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Two agents with the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team died in a training accident off the coast of Virginia Beach Friday.Both were assigned to the FBI's Critical Incident Response Group, which is part of the Hostage Rescue Team . The Medical Examiner's Office told WAVY.com it could take weeks or even months to determine a cause of death for the two men.

here is no better précis of how the Left thinks about the world, and acts on it, than the British journalist Nick Cohen’s article appearing in the new issue of Standpoint. Cohen writes a candid appraisal of what left-wing politics did to the mind and life of the late actor Corin Redgrave, brother of the more famous Vanessa, who like her brother, is a lifetime member of a small fanatic Trotskyist sect, the Workers Revolutionary Party, led by a man named Gerry Healy. The group was so fanatic that it accused Trotsky’s American followers of having been responsible for his...

A raging battle continued down to the last moment before deadline on Friday at the New Yorker over the contents of a magnum opus by veteran writer Connie Bruck about media billionaire and Democratic stalwart Haim Saban, WaxWord has learned. According to knowledgeable individuals, the piece is a staggering 11,000 words about the Egyptian-born, Israeli-bred mogul with a hotline to both Clintons. Bruck has apparently been working on the piece for an equally staggering eight months. According to two people close to the process, Saban’s former tax lawyer Matthew Krane has provided anecdotes to Bruck, including one suggesting that Saban...

By the time the clock ticked down on the health care vote late Sunday evening, a handful of junior Democrats holding marginal seats had also cast 'yes' votes that will be the staple of GOP attacks, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Wisconsin Rep. Steve Kagen, Florida Rep. Ron Klein, and Illinois Reps. Bill Foster and Debbie Halvorson.

Obama administration intends to concentrate available resources on transforming the economy -- a long-term, permanent restructuring of the health care and energy sectors that was planned long before the failure of Lehman Brothers triggered the financial mess Obama inherited.

Today I attended the House GOP retreat in Baltimore, at the invitation of House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence. I got to play at reporter, and to chat with some Members of Congress and staff. I also got to attend the speech with the President, and the subsequent question-and-answer session. As others have noted, the speech very much seemed to be an attempt by the president to show that he is bipartisan, friendly, and open to GOP ideas - no matter how the facts might appear to you. Both sides took the opportunity to play to the cameras of course,...

Questions What is the bill being voted on? · What is the name of the bill? · Where can the text of this bill be found online? · Has everyone that will vote on this bill read it, understand it, and understand its benefits and consequences? · What is the closest currently working system that is like the one you are proposing that we can examine for its cost/benefits What is covered? · Who is doing the actuarial work and determining standards of coverage? · How will it compare to private plans being offered now? · Are Illegal immigrants covered...

ON A blustery August afternoon in Edinburgh last week, the most celebrated military commander of his age was quietly doing the rounds with a group of injured British soldiers in the south of the capital. The commander of US Central Command, General David Petraeus, was talking about his legendary running exploits. Ten years ago, he fractured his pelvis after falling 60ft to the ground when, at the end of a skydiving jump, his parachute collapsed. At the newly opened Army Recovery Centre in Edinburgh, funded partly by the Homes for Heroes campaign, Petraeus was attempting to encourage a soldier who,...

Dennis Ross, Out As Special Envoy To Iran; Was He Ousted Because He's A Jew Or A Bit Hawkish On Nukes? The news that Dennis Ross, long time State Department strategist and peace processor, is being bounced as special envoy to Iran comes from an article by Barak Ravid in the reliable (at least on these matters) Ha'aretz. The story seems to assume that Ross was declared persona non grata by Tehran either because he was a Jew or because he believes that Iran should not be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons. If the Obama administration so readily capitulated to...

Democrats hold the White House and comfortable majorities in both houses of Congress. Their new president comes from humble beginnings. He grew up without the moral influence of a father. Unlike Gore and Kerry, who were born with silver spoons in their mouths, or even Carter, Dukakis, Mondale, or Humphrey, who came from upper middle class homes, Barack Obama has little in common with presidential candidates of either political party, except for one: Bill Clinton. Both men transcended their humble roots by receiving elite education and succeeding in electoral politics. Watch how "Barry" behaves. Listen to his words. Ignore the...

