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Alaska Gov. Palin on Facebook

Denver Capitol Tea Party

In 2009, portability is the default state of affairs with computers, since laptops outsell desktop PCs. But in the 1960s, the typical computer was a room-filling mainframe; minicomputers, which were merely the size of a refrigerator, were the small computers of the day.Which didn’t mean that folks weren’t craving the concept of mobile computing even back then. I was just rummaging through Google’s invaluable archive of several decades of Computerworld, and came across a short item from March 1968 on carrying cases for the typewriter-like Teletype terminals that were then used to interface with mainframes and minis. Anderson Jacobson sold...

... The chances of seeing a parent go to prison have never been greater, especially for poor black Americans, and new research is documenting the long-term harm to the children they leave behind. Recent studies indicate that having an incarcerated parent doubles the chance that a child will be at least temporarily homeless and measurably increases the likelihood of physically aggressive behavior, social isolation, depression and problems in school — all portending dimmer prospects in adulthood. “Parental imprisonment has emerged as a novel — and distinctly American — childhood risk that is concentrated among black children and children of low-education...

The American lawyer Alan Dershowitz is one of the most prolific, high-profile and indefatiguable defenders of Israel and the Jewish people against the tidal wave of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish feeling currently coursing through the west. So a piece by him in the Wall Street Journal giving expression to the rising anxiety being felt about Obama by American Jews naturally arouses great interest. But just like the majority of American Jews, getting on for 80 per cent of whom voted for Obama, he is a Democrat supporter who is incapable of acknowledging the truth about this President. For most American Jews,...

An update to the previous thread. Total number there = 637 from the official sign in counts. Here is my favorite sign from the party:

KEY WEST, Fla. – A sea turtle named after President Barack Obama that was rescued just before Inauguration Day has been set free on Independence Day. Obama the loggerhead sea turtle was found ailing off a Key West beach on Jan. 19, the eve of the inauguration. Suffering from an intestinal impaction, the 200-pound female was nursed back to health with a diet of squid and mineral oil at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. Turtle Hospital administrator Ryan Butts said the turtle was set free Saturday on a Key West beach as about 100 people watched. He says it was...

http://www.wdbj7.com/global/Category.asp?c=168438&clipId=3927967&topVideoCatNo=57488&autoStart=true The media continues to miss the point.....

Another wave of foreclosures is poised to strike Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images John Wayne, left, owner of California Realty in Victorville, is helped by an employee as he hangs a sign advertising for future business after California imposed a statewide 90-day moratorium on housing foreclosures. Mortgage defaults have surged to record levels amid rising unemployment and falling home prices. Lenders are expected to move quickly to clear up backlogs as moratoriums on foreclosures expire. Don Lee July 4, 2009. Reporting from Washington -- Just as the nation's housing market has begun showing signs of stabilizing, another wave of foreclosures...

Homeowners across the country are challenging their property tax bills in droves as the value of their homes drop, threatening local governments with another big drain on their budgets. The requests are coming in record numbers, from owners of $10 million estates and one-bedroom bungalows, from residents of the high-tax enclaves surrounding New York City, and from taxpayers in the Rust Belt and states like Arizona, Florida and California, where whole towns have been devastated by the housing bust. “It’s worthy of a Dickens story,” said Gus Kramer, the assessor in Contra Costa County, Calif., outside San Francisco. “These people...

NEWPORT BEACH – A female high school athletic trainer pleaded guilty today to having an unlawful sexual relationship for one year with a male high school student. Hope Ashley Jacoby, 24, San Juan Capistrano, faces three years' probation – including 30 days' Caltrans service – at her sentencing July 29 before Superior Court Commissioner Greg Jones. She pleaded guilty to seven felony counts involving sexual contact with a minor. Jacoby admitted that she had an unlawful sexual relationship in 2008 with a male student she met while working as an athletic trainer at Tustin High School.

Sharia law UK: Mail on Sunday gets exclusive access to a British Muslim court EDNA FERNANDES 04th July 2009. In a shabby converted sweetshop in Leyton, East London, a group of burka-clad Muslim women sit in a waiting room. They have an appointment with Dr Suhaib Hasan at his twice-weekly surgery. The women look worried. There is no talking in the airless reception area - the only sound is a fan purring quietly in the corner as temperatures outside exceed 80F. Inside, the atmosphere is just as stifling. There are no magazines, television or other diversions. The beige walls are...

          DON’T BLAME CHANGING TIMES Most of us have learned to cope with, if not exactly embrace, the technological revolution that has completely restructured our world over the past two decades. Words like "Internet," "e-mail" and even "distance learning" may not be in your dictionary yet, but they soon will be. And that dictionary probably won't be paper like the ones most of us learned to use; instead, it will be part of the "spellchecker" on a computer hard drive, or perhaps on a single "CD-ROM" that contains thousands of pages of information. Despite my...

WASHINGTON – The White House is getting ready for the big holiday barbecue and fireworks show at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama returned from Camp David in time to host the Independence Day celebration. The Obamas have invited about 1,200 military families for the festivities Saturday night.

Republican Senator John McCain expressed support for his former presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, on Saturday as Washington speculated about why the Alaska governor abruptly announced her resignation. McCain made the comment a day after Palin stunned the political world by announcing she is stepping down with 18 months left in her term. McCain had plucked Palin from obscurity to make her his vice presidential running mate in last year's presidential campaign won by Democrat Barack Obama...

The Obama White House has made clear in the past its impatience with North Korea for the communist country's provocative rhetoric and displays of firepower, but so far Saturday, the administration -- possibly by design -- has remained silent on Korea's latest missile barrage. North Korea launched seven mid-range missiles off its eastern coast, presumably timed to coincide with the United States' Independence Day. It was a show of firepower that echoed a North Korea's missile launch three years ago that also fell on the Fourth of July holiday. U.S. officials have said they don't expect a launch anytime soon...

-snip--- Finally, a new book on the Vietnam War by Richard Botkin, Ride the Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Honor and Triumph, arrives in bookstores just as Americans watch our troops in Iraq pull back from cities and continue their gradual draw down from a currently stable Iraq. At the center of Botkin's book is a riveting account of North Vietnam's surprise 1972 push for total victory, The Easter Offensive. How a handful of American Marines working with naval and air power helped our ally turn back that assault is one of the greatest American military stories that very...

Pressing On Position: 07/03/09 1633Z 26 16.151N 114 01.632W The last couple of days have been pretty crazy around here. I have been battling a 2-3 knot current and a 25 knot wind from the NW. I have been tacking every few hours day and night trying to make headway which has been exhausting. Yesterday morning my radar alarm went off and I saw a white boat heading towards me. I tried hailing them a few times but got no answer. As they got closer I saw it was a Coast Guard cutter so I waited as they approached and...