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Last week Speaker Pelosi and the Senate Majority Cadaver dodged two dangerous admissions: Pelosi denied that Democrats owned any responsibility for the nation’s banking crisis, and Harry Reid arose from his slab long enough to deny the Senate a resolution honoring American troops. Never in history has partisan petulance flapped so proudly on a flagpole. Even Obama has come forward — gritting his porcelain caps — and congratulated the troops, admitting that his predictions of military failure in Iraq might have been premature. When Nancy Pelosi was asked, “Do Democrats deserve a share of the blame for the current crisis...

Suddenly, the U.S. economy has edged out Iraq as the most consuming issue for American voters. Not so for Iraqis. Who wins the presidential election is of paramount importance to a nation finally approaching a semblance of normalcy. For some, regime change in America is not necessarily a welcome proposition. Among those concerned about what might happen should Democrats prevail is Sami al-Askari, a senior Shiite member of parliament and close adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Askari, who serves on parliament's foreign relations committee, has been outspoken in his criticism of the U.S. presence in Iraq. Nonetheless, this...

UTICA, New York - Twice as many likely voters see Republican John McCain as a better commander-in-chief of America's armed forces than Democrat Barack Obama, but they prefer Obama as a competent manager, problem solver and as someone who understands the average person, the latest Zogby Interactive poll shows. The online survey of 2,331 likely voters nationwide, conducted Sept. 19-20, 2008, carries a margin of error of +/- 2.1 percentage points. The same survey showed the Obama-Biden ticket leading McCain-Palin 47%-44% in the straight-up horserace question, with 9% other/not sure. The four qualities mentioned above were all rated as very...

Historical Coal Production

Election '08: Barack Obama summed up well the perversity of Democratic Party thinking when he told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that it is "neighborliness" for Washington to hike taxes on those who are "sitting pretty."His running mate, Joe Biden, followed up last week with the observation that it's "patriotic" for the country's highest earners to pay more in taxes. Interesting that the party that doesn't want to talk about patriotism is now using a form of the word to obscure its devotion to socialist policies. O'Reilly was right to point out to Obama that the senator is supporting a "socialist...

Melamine contamination fear fuels coffee recall in Canada By Staff Reporter Vancouver Province Tuesday, September 23, 2008 A Canadian importer of Taiwanese instant coffee has voluntarily recalled several of its products because they may be tainted with melamine. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and importer Thai Indochine Trading Inc. Tuesday advised people not to consume the Mr. Brown 3-in-1 instant coffee products. The affected Mr. Brown products are Instant 3-in-1 Mandheling Blend, Blue Mountain Blend and Arabica Coffees. The recalled brands were produced between April 9, 2008 and Sept. 12, 2008 and have best-before dates ranging from April 9,...

I am a mother of four who works more than full time while raising four children in a joint effort with my husband. There has been much criticism of Gov. Sarah Palin for daring to have a family, to work and to appear on Sen. John McCain's ticket. The focus should be on her record and her abilities. Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden have at least espoused that Gov. Palin's family is off limits. Why then do their supporters and the liberal news media feel a need to bash Gov. Palin's family choices? Do those choices challenge the left-wing...

Sanlu claims appalling if true: Fonterra 24th September 2008, 12:03 WST Claims a dairy company knew of China's tainted milk scandal eight months ago and lied about it would be appalling if true, Fonterra chief Andrew Ferrier says. At the release of Fonterra's annual results on Wednesday, Ferrier was swamped by questions about the Chinese dairy company Sanlu, which is 43 per cent owned by Fonterra. So far at least four children have died after drinking powdered milk tainted with the chemical melamine, 54,000 have fallen ill and about 13,000 have been admitted to hospital with kidney problems. A Chinese...

News outlets as diverse as WCBS Radio; Newsday; Agence France-Presse; Fox News; The New York Sun; Russia's state news agency, RIA Novosti; and even the Voice of America elected to report on the anti-Iran rally held yesterday outside the United Nations. The protest against Iran and its president, Ahmadinejad, was sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, UJA/Federation. CAMERA, and a number of other groups. It featured such speakers as Natan Sharansky, Elie Wiesel, and the Speaker of Israel's Knesset. Some of the reporting media included photos of the crowds and their protest signs, including Fox News,...

Historical Coal Production

The clean-up bill for the damaged US financial system has landed with a thud in the government bond market. There has been a big jump in yields on US government debt since news of the plan to remove $700bn of toxic assets from the balance sheets of US bank first emerged. After falling to a low of 3.24 per cent last Wednesday – the day when panic about global credit markets was at its height – the yield on the 10-year Treasury note had climbed back to 3.90 per cent early on Monday. On Tuesday, the 10-year benchmark was yielding...

