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Return to the Article September 12, 2009Virtue and Sarah PalinBy Claude Sandroff No republic, not even our exceptional one, can survive without virtuous citizens.  On July 3 when Sarah Palin announced from her Wasilla home that she would step down as Governor, we got a glimpse of a person none of us had seen before: this remarkable woman, nothing less than a phenomenon, always unflappable now seemed wounded and shaken.  Five simple words were particularly haunting: "...and it's not so comfortable." Perhaps the most famous woman in the world, Sarah Palin relinquished state power in the simplest of settings. ...

At The Top Of The Televangelist's Game Wesley Pruden. Barack Obama did what he does best. Billy Graham once said Bill Clinton could make a great evangelist, but Bubba's not a patch on this president. Mr. Obama early on mastered the cadence of the black church - dropping his voice on the last word of the sentence to make the listener pay attention - and he understands the power of language. He speaks great prose. He understands that a televangelist concentrates on sales, not substance. The president was on his game Wednesday night, soaring with a promise of partisan geniality...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday that the United States would accept Iran’s offer to meet, fulfilling President Obama’s pledge to hold unconditional talks despite the Iranian government’s insistence that it would not negotiate over the future of its nuclear program. The decision to engage directly with Iran would put a senior representative of the Obama administration at the bargaining table, along with emissaries from five other nations, for the first time since Mr. Obama took office. The decision is bound to raise protests from conservatives who contend that unconditional talks are naïve, and from human rights groups that...

The single most damning story about President Obama so far is one we know courtesy of his national security adviser, Jim Jones. Visiting the newly installed military commanders in Afghanistan in late June, Jones told General Stanley McChrystal that if he requested more troops any time soon, Obama would have a "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" (i.e., "What the f--") moment. Jones then, in an interview, made the claim--denied by everyone else involved--that military leaders had agreed that when the president earlier sent 21,000 troops to Afghanistan, "there would be a year from the time the decision was made before they would...

I remember BCM.

Senate's 'Gang of Six' near closure on health bill By Jennifer Haberkorn The Senate Finance Committee's "Gang of Six" is working to strengthen the citizenship requirements for obtaining health care coverage - a hot topic highlighted by Rep. Joe Wilsons "You lie!" outburst during President Obama's congressional address. The group also is looking at a new medical-malpractice provision, pursuing Mr. Obamas call for such a money-saving measure that is coveted by Republican lawmakers. Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Montana Democrat, also said Friday that members of the bipartisan negotiating team could have a response to Mr. Obama's proposal on Monday. Mr....

Three years ago, Julie Fox commemorated 9/11 with her students by asking them to write journal entries recounting where they were when the planes hit and how they felt at that moment. But the Norwell High School social studies teacher has had to retire that assignment. Too few students remember the day, the succession of ever-worsening reports, the horror of the World Trade Center towers cascading into dust, employees fleeing the Pentagon, and investigators combing through the wreckage in a Pennsylvania field. Now, instead, she spends class time on Sept. 11 explaining the basics of what happened that day and...

Police: Mich. Woman Had Sex With Biological Son By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS September 12, 2009 WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- A Detroit-area woman accused of having sex with her biological son after finding him on the Internet has been charged. Police say 35-year-old Aimee Louise Sword of Waterford Township is facing one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct after two counts were dropped earlier this week. Authorities haven't said when or where she and the teenager met, but said she gave him up for adoption more than 10 years earlier. She surrendered to police in April. Sword is free on...

Howdy, fellow freepers! I've looked at the HTML code at that horrible "smear Glenn Beck" web site and found something interesting. It appears that this is not a bunch of jovial Internet pranksters suddenly becoming socialists and deciding to do a character assassination of Glenn Beck. This is what got my attention: From the "Glenn Beck slander web site" <!--meta name="keywords" content="social justice organization,low income family,anti-war,paid sick days, predatory lending,katrina relief,osi-new york,minimum wage,afl-cio,living wage,new orleans, urban education,urban schools, heath care,political,civic engagement,hurricane katrina, political prisoners, gulf coast,rebuilding,rebuild america" /-->Now compare this with acorn.org's meta-tags: <meta name="keywords" content="acorn,social justice organization,acrn,acorns,acron,low income family,moderate...

