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North Korea has defended its missile launches ahead of an Asian security forum expected to focus on them, describing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a "political imbecile" for criticising the tests. The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) accused Dr Rice, who called North Korea a "completely irresponsible" and "dangerous" state for test-firing seven ballistic missiles on July 5, of distorting the facts. However, the communist state also came in for criticism from a United Nations official who said the launches had prompted a cutback in food aid. Dr Rice and her North Korean counterpart Paek...

Excerpt - JERUSALEM - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday the time has come for a new Middle East and an urgent end to the violence hanging over the region. "I have no doubt there are those who wish to strangle a democratic and sovereign Lebanon in its crib," Rice said. "We, of course, also urgently want to end the violence." Standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as they prepared to meet in his office, Rice reiterated the United States position that a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon must come with conditions that make an enduring peace. "It...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the Middle East today, meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Her job is tough: not just how to end the fighting in Lebanon, but how to defang Hezbollah ("Party of God," in Arabic) and bring a lasting peace to the Israelis and the Lebanese. With little leverage over Hezbollah terrorists or their Syrian and Iranian sponsors, Miss Rice will not visit Damascus, nor meet with Iranian officials. Many in Europe have called for the U.S. to impose a ceasefire on Israel as the U.N. Security Council...

WASHINGTON - the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will announce Friday the first details of a "diplomatic plan" international for the Middle East, indicated to AFP a high person in charge for the State Department.Mrs. Rice, who prepares to go in the area, "will have something to say this afternoon", declared the person in charge American."We are working in a diplomatic plan which would tackle the violence to which we attend and the roots of this violence", it added. "It will be an international effort".According to the American chain NBC, Mrs. Rice tries to organize a meeting of...

Cool Your Heels, Madame Secretary By The Editors Rarely has a diplomatic mission been so vague. According to White House spokesman Tony Snow, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is heading to the Middle East at some point, for some purpose or other. This is encouraging — because the later she goes, the better. The timing of Rice’s trip is so important because it will likely signal the point at which the U.S. begins join the usual suspects in pressuring Israel to stand down in Lebanon. For now, Israel clearly has more time to attempt to deliver a punishing blow to...

Israel may need to prolong its offensive in Lebanon to further reduce the threat from Hezbollah, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today, as some Democrats called on her to travel to the region immediately to help defuse the crisis. Ms. Rice appeared to support a longer-term Israeli effort to inflict decisive damage to Hezbollah’s presence in Lebanon. She also said she was considering a trip to the region. “A cessation of violence is crucial, but if that cessation of violence is hostage to Hezbollah’s next decision to launch missiles into Israel or Hamas’s next decision to abduct an Israeli...

When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the administration was willing to join negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, she did not go to the drab State Department briefing room. Instead, in full view of the television cameras, she strolled about 50 feet to the microphones set up in the middle of the vast and ornate Benjamin Franklin Room, evoking a visual of the president walking through the White House to the East Room for a prime-time news conference. The setting of the Iran announcement at the end of May was no accident, but intended to demonstrate the seriousness of...

'Condistas' want Rice for president in 2008 By JULIE CARR SMYTH, AP Statehouse Correspondent 16 minutes ago Their names are varied: Team Condi. Rice for America. The Draft Rice movement. Condistas. But this disparate group of Internet gurus, politics junkies and Hillary haters shares a common goal: Elect Republican Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice president in 2008. Mick Wright, a professional webmaster in Memphis, Tenn., was one of more than a dozen people to register a draft-Rice Web site in the year after President Bush was re-elected. He said he was driven by the "post-election blues." "Once that was all...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who dines with heads of state from around the world, slightly blushed and chuckled aloud when asked about her inclusion in a recent men's magazine poll that asked men which woman they'd invite to dinner. The list to choose from also included Oprah Winfrey, one of the richest women in the world, and Angelina Jolie, voted one of the sexiest. "I was stunned," Rice told the News & Record in a lighter moment before speaking to more than 11,000 delegates, called messengers, of the Southern Baptist Convention. "I'm not sure I would choose me." Her...

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for 6/3 - 6/4/06 (not the live thread)The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) Meme: Everything wrong on the planet is the fault of the United States (George W. Bush)Anyone who doesn't bow down before the god of Global Warming must be burned at the stake crucified (burning at the stake would add to the greenhouse gasses)Al Gore is the once and future President (we was robbed... a Kennedy...

