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BEGIN TRANSCRIPT Senator McCain. I wonder how he feels today. Senator McCain went out there yesterday, made this speech in which he pretended it's 2013, the end of his first term, looking back at all the things that have been accomplished, and you just know that the attitude he has when he makes this speech is that, "I am a good person. I am an honorable person, and I have integrity, and we're all friends, we're all Americans. We're not from different countries. We all should just put aside this partisanship and get along." He gives this great flowering,...

In an interview to air later tonight on Bloomberg TV, Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) said President Bush is "absolutely radioactive" and Republicans "will suffer widespread election losses in November unless they distance themselves from him." Said Davis: "They've got to get some separation from the president." Davis also said his party "would lose 20 to 25 House seats if the election were held today." And if Sen. John McCain is seen by voters as "Bush III" he will lose by 20 percentage points.

The re-election prospects for Washington Governor Christine Gregoire (D) have improved significantly over the past two months. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Washington voters shows Gregoire leading her Republican challenger, Dino Rossi, by eleven percentage points. It’s Gregoire 52% Rossi 41%. In late March, Gregoire was up by just a statistically insignificant single percentage point. In February, Rossi had a one point advantage. Four years ago, the 2004 election between the same two candidates was one of the closest elections in the state’s history.

The Popular Press is lined up outside the tuxedo rental places here in Your Nation's Capital, to get ready for what they all assume will be the Coronation of Sen. Barack Obama as the Nominee for President of the Democratic Party after the primaries in Kentucky and Oregon. The endorsement of John Edwards yesterday, one assumes, also brings his eleven delegates with him. That would put Obama, according to CNN's count, at 1,910 delegates only 115 short of the 2,025 to have a majority. Kentucky (60 delegates) and Oregon (65 delegates) will hold their primaries on Tuesday. Assuming Obama and...

Before March, the Unites States Senate election in Kansas was a shoe-in for Republican incumbent Pat Roberts. At that point there was no viable Democratic candidate in the race and the state has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932. However, the decision by Democratic Congressmen Jim Slattery to run for office has made the race potentially more interesting. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Kansas voters found Roberts leading Slattery 52% to 40%.

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – Award-winning actor and part-time rocker Gary Sinise and the "Lt. Dan Band” jammed for a standing-room-only crowd in the courtyard of the Pentagon today. Hollywood actor and part-time rocker Gary Sinise performs at the 4th Annual America Supports You Military Tribute Concert as part of the Military Appreciation Month celebrations. Sinise and “The Lt. Dan Band” jammed for a standing-room-only crowd packed into the courtyard of the Pentagon. Defense Dept. photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Rocking at the Pentagon,” Sinise exclaimed mid-set for a much-appreciative audience. The...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – Psychological health issues and traumatic brain injuries are primary areas of study in military medicine, a senior Department of Defense medical official said. “What we are learning in studies will lead to some major breakthroughs in the world of medicine,” Dr. Michael E. Kilpatrick, deputy director for force health protection and readiness programs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, said in an interview on the “Dot Mil Docs” program on BlogTalkRadio.com. Kilpatrick said that the better they understand how to prevent both psychological health issues and traumatic brain injuries...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – The National Guard's 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team based in New York is part of a task force sent to Afghanistan to train and mentor the Afghan national security forces, a military official said yesterday. “Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix 12 consists of active, Guard, reserve, all services, components, coalition partners -- for a total of 8,500-plus soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen,” Army Col. Brian Balfe, commander of the U.S. Army National Guard’s 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, told online journalists and “bloggers.” While Task Force Phoenix is only on a nine-month tour as opposed...

