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The case against a Missouri mother accused of creating a fake MySpace page to harass a 13-year-old girl should be tossed out of court because if she is guilty as charged, then so are millions of Internet users every day, her attorney said in court documents filed today. The papers show that Lori Drew, who was the focus of national outrage after the girl committed suicide, will seize on a weakness in the prosecution case that has been noted by several legal experts since her May indictment: While her alleged behavior may have been wrong, there is no specific legal...

It appears that Camp Noriega held a fundraiser in London at the "Texas Embassy" in support of his campaign last week. The "Embassy" is a Tex-Mex restaurant in Trafalgar Square. The fundraiser brought in a ::brace yourselves everyone, this one's a killer:: monumental "$400.00! Woo hoo!!! They sure gave him a Texas sized welcome. There was about 12 people attending the fundraiser...all of which were Americans living in London. 3 were Texan. Here is some commentary from Camp Cornyn on the fundraiser: "As he was hauling in $400, Rick Noriega told his London supporters that Texas is "not quite meeting...

California, six other Western states and four Canadian provinces will launch a market-based carbon trading system in a major North American effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, according to a draft proposal released today. When it officially begins in four years, the program would first target heavy polluters such as electric utilities, oil refineries and large industrial and commercial facilities, which would be required to begin reporting emission levels beginning in 2011 to allow participating governments to agree on the maximum level of emissions for the region. The plan also includes an offsets system, part of...

Senate Republicans have threatened to block nearly all other bills pending before the August recess if Democrats refuse to vote with them on expanding offshore drilling. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said bills that do not pertain to energy can wait until after the August recess, with gas prices now surpassing $4 per gallon. McConnell and top Republicans indicated Wednesday they would oppose any procedural votes to take up other legislation, which require 60 votes to succeed. "We think there is nothing more important that we can do right now than to deal with the Number One issue of...

MINSK (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez vowed on Wednesday to work with Belarus, an ex-Soviet state long at odds with Washington, to defeat "hegemonistic" U.S. imperialism. Chavez, a self-styled socialist revolutionary, was making his third visit to Belarus in as many years after overseeing energy deals in Russia that consolidated his country's relations with Moscow. Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, described by Chavez as a "brother", has long railed against the influence of the United States in world affairs. Western nations accuse him of flouting freedom of speech and assembly in 14 years in power. "We are struggling against the...

With the five-week August recess just nine days away, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her colleagues in the Democratic leadership are doing everything they can to keep Members from having to vote on more American energy production to help lower gas prices.  Their months-long campaign of inaction in the face of soaring gas prices not only pits Democratic leaders against the American people – who support more production as part of any comprehensive energy plan – but it also pits them against an increasing number of rank-and-file Members of their own party.  This morning’s Politico details the Democrats’ strategy...

Bill Roggio checks in with Brett to talk about the latest on the visit to the Middle East by Barack Obama, plus Bill's take on the latest in Iraq, Pakistan and also Yemen. Interesting revelations and analysis by Bill Roggio as always.

I believe it is time for congress to dissolve state governments. Here are my reasons: 1) State governments simply don’t care about the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. The majority of laws enacted by state governments violate the rights of American citizens in one way or another. 2) State governments don’t care about their own state constitution either. The majority of laws enacted by state governments violate their own state constitution. 3) State governments look the other way while municipal governments within the state, which are created and controlled by the state government, routinely pass ordinances that violate, the...

I didn't post a link to this because I wasn't sure if we could link to snopes.com, but I felt it important enough to post. It's amazing that no one in the MSM is at all concerned whether or not Obama is a natural-born citizen, but we better make damn sure McCain is! Check out how thorough snopes researches the question. Plus the fact that they claim the status is "undetermined." This was posted today at snopes.

SDEROT, Israel, July 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama warned in Israel Wednesday a nuclear Iran could lead to nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee told a news conference in Sderot after meetings in Jerusalem with Israeli leaders and in the West Bank with Palestinian officials such a scenario "is our single most important threat, both to Israel and also to the United States."

Watch the video. http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=137423

At least 80 people were injured during a bullfight in Colombia when stands in an overcrowded stadium collapsed underneath the crowd. Some 500 spectators screamed in panic and scrambled for safety as, following the collapse, the bull charged towards crowds at the stadium in Planadas, in the south of the country. Two men dressed as clowns tried to distract the bull and tempt it away from the mass of people before others joined them in trying to pin it down. The dramatic events at the annual fiesta were caught live on television and an investigation into how it happened has...

WASHINGTON: A new study has found that lesbians are nearly twice as likely to be overweight than heterosexual women. Researchers at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing are now using an extraordinarily successful, predominately lesbian weight loss group in Atlanta, as a model system for discovering how to target obesity in a lesbian population. Sarah Fogel, Ph.D., R.N., associate professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, is studying the group, and her findings are giving her a different view on weight loss. "All weight loss groups offer an environment of like-bodied people (overweight or obese), but this is...

