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** EXCERPT ** Two State Department employees were fired recently and a third disciplined for improperly accessing electronic personal data on Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, Bush administration officials said yesterday. ~snip~ A similar data breach took place in 1992 when State Department officials looked up data on presidential candidate Bill Clinton, in an attempt to find out information from the late 1960s, amid unfounded political campaign rumors that Mr. Clinton had sought to renounce his citizenship to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. That incident triggered a three-year investigation by a...

3/19/2008 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Editor's Note: The names of the Iraqi mother and son in this article have been changed, at the mother's request, to protect their identities from terrorists who would harm them if it was known that the pair received help from American servicemembers and the U.S. government. A photo of an adorable little boy with a bowl haircut and big brown eyes was posted alongside a sign that read, "I may be little, but I am strong," but the scarred child within the hospital isolation room didn't look like the boy in the...

It seems the more Barack Obama tries to explain the peculiar statement he made Tuesday concerning his white grandmother's "fear of black men who passed by her on the street," the more he's assuring attention regarding the matter. Though it remains to be seen how much focus a media clearly looking to move beyond this subject will devote to it, Obama called into a Philadelphia sports radio station on Thursday [1] making comments that, if publicized, might get him in even more trouble with white voters. As transcribed [2] by Breitbart moments ago (audio available here [3]): "The point I...

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2008 – Vice President Richard B. Cheney thanked American servicemembers today for their service in Afghanistan, saying they are making history every day. Cheney spoke with troops at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, and then presented five awards – including a Silver Star – and re-enlisted six servicemembers of Combined Joint Task Force 82. Cheney said the troops are making Americans proud. “Almost every factor that makes a battlefield tough is found right here in Afghanistan – rugged terrain, lousy weather, great distances, and a nasty, brutal enemy,” the vice president said. “But our military record here,...

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2008 – The Defense Department honored Army Col. Valerie Ratliff last night for her efforts to break down barriers for future generations of women. But Ratliff hopes the recognition, conferred on her and dozens of others here during the department’s 2008 Women's History Month Outreach and Observance Reception, will soon be made obsolete by virtue of future women’s continued success. “This is just the beginning of the trailblazer recognition,” she told American Forces Press Service today. “And it will be a good thing when we won’t have to recognize it in the same manner. “The history books...

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2008 – New units moving into Iraq have the challenge of continuing the security improvements while helping the Iraqis build economic and political structures, the commander of a U.S. division preparing to take on that task said today. Army Maj. Gen. Michael L. Oates, commands the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, N.Y., and in May, the division headquarters will relieve the 3rd Infantry Division at Multinational Division Center in Iraq. “We want to build on the security environment that (Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, 3rd Infantry Division commander) and his guys have created,” Oates said...

Mark McAfee had just a few hours to celebrate yesterday’s issuance of a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of AB 1735--what he called “a big win for California raw milk and producers”—before he learned about the next phase of the government’s campaign against Organic Pastures Dairy Co.

Second-, third- and fourth-generation Mexican Americans speak English fluently, and most prefer American music. They are increasingly Protestant, and some may even vote for a Republican candidate. However, many Mexican Americans in these later generations do not graduate from college, and they continue to live in majority Hispanic neighborhoods. Most marry other Hispanics and think of themselves as "Mexican" or "Mexican American." * The educational levels of second-generation Mexican Americans improved dramatically. But the third and fourth generations failed to surpass, and to some extent fell behind, the educational level of the second generation. Moreover, the educational levels of all...

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2008 – Military personnel serving in combat zones are eligible for an economic stimulus payment, an Internal Revenue Service spokesman said today during an “America Supports You Live” interview on BlogTalkRadio.com. While combat pay generally is nontaxable, servicemembers are permitted to count this pay on their 2007 or 2008 income tax returns if it helps their eligibility, Clay Sanford explained. “A military person who would not normally file a 2007 tax return because the 2007 income is not taxable, can file a 1040A with the IRS and receive the stimulus payment,” he said. Servicemembers should report...

A source confirmed to Calvin Watkins that the Cowboys are discussing a trade with the Tennessee Titans that would grant Pacman Jones his wish of coming to Dallas. Nothing is imminent. The Cowboys and Titans have discussed a late-round pick as the compensation.

NEW ROCHELLE (NEW YORK): A suburban police sergeant who is married to a New York anchorwoman was charged on Wednesday with raping a 17-year-old girl hours after he helped arrest her boyfriend at her house. New Rochelle sergeant David Rodriguez pleaded not guilty to forcible rape, agreed to an order of protection keeping him away from the teenager and posted $25,000 bail. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison. Rodriguez did not speak after the arraignment, but his attorney Stephen Worth said the charge was false and the investigation was slipshod. He said the...