Poll is on the right, about half-way down the page: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/060522rice.shtml

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President and Mrs. Bush attended St. John's this morning, and GWB went for a mountain bike ride. The first couple also made a brief television appearance to congratulate the new Iraqi government. Here are the President's brief remarks: THE PRESIDENT: The formation of a unity government in Iraq is a new day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in freedom. And the formation of the unity government in Iraq begins a new chapter in our relationship with Iraq. This morning, I called the President, the Prime Minister and the Speaker to congratulate...

Plans by a prominent Boston Jesuit school to award U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice an honorary degree are stirring protests by some students and faculty who say her support for the Iraq war contradicts Catholic teaching. Boston College theology professor David Hollenbach and Kenneth Himes, the department's chair, issued a petition to the school's president objecting to a planned commencement address by Rice on Monday when she will receive the honorary degree -- a custom for commencement speakers. One faculty member, Steven Almond, resigned in protest. "We'll be turning our backs during the honorary degree ceremony," said Sasha Westerman,...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, traded barbs during bad- tempered talks at a foreign ministers' summit in New York on Iran's nuclear program a week ago. The exchanges provided a candid introduction to diplomacy for Margaret Beckett, Britain's new foreign secretary, who attended the tetchy session at the end of her first full day in the job. The row, which further undermines hopes of a diplomatic solution to the Iran crisis, reflects deepening rifts between the United States and Russia. Tension surfaced at a private meeting hosted by Rice in the Waldorf Hotel...

The punditry world is abuzz with talk of a recent New Yorker article (no link available) by writer Jeffrey Goldberg, who has interviewed Brent Scowcroft, the former national security advisor for the Ford Administration and the Administration of George H.W. Bush. In a number of passages in the piece, Scowcroft takes on the current Bush Administration over the issue of Iraq, something for which he has earned applause from many Democrats and other Bush critics. But when one reads the entire New Yorker piece, one finds that Scowcroft's critique is directed at foreign policy idealism in general. And it's a...

The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) Meme: It's the oil companies faultOK, if it's not the oil companies, then it's the incompetent Bush administration foreign policiesGeorge Clooney is a serious and important voice on the international stage (can you say "presidential material?") Topics: Oil, Iraq and foreign policy Turmoil overseas is pinching American pocketbooks at the gas pumps. On Sunday, I'll speak with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to ask how the...

From: Rev. Wayne Perryman DoubleBro@aol.com Dear Friends The following sample math problem was given to students as part of their final exam at Bellevue Community College in Washington State. I was asked by black students to represent them in this matter. Some of these students attend my church. I am asking all of you and your friends to e-mail the school at the following e-mail addresses and express your outrage: Advising@bcc.ctc.edu, tpritcha@bcc.ctc.edu, and amatsumo@bcc.ctc.edu. The following is the math problem given to the students. The Problem: Condoleezza holds a watermelon just over the edge of the roof of the 300...

Chaos Theory From AP: Rice: World United Agaisnt Iran In Dispute. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran on Thursday the "international community is united" in the dispute over its nuclear program, but a Tehran envoy defiantly rejected a U.N. call to reimpose a freeze on uranium enrichment. Rice spoke after a meeting in Berlin among diplomats from the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany over ways to press Iran to stop enriching uranium, which can be used for weapons. Iran says its program is peaceful. The meeting follows agreement Wednesday by the 15-member Security Council...

   When Pigs Sing March 30, 2006 Appearing as a guest on this past Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice answered a question about dealing with Iran’s nuclear ambitions by stressing that, “We really do have a chance to solve this diplomatically”.  With all due respect to the Secretary and her diplomatic demeanor, “Yeah...when you can teach a pig to sing!” Almost simultaneously with Secretary Rice’s diplomatic entreaties, the lips attached to the swarthy face of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged, during a speech in south-western Iran, that “All these threats and intimidations by the West...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: The President and First Lady, accompanied by the Secretary of State, returned from Camp David earlier today. It will be a momentous week in Washington as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on a military commissions case, and the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on Sen. Russ Feingold's call to censure the President over the wiretap controversy. In this mix of venality and stupidity, there is some happier news: Cincinnati, OH (Sports Network) - The Cincinnati Reds announced Friday that President George W. Bush will throw out the first pitch prior to the Reds'...