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Indonesian officials believe a new probe into the deaths of the Balibo Five could damage relations between the archipelago nation and Australia. It was announced yesterday that Australian Federal Police would launch a war crimes investigation into the 1975 killing of five Australian-based newsmen at Balibo in East Timor. Television journalists Greg Shackleton and Malcolm Rennie, cameramen Gary Cunningham and Brian Peters and sound recordist Tony Stewart died in October 1975 after trying to film Indonesian troops as they invaded the former Portuguese colony. Robert Connolly's film Balibo released last month, reignited community passion about the tragic episode. The families...

nly last month In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, President Obama declared: "I don't have to explain to you that nearly 46 million Americans don't have health insurance coverage today. In the wealthiest nation on Earth, 46 million of our fellow citizens have no coverage." Tonight Obama declared that "[t]here are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.he number of our fellow citizens who have no coverage is 30 million." These statements can be reconciled. "Nearly 46 million" is "more than 30 million[.]" But this is obviously not what Obama meant. It would be a mistake to reconcile...

“Everyone in this room knows what will happen if we do nothing,” says the guy who’s committed to doing nothing about social security, Medicare, and the mind-bogglingly enormous deficits that promise fiscal catastrophe in the years ahead while he saddles America with yet another red-ink-bleeding government program. Note well: He’s actually promoting a plan that will lead to health-care rationing as a way to prolong Americans’ lives. We’re living your dream, Orwell. Click the image to watch.

The SCOTUS today appeared poised to strike down at least a portion of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of '02, after a majority of justices fiercely questioned Solicitor Gen. Elena Kagan and an atty for the legislation's sponsors, including Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Russ Feingold (D-WI). The case -- Citizens United v. FEC -- was first heard by the court on 3/24, but, in an unusual move, the court held over the case and ordered a re-hearing before the start of its Oct. term. Citizens United, a nonprofit advocacy org, produced a 90-min. film titled "Hillary: The Movie" meant...

Do you think Sarah Palin's use of the term "death panels" is a lie as President Barack Obama implied tonight? Yes 47% No 50% Unsure 3%

I'm pleased that the White House is finally responding to Republican health care ideas instead of pretending they don't exist.[1] But in doing so President Obama should follow his own sound advice and avoid making "wild misrepresentations".[2] Medicare vouchers would give everyone on Medicare the chance to decide for themselves which health plan to use, rather than leave that decision to government bureaucrats. Such proposals are the kind of health care reform that Republicans stand for: market-oriented, patient-centered, and result-driven. The White House talking points leave the rest of my arguments unanswered. They don't respond to the idea that all...

$10 million sought for 'negative connotation' toward homosexuals A homosexual man is suing a third national Bible publisher for "mental anguish" after he says the company published Bibles with a negative connotation toward homosexuals. Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Canton, Mich., alleges William Tyndale Publishing manipulated Scripture when it published Tyndale’s New Living Translation Holy Bible and the New Life Application Study Bible by using the term "homosexuals" in a New Testament passage, 1 Corinthians 6:9. "One Bible dictates homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God, while the other is completely void on the issue altogether," Fowler wrote in a...

“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.”

Here is video of Karl Rove reacting to President Obama's speech to Congress tonight. He was talking to Bill O'Reilly. Rove said he thought the opening and closing inspirational parts of the speech was very good. But he said the speech as a whole was "bitterly partisan" filled with "very glaring misstatements and distortions." . . . (VIDEO)

How nasty has the political discourse in Washington gotten? During his speech to Congress tonight, President Obama defended his health care plan, saying that he had never proposed providing coverage to illegal immigrants. “You lie!” shouted Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, prompting Obama to briefly pause in the delivery of his speech and eye his heckler. No doubt emotions are often heated during these joint sessions with the president and members of Congress, but decorum typically rules—except for tonight, apparently. In an interview with CNN afterwards, Sen. John McCain trashed Wilson’s heckling and urged him to apologize....

India's greenhouse gas emissions are expected to jump to between 4 billion tonnes and 7.3 billion tonnes in 2031 ... Per-capita emissions are estimated to rise to 2.1 tonnes by 2020 and 3.5 tonnes by 2030, according to a government-funded study by five different organisations, including environmental groups and the management consultancy firm, McKinsey. The report did not give a figure for present emission levels but Indian climate negotiators say per-capita emissions are 1.2 tonnes at present. India's population is 1.1 billion but is expected to grow to more than 1.5 billion in coming decades. The report is the nation's...

Bob Dole, a venerable 86 years old now, was back in the Washington limelight over the weekend, appearing on ABC TV to dispense counsel on a bipartisan approach to health care, popping up in newspapers explaining how to cut a deal, even suggesting Gen. David Petraeus as a presidential possibility. But his most heartfelt weekend activity took place elsewhere, out of sight of Washington politicos and devoid of any potential for gain or notoriety. It came under a brilliant Saturday-morning sun, when the former Republican presidential candidate, now a bit more frail than most Americans recall him, stepped out of...

I can tell nothing went wrong.. No big media hyperbole..

Best of luck to Japan:

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Sixty-one South Carolina House Republicans asked Gov. Mark Sanford to resign Wednesday, questioning his ability to lead the state since his unannounced summertime trip to see a mistress in Argentina and investigations of his state and private travel that followed. "Your decision to abandon our state for five days, with no defined order of succession and with no known way to contact you, is inexcusable,'' said a letter from the lawmakers signed by House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham.

What's Up with FoxNews - Axelrod & Gibbs. Gibbs was on Fox this morning and Axelrod on O'Reilly tonight. I have to wonder if Beck's announcement tomorrow affect more of Obama goons.

AP: The president was alternately bipartisan and tough on his Republican critics. He singled out Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for praise at one point. Yet, moments later, in a line apparently aimed at McCain's former running mate, Sarah Palin, Obama accused Republicans of spreading the "cynical and irresponsible" charge that the legislation would include "death panels" with the power to hasten the death of senior citizens.

Contraception is almost five times cheaper as a means of preventing climate change than conventional green technologies, according to research by the London School of Economics. Every £4 spent on family planning over the next four decades would reduce global CO2 emissions by more than a ton, whereas a minimum of £19 would have to be spent on low-carbon technologies to achieve the same result, the research says. The report, Fewer Emitter, Lower Emissions, Less Cost, concludes that family planning should be seen as one of the primary methods of emissions reduction. The UN estimates that 40 per cent of...

The latest school grades released by the city's Education Department are bogus. An astonishing 84% of 1,058 elementary and middle schools received an A (compared with 38% last year and 23% in 2007). Another 13% got a B. Only seven schools rated a D or an F. Four schools labeled "persistently dangerous" by the state got an A from the city, and three of these deeply troubled schools got a B. Three schools that the city wants to close because of low performance got an A. Every school that got an F last year got an A or B this...

On Sept. 1, while the international media focused on commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War in Poland, Russian children returned to their classrooms to begin a new school year. They found the world transformed. New state-approved textbooks have recast Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin into "one of the most successful leaders of the U.S.S.R." No longer is he regarded as a paranoid mass-murderer responsible for the deaths of nearly 20 million people. He has become a great, if flawed, national leader -- an "efficient manager" who defeated the Nazis, saved Europe and industrialized a...