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Mike Boyce to run for Congress Published: 12/14/2007 The Associated Press ATLANTA - Retired Marine Corps Col. Mike Boyce, back from a 10-month stint as an infrastructure contractor in Iraq, is seeking to challenge Rep. Tom Price for his 6th District seat. The 58-year-old Republican said he is running because of the need to enforce laws on illegal immigration and his concerns about the economy, Georgia's water woes and the war on terrorism. Boyce, who lives in Marietta, said his maternal grandparents emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico and Portugal. "They came here for the same reason that a lot...

Corruption is disabling fledgling Iraqi government Efforts to stop graft minimal, ineffectual By ARTHUR BRENNAN For the Monitor Oct 18, 2007 The U.S. Embassy Annex in the former imperial palace in Baghdad is a hub of activity. There are endless meetings, PowerPoint presentations and electronic and telephonic communications. Unfortunately, there is slim evidence that any of this activity has resulted in any substantial help to the Iraqi people in their efforts to build a responsible and accountable government. In fact, there is little reliable evidence about what is actually going on within the Iraqi government. All we know is what...

Quinnipiac: DEAD HEAT The race for the GOP nomination for New Jersey Governor is too close to call, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released this morning showing Doug Forrester at 35% and Bret Schundler at 33%. Four days ago, a Quinnipiac poll had Forrester ahead by eleven points, 40%-29%. The second horserace is for third place, with John Murphy, Paul DiGaetano and Steve Lonegan all within 2% of each other. Three out of ten voters (31%) say they could still change their minds, while 69% say their decision is final. “No candidate in this race has generated great...

Funding curb forces Virginia reality check By Andrew Koch JDW Bureau Chief Washington, DC The long-term health of the US Navy's Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) - one of its most cherished programmes - appears in grave danger because of the growing cost of the war in Iraq, tightening defence budgets and mounting deficits. According to US Department of Defense (DoD) documents, statements by senior navy officials and insider accounts, a combination of funding shortfalls and pressures from the highest levels of the DoD are moving decision-makers toward the conclusion that the Virginia-class programme should be cancelled well before its...

SUBMARINES: Beijing, We Have A Problem June 3, 2005: For the second time in twenty-six months, a Chinese Ming-class submarine has had a major accident. The Ming is a Chinese variant of the Russian Romeo-class submarine. The Mings displace 2,113 tons, have eight 21-inch torpedo tubes (six forward, two aft), and a top speed of 33 kilometers per hour when submerged. Mings differ from the Romeo in having a slightly different powerplant (giving it a 9 kilometer per hour advantage over the Romeo’s top submerged speed) and a larger hull that adds about 400 tons of displacement. The 2003 accident...

ARMED FORCES OF THE WORLD: The Mighty Japanese Navy February 19, 2005: The JMSDF (Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force) is arguably the second-best navy in the Pacific, trailing only the United States Navy. The JMSDF has a large number modern surface combatants and the third-largest submarine force among Pacific naval powers, and it could be a potential player in any fight across the Formosa Strait due to the fact that Japan’s ties with Taiwan have become much closer. The primary surface vessels in the JMSDF are the destroyers. Japan’s had a long tradition of building a superb destroyer force – in...

Insider's Edge . . . Gubernatorial Politics ‘Tis the season of County Conventions, a semi-democratic process that political parties use to award their sometimes valuable organization line to contenders for statewide and local office. Some counties use a truly open process that allows candidates to campaign among party members to gain the organization endorsement; others are criticized as merely a tool to ratify the endorsement of a handful of party leaders. Over the next seven weeks, twelve Republican county organizations will meet to pick one candidate to run on their organization line. Like the presidential primary process, a candidate can...

CONGO: Sex Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo, formerly Zaire) February 16, 2005: The dam has finally broken on coverage of UN sex crimes in the Congo. On February 11, the UN secretary-general’s office issued an unusual order. The order bans sex between UN peacekeepers and Congolese “locals.” For months the international press has run stories of child sex, gang rapes, and sexual exploitation by UN troops in the Congo. This has led to investigations and charges against at least 50 troops. The sex scandals are another embarrassment for the UN. Lack of accountability and oversight are the big issues....

Republicans pounced yesterday on a report that the Codey administration might seek a partial rollback of income tax cuts to balance the upcoming budget, and a key Democratic legislator said the idea wouldn't fly. The Press of Atlantic City reported yesterday that administration officials trying to close a potential $4 billion gap in the coming year's budget might seek to reverse some of the income tax cuts enacted under Republican Gov. Christie Whitman in the 1990s.

Disabled Attorney Says 'Apprentice' Biased The Associated Press By JIM SUHR Feb. 9, 2005 | ST. LOUIS | (AP) - A quadriplegic lawyer has sued producers of NBC's "The Apprentice," saying the tryouts for the popular reality show discriminate by requiring that would-be contestants be in excellent physical health. In his federal lawsuit filed here last week, James Schottel Jr. wants a preliminary injunction that would force the show's producers to drop such requirements that exclude him and "others similarly situated" from being considered for the show. The St. Louis attorney, who has applied to try out for the show...

