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LONDON -- A breast-feeding mother accidentally smothered her four-week old child aboard a United Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Kuwait, a British tabloid reported Tuesday. The Sun newspaper said that the mother, who it said was a 29-year-old Egyptian-born woman, fell asleep as she breast-fed on the jet and awoke to find that the child had been smothered. The paper said the plane was diverted to London's Heathrow in an attempt to save the baby's life. The paper cited an unnamed police source in its reporting. Scotland Yard confirmed that a United Airlines plane had been diverted to Heathrow...

Today marks a bittersweet milestone in aviation history. United Airlines, the first carrier to make the Boeing 737 a staple of its fleet 41 years ago, is retiring the last of those jets in an airborne party that will stretch from Virginia to California. The plane is the last of 94 Boeing 737s that United has grounded since September 2008. That painful maneuver cost thousands of United workers their jobs but likely saved the carrier from financial calamity as the travel market collapsed last winter following Wall Street's meltdown, analysts said.

Listen to Candidates Bucking For United States Senator Harry Reid Seat in 2010 Part 4 We have had candidates that have been campaigning for US Nevada Senator Harry Reid Seat in 2010. On October 17, 2009 we have had Doctor Robin Titus Republican Candidate for US Senate on the Veterans In Politics Talk Show on All Talk Radio. Listen to what they have to say and do your homework be an educated voter. We will have more candidates as the filing dates come closer. If you are thinking about being a candidate for US Senator representing Nevada in 2010; Or...

The Democratic Party struggled at the national level throughout the 1970s and ’80s — all but shut out of the White House — because it was defined by its most extreme elements: war protestors, loony peaceniks, angry black activists, crime apologists, etc. It took years of concerted effort by the Democratic Leadership Council, Bill Clinton and others to reclaim the Democrats’ reputation as reasonable and pragmatic. The Republican Party of today is stuck in the same place, defined by Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, birthers, tea partiers and Joe Wilson. John McCain fell into the trap of being defined by the...

The US banking system will lose some 1,000 institutions over the next two years, said John Kanas, whose private equity firm bought BankUnited of Florida in May. “We’ve already lost 81 this year,” he told CNBC. “The numbers are climbing every day. Many of these institutions nobody’s ever heard of. They're smaller companies.” Failed banks tend to be smaller and private, which exacerbates the problem for small business borrowers, said Kanas, who became CEO of BankUnited when his firm bought the bank and is the former chairman and CEO of North Fork bank. “Government money has propped up the very...

Call it the third green wave. It is a much smaller migration than its predecessors - the historic westward flow that gave Boston its Irish identity, and then, in recent years, the return home of thousands of Irish emigrants seeking to ride the Celtic Tiger, the roaring Irish economy. But now, with Ireland deep in recession, far deeper even than ours, thousands of its residents are again heading abroad; nearly twice as many people left Ireland in 2008 as four years earlier. And some of them are heading to the United States for the second time

Seems United Airlines damaged a musician's guitar(s), and the musician spent a frustrating year seeking compensation. After a year of "No" from United, he posted a very funny, well produced music video.United Breaks Guitars

US diplomats are working to ensure the safety of deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and his family as they press for restoration of constitutional law and his presidency. President Barack Obama called Sunday for "all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter" as the Central American crisis unfolded. For those conditions to be met, Zelaya must be returned to power, US officials said

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- United Airlines operator UAL Corp. said Thursday that it has sent a proposal request to Boeing Co. and Airbus, as the carrier plans to begin replacing its wide-body fleet. In a letter to employees, Chairman and Chief Executive Glenn Tilton said the request could result in a "significant" number of new planes. At the end of 2008, UAL owned 80 wide-body jets and leased an additional 34.

The United Nations, which aspires to protect human rights around the world, is struggling to deal with an embarrassing string of sexual-harassment complaints within its own ranks. Many U.N. workers who have made or faced accusations of sexual harassment say the current system for handling complaints is arbitrary, unfair and mired in bureaucracy. One employee's complaint that she was sexually harassed for years by her supervisor in Gaza, for example, was investigated by one of her boss's colleagues, who cleared him.

Dismantling the United States Dear Editor: So many writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry. Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. In 1900 when there was a rush from all areas...

However, at Maryland-based First United Corp.'s annual meeting of shareholders yesterday, one banker spent a considerable amount of time trying to set the record straight about who's responsible for the nation's economic woes, and -- more to the point -- who's not. (A slideshow of the presentation may be found here in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.) For those keeping track, the government gave First United a $30 million infusion of capital on Jan. 30. The bank got the money through the Treasury Department's Capital Purchase Program -- part of TARP -- in exchange for 30,000 shares...

