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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration can proceed with a plan to open the U.S. border to long haul Mexican trucks as early as next week after an appeals court rejected a bid by labor, consumer and environmental interests to block the initiative. ADVERTISEMENT The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco late on Friday denied an emergency petition sought by the Teamsters union, the Sierra Club and consumer group Public Citizen to halt the start of a one-year pilot program that was approved by Congress after years of legal and political wrangling. The Transportation Department welcomed the decision...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a04_1188112290

Ralph Peters this morning on Marine Corps humor compels me to share my own bit of the same, which I was actually saving for a forthcoming piece. He beats me to the punch on writing a piece on Marine humor, so here is one from the vault.

“Friend, Move Up Higher” (Luke 14:1-14)I’ve attended many weddings in my life. My role at those weddings differed. At one, of course, I was the groom. At a couple of others, I was the best man. At some weddings, I have been the preacher and officiant. At other weddings, I was just one among many invited guests. Last year our daughter Mary got married. Later this month, our son Matthew is getting married. So it’s no surprise that at the dinners following these weddings, my seating position will vary accordingly. When I’m the best man or the officiant, I get...

The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the fundraising activities of Norman Hsu, the man who put over a million dollars into Democratic coffers while remaining a fugitive con man. They want to find out whether more than just coincidence linked heavy donation activity between Hsu and at least two households of more modest means -- and the answers could prove very embarrassing for top Democrats: The U.S. Justice Department is investigating possible campaign-finance violations by top Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, according to people familiar with the probe. On Friday, Mr. Hsu surrendered to California officials on...

Ephesians 4:7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

CONTROL CONGRESS with JOHN KONOP AND eeevil conservative, SHERRI REESE! IT JUST AIN'T THE WEEKEND WITHOUT JOHN AND SHERRI ! Control Congress is LIVE now at 2 PM to 3PM EDT Saturday on WGKA Atlanta 920, an SRN station. Join John Konop and Sherri Reese (aka eeevil conservative) as we fight those turkey libs in Congress and everywhere they can be found, ON THE FASTEST HOUR IN RADIO! Freepers join the show and help John and eeevil heat up the air waves. Hard to know what to expect of generous John and our dear eeevil but we know it won't...

The day before the killing of three Newark students by several illegal immigrants, Gov. Corzine formed a commission to study ways of providing immigrants with GREATER access to public services. The panel included no experts on law enforcement or national security. Immigration is already a costly burden to New Jerseyans. In the 90's Congress commissioned a project under the National Academy of Science to examine immigration's bottom line. Two groundbreaking studies - one on NJ and one on california - found that immigrants used government services at greater rates than native-born residents and at the same time paid far less...

If we don't wave the white flag fast enough in Iraq, we'll get stuck with a victory and nothing could set a worse precedent — at least for those like House Majority Whip James Clyburn, South Carolina Democrat.

Interstate truck and bus drivers across America may find themselves pulled off the highway if state troopers or vehicle inspectors find they can't speak English. The requirement has been on the books for decades, but enforcement has begun before Mexican trucks are allowed in the U.S. interior as of Thursday. "We have found people in violation of this for a number of years, and we're working feverishly to correct it," said John Hill, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Since 1971, federal law has said that commercial drivers must read and speak English "sufficiently to understand highway traffic...

AP) LOS ANGELES The Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences is suing to stop the public sale of two Academy Awards given to silent film star Mary Pickford. In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, the academy claims it has the right to buy the historic statuettes and one owned by her late husband for $10 each. The academy contends an heir to the Oscars demanded $500,000 for one statuette alone in July -- an offer the academy refused. Pickford won the Academy Award for best actress in 1930 and was given an honorary Oscar in 1975. When she died in...

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - From the day he took over the Duke lacrosse rape case, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong charged forward with a strident determination that the guilty would end up in jail. Ultimately, the since-disgraced former prosecutor only succeeded at putting himself behind bars. Nifong was sentenced Friday to a single day in jail, having been held in criminal contempt of court for lying to a judge during his pursuit of rape charges against the three falsely accused lacrosse players. Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III could have sentenced Nifong, who had already been stripped of...