In a surprising twist to a Johnson County murder that gained nationwide attention, Edwin Hall pleaded guilty this afternoon to killing Kelsey Smith. Hall stood before Judge Peter Ruddick as he entered guilty pleas to charges of capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape and aggravated criminal sodomy. For the murder charge, he faces life in prison with no chance of parole. For each of the other three counts, the range of punishment is 147 to 653 months.

Pick the best song for their devotion. Video at link

Iraqi security forces are massing more than 30,000 soldiers and police for an upcoming operation against al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army in the eastern province of Diyala, according to police and military officials. The operation, which was expected to be launched this week, has been scheduled to kick off on August 1, an anonymous senior Iraqi military officer told AFP. "The operation is aimed at cleansing the region of insurgents, al Qaeda and militias who are still there," the officer said. Like other offensives against al Qaeda and the Mahdi Army, the Diyala operation will be planned and led...

On Today’s Show... The Drive-By Media see Obama as historic, and they want him to make history so they can say they were there when it happened. (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen Here) The Official EIB Obam-Uh criticizer on The Messiah dissing our troops, and giving props to Mookie's boyz and the Sunnis for the victory won by the Bush-Petraeus surge. Pearl of Wisdom: "Obama seems to think history in the Middle East started yesterday. He's making a fool of himself. This is not presidential. This is pathetic, embarrassing ignorance coupled with arrogance." (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen Here) » The...

Radovan Karadzic was arrested after information provided to investigators by the Hague's other most wanted man, Ratko Mladic, German intelligence sources have revealed. General Mladic, who was Karadzic's military commander and led Bosnian Serb troops during the massacre at Srebrenica, is one of two Balkans war crimes suspects still on the run. His capture is expected within weeks as his political support network crumbles and the European Union continues to pressure Serbia to hand him over. But according to German intelligence sources, Mladic has been negotiating with those hunting him over the terms of his capture, and "gave information on...

BUT WILL THEY RESPECT HIM IN THE MORNING?July 23, 2008 Back before the Republican Party was saddled with John McCain as its nominee, The New York Times called him "the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe." The paper praised him for "working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation" and predicted that he would appeal to "a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field." At the same time, the Times denounced "the real" Rudy Giuliani as "a narrow, obsessively secretive,...

TALLAHASSEE (Bay News 9) -- Desperate for votes and armed with new technologies, political parties are changing the way they find their voters. They're tracking everything from the food people eat to the car they drive. The sophisticated strategy is called microtargeting. Republicans pioneered microtargeting four years ago. They say it contributed to George W. Bush being re-elected. Katie Gordon with the state GOP says people who own guns are their top microtargets. "What we do is contact people and ask them, and maybe people who have not supported a Republican in the past or who have not indicated that...

When Gov. Alfred E. Smith ran for president in 1928, his candidacy was derailed in large part by anti-Catholic prejudice. It has been nearly 48 years since John F. Kennedy became the first (and so far only) Roman Catholic president, but experts say that anti-Catholic sentiment — much of it originating in, or as a response to, immigrants in New York — remains an enduring force in American culture. That was the consensus of a panel assembled at the Museum of the City of New York on Tuesday night to consider the question, “Is Anti-Catholicism Dead?” ...The Rev. Richard John...

Manny Ramirez will not be in the starting lineup for this afternoon's series finale in Seattle. Red Sox manager Terry Francona said Ramirez showed up this morning and said his right knee was sore, an overnight development that the manager said caught him by surprise. The trainers had not communicated any issue to Francona after the game. "He showed up this morning, I wasn't ready for that,'' Francona said. "He said his right knee hurts.'' Francona then joked, "The (expletive) jaywalking, if you do it right, you won't hurt your knee.'' Ramirez told reporters his knee has been bothering him...

BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- The latest thinking in the Silicon Valley scene regarding the Microsoft-Yahoo-Carl Icahn Saga, which is not going away, might be about some sort of killer patent owned by Yahoo. Right now financial researchers everywhere are trying to figure out what exactly the patent is. The blogosphere has been abuzz with various notions that the real reason Microsoft Corp. wants Yahoo Inc. has to do with a patent that Microsoft needs to implement its future money making philosophies. One of the hot articles with the most details regarding these possibilities is written by blogger-essayist Usman Latif, who...

A five minute video with a message of God's sovereignty, good for the soul of the saint - convicting for the soul of the spiritually dead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEadldYHtUk

High Cliffs Surrounding Echus Chasma on Mars Credit: G. Neukum (FU Berlin) et al., Mars Express, DLR, ESA Explanation: What created this great cliff on Mars? Did giant waterfalls once plummet through its grooves? With a four-kilometer drop, this high cliff surrounding Echus Chasma, near an impressive impact crater, was carved by either water or lava. A leading hypothesis is that Echus Chasma, at 100-kilometers long and 10-kilometers wide, was once one of the largest water sources on Mars. If true, water once held in Echus Chasma likely ran over the Martian surface to carve the impressive Kasei Valles, which...

