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The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are currently scheduled to begin this Monday, July 13. The Democrats want to rush Sotomayor through with merely some celebrations of her Hispanicness, and no tough questioning. For example, these will be the first Supreme Court nominee hearings in decades that National Public Radio, that adjunct of the Obama Administration, won’t broadcast live. Some Republican Senators have been talking about trying to postpone the hearings until September, claiming that they need more time to review her complex record. In reality, Sotomayor’s record isn’t all that complicated. It consists...

Yuri Zarakhovich at the Jamestown Foundation has an article on the impact of the dacha in Russia today that gives some insight into how the USSR managed to endure as long as it did. Indeed, it is the dacha that keeps Russians fed during the country's perennial crises -and curiously serves as the major indicator of the current state of the economic crisis. "The more potatoes people grow at their dachas, the worse things are becoming in Russia," Andrei Tumanov, editor of Vashi 6 Sotok ("Your 600 Square Meters," Russia's most popular gardening magazine) told Moscow's TV 3 channel on...

Updated | 5:07 p.m. A 27-year-old man from outside Madrid was gored to death on Friday during the annual running of the bulls, the centerpiece event of the San Fermin festival in the Spanish city of Pamplona. An article posted on the festival’s Web site identified the dead man as Daniel Jimeno Romero — and showed a still frame from an amateur video which captured the fatal goring.

....Obama has called for a 30-nation summit in Washington next March to discuss nuclear non-proliferation. This follows a reckless preliminary agreement between Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow to cut America’s nuclear stockpile and delivery systems by up to a third, a deal which is stunningly good for the Russians but hugely damaging for America’s interests. In the wake of the Moscow summit, Gordon Brown has hinted he may include scrapping or weakening the Trident nuclear deterrent as part of a global agreement on non-proliferation. Eager to please the Obama White House, the Prime Minister has signaled his...

First hand accounts of the protests and government response. Iranian students are just like us. (20-minutes)

Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Jul 10, 2009 / 01:33 pm (CNA).- A new poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus supports other reports that say Americans are  increasing becoming pro-life. About 49 percent of Americans now describe themselves as pro-life, while 60 percent think abortion should be legal only in a few circumstances or not at all.The poll, undertaken in partnership with the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, conducted a telephone survey of 1,223 Americans in May 2009 and claims a margin of error of plus or minus three percent.An October 2008 Knights of...

While searching Thursday afternoon for a stray dog in an Appling graveyard, a Columbia County Animal Care and Control officer came across an unexpected sight – a man and woman sunbathing in the nude. “I was a little shocked,” Animal Control officer Russell Swann said. “I was expecting to see a dog out there.” Animal Control had received a call from a member of Solid Rock Baptist Church on Scotts Ferry Road stating that someone had abandoned a dog on the church’s property. Mr. Swann said he responded to the call and first searched in the front side of the...

LONDON, July 10 (Reuters) - NATO should reassure its eastern European members fearful of a possible attack from Russia by drawing up contingency plans to defend Baltic states and staging military exercises there, British lawmakers said on Friday. Some of Russia's neighbours were understandably concerned about possible Russian military action against them following last year's war between Russia and Georgia, Parliament's Defence Committee said in a report. NATO should reassure its east European members through "robust contingency plans that cover the eventuality of attack on Baltic member states and that set out NATO's planned military response", the report said. "In...

Commentary: WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- The outgoing NATO SACEUR, or supreme allied commander Europe, would gladly forgo more NATO troops to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan if allied countries dropped their caveats against their use in combat operations. Gen. John Craddock, the outgoing supremo, says these caveats "increase the risk to every service member deployed in Afghanistan and bring increased risk to mission success." They are also "a detriment to effective command and control, unity of effort and … command." NATO's International Security Assistance Force consists of 58,300 troops from 41 countries. But NATO's 28 member nations provide the...

As far as I know, there is no word in English for the opposite of jingoist. But if there were, its entry in the dictionary would belong next to Barack Obama’s photograph. It seems he can’t set foot on foreign soil without apologizing for this country’s past sins and promising that it will sin no more under his leadership. In doing so, of course, he both disses his own country and praises himself by implication. He apologized to the Arab Middle East in Cairo. He apologized for American carbon dioxide yesterday at the G-8 summit, managing to imply that it...

Ok, now that I have stopped laughing so hard I could not see to type…. Democrats have come up with a piece of legislation which, in light of their pro Abortion stance, is absolutely hysterical in a macabre sort of way. Democrat positions on Abortion have led to the lives of 49,551,703 babies being ended, and now they come up with legislation named…. Wait for it….”No child left inside”. I kid you not! Ok, so its legislation pointed at indoctrinating our children in public schools with environmental brainwashing, still, the irony of the name is just too much to pass...

Foxnews Reena Ninan reporting from the West Bank at the time...in the city of Bil'in

The administration’s “Green Jobs” czar, Van Jones, has a “very checkered past” deep-rooted in radical politics, including black nationalism, anarchism, and communism. The broadcast network newscasts have mostly failed to report on Mr. Jones’s past political affiliations which are lock-step with the network’s downplay of coverage regarding President Obama’s associations with the former radical and terrorist William Ayers during the election.

03:13pm Guatemala. El presidente venezolano aseguró hoy que está en marcha un plan para derrocar a su colega guatemalteco Alvaro Colom, que los adversarios de ese gobernante estarían en la búsqueda de militares dispuestos a hacerlo. English translation: Guatemala. The Venezuelan president said today that a plan is underway to overthrow the Guatemalan colleague Alvaro Colom, the opponents of this ruling would be in search of soldiers ready to do so.

Five words would change law, have big impact on ocean carriers and shippers All U.S.-flag ships in international commerce would have to be built in the United States if language approved July 9 by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee becomes law. Shippers of government-impelled cargo such as food aid, project or military cargo that require U.S. flag vessels for transport would likely incur higher rates. Experts said it would be impossible to calculate how much, but owners would have to recover the higher relative cost of building a ship in the U.S. The change — spelled out in...

"MAJOR STEFAN FREDERICK COOK, Plaintiff, v. COLONEL WANDA L. GOOD, COLONEL THOMAS D. MACDONALD, DR. ROBERT M. GATES, UNITED § STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, Rule 65(b) Application for BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, de facto Temporary Restraining Order PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES, Defendants. APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER Plaintiff Major Stefan Frederick Cook has received from the Defendants in this cause what appear to be facially valid orders mobilizing him to active duty with the United States Army in Afghanistan on July 15, 2009 (Exhibit A). AN OFFICER’S DUTY TO OBEY LAWFUL ORDERS: This Plaintiff, at the time of his original...

Longtime political activist Ray Ward has filed the 18th ethics complaint against Governor Palin. Ward claims Palin has been paid for radio and television interviews dating back to just after she lost her vice-presidential bid. Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, tells CBS 11 News the allegations are "categorically false," and says it fits a pattern of harassing and false ethics complaints. The governor cited ethics complaints as a major reason she was resigning, saying they were distracting the state's agenda from progressing and had cost taxpayers $2-million. The state personnel board has thus far vindicated the governor in fifteen complaints....

COUSHATTA, La. -- Louisiana State Police say a trooper is on paid leave after being booked with battery, assault and false imprisonment of a judge after a traffic stop.

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