The Boston Globe has a fawning Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous-ish profile of Fox News Channel’s Geraldo Rivera. In between musing about his favorite pair of soft Uggs (”I’ve worn these in Tora Bora and Somalia,” he says, admiring the suede slip-ons with the sheepskin lining. “They’re so comfortable. I love them.”), his “36-foot Hinckley powerboat,” and his massive estates (including “Seagate, the spectacular, 10-bedroom estate he bought several years ago with his fourth wife” and another “Kennedy-esque compound” with his current wife), he spews this: Rivera, who as a fledgling lawyer in the ’70s counseled the Puerto Rican...

We noted in this space a couple of times over this summer that AB 8 - the health care tax bill - is a bad idea, and now it appears legislators have actually listened to us and to several thousand California residents who let them know in no uncertain terms that AB 8 is a bad idea. After passing the Assembly, the bill stalled in committee in the Senate and was placed in the suspense file, meaning no action is planned. The circular file would have been better, but we'll take what we can get. The bill would allow an...

DARWIN, Australia (AFP) — Australian opposition leader Kevin Rudd said Saturday that he would bring the nation's troops home from Iraq by the middle of next year if elected to government. The Labor party leader said he would deliver that message to US President George W. Bush when the two meet next week, as Bush visits Australia for a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. "It's time for there to be an exit strategy for Australian combat troops," Rudd told reporters in Darwin. Rudd has a strong lead over Prime Minister John Howard in opinion polls, with an...

Unfortunately, the Law of the Sea Treaty is no laughing matter.On October 1962, President Kennedy ordered the U.S. Navy to prevent foreign ships from reaching Cuba unless they submitted to U.S. inspections on the high seas to verify that they were not transporting missiles or other offensive weapons to the island. Similar measures had been adopted in wartime blockades, but the Kennedy administration, not wanting to acknowledge a state of war with Cuba, termed this intervention a "quarantine." It was a soothing term in the midst of a confrontation which threatened to trigger a catastrophic nuclear exchange. So the Kennedy...

US wanted India to pip China to N-test: Report 1 Sep 2007, 0121 hrs IST,Srinivas Laxman ,TNN TARAPUR: The US may now want India not to conduct nuclear tests, having built it in as a condition in the 123 agreement. But more than 40 years ago, a number of US state department officials were keen that India carry out a nuclear test before communists China did. This is revealed in a September 13, 1961 memo from a US state department official, George McGhee, to then secretary of state Dean Rusk. According to the memo, many state department officials seriously wanted...

Top money managers earn such huge incomes that even when their compensation is mixed with the much lower pay of clerks, secretaries and others, the average pay in investment banking is 10 times that of all private sector jobs, new government data shows. Investment banking paid an average weekly wage of $8,367, compared with $841 for all private sector jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in a routine report issued Thursday. The report also showed how far ahead hedge fund managers are of other investment bankers in making money. In Fairfield County, Conn., home to many hedge funds, the...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Larry Craig said Saturday he will resign, succumbing to rapidly intensifying pressure from within his own Republican Party. "The people of Idaho deserve a senator who can devote 100 percent of his time and effort to the critical issues of our state and of our nation," said Craig, speaking under a clear blue sky at 10:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. ET) outside the historic Boise Depot in Idaho's capital city. "Therefore it is with sadness and deep regret that I announce that it is my intent to resign from the Senate, effective September 30th." His announcement was...

Okay, you can come out from under the bed now. The United Nations says the nerve gas stored - unmarked and unidentified - in one of its offices for about 10 years posed "no immediate risk or danger." Neither were "toxic vapors" found in the air. Is this not completely reassuring? No one seems to know why the stuff - believed to be phosgene, which killed a lot of folks back in World War I and, due to Saddam Hussein, more recently in Kurdish villages - was at UN headquarters instead of locked away in a lab. Apparently it had...