I can understand Obama traveling to Iraq and Afghanistan to meet with the troops, talk to military leaders, a listen and learn trip – so to speak, as the presumptive Democratic nominee and as Illinois Senator. Sure it is odd that he laid out his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan in an op-ed piece in the New York Times one week before he left, but I will not criticize him for that. I also do not mind his traveling to Israel, our closest ally in the region, knowing full well that he must garnish more support from the Jewish community...

The McCain campaign's newly aggressive approach was on display today at a “Straight Talk Town Hall” event in Pennsylvania.

Welcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Will we hear… Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. troop "surge" in Iraq that President George W. Bush ordered last year has ended after the last of five additional combat brigades left the country, a U.S. military spokesman said on Tuesday. The remaining troops from that brigade departed over the weekend, leaving just under 147,000 American soldiers in Iraq, the spokesman said. "The final elements of the surge brigade have now left, getting out a few days ahead of schedule," he said. The U.S. military had 20 combat brigades in Iraq at its peak in 2007, with troop levels around 160,000-170,000.

Yes, the sad little cracker has met its undignified end, so stop pestering me. The cracker, the koran, and another surprise entry have been violated and are gone. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for the details, what little of them there are. I must quickly apologize to all you good Catholics who were hoping to attend Mass, since you can't anymore — I have been told many hundreds of times now that cracker abuse violates your right to practice your religion. I guess you'll have to adapt. Secular humanism is a good alternative, if you aren't already flocking to...

The AP is reporting that due to current grain prices, the Afghans are abandoning Opium, in favour of Wheat. See more at link.

The "surge" in Iraq sure appears to have worked.  There are some who say President Bush should have listened to voices such as Senator John McCain and then Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki in the first place, rather than taking the foolish advice of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other "neo-con" hardliners. But before we give all the credit to the "more boots on the ground" stompers and all the blame to Rumsfeld and the neo-cons, let's take a second look at the surge. To set the stage, let's look at the results to date.  (In the...

Religious images seem to have appeared over the years in everything from a sliced potato to 400-year-old granite, and some lucky finds from around the world have sold for thousands of dollars on eBay and reportedly delivered divine messages. One of the latest "discoveries" is a piece of beef at a restaurant in Nigeria that seems to depict the name of the Prophet Muhammad and has diners flocking to see it from miles around.

Five months ago, I returned to Iraq as an embedded journalist, some 18 months after I had completed a combat tour there. It was a worthwhile trip. I returned to Iraq to cover the progress the U.S. military had been making on the ground since the surge had begun. Mainstream-media coverage of the war had largely ignored the counterinsurgency’s success, rehearsing outdated notions of the conditions there. You could say I made the long trip to the front to cover an exposed domestic flank of American public opinion.

UPDATE: The NATIONAL ENQUIRER is revealing new details about the political scoop we broke yesterday - the secret meeting between Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards and Rielle Hunter. A team of ENQUIRER reporters caught the married ex-senator visiting his mistress and secret love child late Monday night at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles hotel. As we reported previously, Edwards arrived at the hotel at 9:45 p.m. (PST) Monday, driven by a friend in a BMW, and was seen by ENQUIRER reporter Alan Butterfield. We can now reveal that the man who drove Edwards was Bob McGovern, the same...

During a whirlwind 36-hour visit that saw US presidential hopeful Barak Obama meet with all of the top Israeli and Palestinian leaders and visit numerous sites throughout the country on Wednesday, the Democratic candidate said all the right things as he tried to assure Israelis that a US administration with him at the helm would not endanger the Jewish state. Polls have shown that a large majority of Israelis prefer Obama’s opponent, Republican John McCain, as president, fearing the Democratic candidate’s Muslim family history and his personal ties to religious figures and political advisors hostile toward Israel.

Similar human decomposition smells found in a yard and a car during a search for a missing Orlando girl indicate the source may have been moved, investigators said Wednesday. A search for Caylee Anthony, 2, continued Wednesday despite questions about whether the girl is still alive. Last week, cadaver dogs searched the Orange County back yard of Cindy and George Anthony for signs of their missing granddaughter, who was not reported missing for five weeks. During the search, cadaver dogs found the smell of human decomposition in the yard, Local 6 learned. The dogs also hit on the same smell...

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today announced that John McCain will participate in a town hall meeting on cancer alongside Lance Armstrong at the LIVESTRONG Summit in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday, July 24th.