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla., May 16, 2008 – The current generation of warfighters in Iraq and Afghanistan is poised to be the next “greatest generation,” the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here yesterday. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. James Cartwright talks with retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard "Tex" Brown at the 2008 Daedalian Awards dinner at Fort Walton Beach, Fla., May 15, 2008. Cartwright was the keynote speaker, presenting awards to military pilots. Defense Department photo by Air Force Tech. Sgt. Adam M. Stump   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – Afghan and coalition security forces detained eight suspected Taliban militants during a joint operation conducted in Paktia province yesterday, U.S. military officials said. Afghan and coalition forces searched several compounds in the province’s Zadran district while looking for a Taliban operative with links to local roadside bomb attacks and the movement of insurgent fighters. Some explosives components discovered during the search were removed for disposal. In other news, one militant was killed and 13 others were detained during a coalition operation in Helmand province May 14. During a search of several compounds in the Garmser...

One of the wisest American former officials I know asked me a few nights ago: “Michael, put on your thinking cap, and tell me where the United States will be four years from now, if Barack Obama is president.” I had been trying to avoid that question in my own mind. I have tried to tell myself the old proverb (told me by my father), “God takes care of children, drunks, and the United States of America.” I have tried to imagine that Obama will not be president. But I should try to do the responsible thing: follow the trail...

On Today’s Show... The Democrats are throwing a fit over President Bush's truthful statement about appeasing evil. Obama threw a tantrum, taking it personally even though the president didn't mention Obama by any of his names. (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen Here) When you're a messiah, everything that happens anywhere in the world is about you, eh, Barack? What a spoiled little child this guy is. (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen Here)A helpful guide for the speech police: Things you can't say about Obama, or talk about because Lil' Barack might think are about him. (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen Here) Pearl...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – The deputy secretary of defense called on Congress to act quickly to pass the fiscal 2008 supplemental legislation for the war on terror. In a May 15 letter, Gordon England told Congress the legislation is urgent and needed before the House and Senate recess for Memorial Day. “Absent additional Congressional action, the Army will run out of military personnel funds by mid-June and operation and maintenance funds by early July,” England said in the letter. Civilian personnel funding and money for the Commander’s Emergency Response Program also is included in the operations-and-maintenance accounts. “CERP funding...

California Sen. Barbara Boxer in an interview this week dismissed the uproar over whether likely Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama will be able to attract the white working class or women in November. "Nobody's ever said to me, I'm not voting for you because you're Jewish, and I don't believe they vote that way, or because you're a woman," Boxer said. "They want to know what I believe in, what I care about, not the color of my skin or my religion. I just really get insulted by that, to be honest. I really do." As a super delegate,...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – Coalition forces killed one terrorist and detained 19 suspects during a series of operations targeting al-Qaida in Iraq operatives in central and northern Iraq today, military officials said. -- Coalition forces killed one insurgent and captured another during an anti-al Qaida operation near Khan Bani Saad, about 20 miles north of Baghdad. -- In Baghdad, coalition forces detained one suspected terrorist. -- In Mosul, coalition forces captured an alleged al-Qaida in Iraq financier and seven other suspects. -- In Tikrit, coalition forces detained four suspected terrorists. -- Near Balad, coalition forces detained five suspected terrorists...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – More than 300 former members of “Sons of Iraq” graduated to Iraqi policemen during a ceremony at Kirkuk Police Academy on May 15. A Kirkuk Police Academy instructor straightens the beret of an Iraqi police recruit before a graduation ceremony, May 15, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Margaret C. Nelson, 1st Battalion, 10th Mountain Division   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The students graduated after eight weeks of training here. “The Kirkuk province has shown tremendous progress in the last year. Events like this prove we are taking the necessary steps...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – The battle against improvised explosive devices takes place on the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan every day, but this week coalition members took the fight into a conference room, tucked away on an air base in Southwest Asia. Arranged by the Combined Air and Space Operations Center’s Combined Theater Electronic Warfare Coordination Cell, the conference put IED experts from Iraq and Afghanistan together with William Hughes, director of the Joint IED Defeat Organization’s test board and test board members to exchange information during the two-day conference. “We’re here to see if we’re meeting the warfighters’...