China's Tainted Food Products Only Harm the Average People, High-Ranking Officials Have Their Own Specially-Supplied Food Sources By Sep 20, 2008 - 7:22:49 PM China's Tainted Food Products Only Harm the Average People, High-Ranking Officials Have Their Own Specially-Supplied Food Sources While China's food security crisis has resulted in Chinese people fearing that nothing is safe to eat, a source has revealed that China has always had one special source of food and supply network: that which serves national Communist Party and government officials. This food is specially produced, transported, and examined, according to especially strict standards. On August 18,...

September 24, 2008                             Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week                             in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Prv 30:5-9 Every word of God is tested;he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.Add nothing to his words,lest he reprove you, and you will be exposed as a deceiver. Two things I ask of you,deny them not to me before I die:Put falsehood and lying far from me,give me neither poverty nor riches;provide me only with the food I need;Lest, being full, I deny...

Tainted Milk Powder Scandal: Health Ministry National Internal Teleconference Reveals Top Secret By Translated by chinafreepress.org Sep 21, 2008 - 11:02:23 AM http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2008/09/200809202358.shtml Tainted Milk Powder Scandal: Health Ministry National Internal Teleconference Reveals Top Secret According to a boxun.com report, on Friday September 19 the Ministry of Health held a national internal teleconference. Every region's large hospital section chiefs and other concerned important officials participated. According to informed sources, this was the second time this month this type of conference was held. The teleconference revealed the true circumstances behind the tainted milk powder scandal. Milk powder factories have been illegally...

They said it was "too big to fail." This multi-billion dollar firm was now on the brink of bankruptcy. Although not a bank, the firm held complicated financial assets such as derivatives and traded with just about every big bank on Wall Street. So company officials called on the administration of George W. Bush, hoping to get a lifeline. Big Wall Street executives, including former government officials, phoned the Bush Treasury Department to plead their case to save this company. Treasury's response? "Not a chance!" The company described above was not Bear Stearns or American International Group, although it had...

Iranian Christian convert Ramtin Soudmand faces the death penalty after being jailed for the crime of 'ertedad' or abandoning the Muslim faith. Ramtin's father Hossein Soudmand, a Protestant pastor, was executed almost 20 years ago for converting to Christianity and refusing to deny his new faith. Married with two children, Soudmand was detained by security officials in Mashad about a month ago. The Iranian Parliament is currently considering a law to make apostasy or the renunciation of the Muslim faith a crime. It is expected to be passed soon. "The thing that bothers us the most is the silence by...

How exactly did Barack Obama pay for his Harvard Law School education? The way the Obama campaign has answered the question was simply hard work and student loans. But new questions have been raised about Obama’s student loans and Obama’s ties to a radical Muslim activist who reportedly was raising money for Obama’s Harvard studies during the years 1988 to 1991. The allegations first surfaced in late March, when former Manhattan Borough president Percy Sutton told a New York cable channel that a former business partner who was “raising money” for Obama had approached him in 1988 to help Obama...

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden appeared to undermine Barack Obama's backing of clean-coal technology when he told voters in Maumee last week that neither he nor Obama "are supporting clean coal." In a video circulated today by Republican John McCain's presidential campaign, Biden made his comment as he mingled with the crowd when a woman voter asked him about clean coal. Biden told the women, "We're not supporting clean coal. Guess what? China's building two every week. Two dirty coal plants. And it's polluting the United States. It's causing people to die." When the same voter asked if Biden...

Estimates of how much money a government program will cost are notoriously unreliable. Estimates of the cost of the current bailout in the financial markets run into the hundreds of billions of dollars, and some say it may reach or exceed a trillion. Many people have trouble even forming some notion of what such numbers as billion and trillion mean. One way to get some idea of the magnitude of a trillion is to ask: How long ago was a trillion seconds? A trillion seconds ago, no one on this planet could read and write. Neither the Roman Empire nor...

House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter is proposing a ten-point private recapitalization plan to restore stability to the financial markets, in opposition to the Bush administration's proposed bailout plan that Congress is currently considering. Over the past three days, conservatives in Congress have raised serious doubts about the $700 billion Paulson Plan, and as Democrats have attempted to play politics with the plan, it now appears the Bush bailout may not be passed by the end of the congressional session, which is expected late Thursday or Friday. McCotter's plan is the most specific alternative on the House side and...