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New estimated of natural gas reserves recently discovered off the Mediterranean Coast near Haifa will allow Israel to be self-sufficient in energy for two decades, according to Yitzchak Tshuva, one of the investors in the project. “Israel today is independent – completely independent with blue and white energy,” said Tshuva, chief executive office of Delek Energy.

ROME, July 7 (Reuters) - Rich nations sought to persuade China and India on Tuesday to agree to a goal of halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at a summit of major economies in Italy later this week. Environment ministers or senior officials from the 17-member Major Economies Forum (MEF) met in Rome, trying to end deadlock over a declaration that could be a step towards a new U.N. climate pact due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December. "Positions have not shifted," a delegate said of the talks, called at the last minute to help leaders agree a...

A new poll by Gallup explodes the fashionable myth that the United States has become a more liberal country in the wake of the Obama revolution. By a 2 to 1 margin, Americans say their political views in recent years have become more conservative rather than more liberal – 39 per cent to 18 per cent. Gallup’s figures are striking. The poll shows a clear shift to the Right on many key domestic issues since 2004, including rising opposition to big government as well as bans on gun ownership, growing support for pro-life policies, and increasing scepticism over the idea...

IRANIAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed to make changes to his team and "respect" young people when his new government takes office after his disputed re-election. "The structure of government should change, the changes in the government will be considerable," Mr Ahmadinejad said in a televised address to the Iranian people overnight. He said his new government will put "housing, employment and economic reform" on its agenda. "I am against police confrontation with people... We must respect people's tastes especially the youth," said Mr Ahmadinejad, whose opponents say was only re-elected through vote rigging. The hardliner, who enjoys the backing...

As you might know by now, I'm in recent recovery from lifelong liberalism. Part of my program is confessing my sins. In my articles, I try to be as candid and honest as I can (which is great therapy, though, at times, I feel like I'm on one of those reality shows where you folks are chilling with a cold beer and saying, "Does she have any idea what a jerk she's been?" and, "Oh my God, does her face scream Botox or what?") Well, you know, I deserve it. I was leftist for so many years, and I thought...

When the all-star Michael Jackson memorial ceremony in Los Angeles came to an end today, millions of fans watching the event became curious about the woman who sang lead on Jackson’s “Heal the World.” The mystery singer was Judith Hill, a Pasadena, California-based vocalist who was recruited to be one of the backup singers for Jackson’s This Is It! concerts at London’s O2 Arena. Hill wowed the crowd and the millions watching around the world with her rendition of the Dangerous song, but her identity had most viewers baffled — the “We Are the World” and “Heal the World” performers...

This is what happens to National Security when you elect an inexperienced radical as President, he thinks Russian leaders (Who are former KGB) are good guys that want to help us, 52%, ye suckers.....Story here

“Combative Start to Senate Climate Hearings” – “Climate Fight: The Senate Tackles Global Warming Bill” – “Dem: Long Battle Ahead of Us” – “Senators Draw Battle Lines on Cap-and-Trade” News Round-Up: EPW Kicks Off Latest Global Warming Debate    Watch: Democrat Senator: "Long Battle Ahead of Us" on Global Warming Bill  Link Bond: The American People Deserve Answers on the Costs of Democrats’ Cap and Trade Bill to Family Budgets, Lost Jobs, Press Release, July 07, 2009: U.S. Senator Kit Bond today called on Democrats to tell the American people the truth about the cost of their cap and trade legislation to...

As foreclosures climb, so does fraud by schemers preying on desperate homeowners hoping to modify their loans. State investigators have 750 open cases -- up from just 10 a year ago. Maricela Castellanos sat at her desk, the telephone pressed to her ear, a chill running through her body. A representative from her mortgage company was on the line with troubling information about the loan on Castellanos' Hesperia home. No one at the company had previously been in contact with her, Castellanos recalled the man saying. The bank had no record of a new loan agreement with her, he...

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, 86, discusses the painful lessons of the Treaty of Versailles, idealism in politics and Obama's opportunity to forge a peaceful American foreign policy. SPIEGEL: Dr. Kissinger, 90 years ago, at the end of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. Is that an event of the past only of interest to historians or does it still shape contemporary politics? Henry Kissinger: The treaty has a special meaning for today's generation of politicians, because the map of Europe which emerged from the Treaty of Versailles is, more or less, the map of...

