Republicans take tough line as immigration becomes key election issue

Tom Baldwin

The rapidly rising salience of the issue in presidential politics has taken some candidates by surprise. John McCain was almost destroyed this summer for backing, with President Bush, legal rights for undocumented worker immigrants. Other Republicans have largely fallen into line with a new orthodoxy with Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney stampeding to sound the toughest. Karl Rove, who masterminded Mr Bush’s two presidential victories, worries that the Republicans are cutting themselves off from pro-family, socially conservative Latino voters, the fastest-growing section of the US electorate.

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Honesty foils car theft sting operation

By Teresa Rochester

The bait was tempting: a nondescript, unlocked rental car, parked in the lots of busy shopping centers in Thousand Oaks at the height of the holiday shopping season, with high-end electronics left in plain sight.
For three days the Ventura County Sheriff's Department watched and waited.
No one took the bait.

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Huckabee: Heroic Conservative?

by Michael Shank

Many Americans are exhausted by President Bush’s military overreach and aggressive intervention strategies and Giuliani and Romney promise more, not less, of the same. Huckabee, however, strikes a different deal with the public. Using a domestic analogy to describe his foreign policy, which either was an attempt to make it more understandable or a slip of a neophyte hand, Huckabee said recently, “Much like a top high school student, if [the United States] is generous in helping others, it is loved. But if it attempts to dominate others, it is despised.” This principle is visible in Huckabee’s policies on everything from immigration to Iraq. He is the least isolationist of the top Republican contenders, providing free education to hard working youth of undocumented workers. And he said recently that the U.S. occupation destroyed the country politically, economically, and socially.

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Huckabee's Amazing Coincidences

By James Lewis

A couple of weeks ago Mike Huckabee was skyrocketing out of sight. Now the polls are tightening up. But Huckabee is a dark horse in more ways than one. For one thing, he must know that his public record is much too controversial for him to get elected president.
So why is he running?
Think about that for a second.
Huckabee is not a conservative. He is a populist, like Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Hewey Long.

Huckabee plays the game like a pro, by getting the Big Megaphones of the liberal media on his side. Liberals love Huckabee. Coming out of nowhere, Huckabee rocketed to fame just weeks before the Republican primaries, when voters couldn't know about him. He did it with superslick TV commercials in Iowa and New Hampshire, from a campaign that is supposed to have no money.

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Liberals Sing ‘Huckelujah’

by Ann Coulter

All I want for Christmas is for Christians to listen to what Mike Huckabee says, rather than what the media say about him. The mainstream media keep flogging Huckabee for being a Christian, apparently unaware that this "God" fellow is testing through the roof in focus groups. Huckabee is a "compassionate conservative" only in the sense that calling him a conservative is being compassionate.

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Only Suckers Pay Bills

by Froma Harrop

Wouldn't it be fun to do a money-dance around town, throwing borrowed hundred dollar bills to passersby, while arranging to have others pay for the adventure?
That in essence has been the Republicans' two-step: Spend money you don't have, and cut taxes so you have even less -- then let future generations foot the bills.

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Bell stole phone idea

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN

In "The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret," journalist Seth Shulman argues that Bell — aided by aggressive lawyers and a corrupt patent examiner — got an improper peek at patent documents Gray had filed, and that Bell was erroneously credited with filing first.
Shulman believes the smoking gun is Bell's lab notebook,

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Tide of illegal immigrants ebbs

By Marla Dickerson

MEXICO CITY - Lorenzo Martinez, an illegal immigrant who has lived in Los Angeles for six years, has a message for his kin in Mexico's Hidalgo state: Stay put.
The steady construction work that allowed him to send home as much as $1,000 a month in recent years has disappeared. The 36-year-old father of four said desperation is growing among the day laborers with whom he competes for odd jobs.
Sporadic employment isn't the half of it. Martinez said anxiety is also running high among undocumented workers about stepped-up workplace raids, deportations and increasing demands by U.S. employers for proof that they are in the country legally.

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Hamas TV Children's Program:

Below are excerpts from a song performed by child TV host Saraa Barhoum, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on December 20, 2007.

Saraa is 11 years old.

Saraa Sings: "Oh Gaza... Let Your Lighthouse Illuminate the Sea Of Blood"
Saraa Barhoum:"We liberated Gaza by force, not by Oslo or by Taba -
but with my steadfast people, and with its blazing fire.
We liberated Gaza by force, not by Oslo or by Taba -
but with my steadfast people, and with its blazing fire.
Rafah sings, and the Kalashnikov replies.
Rafah sings, and the Kalashnikov replies.
We, who know no fear, are the lions of the jungle.
Look how beautiful our Gaza is. We crowned it with a laurel wreath.
We have proven that with our will, we can defeat the colonialist army.