The director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and UPMC Cancer Centers plans to issue an advisory to about 3,000 faculty and staff tomorrow about the possible health risks associated with cellular phone use. The document suggests certain measures to limit exposure to the electromagnetic fields emitted by the devices, such as limiting the length of conversations or keeping the phones away from the head by using headsets or speaker phone options. It also recommends that children not use cell phones except in emergencies.

Call me paranoid, but my generation has seen many nasty things and I wouldn't be surprized to find the "accidental" oil spill that happened just as McCain was about to go to a rig, as a democrat induced happening....I would want to know who piloted the boats involved, were there any unions that back democrats in place, etc.....These things have to be pointed out because the democrats don't care a whit about the country, just that money and power tit they suck on.....and they are capable of doing anything....anything

LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton has come out -- in favor of gay marriage. As a wedding gift to friend and celebrity publicist Howard Bragman and his longtime partner, Chuck O'Donnell, Bratton made it official: He and his wife, former Court TV diva Rikki Kleiman, strongly believe that gays have a right to marry. And in honor of Bragman and O'Donnell, who wed this past week in Norwalk, the chief and Kleiman have made a donation to Equality California, a group seeking to stop a state ballot measure this November that would ban same-sex marriages. "The Constitution guarantees life,...

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is an admirer of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama -- even though she has not yet met him in person. Asked at a news conference on Wednesday what she thought of Obama, Merkel responded: "I would say that he is well-equipped -- physically, mentally and politically." Obama is due to meet with Merkel for about an hour on Thursday morning and will later give a speech on transatlantic relations at the "Victory Column" in Berlin's Tiergarten park. Merkel objected to initial plans by the Obama campaign to hold the speech at the Brandenburg...

ARLINGTON, VA -- Today, in Israel, Barack Obama once again demonstrated that his words really don't matter. When asked about his support for meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "without precondition," Barack Obama said, "I think what I said" was that he would meet with these leaders "at my time and choosing" and with "preparation." Unfortunately, for Barack Obama, that is not what he said and campaigned on for months: BARACK OBAMA: "What I Said" Was... Today, Barack Obama Claimed He Said Last Year That He Would Meet With Leaders "At My Time And Choosing" With "Preparation." QUESTIONER: "A...

Congressman John Boehner of Ohio is set to introduce The American Energy Act, which will most importantly increase America’s energy supplies. The bill calls for leasing regulations for offshore natural gas by 2010, removing restrictions for outer continental shelf drilling, and opening up sections of ANWR for drilling.As The Heritage Foundation’s Senior Policy Analyst Ben Lieberman has been arguing this even when gas prices were around $1 a gallon. More energy supplies, not more taxes and regulations, are what this country needs. It’s economics 101: expanding supply is the surest way to lower energy prices, and the quicker Congress moves...

"Check out the promotional ad for Lynn Sweet's reporting on Obama's World Tour..... as captured from the Chicago Sun-Times Web page today"......

Former Vice President Al Gore recently took his climate-change show on the road for the benefit of liberal bloggers, Sunday morning TV aficionados and other innocent bystanders. This week he laid out his demand for a miraculous transformation in U.S. energy use over a mere 10 years. As for drilling for more oil? "Absurd," the Nobel Laureate scoffed. "When you're in a hole, stop digging." The same might be said for Mr. Gore. For while his message hasn't changed, the political realities of the energy debate have. Suddenly, Mr. Gore's inconvenient speechifying only tightens the vise Democrats find themselves in...

BAGHDAD, July 23 (VOI) – The decline in armed operations against joint forces and Iraqi civilians will positively affect U.S. Top Commander in Iraq David Petraeus's recommendations on the situation in Iraq to the Congress, a spokesman for the Multi-National Force (MNF) said on Wednesday. "The recommendations that field commanders will submit to Petraeus will be included in the report, which he will present to U.S. Congress in September on the situation of the MNF and the abilities of Iraqi security forces," Brigadier General David Perkins said during a Baghdad-based press conference. The U.S. top commander "will hold talks with...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. stock market would fare better in the first year after a victory by Republican presidential candidate John McCain than by his Democratic rival Barack Obama, according to a majority of economists at U.S. banks and research groups polled by Reuters. But the survey of 29 firms taken alongside a regular Reuters economic poll also found that economists had mixed views on the two candidates' economic plans. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being "very good," 12 economists gave McCain's proposals higher marks, while nine rated the two candidates equally and eight preferred...

Pete Wehner has a great piece about Obama, Democrats, and the Surge. He has gone through the records of nearly every prominent Democrat, pulled their public comments on the issue, and makes them eat 'em. First Chef Wehner serves Obama a big plate of bitch-slap. Sayeth the Messiah: I don't think the president's strategy is going to work. We went through two weeks of hearings on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; experts from across the spectrum--military and civilian, conservative and liberal--expressed great skepticism about it. My suggestion to the president has been that the only way we're going to change...