Airline Says Overweight Travelers Will Need To Buy Extra Seats Or Be Denied Entry To Planes. Chicago-based United has instructed its customer service representatives at O'Hare International Airport ticket counters and gates to be extra vigilant beginning Wednesday for passengers they deem to be overweight. Those unable to comfortably fasten a safety belt with one extension or sit comfortably with armrests down will be denied boarding unless they purchase an extra seat, even if they can be placed elsewhere in the aircraft next to an empty seat. If no empty seat exists, the passenger will be forced to take a...

Financial crisis sparks concern over climate change funds - U.N. 19 Feb 2009 16:52:00 GMT Written by: Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - Funds pledged by rich countries to help developing nations adapt to the impacts of climate change are at risk from the global credit crunch and economic downturn, the United Nations has warned. Deirdre Boyd, country director for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in India, told AlertNet financing must be made available to help countries like India deal with hazards caused by global warming, such as rising seas and melting glaciers. But she warned the global financial...

The title of this article is most assuredly not what one would think it to mean. It is a title intended to get people interested that would not normally frequent a “conservative” news outlet or a “conservative” source of political thought. Be that as it may, the article is a repost of my article from another location originally written in November of 2007. So, without further ado and after reading Tony Magana’s article here at American Daily Review (“Strong Evidence President Obama Moving Towards Socialism”) which, inspired the reposting of this coming piece, read on. The article is as appropriate...

On Inauguration Day, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, in a New York Times ad ("An Invitation to a New Partnership"), told "Dear President OBAMA" that Muslims "have compelling strategic and moral reasons to cooperate and peacefully co-exist with the United States in particular, and with the West in general." Many Muslims here and elsewhere want that partnership; but some, jihadists in the name of Islam, disagree violently. In its address to our new president, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (which has permanent status at the United Nations) made no mention of its own strategic skills that resulted, on...

First Trial Opens At International Criminal Court Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga at a 2007 hearing in The Hague January 26, 2009 (RFE/RL) -- The first-ever trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC), the world's first permanent war-crimes tribunal, has opened in The Hague. Congolese rebel leader Thomas Lubanga is in the dock on charges of recruiting children as young as 10 years old to become soldiers in his country's bloody internal conflicts. Lubanga denies that he used underage fighters in the military arm of his Union of Congolese Patriots, and he says he was waging a violent campaign only...

U.N. messin' with guns Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) instructed United Nations Ambassador nominee, Susan Rice, to ensure she preserves the gun rights of United States citizens while serving as U.S. representative to the U.N. “As our nation’s top representative to the United Nations, the next United States U.N. Ambassador has an important responsibility to defend and protect our citizens’ second amendment rights from international gun control.” An “Arms Trade Treaty” that could threaten U.S. citizens’ right to keep and bear arms doesn’t recognize a county’s sovereignty has been introduced in the U.N. The treaty could impose restrictions on gun ownership...

Robert MorleyColumnist The United Ponzi States of America January 20, 2009 | From theTrumpet.com If you thought Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was bad, don’t look now, but you’re in one. Robert Morley Anyone can work a simple swindle. But you need to be a special kind of con man to bilk billions from otherwise intelligent people. Bernard L. Madoff was one such man. Charles Ponzi was another. But the biggest fraud and scam master of all goes by the name of Uncle Sam. Just what does a person have to do to make his name synonymous with fraud? Charles Ponzi, the...

Seniors may think they save money when they buy AARP insurance, but if they take the trouble to compare competing products, they may be paying twice as much. AARP brought in nearly half a billion dollars in 2007 from fees insurers pay for AARP endorsement. It also gained about $40 million from holding the clients’ premiums for a month and investing them. The revenue helps pay down the $200 million bond debt that funded the organization’s brass and marble headquarters in Washington, D.C.—which is closed to visitors, purportedly so staff can work. Royalties and fees now constitute about 43% of...

HOME-SCHOOLING: U.N. treaty might weaken families Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association (Courtesy of hslda.org) One of the issues American families could face this year is the ramifications from a treaty called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). You may ask, "How could a treaty directly affect internal decision-making by American families?" We generally think of treaties as agreements affecting international relations between countries. The U.N., however, has initiated treaties that not only affect international relations, but also the domestic relations of member nations as well. These treaties, sometimes called "conventions,"...