Note: The following text is a quote: News American Forces Press Service Top Defense Lawyer Calls for Military Commissions Reform By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, July 7, 2009 – Closing the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and reforming military commissions will enhance national security, the Defense Department’s chief legal advisor said today before Congress. Echoing President Barack Obama’s recent call to reform the Military Commissions Act of 2006, General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he welcomes the opportunity to help change military commissions into...

July 8, 2009                                     Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week                                    in Ordinary Time     Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 1Gn 41:55-57; 42:5-7a, 17-24a When hunger came to be felt throughout the land of Egyptand the people cried to Pharaoh for bread,Pharaoh directed all the Egyptians to go to Josephand do whatever he told them.When the famine had spread throughout the land,Joseph opened all the cities that had grainand rationed it to the Egyptians,since the famine had gripped the land of Egypt.In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain,for famine had gripped the whole world. The sons...

<p>The mother of a Paterson child and two other individuals accused of cutting a child and forcing the girl to watch an animal sacrifice during a religious ritual were charged today with endangering the welfare of the child, according to a report in The Record.</p>

The Big Lie Propaganda approach is: If you state a big enough lie often enough, people will believe it. This concept took off when the National SOCIALIST German Workers Party (Hitler) used it in the 1930s and 1940s and the Communist (Stalin) adopted it from them. In this article, Murdoc askes "Spot Anything Questionable?": "Early in the Iran-Iraq War, an AK-47-toting Iranian soldier watches smoke rising from burning oil refineries near the Iranian city of Abadan. The Iraqis under Saddam Hussein, armed and supported by the United States, used mostly M16s. Photo: Henri Bureau/Sygma/Corbis" From Wired

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), then based in the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill, vigorously lobbied for Nicaragua's Sandinista regime, the Cuban-style Marxist regime that shot its way to power in 1979. Today, WOLA pretends it is concerned about the rule of law in Honduras after the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court supported removing the leftist president for defying its constitution. WOLA and Jim Wallis' publication Sojourners have teamed up to spin Honduras' defense of its democracy as another example of a U.S.-supported, imperialist military coup. The constitutional coup in Honduras was...

Oprah, a black woman, is the richest and most influential woman in America and possibly the world. Michael Jackson's memorial service merited live coverage by a large number of television networks. Did I mention that the president of the United States of America is a black man? With blacks only 13% of the U.S. population, none of these extraordinary black achievements could have happened without tremendous support from white America. So, when will white America be off the hook for sins of the past? When will Democrat pitchmen and women, such as Janeane Garofalo, cease selling the myth that America...

I-Team: Details Emerge About Kazemi's Ex-Boyfriend Police Report Indicates History Of Violence Between Kazemi, Norfleet Reported by Jeremy Finley NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- More clues emerged on Tuesday in the death of Steve McNair and his 20-year-old girlfriend Sahel Kazemi. Kazemi, Ex-Boyfriend Have Turbulent Past Investigators learned new details about the relationship between McNair and Kazemi that they hope will reveal what happened the night of the shootings. Channel 4 also obtained new information about Kazemi's ex-boyfriend Keith Norfleet, an aspiring rapper who is not considered a suspect but knows her well and has spoken at length with investigators. Friends said...

One of the most terrifying moments of my political life came last summer at the Republican convention in St. Paul. No, I don’t mean seeing John McCain careering around the Xcel Energy Center like Eyegore in Young Frankenstein, his face frozen in a Lon Chaney Sr. rictus grin as he reached across the aisle to his erstwhile friends in the media and got his hand bitten off. Rather, I’m referring to the aftermath of Sarah Palin’s outrageous acceptance speech, which whipped up the Rotary Club delegates into a frenzy of white-boy fury that not even heckling by a brave Code...

North Korea convened a mass government meeting on the 15th anniversary of the death of Kim Il Sung (today). They had the usual funeral music in commemoration of "The Great Leader". One could perhaps say the music was for KIM JONG IL himself, who shuffled pitifully into the Korean Workers Party assembly--a disheveled wreck of a man. Here are photos of Kim Jong Il, taken earlier today in North Korea:

Inside the Vatican, Today The New Encyclical July 8th, 2009 by Dr. Robert Moynihan "Greed is good " —Gordon Gekko, the name of an unscrupulous Wall Street financier who is the main character in the film Wall Street , 1987."When those at the helm are motivated by purely selfish ends, instruments that are good in themselves can be transformed into harmful ones. But it is man’s darkened reason that produces these consequences… " — Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate ("Love in Truth "), 2007.A New Christian Humanism and Social Justice? The "age of greed" is over. It ended today.A...