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<p>Each year I get to celebrate Independence Day twice. On June 30 I celebrate my independence day, and on July 4 I celebrate America's. This year is special, because it marks the 40th anniversary of my independence.</p> <p>On June 30, 1968, I escaped Communist Cuba, and a few months later, I was in the United States to stay. That I happened to arrive in Richmond on Thanksgiving Day is just part of the story, but I digress.</p>

Today I will discharge my obligation as a citizen to witness this knowledge to you and raise questions for others to investigate and consider. I am going to briefly describe my background, my experience with Senator Obama in 1999, what appears to me to be a coordinated effort to discredit me and finally a list of questions. After this brief statement, I will take and try to answer any reasonable questions. Background I am 46 years old and I currently reside in Duluth, MN. I am a US Citizen, and I have made mistakes in my lifetime. I have been...

CORONA, Calif. (AP) — Former Charles Manson follower Susan Atkins, convicted in the 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate, could soon be released from prison because she is near death, authorities said. Atkins, 59, is terminally ill and being considered for so-called "compassionate release," state corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. She gave no details of Atkins' illness, but said a doctor had determined she had less than six months to live. The corrections department was reviewing the request, which if approved would then be passed to the state Board of Parole which has the power to release Atkins under state...

She will drop out of the race this coming Friday, just announced on several networks.

McClellan not sure about McCain, intrigued by Obama Scott McClellan, making the media rounds to promote his book and push back against the ferocious counter-attack by Bush loyalists, declined to come out tonight for John McCain and said he liked what he had heard from Barack Obama. "I haven't made a decision," McClellan told Katie Couric on CBS's "Evening News," when asked if he was backing the Arizona senator. McClellan paid homage to McCain, saying that the Republican nominee had "governed from the center, and that's where I am." But without prompting, he said he was "intrigued by Sen. Obama's...

WORKING-CLASS students have lower IQs than those from wealthier backgrounds and should not be expected to win places at top universities, an academic has claimed. Bruce Charlton, an evolutionary psychiatrist at Newcastle University, has written a paper asserting the reason why fewer students from poor families are admitted to Oxford or Cambridge is not because of social prejudice, but lack of ability. He suggests that low numbers of working-class students at elite universities is the "natural outcome" of "substantial" IQ differences between classes.... His claims could trigger an outcry similar to that faced by the Nobel prize-winning geneticist James Watson,...

[ed. note - found in a dumpster behind a West Hollywood antique shop: first draft of wine critic / Mr. Blackwell wannabe Matthew DeBord’s gripping op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. h/t: Uncle Jimbo at BlackFive]by Matthew DeBordGen. David H. Petraeus may be as fabulous a military professional as the United States has developed in recent years, but let’s face it, girlfriend - when it comes to the Fashion Theater, this showy soldier needs to call in the Makeover Marines. Oh snap!Witness his congressional testimony on the state of the war in Iraq. There he sits in gaudy Army regalia,...

"John McCain won the Republican presidential primaries by running as a pro-life Reagan Republican, committed to low taxes and a strong defense. We assume that he will therefore pick a running mate who shares these views and whom conservatives can eagerly support. We assume, as well, that he is more interested in winning the White House than in redefining the Republican party, and will not try to make the party platform reflect each of his views. Should McCain’s judgment err in these respects, however, conservatives will not be powerless. Securing the vice-presidential nomination requires a majority of delegates to the...

Rome’s Doctrine Between those holding to a plan of salvation, says Warfield, there are those who think of this plan along naturalist and there are others who think of this plan along supernaturalist lines. As against the Pelagians who hold to a naturalist view “the entire organized Church—Orthodox Greek, Roman Catholic, Latin, and Protestantism in all its great historical forms, Lutheran and Reformed, Calvinistic and Wesleyan—bears its consentient, firm and emphatic testimony to the supernaturalistic conception of salvation.” Continuing from this point Warfield then divides the supernaturalists into sacerdotalists and evangelicals. The issue between them concerns “the immediacy of the...

Federal logjam of red tape may shut them out of the 2008 election For the 25 Hispanic immigrants taking a citizenship class Tuesday evening in downtown Houston, voting is a fundamental right they hope to gain. The students, attending the nonprofit Houston International University inside a shopping center, answered enthusiastically as their instructor quizzed them on American history and civics topics they must know to pass a citizenship test. They are part of an unprecedented nationwide surge of 1.4 million legal immigrants who applied for U.S. citizenship in the 2007 fiscal year. But now many of those immigrants fear a...