U.S. pledges Palestinian aid WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The United States will contribute $85 million to the United Nations agency providing aid to Palestinian refugees. The State Department announced Tuesday that $25 million of the funds would go to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East's Emergency Appeal for the West Bank and Gaza. Those funds will be used for "urgently needed food, medicines, and other critical humanitarian assistance," according to a statement. The other $60 million will be given to UNRWA's General Fund, which "will support the provision of basic and vocational education, primary...

I would be remiss if I didn't point you to Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's op-ed in today's Chronicle, making an economic case for U.S. investment in green jobs. Here it is, in full: Amid the pressures of the global financial crisis, some ask how we can afford to tackle climate change. The better question is: Can we afford not to? Put aside the familiar arguments - that the science is clear, that climate change represents an indisputable existential threat to the planet, and that every day we do not act the problem grows worse. Instead, let us make the...

A few years ago, I dragged my carcass into a swanky Hawaiian resort, presented my credit card, and watched the front desk clerk turn ashen after entering a few keystrokes into her terminal. "Who are you?" she asked. Confused and exhausted after more than 20 hours of flying from London, I answered prosaically: "Joe Brancatelli." Then I tried a lame joke: "It's a common Hawaiian name." "No, I mean, who are you?" she repeated before turning her monitor toward me and pointing to my guest profile. Next to my name were six V's in front of V.I.P., about a dozen...

The Bretton Woods Conference, 1944 The Bretton Woods Conference, officially known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was a gathering of delegates from 44 nations that met from July 1 to 22, 1944 in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to agree upon a series of new rules for the post-WWII international monetary system. The two major accomplishments of the conference were the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The lessons taken by U.S. policymakers from the interwar period informed the institutions created at the conference. Officials such as President...

The U.N.: Even More Expensive Than It Looks How much does the United Nations cost? Rich countries, led by the United States, take note: you already pay about three times as much for the U.N. as appears on your own books — about $17.2 billion in 2006, according to figures newly pulled together in a U.N. report. And that number includes a whopping $800 million surplus for the sprawling U.N. system. What the U.N. did with the extra cash isn't covered in the document that for the first time reveals the full extent of U.N. anti-poverty contributions and spending across...

Excerpt - United Airlines saw a 76 percent drop in its share price Monday, after it was reported that the company had filed for bankruptcy protection. The news story turned out to have been six years old and had been erroneously picked up by the Google News service. It was then posted to the Bloomberg Professional network. In the words of duckcommander80 from Yahoo Finance's message board, who lost $19,000, "WHO THE HELL DO WE SUE???????" It's not clear... ~ snip ~

Barack Obama's campaign has made a point about not taking money from big donors, even though it has received six figure bundled contributions from "little, ordinary people" like Goldman Sachs, Lehman Broters, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Execlon, and Microsoft,* and even though Obama broke his pledge to accept Federal campaign financing and the accompanying spending limits. The Obama campaign's fundraising ethics also include illegal and possibly rigged lotteries like "Dinner with Barack;" the "Backstage with Barack" lottery was modified to allow entry without a donation under pressure from Minnesota and possibly other law enforcement agencies. While Barack Obama is at...

On Monday, shares of United Airlines lost more than 75 per cent of their value -- erasing about $1.2-billion from the company's market capitalization -- after a story about the airline's bankruptcy in 2002 somehow got pushed onto the website of a Florida newspaper, was picked up by Google's news-aggregation service, then made its way onto the Bloomberg news wire and out to hundreds of thousands of stockbrokers and traders. But whose fault was it? By Tuesday morning, fingers were being pointed in multiple directions.

United Airlines has said that it will not end free meals in coach class on international flights, as announced earlier this summer. The carrier had said it would trial a program on transatlantic flights from Washington Dulles International Airport, in which travelers in coach class would be charged for food, and meals in Business and First Classes would be free......

This is the fourth piece in our series about Barack Obama's questionable campaign financing methods and his ties to racist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Semitic hate groups. Circulation as a viral E-mail is encouraged. If you want to use the images, though, please download and copy them instead of linking, as linking uses our bandwidth. Barack and Michelle Obama's Racist and Anti-American Church Key talking point: Jeremiah Wright is merely a symptom of the Trinity United Church of Christ's racism and hatred of America. The people who directed the church sanctioned the publication of Wright's hate speech plus a guest piece from...

Announces Latest Missteps In Never-Ending Race To Bottom Of CSI Rankings Attention, US Airways: it appears you have some serious competition for the title of Stingiest Major US Carrier. Starting next month, United Airlines will stop handing out free pretzels and cookies to coach fliers across North America... and will even drop free meal service in business class on most flights. "In the wake of high fuel prices and a challenging economic environment, we must continue to examine every aspect of our business and find new ways to improve our day-to-day operations through efficiencies that still meet our customers' expectations,"...

