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WASHINGTON, July 2, 2009 – Iraqi forces, aided by coalition advisors, detained an alleged senior leader of a terrorist group along with other suspected terrorists June 29 and 30 in operations in Iraq, military officials reported. In June 30 operations: -- The Emergency Response Brigade and coalition advisors arrested a suspected senior leader in Taji, north of Baghdad. The leader is believed to be responsible for organizing sophisticated operations against coalition forces in the area. -- In Baghdad, the Emergency Response Brigade, along with coalition advisors, arrested an alleged terrorist during an Iraqi-led operation. The man is believed to be...

White House claims N. Korea sanctions are working By Sam Youngman Posted: 07/02/09 03:54 PM [ET] Even as the North Koreans tested four more missiles this week, the White House said Thursday that tough new United Nations sanctions are showing signs of working. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to say what evidence the administration has that the most recent round of sanctions were effectively tightening the noose on North Korea, and he warned that they will likely continue with provocative behavior. "I think it is clear the sanctions are having an impact," Gibbs said. When asked what the...

Among the questions asked by the Goldwater survey were such puzzlers as “What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?” and “Who was the first president of the United States?” The full report will be released shortly, but here are ten of the questions asked, along with the percentage of students who answered them correctly. To pass, the students had only to correctly answer six of the ten questions, pulled at random from a pool of questions from the U.S. citizenship exam. Only 3.5% of the students, all from government schools, passed the test. That’s about 40 out of...

Democrats ran on the Culture of Corruption charge in 2006 and gained control of both chambers of Congress on the promise to clean up Capitol Hill. The Wall Street Journal finds instead that Democrats have used their power to spend taxpayer dollars on high-priced global travel. Taxpayer-funded Congressional delegation travel has increased by 50% since the Democrats took charge:

The chances of concluding a new global climate change pact remain dim unless China, India and Brazil make significant cuts in carbon dioxide emissions as well a senior Swedish climate change official said Thursday. Lars-Erik Liljelund, special climate change adviser to the Swedish government, said cuts from richer countries in the 27-nation bloc or planned cuts in the United States will not be enough to meet aims to cut at least 25 percent of emission from 1990 levels. "The problem at the moment is that if you take the contributions made so far by the United States, the European Union...

Excerpt: "People." It reads "People." Is an 18 year old not a "People" person? And you fell for the "gun-show loophole" libtard statement? Marky boy, we are free to buy and sell guns by and amongst ourselves as free "people" without any registration requirement. Happens all the time. This gun-show malarkey has nothing to do with gun shows - it is trying to require every gun transaction to be regulated. Get it? Are you THAT dense? In a term, Marky boy, your 2d Amendment position sucks. BTW, Marky boy, the National Rifle Association gives you a grade of F, and...

I forget who posted this comment in another Freep, but I felt I needed to repeat the question to get everyone thinking.

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge today refused to temporarily block Proposition 8, moving forward with his plan to put the latest legal challenge over California's gay marriage ban on a fast track to a trial that is likely to produce the most thorough review to date of whether same sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. With all sides in the legal fight poised for a fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker agreed with Attorney General Jerry Brown and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, concluding that it would cause too much...

Like the wool sweater that emerges from the dryer a size too small, global warming seems to be shrinking sheep.

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, July 2, 2009 – A Nebraska National Guard agriculture development team is helping Afghan farmers capitalize on their investments. Members of the Task Force Warrior agribusiness development team work alongside Afghan farmers who went to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, June 24, 2009, to learn how to assemble grain bins. A Nebraska group shipped the bins to Afghanistan, which are designed to store seed and harvested grain. U.S. Army photo by 1st Lt. Lory Stevens  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Task Force Warrior agribusiness development team trained farmers from nearby provinces here June 24, showing them how...

