowboy hat down and pushes across the city's main drag before sundown, the scene looks like one out of Mexico. Perhaps a third to half of the independent business storefronts advertise in Spanish. Most others note that they habla español. This snapshot reflects what's happening in Liberal -- the heart...

Mom's Boyfriend Charged CINCINNATI -- A judge ruled that a teenager will be tried as an adult for the death of an 18-month-old boy whose mother testified that he was repeatedly swung like a bat against the wall when the teen became frustrated during toilet training. Derris Smith, 18, the mother's live-in boyfriend, has been charged with murder. He was 17 on June 27, when, police said, he delivered the beating that led to Malakai Glenn's death four days later. The impact of the child hitting the wall left drywall stuck to his head and cracked a wooden door, said...

<p>NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — An 8-year-old boy dropped or threw his infant twin sisters down the stairs, killing one and injuring the other, authorities said. He is too young to be detained or charged, they said.</p> <p>The boy has a "diminished mental capacity," police said. A child must be at least 10 to be in the juvenile court system, Larry Irving, an investigator with the North Richland Hills Police Department, said Wednesday.</p>

PETRIFIED PARIS HILTON mouthed “I love you” to her parents last night — before being carted off to face a hostile reception in prison.....[snip] [snip]Prisoner number 9818783 was put back in her special cell — isolated from other inmates — amid fears the angry lags could RIOT over her special treatment. Wardens even ordered a lockdown as prisoners — who think Paris pretended to be sick to con doctors — threatened a revolt. An insider at the prison in Lynwood, California, said: “The women inside the jail are seething. They say if you’re a rich white girl you get special...

Folks in Freeper land, I could use your encouragement, prayers, comfort and support tonight. After battling my employer over a verbally and physically abusive boss, I had to clean out my office today. Don't panic yet -- I'm continuing on payroll indefinitely. But after I reported the abuse, and was removed from her building, I was given an office from which I could search for a job. I needed that, because I need to be around midtown for interviews (and I have had some). Tomorrow in fact I have two interviews. I'll try to summarize this quickly: My boss is...

TWENTYNINE PALMS, California (AP) -- Actor Mike Evans, best known as Lionel Jefferson in the TV sitcoms "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons," has died. He was 57. Evans died of throat cancer December 14 at his mother's home in Twentynine Palms, said his niece, Chrystal Evans. Evans, along with Eric Monte, also created and wrote for "Good Times," one of the first TV sitcoms that featured a primarily black cast. Michael Jonas Evans was born November 3, 1949, in Salisbury, North Carolina. His father, Theodore Evans Sr., was a dentist while his mother, Annie Sue Evans, was a...

If reports are true that Chelsea Clinton and her boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky are considering marriage, the father of the groom won't be able to attend the wedding until he is released from prison in November 2008. Ed Mezvinsky, a former Iowa Congressman, is serving a seven-year sentence for fraud after getting caught up in a series of Nigerian e-mail scams.

Apologies if this was previously posted but it is a tribute to the Marines who have paid the supreme sacrifice to their country. WARNING: Extremely sad on this, the birthday of the United States Navy and its seaborne infantry--the Devil Dogs of the U.S. Marine Corps.