CHICAGO - Baggage fees are fast becoming an unavoidable part of U.S. flying — three of the largest carriers now charge $15 for a first checked bag. No. 2 United Airlines and No. 7 US Airways announced their new fees on Thursday, three weeks after No. 1 American Airlines set the precedent for the charge. Most U.S. carriers already have instituted a $25 charge for checking a second bag — part of a potpourri of new fees that reflect a struggling airline industry passing along record fuel prices to passengers in the form of higher fares, fuel surcharges and service...

The aging planes of United, American, and Delta guzzle more gas and make the U.S. carriers more vulnerable to soaring oil prices—and to their global competitors For a look at one of the biggest headaches facing U.S. airlines, head out to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport any day and watch the big jets taking off for the U.S. There goes United Airlines to Chicago, American Airlines to Boston, Delta Air Lines to Atlanta, and Air France to New York's John F. Kennedy airport. What's the big deal? Many of the U.S. carriers' planes are Boeing 767s, a model that dates...

Charity: Aid workers raping, abusing children [http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/27/charity.aidworkers/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail] “LONDON, England (CNN) — Humanitarian aid workers and United Nation peacekeepers are sexually abusing small children in several war-ravaged and food-poor countries, a leading European charity has said.” Circulation of the following pictures is encouraged. Please copy as opposed to linking, as it uses this site’s bandwidth. Children as young as 6 have been forced to have sex with aid workers and peacekeepers in return for food and money, Save the Children UK said in a report released Tuesday. After interviewing hundreds of children, the charity said it found instances of rape, child...

Obama Effectively F-Bombed His Own Church with Improper Campaign Speech The Internal Revenue Service has cleared the United Church of Christ of accusations that it violated its tax exempt status by hosting Barack Obama’s “A Politics of Conscience.” The IRS’s letter to the United Church of Christ cites the same points that we did: even though Barack Obama’s “A Politics of Conscience” contained campaign-related content, the UCC did everything possible to prevent the Obama campaign from misusing its resources for electioneering. It would therefore be hardly fair to hold the United Church of Christ accountable for Barack Obama’s decision to...

Goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar was Manchester United's hero as Sir Alex Ferguson's side claimed the club's third European Cup with a penalty shoot-out win over Chelsea on a night of almost unbearable drama in Moscow. As many had predicted, the competition's first all-English final ended in penalties and ultimately it was van der Sar's full-length save from Nicolas Anelka that ensured United won the shoot-out 6-5 after the match had ended 1-1 after extra-time. The triumph ensured ensured a season that has seen United mark the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster ended with both the Premier League...

[Placed in the public domain, copying and widespread circulation are encouraged] Obama’s Sword of Damocles: October Surprise Won’t Surprise UsLooming Scandal Will “Toricelli” Barack Obama After Democratic National ConventionThe Democratic Party’s superdelegates, even those who have endorsed Barack Obama, need to do some serious reconsideration between now and the convention. Should Obama become the nominee, the Democrats are likely to find themselves in the same situation as they did with Robert Toricelli (D-NJ) in 2002. As described by Wikipedia (more information at the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20602-2001May12), In the middle of an increasingly competitive race against Republican Doug Forrester, Torricelli decided...

Today, Continental Airlines bought back its “golden share” from Northwest Airlines for $100, freeing Continental to act on the airline industry’s urge to merge. Investment bankers and industry watchers are already expecting Continental’s next step is to do a deal with UAL’s United Airlines.

We remind our readers that Jeremiah Wright’s accusation that Israel created an “ethnic bomb” to kill Black people and Arabs was first exposed at IsraPundit [http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=551]. Now we bring you more fresh revelations of anti-Israel hate speech from Barack Obama’s pastor of 20-plus years. With regard to the following, the United Church of Christ has ties to the Sabeel Ecuminical Liberation Theology Center, which refers to the creation of Israel (NOT the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the creation of Israel) as the Nakba or “catastrophe.” Trumpet Magazine The Israelis have illegally occupied Palestinian territories for almost 40...

While conservatives inside the administration are unhappy about intervention in markets, President Bush seems content with how the Federal Reserve and Treasury cooked up the deal with erstwhile colleagues in Wall Street. There is little conservative or Republican about the administration's approach to the fiscal crisis, as reflected in Room G-50. Uncritical Democratic senators were not even inquisitive. The closest a senator came to asking who set the price for JPMorgan was this apologetic question from Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd: "There's just reports -- I want to share them with you -- that JPMorgan Chase would make an offer of...