As is usually the case in politics, in recent weeks we’ve seen a lot of unfair bashing of John McCain as well as gross distortion of his record. Of the two or three candidates with a shot winning the nomination, only John McCain has been a consistent conservative, dating back to before President Reagan. The issues on which he differs with the party are never moral in nature and even then, he's never supported a tax increase and was only opposed to the last two major tax cuts because they contained no curbs on spending. Romney sounds conservative now, but...

<p>Kerry, demonstrating a child-like inability to let go, on Tuesday dragged out the swiftboating analogy in an e-mail responding to what he called "disgusting lies" that "they" are floating that Obama is a secret Muslim and refuses to observe the Pledge of Alliance.</p>

“Well, I don’t think that’s a radical view, to say we’re going to affirm marriage. I think the radical view is to say that we’re going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal. Again, once we change the definition, the door is open to change it again. I think the radical position is to make a change in what’s been historic.” Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, when asked if it was his goal to bring the Constitution into...

via translation - ALERT - Iraq: The police chief of Mosul was killed in the attack BAGHDAD - The chief of police in the province of Mosul, in northern Iraq, Major General Salah al-Joubouri, was killed Thursday along with two other policemen in a suicide attack, said the American command in Baghdad.

ESPN, ABC Refuse to Take Any Action ESPN and its parent company, ABC, have refused to take any action against ESPN anchorwoman Dana Jacobson for her hateful, slurring remarks against Jesus, saying "F-- -- Jesus." On January 11, Jacobson was speaking at a celebrity roast in Atlantic City, N.J., when she unleashed a profane tirade, saying, "F--- Notre Dame," "F--- Touchdown Jesus" and finally "F--- Jesus." "Touchdown Jesus" is the popular moniker for a statue of Jesus raising his arms, located on the Notre Dame campus. Catholic League president Bill Donohue spoke with ESPN about the attack and received an...

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- In her bustling corner real estate brokerage, Ana Laura Pulido is doing her best business in years, enjoying a sort of Mexican immunity from the U.S. housing crash. "It's a time of hope," said Pulido, who has sold hundreds of homes to middle-income families since 1992. "The buyer today is more aware. People buy with more ease. They can plan long-term." Long thrashed by swings in the U.S. economy, Mexico now boasts a thriving housing sector whose record growth leads Latin America -- a sign of increased economic stability and an outlet for investors looking to...

Capital Comparison There are other ways to address school capital costs besides financing By Matthew Ladner, Ph.D. When considering whether or not to finance capital costs for schools, or utilize other methods to reduce pressure on Arizona's beleaguered budget, a comparison between Arizona and Nevada is instructive. Nevada faces runaway enrollment growth similar to that of Arizona. Between 1995 and 2005, Arizona's K-12 student population expanded by approximately 351,000 students. During the same period, Nevada's K-12 population increased by just over 147,000 students. As a percentage of the total student population, these increases were comparable. Projected growth extends as far...

The credit crunch will drive "a dramatic rise" in corporate fraud in 2008 as managers desperate to keep their jobs cook the books, predict experts. The UK will see an explosion in fraud in service industries such as IT, as well as in commercial lending, says BDO Stoy Hayward's annual report on fraud. Employee fraud by industry chart Simon Bevan, author of the report and BDO's national head of fraud services, said corporate fraud increases in an economic downturn as individuals grow desperate. He said: "Frauds happen in boom times but are more likely to be exposed in a downturn...

Ten states and the District of Columbia, where Banita M. Jacks was charged on Thursday with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her four daughters, have no regulations regarding home schooling, not even the requirement that families notify the authorities that they are educating their children at home. The lack of supervision of the home-schooling process, some experts say, may have made it easier last year for Ms. Jacks to withdraw her children from school and the prying eyes of teachers, social workers and other professionals who otherwise might have detected signs of abuse and neglect of...

FOXNews.com Headlines for today. 5 Ways to Get Her in Bed. FOX Sexpert: Find the answer to that million-dollar question — How to get her into bed Mayor Asked to Resign Over MySpace Lingerie Photo Transgender Woman Sues Hospital for Refusing Surgery Police: Man Had Oral Sex With Girl, 13, on School Bus Stern Warning for 'Sex Teach' Lafave| VIDEO | PHOTOS Is it just me? Or does Fox seem to be selling more smut and less news?