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On Today's Show... September 11, 2009   It's Not a National Day of Service! 9/11 Was an Act of War, Not a "Crime" This rotgut today ought to offend you to no end.  (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen) » Politico:  Obama's Health Secretary Says Remember the 9/11 Atrocity By Fighting Pig Flu   "I want somebody out there who thinks Obama made a great speech today and Bloomberg echoing it, to tell me how it is that our 'fractured sense of community service' led to the 'crimes' committed against us on 9/11.  And I want to know from you how it...

Predator drone uses it's hellfire missile to paint the ground with tiny pieces of Taliban holy warriors.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham will hold a town hall meeting at the Carolina Coliseum at the University of South Carolina at 2 p.m. Sunday. Graham will hold another town hall on Monday in Charleston, along with U.S. Sen. John McCain. Graham will discuss national security, health care and other issues. Graham will take questions from the audience. WHAT: U.S. Sen Lindsey Graham's Midlands Town Hall Meeting WHEN: 2 p.m. Sunday (doors open to public at 1:30 p.m.) WHERE: Carolina Coliseum at the University of South Carolina, 701 Assembly St. A portion of the Coliseum will be used for the Town...

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There is speculation about the future of the Republican congressman who called US President Barack Obama a liar during last night's address to a joint sitting of the Congress. South Carolina congressman Joe Wilson called out "you lie" during Mr Obama's speech on health care. Mr Wilson later apologised and Mr Obama accepted the apology. Some from the southern states say Mr Wilson will be re-elected in a landslide when mid-term elections are held in 2010. But his likely Democrat opponent is reported to have raised $60,000 as a result of Mr Wilson's outburst. Mr Wilson is generally considered a...

Parsing Mr. Wilson’s Apology GAIL COLLINS Published: September 11, 2009 Let’s take a moment to rejoice in our country’s infinite capacity to surprise. I’d have been willing to bet that we had a national consensus on the undesirability of a congressman yelling out “You lie!” during an address by the president of the United States. But no. It turns out there are quite a few people who think this is a good idea. Joe Wilson, who will be forever known as the “You lie!” congressman, unless he does something even weirder in the future, has a lot of fans this...

US ready for N Korea direct talks North Korea insists it has a right to nuclear weapons The US says it would hold direct talks with North Korea to persuade it to return to stalled multilateral talks on ending its nuclear programme. A spokesman for the US state department said that there had been no decision on when such talks might take place. Philip Crowley insisted the move was not a policy shift and talks would take place within "the six-party process". North Korea pulled out of multilateral talks in April after international criticism following a rocket launch. "It's a...

A computer hacker who was once a federal informer and was a driving force behind one of the largest cases of identity theft in U.S. history pleaded guilty Friday in a deal with prosecutors that will send him to prison for up to 25 years. Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, admitted to pulling off some of the most prominent hacking jobs of the decade -- invading the computer systems of such retailers as TJX, BJ's Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble and Sports Authority. Federal authorities say tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers were stolen....

'Taxpayer March' in D.C. Attracts Party Leaders, but Some Are Wary. BY DAN EGGEN & PERRY BACON JR. With tens of thousands of conservative protesters expected to gather in Washington on Saturday for a "Taxpayer March on D.C.," Republican officials are attempting to capitalize on a movement that lately has galvanized anti-Obama activists more effectively than the party's elected leaders in Washington. Searching for ways to compete with Democrats after two consecutive electoral drubbings, Republicans have moved past earlier uncertainty about the protesters, who organized nationwide rallies this summer that have threatened Democratic health-care plans and eroded President Obama's standing...

Thousands of conservative activists will arrive in Washington, D.C., today for the Taxpayer March to protest government spending under the Obama administration. The effort is a combination of individual grassroots activism and a coalition of right-leaning groups, including FreedomWorks and the National Taxpayers Union, who are supporting the effort. The 9/12 date sprung from an effort by conservative Fox News commentator Glenn Beck. Speakers at Saturday’s rally include: Dick Armey of FreedomWorks, as well as GOP Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Pence of Indiana, Tom Price of Georgia, and South Carolina GOP Sen. Jim DeMint. “As far as I...