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Barbara Lauwers Podoski, who launched one of the most successful psychological campaigns of World War II, which resulted in the surrender of more than 600 Czechoslovakian soldiers fighting for the Germans, died of cardiovascular disease Aug. 16 at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Washington, D.C. She was 95. One of the few female operatives in the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime predecessor to the CIA, she found creative ways to undermine German morale. Much of her work remained secret until last year, when her OSS personnel records were declassified. The multilingual Barbara Lauwers, as she was then known, primarily...

Russia unveiled the first element of its fifth-generation Sukhoi PAK FA/T-50 fighter during the Moscow MAKS air show, with Tikhomirov's NIIP having exhibited the type's active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The newly unveiled unit is intended for integration with Sukhoi's heavyweight fighter prototype, which air force commander Aleksandr Zelin says is due to fly in November or December. The aircraft was shown to President Vladimir Putin in its assembly phase during his May visit to the KnAAPO production plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Tikhomirov says the AESA antenna entered benchtesting in November 2008, and was mated with the radar's other blocks...

In July, the Russian-manned cargo ship the Arctic Sea disappeared on its way to take timber from Finland to Algeria, sparking reports of the first incident of piracy in European waters since the days of the buccaneers. Experts and observers weighed in with their theories: the ship had been snatched in a commercial dispute; it was being used to run drugs; it was carrying something more precious - or dangerous - than timber. Since then, the Russian navy has found the ship, and the alleged hijackers who boarded it on July 24 have been charged with kidnapping and piracy. The...

Yes, it's way too early to make any predictions, but then, pollsters and pundits wouldn't have anything to write about which means they'd be out of a job for a year or so. Actually, the value of predictions today is relevant to the current political debate over health care. Leading analysts who gauge the mood of the public on a month to month, even week to week basis, see outliers that may - or may not - be indicative of trends. Trends represent long term outlooks rather than the "snapshot" that polls generally give us. Get enough snapshots of how...

Hilarious (if you are a musician)

President Barack Obama is either extraordinarily politically tone-deaf or arrogant beyond bounds, as indicated by his relentless pursuit of policies strongly rejected by the American people. His decision or acquiescence in the Department of Justice's decision to reinvestigate CIA terrorist interrogators is the latest outrage. Obama's approval ratings have cratered even further since my most recent column, and he's either Mr. Magoo, driving along in blissful oblivion, or Fearless Leader, who will do what he wants, American people be damned. Based on Obama's oft-articulated mindset -- "I won, so the other side should just quit talking" -- I think it's...

This is a curious re-election strategy, especially for a Representative who made her name by bird-dogging her former Congressman at his town-hall forums. Consistency isn’t Carol Shea-Porter’s strong suit, apparently, as she demonstrates in this clip from the meeting she finally held with constituents after dodging them for most of the month. When one of her constituents challenges the presence of union enforcers in the crowd, Shea-Porter asks for police intervention: (VIDEO AT LINK) I’ve watched this video a couple of times, and I still can’t figure out why the police took this man out of the room. He was...

A letter from AARP I received gets right to the point. The first two sentences read: I will get right to the point. As our leaders seek solutions to the current economic crisis, we need your help to remind them that we can't fix our economy without fixing health care. (The bolding and underlining is theirs.) The next part of the letter is a dire description of the straits we are in, framing everything in terms of a "crisis." They strongly urge the AARP member to do the following: 1. Sign an enclosed petition to my elected officials (whom they've...

More grim news for Obama from the Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll. The Net Approval (strongly approve minus strongly disapprove) index is minus 11. Overall, only 46% of the likely voters polled strongly or somewhat approve of Obama. AT political director Richard Baehr calls the chart below a "shockingly fast decline. It suggests this guy got elected because the stars were aligned, that plus 3/4 of a billion dollars and billions in free positive media coverage." News editor Ed Lasky passes along this article by Jim McTague of Barrons, noting the damage that liberal Massachusetts is about the inflict on...

Will the long-awaited trial of Khmer Rouge leaders ease Cambodians' trauma, or stir painful memories? A Cambodian psychiatrist has testified at the trial of a confessed Khmer Rouge torturer that up to 40 percent of Cambodians suffer psychological trouble as a result of the faction’s brutal four-year rule. “According to research conducted after the Khmer Rouge period, two out of five Cambodians have [suffered] mental problems and psychosocial crises. This figure is high—up to 40 percent” of the population, Chhim Sotheara said. Studies this year also found that some 14 percent of Cambodians aged 18 and older have suffered post-traumatic...

