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37,244,000 WATCHED PALIN SPEECH ... [38,379,000 WATCHED OBAMA]... MORE...

Dear Freepers, I am working on a McCain/Palin Youtube video, and could use some sources for digital material. The only think I can think of at this point is downloading the high-res Youtube videos of their appearances. It would be great if there were something better than that. Please reply if so, and hopefully this will be some help to others who want to make a vid to support the Republican ticket. Thanks for your help.

France's minister of immigration and national identity, a new ministry created by President Nicolas Sarkozy, has ruled out legalizing undocumented immigrants en masse. The new ministry said today that government policy would be dictated by firmness and pragmatism. "We have to put aside massive legalization. It doesn't work and it penalizes, even immigrants," Brice Hortefeux said on Europe 1 radio. Policy, he said, would be guided by "firmness and humanism" with "lots of pragmatism." He also said he planned to adhere to the policy of deporting illegal immigrants from France. The number of deportees was expected to reach some 25,000...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Circumcising men routinely across Africa could prevent millions of deaths from AIDS, World Health Organization researchers and colleagues reported on Monday. They analyzed data from trials that showed men who had been circumcised had a significantly lower risk of infection with the AIDS virus, and calculated that if all men were circumcised over the next 10 years, some two million new infections and around 300,000 deaths could be avoided. Researchers believe circumcision helps cut infection risk because the foreskin is covered in cells the virus seems able to easily infect. The virus may also survive better in...

She's a nurse who likes target shooting and teaches gun safety classes. He's an engineer and deer hunter. When in Michigan, she'll pack a .357 Smith & Wesson for personal protection, while he sees no need to carry a concealed weapon. "I'm usually with her," Don Burns said, pointing to his wife, Christine. "And she's a better shot." The Burnses, from the Upper Peninsula town of Channing, are your quiet, ordinary, card-carrying members of the National Rifle Association - and proud of it. Friday, the Burnses, and thousands of others like them, trooped through the Midwest Airlines Center as the...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations elected 44 of the initial 47 members of its new Human Rights Council in a first round of voting on Tuesday, including five nations named by rights groups as among the world's worst abusers. Russia, China, Cuba, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, identified by New York-based Human Rights Watch as unworthy of membership on the new U.N. body, were among those winning seats. But two others on the group's list, Iran and Azerbaijan failed to win membership in the initial round of voting. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said it was inevitable...

Taking time off from America-bashing, the French elite is directing its anger at a new target: Algeria. The reason is that Algeria, having promised to sign a treaty of friendship and cooperation with France three years ago, has decided that it is no longer interested. The ostensible cause of the Algerian change of mind was a decision by the French parliament last year to rewrite school textbooks to include "studying positive aspects of colonialism" in former French colonies, notably Algeria. The idea so incensed the Algerians that they downgraded contacts with Paris and put the proposed treaty on hold. Moreover,...

[July 4th's Note: I am posting the excerpt of Judge Diane Sykes' speech as it appears on Charlie Sykes' blog. For Diane Sykes' full speech, click here. This speech is about the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but the principles translate perfectly to the national debate of the direction of the judiciary.] Given the implications for public policy and the law, the Wisconsin’s Supreme Court’s shift toward unrestrained judicial activism should have been the subject of extensive media coverage and debate within legal circles. So far that hasn't happened. At least until last night, when Federal Appeals Court Judge Diane Sykes delivered...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry e-mail device, Friday announced it has settled its long-running patent dispute with a small Virginia-based firm, averting a possible court-ordered shutdown of the BlackBerry system. RIM has paid NTP $612.5 million in a "full and final settlement of all claims," the companies said. The settlement ends a period of anxiety for BlackBerry users. At a hearing last week, NTP had asked a federal court in Richmond, Va., for an injunction blocking the continued use of key technologies underpinning BlackBerry's wireless e-mail service. RIM, which is based in...