Dear Senator Obama: Our common denomination, the United Church of Christ, has a suddenly serious legal and financial problem with the Internal Revenue Service. You, personally, are the cause of this problem. Candidly? I think you owe it to those of us who are your fellow congregants to help repair the damage that you have done. ...UNSURPRISINGLY, ALL OF THIS resulted in a complaint being filed with the IRS following your presentation. In addition to your speech and the stories featured by the UCC's own website, the complaint cites numerous media accounts describing your appearance as a campaign event. This...

Lois G. Lerner, Director Exempt Organizations Division Internal Revenue Service 1111 Constitution Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20224 Dear Ms. Lerner, I am writing to encourage the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the United Church of Christ (also known as “Executive Council of the General Synod of United Church Of Christ"), a 501(3)(c) non-profit religious entity that seems to have run afoul of federal tax law banning political campaign intervention. On Saturday, June 23, 2007, U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke before the national biennial gathering of the United Church of Christ at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford,...

In addition to widening revelations about racist and/or anti-Semitic hate speech not only from his pastor, his associates like Al Sharpton, and even bloggers at his official campaign Web site, there are very credible allegations that he misused the tax exempt resources of the United Church of Christ to promote his candidacy: a malicious and self-serving action that may put his own church’s tax-exempt status in jeopardy. The story centers on "Obama’s General Synod speech prompts IRS to investigate UCC’s tax-exempt status," which is posted at the UCC’s own Web site. [http://www.ucc.org/news/obama-speech-in-2007-prompts-1.html] The Internal Revenue Service has notified the United...

...an article has appeared on the ISM affiliated website Electronic Intifada (EI) by one of its co-founders, Ali Abunimah, in which Abumimah recounts his close past working relationship with Obama prior to the presidential campaign and how Abunimah believes Obama is merely giving lip service to the Jewish community to get elected, and that once in office he will work for the Palestinian cause. Abunimah lists himself and is mentioned in subsequent Obama articles in the mainstream press merely as a “Palestinian activist.” Abunimah insists that Obama will “come around” once elected. But Ali Abunimah is more than just some...

From the Los Angeles Times: Hamas’ stand: An official of the movement describes its goals for all of Palestine. By Mousa Abu Marzook July 10, 2007 ...I, for one, do not trouble myself over “recognizing” Israel’s right to exist — this is not, after all, an epistemological problem; Israel does exist, as any Rafah boy in a hospital bed, with IDF shrapnel in his torso, can tell you. This dance of mutual rejection is a mere distraction when so many are dying or have lived as prisoners for two generations in refugee camps. As I write these words, Israeli forays...

The Internal Revenue Service has started an investigation into the United Church of Christ, Sen. Barack Obama's church, because of a speech Obama gave at the denomination's meeting last year, church officials said today. ...The IRS sent a letter to the United Church of Christ headquarters in Cleveland last Wednesday, saying it was concerned because of articles posted on several Web sites that mention Obama's appearance. The letter states that 40 campaign volunteers set up tables outside the Hartford Civic Center.

The News: Sen. Barack Obama's Chicago church has been promoting him -- and criticizing his rival Hillary Clinton -- from the pulpit. • The Issue: Has the church violated federal law that restricts a church's political activity? • What's At Stake: The church's tax-exempt status and its ability to raise money. Mr. Wright, who will be ending his 36-year tenure as the church's senior pastor in June, has previously been criticized for comments deriding President George Bush and lauding Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. Now Mr. Wright's and his successor's repeated enthusiastic promotion of their famous parishioner may...

More information has come to light about the reason for the Internal Revenue Service's investigation of the United Church of Christ. On the basis of "IRS Investigation: A Test Of Church's Faith?" by Davida Foy Crabtree, we must conclude that Barack Obama (1) gave his word to the United Church of Christ that no campaign-related activity would take place during the United Church of Christ's General Synod in June 2007, and then (2) he promptly broke his word by using the 501(c)(3) tax exempt event to promote his Presidential candidacy. If this is how Barack Obama keeps his word to...

The IRS is investigating the Cleveland-based United Church of Christ over a 2007 speech on faith and politics by Sen. Barack Obama. The church announced late Tuesday that the IRS is looking into whether Obama's speech to its General Synod in Hartford, Conn., may have been a political activity that could threaten the denomination's tax-exempt status.