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To view the clip of the song by host Saraa Barhoum, visit: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1637.htm

Terrorists' new mission: Protect President Bush

By Aaron Klein

JERUSALEM – Members of the most active West Bank terror organization are set to participate in security forces being deployed to protect President Bush during his visit to the Palestinian territories next month, WND has learned.
Bush is due in the region Jan. 9 as part of a follow-up to last month's U.S.-led Israeli-Palestinian Annapolis summit.

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Not So Hot

By Patrick J. Michaels

If a scientific paper appeared in a major journal saying that the planet has warmed twice as much as previously thought, that would be front-page news in every major paper around the planet. But what would happen if a paper was published demonstrating that the planet may have warmed up only half as much as previously thought?

Nothing. Earlier this month, Ross McKitrick from Canada's University of Guelph and I published a manuscript in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres saying precisely that.

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Immigration Ground Zero

THE NEW ground zero in the debate over illegal immigration is Arizona, where the nation's toughest and potentially most far-reaching crackdown on undocumented workers and their employers is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The Arizona law, passed resoundingly by the state legislature after Congress failed to enact immigration reform last summer, penalizes companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants by suspending their business licenses for up to 10 days; ; on a second offense, the business license would be revoked -- what Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) has called a corporate "death penalty." Thus the Arizona law may become a test case for how much pain a state is willing to endure, and inflict, in the name of ridding itself of a population that contributes enormously to its economic growth and prosperity.

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Notice the way the reporter slanted the article in italics.

Worms infect more poor Americans than thought

By Maggie Fox

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, a U.S. expert said on Tuesday.
Recent studies show many of the poorest Americans living in the United States carry some of the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America,

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Cloaking Visible Light:

Researchers from the group of Harald Giessen at the University of Stuttgart have succeeded in manufacturing a stacked split-ring metamaterial for the optical wavelength range. This layer-by-layer stacking procedure, which can be repeated as often as desired, is capable of producing well aligned three-dimensional metamaterial structures.

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Hiding Black Interracial Crimes

By Walter E. Williams

What have we heard from the NAACP, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and others who rushed to judgment and outrage as they condemned whites in the cases of the "Jena 6" and Don Imus when he referred to the Rutgers ladies basketball team as "nappy-headed ho's"? Where were the national news media and public officials? You can bet the rent money that were the victims black and the perpetrators white, Knoxville would have been inundated with TV crews, with Jackson, Sharpton and other civil rights spokesmen and politicians from both parties condemning racism, possibly blaming it all on George Bush.

On Jan. 6, 2007, University of Tennessee student Channon Christian and her boyfriend, Christopher Newsom, Both White, were carjacked and kidnapped in Knoxville. Both of them were later murdered. Suspects Darnell Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson, George Thomas and Vanessa Coleman, all blacks.

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Russia says Iran needs no uranium enrichment

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's delivery of nuclear fuel to the Bushehr power station makes it unnecessary for Iran to pursue its enrichment programme, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
Lavrov, interviewed by the Moscow daily Vremya Novostei, also said any suggestion of "regime change" in Tehran had to be ruled out in discussions on verifying Iran's nuclear programme.

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Americans’ Religion

by Frank Newport

About 82% of Americans in 2007 told Gallup interviewers that they identified with a Christian religion. That includes 51% who said they were Protestant, 5% who were "other Christian," 23% Roman Catholic, and 3% who named another Christian faith, including 2% Mormon.
Because 11% said they had no religious identity at all, and another 2% didn't answer, these results suggest that well more than 9 out of 10 Americans who identify with a religion are Christian in one way or the other.

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Britons 'healthier in medieval times'

People in medieval times were healthier than modern Britons because they did not suffer from cholesterol related diseases, it has been claimed.
While those living in the Roman and Tudor periods faced hazards such as the "pox and plague", it seems that their daily diet lacked foods which could lead to heart disease.
Excessive levels of cholesterol were non-existent in Roman and medieval times. It is a current phenomenon and a direct result of modern excess and a lack of exercise.Research by Lloydspharmacy, the chemist chain, found that the daily diet consumed by Britons in the Roman period of fruit, fish, whole grains, vegetables and olive oil washed down with red wine amounted to approximately 120g of fat, 80g of protein and 600g of carbohydrates..

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Judge boots parents from son's schooling

Another judge in Massachusetts has ruled against parental input regarding the education of their own children, this time deciding that a district's special education program for a 13-year-old can move forward even though his parents refused to sign an authorization for the additional monitoring and counseling.