Here is video of Pastor Stephen Broden on Glenn Beck discussing Obama's socialist agenda. Broden said "What we are seeing is an orchestrated attempt to radically change this country from what the founders had in mind." Broden also said "There is a deliberate attempt on the part of Marxists, socialists, and atheists who are attempting to change this country." (Watch Video)

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 31, 2009 – The California National Guard is part of a 17-agency endeavor to protect the state’s forests from destructive marijuana growers. California National Guardsmen involved in Operation Save Our Sierra turned up more than 30 miles of illegally placed irrigation pipe, 17,000 pounds of garbage and 4,050 pounds of fertilizer, including some that are toxic and illegal in the United States, as well as drugs and weapons, Fresno County, Calif., July 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. David J. Loeffler  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “The environmental impacts of the [marijuana] gardens include...

New details reveal the man who tried to assassinate a Saudi prince got past palace security with explosives hidden in his Rectum. - The man who tried to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s anti-terror chief last Thursday managed to get past security in a Jeddah palace by hiding explosives in his Rectum. - Details of the assassination attempt, the first against a member of the Saudi royal family in decades, were revealed to the pan-Arab Al-Arabiyya. - The method of hiding explosives inside the body is unprecedented among Al-Qa’ida terrorists, and may draw a re-examination and alteration of security arrangements around sensitive...

While the state of Michigan has the highest unemployment rate of any state in the nation, the city of Detroit leads the way for cities. For the month of July, the unemployment rate in Detroit stood at a staggering 28.9% — and that’s probably undercounted in the same way all unemployment figures are due to the way such rates are measured. Still, it’s the highest rate on record for Detroit.

Unwinding bet on a Microsoft merger costs tycoon nine figures Pity the poor billionaire: Corporate raider Carl Icahn is still paying for last year's effort to marry Yahoo off to Microsoft. Icahn recently sold 12.7 million shares of Yahoo, new regulatory filings show, at less than $15. He acquired his stake at an average price of $25 a share last year in an effort to pressure Yahoo into accepting a takeover bid from Microsoft. That means he's taken a loss of about $130 million. And unless Yahoo's fortunes take an abrupt turn for the better, he's likely to face more...

POSTING OUT OF KARAKTER As seen on Pajamas Media: The world needs post-Cold War thinking. But Obama is stuck in a world of parochial clichés. (By Oleg Atbashian. Published on PJM in six parts, here in one piece.) *SNIP* But abandoning pro-American forces and propping up anti-American dictators can't really be what the word "change" meant to most voters during the elections. What is happening now looks more like restoring Cold War front lines and defecting to the other side, presumably in the name of correcting historical injustice. It's similar to the psychiatric method of regressing to an earlier...

The next round of immigration reform promised by President Obama will be the first in more than 50 years that does not involve Sen. Edward Kennedy. His record on the issue has quite literally changed the face of the nation. From the 1965 overhaul that ended a system of national quotas to the failed drive launched in 2007 for comprehensive reform, Kennedy has been at the front lines making the case for a more open immigration system. Taking a long view – compromising when needed, reaching for more the next time – he achieved it. Senator Kennedy’s tactics varied and...

"Hello. This is Congressman Hal Rogers. "As we head into September I wanted to bring yourattention to an important issue that will be facing the Congress in theupcoming months. "Cap and Trade" is a bill that passed the House inJune without my support and is now up for debate in the U.S. Senate. Though the bill claims to protect our environment, in reality it isnothing more than a $646 billion "carbon tax" paid by every American, rich or poor and every business, small or large. Every time you turn onyour lights, the tax would begin. "I don't need to remind...

This is not the Approval Index, which is, incidentally, at -11, but this is the regular old presidential job approval rating. Obama is officially underwater at 46%. Overall, 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. That’s the lowest level of total approval yet measured for Obama. Fifty-three percent (53%) now disapprove. Eighty-one percent (81%) of Democrats approve while 83% of Republicans disapprove. As for those not affiliated with either major party, 66% disapprove. And, not to sound like a broken record, those 66% of the independents who are running away from the Democrats spell...

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Aug. 31, 2009 – Afghan forces and NATO-led International Security Assistance troops captured two key Taliban leaders, including a commander, during a joint operation in the Kanday village of Chapa Dara district in Afghanistan’s Kunar province Aug. 29. Qari Azimullah is a Taliban commander in the district, and has been directly linked to several roadside-bomb attacks in the province, one of which resulted in the recent death of a U.S. servicemember. A second captured man is another suspected Taliban leader in the area who also has been linked to bombings in Kunar province, officials said. Two additional...