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Obama proclaimed many times during the campaign, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” He and his throngs of supporters preened in the glow of their own righteousness like cats in a puddle of sunlight. They were for “shared sacrifice” and a “new era of responsibility.” They wanted to put aside the “old politics” and the “tired arguments” of the past.

When President Obama discusses his $275 billion mortgage bailout, he talks as if it was a national problem, caused by a national decline in home prices. "We must stem the spread of foreclosures and falling home values for all Americans," he says. But there is no national market for homes and no national price for homes. Instead, most of the United States will pay for the folly of few. The beneficiaries of taxpayer charity will be highly concentrated in just five states - California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Michigan. That is not because the subsidized homeowners are poor (Californians with...

DENVER — Even as an aide hinted that another stimulus bill might be needed, President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed into law the $787 billion package that is a cornerstone of his plan to reverse a dramatic economic downturn. The stimulus is one of several White House steps meant to preserve or create about 3.5 million jobs and ease the recession.

New York man Muzzammil Hassan founded pro-Islam station Bridges TV five years ago to combat the negative public image of Muslims. He is currently under arrest for beheading his wife. The couple in happier times, before Hassan removed his wife’s head.....

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas House on Wednesday approved a bill allowing concealed handguns in churches, despite hearing arguments that lawmakers should put their faith in God, not guns. The bill, which passed on a 57-42 vote and now heads to the Senate, removes churches and other houses of worship from the list of places where concealed handguns are banned. Currently, the only private entities where concealed weapons are banned are churches and bars.

A woman was shot by a police officer and two civilians after she walked into a northwest Houston office building and shot a man with a bow and arrow Monday afternoon, authorities said. Witnesses told investigators Julie Parker, 30, came into the Texas Components Corp.. office in the 1600 block of West Sam Houston Parkway with a bow and arrow and what appeared to be a handgun about 3 p.m., said Houston Police Department Sgt. John Chomiak.

A police officer in Tijuana, Mexico, investigates the scene where a woman was killed by gunmen in a parking lot last week. Gangsters have honed in on this city because of its glut of gun shops, its proximity to the border, and its long-established networks for smuggling narcotics into the United States, federal law-enforcement officials said.

What will happend if Obama loses?

The political arm of Veterans of Foreign Wars on Saturday endorsed Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, who did not serve in the military, over Republican challenger Pete Olson, a former Navy pilot and Pentagon liaison. Also, the National Rifle Association made its backing of Lampson official, months after signaling its support of his legislative votes for gun ownership rights.

So what did the high rollers get for their money Thursday night after ponying up $28,500 each for dinner with Barack Obama? The Thrash dinner was part two of Thursday's fundraising blitz that garnered $1.6 million for Democratic coffers. An afternoon reception with Obama at Ginni and Richard Mithoff's drew more than 250 who paid either $1,000 or $2,300, the larger figure earning a photo with Obama.

Chicago firearms ban may test court ruling City leaders fear decision may void restriction on guns in the Windy City CHICAGO — One small reflection of Chicago's bloody year is a sign outside a South Side elementary school that says, "Congratulations Class of 2008. Stop the Violence." In a city where homicide rates have risen by 13 percent over the same period last year and gunfire killed 26 students in the past school year, Mayor Richard Daley thinks the Supreme Court majority that overturned a Washington, D.C., gun ban last month is detached from urban reality. "If they think that's...

MEXICO CITY — The U.S. State Department reissued a travel advisory for Mexico on Monday, warning Americans of increased drug-related violence and kidnappings, particularly in the embattled border region. "Recent Mexican army and police force conflicts with heavily-armed narcotics cartels have escalated to levels equivalent to military small-unit combat and have included use of machine guns and fragmentation grenades," the alert reads. It says Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and Tijuana are particularly dangerous. U.S. officials justified the need to update the previous alert, issued in October 2007, to include details on the ratcheting up of the drug war over the past...

Hooking up the state's largest cities to rapidly expanding wind power projects in West Texas could cost as much as $6.3 billion in the coming years, the state's grid operator says. In a report this week to the state Public Utility Commission, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees most of the state's power grid, listed five options for getting wind-generated electricity to the populous areas that need it. Even the least ambitious would cost almost $3 billion. Texas is the largest wind power producer in the country, with more than 4,400 megawatts of capacity installed — about 2...

D.C. firearms ban can't negate constitutional right Does the Constitution grant individuals the right to bear arms, or is that right reserved exclusively for members of a "well-regulated militia"? After 69 years of silence on the Second Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court took up that question Monday in the historic case of District of Columbia v. Heller, a challenge to the District of Columbia's ban on all functional firearms. "The Supreme Court heard arguments about whether or not the Second Amendment actually means anything," said Alan Gura, my co-counsel in the case ... Does it protect a collective right of...

Japanese corporation Toshiba surrendered to Sony’s Blu-Ray technology and released a statement announcing the end of the road for the HD DVD. Toshiba says however that HD DVD consumers will continue to have full product support despite the decision not to develop and manufacture HD DVD players anymore. Toshiba Corp. will put an end to the HD DVD business by the end of March 2008, which includes besides players and recorders, HD DVD disk drives for PC applications and games. However, the company will continue to support and develop the standard DVD format, regardless of what is going to happen...

Che Guevara, the chief executioner of Fidel Castro’s brutal revolution, was a bank robber, a cold-blooded murderer, an enthusiastic torturer and generally an evil, sociopathic bastard. He’s quite literally the poster boy for everything wrong with socialism. One of Che’s lauded diaries recalls the execution of a suspected counterrevolutionary: “I ended the problem with a .32 caliber pistol, in the right side of his brain…. His belongings were now mine.” Kooky economic theories, class warfare and forced redistribution of wealth — it’s not just a Cuban phenomenon. The revolution has finally spread to the brand new Barack Obama office...

Homicides down in '07 in Houston NEW ORLEANS — The bloodiest city in the country in 2006, reeling from crime in its struggle to recover from Hurricane Katrina, got even worse in 2007. New Orleans registered 209 homicides last year, a nearly 30 percent increase from the 161 recorded in 2006. The FBI's rankings for 2007 will not be out until much later in the year, but New Orleans' population is thought to be 295,450, which would mean a rate of about 71 homicides per 100,000 people. Even the most generous population estimate in 2006 put the number of people...

Shooting accident kills man at Houston gun range A man was fatally shot during an accident at a west Houston gun range, police said. The 45- to 50-year-old man died after he suffered a gunshot wound to the chest at American Shooting Centers in the 16500 block of Westheimer Parkway, Houston police said. The incident happened about 6:40 p.m. Authorities say they believe the injuries were caused by a rifle. No other details were immediately available Wednesday night.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee told a House committee Thursday that her proposal to slash prison time for older, nonviolent federal inmates was not intended to benefit child pornographers or white-collar criminals. "This is not a bill to give comfort to the Jack Abramoffs of the world," the Houston Democrat said Thursday at a hearing before a House Judiciary subcommittee. Abramoff, a former Washington lobbyist, pleaded guilty in January of 2006 to charges of conspiring to bribe members of Congress. Jackson Lee criticized the Houston Chronicle for its "interpretation" of her bill in an article on Thursday. The Chronicle...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said today it will decide whether the District of Columbia can ban handguns, a case that could produce the most in-depth examination of the constitutional right to "keep and bear arms" in nearly 70 years. The justices' decision to hear the case could make the divisive debate over guns an issue in the 2008 presidential and congressional elections. City officials said the law is designed to reduce gun violence, noting that four out of every five homicides this year was committed with a gun. Opponents of the ban pointed to the level of violence to...