Jeremiah Wright was White House guest The recent coverage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright has often cast him as a marginal, almost fringe figure, but Trinity Church is a major Chicago institution, and Wright has long been a prominent pastor on the American scene. And an anonymous blog set up to defend his church offers some compelling photographic evidence of this: A photograph of Wright and President Clinton, which it says was taken on September 11, 1998 -- the date of a White House gathering for religious leaders. Hillary Clinton, according to her recently-released schedule for the day, was present at...

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2008 – Wounded warriors in need in San Antonio now have a place to call home as they transition from military to civilian life. The new facility is Operation Homefront’s first of four planned transitional housing facilities across the United States. Jody Brothers from the PGA Tour and representatives from local Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores were on hand to cut the ribbons on the apartments the Wal-Mart Foundation sponsored. “Thanks to these and other sponsors, wounded warriors and their families can live at Operation Homefront Village rent-free so they can rebuild their financial foundation as...

Democratic rivals mum on firm’s dirty cashMar 20, 2008 3:00 AM (17 hrs ago) by Quin Hillyer, The Examiner WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has received more campaign money from disgraced lawyers at the controversial Milberg Weiss law firm than any other member of Congress, but she won’t say whether she’ll keep the contributions. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Clinton’s chief rival for their party’s nomination, received much less money from the same lawyers but is likewise mum. Clinton received $21,971 and Obama $5,300 from four senior partners of the firm or their spouses. Presumptive Republican nominee John...

MARATHON, Fla. (AP) - A 75-pound stingray killed a Michigan woman Thursday when it flew out of the water and struck her in the face as she rode in a boat in the Florida Keys, officials said. Judy Kay Zagorski, of Pigeon, Mich., was sitting in a boat going 25 mph when the spotted eagle ray, with a wingspan of 5 to 6 feet, leaped out of the water, said Jorge Pino, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The 57-year-old woman's father was driving the boat on the Atlantic Ocean side of Vaca Key, Pino said. "He...

TONGREN, China - A Tibetan monk crouched in the quiet courtyard of a nearly deserted monastery and bitterly recalled the words he and his fellow monks have been forced to recite every year at government-organized classes: "I love this country." The "patriotic education classes" have been imposed on the monks for the past decade, but the young monk in the centuries-old Rongwo monastery still can speak his own mind to a journalist. "We want freedom," he said. "We want the Dalai Lama to come back to his land." The monastery is located in the valley town of Tongren, in Qinghai...

Doubts about Barack Obama's presidential credentials have crystallized during the past two weeks over his stewardship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on European Affairs, which has convened no policy hearings since he took over as its chairman last January. That startling fact, first uncovered by Steve Clemons, who blogs on the Washington Note, prompted acid comment in Europe about the Illinois senator's failure to visit the continent since assuming the committee post, and even speculation that he had never traveled there except for a short stopover in London. But why should those questions matter to Americans who consider...

The mass weeping that the Barack Obama speech caused in the Leftwing blogosphere which was chronicled in all its comedic depth in the previous two editions of the DUmmie FUnnies has now inspired another song parody by Charles Henrickson. The parody song is called "The Lib'ral White Crowd That Cried" based on the Johnny Ray song, The Little White Cloud That Cried I was thinking, "Down goes Obama" Feeling Barry's sure to slide When all at once I saw, filled with drama The lib'ral white crowd that cried They told me they believe what he preaches And no one...

Former Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia is considering a third-party presidential run — a bid that could steal support from Republican John McCain and potentially offset the damage Ralph Nader"s candidacy is predicted to have on the Democratic candidate. Mr. Barr, a House Republican impeachment manager during President Clinton's administration, yesterday confirmed his interest in running as a Libertarian but said he is unwilling to talk about any "polling we may have done or may do, not at this point." "There is great deal [of] dissatisfaction with the candidates for the two major parties, particularly among conservatives, but also a...

Barack Obama is nothing if not smooth. He seamlessly turned a would-be apology over his pastor's racism into an indictment against society's racism. It wasn't, "Jeremiah Wright was wrong, and I was wrong for going to his church for 20 years despite his apparently unforgiving spirit, his racist and anti-American utterances, and his vulgarity, including taking the Lord's name in vain from his very pulpit -- the one venue above all on God's sacred planet that such irreverence is inalterably forbidden. No matter what racial injustices have been perpetrated over the years by mankind toward mankind, they are never an...