Republicans are bracing for a political annihilation of epic proportions after losing a special election this week in a solidly conservative district in Mississippi — yes, Mississippi. We can call this "a harbinger." And Republicans not only deserve the flogging, they should be praying for more. We can call this "creative destruction." When Democrats claim that Republican presidential candidate John McCain would mean a third term of the Bush presidency, they're not kidding. The GOP offers no coherent policy, no leadership, no imagination, no principles and, most important, it offers no choice. The Democrat-run Congress now carries an approval rating...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – The Defense Department needs to worry more about what warfighters need right now than what they may need down the road, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said last night. In a speech to the Business Executives for National Security group, Gates said he will work for the remainder of his time in office to ensure the department fulfills its “sacred obligation” to support U.S. servicemembers now fighting on the front lines. This means doing all that is needed to “see that they are successful on the battlefield and properly cared for at home,” Gates...

Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is trying to tap a new audience of potential voters by taking his campaign message straight to liberal and nonpolitical issues-based blogs, which reach millions of readers but don't often delve into conservative politics. The strategy was in full swing yesterday when Mr. McCain invited non-conservative bloggers to join his regular blogger conference call, just hours after he delivered a major speech previewing his war strategy and other priorities for a first presidential term. It already has started a war among liberal bloggers over how to react to Mr. McCain's overture. In answering the first...

Barack Obama's campaign hopes it will. They're putting out the word that they hope to announce on the night of May 20, after the results come in from the Kentucky and Oregon primaries, that their candidate has the 2,025 votes needed for the Democratic nomination. That would mean that the nomination would be settled before the May 31 rules committee meeting on the status of the disqualified Michigan and Florida delegations; this would deprive Clinton of a grievance but would not deprive Obama of the nomination. The June 1 primary in Puerto Rico, in which it seems possible Clinton could...

It was a night filled with costumes, kegs, and partying. One problem, it took place at the Colorado Governor's Mansion. photos posted on the internet show Governor Bill Ritter's 22-year-old son August Ritter III drinking from a keg at a recent masquerade party held at the historic home. The other picture shows August Ritter and an unidentified female playing around with the state flag. An invitation, reading, "Mansion Masquerade-Because Life is Too Tasty Not to Party"-

An evangelical pastor who backs John McCain tried to put his controversial remarks about the Catholic Church behind him, apologizing to the head of the Catholic League and expressing "deep regret for any comments Catholics found hurtful." ...In his letter, Hagee said he had gained a better understanding in recent weeks of the Catholic Church's relationship to the Jewish faith. He wrote of his "profound respect for the Catholic people" and said he hoped to advance "greater unity among Catholics and evangelicals." The Catholic League said in a statement that it accepted the apology. "Pastor John Hagee has demonstrated an...

Reacting to the decision of the California Supreme Court to ignore Proposition 22, which declares that “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California," and was passed with a whopping 61 percent of the vote, an outraged Michael Reagan urged California voters to join him in refusing to vote for any ballot measures in the State of California in the 2008 November election since the courts can simply nullify their votes whenever they want to. Reagan, whose father Ronald Reagan served two terms as California’s governor before winning the presidency in 1980, said "I...

Contact: Press Office, 703-650-5550; www.JohnMcCain.com ARLINGTON, Virginia, May 16 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Senator John McCain will deliver the following remarks as prepared for delivery at the National Rifle Association of America Annual Meeting, in Louisville, KY, today at 4:30 p.m. EDT: It is a pleasure to be here this afternoon. I know you have heard from a number of my friends and colleagues today -- Governors Huckabee and Romney, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Ambassador John Bolton, and Kentucky's own, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. And you have heard from an American hero, Greg Stubbe, who sacrificed greatly so that...

Today in Watertown, South Dakota, Barack Obama responded to comments about appeasement made by President Bush in the Israeli Knesset yesterday. He linked John McCain to Bush, saying that McCain "embraced" the comments in a conference call with bloggers.

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

What is surely undeniable is the imperative need to defeat Hezbollah, and that America and Britain will either help bring that about -- or will help strengthen it instead through continuing to pursue their lethally misguided strategy of appeasing Syria and Iran.