From homeless to cause celebre, things are happening fast for the Central Florida singer-songwriter ever since he debuted his now famous “The American Tea Party Anthem” at Orlando’s Tea Party three weeks ago. Self-described Black American Conservative Lloyd Marcus was feted last Friday night before the Santa Barbara Tea Party by famed songwriter Tom Snow at Snow’s fabulous Montecito mansion overlooking the valley and Pacific Ocean beyond.

IN 1934, the journalist Johannes Steel wrote a remarkably prescient book, “The Second World War,” which described the social psychology that laid the groundwork for global tragedy. Mr. Steel was trying to peer into people’s minds and infer their actual world views and motivations — in part by examining prewar cycles of social provocation in Germany and Japan and Italy. His timing about the war was wrong — he expected it to start in 1935, not 1939 — but he was correct about many fundamentals. Yet his early readers were often skeptical and blithely assumed that there would be no...

Editor's note: Barack Obama, aided by a like-minded Congress, has pulled off what amounts to an economic and political coup d'etat in the few weeks since his inauguration as president. Here, WND Managing Editor David Kupelian explains why we so often elect lying, unprincipled leaders, and why they in turn create huge crises for the secret purpose of increasing their power and control. Did you ever stop to wonder why most governments – no matter where on earth you look, or what time period you consider – tend toward being dishonest, predatory and tyrannical?

An intriguing item here from the dogged Kevin Rennie of the Hartford Courant that highlights a classic example of why ordinary citizens become cynical about politicians and the way business in Washington is conducted. Silver-haired Senator Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has already been getting a lot of heat for his two 2003 VIP mortgage loans from Countrywide, one of the major actors in triggering the current financial crisis.

Earl Fontan has received tons of invitations over the years. But a recent one trumped them all. In early January, Earl and his family were asked if they could attend a White House reception in honor of Fontan’s fallen son, Jacques. Jacques, a Navy SEAL, was killed in Afghanistan four years ago during a rescue mission, Operation Redwings. The MH-47 Chinook helicopter carrying Jacques and 15 others was shot down by enemy fire on June 28, 2005.

This one is a shocker: Vivian Schiller, the longtime head of NYTimes.com’s digital efforts, has left the company, and has joined National Public Radio as its new chief executive.

This article [h/t Instapundit] shows that the U.S. has a more progressive tax code than the democratic-socialist states of Europe. Such a state of affairs should not come as a surprise. Our own history shows that the very wealthy benefit from leftist policies of high tax rates, “targeted” taxation and industrial policy. The ugly truth is that the really wealthy can manipulate the political system to their own ends better than ordinary people. They can lobby for specific tax breaks that only they can take advantage of. They can get government trade protection for their companies. They can get bailouts....

WASHINGTON: The U.S. military since 2004 has used broad secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militant groups in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior U.S. officials. These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 at the direction of President George W. Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack Al Qaeda anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Violent crime in the United States rose for a second year in a row in 2006, increasing 1.3 percent. The number of robberies increased six percent and murders increased slightly, law enforcement officials told the Washington Post, referring to an annual report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI) to be released Monday. It was the first sustained increase in violent crime in the country since the early 1990's. Criminologists told the daily that gangs and the release of large numbers of prisoners were in part responsible for the rising crime.

Curtis and Shari Miles reach for a lifeline whenever they are asked about Paul. They take and hold each other's hand. Married 27 years, this East Texas couple understands how much such a small expression of support, of togetherness, means. After their son Paul was arrested and jailed after a two-week stay at a psychiatric hospital, the parents weren't allowed to touch him, much less embrace him, as they did in December 2005. That's when the tall, lanky soldier arrived at Fort Hood to a hero's welcome after an 11-month deployment to Iraq