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In the newest case, Kevin and Peggy Lewis were taken to court by the Cohasset Public Schools, where officials wanted to expand a special education program for their 13-year-old son. They refused to sign the needed documentation, so teachers sought a court order.

INVASION USA

Bill guts border fence requirementWould eliminate 854-mile barrier approved by Congress

By Jerome R. Corsi

"By eliminating the double fence requirement, the Democratic Congress is going to make it easier for drug and human smugglers to cross our Southern land border," said Hunter. "This goes against the interests of any family that has been touched by illegal drugs or any American who has seen their job taken by an illegal alien."

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5th-grade students could be handed 'Coping With Sexual Orientation'

By Bob Unruh

A list of school resources, sponsored by a homosexual-advocacy group called Safe Schools Coalition, suggests that for those who are only two years old, there's "Felicia's Favorite Story," which tells how she was "adopted by her two mothers."
The list also promotes a book called "Are You a Girl or a Boy?" by Karleen Jiminez, a resource for children ages 4-8 when advocating homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism and other alternative lifestyle choices.
It's described as "A sweet book about a gender-different kid."

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Norway's emissions soar

Just as Norwegian delegates to the UN's conference on climate change started heading home from Bali, came news that Norway's own carbon emissions rose 80 percent from 1990 to 2004. Statoil's refinery at Mongstad is the biggest contributor. Erik Solheim, the government minister in charge of environmental issues who was in Bali last week, admits that Norway's own high level of emissions is "embarrassing." That's why the government plans to donate NOK 15 billion (nearly USD 3 billion) over the next five years to help preserve the world's rain forests. That's viewed as an efficient way of offsetting carbon emissions.

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The Fair Tax: America's Last Best Hope

By Mike S. Adams

If you are not convinced that the Fair Tax is the single greatest piece of legislation ever written, please take the time to list half a dozen things you hate about the current political climate in America. Then consider seriously the effect the Fair Tax would have upon that which you dislike about this country. I’ve done so in the space just below:

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Normandale's 'meditation room' is home to a single faith

By Katherine Kersten

Last week, I visited a Muslim place of worship. A schedule for Islam's five daily prayers was posted at the entrance, near a sign requesting that shoes be removed. Inside, a barrier divided men's and women's prayer space, an arrow informed worshippers of the direction of Mecca, and literature urged women to cover their faces.
Sound like a mosque?
The place I'm describing is the "meditation room" at Normandale Community College, a 9,200-student public institution in Bloomington.

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Girl, 10, Arrested for Using Knife to Cut Food at School

A 10-year-old Florida girl faces felony weapons charges after bringing a small steak knife to school to cut up her lunch, according to a report on WFTV.com.
Click here for more on this story from WFTV.com
School officials say the Ocala 5th grader had brought a piece of steak for her lunch, and had brought a steak knife. According to the report, a couple of teachers took the utensil and called authorities, who arrested the girl and took her to the county’s juvenile assessment center.

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Lawsuit targets history teacher's comments

By David Haldane

James Corbett, who teaches Advanced Placement European history at Capistrano Valley High School, consistently "demonstrates a sense of hostility toward religion," causing Christian students to "feel ostracized and treated as second-class citizens," according to the lawsuit filed in federal district court in Santa Ana by Chad Farnan, 16, and his parents, Bill and Teresa.The lawsuit contends, among other things, that Corbett told students during class that "when you put on your Jesus glasses, you can't see the truth"; said that religion is not "connected with morality"; compared Christians to "Muslim fundamentalists" who want women to "stay pregnant, barefoot, and in the kitchen and have babies until your body collapses"; and suggested that churchgoers are more likely to commit rape and murder.

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Hillary Clinton, Cultural Marxist

Carey Roberts

When Hillary Rodham arrived at Yale Law School in the fall of 1969, the long-awaited Revolution seemed to be at hand. Students declared a “liberated zone” on the main quadrangle and erected tents for endless teach-ins. The university was forced to adopt pass-fail grading. And the pungent scent of sweet-smelling marijuana was redolent in the autumn air.

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One of Hillary’s closest faculty mentors was Thomas I. Emerson, a constitutional scholar affectionately known as “Tommie the Commie.” It was in his class that Hillary first laid eyes on a bearded William Jefferson Clinton. She sported Gloria Steinem glasses and board-straight long hair – the former Goldwater Girl had turned iconic hippie.