Operation Chaos South Dakota Update Monday May 19 by 5:00 PM is the last day to register to vote for the June 3, 2008 Presidential Primaries in South Dakota. SD is one of the last states to vote (along with New Mexico and Montana). You have to be registered within each party to vote and bring a form of ID such as a SD driver’s license. As far as I am aware there are no unconstitutional loyalty oaths that some of the other states have tried to enforce. There are 27 delegates at stake for the Reps and Dems have...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had barely been on the job a month back in 2004 when he ordered the city to issue marriages licenses to gay and lesbian couples. Thousands of same-sex partners flocked to City Hall to exchange vows. For four weeks, a steady stream of ceremonies stretched into the night, and lines of eager couples wrapped around the block. And as quickly as the couples could say, "I do," the scene of women marrying women and men marrying men sparked a nationwide uproar. Proponents called the move bold. Opponents called it defiant and blatantly illegal. People on...

Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), looking to shore up support with the once-hostile National Rifle Association (NRA), used his speech to the group’s national convention to blast Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). Seizing on what has come to be known as Obama’s “bitterness” comments, McCain on Friday said the Second Amendment “isn’t some archaic custom that matters only to rural Americans who find solace in firearms out of frustration with their economic circumstances.” In his prepared remarks, McCain also hit Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), though to a noticeably lesser degree. McCain said Democrats will dress up...

Mrs. Obama clearly identifies herself with a “separatist” view of race. “By actually working with the Black lower class or within their communities as a result of their ideologies, a separatist may better understand the desperation of their situation and feel more hopeless about a resolution as opposed to an integrationist who is ignorant to their plight.” Obama writes that the path she chose by attending Princeton would likely lead to her “further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.”...

Right off the bat he reaffirmed that Hezbollah is “not a legitimate political party.” Instead, “It’s a destabilizing organization by any common-sense standard. This wouldn’t happen without the support of Iran and Syria.” I asked him what he meant with all this emphasis on electoral and patronage reform. He said the U.S. should help the Lebanese government deliver better services to the Shiites “to peel support away from Hezbollah” and encourage the local populace to “view them as an oppressive force.” The U.S. should “find a mechanism whereby the disaffected have an effective outlet for their grievances, which assures them...

"Hearing a loud noise and interrupting his speech, Huckabee said: "That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he—he dove for the floor."

Michelle Cottle has a superior article at The New Republic on what happened to Hillary Clinton's campaign. It is told by "the high-level advisors, staffers, fundraisers, and on-the-ground organizers who lived it." It is not a pretty picture. Evidently, part of the problem was that Clinton just didn't want it bad enough: Bottom line: I just don't think she was hungry enough for it in the beginning. It wasn't really until the ten-in-a-row loss that she started doing stuff like Saturday Night Live and Jon Stewart. In the beginning, it was hard to get her to do those things. Early...

Lie Back and Enjoy It Malcolm A. Kline, May 16, 2008 If you think that the globe is not getting warmer, you could be closer to the inconvenient truth than most academic and media elites. “Bruce Hall [2007] has reviewed climate data for the 50 US states; his chart of the number of record-high temperatures by year goes back to 1884,” the Science and Environmental Policy Project reports. “The chart shows 25 extreme high temperature records set in 1934 and 29 in 1936, but none in 2001, 2003, 2004, or 2005.” “There is no evidence from U. S. records that...

Another 50-50 Myth Debunked by: Bethany Stotts, May 16, 2008 Do Americans live in a democracy or in a scum-ridden, corrupt regime run by elite interests? Skeptics tend to believe the latter. “Start with this reality: the Powers That Be don’t want genuine democracy...They intend for politics to be a spectator event for us, scripted by the one-tenth of 1 percent of elites who put up the controlling money,” write Jim Hightower and Susan DeMarco in their book, Swim Against the Current. While hyperbolic (as is much of Hightower’s writing), their argument exemplifies how research placing American voter turnout at...