Casey Denies She Endorsed Forrester Former Bergen GOP Chairwoman Marlene Casey is denying that she has endorsed Doug Forrester for Governor. Her name was released as one of four Bergen County Republicans backing Forrester. Casey, who has contributed $2,000 to Steve Lonegan's gubernatorial campaign, says she had never seen the quote attributed to her. "A this time I am not endorsing any particular candidate for governor. The field is full of qualified people and I will be happy to support whichever of these Republicans emerges from our convention," Casey said in an e-mail to PoliticsNJ.com. "Please remove my name from...

Italy's Last World War One Veteran Dies at 110 Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:55 AM ET ROME (Reuters) - Italy lost its last veteran from World War One this week when Carlo Orelli, popularly known as "the last infantryman," died at the age of 110, the government said Tuesday. Orelli fought as a foot-soldier in the trenches around Trieste which is now part of north-eastern Italy. As Italy's oldest survivor of the 1914-1918 war, he was a minor celebrity and a book based on his wartime diaries was published last year. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi paid tribute to a soldier...

INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS: Calculating Chinese Capabilities January 27, 2005: Department of Defense intelligence analysts are having a hard time figuring out when China thinks it will be ready to make a grab for Taiwan. The recent surge in the construction of short range amphibious ships, and constant movement of more ballistic missiles to within range of Taiwan, indicate something may happen sooner rather than later. Taiwan is only 300 kilometers from China. There are about 600 DF-15 missiles (with a range of 600 kilometers) aimed at Taiwan now, and by next year, there may be 800. Moreover, it is suspected that...

Reevaluating Martin Luther King Jr.'s Holy-Day Taking a Closer Look at the Left’s Patron Saint of Diversity By Brandon D. Ragle, 1-17-05 Today, as I am sure most of you are aware, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A federal holiday celebrating the life and accomplishments of the civil rights leader, renowned as a champion of equality and hero to untold numbers of Americans. Unless you are—God-forbid—a government employee, the chances that you have even given much thought to today’s holiday are slim. While King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is now cemented in the minds of Americans young and...

China is building up military forces and setting up bases along sea lanes from the Middle East to project its power overseas and protect its oil shipments, according to a previously undisclosed internal report prepared for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Re-Envisioning Asia January 6, 2005 Re-Envisioning Asia By FRANCIS FUKUYAMA From the January/February 2005 issue of Foreign Affairs. Francis Fukuyama is a Professor of International Political Economy at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and the author of State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century. UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT A key task facing the second Bush administration is devising the proper security architecture for eastern Asia. The United States is confronting several immediate problems, including the North Korean nuclear standoff, tension between China and Taiwan, and Islamist terrorism in Southeast Asia. But a forward-looking...

U.S. caught in clash of civilizations Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity By Samuel P Huntington Political scientist Samuel P Huntington made telling predictions about the current state of the world with his "Clash of Civilizations" theory almost a decade ago. Recently, he made headlines again with a new thought-provoking book, "Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity," which tries to redefine the meaning of the American nation. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American people reelected President George W Bush as a war leader, despite a...

Give us more power, says GOP class of '94 By Alexander Bolton The GOP freshman class of 1994 is growing restless and dissatisfied with being frozen out of leadership positions in the House. Members of that revolutionary class, which came to Congress 74 strong 11 years ago, are talking among themselves about the need to become more outspoken and to take at least an informal leadership role within the Republican caucus. They held a reunion last weekend in Scottsdale, Ariz., where they reminisced about their capture of nearly 50 Democratic seats a decade ago and the triumphs and disappointments of...

An Odd Kind of Jockeying January 9, 2005 By TERRY GOLWAY and JOSH BENSON HACKENSACK YES, Senator Jon S. Corzine is running for governor. No, that is not why he is sitting next to his prospective opponent, Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey, at a swearing-in ceremony on a wet and dreary winter day in Hackensack. "I would be doing this whether or not I were running for governor," Mr. Corzine said from the shelter of an umbrella after Sheriff Leo P. McGuire of Bergen County took the oath of office last Monday. Mr. Corzine is a declared candidate for governor....

The Republican Dictionary: Part 3 12/21/2004 @ 5:49pm This past November, I wrote about the right's semantic trickery and proposed an idea for how we could debunk and decode the conservative's Orwellian Code of encrypted language: A Republican Dictionary. I put together a small list and asked readers to send me their own entries. Response has been overwhelming--more than 375 people have sent definitions. I published a small sample of the entries I've received in this space earlier this month. Below I'm publishing a second batch of reader submissions to this on-going project. We're going to continue posting additional entries...