Ramadan Yea, Christmas Nay

By Amanda Carpenter

Democrats who supported a House resolution to honor Ramadan voted against a similar resolution to honor Christmas and Christianity last night. Nine Democrats voted against the Christmas resolution. They are: Rep. Gary Ackerman (N.Y.), Rep. Yvette Clarke (N.Y.), Rep. Diane DeGette (Colo.), Rep. Alcee Hastings (Fla.), Rep. Barbara Lee (Calif.), Rep. Jim McDermott (Wash.), Rep. Robert Scott (Va.), Rep. Pete Stark (Calif.) and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (Calif.).

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Each of them supported the Ramadan resolution except for Rep. Lee, who did not vote.

Global-Warming Model May Be Wrong

Part of the scientific consensus on global warming may be flawed, a new study asserts.
The researchers compared predictions of 22 widely used climate "models" — elaborate schematics that try to forecast how the global weather system will behave — with actual readings gathered by surface stations, weather balloons and orbiting satellites over the past three decades.

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Idaho Senators Block Bush's ATF Pick

By MATTHEW DALY

Idaho's senators are blocking President Bush's nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, saying the agency has become overly aggressive in enforcing gun laws.
Republican Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo placed separate holds on the nomination of federal prosecutor Michael Sullivan, the acting ATF director for more than a year.

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Gore lays blame for Bali stalemate on U.S.

By Gerard Wynn

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore drew cheers at 190-nation talks by saying the United States was the main block to launching negotiations in Bali on a new global climate treaty.
Efforts to start two-year negotiations on a pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol flagged on Thursday, the penultimate day of the December 3-14 talks, after the European Union accused the United States of lacking ambition.

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'Gay' school plot unveiled

By Bob Unruh

On the heels of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature on S.B. 777, which opponents describe as a homosexual indoctrination plan for education districts, a pro-homosexual lobbying organization in California has launched its campaign to infuse a "gay" influence into public school curricula.

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'Waterboarding broke al Qaeda captive in 35 seconds,

By WILLIAM LOWTHER

Use of the interrogation technique known as "waterboarding" was approved by the White House and gets results, a former CIA agent admitted yesterday.
The technique - which simulates drowning - was used against Al Qaeda captives with success, John Kiriakou told a U.S. TV network.
The one-time CIA interrogator is the first to speak out about the "torture" methods.

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True cost of carbon cuts

Adam Morton

Economists say the carbon price would need to be about $30 a tonne to have an immediate impact.
This would double electricity bills, with the rising cost spilling over into consumer goods. Fuel prices would jump significantly.
Based on estimates from the Australian Greenhouse Office, pricing carbon at about $30 a tonne would boost costs by about 2.5 percentage points — a year's worth of inflation.

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'Inane' To Think Armed Citizen Can Make a Difference

By Mark Finkelstein

Don't confuse Mika Brzezinski with the facts. She's anti-gun and is not about to let some stunning counter-evidence change her mind.

SCARBOROUGH: One person with a gun in the right place can make a big difference.
GEIST [ever the conciliator]: For good and for bad.
SCARBOROUGH: For good and for bad.
BRZEZINSKI: You know, that is the most inane statement I have ever heard.

But when Joe Scarborough sought to draw the logical inference, Mika put her anti-gun foot down.

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New Study Explodes Human-Global Warming Story

By: Philip V. Brennan

Writing in the International Journal of Climatology of the Royal Meteorological Society, professor David H. Douglass (of the University of Rochester), professor John R. Christy (of the University of Alabama), Benjamin D. Pearson and professor S. Fred Singer (of the University of Virginia) report that observed patterns of temperature changes ("fingerprints") over the last 30 years disagree with what greenhouse models predict and can better be explained by natural factors, such as solar variability.

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The conclusion is that climate change is "unstoppable" and cannot be affected or modified by controlling the emission of greenhouse gases.......

Virus Starts Like a Cold But .................

By Rob Stein

"What was so striking was to see patients who were otherwise healthy be just devastated," Gilbert said. Within a day or two of developing a cough and high fever, some were so sick they would arrive at the emergency room gasping for air.
"They couldn't breathe," Gilbert said. "They were going to die if we didn't get more oxygen into them."

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At least 1,035 Americans in four states have been infected so far this year by the virus, known as an adenovirus. Dozens have been hospitalized, many requiring intensive care, and at least 10 have died.

Jerusalem to be divided

By Aaron Klein

JERUSALEM – A top member of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government today announced Israel "must" give up sections of Jerusalem for a future Palestinian state, even conceding the Palestinians can rename Jerusalem "to whatever they want."
"We must come today and say, friends, the Jewish neighborhoods, including Har Homa, will remain under Israeli sovereignty, and the Arab neighborhoods will be the Palestinian capital, which they will call Jerusalem or whatever they want," said Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon.