<p>Just reported on Fox News - Amanda Carpenter of Townhall - "rumor going around there are videotapes coming out of Michelle Obam saying Wright type speech"</p>

BDS has struck Obama...he is blaming Bush for EVERYTHING!!Turn on a TV the guy is unspooling before our very eyes..

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds fired back that Obama’s retort was a “hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn’t even mentioned.”

WATERTOWN, South Dakota (Reuters) - Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama said on Friday President George W. Bush's "failed policies" had strengthened U.S. enemies like Iran and Hamas. Responding to Bush's comment on Thursday that those who want to talk to Iran were like Nazi appeasers before the Second World War, Obama accused Bush of "exactly the kind of appalling attack that's divided the country and that alienates us from the world." Obama also challenged Bush and Republican presidential rival John McCain to a debate on foreign policy issues, a day after Bush caused outrage among Democrats with his remarks on...

This general election campaign is getting off to a rollicking start. From McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds: It was remarkable to see Barack Obama’s hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn’t even mentioned. These are serious issues that deserve a serious debate, not the same tired partisan rants we heard today from Senator Obama. Senator Obama has pledged to unconditionally meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- who pledges to wipe Israel off the map, denies the Holocaust, sponsors terrorists, arms America’s enemies in Iraq and pursues nuclear weapons. What would Senator Obama talk about with...

Democrats outraged by Bush "appeasement" remark. Bush said, “America stands with you in breaking up terrorist networks and denying the extremists sanctuary. And America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. Permitting the world’s leading sponsor of terror to possess the world’s deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” And: “Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” he said. “We...

Hey sweetie, are you bitter? Pittsburgh Tribune-Review By Salena Zito Perfect Sen. John McCain bumper sticker: Hey sweetie, are you bitter?

SAN JOSE, Calif. - After running one of Silicon Valley's powerhouse companies for six years, Carly Fiorina now has her sights set on the White House. Not for her — not yet, at least. But for John McCain. Fiorina, 53, joined the Republican senator's presidential campaign this spring. She brings with her a long list of wealthy friends and supporters and intimate insight into how some of the largest corporations work, having been at the helm of Hewlett-Packard Co. and before that, senior management at AT&T Inc. and its spinoff Lucent Technologies. While the new gig is her first in...

Maybe the Obama-inspired tremor that began in Chris Matthews’ leg has traveled up to his head and done some damage. Last night on Hardball, Matthews was discussing–what else?–President Bush’s unconscionable Obama attack in the Knesset. The conversation with conservative radio host Kevin James wended round to the career of Neville Chamberlain, and Matthews began to excoriate James for being ignorant of history. Things got very heated, and James fired back, recounting recent historical examples of America’s failure to counter terrorist acts against the U.S. When James mentioned Bill Clinton’s lackadaisical response to the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in...

Barack Obama is sticking by his defense of same-sex unions, despite the likelihood that it will flare up as a general election issue because of today's California Supreme Court decision legalizing it. Here's the Obama camp's response to the court decision: "Barack Obama has always believed that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the law, and he will continue to fight for civil unions as President. He respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage." The Republicans are likely to...

Releases Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 05/16/2008 Pelosi Statement on President Bush’s Failure to Pressure Saudi Arabia to Increase Oil Production Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement on record oil prices as news reports indicate that Saudi Arabian officials have rejected pleas from President Bush to increase oil production. In trading today, oil reached a record more than $127 a barrel: “As record oil prices continue to burden American families and businesses, reports indicate that the President’s visit to Saudi Arabia today to push for increased production has failed. Despite considerable influence, the...

Sen. Barack Obama is a foreign policy disaster just waiting to happen. Consider Obama's evolving stance on Iraq. In 2002 he was a staunch opponent of the war. Then in his book The Audacity of Hope, he confessed that he "began to suspect" that he "might have been wrong" about the war. In 2003 he told CNN that he absolutely wanted "to make sure that the troops have sufficient support to be able to win." During the DNC convention in 2004, the junior Senator stated that failure in Iraq would be "a disaster and a betrayal of the promise that...