John McCain and Sarah Palin both personally approved an intensive internal search of the emails of top campaign staffers in order to determine who had been leaking damaging information about Palin to reporters, McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt just told me in an interview. “John McCain and Sarah Palin were both informed that we were doing this in an attempt to catch the person,” Schmidt told me, referring to his decision to undertake the email search, which has been the topic of fierce controversy since it was revealed yesterday. Schmidt’s revelation sheds new light on the campaign’s internal discord and...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposed new guidelines Thursday for potential buyers of failed banks as the government seeks to sell a growing number of closed financial institutions. The FDIC wants to attract a new class of private equity fund buyers for banks that collapse during the financial crisis, but must provide more transparency than some of those potential investors are accustomed to. One proposal would require investors to keep the banks they acquire well capitalized at a 15-percent leverage ratio -- or the bank's capital divided by assets -- for at least three years. Investors also would face limits...

Hard working Americans = IO,IO,IO, so off to work I go. American Politicians = IOU,IOU,IOU, so on vacation we go, and SCRE! you.

There are few places in the world Robert D. Kaplan has not visited and written about in his books and magazine articles. He travels to countries hardly anyone else even considers – to Turkmenistan, for instance, during the time of the lunatic "Turkmenbashi" who transformed his post-Soviet republic into the North Korea of Central Asia. He has an uncanny ability to see conflicts looming on the horizon well in advance and – reversing the standard relationship between journalists and officials – U.S. defense policy professionals often ask him for briefings about what he has seen.His regular dispatches in the...

Some 4,000 Marines, sailors and soldiers and 650 Afghan soldiers launched nearly simultaneous air and ground assaults all along the river. One Marine was killed and several others were wounded in early fighting, officials said. The forces, under the command of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, are entering areas where few – if any – coalition forces have been in the past. Helmand province is a stronghold of the Taliban, and the coalition mission is to secure the area and make it safe for Afghans to live without the threats of militant groups. “The operation in Nawa is going to...

The people of Honduras have struggled too long to have their hard-won democracy stolen from them by a Chavez-style dictator. The Honduran Congress, the Honduran Supreme Court, and the Honduran military have acted in accordance to the Honduran constitution and the rule of law. For weeks leading to his arrest, Zelaya flouted the constitutional authority of the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court, and claimed for himself extra-constitutional control of his nation’s military and political institutions. Every institution from the Electoral Tribunal to the Supreme Court ruled that his actions were unjustified and illegal. Zelaya’s open defiance of democratic norms has...

The Usual Apology I think the standard explanation of the trashing accorded the foolish Governor Mark Sanford (who in embarrassing, and by now truly surreal fashion, confessed, and confessed, and confessed to an affair with an Argentinean girlfriend) and the tsk-tsk treatment of former Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards — who, in grotesque fashion, fathered a child with his mistress, lied about it on several occasions while he tried to gain political mileage from his ill wife, all as he concocted an alibi that his aide, not he, had really impregnated Rielle Hunter — is that Sanford suffered from...

ALLENTOWN - Former Luzerne County judge Mark Ciavarella said he agreed to testify at a hearing regarding whether a defamation verdict he entered in favor of Thomas Joseph should be overturned because he wanted to set the record state that he did nothing wrong in the case. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I never had anyone influence me in the case, so I thought it was appropriate I do so,” a defiant Ciavarella said in a brief interview following his testimony. The disgraced judge is awaiting sentencing on charges he and former judge Michael Conahan accepted more than $2.6 million...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used the finger Thursday for his latest attack on the Legislature. The governor said he can't understand why the Democrat-controlled Legislature opposes his budget-related proposal to require fingerprinting of recipients of in-home support services, which help elderly, blind and disabled Californians live independently. "That's why I don't understand the Legislature," he said in a Los Angeles press conference. Schwarzenegger's fingerprinting proposal, part of a package of governmental changes he seeks in budget negotiations, is meant to help detect fraud committed by people receiving aid under numerous identities. "(Legislators) say this is an insult," Schwarzenegger said. "I say...

I like the Fox News Special Report. It’s now hosted by Brett Baer who has done an excellent job replacing the retiring Brit Hume. The last 20 minutes or so are a panel discussion with three panelists. Sometimes there are substitutions, but usually they are Charles Krauthammer, Fred Barnes and Mara Liasson. The subject of Republican candidates for 2012 was part of the discussion on July 1. When the discussion turned to Sarah Palin everyone agreed that Palin should be busy studying foreign relations to prepare if she decided to run. One of the panelists recommended that she send for...