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WASHINGTON – Retail sales unexpectedly fell in December, leaving 2009 with the biggest yearly drop on record and highlighting the formidable hurdles facing the economy as it struggles to recover from the deepest recession in seven decades. In another disappointing economic report, the number of newly laid-off workers requesting unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week as jobs remain scarce. Still, many economists, puzzled by the retail sales decline that follows reports from retailers of brighter holidays, cautioned that the December figures don't necessarily signal a big consumer pullback and could be a blip. SNIP---- Meanwhile, the number of...

NEWTON, Iowa – Marking Earth Day with a pitch for his energy plan, President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for a "new era of energy exploration in America" and argued that his proposal would help the economy and the environment at once. "The choice we face is not between saving our environment and saving our economy — it's a choice between prosperity and decline," Obama said in his first post-election trip to Iowa, the state that launched him toward the White House. "The nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that...

LISTEN!! THE CONFICKER WORM IS A DISTRACTION! ITS JUST A HARMLESS WORM! THE REAL VIRUS HAS ALREADY BEEN PUT INTO THE MATRIX LAST WEEK!! YES!!! ITS A VIRUS CALLED MESSIAH!! ITS SET UP BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SO THAT BARACK OBAMA CAN TAKE OVER ALL OF OUR COMPUTERS AND READ OUR MINDS!!!! YES!!! IT CANT BE DETECTED! ITS TOO LATE TO REMOVE IT NOW!!! BARACK OBAMA IS GOING TO CONTROL ALL OF THE INTERNET AT 9:45 PST!! HES GOING TO BE WATCHING US ALL AND..... Hello! Im Barack Obama! I am Jesus Christ! Don't pay any attention what was said....

Hezbollah Inside America: FOX News Tells All in Documentary Tuesday, January 16, 2007 By David Asman E-MAIL STORY PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION Does any terrorist organization pose a greater threat to Americans than ? The shocking answer to that question unfolds this Saturday, January 20th, at 8 p.p. EST, as FOX News Channel presents a breakthrough documentary, “Smokescreen: Hezbollah Inside America.” While Americans are still largely focused on Al Qaeda and — who’s presumably rotting away in some cave — the terrorist group has been setting up shop right here in America’s heartland. And most Americans don’t know a thing about...

If anyone needs further proof - not that anyone does these days - that the Republican leadership in Congress is both desperate and clueless, it's the election-year revival of that mother of all non-issues: flag desecration. The U.S. House passed this tread-worn measure last year, and the Senate Judiciary Committee approved it last week. Even though Congress has no shortage of real issues, ranging from the war in Iraq to global warming, clamoring for its attention, the full Senate will begin debate next week on a proposed constitutional amendment to solve a problem that doesn't exist. As if that weren't...

WASHINGTON -- Sometime between now and the Fourth of July, the Senate plans to revisit what over the course of 17 years has become a seasonal rite of patriotism on Capitol Hill: a vote on whether to amend the Constitution to ban protesters from burning the American flag. Each time, the arguments on both sides are passionate. Each time, the support needed to move ahead with an amendment falls short. But this year could be different, as two important trends cross paths. For one, proponents of the amendment appear to have more support than ever in the Senate. They say...

"Things aren't always as they seem" is an old saying with common sense. Wednesday is Flag Day. A week later the U.S. Senate will debate a proposed constitutional amendment that reads, "The Congress shall have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." The vote is expected to be close. The House of Representatives has already passed this amendment. The next step would be ratification by two-thirds of the states. All 50 state legislatures have indicated they would support the amendment. Our society has accepted 30-second sound bites for news. On the surface, the...

An ABC News poll finds that most Americans oppose gay marriage but markedly fewer — especially those outside George W. Bush's core supporters — would amend the U.S. Constitution to ban it. Opponents, however, are far more likely to call it a make-or-break issue in their vote for Congress — a finding that explains Bush's renewed push for a gay marriage ban. Among all Americans, 58 percent say gay marriage should be illegal, but fewer, 42 percent, say it rises to the level of amending the U.S. Constitution. Among conservative Republicans and evangelical white Protestants, though, opposition to gay marriage...

President Bush on Saturday backed a resolution to amend the Constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman even though the idea has little chance of being passed in the Senate. "Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and a wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society," Bush said in his Saturday radio address. "Marriage cannot be cut off from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening this good influence on society." Democrats say Senate floor time is...

By Kevin D. Korenthal MichNews.com Feb 7, 2006 Radical Islamic leaders are coming to realize that efforts to Islamatize Europe and the rest of the world are failing and that Europe is figuring out that no life, not even that which is sensitive to the Jihadists’ cause, is sacred. So it’s time for plan “B”. Plan “B” involves creating (what the media is incorrectly calling) a “row” with which to create the cover for more intimidation and violence which is the Islamic way. If Muslims were really interested in stopping the cartoons from appearing, they would be using shame, not...

Nazi historian Irving finds his books in Austrian jail library By Kate Connolly in Berlin (Filed: 02/12/2005) David Irving, the British historian, has embarrassed Austria's judicial authorities by finding his own books in a prison library while in custody on charges of Holocaust denial. Irving, 67, who will spend Christmas and the New Year behind bars pending trial, found two of his most contentious books in the Graz prison library after asking for something to read. He said in an interview he signed both, German translations of Hitler's War and The Destruction of Convoy PQ-17, before returning them to guards....

For those who believe Amnesty International is a non-partisan organization, perhaps a closer look at the organization's actions in Britain will provide some enlightenment. Amnesty International is accusing British Prime MinisterTony Blair of undermining decades of British campaigning for international human rights by using the war on terror to give, what they call, a "green light" to torture. Amnesty is planning to initiate a global campaign against the British government as a result of ministers saying they would use information gained by torture to prevent attacks on the United Kingdom. The ministers, however, never said they condoned torture. They said...

Clearwater, FL (LifeNews.com) -- The family of Terri Schiavo is upset by an Associated Press news report that appeared in hundreds of newspapers on Thursday and Friday. Bob and Mary Schindler say the report makes it appear that eating orders caused Terri's collapse in 1990 when she did not have such problems. They say other evidence shows physical abuse could have been the cause. Written by reporter Vickie Chachere, the AP news story says the "lost lesson" in the Terri Schiavo controversy is combating eating disorders. "It is a twist lost on no one close to the case: A woman...