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Gun-free zones get people killed

Ted Nugent

Here we go again. Someone tell me why, with nearly 3,000 articles written worldwide within 48 hours following the tragic slaughter at the Omaha, Neb. Westroads Mall last week, not a single article mentioned the most important fact of all -- that there were "no guns allowed" in the mall? I would highly recommend that we finally learn from all these senseless tragedies. Get real. Get rid of politicians who support gun-free slaughter zones. Get rid of gun-free zones. Get a gun, learn to use it and do the right thing.
Bad guys should be shot dead, not Christmas shoppers.

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F in science, A in self-esteem

We could focus on the latest worrisome news in education: the results of an international test released last week that show American 15-year-olds don't know much about science and are falling behind their peers in other industrialized nations. But why get depressed?

There is an aluminum foil lining: The test also found that our teens don't let their ignorance bother them,

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Skeptics Denied Press Credentials at UN Climate Meeting

By Noel Sheppard

Want more proof of just how biased the United Nations is?
A group of reporters representing the conservative newspaper Environment & Climate News were refused press credentials to attend the U.N.'s climate change meeting in Bali this week.

UN press office coordinator Carrie Assheuer said the newspaper's representatives "do not meet the criteria for press accreditation." Environment & Climate News has been in continual publication for 10 years; is sent to more than 75,000 elected officials, opinion leaders, and environmental professionals in the United States; and is one of five newspapers published the by 23-year-old Heartland Institute.

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Padilla codefendant tries to kill himself

BY JAY WEAVER

The mentor to former ''enemy combatant'' Jose Padilla attempted suicide last week as he was held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami, just ahead of their sentencing on terrorism charges.
Adham Amin Hassoun, 45, a former computer programmer from Sunrise who was born in Lebanon, tried to kill himself in his solitary cell in a section known as the special housing unit, according to several people familiar with his detention.

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Unhappy? Self-Critical?

By BENEDICT CAREY

Just about any sports movie, airport paperback or motivational tape delivers a few boilerplate rules for success. Believe in yourself. Don’t take no for an answer. Never quit. Don’t accept second best. It’s hard to argue with those maxims. They seem self-evident — if not written into the Constitution, then at least part of the cultural water supply that irrigates everything from halftime speeches to corporate lectures to SAT coaching classes.

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Baby Boomers Owe America's Young People an Apology

By Dennis Prager

We live in the age of group apologies. I would like to add one. The baby boomer generation needs to apologize to America, especially its young generation, for many sins. Here is a partial list:
First and perhaps foremost, we apologize for robbing many of you of a childhood.

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Mormonism not focus of Romney speech

By Michael Finnegan

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said Monday that he would not focus on his Mormon beliefs in a major speech on religion this week and instead would discuss his concern that "faith has disappeared from the public square."

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Judge: Prosecutors 'overreacted' in border shooting

By SUSAN CARROLL

A federal appeals judge this morning said prosecutors "overreacted" by charging two former U.S. Border Patrol agents with a gun charge that carried a mandatory sentence of at least 10 years in prison.
A three-judge panel in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard arguments today by attorneys for Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos and Jose Compean, who are serving sentences of 11 and 12 years in prison .

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U.S. evangelist launches swine attack on Muslims

By Joe Kovacs

An American evangelist has jumped into the fray over the fate of a British teacher facing calls for death over a teddy bear named "Muhammad."

Bill Keller, host of LivePrayer, has posted a video on YouTube featuring a pink, toy pig named Muhammad after the Muslim prophet.

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Clink the picture to see video

Vote Hillary: She Thinks You're An Idiot

David Weigel

Everyone was wondering how Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign would act if it started falling behind in the polls, and yesterday we got an answer: It would act completely ridiculous.

The Clintons have played faster and looser with fundraising and donating-for-influence than any Democrat in history, so an attack on Obama's funds is unexpected, the sort of thing that could muddy both of their images—although he would have more to lose. Think of draft dodging George W. Bush attacking John Kerry's Vietnam stories.

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The CAIR Bears are here!

Jihad Bear - Jihad Bear is at the front lines killing filthy Zionist Bears everywhere. Peace be upon him!

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More gay men describe sexual encounters with U.S. Sen. Craig

BY DAN POPKEY

David Phillips. Mike Jones. Greg Ruth. Tom Russell.
Four gay men, willing to put their names in print and whose allegations can't be disproved, have come forward since news of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's guilty plea. They say they had sex with Craig or that he made a sexual advance or that he paid them unusual attention.

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