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If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream---and not make dreams your master; If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those...

PHOENIX (Reuters) – The number of illegal immigrants in the United States leveled off at around 11 million last year, ending a two-year slide since the start of the recession, according to a study released on Tuesday. The study by the Pew Hispanic Center noted 11.2 million illegal immigrants living and working in the shadows in the United States in March 2010, virtually unchanged from a year earlier. The report, which drew on U.S. Census Bureau data, noted the number of illegal immigrants in the workforce remained steady at around 8 million. The leveling off last year followed a two-year...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2007 – Iraqi citizens are steadily rebuilding their lives with help from U.S. provincial reconstruction teams, a team leader said from Mosul, Iraq, yesterday. “Mosul is very well known as sort of a merchant city with a very active retail and wholesale sector,” Jason Hyland told online journalists and “bloggers” during a conference call from Iraq’s Ninewah province, about 250 miles north of Baghdad. “I think that the natural drive to do business already exists here.” Hyland’s provincial reconstruction team, or PRT, was the first to be established in Iraq. Each team is tasked with establishing ties...

CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq (July 24, 2006) -- Iraqi Army officers serving alongside Marines on this U.S. military air base in Al Anbar province are learning how to plan their own missions – a critical step to independent operations for Iraqi Security Forces, according to Marine officials here. Iraqi leadership within the 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division – one of two Iraqi brigades based in the province – are learning how to evaluate intelligence, organize information and conduct well-thought mission-planning briefs. “These guys have to be able to communicate … and support their battalions, and provide command and control...

HADITHA, Iraq (May 5, 2006) -- Since their arrival in the Al Anbar Province nearly two months ago, Marines here say Iraqi Security Forces are progressing toward relieving Coalition Forces and stabilizing the region. In this rural region along the Euphrates River valley, the transition from U.S.-led to Iraqi-led military operations is well on its way, according to one U.S. Marine who has spent nearly two months mentoring Iraqi soldiers in this region. But the atmosphere in this portion of western Al Anbar Province has changed since Saddam Hussein was removed from office in 2003. Instead of daily fire fights...

NEW ORLEANS - A steady stream of voters, some from storm-scarred neighborhoods and others by the busload from evacuee havens across the nation, cast their first ballots since Hurricane Katrina in a crucial election Saturday to decide who oversees how their city is rebuilt. Incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin predicted he would lead the field, but he faced 21 challengers, including the state's lieutenant governor. If none gets more than 50 percent, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held May 20. Because of the Aug. 29 storm, what ordinarily would be a routine municipal race has become an...

Gnawing leisurely on the remains of a moose carcass, the wolf pack's alpha male seemed unaware that mortal danger was coming ever closer. Suddenly the eight-member rival pack burst into view. The alpha scrambled to his feet, but too late. Howling and barking, the enemy chased him down and mercilessly attacked, killing the hapless victim within a couple of minutes. It's not unusual for the gray wolves on Isle Royale National Park to target each other, said John Vucetich, a Michigan Tech University wildlife biologist who witnessed the carnage from an airplane in January. But the rival pack's brazen invasion...

Mass attendance stable in U.S. churches over last four years New York, Jan. 11, 2005 (CNA) - Mass attendance in the United States has remained stable in the last four years, despite the clergy sex abuse crisis, says a new study released yesterday by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.The study included 10 separate polls, conducted between September 2000, before the scandal began, and September 2004. In each of the polls about one-third of Catholics said they attend Mass weekly. Weekly attendance increased to 39 percent in February 2002, one month into the scandal, then...

John Kerry, a terrible candidate who did everything wrong, was a real Michael Dukakis version 2.0. In fact, Kerry ran such a poor campaign that I think we in the GOP should examine the Kerry campaign and try to learn from it, so we don't make the same mistakes. With that in mind, here are what I believe were the top eleven reasons why John Kerry lost the election. I'm Talking 'Bout the Man John Kerry Sees in the Mirror. Put simply, John Kerry was an awful candidate for the presidency in almost every way imaginable. He's a dovish Massachusetts...

CONSERVATIVE TRUTH 09/06/04 Flip-Flops or Work Boots By Tom Barrett Publisher@ConservativeTruth.org I enjoyed the Republican Convention this week. I endured the Democrat Convention several weeks ago. Those two experiences convinced me of two things: 1) This election may well decide whether or not America survives as a free nation; and 2) Never has there been such stark contrast between two presidential candidates. As to the first, I am really not worried. After Kerry’s ridiculous Convention in which he pathetically tried to make this election about Viet Nam, and Bush’s magnificent Convention in which he and the other speakers laid out...

Fed Holds Rates Steady Amid Soft Economy By Glenn Somerville WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve (news - web sites) kept U.S. interest rates steady at four-decade lows as expected on Tuesday, saving its ammunition for 2003 as it waits to see whether the economy can emerge from a "soft spot." The unanimous decision by the U.S. central bank's Federal Open Market Committee (news - web sites) leaves the trend-setting federal funds rate at 1.25 percent, the level it hit after the Fed slashed borrowing costs by a bold half percentage point in November. "The limited number of incoming...