Italy's government and football authorities are on high alert at stadiums this weekend to combat a plague of racism and hooliganism contaminating the nation's favourite sport. At a game last Sunday between Roma and Livorno - two clubs in Serie A, Italy's top league - crowds held aloft anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi banners insulting fans of Livorno and Lazio, Roma's rival club in the Italian capital. One slogan read: "Lazio-Livorno, stessa iniziale, stesso forno" - "Lazio and Livorno, same initial, same oven". Another slogan, in German, read: "Gott mit uns" - "God with us", the inscription on the belt buckles of...

The Minister of Interior Department asked for Wednesday to the prefects to expel all the foreigners convicted within the framework of thirteen last nights urban violences. Holders of a residence permit including. It is what he announced Wednesday at the French National Assembly. "120 foreigners all, not in irregular situation, were condemned" to have taken part in the last nights of urban riots, indicated the Minister of Interior Department at the time of the meeting of the topical questions. "I asked to the prefects that they be expelled without delay of our own territory, including those which have a residence...

A massacre. According to the first exit poll, 63 percent of the Dutch voted no. The turnout was very high at 62 percent.

Significant shaking in the Santa Monica and Westwood area.

PARIS, October 21 (IslamOnline.net) – Teeming with worshipers who come in droves to perform the Tarawih prayers during Ramadan, mosques in Paris carpet the surrounding area to help accommodate them. In the 18th district, worshipers line up the two pavements outside the Fatah Mosque during the prayers, with some Muslims volunteering to organize traffic moving between the two lines lighted by lampposts. There are four other mosques in the area, inhabited by a sizeable number of Moroccan workers. As Muslim worshipers prostrate and kneel down outside the crowded mosque, "stunned" French passers-by stand to watch. A police patrol passes by...

The State Elections Board ruled that Ralph Nader and running mate Peter Miguel Camejo will appear on the Wisconsin ballot as a presidential ticket. The board met today in Brookfield to vote on a challenge by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. The panel voted 5-4 to reject the Dems claim that the Nader campaign failed to list an elector in the 8th Congressional District. The board rejected 6-3 the claim that Nader was ineligible for Wisconsin ballot status because he is listed as an independent here and a member of recognized parties in other states, which they argued is contrary...

LONDON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Police are investigating whether a serial hammer killer is targeting women in London after a French woman was bludgeoned to death in circumstances similar to other attacks. Emilie Delagrange, 22, was found with a serious head injury lying near a cricket pitch in the southwest suburb of Twickenham on Thursday night. She died shortly afterwards. The attack bore similarities to three other assaults in the neighbourhood in the past two years, all of which left female victims with severe head injuries. A London police spokeswoman said the Delagrange investigation was being helped by officers from...

WASHINGTON - Airports that want to replace government security screeners with privately employed workers can do so by early next summer, the Bush administration told Congress on Thursday. Thomas Blank, assistant administrator at the Transportation Security Administration, told the Senate aviation subcommittee that airports will have three options: remain in the federal system, use a private contractor to hire and train screeners, or run the screening themselves. They can apply for a change in November. Airport groups estimate between 20 and 100 of the 445 commercial airports under TSA supervision will choose to opt out of the current system. Those...

Welcome to the official thread for the UEFA EURO 2004 tournament in Portugal! Included in this first post is a game schedule, and several links to get tournament updates over the internet. Phase 1Matches 12 June Portugal 12:00 PM Greece Spain 2:45 PM Russia 13 June Switzerland 12:00 PM Croatia France 2:45 PM England 14 June Denmark 12:00 PM Italy Sweden 2:45 PM Bulgaria 15 June Germany 12:00 PM Netherlands Czech Republic 2:45 PM Latvia 16 June Greece 12:00 PM Spain Russia 2:45 PM Portugal 17 June England 12:00 PM Switzerland Croatia 2:45 PM France 18 June Bulgaria 12:00 PM...

Somewhere on the sprawling Chippewa Flowage in northern Wisconsin there's a pair of bald eagles that are mad as hell. A furry surprise awaited a pair of bald eagles when they returned to their nest at the top of a 45-foot aspen on the Chippewa Flowage. Bears usually prefer to hibernate in caves, hollow trees or culverts. It's just about time to lay eggs in their huge 4-foot-wide nest at the top of a 45-foot aspen. The nest is made of twigs, grass and moss and took them weeks to build. The only problem - there's a bear slumbering peacefully...