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... The Star’s report Tuesday came from anonymous sources in the Defence Department. The CBC had to find out from French television that Canadian special forces are also operating in Niger, which borders on Mali. But then everything about Canada’s role in Mali is treated by Ottawa as a state secret. Canadians learned of the initial C-17 deployment only after Mali’s president tweeted the information on the internet. When that initial, one-week deployment was extended, we were first told not by our own government but by Mali’s ambassador to Canada. ... Meanwhile, who exactly are we fighting in Mali? The...

PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The number of blue states outnumbered the number of red states in the United States last year, 20 to 12, results of a Gallup poll released Wednesday indicated. After the District of Columbia, the most Democratic-leaning states in 2012 were Hawaii, Maryland, Rhode Island, New York, and Massachusetts, where Democrats held at least 20-percentage-point advantages in party identification, results indicated. Republicans held a similarly lopsided advantage in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Suresh Sambandam of OrangeScape, Krishna Mehra of Capillary Technologies, Jaspreet Singh of Druva, Balaji Sreenivasan of Aurigo, Vivek Ravisankar of InterviewStreet - all have something in common, other than that they have been featured here for their accomplishments. They are all technology entrepreneurs who started their ventures in India over the past few years, built them to a significant level of success, and now they have all relocated to the US, or are in the process of relocating (themselves, not the companies). We have mentioned just five names. But there are more. And the one common reason for the move...

There have always been two Al Gores. There is techno-enthusiast Al, who, during his 2000 run for president, proposed that an online network ("G-Bay") be used to auction off surplus government property. I found techno-enthusiast Al beguiling when I was researching manned Mars missions for his 1988 presidential campaign. But there is also Savonarola Al, who loudly denounces the excesses of modern capitalist society and demands repentance—though, given Mr. Gore's lucrative commercial dalliances (most recently, the sale of his Current TV network to the repressive, oil-rich Qatari regime), perhaps Jimmy Swaggart would be a closer clerical model than Savonarola. Each...

Whether or not Chuck Hagel is confirmed as our next defense secretary, his nomination has already done serious damage to U.S. credibility on Iran, thereby emboldening the most dangerous regime in the Middle East. To limit the damage, President Obama should choose someone else to lead the Pentagon. After all, the former Nebraska senator is the same person who has consistently opposed sanctions against Iran. He is the same person who wanted Washington to support Iranian membership in the World Trade Organization. The same person who voted against designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group (at...

If you are a reader of comments here at American Thinker then you have probably noticed an increasing use of the term molon labe. For those of you unfamiliar with the term and too busy (or too lazy) to look it up, I've done it for you. It is a Greek expression first attributed to King Leonidas of Sparta when the Persian invader Xerxes I, prior to the Battle of Thermopylae, demanded that the Spartans lay down their arms and submit to him. Its essential meaning was, "Up yours, pal: come do your worst." In so many words, it is...

And the Hillary press corps that exclaimed: “Memorable!” “A vivid impression!’” “A riveting performance”? They can gush. They can’t blush. Maybe she’ll reprise it as a one-woman show on Broadway. Already, they are talking her up for 2016. Why not? With her incredible lightness of being, what could stop her? Recall that famous political ad she ran in 2008. It’s the spot they called “3 AM.” It shows a red telephone ringing urgently. The announcer talks about the call that might come into the White House at that hour. You and your family need to have a tested leader...

President Obama and the bipartisan Gang of Eight in Washington who want to create a “pathway to citizenship” for millions of illegal aliens have sent a message loud and clear to those who follow the rules: You’re chumps! Have you patiently waited for months and years for the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to slog through your application? You’re chumps! Have you paid thousands of dollars in travel, legal, and medical fees to abide by the thicket of entry, employment, health, and processing regulations? You’re chumps! Have you studied for your naturalization test, taken the oath of allegiance...

Israeli warplanes attacked a target on the Lebanese-Syrian border overnight Tuesday, foreign media reported on Wednesday. While some reports said the purported strike was carried out on the Syrian side of the border, according to one source the target was a weapons convoy that had crossed from Syria into Lebanon. The reports come amid rising concern in Israel and the West regarding the sizable chemical weapons stockpile in the hands of an increasingly embattled Syrian regime. Lebanese officials said a dozen Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace on Tuesday and overnight into Wednesday, flying close to the ground in several sorties...

