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Amazing!!! http://videos.komando.com/2009/01/06/fastest-shot-in-the-world/

President Obama meets with Colombian president Álvaro Uribe this afternoon as his administration monitors the repercussions of the military coup in Honduras and the impact on its Latin American neighbors. Aides had said last week that the Oval Office meeting would focus on efforts to shut down the drug trade and the stalled Colombian-U.S. free trade agreemeent. But the world's attention shifted over the weekend to Honduras, where the region's first military coup in more than a decade ended with the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya during a dawn raid of the presidential palace in the capital of Tegucigalpa. In...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq, June 30, 2009 – Army 1st Sgt. Jane Baldwin and her husband, Army Maj. Page Baldwin, beat the odds of cancer, and at the same time, grew closer as a couple, expanding their family and resolving to continue their military service. Cancer survivors Army 1st Sgt. Jane Baldwin, with Company E, 3rd Battalion, Small Arms Readiness Group, and her husband, Army Maj. Page Baldwin, 343rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, continue to serve. Major Baldwin is deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, working for Multinational Division South. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

In a nutshell: Obama is wrong

Economist Peter Schiff is looking closely at joining the GOP primary to face Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), and his polling shows he would be competitive in the general election. The polling, which was conducted by Wilson Research Strategies and obtained by The Backroom, shows Dodd leading the little-known Schiff within the margin of error, 42-38.

Professor Paul Rahe follows up on his post "Obama's gestures": Just under three weeks ago, I wrote a Power Line post drawing attention to a photograph released by the White House, showing President Obama nonchalantly leaning back in his chair with his feet on the desk, the soles of his shoes clearly visible while speaking on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In that post, I noted that some in the Israeli press interpreted the release of the photograph as an expression of contempt intended for Arab consumption, inspired by the hurling of a shoe at President Bush...

Once again the American Left is beating the drum for a European-style Value Added Tax (VAT) to raise vast new sums for the federal government.President Obama's budget proffers the VAT as one way to fund his health care initiative. And respected liberal policy gurus such as Len Berman of the Tax Policy Center are thumping the VAT as well. A more sophisticated version of a national retail sales tax, a VAT is levied at each stage of production, yielding a series of tax assessments. Ultimately, consumers bear the cumulative costs. Economically speaking, the VAT's lack of transparency is a bad...

Super investor Jim Rogers hasn't changed his pessimistic view of the global economy, but he sees no need to change any of his trading positions at the moment. He expects to sell U.S. dollars soon and remains enamored with commodities. "I have no shorts for one of the first times in my life," Rogers told Reuters TV. "On the other hand I don't see much to buy." The massive fiscal and monetary stimulus around the globe, and the debt burdens it will create, means trouble ahead for most major currencies, he said. Rogers likes the Canadian dollar, one of the...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's proposed consumer-protection agency would have broad oversight for a range of products, beefing up the government's regulation of credit cards, mortgages and gift cards, as well as expanding its authority over financial firms. Draft legislation unveiled Tuesday by the Treasury Department would for the first time make a single entity, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, responsible for writing and enforcing rules across a range of financial products used by consumers. "This agency will have only one mission -- to protect consumers," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said.

Dealing with the first Latin American crisis of his presidency, Barack Obama sought a swift, clear response that would not be interpreted as U.S. interventionism in a region that loathes it. So he condemned a coup in Honduras by turning to that most reliable standby: democracy. "We stand on the side of democracy, sovereignty and self-determination," Obama said when asked Monday about the forced exile of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, a takeover that has drawn international criticism and unnerved a part of the world that has worked to shed itself of strong-arm tactics.

Car dealer Tom Ganley has announced he’s running for the Republican Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate. Ganley of Brecksville seeks the seat that will be vacated at the end of 2010 by the retiring U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio. Starting with a Rambler dealership in Euclid in 1968, Ganley has built the Ganley Auto Group, with 32 dealerships. He is chief executive officer. "I am a businessman, not someone who ever thought about being a professional politician," Ganley said at a news conference in his hometown and subsequent news release to announce his candidacy. "But maybe that’s what’s needed...

In the time it takes to complete the paper work for planning permission in Britain, a factory in Tianjin has been built and is producing passenger jets. Once a month, an Airbus A320 passenger jet rolls out of an airy hangar on the outskirts of northern port city of Tianjin, China's window to Western ideas for a century and a half. Within two years these $72m (£43m) twin-engine jets will be emerging once a week. The number of French, German, British, and Spanish engineers "shadowing" the local work force will be down to a handful. By then production of identical...

Genetic 'MoT' for disease free babies A “genetic MOT” which can help IVF couples screen embryos for hereditary diseases and have healthy babies could be available in the UK within a year. Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent in Amsterdam 30 Jun 2009 Doctors deny they are 'Frankensteins' bent on creating designer babies. The technique, known as karyomapping, has the potential to spot virtually any inherited genetic disease. It can also pick up chromosomal problems that might lead to Down’s syndrome or prevent pregnancy. Scientific trials are set to begin on the groundbreaking technique, which has been developed by British researchers and...

STUTTGART, Germany, June 30, 2009 – The new commander of U.S. European Command told reporters today he’s “very interested in finding additional and alternative ways for allies to contribute” to coalition efforts in Afghanistan. Navy Adm. James Stavridis said shortly after change-of-command ceremonies at Eucom’s Patch Barracks here that he’ll explore additional ways of broadening the coalition in Afghanistan. Stavridis will be put on a second hat as supreme allied commander in Europe, to replace the retiring Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock as commander of NATO forces, including the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, during July 2 ceremonies....

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2009 – Afghan and coalition forces disrupted Taliban and Haqqani terrorist activities in recent operations in Afghanistan, military officials reported. Coalition forces launched precision air strikes overnight against senior Haqqani commanders and command posts in the remote mountains of western Khost province. The militants are believed to have aided in the movement of foreign fighters through the Khost-Gardez Pass and throughout Afghanistan. Coalition aircraft destroyed a pair of command bunkers, killing more than a dozen militants. Elsewhere, Afghan forces, assisted by coalition forces, conducted multiple operations in Khost, Ghazni and Kandahar provinces June 28. The operations were...

Media: They laugh at his jokes. They say he's the smartest guy in Congress. And 90% of them agree with him politically. Small wonder the havoc Barney Frank wreaks on the economy gets so little attention.America has its share of problems, to be sure. But one of the most pernicious is the bias that permeates the media. We've been saying this for years, noting how it leads to half-covered issues, an ill-informed populace and wretched legislation that dogs us for decades. Never, however, has it been as pervasive as now. Yes, the fact that the media are head over heels...

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WASHINGTON, June 30, 2009 – As the United States completed its withdrawal of combat forces from Iraqi cities in accordance with today’s deadline, Baghdad commemorated the milestone with a national holiday. The departing American brigades and battalions leave behind a significantly smaller contingent of U.S. trainers and advisors in the cities, where Iraqi forces now have primary authority, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said. The move comes as part of the status of forces agreement between the United States and Iraq. “A small number of U.S. forces will remain in cities to train, advise, coordinate with Iraqi security forces,...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday struck down the Bush administration's change to a rule designed to protect the northern spotted owl from logging in national forests. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled from Oakland, Calif., that the U.S. Forest Service failed to take a hard look at the environmental impacts of changing the rule to make it easier to cut down forest habitat of species such as the spotted owl and salmon on 193 million acres of national forests.