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CBS News has an interview on their website with Marine Corps Commandant General Mike Hagee, which it promotes with the headline, "Top Marine: No Plan For Post-Saddam Iraq". The article that fronts this interview makes the claim that Hagee admits that the Pentagon had no plan at all for security in the post-invasion period: Well, that sounds pretty damning -- but that's not what Hagee says in the portion of the interview that CBS has, a 7:27 segment in which Hagee explains what happened. The connection is poor and no transcript is provided by CBS (what a shock!), but be...

DES MOINES- A former Iowan, who put his life on the line leading a rescue mission under enemy fire, was honored at the statehouse Monday. Marine Sargeant-Major Brad Kasal still walks with a cane but at one point doctors considered taking off his leg. He suffered seven gunshot wounds, and was hit by flying shrapnel from a gernade while trying to rescue fellow marines in Iraq. Kasal said, "We love being marines. We love America. We love each other, and we'll put ourselves at risk for each other." Sargeant Kasal lost 60-percent of his blood while wounded. He has since...

Despite highly publicized charges of U.S. mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo, the head of the Amnesty International USA said on Sunday the group doesn't "know for sure" that the military is running a "gulag."

Getting lots of e-mail from readers and fellow bloggers about these photos of ACLU "legal observers" (scroll down)--assigned to monitor potential illegal activities of the Minuteman Project--apparently breaking the law themselves and smoking pot on the job. I've contacted the ACLU of Arizona for comment. Also am tracking down the person who took the photos. I've been informed that the Cochise County Sheriff's Office has the pictures and has received a complaint, but is unlikely to take action.

Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History, by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley, Dallas, TX: Verity Press, 1998, 692 pages, hardback<snip> One of the most ingrained stereotypes that plague the 3.3 million Americans who served in Vietnam is the tainted image of the Vietnam vet as scruffy, jobless, homeless, mentally unstable, addicted, suicidal, and stranded on the fringes of society. It is an image that has been reinforced by innumerable TV dramas, movies, and newscasts. It is also usually tied to stories about the horrors of war, atrocities, and other dark deeds that,...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi official heading the investigation into alleged corruption in the United Nations oil-for-food program was killed in a bomb attack earlier this week, officials familiar with the probe said on Saturday. Ihsan Karim, head of the Board of Supreme Audit, died in hospital after a bomb placed under one of the cars in his convoy exploded on Thursday, the officials said. Iraq's former U.S. Governor Paul Bremer gave the board independence from the executive branch of government and appointed Karim as its head in April. The board appointed international accountants Ernst and Young in May to...

Kerry and Edwards are centered between Clinton and Gore, with Edwards more or less center stage next to Kerry. Does the position on the stage indicate favor with Kerry, like the reviewing stand of a Soviet May Day Parade? Predictions?

<p>All four NBC television affiliates in Iowa announced this week that they will not carry this weekend's broadcast of "Saturday Night Live," slated to be hosted by Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton.</p> <p>Tim Gardner, director of creative services at WHO-TV in Des Moines, said station lawyers determined that airing the 90-minute show would trigger federal "equal time" provisions - meaning the stations would have to offer an equal amount of time to the other candidates.</p>

<p>"It's done," Southeast Polk District Superintendent Thomas Downs said Thursday morning.</p> <p>After receiving complaints from parents in his district, around Iowa and across the country, Downs canceled a new policy that prohibited students at Willowbrook Elementary School in Altoona from talking during lunch.</p>

<p>Lunch period at Willowbrook Elementary School in Altoona was quiet enough Wednesday to hear the crunching of potato chips and the slurping of juice through tiny straws. In the background, classical music played.</p> <p>The Southeast Polk school district is trying something new this year: silent lunch.</p>

<p>The former head of the Des Moines teachers union is under fire for a list of unflattering comments about Republicans that he passed out to students in his government class.</p> <p>Republicans hate AIDS victims, embrace pollution for the sake of profit, and believe women can't be trusted to make decisions about their body, according to information distributed by teacher Paul Mann at Central Academy in Des Moines. "Rules for Being a Good Republican" went out to more than 20 students. Mann's action has angered at least one parent and drawn fire from people of all political stripes.</p>

Iraq Admits Work On Nuclear Bomb Iraq's dossier on its weapons programmes has arrived at the United Nations in New York - as Iraq admits it had begun work on making a nuclear bomb.But Iraqi officials said the work was in its development stage and no nuclear bomb was ever made. UN experts got down to work on analysing Iraq's declaration of its arms programmes after the bulky report of almost 12,000 pages arrived at UN offices from Baghdad. Plan "Even tonight, as we look at it, we can probably plan some of the work that is going to be...

<p>By FRANCES STARKEY Register Staff Writer 12/15/2001 A mother of three in Early shot and killed an intruder Thursday night after two men entered her home and assaulted her, authorities said.</p> <p>Tracey Roberts was home with her three children, ages 1, 3 and 11, when two men entered the home, according to the Sac County Sheriff's Department. Roberts' husband, Mike Roberts, was reportedly out of town on business.</p>