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This past Wednesday, the New York Times took the opportunity to praise their photographers and included the photo below by Joao Silva. The photo's caption reads: "A sniper loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr fires towards U.S. positions [emphasis added ours] in the cemetery in Najaf, Iraq." Following that was this critque by Michelle McNally: "Right there with the Mahdi army. Incredible courage." (Click on image to enlarge and to view the rest of slideshow.)...We have a suggestion for how the New York Times can show it truly is on America's side. We recommend that...

In a public relations push punctuated by a continual stream of roaring jet aircraft, the Marine Corps opened Miramar Air Station yesterday to bolster its campaign against the notion of a civilian airfield. “Joint use is fundamentally incompatible with what we do,” said Maj. Gen. Michael R. Lehnert, commander of Marine Corps Installations West. “It's simply a function of physics, and you cannot repeal the laws of physics.” The air base conducted a guided tour for reporters three days before the expected vote by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority board on a future replacement for Lindbergh Field. Despite...

Preschool measure tumbles in poll By Dana Hull Mercury News Support for Proposition 82, California's Preschool for All Act, has plummeted, according to a Field Poll released Friday, and political analysts say the measure appears extremely vulnerable in the final days of the fiercely fought campaign. Forty-six percent of likely voters plan to vote against the initiative, while 41 percent favor it, found the poll, which was taken May 23-31. That's a significant plunge from polls conducted in February and April, when supporters held double-digit leads over opponents. With momentum building behind a ``No'' campaign fueled by concerns about the...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Provide free preschool for all California children, tax the rich to pay for it, and get a famous Hollywood director to sell it. A measure on Tuesday's ballot to create universal preschool in the nation's most populous state seemed like a can't-miss idea in heavily Democratic California. But the $2.4 billion-a-year plan has been a tough sell. The Preschool for All initiative's best-known supporter, "When Harry Met Sally" director Rob Reiner, ducked out of the campaign spotlight this spring after a state education commission he headed was accused of improperly using taxpayer money to run TV commercials...

Ballot measure would expand programs by taxing richest Attending preschool for free would become a constitutional right for every 4-year-old in California if voters approve a June ballot initiative that could dramatically reshape the state's public education system. Called a key to improving the state's lagging schools by proponents and a colossal waste of money by opponents, passage of Proposition 82 would place the state in the forefront of a national movement toward standardizing pre-kindergarten education. Illinois, Georgia and Oklahoma already have implemented or are considering universal preschool programs. Most of California's half-million 4-year-olds attend some form of preschool or...

With polls showing that his Prop. 82 universal preschool measure is carrying a narrow lead into the final days before the June 6 election, actor/director Rob Reiner put another $1.65 million of his own money into the campaign today. So far this year, Reiner already had spent better than $1.15 million on the campaign, which has also collected about $1.3 million from his wife, Michelle Singer Reiner, and $500,000 from his father, comedian Carl Reiner. Prop. 82, which would hike taxes on wealthy California residents to provide free preschool for all the state's 4-year-olds, had a 50 percent to 43...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Could there be a third President Bush? The current chief said Wednesday that younger brother Jeb would make a great one, too, and has asked him about making a run. The first President Bush likes the idea as well. Jeb Bush the Republican governor of Florida, has one asset that his presidential brother doesn't right now — approval from most of his constituents. While George W. Bush's approval ratings are in the low 30s, some 55 percent of Florida voters surveyed last month by Quinnipiac University said Jeb was doing a good job. The governor has repeatedly...

By BONNA de la CRUZStaff Writer for THE TENNESSEAN Advertisement Published: Thursday, 05/04/06 A movement to draft Hillary Rodham Clinton to run for president aims to prove Democrats can win in Southern states, and that's why they're launching their national campaign in Nashville later this month. The group, called Hillarynow.com, thinks she can appeal to the country-music and NASCAR-loving crowd associated with Southern towns such as Nashville, said Bob Kunst, the Miami Beach-based organizer. "The whole point is to go where we're not expected," Kunst said. The national kickoff will be a May 23 fundraiser for Hillarynow.com at a Germantown...

...some others had heard that Ben has also been talking to Paramount about possibly playing a lead role ina new Star Trek film from J.J. Abrams. Apparently Abrams is coming down to visit the set in a few weeks, to visit Michelle Monaghan, whom he directed in Mission: Impossible 3, so that might add some more fuel to the fire. If it comes off, he's apparently playing the hero. Don't know if that's Captain Kirk or some other protagonist...but that's the gist of it.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, may have earned some brownie points when he announced his complete support for keeping New Hampshire’s status as the first presidential primary state. He also congratulated Seacoast residents on the successful effort to save the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Hagel, who is considering a run for president, spoke to about 50 people at the Sheraton Hotel Tuesday morning. Hagel said the country needs entitlement reform. "Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid represent almost half of our budget," said Hagel. "They are programs that are mathematically impossible to sustain. We need a new way to deliver health care...