It’s not quite on a par with 9/11 truthers or Obama birthers, but recently a number of liberal commentators have descended into the fever swamps of denialism by rejecting the most basic facts about our debt and deficit. Mind you, they are not arguing about the best policies to reduce the debt — taxe hikes vs. spending cuts — but actually denying that the problem exists at all. Paul Krugman, for example, pronounces the debt problem “mostly solved.” Matt Yglesias of Slate asks, “What sovereign debt crisis? There certainly isn’t one in the United States.” Bruce Bartlett, every liberal economist’s...

Actress Ashley Judd and Indy Car driver Dario Franchitti are ending their marriage after 11 years, and, yes, the news impacts Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Judd is weighing whether to jump into politics and challenge McConnell in Kentucky in 2014. She was in Washington for the inauguration and attended an event at EMILY's List, the group that backs pro-choice Democratic women running for governor or Congress. Judd even carpooled with Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who demonstrated she knows how to win in a red state after defeating the self-injurious Todd Akin.

When They Come For Your Guns, You Will Turn Them Over Posted By Jim Karger On August 13, 2012 In Featured,international living,Legislation,The Daily Reckoning “When they come for my gun, they will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands,” is a common refrain I often hear from the Neo-Cons when there is a threat, credible or otherwise, that the US government is going to take their firearms. And, when I hear this crazy talk, I agree with them openly. “You are right. They will pry your gun from your cold dead hands,” which I often follow with...

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column about how the gun-death data showed a very weak correlation with gun-law strictness. I used data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) to derive a gun-homicide rate. In the comments section, a reader pointed me toward more-detailed data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), which captures death-certificate data from all the states. Despite interference by the National Rifle Association (NRA), the CDC has kept up the basic data, if not research into the details of who, how, and why. But what we can...

The "Bipartisan Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform" released on January 28, 2013 by Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), John McCain (R-AZ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsay Graham (R-FL), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Michael Bennet (R-UT), and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) , gives legal status to illegal aliens before controlling the border.

On Tuesday, David Freddoso, author of Spin Masters, How the Media Ignored the Real News and Helped Reelect Barack Obama, joined the hosts of Fox & Friends to discuss pro-Democratic media bias in 2012 and beyond. The author detailed the case against the media in this interview and in a recent column for the New York Post in which he quotes a political scientist who attributes much of the nation’s support for Democratic politicians to the pro-Democratic coverage of politics in the mainstream media. Without that biased media, the author and the political scientist say, the nation’s voting patterns would...

Jim Nabors, the actor best known for playing Gomer Pyle on TV in the 1960s, has married his longtime male partner... The couple met in 1975 when Cadwallader was a Honolulu firefighter...

(NECN/AP) - Here's a rundown of the morning's developing business stories, which may impact stock performance: - Boston Scientific cutting 1,000 jobs Boston Scientific is cutting up to 1,000 more jobs as it deals with a new medical device tax from the U.S. health care overhaul, limited growth prospects in certain markets and pressure to cut prices on its products in other countries.

The Israeli elections, President Obama’s inauguration speech and the violence in Syria all feature prominently in Arab news Tuesday. >>SNIP<< Quoting French sources, A-Sharq Al-Awsat quotes an exchange between Syrian President Bashar Assad and the international envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi. According to the daily, Brahimi told Assad that he could not remain in power and that the opposition could defeat him, but the cost may be the complete destruction of Damascus. To that, Assad reportedly answered “I will win the war, even if Damascus is destroyed.”

Mercer County, New Jersey has spent about $324,000 to pay people to turn in firearms on the 24th and 25th of January. The turn in was a "no questions asked" event that brought in over 2,600 guns, mostly hunting rifles and shotguns, with a few rarities and guns illegal in New Jersey. Sales of guns are highly regulated in New Jersey which has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. Private sales of handguns are forbidden, with a separate permit required for each handgun purchased. Purchasers of rifles and shotguns must have a New Jersey FID card...

Last night on FOX, Bill O'Reilly confronted his guest General Colin Powell with the October 4, 2012 quote by John Sununu that "Obama is lazy." In the discussion that followed, the always accurate 'Jeff Foxworthy definition style' of the Liberal Media-shunned four letter word "Lazy" was not used. Thus, to correct this oversight, we FREEPERS are duty bound to allow the TRUTH about Hussein O. to rise to the surface! For example, Hussein Obama might be LAZY if he did NOT send in any US Military help to stop the seven hour murder of the four heros in Benghazi.