"Are folks aware of just how meticulously (Sen. John) McCain and his team are going about building their '08 campaign? There's probably not a GOP activist in South Carolina who hasn't been contacted at least once by someone supportive of McCain's candidacy. ... As long as he continues to poll well against Hillary, and as long as the Republicans look as if they could lose power at a moment's notice, McCain should be able to create the air of inevitability that Bush created in 2000." - Hotline editor Chuck Todd in National Journal. Officially, he is not yet running and...

Some on the morning talk shows suggested that McCain is the natural successor to Bush for his committment to the war, and that Bush will "pass the baton" to him. My question is: if Bush endorses McCain will you think aboout voting for him? Personally I don't care for McCain for a number of reasons, but if I think he will continue W's legacy, I might reconsider. What do you think?

Graham, McCain continue to stand for what is right THIS NEWSPAPER did not endorse Lindsey Graham in 2002, but he keeps giving us reasons to be quite proud that he represents our state in the U.S. Senate. On Oct. 7, we praised Sen. Graham for being among those who led the Senate to vote, 90-9, to reassert essential American values in the way we treat prisoners in wartime. Later that month, he was one of seven Republican senators who tried to inject at least a little sanity into the federal budget by trimming out $125 billion worth of mostly ill-considered...

Contact: Nicholas Tyszka of Draft Rudy Giuliani for President, 630-542-6429CHICAGO, Nov. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Earlier today, the Federal Election Commission returned organizational documents to Draft Rudy Giuliani for President, Inc., making the campaign the first and only federal committee formed with the sole purpose of encouraging former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to run for President of the United States in 2008. "This is the beginning of a nationwide effort to show Mayor Giuliani the tremendous support that exists throughout the United States for a Giuliani presidential candidacy," said Allen Fore, a veteran Republican political consultant and co-founder of...

September 27, 2005, 8:07 a.m. Right Nodding The McCain 2008 goal. Katrina has indeed altered our political landscape: For the first time in years, conservatives have listened to Arizona Sen. John McCain talk about a high-profile domestic issue and have nodded their heads vigorously. The maverick Republican made his reputation by bucking his own party, especially its conservative base, and, after his failed 2000 nomination bid, seemed to want to make a career out of it. Democrats fantasized about a Kerry-McCain ticket in 2004, as McCain occupied his own little world of resentment at how the 2000 nomination had supposedly...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, under pressure to provide more help to Africa ahead of a Group of Eight summit next week, proposed on Thursday that Washington take on a greater role in combating malaria in sub-Saharan Africa as part of what he called a doubling of U.S. aid. With Africa a top agenda item for G8 leaders meeting July 6 to 8 in Gleneagles, Scotland, Bush said he would ask Congress to spend $1.2 billion through 2008 to help fight malaria, which claims an estimated 1.2 million people a year worldwide, 95 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa. In...

PARIS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, under fire over the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal, said on Wednesday he would not resign and was determined to continue his work to reform the United Nations.Annan said in a newspaper interview it was regrettable that former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker could not conduct his inquiry into the affair in "serenity" because of "incessant attacks against me, the U.N., and this committee." Annan's comments came after a newly disclosed memo appeared to cast doubt on his insistence he was unaware of a bid by a Swiss firm that employed his son for...

The Iraq oil-for-food inquiry is reviewing new information about the UN secretary-general's alleged links with a firm hired to monitor the programme. A memo by Swiss firm Cotecna published this week describes a meeting between Kofi Annan and its executives in 1998, weeks before the contract was awarded. Mr Annan has denied prior knowledge of Cotecna's bid for the contract, though his son worked there as a consultant. A previous inquiry report found that the UN head had not helped Cotecna.

Former President Bush (41), father of current President Bush (43), hopes his son Jeb will someday be Bush 4x. In an interview with CNN, the sky-diving investment group partner and proud papa said he wants Jeb to run for president. "He'd be awfully good ... This guy's smart, big and strong. Makes the decisions. And you know, not without controversy, but he's led that state (of Florida)." So, is Jeb going to run in '08, even though he says he won't? The elder Bush, who's about to turn 81, said, "The timing's wrong. The main thing is, he doesn't want...

President Bush made it clear last week that he sees no quick fixes to the nation's energy woes. The problem has been long in coming, the argument goes, and so will the solutions. But if history is any guide, there is one thing he could do immediately: bring back the 55 miles-per-hour speed limit. It has been done before. Along with record oil and gasoline prices, improvements in fuel efficiency and a lasting economic recession, speed limits helped curb fuel consumption for the first time in American postwar history between 1974 and 1984. Of course, energy eventually became cheap again,...